

 :     ,   ,   

  ,        , -     28         .
By Press Trust of India: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, May 26 (PTI) India is "thinking big and moving big" to catch up fast in development as it lags behind its giant neighbour China, offering tremendous opportunities to a country like the US, American lawmakers have been told.

"India is moving quite quickly in a number of areas as well, again, on renewable energy, which is kind of a golden thread running through this hearing. India is thinking big and moving big," Robert Orr, professor and dean, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.

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"They have big goals on solar and wind. They are meeting them. They are surpassing them. And they will keep attracting investment, both domestic and international. Their smart cities initiative of the Prime Minister has many components. But I think its a strategic vision that is both at once developmental and economic," Orr said in response to a question during a hearing on US Leadership in Asia-Pacific organised by the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia.

Orr said he had visited India last year with the former New York Mayor Michael Blomberg and met with a number of the top business leaders in India, talking with them about what they were going to be doing in the climate and energy space.

Virtually, the head of every conglomerate in India, whether or not they are coal-based, oil-based or anything- else-based are making investments now in this sector, he said.

"So, while I described China as putting these huge dollars, USD 360 billion over the next four years, India is going to be mobilising a lot of internal capital in this," Orr said, adding that the race is on between India and China in the energy sector.

"It is something that the United States has a technological lead, has a potential market that we could be extremely competitive globally. But right now, were not making the decisions we need to compete with these giants," Orr told lawmakers.

Noting that the Indians are coming from a lower baseline in terms of their economic development, he said Indian leaders know they have a lot of catching up to do.

"They are being quite strategic in certain sectors. Theyre heavily dependent on the IT sector. Just in my role as dean of the School of Public Policy, Ive been engaging with a number of Indian officials," he said.

"They are extremely interested in cyber security right now. This is important to them. They see this as important to their key industries. They know theyre lagging behind. So I think you see a strategic intent on the part of the Indian government like the Chinese government," Orr said. PTI LKJ ASK ASK

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By Press Trust of India: By Shrish Pradhan

Kathmandu, May 26 (PTI) India wants to see political stability in Nepal and is willing to partner with the Himalayan nation in its quest for infrastructure development and economic progress, the Indian envoy here said today.

Describing the Nepal-India relations as a special one, Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri said the bilateral ties were deep-rooted and went beyond the realm of politics, economy and culture.

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"Even our Gods and Goddesses are closely linked," Puri said talking to reporters in Kathmandu for the first time since he assumed office in March.

In a question about Indias views on the Madhesi political forces hesitation to take part in the second phase of local body polls on June 14, Puri said India wanted polls to be held in an inclusive manner.

India is a good friend, partner and well wisher which always wants to see political stability and prosperity in Nepal, he said.

"India had become part of many connectivity projects in Nepal ? including railways, roadways, integrated check-posts and electricity transmission lines," he pointed out.

He also admitted that some projects had failed to meet expectations due to the long bureaucratic process and issues related to compensation of land.

"India wishes to be a partner in Nepals infrastructure development and economic progress," he said and expressed confidence that the bilateral ties would further strengthen in the days to come.

Puri praised the contributions of Nepali Gorkha soldiers to the Indian Army.

Reiterating Indias "neighbourhood first" policy, Puri termed as "unprecedented" the four high-level visits between the two countries in a span of eight months. PTI SBP NSA

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Little sign of relief expected in October US inflation data
By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 26, 2017 | 06:59 AM | MAYFIELD, KY

A disturbance at a local motel led to a man's arrest on kidnapping and other charges.

According to the Mayfield Police Department, officers responded to the Budget Inn Thursday in reference to a woman in distress. Upon arrival, police spoke with the woman, who said 30-year-old AJ Jackson of Mayfield had assaulted her.

The woman told police that she and Jackson had gotten into a verbal argument and he became physical with her, allegedly leaving cuts and bruises on her. The woman told police she tried to leave the room several times but Jackson refused to let her leave.

When police arrived at the motel, Jackson fled the scene. He was found a short time later on North 2nd Street and arrested. He's charged with 4th degree assault, three or more in less than five years, kidnapping and violation of an EPO/DVO.

Jackson was lodged in the Graves County Jail.
Gorey music students jet off to L.A. to experience the sights and sounds of the showbiz world
CPM leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that if the Indian Army is deployed in Kerala's Kannur, clashes are bound to take place between the people and the army.

By India Today Web Desk: Speaking in Kannur yesterday, Kerala CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that nobody has the right to question the army and that they (army) can abduct women, rape them and shoot people.

"They (army) can do anything to anybody. If they see more than four people standing together, they can shoot them...They can take any woman and rape her, nobody has the right to question them. This is the state wherever the army is," an ANI report quoted Balakrishnan as saying.

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Kerala BJP State President Kummanam Rajasekharan had demanded the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Kerala's Kannur district after an RSS activist was hacked to death on May 12. The state BJP leadership accused CPM activists of the crime. The murdered RSS office bearer was an accused in the murder of a CPM worker.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who now has the additional charge of the Defence Ministry of India, said yesterday that the officers of the Indian Army should be given a free-hand to take decisions in war-like situations, that the officers are not bound to consult the members of Parliaments and that they can do as they deem fit.

Responding to these statements, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that if the Indian Army is deployed in Kannur, clashes are bound to happen between the people and the army.

In a Facebook post made on May 16 from his official account, Balakrishnan said that Kerala BJP's demand to impose AFSPA in Kannur is nothing but an act of adding fuel to the fire. He said that CPM is ready to take strict action against any party worker if found guilty of being involved in political murders in Kannur, that the party will not offer any kind of assistance or support to such workers, and asked Kummanam Rajasekharan if he could assure the same from the Bharatiya Janata Party's side.

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term mashup' is first found in Dion Boucicault's hit 1859 melodrama, An Octoroon  or so Wikipedia tells me. One character, a native American, speaks a "mashup" of different languages: French, Indian and Mexican. More than 150 years later, black American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins hasn't just revived or revised Boucicault's play under a subtly different, newly indefinite title. He's remixed it to make something altogether new  a dazzling deconstruction of racial representation.

In its day, Boucicault's original, a runaway smash that ran seven years on Broadway, was both radical and retrograde. Set on a floundering Louisiana plantation that's been put up for sale, its slaves set for auction, An Octoroon treats the subject of slavery with a degree of sensitivity and a dollop of sentimentality. A great big crowd-pleasing melodrama, complete with dastardly villains and an explosive climax, its progressive politics are all but cancelled out by its old-fashioned form. Seen by contemporary standards, it's thoroughly problematic.

Its hero, George Peyton, is a white slave owner who sticks up for his slavesbut still owns slaves. Its black characters, sympathetic for their time, now look offensively simplistic, and its romantic lead, Zoe, is an octoroon, one-eighth black, and so banned from marrying a white man. Boucicault's play cocks a snook at such laws, yet the playwright himself would don red face each night to play a tomahawk-wielding native American, Wahnotee. This was, don't forget, ahead of its time. It's a long way behind ours. With real virtuosity, Jacobs-Jenkins both honours and disobeys.

As in his first play Neighbors, seen at HighTide in 2013, Jacobs-Jenkins deploys minstrelsy to expose and exaggerate the racism in such representation. Ken Nwosu plays the playwright himself, BJJ, who "can't even wipe my ass" without someone reading a racial critique. He applies white face to play Boucicault's hero George and his villain M'Closky. Kevin Trainor, meanwhile, plays Boucicault himself, redding up as the near-dumb Wahnotee, while a third actor, Alistair Toovey, plays two slaves in thick black face, looking to god like he's just hopped off a jar of Robinson's marmalade. It's all deeply shocking, but darkly hilarious; satire at its most scornful.

With a savage and sophisticated sense of irony, Jacobs-Jenkins sinks his teeth into the relationship between representations and reality. His hero's blonde and blue-eyed; his villain, moustachioed with a mwah-hah-hah laugh. Iola Evans' sweet-faced Zoe gets a bow and a blue-dress, the picture of pretty innocence, while two house salves, Minnie and Dido (Vivian Oparah and Emmanuella Cole) spout sass like home-girls, undercutting our stock sense of both slaves and contemporary black women at the same time.

The original play sometimes disappears beneath all this, with the basic plot over-burdened by everything loaded on top, but Jacobs-Jenkins leaves no escape from the connotations that attach themselves to colour, traits and physicality. They become infused and entangled with feelings, and both Elliot Griggs' lighting and George Dennis' sound, channel-hopping between hip hop and Theo Vidgens' smooth cello score, makes clear the manipulation at play. That, Jacobs-Jenkins suggests, was Boucicault's crime. He twisted the truth for the sake of drama.

This is such fine-tuned theatrical thinking  from ideas of inheritance and dilution in the nature of an octoroon itself, to the focus on Boucicault's camera plot-device that sharpens the question of how we see past and present. When blousey Dora (a riotous Celeste Dodwell) poses for a portrait, she tries out postures of stock femininity, slut drops and saloon dolls, before opting for a bizarre balancing act.

Ned Bennett's production dives right in to the dark, testing humour, and draws committed and brave performances from a game cast. His DIY staging both dissects theatre and revels in it, and Georgia Lowe's design is deceptively simple, with freshly peeled paint a neat mark of the play's contrived authenticity. Everything tunes you into the way you watch the play and so changes the way you see the world. That's the mark of a good show: An Octoroon is as good as an eye transplant.

An Octoroon runs at the Orange Tree Theatre until 24 June.
With both Manchester teams vying for his attention, Bernardo Silva has arrived in the city to see what both City and United are willing to offer.

According to James Robson of the Manchester Evening News, the Monaco attacking midfielder blew into town on Thursday night and will now meet with representatives from both sides of the Mancunian divide.

However, it would appear that Pep Guardiola and his associates are in pole position

Bernardo Silva arrived in Manchester last night. City favourites, Mourinho discussed him this week  James Robson (@JamesRobsonMEN) May 26, 2017

City favourites  James Robson (@JamesRobsonMEN) May 26, 2017

The prices being quoted? Somewhere between 69-81million. Woosh.

Speaking earlier in the week, Jose Mourinho appeared to concede defeat in the skirmish to secure Silvas services, telling O Jogo:

Will Bernardo Silva be with us next season? I dont think so, honestly. But you never know, good players are always welcome here.

Which you feel leaves City in a very strong position to sign a player they dont really need.

Not that thats every stopped them before.
Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.

By Reuters: President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday.

Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.

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Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe, the newspaper reported.

The FBI, several congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into allegations of meddling by Russia in the 2016 US election and possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the election.

The controversy has engulfed Trump's administration since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 10. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion with Russia.

The interest in Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, the officials told NBC News.

It is not known whether Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC News said.

One of Kushner's attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry," Gorelick said.

The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Also Read:

In a first under Donald Trump, US warship challenges Beijing's claims in South China Sea

The Conjuring in Vatican: Trump family's photo with Pope Francis triggers hilarious Photoshop war

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Canon has announced at PacPrint 2017 the shipment and sale of the 6,000 printer in the industry-leading Oce Arizona Series of atbed printers. The 6,000" printer is an Oce Arizona 2280 XT, the latest model in a range of products that has seen eight major platform introductions over the last ten years, in several different form factors, and in more than 120 congurations.



The 6,000" Arizona printer was sold to Technipub in Lesparre near Bordeaux,, France who joins thousands of other satised Arizona customers in almost 70 countries on six continents.

Oce and its distribution partners rmly established the mid-volume atbed market with the introduction of the Oce Arizona 250 GT in 2007. As the rst atbed printer in the market to use grayscale, variable droplet piezoelectric printing technology, the new Arizona printer demonstrated

print quality at a level that compelled more than 500 customers to purchase units in the rst few months of availability and garnered awards from industry bodies the world over. Since 2007, the Arizona Series has been widely recognized for its industry-leading quality position in the atbed market, winning more than industry 50 awards including 16 Product of the Year Awards from the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association, more than double the number of the next nearest competitor.

The Oce Arizona Series has become an important tool for wide-format print production in the Australian and New Zealand Markets" said Adrian Morris, General Manager of Display Graphics at Canon Australia. Having these sensational printers have enabled our customers to produce printed

products second to none, ranging from ne art reproductions and retail point-of-purchase signage to industrialised product decoration. The applications for this technology platform are surprisingly varied and our customers nd new ways to use them every day.

Canon Australia

www.canon.com.au
Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Khanna said the government never promised a crime-free state and added that criminals will be dealt severely.

By India Today Web Desk: A day after the horrific murder and gangrape incident at the Jewar-Bulandshahr road off the Yamuna Expressway, a top minister in the Yogi Adityanath government said today that ensuring zero crime in a state as big as Uttar Pradesh is an improbable task.

"Itna bada pradesh hai, humne kabhi zero crime ki baat nahi ki thi. Lekin koi bhi apraadhi ho, use saza milegi. (Ours is a huge state, we never claimed that we will ensure zero crime. But I assure you criminals won't go scott free," minister Suresh Khanna said.

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The minister made the statement hours after four women were allegedly gang-raped and a man was shot dead by a group of armed criminals on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway.

Khanna's statement is likely to trigger a row as the Opposition is already criticising the Yogi Adityanath government over its failure to control communal clashes in Saharanpur. The incident, which is a horrific reminder of last year's Bulandshahr gangrape, took place near Sabota village in Jewar around 1.40 am when the eight people were going to visit a relative undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh.

SSP, Gautam Budh Nagar, Love Kumar said a gang of five robbers targeted the vehicle after the driver stopped it near a roadside hut to fix a flat tyre.

The occupants were attacked and, along with an old man who was in the hut, taken to a nearby field. The women were misbehaved with and a man was shot dead when he resisted, he said.

The Yogi Adityanath government is facing flak over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

(With PTI inputs)

WATCH: Man shot dead, four women gangraped by robbers on Jewar-Bulandshahr highwa ALSO READ:

UP: Man killed, women gangraped as gang attacks family on Bulandshahr-Jewar highway

Jewar-Bulandshahr case: Discrepancies spotted, police suspect personal enmity or property dispute

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This was the fourth death in the joint family of four brothers in the last five years. All deaths have occurred in rather unnatural circumstances.

By Praveen Shekhar: Silence and gloom prevails in the neighbourhood in Jewar where the family targeted by highway robbers on Thursday night lived.

As soon as news of the alleged gangrapes and murder spread, the family waited with bated breath for the body of the man.

This was the fourth death in the joint family of four brothers in the last five years. All deaths have occurred in rather unnatural circumstances.

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It was in August 2013, when the elder brother of the Jewar victim died when a train hit him as he was crossing a railway track on a bike. His face was crushed very badly in the accident.

Barely seven months later, another tragedy struck again. In March 2014, the second brother died of heart attack. He was 48 and had not been keeping in good health after the death of his elder brother.

Two years later, in 2016, his son also died in a road accident in Greater Noida. The young boy was crossing an intersection when he was reportedly hit by a car. He died on the spot.

This year, the family lost one more person, who is survived by seven children -- three daughters and four sons. The children are aged between 3 to 15 years.

This a family of iron smith. They are with only one living brother who is now the male head of the family.

ALSO READ:

UP: Man killed, women gangraped as gang attacks family on Bulandshahr-Jewar highway

Uttar Pradesh too big a state to ensure zero crime: Yogi minister day after Jewar gangrape-murder

Jewar-Bulandshahr case: Discrepancies spotted, police suspect personal enmity or property dispute

WATCH THE VIDEO:

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its been six years since the fourth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, the one subtitled On Stranger Tides, sailed into local theatres. It was beginning to look as if Disney Studios had keelhauled the franchise inspired by an amusement-park ride, leaving Johnny Depp to make such forgettable flops as The Lone Ranger, The Rum Diary, Dark Shadows and Transcendence. Out of respect for Depp, the film Mortdecai will only be known as the movie whose name wont be mentioned.

Some time opened up in Depps schedule and hes slipped back into his raccoon-eyes makeup to return to the role of lovable lush Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Right off the bat theres trouble, because the franchise has been loaded with dead men telling tales in the form of ghost pirates, and this one is no different. So the name is a little misleading.

And that is the biggest clue to what goes wrong with this fifth adventure on the high seas. Jeff Nathansons script is as choppy as an ocean during a hurricane, bouncing on waves of bad puns, cheap jokes, convoluted family matters and a sea myth that makes as much sense as taking a woodpecker on a canoe ride.

Nathanson strains to create emotional moments and has the same number of problems giving Sparrow anything fresh to say.

Peter Mountain / Disney Enterprises Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow.

This is a summer movie where the design is supposed to be 98 per cent action, one per cent writing and one per cent trying to come up with ways to make the 3D version have enough eye-popping moments to make the film worth the extra cost. Too much time was wasted on the writing and 3D ideas that keep getting in the way of the movies fun moments.

Dead Men features several high-energy action scenes staged by directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg (who have only minimal experience with feature films).

One sequence that includes dragging an entire building through the streets of Saint Martin has the kind of fast and furious look that has become the hallmark of summer movies. Any momentum from that spectacular scene gets lost when Nathanson tries to piece together all of the bits and pieces of ideas that went into the plot.

It would have helped if Nathanson had narrowed the cast of players. Sparrow is being chased by a young man trying to save his father from a sea curse, a female astronomer who everyone thinks is a witch, the grumpy Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), the ghostly sea captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) and most of the British navy. Theres a sequence on an island where Sparrow is forced into a shotgun (or would it be shot-sword?) wedding. All thats missing is a guest appearance by The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Film Frame / Disney Enterprises The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) pursues Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he searches for the trident used by Poseidon.

No cheap laugh is ignored. When Carina Smyth (played with spunky vigour by Kaya Scodelario) tells the crew of pirates that shes a horologist, they dont appreciate her skill with watches but assume she makes a living in the worlds oldest profession. Sadly, her energy is never channelled into enough good to give the film the strong female lead it needs. Also, the forced romance between her and Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) never shows the kind of sparks Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley showed during their Pirate days.

Dead Men shows life when there are big action scenes. If 30 minutes of jumbled mythology and cheesy writing had been cut, the movie would have had an action beat as driving as the heart-pounding score by Geoff Zanelli, who carries on the work done in the previous films by Hans Zimmer. Instead, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales mixes some fun moments with other scenes that leave the production high and dry.

At least its not nearly as bad as the film whose name shall not be mentioned.

 Tribune News Service
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/05/2017 (1995 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Pallister government is abandoning a longstanding commitment to cover 50 per cent of municipal transit costs.

It is also removing the guarantee to devote the equivalent of a percentage point of PST revenues toward municipal infrastructure projects.

The changes to the Municipal Taxation and Funding Act were included in a 68-page omnibus bill introduced in the legislature Thursday as part of the annual provincial Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment Act (BITSA).

John Woods/Winnipeg Free Press files

BITSA would also impose greater penalties for those transporting contraband cigarettes and those who fail to pay their provincial taxes. As well, there would be a two-year moratorium in funding to political parties at the legislature for certain expenses, such as mailouts to constituents.

NDP finance critic James Allum said its a considerable disappointment the province is ending the commitment to funding 50 per cent of transit costs in excess of operating revenues.

We know that thats not the way to build progressive cities, he said. That was a historic partnership between the City of Winnipeg and the province in order to ensure that we have the best possible transit system.

The tying of municipal infrastructure funding to PST revenues is another longstanding provincial commitment, Allum said.

Thats been good for the city, its been a good arrangement. And its unfortunate to see the government abandoning that, he said.

The municipal funding provisions were contained in the annual BITSA, introduced Thursday. Instead of being spelled out in the bill, they were simply stated as repeals to numbered provisions of the Municipal Taxation and Funding Act.

Its disappointing to have these things buried in a piece of legislation like this, Allum said. It would have been better if they came clean and described these things in the budget so that the people of Manitoba would understand concretely what actions the government has taken.

Indigenous and Municipal Relations Minister Eileen Clarke said transit and infrastructure funding to municipalities would remain the same in 2017 as it was last year. However, with passage of the budget bill, there would be no funding guarantees in place for future years.

Clarke said municipalities are aware of the fiscal pressures on the provincial government.

I think the City of Winnipeg as well as our municipalities know what deficits look like. And I think they were very aware that changes had to be made, Clarke said.

She said municipal officials were not given a heads up about the proposed changes in BITSA.

Jonathan Hildebrand, director of communications for Mayor Brian Bowman, said the city is examining the budget bill.

We are currently reviewing it to try to determine what it means and what implications it may have for the City of Winnipeg, he said in an email. At this point we are not in a position to comment further until weve had time to review whats been tabled.

Meanwhile, BITSA would boost the maximum penalty to 100 per cent of taxes owing from 50 per cent when a person refuses or fails because of neglect or carelessness to pay tax when it is due.

It would also allow the costs of searches conducted to secure or recover a tax debt to be collected and increase the tax evasion penalty for repeat offenders from twice the tax evaded to triple the amount.

Persons caught illegally buying, selling or possessing contraband tobacco could have their drivers licence suspended under the bills provisions.

Political parties represented in the Manitoba legislature would see a portion of their caucus budgets eliminated for two years. The suspended funding is for special supplies and assistance and is paid out based on a partys seat count in the legislature. The monies are used for everything from the purchase of Canadian flags and pins to hand out to constituents to party mail-outs.

Finance Minister Cameron Friesen said the amount being held back is modest. For the Progressive Conservatives, he said, it would mean a loss of $115,000 a year, while for the NDP and Liberals, it would mean losses of about $35,000 and less than $10,000 respectively, he said.

 with files from Aldo Santin

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Newdales name will really be mud  literally.

But it will be in the best possible way. Its the name of the provincial soil  Newdale clay loam  as designated by the Manitoba Soil Society in 2010.

Now, the small village 225 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg wants to advertise its soiled name with a roadside display.

TIM SMITH / BRANDON SUN FILES Newdale farmer Bruce Dalgarno displays the soil in his field on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Dalgarno is part of a group that has fundraised for signage in Newdale marking the area soil as the province's official soil. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Its not the best soil in Manitoba, but from talking to experts, its sort of the best average soil, said Bruce Dalgarno, a farmer in the area. Dalgarno is part of a committee that helped raise $12,000 for the display through donations and sponsorships.

It was too hard to make a roadside statue, such as the giant crocus in Arden or Flintabbatey Flonatin in Flin Flon, dedicated to soil and clay. Sculptures are made with clay, not of clay.

So the village will erect two billboards boasting about Manitobas official soil June 17, on Highway 16 near Minnedosa. A third descriptive sign will go up in the village of about 170 people. The village sign, just under three metres tall and twice as wide, will include a glacial history of the soil, an interpretation of the different layers of soil in the area and a section about the early history of the area, settled by Europeans in the 1880s.

There are scores of different types of soil in Manitoba. Many were named after local towns and villages during soil surveys that started in the 1940s.

Newdale is a black soil whose base is glacial deposits of granular granite, limestone and shale. About 12,000 years of prairie grassland followed the ice age to form humus on top. Its rich in organic matter for growing crops such as wheat, canola, barley, flax, peas and alfalfa.

Im a little biased, but I think its pretty good, said Dalgarno. Hes grown traditional cereal grains, as well as soybeans and canola. Canola likes growing up here as opposed to warmer climates.

He even grows the latest health food trend: quinoa, a high-protein, low-fat grain containing all nine essential amino acids.

Newdale clay loam, also called black chernozem soil, covers about 1.3 million acres in southwestern Manitoba, more than in any other province. (In Saskatchewan, its called Oxbow soil.) It extends west of Minnedosa to the Saskatchewan border and south of Riding Mountain to the Trans-Canada Highway. Its typically on a hummocky landscape.

I think its something that a small town should be proud of and celebrate, but on other hand, it covers a pretty broad area, Dalgarno said.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A revitalized manufacturing sector and an expanding services sector will help keep Winnipegs economy growing at a solid pace over the next two years, according to the latest forecast from the Conference Board of Canada.

In its Spring Metropolitan Outlook report released Thursday, the Ottawa-based think-tank predicts the Winnipeg economy will grow by 2.2 per cent this year and 2.3 per cent in 2018. Thats only slightly below the average annual growth rate for the previous seven years, which was 2.4 per cent.

The board also predicts this years growth rate will be the sixth highest among the 13 Canadian cities covered in its report. Last year, it had the fourth best real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, at 2.4 per cent.

The board noted the rebound in manufacturing output began in 2016 and that recovery should accelerate this year with growth of 2.1 per cent, followed by 2.2 per cent growth in 2018.

A weak Canadian dollar, a healthy U.S. consumer and strength in the transportation market will be the key growth drivers, it added.

Some of the local manufacturing success stories it cited were International Truck Body, a specialty truck manufacturer that won a contract to make 200 truck bodies for a Minnesota-based uniform service and facility supplies company, and bus-maker New Flyer Industries, which saw a 47.8 per cent increase in revenues last year and a 131.7 per cent jump in profits.

The pickup in activity will be good news to the (manufacturing) sectors workers, who endured back-to-back annual declines in employment over 2015-16, which were added onto significant job losses during and following the 2008-09 recession, it added.

The board predicted Winnipegs services sector will see its output grow 2.5 per cent this year and by 2.6 per cent in 2018. Thats up slightly from 2.4 per cent growth in 2016.

Decent tourism activity, a solid U.S. economy and a weak Canadian dollar will bolster gains in wholesale and retail trades and in personal services, it said. Solid growth is also expected from the transportation and warehousing sector, which will benefit from higher demand for its services from a strengthening manufacturing industry.

The board also noted the citys retail sector should benefit from this months opening of the regions only factory outlet mall  the 400,000-square-foot Outlet Collection Winnipeg mall in southwest Winnipeg.

Despite an anticipated decline in multi-family housing starts, the board said a busy non-residential sector should help boost construction output by two per cent this year and by 1.8 per cent in 2018.

The outlook for Winnipegs labour market is also positive, as job growth is forecast to come in at a decent 1.0 per cent in 2017, it added.

The job gains will come entirely from the services-producing industries, as job growth in the goods sector is expected to remain virtually flat this year.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From a Manitoba tourism industry perspective, this really is shaping up to be the Hottest Summer in Half a Century  the promotional tagline for the 2017 Canada Summer Games  regardless of what the weather turns out to be.

That tagline is also indicative of the expectations the national tourism industry has for the year.

Starting in 63 days, the 2017 Canada Summer Games is going to pump more than $150 million into the Manitoba economy with more than 20,000 visitors expected to visit Winnipeg. Events will also be held in Gimli and Kenora.

photos by WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Charlotte Bell, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), at the Tourism Town Hall at the Canad Inns-Polo Park Thursday.

Industry officials have been capitalizing on the momentum for a while in Manitoba and at a national tourism town hall in Winnipeg on Thursday local industry players got a sense of whats happening elsewhere in the country.

And things are definitely warming up.

International arrivals in Canada in 2016 were close to the all-time high of 20.6 million that was hit in 2002. The dramatic increase in the last couple of years has been some time in coming. Back in 2008, Canada was the eighth most visited foreign country in the world. But those international numbers have been declining and Canadas perch among the top 10 foreign tourism destinations in the world has fallen to 18th in 2015, below even Saudi Arabia.

But things are turning around for many reasons, including the development of world-class tourism destinations, Canadas recent reputation as being a cool place with a young prime minister, a favourable foreign currency exchange environment and geopolitical dynamics, among other things.

Charlotte Bell, the president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, said, We did really well last year, almost 20 million foreign visitors, spending $20 billion. It was fantastic.

In Manitoba, in addition to the significant boost expected from the summer games, the province has gained some very solid footing with the commitment made last year by the Pallister government to commit 4 per cent of provincial tax revenues attributed to tourism back to Travel Manitoba for tourism promotion.

Colin Ferguson, the head of the provinces tourism industry promotion organization, Travel Manitoba, said, This partnership is unique across the country. It is the only one in the country on a sustainable funding model.

What that means for the province is that the better the tourism industry does, the bigger its promotion budget will be for the next year. That budget already jumped 42 per cent in year one last year up to $10.4 million.

The national industry also got a proper vote of confidence in the last federal budget so that the base funding for Destination Canada, the federal Crown corporation responsible for marketing and supporting the tourism industry across the country, will be $95.5 million per year starting in 2018.

Gloria Loree, executive director of global marketing for Destination Canada, said, Last year there was growth in arrival traffic from the international market from every market, without exception.

In fact, the number of travellers coming to Canada from every one of the 10 largest international markets (not counting the U.S.) increased at a greater pace than those travelling to the U.S.

Bell said Canada lagged in the global travel market for the past 15 years for a number of reasons. The impact of 9/11 was felt around the world, but U.S. travel to Canada slumped badly with Americans needing passports to travel when so few of them had one prior to that. Through those years the international competition grew all over the world and Canadas own industry infrastructure likely did not respond to the challenges quick enough.

We did lose ground and, at the minimum, we want to get back into the top 10, she said.

But to do that Canada will need an additional 16 million people visiting from around the world, almost double what the current number is.

Part of the rationale of the tourism town halls, which will convene in eight cities during this summer and into the fall, is to hear ideas from industry practioners about how to achieve those goals.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
The Enforcement Directorate has written to the CBI, asking the latter to look into the share transactions of a company Karti Chidambaram had links with.

By Atir Khan: In a fresh move that is bound to create trouble for Karti Chidambaram, the Enforcement Directorate has written to the CBI asking it to look into the share transactions of a company he had links with.

The transaction of shares is dubious and possibly motivated to get certain Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approvals by the misuse of official position.

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Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd sold its more than 29,000 shares in Vasan Health Care Pvt Ltd to a Mauritius subsidiary in return for 22 crore, 50 lakh and 502 rupees ( Rs 22,50,00,502) in 2010.

Apart from seeking a CBI probe, the agency has also provided a list of proofs including Karti's emails to the officials of the company Advantage Strategic.

SHARES SOLD WITHOUT FIPB's PROPOSAL: ED SOURCES

According to ED sources, the shares were sold "without the board's approval" and due to a "tacit understanding between certain officials of the two companies".

The Enforcement Directorate now wants to probe the money laundering angle in this deal. The two companies had allegedly sold over 29,000 shares in contravention of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) laws to a Mauritius-based company having its subsidiary in India. The ED has sent several notices of FEMA violation to Karti Chidambaram and company directors in this connection. But technically, until the CBI registers a case for the misuse of official position or bribery, both of which fall in the CBI's domain, it cannot proceed with its money laundering probe.

Therefore, the Enforcement Directorate has asked CBI to probe whether there was any misuse of official position or bribery involved in transaction of shares. The agency believes there was some quid pro quo in this deal, possibly to get another FIPB approval through Karti's political links. It is suspected that the transaction was made to oblige Karti in return for certain favours.

ED SENDS DETAILS OF EVIDENCE GATHERED DURING PROBE

The ED has also sent to CBI details of evidence it had gathered during its investigation of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd and Vasan Health Care Pvt Ltd. During its raid at the company office of Advantage, ED found that Karti had a cabin in the office but it was kept locked.

Statements of company directors taken by ED have also been attached. The documents show Karti was having stakes in both firms - Advantage and Vasan.

The Enforcement Directorate has also seized Karti's email correspondence from Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd.

The mail trail shows that Karti was a "decision maker and beneficiary" in all activities of the company. Those mails have also been sent to the CBI.

KARTI CHIDAMBARAM's MAIL TRAIL

The mail trail shows that on October 8, 2010, Karti wrote to Ramakrishnan of M/S SCAPL with a copy to A.M Arun, saying "Let's ensure that we close out the transaction before 27th October. If there are any issues, please flag me at once. Thanks Karti." To this Ramakrishnan replied, "Sure, most certainly".

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After the successful completion of the sale of more than 29,000 shares of Vasan to a Mauritian company, Karti wrote to A.M. Arun, Ramakrishnan, CBN Reddy and Bhaskaraman on October 26, 2010, "I would like to thank you all for making the transaction go through. I look forward to scaling greater heights with you all". To this Ramakrishnan responded, "Dear Karti, many thanks. Look forward to more opportunities to work together. Vasan is all poised to get ready for a phenomenal billion dollar debut in the capital market."

Karti Chidambaram has already been booked by the CBI in INX Group FIPB clearance case. However, if the CBI finds irregularities in the selling of shares to the Mauritian company, he is likely to face fresh charges of money laundering.

Also read | More trouble for Chidambaram son Karti as multi-agency probe intensifies

Also read | ED notice to Karti Chidambaram, others for foreign exchange violations

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Also read | Enforcement Directorate raids Karti Chidambaram's office

WATCH VIDEO

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAN FRANCISCO  Google will begin using data from billions of credit and debit card transactions  including card numbers, purchase amounts and time stamps  to solve the advertising juggernauts long-standing quest to prove online ads prompt consumers to make purchases in brick-and-mortar stores, the company said Tuesday.

The advance, which enables Google to tell retailers how many sales they created through their digital ad campaigns, is a step toward what industry insiders have long described as the holy grail of digital advertising. If effective, the program could help persuade marketers to choose Googles services over the television advertising that still gobbles up the lions share of retailers ad budgets.

But Googles latest move to tie peoples digital trails to their real world behaviours is also likely to renew concerns over whether technology giants and their affiliated companies know too much about peoples lives  and whether they disclose enough about how they collect and use that information.

MATT ROURKE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Google collects massive amounts of personal data from smartphones and desktop computers, including location information from Google Maps and other apps, the search terms that people use in a Google search, and peoples web-browsing habits. All of that information is tied to the real identities of users when they log into Googles services.

Company executives say they are using complex, patent-pending mathematical formulas to protect the privacy of consumers when they match a Google user with a shopper who makes a purchase in a brick-and-mortar store.

The mathematical formulas convert peoples names and other personal information into anonymous strings of numbers. The formulas make it impossible for Google to know the identity of the real-world shoppers, and for the retailers to know the identities of Googles users, Google executives said. The companies know only that a match has been made.

In addition, Google does not get a detailed description of the individual transactions, just the amount spent.

Through a mathematical property we can do double-blind matching between their data and our data, said Jerry Dischler, vice-president of product management for AdWords, in an interview. Neither gets to the see the encrypted data that the other side brings.

Dischler, who said the company had been working on the technology for years, described the modelling as a revolutionary step forward for both Google and advertisers.

But Google declined to share anything more than basic information about how the program worked.

Google would not say how merchants had obtained consent from consumers to pass along their credit card information.

In the past, both Google and Facebook have obtained purchase data for a more limited set of consumers who participate in loyalty programs. Consumers who participate in loyalty programs are more heavily tracked by retailers and often give consent to share their data with third parties as a condition of signing up.

(Not all consumers may realize they have given such consent, according to the digital privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation).

The technology giants introduced the use of what it called double-blind encryption in these initiatives.

Dischler said that users who signed into Googles services  including Gmail, Maps, Google Search, the Chrome browser, or the Google Play store  had consented during the setup process to Google sharing their data with third parties.

Tuesdays initiative enables Google to use transaction data from a much wider swath of consumers than ever before.

Google declined to disclose the names of the affiliated companies that play a key role in handling consumers data.

Retailers that participate in the program dont provide the transaction data to Google directly. They share it with third-party data brokers that encrypt the information before passing it along.

Such data providers have been the targets of cybercriminals in the past. In 2015, a hack of data broker Experian exposed the personal information of 15 million people.

 Washington Post
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ITs been two weeks since Kim Kostiuk began her long vigil, two weeks since she lit a fire and set up a tent and settled into her mission. The days camped out at Memorial Park have taken their toll on her body, and her possessions.

Yet the sacred fire at the heart of the camp is still burning. Kostiuks spirit is too, so she stays.

When the rain came last week, the tents flooded. It soaked two of Kostiuks drums. When it was cold, she huddled in damp clothes. Every day, smoke from the fire sends cloying tendrils into her throat, which doesnt help her asthma.

A protest camp set up for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) set up by Kim Kostiuk with signs and red dresses at Memorial Park Thursday. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

So that is partly why, when a visitor from the Free Press turns up at the camp Wednesday night, Kostiuk at first declines to speak. Shes sick, she explains, with a voice that scratches like sandpaper. Cough syrup hasnt helped.

She says her family is worried. Her children want her to come home.

Yet shes here to be heard, the best way she knows how. So once she starts talking, her words spill out like a flood, rushing through the camp, filling it with passion. Shes here for families of missing and murdered indigenous women.

What she wants is for the national inquiry to be there for them, too.

They need to be with the families, Kostiuk says, settling into a chair near the fire. Right now. No more putting it off. Now. These families are hurting, and they want answers. Why is this taking so long? They need to do something.

These are Kostiuks words, but similar refrains echo across Canada. From these united voices rises a pressing question: regardless of its intentions, is the national inquiry doing right by the families of vanished women?

It cannot afford to get the answer wrong. For decades, advocates fought to raise the issue into a national light; their calls for an inquiry were long pushed aside. They refused to be silenced as the numbers of stolen women mounted.

Whatever the inquiry has grown into since, it started with them. The seeds of this inquiry are broken hearts.

Yet almost from the start, the inquiry has been plagued with delays and criticism of how it engaged families of the murdered and missing. Not enough was being done, they said, to proactively reach out to the people affected.

For some advocates, the final straw came earlier this month, when the inquiry announced it would delay meetings with most families until the fall, citing some families busy summer schedules. Its first report is due in November.

Now, advocates have called on the commission to reset the inquiry, to pause and shore up the framework where it was found wanting. In an open letter to chief commissioner Marion Buller, dozens of advocates made a clear case.

In the letter, advocates and family members called on the commission to extend its time frame for hearings, to invite more leaders from the community, to strengthen its communications and to be more proactive in contacting families.

We all desperately want this inquiry to work, and not only to work, but to succeed beyond what we could imagine, the May 14 letter reads. This is an opportunity that will not come again and none of us can afford for it to fail.

Buller issued a lengthy response on the inquirys website, acknowledging advocates concerns. In it, she agreed with critiques of the inquirys communications, and noted that commissioners were currently re-evaluating its timelines.

In Memorial Park, Kostiuk demurs on the question of a reset; shell leave that to the families, she says. All she knows is that many people feel theyre not being heard.

This camp, this vigil, is her way of turning up the volume.

They should have a voice, she says. If everyone else has a voice.

In the fortnight since Kostiuk set up camp, many people have found a voice around her fire. It has become a community, a growing network of new friends and supporters who drop by with stories, or songs or donations.

One elder comes by most days with her teen grandsons; they help load firewood, she helps Kostiuk with traditional medicine. There is Brian, a poet who lost his home in December, and now sleeps most nights in a nearby bus shelter.

Early Wednesday morning, Brian says, a visitor came up to the fire and started crying, explaining that he had lost multiple family members to violence. In that moment, the camp was a safe place to release his grief.

A reset of the national inquiry would be costly. But if it falls short of its aims, the cost of its failure will be borne by the families of women murdered or missing. And they have already paid far too much.

So whether there is a reset or not, the least the public can do is keep their eyes on the inquirys progress, and their ears turned to families and survivors. For the future, for the path forward, their questions deserve answers.

The shadows at Memorial Park are growing long. Standing up by the fire, Kostiuk smothers her coughs and begins cleaning up the plates from dinner. Shell be out here, she says, as long as the families she knows want her to stay.

Do you need a safe walk home? she asks. These boys can walk with you.

Its not yet 10 p.m. The long light of dusk still brightens the street; people on a date stroll down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand; at this time of night, at this busy place, the short walk across the Osborne Street bridge feels safe.

Still, Kostiuk puts her hands on a departing visitors shoulders and nods back towards the tall young men standing behind her. She has seen too much in her life to not worry about what happens when women walk alone.

Are you sure? she asks.

OK, but stay safe.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

David Northcott was all smiles and predictable platitudes in February, when the founding father of Winnipeg Harvest announced he was retiring after a nationally celebrated food bank career that spanned more than 30 years.

Joyous, is how he described his time working with clients and staff at Harvest.

Behind the scenes, there was much more to the story and the timing of his decision. Something that should have been acknowledged then, but went unspoken.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files

And unreported  until now.

In early January, just a month earlier, Winnipeg Harvest joined Ottawa as the only Canadian food banks to be unionized.

In life, Northcott told a news outlet after he announced he was retiring nearly four months ago, you get that sense every once in a while that its the right time to take the next step, he said. This was the right moment.

What Northcott didnt add  what he didnt acknowledge until we met Thursday over a small, round table in a spacious Harvest executive office  was that as early as mid-November of last year, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had served notice to unionize. By early January, the paid staff at the largely volunteer-driven charity had voted 35-9 in favour of joining.

Sometime between CUPEs notification and certification, Northcott informed the board of directors he was retiring. But he says the unionization had nothing to do with his decision to leave Winnipeg Harvest.

In any event, what was clear as we spoke Thursday, with June 30  his last day on the job  drawing closer, is the decision by staff members to vote for certification came as both a shock and a blow to Northcott and the organization.

That isnt surprising given the profound ironies presented by a story about a food bank that is supposed to be all about pay equity and the like being unionized. Those ironies include Northcott, 66, who has become a kind of patron saint of the hungry, the unemployed and otherwise marginalized; saint being a term at least one board member has used to describe him.

As for what unresolved grievances provoked such unrest among most of Harvests 42 full- and part-time staff members  there are 10 more management positions for a total of 52 paid employees  Northcott says he doesnt know.

The person who will be replacing Northcott as executive director, current managing director Kate Brenner, says they havent been told what issues led to the vote and are now part of the contract negotiations. That seems odd, particularly because the man who led the unionizing push  a term employee at the time  is readily available to answer those questions. After all, hes now part of the management team. So its not as if the leader of the certification movement cant tell them all now.

Whatever was behind asking for union support, wages and benefits doesnt appear to be the main issue. Brenner said Harvest has a budget of just under $3 million and two-thirds of that fundraised cash goes to paying those 52 employees, including Northcott, who acknowledged earning less than $100,000. Brenner says only two of their employees have been making minimum wage.

Then there are the benefits.

We have a strong benefits package with Blue Cross, Brenner later wrote in an email, and an RRSP matching program for our paid team.

So why unionize?

Well, part of that may have to do with an issue exemplified by the forklift operators in the warehouse.

Some are on staff and paid. Some are volunteers and unpaid.

And the forklift operators arent the only Harvest workers who are dealing with such inequity.

Of course, Harvest couldnt operate  couldnt help feed more than 63,000 people a month  without volunteers, about half of whom are said to be clients. Harvest estimates volunteers  as many as 25,000 of them a year  represent the equivalent of 159 full-time positions for the food bank.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Harvest executive director David Northcott (second from left) and his successor, Kate Brenner (left), stand Thursday with some of the food banks employees who recently unionized. In January, Harvest became the second Canadian food bank to do so.

CUPE, which in past years has supplied volunteers for Harvest, isnt likely to try to unionize the bulk or perhaps many of the present volunteer positions and put such a vital social-service organization in jeopardy.

Nevertheless, Northcott is concerned about something else, as is Brenner.

Their anxiety centres on those who donate cash, and the fear some wont want their donations used to pay unionized employees  or perhaps paying employees at all.

That seems petty considering those who give should know Harvest isnt just about supplying food for the hungry.

Paying a living wage and helping marginalized people find employment is also part of Harvests mission, even if its not stated precisely that way.

That brings us to how Northcott felt when he learned so many people he had hired and worked so closely with voted in support of a union and, hence, showed their dissatisfaction with Harvest management.

Sad, he said.

He also felt partly responsible, Northcott explained. Harvest has basically doubled in size during the last decade, he pointed out.

We used to be able to sit everybody around the same table and have a conversation, Northcott said, referring to labour issues. And everything worked out.

But Harvest didnt  and still doesnt  have a human resources manager, and Northcott acknowledged he took on too much responsibility, filling that void and others. It was what brought on his heart attack nine years ago. Northcott believes Harvests accelerated growth since then led to the union vote and what he calls an opportunity.

An opportunity for a union within an organization that has a strong anti-poverty history  such as Harvests  to offer the food bank employees a stronger voice.

We didnt listen to them, Northcott said, in his succinct summation. And, obviously, the union was more than willing to.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Teen girls accused in the beating death of a 19-year-old woman on Sagkeeng First Nation could face adult prison time if they are convicted of the murder.

The Crown intends to seek adult sentences for both teens charged with second-degree murder in the death of Serena McKay, who was found dead April 23 after suffering a brutal beating  a video of which was posted on Facebook and widely circulated on social media.

One of the two accused, a 17-year-old girl, appeared briefly in Winnipeg provincial court Friday as Crown and defence lawyers ordered a psychological assessment. She cant be identified under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. She has been in custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre since her arrest in late April and is expected to have a bail hearing June 15.

FACEBOOK Serena McKay

A 16-year-old co-accused has not applied for bail. She has also been ordered to undergo a psychological assessment.

The maximum sentence for a conviction on second-degree murder in Canadas youth criminal justice system is seven years  four years in custody and three years served in the community. Under the adult system, the minimum penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

All three teens attended the same high school. McKay wasnt from the community and was living with a family in Powerview while going to school in Sagkeeng, Sagkeeng First Nation Chief Derrick Henderson previously told the Free Press.

A video of the deadly beating, likely taken with a cellphone, shows a person wearing a boot repeatedly kicking at a woman trying to shield her bloodied face with her hand and arm as another person jumps in to pull back the victims arm.

In an instant message exchange sent to the Free Press shortly after McKays death by a resident of the reserve, one of the alleged suspects writes at first, We fought, I broke her nose then that happened, she left after, she was OK.

She was up and walking.

A few hours later, the same suspect writes, She was found dead bro Promise me say when we fought it wasnt that bad. Her nose was just bleeding lots Im fin scared.

Promise me, you wont tell em I fought her deadly. Please bro Say after we closed the door, she left.

McKays death attracted national attention and prompted a call to action in the community of about 3,350, with hundreds of mourners attending a vigil in her honour.

If we dont start making changes in the community, well be in this circle again in a month or two. Is that what we want as a community? So its all about intervention, prevention, doing something to make it better. And thats the message that was given, Chief Henderson said after the vigil.

 with files from Alexandra Paul and Kevin Rollason

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several premiers are heading to the United States capital next month to push back against anti-trade sentiment south of the border.

Premier Brian Pallister says he and several other provincial leaders are to spend June 5-7 in Washington, D.C., to promote the benefits of free trade. He said the trip was prompted in part by U.S. President Donald Trumps attempts to change or even scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement.

We have to do our best to promote a better understanding south of the border of the (trade) relationship, Pallister said Thursday.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Premier Brian Pallister would not address the NDP's allegations Thursday.

I think it demonstrates clearly to the representatives from around the United States who  whether they are directly involved in the meetings or not  that we value the relationship, that we consider it important and that they should too.

Staff for Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant and Prince Edward Islands Wade MacLauchlan confirmed Thursday those leaders will attend as well.

The focus will be on trade generally, with NAFTA taking a front-row seat and Buy America to a degree, read a written statement from Wynnes office.

Wynne would be there with her colleagues to build relationships with key members of the administration, as well as members of Congress, and to discuss the mutual benefits of an interconnected economy and the good jobs that creates for both Americans and Ontarians.

Canada is trying to counter a rising tide of protectionism in the U.S. Trump has criticized NAFTA and threatened to scrap the three-country trade pact if it cant be renegotiated to his satisfaction.

The federal government, which is not involved in the June mission, has mounted an information campaign aimed at Trump and his cabinet  as well as Congress and state and local governments  to underline the mutually beneficial trade between the countries.

The Trudeau government has repeated the talking points that 35 U.S. states call Canada their top customer, while nine million Americans depend on Canada for their jobs.

Pallister would not specify who the premiers plan to meet with. He said the aim is to make sure the benefits of free trade are heard well beyond states near the Canadian border.

Weve already reached out to our neighbouring states and I have initial assurances that they understand the value of that (trade) relationship very well in the border states. But its of course getting that communication across to others in the United States who may be a little less, in their area, aware of the mutual benefits of our relationship.

 The Canadian Press
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The federal governments recently unveiled legislative reform package was immediately denounced by opposition parties because measures contained within it threatened to hamstring Parliament and would allow Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to attend question period only once a week and abolish Friday sittings. This last proposal  shaving a working day per week off Parliaments schedule  was seen to be particularly egregious, in part because of the low regard in which Canadians hold politicians.

So it was no surprise that, when government House leader Bardish Chagger announced changes to the governments reform package, this idea had been excised from the list. Chagger invited the parties to consult their MPs on the question of cancelling Friday sittings, with the implication that the proposal could perhaps be reintroduced in the future.

In the meantime, other government proposals made the cut. The idea that the prime minister attend question period only once a week and take all questions that day, for example, contradicts the notion that accountability is central to our system of responsible government. As though he wanted to undermine his own proposal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended Prime Ministers Question Period recently and used the opportunity to dodge a question almost 20 times in one day.

FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Government House leader Bardish Chagger has invited parties to consult their MPs on the question of cancelling Friday sittings.

Heres the thing: cancelling Friday sittings is a good idea, perhaps the only good idea contained in the governments reform package.

The most misleading critique of this proposal is that it would give MPs an extra day off  a long weekend every week.

That is simply untrue. Most MPs do not put up their feet on weekends. Instead, when Parliament is sitting, MPs typically return to their constituencies and spend weekends connecting with their constituents by attending meetings and community events that give them opportunities to learn about what people back home are thinking about the issues of the day.

Weekends are crucial times for MPs to stay in touch with the communities that they are supposed to represent. Fridays away from Parliament would give them an extra day away from Ottawa to hear from and maintain a connection with people in those communities.

Why might we want this? In part, because Canadians already think MPs are both disconnected from their interests and ignorant of the challenges regular people face. The concern is that MPs, once elected, arrive in Ottawa and are subsequently Otta-washed: the concerns of their constituents take a back seat to the concerns of their parties.

What better way to ensure that MPs are able to keep abreast of the concerns and interests of the people theyre supposed to represent than giving them an extra day a week to connect with constituents?

Fridays away from Parliament would also be beneficial for another group: MPs families.

Most MPs spend their work weeks in Ottawa, but their families stay behind in their home communities. This means that MPs spouses and children generally only see them on weekends when Parliament is in session. Even then, MPs often participate in constituency events on the weekend, further cutting back the time they can spend with their families.

For some MPs who live in remote ridings, the amount of time they must travel every week is very high due to connecting regional flights or required driving. This makes it even more difficult for them to carve time out of their schedules to spend with their families.

Some MPs make up for this by moving their families to Ottawa. The problem with this is that MPs miss weekends with their families as they typically travel back to their ridings.

Some readers who have jobs that require them to be away from their families will wonder: why should MPs be exempted from this?

One answer is that many potentially high-quality candidates look at the negative aspects of the job of MP and decide that the position is not for them. One significant negative aspect of the job identified by MPs themselves is the time necessarily spent away from their families. In the exit interviews conducted with retiring MPs by the think tank Samara, several MPs flat-out said that people with young children should not even consider running for public office.

The problem with this is that Parliament (and Canadian government) would suffer from not having the perspectives of young parents represented in Ottawa. If we want quality people to run for public office, then we should look at small reforms such as ending Friday sittings to make the job more attractive to excellent candidates, and their families.

In her letter, Chagger left open the possibility that the government would reconsider the possibility of abolishing Friday parliamentary sittings. I hope the other parties take her up on her offer. This is a situation in which giving MPs an extra day off would, ironically, lead to an improvement in the conduct of Canadian democracy.

Royce Koop is an associate professor and head of the department of political studies at the University of Manitoba.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, the notorious bad boy of Canadian intergovernmental affairs, is taking the federal government to court over its climate change plan to impose a carbon levy on those provinces that wont implement a carbon-pricing system. Its also worth noting that the Manitoba government has yet to sign on to the December 2016 federal-provincial climate change accord.

Wall views Ottawas carbon-pricing plan as a blatant intrusion into provincial jurisdiction  particularly when it comes to its provincial Crown corporation SaskPower (which relies mostly on coal-fired power generation). Furthermore, he wants to challenge the legal validity of Ottawas standing to impose regulatory (as opposed to revenue-generating) tax changes on a provincial government.

Its the federal government saying, Heres what you are going to do from a public-policy perspective or this is what will be forced on the economy and taxpayers of Saskatchewan. And were going to fight it in court, said a defiant Wall.

LIAM RICHARDS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Premier of Saskatchewan Brad Wall views Ottawas carbon-pricing plan as a blatant intrusion into provincial jurisdiction.

According to Canadas Environment and Climate Change minister, Catherine McKenna, Ottawa is convinced that it has the legal backing to enforce a carbon-pricing regime for emissions. As far as the Trudeau government is concerned, environmental matters  especially those involving the reduction of cross-border pollution  fall within the constitutional purview of the feds.

Let me be clear. It is well within the federal governments right to take action to protect the environment, McKenna explained.

In Canada, though, the final arbiter of federal-provincial jurisdictional disputes is the courts  specifically, the Supreme Court of Canada. As the final court of appeal, it will determine which level of government has the requisite constitutional authority or legislative competence.

Indeed, in many areas of exclusive federal and provincial constitutional responsibilities, there is considerable overlap in the environmental sphere. In fact, there exist hundreds of formal and informal arrangements signed between both levels of government involving environmental protection. What has happened in the past is that a sort of federal-provincial diplomacy in Canadian environmental policy-making has emerged as the dominant trend.

The fact is that the courts have historically looked at the environmental policy field as one of cohabitation or joint authority under the rubric of a collaborative/co-operative model (and have openly discouraged federal unilateralism in this area). In other words, judges have tended to interpret the protection of the environment as a concurrent jurisdiction where both levels of government in Canada have legislative responsibilities. Overall, the record does show that the central government has been surprisingly restrained in exercising its authority in the environmental field.

The reasons for Ottawa doing so have been threefold: concerns about serious constitutional overreach, fears of invoking significant provincial resistance (especially in Quebec) and reservations about triggering a ferocious pushback from resource-based industries in Canada.

As was the case in the past, then, Ottawa has been reluctant to use its positive court rulings (such as Crown Zellerback in 1988 and the Oldman River Dam case in 1990) to effect substantial environmental change. But the Trudeau government, unlike the previous Stephen Harper government, does seem willing to take the provinces on in the environmental field.

In this particular case, the federal government is standing on fairly solid legal ground. The Supreme Court has previously ruled that Ottawa has legislative competence over the control of pollution that extends beyond our borders.

Moreover, the Trudeau government is sure to invoke the Peace, Order and Good Government (POGG) clause and matters of national concern (when it comes to fighting climate change) and its considerable criminal law power to argue that it must protect (by singling out the reduction of greenhouse gases as a valid criminal purpose) human health and the environment.

The feds will also bolster their argument by saying that Canada needs to meet its international climate change obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement and to reduce the negative impact on residents in other provinces from a single province that refuses to reduce its damaging carbon emissions.

There is a very good chance that, after a lengthy and costly process, Premier Wall will eventually lose in court. He probably already knows that. For him, its about making a political and ideological statement to his supporters. So his legal challenge is less about blocking a troubling jurisdictional precedent and more about fed-bashing the Trudeau government and scoring some electoral points at home.

Of course, this all highlights once again the ugly side of federal-provincial relations in Canada. But Walls actions do precious little to strengthen the overall federation and to advance the interests of Canadians as a whole.

Peter McKenna is professor and chair of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.
A hospital policy with wide-ranging consequences for patients of Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, was made public recently through a Facebook post on a page for mothers. It came from a woman who was denied a tubal ligation after having a cesarean section because Mercy is a Catholic hospital.

In verifying that prohibition, I discovered other religious-based restrictions at Mercy and 547 other Catholic hospitals across the U.S., which make up 14.5 percent of all acute care hospitals in the country. It raises a question of whether these institutions are fulfilling their legal and professional obligations to their patients and the taxpayers who subsidize them with billions of dollars.

The information is in a year-old national report by the ACLU and MergerWatch called Health Care Denied. Using information from patients and doctors at Catholic hospitals, it concludes womens lives have been threatened by the refusal to perform certain lifesaving functions such as fetal extraction. It notes cases where patients werent even told their baby wouldnt survive or that they could get an abortion elsewhere. There are examples of doctors being barred from doing tubal ligations despite medical conditions that made future pregnancies risky.

These positions are spelled out in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They include at least 53 stipulations that also bar many infertility treatments and direct doctors to notify patients that certain end-of-life directives may conflict with their Catholic teaching.

We think women should be in charge of their health care decisions, said Veronica Fowler, spokesperson for the ACLU of Iowa. Those should not be dictated by a group of religious clergy sitting isolated in a room and deciding what should happen.

A tubal ligation, a surgical procedure to prevent future pregnancies, is optimally done right after a C-section. But Mercy wont do them at all without prior approval from a board consisting of two doctors, an obstetrical nurse and the chair of the ethics committee, responsible for ensuring Catholic tradition is maintained. That approval is granted only if theres a clinical reason a woman should not have more children, says Mercy Vice President Laura Wenman.

Catholic hospitals including Mercy also will not provide any birth control whether drugs, sterilization, diaphragms, IUDs or vasectomies, except for reasons other than pregnancy prevention, such as hormone treatments. Medical staff are instructed to educate patients on the Churchs teaching on responsible parenthood and in methods of natural family planning, the directive says.

If a woman is miscarrying early in her pregnancy, even if her life is endangered, a fetus with a detectable heartbeat will not be extracted. Thats even if it has no chance of living.

The ACLU says such prohibitions can violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which provides emergency care guidelines for hospitals getting Medicare funding (almost all do). Similar requirements exist under Medicares and Medicaids conditions for participation.

Were compliant with EMTALA, responded Wenman, observing, Ive never had an experience here with a pregnancy reaching that point, and were closely monitored here in Iowa. Wenmans position on miscarriage care is, If a woman is miscarrying, there is no medical intervention needed. Nature is taking its course.

A statement from the Mercy public relations department in response to questions said, Mercy and its subsidiaries have a moral responsibility to provide health care services that are faithful to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, and minister to the good of the whole person. In keeping with our Catholic tradition, Mercy does not provide sterilizations for the purpose of contraception. In circumstances where an expectant mother has serious pathology present, Mercy works with obstetricians to review each case individually.

Its not just Catholic hospitals that follow Catholic church policies, but also public hospitals managed by Catholic health systems and historically Catholic hospitals now owned by nonreligious health systems. Thats one in six hospital beds.

It would be one thing if people were informed about these restrictions and had alternatives for getting the treatment they sought. But in Iowa, more than 42 percent of hospital beds are in Catholic hospitals, leaving rural women in particular with few options, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. Iowa is one of 10 states where more than a third of hospitals are Catholic. And of the 19 in Iowa, three are the only hospitals within 45 miles.

The number of Catholic hospitals has increased 22 percent since 2001. Fowler says, and I would agree, that the public doesnt generally know about these prohibitions; in a hemorrhaging situation, women would probably go to the nearest emergency room.

Wenman said while Mercy doesnt hide anything, the responsibility for informing patients about hospital restrictions is with their physicians. But what if an Ob-Gyn delivers only at a Catholic hospital? This may not be a problem in Des Moines but would be elsewhere in Iowa. Also, some health insurers only cover one local hospital.

Ideally state and federal lawmakers would pass new laws requiring all taxpayer-supported hospitals to comply with best practices in patient care. But thats not likely to happen in this political climate. For now, every health care consumer should at least be informed which hospitals will and wont honor their wishes.
Villagers of over five villages in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district have been without electricity and water supply for over five days now, in the peak of summer with temperature touching 44 degrees.

By Hemender Sharma: The Western Power distribution company in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh cut off electricity from five villages after many residents failed to pay their bills.

The five villages have been without electricity and water supply from the past five days in this soaring heat, when the temperature is touching 44 degrees.

The five villages are- Damkhera, Jamanya, Banhoor, Lonara and Kharya Ghat. All of these are located roughly around 35 km from the Khargone district headquarter.

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According to an estimate, nearly 10,000 people including elders and children live in these villages.

'CLEAR DUES FOR ELECTRICITY'

According to Ravikant Ranjan, executive engineer, MP Western Power Distribution Company, most villagers have not yet paid their dues following which three transformers that were installed at Damkhera village have been removed.

"Even if half of the villagers had paid their bills, we would not have taken such a step. We will reinstall the transformers and restore the power supply to all the five villages once the bills are paid," he said.

The Western Power Distribution Company has also refused to compensate those who have paid their bills. Moreover, the officials feigned ignorance about the resulting disruption in water supply.

"They should not have cut power of those who have already paid their bills and if people were stealing electricity they could have taken a legal recourse than punishing the whole village," Mandi board member Ganpat Singh said.

The villagers are now contemplating moving to the district headquarter and staging a protest outside the district collectorate soon. "We are already sleeping in the open. So we might as well sleep in front of the office of the district collector," a villager said.

--- ENDS ---
Katie Seiler and her three boys were excited by the prospect of bringing home a new family pet after meeting a cat and playing with it earlier this month at the Sauk County Humane Society.

The Iraq War veteran from Wisconsin Dells made two separate trips with family members to the Baraboo agency to ensure the white feline named Kayla would be a good fit. She said the nonprofit group halted the adoption because her husband, a dairy farmer who works long hours during planting season, could not make time to visit the animal.

They wanted him to basically abandon the cows that hes caring for to come in and interact with the cat, Seiler said. I said, I totally respect that you want him to meet the cat, but Im telling you that this is not feasible right now.

Seiler said the Humane Societys adoption policies were unclear. She also listed a host of other reasons why she believed she may have been deemed unfit to adopt, including her service in the armed forces, her husbands work as a farmer, and the fact that her family owns another pet cat that is allowed to roam outside.

Sauk County Humane Society Executive Director Dana Madalon said Seiler never was formally denied for adoption, and added that if Seilers entire family  including her husband  interacted with the cat, the agency would have continued the adoption process.

Madalon said her organization often is accused of using arbitrary standards to deny adoptions.

We hear all sorts of things that arent true, she said. Weve heard, You dont adopt to  and then fill in the blank  but its not true.

The agency does not post adoption requirements on its website or at its facility on Highway 136 in Baraboo, and when asked for a copy of the organizations adoption policy, Madalon offered only to answer specific questions about adoption practices.

Im not sure we will ever post that criteria, she said. Its not that different than other Humane Societies, but were in the process of redoing our website. It may go up, but we havent decided yet.

Failed adoptions

Seiler said she visited the Humane Society with one of her sons on March 10 with hopes of adopting Kayla, which she had seen on the organizations Facebook page. Seiler said she and her son had a positive interaction with the cat and filled out paperwork to adopt the animal.

Humane Society staff then told her she would need to bring in the rest of her family to also meet the cat if she was going to continue with the adoption. Seiler said she told the staff member her husband would not be available to set up a meeting because of his work schedule.

I said, well, my husband is a dairy farmer, so theres a good chance that he wont be able to come in right now because hes planting, she said. The hours that theyre open, and the hours that he works, theyre just not going to match up.

Regardless, Seiler brought the rest of her family  without her husband  to visit the cat later that day. She said they also had a positive meeting with the animal, but Humane Society staff insisted her husband come as well.

Seiler and her children returned home without the cat. After a failed attempt by her mother to adopt the same cat the next day, Seiler said she hasnt seen the animal on the Humane Societys website or heard from the organization since.

Seiler isnt the only Sauk County resident to question the Humane Societys adoption policies. Jen Terry of La Valle said her attempt to adopt a labrador mix named Roxy from the Humane Society in December also resulted in confusion.

Terry said she was told by Humane Society staff that she was unable to adopt the dog because her pet cats wander both inside her house and out. Terry said she believes the Humane Society should be more concerned with finding homes for its animals than whether or not her cats are allowed outside.

Shouldnt they be finding a loving home for these animals whether theyre inside or outside? She asked. Just because my cats dont stay inside all the time  really?

Standard adoption policies

Madalon said the Humane Society requires potential adopters to keep all of their pets indoors  even animals that arent adopted from the Humane Society  because the organization strives to set an example of how domesticated animals should be properly cared for.

Madalon added that the shelter spends thousands of dollars each year to care for badly injured and malnourished outdoor cats. The facility took in more than 1,200 cats in 2015. Of those animals, 276 were adopted, 44 were returned to their owner, 94 were transferred to other facilities, 261 were released after receiving care, 14 were dead on arrival, four died at the facilities and 559 were euthanized.

In addition to cats that year, the shelter took in more than 500 dogs. Of those dogs, 169 were adopted, 193 were returned to their owner, 30 were transferred out, 102 were released after receiving care, five were dead on arrival and 43 were euthanized, according to the Humane Societys annual report from 2015.

We have an education component to our mission, which is to educate people on the proper care of animals, she said. Keeping your dogs and cats indoors is part of that mission. Its part of the humane treatment of animals. Certainly people can disagree with that, but then they can adopt elsewhere or get a cat from afar.

Madalon said the policy requiring a potential owners family to visit with an animal before an adoption also is taken seriously, and is a standard procedure at many animal shelters. She said the requirement ensures animals will have positive relationships with all of their new family members, which isnt always the case.

Weve had situations where the meet and greet with one family member and kids goes fabulously, and then another family member comes in and its horrible, she said.

In addition to mandatory meet and greets and indoor-only pets, the Humane Society also requires potential adopters to provide a copy of their lease with their application to adopt. Madalon said the policy ensures pets will not be brought back to the shelter because they werent permitted by a landlord.

Madalon said she encourages Sauk County residents to call, visit or volunteer at the animal shelter, and welcomed any questions they may have on the shelters adoption policies. If residents disagree with the organizations standards, Madalon suggested they adopt from a different facility.

Those are our policies as a Humane Society, and if someone doesnt like that, they can go elsewhere, she said. Adopting is not a right, it is a privilege.
Eugene Kamrath

Eugene Gene L. Kamrath, 78, Beaver Dam, passed away Wednesday, May 24, 2017, at Charleston House Memory Care in Beaver Dam after a short battle with Alzheimers disease.

Gene was born Sept. 5, 1938, in Beaver Dam, the son of Edgar and Mildred (Mattox) Kamrath. He graduated from Beaver Dam High School in 1956. He worked many years at Kamraths and also as a radio announcer in Beaver Dam, Waupun, Watertown and Sauk City. He later worked at the Daily Citizen. He had a love for aviation and flying planes. He went on to get his pilots license and spent a lot of time at the Juneau Airport.

He was united in marriage to Shirley Olson in 1999, who survives him along with three stepchildren, Don of Beloit, Richard (Colleen) of Springfield, Georgia, and Pam (Greg) Lehr of Clyman; seven step grandchildren; 17 step great-grandchildren; many other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Don; and other relatives.

In honoring Genes wishes, a private family service will be held.

Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services, 135 Keller Blvd., Beaver Dam, is honored to be serving the family. Send private online condolences or sign the familys guest book at www.cstonefs.com.
Health insurance premiums for state employees would increase by 10 percent if lawmakers reject Gov. Scott Walker's self-insurance proposal, according to new projections released by Walker's administration on Friday.

The governor's administration is doubling down on its efforts to persuade legislators to sign off on the switch, which Walker included in his 2017-19 budget proposal. The heads of the Republican-led budget-writing committee said earlier this month they don't plan to support the move.

"This is a good government reform," Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel told reporters on Friday. "The Group Insurance Board looked at all its options as Obamacare was implemented. We wanted to make sure that the state got the best deal in the new health insurance world."

The governor's administration submitted self-insurance contracts to the Joint Finance Committee earlier this month that they say would save the state $60 million during the 2017-19 budget period.

Walker's two-year spending plan would direct that $60 million to fund a portion of a $649 million boost in per-pupil aid for K-12 education and a portion of pay and benefit increases for University of Wisconsin employees.

Joint Finance Committee co-chairs Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, said they plan to reject the proposal and would find money elsewhere in the budget to fund the K-12 and UW increases, or they would direct the Department of Employee Trust Funds to find a similar amount of savings within the existing system.

But representatives from Walker's administration said Friday that lawmakers would need to find $103.4 million in budget savings to offset the impact of rejecting the self-insurance switch.

That figure comes from these estimates:

$60 million in savings from moving to self-insurance

$22 million in Affordable Care Act fees that would be avoided under self-insurance

$21.4 million if health insurance premiums increase by 10 percent, as opposed to the 7 percent the administration has budgeted for

Deputy Commissioner of Insurance J.P. Wieske said the administration believes the savings are "real" and "deliverable."

"Self-insurance is a common-sense approach with signed contracts sitting in the Legislature ready to go," said state budget director Waylon Hurlburt. "These are not estimates. These are actual contracts ready to be signed by the state that wold move the state to self-insurance and take that $100 million cost off the books."

To realize the savings promised under self-insurance if the plan is rejected, according to Walker's administration, state employee health insurance premium contributions and annual deductibles would need to be increased significantly, or the health insurance reserve fund would need to be drawn down beyond recommended levels.

Under the self-insurance model, the state would contract with insurers and third-party administrators to pay for public employees' medical bills directly rather than pay premiums to insurance companies.

The state would move from paying premiums to 18 HMOs across the state to contracting with six health insurance companies to administer the self-insurance program in four regions  north, south, east and west  statewide.

Spokespeople for Darling and Nygren did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Nygren and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, have previously cited the risk of switching to a new system in their reluctance to go along with the proposal.

Nygren said earlier this month he believes there is a potential to achieve the savings Walker's proposal promises, but "there's also potential risk, too." Darling, in her criticism of the plan, has cited national uncertainty surrounding health care coverage as Congress considers changing or replacing the Affordable Care Act.
Department of Corrections Secretary Jon Litscher has closed a division that helped trigger a federal investigation into allegations of abuse of inmates by staff at the states youth prison.

The handful of investigators in the Office of Special Operations, which investigated allegations of employee misconduct, will be moved to a division primarily focused on reviewing allegations of sexual assault in order to comply with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, which is aimed at reducing sexual assaults within correctional facilities.

Attorney General Brad Schimel was first made aware of allegations of inmate abuse at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls by the offices investigators after they reviewed a number of complaints alleging potential misconduct. A federal investigation into those allegations has been underway for more than two years.

According to a May 22 letter to DOC employees from Litschers office, the reorganizations purpose is to augment our ability to meet and exceed federal PREA standards, retain our capacity to maintain preparedness and respond to major incidents, and strengthen our ability to conduct PREA investigations.

The agency needs 57 additional staff members at the juvenile correctional facility to comply with the federal law, and has until October to do so.

DOC spokesman Tristan Cook said the department has dozens of staff investigators and that the closed office  which was created in the 2013-15 state budget  did a small proportion of employee reviews, and focused on sensitive matters.

Assembly Corrections Committee chairman Rep. Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, said he isnt concerned about the reorganization.

I think they really want to focus on the PREA compliance, Schraa said. And its not like they are not going to be doing internal affairs.

Schraa said he plans to monitor how the offices closure affects how complaints are investigated within the departments ranks.
A Columbia County Circuit Court judge on Thursday declared that a Portage man accused of impersonating a police officer during a burglary deserves a chance to turn his life around.

If Austen Bardell, 19, of Portage, successfully completes the two years of probation to which Judge Todd Hepler sentenced him, then Bardell will be eligible to have three charges  disorderly conduct, impersonating a peace officer to aid in commission of a crime and misdemeanor bail jumping  expunged from his record.

Hepler went along with a joint sentencing recommendation from Bardell and Assistant District Attorney Clifford Burdon, after accepting Bardells pleas of no contest to each of the three charges.

When Bardell was invited to speak before sentencing, he said he apologized for wasting the courts time.

Hepler replied, If you successfully complete probation, it wont be a waste of the courts time. It will be an opportunity to create a much better future for yourself, and put this matter behind you.

Bardell was accused of participating in a Portage burglary in the early hours of July 7, 2016. He and his brother, Skylar Bardell, now 23, and an unnamed juvenile allegedly entered an apartment on East Conant Street. When confronted by the apartments occupants, the three allegedly claimed to be police officers, and brandished what looked like a handgun, but was, in fact, an air pistol.

Austan Bardell spent 215 days in jail prior to the cases disposition. His bond was originally set at $25,000 cash, until Bardell, representing himself, sought and received a bond reduction to $8,000 cash in February.

Burdon said he believes the jail time served as a significant wake-up call for Bardell.

Hes got a good mind, Burdon said of Bardell. He was just focusing it in the wrong direction.

Attorney Mark Lawton, who was acting as Bardells stand-by counsel, also expressed confidence that Bardell would successfully complete his probation.

In the short few months that Ive known Austan, I think hell make it, he said.

The conditions of Bardells probation include undergoing an alcohol and other drugs assessment and undergoing any substance abuse treatment that might be recommended; having no contact with the victims and participating, full time, in a job, education or a combination of the two.

Burdon acknowledged that the crime of which Bardell was accused was very foolish and very dangerous, but said Bardell is accepting responsibility.

Probation, he said, constitutes putting the keys to his future in his own hands.
ENDEAVOR  Wisconsin retirees are asking their representatives to either get behind reintroduced legislation that would protect their pensions  or find another solution.

The Keep Our Pension Promises Act  reintroduced this month by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio  is right now the only plan in bill form that would address the growing pension crisis in the U.S., reported Protect Pensions leader Bernie Anderson of Milwaukee. Anderson was one of about 80 attendees at a Protect Pensions meeting held May 13 in Endeavor.

Were asking them if they dont like it, come up with something else themselves, Anderson said of the legislation, which would prevent multiemployer plans  ones deemed to be struggling  from slashing benefits for retirees.

Keep Our Pension Promises would establish a legacy fund for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation that would be funded by closing tax loopholes currently used by the super rich, Anderson said.

Some very wealthy people, for example, use Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) as a vehicle to keep as much as $250 million or more from being taxed.

What the Sanders bill does, Anderson said, is cap it so those people would have to pay taxes on that money over $5 million, taxes that would be used to fix struggling multiemployer pension funds.

It would bring in approximately $32 billion in 10 years, and thats about how far behind the pensions are, Anderson said. It would fix the whole system  not just Central States (Pension Fund).

Central States was the first pension fund to attempt slashing pensions by up to 70 percent, using the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, which did away with cutback protections in ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974).

About 25,000 retirees in Wisconsin face significant cuts to their Central States pensions unless a solution is found.

More broadly, the pensions of millions of Americans are at stake, Protect Pensions groups say, due to hundreds of struggling funds that might use MPRA to slash pensions.

Were not asking for a bailout. Were asking for a solution, said Bob Brockway, who leads the Endeavor chapter of Protect Pensions, which meets on the second Saturday of each month at the Endeavor/Moundville fire station.

Hundreds of pension funds are in dire need of help. Can you imagine if 20 or 30 million people lose their pensions?

Anderson reported progress made in the form of support from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Sen. Ron Johnson, among others.

Baldwin is a co-sponsor of the Sanders bill.

About six weeks ago, Protect Pensions leaders, including Anderson, had a 45-minute conference call with White House staff  two special assistants to President Donald Trump, on taxes and pensions  which also has retirees feeling optimistic.

Theyre very interested in our plight, Anderson said of the phone call. They said a couple of times that they can hear and feel the emotion in our voices.

Where it leads, we dont know. Were talking about Trump here, Anderson continued. Hes definitely a wild card.

Protect Pensions leaders are reaching out to many in the Trump administration for help, since a lot of people voted for him because of what he talked about with (protecting) the American worker, Anderson said.

So wed like to ask the president, how does he plan to fix the multiemployer pension plans?

Keep Our Pension Promises Act, Brockway said, is a very good thing because it puts the language back to where it should be: to protect our pensions.

This bill will help millions of people, and thats what everybodys depending on, he said.

I really feel like more people will get on board with this.
PM Modi will be launching numerous projects as part of celebrations marking three years of his government at the Centre.

By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra is on a day-long visit to Assam where he inaugurated country's longest road bridge over Lohit river. The 9.15-km-long Dhola-Sadiya bridge will reduce travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by nearly six hours.

PM Modi will be launching numerous projects as part of celebrations marking three years of his government at the Centre.

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HERE ARE THE LIVE UPDATES:

PM Narendra Modi gives 3-year report card in Guwahati

Let us all commit ourselves for the next five years to take the country to new heights. Let us build a New India.

No kala dhan now, only jan dhan . My government is pro-poor, pro-people.

now, only . My government is pro-poor, pro-people. Our aim is to ensure affordable healthcare for all. Stent prices have been reduced considerably.

In the last three years, we have given foremost priority to trusting the citizens.

Everyone wants the nation to be free from grasps of corruption. Everyone wants to lead an honest life.

When the government is devoted to serve people, then the entire system too falls in place.

Note ban was a difficult move and I am still getting criticised for it.

People made Swachhata a mass movement; media too played a key role in furthering the message of cleanliness.

Our government asked people to give up LPG subsidy for the poor and one crore households obliged me by giving up their subsidies

Law regarding benami properties was made in 1988. But there was no notification about the same, no rules were made in these 28 years.

Previous government only talked about big schemes. I talked about small things like cleanliness and sanitation.

There was hopelessness three years ago.

For me whole India is Delhi. Will do big things for small people.

My government's priority is farmers. I have dedicated my life to this country.

By 2022, we want to double our farmers' income. Through 'Sampada Yojana' we want to ensure value addition of agri-products.

For the first time, we have taken a step to uplift the OBCs. The OBC Commission has been passed.

By 2022, we want to double our farmers' income. Through 'Sampada Yojana' we want to ensure value addition of agri-products.

Want to express my heartfelt gratitude towards people of country, that they let us form a government, gave me opportunity as a 'pradhan sevak'.

PM Modi addresses BJP's pan-India festival in Guwahati, Assam.

VIDEO | Whole of India is Delhi to me, will do big things for common people: PM Modi

BJP chief Amit Shah lists achievements as government completes 3 years

Certain things that could not be achieved in the 70 years of independence, have been attained in these 3 years

BJP will do much better in 2019 Lok Sabha polls than 2014

BJP has virtually finished three banes of politics-- casteism, family rule and appeasement

India's self-confidence, pride and scale of ambition has grown manifold in three years under the Modi government

Indian Army displayed their valour by surgical strikes, and PM Narendra Modi showed political will

I assure people of India that BJP's Narendra Modi government is monitoring Kashmir situation very seriously, will be in control soon

PM Modi has met aspirations of people

If Rajnikanth ji wishes to enter politics, he is welcome. I'm using the word 'politics', not 'BJP', decision is up to him

Yogi government has tackled everything promptly, whether it was Jewar, Mathura, Saharanpur incidents. They have taken strong steps

WATCH | PM Narendra Modi has met aspirations of people: Amit Shah on NDA government third anniversary

PM Modi addresses a public rally in Dhemaji at foundation stone laying ceremony of IARI Gogamukh

Today, I want to announce a new scheme. This scheme will be called Sampada. It will provide an impetus to the food processing industry: Modi

Target to double income of farmers by 2020.

It's time to take gaint leap in northeast states.

My govt's dream is to make farmer's income double.

IARI Gogamukh is to benefit farmers.

Agriculture imstitute is to help the quality of the soil.

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PM Modi addresses public after inaugurating India longest bridge.

My govt has decided to name India's longest road bridge after Bhupen Hazarika: PM

Within one year of BJP rule in Assam, the state got rid of a lot of problems: PM Modi

Because of the bridge we are going to save Rs 10 lakh diesel everyday.

In 2003, one of our MLAs Jagdish Bhuyan wrote to Vajpayeeji requesting for such a bridge. He approved: PM Modi

Then soon government changed and the work on the bridge kept on getting delayed: PM Modi

The moment you were waiting has come: PM

Please take out your mobile phone and switch on the flash light to celebrate the moment.

PM Modi at the newly inaugurated Dhola - Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya, Assam pic.twitter.com/rbUubURfXu ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

PM Modi arrives in Dibrugarh.

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Watch Modi's full speech in Assam

ALSO READ:

FROM INDIA TODAY MAGAZINE: SPECIAL COVERAGE ON MODI GOVERNMENT'S 3 YEARS

How Dhola-Sadiya, India's longest bridge, will improve Assam, Arunachal Pradesh's transport system

3 years of Modi rule: How Assam proved to be PM's lucky mascot

3 years of Modi sarkar: BJP going strong, may face weak Opposition in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

--- ENDS ---
Three awards and the Presidency for Wits Anatomy

Wits academics scooped three awards at the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa Conference and Wits' Head of Anatomical Studies was re-elected as President.

Professor Maryna Steyn, head of the School of Anatomical Sciences at Wits will serve a second three-year term as President of the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA).

Dr Carol Hartmann, a clinical lecturer in the unit for Undergraduate Medical Education received the Hanno Boon Education Prize, for her presentation, Comparison of computer and laboratory based assessment methods for anatomy practical examinations, co-authored by Desire Brits, Anatomical Sciences lecturer. This award is named for the late Professor Hanno Boon who along with other ASSA colleagues instituted the medical education time-slot into the annual ASSA programme.

Dr Toby Houlton, a postdoctoral fellow in Anatomical Sciences received the Bob Symington Prize for Best Young Presenter under 35 Years for his presentation, Typological archives: incarcerated flesh with untold histories and modern dilemmas. This prize is named after the larger-than-life Professor Bob Symington, a former ASSA president who died suddenly in 1983. The prize recognises Symingtons support of young members in particular.

Vaughan Perry, a lecturer in Anatomical Sciences and an MSc (Med) candidate won the Antoinette Kotze Prize for Best First-Time Presenter. Perrys presentation, The effects of gestational alcohol exposure on the postnatal development of the tibia in 3 week old Sprague Dawley Rats, was co-authored by Anatomical Sciences lecturers, Dr Robert Ndou and Diana Pillay. This prize honours the late Mrs. Antoinette Kotze, a member of the 1985 ASSA Organising Committee from MEDUSA who died in a motor vehicle accident that year.

ASSA is the major regional association for anatomists and an important forum for presenting new research. The Department of Human Biology in the School of Anatomical Sciences at Wits hosted the conference in Langebaan, Western Cape from 23-26 April 2017. Approximately 135 delegates attended the conference, which covered research topics including but not limited to:
By India Today Web Desk: The tourism fraternity came together to celebrate yet another bonanza, with the 6th Lonely Planet India Travel Awards 2017 recognising their respective contributions to global travel.

Deemed one of the leading magazines in the country, Lonely Planet India organised a star-studded event in Mumbai, attended by who's who from Bollywood, travel, hospitality and other corporate industries.

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After thorough research, Lonely Planet India awarded destinations across the world, in several categories, as per the experience they offer to tourists.

Destinations in India won accolades for their immmense contribution to tourism. Karnataka (Best Destination for Culture), Maharashtra (Best Destination for Adventure), Madhya Pradesh (Best Destination for Wildlife), Himachal Pradesh (Best Destination for Family), Goa (Best Destination for Relaxation), Tamil Nadu (Best Destination for Value), Lucknow - Uttar Pradesh (Best Destination for Food & Drink), New Delhi (Best Destination for Shopping), Munnar - Kerala (Best Destination for Romance), Rajasthan (Best Destination for Indulgence) and Meghalaya (Best Emerging Destination) were among the awarded tourist hubs at a national level.

Also Read: This is why Kerala has ranked 8 on the '12 Destinations to Watch in 2017' list

Among the international destinations awarded were Japan (Best Destination for Culture), New Zealand (Best Destination for Adventure), South Africa (Best Destination for Wildlife), Singapore (Best Destination for Family),Thailand (Best Destination for Relaxation), Malaysia (Best Destination for Value), Spain (Best Destination for Food & Drink), The USA (Best Destination for Shopping), Austria (Best Destination for Romance), France (Best Destination for Indulgence) and Iceland (Best Emerging Destination).

Switzerland, on the other hand, was voted as the choicest holiday destination for Indian tourists, reported The Times of India.

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By Press Trust of India: Kathmandu, May 26 (PTI) A newly-formed alliance of six Madhes-based parties in Nepal today announced that it will boycott the second phase of local elections and launch a fresh agitation to block the first local-level polls held in the country in two decades.

The Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN) after a meeting held here announced that it will hold protests to foil the second phase of local level elections slated for June 14.

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As part of its protest programmes, the party has decided to organise torch rallies in districts headquarters of all the sub-metropolitan cities and municipalities tomorrow, the Kathmandu Post reported.

The party has decided to take out lathi rallies in the district headquarters, municipalities and village councils on May 28 and to form struggle committees in all the polling stations.

It has also decided to hold an interaction with entrepreneurs, experts, journalists, youths and students among others on May 29.

It said will padlock and picket election offices of municipalities and village councils on May 30.

The newly-formed alliance has also decided to organise torch rallies in all the district headquarters, municipalities and major markets on May 31.

It decided to enforce general strike in Madhes, Tharuwat and Limbuwan on June 1 and 2.

The Madhes-centric parties have welcomed the government?s decision to elevate Biratnagar into a metropolitan city and increase the number of local units in the Tarai.

The RJP-N, however, said it will not participate in the second phase of local election unless the constitution is amended to address the concerns raised by them.

The first phase of the local polls was held on May 14 with a 71 per cent voter turnout.

Local-level elections could not be held in the country after 1997 largely as a result of the decade-long Maoist insurgency that claimed more than 16,000 lives in Nepal.

The elections should be held in every five years but due to the political instability, they were halted since May 1997.

Local bodies remained ignored during the long transitional period even after the signing of a peace deal between the government and the Maoists in November 2006.

Madhes-centric parties have opposed the elections until the new Constitution is amended to accommodate their views: more representation in the Parliament and redrawing of provincial boundaries.

The Nepal government has tabled a new Constitution amendment bill in the Parliament to address the demands of the agitating Madhesis.

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Madhesis, mostly of Indian-origin, launched a prolonged agitation between September 2015 and February last year against the implementation of the new Constitution which they felt marginalised the Terai community. PTI PMS AKJ PMS

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By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, May 26 (PTI) Maharashtras Food and Drug Administration seized illegal drugs worth Rs 40 lakh during raids at premises of Pioma Chemicals in Mumbai and Thane.

The raids were carried out at the company premises in Vile Parle (East) and at their godowns at Prerana Complex, Anjur Road, Bhiwandi, in Thane district after a tip-off, FDA Commissioner Dr. Harshadeep Kamble, told PTI.

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"Pioma Chemicals imported Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP, a drug illegally without registration and import license, as required under provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and rules," Kamble said.

"Acting on this information the premises were raided and stock of 12,730 kg of Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP which is prohibited and worth Rs 40 lakh, was seized," the senior IAS officer said.

"Primary investigation has revealed that Pioma Chemicals gave an undertaking to the Centre about the import of this dual use drug for the purpose of not for medicinal use", he said.

Though this raw material can be used as bulk sweetener for manufacture of low calorie food products, it is also used as an active ingredient in drug manufacturing, he added.

This drug is used for treatment of constipation, prevention of encephalopathy, fissures, hemorrhoids, hyper cholestrolaemia, anorectal disease, etc, said Kamble.

Pioma Chemicals also gave an undertaking to the Central Government agency, CDSCO, that the said material will not be used or sold for medicinal purpose and that they will take similar undertaking about not for medicinal use from the purchaser on said product, he said.

The drug is imported from Shandong Lujian Biological Technical Co. Ltd., China and is sold to various pharma companies like Sun Pharma, Medley Pharma Ltd., Tirupati Medicare, Akums Drugs and Pharmaceutical Ltd., he said.

Investigation has also revealed that Pioma chemicals have imported more than 3 lakh kilograms of the drug worth Rs 10 crore, he said.

According to the IAS officer, as per provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, import of drug requires registration of the manufacturer.

In this case since the manufacturer is based in China, registration for import will make their manufacturing facility available for audit and inspection by the Indian authorities, he added.

It also requires import license for import of drug to be issued by licensing authority of the Centre. The import of drugs without license is prohibited as per provision of sec 10 (c) read with rule 23, 25, 25 (b), 26 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, informed Kamble.

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As the drug has been supplied to the manufacturers located in various states of the country, I have informed the concerned State Drug Controllers to verify and investigate the matter with respect to stock received by manufacturer located in their jurisdiction, said Kamble.

He also said that notices were issued to the users/ manufacturers of Lactitol Monohydrate USP/EP, namely Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Medley Pharma Ltd., Tirupati Medicare, Akums Drugs and Pharmaceutical Ltd.

Sample of the drug has been drawn for test and analysis to ascertain the quality of the drug imported illegally, he added.

The Drugs Controller General of India, New Delhi has been informed about the issue to conduct further enquiry, if necessary separately, and for reviewing the policy of issuing no objection certificate for import of dual use drugs, particularly for Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP by Pioma Chemicals, Mumbai, said the officer. PTI VT NRB NRB

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Design work suspended for new Shin Hanul units

26 May 2017

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Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has suspended design work for the planned units 3 and 4 at the Shin Hanul nuclear power plant until South Korea's new government announces its policy on the construction of new reactors. During his presidential election campaign, Moon Jae-in said he would scrap plans for new reactors.

An artist's impression of how Shin Hanul 3 and 4 would appear (Image: KHNP)

KHNP announced yesterday that it had instructed Kepco Engineering & Construction - which signed a design contract in March 2016 - to suspend work for the two planned APR1400 units at Shin Hanul. This work will be suspended, the state-owned utility said, until the government policy on the construction of new nuclear power plants is confirmed. However, work towards licensing the new units is to continue.

On 9 May, Moon Jae-in of the centre-left Democratic Party of Korea was voted South Korea's new president, following Park Geun-hye's impeachment in March. Moon was one of seven candidates in the election who signed an agreement in March for a "common policy" for phasing out the country's use of nuclear energy. During his election campaign, Moon said he would scrap plans for new reactors while immediately closing Wolsong 1. Moon also said he will close ten old coal-fired plants earlier than scheduled.

A KHNP official told the Dong-A Ilbo news service, "We have found it difficult to push for the designing project under the circumstances where the government policy (towards nuclear power plants) is fluid."

In November 2014, KHNP signed an agreement with Ulchin County to build Shin Hanul 3 and 4. The company applied for a construction licence for the units in January 2016. Site preparation for the two units is scheduled to begin this month, with commercial operation of unit 3 scheduled for December 2022 and unit 4 following a year later.

Two APR1400 units are under construction as units 1 and 2 of the Shin Hanul site. Those 1350 MWe pressurised water reactors are expected to enter service in April 2018 and February 2019, respectively.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
IAEA verifies UAE nuclear material inventory

26 May 2017

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International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards inspectors have verified the correctness and completeness of the United Arab Emirates' initial inventory of nuclear material. The strategic document was prepared by the country's Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR).

FANR prepared the initial inventory based on the UAE's State System of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material, a register of all nuclear material, its possessors and users within the territory of the UAE. The inventory was submitted to the IAEA through the UAE's permanent mission to the agency.

As part of the verification process, IAEA safeguards inspectors visited the Barakah nuclear power plant and other locations in the UAE where small amounts of nuclear material are used. The IAEA confirmed at a follow-up meeting with FANR representatives at the agency's Vienna headquarters that information submitted by the UAE in its initial inventory was complete.

IAEA safeguards aim to deter the spread of nuclear weapons by the early detection of any misuse of nuclear material or technology, providing assurances that states are honouring their obligations to use nuclear material only for peaceful purposes. The agency applies a set of technical measures on nuclear materials and activities to verify independently that facilities are not being misused and that nuclear materials are not being diverted. States accept such measures through safeguards agreements with the IAEA.

The UAE's agreement with the IAEA on the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its additional protocol is such a safeguards agreement. Under its terms, as well as the UAE's own federal nuclear law and FANR obligations, any possession, use or handling of nuclear materials within the UAE must be licensed by the FANR. The IAEA is authorised to carry out inspections within the country to verify that safeguards are being applied correctly.

Hamad Alkaabi, the UAE's permanent representative to the IAEA, said the UAE had worked very closely with the agency in developing and implementing the country's comprehensive safeguards system in line with IAEA requirements. "This is a significant achievement and represents another milestone in the UAE peaceful nuclear energy program," he said.

Initial construction of the UAE's first nuclear power reactor, Barakah 1, was completed earlier this month. Operating company Nawah Energy Company is now waiting for regulatory approvals before fuel loading and commissioning can begin. Three further APR-1400 pressurised water reactors are being built by a South Korean consortium for the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation at Barakah, 50 km from the town of Ruwais.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Beranton J. Whisenant Jr.

By: Alexis Bell WorldWideWeirdNews.com

(Scroll down for video) Police in Florida, are investigating the death of a prosecutor who was described as a awonderful lawyer and great colleague,a by the The U.S. Attorneys Office.

The federal prosecutor was found dead on a Miami beach.

Hollywood police spokeswoman Miranda Grossman said that 37-year-old Beranton J. Whisenant Jr., was discovered near the water by a passerby in Hollywood Beach at 4:30 a.m.

The prosecutor had suffered major head injuries, which according to police, are consistent with a gunshot wound.

They have not yet revealed whether his death is being treated as a murder, suicide or accident.

Whisenant was dressed in a business shirt and black pants when they found his body. Nothing was stolen and all of his personal items were still on him when his body was discovered.

Whisenant joined the United States Attorneys Office in Miamias crime unit in January. Court records show that he had been handling several visa and passport fraud cases at the time of his death.
Weapons seized from Mayra Miranda

By: William Martin WorldWideWeirdNews.com

A woman from Mexico, who terrorized the citizens of the United States, will spend many years behind bars for committing violent crimes.

The last member of a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization, who was convicted of attempted murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping, was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison, a term she will serve once she completes a 24-year jail sentence in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Mayra Miranda, 31, of Mexico, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton.

The federal prison sentence is the result of a five-year probe spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcementas (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with significant assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Phoenix Police Department.

aHSI is committed to working with its law enforcement partners to pursue and dismantle drug trafficking organizations that distribute narcotics on the streets and spread violence in our communities,a said Scott Brown, special agent in charge for HSI Phoenix.

aThis investigation uncovered dangerous criminal activity that extended from Phoenix to Mexico. I commend the outstanding collaborative effort by all of the agencies involved in this lengthy investigation,a Brown added.

The investigation began after HSI special agents learned that Miranda played a key role in a shooting incident in south Phoenix, leaving two people wounded.

Special agents subsequently discovered that Mirandaas group had perpetrated other violent acts to further the groupas drug smuggling activities, including two attempted murders, a kidnapping, and an armed robbery.

HSI special agents executed federal search warrants at two residences in north Phoenix, resulting in the seizure of five pounds of methamphetamine, 92 grams of heroin, 12 firearms and various firearms components.

The operation led to the arrest of several individuals who were charged with federal drug trafficking offenses, and state violations related to attempted murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, and drug smuggling.

The others charged and convicted in the case include Jonathan Sanchez Mejines, of Mexico, who was sentenced to six years in federal prison and 16 years in state prison, along with Kayonte Shurcur, L.L Scott, Jovanny Andrade, and Bruno Brizuela.

The last four defendants pleaded guilty to charges related to attempted murder and aggravated assault. They received sentences ranging from three years to 16 years in prison.
BJP managed to get clear victory in Panvel municipal election. But, Shiv Sena didn't even open its account in Panvel, which was really shocking for them because, during last phase of campaigning, party chief Uddhav Thackeray had campaigned there.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: On the day when BJP govt is celebrating its three years at centre there was good news for Congress who emerged victorious in Bhiwandi and Malegaon. Whereas BJP managed to get clear victory in Panvel municipal election. But, Shiv Sena didn't even open its account in Panvel, which was really shocking for them because, during last phase of campaigning, party chief Uddhav Thackeray had campaigned there.

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In Panvel, BJP has won 44 out of 78 wards and is leading in six seats. BJP's nearest competitor PWPI is far behind with 17 seats. Congress and NCP have won only 1 seat each so far.

In the recently held municipal corporations elections in state, Shiv Sena had only managed to win two corporations one is Mumbai and second is Thane. But, today's result of Panvel corporations has raised serious questions. For Panvel Municipal corporation, Shiv Sena had contested on all 78 seats, but didn't even open the account.

Sena had a Member of Parliament from Mawal Loksabha constituency Shreerang Barane under which Panvel corporation falls. But till last minute, Sena kept it self busy in bargaining for seats with BJP for this election. BJP had offered 22 seats to Shiv Sena for forming alliance, but Sena wanted 30 seats. This was golden opportunity which Sena missed to acquire power with BJP. Sena couldn't reach in rural areas which affected them most in this election.

The story of Bhiwandi and Malegaon local body elections is not any different. In Bhiwandi, Shiv Sena, who was earlier in alliance with the Congress, was fighting separately this time and won only 9 seats, and in Malegaon, Shiv Sena got victory on 11 seats.

Now, the big task infront of Shiv Sena is to introspect what exactly went wrong in all these local body and corporation elections. As results only indicates that Sena has totally failed to attract voters out side Mumbai and Thane, which shows Sena's disconnect with rural Maharashtra. Whereas BJP is spreading its wings across the state, and now, Congress is gaining momentum.

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Armed Officers on Duty at Wrexham UB40 Concert

This article is old - Published: Friday, May 26th, 2017

Armed officers are on duty this evening at the UB40 concert in Wrexham as part of increased security measures across the country.

The officers from Cheshire and North Wales AAP (Alliance Armed Policing Unit), are assisting North Wales Police with security at the Racecourse Stadium in the wake the terror attack at the Manchester Arena on Monday evening.

Reggae legends UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, Mickey Virtue and Astro will take to the stage at the Racecourse Stadium later this evening as part of their Grandslam 2017 tour.

Earlier this week My Racecourse and event organisers LHG released a joint statement explaining that all concert-goers will be subject to a ticket check/scan and search regime on entry. This includes a compulsory bag, and targeted personal search.

The statement added: We would like to reassure all ticket holders that following the incident in Manchester on Monday evening, we are of course re-examining all security measures and where any adjustments are deemed necessary, these will be implemented.

We therefore ask for co-operation, understanding and patience from all our concert goers as thorough security measures will continue to be applied to all persons accessing the concert sites.

Earlier this evening North Wales Police tweeted the following and encouraged concert-goers to pop over and say hello!
Jet Lands After Declaring Emergency In Wrexham Airspace

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, May 24th, 2017

A plane declared an emergency this afternoon, with a low flight path over the north of Wrexham before landing at Hawarden airport.

Update 2:20pm: The plane has landed in Hawarden after flying 1500 feet above the north of Wrexham in an approach to the airport.

Daz Picken said: Seen it looping low towards Gresford way. It was in a sharp turn not the usual flight style.

Original information below

A plane has declared an emergency heading west towards the Wrexham area.

The small jet has squawked 7700, declaring an emergency. The Cessna Citation CJ2+ issued the alert just before 2pm, and often the squawks last a few moments before being corrected.

The plane was first flagged on our local tracking just before 2pm on a flight to the UK from Nuremberg, Germany.

The plane appears to have passed over the Harwarden airport, and is now looping over Gresford as of 2:14pm



The flight is trackable publicly via FlightRadar24.com here.

More soon.
Manchester bombing suspect Salman Abedi is believed to have made a phone call moments before he blew himself in the Manchester Arena to his relative and pleaded forgiveness. The relative also added that Abedi was driven to take this step because he was aghast by the treatment of Arabs in UK.

By AP: The suspect in the deadly Manchester concert bombing was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain, a relative said Thursday, confirming he made a final phone call in which he pleaded, "Forgive me."

Salman Abedi was particularly upset by the killing last year of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by "infidels" in the UK, said the relative, speaking on condition of anonymity over concerns for her own security.

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"Why was there no outrage for the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way?" she asked. "Rage was the main reason," for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.

The new insight into Abedi's motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber's family lived.

The number of arrests in the UK ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism. Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said, without elaborating, that searches of suspects' homes brought "very important" clues in the probe of the bombing. But leaks from the investigation were creating a trans-Atlantic diplomatic mess.

UK HALTS INFORMATION SHARING WITH US

Manchester police halted their sharing of investigative information with the US through most of Thursday until receiving fresh assurance there would be an end to leaks to the media.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who spoke about the matter with US President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels, said the countries' partnership on defense and security was built on trust. But "part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently," she said.

Trump pledged to "get to the bottom" of the leaks, calling them "deeply troubling" and asking the Justice Department and other agencies to "launch a complete review of this matter."

British officials were particularly angry over photos published by The New York Times showing remnants of a blue backpack which may have held the explosive. But it wasn't clear US officials were the source of the images, which the Times defended as "neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims" and consistent with basic reporting "on weapons used in horrific crimes."

British security services were also upset that 22-year-old Abedi's name was apparently leaked by US officials while police in the UK continued withholding it and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya. Hopkins said the leaks "caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss."

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Meanwhile, the investigation into the blast widened.

ABEDI WAS BANNED FROM MOSQUE

Authorities chased possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East. They were exploring potential ties to Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan jailed in the UK for terror offenses, and to Raphael Hostey, an Islamic State recruiter killed in Syria.

Abedi's family remained a focus, too, with a brother in England, his father and another brother in Libya among those detained. Abedi's father was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s - a claim he denies.

An emerging portrait of the bomber remained complicated by competing assessments over whether Abedi held views that had sparked concern before the bombing.

Akram Ramadan, a member of the Libyan community in Manchester who attends the city's Didsbury Mosque, said Abedi was banned from the mosque after he allegedly interrupted an imam's anti-Islamic State sermon.

"He stood up and started calling the imam - 'You are talking bollocks,'" Ramadan said. "And he gave a good stare, a threatening stare into the imam's eyes."

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Mohammed Fadl, a community leader, rejected that account. While Abedi's family was well-known in Manchester, Abedi himself did not attend many gatherings, Fadl said.

However, Fadl said he had heard Abedi's father took his son's passport away over concerns about his ties to alleged extremists and criminals.

"Very few people in the community here were close to him, and therefore Salman's fanaticism wasn't something the community was aware of," he said.

Ahmed bin Salem, a spokesman for the Special Deterrent Force in Libya, said Abedi placed his final call to both his mother and a brother. Abedi's relative said he had spoken with his brother only, asking that his message be relayed to his mother.

"He was giving farewell," bin Salem said.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II VISITS VICTIMS

Abedi's relative said the suspected bomber was pained by the killing of Abdel-Wahab Hafidah, an 18-year-old who news reports say was chased by a group of men, run over and stabbed in the neck in Manchester in May 2016.

"They wouldn't let you share bread with them," she said Abedi told her. "They are unjust to the Arabs."

Bin Salem said Abedi's mother told investigators her son left for the UK four days before the attack after spending a month in Libya. Based on the account from a younger brother, investigators think Abedi used the internet to learn how to make a bomb and "seek victory for the Islamic State," bin Salem said.

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The allegations clashed with what Abedi's father said a day earlier in an interview with the AP. "We don't believe in killing innocents," Ramadan Abedi said before he was detained in Tripoli.

Around the UK, many fell silent Thursday for a late-morning minute in tribute to the victims.

In Manchester's St. Ann's Square, where a sea of floral tributes grew by the hour, a crowd sang the hometown band Oasis' song "Don't Look Back in Anger." Queen Elizabeth II visited victims of the attack at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, telling 14-year-old Evie Mills and her parents: "It's dreadful. Very wicked, to target that sort of thing."

Fifteen-year-old Millie Robson, wearing one of Grande's T-shirts, told the queen she had won VIP tickets to the pop star's concert. She recalled leaving the concert when the blast struck and remembered an intense ringing in her ears, but not being entirely aware that she was bleeding badly from her legs.

The teenager credited her father's quick action in picking her up and tying off her wounds to stem the bleeding.

"Compared to other people I'm quite lucky really," she said.

In addition to those killed, 116 people received medical treatment at Manchester hospitals for wounds from the blast. The National Health Service said 75 people were hospitalized.

Also read: UK to deploy armed forces after Manchester attack, risk now 'critical,' says PM Theresa May

Also read: Manchester Arena blast: Suicide bomber was trained abroad, had al-Qaeda links

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Police Issue Dispersal Order to Deal With Antisocial Behaviour

This article is old - Published: Friday, May 26th, 2017

North Wales Police have issued a dispersal order in the Brymbo, Brynteg and Southsea areas.

The dispersal order has been issued to deal with antisocial behaviour.

It will be in place from 5pm this evening until 5pm on Monday 29th May.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its scoring on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) Wednesday. The CBOs score on the House Republican health care bill, aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is further confirmation that the AHCA is reactionary legislation that builds on the pro-corporate framework of the legislation commonly known as Obamacare.

The Republican bill passed narrowly in the US House on May 4 without a scoring from the federal agency. An earlier version of the bill was pulled before a vote in the House due to lack of support. The CBO report shows that the AHCA would leave 23 million fewer insured in the US by 2026 than under current law.

This would mainly be achieved by slashing $824 billion from Medicaid, the social insurance program jointly administered by the federal government and the states that covers 74 million Americans. It would also drive up premiums and cut coverage for older Americans and those with preexisting conditions.

The AHCA is also a boondoggle for the rich, slashing $664 billion by repealing or delaying taxes on high-income people, fees imposed on manufacturers, excise taxes enacted under the ACA, and modifying various other taxes in favor of the wealthy.

The CBO score on the AHCA comes just days after the Trump administration released its 2018 fiscal year budget. The budget plan would cut more than $1.4 trillion over 10 years from Medicaid, building on the AHCAs spending reductions and adding its own $610 billion in cuts.

The AHCA would effectively end Medicaid as an open-ended entitlement program by providing federal funding in the form of per-capita caps or block grants. It would end the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, which has provided coverage to millions of poor adults earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. It would also allow states to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees.

While the CBO found that the revised AHCA would bring down overall premiums in the individual market by 4 to 20 percent by 2026 compared with current law, premium costs would vary widely. This would depend on whether a state accepts waivers under the AHCA that would allow insurers to offer much skimpier plans, which would come with lower premiums. States that dont seek such waivers would have plans with more benefits, but at a higher cost.

The AHCA would be devastating to older Americans who rely on the individual insurance market. In general, the older and poorer you are, the higher the premium compared to under Obamacare. Insurers would be allowed to charge five times more for older Americans than for younger people, compared to three times under current law.

The CBO shows the example of a single, 21-year-old with an annual income of $26,500. Under the ACA, this person would pay on average $1,700 a year (when ACA subsidies are taken into account). Under the AHCA, this person would pay $1,250 if he or she were in a state that accepts waivers, $1,750 if the state does not.

However, a 64-year-old who pays $1,700 under Obamacare (with subsidies) would pay $16,100 under the AHCA in a state that doesnt accept waivers, $13,600 if he or she lives in a state that does. This means this person would pay a third to a half of annual income on health insurance. The more likely scenario, however, is that people would go uninsured, or try to seek out some type of catastrophic plan that provides marginal protection against emergencies.

Despite promises by Trump that people with preexisting conditions would be taken care of under any Republican plan, the CBO report shows that these people would fare no better than older Americans and the poor. While the AHCA allots $117 billion over a decade for Patient and State Stability Fund Grants to help people with preexisting conditions pay for coverage, this will hardly make a dent in the need for assistance.

In one of the most damning passages from the report, the CBO writes:

People who are less healthy (including those with preexisting or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive nongroup health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at alldespite the additional funding that would be available under [the AHCA] to help reduce premiums. As a result, the nongroup markets in those states would become unstable for people with higher-than-average expected health care costs.

The Republican plan allows insurers to seek waivers to set premiums on the basis of an individual health statuse.g., a preexisting conditionif the person has allowed his or her coverage to lapse for more than 63 days.

It would also allow states to seek waivers allowing them to modify what constitutes essential health benefits (EHBs), meaning they could offer plans without services such as maternity care, emergency room service, prescription drugs, substance and mental health treatment, and other vital health services. People purchasing such plans would be insured in name only.

Under the AHCA, the vast majority of Americans would be even more at the mercy of the for-profit health insurance companies, which would be freed from many of the restrictions imposed under Obamacare. However, President Obamas signature legislation has laid the framework for the Republicans bill.

The ACA, Obamacare, bears no relation to near-universal, affordable health care. Its key component, the individual mandate, requires individuals without insurance from their employer or a government program to purchase insurance from a private insurer or pay a tax penalty.

While the AHCA does away with the individual mandate, it frees up the insurance companies to more severely penalize the sick and poor, and to hike premiums to boost their profits. Most fundamentally, it makes deep inroads into Medicaid as the first strike of the ruling elite in dismantling the health care program for the poor, along with Medicare, Social Security and other reforms won by the working class in struggle.

Whatever protestations the Democrats make of the AHCA, they agree in principle that health care, a social right of the working class, should be subordinated to the profits of the health care industry. With the legislation now having moved to the US Senate, whatever is passed will inevitably mark a further and devastating assault on health care, with devastating consequences for millions of people.
The launching of the International Amazon Workers Voice has provoked a flood of messages by Amazon workers exposing dictatorial conditions imposed by the corporation in workplaces across the world.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is able to make over $25,000 each minute through the exploitation of Amazon workers in every country, forcing them to toil under constant monitoring and work long hours for low wages, subjecting them to constant surveillance by management, and firing them for the slightest sign of opposition.

One Amazon worker in the United States told the International Amazon Workers Voice that she was fired for wearing a t-shirt from an old job that had a union logo on it. Corporate management questioned her, threatened her, and fired her for insubordination.

The worker described walking many miles each day: My hands would be swollen after shift. I had to tape my feet up to prevent blistering.

Another worker called the work modern day slavery.

A young worker in the US said that several years ago, a worker fell to his death. Somebody fell from a second story tower and it took Amazon 4 hours to look for him, just to find out he was dead. I dont know if this story was ever covered by the news.

This worker explained, Its a mess in these warehouses. My last year I hurt my back and they still had me work and I could barely walk. I took a leave just to take care of myself and then they got mad that I went to my own doctor.

A worker in the UK said that the company penalizes workers for getting hurt.

Someone hurt on the job? It gets raised to a leader who then calls first aid, they take a statement then ask if you are returning to work or going home. Going home incurs a half-point penalty.

All over the world, the company forces workers to labor at fast, tiring, and often dangerous speeds. The UK worker said: I still have near misses and collisions from people rushingnow its faster, faster, faster. Its all about being on the go, meeting rates and targets.

A third worker, an immigrant in the UK, said she was yelled at for talking to a coworker while the two continued to work. We are not robots to just look at the shelves, she said. We do not go to the prisons, we go to work and I think we have the right to talk at work!

Truck drivers working for companies associated with Amazon also complained of brutal working conditions and humiliation by the company.

A driver in the UK explained how Amazon once told him without notice that he would not be allowed to drive into the plant wearing a hoodie. Since he was wearing two hoodies that day with no undershirt, the company forced him to walk around the facility with no shirt on as an act of punishment.

He said, These companies take the royal piss out of their drivers and we work like dogs for peanuts. After working a week 5 long days after deductions and fuel we take home less than 200 (US$250) per week.

An American driver expressed similar sentiments: Dont even get me started on their delivery driving jobs. Were not even considered Amazon employees so we get NONE of the benefits but all the experience of long days with not enough pay.

These abuses are not simply the product of Amazons greed, they are the product of the capitalist system, which secures the right of the corporations to subject their workers to harsh exploitation. The harder workers labor and the less freedom they have at work, the higher Amazons profits will be.

Many workers expressed support for the launching of the International Amazon Workers Voice, which will be a center of opposition for Amazon workers everywhere and a place for Amazon workers to share their stories and expose the corporation for exploiting its workers.

What youre doing is great, a worker from the UK wrote. I think its a great video, said another in the US, referring to the one-minute video published by the IAWV that has been viewed by tens of thousands of Amazon workers worldwide. Another wrote, I think all the people watching this video are very happy with it.

Amazon workers around the world: share your stories with your coworkers through the pages of the International Amazon Workers Voice! Do you have a story about brutal conditions and management abuse? Message us on Facebook, sign up to receive updates, and make your voice heard.
More details have emerged about the prior familiarity of British intelligence agencies with the Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, whose murderous assault Monday evening left 22 people dead.

Given Abedis connections and his travel movements leading up to the attack, the only explanation for him being able to remain at large for so long is that he was a protected assetpart of a broad network of operatives utilised by Britain and the US to conduct their nefarious operations in the Middle East.

It is the exposure of these operations which accounts for the fury of Prime Minister Theresa May over the US leaking of intelligence information about the UKs investigation into the bombing. Whatever the specific reasons for these leaks, they have completely undermined the British authoritys original claims that Abedi was an unknown, lone wolf. Rather, it is now clear that those killed and maimed while enjoying a pop concert are the victims of British regime-change policy in the Middle East and North Africa.

We know now that British intelligence had received warnings, on at least five separate occasions in the last five years, that Abedi presented a danger, including that he had discussed committing a suicide bombing.

According to new leaks Thursday, Abedi had travelled extensively in the run-up to the attack, including flying from Istanbul to the UK via Germanys Dusseldorf airport. For years, Turkey has been used as a transit point into Syria by European jihadists, joining Western-led efforts to topple the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.

Several sources, including French intelligence, have made public their conclusions that Abedi had been to Syria and received training there. The Financial Times also reported that a Turkish official said that Abedi had travelled through Istanbul on at least two other occasions over the past year. The newspaper reported, In mid-April he flew from Amsterdam to Libya, while in late May 2016 he flew from Manchester to Libya, transiting through Istanbul Ataturk airport both times.

Abedi may have travelled through at least two European Union countries on his way from Turkey to Manchester. Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported that Abedi flew from Dusseldorf to Manchester on May 18four days before the attack. The newspaper cited German intelligence sources who said that he arrived in Germany from Libya via Prague.

The Guardian reported, It is known that the 22-year-old travelled to Germany at least twice, including a visit to the financial city of Frankfurt. It added, Dusseldorf is in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Anis Amri, the Berlin Christmas market attacker, spent time.

Further leaks were reported by the German magazine, Focus. Citing German intelligence sources, it said Abedi flew to Frankfurt from Britain in 2015. Focus said that Germanys intelligence agency BKA had been told by police in the UK that this visit took place before Abedi undertook paramilitary training in Syria. It reported that he had not been apprehended in Germany, as he was not on any watch list.

There is no innocent explanation for the fact that Abedi was able to travel to Libya, Syria, Turkey and the UK unhindered. It has nothing to do with the spurious claims about the UK having leaky borders, or too few border guards. Abedis ability to pass through customs without interference can only mean that he had been given the all clear.

For decades, successive British governments have worked with jihadi groups, prepared to use atrocities to achieve their objectives. This has meant that, behind the war on terror and the relentless assault on democratic rights that it has entailed, UK authorities have been harbouring Islamist extremist operatives and groups who can be set into motion at the required time, in line with British imperialist foreign policy objectives.

Groups such as Algerias Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda all had bases in London. Al-Qaeda considered London the nerve centre of its operations in Europe, with the security services collaborating with some of these organisations and their leaders, the most well known being Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada.

Likewise, British imperialism worked closely with Libyan Islamists, supporting them in their opposition to then Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. As former MI5 agent David Shayler revealed, MI6 collaborated with one such organisation, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, in the attempted assassination of Gaddafi in 1996.

For years, a group of LIFG members were active in the Whalley Range district of Manchester, close to Salman Abedis home. Salman Abedis father, Ramadan Abedi, an airport security officer, was an LIFG member. He and his wife, Samia Tabbal, a nuclear scientist, fled Tripoli in 1991 after he was arrested by the Gaddafi regime. He had been employed in the regimes internal security service and was reportedly suspected of tipping off members of anti-Gaddafi Islamist groups about pending police raids. The Daily Mail reported, It appears that Ramadans life revolved at several points around toppling Gaddafi...

After fleeing Libya, Ramadan and his wife lived in Saudi Arabia for a period. They both then went to the UK and applied for and were granted political asylum. They lived first in London and then moved to the south Manchester area, which had become a centre for many anti-Gaddafi elements with which British intelligence maintained the closest links.

Ramadan returned to Libya some time in 2011 in order to fight in the imperialist proxy war that resulted in the overthrow and murder of Gaddafi in October of that year by US/UK-backed rebels. This took place after a NATO bombing campaign in which untold numbers were killed nationwide over the preceding eight months. Ramadan went on to become an administrative manager of the Central Security Force in Tripoli, one of the many militias vying for control of the country.

Samia, Abedis mother, is a close friend of Umm Abdul Rahman, the widow of a former Al Qaeda commander, Abu Anas al-Libi. Accused of involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings, the Daily Mail reported that al-Libi spent five years in Manchesterhaving won political asylum in Britain in 1995. The Mail said that Abdul Rahman went to college in the Libyan capital with Abedis mother, who was studying nuclear engineering. She [Rahman] said the two women also lived together in Manchester for a number of years.

Al-Libi was seized by US forces in Tripoli in October 2013 and died in 2015 of liver cancer before coming to trial. Following the Manchester bombing, Ramadan Abedi and his youngest son, Hashem, were arrested in Tripoli Tuesday night.

Salman Abedi was also known to have been a close associate of one of the main Islamic State recruiters in the UK, Raphael Hostey, who was killed in a drone strike in Syria in 2016. Hostey grew up in Moss Side, just a mile away from Abedis home in the Fallowfield district of the city.

In a statement on the bombing, the government of Abdullah Thinni in Bayda, Libya said it had warned the British government it was harbouring terrorists. Thinnis government was driven out of Tripoli in 2013 by Islamic extremists, including UK-based Libyan exiles. It accused Mays predecessor David Cameron of backing terrorist groups who have been destroying our cities and towns in an attempt to shape Libya into an exporter of terror to the whole planet.
The federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers portions of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, voted 11-3 Wednesday to uphold a lower courts ruling granting an injunction against the Trump administrations executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority nations.

The order would have suspended the US refugee program for 120 days and cut by more than half the number of refugees allowed into the country during the current fiscal year. It would also have stopped the issuance of new visas for 90 days from the following countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Four of the six countries are wracked by brutal civil wars instigated and financed by the United States, and the remaining two, Iran and Sudan, have been targeted for sanctions and military provocations by Washington with the aim of overthrowing their governments.

The executive order was issued as a replacement for a previous order issued during Trumps first week in office, which suffered from numerous technical defects and was struck down by the courts. It also contained what amounted to explicitly discriminatory language against Muslims, declaring a preference for religious minorities from the Muslim-majority countries named in the order, and would have revoked already-issued visas and prevented legal US residents from returning from visits to these countries.

The second executive order, while substantially similar, was released with somewhat different language, designed to better survive legal challenges. It also dropped one of the seven countries named in the original order, Iraq, because it would have resulted in the denial of entry to the US of thousands of citizens from the country, destroyed and occupied by US imperialism, who are on the payroll of the United States.

The majority opinion, authored by Chief Judge Roger Gregory, a George W. Bush appointee, did not mince words, declaring that the executive order drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination and declared that the key question in the case is whether the Constitution  remains a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace.

Lawyers for the government argued before the Fourth Circuit that the presidents immigration policy is not subject to judicial review. Behind the casual assertion of consular nonreviewability lies a dangerous ideathat this Court lacks the authority to review high-level government policy of the sort here, Gregory wrote.

Government lawyers cited as precedent a 1972 Supreme Court case, Kleindienst v. Mandel, which reviewed the governments decision to reject a travel visa to the ex-Trotskyist Ernest Mandel, a leader of the revisionist United Secretariat. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government, rejecting a challenge on First Amendment grounds, proclaiming that as long as the governments reasoning in denying the visa was facially legitimate and bona fide, the courts could not review the constitutionality of the decision.

However, the appeals court ruled that even this anti-democratic ruling was a legal precedent for their ruling against the government. While the court found the official national security justification of the ruling to be facially legitimate, they found that the plaintiffs demonstrated sufficiently that the order did not meet the bona fide criteria.

In other words, the court found that the Trump administrations claims that the executive order was a necessary national security measure was a post-hoc justification designed to conceal the religious bigotry which forms the real purpose of the order.

The majority opinion focuses on the connection between the executive order and pronouncements by Trump himself during his presidential campaign calling for a total ban on Muslims entering the country, rather than the language of the order itself, in order to establish the discriminatory intent of the order. They also cited remarks by former New York City mayor and Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani that Trump had sought advice on how to craft such an anti-Muslim executive order to survive legal challenges.

The appeals court, as in the lower district courts ruling, rejected arguments from government lawyers that such statements should not be admissible as evidence. The evidence in record, viewed from the standpoint of the reasonable observer, creates a compelling case that [the executive orders] primary purpose is religious, they conclude.

The court also cited the fact that the intelligence community was not consulted prior to the issuance of the first executive order, as well as government studies which found that the ban would have no appreciable impact on the likelihood of a terror attack occurring in the United States. No terrorist from any of the six countries named in the order has killed a single American in more than four decades, the court noted.

Thursdays ruling does not settle the question of the legality of the executive order. Another case brought against it is currently pending in the appeals court for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. The Trump administration has also vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, where Republicans have held a 5-4 majority since the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch in April.

Moreover, the court injunction does not affect any of the other vicious attacks and scapegoating of immigrants by the Trump administration, which has encouraged federal agencies to greatly intensify their arrests and deportation of undocumented workers, which had already reached record levels under Obama.
This weeks counting of the absentee ballots in British Columbias provincial election has confirmed the provisional result announced late on the evening of May 9. No party obtained an overall majority, with the right-wing BC Liberals finishing with 43 seats, the New Democratic Party (NDP) with 41, and the Green Party with three.

The election result underscores the utter bankruptcy of Canadas social democrats, who failed to oust a deeply despised Liberal government that has ruled the province for 16 years, imposing devastating cuts to public services and workers wages, while handing out multi-million dollar tax breaks to the corporate elite and super-rich. This failure was bound up with the systematic suppression of opposition to the Liberals by the NDP and their trade union allies, and the right-wing character of the NDPs election campaign, which embraced nationalist economic policies and xenophobia.

The election outcome leaves the Greens holding the balance of power. They have advanced three key demands in determining which of the larger parties to support in government: the adoption of a proportional representation voting system; the granting of official party status to the Greens in the provincial legislature; and a ban on corporate and trade union donations to political parties. None of these proposals would do anything to improve working peoples lives or lessen social inequality in BC, which has the highest poverty rate in Canada, at over 13 percent.

Green Party leader Andrew Weaver has refused to rule out propping up either a Liberal or NDP government and on Wednesday said talks are ongoing with both parties. This only underscores that far from representing some sort of alternative to the political establishment, as they often claim, Canadas Greens, like their sister organizations around the world, are an integral part of it. They speak on behalf of a privileged section of the upper middle class and share the ruling elites indifference and hostility to the working class.

Weavers record exemplifies this. He voted in favour of two Liberal austerity budgets during the 4-year term of the last legislature, in which he was the lone Green representative. During the campaign for the May 9 election he attacked the NDPs meagre spending promises from the right as being irresponsible.

Weavers actions since the election have continued along this right-wing path. As the Greens principal strategist for their negotiations with the other parties, Weaver appointed Norman Spector, a former chief of staff to Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and a top aide to BC Premier Bill Bennett, who led a right-wing Social Credit government from 1975 to 1986. Spector acted as Bennetts chief adviser when in 1983 he mounted a sweeping Thatcher-inspired attack on public services and worker rights. This provoked mass opposition, including widespread strikes and growing demands from rank-and-file workers for a general strike. The Operation Solidarity movement was cruelly betrayed by the unions and NDP, enabling Social Credit to continue in power and implement its right-wing agenda for a further eight years.

Under conditions of a global crisis of the capitalist system, and with BCs economy threatened by the protectionist measures that the Trump administration has adopted targeting Canadas lumber industry and the impending renegotiation of NAFTA, the Greens appointment of Spector is a signal to the ruling class that any government propped up by them will have carte blanche to press ahead with ruthless attacks on working people.

It is in this context that the role being played by so-called progressive advocacy groups like Leadnow becomes clear. On Wednesday, Leadnow, which played a major role in the Anybody but Harper campaign that helped propel Justin Trudeau and his Liberals to national office in 2015, brought a petition to the BC legislature calling for the NDP and Greens to join forces in replacing Christy Clark and her Liberals with a progressive government.

Were a government to be formed by the NDP in alliance with the Greens, whether as the result of a formal coalition or a Green pledge to support a minority NDP administration, it would offer nothing to BC workers. The NDP made clear in its election campaign that it has no intention of reversing the regressive tax cuts and attacks on public services the Liberals implemented, let alone enact significant social reform. Its pathetic 1 percent corporate tax increase would leave BC with among the lowest corporate tax regimes in Canada.

The NDPs pledge to balance the budget for its first three years in power, which leader John Horgan boasted was based on the Liberals pro-big business fiscal plans, demonstrates that under an NDP-led government public services would continue to operate on austerity budgets. The NDPs token promises of affordable child care and social housing would only be implemented in full in 10 years time and Horgan has repeatedly sidestepped the question of how they would be funded.

The Greens role in pursing austerity and war

Workers in BC seeking to understand the character of an NDP-Green government should consider the record of similar alliances internationally. In Germany, the Greens joined with the Social Democrats (SPD) in 1998 to form the national government. Over the course of the subsequent seven years, the SPD-Green government introduced a series of welfare and labour market reforms known as the Hartz laws, which created one of the largest low-wage sectors in Europe and slashed benefits for the unemployed. In foreign policy, the SPD-Green government led Germanys first foreign military intervention since World War II when it ordered the German army to join NATOs 1999 bombardment of Yugoslavia.

Lest anyone believe that things might be different in BC, a recent column by Green federal leader Elizabeth May for the online edition of Policy Magazine should dispel such illusions. May specifically cited the participation of the Greens in a coalition government in Germany as an example for the party in BC to follow. May enthused, German Greens served in a durable coalition in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder from 1998 to 2005. The popular Green politician Joschka Fischer served as foreign minister and vice-chancellor for the duration of the coalition.

Fischers record as foreign minister was to oversee a revival of German militarism, not only in Yugoslavia, but also through the German armys participation in the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Fischer now regularly calls in interviews and op-ed columns for Germany to play a major role in world geopolitics, including through the building of a German-led European army, bristling with advanced weaponry.

May was a key figure in the Anybody but Harper campaign that helped the Liberals, pose as a progressive alternative in 2015. Since coming to power, Trudeaus government has expanded Canadas military operations in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, deepened the attack on workers by preparing the privatization of public infrastructure, and pledged to cooperate closely with the Trump administration, the most reactionary government in modern American history.

The other Greens praised by May for their roles in various governments are highly revealing. She lauds the critical role played by a single Green politician in propping up the Labour minority government of Julia Gillard in Australia from 2010 to 2013. This government gave crucial support to support the Obama administrations military-strategic offensive against China (the US Pivot to Asia), by allowing the Pentagon to station warplanes and troops in Australia. It also enforced a brutal refugee policy, including the detention of asylum seekers on isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean.

In Sweden and Ireland, two other countries referred to by May, the Greens also served in government. Under Social Democrat Prime Minister Goran Persson, the Greens collaborated in the privatization of public services, the dismantling of important parts of Swedens much-vaunted welfare state system, and the ending of the countrys more than 200-year-old neutrality by deploying troops to Afghanistan.

In Ireland, where the Greens governed with the right-wing Fianna Fail, they oversaw the collapse of the countrys economy and banking sector in 2007-08 and a subsequent bailout, in which workers were forced to endure brutal austerity so as to pay for the billions handed over to the countrys banks. In the 2011 election, the Greens fittingly lost all their seats.

Mays enthusiasm for this record of militarism and attacks on the working class should come as no surprise. In 2008, she endorsed the abortive federal Liberal-NDP coalition, which would have brought to power a government committed to fiscal responsibility (i.e. austerity), $50 billion in additional corporate tax cuts, and the waging of war in Afghanistan through 2011.
Construction has always been a dangerous job, but it has never been more dangerous in large southern US cities like Nashville, Tennessee.

In a survey of 1,435 construction workers in six major southern cities, Nashville ranked number one in frequency of injuries, almost double the average of construction related injuries in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Charlotte, North Carolina in 2016.

The injury rate reported by the 200 Nashville construction workers was one in four compared to the one in seven average for the entire survey, which is published in a new report entitled Build a Better South: Construction Working Conditions in the US South. The study was conducted by the Workers Defense Project (Proyecto Defensa Laboral), Partnership for Working Families and Urban Planning, and Policy Collage of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Construction of high-rise apartment buildings has been quite common in Nashville over the past few years. At one point one could count 12 giant 19-ton, 150-foot high Tower cranes in and near the Nashville downtown area at a time.

Residential development has also demanded more construction workers. Older, one-story, wood frame houses in working-class neighborhoods have given way to gentrification and expensive narrow townhouse/row house-style homes.

Older neighborhoods seem to disappear overnight in the city. The threat of a housing bubble seems to mean nothing to bankers and builders caught up in fevered construction anarchy, with each hoping to be the one with the last loan paid off or the last home built and sold before the bubble bursts.

These cities are the engines of growth in the South and are home to some of the largest and most important construction markets in the US, the survey stated. Nearly 1 million construction workers were employed in these six cities in 2013, accounting for 43% of all construction workers employed in the five states. Furthermore, more than one in four construction workers who are employed in the South are located in one of these six cities, and nationally one in 10 workers labor these six southern cities.

An increasing number of construction workers are undocumented immigrants who are subjected to even greater frequencies of wage theft and other exploitation by employers who exploit their fear of arrest and deportation. Thirty-two percent of respondents in Build a Better South reported that they lacked legal documentation to work in the US.

Builders and contractors will turn to temporary employment agencies to keep down costs while the temp companies feed off the workers need for a job.

Injured economically by their employment status, temporary workers also run a higher risk of being injured on the job. The survey showed that workers hired through temporary employment agencies suffered a high injury rate that could be traced to constantly changing work environments and poor access to training.

Again, Nashville topped the list, with 18 percent of workers reporting that they got their jobs through temporary staffing companies.

One worker said temporary jobs added insult to injury because it seldom led to a full-time position. Many times, youll get close to a permanent job and you get switched out or they dont hire you, he told reporters.

Nashville workers may suffer greater injuries because more than one-third are not provided most proper safety equipment. According to the survey 36 percent of the workers are not provided eyewear protection; 36 percent have no harness or fall protection, with nearly the same rate for those without hardhats (32 percent) or gloves (29 percent).

Working or living in these new buildings, or gazing at their beautiful facades, you can no longer sense the presence of those construction workers and the challenges they faced, toiling long, hard hours to support their families, David Michaels, PHD with the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, said in the forward to the report.

The evidence of pervasive wage theft, and of widespread employment misclassification, disappears once the buildings are finished and the crews go home, Michaels added. There is no more blood on the rebar where workers fell, and no signs of the back injuries that came from lifting too heavy loads or the gasping for air that comes from breathing silica dust day after day...

The outrage is that dangerous, unjust employment occurs in plain sight, in our downtowns and suburban malls and office parks, abetted by owners and builders who participate in this system without complaint...We can no longer be silent knowing that our homes and commercial centers, our universities and hospitals, are built by men and women who work long hours but who can barely feed their families, who face dangerous working conditions daily with no recourse or compensation if they are injured, and whose labor rights are too often violated.

The survey listed a litany of crimes against this group of workers:

* Just 5 percent of workers who were injured in the past 12 months had workers compensation insurance to cover their medical expenses.

* Workers may not even receive the most basic safety protections like rest breaks or access to drinking water. One-third of workers do not have drinking water provided on their worksite, a basic necessity that employers are required to provide under federal law.

* Few construction workers have access to basic employment benefits. Less than half (43 percent) of construction workers are offered medical insurance by their employer. The problem of access to medical insurance is exacerbated by the fact that only 45 percent have an employer that has workers compensation insurance.

* Approximately three out of four workers lack paid personal time (73 percent) or paid sick time (78 percent). More than half (57 percent) of workers surveyed earn less than $15 per hour despite high average levels of experience in the industry.

* One in seven workers has been injured during their construction career, and more than one in three of these workers have suffered an injury in the past 12 months.

*Thirty-six percent of workers struggle to pay for basic necessities, such as rent or food, even though 82 percent of workers reported working overtime with their current employer.

In 2015, based on US Department of Labor statistics, a construction worker died every nine hours for a total of 924 that year, the report noted.

The Department of Labor also reported that in 2015 several construction occupations recorded their highest fatality totals in years, including construction laborers (highest since 2008); carpenters (2009); electricians (2009); and plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters (2003).
Research group Equilar published its annual report on CEO compensation this week, revealing that compensation for chief executive officers of US-based corporations rose by 8.5 percent between 2015 and 2016. The median compensation for CEOs in Equilars study was $11.5 million.

Compensation for CEOs has risen at about twice the rate of pay for workers; between 2011 and 2016, CEO compensation rose by 19.6 percent. Within the same period, median wages for workers have only risen by 10.9 percent.

Industrial goods companies boasted the highest rate of compensation for CEOs. Companies such as 3M, Caterpillar, and GE awarded their CEOs with a median compensation of $13.2 million in 2016. The healthcare industry, which includes pharmaceutical companies, came just behind with median CEO compensation packages of $12.9 million. The utilities sector came in last in the study for CEO compensation, with median compensation of $9.7 millionstill significantly higher than rank and file workers in that industry could ever hope to earn.

Compensation packages for CEOs are intimately tied to stock market performance; boards of directors in 2016 overwhelmingly compensated CEOs with stock and options grants, thus incentivizing executives focus on stock price. The Standard & Poors 500 index returned 12 percent last year and over the past five years, the S&P 500 has risen by 1,000 points.

These robust gains for both stock prices and CEO compensation have not translated in gains for workers. To the contrary, they are predicated upon multiple attacks upon workers wages and their standard of living.

Douglas R. Oberhelman, the former CEO for Caterpillar, earned a base salary of $1.6 million in 2016, his last year with the company. However, he also received sizable cash bonuses and stock options yearly. While his compensation decreased in 2016to just over $15 million down from almost $18 million in 2015he remained solidly placed among Equilars top 100 highest-paid CEOs.

Caterpillar workers, by contrast, are facing layoffs, wage freezes, and plant closures. The company, with the cooperation of the United Auto Workers (UAW), bullied workers in Illinois with threats of plant closures ahead of the union contracts expiration earlier this year. Caterpillars proposal included no cost of living adjustment for workers hired before 2005 (so-called First Tier workers), instead offering them a lump sum of $1,000 at the end of 2020. It dangled a $10,000 early retirement bonus to older workers in an effort to phase out well-compensated workersa bonus it did not extend to workers at its Aurora, Illinois plant.

Second-tier workers, those hired after 2005, did not fare so well, either. They are guaranteed only two wage increases set at a meager 2 percent in 2018 and 2020. The contract allows Caterpillar the option to increase wages in accordance with market performance.

After Caterpillar, working in concert with the UAW, forced these concessions onto its workers, the company announced its plans to shut down the Aurora, Illinois plant in 2018.

In light of these insulting terms, Oberhelmans performance-based cut of $2 million is a laughable fig leaf on the part of Caterpillars board of directors.

The compensation packages for CEOs in the healthcare sector likewise demonstrate how profits arise from attacks upon the working class.

Healthcare stocks soared in the wake of the passage in the House of the draconian American Health Care Act (AHCA) earlier this month. Trump and his cronies in Congress pushed for a vote on the AHCA ahead of a congressional recess so representatives would not risk pressure from their constituents who would be most affected by the bill.

The act goes beyond the attacks lobbed at Americans healthcare by the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, forcing workers with preexisting illnesses off of the rolls, raising premiums and co-pays, and allowing employers wide berth in denying employee coverage for drugs and procedures they find morally objectionable.

The AHCA will cost millions of Americans their healthcare coverage. Those who maintain coverage will likely find that many of their injuries and illnesses will not be covered. This disastrous legislation will most assuredly cost many Americans their lives.

Yet as the general public panicked, unsure of whether they would be able to afford the treatments they need, stock prices for some of the most offensively malfeasant insurance companiesCigna, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, and Humanarose handsomely. Significantly, at the same time, investment advisers were warning clients away from investing in hospitalscombined with the Trump budgets proposed attacks upon Medicaid and Medicare, the AHCAs passage has made hospitals a risky investment.

This is the backdrop against which the healthcare sectors stocks reap their greatest windfalls, against which healthcare sector CEOs can expect to sit on the top of Equilars list in 2017.

Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, took home $14.5 million in 2016. Even non-profit Blue Shield of California Chief Executive Paul Markovich took home $3.5 million in 2016, a 40 percent increase over his beginning pay in 2013.

Wages for workers have mostly stagnated since the Great Recession. In some cases, due to the underhanded collusion of trade union bureaucrats with companies such as Caterpillar, wages have actually fallen. The paltry raises that are given cannot be expected to keep pace with the cost of living for workers in any tier. The collusion of the unions and the corporations has also resulted in workers paying higher health insurance premiums and co-pays.

On its face, bullish stocks and unjustifiably outrageous compensations for CEOsparticularly in industrial goods and healthcareseem ironic in light of falling wages, factory closures, and poor worker health. Upon closer examination, however, it is clear these disparities are neither ironic nor incidental.
Europe

Greek municipal staff strike

Unions representing municipal workers in Greece took strike action over four days up until Tuesday of this week. Strikers demanded the government provide permanent status to staff currently employed on fixed term contracts. A recent court order declared that the continuous extension of short-term contracts is contrary to the constitution.

The POP-OTA and POE-OTA trade union federations embracing municipal staff called their members out on strike on Saturday and Sunday, while the POE-OTA trade union federation extended the action to Monday and Tuesday. POE-OTA held a rally on Monday in Athens to push its demands with a rally by contract staff outside its Athens offices on Tuesday.

The issue of short-term contracts mainly affects kindergarten and cleaning staff, but all municipal staff, including refuse collectors, took part in the strikes.

Strike at French car part factory suspended

Nearly 300 workers at the GM&S car parts factory at La Souterraine in central France have voted to lift their strike and are set to resume work on Monday. The factory, which is the main supplier of car parts to Renault and PSA, was declared bankrupt last December and given until this month to find a buyer. Workers at the factory have threatened to destroy it rather than let it close.

The economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, has won assurances from Renault and PSA that they will step up orders from the factory to keep it operating in the short term, but with no guarantees of long-term support. However, the promised orders from the two car manufacturers would mean work for only 100 at the factory.

If no buyer can be found GM&S will face closure. According to press reports, two companies, GMD and Magneto, have expressed interest in taking over the car parts factory, but the deadline for offers has now been extended to June 7. Workers have vowed to resume strike action if no serious buyer is found.

Spanish dockers strike

The Spanish dockworkers union CETM has cancelled an eight-day strike originally scheduled to take place Wednesday May 24. The strike has been replaced by a limited series of go-slows, with dockers refusing to work every other hour on June 5, 7 and 9.

The action is a token protest by the union leadership against legislation in the Spanish parliament to abolish the SAGEPS dock labour scheme that gave dockers a measure of security and wage protection. Its abolition is in line with EU directives attacking workers conditions that will lead to lower pay and reduced pensions.

The CETM union had called off previous planned action to enter negotiations with the Popular Party government.

Planned strike by Turkish glass workers banned by government

The Turkish government has banned a strike by nearly 6,000 Turkish glass workers, on the grounds that the strike would be prejudicial to national security. The workers, employed by the Sisecam Company, were due to have struck on Wednesday and are fighting to defend wages and conditions. Under Turkish legislation, the company and union must now negotiate over the next 60 days and resolve the issue.

The current Turkish government has banned strikes in the metal, glass, rubber and mining sectors, in each case citing national security.

Irish unions wind up strike by bus workers

The three unions representing Bus Eireann staff have wound up their strike. The National Bus and Rail Union, the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union, and Unite, have accepted a Labour Court judgement that employees earning over 60,000 should take a 10 percent pay cut and the closure of a Bus Eireann garage in Dundalk. The membership of the unions voted in favour of the Labour Court decision.

Striking Manchester housing workers hold demonstration

Striking house maintenance workers jointly employed by Mears (a private contractor) and Manchester Working (a joint venture company) held a demonstration Monday outside the offices of Northwards Housing.

The workers are demanding an end to pay differentials, which see some workers earning up to 3,500 a year less, despite doing the same work. They are also opposing Mears attempts to introduce a contract that would increase hours and drive up productivity but with no commensurate pay-rise.

Northwards Housing is an arms length management organisation (ALMO) run by Manchester council, which manages 13,000 council homes in north Manchester.

Mondays demonstration coincided with the fourth day of strikes. Currently the workers are striking Monday, Thursday and Friday each week.

Planned strike by rail staff suspended

Planned strikes on May 30 by train conductors at three train companiesMerseyrail, Northern Rail and Southern Railto oppose driver only operated (DOO) trains, have been suspended. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union used Monday nights Manchester terror bombing as the pretext to suspend the action.

Scottish lecturers strike suspended

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) have suspended their rolling strike action. They had been striking to demand their employers, represented by Colleges Scotland, honour a March 2016 agreement to remove pay differentials at the various colleges. Colleges Scotland has agreed to implement the first phase of the agreement signed last year, with some details still to be finalised.

The lecturers held several days of strike action in May, and had been scheduled to strike Tuesday through to Thursday of this week.

UK Equality staff hold further strikes

Civil servants working for the government Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), members of the Public and Commercial Services union in London, were on strike throughout this week. They are fighting government proposals to cut EHRC staff. The strikes in London were part of a rolling programme of strikes, with the Glasgow office holding a strike last week and offices in Cardiff due to take action next week, with Manchester striking the following week.

Electricians working on London Crossrail down tools

On Monday, some electricians working on the London Crossrail project, creating an east west link across the city, downed tools and cabined-up at the Canning Town, Holborn and Mile End sites.

The walkout was triggered by the refusal of the contractor, Skanska Ashleigh Weatherfoil consortium, to agree a 3 an hour bonus for the remainder of the contract. Other contractors on the project have agreed the bonus. The rank and file workers also held a demonstration. Last week they refused to work overtime and conducted a social media campaign. The contractor is also refusing to recognise a Unite trade union representative.

For its part, Unite issued a statement: This is not a union backed dispute, indeed we have little knowledge as to who is involved in the protest

Middle East

Palestinian general strike in support of hunger strikers

A general strike by Palestinians took place on Monday affecting East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The strike was called in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, who have been on hunger strike for more than a month against brutal conditions. The strike coincided with the visit of US president Donald Trump to Israel.

Africa

General Motors pulling out of South Africa

General Motors has announced it is pulling its operations out of South Africa and selling its plants to Isuzu, the truck manufacturer.

Secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Irvin Jim, responded to the news looking both ways at once.

While complaining they were not informed of what is effectively an illegal move by GM, not giving 60 days notice of redundancies, NUMSA proposes to organise a boycott of the companys products while negotiating redundancy conditions.

Jim also complained the car manufacturer did not give notice to the government. Because of the move, it is thought that around 600 workers will likely lose their jobs.

The company is not only removing its production facilities but also its retail outlets for all Chevrolet models.

GM made over $50 million profit last year in its South African operations.

Zimbabwean sugar workers set to strike for wage increase

Zimbabwean workers at the Tongaat Hullet sugar plantation and refinery company, in Chirezdi, are preparing for industrial action. The Zimbabwe Sugarcane Milling Workers Union (ZISMWU) has put in a claim for a wage increase of 39 percent.

Negotiations have gone through arbitration without a settlement. A decision is awaited from the labour court for a judgement on what action can be taken.

The workers complain their take home pay is only $100 a month while the living wage is estimated to be $250 a month. A strike by 16,000 workers in 2015 shut down the companys operations for 4 weeks. Workers were sent back to work on a promise that was never fulfilled, leaving strikers to be victimised.

Although the company says it will never agree to the unions demands, workers claim their counterparts in other Tongaat Hullet plantations across southern Africa get wages between $400 and $700 a month.

Cameroon dockers go on sit down strike over employment rights

In a long running dispute, Cameroon dockworkers resumed their strike on May 11 demanding recognition as port employees. Dockers complained that their plight was left in the hands of individual importers and exporters with little or no rights.

The more than 400 workers are pushing for a fixed wage for all dockers, plus allowances, insurance cover and official ID cards confirming them as Douala Port Authority employees, as part of a 12-point list of demands. Negotiations with the dockers union and the port authorities have broken down and the strike is continuing.

Ghanaian construction workers strike

Eight hundred construction workers involved in the Tema harbour expansion scheme, in Accra, Ghana, came out on strike last week. Part of their complaint is that a new recruitment agency, that determines wages and conditions of employment, are not implementing previous agreements.

Workers accuse the Chinese Harbour Engineering Company of using underhand methods to renege on agreements by employing a new agency. A previous demonstration and strike earlier in the month brought the same issues to the fore.

Construction workers are demanding an improvement in wages, better risk allowances and follow-up on promised promotions. A previous agreement that offered workers a salary increase and permanent status after 3 months has not been adhered to. Workers complain their wages have been cut. The Maritime Dock Workers Union has been brought in to resolve the dispute.

Workers strike at Accras premier hotel

Hotel workers at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accras premier hotel, struck last week over wages and conditions. Staff at the 240 a night hotel are said by one worker to be treated like enemies when it comes to wage negotiations.

The local chairman of the hotel workers union, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, complained that demands made earlier this year have been ignored and their recent attempts to get an agreement saw the management walk out of negotiations.

Only 10 percent of workers at the hotel are permanent staff, the other 90 percent are casuals being paid GHC 300 (US$70) a month, with no other benefits.

Kenyan tea pickers victimised

Around a thousand workers have been victimised by Kenyan tea plantations for striking in 2015. Workers took industrial action to get a court awarded pay increase, with only limited success.

Kenyan Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union said the multinational tea companies seem to be taking revenge action over the 2015 strike. Around 20,000 tea workers are employed in Nandi County.

The tea workers union have appealed to Nandi Hills Member of Parliament and the Confederation of Trade Unions to intervene.

Nigerian oil union ignores court ruling to return to work

A standoff is developing between Nigerias labour court and PENGASSAN, the oil workers union. The administration sent the dispute to the Industrial Arbitration Court when the union refused to continue futile discussions with the government.

The court has used a ruling against lockouts and striking in a bid to force the oil workers back to work. The union has called for a total withdrawal of labour from the Exxon oil industry.

The strike was triggered by the oil industrys refusal to abide by the countrys labour laws, arbitrarily sacking workers. Eighty-three workers have been dismissed illegally, including10 union officials. At the governments request, the union officials were reinstated but were then sacked again.

The union is said to be considering calling off the strike under advice from their lawyers. The lawyers suggest they allow a 21-day period, demanded by the labour court, to attempt to achieve a resolution to the dispute.

Nigerian, Nasarawi state government refuses to negotiate over unpaid wages

Nigeria workers in Nasarawi state are continuing their near two-week strike over unpaid wages. The states Nigerian Labour Council, the union body conducting the strike, has instructed its members to continue striking while the state government refuses to negotiate with them.

The union chapter felt it necessary to remove its chairman as he was seen as too close to the government, further discrediting the already discredited labour body.

The state government, while refusing to negotiate with the new branch leader, is holding discussions with the impeached union chairman.
Over 20 immigrant workers have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against their former employer, EZ Industrial Solutions, after being fired for participating in the Day Without Immigrants protest on February 16.

EZ Industrial Solutions, based in Chesterfield Township, in suburban Detroit, Michigan, is a small secondary auto parts supplier specializing in automotive fasteners: primarily sorting and packaging/kitting and some light assembly.

The workers fired from EZ for taking part in the protest are all immigrants from Mexico and Central America. All but one are female. Some are legal immigrants while others are undocumented. These are some of the most exploited workers in the auto industry. Most make $9 per hour with others earning only up to $12 per hour.

When supervisors at EZ heard that the workers planned to participate in the protest they questioned them aggressively and threatened them with a one-week suspension. Most of the workers chose to participate in the demonstration despite the threat. They were then fired, supposedly for failure to produce a doctors note saying they were sick. Later, after finding out about pending legal action, a supervisor went to one workers home and threatened to get US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) involved.

The company had a loose work schedule and an informal attendance policy where workers could come by and work after missing a few days.

The unfair labor practice charge was filed with the NLRBs Detroit office by Tony Paris, lead attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice. Paris told the WSWS, We represent a lot of workers facing the same circumstances where intimidation by the employers denies workers the ability to exercise their legal rights.

Whether workers are documented or undocumented they have the right to be paid, he said, adding that when undocumented, your compensation rights are limited to wage replacement. They know who they are hiring and they chose undocumented workers because of their vulnerability.

Paris explained that in the case involving the 20 workers who were fired, the company did not have a written attendance policy. If they had called in for any other reason they would not have been fired, he said. They did not require a doctors excuse or advance notice. The company told the workers that they would be suspended but not fired. Most of the women told the supervisor that they would accept that, he said. However, the punishment went from suspension to dismissal.

It is a civil rights issue when you are discriminated against in the workplace, Paris added.

Speaking about the auto parts industry in general Paris said, It is slipping into a lower wage industry. Even in places where there is a union there are two-tier wage systems that were instated at the time of the 2008 crash.

In an email to the Detroit Free Press, Jordan Yoder, operations manager at EZ, said, The law is quite clear that employees cant just not show up to work when they are expected, and also that they are not free to participate in political, non-work related protests during their work day without consequences. We therefore deny any wrongdoing and are confident that the charge will be dismissed.

The charge has since been forwarded to the NLRBs Washington D.C. office for review.

This case is by no means unique. There are numerous reports of workers being fired across the country for their participation in the Day Without Immigrants protest, with reports of workers fired in Oklahoma, New York and Tennessee. According to an NBC News report, 20 workers at a commercial painting company were fired in Nolensville, Tennessee for missing work to take part in the protest. There were also firings at restaurants and day care centers and at least one school.

Meanwhile, in the Detroit area, ICE raids are continuing. Earlier this week ICE agents seized three workers at an Ann Arbor restaurant claiming they did not have the proper documentation. They were later released after their employer produced the required papers.

These victimizations, encouraged by the extremely nationalistic and xenophobic policies of the Trump administration, should be viewed as an attack on all sections of the working class. Likewise the unions, including the United Auto Workers, have been largely silent on the attacks on immigrant workers. The UAW, which promotes America First nationalism, has for decades colluded with the Detroit-based automakers to lower costs in the auto parts industry in the name of increasing competitiveness. This has helped create conditions of brutal exploitation, low wages and increased risk of death or serious injury.

The case of the workers at EZ highlights the precarious position of immigrants as the most vulnerable section of the working class. As most states recognize At-will employment, the vast majority of workers in the US can be fired at any time for any or no reason.

As stated in the program of the Socialist Equality Party, Industrial democracy means real control by working people over their working lives. What is democratic about a system in which the place where people spend the bulk of their timethe work placeis run as a dictatorship?

Despite the limitations of the Day Without Immigrants protest, it was another indication of the growing mood of resistance in the working class internationally. The victimized workers deserve the widest support.

However, no confidence should be placed in the anti-worker National Labor Relations Board. Packed with pro-company presidential appointees, the NLRB acts not as an independent arbiter, but represents the interest of the ruling elites. The social right to a secure and good paying job in any country one chooseswith full citizenship rightscan be advanced only through the independent political struggle of the working class.
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For the first time since the inauguration of Donald Trump, a US warship yesterday violated the 12-mile exclusion zone around Chinese-claimed territory in the South China Sea. USS Dewey, a guided-missile destroyer, entered waters around Chinese-occupied Mischief Reef. In another first, the Dewey did not simply pass through but lingered and carried out an operational maneuvera rehearsal of a man-overboard rescueto emphasise Washingtons categorical rejection of Beijings assertions of sovereignty.

The Chinese navy dispatched two frigates to instruct the American ship to leave the area. Chinas foreign ministry issued a sharp condemnation of US actions, stating that they undermined Chinas sovereignty and security, and warning they risk causing unexpected air and sea accidents.

Four so-called freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPs, were carried out by the US Navy under the Obama administration, as part of its broader pivot and military build-up in Asia to push back against growing Chinese strategic and economic influence in the region. The last, however, was in October 2016 and it was derided in US military circles. The warship skirted the edge of the 12-mile zone around Triton and Woody Islands, in the Paracel Island chain, so it did not technically violate Chinese sovereignty claims.

According to the New York Times, at least three requests by the navy have been made under Trump for the authority to conduct an operation, but all were denied. This was despite the bellicose statement by now Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, during his January congressional confirmation hearing, that Chinese access to those islands [in the South China Sea]  is not going to be allowed.

Yesterdays operation is a signal to Beijing, the Asian region and to the world that the brief hiatus in US provocations is over. The context of the FONOP at Mischief Reef underscores that the Trump administration is just as prepared as Obamas to risk a military confrontation with China, and that it will be escalating actions that could result in open conflict.

Firstly, the choice of Mischief Reef for the operation was clearly intended as a warning to the government of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines that his efforts to lessen tensions with China over territorial disputes are not acceptable to Washington.

The reef is also claimed by the Philippines. It figured prominently in the July 2016 decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on a US-backed Philippines initiated challenge to Chinas occupation of territory in the South China Sea. The court ruled that Mischief Reef was part of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Philippines and that Chinas occupation was a violation of its sovereign rights.

Mischief Reef is part of the Spratly Island chain, which lies above vast natural gas reserves. China occupied it and erected permanent installations in 1996. In 2015, as tensions with the Obama administration increased, the Chinese military began artificially expanding the tiny crop of coral. By mid-2016, it had constructed a harbor and a 2.6 kilometre long airstrip on the reclaimed land, capable of landing commercial airliners, as well as jet fighters. Satellite photos later in the year suggest that the Chinese military had deployed an anti-aircraft missile battery and anti-missile systems.

Duterte, who took office just weeks before the Hague ruling, has not sought to assert the Philippines claims. Instead he has made overtures to China in the hope of attracting greater investment and closer economic ties, and pursued strategic and military relations with Russia.

Washington and US-aligned factions of the Philippines establishment are now aggressively seeking to reverse his orientation. The FONOP took place barely 36 hours after Duterte was forced to cancel talks in Russia and rush back to Manila after his administration pressured him into declaring martial law over the entire southern island of Mindanao.

The pro-US Philippines military is coming to the centre of political life. With the signal that Washington is going to step up its confrontation of China, a shift in Manilas stance on its claims in the South China Sea may well follow.

The FONOP is no less a message to the dozens of countries that have expressed interest in Chinas ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) plans to economically integrate the Eurasian landmass. It is a pointed message that US imperialism, backed by key allies such as Japan, Australia and India, will never permit some type of peaceful rise of China to regional, let alone global, dominance.

Just weeks after the massive OBOR summit in Beijing, at which China lauded the signing of hundreds of agreements and contracts with a range of East European, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and East Asian countries, the Chinese military had to dispatch two frigates to uphold its territorial claims in the South China Sea from a US challenge.

The future of Chinese capitalism is not pre-eminence within a set of new international economic relations, but the prospect of a catastrophic conflict provoked by the US to try and maintain its waning global hegemony.

Perhaps most ominously, the decision by the Trump administration to authorise a FONOP in the South China Sea coincides with a massive build-up of American military assets in and near the Korean peninsula.

For weeks, the White House has been asserting that it is giving Beijing and President Xi Jinping time to pressure North Korea, Chinas nominal ally, into unilaterally announcing it is ending its nuclear and missile weapons programs. The explicit threat that has been publicly conveyed to China is that if it does not do so, the US military will attack North Korea.

This week, prominent US strategic analyst George Friedman advised business figures that war is imminent due to Chinas failure, or inability, to convince the Pyongyang regime and its figurehead Kim Jong-un to capitulate. The pretext is being systematically prepared by Washingtonremoving the danger purportedly posed by weapons of mass destructionto justify a pre-emptive attack on North Korea.

The real aim of war with North Korea, however, would be to profoundly weaken Chinas strategic position and destabilise it politically. For decades, Beijing has propped up North Korea because it functions as a buffer between China, and US-aligned South Korea. The destruction of the North Korean regime, and the occupation of the North by the forces of the South, would be taken as evidence internationally that China is incapable of even defending a nominal ally on its own borders, let alone defending its territorial claims in the South China Sea from the military might of the US.
A report released last week by the Pew Research Center found that acceptance of interracial marriage is at an all-time high in the United States.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents polled in February said that they thought interracial marriage was good for society, up from 24 percent in 2010. Another 52 percent said that they did not think it made a difference, down from 61 percent seven years prior. Only 9 percent said they thought it was bad for society, down from 13 percent.

In a likely reflection of the nefarious influence of left racialist politics, blacks (18 percent) were more likely than whites (9 percent) and Hispanics (3 percent) to say that more people intermarrying is bad for society. White respondents (12 percent) were still more likely to oppose a close relative marrying a person of a different race or ethnicity than blacks (9 percent) or Hispanics (3 percent).

However, to put those figures into perspective, the overall share of non-black respondents who said they would oppose a close relative marrying a black person has fallen precipitously, from 63 percent in 1990 to a historic low of just 14 percent today. Among non-whites, only 4 percent oppose a close relative marrying a white person, down from 7 percent in 2000.

These results come as the number of interracial, opposite-sex marriages is at an all-time high. The Pew study looked at all opposite-sex marriages between individuals identifying as black, white, Asian, Hispanic, American Indian and multiracial.

Census data analyzed by Pew shows that the share of new marriages and number of marriages overall which are interracial has been rising consistently over the five decades since the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision, which struck down racist anti-miscegenation laws.

The survey found that 17 percent, or nearly one-fifth of all new opposite-sex marriages in 2015, were interracial, up from just 3 percent in 1967. Approximately 670,000 people entered into a new marriage with someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015, up from 280,000 in 1980. The overall number of people who are in interracial marriages currently stands at more than 11 million, approximately 10 percent of all marriages.

The most common form of intermarriage is white/Hispanic (42 percent) followed by white/Asian (15 percent), white/multiracial (12 percent), white/black (11 percent), Hispanic/black (5 percent), white/American Indian (3 percent), Hispanic/Asian (3 percent), and Hispanic/multiracial (3 percent).

Not surprisingly, Pew found interracial marriage rates were lowest in those areas of the country that are more racially and ethnically homogenous and less densely populated.

People generally form relationships in their neighborhoods, in their workplaces, and at school, all of which have been legally racially desegregated for more than five decades following the mass Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, which united workers of every race in a struggle that finally broke the back of Jim Crow segregation.

Shifting racial and ethnic demographics are also making interracial relationships more likely, particularly in large urban areas and on college campuses where a wide range of people converge and mix.

As of the 2010 Census, those identified as non-Hispanic whites made up 63.7 percent of the population, down from 83.5 percent at the beginning of the 1970s. Every minority group has increased its share of the population during this period, with Hispanics nearly quadrupling their share of the population from 4.4 percent in 1970 to 16.3 percent in 2010. Nearly 3 percent of Americans were identified as multiracial in 2010.

All of this has had a dramatic impact on the racial attitudes of the population and is finding one particular expression in the ever growing number of interracial marriages.

Considering other now common forms of social partnerships, including same-sex marriage and cohabitation, the number of interracial and interethnic relationships in the US is significantly higher than what is reflected in Pews study, a number which is in the many tens of millions.

The Pew report shatters the narrative pushed by proponents of identity politics that American society is hopelessly riven by racial divisions, in which social relationships and attitudes have changed very little since the Civil War more than 150 years ago. It serves as yet another debunking of the racist white working class narrative pushed by the Democrats and their apologists in the aftermath of Hillary Clintons loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

In just one recent example author Michelle Alexander, speaking at a forum hosted by Haymarket Books, the publishing house of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), blamed Clintons loss on a whitelash due to rising racial animosity among whites towards the election of Barack Obama, the first black president, in 2008. The whitelash theory of politics fails to explain why whites who voted twice for a black candidate refused to vote for Clinton, or why there was a significant decline in the African American vote from Obama to Clinton.

Racial and gender identity politics seeks to reinforce artificial divisions among workers and channel opposition behind the Democratic Party. It is also the form through which a ferocious fight for positions and privilege is waged within sections of the upper middle class.

The changing attitudes on race also undermine the efforts of the far rightincluding the Trump administration, his top advisor Stephen Bannon and the alt-right with which the administration is associatedto revive a form of extreme nationalism based on anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Despite the unrelenting efforts to promote racial thinking from the White House to the pages of the New York Times, the Pew report shows that American workers are by and large not fixated on racial issues. Workers are concerned above all about the continuing attack on health care, education and pensions, along with declining wages and the absence of decent jobs.

The dramatic decline in racial animosity is one particular reflection in the US of an international process. Enforced racial and national divisions have been eroded by the rapid development of communications technology and the globalization of production.

It should perhaps be no surprise that the dramatic decline in hostility to black and other racial intermarriage arrangements which began in the 1990s coincided with the introduction and growth of the Internet. Workers interact every day with people of different nationalities and races, erasing physical boundaries and overcoming artificial divisions imposed by the ruling class to divide the working class against itself.

All of this provides fertile ground for the development of a mass movement based on the real and objective divide created by capitalist society: the division between the working class of all races and nationalities, on the one hand, and the capitalist class, on the other.
The first trip by US President Donald Trump to Europe has exposed the deep rift in the transatlantic NATO alliance.

Officially, agreement was reached at yesterdays NATO summit for all members to increase defence spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product and for the alliance to join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State. However, the conflicts between the imperialist powers, and between the United States and Germany in particular, are now so sharp that they are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal.

Prior to the evenings working dinner, Trump raked the visibly concerned European leaders over the coals. Twenty-three of 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying, blustered the US President. This was unfair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. Trump then repeated his assertion that many member states owe the alliance massive sums of money from previous years.

He also called on the NATO states to intensify their joint struggle against terrorism. We must be tough, we must be strong, we must be vigilant, said Trump, declaring that terrorism threatens humanity as a whole. The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATOs eastern and southern borders.

Shortly before Trumps warning, German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Germanys planned increase in military spending as sufficient. She added that NATO was merely going to confirm its 2014 agreement to increase defence spending, but would go no further. Confirmed means nothing more and nothing less, she stated.

There can be no doubt that Trumps statements were directed above all at Berlin. According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, during a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk, Trump declared, The Germans are bad, very bad. He reportedly added, Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible. Were going to stop that.

Shortly after Merkels visit to Washington in March, Trump wrote on Twitter, Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!

Since then, the economic and geostrategic conflicts between Washington and Berlin have intensified. Trumps speech in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh last weekend, in which he described Iran as the most important state sponsor of terrorism, was met with sharp criticism in Europe. Berlin is not seeking war with Iran, but rather an opening up of the country in order to secure new energy supplies and markets for German exports.

Berlin is also opposed to the US confrontation with China, which had already accelerated under the Obama administration, but has been aggressively intensified under Trump. China is a major source of profits for the German auto industry, and Berlin is also interested in Beijings new silk road project, which aims to integrate the Gulf region and Russia to develop trade ties with Europe.

Significantly, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel made it to the NATO meeting only by cutting short a visit to China. Shortly after his appointment to the post of foreign minister, which came just a week after Trumps inauguration, Gabriel announced the creation of an Asia strategy to exploit the spaces vacated by America.

Ahead of the Brussels meeting, Gabriel began a coordinated offensive against US foreign policy with Martin Schulz, the SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany) candidate for chancellor. Both criticized the US demand for Germanys defence spending to be increased to 2 percent of GDP by 2024. There would be absolutely no way to double military spending in Germany, Gabriel said in an interview, adding that he had no idea what we would spend the money on.

In an op-ed published in Der Spiegel titled Invest in peacenot weapons, Schulz warned, The debate about NATOs alleged 2 percent goal revealed a dangerous tendency. It would mean almost a doubling of Germanys annual defence budget to a gigantic 70 billion. He then hypocritically asked, Did the founding fathers have this picture of Germany in front of them in 1949? United, firmly integrated in Europe, surrounded by friends and partnersbut armed to the teeth?

In reality, Schulzs comment has nothing to do with pacifism. He is not concerned with reducing military spending, but rather with securing Germanys independence from Washington. He does not want military policy to be dictated by the White House, but instead intends to strengthen the German and European militaries to the point where they can act independently ofand in opposition tothe US.

Schulz appealed in his Spiegel Online comment for a massive military build-up of the German army and more foreign military interventions. He wrote, The army will take part in interventions in conformity with international law in the future. Our soldiers need the best possible equipment for that.

At the same time, Schulz demanded an expansion of Europes defence policy and the creation of a European army dominated by Germany: Europe had to finally make progress on the EUs joint security and defence policy. Together with our partners in the EU, who are pursuing the same goal, we want to agree on the foundation of a European defence union. The exit from the EU of Britain, which always blocked progress in this area, provides new opportunities along these lines.

Schulzs call for a German and European great-power policy, pursuing imperialist interests around the globe independently of and in opposition to Washington, is unmistakable.

The EU has to finally leave the side-lines and take up an active role on the stage of international policy for peace, he urged. This is uncomfortable and will certainly lead to wide-ranging discussions. But there is no reasonable alternative to a more active role for Europe. He added, Because many of the other global political actorsincluding those who are our allieshave no or merely a limited interest in such a new policy for peace.

The attempt by Germanys Social Democrats to peddle European imperialism as a pacifist alternative to US militarism is a fraud. Over the past quarter-century, the European powers have participated in the illegal wars of aggression waged by US imperialism and are now pursuing policies all down the line that are similar to those pushed by the multibillionaire at the head of the US state. They are slashing social spending throughout Europe, engaging in a military build-up and strengthening the state apparatus. They are also increasingly prepared to take action against their American ally.

The reason for this dangerous development is to be found in the insoluble crisis of capitalism, which is incapable of overcoming the contradiction between the international character of production and the nation-state system. As on the eve of the First and Second World Wars, the scramble among the imperialist powers for raw materials, markets and spheres of influence is provoking sharp conflicts that will inevitably culminate in a major war unless the working class intervenes with its own, independent socialist program.
Silver Fern Farms (SFF), New Zealands largest meat processing company, announced on May 17 that it planned to shut its Fairton sheep-meat factory outside Ashburton, making 370 workers redundant. The decision will end 125 years of operations at the factory and will be devastating for the town of just 20,000 people.

The closure is part of a wave of job cuts underway with the collaboration of the trade unions, including the closure of Cadburys chocolate factory in Dunedin and cuts to library jobs in Auckland.

A final decision on the Fairton closure will be announced at the end of the month, however the political establishment and the Meat Workers Union have accepted the closure as inevitable.

Workers expressed anger after being told of the decision. Murray Mcfall, who has worked at the factory for 25 years, told Fairfax Media: Theres been very poor treatment; its been pretty awful to work there and a lot of people are pretty upset. Slowly but surely it got worse, there was less and less work and it drove a lot of people out.

Prior to 2010, the Fairton plant processed one million animals per season, but numbers plunged to just 325,000 in the last season. The factory is now only operating for six months per year, with workers laid off for the other six months.

SFFs announcement follows a decades-long decline in New Zealands sheep-meat industry. Last year the sheep population fell to 28.3 million, down from a peak of 70 million in 1982. Many sheep farms have converted to more profitable dairy operations.

Last year meat exports fell by 13 percent or $900 million, due to lower sales to Britain and the US. Silver Fern Farms (SFF) lost $30 million in 2016.

The industry faces more uncertainty as a result of the turn towards economic nationalism in every country. The Trump administrations America First repudiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, combined with Britains nationalist preparations to exit the European Union, have caused considerable anxiety for NZ exporters. This month Britains fifth-largest supermarket chain, The Co-op, banned sales of NZ lamb in response to lobbying from the British Sheep Association.

A recent report by Rabobank also warned that New Zealands biggest export market, China, is capable of increasing [sheep-meat] production to largely meet domestic demand should high import prices incentivise it to do so.

Since the onset of the 20072008 financial crisis SFF has closed several factories, including six in 2008 alone, with 1,000 job losses. In 2012, the rival cooperative Alliance Group shut its sheep-meat plant in the South Island town of Mataura, with 325 job cuts. Another 300 jobs were lost with the closure of the Ovation meat works in Waipukurau. Last October, SFF closed two factories in Mossburn and Frasertown, at the cost of 110 jobs.

The working class is being abandoned for corporate interests. Minister for land information, Mark Mitchell, callously told Fairfax Media that the closure of the Fairton plantand the impoverishment of the communitywas necessary to ensure the ongoing viability of [SFFs] operations.

The Meat Workers Union (MWU) is openly collaborating with the corporate elite. It issued a statement declaring that it would engage with the consultation process with SFF, but we dont have high hopes of a change in decision by the company. In October 2014, MWU leader Roger Middlemass told the Manawatu Standard the union would agree to more closures to reduce overcapacity and protect the profits of the remaining New Zealand-based companies.

Following the closure of the Mossburn and Frasertown factories a MWU official told Radio NZ on October 26, 2016 that the devastation of working class conditions in Mossburn was terrible but something that had to happen.

The union has collaborated for decades with meat companies and governments on the orderly closure of factories and to increase exploitation in the industry. Last month the MWU imposed a sell-out agreement at Wellingtons Taylor Preston meat works, with wage rates barely above the minimum wage and highly insecure conditions, setting a benchmark for attacks at other plants.

The opposition Labour Party, the Greens and New Zealand First have all blamed the Fairton closure on foreign investment. Along with the MWU, the parties have criticised the government for approving a deal last September for Chinese company Shanghai Maling to buy 50 percent of Silver Fern Farms.

This is part of a long-running campaign to whip up nationalism and anti-Chinese xenophobia. Labour and its allies have previously denounced imports of Chinese steel and Chinese investment in farmland. They have also scapegoated Chinese immigrants for the high cost of housing, which is the product of rampant speculation by local investors.

These parties want New Zealand to align more openly with the US, which is threatening trade warfare against China. Under Obama and now Trump the US has moved vast military resources into Asia to threaten war with China and its ally North Korea.

In response to the Fairton closure Green Party MP Eugenie Sage declared that, Keeping our primary sector businesses in New Zealand hands helps ensure local communities are respected and considered.

This is a lie. Decades of attacks on meat workers prove that New Zealand capitalists are just as ruthless as their overseas counterparts. The Fairton closure would have happened regardless of the nationality of Silver Fern Farms shareholders.

The Labour Party bears direct responsibility for tens of thousands of job losses in meat processing. The 1980s Labour government of David Lange responded to the increasing globalisation of production by stripping away national protections and subsidies and deregulating the agriculture sector.

Labours removal of subsidies for sheep farmers had a devastating impact. Journalist Neal Wallace noted that the government-owned Rural Bank estimated between 8,000 and 9,000 farmers were in financial distress in 1986 and 52 farmers committed suicide in the space of one year.

In the name of increased competitiveness, hundreds of factories were shut. Between 1986 and 1990 alone, 15,000 meat workers lost their jobs.

More attacks are being prepared. SFF chief executive Dean Hamilton told Fairfax the company would not close more factories this season. Beyond that, he said, more closures were possible.

The working class must launch a fight for decent jobs, wages and conditions. This requires a rebellion against the unions, Labour and its allies, which all agree with the government that workers must sacrifice to defend the profits of NZ companies.

Meat workers need their own rank-and-file committees, which they control, to mobilise independently of the unions. They must forge links with other factories in New Zealand and other countries, including Australia, who are facing the same attacks. Workers should reject the nationalism and anti-immigrant xenophobia that is used to divide workers and promote illusions in New Zealand companies.

To fight for their independent interests workers need a new party, based on socialism and internationalism. Major industries must be nationalised and placed under the democratic control of the working class, run in the interest of human needs, not the private profits for a capitalist elite.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) -- The Tallahassee Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. are hosting a fundraiser event in Tallahassee at the Junction at Monroe, happening on Saturday, June 10 at 9:30 p.m.

The event is titled the Red Empire Fundraiser and all proceeds will benefit the public service programming of the sorority, which includes the Annual Youth Empowerment Summit, the Delta Academy, and Delta G.E.M.S.

These programs are geared towards mentoring the youth.

These proceeds will also benefit participation in such community events like the Sickle Cell 5K, Mayor Gillum's Annual Christmas Adopt-a-Family initiative, and Relay for Life.

For more information, please visit the Tallahassee DST website.
BRISTOL, Fla. (WTXL) - Four people have been arrested after 55 dogs, guinea pigs, chicken, rabbits, and cats were removed from two Bristol homes.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) said that they were called by the Liberty County Sheriffs Office to help them remove and transport 55 animals living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions from two homes.

The Liberty County Sheriffs Office searched the two homes Wednesday morning, where responders found neglected animalsincluding dogs, guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, and catsliving in unsanitary conditions.

They say some of the animals appeared to be suffering from untreated medical issues such as parasites, open wounds, skin disease, and flea infestation.

ASPCA said that dogs were found chained outside with no water or appropriate shelter, and chickens were housed in small enclosures, surrounded by feces and trash.

Four individuals were arrested as a result of the animal cruelty investigation:

Sheena McKinney, charged with one count of animal cruelty, a misdemeanor;

Susan McKinney, charged with child neglect, a felony;

Christopher Vallis, charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor; and

Shirley Butler, charged with one count of animal cruelty, a misdemeanor.

Additional charges against all four subjects are pending.

Sheriff Eddie Joe White with the Liberty County Sheriffs Office explained more on what they found:

"I am saddened by the conditions we discovered at these residences, but relieved that we were able to remove an 11-year-old child from one of these homes and place her in a safe and nurturing environment.

"We also found evidence suggesting ongoing drug use at the residence and made an arrest on drug-related charges.

"These investigations and arrests are part of my ongoing commitment to make our communities safe, and send a message that animal cruelty will not be tolerated and hold these individuals accountable for their crimes.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Four months after a business complex on Tharpe Street was intentionally set on fire, authorities have made an arrest.

Victor Herrera, the owner of the complex, faces several charges including arson, insurance fraud and tampering with witnesses.

At "Whooze Next Barber & Beauty Shop," Traverse Lippett is busy wrapping up the week.

But for two of his friends, work has come with a challenge.

"I know both of them, and they're both hard-working guys," said Lippett. "They both love what they do."

The owners of "Super Clean Car Wash" and "Debo Sounds" lost their building when it went up in flames in January. WTXL talked to Dennis Howard, better known as "Debo", the next day.

Thursday, authorities arrested the owner of the complex after learning he set the fire to collect insurance money and tried to bribe a potential witness.

"Every person who has to pay an insurance premium in the state of Florida ultimately winds up being a victim on this, because insurance fraud ultimately affects the insurance rate that we all pay," said Joseph Steadman, the bureau chief for the Bureau of Fire and Arson Investigations.

"It was selfish, you know, for someone to stoop that low, knowing that these guys put blood, sweat and tears in their businesses, and they didn't have any insurance," said Lippett. "It would be shooting yourself in the foot."

We reached out to Debo, who says this is still a very sensitive matter as he and his business continues to recover. He said news of the arrest was almost like taking him back to January and reliving it all over again.

Herrera appeared in court Friday morning. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney's Office. If convicted, Herrera faces up to 30 years in prison.
Students at West Valley High School work in the school shop before the new Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee program kicks off at the Yakima, Wash., school Wednesday, April 26, 2017. Three students later signed to participate in the apprenticeship program that includes paid on-the-job training with local aerospace companies and college credits. (SHAWN GUST/Yakima Herald-Republic file)
When he wasnt studying for the high school diploma hell get next Friday, 17-year-old Alvaro Soria of Toppenish was helping build a home for Habitat for Humanity.

The work is part of the YouthBuild program, which provides job training in construction for Lower Yakima Valley youths ages 16 to 24.

For Soria, its one step toward his career goal: becoming an electrician after attending Perry Technical Institute.

Im just not good at school in general, he said. I like to do things more hands-on. The job pays well, too: The median hourly wage of an electrician nationally is more than $25 an hour.

While college remains a goal for many, advocates are pushing other options that provide youth, such as Soria, experience and credentials for high-demand jobs.

They include everything from short-term certificate programs to structured apprenticeships from institutions, such as the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, Yakima Valley Community College and Perry Technical Institute.

The first thing I say (to students) is that you dont have to have a four-year degree to be successful, said David Kearby, Yakima district manager for the Associated General Contractors of Washington, a construction trade association. Unfortunately, as a society, we push that.

Meanwhile, local contractors need workers so badly theyre willing to train anyone showing a willingness to work, Kearby said.

And when he talks to students, Kearby notes hes a college graduate working on behalf of an organization whose members generally dont have college degrees.

They started out working as carpenters and electricians. Now they moved up to where they have their own company, he said.

Podcast by Yakima business owner highlights career success from college dropouts A few weeks into a class at Yakima Valley College, Kylon Gienger realized college wasnt for him.

Its true bachelor degrees offer better odds of securing a high-wage job: About 97 percent of the 2.9 million high-wage ($53,000 a year or higher) jobs added from 2010 to 2014 were obtained by people with at least a four-year degree, according to a 2015 report from the Georgetown University Center on Education on the Workforce.

Only 15.7 percent of Yakima County residents 25 years or older have a bachelors or advanced degree, according to the Census Bureau. The national average is 29.8 percent.

But the Georgetown study also showed that during the same time, people with at least some post-secondary education found nearly 1 million new jobs paying at least $32,000 a year, including 152,000 jobs with annual salaries of $53,000 or more.

Its clear that not everyone is suited for a four-year degree, said William Zumeta, professor of public policy and higher education at the University of Washington. You do have to make yourself employable.

And the Yakima Valley has plenty of options to help residents become more employable, including well-established certificate programs from schools such as Perry Technical Institute and Yakima Valley College, the recently-launched apprenticeship program at West Valley High School and YouthBuild, which was restarted earlier this year after Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic and Northwest Community Action Center secured a $1 million grant last fall.

Advocates say its a challenge to tackle long-held perceptions that such programs are inferior to a four-year degree.

Its going to take time to take away that stigma, said Demetria Lynn Strickland, executive director of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, which works with aerospace parts companies, unions and education institutions on apprenticeship programs for both adults and students.

Theres progress in reducing that stigma. Earlier this year, Perry Technical Institute was featured in a national study that showed its graduates were the most likely out of 690 two-year college and technical schools to move from the bottom fifth of income earners to the top 20 percent.

Just weeks after the study came out, more than 100 people filled out applications at the schools quarterly open house double normal levels.

Youth find benefits in earlier career exploration Like many in high school, Saray Aburto-Talavera considered various career options, such as t

The practical nature of our training is very attractive to young people, said president Christine Cote.

And Perrys students are getting younger: The average age of the schools more than 700 students is just under 25, more than two years younger than the average age a decade ago.

Ive seen a big shift in the 20 years Ive been here as far as high schools really opening their doors to us, she said.

But while there are more paths to a career, a bachelors degree retains an allure.

Balente Rojas, 21, another participant in the YouthBuild program, wanted more not just in money, but fulfillment  then he was receiving from the various warehouse jobs he previously held.

Construction has turned out to be a much better fit. Its hands-on, its different, he said. Youre always busy.

Rojas is working on his GED. But while he knows he can earn a good salary in construction without a formal degree, he still wants to attend college.

I want to go to college to get more experience, he said. Doing this program made me realize I wanted to get more experience.
Clashes have broken out between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces as Israeli demonstrators march through the Old City of Jerusalem to mark the 50th anniversary of city's eastern half with its western half under Israeli sovereignty, which the protestors consider an occupation.

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Several dozen young Israeli men, some holding Israeli flags, were marching through the Old City's Damascus Gate on their way to the Western Wall on Wednesday when they encountered a group of Palestinian protesters.

A pro-Palestinian protestor escorted by police (Photo: AFP)





Pro-Palestinian protestors lock arms and chant (Photo: AFP)



Israeli forces moved in, and clashes ensued with the Palestinian protesters. No injuries were reported.





Right-wing protestors perform a dance of flags with in front of Damascus Gate (Photo: AFP)

Photo: AP

Israeli forces moved in, and clashes ensued with the Palestinian protesters. No injuries were reported.

Pro-Palestinian protestor being evacuated by police (Photo: AFP)

Photo: AFP

Earlier Wednesday, police arrested two Islamic Waqf guards who allegedly assaulted a group of Israelis who entered a contested Jerusalem shrine. The site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is holy to both faiths.
President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is willing to cooperate with federal investigators looking into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, his attorney said Thursday.

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The statement from attorney Jamie Gorelick was issued amid reports that the FBI was investigating meetings Kushner had in December with Russian officials.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry," the statement said.

Trump and Kushner (Photo: Reuters)

Meanwhile, the chairman of the House oversight committee asked the FBI to turn over more documents about former Director James Comey's interactions with the White House and Justice Department, including materials dating back nearly four years to the Obama administration.

The FBI and the oversight committeeas well as several other congressional panelsare looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign. Trump fired Comey May 9 amid questions about the FBI's investigation, which is now being overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director.

NBC News and The Washington Post first reported that the FBI's ongoing investigation includes a look at Kushner, which would place the probe inside the White House.

Kushner, a key White House adviser, had meetings late last year with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov.

The Post story cited anonymous "people familiar with the investigation," who said the FBI investigation does not mean that Kushner is suspected of a crime.

Earlier Thursday, House oversight committee chairman Jason Chaffetz told acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe that he wants records of Comey's contacts with the White House and Justice Department dating to September 2013, when Comey was sworn in as FBI director under President Barack Obama.

In a letter to McCabe, Chaffetz said he is seeking to review Comey's memos and other written materials so he can "better understand" Comey's communications with the White House and attorney general's office.

Chaffetz, R-Utah, previously requested Comey's recent memos about his private contacts with Trump. But the bureau told him Thursday it could not yet turn them over because of Mueller's probe.

Michael Flynn, Vladimir Putin

Chaffetz, who said last week he has his "subpoena pen" ready to force Comey or the FBI to turn over the documents, told McCabe that "Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the special counsel's investigation."

He added, in a thinly veiled threat, "I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decisionto produce these documents to the committee immediately and on a voluntary basis."

Chaffetz's letter comes a month before he is scheduled to leave office after abruptly announcing his resignation earlier this year. He canceled a hearing scheduled Wednesday after Comey declined to testify.

Assistant FBI Director Gregory Brower told Chaffetz on Thursday the agency is evaluating his request and will update him as soon as possible.

Some Republican members of Congress have pressured Chaffetz to step down from the Comey probe, saying it should be led by someone who will remain in Congress.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., is considered the front-runner to replace Chaffetz as oversight chair. Gowdy led a special House panel that spent more than two years investigating the deadly 2012 attacks at a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
A sharp confrontation broke out between the Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Dr. Yuval Steinitz, and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, following Mordechai's decision to reduce by more than a quarter the amount of electricity that Israel transfers to the Gaza Strip.

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Mordechai recently wrote a letter to the directors-general of the Ministries of National Infrastructures and Finance, the National Security Agency and the Shin Bet, as well as to the military secretaries of the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, informing them of his decision to reduce the amount of electricity that would be transferred to the Gaza Strip via the electricity lines.

R-L Steinitz, Mordechai (Photo: Reuters, IDF)

Mordechai made the decision following the Palestinian Authority's request to limit the supply of electricity to the Gaza Strip to an amount not exceeding NIS 25 million a month. Israel currently supplies electricity to the Gaza Strip at a cost of NIS 50 million a month, offset by PA tax revenues.

The decision was made in the context of a sharp internal dispute between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the de facto Hamas administration in Gaza. In light of the request of the Authority, Mordechai instructed to limit the electricity load by ten lines of electricity to the Gaza Strip, so that the total electricity consumption will not exceed NIS 25 million a month.

A few days ago, Steinitz sent a harsh letter to Mordecai, in which he wrote: "I received your letter to the director general of my ministry with astonishment and wonder regarding the implementation of the decision of the Palestinian Authority's head on the issue of electricity in Gaza. I found it necessary to personally respond.

The Palestinian Authority owes hundreds of millions of shekels for the electricity supplied to the PA, so if we are to cut the price, we should be the ones to decide where to cut electricity (perhaps in the Mukataa in Ramallah) and not become a pawn in their hands."

Steinitz added, "I would like to conduct a professional discussion on the subject prior to any decision making."

Mordechai's office stated: "In accordance with the instructions of the political echelon and the recommendations of the security forces, the Unit for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories is preparing to reduce the supply of electricity to Gaza. The decision will be implemented in accordance with the received instructions."

(Translated and edited by N. Elias)
In an unusual turn of events, two key appointments in the Israeli Air Force (IAF) have been cancelled due to security concerns.

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In the first incident, the appointment of an IAF squadron commander was cancelled after the officer, a major, failed a polygraph test related to drug use. The officer has been grounded indefinitely and IAF sources believe he will be dismissed.

IDF Apache attack helicopter (Photo: Shutterstock)

In the second incident, IAF commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel was forced to cancel the appointment of another officer to the position of commander of an Apache attack squadron after it surfaced that the officer, Lt. Col. 'A,' failed in acquiring a security clearance.

Lt. Col. 'A' is the son of a well-known public figure and his family is intimately related to the IAF; he is married to a pilot and his older brother is a brigadier general who serves as a key IAF commander.

As part of the appointment process to a sensitive position, Lt. Col. 'A' was required to undergo a security clearance check administered by the Shin Bet, which includes polygraph examinations related to civilian and military life.

IAF Commander, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

The assumption for why Lt. Col. 'A' failed in acquiring a security clearance is related to personal-administrative reasons and not security matters, which has raised anger among other pilots.

"The commander of the IAF needs to stand in front of the director of the Shin Bet and tell him not to cancel an appointment over nonsense," said a senior IAF official.

Maj. Gen. Eshel addressed the cancellations, saying, "We had two mishaps with squadron commanders. In one case, the disqualification was justified. In the second, I regret the disqualification and will work to appoint that officer to squadron commander."
DIYARBAKIRTurkish security forces killed 29 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in an operation in a mountainous area of eastern Turkey's Agri and Van provinces, the Agri governor's office said on Friday.

Turkey's army said on Thursday three Turkish soldiers and a member of the state-sponsored village guard militia had been killed in the operation, launched in the Tendurek mountain area along the border of the two provinces, near the Iranian border.

A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the militants broke down in July 2015 and the southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the PKK insurgency began in 1984.

More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Taxi drivers from the Hadar Lod station blocked the access road to Ben Gurion Airport in protest of a 31% price reduction in fares.

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The protest began after the owners of the station confirmed the signing of a contract with the Israel Airports Authority (IAA), which necessitated the reduction in price of fares from the airport.

Taxi drivers protest

X

The Hadar Lod station, which maintains 75 taxis, held what was an urgent meeting of shareholders, of which 34 participated. Out of the 34, 20 voted in support of the IAA contract, thus constituting a majority.

However, drivers are now protesting the fare reduction and claim that those who voted in favor did so because the IAA threatened them with personal lawsuits.

As a result, drivers are blocking the access road to Ben Gurion Airport, completely halting traffic and thereby prohibiting other drivers to pick up passengers. Other taxi drivers joined in the protest as well.

Ben Gurion Airport

The fare discount was set and fixed by the Gett Company, which also submitted a tender for the IAA contract along with Hadar Lod.

The IAA for their part, are insisting that the protest and fracas is the result of a business dispute between Gett and Hadar Lod.

"The Israel Airports Authority is not a party to the business dispute between Hadar and Gett, and is prepared to minimize the damage to the passenger service by operating a special transportation arrangement beginning at the end of Hadar Lod's contract on Monday," said the IAA in a statement.
After its completion, Israel bids farewell to the Venus satellite, the first Israeli satellite intended for environmental research, which is set to be launched on August 1 from French Guiana. The satellite is planned to operate for four years and three months.

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In an official ceremony held Thursday, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) handed the Venus satellite to the Israeli Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and its project partner in the French Space Agency (CNES). The satellite will be integrated with the Arianespace launcher and prepare for launch from French Guiana.

The satellite, a joint project of the Israeli Space Agency and the French Ministry of Science and Space, was built in recent years at a space factory belonging to the IAI, together with Elbit, which developed the telescope and Rafael, which developed the propulsion system.

Venus satellite (Photo: Yaron Druckman)

The satellite will monitor fields and plots of land from space for environmental research purposes, while monitoring the state of land, vegetation, forestation, agriculture, quality of water reservoirs and more. Venus is equipped with a special camera that can absorb details on Earth at 12 wavelengths, including details that are not visible. The satellite will photograph large areas and provide researchers with dozens of images each day, each of which will cover about 700 square kilometers. Once every two days, the satellite will produce photographs of the whole of Israel for use by the researchers. The satellite will weigh 265 kg upon launch and will enter Sun-synchronous orbit within two days of the launch.

Minister of Science and Technology Ophir Akunis said at the ceremony, "Venus is the glory of the Israeli space industry, and I am very proud that the first research satellite sponsored by the government and the Ministry of Science will soon be launched  Collaboration with the French government is further proof of the tremendous appreciation that Israeli technology is receiving worldwide."

IAI engineers (Photo: Yaron Druckman)

IAI's President and CEO, Yossi Weiss, said, "We are pleased to present the Venus research satellite to the Israeli and French space agencies. The best engineers in the field of satellites and space in Israeli industry took part in this unique flag project, which is another technological achievement for IAI in particular and Israeli space industry in general. Our collaboration with France  is a solid basis for continued joint work."

The head of the French Space Agency, Jean-Yves Le Gall, said, "Satellites have a central role today in the study and preservation of the environment and climate, and I am excited to see our top engineers take part in the development of Venus, a mission that will help the international community in tackling climate change. We will continue collaborating in other areas as well."

The mission patch

In an event held at IAI, IAI Director Avi Blassberger presented the satellite's mission patch chosen from dozens of bids in a competition held by the Israeli space agency. The winning patch of Naama Glauber, a computer science student at the Hebrew University, was designed in the spirit of Venus's mission: the colored field at the front is divided into 12 parts, the same as the number of satellite channels; the colors are "earth tones," depicting different agricultural conditions, which is among the mission's objectives; in the background, you can see the Mont Blanc, as a backdrop to the land that symbolizes the partnership with France; Israel is represented through the State's agricultural-pioneering relationship, through the depiction of an orange tree and a tractor; the number 2017 appears as part of the scanning beam, thus expressing progress, technology and innovation; in space, you can see the planet Venus which is the most luminous, followed by Mars (reddish) and above them, Saturn; the Venus logo is worn as part of the design of a ground antenna.

Researchers from Israel and around the world will be able to receive satellite images and conduct research. One of the first research projects to be run on the satellite is that of high school students.

(Translated and edited by N. Elias)
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories Unit announced that a series of easements will be approved for the month of Ramadan, which will begin Saturday, allowing Palestinians from the West Bank to visit their families in Israel during the week and during the holiday.

Residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be allowed to enter the Temple Mount for Friday prayers, and residents of the West Bank will be allowed to travel abroad via Ben-Gurion Airport. Operation hours at the crossings will also be extended.
Israeli model/actress Gal Gadot was hosted on ABC's Good Morning America ahead of the Wonder Woman premiere. She spoke of her desire to retire just before taking up the role, the importance of a having strong female role models and the pregnancy during filmingan experience that she described as more difficult than serving in the IDF. Her daughter also made a cameo during the interview.

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The movie, which was directed by Patty Jenkins follows Diana Prince from her childhood as an Amazon princess on the island of Themyscira, through her love for American soldier Steve Trevor (played by Chris Pine) up until she joins the war against the forces of evil in World War I.

Gal Gadot with Lynda Carter (Photo: AFP)

Also starring are Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Lucy Davis, Elena Anaya, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Ewen Bremner and Said Taghmaoui. The film premiers in Israel on June 1.

(Translated and edited by N. Elias)
Minister of the Interior and Chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri, is being sought for questioning by the Israel Police's Lahav 433 Unit in connection with reports of undeclared income and assets on the part of Deri's family.

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Police have already questioned associates of Deri's and will also seek to question his wife in connection with the case.

Aryeh Deri (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

While police received permission to investigate Deri from the attorney general two months ago, investigators have been analyzing material gathered from Deri's associates and brother Shlomo since the affair began a year ago.

Deri will now be summoned by police to give his version of events.

The majority of material being analyzed by police is related to information received from the Tax Authority raising suspicions of money and assets that the Deri family is denying.

After Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that the investigation against Deri was criminal in nature, Deri's office responded immediately to questions by announcing that the minister and Shas chairman would cooperate with law enforcement.
CAIROGunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in Egypt on Friday, killing a number of them, eyewitnesses said.

The number of deaths in the attack in Minya province was not immediately known.
The Prime Minister's Office media adviser issued a condemnation of Friday's terrorist attack in Egypt, which cost the lives of at least 28 people.

"Israel strongly condemns the severe terrorist attack in Egypt and sends the condolences of the Israeli people to President el-Sisi and the Egyptian people.

"There is no difference between the terror of the attack in Egypt and that of attacks in other countries. Terror will be defeated more quickly if all countries work together against it," read the statement.
The month of Ramadan, the holiest month for Muslims, will begin on Saturday. Ramadan is characterized not only by fasting and prayer, but also by fewer work hours in the Arab sector, together with an increase in the sector's consumerism.

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During Ramadan, Muslims hang decorations at the entrances to their homes, and festive lighting decorates the roads in towns and villages. Observing Muslims fast for nearly 15 hours a day, from 4:18 AM until 07:43 PM. The month is devoted mainly to soul-searching, good deeds, charity, strengthening family and social ties and empowering tolerance and generosity. In Ramadan, Muslims try to transcend their material and the earthly needs and focus instead on spirituality. It is a month of reconciliation, compassion and brotherhood.

Preparing for Ramadan in Taibeh

The obligation to fast applies to every Muslim aged 13 and older, be they men and women. Those who cannot fast (pregnant women, the elderly, the ill) must complete the days of fasting that they missed later, or donate to charity. It is estimated that 80% of Muslims in Israel fast during Ramadan.

A fruit vendor in Taibeh before Ramadan

Ramadan is not only characterized by fasting and prayers, but is also a month during which the Arab sector works less and buys more. The rate of food consumption rises by more than 50% during this time, and the rate of gift purchases increases by hundreds of percentages, similar to the shopping craze among Jewish Israelis before the holiday month of Tishrei and before Passover.

Ramzi Haj Yahya, a butcher shop owner in the Israeli Arab town Baqa al-Gharbiya, said: "We are taking into account families' economic situation, so we try to maintain reasonable prices for the needy."

Advertiser Musa Hassadia noted that "the advertising industry enjoys an increase in activityabout a quarter of the advertising budget of the food companies and retail chains is invested in this month, and companies are launching large campaigns for Ramadan.

Hassadia added that "At the end of the month of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr is celebrated for three days, during which time there is also an increase in clothes and shoe shopping. This is the most important time of the year for the Muslim population in Israel and around the world, both in terms of religion and consumerism and marketing."

The mayor of Taibeh, Shua'a Mansur Masarwa, noted that the city is opening the "Ramadan Market" project during the last ten days of the month: "We will open the citadela museum that has invested almost half a million shekels. Many visitors will come here, both from Taibeh and from the Jewish sector. In addition, a tent will funded by the Ministry of Education be set up for three days, during which an iftar meal (served during Ramadan after sunseted) will be hosted for Arabs and Jews from various schools. "

He also stated that on June 21, Taibeh's iftar banquet will be attended by 500 businesspeople from all sectors of the general population. "The message here is that Muslims view the month of Ramadan as a month of worship and patience."

On a related note, President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, announced a series of investments in the Arab sector and will begin as a first step in increasing aid to needy families for the month of Ramadan. The fund has now begun distributing food vouchers to 5,500 needy families in the sector and 4,000 clothing vouchers for children in need of welfare in Arab communities, for a total of NIS 2.3 million.

On the recommendation of the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkott, and as part of the policy to improve life for the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria and assist the residents of Gaza, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has approved a series of steps in preparation for the holiday period.

Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria will be able to visit family in Israel between Sunday and Thursday and on Eid al-Fitr. Entry to Friday prayers and Laylat al-Qadr (a holy night also during Ramadan) will be permitted on the Temple Mount, with residents of Gaza also allowed to enter visit the Temple Mount over the holiday. Requests of Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria who wish to travel abroad via Ben-Gurion Airport will be coordinated, and hours of check point crossings for Palestinians will be expanded to accommodate Gazans.
The death toll in Friday's shooting attack against the Christian minority continues to climb. Egyptian authorities reported that at least 28 people, including "a large number of children," were killed in the attack and at least 25 others were injured. The Arab world strongly condemned the attack and many countries sent their condolences to Egypt.

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According to reports by Arab networks, a squad of ten terrorists in military uniforms opened fire earlier today at a vehicle and two buses that was driving Coptic Christians to the Saint Samuel Monastery, located outside Minya city, about 220km south of Cairo. Earlier today, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a small meeting of security officials to examine the implications of the attack. It was also reported that al-Sisi was monitoring the security situation in Egypt and ordered measures to be taken to treat the wounded.











The bodies of the victims

Last month, the Coptic community was attacked by ISIS in two churches of the Egyptian community, in which dozens were killed and more than 100 were injured. The first explosion took place in the church of Saint George in the city of Tanta, north of Cairo, while hundreds of people prayed in the church. About three hours after the explosion, another suicide bombing took place in the Coptic Church in Alexandria.



X

Survivors of the attack

Following Friday's attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office stated that Israel sends its condolences to the Egyptian people and to President al-Sisi.

One of the buses attacked

"Israel strongly condemns the severe terrorist attack in Egypt and sends the condolences of the Israeli people to President el-Sisi and the Egyptian people.

"There is no difference between the terror of the attack in Egypt and that of attacks in other countries. Terror will be defeated more quickly if all countries work together against it," read the statement.

Saudi Arabia responded by saying that the kingdom stressed its support for Egypt in the fight against terrorism and that there was a need to strengthen international efforts to fight terrorism. "The UAE minister also condemned the attack, with the Saudi foreign minister saying that "the terrorist attack is a crime aimed at creating a civil war. We stand by Egypt and the Egyptian people against extremism and terrorism. "

Further condemnation came from Qatar, which severed relations with it after Egypt's "Arab Spring" coup. Qatar has expressed its condolences to the families of the victims and the dear Egyptian people and wished them a speedy recovery.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the incident "an ugly crime from which only Egypt's enemies are profiting." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also joined the line of condemnation and said that "the purpose of the attack is to ignite a civil war and harm Egyptian society." He further stated that Egypt would eventually defeat terrorism and conspiracies to undermine its unity and stability. Additional condemnations were also voiced by Hezbollah, the Arab League, Lebanon and Iraq, which called for cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Jordan's King Abdullah II sent a letter of condolences to Egypt's president in which he said that Jordan would work together with Egypt in the war on terrorism that is hurting Islam and humanity. "This is a cowardly act, and all the actions that these dark gangs carry out are far from the values of humanity and Semitic religions," he said in his letter.

The attack was also condemned by other countries such as Russia and Britain. The British ambassador to Egypt expressed his hope that "the terrorists will not succeed in spreading hatred" and said that he identifies with the victims of the attack.

The German government strongly condemned the attack, and German Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Martin Schaefer said that the State was "deeply saddened" by the incident and noted that a large conference was currently being held in Germany with the participation of the Protestant Church and the Coptic Church. "We are most explicitly condemning such attacks against believers, and we will cooperate with Egypt to ensure that such events do not occur again," stated Schaefer.

A source in the Coptic Church said on Friday that the journey of Christian believers to the monastery was actually an organized trip for 40 children, as the Egyptian Health Ministry confirmed that "a large number of children" were indeed killed in the attack. The county's security forces continue their efforts to capture the terrorist operatives who carried it out.

The Coptic Church issued a statement following the attack, in which it clarified that "violence and evil are trying to harm the heart of Egyptian unity," and expressed hope that steps will be taken to prevent further attacks. Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail expressed his condolences to the Coptic community in Egypt during a telephone conversation with the head of the church in Alexandria.

According to recent estimates in Egypt, the country currently has 8 million Copts, less than 10 percent of the Egyptian population of about 92 million. During the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and Muhammad Mursi, three years ago, the Copts had to face a wave of aggression against them. However, over the past year the Egyptian parliament has approved the law to build churches in the country, and the ruling regime provides the Copts with absolute freedom of worship.
The United Nations Middle East envoy warned the Security Council on Friday that a power struggle between the rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements had worsened a humanitarian crisis in Gaza that now risked exploding into another conflict.

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Gaza during a power outtage (Photo: Reuters)

"In Gaza we are walking into another crisis with our eyes wide open," envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the 15-member Council. "Unless urgent measures are taken to de-escalate, the crisis risks spiraling out of control with devastating consequences for Palestinians and Israelis alike."

"The Palestinian Authority, Hamas (...) and Israel, all have obligations for the welfare of Gaza's residents and must live up to their responsibilities to address the crisis and overcome this political impasse," Mladenov said.

Nickolay Mladenov (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Mladenov said that in April the Palestinian Authority cut salary allowances to nearly 60,000 public sector employees in Gaza and the Gaza power plant, which supplies a third of electricity, stopped working due to a dispute between the PA and Hamas over fuel tax.

Gaza's power plant (Photo: AP)

He said power lines between Egypt and Gaza are down for technical reasons, leaving only Israeli electricity lines, which provide 60 percent of Gaza's power. However, in April the PA said it would no longer pay Israel to supply Gaza with electricity.

Gaza under a power shut down (Photo: AP)

Mladenov said that if that happened, electricity supply to Gaza would be further reduced by 30 percent, creating more hardship for the population.

Gazans protest the shut down of their electricity supply (Photo: AP)

He said the majority of Palestinians in Gaza were already only receiving about four hours of electricity a day and this could be halved. Mladenov added that desalination plants were only functioning at 15 percent of capacity and drinking water is supplied for a few hours every 2  4 days.

The envoy said that 100,000 cubic meters of raw sewage was being discharged daily into the Mediterranean Sea, equivalent of 40 Olympic-size swimming pools.

"An environmental disaster for Israel, for Egypt and Gaza is in the making," Mladenov warned.
YORK  The prosecution is seeking a habitual criminal enhancement for Frederick L. Smith, 44, a York County resident who has also pleaded not guilty to charges involving a deadly weapon and methamphetamine possession.

If a person is deemed by the court to be a habitual criminal, that could mean the potential of an additional 10-60 years in prison.

According to court documents, a deputy with the York County Sheriffs Department was on regular patrol on Road O when he saw a suspicious vehicle parked on private property that didnt appear to belong there.

When he stopped to speak with the occupants, the deputy said Smith was in the drivers seat and the passenger was Jodi Paulsen of York.

The deputy alleges in his affidavit that both appeared to be very nervous and Paulsen appeared to be under the influence of methamphetamine.

The deputy wrote in the affidavit that he discovered the vehicle was registered a known drug user and asked Smith why he had possession of the vehicle. He said he was told by Smith that the owner had been arrested and he was allowed to use the vehicle while the owner was in custody.

A review of the criminal histories for both showed crimes involving drugs, the deputy said.

A search of the vehicle was conducted and investigators allege they found a mug containing methamphetamine, two syringes with meth residue and a spoon with meth residue.

They also allege that they found a large knife-type weapon with a four-inch blade that was attached to a two-foot chain, under the drivers seat.

This week, Smith asked for a bond reduction.

His bond currently has been set at $30,000, 10 percent.

Christopher Johnson, representing Smith, said Smith would live with his father in Waco should he be released. He also has an evaluation set for June. He is asking for a reduction to $15,000, 10 percent.

That is unreasonably low, argued York County Attorney Candace Bottorf. And we remind the court we are seeking habitual criminal status. We are asking that the bond remain the same.

In light of the habitual criminal allegation, and the fact you are also looking at a Class 3 felony and a Class 4 felony, the court will deny a reduction, said Judge James Stecker.

Smith was returned to jail.

A jury trial has been set for this fall.
SUEK bets exports on Asian expansion

Russian coal miner SUEK has secured a US$1 billion pre-export financing agreement with a group of international lenders as the firm looks to continue its ongoing expansion into coal-hungry Asia.



The company announced on May 17 that the loan agreement had a duration of five years and was secured against SUEKs future export revenues. SUEK said the facility, which carries an option to rise to US$1.2 billion, will be used for general corporate purposes and to refinance existing debt.



A syndicate of 19 domestic and international banks participated in the loan agreement, including co-ordinator Deutsche Bank. According to an unidentified banker quoted by Reuters last week, the pre-export deal uses an accordion feature to allow Russian lenders to join the second loan tranche, speeding up the deals approval by all parties involved.



SUEKs most recent venture into the international debt market was in February 2016, when it secured a US$1 billion pre-export financing deal with a five-year tranche and a seven-year tranche. The companys total debt at the close of last year stood at US$3.3 billion, of which around 80% is secured by its international revenue.



We at SUEK are very pleased with the results of this syndication and how our achievements, plans and strategy are perceived by our lending banks, CFO Nikolay Pilipenko said in a statement last week. The company remains fully committed to deliver on its goals, whether financial, operational, or industrial and environmental safety, as well as social responsibility, he added.



Russias largest coal miner by volume has pledged to continue to expand production at its 14 strip mines and 12 deep mines in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Last year, the company registered record coal output of 105.4 million tonnes, up from 97.8 million tonnes in 2015.



SUEK said that production was anticipated to climb further in 2017, although output in the first quarter of 2017 is down by 1% on the year at 28.4 million tonnes. The company said that the increase would come from development of the Magistralny site at the flagship Kuzbass field as well as the Pravoberezhny, Severnaya and Bureinsky assets in Khabarovsk.



This year, however, SUEK will also decommission the November 7 and Vostochnoe mines owing to resource depletion.



Looking east

The greater production numbers have been squarely targeted at foreign buyers, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, where total imports rhttps://www.yourindustrynews.com/files/ose by 4% on the year in 2016. sueks international sales climbed by 11% year on year in 2016 but exports to south korea, japan, china and taiwan grew by 16%.



the rise follows a 6% decline in european as well as domestic sales, which the company linked to higher water levels in siberia and the russian far east, supporting higher hydropower output and denting demand for coal.



the russian firms high-quality thermal coal, which exceeds a heat content of 6,100 kcal per kilogramme, can be easily moved to asian buyers from sueks khabarovsk and primorye mines in russias far east.



suek has committed to upgrading its main asian export gateway in the region  the bulk terminal at the port of vanino. the company is set to complete the main stage of building work at the facility later this year, which could increase shipments from 19.5 million tonnes in 2016 to 21 million tonnes in the second half of 2017.



asias demand for higher quality coal is also driving sueks plans to invest in its coal-washing capabilities, which improves coal quality. washing rose by 12% on the year in 2016, following investment in upgrades and expanding throughput at its nine washing plants.



this year, suek intends to add a new washing plant to its kotinskaya mine in the substantial kuznetsk basin of southern siberia. the company also aims to expand the washing plant at the tugnuisky opencast mine, which lies in the mountainous buryatia region of eastern siberia.



the asia-pacific market will grow in importance for russian coal miners as european demand wanes. the eu has set ambitious targets to curb its greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions, and reducing coals share in power generation plays a key role in this strategy.



but even in asia, the outlook for coal imports is far from certain. china is replacing coal with gas in its power sector as means of containing pollution, levels while india is ramping up domestic production. for companies like suek, these are key issues to consider when mapping out their long-term strategies.





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- The State Secretary for European Affairs, Daniela Gitman, participated, on Monday, in Sofia, in the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs from the member states of the Central European Initiative (CEI), organized by the annual Presidency exercised by Bulgaria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

- The Minister of National Defense, Angel Tilvar, participated, on Monday, in the opening of the works of the annual convention of the Romanian Defense Attaches, which will take place at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence (MApN), until Friday. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi

- A number of 38 creators and keepers of traditional Romanian values, who obtained the honorary title of Living Human Treasure in the last three years, received the distinctions offered by the Ministry of Culture in a gala organized in southern Pitesti on Tuesday. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi

- Approximately 145,000 people, Romanian and foreign nationals, and over 43,000 means of transport underwent border checks at all of Romania's crossing points on Wednesday, on both the inbound and the outbound, the General Border Police Inspectorate (IGPF) reports. Fii la curent cu cele mai

- Romanias Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) again urged Romanian citizens to avoid non-essential trips to Russia or leave the country as soon as possible if there. The recommendation comes amid Russias drive to mobilize more men for the war in Ukraine, Romania-Insider reports. The MAE strongly reminds

- Romanian authorities have issued 43 residence permits for Ukrainian citizens in the past 24 hours. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends know more about Romania! Share this article on Facebook

- More than 200 Romanian gendarmes and carabinieri from the Republic of Moldova participated in the international tactical training exercise with forces in the field (LIVEX) "Danubius Shield 2022", organized in Galati, between 19 and 21 September, informs the "Lower Danube" Galati County Gendarmerie

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Cairo: Masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 26 others as they were driving to a monastery, medical sources and eyewitnesses said.

The group was travelling in two buses and a small truck in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority, the sources said.

Provincial governor Essam al-Bedaiwy said earlier that 23 people had been killed and 25 wounded.

Eyewitnesses said the Copts were attacked as they were going to pray at the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the western part of the province.

They said masked men stopped the vehicles on a road leading to the monastery and opened fire.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt`s population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.

About 70 have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday`s attack.
Ottawa: In an adorable gesture, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, spent a day with 5-year-old Bella Thompson and built pillow forts!CBC Kids posted a delightful picture of the two, tweeting, "What happens when a 5 y.o. gets to be prime minister for the day? Pillow fort!

"The Canadian Prime Minister could also be seen visibly enjoying his day informing everyone about some `redecorating` in the office.The Prime Minister, who has received appreciation for bringing a human touch to the office, took his 3-year-old son to work earlier.
Washington: President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in.

The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 percent.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from making comment on the issue, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move.

"Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades-old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars.

However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin: A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.

"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause.

"We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Pelosi, who early this month led a high-powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development.

"As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI.

"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question.

The move to abolish Tibet Fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush.

Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity."

The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."

The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.

It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.

The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages the provision of this support out of its India office.
Washington: President Donald Trump`s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday.

Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe, the newspaper reported.

The FBI, several congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into allegations of meddling by Russia in the 2016 US election and possible ties between Trump`s presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the election.

The controversy has engulfed Trump`s administration since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 10. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion with Russia.

The interest in Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, the officials told NBC News.

It is not known whether Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC News said.

One of Kushner`s attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation.

Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, Gorelick said.

The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New York: An Indian national has been arrested and charged in connection with a security breach at LaGuardia Airport here, that led to the evacuation of a busy terminal at the airport earlier this week.

The man, identified as 41-year-old Phani Kumar Varanasi, had entered into a secure area of Terminal B at the airport through a guarded exit on May 23. He told police that he was confused about where to go and had wandered into the restricted area at the terminal.

His trespassing had caused a security scare and led to evacuation of the buys terminal, a report in the New York Daily News said.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Varanasi, who has no criminal record, spent five minutes in the "sterile area" before returning to the public space through the same exit.

The report said Varanasi, a general manager at an India- based manufacturing firm, was flying into New York from Detroit when the incident occurred.

He was identified by police through surveillance video and a list of passengers aboard the flight.

A video obtained by the Daily News showed Varanasi walking directly past a TSA security employee at a desk.

The federal agency said appropriate action will be taken against the employee who did not stop Varanasi from going into a restricted area at the terminal.

Varanasi was due in Queens Criminal Court for a hearing on a criminal trespass charge, the report added.

Republican lawmaker Peter King called for a full investigation and explanation of how Varanasi was able to walk unchecked through a security guard from the airport?s baggage claim to the off-limits area. "We have to be constantly on our guard, and the breach at LaGuardia has to be explained and corrected," King tweeted.

The report also said that police contacted Varanasi to come in for an interview at LaGuardia and arrested him after he voluntarily appeared.
Pavan Chaurasia

Nationalism is inspired by the highest ideals of the human race, satyam (the truth), shivam (God) and sundaram (the beautiful).- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

INTRODUCTION

India or Bharat is not just a piece of land that turned into a nation-state with the settlement of human beings and with the establishment of the polity among the people that had certain commonality who shared this same geography. Rather, it is a continuous civilization of more than four thousand years of recorded history, with several commas, but no full stops, to say metaphorically. These commas are the wounds that it suffered from time to time with the attack and invasion from external assaulters like the Afghans, Mughals, and British etc. that wounded this great civilization and often tried to destroy it, though with little success.

Unlike other great civilizations that perished in the course of history like Persian, Mesopotamian, Indian civilization thrived and survived due to its flexibility and its unique ability to accommodate diversity and plurality, be it religious, cultural, political or even ideological. Perhaps nowhere does one finds diametrically opposite school of thoughts existing with harmony.

If there is theism in Orthodox school like Yoga, there also exist Carvaka of the heterodox school which propagates atheism! In ancient time when prosecution due to the opposite or different faith was common, this land accepted not just has intra-religious but also inter-religious dissimilarity. This is why India does not fit into the category of a nation, state or nation-state, the typical Eurocentric terminology of classification. Rather it creates an entirely new and distinguished category, the civilizational-state and any discourse on Indian nationalism must be within this context.

NATIONALISM- THE HISTORY OF THE IDEA

Nation is a cultural entity, unlike state which is a political one. A nation-state is the one entity whose cultural and political boundaries coincide. The discourse on nationalism first emerged in Europe with the emergence of various nation-states in which people of one language/ethnicity sought to live together under one government/ rule in one state.

The idea was exclusive in nature as it held that people of other language/ethnicity are different and therefore cannot live together. It must be remembered that the European nationalism sought refuge in xenophobia and chauvinism. Therefore this nationalism gave birth to colonialism where the colonization of Africa, Asia, and Latin America became a matter of pride and honor to respective nations.

Noted social scientist Benedict Anderson in his seminal work Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism argues that Nation is an imagined political community because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion. His idea was completely based on his understanding of state formation in nineteenth-century Europe where monolithic notions of identity helped in establishing the modern polity.

However, the Indian case, as argued earlier, is entirely different and one needs to get out the Eurocentric discourses that have shaped our narratives along with the present day education system which is grounded in the Macaulay tradition and henceforth, is completely isolated from the indigenous knowledge system. India nation is not a product of some modern day development like the establishment of the British raj, as is generally propagated by the apologist of raj, but had been in existence for centuries. It finds mentions in Rig Veda too which describes the geography of Akhand Bharat, with the Indian Ocean washing its feet and Himalayas as its crown, and the great Sindhu river as its arms.

However, with the passage of time, this great land witnessed plurality of ideas, people, culture, and civilizations. From Lord Buddha to Guru Nanak and Mahaveer, from Kalidas to Tulsidas, from Swami Vivekananda to Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Orchard blossomed with the essence of so many flowers that garlanded this ancient holy land. But it also witnesses several centuries of colonization and slavery due to internal weakness and separatism. This not only enslaved the bodies, but also the minds. Servility became a dominant idea and Indian started to demean everything related to India, be it culture, language, education system or values.

This has still not been completely undone and this is the reason why the majority of the people look Indian nationalism through the prism of western discourse and hence find Indian nationalism as xenophobic, exclusive etc. just like its nineteenth-century counterpart. One must remember that contrary to Europe, Indian nationalism got birth from colonialism of the country by British. This feeling of throwing away the foreign rule got its manifestations into various forms cutting across the boundaries of religion, region, caste, class, and gender. All social groups came under one roof of nationalism that was reflected in Bharat Mata, or Mother India.

NATIONALISM VS INDIVIDUALISM

Nationalism, just like any other isms, is a school of thought in the discipline of social sciences. The present day discourse creates binaries of communitarian perspective (group rights) and individualism. Just like nationalism, individualism too emerged in Europe as a product of enlightenment and modernity which argued that individual is a rational being as well as the centre of socio-political activities and therefore his rights must be placed before the group rights.

Therefore, the rights and well-being of an individual are perhaps contradictory to that of a nation. Liberalism also promoted the cause of individualism where free-will was to be considered sacrosanct. But this is not the case of India because of the very nature of nation and nationalism in India. Indian nationalism is not based on the materialistic idea of land, power, and people. Rather, it is spiritual in nature whose motto is to serve the humanity and consider entire world as one family or Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam as espoused in Maha Upanishad.

In a family, members are bonded not through some contract but through the bond of love and compassion and the rights of one member are as sacrosanct as rights of another member. Therefore, the chances of rights violation get to a minimum if not zero. According to Sri Aurobindo, India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples. So it is a continuous welfarian project that looks into people as cosmos and not chaos and anarchy. Indian nationalism also believes in advita or the concept of non-duality, as espoused by Swami Vivekananda according to which there are no binaries and the world is as a whole, one.

Hence the binaries of Individualism vs nations too are artificially constructed while no such binaries exist in reality as an individual itself is a nation and nation is too an individual. This idea is very well reflected in one of the four Mahakavya of Sanskrit, Aham Bramhasmi or I am the universe and therefore there can be no antagonism between the two.

CONCLUSION

Nationalism these days in deliberately reflected in a bad light so as to weaken the roots of India from its glorious past where shared values and ethics shaped a common future for billion people. Indian nationalism is, and will never be any kind of anti- be it anti-individual, anti-Dalit, anti-minority etc., but rather will always be pro- like pro-freedom, pro-equality and pro-development. There can always be deliberations of improving it within the constitutional framework but not by raising slogans against the unity and integrity of the nations, which, unfortunately, had been the case in some universities in India.

The rights of an individual are safe as long as the sovereignty and integrity of a state are guarded by its soldier. Chanting aazadi has become fashionable these days for several fake-liberals who have no idea of the real prices paid by those in borders who guard it against hostile neighbours like Pakistan and China as well as terror outfits.

It is nothing but sheer hypocrisy on their part who do not want others to give them a certificate for their nationalism but are ever-ready to give and take others certificate of being secular, liberal, progressive etc. No nation can afford to have pseudos whose agenda is to question the very identity and existence of India, many times at the payrolls of notorious spy agency! If the nation gets threatened, individual rights are the first casualty!
Mumbai: Raabta producers  Bhushan Kumar and Dinesh Vijan - have issued a statement to respond to copyright violation allegation levelled by the makers of Telugu movie Magadheera directed by SS Rajamouli in 2009.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh took to Twitter to share the statement on behalf of the producers, which denies charges of copyright violation.

Take a look at it here:

Official Statement on behalf of the producers of #Raabta, Dinesh Vijan and Bhushan Kumar pic.twitter.com/ueU87TUIuv 25 May 2017

Earlier on Thursday, producer Allu Arvind issued a statement to announce that Geetha Arts, the original makers of the film Magadheera have approached the Hyderabad court seeking injunction against Raabta release. They felt through various sources including the trailer and publicity material that the Hindi film is being remade violating the copyrights.

Magadheera, starring Ram Charan and Kajal Aggarwal was based on the concept of reincarnation. It revolved around the lives of a couple and their love story spanning over different periods.

Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon starrer Raabta too has the idea of reincarnation intertwined in the plot. The film is slated to release on June 9.
Mumbai: Anushka Sharma had a dream debut in Bollywood! The leggy lass was launched by the Yash Raj Banners and was cast opposite none other than Shah Rukh Khan. Since her debut in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in 2008, Anushka has had the opportunity to work with SRK twice.

And now, she is all set to share screen space with him for the fourth time in Aanand L Rais untitled film which also stars Katrina Kaif. This will be the trios second film together after late Yash Chopras last directorial  Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

According to a report in DNA, Anushka will play a mentally challenged character while SRK will essay a dwarf and Katrina herself in the film.

After Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt were unable to commit to the film, Aanand approached Anushka. The actress found the role challenging and agreed to do it. She also shares a great rapport with SRK and Katrina, and decided to come on board. Its an exciting film for all the three actors, DNA quoted a source as saying.

Meanwhile for the uninitiated, Anushkas third film with SRK directed by Imtiaz Ali is tentatively titled Rehnuma and is all set to release on August 11.
Melbourne: The Queensland government on Friday decided not to grant a royalty holiday to Adani's controversy- hit Carmichael mine project in Australia, a setback to the Indian energy giant which said it would review the Cabinet's decision.

Following a Cabinet meeting, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that an agreement was reached unanimously that Adani will pay full royalties for its $21.7 billion Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.

"There will be no royalty holiday for the Adani Carmichael mine. The Adani Carmichael mine will pay every cent of royalties in full," Palaszczuk said.

In a statement released after the Cabinet's decision, Adani Australia said it will analyse the details of the Cabinet's decision once it was formally provided to them.

"Adani Australia will give urgent consideration of State Cabinet's decision on a royalties arrangement for the Carmichael coal mine project," the company said.

Adani reiterated that "it will pay every cent of royalties to the state as was always the case, and that it also remains committed to regional Queensland and generating 10,000 direct and indirect jobs".

Earlier this month, the ABC News reported that the state government was considering giving Adani a discount on royalties which could total up to 320 million Aus dollars in lost revenue to the state.

On May 22, Adani deferred a final investment decision on its much-delayed Carmichael coal mine project after the Queensland government failed to decide on royalties amounting to millions of dollars for the project.

Adani wanted the Queensland government to delay the start of royalty obligations on the coal mine it hopes to build in Queensland's Galilee Basin.

The Carmichael project, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs, has been facing opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups.

The group has for more than five years battled opposition from green groups who are opposed to any expansion of the port, saying it will cut into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

The Adani group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north.

Australian Resource Minister Matthew Canavan on May 24 warned the Queensland government that India could look elsewhere for its coal requirements if it delays its decision on a royalty holiday deal with the Adani Group.

"India has a massive need for energy resources in the next couple of decades. A huge part of that will be increased coal use... We have the ability to produce the most environmentally sustainable energy resources for India," Canavan said.
New Delhi: Preity Zinda shared an exhilarated moment when she visited the Rashtrapati Bhavan for book launch 'Mann Ki Baat', a compilation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's radio chat namesake programme.

The 'Veer-Zara' actress took to social media and shared a post where she is seen posing with filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor and Hitesh Jain.

Preity certainly couldn't contain her excitement as she claimed this is her first trip to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Check out what PZ posted on this occasion:

The book has been compiled by BlueKraft Digital Foundation and published by LexisNexis.

It gives readers a chance to get to know some hitherto unknown facets of the Prime Minister's thinking, his beliefs and his thought process.

There are interesting details of how the idea of a radio programme came up, how the name and frequency were decided, and how the format was chalked out.

"This book is filled with Prime Minister Modi's enthusiasm for interacting with the people of India, particularly with the youth. I cannot but feel his strong passion for dialogue with his people," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says in the foreword.

Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says in a blurb: "Mann Ki Baat is a great example of how media can be used as a platform for bringing about positive change. Through this new initiative Prime Minister Modi has included millions of Indians in a collaborative effort that can improve the efficiency of public service information delivery and accelerate progress."

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon and the LexixNexis book store. (With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: The Delhi Police launched 10 anti-terror `Parakram` vans on Friday, each carrying five commandos armed with assault rifles, to provide round-the-clock security in high footfall areas of the national capital.

The five commandos, all trained by the National Security Guard, who will man each van include a driver and a team in-charge.

`Parakram` personnel will act as a first response team in case of a terror attack until reinforcements arrive.

"Parakram vans will be deployed at Vijay Chowk, Palika Bazar, IP Marg, Saket Select City Mall, Vasant Kunj Mall, Pacific Mall (Subhash Nagar), Market/Mall Complex (Netaji Subhash Place), Akshardham temple, Lotus temple, and Jhandewalan," Special Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak said.

"Commandos dressed in fatigues will be armed with AK-47 assault rifles," he added.

The `Parakram` vans were flagged off by Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik at the Delhi Police Headquarters here around 12.30 p.m.

"Around 200 commandos have been trained for the project and will work in three shifts to provide round-the-clock protection," Pathak told IANS.

All `Parakram` vans are GPRS-enabled and will be tracked by the Police Control Room.

The first batch of `Parakram` vans is part of a pilot project that will be extended to more locations after assessment of its success, Pathak added.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the Centre to implement without delay its National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases, which was formulated on the court's direction last year.

The report was tabled before Justice Manmohan who was hearing pleas by several individuals suffering from rare diseases and were insured with the Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) which, as per them, was not willing to foot the cost of treatment.

Central government standing counsel Shiva Lakhsmi, who appeared for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, submitted the policy before the court, which asked for a presentation on how its implementation would be hassle free for patients.

The ministry will now give a presentation on how the policy would be implemented on the next date of hearing on August four.

The policy was placed before the court pursuant to its direction to the government in November last to come up with a policy for patient suffering from rare diseases like Gaucher, a genetic disorder due to which fat is not properly metabolised.

As per the policy, the government proposes to set up an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore for funding treatment of rare genetic diseases.

A similar fund would be set up at the state levels in which 60 per cent contribution would be by the Centre, the policy said.

It also said that the fund would be dedicated to rare genetic disorders but not used for treatment of rare blood disorders like hemophilia, thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia or rare cancers as there were separate government programmes for them.

"To ensure sustainability of the corpus, the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and corporate houses, to be encouraged to make contributions as per the Companies Act as well as the provisions of the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 (CSR Rules)," the policy said.

It has also recommended the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers to set up a cell within the Department of Pharmaceuticals to promote drug development and affordability of drugs for rare diseases.

Under the policy, the Department of Financial Services has been asked to explore, on the basis of actuarial studies, "whether insurance sector should cover cost of treatment of rare diseases and amend the Insurance Act accordingly".

It also recommended that patients, suffering from rare genetic disorders, who belong to below the poverty line be given free and supportive services in private or government hospitals.
New Delhi: Along with providing us with numerous insights into the working of the universe, US space agency NASA has time and again forewarned us of potential dangers like asteroids buzzing past the Earth, hurricanes and storms and most importantly, climate change.

With the discourse on global warming and climate change taking over a larger domain in the last few years, its rapidly growing effects have raised questions on Earth's habitability in the future.

Just last month, NASA's IceBridge mission acquainted us with the first photographs of a new, ginormous crack in Greenland's enormous Petermann Glacier, which sent out worrying signals regarding the glacier's sustenance.

Now, scientists at NASA have drawn attention towards another point of concern that has come forward in Greenland again. As per a study, during 2010 and 2012  the hottest summers of Greenland on record  the ice in Rink Glacier on the island's west coast didn't just melt faster than usual, it slid through the glacier's interior in a gigantic wave, like a warmed freezer pop sliding out of its plastic casing.

The wave persisted for four months, with ice from upstream continuing to move down to replace the missing mass for at least four more months.

This solitary wave is a new discovery that may increase the potential for sustained ice loss in Greenland as the climate continues to warm, with implications for the future rate of sea level rise.

The study was conducted by three scientists  including an Indian-origin one who led the study  from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and was the first to precisely track a glacier's loss of mass from melting ice using the horizontal motion of a GPS sensor.

Using data from a single sensor in the Greenland GPS Network (GNET), sited on bedrock next to Rink Glacier, the research is published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

According to a NASA report, Rink is one of Greenland's major outlets to the ocean, draining about 11 billion tons (gigatons) of ice per year in the early 2000s  roughly the weight of 30,000 Empire State Buildings. In the intensely hot summer of 2012, however, it lost an additional 6.7 gigatons of mass in the form of a solitary wave. Previously observed melting processes can't explain that much mass loss.

The wave moved through the flowing glacier during the months of June through September at a speed of about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) a month for the first three months, increasing to 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) during September. The amount of mass in motion was 1.7 gigatons, plus or minus about half a gigaton, per month. Rink Glacier typically flows at a speed of a mile or two (a few kilometers) a year.

The wave could not have been detected by the usual methods of monitoring Greenland's ice loss, such as measuring the thinning of glaciers with airborne radar. "You could literally be standing there and you would not see any indication of the wave," said JPL scientist Eric Larour, a coauthor of the new paper. "You would not see cracks or other unique surface features."

The researchers saw the same wave pattern in the GPS data for 2010, the second hottest summer on record in Greenland. Although they did not quantify the exact size and speed of the 2010 wave, the patterns of motion in the GPS data indicate that it must have been smaller than the 2012 wave but similar in speed.

During the two summers when solitary waves occurred, the surface snowpack and ice of the huge basin in Greenland's interior behind Rink Glacier held more water than ever before. In 2012, more than 95 percent of the surface snow and ice was melting. Meltwater may create temporary lakes and rivers that quickly drain through the ice and flow to the ocean. "The water upstream probably had to carve new channels to drain," explained coauthor Erik Ivins of JPL. "It was likely to be slow-moving and inefficient." Once the water had formed pathways to the base of the glacier, the wave of intense loss began.

The scientists theorize that previously known processes combined to make the mass move so quickly. The huge volume of water lubricated the base of the glacier, allowing it to move more rapidly, and softened the side margins where the flowing glacier meets rock or stationary ice. These changes allowed the ice to slide downstream so fast that ice farther inland couldn't keep up, NASA reported.
Sicily: US President Donald Trump said Friday the "problem" of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be "solved", as he met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.



"It`s a big problem, it`s a world problem," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, just weeks after he called North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un a "madman with nuclear weapons."



The issue of North Korea, whose missile and nuclear tests have its neighbours and the wider world concerned, will be discussed in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries, Trump said.



"It will be solved, you can bet on that," he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details.



Abe intended to use the summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea following its recent series of missile tests.



"The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act "resolutely".



Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.



It carried out two atomic tests last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.



The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.



In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said: "we can`t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that".



"We have a lot of firepowers, more than he has, times 20 -- but we don`t want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.



Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable." The Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart`s "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment."



The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with North Korea`s ally China.



But Beijing, the North`s main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority.



North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computer and demanding payment in Bitcoin to return control to users.



Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.
Paris: President Emmanuel Macron on Friday vowed France`s total support for Britain`s fight against terrorism after the Manchester attack as he met Prime Minister Theresa May at the G7 summit.

"We will be here to cooperate and do everything we can in order to increase this cooperation at the European level, in order to do more from a bilateral point of view against terrorism," Macron told May in front of reporters.
London: According to latest revelations about the Manchester arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi, the accused carried out the horror as he wanted "revenge" for the injustices inflicted against Muslims.

According to media reports, Abedi was angry about the death of a friend, Abdul Wahab Hafidah, 18, who was run down by a car and then stabbed in Manchester.

Prosecutors argue the killing was gang-related and six men and a 15-year-old boy are on trial for the murder. But a family friend said Abedi viewed the crime as a hate crime.

His sister Jomana Abedi, 18, also told The Wall Street Journal, that her brother was a kind man who wanted "revenge" for injustices inflicted against Muslims."I think he saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere, and wanted revenge.

He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge," she said.

The Independent reported that attacker reportedly called his mother and brother just 15 minutes before he blew himself up his mother to "forgive him".

His father and brother have now been arrested in Libya, with the latter confessing to knowing "all the details" of the terror plot. Meanwhile, authorities have arrested a tenth man in relation to the bomb attack that killed 22 people this week.

The latest suspect was being held in the Moss Side area of the city in the early hours of Friday.
Moscow: Russian authorities on Friday warned its citizens against visiting Britain after London raised its threat level in the wake of the Manchester suicide attack.



"The Russian embassy in Great Britain recommends Russian citizens refrain from travelling to the country, especially from visiting major cities, if such trips are not absolutely necessary," Russia`s state tourism agency said in a statement.



"This is due to the fact that the government of Great Britain has raised the level of the terrorist threat in the country to the maximum possible," it said.



The agency called on Russians to "take the warnings as seriously as possible" and ordered tour operators to inform their clients about the threat level in the UK.



British police are currently hunting for a jihadist network believed to behind the deadly bombing of in Manchester that killed 22 people.



Manchester-born Salman Abedi launched the attack on young fans attending a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande in the latest atrocity claimed by the Islamic State group in Europe.



Authorities raised the country`s threat level to maximum and deployed soldiers to key sites as Prime Minister Theresa warned that another attack "may be imminent".



Ties between Moscow and London are currently at their lowest level since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine, but Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he was ready to boost anti-terror cooperation with the UK after the bombing.
New Delhi: A group of 20-21 terrorists of terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have slipped into India and are preparing to launch a terror attack.

According to DNA, central intelligence agencies have warned anti-terror units in cities in this regard.

The daily added that the terrorists have entered into India on the orders of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Some have gone to Mumbai and Delhi, and the rest to Punjab and Rajasthan.

"Their plan is carry out spectacular terrorist incident in India," DNA quoted sources as saying.

In the wake of the threat, the agency has issued an alert and advisory to all units of the Delhi Police. Tight monitoring and strengthened anti-terror measures have to be ensured at metro stations, railway stations, airports, hotels famous among tourists, crowded markets, religious places and stadiums in Delhi, said the advisory.

Police have also been asked to conduct proper frisking and checking, besides tightening security.

Earlier in May, a top US intelligence official had warned that Pakistan-based terrorist groups are planning to carry out attacks in India while asserting that Islamabad had failed to rein in terrorists.

Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, during a Congressional hearing on worldwide threats, told members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Pakistan was expanding its nuclear arsenal in pursuing tactical nuclear weapons, potentially lowering the threshold for their use.
New Delhi: With the completion of three years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government in power at the Centre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday took to micro-blogging site twitter and on behalf of Uttar Pradesh, heartily congratulated the former for fulfilling his commitment to the public.

Adityanath in his tweet said, "I on behalf of the people of Uttar Pradesh congratulate Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi for three years of good governance and development."Echoing similar sentiments, in a series of tweets,

"Echoing similar sentiments, in a series of tweets, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar wrote; last three years of the NDA Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi have seen dawn of a new era of Governance that is Corruption Free, Transparent and Accountable.

He further tweeted, "Last three years have seen phenomenal progress in almost every spectrum of governance- including finance, education, defense etc," Asserting that Indian borders are more secure than ever under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, Khattar said we are replying to provocations with firmness and our jawans have been empowered.

"Haryana is playing its role in realising @narendramodi Ji's vision of a #NewIndia," he added.Prime Minister has received congratulatory messages from other prominent personalities also:-Uttarakhand Chief Minister

Prime Minister has received congratulatory messages from other prominent personalities also:-Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra S Rawat: "I congratulate PM

"I congratulate PM @narendramodi , his entire team and millions of countrymen & supporters on successful #3yearsofModiGovt.

"Chhattisgarh Chief Minister tweeted, Dr. Rama Singh: "DhanyawadPMModi for transforming India in these 3 years! #MODIfiedChhattisgarh salutes your visionary leadership.

"Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje: "My congratulations & best wishes to PM @narendramodi Ji & #TeamIndia on an outstanding tenure of 3 years#3yearsofModiGovt #3SaalBemisal.

"Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan: "New India emerging under the leadership of PM @narendramodi`, My Thoughts (Blog) on #3yearsofModiGovt #3SaalBemisal.

"On the occasion of completion of three years of the National Democratic Alliance`s ( NDA) government at the Center, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said these years have seen concrete steps that have transformed people`s lives.

Earlier today, the Prime Minister arrived in Assam and began the celebrations by inaugurating the Sadia Bridge across River Brahmaputra in Purana Sadiya.

The Prime Minister took to the social media to ask the people their views on completing three years as Government at the Center.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be organising a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign to highlight the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led NDA three year rule.

The campaign`s name has been linked with the surname of the Prime Minister- ` Making of Developed India (MODI).Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the festival from Guwahati in Assam on Friday.

A central Control Room will be established at the party headquarters in Delhi to coordinate and monitor the mega event that will continue till June 15.

Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani on Monday addressed a press conference here to unveil the official schedule of the MODI fest.

All union ministers, BJP`s Members of Parliament, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the BJP ruled states will take part in the massive exercise to ensure that Prime Minister`s message of growth and development reaches every district in the country.

Party president Amit Shah will take part in the MODI fest in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will attend the events in Jaipur and Mumbai, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be in Delhi and Lucknow.

Union Ministers Arun Jaitley will participate in the MODI fest in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad; M. Venkaiah Naidu in Bhuwaneshwar and Chhattisgarh, Nitin Gadkari in Chennai and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states will not only take part in the MODI fest in their states but also in other states.Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will attend functions in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh; Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh; Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in Kochi, Kerala; Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Hubli, Karnataka; and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Jammu and Kashmir.

Intellectual meets will also be organised across the country wherein the achievements of the Modi government will be presented.All the union ministers, MPs will attend two functions in the assigned state, one programme each in home state and constituency.
Aligarh: With the recent incidents of clashes and stone pelting taking a toll on the administration, the Aligarh police has decided to use drones for the surveillance of sensitive areas around the city.

The drones will not only help in keeping the crowd under control, it would also keep an eye on the roofs of the house where miscreants keep stones and bricks to create trouble.

Yesterday, people from two communities came to blows and pelted stones at each other in Uttar Pradesh`s Aligarh district.

The clash started with a minor accident late on Wednesday night after which people from both sides clashed and pelted stones at each other in Ladia locality.

The locality is considered `hyper sensitive` communally and as the news of the clashes reached the district officials, police reinforcements were sent and the situation brought under control.

District officials pacified the angry mob and asked them to return to their homes.
New Delhi: After dragging himself into a controversy with his tweet on Arundhati Roy, Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) MP and actor Paresh Rawal on Friday continued to target the female journalist and refused to take down his post on her.

Speaking to media, the actor said that his tweet was misinterpreted and that a section of society tried to give it a 'political' colour.

"Arundhati Roy is known to have supported every wrong in the Valley and hence if she sits on a Army jeep, no Jammu and Kashmir stone-pelter would hit her. Thus there would be no violence in Valley is she is made to sit on an Army vehicle,"he said.

The veteran actor further added that Arunadhati, who has been speaking against the Indian Army should know under what condition the Army personnel battle it with enemies on the border.

Rawal also took a dig at JNU student Shehla Rashid and Congress leader Digvijaya Yadav and accused both of them of giving hate speech.

Watch the complete video in which Rawal has stuck to his stand on Arundhati Roy and rejecting to delete the 'controversial' remark on the female activist.
New Delhi: Two books 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio' and 'Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Midterm' was released by President Pranab Mukherjee during a gala event at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Friday.

The books were released in trhe presence of V-P Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra, Finance Minister Arun jaitley and other dignitaries.

Here are the Live Updates:-

-On the merit of the content of both the books, I wish they have a wide readership: President Pranab Mukherjee

On the merit of the content of both the books, I wish they have a wide readership: President Pranab Mukherjee pic.twitter.com/msU9FxY0IF  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

-PM has given new direction to the economy. Some decisions have been epoch making ones: President.

-The subjects chosen by PM in 'Mann Ki Baat' affect the lives of a billion people: President

-PM is a very effective communicator: President

-One thing common about all good Presidents and Prime Ministers is that they are very good communicators: President

-'Mann Ki Baat' is an ingenious and influential medium, merging a traditional medium with modern mediums: VP Hamid Ansari

-The themes of both the books being released today are very relevant: Vice President

-Under the Prime Minister's leadership the push to digital infrastructure is commendable: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan

-I have known Uday Mahurkar closely, as he belongs to Indore. The book gives details on PM's work culture: LS Speaker

-The issues raised in 'Mann Ki Baat' are very relevant issues that can connect widely: Lok Sabha Speaker

-'Mann Ki Baat' is a two way medium of interaction: Lok Sabha Speaker

-'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' is about 'we the people of India' : Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan

-'Mann Ki Baat' is a very popular programme of the Prime Minister: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan

-The Prime Minister uses the radio to directly communicate with the people: FM Arun Jaitley

-Over the years the radio saw decline. But it was PM who spotted the strength of the radio as a medium: FM

-Over the years the radio saw decline. But it was PM who spotted the strength of the radio as a medium: FM Jaitley

-One of this government's earliest policy decisions was to eliminate any scope of discretion: FM Jaitley

-Blending of good governance with competent politics is essential. Governance must also have high credibility: FM

About The Two Books

The book 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio' by Rajesh Jain is a compilation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's addresses to the nation on radio every month under the programme 'Mann Ki Baat'.

It contains a comprehensive, qualitative and academic analysis of 'Mann Ki Baat' - the themes, the choice of topics, the salient features.

It illustrates how 'Mann Ki Baat' has connected with the 'New India' - the youth in particular. It also presents a coherent narrative about the manner in which ' Mann Ki Baat' has created mass movements, be it in cleanliness, in promoting India's tourism potential, safer roads, drugs free India etc.

The book 'Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Midterm' written by eminent journalist Uday Mahurkar analyses the monumental changes that Prime Minister Modi has brought on multiple fronts as Prime Minister on India's governance landscape by ushering in an unprecedented culture of transparency to create a level playing field so necessary in a developing country.
As per the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on May 23, cattle, which also includes cow, calves, buffaloes and even camels, can now only be sold to farmers.

By Anand Patel: The Modi government has issued a new law to prevent cruelty towards cattle. It has banned sale of cattle for slaughter at animal markets. With the Muslim's holy month of Ramzan beginning from Sunday the move is seen as a step closer to a national beef ban.

As per the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on May 23, cattle, which also includes cow, calves, buffaloes and even camels, can now only be sold to farmers. Purchasers will also have to provide identity papers and ensure that they don't sell the cattle for 6 months.

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THE GAZETTE NOTIFICATION READS: No person shall bring a cattle to an animal market unless upon arrival he has furnished a written declaration signed by the owner of the cattle or his duly authorised agent. The name and address of the owner of the cattle, with a copy of the photo identification proof has to be stated. Details of the identification of the cattle has to be given. Document stating that the cattle has not been brought to the market for sale for slaughter must be produced.

The Animal Market Committee shall, for a period of six months from the date on which it is furnished to them, retain every declaration furnished to it, and it shall, on demand by an Inspector during that period, furnish such declaration and allow a copy of it or an extract from it to be taken.

Interestingly, the Center has powers to make rules to prevent cruelty of animals and the same has been used to make rules even livestock remains a state subject. Each state has its rules on slaughter.

The notification restricts that the purchaser of the cattle from sacrificing the animal for any religious purpose.

The Environment Ministry today defended the new law which makes restrictions only for cattle. Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan told media that there should be no confusion about this, center's law will provide state government with more powers to prevent cruelty against animals

"The law will regulate animal markets and through them ensure that welfare of cattle is taken care of. District animal market committee will need to ensure that the seller and buyer are not involved in any kind of slaughter. The committee will have to maintain an undertaking of this from both sides. There is no abnormality in this," he added.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "We are not dealing with any kind of business, our mandate is to ensure welfare of animals and we have done that. We are absolutely sure that the law is absolutely pious and there is no bias against anyone."

The minister refuted allegations that the new law will encourage 'cow vigilantes' who have been targeting cattle transporters.

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BJP national president Amit Shah welcomed the move. "Several states already have a similar law," he told the media.

The government claims that copies of the said gazette were made available to the public on the January 16, 2017; and whereas objections and suggestions received from the public have been considered by the Central government.

Interestingly goat, sheep, chicken and pig have have been kept out of the ambit of the new law which is a big relief for the consumers. But with the holy month of Ramzan just days away, beef availability in the open market may take a hit.

The move is expected to hit the meat export industry. According to industry estimates 90 per cent of supplies for slaughter houses and the meat industry come from such cattle markets and the move is expected to cripple the industry. The new law is also feared to impact small farmers and dairy owners in the villages many of whom sell their cow and buffaloes in these markets.

Meanwhile, Kerala government has strongly criticized the Center's new law calling it a "fascist and anti-federal move", with agriculture minister VS Sunil Kumar saying they will not allow the government to enforce fascist policies of the RSS and other fringe outfits.

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"Let it issue many such notifications, we will not follow them," he stated.

Also Read:

Government bans sale of cows for slaughter at cattle markets, restricts trade

India's toxic milk and plastic cows

Cow vigilante attacks are anything but spontaneous, reveals India Today sting

Watch Video: Rajasthan: Gau rakshaks beat 50-year-old man to death for smuggling cows

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday rejected the request filed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) to take part in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) hackathon challenge.

"We received the RJD's email at 5:39 pm (applications were to be received by 5 pm). Accordingly their application is not entertainable," the EC said.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has also expressed their interest in participating in the challenge.

Total eight political parties' applications have been accepted by the poll panel to hack the EVM.

The Election Commission informed that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has nominated its three representatives for participating in EVM challenge.

"The AAP and the Congress raised some issue but as per existing framework of challenge, they did not express their interest in participating," stated EC in a press note.

The EC said that the NCP have not chosen any EVMs as per the framework and has left it to the polling commission.

"EC will bring EVMs from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand for challenge," EC said.

Earlier, the poll panel had asked the opposition parties and experts to prove that the EVMs, used in the assembly elections, can be tampered with.

However, the EC put forth terms and conditions for the parties attempting to tamper the machines.

The EC said that only those parties, national and regional, that took part in the recently concluded assembly elections can hack the EVMs.

The poll panel said that the EVMs need to be picked from its warehouses in Delhi at parties' own cost.

Each political party was allowed to pick at least four EVMs of their choice from any four polling stations out of the five poll-gone states. The EVMs involved in the election petition or those sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon.

The poll panel said that if the EVM becomes non-functional after the tamper attempt or if the tamper result is same as the one put out by EC or if the challenger violates the rules-set, the challenge will be struck down.
New Delhi: The Opposition on Friday did not reveal what will be their next course of action in case they fail to arrive at a consensual candidate for the Presidential polls with the ruling BJP.

President Pranab Mukherjee's term ends in July.

Asked what transpired in the meeting at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's luncheon, party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said no decision has been taken yet.

This hasn't happened so far, if acceptable consensual candidates don't emerge then we (opposition parties) shall decide, he told reporters after the meeting.

Normal practice has been ruling party takes initiative to build consensus on names of candidates (President and Vice President), Azad added.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday hosted a luncheon meeting to deliberate on a consensus candidate for the Presidential election.

Leaders of 17 Opposition parties, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad, attended the meeting.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not attend because of a prior engagement, PTI reported.

Among the names doing the rounds as opposition's consensus candidates are ex-governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and ex-Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.

The ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which has a clear edge in the Presidential polls, has not given any inkling so far on its choice of candidate.
Jammu: In a significant development, the Indian Army on Friday foiled a major infiltration bid allegedly backed by the Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to PTI, two attackers have also been killed in the retaliatory firing by the Indian Army.

BAT action against #IndianArmy patrol along LC in Uri Sector foiled. Two BAT terrorists killed. @adgpi  ChinarCorps.IA (@Chinarcorps_IA) May 26, 2017

The action from the Army came in view of reports that members of BAT were planning an attack on the Indian patrol party, which triggered heavy shelling from the Indian side.

The bodies of two attackers killed by the Indian Army is said to be lying near the Line of Control at the moment.

The infiltrators were members of the Pakistan Army's Border Action Team or BAT, the Indian army said.

Through its tough response, the Indian Army also appeared to have avenged the May 1 beheading of two of its brave jawans by Pakistan's infamous BAT.

Pakistan's BAT is widely believed to be behind the beheading of Indian soldiers in the recent past.

BAT has also been accused of targeting Indian Border posts, assaults and brutality on soldiers along the Line of Control.

Pakistan's Special Services Group forms the core of BAT.

On May 1, while Pakistani troops were targeting two forward posts of the Indian Army with rockets and mortar bombs, BAT attackers moved in and beheaded two security personnel - BSF Head Constable Prem Sagar and Army Subedar Paramjeet Singh.

On October 28 last year, an Indian army soldier was killed and his mutilated body was abandoned near the LoC in the Machil sector.

In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body allegedly mutilated by BAT.
New Delhi: In a significant development, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped Congress president Sonia Gandhi's 'unity lunch' held at 10 Janpath on Friday, will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

As per a report, the Bihar Chief Minister, who has drawn fondness for the BJP in recent times, will be attending a lunch to be hosted by the Prime Minister at his New Delhi residence tomorrow, in the honor of his Mauritius counterpart Anerood Jugnauth.

The JD(U)'s spokesperson Ajay Alok said that it would only be an official meet between the two leaders and nothing personal would be discussed.

The development is likely to come as a huge blow for Gandhis and other Opposition parties as Nitish's decision to meet PM Modi hints at a possible change of his stand on presidential election.

Earlier today, Kumar skipped the crucial meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi where all major Opposition parties were invited to discuss the strategy for the upcoming presidential election.

Nitish's staying away from the meeting has raised questions over the unity of the anti-BJP front, which is trying to come together to take on Narendra Modi in 2019.

According to a media report, Kumar had earlier proposed that Pranab Mukherjee be supported by the Opposition for a second term, an offer that was turned down by the Congress chief.

The Meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi with Opposition leaders to build a consensus on the Presidential nominee, was attended by leaders of 17 parties namely JD (U), CPI, CPI-M, SP, DMK, NCP, RJD and TMC, besides some other big and small regional parties are attending the meeting.

Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader Ahmed Patel, another Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, leader A.K. Antony, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, CPI-M`s Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, CPI`s D Raja and JD(U) veteran Sharad Yadav, veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajma, JD (S) member CS Puttaraju, the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders Ram Gopal Yadav, Naresh Agarwal, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati, DMK leader Kanimozhi, Kerala Congress leader Jose Mani, IUML leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, National Conference`s working president Omar Abdullah, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) member N.K.Premachandran, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Party (JMM) MP Sanjeev Kumar, J. Iemant Soren are the attendees.

The opposition put up a grand and united show on a day that also marks the third anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

On the other hand, the Shiv Sena, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra had proposed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's name as the National Democratic Alliance's candidate for the country's top constitutional post earlier too.

President Pranab Mukherjee will demit office on July 25 and Vice President Hamid Ansari will complete his second tenure in August.
New Delhi: The Opposition parties will field a candidate in the Presidential Election if the nominee suggested by the government is not acceptable to them, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday.



She said a small committee would be formed by the opposition leaders, who met over lunch, in case they have to choose a nominee.



Banerjee said the Opposition would accept a candidate of government choice if he or she is secular and one who would uphold the Constitution.



"For the Presidential Election, the decision (of the meeting) is `Let us wait` for the name of the candidate that may be given by the government, and if it satisfies all of us, then we can take a look at it. He should be secular and uphold the Constitution. If there is no consensus, then a committee (of opposition leaders) will be formed that will decide (on the opposition candidate)," she told reporters coming out of the luncheon meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House.



She said there was no harm in discussing a candidate with the government if it comes out with it.



She referred to the 2002 Presidential Election when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had floated APJ Abdul Kalam`s name and a consensus was evolved around it.



Asked about another term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee, she said no names were discussed in the meeting.





Banerjee said all the parties were united in criticism of the government over Kashmir, violence in Saharanpur and demonetisation.



She said a joint statement to be issued after the meeting would reflect the opposition view on all the issues.
Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the strategically important Dhola-Sadiya Bridge in Assam.

After inaugurating the Rs 2,056 crore strategic bridge at Sadiya in Assam's Tinsukia district, Modi walked a short distance over it.

The Prime Minister announced that the country's longest bridge will be named after late legendary singer Bhupen Hazarika. Sadiya was the birth place of the maverick singer.

"The bridge will not only save money, reduce travel time but it comes as a foundation for the beginning of a new economic revolution. That's why the whole nation has its eyes on this bridge", Modi said here on third anniversary of his government.

"For five decades you people have been waiting for a bridge. That has now been inaugurated today (Friday)," Modi said while speaking after inaugurating the Dhola-Sadiya bridge.

"If Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji had returned to power in 2004, then you would have got this bridge 10 years ago," he added.

"What Atalji dreamt for the northeast is being completed by the BJP government in last three years."

"The bridge will bring development to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. For fulfilling India's dream of becoming a top economically developed nation, a superpower, then the North Eastern region is the place to begin with", the PM said.

PM Modi today morning reached Assam. He was received by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Governor Banwarilal Purohit at the airport.

PM Modi was accompanied by Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari.

The India's longest bridge is a three lane one, which would link Dhola is Assam to Sadiya in Arunachal Pradesh.

The bridge will ensure which is 9.15 kilometre will ensure 24X7 connectivity between uppare Assam and eastern part of Arunachal.

The bridge would also reduce the distance from Rupai on NH 37 in Assam to Meka/Roing on NH 52 in Arunachal by 165 km.

It has been built at a cost of about Rs 2,056 crore over river Lohit, a tributary of the Brahmaputra.

The Dhola-Sadiya bridge is longer than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (5.6 km) in Mumbai by nearly two-thirds.

The bridge will also benefit the army, with convoys requiring less time to journey from Assam to the posts along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge is also expected to enhance India's defence capabilities in the northeastern region.

The Ministry of Shipping said the Dhola-Sadiya bridge promises to usher in prosperity in the North-East, it said adding, it will provide efficient road connectivity to remote and backward areas which have poor road infrastructure.

PM Modi termed Dhola-Sadiya Bridge as one of the most important infrastructure projects of the nation.

He is scheduled to address a public meeting at Khanapara in the evening.

The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone for two key projects- AIIMS and IARI. Both projects will quicken the development of Assam and the Northeast, he said on twitter.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sought people's feedback on the third anniversary of the BJP-led NDA government in power at the Centre.

The PM took to Twitter and sought people's feedback on his government's performance in the past three years.

What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App. https://t.co/TYuxNNJfIf  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2017

Last 3 years have seen concrete steps that have transformed peoples lives. These graphics tell you how. https://t.co/8smEezyFds  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2017

The PM, who is in Assam, will also kick-start the Making Of Developed India (MODI) Fest to mark the third anniversary of the BJP-led NDA government in power at the Centre.

The high point of the celebrations will be a series of festivals, which allow the BJP to push the Prime Minister's name while also acronym-ing, a favourite tactic of the party.

All chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states and their deputies will participate in MODI Fest in the capital of their respective states.

Events will be held in about 900 cities across the country between today to June 15 to highlight the achievements in the three years of the central government.

The festivals will be organised by state governments; apart from presentations highlighting key government policies and accomplishments, caps and leaflets about large welfare schemes will be shared.

For its second anniversary last year, the government, having lost crucial elections in Delhi and Bihar, was a little subdued. This year, the outsize win in Uttar Pradesh and the popular support for demonetisation has led to a considerable scaling up of messaging.

Attacking those who question the government's performance, BJP chief Amit Shah said yesterday that they should first answer what they did while in power for decades.

Since the landslide victory in 2014, the BJP has performed well in the recently held state elections. The duo of PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah stitched the most astonishing win in India's largest state- Uttar Pradesh- with 312 seats out of 403 seats.

UP is a state that gives hint which party would be forming next government at Centre.

An analysis of the nation's current mood portends that a perception continues to build in favour of Prime Minister Modi, who has taken several bold steps that don't suit a typical politician.

The demonetisation was one such step. The economic and political pundits may have reasons to declare it a farce but the fact of the matter is that the poor and middle classes believe that Modi boldly waged war against the black money hoarders.

These classes faced most difficulties post demonetisation but the election results show that they acceded to Modi's appeal to support him in his 'war against black money'.

Modi's another revolutionary step was to grant banking access to the poor and downtrodden through Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY). The 'elite' critics and political pundits didn't take it seriously when it was launched. But, they didn't realise that a bank account was the most prized possession for crores of poor Indians. After three years, the average deposit per PMJDY account has more than doubled from Rs. 1,064 in March 2015 to Rs. 2,235 in March 2017. This data shows that the PMJDY was a masterstroke of Modi.

All erstwhile prime ministers would connect with the masses via media, especially state run Doordarshan. But, Modi chose All India Radio to connect with Indians a.ka. real voters via his Mann ki Baat.

The Prime Minister himself is most tech-savvy politician with 3.1 Million followers on Twitter.

Here is another example that the Opposition will have to deal with a Prime Minister who thinks out of the box. Before Modi became Prime Minister, Mahatma Gandhi was being portrayed as political icon of the Congress party. But, Modi broke that perception by launching a nationwide Swacch Bharat Mission in the name of Gandhi. The PM is leaving no stone unturned to spread the cleanliness mantra of the Mahatma. Actually, Modi is doing what the Congress missed.

Modi is a workaholic and as a result he inspires his ministers to become his alter-egos. Till now, he has managed to give a scam free government.

With a clear cut mandate of the majority Indians, Modi has marketed India very well at the international level. India has alienated Pakistan globally. Modi understands the mood of countrymen and acts accordingly.

Breaking the normal procedure, the Modi government publicly announced that Indian Army conducted surgical strike on the terrorist camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in September 2016 to avenge the killing of 19 soldiers in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian Army also on Tuesday released a video which shows Pakistani posts along the Nowshera sector in Rajouri being hit. This was a retaliatory step after Pakistans Border Action Team (BAT) mutilated bodies of two Indian soldiers in Krisha Ghati in Jammu and Kashmir on May 2.

The effects of the surgical strikes on ground could be debated, but Modi has given a sense of confidence to the Indians that there is a strong government in Delhi.

It is a fact that perception is jugular vein of politics and for the time being Modi has an edge over his political rivals as far as the perception is concerned.

It would be interesting to see that whether Sonia and other opposition leaders will be able to stop Modi hurricane or not. They, however, will be facing a herculean task to regain the lost trust of the voters.

With ANI inputs
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday hosted a luncheon meet where deliberation on a consensus candidate for the upcoming Presidential Election was expected to take place.

Leaders of 17 Opposition parties -- including old arch-rivals -- attended the meet on a day that also marks the third anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad were among the leaders who attended luncheon in Parliament to promote opposition unity.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not attend the meet because of a prior engagement.

The Trinamool Congress chief met Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week also and had conveyed that her party was in favour of a consensus candidate for the Presidential Election.

Among the names doing the rounds as the opposition's consensus candidates are of former governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.

The term of President Pranab Mukherjee ends in July. The ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which has a clear edge in the Presidential Election, has not given any inkling so far on its choice of candidate.
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will on Friday host a luncheon meet where deliberations on a consensus presidential candidate will take place.

The Congress leader has invited prominent opposition leaders for the meet in the Parliament House Library on a day that also marks the third anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, however, will not be there because of a prior engagement, sources said, adding that his party, the JD-U, would be represented by Sharad Yadav.

According to senior leaders, there will also be an informal meeting before the lunch.

The sources also said the Congress had not invited Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.

CPI leader D Raja confirmed he would attend, while JD-U leader KC Tyagi said senior leaders of the party will be present.

Opposition party leaders, including Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury, are expected to attend.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, will also attend.

The Trinamool Congress chief met Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week and conveyed that her party was in favour of a consensus candidate for the Presidential Election.

Among the names doing the rounds as the opposition's consensus candidates are of former governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.

The term of President Pranab Mukherjee ends in July. The ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which has a clear edge in the Presidential Election, has not given any inkling so far on its choice of candidate.

Gandhi has been contacting leaders opposed to the ruling BJP to evolve a consensus.

She has spoken to Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD chief Lalu Prasad and met JD-U leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

The Congress chief is also expected to meet Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati.

DMK leader Kanimozhi had invited Sonia Gandhi for her father and DMK chief M Karunanidhi's 94th birthday celebrations in Chennai on June 03, when another meeting of opposition leaders is likely to take place.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Forging a common stance on the upcoming presidential polls, a united opposition that included the Congress and some arch rivals on Friday decided to field its candidate if the NDA government fails to come up with an "acceptable consensual" nominee.

Leaders of 17 parties came together at a luncheon hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on a day when the Modi government celebrated its third anniversary today but the absence of JD(U) stalwart and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar set off speculation.

Kumar is likely to be present at the lunch Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting here tomorrow for visiting Mauritius Premier Pravind Jugnauth. JD(U) leader Pavan Verma, however, said that nothing should be read into the chief minister's absence at today's meeting.

Incumbent Pranab Mukherjee demits office on July 25.

The meeting also saw opposition leaders attack the Centre on the "grave" situation in Kashmir and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and alleged that various sections of society -- Dalits, youth, women, poor and oppressed sections were facing atrocities in this regime.

Bitter rivals in Uttar Pradesh -- the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party -- and arch foes in West Bengal -- the Trinamool Congress and the Left -- were all present at the luncheon at the Parliament House library.

Apart from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, BSP's Mayawati and SP's Akhilesh Yadav, sat under one platform and attended the lunch together with other opposition leaders - NCPs' Sharad Pawar, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and DMK's Kanimozhi.

The JD-U was represented there by Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi, besides RJD's Prem Chand Gupta.

Other Left leaders CPI's S Sudhakar Reddy and D Raja and CPI-M's P Karunakaran were also present, apart from SP's Naresh Agarwal and Ram Gopal Yadav and BSPs Satish Mishra.

Besides representatives of smaller regional parties, Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, JMM's Hemant Soren and Sanjiv Kumar, IUML's P K Kunhalikutty, JD-S's C S Puttaraju, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal and RSP's N K Premchandran also attended the event.

Apart from Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Congress was represented by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and leaders Ahmed Patel, A K Antony and Ghulam Nabi Azad besides Mallikarjun Kharge.

After the meeting, Azad and Sharad Yadav read out a joint statement stating that in view of the presidential election, the normal practice has been that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for these important offices.

"This has not happened so far. If acceptable consensual candidates do not emerge, then we (opposition parties) shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the Constitutional values of our Republic," the statement said.

Yadav said the opposition appeals to the BJP to take the lead and come up with a consensus candidate for the president and the vice president's post, as per traditions, but a consensus between the ruling and opposition sides appears remote.

"We want that someone who protects the Constitution holds this post," he said.

Yadav also said that this opposition unity will continue till the next Lok Sabha elections and "take the challenge" together. He said the leaders of all parties would also work together in raising issues both outside and inside Parliament.

The opposition statement attacked the ruling dispensation expressing their resolve to strengthen floor coordination in Parliament and "to unitedly oppose this government's policies, that are imposing unprecedented burden on all sections of our people, farmers, working people, youth, SC/STs, minorities, women and other weaker sections of the society".

"The opposition parties also expressed concern over the prevailing grave situation in Jammu and Kashmir," the statement also said.

Banerjee, who was one of the first leaders to arrive and leave, separately said in case a consensus candidate does not come up a small committee of opposition leaders will be formed to select a suitable presidential candidate who is "good and secular".

Lalu said the NDA had "failed" on all fronts.

"Its only achievement is that it has set the Pakistan flag fluttering in Kashmir for the first time after independence," he said.

Banerjee told reporters after the lunch that the parties present criticised the "horrible" situation in Kashmir, where security forces were battling civilians, and in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, which has been witnessing caste clashes since April.
New Delhi: WION's Pakistan bureau chief Taha Siddiqui, who had earlier accused Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency of harrassment, could not be reached on Friday despite repeated attempts.

He was summoned to appear before the FIA's counter-terrorism wing today, failing which he was threatened with action under Section 174 of the Pakistan Penal Code, reported Pakistan daily, Dawn.

In a twitter post on May 25, Siddqui had complaint that Pakistan FIA was pursuing action against him under counter-terrorism. "Despite high court orders, FIA pursuing action against me under counter terrorism saying i m "well aware of enquiry". Just got served notice," his twitter post read.

Siddqui had filed a writ petition with the Islamabad high court alleging harassment by the country's FIA.

The petition says the FIA had called Siddiqui, demanding that he appear before it at agency's headquarters for interrogation.

When Siddiqui asked the FIA the reason behind the notice, he was not given a concrete answer. However, a FIA officer hinted that the interrogation pertained to issues and opinion on which he had written pieces.

When Siddiqui replied that his work was in the public domain and that any questions could be asked over the phone, the official told Siddiqui in a threatening tone that it would "be better" for him to appear before it.

The petition adds that Siddiqui was reluctant to appear before the the FIA because "once the person who is to be interrogated sets out to the FIA headquarters, he is either picked up and disappeared or detained illegally".

The petition adds that ever since the phone call, Siddiqui has noticed that "plain-clothed persons have conspicuously been pointing at his house".

Before filing his petition, Siddiqui had written to WION that he is "being harassed by the FIA and being targeted for expressing my opinions".

The journalist had also stated in his petition that FIA deputy director Noman Bodla had called him on May 18, asking him to appear at the FIA headquarters for interrogation.
Guwahati: The wreckage of the Indian Air Force's missing Sukhoi-30 fighter jet, which went missing on Tuesday, was found in the dense forests of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday.

The fighter jet had disappeared with two pilots close to the China border.

Defence spokesperson, Tezpur 4 Corps, Lt Col Sombit Ghosh told news agency PTI that the wreckage of the missing SU-30 jet was found close to the last known position of the aircraft, which was 60 km northwest of Tezpur in Assam's Sonitpur district.

"As of now, the weather is bad and the place has dense foliage and members of the search operation are yet to reach the spot", he said.

A C-130 aircraft with electro-optical payload and ALH helicopters of IAF were being utilised for the search mission.

The Su-30 jet with two pilots on board took off from the IAF Tezpur airbase, located about 172 km from the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh at around 9.30 am on a routine training mission on May 23.

It lost radar and radio contact with the controlling station at around 11.10 am near Arunachal Pradesh's Doulasang area, an area adjoining China, 60 km north of Tezpur.

Tezpur is one of the three IAF air bases in the country that host the Sukhois.

Last year, a Sukhoi-30MKI crashed near Nagaon town of Assam during a routine sortie. While the two pilots ejected safely, some locals suffered splinter injuries in the crash.

(With Agency inputs)
New York: Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to Harvard, the school he dropped out of to start the pioneering social network, telling graduates that it is up to their generation to create a purpose for today's world, to care about others, to fight inequality and strengthen the global community.

Zuckerberg said he would never have been able to risk leaving the elite Ivy League school if he had not known that his family would have been able to support him if he failed.

Zuckerberg received an honorary doctoral degree from the university, along with nine other people including the actress Judi Dench, the composer John Williams (known for "Star Wars," ''Harry Potter" and many other scores) and Somali human rights activist and physician Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe.

"If I get through this speech today it'll be the first time I actually finish something here at Harvard," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg, who like the graduates is a millennial, started Facebook in his dorm room in 2004. What began as a closed networking site for Harvard students is now a global communications force with nearly 2 billion members.

Zuckerberg follows another famous Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, who spoke before its graduates a decade ago. Apple co- founder Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon, gave Stanford's commencement speech in 2005, reminding students to "stay hungry, stay foolish."



With Agency Inputs
Srinagar: A group of terrorists attacked at Indian Army's patrolling party at Jammu and Kashmir's Saimooh village in Pulwama's Tral area on Friday.

The entire area has been cordoned off as the army and the police are conducitng combing operations. The operation is still underway.

Earlier in the day, the Indian Army recovered two bodies along with weapons including one AK 47 rifles and one pistol after foiling an infiltration bid along the Line of Control ( LoC) in Uri Sector, the jawans gunned down two Border Action Team ( BAT) terrorists.

On May 13, amid the ongoing firing by Pakistan along the Line of Control, an Indian Army patrol party was fired upon by terrorists in Pulwama's Tral area.
Thiruvananthapuram: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kerala secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has made some deplorable comments on the Indian Army.

They (Army men) can pick any woman and rape her, nobody has the right to question, Balakrishnan said, adding the situation was same in each state where the Army had been deployed.

The CPI(M) leader didn't stop here. He further said, They (Army) can do anything to anybody. If they see more than four people standing together, they can shoot them.

If the Army is deployed in Kannur, there would be a clash between soldiers and people, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said.

In the recent times, the politically-volatile Kannur has been witnessing deadly clashes between the BJP/RSS and CPI(M) cadre.

The BJP has been claiming that attacks on its cadres have increased since the CPI(M)-led LDF government came to power.

Balakrishnan's controversial statements come after state BJP leadership called on Governor P Sathasivam and sought the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Kannur.

Angry with the 'political killings' in Kannur district, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala had also said that AFSPA was imposed in the Northeast for a specific reason.

"Please check on facts and for information a few stray incidents that took place there should not be generalised. You can find for yourselves how AFSPA helped the people there," said Chennithala.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said BJP state President B S Yeddyurappa's visits to houses of Dalits and having food there was an "act of hypocrisy" and a "drama."

Siddaramaiah said Yeddyurappa allegedly preferring breakfast from a hotel instead of what was prepared at a Dalit's house he had visited was a "practice of untouchability."



"....These days Yeddyurappa has started speaking about? Dalits. In his life, he has never favoured Dalits, even when he was chief minister," Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking at a press conference to highlight "failures" of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government as it completed three years in office, he said "He (Yeddyurappa) is visiting dalits house, but eating food brought from outside- is it not a practice of untouchability"

"Dalits had prepared palav (pulao) in their house for him, but he instead preferred idli and dosa brought from outside?(Hotel). Is it not an act of hypocrisy? They are doing it for?show off and drama. If they feel they can fool people from such acts, it shows their foolishness," he added.

As part of his drought study tour across the state, Yeddyurappa was recently in Chitradurga where he along with other leaders partook of breakfast at a dalits house.

It was alleged that the former chief minister had breakfast brought from a nearby hotel instead of what was homemade, which drew flak from both the Congress and JD(S).

Refuting the charge, Yeddyurappa had termed it a malicious campaign by the Congress unable to resist his visit to dalit mohallas Attacking the Modi government, Siddaramaiah said "they had promised ache din (good days). I don't know to whom ache din has come after three years."

He said it has not come for youth, farmers, labourers or dalits.

Atrocities against dalits had increased by 38 per cent after BJP coming to power, he claimed.

He alleged that polarization was the only achievement of the?Modi government, and added that Karnataka specifically has not benefited from the Centre on various fronts.

Alleging that the Modi government had failed on all fronts, Congress General Secretary in-charge for Karnataka K C Venugopal said all the populist schemes of NDA government? were nothing but continuation of UPA government schemes with? name change.

He also said "Swachh Bharat" mission was a scam....Some NGOs have conducted a survey about what has happened in Swachh Bharat, all the toilets which are constructed under Swachh Bharat have vanished. Actually it has become a big scam. Swachh Bharat is a scam," Venugopal said.
Mumbai: The counting of votes for Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) Elections 2017 is currently underway on Friday. BJP is said to be headed to victory in Panvel City Municipal Corporation elections 2017, as per the latest trends available as of now.

Here are the LIVE updates:-

-The result of only one seat is awaited in Panvel.

-BJP wins 51 seats, PWP-led alliance bags 25, as of now.

-With 51 seats, BJP set to get two-third majority in Panvel civic polls. While the PWP-Congress-NCP alliance has won 25 seats, Shiv Sena could secured only 1.

-BJP is poised to register a decisive victory in the Panvel municipal corporation elections. Meanwhile, the PWP-NCP-Congress alliance is ahead on 17 seats.

-BJP is now leading on 37 seats - one short from halfway mark, while the PWP-led alliance leading on 15 seats.

-The MNS led by Raj Thackeray is trailing from all the seats. The BJP is headed towards victory as it leads in 34 seats so far.

-BJP is now said to be leading on 34 seats, while the PWP-led alliance is ahead on 15. Shiv Sena has won 1 seat so far while Raj Thackeray-led MNS continues with its poor show here as well.

-PWP has now taken its lead to 15 seats. Meanwhile, five of the BJP leading candidates have been declared winners.

-BJP is now leading on 30 seats, eight short of majority. Meanwhile, the PWP led alliance is ahead on 14 seats. Shiv Sena has taken its lead to 9 seats.

-BJP takes it leads to 28, while the PWP-NCP-Congress alliance is ahead only 1.

-Trends at 11:25 am - Panvel: BJP leading in 8 seats, Congress 1, Sena 1, PWPI 1.

-Trends at 11:25 am - Malegaon: Shiv Sena ahead in 7 seats, Congress 3, NCP 3, BJP 2, MIM 2 and Others 1.

- Panvel Municipal Corporation: BJP surges ahead on 23 seats, PWP ahead on 11,

-Trends at 11 am - Panvel: BJP leading in 8 seats, Congress 11, Sena 7, PWPI 7,

- Panvel Municipal Corporation election: BJP surges ahead on 20 seats. Shiv Sena leads on 1 seat.

- Panvel Municipal Corporation election: PWP ahead on two seats, BJP leading on one.

- Panvel Municipal Corporation: BJP, PWP leading on one seat each.

- Panvel - BJP leading according to early trends.

Panvel City Municipal Corporation

The newly incorporated civic body went into polls on Wednesday. Voting was held on a total of 78 seats. For the 78 seats contested in PCMC, a total of 418 candidates were in the fray.

BJP, eyeing to win the first ever election for Panvel civic body, fielded candidates on 75 out of the 78 seats contested. The remaining 3 seats were allotted to its ally  Republican Party of India (Athawale). The Congress, under its electoral arrangement with NCP and Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), contested on a total of 12 seats.

The PWP was allotted 48, whereas, the NCP fielded candidates on 12 seats.
Latur: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday had a close shave when his helicopter got entangled in overhead wires and crash-landed in Latur district.

According to a report in news agency IANS, the first person to rush to the rescue was small-time scrap dealer Irfan Shaikh, who shouted: "Our king (CM) is trapped in the chopper".

While Shaikh ran towards the chopper to rescue those who were trapped inside, some others nearby ran away from the aircraft, fearing it might explode.

The chopper came hurtling down from a height of around 80 feet in a thick cloud of dust, accompanied by some flashes of light and a loud booming sound.

Paying no heed to the risk, Shaikh ran towards the chopper to see how he could help the people stuck inside.

"The copter door was jammed and could not be opened... I pushed it but it didn't budge... The Chief Minister then responded by pushing it from inside... Then I managed to force it open from outside... I offered my hand to the CM and helped him step down," Shaikh told Lokmat Group.

A shaken Fadnavis told Shaikh that he was "fit and ok", and asked him to help the pilots and others on board the chopper even as he walked a few steps away.

Officials of the Chief Minister's Office in Mumbai confirmed the developments on Friday but declined to say whether Fadnavis would felicitate or honour the scrap dealer for rushing to assist them at a critical time, as the chopper could have exploded.

Later, Fadnavis told people that it was the "blessings of the 12-crore people of Maharashtra and Jai Bhavani" which helped him and five others survive the crash.

As Shaikh helped the other occupants out, police jeeps, private vehicles and security personnel along with ambulances sped to the crash site and joined the rescue operations.

Fadnavis subsequently left in an ambulance for the home of Latur Guardian Minister Sambhajirao Patil-Nilangekar before returning to Mumbai later in the day.

Speaking to IANS today, Shaikh said when Chief Minister Fadnavis took off in the copter, he like many others, dropped everything to view the take-off and try and catch a glimpse of "the king (CM)".

"When it crashed down, my only thought was how to help those trapped inside to come out safely," Shaikh said.

Later, he followed the Chief Minster`s convoy to the minister`s house but the security officials refused to allow him inside, so he quietly returned to his shop for work as usual.

Celebrating Fadnavis` miraculous escape, Mumbai`s Dabbawallas today acknowledged and congratulated Shaikh for rushing to help the Chief Minister without caring for his own life.

The crash-landing occurred soon after the chopper with six persons on board, including three CMO officials and two crew, took off at around 12 noon from Nilanga, around 45 km from Latur, for Mumbai.

The state government's six-year-old Sikorsky chopper was damaged beyond repair, an official of civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told PTI.

The incident will be investigated by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), which comes under the Civil Aviation Ministry, the official said. The AIB probes all accidents and serious incidents involving Indian aircraft.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The BSE benchmark Sensex crossed 31,000-mark for the first time while the NSE Nifty breached 9,600 level in closing hour of trade Friday on heavy buying.

The 50-issue Nifty gained 91.45 points, or 0.96 percent, to trade at 9,601.20, surpassing its previous intra-day high of 9,532.60 touched on May 17.

The Nifty has risen nearly 30.46 percent since the BJP- led NDA government came to power in May 2014.

The BSE Sensex quoted higher at 31,074.07 and 30,745.57. It jumped 260.09 or 0.85 percent in the closing hour of the trade.

All the sectoral indices, led by metal, capital goods, auto and power, were trading in positive zone with gains of up to 3.53 percent.

The major gainers were Tata Steel, Adani Ports, RIL, Asian Paint, Powergrid and Tata motors among others.

Reliance Industries Ltd gained as much as 3.23 percent, while Tata Steel Ltd gained as much as 5.6 percent to 514.35 rupees, its highest since September 2014.

Consumer firm ITC Ltd , which is slated to report March quarter results later in the day, gained as much as 0.70 percent.

Pharma company Cipla Ltd dropped to an eleven-month low of 3.13 percent after posting a quarterly loss against analysts` expectations.

The benchmark BSE Sensex too climbed 320.80 points, or 1.04 percent, to trade at new record high of 31,070.83. The gauge has risen nearly 26 percent since May 2014.

Marketmen said persistent inflow of foreign funds and sustained buying by retail investors, buoyed by a series of positive cues such as early onset of monsoon, upbeat quarterly earnings and finalisation of rates by the GST Council, fuelled the rally.
Mumbai: Actor Saqib Saleem says he has to be cautious while choosing the his films as he is not an industry insider and will not get a second chance to prove himself.

Saqib's father Saleem Qureshi is a restaurateur, and runs a chain of restaurants called Saleem's in Delhi. His sister Huma Qureshi is a Bollywood actress.

The actor says he is not bothered by people questioning him for doing less number of films as his focus is on choosing the right movies.

"To find a good script is very important, because the chances and opportunities I would be getting will be very far and few".

"I am not from here (film industry), I come from Delhi, I've nothing to do with this. To make inroads here, I've to find the right films. If my films don't do well, nobody is going to give me films," Saqib told PTI.

The 29-year-old actor says instead of doing 10 mediocre films, it's better to do one good project.

"It becomes important to do the right films, than do 10 films in a year. You may do it once, but it'll never happen again".

"If you screw up five films straight, then you're done. It's a business, the producer invests money and you need to make sure his money is recovered and in the process you give out the best film," he says.

Saqib made his debut in 2011 with "Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge" and then starred in films like "Mere Dad Ki Maruti", "Bombay Talkies", "Hawaa Hawaai" and "Dishoom".

He is awaiting the release of his next film "Dobaara" which also stars his sister Huma.

Saqib is aware that new actors constantly keep coming in the film industry, but he isn't interested in trying to catch up to them.

"I can't fight that (newcomers coming in). They do their job, I do mine. What my work is, nobody can take from me. All I can do is work hard".

"I don't look at things like 'what is he getting?', it's better to focus on 'what can I do'," he says.

This year the actor has two releases. "Dobaara", a supernatural-horror film, and a love story with Taapsee Pannu.

"The film with Taapsee that I have almost completed is 'Makhna', it's tentatively called that. Just a couple of songs are left which I'll shoot. I think it should release sometime towards the end of the year, by November," he says
New Delhi: As far as HRA is concerned, the central government employees are currently suffering a maximum monthly loss of Rs 33,000, due to non implementaion of revised allowances under the Seventh Pay Commission.

However, the 10-month long wait of central government employees and pensioners for allowances is about to end as the Narendra Modi government is expected to announce a maximum HRA hike of up to 122 percent for them soon.

As per media reports, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) will go through the Ashok Lavasa report on revised allowances by June 1.

A high-level committee headed by the Finance Secretary, Ashok Lavasa had on April 27 submitted its report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The committee on allowances has reportedly given its view in favour of AK Mathur-led 7th Pay Commission recommendation, regarding decrease in house rent allowance (HRA) by 2-6 percent depending on type of cities.

The 7th Pay Commission headed by AK Mathur had earlier proposed the rate of House Rent Allowance (HRA) at 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively.

The Commission had also recommended that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent when DA crosses 50 percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent when DA crosses 100 percent.

The existing rates of HRA for Class X, Y and Z cities and towns are 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent of Basic pay (pay in the pay band plus grade pay).

If the Narendra Modi government accepts the bare recommendations of A K Mathur-led 7th Pay Commission then the HRA component of central government employees will increase ranging between 106 percent and 122 percent.

Take, for instance, a central government employee at the very bottom of the pay scale under 6th Pay Commission was till now entitled to an HRA of Rs 2,100 on basic pay of Rs 7,000 (basic pay that includes pay of pay band + grade pay) in a Class X city. It is to be noted that government, while implementing the 7th Pay Commission in June last year had made it clear that till the final outcome of allowances committee is being placed, the employees would be getting the allowances as per 6th Pay Commission.

Now, as per 7th Pay Commission, the new entry level pay at this level is Rs 18,000 per month against which the new HRA for a Class X city would be Rs 4,320 per month, that is 106 percent more than the existing level.

Similarly, at the highest level of the pay scale, the Cabinet Secretary and officers of the same rank have a basic pay of Rs 90,000, which means they are entitled to current HRA of Rs 27,000 in Class X towns. After the revised pay scale, the new basic pay is Rs 2.5 lakh, for which the HRA would be Rs 60,000, meaning a hike of 122 percent.
New Delhi: The Rajasthan Police has assured that legal action was taken by the local cops at the time when Sikh men were allegedly beaten up by local residents of Chainpura in Ajmer district.

Speaking to ANI here, a Senior police officer of Rajasthan, Rajendra Singh Rathore said, "A video went viral following which the incident was reported.

This happened around one month back and at the time, the police reached the spot to take control of the situation and necessary action was taken.

"In a 51-second video, four members of Sikh community were seen being abused and thrashed by a mob as people witnessing the incident filmed the entire episode.

According to reports, the four Sikh men to from Alwar district had visited the village to collect the donation.

The local residents then beat them up alleging that they molested their women.

Those involved in the assault were arrested under the Indian Penal Code section 151 (knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons after it has been commanded to disperse).

However, according to police, the Sikh men were not found involved in any kind of molestation and were asked to file a cross FIR against those who thrashed them but apparently did not do so.

According to reports, the four accused were arrested and released on bail.
Mumbai: After investing five years for SS Rajamoulis two-part magnum opus Baahubali , Telugu superstar Prabhas, who is now a household name across India, is all set to woo fans with his next  Saaho.

The hunk of an actor will soon return from his vacation in the US to shoot for Sujeeths film and if the latest buzz is anything to go by, the actioner will be shot in Mumbai.

According to a DNA report, the filmmaker is keen to shoot his film in Indias financial capital.

The plot in Saaho unfolds in Mumbai. Director Sujeeth wants to shoot action scenes with Prabhas on Mumbai roads during the rains, DNA quoted the source as saying.

The film which is release in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam will also be shot in Abu Dhabi and some parts of Europe.

The leading lady has not been finalised yet but it will reportedly be someone from the Telugu film industry. There were reports suggesting that the makers were keen to cast a Bollywood actress but since things didnt work out, they decided to have a Telugu heroine on board.

But if Saaho is shot in Mumbai, we are sure Prabhas fans in the city will be ecstatic.
New Delhi: Studying seriously at school paid off for a 17-year-old boy as the concepts of physics helped this high school graduate design a special shoe for women's safety.

Brushing his physics lessons and learning a few basic coding skills, Siddharth Mandala, designed an 'ElectroShoe'  a special product for women, which when used can allow them to electrocute perpetrators of crimes.

This aspiring tech entrepreneur, says that this product can help women foil a rape attempt.

As per a report published in indiatimes.com, the shoe inflicts 0.1amp electricity and also sends out an alert for assistance to cops and family members.

The shoe was created using a unique circuit board that uses footsteps to charge itself with the help of a concept called the "piezoelectric effect".

The more the user walks, the more energy is generated and stored in a rechargeable battery.

Users only need to make sure that the battery is sufficiently charged and when the shoe comes in contact with the attacker's body, he will electrocuted.

The young entrepreneur was quoted saying as he was inspired to create the self-defence device for women, post the 2012 Delhi gangrape incident.
New Delhi: Scientists will conduct an experiment to find out whether human consciousness is truly material or immaterial.

Lucien Hardy, a theoretical physicist from the Perimeter Institute in Canada, has deviced an experiment involving quantum entanglement that could finally prove whether our minds are controlled by something that may be potentially separate from the material world.

Quantum entanglement, referred to as a "spooky action at a distance" by Albert Einstein, remains to be one of the most intriguing and interesting phenomena in quantum physics.

Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that involves two particles that are mysteriously and instantaneously linked. In other words, if two particles are entangled, then measuring the state of one particle seems to immediately influence the state of the other, even if they are light-years apart.

Decades of quantum experiments have verified that entanglement is a real phenomenon, but it remains 'spooky'.

In 1964, physicist John Bell devised a very famous test called the 'Bell test' to determine whether particles do, in fact, influence one another as for entanglement itself.

The Bell test involves creating a pair of entangled particles and sending one towards location A and the other to location B, reports New Scientist. And at each point, there is a device that measures, say, the spin of the particle.

The settings in the measuring devices are set at random, so that it's impossible for A to know the setting of B (and vice versa) at the time of measurement. The Bell test has supported the spooky theory in the past.

For the new experiment, Hardy has proposed a version of the Bell test involving 100 humans, each hooked up to EEG headsets that would read their brain activity.

These devices - EEG signals would be used to influence the particles at each location ( A and B, set at 100 kilometres apart).

"The radical possibility we wish to investigate is that, when humans are used to decide the settings (rather than various types of random number generators), we might then expect to see a violation of quantum theory in agreement with the relevant Bell inequality," Hardy wrote in a paper published online earlier this month.

Hardy asserts that if the correlation between the measurements don't match previous Bell tests that study entanglement, then it could be a violation of quantum theory, suggesting the entangled measurements A and B are being controlled by factors outside the realm of standard physics.

"[If] you only saw a violation of quantum theory when you had systems that might be regarded as conscious, humans or other animals, that would certainly be exciting. I can't imagine a more striking experimental result in physics than that," Hardy said.

"We'd want to debate as to what that meant."

Even if physics controls the material world, if the human mind is not made of that same matter, we could overcome physics with free will, Dr Hardy told New Scientist.

"It wouldn't settle the question, but it would certainly have a strong bearing on the issue of free will," added Hardy.

While the finding could be controversial as it would question the existence of free will, this could potentially be the first time scientists gain a firm grasp on the problem of consciousness.
London: A new species of bus-sized fossil reptile has been discovered by a team of scientists in Russia.

Pliosaurs are characterised by a large, 2-metre long skull, enormous teeth and extremely powerful jaws, making them the top predators of oceans during the 'Age of Dinosaurs'.

The new species belong to a group of Plesiosaur marine reptiles, the most diverse and one of longest-lived aquatic four-limbed creatures, which possess an unusual body shape not seen in other marine vertebrates with four large flippers, a stiff trunk, and a highly varying neck length.

Researchers found a new, exceptionally well-preserved and highly unusual pliosaur from the Cretaceous of Russia  about 130 million years ago.

It was found in 2002 on bank of the Volga River in Russia.

The skull of the new species, dubbed "Luskhan itilensis", meaning the Master Spirit from the Volga river, is 1.5 metre in length, indicating a large animal.

However, its rostrum is extremely slender, resembling that of fish-eating aquatic animals such as gharials or some species of river dolphins.

Valentin Fischer, lecturer at the Universite de Liege in Belgium said,"This is the most striking feature, as it suggests that pliosaurs colonised a much wider range of ecological niches than previously assumed."

By analysing two new and comprehensive datasets that describe the anatomy and ecomorphology of plesiosaurs with cutting edge techniques, researchers revealed that several evolutionary convergences took place during the evolution of plesiosaurs, notably after an important extinction event at the end of the Jurassic (145 million years ago).

The new findings have also ramifications in the final extinction of pliosaurs, which took place several tens of million years before that of all dinosaurs.

The new results suggest that pliosaurs were able to bounce back after the latest Jurassic extinction, but then faced another extinction that would wipe them off the depths of ancient oceans, forever.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

(With PTI inputs)
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) National drug pricing regulator NPPA today asked pharma firms to ensure that prices of all their drugs have been fixed correctly by following provisions of drug price control order by the end of next month.

Companies must "self check, self correct and self report violations of law if any by June 30, 2017", National Pharmaceutical Pricing Regulator (NPPA) tweeted.

advertisement

The regulator, which had earlier put up names of companies that didnt follow pricing norms on its website, also said it has withdrawn the list after discomfort expressed by pharma firms.

NPPA said all pharma companies on their own must check their entire portfolio and see whether prices of all scheduled /non-scheduled and new drugs have been fixed correctly, as per the provisions of DPCO 2013 and take necessary action by June 30, 2017.

In case of new drugs, if prior price approval has not been taken, the companies are requested to complete their Integrated Pharmaceutical DataBase Management System (IPDMS) filing and submit their applications for price approval, NPPA said.

The regulator also asked the pharma associations to contemplate the reasons for such violation and complete their database of IPDMS.

NPPA had earlier this month asked the companies, which included Alkem Laboratories, Glenmark Pharma, Lupin, Novartis India, Sanofi India, Wockhardt, Unichem, Zydus Cadila, Glaxosmithkline Pharma, among others, to furnish batch-wise production and sales details along with corresponding MRP along with reasons for non-compliance of norms by June 15.

The regulator is also holding meetings on June 1-2 with pharma associations on GST and uninterrupted supply of drugs and other issues of pharma sector. PTI AKT RKL SBT

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi: After BSP chief Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday denied permission to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to visit the violence-hit villages of Saharanpur on Saturday.

Confirming the development, news agency ANI reported that UP Police has denied permission to the Congress leader ahead of his scheduled Saharanpur visit.

No permission to Rahul Gandhi to visit Saharanpur, Aditya Mishra, ADG Law and Order, was quoted as saying by ANI.

Saharanpur has been on the boil after in view of the violent clashes between the Dalits and the Thakurs.

Mobile internet services and social networking sites have also been blocked in the violence-singed areas.

The Union Home Ministry has also sought a report from the state government on the Saharanpur violence.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called the recent incidents of violence in Saharanpur a "well-planned conspiracy" as the city slowly limped back to normalcy.

Clashes between Dalits and Rajputs erupted in Shabbirpur village on May 5 after objections were raised over playing loud music in connection with celebration of the birth anniversary of warrior king Maharana Pratap.

Caste clashes erupted again in the village on Tuesday night after a visit by Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, leading to the death of one person and injuries to over two dozen.
New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday lauded the Yogi Adityanath's government in Uttar Pradesh and said that he passed the test with flying colours.

Shah said the UP government has handled all pressing issues, be it Jewar gang-rape, Mathura and Saharanpur incidents, without delay.

The Yogi Adityanath's government has tackled everything promptly and have taken strong steps, Shah told reporters.

On completing BJP's third year at the Centre, Shah said, Certain things which could not be achieved in 70 years, have been attained in these three years.

Asked to comment on filmstar Rajnikanth planning to join politics, he said, If Rajnikanth ji wishes to enter politics, he is welcome; I'm using the word 'politics', not 'BJP', decision is up to him.
Lucknow: A special CBI court on Friday directed BJP stalwarts L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti to appear before it on May 30 for framing of charges in the Babri Masjid demolition case in light of the Supreme Court order restoring the serious offence of criminal conspiracy against them.

Special CBI judge S K Yadav also asked three other BJP leaders -- Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia -- to present themselves before the court in person on that day.

He said no application for adjournment or exemption shall be entertained.

The court which is hearing two separate cases, has already fixed May 30 for framing of charges against Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Ram Vilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma alias Prem Ji, Champat Rai Bansal, Dharma Das and Satish Pradhan in the other matter.

The apex court had on April 19 directed that Advani (89), Joshi (83), Bharti (58) and other accused in the case would be prosecuted for serious offence of criminal conspiracy in the politically sensitive 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. It had also ordered day-to-day trial to be concluded in two years.

The top court, which had dubbed the demolition of the medieval-era monument as a "crime" which shook the "secular fabric of the Constitution", allowed the CBI's plea on restoration of criminal conspiracy charge against the BJP stalwarts.

However, the Supreme Court had said Kalyan Singh, who is the Rajasthan Governor and during whose tenure as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh the disputed structure was razed, is entitled to immunity under the Constitution as long as he holds the gubernatorial office.

It had transferred the case against Advani, Joshi, Bharti and three other accused from a Raebareli court to Lucknow for a joint trial in the demolition case.
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will visit violence-hit villages of Saharanpur on Saturday.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On May 5, a person was killed and 15 people were injured in clashes between two communities.

Mobile internet services and social networking sites have also been blocked in the violence-singed areas.

The Union Home Ministry has also sought a report from the state government on the Saharanpur violence.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called the recent incidents of violence in Saharanpur a "well-planned conspiracy" as the city slowly limped back to normalcy.

Clashes between Dalits and Rajputs erupted in Shabbirpur village on May 5 after objections were raised over playing loud music in connection with celebration of the birth anniversary of warrior king Maharana Pratap.

Caste clashes erupted again in the village on Tuesday night after a visit by Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, leading to the death of one person and injuries to over two dozen.
Gorakhpur: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the country had touched new heights on both the home front as well as the international stage with Modi at its helm.

Addressing a public gathering, held here to mark the completion of three years of the BJP-led NDA government, Adityanath also played heavily up the party's largely corruption-free image.

"In the last three years, no (BJP) minister has been accused of corruption," Adityanath said.

He further remarked that Modi's policies and programmes had added heft to India's global status prompting developed countries to take note of her growth story.

"A number of countries have praised the work and schemes of Prime Minister Modi. India's honour and self-respect in the world has definitely gone up," he said.

The UP chief minister insisted that the central government's welfare schemes were devoid of any partisanship and in fact were launched with the aim to ensure 'development for all'.

"In the last three years, as many as 69 schemes were launched for the welfare of the people irrespective of their caste, creed or religion," he said.

He also urged the party workers to gear up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and work hard to ensure BJP's win in the parliamentary elections.
Greater Noida: In a twist in the alleged robbery and gang-rape on Jewar-Bulandshahr road on Wednesday night, one of the victims has revealed that the perpetrators were known to her family.

The lady has told a news channel that the crime was the result of an old enmity.

She has also revealed the identity of the miscreants, reported India News.

Naseer and his son, Munna, Shah Alam, and Kabir's son were involved in the horrific crime, said the victim.

The latest incident took place some 60 km from Noida on Jewar at around 1.30 am on Wednesday. Eight members, including four women, of a Greater Noida-based family, were headed to Bulandshahr to visit an ailing relative in a hospital in western Uttar Pradesh.

According to the victims, five armed men forced the car, an Eeco van, to stop by shooting at its tyres near Sabota village in Jewar.

The armed men took turns to rape the women at gunpoint in a nearby field.

When scrap dealer Shakeel Qureshi, 40, put up a resistance, the men shot him dead. The victims were also looted of their valuables, mobile phones, and Rs 44,000 cash, police said.

The lady has alleged that Shah Alam shot dead Qureshi on the instructions of Naseer. She has further told the channel that her brother was also killed by this group seven years ago.

Naseer hailed from the victims' village.

The incident is reminiscent of the horrific gang-rape of a woman and her 13-year-old daughter in July 2016 when they were travelling in a car from Noida to Shahjahanpur. The incident took place on the national highway passing through Bulandshahr.
Ghaziabad): Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Khanna on Friday averred that the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is leaving no stone unturned is providing a safe environment to its people.

Khanna said that whosoever commits crime in Uttar Pradesh will be brought to book and prosecuted as per law of the land.

"It is a big state, we are trying our best to provide a safe environment. No matter who it is, if anybody commits a crime, action will be taken against them," said Khanna.

The Congress launched a scathing attack on the Uttar Pradesh Government over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, while saying that `Uttam Pradesh` is turning into `crime Pradesh.

`Uttam Pradesh` is turning into `Crime Pradesh`.

The Saharanpur incident is very painful and heart-wrenching. Such incidents never happened before.

This all happened at the behest of government," Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala told ANI.

Echoing similar views, Congress leader Kapil Sibbal said the incidents of violence were increasing in the state because of the negligence of the government.
Bajrang dal activists tied the effigy of Omar Abdullah to the front of a moving jeep and later burnt it in front of the National Conference Headquarters.

By Ashwini Kumar: Bajrang dal activists today tied the effigy of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to the bonnet of a moving jeep while raising slogans against him in Jammu.

Lead by their president, Rakesh Sharma, the activists travelled in the jeep in Old Jammu city and later, burnt the effigy in front of the National Conference Headquarters.

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Commenting on the issue, Rakesh Sharma questioned as to why the national conference was making an issue of Major Gogoi being rewarded with citation by the army chief.

MAJOR GOGOI CONTROVERSY

Indian Army Major Leetul Gogoi, had stirred a controversy by tying a local youth in front of a jeep last month in Kashmir as a human shield to avoid attack from stone-pelters.

After the Court of Inquiry (COI) found nothing against Gogoi, the Army honoured the major of 53 Rashtriya Riflesh with COAS (Chief of Army Staff) commendation for sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations. Major Gogoi was rewarded by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat during his recent visit to Jammu and Kashmir.

The April 9 incident in Budgam, had stirred a controversy in the Kashmir Valley. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had described the incident as shocking.

A video of the incident which happened during Srinagar by-polls had gone viral leading to an uproar. The Jammu and Kashmir Police had also registered an FIR against the security forces.

Also Read:

Major who tied Kashmiri civilian to jeep given clean chit, Army brass believes he saved lives

Nothing found against Major Leetul Gogoi in court of inquiry, say Army sources

Also Watch:

Major Gogoi award controversy: BJP questions Omar Abdullah on stone-pelters' attack on Army

--- ENDS ---
Kolkata: Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Friday inspected the ghats along the Ganga river here as part of her 15-day trip across five states to assess the execution of the central government`s `Namami Gange` (National Mission for Clean Ganga) programme.



According to Namami Gange`s Twitter handle, Bharti started the tour with an inspection of the cleanliness of ghats along the Ganga river in Kolkata.



The officials of Namami Gange, Central Groundwater Board and other departments were also present.



The minister is expected to meet the stakeholders of the project as well as public along the Kashipur ghat on Friday evening.
Beirut: An air strike on Thursday evening killed at least 35 civilians, including family members of Islamic State fighters, in al-Mayadin, a town held by the jihadists near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.



A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State told Reuters that its forces had conducted strikes near al-Mayadin on May 25 and 26 and were assessing the results.



Two days of aerial bombardment in al-Mayadin have now killed a total of 50 people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.



Residents saw reconnaissance aircraft and warplanes circling the city at 7:25 p.m. (16:25 GMT) before they fired missiles which struck two buildings, one of which was a four-storey block housing Syrian and Moroccan families of Islamic State fighters.



Islamic State is losing ground in both Syria and Iraq under assault from an array of sometimes rival forces in both countries. Many of its fighters who have retreated from other fronts are missing in Syria`s Euphrates basin area.



The U.S.-led coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes and investigates any that are reported to have taken place.
Beijing: Chinese activists say they fear intensified state surveillance after a draft law seeking to legitimise monitoring of suspects and raid premises was announced last week, the latest step to strengthen Beijing`s security apparatus.

Half a dozen activists contacted by Reuters say they already face extensive surveillance by security agents and cameras outside their homes. Messages they post on social media, including instant messaging applications like WeChat are monitored and censored, they said.

The draft of a new law to formally underpin and possibly expand China`s intelligence gathering operations at home and abroad was released on May 16.

However, the law was vaguely worded and contained no details on the specific powers being granted to various state agencies.

"State intelligence work should...provide support to guard against and dispel state security threats (and) protect major national interests," the document said.

The law will give authorities new legal grounds to monitor and investigate foreign and domestic individuals and bodies in order to protect national security, it said.

Public consultation for the draft ends on June 4. It is unclear when the final version may be passed.

Hu Jia, a well-known dissident, said the release was met with fear and despair in his circle of reform-minded activists, where it was seen as a sign of strengthening resolve in the ruling Communist Party to crush dissent.

"Before, the party acted in secret, but now they have confidence to openly say: `We are watching you`," Hu told Reuters.

"The law is also partly to frighten people ahead of the 19th Party Congress; to tell them to be careful, to be quiet," he added. Hu was referring to the once in five years congress of the Communist Party likely to be held in October or November in which President Xi Jinping is likely to further cement his hold on power by appointing allies into the party`s inner core.

Xi became head of a newly established national security commission in 2013 and has since overseen a raft of legislation to expand legal rights and obligations for the security apparatus in the name of safeguarding China.

Western governments and rights activists say these measures shrink the space for independent civil society in China. Beijing says that the measures are warranted given its security concerns.

The draft proposes to give state security agencies "broad authority to question anyone, read or collect any material, and install surveillance devices or set up on-site posts inside any office or commercial building," Hong Kong-based advocacy group the Network of Human Rights Defenders said in a statement.
Marawi: Foreigners are among Islamist gunmen battling security forces in a southern Philippine city, the government said Friday as the reported death toll from four days of clashes climbed to 46.



President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday, hours after gunmen loyal to the Islamic State group rampaged through Marawi City in response to a raid on one of their safe houses.



"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens. It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign fighters," Solicitor General Jose Calida, the government`s chief lawyer, told reporters in the southern city of Davao.



He said Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans and "other foreign jihadists" were fighting in Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines with about 200,000 residents.



Philippine military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said six foreign fighters are believed to have been killed in the Marawi fighting, including Malaysians, Indonesians and another nationality which he did not specify.



Calida said these foreign fighters had heeded a "clarion call" of IS to travel to Mindanao to put up a "wilayat" or IS province if they could not go to fight in Iraq or Syria.



Padilla said 11 soldiers, two policemen and 31 militants had been confirmed killed in the fighting, which has involved the military bombing buildings where the militants have been hiding.



Two civilians were also killed inside a hospital that the gunmen had occupied on Tuesday, and the military was investigating reports that nine people had been murdered at a checkpoint the militants had set up, authorities said.



The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.



The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world`s most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.



The raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then went on a rampage across the city while flying black IS flags.



Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because the militants were moving nimbly through homes, had planted bombs in the streets, and were holding hostages.



They said militants had also occupied higher ground in the city, enabling them to slow down or stop assaults from the security forces.

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Jakarta: Indonesian police arrested three people on Friday suspected of being linked to suicide bombings in Jakarta, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed three police officers at a bus station and wounded 12 others.



The attack was the deadliest in Indonesia since January 2016, when eight people were killed, four of them attackers, after bombers and gunmen attacked the capital Jakarta.



After visiting the site of Wednesday`s attacks, President Joko Widodo said Indonesia needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws to prevent new attacks.



"If we make a comparison with other countries, they already have regulations to allow authorities to prevent (attacks) before they happen," Widodo told a news conference.



The president said he had ordered the chief security minister to get the revisions done as soon as possible.



Long-standing plans to reform Indonesia`s 2003 anti-terrorism laws have been held up by opposition from some parties in parliament and concerns about individual rights.



The revisions would broaden the definition of terrorism and give police the power to detain suspects without trial for longer. The changes would allow police to arrest people for hate speech or for spreading radical content, as well as those taking part in paramilitary training or joining proscribed groups.



Muhammad Syafi'i of the opposition Gerindra party, who chairs a committee deliberating the bill, said discussions should be completed this year but there were still outstanding issues such as ensuring checks and balances on the counter-terrorism agency.



"This bill needs to be discussed in a cautious and comprehensive way because the purpose of all regulations in this country is to ensure they do not result in the slaughter of Indonesian people, ... but protect them," Syafi`i told Reuters.



The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for this week`s attacks. "The executor of the attack on the Indonesian police gathering in Jakarta was an Islamic State fighter," the group`s news agency Amaq said.



Indonesia has suffered a series of mostly low-level attacks by Islamic State sympathisers in the past 17 months, but there are concerns that the sophistication is improving.



Police said Wednesday`s attack had targeted officers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives.



"The explosions were described by police on 24 May as `pretty big`, and the number of wounded and dead would suggest a still-crude but developing bomb-making capability for militants in Indonesia," said Otso Iho, an analyst at Jane`s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre (JTIC).



Police have identified the suspected suicide bombers as two 30-year-old men from the West Java city of Bandung.



Indonesian police made three arrests on Friday in Bandung related to the attacks and said they had seized Islamic teachings, phones and other items during the raids, Yusri Yunus, head of public relations at West Java Police, said.
Seouls: After successful missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un often exchanges smiles and hugs with the same three men and shares a celebratory smoke with them.



The three, shown with Kim in photographs and TV footage in North Korean media, are of great interest to security and intelligence agencies since they are the top people in the secretive country`s rapidly accelerating missile programme, South Korean officials said.



They include Ri Pyong Chol, a former top air force general; Kim Jong Sik, a veteran rocket scientist; and Jang Chang Ha, the head of a weapons development and procurement centre.



The three have been individually identified previously but the photographs and TV footage show they are clearly Kim`s favourites.

Their behaviour with him is sharply at variance with the obsequiousness of other senior aides, most of whom bow and hold their hands over their mouths when speaking to the young leader.



Unlike most other officials, two of them have flown with Kim in his private plane Goshawk-1, named after North Korea`s national bird, state TV has shown.



The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. The North Korean mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment.



With their ruling Workers Party, military and scientific credentials, the trio is indispensable to North Korea`s rapidly developing weapons programmes - the isolated nation has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year, all in violation of U.N. resolutions.



"Rather than going through bureaucrats, Kim Jong Un is keeping these technocrats right by his side, so that he can contact them directly and urge them to move fast. It reflects his urgency about missile development," said An Chan-il, a former North Korean military officer who has defected to the South and runs a think tank in Seoul.



Kim Jong Sik and Jang are not from elite families, unlike many other senior figures in North Korea`s ruling class, North Korean leadership experts say. They said Ri, the former air force commander, has been to one of the better-regarded schools in North Korea, but he and the other two were hand-picked by Kim Jong Un.



"Kim Jong Un is raising a new generation of people separate from his father`s key aides," said a South Korean official with knowledge of the matter, referring to Kim Jong II, who died in late 2011 leaving the younger Kim in charge.



The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

THE `BIG POTATO`



The most prominent of the three is Ri, according to leadership experts.



Always shown smiling in photographs, he is now deputy director of the Workers` Party Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the development of North Korea`s ballistic missile programme, according to the South Korean government and U.S. Treasury.



The department was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury in 2010 and Ri was named by the South Korean government last year for activities related to the country`s weapons programmes.



"The big potato in that trio of people is Ri Pyong Chol," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership. "He`s been around since before Kim Jong Un was even talked about with any seriousness".



Born in 1948, Ri was partly educated in Russia and promoted when Kim Jong Un started to rise through the ranks in the late 2000s, Madden and the South Korean government official said.



Ri has visited China once and Russia twice. He met China`s defence minister in 2008 as the air force commander and accompanied Kim Jong Il on a visit to a Russian fighter jet factory in 2011, according to state media.



"Ri looks like the party`s guy in the missile programme," said Kim Jin-moo, an expert on North Korea`s elite and former government think tank analyst in Seoul.

THE ROCKET SCIENTIST



The rocket scientist in the trio is Kim Jong Sik.



He started his career as a civilian aeronautics technician, but now wears the uniform of a military general at the Munitions Industry Department, according to experts and the South Korean government.



But it was his role in the North Korea`s first successful launch of a rocket in 2012 which really helped him earn recognition, Madden said.



"When that thing went off and entered into a lower earth orbit, he got credit for that," said Madden. "The nuclear and missile guys under Kim Jong Un are getting their jobs based on merit".



Last year, Kim Jong Sik was at the National Aerospace Development Administration or "NADA", North Korea`s official space agency, where he escorted Kim Jong Un through the mission control room ahead of a successful long-range rocket launch in February.



State TV footage showed him riding to a launch site in Kim Jong Un`s private plane. Upon arrival, he accompanied the young leader down the red carpet and received flowers from other senior officials.



Most other details, including his age, are not known.

THE MYSTERY MAN



Of the three men, the least is known about Jang Chang Ha, president of the Academy of the National Defence Science, previously called the Second Academy of Natural Sciences.



The body is in charge of the secretive country`s research and development of its advanced weapons systems, "including missiles and probably nuclear weapons", the U.S. Treasury said in 2010 in its decision to blacklist the group.



The organisation obtains technology, equipment, and information from overseas for use in weapons programmes, the Treasury said. Jang was added to the Treasury blacklist in December 2016.



Under Jang`s leadership, the academy has around 15,000 staff, including some 3,000 missile engineers, according to South Korean media reports, citing unnamed sources.



North Korea`s banned weapons programme began in the early 2000s with a similar trio of men close to the leadership who specialised in procurement, science and military affairs.



Of them, logistician Jon Pyong Ho has died. The others - scientist So Sang Guk and military coordinator O Kuk Ryol - are elderly and no longer in the public eye.



Their place, Madden said, has been taken by Kim Jong Un`s hand-picked men.



"These are the men bringing North Korea`s missile programme into the 21st Century," he said.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated outgoing prime minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' for the successful conduct of local elections there.

Modi conveyed his felicitations to Prachanda in a phone call last evening, the PMO said today in a tweet.Modi "also felicitated Shri Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' for his strong commitment to strengthen democracy in Nepal," it added.

Millions of Nepalese on May 14 voted in the country's first local-level polls in two decades as the Himalayan nation took a crucial step towards cementing democracy amid political turmoil.

Before the elections, Prachanda had called up Modi who had assured all possible help from India in conducting the polls successfully.

Prachanda, who became the prime minister in August last year, resigned two days back under an agreement with Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba at that time that they would share power on rotational basis till next year's elections.

Under that understanding, Prachanda had to resign after nine months.
Beirut: A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early today killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told AFP.

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Two Pakistan BAT attackers were killed in the action by alert soldiers of the Indian Army.

By India Today Web Desk: An Indian Army patrolling team was attacked by Pakistan Border Action Team (BAT) in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri sector today. Two BAT attackers were killed in the action by alert soldiers of the Indian Army.

"Alert troops foiled a BAT attack on our patrol party in Uri sector today. Two BAT terrorists were killed in the operation," an army official said..

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The BAT attack was effectively repulsed, the official said.

An AK 47 rifle, a pistol recovered with the two bodies of BAT attackers, in Uri

According to police sources, the bodies of the two slain militants were lying in "no man's" land along the LoC.

BAT attackers had beheaded two India soldiers early this month in the Krishna Ghati region of Kashmir.

The operation is still on, the sources added.

More details awaited.

ALSO READ:

Know all about Pakistan's BAT (Border Action Team), the brutal force that mutilated Indian soldiers

Pakistan mutilates bodies of 2 Indian soldiers near LoC, Army pounds Pak posts in retaliation

--- ENDS ---
Juba: The South Sudanese government on Friday freed a South Sudanese journalist working for a United Nations radio station after two and a half years of imprisonment, UN officials said.

George Livio, who worked for Radio Miraya, was arrested in August 2014 but never brought to trial.

"He has been released and UNMISS is looking into his needs right now," said Daniel Dickinson, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Ankara: Turkey has dismissed over 4,000 judges and prosecutors accused of links to last year`s failed coup after an investigation of the judiciary, the Turkish justice minister said Friday.

Ankara blames the attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on an Islamic movement led by Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

"Over 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been removed from their posts inside the Turkish judiciary over their links to the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said, referring to the name Turkey gives the Gulen movement.

Gulen, living in self-imposed exile in the United States, vehemently denies the claim that he ordered the coup attempt.

"The investigations have finished. At this moment, there is no judge or prosecutor left that we have not screened," Bozdag said in a speech in Ankara.

He added that there could be further investigations "because of the nature of the organisation", saying: "We are facing a very different kind of terror organisation."

More than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended from the public sector including teachers, academics, doctors and members of the armed forces under the state of emergency imposed a few days after the attempted putsch and renewed three times.

Meanwhile, more than 47,000 people have been imprisoned because of suspected links to the movement and the failed putsch.

Ankara claims the Gulen movement had infiltrated the state and the series of purges are necessary to remove the "virus" inside the public sector.

But on Monday, human rights group Amnesty International hit back at the "arbitrary dismissals", urging the government to implement a "prompt and effective appeal mechanism for those already dismissed".
Beijing: China has come to the realisation that it has limited time to rein in North Korea`s nuclear programme through negotiations and is open to further sanctions against Pyongyang, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Friday.



Speaking at a news briefing in Beijing, Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton said China understood that the U.S. viewed the North Korea situation as an urgent "time-limited problem set".



"So they know now that they don`t have, I think, as much time to try to bring the North Koreans to the table to get their calculus changed and get them to the negotiating table," she said. "And I think that has lent some urgency to their measures."



Pyongyang has conducted dozens of missile tests, the most recently last Sunday, and tested two nuclear bombs since the start of 2016, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. It says the programme is necessary to counter U.S. aggression.



Thornton said the United States was looking at discussing with China a new U.N. Security Council resolution on pre-negotiated measures to reduce delays in any response to further nuclear tests or other provocations from the North.



While China believes sanctions against North Korea "don`t work overnight", Thornton said there were no indications that Beijing had gone cold on potentially implementing more of them against Pyongyang.



"Their calculus about how much pressure to impose on North Korea is related to their tolerance for potential instability, which is low, I would say," she said.



Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday no one had the right to bring chaos to the Korean peninsula, a day after it pushed for full implementation of U.N. sanctions and called for dialogue.



The North has proudly publicised its plans to develop a missile capable of striking the United States and has ignored calls to halt its weapons programmes, even from ally China.



Even as Washington seeks greater Chinese cooperation on North Korea, a U.S Navy warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands, officials said on Wednesday, the first such manoeuvre since President Donald Trump took office.



It prompted an angry response from Beijing, which accused the United States of jeopardising a recent easing of tension between China and other claimants in the region, particularly the Philippines.



Thornton said Washington`s policy on the South China Sea had not changed under President Donald Trump, and that it remained supportive of the diplomatic processes under way.



"It doesn't mean we are going to change our military presence or our security commitments in the region," she said. "Those need to stay and they need to be there, and that will give confidence to the diplomatic process, we think."



She said freedom of navigation operations were not the central part of U.S. policy in the South China Sea.



"But to the extent that we continue to do it, we don`t shy away from doing it, that`s a continuation," she said.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Law enforcement agencies of Armenia have revealed a bribery scheme involving customs officials.

The Prosecutor Generals office told ARMENPRESS that directors and employees of several organizations, as well as individuals, have made arrangements with customs officials of the state revenue committee through several staff members of customs clearance broker services, and bribed the customs officials in order to clear their products from customs on much lower tariffs, and pay less than usual for exporting certain products.

Police launched criminal proceedings on bribery.

The special investigative service is probing the case.

Based on gathered evidence, law enforcement agencies arrested the director of a customs broker service company and the head of the Bavra checkpoint.
YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of justice of Armenia plans to optimize the correctional facilities.

Deputy justice minister Suren Krmoyan told ARMENPRESS the program might get included in the governments new action plan.

The program will include proposals on new solutions, modernization and optimization of correctional facilities. For example, currently the Penal Code includes 4 types of correctional facilities  open, semi-open, semi-closed, and closed. We want to simply it and reduce it to 3. Our goal is to emphasize the open regime, he said.

According to him, the number of inmates in correctional facilities will be significantly reduced with the introduction of probation system.

Those individuals who will be granted to serve their sentence without being incarcerated, will serve their sentence in the community under the supervision of a probation officer, Krmoyan said.

Krmoyan said there is almost no problem of overcrowding in prisons: after transferring a part of inmates to the Armavir facility the problem will be solved completely.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. By the initiative of the Armenian Consulate General in Los Angeles and assistance of the California Consulting LLC, a meeting was held on May 24 with participation of heads of Chambers of Commerce of LA, Orange countries, Glendale, members of business consulting structures, and representatives of US large and medium enterprises, the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Armenpress.

During the meeting representative of Armenias Consulate General Valeri Mkrtumyan presented Armenias investment environment, legislation, prospective sectors and business potential.

The discussion participants had a chance to be introduced on KPMG international consulting companys analysis on Armenias investment opportunities, tax policy and the Armenian Governments privileges provided to investors.

Head of California Consulting LLC Steve Samuelian said new beginning of relations is marked with the US business field, adding that the business-discussions will continue in future as well aimed at implementing prospective investment programs in IT and other fields.

Speaking about the future programs, Steve Samuelian said it is expected to organize the visit of representatives of several US major companies to Armenia to get acquainted with the investment field and assess the opportunities for mutual partnership.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Parliament of Armenia Ara Babloyan addressed a congratulatory message to school graduates on the occasion of Last Bell, press service of the Parliament told Armenpress.

The message reads:

Dear graduates,

I congratulate you on the occasion of the end of the school year and the beginning of the new and important phase of your life.

Now, you are required to more consistently combine the possibilities, skills and capabilities, the efforts of thought and body, more attentively listen to the advice and inner voice, being guided impassively and emotionally, at the same time never betray the voice of your conscience.

As a result of all this, you will definitely reach your goals, which being personal - they shall be stemming from the interests of the whole nation, being meant for families - they should also be in accordance with the interests of the whole country. The upbringing received in your family hearth, and of course, at school, your parents and teachers advice, your knowledge and experience, obtained and still in need of enrichment, will definitely be useful in all stages of your life and, particularly, in the coming years. It will be a period of sustaining, formation, thinking in a new way, considering and acting, which will become crucial and directing for the remaining years.

You are entrusted to defend our state, educational and scientific borders and further expand them, protect peace and make it more stable, increase the potential of the country, possibilities and turn them into advantages, become a dignified, decent citizen and a brave soldier, the guard of the house, Motherland and honor.

I am sure that due to your efforts and work, your goals will be reachable, the dreams - accomplishable, and the successes - inevitable.

I wish you, dear graduates, health, optimism, welfare and success.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Law enforcement agencies are investigating the death of a 13 year old child in Yerevan, the investigative committee told ARMENPRESS.

Police were notified at 19:25, on May 25, that a child has fallen off the Davitashen Bridge.

First responders were immediately dispatched to the scene. The body had no traces of violence, suggesting no foul play was involved.

According to preliminary information, the 13 year old child has climbed up the bridge barrier and walked on it, lost balance and fell off.

An autopsy and expertise are underway.

The police are probing the incident to determine all details and circumstances.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in Minya, Egypt on Friday, killing at least 23 and injuring 25, RT reported.

The attack happened as the victims traveled from Beni Suef province to the Anba Samuel monastery near the southern city of Minya, according to local security sources, cited by Haaretz.

Haaretz later reported 24 people have been killed, citing local media.

The provincial governor, Essam al-Bedaiwy, confirmed the preliminary death toll, reports Reuters.

Ambulances dispatched from the cities of Beni Suef and Minya are transporting victims to local hospitals in Adwa, Minya, Maghagha, according to local news outlet Youm7.

Its the latest attack targeting Coptic Christians in Egypt since twin suicide bombings in Tanta and Alexandria killed at least 44 people and injured more than 118 on Easter Sunday, April 9. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank Council session was held on May 26 in Dilijans educational-research center, which was chaired by Central Bank president Arthur Javadyan.

Cenbank told ARMENPRESS the Council decided to introduce (put into circulation) new composite banknotes and announced a tender for the printing.

The new banknotes will have higher security measures and will be of better quality.

The Council also passed several other decisions, including revoking the licenses of several pawnshops, and granted Easy Pay LLC will issuing e-money.
A Pakistani passport, with an Indian visa stamp of 33 days' validity, and Indian identity cards were recovered from his possession. His visa expired in 2016.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The Haryana Police have arrested a Pakistani national who was living illegally in an Iskon temple in Jhajjar district with Indian identities for over nine months, an official said on Friday.

A Pakistani passport, with an Indian visa stamp of 33 days' validity, and Indian identity cards were recovered from his possession. His visa expired in 2016.

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The name mentioned on the passport is Raja, a resident of Hindu Colony in Larkana, Pakistan, a senior police official told IANS here.

Raja was arrested on Thursday evening from the Iskon temple in Bahadurgarh town close to the Delhi-Haryana border. He was living in the temple as a volunteer.

The police said they have also recovered an Aadhaar card, a voter card and a PAN (permanent account number) card from his possession. Both bear his name as Rasraj and the address is Iskcon temple in Bahadurgarh.

His passport has January 1, 1978, as his date of birth, while his Aadhaar and PAN cards have March 13, 1987, as his date of birth.

"Some more identify proofs have been recovered from him and we are verifying whether they are original or fake," said the official.

A case is yet to be registered.

In a similar incident in Karnataka, three suspected Pakistani nationals, including two women, were arrested from Bengaluru with fake Indian identity cards and passports on Thursday.

Also Read:

Aadhaar will soon be aadhaar of your existence: Why you cannot do without the 12-digit number

Aadhaar has privacy loopholes, but pros outweigh it

In future, only Aadhaar may be required for identification: FM

Bengaluru: 3 Pakistan nationals among 4 detained by cops for forging documents to stay in India

Uzma Ahmed: Pakistan is a well of death, thank you PM Modi, Sushma Swaraj for helping me return to India

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Malt loaf maker Soreen has partnered with Disney to launch its new Mini Loaves range.

Available to Sainsburys and Asda for 1.35, Soreen said the new licensed range would provide a nutritious alternative to cake that mums can feel good about giving their children.

The products, which contain 60% less fat and 50% less sugar than standard cake bars, comprise two flavours - chocolate and toffee - in a multi-pack of five bars.

The Disney Mini Loaves features animated characters such as Woody from Toy Story and Elsa from Frozen, and were formulated to comply with Disneys nutritional guidelines to be more balanced for children.

Bethan Brown, marketing director at Soreen, said the company had worked with Disney to create a range of Mini Loaves to tap into the brands rich storytelling history.

These nutritious snacking options come in exciting flavours for snacking occasions, Brown said. We are confident that the Disney Frozen and Disney Pixar range will be something that mums welcome.

In May 2017, Soreen launched a campaign in UK cinemas to highlight the nutritional value of Soreen as a healthier treat.
Derbyshire-based bakery Staceys will celebrate National Sausage Roll Day on 5 June 2017 by making a 30ft sausage roll.

The giant sausage roll will be displayed at the front of its Ilkeston bakery, and pieces given away to customers.

In addition, the bakery will be hosting an event to give away 100 free sausage rolls to its customers at its shops in Ilkeston, Heanor and Eastwood.

David Stacey, director of Staceys Bakery, said the company was excited to be celebrating the day with its customers.

We have been making sausage rolls for a long time and hope this event will put a smile on our customers faces, especially since our sausage rolls are a popular treat.

Stacey added that the business would be encouraging the local community to get involved with its competition for the best piglet sausage roll. Photos of customers contributions will be shared on the bakerys social media channels later that day.
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 so called "Democracy" does exists.
N.C. State crop scientist Ron Heiniger says taking crop land out of production for solar has long-term impacts on overall ecosystem



N.C. State University crop scientist Ron Heiniger worries that large solar faciliities like the 60 MW Summit Farms Solar facility in Currituck County could do significant damage to the agricultural ecosystem. (CJ photo by Don Carrington)

Ron Heiniger isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. He has spent years as a crop and soil scientist helping hard-pressed farmers to get maximum yield and quality from their crops. The N.C. State Cooperative Extension Service professor says it's his calling in life.These days Heiniger, who works at the Vernon G. James Research and Extension Center in Plymouth, worries that solar installations gobbling up prime farmland could do more to destabilize and diminish the agricultural economy of North Carolina than any naturally occurring threat that he deals with.mostly from low prices, and to some degree due to young people abandoning the farming life of their fathers, Heiniger said.Utility-scale solar energy facilities are increasing the pressure on farming by taking land out of production needed to maintain a delicate economy of scale, viability, and profitability. At some stage the system will start to break down, but the question is when the decline reaches a point of no return, he said.Some farmers struggling to make a living off the land yield to the temptation to enter a lucrative lease with solar companies, and take part or all of their fields out of production.But many farmers depend on leasing neighboring land from absentee owners or non-farmers to grow crops and graze animals. Those landowners are increasingly finding it more profitable to lease to solar installations, cutting tenant farmers out of fields needed to stay in business.For that reason, the spread of solar installations across the farm belt doesn't necessarily help farmers to remain viable, as the solar industry claims. Often it makes it more difficult, Heiniger argues.If farmers lack sufficient land to remain viable, they will leave the field, literally. That will create a tumbling domino effect, Heiniger said.Heiniger asked.If enough farmland is taken out of production, the infrastructure would collapse, and grain and animal production would move to other states or offshore. By the time 20-year solar installation leases expire it would be extremely difficult to recreate the agriculture infrastructure from scratch, Heiniger warns.Heiniger said, pointing quickly to the disappearance of most of North Carolina's dairy farms following a government buyout program as one example. The buyout program ended a decade ago, but small dairy farms never revived.he said.But many county commissioners lack sufficient knowledge about the complex interplay of solar installations on the economic, ecological, environmental, and cultural dynamics of a community as solar companies woo them for siting approvals with promises of jobs and revenue.Heiniger said.Currituck County even enacted a solar installation ban after the issue blew up among residents there.The solar industry minimizes environmental concerns, Heiniger said. While he is neither a solar opponent nor an alarmist, he said long-term issues must be addressed with dispassionate scientific research.Many solar panels are supported by galvanized steel platforms. That steel oxidizes over time and releases zinc into the soil, which can be toxic to plants at certain levels.That has been documented in cases where other types of galvanized steel structures were removed, and crops didn't grow, or didn't fare well, Heiniger said. Significant soil remediation had to take place to return that land to production.It is uncertain if the solar panel structures would have that same effect, but it is something that demands study, he said.Most cropland in North Carolina must be spread regularly with alkaline limestone to neutralize their inherently acidic nature. Solar installations do not perform that practice, and after 20 years or more of nonagricultural use the acid content of soil would spike.A farmer wanting to reclaim the land would have to make a significant investment in limestone and other nutrients. Whether that would be economically feasible would depend on agriculture prices being high enough to sustain the outlay, Heiniger said.The data shows the solar panels "channelize water," causing it to leave the site faster, and infiltrate neighboring properties, Heiniger said. Some farmers have confirmed their fields became wetter than before the placement of a nearby solar facility, and they were having difficulty getting in to till their land to prepare it for the growing season.Grass and plant cover at solar facilities would prevent a lot of erosion, but water leaving the site carries some particulate, Heiniger said.Frequent mowing to control vegetation can make soil more compact, and more resistant to absorbing water. Wider buffering around the site can offset much of that runoff. Putting in a subsoil also would help, but that can't be done until the solar panels are removed at the end of their useful life, and cost to do so would be an issue.Heiniger said some solar installations were placed above lakes or ponds, which become infiltrated with runoff. If runoff occurs in sufficient volume, spillways of overwhelmed ponds could be threatened.Heiniger said. He has been telling the solar industry scientific land use research is needed to determine best siting practices.
George Washington once warned:Indeed, the first and most essential principle of a free society is allowing its citizens to have a free flow of words in an open forum.The first phrase of the amendment controls the language of the entire amendment: "Congress shall make no law....Then it explains how Congress cannot regulate five things:Religion (It cannot make a law establishing an official national, government-sanctioned religion, NOR can it pass a law prohibiting the free exercise of one's religionThese 5 things are considered essential to individual liberty and to a free society ("Ordered Liberty")Now, Liberty is understood by our Founders to be the extent to which one can freely exercise his or her rights - without burdening another's free exercise in his or her rights.The Bill of Rights were proposed and sent to the states by the first session of the First Congress, which convened in New York City in March 1789. The anti-Federalists forced James Madison to provide a Bill of Rights to amend the US Constitution that was drafted at the Philadelphia Convention in 1787 and adopted in 1788 by the requisite number of states - 9 (as per Article VII). The Bill of Rights (our first 10 amendments to the Constitution) was later ratified on December 15, 1791 and had, as its primary purpose, to provide express limits to government power as it relates to the individual. In fact, the preamble to the Bill of Rights (which everyone should read and memorize) reads:"In order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of government powers, the Conventions of a number of the States, at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire to add further declaratory and restrictive clauses. Such further restrictions will increase public confidence in the federal government and will best insure the beneficent ends of that institution."**** This is why we say that the Bill of Rights doesn't grant us our rights; it protects them. The federal government is one of limited powers and on top of that, it is prohibited from legislating or otherwise regulating the fundamental rights and civil rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights.The purpose of free speech is to encourage individuals to contribute their ideas and opinions to others - to put them out there in the so-called "marketplace of ideas."The metaphor "marketplace of ideas" is based on a market economy - on free exchange in the market. In such a market, many products are available and we, as rational (and hopefully, fairly informed and intelligent) consumers, choose freely what we want from among those available after careful comparison and after careful weighing of their relative quality.Free Speech makes every person who wishes to convey a thought, an idea, an opinion a competitor in the marketplace of ideas. Each speaker - whether it is vocal, visual, on paper, or on the internet, bids for the minds of men in the market place of ideas. The true test of the thought or idea or opinion is how strongly it is accepted in that marketplace.Because the contribution to the marketplace of ideas is considered so important, we don't want to inhibit peoples' right to do so. How else are we able to discuss what our government is doing and determine if it is bad or good... Right or wrong? How else are we able to determine which candidates are best able to serve us in government? And that's why we have the First Amendment's Guarantee of Free Speech and a Free Press.Not all speech, however, is protected. There are basically 9 categories of speech NOT protected by the First Amendment:Defamation (including libel and slander) ****** You'll notice that speech that is not truthful is not protected by the First Amendment. Untruths add nothing to the "marketplace of ideas" that the First Amendment was established to create. (See Defamation and Perjury)You may have heard folks on the left claim that "Hate Speech" isn't protected. Most notably, you may have heard this in the last month or so by one-time presidential candidate Howard Dean. But this is false. "Hate Speech" may sound like something that isn't protected by the Constitution but the category doesn't actually exist - at least in first amendment jurisprudence. It is an amorphous term that means one thing to one person and something else to another person. It is a term that is capable of constantly being enlarged, and in fact, if you look at the growth of the snowflake movement, you can see how easily it is to offend a liberal. How quickly do you think it will take this current group of thin-skinned emotional basket-cases to label speech that insults them as "hate speech"?To be clear.... You have every right to say mean and hurtful things.It is no coincidence that Speech is addressed in the first of the amendments to the Constitution. It was deemed to be critical in a free society. Speech is important because with speech and press, we are able to alert our fellow citizens when our rights and civil liberties are under attack. It is our first line of defense when government becomes corrupt and tyrannical. We exercise the first amendment to criticize and protest government so that we don't have to exercise the second against it!!Years ago, college campuses were popular havens for free speech. Students and speakers could freely express and exchange ideas, even ones that were unpopular. Berkeley was once seen as the home of the Free Speech movement, if you can believe it.So, what happened? What happened to Free Speech?Back in February, Berkeley students covering themselves in black face masks went berserk when conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was set to speak. They caused over $100,000 in damage to the campus and promoted the university to cancel the event.Last month, Ann Coulter was set to speak there. First she was invited, then uninvited, and then invited again - as long as she could be scheduled on a day when students didn't have any actual classes on campus. When the school told her they could not assure her safety, even though her safety was at risk, she was forced to cancel her visit.Berkeley students successfully shut down conservative speech. By violence. By intimidating. By threats.Nowadays, it is fairly common for college students to shout over and shout down even moderate-leaning speakers. If they don't like the message or the speaker, they aren't going to let them speak. This is happening all over the country. You have to ask yourself why we call these students Progressives, even thought that is the movement to which they belong. They certainly aren't for the progression of civilized thought and conduct. They are not for the progression of freedom and liberty. Rather, they are for its regression.Today's liberal college students require safe spaces, trigger warnings, and days off from class in order to deal with their feelings. Our universities, bastions of liberal thought, have developed these concepts to help students deal with feelings rather than prepare them to deal with facts and articulation. Couple this with the constant smearing of any intellectual or political opponent as "racist" or "bigoted" or "homophobic," etc, and they are succeeding in producing a generation of closed-minded individuals who are increasingly intolerant. They are increasingly hostile to the notion of tolerance when it comes to views that are different from theirs. It is if they cannot intellectually or emotionally deal with opposite views. I guess you can say that today's students are becoming increasingly intolerant of tolerance.And we all know that the intolerance essentially comes from one side. Imagine if Tucker Carlson shouted down a guest on his show simply because he didn't agree with the opposing viewpoint or imagine if Dinesh D'Souza refused to answer a question from someone in his audience who disagreed with him. They'd be labeled "hypocrites" and "intolerant."Today's generation - and mainly those on college campuses - are treated like babies... and that's because that's how they act.We call the young liberal generation a bunch of snowflakes and there is a reason we call them this. "Snowflake" is a term that refers to fragility. These young people have an inflated sense of their self-worth and are therefore offended easily. They are so fragile that when they hear the slightest thing that causes them discomfort or uneasiness or that insults them, they melt. They have a melt-down. They are too easily offended and hence need "safe spaces" to retreat to. In these safe spaces, they are surrounded by those who think exactly like they do. [In the real world, we are told by the government that we have no right to be surrounded by only those who think like ourselves; we must be diversified!] These young liberals have been coddled probably most of their lives, or at least indoctrinated by their parents or pandered to by society. And now they are ill-equipped intellectually and emotionally to face the real world. They are certainly unable to face life's challenges (such as the 2016 election) and unable to confront opposing opinions with any amount of dignity.To see how bad this situation has become, look at how this term "snowflake" has morphed in its definition. Back in May 2016, when Donald Trump was campaigning and all of a sudden it appeared that people all over the country were able to connect with him and were articulating very convincingly why he should be president, the term "snowflake" was defined as "an overly-sensitive person who is incapable of dealing with any opinions that differ from their own." It was used mainly in describing a liberal.. a Democrat. It was used to describe those who would show up and protest Trump rallies and do nothing but shout insults. After Trump was elected and the progressive protest-fest ensued, the definition was modified. Now it means "Any entitled millennial progressive tard who runs to her 'safe space' to play with stress toys and coloring books' when triggered by various innocuous microaggressions." In other words, it describes a person incapable of dealing with persons who don't think exactly like they do.Universities becoming safe havens for snowflakes serves no good purpose, except I suppose for keeping young people blindly indoctrinated. What is being stolen from today's college students is the ability to learn how to think about complex issues while in an educational setting (a relatively safe, coddling environment) so that they can be equipped to engage with the diverse array of ideas in the real world. And that type of diversity (the diversity of ideas and the diversity of thought) is far more important practically than the type of diversity that colleges love to brag about - the diversity of their student body based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, etc.An open and robust discussion with a wide array of ideas and opinions is how we expand our knowledge and deepen our understanding. This is how we figure out what we believe in and how strongly we believe it. We don't strengthen what we believe in by silencing or shaming or defaming those we don't agree with.The right of Speech and Expression is almost absolute. We absolutely have the right to protest... It's one of the very reasons for the First Amendment in the first place. In fact, the standard by which we gauge how strongly we embrace our right of free speech is how well we safeguard and respect people's right to engage in unpopular speech. We have the right to use our speech to counter someone else's speech. What we DON'T have is a right to SILENCE someone else by using violence or intimidation. We have the right to use Hate Speech, it's true, but we shouldn't. And let me explain why.When you use violence and intimidation - and even hate speech, it has a "chilling effect" on free speech. It results in self-censorship. People - candidates, politicians, writers, speakers, bloggers, radio and TV personalities - begin to watch what they say and keep their commentary "safe." This doesn't serve the "marketplace of ideas" at all. We in the conservative community and the Tea Party movement know all too well about self-censorship. We lived in fear for years under President Obama when he was using the IRS to target our "viewpoint" for audits and harassment.
While delivering the second Ramnath Goenka Lecture at an event organised in New Delhi, President Pranab Mukherjee reminded why media is the fourth pillar of democracy.

By India Today Web Desk: Asking questions is fundamental to the health of our democracy.

President Pranab Mukherjee delivered the second Ramnath Goenka Lecture at an event organised by the Indian Express Group in Delhi yesterday and reminded why media is the fourth pillar of democracy through his lecture.

President Mukherjee said, "Shri Ramnath Goenka embodied the finest virtues of journalism - fierce independence, fearlessness and a determination to stand up to the powerful and fight against abuse of power," as he delivered his lecture, a second in the series started by the The Indian Express Group last year, dedicated to its founder Ramnath Goenka's 25th year of passing. The first lecture in the series was delivered by then RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on March 12, last year.

President Pranab Mukherjee delivered the second Ramnath Goeka Lecture yesterday. Photo: Facebookpresidentofindiarb

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Taking a direct jibe at certain television journalists, President Mukherjee said that the need to ask questions is fundamental to the health of any democracy and said, "especially at a time when those who make the loudest noise tend to drown out those who disagree."

President Pranab Mukherjee said, "The need to ask questions of those in power is fundamental for the preservation of our nation and of a truly democratic society. This is a role that the media has traditionally played and must carry on playing. All stakeholders in the democratic system, from parties to business leaders, citizens to institutions, have to realise that asking questions is good, asking questions is healthy, and, in fact, is fundamental to the health of our democracy."

It must always remember that its fundamental task is to stand up and ask questions with honesty and fairness #PresidentMukherjee- President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) May 25, 2017

Talking about the need to conserve the pluralistic society of India, President Mukherjee said, "I have always believed that the bedrock of Indian civilisation has been its pluralism and its social, cultural, linguistic and racial diversity. That's why we need to be sensitive to dominant narratives, of those who make the loudest noise, drowning out those who disagree. That's why social media and broadcast news have seen angry aggressive posturing by state and non-state players literally hounding out contrarian opinions."

Media must choose to reflect a plurality of opinions for that is what breathes life into our democracy #PresidentMukherjee- President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) May 25, 2017

President Pranab Mukherjee, spoke about how technology has made it possible for those in power to propagate a narrative of their choice about issues directly to their audience. He said, "People in power, across the spectrum of politics, business or civil society, by virtue of the position they enjoy, tend to dominate the discourse and influence its direction. Due to technological advancement, they can now reach out directly to their audience, completely bypassing this crucial process of filtration and mediation. This often becomes a one-way only communication from the powerful to the less privileged, in an effort to push the narrative in one direction."

President Pranab Mukherjee delivered the second Ramnath Goeka Lecture yesterday. Photo: Facebook (presidentofindiarb) President Pranab Mukherjee delivered the second Ramnath Goeka Lecture yesterday. Photo: Facebook (presidentofindiarb)

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Talking about a tolerant India and how the growth of the media industry, President Mukherjee said the highly competitive media environment often results in the shrillest voices rising above the others and was of the opinion that dumbing down news to attract an audience is another consequence of such growth.

"Together, these compulsions have led to complex issues being reduced to binary opposites which, in turn, create a polarity of views and distort the facts," President Pranab Mukherjee said while delivering the lecture yesterday.

Technology has led to a phenomenal growth in the means of communication #PresidentMukherjee- President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) May 25, 2017

Media must learn the art of withstanding pulls & pressures without sacrificing its commitment to free & fair reportage #PresidentMukherjee- President of India (@RashtrapatiBhvn) May 25, 2017

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Learning Management Systems

Schoology LMS Adds Office 365 Integration

Yesterday, Schoology added Microsoft Office 365 integration, allowing individuals to use Microsoft Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc. without leaving the learning management system (LMS).

Within Schoology, users can leverage Microsoft OneDrive to create a copy of a template for each student within a classroom, for example, with a single click thanks to the integration. These students can access their individual submissions directly within the platform, and can view feedback on Office 365 documents within the LMS.

Key enhancements to the Schoology LMS include:

Support for Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint;

Simple integrated workflow for admin, teachers and students across the platform  from submitting assignments to grading; and

Real-time progress monitoring tools.

The announcement comes a month after Schoologys platform was updated to integrate to Google Drive. Given the frequency of use in classrooms, more LMSs like Canvas and itslearning are adding Microsoft Office 365 and Google Drive integration.

Schoology is hosting a webinar on the integration next Wednesday. Users can also preview the update at the Schoology NEXT user conference, taking place in Chicago, IL, July 24-26.
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New York, May 26, 2017Egyptian authorities should immediately stop blocking access to news websites, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The Egyptian government on May 24 ordered internet service providers to block access to 21 news websites, alleging that they supported terrorism or reported false news, the governments official Middle East News Agency reported.

The report did not provide a full list of the censored websites, but said that those of Qatari-funded broadcaster Al-Jazeera, the broadcaster Al-Sharq, and the news websites Masr al-Arabia, Al-Shaab, and Rassd were among the websites blocked for publishing content that supports terrorism and extremism and deliberately spreads lies. According to media reports and journalists at the websites, the Huffington Posts Arabic-language website and the independent news website Mada Masr, which is known for its investigative reporting, were also censored.

Online censorship is rare in Egypt. In January 2011, faced with mass protests that eventually forced former President Hosni Mubarak from office, the government cut access to the internet, and the government has harassed, threatened, and jailed journalists for websites. In October 2016, the Open Observatory of Network Interference, which documents internet censorship, reported that Egypt had blocked access to the London-based news website Al-Arab al-Jadid, throttled encrypted, HTTPS connections, and had attempted to block access to Tor, software designed to make it harder to monitor internet users or censor websites, but access to news websites has rarely been blocked in the country.

Broad censorship of news websites represents a new low in Egypts lamentable record on press freedom, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said. Egyptian authorities should cease blocking news websites and should allow the media to do its job unimpeded.

Mada Masr co-founder Lina Attalah told CPJ that the government did not inform staff that the website was to be blocked, and that when staff were unable to access the website yesterday, they first assumed there was a problem with the internet connection. She said that she did not know if a specific article precipitated the ban, but said that in recent months the website produced many reports that might have embarrassed high-ranking officials.

Mada Masr reported today that Egypts censorship of Qatari websites coincided with similar bans in Gulf countries, but that Mada Masr was still accessible in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Technical experts told Mada Masr that they had concluded that Egyptian internet service providers were using RST injections, also used to censor websites in China, to block access to the website.

Anas Fouda, editor of Huffington Posts Arabic website, likewise told CPJ that the site had been blocked without forewarning. Fouda told CPJ that the websites reporting on Egypt had drawn calls from pro-government media for the website to be blocked. He said that many of the websites readers come from Egypt, and that he fears for the safety of dozens of freelance contributors in the country.

On December 1, 2016, when CPJ last conducted its annual census of journalists jailed around the world, at least 25 journalists were imprisoned in the country in direct relation to their work.
The who's who of the Opposition camp deliberated on the upcoming Presidential poll - the candidate's name as well as strategy to get the desired numbers.

By Supriya Bhardwaj: Congress president Sonia Gandhi slams Modi government for not taking the initiative to build consensus on the names of the candidates for President and Vice President's posts.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who had called the meeting, through a statement said, "The normal practice has been, that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for the important offices.

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"This has not happened so far. If acceptable consensual candidates do not emerge then we (Opposition parties) shall decide to filed such persons who shall steadfastly defend the Constitutional values of our Republic."

On third anniversary of Modi government, the Opposition camp led by Congress put up a show of strength in the Parliament.

The who's who of the Opposition camp deliberated on the upcoming Presidential poll - the candidate's name as well as strategy to get the desired numbers.

The Opposition parties also decided to strengthen floor coordination in Parliament's upcoming monsoon session and unitedly oppose this NDA government's policies, which Gandhi added , "are imposing unprecedented burden on all sections of the society."

ALSO READ:

Kaun Banega President? List of probable NDA and Opposition candidates

Presidential election 2017: Opposition's big meet on Friday to pick joint candidate

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Caning of two gay men in Aceh: A "cruel and sickening punishment."

Trent Zimmerman says Australia cannot ignore the cruel and sickening punishment, and Derryn Hinch wants foreign aid suspended





A Liberal MP says the cruel and sickening caning of two gay men in Aceh has cast a cloud over Australias relationship with Indonesia.





Australia should not stand by and ignore the inhumane treatment of the men who were caned 85 times under sharia law for having consensual sex, the gay backbencher Trent Zimmerman told parliament on Tuesday.





He was grateful the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop , had raised the matter with her Indonesian counterparts but called on others, including the Muslim community in Australia, to take a stand.





Our friendship with Indonesia has been strengthened by our perception of a pluralistic, democratic and moderate Islamic nation, Zimmerman said. Sadly, recent events have given us cause to question that understanding.





Nothing should absolve the Indonesian government of its obligation to ensure all its citizens are afforded the basic human rights it has agreed to uphold through its international commitments.





The crossbench senator Derryn Hinch has called for Australia to suspend its foreign aid to Indonesia over the matter.





I believe Australian aid should be suspended to show our disapproval and disgust, Hinch said. Im disappointed by our governments silence on this cruelty.

 | 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 , AAP, May 26, 2017
- Yoruba actor Dr Adesina Adesanya aka Pastor Ajidara passed on after a battling with kidney related ailment

- As the Yoruba movie industry mourns some of its departed colleagues, Pastor Ajidara gets laid to rest

- The actor's lifetime is being celebrated in Abeokuta where he had lived most of his life

Nollywood actor Pastor Ajidara gets laid to rest in Abeokuta where he spent most of his life. The late actor passed on after battling with kidney kidney related ailment. The Yoruba movie industry has witnessed sudden deaths of three of its favourite actors in a month.

READ ALSO: See these awesome photos of bride and her male bridemaids

Adesanya was a 62-year-old vibrant Yoruba actor who was well known for his religious leader roles in most films he partook in. As he is being laid to rest, family and friends gathered to celebrate his lifetime as they bid farewell to the brilliant actor who was also a retired court registrar.

Legit.ng earlier reported Iya Rainbow's reaction to the death of Pastor Ajidara, advising the industry to be more prayerful.

Pastor Ajidara being laid to rest in Abeokuta

READ ALSO: Stunning photos of Nigerian twin sisters who are too beautiful for words

Family and friends gathered in Abeokuta to say goodbye to a man who has walked the surface of the earth, blessing many with his talent and dedication to work. May his soul rest in perfect peace.

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app

Meet 20-year-old contortionist who says she isn't evil. Brought to you by Legit.ng. Watch below:

Source: Legit.ng
- Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha's second daughter Uju Anwuka was recently offered an appointment as a member of board of the Federal College of Education, (Tech), Omoku.

- Governor Okorocha has rejected the appointment on behalf of his daughter

Last week, Legit.ng reported that Imo state governor Rochas Okorocha celebrated with his son Amen Amarachi Rochas who just graduated from an American University.

READ ALSO: This lady used only men for her bridal train and the photos are amazing!

Recently, his second daughter Uju Anwuka was offered a political appointment as a member of board of the Federal College of Education, (Tech), Omoku.

Uju is married to Dr Uzoma Anwua who is a son of Prof Anthony Anwuka, the minister of education state. Their wedding took place in 2014.

Imo State governor Okorocha walking his daughter, Uju, down the aisle.

READ ALSO: Here's how Apostle Suleman was seen scattering the dance floor (photos)

Uju with her husband, Dr. Uzoma Anwuka.

Governor Okorocha has now released a public statement rejecting the appointment, on behalf of his daughter. It reads below:

GOVERNMENT OF IMO STATE PRESS RELEASE

RE: THE APPOINTMENT OF MRS UJU ROCHAS ANWUKA INTO THE BOARD OF FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (TECH) OMOKU

-His Excellency Governor Rochas Okorocha Rejects the Appointment.

The attention of the Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha has been drawn to the publication listing one of the daughters, Mrs. Uju Rochas Anwuka as a member of the Board of the Federal College of Education (Tech), Omoku.

And it is important to swiftly state, with every sense of concern, that the governor had read about the appointment like every other Nigerian because he was never consulted or briefed on the appointment and that is why the whole thing looks suspicious.

To the governor, the appointment was obviously not done in good faith. Whoever was the brain behind the appointment did so out of unbridled mischief. Otherwise, the person behind the appointment would have had the courtesy of either informing the father or the mother.

The truth of the matter is that the governors daughter does not need the appointment. The governor has therefore asked whoever was behind the appointment to withdraw it since the daughter would not have needed the appointment, even if he had not become governor.

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Indeed, the governor has the feeling that whoever was behind the appointment did it with something else at the back of his or her mind, otherwise the person would have acted well his or her part by informing him or the mother or even the daughter herself.

The daughter and the entire family reject the appointment.

Sam Onwuemeodo,

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.

Watch the video below of Legit.ng giving you the hottest gist on THE SCOOP:

Source: Legit.ng
- Veteran actor Otunba Adebayo Salami also known as Oga Bello has new reason to celebrate

- One of his son's, Lai Salami just had his traditional wedding ceremony

- Oga Bello as well his famous son, Femi Adebayo attend the ceremony

Adebayo Salami aka Oga Bello, is a veteran Nigerian actor and director. In 2016, Legit.ng reported that his second son, actor Femi Adebayo had his second marriage.

Now the proud father of 18 children has fresh reason to celebrate as one of his son's, Lai Salami, just had his traditional wedding.

READ ALSO: This lady used only men for her bridal train and the photos are amazing!

Lai got married to his sweetheart, Taiwo, who is a budding entrepreneur in skincare products. See how happy they are below:

Lai Salami and his beautiful bride Taiwo at their traditional wedding

READ ALSO: Meet Sayo and Jomi, beautiful Nigerian twins who are driving guys nuts (photos)

L-R: Lai's beautiful bride Taiwo, bride being ushered in by friends

The traditional wedding ceremony which held in Ibadan and different dignitaries and actors were in attendance. Femi Adebayo and Oga Bello even posed for a very nice selfie.

L-R: Veteran actor Oga Bello and son Femi Adebayo, Femi Adebayo and his new wife

PAY ATTENTION! Never miss a single gist! Download Legit.ng news app for android

Congrats to the couple!

Watch this video below of Nigerians telling Legit.ng how much a man should earn as salary before considering him for marriage:

Source: Legit.ng
Business is so good for SEI Manufacturing in Cromwell, Ind., that theres only one thing preventing explosive growth: a shortage of workers. I could double my revenue if I could get the workers, says Nathan Scherer, the 37-year-old owner of the company, which makes marine components. It frustrates me. I never would have thought the biggest barrier to my success would be an inability to get workers.

President Trump has promised to bring back manufacturing jobs he claims have been shipped to countries like China and Mexico, and revive fading industries such as coal and steel. But in many pockets of the country, the problem isnt shuttered factories or abandoned mines but humming businesses that cant find the staffers they need.

The Labor Department reports nearly 6 million jobs open nationwide, close to the highest level in the 17 years the government has been gathering such data. The unemployment rate, at 4.4%, is below the level many economists consider full employment, or the rate at which employers must start boosting wages to lure the workers they need.

[What would it take to get you to move for a job? Wed love to know. Please take our survey.]

There are still about 8 million Americans who are unemployed, underemployed or drifting in and out of the labor force. Perhaps 10 million other working-age adults have dropped out of the labor force and given up looking for a job. Thats a real problem, but it doesnt mean there arent enough jobs in the country. It means the jobs arent located where the jobless live, or the available jobs require skills the jobless dont have. Its also possible some people who arent working simply dont want the jobs that are available.

Trucking companies, for instance, are short about 50,000 drivers, according to Bob Costello, chief economist for the American Trucking Association. Its obviously demanding work that requires being away from home for 7 to 10 days at a stretch. But pay has been rising, Costello says, with a typical driver able to earn $50,000 t0 $70,000 a year. The driver shortage has made companies more flexible, and willing to let drivers make their own schedules, when possible. And the nature of the job lets drivers live in low-cost areas of their choosing, with the south and Midwest being best, logistically. Still, the driver shortage is expected to intensify rather than ease, and despite the hype, self-driving trucks that could help solve the problem are probably still decades away.

Story continues

Nathan Scherer, owner of SEI Manufacturing, right, with Andy Cripe, owner of Polar Kraft Boats. Both Indiana companies are struggling to find needed workers.

There are many anecdotal reports of labor shortages across the country. Farmers in California report that seasonal foreign workers arent showing up the way they used toand neither are Americans happy to take the work foreigners are leaving behind, even though pay is approaching $15 per hour, or more. A tech and manufacturing boom in Utah and Colorado has pushed the unemployment rate more than a full percentage point below the national average in those states, and led to labor shortages in construction, health care and other sectors. In North Carolina, builders cant erect enough homes to meet demand because they cant find the workers. Home prices will rise, contractors say, as theyre forced to pay more to draw people to job sites.

Job-search site Indeed says these are the top 10 cities for job growth:

And these are the worst 10 cities, where job growth is actually negative:

Normally, in a free-market economy, workers move away from areas where jobs are drying up, to areas where jobs being created. But that isnt happening the way it used to. The portion of Americans moving to a different state is now half what it was in 1980, as this chart shows:

The question is why more people arent moving away from economically distressed areas to places where there is more opportunity. A few analysts say tales of labor shortages are exaggerated, because pay isnt rising the way it ought to be if companies had no choice but to raise wages in order to attract workers. But there may simply be a lag between whats happening on the ground and what shows up in nationwide data. In northern Indiana, Scherer says, were almost getting to a wage-war situation.

Wage data may also fail to capture the choices workers are actually making. Costello of the American Trucking Association says pay is going up in his industry, but many drivers are taking advantage of that to improve qualify of life. It used to be commonplace to drive 125,000 miles per year, he says. Now its more like 100,000. When you raise pay, a lot of drivers say, Ill work less and make the same amount of money.

Middle-skill jobs going unfilled

In blue-collar fields such as construction, theres some evidence that employers are so accustomed to cheap laborincluding undocumented workersthat theyre reluctant to increase pay, no matter what. But employers also dont want to pay more unless theyre going to get workers with better skills, and those can be hard to find.

Scherer says he needs more workers such as welders and CNC programmers able to operate technical machinery. Those are middle-skill jobs that dont require an engineering degree but do require specialized training. So an out-of-work coal miner from Appalachia cant just show up in northern Indiana and get hired for $25 an hour. If I could get really qualified labor, I would pay more, Sherer says. But there arent enough good workers. There are a lot of missing skills.

So displaced workers who stay put instead of moving to one of the nations new boomtowns may be acting rationally, in a waysince moving alone wont necessarily lead to a job. In the past, when millions of lesser-skilled manual-labor jobs were more or less interchangeable, following the work was a reliable way to get ahead. But with technology now suffusing jobs far down the economic food chain, the right skills are more important than ever, and not always transferable from one place or industry to another.

Trump insists he can boost the nations economic growth rate from the meager 2% range were at now to 3% or more, which would be great news for the middle class. But every order thats not placed because a manufacturer doesnt have the workers to fill it, every house that doesnt get built, and every truckload of freight that sits waiting for a driver is economic activity not happening. Thats how economies stall, and it has nothing to do with China or Mexico.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com

Read more:

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman
The makers of Magadheera have alleged that Raabta is a copy of their film.

A still from Raabta (L) and a still from Magadheera

By India Today Web Desk: Since the day of the release of Raabta's trailer, fans have been pointing out its uncanny resemblance with SS Rajamouli's Telugu hit, Magadheera. Magadheera, like Raabta, is a tale of two star-crossed lovers meeting again in another life, realising that they have a strong connection with each other. The makers of Magadheera are taking legal action, alleging plagiarism. But is Raabta really inspired from Magadheera?

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It cannot be denied that at first glance, the two have a striking similarity, right down to the antagonist and his love for choppers.

Jim Sarbh in a still from Raabta (above) and Dev Gill in a still from Magadheera

At a media interaction last night, Sushant Singh Rajput told reporters that there are only eight different kind of stories, and every story is developed from those stock stories. Rebirth, just like rags-to-riches and quest, is one of the basic story themes, and innumerable Bollywood films have been made on the theme of reincarnation, from Karz to Om Shanti Om.

See the trailer of Raabta:

Here is Magadheera, the full movie:

Raabta seems to revolve around two youngsters who have an instant connection, but little do they know that it dates back to a past life relationship. From the trailer, it seems like Kriti's character was a princess in her past life (repeated references to "ek thi rani"), same as Kajal Aggarwal in Magadheera.

Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput in a still from Raabta (L) and Kajal Aggarwal and Ram Charan in a still from Magadheera Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput in a still from Raabta (L) and Kajal Aggarwal and Ram Charan in a still from Magadheera

The grand swashbuckling sequences in Raabta are reminiscent of Magadheera's, especially the shot of several armed men ferociously charging. In Magadheera, there was a similar scene of a 100 intimidating soldiers charging towards Ram Charan, and he single-handedly kills them all.

"Bas ek mujhse hi pyaar kar sakti ho tum," Jim Sarbh tells Kriti in the trailer. It is not very different from Magadheera's villain, who kills Kajal, rather than let her be united with Ram Charan's character.

However, the trailer of Raabta is also different from the film Magadheera in many ways. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the Raabta trailer is the unrecognisable Rajkummar Rao, as a 324-year-old man. He just has a blink-and-miss appearance in the trailer, and it is likely that he will bring an element of surprise in Raabta. Rajamouli's film had no such character.

Rajkummar Rao introduces an element of mystery in the Raabta trailer

Besides, the trailer and songs show that a lot of the focus is on the romance between Sushant and Kriti. Ram Charan and Kajal hardly got romantic moments in Magadheera; as soon as they unite, they are separated. The build-up is humorous, not mushy, as Raabta seems to be.

Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput in a still from Raabta (L) and Kajal Aggarwal and Ram Charan in a still from Magadheera Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput in a still from Raabta (L) and Kajal Aggarwal and Ram Charan in a still from Magadheera

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Kriti also seems to have a few romantic scenes with Jim, but Kajal and Dev Gill (the antagonist) had no such scenes together in Magadheera.

Jim Sarbh and Kriti Sanon get cozy in the Raabta trailer

The makers of Raabta have given a statement refuting claims that Raabta is a copy of Magadheera, and called the jumping to conclusions on the basis of a 2 minute 14 second trailer unfair. Indeed, we will have to wait for Sushant and Kriti's film to release to come to a conclusion.

ALSO READ: Raabta a copy of Magadheera? Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon respond

ALSO READ: Magadheera makers drag Raabta to court over plagiarism allegation

ALSO WATCH: Sushant Singh Rajput talks about playing MS Dhoni and does the helicopter shot

--- ENDS ---
texting einstein smart millennials

Nvidia has surged by 95% since last year's US election, making it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 over the period. Now hedge funds and millennial investors are divided over its outlook.

The stock is the fourth most shorted by hedge funds, judging by dollar amount of short interest, according to a Goldman Sachs study.

It's also the sixth-most-owned stock holding for millennial investors, according to the no-fee trading app Robinhood.

A battle is brewing over the best-performing stock since last year's US election.

The company in question is Nvidia, which has enjoyed a particularly charmed existence since November 8. The graphics-chip maker's stock price has exploded 95% higher since then, the biggest gain in the S&P 500 by almost 30 percentage points.

On one hand, the company has been targeted by large speculators as a stock likely to decline, as reflected by the roughly $3 billion in short positions held by hedge funds. That's the fourth-highest level of short interest out of companies analyzed by Goldman Sachs, which combed through 821 funds holding a combined $1.9 trillion.

But it's also one of the favorite stocks for millennial investors. According to the investment startup Robinhood, Nvidia is the sixth-most-owned stock on its entire platform.

What's more, options traders don't seem particularly concerned about lofty valuations.

They're paying the lowest premium in nearly three years to protect against a 10% decline in Nvidia's stock over the next three months, relative to bets on a 10% increase, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In fact, options investors are almost paying more to bet on further gains than to hedge, a rare occurrence for the stock.

Screen Shot 2017 05 24 at 3.41.22 PM

And while share prices across the technology industry as a whole have soared since the election, Nvidia has even more going for it than strength by association and the adoration of millennials. On Wednesday, SoftBank announced a $4 billion stake in the company, sending shares climbing by as much as 3%.

Story continues

Nvidia also turned in a blockbuster earnings report earlier this month, spiking by 18%, the most in six months. The company was helped by strong demand for its chips that are used by major cloud-computing providers in data centers.

In the grand scheme of things, this discrepancy between large institutions and individual investors is nothing new to the stock market. The tug-of-war is indicative of the scenario that usually plays out when a stock goes on a torrid run like the one seen by Nvidia.

Some people get drawn in by the hype and the prospect of a quick profit, while others get worried that valuations are overextended. In the end, the conflicting forces are healthy for the market, which is most susceptible to large shocks when euphoria is peaking.

NOW WATCH: This animated map shows how religion spread across the world





More From Business Insider


U.S. national wireless carrier T-Mobile US Inc.s TMUS latest promotional plans seem to have heated up the nations wireless industry and can pose as threats to telecom behemoth Verizon Communications Inc.s VZ customer base.

Effective May 31, 2017, T-Mobile US, the third U.S. mobile network operator, has offered to pay the full balance of Verizon customers' (carrying the Google Pixel or Apples iPhone 6, SE, 6S or 7) phone leases  up to $1,000  if they switch to its network.

Apart from monetary benefits, customers availing the switch-over will receive a digital prepaid MasterCard within 15 days and can continue using their existing device and the same phone number. Customers are advised to insure their phones with T-Mobiles Premium Device Protection Plus, an insurance offering that costs $15 a month.

Similarly, the offer is open to AT&T Inc. T and Sprint Corp. S customers. The company has not yet mentioned the last date of this offer.

Meanhwile, T-Mobile US CFO, Braxton Carter, noted that Sprint would be a logical merger partner as the industry continues to consolidate. The combined company would have the ability and the resources to really put all of that spectrum to work for the benefits of consumers and businesses everywhere, said Carter.

T-Mobile US has criticized Verizons LTE data speeds of slowing down 14% after it joined the unlimited war in the first quarter.

Bottom Line

This is one of T-Mobile US innovative network expansion methodologies which has always helped it to drive substantial consumer growth. Notably, in the last-reported first quarter of 2017, T-Mobile US added 1.142 million total net customers, marking the 16th successive quarter of over one million net customer additions. Several analysts estimate that the company has managed to gain customers from rivals  the other three major U.S. wireless carriers.

T-Mobile US continues to gain postpaid wireless customers. This has encouraged management to raise the subscriber gain outlook for 2016, owing to the success of its Un-carrier initiatives and aggressive promotional activities. As of Mar 31, 2017, the total customer base of T-Mobile US was 72.597 million, up 10.8% year over year.

Story continues

Backed by impressive subscriber additions, the company raised its outlook for 2017. T-Mobile US anticipates adjusted EBITDA in the range of $10.4$10.8 billion. Capital expenditure will likely be in the range of $4.8$5.1 billion. It projects branded postpaid net customer addition to fall in the range of 2.83.5 million compared with the previous guidance of 2.43.4 million.

The company has increased its top line by adding customers. However, this has happened at the cost of huge costs incurred to gain customers and improve revenues.

Price Performance and Zacks Rank

Over the past three months, share price of T-Mobile US has inched up 9.26% while that of Verizon Communications has gone down 9.81% compared with the Zacks-categorized Wireless National industrys 7.19% fall.

Both T-Mobile US and Verizon currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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U.S. President Donald Trump (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

Does climate change exist, or is it as President Trump has insisted, a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese? You do the math. In recorded history, the 16 warmest years have occurred in this century, last year being the hottest. Any questions? Here, however, is the interesting part: the President has a climate change conundrum. His campaign commitment to cancel and withdraw the US from the global climate accord (the Paris Agreement) which seeks to do no less than save the planet by reducing greenhouse gases, is much like the weather itself. It may be about to change (as have so many other campaign positions of the President). That would be a welcome and momentous shift for the better. Heres why it matters and why he may ease into this position change beginning at the G7 (Group of Seven) meeting in Italy on Friday and Saturday as the President concludes his foreign trip.

The reasons this would be a positive development are straightforward and have been accepted by the exceedingly large majority of respected scientists around the world. Humans, through our industrialized development, have created increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which continue to raise temperatures, thus melting glaciers and ice caps. The result, without something being done, are rising sea levels which will displace tens of millions of people living on low-lying shorelines, droughts that will deplete global food supplies and lead to famine, increased diseases and extinction of many plant and animal species. Not great. Thats why, in 2015 after two decades of effort, 197 nations singed onto the Paris Agreement, the most comprehensive effort to address climate change ever. Last October, it received enough home-nation ratifications from those signatories that it entered into force.

To date, the disagreements within the Trump Administration about if the President should do as he said and cancel the Agreement have been notable, yet no decision has been made public. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has led the arguments in support of the Presidents clarion campaign call to pull the plug, saying its a bad deal for the US. On the other hand, Ivanka Trump has reportedly been the calm, cool and judicious voice for staying in. (Of note is that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil and supporter of the Agreement, may also have weighed in on the matter, and Secretary of Defense James Mattis has said he views climate change as an issue of national security.)

Interestingly, even some former foes of efforts to combat climate change, namely several coal company executives, have said the US should stay in as a venue for continuing to be part of the climate change conversation. This surprised many, apparently including the President himself, since such a position opposing the Agreement was not only previously popular among coal interests, but with coal miners whovote. Some emerging nations, with less restrictive mandates for greenhouse gas emissions will continue to burn coal (allowed under the Agreement). US coal companies want that to be their coal. Furthermore, to the greatest extent practicable, coal is best burned in manners which reduce pollution using clean coal technology. To that end, coal executives surely hope cost-sharing programs will be available. Such coal exportation and clean coal technology programs are more likely to assist US coal interests if the US continues to be part of the Agreement.

A man wearing a mask depicting Donald Trump protests during a demonstration against climate change outside of the U.S. Embassy in London, Britain, 18 November, 2016. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay)

A decision point is fast approaching as the G7 leaders meet and are expected to discuss the matter. This is an exclusive club comprised of the leaders of highly industrialized democracies. All of the other leaders support the Paris Agreement. On his first G7 foray, would the President really want to come off as a paranoid pariah (perhaps a nut job) on climate change? That possibility is real because some of the leaders havent even met each other. Plus, President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and UK and Italian Prime Ministers, Theresa May and Paulo Gentiloni, respectively, have never attended a G7 meeting.

In the event the President chooses to continue to ignore the scientific facts and the majority global view on this matter, theres one saving grace. Since the Agreement has already been ratified and is currently in force, all 197 nations that were part of the Agreement (including the US) must wait three years before seeking to withdraw, and then another year before actually doing so. Under such a scenario, that would be 2021, after the 2020 presidential election.

Given all of this, it seems likely the President will soon alter his course to cancel the Agreement as promised during the election campaign. For the fate of the world, lets hope he does so.



About the Author: Former US Trading Commissioner Bart Chilton was Chair of the Energy & Environmental Markets Advisory Committee, is a political and policy commentator and author of Ponzimonium: How Scam Artists Are Ripping Off America. He can be reached at bartchilton@bartchilton.com.
AIM: MARL

TSX-V: MARL







26 May 2017



Granite House, La Grande Rue,

St. Martin, Guernsey, GY1 3RS

Channel Islands





TR-1-Notice of Increase in Holding and New Holdings by Significant Shareholders

Mariana Resources Ltd ("Mariana" or the "Company"), the AIM ("MARL") and TSXV ("MARL") listed exploration and development company with projects in Turkey, Cote d'Ivoire and South America, announces the following new and increases in significant shareholdings:

MMCAP International Inc. SPC has increased its holding and reached a direct holding of 8.82% in the Company. This threshold has been achieved over a period from the 16 May to the 24 May within a closing trading range of 92.75p to 96p. MMCAP currently holds 11,796,263 ordinary shares in the Company.

HGC Investment Management Inc. has reached a direct holding of 5.03% in the Company. This threshold has been achieved over a period from the 16 May to the 24 May within a closing trading range of 87.5p to 95p. HGC currently holds 6,723,825 ordinary shares in the Company.

MAN Group PLC has reached a direct holding of 3.2% in the Company. This threshold has been achieved over a period from the 16 May to the 24 May within a closing trading range of 87.5p to 95p. HGC currently holds 4,281,026 ordinary shares in the Company.

Mariana Resources Limited

Glen Parsons, CEO

**ENDS**

Glen Parsons (CEO) Mariana Resources Ltd +61 2 9437 4588 Eric Roth (COO) Mariana Resources Ltd +56 9 8818 1243 Karen Davies (IR) Mariana Resources Ltd (Canada) +1 604 314 6270 Rob Adamson RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0041 Will Souter RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0050 In U.K. Oliver Stansfield Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5061 Jonathan Evans Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5016 Camilla Horsfall Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3224 Megan Ray Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3203

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About Mariana Resources

Mariana Resources Ltd is a TSX.V and AIM (MARL) quoted exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver, and copper projects in South America, Turkey, and Ivory Coast.

Mariana's most advanced asset is the Hot Maden gold-copper project in northeast Turkey, which is a joint venture with Turkish partner Lidya Madencilik (30% Mariana and 70% Lidya) and which is rapidly advancing to development. On January 17, 2017, Mariana released the results of a Preliminary Economic Study ("PEA") which demonstrated exceptional potential economics for the Hot Maden Project (after-tax NPV and IRR of USD 1.37B and 153%, respectively) based on a development scenario incorporating a 1Mtpa underground mining / processing operation and the production of two saleable concentrates (a copper-gold concentrate and a gold-pyrite concentrate). This PEA was based on the updated (July 25, 2016) mineral resource estimate of 3.43 Moz gold equivalent (Indicated Category) and 0.09 Moz gold equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) in the Main Zone, as well as a maiden 351,000 Moz gold equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) resource in the New Southern Discovery. Elsewhere in Turkey, Mariana holds a 100% interest in the Ergama gold-copper project.

On October 7, 2016, Mariana announced the signing of a binding Term Sheet to acquire an indirect 80% interest in Ivory Coast-focused private exploration company Awale Resources SARL ("Awale"). Through the transaction Mariana will gain an immediate foothold in an established exploration portfolio with known gold mineralisation and artisanal gold workings, and which comprises i) 3 granted contiguous licenses (1,191 km2) in the Bondoukou area, and ii) 4 licenses under application (1,593 km2) in both the Bondoukou and Abengourou areas. The Boundoukou concessions lie along the southwestern extension of the Birimian Bole-Nangodi greenstone belt in adjacent Ghana, host to a number of high grade orogenic gold deposits.

In southern Argentina, the Company's core gold-silver projects are Las Calandrias (100%), Sierra Blanca (100%), Los Cisnes (100%), and Bozal (100%). These projects are part of a 100,000+ Ha land package in the Deseado Massif epithermal gold-silver district in mining-friendly Santa Cruz Province.

In Suriname, Mariana has a direct holding of 10.2% of the Nassau Gold project. The Nassau Gold Project is a 28,000 Ha exploration concession located approximately 125 km south east of the capital Paramaribo and immediately adjacent to Newmont Mining's 4.2Moz gold Merian project. In Peru and Chile, Mariana is focusing on acquiring new opportunities which complement its current portfolio.

Hot Maden Mineral Resource Estimate - Main Gold-Copper Zone (2 g/t AuEq Cut-off) Indicated Mineral Resource Domain Tonnes Au Cu Zn AuEq Au Cu AuEq t g/t % % g/t* Ounces Tonnes Ounces** Main Zone LG 463,000 1.1 1.1 0.3 2.4 17,000 5,000 36,000 Main Zone HG 4,501,000 3.9 1.9 0.2 6.3 570,000 87,000 908,000 Main Zone UHG 2,086,000 32.7 3.5 0.1 36.9 2,195,000 73,000 2,476,000 Mixed Gold-Zinc 17,000 7.5 3.1 3.6 11.2 4,000 1,000 6,000 Peripheral Lodes 60,000 2.1 0.4 0.4 2.5 4,000 5,000 Total 7,127,000 12.2 2.3 0.2 15.0 2,790,000 166,000 3,431,000 Inferred Mineral Resource Domain Tonnes Au Cu Zn AuEq Au Cu AuEq t g/t % % g/t* Ounces Tonnes Ounces** Main Zone LG 395,000 1.7 0.9 0.03 2.8 21,000 4,000 35,000 Main Zone HG 31,000 3.9 1.6 0.1 5.8 4,000 6,000 Main Zone UHG 6,000 39.1 2.1 0.01 41.6 7,000 8,000 Mixed Gold-Zinc 4,000 1.7 0.4 2.4 2.2 Peripheral Lodes 282,000 3.2 0.9 0.1 4.3 29,000 2,000 38,000 Total 718,000 2.7 0.9 0.1 3.8 62,000 7,000 88,000



Hot Maden - Southern Gold-Copper Zone (2 g/t AuEq Cut-off) Inferred Mineral Resource Domain Tonnes Au Cu Zn AuEq Au Cu AuEq t g/t % % g/t* Ounces Tonnes Ounces** South Zone LG 396,000 2.8 0.7 0.0 3.6 35,000 3,000 46,000 South Zone HG 583,000 5.3 0.7 0.0 6.1 98,000 4,000 114,000 Main Zone UHG 224,000 22.2 1.0 0.0 23.4 160,000 2,000 169,000 Mixed Gold-Zinc 44,000 9.0 1.0 3.2 10.2 13,000 15,000 Peripheral Lodes 104,000 1.9 0.3 0.0 2.2 6,000 7,000 Total 1,352,000 7.2 0.7 0.1 8.1 313,000 10,000 351,000

*Au Equivalence (AuEq) calculated using a 100 day moving average of $US1,215/ounce for Au and $US2.13/pound for Cu as of May 29, 2016. No adjustment has been made for metallurgical recovery or net smelter return as these remain uncertain at this time. Based on grades and contained metal for Au and Cu, it is assumed that both commodities have reasonable potential to be economically extractable.

*-The formula used for Au equivalent grade is: AuEq g/t = Au + [(Cu % x 22.0462 x 2.13)/(1215/31.1035)] and assumes 100 % metallurgical recovery. **-Au equivalent ounces are calculated by mulitplying Mineral Resource tonnage by Au equivalent grade and converting for ounces. The formula used for Au equivalent ounces is: AuEq Oz = [Tonnage x AuEq grade (g/t)]/31.1035

Safe Harbour

This press release contains certain statements which may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this press release and include, without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, the realization, cost, timing and extent of mineral resource estimates, estimated future exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, and requirements for additional capital. The words "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimate", "forecasts", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "may", "will", or similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the effects of general economic conditions; the price of gold, silver and copper; misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; risks associated with international operations; the need for additional financing; risks inherent in exploration results; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters; currency and commodity price fluctuations; title matters; environmental liability claims; unanticipated operational risks; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; political risk; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual financial statements for the most recently completed financial year which is available on the Company's website at www.marianaresources.com . Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
English Lithuanian

Siauliai, Lithuania, 2017-05-26 08:06 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Siauliu Bankas AB (hereinafter referred to as the Bank), company code 112025254, domicile address Tilzes st. 149, Siauliai.

On 27 March 2017, the Bank provided a binding offer to acquire a loan portfolio with the carrying amount of EUR 30 million issued by the credit institution under the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania. The offer has expired and no agreement has been signed with the portfolio seller.

Chief Executive Officer Vytautas Sinius
Vierema, Finland, 2017-05-26 10:08 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Distinguished forestry experts were rewarded in Vierema, Finland. Maintaining the life's work of Einari Vidgren, the Einari Vidgren Foundation gave out EUR 157,700 in recognitions. Einari Awards, the main recognitions given out from the Foundation, were granted to veteran harvesting professionals Ahti Annala of the company Kone Annala Ky, and Jan-Erik Oldenburg of the company Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy.

Industrial Counsellor Einari Vidgren, the founder of Ponsse Plc, established the Einari Vidgren Foundation in 2005 with the aim of increasing appreciation for the work performed within the field of mechanised wood harvesting. The purpose of the Foundation is to heighten awareness of the entrepreneurship related to wood harvesting and to make the mechanised harvesting sector more interesting as a potential workplace, especially among young people.

Einari Awards

The Einari Award is granted for meritorious hard work as a forest machine entrepreneur. The criteria for the award emphasise a long-term approach to entrepreneurship and professionalism in this highly challenging industry. The EUR 20 000 main Einari Awards were granted today to Kone Annala Ky owner Ahti Annala and Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy owner Jan-Erik Oldenburg.

Ahti Annala, the founder of Kone Annala Ky and recipient of the Einari Award went into the forest machine business in 1980 together with this brother. After 38 years at the helm of his business, Mr. Annala is ready to hand over the business to the next generation. The companys ownership is about to be transferred to Mr. Annala's sons who will continue his work. Located in Sodankyla, the company employs 14 people who work in four different machine units. Employee turnover at the company has been remarkably low throughout its history. This is due to Ahti Annala's introducing of human resources policies that place a high value on employee skills and expertise. He looks into the future by offering on-the-job training to young people, and seeks to keep everyone employed in spite of seasonal changes in demand for forestry services. A number of machines guarantees there is always a tool available that is suitable for the task ahead, and the machines are kept in good working condition. This also ensures workplace well-being for the employees. Throughout his years as an entrepreneur, Mr .Annala has relied on honest work and has focused on long-term goals to keep his business steady.

Jan-Erik Oldenburg, founder of Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy and recipient of the Einari Award started his business in 1994, felling trees with a chainsaw. He bought his first harvester, a used model, in 2005 after a storm in Sweden blew down entire forests. Located in the Helsinki Capital Region, Puistometsapalvelu serves private landowners, construction companies and the government-owned company Altia Plc whose forests the company manages with a holistic vision towards sustainability. The company's business model clearly differs from those of traditional machine businesses working for forest companies. Instead of relying on long-term forestry contracts, the company keeps looking for opportunities in various countries. Individual jobseven small onesare welcome, and customers can expect to receive all services they need from the same business, such as when clearing a site for a single new house when the company not only fells the trees but transports them for further processing. Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy represents a new and different type of forest felling entrepreneurship with a focus on expertise and excellent service.

Einari Recognitions

The Foundation gave Einari Recognitions to research and development organisations active in the field of mechanised wood harvesting, developers of training in the sector and parties that promote awareness of the sector and increase its appreciation.

Education in the field of forestry is of utmost importance for the prosperity and continued success of the industry, and will ensure availability of a future workforce. The following awards were granted an Einari Award of EUR 3,000 based on a long-term focus on development and high quality education:

Jouko Karjalainen, Director, Oulu Vocational College/Taivalkoski unit

Juha Heikkinen, Supervisor, Oulu Vocational College/Muhos unit

Markku Kekkonen, Lecturer, Savo Consortium for Education, Toivala unit

The Rural Professions Association has been granted an Einari Award of EUR 3,000. The association's aim is to promote the availability of jobs in forestry and agriculture to young people as well as to increase the awareness and networking of the field.

The Natural Resources Institute Finland has been awarded an Einari Recognition of EUR 6,000 for advancing cut-to-length felling techniques and related education and training in Canada, especially in the province of Ontario.

The City of Jyvaskyla has been awarded an Einari Recognition of EUR 2,000 for its Kunnontyot 2 Project designed to bring jobs to unemployed long-term job seekers, immigrants and marginalized youth. The project offers apprenticeships to nine students who are expected to graduate with a degree in forestry this spring.



An Einari Recognition of EUR 5,000 was granted to German Forestry Ladies Forwarder Cup, for developing forest machine operator training for women in Germany and promoting the forestry especially among women.

Two Einari Recognitions of EUR 6,000 each were granted to the following educational institutions for promoting the cut-to-length method:

Polo Educativo Technologico Paysandu, Uruguay

Reshetnev Siberian State Aerospace University, Russia



Two Einari Recognitions of EUR 3,000 were granted to people and organisations in the United States: CTL Manager/Forester Matthew Mattioda of Oregon was recognised for his continued efforts to promote the cut-to-length method, and Finlandia University was given a student grant of EUR 3,000 to facilitate a course on the cut-to-length method and promoting such techniques.

Einari Driver Awards

The Einari Vidgren Foundation also gave Einari Operator's Awards of EUR 1,500 each, to a record number of 39 distinguished forest machine operators. The award criteria included the high quality of work and customer-centric attitude as well as cooperation and communication with forest owners and other stakeholders.

Einari Student Scholarships

The Einari Vidgren Foundation also granted student scholarships of EUR 600 to 27 students studying programmes related to the forest machine sector. The scholarships were decided on by the teaching staff of each college. In addition to success in studies, the criteria included the fact that the student has a job as a forest machine operator or serviceman when leaving school.

Photos from the award ceremony:

http://www.ponsse.com/media-archive/images/events/20172

The material is freely available to the press.

Vierema, 24 May 2017

EINARI VIDGREN FOUNDATION

Juha Vidgren

Chairman of the Einari Vidgren Foundation

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Juha Vidgren, tel. +358 40 518 6286

www.evsaatio.fi
VANCOUVER, B.C., May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (TSX-V:NVO) (OTCQX:NSRPF) is pleased to announce it has entered into a preliminary binding memorandum of agreement to farm-in and joint venture gold rights with Artemis Resources Limited (Artemis), an ASX-listed mining company, on Artemis large, 1,536 square km, exploration package in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Novo has also recently acquired, through staking, a 100% interest in 6,021 square km in the same region targeting newly recognized conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization. This is a new style of gold mineralisation in the Karratha region that represents an exciting new discovery.



New Conglomerate-Hosted Gold Discovery

In a news release dated April 11, 2017, Novo discussed acquisition of the Comet Well gold project near Karratha, Western Australia. Since that time, Novo has aggressively staked 6,771 square km of exploration licenses, mainly in the West Pilbara region (Figure 1). The basis for staking such a large land package is the recent recognition of gold-bearing conglomerates in a previously unexplored sequence of rocks near the base of the 2.7-2.85 billion year old Fortescue Group, a thick pile of sedimentary and volcanic rocks underlying vast portions of the Pilbara region.

In recent years, metal detectorists have discovered gold nuggets, sometimes in concentrated patches, over an extensive area around the city of Karratha. In 2016, several particularly rich nugget patches were found in an area approximately 45 kilometers south of Karratha near Comet Well and Artemiss adjoining Purdys Reward. Detectorists have been active along an 8 km long corridor underlain by conglomerate horizons that are part of a 50-100 meter thick sequence of sedimentary rocks underlying the Mt. Roe basalt at the base of the Fortescue Group (Figures 2). This sequence of sedimentary rocks does not appear on geologic maps of the region. Of particular note, prospectors have recently discovered gold nuggets in situ, sometimes in abundance, in outcropping conglomerates thus confirming their origin (Figure 3).

Gold nuggets at Comet Well and Purdys Reward display several interesting characteristics. Most are flattened with rounded edges giving them an appearance similar to watermelon seeds. Most are coarse, +2 mm and are not attached to quartz or other minerals. Gold is of high purity, +96%, compared to lode gold from the Pilbara region that displays purities of 70-90%. Most nuggets occur in the sandy matrix of conglomerate and the sandy texture has been imparted on their surface through pressure during burial (Figure 4). Fine particles of remobilized and re-precipitated gold occur in 2-3 mm wide halos surrounding nuggets (Figure 5). Gold-bearing conglomerates appear to have been subjected to thermal metamorphism in the form of hornfels.

Novo advises that extensive exploration work is necessary to gain an understanding of the geology of these conglomerates, let alone establish a mineral resource. However, given their substantial lateral extent and locally high concentrations of nuggets within them, Novo considers the conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization around Comet Well to be a significant new discovery. Gold-bearing conglomerates are Novos primary exploration focus in the Pilbara, and given the vast amount of experience Novo has gained exploring such deposits at Beatons Creek, approximately 350 km east of Karratha, Novo is ideally suited to explore this exciting new discovery.

Novo has staked approximately 6,021 square km southward from Comet Well covering virtually all projected down dip extensions of gold-bearing conglomerates. The addition of the Artemis earn-in/joint venture ground brings in an additional 1,536 square km of land including critical areas of outcropping gold-bearing conglomerates such as the Purdys Reward discovery discussed in a news release issued by Artemis on February 20, 2017 (Figure 6). Given that Artemis has already permitted exploration work, Novo plans aggressive trenching at Purdys over the next several months followed by drilling later this year. While the development of Beatons Creek project remains Novos main focus, Novo views the Comet Well area and its vast new Pilbara land holdings as a potential pipeline of conglomeratic gold projects upon which the Company can grow. A key component of the earn-in/joint venture agreement allows access to Artemis permitted mill at Radio Hill, a potential benefit should economic mineralization be identified and put into production.

The new gold discovery around Comet Well and Purdys Reward is truly exciting, commented Dr. Quinton Hennigh, President, CEO and director of Novo Resources Corp. Abundant gold nuggets are being found in situ in conglomerates at several locations along what is now an 8 km long corridor. While Novo has staked virtually all projected down dip extensions of gold-bearing conglomerates around Comet Well, the addition of the Artemis earn-in/joint venture ground brings in critical areas of outcropping gold-bearing conglomerates including the Purdys discovery. We are looking forward to working closely with Artemis as we explore this remarkable new discovery.

Teaming up with Novo Resources Corp. on Artemiss extensive land package around Karratha for gold-bearing conglomerates will certainly fast track the overall exploration efforts on this very exciting and new gold play in the region, commented David Lenigas, Executive Chairman of Artemis Resources Limited. Our Purdys Reward gold project and Novos adjacent Comet Well gold project have now identified gold-bearing conglomerates over an 8 km strike. We look forward to partnering with Novo and creating value for our combined shareholders.



Key terms of the Artemis Earn-in/Joint Venture Agreement
RandomDancing wrote:

Hello,

I am planning to apply to a dual MPP/MBA degree, if someone could help evaluate my profile :



Female, 24 years

Hello,



Could someone please help to evaluate my profile in order to help me choose programs for dual degree in MBA and MPP. I need to know just in examples as to which type of colleges could be dream, possible or safe ?



GRE - yet to give : expected score near 320



DEGREE : Bachelor of engineering, Major : Information Technology, CGPA : 9.05/10



WORK EXPERIENCE : July 2015- present : American Express as an Engineer in Business Process Optimization



Public sector : volunteer experience since dec 2015 as Fundraising and Development officer : Ghana Health and Education Initiative



June 2016 - present : Director of Development , The Reformist Social Ventures



RESEARCH PAPERS : 1. Technical paper on protocols in Manual Adhoc networks published in IEEE Xplore at an International Conference held in Poland



2. Policy Paper : Was a research assistant working under a professor for this policy paper on India - Pak relations to be published by United States Institute of Peace



ACHIEVEMENTS : * UNESCO youth delegate who represented India at the UN Week for Peace and Sustainable Development, March 2017



* Invited speaker to the Conference for Youth Development organised by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India



* Featured as one of the 21 Indians in Vision India Foundation's Yearbook of Nation Builders 2017

GyanOne [www.gyanone.com] | Premium MBA and MiM Admissions Consulting

Rated top MBA Admissions Consultants globally by P&Q



Awesome Work | Honest Advice | Outstanding Results



Reach Out, Let's chat!

Email: info at gyanone dot com | +91 98998 31738 | Skype: gyanone.services Awesome Work | Honest Advice | Outstanding ResultsEmail: info at gyanone dot com | +91 98998 31738 | Skype: gyanone.services Signature Read More

HiThanks for posting.- Your experience and contributions are excellent from the MPP perspective, including the policy paper, youth delegate representation, and recognitions. Congratulations on those - they would have taken quite some doing.- Your undergraduate academic performance is very strong as well. Working with American Express gives you association with a very well known brand name. Any international experience as well at work?- At this point, the quantum of your work experience may be a bit low to aim for at least the top MPP/MBA programs. You could possibly look at only MPP programs in case you are headed that way career-wise at this stage. Also, you may already be aware of this, but for dual MBA-MPP programs, you will at most schools need to meet the criteria for both programs separately.- As you prepare, aim for a GRE score well in excess of 325. Top programs are very competitive on the MBA front, and 320 is about a par score. To distinguish yourself, you will need a higher score.- In terms of names, Darden, CMU, and Duke could be some of the more challenging options for you right now. Maryland, Georgetown, and Rutgers are relatively safer. However, school lists are best created once your test scores are in.Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed._________________
The makers of Raabta have rubbished plagiarism allegation, and said that it's an original film.

By India Today Web Desk: Ever since the trailer of Raabta released, fans couldn't help but draw comparisons between Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon-starrer and the 2009 Telugu film Magadheera. And now a day after the makers of Magadheera approached the Hyderabad court to seek injunction against the release of Raabta, its makers have come in defense of their film.

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Magadheera was a love story set in different time zones. And the makers of the Telugu film have alleged that Raabta has plagiarised the core of Magadheera.

However, the producers of Raabta have denied the plagiarism allegation and said in an official statement, "We would like to, however, categorically reject even the remotest of suggestions that our film is a copy of Magadheera. We find it extremely unsavoury and disrespectful when people from the industry belittle someone's hard work by using words like "copied", "plagiarised" nonchalantly and jump to conclusions merely on the basis of a 2 minute and 14 second trailer, without verifying the facts or waiting for the film to release for the public to give its verdict."

The statement further read, "'No one can claim copyright in ideas and plot' has been the very essence of copyright law in India for decades."

The makers of Raabta added that its is an original film that presents their version of a timeless love story.

Official Statement on behalf of the producers of #Raabta, Dinesh Vijan and Bhushan Kumar pic.twitter.com/ueU87TUIuv- taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) May 25, 2017

The Hyderabad court will hear the case on June 1 to decide the release of Raabta, which is slated to hit the screens on June 9.

Raabta, has been directed by Dinesh Vijan. Apart from Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon in the lead roles, Raabta stars Jim Sarbh and Varun Sharma in pivotal roles. Rajkummar Rao has a guest appearance in the film.

ALSO READ: Magadheera makers drag Raabta to court over plagiarism allegation

ALSO READ: Composer Pritam decides to quit Raabta, producer Bhushan Kumar calls it an amicable decision

ALSO WATCH: Sushant Singh Rajput felt cheated at engineering college because there were no girls

--- ENDS ---
- A Nigerian lady identified as Aderinola Adejare is set to get married to her Jamaican beau

- The young lady met her heartthrob, Derin, in Philadelphia some years ago

A beautiful Nigerian lady identified as Aderinola Adejare has proved that love has no regards for race, tribe and colour with the beautiful romance between her and her Jamaican beau.

Legit.ng gathered that the young lady met Derin, her Jamaican boo, in Philadelphia some years ago and kicked off the relationship. The duo enjoyed their relationship and became best friends over time.

Adejare is a medical student at a university in Ohio while the groom to be is also toeing the same career path as his Nigerian princess.

Adejare and her Jamaican future partner looking warm.

The adorable couple returned to the place where their love story began in order for them to take their pre-wedding photos. They were able to paint a perfect picture of love with the beautiful photos they took while at it.

READ ALSO: Abia Polytechnic final year student dies few months to graduation

Adejare and her man played round the interest of their countries as one of the outfits they rocked had inscriptions suggesting the Nigerian lady fell in love with a Jamaican dish while Derin could not also do without the Nigerian jollof.

Check out more pictures from their pre-wedding photoshoot session and see how beautiful they both are:

1. Awwww

2. The beginning of forever

3. Simply adorable

PAY ATTENTION: Install the latest android app and get updates from Nigeria's number one online news platform

4. For the love of Nigerian jollof

Watch the Legit.ng TV video below to know how much some Nigerians think a man should earn as salary before thinking of settling down:

Source: Legit.ng
A Nigerian man among the 164 returning to their home country from Libya has expressed an emotional show of thanks to God after the plane landed on the tarmac.

The young man who could not contain his joy after the plane carrying the 164 Nigerians landed went on his knees and thanked God.

In the photos that surfaced online, the man was captured on his knees raising his hands to heaven at the tarmac in Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

Others who returned with him to Nigeria were also seen stepping down from the Libyan airline that transported them to Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Woman dies after 'predicting her death' 4 months earlier

Nigerian man deported from Libya gives thanks to God on tarmac

Legit.ng gathered that 97 males, 53 females, 11 children and 3 infants weer among the 164 Nigerians that returned from Libya.

The refugees were received by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

Meanwhile, Mother of Chibok girl cries out on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng
- An Anambra big boy identified as Prince Dato Cash has reached out to Nigerians

- The rich young guy left a strong piece of advice for his friends and fans while showing off his new ride

A Nigerian guy identified as Prince Dato Cash, a big boy in Anambra state, has reached out to his friends and people that look up to him. The rich young guy used his social media page to lend support to those who may be in need of it.

Cash made a post on his Facebook page stating the kind of attitude people are expected to keep up while facing adverse situations.

He noted that it is part of life to encounter problems but people should do all it takes to stand tall and fight their battles.

Prince Dato Cash posing in front of his BMW X series SUV.

READ ALSO: Nigerian man deported from Libya gives thanks to God on tarmac (photos)

The Anambra big boy believes in living life to the fullest.

On his social media page, the Anambra big boy showed off his red BMW X series SUV which is over N7m. He took a picture showing the car at the background as he posed showing off the expensive jewellry he rocked. His post read We may encounter defeats but we must not be defeated.

Dato Cash showing off his jewelries in a subtle way.

See the original post made below:

PAY ATTENTION: Install the latest android app and get updates from Nigeria's number one online news platform

To this, his numerous fans and lovers responded as they wanted to have the attention of the big boy.

Watch the Legit.ng TV video below to see what people living with disabilities want the government to do for them:

Source: Legit.ng
- A genius from the Eastern part of Nigeria has constructed a plane from scraps

- In a video that surfaced on social media, the plane could be seen moving as a crowd gathered to watch

A talented Nigerian from the East has created a miniature plane from scraps.

An unidentified Nigerian created the amazing object and filmed it as it moved around so other people can see the work of the genius.

In the video that surfaced on Facebook, a crowd could be seen gathered around the moving miniature plane.

It is no surprise that a talented Nigerian can construct something that looks just like a real plane. There have been a lot of cases of Nigerians constructing things from scratch.

Check out aeroplane constructed from scrap in the south of Nigeria

READ ALSO: Genius UNIZIK student Okeke Bernard constructs drone (photos, video)

Although it was not confirmed If the plane moved on its own or if it was controlled by means of remote, we can all assume that if Nigerians keep working on creating things we might get to that point where we are able to construct made in Nigeria airplanes.

Some may wonder why Nigeria is not as great as it should be with the scores of talented and genius Nigerians we have in the country. Yes, we are talented but it is not every talented child that has the privilege to go to schools and get the right education.

All we can do is celebrate those who come out to showcase there projects and creations in other to help them find a helping hand and encourage them to to keep do what they are doing.

Watch video of the moving miniature plane below:

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

Legit.ng recently celebrated a man from Yobe state who created an aeroplane and car from junks.

Meet young talented artist Olayinka who paints prominent Nigerians

Source: Legit.ng
- A Nigerian woman named Gloria has faced assault from two men in Delta state

- Gloria claims to have been battered in the presence of her son by two men over alleged disrespect

- The assaulted woman loses three months pregnancy due to the severity of the beating she got

A social media user has reported the unjustly case of Gloria who suffered assault in the hands of two men in Delta state. According to the victim, she was battered to stupor for asking a simple question regarding a right to passage on a frequently used road by other members of the public.

READ ALSO: See these awesome photos of bride and her male bridemaids

Recounting her experience, Gloria claimed she had obeyed when she was first told by Andy Obada, a tenant of an apartment to stop passing the road by his house, which she described as a shortcut route to her own house.

The incident which happened in Delta state, according to reports, resulted in Gloria losing her three months old pregnancy. Legit.ng earlier reported how a hospital reacted to an alleged negligent killing of a pregnant woman.

Gloria on hospital bed

In her story, Gloria was walking home on May 20, at around 9pm, given it was really late, she decided to pass through the short route with her son in order to make it home early. Her decision was solid after she saw other people passing the same route.

She said: "On the 20th of may at about 9pm I was coming from my mum place with my son and my friend Ruth.It was late and we were rushing home. Getting in front of Andy Obada's Compound, (He's a tenant) that compound is a short-cut to my house. I didn't pass through the compound but I saw people passing there."

READ ALSO: Stunning photos of Nigerian twin sisters who are too beautiful for words

Unfortunately, Andy Obada sat outside smoking with his friend and she approached him asking why she was not allowed to pass the road as he had earlier warned. Before she could finish her statement, Andy attacked her in the presence of her son and beat Gloria to stupor.

She said: "He slapped me and started beating me in presence of my son and friend. I fell on the floor and he beat me and his friend that was with him was now telling me I shouldn't have asked him that question and that I deserve the beating I was given."

Gloria and son before the assault

Not only did he beat her, his friend joined and they both injured her. Gloria reported the case to the police but was met with a corrupt system which detained her and changed the case in favour of Andy upon allegedly receiving bribe.

She said: "24th May, I went to the police station again and met Andy Obada there writing a statement. The Police told me that me and my brothers destroyed his properties and injured him. The only thing that was destroy was his AC that he push me to which i fell on it.The police are now changing the case that it is two fighting and Breach of Peace that I was not supposed to ask him that question why I shouldn't pass through the compound."

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app

Legit.ng TV presents answers to whether it is wise for one to check their partner's phone messages. Watch below:

Source: Legit.ng
Governor Rauf Aregbesola has unveiled his birthday cake in Osun state.

The Osun state governor expressed that the cake represents the efforts made by his government to restructure education in the state.

In the photos released on social media, Osun state secondary school students could be seen standing around the celebrant and the massive cake.

A twitter user, Semiu Okanlawon, shared the photos from an event held in honour of the governor in the state.

Aregbesola's HUGE birthday cake modelled after secondary he built in the state

READ ALSO: Check out the EXTRAORDINARY way this Nigerian man celebrated his birthday in the US (photos)

Okanlawon tweeted: This birthday cake represents our efforts at restructuring education in @StateofOsun @raufaregbesola says @ opening.

Legit.ng gathered that the Osun state governor who was born on May 25, 1957, clocked 60 on Thursday, May 25.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

Aregbesola's cake was made in the shape of a school building.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng went to the street to ask Nigerians to name politicians who are not corrupt.

Source: Legit.ng
In a bid to celebrate the childrens day coming up tomorrow, Saturday, May 27, workers of a bank in Nigeria have decided to do a back to school theme.

They were seen decked up from head to toe in various colours of a complete school uniform set in the different branches.

Legit.ng came across a video showing the bank staff in there colourful uniforms after a Facebook user shared it on his page.

Facebook user, Deano Grafyks, who shared the video expressed that the workers were from a branch in Keffi, Nassarawa state.

Bank staff rock secondary school uniforms to celebrate children's day

READ ALSO: Check out the candidates with very HIGH scores in the just concluded JAMB exam (photos)

Grafyks said: Children (staff) of Bank Keffi branch in their commemorative school uniform, marking the Children's day.

Meanwhile, another Facebook user, Abdul Tanko Tukur, shared photos from a branch of the same bank where they were also decked up in secondary school uniforms.

Tukur wrote: In commemoration of children's day which is coming up tomorrow, the bank staff dressed in school uniforms to celebrate this years children day, wow my bank is so special and unique in every ramifications.

PAY ATTENTION: Get all the latest gossips on NAIJ Gossip App

See more photos below:

Workers at a bank in Keffi in school uniforms

Some workers serving punishment

The workers in an assembly line

Group photo of the bank staff in their uniform

Watch Legit.ng Music weekly about Banky W and Adesua, Sauce kid and so many more celebrities.

Source: Legit.ng
- A girl posted some photos of her siblings in Twitter

- The images resulted in a social media whirlwind

- Thousands of people came together to like, and also criticize her post

A girl from Rio Grande Valley, in the U.S., posted a series of extremely cute pictures of her little twin brother and sister. In what seemed to be an innocent moment within Mariah Elenas family life, turned into a social media thunderstorm.

This is Mariah Elena, who became the center of a social media storm.

The Twitter post read: My mom left my twin brother n sister like this then WHEN SHE GOT BACK from picking up my sister from school, THEY ENDED UP LIKE THAT [all intertwined between them].

The post went viral with over 64,000 retweets and 184,000 likes!

READ ALSO: Check out aeroplane constructed from scrap in Nigeria (photos)

Yet there was also some backlash regarding the fact that it seemed the babies had been left alone.

There were so many comments criticizing her family, that Mariah Elena resorted to writing another post. She made it clear that her siblings had been with their nanny all along.

READ ALSO: Photos from Nigerian man's wedding with Muslim lady in Malaysia

Her answer was also retweeted and liked, but not to the incredible extent the original post had gone.

This rather silly case highlights social medias power as a way to unite and confront people of all ages and places on Earth who do not know each other. Through the internet, they are able to come around one single issue, in easy and and fast way.

The twins who inadvertently were at the center of the controversy.

Watch this video below:

Source: Legit.ng
By India Today Web Desk: Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone's relationship status has been a question mark for fans for a while now. They may arrive at parties hand-in-hand, but according to the grapevine, things have cooled off between the two. Deepika's closeness with xXx: Return of Xander Cage co-star Vin Diesel did not help matters; gossip columns said that their proximity was the death knell of her relationship with Ranveer.

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But DeepVeer (as the couple is fondly called) fans may have a reason to rejoice, if a report in The Asian Age is to be believed. Reportedly, the rumoured couple has moved in together. Apparently, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has moved the sets of Padmavati to Dahisar, after repeated attacks of vandalism, and to save hours of commute, Deepika has moved into Ranveer's apartment in the outskirts of Mumbai, which is very close to the shooting location.

Now that they have reportedly moved in, will they take their relationship to the next level? Remember, Ranveer had called Deepika "marriage material" on Koffee With Karan. Is a wedding on the cards? Only time will tell.

ALSO READ: Ranveer kisses girlfriend Deepika before going to receive award

ALSO READ: Deepika opens up on her HUGE crush on Vin Diesel. Is Ranveer listening?

ALSO WATCH: Ranveer Singh says his outlook on romantic relationships has evolved

--- ENDS ---
By Press Trust of India: Jammu, May 25 (PTI) A rumour on social media about a school bus with 40 students falling into a gorge in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir today triggered anxiety and massive searches before it turned out to be false.

Taking a serious note of the "planned mischief", the state government tonight ordered a magisterial probe and registration of a case into spread of the rumour, which was picked up by the national media, particularly the TV channels.

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The government is contemplating slapping of the Public Safety Act (PSA) against the culprits.

The "rumour" about the bus falling into a gorge emanated during the day after which the district administration, the police, the Army, the Airforce and several other agencies were ordered to initiate rescue and evacuation.

However, after a massive search for the purported accident site, it turned out out to be a false alarm. Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqbal Choudhary "ordered a magisterial probe into the incident of rumour spread on social media about bus accident causing death of more than 40 students near Chhatapani in Poonch," an official release said.

"The magisterial enquiry was ordered after preliminary verification revealed involvement of some people who circulated the unverified news on WhatsApp groups on twin districts which was also traced to a private school and some news groups," Choudhary said.

The rumour spread by "credible persons" on social media groups and the media led to high alert in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.

"The information was also sent to control rooms regarding the incident by some people which led to massive evacuation and rescue efforts," the release said.

More than a dozen vehicles, including ambulances, were rushed from Rajouri to the reported spot of accident while a similar effort was made by Poonch districts as well, it said.

"Officers of the district administration contacted the owner of private school in Manjakote and thereafter the driver of vehicle which was reported to be safe and on way back within hours after report of accident was spread," the statement said. Additional District Magistrate Mumtaz Ali will conduct the probe to identify the persons involved in this "planned mischief" which spread in electronic and social media like a wildfire, it said.

Assistance from the cyber wing of the police department will also be sought, it said.

Choudhary said more than a dozen people have been shortlisted for initial questioning to trace the originator(s) of the rumour.

The DC said the persons involved in "spreading such a serious kind of rumour are definitely guilty" of disturbing security of the state and law and order.

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"Such practices, if not controlled at this stage, could take alarming proportions to cause irreparable damage over controversial issue," he added.

A report has also been sought from the intelligence agencies in this regard.

Police are lodging an FIR in the matter, he said. PTI AB AKK AKK

--- ENDS ---
Uttar Pradesh ADG Law and Order Aditya Mishra told India Today that no politician or political party will be allowed to enter the violence-hit areas of Saharanpur till normalcy is restored.

By India Today Web Desk: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's plan to visit strife-torn Uttar Pradesh town of Saharanpur has been stalled by the local administration.

Uttar Pradesh ADG Law and Order Aditya Mishra told India Today that no politician or political party will be allowed to enter the violence-hit areas of Saharanpur till normalcy is restored.

"I had a word with SSP Saharanpur and he informed that Rahul Gandhi has not been given permission to visit Saharanpur," Uttar Pradesh DGP Sulkhan Singh added.

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However, Congress leader PL Punia said Rahul's visit to Saharanpur is on despite the administration denying permission.

Saharanpur has been witnessing caste-based violence since late April.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On May 5, a person was killed and 15 people were injured in clashes between two communities.

About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured on May 9. On May 23, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded.

The Centre has sent 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the state restore peace in the region.

Uttar Pradesh Principal Home Secretary Mani Parsad Mishra had described the recent the violence as a 'well-planned' conspiracy.

WATCH: Section 144 imposed, internet suspended in Saharanpur after clashes ALSO READ:

Saharanpur riots: Yogi's new outreach team uses humour to lighten tense nerves

Saharanpur: Internet shut, Section 144 imposed as Yogi administration battles to bring back normalcy

After Saharanpur, clashes between two communities erupt in Aligarh

Saharanpur: Day after fresh clashes kill one, Yogi government says nobody will be spared

--- ENDS ---
Huaweis Honor brand of smartphones offer high-end specs at a mid-range price, and the companys Honor 8 earned a reputation as one of the best sub-$400 phones to launch in 2016 (if you could get past the EMUI user interface).

Now it looks like Huawei is getting ready to launch a follow-up. The Honor 8 just passed through the TENAA website.

Like the US Federal Communications Commission, TENAA certifies wireless devices before they go on sale. But TENAA listings tend to include more specs and pictures than you get from the FCC.

So while we dont know the official price or launch date for the Honor 9 yet, heres what we do know about the phones specs:

5.15 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display

2.4 GHz octa-core processor (possibly a Kirin 960 chip)

64GB of storage + microSD card slot

4GB or 6GB of RAM, depending on the model

20MP + 12MP dual camera system on the back

8MP front camera

3,100 mAh battery

Android 7.0

147mm x 71mm x 7.5mm

155 grams (5.5 ounces)

According to GizmoChina, the Honor 9 will probably launch in June for $335 and up (in China, at least).
As promised, the Kodak Ektra smartphone is now available for purchase in the US. And it turns out the phone is cheaper than expected: you can pick up an unlocked model for $400 and use it with a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM card. The phone is not compatible with Sprint or Verizon.

The Android phone is manufactured by Bullitt Group, which licenses the Kodak brand name. But as youd expect from a phone with that name, the camera is front and center or rather, back and center. When viewed from the rear, the Ektra actually looks more like a camera than a phone.

But thats probably just about the most distinctive thing about the Kodak Ektra.

The phone has a fake leather finish, a bump at one end that gives you something to grip while snapping photos, and a larger camera bump than you probably need, although it helps drive home the point that this is a Kodak device.

The phone has a 21MP rear camera that uses a Sony IMX230 image sensor and the camera app lets you manually adjust the shutter speed, ISO, light balance, and focus. You can also snap HDR photos or shoot 4K video.

At a time when phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8, Google Pixel, and HTC U11 all earn high marks for their photographic capabilities, the key thing setting this phone apart is probably that it looks like a camera.

The Kodak Ektra features the kind of specs youd expect to find on a mid-range Chinese phone, including a 5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a MediaTek Helio X20 deca-core processor.

It has a USB 3.0 Tpe-C port, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. And the phone features a 3,000 mAh battery with fast charging support.

It ships with Android 6.0.

via The Verge
Developed in 1916 by German dye manufacturers Frederich Bayer and Co., Bayer 205 (later renamed suramin) was found to be effective against parasitic trypanosomes responsible for African sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). This bottle of suramin powder was given out free of charge for clinical trials of the first production batch. Credit: Science Museum, London.

In a small, randomized Phase I/II clinical trial (SAT1), researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say a 100-year-old drug called suramin, originally developed to treat African sleeping sickness, was safely administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who subsequently displayed measurable, but transient, improvement in core symptoms of autism.

ASD encompasses a group of developmental disorders, often characterized by communication and language difficulties, repetitive behaviors and inability to socialize. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that ASD occurs in 1 in 68 children, with the condition 4 times more common in boys than girls. ASD has no single known cause, but may involve both genetic problems and environmental factors, such as viral infections, pollutants or complications during pregnancy. One of the aims of the SAT1 study was to test the cell danger hypothesis as a possible unifying theory that contributes to the pathogenesis of ASD.

Writing in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, first author Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues describe a novel double-blind, placebo-controlled safety study involving 10 boys, ages 5 to 14 years, all diagnosed with ASD.

Five of the 10 boys received a single, intravenous infusion of suramin, a drug originally developed in 1916 to treat trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and river blindness, both caused by parasites. The other five boys received a placebo. The trial followed earlier testing in a mouse model of autism in which a single dose of suramin temporarily reversed symptoms of the neurological disorder.

The results in humans were equally notable, though the purpose of the SAT1 trial was fundamentally to test the researchers' underlying theory about a unifying cause for autism and to assess the safety of suramin, which is not an approved treatment of ASD. In fact, there are no approved drugs to treat the core symptoms of ASD.

All five boys who received the suramin infusion displayed improvements in language and social behavior, restricted or repetitive behaviors and coping skills. Assessment of improvements was based upon observational examinations and interviews using standardized tests and questionnaires, such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2), the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Testing (EOWPWT), the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) questionnaire. To minimize misinterpretation of natural day-to-day variations in symptoms, parents were asked to mark a symptom as changed in the 6-week CGI only if the symptom lasted for at least one week.

The researchers found that ADOS-2 scores were improved in the suramin treatment group at six weeks, but not in the placebo group. Specifically, ADOS-2 scores improved by -1.6 points in the suramin group, but did not change in the placebo. Children who have a score of 6 or lower in ADOS-2 may have milder symptoms but no longer meet the formal diagnostic criteria for ASD. A score of 7 to 8 indicates the child is on the autism spectrum. Nine and above classifies the child as autistic.

Suramin treatment was also associated with improvements in the ABC, ATEC and CGI measurements, but not RBQ. The most changed behaviors, the authors said, were social communication and play, speech and language, calm and focus, repetitive behaviors and coping skills.

Participating families also reported benefits among the children who received suramin. "We saw improvements in our son after suramin that we have never seen before," said the parent of a 14-year-old who had not spoken a complete sentence in 12 years.

"Within an hour after the infusion, he started to make more eye contact with the doctor and nurses in the room. There was a new calmness at times, but also more emotion at other times. He started to show an interest in playing hide-and-seek with his 16-year-old brother. He started practicing making new sounds around the house. He started seeking out his dad more.

"We have tried every new treatment out there for over 10 years. Nothing has come close to all the changes in language and social interaction and new interests that we saw after suramin. We saw our son advance almost three years in development in just six weeks."

Cell Danger Response

Naviaux, who is co-director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at UC San Diego, believes that ASDand several other chronic conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome and some autoimmune disordersare caused by metabolic dysfunction or impaired communication between cells in the brain, gut and immune system.

Specifically, this dysfunction is caused by abnormal persistence of the cell danger response (CDR), a natural and universal cellular reaction to injury or stress. "The purpose of CDR is to help protect the cell and jump-start the healing process," said Naviaux, by essentially causing the cell to harden its membranes, cease interaction with neighbors and withdraw within itself until the danger has passed.

"But sometimes CDR gets stuck," Naviaux said. "This prevents completion of the natural healing cycle and can permanently alter the way the cell responds to the world. When this happens, cells behave as if they are still injured or in imminent danger, even though the original cause of the injury or threat has passed."

At the molecular level, cellular homeostasis or equilibrium is altered, creating an abnormal cellular response that leads to chronic disease. "When this happens during early child development," said Naviaux, "it causes autism and many other chronic childhood disorders."

Suramin works by inhibiting the signaling function of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleotide or small molecule produced by cellular mitochondria and released from the cell as a danger signal. When CDR is activated, the effect of extracellular ATP is similar to a warning siren that never stops. Suramin inhibits the binding of ATP and similar molecules to key purinergic receptors, according to Naviaux. It silences the siren, "signaling the cellular war is over, the danger has passed and cells can return to 'peacetime' jobs like normal neurodevelopment, growth and healing."

"There is evidence, gathered over the past 10 to 15 years, that children with ASD can exhibit oxidative stress, an outcome of the cell danger response," said Pat Levitt, PhD, Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and W.M. Keck Provost Professor in Neurogenetics at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. "This can impact how well neurons and circuits function. Why this would impose problems on certain circuits that mediate specific behaviors, such as social communication, is unclear, but this is why understanding how genetic risk and environmental factors combine to increase risk for autism spectrum disorder is important."

A colorized transmission electron micrograph of cellular mitochondria, which produce a small molecule called ATP. Inside cells, ATP serves as an energy source but released outside the cell, it acts as a danger signal. Suramin inhibits the signaling function of ATP, eliminating the cell danger response associated with autism. Credit: Photo by Thomas Deerinck, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, UC San Diego

Levitt was not involved in the study.

Dramatic, but Temporary Benefit

"We had four non-verbal children in the study," said Naviaux, "two 6-year-olds and two 14-year-olds. The six-year-old and the 14-year-old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion. This did not happen in any of the children given the placebo."

Additionally, Naviaux said, "that during the time the children were on suramin, benefit from all their usual therapies and enrichment programs increased dramatically. Once suramin removed the roadblocks to development, the benefit from speech therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavioral analysis and even from playing games with other children during recess at school skyrocketed. Suramin was synergistic with their other therapies."

Naviaux and colleagues do not believe CDR is the cause of ASD, but rather a fundamental driver that combines with other factors, such as genetics or environmental toxins. And suramin, at this stage, is not the ultimate answer.

Unlike treatment for African sleeping sickness, which involves multiple, higher doses of suramin over a period of time and frequently results in a number of adverse side effects ranging from nausea and diarrhea to low blood pressure and kidney problems, researchers said the single, low dose of suramin used in the ASD trial produced no serious side effects beyond a passing skin rash.

But the therapeutic benefit of suramin was temporary: Improvements in the treated boys' cognitive functions and behaviors peaked and then gradually faded after several weeks as the single dose of suramin wore off.

The primary import of the trial's findings, said Naviaux, is that it points a way forward, that suramin should be tested in larger, more diverse cohorts of persons with ASD. (Naviaux said his research has been limited by costs; his lab is primarily supported through philanthropy.)

"This work is new and this type of clinical trial is expensive," he said. "We did not have enough funding to do a larger study. And even with the funding we were able to raise, we had to go $500,000 in debt to complete the trial."

Larger and longer trials would include multiple doses of suramin over longer periods of time, allowing researchers to map whether improvements continue or if uncommon side effects appear when participant numbers are greater.

If Not Suramin, Maybe Something Like It

Andrew W. Zimmerman, MD, a clinical professor of pediatrics and neurology at the UMass Memorial Medical Center who was not involved in the suramin trial but is conducting similar research, described the study results as "very encouraging for the field of autism, not only for the positive effects of suramin for the children who received the drug, but also for confirmation of the important 'cell danger response.'

"As the authors point out, many genetic variants have been found in ASD, but few have led to specific treatments. The CDR includes a number of metabolic pathways that may be affected by a number of genetic mutations or by environmental factors that have effects epigeneticallybeyond the genes themselves."

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved suramin for any therapeutic use in the United States. It is not commercially available. Naviaux noted that new trials could prove suramin is not an effective ASD treatment. Its benefits may prove too limited over the long term, he said, or an unacceptable safety issue might arise.

But "even if suramin itself is not the best antipurinergic drug for autism, our studies have helped blaze the trail for the development of new antipurinergic drugs that might be even better," said Naviaux. "Before our work, no one knew that purinergic signaling abnormalities were a part of autism. Now we do, and new drugs can be developed rationally and systematically."

Levitt at USC agreed: "The suramin pilot study is too small from which to draw specific conclusions about the treatment, but there is no doubt that the pilot study reports positive outcomes for all five children who received the medication. The findings provide a strong rationale for developing a larger study that can probe functional improvements in children in greater depth."

The potential financial cost of ASD treatment using suramin cannot yet be determined for several reasons, the study authors said. First, additional trials are required to determine the effective dosage and frequency for different types of patients. Suramin is used much differently for treating sleeping sickness, but the cost for a one month course of treatment is modest: approximately $27. Second, the age of the drug means that, if approved, it would almost certainly result in cheaper, generic formulations, but there is no way to accurately predict how that would play out at this time.

John Rodakis, founder and president of the N of One: Autism Research Foundation, which provided funding support for the study, said that despite all of the necessary caveats and need for additional research, the findings are "promising, hopeful work for a community of affected families that have been given little in the way of answers by medicine."

More information: Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, DOI: 10.1002/acn3.424
Areas of the western and northern United States -- where nighttime temperatures are projected to increase most -- may experience the largest future changes in sleep. Credit: N. Obradovich

Climate change may keep you awakeand not just metaphorically. Nights that are warmer than normal can harm human sleep, researchers show in a new paper, with the poor and elderly most affected. According to their findings, if climate change is not addressed, temperatures in 2050 could cost people in the United States millions of additional nights of insufficient sleep per year. By 2099, the figure could rise by several hundred million more nights of lost sleep annually.

The study was led by Nick Obradovich, who conducted much of the research as a doctoral student in political science at the University of California San Diego. He was inspired to investigate the question by the heat wave that hit San Diego in October of 2015. Obradovich was having trouble sleeping. He tossed and he turned, the window AC in his North Park home providing little relief from the record-breaking temperatures. At school, he noticed that fellow students were also looking grumpy and bedraggled, and it got him thinking: Had anyone looked at what climate change might do to sleep?

Published by Science Advances, the research represents the largest real-world study to date to find a relationship between reports of insufficient sleep and unusually warm nighttime temperatures. It is the first to apply the discovered relationship to projected climate change.

"Sleep has been well-established by other researchers as a critical component of human health. Too little sleep can make a person more susceptible to disease and chronic illness, and it can harm psychological well-being and cognitive functioning," Obradovich said. "What our study shows is not only that ambient temperature can play a role in disrupting sleep but also that climate change might make the situation worse by driving up rates of sleep loss."

Obradovich is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He is also a fellow of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Obradovich worked on the study with Robyn Migliorini, a student in the San Diego State University/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, and sleep researcher Sara Mednick of UC Riverside. Obradovich's dissertation advisor, social scientist James Fowler of UC San Diego, is also a co-author.

The effect on sleep of warmer than usual nights is most acute during the summer and among lower-income respondents and the elderly. Credit: N. Obradovich.

The study starts with data from 765,000 U.S. residents between 2002 and 2011 who responded to a public health survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study then links data on self-reported nights of insufficient sleep to daily temperature data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Finally, it combines the effects of unusually warm temperatures on sleep with climate model projections.

The main finding is that anomalous increases in nighttime temperature by 1 degree Celsius translate to three nights of insufficient sleep per 100 individuals per month. To put that in perspective: If we had a single month of nightly temperatures averaging 1 degree Celsius higher than normal, that is equivalent to 9 million more nights of insufficient sleep in a month across the population of the United States today, or 110 million extra nights of insufficient sleep annually.

The negative effect of warmer nights is most acute in summer, the research shows. It is almost three times as high in summer as during any other season.

The effect is also not spread evenly across all demographic groups. Those whose income is below $50,000 and those who are aged 65 and older are affected most severely. For older people, the effect is twice that of younger adults. And for the lower-income group, it is three times worse than for people who are better off financially.

Using climate projections for 2050 and 2099 by NASA Earth Exchange, the study paints a bleak picture of the future if the relationship between warmer nights and disrupted sleep persists. Warmer temperatures could cause six additional nights of insufficient sleep per 100 individuals by 2050 and approximately 14 extra nights per 100 by 2099.

"The U.S. is relatively temperate and, in global terms, quite prosperous," Obradovich said. "We don't have sleep data from around the world, but assuming the pattern is similar, one can imagine that in places that are warmer or poorer or both, what we'd find could be even worse."

More information: N. Obradovich at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA el al., "Nighttime temperature and human sleep loss in a changing climate," Science Advances (2017). advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/5/e1601555 Journal information: Science Advances N. Obradovich at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA el al., "Nighttime temperature and human sleep loss in a changing climate,"(2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601555
Researchers in the UK and Peru have developed a faster and cheaper cardiac imaging test that can be used in developing countries, according to the results of the INCA-Peru study presented today at EuroCMR 2017. The scan is three times faster, less than one-fifth of the cost, and changed clinical management in 33% of patients.

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is the gold standard for diagnosing many cardiovascular diseases. It is used to measure the structure and function of the heart, and to assess scarring on the heart muscle after a heart attack to predict if another will occur.

Lead author Dr Katia Menacho, a cardiologist from Peru and PhD student at University College London (UCL), UK, said: "In Peru just two public hospitals offer CMR - each performs 12 scans on one day a week. Five private hospitals provide CMR at $USD 600-800 per scan. Public hospitals without CMR refer to the private sector and it takes up to three months to approve the paperwork, delaying diagnosis and treatment."

The Impact of Non-invasive CMR Assessment (INCA)-Peru study was set up to develop and test an ultrafast CMR protocol for wider uptake in Peru. The study was an international academic and political collaboration between Peru, the UK, the USA and Brazil.

An initial protocol was developed at UCL which reduced average scan time from 60 to ten minutes. It was successfully used in Thailand to assess cardiac and liver iron overload in patients with thalassaemia major. The protocol was adapted for the INCA-Peru study by adding the contrast agent gadolinium which is critical for the detection of cardiac fibrosis and infarction, and the diagnosis of various cardiovascular diseases. It was tested in a pilot study of 50 patients at UCL and each scan took 15 to 20 minutes.

For the current analysis, the ultrafast CMR protocol using contrast was tested over two days at two hospitals in Peru, accompanied by training for local cardiologists, radiologists, and technicians. The study included 100 patients with suspected cardiomyopathy and 11 healthy controls. All of the patients were under local cardiology care and had never been assessed by CMR.

There were no scan-related complications. All scans were diagnostic, although two patients had a repeat scan (one due to failure of contrast delivery and one to confirm unexpected cardiac amyloidosis). Gadolinium based contrast agents were administered to 95% of patients (5% of patients had iron overload).

Each ultrafast CMR scan took 18 minutes on average and cost $USD 150. The most common underlying diagnoses were hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (21%), non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (17%), and ischaemic cardiomyopathy (11%), plus 20 other diagnoses including tumours, congenital heart disease, myocardial iron overload, amyloidosis, vasculitis, and apical thrombus.

CMR had an impact on the clinical management of 33% of patients. CMR revealed a new, unsuspected diagnosis in 20% of patients, leading to a complete change in management. In 30% of patients no further cardiac testing was needed (coronary angiography, computed tomography, cardiac biopsy).

"We showed that this ultrafast CMR protocol can be used to accurately diagnosis patients leading to changes in clinical management," said Dr Menacho. "The protocol takes one-third of the standard scan time at a fraction of the cost."

INCA-Peru researchers will follow-up the patients for two years to evaluate the impact of diagnosis by ultrafast CMR on long-term morbidity and mortality.

Dr Menacho said: "Accurate diagnoses provided by CMR have reduced morbidity and mortality in Europe and we hope to find the same in Peru. If we show long-term benefits on prognosis we will seek support from the Peruvian government to provide ultrafast CMR at more hospitals in Peru. The accurate diagnosis provided by CMR should lead to more targeted patient care and better outcomes."

More information: Dr Menacho will present the abstract 'Impact of non-invasive CMR assessment in Peru in the developing world: the INCA (Peru) study' during the BEST Oral Abstracts session which takes place on 26 May at 09:45 in Main room 1. Dr Menacho will present the abstract 'Impact of non-invasive CMR assessment in Peru in the developing world: the INCA (Peru) study' during the BEST Oral Abstracts session which takes place on 26 May at 09:45 in Main room 1. Amna Abdel-Gadir et al. Ultrafast Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Iron Quantification in Thalassemia Participants in the Developing World: Table., Circulation (2016). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.022803 Journal information: Circulation
A new test, based on a patient's epigenetics, could be an accurate and inexpensive way to find and treat those at highest risk of anal cancer - a disease with growing incidence in women, men who have sex with men (MSM) and people with HIV.

The early research by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), which was funded by Cancer Research UK, finds that the test could lead to a reduction in painful procedures and minimise the over-treatment of people at low risk.

Anal cancer is mostly caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) - the same virus that causes cervical cancer. In 2014, the UK had around 1,300 new cases of anal cancer and 360 deaths. In addition to rising levels in women and MSM, anal cancer is more common in HIV-positive MSM with around 100 cases per 100,000, compared to 25 in HIV-negative MSM, and only 1.5 in men in general.

Diagnosis presents many challenges. Full biopsies are painful, and taking a small sample of cells ('cytology') is problematic because lesions can be hidden and clinicians give varying interpretations of results. High-resolution anoscopy, where the anal canal is examined with a high resolution magnifying instrument, is often used as the primary screening tool for high-risk populations but is uncomfortable for the patient, expensive, complex and generates subjective results.

Lead researcher Professor Attila Lorincz from QMUL said: "The widespread over-treatment of anal precancerous lesions is necessary today because we don't know which ones will progress to cancer. But this creates a large burden on anoscopy clinics in the UK and the procedures can be detrimental to people's quality of life. Many people are undergoing these procedures unnecessarily, so what we really need is precision medicine to identify those who do need treatment."

The research, published in the journal Oncotarget, involved studying anal biopsy specimens from 148 patients in London, including 116 men (mostly MSM). The specimens were analysed to look for genetic markers that may be associated with the presence of anal cancer.

The team specifically looked at the patients' epigenetics and found that all of the anal cancers showed the presence of specific epigenetic methylation markers on the patients' EPB41L3 gene (a tumour suppressor gene) and also on certain regions of their viral HPV genome.

The results suggests that epigenetic testing may be an accurate and thorough method to indicate whether a patient's lesions are destined to progress to anal cancer. This could reduce the costs, pain and anxiety from other methods of diagnosis, and minimise over-treatment of low risk people.

Professor Lorincz added: "We thought this would require a complicated genomic signature involving hundreds of genes, so we were surprised that we could get such an accurate prediction from just two biomarker genes. That's important because the expected cost of the test will be fairly low.

"Now that we can identify those at risk, and conversely, those not at risk, we hope to see a big improvement, by making sure that anoscopies and laser or chemical surgery are only given to those who need it."

Once developed, the test would involve taking a small sample of cells from the anal canal via a swab and then sending the sample off to a laboratory for epigenetic analysis.

While a test could be developed within five years, the researchers caution that the results first need to be confirmed in a much larger study across the UK, and repeated using swab samples rather than the biopsies which were used in the current study.

Dr Rachel Orritt, Cancer Research UK's health information officer, said: "This study builds on what we already know about the link between changes to cell DNA and cervical cancer, and shows that similar changes to the DNA in anal cells could suggest anal cancer.

"If other studies confirm and build upon these findings, this promising research could be used to develop a less invasive method to help doctors identify people who are at a higher risk of anal cancer and avoid unnecessary procedures for those who are at a lower risk."

The researchers say that these types of biomarker - epigenetic methylation biomarkers - are important in a large number of other diseases, and could lead to a completely new approach to diagnostics and drug therapy.

Professor Lorincz explained: "These could be the early stages of a discovery of a universal set of biomarkers for any cancer. And there may be implications on therapies, as there are new techniques where the epigenetic pathway can be targeted by drugs. This is going to be the hot new area going forward in the next 15 years, so people need to be paying attention to this space."

More information: 'Methylation of HPV and a tumor suppressor gene reveals anal cancer and precursor lesions'. Attila T Lorincz, Mayura Nathan, Caroline Reuter, Rhian Warman, Mohamed A Thaha, Michael Sheaff, Natasa Vasiljevic, Amar Ahmad, Jack Cuzick, Peter Sasieni. Oncotarget, 2017. Journal information: Oncotarget 'Methylation of HPV and a tumor suppressor gene reveals anal cancer and precursor lesions'. Attila T Lorincz, Mayura Nathan, Caroline Reuter, Rhian Warman, Mohamed A Thaha, Michael Sheaff, Natasa Vasiljevic, Amar Ahmad, Jack Cuzick, Peter Sasieni., 2017.
MRI-derived gray matter measures, density, volume, mass, and cortical thickness, show distinct age and sex effects, as well as age-dependent intermodal correlations around adolescence. Credit: Penn Medicine

For years, the common narrative in human developmental neuroimaging has been that gray matter in the brain - the tissue found in regions of the brain responsible for muscle control, sensory perception such as seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-controldeclines in adolescence, a finding derived mainly from studies of gray matter volume and cortical thickness (the thickness of the outer layers of brain that contain gray matter). Since it has been well-established that larger brain volume is associated with better cognitive performance, it was puzzling that cognitive performance shows a dramatic improvement from childhood to young adulthood at the same time that brain volume and cortical thickness decline.

A new study published by Penn Medicine researchers this month and featured on the cover of the Journal of Neuroscience may help resolve this puzzle, revealing that while volume indeed decreases from childhood to young adulthood, gray matter density actually increases. Their findings also show that while females have lower brain volume, proportionate to their smaller size, they have higher gray matter density than males, which could explain why their cognitive performance is comparable despite having lower brain volume. Thus, while adolescents lose brain volume, and females have lower brain volume than males, this is compensated for by increased density of gray matter.

"It is quite rare for a single study to solve a paradox that has been lingering in a field for decades, let alone two paradoxes, as was done by Gennatas in his analysis of data from this large-scale study of a whole cohort of youths," said Ruben Gur.

"We now have a richer, fuller concept of what happens during brain development and now better understand the complementary unfolding processes in the brain that describe what happens."

The study was led by Ruben Gur, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Raquel Gur, MD, PhD, a professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology, and Efstathios Gennatas, MBBS, a doctoral student of neuroscience working in the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Penn.

According to Gur, the study findings may better explain the extent and intensity of changes in mental life and behavior that occur during the transition from childhood to young adulthood.

"If we are puzzled by the behavior of adolescents, it may help to know that they need to adjust to a brain that is changing in its size and composition at the same time that demands on performance and acceptable behavior keep scaling up," Gur added.

In the study, the researchers evaluated 1,189 youth between the ages of 8 and 23 who completed magnetic resonance imaging as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, a community-based study of brain development that includes rich neuroimaging and cognitive data, to look at age-related effects on multiple measures of regional gray matter, including gray matter volume, gray matter density, and cortical thickness. Neuroimaging allowed the researchers to derive several measures of human brain structure in a noninvasive way.

Observing such measures during development allowed the researchers to study the brain at different ages to characterize how a child's brain differs from an adult's. "This novel characterization of brain development may help us better understand the relationship between brain structure and cognitive performance," Gennatas said.

"Our findings also emphasize the need to examine several measures of brain structure at the same time. Volume and cortical thickness have received the most attention in developmental studies in the past, but gray matter density may be as important for understanding how improved performance relates to brain development."

Further study is required to fully characterize the biological underpinnings of different MRI-derived measures by combining neuroimaging and brain histology. The study's findings in healthy people can also help researchers understand the effects of brain disorders in males and females as they evolve during adolescence.

More information: Efstathios D. Gennatas et al. Age-Related Effects and Sex Differences in Gray Matter Density, Volume, Mass, and Cortical Thickness from Childhood to Young Adulthood, The Journal of Neuroscience (2017). Journal information: Journal of Neuroscience Efstathios D. Gennatas et al. Age-Related Effects and Sex Differences in Gray Matter Density, Volume, Mass, and Cortical Thickness from Childhood to Young Adulthood,(2017). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3550-16.2017
IVF babies do not have lower cognitive skills than naturally conceived children. Credit: Shutterstock

New research shows that between the ages of three and 11, children conceived artificially can be linked with better scores for reading and verbal tests than children conceived naturally.

Researchers analysed data of hundreds of UK children who had been born through IVF or ICSI (when the man has a low sperm count), testing the same groups of children every few years up to the age of 11. They found a positive association between artificial conception and cognitive development when a child was between the ages of three and five.

The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, also shows that parents who undergo such treatments are generally older, more educated and have a higher socio-economic status than parents who had naturally conceived children. Artificially conceived babies are more likely to be part of a multiple birth or have low birth weight, however, this study finds their family backgrounds 'override' the possible negative effects to health that could lessen cognitive ability. The findings are significant given previous studies show a mixed picture, with some research suggesting assisted reproductive treatments can harm a child's cognitive abilities.

Researchers Professor Melinda Mills and doctoral student Anna Barbuscia, from the University of Oxford's Department of Sociology and Nuffield College, used data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative group of 18,552 families. They analysed a sample of babies born in 2000-1 who were resident in the UK at nine months, using data from the Department of Social Security Child Benefit Registers.

Out of 15,281 artificially conceived children born in 2000-1, 8,298 were followed up for cognitive ability tests in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2012. Out of 15,218 children born in 2000-2001, who were followed up for cognitive ability tests in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2012, 214 were conceived artificially through IVF or ICSI. Standardised tests (British Ability Scales) were used at each stage to assess the children's vocabulary skills (at three and five); reading at seven, and use of verbs at 11. The scores were compared with those of children who had been naturally conceived.

Analyses show that mothers and fathers are on average four to five years older, respectively, than parents of naturally conceived children. This group of parents is also likely to have a higher income and belong to a higher social class, with the mothers more likely to be highly educated and employed than mothers of naturally conceived babies. The study notes that these factors are 'consistent and statistically significant' and highlights that they are widely accepted as being linked with children with higher cognitive abilities in the early years.

Researcher Professor Melinda Mills, from the Department of Sociology, said: 'The findings suggest that the positive effect of the family background of children conceived through artificial reproduction techniques "overrides" the risks of related poor health impairing their cognitive ability. Although artificially conceived babies have a higher risk of being born prematurely or as a multiple birth, we have found they also have parents who are older, better educated and from a higher income bracket.

'These are all factors linked with better outcomes for children. What is significant is that this positive effect is over the long term up to the age of 11. The findings support other studies showing that on balance such fertility treatments do not impair a child's higher thinking skills.'

Lead author Anna Barbuscia said: 'The strong desire and considerable psychological and financial effort involved in having a child through artificial conception treatments undoubtedly contributes to more attentive parenting.

'Parents may perceive their children as more fragile but once past the period of greatest risk, their parenting style may change to become more like other parents. This might account for the fact that the gap in higher cognitive ability has closed by the time both groups of children had reached the age of 11 with only slightly better scores for artificially conceived children at this later stage .'

The paper explains that since the first IVF baby was born in 1978, there has been a rapid increase in the use of artificial reproductive technology, with more than 5 million children conceived this way (up to 2012). To date, results on the long-term effects on children have been mixed. Some studies reported an increased risk of damage to their behavioural, social, emotional and cognitive development, as well as mental disorders or physical problems such as low birthweight and premature delivery.

By contrast, a series of systematic reviews concluded, however, that there were no developmental differences once the baby was a few weeks old. Other studies draw similar conclusions to the Oxford study, showing not only comparable but higher mental health and social development in IVF children.

More information: Anna Barbuscia et al. Cognitive development in children up to age 11 years born after ARTa longitudinal cohort study, Human Reproduction (2017). Journal information: Human Reproduction Anna Barbuscia et al. Cognitive development in children up to age 11 years born after ARTa longitudinal cohort study,(2017). DOI: 10.1093/humrep/dex102
HIV infecting a human cell. Credit: NIH

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made another important advance in HIV vaccine design. The development was possible thanks to previous studies at TSRI showing the structures of a protein on HIV's surface, called the envelope glycoprotein. The scientists used these structures to design a mimic of the viral protein from a different HIV subtype, subtype C, which is responsible for the majority of infections worldwide.

The new immunogen is now part of a growing library of TSRI-designed immunogens that could one day be combined in a vaccine to combat many strains of HIV.

"All of this research is going toward finding combinations of immunogens to aid in protecting people against HIV infection," said TSRI Professor Ian Wilson, Hanson Professor of Structural Biology and chair of the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at TSRI.

The research, published recently in the journal Immunity, was led by Wilson and TSRI Professor of Immunology Richard Wyatt, who also serves as Director of Viral Immunology for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Neutralizing Antibody Center at TSRI.

The new study was published alongside a second study in Immunity, led by scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, which showed that the vaccine candidate developed in the TSRI-led study can elicit neutralizing antibodies in non-human primates.

"Together, the two studies reiterate how structure-based immunogen design can advance vaccine development," said Wyatt.

Solving the Clade C Structure

HIV mutates rapidly, so there are countless strains of HIV circulating around the world. Of these strains, scientists tend to focus on the most common threats, called clades A, B and C.

Like a flu vaccine, an effective HIV vaccine needs to protect against multiple strains, so researchers are designing a set of immunogens that can be given sequentially or as a cocktail to people so their immune systems can prepare for whatever strain they come up against.

In 2013, TSRI scientists, led by Wilson and TSRI Associate Professor Andrew Ward, determined the structure of a clade A envelope glycoprotein, which recognizes host cells and contains the machinery that HIV uses to fuse with cells. Because this is the only antibody target on the surface of HIV, an effective HIV vaccine will have to trigger the body to produce antibodies to neutralize the virus by blocking these activities.

Building on the previous original research, the scientists in the new study set out to solve the structure of the clade C glycoprotein and enable the immune system to fight clade C viruses.

"Clade C is the most common subtype of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and India," explained study co-first author Javier Guenaga, an IAVI collaborator working at TSRI. "Clade C HIV strains are responsible for the majority of infections worldwide."

The scientists faced a big challenge: the clade C envelope glycoprotein is notoriously unstable, and the molecules are prone to falling apart.

Guenaga needed the molecules to stay together as a trimer so his co-author Fernando Garces could get a clear image of the clade C glycoprotein's trimeric structure. To solve this problem, Guenaga re-engineered the glycoprotein and strengthened the interactions between the molecules. "We reinforced the structure to get the soluble molecule to assemble as it is on the viral surface," Guenaga said.

The project took patience, but it paid off. "Despite all the engineering employed to produce a stable clade C protein, these crystals (of clade C protein) were grown in very challenging conditions at 4 degrees Celsius and it took the diffraction of multiple crystals to generate a complete dataset, as they showed high sensitivity to radiation damage," said Garces. "Altogether, this highlights the tremendous effort made by the team in order to make available the molecular architecture of this very important immunogen."

With these efforts, the glycoprotein could then stay together in solution the same way it remains together on the virus itself. The researchers then captured a high-resolution image of the glycoprotein using a technique called x-ray crystallography.

The researchers finally had a map of the clade C glycoprotein.

Vaccine Candidate Shows Promise

In a companion study, the scientists worked with a team at the Karolinska Institute to test an immunogen based on Guenaga's findings. The immunogen was engineered to appear on the surface of a large molecule called a liposomecreating a sort of viral mimic, like a mugshot of the virus.

This vaccine candidate indeed prompted the immune system to produce antibodies that neutralized the corresponding clade C HIV strain when tested in non-human primates.

"That was great to see," said Guenaga. "This study showed that the immunogens we made are not artificial moleculesthese are actually relevant for protecting against HIV in the real world."
At animal markets, buyers will have to give an undertaking that the cattle is being bought for agricultural purposes and not for slaughtering.

By Praveen Shekhar, Reema Parashar: At animal markets across India you cannot buy or sell cattle, including cows, for slaughtering purposes. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has notified new rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which bans sale of cattle for slaughter in open markets across the country.

A gazette notification, titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 by the ministry states that no one can bring cattle to an animal market unless he or she has furnished a written declaration that the cattle will not be sold for the purpose of slaughter.

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Further, upon sale of cattle, the animal market committee will take an "undertaking" that the animals are for agricultural purposes and not for slaughter.

The notification is likely to have a major impact on cattle slaughter across the country - even though it does not itself ban slaughter.

It requires cattle trade at animal markets to only take place for agricultural purposes.

Cattle, under the new rules, includes bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers, calves and camels.

Cattle buyers will now have to give an undertaking that the animals are not for slaughter and the market committees will have to check the buyers' credentials and keep records of sale. The records should be preserved for six months, said the government notification which is effective from today.

The new rule also says cattle buyers cannot sell the animals outside the state without permission.

RESTRICTIONS ON SALE OF CATTLE

According to the rules, the member secretary of the animal market committee shall ensure that no person shall bring a young animal to an animal market. They will also keep a record of name and address of the purchaser and procure his identity proof.

Another task will be to verify that the purchaser is an agriculturist by seeing the relevant revenue document.

The rules make it clear that the purchaser cannot sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose. Such cattle cannot be sold to a person outside the state without the permission as per the state cattle protection or preservation laws.

IMPLICATIONS

Experts say the rules will hurt mostly Muslim traders who face mounting violence by increasingly assertive cow vigilante groups. Farmers will also be hit because they will be deprived of a traditional source of income from selling non-milch and old cattle. Farmers who can't take care of their cattle will have to pay for their upkeep in shelters.

To be implemented in the next three months, the move introduces lots of paperwork for cow traders who are mostly poor and illiterate. For instance, before the trade, both seller and buyer will have to produce identity and farmland ownership documents.

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After buying a cow, a trader must make five copies of proof of sale and submit them at the local revenue office, the local veterinary doctor in the district of the purchaser, animal market committee, apart from one each for seller and buyer.

Also read:

Cow vigilante attacks are anything but spontaneous, reveals India Today sting

Gau Rakshika from Rajasthan wants Modi to declare cow India's national animal

Also watch:

Gujarat: Man accused of cow slaughter dies in police custody; government orders judicial probe

--- ENDS ---
Fake news, decried by everyone from Donald Trump to Theresa May to Vladimir Putin, has now shown up in the broadcasts of Sky News Arabia and Al Arabiya news channels.

Following the hacking of Qatar News Agencys website on Tuesday, when comments falsely attributed to Qatars emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, were broadcast, both UAE-based broadcasters went big with the news, inviting guests to dissect and condemn the reported speech.

Qatars government categorically denied that comments in which the countrys leader expressed support for Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Israel  while suggesting that US President Donald Trump may not last in power  were ever made.

There are international laws governing such crimes, especially the cyberattack. [The hackers] will be prosecuted according to the law, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatars foreign minister, said in Doha on Wednesday.

Despite Qatari denials, Sky News Arabia and Al Arabiya kept running the discredited story, prompting complaints of questionable journalism at the channels.

Al Jazeera approached Sky News Arabias joint owner, Sky PLC in the UK, to ask what media standards their Gulf affiliate adheres to, but they have yet to comment.

Al Jazeera

Now read: SA Post Office website security certificate problems
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Van stronger than Shirak
Lucy Usoyan does not remember all of the details of the brutal beating she suffered at the fists and feet of a group of men in front of the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. on May 16.

But after being shown a picture of Eyup Yildirim, she says that the 50-year-old supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was one of the goons who savagely kicked her while she was curled up in a ball during the melee.

Absolutely, Usoyan told The Daily Caller (DC), after reviewing Yildirims Facebook page to see if he was one of the men who assaulted her.

Yildirim, the owner of a construction company in New Jersey, was one of the most visible figures spotted in videos recorded of last weeks attack.

Completely bald and wearing a white shirt, Yildirim joined dozens of other Turkish men in a full-frontal assault on a group of peaceful protesters gathered outside the embassy.

In one video, Yildirim and other men were seen kicking Usoyan as she lay curled up on the sidewalk.

The video shows that after several kicks, Yildirim turned to assaulting Seyid Reza Dersimi, a Kurdish man who was attempting to protect Usoyan.

Dersimi also confirmed Yildirims involvement during a phone interview.

The DC was able to reach Yildirim at a phone number listed for his construction company.

I dont know what youre talking about, he said when asked about his involvement in last weeks violence. He ended the phone call after being asked for comment.

Given that Yildirim is not an official diplomatic agent for Turkey, and therefore not protected by international diplomatic agreements, it is unclear why he was not apprehended last Tuesday, or why he has not been arrested since, noted DC.

The Facebook page for Yildirim includes videos recorded in Washington, D.C. last week.

Ayhan Ozmekik, the president of the Turkish & American Youth Education Foundation and executive director of the U.S.-based non-profit group, the Turkish Institute for Progress, posted a photo on his Facebook page with a group of men, including Yildirim and several others involved in last weeks attack.

Also in the photo posted by Ozmekik is Mustafa Tuncer, a Turkish-American businessman who until last week was an executive with a group called the Turkish American Steering Committee (TASC), which was identified in an internal State Department memo as having some sort of involvement in last weeks event.

That memo stated that the State Department found that some of the men involved in the attack were protected under diplomatic immunity. Others had been hired from within the Turkish-American community.

To note, however, Tuncer announced late last week that he was leaving TASC in order to spend more time with family. But he is the executive director for another group supported by Yildirim.

A Facebook post from April 2014 shows that Yildirim attended an event hosted by MUSIAD USA, a U.S.-Turkey trade group. Tuncer is executive director of the group.
Buenos Aires City Council held a reception for Armenian violinist Ara Malikian, who will perform in the Argentinean capital city, on June 15, according to Prensa Armenia.

At the reception, MP Daniel Presti stated that Malikians life was, an example of permanent overcoming [of hardships].

For me, its very very exciting to play here in Buenos Aires because its a place Ive never played in, but Ive always dreamed of playing here, Malikian noted, for his part.

Ara Malikian is a Lebanese Armenian violinist who now resides in Spain. He has more than 20 albums, and performed in over 40 countries.

His childhood was during the years of the civil war in Lebanon.

At the age of 15, he was awarded a scholarship from the German government, to study at the Hannover music school, thus, becoming its youngest student.

Thanks to this violin, my family has something to tell, stressed Malikian. [And] I tell this story in the concert.
By Press Trust of India: banned

(Eds: Updating with details, reactions)

New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) The government has banned the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter, a move that is expected to hit export and trade of meat and leather.

It also prohibited practices that are cruel to animals including painting of horns and putting ornaments or decorative materials on them.

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The environment ministry has notified the stringent Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said the new rules are very "specific" and aim to regulate animal markets and sale of cattle.

He clarified that the provisions only apply to animals in livestock markets and animals seized as case properties, adding these rules do not cover other areas.

A senior environment ministry official told PTI that the notification is in the direction of animal welfare.

The rules define cattle as a bovine animal including bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels.

The new rules also prohibit establishment of an animal market in a place which is situated within 25 km from any state border and within 50 km from any international border.

These also bar people from lifting an animal off the ground, other than poultry for weighing propose, dragging it along the ground, suspending it clear of the ground or tie up or muzzle any calf among others.

According to the notification, the member secretary of an animal market committee will have to ensure that no person brings a young animal to the animal market.

"No person shall bring a cattle to an animal market unless upon arrival he has furnished a written declaration signed by the owner of the cattle - stating the name and address of the owner of the cattle, with a copy of the photo identification proof.

"Giving details of the identification of the cattle and stating that the cattle has not been brought to market for sale for slaughter," the notification said under the point Restrictions on sale of cattle.

In the past, rumours of cow slaughter and the sale of beef have triggered violence in parts of the country.

The rules envisage the constitution of district animal market monitoring committee and an animal market committee.

"Cruel and harmful practices shall be prohibited, namely animal identification methods such as hot branding and cold branding, shearing and painting of horns, bishoping in horses and ear cutting in buffaloes.

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"Casting animals on hard ground without adequate bedding, forcing animals to perform any unnatural acts, such as dancing, putting any ornaments or decorative materials on animals, use of any type of muzzle to prevent animals from suckling or eating food and others," the notification said. Reacting to the ban, the CPI(M)-led LDF government and the Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala, where beef is consumed widely, attacked the Centre.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, "It is not right that a government decides the choice of food of the people. With this decision, the Centre is destroying a sector which employees thousands of people."

The Centre should have consulted with the states and sought their opinion before coming with the notification, he was quoted in a statement as saying.

Echoing similar sentiments, Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said, "The Modi governments effort from the beginning was to curb the constitutional rights and the ban was the latest example of the alleged fascist moves of the government."

In Hyderabad, Mohammed Saleem, vice president of All India Jamiat-ul-Quresh, said, "The farmer sells cattle which are not useful to them and with that money they buy other animals. Poor people cant afford fish or chicken. If the government brings this law, we will not follow it."

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The rules said that the committee will retain every declaration for six months and also take an undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter and also keep a record of name and address of the purchaser.

The committee will also verify that the purchaser is an agriculturist and "ensure that the purchaser of the animal gives a declaration that he shall not sell the animal up to six months from the date of purchase and shall abide by the rules relating to transport of animals made under the Act".

"The purchaser of the cattle shall not sell the animal for purpose of slaughter, follow the state cattle protection or preservation laws, not sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose, not sell the cattle to a person outside the state without the permission among others," the notification said.

It said during removal of cattle from the animal market, the proof of sale shall be issued in five copies, first handed to purchaser, second to seller, third to tehsil office of the residence of purchaser, fourth to the chief veterinary officer in the district of purchaser and last copy to be kept intact in the record by the animal market committee.

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"The district animal market monitoring committee shall take steps to ensure that no animal market is organised in a place which is situated within 25 km from any state border or which is situated within 50 km from any international border," the notification said.

The rules also said that the local authority will make a list of animal markets functional prior to the commencement of these rules and every such market have to register themselves with the committee within three months.

Under the rules, the district animal market monitoring committee will have to ensure that the animal market has adequate housing, shade, feeding troughs, water tanks with multiple taps and buckets, lighting, ramps at the appropriate height of vehicles, separate enclosures for sick and infirm animals among other provisions. PTI TDS RSD LGK UD ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian offered powerful testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, calling for a clear and decisive U.S. response to the May 16th brutal beatings of peaceful American protesters by Turkish President Recep Tayip Erodogans bodyguards, Asbarez reported.

Hamparian, whose live videotape footage from the attack was shown during the hearing, explained What [Erdogan] ordered on the streets of our capital provides a small insight  a chilling insight  into the types of violence visited every day upon the citizens of Turkey, far from our city, away from our cameras. Those are the facts. Thats where we are.

Hamparian continued asking, This hearing, Mr. Chairman, is about foreign policy, to be sure, but  at a more fundamental level  its about our shared American commitment to our First Amendment and our freedoms. The question before us is: How will we respond to Ankara exporting its intolerance and violence to our shores, his unapologetic attempts to bully Americans, as he has his own citizens?

How will we answer his arrogance?

Among the remedies suggested by Hamparian included:

 President Trump should break his silence and condemn this attack on peaceful protesters in our nations capital.

 The U.S. government  including our Department of Justice  should fully investigate and criminally prosecute the attackers, demanding that Turkey issue a blanket waiver of diplomatic immunity for all involved in this assault.

 The Administration should, as Senator McCain has recommended, exercise our right to immediately expel Turkeys Ambassador from the United States  as both an expression of our outrage and a reaffirmation of our American devotion to freedom of expression.

Hamparian welcomed the full Committees unanimous adoption of H.Res.354, introduced by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY), with the support of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), condemning the attacks and calling for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Also testifying at the hearing were Ms. Lusik Usoyan, Founder and President of the Ezidi Relief Fund; Mr. Murat Yusa, a local businessman and protest organizer; and Ms. Ruth Wedgwood, Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Usoyan and Yusa were victims of the brutal assault on May 16th by President Erdogans bodyguards.

I believe that the individuals like Mr. Erdogan who systematically abuse his authority, by violating human right, pressing press, imprisoning second largest partys [HDP] co-chairs and its members, committing war crimes, and strongly supporting a terrorist group like ISIS has no space in the White House of the United States of America, explained Usoyan, who went on to outline the beating she received at the hands of pro-Erdogan henchmen. A Ezidi Kurd who grew up in Armenia, Usoyan cited Erdogans collusion with Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev as among reasons for the April, 2016, Azerbaijani attack against Armenia. A tearful Usoyan explained, In the aftermath of the 4-day attack around 80 Armenian soldiers were killed and one Ezidi origin soldier was beheaded by Azeri solders. That soldier happens to be my cousin.
The Armenian National Congress of Armenia is troubled by President Trumps ill-advised and misguided proposal to sharply cut aid to Armenia, Asbarez reported.

His budget recommendation underscores the need to work with Congressional appropriators to reverse these reductions, while redoubling our efforts to empower Armenias aid-to-trade transition, said Aram Hamparian, ANCA Executive Director.

Under the Administration's budget, aid to Armenia would be reduced by 67 percent, dropping from $20.4 million in FY16 to $6.8 million proposed for FY18.

Building on 2015s Trade and Investment Framework Agreement and leveraging the five hundred million dollars in new U.S. investments in Armenia, we need to put in place a badly-needed Double Tax Treaty, launch direct Los Angeles to Yerevan flights, secure an MCC Science and Technology education grant for Armenian schools, and undertake other targeted commercial initiatives to strengthen the U.S.-Armenia bilateral economic relationship, added Hamparian.

ANCAs Hamparian also noted that the organization will continue working with congressional leaders to ensure that a portion of the Trumps proposed $2.75 billion allocated to Migration and Refugee Assistance would go to Armenia, which has accepted a large number of refugees from Syria over the course of the past several years.
Investigation on the criminal case of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who is under arrest in Azerbaijan, is completed, Lapshins lawyer Eduard Chernin told TASS.

He noted that Lapshin and he could familiarize with the materials of the case, later the materials would be sent to court.

According to Chernin, Lapshin is still in the medical center of the detention facility where he was placed in mid-April with a diagnosis of tachycardia. As Chernin noted, Lapshin feels good.

After his visits to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2011 and 2012, blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshinwho is a citizen of Russia, Israel, and several other countrieswas blacklisted by Azerbaijan.

In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan--but with a Ukrainian passport--and, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities.

Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.

On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the blogger's appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutor's Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutors Office.

And on the evening of the same day, Belarus extradited Alexander Lapshin to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.
YEREVAN.  The prospects for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations are not great, stated Swiss historian Hans-Lukas Kieser, during his remarks Friday at the Office of the President of Armenia.

As reported earlier, Kieser received the Presidents 2016 award, in recognition of his significant contribution to Armenian Genocide Studies.

In his words, there is now a certain deja vu in Turkey regarding this matter, and this is quite perilous. As for his contribution to Armenian Genocide Studies, Kieser stressed that he is just doing his job as a historian.

Pakrat Estukyan, editor of the Armenian section of Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul, who also received the Presidents award, in recognition of his significant contribution to Armenian Genocide issue, for his part, noted that Armenians in Turkey still retain their national traditions.

Ive worked for years with Hrant Dink in the same room, added Estukyan. And, today, Im very happy that the young [Armenian] generation [in Turkey] is taking the same path.

Hrant Dink, the founder and chief editor of Agos, was gunned down on January 19, 2007, outside the then office of this Armenian bilingual weekly.
The trailer of Salman Khan's Tubelight is out, and we cannot keep calm.

By India Today Web Desk: Salman Khan is back as Kabir Khan's unconventional hero. Nothing closer to his macho image, Salman is here to win your hearts as a simpleton in Tubelight.

After teasing the fans with posters and pictures, the makers finally released the trailer of the much-anticipated film Tubelight on May 25. And such has been the craze around Salman's film that within 12 hours of its release, Tubelight has already received 3.7 million views on YouTube.

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From Salman and Sohail's bond to the perfect war setting to Shah Rukh Khan's cameo, Tubelight boasts of all ingredients to become a blockbuster.

Here are five intriguing points that we couldn't miss in the two-minute trailer.

Salman Khan as Tubelight

If he has played a quintessential good boy on screen, he has essayed the role of a man with a golden heart too. In a career spanning over three decades, Bollywood has helped him live up to his 'good boy' image on screen. And Kabir Khan's Tubelight promises to take that image forward but with a twist. Salman plays Laxman, the village simpleton, who fights against all odds to rescue his brother (Sohail Khan) after he gets captured beyond Chinese borders during the 1962 Sino-Indian war.

Salman-Sohail's bromance

It's been seven years since we saw Salman and Sohail share screen space. Unlike their last outing Veer, Tubelight is nothing loud and garish. Instead Kabir's film shows an affable bond between these two brothers. If Salman makes you fall in love with his funny antics, Sohail's role as a responsible brother will surely melt your heart.

Shah Rukh Khan's blink-and-miss appearance

We finally get to see the first glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan in Tubelight trailer. It is a known fact that SRK essays the role of a magician in Kabir's directorial venture, and if reports are to be believed, Salman's encounter with SRK in the film is one of the turning points in Tubelight.

Sino-Indian war

The trailer begins with Chinese army marching towards the Indian border, and sets the tone of the film. Set against the background of 1962 Indo-China war, Tubelight tells the story of two brothers who are separated by the war, when one of them joins the Indian Army to fight the Chinese and gets captured by their army.

Yakeen or faith

Apart from Laxman and Bharat, Kabir's third and most important character in Tubelight is yakeen. Taking inspiration from 2015 English-language film Little Boy, Tubelight's theme revolves around yakeen or faith. And this very faith makes a simpleton like Laxman cross borders to rescue his brother from Chinese army.

ALSO READ: Watch Salman-Sohail's bromance plus SRK's cameo in Tubelight trailer

ALSO READ: Tubelight is not an original film but a copy of English film Little Boy?

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ALSO READ: 5 reasons Salman Khan's tubelight will be bhai's best film till date

WATCH: A look at Salman Khan's controversial life

--- ENDS ---
The City Council of Myrtle Beach, SC adopted a proclamation on May 23, 2017 signed by Mayor John T. Rhodes reaffirming the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. The proclamation, spearheaded by Council Member Randal Wallace, was timed to coincide with the remembrance day of the Greek Genocide observed every year on May 19.

In the months leading up to the adoption of the proclamation, the Armenian National Committee of South Carolina played an important role in educating the wider Myrtle Beach community and elected officials about the Armenian Genocide by organizing commemoration events, actively promoting The Promise film, and holding meetings.

We are thankful to our city elected officials  especially to Councilman Randal Wallace and Mayor John Rhodes  for their principled stance against crimes against humanity and human rights violations, said ANC of South Carolina Chairman Aram Heboyan. It is important for us to properly commemorate and remember all the innocent victims of this heinous crime if there is any hope in stopping the vicious cycle of genocide.

Myrtle Beach City Councilman Randal Wallace said, [I am] very proud to have been a part of this proclamation recognizing the Armenian genocide.

By way of background, on March 17, 1999 South Carolina General Assembly adopted H.B. 3678 recognizing April 24, 1999, as South Carolina day of remembrance of the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923 so as to honor the memory of the one and one-half million people of Armenian ancestry who lost their lives during that terrible time and to honor the memory of the victims of genocide throughout the world.
An Armenian governmental delegation, led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, is in Kazan, Russia, on a working visit, to attend the meetings of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Heads of Government Council.

The closed and extended talks of the CIS Heads of Government Council were conducted on Friday, during which the participants discussed the avenues for further development and deepening of economic cooperation within this organization.

Subsequently, the CIS heads of governments signed several documents and international agreements, with respect to making collaboration between the member countries grow deeper.

Also, the Armenian delegation attended the official reception by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
An agreement has been reached on increasing the number of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office international observers to up to seven, at the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador Igor Popov, informed about the aforesaid to APA news agency of Azerbaijan.

In his words, both parties to the conflict agree to this change.

However, there is no agreement on details; these include placing observers, financing their activities, and other technical issues, added Popov.

Along with relevant OSCE structures and representatives of the sides, Austria, which chairs the organization, is working to bring the sides to an agreement on this issue.
Kyodo: Emperor of Japan revealed to have prostate hyperplasia

Iranian intelligence urges Saudi Arabia not to test Tehran's strategic patience

Kazakhstan intends to ship 1.5 mln tons of oil via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline

Japan and the US begin major joint exercise

Armenia soldier sustains gunshot wound from Azerbaijan shooting

Armenia Premier: We have 16 missing persons since September 13 military aggression by Azerbaijan

Bitcoin is trading just above $16,000

PM: Armenia, Karabakh propose Azerbaijan to create demilitarized zone

Pashinyan: Armenia is going to present new proposal to Azerbaijan

Biden says he will discuss Ukraine conflict at G20 summit

Erdogan tells what relations between Turkey and Armenia depend on

Iran says it has developed first hypersonic ballistic missile

Armenias Pashinyan: Russia peacekeepers are deployed in Karabakh indefinitely

FM Lavrov to head Russia delegation at G20 summit

Erdogan: Ankara continues mediation efforts to resolve Ukrainian crisis

IAEA head: Talks on Iran's nuclear program ended inconclusively

Armenia PM: Aliyev grossly violated tripartite written agreement of Sochi

This year 320 people seek asylum in Armenia, 213 are from Ukraine

Erdogan speaks on trusting relationship with Putin

Gold prices remain stable

Ombudsperson in Brussels, reflects on top Azerbaijan leaderships policy of Armenophobia

Indonesian authorities: Putin won't come to G20 summit in Bali

World oil prices falling

Washington demands part of Israeli Arrow 3 for sale to Germany, be produced in the U.S.

Armenia Security Council chief meets with Lithuania officials

Armenia FM heading for Paris

Egypt launches Tax Free system for foreign tourists

Washington, Brussels don't approve German plan to resume transatlantic trade talks

Newspaper: Armenias Mirzoyan makes it clear to Blinken that wording Artsakh should be included

Newspaper: Armenia parliamentary opposition decides to return to legislative body

Volkswagen releases office chair with electric motor and klaxon

Israel reveals Pulcinella secret, admitting that it used drones not only for surveillance

Poland and Slovakia will increase defense spending

Audi presents new crossovers Q8 e-tron

Benny Gantz: Israel has an opportunity to strike Iran's nuclear facilities

France National Assembly speaker reaffirms solidarity with Armenia, Armenians

Samvel Babayan: Russia will withdraw peacekeepers from Nagorno-Karabakh

Hungarian government sets price ceiling on eggs and potatoes

Benny Gantz: Israel does not have the production capacity to supply Ukraine with air defense systems

Germany must adopt energy-saving measures in face of skyrocketing inflation

Beglaryan: Azerbaijan continues and will continue its policy of genocide and hatred against the Armenian people

Kiev believes it is too early to talk about withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson

Raisi: Relations between Tehran and Moscow have a bright future

Taliban virtue representative kills minor for refusing to marry

Meeting held at Ministry of Defense

Kaljurand: A fair peace agreement, that will guarantee the rights and security of the Nagorno-Karabakh people, is needed

ATMs closed at night in Germany because of increasing number of break-ins

Moldova to request 450 million from EU amid fears of stopping Russian gas supplies

Kazakhstan plans to make knowledge of Kazakh obligatory for obtaining citizenship

Vladimir Putin to visit Armenia

Ayoob Kara: Israel and Azerbaijan must act together against Iran

Macron: France ends its military mission in Africa

Military forces of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey take part in Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline protection exercise

Shoigu orders withdrawal of troops across Dnieper River

Swedish parliament will vote to change constitution for NATO membership on November 16

Reactor at nuclear power plant in southern Sweden stops unexpectedly due to turbine malfunction

Margaret Thatcher's dressing table case sells for $145

Zakharova comments on Azerbaijani attacks on Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh

Israel may reconsider its position on military aid to Ukraine because of threat from Iran

Tehran expresses readiness to play role in resolving conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Zakharova: Russia closely coordinates with Armenia and Azerbaijan on preparation of peace treaty

U.S. cut its oil production forecast in 2023

Gen. of Justice: Armenia is already going to abyss

MFA says Russia promotes comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations

Australia to ban former military pilots from working in China

Ministry: 1,034 participants of 44-day Karabakh war declared disabled

Russian Security Council Secretary accuses Western intelligence services of organizing unrest in Iran

Niagara Falls is illuminated in colors of Azerbaijani flag through efforts of Azerbaijani Embassy to U.S.

'Armenia' bloc: Authorities going to peace at any cost legitimize change of power

Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia

FT: Taiwan plans to establish drone production, allocated $1.6 billion

Azerbaijan's 'Horst Wessel' for Iran: Baku media replicates 'murder story'

Tesla recalls 40,000 electric cars because of problems with power steering

Sky News: Russia handed over Javelin, NLAW and Stinger missiles to Iran in exchange for drones

Russia has record number of Armenia migrants outflow

Stoltenberg says NATO summit will be held in Vilnius on July 11-12, 2023

Iranian Interior Ministry: Organizers of riots in Iran were trained in 8 unfriendly countries

Europe fills its gas storage facilities almost 100% before cold season

Greece MPs visit Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

Strasbourg city council adopts resolution on supporting Armenia

Ohanyan: We see hope in Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan format regarding Karabakhs future

Turkey says it will not focus only on Russian gas

David Babayan says Azerbaijan makes propaganda against Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh

Former ECHR judge: UN Security Council does not consider Karabakh's separation illegal

Shavarsh Kocharyan says current PM took step of declaring Armenia aggressor

AraratBank underwrites FINCA UCO bonds

First ombudsperson says current Armenian authorities are illegitimate

Armenian National Committee of America: Dr. Oz Defeated in Pennsylvania Senate race

Head of Turkish Ministry of Agriculture: 10.1 million tons of grain exported from Ukrainian ports

Putin and Lukashenko discuss upcoming CSTO meeting by phone

Armenia legislature discusses issues of residents of Karabakhs Kashatagh region handed over to Azerbaijan

President pays tribute to martyrs of 3rd Artsakh war

Australian pedophile sentenced to 129 years in Philippines

Japan says North Korea launches alleged ballistic missile

British cabinet minister resigns after recent harassment allegations

Eleving Group member Mogo applies the best practices in Armenia

Artsakh FM: Azerbaijan will have to take new realities into account in near future

Iran MFA. Azerbaijan president's reaction is incomprehensible

Parliament speaker considers transit visa requirement for Armenia citizens at Poland airports worrisome

Pashinyan: Armenia-Cambodia warm relations have great prospects for development
The Neerja actress says it's her parents, makeup artist, stylist and others who deserve the credit for making her look the way she does.

By Indo-Asian News Service: National Award winning actress Sonam Kapoor, who stepped out in style at the 70th Cannes Film Festival red carpet earlier this week, says she does not take any credit for the way she looks. She says her genes, fashion designers, make-up artists and the photographers are to be thanked.

Asked about whom she would like to give credit for her good looks, Sonam told the media during a video interview from Cannes Film Festival, "I cannot take any credit for that. All I do is walk the red carpet and smile in front of the camera. I think for my beauty, the first credit goes to my genes, courtesy Anil Kapoor and Sunita Kapoor. For my appearance, the credit goes to my make-up artist Namrata Soni, beauty products by L'Oreal and the creative team that works for me."

In @eliesaabworld styled by my brilliant sister @rheakapoor . Thank you @eliesaabworld for treating me like family.. love you guys. #sonamatcannes #lifeatcannes A post shared by sonamkapoor (@sonamkapoor) on May 23, 2017 at 10:18pm PDT

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Then she quipped, "I would also like to thank all the photographers who are clicking my good pictures and the almighty that produced me and put me on planet Earth."

Sonam was praised for picking a sequinned, peach Elie Saab dress followed by a prismatic saree by NorBlack NorWhite and a creation of Anamika Khanna. They also made a comparison between her looks and the appearances by other L'Oreal Paris brand ambassadors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. Such scrutiny, however, does not bother the actress at all.

Asked about her opinion on Deepika's look, Sonam said, "I think she looked amazing in all her appearances as she was being herself."

--- ENDS ---
The delegation led by Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan on Friday attended the subsequent session of the Council of Defense Ministers of CIS states held in Moscow. The event was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Council formation, the press-service of the Armenian Defense Ministry informed Armenian News  NEWS.am.

According to the session agenda, a number of issues on the further improvement of the multilateral military cooperation were discussed.

Based on the results of the session, decisions were adopted on the development of joint air defense system and communication systems, humanitarian demining, training of military staff, combat-readiness and joint field trainings, as well as implementation of other joint educational programs. Apart from this, the procedures for the implementation of the joint actions of the CIS participating states for 2017 were outlined.

During his stay in Russia, Vigen Sargsyan also attended the reception organized on behalf of Secretary General of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Yuri Khhachaturov on Thursday, The event was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of signing the CSTO Treaty and 15th anniversary of CSTO formation.
YEREVAN. - Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia, Ashot Manukyan, on Friday chaired a working consultation on the work related to the extension of the NPP station operation.

During the meeting it was noted that the work on extending the operation of the Armenian NPP doesn't fall behind the schedule, the ministry press-service informed Armenian News  NEWS.am.

The NPP staff was given instructions on the proper implementation of work.

The work on extending the operation of the Armenian NPP is carried out within the framework of the $270 mln credit tranche and $30 mln grant from the Russian Government. The operation of the NPP will be extended for 10 years, till 2026. The construction of a new power bloc is schedule to be completed by that time.
By India Today Web Desk: Congress president Sonia Gandhi hosted a lunch for leaders of Opposition parties in New Delhi today. The get together of the Opposition parties comes at time when the Narendra Modi government is celebrating the third anniversary of its rule. While the upcoming presidential election is said to be on the menu of the luncheon meeting, the Opposition led by the Congress is also likely to discuss the possibility of promoting a joint front to tackle the Bharatiya Janata Party ever rising popularity among the masses.

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Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, RJD chief Lalu Prasad, BSP chief Mayawati, West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, ex-UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, former J&K CM Omar Abdullah attended the meeting today.

"We discussed issues like Kashmir, Saharanpur and demonetisation. No name has been finalised yet for presidential candidate. A committee will be formed to decided on the name if there is no consensus candidate," Mamata Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.

However, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who is often seen as a probable challenger to PM Narendra Modi in 2019, skipped the meeting. Veteran leader Sharad Yadav represented the Janata Dal (United) instead.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ON THE MENU

The main opposition Congress is seeking greater unity among non-NDA parties ahead of the presidential election which could be taken forward to the upcoming assembly polls in states such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, besides the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Efforts are on to bring arch political rivals in Uttar Pradesh - the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party - together on a common opposition platform ahead of the presidential poll.

Several names have been doing the rounds as probable candidates. Among them are former West Bengal Governor and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The NCP leader has, however, ruled himself out of the race.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also mooted a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee and suggested that the ruling BJP try and build consensus on him.

WATCH: On Modi government's 3-year anniversary, Congress says future of country dark ALSO READ:

Bravado, rhetoric and hyperbole hallmark of Modi government: Congress

Presidential election: Nitish chooses to skip Sonia's Opposition meeting to discuss consensus candidate

Presidential poll: How a joint Opposition candidate may trump Modi-Shah combination

Jyotiraditya Scindia on Rahul Gandhi: Congress needs to correct itself, take decisions with alacrity

--- ENDS ---
The Government delegation led by Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan attended the restricted and extended formats of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council session held in Kazan city of Russia on Friday.

In his address, the Armenian President thanked the Russian side and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev for the warm reception and high-level organization of the session. Referring to the development of integration collaboration within the framework of the EAEU, Karapetyan noted: ''Every time Armenia states that this platform is interesting, promising and important for our country and development of its economy. I would like to point out to several pivotal issues, which we discussed in a restricted format today.

The first one is the EAEU digital agenda. We are for the idea of digital agenda and attach importance to it. It is necessary to work in this direction, all the more so as operating systems are in place in our countries. We should consider this and ensure their collaboration, relevant tools, and in case of coordinated work we will be able to turn those separate systems into a common technological platform.

The second one relates to the collaboration aimed at the elimination of obstacles and restrictions. Today we were introduced to the analysis on what has been carried out and where. The Armenian side stated that the faults recorded in our country will be eliminated in the future. The work to this end is very useful, since it really diversifies our mutual economic relations.

We are for the adoption of work procedure planned to be implemented in the agro-industrial sphere and have already sent proposals to the committee for including the topics of scientific research work in a two-year plan,'' he said.

Karapetyan also referred to the single window principle, noting that it is quite an interesting tool.

The prime ministers of EAEU member states also discussed issues related to the deepening of cooperation in the spheres of economy, customs, industry and agricultural industry. A number of documents were signed based on the results of the session.
Afghan Taliban Claims Killing 10 U.S. Soldiers and 32 Afghan Troops in Kunduz, 19 Security Forces in Helmand
Here's what Jim Cramer had to say about some of the stocks that callers offered up during the "Mad Money Lightning Round" Thursday evening:

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Dover (DOV) - Get Free Report : "I like Dover. This is a great American company."

G-III Apparel Group (GIII) - Get Free Report : "They disappointed last time. I'd stick with PVH Corp (PVH) - Get Free Report ."

CVR Energy (CVI) - Get Free Report : "No, I'm not sure about that yield. I'm going to pass on that."

Twilio (TWLO) - Get Free Report : "Their CEO just bought a bunch of shares. I'm sticking with him."

VF Corp (VFC) - Get Free Report : "It has no mojo. I prefer PVH Corp (PVH) - Get Free Report . VF needs an acquisition."

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) - Get Free Report : "I'm a buy, buy, buyer."

On a call with his AAP investment club members, Cramer spotlighted four oil plays he says are his favorites. Get in on the conversation with a free trial subscription to Action Alerts PLUS.

Search Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" trading recommendations using our exclusive "Mad Money" Stock Screener.

To read a full recap of this episode of "Mad Money," click here.

To watch replays of Cramer's video segments, visit the Mad Money page on CNBC.

To sign up for Jim Cramer's free Booyah! newsletter with all of his latest articles and videos please click here.

Meet the Millennial Media Moguls

Planning to be in New York on Tuesday, June 13? You're invited to join us for an evening of cocktails and conversation with three dynamic young CEOs whose companies have found big news audiences and good markets. How have they done it? What have they learned? Meet Chris Altchek, CEO and co-founder of Mic; Shafqat Islam, co-founder and CEO of NewsCred; and Kathryn Minshew, the CEO and co-founder of TheMuse. Our panel discussion will be led by Ken Doctor, media analyst and columnist for TheStreet.The event, from 6 to 8 p.m. is free, but space is limited and reservations are required. Please click here to RSVP and get more information.

At the time of publication, Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS had no position in stocks mentioned.
If you'd like to receive the free "5 Things" newsletter, please register here.

Here are five things you must know for Friday, May 26:

1. -- U.S. stock futures were mostly lower on Friday, though just barely as crude oil prices stabilized and traders looked ahead to the long holiday weekend.

Crude oil prices rebounded on Friday morning after settling at a one-week low a day earlier. West Texas Intermediate had barrelled below $50 a barrel on Thursday after an extension to a global output agreement disappointed investors looking for more. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on a nine-month extension to a production cut agreement at a meeting in Vienna on Thursday. The original agreement was set to expire at the end of June.

Investors had widely accepted an extension to the current deal and had hoped for further action to balance global oil markets.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.6% to $49.17 on Friday. Prices had slumped 4.8% on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the U.K. pound fell to a two-week low against the U.S. dollar Friday after fresh polling data showed a narrowing lead for incumbent Prime Minister Theresa May in the final weeks of the country's contentious election campaign. In the first survey of voters released since the deadly terrorist attack in Manchester earlier this week, polling expert YouGov said May's Conservative Party holds only a 5-point lead over their Labour Party rivals, lead by Jeremy Corbyn, down from 9 points last week.

Markets will be closed on Monday in honor of Memorial Day before reopening as normal on Tuesday.

2. -- Donald Trump's son-in-law and close White House adviser Jared Kushner is reportedly the focus of the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. The Washington Post reports that Kushner is under investigation because of the "extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians."

The Post said queries are being made into a number of meetings in December with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, and Moscow banker in December of last year. The paper had reported last week that a senior White House insider was the subject of the latest FBI probe, but did not name Kushner specifically.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," said one of Kushner's attorneys, Jaime Gorelick, in a statement released to the media. "He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry."

Both the Post and NBC News, which also reported the FBI investigation, said Kushner was not suspected of having committed any legality and that, at this stage at least, there were not indications he would be charged with any crime.

Separately, Trump's travel ban has been struck down in court again, this time in the U.S. 4th District Court of Appeals. The court refused to reinstate the President's travel ban, which targeted six majority-Muslim nations, saying the plan "drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination." Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration would seek a review of the decision at the Supreme Court.

Trump is currently at the tailend of his nine-day international trip, his first abroad since assuming office in January. Trump will attend the G-7 meeting in Sicily on Friday, a day after meeting with NATO members in Brussels. Trump had also visited Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Vatican City as part of his trip.

3. -- The second estimate of U.S. economic growth over the first quarter will be released before the bell on Friday morning. The measure is expected to be revised higher to 0.8% from 0.7%. A cautious consumer and delayed winter weather depressed growth over the first three months of the year.

Durable goods orders for April will also be released before the bell. Orders for long-lasting U.S.-made goods are expected to increase when excluding transportation. New orders are anticipated to fall 1.4%. Excluding transportation, orders are expected to climb 0.4%.

Elsewhere on the economic calendar, the final reading of consumer sentiment for May will be released shortly after the bell, while the weekly reading of oil-drilling activity from Baker Hughes is set for its usual time of 1 p.m. EDT Friday afternoon.

4. -- Higher membership fees propelled Costco (COST) - Get Free Reportearnings over its recent quarter. The warehouse retailer earned $700 million, or $1.59 a share, over its recent fiscal third quarter, compared to $545 million, or $1.24 a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of $1.40 a share came in 9 cents above consensus.

Revenue increased 8% to $28.22 billion, higher than consensus. Same-store sales increased 5%, above analysts' target of 4% growth. Membership fees gained 4%.

Costco shares rose more than 1% in premarket trading.

5. -- GameStop (GME) - Get Free Report reported a better-than-expected quarter with adjusted earnings of 63 cents a share coming in a dime above estimates. Revenue increased 4% to $2.05 billion, exceeding analysts' target of $1.97 billion. Same-store sales growth of 2.3% was largely tied to the launch of new portable gaming console, the Nintendo Switch.

However, shares fell 3% in premarket trading after the video game retailer left its forecasts unchanged. GameStop anticipates full-year earnings of $3.10 to $3.40 a share, wrapping consensus of $3.32 a share. Same-store sales are expected to come in flat to negative 5%.

Other earnings of note include LionsGate (LGF) , Ulta Beauty (ULTA) - Get Free Report , Splunk (SPLK) - Get Free Report , Brocade Communications (BRCD) , and Big Lots (BIG) - Get Free Report .

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Sorry, Amazon (AMZN) - Get Free Report .

As it prepares to raise its membership fees, Costco (COST) - Get Free Report reported a strong quarter and results for the first half of the year.

Costco generated net sales of $28.22 billion in its third fiscal quarter ending May 7, up 8% year-over-year. Earnings of $1.59 a share exceeded analysts' expected $1.31 a share, according to FactSet. During the six months ending May 7, net sales of $84.8 billion topped those during the same period in 2016 by 5.6%, and half-year diluted earnings of $3.99 a share represented a 12% increase year-over-year.

Costco shares rose 1.6% to $177.52 in early trading Friday.

"We're encouraged Costco delivered a strong quarter, including impressive traffic momentum in the U.S. and better than expected margins given a smaller headwind from fewer MVM days [coupons] and a benefit from the Visa credit card," wrote Cowen analyst Oliver Chen.

The results are the last ones before Costco's membership fees get hiked on June 3. About 35 million customers will pay more for their Costco membership: Goldstar membership is rising $5 to $60 per year, while Executive membership is rising $10 to $120. This follows a 10% hike in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Mexico and the U.K. last fall.

Nomura analyst Jessica Schoen Mace predicted that the membership hike will take two years to impact Costco's bottom line, but she expects a benefit of about 30 cents a share in 2018. Morgan Stanley's Simeon Gutman predicted a 40 cents a share increase. Both Gutman and Cowen's Oliver Chen warned that the bulk of the fee increase will probably be reinvested in the company through lowered prices.

Updated with analyst comments.

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After losing friends to breast cancer, Michael Drescher decided to research breast health. Over the course of 12 years  with the help of experts from around the world  he developed a wireless bra made with 100 percent non-toxic materials.

"Were not making any claims that were curing anything, but we do believe that if you dont have to put toxins on the most porous area of your body  your skin  why would you?" says Drescher.

After launching The Vibrant Body Company and selling bras successfully online, Drescher also opened the citys first "temporary bra pop-up shop" last week in the Historic Third Ward, 315 N. Broadway. The pop-up shop will operate through June 20.

The majority of bras are made from synthetic petroleum-based materials such as nylon, polyester or Lycra, but Vibrant bras have foam cups constructed of five non-toxic layers and they do not have underwires, which might restrict lymph nodes and cause irritation.

Instead, Vibrant bras provide extra support from the sides which still provide "lift."

"70 years ago Coco Chanel freed women from the corset wire," says Drescher. "We want to free women from the final wire: the wire under their breasts. To know you are wearing something that is not working against you, that feels good. And thats sexy."

Vibrant bras are $89 online, but in the pop-up shop, they cost $69 for the first bra, $59 for the second and $49 for any additional sizes. To get a 15 percent discount online, use the code PopUpShop.

The bras come in three basic colors  white, beige and black  sizes 34B through 42D, and two styles: full coverage and "semi-demi." Eventually, Vibrant will offer more sizes and styles.

"We have a lot of demand for what we are already producing," says Drescher.

Education and partnership with breast health organizations is also an important aspect of Vibrants mission. The company will host in-store events with numerous groups during the month of June, including the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Show House on June 7 and Beauty Counter non-toxic cosmetics on June 15. Go here to stay  ahem  abreast of more events.

The Vibrant Pop-Up Shop will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

"We invite people to come in and have a conversation about their bras like theyve never had before," says Drescher. "Because if it's on you, it's in you."
Phuket, 25 May 2017  Amari Phukets team, led by Pierre-Andre Pelletier  Vice President & Area General Manager, South Thailand (holding the award on the right) came together with all management teams to celebrate the receipt of two awards, Outstanding Guest Satisfaction Award and Scorecard Champion Performance of the Year Award 10/10 2016, presented by the ONYX Hospitality Group to the Groups best performing properties. Amari Phukets team is committed to continuing the delivery of the best hospitality achieving the highest satisfaction from its guests.
On a steamy Saturday evening in New Delhi, the Union ministry for defence (MoD) approved the broad contours of a policy that will spell the end of a 70-year public sector monopoly. The Strategic Partner (SP) policy, in the works for nearly two years, permits private sector firms to make battle tanks, combat aircraft and submarines. This policy is among the single biggest moves by any government since the doors were opened to private sector involvement in defence in 2001. It is also a timely move by the Modi government to shore up its tottering flagship Make in India programme. Just how seriously the government views this policy became clear four days later when the cabinet committee on security cleared it, making it among the quickest such approvals.

The focus now shifts to the defence ministry which will now have to select private sector firms to tie up with foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to produce hardware in a few selected segments-fighter aircraft, submarines, tanks and helicopters. Negotiations will be controlled by the MoD. In the past, all such 'buy and make' cases, as they were called, were handed over by the MoD to its nine defence public sector undertakings, shipyards and 39 ordnance factories. Now the field has opened up.

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The origins of the SP policy lie in the realisation that the monolithic public sector failed to prevent the country's headlong descent into the abyss of arms dependence. India remains the world's largest conventional arms importer, buying nearly 13 per cent of all arms produced in the world between 2012 and 2016, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Given the urgent requirements - the air force is short of fighter jets, the navy is short of modern conventional submarines and all three services have a shortfall of helicopters - the SP policy comes in as a half-way house. It envisages the manufacture of such military hardware within the country with foreign collaboration, rather than simply importing it. "Under this policy, import content will be at the sub-system level rather than at the systems level," says a private sector CEO who welcomes the policy as a breakthrough. The policy, cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), headed by Union defence minister Arun Jaitley, is 'aimed at developing the defence industrial eco-system in the country through the involvement of major Indian corporates as well as the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector', a PIB release proclaimed.

Bringing the private sector into 'strategic partnerships', as suggested by the Dhirendra Singh Committee in 2015, might have seemed like a low-cost policy solution, but it has not been that easy. Few government policies caused as much disagreement within the defence ministry as the SP policy did. The bureaucracy worried it could lead to the creation of monopolies within the private sector and attract accusations of crony capitalism. Strategic partnerships, they argued, were the exact opposite of the MoD policy of encouraging competition and sourcing arms from the lowest bidder. Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar wanted single partners for each strategic sector, with checks and balances instituted to ensure private sector firms did not make cartels. Jaitley pushed the policy through the last lap, insisting that the strategic partners and OEMs would win contracts only for competitively priced bids and that there would be more than one strategic partner in each segment to prevent cartelisation. At least six private sector defence firms may be selected from the pool of contenders, which includes Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Defence, Bharat Forge, Mahindra&Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Sun Group, TCS, Punj Lloyd, Tata Motors and Tata Power SED.

he SP policy aims to create arms production capacity in the private sector over and above the existing capacity in the public sector. It also envisages the development of world class companies for the design, development and manufacture of strategic platforms for the future. These objectives are still a long way from realisation. So far, only the 'broad contours' of the SP policy have been approved by the Arun Jaitley-led DAC. Which means that much of the heavy lifting - such as selecting the Indian firms that will eventually be made strategic partners - is a long, drawn-out process that could take between two and three years. The Dhirendra Singh Committee, which first recommended the SP policy in a July 2015 report to the defence ministry, calls the selection process for strategic partners the most crucial element in operationalising the idea, saying that "the entire scheme rests on it."

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And this is where, experts say, the policy could cause delays instead of speeding things up. Given where we are in the process, it could be years before the first order for a tank, a fighter jet or a helicopter is even placed. If one were to describe the SP policy's progress in terms of India's tortuously slow arms acquisition process, the SP policy is at the 'acceptance of necessity' stage-the very first step in the purchase of defence equipment. One private sector CEO describes the selection of partners as "three beauty contests followed by a caste-based marriage arranged by the defence ministry." "A swifter way to have done it would have been to get the foreign OEM to set up a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary to produce the defence hardware here and then contractually bind them to share technology and create an MSME eco-system," the CEO says.

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"The process of selecting the platform would have to follow the same process as laid down in the defence procurement procedure, which, among other things, entails lengthy field trials. It is doubtful if the adoption of strategic partners will lead to a hastening of this process," says Amit Cowshish, former financial advisor (acquisition) at the MoD. Additionally, the past experience of tie-ups between the private sector and foreign OEMs has been disappointing. For instance, a Tata-Airbus consortium bid to produce 56 medium transport aircraft within the country for the Indian military has been held up for over a year. One of the reasons for this delay is believed to be the fact that the MoD is keen on ordering only 56 aircraft-but the consortium wanted a minimum order of 100.

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Still, the MoD hopes this new policy will prove to be a silver bullet. When one of its original votaries-ex-defence minister Parrikar-moved to Goa as chief minister, the SP policy was already close to being finalised. In the past month, the policy raced ahead under Jaitley. Two meetings-on May 11 and May 15-with all the stakeholders in the private and public sectors were held before the DAC greenlight was given on May 21.

With the rare exception of the Pinaka multi-barreled rocket launchers-made by L&T and Tata Power SED-India's private sector defence industry has always played second fiddle to the monolithic public sector. Private sector firms have functioned as secondary-level component suppliers to public sector systems integrators who were 'nominated' for orders by the defence ministry. The first signs of this being changed came in the mid-2000s when the UPA briefly flirted with the idea of leveraging the Indian private sector's demonstrated abilities into defence production. The Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs) policy, a suggestion by the Vijay Kelkar committee on defence-industry linkages, envisaged identifying private sector 'ratnas' who would be treated on a par with the public sector for contracts. The policy was shelved by the UPA in 2006 after opposition from defence PSU trade unions.

The NDA made the creation of an indigenous arms industry a cornerstone of its defence production policy. This found mention in its election manifesto in 2014. Soon after taking over as defence minister in November 2014, Parrikar set up the Dhirendra Singh committee to study how the private sector could be roped into defence hardware manufacture. The committee, which recommended strategic partners, submitted its report in July 2015, and was followed by the V.K. Aatre committee report in December 2016. Aatre, a former scientific advisor to the defence minister, recommended the policy framework for SPs. There was clearly going to be no repeat of the RURs, because, as one private sector CEO says, RURs were conceived at a time when India was the third largest arms importer and could begin weapons systems which typically have development cycles of between seven and ten years. Strategic partnerships, however, are a short term policy fix-an admission that the country would have no option but to import the hardware-but to do it in a way that it would deliver benefits to indigenous industry.

The long term policy fixes are clearly 'Make in India' projects-a clutch of defence programmes indigenously developed by Indian private sector firms. These include projects such as a Rs 70,000 crore battlefield management system, a Rs 18,000 crore tactical communication system and a Rs 26,000 crore project for future infantry combat vehicles. Wholly indigenous projects that have none of the complexities of the SP projects. SPs will not get preferential treatment to execute crucial 'Buy and Make (India)' and 'Make' contracts. Given that capability creation and its nurture under the latter two categories are more critical from the self-reliance point of view, "it would have been prudent for strategic partnerships to be extended to those as well," says Laxman K. Behera of the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. Clearly, the defence ministry's list of to-dos was always a long one.

--- ENDS ---
Credit: Wikipedia.

(Phys.org)A small team of researchers with the Directorate for Sustainable Resources in Italy and Ghent University in Belgium has found evidence that shows some parts of the planet are becoming cooler and others warmer due to an increase in localized greening. As the team notes in their paper published in the journal Science, much of the increase in greening is due to an increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

In addition to causing the atmosphere to heat up in general, the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is also causing many parts of the planet that were already green to become greener, the researchers report. That greening, they suggest, causes some regional areas to become slightly warmer and others cooler. But it is not just atmospheric carbon that is contributing to the greening. Nitrogen used in fertilizers makes its way into natural ecosystems, causing changes. The land is also changed by human activities.

In an area that is generally warm, an increase in leaf cover can lead to localized cooling due to plant transpiration (water evaporating) which condenses in the air, the researchers report. In cooler places, the impact can be the oppositein boreal regions (tree covered) and colder places, local temperatures can rise slightly due to less sunlight being reflected back from the surface.

To come to these conclusions, the researchers studied satellite data for the period 1982 to 2011, which allowed them to assign a leaf area index (LAI) to various parts of the Earth's surface. In mapping the entire planet, the group found that for approximately 60 percent of all plant areas, an increase in greening has mitigated global warming by approximately 14 percent. For colder areas, greening has led to a rise in air temperatures of approximately 10 percent. They also found that the impact could be more dramatic during extreme weather conditionsby up to five times, for example, during warm and dry periods or cold and wet periods.

The researchers suggest their findings indicate that changes to vegetation clearly have an impact on local climate, and thus should be taken into consideration as mitigation and adaptation strategies are developed to deal with a warming planet.

More information: Giovanni Forzieri et al. Satellites reveal contrasting responses of regional climate to the widespread greening of Earth, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1727 Abstract

Changes in vegetation cover associated to the observed greening may affect several biophysical processes, whose net effects on climate are unclear. Here, we analyze remotely sensed dynamics in leaf area index (LAI) and energy fluxes to explore the associated variation in local climate. We show that the increasing trend in LAI contributed to the warming of boreal zones through a reduction of surface albedo, and to an evaporation-driven cooling in arid regions. The interplay between LAI and surface biophysics is amplified up to five times under extreme warm-dry and cold-wet years. Altogether, these signals reveal that the recent dynamics in global vegetation have had relevant biophysical impacts on the local climates and should be considered in the design of local mitigation and adaptation plans. Journal information: Science

 2017 Phys.org
Credit: UNSW

The first Australian satellite in 15 years, UNSW-EC0, was successfully deployed from the International Space Station, and UNSW engineers are working to make contact when it next passes above Sydney.

The first Australian satellite in 15 years, UNSW-EC0, was successfully deployed from the International Space Station, but the UNSW engineers who built it were unable to establish contact when it made its first pass above Sydney.

However, engineers say there could be many reasons for the silence and they are not overly concerned.

UNSW-EC0 was ejected from the station at 3:25pm AEST, and made its first pass over Sydney at 4:21pm AEST. Engineers at UNSW's Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) were unable to pick up the signal it is meant to send to confirm the cubesat is operating as designed.

"We're not overly concerned yet," said Elias Aboutanios, project leader of the UNSW-EC0 cubesat and deputy director of ACSER. "We're troubleshooting a number of scenarios for why we didn't detect it, from checking our ground equipment to exploring the possibility that the batteries might have discharged. But at the moment, we just don't know."

"If it is the batteries, the satellite has solar panels and will be able to recharge," said Joon Wayn Cheong, a research associate at UNSW's School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications and technical lead of the UNSW-EC0 cubesat. "But because it was deployed in the Earth's shadow, we have to wait for it to make a few orbits before it has recharged, especially if it's tumbling. So it could be 24 to 48 hours."

The International Space Station, or ISS, will make four more passes over Sydney on Friday 25 May, and the UNSW team of 15 researchers and students will again try to establish contact, and run a series of tests for scenarios to explain the lack of a signal.

UNSW-EC0 is one of three Australian research satellites  two of them built at the UNSW  that blasted off just after on April 19 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Its mission is to explore the little-understood region above Earth known as the thermosphere, study its atomic composition as well as test new robust computer chips and GPS devices developed at UNSW.

In addition, its chassis is made entirely from 3-D-printed thermoplastic, itself an experiment to test the reliability of using 3-D-printing to manufacture satellites, making them cheaper and much more customisable.

The cubesat is part of an international QB50 mission, a swarm of 36 small satellites  known as 'cubesats' and weighing about 1.3 kg each  that will carry out the most extensive measurements ever undertaken of the thermosphere, a region between 200 and 380 km above Earth. This poorly-studied and usually inaccessible zone of the atmosphere helps shield Earth from cosmic rays and solar radiation, and is vital for communications and weather formation.

"These are the first Australian satellites to go into space in 15 years," said Andrew Dempster, director of ACSER at UNSW, and a member of the advisory council of the Space Industry Association of Australia. "There have only been two before: Fedsat in 2002 and WRESAT in 1967. So we've got more hardware in space today than Australia's had in its history."

Credit: University of New South Wales

UNSW-EC0 was deployed from the ISS from a Nanoracks launcher, a 'cannon' that eject cubesats at a height of 380 km (the same as the ISS), allowing them to drift down to a lower orbit where they can begin their measurements.

"This zone of the atmosphere is poorly understood and really hard to measure," said Aboutanios. "It's where much of the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the Sun collides with Earth, influencing our weather, generating auroras and creating hazards that can affect power grids and communications.

"So it's really important we learn a lot more about it. The QB50 cubesats will probably tell us more than we've ever known about the thermosphere," he added.

QB50 is a collaboration of more than 50 universities and research institutes in 23 countries, headed by the von Karman Institute (VKI) in Belgium. "This is the very first international real-time coordinated study of the thermosphere phenomena," said VKI's Davide Masutti. "The data generated by the constellation will be unique in many ways and they will be used for many years by scientists around the world."
For one of Silicon Valley's most important inventions, we can thank Avideh Zakhor, creator of the technology that brought us Google Earth and Street View.

Before there was Google Earth and Street View showing us around the world, there was Zakhor and her team driving a truck loaded with sensors around Berkeley and flying in a helicopter overhead to gather imagery, mapping part of the city in three dimensions.

And then there was Zakhor, a UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer science for nearly 30 years, turning her research into a Defense Department-funded startup. After the funding ended she sold the company to Google for a price she declined to reveal. Google turned her innovations into Earth and Street View, used it to advance Google Maps and is pushing it forward into a future in which cars drive themselves.

But before all this there was a girl whose life in Iran was thrown into turmoil by revolution, and who ended up in the United Kingdom, then at Caltech, and then at MIT for a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

Today, the entrepreneur and UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering and computer science is also at the center of two flashpoints in today's tech industry: she's a woman, and an immigrant. She has thoughts on both.

And of late, Zakhor has turned her intellect and energies from outside to inside, founding Indoor Reality to create maps of building interiors she says could provide a last-mile solution for Amazon drone deliveries, build architectural models where no blueprints exist, and enable cutting-edge virtual real estate tours. She talked to us recently about her startup, her ground-breaking technology, her experience as a woman in a male-dominated field, and the tech industry's need for foreign talent. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: When you invented the technology that would lead to Google Earth, what problem were you trying to solve?

A: I became really interested in 3-D modeling of cities. You put some sensors on top of some cars and you drive around and you make 3-D models of all the buildings and objects that you see around you. We managed to produce a complete 3-D model of a four-by-four block in downtown Berkeley.

DARPA (the Pentagon's research arm) heard about this project. There was a tremendous amount of interest in mapping Baghdad. Two years into the DARPA program, Google came and acquired our technology. I felt that Google would be a good company. They have essentially a volcano of cash - they can put enough resources into it to actually map the entire globe. We (had) invented a fast, automatic way of generating 3-D models of cities, and that is one of the key components of Google Earth. When you're using Google Maps ... you can switch from Maps to satellite view to Street View to Earth - Google has bundled them all together.

Q: What are the primary applications for Indoor Reality?

A: Pretty soon package delivery companies like Amazon are going to use drones to deliver your packages to the outside of big buildings - then you want to have robots that deliver those indoors, so you need indoor maps. Virtual reality and augmented reality - if you want to use those indoors it's important to have indoor mapping. Architects need what are called "as-built" models of existing buildings, but for 80 to 90 percent of buildings in the U.S. there are no up-to-date architectural drawings, there are no up-to-date blueprints.

It can also be used for commercial real estate where without being in the building you can see in the building and you can virtually navigate it. If you want to buy a home without going there, you can do that. Energy audits of buildings is another one.

Q: How serious a problem is the lack of gender equality in tech?

A: It's a very serious problem because in this country we need more science and engineering, more STEM professionals, and if you don't have enough women going into the professions, nearly half the population is being discarded. And these are high-paying jobs.

When I was an undergraduate at Caltech there were many classes where I was the only female - if I was late the professor would come in and say, "Where is she?" It's not an insult, maybe you could think of it as flattering.

It would be good if at an early age we could convince girls to become interested in STEM fields. Maybe then we wouldn't in Silicon Valley have a shortage of STEM workers - it makes it very hard for tech companies to operate; the labor market is very tight. The products that we make in tech companies are going to be used by the entire population. If you have a group of men between 20 and 35 designing this product, in the end the use case for the masses will not be taken into account. One could also take the view that perhaps the style of management by women is slightly different from men.

Q: How can more girls be brought into the tech pipeline?

A: Outreach to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. Girls are pretty interested in science and math all the way into the end of elementary school and maybe middle school, but when they get to high school, somehow the interest goes away and the numbers drop. Maybe the high school teachers are not as supportive as they should be. If you can just make the pipeline not to dwindle at high school, we're all set.

Q: What's your view of the debate on skilled foreign workers in the tech industry?

A: These highly skilled immigrants coming to the U.S. are vital to our economy - they start companies, they pay taxes, they contribute a lot. Their countries have already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in educating them - turning them away is a really big mistake economically and from every angle you look at it.

I wish we had more-nuanced and more-refined policies and didn't look at immigration as one basket, one size fits all. Even within the H-1B category it's good to have skilled workers coming to the U.S., but I see the other side of it because many families discourage their children from studying science and engineering because they think that wages are going to be depressed by the influx of H-1B people.

-

Name: Avideh Zakhor

Age: 53

City of residence: Berkeley

Education: MIT: MS and Ph.D. in electrical engineering/CS; Caltech: BS electrical engineering

Job titles: CEO, Indoor Reality; professor and Qualcomm Chair in electrical engineering at UC Berkeley; Hertz Foundation fellow

Family: Married with one child, a son who's 24

Five things about Avideh Zakhor

1. I patrolled beaches in South Wales for one summer as a lifeguard.

2. I'm also a big movie buff, especially foreign movies - if I was not in tech, I would have become a film critic.

3. I'm a very avid biker - I try to bike at least four to five times a week. That leads to unfortunate accidents: I was in the emergency room twice in four months. (And in May, she suffered broken bones from yet another bike accident, a hit-and-run.)

4. Even though I've left Iran for many, many years, I love Persian music - my iPod has 1,400 Persian songs on it.

5. I'm actually also a very big news buff.

2017 The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A Canadian man accused in a massive hack of Yahoo emails says he'll appeal a judge's decision to deny him bail.

Karim Baratov made a brief court appearance Friday with his lawyer Amedeo DiCarlo.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Alan Whitten said last month that the 22-year-old Baratov is too much of a flight risk because of his easy access to money and his ability to ply his alleged trade from anywhere in the world.

Baratov was arrested in April and faces extradition to the U.S, where he has been indicted on computer hacking charges along with three other people, including two alleged Russian intelligence agents.

The 2014 breach at Yahoo affected at least a half billion user accounts.

Baratov's bail review will be on June 5.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Credit: HIMS

Chemists at the University of Amsterdam's Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences have discovered a new class of molecules. This week they report in Nature Communications on their synthesis method leading to 'quasi[1]catenanes': pretzel-like molecules consisting of two molecular rings 'oppositely' coupled at a central carbon atom. The discovery is an important step towards synthesis of lasso peptides; new molecules with a potential use as medicines.

The Nature Communication article is the crowning achievement of a five-year research effort at the Synthetic Organic Chemistry research group of professor Jan van Maarseveen, with PhD student Luuk Stemers in the lead. He has developed a method that paves the way for synthesis of so-called lasso peptides.

Lasso peptides are small proteins that, as their name indicates, consist of a molecular 'loop' around a molecular 'rope'. They were first isolated from bacteria at the turn of the current century. Recently, DNA analysis has revealed that lasso peptides are quite common in the realm of bacteria. Their biological function is to act as an antibiotic against other micro-organisms, which makes them a potential new class of antibiotics.

The fact that 15 years after the discovery of lasso-peptides synthetic chemists have not yet been able to develop a strategy leading to their unique molecular architecture underpins the complexity of these molecules.

The bottleneck here is that the rope is usually tightly bound within the loop. This distinguishes lasso peptides from rotaxanes for which Scottish chemist Sir Fraser Stoddart shared the Nobel prize for chemistry last year. During rotaxane synthesis the rope is 'pulled' through the loop.

Since this is impossible for lasso peptide synthesis, the Amsterdam chemists used a different approach, forcing the loop to close in the right place around the rope. This turned out to be quite an undertaking. Eventually Luuk Stemers managed to create a molecular scaffold assisting the synthesis in such a way that the loop correctly forms around the rope.

The new synthesis method is a major step forward in the synthetic route towards functional lasso peptides. To demonstrate the power of the method Stemers applied his scaffold to also force both ends of the rope to form a second loop.

This resulted in the synthesis of a whole new class of pretzel-like molecules that the Amsterdam researchers coined quasi[1]catenanes. ('Real' catenanes consist of two loosely intertwined molecular ring-like structures. The French chemist Jean-Pierre Sauvage developed catenanes and shared the Nobel prize with Stoddard, and Dutch chemist Ben Feringa.)

The next step in the research effort of the Amsterdam researchers towards lasso peptide synthesis will be to introduce easily breakable bonds in the quasi[1]catenane, so that the rings can be unlocked.

More information: Luuk Steemers et al. Synthesis of spiro quasi[1]catenanes and quasi[1]rotaxanes via a templated backfolding strategy, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15392 Journal information: Nature Communications
Silverback Grauer's gorilla. Artisanal mining located in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo often results in miners hunting local wildlife, according to a new study. Credit: Charlotte Spira/WCS.

A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) has revealed how mining for valuable minerals in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a major driving factor in the illegal hunting of great apes and other wildlife for food.

The majority of individuals surveyed at mining camps during the 3-month study period said they hunted mostly out of necessity in the absence of any alternative protein, and would much prefer to eat beef, chicken, and fish instead of chimpanzee or gorilla if it were available.

The new study titled "The socio-economics of artisanal mining and bushmeat hunting around protected areas: Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo" appears in the online version of the journal Oryx. The authors are: Charlotte Spira, Andrew Kirkby, Deo Kujirakwinja, and Andrew Plumptre of WCS.

Eastern DRC is known for its exceptional biodiversity and its assemblage of large charismatic species, including threatened great ape species such as the endangered eastern chimpanzee and the critically endangered Grauer's gorilla. The region also contains globally significant deposits of valuable minerals such as gold, cassiterite (used to make tin), and coltan, a mineral in high demand for use in cell phones and other technology.

Artisanal and small-scale mining represents a significant source of livelihoods in the DRC, where an estimated 8-10 million people (14-16 percent of the country's population in 2008) take part in the industry. In the eastern part of the country, mining operations have had devastating impacts on wildlife, even within the confines of protected areas such as Kahuzi-Biega National Park and the Itombwe Nature Reserve. Grauer's gorilla numbers have declined by 77 percent over the past 20 years due to hunting, which the presence of mining sites continues to fuel.

Wildlife rangers trying to protect these natural resources face extreme danger as armed militias and insurgent groups inside national parks occupy vast swaths of wildlife habitat in order to illegally control and exploit access to minerals. Many sites visited during the survey were controlled by armed groups and indeed more than 20 percent of tin and coltan mines in the region are thought to be controlled by armed groups. The presence of armed groups results in a proliferation of arms that facilitates both the hunting of great apes and a general breakdown in rule of law for local communities.

"Our analysis shows that although mining attracts people due to the opportunity to get quick cash, most miners were in favor of leaving the sector for better and safer economic opportunities," said WCS researcher Charlotte Spira, the lead author of the study. "We also found that most miners who participated in the survey hunt wildlife out of necessity, and many would stop hunting if they had a secure income, if domestic sources of meat were made available, and if hunting laws were strongly enforced."

The authors of the study suggest that a better regulated mining sector in forests outside of protected areas would improve local governance, social wellbeing and economic opportunities whilst reducing negative environmental impacts.

International measures, such as the US government's Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Rule that require transparency by companies and businesses in sourcing conflict mineralswhich is currently being contested by the US Securities and Exchange Commissionare important and should be encouraged.

"Mining in the region can be greatly improved through the demilitarization of mining sites along with law enforcement to prevent bushmeat hunting, and more access to domestic sources of protein that would reduce the need for bushmeat," said Richard Tshombe, Director for WCS's Democratic Republic of Congo Program. "Developing sustainable business opportunities that can compete with the economic benefits of mining could support miners to pursue other avenues of employment and at the same time help ease the burden of mining in DRC's most biodiverse landscapes."
New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) reveals that residents of the Mid-Ohio River Valley (from Evansville, Indiana, north to Huntington, West Virginia) had higher than normal levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) based on blood samples collected over a 22-year span. The exposure source was likely from drinking water contaminated by industrial discharges upriver.

The study, appearing in the latest publication of Environmental Pollution, looked at levels of PFOA and 10 other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 931 Mid-Ohio River Valley residents, testing blood serum samples collected between 1991 and 2013, to determine whether the Ohio River and Ohio River Aquifer were sources of exposure. This is the first study of PFOA serum concentrations in U.S. residents in the 1990s.

"These Mid-Ohio River Valley residents appear to have had concentrations of PFOA in their bloodstream at higher than average U.S. levels," says Susan Pinney, PhD, professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the UC College of Medicine, a member of both the Cincinnati Cancer Consortium and UC Cancer Institute and senior author of the study.

Ohio River PFOA concentrations downstream were elevated, suggesting Mid-Ohio River Valley residents were exposed through drinking water, primarily contaminated by industrial discharges as far as 666 kilometers (413 miles) upstream. Industrial discharges of PFOA to the Ohio River, contaminating water systems near Parkersburg, West Virginia, were previously associated with nearby residents' serum PFOA concentrations above U.S. general population medians.

The article notes that use of granular activated carbon filtration (GAC) by water treatment facilities reduced PFOA exposure by as much as 60 percent.

"Where GAC has been used, the blood level concentration of PFOA was decreased significantly," says co-author Robert Herrick, a UC doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health.

Nearly all of the samples tested positive for some level of PFOA (99.9%) but 47 percent of the samples had PFOA levels higher than the 95th national percentile.

The study additionally looked at information about municipal water distribution systems and the zones that were serviced by each of the water treatment plants.

"We conducted statistical analyses to determine if factors such as location and years of residence, drinking water source and breast feeding were predictors of the person's serum PFC concentration," says Herrick.

PFCs have had wide consumer use and industrial applications. They are surfactants used in fire-fighting foams and in the manufacture of stain and water resistant coatings, on cookware, furniture and carpeting. PFOA, or C-8, can be found as a residual impurity in some paper coatings used on containers for processed food. As a byproduct of commercial production, PFCs/PFOA are released into the environment and, although no longer used in manufacturing in the U.S., are considered persistent in the environment.

Pinney points out that the primary concern with PFCs/PFOA is that they take a very long time to leave the human body, and studies indicate that exposure to PFOA and PFOS over certain levels may result in adverse health effects, including developmental effects, liver and tissue damage and immune and thyroid impacts.

"Because the elimination time could be several years, it is hard to determine what impact these environmental exposures may have on our health and children's health," says Pinney. "These data from the 1990s demonstrate that that the contaminants have been in our water a long time, at unchecked levels, before anyone was paying attention to it."

Pinney cites projects like this one as having the translational potential to make improvements in public health. "Studies like these provide evidence to support changes in water treatment practices." An earlier study looking at samples from girls and young women from Northern Kentucky showed that about half of the samples from the girls were much higher than the national average for U.S. children (the 95th percentile) concentration. The Northern Kentucky Water department has since then implemented the use of GAC at their plants to meet new federal regulations, and Cincinnati Water Works used the study's findings to check their treatment regulations and filtration usage.

More information: Robert L. Herrick et al, Polyfluoroalkyl substance exposure in the Mid-Ohio River Valley, 19912012, Environmental Pollution (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.04.092
First look: Projected path of the 2014 MU69 occultation shadow, across South America and the southern tip of Africa, on June 3. Credit: Larry Wasserman/Lowell Observatory

On New Year's Day 2019, more than 4 billion miles from home, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will race past a small Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69  making this rocky remnant of planetary formation the farthest object ever encountered by any spacecraft.

But over the next six weeks, the New Horizons mission team gets an "MU69" preview of sorts  and a chance to gather some critical encounter-planning information  with a rare look at their target object from Earth.

On June 3, and then again on July 10 and July 17, MU69 will occult  or block the light from  three different stars, one on each date. To observe the June 3 "stellar occultation," more than 50 team members and collaborators are deploying along projected viewing paths in Argentina and South Africa. They'll fix camera-equipped portable telescopes on the occultation star and watch for changes in its light that can tell them much about MU69 itself.

"Our primary objective is to determine if there are hazards near MU69  rings, dust or even satellites  that could affect our flight planning," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. "But we also expect to learn more about its orbit and possibly determine its size and shape. All of that will help feed our flyby planning effort."

What Are They Looking at?

In simplest terms, an astronomical occultation is when something moves in front of, or occults, something else. "When the moon passes in front of the sun and we have a solar eclipse, that's one kind of occultation," said Joel Parker, a New Horizons co-investigator from SwRI. "If you're in the path of an eclipse, it means you're in the path of the shadow on Earth that's created by the moon passing between us and the sun. If you're standing in the right place at the right time, the solar eclipse can last up to a few minutes."

The team will have no such luxury with the MU69 occultations. Marc Buie, the New Horizons co-investigator from SwRI who is leading the occultation observations, said that because MU69 is so small  thought to be about 25 miles (40 kilometers) across  the occultations should only last about two seconds. But scientists can learn a lot from even that, and observations from several telescopes that see different parts of the shadow can reveal information about an object's shape as well as its brightness.

New Horizons team members prepare one of the new 16-inch telescopes for deployment to occultation observation sites in Argentina and South Africa. Credit: Kerri Beisser

A Space Challenge

The mission team has 22 new, portable 16-inch (40-centimeter) telescopes at the ready, along with three others portables and over two-dozen fixed-base telescopes that will be located along the occultation path through Argentina and South Africa. But deciding exactly where to place them was a challenge. This particular Kuiper Belt object was discovered just three years ago, so its orbit is still largely unknown. Without a precise fix on the object's position  or on the exact path its narrow shadow might take across Earth  the team is spacing the telescope teams along "picket fence lines," one every 6 to 18 miles (10 or 25 kilometers), to increase the odds that at least one or more of the portable telescopes will catch the center of the event and help determine the size of MU69.

The other telescopes will provide multiple probes for debris that could be a danger to the fast-moving New Horizons spacecraft when it flies by MU69 at about 35,000 miles per hour (56,000 kilometers per hour), on Jan. 1, 2019.

"Deploying on two different continents also maximizes our chances of having good weather," said New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist Cathy Olkin, from SwRI. "The shadow is predicted to go across both locations and we want observers at both, because we wouldn't want a huge storm system to come through and cloud us outthe event is too important and too fleeting to miss."

The team gets help from above for the July 10 occultation, adding the powerful 100-inch (2.5-meter) telescope on NASA's airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Enlisting SOFIA, with its vantage point above the clouds, takes the bad weather factor out of the picture. The plane also should be able to improve its measurements by maneuvering into the very center of the occultation shadow.

Insight for Encounter Planning

Any information on MU69, gathered from the skies or on the ground, is welcome. Carly Howett, deputy principal investigator of New Horizons' Ralph instrument, of SwRI, said so little is known about MU69 that the team is planning observations of a target it doesn't fully understand  and time to learn more about the object is short. "We were only able to start planning the MU69 encounter after we flew by Pluto in 2015," she said. "That gives us two years, instead of almost seven years we had to plan the Pluto encounter. So it's a very different and, in many ways, more challenging flyby to plan."

If weather cooperates and predicted targeting proves on track, the upcoming occultation observations could provide the first precise size and reflectivity measurements of MU69. These figures will be key to planning the flyby itself  knowing the size of the object and the reflectivity of its surface, for example, helps the team set exposure times on the spacecraft's cameras and spectrometers.

"Spacecraft flybys are unforgiving," Stern said. "There are no second chances. The upcoming occultations are valuable opportunity to learn something about MU69 before our encounter, and help us plan for a very unique flyby of a scientifically important relic of the solar system's era of formation."
Credit: University of California - San Diego

In the May issue of PLOS Computational Biology, scientists from UC San Diego and the University of Notre Dame report on a study that could open up the field for nanopore-based protein identification  and eventually proteomic profiling of large numbers of proteins in complex mixtures of different types of molecules.

According to UC San Diego computer science and engineering professor Pavel Pevzner, senior author on the paper, the new approach identifies proteins by analyzing the distinct electrical signals produced when the molecules pass through a nanopore (which acts like a sieve). In theory, said Pevzner, nanopores could allow researchers to characterize large numbers of proteins in complex mixtures.

While nanopores work extremely well in analyzing single molecules, they are less effective when trying to characterize large numbers of proteins in complex mixtures. As a result, the currently preferred approach to screening complex mixtures involves using other techniques, notably mass spectrometry. (Pevzner and computer science professors Vineet Bafna and Nuno Bandeira are principal investigators of the NIH-funded Center for Computational Mass Spectrometry at UC San Diego.)

As recently as 2016, leading nanopore developers were pessimistic about being able to apply nanopores to large-scale protein profiling in the near term. "We aren't even close to doing that at the moment," Oxford Nanopore co-founder Hagan Bayley told GenomeWeb, adding that he "wouldn't say it's an impossible goal, but it is a bit of a stretch."

UC San Diego's Pevzner, however, believes that a breakthrough is at hand. "The key is to use machine learning to analyze information generated by proteins when they translocate through a nanopore," said Pevzner. "By applying machine learning techniques, we were able to identify distinct signals that could lead to large-scale nanopore protein analysis."

In an interview with GenomeWeb, Pevzner says that, early on, the obstacles appeared intractable. "The data was so noisy that we almost thought we should give up," he explained. "I have been working for almost 10 years now on top-down mass spectrometry, and in comparison with protein identification by top-down mass spectrometry, which by now is almost a mature area, it looked like there was no hope that nanopores could produce a comparable signal."

Then, when the researchers applied a random forest analysis tool from machine learning to the problem, everything changed. Recalled Mikhail Kolmogorov, a graduate student in Pevzner's lab: "All of a sudden, the structure of the signal emerged."

As stated in the PLOS paper, the researchers argue that "the current technology is already sufficient for matching nanospectra against small protein databases, e.g., protein identification in bacterial proteomes."
This newborn fiddler ray will be released back into the ocean. But will it survive? Credit: Leonardo Guido , CC BY-NC-ND

Rays are among the species most vulnerable to overfishing and are often caught incidentally in commercial trawlers and released as unwanted bycatch.

Unfortunately, we're probably underestimating the impact that fishing is having on ray populations. Although some will survive capture, we know little about the non-lethal and long-term effects of that stressful experience.

Included in those unknowns are questions relating to reproduction. In particular, what if the captured ray was pregnant? Would she still give birth? If she did, would her offspring survive?

Our latest research shows capture stress can reduce a mother ray's body condition, and also affects the health of her offspring  in much the same way that stress during pregnancy can affect humans.

This research focused on the southern fiddler ray (Trygonorrhina dumerilii), also known as the "banjo shark", a species common in the coastal waters of southern Australia.

Beyond just this species, our results suggest it's possible that other ray and shark species that have live-birth (including most large sharks) could be similarly affected.

All rays give birth to live young. For many species pregnancy lasts about a year, making them more likely to be captured during reproduction compared to egg-laying species.

A makeshift maternity ward

Pregnant southern fiddler rays were collected by hand in Swan Bay, Victoria, Australia, using SCUBA to minimise stress during collection. They were transported and housed in our "maternity ward"  a large outdoor research facility located nearby.

Our maternity ward included a large tank equipped with a giant paddle that pushed water past stationary nets, thereby simulating a trawl net being dragged by a boat. Rays were placed in these nets and trawled, followed immediately by 30 minutes of air exposure to replicate the process of sorting the catch on board a boat. A similar number of control females were kept in a separate tank and were not subjected to trawling or air-exposure.

Over the next three months, pregnancy and the health of each mother was regularly monitored via ultrasounds, blood-sampling and weighing. At birth, their pups were also measured for length, weight and had their blood sampled. Mothers carried and gave birth to an average of two pups.

It's tough out there for the little guy

Pups from trawled mothers were 12% shorter and 27% lighter than those from untrawled mothers.

In most animals undersized offspring generally have a lower chance of survival. Marine predators are often restricted in their options of potential prey by the size of their mouth, with smaller animals more easily consumed.

Lower body mass may mean pups have fewer energy reserves - in the form of an internal yolk sac - to rely on. An increased risk of starvation is possible during the early stages of life when inexperience can make catching prey difficult.

A baby southern fiddler ray is released. Credit: Leonardo Guida, CC BY-NC-ND

Pups from trawled mothers also showed signs of a stress response in their immune system, and increased vulnerability to infection and disease is possible. The increased energy needed to maintain a healthy immune system may also limit growth rates. This is important for female fertility because larger females tend to carry more offspring.

Mum feels the stress too

Trawled mothers showed indicators of stress for 28 days after trawling, exhibiting elevated immune responses and 9-15% lower body weights compared to their unstressed counterparts.

Reduced body condition after giving birth could mean that the next mating event may be delayed or missed in order to rebuild sufficient energy stores for a successful pregnancy.

Southern fiddler ray mother and offspring in tank. Credit: Leonardo Guida

Delaying or missing mating opportunities could be particularly important for other live-bearing species like the scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon taylori), which mate again shortly after giving birth.

The bigger picture - fishing for the future

By examining the non-lethal responses to capture stress, we're working towards more efficient fishing practices that improve conservation outcomes for marine species.

Regarding reproduction, it may mean that we can better assess and manage fishing practices in areas where sharks and rays are known to congregate and breed. Fishing techniques that reduce the amount of accidental capture of rays and sharks will benefit both fishermen and conservation efforts, especially during vulnerable breeding periods.

A simulation of how bottom-trawling nets operate at sea.

For example, "turtle exclusion devices" in trawl nets (originally designed to prevent the capture of sea turtles) allow animals that are much bigger than the target catch to escape through a chute. Such a device may be suitable for reducing shark and ray bycatch too.

Our study into how capture affected pregnancy in rays is part of a larger research program led by Monash University in collaboration with Flinders University, University of Tasmania and the Victorian Marine Science Consortium. The research program's results on both lethal and non-lethal outcomes of capture have helped inform the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) how to fish for the future and improve the conservation of sharks and rays.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A group of insurgents on Thursday night attacked a military base in the Shah Wali Kot district, killing at least 15 soldiers, defense ministry spokesperson Dawlat Waziri told Efe news on Friday.

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier keeps watch at a checkpost in Logar province, Afghanistan (Pic: reuters)

By Indo-Asian News Service: At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed and five others wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, official sources said.

A group of insurgents on Thursday night attacked a military base in the Shah Wali Kot district, killing at least 15 soldiers, defense ministry spokesperson Dawlat Waziri told Efe news on Friday.

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Waziri added that the Taliban insurgents also suffered casualties, but did not provide precise figures.

This is the second attack in Shah Wali Kot within the last three days, as 10 soldiers and 12 insurgents were killed in another Taliban attack on the base and a check post early Tuesday morning.

Despite this, Waziri said "now the security situation of district is good and the district is under control of our security forces."

On the night of May 20, a total of 20 policemen were killed and about a dozen more wounded in attacks by the Taliban on several check posts in the neighbouring Zabul province.

The attacks are part of the so-called spring offensive launched by the Taliban in late April.

Since the NATO combat mission ended in January 2015, the insurgents have been gaining ground in various parts of Afghanistan and currently control, influence or are fighting the government in least 43 percent of the country, according to data from Washington.

Also Read

Pakistan releases Taliban ex-spokesman's video alleging India's role in terror funding

At least 24 killed, over 100 injured in Taliban bombings in north west Pakistan

--- ENDS ---
Credit: University of East Anglia

Government support for 'business angels' is essential even in times of austerity, according to research involving the University of East Anglia (UEA) and University of Glasgow.

Business angels - typically wealthy, entrepreneurial individuals who provide capital in return for a proportion of a company's equity - are recognised in both developed and emerging economies as playing a significant role in stimulating entrepreneurial activity.

With the decline in both bank lending and venture capital investment since the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008, government efforts to encourage business angel activity have become a more significant component in strategies to increase the level of entrepreneurial activity in Europe.

This new study examined the responsiveness of angels to such initiatives in so-called austerity economies - countries that were hardest hit by the financial crisis and subsequent global recession. In order to receive bail-outs from the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), they had to take extreme economic and fiscal measures to reduce their budget deficits

The study focused on Portugal, which suffered one of the deepest economic recessions in the EU over the crisis years following the implementation of severe austerity measures. As with other countries, such as Greece, these had adverse impacts on economic growth, investment and employment, unemployment and welfare.

The researchers, also from the Polytechnic Institute of Beja and University of Evora in Portugal, found that government intervention to support angel investing can have a positive impact. However, the impact of the various government initiatives  measured in terms of take-up rates - varied. The findings are published in the journal European Planning Studies.

Co-author Dr Tiago Botelho, of UEA's Norwich Business School, said: "Although the study confirms that government intervention to support angel investment can have a positive impact, different types of intervention appeal to different types of business angel, with implications for their effectiveness. The design of incentives also influences their effectiveness.

"Our evidence shows that the objective of expanding the number of active business angels, for example increasing the number of emerging and novice angels, requires different measures from the objective of encouraging existing and active investors to increase their investment activity.

"Other countries can learn from the Portuguese experience in relation to the types of interventions that have the highest and lowest levels of take-up, the link between the design and the take-up of incentives, and types of intervention that should be considered but have not been implemented in Portugal."

After family and friends, angel investment is the largest source of external equity financing at the start-up and early growth stages of a business. As well as the provision of capital, business angels also contribute their experience, knowledge, skills and contacts to the ventures in which they invest.

The researchers found that in Portugal, which exited from the bailout in May 2014, business angels continued to invest during the financial crisis. The typical angel made three or four investments, investing between 100,000 and 250,000 each time. Some 80 per cent also stated their intention to invest in the following 12 months, even though the process of economic adjustment was expected to continue and possibly even worsen over this period.

Fiscal incentives had a low take-up rate among business angels, suggesting the need to adjust the current eligibility conditions for tax relief on the amount invested, or replace it with tax re-investment relief, the fiscal measure most highly valued and taken-up by angels.

There was support from angels for co-investment schemes, with a preference for passive co-investment funds  as introduced by the government two years before the study - in which investment occurs automatically without investment selection filters because it eliminates uncertainty for investors. Also among the most popular measures was the elimination of the prohibition on selling shares within five years.

Portuguese business angels thought government support for business angel networks should be primarily directed at activities that improve the efficiency of the market, rather than network running costs and training for investors. However, they considered it important to support the training of young and women business angels.

Because of the role played by the networks in dissemination and supporting participation of angels in the government's co-investment fund, and increasing awareness of angel investing generally, the researchers argue that ongoing government support for these networks, preferably based on a regional model, is essential.

They add that the negative assessment by business angels of some aspects of a new legal framework is a warning that public authorities should take their needs into account when new legislation or rules are introduced, and that legitimate business angel activity should not be obstructed by legislation.

More information: Jose Bilau et al. Angel investing in an austerity economy  the take-up of government policies in Portugal, European Planning Studies (2017). DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2017.1328045
Infosys Announces Strategic Alliance with HP Inc. to Accelerate Digital Transformation

San Francisco, CA  May 25, 2017: Infosys (NYSE:INFY) and HP Inc. today launched joint Retail Point of Sale (RPOS) and Enterprise Device as a Service (DaaS) solutions to help businesses accelerate digital transformation as part of the HP Global System Integrator (GSI) Alliance Program.

The joint RPOS solution offers a digital approach across the supply chain, enabling real-time collaboration between shoppers, retailers and vendors at the point of purchase, providing a true omni-channel experience. The joint Enterprise Device as a Service solution defines and delivers technology-enabled transformations that optimize how organizations acquire, manage and use devices with end-to-end services, enterprise applications, fleet reporting, analytics, insights and more.

Together, HP and Infosys can improve end-customer experience, while forging deeper, more valuable relationships with joint customers across industries, enabling them to embark on their own business reinvention journeys, said Jon Flaxman, Chief Operating Officer, HP.

The launch of the RPOS and Enterprise DaaS solutions validates our joint vision with HP for revolutionizing the retail industry through constant innovation, and deep analytics, said Sandeep Dadlani, President and Head of Americas, Infosys. Digital transformation is being steadily embraced by businesses and as this transformation evolves further, we will continue our focus to create newer experiences across industry segments.

About the HP Global System Integrator (GSI) Alliance Program

In todays world of rapid technological innovation, companies in every industry must take bold measures to stay competitive amidst constant change. Adopting new technologies is simple in theory, but bedeviling in practice. Companies are dealing with challenges greater than just IT considerations, including broader supply chain, manufacturing and transportation hurdles.

The HP GSI program has enabled HP and select leading Global System Integrators to co-develop breakthrough solutions available in a choice of consumption models, mirroring the migration from purely transactional to everything as-a-service. The program reinforces HP as vendor of choice for the tools of digital transformation and provides customers the expert guidance they need to thrive on their transformation journey.

About Infosys Ltd

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of over 200,000 innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Other POS News:
- Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu has called for a change in Nigeria's political system

- Ekweremadu called for the total removal of age as a criterion for holding political offices in Nigeria.

- He instead called for a situation where the electorate were allowed to make their choices based on their competence

Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu has called for the total removal of age as a criterion for holding political offices in Nigeria.

He instead called for a situation where the electorates were allowed to make their choices based on their assessment of the competence of those who presented themselves for elections.

This was contained in a statement by Ekweremadus special adviser (media) Mr Uche Anichukwu on Thursday, May 25 in Abuja.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

According to the statement, Ekweremadu made the call when the group the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA) paid him a courtesy visit.

He said: We have just acknowledged the young man, Emmanuel Macron, who is now the President of France. We believe it can also happen here in our country; and we believe that with education and exposure, people can achieve a lot at a very young age.

Therefore, while many Nigerians are calling for a reduction in the age barrier, it is actually my strong and personal opinion that there should be no age barrier in terms of running for political offices or holding executive positions.

I know and I believe too, that sovereignty belongs to the people and they exercise this sovereignty through the ballot box. If they desire to vote in a very young person so be it. That is their choice and that is what sovereignty is all about.

Ekweremadu, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, said that the nations greatest resource remained the youth.

He commended the group noting that the nations democracy was nevertheless making progress as more youths were now participating actively in the political process.

Earlier in her address, Programme Director of YIAGA, Miss Cynthia Mbamalu, solicited the Senates support for the constitution amendment Bill seeking to align the voting age of 18 years with eligibility to contest for political offices in Nigeria.(NAN)

READ ALSO: Dino Melaye, Kogi APC leaders call for Governor Bello's resignation

Meanwhile, a young Nigerian, Emmanuel Oseh has declared his intention to run for Nigerias presidency in 2023.

In a statement sent to Legit.ng, Emmanuel said it was time for the old people to go so as to give way to new Nigerians to take over the rein of politics.

He said he is in Europe on political training and that the election of Emmanuel Macron as president of France at the age of 39 was an inspiration for him to also contest Nigerias presidential election in 2023.

Watch Legit.ng TV vox pop where Nigerians give their opinion on the possiblity of Nigeria having a young president.

Source: Legit.ng
By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asylum seekers at an Australian-run offshore detention centre in Papua New Guinea must move to a community facility in order to be eligible for a refugee swap deal with the United States, a notice posted at the camp and seen by Reuters shows. The directive, designed to help Australia empty and ultimately close the centre on Manus Island, presents asylum-seekers with a difficult choice, as they must voluntarily exchange a secure facility for an area where critics say they are likely to face violence and inadequate medical care. Several of the refugees said they would not move to the nearby town of Lorengau, where authorities want them to shift in preference to staying at the detention camp. "I'm not going to Lorengau," said one asylum seeker, who refused to be named for fear of jeopardising his application for U.S. resettlement. "Many refugees have been beaten, robbed and abused (there) in different ways." Resettlement interviews held by U.S. Homeland security officials will no longer be conducted at the detention centre, authorities said in their notice. "As Manus Refugee Processing Centre is closing, interviews at the RPC will cease," Papua New Guinea immigration authorities said in the notice. "Interviews in other locations in PNG are being arranged and you will not need to return to Manus Island." Parts of the facility will be closed as early as Sunday, the notice added, but did not specify when the locations would be changed. Australian and PNG authorities did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment on Friday. This week, Reuters reported U.S. Homeland security officials had begun "extreme vetting" interviews with some asylum seekers as the U.S. begrudgingly honours a refugee swap deal with Australia that President Donald Trump called a "dumb deal". Australia has pledged to take Central American refugees from a centre in Costa Rica as part of the deal. The swap is designed, in part, to help Australia close one of its offshore centres that is expensive to run and has been widely criticised by the United Nations over treatment of detainees. It is unclear how many detainees will be resettled under the deal. Australia's hardline immigration policy requires asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia to be sent for processing to camps at Manus and on the South Pacific island of Nauru. They are told they will never be settled in Australia. Asylum seekers are already allowed to travel to Lorengau during the day, but nearly all choose to remain in the detention centre, located on a Papua New Guinea naval base. In contrast, while the Lorengau transit centre is easily accessible, it is not guarded by security officers. (Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
The boy was recruited by Colombia's ELN rebels when he was just eight and saw his brother and girlfriend killed. After fleeing from the guerrillas last year, he is now trying to live a normal life. Now 18, he belongs to the Victus theater project, made up of ex-guerrillas, former paramilitary fighters, retired soldiers and civilians caught up in Colombia's five decade long conflict. He did not want to give his name. The National Liberation Army (ELN) is the country's second-largest rebel group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The larger group is demobilizing after having reached a peace agreement with the government in November. The ELN is hoping to reach a similar peace deal. This is the young man's story. - 'Welcome to the ELN' - I'm from Tame, in Arauca (eastern Colombia). I was recruited at the age of eight. They pulled me out of my rural school. The men came in a pick-up truck, fired several times and took 15 kids and two teachers. They forced us onto the truck. When it stopped, we were in the jungle. All of us were kids -- eight, nine, ten years old. They left us tied up. The next morning they threw buckets of water on us to get us up. "Stand up, scum. Welcome to the ELN." The rebels stood in formation. Then they killed our teachers in front of us. One year later they called me in: "Your new name will be Camilo." They gave me a weapon, clothes and gear. - It was my brother - Five years later, I found out who recruited me: it was my brother. He had volunteered for the ELN years earlier and they called him "Gonzalez." Since they wore masks, I didn't know it was him. "'Camilo, I was the one who got you out of school because I didn't want to live this experience alone," he told me. Months later, the guerrillas killed him for no reason, but no one knew that he was my brother. They told me: "Kill 'Gonzalez.'" I couldn't. "Kill him or we'll kill you." They gave me a pistol, but I threw it away and left. I heard the shots. I felt as if they had shot me. "Whoever wants to go see him go now, we're going to bury him," they said. I didn't want to go, but I went. Before they executed him he asked me to forgive him. I didn't. - Her guts spilled out - When I was 15, I fell in love with a girl. They called her "Elena." I was in charge of a raid with three other comrades, including "Elena." We all returned except her. I told my comrades to retreat and I returned. I searched and searched. Finally, I found her hidden in some bushes. I said "Let's go, they're going to kill us." "I can't, I've been wounded." When I tried to lift her, her guts spilled out. "I don't want to leave you here!" I said. "Grab my gun and get out because when the army gets here they'll kill you too," she said. "Let them kill me, or you kill me, so I don't have to suffer any more." There was a blast and I heard armored vehicles approaching. I ran and hurled myself down a ravine. From the other side, I saw a helicopter arrive -- I thought they were picking her up in a stretcher, but it was a white bag. - 'We're free!' - I got out of the ELN with a friend. One day, we were near a FARC camp and he said, "Let's go with the FARC, there are cool chicks there." We spent the night with the FARC. In the morning, one of our commanders arrived. "Hey, little comrade, have you seen some ELN guerrillas?" he asked a FARC fighter. "Yes, they're here," the fighter said. My friend told me: "Let's get out of here before we're caught." We took off and walked for 15 days toward a small town. "We're free! We got out of that shit!" I said. We came upon a camp of soldiers and when I approached, they all came out with their rifles ready. "Don't shoot, I'm coming to demobilize, I'm handing myself in, I'm with the ELN," I said, raising my hands. - New life - Today, the young ex-guerrilla is happy with his new life and role in the theater group. "It's impressive to share things today with people whom we were trying to kill," he said. "And if this group can reconcile, why won't this be possible for a country? It all depends on us."
A UN drive for a crunch Cyprus peace conference in Geneva has failed, leaving the future of talks on reunifying the island in limbo, a UN envoy acknowledged on Friday. "Unfortunately, despite serious efforts to overcome their differences regarding the modalities for meeting in Geneva, the leaders were unable to find common ground," envoy Espen Barth Eide said. "Without a prospect for common ground, there is no basis for continuing this shuttle diplomacy," he added. Eide had been engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in a bid to secure their agreement on the proposed conference. It was agreed that talks on Cyprus could go no further and only an international conference involving the three guarantors of the island's sovereignty - Britain, Greece and Turkey - could achieve real progress. "As both leaders have publicly expressed their desire to reconvene the conference on Cyprus and to finalise all outstanding issues in Geneva, our sole focus has been to agree the modalities by which this can be achieved," Eide said. Although he had hoped to get agreement on the conference by the end of the week, he conceded the differences between the two leaders were insurmountable. "I briefed the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council in a joint meeting. I will now inform the secretary general (Antonio Guterres) and seek his advice on the way forward," Eide said. The envoy had previously said there was a "desire to go the final mile and go to Geneva" but "there are real differences we still have to work on". - Core issues - A previous conference involving the guarantor powers in Geneva in January failed to agree on a post-peace security strategy. UN-backed peace talks seek to reunite Cyprus under a federal roof. Anastasiades and Akinci remain at loggerheads over core issues such as power sharing, territorial adjustments, security arrangements and property rights. The Greek Cypriot leader wanted Geneva to focus on post-solution security arrangements while Akinci wanted issues of power sharing at the fore. Anastasiades, who heads the island's internationally recognised government, faces re-election in February, a factor complicating the talks process. The governments drive to explore for offshore oil and gas has also clouded the negotiations, with Ankara calling for it to be halted until a settlement has been reached. The two sides have been engaged in fragile peace talks since May 2015 that observers see as the best chance in years to reunify the island. This process now looks in jeopardy, although a UN spokesperson put a brave face on the setback. "The talks have not collapsed. The process remains leader-led and we now have to hear from the leaders how they see a way forward," the spokesperson told AFP. Much of the progress until now has been based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. But in recent months there has been a negative climate of blame and mistrust. Anastasiades said on Friday he was "saddened" by the development, and that Akinci had rejected a meeting for Monday proposed by Eide that he had agreed to. "If the Turkish Cypriot side, and Turkey in particular, want, as they say, to resolve the Cyprus problem, I am ready to attend a conference on Cyprus at Geneva at any time," Anastasiades said in a statement. The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece. After a UN reunification blueprint was rejected by Greek Cypriots in a referendum in 2004, Cyprus joined the EU still a divided island, with the breakaway north recognised only by Turkey.
By Tom Allard ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to Islamist militants on Friday to abandon hostilities and start dialogue in an effort to end their bloody occupation of a southern city that experts called a major blow to regional security. Duterte said the presence of foreign fighters in street battles that have raged since Tuesday in Marawi City was proof that Islamic State had gained a foothold on the restive island of Mindanao, but there was still a chance for peace. "You can say that the ISIS is here already," Duterte told soldiers in nearby Iligan City, referring to Islamic State. "My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue. And if you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let's just fight." Special forces commandoes were deployed to drive out the remaining 20 to 30 Maute group rebels holed-up in Marawi but encountered heavy resistance on Friday. The army said 11 soldiers and 31 militants have been killed. Fighting erupted on Tuesday after a bungled raid by security forces on a Maute hideout, which spiralled into chaos, with gunmen seizing bridges, roads and buildings and taking Christians hostage. Duterte responded by declaring martial law throughout his home island of Mindanao. Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based security expert, said the siege was a wake-up call for the Philippines. "Islamic State capturing a major city in the Philippines is a very significant blow to the security and stability of this region," he said. "The Filipinos need to get their act together ... They must understand the truth that IS ideology took hold in their country. The local groups have transformed." Malaysians, Indonesians and other foreigners were among the guerrillas killed on Thursday, which the government said demonstrated how the Philippines could become a haven for overseas militants. The White House on Thursday said it backed the Philippine fight against "cowardly terrorists". Duterte has warned of "contamination" by Islamic State, exploiting the poverty, lawlessness and porous borders of predominantly Muslim areas of Mindanao island to establish a base for radicals from Southeast Asia and beyond. He has pleaded with political and Islamic leaders to keep foreign and local militants at bay. Months of air and ground offensives in Mindanao have not dented their resolve. FOREIGN INVASION "What's happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Solicitor General Jose Calida told reporters in explaining why martial law was imposed. "It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria." Most of Marawi's 200,000 inhabitants fled after the gunmen ran amok on Tuesday, seizing and torching buildings, freeing militants from jails and taking a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city's cathedral.Duterte has dealt with separatist unrest during his 22 years as a mayor in Mindanao but the Maute's rise and signs that it has ties to another group, the Abu Sayyaf, present one of the biggest challenges of a presidency won on promises to fight drugs and lawlessness. Philippine intelligence indicates the two groups from different parts of Mindanao are connected, through Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a radical faction of Abu Sayyaf. Abu Sayyaf has a track record of banditry, piracy and violence, while the lesser-known Maute group has proven itself a fierce battlefield opponent for the military, able to sustain air and artillery bombardments and regroup after heavy losses. Hapilon was the target of Tuesday's botched raid and Duterte said Islamic State in the Middle East had anointed him as its man in the Philippines, and Hapilon was revered as its leader. Military chief General Eduardo Ano said the fierce resistance by the Maute in Marawi was to protect Hapilon, who was in poor condition after being wounded in a January air strike. "If we capture him, all the better. But if he fights back we have to do what is necessary," he told reporters. Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by soldiers streamed into Iligan. Mark Angelou Siega, a Christian, described how students fled their campus. "We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us," he said. "These terrorists are not real Muslims." Calida said the Maute group and Islamic State were radicalising young Muslims and the government was not the only target of their aggression. "People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets," he said. (Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in DAVAO CITY, Kanupriya Kapoor in SINGAPORE, Romeo Ranoco in MARAWI CITY and Enrico dela Cruz and Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing Robert Birsel)
Nepal said Friday a South African who tried to climb Mount Everest without a permit can go home without paying a $22,000 fine, but banned him from mountaineering there for 10 years. Ryan Sean Davy, 43, was found hiding in a cave near Everest base camp nearly two weeks ago after being spotted on the world's highest mountain without a $11,000 climbing permit. The South African, who has no prior mountaineering experience, said he could not afford the hefty permit fee but wanted to scale Everest and document his experience in a book and film. "The tourism department has excused me and given me permission to go home," Davy told AFP on Friday. The head of the tourism department confirmed that Davy had been let off the heavy fine and just given a 10-year ban on climbing mountains in Nepal. "We have imposed a 10 year ban on him against mountaineering in Nepal. No fine has been imposed," said Dinesh Bhattarai, head of the tourism department. The department had previously said they were looking at converting the fine to a jail sentence of up to four years if the South African could not pay. "I've not yet quite processed it but, yeah, I'm ecstatic. I thought they would give me at least two months to a year (in jail). So this is a big surprise. I better leave before they change their mind," Davy said, adding that he was made to hand over the memory cards from his camera. When caught two weeks ago, the South African told officials he had climbed as far as Camp One -- at 6,000 metres (nearly 20,000 feet) -- crossing the treacherous Khumbu icefall, despite not having all the proper equipment. His passport was confiscated by government officials, who ordered he return to Kathmandu to collect it and pay a fine -- a journey he made by foot because he could not afford a plane ticket. During questioning in Kathmandu he was arrested under Nepal's strict public order laws for swearing at officials and spent a week in detention. He was released on a $10 bail on Monday but had to report to the tourism department every day. Johannesburg-born but US-based, Davy moved to Aspen in Colorado six months ago to prepare for his Everest bid, living out of a van as he was short on cash. He taught himself to climb by reading mountaineering books and watching YouTube videos. Davy told AFP that his Everest mission is not yet over and he intended to try to summit from the Tibet side -- this time with a permit. "I'm going to start raising money for a permit on the Tibet side and finish my climb," he said.
Roderic Chen Hao Ran was sentenced in the State Courts on 26 May. (Yahoo Singapore photo: Safhras Khan)

A pimp who operated an online social escort business for over two years from 2015 was sentenced to 24 months jail and fined S$83,000 on Friday (26 May)

Roderic Chen Hao Ran, 32, pleaded guilty to nine charges under the Womens Charter on 9 March this year. These include five counts of living in part on the earnings of prostitution and three counts of procuring women for prostitution.

Chen also pleaded guilty to a new provision under the Womens Charter  the operation of a mobile phone line that offered the provision of sexual services by multiple women to other persons in return for payment.

Chens case is the first to be concluded under the new provision, which took effect on 1 July last year. The provision, which was read by Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin in February 2016, is meant to target vice syndicates operating online.

Another 17 charges similar charges and one charge under the Protection from Harassment Act were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Chen had first learned how to operate a social escort company from a fellow inmate while he was serving a prison stint. After he was released in 2011, Chen set up an employment agency but the business did not do well and incurred debts.

As a result, Chen started the online social escort service in 2015 to pay off his debts. Chen met a co-accused, Lee Soon Ann, 37, and they agreed to cooperate and share the social escorts under their charge as well as the commissions.

Chen and Lee started operating their business providing prostitutes via their websites for an hourly rate of between $450 and $650.

The two would place advertisements on the websites and girls who were interested would call and send in their personal particulars and photographs. The girls were informed beforehand that they might have to provide sexual services to clients.

The pair would take and share a cut of about 40 per cent from each woman per assignment. Their business involved 12 prostitutes in total.

Story continues

The police, acting on a tip-off, eventually raided Chens house in Compassvale Walk on 27 July 2016 and he was arrested. Lee, who was arrested later, has not yet been dealt with in court.

Over the 30 months of operations, Chen earned about S$5,000 a month and some $150,000 in total.

The prosecution, represented by Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong, sought 25 months jail and a fine of $83,000.

Referring to the new provision, DPP Wong said that Chens use of an online website and a phone line exploited the expansive reach of this medium, which is able to reach many more customers over and above traditional pimping though physical communications.

Electronic means also made the offenders hard to detect by law enforcers due to the anonymity of the Internet, she added.

In mitigation, Chens lawyer Choo Si Sen said that the girls involved were not forced into joining the business, and the period of offending was not long.

[Chen] never took any advantage of any of the girls the women were not underage and accused was not a member of a syndicate, said Choo.

For both the charges of living on the earnings of prostitution and procuring a woman for prostitution, Chen could have been jailed up to five years and fined a maximum of S$10,000.

Under the new provision, Chen could have been jailed up to three years and/or fined up to S$3,000 on his first conviction.

Other Singapore stories:

Youth pleads guilty to molesting woman at Zouk

Howard Shaw jailed for third drink driving offence

Ex-aviation security officer fined $4,000 for taking unattended bag
Militants have opened fire at an Army patrol party in Tral town of Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

By Ashraf Wani: Militants opened fire at an Army patrol party in Tral area of Kashmir's Pulwama district on Friday, but no one was injured.

According to latest reports, three militants are believed to be trapped.

An Army patrol of 42 Rashtriya Rifles was indiscriminately fired at by suspected militants at Saimooh village in Tral at around 9 pm, according to a police official.

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The site of the incident has been cordoned off and search operations have begun.

Reinforcements have been sent in to the area.

More details are awaited.

Also read | Attack by Pakistan Border Action Team foiled in Uri, 2 killed: Army

Also read | Kupwara encounter: 4 Army jawans, 4 infiltrators killed in Nowgam sector

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G7 leaders on Friday found common cause on combatting terrorism after the bloodshed in Manchester but failed to bridge a gulf between Donald Trump and US partners on trade and climate change. On the opening day of a two-day summit, the leaders endorsed a British call urging internet service providers and social media companies to crack down on the dissemination of jihadist content online, after 22 people were killed in the concert bombing in northwest England this week. But US partners hit deadlock in their attempt to persuade Trump to keep the world's biggest economy inside the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement on curbing carbon emissions to reduce global warming. Tensions over trade also flared. Unusually for such a set-piece event, leaders made no effort to hide their divisions in Sicily's ancient hilltop resort of Taormina. The choice of venue overlooking the Mediterranean reflected the Italian hosts' desire for the summit to showcase cooperation against deadly flows of illegal migration from nearby Africa. But discussions on that subject also hit stalemate because of differences with the US at what EU president Donald Tusk called "the most challenging G7 summit in years". Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni acknowledged there had been no breakthrough on climate change, describing the future of the Paris pact as "still hanging", as Trump reviews the arguments for and against ditching the global deal. Gary Cohn, Trump's economic advisor, said the president's views were "evolving". "He came here to learn," Cohn said. "His basis for decision ultimately will be what's best for the United States." - 'Bad, very bad' - British Prime Minister Theresa May led the discussion on terrorism, and won backing for her demand that extremist content should be quickly taken offline by platforms like Facebook and YouTube -- although details of what this will mean in practice were left vague. "Make no mistake: the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," May told her colleagues. In a joint statement on terrorism, the G7 powers also vowed a collective effort to track down and prosecute foreign fighters dispersing from theatres of conflict such as Syria. Transatlantic tensions on trade resurfaced after reports that Trump had described the Germans as "bad, very bad" and vowed to stop them selling millions of cars in the United States, during a meeting with senior EU officials in Brussels on Thursday. Also in Brussels, Trump had fired an extraordinary broadside at NATO allies for failing to pay their fair share of the transatlantic defence bill, and notably did not endorse the group's commitment to collective defence, as his predecessors have done. Both US and EU officials confirmed the outspoken president had raised the auto trade issue but sought to play down the language used, as Trump shared friendly words with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders at the G7. Merkel said that Trump's criticism was "not really something new". "The surplus is also a sign of the good quality of German goods," she said. Trump rode to power on an "America First" platform but has yet to implement any significant protectionist measures, as the EU had feared he would. "We are going to continue to fight for what we believe is right, which is free, open and fair trade, which the president has been very clear on what that means," Cohn said. - Russia row - For Trump, the talks were the final leg of his first presidential foray overseas. The gruelling week-long trip briefly diverted attention from domestic concerns focused on alleged campaign collusion with Russia. But that issue reared up again overnight as it emerged the FBI is examining his son-in-law Jared Kushner's contacts with the Russian ambassador in connection with the probe of alleged interference in the election campaign by Moscow. Trump has refused to commit the United States to extending sanctions imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea. But Cohn said neither would the sanctions be curtailed, as Moscow hopes. "If anything we would probably look to get tougher on Russia," the economic aide said. In other talks, France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, gave short shrift to May's request for Brexit-bound Britain and the EU to negotiate their future trading relationship at the same time as they thrash out the terms of their divorce. Japan meanwhile was using the summit to air its concerns about North Korea. Meeting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sicily, Trump bullishly promised the problem posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes "will be solved".
Wally Nowinski poses with a car in Iceland in this 2016 handout photo provided May 25, 2017. Courtesy Anne VanderMey/Handout via REUTERS

By Peter Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wally Nowinski got his first car when he turned 16 in Michigan, the home of the U.S. auto industry. But after two years of living in New York City, he sold his wheels, using ride services, carsharing and bike sharing to get around.

My mom didnt think I could do it. She thought I would buy a new car in six months, he said. But that was more than a year ago, and his car budget of $820 per month fell to $250 for carsharing and ride services last year. I take Uber like pretty frivolously, he said.

Nowinski, 32, is not alone.

Nearly a quarter of American adults sold or traded in a vehicle in the last 12 months, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll published on Thursday, with most getting another car. But 9 percent of that group turned to ride services like Lyft Inc and Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] as their main way to get around.

About the same percentages said they planned to dispose of cars and turn to ride services in the upcoming 12 months.

Though a small percentage, the figure of people switching to ride services could be early evidence that more consumers believe that ride sharing can replace vehicle ownership.

Automakers could see a new market in ride services drivers and believe the fast adoption of ride service technology bodes well for self-driving car technology, a big area of investment for many companies, said auto analyst Alan Baum.

It is not clear whether ride service drivers, who rack up vehicle miles and are likely to buy new cars relatively frequently, will make up for any long term drop in personal car ownership.

But Lyft Director of Transportation Policy Emily Castor called the survey 'early evidence' that its vision of a world where personal car ownership was unnecessary was beginning to take hold.

"What weve seen anecdotally aligns with what youve found," said Uber Head of Transportation Policy and Research Andrew Salzberg.

The survey was the first on the subject by Reuters/Ipsos, so it was not possible to tell whether the move to ride services from car ownership is accelerating, and respondents were not asked whether they gave up a car because of ride services.

Story continues

The survey showed that 39 percent of Americans had used rides services and that 27 percent of that group did so at least several times per week.

University of California, Berkeley researcher Susan Shaheen said the results on the move to ride services was in line with her 2016 study of a one-way carsharing service, which found a small portion of customers sold a vehicle due to carsharing. She noted, however, that the Reuters/Ipsos survey did not address carsharing or whether people who did not own cars would avoid buying one because of ride services.

Transportation consultant Bruce Schaller said that most of the move to ride sharing probably was explained by factors such as moving in and out of cities and employment changes. Still, he said, Its not the predominant trend, but there are a significant number of people who have changed their lifestyle, if you will, and are now relying much more on ride services than their own car. That was especially true of people who used many sharing services, such as ride share, car share and bike share.

Auto companies say they are getting ready for changes in technology, including expanded demand for ride services and, eventually, self-driving vehicles. Those are the factors that are driving our move into being both an auto and a mobility company, said Ford spokesman Alan Hall.

The Reuters/Ipsos U.S. poll was conducted online in English April 5-11. It gathered responses from 584 people who said they disposed of their personal vehicle within the last 12 months and 566 people who said they planned to get rid of their personal vehicles in the next 12 months.

The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 5 percentage points for the people who recently got rid of their vehicle or planned to do so in the future.

For a graphic on ditching personal cars for ride sharing, click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/AUTOS-RIDESERVICES/0100419J2RP/index.html

(Reporting By Peter Henderson; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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International Relations, Latin America  May 26, 2017  Manuel Larrabure

On Thursday, May 18, an incriminating audio recording surfaced containing the voice of current Brazilian president Michel Temer of the historically centrist, but recently turned right wing, Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party). In this recording, Temer can be heard engaging in discussions of bribery with former House speaker and fellow party member Eduardo Cunha, jailed in 2016 on corruption charges. The recording was acquired by billionaire corporate executive, Joesley Batista. Batistas subsequent testimony, though lacking concrete evidence thus far, included accusations of bribery implicating 1829 candidates from 28 parties, including former Presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, Workers Party) (Carta Capital, 2017). This is the latest in the Brazilian political saga following the impeachment of Dilma in 2016, an event best understood as a continuation in the regional tendency toward coup detat (Shipley, 2009; Gordon, Webber 2012).

As a result of the audio tape, Temer has lost whatever minimal popular and institutional support he previously had, with almost all sectors of society, including the powerful right wing media, now calling for his resignation. Furthermore, Brazils top prosecutor has now opened an investigation against him on the charges of obstruction of justice, corruption and criminal organization. Lastly, the Brazilian bar association has made a formal demand of impeachment against the embattled President. This volatile political situation coincides with Brazils deepening economic recession, now featuring double digit unemployment, a shrinking GDP, and a flailing currency. For these reasons, it is safe to say that Temers days in office are numbered.

Protests Against Temer

Responding to the fragility of the Temer government, on May 19, the left organized sizable protests throughout the country, bringing together a wide range of progressive organizations and social movements under the banners of Fora Temer (Temer Out) and Diretas Ja (Direct Elections Now). These mobilizations took place three weeks after a successful general strike organized by the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT), Brazils most important labour federation. The strike was aimed at stopping the radical neoliberal reforms to labour rights (PL 6787) and social security (PEC 287) proposed by the Temer government.

The latest mobilizations took place throughout the country on May 24, with the countrys capital city, Brasilia, serving as their epicenter. On this day, 200,000 people gathered in front of the Presidential Palace reiterating the movements central demand of direct elections. Following violent exchanges between police and protestors, including vandalising of public buildings, Temer exponentially escalated the conflict by calling in the armed forces via a Presidential decree last used in 1986. The decree immediately triggered a brawl in Congress, including exchanging accusations between Temer and many of his supporters. Nevertheless, 1500 soldiers were deployed including 200 snipers. The decree was set to remain in effect until May 31. However, due to mounting pressure, Temer revoked the decree less than 24 hours after it was invoked.

Given this political climate, the possibility of a new election in the coming weeks, either as a result of Temers resignation or impeachment, is growing fast. Constitutionally, this election would have to be indirect, meaning a new president would be elected by the National Congress. Although, a direct election by the electorate at large is also a possibility, this would require a constitutional amendment, implying a longer time frame of execution. In contrast to the left, the right would prefer indirect elections, as its current command of National Congress would allow it to essentially handpick Temers successor. However, the right does not yet have a clear candidate, and their dogmatic and, so far, unwavering commitment to a radical neoliberal program is facing growing contestation. Furthermore, with National Congress totally discredited as a result of the scope of Joesley Batista accusations, it is far from clear that indirect elections would have sufficient legitimacy.

However, the lefts situation is no less difficult than the rights. Although Lula, the PTs best and only viable candidate, remains highly popular and recent polls show he would win an election, it is far from clear he will survive the current legal proceedings against him that form part of the anti-corruption operation known as Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash). This is particularly true now that Lava Jato, a highly partisan and right wing affair, is acquiring a veneer of non-partisanship, as the mainstream media makes a dubious association between this investigation and the one related to the Temer bribery revelations (Watts, 2017). Furthermore, because Batistas accusations also implicate Lula and Dilma, lack of evidence not withstanding, the PTs credibility is likely to be further undermined in the court of public opinion. In short, although the PT does have a viable candidate in Lula, ongoing legal proceedings and the PTs diminishing credibility stand as major barriers to his political come back.

Perhaps more troubling for the left is that the PT does not have an adequate program for the current Brazilian economic context. Its politics of class conciliation and conflict avoidance became viable during the countrys economic boom of the past decade, resulting in huge gains for capital and modest improvement for the nations poorest (Leiva, 2008; Anderson, 2011). However, these same politics are no longer acceptable to a now radicalized right wing looking to maintain capitals profit margins in the context of a less favorable global economic outlook and a rapidly worsening domestic economy. Given this, what the left needs to defeat the proposed neoliberal reforms is a project of open class confrontation, a path the PT was never willing to take. Furthermore, after years of being in power, the PT paid a steep political price. As Perry Anderson (2016, p. 22) recently lamented:

The Workers Party believed, after a time, that it could use the established order in Brazil to benefit the poor, without harm  indeed with help  to the rich. It did

benefit the poor, as it set out to do. But once it accepted the price of entry into a diseased political system, the door closed behind it. The party itself withered, becoming an enclave in the state, without self-awareness or strategic direction

Given this, it would be naive to believe the PT would now suddenly be able to adopt the more radical posture the current moment demands.

Left of the PT?

Finally, the left outside of the PT remains small, confused and fragmented, featuring a recent split in the Trotskyist Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado, and rising tensions within the pluralist Partido Socialismo e Liberdade, in both cases related to each partys support for the impeachment processes against Dilma. Hence, if theres any hope for the left in this conjuncture, it is in the social movement left and the possibility of them combining the militancy and creativity of the uprisings witnessed in June 2013 (Larrabure, 2013) with the maturity of the current mobilizations against Temer and the coup.

Key in this process will be the strengthening of solidarity between newer social movements, particularly the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto (Homeless Workers Movement), and more established movements, such as the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement) and organized labour. Also crucial is that these movements prioritize the development of new forms of democratic participation and leadership that can address one of the central political problems to surface in Brazil in recent years, namely a profound crisis of representation, manifesting as a deep mistrust of all elite political parties (Larrabure, 2016). However, the development of new democratic capacities will inevitably be a slow process that, at best, will take years to unfold.

Given the weaknesses of both the left and right, what we are seeing in the current conjuncture is therefore a temporary political stalemate, as each side maneuvers in the context of a steady stream of scandals and deepening crisis. However, this is a situation the right wing is better capable of taking advantage of in the short and medium term, particularly given its control of the media. Unfortunately, what this means is that the neoliberal reforms proposed by the right wing, likely the most radical in the history of the country, will go forward, something that will have ripples across the region and will pose a direct threat to what remains of the pink tide. In other words, the stakes could hardly be higher. However, what remains unclear is who exactly will lead the passing of these reforms. What capital needs is someone with popular support, trusted and with the ability to demobilize the left. Someone of great political genius who can make neoliberal policies somewhat palatable to the working class. Someone good with words and charismatic, but perhaps also vulnerable and looking for personal revenge. Who would this person be? Your guess is as good as mine.

This is a perilous turn of events in Brazil, but it is also indicative of the wider impasse of the pink tide and left politics in Latin America. For a decade and a half, movements and left governments in much of the region put up a fierce challenge to neoliberalism. In most cases success was limited. However, in Venezuela and Bolivia it at least became possible to seriously discuss what not long ago seemed like a fairytale, namely a vision of a just and radically democratic society, a socialism for the 21st century. With the victory of the right wing in Argentina in 2015, Venezuela in crisis, and Brazil at a boiling point, the only way forward for the left in the region will be to engage in a process of deep reinvention. To do this, it will have to draw on its most democratic impulses, combating the authoritarian character of the new right. This will also mean exploring new alliances and political formations whose goal is, as Guilherme Boulos, the leader of Brazils Homeless Workers Movement put it, the profound transformation of the political system (Lirio, 2017). 
By Press Trust of India: (Eds : Repeating after changing word in third para)

Bokaro (Jharkhand), May 26 (PTI) Train services on the Gomoh-Barkakana section of East Central Railway were disrupted after Maoists set ablaze Dumri Bihar Railway station, an engine and valuable railway equipment, the police today said.

The incident happened within East Central Railways Dhanbad division in Bokaro district last night, the police said.

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Around 100 Maoists carrying firearms arrived at the station, forced the employees to leave and then they burnt the station, an engine of a goods train and valuable railway equipment kept at the station, railway sources said.

They also took the engine drivers walkie-talkie before they fled the scene, sources said.

Therefore rail services between Gomoh-Barkakana section were disrupted. Trains such as Gomo-Barkakana Passenger, Ahmedabad-Howrah Express, Jabalpur-Howrah Shaktipunj Express were stranded for several hours, sources said.

The DIG (Bokaro) Saket Kumar Singh along with Superintendent of Police Y S Ramesh and Divisional Railway Manager (Dhanbad) rushed to the spot to investigate the incident.

YS Ramesh said all the possible routes used by Maoists to move around were sealed. In addition, a massive search operation was launched to track down them.

Ramesh said the ultras had plan to trigger a blast and had planted 40 can bombs in a series to cause damage to the security personnel.

But the security personnel defused the bomb after getting a confidential information in this regard, he said.

An encounter between the Maoists and security personnel also took place in a jungle near Dumri Bihar, he added.

Train services on the Gomoh-Barkakana section were restored today. PTI COR BS SBN MM

--- ENDS ---
Slovak customers still waiting to find out how mobile operators will implement change.

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Following a series of staged cuts to mobile roaming charge, holidaymakers and short-term travellers will be able to enjoy mobile phone roaming free of extra charges across Europe from 15 June, according to a new EU regulation. This should mean that they can make calls, send text messages and use data when abroad under the same conditions as in their home country. But exactly how Slovak operators will implement the new rules is still unclear, just days before the change comes into effect.

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Slovak mobile operators are among those preparing to implement the European Commissions (EC) regulation on roaming into their products, with two aims in mind: to make sure they comply; and to avoid losses.

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Read also: Roaming fees to end Read more

The Slovakia's Regulatory Office for Electronic Communication and Postal Services (RU) has warned that it will monitor operators closely and impose heavy fines on those who do not comply with the regulation. If an operator violates the regulation, it can face a fine of 5 percent of its turnover for the previous accounting period.

Orange Slovensko, one of the biggest mobile operators in Slovakia, on May 18 introduced a new product line under the name Orange Go. In the cheaper products marketed under this brand, it offers a small amount of free data  0.1 GB (100 MB) per month  while in the more expensive products it offers bonus data that can be used without additional fees only in Slovakia. Elsewhere in the European Union, users will have to pay an extra 0.009 per megabyte, i.e. 9.00 per gigabyte.

Oranges move provoked immediate criticism from customers, while experts have described it as an effort to avoid the new regulation.

The EC has also taken a clear stance on this.

Such an approach would indicate a clear avoidance of the rules, for which there is no justification in the regulation, Jana Cappello from the EC representation office told the private broadcaster TV Markiza.

Orange denies claims that it is trying to avoid the new rule, stating that it is not possible to avoid a regulation that is not effective yet. It is promising to fully observe the regulation as of June 15 and that it is in close contact with representatives of the EU responsible for the regulation of roaming in order to implement the regulation properly in all its products.

We will announce all the offers that will be valid after June 15, said Alexandra Piskunova, spokesperson for Orange Slovensko.

In the Slovak mobile market, Oranges offer is seen as a kind of a guinea pig, testing mobile operators room to manoeuvre within the terms of the regulation. The remaining operators remain relatively tight-lipped about how they will adapt their own products to the new regulation.

Our roaming offer will respect the regulation that the EU introduces, said Tereza Molnar, spokesperson for O2.

O2 says that as the regulation represents a relatively big change, and will affect products across its portfolio, it is still preparing to implement it. It promises to inform customers about detailed changes, but points out that the regulation will increase O2s costs.

[The regulation] cancels roaming fees for customers but not for us, said Molnar. Thus, operators will continue to pay fees to foreign operators when their customers use their networks.

O2 also points to a certain disproportionality between European countries. While operators in Mediterranean countries, which enjoy a net inflow of tourists every year, will tend to benefit from roaming because they will receive fees from operators from other countries, countries that welcome fewer tourists will lose out.

Unfortunately, Slovakia belongs among those countries in which the number of outgoing tourists exceeds the incoming figure, said Molnar. Thus, Slovak mobile operators will pay more to foreign operators for their customers roaming abroad than they receive from the roaming customers of other operators who visit Slovakia.

Slovak Telekom promises to explain how its individual services and products will operate in the coming weeks, prior to the regulation entering into force, according to its spokesperson Michal Korec.

Meanwhile. the newest mobile operator, 4ka, promises that its customers will be able to continue to make calls, send text messages and use data in the EU for 0.04 per megabyte (equivalent to 40.00 per gigabyte), without paying any additional fees.

4ka scrapped roaming fees in the EU immediately upon launching its voice services in October 2015, said Tomas Stupavsky, 4kas spokesperson.
The connection, operated by Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, can be used until the end of summer season.

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Holidaymakers can use the direct flight connection from Bratislava to the Greek island of Corfu as of May 5.

The connection, operated by Irish low-cost airline Ryanair, can be used until the end of summer season, i.e. October 27, 2017, the TASR newswire reported.

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The planes will leave the Bratislava airport every Friday; they will also land there on Fridays.

Corfu is one of six seasonal destinations which Ryanair operates from the Bratislava airport every summer due to the increased interest of holidaymakers in seaside destinations, said the airports spokesperson Veronika Sevcikova, as quoted by TASR.

The other five seasonal destinations with direct lines from the Slovak capital include Malaga and Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Trapani in Sicily, Alghero in Sardinia, and Paris  Beauvais, she added.

Ryanair currently offers altogether 20 direct flights from Bratislava, TASR reported.
For an archaeologist, the most important thing is his most recent rare discovery, says Julius Vavak.

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Vavak has found the first Arab coin from the area of the Great Moravia Empire, at the site in Svaty Jur, the now small town outside Bratislava that once was one of the most important Slavic castles in the region.

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What, in your opinion, are the most important discoveries from Svaty Jur? What will happen to them?

Sometimes you say to yourself that you have discovered a really awesome object. But there are many awesome discoveries from the fort that took a few years to find, like a deposit which included jewellery (earrings, a knob pendant and a ring), a knife, a spear and a vessel. Another significant discovery was of a quadratic building on stone foundations from the Great Moravian period, which has few comparisons. For an archaeologist, the most important thing is his most recent rare discovery. For me, this is a coin, a dirham from the times of the Abbasid caliphate, or Arab Empire. We have many different coins from the fort: Roman coins, one Celtic coin and others from the 17th century. But this one is extraordinary, even though it is incomplete and quite damaged. It is from 867 and was emitted by Caliph Al-Mutazz. It is the first Arabic silver coin found in Great Moravia. Some evidence of metal working was also found near the coin. We can read about these discoveries in articles and sometimes even see them at some exhibitions, but I am trying to keep some of the discoveries secret... I am trying to protect the site of the discovery from looters with metal detectors.

Who is Julius Vavak Julius Vavak (born 1977), studied archaeology and history at the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra. He works as an archaeologist at the Little Carpathian Museum in Pezinok (Malokarpatske Muzeum v Pezinku). One of his most notable scientific projects is the research of a medieval fortress in Svaty Jur.

What is the function of the fort of Svaty Jur within Bratislava Gate  compared to other forts from that period?

We have some ideas, but we are not sure. Its function in the 8th century was especially military-strategic. We cannot forget the fact that the builders of the fort were Slavs friendly to the Avar Khaganate, but experts never thought about it this way because some of our discoveries had been missing at the time. The artefacts from the 9th to 10th century tell us that the fort was an important military refuge, but we also know that it was a manufacturing centre and a very populated place. The castles and hillforts in Bratislava and Devin were also border fortresses. We know that the monarch of Great Moravia, Rastislav, occasionally resided from time to time at the Devin castle, and from a Frankish source we know that it was called Castle Dovina during that time. This castle and three other small forts at the foot of Devinska Kobyla protected both the ford of the Morava and the Danube rivers and the crossroads of trade routes. The castle looks like it could have belonged to the Moravian part of the Great Moravian Empire. Bratislava castle, also known as the Preslava castle, was an interesting place, too, and very likely one of the most important castles of the Nitra principality. It is possible that our castle in Borinka - a hillfort in Svaty Jur (whose name we do not know) and two other forts on the other side of the Little Carpathians  sat on the borders between the joined principalities Nitra and Moravia. I think that the castle of Svaty Jur supplied castles in Bratislava and Devin with products and military support, as well as possible refugium at the rear. The fort in Svaty Jur was probably one of the most important castle in the region, just after Preslava and Dovina, although each castle had its own function.

Can you say more about the protection of the ancient roads leading through the Little Carpathian valleys during the early Middle Ages?

The protection of the roads was provided by castles, and we can see this in the affiliation of Borinka with Svaty Jur. It is also possible that the trade caravans were also protected by armed men. The Carpathian passes could have been safe during times of peace, but protection of the roads was important. The Great Moravian people had to be able to deliver rare goods, and the traders needed a feeling of security.

What did the fort look like?

The site with the remains of the earthworks is situated on the mountain ridge of the Little Carpathians above Svaty Jur, at a height of 342 meters above sea level. In 1963 the archaeological site became a listed National Historic Landmark officially called the Hillfort Nestich. The mountain where the fort is built is called Handrlak. The ruins of the former fortress are in the woody outcrop above the cottage area. They are identified by mighty, still preserved mounds of the elliptical acropolis and two younger horseshoe-like lower fortifications connected to the acropolis from the northwest. On the two sides of the valleys under the fort are two tributaries of Stary potok (the Old Creek). The length of the fort, including both wards, is about 680 meters. The area of the fort is about 8,5 ha. The wall on the northwest was double what it is today, and in the area between the first and the second ward, it was triple. The height of the preserved wall from the bottom of the moat is about 11 meters.

Are there traces of the manufacturing or trading activities that might have taken place at the Hillfort in Nestich?

Trade activities are confirmed by discoveries of the coins. One was found in the forest in the direction of Raca, and we can connect this coin to the activity of traders in the second half of the 8th century. Another bit of evidence is the Arabic silver dirham from the second half of the 9th century, which can indicate the activity of the Oriental traders like the Arabs, the Persians, the Jews. Manufacturing is documented by discoveries of iron slags, blacksmiths tongs, axe-like hryvnias (or grivnas, like ingots) which might have been used as currency. More recently we have found a place where jewellry may have been produced, and we can link this workshop to an Arabic coin which could have been used as a source of silver. The oldest medieval object that could be proof of trade is a fragment of a glass whorl, similar to one found in the territory of the Frankish Empire, dating from the 6th and 7th century and the times of the Merovingian dynasty. Further evidence of trade or local manufacturing is seen in the numerous discoveries of iron products, coloured metal, and ceramics.

How was the fort defence system designed?

The defence system was formed gradually. We think that the predecessor of the massive wall of the acropolis had been built by the second half of the 8th century. The bulwark of the acropolis was later reinforced with a wooden slatted construction, which was protected from the front by a stone parapet. The thickness of the biggest walls was at least 4.5 meters. But we also need to take into consideration a palisade which could have been about two meters tall. The height of the wall might have been the same as its thickness. The walls of the acropolis and the first ward were lined from the inside and outside by moats, and both parts of the fort were protected in the more accessible northwest part by additional walls and moats.

Who conducts research at the fort, and how is it financed?

We have been doing surveys at the hillfort since 2006 with breaks. At the beginning, we cooperated with the Archaeological Museum of Bratislava and the Archaeological Institute in Nitra. At the moment we are using our own resources. But our research cannot continue without temporary workers, mostly students of archaeology. Most of the money is used as wages for the temporary workers. Only rarely do we have volunteers who work for free. The advantage of working with students is that we can assign which duties each person will have and how much work he or she will do. In 2017, this archeological research project has been supported using public funds provided by Slovak Arts Council

What does the work of an archaeologist look like?

It has different phases, including seasonal fieldwork and creative scientific work, but these often overlap. Creative scientific work means processing the findings, writing survey reports, studying literature and writing professional and popular scientific articles, as well as participating in professional events. Archaeologists in a museum have a more difficult job, since their work also involves caring for collections by ensuring safe storage and good air conditioning. Their preservation work includes recording findings and organising exhibitions.

How are the locations of the probes chosen?

Archaeologists look at a combination of details in cooperation with the Monuments Board. Placing the probe must be done carefully, and it depends on both the configuration of the field and the areas modified by man. Terraces and platforms are the best. An important step in choosing the location is compiling previous discoveries and collections of artefacts, often using metal detectors and geographical surveys.

Can we compare this hillfort with Bojna? Are you following the progress of research there?

Yes, of course, but there are some differences, since Bojna is not just one hillfort. Unlike Svaty Jur, Bojna is a concentration of several fortifications. A couple of similarities are found in comparing the strength of the walls and the great status of both hillforts. The difference is in the progress of exploration - Bojna is better off. It is surveyed by a complete team managed by several archaeologists, and an open-air archaeological museum is being built at the site. But we have reached some important conclusions at Svaty Jur, too. The results of our colleagues from Bojna are indirectly helping us in our work, and we are trying to recast our effort into our own publication.

Are there any traces of Christianity at the hillfort?

Not that we have formally identified, but there is no doubt that a considerable part of the population there were Christians. We also know that many of the old habits from the traditional religion continued  many people may have even confessed to both religions. Evidence of surviving pagan ideas might be Moon-like pendant, used as amulet to protect women from evil. We are also trying to find a possible Christian church.

What is next for the researchers?

In the following season, we are planning to survey the remnants of the above-mentioned smaller bank at the second ward, and from the older sections, we want to obtain residues of wood for dendrochronological analysis to determine their age. We would also like to use radiocarbon analysis C14 to determine the age of other objects, especially remnants of housing. We need to obtain information about generic representation of the farm or hunted animals, as well as the preserved remains of seeds of plants consumed at the site and types of trees used in construction. We are also planning geophysical research and laser scanning of the land surface to detect possible foundations of buildings. More than 90 percent of the area is still untouched.

This text is published as part of the European Wanderer project of students from the Grammar school of St. John Baptist de la Salle in Bratislava. It was selected as the best work in the class in May 2016. Read more about this project at the www.lasalle.sk.
Highlights from Globsec 2017: Day 1 (May 26)

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Slovak President Andrej Kiska, Polish President Andrzej Duda (left to right) attend the opening of Globsec 2017 in Bratislava. (Source: SITA)

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Honorary Chairman of Globsec, Amb. Rastislav Kacer, joined by Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak welcomed the guests of the Forum. Mr Kacer welcomes everyone in the room called symbolically called Maria Theresia remarking that the queen of Austrian Empire was also a political leader in the time of change.

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Peace is not just the absence of conflict  it is the ability to solve conflicts by peaceful means. It is our task to make sure the way of the word prevails over the way of the force. Diplomacy is the tool to prevent conflicts. Where we fail in this respect, the weapons and despair follow. The time is right for Europe to strengthen its confidence, Lajcak said.

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Read also: GLOBSEC forum will host guests from 70 countries Read more

The first day began with three presidents in the room. Slovak and Polish Presidents, Andrej Kiska and Andrzej Duda, deliver their opening statements. President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of Croatia joined a panel debate later in the programme.

The first panel debate featured Jakub Wisniewski, Parag Khanna, Stephen Walt and Stephane Dion exchanging views on the global trends they expect to see in the future. See their background here.

Jakub Wisniewski kicked off with Shakespeares story of three witches, from Macbeth. Three sisters are the three trends that prophesise about the future that will happen if we ignore the warning signs:

1. The world of rules is tottering.

Citizens now use technology to follow their leaders. Governments use technology to follow their citizens. But we need world of rules more than ever.

2. The open model of society is vulnerable.

In the world that our children inherit, what defines a superpower will not be its weapons of mass destruction that can never be used. It will be the ability to combine and build; the power of mass innovation and mass teamwork.

3. We are living in the post-truth society.

We in the West have our narratives, our stories to tell. We just forgot how to tell them. We have our own appealing, emotional narratives.

Finishing his remarks, Wisniewski called for vigilance:

We are not bound by fate to fail in our efforts, like poor wretched Macbeth. If only we pay attention. Beware of the three weird sisters!

Other panellists join the stage, Parag spoke about trade relations being the main driver of future international relations.

I believe we are inexorably heading into a multi-polar and multi-civilizational world, he stated.

Stephen Walt believes that the there are some trends are more predictable than other:

Many aspects of the future world order are NOT that uncertain. Over the next twenty years, we know who the major powers will be and we can also identify many of the states that are likely to experience severe economic, political, or social difficulties. The future world order is not entirely unknown, he said.

Stephane Dion addressed the question of relations with China talking about the values. Canada should and will engage with China while keeping our values.

World order is not a question of values, it is about the distribution of power, Khanna and Walt agree.

Relations with China remain the main issue of the debate. Stephane Dion makes a point saying we have the strenght that China does not. And thats democracy.

One child policy will result in a huge labour shortage, hitting a storm demographically, said Stephen Walt.

Wisniewski doesnt share the optimism of presidents after seeing the NATO Summit. We could all agree that even from body language of other leaders at the Summit, we can tell we are all afraid what the leader of the free world will do, he adds.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/NWt1XPKJ0fs

Navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Globsec Future kicked off as well with opening by Vazil Hudak, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank who stressed the importance of capturing and nurturing the innovation in order to adapt to the future. He identified the gap in growth equity as a significant obstacle of spreading innovation worldwide and avoid concentrating the trend-setting companies in centres such as Sillicon Valley.

Opening of the debates at the Danube Space focused on navigating the challenges of the Fourth industrial revolution. Former Bulgarian president, Rosen Plevneljev, argued that history is no longer made by the politicians. It is an outcome of the work of the dreamers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Politics is merely reacting and following up these days, no longer leading. Therefore, the Fourth industrial revolution majorly questions all pre-conceived ideas of the ability of the politicians.

Picking up on Mr Hudaks welcoming remarks, Philippa Malmgren, pointed out that financial system needs to catch up as well. We have to move away paper currency and traditional accounting system. Financial operations running on blockchain and in the cloud will allow us to get rid off our current tax system which will be able to self-regulate. Therefore, the challenge of the shadow economy might be solved entirely.

I see a dramatic change in the way we do economics. Blockchain and cloud will make the shadow economy disappear, said Philippa Malmgren, former Special Assistant to the President of the United States

On the other hand, Ms Malmgren warned about the incredible dependency on the electricity that is underlining the whole process of the Fourth industrial revolution. Seemingly, nobody is really taking into account the vulnerabilities we unintentionally create along the way.

Contrary to the President Plevneljevs conviction, Ms Malgren is hopeful about the future of employment. Automation will eradicate numerous jobs but free up human capital to handle creative processes. In terms of skills-building, we are better equipped than ever to do this.

Vice-President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, focused on the role of cities in the process of the Fourth industrial revolution considering the ongoing hyper-urbanisation of the world. The cities will play crucial role in enabling their citizens to adapt to the future requirements. From experience, Vice-President Sefcovic, considers mayors the hidden driving force of the transformation who are capable to think very innovatively on the local level.

We need not only smart cities but also smart villages. The urban development is important especially here in Slovakia so that villages do not become empty, said Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President for the Energy Union, European Commission



Addressing the capability of the governments to adapt, Martina Larkin from the World Economic Forum pointed out that technology enables and empowers the citizens in a way that governments cannot do at the moment. However, they are slowly getting active and willing to shift their decision-making. Newly created Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution by the WEF supports the efforts of the governments all around the world to share the know-how about the necessary adaptation.

Because of the inspiration from the private sector, we start to notice much more dynamism in governmental sector as well, said Larkin.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/6qMzErQE7rg

Visegrad Perspectives for New Europe

Witold Waszczykowski, Miroslav Lajcak, Peter Szijjarto and Vaclav Kolaja shared the stage to contemplate on the positions of Visegrad countries on the future of Europe.

Steve Clemons of the Atlantic opened one of the most explosive panel asking ministers if there is a united Visegrad perspective. All four agree that their vision is the vision of strong Europe as each country gets stronger with the European project going forward.

Ministers also get to the question of recent NATO Summit, where Minister Szijjarto agrees with Trump that we, Europeans should do more for our own defence.

Is there a common V4 position towards Russia? Lajcak remarked that as members of NATO and EU, Visegrad does indeed have a common stand.

Although we criticize European bureaucrats in Brussels, he would exchange none of them for Putin he would not exchange it for Putin.

On the issue of Eurozone Minister Lajcak noted he would like other EU member states join the Eurozone. Minister Waszczykowski remarked that Poland will not join in for number of years citing economic reasons and fear of losing some economic sovereignty.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/GqvLfV29yII

Homegrown Solutions for the Middle East

Lyse Doucet, Minister Cavusoglu of Turkey, former Minister of Jordan Nasser Judeh, Sir John Jenkins and Tarek Osman take the stage to talk about the situation in the Middle East.

We always wanted to get Deash closer to strike them harder, said Nasser Judeh.

Tarek Osman notes that militant Islamic groups will remain in the region, but he hopes to be wrong on this one.

Ministers expressed their optimism that Daesh will be pushed out of Mosul and eventually defeated. The real challenge is the reconstruction of the region after that. Audience by show of hands agrees with that notion.

Identity politics in the middle east is crucial, highlights Tarek Osman, the philosopher of this panel as labelled by Lyse Doucet. The nationalistic aspect of conflicts in the region are indeed crucial.

On the issue of Iran Tarek Osman suggests Iran has to be brought to the table when discussing future of Syria and and Iraq.

Minister Cavusoglu remarked that cooperation with Iran is not a strategic choice. We need to cooperate with Russia. They have delivered what was promised, he adds.

Timely intelligence sharing is crucial for the fight against Daesh, remarked Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/A2IAIDkU5G0

The text was originally published as part of the daily summaries from the GLOBSEC 2017 Bratislava Forum.
The trailer of Tubelight, directed by Kabir Khan, and starring Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, and Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo, is finally here.

By India Today Web Desk: After much teasing, the trailer of Salman Khan's much-awaited Tubelight was finally released on the internet by the film's makers.

Clocking at two minutes and twenty-three seconds, the Tubelight trailer gives the audience a glimpse into the characters played by Salman Khan and Sohail Khan.

As was suspected earlier, Tubelight, directed by Kabir Khan, indeed appears to be inspired by the 2015 English-language film Little Boy.

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While in Little Boy, a young boy defies all odds and travels miles to locate his father who goes missing in action during World War II, in Tubelight, Salman Khan's character goes to bring his brother back from China after the latter gets captured beyond Chinese borders during the 1962 Sino-Indian war.

The trailer shows Salman Khan playing Laxman. He is the village simpleton, so to speak, which is why he keeps getting called a 'Tubelight'. His best friend is his brother, Bharat, played by Sohail Khan, who joins the Indian Army to fight the Chinese during the Sino-Indian war.

Soon enough, Bharat becomes a prisoner of war. Then it is left to Laxman i.e Salman Khan, trying to bring his brother back, simply on the basis of yakeen (belief) as seen in the trailer; in Little Boy, it was 'faith'.

As most of you already know, Tubelight also features Shah Rukh Khan in an important cameo. The trailer gives a blink-and-you-will-miss shot of Shah Rukh Khan who plays a magician or sorcerer-type in the film.

Tubelight, which also stars Chinese actor Zhu Zhu, Om Puri and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is scheduled to release on June 23 this year.

Watch the Tubelight trailer here:

ALSO READ: Tubelight is not an original film but a copy of English film Little Boy?

ALSO READ: 5 reasons Salman Khan's tubelight will be bhai's best film till date

WATCH: A look at Salman Khan's controversial life

--- ENDS ---
kim jong un

KCNA via Agence France-Presse

Despite reports of US and Chinese military buildups, North Korea's increased pace of provocations, and the Trump administration's claims that "all options are on the table," the US would have to be insane to attack North Korea.

To the untrained eye, the preparations for war are all there. The US has deployed the world's most advanced missile-defense system to South Korea, to protect against ballistic missiles. The world's most advanced jet, the F-35, has been sent to Japan.

The US has a carrier strike group, the most powerful unit of naval power in existence, near North Korea's shores. And the US has permanently stationed 25,000 members of the world's best-organized fighting force near the North's borders  and they just finished a massive military exercise.

But even the best systems can't stop a determined foe with a handful of nukes.

Adm. Dennis Blair, who was the director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, recently told a crowd at the Harvard Club that there was just no way to safely knock out all of North Korea's nuclear capabilities in one go.

"If I were to run the national intelligence again and the president comes to me and says, 'Here is General Mattis' strike plan, and can you ensure me that this will take out of all the North Korea nuclear capabilities?' it won't be easy to say yes," Blair said, according to The South China Morning Post.

Blair said that before he'd advocate an attack on North Korea, he'd accept it as a nuclear-armed state.

Blair's statement echoes Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis' recent admission that a fight with the North would be "tragic on an unbelievable scale."

Foal Eagle 2015

Lee Jin-man/AP

The US has 2,300 nuclear weapons, any one of which could hit North Korea at a moment's notice. North Korea may have about a dozen nuclear weapons and the ability to hit a few close targets within an hour or so of planning.

Story continues

But it takes only a single nuclear detonation to make conflict inevitable. Unlike the US's surgical and virtually unpunished April 7 strike on a Syrian airfield, North Korean missiles would likely return fire thick and fast.

Experts say North Korea probably would respond with artillery fire that would light up Seoul and its 10 million residents, decoy missiles would streak across the sky to overwhelm missile defenses, and ground forces would pour in through hidden tunnels.

The US and South Korea undoubtedly would smash North Korean forces in time, but not before a missile touched down or another catastrophic act of war befell thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent South Koreans.

According to Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, only one military option even begins to make sense for North Korea.

"If North Korea has a ballistic missile on a launchpad that we think is armed with a nuclear warhead," then the US would seek to eliminate that one single missile, Glaser said. "But even a strike on a missile on a launchpad could result in retaliation."

Pukguksong-2 north korea missile

KCNA/Handout via Reuters

After all, how should the North Koreans know that incoming missiles from the US had a limited objective? The risk remains that they'd misinterpret a limited strike as a full-on attack.

And the idea of eliminating a single, consolidated threat from North Korea simply is a dream. North Korea may very well be beyond using launchpads, as its recent missile tests have taken off from mobile launchers, many of which have tank-like treads to allow it to fire from hidden locations in the wilderness.

All three options for dealing with North Korea  ineffective sanctions, conceding to nuclear blackmail, and military action  are terrible. But the most terrible and unlikely is direct military action.

NOW WATCH: South Korea requires all males to serve in the military  here's what it's like

See Also:
By Marco Aquino LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian security forces will enter criminally controlled coca-growing areas for the first time as part of a plan to eradicate half the country's supply of the leaf made to use cocaine, the government said on Wednesday. Peru currently has 50,000 to 55,000 hectares growing in areas long controlled by heavily armed rebel groups and drug-trafficking organizations. Some 75 percent of Peru's coca is grown in a Puerto Rico-sized area of Amazon seen so far as too dangerous for police and soldiers to enter. "It has to be done slowly, but it has to be done," Peru's drug czar Carmen Masias told a news conference. The government's goal, she said, is to eradicate half of Peru's coca plants over four years. The plan includes the introduction of 4,000 hectares of alternative crops meant to keep farmers away from the cocaine trade. Peru and its Andean neighbour Colombia are the world's biggest cocaine producers, according to the United Nations. Only about 10 percent of the coca grown in Peru is used for traditional purposes like being chewed as a source of energy, or made into tea or medicines. The rest goes to drug smugglers. (Reporting by Marco Aquino, Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
An RAF missile destined for Syria was reportedly scrawled with the message Love from Manchester in the aftermath of Monday nights atrocity in the city.

The picture of the missile, posted on social media, was originally thought to be a hoax but has since been confirmed as genuine.

The message follows Mondays Manchester Arena bombing that left 22 people dead and dozens injured.

A message from Manchester on a Hellfire Missile  pic.twitter.com/rGBJXFGBJz  Carl (@AirForce_Carl) May 25, 2017

Writing messages on missiles is a tradition that dates back to the Second World War, with US soldiers writing Easter eggs for Hitler and Happy Easter Adolf on their bombs.

And after the Paris attacks in November 2015, images of bombs scrawled with the message from Paris, with love also emerged.

MORE: My angels: Mother pays tribute to daughter and boyfriend who both died in Manchester terror attack

MORE: Manchester bombing: Theresa May partly to blame for terror attack, claim Ukip

History  the tradition of writing messages on bombs dates back to the Second World War (Picture: Getty)

The latest message relating to Manchester was tweeted along with the caption: RAF Armourer on a Reaper UAV squadron wrote this on a Hellfire missile before taking off on a Syria mission, then later shared across social media.

The RAF has reportedly confirmed the photo to be genuine, though the missile is believed to be a Paveway IV bomb rather than the Hellfire missile it was originally described as.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said Zambian immigration officials barred him from entering their country late on Thursday, stopping his visit to a detained opposition leader there. Maimane of South Africa's Democratic Alliance said on Twitter the officials boarded his plane after it landed, "took away my phone so I couldn't get help" then forced him to return home. Zambia's immigration police and government were not immediately available for comment. Maimane said he was planning to visit Hakainde Hichilema, the leader of Zambia's United Party for National Development (UPND), who was arrested in April and charged with trying to overthrow the government. A Zambian judge was due to rule on Friday whether Hichilema should go on for trail. Zambia was seen as one of southern Africa's most stable countries until relations soured between the government and opposition in August, when President Edgar Lungu's Patriotic Front (PF) party beat the UPND in elections marred by violence. The opposition says the vote was rigged but Hichilema has so far failed in his legal challenge against the result. They also say the charges against him are politically motivated. Zambia's ruling PF party had warned Maimane against his visit. "It is common knowledge that there is an explicit court order detailing who can visit the incarcerated Opposition leader and it would be rather unfortunate for Maimane to violate the prescripts of this order which will find him in conflict with the laws of our land," the PF said in a statement before he arrived. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla in Johannesburg and Chris Mfula in Lusaka; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
By Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) - An exiled Thai opposition activist has issued a defiant call to arms, saying he is training "civilian warriors" to oust the military government in an unusual show of opposition to the junta that took power in a 2014 coup. Wuthipong Kochathamakun, who authorities believe is hiding in neighbouring Laos, is a rare voice of dissent following a military crackdown on critics that has largely silenced even the most outspoken opposition supporters. Wuthipong is a member of the "red-shirt" movement that backed populist governments led by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, former prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Both of the Shinawatras saw their governments ousted in military coups. "We are training civilian warriors to chase the bandits out of the country ... we are training like soldiers," Wuthipong said in an interview on the U.S.-based "Thais Voice" programme, aired on YouTube on Thursday. Wuthipong, who fled from Thailand in 2014 after being charged with defaming the monarchy, said he was training civilian volunteers. "We are training to protect our brothers and sisters who are for democracy ... I have only just set up the organisation for three, almost four months," he said, adding that the group was based "in the forest", without giving details. But he acknowledged he had few followers. "Not many people have joined," he said. A spokesman for the defence ministry, Kongcheep Tantrawanit, dismissed Wuthipong talk of mobilising resistance. "I don't believe anyone would think of destroying their own country," Kongcheep told Reuters, adding that opinion polls showed people were happy with military rule. HOSPITAL BLAST Wuthipong is already a wanted man. The government has accused him amassing weapons and of plotting to assassinate the prime minister - accusations he has denied. The army chief suggested Wuthipong could have been behind an explosion at a military hospital in Bangkok on Monday that wounded 24 people. Wuthipong denied involvement in the bombing. Laos has not made any public comment about him. For more than a decade Thailand has been divided between the mostly urban and rural poor supporters of the Shinawatras and the Bangkok-based establishment led by the royalist military. Former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives in self-exile to avoid a conviction for corruption he says was politically motivated. Yingluck, who's government was ousted in 2014, lives in Thailand and is facing charges linked to a failed rice-subsidy scheme. She denies wrongdoing. The military has promised an election though the date has been pushed back and it is now expected late next year. It has also highlighted the need for reconciliation but doubts remain about its efforts given its attitude towards dissent. Political activity largely stopped upon the death of King Bhuimbol Adulyadej in October and it is not expected to resume until a year-long period of mourning is over. The military has been a force in politics since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932 but it now seems determined to anchor its role for good. The junta has become deeply embedded in society with military men entrenched in senior positions. The military has overseen the drafting of a constitution that critics say will enable it to control politics even after civilian government is restored. (Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Press Trust of India: By Aditi Khanna

London, May 26 (PTI) British police arrested another man today in connection with the suicide attack at a pop concert in Manchester city as they hunted for a second device built by the 22-year-old bomber and other members of his wider terror network.

With the new arrest this morning from an inner-city area in Manchester, the number of people arrested reached 10, of which two have been released without charge, police said.

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"Eight men remain in custody for questioning," they said.

A 16-year-old boy and a 34-year-old woman were the two person released. The other eight men, aged between 18 and 38, were being questioned over their involvement in the attack on Monday that killed 22 people, the police said in a statement.

Investigators believe 22-year-old British-born bomber Salman Abedi, from a family of Libyan origin, acted as part of a terrorist network. Some news reports indicated that security forces were on the hunt for a second device made by Abedi, which may now be with a member of this network.

Abedi was known to UK security services, but his risk to the public remained "subject to review", according to reports.

In the Libyan capital Tripoli, Abedis younger brother 20-year-old Hashem and their father, Ramadan, were being held by special forces linked to the countrys interior ministry.

Meanwhile, the manager of a pizza shop raided by police in north England claimed that his friend Aimen Elwafi was one of the eight men in custody as he had inadvertently rented a property to Abedi.

Elwafi is believed to have handed himself in to police after news reports revealed Abedi as the suicide bomber.

"He made the connection straight away. He was shocked and panicked when he saw the news," said Mohammed El-Haduri, the manager of St Helens Pizza.

The suicide attack at American pop star Ariana Grandes concert had sent shockwaves across the UK, prompting back-to- back meetings of the emergency response Cobra committee.

After the meeting, Prime Minister Theresa May announced the threat level has been raised to the highest "critical", meaning another attack could be imminent. Army and armed police officers patrolled major sites across the country.

Today, Britains home secretary Amber Rudd chaired another Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (Cobra) meeting today.

"[Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre] have assessed that the level of threat should remain at critical while the operation continues. The military are continuing to support the police under Operation Temperer ? 1,000 members of the military are assisting in that," she said.

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Sixty six people injured in the attack were still in hospital, she added.

British police have now resumed intelligence-sharing with their US counterparts after a brief suspension over a series of leaks by American officials to journalists providing details of the Manchester bomb investigation.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in London today and said the US took "full responsibility" for the leaks.

"This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event," he said.

US President Donald Trump earlier said the leaks were "deeply troubling".

Meanwhile, national level campaigning for the June 8 general election resumed today after local level campaigns were resumed yesterday following suspension in the wake of the attacks on Monday night.

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn began with a major speech in London attacking the "war on terror".

He said: "Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.

"We must be brave enough to admit that the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism."

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The ruling Conservatives, who criticised his speech as "crassly timed", have had a relatively low-key campaign today with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Sicily to attend a G7 Summit meeting.

She used her speech there to urge world leaders to do more to combat online extremism.

"The fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," she said. PTI AK ASK ABH KJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
Donald Trump has a four-point plan to deal with North Korea  but it doesnt include a military option, it has been reported.

The four-point policy plan has reportedly been revealed by a South Korean politician following a meeting with the US State Department official responsible for policy on North Korea, Joseph Yun.

Yun briefed South Korean politicians at a meeting on Thursday on the Trump administrations approach to North Korea, according to Korean news agency Yonhap.

Four options  but they apparently dont include military action (Pictures: Getty)

He is said to have told them that President Trump signed a State Department policy report calling for exerting every possible pressure diplomatically on North Korea, including four main strategies.

They are: not recognising North Korea as a nuclear state; imposing every possible sanction and pressure; not seeking a regime change and resolving the problem with dialogue.

MORE: Watch: Moment Donald Trump seems to be snubbed by new French President

MORE: Jeremy Corbyn blames foreign policy for terrorism in UK

But the report apparently does not include a military option against North Korea  despite President Trump reportedly discussing the possibility of launching a nuclear strike on the regime using two submarines stationed in the region.

Rodrigo Duterte  the Phillipines President with whom President Trump apparently discussed possible military action against North Korea

The US president reportedly discussed the possibility  though stressed we dont want to do that  during a phone call with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in which he is said to have referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as a madman with nuclear weapons.

He reportedly suggested that Duterte call Chinese leader Xi Jinping and pressure him into resolving the situation, but reiterated: If China doesnt do it, we will.
By Michele Kambas ATHENS (Reuters) - The United Nations' envoy for divided Cyprus said on Friday he was ending a shuttle diplomacy bid to continue peace talks in Geneva because rival sides had failed to agree on conditions. Failure to agree on further negotiations effectively throws a two-year process of Cyprus peace talks into limbo, though the U.N. said talks had not collapsed. The island was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup, and is a key source of tension between Greece and Turkey. U.N. Cyprus adviser Espen Barth Eide is due to inform Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later on Friday and seek his advice on how to move forward. He had been trying to get estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriots to move peace talks to Geneva, but the two sides disagreed on the format of negotiations. "Unfortunately, despite serious efforts to overcome their differences regarding the modalities for meeting in Geneva, the leaders were unable to find common ground," Eide said in a statement released by the U.N. mission in Cyprus. "Without a prospect for common ground, there is no basis for continuing this shuttle diplomacy." The failure underscored pitfalls of a fragile reunification process fraught with difficulty in complex issues ranging from power-sharing and territorial adjustments - to the seemingly more mundane of agenda-setting at a peace conference. Greek Cypriots wanted a conference in Geneva to first focus on clinching a deal on security arrangements post-settlement, while Turkish Cypriots sought a more inclusive give-and-take process. It is a serious setback to a process which diplomats said was the best chance in decades to end Cyprus's division, but diplomats said it was premature to draw conclusions. "The talks have not collapsed. The process remains leader-led. We need to hear from them how they see the way forward," a U.N. spokesman said, referring to Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. (Editing by Ed Osmond)
Dr. Lauren C. Johnson, assistant professor & coordinator of diversity and recruitment initiatives in the College of Education, was selected as the second University of North Georgia (UNG) faculty member to participate in the Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad Program.

The Fulbright-Hays program provides short-term study and travel seminars abroad for U.S. educators in the social sciences and humanities to improve their understanding and knowledge of the people and cultures of other countries.

Johnsons seminar will aim to provide a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Chilean society, culture, values, and institutions, by highlighting the social, economic, political, religious, and ethnic contexts that have influenced reform processes and social movements from the past to the present day.

The seminar will also center on underlying issues, such as the historical and contemporary relationship between church and state and how religious thought and practice have influenced, and been influenced by, the development of Chilean democracy. It also will address the main reform processes undertaken in the last two decades.

"I'm honored to have been selected for this prestigious program," Johnson said. "Traveling to Chile will be an amazing experience, and I look forward to incorporating what I learn about education reform and social justice education into my courses here at UNG."

Last years UNG recipient, Dr. Kelly McFaden, associate professor of education, focused her travel on exploring religious and cultural diversity in West Africa, particularly how Senegal managed to maintain relative social harmony while balancing the integration of indigenous religions with Islam and Christianity. She also explored African Christianity and African Islam in Dakar, Senegalese culture and politics in Toubacouta, and Diola society and tradition in Ziguinchor, which was hosted through the African Studies Center at Boston University in collaboration with the West African Research Center (WARC), based in Dakar.

"My experience in Senegal was both challenging and intensely rewarding," McFaden said. "The program was designed to give us as wide and complex a view of Senegalese culture and society as possible. We traveled to many locations around the country and had the opportunity to hear from the top scholars working in Senegal today as well as religious and human rights leaders."

Johnson received her Bachelor of Arts in Latin American studies and her Master of Arts in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) from Columbia University and her Ph.D. in applied anthropology from the University of South Florida.
Ski Apache welcomes back the Wind Rider Mountain Festival for the third time this Memorial Day Weekend.

Organizers says its where music, culture, BBQ and recreation collide.

The three-day camping festival boasts more than 25 bands on two stages where the mountain air will be filled with the sweet smell of barbecue smoke and the best of jam, funk, bluegrass, rock, folk and more.

Ohio-based band The Werks will be one of the headliners of the music portion of the festival.

We actually just got off a three-month tour, says Rob Chafin, drummer of The Werks. Were feeling good and have some time to get back into rehearsal for the Wind Rider Festival. Its one of the coolest gigs that we have lined up.

The Werks are touring in support of their latest album, Magic, which was released in March.

Chafin says the band worked for about six months on the album.

This was also our first time working with (producer) Joe Viers from Sonic Lounge Studios in Ohio, he says. He did a great job and helped move the album forward. Hes a really good engineer and brought out something different in us.

The band has a dozen albums under its belt, and Chafin says putting together a set list can be difficult.

Whats great about being in a festival setting like Wind Rider is that we have free rein in what we want to perform, he says. We do have some new material that isnt on Magic and we usually road test all of our songs before they make it on an album.

In addition to The Werks, there will be music from Fruition, Spafford, Poor Mans Whiskey, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Desert Dwellers, The Magic Beans, Brothers Gow, Old Salt Union, Gypsy Moon, Grant Farm, Groovesession, Wood & Wire and The Drunken Hearts.

Organizers say the scenic venue sets at 9,600 feet and will also be home to The Wind Rider Mountain BBQ competition (a Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned event), downhill mountain biking, zip lining, camping, craft beer, food, local vendors and art. Campsites are $25 and RV sites are $35 for all three nights of the festival. Parking is free for all ticketholders. Fire restrictions will be in effect. Children 5 and under are admitted free with a paying adult.

Wind Rider Mountain Festival

WHEN: 9 a.m.-11 p.m. today, Saturday, May 27, and Sunday, May 28

WHERE: Ski Apache, 1286 Ski Run Road, Alto

HOW MUCH: $35 for single-day tickets, $85 for three-day tickets at windridermusicfest.com
Sources say the government wants to cap the rates of intraocular lenses and orthopaedic implants. The step under consideration will reduce India's dependence on imported medical technology.

By Priyanka Sharma: After regulating the prices of cardiac stents, the government has its heart set on capping the rates of intraocular lenses and orthopaedic implants, say sources, a move that will bring relief to thousands of patients who can't afford crucial medical devices.

The step under consideration will also reduce India's dependence on imported medical technology and give a boost to domestic manufacturing.

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"These implants are transported directly from manufacturers to hospitals. And these hospitals are charging the patients at least 300 per cent more than the manufacturing cost," sources in the union health ministry said.

"This overpricing of medical implants varies from hospital to hospital."

An intraocular lens is a synthetic implant that's placed inside the eye to replace the focusing power of a natural lens that is removed, usually as part of cataract surgery. An orthopaedic implant replaces a missing joint or bone or to support a damaged bone in the body.

The National Health System Resource Centre (NHSRC) under the health ministry, which is looking into ways to make medical devices affordable and set reasonable ceiling prices, will soon submit its report to drug pricing regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), informed sources.

"Knee implants cost between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1 lakh while hip implants come for Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.10 lakh. Plates that are implanted have manufacturing cost of just Rs 3,000 but are priced at Rs 30,000 for patients," Dr Balvinder Singh, a senior orthopaedic surgeon, told MAIL TODAY.

'TWO CATEGORIES'

"When medical devices reach the hospitals, their rates are marked in two categories: 'to the doctor and to the patient'. For example, knee implants manufactured by an Indian company cost Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000. The price marked for the doctor would be about Rs 40,000, and for the patient it would be around Rs 65,000 and even up to Rs 1.10 lakh."

Similarly, a senior ophthalmologist informed that prices for intraocular lenses also vary from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000.

The government this year capped the prices of lifesaving cornonary stents at Rs 30,000. A stent is a spring-like metal device that is used to prop open blocked arteries in the heart. NPPA fixed the prices for bare-metal stents at Rs 7,260 and drug-eluting stents (coated with medicine that prevents scar tissue from growing into the artery) at Rs 29,600 respectively.

"It has been suggested that huge margins were fixed in distribution and supply of medical devices and by the time it reached to the patient, the original cost of stent were hiked by at least 700 per cent, depending upon the hospital," a government source said.

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An estimated 17.5 million people die each year in India from cardiovascular diseases.

There are about 40 million heart patients in the country of which 19 million reside in urban areas and 21 million in rural areas. This suggests heart diseases are fast becoming an epidemic in rural India and a structured solution is needed for combating the issue, say experts.

ALSO READ | India doubtful even after WHO lights green signal for dengue vaccine

ALSO READ | AIIMS study: 1 in 3 Delhi kids of top private schools obese, overeating to blame

--- ENDS ---
Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.

The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the president was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, though it did not name Kushner.

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.

The Post has not been told that Kushner is a target  or the central focus  of the investigation, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Target is a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect of investigators attention, though prosecutors can and do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.

Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, said Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys.

In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are also looking broadly into possible financial crimes  but the people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not specify who or what was being examined.

Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said, I cant confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations. The FBI declined to comment.

At the time of the December meetings, Trump already had won the election. Contacts between people on the transition team and foreign governments can be routine, but the meetings and phone calls with the Russians were not made public at the time.

In early December, Kushner met in New York with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak. Flynn was also present at the early-December meeting, and later that month, Flynn held a call with Kislyak to discuss U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn initially mischaracterized the conversation, even to Vice President Mike Pence  ultimately prompting his ouster from the White House.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russias annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the December meetings, a former senior intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating to the spring of 2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak  along with close Trump adviser and current attorney general Jeff Sessions  were present at an April 2016 event at the Mayflower where then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia. It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.

The New York Times reported that Kushner omitted from security-clearance forms his December meetings with Kislyak and Gorkov, though his attorney said that was mere error and he told the FBI soon after that he would amend the forms. The White House said that his meetings were normal and inconsequential.

Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House.

He is arguably the presidents most trusted adviser, and he is also a close member of the presidents family. His list of policy responsibilities is vast  his foreign policy portfolio alone includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East  yet he rarely speaks publicly about any of them.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller III is now leading the probe into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and he has set up shop in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown District of Columbia. Even before he was picked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to take over the case, investigators had been stepping up their efforts  issuing subpoenas and looking to conduct interviews, people familiar with the matter said.

A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was recently notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing.

It is unclear exactly how Muellers leadership will affect the direction of the probe. This week, Justice Department ethics experts cleared him to take over the case even though lawyers at his former firm, WilmerHale, represent several people who could be caught up in the matter, including Kushner, Manafort and Trumps daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner.

Mueller resigned from the firm to take over the investigation.

Investigators are continuing to look aggressively into the dealings of Flynn, and a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, recently issued a subpoenas for records related to Flynns businesses and finances, according to people familiar with the matter.

Flynns company, the Flynn Intel Group, was paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkeys president claims was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.

Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagons top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.

  

Short URL: http://wapo.st/2qhFyk8
WASHINGTON  Susan Mitchell-Mattera leaned her small American flag and the framed picture of her family against the black stone of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Thursday and raised her fathers old harmonica to her lips.

As she played the opening notes of taps, Vu Ngoc Xiem, a veteran of the North Vietnamese army whose father was killed in an American bombing attack during the war, reached out and steadied her hand.

Up on the wall, at Panel 14W, Row 14, was the name of Mitchell-Matteras father, James C. Mitchell Jr., a sailor who was killed when his helicopter was shot down in 1970, days before he was to come home. He was 24.

Mitchell-Mattera played only a few notes, but they hung in the humid air on an overcast day when the Wall was just starting to dry from the overnight rain, revealing the names of the 58,000 American dead in the Vietnam War.

It was one part of an emotional morning as Vietnamese and American children of parents killed on opposite sides in the war gathered to honor lost fathers and mothers and to embrace each other as brothers and sisters.

There were many tears and hugs on both sides, and the laying of hands on the dark stone.

At the start of the Memorial Day weekend, the group was visiting Washington, D.C., for the debut of a documentary about children who lost parents to the Vietnam War.

The film, which was shown Thursday at the GI Film Festival at the Navy Memorial in Washington, is part of the 2 Sides Project, an enterprise launched two years ago by Margot Carlson Delogne, 52, as she sought to fill the void left by the absence of her father, who was killed in the war.

The nonprofit aims to connect sons and daughters who lost parents on both sides of the Vietnam War.

In 2015, Carlson Delogne took a film crew and a small group of Americans who had lost fathers in the war to Vietnam. They visited sites where their fathers were believed to have been killed and met with Vietnamese who had lost fathers and mothers in the fighting.

Vu Ngoc Xiem visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with the 2 Sides Project. All the participants in the project lost their fathers to the Vietnam War. The project made a film about the children people killed in action on both sides of the war. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Vu Ngoc Xiem places his hand over Ron Reyes' hand as Ron touches his father's name etched into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Thursday. Their fathers were on opposing sides during the Vietnam War; the two sons are part of the 2 Sides Project. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) People whose parents died fighting on opposing sides in the Vietnam War held a ceremony Thursday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Vu Ngoc Xiem, left, whose father was killed in an air raid, hugged Susan Mitchell-Mattera, whose father died in a helicopter shoot-down. Nguyen Thi Hong Diem, at right, lost both parents, who were members of the Viet Cong. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Susan Mitchell-Mattera lost her father during the Vietnam War and is part of the 2 Sides Project. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Ron Reyes lost his father in during the Vietnam War. Reyes is part of the 2 Sides Project, which has made a film about the children of soldiers killed in action on both sides of the war. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Dang The Le Phi lost her father during the Vietnam War and is part of the 2 Sides Project. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) A photograph of Susan Mitchell-Mattera's mother and father, James C. Mitchell Jr., a sailor who was killed in the Vietnam War when his helicopter was shot down in 1970. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Ronald Reyes, a Marine, was killed in 1968 in Khe Sanh, Vietnam. His son Ronald R. Reyes, 49, of Moorpark, Calif., is participating in a meeting of adult children, who lost parents from opposing sides in the Vietnam War. (Photo courtesy of family) Both of Nguyen Thi Hong Diem's parents were killed fighting for the Viet Cong. (Photo courtesy of Nguyen Thi Hong Diem) Prev 1 of 9 Next

Several of the Vietnamese encountered on the trip, including, Vu, 65, a veteran and retiree from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, were invited to Washington for the opening of the film and the weekends commemorations.

The Vietnamese had never been to the United States before.

They included Nguyen Thi Hong Diem, 49, also of Ho Chi Minh City, whose father and mother were both killed fighting for the insurgent Viet Cong, and Dang Thi Le Phi, 53, of Da Nang, whose father died in the war when she was 2.

They were joined by several Americans who had made the trip in 2015. Among them were Ronald R. Reyes, 49, of Moorpark, California, whose 19-year-old father, Ronald, was killed serving with the Marines at Khe Sanh in 1968, and Mitchell-Mattera, 52, a nurse from Carson, California, whose father was shot down over the Mekong River Delta, in what was then South Vietnam.

The group arrived at the memorial at 10 a.m., with Vu bearing a bouquet of flowers to leave there.

After a translator helped explain how the names are arranged on the Wall, and Reyes described it as like a scar in the ground, the group descended the path into the memorial, which was thronged with visitors.

They paused at the center. Vu placed his flowers and spoke on behalf of the Vietnamese.

In an interview earlier in the week, he explained that his father was killed manning an antiaircraft battery at the Ham Rong Bridge near Thanh Hoa against a fierce bombing campaign the Americans called Operation Rolling Thunder.

His father, Vu Ngoc Sam, then in his 40s, had been fighting in the army since the Vietnamese enemy had been the French.

He was rarely home, his son said, and the family saw him mainly when he passed their rice farm in Nam Dinh Province, south of Hanoi, on the march.

After the attack on the bridge, in 1965, there was nothing left of his father, no body to bury. So the family erected a small tomb near their home and left it empty.

More tragedy struck two years later, when Vu was in high school. He was 16 and a class leader. He had been outside checking the schools adjacent bomb shelters when U.S. jets attacked.

To illustrate, Vu lined up a candy bar, a package of cookies and a small recorder case on a hotel lobby countertop to show how the three buildings of his high school were arranged.

One bomb landed beside the first school building, he indicated with his finger. Another bomb and landed near the third building. But the middle building suffered a direct hit.

The shock waves blew him off his feet and into a pond, he said. He recovered, ran to the destroyed building and began trying to dig out his classmates.

Dozens of them, and a teacher, were killed, he said.

The incidents filled him with hostility, he said, and he went on to become a war correspondent during the closing chapters of the conflict.

Thursday, as he stood before the Wall in a coat and tie, hands clasped before him, he spoke of peace and healing.

We are the sons and daughters of the Vietnamese war martyrs, he said through an interpreter. We want to heal the wounds of the war . . . the pain and sacrifice and losses on both sides. Today Im very moved standing here. I am the son of a war martyr, and also a veteran.

But we travel on the same road, he said. The Vietnamese and Americans embraced and wept.

Then the group went to see the names of the American fathers.

When they reached the carving of Ronald Reyes fathers name, the son used his necktie to wipe moisture from the stone.

His father was a skinny teenager from La Puente, California, who joined the Marines and was killed in the fighting around Khe Sanh on March 30, 1968, weeks after his 19th birthday.

Reyes said his fathers spirit has followed him his whole life.

As he held his hand over his fathers name Thursday, Vu pressed his hand over Reyess in a sign of affection.

When the group got to the name of Carlson Delognes father, Air Force Capt. John W. Carlson, on Panel 13E, she said: My fathers name is not touchable. Its too high up.

But she explained how to count down from the top to Row 18, where he was listed.

Carlson Delogne, a resident of Walpole, Massachusetts, was 2 when her father was shot down in an Air Force jet Dec. 7, 1966. His body has never been found, and although he has a tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery, there is no grave.

She said she remembers nothing of him.

I have searched long and hard in my memory, and I have just nothing, she said in an interview this week. Ive asked over the years people who knew him, What was he like? Always searching for what in me is from him.

Ive never had a satisfying answer, she said.

Carlson Delogne also studied his letters and papers and listened to some of the cassette tapes he sent home to his family.

At the same time, she detested Vietnam for taking her father. I had a hatred toward it, she said.

But her attitude started to change when she met other children of Americans killed in Vietnam. And she realized that bombs dropped by her father may have killed the fathers of Vietnamese women.

I began to wonder . . . [if] there was . . . a daughter on the other side who was like me, she said. I started to wonder how she felt and how she had grown up.

The 2 Sides Project seeks to answer such questions.

As she stood at the Wall on Thursday, Carlson Delogne pointed up to Row 18.

You see his name? she asked.

Her Vietnamese friends said they did.
New Mexico Wine is getting a new face just in time for two of the states largest wine festivals.

The New Mexico Wine and Grape Growers Association recently changed its name to New Mexico Wine. It also changed the name of the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival, after 25 years, to Las Cruces Wine Festival. Additionally, the association released its Viva Vino branding, which is now featured on its ads, merchandise and more.

Weve been very reserved in our marketing, said New Mexico Wine Executive Director Chris Goblet. Because millennials are now the largest population of wine drinkers alive, I think its important that we just let the universe know. Those people who know us and already like our wines are going to stick with us. We kind of wanted to give this Viva Vino approach to expand the universe of people that we are talking to. I think the wineries are all on board with the idea of giving our industry that curb appeal. Its not an industry of you have to be a wine connoisseur and have lots of money; everybody can kind of approach wine and enjoy it.

Both wine festivals also will offer a wine lover early access hour, which is new this year.

It includes a lot of bells and whistles, and of course its the same in the north as it is in the south, Goblet said of the wine lover ticket. It comes with a larger sampling glass, it comes with the early hour entry, $5 off merchandise, some reserve tastings, so youll have wines that you wont typically be able to taste during the wine festival.

There will be 25 wineries at the Albuquerque event and about 20 wineries in Las Cruces to sample and purchase wines from. Both events also include a number of award-winning wineries, local bands and arts and crafts vendors. New to the Las Cruces event and returning to the Albuquerque festival are on-site painting classes. The classes are free. Attendees are encouraged to immediately sign up at the tent. Both festivals will offer a secure area to leave your wine purchases while you paint and taste.

Stock up on wines from several wineries that do not have their products readily available outside the festivals.

A lot of these wineries, I think is worth mentioning, is you cant find them in the stores, and some of them dont even have tasting rooms, so this is really the one opportunity that you have to get to know the wines, buy the wines, said organizer Dean Strober of Blue River Productions. For me, the most exciting aspect is to meet the winemakers themselves. I think thats what sets our wine festivals apart in New Mexico from others.  When you go to one of these booths, youre actually meeting the people making the wine, and theres really no shortage of education that I feel the attendees can gain from just learning how their wines are made.
The film and TV industry moves quickly, and filmmakers are trying new ways to capture audiences attention.

Albuquerque resident Clay Space is on the cusp of something great with his latest project with ShadMeister Productions.

Space, a University of New Mexico student, thought outside the box to raise money for the project, Back to Earth.

Instead of going the usual crowdfunding route, such as Indiegogo or Kickstarter, Space raised more than $1 million in bitcoin in less than 48 hours to fund a multiplatform storytelling project designed to entertain and engage its audience through film, graphic novels, an alternate reality game, blog, mobile apps and other media.

The idea arose from me noticing how difficult it is to fund projects, Space says. What I wanted to do is find a way to incentivize people to participate in crowdfunding. They can earn money from participating in it.

Back to Earth Productions was founded for the fundraising. It will produce interactive fiction, also known as transmedia storytelling.

The goal of Back to Earth is to entertain a wide audience to new people, Space says. We believe the project has a little something for everyone because you can enjoy a piece of it, like the web series or mobile game.

Space is working with Shad Adair, who will be producing the project.

Adair says the project is close so signing a sci-fi director.

Once we secure the contract with the director, it will all move forward, Adair says. The great part about this is that were going to keep it in New Mexico. The supporting cast and crew will all be a New Mexico True production.

Adair and Space plan to begin principal photography in late summer or early fall.

Weve been in pre-production for about a year getting the plan together, Space says. Its the first time weve done a project like this. Its been about putting the right people in the right place. This is a recipe that has been working out well.

More information can be found at backto.earth
WASHINGTON  So it has come to this: A Russian government-funded propaganda outfit schooling the Trump administration on the cruelty of its proposed federal budget.

Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trumps budget director, unveiled Trumps ghastly 2018 budget proposal Monday afternoon in the White House briefing room, and one point of pride was that it proposed that the child-care tax credit and the earned-income tax credit  benefits for working families  be denied to illegal immigrants. Its not right when you look at it from the perspective of people who pay the taxes, Mulvaney declared.

But Andrew Feinberg, a reporter with Russias Sputnik news outfit, pointed out that many of the children who would be cut off under Trumps proposal are U.S. citizens. Whether theyre here illegally or not, Feinberg noted, those families have American-citizen children.

Mulvaney, who probably didnt know he was being interrogated by Sputnik, argued back, saying that Feinberg wasnt duly considering taxpayers and that we have all kinds of other programs for poor kids.

At this, another reporter in the room interjected: Youre cutting that, too.

It was a bizarre scene: An organization financed by Vladimir Putins regime, in the White House, lecturing a Trump administration official  maybe they arent colluding after all. But Trumps budget is such that it leaves this White Houses credibility on a par with  or perhaps below  that of a Russian propaganda outfit.

The budget claims it balances the budget over a decade without touching Social Security and Medicare, while spending more on national security, the border, infrastructure and more.

How? The budget would eviscerate aid to the poor, and it makes preposterous assumptions about future growth. In other words, a cruelty wrapped in a lie. Mulvaney acknowledged its a fair point that Congress will ignore the proposal. But this outrage deserves attention.

Trump, who once vowed no cuts to Medicaid, would now cut Medicaid by more than $800 billion, denying support to 10 million people. He lops a total of $1.7 trillion off that and similar programs, including food stamps, school lunches and Habitat for Humanity.

Mulvaney, in defending the budget, made a frank admission: This is, I think, the first time in a long time an administration has written a budget through the eyes of people who actually are paying the taxes. Too often in Washington I think we often think only on the recipient side.

Exactly. The rich pay the most in overall taxes, even if not by percentage, and they get the lions share of benefits from Trumps budget. The poor and working poor pay little or nothing in federal income taxes, and they would get little or nothing.

But even taking all benefits from the poor and the working class wouldnt make a budget balance, particularly if Social Security and Medicare arent chopped. Even Mulvaney said he was honestly surprised he could balance the budget. How? By making magical assumptions.

Mulvaney said the annual growth the Obama administration and Congressional Budget Office forecast was pessimistic. A better word might be responsible, but the Trump administration realized what Mulvaney called an ugly truth: You can never balance the budget at 1.9 percent growth.

And so, voila! The Trump administration assumes 3 percent growth for the next 10 years, a level not seen in decades. Magical assumptions make budgets magically balance.

Many of the press corps regulars were traveling, so Brian Karem, from the Montgomery County Sentinel in Maryland, called out the first question: What about critics who say this budget is incredibly hard hearted, especially for the least of our brothers?

Mulvaney said it was hard hearted to take money from taxpayers for ineffective programs.

CNBCs John Harwood asked about Trumps promise not to touch Medicaid. Mulvaneys response was about Obamacare.

Another reporter asked whether there would be anything to replace cuts to medical care for pregnant women or preventive-care services. The short answer is I dont know, Mulvaney said.

The budget director employed creative euphemisms, saying cuts to food stamps were part of a cost sharing plan with states. But he wasnt really fooling anybody  certainly not the man from Sputnik. Feinberg, an American, explained while smoking a Camel outside the briefing room that he was a freelancer who took the job because it was a paying gig. He filed two items for Sputnik, including one noting that Trumps budget would deny tax credits to parents who arent legally in the United States even if their children are American citizens.

Feinbergs reports were true. Its the Trump budget assumptions and justifications that amount to propaganda.
FOR THE RECORD: This article has been updated to reflect that the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters was one of the organizations that donated $5,000 to the Albuquerque Police Foundation.

Albuquerque police officer Bobby Dilley had just clocked out and was on his way home in March 2014 when he was struck by a drunken driver.

The officer nearly died as the result of the crash. Dilley said his pulse stopped three times while he was treated for severe head trauma, a broken neck, a crushed arm and other injuries. He underwent multiple surgeries, including a partial foot amputation, before he returned to work as an aviation officer a year and a half later.

I worked so much overtime, and all that went toward my medical bills, Dilley said on Thursday. It consumed just about everything I had, financially. Im not as in debt as Ive been before, and Im still working.

Dilley spoke during the launch of the Albuquerque Police Foundation, a nonprofit that will provide financial assistance to officers and their families if they find themselves straining because an officer has to take time off work. The police union said cops and their families can be especially affected by on-the-job injuries, because their jobs are dangerous, and officers and their families often plan to get paid many overtime hours each month, which they dont receive while on workers compensation.

Dilley said he spent a winter without heat and little food before he returned to work.

The publics perception is that everything is going to be hunky dory and youre going to be taken care of. Thats not true, said retired APD officer Lou Golson, who was shot numerous times while making a drunken driving stop in January 2015.

Golson, who worked in the DWI unit, eventually returned to APD and worked at the police academy. But had said he had to eventually retire and is still litigating his medical expenses stemming from the shooting.

Something for the long haul is where this type of organization is really needed, he said.

Shaun Willoughby, the president of the police union, said the foundation will work with police agencies around the state to raise money. He said the funds could help a family after an officer is killed or injured in the line of duty, or when they have a different type of life-altering event, like a cancer diagnosis. He said community members are skeptical about donating to things like GoFundMe accounts, which could potentially be fraudulent.

AT&T and the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters each gave the foundation $5,000 at its launch Thursday. Charles Henson will be the first foundation president. He is also president of the New Mexico Automotive Dealers Association.

We know that we have a huge support network in the state of New Mexico, Willoughby said. We just didnt have an organized, safe fashion for people to donate to them, and now we do.
By Amina Khan

When it comes to interpreting dog growls, some humans are surprisingly good at taking the hint, a new study shows. Scientists testing how people categorized different types of natural growls found that people could largely tell playful vocalizations from threatening ones  though women and dog owners seemed to do better than their peers.

The findings, described in Royal Society Open Science, shed light on the relationship between dogs and humans  as well as on underlying vocal behaviors that might be shared across mammalian species.

Plenty of research in recent years has delved into dogs ability to understand humans. But relatively little seems to have focused on whether humans are any good at understanding dogs  even though communication is a two-way street, especially in two species that have developed in such proximity to each other.

We know relatively little about the vocal communication system of dogs, and the most studied vocalization (not surprisingly) are the different barks, lead author Tamas Farago, an ethologist at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, said in an email. As dogs were domesticated by humans, barks likely changed significantly and became the main way dogs communicate. Growls, however, may not have changed as much since the point that dogs diverged from wolves.

On one hand, this makes them interesting to study how information is encoded in their acoustic structure, he added, but on the other hand, it is also fascinating for us that dogs use them in strikingly different social contexts: during play and agonistic interactions.

For this paper, Farago and his colleagues tested humans using natural dog growls gathered in three scenarios: while playing tug-of-war with their owner, while guarding their food from another dog and while they felt threatened by a stranger.

The scientists found that overall, humans were pretty good at differentiating the growl types, classifying them correctly about 63 percent of the time (well above the chance level of 33 percent). They correctly identified 81 percent of the play growls, but were less accurate when it came to food-guarding (60 percent) and threatening (50 percent) growls. On some level, this makes sense; the latter two, both meant to ward off a competitor or a threat, might share some of the same sound qualities.

What (was) surprising is that the listeners rated the threatening growls to be more fearful and less aggressive than the food-guarding ones, as these growls were acoustically very similar, he said.

Still, there certainly were key acoustic differences in the three types.

We found that playful growl bouts are built up from short, quickly repeated growls, while the aggressive ones were more elongated, he explained. The food-guarding growls differed from the threatening growls in their formant dispersion, a parameter that gives a size impression of the vocalizing individual for the listeners.

Formants are concentrations of acoustic energy at different frequencies. Humans use them to make different vowels; in dogs growls, the formants dispersion  how close they are to each other  can signal a dogs size.

Dog owners were much better than other humans at correctly identifying a growls meaning  which was actually surprising because previous research didnt find such a strong advantage when people rated dog barks. Its possible that this is because barks are loud and easily heard by bystanders, while growls are more likely to be heard regularly only by people who spend a lot of time near dogs. Humans, it seems, can be trained to understand their canine companions.

Women also were better than their peers at distinguishing between the growls, scientists said.

This is a common pattern in emotion recognition studies, Farago said. Probably women are more empathic and sensitive to others emotions, and this helps them to better associate the contexts with the emotional content of the growls.

Dogs may not be the only mammals to pack information into sound this way, Farago said. The few findings on how humans perceive other animals vocalizations, including macaques, pigs and cats, suggest that among mammals, there are simple rules rooted in biology that may define how emotional states get translated into sound structure.

Along with our recent (functional magnetic resonance imaging) findings about the similar processing of emotional vocalization between humans and dogs, our results further emphasize how much we share with other mammalian species, he said.

The findings, Farago added, might help humans better understand and improve our relationships with dogs. This could be especially important for children, who may have trouble telling the difference between a playful and aggressive dog, and arent yet fully aware of the consequences.
Nexus Brewery has plenty to celebrate after six years.

In that span of time it opened its brewery, a West Side taproom and has acquired a building for a taproom with food in southeast Albuquerque. Head brewer Kaylynn McKnights Honey Chamomile Wheat also won a silver medal at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival and a gold at the 2016 World Beer Cup. Her Imperial Cream also won a silver medal at the 2016 World Beer Cup.

Nexus is expanding its menu offerings as part of its anniversary. The brewery is known for its southern and Cajun offerings, some of which offer a New Mexican twist.

One of the new items that were adding, were calling it New Mexico Hot Chicken, which is the same as the Nashville style chicken, except were going to use cayenne, but were using New Mexican red chile, Nexus owner Ken Carson said. I tried it on our chicken and you know, I know Im the owner of the business, but it was amazing.

Nexus took a New Mexican turn when it came to the recipe for its hot chicken.

In following the menu and the recipe that they have in Nashville, I didnt feel like the palates here are compatible because youre going to be hard pressed to find anybody putting sugar in their red chile, Carson said. What we did is, we basically, we backed out of the sugar so it gives it a New Mexican taste where you can really taste the red chile on the chicken. Were going to serve that kind of Nashville style on a piece of white bread with pickles and we hope that will be a nice new addition to our lineup.

Other new menu items include fried biscuit bread pudding as well as Cinnamon Scott waffles, which are cinnamon flavored waffles with Nexus Scottish ale sauce. Nexus also has added its version of dirty rice, which will have green chile. The public will get to try the new items beginning today at Nexus Brewery, 4730 E. Pan American Fwy. The brewery also will be serving up pork ribs on Saturday, May 27 and beef ribs on Sunday, May 28. Seasonal beers Beam Me Up Scotty, Imperial Plum as well as Blood Orange Worf-a-Weizen and Vienna lager also will be on tap as part of the sixth anniversary festivities.

Live bands will perform at the brewery from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, including the Racine Kreyol Band on Saturday. Blues ensemble, The Chase Walker Band, performs at 1 p.m. on Monday, May 29 at Nexus Silver Taproom, 2641 Coors Blvd. NW. Walker is best known for his appearance on NBCs The Voice. DJ GonzoSupreme will be spin 90s hip-hop and R&B on Saturday and Erik Knudson will perform from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday at the taproom.

In the near future, Nexus will be opening another taproom on Broadway SE, just south of Avenida Cesar Chavez. It will feature Nexus beers, Cajun and southern cuisine as well as barbecue. One of the barbecue sauces will feature a red chile base for a New Mexican twist.

Its certainly been a learning experience, Carson said of Nexus six years of operation. Were certainly enjoying the challenges and are very appreciative of the support that weve gotten from the community. Tons of people who I used to worked with in the banking industry and all the different areas that I have, my family, friends and stuff like that, it has turned out exactly like I hoped.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trumps administration is pledging a Supreme Court showdown over his travel ban after a federal appeals ruled that the ban drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.

Citing the presidents duty to protect the country from terrorism, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that the Justice Department will ask the high court to review the case, although he offered no timetable.

The Supreme Court is almost certain to step into the case over the presidential executive order issued by Trump that seeks to temporarily cut off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

The case pits the presidents significant authority over immigration against what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said was a policy that purported to be about national security but was intended to target Muslims.

Parties generally have 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court, but if the administration waits until late August to ask the court to step in, the justices probably would not vote on whether to hear the case until October and arguments probably wouldnt take place until February 2018 at the earliest. That would be more than a year after Trump rolled out the first travel ban.

Administration lawyers could instead seek the justices approval to put the travel policy in place on an emergency basis, even as the court weighs what to do with the larger dispute.

If that happens, the justices vote on an emergency motion would signal whether the government is likely to win in the end. It takes a majority of the court, five votes, to put a hold on a lower court ruling. If at least five justices vote to let the travel ban take effect, theres a good chance they also would uphold the policy later on.

Thursdays ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit was a loss for the administration. The court ruled 10-3 that the ban likely violates the Constitution and upheld a lower court ruling blocking the Republican administration from enforcing the travel ban unveiled in March, a revised version of the policy first issued in January.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised ban. Trumps administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems that the first version encountered. A second appeals court, the 9th U.S. Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

A central question in the case is whether courts should consider Trumps public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

Trumps administration argued the 4th Circuit should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which doesnt mention religion. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

But Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote that the governments asserted national security interest  appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country.

The three dissenting judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, said the majority was wrong to look beyond the text of the order. Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote that Supreme Court precedent required the court to consider the order on its face. Looked at that way, the executive order is entirely without constitutional fault, he wrote.

Sessions said the courts ruling blocks Trumps efforts to strengthen this countrys national security.

Trumps first travel ban issued Jan. 27 was aimed at seven countries and triggered chaos and protests across the U.S. as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit refused to reinstate the ban.

The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesnt apply to those who already have valid visas. It also got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries. Critics said the changes dont erase the legal problems with the ban.

Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, said its difficult to make a confident prediction on what the Supreme Court will do with the case. If the Supreme Court follows a partisan divide, the Trump administration may fare better since five of the nine are Republican nominees. Still, he said, Supreme Court justices dont always vote in ideological lockstep.

___

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Richmond, Virginia; Darlene Superville in Washington; and Matt Barakat in McLean, Virginia, contributed to this report.
TAORMINA, Sicily  Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Friday put pressure on internet companies and social media sites to do more to stop the spread of hateful ideology, appealing to their sense of social responsibility to more swiftly identify and remove terror propaganda.

The measure signed by the seven nations leaders was a show of solidarity with Britain following Mondays suicide bombing in Manchester, England that killed 22 outside a pop music concert. The Islamic State group claimed the attack, although authorities are working to establish the bombing suspects ties to extremist organizations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the leaders agreed that the threat posed by the Islamic State group is evolving rather than disappearing.

As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning, and the groups hateful ideology is spreading online, May said. Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet.

She said terror propaganda is warping young minds and that she thinks technology companies both could do more and have the responsibility to act.

In their declaration, the leaders said they were targeting propaganda supporting terrorism and violent extremism, online recruitment by extremists, radicalization and incitement to violence. They said they would work also with youth and religious leaders, prisons and educational institutions toward that end.

They also agreed in the declaration to strengthen the process for returning foreign fighters operating in Europe to their countries of origin, to better share intelligence on individuals who have trained in Islamic State territory, and to do more to cut off funding streams they called the lifeblood of violent extremists and terrorists.

The G-7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on Friday also discussed climate and trade.

At the close of the days talks, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said six of the G-7 nations  Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan  confirmed our commitment and our determination to the Paris Agreement establishing goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

The United States, meanwhile, confirmed a period of reflection on the issue, he said.

Trumps pending review of U.S. climate policies and decision not to make up his mind before the Taormina summit has braced environmentalists for the possibility of bland language that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and emissions under the Paris Agreement.

What we do not want to see is a false compromise on nothing, Tobias Muenchmeyer, a political expert for Greenpeace, said. We want to see determination and commitment over unity, with the other partners going ahead without the United States.
The four men, said to be neighbours of the victim family, are being questioned by the Special Task Force officials.

By India Today Web Desk: Four people have been arrested in connection with a murder and gangrape of four women of a family in Uttar Pradesh's Jewar.

"The Special Task Force (STF) arrested four persons today for killing a scrap dealer and gang raping his mother, wife, sister and sister-in-law two km from Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway on Thursday," an STF offical said.

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The arrested have been identified as Hazi, Munna, Wahim. The fourth person is yet to be identified. The four men, said to be neighbours of the victim family, are being questioned by the STF officials.

The arrests were made on the basis of statements given by the women, who have undergone medical examination, he said.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In a re-run of the horrific 2016 Bulandhshar highway gangrape incident, a family was attacked by a group of at least five criminals on Jewar-Bulandshahr road off Yamuna Expressway in Gautam Budh Nagar district early on Thursday.

The attackers shot dead a man when he objected to criminals assaulting the women of the family. The women were gangraped.

According to reports, eight members of a family were travelling from Jewar in Greater Noida to Bulandshahr to meet an ailing relative.

The vehicle, a Maruti Suzuki Eeco, in which the family was travelling was intercepted by the criminals at about 1.30 am. Reports said that the criminals had sprayed the road with nails which forced the driver of the car to pull over.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, the men attacked the family looting them of cash and valuables at gun point.

The criminals shot dead a man when he raised objection to the criminals misbehaving with the women of the family. The deceased has been identified as Shakeel Quraishi.

Also Read:

Jewar-Bulandshahr case: Discrepancies spotted, police suspect personal enmity or property dispute

UP: Man killed, women gangraped as gang attacks family on Bulandshahr-Jewar highway

Also Watch:

UP: Man shot dead, four women gang-raped by robbers on Jewar-Bulandshahr highway

--- ENDS ---
DALLAS  A Texas nurse who is in prison for the 1982 killing of a toddler has been charged with murder in the death of an infant a year earlier, and authorities said Friday that they think she may have killed up to 60 young children around that time.

Genene Jones, 66, is serving concurrent 99-year and 60-year sentences at a Gatesville prison for the 1982 killing of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan and the sickening of a 4-week-old boy who survived. The girl was given a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant and the boy received a large injection of a blood thinner.

Jones was due to be freed next March under a mandatory release law that was in place when she was convicted. But on Thursday, the Bexar County district attorneys office announced that she has been charged in the 1981 death of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who investigators say died of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug, Dilantin.

During Jones time working in hospitals and clinics in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas, children died of unexplained seizures and other complications.

At a news conference Friday in San Antonio, District Attorney Nico LaHood said investigators believe Jones may have killed some or all of those children because they died under unusual circumstances during or shortly after her shifts.

Shes been suspected in dozens of infant deaths and shes only been held accountable in one, he said.

Its not clear why Jones actions, involving so many suspected victims, were not detected earlier. But Sam Millsap, a previous district attorney in Bexar County, told KSAT-TV in 2013 that medical records at the San Antonio hospital at one point were accidently destroyed, hampering efforts by investigators to prove their suspicions.

Chelsea McClellan died after receiving an injection at a clinic in Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio, and prosecutors at Jones 1984 murder trial said the nurse lethally injected children there to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital.

Other prosecutors theorized that Jones tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims, making herself appear to be a sort of miracle worker.

LaHood said the new murder charge is based on fresh evidence that came to light and a review of old evidence. He also said the deaths of some of the other children are being re-examined and that additional charges could be coming.

Jones has been consistently denied parole over the years. She was due to be released next March after serving one-third of her sentence under a mandatory release law adopted in 1977 to help alleviate prison overcrowding. The law was overhauled 10 years later.

Jones, whose case has been chronicled in two books, a TV movie and numerous articles, was emotional when she was served an arrest warrant Thursday, LaHood said.

We have every reason to believe that she fully expected to get out next year, he said.

Because of the new charge, Jones will be transferred to the Bexar County jail and held on a $1 million bond while the case is prosecuted. A murder conviction brings a maximum sentence of 99 years. LaHood said Jones is not eligible for the death penalty because Texas did not have such a sentence at the time of the 1981 death.

We will do our best to ensure that Genene Jones takes her very last breath behind bars, LaHood said.

___

This story has been corrected to show the last name of the child that Jones is in prison for killing is McClellan, not McClelland, and that the killing occurred in 1982, not 1984.

___

Follow David Warren on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WarrenJourno
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  An Arizona man has been arrested on federal charges accusing him of threatening New Mexico police officers, including one who is also a special federal agent.

A complaint filed in federal court in Albuquerque charges 49-year-old Brian Clayton Charles of Tucson with retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer and mailing threatening communications.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for New Mexico says Charles was arrested Wednesday in Tucson.

Online court records dont list an attorney for Charles who could comment on the allegations.

The complaint says authorities began investigating Charles in 2016 after he allegedly mailed a threatening letter to the then-Secretary of State John Kerrys home.

The complaint also alleges Charles previously mailed threatening communications to other federal officials.

Charles remains in custody in Arizona pending transfer to New Mexico.
Deanna Archuleta, one of nine candidates who qualified to get her name on Albuquerques mayoral ballot, is withdrawing from the race to care for her elderly father.

My heart is heavy, she said in a news release. I love this city, and I love the people of Albuquerque. I had looked forward to bringing my extensive experience to City Hall to make change in our community.

Archuleta, a Democrat, received an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., and, as of mid-April, had raised $141,000 for her run.

Archuleta, a former Bernalillo County commissioner, thanked her supporters and said her decision was driven by recent developments with her 86-year-old fathers health.

The eight candidates left in the mayoral race are: former state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon; Bernalillo County Commissioner Wayne Johnson, a Republican; Ricardo Chaves, a Republican and founder of Parking Company of America; recent University of New Mexico graduate Augustus Gus Pedrotty; Susan Wheeler-Deichsel, an independent and founder of the civic group Urban ABQ; City Councilor Dan Lewis, a Republican; state Auditor Tim Keller, a Democrat; and independent Michelle Garcia Holmes, former chief of staff for the state Attorney Generals Office and a retired Albuquerque police detective.

The election is Oct. 3. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will face off in a run-off in November.
A gripping narrative, an award-winning performance and a deceitful mystery. In the year 1950, one of the biggest legal battles between the State of Maharashtra and Naval Officer, Rustom Pavri took the nation by storm. Three revolver shots and Rustom Pavri was the only person who knew the truth. Did he or didnt he? Zee Cinema, the Worlds Largest Theatre for Hindi Movies brings to you a case fueled by love and agony, Rustom on Friday, 26th May at 8 PM.

Directed by Tinu Suresh Desai and produced by Neeraj Pandey, the movie touches upon various narratives including the internal politics of Indian navy, a love story, a thrilling murder mystery and a rollercoaster of emotions. Rustom stars Akshay Kumar in the lead along with Ileana DCruz, Arjan Bajwa and Esha Gupta. The film was critically acclaimed and was a commercial success. For his portrayal of Naval Officer Rustom Pavri, Akshay Kumar was honored with the Best Actor award at the 64th National Film Awards.

Rustom revolves around the Indian Naval Officer Rustom Pavri (Akshay Kumar) and his wife Cynthia (Ileana DCruz), who are happily married. All goes well until one day, he discovers his friend Vikram Makhijas (Arjan Bajwa) love letters in Cynthias wardrobe and rushes to confront him. In the next few moments, three gun shots are heard in Vikrams bedroom and Rustom walks out without saying a word. What follows next is a legal battle in which Rustom surrenders himself but halfway through the hearing, he decides to fight back. Vikrams sister Priti (Esha Gupta) hires the best lawyers to ensure Rustom is charged for the murder.

Will the court be able to solve the web of assumptions and truth?

~To find out, tune-in to Rustom on Friday, 26th May at 8 PM only on Zee Cinema~
Whirlpool of India Limited today announced that, Mr. Arvind Uppal, Chairman Whirlpool of India Limited and President Asia Pacific, Whirlpool Corporation has decided to voluntarily retire from Whirlpool Corporation effective December 31, 2017.

Mr. Uppal will continue in his role as Chairman, Whirlpool of India Limited.

Commenting on his decision Mr. Uppal said, This has been a very satisfying and fulfilling 12 years where I have experienced some of the toughest battles and made some of my best friends. I believe the business is now in very good hands and the time has come to pass on the baton.

Thanking Mr. Uppal Mr. Marc Bitzer, President and Chief Operating Officer, Whirlpool Corporation said, "Over these past 12 years Arvind has fundamentally changed our business in India and beyond. Our enviable brand and product position, coupled with an exceptionally strong team provide an outstanding platform for a great future. I do thank Arvind for leaving this great legacy and I am very pleased to have him continue serve as Chairman of our India business."

Mr. Uppal joined Whirlpool of India Limited in February 2005 as Managing Director and was elevated to the position of President Asia Pacific in 2010. Prior to Whirlpool he had a stint of 18 years with Nestle, where he held various senior management positions in Switzerland, China, Vietnam and India.
Kyoorius - ZEE MELT 2017 will bring together advertising, digital, marketing, media & the PR industry over three days at NSCI, Mumbai. The ViewClickShare session scheduled from 31st May to 1st June at ZEE MELT 2017 will speak about whats the next big trend in media? Is it a new platform, peaking viewership, better consumer experience or more strategic advertising? Is digital growing while other mediums are dying? Is Big Data the next big thing or smart glasses, driverless cars, virtual reality or the good old TV? All these questions will be addressed at this session

The speaker line-up for disruptive marketing includes:

Abhinav Chetan, Product Marketing Manager, Google India Jeremy Basset Founder & CEO , Co-Cubed Virginia Mouseler CEO, The Wit Swapnil Sinha, Head of Measurement & Attribution  India, Indonesia & Singapore at Google India Pratham Hegde, Head of Marketing Science, India at Facebook Clyde DeSouza, VR Filmmaker & Consultant at Real Vision Nick Lanzafame Director of Strategic Insights & Data Standards, Buzzfeed David Weeks Executive Director, The Week Danny Kershaw,International Research, K7 Media Anirudh Pandita Co-Founder, Pocket Aces Steve Wells CEO, Fast Future Ashish Limaye, CEO  APAC at Happy Finish

The sessions on Day 1 will talk about making sense of effectiveness from analysis of RoI and disruptive thinking and also whats the latest in programming and targeting? It will also focus on trends and insights from experts on whether media is fighting to survive or flourishing

The sessions on Day 2 will help catch the latest innovations in new-age Media, in Media Innovations. It will also discuss the next big step for Content, in terms of technology, platforms, viewership, consumer experience and branding.

MELT 2017 will feature a range of conferences, seminars, exhibitions, showcases, workshops and networking sessions for delegates from across marketing and communication genres by industry experts, catering to all experience levels. The organizers are expecting more than 3000 creative and marketing professionals, who will together discuss, inspire and learn through sharing and interaction.



Commenting on the line up for ViewClickShare, Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder and CEO, Kyoorius, said, "The ViewClickShare sessions will focus in depth on programming & targeting, trends & insights, media innovations and content & channels. The sessions will bring into light the next big trends in media, be it the VR, AR, big data, content, programmatic advertising or media innovations.
Google I/O 2017 took place last week and while there was some talk on Chrome OS, there was not any major new hardware releases announced. However, the Chrome OS market is one which is in bloom at the moment and so there are plenty of great options to check out and ones which cater to just about every price point. So whether you are looking for the absolute best in class Chromebook experience, or a device which is designed to be affordable, there is an abundance to choose from. Speaking of which, here are our top 10 best Chromebook picks for May, 2017.

10. ASUS Chromebook Flip

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The ASUS Chromebook Flip is easily the oldest Chromebook on this list, although it still remains to be a popular option. That said, this is either going to be a Chromebook that is ideal for you or it is not. There is no middle ground with this one and the decision will hinge on the included display. As the ASUS Chromebook Flip comes loaded with a 10.1-inch display with a 1280 x 800 resolution. On the positive side, this is a super portable Chromebook and in addition to the small display, the display is also capable of rotating, allowing the Chromebook to be used in a variety of positions. On the not so good side, 10.1-inches makes the size of this Chromebook comparable to a tablet. So as mentioned, depending on your size-needs, this is either a super portable Chromebook, or one which is just too small.

In either case, the ASUS Chromebook Flip is no slouch as it does come packed with either 2GB or 4GB RAM, a choice of 16GB or 32GB storage, and is powered by a Rockchip (RK3288) processor. So in spite of its size, this is hard-working and capable Chromebook. As for the price, the lesser RAM and storage option will currently run you around $225.

9. Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-131

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The Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-131 is a great option for those looking for a price-conscious Chromebook. Not only does it offer an Acer Chromebook design and build quality, but this is also a Chromebook designed to be super affordable and is available to buy for well under the $200 marker. Right now, you are looking at about $169.99 which almost makes this worthy of being an instant buy.

For that money, the Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-131 comes with an 11.6-inch display which makes use of a 1366 x 768 resolution. Inside, the Acer Chromebook 11 CB3-131 comes loaded with 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, and is powered by an Intel Celeron (N2840) processor. So while this is not meant for those looking for the most powerful or capable of Chromebooks, it is one which is worth the asking price, and especially for anyone new to the Chrome OS scene.

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8. Dell Chromebook 13

When Dell first announced its Chromebook 13, it was immediately clear that this was a Chromebook designed to be premium. Which although is good for those looking for a premium option, does rule out a large portion of the Chromebook market. While this Chromebook does come with a great design and build quality, as well as letting you customize the specs to your liking, it is anything but cheap  and especially compared to what you can now get for the same price. So with that in mind, this is not going to be a solid option for everyone. However, if build quality and design are what matters most to you when choosing a Chromebook, the Dell Chromebook 13 is one to check out.

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As mentioned, this is a Chromebook that allows you to choose the specs that suit your needs. However, whichever model you opt for, the common aspect is the display which comes in at 13.3-inches, while adopting a 1920 x 1080 resolution. In terms of the price, depending on the configuration chosen, expect the price to range anywhere between $500 and $900.

7. Lenovo Flex 11 Chromebook

The Lenovo Flex 11 Chromebook is a brand new product to the Chromebook market as it only become available to buy within the last few weeks. Making this one worth considering, although it is still too early to say for sure how good this one is. In terms of price, this is a Chromebook which is positioned towards the middle of the Chromebook market (as it can currently does cost $279.99) and is one which offers flexibility, due to the inclusion of a 360-degree rotatable hinge. So this is another option for those looking for a portable and multi-use Chromebook.

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However, this is also a smaller Chromebook with the display coming in at 11.6-inches and the resolution resigned to only 1366 x 768. Although inside, the Lenovo Flex 11 Chromebook does come loaded with 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, and is powered by a MediaTek MTK 8173C Processor (clocking at 2.10 GHz). So while this is a good-looking Chromebook and one which also comes with a decent spec list, the price might be a little high for what you are getting.

6. Samsung Chromebook 3

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The Samsung Chromebook 3 on the other hand, is a great all-round Chromebook option. It will not blow you away on the specs front and its design is fairly mediocre. However, this is a super affordable Chromebook and for the asking price, offers a lot. It is also a Chromebook that is available in more than one variant. So while being affordable in itself, it is also available in an even more affordable option. In fact, the only notable difference between the two models is the RAM count, with the most affordable option coming equipped with 2GB RAM and the more premium option, 4GB RAM.

The rest of the specs are common to both and include an 11.6-inch display with a 1366 x 768 resolution, 16GB storage, and an Intel Celeron (N3050) processor. As for the price, the 2GB RAM is currently available for under $145  which is a great price for an entry-level Chromebook and an easy recommendation.

5. Lenovo ThinkPad 13

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The Lenovo ThinkPad 13 is all about offering the user a greater amount of screen real estate, without the price tag attached to some of the other options. So if you are after a larger Chromebook display, and not looking to spend too much, then the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 is one to consider. This is a Chromebook that can currently be picked up for under $200 and one which comes with a 13.3-inch display. Although, the resolution is resigned to only $1366 x 768. Nevertheless, this is a great option for those on a budget as the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 offers all the benefits of Chrome OS, with a larger display, at a highly affordable price.

Display aside, the rest of the specs on offer are pretty decent too, with the Lenovo ThinkPad 13 coming loaded with 4GB RAM, 16GB storage, an Intel Celeron 3855 U processor, and USB Type-C ports.

4. Acer Chromebook R 13

The Acer Chromebook R 13 is another Chromebook which looks to offer more for your money by coming equipped with an improved design and a rotating hinge, which allows it to be used in more positions than a traditional Chromebook. However, this is also designed to be a premium Chromebook, bridging design with portability. Not to mention, as this is an Acer Chromebook, its design is one which has been refined over time and multiple models. Making this one a great option for those looking for something which comes with a little more attention to the detail, while remaining usable on-the-go.

Inside, the Acer Chromebook R 13 comes loaded with 4GB RAM, 32GB storage and is powered by a MediaTek (MT8173C) quad-core processor. The display comes in at 13.3-inches which places it in the larger category of Chromebooks, while the resolution on offer is 1920 x 1080. In terms of the price, the Acer Chromebook R 13 can be picked up just under $400. So this is not a cheap Chromebook, but is one that is worth the asking price.

3. Acer Chromebook 14

Many of the Chromebooks currently available look to offer a specific selling point. The Acer Chromebook 14 on the other hand, does not. This is very much a traditional laptop-like Chromebook with no over-the-top features on offer. However, that is where its strength lies. If you are simply looking for a standard Chromebook which comes with an excellent build quality and a performance level to match, then the Acer Chromebook 14 is arguably the one to go for.

In terms of price, the Acer Chromebook 14 costs just under $300 which makes it cheaper than a number of the other tier 1 options, but the specs are largely the same. In fact, in terms of the display, the Acer Chromebook 14 comes loaded with a 14-inch display (with a 1920 x 1080 resolution), making it one of the larger options you will find, offering more screen real estate for the money. Inside, the Acer Chromebook 14 comes loaded with 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, and is powered by an Intel Celeron N3160 processor.

2. ASUS Chromebook Flip C302

The ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 is one of the newest Chromebooks to come through from ASUS and is the second to arrive as part of the popular Flip range. Which makes it instantly worth considering. This one not only follows in the footsteps of the previous Flip model, but does so with an even better spec list, a larger display and an improved design. All of that does come with a greater price tag though, as this is one of the more expensive Chromebooks on this list, with the price coming in at $499.

For that price, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 comes with a 12.5-inch display which adopts a 1920 x 1080 resolution. Which marks one of the biggest improvements compared to the much smaller 10.1-inch display on offer with the older model. Display aside, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C302 comes with a rotating hinge for use in a number of positions, as well as 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, and an Intel Core processor.

1. Samsung Chromebook Plus

Retaining the top position this month is the Samsung Chromebook Plus. Samsung is actually about to release a new version of this Chromebook (the Chromebook Pro), although both versions are largely the same, with the exception of the processor. So while you can hold out for the Chromebook Pro, the Plus version is just as good, and well worth the asking price. In addition to all the competing specs that are on offer, this Chromebook includes a stylus to go along with the touchscreen display and a 360-degree rotating hinge  to allow the Chromebook to be used in a variety of positions.

In terms of the rest of specs, the display comes in at a 12.3-inch size and adopting an impressive 2400 x 1600 resolution. Inside, you can expect to find 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, an ARM hexa-core processor, and more. In terms of price, the Chromebook Pro is currently available for a little under $450.
Google Maps v9.54 just launched on the Play Store, and it has a few changes in there, but the majority of the news with this release lies in the code. The APK has been torn apart to see whats new in the code, and it turns out, there are quite a few changes coming, but none of them are live yet. The most interesting, especially for those excited about Android O, is notification channels. Google is adding notification channels in Android O, and theres some groundwork code in v9.54 of Google Maps for these notification channels. Basically, notifications from Google Maps are going to Other Notifications, seeing as most notifications from Google Maps arent that important anyways.

It also appears that Google Maps will be adding support for saved locations for school and gym. Theres some code already in the APK that hint at this, but Google has also added a picture for each location that will be used. This is going to make it easier for Google Now to tell you when you need to leave to head to school and/or the gym, especially if it is on your calendar to head to either place. Not a huge feature for Google Maps, but still very useful. There also appears to be a task list for Nearby Need, and as Android Police points out, theres not a whole lot of information here about this feature, but it does sound like its a way to remind you to do things when youre nearby different locations or venues. Its likely that Google will give out more information about this in the future.

This is the beta version of Google Maps, so if you have opted into the beta, you should see the update pretty soon. However, if you are impatient and want the update now, you can sideload the APK using the download link below. To sideload the APK, simply download the APK, then go to settings and make sure that Unknown Sources is checked, and youll be able to install it. It will install over your existing installation of Google Maps.
Chinese tech conglomerate Lenovo Group will never discontinue its own smartphone brand in favor of committing all of its resources to Motorola Mobility, i.e. Moto-branded devices, according to the companys top official  Yang Yuanqing. In a statement given on Thursday, Lenovo Group Chief Executive Officer and Chairman said that the Beijing-based tech giant is adamant to continue pursuing the dual-brand product strategy that its mobile business adopted in late 2014 after the firm purchased Motorola Mobility from Google. Yang was asked to comment on Lenovos future mobile plans after the company announced a restructuring of its domestic operations, with Lenovos top executive stating that the firms original phone brand will not be phased out in favor of Moto at any point in the future.

While the Beijing-based tech giant labeled its restructuring efforts as a pro-consumer move, some industry watchers believe that the companys recent decision was likely prompted by its financial troubles that started after the global PC market started declining. While facing increasing losses, Lenovo apparently doesnt see its original handset brand as a disposable asset that can be absorbed by Moto in an effort to cut costs and streamline marketing efforts. The same cannot be said of ZUK, Lenovos phone sub-brand that the company is reportedly close to permanently shutting down. Initial rumors of ZUK being discontinued emerged in late April and while an update on the situation has yet to emerge, the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer will likely provide more details on the matter in the near future.

In the short term, Lenovo is planning to restructure its domestic division into two units, one of which will be focused on its data operations, while the other will manage the companys consumer-oriented products and services. Even though the firms mobile business has yet to return to the black following its acquisition of Motorola, Lenovo apparently isnt planning to cut costs in this department, with recent reports indicating that seven more Moto-branded smartphones are set to be released by the end of the year as the Chinese tech giant is adamant to continue competing in all price segments.
Nokia 9 Geekbench results seem to suggest 8GB of RAM will be included in the device as a different variant offered by HMD Global. Along with the amount of memory shown in the benchmark results, the device labeled as Unknown Heart also shows that its running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat and that it comes with an octa-core processor with a 1.90GHz clock frequency, thought to be the Snapdragon 835 processor. The only other real details that can be seen are the single and multi-core scores for the benchmark, which interestingly enough appear lower than those for previous Nokia 9 Geekbench listings which showed the device with 4GB of RAM instead of 8GB.

Todays listing shows the device with a single-core score of 769, and a multi-core score of 1630, with 8GB of RAM. Previous listings for what seems like the same exact device from back on May 20th (though the results were uploaded to Geekbench on May 6th according to the listing) show the device with 4GB of RAM and a single-core score of 1815 and a multi-core score of 6278.

What the difference in scores means is unclear especially when this latest set of results is with a device that looks to have double the amount of memory, but as Nokia and HMD Global get closer to announcing the device officially more details should spill over as to what the actual hardware is that the device is running with and what the specifications are. This Geekbench listing is just one of the most recent pieces of information surrounding the Nokia 9 to pop up. Just a few days ago a leaked set of images surfaced that appeared to be showing the Nokia 9 as a prototype model, though it was enclosed in a case of some sort that is likely meant to hide the phones actual design. In those images though you can see the phone has dual rear-facing cameras which is one of the features the phone is rumored to have, and which was shown off in a different leak earlier in the month in what looked like a promotional video for some of Nokias phones, one of which seemed to be the Nokia 9.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has in the past praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly, set political tongues wagging with his decision today.

By Rohit Kumar Singh, India Today Web Desk: Raising speculations in political circles, Janata Dal (United) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today skipped meeting of leaders of 17 Opposition political parties called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi but agreed to have lunch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.

Kumar will attend lunch with Modi which is being thrown in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth who arrived in India on a three-day visit.

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Nitish sent party leaders Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi for the crucial meeting with Sonia Gandhi, which coincided with the completion of three years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by PM Modi.

WHY DID NITISH SAY YES TO MODI AND NO TO SONIA: Nitish Kumar, who has in the past praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi openly, set political tongues wagging with his decision today and is being seen in political circles as an indication of his political closeness. When quizzed by the media, Kumar however tried to shoot down all speculations saying he had already met Sonia Gandhi before and it was announced 4-5 days ago that Sharad Yadav will represent JD(U) at the Opposition meeting. "Everything else is misinterpretation," he said. During his luncheon meeting with PM Modi tomorrow, Nitish Kumar will not miss the chance of discussing the issue of national policy on desiltation of Ganga river. "Today's meeting with Sonia Gandhi was political and tomorrow's meeting with PM is completely official. I will be attending tomorrow's meeting with PM in capacity as Chief Minister of a state," Nitish Kumar said. JD(U) leaders said it will be purely an "official meeting" and nothing to do with politics. "Nitish Kumar will submit a list of unfulfilled promises made to Bihar, including a special financial package and his old demand of special category status for the state. It is not going to be a meeting to discuss politics," a senior JD-U leader said. Sonia Gandhi had recently called Nitish Kumar over phone and discussed with him the possibility of a consensus opposition candidate in the Presidential election. The Bihar Chief Minister is reported to have favoured a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee. In the recent past there has been a number of instances where Nitish has supported PM Modi and snubbed Lalu Prasad Yadav. Examples include surgical strikes, demonetisation, crack down on benami property and tampering of EVMs during elections. Even PM Modi had once praised Nitish for prohibition of liquor. There has been speculations about a tie-up between JD(U) and the BJP, something Kumar has repeatedly refuted. JD(U) had broken its 17-year alliance with BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi was declared the saffron party's prime ministerial candidate. Nitish Kumar now heads the JD(U)-RJD-Congress coalition government in Bihar.

Also read:

Presidential election: Nitish chooses to skip Sonia's Opposition meeting to discuss consensus candidate

Nitish skips Opposition parties' meet convened by Sonia Gandhi to discuss presidential nominee

Also watch:

Sushil Modi offers BJP support to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, asks him to dump Lalu Prasad

--- ENDS ---
One of the law firms that was previously pursuing a case over the Nexus 5X has dropped its LG Nexus 5X Bootloop lawsuit reportedly due to LG extending warranty support for the device for some of the customers who were having problems. In some instances LG is even offering to repair the device, thus providing customers with a resolution to get their phone fixed. The law firm in question is Chimicles & Tikellis LLP, which was the most recent to file a case against LG over device issues, and was also pursuing a case against Huawei and Google over issues with the Nexus 6P, which they ended up filing for after they began an investigation to look into bootloop issues with that device.

While the lawsuit over the Nexus 5X has now been dropped as Chimicles & Tikellis LLP filed for a voluntary dismissal of the case, there has been no mention of the case being dropped for the Nexus 6P. That said, a quick search on the C&T website for Nexus 6P brings up a notice of a report posted two days ago about a complaint that was filed over the bootloop, battery drain, and early shutoff issues with that device, so this is still ongoing though it is noted that the case is pending and has yet to move forward and go to court.

While this is good news for those who are customers of the LG Nexus 5X so long as theyre able to contact LG support to get the resolution they need, it should also be noted that Chimicles & Tikellis LLP is only one of the two law firms that had filed a lawsuit against LG for this problem. The first, which is Girard Gibbs LLP, seems to be continuing as you can still reach the case file about the lawsuit on their website. If you were one of the customers who owns a Nexus 5X and hasnt gotten any assistance with the device problem, and you havent pursued any action per the case, it might be worth looking into as it may result in favorable outcome. Its also recommended that customers contact LG support as that may be the best way for them to get assistance.
Forbes has officially released its yearly list ranking the worlds most valuable brands and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Google and Samsung have ranked pretty well. The ranking, which was published on May 24th, is the result of evaluation for over 200 brands that operate on a global scale over a three-year period. To reach its conclusion, Forbes looked at 3-years worth of earning performance, the overall performance of each brand, its associated assets, the direction each company appears to be headed, and the overall impact each brand has in its specific market. Google ranked number two with an estimated brand value of $101.8 billion, while Samsung came up a spot to number ten at $38.2 billion.

It could probably have been guessed that Google would do well. After all, finances associated with the search giant have been in the news recently and previous rankings seem to show an upward, or at least stable, trend. Its placement in second is also proceeded by taking the same spot in 2016 in addition to taking the third spot in 2015. In those years, the brand was valued at $82.5 and $65.6 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, Samsungs rankings have been less stable and obtaining a spot on the list despite setbacks, difficulties, and associated damage control over the past year or so is quite an accomplishment. It managed to move up from its eleventh place holding last year, with a valuation at the time of $36.1 billion. That said, it has done better in the past. In 2015, Samsung ranked at number seven on Forbes list and was valued at $37.0 billion.

Others on the top ten list include Apple, Coco-Cola, Amazon, Facebook, Disney, McDonalds, Microsoft, and Toyota. Google fell just short of Apple, with the competitor valued at $170 billion. Meanwhile, Samsung just missed McDonalds brand value  which the world-famous fast food joint hitting the list with $40.3 billion. Others on that list were ranked in between the two ends of the spectrum. Toyota beat out McDonalds at $41.1 billion, while Disney hit the list at $43.9 billion. Amazon and Coke held scores of $54.1 and $56.4 billion respectively. Facebook is said to be worth $73.5 billion. Finally, Microsoft came in third place at $87 billion. Both Samsung and Google appear to be doing very well, according to the figures included in the ranking. For Samsung to remain as brand-competitive as it has, in spite of its several highly publicized missteps is an accomplishment in and of itself. Google, on the other hand, has maintained steady brand growth over the past two years at 15% value growth or better and shows no signs of slowing down.
In an effort to show its seriousness in the field of semiconductor outsourcing, Samsung has announced that it will be promoting its foundry business into a separate business unit. By separating the foundry division from its other electronics businesses, Samsung hopes to ease the fears of potential customers over possible conflicts of interest. As the foundry business was managed alongside other divisions, potential customers are concerned on whether or not other divisions of the South Korean tech giant can access the important patents and trade secrets of its foundry customers. Aside from allaying the fears of customers, elevating the foundry to a separate business ensures that the foundry can access the vast resources of Samsung Electronics, making the foundry more competitive against traditional competitors like TSMC and GlobalFoundries. It is also facing additional competition from Intel, which recently announced its return to the made-to-order chip business.

Aside from organizational changes, Samsung banks on improved production technologies and additional facilities to stay ahead of the competition. The foundry unit aims to release new technologies, which include the 8-nanometer and 7-nanometer process nodes, ahead of the competition. The company also plans to begin using a new technology named the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUL). The EUL technology allows Samsung to more efficiently manufacture semiconductors by reducing the steps involved in its production. The increased efficiency could drive down costs, which could then be passed on to its customers. Recently, Samsung was able to release the 10-nanometer process node ahead of its largest competitor TSMC, allowing the former to win the production contract for Qualcomms Snapdragon 835.

Competition is very much present in the industry of semiconductor outsourcing. While Samsung maintains the lead in terms of process node size, it still deals with the technological prowess of its competitors TSMC and Intel. TSMC plans to release its own 7-nanometer technology next year with additional plans to reduce process size all the way down to 3-nanometer by the year 2022. TSMC also plans to spend $15.7 billion dollars to develop and build a production facility for the 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer process node technologies. Intel, for its part, is claiming that its 10-nanometer process will still be more advanced than what TSMC and Samsung currently offers. The company claims that its 10-nanometer process can incorporate twice the number of transistors compared to the similar offerings from competing foundries, making its process a full generation ahead of the competition.
By Press Trust of India: By Aditi Khanna

London, May 25 (PTI) India today called on the world to act against not only terrorists but also harbourers of terrorism, days after the suicide bombing at a concert arena in Manchester killed 22 people.

"The world needs to act not only against terrorists but also supporters, harbourers and apologists for terrorism," Indian High Commissioner to the UK Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha said after Indian mission staff and hundreds of community leaders and schoolchildren joined in the UK-wide one-minute silence in memory of the victims of Monday nights terror attack in Manchester.

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The suicide bombing in the Arena killed 22 people and injured 119. Sixty four injured still remain hospitalised.

The Indian envoy was addressing an event titled The Unremembered: The Indian Story in the city of Leicester to mark the centenary of the Labour Corp and bring a special focus on the courage and contribution of the Indian Labour Corps during World War I.

A simultaneous event was held at the India Gate in New Delhi, where the names of the 1,174 Indian labourers in the war have been engraved.

"The architect of the India Gate - Indias memorial to 13,281 dead of World War One - was designed by Edwin Lutyens. It is little known beyond Leicester that Lutyens built an almost identical monument as a local war memorial to 12,000 Leicestershire men who died in World War I using an almost identical design," an official statement said.

The memorial, which is called the Arch of Remembrance, is in Leicesters Victoria Park.

The monument was used to evoke the memory of the Indians commemorated at the India Gate, with the high commissioner laying a wreath of marigolds.

"Thousands of workers supported the war effort from around the world. Many faced racism and discrimination. They served with courage but they have been almost completely forgotten. They are The Unremembered," said the UKs Department for Communities and Local Government backed project team.

Following the commemoration, children from local schools and community groups in Leicester took part in a series of activities, including creative writing, planting marigolds and visits to the 18 British war graves at Welford Road Cemetery, which had served as a World War One field hospital. PTI AK UZM

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YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The organic agriculture branch of Armenia has great development potential, however the development pace is proceeding slowly.

ARMENPRESS talked to Stefan Dreesman, representative of Saxonys Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection, about prospects of development, existing potential and issues of the branch in Armenia.

The German expert has arrived in Armenia to participate in the programs jointly organized by the ACBA Credit Agricole Bank and Germanys Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU)  aimed at assisting the sectors producers and boosting the development of organic agriculture.

ARMENPRESS  Mr. Dreesman, in your assessment , in what state is Armenias organic agriculture branch? What opportunities do you see for the development of this branch in Armenia?

Mr. Dreesman  I am sure that the development of organic agriculture is a possible process in Armenia, just like in the entire world. Worldwide people want to buy ecologically clean products, thats why the demand for these products is growing. In addition, the number of people engaged in agriculture is also increasing, who are willing to process products without using chemical materials. The profit is larger for people who are engaged in organic agriculture, compared to those who are engaged in traditional agriculture. In terms of profit, it is beneficial for demand and agricultural businesses.

Great potential of organic agriculture exists in Armenia. The volume of usage of chemical materials till now wasnt large, and this is also a positive trend for the development of organic agriculture. In addition, many land areas of agricultural significance are uncultivated, thats why it is possible to use such areas for organic agriculture. Climate conditions enable to cultivate several agricultural products without chemical additives.

Stefan Dreesman said this is his 4th visit to Armenia. Although its been a few days that Im here, Ive already seen that many investments have been made in the branch and Ive notices the change of the sector, he said, adding that many greenhouses and plantations have been built, and previously uncultivated lands are being used.

The full interview is available in Armenian.
IAF's Sukhoi-30 was on a routine training sortie when it lost contact with the ground control after taking off from Tezpur air base in Assam.

A Sukhoi-30 of the Indian Air Force went missing on May 23. (File photo for representation)

By Manjeet Negi: The wreckage of Indian Air Force's Sukhoi-30 fighter jet, which went missing on May 23 near China border, has been found in Rupa Valley, 60 km from Tezpur, in Arunachal Pradesh. There is no word on the two pilots on board the jet so far. A Sukhoi-30, C-130 aircraft with electro-optical payload and ALH helicopters of the IAF are being utilised to retrieve the remains of the combat jet.

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The jet with two pilots on board was on a routine sortie when it went missing on Tuesday morning around 60 km northwest of Tezpur airbase in Assam. There were reports of adverse weather in the area when multi-role combat jet lost contact with the ground control.

Search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be pursued by the ground parties after they reach the crash site. Search parties of Army are also attempting to reach the crash site by trekking.

However their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of the terrain.

Incessant rain and dense clouds hampered the search operations in air and on the ground. Search parties of IAF and Army set out to the area where the aircraft was declared missing. A court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident.

China on Wednesday said it had "no information" on the missing jet.

Asked if China had any information about the jet and whether it had offered information to India, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told reporters, "First of all, on the eastern section of China India border, our position is consistent and clear. We have been following the situation in South Tibet very closely," he said, using the term China uses for Arunachal Pradesh which it has claims on.

"As for the situation you mentioned, I have no relevant information to offer at the moment," he added.

The country's frontline SU-30 MKI aircraft was inducted in the Tezpur air base on June 15, 2009.

At present, two squadrons comprising around 36 aircraft are deployed at Tezpur for guarding the China-India border in Arunachal Pradesh.

ALSO READ :

Two days and yet no trace of IAF's Sukhoi 30 which went missing near China border with two pilots on board

China says no information on missing Sukhoi, warns India on 'disturbing peace'

Search for Sukhoi: Air Force deploys C-130 aircraft, Chetak helicopters to locate missing jet

WATCH | Wreckage of missing Sukhoi-30 found, no information on pilots

--- ENDS ---

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India, Australia, and the whole Southeast Asia region are expected to post the strongest growth in Asia Pacific deal announcements in the first nine months of the year.The forecast comes from the Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor report for global M&A activity for the first three quarters of 2017, which says that the number of announced deals in APAC over the period is expected to grow 13% year-over-year to nearly 13,000 deals.APAC is predicted to record the highest growth for the period, followed by North America (11%); Latin America (7%); and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (0%).According to Matt Porzio, Intralinks vice president, the strongest growth in announced deals in APAC is expected to come from the consumer and retail, financials, and healthcare sectors. In the middle of the pack are the materials, industrials, and real estate sectors, while the technology, media, and telecommunications as well as energy and power sectors are expected to cool down.Philip Whitchelo, Intralinks vice president, said that the notorious clampdown by Chinese authorities on outbound M&A has reduced the number of very large transactions, weighing down aggregate announced deal value. However, the impact is significantly smaller than expected on the number of outbound M&A deals from China, he said.Nonetheless, India may overtake China in the news cycle in the APAC region after quietly becoming the fastest-growing large economy in 2015, Intralinks said. The International Monetary Fund predicts Indias growth to outpace China between 2016 and 2022.
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Vice President Mike Pence while delivering the commencement speech at the U.S. Naval Academy's graduation and commissioning ceremony Friday:

"President Trump is the best friend of the armed forces the United States will ever have. I promise, no matter where you're called to serve, no matter what the mission, this commander in chief will always have your back."

the United States will ever have. I promise, no matter where you're called to serve, no matter what the mission, this commander in chief will always have your back." "Let me be clear, the era of budget cuts of the Armed Forces of the United States is over... let our adversaries and enemies know that America is prepared to lead, and fight and win any contest, any struggle, anywhere, on behalf of freedom."

of the Armed Forces of the United States is over... let our adversaries and enemies know that America is prepared to lead, and fight and win any contest, any struggle, anywhere, on behalf of freedom." "As the proud parents of a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, my wife [who Pence referred to as "my commanding officer"] and I know that this graduation is an important moment for your loved ones."
26 May 2017 17:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The widespread corruption in Armenia is gaining momentum, and now the government of the country has come up with another silly idea.

In addition to the Anti-Corruption Council, Armenia is going to create the second body, now not for fight against corruption but for its prevention.

The Armenian government has proposed to establish another almost identical body to combat the corruption in the country. The draft law "On body for prevention of corruption" was approved at the government meeting on May 25, the Armenian media report.

The Armenian media reported that the new body on prevention of corruption will monitor ethics of the countrys officials, conflicts of interest and other requirements for the Armenian officials.

These requirements will apply not only to high-ranking officials, but also to employees in sectors with high potential risks of corruption: public procurement, public prosecution and investigative bodies.

So far, the Anti-Corruption Council of Armenia failed to fight against this problem, which is destroying the country and its statehood.

The fact of destructive corruption in Armenia was repeatedly pointed out by many foreign representatives in the country. In particular, the U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills has recently harshly demanded from the Armenian authorities to stop this outrage. The diplomat noted that if Armenia does not manage to solve the problem of corruption, it will affect the relations between the two countries in specific areas  for example, in investments.

It is obvious that no matter how many state bodies against corruption Armenia creates, nothing will change while its current president Serzh Sargsyan rules the country. Instead of implementing a serious fight against the problem, the authorities make unrealistic promises for poor Armenian population, just like Sargsyan has recently made at the first meeting of the newly elected Parliament.

The 2015 report of the Transparency International Anti-corruption Center showed that Armenia is one of the most corrupt country of the world.

Despite the European Union Delegation to Yerevan contributing 1.5 million towards two anti-corruption projects in the 2011-2014 period, the doleful situation has shown no signs of change. Moreover, the Armenian authorities do not support the fight but impede it, as the government is itself mired in corruption.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 11:13 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan and Russia have signed the "Main Action Plan for 2017 on the project of establishing a service center for maintenance and repair of Russian and Soviet-produced civil helicopters in the territory of Azerbaijan" as part of the 10th International Exhibition HeliRussia-2017 in Moscow.

President of Azerbaijan Airlines Jahangir Asgarov, Director General of Russian Helicopters holding Andrey Boginsky, President of Silk Way Holding Zaur Akhundov and Director General of Silk Way Helicopter Services Azer Sultanov took part in the negotiations.

As part of the implementation of the decisions of the 16th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation, the parties confirmed mutual interest in the implementation of the project to open a service center for maintenance and repair of Russian and Soviet-produced civil and military helicopters in Azerbaijan.

The joint work on this project began in 2016. During the ADEX-2016 exhibition in Baku, Silk Way Helicopter Services and Russian Helicopters signed an agreement to open a service center for the repair of Russian Mi-8/17 type civil helicopters in the territory of Azerbaijan.

As a continuation of the work begun, at the 10th International Exhibition HeliRussia-2017 President of CJSC Azerbaijan Airlines Jahangir Asgarov and Director General of the Russian Helicopters Holding Boginsky signed the Main Actions Plan for 2017 on the project of establishing a service center for maintenance and repair of Russian and Soviet-produced civil helicopters in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Silk Way Helicopter Services is one of the most modern aviation enterprises in Azerbaijan. Every year helicopters of the company transport more than 50,000 passengers. At the moment a fleet of aircrafts, which is based at Zabrat Airport includes Sikorsky S-92A, Leonardo Helicopters AW139, Airbus Helicopters AS-332L1, Airbus Helicopters EC-155B1, i-8-1, i-8 helicopters, as well as Cessna 172S airplanes.

Russian Helicopters is the only Russian helicopter manufacturer and one of the few companies worldwide with the capability to design, manufacture, service and test modern civilian and military helicopters. Russian Helicopters holding is part of State Corporation Rostec.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 12:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Economy Ministry of Azerbaijan has granted concessional loans worth 36.2 million manats ($21.3 million) to local entrepreneurs since early 2017.

The funds will be directed for realization of about 360 projects, said Shirzad Abdullayev, the NFES Executive Director, addressing a business forum in Bakikhanov settlement in Baku.

As of today, businessmen of Baku and its settlements received preferential loans in the amount of 377.6 million manats ($221.8 million). These funds were used to implement 1,345 projects, he added.

The Fund issued soft loans worth 9.8 million manats ($5.7 million) during the business forum in Bakikhanov t. These funds will be used to develop the production of building materials, kitchen and household accessories, the creation of a greenhouse complex, the development of poultry and livestock and other areas.

Some 150 million manats ($88.1 million) will be issued for granting preferential loans to entrepreneurs in 2017.

The Fund was established in 1992. The main task of the Fund is to provide lax credits from the state budget for entrepreneurship, including small and medium business. Loans are being issued to entrepreneurs through authorized banks and non-bank lenders.

Allocation of funds by NFES is aimed at the mitigating of the impact of global economic crisis to the national economy and minimization of its dependence on the oil sector. The state is eager to diversify the national economy and provide for the development of entrepreneurship in the country.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 12:19 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) has so far paid compensations worth over 733,32 million manats ($590 million) to depositors of Parabank, Zaminbank, Dekabank, Kredobank, Caucasus Development Bank, Atrabank, Bank of Azerbaijan, Gandjabank, Texnikabank and Bank Standard, which were closed in 2016.

Banks Volume of paid compensations (million manats) Volume of paid compensation out of the total volume (pct) Bank Standard 437,346 99,1 Zaminbank 58,229 80 Dekabank 3,087 98,7 Kredobank 27,771 99,9 Caucasus Development Bank 2,004 96 Atrabank 14,35 98,2 Bank of Azerbaijan 24,161 97 Gandjabank 0,976 94 Texnikabank 120,433 98,2 Parabank 43,218 98,5

United Credit 1,743 83

Bank

The licenses of all the banks were revoked in 2016, as their assets were not classified in line with the law, and they didnt create adequate reserves and their aggregate capital did not meet the minimum requirements.

Licenses of all ten banks were withdrawn in 2016 due to the discrepancy of their total capital with the minimum requirement of the regulator [50 million manat] and default to the creditors.

Some 32 banks are currently implementing their activities in the country.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 17:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

First Azerbaijan Trade House, created to support the promotion of Azerbaijani goods, was opened in the Belarusian capital Minsk.

Azerbaijani delegation led by Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev attended the opening ceremony held on May 26.

The Trade House is aimed to promote national products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand in Belarus, and engage in marketing research, participation in exhibitions and other activities related to the promotion of Azerbaijani goods.

Mustafayev addressed the opening ceremony, saying that Azerbaijan Trade House in Belarus is contributing to diversification of the trade between the countries.

The opening of Azerbaijan Trade House in Minsk is an important event that caused great interest among Belarusian entrepreneurs as its main goal is to promote the Made in Azerbaijan brand, promote export, expand and develop bilateral cooperation, Mustafayev said.

He added that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Belarus increased by 33 percent in 2016 and by more than 40 percent in the first four months of 2017.

Today, the Azerbaijan-Belarus ties are at a high level, Mustafayev said. The friendly relations between the Azerbaijani and Belarusian presidents give those ties a powerful impetus. Azerbaijani and Belarusian people have sincere and friendly relations.

The minister stressed that the initiative to open the Trade House was put forward at the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Belarusian presidents in November 2016.

Great job was done, several visits were made, the Azerbaijani-Belarusian business forum was organized and a place for the location of Azerbaijan Trade House was chosen for such a short period, he mentioned.

In turn, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said that Azerbaijan will be able to balance trade with Belarus thanks to the activity of its Trade House in Minsk.

Makei added that Belarus will directly receive most demanded products from Azerbaijan, for example, fruits, vegetables and natural juices.

This is the first foreign Trade House of Azerbaijan, he added. It is natural that Azerbaijans first Trade House opened in Belarus because Azerbaijan and Belarus have a very close and meaningful dialogue at all levels. This dialogue is based on friendship between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Belarus.

The minister said that thanks to the direct supply of Azerbaijani products to the Belarusian market, it will be possible to supply those products to other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union in the future.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 18:12 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The downgrade of the ratings of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) from Fitch and Moody's was quite expected, said IBA Board Chairman Khalid Ahadov.

"This is a quite normal decision for a bank in the process of restructuring. IBA ratings have been reduced only for a short period of time. Once the bank's financial position is strengthened, international rating agencies will raise the ratings again, told the Chairman.

Ahadov noted that this decision will not affect the bank's activity in any way. IBA continues all operations and customer service in normal mode.

The Chairman said this process will ensure the strengthening of the bank's financial positions, both in Azerbaijan and abroad.

Fitch assigned the Bank a CCC rating, and Moody's rating was revised to Caa3.

In July 2015, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the measures for rehabilitation related to the preparations for privatizing the state-owned shares of the IBA.

The drawbacks in the management, investment and loan policy of the IBA, as well as financing of less efficient, risky investment projects worsened the Bank's financial state, caused increase in the share of distressed assets and reduced its liquidity.

The restructuring plan considers a restructuring process to be effected through an exchange of IBAs senior and junior foreign currency obligations for direct sovereign obligations of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The bank has been operating since 1992 and is one of the country's two state banks.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 17:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani business ladies have joined the 27th Global Summit of Woman held in Tokyo, Japan.

The delegation included Head of the National Center of Costumes Gulnara Khalilova, Chairman of the Public Association "Institute of international studies Eurasia", MP Ganira Pashayeva, Chairman of LLC "Health protection" Yazgul Abdiyeva, Chairman of LLC "Business woman" Suraiya Ismayilova, researcher Kamala Pashayeva, entrepreneurs Arzu Bagirova, Lala Bagirova and Tegran Naghiyeva, Trend Life reported.

Our delegation informed the participants about the realities of the Karabakh war, the occupation of our lands and Armenian aggression, said Gulnara Khalilova.  We also informed them about Azerbaijan, its fact economic development and its success in the international arena in various fields of activity.

Khalilova said that during the event they presented a number of honorary guests of the summit catalog to promote the Azerbaijani national clothes and kelaghai, national headscarf.

Azerbaijani delegation was received by Azerbaijani Ambassador to Japan, Gursel Ismailzade. The diplomat and his wife received national costumes from the National Center of Costumes.

Women government and business leaders from over 60 countries gathered at a forum in Tokyo that began Thursday to discuss how to accelerate womens economic progress worldwide.

The theme of the 2017 Summit  "Beyond Womenomics: Accelerating Access" showcased various initiatives developed in different parts of the world to speed up both womens access to corporate leadership roles as well as strategies for growing women-owned enterprises worldwide. In addition, the 2017 Summit informed delegates on how to access the Japanese and Asia-Pacific market, showcase women business and government leaders from the region, and provide skills- building sessions, as well as establish networks among such leaders.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 10:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is fragile, David McAllister, Chairman of the European Parliaments committee on foreign affairs, said on May 25.

This conflict has no military solution, McAllister said in Yerevan, adding that a long-term settlement based on international law is needed, RIA Novosti reports.

McAllister stressed that the EU supports the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts in this work, calling on the parties to respect the ceasefire and their commitment to peaceful settlement of the conflict.

He noted that Brussels is concerned about an arms race in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, confrontational rhetoric and incidents on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, which lead to casualties.

McAllister also said the EU urges the sides to resume negotiations without preconditions on the basis of the OSCE Minsk Group proposals.

The OSCE Minsk Group, the activities of which have become known as the Minsk Process, spearheads the OSCE's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Although the OSCE Minsk Group deals with the issue for over two decades, its activities have brought no breakthrough results so far.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 12:24 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The investigation into the criminal case of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who is under arrest in Azerbaijan, is completed, his lawyer Eduard Chernin told Trend on May 26.

The lawyer today met with Lapshin in the medical center of the detention facility. Chernin said he will be presented with the case materials on May 30 and then they will be sent to the court.

Lapshins medical treatment continues and the blogger feels well, Chernin added.

Blogger Lapshin, who owns citizenship of several countries, will stand trial in Baku for his illegal visits to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

The blogger illegally visited Azerbaijan`s Armenia-occupied lands and now is charged under the articles 281.2 (appeals directed against state) and 318.2 (illegal border crossing) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. He violated Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012.

Helped by his accomplices in the occupied territories, Lapshin paid a number of visits to Azerbaijan`s occupied lands, where he voiced support for "independence" of the illegal regime, and made public calls against Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.

The blogger was arrested in Minsk in late 2016 and transferred to Baku in February 2017.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
26 May 2017 10:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan declared its independence establishing the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic on May 28, 1918, which became the first secular parliamentary democracy in the Muslim World and recognized by other democratic nations, including the United States of America.

During the short period of independence Azerbaijan granted all people the rights to vote regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, becoming the first Muslim nation to give women equal political rights with men, an accomplishment preceding the United States. Azerbaijans independence was interrupted in 1920, when it was invaded by Bolshevists, and forcefully incorporated into the USSR in 1922 to restore its independence only in 1991.

The Embassy of Azerbaijan in Brazil has organized an event to celebrate the Republic Day, Azertac reported.

Members of the Brazilian National Congress, diplomats accredited in the country, representatives of state and official organizations, as well as journalists attended the event.

Azerbaijans Ambassador to Brazil Elkhan Polukhov highlighted the history of the Republic Day. He also briefed the event participants on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Chairman of the Brazil-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary friendship group at the Chamber of Deputies Claudio Cajado stressed that relations between the two countries are rapidly developing.

The event also featured a photo exhibition.

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26 May 2017 12:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Ecology and Natural Resources Minister, Huseyngulu Baghirov and the UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative, Ghulam M. Isaczai paid a visit to the Gizil-Agac protected area.

This joint visit was organized within the framework of the project, Increasing representation of effectively managed marine ecosystems in the protected area system of Azerbaijan.

The project will enhance the management effectiveness of coastal and marine protected areas to protect unique and rich biodiversity in Azerbaijan.

The Project is implemented by the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and UNDP, and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The objective of the field trip was to observe the projects progress and future activities.

Under the Project, a new administrative building for Gizil-Agac Protected Area has been constructed and channels protecting Gizil-Agac from hunting, poaching and other illegal activities were dug.

The project has also supported procurement of critical equipment including patrol boats, vehicles and uniforms, controlling and safety equipment for rangers and preparation of the GIS map of Gizil-Agac protected area.

In addition, the Project team is planning to improve working conditions of rangers, including construction and remodeling of ranger outposts, will organize capacity building trainings for staff, help with the preparation of management and Financial plans as well as an Ecosystem Monitoring Programme to ensure long-term sustainability of marine areas and help Gizil-Agac become a National Park.

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26 May 2017 10:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Republic Day is a national holiday in Azerbaijan, observed annually on 28 May. This was the day in 1918, when the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was proclaimed for the first time.

Although it existed for only 23 months, it brought about great progress in foreign policy, and introduced Azerbaijan to the international community. During the short period of independence Azerbaijan granted all people the rights to vote regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, becoming the first Muslim nation to give women equal political rights with men, an accomplishment preceding the United States.

Azerbaijans independence was interrupted in 1920, when it was invaded by Bolshevists, and forcefully incorporated into the USSR in 1922 to restore its independence only in 1991.

The diplomatic mission of Azerbaijan in Montevideo has organized a reception to mark the Republic Day, Azertac reported.

The event brought together Uruguay`s officials, senators, MPs, representatives of diplomatic corps and businessmen.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Uruguay Rashad Aslanov said the first democratic republic in the Muslim world was established in Azerbaijan.

He also highlighted Azerbaijan`s achievements under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev in recent years.

The diplomat said that bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Uruguay are dynamically developing.

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26 May 2017 14:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

An agreement has been reached on mutual recognition of electronic signatures (e-signature) among the member countries of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council).

Azerbaijans Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies stated that the issue was raised at the second meeting of the Councils working group in Istanbul.

The meeting participants agreed on creation of necessary conditions for recognition of e-signatures among Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

They also discussed the formation of joint electronic services among the member countries of the Council, touched upon the issues on exchange of experience and training in the creation of electronic government, introduction of the single window principle in providing e-services, development of mobile applications and others.

Besides, subgroup meetings were held within the meeting, where the prospects of cooperation of the countries in the areas of satellite communications, cyber security, development of broadband Internet services and construction of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) were reviewed.

The e- signature used in Azerbaijan will be recognized in the EU countries. Spokesman of the Digital Austria platform in Austria Christian Rupp announced about this in early 2017.

Digital signatures are like electronic fingerprints. Digital signatures use a standard, accepted format, called Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), to provide the highest levels of security and universal acceptance. They are a specific signature technology implementation of electronic signature (eSignature).

The e-Government website is a key tool for supporting work with citizens and businesses, belonging to the state and private sectors. It aims at reducing the number of documents required by the citizens, with the help of an electronic interaction among different bodies.

The access to the portal is conducted with the help of e-signature, the identity data of the private entrepreneurs and citizens, verification data (login and password), as well as mobile authentication system, which can be obtained in an electronic form after registering on the portal.

--

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26 May 2017 17:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan and Vietnam have intensified the bilateral relations over the past years, and great successes have been achieved, said Anar Imanov, Bakus Ambassador to Hanoi.

Imanov, talking to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the Republic Day of Azerbaijan celebrated on May 28 and the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides, said that the first two decades of diplomatic relations were smooth, but not active.

Over the past four years, the Azerbaijani embassy has worked hard to intensify bilateral cooperation between the two countries, according to the ambassador.

In 2014, President Ilham Aliyev paid a state visit to Vietnam and a year later, in 2015, Vietnam's President Trin San-Sang arrived in Azerbaijan on an official visit. Both visits played a decisive role in boosting the bilateral cooperation between our countries, he said, adding that during this time there were other numerous visits at various levels, including visits by members of both governments, parliaments, and officials of the ruling parties.

Imanov went on to say that the parliaments of the two states established friendship groups, as well as an intergovernmental commission for trade, economic and scientific and technical cooperation.

All this was done in the past four years, and we could not achieve this without strong political will on both sides and a very sincere and clear approach to our friendship. Both sides are interested in developing relations between our countries as actively as possible," said Imanov.

Azerbaijan could become a gateway to Vietnam in order to approach a large potential market in Europe, on the other hand, Vietnam could become a gateway to Azerbaijan's exit to the Southeast Asian market, the ambassador said, adding that Baku is implementing a number of energy projects such as the oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum for the delivery of oil and gas to Europe and the TANAP pipeline is under construction.

Another important project is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will connect Asia with Europe. Vietnam can also enjoy the railway, sending its goods to Europe. This can be one of the most accessible and fastest ways of delivering goods by rail through Asia to Europe and vice versa, he said.

Imanov noted that Azerbaijan and Vietnam are ready to continue and develop cooperation in the field of education and training.



Many of those [Vietnamese citizens] who have graduated in Azerbaijan have achieved very great successes in their careers. This fact shows that education in Azerbaijan is really good, and it should attract more students, he said, voicing hope that the tradition of cooperation between our countries in the field of education will strengthen.

--

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26 May 2017 16:23 (UTC+04:00)

The Azerbaijani Embassy in Mexico has hosted a reception on the occasion of the Republic Day and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Mexico.

The event brought together Mexican officials, senators, MPs, cultural and religious figures, businessmen, journalists, and members of Azerbaijani community, Azertac reported.

Charge d'Affaires of the Azerbaijani Embassy Mammad Talibov, addressing the event, spoke of the significance of the Republic Day, adding the first democratic republic in the Muslim world was established in Azerbaijan.

Mammad Talibov highlighted Azerbaijan's contribution to intercultural dialogue and multiculturalism. He said that Azerbaijan has become the center of dialogue of civilizations and religions.

Touching upon the Southern Gas Corridor, the diplomat noted that this project will contribute to Europe's energy security.

Talibov also briefed the event participants on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Ambassador further underlined that Azerbaijan and Mexico celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. The diplomat said the two countries enjoy big potential for cooperation in the fields of energy, trade, tourism and culture.

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26 May 2017 10:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The supplies of the Turkmen gas via the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline may start in 2020, said Muhammetmyrat Amanov, CEO of the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited.

He made the remarks at an international gas congress in Turkmenistans Avaza on May 24.

Turkmenistans Turkmengas state concern, which has a controlling stake in the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited, acts as the TAPI project manager.

TAPI will make it possible to deliver gas from Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world for its gas reserves, to large and promising markets of South and Southeast Asia. The pipeline will run from Galkynysh - the largest gas field in Turkmenistan - through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, and finally reach the Fazilka settlement located near the India-Pakistan border.

The total length of the TAPI pipeline will be 1,814 kilometers. A 214-kilometer section of the pipeline will run through Turkmenistan, a 774-kilometer section will run through Afghanistan and an 826-kilometer section will run through Pakistan.

Turkmenistan started construction of its section of TAPI in December 2015 and it is expected it will take three years. In early May Turkmenistan said that construction works are in line with schedule. Time frame of the Afghan and Pakistani sections construction of the TAPI pipeline has not been determined yet. However the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited consortium developing the project has signed a contract with German ILF Beratende Ingenieure GmbH for the provision of services for the preliminary design and management of the project in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The technical work in the territory of these states has already started.

The project's preliminary cost is estimated at $10 billion. The Turkmen government said earlier that the state concern Turkmengas would be the main investor for the TAPI project.

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26 May 2017 10:48 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijans Energy Minister Natig Aliyev stated that the extension of the output cut deal meets the countrysinterests.

OPEC and non-OPEC countries held a meeting in Vienna May 25 to make a final decision on extension of the oil output cut deal reached in 2016. The oil producers agreed to extend oil output cuts for nine months. Azerbaijan also supported the decision.

In December 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached their first deal since 2001 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. That time, OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Jan. 1, while non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from Jan. 1 for six months, extendable for another six months.

Natig Aliyev said Azerbaijan sees no problem if this agreement is extended until late 2018.

Having analyzed the results of the Vienna agreement, it was noted [at todays meeting] that the agreement had a positive impact on the market by stabilizing the oil prices at a range from $50 to $55 per barrel, he said. OPEC leadership commended the execution of [the agreement] commitments both by OPEC and non-OPEC countries.

The energy minister said the OPEC Monitoring Committee proposed to extend the agreement for another nine months and the proposal was unanimously accepted.

Officials from 24 countries deemed it appropriate to extend the deal for nine months as the six-month period does not fully cover the winter season, when prices change frequently, he explained.

The participation of Azerbaijan in joint oil production cuts is defined at 35,000 barrels per day.

Azerbaijan produced over 9,464 million tons of crude oil (including gas condensate) and about 6,955 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first quarter of 2017.

The State Statistic Committee figures suggest that the first quarter saw oil production fall 9.9 per cent, while gas production rose 0.9 per cent in the country.

The country plans to produce more gas and less oil in 2017 by 0.8 percent up to 29.561 bcm.

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26 May 2017 13:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Government of Slovakia is interested in opening of filling stations of the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR in the country, said Jafar Huseynzadeh, the head of the diplomatic mission of Azerbaijan to Slovakia.

SOCAR, which is the only producer of oil products in Azerbaijan, owns filling stations in Georgia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Romania and Azerbaijan. The total number of SOCAR filling stations amounts to 300.

Huseynzadeh further said that Slovakia is also ready to buy Azerbaijani gas. The Southern Gas Corridor is among the possible directions for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Slovakia in the oil and gas sector, he said.

Today, Azerbaijan exports gas to Turkey and Georgia. After the completion of the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor project, gas from Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field will also be supplied to Europe.

The Azerbaijani gas can be supplied to Slovakia via Eastring gas pipeline as well, Pavol Kubik, the representative of the Slovak company Eustream said earlier.

There is great potential for this, taking into account the fact that the Eastring project is not tied to a particular supplier and is therefore open to gas supplies from any source, according to Kubik.

Initiated by Slovakia in 2014, the Eastring project is designed to connect the gas networks of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. At the first stage, the pipeline will provide the Balkan countries with gas from the European market.

In the future, the gas pipeline can ensure the import of gas to Europe, both from established and alternative sources from the Caspian region and the Middle East.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. Later, other sources may be connected to the project.

SOCAR is 100 percent owned by the government of Azerbaijan. SOCAR participates in joint ventures (including ventures in Georgia and Turkey), consortia, and operating companies established with SOCARs participation.

The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerkimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.

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26 May 2017 10:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that the only goal of the "YPG militia" was to capture territory in Syria's Raqqah city, not to fight Daesh, Anadolu reported.

"Truly, it is a big mistake to think that the YPG militias are fighting against Daesh. The YPG aims to gain territory in Raqqah," Cavusoglu said in an interview with Italy's La Stampa daily.

Cavusoglu warned against supporting the armed wing of the PYD, which Turkey considers the PKK terror group's Syrian offshoot.

"It should be realized that supporting them [YPG] is supporting a terrorist organization," he said.

The minister added Turkey had been working towards finding "a political solution that would protect Syrias territorial integrity".

The PKK has fought a 33-year long war against Turkey and is also listed as a terror organization by the U.S. and EU.

The terror group resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015. Since then, it has been responsible for the deaths of some 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including a number of women and children.

Despite the PKKs designation as a terror group, the U.S. has continued to bank on the PKK/PYD as its ally in Syria, especially in the fight against Daesh. Earlier this month President Donald Trump pledged to arm the group ahead of the planned attack on Raqqah, Daesh's remaining Syrian stronghold.

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26 May 2017 11:30 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

A set of documents and agreements was signed in Tashkent on May 25 following a meeting of the Uzbekistan-Turkey Intergovernmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Uzbekistan-Turkey business forum.

The documents and agreements, worth more than $2 billion, envisage the implementation of around 30 projects in pharmaceutics, textile industry, electro-technical, construction and banking sectors.

The state and prospects of trade, economic, financial and technical cooperation between Uzbekistan and Turkey were mulled at the meeting. Uzbekistan and Turkey have great potential for increasing trade turnover, said Rustam Azimov, Uzbek deputy prime minister and co-chair of the intergovernmental commission.

In 2016, the mutual trade turnover between the countries reached $1.2 billion, Azimov added.

This figure does not reflect the potential of the two countries. We have all the opportunities to increase the trade turnover by 3 or 4 times.

Trade and economic relations gained a new momentum thanks to the agreements between the presidents of the two countries, said Tugrul Turkes, Turkeys deputy prime minister and co-chair of the commission from the Turkish side.

We have all the opportunities to implement new promising projects, Turkes said. New areas of cooperation will allow increasing the trade turnover twice in the shortest period.

Turkes mentioned that the most promising areas for expansion of the Uzbekistan-Turkey cooperation are the textile industry, construction materials industry, pharmaceutics, agriculture, food, automotive industries and production of household appliances.

Besides Turkes, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avci, Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci and other officials participated in the meeting.

Turkey became the first country to recognize Uzbekistans independence on 16 December 1991. The diplomatic relations were established between two countries on 4 March 1992.

More than 90 bilateral agreements and protocols were signed to form the legal basis of relations and numerous mutual high-level visits were carried out.

Uzbekistan occupies an important place in terms of regional peace and stability with its population of nearly 30 million, geostrategic position, deep-rooted history, rich cultural values and economic potential. Turkey attaches great importance to the improvement of cooperation with brotherly Uzbekistan in all fields and maintains its willingness to further relations strengthened by the close bonds between Turkish and Uzbek people.

There are currently 700 companies in Uzbekistan with Turkish capital, 100 of which are representation offices. They carry out activities in the sectors of textile, commitment, food, hotel management, building materials, plastic, medication, and service. There are 114 companies in Turkey with Uzbek capital.

In February, Turkey and Uzbekistan signed cooperation agreement to boost economic relations.

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26 May 2017 11:58 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Chairman of the European Council Donald Tusk and Head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

The meeting was held behind the closed doors and lasted about an hour, Anadolu news agency reported on May 25.

Reportedly the sides discussed the relations between Turkey and the EU and the steps that can be taken in the future in this area.

Erdogan stressed the importance of implementing the agreement on migrants, signed by Ankara and Brussels in March 2016. In addition, the importance of intensifying cooperation between Turkey and the EU, in particular, in the fight against terrorism, was pointed out.

Erdogan also met with Chairman of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani. The meeting was also attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Omer Celik and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak.

During the meeting, which lasted about 45 minutes, the parties discussed the relations between Turkey and the European Parliament.

Erdogan also held talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Brussels as well.

The meeting was held in a positive atmosphere, and the parties discussed relations between Turkey and France, mainly in the spheres of politics and economy.

The Presidents stressed their commitment to further strengthening Turkish-French relations and increasing bilateral trade to 20 billion euros.

In addition, the parties discussed the situation in Syria and Iraq, the fight against terrorists PKK and IS, and other topical issues on the regional agenda.

Turkey-EU relations have intensified in recent months with parties closely cooperating to stem the flow of refugees into the EU.

Turkey is the EU's 4th largest export market and 5th largest provider of imports. The EU is by far Turkey's number one import and export partner.

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26 May 2017 17:28 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric thanked the countries that completely fulfilled their obligations on providing humanitarian support to Yemen.

This was stated at a daily briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on May 25.

Among those who made the promised contributions in support of Yemen are Azerbaijan, Russia and the United States.

Dujarric noted that the U.S. announced that it will allocate an additional $77 million to fight hunger in Yemen.

He also added that the UN is carefully studying the draft U.S. budget.

If the U.S. plans to dramatically reduce the funding of the UN, it would have a very negative impact on the work of the organization, according to Dujarric.

"I think that if the budget is adopted in its present form, the UN will simply not be able to continue the most important work in the areas of peacekeeping, development, human rights protection and humanitarian assistance around the world," he said adding that it must go through legislative procedures and well see what happens."

Dujarric recalled that the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, even before he became aware of the draft U.S. budget, stated about the need to reform the UN development system and "to try to get rid of this straightjacket of bureaucracy."

Earlier, Guterres called on all departments of the Organization to use financial resources more economically. The Secretary-General also urged to overcome the divides that still exist in the organization.

U.S. President Donald Trump also called for changes in the UN and claimed that there is a need to review funding of the international organization. Trump has long been known for criticizing United Nations, saying that this structure is not working in full force.

In December 2016, Trump referred to the UN as a "club" for people to "have a good time." As a candidate, he questioned the institution's effectiveness in dealing with international threats.

Today, the issue of increasing the effectiveness of the UN Security Council, including the use of all its statutory peacekeeping capabilities, is becoming increasingly important due to a number of international crises.
26 May 2017 16:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan could join Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, an ambitious new trade link between China and Europe, as having reliable and effective transportation networks for easy access to global markets is vital for modern economic development and security, particularly for landlocked states.

Uzbekistan, located in the heart of the Central Asia, is a double landlocked country, as it has to go through at least two countries in any direction to reach the sea.

Thus, there is a need for cooperation among all Central Asian nations in order to have access to world markets.

Certain efforts in this direction have already been made through bilateral agreements, but an effective regional transport network can only be achieved through the development and implementation of more comprehensive regional transit corridor.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are keen to use the transit potential more effectively and improve the transport connection between the two countries. Both countries are interested in deepening cooperation on the issue of development of its regional transport infrastructure with its further integration into the global transport system.

Located in between Asia and Europe, the Trans-Caspian Corridor has every chance to become the shortest and competitive route for trade between the rising economies of Asia and developed European economies.

Uzbekistans willingness to join the TITR was voiced during the roundtable discussions held in Tashkent on May 25.

The possibilities of the TITR as an alternative way of delivering Uzbek cargos through Kazakh and Azerbaijani ports to the Black Sea and European countries were presented at the meeting.

For attracting Uzbek partners to the TITR project, the representatives of Kazakhstan Railways and Uzbek companies discussed the terms and deadlines of cargo delivery by railroad.

The country is mainly interested in the transit potential of Kazakhstans Aktau and Kuryk sea ports, which will contribute to the promotion of products produced in Uzbekistan at the European and Mediterranean markets.

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and then through Turkey and Ukraine to Europe.

The agreement to create the Trans-Caspian International Transportation Consortium was signed in April in Baku by the railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

The project enjoys an opportunity to become one of the most attractive and profitable for consignors from European countries, while approximately 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the Trans-Caspian international transport route by 2020, bringing huge financial profits to Azerbaijan.

New competitive tariffs have been introduced for the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route since June 1, 2016, putting the route among the cheapest and most profitable corridors for freight traffic.

The first test container train from China arrived at the Baku International Sea Trade Port on August 3, 2015.

In October 2016, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia signed an agreement on the establishment of the International Association of TITR, whose office is located in Astana. Its activities are aimed at attracting transit and foreign trade cargo, as well as on the development of integrated logistics products via TITR.

About 300,000-400,000 containers are expected to be transported via the Trans-Caspian international transport route by 2020, bringing huge financial profits to Azerbaijan.

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26 May 2017 17:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Kamila Aliyeva

Experts from Russia, Iran and Turkey will determine boundaries of the de-escalation zones in Syria on maps, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told RIA Novosti.

Checkpoints are planned to be established there to prevent penetration of the militants, according to Bogdanov.

The work is underway. The memorandum says that the guarantor countries should create working group, discuss everything and agree on the work on maps, location of de-escalation zones, determining external contours, those who will ensure the passage of people, because people should have free access. Therefore, checkpoints should be created and these zones should be under control. All of these should be done on maps," he said.

The official further added that it is not yet clear who will specifically ensure security in these zones,.

Previously, Russia, Turkey and Iran signed a memorandum on creating four zones at talks involving the Syrian government and opposition groups in Kazakhstans capital.

The civil war in Syria between government and opposition with various terrorist groups involved, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), began back in March 2011.

Syrian President Bashar Assad managed to turn the tide of war in his favor after Russia started an air campaign in September 2015, while Iran is an uncompromising supporter of the Syrian leader.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the countrys pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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26 May 2017 13:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Russias Ural Airlines will start to carry out flights on the St. Petersburg-Baku route from late May.

The first flight will be carried out on May 27. The flights will be implemented twice a week on Airbus A320 planes, the company reported.

On Saturdays, departure from St. Petersburg will be carried out at 07:55 (UTC/GMT+3) with the arrival at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku at 12:35 (UTC/GMT+4). The return flight from Baku is scheduled for 13:35 with arrival in St. Petersburg at 16:30.

On Thursdays, departure from St. Petersburg will be carried out at 10:30 (UTC/GMT+3) with the arrival at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku at 15:10 (UTC/GMT+4). The return flight from Baku will be carried out at 16:10 with arrival at the Pulkovo International Airport at 19:05.

Tickets are already available for booking on the companys official website.

Ural Airlines obtained permission in February 2017 from Russias Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) to fly from St. Petersburg to Baku.

Neighboring Russians choose Azerbaijan as their travel destination for many reasons. First of all the Land of Fire does not require visa for Russian tourists to enjoy the country.

Azerbaijan is also a perfect destination for Russian tourists, because of its peoples very friendly attitude towards Russia. Here Russian-speaking tourists have no problem with communication, as Azerbaijanis speak Russian well enough to help with any difficulties.

The capital Baku is on the Caspian Sea, but also home to oil drilling derricks and futuristic skyscrapers. The Caucasus Mountains are as earthy as you can get, peppered with traditional elevated villages such as Lahic, where subsistence farming and traditional art forms still alive. And then there is fire. Everywhere. From the permanently alight natural gas flaming mountain of Yanardag to fire worshippers temple Ateshgah, both on the Absheron Peninsula. And as for air, just head to the omnipresent mountains, ideal for visiting any time of year, whether summer or winter.

--

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Ukraine is grateful to Turkey for its support in the conditions of Russian aggression and will strive to strengthen bilateral cooperation with this country, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.

"Turkey has been shoulder to shoulder with us in the most difficult times for Ukraine. We are working hard to deepen this partnership. We are united not only by geography and the Black Sea, but also by joint goals and interests," Poroshenko said during the opening of the Istanbul park in Odessa.

According to him, Ukraine and Turkey are interested in establishing peace and stability in the Black Sea region. "And we agreed to make joint efforts to increase mutually beneficial economic cooperation. We firmly stand for the expansion of equal partnership and mutually beneficial cooperation based on respect for the universal principles of good neighborliness and international law," Poroshenko said.

The president thanked the leadership of Turkey for supporting Ukraine in the context of Russia's aggression. "This is a challenge to global security. It is a challenge to Turkey, a challenge for all the Black Sea countries. And I am very grateful to Turkey and its leadership for the firm and unbreakable position of supporting our sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.
May 26, 2017Gatineau, QuebecLibrary and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada, along with the Toronto Public Library and TD Bank Group, is excited to announce the 2016 TD Summer Reading Club Library Award winners. The TD Summer Reading Club enables libraries across Canada to inspire a sense of adventure and wonder, to nurture children's imaginations, and to celebrate their accomplishments during the summer months.

Since 2007, these awards have recognized and rewarded the most innovative and effective TD Summer Reading Club programs in each official language in public libraries across Canada!

For the 2016 summer program, the first prize winners of $10,000 are:

 Bibliotheque Paul-Aime-Paiement (Quebec, QC)

 Shelburne Public Library (Shelburne, ON)

The second place winners of $2,500 are:

 Bibliotheque de Candiac (Candiac, QC)

 Idea ExchangeHespeler (Cambridge, ON)

The third place winners of $1,000 are:

 Bibliotheque publique de Dollard-des-Ormeaux (Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC)

 Westmount Public Library-Bibliotheque publique de Westmount (Westmount, QC)

Honourable Mention

Milton Public Library

Gananoque Public Library

Bkejwanong First Nation Public Library

Leader Branch Library

Spruce Grove Public Library

Mediatheque maskoutaine

Bibliotheque publique bilingue de Metis-sur-Mer

For more information on the winners and the awards, and to learn more about the 2017 summer program, visit TD Summer Reading Club.

About Library and Archives Canada

The mandate of Library and Archives Canada is to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada for the benefit of present and future generations, and to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, thereby contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada. Library and Archives Canada also facilitates co-operation among communities involved in the acquisition, preservation and diffusion of knowledge, and serves as the continuing memory of the Government of Canada and its institutions.

Follow us on Twitter (@LibraryArchives), Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: In Atlanta, Soyia Ellison, soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org

En Espanol

MANAGUA  On May 25, The Carter Center held a forum titled The Responsibility of Citizens in the Strengthening of Democracy to discuss the importance of citizen engagement in democratic processes, including domestic electoral observation.

The forum brought together a broad array of opinion leaders, including representatives from political parties and movements, civil society organizations, academia, and the international community. It included presentations from Mirador Electoral, a domestic observer network in Guatemala, and Panorama Electoral, an umbrella network of domestic observers in Nicaragua.

The event was the first in a series that The Carter Center is planning to promote citizen engagement in democratic processes in Nicaragua.

The Carter Center has observed 103 elections across the globe, including four in Nicaragua between 1990 and 2006. It works to strengthen the foundations of democratic governance through a range of programs, including by providing training and support to domestic election observers and human rights monitors and by advocating for citizen participation. It has developed a series of best-practice tools and training resources for international and domestic observers, civil society groups, and other key stakeholders.

Domestic electoral observation is vital for the transparency and ownership of the electoral process, and national civic organizations have an important role to play in educating voters and promoting the rule of law. During the November 2016 general elections, despite the clamor for observation by a majority of the Nicaraguans, the government refused to accredit domestic and international observers. The Carter Center encourages the government to adhere to the democratic standards for electoral processes, which provide guarantees to citizens and encourage participation, and urges the electoral authorities to provide proper accreditation to domestic observer groups for the upcoming elections, as enshrined in Nicaragua's own electoral law.

Translation

El Centro Carter alienta la participacion ciudadana en procesos democraticos y observacion electoral en Nicaragua

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"Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope."

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
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.
This is a current list of the top 250 companies by market capitalization on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Learn more .

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is one of the largest, and most recognizable, stock exchanges in the world. The NYSE is in New York City, New York at 11 Wall Street. The NYSE has been in existence since the earliest days of the United States becoming a nation, in 1792 and is primarily made up of blue-chip companies with large market capitalizations. In fact, many of the stocks that make up the Dow Jones Composite Index (i.e. The Dow) are listed on the NYSE.

This article gives a brief history of the New York Stock Exchange. In addition, it covers topics such as what kind of stocks trade on the exchange, what are the listing requirements, how trading is performed, and what the daily price movement of the NYSE tells investors about investor sentiment.

What Were the Origins of the NYSE?

Today, the New York Stock Exchange is known as the center of the financial universe. However, the exchanges origin is far more humble. On May 17, 1792, 24 stockbrokers signed the Buttonwood Agreement creating a centralized exchange to help provide order to the securities market in what was still a young nation. The "Buttonwood Agreement comes from the tree of the same name under which the founders signed the agreement.

An initial benefit of the exchange was how it removed the need for auctioneers when trading commodities like wheat and tobacco and to set a commission rate. The exchange initially focused on government bonds.

However, the exchange had no formal home. Business was usually conducted informally in the local coffeehouses. In 1817, the exchange changed its name to the New York Stock & Exchange Board which later became the New York Stock Exchange. At this time, the exchange adopted a constitution that set the rules for trading. A group of stockbrokers met twice a day at 40 Wall Street to trade 30 stocks and bonds.

Over time, the exchange moved became the financial hub of the country and moved to its current location in 1865.

What Kind of Stocks Trade on the NYSE?

As of June 2022, the NYSE includes approximately 2,400 companies with a market capitalization of over $28.2 trillion. Although the NYSE trades stocks of all market capitalizations, its best known for trading the stocks of large cap companies. These have the benefit of being mature companies in mature industries. And many of these companies reward shareholders with dividends.

However, that also means that many of these companies are better suited for value investors as opposed to growth investors. In bear markets this stability can be a benefit for investors as these stocks tend to perform less bad than more volatile stocks. But in a bull market, these stocks are not likely to provide investors with the growth that they look for.

An interesting fact about how the NYSE and NASDAQ operate is that the companies with the five largest market caps on the NYSE are also listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

What Are the Listing Requirements For the NYSE?

The NYSE has strict guidelines that govern the types of companies that can list on the exchange. Here are the major requirements that all companies must meet:

The company must have at least 2,200 shareholders

The company must trade over 100,000 shares per month

The company must have a market valuation of over $100 million

The company must generate more than $75 million in annual revenue

However, there is at least one advantage of having such stringent requirements. That is the companies that meet the requirements generally find it easier to get more investors funds when they hold their initial public offering (IPO).

Once a company begins trading on the NYSE, it must continue to meet these requirements. If it doesnt it can be delisted. In addition to these requirements, the stock must continue to trade above $1. If the price of a stock drops below $1 for more than 29 consecutive trading days, the stock receives an Initial Price Violation Notice.

At that point, the company has 10 days to provide the exchange with a plan for bringing their shares above $1.

How are Trades Executed on the NYSE?

For over a century, the floor of the NYSE was the place for investors to be. This meant trades were conducted by traders who ran buy and sell orders across the trading floor looking to broker a deal for their clients. But with the birth of the NASDAQ exchange in 1971, the New York Stock Exchange began conducting electronic trading.

However, the NYSE continues to conduct trades in an auction style. Brokers purchase stocks on behalf of their clients or firms. Every order features a broker who will enter the order electronically and a specialist who serves as the market maker for that stock. The specialist posts bid and ask prices and manages the actual execution of the trades. And there are still a handful of stockbrokers who still traffic buy and sell orders physically on the floor of the exchange.

How Does the NYSE Signal Investor Sentiment?

Like its counterpart, the NASDAQ, the NYSE measures the risk appetite of investors. When the NYSE is moving higher over a length of time, it signals that a risk on environment. Conversely when the NYSE moves lower over a significant period, it signals that investors are moving to a risk off position.

Some Final Thoughts on the NYSE

Financial news networks plan their programming schedule around the opening and closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Its still considered a distinguished honor when individuals or groups are invited to ring the opening bell. In fact, Warren Buffett is attributed with saying that in the short term, the stock market acts like a voting machine. A fact that many U.S. presidents will attest to.

The NYSE is the oldest and most recognizable of all the stock exchanges. It also has the most stringent requirements for inclusion. And those requirements must be maintained even after a stock begins publicly trading on the exchange.

Although the NYSE still has a small in-person Trading Floor, much of the trading is done electronically to provide traders with the speed to execute trades.
The following companies are subsidiares of HSBC: Assetfinance December (F) Limited, Assetfinance December (H) Limited, Assetfinance December (M) Limited, Assetfinance December (P) Limited, Assetfinance December (R) Limited, Assetfinance June (A) Limited, Assetfinance June (D) Limited, Assetfinance Limited, Assetfinance March (B) Limited, Assetfinance March (D) Limited, Assetfinance March (F) Limited, Assetfinance September (F) Limited, Assetfinance September (G) Limited, B&Q Financial Services Limited, Banco Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Banco Nominees 2 (Guernsey) Limited, Banco Nominees Limited, Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) Limited, Beau Soleil Limited Partnership, Beijing Miyun HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Billingsgate Nominees Limited, CC&H Holdings LLC, CCF & Partners Asset Management Limited, COIF Nominees Limited, Canada Crescent Nominees (UK) Limited, Canada Square Nominees (UK) Limited, Capco/Cove Inc., Card-Flo #1 Inc., Card-Flo #3 Inc., Charterhouse Administrators (D.T.) Limited, Charterhouse Management Services Limited, Charterhouse Pensions Limited, Chongqing Dazu HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Chongqing Fengdu HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Chongqing Rongchang HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Cordico Management AG, Corhold Limited, Corsair IV Financial Services Capital Partners, Dalian Pulandian HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Decision One Mortgage Company LLC, Dem 5, Dem 9, Dempar 1, Dempar 4, Elysees Immo Invest, Eton Corporate Services Limited, Fdm 5 SAS, Finanpar 2, Finanpar 7, Flandres Contentieux S.A., Fonciere Elysees, Fujian Yongan HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Fulcher Enterprises Company Limited, Fundacion HSBC A.C., GPIF Co-Investment LLC, Giller Ltd., Global Payments Technology Mexico S.A. De C.V., Griffin International Limited, Grundstuecksgesellschaft Trinkausstrasse Kommanditgesellschaft, Grupo Financiero HSBC S.A. de C.V., Guangdong Enping HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, HITG Administration GmbH, HRMG Nominees Limited, HSBC (BGF) Investments Limited, HSBC (General Partner) Limited, HSBC (Guernsey) GP PCC Limited, HSBC (Kuala Lumpur) Nominees Sdn Bhd, HSBC (Malaysia) Trustee Berhad, HSBC (Singapore) Nominees Pte Ltd, HSBC Administradora de Inversiones S.A., HSBC Agency (India) Private Limited, HSBC Alternative Investments Limited, HSBC Amanah Malaysia Berhad, HSBC Americas Corporation (Delaware), HSBC Argentina Holdings S.A., HSBC Asia Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Asia Holdings B.V., HSBC Asia Holdings Limited, HSBC Asia Pacific Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Asset Finance (UK) Limited, HSBC Asset Finance M.O.G. Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Asset Management (India) Private Limited, HSBC Assurances Vie (France), HSBC Australia Holdings Pty Limited, HSBC Bank (Chile), HSBC Bank (China) Company Limited, HSBC Bank (General Partner) Limited, HSBC Bank (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Bank (RR) (Limited Liability Company), HSBC Bank (Singapore) Limited, HSBC Bank (Taiwan) Limited, HSBC Bank (Uruguay) S.A., HSBC Bank (Vietnam) Ltd., HSBC Bank A.S., HSBC Bank Argentina S.A., HSBC Bank Armenia cjsc, HSBC Bank Australia Limited, HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited, HSBC Bank Canada, HSBC Bank Capital Funding (Sterling, HSBC Bank Capital Funding (Sterling 2) LP, HSBC Bank Egypt S.A.E, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad, HSBC Bank Malta p.l.c., HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, HSBC Bank Nominee (Jersey) Limited, HSBC Bank Oman S.A.O.G., HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited, HSBC Bank Polska S.A., HSBC Bank USA National Association, HSBC Bank plc, HSBC Branch Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Brasil Holding S.A., HSBC Brasil S.A. Banco De Investimento, HSBC Broking Forex (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Futures (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Broking Securities (Asia) Limited, HSBC Broking Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Broking Services (Asia) Limited, HSBC Canadian Covered Bond (Legislative) GP Inc, HSBC Canadian Covered Bond (Legislative) Guarantor Limited Partnership, HSBC Capital (USA) Inc., HSBC Capital Funding (Dollar 1) L.P., HSBC Capital Limited, HSBC Card Services Inc., HSBC Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V., HSBC Cayman Services Limited, HSBC City Funding Holdings, HSBC Client Holdings Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Client Share Offer Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Columbia Funding LLC, HSBC Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Corporate Finance (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Corporate Trustee Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited, HSBC Custody Services (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Daisy Investments (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Diversified Loan Fund General Partner Sarl, HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Guangdong) Limited, HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Philippines) Inc., HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Private Limited, HSBC Electronic Data Processing Lanka (Private) Limited, HSBC Electronic Data Service Delivery (Egypt) S.A.E., HSBC Enterprise Investment Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Epargne Entreprise (France), HSBC Equipment Finance (UK) Limited, HSBC Equity (UK) Limited, HSBC Europe B.V., HSBC Executor & Trustee Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Factoring (France), HSBC Finance (Brunei) Berhad, HSBC Finance (Netherlands), HSBC Finance Corporation, HSBC Finance Limited, HSBC Finance Mortgages Inc., HSBC Finance Transformation (UK) Limited, HSBC Financial Services (Lebanon) s.a.l., HSBC France, HSBC Fund Services (Korea) Limited, HSBC Germany Holdings GmbH, HSBC Global Asset Management (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Canada) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland) GmbH, HSBC Global Asset Management (France), HSBC Global Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Japan) K. K., HSBC Global Asset Management (Malta) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., HSBC Global Asset Management (Oesterreich) GmbH, HSBC Global Asset Management (Singapore) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (Switzerland) AG, HSBC Global Asset Management (Taiwan) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) Inc., HSBC Global Asset Management Holdings (Bahamas) Limited, HSBC Global Asset Management Limited, HSBC Global Custody Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Custody Proprietary Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Services (Canada) Limited, HSBC Global Services (China) Holdings Limited, HSBC Global Services (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Global Services (UK) Limited, HSBC Global Services Limited, HSBC Group Management Services Limited, HSBC Group Nominees UK Limited, HSBC Holdings B.V., HSBC IM Pension Trust Limited, HSBC INKA Investment-AG TGV, HSBC Infrastructure Limited, HSBC Inmobiliaria (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Asia) Limited, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited, HSBC Insurance (Asia) Limited, HSBC Insurance (Asia-Pacific) Holdings Limited, HSBC Insurance (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Limited, HSBC Insurance Agency (USA) Inc., HSBC Insurance Brokers (Philippines) Inc, HSBC Insurance Holdings Limited, HSBC Insurance Services Holdings Limited, HSBC International Finance Corporation, HSBC International Trustee (BVI) Limited, HSBC International Trustee (Holdings) Pte. Limited, HSBC International Trustee Limited, HSBC Inversiones S.A., HSBC InvestDirect (India) Limited, HSBC InvestDirect Financial Services (India) Limited, HSBC InvestDirect Sales & Marketing (India) Limited, HSBC InvestDirect Securities (India) Private Limited, HSBC Investment Bank Holdings B.V., HSBC Investment Bank Holdings Limited, HSBC Investment Funds (Canada) Inc., HSBC Investment Funds (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Investment Funds (Luxembourg) SA, HSBC Invoice Finance (UK) Limited, HSBC Issuer Services Common Depositary Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Issuer Services Depositary Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC LU Nominees Limited, HSBC Latin America B.V., HSBC Latin America Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Leasing (Asia) Limited, HSBC Leasing (France), HSBC Life (International) Limited, HSBC Life (Property) Limited, HSBC Life (UK) Limited, HSBC Life Assurance (Malta) Limited, HSBC Life Insurance Company Limited, HSBC Management (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Markets (USA) Inc., HSBC Marking Name Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Mexico S.A., HSBC Middle East Finance Company Limited, HSBC Middle East Holdings B.V., HSBC Middle East Leasing Partnership, HSBC Mortgage Corporation (Canada), HSBC Mortgage Corporation (USA), HSBC Nominees (Asing) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Nominees (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited, HSBC Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn Bhd, HSBC North America Holdings Inc., HSBC Odeme Sistemleri Bilgisayar Teknolojileri Basin Yayin Ve Musteri Hizmetleri, HSBC Operational Services GmbH, HSBC Overseas Holdings (UK) Limited, HSBC Overseas Investments Corporation (New York), HSBC Overseas Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC PB Corporate Services, HSBC PB Services (Suisse) SA, HSBC PI Holdings (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Participaciones (Argentina) S.A., HSBC Pension Trust (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Pensiones S.A., HSBC Portfoy Yonetimi A.S., HSBC Preferential LP (UK), HSBC Private Bank (C.I.) Limited, HSBC Private Bank (Luxembourg) S.A., HSBC Private Bank (Monaco) SA, HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, HSBC Private Bank (UK) Limited, HSBC Private Bank International, HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA, HSBC Private Banking Nominee 3 (Jersey) Limited, HSBC Private Equity Advisors LLC, HSBC Private Equity Investments (UK) Limited, HSBC Private Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Private Wealth Services (Canada) Inc., HSBC Professional Services (India) Private Limited, HSBC Property (UK) Limited, HSBC Property Funds (Holding) Limited, HSBC Provident Fund Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Qianhai Securities Limited, HSBC REIM (France), HSBC Real Estate Leasing (France), HSBC Realty Credit Corporation (USA), HSBC Representative Office (Nigeria) Limited, HSBC Retirement Benefits Trustee (UK) Limited, HSBC Retirement Services Limited, HSBC SFH (France), HSBC Savings Bank (Philippines) Inc., HSBC Securities (Asia) Limited, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., HSBC Securities (Egypt) S.A.E., HSBC Securities (Japan) Limited, HSBC Securities (Philippines) Inc., HSBC Securities (Singapore) Pte Limited, HSBC Securities (South Africa) (Pty) Limited, HSBC Securities (Taiwan) Corporation Limited, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., HSBC Securities Asia International Nominees Limited, HSBC Securities Asia Nominees Limited, HSBC Securities Brokers (Asia) Limited, HSBC Securities Investments (Asia) Limited, HSBC Securities Services (Bermuda) Limited, HSBC Securities Services (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Securities Services (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Securities Services (Luxembourg) S.A., HSBC Securities Services Holding Limited, HSBC Securities Services Holdings (Ireland) DAC, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, HSBC Seguros S.A de C.V., HSBC Seguros de Retiro (Argentina) S.A., HSBC Seguros de Vida (Argentina) S.A., HSBC Service Delivery (Polska) Sp. z o.o., HSBC Services (France), HSBC Services Japan Limited, HSBC Services USA Inc., HSBC Servicios Financieros S.A., HSBC Servicios S.A de C.V., HSBC Software Development (Canada) Inc, HSBC Software Development (Guangdong) Limited, HSBC Software Development (India) Private Limited, HSBC Software Development (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, HSBC Specialist Investments Limited, HSBC Stockbrokers Nominee (UK) Limited, HSBC Technology & Services (China) Limited, HSBC Technology & Services (USA) Inc., HSBC Transaction Services GmbH, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt (International) S.A., HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt Gesellschaft fur Bankbeteiligungen mbH, HSBC Trinkaus Europa Immobilien-Fonds Nr. 5 GmbH, HSBC Trinkaus Family Office GmbH, HSBC Trinkaus Immobilien Beteiligungs KG, HSBC Trinkaus Real Estate GmbH, HSBC Trust Company (Canada), HSBC Trust Company (Delaware) National Association, HSBC Trust Company (UK) Limited, HSBC Trust Company AG, HSBC Trustee (C.I.) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Cayman) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Guernsey) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Hong Kong) Limited, HSBC Trustee (Singapore) Limited, HSBC UK Bank plc, HSBC UK Client Nominee Limited, HSBC UK Holdings Limited, HSBC USA Inc., HSBC Violet Investments (Mauritius) Limited, HSBC Wealth Client Nominee Limited, HSBC Yatirim Menkul Degerler A.S., HSI Asset Securitization Corporation, HSI International Limited, HSIL Investments Limited, Hang Seng (Nominee) Limited, Hang Seng Bank (China) Limited, Hang Seng Bank (Trustee) Limited, Hang Seng Bank Limited, Hang Seng Bullion Company Limited, Hang Seng Credit Limited, Hang Seng Data Services Limited, Hang Seng Finance Limited, Hang Seng Financial Information Limited, Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, Hang Seng Insurance Company Limited, Hang Seng Investment Management Limited, Hang Seng Investment Services Limited, Hang Seng Life Limited, Hang Seng Qianhai Fund Management Company Limited, Hang Seng Real Estate Management Limited, Hang Seng Securities Limited, Hang Seng Security Management Limited, Haseba Investment Company Limited, Hg Janus A Co-Invest L.P., High Time Investments Limited, Honey Green Enterprises Ltd., Hongkong International Trade Finance, Household Capital Markets LLC, Household Finance Corporation III, Household Pooling Corporation, Hubei Macheng HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Hubei Suizhou Cengdu HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Hubei Tianmen HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Hunan Pingjiang HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, INKA Internationale Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH, Imenson Limited, InfraRed NF China Real Estate Investments LP, Inmobiliaria Banci S.A. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Bisa S.A. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Grufin S.A. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Guatusi S.A. de C.V., James Capel & Co. Limited, James Capel (Nominees) Limited, James Capel (Taiwan) Nominees Limited, Jasmine22 Limited, John Lewis Financial Services Limited, Keyser Ullmann Limited, Lion Corporate Services Limited, Lion International Corporate Services Limited, Lion International Management Limited, Lion Management (Hong Kong) Limited, Lyndholme Limited, MIL (Cayman) Limited, MIL (Jersey) Limited, MW Gestion SA, Marks and Spencer Financial Services plc, Marks and Spencer Savings and Investments Limited, Marks and Spencer Unit Trust Management Limited, Mercantile Company Limited, Mexicana de Fomento S.A. de C.V., Midcorp Limited, Midland Bank (Branch Nominees) Limited, Midland Nominees Limited, PT Bank HSBC Indonesia, PT HSBC Sekuritas Indonesia, Promocion en Bienes Raices S.A. de C.V., Prudential Client HSBC GIS Nominee (UK) Limited, R/CLIP Corp., RLUKREF Nominees (UK) One Limited, RLUKREF Nominees (UK) Two Limited, Real Estate Collateral Management Company, Republic Nominees Limited, Republic Overseas Capital Corporation, S.A.P.C. - Ufipro Recouvrement, SAS Bosquet - Audrain, SAS Cyatheas Pasteur, SAS Orona, SCI HSBC Assurances Immo, SFM, SFSS Nominees (Pty) Limited, SNC Dorique, SNC Kerouan, SNC Les Mercuriales, SNC Les Oliviers D'Antibes, SNC Makala, SNC Nuku-Hiva Bail, SNCB/M6-2007 A, SNCB/M6-2007 B, SNCB/M6-2008 A, Saf Baiyun, Saf Chang Jiang, Saf Guangzhou, Saf Zhu Jiang, Saf Zhu Jiang Jiu, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Ba, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Er, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Jiu, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Liu, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Qi, Saf Zhu Jiang Shi Wu, Shandong Rongcheng HSBC Rural Bank Company Limited, Sico Limited, Societe Francaise et Suisse, Somers Dublin DAC, Somers Nominees (Far East) Limited, Sopingest, South Yorkshire Light Rail Limited, St Cross Trustees Limited, Sun Hung Kai Development (Lujiazui III) Limited, Swan National Leasing (Commercials) Limited, Swan National Limited, Thasosfin, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, The Venture Catalysts Limited, Timberlink Settlement Services (USA) Inc., Tooley Street View Limited, Tower Investment Management, Trinkaus Australien Immobilien Fonds Nr. 1 Brisbane GmbH & Co. KG, Trinkaus Australien Immobilien-Fonds Nr. 1 Treuhand-GmbH, Trinkaus Europa Immobilien-Fonds Nr.3 Objekt Utrecht Verwaltungs-GmbH, Trinkaus Immobilien-Fonds Geschaeftsfuehrungs-GmbH, Trinkaus Immobilien-Fonds Verwaltungs-GmbH, Trinkaus Private Equity Verwaltungs GmbH, Tropical Nominees Limited, Turnsonic (Nominees) Limited, Valeurs Mobilieres Elysees, Wardley Limited, Wayfoong Nominees Limited, Wayhong (Bahamas) Limited, Westminster House LLC, Woodex Limited, and Yan Nin Development Company Limited.

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Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. operates as a branded consumer products company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Home and Personal Care; Global Pet Care; and Home and Garden. The Home and Personal Care segment provides home appliances under the Black & Decker, Russell Hobbs, George Foreman, Toastmaster, Juiceman, Farberware, and Breadman brands; and personal care products under the Remington and LumaBella brands. The Global Pet Care segment provides rawhide chewing, dog and cat clean-up and food, training, health and grooming, small animal food and care, and rawhide-free products under the 8IN1 (8-in-1), Dingo, Nature's Miracle, Wild Harvest, Littermaid, Jungle, Excel, FURminator, IAMS, Eukanuba, Healthy-Hide, DreamBone, SmartBones, ProSense, Perfect Coat, eCOTRITION, Birdola, Good Boy, Meowee!, Wildbird, and Wafcol brands. This segment also offers aquarium kits, stand-alone tanks, and aquatics equipment and consumables under the Tetra, Marineland, Whisper, Instant Ocean, GloFish, OmegaOne, and OmegaSea brands. The Home and Garden segment provides outdoor insect and weed control solutions, and animal repellents under the Spectracide, Garden Safe, Liquid Fence, and EcoLogic brands; household pest control solutions under the Hot Shot, Black Flag, Real-Kill, Ultra Kill, The Ant Trap, and Rid-A-Bug brand names; household surface cleaning, maintenance, and restoration products, including bottled liquids, mops, wipes, and markers under the Rejuvenate brand name; and personal-use pesticides and insect repellent products under the Cutter and Repel brands. The company sells its products through retailers, e-commerce and online retailers, wholesalers, and distributors. Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Children among 26 Christians killed in cold blood by gunmen in Egypt while on pilgrimage to ancient monastery

Two Christian children are among 26 people murdered by Islamist gunmen in Egypt.

A further 25 people were injured in the attack on a bus full of Coptic Christians and an accompanying car near the St Samuel monastery in Minya.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, commenting on the attack, said: 'Today we stand with all those who fear for their lives because of their faith. We stand with Pope Tawadros and all the Christians of Egypt, in prayer and solidarity.'

A statement released by Minya's Governor confirmed nearly 30 people were killed. Eight of those who died have yet to be identified. Some of the injuries are serious and the death toll is expected to increase.

The two children are Marfy Hany Moussa, aged four, and Moreska Mina Samuel, aged two, according to Egyptian Streets news.

Eyewitnesses told Egyptian newspaper Youm7 that many gunmen were involved in the attack.

President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called an immediate emergency meeting, according to the state newsagency.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement that gunmen opened fire surrounding the bus in three SUVs on the Western Desert road.

'They were on their way to the Monastery of Anba Samuel the Confessor,' said Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. 'They were ambushed on their way to the monastery, while on an unpaved road leading to the monastery. The car was carrying workers in the monastery and the bus carrying visitors.'

The atrocity follows the attacks in April when two churches were attacked by suicide bombers, leading to 47 deaths. And last December, 29 people died in an attack on a Cairo church.

Egypt has about 10 million Christians in Egypt, roughly one in 10 per cent of the country's population of 90 million.

Bishop Angaelos, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK, told Christian Today: 'I spoke to the Bishop of Minya on the phone. It's terrible. It's not unlike what happened in Manchester. It was an attack targeted on children and young people. It was a target on families going on a pilgrimage to a monastery. The gunmen boarded the bus, shot and killed them.

'I think one gets to a stage where there is just very little to say. It is heartless, cruel, unimaginable. But it is an indication of where we are in the world.

'Of course we grieve those who lost their lives. Of course their famijlies are going through immense pain. What is worse is that within our humanity there are those who think not only is this viable, it is a form of victory  to target poor children, families and elderly people travelling to pay homage at a monastery.'

Bishop Angaelos added: 'We are thankful for the commmunity in Egypt, it is still faithful and bears all this with great courage. But they remain targets, whatever they do.'

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: 'I am heartbroken by the news of another awful attack on men, women and children, murdered because of their faith in Jesus Christ. In this time of deep sorrow and pain, we commit to prayer those who have died, those who have been injured and those who have lost loved ones. We pray that all might know the presence of God in this dark time and draw closer to the Great Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ.

'We pray for the people and nation of Egypt, for peace, and for a united rejection of the horrific actions of those who perpetrate terror.

'I pray for HH Pope Tawadros II as he leads the Coptic Orthodox Church, for wisdom and courage, for unshaking faith, for steadfastness and for endurance. It was a privilege to welcome His Holiness to Lambeth Palace earlier this month and to pray with him at Westminster Abbey. During this visit His Holiness presented me with an icon of the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution. Today we stand with all those who fear for their lives because of their faith. We stand with Pope Tawadros and all the Christians of Egypt, in prayer and solidarity.'
Church of England faces calls to condemn gay cure and hold transgender renaming services

The Church of England will be asked to denounce gay conversion, consider special services for transgender people and re-examine its teaching on marriage as between one man and one women in a raft of measures to be debated at its forthcoming General Synod meeting in July.

In its first meeting since the surprise rejection of a bishops' report recommending keeping the status quo on marriage, the CofE's parliament will debate whether to join medical experts and condemn so-called 'gay cures' as 'unethical, harmful' and having 'no place in the modern world'.

Tabled by senior synod member Jayne Ozanne, the private members motion has received strong support from synod members. Supporters say that it is likely to be fiercely opposed by a small segment of hardline conservatives, but opponents suggest that many middle of the road synod members will also be alarmed by the motion.

Ozanne, a gay rights activist on synod, told Christian Today: 'It is incredibly important that religious organisations follow the clear lead set by the health care professions in standing against this highly damaging and unethical practice, which reinforces stigma and prejudice against the LGBTI community.

'The Bible teaches that we are each fearfully and wonderfully made, and we should therefore look to celebrate God's gift of diversity in creation not treat those of us who are non-heterosexual as having mental disorders that need to be "cured".'

If passed, the CofE would co-sign a statement from several professional bodies including the UK Council for Psychotherapy and The Royal College of General Practitioners to say: 'Sexual orientations and gender identities are not mental health disorders, although exclusion, stigma and prejudice may precipitate mental health issues for any person subjected to these abuses.'

The move would be a major symbolic step for the CofE after the Archbishop of Canterbury called on Christians to 'repent' for 'hurt and pain' the Church has inflicted on gay people.

It may also put pressure on the government to ban gay cure therapies after the Prime Minister hinted she was looking into whether to outlaw the practice.

'Being gay or trans is not an illness, and shouldn't be treated as such  young people should be protected from attempts to change who they are,' Theresa May said in an interview with PinkNews. 'We're looking carefully at the extent of the problem, and the experience of other countries that have introduced bans, to ensure we get the approach to this right.'

Evangelicals on synod, who believe the Bible teaches gay people should remain celibate, agreed that 'gay cure' was 'very damaging' because it suggested homosexuality is an illness.

A statement from Living Out, a group of conservative gay Christians, says: 'Attempting to change someone's sexual orientation assumes that being gay is somehow more problematic than being straight.'

Mike Davidson, a gay conversion therapist from the Core Issues Trust, told Christian Today: 'There is no motion or action from any professional body or denominational governing body that will extinguish the determination many individuals have to leave homosexual practices and desires, nor to dampen the ardour with which their supporters provide care to such persons.'

He added: 'The unholy alliance between gay activists and those within the Church of England who promote the idea of "born gay" is revealing in its lack of respect for personal freedom to choose pathways consistent with belief.'

Under a separate motion the Church will also consider special services to mark a transgender person's transition.

The move could see baptism-style renaming ceremony for people who wish to change gender.

Already in place in some Baptist churches and others, the Church's most senior trans priest, Rev Rachel Mann, Rector of St Nicholas Burnage and a minor canon at Manchester Cathedral, welcomed the suggestion for formal Anglican liturgy.

She previously told Christian Today: 'Trans people feel powerfully called to be recognised in their 'chosen' name. An opportunity to be publicly introduced to God is therefore significant. I think this is what the proposed liturgy aims to do.

'It will be symbolically powerful. The extent to which it is [a form of] baptism will be debated by General Synod of course, but this liturgy is a welcome move to affirm Trans people.'

The CofE's position on transgender people accepts that differing views can 'properly be held' on the subject but the motion is likely to receive opposition from conservative synod members.

Clive Scowen, a senior evangelical on synod, told Christian Today authorising liturgies was not a 'sensible thing to do' and said clergy should be able to devise individual responses for each person.

'People who have gender dysphoria must be treated with the utmost love and pastoral sensitivity, and of course warmly welcomed in our churches,' he told Christian Today. 'I am far from convinced that surgical or medical intervention to try to reassign gender is a loving response. I do not think that scripture supports the idea that gender, which is a physical fact about a person's identity (whether assessed by reference to chromosomes or genitalia), can be changed; rather I do believe that the Holy Spirit can bring change to how a person perceives gender to conform it to the physical facts.'

The main focus of the four-day sitting in July will be a presentation from bishops on the Church's next steps on teaching on sexuality after a report keeping the doctrine of marriage as between one man and one woman was rejected by the synod in February.

A heated question and answer session will follow as synod members try to probe the direction the CofE is taking and what Justin Welby means by the 'radical, Christian inclusion' he has called for.
Conflict continues in CAR: Church pastor killed and religious leaders targeted

Intense violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) has claimed several victims including a church pastor allegedly killed for building a church.

Baptist pastor Ange-Apoleon Ngakolada, 36 is among those killed in a spike of violence in the CAR, and leaves behind eight children.

Ngakolada had been caught up in a controversy with local Muslims about a church he had built, according to World Watch Monitor. The president of the Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches in CAR, Singa Gbadia, said he'd been targeted because local Muslims opposed the church construction.

'The Muslims used the opportunity of the unrest in Alindao to murder him in his home,' a World Watch Monitor source said.

Peace-broker and head of CAR's Evangelical Alliance Rev Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbangou has also been targeted, with his nephew and son recently killed.

The town of Alindao has been devastated by the conflict in the CAR, with 25,000 people having been displaced across the country, and 8,500 people just in Alindao. Recent violence has seen at least 37 killed in Alindao.

Violence erupted in the CAR in December 2012, when several rebel groups, mainly Muslim militants, formed a coalition known as Seleka and in 2013 overthrew the CAR's then-president Francois Bozize. In retaliation, several 'anti-balaka' (meaning 'anti-machete') groups formed to combat the rebels. Some militias  predominantly comprising Christians  began attacking Muslims in revenge. Thousands have since been killed in the ensuing conflict.

Rev Aiah Foday-Khabenje, general secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa, said he was 'saddened and shocked at the news of this targeted fatal attack on religious leaders, who have demonstrated courage and brought hope to their people in CAR.

'Pray for God's grace and comfort for the family. I cannot understand how a small group of people, in the tiny nation, bent on evil, continue to defy the collective will of the rest of the world for peace, represented by the United Nations. Surely, the UN ought to be a force for good and needs to stand up against the seeming triumph of evil forces around the world.'
Hindu leader turns to shaman for healing, but when it doesn't work, he finds Jesus instead

A local Christian leader in Indonesia discovered for himself that "black magic" was nothing compared to the immense miraculous power of Jesus Christ.

The unnamed director of an indigenous Christian ministry shared with Christian Aid Mission how Jesus healed a prominent Hindu leader in southern Indonesia who had been bedridden for two years due to an affliction he blamed on black magic.

The ministry director said after a friend introduced him to the Hindu temple leader, he prayed with him for two monthsbut nothing happened.

At that time the Hindu leader was also consulting with a local shaman, a Hindu spiritual healer. When the shaman suddenly stopped visiting, the Hindu leader's wife went to the ministry director to ask for his help and he obliged.

"I came to visit again, and I just asked him to invite Jesus the Doctor, saying He is God who can make you healed," he told Christian Aid Mission. "I said, 'I'll pray for you, but you must believe that He is God and will make you well.'"

The next day, the ministry director went back to the temple leader's home andto his surprisefound the Hindu leader out of bed and well enough to be mixing cement to build a wall.

"When I came, he said, 'Hello Mr. Church,' because he doesn't know my name," the director said. The Hindu leader requested for more prayers and wanted to know more about Jesus.

One week later, the director baptized the Hindu leader after he accepted Jesus as his personal Savior.

The former Hindu remains an influential leader in his community, and he has been sharing with the villagers how Jesus was able to restore his health, thus making more people receptive of the gospel.

The indigenous Christian ministry has been spreading the gospel throughout the vast Indonesian archipelago with outreaches in Central Sulawesi, Bali, and other islands. Last year it saw 54 people turn to Christ, including 13 who were baptized.

The ministry also trains evangelists and pastors.

Two years ago, a report came out that two million Muslims are converting to Christianity in Indonesia every year. Steve Strang, the founding editor and publisher of Charisma News, wrote that at the rate Indonesian Muslims are converting to Christianity"one new convert every 15 seconds"Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, "will be mostly Christian by 2035."

According to Christian Aid Mission, only 10 percent of the Indonesian population are Christian. Hindus comprise even much lessonly 1.7 percent. The great majority87.2 percentare Muslim.

Open Doors USA notes that radical Islamic groups continue to pose serious challenges in Indonesia, which ranks 46th on its World Watch List of top 50 countries where believers face the most persecution.
How St Augustine of Canterbury changed the world forever

There aren't many people who've had such an impact on history as St Augustine of Canterbury. On his feast day today, it's worth exploring who he was and why he was so influential.

Not to be confused with St Augustine of Hippo, the Church father, Augustine of Canterbury was the man chosen by the Pope to convert the Britons to Christianity.

He was the prior of a monastery in Rome when chosen by Gregory the Great, who was Pope at the time, to lead a mission to England.

The Christian faith had already been introduced in the 3rd or 4th century, but the gradual collapse of Roman rule and the invasion of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes meant it fell into abeyance in parts of the country, while others became associated with Celtic Christianity.

Augustine was commissioned in AD 595. After a couple of false starts, he arrived in Kent in AD 597 and found a base at Canterbury. From here he undertook the evangelisation of England.

The King of Kent was converted along with many of his subjects. Although Augustine then died a few years later, in 604, the foundation he had built became the basis for the next 1,500 year of Christianity in the UK.

The (eventually Roman) Catholic faith that Augustine brought to these isles was different to the Celtic expression that held on in parts. Celtic Christians celebrated Easter on a different date and had various different worship practices. With the advancement of Augustine's more universal brand of Christianity, there was something of an inevitable point of decision.

It came at the Synod of Whitby in AD 664. At the synod, Celtic and Catholic Christians came together to discuss their differences. The King of Northumbria ruled that the people of his kingdom would follow Roman traditions rather than the Celtic version of the faith and from then on, the Roman church had the upper hand in what eventually became the UK.

Celtic Christianity hung on in parts and has had a partial renaissance in recent decades, but by the time of the Norman invasion in 1066, the triumph of Roman Christianity, at least at the level of the elite of English society, was assured.

Over the next few hundred years all was relatively stable from a religious point of view. But the stability came to an end in the mid 16th century, when the Reformation reached British shores. The Reformation in England and Scotland took different forms, with each nation creating a national Church, but England retained many of the features of Catholic Christianity which Augustine had first introduced a millennium before  bishops being the most obvious.

Crucially, though, it was the centralising, universal character of the Roman Church which was also carried over into the Anglican faith. Rome was replaced by Canterbury, the seat of the first English archbishop  Augustine himself.

To be accepted in English society meant to be Anglican. Despite a brief experiment with Puritanism after the Civil War, for most of the past 500 years this arrangement held. Anglicanism was the default faith of the English state and those outside it  be they Roman Catholic or Nonconformist  were at best second class citizens.

When the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the 'new world' part of their reasoning was to escape this stifling religious conformity. It took a couple of hundred years, but what developed in America was a form of religious freedom and toleration that was the direct result of the persecution non-Anglicans had experienced in England.

The role that this marketplace of ideas and theologies played on the development of American Protestantism, the spirit of capitalism and eventually, the American 'empire' is hard to overstate.

There are obviously many more factors at play than just the influence of the faith Augustine brought to the English.

However, for the last three centuries the world has been dominated by the British and then the American empires  direct descendants of the Christian culture brought to the UK by St Augustine of Canterbury. So, although he could never have foreseen it when he set off for a backwater of the former Roman Empire, by the time his brief work on English shores was done he had dropped a stone into history whose ripples are still expanding today.
Jesuits in Britain appoint new head

Jesuits in Britain have a new Provincial General Superior. Father Damian Howard SJ will take over at the helm of the organisation in Britain, which is formally known as the Society of Jesus.

The Roman Catholic order was founded by St Ignatius of Loyola and counts Pope Francis among its members.

Fr Howard trained in Chile, has been a parish priest in South London and also has a PhD from the University of Birnmingham in Islamic thought.

He said: 'I am both deeply touched by this act of trust and daunted by the challenge. But I know I can count on the prayers and support of the Jesuits in Britain and of our many friends. Filled with confidence in God and aware of the urgency of the mission entrusted to the Society by the Church, I am thankful, too, to my predecessor, Fr Dermot Preston, for his cheerful and wise leadership over the last six years.'

There are around 18,000 Jesuits worldwide, spread out across 100 countries.

In his profile on the Jesuits' website, Fr Howards says of his journey: 'God has a way of luring you into a good thing without being totally up-front about what is in store (Matthew 20:22) and you slowly discover that your ideas weren't rooted in reality anyway. And so you just have to keep choosing the life.'
Joel and Victoria Osteen receive criticism after making hand gesture some people think is sign of the devil

Famed televangelists Joel and Victoria Osteen have received criticism on social media after they posted photos of themselves throwing up a hand sign meant to show support for the University of Texas at Austin when their son graduated from the school this past weekend.

The Osteens, who minister at Lakewood Church in Houston, attended their son Jonathan's graduation ceremony at the University of Texas at Austin on Saturday. Following the ceremony, both the mother and father took photos with their son, all of whom posed for the pictures by flashing the "Hook 'em Horns" hand gesture.

Anyone who attends the University of Texas or routes for the Longhorns knows that it is not uncommon to see people around the Austin campus flashing the hand sign, which consists of holding down the middle and ring finger with the thumb while the pinky and index finger stand erect, creating the shape of the head of a longhorn cattle.

As the Austin American-Statesman reports, most of the tweets received in response to the graduation photos posted by both Joel and Victoria Osteen to Twitter were positive and congratulatory. However, many who know such a handsign to have inappropriate, and even unChristian meanings, responded to the Osteens photos with criticism.

The longhorn hand gesture also has a number of different meanings for people not familiar with the University of Texas tradition. Although people in Texas know it to be in reference to the Texas Longhorns, the same hand gesture has also been used by rock stars to signal "rock on."

Ironically, the same hand sign has also been used around the world to represent the devil or evil.

"What symbolic signs are u showing the world?" Twitter user @AndreUPX asked in response to Victoria Osteen's photo. "Congratulations for belonging to the [the devil] or what?"

Another Twitter user with the handle @hoodysoldy replied to Victoria Osteen's tweet by asking, "what's with the Satanist hex?" Twitter user @JosefSoabeb told Victoria Osteen that "your teachings have uplifted us but that sign makes me concerned and worried."

Replying to Joel Osteen's photo, Twitter user @kavivyajunior also voiced her displeasure.

"The sign sir ... I honor you but that hand gesture sent a very bad signal! Can't believe it's you," the Twitter user wrote, according to the Statesman.

Twitter user @ian_indimuli asked Joel Osteen and his son, "Why on Earth would you use the devil sign? My goodness a thumbs up would work or you don't have thumbs?"

But as the Statesman points out, a thumbs-up gesture wouldn't have gone over very well on the Austin campus because that is actually the the sign of the Longhorns' rival, Texas A&M University.

At least one Twitter user who knew that the hand sign is meant to show support for University of Texas still expressed opposition.

"Doing horns?! Even though is UT, that symbol ain't good! Thats devil's symbol!" Twitter user @isaachogg wrote.

While many Twitter users were quick to criticize, there were many people on Twitter who clarified the context of the hand gesture.

"Hook 'em Horns is the slogan and hand signal of The University of Texas at Austin," @mojoclay wrote in response to a user's comment to Joel Osteen's tweet.

The Christian Post reached out to a media relations representative at Lakewood Church but comment was not immediately available by press time.

Originally posted at The Christian Post.
Maddi Runkles, sexual shame and purity parades: The challenge of grace in a fallen world

This week has seen the news of a Christian girl, Maddi Runkles, who's been banned from attending her Christian school's graduation ceremony because she's pregnant. Feeling misunderstood, Heritage Academy, Maryland clarified its position: it was not her pregnancy, but her sexual immorality that prompted the punishment.

The story, which sounds like a satirical caricature of Christian conservatism, is just tragically true. And it's tailor-made for portrayal as a victory for cold legalism, shame-culture and sexism.

The problem is that Maddi Runkles couldn't win. When the unmarried, self-described 'born-again Christian' 18-year old became pregnant in January, she knew she was in trouble. The school's code of conduct declares that 'no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of the marriage commitment between a man and a woman', and all the students at Heritage pledge to abstinence from 'sexual immorality and from the use of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs'.

Bravely, she ended up confessing her situation in front of her school, and decided to keep her baby. She then found herself caught between conservatives: she won the support of pro-life groups who applauded her choice not to abort, but her conservative school was determined that that her sin shouldn't be ignored. After all, she'd been sexually immoral.

'Let me clarify some facts. Maddi is being disciplined, not because she's pregnant, but because she was immoral,' wrote the school's administrator, David R Hobbs.

He added: 'A wise man told me that discipline is not the absence of love, but the application of love. We love Maddi Runkles. The best way to love her right now is to hold her accountable for her immorality that began this situation.'

One can sympathise with the school's dilemma here while at the same time concluding it got things wrong.

The president of Students for Life of America, Kristan Hawkins, put it well: 'By banning her and her alone, the administration and board collectively decided to make a public example of one student and has either intentionally or unintentionally communicated to the school community that pregnancy (not simply premarital sex) is a shame and should not be observed within our school community.'

Maddi is part of a small class of only 15. By removing her from the ceremony, the school has placed a great pall of shame over her head. It didn't intend this story to make international news, but now it has, and what the world sees is a woman who transgressed the boundaries of sexual morality, and for her sins, must be shamed as such.

'Shame' as a concept doesn't have to be abhorrent: sometimes a sense of internal or corporate shame can be wise  human beings can be shameful. But the Church already has a reputation for being obsessed with sexual shame  parading a purity culture, obsessing over certain acts, and then labelling who's in or out.

Shame is particularly concerned with labels and identity: while guilt concerns behaviour, shame concerns the self  it's about who you are. It can be toxic. If a graduation weren't already fraught with comparison and identity crisis, for Maddi it's now a public parade for the morally pure, and she can't join in.

Sexism is at play here too. As a woman, Maddi has to bear outward sign of her 'immorality' (being pregnant) in a way that no man would have to. Of course, little has been heard of the baby's father, though he isn't part of the school. If men at the school have been sexually immoral or transgressed another boundary how would anyone know? It might not be intentional, but the system is rigged.

Christians, being ministers of Christ-like grace, are meant to reject legalism. Preachers certainly do in their sermons, but when it comes down to it, it's hard to resist the lure of the law.

Why could the indiscretion not slide? Maddi made her life choices, ones she will now live with and embrace. Does the school's moral code really require it to shame her? For outsiders  and no matter how hard the school pushes back against the accusation  it will confirm the suspicion that the Church doesn't really care about loving people  only judging them.

In Hawkins' words: 'There has got to be a way to treat a young woman who becomes pregnant in a graceful and loving way.'

When Jesus met women who had been cast out for their sexual indiscretions, he didn't dismiss them or make them beg for mercy. He embraced them and offered life, not judgment (John 4:1-26). He told those ready to stone an adulteress: 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone' (John 8:7).

Evangelicals love to remind people that 'there is no one righteous, not even one' (Romans 3:10), but maybe that isn't true when it comes to sexual shame and graduation ceremonies. That's when we're taking names.

Legalism is easy, but Jesus taught a better way. Perhaps we would all do well to follow the example of Maddi Runkles, and choose life.

You can follow @JosephHartropp on Twitter.
Martin Luther: 'Barking archvillain' or latter-day prophet?

Catholics and Protestants, by the nature of the case, have always had an uneasy relationship. This year marks the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation, on October 31, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses attacking Church corruption on the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church (allegedly  scholarly opinions are divided).

Today is the anniversary of a ferocious attack on those Reformers by Pope Pius X. In his encyclical Editae Saepe, about the Catholic reformer St Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), published in 1910, he blames them for all the evils of the modern world. He said their purpose was 'not the restoration, but the effacement and destruction of faith and morals'.

Of the Reformation he says: 'In those days passions ran riot and knowledge of the truth was almost completely twisted and confused.' The Reformers 'were not concerned with correcting morals, but only with denying dogmas. Thus they increased the chaos. They dropped the reins of law, and unbridled licentiousness ran wild. They despised the authoritative guidance of the Church and pandered to the whims of the dissolute princes and people...They called this rebellious riot and perversion of faith and morals a reformation, and themselves reformers. In reality, they were corrupters.'

However, this hostility toward the Reformers  fully reciprocated  while common enough among Catholics, isn't the whole picture of how they have been seen through the last five centures, and certainly isn't how they're officially seen now.

A fascinating exhibition at the Luther House in Eisenach, where Luther stayed as a boy (he later found refuge at the Wartburg Castle near the town), unpicks the uncertain relationship Catholics have with the first Reformer. As well as various Luther artefacts and documents, visitors can see a separate display entitled Heretic, Schismatic, Teacher of the Faith: The Catholic View of Luther. He came to define himself in opposition to the Roman Church and the papacy  but how did Catholics see him? It's mixed.

For one scholar writing in 1525, Ulrich Zasius, he was 'the basest of all bipeds'. Abraham Nagel, writing in 1589, wrote: 'Examine Luther therefore from back and front and on every side from bottom and top: then, he is just a pile of filth and his mouth is full of dreck; and the more one stirs up his dreck, the more he stinks.' After that he gets a little too crude to quote. For Johannes Weislinger in 1722 Luther was 'the arch-violator rake, the barking archvillain blaspheming God and mankind, the general heretic and apostle of Satan wantonly teaching errors', 'on a first name basis with the devil incarnate'.

And Catholic historian Heinrich Denifle wrote in 1906: 'As far as his cynicism, base language and speech are concerned, Luther did not even rise above any common stable boy, swineherd and street sweeper of his day.'

That's not the whole story, of course. In recent years Catholic scholars have come to a more generous appreciation of Luther. Johannes Hessen wrote in 1947 of him: 'Luther ranks among the Old Testament prophets. Like them, he is also a champion of God filled by holy zeal. Like them, he also fights for the ideal of high and pure veneration of God, for worship of God "in spirit and in truth". Like them, he also sees his mission to be to purify and cleanse religion, to reform it.' And Preacher to the Papal Household Raniero Cantalamessa said in 2016: 'Luther deserves the credit for bringing this truth back when its meaning had been lost over the centuries, at least in Christian preaching, and it is this above all for which Christianity is indebted to the Reformation.'

One of the marks of Luther's rehabilitation in Catholic eyes is a hugely significant document that was agreed between the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification goes the root of the Reformation, whose central question was, 'How can someone be saved?' After decades of conversations, Catholics and Lutherans agreed that they fundamentally believed the same thing and that their mutual condemnations no longer applied.

It's in the wake of this that Pope Francis went to Sweden last October for the beginning of the Reformation celebrations, a move that infuriated traditionalists who were still of Pius X's mind. He said then that he wanted commemorations to take part in a spirit of humility on both sides.

In a statement reproduced at the Eisenach exhibition Francis said: 'I don't believe Martin Luther's intentions were wrong. He was a reformer. Perhaps some methods were not appropriate but we see that the Church was not exactly an exemplary model at that time. There was corruption, worldliness, attachment to money and power. That is why he protested. He was intelligent and took a step forward and explained why he did this. Today, we Protestants and Catholics are in agreement on the doctrine of justification. On this very important point, he did not err.'

The Catholic Church has come a long way from the crude denunciations of Luther's contempories. So have Protestants: Luther's view that the Pope, or the Papacy, is the Antichrist of the New Testament is not held today outside independent fundamentalist congregations. Whether any kind of formal reunion might come to pass  and what that might look like  is a different question. But it's fascinating to look back at what has changed, and what might be possible in the future.

'Heretic, Schismatic, Teacher of the Faith: The Catholic View of Luther' is at the Lutherhaus in Eisenach, Thuringia until November 5.
The secret to Christian unity? Maybe it's really simple...

Since the Church first split in the 4th century there have been plenty of attempts to bring it back together. The splits have sometimes been about politics and personalities. Yet most often, it's been doctrine that's forced Christians apart.

The Reformation, whose 500th anniversary we mark this year, may have turned into a political conflict when kings and emperors got involved. But at heart, it was Martin Luther's theological objections to the teachings of the Church that lit the spark.

This indicates that the answer to division should probably come about via theological discussion. Stick a load of learned theologians from both sides of a divide into a room and give it long enough. They'll hopefully come up with some form of words that pleases both sides and then we can all become friends again.

Although there are some examples of this working to an extent (Roman Catholics and Lutherans now say they basically agree on justification, one of the main doctrinal divides of the Reformation), there are other examples of theological dialogue which are stuck in the long grass.

In fact, I don't think conference rooms full of giant theological minds is the right way to rectify division. I suspect a far better option is to actually do things with Christians who are very different from us.

There are some wonderful practical examples happening on both a local and national scale. We all know churches that are reaching across the denominational divides to take part in organising food banks, street pastors and a thousand other brilliant initiatives.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to see up close the great work that is done by a couple of charities with which I'm involved. They have staff, volunteers and beneficiaries who are of different denominations, have different spiritual practices and attend churches of all shapes and sizes. But something bigger unites them. In my experience, the advantage of meeting together and working together over a common cause means that when it comes to discussing the differences, they always seem much smaller.

Another way in which we can break down the barriers is prayer. That's why it's so heartening to see the number of different churches and organisations who've signed up to be part of the 'Thy Kingdom Come' initiative. Begun last year, the idea was to get churches praying in the days between Ascension and Pentecost (a week on Sunday).

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York began the initiative and it might have been expected that it would mainly be Church of England churches taking up the call. But Christians of many denominations took part. This year has seen small chapels and massive cathedrals sign up, as well as a wider array of church traditions and denominations.

In the same way as acting together, praying together breaks down barriers. Anyone who's ever been to a place like Taize, in France, which prides itself on the unity it promotes, can speak to the power of the regular prayer sessions to break down division.

Unlike during a discussion or argument where our bodies face each other, when we pray, our bodies are positioned so as to focus on God. This simple, physical act means we often are facing in the same direction.

Praying together, especially the powerful words of the Lord's Prayer, which is shared by all Christians across space and time reminds us that even though we differ in many ways we also share much in common.

Archbishop Justin Welby said in relation to the event that, 'In praying "Thy Kingdom Come" we all commit to playing our part in the renewal of the nations and the transformation of communities.'

He's really onto something here. If we want to truly transform our communities, it will only come with God's help. However, the transformation that goes on in ourselves and our neighbour may be of a kind that wasn't intended when we sat, knelt or stood to pray together. The transformation of ourselves, of our relationships and of our differences into things that can be transcended. Churches all around the world are trying it this week... Why not join them?
ICC Intellectual Property Roadmap 2017 | Now available





The 2017 edition of the ICC Intellectual Property Roadmap is available now!





ICCs flagship IP publication, launched on World Intellectual Property Day, provides a comprehensive and concise overview of key intellectual property policy issues today.





The result of collaboration between over eighty IP experts from around the globe, the 2017 edition reflects the most pressing issues that have been reshaping intellectual property in recent years.





Issues covered include the interaction between IP and climate change, innovation, competition, digitisation and the data-driven economy, as well as developments in patents, trade secrets, IP valuation, standards, designs, copyright, trade marks, domain names, plant varieties, and other areas.





Access the 2017 IP Roadmap here For more news on the 2017 IP Roadmap, see here , as well as Twitter Facebook and LinkedIn





Lecture





On June 7, Professor Bankole Sodipo, who is a preeminent IP scholar in Nigeria, will give a lecture at the CCLS Lincoln's Inn Fields campus on "FDI and Nigeria's IP Landscape". Further details of the lecture can be found on this Eventbrite platform , with free registration for everyone. Here is also a flyer for the event.





Calling for an IP tutorial support at City





We want you.

Is there a PhD candidate, a recently qualified practitioner, or graduate who is keen to get a foot into the door of IP teaching, and who is able to step in and assist on the Intellectual Property Management module at Cass Business School, City University of London? The IPM module is delivered to 2nd year BSc business and management students. Growing student numbers means extra tutorial groups (groups attend tutorials 1 hour every other week over 11 weeks duration of the module) for which assistance is sought, and paid for. There is also paid marking of coursework and exam papers. If you can think of anyone who has the necessary knowledge, attitude, aptitude and time to fit the bill, a message of interest would be most appreciated.



City-CassIP. If any reader thinks that he or she might be the right person, can that person please email Tian Lu at Tian.ipkat@gmail.com with the subject line



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18:00 Monday BST. 5th June, 2017.





The successful applicant will be the second postholder. The first postholder, on retiring after two years, writes:




'We trust Jesus to walk with you': Persecuted Christians around the world pray for Manchester

Normally, it is Christians in the West who are accustomed to being asked to pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

But now, persecuted Christians are themselves joining in prayer  for the victims of the Manchester terror attack.

According to the Christian persecution charity Open Doors, believers in some of the countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian have shared their messages of support.

'It is precisely because they live under the constant threat of terrorism and violence that they are able to empathise with all of those caught up in this terrible attack,' said Open Doors.

One nun in Pakistan, who has helped many victims of terror in her own country, said: 'I was a student in Manchester for three years. There, God called me to serve his Church. There I met people who prayed for the persecuted Church. I was moved by how believers really did pray for those who are suffering.

'Today, my team and I remember our praying friends and family in the UK. Today, we assure you that in your pain and grief and shock, in the trauma and tragedy of it all, we are standing by you and trusting Jesus, Emmanuel, to walk with you and comfort you and wipe your tears. We journey together.'

A pastor from Bangladesh said: 'I am shocked to hear this news as the UK is a highly protected country. I'm praying for the affected people and their families; may God pour His love and blessing over them. May God change the minds of the people who are behind the brutal attack, that they may also be caught by the fear of God. At the same time, we praying for our country, that God will save us all from these kinds of attacks.'

A church worker in Malaysia said: 'I pray for those who have lost loved ones that God will comfort them in their sorrows. I also pray that this tragedy will help open our eyes to see the great need to share the truth of Jesus to all; for only His love can help them lay down their bombs.'

A young Christian, also from Malaysia, said: 'The first thought that came to my mind after I heard the bombing was "Why did he do it?" I cannot understand the reason why that man blew himself up and took the lives of others as well. But I can understand how you, our brothers and sisters in UK, feel. My heart goes out to you and I pray for God to comfort you in your grief.'

A Christian from north east India said of the victims: 'May God comfort them and lead them through these trying times.'

And a Christian from Sri Lanka said: 'We condemn this horrendous act and our hearts go out to the families that lost their loved ones and others affected. Be strong Manchester! May God heal your emotional and physical wounds.'

In Laos, a Christian brother said: 'God never leaves his people as orphans. He will come to you. Be encouraged.'

And in Vietnam, five Christian groups took time to pray for Manchester. 'We ask God to forgive ISIS and to comfort the people in Manchester and the UK.' The so-called Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in Manchester, although this has not been verified.

All of these countries are on the Open Doors 2017 World Watch List, the annual ranking of the 50 countries where persecuted against Christians is most extreme. Pakistan is number four, India is number 15, Laos is 24, Bangladesh is 26, Malaysia is 31, Sri Lanka is 45.
Some 43 per cent of NHS commissioners are not making use of the Social Value Act when procuring public services, research published today has found.

National Voices and Social Enterprise UK submitted Freedom of Information to all 209 Clinical Commissioning Groups in England and received responses from 191, a response rate of 91 per cent.

The resulting report, Healthy Commissioning, shows 57 per cent of respondents claimed that they had a social value policy, referenced social value in one or more of their procurement policies, said they are reviewing their procurement policies or adhere to the principles of the Act in commissioning.

The remaining 43 cent either had no policy, were not aware of a policy; or had a policy in some stage of development.

13 per cent 'highly committed'

Moreover, only 13 per cent demonstrated what the researchers defined as highly committed, evidenced and active use of the Act, such as including social value measurements in their tender evaluations.

Even with the most compliant CCGs, the researchers found many commissioners gave little weighting, about 2 per cent, to social value considerations.

An analysis of commissioners sustainability and transformation plans found that just 13 per cent mention social value.

The report authors have called for social value to be built into NHS Englands Right Care programme which assists CCGs with commissioning value-based patient pathways.

It also urged NHS England, the Department of Health and Public Health England to issue joint guidance on implementation of the Act.

SEUK: 'CCG's lag behind'

Peter Holbrook, chief executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: This is the first research that confirms what we knew anecdotally: that outside of a small number of encouraging examples, the healthcare system's uptake and application of the Social Value Act is currently very low.

In this way, Clinical Commissioning Groups are lagging behind local authorities and housing associations in seizing the opportunity that the Act provides.

The healthcare system needs to tap into the reach and knowledge of the social sector, to join up across services and agencies, and to maximise the value from each pound spent. The Social Value Act can help with each of these.

It is now imperative that NHS England, Department of Health and Public Health England give clearer guidance to the system as a whole, and demonstrate social value principles in practice themselves."

Don Redding, director of policy at National Voices, said: The NHS needs a serious review of how it supports commissioners to have the knowledge, confidence and skills to adopt social value principles and approaches.

See in Charity Finance

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public bodies to consider the social, economic and environmental benefits of services they procure, which the charity sector hoped would offer it an advantage when bidding for contracts.

But in December, the House of Lords charity committee heard that the Act is either not referred to or is "an afterthought" in public sector commissioning.

In February, minister for civil society Rob Wilson announced there would be a review of the Act.
Freddo, pictured here pondering the meaning of life. Or maybe he's just frogotten something...

Before the amusing take on the events in the charity sector this week, well start by saying that our thoughts this week have been with those affected by the Manchester attack. Charities, including the British Red Cross, are at the heart of the response and so far well over 2m has been donated to JustGiving pages for the victims.

In this weeks Society Diary: a Hispaniolan tree frog washes up in a Surrey Waitrose, Rob Wilson returns to the campaign trail, and an account of some acronyms.

A visitor from across the pond

First this week, were off to Surrey  ah lovely, leafy Surrey. Home of abandoned treacle mines, weird duck races and the second tallest spire in England. Also home to inexplicable four-wheel drive cars that never travel off the A-Road, total poshos, and casual racism. Truly, the jewel of the Home Counties!

The RSPCA were called out to a Waitrose in Haslemere this week when a Hispaniolan common tree frog was spotted by Waitrose staff lurking amongst the bananas on which he had journeyed all the way from his home in the Dominican Republic.

Annie Janes, the animal collection officer who went out to collect the frog from the Haslemere Waitrose dubbed him Freddo, after everyones favourite chocolate frog. Luckily though, nobody ate him.

Its not as uncommon as you might think to have a stowaway of this nature, said Janes. But little Freddo was lucky to survive such a long distance journey. Also lucky that Freddo was found before he ended up in a customers shopping bag as that would be quite a surprise to take home from the supermarket.

This column can only imagine the scenes. A live frog in the shopping: this is Surrey for heavens sake, not the bloody Loire Valley! Thats why I voted to leave Tabitha. Tabitha? Ta Tabitha!

Anyway Freddo, pictured, has been rehomed safe and sound, which is good because that means Diary can unleash its (sort of) frog joke. You ready? Why did Freddo the Hispaniolan common tree frog have to stowaway on a plane to get to Haslemere?

Because his car had been toad

Rob Wilson fires up the East Reading Battle Van

Whatever this column does during the week, it always makes sure to keep at least one eye firmly focused on former minister for civil society and MP for East Reading Rob Wilsons Twitter account.

Since the snap election was called in April, Wilson has been all over the eastern parts of Reading like a rash. And, every step of the way, hes been accompanied by at least one person with an iPhone and log-in details for his official social media channels.

So far on the campaign trail weve seen Rob visiting a local retirement home in what this column can only surmise is a pair of shorts; inadvertently pay homage to one of the 1990s great soft-rock bands while battling inclement weather, and modelled what he called a road safety hoodie.

Today Rob has returned to the campaign trail, following a break after the events in Manchester and, oh yes, hes back with a bang. Hes only gone and gotten himself a BATTLE VAN!

I'm talking to residents across Reading East. Obviously I can't knock on every door, but I do want to hear from as many people as possible. pic.twitter.com/bAcEFvq0OB  Rob Wilson (@RobWilson_RDG) May 25, 2017

This! This is basically perfection. Forgive Diary if its wrong, but did Rob Wilson just briefly forget what his first name is? Yes. Did he also just absolutely butcher his email address? Yes, definitely. If you, dear reader, can watch that video once, and then successfully send an email to Rob Wilson, this column will personally send you a biscuit.

Perhaps the best bit about the whole thing though is, after fluffing his lines, Rob gets stuck in this beautifully awkward pregnant pause at the end. That moment where the chap driving the van hasnt started moving yet, but the camera is still rolling and so your man in a van Rob just sits there, benignly smiling, waiting for the van to pull off and maybe, just maybe, a bead of sweat starts to trickle down his forehead.

Then yes! the van lurches into first and begins to move away and then, inexplicably, (probably fulfilling the Toriest of all Tory dreams), Rob leans his head out the window and gives a little wave, just like the Queen would, except theres absolutely no way that Liz would ever be caught dead in the passenger seat of a Ford Transit van and, wait, has Diary actually just committed treason? Just now? Is it treasonous to even write about the Queen and a van in the same sentence?

Anyway, check the video and, seriously, keep an eye on Rob Wilsons social media accounts in the run up to 8 June. Youll miss him when hes gone back to parliament.

An acronym anachronism

Finally, were with Sir Stuart Etherington (SSE has he shall henceforth be known) and his keynote speech at the Association of NHS Charities Members Forum and Annual Business Meeting (ANHSCMFABM) on Wednesday.

During a wide-ranging speech, Big Stu (sorry, SSE) took delegates through a rip-roaring state of the sector address which included a line about incoming European Union General Data Protection Regulation set to come into force in this country (yes even after Brexit, Nigel. STOP SENDING US EMAILS!) on 25 May 2018.

Never before, said SSE, warming to his task (disclaimer: SD was not in attendance at ANHSCMFABM, but it has seen a bullet point list of what SSE spoke about!) Has an acronym been so much discussed in our sector.

The acronym in question here being, of course, GDPR. Now SSE might have a point but, seriously, this sector absolutely loves an acronym. SSE himself works for NCVO, which shares an office with ACEVO, who authored a report which called for the FPS, got rid of the FRSB, merged the PFRA into the IoF whos member organisations include heavy hitters like CRUK, RSPCA, BHF, BRC, RNIB, RNLI and, of course, Macmillan

FML.
THERE WASNT MUCH FOR THE GOP to cheer about when the Congressional Budget Office released its report on the updated American Health Care Act late Wednesday. That evening, Politico published a rundown of the reports key points, many of them grim: 23 million fewer people insured within a decade, more than half within a year of the AHCAs passage; more than $800 billion in Medicaid cuts and loss of coverage for millions reached under Medicaid expansion; selective premium increases, particularly for poor, older Americans.

The CBO also had bad news for those with pre-existing health problems. Although the GOP has argued their bill would protect people with medical conditions, the CBO ruled otherwise. Voxs Sarah Kliff singled out what she called the most devastating paragraph in the CBO report:

People who are less healthy (including those with preexisting or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive nongroup health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at all As a result, the nongroup markets in those states would become unstable for people with higher-than-average expected health care costs.

Heres the bright spot for the GOP: The government would save some $119 billion over the next 10 years, and stakeholders and wealthy Americans who are now paying more taxes and fees to help subsidize insurance coverage would be relieved of that obligation.

All the Republican spin in the world shouldnt erase the fact that, under the AHCA, America would take a giant step backward in its effort to bring health insurance to more of its citizens. Yet, in spite of the numbers, coverage of the CBO report shows a heavy layer of GOP gloss.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price dismissed the credibility of the report outright. The CBO was wrong when they analyzed Obamacares effect on cost and coverage, and they are wrong again, Price said in a press release minutes after the report dropped. He then turned to a familiar GOP line of defense: In reality Americans are paying more for fewer healthcare choices because of Obamacare.

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Other Republican elected officials took the same approach. Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford noted that the CBO previously overestimated how many would sign up for Obamacare insurance exchanges. New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur flatly dismissed the CBO conclusion that the GOP plan would hurt people with pre-existing conditions, according to The Hill.

I respect the CBOs role, said MacArthur in The Hill, but just because a group of auditors down the block have created a model that has a lot of ifs, ands, and maybes, looks out 10 years, doesnt make that the gospel. That is somebodys opinion at CBO. I have a different opinion.

House Speaker Paul Ryan had a different opinion, too. A Congressional reporter for Fox News quoted a notably upbeat Ryan on Twitter:

#BREAKING Ryan on CBO report on health care bill: "I feel good about it. It's great." Won't say when Hse will send bill to the Senate  Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) May 24, 2017

Ryan also told reporters he was actually comforted by the CBO report because it shows, yeah, were going to lower premiums. But thats not exactly the case.

Whether premiums continue to rise will depend on where someone lives, and whether his or her state opts out of certain Obamacare requirements. For example, a state could eliminate the essential benefits package, which requires insurance providers to offer high-cost coverage such as maternity care and mental health treatment. That would allow insurers to lower their premiums and make their products more palatable to families. The CBO estimates that premiums in opt-out states could drop by anywhere from 4 to 20 percent over 10 years.

COVERAGE FROM CONSERVATIVE MEDIA amplified claims against the CBO. Breitbart passed along this, from Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican who was dismissive of the report: I could care less about what CBO said. They should not be scoring anything. On Foxs Your World, host Neil Cavuto asked Home Depot founder and Republican donor Ken Langone whether he thought the government was cutting Medicaid or simply slowing the rate of growth:

CAVUTO: Well, let me ask you this. What is a cut to you? When I hear cuts and I hear people, liberals espousing this view that were cutting to smithereens the social safety net, Im thinking, well, theyre wiping it out, when, in fact, I discover with Medicaid and some of these other programs, were slowing the rate of growth. But thats entered the vernacular, just like the argument that if youre anti-illegal immigration, it morphed into youre anti-immigrant. Ken Langone, what is a cut to you? LANGONE: A cut to me is if youre getting $4, and now youre getting $3.80, thats a cut. A cut is not, when Im getting $4, and, next year, I was going to get $4.40. Instead, Im only going to get $4.30. Thats not a cut. CAVUTO: They call that cut. LANGONE: Well, guess what? Thats what politicians do. Its all about illusion.

Langones opinions made slowing the rate of growth sound like a good thing, though they may have confused those viewers trying to follow the conversation. The rate of growth argument is at least 20 years old; Republicans used it when they first began to attack federal spending on Medicare. Cavutos statements minimize what amounts to a massive Medicaid cutsomething Politico also pointed out:

The Trump administrations blueprint for Medicaid goes beyond simply reinforcing conservatives bid to fundamentally reshape the program. It wholeheartedly embraces the roughly $839 billion in Medicaid cuts included in the House GOP repeal legislation, and then layers a whole new level of reductions on top of that.

Assailing the credibility of the CBO report doesnt address what National Review columnist Jim Geraghty called the GOPs current predicament in health-care policy: Republican officials now have to explain the tradeoffs of a specific plan when their standard-bearer refused to do so in 2016. Geraghty enumerated campaign statements by Trumpto take care of everybody, to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, to make no cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Geraghty then argued, You cant keep all of those promises. Some of them are more or less contradictory. You cant keep Medicaid intact AND repeal Obamacare, because Obamacare expanded Medicaid.

The CBO story boils down to this: numbers from an agency with a reputation for gold standard reports versus the spin and opinion from Republican proponents of their health plan. In the end, context-free numbers and defiant quotes from congressional Republicans with a huge stake in the AHCAs outcome do little to tell the electorate exactly what the Republican plan will and will not do for them.

This is a deeply unpopular piece of legislation, Democratic strategist Jon Vogel told Politico before the latest CBO report. But the electorate is not fully aware of what it does and it is not at the top of peoples minds. The CBO report cant explain those consequences in full. It falls to journalists to explain how the health plan that will soon emerge from the Senate will actually affect ordinary people struggling to make sense of the spin.

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Trudy Lieberman is a longtime contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review. She is the lead writer for CJR's Covering the Health Care Fight. She also blogs for Health News Review and the Center for Health Journalism. Follow her on Twitter @Trudy_Lieberman.
05/26/2017

Photo (c) zimmytws - Fotolia Current and former officials at the Department of Education are in hot water for making improper payments through its federal student aid programs.

In a hearing on Thursday, Education Department inspector general Kathleen Tighe told Congress members that over $6 billion in improper payments were made in 2016, according to a New York Times report. CFO of the Federal Student Aid office Jay Hurt said that a zero-percent rate of improper payments isnt feasible, but Rep. Virginia Fox (R-N.C.) was less than sympathetic to the claim.

I think we should strive for zero mistakes. You are not dealing with your own money, you are dealing with someone elses money and I want people in the department to remember that, she responded.

$6 billion in improper payments

An audit of the Education Department found that the $6 billion in improper payments had been made through its Pell grants program ($2.21 billion) and its Direct Loan program ($3.86 billion). An improper payment is defined as a disbursement that should not have been made, went to the wrong recipient, was not for the correct amount, or was not documented properly.

The improper payments accounted for roughly 5% of the departments $125 billion grant payments last year, which provided financial aid to nearly 12 million college students. Hurt called an acceptable rate, citing a recent study which found that organizations tend to lose 5% of their revenue to fraud.

However, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C) called the losses abysmal and said that chief operations officer for the financial aid program James Runcie, an Obama appointee, should be held accountable by having to forfeit any bonuses he received.

Its a slap in the face to the millions of taxpayers who provided this gentleman with over $430,000 in bonuses since 2010, Meadows said, suggesting that a subpoena be issued for the former official. Runcie was scheduled to testify at the hearing but resigned from his post on Tuesday, citing political disagreement with his superiors.

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators spokesman Justin Draeger said that it was unclear how many of the improper payments were intentional or accidental, but Tighe said that the Education Department is doing its best to respond to the audits and fix the problem.

Theyve done some work to try to resolve some of our audits, but there are still some ways to go, she said.
05/26/2017

Photo (c) marcin jucha - Fotolia Efforts to repeal all travel restrictions to Cuba are moving forward after a group of U.S. senators reintroduced a bipartisan bill that would once again allow tourists to visit the island nation.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which was first introduced in 2015, received support from 55 co-sponsors on Thursday, only five votes short of the needed number to advance the legislation. If passed, the bill would shore up travel numbers, which airlines say have lagged since they were allowed to open routes to Cuban cities last year.

The chief sponsors of the bill, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), have said that lifting the travel ban would benefit both the American and Cuban people by giving the entrepreneurial and private sectors room to flourish.

It is Americans who are penalized by our travel ban, not the Cuban government, said Sen. Flake, according to a Reuters report.

Lagging travel numbers

While the number of U.S. visitors to Cuba rose by 74% last year, experts say that many consumers are foregoing travel to the country because of restrictions and economic factors that still make the trip difficult.

Currently, travelers need to fit into one of a number of categories that qualifies them for a visit to Cuba, since tourism to the island is still banned under a 54-year-old U.S. embargo. And for those who do manage to make the trip, the prospect of carrying around large amounts of cash isnt all that appealing, since no debit or credit cards work in the country because of the embargo.

President of the Washington-based Engage Cuba group James Williams commended the leaders of the bill, saying that he applauded the senators leadership in supporting the American and Cuban people by eliminating archaic, outdated policy."

Strong opposition remains

While the bill has gained traction over time, some lawmakers still heavily oppose any ending of isolationist policies towards Cuba. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) say travel to Cuba should not be made easier until the country has made a concerted effort to move towards democracy.

President Trump has also expressed reservations about opening relations with Cuba. After his 2016 election campaign, he said that he would scrap normalization efforts unless the U.S. gets a better deal.

At this time, there has been no indication that Republican leaders would allow the proposal to come up for a vote.
Celestyal Cruises has launched a completely revamped website, available at CelestyalCruises.com. The company said it is now compatible with all browsers and mobile devices, offering visitors a faster, simpler booking process and a comprehensive introduction to the companys cruises, services and unique selling points.

The website provides all the necessary information the traveler needs in order to discover, explore and book a cruise, as well as the possibility to purchase integrated services provided by Celestyal Cruises both onboard and on shore, such as excursions or drinks package upgrades.

The content, design and structure of our new website are based on the thorough research we conducted of our customers behavior, said Celestyal Cruises CEO Kyriakos Anastassiadis. We studied how our customers interacted with the features and content on our previous website, and we examined current online travel industry trends. Our site is now perfectly aligned with our company vision. Its fresh, uncluttered design emphasizes the Celestyal experience we provide our passengers, both in the Aegean and in Cuba, and we are sure it will captivate and inspire both new cruisers and returning passengers.
New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) today announced the selection of Ports America to operate both Manhattan and Brooklyn Cruise Terminals through 2029, moving both terminals to a single operator after a bidding process.

Ports America has agreed to invest $38.5 million in capital improvements across both terminals.

As part of the agreements, Ports America will be responsible for vessel berthing and stevedoring, maintenance, parking, security, billing, and additional operations at both terminals. Ports America will also provide ancillary services such as event management and military and yacht dockings.

The lease agreement with Ports America was approved this week for the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, the final approval needed for NYCEDCs operator selection. Ports America has agreed to invest $23.5 million in capital improvements at Manhattan Cruise Terminal, which will include new capacity for larger vessels and improvements to Pier 90, among other investments.

Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will be receiving $15 million in capital investments, conceived through a partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, which will include an increased capacity for larger vessels, among other improvements. Borough President Adams initiated this project with a $1.2 million capital allocation in Fiscal Year 2016, and supplemented the effort with an additional $1 million grant in Fiscal Year 2017.

New York Citys rich maritime history must continue to inform and strengthen our current economy. Our partnership with Ports America marks continued progress in leveraging the Citys waterfront assets to create jobs, attract tourists, and drive growth in an important industry. I want to thank the elected officials in both Manhattan and Brooklyn for their leadership in securing a vibrant future for our two cruise terminals, said NYCEDC President and CEO James Patchett.

"For more than two years, my administration has been intensely focused on the revitalization of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, and the working waterfront as a whole, envisioning a future where the port's infrastructure and services are able to attract and accommodate the high level of tourism traffic that our borough is excited to welcome, said Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams. Today, as a result of a process that began by leveraging our capital budget in FY16 and FY17 to invigorate this conversation, we are one big step closer to Brooklyn becoming a top-tier player in the global cruise industry. This $15 million investment by Ports America is a game-changer for economic development in Red Hook and our entire waterfront, as well as the complementary impact it will have on businesses and cultural institutions across our borough. I am so proud to have worked with the International Longshoremen's Association and local stakeholders, as well as the leadership at NYCEDC, to make this a reality."

The cruise industry is a major economic driver for New York City, said Council Member Corey Johnson, and Im pleased that this new agreement will help us grow our position in this industry while directing more revenue to Hudson River Park. I want to thank the Economic Development Corporation for striking a competitive deal that brings additional resources to local communities.

"I welcome Ports America to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. New capital investments mean increased cruise operations in Red Hook will create jobs and be a good neighbor. Residents will be glad to hear that the new operating agreement requires zero-emissions environmental controls. I thank the NYEDC for identifying a robust operator, and for locating our new NYC Ferry dock adjacent to the Cruise Terminal. The arrival of Ports America will help the entire Atlantic Basin maritime property live up to its potential for responsible economic development," said Council Member Menchaca.

Ports America is energized about the future of the cruise industry in NYC under these new agreements, said Steve Loevsky, Vice President - Cruise, Ports America. We are also implementing strategies that will increase vessel calls and passenger volumes, while enhancing the overall guest experience, asset utilization and safety. Ports America looks forward to our continued partnership with NYCEDC and our cruise line partners to provide for world-class facilities and services at both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Cruise terminals.

Were very happy that a stevedore has been selected, and were looking forward to building and strengthening our relationships with Ports America and the NYCEDC at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, said Louis Pernice, President of Local 1814.

As President of ILA Local 824, I am pleased with the good news of the approval. This will bring stability to the members, and the hard workers that have been serving the cruise industry in Manhattan for over 105 years, said Ronald Misiti, President of Local 824.

NYCEDC released a request for proposals (RFP) for a new operator for both Manhattan and Brooklyn Cruise Terminals in 2015.
When the federal government issued policy guidance in 2014 as to how financial institutions (FIs) could permissibly service marijuana-related businesses (MRBs), industry reaction was swift and decisive  most FIs wanted nothing to do with the reputational risks associated with marijuana. Fast-forward three years and we are beginning to see a noticeable change in the perception of banking MRBs. With the ever growing acceptance of legalized marijuana, MRBs are increasingly viewed by FIs as opportunities to be pursued, not risks to be avoided. Moreover, federal and state officials see FIs as the key to getting marijuana proceeds off the streets and into the financial system where they can be tracked and taxed. In short, the image of marijuana banking is changing.

Let us begin by separating reputational risk into two categories: Reputational risk caused by the action (or inactions) of FIs themselves, and the reputational risk associated with servicing clients considered to be controversial, such as MRBs.

Reputational risk is commonly defined as the following: The potential that negative publicity regarding an institutions business practices, whether true or not, will cause a decline in the customer base, costly litigation or revenue reductions. Certain byproducts of an institutions direct actions or inactions can be defined. This can be demonstrated by the $185 million dollars levied against a large institution last year for fraudulently opening accounts without their customers consent. Another example would be civil money penalties for an institutions failure to comply with various regulations. Other examples would be negative publicity from data security breaches in an FIs computer system, formal enforcement actions, and accounting irregularities. Matters such as these are typically public information, with media exposure at various levels.

The airlines have been in the news recently for demonstrating less than exemplary customer service. Despite large-scale press and social media calls for boycotts, I have yet to see the public threatening to locate and boycott the financial institutions servicing those airlines. Or consider individuals that have conducted violent crimes, or crimes against children. Are financial institutions obtaining lists to screen their clients so as not to be providing services to those individuals due to potential reputational risks? If you like or dislike a particular political party, does where they bank influence your personal banking decisions?

Let us now discuss banking MRBs. I recently conducted a Google search of the six known FIs servicing MRBs in the state of Washington for any negative stories based on their association with marijuana. The research results primarily consisted of articles containing profitable earnings and various employee promotions; there was not a single negative story about serving MRBs.

Twenty-nine states have legalized marijuana in some form. Recent surveys have indicated that 80% of Americans think marijuana should be legal for medical use, and 49% approve of its use for recreational purposes. It is not only public opinion that has been changing but that of financial institutions as well. While the reputation of the financial services industry continues to suffer from the financial crisis, the fact is that most credit unions take seriously their role in their communities. And what they understand is the potential harm that could befall those communities if the marijuana industry remains unbanked. Many financial institutions believe it is their civic duty to bring this money in-house where it can be accounted for, monitored, and taxed, and not left on the streets wreaking havoc on communities.

Bringing financial services to MRBs brings a number of desirable benefits, such as strict scrutiny and compliance to federal policy and state laws, BSA / AML oversight, and the ability to fully collect taxes on MRBs. Credit unions that are responsible banking MRBs are removing cash from the streets and bringing legitimacy and transparency to an industry previously relegated to the financial shadows. Perhaps the time has come to recognize that it is the FIs serving MRBs that are providing a valuable community service, as opposed to those that do not.

If you have any questions, please email Hypur executives directly aherrera@hypur.com and jvardaman@hypur.com.
We Are Not Paid Agents of Russia

'We are not paid agents of Russia we do it out of conviction.....'

There is a Jobbik activist, a young communist, a Russian convicted of vandalism and a neo-Nazi among the anonymous editors of one of the best known Russian propaganda pages of Facebook.



Moscow has assistants on both the far-right and the far-left. Whats more, their reach extends even higher: one active proponents of the cause had been a diplomat at the Foreign Ministry before 2013.

Koba lives in an Eastern Hungarian city and as a civilian he works at the local government, but in the online world he is the editor in chief of one the most important Hungarian pro-Kremlin online initiatives, the We stand with Russia (Kiallunk Oroszorszag Mellett) Facebook page.

Although this was also Stalins pseudonym in the Communist Party, the Hungarian Koba is a radical nationalist, a Jobbik activist and a committed monarchist, the proponent of the restoration of the Hungarian monarchy. The Facebook page has 24 thousand followers today. Just like the majority of the sites former and current admins (administrators, handlers), Koba edits the page without revealing his real name.

A study found in last April that over ninety websites and blogs fitting into the concept of Russian information war were operating in Hungary at the time. In the majority of cases it is hard to decide whether they do it on their own or they are part of a larger disinformation network. No similar summary and investigation of Hungarian-language Facebook sites has been produced so far.

Therefore, discussions on the operation of the site, the views of the editors and their motivation with current or former editors of We stand with Russia in the past few months was very enlightening to us. Naturally, we also inquired about their contacts with the representatives of Russia or, if they do not have any, about critical points through which Russians are able to influence useful idiots.

From the far-right to the far-left: the team is ready

Koba founded We stand with Russia a few years ago together with an unknown figure with ties to Serbia, introducing himself with a Serbian name  although some editors of the site believe this name is only an alias. He later left the editorial team because of a conflict and then disappeared. Since then the admins have come and gone frequently, they quarreled and made peace with each other.

The site currently defines itself as the Eurorealist circle of Hungarian friends of Russia and recently it changed its name to I stand by my opinion (Kiallok a velemenyem mellett) and then to We stand by the multipolar world order  We object to democracy export (Kiallunk a tobbpolusu vilagrend mellett  Elutasitjuk a demokraciaexportot).

Soon after the page was founded the self-defined Jobbik supporter recruited Mate Kovacs, the deputy chief secretary of the anti-fascist, far-left Hungarian Youth Community Organization (Magyar Ifjusagi Kozosseg Szervezete) to be an editor of the site. Thus, from the very beginning it was obvious that the ideological roots of pro-Russian individuals supporting the occupation of Crimea and then the Russian intervention in Syria reach both the far-right to the far-left, the common point being their anti-West views.

But the team of We stand with Russia is not restricted to extremists. One former editor of the site, lets call him Erno, who joined the team in early 2014, was firmly considered to be a Fidesz supporter by other admins, although he says he is not a member of the party. For a short time, I was an intern at a state institution, but that had nothing to do with the site, he added.

Erno told Index the sites admins hide their real names partly because they feel they might be threatened. Many could find such a politically committed site displeasing; thus, the editors would potentially endanger themselves. The topic and mission of our site was and still is highly divisive in Hungary. Even among my own friends opinions on the topic are extremely diverse, he said and firmly asked us not to publish his real name.

In addition, we sat down to talk with an editor who works under his real name despite the fact that he worked for the Foreign Ministry for decades, up until 2013.

The propagandist who became disillusioned

The words of Erno revealed he now regrets ever having been an admin of the page. There is a reason why I am not proud of this nowadays. Since then the international environment has changed or at least we know more. What we saw in early 2014 was that a group came to power in Ukraine that viewed the rights and autonomy of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia with suspicion.

As Western powers stood behind the new government in Kiev and were hostile towards Hungary as well, e.g. because of the media law, Moscow seemed to be the only counterweight, this is how he explains joining the site.



Later, Erno broke up with the site, which he says is because he realised the Kremlin itself wants to gain influence in Europe.

What Erno realised after some time has also been discussed in numerous articles and analyses. After the crisis erupted in Ukraine Russian propaganda became more prevalent, fake and forged news constitute a part of active measures used by Russian secret services. Today, several countries try to defend themselves against these practices. The Czech Republic established a new unit with 20 members who started working in January as a division within the Ministry of Interior to counter Russian propaganda.

Hungary is not planning to do such a thing, which is understandable in light of the fact that the government is rather supportive of and not averse to spreading Russian propaganda. Magyar Idok (Hungarian Times) and other pro-government news sites readily use fake Russian news, but elements of Russian propaganda, including views similar to that of Alexandr Dugin  find their way into Victor Orbans speeches, either willingly or unwillingly.

The Russian Connection

Writing and dispensing Russian propaganda is coordinated through a centralized system, every element of it connects to the Kremlins policies and rhetoric consistently. The phenomenon is not new, they widely used similar tools in the Soviet Union as well. The fake news stories are usually generated by unrecognisable fake websites using anonymous sources with the hope that they make their way into mainstream media.

To Moscow it does not matter whether the sites serving their interests are operated by their own men or useful idiots, actually it is exactly anonymity that allows them to infiltrate web pages edited by useful idiots at some point.

There are Hungarian propaganda sites that are undoubtedly controlled by Moscow, including the portal Hidfo, which now runs under a Russian domain, established by Magyar Nemzeti Arcvonal (Hungarian National Front, MNA), the organisation of the murderer of a policeman, Istvan Gyorkos. Gyorkos had an active relationship with the undercover agents of Russian military intelligence.

After it was founded, the MNA-run Hidfo posted extremist content. Then, Gyorkos handed the site over to the Russians, who changed the websites profile and today it explicitly focuses on disseminating Russian propaganda. Later it was revealed that a journalist of the site with deep knowledge of military affairs met Jobbiks Marton Gyongyosi twice.

Former editors of We stand with Russia say they had no connections to Hidfo and Gyorkos, but one former administrator claimed once an individual joined the team of editors who was openly a Hungarist (Hungarian neo-Nazi) and claimed he was in contact with MNA.

However, it was unclear which branch of the MNA the Hungarist belonged to, as the organization split up in 2012. Moreover, a Russian man living in Hungary, K.S. also appeared among the sites admins. When we investigated K.S.'s background we found that the person is described even by his friends as having a fierce temper and he was previously convicted of vandalism by a Hungarian court.

Erno told Index they themselves never tried to establish contacts with Russian diplomats. One leftist editor wanted to coordinate with the Russians in one concrete case, but the majority voted against it, thus no Russian connection was established. We were really cautious not to turn the site into someones playground, he claimed. Contrary to this, another former editor who holds far-left views recalls the events completely differently. His story is that the editors wanted to establish a news site, but the plan did not come to fruition.



Erno admits that the establishment of a news site came up several times among the editors, but this did not have anything to do with the Russians either. According to a former admin, Russian diplomats did not take the Facebook page seriously. He recalled an occasion when he spoke to Russians during a wreath laying ceremony. He mentioned to Russian diplomats that they could give the Facebook page an interview, but he was politely rejected because they would only give an interview to a news site, not to a Facebook page.

Although the majority of the pages editors, writers are in their 20s, there is an older ex-diplomat in their ranks as well: Sandor Csikos, who translated most of the Russian-language content of the We stand with Russia site. Csikos was bought into the team by the anti-fascist, leftist Mate Kocsis. Later the ex-diplomat was inactive for a short period, then he returned only to leave the team once more a few weeks ago.

An old-school communist from the Foreign Ministry

Csikos earned his degree from MGIMO in Moscow and found work in the Foreign Ministry, where he served between 1974 and 2013, the year he retired. He was sent abroad four times: twice before the democratic transition in the 80s to Ulaanbaatar and Kiev, and twice after 2000 to Almaty and Chisinau.

At his last posting in Moldova he worked as a deputy head of mission between 2010 and 2013. In the ministry, he worked as a rapporteur in various departments. Based on his education, language knowledge and work experience he could have an insight into topics connected to Russia, wrote the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM) when we inquired about Csikos.

Erno has left the Facebook page, his words suggest he would avoid being involved if he could revert time. It was an interesting lesson. Ten years ago I considered the USA to be the point of reference, because they are the leaders of the free world' Reagan deconstructed the Berlin wall and stupid stuff like that. Then I was disappointed in them and I believed we have to stand behind everything that weakens them, but most importantly behind Putin.

Since my views became much clearer on Russia as well there is no new idol. I realised that great powers must not be seen through the lens of extreme obsequiousness, the right behavior is limitless doubt and criticism in any direction and at any time. Hungary is a member of EU and NATO, this is a given situation, but I believe this is all right. But because of this we should not forgive the USA for the spying scandal or Iraq, but the Russians should not be viewed as wild animals either.

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In fact, his true nature is evident when we listen to an old speech he made saying that dissidents deserve to be hanged during Friday prayers. He said this should serve as a message to other dissidents.

Although this happened near the beginning of the revolution in Iran, it shows the kind of man Rouhani is. He said during the recent election campaign that he wants to defend the rights of the people and slammed Raisi for his role in the 1988 massacre in which tens of thousands of political prisoners were executed.

Rouhani also promised that he would bring more freedom to the press and gender equality. This is something very positive, if it were ever to happen via Rouhani.

It is unfortunately another example of the false promises that Rouhani makes. He says what he knows the world wants to hear. He makes promises that the West would approve of. However, Rouhani made many promises back when he was elected for his first term. The reality however was far from positive. The human rights situation during his first term was abysmal. Numerous international human rights organisations have criticised Iran on many occasions for countless abuses of human rights.

Dissidents, journalists, Iranians with dual nationality, young people, women, artists, etc., have been arrested, tortured and executed in Iran. Just before the voting took place in Iran for the elections last week, dozens of members of the European Parliament urged Iran in an open letter to stop the harassment, arrest and intimidation of journalists.

Rouhani, whether he makes promises that he intends to keep or not, is not in a position to make any change. He is at the mercy of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has absolute rule over the Islamic Republic. Rouhani is basically just an enabler of the Supreme Leaders policies.

Foreign policy is not in the hands of the president. During the nuclear deal negotiations, it was Khamenei who controlled the Iranian side.

The Western media portrays a very distorted view of the reality in Iran. When President Obama was in the White House, he used to talk about the moderate Rouhani and how the nuclear deal would change the regimes behaviour. This didnt happen. Now the West is talking about Rouhanis landslide victory in the latest election. However, elections in the West are democratic. The election in Iran was far from it. For a start, the candidates have already been pre-selected in line with who will follow the regimes ideology. Those who dont were eliminated as candidates.

The Iranian people know that their future is bleak with Rouhani, or any of the other candidates. In 2009, the people took to the streets and protested. This rattled the regime and it is fearful that there will be another popular uprising. It is a vicious circle for the regime because the more people dissent, the more suppressive it becomes, which in turn makes more people dissent.

The regime is in a very weak position and the West must realise that the current President of Iran will do nothing to help the people. He will continue to supress the people and international action must be taken. The international community needs to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Iran who deserve to have their human rights restored.
WestRock Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It operates through two segments, Corrugated Packaging and Consumer Packaging. The Corrugated Packaging segment produces containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated packaging, and preprinted linerboards to consumer and industrial products manufacturers, and corrugated box manufacturers. It also provides structural and graphic design, engineering services and custom, and proprietary and standard automated packaging machines, as well as turn-key installation, automation, line integration, and packaging solutions; distributes corrugated packaging materials and other specialty packaging products, including stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes; operates recycling facilities that collect, sort, grade, and bale recovered paper; and provides lithographic laminated packaging products, as well as contract packing services. The Consumer Packaging segment manufactures and sells folding cartons that are used to package food, paper, beverages, dairy products, tobacco, confectionery, health and beauty, other household consumer, and commercial and industrial products; and express mail packages for the overnight courier industry. It also offers inserts and labels, as well as rigid packaging and other printed packaging products, such as transaction cards, brochures, product literature, marketing materials, and grower tags and plant stakes for the horticultural market; and secondary packages and paperboard packaging for over-the-counter and prescription drugs. In addition, this segment manufactures and sells solid fiber and corrugated partitions, and die-cut paperboard components principally to glass container manufacturers and the automotive industry, as well as producers of beer, food, wine, spirits, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. WestRock Company is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Actuant Corporation designs, manufactures, and distributes a range of industrial products and systems worldwide. It operates in two segments, Industrial Tools & Services (IT&S) and Engineered Components & Systems (EC&S). The IT&S segment designs, manufactures, and distributes branded hydraulic and mechanical tools; and provides services and tool rentals to the industrial, maintenance, infrastructure, oil and gas, energy, and other markets. This segment offers branded tools and engineered heavy lifting technology solutions, as well as connectors for oil and gas, and hydraulic torque wrenches; and energy maintenance and manpower services. It also provides high-force hydraulic and mechanical tools, including cylinders, pumps, valves, and specialty tools; and bolt tensioners, and connectors for oil and gas, as well as other products. This segment markets its branded tools and services primarily under the Enerpac, Hydratight, Larzep, Simplex, Biach, Equalizer, and Mirage brands through a localized product, rental, and maintenance depots. The EC&S segment designs, manufactures, and assembles system critical position and motion control systems, high performance ropes, cables and umbilicals, and other customized industrial components to various vehicle, construction, agricultural, and other niche markets. This segment offers actuation systems, mechanical power transmission products, engine air flow management systems, human to machine interface solutions, and other rugged electronic instrumentations; automotive convertible top actuation, hydraulic cab-tilt and latching, and automotive electro-hydraulic convertible top latching and actuation systems; and agriculture, off-highway, concrete tensioning, rope and cable and other product lines. It primarily markets its products directly to original equipment manufacturers, as well as to other customers through a technical sales organization. The company was founded in 1910 and is headquartered in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Moody's Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody's Investors Service and Moody's Analytics. The Moody's Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as and structured finance securities. This segment provides ratings in approximately 140 countries. Its ratings are disseminated through press releases to the public through electronic media, including the internet and real-time information systems used by securities traders and investors. This segment has rated approximately 5,000 non-financial corporates; 3,600 financial institutions; 16,000 public finance issuers; 145 sovereigns; 47 supranational institutions; 459 sub-sovereigns; and 1,000 infrastructure and project finance issuers, as well as 9,100 structured finance deals. The Moody's Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets; and offers subscription based research, data, and analytical products comprising credit ratings, credit research, quantitative credit scores and other analytical tools, economic research and forecasts, business intelligence and company information products, commercial real estate data and analytical tools, and on-line and classroom-based training services, as well as credentialing and certification services. It also offers offshore analytical and research services with learning solutions and certification programs; and software solutions, as well as related risk management services. The company was formerly known as Dun and Bradstreet Company and changed its name to Moody's Corporation in September 2000. Moody's Corporation was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
On Tuesday, they held a rally outside the government buildings in Kohkilaviye & Boyer Ahmad, where they spoke out about working conditions. In addition to not receiving fireproof clothing, the workers had not also received their paychecks for 8 or 9 months.

Saber Farkhiani, a worker at this factory amongst the protesters, told the Regime-affiliated ISNA news agency: If we had safety uniforms, our colleagues would not have been injured, or maybe just slightly. The workers lacked the necessary safety and hygiene conditions The safety helmets are very poor in quality and similar to those in construction projects. Why should a worker in a steel factory standing alongside a huge furnace not have proper clothing, boots, masks, goggles and gloves.

Another worker asked: Why should we have to work with sandals next to the furnace?

This is far from the first time that similar rallies have been held, specifically relating to this factory. They have protested many times over the past three years, because of lack of payment, unsure working status, and lack of safety equipment.

Another worker said: This factory lacks any safety personnel during the night shift and there are no first aid kids at all The workers at this factory are paid like any other ordinary worker.

Kamil Samsami, another factory worker said: The workers would not have suffered at all from the explosion if we had safety and fireproof clothing.

The Regime, in order to distance themselves from any blame, is claiming that the factory was privatised. However, often when the Iranian Regime privatises a company, they really just put it in the hands of their terror squad, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Fattah Mohammadi, deputy governor of Kohkilaviye & Boyer Ahmad Province, (southern Iran, said: All the problems and workers demands in this factory will be resolved as soon as possible and their issues will be followed up next week with senior officials.

The explosion, which injured 66 workers, happened in the early hours of Monday 22 May. Ten workers had to be transferred to hospitals in the cities of Shiraz and Isfahan as they suffered serious burns.

This explosion happened just three weeks after the Yurt Azadshahr mine explosion in the city of Gorgan, northern Iran which left 44 miners dead.
Shares in Ncondezi Energy shed almost a fifth of their value after it suspended exclusive discussions with Shanghai Electric Power Co Ltd (SEP) regarding its Joint Development Agreement (JDA).

It said that the exclusivity arrangements with SEP had lapsed, and its decision followed more than three years of negotiations.

"The board of Ncondezi believes that the ongoing delays in SEP funding the (Ncondezi power) project project is unsustainable," it said.

The company would now engage with additional strategic partners that had expressed an unsolicited interest in developing the project alongside Ncondezi.

"A new strategic partner process has commenced and initial feedback is expected before the end of August."

Ncondezi also said that it received indications of interest for an additional $350,000 shareholder loan, which was in the process of being finalised and documented. This would fund the company until 2 September.

This proposed financing was committed by chairman Michael Haworth ($200,000) and other existing long term shareholders ($150,000).

At 10:59 BST, shares in Ncondezi were down 17.65% to 1.75p each.
Jefferies slashed its target price on Acacia Mining by 41% to 265p after a Tanzanian presidential committee accused the miner of under-reporting gold contained in 277 containers for export.

Acacia said the containers, which had been held at the Dar es Salaam port since March, carried around six weeks of concentrate production from Acacia's Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines, with roughly 30,000 oz of gold, but the government audit claimed this figure was more than 10 times greater.

The tenfold under-reporting was immediately refuted by Acacia and Jefferies felt the level was "a degree that is difficult to reconcile", akin to other analysts covering the stock, being higher than Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi's entire 2016 estimated concentrate production.

"The development, in our opinion, has decreased visibility of a near-term solution and increases the likelihood of a closure of the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines," the investment bank said, cutting its price target to reflect what was seen as two-thirds probability of closures and a one-third chance of the ban being lifting first.

But analyst Alan Spence reiterated his 'hold' recommendation on the shares at current levels as they are only slightly below the target and the company still has $196m net cash as of 31 March.

Following the audit, President Magufuli fired the mines minister and disbanded the Tanzania Minerals Audit Agency board, but the ban on Acacia's exports in place since March remains in place, meaning the company continues to lose around $1m per day in revenue from the lost sales volumes.

The ban impacts 45% and 55% of Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi production respectively but not Acacia's fourth mine in the country, North Mara, as it only produces dore.

"Turnover in these positions, in our opinion, will only serve to delay any possible near-term solution, an outcome that looks ever increasingly distant," Spence said.

"The closure of the two mines now appears increasingly likely and is reflected in our valuation."




European stocks limped into the weekend, weighed down by an overnight drop in the price of oil and with investors carefully monitoring events ahead of the UK elections.

At the close the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.20% to 391.35, alongside a drop of 0.15% for the Dax to 12,602.18 and a 0.38% slide in the FTSE Mibtel to 21,210.57.

Oil&Gas stocks were among the worst performers, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 subindex falling 1.10% to 309.50.

Shares of financial services names were also near the bottom of the leaderboard, with the related Stoxx 600 subindex losing 0.78% to 475.36.

That came as a poll showed Prime Minister May's lead over her rival in Labour had shrunk to just five percentage points, which sent the pound sharply lower as analysts speculated on the possibility of a hung parliament after the June elections and a more fractious debate around Brexit.

Sterling also lost ground against the euro, giving back 0.84% to trade at 1.1448.

On a related note, European Central Bank vicepresident Vitor Constancio rekindled the debate about what impact Brexit might have on the City.

Speaking on Friday, Constancio said the monetary authority was sanguine about the potential risks to financial stability arising from Brexit, partly because of the expected relocation of financial services operations back to the Continent.

Those remarks weighed on the share prices of firms in the sector on this side of the Channel.

In parallel, euro/dollar had slipped 0.33% to 1.1175 and front month Brent crude oil futures were edging higher by 0.02% to $51.47 a barrel on the ICE.

However, on Thursday crude oil futures came under pressure as traders were apparently underwhelmed by OPEC's announcement of a nine-month extension to its supply cut deal.

"The negative oil reaction to a 9-month OPEC production cut extension is a prime example of buy the rumour, sell the fact. With nine months having become the baseline - prices +17% in the run-up, hoping for longer and maybe even deeper cuts - potential for an upside surprise was already limited.

"If anything, the simple extension begs questions about what happens next March and what OPECs long-term strategy is for combating rising US production and a prolonged global supply glut, to get prices back above $60," said Mike van Dulken and Henry Croft at Accendo Markets.

In the background meanwhile, a poll showing Prime Minister May's lead over her rival in Labour had shrunk to just five percentage points sent the pound down by 1% to 1.2814 against the US dollar.

Italian consumers were less optimistic in May, with ISTAT's consumer confidence index retreating from a reading of 107.4 for April to 105.4 for May.

An equivalent gauge of business sentiment also weakened, falling from 106.8 to 106.2.
European stocks are under pressure heading into the end of the week, weighed down by an overnight drop in the price of oil and with investors carefully monitoring events ahead of the UK elections.

As of 1416 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.25% to 391.16, alongside a drop of 0.34% for the Dax to 12,577.93 and a 0.65% slide in the FTSE Mibtel to 21,154.75.

Oil&Gas stocks were among the worst performers, with the corresponding Stoxx 600 subindex falling 1.05% to 309.63.

In parallel, euro/dollar had slipped 0.33% to 1.1175 and front month Brent crude oil futures were edging higher by 0.02% to $51.47 a barrel on the ICE.

However, on Thursday crude oil futures came under pressure as traders were apparently underwhelmed by OPEC's announcement of a nine-month extension to its supply cut deal.

"The negative oil reaction to a 9-month OPEC production cut extension is a prime example of buy the rumour, sell the fact. With nine months having become the baseline - prices +17% in the run-up, hoping for longer and maybe even deeper cuts - potential for an upside surprise was already limited.

"If anything, the simple extension begs questions about what happens next March and what OPECs long-term strategy is for combating rising US production and a prolonged global supply glut, to get prices back above $60," said Mike van Dulken and Henry Croft at Accendo Markets.

In the background meanwhile, a poll showing Prime Minister May's lead over her rival in Labour had shrunk to just five percentage points sent the pound down by 1% to 1.2814 against the US dollar.

Italian consumers were less optimistic in May, with ISTAT's consumer confidence index retreating from a reading of 107.4 for April to 105.4 for May.

An equivalent gauge of business sentiment also weakened, falling from 106.8 to 106.2.
Royal Bank of Scotland was further frustrated in its attempts to settle with a shareholder action group claiming compensation over its 2008 rights issue, following several delays to the start of its High Court trial.

The determined group has refused to accept a settlement in their 700m legal claim against the bank, meaning former boss Fred 'the Shred' Goodwin is likely to appear in court.

Taxpayer-owned RBS lender had offered about 200m, or 82p per share held, which is better than other compensation payments but a long way from the 200p rights issue price.

The UK High Court delayed the start of a trial between RBS and the action group until 1 June, following the postponed start of the trial for three consecutive days as the two parties sought an out-of-court settlement.

The group is the last of the five shareholder groups to settle with RBS, with the other four representing roughly 90% of the total claims.

Analysts at Berenberg said: "Given that RBS has already settled the majority of claims, the financial impact of the raised settlement offer is modest and manageable. Reports that negotiations between RBS and the claimants are progressing well are, however, positive. In particular, an expedient settlement of the claim would avoid a lengthy trial that would likely weight on sentiment and reinforce negative perceptions of RBS.

"In our view, the key task for RBS during 2017 is to overcome legacy issues, in particular US litigation and state aid requirements. Resolving these issues is a key hurdle for recommencing capital returns and would help remove uncertainties that continue to cloud the strength of the core business."
Theresa May's Conservative party has seen its lead over Labour cut to five points, according to the latest poll carried out by YouGov for The Times.

That margin is the lowest gap seen between May and Jeremy Corbyn's parties since she took over as prime minister following the Brexit referendum last year.

The YouGov poll shows Labour on 38% of the vote, trailing the Conservatives on 43%. Labour has gained 3 percentage points since the end of last week, while the Tories have lost one point.

May looked to be cruising towards a landslide victory in the weeks following the calling of the snap election, but a combination of Labour momentum and a backlash over the Conservative manifesto pledges have diminished her party's lead.

The Conservatives were forced into an embarrassing U-turn over the so-called "dementia tax" proposal which would have seen social care costs for elderly citizens rise.

Corbyn is due to give a major speech on national security issues on Friday, in which he will say that Britains foreign policy in recent years is linked to the increased threat of terror attacks in the UK.

'DEMENTIA TAX'

YouGov research director Anthony Wells said it was unlikely that Mays reaction to Monday's Manchester bombing had anything to do with the narrowing poll numbers.

"Given Theresa Mays substantial lead on taking the right decisions on terrorism it would be a mistake to assume the narrowing Tory lead is necessarily connected to the bombing," Wells said. "This is the first poll since the dementia tax row, and that seems a more plausible explanation."

Sterling fell overnight as the poll emerged, with markets reacting to the increased possibility of a closer race and potentially a Corbyn victory.

Conor Campbell, financial analyst at SpreadEx, said that the markets were jittery following the publication of the poll.

"Any growth managed by sterling since April has largely been predicated on the assumption that the Conservatives would secure a landslide victory. That this presently doesnt seem to be the case has helped further erode confidence in the currencys current position," said Campbell.
By Lena Moffitt

An oil tanker in Mead, Colorado exploded, killing one and injuring three on Thursday. Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the explosion.

The death is the third fatality caused by Anadarkos Colorado operations in just the past six weeks. On April 17, a home explosion in Firestone, Colorado was the result of an Anadarko oil well. In the days that followed, the company closed 3,000 of its wells across the area, disconnecting all one-inch lines and Gov. John Hickenlooper ordered a statewide review of oil and gas operations.

Pipeline Leak Caused Deadly Colorado House Explosionhttps://t.co/7cCliBA2rx (via @EcoWatch)  Sierra Club (@SierraClub) May 3, 2017

Anadarko announced Thursday that it was permanently closing the well that caused the disaster along with two others in the neighborhood.

The explosion in Mead is approximately four miles from the disaster in Firestone. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and injured in yesterdays disaster. One injury, one life lost, is one too many. Anadarko must immediately shutter all of its operations while state and federal authorities conduct a comprehensive review of its operations.

Anadarko, like so many fossil fuel companies across the country, have proven that it cannot be trusted to put its workers and the communities surrounding operations first, which is why we must expandnot shrinkfederal oversight.

Lena Moffitt is Sierra Clubs Wild America director.
A coalition of conservation groups and others announced Thursday that a historic number of comments and petitions of support have been submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior in support of Bears Ears National Monument. Despite the entirely inadequate 15-day comment period ending on May 26, more than 685,000 comments in support of Bears Ears National Monument have been collected.

The tremendous amount of public input in such a short amount of time is a powerful demonstration of support for indigenous rights and the places we all hold dear, said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. Secretary Zinke would be wise to join in support of Tribal Nations and preserve Bears Ears.

The unprecedented number of comments reflect all those who have stood in solidarity to support the efforts and leadership of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and the five sovereign tribal nations involved who led the way to protect the sacred sites and ancestral lands of the Bears Ears region.

The announcement comes in the wake of the presidents executive order to review national monuments created since 1996. Sec. of the Interior Ryan Zinke opened a 60-day comment period on all national monuments, but inexplicably limited comments on Bears Ears to only 15 days. The U.S. Department of the Interior denied a request from Sen. Martin Heinrich to extend the public comment period to 60 days and hold a public meeting as part of the so-called review of Bears Ears.

Trump and Zinke need to listen to the American people for once instead of corporate polluters. The people have made it crystal clear that they stand with Bears Ears and in solidarity with the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said Kieran Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversitys executive director. They will not stand by while Trump and anti-public lands zealots plunder and pillage the countrys most stunning landscapes and cultural treasures for profits.

The total number of comments reflects submissions of supportive comments from members and supporters of dozens of organizations representing a broad array of interests. These comments have been uploaded to the regulations.gov comment docket DOI-2017-0002. Due to the way that regulations.gov tracks comments, the site counts a batch of comments as a single comment, regardless of whether it included 10,000 or more individual comments or signatures.

The people have spokenmore than half a million strongand 99 percent expect these magnificent lands to be held in the public trust for future generations, said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Thats a mandate to preserve monument protections for Bears Ears and all it means to Americans past, present and future. Its a resounding call, also, for all of us to respect and collaborate with the Inter-Tribal Coalition.
Twenty-two GOP senators sent a letter Thursday urging Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement. They argued remaining in the deal could upend the administrations ability to fulfill its goal of rescinding the Clean Power Plan.

Accounting for fewer than half of Senate Republicans, signers included coal-friendly politicians and prominent climate deniers, such as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and James Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Overseas, French president-elect Emmanuel Macron urged Trump not to make a rushed decision on the agreement at a Thursday meeting. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicts fairly robust talks on the Paris agreement at this weekends G7 leadership summit in Sicily, and European leaders at the summit have indicated they will pressure Trump to remain in the deal.

As The Guardian reported:

Some western powers are trying to frame the climate change discussion as a national security argument, pointing to the risk of war and terrorism if mass migration explodes out of drought-ridden Africa.

Trumps aides insist he remains in listening mode on climate change, and no decision will be made for a few weeks. The British, eternal optimists, at least sense he is moving on the issue. Results may have to wait for the G20 summit, to be attended by China in Hamburg in June.

For a deeper dive:

GOP letter: AP, Axios, The Hill; Macron: Reuters, CNBC; G7: The Guardian, Reuters, BBC

For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.
By Tim Radford

Australian scientists have warned that planetary average temperatures could breach the internationally agreed target barrier of a 1.5C rise as early as 2026.

Although global warming is driven by human behaviorand in particular the prodigal burning of fossil fuels at an ever-accelerating rate to dump ever-greater quantities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphereit is also influenced by natural climate rhythms.

And, said scientists from Australias Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, one of these is a slow-moving oceanic and atmospheric cycle called the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which blows hot and cold and then hot again, every decade or so.

The latest hot phase could be about to push the global thermometer beyond the ideal limit set by the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015. They wrote in Geophysical Research Letters that since 1999 the IPO has been perhaps keeping the world cooler than it might have been, as the rate of increase in global warming appeared to slow between 1998 and 2012.

Global records

But the last three years have all breached successive global temperature records, and they think this could mean that the IPO is beginning to have a positive effect.

Even if the IPO remains in negative phase, our research shows we will still likely see global temperatures break through the 1.5C guardrail by 2031, said Ben Henley of the University of Melbourne, who led the study.

If the world is to have any hope of meeting the Paris targets, governments will need to pursue policies that not only reduce emissions but remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Henley emphasized. Should we overshoot the 1.5C limit, we must still aim to bring global temperatures back down and stabilize them at that level or lower.

Carbon dioxide levels for most of human history oscillated at around 280 parts per million. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, they have risen inexorably, to reach 400ppm.

Global average temperatures have crept up to almost 1C higher than the historic levels. In fact, the Paris Agreement talked of aiming to keep them well below 2C, but 1.5C has always been an ideal limit.

Henley and his co-author are not the only scientists to cast doubt on the worlds capacity to achieve the Paris promise. Two of the giants of climate science pointed out within a month of the historic decision that current greenhouse gas emissions would take the world to the 2C target very swiftly.

Their pessimism has been echoed by British scientists who pointed out that there was already enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to breach the 1.5C guardrail at least for temperatures over land (which accounts for only about 30 percent of the planet). Other studies have warned that the world will overshoot the 1.5C ideal, although it might return to this peak by 2100.

So although the latest warning from Australia sounds ominous, it is consistent with other thinking. The nations that signed up to the Paris accord havemostlymade declarations of their plans to reduce emissions, but many of these have yet to be implemented and in any case are widely understood to be insufficient.

Acceleration in warming

Nor is the latest study without challenge. At least one analysis points out that it starts with the assumption that humankind takes little or no action to reduce emissions. And the Paris target of containment to a 1.5C rise was intended to be an average over a 20- to 30-year period, rather than a barrier not to be breached in any one year.

So the Melbourne study could best be considered as yet another reminder of the urgency of international action.

Although the earth has continued to warm during the temporary slowdown since around 2000, the reduced rate of warming in that period may have lulled us into a false sense of security, said Henley. The positive phase of the IPO will likely correct this slowdown. If so, we can expect an acceleration in global warming in the coming decades.

Policymakers should be aware of just how quickly we are approaching 1.5C. The task of reducing emissions is very urgent indeed.

Reposted with permission from Climate News Network.
By Nadia Prupis

A majority of people in eight countries say they are ready to change their lifestyles if it would prevent climate catastrophe, a survey on global threats released Wednesday found.

The poll of 8,000 people in eight countriesthe U.S., China, India, Britain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Germanyfound that 84 percent of people now see climate change a global catastrophic risk.

It comes as President Donald Trump goes to Italy for his first conference with the Group of 7 (G7) to discuss inequality and the environment. Anti-poverty groups are urging the president not to pull out of the Paris climate deal, as he has threatened to do.

On climate, theres certainly a huge gap between what people expect from politicians and what politicians are doing. Its stunning, Mats Andersson, vice chairman of the Global Challenges Foundation, which commissioned the survey for its annual Global Catastrophic Risks report, told the Thompson Reuters Foundation on Wednesday.

Many people now see climate change as a bigger threat than other issues like population growth, weapons of mass destruction and artificial intelligence, among other concerns, the poll found.

Still, those fears also ranked high, and the survey found that about 70 percent of respondents would support a new global organization designed to address international risks.

Whether its the specter of nuclear conflict over North Korea or the planet tipping into catastrophic climate change, the need for effective global cooperation has never been greater, Andersson said.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
Times' Game of the Week Preview: No. 4 Mapletown vs. No. 5 South Side

No. 5 South Side gears up to stop the top-scoring No. 4 Mapletown Maples and star running back Landan Stevenson in the quarterfinal Class 1A matchup.
About 40-70% of the infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus strains are due to methicillin resistant ones. These isolates are usually multi-drug resistant and harder to treat endangering hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide and costing billions in added health care costs. Accurate numbers describing the prevalence and characteristics of these infections and the added burden they cause to developing countries in the eastern Mediterranean and African regions are lacking. Egypt is no exception. In this article that appeared in Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets, Dr. AlaaAbouelfetouh, Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria University, is gathering the published data describing methicillin resistance in S. aureus (MRSA) in Egypt.

The reports described a general MRSA prevalence rate of 50-82% among hospitalized patients mainly in the largest two Egyptian cities Cairo and Alexandria and a lower rate of 24% in Minia, an important but less populated city in southern Egypt. The articles that investigated community acquired MRSA reported 19-47% prevalence. Some of these studies molecularly characterized the types of the MRSA isolates using different techniques; SCCmec typing, or spa typing and Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). SCCmec types V, IV and its subtypes were detected in two separate studies. A different study revealed a MRSA prevalence rate among retail chickens of 38% which could act as reservoir for resistance transfer to humans.

"Although the numbers point to an increasing rate of MRSA occurrence, especially in large cities such as Cairo and Alexandria, in the absence of a national surveillance program it is not possible to extrapolate these results to cover the whole country", warns Dr. Abouelfetouh.

Despite these alarming levels of MRSA in hospital and community settings, awareness of MRSA control measures among the medical staff at one of the major health centers in Egypt was at the 67% level.

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For more information about the article, please visit http://www.eurekaselect.com/144438/article

Reference: Abouelfetouh A. (2017). The Status of Methicillin Resistance Among Egyptian Staphylococcus aureus Isolates: An Overview, Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets., DOI: 10.2174/1871526516666160802111200
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- In an effort aimed at achieving greater integration of patient care, research and education across Rhode Island's health care sector, six physician practice foundations have agreed to form a new physician-led federation, Brown Physicians, Inc., in partnership with the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Members of the Corporation of Brown University joined the presidents of the six foundations in signing a formal agreement at a ceremony at Brown on Thursday, May 25, to create the nonprofit Brown Physicians, Inc. (BPI). The foundations are The Neurology Foundation, Inc.; University Emergency Medicine Foundation; University Medicine Foundation; University Surgical Associates, Inc.; Brown Urology, Inc.; and Brown Dermatology, Inc., all dedicated to fueling advances in health care in the state and the region.

Together, the six foundations employ more than 500 doctors, all of whom are also members of the Warren Alpert Medical School faculty, and many of whom work side-by-side in local hospitals with physicians and other health care providers employed by the hospitals.

"We believe that collaborating with our clinical partners to more tightly integrate patient care, research and education will result in a significant and positive impact on the local community," said University President Christina Paxson.

The creation of BPI will enhance the ability of its members to serve the community's health care needs, Paxson explained, to optimally educate the next generation of medical professionals, to grow combined research portfolios, and to contribute to the state's plans to cultivate a thriving biomedical economy in Providence and the greater region.

According to foundation and University officials, by working more closely than ever, the physicians, the medical school and the hospitals will be better equipped to collaborate on educational initiatives and opportunities, to pool resources to support research and to coordinate clinical care and administrative functions.

Dr. Jack A. Elias, senior vice president for health affairs and dean of medicine and biologic sciences at Brown, will join the presidents of the foundations and a second Brown appointee to form BPI's board of directors. He said the new organization will enable enhanced partnership between the foundations, Brown and its affiliated hospitals as they seek to develop new therapies in laboratories and deliver the best medical care in clinical settings.

"I look forward to working with my colleagues to identify and implement a strategic approach that will help clinicians across important specialties identify efficient, effective ways to improve care for patients across the region," Elias said. "BPI will yield new opportunities for our Brown medical students, focus resources on urgent areas of innovative research and enhance our ability to hire the best physician-scientists."

Discussions on the effort to form BPI began among Brown's medical school leaders, clinical faculty and affiliated health care providers approximately five years ago, Elias noted, and the partners worked over the last 15 months to outline an agreement.

Dr. Angela Caliendo, vice president of University Medicine and BPI's interim executive director, said the foundations and their physicians will experience many benefits from sharing administrative resources, such as greater operating efficiency.

"Forming BPI is an important step, as it provides the foundations with the opportunity to enhance coordination of care, improve the quality of care for patients in RI and the region, better position us for success in the changing healthcare environment, and facilitate partnerships with the hospitals," said Caliendo, who is also a professor of medicine at Brown. "The creation of BPI also underscores our commitment to the research and teaching missions of the medical school."

Elias and Caliendo noted that the potential for improved patient care in the region is an important focus of the agreement. While patients of the six foundations will face no practical changes to how they receive care, they stand to benefit from enhanced administrative and medical coordination. Over the longer term, greater collaboration on research can lead to the development of advanced therapies that will ultimately benefit patients.

In forming the partnership, both the physician practice foundations and Brown's medical school will invest financially to ensure BPI's success in both the short and long term. The University will contribute funds toward operations during BPI's first decade and raise funds to endow professorships and make new hires within the partnership. Meanwhile, the members of the foundations will contribute a modest percentage of revenues toward supporting research and other academic activities.

The agreement to form BPI will take effect on July 1, 2017. At the outset, the foundations will retain their status as individual corporations within the BPI federation. Caliendo said the agreement outlines parameters for further integration in the future to achieve evolving goals for expansion and growth.

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The City College of New York is partnering with the University of Texas at El Paso to educate the next generation of Hispanic professors in environmental sciences and engineering. Entitled "Collaborative Research: The Hispanic AGEP Alliance for the Environmental Science and Engineering Professoriate," the five-year project is funded by a $3.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation. It begins July 1, 2017.

Harlem-based City College, which is designated a Hispanic Serving Institution of Higher Education by the U.S. Department of Education, will receive $2.315 million of the funding and UTEP $1.3 million.

Under the administration of CCNY's NOAA CREST, the two institutions will collaborate to develop, implement and study a model for training and transitioning Hispanic environmental sciences and engineering (ESE) doctoral students to STEM instructional faculty positions at community colleges and other institutions. Candidates must have completed all coursework and be dissertating, as they transition.

Participants will primarily include Hispanic doctoral students of Caribbean or Mexican origin, who are advanced level doctoral candidates majoring in ESE fields. These include civil, electrical, mechanical or biomedical engineering; earth and atmospheric sciences; ecology and evolutionary biology, among other disciplines.

The project will be led by CCNY faculty Jorge E. Gonzalez, Fred Moshary, Joseph Barba, Kyle McDonald and Ellen E. Smiley. UTEP experts include: Miguel Velez-Reyes, Craig Tweedie, and Ivonne Santiago.

The CCNY-UTEP partnership is in response to the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program solicitation. AGEP seeks to advance knowledge about models to improve pathways to the professoriate and success of historically underrepresented minority (URM) graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields.

There are three community college partners in the Hispanic AGEP Alliance: LaGuardia Community College, Queensborough Community College and El Paso Community College in El Paso, TX.

The NSF grant to CCNY and UTEP brings up to $23 million in awards to City College since last fall for training underrepresented minority scientists and engineers. Last September CCNY won a $15.5 million NOAA grant to produce mostly minority STEM scientists.

In addition, $5.2 million was received from the U.S. Department of Education in October to promote STEM education, particularly among underrepresented groups.

Click here for more about the University of Texas at El Paso.

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About The City College of New York

Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. Today more than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight professional schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. Now celebrating its 170th anniversary, CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.
There are significant gaps in our knowledge on the evolution of sex, according to a research review on sex chromosomes from Lund University in Sweden. Even after more than a century of study, researchers do not know enough about the evolution of sex chromosomes to understand how males and females emerge.

Greater focus on ecological aspects would increase this knowledge, according to evolutionary biologists at Lund University, who have reviewed a lot of the research conducted in this field in the last 100 years.

Female and male bodies work differently, even though they have the same genome. One example is reproduction.

"There is a form of genetic conflict between the sexes - a conflict in the genome itself - which we know little about", says professor Bengt Hansson at Lund University.

Together with senior lecturer Jessica Abbott and doctoral student Anna Norden, he has read more than 100 scientific articles and papers describing the evolution of sex chromosomes and the genome. Together, they have identified two tracks that have each dominated the research since the late 19th century: empirical studies and various theories.

The review shows that the significance of ecology has not been sufficiently noted. Therefore, the biologists in Lund call for more research on how the living environment of a population affects the development and evolution of sex chromosomes. This could include factors such as access to food, age variations within a population or the consequences for sex chromosomes when populations that have lived separately meet and mix.

"Additional approaches in research will probably lead to a much more detailed understanding of the development of sex chromosomes and, in turn, of how females and males evolve", says Jessica Abbott.

The research can lead to concrete benefits. One example is releasing sterile males in populations of malaria mosquitoes, as an attempt to limit the number of mosquitoes in certain areas.

Drugs that target women or men specifically are another hot research field. According to the biologists at Lund University, this is also an area that requires more knowledge on the evolution of sex chromosomes.

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Scientists using a high-resolution global climate model and historical observations of species distributions on the Northeast U.S. Shelf have found that commercially important species will continue to shift their distribution as ocean waters warm two to three times faster than the global average through the end of this century. Projected increases in surface to bottom waters of 6.6 to 9 degrees F (3.7 to 5.0 degrees Celsius) from current conditions are expected.

The findings, reported in Progress in Oceanography, suggest ocean temperature will continue to play a major role in where commercially and recreationally important species will find suitable habitat. Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine have warmed faster than 99 percent of the global ocean over the past decade. Northward shifts of many species are already happening, with major changes expected in the complex of species occurring in different regions on the shelf, and shifts from one management jurisdiction to another. These changes will directly affect fishing communities, as species now landed at those ports move out of range, and new species move in.

"Species that are currently found in the Mid-Atlantic Bight and on Georges Bank may have enough suitable habitat in the future because they can shift northward as temperatures increase," said lead author Kristin Kleisner, formerly of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)'s Ecosystems Dynamics and Assessment Branch and now a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund. "Species concentrated in the Gulf of Maine, where species have shifted to deeper water rather than northward, may be more likely to experience a significant decline in suitable habitat and move out of the region altogether."

The researchers used bottom trawl survey data collected between 1968 and 2013 on the shelf to estimate niches for 58 demersal and pelagic species. A high-resolution global climate model known as CM2.6, developed by the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, New Jersey, was used to generate projections of future surface and bottom ocean temperatures across the region. The future temperatures were then used to project where marine species would find suitable habitat.

"Similar studies in the past used a coarse model with a roughly 100-kilometer or 62-mile ocean resolution, while the new model has a 10-kilometer or 6.2-mile ocean resolution, making the simulation of oceanic and atmospheric features much more accurate," said Vincent Saba of the NEFSC's Ecosystems Dynamics and Assessment Branch, who works at GFDL and is a co-author of the study.

Saba has compared the difference between the coarse model and the new high-resolution model as being similar to the difference between an old standard definition television set and today's ultra high definition screens.

Researchers looked at species distributions in spring and fall in the Gulf of Maine on the northern part of the Northeast Shelf and those on the southern end, from Georges Bank to the Mid-Atlantic Bight. They also examined what the shifting distributions might mean for fishing communities by looking at the current and potential future distance between the main fishing port in each state and the center of the distribution of suitable thermal area for the top-landed species by weight in each state.

Key northern species including Acadian redfish, American plaice, Atlantic cod, haddock, and thorny skate may lose thermal habitat, while spiny dogfish and American lobster may gain. Projected ocean warming in the Gulf of Maine may create beneficial conditions for American lobster populations, and they may continue to be accessible to fishing ports in the region.

In contrast, species like monkfish, witch flounder, white hake and sea scallops may remain accessible to major local fishing ports but could experience strong declines in habitat due to ocean warming. Atlantic cod, which is at the southern end of its range, may find suitable thermal habitat off the shelf entirely or in more northern waters in Canada.

In states south of New York, the distance to the centers of species distribution from ports may increase for some species, including summer flounder, which is currently the third most-landed species in Virginia. In North Carolina, the distance from ports to the center of distribution may increase for all six of the top landed species. Among the top six species landed in Virginia, only Atlantic croaker and striped bass are projected to have more suitable habitat.

"Warming waters may have a positive effect on smooth dogfish, Atlantic croaker, and striped bass in the southern part of the Northeast Shelf, with increases in suitable habitat in terms of area and species abundance, " Kleisner said. "But these species are also shifting northward and the bulk of the biomass of some species may be further from the main ports in southern states, making it more costly for fishermen to access these species. Conversely, as species move into new regions, fishermen may have new opportunities."

The projections indicate that as species shift from one management jurisdiction to another, or span state and federal jurisdictions, increased collaboration among management groups will be needed to set quotas and establish allocations.

"These changes will depend on the pace of climate change and on the ability of species to adapt or shift elsewhere to maintain a preferred habitat," said Kleisner. "We did not examine fishing pressure, species interactions and other factors that may influence future distributions. However, given the historical changes observed on the Northeast Shelf over the past five decades and confidence in the projection of continued ocean warming in the region, it is likely there will be major changes within this ecosystem."

"Those changes will result in ecological, economic, social, and natural resource management challenges throughout the region," Kleisner said. "It is important to understand large-scale patterns in these changes so that we can plan for and mitigate adverse effects as much as possible."

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DALLAS, TX - May 26, 2017 - Results released today from an N of One: Autism Research Foundation supported clinical trial in boys with autism may represent one of the most dramatic advances in autism yet. The findings offer both a new view of what autism is and the possibility of the first drug to treat its core symptoms.

The encouraging results from the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that tested the 100-year-old drug, suramin, conducted by Dr. Robert Naviaux at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine appear today in the medical journal Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. In the trial, 10 boys ages 5-14 years were given either a single dose of the drug suramin or a placebo. Improvements were seen in all three core features of autism: language, social interactions, and restricted or repetitive behaviors across multiple diagnostics in multiple tests. Notably ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) scores, the gold standard for autism diagnosis and one of the trial's primary outcome measures, improved 1.6 points, a statistically significant finding (p<0.003) and did not change in the control group. Parents of children in the treatment group reported significant novel language and behavioral improvements with two of the five children in the treatment group reportedly speaking the first sentences of their lives 1-2 weeks after their single dose.

The findings support the core thesis of N of One: Autism Research Foundation that the most promising breakthroughs in autism lie beyond genetics where research has traditionally focused. This is the second time in a row that an N of One supported clinical trial at a major research center has generated positive results.

The trial was designed by Dr. Naviaux and tests his novel theory that a normal biochemical process he calls the Cell Danger Response (CDR) can get stuck early in childhood, or even prenatally, and when this happens the outward result can be autism. Naviaux further hypothesized that a class of drugs called antipurinergics could normalize the CDR and thereby treat both the underlying biochemical and outward behavioral symptoms of autism.

Using suramin, an antipurinergic drug, Naviaux previously demonstrated that he could reverse the autism-like symptoms of two different autism mouse models. (see: N of One's summary of previous mouse work for further information). Following the successful mouse studies, the next step was to test suramin's safety in children with autism in this most recent trial. "We were looking primarily at safety and tolerability in the first suramin study, but the results were promising and could be a game-changer for autism if confirmed in larger studies." said Dr. Robert Naviaux, the trial's principal investigator.

While additional research is needed to repeat and expand the study, the study may mark an inflection point in how autism is viewed and what types of research gets funded in the future. If proven correct, Dr. Naviaux's theory suggests that at the core of autism is a treatable metabolic syndrome with the potential for improvement for those with the condition - a dramatic departure from the conventional view of autism as a fixed, primarily genetically-driven condition.

Additional materials including a detailed Q&A with Dr. Naviaux about the trial, his theories, and his research are available at http://www.NofOne.org

"The potential implications of this work can simply not be overstated. With all the usual caveats of it being a small study and needing to be replicated, it is promising and hopeful work for a community of affected families that have been given few answers by medicine." Says John Rodakis, N of One: Autism Research Foundation's Founder and President.

N of One Scientific Advisor and autism researcher, Dr. Andy Zimmerman, a clinical professor of pediatrics and neurology at the UMass Memorial Medical Center who was not involved with the study adds: "I think the most important thing about the Naviaux study is the theoretical basis on which it was conceived, even more than the great results they got from treatment with suramin. The clinical trial was well-designed and carefully carried out, just as the science behind it. The study is a masterpiece of scientific reasoning and a substantial contribution to the field of autism."

The Little Non-Profit That Could

N of One: Autism Research Foundation was founded only three years ago by a father and former medical venture capitalist, John Rodakis, who was frustrated with the direction of autism research and lack of progress. N of One takes an early-stage venture capital like approach to autism medical research by using its modest funds to help seed potential breakthroughs. "Our hope is that our successes in small trials will attract attention and additional funding for promising research like Dr. Naviaux's that we feel is being overlooked." said Rodakis. Despite Dr. Naviaux's significant and promising early results with suramin in mice, the traditional large funders did not support this recent human trial. "We are now two-for-two in funding unconventional research that the major funders did not support," adds Rodakis referring to results from the first trial N of One supported: a small double-blind placebo controlled trial at Massachusetts General Hospital and Johns Hopkins that demonstrated that a compound found in broccoli called sulforaphane was effective at reducing some symptoms of autism. Based on the success of that small trial, a larger sulforaphane study is now underway funded by the Department of Defense.

"John Rodakis' work as founder of the N of One Foundation has created world-class results in an amazingly short period of time." Says Dr. Robert Naviaux about N of One. "Dedicated to finding the most promising emerging research about autism, N of One has supported blue-ribbon science with a potential to make meaningful changes in the lives of children and families with autism. John has a talent for finding and supporting pioneering researchers and novel research approaches. We are grateful for having N of One as a supporter of our recent suramin trial." Naviaux adds.

For the past several decades, the emphasis in autism research has been on understanding the genetics of the condition. Since its inception, N of One has advocated for a more diversified research approach. N of One's position is that while genetics likely play a role in predisposing an individual to autism, genetic's role in determining who does and does not develop autism has been over-estimated. This narrow focus has come at the expense of funding for other highly promising areas of research such as cell metabolism, immune function, and the microbiome that could lead to treatments. Said Rodakis. "We genuinely believe that we could be years ahead of where we are in autism research had the handful of institutions that fund virtually all autism research in this country taken a different approach to research. Hopefully this study marks a turning point."

Rodakis says. "I'm an autism parent, working with other autism parents on behalf of autism parents. We are not giving up or going away and believe these latest results continue to validate our thesis that we need to be looking beyond genetics in order to make significant headway," said Rodakis. N of One has additional research projects planned for this year including additional work with Dr. Naviaux.

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About N of One: Autism Research Foundation:

N of One: Autism Research Foundation, based in Dallas TX, was founded in 2014, with a mission to facilitate and sponsor breakthrough autism medical research. N of One emphasizes research that looks beyond the conventional view of autism as a fixed, primarily genetically-driven disorder of the brain. N of One is dedicated to supporting and funding highly diversified autism research that includes the role of cell metabolism, immune function and the microbiome in autism. Founder, John Rodakis, a Harvard MBA with a background in molecular biology, is a parent of an autistic child who was frustrated with the pace and direction of autism research. N of One: Autism Research Foundation has been an advocate of Dr. Naviaux's research for years and was an early sponsor of the suramin clinical trial.

http://www.NofOne.org

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Autism Research Foundation

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Latin Americans originate from a mix of people with Native American, European and African ancestry. A new study finds that different types of original Native American ancestry can be associated to different causes of death. Justo Lorenzo Bermejo and Felix Boekstegers from Heidelberg University in Germany, and their Chilean colleagues report these findings in a new study published May 26th, 2017 in PLOS Genetics.

Indigenous peoples in Latin America are genetically diverse. Genetic differences among Native Americans become obscured when researchers lump together the ancestry of all groups as "Native American" in biomedical studies. In the current study, researchers examined genetic data from 2,039 Chileans with mixed ancestry to investigate possible associations between top causes of death and the two major types of Native American ancestry in Chile, the Mapuche and the Aymara. They found and validated a link between Mapuche ancestry and gallbladder cancer, with each 1% increase in the Mapuche proportion representing a 3.7% increase in the risk of death from the disease. Mapuche ancestry was also associated with an increased risk of asthma, and with a decreased mortality by diabetes. Increasing proportions of Aymara ancestry were linked to greater risk of skin, bladder, larynx, bronchus and lung cancers.

The findings highlight the importance of taking into account the genetic contributions of different ancestral groups when researching ethnically diverse populations. Mapuche and Aymara ancestry show associations with different diseases, and grouping them together cancels out differences in risk. By separately considering genetic contributions from individual indigenous populations, scientists can better estimate a patient's risk and identify genetic variants underlying certain diseases.

Justo Lorenzo Bermejo adds: "The genome of Latin Americans is the result of a genetic mixture between Europeans, Africans and Native Americans from different indigenous peoples. The identification of health disparities among ethnic groups may have important implications for personalized prevention and disease management. This study demonstrates that considering the origin of the Native American component of ancestry can be crucial to identify existing associations with human disease. We plan to exploit this finding in future studies on Latin American health, in particular common cancers and infectious diseases in South America."

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Genetics: http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006756

Citation: Lorenzo Bermejo J, Boekstegers F, Gonzalez Silos R, Marcelain K, Baez Benavides P, Barahona Ponce C, et al. (2017) Subtypes of Native American ancestry and leading causes of death: Mapuche ancestry-specific associations with gallbladder cancer risk in Chile. PLoS Genet 13(5): e1006756. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006756

Funding: This study was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant 01DN15021), Germany's Excellence Initiative of Heidelberg University within the program "Mobilitatsmanahmen im Rahmen internationaler Forschungskooperationen 2015-16", the support program "Stiftungen und Preise" of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg within the funding program Open Access Publishing, and the German Research Foundation (DFG, grant LO 2061/1). Sample collection and storage was supported by the Biobank of University of Chile. JSS is partially funded by USA NIH Grant GM053275. This work was partially supported by general funds from the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) and the Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
A new test, based on a patient's epigenetics, could be an accurate and inexpensive way to find and treat those at highest risk of anal cancer -- a disease with growing incidence in women, men who have sex with men (MSM) and people with HIV

A new test, based on a patient's epigenetics*, could be an accurate and inexpensive way to find and treat those at highest risk of anal cancer - a disease with growing incidence in women, men who have sex with men (MSM) and people with HIV.

The early research by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), which was funded by Cancer Research UK, finds that the test could lead to a reduction in painful procedures and minimise the over-treatment of people at low risk.

Anal cancer is mostly caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) - the same virus that causes cervical cancer. In 2014, the UK had around 1,300 new cases of anal cancer and 360 deaths. In addition to rising levels in women and MSM, anal cancer is more common in HIV-positive MSM with around 100 cases per 100,000, compared to 25 in HIV-negative MSM, and only 1.5 in men in general.

Diagnosis presents many challenges. Full biopsies are painful, and taking a small sample of cells ('cytology') is problematic because lesions can be hidden and clinicians give varying interpretations of results. High-resolution anoscopy, where the anal canal is examined with a high resolution magnifying instrument, is often used as the primary screening tool for high-risk populations but is uncomfortable for the patient, expensive, complex and generates subjective results.

Lead researcher Professor Attila Lorincz from QMUL said: "The widespread over-treatment of anal precancerous lesions is necessary today because we don't know which ones will progress to cancer. But this creates a large burden on anoscopy clinics in the UK and the procedures can be detrimental to people's quality of life. Many people are undergoing these procedures unnecessarily, so what we really need is precision medicine to identify those who do need treatment."

The research, published in the journal Oncotarget, involved studying anal biopsy specimens from 148 patients in London, including 116 men (mostly MSM). The specimens were analysed to look for genetic markers that may be associated with the presence of anal cancer.

The team specifically looked at the patients' epigenetics and found that all of the anal cancers showed the presence of specific epigenetic methylation markers on the patients' EPB41L3 gene (a tumour suppressor gene) and also on certain regions of their viral HPV genome.

The results suggests that epigenetic testing may be an accurate and thorough method to indicate whether a patient's lesions are destined to progress to anal cancer. This could reduce the costs, pain and anxiety from other methods of diagnosis, and minimise over-treatment of low risk people.

Professor Lorincz added: "We thought this would require a complicated genomic signature involving hundreds of genes, so we were surprised that we could get such an accurate prediction from just two biomarker genes. That's important because the expected cost of the test will be fairly low.

"Now that we can identify those at risk, and conversely, those not at risk, we hope to see a big improvement, by making sure that anoscopies and laser or chemical surgery are only given to those who need it."

Once developed, the test would involve taking a small sample of cells from the anal canal via a swab and then sending the sample off to a laboratory for epigenetic analysis.

While a test could be developed within five years, the researchers caution that the results first need to be confirmed in a much larger study across the UK, and repeated using swab samples rather than the biopsies which were used in the current study.

Dr Rachel Orritt, Cancer Research UK's health information officer, said: "This study builds on what we already know about the link between changes to cell DNA and cervical cancer, and shows that similar changes to the DNA in anal cells could suggest anal cancer.

"If other studies confirm and build upon these findings, this promising research could be used to develop a less invasive method to help doctors identify people who are at a higher risk of anal cancer and avoid unnecessary procedures for those who are at a lower risk."

The researchers say that these types of biomarker - epigenetic methylation biomarkers - are important in a large number of other diseases, and could lead to a completely new approach to diagnostics and drug therapy.

Professor Lorincz explained: "These could be the early stages of a discovery of a universal set of biomarkers for any cancer. And there may be implications on therapies, as there are new techniques where the epigenetic pathway can be targeted by drugs. This is going to be the hot new area going forward in the next 15 years, so people need to be paying attention to this space."

###

For more information, please contact:

Joel Winston, Public Relations Manager

Queen Mary University of London

j.winston@qmul.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 207 882 7943 / +44 (0) 7970 096 188

Notes to the editor

* 'Epigenetics' describes the naturally-occurring chemical 'tags' on genes which control whether or not they are switched on. Liver cells and kidney cells are genetically identical apart from their epigenetic marks.

Research paper: 'Methylation of HPV and a tumor suppressor gene reveals anal cancer and precursor lesions'. Attila T Lorincz, Mayura Nathan, Caroline Reuter, Rhian Warman, Mohamed A Thaha, Michael Sheaff, Natasa Vasiljevic, Amar Ahmad, Jack Cuzick, Peter Sasieni. Oncotarget.

About Queen Mary University of London

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) is one of the UK's leading universities, and one of the largest institutions in the University of London, with 23,120 students from more than 155 countries.

A member of the Russell Group, we work across the humanities and social sciences, medicine and dentistry, and science and engineering, with inspirational teaching directly informed by our research. In the most recent national assessment of the quality of research, we were placed ninth in the UK (REF 2014).

As well as our main site at Mile End - which is home to one of the largest self-contained residential campuses in London - we have campuses at Whitechapel, Charterhouse Square, and West Smithfield dedicated to the study of medicine, and a base for legal studies at Lincoln's Inn Fields.

We have a rich history in London with roots in Europe's first public hospital, St Barts; England's first medical school, The London; one of the first colleges to provide higher education to women, Westfield College; and the Victorian philanthropic project, the People's Palace at Mile End.

Today, as well as retaining these close connections to our local community, we are known for our international collaborations in both teaching and research.

QMUL has an annual turnover of 350m, a research income worth 125m (2014/15), and generates employment and output worth 700m to the UK economy each year.

About Cancer Research UK

* Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

* Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.

* Cancer Research UK receives no government funding for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on every pound donated.

* Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last forty years.

* Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years.

* Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

* Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Climate change may keep you awake -- and not just metaphorically. Nights that are warmer than normal can harm human sleep, researchers show in a new paper, with the poor and elderly most affected. According to their findings, if climate change is not addressed, temperatures in 2050 could cost people in the United States millions of additional nights of insufficient sleep per year. By 2099, the figure could rise by several hundred million more nights of lost sleep annually.

The study was led by Nick Obradovich, who conducted much of the research as a doctoral student in political science at the University of California San Diego. He was inspired to investigate the question by the heat wave that hit San Diego in October of 2015. Obradovich was having trouble sleeping. He tossed and he turned, the window AC in his North Park home providing little relief from the record-breaking temperatures. At school, he noticed that fellow students were also looking grumpy and bedraggled, and it got him thinking: Had anyone looked at what climate change might do to sleep?

Published by Science Advances, the research represents the largest real-world study to date to find a relationship between reports of insufficient sleep and unusually warm nighttime temperatures. It is the first to apply the discovered relationship to projected climate change.

"Sleep has been well-established by other researchers as a critical component of human health. Too little sleep can make a person more susceptible to disease and chronic illness, and it can harm psychological well-being and cognitive functioning," Obradovich said. "What our study shows is not only that ambient temperature can play a role in disrupting sleep but also that climate change might make the situation worse by driving up rates of sleep loss."

Obradovich is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He is also a fellow of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Obradovich worked on the study with Robyn Migliorini, a student in the San Diego State University/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, and sleep researcher Sara Mednick of UC Riverside. Obradovich's dissertation advisor, social scientist James Fowler of UC San Diego, is also a co-author.

The study starts with data from 765,000 U.S. residents between 2002 and 2011 who responded to a public health survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study then links data on self-reported nights of insufficient sleep to daily temperature data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Finally, it combines the effects of unusually warm temperatures on sleep with climate model projections.

The main finding is that anomalous increases in nighttime temperature by 1 degree Celsius translate to three nights of insufficient sleep per 100 individuals per month. To put that in perspective: If we had a single month of nightly temperatures averaging 1 degree Celsius higher than normal, that is equivalent to 9 million more nights of insufficient sleep in a month across the population of the United States today, or 110 million extra nights of insufficient sleep annually.

The negative effect of warmer nights is most acute in summer, the research shows. It is almost three times as high in summer as during any other season.

The effect is also not spread evenly across all demographic groups. Those whose income is below $50,000 and those who are aged 65 and older are affected most severely. For older people, the effect is twice that of younger adults. And for the lower-income group, it is three times worse than for people who are better off financially.

Using climate projections for 2050 and 2099 by NASA Earth Exchange, the study paints a bleak picture of the future if the relationship between warmer nights and disrupted sleep persists. Warmer temperatures could cause six additional nights of insufficient sleep per 100 individuals by 2050 and approximately 14 extra nights per 100 by 2099.

"The U.S. is relatively temperate and, in global terms, quite prosperous," Obradovich said. "We don't have sleep data from around the world, but assuming the pattern is similar, one can imagine that in places that are warmer or poorer or both, what we'd find could be even worse."

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The research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, grants no. DGE0707423 and TG-SES130013 to Obradovich, DGE1247398 to Migliorini, and BCS1439210 to Mednick. Mednick is also funded by the National Institute on Aging (R01AG046646) and the Department of Defense (Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award).

As a student, Obradovich was a Gramercy Fellow in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences.

The authors also acknowledge the assistance of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Human Nature Group at UC San Diego.
New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) reveals that residents of the Mid-Ohio River Valley (from Evansville, Indiana, north to Huntington, West Virginia) had higher than normal levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) based on blood samples collected over a 22-year span. The exposure source was likely from drinking water contaminated by industrial discharges upriver.

The study, appearing in the latest publication of Environmental Pollution, looked at levels of PFOA and 10 other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 931 Mid-Ohio River Valley residents, testing blood serum samples collected between 1991 and 2013, to determine whether the Ohio River and Ohio River Aquifer were sources of exposure. This is the first study of PFOA serum concentrations in U.S. residents in the 1990s.

"These Mid-Ohio River Valley residents appear to have had concentrations of PFOA in their bloodstream at higher than average U.S. levels," says Susan Pinney, PhD, professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the UC College of Medicine, a member of both the Cincinnati Cancer Consortium and UC Cancer Institute and senior author of the study.

Ohio River PFOA concentrations downstream were elevated, suggesting Mid-Ohio River Valley residents were exposed through drinking water, primarily contaminated by industrial discharges as far as 666 kilometers (413 miles) upstream. Industrial discharges of PFOA to the Ohio River, contaminating water systems near Parkersburg, West Virginia, were previously associated with nearby residents' serum PFOA concentrations above U.S. general population medians.

The article notes that use of granular activated carbon filtration (GAC) by water treatment facilities reduced PFOA exposure by as much as 60 percent.

"Where GAC has been used, the blood level concentration of PFOA was decreased significantly," says co-author Robert Herrick, a UC doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health.

Nearly all of the samples tested positive for some level of PFOA (99.9%) but 47 percent of the samples had PFOA levels higher than the 95th national percentile.

The study additionally looked at information about municipal water distribution systems and the zones that were serviced by each of the water treatment plants.

"We conducted statistical analyses to determine if factors such as location and years of residence, drinking water source and breast feeding were predictors of the person's serum PFC concentration," says Herrick.

PFCs have had wide consumer use and industrial applications. They are surfactants used in fire-fighting foams and in the manufacture of stain and water resistant coatings, on cookware, furniture and carpeting. PFOA, or C-8, can be found as a residual impurity in some paper coatings used on containers for processed food. As a byproduct of commercial production, PFCs/PFOA are released into the environment and, although no longer used in manufacturing in the U.S., are considered persistent in the environment.

Pinney points out that the primary concern with PFCs/PFOA is that they take a very long time to leave the human body, and studies indicate that exposure to PFOA and PFOS over certain levels may result in adverse health effects, including developmental effects, liver and tissue damage and immune and thyroid impacts.

"Because the elimination time could be several years, it is hard to determine what impact these environmental exposures may have on our health and children's health," says Pinney. "These data from the 1990s demonstrate that that the contaminants have been in our water a long time, at unchecked levels, before anyone was paying attention to it."

Pinney cites projects like this one as having the translational potential to make improvements in public health. "Studies like these provide evidence to support changes in water treatment practices." An earlier study looking at samples from girls and young women from Northern Kentucky showed that about half of the samples from the girls were much higher than the national average for U.S. children (the 95th percentile) concentration. The Northern Kentucky Water department has since then implemented the use of GAC at their plants to meet new federal regulations, and Cincinnati Water Works used the study's findings to check their treatment regulations and filtration usage.

###

The Mid-Ohio River Valley study was conducted by researchers within the UC College of Medicine Department of Environmental Health, at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Research was made possible by the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program awards U01ES012770 and U01ES019453 from the NIEHS and the National Cancer Institute; P30-ES006096, R21 ES017176 and T32-ES10957 from NIEHS; EPA-RD-83478801 from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and CSTAUL1RR026314 from the National Center for Research Resources. Pinney cites no conflict of interest.
Newly discovered notes show for the first time the Venetian doctor who invented the thermometer and helped lay the foundations for modern medical treatment also played a key role in shaping our understanding of chemistry.

The physician Santorio Santori, who lived between 1561 and 1636, came up with an accurate explanation for how matter works twenty years before Galileo.

Handwritten notes made by Santorio in a 1625 edition of his own book Commentaria in primam Fen primi libri Canonis Avicennae (A Commentary on the First Fen of the First Book of Avicenna's Canon) show he realised matter was made from invisible 'corpuscles'. Although the Greek philosopher Democritus and others after him had already maintained the existence of such bodies, historians previously believed that nobody had come up with the proof for their existence before Galileo.

The book, kept in the British Library, was found by Dr Fabrizio Bigotti, from the Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter. The language used and handwriting style strongly suggest the notes were made by Santorio.

Dr Bigotti said: "This discovery makes the case for a deeper study of early modern chemistry in the Medical School of Padua, where Santorio taught, and the work carried out there between the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. Santorio's true contribution to chemistry has been forgotten but, I hope, this new discovery means that will no longer be the case.

"The notes show he did not see the world not made up of four elemental qualities - hot, cold, dry and moist - as Aristotle had suggested. This helped to start the process of getting rid of the idea that magic and the occult could be found in nature.

"It is truly remarkable that, beyond his undoubted merits in science and early modern technology, Santorio also held very innovative ideas on chemistry and was so fully committed to investigating the structure of matter."

Santorio had correctly identified the minimal structure of matter as a series of corpuscles as early as 1603, and proved his assumptions by means of a series of optical experiments on light, as well as distilling urine. All these experiments were carried out with instruments Santorio made especially for his own research.

It was already known that Santorio laid the foundations for what is understood today as evidence-based medicine and the study of metabolism. The new discovery shows he was he among the first scientists to suggest the body aims at preserving its own balance through discharge of invisible particles.

Dr Bigotti began researching the life and works of Santorio in 2013. His project is now funded by Wellcome Trust. He outlined this new discovery at an international conference organised with Professor Jonathan Barry, Co-director of the Centre for Medical History of the University of Exeter, in Pisa this month.

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FROM sat-nav to automated parking and collision avoidance systems - cars are equipped with an increasing array of electronic aids designed to reduce the scope for human error. One of the latest pieces of kit is an app that provides assistance at traffic lights, telling drivers when they will have to stop and how long before they can move off.

It has provided the University of Huddersfield's Dr Kyle Wilson - a psychology lecturer who specialises in investigations of the human factor - with a "naturalistic" research project that has led to a conference presentation and a new article.

Marketed by an American company, the smartphone-based app is named EnLighten, and can be used in urban areas where the traffic signals are centrally connected.

"The intention of the app is to improve traffic flow and reduce driver stress. As you approach a traffic light, your smartphone will give you an alert over whether you are likely to make it through or likely to have to stop," said Dr Wilson.

Then, while the car is stopped, the phone's display tells the driver how long before they get the green light.

"When it gets down to five seconds, that disappears and you get an auditory chime. The intention is to get the driver to look back up at the real traffic signal and go when they turn green.

"My first reaction was that it was interesting and I could see it being useful in some regards - but that it could be dangerous too," said Dr Wilson.

His findings are that the app - when it works - can indeed reduce drivers' stress levels and cut the time it takes for them to move off at intersections. But the technology was prone to frequent malfunction, leading to higher stress and slower response to green lights. It also furnished a wider lesson about technology and the human factor.

"It is yet another example of the fact that when automation isn't that reliable, it can have the opposite effect to that you actually want. So not only did we see people move slower, but it stressed them out more and when this technology was malfunctioning, people would actually fixate on it," said Dr Wilson.

He was engaged to carry out the research by a transport centre looking at congestion issues. It wanted to know if the traffic lights app could help. Currently, no UK cities have fully connected traffic signal networks, a system that has been introduced in some U.S. urban areas and in cities that include Christchurch, in Dr Wilson's native New Zealand.

That is where he went to carry out the research. Five local motorists were recruited and monitored on four journeys through the city - three with the app and one without, as a baseline. Their behaviour was observed and their stress levels appraised during an exercise that Dr Wilson describes as a "naturalistic investigation".

The reliability of the EnLighten app needs to be improved, he said. Its countdown feature frequently failed, although it never created a safety hazard by indicating that a car could move off while lights were still at red.

But it seems likely that the technology will be integrated into the new wave of "connected vehicles", meaning that the car rather than the driver will interpret the countdown, so that malfunction could have more serious implications. This means it is especially important to improve the reliability level.

###

* The results of the project in Christchurch were presented at the 2017 conference of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and an article titled Driver Interaction with a Traffic Light Assistant App: A Naturalistic Investigation appears in the published Proceedings of the conference. It is authored by Kyle Wilson, with Karl Bridges, Paul Ward, Simon Parkinson, Tyron Louw and Ryan Cooney. See also http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/30948/.

Full citation:

"Wilson, K. M., Bridges, K., Ward, P. W., Parkinson, S., Louw, T., & Cooney, R. (2017). Driver interaction with a traffic light assistant app: A naturalistic investigation. In R. Charles & J. Wilkinson (Eds.), Contemporary Ergonomics & Human Factors 2017: Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors (pp. 143-150), Daventry, UK.
Scientists are a step closer to understanding the inner-workings of the universe following the laying of the first stone, and construction starting on the world's largest optical and infrared telescope.

With a main mirror 39 metres in diameter, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), is going to be, as its name suggests, enormous. Unlike any other before it, ELT is also designed to be an adaptive telescope and has the ability to correct atmospheric turbulence, taking telescope engineering to another level.

To mark the construction's milestone, a ceremony was held at ESO's Paranal residencia in northern Chile, close to the site of the future giant telescope which will be on top of Cerro Armazones, a 3046-metre peak mountain.

Among many other representatives from industry, the significance of the project was highlighted by the attendance of the Director General of ESO, Tim de Zeeuw, and President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria.

The ELT is being built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), an international collaboration supported by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Oxford University scientists are playing a key role in the project, and are responsible for the design and construction of its spectrograph; 'HARMONI', an instrument designed to simultaneously take 4000 images, each in a slightly different colour. The visible and near-infrared instrument will harness the telescope's adaptive optics to provide extremely sharp images.

'HARMONI' will enable scientists to form a more detailed picture of the formation and evolution of objects in the Universe. Supporting researchers to view everything from the planets in our own solar system and stars in our own and nearby galaxies with unprecedented depth and precision, to the formation and evolution of distant galaxies that have never been observed before.

Niranjan Thatte, Principal Investigator for 'HARMONI' and Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford's Department of Physics, said: 'For me, the ELT represents a big leap forward in capability, and that means that we will use it to find many interesting things about the Universe that we have no knowledge of today.

'It is the element of 'exploring the unknown' that most excites me about the ELT. It will be an engineering feat, and its sheer size and light grasp will dwarf all other telescopes that we have built to date.'

A time capsule, created by members of the ESO team and sealed at the event, will serve as a lasting memory of the research and the scale of ambition and commitment behind it. Contents include a copy of a book describing the original scientific aims of the telescope, images of the staff that have and will play a role in its construction and a poster of an ELT visualisation. The cover of the time capsule is engraved with a hexagon made of Zerodur, a one-fifth scale model of one of the ELT's primary mirror segments.

Tim DE Zeeuw, Director General of ESO, said: 'The ELT will produce discoveries that we simply cannot imagine today, and it will surely inspire numerous people around the world to think about science, technology and our place in the Universe. This will bring great benefit to the ESO member states, to Chile, and to the rest of the world.'

The ELT is set for completion in 2024, and as the visualisation images show, it is going to be 'out of this world.'

###

Notes to editors:

Images are available to download for free from the ESO website: https://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/elt/

For interviews or supporting images please contact: Lanisha Butterfield, Media Relations Manager on 01865 280531 or lanisha.butterfield@admin.ox.ac.uk

MPLS

The Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division (MPLS) is one of four academic divisions at the University of Oxford, representing the non-medical sciences. Oxford is one of the world's leading universities for science, and MPLS is at the forefront of scientific research across a wide range of disciplines. Research in the mathematical, physical and life sciences at Oxford was rated the best in the UK in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment. MPLS received 133m in research income in 2014/15

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
PHILADELPHIA -- Irene Hurford, MD, an assistant professor in the department of Psychiatry, has received a 2017 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

Hurford is one of only five recipients of the award nationally, which is presented to "honor the exceptional contributions that ... psychiatrists make to improve the lives of people living with mental health conditions."

Her research focuses on measuring cognition in psychosis, treatment outcomes in early-episode psychosis, interventions to improve functioning in early psychosis, and program evaluation.

In addition to her faculty role at Penn, Hurford developed and directs the Psychosis Education, Assessment, Care, and Empowerment (PEACE) Program through Horizon House, Inc. PEACE helps people in the early stages of psychosis learn to manage their symptoms and meet their life goals. It works to support the entire person towards recovery from, and resiliency to, psychosis. Hurford's philosophy behind PEACE is to treat psychosis as a barrier, not an insurmountable illness that has to define who people are. She and her team take a hopeful approach. The goal is to keep clients in work or school.

Hurford educates and engages family members of clients in the PEACE program by including them in the counseling sessions. By participating, they learn about the illness as well as how to help their family members cope. They also come to realize that their loved ones can truly recover from psychosis and lead lives of their own choosing.

Also, Hurford has been the coordinated specialty team trainer for three pilot first-episode psychosis projects throughout Pennsylvania, providing training and guidance based on her experience in establishing PEACE. She is the principal investigator for statewide program evaluation of first episode psychosis programs in Pennsylvania.

She received her medical degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and BSc in psychology from the University of Toronto. She completed her residency in psychiatry and post-doctoral training at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as well as an advanced fellowship in psychiatry at San Diego VA Medical Center. Her awards include the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation's NARSAD Young Investigator Award and designation as a Top Psychiatrist by the Consumer's Research Council of America.

###

NAMI, the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization, offers education programs to individuals, families, and professionals; advocates for public policy in support of people with mental illness and their families; staffs a national help line; and works to increase public awareness of mental illness.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community.
PHILADELPHIA -- For years, the common narrative in human developmental neuroimaging has been that gray matter in the brain - the tissue found in regions of the brain responsible for muscle control, sensory perception such as seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision making, and self-control -- declines in adolescence, a finding derived mainly from studies of gray matter volume and cortical thickness (the thickness of the outer layers of brain that contain gray matter). Since it has been well-established that larger brain volume is associated with better cognitive performance, it was puzzling that cognitive performance shows a dramatic improvement from childhood to young adulthood at the same time that brain volume and cortical thickness decline.

A new study published by Penn Medicine researchers this month and featured on the cover of the Journal of Neuroscience may help resolve this puzzle, revealing that while volume indeed decreases from childhood to young adulthood, gray matter density actually increases. Their findings also show that while females have lower brain volume, proportionate to their smaller size, they have higher gray matter density than males, which could explain why their cognitive performance is comparable despite having lower brain volume. Thus, while adolescents lose brain volume, and females have lower brain volume than males, this is compensated for by increased density of gray matter.

"It is quite rare for a single study to solve a paradox that has been lingering in a field for decades, let alone two paradoxes, as was done by Gennatas in his analysis of data from this large-scale study of a whole cohort of youths," said Ruben Gur.

"We now have a richer, fuller concept of what happens during brain development and now better understand the complementary unfolding processes in the brain that describe what happens."

The study was led by Ruben Gur, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Raquel Gur, MD, PhD, a professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Radiology, and Efstathios Gennatas, MBBS, a doctoral student of neuroscience working in the Brain Behavior Laboratory at Penn.

According to Gur, the study findings may better explain the extent and intensity of changes in mental life and behavior that occur during the transition from childhood to young adulthood.

"If we are puzzled by the behavior of adolescents, it may help to know that they need to adjust to a brain that is changing in its size and composition at the same time that demands on performance and acceptable behavior keep scaling up," Gur added.

In the study, the researchers evaluated 1,189 youth between the ages of 8 and 23 who completed magnetic resonance imaging as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, a community-based study of brain development that includes rich neuroimaging and cognitive data, to look at age-related effects on multiple measures of regional gray matter, including gray matter volume, gray matter density, and cortical thickness. Neuroimaging allowed the researchers to derive several measures of human brain structure in a noninvasive way.

Observing such measures during development allowed the researchers to study the brain at different ages to characterize how a child's brain differs from an adult's. "This novel characterization of brain development may help us better understand the relationship between brain structure and cognitive performance," Gennatas said.

"Our findings also emphasize the need to examine several measures of brain structure at the same time. Volume and cortical thickness have received the most attention in developmental studies in the past, but gray matter density may be as important for understanding how improved performance relates to brain development."

Further study is required to fully characterize the biological underpinnings of different MRI-derived measures by combining neuroimaging and brain histology. The study's findings in healthy people can also help researchers understand the effects of brain disorders in males and females as they evolve during adolescence.

###

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants (MH107235), (MH089983), (MH096891), and the Dowshen Neuroscience fund.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community.
The world's highest gain high power laser amplifier - by many orders of magnitude - has been developed in research led at the University of Strathclyde.

The researchers demonstrated the feasibility of using plasma to amplify short laser pulses of picojoule-level energy up to 100 millijoules, which is a 'gain' or amplification of more than eight orders of magnitude - which could be likened to amplifying the sound of rustling leaves to that of a jumbo jet - in only two mm of plasma.

They used 150 J pulses from the powerful Vulcan laser system at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Central Laser Facility (CLF). Over the course of two pioneering experiments at the CLF, the scientists worked closely with CLF staff to adapt the Vulcan laser in order that two different colour lasers could exchange energy in a plasma. The measured gain coefficient of 180 cm-1 is more than 100 times larger than achievable from existing high power laser system amplifiers based on solid-state media.

The results have been published in the journal Scientific Reports, in an article entitled An ultra-high gain and efficient amplifier based on Raman amplification in plasma.

Professor Dino Jaroszynski, of Strathclyde's Department of Physics, led the research. He said: "Raman amplification in plasma is a fascinating concept that combines the ideas of Nobel Physics laureate CV Raman with plasma, optical and laser physics.

Here, a relatively long, high-energy laser pulse is made to collide in plasma with a short, very low energy pulse. At the point where they collide they produce a beat wave, much like that of two colliding water waves. The light pressure of the beat pattern drives plasma electrons into a regular pattern or echelon that mimics the beat wave. This multi-layer echelon acts as a very high reflectivity, time-varying mirror that sweeps up the energy of the high energy pulse reflecting it into the low energy pulse, thus amplifying the low energy pulse and compressing its energy into an ultra-short duration pulse of light.

"Our results are very significant in that they demonstrate the flexibility of the plasma medium as a very high gain amplifier medium. We also show that the efficiency of the amplifier can be quite large, at least 10%, which is unprecedented and can be increased further. However, it also shows what still needs to be understood and controlled in order to achieve a single stage high-gain, high-efficiency amplifier module.

"One example of the challenges that we still face is how to deal with amplification of 'noise' produced by random plasma fluctuations, which is exacerbated by the extremely high gain. This leads to undesirable channels for the energy to go. We are making excellent progress and believe that we are in an excellent position to solve these problems in our next experimental campaigns."

Dr Gregory Vieux who led the research team working at the CLF, said: "Plasma is a very attractive medium to work with. It has no damage threshold since it is already a fully broken-down medium, therefore we can use it to amplify short laser pulses without the need for stretching and re-compressing. Another advantage is that further compression during the amplification is theoretically possible. This could pave the way for the development of the next generation of laser systems delivering ultra-intense and ultra-short pulses and at a fraction of the cost of existing lasers.

"Still, we are not quite there yet. The scheme relies on controlling the Raman instability. It has such a large growth factor that it can develop and grow from small plasma fluctuations."

Laser amplifiers are devices that amplify light. In those that are familiar to us, this is done by synchronising the light emission from electrons in atoms or solid state matter, to make it coherent, which is a necessary step to achieving very high powers. However, very high power lasers at the frontier of technology are limited by damage to their optical components and amplifying media. This makes them very large and very expensive.

Plasma, the ubiquitous medium of the universe, offers a way around this limitation because it is very robust and resistant to damage - plasma can be seen as matter that has already been broken down into its smallest constituent elements: electrons and ions. By harnessing waves in plasma we can dramatically reduce the size of laser amplifiers while providing a route to much higher peak powers than possible now, exceeding the petawatt range to possibly reach exawatts. This is a very worthy goal because very intense laser pulses can be used for fundamental studies, such as accelerating particles, helping drive nuclear fusion or even extracting particles from vacuum and recreating the conditions inside stars or the primordial condition of the universe in the laboratory.

The highest power lasers in the world will be available for use at three research centres that are part of the European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project. This 850m project is dedicated to the study of light-matter interactions at the highest intensities and shortest time scales. The laser power at ELI will be 1016 Watts or 5% of the total sun's power that is absorbed on the earth at any time. These lasers will lead to new science and technology that could, for example, transform our understanding of high field physics and result in new radiotherapy modalities for the treatment of cancer. There is a need to reduce the cost of laser technology, which plasma could offer. Plasma may be a route to higher powers to go beyond those available at ELI to reach exawatt powers.

###

The investigation was a collaboration between researchers from Strathclyde, Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST) in Lisbon, Queens University Belfast, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, Heinrich Heine Universitat, Dusseldorf and the Extreme Light Infrastructure in the Czech Republic. It was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

The Research Excellence Framework 2014, the comprehensive rating of UK universities' research, ranked the University of Strathclyde's Physics research first in the UK, with 96% of output assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo (May 26, 2017) - A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) has revealed how mining for valuable minerals in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a major driving factor in the illegal hunting of great apes and other wildlife for food.

The majority of individuals surveyed at mining camps during the 3-month study period said they hunted mostly out of necessity in the absence of any alternative protein, and would much prefer to eat beef, chicken, and fish instead of chimpanzee or gorilla if it were available.

The new study titled "The socio-economics of artisanal mining and bushmeat hunting around protected areas: Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo" appears in the online version of the journal Oryx. The authors are: Charlotte Spira, Andrew Kirkby, Deo Kujirakwinja, and Andrew Plumptre of WCS.

Eastern DRC is known for its exceptional biodiversity and its assemblage of large charismatic species, including threatened great ape species such as the endangered eastern chimpanzee and the critically endangered Grauer's gorilla. The region also contains globally significant deposits of valuable minerals such as gold, cassiterite (used to make tin), and coltan, a mineral in high demand for use in cell phones and other technology.

Artisanal and small-scale mining represents a significant source of livelihoods in the DRC, where an estimated 8-10 million people (14-16 percent of the country's population in 2008) take part in the industry. In the eastern part of the country, mining operations have had devastating impacts on wildlife, even within the confines of protected areas such as Kahuzi-Biega National Park and the Itombwe Nature Reserve. Grauer's gorilla numbers have declined by 77 percent over the past 20 years due to hunting, which the presence of mining sites continues to fuel.

Wildlife rangers trying to protect these natural resources face extreme danger as armed militias and insurgent groups inside national parks occupy vast swaths of wildlife habitat in order to illegally control and exploit access to minerals. Many sites visited during the survey were controlled by armed groups and indeed more than 20 percent of tin and coltan mines in the region are thought to be controlled by armed groups. The presence of armed groups results in a proliferation of arms that facilitates both the hunting of great apes and a general breakdown in rule of law for local communities.

"Our analysis shows that although mining attracts people due to the opportunity to get quick cash, most miners were in favor of leaving the sector for better and safer economic opportunities," said WCS researcher Charlotte Spira, the lead author of the study. "We also found that most miners who participated in the survey hunt wildlife out of necessity, and many would stop hunting if they had a secure income, if domestic sources of meat were made available, and if hunting laws were strongly enforced."

The authors of the study suggest that a better regulated mining sector in forests outside of protected areas would improve local governance, social wellbeing and economic opportunities whilst reducing negative environmental impacts.

International measures, such as the US government's Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals Rule that require transparency by companies and businesses in sourcing conflict minerals -- which is currently being contested by the US Securities and Exchange Commission -- are important and should be encouraged.

"Mining in the region can be greatly improved through the demilitarization of mining sites along with law enforcement to prevent bushmeat hunting, and more access to domestic sources of protein that would reduce the need for bushmeat," said Richard Tshombe, Director for WCS's Democratic Republic of Congo Program. "Developing sustainable business opportunities that can compete with the economic benefits of mining could support miners to pursue other avenues of employment and at the same time help ease the burden of mining in DRC's most biodiverse landscapes."

###

WCS is urging members of the public to demand an end to conflict minerals by taking action at https://www.wcs.org/get-involved/conflict-minerals-pledge.

This work was supported by the Arcus Foundation, the Jane Goodall Institute, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a joint initiative of l'Agence Francaise de Developpement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation.

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.
May 26, 2017 - Skull fractures and other head and facial injuries from motorcycle trauma in Michigan have doubled since that state relaxed its motorcycle helmet laws, reports a study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The new study is one of the first to focus on how helmet laws affect CMF trauma rates.

"Our study demonstrates the negative impact of weakened motorcycle helmet laws leading to decreased helmet use," said lead author Nicholas S. Adams, MD, of Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids. The findings suggest that higher numbers of craniomaxillofacial (CMF) injuries can be added to increased deaths, serious injuries and health care costs when motorcyclists ride without helmets.

'Significant Negative Impact' of Weakening Helmet Laws

The researchers used a state trauma quality improvement database to analyze changes in the rate of CMF injuries to motorcycle riders since the change in Michigan helmet laws. In 2012, Michigan repealed its universal motorcycle helmet law in favor of a partial law. Under the new law, riders are eligible to ride without helmets if they meet criteria for age (over 21), training/experience and insurance coverage.

Trends in CMF injuries were analyzed for three years before and three years after the change in helmet laws. The study included a total of 4,643 motorcycle trauma patients seen at 29 Michigan trauma centers.

Under the new law, the proportion of motorcycle trauma patients who were riding without helmets more than doubled, from 20 to 44 percent. Compared to helmeted patients, those not wearing helmets were about twice as likely to sustain CMF injuries.

The difference was significant for fractures and soft tissue injuries. Patients without helmets had higher injury severity scores. Before and after the change in helmet laws, unhelmeted patients had higher blood alcohol content.

The absolute rate of CMF injuries increased from 25.5 percent under the universal helmet law to 37.2 percent under the partial helmet law. This translated into a relative 46 percent increase in overall CMF injuries, including a 28 percent increase in fractures and a 56 percent increase in soft tissue injuries.

The researchers also noted an increase in certain patterns of facial injuries after the change in helmet laws. Fractures of the cheekbones (malar fractures) increased significantly, as did facial lacerations, contusions and abrasions. All types of injuries were more common in unhelmeted patients.

There is a long history of debate over motorcycle helmet laws. Previous studies have shown that helmets prevent nearly 40 percent of fatal injuries and 13 percent of nonfatal serious injuries. Yet, up to one-third of motorcycle riders do not wear helmets, even more in states without universal helmet laws.

Dr. Adams said, "We urge state and national legislators to reestablish universal motorcycle helmet laws."

Based on their findings, the researchers estimate that wearing a motorcycle helmet can decrease the risk of facial trauma by half, while requiring all riders to wear helmets could decrease facial injuries by more than 30 percent.

###

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is published by Wolters Kluwer.

Click here to read "The Effects of Motorcycle Helmet Legislation on Craniomaxillofacial Injuries."

Article: "The Effects of Motorcycle Helmet Legislation on Craniomaxillofacial Injuries" (doi: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000003370)

About Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

For more than 70 years, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (http://www.prsjournal.com/) has been the one consistently excellent reference for every specialist who uses plastic surgery techniques or works in conjunction with a plastic surgeon. The official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery brings subscribers up-to-the-minute reports on the latest techniques and follow-up for all areas of plastic and reconstructive surgery, including breast reconstruction, experimental studies, maxillofacial reconstruction, hand and microsurgery, burn repair, and cosmetic surgery, as well as news on medico-legal issues

About ASPS

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is the largest organization of board-certified plastic surgeons in the world. Representing more than 7,000 physician members, the Society is recognized as a leading authority and information source on cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. ASPS comprises more than 94 percent of all board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States. Founded in 1931, the Society represents physicians certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery or The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in more than180 countries, maintains operations in more than40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Wolters Kluwer has a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt program. The ADRs are traded on the over-the-counter market in the U.S. (WTKWY).

For more information about our solutions and organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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The Ulster Farmers' Union has said it is 'disappointed' that the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy chose to publish information about the participants of a renewable energy scheme.

The farming union's poultry chairman was one of many claimants whose data was published by the department.

UFU chief executive, Wesley Aston, has questioned the department's intentions in releasing the information.

He said: "The media focus on RHI has been intense and many legitimate participants have been unfairly targeted.

"The faults with this scheme lie solely with those that created it. Publishing the names of participants deflects attention from the major failings of civil servants.

"This only serves the interest of the department, not the wider public."

'Half the story'

Mr Aston said that by publishing the list, DfE has only given half the story.

He continued: "The list doesnt show the considerable financial investments made by participants or the associated running costs.

"Notably absent too are the public bodies benefiting from RHI. If publishing this list was in the true interest of the public, surely they deserve the full story."

A recent report by the professional services firm PWC vindicated poultry and mushroom farmers involved.

The groups' chief executive said that report, which was largely ignored by the media, cleared these farmers of all suggestions they had misused the RHI scheme.

"The media has little interest in the positive side of the RHI scheme. Instead we have seen legitimate users vilified on the basis of claims now shown to be unfair and inaccurate."

'Shameful'

The UFU said it believes the situation to be 'shameful' and a 'sad reflection' of how the mainstream media now reports events.

The UFU has also again questioned the arbitrary withholding of payments for many months.

"If there was any suggestion that people were not complying with the agreements they signed with the government, this would be understandable.

"However, this has been shown to not be the case. We will be applying pressure to restore these payments immediately, given that businesses are facing cash flow problems because of what is clearly now an unfair decision by officials," he said.

The RHI scandal

Set up in November 2012, the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme was an attempt by the Northern Ireland Executive to help to increase consumption of heat from renewable sources.

It offered financial incentives to farms, businesses and other non-domestic consumers to use biomass boilers that mostly burned wood pellets, as well as solar thermal and heat pumps.

But flaws in setting the scheme's subsidy rate left it open to abuse as claimants could earn more cash the more fuel they burned, with one farmer having made 1m out of renting an empty shed.

The Northern Ireland Executive collapsed after deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigned in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal.
Farmers are being urged to be vigilant for signs of Bluetongue virus (BTV) after BTV-8 was detected in cattle in a previously disease-free area of northern France.

Bluetongue virus is transmitted by midges and can infect all ruminants, particularly sheep and cattle.

It can reduce milk yield, cause sickness, reduce reproductive performance or, in the most severe cases, cause death in adult animals.

It does not affect people, and meat and milk from infected animals are safe to eat and drink.

Vaccination is the best way to protect livestock and a safe and effective vaccine is available in Britain.

Livestock keepers  particularly those on the Kent and Sussex coastline  should discuss with their vet if vaccination is an option which would benefit their business.

The holding where the virus was detected in northern France is less than 150km from the south coast of England.

Farmers across the south of England in particular should look out for clinical signs of disease, including mouth ulcers; drooling; swelling of the mouth, head and neck; fever; lameness and breathing problems.

'Negative impact on farm incomes'

The latest expert assessment, published today by Defra, is that the risk of an outbreak of Bluetongue virus in the UK is currently low, but will change as summer approaches.

The risk of incursion via infected midges later in the summer depends on the level of disease on the continent, proximity to the UK, the vaccination status of animals in the UK and weather conditions.

UK Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said: "Bluetongue does not pose a threat to human health or food safety, but can have a negative impact on farm incomes, for example by causing reduced milk yield in cows and infertility in sheep.

"We have robust disease surveillance procedures and continue to carefully monitor the situation in France, where Bluetongue disease control measures are in place.

"Our latest assessment shows the risk of outbreak in the UK is currently low, but the detection of the virus in northern France is a timely reminder for farmers to remain vigilant for disease and report any suspicions to the Animal and Plant Health Agency. I would also encourage farmers to talk to their vet to consider if vaccination would benefit their business."

'Important reminder'

British Veterinary Association Junior Vice President John Fishwick said it is an 'important reminder' to vets, farmers and anyone working with livestock, particularly those in the south east of England, to 'remain vigilant' for any signs of Bluetongue in their animals.

The message wed like farmers to hear is to closely monitor their stock for Bluetongue symptoms, which could include eye and nasal discharge, drooling, swelling around the head or mouth, lethargy and lameness.

We know that the disease is circulating in France and, although there are indications that clinical signs have been quite mild there, we cannot predict how the disease will present itself in our herds.

We are strongly encouraging vets to work with local farmers in protecting the health and welfare of their livestock, especially if they have any concerns - discussing the benefits of vaccination as one of the key methods of control, while, obviously, taking into consideration their locality and individual circumstances.

Any suspicion of disease must be reported immediately to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on 03000 200 301.
A new Dragon's Den-style competition is being launched solely for those with a bright idea that will help the agricultural industry.

The competition, which is open now for entries, invites anyone with a ground-breaking agricultural business idea to pitch Dragons Den-style for a share of the investment prize fund, in exchange for a stake in their business.

In addition, there is a guaranteed Briefing Media promotional package worth 5k for every finalist, as well as on-going help and business support. Closing date for entries is July 7, 2017.

Briefing Media Ltd has announced there is now more than 20 million of funding available for new businesses through its Agri-Innovation Den competition.

20m venture capital fund

Launched in 2015, in association with Co-op Food, Agri-Innovation Den has been significantly strengthened this week by bringing on board the Mulberry Green Fund as a second partner.

The Mulberry Green Fund is a 20m venture capital fund investing in early and growth-stage companies in the green-tech and agri-tech sectors.

It invests in UK-based companies which are undervalued in the domestic market but have the potential to grow substantially overseas. It typically makes individual investments of between 250k-1m.

'Showcase talent'

Briefing Media chief executive, Neil Thackray says: Its fantastic to have the Mulberry Green Fund on board.

It makes Agri-Innovation Den an even better opportunity for UK farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs to be able to showcase their talents and gain help and funding to move their businesses forward.

Those shortlisted will be invited to an interview and finalists will pitch to our expert panel in September. Returning to judge in the den this year will be: Neil Thackray, chief executive of Briefing Media; Emma Penny, Briefing Media group editor and Will Jackson, agricultural development manager for Co-Op Food. New to the den for 2017 will be: James Griffiths, Mulberry Green Fund chief investment officer and Phil Latham, Cheshire farmer.
Millions of pounds worth of funding given to English farmers from the EU to help protect nature and wildlife could be lost after Brexit, environmentalists have said.

The cash is paid to farmers as part of the European-wide Common Agricultural Policy but after Brexit the money will come to an end, unless the next government agrees on a replacement scheme.

But environment charity Friends of the Earth have said the money is 'vital' for the local environment.

Clare Oxborrow, food and farming campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "This funding is vital for nature and for local farmers.

"It helps to reduce flooding, create wildlife habitats, plant trees and restore hedgerows - but all of this could be lost after the general election.

"Were asking all parliamentary candidates to commit to keeping and increasing this critical funding post-Brexit."

Diversification

Local farmers have been advised to consider 'diversification' as they try to build financial resilience.

Lincolnshire farmers Andrew and Simon Casswell told Lincolnshire Live that many would be nearly bankrupt without government help.

"We need help from the Government. That's our main priority. I don't know if we can get that help from them. Things change," he said.

In its general election manifesto, published last week, the Conservatives pledged to draw up a 25 year plan to improve the environment after Brexit.

Labour said the party would set up a science innovation fund to work with both farmers and fishermen if elected, and plant a million trees of native species to promote biodiversity and improved flood management.
Leaving the European Union could see the end of the small family farm 'as we know it' in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein have warned.

The prospect of tariffs, restrictions on free movement between the UK and Ireland as well as an 'inevitable reduction' in the amount of subsidies would create a 'negative impact', the party said.

Matt Carthy MEP said Irish agriculture operates much better on an 'all-Ireland' basis.

"It's too small a country to have farmers competing against each other on price and any barriers that are put in place will prove difficult," he said at the Enniskillen Farmers' Market.

"What special designated status means is that the North, to all intents and purposes, remains part of the EU - it remains part of the single market, the customs union and is able to draw down CAP funding into the future.

His colleague Michelle Gildernew said Brexit could see the end of the small family farm 'as we know it.'

"I think some farmers were convinced by political parties with a very narrow political agenda that they would be better off out of Europe and I think the realisation is coming home to them now that that is not the case," she said.

Arrangements

This month, Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) said a 'transition arrangement' would be needed when a new agricultural policy is made.

UFU president Barclay Bell addressed Irish senators who are looking at the implications of Brexit.

About 300m a year comes to Northern Ireland farmers in subsidy payments.

Current support arrangements have been guaranteed by the UK government until 2020.

Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson believes that a Brexit deal can be arrived at, which will deliver continuing membership of the EU for Northern Ireland.

"There are numerous examples of arrangements that have been reached by the EU, which recognise the fundamental problems caused by borders," she said.

"I see no reason why Brussels and London cannot come up with a set of arrangements which maintains the current status quo, where cross-border trade and farm support measures are concerned."
Scotland and Northern Ireland has been approved of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) negligible risk status.

The move was announced following a meeting of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris yesterday (25 May).

British Veterinary Association President Gudrun Ravetz said: Scotland and Northern Ireland's achievement of the lowest risk level status for BSE is testament to the years of hard work and joined-up efforts of the respective governments with their farmers, industry and vets  who are pivotal to the success of any disease control programme.

We must of course continue to work together keep up high standards of biosecurity and surveillance in order to safeguard animal health, which is vital to both countries economies.

This is excellent news for Scotland and Northern Irelands agri-food industry, especially as we look ahead at the trade deals which will need to be forged in the coming year or two, further demonstrating that our beef is produced to a high quality and standard of animal health for consumers in the UK and across the world.

'Positive image'

Ulster Farmers Union, deputy president, Victor Chestnutt, said the granting of official BSE negligible risk status (BSE NR) to Northern Ireland will be welcomed by livestock farmers.

This will give Northern Ireland beef a more positive image on the world stage. It should help us gain access to key target markets, such as China, USA, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, says Mr Chestnutt.

Beef exporters believe securing access to these markets could put an extra 12 million a year into the supply chain.

In countries we already trade in, it opens up the possibility of amending access agreements. This could boost trade in offals, again adding value to the local supply chain, he said.
Ukip has released its general election manifesto, pledging to create a UK Single Farm Payment (SFP) as a replacement for the CAP.

The party said that farmers will be nervous about what might replace the CAP and the subsidy system they have become used to for over forty years.

The manifesto states: "When we leave the EU, we will leave the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and regain the power to prioritise our own farming objectives, boost our own food security, reform our attitude to farming, animal welfare and wildlife management, and reinvigorate our rural economy."

Ukip says the SFP will be 'more ethical'. It will end 'EU discrimination' in favour of larger, intensive farms, and support smaller enterprises.

Subsidies will be capped at 120,000 per year and will be made to make sure payments reach farmers, not just 'wealthy landowners'.

Animal welfare and environment

The party says it will also ban live exports for slaughter, and label food that has been ritually killed as halal or shechita.

It also pledges to install CCTV in every abattoir or slaughterhouse.

On the environment, Ukip states: "The EUs Common Agricultural Policy has damaged our countryside. The Common Fisheries Policy has devastated fish stocks around our coastline. The way the EU  and our government  embraced diesel proved to be disastrous, even fatal.

Ukip said it will promote 'evidence-based' environmental schemes, and safeguard protection for Britains countryside using a new Environment Protection Act.

Other farming manifestos

In the Conservative manifesto, they pledge to bring 'sustainable growth' to farming communities, create a new agri-environment scheme and introduce mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses.

Labour has also launched their manifesto. The manifesto pledges an end to the badger cull, a ban on neonicotinoids and the promotion of cruelty free farming.

The Liberal Democrats has unveiled their manifesto, saying that UK farming will be in 'huge danger' of leaving EU. They propose a second referendum.

Welsh political party Plaid Cymru has also released their manifesto, calling for a Brexit deal which best represents Welsh agriculture.

Numerous rural organisations have released their own manifestos, including the NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, the CLA, the Soil Association, the Tenant Farmers' Association, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the British Veterinary Association, the Farmers' Union of Wales, the Ulster Farmers' Union, the Agricultural Industries Confederation and the Countryside Alliance.
AHDB publishes five-year plans for how levy will be invested
Quote:

Nothing Special Originally Posted by

No, it't not that simple (and doesn't make that much sense). "3/4 ton" means nothing other than that it's between what Ford calls a 1/2 ton and what it calls a 1 ton. Toyota called the Tacoma a 3/4 ton at one point because it had a payload of 1500 lbs. Full-size truck capacities are well over the named ratings.



An F-250 with a diesel will actually be an F-250HD. My '97 F-250HD crew cab short box, with a 460 and E4OD has an empty weight of 6100 lbs. With a GVWR of 8800 lbs that's a payload (including driver and passengers) of 2700 lbs.



Your diesel and long box will be heavier than my 460 and short box, the ZF5 and SuperCab will be lighter than my E4OD and crew cab. So your empty weight might be close to mine. The only real way to find it is to get the truck on a scale.



As for tow rating, subtract the truck's loaded weight (not the GVWR, the actual weight the truck is currently at) from the GCWR. From my '97 owners manual the GCWR for an F-250HD SuperCab with diesel, manual trans and 3.55 gears would be 16,000 lbs. If your truck weighs 6100 lbs empty and you weigh 200, you can tow a 9700 lb trailer if the truck is empty. If the truck is loaded to 8000 lbs (not counting trailer tongue weight) you can tow 8000 lbs. Of course those numbers are with the GCWR from the '97 owners manual. You need to find what the GCWR of your '94 actually is.
[May 25, 2017] Calgary Scientific Receives Support from Federal Government for Its PureWeb Technology

Calgary Scientific, one of Canada's leading providers of advanced technology, announced that it has been selected to receive support through Western Economic Diversification Canada's Western Innovation (WINN) Initiative. David Lametti, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada, made the announcement yesteray on the Minister's behalf. Calgary Scientific's technology-forward platforms were of particular interest to Mr. Lametti, whose strong background in Intellectual Property rights was obtained through his tenure teaching law at McGill University.



The support from WINN will aid Calgary Scientific in continuing development of its core technology platform, PureWeb, a platform that is enabling rapid changes in how companies around the world access and share high value image data. The company previously received funding through the WINN program in 2014 for its ResolutionMD technology, which enables healthcare providers to access critical medical data quickly, securely and at high resolution from mobile devices anywhere in the world. "Since the founding of Calgary Scientific, we have pushed to be innovative in solving complex technological issues with creativity and rapid development," said Dave Waldrop, Chief Revenue Officer with Calgary Scientific. "This support will enable us to accelerate the product roadmap for our PureWeb platform, expand our portfolio of image data solutions and grow our Calgary-based business. We are excited to be part of the diversification of Western Canada's economy, and honored to receive support from the Canadian government to continue contributing to this important initiative."

A significant patent list underscores Calgary Scientific's continued innovation development, dating back to 2004. This includes patents for tools that allow enterprises to securely access and interact with graphically intensive data from any location, without moving or copying data. The company currently holds over 40 patents related to virtualization, collaboration, interoperability, user experience and image processing. About Calgary Scientific Calgary Scientific offers enterprise image-viewing tools to access, collaborate on, and analyze graphics-intensive data securely on mobile and web. Their ResolutionMDsoftware is installed in thousands of healthcare facilities worldwide, and is powered by the PureWeb software development platform. The company is leveraging its flexible toolset to expand into new markets beyond healthcare, such as design, enterprise gaming and energy. For more information on Calgary Scientific, visit calgaryscientific.com.  2017 Calgary Scientific Inc., ResolutionMD, PureWeb and the Calgary Scientific logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Calgary Scientific Inc. or its subsidiaries. Any third-party company names and products are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170525005829/en/

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Home2 Suites by Hilton, part of Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) All Suites portfolio, announced today its newest property, Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago/Schaumburg. Designed for travelers who want to maintain their normal routine, the hotel features 107 suites and a range of value, tech-focused and eco-conscious amenities. Located in the heart of Schaumburg's business district, Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago/Schaumburg will cater not only to domestic and international visitors visiting the Chicago area, but also those seeking to experience The Village of Schaumburg's shopping, cultural and sport attractions, nature trails, and festivals such as Septemberfest.

Hotel website
Related Related Press Release Four Seasons Hotel Kuwait reveals executive team

Christel Artaud, director of human resources for the property, is a Four Seasons veteran of eight years. Artaud joined the company at Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora in 2008 where she served for seven years as director of human resources. A French national, Artaud moved to Kuwait in April 2016 to take charge of the human resource function at the new property.
With its inception in 2009, the Cornell Hospitality Icon and Innovator Awards became the largest event on the Hotel Schools calendar, attracting more than 600 influential leaders and innovators in the hospitality and travel industries from more than a dozen countries each year. The event is a key fundraiser for the Hotel Schools annual fund, which provides critical need-based scholarships for students.

For more information please contact Meg Keilbach
NEW YORK -- Renowned hotel brand and management company Dream Hotel Group, home to its Dream Hotels, Time Hotels, The Chatwal and soon-to-launch Unscripted Hotels brands, today announced another year of unprecedented international growth with nine new hotels expected to open in new destinations by the end of 2020.

"We signed more new hotel deals in the last six months than any other year in the company's history," said Dream Hotel Group chairman Sant Singh Chatwal. "After significant investment and repositioning from ownership to hotel brand and management, Dream Hotel Group now boasts its strongest portfolio ever, and we look forward to continuing to build on our success and expand our brands at a rapid rate."

Dream Hotel Group has 16 hotels open today and a robust pipeline of 26 additional properties, including these nine new locations, which, when open, are expected to bring the company's total property and room count to 42 and 10,034, respectively. With the largest and most active pipeline in the company's history, Dream Hotel Group is on track to increase its global footprint by 230 percent over the next four years, tripling its existing portfolio by 2022.

"These nine new developments are a testament to the strength of our brands, and I am proud to announce another record year of strategic growth momentum for the group," remarked Jay Stein, CEO, Dream Hotel Group. "We are finding that our lifestyle brands resonate well in both established and emerging destinations, and every step into a new market demonstrates our unwavering commitment to forging new and enriching partnerships with potential owners and developers across the globe."

Newly signed locations include primary and secondary markets around the worldfrom Dallas to Delhi, Upstate New York to Vietnam, the Maldives to the Dominican Republicand represent $750 million in new hotel development, all with independent development partners.

The news follows that of the highly anticipated summer launch of Dream Hotel Group's newest lifestyle brand, Unscripted, which is on track become the fastest-growing new brand in the company's history. A new hospitality concept for the progressive creative traveler, Unscripted will open its first location in Durham, North Carolina in July 2017.

Dream Hotel Group signed nine new hotel deals in the last six months, including:

Dream Oceanami Villas & Spa (Vietnam)  Fall 2017  Developed by Beegreen Group, Dream Oceanami Villas & Spa marks the first of four new locations to open in Vietnam. Located in Long Hai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, the resort will feature 347 villas and eight dining and nightlife venues, including the brand's signature Dream Beach Club, fronting the South China Sea on a one-kilometer stretch of pristine beach.

Unscripted Cocobay Da Nang  Fall 2017  Developed by Vietnam-based Empire Group, the 160-room Unscripted Hotel will feature three dining and nightlife venues. The Cocobay complex will be the largest integrated resort complex in Vietnam with a walking street of shops and restaurants, a water park, a performing arts center, luxury apartments and residences, a beach club and eight hotels, including Unscripted Cocobay, all overlooking the South China Sea.

The Chatwal Lodge  Late 2018  Located in Bethel, NY, The Chatwal Lodge will be the second location to debut in The Chatwal collection of luxury hotels. Developed by Dream Hotel Group, the resort will feature 50 exquisite accommodations on 23 acres, including private villas, suites and rooms, and world-class culinary experiences crafted and managed by renowned chef Todd English and others to be announced soon.

The Chatwal Maaga Maldives  2019  Developed by local entrepreneur Mohamed Manik and Alpha Kinam Holdings, and the first of two new Dream Hotel Group locations in the Maldivian Islands, The Chatwal Maaga Maldives will feature 80 ultra-luxury villas, six private beach villas and two presidential villas, as well as three unforgettable culinary venues bringing fine dining and casual barefoot elegance to the lagoon's edge in picturesque North Ari Atoll.

Unscripted Dallas-Fort Worth  2019  Developed by Newstream Hotels & Resorts, the five-story hotel will feature 134 guestrooms and four restaurants and bars, including a rooftop lounge. Located in the town of Flower Mound, adjacent to Lake Grapevine and six miles north of DFW Airport, Unscripted Dallas-Fort Worth marks the first ground-up build and second U.S. location for the Unscripted Hotels brand.

Dream Delhi  2019  Developed by Asrani Inn & Resorts Private Ltd., Dream Delhi will feature 179 rooms and multiple food and beverage outlets, including a Food Hall concept by internationally renowned chef Todd English.

The Time Dominican Republic  2019  The Time Dominican Republic marks the group's first location in the Caribbean. Set to open in 2019, the upper-upscale resort hotel will feature luxurious beachfront guestrooms and suites, multiple dining and nightlife venues, and a spa.

Unscripted Dominican Republic  2019  Also slated to open in 2019, Unscripted Dominican Republic will feature spaces guestrooms and suites, and multiple food and beverage outlets.

Dream Gasveli Maldives  2020  Developed by local entrepreneur Mohamed Manik and Alpha Kinam Holdings, Dream Gasveli Maldives resort will feature 500 villas, eight experiential dining and nightlife venues, including the brand's signature Dream Beach Club, a 20,000-square-foot wellness spa, and more than a dozen designer brand retail outlets for exclusive duty-free shopping on site.

Dream Hotel Group also signed letters of intent to open hotels in the following markets: Austin, Phoenix, Orlando, Monterey and Long Island City, as well as the United Kingdom, Central America and Vietnam.

The company plans to sign more than 150 hotels and resorts across all its brands  Dream, Time, The Chatwal and Unscripted  in the next four years, continuing to solidify its burgeoning global portfolio.

About Dream Hotel Group

Dream Hotel Group is a hotel brand and management company with a rich, 30-year history of managing properties in some of the world's most highly competitive hotel environments. Home to its Dream Hotels, Time Hotels, The Chatwal and Unscripted Hotels brands, Dream Hotel Group encompasses three business lines: Proprietary Brands, Hotel Management and Dining & Nightlife. The Company is committed to the philosophy that forward-thinking design, service and guest experiences should be available across market segments. Dream Hotel Group is dedicated to offering travelers an authentic connection to their chosen destination through a truly original approach. For more information, please visit www.dreamhotelgroup.com and follow @dreamhotelgroup on Twitter.
This month, our company celebrates its 90th anniversary. In 1927, my parents drove east from Salt Lake City with a marriage license in one hand and an A&W franchise license in the other. They set their sights on Washington, D.C., and opened a nine-stool A&W root beer stand on May 20.

My parents had an incredible business sensethe hot and muggy capitol city was just the place to sell ice cold, refreshing root beer that summer. Soon the weather turned colder and they needed to change their strategy if they wanted to stay in business. My mother, who majored in Spanish in college, charmed the chef at the Mexican embassy and he taught her how to make hot tamales and chili. They added tamales, chili, hot dogs and burgers to the menu and called their little place The Hot Shoppe.

It's that history of innovation and dedication to excellence that has informed everything we have done at Marriott since then. Of course fads, fashion, trends, and relationships continually change, but our focus on embracing change, putting people first, and pursuing excellence has never wavered.

I'm incredibly thankful for my parents laying that foundation. They have left a tremendous legacy not just for me and my family, but for the millions of associates and guests who have experienced for themselves the core values they established back in 1927.

We are always looking to the future. The age of 90 could be considered stuffy and old, but this company is anything but stodgy. We are shaping how people travel through technology and innovationall while being the world's largest hotel company. It's been an exciting season of change here at Marriott. There's no limit to what's yet to come.

I'm Bill Marriott and thanks for helping me keep Marriott on the move for the last 90 years and the next!

Click here to read more in the 'Marriott on the Move Blog'

View source
Since being acquired by Shiji, ReviewPro has seen a significant increase in both volume of new clients and year-on-year revenue. The impressive growth of ReviewPro's client base, including hotel brands who have chosen to switch from competitors, illustrates the effectiveness of having a clear and innovative product strategy, which enables hotels to increase guest satisfaction and average daily rates (ADR).

Global highlights:

Nearly 50% increase in year-on-year revenue in 2017.

Growth of new clients in Europe, Asia and the US including leading hospitality brands such as The Rezidor Hotel Group, Hard Rock International and Minor Hotels.

Successful launch of Auto Case Management, which enables hoteliers to effectively manage internal processes to improve the guest experience.

Strengthening of development resources to streamline the launch of additional new products that assist hoteliers to upgrade the guest experience.

Appointment of industry veteran, John Owens, as VP of Sales North America to further expand market share in the region.

"The last few months have been pivotal in the company's history as we have scaled our team across all functional areas, expanded sales and marketing efforts in China and the US and extended our product offering to deliver more value to our clients and differentiate ourselves from competitors", commented RJ Friedlander, CEO of ReviewPro. The support and backing of Shiji has been crucial to helping us deliver our best six-month performance ever and position us for increased success in the future."

Kevin King, COO of Shiji added, "We couldn't be happier with the way the team at ReviewPro has executed on their growth strategy since becoming a part of Shiji. These results, combined with the market opportunity, have encouraged us to double down to support product, marketing and sales efforts on a global level."

For more information please contact [email protected]

About Shiji

Founded in 1998, Shiji's aim is to become a "big data" application service platform operator. Shiji has become the leading manufacturer of Chinese hotel information systems after three successful transformations. At the same time, Shiji is gradually expanding from hotel to catering and retail industries, becoming the major software supplier to both industries. Now, Shiji is responsible for approximately 60% to 70% of the market share in the high end sector of hotel and retail industries, and possesses a leading position in the catering industry. The estimated annual revenue of Shiji clients can be as high as RMB 5 trillion. Shiji has completed three successful transformations since its establishment. It is now experiencing the 4th transformation dedicating to be a "big data" driven consumer application service platform operator. Shiji has introduced consulting, IT solutions and data platform services. Meanwhile, Shiji is developing worldwide leading products and technologies aiming for the international market and speeding up its globalization progress. Currently Shiji has more than 50 subsidiaries located in major Chinese cities and overseas markets (Singapore and Munich) with about 3,000 employees.

About Shiji's ReviewPro

ReviewPro, a Shiji Group brand, offers over a decade of experience and investment in innovation to ensure we continue to be the benchmark of the hospitality industry. Our cloud-based Guest Experience Platform includes Hotel Reputation, Guest Surveys, Case Management, and Messaging Automation. Shiji's ReviewPro owns the industry-standard online reputation score, the Global Review Index (GRI), a propriety algorithm based on review data collected from +140 OTAs and review sites in +45 languages. With over, 60,000 establishments in +150 countries, Shiji's ReviewPro offers the technology, support, and education to empower hoteliers to be better.

For more information, please visit: www.reviewpro.com.

Roisin McGrath
ALPHARETTA, GA  May 25, 2017  The Rainmaker Group (Rainmaker) has successfully deployed its comprehensive suite of revenue management and business intelligence solutions at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (Westgate Las Vegas), a popular casino resort that is celebrated for its variety of suites, onsite amenities, customer service and prime location adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center. In late 2016, the Westgate Las Vegas team deployed Rainmaker's guestrev, grouprev and revcaster solutions to optimize property pricing and revenues, with grouprev aiding the team in managing its impressive 200,000 square feet of meeting space.

Since the implementation, the team at Westgate Las Vegas has seen a significant increase in YOY revenue, which is due in large part to the Rainmaker platform's ability to provide a deeper understanding of demand by various customer segments. This highly granular insight is what allows property revenue managers to make the most informed, actionable decisions when optimizing profitability.

"We have a multifaceted business that requires a keen and detailed understanding of every area at every level. This is of utmost importance in our revenue management practices, as it helps us to both forecast accurately and to turn the data that the system provides into actionable strategies," said Geno Iafrate, president and general manager at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. "To get the granular level view of the integrated data we need, a seamless and solid integration between our PMS, our revenue management system and all other systems relevant to the process is a critical factor. This ability to integrate with existing disparate systems is something that Rainmaker does exceptionally well."

The unique math and science-based algorithms of Rainmaker's revenue optimization and intelligence platform exponentially boost profits for the properties using it, while providing revenue managers with a true understanding of overall demand by value-based customer segments. With the guestrev solution, Westgate Las Vegas can now optimize room pricing based not only on room revenue, but on the total value of the guest, processing data from multiple sources to forecast demand and set room rates. Rainmaker's grouprev solution provides the necessary tools to maximize revenues from group business, helping revenue managers to navigate the complex and intricate data required for assessing group requests and driving conversion rates. Additionally, the revcaster rate shopping solution provides deep insight into varying rates, shopping multiple channels to see what's happening locally, so that hoteliers can monitor parity, maximize ADR and drive higher profits.

"Because our solutions are specifically designed to solve the unique revenue management challenges for large, gaming resorts, we knew that they had the potential to dramatically impact revenues at Westgate Las Vegas by driving both demand and pricing decisions," said Tammy Farley, president and co-founder of The Rainmaker Group. "Using our customizable suite of solutions, we are confident that Rainmaker will continue to be instrumental in helping boost resort-wide profits, and give Westgate's revenue management team a true understanding of ongoing demand at the property."

For more information on Rainmaker's revenue management and business intelligence solutions, please visit: http://www.letitrain.com/

About Rainmaker

The Rainmaker Group, a Cendyn company, is the premier provider of revenue and profit optimization solutions to the hospitality industry. Rainmaker's intelligent profit platform helps hotels, resorts and casinos optimize revenue, drive increased profitability, save valuable time & outperform competitors. As part of Cendyn, Rainmaker offers a complete set of software services for the industry, aligning marketing, sales and revenue teams to optimize their strategies and drive performance and loyalty across their business units. To learn more about Cendyn and its suite of hotel revenue management and profit optimization solutions, visit LetItRain.com or www.cendyn.com.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is the leading innovative cloud software and services provider for the hospitality industry. With a focus on integrated hotel CRM, hotel sales, and revenue strategy technology platforms, Cendyn drives sales, marketing and revenue performance for tens of thousands of hotels across the globe. The Cendyn Hospitality Cloud offers a complete set of software services for the industry, aligning marketing, sales and revenue teams to optimize their strategies and drive performance and loyalty across their business units. With offices in Boca Raton, Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, London, Munich, Singapore, Sydney, Bangkok and Tokyo, Cendyn proudly serves clients in 143 countries, delivering over 1.5 billion data-driven, personalized communications on behalf of their customers every year. For more information on Cendyn, visit www.cendyn.com.

Dana Glaze

Marketing Manager

470-440-2041
Hospitality Leaders launched premium jobs promotion

Online CV boosts hotel careers

Digitization of recruiting in hospitality industry

Hamburg, Germany  Online applications are now so simple: Social Recruiting with an online CV solves the e-mail application. More and more luxury hotels worldwide use this digitalized approach to job management - with success. Hospitality Leaders has now started a new promotion program with selected partners - the premium jobs are available here: https://www.hospitality.pro/companies/premium-employers/. Candidates can now apply simply apply by clicking.

A well-maintained profile is necessary for this: a compelling portrait photo, last positons, references and awards. A short cover letter is sent by online form - and the application is finished with just one click. Advantage for the aspirants: If one enters his / her professional wishes in the profile, one is automatically linked with new job announcements (so-called matching).

Hospitality Leaders' premium program includes prestigious Marriott, Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, Movenpick Hotels, Fairmont, Kempinski, Minor, 25hours and selected individual hotels. Registrations at www.hospitality.pro are free of charge for applicants. The international network, headquartered in Hong Kong and offices in Cape Town, Hamburg and Beijing, also provides a comprehensive industry community for global networking as well as a ready editorial information program.

About Hospitality Leaders:

Founded in 2015, Hospitality Leaders is the leading global career and industry community for hospitality management. Tens of thousands of industry professional joined HL for networking, getting important background information and boosting theirs careers.

Janet Borchers

Head of Sales
InterContinental Hotels & Resorts is proud to announce the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco and Anna Ruiz, culinary student at the International Culinary Center, as the winners of the fourth annual Ultimate Culinary Clash, which took place on Thursday, May 18, 2017 at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco hotel. With the assistance of the hotel's Executive Chef Michael Wong and student sous chef Sarim Yaun, also from the International Culinary Center, Anna received top honors while competing against three other culinary students who were paired with top chefs from InterContinental properties in the U.S. and Mexico. She received a $5,000 scholarship from the InterContinental brand and student sous chef Sarim Yaun received an additional $2,500 in scholarship.

Part cooking competition and part scholarship fundraiser, the Ultimate Culinary Clash brought together the winners of four regional Culinary Clash competitions to face-off against each other. The student chef finalists presented a small plate of their winning entree from the regional Culinary Clash to an esteemed group of judges, composed of a special group of hotel executives, media, and renowned chefs, including Ryan Scott, Top Chef Alum, Emmy-award winning host of "Food Rush," author of "One to Five," and regular guest of NBC's Today Show. Each dish in the competition was judged and scored on taste, creativity and presentation. Winning student Anna Ruiz impressed the judges with her Glazed Pork Belly, Fennel Pollen Grits, Dandelion Greens dish while student sous chef Sarim Yaun served an Asparagus Veloutee alongside Anna's dish.

David Neves, Head of F&B Solutions, InterContinental Hotels Group said: "The InterContinental brand's commitment to its world-class restaurant and beverage program means that we constantly innovate menus that pair local flavors with global inspiration, with our Michelin-starred chefs and celebrity restauranteurs. It gives us great pride to foster the development of the next generation of culinary talent with the Culinary Clash."

Over the course of three months, four InterContinental properties across the United States and Mexico held local competitions with culinary students. The first place winners from each hotel received the opportunity to move forward to the Ultimate Culinary Clash in San Francisco, and the following is a list of this year's student participants:

InterContinental Cleveland  Janice Campbell of Cuyahoga Community College

of Cuyahoga Community College Presidente InterContinental Mexico City  Galia Schipper

of Anahuac University in Mexico City

of Anahuac University in Mexico City InterContinental Mark Hopkins  Anna Ruiz of International Culinary Center in Campbell

of International Culinary Center in Campbell InterContinental San Francisco  Mitch Rogers of International Culinary Center in Campbell

The Ultimate Culinary Clash serves as an opportunity for the InterContinental brand to showcase its commitment to culinary excellence. The regional competitions began six years ago as a local annual cooking competition at the InterContinental San Francisco hotel's Luce restaurant. The competition invited students from a local culinary school to compete for a chance to work with the restaurant's Michelin-star Chef Daniel Corey and showcase their own menu for one night in Luce. The competition was later expanded to include other InterContinental hotels from the U.S. and Mexico.

About IHG

IHG Hotels & Resorts [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global hospitality company, with a purpose to provide True Hospitality for Good.

With a family of 17 hotel brands and IHG Rewards, one of the world's largest hotel loyalty programmes, IHG has over 6,000 open hotels in more than 100 countries, and a further 1,800 in the development pipeline.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated and registered in England and Wales. Approximately 350,000 people work across IHG's hotels and corporate offices globally.

Visit us online for more about our hotels and reservations and IHG Rewards. For our latest news, visit our Newsroom and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee  The U.S. hotel industry reported flat occupancy and slightly higher rates year over year during the week of 14-20 May 2017, according to data from STR.

In comparison with the week of 15-21 May 2016, the industry recorded the following in the three key performance metrics:

Occupancy: Flat at 70.6%

Average daily rate (ADR): +1.5% to US$127.91

Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +1.5% to US$90.26

STR analysts note that occupancy for the week was pulled down due to comparison with a non-Mother's Day Sunday in 2016.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia, registered the only double-digit lift in occupancy (+12.8% to 69.5%) and the largest year-over-year increase in RevPAR (+20.7% to US$72.04). ADR in the market rose 7.0% to US$103.64.

Three additional markets saw a double-digit increase in RevPAR: Detroit, Michigan(+11.6% to US$76.49); Seattle, Washington (+10.6% to US$147.88); and St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois (+10.5% to US$93.82).

Growth in St. Louis was driven primarily by the week's largest increase in ADR (+9.9% to US$119.51).

Phoenix, Arizona, saw the week's steepest decline in occupancy (-8.7% to 62.1%).

New Orleans, Louisiana, reported the largest decreases in ADR (-6.4% to US$145.67) and RevPAR (-14.4% to US$103.10).

Two additional markets experienced a double-digit drop in RevPAR: Miami/Hialeah, Florida (-11.8% to US$121.70), and San Francisco/San Mateo, California (-10.1% to US$206.84).

Source: STR

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.

Jeff Higley (STR)

VP, Digital Media & Communications

+1 (615) 824-8664 ext. 3318

STR
From the Archive Who Are The Wa?

Feared and poorly understood, the Wa have always shunned central control but play a key role in Myanmars tense border politics.

It seems very likely that the United Wa State Army (UWSA) will become the next target of the Myanmar governments efforts to bring the country under its control. But that does not necessarily mean that the army will launch an all-out offensive against the countrys most heavily armed ethnic army. A more likely scenario, insiders say, would be for the Myanmar military to capitalize on internal divisions within the UWSA first, play one faction against anotherand attack only when the group has been considerably weakened.

But would that work? And who, exactly, are the Wa? In the Myanmar media, they are often portrayed as some kind of Chinese group, and it has even been suggested that the UWSA may follow the secessionist example set by Crimea, which recently held a referendum and joined Russia. In a similar fashion, the UWSA could hold a referendum in the area under its control, and then decide to merge it with China.

This scenario is extremely unlikely, however, because China would never accept such a move, as it would antagonize the whole of Southeast Asia and most of the rest of the world. And, needless to say, the Wa are not a Chinese people. They are a Mon-Khmer-speaking tribe whose closest ethnic relatives in Myanmar would be the Palaung and, much more distantly, the Mon. (There are ethnic Wa across the border in China as well, where they number about 400, 000, but they are an ethnic minority in Yunnan and not related to the majority Han Chinese.)

We Are Very Wild People

But one also has to remember that the Wa Hills of northeastern Shan State have never been ruled by any central Myanmar authority. What the Wa want their future to be is, therefore, a major concern that cannot be ignored.

Even during the British colonial era, governmental presence in the Wa Hills was limited to annual flag marches up to the Chinese border. The Wa were headhunters and feared by the plainspeople, and the British troops that carried their flag up to the border were always heavily armed.

The Wa Hills were first surveyed by outsiders in 1935-36, when the Iselin Commission began to more firmly demarcate the border between the Wa Hills and China, which was finally agreed upon by the British and the Chinese in 1941. Even so, the Wa Hills were never fully explored and were only nominally under British and later Myanmar sovereignty. The first road in the area was built in 1941, from Kunlong near the Thanlwin River and into the northern fringes of the Wa Hills.

The British-initiated Frontier Areas of Enquiryset up to ascertain the views of Myanmars many minority peoples just before independencereported in 1947 that the Wa Hills pay no contribution to central revenuethere are no post officesand the only medical facilities are those provided by the Frontier Constabulary outpostsand by [non-certified] Chinese practitioners.

The Wa did, however, send three representatives from their states, as their fiefdoms were called, to the committees hearings in Pyin Oo Lwinand those talks revealed the gap between the Wa way of looking at life and the committees perception of it:

Do you want any sort of association with other people?

Hkun Sai [for the Wa]: We do not want to join anybody because in the past we have been very independent.

Sao NawHseng [for the Wa]: Wa are Wa and Shans are Shans. We would not like to go into the Federated Shan States.

What do you want the future to be in the Wa states?

Sao Maha [for the Wa]: We have not thought about that because we are very wild people. We never thought of the administrative future. We think only about ourselves.

Dont you want education, clothing, good food, good houses, hospitals?

Sao Maha: We are very wild people and dont appreciate all these things.

In retrospect, this exchange of views may appear almost farcical, but it nevertheless shows that the Wa did not think of themselves as citizens of Myanmarand that was not going to change after independence in 1948.

Kuomintang, then Communist, Control

In the 1950s, most of the Wa Hills were occupied by renegade Nationalist Chinese Kuomintang forces that retreated across the border into Myanmar following their defeat by Mao Zedongs Communists in the Chinese civil war. The Kuomintang established bases in the Wa Hills and in the mountains north and south of Kengtung, from where they tried on no less than seven occasions between 1950 and 1952 to invade Yunnan, but were repeatedly driven back to the Myanmar side of the border. The parts of the Wa Hills where the Kuomintang was not present were controlled by various local warlords.

The Kuomintangs presence in northeastern Myanmar was a major reason why China decided to support the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in the early 1960s. Myanmar Communists in exile in China began surveying the border as early as 1963 to identify possible infiltration routes. On Jan. 1, 1968, the CPBand the Chinesemade their move. The old Kuomintang bases were some of the first targets. And while the political commissars were Myanmar Communists, the foot soldiers were almost exclusively volunteers from China.

It was only when the CPB had captured the Wa Hills in the early 1970s that its peoples army began to consist of recruits from Myanmar. Before long, the bulk of the CPBs fighting force was predominantly Wa. But China was still supplying the CPB troops with all their weapons and other equipment, which made them the most formidable rebel army in Myanmar.

By the mid-1970s, the CPB had established control over more than 20,000 square kilometers of territory in northeastern and eastern Shan State. Myanmars central authorities were as remote and alien as they had always been in regards to the Wa Hills. But it was also clear that there were severe frictions between the CPBs ageing Bamar leadership and its mostly hill-tribe troops, who had little or no sympathy for communist ideals.

Mutiny and Ceasefire

In 1989, the tribesmen rose in mutiny and drove the old leaders into exile in China. But there is every reason to believe that the Chinese had a hand in the mutiny as well. Just a few months before it broke out, the CPBs politburo had held a meeting and the then-chairman Thakin Ba Thein Tin, read out a message from the Chinese authorities. The entire CPB leadership had been offered retirement in China. It was clear that China no longer was interested in exporting revolution to Myanmar, but wanted to open the border for trade and exploit the natural resources in the frontier areas.

Thakin Ba Thein Tin was furious. We have no desire to become revisionists, he said, indicating that he considered the post-Mao leadership in China to be revisionistwhich was enough for the Chinese to encourage the rank-and-file of the CPB to rise up in mutiny.

And so the UWSA was born. Almost immediately, the newly formed group entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar government, which allowed it to retain control of its area and its weaponry in exchange for not fighting the governments army.

This led to the formation of the UWSAs current territory, which it claims consists of 13,514 square miles (35,000 square kilometers), including new areas along the Thai border that were captured in the early 1990s. With a population of 400,000 and its own local administration, schools, hospitals and even a bank, this mini-state is almost unique in recent Asian history. The closest comparison would be to the parts of Sri Lanka that were ruled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) until it was wiped out by a massive government offensive in 2009.

Chinese Influence

The currency used in the UWSAs area is the Chinese yuan, and mobile telephones are connected to Chinese networks. Chinese is much more widely spoken than Myanmar. With Chinese assistance, the UWSA has also managed to build up an army that is both stronger and better equipped than the CPB ever was. Its arsenal includes Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), a wide range of mortars and rocket launchers, and even light tanks and a few helicopters.

Recently, a helipad has been constructed at the UWSAs Panghsang headquarters, with a sign outside saying, in Chinese, feijichang, or airport. Even more worrying, on Oct. 30 of last year, the local Myanmar intelligence office in the garrison town of Tang-yan sent a message to the regional command headquarters in Lashio saying that the UWSA was constructing a radar and missile base in its area.

The first location was supposed to be Mong Mau in the northern Wa Hills, but when the government found out about it, U Thein Zaw, the vice chairman of the Union Peace Working Committee, was sent to Panghsang to tell the Wa not to go ahead with their missile project. The UWSA leaders said that they wouldntand changed the location to Wing Gao, closer to Panghsang.

The new facility is going to be built in partnership with a Chinese company called Liao Lian and equipment will be bought from China, Taiwan and Pakistan, the report asserts. It is not clear, however, what kind of missile it is, but given the fact that radars will be installed at the base, it is plausible to assume that it would be something more powerful than what the UWSA has in its current arsenal. The Myanmar-language report uses the term taweipyetonggyi, or long-distance missile.

So it is abundantly clear that the Wa have no intention of submitting to the authority of a country that they feel that they have never been part of. The Wa Hills have gone from being ruled by nobody to being occupied by the Kuomintang and then the CPB, and are now administered by the UWSA.

Bargaining Chip

But what are the Chinese up to and why are they making sure the UWSA is armed to the teeth? The simple answer is that China does not actually want the UWSA to fight the Myanmar army, but would like to see it strong enough to deter any attack against it.

For China, the UWSA is a useful bargaining chip when Beijing wants to put pressure on the Myanmar government not to stray too close to the West, or to protect Chinese investment in the country. The latter concern became especially important after President U Thein Seins government decided in September 2011 to suspend the US$3.6 billion Myitsone hydroelectric dam project in Kachin State. China also has to deal with ongoing protests against a copper mine project in Letpadaung, which is a joint venture between the Chinese Wanbao Mining Copper company and the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings.

In other words, any military action against the UWSA would pit the Myanmar army against China. The Wa leaders are always accompanied by Chinese intelligence officers, and it is no exaggeration to say the UWSA is an extension of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army.

So would the Myanmar army risk a conflict with the UWSA? Sri Lankas offensive against the LTTE was successful because the Tamil militants had nowhere to retreat to when they came under attack, whereas an attack on the UWSA would force tens of thousands of refugees into China, causing further frictions between Myanmar and its powerful northern neighbor. The UWSAs MANPADS would also enable it to shoot down airplanes and helicopters.

At the same time, however, no government in Myanmar can tolerate a continuation of the present situation in northeastern Shan State: a pocket-state with its own army. But if the present government wants to succeed where all its predecessors have failedto convince the Wa that their hills are indeed part of Myanmara different approach than the military option may be needed.

A divide-and-rule scheme, which seems to be what is in the offing, may also cause resentment and divisions that could result in an even messier situation than what we have now.

But before the end of the year, some action is bound to take place in the Wa Hills. And whatever shape it takes, it will be a much more serious challenge than any of the other ethnic conflicts that have been plaguing Myanmar for decades. It will involve an area never before controlled by any Myanmar governmentand China.

This article first appeared in the June 2014 print issue of The Irrawaddy magazine.
Burma Burma Forces Turkish Man to Leave Country Amid Crackdown

The Istanbul Security Directorate where cases of police torture and ill-treatment documented by Human Rights Watch took place. / Human Rights Watch

Burma-based Muhammed Furkan Sokmen was forced to leave the country on Thursday evening after he and his family were detained at Rangoon International Airport for 24 hours.

Police detained the Turkish family as they tried to board a flight to Bangkok on Wednesday evening. Mr. Sokmen told The Irrawaddy that authorities informed him that his passport had been canceled and that he would have to return to Turkey.

I do not want to go back to Turkey. They will definitely put me in jail without any judgment, he said.

Mr. Sokmen was a director of the Horizons International School in Rangoon, which was investigated for alleged links to Turkeys opposition movement and temporarily closed and renamed following a licensing complaint.

Since a failed coup in Turkey, the Erdogan government has called for an international crackdown on people suspected of having links to the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. More than 47,000 people have been placed in pre-trial detention since 2016, according to Human Rights Watch.

Richard Weir, a fellow from the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, told The Irrawaddy that the organizations concerns are that Mr. Sokmen could face torture, extended pre-trial detention, and a trial that is neither free nor fair if he is sent back to Turkey.

Mr. Sokmen said men whose affiliation was unknown to him followed him throughout his detention in the airport and once he was on the plane. He added that authorities told him that his flight would stop in Bangkok and then he would continue on to Istanbul. He was issued a temporary passport with four pages that he was told would last one month and only allowed travel to Turkey. He is currently in a transit area in the Bangkok International Airport; his status is in limbo.

The Burmese government must ensure that it evaluates all cases wherein there are threats and risks to individuals that governments want returned, said Weir.

The fate of Mr. Sokmen and his family, including his young daughter, hang in the balance and the risks they face are grave. The Myanmar government should not let itself become complicit in endangering this family and others who face return to governments where their rights are in danger of being violated.

There is currently no asylum system in Burma and no mechanism by which the UNHCR registers asylum seekers.

Mr. Sokmens wife and child remain in Rangoon, where the status of their passports is unclear at this time.

Now my wife and two-year-old daughter are in Burma. I dont know what will happen to me or to them, he added.
Burma Civil Society Groups Urge Govt to Accept UN Fact-finding Mission

UN Special Rapporteur to Burma Yanghee Lee visits Insein Prison in Yangon / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  More than 50 civil society groups in Burma urged the government to fully cooperate with a UN-mandated fact finding mission into human rights abuses in Arakan, Shan, and Kachin states in a joint-statement released Friday.

The Fact Finding Mission will help the Government of Myanmar [Burma] to uphold human rights, and it will foster a rule-of law culture by establishing the facts and identifying perpetrators of human rights violations to prevent future atrocity crimes, read the statement signed by groups from across the country including Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), Burmese Womens Union, and Karen Women Organization.

Failure on the part of the National League for Democracy-led government or the military leadership to cooperate with the mission could cause Burmas human rights situation to deteriorate and more atrocities, the groups argue.

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolutionadopted at its 34th session in Geneva, Switzerland in Marchprovides a mandate to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, but has been consistently rejected by both Burmas civilian and military leaders.

A flash report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released in February documented allegations of arson, torture, extrajudicial killings, and widespread sexual violence against the minority Muslim Rohingya population in northern Arakan State during Burma Army clearance operations launched in response to insurgent attacks on police border guard posts on Oct. 9 of last year.

Its not too late for civilian and military authorities to work with this mission to establish the facts and prevent further violations and abuses, said Khin Zaw Win, director of the Tampadipa Institute, a signatory to the statement according to a Fortify Rights press release.

National reconciliation, stability, and development depend in large part on ending and remedying abuses and atrocities, and that cant happen until the facts are firmly established.

Matthew Smith, director of Fortify Rights, told The Irrawaddy that the diversity of the signatories showed the widespread concern for rights abuses in the country.

The narrative that the entire country overlooks atrocities in Rakhine [Arakan State] is tired and inaccurate, and a lot of groups in the country are equally concerned about atrocities in the north as well, he told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

The timing of the statements release during the Union Peace Conference, he said, showed discontent with the governments current approach to national reconciliation.

Sadly I dont think anyone is holding their breath for national reconciliation through the current peace process, he told The Irrawaddy. Civil society is industrious and fierce and will keep working for solutions; the international community can and should support them.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi previously said the UN mission does not correspond with our countrys [situation], at her state of the union address last month. Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said that any international political intervention on the pretext of assisting refugees from this community would threaten Burmas sovereignty at the 72nd Anniversary of Armed Forces Day in March.

Last month, 23 international organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Fortify Rights, called on overseas governments to engage Burmese authorities in allowing unfettered access to the UN fact-finding mission.
Burma Court Orders Police to Re-Examine Fugitive in Ko Ni Murder Trial

Gunman Kyi Lin and Aung Win Zaw accused of involvement in the assassination of lawyer U Ko Ni, appeared at Rangoon's Northern District Court in Insein on April 21. / Naing Lin Soe / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON Rangoons northern district court ordered on Friday that the police reexamine the case surrounding the fugitive Aung Win Khaing in the U Ko Ni murder trial, including a nationwide search if necessary.

Last week, the Rangoon Division High Court rejected the petition from lawyer U Nay Larepresenting the family of the assassinated National League for Democracy (NLD) legal adviser U Ko Ni requesting a new arrest warrant be issued in Naypyidaw for the fugitive.

Aung Win Khaing is suspected of involvement in the murder but remains at large. He was last seen in Naypyidaw, according to CCTV footage.

Even though the High Court refused to issue a new arrest warrant, it ruled that the investigation of fugitive Aung Win Khaing [prior to the trial] was insufficient, U Nay La told The Irrawaddy after the hearing at the northern district court on Friday.

In accordance with the ruling of the High Court, the northern district court ordered [the police] that the search for the fugitive Aung Win Khaing be carried out again more thoroughly, he explained.

Before the trial in early March, U Nay La initially requested that the northern district court issue the warrant in Naypyidaw, but the court ruled against the move.

Last month at the divisional court, he claimed that the district court had been handling the case carelessly and was weak in examining the fugitive in accordance with designated procedures.

Its been nearly four months since the prominent Muslim lawyer U Ko Ni was shot by gunman Kyi Lin outside Rangoon International Airport on the afternoon of Jan. 29. Police have detained four suspects: gunman Kyi Lin, and alleged co-conspirators Zeya Phyo, Aung Win Zaw, and Aung Win Tun.

The next court hearing will be held at the northern district court on Jun. 2.

Shooter Kyi Lin and three alleged co-perpetratorsAung Win Zaw, Aung Win Khaing and Zeya Phyoare being charged under Article 302 of Burmas Penal Code for murder.

Zeya Phyo, a former military intelligence officer, is also charged under Article 67 of the Telecommunications Law for the possession of restricted telecommunications equipment and Article 468 of the Penal Code for the forgery of national identity cards.

Two of the suspectsgunman Kyi Lin and alleged co-conspirator Aung Win Zaware also being charged under Article 19(d) and (f) of the countrys 1878 Arms Act for illegal arms possession and transportation, in addition to the murder charge.
Burma Northeastern Alliance Optimistic About Future Peace Talks With Govt

UWSAs Zhao Guo An speaks to the media at Horizon Lake View Hotel, after meeting with the State Counselor at her residence in Zabuthiri Township on May 26, 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYIDAW  The northeastern armed groups that met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday in Naypyidaw said that further talks with the State Counselor appeared to be possible.

The seven-member alliance includes the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army-N (SSPP/SSA-N), the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) chief-of-staff and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

The State Counselor met the seven groups separately, in two sessionsthe KIA, UWSA, NDAA and SSPP as one group, and the TNLA, AA and MNDAA as another groupat her residence in Naypyidaw.

Colonel Zaw Raw, of the KIA, briefly told The Irrawaddy after the meeting that they hope the path for further negotiations will be open.

We presented our seven groups demands and we discussed it well, so we will find a way to hold further talks, he said.

The UWSAs spokesperson, Zhao Guo An, told The Irrawaddy after the meeting that the State Counselor said to collaborate together for peace while we all are alive, as we are now in our 70s.

Because these groups joined part of the 21st Panglong conference and met the State Counselor, the deadlock concerning the path toward peace had opened, according to Tar Parn La, a secretary of the TNLA.

He told reporters in Naypyidaw that they hoped to move forward for further talks, as the path has begun.

Prior to meeting the State Counselor, the groups representatives met in advance with the peace commission leaders at the Horizon Lake View Hotel on Thursday and shared their general principles and specific propositions.

The groups delegations will depart from Naypyidaw for Kunming, China on Saturday afternoon.
Burma Police Investigate Forged ATM Card Theft in Mon State

Ayeyarwady Bank Branch No. 1 on Strand Road, Moulmein Township. / Hintharnee / The Irrawaddy

MOULMEIN, Mon State  Police are investigating ATM withdrawals using a forged bank card at Ayeyarwady Branch No. 1 in Mon States Moulmein (Mawlamyine) Township, Mon State with more than 1.5 million kyats thought to be stolen.

We found one ATM withdrawal in both March and April, and two withdrawals earlier this month with a forged ATM card, said police officer Maung Maung of Moulmein Township Police Station.

The case is the first ATM theft in Mon State, said the police officer, and was discovered after a branch in Rangoon noticed something suspicious on an account and the Ayeyarwady head office instructed branches in divisions and states to check, said the police officer.

A total of 1.5 million kyats was withdrawn over the three months, he added.

According to CCTV footage, the person who withdrew the money appears to be a Burmese national. The forged ATM card was believed to be made with foreign technology, according to Maung Maung.

Ma Yi Mon Su, a former customer of Ayeyarwady Bank, complained that the limited choice of banking in Burma meant consumers had to put up with poor service and dubious security.

I question if banks have taken into consideration the possible risks before they implement a software program  they need to take responsibility for checking cards used in ATMs match accounts, she told The Irrawaddy.

Assistant general manager of Moulmein Ayeyarwady Bank Daw Yu Yu Aung filed the case with the township police station on Monday, but when questioned about the case, she said she had to speak to her supervisor before commenting.
Burma Security and Political Sector Discussions in Deadlock at Peace Conference: Delegates

Political parties group discussion at the conference, pictured on May 24, 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYIDAW  The security and political sector discussions reached an impasse during the second session of the Union Peace Conference in Naypyidaw this week, according to stakeholders.

Some 700 delegates have been instructed to discuss the basic principles for building a future federal state, laid out by the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC). Talks have centered around three other key sectors, in addition to politics and security: economics, society, and land and the environment.

The delegates took part in discussions on each sector on Thursday and Friday mornings. Participants representing the government, Parliament, military, political parties and ethnic armed organizations that signed the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) were present.

With the exception of the security and political sectors, delegates discussing the other sectors were able to reach common understandings, according to dozens of representatives with whom The Irrawaddy spoke, but the talks at the Union Peace Conference were not made public.

Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo, a stakeholder who joined the peace conference with a special interest in the security sector talks, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that any discussion about the sector would be kept as a record.

In the political sector, the term non-secession from the Union became a point of contention, as the ethnic armed group delegates advocated for it to be removed from the basic principles, but the Tatmadaw wanted it to remain.

Lt-Col Sai Ngern from the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army-South (RCSS/SSA-S), told The Irrawaddy on Friday that by signing the NCA text, the signatory groups have demonstrated trust in what are referred to as the statesand previous military regimesThree Main (National) Causes: non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty. Therefore, the lieutenant colonel argued that there is no more need to include the term non-secession from the Union.

On Thursday, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy party also expressed concern in its statement that the term seems to represent worry on the part of the state, rather than a pragmatic solution. The party said in its statement that inclusion of the term is also opposite of the first Panglong agreement in 1947, to which the late Gen Aung San and ethnic Chin, Kachin and Shan leaders had agreed.

UPDJC member Salai Lian Hmung Sakhong said at the Thursday press conference that it is important how the state will ensure that ethnic nationalities do not secede.

While the political sector outlines 21 basic principles centering around sovereignty, equality, self-determination and federalism, the security sector has just one topic: the existence of a sole Tatmadaw; further details on this issuewhich was presented for the first timewere not made public.

Delegates told The Irrawaddy that the Burma Army representatives urged for this concept to be agreed upon without further discussion. When this approach was rejected by participants, the discussion reportedly came to a halt after a half-day, while other sectors enjoyed a full days worth of discussion on Thursday on their topics.

Discussions on basic federal principles for other sectors include the input from national level dialogues held in Karen, Chin and Shan states and in Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) and Pegu divisions between January and May 2017.

Previously, the UPDJC had planned to create a Union accord based on the principles discussed in each sector. But as national level dialogues have not yet been held by the RCSS and the Arakan Liberation Party, the RCSS has said that it would not sign any agreement that comes out of the Union Peace Conference.
Burma TNLA Denies Sending Extortion Letters Containing Bullets

Taang National Liberation Army soldiers / The Irrawaddy

RANGOON  The Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) rejected accusations that the armed group sent letters demanding tax from businesses in northern Shan States Lashio.

Ten hotels and other businesses this week reported receiving letters from the TNLA demanding payment with a bullet in the envelope, according to business owners and works in the city.

They [TNLA] always levy tax and extort money, though they may deny doing so to the media, said a manager of a hotel in Lashio who asked for anonymity, adding that the letter was dated May 22 and delivered by two men on a motorbike on Tuesday.

Images of the letters quickly went viral on social media despite warnings that concerned parties should not leak the letters.

TNLA information officer Col Mai Ai Kyaw told The Irrawaddy his group was not responsible, though he admitted TNLA troops were active in the area.

We are still investigating who sent the letters, he said on Friday. The letters did not have our seal and letterhead and that is not the way we deliver letters, so, they must be fake.

He said the letters were sent in the middle of the day and that no armed group would do so for the sake of security.

The colonel admitted levying taxes and soliciting help from some businessmen in Shan State, but declined to reveal the names of the taxpayers and how the tax was imposed.

The letters accuse the relevant companies and businessmen of failing to pay taxes despite TNLAs tax department requesting payment by phone, the letters shared on social media read.

Tax must be paid by May 24, the letters demanded, and only then would the businesses receive protection from the TNLA.

The ten businesspeople did not pay but filed a case with Lashio Township Police Station, one of the businesspeople said.

On Thursday morning, TNLA troops arrived at Ho Kho Village in Nawnghkio Township, and stopped cars and motorbikes and briefly detained drivers, according to villagers.

Palaung [TNLA] soldiers arrived at the village around 4 a.m., villager U Kyaw Min told The Irrawaddy.

They inspected those who passed the village, and briefly detained cars. A motorcyclist did not stop and was shot, I dont know what happened to him, he added.

The TNLA has not signed the governments nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) and is a member of the United Wa State Army-led coalition of northern groups that rejects the NCA peace process but has joined the Union Peace Conference this week.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
Burma Woman Sentenced Under Article 66(d) for Insults to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Ma Sandi Myint Aung (left, in light green) on her way to court. / Facebook

RANGOON  A Pegu Division court sentenced Ma Sandi Myint Aung to six months in prison on Friday for sharing Facebook posts deemed insulting to the State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Pegu Township Court handed down the sentence under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law at the court hearing on Friday.

Ma Lin Lei Lei Hlaing, a Pegu local, filed a complaint on Oct. 28 of last year at No. 2 Pegu Township police station against Ma Sandi Myint Aung, a staunch supporter of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The complaint was based on Ma Sandi Myint Aung sharing posts that were said to include foul language against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy government.

The police arrested her on November 29 and she was later released on bail on December 26.

The plaintiff appealed to the court in February to revoke the bail, but the move was denied.

There have been 60 lawsuit cases filed under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law as of May 24 under the new government. The case is the eleventh such sentence handed down since last year, while defendants in six more cases have been detained without bail and are on or awaiting trial, according to the Telecom-Law Research Team.

The team said there were seven such cases under former President U Thein Seins term and five ended in sentencing.
Guest Column Pulling Strings Together

Burmese migrant worker Tun Tun Win, 24, uses his mobile phone in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 2, 2016. / Reuters

Over the past few years of Myanmars transition since 2015, an evident change can be seen in the relaxation of printed press and Internet censorship, the revival of daily and independent newspapers, and the release of a number of journalists from jail. Without a doubt, people here in my homeland seem to be happier than before and more importantly, they are more hopeful about their future.

I, too, was hopeful about my future, aspiring to become an energetic social worker. I returned to Myanmar (Burma) in 2013 after receiving my Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, ready to work to make my dream come true. My ultimate goal is to become an agent of social change, enabling fellow citizens to envision a better future, to mutually appreciate their differences, and to draw strength from those differences in order to build a happy and cohesive society.

As soon as I stepped on the soil of my motherland, I started working in advocacy, promoting the rights of the LGBTQ community. However, I quit after two months, due to security concerns. Thereafter, I worked as an associate program director at the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation under the direct leadership of two of the most influential women in the country: Dr. Ohmar and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

After working at the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation for a year, a noble idea came into my mind to explore the technology sectors contribution from a business perspective to promoting the mechanism of delivering services in the social work sector. This led me to come up with a different approach to make my dream come true. I ventured into the technology business with my two repat (as we call those who have returned to Myanmar from abroad) friends in 2014.

We developed Myanmars first ever restaurant search app called MyLann, having been inspired by Yelp, back in the United States. We were highly motivated, energetic and dreamed big, imagining that some day, Google might buy our mobile app. In fact, it turned out not to be as simple as I thought. My friend, who is a developer, took the CEO post and the other friend, with his bachelors degree in business from UC Berkeley, took on the role of managing director. They both believed that I possessed good communication skills and, therefore, I was assigned to be in charge of marketing and sales.

At first, I had high hopes and enjoyed my life as a young entrepreneur. In spite of knowing that I lacked business knowledge and skills, I worked very hard. I walked into every restaurant in Yangon and spoke with many restaurant owners. Some showed interest, yet the majority seemed reluctant about online marketing tools, even though it could help them promote their restaurants in a more cost-effective way. In 2014, most companies would have rather concentrated on traditional forms of marketing such as billboards, TVCs, Radio FM Channels, and newspapers. They might spend millions on billboards but be cautious about social media marketing.

Nevertheless, I did not give up and joined many networking events like Mobile Monday and other young professional gatherings to expand my business contacts. It was not an easy path for a social worker in the technology business field as I was trying something totally out of my comfort zone. As a result of participating in networking activities, I came across two Australians who were working in Silicon Valley, who happened to be at the same event. They were keen to guide us through our endeavor for a few months. As Christians believe, God helps those who help themselves.

Soon, I developed connections with many well-known local restaurants and international chains such as YKKO and Manhattan Fish Market, and a leading online media channel supported our app. Our team worked countless hours to collect restaurant data, and eventually, by early 2015, MyLann became a leading local mobile app consisting of more than 1,000 restaurants data countrywide.

Despite our mobile app being regarded as a leading online restaurant search app, we encountered a shortage of cash and tried to raise funds. With hope of a breakthrough, we approached many potential locals to see if they would be interested in becoming angel investors; however, the outcome was not very encouraging. Moreover, not only was there no official government agency that would support local young entrepreneurs like us, but it was impossible for us to reach out to private banks.

As for access to finance for entrepreneurs, it is still very hard in Myanmar for two key reasons. First, banks cannot price risk: they can only charge interest between the 8-13 percent band. The nature of start-ups is riskier so they often get overlooked if banks cannot charge more than 13 percent interest. Second, the definition of collateral is very stringent and narrow: this gets more restricting because only collateralized lending is allowed in for now. This means by nature, smaller firms and start-ups do not have the assets that can be used as collateral to get loans. Therefore, banks only lend capital to the rich, who have all of the assets such as land and buildings. After a serious conversation with our management team and other key players in the respective community, we were unable to seek financial support to sustain our mobile app. Finally, the three of us decided to close this chapter and move forward to realize our own visions.

Beyond pride in our teams effort and endeavor in introducing a novel idea to connect people and technology from a business perspective, we believe that the integration of technological mechanisms has the potential to deliver enhanced services in the social work sector. However, this experience vividly exposed the inadequacies such as lacking a stable cash flow or a strategic business model, which would later lead us to lose the focus on mobile apps. Second, there wasnt a legitimate support system. Third, local people were not ready to search for things on mobile apps and instead, they tend to solely depend on Facebook to search (public sentiment when it comes to the internet is all about Facebook). An alternative use of Internet technology should be encouraged. Last but not least, was an insufficiency of competent human resources and expertise in the technology field.

As for the future in regards to financial support, the liberalization of the banking system will be essential. From the experience I encountered in entering the technology sector, if the above-mentioned strings could be pulled together, I believe the IT scene in Myanmar could be different.

Kyaw Sit Naing (MSW) is currently a visiting lecturer of Post-Graduate Diploma in Social Work at Yangon University. He co-founded Myanmars first restaurant search app called MyLann and resigned after a year. Before his entrepreneurial journey, he used to work as an Associate Program Director at the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation. He also worked as an Advocacy Coordinator at Colors Rainbow advocating for the rights of LGBT individuals in Myanmar. He received his Master of Science in Social Work (M.S.W) from Columbia University in New York City. He has a BA in Political Science and Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This article originally appeared in Tea Circle, a forum hosted at Oxford University for emerging research and perspectives on Burma/Myanmar.
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By Rebecca Gordon | ( Tomdispatch.com |  

The Trump administration seems intent on tossing recent history down the memory hole. Admittedly, Americans have never been known for their strong grasp of facts about their past. Still, as we struggle to keep up with the constantly shifting explanations and pronouncements of the new administration, it becomes ever harder to remember the events of yesterday, let alone last week, or last month.

The Credibility Swamp

Trump and his spokespeople routinely substitute alternative facts for what a friend of mine calls consensus reality, the world that most of us recognize. Whose inaugural crowd was bigger, Barack Obamas or Donald Trumps? It doesnt matter what you remember, or even whats in the written accounts or photographic record. What matters is what the administration now says happened then. In other words, for Trump and his people, history in any normal sense simply doesnt exist, and thats a danger for the rest of us. Think of the Trumpian past as a website that can be constantly updated to fit the needs of the present. You may believe you still remember something that used to be there, but its not there now. As it becomes increasingly harder to find, can you really trust your own memory?

In recent months, revisions of that past have sometimes come so blindingly fast that the present has simply been overrun, as was true with the firing of FBI Director James Comey. First, the president ordered up some brand new supporting documents from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. These were designed to underpin his line that Comey was fired on their recommendation  for being unfair to Hillary Clinton. Then, even as his surrogates were out peddling that very story, Trump told NBCs Lester Holt that, regardless of [Sessions and Rosensteins] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. And he explained why:

And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they shouldve won.

Which rationale for Comeys departure is true? Both? Neither? What is truth after all?

When the need to ask such questions occurs once in a while, its anomalous enough that we notice. We have time to remark that someone or various people in this story  Sessions, Rosenstein, the surrogates, Trump himself  are mistaken or even lying. Fortunately, in the case of Comeys firing, journalists are still reporting the lies, but what happens if the rewrites of our recent history begin to come so fast that we stop keeping up?

During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was famously said to have a credibility gap. People, including journalists, had stopped believing everything his administration said about one very important topic: the war. Trump doesnt have a credibility gap; hes tossed us into a credibility swamp. Were all there together swimming in a mire of truth and lies, with the occasional firecracker thrown in just to see if were still paying attention.

If the age of Trump doesnt end relatively soon, the daily effort to sort out what happened from what didnt may eventually become too much for many of us. Memory fatigue may set in, and the whole project of keeping the past in focus shelved. In that case, we might very well start to give up the concept of citizenship altogether and decide instead to just get on with our own private uninsured, underpaid, and overworked lives.

Sometimes its easier to simply adjust to an ever-changing official version of reality than to keep up a constant, unrewarding struggle to remember. This was the phenomenon George Orwell described so unforgettably in his dystopian novel 1984. His hero, Winston Smith, becomes aware that the sole party that runs his country incessantly rewrites the past to its own liking and advantage. In fact, he realizes that the past not only changed, but changed continuously.

Like most inhabitants of the mega-state of Oceania, it wasnt that Smith couldnt accept such a reality. He could. What he couldnt shake was a nightmarish sense that he had never clearly understood why the Party needed to do it. The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious to him. That ultimate motive, he eventually realizes, is to so destroy peoples hold on memory that they come to believe that truth genuinely is whatever the Party says it is.

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable?

Does President Trump know what hes doing? Does he know that, in a more chaotic fashion than Orwells Big Brother, hes grinding away at American memories, threatening to turn them into so much rubble? Its hard to say; he appears to be incapable of either self-reflection or planning, indeed of acting in any way except on impulse. He does, however, seem to know in an intuitive way what works for him, what gets him things he wants, as he has his whole professional life. Hes called his method truthful hyperbole. And regardless of what he himself understands, there are certainly people around him who do grasp all too well the usefulness of that ultimate motive, of convincing the public that facts are not all that stubborn after all.

The Memory Hole

Supplying alternative facts is one way of destroying memory. Erasing real facts is another.

In Orwells 1984, there was a slot in the wall at the Ministry of Truth where Winston Smith worked, a memory hole, into which inconvenient documents could be fed to be consumed forever by a huge basement furnace. There are, it seems, plenty of memory holes in Washington these days.

Since January, the Trump administration has been systematically removing from federal websites inconvenient information on subjects as diverse as climate change and occupational health and safety, and replacing it with anodyne messages. Take, for instance, this one, which you get when you search the Environmental Protection Agencys website for the term climate change and click on links that search turns up:

This page is being updated.

Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect EPAs priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator [Scott] Pruitt. If youre looking for an archived version of this page, you can find it on the January 19 snapshot.

If you do click on the link for that January 19, 2017, snapshot, you can still (for now) see what the old climate change portal of the Obama era looked like. At the top of the snapshot, however, is a bright red notice announcing:

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.

The government has now entered full-scale climate change denial mode. Information of just about any sort on global warming has been or is being memory-holed in a wholesale fashion at other agency websites as well. The Guardian, for instance, reports that, in the part of the Department of Energys site addressed to children, sentences that point out the harmful health consequences of burning coal and other impacts of fossil fuels have gone. At the State Department, references to President Obamas Climate Action Plan and a recent U.N. meeting on climate change have similarly been expunged.

However, its not just government pronouncements on issues like climate change that are being sanitized. Actual data is disappearing from government websites. The federal government collects vast amounts of data, much of it the results of studies it has funded. Some agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, are required by law to retain data they collect, but they are not required to post it. This means basic information and the results of scientific research, once available online, are now only available through a Freedom of Information Act request. Of course, you have to know that the information exists in the first place in order to request it.

One result of hiding such data is that scientists citing U.S. government webpages as sources in their own work are now finding that the references theyve pointed to have disappeared. Arctic researcher Victoria Herrmann describes watching her citations dissolve into thin air:

At first, the distress flare of lost data came as a surge of defunct links on 21 January. The U.S. National Strategy for the Arctic, the Implementation Plan for the Strategy, and the report on our progress all gone within a matter of minutes. As I watched more and more links turned red, I frantically combed the Internet for archived versions of our countrys most important polar policies.

Herrmann was able to find some of her missing articles using the Wayback Machine, an internet archiving project. But as Herrmann points out, Each defunct page is an effort by the Trump administration to deliberately undermine our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence.

Its not just environmental information thats been tossed down the memory hole. Concerned about the health and safety of workers or animals? The Washington Post reports some things you wont find anymore on federal sites:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, has dramatically scaled back on publicizing its fines against firms. And the Agriculture Department has taken offline animal-welfare enforcement records, including abuses in dog breeding operations and horse farms that alter the gait of horses through the controversial practice of soring the animals legs.

Sometimes information only hangs around for a brief moment, before sliding down the memory hole. Thats what happened to an advertisement for Trumps Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, which was masquerading as an entry on Share America, which the State Department calls its platform for sharing compelling stories and images that spark discussion and debate on important topics like democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and the role of civil society. The page appeared on the website of the U.S. embassy in London.

Someone must have realized that using the State Department to advertise the Presidents private club was not a great idea. Conflict of interest? No problem. Its down the memory hole.

Nor is it just government websites that are being reworked in a distinctly Orwellian fashion. Recently, the Trump 2020 reelection campaign (yes, it already exists) quietly removed many 2016 campaign documents from its website. The Washington Posts Avi Selk describes some of the missing press releases, among them the one that reproduced Trumps full interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos in which he so infamously insulted Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who spoke out against him at the Democratic Party convention, and his wife, Ghazala.

Similarly, links to Trumps New Deal for Black America, released a week before the 2016 election, now bring up a dreaded 404  Page not found message on the Trump-Pence website. Whatever that deal was, its evidently no longer on offer, nor is it even to remain in the historical record.

The same memory hole has also evidently devoured a December 2015 press release announcing that Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what is going on. Fortunately, versions of that particular statement were repeated often enough in enough places that lawyers have been able to continue to use it to argue against the presidents executive orders banning the entry of people from seven (now six) majority-Muslim countries.

The Trump administrations memory holes have swallowed up more than documents and data. People have also disappeared  if not from the world, at least from their government positions. We still remember former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey, but who remembers Ponisseril Somasundaran or Courtney Flint? They are among the scientists recently dismissed from the Environmental Protection Agencys Board of Scientific Counselors. Among their duties was to give advice on environmental regulation. They are to be replaced, according to agency spokesperson J.P. Freire, by people who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community  that is, representatives of polluting industries.

The United States of Amnesia

Gore Vidal coined the expression the United States of Amnesia in a 2004 book about George W. Bushs America. The particular instance of amnesia Vidal highlighted with that phrase was the failure of those then waging the war on drugs to remember the disasters of the prohibition of alcohol sales in the 1930s, and the ensuing corruption, gangsters, and smuggling rings that came with it.

His larger point, however, was that, in general, American historical memory is short. Thirteen years after Vidals book appeared, and with a new Republican administration ascendant, it seems that this country is in danger of sinking ever deeper into a state of amnesia. And can there be any question that, in a distinctly Orwellian fashion, the new administration is doing everything in its power to hasten that process? As the Trump administration prepares for a new surge on the perpetual battlefield that is Afghanistan, weve conveniently forgotten how little the last one achieved. Weve forgotten how deregulation led to the Great Recession, as the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded in 2011. The greatest tragedy, that panel wrote, would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done. If we accept this notion, it will happen again. Yet the Republicans in Congress cant wait to repeal Dodd-Frank, the law that restored a semblance of regulation to the world of commercial banking.

The fifth-century African bishop St. Augustine was probably the first western thinker to pay attention to human memory. In his Confessions, Augustine observes that it is memory  the ability to bring into present awareness past experiences and the ability to recognize the difference between past, present, and future  that makes us self-aware beings. He described the vast hall of my memory, where I meet myself and recall what I am, what I have done, and when and where and how I was affected when I did it. It is on the basis of memory, he added, that I reason about future actions and events and hopes, and again think of all these things in the present. I shall do this and that, I say to myself within that vast recess of my mind which is full of many rich images, and this act or that follows.

If Augustine was right and memory gives us our selves, allowing us to reason about future actions and events and hopes, then a political regime that seeks to destroy its peoples memory is an existential threat.

In that case, the first act of resistance is to remember who we are.

Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular, teaches in the philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes. Her previous books include Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States and Letters from Nicaragua.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Dowers The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, as well as John Feffers dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turses Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardts Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

Copyright 2017 Rebecca Gordon

Via Tomdispatch.com
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment)

Back in 2016 the talking heads on tv kept expecting candidate Trump, who made headlines almost daily saying racist and offensive things, to transition. Their theory was that he was acting out for his base in the GOP primaries but then would dial it back in the general election.

Months into his presidency, and hes the same Donald Trump, a bull in the china shop of global diplomacy.

The disaster for US relations (which is already hurting the US economy through a fall in tourism and investment from abroad) went from the personal to the substantive.

Then there was that awkward moment when he refused to affirm the US commitment under article 5 of NATO to come to the defense of members of the alliance. NATO invoked article 5 and sent tens of thousands of troops to Afghanistan for a decade after 9/11, but Trump isnt about gratitude or appreciation of others.

The omission was significant because after Vladimir Putins unilateral annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and then interference in East Ukraine, European countries are depending on the US to see that the Russian Federation does not go any further.

I know that Crimea belonged to Russia until Khrushchev lightly transferred it inside the Soviet Union to Ukraine in the early 50s, and that there were legitimate Russian concerns about where Ukrainian politics were going and how they would have an impact on the 2 million Russian-heritage Ukrainians in the east. And I know that NATO made a huge error in being aggressive toward the supine Russian Federation and seeking to expand right up to its doorstep, contrary to what the US promised Premier Mikhael Gorbachev. But also in todays world you cant do things like annex and intervene unilaterally and by fiat, with no semblance of the rule of law. Crimea should have a referendum under UN auspices and the Minsk process should end in normalization and restoration of rule of law. And if you know the history of Poland, which Russia at some points arranged not to exist at all, you understand the fears, and the significance of Trumps refusal to allay them.

Or the further awkward moment (does he have any other kind?) when lectured other NATO members about putting more money into the organization and complained about how much their HQ in Brussels must have cost. I think Europe can afford a building in Brussels.

There was that shove he gave the prime minister of Montenegro in his rush to get in front of the cameras, for all the world like a five year old in the kindergarten lunch line.

Minority Report with Same Seder: Trump ACTUALLY SHOVES Montenegro Prime Minister At NATO

Or there was the interview he gave in the German press where he displayed that he wasnt paying attention at the Wharton School when he took macro-economics 101.

The Germans are very, very bad, he was reported to have said by Der Spiegel. Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible. We will stop this.

Uh, it isnt actually bad for the world economy for Germany to sell cars to Americans. Americans got to be the worlds biggest economy by selling cars to other people. More trade is good. American consumers get German engineering.

Consider this little item from WaPo, which says that GM now sells more cars in China than in the US: The company sold a record 3.9 million cars in China last year, with its Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac brands proving especially popular. Protectionism of Trumps sort could potentially cause the countries of the world to slap punitive tariffs on US goods, driving the world, and the US, into a Great Depression that would make 2008 look like a spring picnic.

GM had been on the verge of breaking even in its European operations last year, WaPo says, when Brexit happened and introduced such uncertainties into the market that the GM executives just decided to sell Opel etc. and turn to Asia.

Trump very publicly supported Brexit, which means he encouraged developments that harmed US manufacturing.

That is, insular white nationalism of the sort that drove the British exit from the European Union has already hurt the bottom line of American manufacturers.

As for the US auto market, it is saturated and GM cant hope for growth there.

You know what is going to be a growth sector for the automobile industry? Electric cars, to which the Paris Accords are going to give a huuje boost.

Trump is encouraging through deregulation dirty petroleum cars that put out toxic carbon dioxide, which endangers peoples lives. In the meantime, Asian powers like China and India rush to dominate the auto market of the future, electric. It is the Chevy Bolt that gives hope for GMs future, not protectionist tariffs.

Who has oil to sell, to fuel the dirty cars? Russia and Saudi Arabia, Trumps (and Rex Tillersons) authoritarian buddies.

If a Kremlin covert ops team had actually found a way to program a US presidents visit to NATO and the G7, they couldnt have done a better job of disruption than Trump did just by being Trump.
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H. Patricia Hynes | (Informed Comment) |  

Every now and then I re-visit these lines of the Canadian poet and songwriter, Leonard Cohen:

Ring the bells that cannot ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

Thats how the light gets in.

In these times of climate change denial, macho military chest-beating, stagnant wages, and soulless extremes of wealth and poverty, light-bearing cracks are all that we have. They surface in unexpected places.

Take North American Windpower magazine, a monthly shaft of light. It was first sent to me by a friend who never subscribed to it. When I told her how informative  and realistically hopeful  it was, she turned her non-subscription over to me.

The March 2017 issue carried the story of an oil sands worker in Alberta, Canada, Lliam Hildebrand, who created a national initiative, Iron and Earth, to retrain out-of-work oil sands tradespeople  among them pipefitters, electricians, boilermakers, drillers, and construction laborers  to enter the Canadian renewable technologies workforce, including solar, wind and hydro. A survey of 1,000 oil sands sector workers revealed that 63% responded that they could transition directly to the renewable energy sector with some training; and 59% reported that they were willing to take a paycut to transition into the renewable sector. The Canadian wind company, Beothuk Energy Inc., has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Iron and Earth to retrain oil and gas workers for the companys proposed offshore wind farm project, which has the potential to create 40,000 jobs.

Why not a similar US program for unemployed coal industry workers, given that everyone knows  except the President  that the cost of coal generated electricity cannot compete with renewables, and that solar and wind are the biggest job creators in electric power generation. A team of developers recently proposed to install a large solar farm atop two mountaintop removal sites in the heart of coal country, Pikeville, Kentucky. Further, they have pledged to hire as many unemployed coal miners as they can. What more prescient sign of the times than this: in April 2017, the Kentucky Coal Museum installed solar panels on its roof!

In nearby West Virginia, the Coal River Mountain Watch is fighting to save 6,600 acres of their mountain from being blown up for strip mining of coal with a proposal for a 440 Megawatt wind farm. The windpower would generate electricity for 150,000 homes, remove only 200 acres of hardwood forest, create 200 jobs with 40-50 being permanent and longer lasting than coal jobs, and provide sustainable income for the local economy.

Remember the March photo-op of President Trump surrounding himself with coal miners as he signed an Executive Order dismantling the Clean Power Plan with its goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030? He promised the miners that with the stroke of his pen, he would put them back to work. But the know-nothing president had not run his promise by the industry.

 You cant bring the coal industry back to where it was,  retorted Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corporation one of the largest independent operators of coal mines in the country. Moreover, Murray has  no immediate plans to reopen mines or hire miners after the order is signed,  according to the May issue of North American Windpower.

The wind blows strong and steady in Iowa, says lieutenant governor Kim Reynolds who justifiably touts her states goals and ambitions for renewable energy in the April issue of North American Windpower. Iowa is well on the way to meeting 40% of their electricity from wind turbines, the largest share of any state in the country and among the highest in the world. She notes that it is the convergence of many factors, among them, political, educational, business, and community, that fosters this states favorable renewable energy climate.

In 1983, Iowa passed the countrys first renewable electricity standard at a time when it was almost totally dependent on coal. Since then, public universities, with state support, have developed strong wind energy research programs and are educating wind energy engineers and policymakers, while community colleges are training technicians to install, service and maintain wind turbines. As for manufacturing jobs, almost all of turbine manufacture, assembly and installation is done by in-state companies some of whom have re-located there. Others, such as Facebook and Google, were attracted by the abundance of renewable energy and good infrastructure. Farmers, on whose land the wind turbines spin, gain a reliable revenue source in lease payments; and local governments, an improved tax base for local public needs. MidAmerican Energy Company, Iowas largest utility, envisions providing 100% renewable energy for its clients.

One final thought in light of the heroic resistance of Native Americans at Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota to a fracked oil pipeline endangering their water and sacred sites. In the northern Great Plains, likely the richest wind regime in the world, the potential of tribal wind power exceeds 300 gigawatts across six states, according to the Department of Energy. This motherlode is equivalent to about half of the current electrical generating capacity in the United States.

Pat Hynes, a retired environmental engineer and Professor of Environmental Health at Boston University, directs the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in western Massachusetts .



Related video added by Juan Cole:

An Awesome View At Americas First Offshore Wind Farm | The Daily 360 | The New York Times


VANCOUVER, B.C., May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Novo Resources Corp. (Novo or the Company) (TSX-V:NVO) (OTCQX:NSRPF) is pleased to announce it has entered into a preliminary binding memorandum of agreement to farm-in and joint venture gold rights with Artemis Resources Limited (Artemis), an ASX-listed mining company, on Artemis large, 1,536 square km, exploration package in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Novo has also recently acquired, through staking, a 100% interest in 6,021 square km in the same region targeting newly recognized conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization. This is a new style of gold mineralisation in the Karratha region that represents an exciting new discovery.

New Conglomerate-Hosted Gold Discovery

In a news release dated April 11, 2017, Novo discussed acquisition of the Comet Well gold project near Karratha, Western Australia. Since that time, Novo has aggressively staked 6,771 square km of exploration licenses, mainly in the West Pilbara region (Figure 1). The basis for staking such a large land package is the recent recognition of gold-bearing conglomerates in a previously unexplored sequence of rocks near the base of the 2.7-2.85 billion year old Fortescue Group, a thick pile of sedimentary and volcanic rocks underlying vast portions of the Pilbara region.

Figure 1: Map showing Novo Resources Corp Pilbara land holdings



In recent years, metal detectorists have discovered gold nuggets, sometimes in concentrated patches, over an extensive area around the city of Karratha. In 2016, several particularly rich nugget patches were found in an area approximately 45 kilometers south of Karratha near Comet Well and Artemiss adjoining Purdys Reward. Detectorists have been active along an 8 km long corridor underlain by conglomerate horizons that are part of a 50-100 meter thick sequence of sedimentary rocks underlying the Mt. Roe basalt at the base of the Fortescue Group (Figures 2). This sequence of sedimentary rocks does not appear on geologic maps of the region. Of particular note, prospectors have recently discovered gold nuggets in situ, sometimes in abundance, in outcropping conglomerates thus confirming their origin (Figure 3).

Figure 2: Photograph of the Comet Well area looking south. Weathered, gold-bearing conglomerates occupy the foreground. Note liberated quartz cobbles scattered across the surface. Mt. Roe basalt underlies the hills in the middle ground and the Cooya Pooya dolerite sill forms the ridge in the back. These rocks comprise the base of the Fortescue Group in this area and dip shallowly, less than 5 degrees, to the south. Novo-Artemis farm-in/joint venture ground covers the foreground. Novos 100% controlled ground lies in the distance and further into the basin.





Figure 3: Examples of in situ gold nuggets frozen in matrix material from the Comet Well and Purdys Reward area. Rock is dark grey-green to brown hornfelsed sandy conglomerate. Gold is high purity, 96-98%, setting it apart from that from basement-hosted lode gold deposits which commonly displays purities of 70-95%. Note that nuggets are rounded, clear evidence they are detrital in origin. Multiple outcrops of gold-bearing conglomerate have recently been identified at Comet Well and Purdys Reward. Novo plans to assess such areas first during upcoming exploration activities.





Gold nuggets at Comet Well and Purdys Reward display several interesting characteristics. Most are flattened with rounded edges giving them an appearance similar to watermelon seeds. Most are coarse, +2 mm and are not attached to quartz or other minerals. Gold is of high purity, +96%, compared to lode gold from the Pilbara region that displays purities of 70-90%. Most nuggets occur in the sandy matrix of conglomerate and the sandy texture has been imparted on their surface through pressure during burial (Figure 4). Fine particles of remobilized and re-precipitated gold occur in 2-3 mm wide halos surrounding nuggets (Figure 5). Gold-bearing conglomerates appear to have been subjected to thermal metamorphism in the form of hornfels.

Figure 4: Liberated watermelon seed type gold nugget from the Comet Well area. Blue lines are 1 mm apart. Note the dimpled surface, a result of imprinting of sandy matrix on the nugget during compaction after burial. Otherwise, the original shape of the nugget is well-preserved.





Figure 5: Cross sectional view of a watermelon seed style gold nugget in a sawn slab of gold-bearing conglomerate. The dark grey-green color is likely a product of thermal metamorphism, hornfels, of the original rock. Note the crenulated texture around the edge of the nugget. Encircling the nugget is a cloud of very fine gold, likely remobilized during burial or metamorphism. Such dispersed gold is common around in situ nuggets at Comet Well and Purdys Reward.





Novo advises that extensive exploration work is necessary to gain an understanding of the geology of these conglomerates, let alone establish a mineral resource. However, given their substantial lateral extent and locally high concentrations of nuggets within them, Novo considers the conglomerate-hosted gold mineralization around Comet Well to be a significant new discovery. Gold-bearing conglomerates are Novos primary exploration focus in the Pilbara, and given the vast amount of experience Novo has gained exploring such deposits at Beatons Creek, approximately 350 km east of Karratha, Novo is ideally suited to explore this exciting new discovery.

Novo has staked approximately 6,021 square km southward from Comet Well covering virtually all projected down dip extensions of gold-bearing conglomerates. The addition of the Artemis earn-in/joint venture ground brings in an additional 1,536 square km of land including critical areas of outcropping gold-bearing conglomerates such as the Purdys Reward discovery discussed in a news release issued by Artemis on February 20, 2017 (Figure 6). Given that Artemis has already permitted exploration work, Novo plans aggressive trenching at Purdys over the next several months followed by drilling later this year. While the development of Beatons Creek project remains Novos main focus, Novo views the Comet Well area and its vast new Pilbara land holdings as a potential pipeline of conglomeratic gold projects upon which the Company can grow. A key component of the earn-in/joint venture agreement allows access to Artemis permitted mill at Radio Hill, a potential benefit should economic mineralization be identified and put into production.

Figure 6: Novo 100% controlled and Novo-Artemis farm-in/joint venture holdings in the Karratha region.





The new gold discovery around Comet Well and Purdys Reward is truly exciting, commented Dr. Quinton Hennigh, President, CEO and director of Novo Resources Corp. Abundant gold nuggets are being found in situ in conglomerates at several locations along what is now an 8 km long corridor. While Novo has staked virtually all projected down dip extensions of gold-bearing conglomerates around Comet Well, the addition of the Artemis earn-in/joint venture ground brings in critical areas of outcropping gold-bearing conglomerates including the Purdys discovery. We are looking forward to working closely with Artemis as we explore this remarkable new discovery.

Teaming up with Novo Resources Corp. on Artemiss extensive land package around Karratha for gold-bearing conglomerates will certainly fast track the overall exploration efforts on this very exciting and new gold play in the region, commented David Lenigas, Executive Chairman of Artemis Resources Limited. Our Purdys Reward gold project and Novos adjacent Comet Well gold project have now identified gold-bearing conglomerates over an 8 km strike. We look forward to partnering with Novo and creating value for our combined shareholders.

Key terms of the Artemis Earn-in/Joint Venture Agreement

Novo will farm-in to 50% of the Gold Rights (as defined below) in Artemiss current and future tenements within 100km of Karratha (including at Purdys Reward, Weerianna, Carlow Castle, Nickol River) by expending AUD $2 million on exploration within two years of satisfying conditions precedent in the Farmin and JV Agreement (the Farmin Commitment). Typical conditions precedent apply to the transaction, including completion of satisfactory due diligence by Novo and receipt of necessary approvals from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board, the Western Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum, Artemis existing JV partners and any approvals needed under ASX or TSX-V listing rules. Gold and Gold Rights which Novo can earn rights to are defined as gold (and other minerals usually mined with gold) in conglomerate and/or paleoplacer style mineralisation. Novo cannot earn any rights to (i) Artemiss existing JORC compliant Resources and Reserves or (ii) future JORC compliant Resources and Reserves announced by Artemis which are not within conglomerate and/or paleoplacer style mineralization. Artemis retains all rights to minerals not within conglomerate and/or paleoplacer style mineralisation. During the farmin phase, Novo will sole fund exploration for Gold and will determine where the AUD $2 million in exploration expenditure is expended. Once the Farmin Commitment is satisfied, for Artemis tenements which are not within an existing joint venture agreement, Novo and Artemis will form a new 50:50 joint venture to explore for, develop and mine conglomerate and/or paleoplacer style gold mineralization. For Artemis tenements which are already within existing farmin/joint venture arrangements, Novo will join those arrangements with its rights limited to 50% of Artemis existing rights to conglomerate and/or paleoplacer style gold mineralization (subject to obtaining necessary consents from Artemis existing joint venture partners, which are expected in the ordinary course). Those existing farmin/joint venture arrangements are expected to continue on their current terms, subject to discussion with Artemiss existing joint venture partners. Novo is to be the initial manager of the new Artemis-Novo joint venture. The new Artemis and Novo joint venture includes the following key terms: The joint venture will cover exploration for, development of, and mining of Gold only; Novo and Artemis must contribute equally to exploration, development and mining of the Gold Rights on the tenements within the joint venture; Failure to contribute to calls for expenditure by the Manager will result in dilution, at a rate of 1% for every AUD $500,000 not contributed; A partys joint venture interest will be converted to a 0.5% NSR royalty if the joint venture interest drops below 5%. A non-converting party has a right to buy out the royalty at market value at any time after conversion to a royalty; No Area of Interest will apply, given that Novos other Karratha tenements will not be within the new joint venture; The joint venture parties agree to assess the possibility of utilising Artemiss 425,000 tpa Radio Hill treatment plant for treatment of ore from any new Gold mine pursued by the joint venture, with the view to fast tracking project development; and Other customary and typical joint venture terms will apply.

Quinton Hennigh (Ph.D., P.Geo.) is the Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 responsible for, and having reviewed and approved, the technical information contained in this news release. Dr. Hennigh is President, CEO and a Director of Novo.

About Novo Resources Corp.

Novos focus is to evaluate, acquire and explore gold properties. Indirect subsidiaries of Novo hold a 100% interest in the Beatons Creek gold project, a 70% interest in properties surrounding Beatons Creek and Marble Bar, a 100% interest in the Blue Spec gold-antimony project, and options covering approximately 400 square km over the Mosquito Creek Basin, all in the Pilbara region, Western Australia. Novo also controls a 100% interest in approximately 2 sq km covering much of the Tuscarora Au-Ag vein district, Nevada.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 26, 2017) - Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE:PSE)(CSE:PSE.CN)(CNSX:PSE)(FRANKFURT:PNX) (The "Company" or "Pasinex") is pleased to report a net income of $863,030 for the 1st Quarter 2017 as a result of a strong profit from its 50% owned Horzum AS Joint Venture company ("JV company"), in Turkey. All dollar amounts are Canadian unless otherwise indicated.

The Q1 2017 unaudited financial results and the corresponding Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) are available on SEDAR.com and the Pasinex website. The financial results for both Pasinex and the JV company are provided. The positive financial result of Pasinex is wholly contributable to the strong financial result from the JV company. Below is a review of the JV company financial results followed by a review of the Pasinex financial results.

Highlights of the First Quarter 2017 Financial Results

(1) Horzum AS 50% owned JV company Financial Results

In Q1 2017, the JV company zinc mine in Turkey (Pinargozu) produced and sold 12,378 tonnes (wet weight) of direct shipping ore (DSO) with an average grade of about 32.3% Zn and about 140 tonnes / day of mine production.

Sales revenue totaled $5,846,959 or approximately $472 / tonne of ore mined.

Figure 1 below shows the production chronology over the past five (5) quarters. Production from the Pinargozu has steadily increased through each of these five quarters due in large part to the addition of a new third adit at the mine in August 2016.

The total cost for the JV company in first quarter 2017 was $2,925,309 or about $236 / tonne mined. These costs included all mining, administration and exploration costs for the quarter.

The net profit (before tax) for Q1 2017 was $2,921,650, which represented at 50% pre-tax margin.

(2) Pasinex Financial Results

As a result of the profit realized in the JV company, Pasinex recognized a $1,168,289 equity gain on their income statement for Q1 2017.

The equity gain led to a net income for Q1 2017 of $863,030 ($0.01 per share) after deducting operating expenses of $314,879.

Total assets for Q1 2017 were $5,275,763 up from $4,065,789 at the end of 2016. Total liabilities were $224,958 down from $282,818 at the end of 2016.

Shareholder's equity was $5,050,805, up from $3,782,971 at the end of 2016.

Figure 1: Pinargozu mine production from Q1 2016 to the end of Q1 2017



Steve Williams, CEO commented, "Pasinex's quarterly results continue to be very gratifying because they show increased profitability as a result of the strong contribution from Horzum AS JV company in Turkey. We continue to see a step up in production at the Pinargozu Mine which led to lower cost per tonne mined and greater profitability. We expect this strong performance to continue throughout 2017. We anticipate continued solid earnings throughout 2017 and a great year for Pasinex and our shareholders. We invite you to have a more detailed look at the financial results and the MD&A."

About Pasinex

Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE:PSE)(CSE:PSE.CN)(CNSX:PSE)(FRANKFURT:PNX), a metals company, is a 50% owner of the high grade Pinargozu Zinc Mine which is in production. Under its DSO Program, Horzum AS is shipping directly to zinc smelter / refiners from its mine site in Turkey. The Company has a strong technical management team with many years of experience in mineral exploration and mining project development. The mission of Pasinex is to build a mid-tier zinc company based on building a large land position within a productive CRD district in Turkey.

The Pinargozu Mine is included in the 50-50 company, Horzum Arama Isletme AS (Horzum AS), which is a corporate joint venture between Pasinex and Turkish mining house, Akmetal Madencilik San ve Tic. AS (Akmetal AS). Akmetal AS is one of Turkey's largest family-owned conglomerates with the nearby past-producing Horzum Zinc Mine.

Visit our web site at: www.pasinex.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 26, 2017) - Galane Gold Ltd. ("Galane Gold" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:GG) is pleased to announce the release of its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2017. All amounts are in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated.

A copy of the unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2017 prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and the corresponding Management's Discussion and Analysis will be available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com.

First Quarter 2017 Highlights

Sold 5,531 ounces of gold.

Positive cash flows from operating activities of $821,253.

Cash balance of $1,241,089 at the end of the quarter.

Subsequent Events

Announced letter of intent to acquire Vantage Goldfields Limited ("Vantage"), an Australian gold mining company with two mines and processing plant proximate to Galane Gold's Galaxy operation.

Galane Gold CEO, Nick Brodie commented: "The first quarter of 2017 was challenging for Galane Gold as unseasonably high rainfall at the Mupane property resulted in flooding at our underground mine and operational issues related to feeding wet ore to our plant. While we managed to continue production throughout this period, albeit at a reduced rate, we did not reach our own internal targets. The second quarter to-date has seen us move past these challenges and we have resumed a normal rate of production.

The announcement of the potential acquisition of Vantage is a significant opportunity for Galane. We expect to integrate Galaxy and Vantage with a view to deriving substantial operational and cost synergies and take a major step forward in our goal to reshape the Company into a long-life and low-cost operation that can produce positive returns for investors across commodity cycles."(1)

Options and deferred share units

The Company also announces that it has authorized the grant of options to the Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Options to purchase up to 500,000 common shares were authorized for grant with a five year term and an exercise price equal to the closing price of the common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on May 26, 2017. Such options shall vest according to the following schedule: 10% vest on the award date; 10% vest on the first anniversary of the award date; 15% vest on the second anniversary of the award date; and 32.5% vest on each of the fourth and fifth anniversary of the award date.

The Company also announces that it has authorized the grant of deferred share units ("DSUs") to the Chief Executive Officer of the Company equal to 25% of his salary (approximately 62,500) and to the Chief Operating Officer of the Company equal to 25% of his salary (approximately $68,000), each determined based on the closing price of the common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on May 26, 2017. Such DSUs shall vest in three equal instalments on the first, second and third anniversaries of the award date. The DSUs have been awarded based on the achievement of certain key performance indicators for the 2016 financial year as previously approved by the Compensation Committee of the Company in May 2016.

About Galane Gold

Galane Gold is an un-hedged gold producer and explorer with mining operations and exploration tenements in Botswana and South Africa. Galane Gold is a public company and its shares are quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange and the Botswana Stock Exchange under the symbol "GG". Galane Gold's management team is comprised of senior mining professionals with extensive experience in managing mining and processing operations and large-scale exploration programmes. Galane Gold is committed to operating at world-class standards and is focused on the safety of its employees, respecting the environment, and contributing to the communities in which it operates.

Note:

(1) This is forward-looking information and is based on a number of assumptions. See "Cautionary Notes".
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 26, 2017) - Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX:DML)(NYSE MKT:DNN) is pleased to report a significant increase in uranium grades from previously released preliminary radiometric probe results, following the receipt of uranium assays from the Company's winter 2017 drilling program on the 60% owned Wheeler River project. The winter 2017 exploration program involved a combination of infill drilling at the Gryphon deposit and resource expansion exploration drilling to the northwest of the Gryphon deposit. The Wheeler River project is host to the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix uranium deposits, and is the largest undeveloped high-grade uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region in northern Saskatchewan.

The Company currently reports preliminary radiometric equivalent grades ("eU 3 O 8 "), derived from a calibrated downhole total gamma probe, during its exploration programs and subsequently reports definitive assay grades following sampling and geochemical analysis of the mineralized drill core.

Highlights

As has been the case in past years, assays returned higher grades of U 3 O 8 than the preliminary eU 3 O 8 reported during the drilling program. For the winter 2017 results, assay grades greater than 0.5% U 3 O 8 were on average 45% higher than their corresponding radiometric equivalent grades;

O than the preliminary eU O reported during the drilling program. For the winter 2017 results, assay grades greater than 0.5% U O were on average 45% higher than their corresponding radiometric equivalent grades; Drill hole WR-633D3 returned assay results of 3.3% U 3 O 8 over 13.5 metres, 6.2% U 3 O 8 over 2.5 metres and 1.3% U 3 O 8 over 3.0 metres within the D series lenses. This result represents the best hole drilled to date, in terms of combined grades and thicknesses of mineralization, from the mineralized zone identified to the northwest of the current resources estimated for the Gryphon deposit.

In November 2015, the Company estimated the Gryphon deposit to contain inferred resources of 43.0 million pounds U 3 O 8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.2% U 3 O 8 ) based on 834,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 2.3% U 3 O 8 , occurring as a series of stacked lenses on various stratigraphic, fault-controlled planes within the basement rocks - termed the A, B, and C series lenses. Since then, a significant zone of new mineralization has been discovered and partially delineated to the northwest, termed the D series of lenses, in combination with the discovery of additional mineralization on the A and B planes. Taken together, results from exploration drilling since the beginning of 2016, has defined a mineralized zone that comprises multiple lenses spanning over 300 metres in strike length and remains open.

Dale Verran, Denison's Vice President of Exploration, commented, "This set of Gryphon assay results have exceeded expectations - particularly for drill hole WR-633D3, which now ranks as the best hole to date in the D series of lenses. These results re-emphasize the potential of the D series lenses to add meaningful resources to the Gryphon deposit, ahead of a planned update to the resource estimate for the project. This summer, in addition to the ongoing infill drilling at Gryphon, we are planning to continue to explore the D lenses with the objective of defining high-grade zones and maximizing the indicated resources that will be included in the upcoming PFS."

The Company is also pleased to report the assay results from its infill drilling program at the Gryphon deposit, including the results of a further 17 drill holes, totaling 8,402 metres. The results confirm the continuity and high-grades of Gryphon's A, B and C series inferred resources and indicate potential for resource growth with higher than expected assay grades compared to the inferred grade model in certain portions of the deposit. A further 18 drill holes are planned to be completed during the summer 2017 program to complete the infill program at Gryphon.

Technical Highlights From Assay Results

Winter 2017 assay results for exploration drilling are provided in Table 1. Nine holes totalling 6,330 metres were completed outside of the current inferred resources estimated for the Gryphon deposit, including four holes targeting the Gryphon D series lenses, and five holes down-dip of the A and B series lenses. The highlights from these results illustrate the potential for meaningful resource expansion at Gryphon:

3.3% U 3 O 8 over 13.5 m (including 11.8% U 3 O 8 over 3.5 m) D series mineralization in WR-633D3

(including 11.8% U O over 3.5 m) D series mineralization in WR-633D3 6.2% U 3 O 8 over 2.5 m D series mineralization in WR-633D3

D series mineralization in WR-633D3 1.3% U 3 O 8 over 3.0 m (including 3.8% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 m) D series mineralization in WR-633D3

(including 3.8% U O over 1.0 m) D series mineralization in WR-633D3 2.9% U 3 O 8 over 3.0 m (including 8.5% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 m) B series mineralization in WR-689

(including 8.5% U O over 1.0 m) B series mineralization in WR-689 8.6% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 m D series mineralization in WR-689

D series mineralization in WR-689 15.1% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 m D series mineralization in WR-689

In addition to exploration drilling to expand mineralization outside of the current Gryphon resource, the 2017 winter drilling program continued with infill and delineation drilling with the objective of increasing the level of confidence of the current inferred resources to an indicated level. Winter 2017 assay results from infill and delineation drilling are provided in Table 2, and represent an overall increase in grade and thicknesses of mineralization in comparison to the previously reported radiometric equivalent grade results (see Denison's press releases dated March 29, 2017 and April 20, 2017). Highlights from the infill results include the following results:

7.3% U 3 O 8 over 6.0 m (including 10.9% U 3 O 8 over 4.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-567D2

(including 10.9% U O over 4.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-567D2 1.9% U 3 O 8 over 6.6 m (including 3.4% U 3 O 8 over 3.0 m) B series mineralization in WR-567D2

(including 3.4% U O over 3.0 m) B series mineralization in WR-567D2 5.1% U 3 O 8 over 7.0 m (including 7.6% U 3 O 8 over 4.5 m) A series mineralization in WR-567D1

(including 7.6% U O over 4.5 m) A series mineralization in WR-567D1 5.5% U 3 O 8 over 3.5 m B series mineralization in WR-567D1

B series mineralization in WR-567D1 4.0% U 3 O 8 over 9.0 m A series mineralization in WR-687D2

A series mineralization in WR-687D2 4.3% U 3 O 8 over 6.0 m (including 8.2% U 3 O 8 over 3.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-582D2

(including 8.2% U O over 3.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-582D2 3.1% U 3 O 8 over 5.5 m (including 8.0% U 3 O 8 over 2.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-606D2

(including 8.0% U O over 2.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-606D2 2.8% U 3 O 8 over 5.5 m (including 14.2% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-688D3

(including 14.2% U O over 1.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-688D3 1.6% U 3 O 8 over 8.0 m (including 11.6% U 3 O 8 over 1.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-688D2

Illustrative Figures & Further Details

A plan map of the Gryphon A, B, C and D series lenses is provided in Figure 1. The inset on Figure 1 shows a schematic cross section of the A, B, C and D series lenses and their respective inclined longitudinal section windows (as shaded rectangles). Figures 2 to 5 provide inclined longitudinal sections of the Gryphon A, B, C and D series lenses respectively. The modelled mineralized lenses shown in Figures 1 to 5 are defined using a 0.05% U 3 O 8 or eU 3 O 8 grade shell and minimum thickness of two metres. There is no certainty that the modelled mineralized lenses shown will constitute future mineral resources and they may be subject to modifications as further drilling data becomes available.

Further details regarding the Gryphon deposit and the current mineral resource estimates are provided in the NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Wheeler River project titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Wheeler River Uranium Project, Saskatchewan, Canada" dated April 8, 2016 with an effective date of March 31, 2016. A copy of this report is available on Denison's website and under its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

Sampling and Assay Procedures

Drill core with anomalous total gamma radioactivity (>500 counts per second) was sampled over 0.5 metre intervals. Sampling is undertaken on site by splitting the core in half, with one half submitted for analysis and the other half retained in the core box for future reference. Uranium assays are performed by the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") Geoanalytical Laboratories using an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited method for the determination of U 3 O 8 weight %. Sample preparation involves crushing and pulverizing core samples to 90% passing -106 microns. The resultant pulp is digested using aqua-regia and the solution analyzed for U 3 O 8 weight % using ICP-OES. Core recovery at Gryphon is typically 100% and therefore radiometric equivalent U 3 O 8 grades ("eU 3 O 8 ") are not required as a substitute for chemical U 3 O 8 assays. In addition to internal checks by SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories, the Company has rigorous quality assurance and quality control ("QAQC") procedures including the insertion of standard reference materials, blanks and field duplicates. The assay data is subject to verification procedures by qualified persons employed by Denison prior to disclosure. For further details on the assay, QAQC and data verification procedures please see Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 23, 2017 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Detailed Assay Results

The following tables provide the detailed assay results from the drill holes completed during the winter 2017 exploration program at Wheeler River. The assay results are shown next to the previously reported radiometric equivalent results, and have been assigned a lens designation based on the stratigraphic position of the mineralized interval.

Table 1: Winter 2017 assay results for exploration drilling outside of the Gryphon resource

Previously reported

Downhole Total Gamma Probe4,8 Final Assay5,8 Lens Section Hole Number From (m) To (m) Length9(m) eU 3 O 8 (%)2 From (m) To (m) Length9(m) U 3 O 8 (wt%)3 WR-689D1 560.5 561.5 1.0 0.22 560.8 562.8 2.0 0.07 B and 566.3 567.3 1.0 0.11 Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U 3 O 8 B and 570.4 571.4 1.0 0.18 571.2 572.2 1.0 0.23 B and 668.4 669.4 1.0 0.13 668.8 669.8 1.0 0.09 D 5175GP and 675.7 676.7 1.0 0.13 673.7 674.7 1.0 0.12 D and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 676.2 677.2 1.0 0.15 D and 679.7 680.7 1.0 1.6 680.2 681.2 1.0 1.5 D and 692.3 693.7 1.4 0.23 692.9 694.4 1.5 0.16 D WR-689 557.2 558.6 1.4 0.54 Navigational drilling - no core recovery A and 561.0 562.0 1.0 0.13 Navigational drilling - no core recovery B and 564.9 566.8 1.9 2.74 564.0 567.0 3.0 2.9 B including6,7 565.6 566.6 1.0 5.08 566.0 567.0 1.0 8.5 B and 573.2 574.2 1.0 0.60 573.0 574.0 1.0 0.95 B and 584.1 585.1 1.0 0.32 584.0 585.0 1.0 0.19 B 5200GP and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 666.6 667.6 1.0 0.05 D and 679.6 680.6 1.0 0.50 680.4 681.4 1.0 0.20 D and 684.6 685.6 1.0 0.15 685.2 686.2 1.0 0.23 D and 711.1 712.8 1.7 2.86 712.0 713.0 1.0 8.6 D and 718.4 719.6 1.2 7.5 719.7 720.7 1.0 15.1 D WR-633D3 674.6 675.6 1.0 0.12 675.3 676.3 1.0 0.09 B and 742.8 743.8 1.0 0.11 743.5 744.5 1.0 0.09 D and 753.3 756.4 3.1 0.75 753.9 756.9 3.0 1.3 D including6,7 755.3 756.3 1.0 2.0 755.9 756.9 1.0 3.8 D and 758.6 771.8 13.2 2.5 759.2 772.7 13.5 3.3 D including6,7 764.3 768.1 3.8 7.8 765.2 768.7 3.5 11.8 D including1,6,7 Below cut-off grade of 1.0% eU 3 O 8 771.7 772.7 1.0 1.0 D and 774.6 777.4 2.8 3.7 775.4 777.9 2.5 6.2 D WR-690 585.9 587.0 1.1 0.18 586.9 587.9 1.0 0.21 B and 593.0 594.0 1.0 0.74 594.0 595.0 1.0 0.62 B 5225GP and 654.5 655.5 1.0 0.70 655.6 656.6 1.0 0.66 C and 722.3 723.3 1.0 0.23 723.4 724.4 1.0 0.16 D and 726.1 727.1 1.0 0.18 727.4 728.4 1.0 0.16 D

Notes:

Result not reported previously eU 3 O 8 is the radiometric equivalent U 3 O 8 derived from a calibrated total gamma downhole probe U 3 O 8 is the chemical assay of mineralized split core samples Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 unless otherwise indicated Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.05% U 3 O 8 unless otherwise indicated Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% eU 3 O 8 Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% U 3 O 8 Composites compiled using 1.0 metre minimum mineralization thickness and 2.0 metres maximum waste As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths

Table 2: Winter 2017 assay results for Gryphon resource infill and delineation holes

Downhole Total Gamma Probe4,8 Assay5,8 Section Hole Number From (m) To (m) Length9(m) eU 3 O 8 (%)2 From (m) To (m) Length9(m) U 3 O 8 (wt%)3 Lens WR-584BD1 624.8 627.8 3.0 2.0 626.3 628.3 2.0 4.0 A 4775GP including6,7 626.0 627.6 1.6 3.7 626.3 627.8 1.5 5.0 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 631.8 632.8 1.0 0.05 B and 637.6 638.6 1.0 0.11 638.2 639.2 1.0 0.08 B WR-683 No significant mineralization No significant mineralization WR-683D1 635.8 638.9 3.1 1.8 635.5 639.0 3.5 1.3 A including6,7 636.2 638.2 2.0 3.5 637.0 639.0 2.0 2.1 A and 645.2 646.2 1.0 0.31 645.5 646.5 1.0 0.73 B and 657.5 658.5 1.0 0.46 658.0 659.0 1.0 0.12 B WR-687D11 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 664.5 665.5 1.0 0.09 A 4825GP and 672.0 673.0 1.0 0.40 667.0 674.0 7.0 0.06 A and 673.4 674.4 1.0 0.10 Merged with interval above A and 676.6 678.0 1.4 1.6 677.0 678.5 1.5 2.9 B including6,7 676.8 677.8 1.0 2.2 677.5 678.5 1.0 4.1 B and 682.7 683.7 1.0 0.55 683.0 684.0 1.0 0.64 B WR-575D1 626.2 625.9 1.5 0.36 624.0 627.0 3.0 0.28 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 648.0 650.5 2.5 0.15 B and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 652.5 653.5 1.0 0.05 B WR-6871 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 666.0 667.0 1.0 0.07 A and 681.4 682.4 1.0 0.14 Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U 3 O 8 A and 685.0 686.5 1.5 0.88 685.2 686.7 1.5 0.47 A and 690.8 691.8 1.0 0.12 Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U 3 O 8 B 4900GP WR-687D21 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 537.0 538.0 1.0 0.05 A and 648.9 649.9 1.0 1.8 649.8 650.8 1.0 2.8 A and 652.8 661.9 9.1 2.5 653.4 662.4 9.0 4.0 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 670.0 672.0 2.0 0.09 B and 676.3 677.3 1.0 0.10 Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U 3 O 8 B and 686.2 687.4 1.2 0.15 687.2 688.2 1.0 0.24 B WR-567D1 674.3 675.9 1.6 0.33 675.0 676.5 1.5 0.51 A and 689.8 690.8 1.0 0.66 691.0 693.0 2.0 0.49 A 4950GP and 694.9 696.9 2.0 1.3 695.5 696.5 1.0 3.1 A and 700.0 707.1 7.1 3.9 701.0 708.0 7.0 5.1 A including6,7 701.1 705.5 4.4 6.1 702.0 706.5 4.5 7.6 A and 723.1 727.1 4.0 3.8 724.0 727.5 3.5 5.5 B WR-567D21 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 585.8 586.8 1.0 0.06 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 663.1 664.1 1.0 0.05 A and 664.5 665.6 1.1 0.42 664.6 665.6 1.0 0.09 A and 670.1 671.1 1.0 0.89 670.1 671.1 1.0 1.2 A and 691.2 692.2 1.0 1.2 691.7 692.7 1.0 0.66 A and 694.3 695.7 1.4 0.71 695.0 696.0 1.0 0.61 A and 698.4 704.6 6.2 5.9 698.8 704.8 6.0 7.3 A 4975GP including6,7 700.2 704.3 4.1 8.7 700.8 704.8 4.0 10.9 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 711.5 712.5 1.0 0.07 B and 713.5 714.9 1.4 0.22 714.0 716.0 2.0 0.15 B and 732.8 736.4 3.6 2.1 733.4 740.0 6.6 1.9 B including6,7 733.0 735.8 2.8 2.6 733.4 736.4 3.0 3.4 B including1,6,7 Below cut-off grade of 1.0% eU 3 O 8 739.0 740.0 1.0 2.1 B and 739.0 740.0 1.0 0.40 Merged with interval above B and 744.8 747.4 2.6 0.28 745.5 748.0 2.5 0.29 B WR-606D21 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 747.5 748.5 1.0 0.09 A and 764.3 765.3 1.0 0.11 765.0 766.0 1.0 0.05 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 770.5 771.5 1.0 0.06 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 777.7 778.7 1.0 0.09 A and 785.4 786.4 1.0 0.15 785.9 786.9 1.0 0.13 A and 792.4 793.4 1.0 0.11 Merged with interval below A and 794.2 798.8 4.6 2.0 793.6 799.1 5.5 3.1 A including6,7 795.9 797.8 1.9 4.1 796.6 798.6 2.0 8.0 A and 803.5 808.1 4.6 0.45 805.1 808.6 3.5 0.34 B 5100GP including6,7 804.6 805.6 1.0 1.5 805.1 806.1 1.0 1.0 B WR-688D3 758.1 759.1 1.0 0.24 758.5 759.5 1.0 0.38 A and 762.4 767.7 5.3 2.7 763.0 768.5 5.5 2.8 A including6,7 764.4 765.7 1.3 9.4 765.0 766.0 1.0 14.2 A and1 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 770.5 772.5 2.0 0.07 B and 775.2 776.2 1.0 0.12 Merged with interval below B and 779.1 780.1 1.0 0.11 Merged with interval below B and 780.4 781.4 1.0 0.10 Merged with interval below B and 782.2 785.1 2.9 0.71 775.5 785.5 10.0 0.26 B including6,7 783.5 784.5 1.0 1.6 784.0 785.0 1.0 1.6 B and 793.1 794.2 1.1 5.4 793.7 794.7 1.0 9.2 C WR-6881 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 520.6 521.6 1.0 0.09 A and 774.1 778.9 4.8 0.51 774.5 783.5 9.0 0.30 A 5125GP WR-688D2 756.5 757.5 1.0 0.33 757.5 758.5 1.0 0.95 A and 761.2 762.7 1.5 3.0 762.3 770.3 8.0 1.6 A/B including6,7 761.3 762.3 1.0 4.3 762.3 763.3 1.0 11.6 A and 767.5 769.2 1.7 0.47 Merged with interval above B WR-582D2 741.6 742.6 1.0 0.72 741.5 743.0 1.5 0.34 A and 746.2 752.0 5.8 4.1 746.5 752.5 6.0 4.3 A including1,6,7 Below cut-off grade of 1.0 % eU3O8 747.5 748.5 1.0 1.0 A including6,7 748.8 751.6 2.8 8.1 749.0 752.0 3.0 8.2 A WR-684 796.1 797.1 1.0 0.11 797.6 798.6 1.0 0.14 A 5150GP and 813.7 827.9 14.2 0.39 815.1 829.6 14.5 0.46 A including6,7 813.7 814.7 1.0 1.2 815.1 816.1 1.0 2.1 A including1,6,7 Below cut-off grade of 1.0 % eU 3 O 8 817.1 818.1 1.0 1.2 A and 830.5 835.1 4.6 2.5 832.2 836.2 4.0 1.9 B including6,7 831.0 832.2 1.2 8.3 832.7 833.7 1.0 6.8 B WR-688D1 766.5 768.9 2.4 0.72 767.5 770.0 2.5 0.32 A and 775.5 776.5 1.0 0.16 776.5 778.0 1.5 0.15 A WR-684D11 Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 794.4 795.4 1.0 0.06 A and 803.6 805.2 1.6 0.18 805.5 812.5 7.0 0.15 A 5175GP and 806.4 807.4 1.0 0.13 Merged with interval above A and 808.3 810.2 1.9 0.18 Merged with interval above A and 813.6 815.5 1.9 0.18 815.5 817.5 2.0 0.19 A and 831.5 832.5 1.0 0.12 833.5 834.5 1.0 0.17 B

Notes:

Result not reported previously eU 3 O 8 is the radiometric equivalent U 3 O 8 derived from a calibrated total gamma downhole probe U 3 O 8 is the chemical assay of mineralized split core samples Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.1% eU 3 O 8 unless otherwise indicated Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.05% U 3 O 8 unless otherwise indicated Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% eU 3 O 8 Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% U 3 O 8 Composites compiled using 1.0 metre minimum mineralization thickness and 2.0 metres maximum waste As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths

Qualified Persons

Dale Verran, MSc, Pr.Sci.Nat., Denison's Vice President, Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release.

About Wheeler River

Wheeler River is the largest undeveloped high-grade uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region, in northern Saskatchewan. The project is a joint venture between Denison (60% and operator), Cameco Corp. ("Cameco") (30%), and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited ("JCU") (10%), and is host to the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix uranium deposits discovered by Denison in 2014 and 2008, respectively. The Gryphon deposit is hosted in basement rock and is currently estimated to contain inferred resources of 43.0 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.2% U3O8) based on 834,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 2.3% U3O8. The Phoenix unconformity deposit is located approximately 3 kilometres to the southeast of Gryphon and is estimated to include indicated resources of 70.2 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.8% U3O8) based on 166,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 19.1% U3O8, and is the highest grade undeveloped known uranium deposit in the world.

On April 4th, 2016, Denison announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Wheeler River Project, which considers the potential economic merit of co-developing the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix deposits as a single underground mining operation. The PEA returned a base case pre-tax Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of 20.4% based on the current long term contract price of uranium (US$44.00 per pound U 3 O 8 ), and Denison's share of estimated initial capital expenditures ("CAPEX") of CAD$336M (CAD$560M on 100% ownership basis). Exploration results from the subsequent drilling programs have not been incorporated into the resource estimate or the PEA. The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. On July 19th, 2016 Denison announced the initiation of a Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") for the Wheeler River property and the complimentary commencement of an infill drilling program at the Gryphon deposit to bring the inferred resources to an indicated level of confidence.

As previously announced on January 10, 2017, Denison has entered into an agreement with its Wheeler River Joint Venture partners, Cameco and JCU, to fund 75% of Joint Venture expenses in 2017 and 2018 (ordinarily 60%) in exchange for an increase in Denison's interest in the project to up to approximately 66%. Under the terms of the agreement, Cameco will fund 50% of its ordinary 30% share in 2017 and 2018, and JCU is expected to continue to fund its 10% interest in the project.

About Denison

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan. Including its 60% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering over 330,000 hectares in the infrastructure rich eastern Athabasca Basin. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is currently processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposit and a 63.01% interest in the J Zone deposit on the Waterbury Lake property. Both the Midwest and J Zone deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill.

Denison is also engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its Denison Environmental Services division and is the manager of Uranium Participation Corp., a publicly traded company which invests in uranium oxide and uranium hexafluoride.
Oakland, CA Legal team representing a 44-year-old African American man who claims he was harassed and discriminated against while working as an assembly line worker at the Tesla car factory in Fremont, California is adding a charge of retaliation to the already long list of claims of violations of the Legal team representing a 44-year-old African American man who claims he was harassed and discriminated against while working as an assembly line worker at the Tesla car factory in Fremont, California is adding a charge of retaliation to the already long list of claims of violations of the California state labor laws.

DeWitt Lambert, who says Tesla management ignored his complaints and allowed co-workers to taunt him in his workplace with the N-word and other racial slurs, was placed on administrative leave by the company in March 2017 after the lawsuit he filed against the company began to be widely reported in the media.However, Lamberts attorney, Lawrence A. Organ from the California Civil Rights Law Group in Oakland, California says the company is not paying Lambert what it should be paying someone on administrative leave.They put my client on administrative leave and announced that publicly, says well-known civil rights lawyer Lawrence Organ. They said he was going to be paid administrative leave but he is only getting about  of what he was earning before. I dont know what their formula is for administrative leave but it appears to be a severe cut in pay.Usually when you are on administrative leave that means you get the pay you usually get, adds Organ. He is not getting that  I think that is retaliation.Lambert is an electrician by trade and moved to California from Alabama in 2012. He finally landed his dream job with Tesla in April of 2016 at the Fremont, California plant where he worked on the Tesla S model.According to the documents filed and the state of claim almost immediately Lambert began to be routinely subjected to harassing behavior by four male colleagues, all of whom were in their 20s. They filled his pockets with nuts and screws, they made comments about the size of his penis, they repeatedly used the N-word, they stole his phone and left video messages on it even threatening his family. On one occasion one of the men placed a drill gun into Lamberts buttocks while the others looked on.In approximately October 2015, the harassment and violent threats taking place were recorded on Lambert's iPhone. A transcript of the recording was included in the state of claim.Nigger, we take your ass home, nigger. Shred you up in pieces, nigger. Cut you up, nigger. Send your ass so everyone in your family so everybody can have a piece of you, nigger. Straight up, nigger. We get down like that, nigger.Lambert was quoted in a March 27, 2017 press release from Lawrence Organs firm saying, "When I began working at Tesla I was happier than I've ever been. Now, I've experienced discrimination worse than anything I experienced growing up in Alabama and I'm scared for my safety every evening when I leave the plant. I asked for help from Tesla's management and it never came."The causes of action filed in Alameda County include race harassment, race discrimination, harassment sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation, Threats of Violence in Violation of the Ralph Act, Violation of the Bane Act, failure to accommodate, failure to engage in the interactive process, and assault and battery.Tesla is currently asking the courts to move Lamberts complaints to arbitration for resolution. In response to a request for comment a Tesla spokesperson said, We believe strongly in having a good working environment and that people should look forward to coming to work every day. When we hear complaints or concerns raised by our employees, we take them very seriously.Tesla vehemently denies any wrongdoing and in a statement provided to LAS made clear Tesla believes DeWitt Lambert also participated in negative workplace events. We have terminated several employees based on what we have learned and have suspended Dewitt with pay so that we can finish investigating the circumstances of the instant messages that were just provided to us about his threats of violence against coworkers. We will continue to take action as necessary, including parting ways with anyone whose behavior prevents Tesla from being a great place to work, the Tesla statement said.
by Philip Rosenstein , May 26, 2017

Photobucket Joins Cuebiqs Publisher Network

Location data provider Cuebiq has partnered with photo-sharing platform Photobucket, with Photobucket gaining access to Cuebiqs location data troves.

Utilizing new data points that will be available for us by Cuebiq will help us better understand how our users interact with our apps," stated John Corpus, CEO of Photobucket.

Photobucket joins over 180 other publishers in Cuebiqs network, with a total of more than 61 million monthly active users. Photobuckets 100 million registered members will further grow Cuebiqs location data stores.

TabMo Opens North American Offices

TabMo, a French mobile demand-side platform (DSP), has made its programmatic mobile platform, Hawk, available to North American advertisers and agencies.

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The companys North American launch includes opening new offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as the hire of Leroy Holland, who will serve as managing director U.S., overseeing TabMos growth and client relationships in the U.S. market.

As marketers continue to pursue their audiences in these unique environments, theyll need technology that is built around mobile devices and delivery, stated Holland. The current desktop DSPs, while they have scale, are not meeting advertisers cross-device needs, and as a result, will not last in a mobile-dominant media landscape.



DatoramaLaunches AI-Powered Capability To Speed Up Discovery Of Marketing Insights

Marketing intelligence company Datorama has launched Datorama Genius, an artificial intelligence capability to automate the process for marketers receiving marketing insights.

With Datorama Genius, marketers can 1) get deeper insights and optimization paths from their data, which is also informed by hundreds of other data sources; 2) automate the insight discovery process, beyond the traditional data points that are available through common platforms; 3) create visualizations and natural language explanations of marketing insights, and get Datorama Genius to learn from user interactions; and 4) choose the key performance indicators that are of particular importance to the campaign in question.

Eyeota, Treasure Data Partner To Enhance Audience Data Segments

Audience data company Eyeota has partnered with Treasure Data, a customer data platform, to offer its audience data segments to an expanded set of clients across the globe.

Eyeotas data will be integrated into Treasure Datas customer data platform, allowing brands to leverage the combination of first- and third-party data.

Treasure Datas capabilities to collect, unify and act on first-party data, enriched by Eyeotas 3.5 billion unique profiles, will empower marketers to improve their targeting," stated Hiro Yoshikawa, CEO of Treasure Data.

Thunder Taps Huffman To Lead Southern States Sales Push

Creative management platform Thunder has hired John Huffman to serve as sales director. Based in Dallas, Huffman will cover Texas and the surrounding states, building Thunders client base.

Huffman previously worked at major programmatic firms including Adobe, Quantcast, Rocket Fuel and Yahoo!.
Since Hollywood loves a nostalgic reboot, its no surprise that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is setting sail once again, six years after 2011s On Stranger Tides. For this film, subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, Disney has hired a lesser-known filmmaking duo to reanimate the series  a pair of Norweigan filmmakers, Joachim Rnning and Espen Sandberg, who helmed the 2012 oceanic adventure film Kon-Tiki. What theyve delivered is a cookie-cutter Pirates movie that faithfully follows the formula.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is a strictly color-by-numbers affair. Watching it feels like reading a recipe attempting to replicate what made these films appealing in the first place. Mix one swaggering, slurring, Johnny Depp (heavy on the eyeliner), one headstrong young lass in a cleavage-baring corset, and one noble, handsome upstart. Fold in a waterlogged supernatural villain, then haphazardly sprinkle a daring heist, an execution escape, and several nautical battles. Finish with a supremely outlandish denouement.

The story laid on top of that concerns young sailor Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), determined to free his father, Will (Orlando Bloom), from a watery cursed existence. Henry believes the notorious Jack Sparrow (Depp) will help him find the trident of Poseidon to break the curse. Its a wonder anyone thinks Sparrow can do anything in his rum-sodden state, but Turner links up with the soggy old pirate and a young woman, imprisoned for witchcraft (read: science), Carina (Kaya Scodelario), who claims to have the Map No Man Can Read, a diary of astronomical instructions that she believes will lead them to the trident.

They just have to escape Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem), a Spanish captain doomed to a ghostly existence by Sparrow. Hes been working out his frustrations pillaging Captain Barbosas (Geoffrey Rush) fleet, making his way to Sparrow. Carina leads this whole brigade with her map to the stars. Despite following her, no one actually believes that she knows shes talking about. Its frustrating, but also gratifying, when she is eventually able to prove herself right  ultimately, this is a film about men not believing women when they speak.

As charming buffoon Jack Sparrow, Depp has always been able to walk the line between hero and damsel in distress, but one cant help but think that his performance here works only because of the groundwork laid in prior Pirates pictures. He simply gestures toward the Jack Sparrow notes that weve already enjoyed, previous punchlines included. One scene offers a glimpse of Sparrows origin story, which could be rich cinematic terroir, but rendered with digital airbrushing, the zombie youth-effect is distracting.

Rnning and Sandberg have a faculty for dry-land action sequences, full of Buster Keaton-style feats of physics. A bank vault robbery references a similar stunt from Fast Five. But their ocean-bound action leaves something to be desired. Ghost ships loom out of the night fog, unfurling and attacking like a giant centipede filled with half-faced warriors. The geography and timelines are muddled and confusing; all is lost in a grayish CGI blur.

Dead Men Tell No Tales suggests that there still may be oceans of Pirates of The Caribbean story to discover  perhaps a prequel  but there are no new treasures to be found in this installment, which is dragged down by the anchor of a prescribed franchise blueprint.
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, May 26, 2017

Picture Motion, a new kind of impact marketing agency that began as a boutique shop promoting cause-related independent films, is expanding from its documentary roots into features, as well as more conventional consumer brand marketing, and it is bringing some strategic campaign planning talent in to help support it.

Michael Denton has joined as vice president of campaign strategy and will focus on developing and executing social action campaigns for film and other media-related projects.

Denton, who joins from executive director and CEO of Code/Interactive, a non-profit mentoring students from underprivileged communities to give them access to careers in technology, described his role as an exciting time for the intersection of film and impact.

Best known for creating social activation and event marketing campaigns promoting award-winding independent films such as Bully, Fruitvale Station and Lion, Picture Motion has begun working on more mainstream theatricals, including "The Zookeeper's Wife, "Miss Sloane," and series such as Shonda Rhimes and Norman Lear produced "America Divided."

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According to founder-CEO Christie Marchese, the shop is beginning to work directly with consumer brands utilizing films in content marketing or sponsorship strategies. It recently executed brand-based campaigns for Red Bulls Blood Road and for Dick Sporting Goods sponsorship of Keepers of the Game.

The common principle, she says, is leveraging media to drive social change and making and impact through their film campaigns.
by Larissa Faw , May 26, 2017

Luxury-specialist shop Team One has named Kyle Acquistapace executive director of its Idea Communications unit. The position is new. Acquistapace will oversee the agencys public relations, experiential marketing and media department.

He will also join the executive leadership team of the Publicis Groupe-owned 500-person shop. Based in Los Angeles, he reports to Team One president Julie Michael.

Acquistapace touted the agencies "robust media resources," adding, "my main goal is to continue to harness those 100+ media, PR and experiential people for the best possible ideas for our premium and luxury brand clients.

The industry veteran has more than 20 years of experience in general agency management, media and analytics. He worked at Deutsch for almost 17 years and spent one year as president of Santa Monica, CA-based ad agency Supermoon.

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He has worked with brands including Volkswagen, Sprint, Sony PlayStation, General Motors, Zillow, HTC and others.

In addition to its LA headquarters, Team One has offices in New York, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Chicago and Dallas.

"Having a deep bench of media, PR, experiential and digital resources under one roof is a special capabilities mix and uncommon in our industry, says Michael. We needed the right person to keep propelling our integrated vision forward. As the agency moves more deeply into immersive realities, 360 video, artificial intelligence and smart-home technologies, it will require that we have the right mix of progressive leaders at the top.
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, May 26, 2017

New York City is expected to be the worst-hit among the many U.S. markets that expect damage to their tourism businesses this year, thanks to the negative impacts of Trump administration policies and pronouncements on international visitors to the U.S.

Through 2016, New York City had enjoyed seven consecutive years of record-breaking travel and tourism growth.

Last years 60.3 million total visitors to the city represented about a 2 million increase over 2015. The 2016 total included an estimated 12.7 million international visitors and 47.6 million visitors from the U.S.  again, both record numbers.

But that was before Donald Trump took office.

Although federal courts have so far blocked his attempts to temporarily ban travel from six majority-Muslim countries, news about that intention has dampened interest worldwide in visiting the U.S., travel and tourism executives told USA Today at the end of March. Subsequent reports that the administration is developing extreme vetting procedures for international visitors; frequently captured footage of alleged illegal immigrants being hauled away by authorities (such arrests are up nearly 40% under Trump); and threatening rhetoric have not served to allay fears about what kind of treatment even law-abiding travelers might encounter here.

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As a result, travel trends expert Tourism Economics has projected that the U.S. as a whole will see 4.3 million fewer international visitors in 2017, and another 6.3 million fewer in 2018, resulting in losses of about $7.4 billion and $10.8 billion, respectively, in those years. U.S. tourism currently generates about $250 billion annually.

As of this past December, New York had been expecting another robust increase in visits and revenue. NYC & Company, the citys official destination marketing organization, originally forecast 61.8 million total visitors, including 13.1 million international visitors400,000 more than in 2016  and 48.7 million domestic travelers.

The revised, post-Trump projection calls for 300,000 fewer international visitors than in 2016  although a 1 million-plus projected increase in domestic visitors should net an overall gain of about 1 million versus 2016, for a total of about 61.7 million visitors.

While non-U.S. visitors make up only 20% of the Big Apples total tourists, they spend considerably more  an average of $2,000 per person  than domestic visitors, New York magazine reported. Hence, the dip in international tourists is expected to result in an outsized revenue hit of at least $600 million for the five boroughs, and a $120-million loss in tax revenue for the city and New York State. The worst-case projection is a $900 million loss in direct spending and another $900 million in indirect economic rippling effects.

Trumps actions and words have created a considerable perception challenge for New York City, which  as the U.S.s largest entry port, has the most to lose, NYC & Company global communications executive Chris Heywood told the magazine.

Mexico is the citys ninth-largest country of origin for NYC tourism. These travelers spent more than $1 billion in the city in 2015, representing an average per visitor of $2,315, according to Crains New York. But this year, Mexican visitors, whose numbers had been on the rise (449,000 last year), are projected to decline by 6%, thanks to Trump insulting Mexicans by characterizing them as criminals and harping about building a wall across the Mexican border.

New Yorks tourists from Mexico are largely affluent leisure and business travelers who come repeatedly and shop heavily, and business groups from Mexico have canceled plans for conferences years out, the bureau told Crains.

NYC Fights Back



In response to these threats to its tourism, New York City  which must also spend an estimated $308,000 per day on security for Trump Tower when Trump is in town, and $149,000 per day when its just Melania and his son in the building  is not just crossing its fingers and hoping for the best.

At the end of the first quarter, NYC & Company launched a new, $3-million campaign, New York City, Welcoming the World. The advertising  featuring the most iconic welcoming image of all, the Statue of Liberty  is now appearing on billboards and in other channels in the United Kingdom, Germany and other Western European countries, as well as Mexico and other key markets.

In April, NYC & Company also renewed the citys alliance with Mexico City to boost tourism between the two metropolises  although this agreement is for one year instead of the three-year agreement originally signed in 2013.

Its important now more than ever to reinforce our commitment and do all we can to welcome the world to both of our extraordinary destinations, said NYC & Company CEO Fred Dixon, at the signing ceremony.

Starting later this year, New York City tourism promotions will appear across multimedia channels in Mexico City, while several LinkNYC kiosks and bus stop shelters in New York will promote Mexico City tourism. The two cities will also seek to drive more tourist traffic between the destinations by sharing tourism management best practices and collaborating on offers by third-party travel providers between the destinations.

NYC & Company is running an integrated, Spanish-language version of the Welcoming the World campaign in Mexico from April 25 through July 3, in partnership with Best Day Travel and media partner JC Decaux. The $900,000 campaign, led by out-of-home, includes promotion of a discounted air and hotel travel package and incentives for travel between May 1 and July 31.



Mexico City Tourism, in turn, will work with its flagship airline partner, Aeromexico, to offer future travel incentives for visitors originating in New York City.

New York isnt alone in fighting back, of course. Also in April, the Discover Los Angeles tourism board unleashed a similar counter-messaging campaign, We Welcome Everyone. Among other elements, that campaign includes videos and Instagram and other social media efforts using #EveryoneIsWelcome.

Meanwhile, Brand USAs new campaign, See How Far You Can Go, is inviting travelers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the UK to be the heroes of their own USA experience, the organizations CEO, Christopher Thompson, told USA Today.



While the implication probably wasnt intended, it does seem that these days, courage is a desirable trait for visitors to the United States.
Babcock International Group PLC, together with its subsidiaries, provides value-add services for aerospace, defense, and security in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Africa, North America, Australasia, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Marine, Nuclear, Land, and Aviation. It designs, procures, operates, and manages critical utility and process equipment; offers asset management, defense and maritime training, information and intelligence, equipment and system, and facilities and infrastructure services, as well as naval platforms; and designs, manufactures, and provides through-life support for mechanical and electrical systems and equipment. The company also offers naval architecture, engineering, and project management services; submarines and complex engineering services in support of various decommissioning programs and projects, training and operation support, new build program management, and design and installation; critical vehicle fleet management, and equipment support and training services for military and civil customers; and designs, assesses, manufactures, installs, maintains, and decommissions vehicles for police, fire and ambulance, civil service, military, and other security-focused organizations. In addition, it provides plain line track renewal services; and engineering services for track projects, signaling, telecommunications, and on-track plants. Further, the company offers critical engineering services to defense and civil customers, including pilot training, equipment support, and airbase management, as well as operates aviation fleets that provide delivering emergency services. Babcock International Group PLC was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
BRF S.A. focuses on raising, producing, and slaughtering poultry and pork for processing, production, and sale of fresh meat, processed products, pasta, margarine, and other products. The company's product portfolio comprises meat products, including frozen whole and cut chicken, frozen pork, and beef; processed food products, such as marinated, frozen, whole and cut chicken, roosters, turkey meat, sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacon, cold meats, other smoked products, chicken sausages, chicken hot dogs, and chicken bologna; and frozen processed meats comprising hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibbeh, and meatballs. It also produces and sells frozen prepared entrees, such as pastas and pizzas, including lasagna, macaroni, sandwiches, cheese breads, and other ready-to-eat meals; pies and pastries comprising chicken and heart-of-palm pies, sauces, and toppings; frozen desserts; plant-based products, such as nuggets, pies, vegetables, and hamburgers; and soy meal, refined soy flour, and animal feed, as well as sell frozen French fries, margarine, butter, and cream cheese. The company primarily sells its products under the Sadia, Perdigao, Qualy, Chester, Kidelli, Perdix, Biofresh, Gran Plus, and Banvit brands. It serves supermarkets, wholesalers, retail stores, food services, restaurants, and other institutional buyers. The company is also involved in the provision of consultancy, marketing, and logistics services; commercialization of electric energy; and import, industrialization, and commercialization of products. BRF S.A. operates primarily in Brazil, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and internationally. The company was formerly known as BRF-Brasil Foods S.A. and changed its name to BRF S.A. in April 2013. BRF S.A. was founded in 1934 and is headquartered in Itajai, Brazil.
NextEra Energy, Inc. is the largest electric utility holding company in the US. It operates a network of power generation and distribution facilities that include fossil-fuel-generated and green energy. As of mid-2022, the company was capable of generating 58 GW of electricity with nearly 60% of the load produced by green sources including wind and solar. In their view, going green isnt an option, its the solution. NextEra Energy has been recognized multiple times as a leader in clean energy and ESG practices and was ranked the #1 electric and gas utility on the Forbes list of Most Admired Companies.

The company is the result of several mergers that begin with FPL Group. FPL Group is now a subsidiary of NextEra Energy and the third-largest provider of electricity in the US servicing nearly half of Florida. FPL and its affiliates are the single largest provider of renewable energy generated from wind and sun. The group changed its name in 2010 following a decision to shift focus onto renewable energy sources.

Today, NextEra Energy, Inc through its subsidiary FPL serves about 12 million people in eastern and southwestern Florida. The company employs nearly 14,900 people who service 5.8 million accounts. The company is in business to generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to retail and wholesale clients. Electricity is generated through wind, solar, nuclear, natural gas, and coal-fired facilities.

The company is also engaged in the construction and operation of new facilities, specifically renewable power generation, storage, and delivery facilities, and can offer custom solutions tailored to any need. Offerings include tailored services to assist businesses with their transition to clean energy.

NextEra Energy also owns and operates 7 nuclear power stations in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin generating power for the wholesale market.

Unlike other companies that are targeting net-zero emissions, NextEra Energy has a plan to reach real zero and is investing heavily to reach that goal by 2045. The company had invested nearly $50 billion in green energy infrastructure and initiatives by mid-2022. The plan is to first work on reducing its own emissions and then take its knowledge and expertise to the world.
Navigant Consulting, Inc. provides professional services worldwide. It operates through three segments: Healthcare, Energy, and Financial Services Advisory and Compliance. The Healthcare segment offers consulting and business process management services to healthcare providers, payers, and life sciences companies. This segment helps clients respond to market legislative changes, such as the shift to an outcome and value-based reimbursements model, ongoing industry consolidation and reorganization, Medicaid expansion, the implementation of a electronic health records system, and product planning and commercialization expertise. The Energy segment provides life-cycle solutions that help clients businesses in changing energy environment, manage complexity, accelerate operational performance, and meet compliance requirements, as well as transform its organizations and systems; and various benchmarking, and data and market research services. This segment serves utility and energy companies, government and nongovernmental organizations, large corporations, product manufacturers, and investors. The Financial Services Advisory and Compliance segment provides strategic, operational, valuation, risk management, investigative, and compliance advisory services to financial services industry, including financial and insurance institutions. This segment also offers anti-corruption solutions and anti-money laundering consulting, litigation support, and tax compliance services. Navigant Consulting, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
A 64-year-old Gibbon man was found dead early Friday after his truck was located on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Hall County.

Sheriff's deputies were called to the rail line, west of U.S. 30 and Nebraska 11, just before 6:30 a.m., a news release said.

Deputies believe Gary Rouse, 64, had a medical issue that caused him to leave the roadway and stop on the tracks. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
About 10,000 hectares of maize farms in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality have come under attack by army worms.

The Ashanti Regional Director of the Food and Agriculture Ministry (MoFA), Joseph Falong, said the situation was troubling and required urgent action.

He warned that any delay to stop the destruction by the large colony of army worms could threaten food security.

He disclosed this while speaking during an inspection of some of the affected farms by the Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah.

The pests were detected last year, and have since spread rapidly, wreaking havoc on crops.

The Minister had gone to the area  the food basket of the region  accounting for large proportion of grains, cereals and tubers production, to assess the extent of damage and the response to get things under control.

The green-striped caterpillar larvae of moths, belonging to the genus 'spodoptera', are very destructive, because they eat the reproductive parts of the plant and leaves.

Mr. Falong informed the Minister that they had taken delivery of pesticides to spray the farms and this would be carried out by a team of MoFA personnel.

They were eager to get things done quickly to save the investment of farmers and ensure food security.

Mr. Osei-Mensah gave the assurance that no effort would be spared to halt the spread of the pests.

He said developing the nation's agriculture to increase food production and create jobs was a top-most priority of the government.

He later inspected road projects designed to boost economic activities in the area and the adjoining Asante-Mampong Municipality.

These included the Hwediem-Nsuta, Anyinofi-Bondaso and Ejura Market Roads.

GNA


One of Ghana's award-winning jazz artistes, Owura Kay, who has worked closely with a number of jazz and highlife music stars for a decade, has disclosed that all is set for the release of his fourth album titled 'Diamond In The Dust'.

According to the self-acclaimed best guitarist in Ghana, the album which features a number of artistes, including Alfred Barnerman, is ready and will be released latest by December this year.

The Afro-jazz artiste who is credited with three albums and a number of hit songs mentioned that his latest album has a number inspiring fusion jazz songs which will meet the demand of jazz music lovers in Ghana and beyond.

Hard work and the determination to succeed have helped him successfully carve a niche for himself, making him a force to reckon with when one talks about gospel music.

The jazz artiste has performed with great musicians like Steve Wonder, Hugh Masekela, Magic System Band from Ivory Coast, Amandzeba, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Bessa Simons, Jimmy Dludlu and a host of others

He has been to several music festivals around the world performing with his guitar.

Owura Kay told BEATWAVES that he is ready to put his best into music in order to come out with good songs that will educate the masses on issues affecting the society.

He stated that his primary musical influences are African music, jazz and rock.

Some of the most prominent musicians who have inspired him are Richard Bona, Peter White, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Ernest Ranglin and Hugh Masekela.

By George Clifford Owusu


26.05.2017 LISTEN

The problem with my country Ghana is not poverty as Nana Addo has rightly identified. Our problem is corruption front, back and center. The average Ghanaian is corrupt. The police is corrupt even including the IGP himself, the army is corrupt, the customs and border agency as well as the immigration services are all corrupt, The media is corrupt, the average civil service personnel is corrupt so what on earth should anyone expects Ghana to move forward?

If people say Ghana will prosper under NPP, I just look at them and laugh. I see such optimists as ignorant poor souls who are day dreaming about a fantasy. Ghana as it is now can never develop, never, not in our life time. Not until somebody rises up and kill everyone over 20 years old to pave the way for a new breed of Ghanaians, the corruption will pass on from generation to generation.

I submitted documents to register a piece of land that I purchased in 2002. the documents were submitted in 2011 and till today, I have been chasing the documents inspite of the numerous bribes and kickbacks I have paid in addition to the official fees. Only God knows when my documents will be ready.

After paying for one additional electric meter for an apartment in my house 4 years ago, I still have not received the meter and everytime, it is go and come until I lost the receipt and had to pay for it the second and third times and still, I do not have the meter. Everybody who deals with the ECG Dome-Kwabenya station knows about what I am saying here. yet we have people there working and being paid salaries every month. can anybody blame people for illegal connection if they can not get meter after 3 years of application? which country are we living in?

Importation of used mattresses and fridges in commercial quantities are banned in Ghana, yet I have seen with my nacked eyes that a container load of used mattresses and fridges were offloaded into a container truck at the Jubilee terminal in broad day light whiles customs wanted to confiscate my 2 used commercial fridges meant for my proposed restaurant. In Ghana, only the small man suffers and the big men get away with murder. One 40 footer container of banned goods were given a free pass, yet my 2 pieces of used fridges suffered huge penaly before clearance. This is the Ghana we live in and you think this country can develop. You must be joking !!!!

In Ghana, every government service that you want to ascess, you have to pay bribe, recruitment into police service and the military is no exception. Even getting into politics to render your service to your own country is based on bribe, without bribe, you can not go anywhere in politics.

Even in the house of God, people pay bribes. I have heard about countless number of Pastors who pay bribes to be sent to Pastor diaspora branches of their various curches. corruption is endemic in Ghana so much that, if that were to be the only criteria for going to heaven, it would be extremely difficult for any soul to be saved in Ghana.

At the filling stations, the pumps are manipulated and when you buy 10 gallons of fuel, you end up getting 6 gallons, this is corruption and thiefly. In my travels, I have seen a lot of Nigerians holding Ghana passport eventhough they can not even speak a single Ghanaian language, yet bonafide citizens can not get their passports renewed and you hear people living in London and Italy and other countries crying everyday for their passports to be renewed.

Ghana laws forbid foreigners from engaging in retail trade but you go to Okaishie, and other parts of Accra you will see that foreigners have taken over most of our retail businesses and when you dig deep, you will find that, it is our own brothers and sisters who have used their names to register those businesses for the foreigners for peanuts. when we sell our dignity to foreigners for cheap in this way, how on earth do we expect them to respect us? Look at the recent news that a minister in the erstwhile NDC government traded sex for galamsey licence for a Chinnese lady

I can go on and on to hilight every aspect of our lives where corruption is so deeply rooted even including our reverred chieftancy institution where our chirfs have become so corrupt that they sell parcels of family lands entrusted to them and misuse the proceeds.

Since independence, there is not a single state institution that has operated on its own without governemt subvention or bailout at a time. Look at SIC, Ghana Commercial Bank, State Transport Corp.TOR, etc. There is not a single country in the western world where insurance companies whether public or private opearte at a loss. Insurance is by its nature a profitable business except the State insurance corporation of Ghana.

I can only conclude that, the Ghanaian is by nature corrupt therefore, public institutions can hardly succeed in such an atmosphere, only private businesses and ventures can survive in this kind of culture. The government must seriously consider getting out of any kind of business whether jointly owned with the private sector or wholy owned by gevernment and concerntrate only on the business of gevernance. No public owned business will ever thrive in Ghana given the current breed of Ghanaians and the "lets give it to God" attitude of Ghanaians. Only in Ghana that when people embezzle public funds and they apologise, the matter is ended. Politicians build filling stations and mansions and use their children's name to register them and when you ask them they tell you that I do not own a single filling station on the face of the earth, and the matter ends there. We must be serious as a country for once if we want to go forward as a nation.

The problem with my country Ghana is not poverty as Nana Addo has rightly identified. Our problem is corruption front, back and center. The average Ghanaian is corrupt. The police is corrupt even including the IGP himself, the army is corrupt, the customs and border agency as well as the immigration services are all corrupt, The media is corrupt, the average civil service personnel is corrupt so what on earth should anyone expects Ghana to move forward?

If people say Ghana will prosper under NPP, I just look at them and laugh. I see such optimists as ignorant poor souls who are day dreaming about a fantasy. Ghana as it is now can never develop, never, not in our life time. Not until somebody rises up and kill everyone over 20 years old to pave the way for a new breed of Ghanaians, the corruption will pass on from generation to generation.

I submitted documents to register a piece of land that I purchased in 2002. the documents were submitted in 2011 and till today, I have been chasing the documents inspite of the numerous bribes and kickbacks I have paid in addition to the official fees. Only God knows when my documents will be ready.

After paying for one additional electric meter for an apartment in my house 4 years ago, I still have not received the meter and everytime, it is go and come until I lost the receipt and had to pay for it the second and third times and still, I do not have the meter. Everybody who deals with the ECG Dome-Kwabenya station knows about what I am saying here. yet we have people there working and being paid salaries every month. can anybody blame people for illegal connection if they can not get meter after 3 years of application? which country are we living in?

Importation of used mattresses and fridges in commercial quantities are banned in Ghana, yet I have seen with my nacked eyes that a container load of used mattresses and fridges were offloaded into a container truck at the Jubilee terminal in broad day light whiles customs wanted to confiscate my 2 used commercial fridges meant for my proposed restaurant. In Ghana, only the small man suffers and the big men get away with murder. One 40 footer container of banned goods were given a free pass, yet my 2 pieces of used fridges suffered huge penaly before clearance. This is the Ghana we live in and you think this country can develop. You must be joking !!!!

In Ghana, every government service that you want to ascess, you have to pay bribe, recruitment into police service and the military is no exception. Even getting into politics to render your service to your own country is based on bribe, without bribe, you can not go anywhere in politics.

Even in the house of God, people pay bribes. I have heard about countless number of Pastors who pay bribes to be sent to Pastor diaspora branches of their various curches. corruption is endemic in Ghana so much that, if that were to be the only criteria for going to heaven, it would be extremely difficult for any soul to be saved in Ghana.

At the filling stations, the pumps are manipulated and when you buy 10 gallons of fuel, you end up getting 6 gallons, this is corruption and thiefly. In my travels, I have seen a lot of Nigerians holding Ghana passport eventhough they can not even speak a single Ghanaian language, yet bonafide citizens can not get their passports renewed and you hear people living in London and Italy and other countries crying everyday for their passports to be renewed.

Ghana laws forbid foreigners from engaging in retail trade but you go to Okaishie, and other parts of Accra you will see that foreigners have taken over most of our retail businesses and when you dig deep, you will find that, it is our own brothers and sisters who have used their names to register those businesses for the foreigners for peanuts. when we sell our dignity to foreigners for cheap in this way, how on earth do we expect them to respect us? Look at the recent news that a minister in the erstwhile NDC government traded sex for galamsey licence for a Chinnese lady

I can go on and on to hilight every aspect of our lives where corruption is so deeply rooted even including our reverred chieftancy institution where our chirfs have become so corrupt that they sell parcels of family lands entrusted to them and misuse the proceeds.

Since independence, there is not a single state institution that has operated on its own without governemt subvention or bailout at a time. Look at SIC, Ghana Commercial Bank, State Transport Corp.TOR, etc. There is not a single country in the western world where insurance companies whether public or private opearte at a loss. Insurance is by its nature a profitable business except the State insurance corporation of Ghana.

I can only conclude that, the Ghanaian is by nature corrupt therefore, public institutions can hardly succeed in such an atmosphere, only private businesses and ventures can survive in this kind of culture. The government must seriously consider getting out of any kind of business whether jointly owned with the private sector or wholy owned by gevernment and concerntrate only on the business of gevernance. No public owned business will ever thrive in Ghana given the current breed of Ghanaians and the "lets give it to God" attitude of Ghanaians. Only in Ghana that when people embezzle public funds and they apologise, the matter is ended. Politicians build filling stations and mansions and use their children's name to register them and when you ask them they tell you that I do not own a single filling station on the face of the earth, and the matter ends there. We must be serious as a country for once if we want to go forward as a nation.

The problem with my country Ghana is not poverty as Nana Addo has rightly identified. Our problem is corruption front, back and center. The average Ghanaian is corrupt. The police is corrupt even including the IGP himself, the army is corrupt, the customs and border agency as well as the immigration services are all corrupt, The media is corrupt, the average civil service personnel is corrupt so what on earth should anyone expects Ghana to move forward?

If people say Ghana will prosper under NPP, I just look at them and laugh. I see such optimists as ignorant poor souls who are day dreaming about a fantasy. Ghana as it is now can never develop, never, not in our life time. Not until somebody rises up and kill everyone over 20 years old to pave the way for a new breed of Ghanaians, the corruption will pass on from generation to generation.

I submitted documents to register a piece of land that I purchased in 2002. the documents were submitted in 2011 and till today, I have been chasing the documents inspite of the numerous bribes and kickbacks I have paid in addition to the official fees. Only God knows when my documents will be ready.

After paying for one additional electric meter for an apartment in my house 4 years ago, I still have not received the meter and everytime, it is go and come until I lost the receipt and had to pay for it the second and third times and still, I do not have the meter. Everybody who deals with the ECG Dome-Kwabenya station knows about what I am saying here. yet we have people there working and being paid salaries every month. can anybody blame people for illegal connection if they can not get meter after 3 years of application? which country are we living in?

Importation of used mattresses and fridges in commercial quantities are banned in Ghana, yet I have seen with my nacked eyes that a container load of used mattresses and fridges were offloaded into a container truck at the Jubilee terminal in broad day light whiles customs wanted to confiscate my 2 used commercial fridges meant for my proposed restaurant. In Ghana, only the small man suffers and the big men get away with murder. One 40 footer container of banned goods were given a free pass, yet my 2 pieces of used fridges suffered huge penaly before clearance. This is the Ghana we live in and you think this country can develop. You must be joking !!!!

In Ghana, every government service that you want to ascess, you have to pay bribe, recruitment into police service and the military is no exception. Even getting into politics to render your service to your own country is based on bribe, without bribe, you can not go anywhere in politics.

Even in the house of God, people pay bribes. I have heard about countless number of Pastors who pay bribes to be sent to Pastor diaspora branches of their various curches. corruption is endemic in Ghana so much that, if that were to be the only criteria for going to heaven, it would be extremely difficult for any soul to be saved in Ghana.

At the filling stations, the pumps are manipulated and when you buy 10 gallons of fuel, you end up getting 6 gallons, this is corruption and thiefly. In my travels, I have seen a lot of Nigerians holding Ghana passport eventhough they can not even speak a single Ghanaian language, yet bonafide citizens can not get their passports renewed and you hear people living in London and Italy and other countries crying everyday for their passports to be renewed.

Ghana laws forbid foreigners from engaging in retail trade but you go to Okaishie, and other parts of Accra you will see that foreigners have taken over most of our retail businesses and when you dig deep, you will find that, it is our own brothers and sisters who have used their names to register those businesses for the foreigners for peanuts. when we sell our dignity to foreigners for cheap in this way, how on earth do we expect them to respect us? Look at the recent news that a minister in the erstwhile NDC government traded sex for galamsey licence for a Chinnese lady

I can go on and on to hilight every aspect of our lives where corruption is so deeply rooted even including our reverred chieftancy institution where our chirfs have become so corrupt that they sell parcels of family lands entrusted to them and misuse the proceeds.

Since independence, there is not a single state institution that has operated on its own without governemt subvention or bailout at a time. Look at SIC, Ghana Commercial Bank, State Transport Corp.TOR, etc. There is not a single country in the western world where insurance companies whether public or private opearte at a loss. Insurance is by its nature a profitable business except the State insurance corporation of Ghana.

I can only conclude that, the Ghanaian is by nature corrupt therefore, public institutions can hardly succeed in such an atmosphere, only private businesses and ventures can survive in this kind of culture. The government must seriously consider getting out of any kind of business whether jointly owned with the private sector or wholy owned by gevernment and concerntrate only on the business of gevernance. No public owned business will ever thrive in Ghana given the current breed of Ghanaians and the "lets give it to God" attitude of Ghanaians. Only in Ghana that when people embezzle public funds and they apologise, the matter is ended. Politicians build filling stations and mansions and use their children's name to register them and when you ask them they tell you that I do not own a single filling station on the face of the earth, and the matter ends there. We must be serious as a country for once if we want to go forward as a nation.
And for you the ladies, dont waste time. Marry. Get married. Now that you are professionals, you need to marry since you can support your husbands. If you dont do it early enough, you will have difficulties finding someone later. You know you are not like the men; they have time, but we have to think about giving birth and so on. There is no perfect man. If you waste time, dont say I didnt warn you, a female teacher of a college of education admonished her students.

As she spoke her face assumed a kind of seriousness the students had never seen before. She sounded as though if they did not get married a year or two later, they would be doomed for life, their achievements worthless, nullified by their inexcusable inability to find a man early enough.

The said teacher had a masters degree at the time and so her emotive pronouncement could not be justified by a dearth or lack of schooling. Without demanding too much of anyone, someone with a masters degree is expected to be objective on issues, using reason and adducing evidence. But that remains an expectation! And so advocacy beyond the formal school system is critical.

The institution of marriage is held in high esteem in Ghana. It is one of those things that you have people overwhelming you with unsolicited pieces of advice, and pointless reprimands. To marry is to have achieved something remarkably honorable and sacred, to have become responsible, to have become a man or a woman, to have settled (from the restlessness and anxiety of single life, I assume.)

Even though it takes a man and a woman to have a marriage, enormous pressure is usually put on women while the men are encouraged to marry. The reason for pressurizing ladies into marriage is age. Some people like to put it crudely: women have expiry dates. This is usually linked to childbearing. It is not good to give birth late, people usually say, brimming with self-satisfaction as if to suggest that late is self-explanatory.

Admittedly research has revealed that ladies in their late thirties are more predisposed to maternal health risks than younger ones. But most ladies are hounded and literally pushed into inconvenient marriages before they reach age thirty. In some remote areas age sixteen is too high. And have we not had older women give birth to bouncing babies while younger ones give birth to not-so-bouncing ones? Truth is countless ladies have abandoned their dreams, big dreams to make our world better and succumbed to a farce of a marriage. Their efforts thwarted by husbands obsessed with them remaining submissive (which usually means they are quasi-dependents, malleable, pliable, controlled.)

Badgering young women about marriage, press-ganging them to lower their standards and expectations so as to manage unbefitting men has ensured that we have marriages without love and respect: marriages in which the couple acts fine in public but fights each other tooth and nail without ceasing in private; marriages in which the couple is depressed while the starry-eyed relatives and well-wishers are impressed; marriages in which parents happily handover parenting to unqualified house-helps and school teachers; marriages that are more unsettling than those yet to settle; marriages replete which bitterness and rancour; marriages that are mourning masses; and marriages in which the couple knows and acts as single persons, usually much unloved, much more lonelier, eager for a divorce.

We shouldnt raise girls to think that marriage is the greatest achievement they can aspire to, that they must make every other decision with marriage as the central thing. Rather both sexes must be taught the importance of marriage, the need to marry without the overbearing, pontifical and opinionated posture. A posture that pushes them into marriage rather than they properly understanding it and getting married based on knowledge, readiness and love.

Former US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice said this about her being single: I always say, the fact of the matter is you dont want to get married in the abstract, you want to get married to someone. And Ive just not found that person that I want to get married to.

If we make females (and indeed males) see marriage as superseding whatever aspirations they have for the world, we will continue to have people get married in the abstract instead of focusing on their dreams which could change our world for the better.
Renowned Ghanaian investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, will be honoured with the GUBA 2017 Black Star Award for Exceptional Journalists at the Intercontinental Hotel in London on Saturday the 3rd of June 2017. The Exceptional Journalist Award recognises outstanding journalists whose works have impacted society positively.

The GUBA Awards, now in their sixth year, seek to celebrate exceptional talent and commitment to advancement within the Ghanaian and British community. The prestigious GUBA Black Star Award will be awarded to thirteen outstanding members of the Ghanaian, UK and African community, honouring them for their consistency, dedication to excellence and longstanding contributions to society.

The GUBA Black Star award is in recognition of Anas exceptional dedication and courage in taking on some of the most daring investigative assignments in modern journalism in Africa.

As an undercover journalist and private detective and an attorney at law working in Ghana and across the African continent, Anas Aremeyaw Anas has manoeuvred his way into asylums, brothels, prisons, orphanages and villages, where he has methodically gathered and exposed evidence of high level crime, corruption and human right abuses.

In his latest investigative work, Anas went undercover for two years to expose a total of 34 judges engaged in corruption-related activities. These judges and over 105 judicial staff were caught on camera receiving bribes to influence judgment in Ghanas courts.

Anas currently works as a lead reporter on Africa Investigates, a documentary series on Al Jazeera, which empowers African journalists to investigate and tell their own stories. Under the Africa Investigates project, Anas has so far produced over ten (10) award-winning investigative documentaries across the continent.

The GUBA Awards 2017 will be a night of acknowledging talent and celebrating Ghana at 60. Tickets for the award can be purchased at www.gubaawards.co.uk/ticket/

GUBA 2017 SPONSORS  Title Sponsor: ECOM Ghana. Category Sponsors: uniBank Ghana, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Imperial Homes, ABN TV and Radio. CEO Dinner Sponsor: PayAngel.

Media Partners: ROK TV, VOX Africa TV, Starr Radio UK, Hot Digital Online FM, Rising Africa, Afropulp Magazine, The Voice Newspaper, Glam Africa, ABN TV and Radio, GHOne TV, Starr FM, OK FM, Peace FM, Adom TV, UTV, Hot Digital Online FM, Ahomka FM, FAB Photography, AKLASS photography, SWAG of Africa, Screen Nation, Inspirational You, Premier Productions, 7 Media Photography and Ernest Simons Photography.

Partners: Final Effects Studios, NAS Studios, Anita Erskine Media, Precise Marketing, E-Volution International, Plant It Events and MakeUp Ghana. Material Sponsors: Vlisco, Kente Queen. Outfit sponsors: A-COTE Collections, Jay Renkyi. Travel Sponsor: Faze 2 Services
The United Nations today (May 24, 2017) posthumously conferred its highest awards, the Dag Hammarskjold Medals on two Ghanaian Peacekeepers who paid the ultimate sacrifice in their line of duty.

They are Lance Cpl. Emmanuel Sakyi, who was with the UN Organizational Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) and Staff Sergeant Boniface Atanyik, formerly with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The two were among the 117 men and woman, from 43 countries who lost their lives last year serving under the UN flag. This brings total deaths since 1948 to 3, 500 peacekeepers.

Ambassador Martha Pobee, Ghanas Permanent Representative to the UN received the medals on the behalf of her fallen countrymen from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres at a solemn ceremony held at the UN headquarters in New York.

The medals for the others were received by the representatives of their respective counties, whilst Lisa Buttenheim, Assistant Secretary General for Field Support received that of the 11 civilians who also perished in their line of duty.

In his tribute, Mr. Guterres noted that those we honour today died while protecting the worlds most vulnerable people and supporting countries in making the difficult transition from conflict to peace. I offer my deepest condolences to the families of those we honour today. Your sons and daughters, wives and husbands gave more than we can even ever repay. Our thoughts are with them and with you.

Expressing sympathies to the countries that lost peacekeepers last year, the Secretary General said that some countries lost more lives than othersand we remain forever grateful. But every life is precious and each and every one of the 117 people we honour today helped to improve the lives of others and contributed to peace.

UN peacekeeping, he said is one of the international communitys most effective investments to support peace, security and prosperity. It has a positive impact on the lives of millions of people around the world. While peacekeeping carries a tragically high price in lives lost, it brings enormous returns in lives saved.

Commenting on the recent attacks on our peacekeepers in Mali and in the Central African Republic, he said that it remind us of the dangerous conditions in which our peacekeepers work. But these are not the only hazards they face. Every year, dozens of our staff die from injuries sustained in accidents, or from disease, while deployed far from their homes and families. We pay tribute to all who lost their lives in the service of peace.

Mr. Guterres remarked that We owe this to the women and men who risk their lives every day to fulfill our mandates.

There are risks when deploying peacekeepers to a crisis area, but inaction may carry even greater risks. We are still learning hard lessons from the Rwanda genocide, the Secretary General stated, stressing that We must continue to invest in the safety of our peacekeepers. The peacekeeping family  Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support, the UN Secretariat and the Member States -- must work together to make peacekeeping as safe as possible using modern technology and equipment and better intelligence gathering.

Earlier, Mr. Guterres laid a wreath at a cenotaph at the UN headquarters in honour of fallen peacekeepers. A minutes silence was also observed and the last post was sounded at the event attended by member states and their Military and Police attaches.

The Secretary General remarked that the closure of UN operations in Cote dIvoire and Liberia in the coming months reminds the world that the contributions, investments and sacrifices of United Nations peacekeepers have contributed to the transformation of these countries from battlefields to peaceful states.

To this end, he repeated that the greatest tribute we can pay to those who have died is to rededicate ourselves to continuing their work to build and maintain peace.

They are the best of all of us and we must always pay tribute to their sacrifice that is a demonstration of the courage and generosity that the United Nations needs to present in todays world.
I may be sorry for the heading of this publication but I cannot think of any better heading befitting the occasion than the one just chosen, thus, Ghana Embassy in Toronto (Canada) Makes a Stupid Requirement for Visa Acquisition.

The stringent requirements for visa acquisition or application have the following among them of which I find the enforcement of a particular one absolutely insane on the part of the policy formulators.

To acquire Ghana visa in Toronto by anyone intending to visit Ghana of whom although most of them, were originally Ghanaians before naturalising as Canadian citizens, one has to obligatorily provide on their visa application form two contacts (hosts) in Ghana with their houses addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. These are among the other requirements.

However, I find making an email address an obligation but not optional, very worrying if not completely nonsensical. How many people in Ghana have access to computers or possess smart phones with internet access? How many people are able to purchase unlimited Wi-Fi data for their computers or smart phones if at all they have such gadgets?

In case one of your contacts or both are in a village without access to electricity, how could they have access to internet? Even in the cities and with our intermittent power outages popularly called dumsor, should email address be an obligation knowing very well the problem of limited access to computers and the cost of purchasing Wi-Fi data to enable one avail themselves of the internet either via their phones or computers?

What could be the rational behind the demand for the email address of not the applicant him or herself but their hosts in Ghana? Are the home addresses and phone numbers not enough to assist or trace the applicant in an event of accident?

Yes, it is not difficult to create an email address but what is the essence of it if the person may end up not having the means to access the information to be sent to them through the internet? Again, if ones illiterate parents are their contacts in Ghana, how can they access the internet and what will be the use of an email address to them?

I do not have to dwell on discussing this email address issue because I find it as not a thought-through but an ill-thought requirement by the policymakers or whoever designed the visa application form.

I have been informed that without the email addresses of the hosts in Ghana, one will be refused a visa for non satisfaction of the obligatory requirements. It is not everybody who has got a contact person in the cities and big towns in Ghana. Some people come from villages where houses may not even have addresses (house numbers). I stand to be corrected on some houses in the remote areas of Ghana having no addresses.

I hope after this publication, the Ghana Embassy in Canada or the Consulate in Toronto will drop that absurd obligatory request for email addresses without which one will be refused a Ghana visa even though the applicant is visiting his/her home country to see parents, siblings, relatives or to attend the funeral of a loved one.

I leave it to my younger brother DJ Sarkodie of Sources radio UK online to expatiate on this Toronto visa issue during his radio programmes.

Rockson Adofo
Some hoteliers have impressed on West African authorities to work to extend the visa on arrival policy to foreign tourists in a bid to boost the sector's growth.

They argue that the move should also ease the barriers restraining some tourists into the continent.

The comment comes on the back of the launch of the Hospitality Africa Report which cites the East and Southern Africa as attractive destinations for tourists to Africa.

As it stands right now, most Europeans and American tourists need visas before visiting Ghana for instance but they wouldn't need visas to visit East or Southern Africa. As a result these regions are still attracting huge chunks of visitors from the Americas and Europe, Sales and Marketing Manager at Accra City Hotel, Yaw Mamphey told Citi Business News.

If the visa free policy could be worked on so as to make it non-compulsory for tourists coming from the Americas for instance, that will be great, he added.

Currently, tourists from member states of the African Union could visit other member states and they would be issued visas upon arrival in the host countries.

The development is said to have impacted tourism positively in almost a year of its implementation.

Meanwhile, the goal of having a single African continental passport by 2020 and the adoption of visa liberalization policies, is said to could increase Africa's tourism by 5 to 25%.

Yaw Mamphey however stressed the need to develop local tourism sites and resources to attract such foreign tourists aside providing the conducive environment to allow them entry.

But of course internally too we need to restructure; for instance if one goes to Kakum National Park and visits the canopy walkway, there's virtually no hospitality facility within the environs to accommodate such tourists among others.

In a related development, the country Manager of Jumia Travel Ghana, Omolara Adagunodo has also stressed the need for local tourism industry players to strategically position themselves for the potential boom in the sector this year.

The region is expected to attract 64 million international tourist arrivals in 2017, as compared to 58million in 2016 (+ 8% vs 2015), and 110 million by 2027 which means we have a responsibility to adequately prepare for the challenges that comes with the increasing numbers.

Key highlights of the hospitality report;

Tourism's contribution to Africa's GDP was 7.8% (USD 165.6 billion) in 2016, and is expected to rise to 7.9% of GDP to USD 170.5 billion 2017.

This contribution is predicted to grow by 4.6% per annum to reach USD 268.2bn by 2027.

In 2016, domestic travel spending generated 63.7% of Africa's Tourism GDP, and is expected to rise by 2.8% in 2017 to USD 73 billion, and then by 3.6% per annum to USD 104 billion in 2027.

On the other hand, foreign visitor spending stood at 36.3% in 2016 (USD 40.7 billion), and is expected to grow by 5.3% in 2017 to USD 42.9 billion, and then by 5.9% per annum to USD 76 billion in 2027.



By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The 2017 Citi FM Family Day Out cooking competition at the Aviation Social Centre in Accra was won by team Osei Kwame led by Brunch in the Citi host, Osei Kwame.

The competition gave families the opportunity to represent their favourite presenter in the cooking competition.

Osei Kwame's team, led by the Cudjoes, prepared a main dish of Pekisian Jollof, that trumped the dishes prepared by the other four teams.

The winning team also provided a starting course of pepper soup with beef, with some fruit salad serving as the dessert.

Coming second was Team Jessica with the main dish of Jollof and kelebab, Team Kojo Akoto came in third with Omutuo, Bernard Avle's team came in fourth with Jollof and chicken and Team Nana Ama, notably joined by Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond and their dish of spaghetti and meatballs, came in fifth.

The contestants prepared their dishes with mainly Lele products; who also provided the prizes for the contestants.

The Citi FM Family Day Out is powered by Citi 97.3 FM and sponsored by Lele  Tasty Food, Happy Family  and ShopnSave Supermarkets.

The Family Day Out was the penultimate event in Citi FM Family Month on May, which has had various family related activities organised to consolidate the fortunes of families; including the Family Consecration Service, the Mother's Day of Honor and the Family Breakfast Series.



By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
26.05.2017 LISTEN

I believe that it is not only the height of naivety but also deeply insulting to say that the way to stop the Biafran agitation is to offer the Igbo cake.

Quite apart from that I find it curious, incredulous and somewhat patronising that those behind the "Biafra at 50" event, which took place at the Yar'adua Centre in Abuja today, would think it appropiate to invite the leaders and representatives of a government that has blood on its hands and that is committing genocide against the Igbo and IPOB members on a daily basis to their programme.

They talk peace and reconciliation but can there really be peace and reconciliation without restitution and justice?

You can say anything and rationalise it in any manner that you deem fit but the reality is that 1 million innocent igbo children were purposely starved to death in the civil war and 2 million igbos were killed.

Worse still the problems and atrocities that the Igbo complained of in 1966 are still with us today. The very reasons that they were forced to fight that war are still with us today.

If you want peace and reconciliation, if you want to celebrate or remember Biafra at 50 and if you want to honor the memory of those that lost their lives during the struggle for Biafra the promise of a greater share in the national cake will not cut it.

Instead the first thing that you need to do is to get the Nigerian state and authorities to give an unconditional apology for the atrocities committed against the Igbo during before and after the civil war.

Secondly you must reach out to those that are agitating for Biafra today with love and genuine affection and endevour to make it worth their while to stay in Nigeria by treating them with love, compassion, respect and sensitivity.

You do NOT kill them in the streets, lock up their leaders and attempt to kill their dream of emancipation from subjugation and servitude and at the same time claim that you want and believe in reconciliation. It is either one or the other.

You either love and honor them or you fight them and reject their attempt to express themselves freely or to exercise their right of self-determination.

This charade of kill them and pretend to love them all at the same time sickens me. It dishonours the memory of ALL those who fought for and believed in the ideal of Biafra.

It is like dancing on their graves and spitting on their blood.

How can you talk about Biafra and celebrate Biafra at 50 when the leaders of the new Biafra like Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB and others are not there.

How can you talk about Biafra when a contractor and compromiser from Igboland who has lost every sense of self-worth and dignity is invited to the gathering.

The Federal Government is killing his kinsmen with their security forces and refusing to protect them from the relentless carnage and barharic slaughter of the Fulani militias and this despicable man who has fed fat on Nigeria will come to such a gathering and say that he will fight anyone that wants to leave Nigeria, including Oduduwa and Arewa. I really dont know whether to laugh or cry.

These are clearly the words of a desperate comedian who has lost all sense of self-respect and who is prepared to do anything in order to remain in perpetual servitude.

Such a man is shameful. He is dishonorable. He is cowardly. He is evil. Worse of all he is a grave danger to those that he claims to speak for and represent.

If anyone really wants peace in this country and true reconciliation the only way to achieve it is to set into motion a process of and a programme for restructuring and the devolution of power from the centre. They must also accord due respect to every ethnic nationality in this country including the Igbo.

Failing that it is only a matter of time before Nigeria breaks into two or more pieces and this will be done peacefully or not so peacefully depending on the attitude and disposition of those who believe that they own Nigeria and that the rest of us are slaves.

Encouraging was the fact that Chief John Nwodo, the respected and much-loved Chairman of Ohaeneze, was at the Abuja event.

Of all the Igbo leaders that attended he, together with Pat Utomi and a handful of others, are amongst those that I trust and admire.

What a leader this man is. Nwodo is a man of immense wisdom and courage and he is very well bred too.

He comes from a well-educated, noble and illustrious lineage of statesmen and political leaders of the rarest kind. That explains his courage.

He will never bow down to ANYONE that attempts to undermine the interests of the Igbo and he will never sacrifice or betray any of the millions of young men and women from the south-east who are yearning for Biafra.

With him at the helm of affairs of Ohaeneze I have no doubt that the Igbo are in safe hands and that they will not be fooled by the wolves in sheeps clothing that organised and engendered this shameful event.
The Vice Chancellor for the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Prof John O. Gyapong has lamented that road projects in the school are not giving the necessary priority as they should be.

According to him, the road linking the school to town is still under construction and nothing seems to be done about the situation making it very difficult for students to commute from school back to their hostel.

Prof Gyapong made the comment when members of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee [PIAC] and the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists [IFEJ] paid a visit to the university to inspect some projects funded with oil revenue in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region.

Prof Gyapong lamented that the condition of the access roads within the university which he described as very frustrating to the university community.

Students are conveyed from hostels around Ho to campus every day at their own cost because the university is not able to afford to provide transportation for the three thousand students currently.

The Vice Chancellor said, they have an arrangement with Metro Mass Transit for scheduled hourly trips to the campus and even at that, the bus is always overloaded with students.

The Metro Mass bus [we] arranged to carry students is always overloaded though they pay for the services, he stated.

Prof John O Gyapong further stated the lack of hostel facilities as well as bungalows for the Universitys staff numbering over 300. He appealed to government to give urgent attention to the road network, the hostel facilities as well as the staff bungalows.

Governments, both the old and the current [administrations] did very well for the university but we need urgent attention to some facilities and the road network as well.

Construction of the Faculty of Basic and Biomedical Sciences, students hostel and staff accommodation is awarded to Yan Jim Group of China with contract duration of 30 months at the sum of GHS34, 107,262.9.

The team also toured Mawuli School in Ho and called on the concerned authorities to ensure the completion of some abandoned projects as well as rehabilitation of others in order to address the congestion problems.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Ivy Sertordzi, Ho-V/R
Mr Azonko Simpi, Chief Executive Officer, World Time Limited has urged government to build an iconic tower at the centre of the world on the Greenwich Meridian in Tema.

He said such an iconic tower should have facilities for both local and international conferences; adding that it would serve as a huge tourists attraction, since people could travel from both within and outside Ghana to have their weddings and other ceremonies at the centre of the world.

Mr Azonko made the appeal in Tema at the Ghana 60 Years On  AU @ 54 public lecture on the theme Ghana Centre of the World Leads Africa from GMT to UTC Time.

The lecture was organised as part of activities marking Ghanas 60th Anniversary and the African Unions 54th Anniversary.

Speaking on the topic Tema  land at the Centre of the World, Mr Azonko, who gave a historical overview of Tema, called for the celebration of Tema as the centre of the world.

He said Tema is multicultural city on the Greenwich after London; and therefore, called for the strengthening of the Greenwich Sister City Initiative.

He said the Presbyterian Church Temple in Community One, Tema was the first Presby Church on the Greenwich Meridian.

He said on October 7, this year, the world would be marking the 280th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar under which the Greenwich Mean Time was developed; stating there was the need for the issue of Tema as the Centre of the world to be highlighted.

He announced that on June 17, Tema would be hosting the African Renaissance Classical Music Festival.

Mr Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) Chief Executive Officer, said the lecture marked a significant milestone in their quest to promote tourism in Ghana.

He said it was their plan to re-position Ghana on the global tourism map; adding that this project sought to make Tema a pivotal city around which migration from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

He said TMA would create and offer an enabling environment to fully harness the opportunities that come with the Ghana  Centre of the World project.
26.05.2017 LISTEN

The above vocabulary is a Yuroba word derived from Islam, meaning patience is profitable. Suru means patience and Lere is profitable.

The recent national crusade embarked upon by the government of the New Patriotic Party, under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to uproot illegal mining, popularly called galamsey, is a laudable one.

As a nation, we are conscious of the national tragedy arising out of this nefarious activities by both nationals and foreigners.

This noble cause of the government has received overwhelming local and international support, as well as commendation.

The Missions of United States and The Netherlands are giving massive support for this exercise whiles some identifiable local bodies like the media, OccupyGhana, Muslim groups, the Christian Council and the clergy, as well as some chiefs, are also contributing their quota.

Falling out of this national exercise has been the release of a report by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) whose duty is akin to the FBI and M16 of United States of America and United Kingdom respectively.

A portion of the report which has been sighted by this writer is an alleged role by a powerful paramountcy in promoting the galamsey operations, either tacitly or overtly. And that the said paramountcy is Okyenman (Abuakwa). The report says there is widespread perception that some elements in Ofori Panyins Court support galamsey.

That Okyenhene is promoting galamsey activities by setting up a Task Force with the sole mandate of visiting mining sites within the Abuakwa enclave to extort money from illegal operators.

It has never been my hallmark to attack state institutions, especially in the discharge of their mandatory duties. However, I think there are some questions to be answered.

I am not a lawyer or spokesman for Okyenman but nation building globally requires that citizens must always stand up for the truth and condemn half-truths and falsehoods.

How does perception become an evidence? Perception which has been verified and facts established becomes an evidence to warrant prosecution. A classic example is the recent role by Anas and his Tiger Eye which has led to the dismissal and prosecution of some judges and staff of the Judiciary. There had been a long-held perception of corruption in the Judiciary and Anass works did establish this fact.

Has this been done by the BNI to warrant such publication? I leave it to Ghanaians as better judges.

The last of my questions bothers on the alleged Task Force. It is on record that Osagyefo Amoatia on his ascension to the Ofori Panyin stool embarked on a crusade to protect the environment, hence he set up the Okyenman Environmental Brigade to compliment the efforts of government. However, owing to the abuses and breaches by some members of the group, Okyenhene disbanded this group about five years ago.

TRADITIONAL RULERS NOT LAW ENFORCERS

Per the 1992 Constitution, traditional rulers are allodia title holders, and all stool/skin lands are vested in them, where they hold in trust for their subjects, according to Article 267.

However, Article 256(6) vests any mineral in its natural state in or under any land, being public or stool, in the Presidency for and on behalf and in trust for the people of Ghana.

Also, the operations of mining laws and the powers vested in permit holders render traditional rulers powerless in exercising control over lands within their paramountcies. So, how do we fault a traditional ruler of illegal activities by operators in the industry when the law is not on their side?

APOLOGY COMMENDABLE BUT NOT ANTIDOTE

While welcoming the apology by the sector minister, Peter Amewu, for the unfortunate reportage, I also pause to ask, did the BNI envisage the irreparable damage such a report could do to the reputation of Osagyefo Amoatia and Okyenman?

Is BNI aware that the Okyenhene is one of the 10 great leaders of the world championing the cause of greening evolution of the world environment?

How would Prince Charles of Great Britain who is the Chief Patron of World Conservation Group measure Okyenhene?

Is the BNI aware that as a result of this unfair and undesirable reportage, the paramountcies of Offinso, Ejisu and Akropong are up in arms with their senior brother?

THE 1992 CONSTITUTION AND CHIEFTAINCY

The institution of chieftaincy antedates our contact with the European and their governance by over 200 centuries. The institution has been the fountain of knowledge, repository of wisdom, and the pivot, fulcrum and the pedestal on which a nation always rests. Therefore, since time immemorial, governments confronted with national crisis have always relied on them for the required support, hence the 1992 Constitution, by Article 276(1), has put the institution above active politics as a special recognition.

Even in the revolutionary era of the PNDC, where there were excesses, the institution remained intact and was allowed to play its pioneering role.

The law is not a respecter of persons. However, to every law, there is an exception, and in this category falls the institution of chieftaincy. We are not advocating that chiefs, when found culpable, should be treated with kids gloves. However, matters concerning the institution should be treated with some modicum of caution in view of the sensitive it occupies in our governance structure.

Owing to the consistent role of the paramountcy in charting the constitutional course of this country, and the international prominence that exceptional leadership gained, the Okyenhene was knighted as far back as 1928 by the King of United Kingdom.

CONCLUSION

Arbitrariness, which has become the dessert of the BNI where citizenry rights are easily trampled upon and judicial decisions of courts of competent jurisdictions being reversed, can no longer be tolerated under the watchful eyes a constitutional leader like Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

To Osagyefo Amoatia, all that I can say is that such unfortunate reportage is painful but not harmful. I therefore urge you to take consolation in the Akan saying that akoko tia ba, na onkum ba, to wit, a mother always remains a mother.

The writer is a former MP for Kumawu and a fellow of the Danquah Institute
The Founder/CEO of Global Media Foundation, human rights media advocacy organisation, Raphael Godlove Ahenu, has observed that the hospitality and tourism industry has the potential to drive socio-economic advancement of the country if government pays much attention to the sector.

According to him, the neglect of the hospitality and tourism sector over the years by government causes the nation millions of dollars annually.

To be able to achieve the goal of making the sector the number one foreign exchange earner, he said there is the need for the government to increase its support for the sector.

The government Mr. Ahenu pointed out must also develop clear strategies on how tourism activities can contribute to poverty reduction and the linkages between tourism and other sectors of the local economy.

The CEO was addressing Special Aged Luncheon organized by the Citizens Kitchen of the Department of the Hospitality and Tourism of Sunyani Technical University in collaboration with Global Media Foundation.

The program is organized annually to create a platform for the HND final year students in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism to display their creativity and skills to the general public.

It forms part of the fulfilment of the award of HND certificate.

The CEO said it was incumbent on government to attach maximum attention to the industry to create, which has the potential of creating thousands of jobs for the teeming unemployed youth while at the same time, increasing revenue of local assemblies and the central government.

He called for pragmatic measures by government and all stakeholders in the hospitality and the tourism industry to streamline the sector by removing all the bottlenecks that impede the development of the sector and also to make the sector more attractive to both local and foreign investors.

He was of the opinion that the Tourism and the Hospitality industry has the potential and the capacity to absorb a lot of the graduates from the various tertiary institutions in the country and offer them a decent work which could sustain them and their families.

The Head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism of the STU, Noble Amoako Sarkodie said the purpose of the event was to offer the final year students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learnt in the three-year classroom work for them to be assessed by their lecturers in the areas of food production, accommodation, food and beverage service.

He stressed the need to bridge the gap between academia and industry and therefore called effective collaboration between the University and the industry xo that together they can enhance the prospects of the sector.
The Ghana Gas Company has confirmed that four helicopters of the company are not missing as has been reported by the media.

A statement released by the company's Communications Directorate has indicated that the choppers are in the custody of the Ghana Air Force for safekeeping, saying that reports indicating that the choppers are missing are erroneous and must be disregarded.

The management of Ghana Gas wishes to respond to an allegation circulating in the media regarding the whereabouts of the helicopters procured to provide surveillance services to the oil and gas installations in the Western Region. The company wishes to make it known to all stakeholders and the public that on Wednesday, 23rd September, 2015, then President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, commissioned the four Z-9 EH helicopters at the Air Force Station at Burma Camp, according to the statement.

The helicopters were to ensure adequate security surveillance of the nation's oil and gas enclave in the Western Region. Four helicopters in total, not seven as reported by some media outlets, were acquired. The said helicopters were procured from China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC). The contract to that effect was signed on 21st December, 2012 (sic). The helicopters are currently stationed at the Air Force Headquarters at Burma Camp, the company stated.

Ghana Gas does not have the expertise and hangars to operate and maintain the helicopters. The Ghana Air Force, however, possesses such facilities. Ghana Gas, therefore, mandated the Ghana Air Force to operate and maintain them on its behalf. The helicopters are in good working condition and not 'broken down' as erroneously reported. It is worth noting that there is a helipad at the Atuabo Main Camp, it added.

Ghana Gas has been in the news these few days following claims by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) that three helicopters belonging to Ghana Gas could not be found.

A leading member of PIAC, Steve Manteaw, had said that the government paid $150 million for the purchase of three helicopters but they could not be traced.

I have asked about the helicopters but there are no answers forthcoming, Manteaw told Adom FM on Tuesday.

Before the gas company made an official public statement about the status of the helicopters, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, reportedly confirmed that Ghana Gas Company indeed purchased the helicopters.

However, the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC), under which tenure the helicopters were procured, hit back, describing the publications as false.

Former Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor and his deputy claimed that there were no missing helicopters.

They said the helicopters are currently parked in the hangars of the Ghana Air Force at the Air Force Base in Accra, as confirmed by the gas company.

Dr. Kwabena Donkor had said it is a sign of substandard leadership for Dr Akoto Osei to go public on the whereabouts of the helicopters when he (Dr. Akoto Osei) could have found out from officials of the former government.

Later Mr Donkor's deputy, John Abdulai Jinapor, said on Starr FM in Accra that we procured four helicopters and they were commissioned by John Mahama in public. Ghana Gas does not have the pilots and expertise to fly the helicoptersThe helicopters are not supposed to be parked at Atuabo The Ghana Armed Forces was asked to manage the helicopters.

The helicopters are not missingBefore I left office, the helicopters were in good shape and were workingThe management saying they do not know about the procurement of the helicopters is surprising.

By William Yaw Owusu
A member of the legal team of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Chris Ackumey, has criticized the decision by a Kumasi Circuit Court to release the eight members of the Delta Force.

The court presided by Patricia Amposah on May 17, 2017 struck out the case against the eight who raided a court sitting to free 13 of their colleagues standing trial.

Charged with causing disturbances in court, resisting arrest and rescuing persons in lawful custody, they were released for want of evidence after Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Okyere Darko filed a nolle prosequi to discontinue the case.

Angered by the release of the eight, Ackumey observed that their discharge was politically motivated.

He said Friday May 26, 2017 on Morning Starr that: The issue of the Delta 8 has some political twist to it that is why things are going that way. There is nothing much that the media is going to do in the face of this political issue.

Nothing much will be done about this Delta 8 case and so I do not see why we are pretending. How can this case be dealt with when the President has given the Delta Force his blessings.

The government, however, stated that the Attorney General (AG) is not aware of the decision by the prosecutor to discontinue the case and investigation are ongoing to ascertain the circumstances leading to the discontinuation of the case.

But the lawyer for the eight, Mathew Appiah described the governments position as fallacious. According to him, the AG was fully aware of the discontinuation of the case.
The controversial $6 million contract between the National Communications Authority (NCA) and NSO Group Technologies Limited  an Israeli company, maybe unconstitutional, Dean at the Faculty of Law at the GIMPA Law School, Ernest Kofi Abotsi has suggested.

Some former officials on the NCA Board including the Chairman, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie; the Chief Executive Officer, William Tevie; a former Deputy National Security Coordinator, Alhaji Osman as well as a private businessman, George Oppong of Infraloks Development Limited, are being investigated by the BNI over some $4 Million withdrawn from the NCAs account purportedly for the purchase of a listening device.

Article 181 (5) of the Constitution mandates state agencies to seek authorisation from Parliament, before entering into an international business transaction of which Government is a party.

It is, however, unclear if the deal went through Parliament.

Dean of GIMPA Law School, Ernest Kofi Abotsi

Speaking Friday, May 26, 2017, on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Mr. Abosti said the entire transaction could be rendered invalid, if it did not satisfy the constitutional requirement.

Mr. Abosti further explained: If government enters a contract [with a foreign firm], that contract is not only binding on government but the country as whole.

According to him, the failure by state officials to comply with the constitutional provision may have a major implication on other parties involved in the transaction.

If the contract is pronounced void, then it means all payments made under it were not sanctioned, he declared.

Background

Joy FM broke the news about how the officials, including Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, former Board Chairman; one Alhaji Osman, former Deputy National Security Coordinator, and others allegedly withdrew $4 million from the accounts of the NCA and have failed to account for it.

They had contracted an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited, to supply listening equipment at the cost of $6 million, to enable National Security monitor conversations of persons suspected to be engaged in terror activities. A local agent, Infraloks Development Limited, was also charging $2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total sum to $8 million.

But only $1 million was paid into the accounts of the Israeli company while the remaining $3 million was lodged into the accounts of one George Oppong, representing the local agents, Infraloks Development Limited.

Mr Oppong has issued a rejoinder claiming that the NCA on his blind side took sums amounting to $1.5 million from the account.

All the persons involved except Alhaji Osman [whose whereabouts are unknown] and Mr Tevie, have admitted to taking the money and have been granted bail after the BNI took their statements. Some of them have started refunding the money to the state.

Mustapha Hamid

Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid on Wednesday told Joy FM Government is determined to retrieve every pesewa wrongfully taken from the accounts of the National Communications Authority (NCA) by former Board members.

Asked why the state is not bringing charges against the culprits, the Information Minister, said the major focus of the BNI is to retrieve all the monies wrongfully taken form the state.

Their goal is to retrieve as much of whatever was looted from the state as possible, he told Super Morning Show host, Kojo Yankson in an exclusive interview.

Mustapha Hamid explained, there is always the difficulty in getting the monies paid back into the state coffers when the culprits are prosecuted or even incarcerated.

Because, if you proceed now and push people to get conviction and so onwould the people then just go and serve jail term and come and enjoy their loot?

Im sure thereafter they (BNI) will take the decision whether to proceed with prosecution or not, but they [BNI] have told me their concentration now is on collecting the money, he said.

Listen to excerpts of Ernest Kofi Abotsi's interview in the attached audio:

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Email: [email protected], Twitter: @jerrymordy
The Takoradi Zonal Office of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) on Wednesday embarked on an intensive exercise to clamp down on the activities of illegal dealers in petroleum products in the Western Region.

NPA, in collaboration with the security agencies, targeted illegal table-top vendors of petrol and diesel in the region.

Officials of the NPA and the police stormed Daboase on the main Takoradi-Accra Road and Apimanim on the Tarkwa-Takoradi Road to stop the illegal activities of the people.

In the process, over 10,000 litres of diesel were confiscated and placed in the custody of the police.

The fuel vendors were selling diesel in gallons along the streets and other established locations.

At Daboase Junction where over 7,000 litres of diesel were impounded, the most of the dealers were seen selling the products in small shops in front of their houses.

At Apimanim, over 3,000 litres of the petroleum product were confiscated by the officials of NPA from a dealer who was operating in his house at a cottage called 'Sobibor'.

The owner of the illegal business was absent when the officials from NPA visited.

However, a search conducted in the house revealed various gallons and drums that were used to store the product.

Samples of the product, which were tested by the NPA with the LSX machine, revealed that the fuel being sold was of poor quality and had the tendency to destroy the engines of vehicles that patronized the fuel.

Speaking to journalists, officials of NPA indicated that the operation would promote the retail of quality petroleum products.

Traders sold products at unapproved prices and adulterated fuel to make higher profit margins, they disclosed.

They explained that the NPA Law prohibits unlicensed persons from being in possession of petroleum product in quantities unreasonably in excess of that person's immediate requirement.

The fear is that the illegal sale of petroleum products could lead to explosions, as the dealers of the highly inflammable fuel operate with no safety measures, he indicated.

We are doing this to ensure that we sanitize the downstream industry. We want to ensure that standards are applied across board in all aspects of the industry. The clamp down will be extended to other parts of the country, they declared.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi


A 45,000-capacity ultramodern factory that processes guinea fowls and other live birds has been established in the Tamale Metropolis by a private investor.

It is aimed at helping government to implement the 'one district, one factory' initiative.

The facility, which is the first of its kind in the Northern Region, is also aimed at providing jobs to over 50,000 residents, including guinea fowl farmers.

According to managers of the facility located at the industrial hub of Tamale, the factory can process a minimum of 1,500 birds every 8 hours.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Geese Fresh Point Limited, Kofi Gyamfi, in an interview with BUSINESS GUIDE, said he established the factory in the North to make the product readily available for consumers.

Upon my return from the US, I paid a visit to a friend in the North and realized that there were a lot of guinea fowls but no ready market. I also observed that residents south of the country were craving for guinea fowl meat but how to get it fresh and hygienic was the problem. I therefore decided to set up here and started preparing the guinea fowls on a small-scale for sale to customers in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and other areas. I think it is now time to extend our tentacles, he revealed.

The factory, according to him, has a rendering plant that converts the feathers, blood and intestines into protein meal for pigs and poultry.

This facility is also fitted with cutting machine/portioning machines, blast freezer that freezes the product within the shortest possible time in average of minus 30 degrees. There are refrigeration trucks to transport birds under a controlled temperature to the market centres, he declared.

FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale




A $7.48 million turnkey fish processing plant has been commissioned at Elmina in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abram (KEEA) Municipality of the Central Region to help reduce unemployment and poverty among the people.

Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, who commissioned the Raphael Spectrum Company Limited, said the government has also planned to build a fishing harbour, cold storage facilities and landing sites, as well as Anomabo Fisheries College.

She stated that government would improve the wellbeing of fishing communities by creating the enabling environment that would create jobs and wealth for residents and their dependents.

She was hopeful the management team would put in place sound management systems to effectively manage the facilities.

Paramount Chief of Edina Traditional Area, Nana Kodwo Conduah, underscored the importance of the facility to the people of the area.

Nana Conduah added that the facility would provide adequate iced blocks for the fishermen in the area to store their fish on the high seas.

He underscored the need for the people in the area not to politicize the operations of facility since it belongs to all Ghanaians and not a particular political party.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Raphael Spectrum Company Limited, Raphael Tackie Antiaye, said the facility would be managed properly to improve the lives of all.

He said measures had been put in place by the management to ensure that the facility stores enough fish after the fishing season.

The keys of the facility were handed over to Raphael Spectrum Company Limited, which is going to partner proponents of an Indian firm's post-harvest technology for a six-month supervisory period after which the Ghanaian firm would take over the operations of the facility.

Email:[email protected]

From Sarah Afful, Elmina








26.05.2017 LISTEN

Huawei Technologies has launched the 2017 edition of its flagship Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, 'Seeds for the Future' in Ghana at a short ceremony at the Ministry of Communications.

This year's edition will see 15 top university students travel to China to be trained in Beijing and Shenzhen. The students would be equipped with skills and be taught how they can harness new opportunities.

Every year, Huawei invites students from various countries to study at the headquarters where they also learn of future trends in technology.

Huawei's Seeds of the Future programme seeks to develop local ICT talent, enhance knowledge transfer, promote a greater understanding of, and interest in, the ICT sector, and improve and encourage regional building and participation in the digital community.

The programme is designed to nurture young global talent within the Information and Computer Technology (ICT) sector.

Through this programme, Huawei collaborates with local governments, higher educational institutes, and other organizations to select top ICT students and offer them an eye-opening opportunity to travel to China to experience Chinese culture to gain more insights of ICT industrial transformation and to witness the showcase of Huawei's future technologies at the headquarters in Shenzhen.

Ghana joined this initiative in 2015, and so far 25 Ghanaian students have benefitted from the initiative, with 15 and 10 university students benefiting in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

This year, another 15 students from local top universities would participate in the programme which will run from 29th May to 10th June.

CEO for Huawei Ghana, Richard Liu Kang said through the seeds of the future programme, Huawei seeks to collaborate with the Ghanaian Government, universities and other tertiary institutions and other organizations to select top Ghanaian university students and young professionals from ICT related departments to offer them opportunities to study and gain work experience and also help them learn more about Chinese culture and gain cross-cultural work experience in a global business environment.

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications, wished the students well on the educational tour to China to empower themselves with advanced knowledge in ICT.

Political Counselor of Chinese Embassy to Ghana, Jiang Zhouteng, reiterated China's commitment to deepening relationship with Ghana and encouraged the participants to take advantage of the many opportunities China has to offer.

A business desk report
One of the galamsey sites visited by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources

We knew that the war against galamsey when we started waging it, was not going to be easy, given its complexity and deep-rootedness. Emerging developments have proven more than ever before that the raping of our environment was moving at a more cruising speed than we thought.

Had the current national action against it not been initiated, we would have ended up losing most of our rainforest cover and water bodies to foreigners whose objective of descending on our country is to rape our environment.

A few days ago we had a chance of listening to the Lands and Natural Resources Minister when he appeared at a galamsey site in the hinterland. He was interviewing two Chinese illegal miners. One of them said he was barely three months old in the country and that suggested how the country is still attractive to these gold prospectors.

In his scratchy English, he managed to make a point that they come and go obviously at will. The suggestion here is that we are in for a long haul, the fortune seekers knowing full well that it is not an easy prospection but with perseverance  which they are ready to put up  they erroneously think they would always triumph. Times have changed; they do appreciate the reality.

We are not ready as a country to allow them to destroy our environment. This is our land and we must do all we can to protect it.

We have noticed that an Ukrainian illegal miner was arrested in the hinterland  another suggestion about the seriousness of the business. He must have been engaged in the galamsey business for a while now. Illegal mining is therefore a multi-national activity by no means limited to the Chinese. Indeed, it goes beyond the Mongoloids.

If they are intent on going ahead with their occupation, we too should not rest on oars. In this war we think that the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has a critical role to play. As the state sentinels at our frontiers and airports and seaports, they owe it a duty to keep us safe from undesirable elements. For every illegal Chinese and other nationals arrested for the illegality, the GIS suffers a minus in its pubic rating. The security organization should up its game so such elements do not gain easy entry into the country when their mission does not inure to our national interest.

The miscreants in the colours who have lately been observed to be undertaking illegal protection at galamsey sites should be reported to the military high command for the appropriate sanctions to be taken against these men.

Although we have had the Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate deny the high command's acquiescence to the presence of soldiers at some sites, we would demand that an investigation into the anomaly be conducted without delay.

We need something beyond a mere denial  the standard PR approach to such allegations. A report from such an investigation would be convincing enough, especially when every step of it is put out on the public space.

That the sector minister set eyes on some of these men in OGs makes the demand for a full blown probe even more appropriate and desirable.


The man believed to be the brain behind the National Communications Authority (NCA) $8 million contract that brought in 'spying and phone tapping' gadgets for the National Security Secretariat (NSS) from Israel is said to be at large.

According to the Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, the Deputy National Security Coordinator during the John Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, Alhaji Salifu Osman, has gone into hiding following claims that the NCA Board members shared $4 million out of the total contract sum among themselves unlawfully.

Alhaji Osman, who is being investigated for other 'dubious' transactions, may soon be declared wanted if he continues to stay in hiding, sources told DAILY GUIDE.

The last time the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) was said to have reached the security capo on phone was when he told the Bureau about the whereabouts of the gadgets.

Sources say Alhaji Osman, who until his appointment by then President Mahama was a director at the Ministry of the Interior, had told the BNI that the gadgets were languishing in somebody's garage in Accra.

Mr Mustapha Hamid has said that the security capo's village at Salaga in the Northern Region has been combed but he could not be traced, adding that investigations are showing that he was the 'architect' behind the whole deal.

The contract was meant to buy 'spying and phone tapping' equipment for the National Security Secretariat, but $4 million out of the total amount of $8 million ended up in private accounts, with $1.5 million of the money going to the NCA board of directors.

Already, the former Board Chairman of the NCA, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, who is a younger brother of Seinti Baffoe-Bonnie  then senior staffer to former President John Dramani Mahama  has reportedly started returning his share of the money he and his colleagues unlawfully pocketed in that dodgy transaction.

The Information Minister had said that Mr Baffoe-Bonnie was paying $40,000 out of his share of $200,000.

Baffoe-Bonnie did not pick his calls when DAILY GUIDE attempted to reached him for his side of the story.

Last week, after reportedly admitting that they took $4 million unlawfully from the state kitty, some former members of the board of the NCA said they were prepared to refund the cash when they appeared before the BNI.

The $4 million was meant to pay an Israeli company which had a contract with the NDC government.

According to the Information Minister, John Mahama's NDC government had contracted NSO Group Technology Limited of Israel to supply eavesdropping gadgets worth $6 million and the equipment were meant to help the government monitor the calls of suspected terrorists.

In the course of the transaction, Mustapha Hamid said a local agent  Infraloks Development Limited  headed by one George Oppong, charged $2 million as facilitation fee, bringing the total amount to $8 million.

The NCA, with instruction from the National Security, made $4 million part-payment into the private account of the local agent of the Israeli company at Ecobank and subsequently transferred $1 million to the company in Israel.

The $3 million left in the account was then split into two, with less than half going into the pockets of board members and the chairman allegedly taking the lion's share of $200,000.

Records are showing that apart from Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie, the NCA Director-General, William Mathew Tevie, allegedly took home $150,000; the local agent, George Oppong, reportedly had $100,000; Alhaji Salifu Osman, the Deputy National Security Coordinator, was allegedly given $70,000 and Dr. Nana OwusuEnsaw, another board member, purportedly took home $500,000 to be shared with other unnamed persons.

The local representative of the Israeli company, a certain Penny, was also said to have been paid $100,000.

The information minister said that if political power did not shift, he was sure nobody would have known about what he described as a classic case of 'create, loot and share.'

According to the minister, National Security, which did not have the funds for the equipment, allowed the NCA with supervisory mandate over such gadgets, to fund the project.

While the Israeli suppliers were groaning for their money for the equipment supplied from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, the former board members were gloating with free state cash.

He said apart from Alhaji Osman, the others had admitted to the crime and had been given bail after the BNI had interrogated them.

The minister said George Oppong had refunded $1 million while others had also promised to refund everything.

BNI hasn't even decided at this stage because they believe that the money must be returned.  If they succeed in retrieving the money then they will decide their next action, Mr Hamid said.

According to him, the transaction was a clear case of top officials colluding to plunder the state coffers.

The reason why this is a classic case of create, loot and share is thatit was basically Alhaji Osman, acting as Deputy National Security Coordinator, who spearheaded this deal. People cannot just go and open a state vault and take whatever that is in there, the minister cautioned.

He said the government is waiting for the outcome of the BNI probe into the matter to take a decision on the fate of the culprits.

Investigations are a long process, and as the lawyers will tell you, an act of criminality ought to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and so my understanding from the BNI is that they haven't completed the investigations. They've gone beyond the statements and the admission and the paying back of the money that they have started, he explained.

There are other things that ought to be established, but for now the concentration is on retrieving the money; that cannot be the end of the case, but investigations will determine at what point they believe that they gathered all the facts that will enable them make a convincing case before a judge or any judicial panel they may be made to face, he said.

By William Yaw Owusu
Tripoli (AFP) - Fierce clashes erupted on Friday between rival armed groups in the Libyan capital Tripoli, seat of the country's UN-backed unity government.

Tripoli has been gripped by a power struggle between dozens of militias since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

AFP journalists heard explosions and artillery fire as fighting broke out in the Abu Slim, Al-Hadhba and Salaheddin districts in the south of the city.

Witnesses said tanks had been deployed.

British ambassador Peter Millett tweeted that he could hear explosions and artillery in south Tripoli.

He condemned "action by these militias who threaten security" in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Saturday in Libya.

Groups hostile to the Government of National Accord said they attacked loyalist forces.

The fighting started around a complex of luxury villas that until March served as the headquarters of militias loyal to former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil.

Ghweil was ousted from power when the GNA took office in March 2016 and has refused to recognise the new administration.

Loyalist forces seized the villas in four days of intense fighting in March that saw them expand their control over the capital.

Tripoli had been relatively calm since, but dozens of armed groups still operate -- including several who support Ghweil.

The GNA has won the support of various militias since it took office in March last year, but several parts of Tripoli remain beyond its control.

Relying on militia support and pitted against a rival administration in the east, the GNA has struggled to assert its authority.
Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh presenting the keys to the Headmaster of the School

President Nana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has presented a bus to the students and authorities of the Mafi-Kumase Senior High Technical School in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region to fulfill his promise to them.

The President made the pledge about a fortnight ago when he attended the school's 33rd anniversary and 2nd Speech and Prize Giving Day as the special guest of honour.

The over 700 students of the school had to rely on the inefficient rickety bus because they had no choice.

During the event, the headmaster of the school, Courage Meteku made a passionate appeal to the President to, as a matter of urgency, address some of the major challenges affecting academic work.

The headmaster also revealed that the school lacks bungalows for teachers on campus and workshops for practical training for students pursuing technical courses.

This, he said, has forced the senior house mistresses to sleep in cubicles in the girls' dormitory to monitor the girls' movements and activities.

President Nana Addo, in response to the headmaster's appeal, admitted that while the majority of the schools in the country face similar situations, it is the duty of the government to address the challenges.

He said his administration would tackle challenges facing schools in the country to provide a conducive environment for both teachers and students.

Ten days after the President's promise, the Headmaster, Courage Meteku was invited to the Ministry of Education in Accra, where he was given the key to a 33-seater Eicher bus by the Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku-Prempeh.

Gibril Abdul Razak, Ho ( [email protected] )
The Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Bugri Naabu, has accused the Regional Electoral Commission of masterminding the rejection of some District Chief Executive (DCE) nominees.

He therefore appealed to the President to allow the nominees to act till further notice.

The outspoken NPP Chairman claimed the EC was involved in sabotage in three districts, Bunkprugu Yonyon, Gusheigu and Walewale.

I appeal to the president to allow his DCE appointees to continue working till further notice, he said.

The President's nominee for the West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region, Saaka Sayuti was rejected for the third time and his supporters have vowed to deal ruthlessly with assembly members, if not approved.

Supporters of the nominee claimed each Assembly member received about GH2,500 to endorse the nominee.

The supporters of Saaka Sayuti therefore ordered the assembly members to refund the money or face their wrath.

Members of the Assembly suddenly threw stones at them but armed police fired warning shots to disperse them and later locked the honourable members in the DCE's office.

Proceedings, however, on Monday, 22nd May, 2017 at the district assembly hall complex ended shortly after it was realized the nominee could not obtain the required votes.

Meanwhile, Mr Sayuti has appealed to his supporters not to do anything untoward that would disturb the peace in the area.

From Eric Kombat, Tamale




Ghana currently imports 200,000 metric tonnes of broiler chicken annually for local consumption.

A comprehensive project, which was rolled out in 2014 to ensure that poultry farmers would be supported to produce broiler chicken to stop the mass importation, has hit the snag.

The previous NDC administration failed to reimburse huge amount of money that Boris B Farm and Veterinary Supplies Ghana Ltd (BBFVS) injected into the project.

This came to light during the official launch of three products- Varium, Neo Prime and Poultry Guard, which are specially designed to help improve the production of chicken and pigs by Ghanaian farmers.

Boris Baidoo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BBFVS, who threw more light on the abandoned Broiler Revitalization Project, said some farmers approached him for monetary support in the government's Boiler Revitalization Project in 2014, which he obliged.

According to him, the Broiler Revitalization Project ideally was to be funded by EDAIF but the funds delayed, hence the farmers' decision to approach him for support for later reimbursement.

Mr. Baidoo, nicknamed 'Boris B', noted that he injected over GH8 million into the project with the hope that government would reimburse him when the project's total amount of GH39.5 million from EDAIF eventually arrives.

He said the project was initially being executed in the Ashanti Region with 12 poultry farmers, who were supposed to produce one million broiler chickens for sale under the strict supervision of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Mr. Baidoo, who was dejected, noted that about GH2 million was initially refunded to him by the Agric Ministry following the sale of 300,000 broiler chickens that the 12 farmers produced.

He said since then, officials of the past administration frustrated him in the payment of the remaining GH6 million, which has now increased to about GHC9 million.

Mr. Baidoo said that the fantastic Broiler Revitalization Project had stalled because of the non-payment of the money.

He expressed hope that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration would take over the project so that the poultry farm industry would provide a ready market for maize, rice and soghum in the government's Planting for Food and Jobs policy.

Touching on the products which were launched in Kumasi Wednesday, Mr. Baidoo encouraged poultry farmers to patronize them since they have been specially made to help them rear pigs and chicken.

Ashraf Elsis, Amlan International, Regional Manager of Middle East and North Africa, producers of Varium, indicated that the product was developed in six years of thorough research, noting that it would help in the production of healthy chicken.

From I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi


Some financiers and supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Upper West Region have been fingered in the mysterious disappearance and alleged smuggling of over 20,000 bags of government-subsidised fertilisers meant for farmers.

The national organiser and president of the local chapter of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, Shiraz Jawol, said the subsidised fertilisers are not available to farmers who need them. Instead, they are smuggled to neighbouring Burkina Faso and sold for more profit.

Speaking to Class News, he said: The situation of governments subsidised fertilisers in the region is very challenging and also worrying.

Asked who were behind the smuggling, Mr Jawol told Emefa Apawu: The reality and the truth on the ground, per what we have gathered, is that they are financiers, frontiers, big people of the governing New Patriotic Party who happen to be retailers of the subsidised fertilisers or inputs.

We know, and Im talking for Sissala West and East. We know those who do fertiliser business in these two respective districts. They are known NPP supporters. If the [farmers] cannot have access to subsidised inputs then it means the farmers cannot farm and it will also bring about low income to those farmers.

Mr Jawol added that to arrest the smuggling of fertilisers in the district, community watchdog activities must be reactivated since many have lost confidence in the security services.

I think if we can put this situation under control, we have to use the community watchdogs. They are the only people who can do this work for us. If we want to depend on the security people, we will fail and the farmers will be the ones to suffer from this action, he warned.
An Association of GaDangmes (natives from Greater Accra Region in Ghana) living in Brescia - Italy, has been inaugurated.

The event was marked with the folklore drumming and dancing provided by a fully charged group from a related Association in the city Modena. They exhilarated the audience with the typical native dance of kpaalogo  a trademark dance of the GaDangme people.

Formation of the Association was as a result of two natives of GaDangmes who incidentally met at a function and later interactions provided an idea of looking for other natives from the Region in Ghana residing in Brescia with the purpose of coming together to help their community, extend that cooperation further to other communities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana and assisting with developmental projects. That took off well and it was great joy to outdoor itself with an outpouring goodwill messages and compliments. Executives of the Association were officially introduced to the gathering. Among them are: Samuel Sackey as Chairman, Michael Allotey (Secretary), Roger James Amarfio (Financial Secretary), Ebenezer Sackey (Organiser) and Francis Lawerh as Coordinator.

The function attracted other GaDangme Associations in various cities and other Ghanaians living in Italy. Present were chiefs representing GaDangmes in Modena - Nii Trebi Mensah (Macbeth) and Oblitei Oblitey from Verona who is also the National Chairman of GaDangme Associations in Italy. Another climax of the occasion was the majestic entry into the arena of the Brescia Ahenfo Chiefs (representing the Ashanti Region in Ghana) led by Nana Appiah Kubi. The pomp and pageantry before taking their seats was a showcase of the glittering Ghanaians traditional costumes and dances. The local dance was taken to another level by groups of GaDangme youths who entertained the audience with their brisk twists and turns energy-sapping dance.

Seated at the high table were George Kofi De Sousa who represented the Ghana Embassy in Italy, Victoria Quaye  Director of Nursery at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Giulio Arsenio of BPER Bank in Italy whose contribution to the cause of the GaDangme Associations in Italy is enormous and Dr. Gianluigi Trianni - a member of a group of doctors (an NGO) in Italy. They have been to Ghana and carried out seminars in addition to assisting with healthcare at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and Lekma Hospital at Teshie in Accra.

Kofi De Sousa was the Chairman of the event and in his remarks pointed out preparedness of the Embassy to help Ghanaians living in Italy with consular matters and other related issues. He advised, problems confronting them in such matters should reach the Embassy early enough for redress and urged every Ghanaian in Italy to register at the Mission for it to have comprehensive details about its citizens in the country.

The Association used the occasion to present awards to individuals and groups for their services to GaDangmes in Italy and in their Region in Ghana. Among them were: George Kofi De Sousa (Ghana Embassy Consular/Welfare Affair officer) for his Hard Work and Long Life Achievements, Rev. (Dr.) William Quaye of the Presbyterian Church in Ghana, for His Hospitality, Solange Taila Talafio of BPER Bank (Social Businesses Manager) was given an award for Her Efforts in Promoting Africans/Italians Relationship, Giulio Arsenio of BPER Bank was honoured for His Ability in Organising Inter Cultural Activities and Dr. Gianluigi Trianni received an award on behalf of MOXA (an NGO of doctors without borders) for their contribution to the GaDangme people in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. The list of recipients also included the following: Seth Badu Tawiah (Municipal Chief Executive of Lekma Hospital) for His Assistance to the Council of GaDangmes Associations in Italy (COGAI), Pastor Samuel Sackey (Chairman  GaDangme Association in Brescia) for His Leadership and Initiative Qualities, Roger James Amarfio (Financial Secretary - GaDangme Association in Brescia) for His Hardworking Services, Mary Ackon (Member-Brescia Association) for Her Ability and Encouragement, Adzoa Serwah Addo (Member- Brescia Association) for Her Dedication to Service for the Association and Michael Allotey (Secretary  GaDangme Association in Brescia) for His Commitment and Hardwork.

The event was taken care of on the floor by Patience Kena and Titus Evans (a.k.a Bishop T) of Hot Digital Radio in London.

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President Akufo-Addo will today [Friday] leave Accra for Liberia as part of his tour of some West African states.

The President will hold bilateral talks with President Sirleaf Johnson as well as address the Ghanaian community in Monrovia during his visit. He will move from Liberia to Mali to hold similar talks with his counterpart before departing for Accra on Sunday.

During his visit to Sierra Leone last week, President Akufo-Addo held bilateral talks with President Ernest Bai Koroma as well as addressed the Ghanaian community in Monrovia.

A few weeks ago he also went to Senegal to start the second phase of his official working visit to countries within the ECOWAS region.

He spent (2) days conducting various businesses including holding interactions with that country's President and meeting the Ghanaian community there.

He also visited Guinea and Cape Verde before returning to Accra on Sunday, May 21.

The visits were aimed at deepening Ghana's bilateral relations with Senegal, Guinea and Cape Verde, and also reiterate Ghana's full commitment to the ECOWAS project.
Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's Copts, targeted by gunmen Friday as they travelled in a bus to a monastery south of Cairo, are the Middle East's largest Christian minority and one of the oldest.

Making up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 90 million, the Coptic Orthodox form the largest Christian denomination in the Muslim-majority country.

Here is a recap of their history, their status today and recent attacks against them.

The Copts trace their history to the dawn of Christianity, when Egypt was integrated into the Roman and later the Byzantine empire.

The word "Copt" comes from the same root as the word for "Egyptian" in ancient Greek.

The community's decline started with the Arab invasions of the 7th century and the progressive Islamisation of the country, which today is largely Sunni Muslim.

Copts, represented in all social classes, are present across the whole country, with the strongest concentration in central and southern Egypt.

Poorly represented in government, Copts complain that they are sidelined from many posts in the justice system, universities and the police.

Egypt's Copts have been the target of several deadly attacks since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

On January 1, 2011, more than 20 people died in the unclaimed bombing of a Coptic church in Egypt's second city, Alexandria.

In May 2011, clashes between Muslims and Copts left 15 dead in the Cairo neighbourhood of Imbaba, where two churches were attacked.

That October, almost 30 people -- mostly Copts -- were killed after the army charged at a protest in Cairo to denounce the torching of a church in southern Egypt.

The July 2013 ouster of Mubarak's elected Islamist successor Mohamed Morsi after just one year in power sparked further attacks against Christians.

Pro-Morsi Islamists accused the Copts of supporting his overthrow. The following weeks saw attacks against more than 40 churches across Egypt, according to Human Rights Watch.

In December last year, a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed 29 worshippers during a Sunday mass in Cairo.

A spate of deadly jihadist-linked attacks in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula in February prompted some Coptic families to flee their homes.

About 250 Christians took refuge in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya after IS released a video calling for attacks against the minority.

Suicide bombers on April 11 attacked two churches north of Cairo, killing 45 people, in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

On Friday, masked gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 26 people, officials.
The Eastern regional office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) office has come under attack from angry residents over outrageous bills.

Sticks, stones, broken glasses and dirtied walls tell the tale of a spontaneous attack on the Somanya building of the power distribution company which began at about 11 am on Friday.

This was after the protesters had waited for over an hour for a response from management without getting any.

Sizing up the intrusion and bracing for violence, the staff remain locked inside the building awaiting rescue from the police.

While the staff wait for help, the police are also waiting for reinforcements as there are 10 officers facing the throng in their hundreds.

Recounting the incident to myjoyonline.com, a resident Nakotey, explained that the crowd emerged impulsively after ECG embarked on an early morning mass disconnection exercise.

The disconnection exercise was to try and compel clients to settle mounting debts.

But it infuriated the community that has been complaining about 'extremely outrageous' billing system for close to a year.

Nakotey explained that some residents in compound houses who used to share GHC200 now have to share between GHC1,500 and GHC2,000.

Some bills have piled up to 7,500 in a community of small businesses, traders and farmers.

For months without success, they have drawn the attention of the company to the perceived anomaly.

Considering the mass disconnection exercise as adding insult to injury, their tolerance level snapped triggering an uncoordinated march to the newly commissioned office. The protesters are reported to have defaced the building.

Some youths wielding cutlasses and cudgels nearly inflicted wounds on a man believed to be a staff of the company, but less angry protesters prevailed on the more incensed to spare the man's life.

The Yilo Krobo MP Magnus Kofi Amoatey abandoned efforts to calm the throng after early efforts failed to dissuade them.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]
Nairobi (AFP) - Unmarried couples have until the end of the year to legalise their relationships, the Burundi government said Friday, as part of an effort to reform morals in the country.

The order follows the launch of a campaign this month by President Pierre Nkurunziza "to moralise society" in the tiny nation which for two years has been in the grip of sometimes violent political upheaval.

Interior ministry spokesman Terence Ntahiraja told AFP the country was facing a population explosion which he blamed on "illegal marriages", polygamy, bigamy and "hundreds of schoolgirls getting pregnant".

He said church and state-sanctioned weddings were the solution and were a patriotic duty.

Nkurunziza said Burundians should show their love for each other -- and their country -- by getting married.

The government has since been pressuring unwed couples across the country to tie the knot.

The governor of the southeastern province of Rutana has ordered that "persons living in common-law unions" should be put on a special list by 22 June, while the governor of the northwestern Bubanza province has demanded unspecified "sanctions" against aisle-dodgers.

Costly nuptials

Pierre, a 27-year-old farmer living with his partner in Ngozi, in the north, said local officials had threatened him with a 50,000 Burundian franc ($25/22 euro) fine and said any child born out of wedlock would not be eligible for free education and medical costs.

Pierre said he had not married because he could not afford the bride price demanded by his girlfriend's family.

"She told me she was pregnant. As I am poor, we decided to come together to raise our child," he said. "We thought we would legalise our union as soon as we could afford it."

That was five years ago and the couple is now onto their third child.

To enact the president's orders, officials have begun organising mass weddings, something one civil society activist opposed as "a violation of human rights because the state has no right to attack two adults who have decided to live together without being married."

The activist said the forced marriages were part of a "religious crusade" led by Nkurunziza and his wife, both fervent, born-again evangelical Christians.

Spokesman Ntahiraja dismissed such arguments saying the government's campaign was within the law.

"We want Burundians to understand that everyone is responsible for his life, we want order in this country," he said.

"All this is done within the framework of the patriotic training programme," he added, referring to an initiative launched by Nkurunziza in August 2013 to reinforce "positive traditional values."

Since 2015, when Nkurunziza ran for a controversial third term, at least 500 people have been killed in political violence while around 400,000 have fled Burundi for refugee camps in neighbouring countries.
The Executive Chairman of the McDan Group Dr. Daniel McKorley has, on behalf of the Ghana Institute of Managament and Public Administration (GIMPA) presented a giant plaque to honour Ms. Fatou Bensouda, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The presentation was done during the launch of the African Center on International Criminal Justice (ACIJC) under Law Faculty of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

The Centre which was commissioned by the Chief Justice, Sophia Akufo, is expected to build capacity in advancement of criminal justice.

Being an alumnus of GIMPA himself and having supported the Institute in diverse ways, the McDan boss could not have been more humbled in presenting the plaque to the colossus in law and a prosecutor par excellence -Ms Bensouda- for her commitment to rule of law, justice and human rights.

The giant gold plated plaque read " On behalf of the management of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (Gimpa) & the African Center of International Criminal Justice (ACICJ), this Plaque is presented to H.E Ms Fatou Bensouda in recognition of her tireless efforts at globalizing criminal justice and ending impunity. This recognition further testifies to our shares vision of advancing the frontiers of the rule of law in a world of atrocities and injustice."

The plaque is also decorated with many adinkra symbols, prominent among them is the "Gye Nyame" (nothing is possible without God).

The colourful ceremony was chaired by Prof. Akua Kuenyehia, former Vice President of the International Criminal Court, who stressed the need for the African continent to see the ICC as an ally in combating the incidence of atrocities against human kind.

Mr. Ernest Kofi Abotsi, Dean of the GIMPA Law Faculty expressed gratitude to the Embassy of The Netherlands who have already provided 100,000 to aid the work of the center.

According to Mr Abotsi, the center has the ambition to expand its facilities over the next few years to aid its work.

Also present to support the launch were the acting Rector of GIMPA, Prof. Bondzi-Simpson, Prof Akua Mensah-Bonsu of the Legon Center for International Affairs (LECIA) and the Acting Dutch Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Caecilia Wijgers.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com
26.05.2017 LISTEN

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry France Ghana (CCIFG) held an ECOWAS Conference to give an insight to participants on the ECOWAS market, the opportunities that represent the market and its challenges. The Conference, held on 24th May at the Residence of the Ambassador of France to Ghana was attended by members of the diplomatic scene along with 90 business executives from Corporate Ghana comprising both CCIFG members and non-members.

The ECOWAS Conference was organised in the frame work of the activities lined up in celebration of the FRANCE AND GHANA 1957-2017 which marks 60 years of bilateral relations between the two Republics. At the welcoming address, H.E. Francois Pujolas commended the Chamber of Commerce and Industry France Ghana (CCIFG) for its action in support of the French business community, and moreover of the economic exchanges and partnerships between Ghana and France. He also emphasized on the key role of the private sector to face challenges, recalling that the best way to move forward for West Africa is the regional integration.

In her speech, Mrs Delphine Adenot-Owusu, Executive Director of the CCIFG, reaffirmed that ECOWAS represents a unique opportunity for companies to expand their market. She said that this conference contributes to the promotion of the sub-regional goal, and also showcases CCI France Ghanas effort to promote business development outside Ghana.

The event was facilitated by the Association of Ghanaian Industries (AGI), Borderless Alliance and GFA Consulting Ltd who led an interactive discussion which dissected the opportunities available in the sub-regional market, and laid emphasis on the distinct advantage that becomes available when businesses make the bold decision to expand its market. It was established that companies need to respond and adapt to the changing configuration of the sub-regional markets. Upon entry into the foreign markets, businesses were advised to focus on learning about the new market and its requirements, select the industry that is most appropriate to compete in, and determine how to leverage core competencies in international markets.

Benefits and opportunities from expanding their businesses to the ECOWAS region were outlined by Mr. Seth Twum Akwaboah, the speaker from AGI. These range from: the chance to increase the companys brand awareness among an entirely new market; and access a completely new customer base thus increasing its market size. Mr. Ziad Hamoui, the speaker from Borderless Alliance, contributed to this discussion with a focus on the challenges that arise in the expansion of ones business. Finally, Ms Laurence Elong-Mbassi from GFA Consulting Ltd, brought the discussion to an end, giving effective strategies on how to approach the ECOWAS market and create business with other countries. She expanded on the regulations adopted by Ghana such as the Trade Union New Customs tariff which facilitates the extension of business activities to the ECOWAS region. She also addressed other issues using a case study Ghana-Guinea (Conakry), touched on taxation, required work and resident permits, the flexibility of some regulations among ECOWAS member states, and shared effective solutions to certain legal procedures that most often come across as challenges.

The Conference was concluded with a Question & Answer session which gave participants the opportunity to raise issues and concerns that were adequately addressed by the facilitators.

CCI France Ghana

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry France Ghana is an association of companies and professionals belonging to different sectors which aims at supporting, fostering and enhancing bilateral trade and investment relations between French and

Ghanaian companies. With over 20 business sectors represented, the CCIFG acts as a business support system to its members by providing information through market studies, product-market testing, prospective missions and trade shows.

To ensure our members receive the most benefits, CCIFG continues to organize business networking events as well as give constant business support. The ECOWAS Conference organised on How to extend your business activity to the ECOWAS region goes beyond forming part of CCIFGs effort to provide this business support service to members, but also serves as a significant contribution to the global rising of the France in Ghanas network activities so as to enhance the existing bilateral relationship between the two Republics.

Facilitator From Borderless Alliance - Ziad Hamoui

Agi Facilitator -seth Twum Akwaboah

Facilitator From Gfa Consulting - Laurence Elong-mbassi

Facilitators - Gfa Consulting, Agi And Borderless Alliance (left To Right)
27.05.2017 LISTEN

Ghana and Sierra Leone have agreed to ratify the agreement for co-operation between their two countries, so as to provide the legal framework for addressing their trade and investment concerns.

Despite the good relations that exist between the two countries, there is no framework for co-operation to guide these relations, with this development hampering the deepening of bilateral ties and co-operation amongst the two countries.

To this end, President Akufo-Addo has assured that I will pursue this matter with my Parliament to ensure the ratification of this Agreement, an agreement which was signed between the two countries on 19th December, 2013, but which is yet to be ratified.

Co-operation in the development of our agriculture, education, science and technology, infrastructure, health, energy and culture, and the co-ordination of the exploitation of our mutual natural resources, such as bauxite, iron ore, diamonds and gold, would be of immense benefit to our two countries.

President Akufo-Addo made this known on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, after paying a working day's visit to Sierra Leone, at the commencement of the third phase of his official visits to countries in the ECOWAS region.

In addition to intensifying the links between Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean enterprises, the President stated that the process of regional integration must be hastened.

For a region that has made the choice of pursuing integration, we have not done much as we should have in liberalizing and encouraging trade amongst member countries, he said.

Research has shown that countries or groups of countries with the largest share of world trade are located within regions with the highest share of intra-regional trade. However, Trade between African regions remains low compared to other parts of the world.

With these very low levels of trade and investment co-operation, President Akufo-Addo noted that deliberate measures at expanding trade and business collaborations must be put in place to improve the prospects for prosperity of our two peoples.

In reiterating his commitment towards strengthening ECOWAS, President Akufo-Addo was certain that for a marked improvement in the welfare of the 350 million people currently living in the 15 member states of ECOWAS, I believe it is extremely important that we, the leaders, demonstrate strong political will to make the community an economic and political success, and make the project of integration real.

With West Africa's population set to hit 500 million people in 20 years from now, up from the current population of 350 million, he stressed that this could be a large regional market, which could present immense opportunities to bring prosperity to our region with hard work, enterprise and creativity. The time for West African integration is now. Together, all ECOWAS member states should show real commitment towards converting ECOWAS into a true regional market.

President Akufo-Addo also commended his Sierra Leonean counterpart for the efforts he has made in restoring law and order, fostering a spirit of national reconciliation amongst the people, and the strong leadership he has exhibited in restoring macroeconomic stability since assuming the reins of government in 2007.

In 2013, for example, the GDP growth rate reached a record, all-time high of 20.70%. In 2014 and 2015, in the face of two major shocks, i.e. the ebola virus outbreak and the collapse of iron prices, Sierra Leone's economy was shaken. Growth rates slumped dramatically, he said.

However, according to President Akufo-Addo, with prudent economic policies, spurred on by new investments in mining, agriculture and fisheries, economic growth has resumed, with GDP growth projected at 5.4% in 2016. Hopefully, this growth path will endure.

President Akufo-Addo added that it was his desire that Ghana and Sierra Leone to search continually for ways to co-operate, irrespective of who is at the helm of office of our respective countries. I have no doubt, that, together, we can forge a new, strong partnership for cooperation between our two nations for the mutual benefit of our two peoples.

With the Sierra Leonean people about to go to the polls in March 2018 to elect a new leader, President Akufo-Addo noted that that process will be enhanced, to the admiration of all in our region and beyond, by the quality of the arrangements for the next electoral contest in Sierra Leone, and by the quality of the democratic transition which Sierra Leone is about to witness. I wish you and the Sierra Leonean people well and Godspeed.
27.05.2017 LISTEN

A Media Training and Public Sensitization on ECOWAS Free Movement and Migrant Rights has been launched in Accra.

The training is under the ECOWAS Free Movement and Migration Project, which is to promote free movement and migrants' rights in West Africa

It will contribute to promoting knowledge and awareness of national and international frameworks for migration among frontline journalists and field correspondents.

Giving a keynote address, the Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid explained that the training is to help media practitioners to know what to report on issues of migrants. He said the media was a power tool, which the citizens follow to take an informed decision, thus the wrong impression that would be created about migrants would determine the relationship between citizens and the migrants living in a country.

Given the afore-mentioned, there is no doubt that the media has a crucial role to play in the promotion of safe, secure intra-regional migration, he stated adding, when it comes to migration issues, the focus of the Ghanaian media has largely dwelt on the negative consequences.



According to him, recent media reports suggested that migrants posed a significant threat to the country's development due to their alleged involvement in unlawful activities that result in the destruction of our natural environment.

He cited, illegal mining, nomadic grazing, trading in prohibited markets, fake commodities and human trafficking, as some of the unlawful activities.

The Minister added that, given the magnitude of the challenge, there was the need to create a critical mass of advocates in the media who are willing and able to provide fair and objective coverage on issues of migration.

The project, ECOWAS Free Movement and Migration Project, will further create a critical mass of advocates in the media who are willing and able to provide fair and objective coverage on issues of migration.

The intended beneficiaries are frontline journalists (field correspondents and reporters) in the electronic, print, radio, television and online, drawn from the various media networks and training institutions.

Other beneficiaries include representatives of civil society, local authorities and migrant groups within the project target regions.

Delivering a statement from the Interior Ministry, Mrs. Adelaide Annor-Kumi, Chief Director of the Ministry indicated that the Ministry fully appreciated the efforts being put in by the organizers, as they took up the responsibility to bring issues on migration to the doorsteps of the media.

Also, Mr Eric Akomanyi from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said attention should be paid to vulnerable migrants, ensuring their rights.The media can't be left out, thus the need to strengthen the capacity of the media, he noted, while commending those behind the training.

The ECOWAS Free Movement and Migration Project falls under the ECOWAS/EU/IOM/FMM West Africa Support to Free Movement and Migration in West Africa.

It is jointly funded by the EU and ECOWAS and implemented by IOM in partnership with International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and International Labour Organization (ILO).

The fund seeks to support actions of civil society and local authorities in implementing regional and national policies locally. The local implementing organization in Ghana is Media Response, the company at the centre of the training.

Meanwhile, Project Manager of the ECOWAS Free Movement and \migration Project, Mr. Samuel Nii Dodoo said the training workshops will focus on investigative journalism on free movement and migration in 4 regions; Accra, Western, Ashanti and Northern.

The training will also cover some aspects of ethical reporting to improve in terms of ethical factors such as verifying sources and improving the use of migration terminologies.

20 participants comprising journalists and local authorities will be invited to participate in each of these workshops. Knowledgeable and qualified experts will be invited to facilitate the training modules.

By Maxwell Ofori

[email protected]
27.05.2017 LISTEN

The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has called on the government to deal mercilessly with those who have looted state coffers and also confiscate their assets.

According to him, the time has come for state officials to end the 'thievery' and concentrate on building mother Ghana.

In a Facebook post, Mr. Braimah expressed shock that state officials could embezzle huge sums of money that could be used to build hospitals and schools for the ordinary taxpayer.

His comment was in reference to the latest expose at the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and National Communications Authority (NCA), where some $1.2m from GSA and $4m from NCA were allegedly looted by officials from the respective state institutions.

$1.2m from GSA, $4m from NCA. How many hospitals and schools could have been built from these? he quizzed

State looters must be mercilessly dealt with and their properties from the loot confiscated. Enough is enough. Time to end the thievery; Time to build our country.

An investigation ordered by the then Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekwow Spion Garbrah and the subsequent report issued by the committee mentioned Dr George Crentsil, former Executive Director of the GSA for collecting $1.2 million kickback from a contractor undertaking construction work for the Authority.

The report, which was intercepted by Joy News said Dr Crentsil took the said money in two portions.

The first tranche was $1 million and the second was $200,000  monies he collected as kickback from Lemet Construction, the company which won the contract to build a new block for the GSA Training School at a cost of GHC15 million.

Ekow Spio-Garbrah's directive to probe the matter followed an anonymous letter from a whistleblower from the Authority over the kickback.

The whistleblowers letter came at a time when the project had completely stalled, with no explanation from the contractor.

The Board instituted an investigation into the matter and found that colossal amounts had been paid as kickback.

Quoting portions of the committee's report, Kwetey Nartey said the Contractor, Johnson Teye, admitted to paying some $1.2 million to the Executive Director.

Meanwhile, when Dr George Crentsil was interrogated on the accusation, the committee's report said: the Executive Director admitted taking money from the contractor but refused to state how much, stating it was a sensitive matter.

The National Communications Authority on the other hand has been hit with a similar scandal. Joy FM broke the news about how some officials allegedly withdrew $4 million from the accounts of the NCA and have failed to account for it.

The officials linked to the issue are; Mr William Tevie, former Director General, Mr. Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, former Board Chairman; one Alhaji Osman, former Deputy National Security Coordinator,

They had contracted an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited, to supply listening equipment at the cost of $6 million, to enable National Security monitor conversations of persons suspected to be engaged in terror activities.

A local agent, Infraloks Development Limited, was also charging $2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total sum to $8 million.

But only $1 million was paid into the accounts of the Israeli company while the remaining $3 million was lodged into the accounts of one George Oppong, representing the local agents, Infraloks Development Limited. That money was allegedly shared among the officials.

All the persons involved except Alhaji Osman [whose whereabouts are unknown] and Mr Tevie, have admitted to taking the money and have been granted bail after the BNI took their statements. Some of them have started refunding the money to the state.

By Maxwell Ofori

[email protected]
Industry stakeholders are set to deliberate on the future of Africas digital banking at the 4th Tech 360 Africa Summit, formerly West Africa Telecom Summit Expo (WATSE) in an unprecedented gathering . The summit which will bring together industry frontrunners in the technology sector across Africa will discuss a host of issues.

However, the digital banking forum will deliberate on the pressing industry challenges, trends and innovations in mobile banking.

Riding on the comprehensive impact of previous gatherings, the Summit with the theme-Transforming Africa with Disruptive Technologies scheduled to hold on July 13-14 2017 at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Ghana will also discuss the benefits and growth of IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Roles of Start-ups in stimulating a sustainable growth for Africa Digital Economy.

Without a doubt, innovating, modernizing, and advancing a bank operations or offerings is at the top of any future oriented banking executive agenda. Whether its a new mobile banking or payment platform, a more secure bank infrastructure, the provision of an omnichannel banking platform is undoubtedly a concern if any bank is looking to attract, retain, and engage more business in a competitive sector. Akin Naphtal, Instinct Wave CEO explained

He added that. the forum will bring under one roof the brightest minds and the most influential mobile and digital banking players in the continent, to ignite and catalyze a paradigm shift in the future of the sector by inspiring the audience to think differently with the aim of revolutionizing the sector.

According , Mr Naphtal the 4th T ech 360 summit in general will provide an adequate platform to facilitate processes and policies that will shapen the future of IT in Africa and thus make it become focal in a connected world.

The Summit, will also co-host other independent fora like West Africa Smart Cities Forum, ehealth Forum, Cyber Security Forum, Mobile Money Forum, eCommerce Forum, E Agric Forum , Start up & youth Empowerment Forum and many more. While attracting C-level executives from around the region, this years summit will further discuss on impactful technology innovation and rightful policies that can drive ICT penetration in Africa.

Regulatory bodies across the region will also make use of the unique platform to create mutual partnerships that will encourage the industry growth.

The Expo Hall will showcase products and services innovations from device manufacturers, VAS providers and ICT companies across Africa as well as from other countries.
OMAHA  Three people are accused of killing a 21-year-old man in northeast Omaha.

Authorities say Brandon White was found by officers around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday and died later at an Omaha hospital.

A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old have been booked into Douglas County Youth Center on suspicion of first-degree murder. The Associated Press generally doesn't name juveniles accused of crimes.

Police say 18-year-old Allana Smith surrendered Friday. Court records say she's charged with first-degree murder, robbery and use of a weapon to commit a felony.
The 4th Tech 360 Africa Summit, formerly West Africa Telecom Summit Expo (WATSE) will engage stakeholders and professionals on challenges and putting an end to the menace of cyber crime in their respective operating communities.

Riding on the comprehensive impact of previous gatherings, the Summit with the theme-Transforming Africa with Disruptive Technologies scheduled to hold on 13th - 14th July 2017 at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Ghana will discuss largely, the Benefits and Growth of IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Roles of Startups in Stimulating a Sustainable Growth for Africa Digital Economy.

The Cyber Security Forum will discuss the ever-growing danger of cyber security and its implications in a modern world. Cyber security has become a threat to achieving full scale digital economy. The session will also look at the benefits of having a formidable system in place to check cyber security as well as challenges organisations are likely to face.

This session will draw together leading security specialistsfrom the C-level , directors, and mid-managers to product developers and front-line IT staffto exchange ideas, gain valuable knowledge to implement their security initiatives and share real-world experiences..

Tech 360 Africa is providing a unique platform for shared experiences and networking on: Data Explosion and IOTs- Mobile Internet & Smart Cities; Government & ICTs Broadband &Regulatory Policy; Local Contents, CIO Connect; Data Centre - Managed Services, Enterprise; Internet Banking - Banking Technology, Remittance and Cyber Security.

According to the CEO Instinct Wave, Mr Akin Naphtal, the Summit will provide an adequate platform to facilitate processes and policies that will shapen the future of IT in Africa and thus make it become focal in a connected world.

The Summit, will co-host other independent fora like West Africa Smart Cities Forum, ehealth Forum, Cyber Security Forum, Mobile Money & ePayment Forum, eCommerce Forum and many more. While attracting C-level executives from around the region, this years summit will further discuss on impactful technology innovation and rightful policies that can drive ICT penetration in Africa.

Regulatory bodies across the region will also make use of the unique platform to create mutual partnerships that will encourage the industry growth.

The Expo Hall will showcase products and services innovations from device manufacturers, VAS providers and ICT companies across Africa as well as from other countries.

Stakeholders in the public and private sectors in the region have already confirmed their attendance.
By Samuel Akapule

Zebilla (UE), May 26, GNA - The Bawku West District Assembly has pledged its support to collaborate with mandated institutions such as the CHRAJ and the National Commission for Civic Education to campaign against corruption.

By this the District Assembly would help CHRAJ and the NCCE with logistics including fuel, to embark upon vigorous public education against the phenomenon, at public places such as the market square, churches, mosque, lorry parks and schools.

The District Planner of the Assembly, Mr Nuodio Benjamin, said this at a Policy Dialogue forum held at Zebilla in the District to disseminate the findings of a Survey Report on Knowledge, Perception and Experiences of Corruption in the area.

The forum, organized by SEND-Ghana, was aimed at sharing the findings of the survey report with stakeholders, elicit their views and commitments on how to address issues raised in the report as well as develop an action plan based on their commitment for an effective follow up.

It attracted stakeholders including senior staff from the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Police, the National Commission for Civic Education, representatives of political parties, the District Assembly, Persons with Disability, the Media, Civil Society Organizations, traditional and religious leaders.

The Assembly also gave the assurance that it would strengthen the Public Relations Unit of the Assembly and encourage citizens to report on issues of corruption to the Assembly as part of the measures to help tackle corruption.

'The Assembly will also widen up the involvement of more citizens during its policies, programmes and project implementation during town hall meetings, the media and other public engagements, 'the District Planner stressed.

The stakeholders also proposed the 'name and shame method' and stiffer punishment among the measures that could be used in fighting the menace.

A Senior Programme Officer of SEND-Ghana, Mr Gregory Tiigah, explained that the Policy Dialogue on Knowledge, Perception and Experiences of Corruption survey report formed part of the Accountable Democratic Institutions and Systems Strengthening (ADISS) project, being implemented by the Ghana Integrity Initiative Consortium comprising SEND-Ghana, Ghana Integrity Initiative(GII) and the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) with funding from the United States Agency for International Development(USAID).

He said as part of the project, anti-corruption champions had been formed in the communities of the project implementation Districts and their capacities built to monitor and to report issues of corruption to the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) for further actions.

Mr Tiigah noted that corruption had denied many communities social amenities and some anti-corruption champions were now actively involved in monitoring activities of corruptions at their respective communities and reporting some cases to ALAC to be pursued.

He said his outfit would embark upon monitoring visits to the entire beneficiary Districts to ensure that all the action plans put by the stakeholders in fighting corruption were implemented effectively.

Whilst over 88 per cent of the respondents had the perception that the level of corruption had increased in the District over the last twelve years, twelve per cent were of the view that corruption had remained the same.

The survey which was conducted in the year 2016, also indicated that whilst 22.7 per cent of the respondents did not know who to trust to fight against corruption, majority rated NGOs as the best entities to fight against corruption. Ironically CHRAJ was rated 10 per cent among the least trusted institutions to fight against the canker in the District.

Participants at the Policy Dialogue meeting held at Zebilla in the Bawku West District

GNA
By Laudia Sawer

Tema, May 26, GNA - The Tema Regional Police Command has stated that the two recent gun attacks in the Tema Metropolis, were not armed robberies as being reported in the media.

In the past few weeks, the Metropolis has recorded two gun attacks, at the Tema Industrial Area and Community four in which a Burkinabe transporter Mr Pares Iddrisu was shot in the thigh and an amount of 25 million CFA was collected from him by four unknown armed men on two motorbikes.

In a press statement dated May 24, 2017 and signed by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Joseph Benefo Darkwah, Tema Regional Police Public Affairs Officer, noted that 'intelligence gathered revealed that, it was a business misunderstanding'.

ASP Darkwah added that the shootings were instances of some of them trying to defraud their business partners.

He however indicated that some suspects have been arrested in relations to the incidents and were currently in police custody assisting in investigations.

Measures, he said, have been put in place to augment already laid down strategies by the Command to address the emerging issue, which he acknowledged was threatening the peace being enjoyed by the residents of Tema.

He also added that the Tema Regional Police Commander had met with stakeholders especially representatives from the Burkina Shippers Council, Niger Shippers Council and Mali Shippers Council and their respective chamber of commerce to deliberate on solutions to end the trend.

ASP Darkwah gave the assurance that the Command was ready to fight crime in the Region to the barest minimum therefore calling for calm among residents and reporting of suspicious happenings and characters to the nearest police station.

GNA
A modest protest to petition anti-graft agency, Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) over some alleged embezzlement of state funds attracted over 2,300 protesters, police have said.

The Friday protest led by Adom FMs Morning Show host, Captain Smart, was to trigger an investigation into some cases of malfeasance in the fourth Republic.

Mr Smart told Israel Laryea on Joy FMs Midday News, the agitation was not targetted at any one particular regime.

Related Article: PHOTOS: Adom FMs FabEwoso demo underway in Accra

We are looking at all the administrations under the Fourth Republic, he said.

He noted among the 310 documents presented to EOCO officials over the financial irregularities, was one about an appointee under former President John Kufuors administration.

We presented a document on Professor Kassim Kasanga [former Lands Minister] during John Kufuors time when he took $14 million, he said.

The protesters clad in red and black wielding placards with various writings, marched through the principal streets of Accra to the EOCO office near the Arts Centre.

Related Article: $8m NCA deal may be unconstitutional  Kofi Abotsi

Their messages coalesced into one loud message that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government should prosecute former government officials found to have stolen from the state.

Already, there have been cases of alleged mismanagement and embezzlement of state funds by appointees of the past National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

At least three people at the National Communications Authority, have been in a murky deal for the supply of intelligence equipment. They include the former Board Chairman, Eugene Baffo-Bonnie and former CEO, William Tevie.

Related Article: PURC saga: Sarpong, Jantuah detained, passports seized?

Executive Director of the Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC), Samuel Sarpong is under investigation by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) for some questionable payments.

The amount of GHS435,087 in two tranches were transferred into the personal accounts of Mr Sarpong.

PURC Director of Public Relations, Nana Yaa Jantuah was also accused of conniving with the Executive Director.

Mr Smart said the nations debt totalling GHS127.1 billion would not have happened if the money was not stolen.

He said the embezzled money cited in the 310 documents that were submitted to EOCO should be in the region of $1.2 billion. This, he said is enough to pay the country's outstanding debt.

"We are expecting EOCO to take further action, reinvestigate, arrest and prosecute where necessary. We told them after three months and if we dont see anything there will be further action," he said."

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected] | Instagram: @realbrakopowers
Tripoli (AFP) - At least five people were killed in fierce clashes on Friday between rival armed groups in the Libyan capital Tripoli, seat of a UN-backed unity government, a hospital official said.

The city has been gripped by a power struggle between dozens of militias since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

An official at a Tripoli hospital gave a "provisional" toll of five dead and several wounded, including civilians.

AFP journalists heard explosions and artillery fire as fighting broke out in the Abu Slim, Al-Hadhba and Salaheddin districts in the south of the city.

A militia loyal to the unity government, the Abu Slim Deterrence Force, said on its Facebook page that it lost five fighters but it was unclear if they were included in the hospital toll.

UN envoy Martin Kobler issued an appeal for a halt to the fighting.

"Voices of reason should prevail for the benefit of the country," he said. "Political aims must not be pursued through violence. Civilians must be protected."

Witnesses said tanks had been deployed in the fighting.

British ambassador Peter Millett tweeted that he could hear explosions and artillery in south Tripoli.

He condemned "action by these militias who threaten security" in the run-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Saturday in Libya.

Groups hostile to the Government of National Accord (GNA) said they had attacked loyalist forces.

The fighting started around a complex of luxury villas that until March served as the headquarters of militias loyal to former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil.

Ghweil was ousted from power when the GNA took office in March 2016, and has refused to recognise the new administration.

Loyalist forces seized the villas in four days of intense fighting in March that saw them expand their control over the capital.

Tripoli had been relatively calm since, but dozens of armed groups still operate -- including several that support Ghweil.

The GNA has won the support of various militias since it took office in March last year, but several parts of Tripoli remain beyond its control.

Relying on militia support and pitted against a rival administration in the east, the GNA has struggled to assert its authority.

In a statement on Friday, the GNA blamed Ghweil and Salah Badi, both leaders of the Fajr Libya coalition of militias which took power in Tripoli in 2014, and vowed to "retaliate mercilessly".

They "have exceeded all limits... Nothing stops them, not faith, not law, not custom and not morals," it said.

"This is their gift to the people for the month of Ramadan", the statement said.
Lusaka (AFP) - Hundreds of supporters of Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema protested outside court on Friday when a judge again adjourned a hearing on treason charges brought against him.

Hichilema, who has been held in custody for more than six weeks, will be detained until at least June 12, when the case will return to court.

Amnesty International said Hichilema and five others from the United Party for National Development (UPND) were victims of a "cynical ploy to silence all political opposition in Zambia".

Hichilema was arrested for allegedly endangering President Edgar Lungu's life when Hichilema's convoy failed to make way for the presidential motorcade on a main road.

"I hold the view that this is a proper matter for judicial review," magistrate David Simusamba said after Hichilema's lawyers lobbied to have the treason charges immediately thrown out.

Treason suspects are not eligible for bail in Zambia and could theoretically face the death penalty if found guilty.

"The Zambian authorities must stop misusing the criminal justice system to target and harass the political opposition," Amnesty said.

South Africa's main opposition party leader Mmusi Maimane led a demonstration in Pretoria on Friday to support Hichilema.

Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance, was barred from entering Zambia after he landed in Lusaka airport on Thursday to attend the hearing.

Hichilema made a fifth unsuccessful bid for the presidency at last year's election.

He has since refused to recognise Lungu as president and has challenged the narrow poll defeat in court.

Outside the court on Friday, Hichilema's supporters called for him to be released.

"He should have been president, but we have a dictator persecuting him," protester Stephen Katuta told AFP.

The election campaign was marked by clashes between supporters of Lungu's Patriotic Front party and Hichilema's UPND.
Kampala (AFP) - Rights groups on Friday accused the Ugandan government of inaction over the deadly assault by security forces on a tribal king's palace six months ago, renewing their call for an independent probe.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Africa Director, Maria Burnett told reporters in Kampala that although the government had dedicated significant resources to investigating alleged crimes by civilians during the incident in November 2016, there was still no probe into killings by the security forces.

During three days of clashes Ugandan security forces attacked an administrative building belonging to the local tribal king and then laid siege to the royal palace compound in the southwestern town of Kasese

HRW say they have documented the deaths of 155 people in the days of fierce fighting.

"It is a massive event that happened in Kasese, the largest number of people who have been killed in a single event in Uganda since the height of the LRA war," said Burnett, referring to the near 30-year insurgency that devastated northern Uganda until 2006.

"The victims of November's violence have a right to justice and they have a right under Ugandan and international law to demand accountability," he added.

In March the Ugandan government revised up their previous estimate of the number killed at Kasese to 103, but witnesses have said that they fear the true number to be far higher.

'Unwilling to investigate'

Nicholas Opiyo, director of Chapter 4 -- one of almost 40 Ugandan human rights organisations who joined the call for an investigation -- said that as well as an independent investigation the ongoing abuses of civilians must stop.

"I was a front-row witness to the events in Kasese," said Opiyo.

"There was absolutely no attempt to avoid civilian deaths. Families who have been denied information about the deaths of their loved ones deserve justice."

The government has accused Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere of stoking a secessionist rebellion and stormed his palace on November 27, a day after his palace guards attacked local officers, according to police.

Calling the killings "revenge" for the deaths of "a few security agents in the region" in the weeks leading up the attack on the palace, Opiyo called for intimidation of human rights workers to stop.

"Two of our researchers have been arrested on two occasions simply because they were recording statements of victims," he said.

"Six months down the road Ugandan authorities' unwillingness to investigate is very clear and I think that we're at the point where we need to ask for international support,' he added.

On Thursday the Ugandan government's own human rights commission presented its annual report to the press.

The 250-page report neglects to mention the Kasese killings with officials claiming that they are waiting for permission from President Museveni, who has ruled the East African nation for 31 years, to release a separate report on the events in Kasese.
Tunis (AFP) - Tunisian authorities on Friday froze the assets of eight businessmen suspected of corruption, including some already under house arrest.

Graft was widespread under longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in a 2011 uprising, and has remained endemic ever since.

The eight men allegedly profited from their ties to Ben Ali and members of his regime whose assets were confiscated in 2012.

A government agency charged with confiscating property said it had seized property and frozen the assets of the eight over "illegal" profits.

It came after an investigation showed their involvement in "relations that enabled them to illegally make huge profits", commission head Mounir Ferchichi said.

Tunisia declared a "war on corruption" this week after the arrest of three businessmen and a customs officer on suspicion of graft and financing protests in the North African country.

Those hit by the asset freeze include businessman Chafik Jarraya and former presidential candidate Yassine Chennoufi, who were among those detained earlier this week and are under house arrest.

They are also accused of "incitement and alleged financing of the protest movement" in the south, the scene of long-running demonstrations over unemployment.

Ferchichi called the timing of the asset freezes alongside the anti-graft probe "a coincidence".

Authorities have arrested 10 businessmen and suspected smugglers since Tuesday on suspicion of corruption and "conspiracy against the security of the state", a senior official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The arrests come after a young man died Monday after being run over by a national guard vehicle during clashes in the southern desert region of Tataouine.

The anti-corruption arrests, made possible by a state of emergency in force since November 2015, have been largely welcomed by politicians and the public.

But some say such measures do not go far enough, and that more is needed than the arrest of a few prominent figures.
27.05.2017 LISTEN

style="margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px">I just finished speaking to the Deputy Senate President and he confirmed to me that his home was raided by security forces today.







This is shameful and shocking. Raiding the homes of our friends and leaders like Ekweremadu and harrasing their children will not deter, stop or silence those of us that are in the opposition. It will only harden our hearts and strengthen our resolve.







As each day goes by more and more people have come to accept the fact that the Buhari administration is a government of FASCISTS and BEASTS.







They are led and guided by dark and sinister forces whose sole agenda is to divide our people and destroy our country.







It is about time that Nigerians woke up and stood up to their madness and tyranny.







We must employ all lawful means to resist them and expose them for what they are. Not only are they incompetent but they are also sadistic and wicked.







Nowhere in the world do citizens sit by idly and say nothing when their rights are being violated in this way.







The Federal Government is trying to foster and engender an atmosphere of fear and terror and this will not work because we refuse to be intimidated.







You illegally and indefinately lock up Sambo Dasuki, El Zak Zaky, Ifeanyi Uba and countless others and you criminalise them before the world.







Worse still you refuse to bring them before the courts of law or to give their lawyers full and free access to them.







You demonise opposition members and those that criticise your government whilst you treat your own party members and government officials as if they were angels and saints even when and where they indulge in monuemental acts of depravity and corruption.







Instead of protecting the lives Nigerians from the barbaric Fulani militias and herdsmen and other genocidal maniacs you are using the security forces to wage war against the opposition and the Nigerian people.







We expected this sort of thing from the tyrant called President Buhari but we did not expect it from Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.







He is an erudite lawyer and a gentleman of good stock and noble blood and he really should know better.







My belief is that the Acting President may not have known about this barbaric raid and if that is the case I implore him to put a leash on his dogs and stop them from terrorising innocent Nigerians.







Their behaviour is not only shameful but it is also uttterly reprehensible and let them be rest assured that their desperate attempt to dehumanise us and bring us to our knees will fail because God is with us.











An attack on or the violation of the constitutional rights of Ekweremadu or any other opposition figure or dissenting voice in this nation is an attack on ALL of us.







This sort of thing MUST stop because this is a democracy and not a military dictatorship.












The writer

27.05.2017 LISTEN

The issues making the news in recent times especially on social media are so alarming, very unfortunate and shocking. Audios and videos portray black people, especially girls mostly from Ghana and other African countries who are physically abused, tortured, poisoned, while some killed and cut into pieces.

The Ghanaian government must sit up and put things in order before it gets out of hand. The authorities must be up and doing to put this barbaric and inhumane treatment against our fellow Ghanaians who only travelled to seek greener pastures in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt Jordan and other Middle East nations to an end.

I totally disagree with the Saudi Consulate to Ghanas warning of mass deportation of Ghanaians from Saudi. The point is, there are victims who are suffering in peoples homes, who are being physically and sexually abused on daily basis and there are others who are locked up inside the houses of their masters. How do you expect these girls and boys who are confined in houses to hear this announcement? Most of them do not have access to phones, TVs, radios or any other media. Who will tell them to respond to this announcement?

Until the Ghanaian government steps up its efforts to resolve this problem, our own people will be killed like dogs on foreign lands.

These people were deceived by local travel agents, they were promised good jobs, accommodation and other stuff.

Sharon Buchbinder a reporter of TIM( full meaning), an online journal, April 27th, 2015 edition, wrote in his article entitled Sex, Lies and Crime: Human Trafficking in the Middle East that the slogans of these trafficking businesses is: Three Cs Domestic Services: Cleaning, Cooking and Confinement". In 2013, the Walk Free Global Index of Slavery estimated that 2.54% or approximately three-quarters of a million people were enslaved in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ghanaians and people from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, and other countries travel voluntarily to some Middle East countries for lucrative jobs they were promised by travel and tour agencies, these lucrative jobs include Construction work, oil and gas and transportation industries.

Upon entering the country, the victims find themselves deceived and enslaved within the bounds of a legal sponsorship system. This system, also known as kafala, brings workers into those countries, their passports are taken away from them at the airport when they arrive and are given directly to the employment agency or employer along with other identification documents. It is believed that the victims who finds themselves as domestic workers usually labor in isolation in homes and they are subject to confinement, long working hours, food deprivation, sleeping on floors, lack of privacy or the ability to communicate with people outside the household, withholding of wages, and physical, psychological and sexual abuse. If they complain to the police, their employers mostly accuse them of running away and stealing.

The victims are then incarcerated by the law enforcement agencies in those countries. Running away is a risky proposition because if the victims are unable to reach an embassy or an NGO, they may be arrested and detained for long periods of time. Lacking passports and exit papers, runaway victims are at the mercy of criminals who exploit their illegal status and force them into prostitution or begging. For many domestic workers, there is no way out and no way home.

I have personally stopped many people Some young and energetic youth who were approached by agents who deceive young people and sent them to work as slaves in those countries from travelling.

I suggest that government must ban all radio and TV adverts of agents who seek to recruit artisans and other professionals to the Middle East for a lucrative jobs because they only end up selling those individuals as slaves, house helps, etc. Ghana-Saudi authorities must find a lasting solution to this menace. The Ghanaian government in consultation with Consulates from Saudi and others must ban the issuing of mass visas facilitated by travel and tour agents and agencies behalf of these innocent citizens. All these agents must be identified and arrested. If possible those embassies must be shut down temporarily until this menace is tackled thoroughly.

Advice from my colleagues to all Ghanaian youth: if you are not going to Saudi for tourism, pilgrimage or to take up a professional work, do not pay money to anyone to send you to any Arab country. You will not get what those agencies promise you.

Owusu Nyarko-Boateng

[email protected]
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The Volta regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) Election Director has entreated his executives who have been appointed by government to heed to a decision by the party's National Executive Council (NEC) and relinquish their positions in the party.

Korsi Bodja said the decision by NEC must be respected by Volta regional executives "as signs of negligence and absolute shirk of responsibility begin to rear its ugly heads at the regional party secretariat, that was beaming with party activities."

He envisaged that the party might suffer an apathy due to "the current disposition of our regional executives" judging from the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) experience in the 2016 elections.

Mr Bodja, therefore, advised that the party should not be complacent after wrestling power from a stiff opposition but must work towards winning over more sympathisers in the region.

He believes this will enhance achieve the agenda 3/30, thus winning 3 parliamentary seats and polling 30% of total votes in the Volta Region.

"We must engage party loyalists, polling station and constituency executives and all those who matter, for the collective good and make the party more attractive in the region", he said.

In this regard, Mr Bodja stressed that regional executives who are offered appointments in government must relinquish their party positions for constitutionally mandate party executives or appointees to step in to reignite party activities in the region.

He commended the party's National Youth Organiser, Sammy Awuku and other regional executives who turned down government appointment.

"The fact that we need competent hands in government does not mean the party should be left at the mercy of our opponents who are ready to bounce back to power within the shortest time," he added.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Fred Quame Asare | Joy News
Tripoli (AFP) - At least 28 people were killed and nearly 130 wounded in fierce clashes on Friday between forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government and rival militiamen, the health ministry said.

The city has been gripped by a power struggle between dozens of militias since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Health ministry spokesman Anwar Frajallah was not able to say if civilians were among the casualties, as he gave a provisional toll of 28 dead and 128 wounded.

Hashem Bishr, a security official for the Government of National Accord (GNA), separately gave a toll of 23 loyalist forces killed and more than 29 wounded.

Medical sources were not immediately available to confirm the figures.

Earlier an official at a Tripoli hospital gave a "provisional" toll of five dead and several wounded, including civilians.

A militia loyal to the unity government, the Abu Slim Deterrence Force, said on its Facebook page that it lost five fighters, but it was unclear if they were included in the hospital toll.

The fighting broke out in residential neighbourhoods.

AFP journalists heard explosions and artillery fire rock the Abu Slim, Al-Hadhba and Salaheddin districts in the south of the city.

The UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler issued an appeal for a halt to the fighting.

"Voices of reason should prevail for the benefit of the country," he said. "Political aims must not be pursued through violence. Civilians must be protected."

Witnesses said tanks had been deployed in the fighting.

'Nothing stops them'

British ambassador Peter Millett tweeted that he could hear explosions and artillery in south Tripoli.

He condemned "action by these militias who threaten security" ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Saturday in Libya.

Groups hostile to the GNA said they had attacked loyalist forces.

By late afternoon the fighting had subsided, but intermittent gunfire could still be heard in several areas of the capital.

The fighting started around a complex of luxury villas that until March had served as the headquarters of militias loyal to former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil.

Ghweil was ousted from power when the GNA took office in March 2016, and has refused to recognise the new administration.

Loyalist forces seized the villas in four days of intense fighting in March that saw them expand their control over the capital.

Tripoli had been relatively calm since, but dozens of armed groups still operate there -- including several that support Ghweil.

The GNA has won the support of various militias since it took office in March last year, but several parts of Tripoli remain beyond its control.

Relying on militia support and pitted against a rival administration in the east, the GNA has struggled to assert its authority.

In a statement on Friday, the GNA blamed Ghweil and Salah Badi, both leaders of the Fajr Libya coalition of militias which took power in Tripoli in 2014, and vowed to "retaliate mercilessly".

They "have exceeded all limits... Nothing stops them, not faith, not law, not custom and not morals," it said.

"This is their gift to the people for the month of Ramadan", the statement said.
27.05.2017 LISTEN

JOHN 14:15-26

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in You.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. After a little while the world would no longer see Me, but you will see Me, because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and disclose Myself to him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, Lord what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Fathers who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you (NASB).

INTRODUCTION

It is every father or mothers desire that he/she will leave a better legacy. That is why parents invest their time, money, and resources in the lives of their children. That was the concern of Solomon when he wrote Ecclesiastes. His concern was that his older son might waste the resources that he left for him, and so he called all his toils vanity . His fear became a reality because his older son Rehoboam was responsible for the split of the nation because of a bad decision. Every investors fear is whether his successor can carry on productively the investment he/she is leaving behind. We have seen corporations and industries fold up because the new CEOs could not continue the original vision of their predecessors.

Someone has said that when a successor abandons the vision and the goal of a father or an investor who has died, the deceased person turns in his casket. I believe Bill Gates and Warren Buffett all have such apprehensions whether their successors can build on their investments when they pass off the scene.

Jesus was not worried when He was dying and leaving the disciples behind. He knew that someone who was just as capable as Him was going to take care of the work He was leaving behind. That someone is the Holy Spirit. I would like to share with you on the topic: The Promise of the Paraclete.

Background

In the Gospel of John chapters 13-17 are known as the Farewell Discourse. Most of these discourses took place in the Upper Room when Jesus was with the inner circle of His disciples. In chapter 13, He has taught them the importance of humble service and mutual love. In the early part of chapter 14, He has shared with them the necessity for His leaving them to prepare a better place for them. In this passage, Jesus shares with them that He will not leave them alone.

THE REQUEST FOR THE PARACLETE VV. 15-17

Jesus follows His promise of verse 14 with a reminder of the ethical

implications of being His follower. If you really love Jesus, then that love will be shown in keeping His commandments. To love the Father is to love His children, and to love His children is to love the father. Jesus has demonstrated His love for His own (John 13:1ff). He has declared His love for the disciples to the end. He has exhorted the disciples to love one another (13:34-35). Now for the first time in Johns Gospel, Jesus speaks of the disciples love for Him. This includes you and I who call ourselves Christians. The love that Jesus is talking about is more than just saying, I love the Lord, or even singing, I love You, Lord. It is rather love that is demonstrated in deeds. It is appropriate for you and me to say to our spouses from time to time, I love you. We are not to be like the man who said to his wife, when I said I do at the altar on the day of our marriage I meant I love you and when I feel different I will let you know. That is a cop out, it is cold love. Occasionally, our spouses should hear the love word, but more than that love must be displayed in deeds. There are many Christians that say, sing, and pray that they love Christ, but they do nothing to prove that they truly love Him.

Jesus is saying that He is praying to the Father on our behalf concerning the Paraclete and that is dependent on our obedient love for Him. This does not mean that you have to do something to earn the Holy Spirit. God gives the Holy Spirit to you and me as a gift. You do not do anything to receive a gift because if you do, then it is no longer a gift. However, love for Christ must always reveal itself in obedient service to Him. Jesus says that what He will petition the Father on your behalf is the Paraclete , and He will be with you forever. The Greek word for Helper is parakletos, which means, One called alongside to help." I have told you that when we try to translate some Greek words into the English language, the language breaks down, because there is no single word in English language that can adequately convey the idea of the term in Greek. Paraclete is one of such words. So, the word has been variously translated as Helper, Comforter, Encourager, Counselor, Intercessor, and Advocate. The Paraclete is all of these designations and more, but the English words that are closer to the term are Advocate and Counselor. New Testament scholars are of the consensus that Advocate is the best rendering of Paraclete provided it is not restricted to professional legal representation. The same word Paraclete is used for Jesus Christ in 1 John 2:1. Lets settle two more issues in this verse and move on. Jesus used the adjective another to describe the Paraclete. In the Greek language, there are two words for another, which are allos and heteros . Allos conveys the idea of another of the same kind and heteros carries the idea of another of a different kind. Guess what! Jesus uses allos , another of the same kind when He promised the Holy Spirit. Let me give you an example. Lets say you bought a VISIO High Definition TV from Wal-Mart or Best Buy and something happened to it so you took it back to the store where you purchased it. The customer service personnel or the manager told you that they would replace it with another one. They asked you to come back in a weeks time to pick it up, but when you went to pick it up, it was not a VISIO High Definition TV model you liked. In the transaction, your mistake was that you did not specify that you want another of the same kind. They have replaced it but it is another of a different kind. In the petition of Jesus He says He will ask the Father and He will give us another of the same kind of Paraclete like Jesus. You know why the distinction is important? It is because if the Helper, the Counselor, or the Advocate were of a different kind, He would not be able to do the exact work Jesus wanted Him to do. In other words, because the Holy Spirit is another Advocate of the same kind, He will be able to continue the work Jesus is leaving behind in our lives. Jesus is asking the Father to give us the Holy Spirit who is a member of the Triune God and who is of the same essence as the Father and the Son are. This is why I tell you that those of us who are Christians in a real sense are more privileged in the whole wide world. The second thing that is worthy of note is that when the Holy Spirit comes He is coming to be with you and me forever. In the case of Jesus, He has to go before the Paraclete comes. Jesus has to die for our sins, but when the Holy Spirit comes, He comes to stay forever. Jesus earthly life was temporal, but the Holy Spirit is coming to stay permanently.

In verse 17, Jesus says that the Advocate is the Spirit of Truth (cf. 15:26; 16:13). In John 14: 6, Jesus says that He is the truth and in John 4:23-24, He says that those who worship the Father must do so in truth. Truth is closely associated with the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As Jesus communicated truth by word and deed, the Spirit will do likewise. Jesus says that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit, because it does not see Him or know Him. The world means people who are in rebellion to Gods offer of grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. The world is a reference to those who have turned their backs on Jesus. The world does not perceive the activities of the Holy Spirit; therefore, it does not know Him. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with the world. The Holy Spirit has a different work to do with the world, as we will see in chapter 16. The inability of the world to receive, see, or know the Spirit is due to its rejection of the revelation of God in Jesus and the consequent blindness under the judgment of God.

While Jesus has been with the disciples, He Himself has been their Advocate. He has stood beside them like a Counselor for the defense summoned to the side of a prisoner to plead his case and strengthen him in the hour of trial. Jesus has prayed for Peter that his faith may not fail (Luke 22:32). He has defended the disciples against the charge of the Pharisees that they had broken the Sabbath law (Mark 2:23ff.).

THE DEPARTURE OF CHRIST VV. 18-21

Jesus has told the disciples several times that He was going away (13:33, 36;

14:2 ff). Jesus says that He will not leave the disciples like orphans. An orphan is a person who has lost one or both parents. Orphans feel abandoned; they are bereft of parental protection and care. Jesus is saying to the disciples and to you that He will not leave you to battle your way through the world alone. He assures you that He will come to you (the word come is a present tense), which provides greater certainty. Here Jesus is talking about His resurrection and post-resurrection appearances. In verse 19, Jesus is saying that in a short while the world will not see Him. He is talking about not a distant or remote future, because His crucifixion is just around the corner. His hour to depart this life has come. After His death, the world will see Jesus no more. Physically, Jesus will be removed from the world, and spiritually they have never approached Him. The next time the world sees Jesus again will be during the judgment day. But with the disciples, it will be entirely different. The crucifixion will indeed separate the disciples from Jesus, but will be for a short time. The crucifixion would not be the end of Jesus life. After the crucifixion, there will be the resurrection. Death cannot prevail over Jesus. He will rather triumph over death---Hallelujah. The resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee that the disciples will not be overcome by death. The same goes for you and me who are Christians. The life of Christ means life for you and me.

In verse 21, Jesus is saying that on the day of His resurrection, the disciples will know that He is in His Father, His Father is in Him, and the disciples in Him and He in them. We call this the mutual indwelling of Christ and believers. In verse 21, Jesus goes on to say that the person who loves Him is the one who has His commands and obeys them. To have the commandments of Christ means to keep them. This means that it is more important to obey the commands of Christ in daily life than to have a firm intellectual grasp of their content. Love for Jesus is not a matter of words only; if it is genuine love, it must be demonstrated through deeds. In other words, the lover does what the loved one asks. Also Jesus is saying that the Father is not indifferent to the attitude that people take toward the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus then says that He will reveal Himself to those who love Him. You like to keep company with those who love you. Jesus keeps His distance from those who reject, hate, and are plotting His death.

A QUESTION OF CONCERN V. 22

John the Gospel writer identifies this Judas by distinguishing him from the Iscariot. Remember that the Iscariot had already left them in chapter 13. Judas question must have been the perplexity of all the disciples. He asked what had happened that Jesus would reveal Himself to them but not to world. What Judas is saying is that when Jesus is risen from the dead, He should manifest Himself not only to them but also to all, whether believers or not. He was expecting every eye to see Him. Judas is thinking that something has happened to disrupt Jesus original program, but Jesus will bring him along. Jesus will not leave Judas and the disciples in the dark. The truth is that they did not understand everything that Jesus was saying to them.

JESUS ANSWER AND FURTHER CLARIFICATION VV. 23-26

Jesus answer to Judas is summarized in love. If the unbelieving world had

wanted to participate in Jesus glorious resurrection and exaltation, it would have loved Him through obedient response to Him. Anyone who loves Jesus keeps His word (cf. John 8:51; 17:6). And the Father will love such a person and both the Father and the Son will come and make their home in his/her life. Here Jesus is not talking of a temporary dwelling, but a permanent home.

In verse 24, Jesus reveals the negative side of His statement. Those who do not love Christ do not keep His teaching. Today you can see and hear the contempt that some people have for Jesus and His teaching. Even some people dont want the name of Jesus to be mentioned in schools in the United States and other parts of the world. They show their hatred and animosity by enacting laws that prohibit the name and teaching of Jesus from schools and some public places. The truth of the matter is that the word that Jesus preaches is not His own but the Fathers. There can be no higher authority, because the Father sent the Son.

The mission of Jesus points to the permanence of Gods purpose of love. I have a problem with those who say that they did not have the opportunity to hear the gospel. If you are honest and a true seeker after God, why dont you take time to read the New Testament, at least read the Gospels? If many people go to hell, it is not God who is sending them there. It is their own rebellion against the truth that is sending them there. When you seek the truth honestly with an open mind, the Holy Spirit will do His work of regeneration in your life. On the contrary, the rejection of Christ means the rejection of the Father.

The disciples have been thinking that Jesus is leaving them at the mercy of a cruel and hostile world. But in verse 26, Jesus tells them of the functions of the Paraclete when He comes. This is the fullest description of the Spirit to be found in the Gospel of John. In the Greek language this is what the words look like, the Spirit , the Holy . The word Holy emphasizes the Spirits character. The character of the Spirit is holiness. This must serve as a caution to some of you who attribute everything to the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete is holy. He is pure, undefiled therefore you cannot associate that which is evil and impure with Him. If you go to a church and you fall down and you begin to bark like a dog or hiss like a snake, or laugh uncontrollably, dont say it is the doing of the Holy Spirit. Barking, hissing, and uncontrollable emotions are the works of evil spirits and not the Holy Spirit, because some of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is gentleness and self-control. The Holy Spirit will not give you anything that is not of His character or nature.

Those of you who attribute everything to the Holy Spirit, listen as Jesus prescribes some of the functions of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will teach the disciples and you all things. Jesus is saying the primary function of the Holy Spirit is teaching. The Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher. He will illumine your mind to understand the word of God and know who Jesus is. The Holy Spirit will also help the disciples to recall what Jesus has taught them. In other words, the Holy Spirit is not coming with a new or different agenda. He is coming to continue the work that Jesus began. Thos of you who want new revelations, I have news for you. The Holy Spirit is not coming to give new or different revelations. He is coming to help us to recall what Jesus has already taught us.

If you want to know people that were dull of hearing and poor in understanding, they were the disciples of Christ. When Jesus was arrested and crucified, they soon forgot all His promises to them. They even forgot the resurrection of which He repeated several times to them. But all these are to change when the Holy Spirit comes. That is why I have a problem with those who claim to be Christians but there is no change in their lives. Christians who drink alcohol uncontrollably in public functions demonstrate lack of self-control. Whatever happened to sobriety and abstinence from alcohol use and other social vices. I have a problem with some of you who claim to have been Christians for fifteen or ten years, but you cannot turn to the Gospel of Matthew and read it with understanding. You are still a baby in Christ. The truth is that you have not yielded to the Holy Spirit to control your life and mature you. You will see the difference Pentecost will make in the life of the disciples when we get there. That is what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Therefore, I encourage you to surrender your life to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will take his residence in your life and your life will be transformed.
No one has been arrested in connection with Fridays damage of the Somanya office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Yilo Krobo Member of Parliament (MP) has said.

Magnus Kofi Amoatey told Dzifa Bampoh on Joy FMs Top Story, he agreed with ECG officials in the area that there will not be any arrest for the time being.

For now because of the tension if any attempt is made to arrest anyone, it will be just a war...we want things to calm down, he said.

Related Article: Photos: ECG under attack over 'extremely outrageous' bills

The ECG Eastern Regional office came under attack from some residents who were dissatisfied with what they described as 'outrageous' utility bills.

The residents wielding sticks and stones damaged the office of the company in protest after they waited for hours to get a response from ECG officials without success. They left behind broken glasses and dirty ECG walls .

It has emerged the protest was led by the Assembly Member of the area, Jones Tetteh popularly known as Dindindin who owns a block factory in the area. He is reported to have incited the residents after his factory was denied power following his inability to pay his bills.

The protesters were also reported to have besieged a local radio station, Rite FM and threatened to beat the presenters over an alleged unfavourable reportage on the demonstration.

A resident of the area, Francis Nyankotey told Joy News the protest would not have degenerated had ECG officials come out to respond to the concerns of the protesters.

"ECG has not attempted to explain to residents the issue of overbilling and because of its inability to respond that is why todays unexpected demonstration ended that way," he said.

Although he believes what the protesters did was "uncalled for, out of order and condemnable," he said the Assembly Member only registered the concerns of his constituents.

Some other residents who were not part of the protest are calling for the arrest of Mr Tetteh and other people who damaged the ECG office, but the Yilo Krobo MP said that will be done at the appropriate time.

Magnus Kofi Amoatey said they will not shield anyone in connection with the violent protest but added this will be done when the anger of the residents has given way to cool heads.

"If a citizen offends the law...it must take its course," he said, adding if the Assembly Member admits he acted in breach of the law, he would be dealt with. "But let's ensure that he knows and accepts that he has broken the law."

The MP appealed to ECG to educate the people on its billing system. He said he had been a victim of the overbilling but because of his position, he decided to handle it differently.

"ECG must be up and doing and provide actual consumption rather than estimate," he said.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected] | Instagram: @realbrakopowers
Minya (Egypt) (AFP) - Egypt launched six air strikes on jihadist camps in Libya Friday after masked gunmen attacked a bus of Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 people.

Assailants in three pick-up trucks attacked the bus as it was heading for the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province, more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Cairo, before fleeing, the interior ministry said.

It was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a televised address, said Egyptian forces had hit a jihadist training camp in retaliation.

State television reported six air strikes against "terror camps in Libya", specifying that jihadist training camps were hit in the eastern Libyan city of Derna. Witnesses there reported four strikes by a single aircraft.

"Egypt will not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere, either inside (the country) or outside it," Sisi said.

Addressing US President Donald Trump, Sisi said: "You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that."

Egypt attack

In a statement released in Washington, Trump said: "The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished."

"Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilisation, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil."

No group has yet claimed responsibility for attacking the bus.

Footage on state television showed the bus riddled with bullet holes, while cellphone footage and pictures on media sites showed victims lying in the desert sand.

International condemnation

State television quoted a health ministry official as saying a "large number" of the victims were children.

"They used automatic weapons," Minya governor Essam el-Bedawi told state television of the attackers.

State television cited the health minister as saying the attack, which prompted widespread international condemnation, killed 28 people.

It came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population.

Egyptians wait outside a hospital to retreive some of the bodies of the victims of the May 26, 2017 bus attack that killed 28 Coptic Christian pilgrims

The north Minya town of Maghagha saw scenes of anger and despair on Friday.

A group of around 50 men gathered near a church where the funeral of two victims was held, calling for the interior minister to quit.

Nearby, a dozen women in dusty black robes cried and moaned.

In a statement on its spokesman's Facebook page, the Coptic Church called for "measures to be taken to prevent the dangers of those incidents that tarnish Egypt's image".

IS suicide bombers struck a Cairo church on December 11, killing 29 people.

On April 11, bombers attacked two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, killing 45 in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

Egyptian medics unload a wounded woman from the back on an ambulance outside a hospital in Cairo's northern suburb of Shubra on May 26, 2017, following an attack in which 28 Coptic pilgirms were gunned down south of the capital

The bombings prompted Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.

The Egyptian affiliate of IS has also killed several Copts in North Sinai, forcing dozens of families to flee in January.

Friday's shooting came after a historic visit to Egypt by Roman Catholic Pope Francis to show solidarity.

'Senseless act of hatred'

In late April, Francis visited one of the bombed Coptic churches and condemned violence carried out in the name of God.

After Friday's attack, he sent a message to Sisi saying he was "deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric attack, calling it a "senseless act of hatred".

Relatives of murdered Coptic Christians mourn their deaths at a funeral in Abu Garnous Cathedral in Egypt's north Minya town of Maghagha on May 26, 2017

Al-Azhar, Egypt's top religious authority, condemned the shooting on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The Minya incident is unacceptable to Muslims and Christians and it targets Egypt's stability," Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb said in a statement.

Condemnation also poured in from Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Russia and France.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the Eiffel Tower lights would go dark after midnight in solidarity, as also happened on Tuesday after the Manchester Arena attack.

A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli premier "sends the condolences of the Israeli people to President al-Sisi and the Egyptian people".

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the "barbarism and cruelty of terrorism", and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian tweeted that no one "should fear for their life by practising their faith".

Copts have suffered sectarian attacks for years.

A suicide bomber attacked a church in 2011, and there have been deadly clashes with Muslims, especially in the rural south, following disputes over church construction.

Egypt says it has identified those behind the April church bombings, saying they were part of an extremist cell based in southern provinces, offering a reward for their capture.

Sisi has defended the performance of his security forces and accused jihadists of trying to divide Egyptian society by attacking vulnerable minorities.
Atibie (E/R), May 26, GNA - The Atibie Nursing and Midwifery Training College has appealed to the Health Ministry (MOH) to move quickly to post more teachers to the school.

Mrs. Paulina Osabutey, the Principal, said it had over the past decade been struggling with inadequate teachers and that things had kept worsening.

She told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that for the past 10 years, the college had been forced to use its own internally-generated funds (IGF) to hire 19 teachers.

This, she said, was putting tremendous pressure on the school's finances and made the going really tough for them.

The Principal also complained about the lack of vehicles and residential accommodation for both students and the teaching staff.

It had led to a situation where about half the student population and their teachers lived outside the campus, she added.

She indicated that, this was not helpful to effective teaching and learning and could not continue.

Mrs. Osabutey appealed for the supply of computers to enhance the teaching of information and communication technology (ICT) in the school.

GNA

By Eunice Tekie Tei, GNA
26.05.2017 LISTEN

Kumasi, May 26, GNA - Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana (EPCG), has launched a five-year national strategic plan to strengthen its contribution to the nation's development.

This comes amid the celebration of its 170 years anniversary.

The Right Reverend Dr. Seth Senyo Agidi, the Moderator, said under the plan, it was going to build more health facilities and vocational schools across the country to train and equip the youth with employable skills.

The infrastructure at the EP Church's University College in Ho, he said, would be expanded.

There would also be an intensification of the church's evangelism - the spread of the gospel and planting of more branches.

The Rt. Rev Dr. Agidi was addressing the eighth synod of the Ashanti Presbytery of the Church at Amakon, Kumasi.

The three-day conference was held under the theme 'Breaking new grounds revisited - now is our turn'.

It provided the platform to assess its performance over the past year and discussed the way forward.

The Rt. Rev Dr. Agidi said the church was eager not only to see to the spiritual growth of the congregation but the physical needs of the society.

In line with this, the various branches had been directed to find innovative ways to generate funds to support projects that would help to transform the lives of the people.

The Moderator expressed strong backing of the church in the fight against illegal small-scale mining, which had been wreaking havoc on the environment.

He rallied Ghanaians to show patriotism and accept to work hard in their various fields of endeavor to boost productivity in all sectors of the economy.

Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, the Regional Minister, in a speech delivered on his behalf, reminded everybody to contribute to the socio-economic development of the nation.

He urged stronger partnership between the church and the state to make things better.

GNA

By Stephen Asante, GNA
26.05.2017 LISTEN

Kumasi (Ash), May 26, GNA - The Headmistress of Saint Louis Senior High School (SHS), Mrs. Theresa Addae Commey, has hinted of possible cut down of students' admission in the next academic year.

This, she said, had been necessitated by inadequate space for effective academic work and residential accommodation.

The school, which was started 65 years ago with 12 students now has a population of about 2,400 students.

Mrs. Commey was speaking at the launch of the 65th speech and prize giving day in Kumasi.

In attendance were the Board of Governors, the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and past students.

The theme chosen for the event is 'Equipping the girl child for tomorrow's giving back to society'.

The Headmistress applauded the past students for the decision to build a 600-bed dormitory for the school and said its completion would ease the accommodation pressure.

Mr. Osei Opoku, a Member of the School's Board, said the day would be used to showcase the strong achievement made and shine a spotlight on the challenges.

The Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mrs. Mary Owusu Achiaw praised the school authorities for the hard work, commitment and dedication, which had helped to rank the SHS among the best performing in the country.

GNA

By Boakye Baafi, GNA
Teshie, May 26, GNA - A local government expert has called on civil society organizations and traditional authorities to support Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to generate adequate revenue for the development of their communities.

Mr Felix Amakye, lecturer at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Madina, made the call while delivering a paper on 'Strategies for Revenue Mobilization and Social Accountability' at a public forum at Teshie.

Addressing members of the Social Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (SPEFA) of the Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly (LekMA) second quarter forum of the year, Mr Amakye said it was incumbent upon its members to help strategize on how to maximize revenue mobilization for development.

The forum was organized by Intervention Forum (IF), a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with the LekMA and SNV-Ghana to empower SPEFA members as part of their continuing education and capacity building on local government administration.

He listed some of the strategies for revenue mobilization as credible database, good forecasting and target setting, fee fixing resolutions, public education, information communication technology (ICT), street naming and property addressing as well as valuation and revaluation.

Mr Amakye explained the rational for the strategies, while stressing the roles of citizens in revenue mobilization and the contributory roles of traditional authorities and MMDAs in optimizing revenue generation.

In a welcoming address, Madam Nora Ollennu, Chief Executive Officer of Intervention Forum and Local Capacity Builder for the LekMA SPEFA Group, said the level of planned development agenda for MMDAs depended on their capacity to work towards diversifying their financial resources and generating sustainable and supplementary funding.

''The onus rests upon present-day assemblies to look beyond traditional revenue sources which have been the mainstay of decentralized development in decades past and embrace workable context-specific and novel revenue generation approaches which will ultimately result in the accruement of greater financial gains.'' she stated.

She entreated local assemblies to take cues from existing best practices across the country and the world as a whole, and work to streamline their existing revenue mobilization strategies to ensure their continued effectiveness.

'As CSOs, traditional heads, opinion leaders and citizens, we must in earnest appreciate our contributory roles so that we can effectively complement these processes and ensure that the assembly is able to achieve its targeted revenue and put such revenue to prudent use,' she said.

Mr Kofi Taylor Appiah, Municipal Planning Officer, LekMA, gave a presentation on the update of preparations toward the 2018-2021 Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP).

He briefed the citizens on the MTDP as stipulated by the National Development Planning (System) Act, 1994, Act 480, which mandates the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to prescribe the format and content of development plans for districts, ministries and sector agencies.

The Act, he said, also required district assemblies to initiate and prepare district development plans and settlement structure plans in a manner prescribed by the Commission and ensure that they were prepared with full participation of the local community.

Mr Appiah explained the roles of DCEs, MMDAs, sub-metropolitan, district, urban municipal, zonal councils, unit committees, urban, town, zonal and area councils in the preparation of their development plans.

The MMDAs, he said, were required to initiate and prepare for the approval of the NDPC district development plans and settlement structure plans in the manner prescribed by the NDPC and ensure that these were prepared with the full participation of the local community.

'They are to carry out studies on development planning matters in the district including economic, social, spatial, environmental, sectoral and human settlement issues and policies, and mobilize human and physical resources for development in the district.'

In all these, Mr Appiah said the urban, town, zonal and area councils served as the rallying point of local enthusiasm in support of the development objectives of the district assembly, adding that they must provide inputs for the preparation of the plans.

This, he said, they could do by mobilizing resources for implementation, monitoring and evaluating sub-district development plans as well as participating fully during the data collection exercise and public hearings while facilitating the needs assessment in the communities during community dialogue meetings and workshops.

Mrs Sarah Agbey of SNV Ghana representative and National SPEFA Coordinator, told the citizens to take the lessons learned at the forums very seriously, saying community or personal development depended on how well they utilized knowledge, wisdom and money.

She entreated the SPEFA members to embrace these concepts and make practical use of them while building on local cultural values and strengths.

'We need to be more creative; don't limit yourself to building schools, toilets and other structures but pay attention to all aspects of life,' she charged.

Mr Kodjoe Dekpo, Municipal Coordinating Director, who responded to a number of concerns, said the LekMA was ready to welcome suggestions and ideas with regard to the development of the municipality.

GNA

By Ray Ankomah, GNA
26.05.2017 LISTEN

From Desmond Davies - London Bureau

London, May 26, GNA - The rush to develop renewable energy projects is leading to violations of human and land rights, a former UN Human Rights Commissioner has warned.

Speaking at the Commonwealth's Regenerative Development to Reverse Climate Change (RDRCC) conference in London, Mary Robinson cautioned: 'It's important to remain cognisant that not all action that is good for the planet is automatically good for people and I really want to emphasise that point because I did not appreciate it until relatively recently.

'We require a just transition for human rights to inform all climate actions.

'Recent experience shows that renewal and energy installations can result in human rights being undermined if local communities are not consulted.'

Last November, the UK-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, of which Mrs Robinson has strong connections, said it had received 115 allegations of human rights abuse regarding renewable companies since 2005, out of which 94 having taken place since 2010.

'Our analysis of company responses revealed that 34 out of 50 companies have some commitment to consult with local communities.

'However these commitments vary significantly and the majority are weak or non-existent,' the Centre said.

'Only five out of 50 refer to respecting indigenous peoples' internationally recognised right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

'Failing to undertake these consultations in a rigorous manner can cause project delays as well as financial, legal and reputational costs to companies.'

Since the Paris Agreement on climate change came into effect last year and the advent of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the number of new renewable energy installations has overtaken the number of new fossil fuel installations globally for the first time, according to the Centre.

For instance, the World Bank had to admit that its 2010 geothermal energy project in Kenya, which it financed in conjunction with the European Investment Bank, failed to communicate in the local language with the Masai community in the Rift Valley.

The Bank also conceded that the people were not adequately compensated for the loss of their land and livelihood.

Addressing the RDRCC conference, Mrs Robinson, a former President of Ireland, said clean energy projects were being undertaken the wrong way by big companies.

'They're doing it through big projects and they're doing it without consultation.

'They're taking away land rights from local communities [and] they're not respecting the indigenous people's right to informed consent, and so on,' she added.

'This is a problem we will face and we can only avoid that problem by having safeguards, by ensuring that human rights and gender issues are to the front and centre of activity.

'And that land rights, labour rights, indigenous rights can all be undermined in the absence of checks and balances on renewable energy projects.'

Mrs Robinson added: 'On the other hand, engaging people in climate decision making creates more buy-in and support for a plan of action, and governments can't achieve the SDGs or implement the Paris Agreement goals without the actions of their citizens or the support of civil society.

'At times of change and anxiety, such as people around the world are experiencing now, there's a risk that people and states will withdraw and attempt to go it alone.

'But these are precisely the time that countries should come together and forge new friendships and relationships, and I believe the Commonwealth has a very significant role in forging those friendships and relationships.'

In his contribution, Eniko Horvath, a senior researcher at the Centre said, 'Despite the increasing investment [in renewable] we have been seeing, we did not see a real conversation around the human rights impacts that these companies are having.'

Since Patricia Scotland took over as Secretary General of the Commonwealth last year, she has pushed for a revolutionary approach to dealing with climate change.

The RDRCC approach, in collaboration with the Cloudburst Foundation, does not focus on the doom and gloom of the global debate on climate change, but instead places emphasis on potentials to reverse this.

Some of the world's leading environmental experts who met last week at the Commonwealth conference looked at how they could take forward an innovative strategy to reverse the human impact of climate change.

They are hoping their new approach will influence the debate among world leaders when they meet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23), chaired by Fiji in Bonn, Germany this November.

Last October, the Commonwealth convened a meeting of more than 60 scientists, ecologists, activists, academics and funders who explored cutting-edge approaches to reducing carbon emissions and addressed global warming to boost development and economic growth.

Secretary-General Scotland noted: "A pronounced increase in violent storms, floods, drought, desertification and devastating sea level rises - extreme events such as these are the realities that many people across the Commonwealth wake up to every day.

'This is why, from the moment I took office, I have been working hard to address climate change.

'It is truly a historic moment for the Commonwealth as the first intergovernmental organisation to take on the bold challenge of flipping the narrative on climate change.

'What we are saying is that climate change is not only our biggest challenge, it is also our biggest opportunity.

'Regenerative development offers ways of tackling climate change on a scale and by means that can be adopted by the most vulnerable countries, and are appropriate to the day-to-day lives and livelihoods of their inhabitants,' she added.

It is expected that the Commonwealth will have a programme on regenerative development in place by April 2018, when the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting takes place in London.

The Commonwealth represents nearly a third of the world's population and one-fifth of the Earth's landmass.

Consequently, its actions are highly influential because its population lives in every region of the planet and contains a rich diversity of cultures, economies, and ecosystems, climate change experts point out.

GNA
Aburi (E/R), May 26, GNA - Ghana has numerous challenges in the health delivery system because successive Governments have left the capital investments in that major sector in the hands of donors.

The problem had been compounded by poor leadership, lack of social accountability as well as a sleeping media that have failed to effectively interrogate the issues, Dr Doris Mawuse Aglobitse, the Programme Analyst for Communication and Resource Mobilisation, UNFPA, has said.

'Leaving a nation's capital investments in the hands of donors is a dangerous game any government could play, yet Ghana had taken such chances in the past leading to numerous challenges in our healthcare system,'' she said.

Dr Aglobitse said the country's present healthcare delivery system could be said to be in a sorry state and very shameful as basic services were nothing to write home about.

She was addressing a workshop to empower health reporters with knowledge on the six key areas under the USAID-sponsored People4Health Project. The areas are Maternal Health, Malaria, Nutrition, Family Planning, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and HIV/AIDS.

'The media ought to be provoked into action as they are the only force that can drive change, social accountability and policy commitment towards the nation's capital investment for sustainable development,'' she said.

The workshop was organised by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Aburi, in the Eastern Region, in collaboration with Media and Communication Advocacy Network (MCAN), SEND-Ghana and Pensplusbytes.

The project, which would cover the Greater Accra, Eastern, Northern regions, is on the theme: 'Transparency and Accountability Mechanisms for People for Health (P4H) Project'.

Dr Aglobitse said currently statistics, especially on Maternal Health, Infant and Child Mortality, Malaria, and Malnutrition, are very high and devastating in areas with very low health care coverage.

She, therefore, called for action to demand from government a commitment to stick to and fulfil its obligation of devoting at 15 per cent of the national budget to health issues in line with the Abuja Declaration.

Dr Aglobitse said, to a large extent, funding releases to the health sector and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) did not come in early for reimbursement, which affected the healthcare delivery system.

Dr Aglobitse expressed the hope that the journalists would use the knowledge acquired to effectively embark on public sensitisation so that people would understand the issues affecting their health rights and make appropriate demands for change.

Mrs Yaa Oforiwah Asare-Peasah, the Head of Editorial, at the Ghana News Agency, said the workshop, which would be repeated in the Eastern and Northern regions, for MCAN members and health journalists, would promote community empowerment and improve reporting and tracking of diseases as far as the health and well-being of Ghanaians were concerned.

She said the country could not sustain its achievements in the other sectors of the economy if it did not address the deficiencies in the health sector.

She, therefore, encouraged the media to strengthen their advocacy role to educate the public and policy makers for a positive attitudinal change to ensure sustainable development.

Mr Gearge Osei-Bimpeh, the Country Director of SEND-Ghana, expressed satisfaction with the partnership so far, and pledged further support to facilitate the successful implementation of the project.

He urged the media to up their advocating and sensitising role for the upholding of human rights in all spheres of life and called for hard work to ensure a successful health care delivery system.

GNA

By Agnes Boye-Doe/Christabel Addo - GNA
26.05.2017 LISTEN

Accra May 26, GNA - Four other foreign nationals who were arrested at Manso-Tontokrom for their involvement in illegal mining in the Ashanti Region, have been put before an Accra Circuit Court.

The four who are of Russian and Ukrainian origins have been charged with conspiracy to commit crime to wit undertaking small scale mining without license and undertaking small scale mining without license.

They are Farid Isaev, Vadim Potokia, Saerhii Chepurniy all engineers and Genadiy Rubee, a Site Engineer.

The court did not take their pleas and remanded them into custody to enable the court secure a Russian Interpreter as accused could not speak English.

They are to reappear on May 31 before the court presided over by Ms Ruby Naa Ayikai Aryeetey.

Prosecuting Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Cletus Abdamlora said the complainant is a Police officer attached to the Lands and Forestry Ministry whiles accused were foreigners from Russia and Unkraine but residents in country precisely Tontokrom in the Ashanti Region.

DSP Abdamlora said the Ministry of Lands and Forestry recently gave an ultimatum to all small scale mining companies and illegal miners popularly known as 'galamseyers' operating in the country to stop until their activities were regulated.

Prosecution said government thus banned any form of small scale mining until further notice.

On May 22, this year, the sector Minister Mr John Peter Amewu and a team including complainant went on a fact finding mission to ensure that the ban was being complied with at Manso Tontokrom.

On their arrival, DSP Abadamlora said they met the accused persons busily engaged in illegal mining.

The accused persons were using heavy equipment which had destroyed vast land including cocoa farms of the inhabitants and polluted their source of water.

When the accused persons were questioned, they said they were employees of Geo Professional Services, a Mining company.

Prosecution prayed the court for some time to conduct further investigations into the matter.

GNA

By Joyce Danso, GNA
Accra, May 26, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Friday maintained that the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) should be at the forefront in the fight against illegal mining, saying Ghanaians expect security services to curb the menace.

'As government intensifies its efforts to curb the illegal mining phenomenon, otherwise referred to as 'galamsey', that is polluting our waters, destroying our farmlands and forests, and threatening the very survival of this country, Ghanaians will continue to rely on the efforts of our security services, with the Armed Forces in the forefront, to help deal with the problem.

'I am confident that, as always, the Armed Forces will rise to the occasion,' he said during the Presentation of Colours to the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (RECCE), at a colourful ceremony at the Gondar Barracks, Burma Camp, in Accra.

The ceremony, the very first in the history of the GAF to be for the Regiment, is in tune with long-standing military traditions across the world, has been the sole preserve for units in the infantry. However, the decision to present the Regiment with its own Colours is line with a decision taken to present Colours to deserving combat support units of the GAF.

The only other combat support units who have ever been presented with their own colours are the 48 Engineer Regiment and the 66 Artillery Regiment

President Akufo-Addo noted that despite the numerous, complex and unpredictable challenges to Ghana's national security, the officers, men and women of the security services discharged their duties equably and professionally.

He said: 'All of us owe a great debt of gratitude to you, the men and women of the Armed Forces, for being prepared to put your lives on the line to keep our nation safe, safeguard our sovereignty and protect our territorial integrity. As the saying goes, you are the salt of the earth.'

The President assured that his government would pay heed to Ghana's military preparedness to address the new threats to the country's security, by actively supporting contemporary training methods that would not only keep the military abreast with international military trends, but also ensure that they remained the beacon of Armed Forces across the continent.

'We are committed to providing you with modern military equipment, which would complement the training you would receive. Government is also committed to enriching the human resource base of the Armed Forces by supporting initiatives that will provide further education for soldiers, sailors and airmen to enhance their skills at protecting our territorial integrity,' he added.

President Akufo-Addo, in presenting the Colours, urged the Regiment to 'revere it and be guided always by its undying principles of perseverance, unity and bravery in the protection of lives and property, and the defence of the territorial sovereignty of our beloved Ghana.'

'I am confident that you will honour and defend these Colours at all times. The possession of the revered symbols must inspire you to greater service in defence of Mother Ghana,' he said.

GNA

By Ken Sackey, GNA
Accra May 26, GNA - Mr Napoleon Agyemang Oduro, Vice Chairman of Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers (GNAPF) have tasked poultry farmers to re- position themselves and embrace new dimensions in the industry to create jobs and increase products.

According to Mr Oduro some farmers were comfortable in doing the old things which did not achieve results.

Mr Oduro said this at the launch of three new products by Boris B's Farms and Veterinary Supplies Ghana Limited, a giant Distributor of animal feed and drugs to boost poultry and meat production in the country.

The launch brought together farmers from Western, Central, Volta and Greater Accra Regions.

One of the products Neoprime, is a new intestinal and immunity primer for weaning piglets and improving feed conversion and weight gain in pigs.

Varium also seeks to reduce mortality among piglets and poultry, while Poultry Guard an acidified clay helps reduce litter moisture of piglets and eliminates stench at poultry farms.

Mr Oduro welcomed the three products saying farmers were ready to work with products that would revamp the poultry industry that had struggled over the years.

He said the poultry industry had been plagued with many challenges over the past 30 years adding that there had not been any national investment in the sector.

He therefore tasked all stakeholders to embark on holistic approach and confront challenges facing the industry in order to increase revenue and create jobs in the country.

According to him, if the poultry industry was given the needed attention, over one million jobs could be created in the country.

Mr Oduro was not enthused with the performance of poultry industry in the country adding that currently, the industry was unable to make the 40 per cent mark of producing products on the local market adding it only made less than one per cent of its target.

He appealed to government to pay attention to the value chain of the poultry industry to help increase government revenue.

Mr Oduro said the worm infestation was going to affect the poultry industry although he could not tell its extent and urged stakeholders to unite to find solutions to that.

He noted that under the pilot project on Revitalisation of broilers for local consumption only 300,000 birds representing were produced and government still owed Boris B's Farms which financed the 300,000 broilers in August 2016 GHE8 million in the Revitalisation of project.

He explained that only two million cedis had been paid to Boris B's Farms and Veterinary Supplies and adding the association had written to government to assist Boris B's farms to recoup his money.

GNA

By Joyce Danso, GNA
Accra May 26, GNA - The Ghana National Association of Poultry Farmers says 34 members whose birds were infected with bird flu and subsequently destroyed last year have not received any compensation from government.

According to Mr Napoleon Agyemang Oduro, Vice President of the association, the affected members were currently in financial difficulties and their kids were in dire need.

Speaking to journalists after the launch of three products by Boris B's Farms and Veterinary Supplies, Mr Oduro said the association found out this problem after monitoring the situation on their farms.

Mr Oduro appealed to government to investigate and ascertain why only 27 members had been compensated with GHE1.1 million out of the GHE11 million set aside for farmers after Parliamentary approval.

He said payment of the compensation for the 34 members would go a long way to alleviate their plight and encourage more people to venture into the industry.

According to Mr Oduro, the GHE11 million was to be used as compensation, facilitation of public education, payment of service providers and surveillance by veterinary officers among other services.

He said government currently owed the farmers over GHE1 million adding 'whatever is due the farmers should be paid to them.'

Mr Boris Baidoo, Chief Executive Officer of Boris B' Farms and Veterinary Supplies Ghana Limited said it was important that farmers produced pigs that had more meat than fat in them.

According to him, the three products launched could go a long way to boost meat production and reduce high mortality and stench emanating from litters of animals.

Mr Baidoo said the 40 per cent local production of birds was not easy to come by but 'that could be achieved with new dimensions in the poultry and pig production.' The launch brought together farmers from Western, Central, Volta and Greater Accra Regions

Dr Demir Ozdemir, Regional Technical Manager of Omlan International, a US based firm said the three products; Neoprime, Varium and Poultry guard were currently in over 34 countries.

GNA

By Joyce Danso, GNA
A section of Highway 4 in Calaveras County View Photos

Sacramento, CA  Travel industry officials are predicting this Memorial Day Weekend will be the busiest on Northern California roads since 2005.

According to AAA spokesperson Mike Blasky, Californians seem to be really excited to get away this Memorial Day. We are projecting a 12-year high for travel in California, and of the 4.8 or so million that we expect to traveling this weekend 4 million will be driving, so a majority will be taking to the roads this year. According to AAA, the figures are up well over three percent from last year and close to the 2005 benchmark of 5 million travelers for the holiday. For the past six years straight now travel activities for this particular weekend, considered by many to be the unofficial start to summer vacations, have been on the rise.

This year about a half-million air travelers over the weekend will constitute a six percent surge in decisions to take to the skies  even though AAA estimates that fares, up about nine percent, carry a roundtrip ticket average of about $181. AAA Three-Diamond rated hotel rates are 18 percent higher than over last Memorial Day weekend; the average cost is running about $215/night.

Road Readiness, Tipsy Tow Service

Blasky cautions travelers planning to drive to make sure their vehicles are road-ready. Over this weekend alone AAA expects it will nationally rescue more than 300,000 motorists. The organization takes millions of distress calls each summer, mainly due to common causes like lockouts, flat tires and dead batteries.

Gas prices, already going up, will continue to go higher later this year as Blasky points out that Governor Jerry Brown will be signing the states gas tax increase. Currently in the Mother Lode, prices for a gallon of unleaded regular gas is ranging from $2.81 to $3.19 in Sonora; $3.04 to $3.29 in San Andreas (the latest prices are reported here).

Come Monday, Memorial Day, Blasky says that AAA will be running its Tipsy Tow Service from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning. If you are out and had too much to drinkcall AAA and we will pull your car home. Our priority is safety and trying to get people home safely so they can enjoy next Memorial Day. The first ten miles of tow service are free after which the mileage is subject to standard rates. When calling the number, 1-800-AAA-HELP (1-800-222-4357), callers should specifically state that they need a Tipsy Tow, and then provide the drivers name, home address, phone number and vehicle/driver location.
Mountain Ranch marijuana bust View Photos

Mountain Ranch, CA  A property search found two men on the illegal site, which led to a foot chase where both men managed to escape.

Calaveras County Sheriffs Deputies along with code enforcement agents carried out a search warrant on an unregistered illegal marijuana grow on property in the 8400 block of West Murray Creek Road in Mountain Ranch around 9 a.m. Monday. During the raid, deputies spotted two Hispanic males running into a heavily wooded area at the rear of the lot. Deputies combed the area but could not find the suspects. However, they did discover 399 marijuana plants and a snare placed along a small game trail. Sgt. Anthony Eberhardt explains, The snare is used to trap wildlife, game inhumanly. He notes they may have been using it for food or as bait to bring in bigger game.

An investigation into the identities of the men is ongoing. Sheriffs officials ask the public to report suspected unregistered pot grows to the Calaveras County Marijuana Enforcement Team Tip line at (209)754-6870.
Healthcare management is a catastrophe in the country! Nigerians have to suffer from long queues, lack of medications and inexperienced doctors! And this only the beginning of a long list of struggles! What are the problems facing healthcare management in Nigeria? This article will give you the top 10!

Healthcare Problems and Management in Nigeria

The role of the Nigeria`s government has been narrowed to the management of Federal Medical Centres and Universities` affairs. The state government is responsible for general local hospitals and providing primary healthcare centres in Nigeria. The total cost of GDP from the healthcare sector in Nigeria is 4.6%. At the same time, the expenditure on GDP from the government`s side is 1.5%.

In the long run, it shows that Nigeria can support only basic medical services. In the history of healthcare management in Nigeria  you can find a great deal of challenges. Only at the beginning of the 2000s, Nigeria managed to develop basic healthcare needs and management. Still, the system needs improving. Let`s see the Top 10 challenges of health management in Nigeria!

1. Corruption in Healthcare

Corruption is the main problem in Nigeria. Unfortunately, healthcare is the third most corrupted branch of the country. Government hospitals do not pay the correct salaries to managers and doctors. Managers and doctors do not feel protected and appreciated.

Doctors are responsible for so many lives in the country! Why aren`t they paid enough? We can see the slightly better situation with corruption in private clinics. However, Government hospitals provide medical treatment to 90% of population. Is healthcare free in Nigeria? The answer is "No"! Nigerians pay for it from their pockets!

2. Bad Education of Management specialists

Nigerian education system can`t provide high-quality specialists to manage hospital affairs. That`s why Nigerians try to find better education abroad. Some young Nigerians get a bachelor degree at the UK or US universities. Still, not every Nigerian is so lucky. The management in Nigeria is different from the general theory of management. Newly graduated specialists are faced with:

- Corruption;

- Lack of high-class medical doctors;

- Lack of medications;

- Lack of tutoring;

- Lack of real experience.

Young Nigerian managers tend to make mistakes not because they are bad students, but because the real life rules are different from the theory management taught in universities.

3. Bad Education of Doctors

Nigerians suffer from ill-trained doctors. These medical specialists can never be compared to British doctors. Newly graduated interns experience the same problem as new managers! They do not have real experience and real medical education. When new doctors come to these medical facilities  they still need to keep studying.

4. Ill-Trained Nurses

READ ALSO: Rivers State University of Science and Technology postgraduate courses

Nurses are also crucial for every clinic. They stay with a patient for almost 80% of the time. Still, their training is also a big problem for healthcare managers. If you think that nurses should only obey the commands of doctors, then you are wrong! They should also study medicine! Moreover, the nurses` salary in Nigeria is pretty low. However, it does not justify the way they treat patients

5. Lack of Medications

The Federal Government of Nigeria has even confirmed the lack of medications. If you add the Nigerian corruption to this case, then you can see the full picture. Healthcare in Nigeria has to struggle with this problem and solve it. And corruption only makes it worse.

According to statistics, in Nigeria primary healthcare centres do not get at least 20% of their medications every year. People are forced to travel from clinic to clinic to find a doctor with the right medicine. This situation creates additional lines at doctors` offices. Moreover, lack of medicines leads to death of hundreds of Nigerians every year!

6. Lack of Funding

Government medical facilities experience the lack of financing. Rural areas don't even have enough to provide electricity for their healthcare system. What does it mean for Nigerians? Even if doctors want to help  they can`t do that without funding. Healthcare management has to deal with this kind of problems too.

7. Lack of Hygiene

Hygiene is another problem to deal with. Old infrastructure, hot climate and lack of funding provide a bad environment situation. The government should provide funding of infection-free rooms to hospitals. It`s hard to expect any good medical treatment in a dirty room.

8. Lack of Medical Facilities

People from rural areas have no choice besides travelling to the nearest city for medical help. It`s one of the challenges of healthcare in Nigeria. Lack of facilities lead to the overpopulation of available facilities. It also leads to a situation when doctors and nurses overwork.

9. Lack of Tools

While some clinics in big cities in Nigeria can have the modern medical equipment, other cities only have to make do with what they have. Nigerian government should also deal with the problem of bad hospital equipment. This includes cars, surgeon rooms, x-ray rooms, etc.

10. Lack of Empathy

Nigerian doctors and nurses are known to lack compassion People looking for help will suffer when it comes to doctor-patient relationship. It`s not a usual thing for healthcare practitioners in other countries.

Health Care Management in Nigeria

What are the problems facing healthcare management in Nigeria? You have read about the main problems in healthcare of Nigeria. Unfortunately, these problems are not solved yet. Healthcare practitioners just have to deal with them.

READ ALSO: Online Courses in Nigeria

Source: Legit.ng
- A self-acclaimed Jesus, Jesu Oyingbo, made history in Lagos between the 1970s and 1980s

- He acquired converts to his church, wealth and wives, some of whom he acquired very unlawfully

- He claimed he was the coming Christ, drew a lot of people to himself but died miserably

- Following his death, his ministry, family and all that called his name were scattered and abandoned

I am He. I am Jesus Christ, the very one whose second coming was foretold in the New Testament. I have come, and those who believe in me will have an everlasting life and joy. I am the missing of the trinity. I have come to prepare the faithful for the judgment day.

It was this declaration made in June 1959 that officially marked the transformation of 43-year-old Immanuel Olufunmilayo Odumosu to Jesu Oyingbo. It was on the basis of the convincing and convicting declaration that he set up a group headquartered in Oyingbo suburbs of Lagos state.

It did not take him time to draw to himself a crowd of people who were interested in his supposed supernatural personality. This group of loyalists trooped to his enclave which he called the Universal College of Regeneration (UCR), believing in totality in his larger than life image he created.

Perhaps his background in the carpentry vocation with his uncle, which is similar to what Jesus Christ had with his foster father Joseph, led them to believe in the genuineness of the Ijebu-Ode born Immanuel proclamation. On his own part, he claimed that his declaration was a result of a divine revelation straight from the chambers of heaven.

How Jesu Oyingbo, a self-acclaimed Jesus Christ in 1970s, raised his empire and died in 1988 in Lagos

He claimed that having no formal education, when he suddenly received insight into the secret meanings of the Bible, as well as the power to perform miracles, save people from their earthly worries, comfort and redeem them, he knew that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ, the I AM. He emphasised that he did not need to be a Jew before he could be Jesus, since he and his followers were simply Jews in dispersion.

READ ALSO: Buhari's health: Embassy source reveals detail of president's status

Oyingbo, being a bubbling municipal area in the Lagos which was in itself the capital of commercial activities in the country, his activities drew attention to Lagos in the way ants are drawn to sugar. In no time, the country was awash with tales about the man who had declared himself to be the living reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

However, his pattern of apostleship was distinctly different from the Bible records of Jesus Christ or any of his apostles. First of all, his mode of conversion involved flogging the new convert nine strokes of the cane a cane which many said he inherited from his grandfather. He described the strokes being given to them as the baptism which they needed to become a part of the flock under his care.

Also, all his members were brought under the communal enclave. The baptism haven been done, these converts went back to their families, packed their belongings, forsook the world and followed him. Despite attempts by different families to hold him responsible for such actions, he always came out of the police cases clean.

These members then formed not only his congregation, but also his workforce, as he was what one might describe as a Pastorpreneur owning a printing outfit, a bakery, restaurant, barbing salon, a construction company, real estate development and other business outfit within his community.

He was very particular when he stated clearly that his wealth was not a result of offerings from his flock, but income from the businesses, even though he sometimes received gifts from them despite the fringe benefits which he considered his entitlement as their Redeemer. One of these fringe benefits was the fact that he had unlimited access to any of the wives of the men in his flock, and could choose to do with them whatsoever he pleased.

In this light, there was an occasion when he married a mans wife in order to punish him for his errant behaviours. On another occasion, he handed over the wife of an unruly member to other men in the flock. Not to mention that at his will, he could choose to call any of the women who pleased him to satisfy his needs at any time.

Notwithstanding any of these, he married a large number of wives ranging somewhere between 30 and 80. The real number of his wives was not possible to determine, as the communal lifestyle adopted where any members wives could be found in acting capacity.

How Jesu Oyingbo, a self-acclaimed Jesus Christ in 1970s, raised his empire and died in 1988 in Lagos

In June 1959, as at which time he already had seven wives, when he was asked about his polygamous intentions, he said: I have not finished with wives yet. I am going to marry more. To save the faithful, I must behave like one of themselves. I must marry more women, for are they not the sheep and I the shepherd?

Since he had unquestioned sexual privileges over the wives of any and every of his member, being his divine benefit for leading them out of darkness to the light, he must have been faithfully tending the flock in his own unique way.

READ ALSO: Buhari appoints Malami, 6 others into federal board

However, most official reports place the figure of his personal wives somewhere around 34, about three of whom were his biological daughters. The number of his children was also impossible to pin down since some of the members of his enclave went as far as adopting Odumosu as their surname, but about 80 were officially listed and recognised.

Most of his children were sheltered and protected within the enclave, and did not even get formal education except for a few whose mothers took charge of it. However, they enjoyed other privileges like cars and drivers at their disposal to move around as well as financial benefits.

Out of this number, Legit.ng gathered that not all accepted the religion or mode of worship and a few even left the community as they refused to be coerced into adopting a religion they were not comfortable with. One of his daughters, Bukola Immanuel Odumosu, a graduate of Economics from Lagos state university stated bluntly that even though he was clearly her father, she had doubt about him being her saviour.

Interestingly, he was also said to be practising a unique religion which blended Christianity, Islam, African traditional religions and even paganism. He also blended it with the profiteering motive of his business outfits. With about 700 followers, he had more than enough work force for his businesses.

On a personal level, he was described by neighbours, friends and even his children as a lively, nice and humorous man who was friendly with all, and never got tired of trying to convert them. Most of his neighbours said the only issue they had was the noise caused by their activities from the early hours of the morning, even though they could not complain.

How Jesu Oyingbo, a self-acclaimed Jesus Christ in 1970s, raised his empire and died in 1988 in Lagos

He, however, entertained them in the evenings by projecting movies for people to gather and watch, creating a sort of cinema-like experience for them. Even though he later relocated to Maryland, the name Jesu Oyingbo stuck, having been where he started.

There is even a Yoruba song that acknowledged his divinity claim despite not quite accepting of the claim which goes thus: Emi o mo Jesu Oyingbo, Emi o mo Jesu Agege, Emi o mo Guru Maharaji, Jesu ti mo mo l'apata ayeraye!!!. Meaning; I don't know Jesus of Oyingbo, I don't know Jesus of Agege, I don't know Guru Maharaji, The Jesus that I know is the rock of ages! Most Lagosians who were born long after his death, most likely first heard the name through this song.

Notably, most of his buildings on Immanuel Street, Maryland had the inscriptions such as Merciful and Mighty, Prince of Peace and Everlasting Father. Some of them were also surrounded by statues of Christ, caterpillar tractors, sculptures of lions and mermaids with water spurting from their mouths, a situation which caused people to wonder exactly what his religion was about.

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He justified his liberal and abundant life by saying that while the first Jesus came to sacrifice and suffer, taking care of the cross-carrying and crucifixion, he, the second Jesus simply came to enjoy life. I have come to enjoy my life, my friend.

In his life, he amassed abundant wealth both in cash and kind. He had a vast estate and some of his listed properties included numbers 7A, 7B, 9, 10,11,13,14,15,17 Emmanuel Street, Maryland, Lagos; 37 Aliu Street via Felicia Ayodeji Street, off Ikorodu Road, Ketu, Lagos; 570/622/624 Ikorodu Road, Ketu, Mile 12, Lagos. It was also believed that he left properties and funds in the UK.

Unexpectedly, nature called and the supposedly immortal Jesu Oyingbo answered. He was gripped by the cold hands of death in 1988 when he was aged 73, and he died in an hospital outside the commune. Most of his followers did not believe that their messiah had died, and waited for him to resurrect after three days, and when he failed to, most of them got disheartened.

As could be expected from a husband to many, and father to dozens, he died without a will and a mini civil war began soon after concerning the sharing of the assets. It was wives against wives, children against children and even some long-term members of the movement who felt they were entitled to the properties joined in the battle.

The fight was both petty and dirty, and the struggle so immense that the eldest son, Olukayode Immanuel Odumosu took them to court. It was in the court that the issues were not only resolved, but a lot of improprieties which were being perpetrated within the enclave were brought to the light including the sharing of wives and incestful relationships.

In 1997, the children won and the disciples who were resident in Pa Odumosus Maryland spiritual enclave in Lagos were evicted. On 18th June 2014, Justice Ronke Harrison of the probate division of the Ikeja High Court ruled that all 167 children are entitled to share in the vast estate as beneficiaries in equal proportion.

It was at this point that the church of Jesu Oyingbo which already had a deep crack in its foundations following the death of their messiah, crumbled completely. With the left over members leaving, the 56- year-old Olukayode who had been trying to hold the pieces together left to find some freedom for himself.

But today, in an otherwise well-kept neighborhood in this city of eight million people, weeds have pushed through the cracks in the imperial courtyards and dust has settled inside the deserted buildings.

The enclave, which is now just made of deserted buildings has become a hideout for criminals and the few members left do not even have enough momentum to pull more into the fold. The empire which his son, in 1998, said would resurrect is yet to resurrect just as its founder failed to resurrect. In fact, we Nigerians await the second coming of Jesu Oyingbo.

Watch Legit.ng video and see Acting President Yemi Osibanjo speak on Biafra war

Source: Legit.ng
- Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, accuses Obasanjo of insulting Biafran agitators

- The former minister warns that Obasanjos statement is reminiscent of the words of Queen Marie Antoinette of France before the revolution

Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has faulted statement credited to ex-president, Olusegun Obasanjo, that the way to stop the Biafran agitation is to offer the Igbo cake.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Senate passes PIGB, scraps NNPC and establishes 3 new agencies

Obasanjo had on Thursday, May 25, in Abuja at a Colloquim on 50 years of Biafra organised by the YarAdua Foundation appealed to those agitating for a Biafra state to shelve such request.

There is enough cake for each of us.

And, if what you are asking for is more of the cake, then ask in a way that is pleasant, not in a way that can make others feel that you are not entitled to what you are asking for, Obasanjo said.

In reaction however, Fani-Kayode in a tweet described Obasanjos comments as insulting to the Igbo.

The former minister warned that Obasanjos statement is reminiscent of the words of Queen Marie Antoinette of France before the revolution.

Meanwhile, Ayo Adebanjo, a leader of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political organisation, has criticised acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, for asking Nigerians to emulate the unity in multicultural US.

Osinbajo, speaking at the Biafra conference in Abuja on Thursday, May 25 had cited the unity in multicultural US as an example of how Nigerians should live together.

The acting president had noted that US with its diverse people and cultures had been able to evolve to become the greatest country on the planet.

Reacting to Osinbajos statement, Adebanjo in his presentation said American citizens were not forced to live together.

The Afenifere leader argued that Nigerians were being forced to stay together, which he added would not help the development country.

In the Legit.ng video below, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the #Biafra50 event says Nigeria is greater together than apart.

Source: Legit.ng
- Saudi Arabia has announced the official date for beginning of the Ramadan fasting month

- The country which is viewed as the birthplace of Islam made the announcement on Thursday, May 25

- This annual observance of Ramadan is regarded as one of the five illars of Islam

The country regarded as the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia has announced that the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan will begin on Saturday, May 27.

This announcement was made on Thursday, May 25 by the state house. Ramadan lasts 29 to 30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon.

The beginning and end of Islamic months are determined by the sighting of the new moon.

The mufti which is Lebanons top Islamic authority, said Ramadan would also begin in the country on Saturday, May 27, and a similar statement was made by officials in Iraqs Muslim Sunni minority.

In Nigeria, the president of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Sultan Saad Abubakar, asked Muslims to look out for the new moon from Friday, May 26.

READ ALSO: Muslim groups reject new army recruitment and NYSC orientation

During Ramadan, Muslims have to abstain from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to sunset.

Devout Muslims also mark the month by intense worship, performing special nightly prayers and reading Islams holy book, the Koran.

Fasting is one of Islams five pillars, alongside declaration of monotheism, prayer five times a day, alms-giving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile Legit.ng earlier reported that the Sultan of Sokoto had this to say to Muslims in Nigeria:

This is to inform the Muslim Ummah that Friday, May 26, 2017, is equivalent to 29th day of Shaaban 1438 AH and shall be the day to look for the new moon of Ramadan 1438 AH.

Muslims are, therefore, requested to start looking for the new moon of Ramadan, 1438 AH on Friday May 26.

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They should report its sighting to the nearest District or Village Head, for onward communication to the Sultan.

Watch this Legit.ng video of a Christian who converted to Islam:

Source: Legit.ng
The University of Benin (commonly known as UNIBEN) is a Nigerian public research university located in Benin City, Edo State. The institution was founded in 1970 and is among those owned and operated by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Like other universities, UNIBEN has an admission criterion based on several factors. One of these is the University of Benin cut off mark, designed to decide who gets admitted into the institution.

UNIBEN's logo. Photo: @greatuniben (modified by author)

Source: Facebook

The cut-off mark is primarily based on students performance in particular examinations. Those above the cut off mark are typically given preference over those who have met the exact mark.

What is the University of Benin cut off mark for 2022/2023?

There are three cut-off marks a prospective student must meet to get admitted to UNIBEN. These are the post-UTME eligibility score, the JAMB (Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board) cut off mark, and the UNIBEN departmental cut off mark.

UNIBEN JAMB cut off mark

This is the minimum JAMB score required of any candidate who wishes to gain admission to UNIBEN. Is UNIBEN accepting 180 in JAMB? In 2022/2023, the university is accepting candidates who scored 200 and above in their JAMB UTME.

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University of Benin departmental cut off mark

This is the second minimum score that determines whether a student is admitted to UNIBEN. The mark is purely based on the department and specific course chosen by a student. The departmental cut off mark is not static but is influenced by several factors.

The candidates general performance

The general performance of candidates aspiring to pursue a particular course in a given year plays a great role in determining the departmental cut off point. When the performance is good, the cut off mark is high. The final mark is derived from two figures.

NABTEB/NECO/WAEC grade points from the subjects relevant to the course.

An average of the post-UTME score and the JAMB score

Admission quota

Every department at UNIBEN has an admission quota allocated by the NUC (Nigerian University Commission). For example, if the admission quota for Banking and Finance is 50 students, that department will not accept additional students for admission regardless of their score.

In such a case, the department will admit students on merit, starting with the best candidate upto the point where the quota is exhausted.

Catchment area

Just like every other federal university in Nigeria, UNIBEN favours candidates who come from the institutions catchment area. Currently, there are five states listed under UNIBENs catchment area. This means that students from these states will be given preference over those from outside the states.

The five states are Edo State, Akwa-Ibom State, Bayelsa State, Delta State, and Rivers State.

What is the UNIBEN cut off mark for 2022-2023?

An empty lecture hall. Photo: pixabay.com, @Wokandapix

Source: UGC

Here is a look at the University of Benin cut off mark for Medicine and Surgery and every other course offered at the institution.

Adult Education, Professional Economics, and Statistics: 200

Adult Education, Professional English, and Literature: 200

Adult Education and Professional Geography: 200

Adult Education, Professional Political Science, and Public Administration: 200

B. A (Linguistics): 200

B.A (Linguistics and Edo Language): 200

B.A. (Ed) English and Literature: 200

B.A. (Ed) Fine and Applied Arts: 200

B.A. (Ed) French: 200

B.A. (Ed) History: 200

B.A. (Ed) Religious Studies: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Human Kinetics: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Library Information Science: 200

B.Sc. Entrepreneurship: 200

B.Sc. Plant Biology and Biotechnology: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Adult Education Professional: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Agriculture Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Biology: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Business Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Chemistry: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Computer Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Educational Management (Economics): 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Educational Management (Political Science): 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Environmental Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Geography: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Health Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Home Economics Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Industrial Technical Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Mathematics: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Physical Education: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Physics: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Political Science: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Social Studies: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Early Childhood Education: 200

B.Sc. Actuarial Science: 200

B.Sc. Anatomy: 200

B.Sc. Architecture: 200

B.Sc. Estate Management: 200

B.Sc. Industrial Relations and Personnel Management: 200

B.Sc. Insurance: 200

B.Sc. Marketing: 200

B.Sc. Medical Biochemistry: 200

B.Sc. Nursing Sciences: 215

B.Sc. Physiology: 200

B.Sc. Physiotherapy: 220

B.Sc. Quantity Surveying: 200

B.Sc. Social Work: 200

B.Sc. Surveying and Geo-Informatics: 200

B.Sc. (Ed) Economics and Statistics: 200

Bachelor Of Agriculture (Agricultural Economics): 200

Bachelor Of Agriculture (Animal Science): 200

Bachelor Of Agriculture (Crop Science): 200

Bachelor Of Agriculture (Fisheries): 200

Bachelor Of Agriculture (Soil Science): 200

Bachelor Of Arts (English and Literature): 200

Bachelor Of Arts (Fine and Applied Arts): 200

Bachelor Of Arts (History): 200

Bachelor Of Arts (Inter. Studies): 205

Bachelor Of Arts (Mass Communication): 210

Bachelor Of Arts (Philosophy): 200

Bachelor Of Arts (Religious Studies): 200

Bachelor Of Arts (Theater Arts): 200

Bachelor Of Arts Foreign Languages: 200

Bachelor Of Dental Surgery: 200

Bachelor Of Engineering (Chemical): 215

Bachelor Of Engineering (Civil): 210

Bachelor Of Engineering (Computer): 210

Bachelor Of Engineering (Electrical/Electronics): 215

Bachelor Of Engineering (Mechanical): 220

Bachelor Of Engineering (Petroleum): 200

Bachelor Of Engineering (Production): 200

Bachelor Of Engineering (Structural): 200

Bachelor Of Forestry and Wildlife: 200

Bachelor Of Laws: 205

Bachelor Of Medicine and Surgery: 220

Bachelor Of Science (Accounting): 220

Bachelor Of Science (Biochemistry): 210

Bachelor Of Science (Business Administration): 220

Bachelor Of Science (Chemistry): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Computer Science): 210

Bachelor Of Science (Economics and Statistics): 210

Bachelor Of Science (Environment): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Geography and Regional Planning): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Geology): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Industrial Chemistry): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Industrial Mathematics): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Industrial Physics): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Mathematics and Economics): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Mathematics): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Microbiology): 210

Bachelor Of Science (Physics): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Political Science and Public Administration): 205

Bachelor Of Science (Public Administration): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Pure and Applied Mathematics): 200

Bachelor Of Science (Sociology and Anthropology): 200

Bachelor Of Science in Animal and Environmental Biology: 200

Bachelor Of Science Lab Technology: 200

Bachelor Of Science, Banking & Finance: 210

Medical Laboratory Science: 200

UNIBEN Post-UTME eligibility

A chemist working on formulae. Photo: pexels.com, @RF._.studio

Source: UGC

Post-UTME stands for Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. It is a written exam taken by JAMB applicants before university admission but after the UTME.

What is the post-UTME cut off mark for the University of Benin? Here is a look at the cut-off points for courses under the different faculties at UNIBEN.

Faculty of Life Sciences/Physical Science

There are ten courses under the Faculty of Life Sciences/Physical Science. Here is a look at the courses and their post-UTME cut off points.

Animal and Environmental Biology: 50

Biochemistry: 50

Botany: 50

Chemistry: 55

Geology: 55

Industrial Chemistry: 55

Mathematics: 50

Microbiology: 60

Physics: 50

Science Laboratory Technology: 55

Faculty of Agriculture

There are seven agriculture-related courses under this faculty.

Soil science: 50

Forestry and wildlife: 50

Fisheries: 50

Crop Science: 50

Animal science: 50

Agricultural Extension: 55

Agricultural Economics: 55

Faculty of Art

The Faculty of Art offers nine courses, with varying post-UTME cut off marks.

Theatre Art: 50

Religious studies: 50

Philosophy: 50

Mass communication: 60

Linguistics: 50

History and International Studies: 50

French: 50

Fine and Applied Arts: 55

English and Literature Studies: 60

College of Medical Sciences

The College of Medical Sciences offers six medical-related courses. These ones have relatively higher post-UTME eligibility scores.

Physiology: 60

Pharmacology: 60

Nursing: 60

Medicine and Surgery: 70

Medical Biochemistry: 60

Anatomy: 60

Faculty of Education

Here is a look at the courses and post-UTME cut off scores under the universitys Faculty of Education.

Business Education: 50

Computer Education: 50

Economics Education: 50

English Education: 50

ESAM: 50

Library and Information Science: 50

Political Science Education: 50

Social Science Education (Social Studies): 50

Faculty of Law

There is only one course under this faculty with a post-UTME cut off mark of 70 points.

Faculty of Management Sciences

A student writing on paper. Photo: pexels.com, @Tony Schnagl

Source: UGC

Here are the three courses under this faculty and their respective cut off points.

Accountancy and Business Administration: 55

Banking and Finance: 55

Insurance: 50

Faculty of Pharmacy

The post-UTME University of Benin cut off mark for Pharmacy is 65 points.

Faculty of Social Sciences

The Faculty of Social Sciences offers six courses. Here are 2022/2023 cut off points for the post-UTME exam.

Business Administration: 55

Economics: 55

Geography and Regional Planning: 50

Political Science: 55

Sociology: 50

Social Works: 50

Post-UTME eligibility

Here are additional post-UTME eligibility requirements.

Prospective students must have scored 200 or above in their JAMB exams.

One must have chosen UNIBEN as their first-choice university when registering for the UTME.

One must have a minimum of 5 O level credit passes at NECO, SSCE, WASCE, or GCE.

One must be at least 16 years old.

The University of Benin cut off mark often changes slightly from year to year depending on factors described in this guide. It is essential to understand the JAMB, Post-UTME, and departmental cut off points for admission into UNIBEN.

READ ALSO: Nigeria Police Academy school fees and training in 2021

Legit.ng recently explored the Nigeria Police Academy school fees and training. The police is Nigerias primary law enforcement body. Those wishing to join the police force must pass through the Nigeria Police Academy.

The institution equips trainees with the necessary knowledge and skills to keep Nigeria safe and provide a conducive environment for economic prosperity. The academys fee structure is one of the most common queries among prospective trainees.

Source: Legit.ng
- Maxi Okwu said Obasanjo is a member of the trioka of evil plaguing Nigeria while Acting President Osinbajo should be commended

- He said he would observe the sit-at-home order by IPOB while daring the security agencies to beat him up for doing so

The seat-at-home order for May 30 by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is gaining momentum as Maxi Okwu, a top Igbo elder, says he would take part in it.

Okwu, a former national chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), also thanked Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for speaking out the truth at a recent celebration in Abuja to mark the 50th anniversary of the Biafran war.

The Igbo elder further condemned the way former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke at the event stressing that the retired military general is one of the major problems plaguing Nigeria.

Maxi Okwu declared support for the order by IPOB

According to him, Nigeria will never know peace until Obasanjo, whom he described as a member of the trioka of evil, leaves the country alone.

Legit.ng reports that Okwu said he would observe the order by IPOB in celebration of the Biafra day.

READ ALSO: EFCC takes over properties allegedly belonging to ex-President Jonathan's godson

I dare the security agencies to come and beat me for observing in quiet contemplative prayers the memories of Biafran heroes, he said.

Love or hate Nnamdi Kanu the man is the issue of the moment. His house in Umuahia seems to have become the new Onuiyi haven of the late 70's, he added.

Concerning the event that happened in celebration of Biafra on Thursday, May 26 in Abuja, Okwu said: The concession that citizens are entitled to discuss their status and union is a most welcome development coming from the acting president.

I do not think that PMB will agree with him on that. Mercifully he is on medical tourism and we can forge ahead.

While praising Nnia Nwodo, the president-general of Ohaneze, Okwu said: So far, he has made the right noises.

We must condemn OBJ who characteristically has reduced a very grave and serious national matter to sharing of cake.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

It should now be clear to all that until the trioka of evil of which OBJ is one leaves us alone, this nation will know no peace.

Once again kudos to Nnamdi who has brought the Biafran question to center stage and mainstream. It is no longer a shameful or dirty B word.

Now we wait to exhale with the mother of all 50th anniversaries on 30th May. I shall stay put indoors in my house with my family, he said.

At the event in Abuja, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo made a dispassionate call for the nation to stay united, despite the renewed agitation for a breakup and the creation of an independent state of Biafra as led by the likes of Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the protests by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

Osinbajo said Nigerians should think more of what unites them than what separates them.

He said: The truth is that many, if not most nations of the world are made up of different peoples and cultures and beliefs and religions, who find themselves thrown together by circumstance."

Watch this video to see how prepared IPOB and its loyalists are for the May 30 celebration:

Source: Legit.ng
- Femi Fani-Kayode lashed at Chris Ngige for saying Igbo people caused their own marginalisation

- Earlier, the minister had said he tried to convince Igbos to vote for Buhari to no avail

- Fani-Kayode described Ngige as a village idiot, a compound fool and an unrepentant slave

Femi Fani-Kayode has lashed out at Chris Ngige for saying Igbo people should not complain about marginalisation as they did not invest in Muhammadu Buharis campaign.

In a series of tweets via his official page, Fani-Kayode who has been a staunch supporter of the Igbo peoples agitation lashed out at the minister of labour for his comment.

READ ALSO: Nnamdi Kanu receives members from Jewish Synagogue

He wrote: The devilish dwarf and little pygmy that said Igbos should not complain about marginalisation because they didn't vote for Buhari is a village idiot, a compound fool and an unrepentant slave.

"He has sold his soul to the devil and he is eating crumbs from his masters table."

Legit.ng had earlier reported that Ngigie in an interview with This Day said he tried to explain to Igbo leaders why they should give Buhari 25 per cent of their votes but they refused and pitched their tent with Jonathan.

He said: I went to our Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo in Enugu twice. They could not even reply to a letter written by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, seeking for a meeting with them.

The minister revealed that he convened an Igbo stakeholders forum in William Nwodos house in Ikoyi, Lagos where he analysed the voting pattern to them and why it was necessary to give Buhari 25 per cent of their votes.

They refused to listen to me, and to make matter worse, there was no voting in most of the areas in the South-east; they just allocated 5 per cent to APC.

It was that bad, it is too late to cry when the head is off. Politics is business in a way, you invest in business and you reap profit.

Yes, that is what it is. But all I want to tell you is that we played bad politics; we made a bad investment because they invested in the Jonathan presidency. They invested in Jonathan more than the South-south, where he hails from.

I am not saying that is enough to marginalise them or not allow them come in but we are there. I will continue to speak for them and when there is anything to be distributed, we will make sure that the South-east gets its own portion. But they will not get excess portion.

Even in a family where the head of the family goes to the farm to harvest his yams those who accompany the farmer to the farm get more share.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

When they bring back the yams some of them will be damaged, and the pieces are put out in one section. Then the whole yams are put into the barn and some will be sent to the market for sale. And some will be sent to the family centrally for distribution among the family units.

Those ones that are in pieces, the extras, will be shared among those that went to the farm. We did not benefit from the extras with people who went to the farm. We didnt go to the farm in the south-east.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video below of Fani-Kayode speaking about how President Buhari feels about Igbo people

Source: Legit.ng
The Trump administrations recently announced FY 2018 Budget Blueprint would eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service, which includes the Retired & Senior Volunteer Program. The 2017 Omnibus Spending Bill will provide level funding for CNCS, including RSVP, through Sept. 30.

Recently, I addressed two groups about the cost-effective potential of federally supported volunteer programs like RSVP: the 2017 Mayor, County & Tribal Recognition Day for National Service and the Volunteer Center of Racine Countys annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon. The Volunteer Center is the grantee of RSVP-Racine County.

RSVP-Racine County estimates that in 2017 approximately 115 RSVP volunteers will contribute their time to ADRCs Meals on Wheels (65), the Dominican Sisters Senior Companion Inc. (35), and the Volunteer Centers MyRIDE transportation project (15). Those volunteers are expected to cumulatively help more than 400 seniors and/or disabled Racine County individuals continue living independently.

Collectively, these three projects are administered in work plans under the CNCS Healthy Futures-Aging in Place category. The total RSVP-Racine County project has about 260 volunteers.

Reporter Guy Boulton estimates,  the median annual cost of an assisted living facility in Wisconsin is $42,451  while the cost for a private room in a nursing home is $96,725  according to  Genworth Financial Inc. (April 9, 2013, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

One way to view the potential cost-effectiveness of RSVP volunteers is to look at the possible savings to government assistance programs, like Medicaid, that could follow in the wake of volunteer projects like Meals on Wheels, Senior Companion and MyRIDE.

RSVP-Racine County expends about $375 in federal funds per volunteer. Multiply $375 by the 115 volunteers involved in Healthy Futures  Aging in Place projects, and the $43,125 result closely approximates the $42,451 average annual figure for one person living in Wisconsin receiving assisted living subsidies as cited by Mr. Boulton.

Multiply 400 beneficiaries of these independent living projects by $43,125 and the potential costs (and associated savings) of government reimbursed assisted living are astounding  more than $17,000,000 just for this limited universe of recipients.

Caveats abound, of course. Certainly not all beneficiaries of Healthy Futures  Aging in place projects would eventually need assisted living, if ever; and some may have the means to independently, indefinitely finance a satisfactory assisted living or nursing home arrangement.

However, according to Brad Breeding of mylifestyle.net,  it is not uncommon for someone to receive care at home for several months or longer, followed by a two-and-a-half-year stay in an assisted living facility, with almost 60 percent then requiring a nursing home stay of somewhere between nine months and a little over two years. All combined, this is a total of approximately four to five years of long-term care. In this scenario, the total cost of care could easily exceed $300,000 

Anecdotal evidence of the psychic satisfaction delivered by independent living projects abounds in client satisfaction surveys; but government funders naturally are going to want to see evidence of cost-effectiveness as well.

The dialogue between volunteer programs and their backers has just begun. The arithmetic discussed today is meant to serve as a starting point for a sensible discussion of how RSVP volunteers may help maximize taxpayer dollars.
RACINE  Racine County Circuit Court Judge Emily Mueller has been named Trial Judge of the Year by the Wisconsin chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

The organization, an elite group of civil litigators from across the state, honored Mueller with the title last week during their annual meeting in Madison.

Steven Botzau, who works as a plaintiffs attorney for Habush, Habush & Rottier, S.C., in Racine and Kenosha, nominated Mueller for the honor, and others in the roughly 75-member group quickly decided she was a great choice, he said.

Sometimes, when choosing the Trial Judge of the Year, other ABOTA members will offer alternate choices, but with Mueller everybody agreed right away that she was perfect and a very worthy recipient, Botzau said.

First appointed to the bench in 1992, Mueller has served as a judge in Racine County for 25 years. During that time she has presided over dozens of trials, involving both civil cases and high profile criminal cases. Before becoming a judge, Mueller practiced law for the law firm Thompson & Coates in Racine.

Worthy recipient

Botzau noted that as far as he is aware Mueller is the first Racine County Circuit judge to receive the award.

Mueller said that she was surprised but honored to learn she had been recognized by ABOTA.

It is always great when people who are part of an organization that values the kinds of things you value think you have done your job, she said. ABOTA is an organization of some of the finest trial lawyers in the state, and it is a real honor to be recognized by lawyers that I greatly respect.

Being a trial judge

Asked what she sees as her biggest responsibility as a trial judge, Mueller said, that in the broadest sense, it is to see that justice is done.

People need to be treated fairly, but they also need to be treated with respect by the judge, Mueller said. A judge needs to make certain that the playing field is level for everybody, and that everybody is playing by the same set of legal rules.

Mueller added that she enjoys presiding over trials.

It is one of the best parts of being a judge. For the most part, trials are interesting. I always learn a lot, actually, with any trial that I do, she said. I like seeing the lawyers in action. It is such a bedrock part of the justice system.

In November, Mueller will preside over yet another trial when ABOTA puts on its mock trial. A highlight in legal circles, the day-long event is held annually to help less-experienced lawyers learn about the ins and outs of the legal procedure.

I am really looking forward to it, said Mueller. The lawyers that participate in it are just top notch.
- Ohanaeze Youth Movement visited IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu in his home

- The group stated that they are in support of the MAY 30th sit-at-home declared by IPOB

- Kanu also promised to work hand-in-hand with the group to liberate the South-East

Members of Ohanaeze Youth Movement, on Friday, May 26, visited the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu in his home.

Legit.ng learnt that those in attendance were Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Deputy President Arthur Obiora, Secretary General Okwu Nnabuike among others.

Isiguzoro while speaking during the visit said: We are here to thank God that at last freedom came your way; we have followed your activities with keen interest and appreciate all the efforts you have made, including sacrificing your personal freedom for the good of our people.

On the sit-at-home being planned by the IPOB as part of activities to mark Biafra, 50 years after, the Ohanaeze youths are solidly behind you.

We are calling on Ndigbo both at home and in the Diaspora to join the IPOB in observing the sit-at-home. Our people should see it as a time to honour those who paid the supreme price in their quest for the emancipation of Ndigbo.

Kanu and the OYC group

READ ALSO: BIAFRA: Stop your protest or face the wrath - Police issues strong warning to agitators

Deputy President and the secretary general, Mazi Arthur Obiora and Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, respectively, described Kanu as the new Igbo leader, Daily Post reports.

Arthur said: This visit was borne out of the fact that we now have in you a new Igbo leader. You have indeed stepped out to wear the shoes left by Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

We hail your courage, dexterity and plead with you to steer on leading the struggle for the emancipation of Ndigbo.

Kanu while responding to the group said he appreciated the OYC for being part of the key struggle towards his release from prison.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

He described himself as a youth and pledged to work with the Ohanaeze youths to librate Ndigbo.

He said: I thank you for your support; I thank you for standing by me in the struggle; my desire is to see Ndigbo progress and prosper and we shall continue to pursue that."

Meanwhile, Kanu received some members of the Jewish religion at this hometown Isiama Afara, Umuahia in Abia state.

The Jewish members led by Prophetess Eman Halleluyah Nwachukwu visited the IPOB leader from the Jewish Synagogue in Port Harcourt Rivers state.

Watch this Legit.ng video of Nnamdi Kanu's freedom from Kuje Prison

Source: Legit.ng
- Barr Sullivan Chime says Senator Ike Ekweremadu has many crimes to answer for

- Chime says Ekweremadu is perpetuating himself in the Senate to avoid probe

- The former governor says Ekweremadu's politics is enshrined in greed and personal gain

Ex-governor Sullivan Chime has accused Senator Ike Ekweremadu of holding political position in a bid to enrich himself and his family.

Chime made the assertion at Ngwo-Uno ward, in Udi Council Area of Enugu state.

The ex-governor was in the area to join in the celebration of the defection of Chief Donald Nnadi, popularly called Ikeweta.

Ikeweta defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Chime, who congratulated the latest decampee for taking a bold decision to leave PDP, reinstated his stand that the party died long ago.

The ex-governor noted that many politicians like Ekweremadu occupy a particular elective position for too long due to greed and fear of the unknown.

READ ALSO: Ekweremadu canvasses total removal of age criterion for political offices

Ex-Governor Sullivan Chime has said that many politicians hold on to their posts for too long, because they are afraid of their crimes

He stressed that Anybody who cannot survive outside politics is not fit enough to be in politics.

Chime said some people being sponsored to castigate him were fond of telling people what he did not do as governor without telling them what he did.

He stressed that under his administration, he mapped out the needs of every community in the state, through a programme tagged Visit Every Community (VEC).

According to Chime, his government itemized the needs of the people and addressed most of them before living office.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

He said that since government was a continuum, the present administration in the state should continue from where he stopped.

Meanwhile, officials of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has stormed the Abuja official guest house of the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

This raid occurred less than a month after Ekweremadu cried out that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is after him.

Recall that Legit.ng had earlier reported that the deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu raised an alarm that the EFCC has perfected plans to invade his country home in Enugu.

Below is a Legit.ng video in which Nigerian's react to fake news over President Buhari's health and the speculations of an imminent military takeover.

Source: Legit.ng
- Three leaders of the Boko Haram sect, have been arrested in Niger state

- The jihadists were apprehended following a raid by the Nigerian army

- The raid was carried out at a Boko Haram cell in Mokwa axis of the state

- One of the Islamist arrested is said to be the mastermind behind the kidnapping of late elder statesman, Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno

The Nigerian Army said it raided a Boko Haram cell at Mokwa and its environs in Niger state.

According to army spokesman on Brig Gen Sani Usman, the raid which took place on Thursday, May 25, saw to the arrest of 3 leaders of the terrorist group.

The army spokesman disclosed in a statement on Friday, that the suspects are: Mustapha Muhammed (Adam Bitri), Ali Saleh and Uba Mohammed.

READ ALSO: Former governor of Enugu state attacks Senator Ekweremadu

The Nigerian army has assured Nigerians that the war against Boko Haram would be a thing of the past very soon

Usman said that they were picked up at their hideout at Gidan Mai village on Mokwa-Tegina road.

Preliminary investigation has confirmed that one of the terrorists, Mustapha Muhammed (Adam Bitri), along with one Bakura (at large), was among the group of the Boko Haram terrorists that kidnapped the late elder statesman, Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno, in Maiduguri on May 13, 2013.

Items recovered from them include Automated Teller Machines debit cards, Voter Registration cards, National Identity Cards, various mobile telephones and bank tellers, among other items.

The terrorists are currently being further interrogated, Usman informed.

Meanwhile, eleven farmers have been killed in Amarwa village in Konduga LGA, after Boko Haram insurgents reportedly stormed the village in search of food.

Legit.ng learnt that the village, which was about 16 kilometers away from Maiduguri metropolis was very close to Alau Dam which was heavily guarded but no help came from there during the attack.

According to a report by Nigerian Tribune, an eyewitness, who preferred to be anonymous said: "They killed eleven of our people Saturday afternoon in Amarwa village in Konduga LGA 16 kilometers away from Maiduguri metropolis.

Nine Boko Haram insurgents drove into our village on motorcycles to unleash their wickedness. But by the time they finished their show of strength 11 of our farmers working in their farms were killed.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

We have informed bereaved families including Ali Umaru that lost a brother in-law.

Those killed were said to have gone to clear their farms in preparatory for this years farming season with the assurance from political authorities that they can really farm big time this year since the first rain has already fallen.

According to the villagers the insurgents are still visible around Kajiri village of Konduga LGA which is about two kilometers from the location of the alleged murders and eighteen kilometers from Maiduguri.

The villagers believed the insurgents might have become more emboldened by the recent exchange of their commanders for Chibok girls by the Nigerian government.

Below is a Legit.ng video in which Nigerian's react to fake news over President Buhari's health and the speculations of an imminent military takeover.

Source: Legit.ng
- Yemi Osinbajo has appealed to Muslims to use the period of Ramadan for reflection on national challenges

- The Acting President implored Muslims to seek maximum benefits from the Ramadan period

- Osinbajo called on Nigerians to continue to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has appealed to Nigerians especially Muslims to use the period of Ramadan for reflection on national challenges and join forces with the Buhari administration to overcome them.

He gave the advice in his message to felicitate with the Muslim community in Nigeria as they join other faithful across the world to commence Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and prayer.

The Acting President implored Muslims to seek maximum benefits from the Ramadan period by replicating the teachings of the Holy Prophet in all their engagements, both private and public.

READ ALSO: Abuja, Jos, Lagos, others to experience cloudy weather and thunderstorms on Saturday, May 27

Acting President Yemi osinbajo has urged Muslims to seek maximum benefits from the Ramadan period

He urged Muslims to use the Ramadan to renew their commitments to the virtues of love and peace taught by the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and also works towards achieving them.

He noted that the period was one for spiritual perseverance, temperance, introspection and retrospection with the Almighty Allah.

The Acting President called on Nigerians to continue to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari and the nation in general.

Osinbajo, while wishing the Muslim faithful blessed Ramadan, urged them to also remember the less privileged in the society during the special period.

PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV

According to an earlier report by Legit.ng, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar III, has declared Saturday, May 27, as 1st Ramadan, 1438 AH, signifying the commencement of the annual long-month fast by Muslims.

Abubakar announced the sighting of the new moon in Sokoto, on Friday, in a broadcast.

The Sultan said that the new moon was sighted in various states of the country including Kebbi, Lagos, Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta, Cross River and Benue.

Watch this Legit.ng video of a Christian who converted to Islam:

Source: Legit.ng
So repayment needs to begin with an accounting of every individual loan. Start with whatever is in your files. Then check to see whether youre aware of all of your federal student loans. Borrowers can use the National Student Loan Data System website to get the details. (There are links to all of the resources I mention in the online version of this column, plus additional links to lengthy explanations of industry terms and programs.)

One critical piece of information you need: Who is the so-called servicer that will collect your payments each month on behalf of the federal government? You may have more than one, and youll want to know how to contact them to ask any questions you may have about your payments.

In her book CliffsNotes Graduation Debt, Reyna Gobel suggests starting a simple spreadsheet to track every loan. For people who need to track down all of their private loans from nongovernment lenders, she suggests they should get copies from annualcreditreport.com of all three of their credit reports. These loans should show up on at least one report, though not all loans may be on all of the reports.

Ms. Ashers organization publishes its own omnibus repayment guide on its site, as does Mr. Kantrowitz on his site finaid.org. The Department of Educations repayment information is worth a careful read too.

WHEN AND TO WHOM The first payments on your loans may be due at different times. Some federal loans give you a six-month grace period after you graduate while others give you nine months. With private loans, it varies.

Assume here (and really, everywhere throughout this process) that servicers will fail to find you and give you clear repayment instructions before the first payment is due. If youve moved or changed your email address since you took out your first loan and havent told the servicers about it, be especially vigilant. Also, have user names and passwords at the ready so you can check accounts online and call if you need more information.

When you do pay, you may be able to send in one check even if you have multiple loans from multiple years with one servicer. Find out, as it can save you some hassle. Then check to make sure the servicer is crediting the payment properly to every loan.
A shift in handling federal student aid is being weighed as the Trump administration and Ms. DeVos consider overhauling the Department of Education. Mr. Trumps proposed budget for 2018 slashes funding for the department by nearly 50 percent. Moving one of its core functions to Treasury would significantly diminish the agencys power. It could also alter the mission of the student loan program.

The reason the federal student aid programs live within the Education Department is because thats the agency that has as its goal increasing educational opportunities within the United States, said David Bergeron, who left the Education Department in 2013 after 35 years. That is not the Treasury Departments goal. Its job is to pay for the business of the government.

Scrapping or shrinking the Education Department has long been a popular Republican goal, dating from the Reagan administration. President Trump embraced the idea, saying in his book Crippled America that the department should either be eliminated or have its power and reach cut. In February, a House Republican introduced a bill to terminate the agency.

In his resignation memo, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Runcie said that senior members of his department had met that day with Treasury officials and discussed holding numerous meetings and retreats to outline a process for transferring all or a portion of the student aid offices functions to the Treasury Department.

This is just another example of a project that may provide some value but will certainly divert critical resources and increase operational risk in an increasingly challenging environment, Mr. Runcie wrote.
The E.P.A. did not respond to requests for comment on the suit. The California agency is reviewing the lawsuit, a spokesman said. He declined further comment.

The suit was filed by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a law firm that specializes in class actions and that previously filed a diesel-emissions suit against G.M. related to the Chevrolet Cruze compact and another against Fiat Chrysler; those suits are pending. A similar suit filed by the firm against Mercedes-Benz was dismissed. Hagens Berman has also filed liability claims unrelated to emissions against Ford Motor, Kia Motors, Tesla and others.

John German, a senior fellow at the International Council on Clean Transportation in Ann Arbor, Mich., said he had reviewed some details of the lawsuit and was not sure if G.M.s emissions controls amounted to a so-called illegal defeat device. Theres not enough information to say right now, he said.

Hagens Berman said the suit was based on tests it conducted on a 2013 Silverado 2500HD with about 51,000 miles on the odometer. Steve W. Berman, a partner, said the firm had hired its own engineers to test diesel vehicles after Volkswagen acknowledged in 2015 that it had cheated on emissions tests.

We came to the conclusion that all manufacturers in Europe had cheated, and we began to ask, How could it be that the vehicles manufacturers are selling in the U.S. are clean? Mr. Berman said.

Brian Johnson, a financial analyst at Barclays Capital, said in a research note to clients that the suit could merely be a fishing attempt to extract a settlement from G.M. Wed only know that its more serious if the E.P.A. steps in, he wrote.

The diesel versions of the heavy-duty Silverado and Sierra make up a small portion of G.M.s total United States sales, but contribute significantly to its bottom line.
As prison officials and reformers have stepped up efforts to reduce rape behind bars, they have looked to the supervisors who keep watch over prisoners  and prison guards  to help curb the scourge of sexual abuse.

On Thursday, federal prosecutors charged two of those supervisors, lieutenants at a federal jail in Brooklyn, and another guard with sexually abusing female inmates.

The prison where the three worked, the Metropolitan Detention Center, has long been regarded as a troubled institution in the federal Bureau of Prisons. Last year, a federal judge expressed reluctance about sending women there because the stories she had heard about the living conditions there made it sound like it was in some third-world country.

In the case announced on Thursday, prosecutors say one lieutenant repeatedly raped an inmate shortly before she was scheduled to be turned over to immigration authorities and deported. Another lieutenant is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing inmates assigned to clean his office, or the hallway nearby. A third man, a rank-and-file corrections officer, who was also charged on Thursday, is accused of receiving oral sex from three inmates.
In an essay he wrote in 2004, Professor Bliss said his shift to medical history had been due in part to his family  his father was a small-town doctor on the shore of Lake Erie in southwestern Ontario  as well as a kind of midlife change of pace.

He chose the development of insulin as a subject partly because earlier accounts, he found, were inadequate. He was also inspired, he said, by his reading on Arctic exploration.

That raised for me a methodological interest in the possibility of very detailed, day-to-day recreation of past discrete events, he wrote, adding, If you could virtually retrace the footsteps of Arctic explorers could you virtually redo the insulin experiments?

John William Michael Bliss was born in Leamington, Ontario, on Jan. 18, 1941, to Dr. Quartus Bliss and the former Anne Crowe. He grew up in Kingsville, a farming and fishing town just to the west. In early childhood, Michael, as he was known, would join his father when he was called out to perform his duties as the local coroner. For a while, he considered following his father into medicine.

But that thought was dispelled one weekend when the police came by their house with a drunk who been in a brawl and needed stitches. The man was ushered into his fathers home office.

As I sat and watched on that Sunday afternoon in his consulting room, Professor Bliss wrote, with blood and alcohol fumes everywhere, reflecting on my own complete disinterest in and lack of all manual skills, I decided that this was not what I wanted to do in life.

He met his future wife, Elizabeth Haslam, at a high school dance in Harrow, Ontario, another farm town. They married in 1963, and both studied at the University of Toronto. Mrs. Bliss, a retired teacher, survives him. Besides their daughter Sally, he is also survived by two other children, Jamie and Laura Bliss; a brother, Robert, and four grandchildren.
In this time of intense partisanship, shiv-in-the-kidney politics and squabbles over the meaning of truth, can Americans come together and agree that a politician slamming a journalist to the ground for asking a question is wrong?

The answer, it turns out, is no.

After Greg Gianforte, the Republican House candidate in Montana, was charged with assaulting a reporter for The Guardian on the eve of Thursdays special election, public reaction ranged from rank disgust on the left to mild chastening, and amused mockery, from many on the right.

Mr. Gianfortes behavior, at his campaign headquarters Wednesday night, was either outrageous, as Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House minority leader, put it, or totally out of character  the tempered assessment from Representative Steve Stivers, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. We all make mistakes, he added.

The Guardian reporter, Ben Jacobs, was deemed a pajama boy journalist by the right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, who said the reporter acted insolent and disrespectful and whiny and moan-y. The conservative host Laura Ingraham wrote on Twitter: Did anyone get his lunch money stolen today?
Separately, four days into the Trump administration, F.B.I. agents interviewed Mr. Flynn about his conversations with Mr. Kislyak in December. Several news outlets have reported that he initially told the F.B.I. that he had not discussed sanctions on Russia but then backtracked and said he could not remember.

Taking foreign payments without permission

The Constitutions so-called emoluments clause prohibits people who hold government positions from receiving payments from foreign governments without prior consent from Congress. This rule extends to retired military personnel, and Congress enacted a statute to carry it out. It says retired military personnel may accept such compensation only if they get permission from their service secretary and the secretary of state.

Mr. Flynn apparently did not obtain permission before taking compensation from RT or Inovo. That failure is complicated by the fact that they are companies, not governments, but the American government has portrayed RT as an arm of the Kremlin. Mr. Alptekin has told reporters he hired Mr. Flynn with his own funds and did not coordinate with the Turkish government. But congressional investigators have expressed skepticism after receiving classified briefings.

As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in April. And it appears as if he did take that money. It was inappropriate, and there are repercussions for the violation of law.

Such a violation would not constitute a criminal offense; a Pentagon ethics document says the penalty is forfeiting the funds through withheld retirement pay, not prison time. The acting inspector general of the Defense Department, Glenn A. Fine, told Congress that his office had begun investigating whether Mr. Flynn violated emoluments rules.

Failure to register as a foreign agent

The Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, requires that people representing foreign governments or political parties register with the Justice Department within 10 days. Under departmental regulations, this rule extends to lobbyists hired by foreign companies if the principal beneficiary of their work is a foreign government.

In September, after signing the contract with Inovo, the Flynn Intel Group registered as an ordinary lobbyist for that firm but did not make a FARA filing, which requires greater disclosure. However, in March, after his ouster from the Trump administration, Mr. Flynns lawyers filed a belated FARA registration about the arrangement to eliminate any potential doubt.
Each successive president protected the legacy of his predecessor. And on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump acknowledged that national service was popular among young people. saying there was something beautiful about it.

What presidents have been remembered for is awakening people to be part of democracy and part of repairing and fixing the country, said Mr. Bridgeland, who now serves as vice chairman of Service Year Alliance. It seems more urgent now than ever, given the state of things.

William A. Galston, who helped start AmeriCorps as domestic policy adviser to Mr. Clinton, said, The people who put together the presidents budget know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Mr. Trumps tax and spending blueprint for the fiscal year that begins in October is a break in a nearly century-old tradition of layering service programs on existing service programs. The presidents proposed cut to the Peace Corps would be the largest the agency has seen in 40 years, the National Peace Corps Association said.

Mr. Trumps orderly shutdown of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which has been operating national service programming since 1993, has the goal of returning responsibility to fund national service and volunteerism to the private and nonprofit sectors, according to the Trump budget.

The proposals are almost certain to face bipartisan opposition. Eric Tanenblatt, who served on the board of the national service corporation during the George W. Bush administration, said that the agency is one of the few with a bipartisan board, and it retains support in both parties. While Congress funds about $1 billion of its budget, another $1.2 billion comes from private and local sources.
The unveiling of President Trumps first budget and the initial congressional hearings on overhauling the tax code should have brought clarity to the administrations top legislative priorities.

That didnt happen.

Instead, testimony from Mr. Trumps top economic advisers cast even darker shadows over a murky legislative process that has fallen well behind schedule. Their explanations of the budget and their tax plans in public seemed to generate more questions with almost every answer.

Heres where things stand.

Mixed messages on math

The most confounding aspect of the White House budget was that it appeared to double count the effects of economic growth.

It appears to improperly use the economic expansion that it predicts its policies will produce to both pay for tax cuts and reduce the deficit.
In 2010, when reporters asked Mr. Obama to name his favorite college class, he replied: I had a wonderful political science class. I still remember the name of the professor, Roger Boesche, at Occidental College.

Image Professor Boesche in 1977, at the start of his career at Occidental. Credit... Occidental College Special Collections, via Associated Press

He added, It sparked my general interest in politics.

Mr. Obama transferred from Occidental to Columbia University after his sophomore year and earned a law degree from Harvard. He invited Professor Boesche to the White House in 2009. He was a wonderful, wonderful teacher, Mr. Obama said.

Professor Boesche was born on Jan. 24, 1948, in Tulsa, Okla., and earned his bachelors degree and doctorate in political science at Stanford University, where he led protests against the Vietnam War and met his future wife, Mandy Boesche, now a performing arts teacher and musical director. He was hired by Occidental in 1977, beating out approximately 250 other applicants for the job, according to the college.

Soon after arriving, he led efforts to have the university sever business ties with South Africa while it was ruled by its apartheid government. Students twice voted him Occidentals best teacher, and his fellow teachers chose him as faculty president in the 1990s.

An expert on political theory and history, Professor Boesche published several books, including Theories of Tyranny: From Plato to Arendt and The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Kenyas national census used to classify them as Other.

Now, Kenyans of Indian and Pakistani descent, many of whose forebears helped build the nation and fight colonialism but who have often been secluded from mainstream Kenyan life, are demanding official recognition for the first time.

The Other want to become Kenyas 44th ethnic group.

That, at least, is the ambition of people like Shakeel Shabbir, Kenyas first member of Parliament of Asian descent, who supports the fledgling movement to have Asian Kenyans officially classified as an ethnic group. Asians, a term that in Kenya refers to those from the Indian subcontinent, have long enjoyed economic success, but many feel excluded from the countrys political and social fabric, Mr. Shabbir said.

Unlike the Kikuyu or the Kamba, the Maasai or the Samburu, Asian Kenyans do not belong to a tribe, as the census officially refers to distinct ethnic groups. In politics, too, Asians lack representation. There are only four Asian Kenyan lawmakers in the national Parliament, and Kenya has never had an Asian government minister.

Weve been here 100 years, said Mr. Shabbir, whose great-grandfather came from Punjab in India in 1917 to work on a British railway, called the Lunatic Line because its construction cost the lives of thousands of laborers, killed by malaria and even lions. His grandfather fought against British colonialists and was imprisoned for sedition against the queen.
WASHINGTON  British leaders were infuriated this week when the name of the Manchester concert bomber was disclosed by American officials, and further outraged when The New York Times ran investigators photographs of the bomb remnants. After Prime Minister Theresa May complained bitterly to President Trump, he denounced the leaks on Thursday and vowed to find and punish the leakers.

But when it comes to keeping secrets, Mr. Trump is hardly a model.

He blithely passed on to the Russians sensitive counterterrorism intelligence from Israel  and publicly seemed to confirm the breach after his staff denied it. Speaking by phone to the widely scorned president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, Mr. Trump revealed the presence of two nuclear submarines off North Korea, a highly unusual disclosure.

Is there something particularly American about leaking? Some national allergy to protecting government secrets?

Yes, in fact, there is. And whether you denounce that as a dangerous trait or accept it as an underpinning of democracy, it is unlikely to change, according to a range of former officials and students of government secrecy.
Occasionally, the art market achieves a truly exceptional price that makes headlines round the world, leaves experts in shock and makes millions of people view an artist in a different way. The $39.9 million paid at Christies in 1987 for Van Goghs Sunflowers was one such result. The $110.5 million bid last week at Sothebys for Jean-Michel Basquiats 1982 Neo-Expressionist painting of a skull, Untitled, may well be another.

Unlike that Van Gogh landmark, the price for the Basquiat did not represent an outright high for any artwork at auction. Works by five other artists  Picasso, Modigliani, Bacon, Giacometti and Munch  have sold for more at public sales. But those are names whose reputations have been validated by exhibitions at major international museums (Giacometti opened at Tate Modern in London on May 10), whose achievements are acknowledged in the standard textbooks on 20th-century art.

The Brooklyn-born Basquiat, who began as a graffiti artist, was hailed as a prodigy by Andy Warhol and the New York gallery scene, but he died of a drug overdose at 27, and has yet to be the subject of a retrospective at the Tate Modern or MoMA. The critic Robert Hughes, author of The Shock of the New, dismissed the painter in an article for The New Republic as a small, untrained talent caught in the buzz saw of art world promotion.

But last week, the Basquiat became the most expensive American artwork ever sold at auction. After 10 minutes of suspenseful, gasp-punctuated bidding at Sothebys, Untitled was won by the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, founder of the online fashion retailer Zozotown. The painting had been estimated to sell for at least $60 million. The final price of $110.5 million with fees almost doubled the previous auction high for a work by Basquiat.
TOKYO  As Sothebys contemporary art auction heated up in New York last week, the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa sat on the floor of his living room here, streaming the auction live on his laptop and relaying bids for Jean-Michel Basquiats 1982 skull painting on his iPhone to a Sothebys specialist. After the price sailed past the $60 million guaranteed minimum, Mr. Maezawa  who hadnt gone into the sale with his own limit in mind  felt that the competitive bidding reinforced the works enormous value.

I decided to go for it, Mr. Maezawa said in an interview at his home on Friday.

As Mr. Maezawa was bidding, Basquiats sister Jeanine Basquiat was about 7,000 miles away in New Jersey, hoping the auction would turn out well. When she heard that Mr. Maezawa had paid $110.5 million  the record price for an American artist at auction  she called her older sister, Lisane Basquiat, in California. There wasnt a lot to say, Lisane said in a rare telephone interview. We were speechless.

If members of the Basquiat family are keepers of the Basquiat flame, Mr. Maezawa has now ensured it will continue burning, at least in the near future  in no small part because he posted about his purchase on Instagram and Twitter right after the auction.

Vast numbers of people are aware of Jean-Michel Basquiat all over the world, said the dealer Jeffrey Deitch, a longtime Basquiat expert, and that is really only because of the immense price.
Last year the Whitney Museum of American Art gave what was widely considered a long-overdue debut exhibition to the painter Carmen Herrera, who turns 102 next Wednesday. This year, she is taking her art to another institution, albeit a more humble one: M.S. 244, in the Bronx.

Through the program Publicolor  which gives at-risk students opportunities to take part in design projects in their schools  students at M.S. 244 will paint a mural designed by Ms. Herrera based on her 1952 work Untitled, part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

It is a joy for me that my work will be in a public school and even more so that it will be actually painted by the students, Ms. Herrera, a Cuban-born painter who has been based in New York since the 1950s, said in a statement.
El Museo del Barrio, which has struggled with financial problems and abrupt leadership changes in recent years, has fired one of two senior executives who had been temporarily running the institution. The dismissal comes after El Museo, the oldest museum in the United States devoted to Latino art, appointed a new executive director who is facing multiple challenges, including a basic one: obtaining permission to work in the United States.

Museum supporters say that discord accompanying the firing may distract from efforts to support poor and working artists from the Latin diaspora and to raise the institutions international stature. The new director, Patrick Charpenel, a respected curator in Mexico City, will be under pressure to steady an organization with deep roots in New York City but one that has cycled through three executive directors over the last seven years and has reduced its hours of operation.

The fired executive, Berta Colon, who had served as the deputy director of institutional advancement, said she was told on May 19 at the museum that she was being dismissed for performance reasons. But she disputed that assertion in a letter to the board of trustees, writing that the museum would face a deficit of more than $800,000 by the end of the fiscal year and that anticipated revenue numbers she had been provided were not based on solid expectations and in some cases were grossly inflated.
The showstopper here is Mr. Turrells Ganzfeld installation, one of the tallest hes ever constructed. Stairs lead to a large rectangle of color that you can step into: a 30-foot-high chamber bathed in slowly shifting hues that slide through the spectrum from the softest gray to a saturated tangerine red, challenging depth perception. Mr. Turrell has programmed a quick strobic blast every nine minutes as a palate cleanser for your eyes.

Jenny Holzer: The Impact Of War

Known since the late 1970s for her elliptical texts carved into stone benches, emblazoned on billboards and projected on buildings, Ms. Holzer focuses here on work about the implications of war. Some 200 silk-screened paintings from the last decade, reproducing at large scale declassified and redacted American documents relating to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, hang salon-style across two cavernous galleries. Pulsing LED installations, streaming with texts by the poet Anna Swir about her experiences as a resistance fighter in the 1939 Siege of Warsaw, cast a lurid purplish-blue glow on the paintings, lit just so theyre legible. I was so concerned about the invasion, Ms. Holzer said, and wanted to understand why we were going in, from every point of view  the politicians, officers, enlisted men and eventually detainees. Every night for the next month, her projections of refugee poems will illuminate the north facade of MASS MoCA. Ms. Holzer has also placed 21 of her stone benches carved with truisms (such as Your oldest fears are your worst ones) in nooks around the buildings.

Until now, we havent been encouraging of people exploring the whole outdoor 16-acre campus, Mr. Thompson said.

Laurie Anderson: Filling Your Head With Living Stories

As a storyteller and performer, Ms. Anderson imagined a museum of her work might resemble a radio broadcasting station. That inspired the design of her glass-walled gallery, now to be her home away from her New York home. When shes not in residency, you can listen to her recordings with headphones. Another gallery features her expressionistic charcoal drawings of her dog Lolabelle and visions of the Tibetan afterlife.

In a black-box gallery, white graffiti and drawings are scrawled across every plane of the room. There you can put on a virtual reality headset and lift off, tunneling through unfolding rooms with walls of her words. Drawings come to life and may turn into galaxies as Ms. Andersons voice fills your head with stories. Virtual reality does what Ive always wanted to do as an artist from the time Ive started, which is a kind of disembodiment, Ms. Anderson said.

A second virtual experience puts you onto an airplane that peacefully disintegrates midair. As you drift through the heavens, reach for the floating Buddha or the copy of Crime and Punishment to trigger more storytelling. Its magic, Ms. Anderson said. You get to feel completely free.
More than 4,000 people applied to be the Mall of Americas writer-in-residence, which, if you think about it, probably says something about just how tough it is to make a living as a writer.

Sure, the chance, as the mall put it, to spend five days deeply immersed in the Mall atmosphere in suburban Minnesota, near the Twin Cities, might not be the most glamorous gig. But there are plenty of writers eating ramen on a friends couch who would gladly upgrade to four nights in a hotel, along with a $400 mall gift card and a $2,500 honorarium.

So it should not be surprising that the competition proved fierce. What might be more surprising  and even perturbing to other applicants  was that the winner, the poet Brian Sonia-Wallace, has also won a highly publicized Amtrak residency. And a closer inspection of his resume shows he has been an artist in residence for the City of Los Angeles and has held similar gigs with the National Park Service and even the Dollar Shave Club.

How was all this success at landing offbeat residencies possible? Had Mr. Sonia-Wallace crafted the worlds most perfect application and recycled it over and over? What secrets did he know that other writers do not? Interviews with Mr. Sonia-Wallace and mall officials uncovered no collusion, conspiracy or cabal. Mr. Sonia-Wallace, a 27-year-old recovering theater nerd, turned out to be disappointingly normal. He seems to be just another guy trying to string together enough work to make a living doing what he loves.
After ups and downs, bilateral ties seem to be back on track

Three years ago Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 15th prime minister of India amid a spectacular ceremony attended by around 4,000 guests.
The 35-year-old Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa has been rising fast. Already the chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany and the permanent guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, he becomes principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London next season and appears regularly with major orchestras and opera houses.

For his New York Philharmonic debut on Thursday at David Geffen Hall, he could have chosen to show his stuff with a staple or two. Instead, he led works by Dvorak and Janacek, composers from his homeland. The program revealed much about who Mr. Hrusa is as both a musician and a person. And the performances were colorful and exciting, especially Janaceks dark, teeming and seldom-heard Taras Bulba, a rhapsody for orchestra.

To start, Mr. Hrusa was joined by the violinist Augustin Hadelich for a spirited account of Dvoraks Violin Concerto in A minor. At 33, Mr. Hadelich increasingly seems to be one of the outstanding violinists of his generation. In a recent interview with The New York Times on Facebook Live, he discussed why Dvoraks concerto remains somewhat overlooked and, playing excerpts, analyzed its elusive beauties. In this eloquent performance, the concertos subtleties were its selling points.

During the extended opening stretch of the first movement, Mr. Hadelich made it seem like the restless music was searching for a starting point. Hearty yet shadowy, fanfarelike orchestral bursts alternated with his wistful playing of ruminative passages for violin, rich with Slavic fervor and plaintive lyricism. Yet hints of Brahmsian intensity stirred within. Finally, with Mr. Hadelichs clear, strong statement of the previously halting theme, the movement took off.
It was two days before the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, and I had never been so eager to be heading to a production of Rossinis The Barber of Seville. The contentious election and its stunning result had left Americans bitterly divided. Spending a few hours in the comfort of the Metropolitan Opera enjoying the madcap adventures of Rossinis endearing characters would surely provide a welcome escape.

A wonderful performance that evening was doing the trick. That is, until the scene when Don Basilio, a music teacher in Seville (and the towns most wily operator), explains to an employer, the crusty Dr. Bartolo, how to take down a young rival.

No problem. You just hint at some dark secret about your target and ruin his reputation with a scandal, Basilio explains in the aria La calunnia, his guide to spreading a calumny. You start a rumor and watch as the falsehood wafts on a gentle breeze, he sings, passing into peoples ears, and then out their mouths. The whisper becomes a murmur, then a mighty blast, until the poor victim must skulk away in disgrace.

I cant even guess at how many times I had heard the aria before. But suddenly, amid charges of fake news, outrageously untrue reports going viral and brazen lies, Rossinis 200-year-old opera seemed eerily contemporary. Basilio came across as the operatic prototype of a cynical, modern-day political operative whose repertory of dirty tricks has hardly dated.
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. What do you think of it? What else are you interested in? Let us know: thearts@nytimes.com.

When the Answers a Pre-Existing Condition

Greg Gianforte won a special election on Thursday for Montanas at-large seat in the House of Representatives, even after he was charged with assaulting a Guardian reporter the day before. The late-night hosts didnt know the results of the election when they taped their shows  but they knew the news would make good comedy.
Heres how Id rank them, labeled by their celebrity guest star:

1. Michael Cera as Wally Brando

Im sympathetic to anyone who found Ceras Marlon Brando imitation  complete with The Wild One biker garb  to be overlong, syrup-paced, and pointless. But I laughed at every overwritten faux-beatnik line of dialogue, and at the utter sincerity of Wallys rumination on dharma and Lewis and Clark (the first caw-cays-ee-uns to see the American northwest). The sense of absurdity is helped by how Wallys framed, with his parents Lucy and Andy beaming proudly by his side. It also helps that Lynch keeps cutting to the increasingly impatient reactions of the man this ersatz Brando is paying his respects to.

2. Robert Forster as Sheriff Frank Truman

Its inapt to call Forster a celebrity guest star since he plays the sheriff of Twin Peaks and the brother of Harry Truman (who wont be returning because Michael Ontkean has retired from acting). Forsters Frank carries on Harrys tradition of calmly indulging the mumbo-jumbo that comes with fighting crime in this freaky town. He keeps his cool through Lucys confusion over how cellphones work (in this episodes most painfully unfunny bit), while also managing what looks to be a team of legitimately up-to-date criminologists, in a room far away from Lucy and Andys shenanigans.

3. Naomi Watts as Janey-E Jones

Lynchs Mullholland Drive star appears in two significant stretches of this episode as the wife of Dougie Jones. In the first she smacks the still-addlepated Cooper around for missing the birthday of Sonny Jim, then forgives him when she sees hes won so much money at the casino. In the second, she serves him some coffee, in an I Am Dougies Coffee mug. (The java-loving Cooper almost awakens when hes handed the cup, but then drinks the hot, bitter brew too fast and spits it out.) Watts makes all this absurdity work, by playing Janey-E earnestly as a long-suffering spouse, even as MacLachlan is stammering and dribbling.

4. David Duchovny as Denise Bryson

The former Dennis Bryson is still a strong character, with her keen analytical skills and confident sexuality. (Also Duchovny still looks gorgeous in a dress.) Still, when Gordon shows up in Brysons office to talk about Cooper, the scene feels a little like Lynch congratulating himself for having a sympathetic transgender character in his show decades before it was fashionable. Also, theres not a lot to Duchovnys part here  although its a treat to hear the zest with which the actor says Federal Bureau of Investigation.

5. Ethan Suplee as Bill Shaker; Richard Chamberlain as Bill Kennedy (tie)

These scenes land so low because theye so short. Suplee has a funny few minutes as a hot dog enthusiast friend of Dougie Jones; but the characters whole purpose is to help Mr. Jackpots find his house. And Chamberlains only in the episode for less than a minute. I wouldnt mention his scene at all, except that it includes a humorously oblique bit of Frost/Lynch dialogue in which Cole asks Kennedy, Martha ever fix that thing with Paul?, and when Bill replies that Pauls at the North Pole, Gordon says, Well there ya go!

The other major character in Part 4 is Bobby Briggs (Dana Ashbrook), whos apparently put his juvenile delinquent days behind him, and is following in his fathers footsteps by dedicating his life to public service, as Sheriff Trumans deputy. On the whole, this episode is the most straightforward of the new Twin Peaks in the first batch, balancing quirky deadpan comedy and over-the-top soapy melodrama, just like the old show. When Bobby gets moved to tears by the sight of Lauras picture among Hawks files, its a throwback to how the show used to be  and, again, more moving than expected, given how much more grizzled everyone is now.
In one of the rare interviews he did, the fiction writer and poet Denis Johnson  who died on Wednesday at 67  was asked about his craft, and he quoted these lines from Joseph Conrad: My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel  it is, before all, to make you see. That  and no more, and it is everything.

In his own novels and poems, Mr. Johnson fulfilled that task with extraordinary savagery and precision. He used his startling gift for language to create word pictures as detailed and visionary, and as varied, as paintings by Edward Hopper and Hieronymus Bosch, capturing the lives of outsiders  the lost, the dispossessed, the damned  with empathy and unsparing candor. Whether set in the bars and motels of small-town America, or the streets of wartime Saigon, his stories depict people living on the edge, addicted to drugs or adrenaline or fantasy, reeling from the idiocies and exigencies of modern life, and longing for salvation.

Image Credit... Picador

There is a fierce, ecstatic quality to Mr. Johnsons strongest work that lends his characters and their stories an epic, almost mythic dimension, in the best American tradition of Melville and Whitman. In the interlinked stories in Jesus Son (1992), the narrator traverses the United States, moving through a grim, fluorescent-lit landscape of rundown bars and one-night cheap motels, and meeting a succession of misfits as alienated and desperate as himself  people who often seem like crazy, drug-addled relatives of the lost souls in Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio or strung-out exiles from a Lou Reed album.
THE GULF

The Making of an American Sea

By Jack E. Davis

Illustrated. 592 pp. Liveright Publishing. $29.95.

For those who live distant from it, the Gulf of Mexico made its most vivid appearance on the national stage for all the wrong reasons: the biggest accidental oil spill ever to occur in offshore waters. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout poured 4.9 million barrels of crude into the gulf, damaged beaches and coastal estuaries, and poisoned marine life up and down the food chain, from algae to dolphins. The burning drill rig and underwater plume of hydrocarbons was a media sensation, an unfolding crisis replete with stunning pictures and a herculean mobilization of humans and technology.

In Jack E. Daviss sprightly and sweeping new history, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, the spill is both culmination and footnote to five centuries of restless human energies. The largest gulf and 10th-largest body of water on earth, it began forming 150 million years ago, after the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea. Its depth and breadth have fluctuated over the ensuing eons: Its northern tides once lapped shoreline in present-day Illinois. In its current configuration it touches more than 3,000 miles of mainland coast along five American states and six in Mexico, and supports a commercial fishery worth three-quarters of a billion dollars in landings revenue annually.

In Daviss hands, the story reads like a watery version of the history of the American West. Both places saw Spanish incursions from the south, mutual incomprehension in the meeting of Europeans and aboriginals, waves of disease that devastated the natives and a relentless quest by the newcomers for the raw materials of empire. There were scoundrels and hucksters, booms and busts, senseless killing in sublime landscapes and a tragic belief in the inexhaustible bounty of nature. A few artists and eccentrics fought to preserve the ecology of the place and sometimes succeeded. Whereas the West was re-engineered to account for a shortage of water, the Gulf of Mexico was re-engineered to account for a surfeit of oil.
It is disquieting to turn from these books about the early United States to one about our own centurys war in Afghanistan only to find some of the same flaws from the past, like the attempt to impose capitalist liberal democracy on people long accustomed to very different ways. Aaron B. OConnell, the editor of OUR LATEST LONGEST WAR: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan (University of Chicago, $30), calls that country the worst possible testing ground for a Western democratic experiment conducted at the point of a gun.

The other contributors to the volume  almost all military veterans of the Afghan war  generally agree that the American people are culturally unable to win wars like this one. Prudence was blinded by unexamined political and cultural assumptions, and the result was a massive and avoidable waste of time, lives and resources, Aaron MacLean concludes; he led a Marine infantry platoon there and also holds a masters degree from Oxford in medieval Arabic studies.

MacLean tellingly observes that the Americans were not trying to bring governance to a place that had none, but rather were trying to replace an existing unwritten constitution they didnt understand and indeed barely perceived. It consisted of traditional ethnic, tribal, state and religious patterns, all of which had been partially transformed by modernization and traumatically stressed by decades of war and the rise of Islamic radicalism, he writes. Surprisingly, no good overview of our Afghan war has been published yet. Until that happens, this enlightening volume is probably the best introduction to what went wrong there, and why.

There is a common thread to almost all wars: They begin with hubris, stumble on miscalculation and end in sorrow. So it was, emphatically, with the Athenian empires invasion of distant Sicily in 415 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War. As a result of that poorly considered action, Athens eventually suffered political upheaval. War abroad had given rise to civil discord at home, Jennifer T. Roberts writes in THE PLAGUE OF WAR: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece (Oxford University, $34.95). Reading that, I began to wonder if there was a parallel to the unnecessary American invasion of distant Iraq in 2003, and the election of Donald Trump to the presidency some 13 years later. Roberts, a classicist at the City University of New York, notes that as a result of its political turmoil, Athens found its democracy temporarily overthrown by an oligarchical motley crew with differing goals.

Do we really need another history of the Peloponnesian War? That was the question in my mind when I opened this book. When I finished it, I thought, yes, we seem to. Military historians often neglect developments in the arts, for instance, but Roberts weaves in Greek culture, showing how works by dramatists and philosophers reflected events in the war. Aristophanes Lysistrata, about women going on a sex strike to bring peace, was produced in 411 B.C., in the wake of the Athenian disaster in Sicily. She portrays the death of Socrates 12 years later as one more evil consequence of the war, with the great philosopher scapegoated for the ills of a city that had suffered war, economic collapse, demographic devastation and civil strife.

A less examined aspect of ancient history is the Praetorian Guard of the Roman emperors. Guy de la Bedoyere, a prolific British historian, tackles the subject in PRAETORIAN: The Rise and Fall of Romes Imperial Bodyguard (Yale University, $35). This is not an enjoyable book to read, but it is an interesting one, as the author pulls together the scraps and threads of information about the Guard. The problem is that so little is known about it that the story never really comes alive.

The Harvard historian David Armitage offers another unsettling echo from ancient history when he notes that the Latin phrase variously translated as public enemy or enemy of the people  the second used by President Trump to describe the American news media  was first devised by Romans in the context of their civil wars, as a way to justify violence against fellow citizens. But overall, his short CIVIL WARS: A History in Ideas (Knopf, $27.95) offers more dry analysis than juicy insights or rich narrative.
Khin is only 18 when she and Benny are wed, but she already knows too much about trust and betrayal. She grew up hearing her mothers songs of age-old Karen enslavement at the hands of the Burmese, the countrys majority ethnic group (They took our alphabet and holy books), and saw her father disemboweled by Burmese bandits in their village home. Indeed, the dead-weight melody that resonates across these pages is that of Karen history  one not widely told or realized, either within Burma or beyond its borders.

Image

Karen history is, in itself, a tale of trust and betrayal. After centuries of Burmese hegemony, the Karen welcomed British colonial rule and ended up fighting bravely on the side of Allied forces in World War II. British officers promised them an independent nation; instead, Karen territory was formalized into one of the seven ethnic states included in the Union of Burma (today called Myanmar). In 1949, Karen forces began an armed rebellion against Burmese rule that became one of the longest lasting civil wars in recorded history. A cease-fire signed more than six decades later, in 2012, has paved the way for peace talks. Now, as fighting has been reignited in other ethnic states battling the central government and Myanmars multiethnic peace process seems more precarious than ever, Miss Burma is a timely exposition of trust after trauma.

Miss Burma also serves as a much-needed recalibration of history, one that redresses the narrative imbalance by placing other ethnic, non-Burmese points of view at the center of its story. For instance, Gen. Aung San (the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and leader of Burmas independence movement) is not depicted in this novel as the national hero he is hailed as in Burma. As Benny warns an Anglo-Burmese acquaintance in the early stages of Aung Sans agitation against British rule, They claim hes starting some sort of movement, saying the Burmans are the true lords and masters  Britons be damned, and everyone else along with them. Benny wisely worries about the fate of everyone else. During World War II, Aung Sans Burmese Independence Army wreaked havoc on the Karens for their loyalty to the British, and even after his assassination in 1947, the same soldiers marched into Rangoon reportedly chanting, We want to eat Karen flesh.

Though none of the books main characters belong easily in, or to, Burma, they are all irrevocably shaped and controlled by it. The central thread of Benny and Khins strained marriage  which must straddle linguistic and cultural chasms  seems to parallel the unhappy union between the Burmese government and the Karen peoples. And it is somehow fitting that their eldest daughter, Louisa (based on the authors mother), is chosen to represent the Union of Burma when she is crowned Miss Burma in 1956. Louisas mixed-race beauty turns her body into a living symbol of hope and integration in a country that is otherwise falling apart.

When General Ne Win took control in 1962, he perpetuated and deepened the central governments policies of so-called Burmanization across the country that demanded, One blood, one voice, one leader. Louisas distinct otherness forces her to make her own choices about who she is and what to trust in a Rangoon that has become riddled with military spies, rebel leaders parleying for peace, and discomfited C.I.A. agents struggling to pull the right strings in their mandate to prevent Southeast Asia from falling to Communist forces.
THE TEA GIRL OF HUMMINGBIRD LANE

By Lisa See

371 pp. Scribner, $27.

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We meet Li-yan as a small, hungry child in a superstitious, dystopian world. She is simply called Girl, and when she dares to eat a bite of stolen scallion pancake, she must be cleansed by the village ruma, a scary spiritual healer in a ceremonial cloak heavily decorated with feathers, bones and the tails of small animals. This is 1988, and Li-yan lives in Yunnan, China. She is an Akha, an ethnic minority so isolated and remote they didnt hear about the One Child policy for almost 15 years.

Sees novel reads like a folk tale or a fable. Li-yan is headstrong and good-hearted. Although she goes to school, she abides by the curses, bad omens and taboos of her local culture. But when custom requires that she kill her newborn baby, Li-yan cant go through with it, and instead smuggles the child to an orphanage, along with a tea cake made from the tea grove that has been handed down her matriarchal line for 33 generations. Li-yans life takes new turns as she moves to the city and resumes her education. But her daughter has been lost to her.

In a parallel narrative, we see the child, Haley, as she is raised in Southern California by an American couple, Dan and Constance. We glimpse her life through doctors notes, school assignments and emails.

The book is steeped in tea: its medicinal and cultural value but mostly its nifty symbolic value. See is one of those special writers capable of delivering both poetry and plot: As A-ma said, every story, every dream, every waking minute of our lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another.

THE SHADOW LAND

By Elizabeth Kostova

478 pp. Ballantine, $28.

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Alexandra Boyd, a young American still grieving over the death of her brother, arrives in Bulgaria to travel and teach. As is so often the case with international trips, there are some snafus. The taxi drops her off at the wrong hotel. Oh, and she ends up with a strange bag of human remains. The sight of it went through her like a whisper of voltage  plain black canvas, long black handles, the upper side closed with a black zipper. She touched it. No, it was not one of hers.

Inside the bag, she finds an urn of ashes and bone and a wooden plaque engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Alexandra is exceedingly polite. So she takes off on a road trip through the Bulgarian countryside, aided by a shockingly accommodating taxi driver, in an attempt to track down the bags owners.
MUSIC OF THE GHOSTS

By Vaddey Ratner

324 pp. Touchstone. $26.

Vaddey Ratner calls each of the three parts of her tenaciously melodic second novel a movement. And indeed this story of an orphaned Cambodian refugees return to her homeland does have a symphonys elevating effect on emotion. Ratner stirs feeling  sorrow, sympathy, pleasure  through language so ethereal in the face of dislocation and loss that its beauty can only be described as stubborn.

Music of the Ghosts is an aesthetic gesture akin to the plaintive playing Ratners protagonist, Suteera, hears in the novels third movement while walking through a forest near Angkors ancient temples. In a remote clearing, she finds an unlikely ensemble, the victims of land mines: a blind man, a fisherman, an amputee, a former Khmer Rouge insurgent and a former government soldier, rivals in another life now joined in making otherworldly music. The three-stringed instrument whose lament transfixes Suteera has only one string that still works. Both the musicians and their instruments are broken, disfigured, yet still they create beguiling art.

They also provoke an unsettling memory. Once before, in that very region, Suteera had heard the quiver of a string plucked in the wild. Then she and her aunt were fleeing Cambodia through an abandoned rice field sown with corpses and mines. Everyone else in her family was dead  except for her father, whose fate she did not know. Just before a mine exploded, claiming most of their escaping party, they heard a faint cry, resembling the sound of a lute. A little later, Suteera thought she heard it again. But when she told their captor turned savior, the Khmer Rouge soldier who guided them across the Thai border, he dismissed it as hallucination. Out here, he proclaimed, theres only music of the ghosts.

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Such echoes haunt Suteeras journey when she travels from her new home in Minneapolis to the Buddhist temple where her father had been raised by monks. Ostensibly there to scatter her aunts ashes, she has been lured by a letter from a guilt-stricken man who calls himself the Old Musician and claims that he met her father in one of Pol Pots prisons. He also claims to have three classical instruments owned by her father and intended for her. Suteera returns half-hoping to find her soldier savior as well as her father, half-thinking the musician might in fact be her father. As the novel shifts between past and present, from her perspective to that of the Old Musician, another set of instruments emerges as symbolic: electric cords with exposed wires, metal clamps, pliers, a rope, all hung on the wall of the prison. One set of instruments is the dark twin, the reverberation, of the other.
Colombian envoy calls on Prez Bhandari

Colombian Ambassador to Nepal Monika Lanzetta called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari at the latters office in Sheetal Niwas on Friday.
Early on, Browning quotes the cultural critic Lewis Hyde: In the world of gift  you not only can have your cake and eat it too, you cant have your cake unless you eat it. Theres a similar toothsome reciprocity to The Gift itself, which takes its title from Hydes beloved opus on artistic giftedness. While the novel is in one sense part of the recent era of autofictions, several examples of which  How Should a Person Be?, Leaving the Atocha Station, I Love Dick  are mentioned in its pages, there is a sense that The Gift is directed outward, toward the reader, rather than toward the writing self. A gift, after all, is a gesture of extension, a concept Browning plays with through Barbaras digital communiques, whether text, email or erotic hand dance, as well as ideas of surrogacy and prostheses  a violin bow, a silicone leg, a rubber phallus. As a novel, The Gift incorporates some extended technique as well: Barbaras dances, stills from which appear in the book, are dances Browning seemingly made in response to and in conjunction with the story she tells.

As author/narrator, Browning/Barbara is delightfully shrewd, if a little daft  an intellectual with scrupulous ethics and a love of organic wool. One tragicomic set piece has her fretting, at length, over something to do with a perfume called Realism, not a quality, as it turns out, that concerns her overmuch. The novels events bear an uncertain relationship to life, and all of her characters are apparently versions  with varying degrees of authenticity  of actual collaborators, family members, lovers and friends. Some, she writes, gave her input on earlier drafts; some are completely fictional. Such metatextual confessions are, like the rest of the novel, conveyed in a charmingly procedural tone that surprises, at times, with how vulnerable it can be.

My body is an extension of my body, Browning writes. The statement has something to do with erogenous zones, something to do with technique, something to do with the way art changes the meaning of things and the ways a person might love. Sometimes, there is no one there to meet the extended hand. Still, as The Gift shows, its possible for the reaching itself to act as a down payment on a new economy of pleasure.
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Good morning.

Heres what you need to know:

 Pay up, U.S. tells NATO.

European leaders were visibly unsettled in Brussels on Thursday after President Trump declined to explicitly endorse NATOs mutual defense pledge and lashed out over what he called chronic underpayments.

Discord was palpable even in the leaders body language, as the president appeared to push aside the prime minister of Montenegro as they gathered for a photograph.

Mr. Trump is ending his overseas trip at a Group of 7 meeting in Sicily.
The central observation of Scale is that a wide variety of complex systems respond similarly to increases in size. Mr. West demonstrates that these similarities reflect the structural nature of the networks that undergird these systems. The book identifies three core common characteristics of the hierarchal networks that deliver energy to these organisms  whether the diverse circulatory systems that power all forms of animal life or the water and electrical networks that power cities.

First, the networks are space filling  that is, they service the entire organism. Second, the terminal units are largely identical, whether they are the capillaries in our bodies or the faucets and electrical outlets in our homes. Third, a kind of natural selection process operates within these networks so that they are optimized.

These shared network qualities explain why when an organism doubles in size, an astonishing range of characteristics, from food consumption to general metabolic rate, grow something less than twice as fast  they scale sublinearly. Whats more, Scale shows why the precise mathematical factor by which these efficiencies manifest themselves almost always relate to the magic No. 4.

Mr. West also provides an elegant explanation of why living organisms have a natural limit to growth and life span following a predictable curve, as an increasing proportion of energy consumed is required for maintenance and less is available to fuel further expansion.

When he turns to cities, Mr. West shows that infrastructure growth scales in analogous sublinear fashion. Hence, the number of gas stations or length of roads needed when a city doubles its size reflects similar economies of scale. But relevant socioeconomic qualities actually scale superlinearly by the same factor. And while it is good news that large cities produce higher wages and more patents per inhabitant, they also generate relatively greater crime and disease. This conundrum is at the heart of Mr. Wests sustainability concerns. Theoretically, unbounded growth of cities generated by superlinear scaling if left unchecked, potentially sow[s] the seeds of their inevitable collapse.
LONDON  An outspoken commentator who gained fame after appearing on The Apprentice will be leaving her job at the radio station LBC after a post on social media about the recent attack in Manchester.

The commentator, Katie Hopkins, a conservative provocateur in the mold of Ann Coulter, is to step down after calling on Twitter for a final solution to the terrorism problem, which some had interpreted as a call for genocide, echoing the Nazi euphemism for the Holocaust.

The post was later changed so that it read true solution rather than final solution.

Ms. Hopkins, who is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, according to her website, joined LBC about a year ago to host a Sunday talk show. LBC declined to comment on the arrangement, saying only that LBC and Katie Hopkins have agreed that Katie will leave LBC effective immediately.
The future, economists say, lies in unleashing Russias entrepreneurs.

Natura Siberica has largely stood out by putting a different spin on cosmetics, helping the company distinguish itself from the pack both at home and abroad. Its focus on Siberia and Siberian shamanic practices, as well as peculiar ingredients like pine nuts, cloudberries and yak butter, are aimed at evoking visions of stark and unspoiled natural terrain.

At first, I was skeptical, because we think Italian or French cosmetics are best, said Viktoria Y. Vedenskaya, a real estate agent picking up a bottle of Sakhalin Island Thistle body lotion in a Moscow store. But these berries and flowers are unique.

Its virgin nature out there, she added. You can travel for a week, and see nobody.

Natura Sibericas big break internationally came at a 2008 cosmetics exhibition in Japan, when a Japanese retailer signed a deal to carry the brand.

Since then, the company has been expanding, both within Russia and overseas. It now operates 70 of its own brand stores in Russia and six other countries, while its products sell in more than 40 nations.

In Europe, it is going for a high-end consumer, with shampoo selling for about 8 euros, or about $8.70. Some branded stores offer luxurious touches, like presses that make fresh pine nut oil for customers while they wait. Over all, sales in 2016 were about 14 billion rubles, or $248 million.

A Russian woman can have a lot of problems. She might have to work in a factory, Mr. Trubnikov said. But in our stores, she should feel like a queen, feel desired, and feel like a woman.
After the November election, the stock market experienced a Trump bump. The surge in share prices thrilled investors, but some corporate executives had even more reason to celebrate. Thats because rising prices can fuel higher pay even if other corporate results are so-so, which seems to be the case for some companies right now.

Consider Equilars rankings of the top 200 highest-paid C.E.O.s, compiled for The New York Times. The company in the middle of the list awarded its C.E.O. $16.9 million, 9 percent more than it did in 2015, even though median revenues increased only 3 percent.

Total shareholder returns were explosive  up 14 percent for the median company. A close look at the numbers suggests that the levitating 2016 stock market was a powerful driver of C.E.O. pay last year, and the bull market seems to have made shareholders less likely to complain about the pay increases executives received. Yet there are serious questions concerning the ties between executive pay and a companys stock performance.

Corporate compensation committees typically consider stock performance when determining pay. Another study by Equilar, a compensation analysis company in Redwood City, Calif., found that 57.4 percent of all Standard & Poors 500-stock index companies used total shareholder return, which includes dividends, as a performance measure for compensation purposes in 2015.
In a paper published online Friday by the journal Science Advances, Nick Obradovich and colleagues predicted more restless nights, especially in the summer, as global temperatures rise. They found that the poor, who are less likely to have air-conditioning or be able to run it, as well as the elderly, who have more difficulty regulating their body temperature, would be hit hard.

If global emissions are allowed to continue at a high level, the paper found, then additional nights of sleeplessness can be expected beyond what people normally experience. By 2050, for every 100 Americans, an extra six nights of sleeplessness can be expected every month, the researchers calculated. By 2099, that would more than double, to 14 additional nights of tossing and turning each month for every 100 people, in their estimation.

Understand the Latest News on Climate Change Card 1 of 5 U.S. climate threats. The effects of climate change are already far-reaching and worsening throughout the United States, posing risks to virtually every aspect of society, according to a draft report being circulated by the federal government. The United States has warmed 68 percent faster than Earth as a whole over the past 50 years, the draft report said. Disappearing glaciers. Many of the worlds most visited glaciers, including those in Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks, are expected to disappear by 2050 because of climate change, according to a new report from the United Nations cultural agency. The report posed a challenge to the travel industry, which is a large contributor to global carbon emissions. A new response to rising seas. Consigned to marginal land more than a century ago by the U.S. government, some Native American tribes are trying to move to areas that are better protected from high water and extreme weather. In response, the Biden administration has created a program designed to help relocate communities threatened by climate change. A change in priorities. Gabon, a major producer of oil, knows the resource wont last forever. So the countrys officials are turning to the Congo Basin rainforest for revenue  while also promising to preserve the area. The approach, which aims to strike a balance between the needs of a nation and those of a world facing a climate crisis, appears to be working. A warming Siberia. Rapid warming of the Arctic has led to extreme wildfire seasons in Siberia in recent years, scientists have concluded, and such severe fires are likely to continue. The researchers said that the region may be near a threshold beyond which even small temperature increases could result in more intense fires.









Researchers have long known that being too hot or too cold at night can disturb anyones sleep, but nobody had thought to ask how that might affect people in a world grown hotter because of climate change.

Dr. Obradovich is a political scientist who researches both the politics of climate change and its likely human impacts, holding appointments at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He started the research while completing a doctoral degree at the University of California, San Diego.
Evening in Elmhurst, Queens, and the windows of Awang Kitchen were awash in purple light. Inside, a party about 30 strong was winding down at tables pushed together along the wall, with balloons tugging upward from chairs and a woman on guitar leading the crowd in what sounded, in Bahasa Indonesia, like a hymn.

It was a gentler soundtrack than the hiss of cars outside on Queens Boulevard, and a lulling accompaniment to the plates that streamed steadily from the kitchen to my table in the corner.

Awang Kitchen opened in March in a new condominium built on the half-block lot where the Cantonese restaurant Harbor City once stood, flanked by golden lions. The chef, Siliwanga, known as Awang, grew up in Jakarta on the island of Java. (Like a number of Indonesians, he has only one name, confounding Western bureaucracy; in official records, his surname is listed as Nln, short for no last name.)

The menu is long and rambling, but the waiters are patient guides. One steered me toward tempeh, cakes of whole soybeans fermented until they stick together, which from past experience I had sworn to shun. Here, the cakes are cut into flat squares, divested of heaviness, dusted in coriander-laced tempura flour and fried briefly, so the inside stays soft. Their flavor lies somewhere between roasted chestnut and scorched earth. The cakes need no more than a dab of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), dark and viscous, pulling slightly at the spoon.
Espita Mezcaleria, a new bar in Washington, stocks more than 130 kinds of mezcal. But Megan Barnes, the beverage director, has a surprising sales technique when customers ask for certain brands.

A lot of people come in and say, I only want something thats grown in the wild, she said. We try to steer people away from those, because if youre constantly drinking these wild agaves, youre depleting the wild agave fields in Mexico, and then theres nothing left. We try to teach our customers to be responsible, and were responsible ourselves.

Here, in a shot glass, is the current quandary mezcal drinkers face in the United States. Never has the liquor  tequilas smokier, rougher parent spirit  been more visible, plentiful or popular. Barely a month passes without a new mezcal bar opening in some American city; recent arrivals include Madre Mezcaleria in Brooklyn, Quiote in Chicago and Coyote Mezcaleria in Portland, Ore. Thats a great thing for a beverage that has long been misunderstood and underappreciated by Americans.
Sam Sifton emails readers of Cooking five days a week to talk about food and suggest recipes. That email also appears here. To receive it in your inbox, register here.

Good morning. We are in America heading into what counts for many as the first summer weekend of the year. So tidy your desk, clean off your table at the local coffee shop, do a little shopping or pack that batik weekender bag youve had since college. Take an early slide! Head back to the apartment and watch how the city empties out, or leapfrog the hordes and try to beat the traffic north or east or west or south. Head toward grass and grills (real or imaginary), toward sand and blankets, and embrace the whole exciting promise that the start of summer brings each of us, each year, no matter how dark the news in the morning feeds. Smile this weekend against the sadness, and hold your people tight.

What to cook? You might start by taking a spin through our extensive collection of recipes for Memorial Day, and making a list of what appeals. For myself, Ill be steaming a mess of clams to start my feast, then following them with barbecued chicken accompanied by this simple sauce, and a big bowl of pickleback slaw. But for you, this might be the weekend to try to make pulled pork. (Or pulled lamb?) You could master our recipe for the ultimate veggie burger. Or grill some tofu with chipotle barbecue sauce.

For dessert, I like poundcake this time of year, beneath a cloak of fresh strawberries. Jennifer Steinhauers recipe for field day poundcake is well-suited to that role. But the super-lemony recipe for lemon poundcake the chef Bill Yosses gave us back in 2001 is no slouch, and you might like to make it if lemon is more preferable to you than strawberries. Bakers choice! (Or a cherry pie?)
Death threat against female journalist condemned

Press Chautari Nepal has condemned a life threat made on social media against Kaski-based female journalist and Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) central member, Sushma Poudel.
And so we come to the end of what has been the longest and most comprehensive viewing of Melania Trump playing the role of first lady since her husbands administration began: nine days, five countries, more than a dozen outfits, all of them photographed and recorded (and exclaimed over) for the historical record.

Melania did not wear a veil in Saudi Arabia! Melania did wear a veil to the Vatican! Melania changes outfits during flight!

Does it really matter?

Of course. Because Mrs. Trump has been, up to now, a cipher cloistered in a gilded New York penthouse but is about to take her place in the East Wing (at least according to her team) as the United States official hostess. And because, as a representative of the country and the Trump administration on the world stage, this was her clearest statement yet about how she will manage that position.

It just happened that, since Mrs. Trump did not say much as she accompanied her husband from Saudi Arabia through Israel to Italy, Brussels and Sicily, it was largely made through her clothes.
It has been years since my husband has even looked up when I announce that Ive got a crush on a pastry chef  it happens too often  but when I proclaimed my affection for the designer Todd Oldham, he wanted to know why. Simple: his beautiful inner seams.

Id seen a video of the designer in his studio, surrounded by stacks of lush, intricately worked fabrics. As regal as the materials were, only some were destined to be seen; the rest were to become the flip sides of his creations, with hidden Cupids arrows of inner seams, stitched with a craftsmans passion and a mathematicians accuracy. Its the kind of care that draws me to pastry chefs too.

Pastries dont truly have flip sides  all thats important about a pastry is on view (or will be after the first bite)  but I consider dough an epicures inner seam. Pastry is an art of parts, and its dough that builds a pastry, sets its character, determines its structure and shape and contributes to its texture and taste. And yet it rarely gets its due: Everyone loves a filling, but not everyone appreciates the dough that holds it.

Lately Ive become a one-woman band beating the drum for desserts supporting cast: the sturdy pastry that hugs the apples in a dumpling, turnover or pie; the crust that holds a jiggly lemon cream; the slender finger of pate a choux, the dough that contains the cream in an eclair, or the balloon of that same dough that hides the filling in a cream puff.
CANNES, France  Sitting in the Roman Polanski Suite at the Carlton Hotel here, Kirsten Dunst did her best to smile. It was Wednesday, and the day before she had been hit with food poisoning. I was really sick yesterday, she said. Im just tired from throwing up. She was hydrating now, sipping water as she powered through interviews for her latest movie, The Beguiled, a muted Southern Gothic from Sofia Coppola that is competing for the Cannes Film Festivals top prize, the Palme dOr.

It certainly has a shot. The critics have been receptive to it, though its far from clear if reviewers have any effect on Cannes juries. Pedro Almodovar presides over this years judges in the feature-film competition, including two other male directors (Park Chan-wook, Paolo Sorrentino) who lean toward cinematic flamboyance and two female filmmakers (Maren Ade, Agnes Jaoui) who dont. The rest of the jurors make a living following orders from directors, including three actors (Will Smith, Jessica Chastain, Fan Bingbing) and the composer Gabriel Yared.

The jury will look at 19 titles in the feature-film competition, only three by women. This gender imbalance is familiar, though it is worth remembering that in 2012 there were no female directors in the main competition. Even so, this imbalance is as frustrating at Cannes as at the Oscars, which is why, when I brought up the industrys sexism to Ms. Dunst, I said I was sick of it being an issue. Im tired of talking about it, she replied. For Ms. Dunst, whos worked with female filmmakers throughout her career, the director and large female cast of The Beguiled are the films biggest statement. She added that theres an undercurrent of female rage that needs to come out.

By Thursday afternoon, critics were still muttering over the quality of the main slate even if many had also warmed to Good Time, from the American brothers Benny and Josh Safdie, and to LAmant Double, a bauble that finds the French director Francois Ozon making like Brian De Palma to diminishing ends. LAmant Double is one of a handful of female-driven movies in the main lineup along with A Gentle Creature, a misfire from the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa about a woman who endures a series of torments, including a gang rape. In the context of so much female invisibility and suffering, Ms. Coppola and her women have been a welcome relief.
It is now a standard feature of the typical Hollywood blockbuster. You watch scenes that have become more complex and dazzling than ever in their visual effects and technical mastery, then sit through end credits that feel almost novelistic in length: hundreds, or frequently thousands, of names in a blur of acknowledgment of the village it took to stage a superhero battle or bring robots to photorealistic life.

The names can occupy five to 10 minutes or more of a movies running time. And were often staying put so as not to miss a possible extra scene or a tease to other films in a franchise. In the meantime, we learn about film jobs we had no idea existed. (Hello, render wrangler!) And yet many names are still missing, and some in the industry dont think the credits are long enough.

How did we get here?

It used to be much simpler. The earliest films, shown at nickelodeons at the start of the 1900s, had no credits at all, just the title.

But then eventually people started to recognize stars that they liked, said Dave Kehr, a curator for the department of film at the Museum of Modern Art. He mentioned the emergence of the silent-era actress Florence Lawrence, who wasnt credited in her earliest films but built a fan following to the point that her name eventually appeared on a movie poster, making her one of the very first movie stars.
ALBANY  The Bill of Rights in the New York State Constitution protects a number of essential liberties. Freedom of worship? Check. The right to assemble? Check. Freedom to divorce? That, too. The right to play bingo and gamble on horses? You bet.

But environmental activists and some lawmakers say that one liberty that is conspicuously absent from the Constitutions Bill of Rights is the right to a clean environment. Citing recent instances of contaminated water supplies and what they call an assault on the environment by the Trump administration, they are now determined to change that.

I would think that people would put betting on horses and playing bingo on a par with a right to a healthful environment, said Peter M. Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, a nonprofit lobbying group based here.

In late April, in a vote timed to commemorate Earth Day, the State Assembly passed a bill 113 to 26 to add a clean-environment amendment to the Bill of Rights, stating simply, Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.
ALBANY  The Democratic members of New Yorks congressional delegation on Friday joined a loose but growing campaign to pressure a group of breakaway Democrats in the State Senate to return to the fold.

In a letter sent to every State Senate Democrat, the group called for their colleagues in Albany to fight unitedly against President Trumps agenda.

The letter, signed by 18 members of Congress, is the latest effort to persuade the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference, and a ninth rogue senator, Simcha Felder of Brooklyn, to abandon their coalition with the Republicans and help take control of Albanys upper chamber.

There are currently 32 Democrats in the Senate, but the breakaway faction and Mr. Felder side with the Republicans, giving them control of the 63-seat chamber under the majority leader, Senator John J. Flanagan of Long Island.
The New York City Correction Department, still struggling to contain the fallout from a series of scandals that forced the abrupt resignation of the commissioner two weeks ago, was confronted with another potentially destabilizing development on Friday. Martin Murphy, the departments top uniformed supervisor and one of the most respected officials at city jails, told colleagues that he planned to step down.

The Correction Department confirmed that Mr. Murphy planned to retire but gave no reason for his decision. Mr. Murphy could not be reached for comment.

The timing of the decision could not be worse for the department, which has only just begun interviewing candidates to replace the commissioner, Joseph Ponte. Mr. Ponte stepped down this month after investigations into the misuse of city vehicles by the commissioner and his aides, as well as a campaign of spying on city investigators by the Correction Departments internal affairs division.

Mr. Murphy, a 30-year veteran of the department, was not among those accused by city investigators of wrongdoing, and in fact was singled out in the report on city vehicles for his scrupulous adherence to the rules.
The message was muddled, to say the least.

On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio stood on the sidewalk in front of a school in the Bronx, warning school staff members and other municipal employees with city-issued parking placards that using them to park illegally would not be tolerated.

Announcing several new enforcement measures, he warned: Before anyone thinks its a clever idea to misuse our placards, my advice is you better get to know where our impound lots are because youre going to end up visiting them.

But just two weeks earlier, Mr. de Blasio did something that critics say will lead to more placard abuse: He issued 50,000 new parking placards to teachers and other school employees.

Given that there are only about 10,000 on-street parking spots at schools reserved for employees with placards, traffic experts fear that holders of the new placards who do not find a spot will park illegally instead, relying on the placard to protect them from getting a ticket. That has historically been a pretty safe bet, thanks to a tradition of professional courtesy extended by traffic agents to other city employees.
To the Editor:

Re DeVos Refuses to Rule Out Providing Funds to Schools That Discriminate (news article, May 25):

I am sickened by Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, when she refused to say whether federal funds for voucher programs could be used for private schools that discriminate on the basis of race, disability or sexual orientation in the name of choice.

This is the year 2017, not 1950. Someone ought to provide voucher funds to send Ms. DeVos to school to learn that Americans rights do not include the right to discriminate against other citizens. Lets not bury the Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights.

CARL KAESTLE, PROVIDENCE, R.I.

The writer is emeritus professor of education, history and public policy at Brown University.
Elections with added units not possible on June 14, says EC

The Election Commission (EC) said on Thursday that it would be able to hold the second phase of local elections on June 14 only in 461 local units and that it would not be possible to conduct polls on the scheduled date if it were to adjust the 22 local units that have been recently added in 12 Tarai districts.
What possesses him to treat Americas allies so badly? The NATO nations are mostly democracies with vibrant free markets that have helped America keep enemies at bay, including in Afghanistan. The question is made all the more pressing in view of Mr. Trumps enthusiastic embrace of countless autocrats, among them Vladimir Putin of Russia and King Salman of Saudi Arabia, where he just paid a deferential visit and assured Sunni Arab leaders that we are not here to lecture despite their abominable records on human rights.

This perplexing dichotomy has been vividly captured in video and photographs  Mr. Trump laughing comfortably with Russias foreign minister and ambassador to Washington during a recent Oval Office meeting, while refusing to shake the hand of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany when she came to town. There was more of the same in Brussels, with Mr. Trump shoving aside the prime minister of Montenegro, which recently defied Russia to join NATO, on his way to a front row spot for a photograph.

The allies had hoped to hear a robust endorsement of the NATO Treatys Article 5, which commits them to a one-for-all, all-for-one principle that has been the foundation of the alliance since it was established. What they got instead was a vague promise to never forsake the friends who stood by our side after the Sept. 11 attacks, and assurances from Sean Spicer, the press secretary, of a 100 percent commitment to Article 5. This would have been more persuasive coming from Mr. Trump, since he and not Mr. Spicer had denigrated NATO as obsolete and suggested darkly that the United States might not defend allies under attack if they did not contribute more to the alliance.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been no more credible than Mr. Spicer. Of course we support Article 5, he told reporters earlier this week, presumably assuming that the president would say much the same thing in Brussels. That Mr. Trump did not reinforces the common perception that Mr. Tillerson has no more influence over his thinking than do Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, and Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser, on whom many had counted to put Mr. Trumps foreign policy on a more responsible path.

That Mr. Trump and the allies were unable to agree on a common approach toward Russia was also worrisome. Moscow has become increasingly aggressive as Mr. Putin annexed Crimea, waged war in eastern Ukraine, meddled in the American and European elections and intervened militarily in Syria. The most that emerged from a meeting between Mr. Trump and Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, was that the two shared the same line on Ukraine.
Since 2011, subsidiaries of Kushner Companies, the family real estate business Mr. Kushner ran until January, bought 20,000 apartments in 34 complexes in Maryland, Ohio and New Jersey. An investigation for The New York Times Magazine and ProPublica, by Alec MacGillis, found that one major Kushner subsidiary, JK2 Westminster, had 548 cases on file against Maryland tenants. Hundreds of other cases have been filed there by individual Kushner apartment complexes.

Community organizers could have helped Kushner tenants like Kamiia Warren of suburban Baltimore, who was sued for moving out of her apartment without giving two months notice despite having done so. Mr. Kushners company won an almost $5,000 judgment anyway, and garnished her wages as a home health worker, and her bank account.

The Times investigation quotes the Kushner Companies chief financial officer, Jennifer McLean, as saying that the company has a fiduciary obligation to collect as much revenue as possible. Mr. MacGillis adds: One way to make sure that tenants are paying their rent and to keep them from breaking leases early  is to instill a sense of fear about violating a lease.

Last month, Mr. Trump was asked what aspects of his previous life were at odds with his role as president. Well in business, you dont necessarily need heart, he said. In fact, in business youre actually better off without it.

He said that wasnt true in government. But the presidents actions prove otherwise. His budget plan would gut programs for the most vulnerable, slashing Medicaid, food stamps, disability insurance and public housing.
ARRAS, France  In the springtime of 100 years ago, nations that shared a Christian heritage slaughtered one another over a few miles of mud. In just one battle, the great powers of Europe fought for more than a month outside this magnificently reconstructed medieval city, and suffered 280,000 casualties.

At the same time, French infantrymen began to mutiny after 200,000 of their young men fell  dead, wounded or missing  in another senseless grind of human flesh to the south.

All of that  the poisonous gas, the mowing down of teenage boys in ashen fields, the legless legions of the Lost Generation  is behind us. In its place, a century later, are cowards who kill children in the name of religious perversion.

Manchester, where the 22 died on Monday and more than 60 people were injured in the worst terrorist attack on British soil in more than a decade, would seem small by comparison. Some perspective is in order.
To many Palestinians, however, the establishment of their own government was a dream realized. Finally, those who had lived under occupation since 1967 would be free from repressive Israels military rule to govern themselves. Palestinians clamored to assume posts in the new body and took pride in establishing institutions despite the obstacles imposed by Israeli rule. As the negotiations dragged on under Oslo, these blocks became only more entrenched.

After more than two decades, the talks have produced no progress. I spent several years involved on the Palestinian side of the negotiations and can attest to their futility. Palestinian delegates, who needed permits to enter Israel to participate in talks, were routinely held up at Israeli checkpoints. When we spoke of international law and the illegality of settlements, Israeli negotiators laughed in our faces.

Power is everything, they would say, and you have none.

As time went on, it became clear that the authoritys budget and its priorities were primarily geared toward ensuring that Palestinians remained one of the most surveilled and controlled people on earth. In effect, the Palestinian Authority served as a subcontractor for the occupying Israeli military. The overwhelming focus on security, we were told, was necessary for the duration of peace talks. Today, fully a third of the authoritys roughly $4 billion budget goes to policing, more than for health and education combined.

These security forces do not provide a normal police service to Palestinians, but instead aid the Israeli Army in maintaining the occupation and Israels ever-expanding settlements. The internationally lauded security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has resulted only in the arrest and imprisonment of Palestinians, including nonviolent human rights activists, while armed and violent Israeli settlers are allowed to terrorize Palestinians with impunity. The Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction over the settlers, and the Israeli Army almost always looks the other way.

The raison detre of the Palestinian Authority today is not to liberate Palestine; it is to keep Palestinians silent and quash dissent while Israel steals land, demolishes Palestinian homes, and builds and expands settlements. Instead of becoming a sovereign state, the Palestinian Authority has become a proto-police state, a virtual dictatorship, endorsed and funded by the international community.
Mr. Acosta is right about the legal issue, since further delays would violate the Administrative Procedure Act governing federal rule-making. His decision to let the rule take effect will also make it harder to reverse it later, after firms and advisers have begun complying with its provisions, including a requirement to rein in conflicts related to how salespeople are paid.

But Mr. Acosta is wrong on the substance of the rule, which was developed over years of analysis, debate and compromise. It has withstood several legal challenges by industry opponents and it is badly needed. While some financial advisers must adhere to a legal duty to act in a clients best interest, many others face no such obligation. One result is that consumers pay an estimated $17 billion a year in excessive fees because advisers steer them into high-cost products when lower-cost ones are available.

A proposal to rescind the rule also calls the integrity of the Labor Department under Mr. Acosta into question. The fiduciary rule will be on the books while the new rule-making to rescind it is underway. Can the public really believe that the Labor Department will enforce compliance at firms that resist complying?

Mr. Acosta has made no arguments against the rule that didnt come up in the original debate or in court cases against it. The industrys concerns  including a claim that acting in a clients best interest would be unduly burdensome for advisers  have all been considered and were either incorporated into the final rule or rebutted. The courts have said the rule deserves to stand.
Seth Rich died on the night of July 10, 2016. The conspiracy theories were born days later. The process by which these baseless theories about his death snaked from Reddit to Twitter to Fox News illustrates just how thin the membrane has become between the conspiracy world and the mainstream.

Police say that Mr. Rich, a 27-year-old on the staff of the Democratic National Committee, most likely died in a botched robbery. But by July 13, alternate explanations emerged: A site called WhatDoesItMean.com claimed he was on his way to the F.B.I. to testify against Hillary Clinton.

Conspiracy theories help people who feel politically disempowered respond to a perceived loss of control. So it made sense, when Mrs. Clintons win seemed assured, that supporters of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were convinced that Mr. Richs death showed ruthless corruption in the Democratic Party.

Conspiracy theories have been widespread among Americans for years, but they found particular prominence in the 2016 election because many people felt locked out of the process and distrustful of the news media. Mr. Trump, who repeatedly said that the press was dishonest and that the election would be rigged against him, fed and fed off this attitude.
To the Editor:

The Censor and the Vibrator, by Balli Kaur Jaswal (Op-Ed, May 22), criticized how the media is regulated in Singapore.

One can read and see almost anything in Singapore, in private and online. But we treat free broadcasts differently. Singaporeans, like Americans, expect free content to conform to community norms, and to be suitable for viewers of all ages.

Americas norms differ from Singapores, but free content also conforms to standards that regulators deem appropriate for your society.

Just as Americans are offended by wardrobe malfunctions occurring on TV, Singaporean parents object to the broadcast of adult themes like masturbation. Every country regulates its media in accordance with its own social norms. Singapores approach is neither insidious nor unsettling, but a reflection of our own values and social mores.
The remarkable thing about Vice President Mike Pence is that he is not remarkable at all.

Thats one of the first things I learned last December when I arrived in Indiana to report on  lets face it  the next president of the United States. The man takes up very little space, and undoubtedly this was his great appeal to Donald Trump, one of the great oxygen consumers of our time.

Of course, Mr. Pences great appeal to many people now is that he is not Donald Trump. Liberals salivate that Robert Mueller might metaphorically reverse an election they see as stolen by a steak salesman and his Moscow buddies. Conservatives dream of ridding themselves of a nutbag and installing a man who can pursue tax cuts and a few more Justice Neil Gorsuches without the fear of a third world war being started because of something Mr. Trump heard on Infowars.

Still, maybe we should all stop and ponder an actual Pence presidency.

Will the man who reportedly calls his wife Mother and has no temper to speak of usher in an era of ennui after Mr. Trumps reign of trauma? Perhaps, but a Pence nap has its own consequences.

It is possible that we could replace the most flamboyant and flamboyantly unqualified president in history with the most quietly unqualified and unexamined president since Warren Harding. (He has never answered whether he believes in evolution, but the evidence is not encouraging.)
When the American soldier leapt from his helicopter, he was also confronted by a fighting man as well or perhaps better armed than he was. The Vietnamese infantryman wielded the finest of assault rifles  the AK-47. The weapon was the work of a brilliant Soviet firearms designer  Mikhail Kalashnikov. It was fully automatic and rarely jammed, in contrast to the American M-16 rifle, which required constant cleaning to prevent a stoppage. The gallows humor about the AK-47 was that if you dropped it in the mud, you could pick it up, bang it against a tree to clear it, and it would start firing again.

The B-40 rocket-propelled grenade was another product of the Soviet arsenal that the Vietnamese infantryman possessed. Its pineapple shaped warhead at the end of the launcher had formidable blast and fragmentation effect. Nor did the Vietnamese want for any lack of heavier, crew-served machine guns.

It typically took three days of air and artillery bombardment to expose the bunkers by blasting away the trees and other overhead cover. By then the Vietnamese survivors would be gone, carrying most of their dead and wounded with them. Despite all the protection the bunker complexes provided them, the Vietnamese suffered severe casualties. They mitigated their losses to some extent by seizing and holding the initiative. Studies showed that 80 to 90 percent of the time it was the Vietnamese and not the Americans who initiated combat or decided to fight another day. But no one could endure all the violence the Americans could hurl at them and not get hurt. The Vietnamese were, however, prepared to accept these casualties. They were fighting for the reunification and independence of their motherland, while the American soldier served in a half-conscript, half-volunteer army fighting a war of empire thousands of miles from home.

The hill fights, as they were called, unfolded through 1967 as General Giap lured General Westmoreland into one battle after another. The most gruesome occurred in late November 1967 near the outpost of Dak To in northern Kontum Province in the Central Highlands. It became known as Hill 875 after the military practice of naming a battleground for its height in meters. Colonel Jonathan Ladd, known as Fred, the Special Forces commander in Vietnam in 1967 and a friend from earlier years when he had been an adviser to a South Vietnamese infantry division in the Mekong Delta, told me what had happened.

Fred had a camp at Dak To. It suddenly came under mortar fire. The Special Forces were composed then of mountain tribal mercenaries led by experienced and canny Army noncommissioned officers. Fred flew up to Dak To from his headquarters at Nha Trang on the coast and sent out patrols to ascertain the source of the mortar fire. They discovered that the Vietnamese had built another of these man traps on Hill 875 and adjoining ridges. The mortars were a macabre invitation to a fight for the bunker complex. General Westmoreland was in Washington, called home by a nervous Lyndon Johnson to shore up public support for the war that was being eroded by the high casualties. The general urged patience. He was winning. The end begins to come into view, he assured the nation in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

General Westmorelands subordinates knew what he wanted. The 173rd Airborne Brigade was dispatched to Dak To, along with battalions of the Fourth Infantry Division under Maj. Gen. William R. Peers, a respected officer. As soon as Fred briefed him, General Peers announced that he was going to unleash a heliborne assault on the bunker complex. Fred pleaded with him not to do so. For Gods sake, General, dont send our people in there, Fred said. Thats what the bastards want us to do. Theyll butcher our people. If they want to fight us, let them come down here where we can kill them.

General Peers refused to listen, imbued as he was with the Westmoreland doctrine of Find em, fix em, fight em, and destroy em. The paratroops shouted Airborne all the way, as they fought their way up the slopes. Two hundred and eighty-seven of these troopers and infantrymen from the Fourth Division died. More than 1,000 were wounded. And as always, when the fight was over, the Vietnamese disappeared.
When she was a scrawny 11-year-old, Sherry Johnson found out one day that she was about to be married to a 20-year-old member of her church who had raped her.

It was forced on me, she recalls. She had become pregnant, she says, and child welfare authorities were investigating  so her family and church officials decided the simplest way to avoid a messy criminal case was to organize a wedding.

My mom asked me if I wanted to get married, and I said, I dont know, what is marriage, how do I act like a wife? Johnson remembers today, many years later. She said, Well, I guess youre just going to get married.

So she was. A government clerk in Tampa, Fla., refused to marry an 11-year-old, even though this was legal in the state, so the wedding party went to nearby Pinellas County, where the clerk issued a marriage license. The license (which Ive examined) lists her birth date, so officials were aware of her age.
Indian SSB arrests two Nepalis

Indian Seema Surakshya Bal (border security force) on Friday arrested two Nepalis who had gone to bordering Indian market Tikoniya to fetch groceries.
Roxanna was lucky in one regard, however. Dr. Michael Reardon, a leading expert on cardiac tumors, happened to be on staff at Houston Methodist. Because her life was at stake, her surgery and recovery could be covered by Emergency Medicaid. Dr. Reardon explained the extreme risks of the surgery, how it would include a foot-long incision from the top of her sternum all the way down to her pubic bone, cardiac bypass while the surgeons removed the tumor and 30 minutes of cooling to a core body temperature of 68 degrees to avoid brain damage. Roxanna wanted to live. She signed the consent form and on Jan. 6, closed her eyes under the effect of anesthesia.

Though the surgical team successfully removed the tumor, her kidneys failed, and for weeks she remained in a coma and couldnt breathe without a ventilator. The worst complication, however, started as a blister on a toe. The skin started to appear purple and engorged, even mottled. Very quickly, all the flesh from her knees down and from her elbows to fingertips was blanketed in blisters.

She had developed limb ischemia, a rare complication that had arisen from the perfect storm of her cancer, the surgery and a possible allergy to blood thinners, something that not even the best health insurance could have prevented. On Jan. 25, when she awoke from the coma, she found her limbs black and wilted, like charred bone, what in medicine we call dry gangrene.

As far as the doctors could tell, the cancer had been removed, and Roxannas heart was functioning normally. They considered amputating her dead limbs, but her kidneys were still recovering, and so on March 10, they recommended that she return home and allow the gangrenous portions to auto-amputate, a process that could take months. Roxanna held up her once gracious arms. Like a dead branch falling off a tree? she asked.

What could she do now? How could she move forward? The staff at Houston Methodist had performed a herculean feat to save her life, but after her condition switched from acute to non-urgent, they were stuck. The hospital had already gone beyond its Emergency Medicaid allotment. Who would dress her wounds? Who would give her prostheses so that she could work again? Who would take the baton from Houston Methodist and make sure this misfit patient could take care of herself again, the way she always had?

Patients like Roxanna find themselves ping-ponged around with people trying not to care for them, Dr. Reardon says. Its why he suggested that she go to Ben Taub Hospital for her follow-up care. Ben Taub specializes in patients with little means to pay. But it isnt just a hospital. Its part of the Harris Health System, a network that offers an array of services to its indigent patients, including primary and specialty care, even chemotherapy, all at very low cost. Many hospitals can learn from this model.
Our golden-haired leader is no silver-tongued devil, but thats O.K. What he lacks in verbal zingers he makes up for with physical ones.

Body language  both his and that of the pitiable people around him  told the story of Donald Trumps foreign adventure better than anything else.

When I say pitiable, Im thinking about the pope, of course, and the first lady, naturally, but especially Dusko Markovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, who was the visibly stunned victim of the shove heard round the world.

Please tell me you saw it. Markovic, Trump and other heads of state were arranging themselves for a photograph. And Markovic had the misfortune to be standing between Trump and the front of the pack, a lesser beauty in the bossy prom queens path.
To the Editor:

Re Trumps Message to NATO Is Pay Up, Not All for One  (front page, May 26):

I almost had to chuckle at the chutzpah of President Trumps chastising allies for not contributing their fair share to NATO. This from a man who has bragged about not paying taxes because he is smart, and who may not have paid any for years. The hypocrisy is stunning.

When he pays his taxes to support our own government, to which he owes much of his riches because of tax breaks, roads, infrastructure and other government assistance, perhaps he can morally lay claim to his disappointment in others. Until then, his tough posture is laughable.

SHARON RUZUMNA

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WASH.

To the Editor:

President Trump is famous for negotiating, and talk of his wavering commitment to NATO may be a gambit to ensure that our allies pay more to strengthen the alliance. I understand Americans frustration at the view that others are shirking their responsibilities to NATO.

But America should be careful in how it deals with other countries. When President George W. Bush invoked NATOs Article 5 clause to draw the alliance into Afghanistan, Canadians accepted the principles of mutual defense.
Tehran  As President Trump was being feted in the palaces of the Saudi royal family after concluding a historic arms deal, Iranians were celebrating the outcome of a hard-fought election. The vote manifested the determination of Irans electorate to continue on the path of moderation and constructive engagement based on mutual respect that brought the world the nuclear deal in 2015.

If past performance is an indicator of future success, another $110 billion worth of weapons will neither reduce the burden on the American military nor support the long-term security of Saudi Arabia, as the State Department argues. The last time the Saudis spent that kind of money was when they provided billions to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s to arm his war of aggression against Iran. Look what that bought them and the world.

At best, Mr. Trump is extorting our Saudi neighbors, milking them for money they do not have. At worst, he could be turning the United States into Saudi Arabias mercenary in the Middle East, a rather ignominious position for America considering where 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers came from. A security crackdown in Saudi Arabia before Mr. Trumps visit  as well as the Bahraini regimes deadly attack on a sit-in immediately afterward  suggest that the regions despots feel that theyve been given carte blanche to stamp out peaceful dissent.

In other words, something deeply rotten is unfolding in our part of the world.

To avoid the spread of terrorism and militant extremism, responsible leaders in regional and world capitals alike must step up and tackle the momentous challenges at hand. Sword dances and lavish banquets aside, fundamental contradictions must be addressed.
LONDON  The leaking of sensitive information about the investigation into Mondays terrorist attack on the Manchester Arena, including forensic images of bomb apparatus, to United States media caused dismay and anger among British officials. The prime minister, Theresa May, went so far as to raise the issue directly with President Trump when they met at Thursdays NATO conference in Brussels.

To modify George Bernard Shaws maxim, Britain and America appear to be two countries divided less by a common language than by common secrets. While British investigators jealously guard detailed information about their operations, seeking to run their leads to ground before they are exposed to view, their American counterparts seem more willing to put what they know directly into the public domain.

The Anglo-American security relationship has deep roots. Intelligence sharing and cooperation sits at its heart. Forged in history, it has deepened over time through a shared assessment of the threats they face around the world. A key part of this is countering terrorism, a mutual threat that our two countries work closely together to fight. And yet, in fighting it, they have different approaches.
ISTANBUL  When Pope Francis visited Egypt last month, he called on the leaders of the Muslim world to unmask the violence that masquerades as purported sanctity. This was timely: Just a few weeks before, on Palm Sunday, Egypts Coptic Christian community had been viciously hit by suicide bombers enlisted by the so-called Islamic State. That bloody episode was just one of many instances of violence and harassment that Middle Eastern Christians have faced recently. The latest came on Friday, when gunmen attacked a convoy of Copts in Upper Egypt, leaving at least 26 people dead.

The wave of persecution is so severe that some fear it may bring about the end of Christianity in the region where it was born two millenniums ago.

Why is this taking place? And what is to be done?

Some in the West are inclined to see the problem as Islams War on Christianity. For them, a militant faith is trying to eradicate its peaceful rival, and the best response is to fight back.

The reality is much more complex. First of all, while such atrocities come from extreme groups like the Islamic State, most other Muslims  from ordinary people to mainstream religious authorities  condemn them. Some Muslims even actively try to defend Christians, like the female police officers who lost their lives during the Palm Sunday attacks, and the men and women who rushed to mosques to donate blood for the injured. Clearly, what threatens Christians is not Islam but a strain of extremism within it.
Background reading:

Ms. Porters story about Mr. Shieldss quest to die openly and without fear.

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Tragedy struck Manchester, England, on Monday when a bombing at a pop music concert killed 22 people and injured 64, including children. As the investigation into the attack unfolded, details that were passed by the British to U.S. officials were reported by the American news media. First, the attacker was identified: a 22-year-old Briton named Salman Abedi. Next, The New York Times published forensic photos of the backpack, battery and shrapnel used by Abedi in the attack.

After the details were published, the National Police Chiefs Council in Britain called it a breach of trust. And after Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain complained about the disclosures, President Trump directed the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to review the matter regarding the source of the information, saying that, if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Many readers, both in the United Kingdom and the United States, wrote in to complain that The Times should have withheld the forensic information. The public editor addressed the newspapers decision on Thursday.

But several readers had a different concern relating to the coverage, too: that it was not fair to the concerts performer, Ariana Grande, for her name to continue to be featured long after the initial reports were published.

Can we please get Ariana Grandes name off the headlines and lead paragraphs about the Manchester Arena attacks now that the initial coverage has run? She was neither perpetrator nor victim (physically, at least), and doesnt deserve to be linked for the rest of her career (perhaps a long one, given her youth) to a terrorist act. Manchester Arena locates the event quite well and whose concert had just ended has ceased to be especially relevant. Mike McGuire, San Leandro, Calif.

The public editors take: Thats a tough one. Unquestionably, Ariana Grande has been through the worst possible tragedy that a performer, anyone, could endure. Unfortunately, her name in news stories is also a way of signaling the type of young girls that Grandes concerts attract, and that the bomber presumably hoped to target. Hopefully the further we get from the attack the less frequently her name will be mentioned.
But if an old-time air pervades, the neighborhood is also adding massive new towers, courtesy of the Essex Crossing mega-project. With nine sites and 1,079 apartments to be built in phases, the project, from the team of BFC Partners, L and M Development Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, will swell the low-rise areas housing stock.

People looking to move soon might focus on the projects 145 Clinton Street, a 15-story tower designed by Beyer Blinder Belle, where 107 of 211 units will be market-rate. Leasing begins this summer at the building, which is to open in October. In 2018, the Essex Street Market will also get a new 40,000-square-foot home in the project.

Mr. Gannons new one-bedroom on Orchard will be more expensive, at $3,200 a month, than the $2,200 he paid in Williamsburg. But the fact that there is a lot going on in his new neighborhood, he said, compares favorably.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Starting in April 2019, L trains will stop running between Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, but will continue to serve other Brooklyn stops to the east. The L is going offline to allow the repair of century-old tunnels damaged by Hurricane Sandy, a $477 million project.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has not yet announced what kinds of alternative services might be offered, but at least one affected agent says hes optimistic.

The L train will get us to work harder, but it will not beat us, said Andrew Barrocas, the chief executive of MNS, which is about to open a new Williamsburg rental building, the 554-unit Level at 2 North Sixth Place. The building, from Douglaston Development, near the Bedford Avenue L train stop, will probably run shuttle buses to the Marcy stop of the J, M and Z trains, he said.

Renters are not opposed to be taking multiple trains to get to work, Mr. Barrocas added. A lot of them were transferring anyway at Union Square.
For Ms. Paquette, the biggest hit has been to her social life. If you step out at 9 p.m. on a Saturday, theres not a ton going on the way there was in Brooklyn, she said. No longer can she text her friends and immediately meet one somewhere in the neighborhood.

The move has had another significant impact on her life  nearly eliminating her commute. Now, rather than spending two and a half hours a day on subways and PATH trains, she spends about 20 minutes walking to and from the office. Already, Ms. Paquette cooks more at home and has taken on more volunteer opportunities with the company.

Audible didnt decide to help pay the rent because it was concerned workers spent too much time in transit. Yet this unintended consequence may be the one that delivers the biggest impact. Moving a few dozen workers to Newark isnt going to save the city. But reducing commute time could drastically improve a workers quality of life. The hours we spend each day sitting on trains, buses and in our cars contributes to our collective misery. Anyone who has ever had an hourslong commute knows that time spent in transit means less time to do things like go to the gym, hang out with friends or even just pet the cat. Shorten your commute and odds are youll be happier and healthier.

Next to housework, the thing that we most dependably hate about our daily lives is our commute, said Dan Buettner, the author of The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the Worlds Healthiest People (National Geographic, 2015). To virtually eliminate our commute is probably one of the best things Mr. Katz could have done to improve the lives of his employees.

When Amy Garas, 36, the executive assistant to Audibles chief financial officer, entered the housing lottery, she was thinking about the two hours she spent in her car each day driving back and forth from her apartment in Somerset County, N.J. If I didnt work at Audible, I dont know if I would have been so eager to move to Newark, she said. But having a really great commute was a huge selling point.

Since she won a spot in the Hahne building, she has spent time exploring her new surroundings. Among her latest finds: an alcoholic milkshake at the Tops Diner on Passaic Avenue in East Newark. She has a long list of things she plans to do with that extra daily two hours of her life she just got back. Its been more of a game changer than I realized it would be, she said.
Mixed legacy

In honouring the deal to step down, Dahal made a welcome departure from his predecessors
A female and male get together. One thing leads to another, and they have sex. His sperm fuses with her egg, half of his DNA combining with half of her DNA to form an embryo.

As humans, this is how we tend to think of reproduction.

But there are many other bizarre ways reproduction can take place. For instance, scientists have discovered a fish carrying genes only from its father in the nucleus of its cells. Found in a type of fish called Squalius alburnoides, which normally inhabits rivers in Portugal or Spain, this is the first documented instance in vertebrates of a father producing a near clone of itself through sexual reproduction  a rare phenomenon called androgenesis  the researchers reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Wednesday.

The possibility of androgenesis is just one of many mysteries about Squalius alburnoides. Its not a species in the usual sense, but rather something called a hybrid complex, a group of organisms with multiple parental combinations that can mate with one another.

The group is thought to have arisen from hybridization between females of one species, Squalius pyrenaicus, and males of another species, now extinct, that belonged to a group of fish called Anaecypris. To sustain its population, Squalius alburnoides mates with several other closely related species belonging to the Squalius lineage.
Dressed in a baggy T-shirt and dark gray sweatpants, his sleep-tousled hair falling to just above his shoulders, Gabe is sitting up in bed, hunched over his Lenovo laptop, typing away. Within reach are his alarm clock, which went off  as usual  at 5:55 a.m., a recent copy of Time magazine, his iPhone (which he picks up occasionally to check his Twitter feed) and a stack of books he has been reading: Personal History, by Katharine Graham; A Memoir, by Barbara Bush; Front Row at the White House, by Helen Thomas; and Shattered, by Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen, a detailed post-mortem of Hillary Rodham Clintons campaign for president in 2016. (I loved their first book, HRC, but I dont think this one is as good, Gabe said.)

On the walls of his second-floor, 10-by-12 room (smaller than my sisters, he pointed out) are framed articles from Politico (Missouri Sixth Grader May Be Next Mike Allen) and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Fourth Grader Is Political Junkie). Also, copies of the Declaration of Independence and the first page of the Constitution, a photo of Barack Obama and Representative Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, and an eclectic mix of bumper stickers from the 2016 campaign  for Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and even the fictional Frank Underwood among them. (Im going for a complete collection, Gabe said.)

Elsewhere are small busts of several presidents; Gabes passport to the presidential libraries (so far his has visited all but two of the official ones, Reagans and Nixons); a miniature replica of the White House; photos of Gabe, his father and his sister, Zoey, at the 2009 Obama inauguration; and one of a 12-year-old Gabe with the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin after a speech she gave in Chicago that Gabes grandparents took him to.

And everywhere you look, there are books, books and more books  in a free-standing bookcase, on shelves, on the windowsill and even the floor, all about politics or history, from the four-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln by Carl Sandburg to The Audacity to Win by the former Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe (a great book, Gabe said).

In fact, it was Mr. Obamas election as president that set off Gabes interest in politics. At age 7, he and Zoey were taken by their father on a last-minute road trip to the inauguration. (Gabes mother, Amy, the sales director for Caleres, a St. Louis shoe company, stayed home. I dont like to drive, Mrs. Fleisher explained.)
In January, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebooks chief executive, vowed to see America.

My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the U.S. by the end of the year, he wrote on Facebook. My hope for this challenge is to get out and talk to more people about how theyre living, working and thinking about the future.

How, then, has it been going? Well enough, it seems, that the multibillionaire discussed what he learned so far from the trips in a commencement speech at Harvard University on Thursday, writes Mike Isaac, a technology reporter at The New York Times.
WASHINGTON  A federal judge in Virginia on Friday ruled that a man who terrorized this region 15 years ago as the so-called Beltway Sniper must be resentenced because the life sentences imposed when he was a teenager are unconstitutional.

Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Federal District Court in Norfolk, Va., ordered two state courts to hold new sentencing hearings for Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 when he was sentenced in 2002.

Mr. Malvo and an older man, John A. Muhammad, went on a horrific shooting spree in 2002 that left at least 10 people dead in Washington, and in its Maryland and Virginia suburbs. The random nature of the shootings, which spread out over three weeks, amplified the terror; schools kept children inside and people stayed indoors, for fear of becoming the next victims.

Mr. Muhammad was sentenced to death and was executed at a Virginia state prison in 2009. Mr. Malvo was convicted of one count of murder at a trial in Virginia, and also entered into a plea agreement; in both cases he received life sentences without parole.
Berkeley Breathed, the artist who created the comic strip Bloom County, said he just wanted to have a little fun with President Trump.

But not everyone was in on the joke.

Mr. Breathed posted a letter to his Facebook page on Thursday purported to be from a lawyer representing Mr. Trump. The letter, dated May 22, warned Mr. Breathed to stop using the presidents image without permission for commercial exploitation and promotion.

Please note that permission or release of trademark represented by Donald Trump or members of his family have not been granted, nor will they be, the letter said. It said Mr. Breathed would have his (censored word) in a sling before lunch, undoubtedly not a common term of professional legalese, unless Mr. Breathed stopped.

In a follow-up post, Mr. Breathed wrote in a letter of his own that he was just having fun, but would stop using Mr. Trumps image, because while its a good time to make American great again, its not a good time to be sued.
WELLESLEY, Mass.  Hillary Clinton never named him, but she excoriated him.

Speaking at the Wellesley College commencement on Friday, she alluded again and again to Donald J. Trump, the man who defeated her for president. She referred to an assault on truth and reason, criticized Mr. Trumps proposed budget, and drew parallels to Richard Nixon and his ultimate fate: being forced from office under a threat of impeachment.

These days, she said, those in power are discarding reality in favor of inventing their own alternative facts, which, she warned, could lead to the beginning of the end of a free society.

That is not hyperbole, she said. It is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done. They attempt to control reality  not just our laws and rights and our budgets, but our thoughts and beliefs.

The graduates at Wellesley, Mrs. Clintons alma mater, cheered her thunderously and treated her like a returning hero  if not one who had conquered, at least one who in their eyes remained unbowed.
Pentagon officials say the transgender policy, released in October, covers only those on active duty  not new recruits or new officer candidates. Each service, and each service academy, is expected to issue its own guidelines for accessions later this month, so that transgender people may enlist, or enroll in school, beginning July 1. The two cadets are being treated as new officer candidates.

But Brad Carson, a former acting under secretary of defense who is the architect of the transgender policy, said its authors envisioned that the same rules that apply to active-duty service members today would also apply to service academy personnel, because theyre already in the military.

Ms. Dosh put it this way: Why am I different than the numerous transgender officers enlisted who are already currently serving and have been allowed to transition?

Critics of the policy have argued that having transgender people in the armed forces would hurt military readiness; in an opinion piece in The Hill in December, Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group, called on President Trump to rescind the rules.

Mr. Sprigg wrote that the policy might actually make the military a magnet for people seeking gender reassignment at taxpayer expense.
For Democrats, though, the contest pointed to an increasingly heated disagreement over where the party has a realistic chance to win. Party officials in Montana and progressive activists beyond the states borders grew frustrated last month watching outside Republican groups savage Mr. Quist as Democratic groups remained on the sidelines.

After a special House election in Georgia in which the Democrat Jon Ossoff received more than 48 percent of the vote  nearly averting a runoff and demonstrating the extent of voter enthusiasm on the left  Senator Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat facing re-election next year, called Representative Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, the chairman of the House Democratic campaign arm, and implored him to consider spending money on Mr. Quist in the final weeks of the Montana race, according to two Democratic strategists briefed on the call. Mr. Tester also contacted the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, to see if he would carry the same message to the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California.

But House Democratic officials make no apology for their prudence, believing they are more likely to claim the 24 seats needed to capture the House majority in suburban districts with highly educated voters, where anger at Mr. Trump runs high. That includes districts like the one in suburban Atlanta, previously represented by Health Secretary Tom Price, where both parties have poured tens of millions of dollars into a contest that looms all the more consequential after the Democratic defeats in Kansas and Montana.

Even this week, just two days before the Montana vote, Mr. Lujan announced new spending in the Georgia race. And in private, Mr. Lujan was telling other House Democrats that Mr. Quist stood little chance, based on private polls showing Mr. Gianforte with a healthy, consistent lead of about 10 percentage points, according to one of those present at a closed-door meeting of the caucus. After the election was called, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee circulated a memo declaring that it had refused to waste money on hype.

On Friday, Democratic leaders emphasized that Mr. Quist had performed better than the partys past congressional candidates in Montana, apparently benefiting from the enthusiasm of rank-and-file Democrats even as he fell well short of victory. The partys nominees, they noted, are outpacing their predecessors on fairly forbidding terrain, and Democratic voters are participating at higher rates than Republicans, despite being outnumbered in these districts.

But other Democrats acknowledged that they must work harder to make inroads with voters who live far beyond major cities and their suburbs, if they want to pick up seats like the one Mr. Gianforte just captured.
WASHINGTON  Shortly after President Trump took office, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, met privately with his colleagues to discuss the Republican agenda. Repealing the Affordable Care Act was at the top, he said. But replacing it would be really hard.

Mr. McConnell was right.

The many meetings Republicans held to discuss a Senate health care bill have exposed deep fissures within the party that are almost as large as the differences between Republicans and Democrats. Elements of a bill that passed the House this month have divided Republicans.

Mr. McConnell faces an increasingly onerous math problem. He can afford to lose only two Republicans if he is to get a bill through the Senate, and that would require the help of Vice President Mike Pence, who would have to cast the tiebreaking vote. But at least three senators in the party are diametrically opposed to the views of at least another three, so the path to agreement is narrow.

Republicans are roughly split over whether the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act should be rolled back or continued, at least in the short run. They disagree about how the federal government should grant states more control over setting insurance standards.
They ask not what Mr. Kennedy is doing for his country. They ask not anything at all.

Except, occasionally: Whats his name? wondered Nicole Linsalata, a reporter for WSVN in Miami, one of several Capitol regulars to inquire in recent weeks upon seeing a peer in the senators vicinity.

Huh, she said of the answer, absorbing the famous surname. Hes missing the bone structure.

On Twitter, Mr. Kennedys footprint is similarly light. None of the six other senators elected last year has fewer than 11,000 followers. One of them, Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, has 400,000.

Mr. Kennedy clocks in at a cool 3,500 or so, buttressed by efforts to goose engagement recently with an image of him holding a black Labrador retriever puppy.

The calendar has also been unkind. A peculiar election schedule in Louisiana, which did not hold its Senate runoff until more than a month after the presidential contest, left Mr. Kennedy to celebrate his victory long after most of the public had moved on from congressional races.

Still, after several months on the job, Mr. Kennedy insists he prefers an inconspicuous approach, despite an outsize profile back home, where he is invoked as a possible future candidate for governor. A four-plus-term state treasurer who was, until a decade ago, a member of the Democratic Party, he ran unsuccessfully for the Senate twice before the voters were convinced. He replaced Senator David Vitter, a Republican now best known for a 2007 prostitution scandal.

Mr. Kennedys campaign playbook featured ads with folksy touches (I believe that love is the answer, but you ought to own a handgun just in case) and a verbal tic that found him repeatedly expressing displeasure by suggesting he would rather drink weed killer than, say, support the Affordable Care Act. Such flourishes perhaps obscured a resume that includes a degree from Oxford University, a law career and a top position in the administration of former Gov. Buddy Roemer.
Nawalparasi becoming cement hub of Nepal

Cement factories are springing up in Nawalparasi due to favourable investment environment. The district alone houses 5 cement factories running on high capacities. Nepal has a total of 17 cement factories.
ST. LOUIS  The angry, divisive fight over public symbols of the Confederacy has swept through Columbia, S.C., Birmingham, Ala., and New Orleans. This week, the debate made its way some 600 miles north, up the Mississippi River, to St. Louis, the home of a Confederate memorial many residents did not know was in their midst.

Here in a graceful public park stands this citys own grand monument to the Confederacy, a 32-foot-tall granite column adorned with an angel and bronze sculpture of a stoic group of figures. It rises in a thicket of trees, next to a trail teeming with runners, bicyclists and wanderers.

Many residents said that until very recently, they had no idea that the 103-year-old memorial honored Confederate soldiers.

Not till they started making all that hoopla over it, said Larry Randall, 54, who was setting off on a bike ride one afternoon this week in front of the memorial. Ive been coming out here for years. I never paid it no mind.
In American Sign Language, the sign for cochlear implant is similar to the sign for vampire. Vampire is signed with two fingers like teeth to the throat. Cochlear implant is signed with two fingers like teeth behind the ears. The audiologist told me not to sign at all. She said sign language was a crutch that would hinder his speech. When he heard my voice for the first time, his cry was guttural, a stab wound. He was bitten by sound.

The audiologist adjusted the pitch and tuned the levels to make a simulation of sound. She called this process mapping, but there were no guideposts to show the way. How do you chart loneliness? How do you trace a landscape of silence and sound between mother and son?

At home, I wrapped my legs around my toddler and pinned him to the carpet in what looked like a wrestling hold as I tried to keep the processors for his implants on his head. He was crying, and I was crying, and I wondered if my actions could be considered abuse.

He refused to wear the $18,000 sound processors, and his defiance was feral: head butts to my face, kicks, bites. The back of his head smacked against my jaw, and for a moment everything went black. The implant surgery alone had cost $50,000. Auditory verbal therapy was out of pocket, the doctors were out of network. What choice did I have but to force him?

When Helen Keller wouldnt cooperate, her teacher Annie Sullivan used brute force. In The Story of My Life, Sullivan described how teaching obedience to the deaf and blind girl had to precede teaching language. Sullivan compared her work with Keller to housebreaking a dog. She wrote, to get her to do the simplest thing, such as combing her hair or washing her hands or buttoning her boots, it was necessary to use force, and of course a distressing scene followed.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan  The Taliban besieged an Afghan Army outpost early on Friday and during hours of fighting killed at least 15 soldiers and wounded five, officials said, adding to a string of recent attacks in the strategically vital province of Kandahar.

While Kandahar had remained relatively safe over the past few years, even as provinces around it felt the pressure of a Taliban resurgence, the insurgents seem to be focusing again on the province. Kandahar served as the Taliban founders seat of power when the movement controlled Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Officials are reporting an uptick in Taliban attacks in the province since the launch of their new offensive last month, with as many as eight of the provinces districts facing sporadic assaults.

The attack on Friday began around 1:30 a.m. in the district of Shah Wali Kot. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said 15 soldiers were killed and five were wounded at an outpost near Zangitan.
DHAKA, Bangladesh  Under pressure from Islamic hard-liners, the Bangladeshi authorities in the predawn hours on Friday swiftly and quietly removed a sculpture of a woman personifying justice from outside the countrys Supreme Court building.

The statue had been the target of angry, swelling protests by Hefazat-e-Islam, a vast Islamic organization based in Chittagong, which argued that art depicting living beings was proscribed by Islam.

The decision is a substantial victory for Hefazat, and within hours of the statues removal its leaders issued a broader call for statues all over the country to be destroyed or removed from public view. The joint secretary of Hefazats Dhaka city unit, Mujibur Rahman Hamidi, said new statues should not be built or displayed, except within the confines of Hindu temples.

No sculpture can be on the roadside or outside the temple, he said, in a telephone interview. If anyone wants to build any statue outside a temple in the future, the Muslims of Bangladesh will prevent it.
BANGKOK  An eruption of violence in the southern Philippines and suicide bombings in Indonesia this week highlight the growing threat posed by militant backers of the Islamic State in Southeast Asia.

While the timing of the Jakarta bombings and the fighting on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao appears to be coincidental, experts on terrorism have been warning for months that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has provided a new basis for cooperation among extremists in the region.

Setbacks in Syria and Iraq have heightened the importance of other theaters for ISIS, and in Southeast Asia, the focus is the Philippines, said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, based in Jakarta. ISIS supporters around the region have been urged to join the jihad in the Philippines if they cant get to Syria, and to wage war at home if they cant travel at all.

There is no indication that this weeks violence was directed or coordinated by Islamic State leaders in the Middle East. Still, the attacks posed a test for the authorities in the Philippines and in Indonesia, the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation, as they confront like-minded extremists who support the creation of an Islamic state in Southeast Asia.
LONDON  Although the Iraqi military on Friday began leafleting areas of western Mosul still controlled by the Islamic State, warning people to evacuate because an offensive was imminent, the American military is not predicting a speedy resolution to the battle for the city.

Speaking at a news conference in London, Col. Ryan S. Dillon, the American coalition spokesman for Iraq and Syria, would not predict a timeline for the Iraqi military, supported by American advisers and air power, to finally oust the extremists. I am confident they will retake Mosul, he said. This is inevitable. It will happen.

Islamic State militants overran the city of more than one million, as well as other large stretches of the country, over just a few days in June 2014. More than two years later, in October 2016, Iraqi forces trained and advised by Americans and other coalition countries began an offensive to retake the city. Iraqi officials predicted success within a few months, but Islamic State fighters have managed to hold onto important parts of the citys west side, including its historic center.

Colonel Dillon declined to predict whether the Iraqis would retake the city within a year of the start of their offensive.
HONG KONG  In the wake of vigilante attacks and brawls that have shaken Yangon, Myanmars largest and most cosmopolitan city, the countrys religious authorities are ramping up a crackdown on hard-line Buddhist monks who have played increasingly public roles as sectarian provocateurs.

On Tuesday, Myanmars top Buddhist authority, the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, ordered Ma Ba Tha, a prominent group led by ultranationalist monks, to remove its signs around the country by July 15. It also said that no organization would be allowed to operate under the name Ma Ba Tha.

The orders were just the latest moves to clip the groups wings amid fears that it could further destabilize a newly democratic country struggling to shake off the vestiges of military rule.

Ma Ba Thas leaders, however, responded with a defiant shrug.

We are not sure whether we will follow this order or not, said Maung Thawe Chun, a member of Ma Ba Thas Central Executive Committee, echoing public comments by his colleagues this week. If we wish to, we will. If we dont, we wont.
The fighting broke out when government forces moved to capture the leader of an Abu Sayyaf faction, Isnilon Hapilon, after he had been spotted in Marawi this week. But government forces were surprised by the heavy resistance they encountered.

The rebels went on a rampage, burning several buildings and taking hostage a Roman Catholic priest and several parishioners. There was no word on their fate Friday, three days after they were kidnapped.

The fighting has resulted in the deaths of 31 militants, 11 soldiers and two police officers as of Thursday night. The government said at least six of the slain fighters were believed to be foreigners.
SYDNEY, Australia  Hundreds of Australian Aboriginal leaders gathered on Friday at Uluru, a massive sandstone monolith in Australias central desert, to call for a road map to a treaty and to enshrine an indigenous representative body in the Constitution. Around the same time, a new emoji was quietly added to Twitter: the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

The emoji showing both flags together amounts to a small (very small) action, but the digital recognition carries deep significance. Emojis are huge, said Luke Pearson, a digital producer of the indigenous radio unit of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. We use them all day, every day, on so many different platforms. They arent entirely insignificant, because theyve become such a core part of our communications.

The new emoji arrived the same week Australia is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the vote to include its indigenous people in the national census. In a week that includes National Sorry Day and the anniversary of the landmark Mabo case, which dealt with indigenous land rights, the flags amount to a form of recognition that can be easily shared; they become available on Twitter when users include certain hashtags, such as #IndigenousAU, #ReconciliationWeek, or #1967Referendum.

But as Australias indigenous peoples still struggle to overcome more than 200 years of colonization, with a population that is grossly overrepresented in prisons, and that has drastically poorer health and a lower life expectancy than the rest of Australia, does an emoji even matter?
The immigration policy has been broadly embraced by a majority of Canadians. But social scientists say the views expressed by Ms. Leitch could gain traction as the countys demographic shift accelerates. Some polls show support for a values test like the one Ms. Leitch proposes.

The media establishment is very quick to say that what she is doing is un-Canadian, even though they know that on the ground there are many, many Canadians  in the case of some polls, the majority of Canadians  who agree with her, said Ricardo Duchesne, a sociology professor at the University of New Brunswick.

Ms. Leitch, 46, is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who grew up in Manitoba and now represents an Ontario district in Parliament. She has been active in Conservative Party politics since her teenage years and served in two ministerial posts in the government of the Conservative prime minister who preceded Mr. Trudeau, Stephen Harper.

Her national profile crystallized during the 2015 federal election campaign, when she became her partys loudest voice opposing the Liberal Partys stance on immigration. She promised that if her party won, the government would establish an anonymous hotline for reporting forced and underage marriages and practices that had been made illegal by an act of Parliament. Her argument was that members of conservative immigrant communities are otherwise reluctant to go to the police.

The country was already in a heated national debate about the Conservative Partys effort to prevent a Muslim woman from wearing a face-covering veil while swearing the oath of citizenship, and the hotline idea was quickly attacked as a clumsy election-year stunt meant to appeal to anti-immigration voters. Many people believe those two issues cost the Conservatives the election, and Ms. Leitch later said she regretted making the hotline promise.

She has not abandoned her beliefs, however, and now says she is disturbed by immigration targets that are set regardless of immediate economic need and that do not screen out immigrants whose values conflict with Canadian society. As examples, she cites forced marriages, honor killings, genital cutting and other non-Western practices that have made their way into North America from religiously dominated, closed societies around the world.

In Canadian society, men and women are equal, little girls are not forced into marriages, Ms. Leitch said.
Nepalis eager for OBOR implementation

Scholars participating in a discussion programme organised by the Nepal Council of World Affairs said on Thursday that the Nepalis were eagerly looking forward to the earliest implementation of Chinas One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.
President Trump castigated the leaders of NATO allies to their faces during his trip to Europe this week, suggesting that many of them owe massive amounts of money to the alliance. Mr. Trump has a point, but he mischaracterizes the way it works.

What is Mr. Trumps complaint?

NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations, for 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what theyre supposed to be paying for their defense, he said.

Yes and No. NATO has a budget to cover common civilian and military costs, and some NATO-owned assets are also commonly funded when they are used in operations. The United States pays 22 percent of those costs, according to a formula based on national income. None of the NATO allies are in arrears on these contributions.

Mr. Trump is referring imprecisely to a goal NATO has set for each member to spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on its own defense each year. He is correct that only five of the 28 members currently meet that goal, and they are the United States, Greece, Britain, Estonia and Poland.
It remained unclear on Friday night whether a joint statement, if one is issued, would result in a clear commitment by the United States to stay in the accord, or a vague message leaving open the possibility that Mr. Trump could still decide to end American participation in the global agreement.

Andrew Light, who was a senior climate change adviser at the State Department under President Barack Obama, said the other leaders at the summit meeting  representing the G7 members Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, along with the European Union  would go home frustrated if Trump blows this thing up and continues to sit on the fence.

The other leaders confronted Mr. Trump on climate change as soon as he arrived in Europe. White House officials said Emmanuel Macron, the French president, brought the subject up during NATO meetings in Brussels, as did Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister. In Sicily, White House officials braced for what they knew would be a robust discussion of the issue.

The lobbying continued throughout the day on Friday, as the leaders gathered behind closed doors for a series of meetings, luncheons and a dinner, taking a break for an evening concert in the Teatro Antico di Taormina, an ancient amphitheater overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

During one extended discussion on Friday, Mr. Trump listened to the pleas of the other leaders, White House officials said, but reiterated that the environment and jobs were both important to him. He talked about environmental awards he had received and declined to say when he would make a decision on the Paris agreement.

I want to get to the right decision, Mr. Trump told the group, according to Mr. Cohn.

The other leaders were said to be wary of how they spoke to the American president, concerned that they could anger him easily, which could result in his deciding to pull the United States out of the Paris agreement after he returns home.

They are all trying to figure out how do you offer convincing arguments to Trump without him feeling that you are ganging up on him, said Alden Meyer, the director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group.
CAIRO  Dressed in military fatigues, the gunmen waved down the bus filled with Christian pilgrims as it wended its way down a dusty side-road in the desert of western Egypt, headed toward a monastery.

Claiming to be security officers, the gunmen ordered the passengers to get out. They separated the men from the women and children, and instructed them to surrender their mobile phones. They told the men to recite the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith.

When the men refused, the gunmen opened fire.

At least 28 people were killed, several with a single shot to the head, according to the Egyptian authorities and relatives of the victims, several of whom were children. The attack on Friday in Minya Province, 120 miles south of Cairo, was a coldblooded escalation of sectarian violence targeting minority Christians that has left more than 100 people dead since December and shaken the countrys government.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the latest assault. Yet it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State, which in the past six months has dispatched suicide bombers into crowded Sunday services and caused an entire community in northern Sinai to flee their homes in panic.
Video smuggled out of Iraq by an Iraqi journalist and broadcast by ABC News on Thursday appears to show members of an Iraqi special forces unit  one that has been praised by the United States  torturing and executing civilians in Mosul during a campaign against the Islamic State last year.

On Friday, a spokesman for the U.S. military coalition in Iraq and Syria said that it was aware of the journalists claims and had raised them with the Iraqi government.

We take all allegations of human rights abuses very seriously and we immediately, as we did with this particular case, flag that and present it and give it to the government of Iraq for their action, the spokesman, Col. Ryan S. Dillon, said at a news conference in London on Friday.

The disturbing footage appears to show uniformed Iraqi soldiers beating Iraqi civilians and hanging one man from the ceiling by his wrists while demanding they confess to working with the Islamic State. Iraqi officials have called for an investigation into the violence.
Nothing Casual About this Connection: CGA Brings Industrys Brightest Innovators to Singapore

Published May 26, 2017 by Lee R

Casual Gaming is bringing its unique conference format to the world, with the Asia version a resounding success.

The Post-Conference Report indicates that the 40th version of Casual Connect Asia 2017 came off as positively glowing.

Three Days of Networking

Featuring over 120 speakers, non-stop networking and Indie Prize Singapore Winners the three-day international video game industry event hosted by Casual Games Association (CGA) was held at the Singapore Hard Rock Hotel at Resorts World Sentosa.

Over One Thousand Experts

From May 16-18th, over 1,200 industry experts gathered to discuss the hottest trends of the video game industry and network with global business partners, enjoying a broad variety of talks and panels in a full seven tracks of Industry Insights, Growth, Design and Development, Market Navigation, Kids and Family, Social Gaming and Global and Emerging Markets.

Prominent Organisational Representatives

Leading organisational representatives were on-hand to present expertise from leading companies such as Ubisoft, Kamagames, MyTona, Gravity, Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon Asia, Google Play, and YouTube.

Paleevas Pride

Casual Connect Content Development Manager Sasha Paleeva emphasised the casual but professional setting for game industry leaders to meet and discuss topics that matter, while looking forward to hosting Casual Connect Asia in Hong Kong in 2018 and planning to rotate future events to ensure they are even more accessible for developers everywhere.

Indie Prize Program

The CGA-funded international 18th annual Indie Prize scholarship program provided independent developers with a platform for showcasing the new games they developed in a competitive format providing awards to a diverse global array of winners in ten categories of excellence.

List of Winners

The ten winners included:

Best Game Audio - Rhythm Doctor by 7th Beat Games (Malaysia)

Best Game Design - Stifled by Gattai Games (Singapore)

Best Game Art - Lila's Tale by Skullfish Studios (Brazil)

Best Game Narrative - Monster Prom by Beautiful Glitch (Spain)

Best Multiplayer Game - Mushroom Wars 2 by Zillion Whales (Russian Federation)

Best Kids and Family Game - She and The Light Bearer by Mojiken (Indonesia)

Best Mobile Game - Sara Is Missing by Kaigan Games (Malaysia)

Best VR Game  The Wizards by Carbon Studio (Poland)

Most Innovative Game  Stifled by Gattai Games (Singapore)

Best in Show: Audience Choice - Dragon Up: Match 2 Hatch by East Side Games

(Canada)

Conference Series Overview

With two more Casual Connect events slated for this year, Casual Connect Seattle 2017 August 1-3, 2017 and Casual Connect Kyiv 2017 October 24-26, CGA is effectively furthering its mission of bringing together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the gaming field with the best learning and networking opportunities for all gaming professionals.
Capitalism has worked well in various countries over time; in fact, we can say that it once worked quite well in America. But those days are coming to an end and we can conclude that the form of capitalism currently practiced in America is no longer working in the best interests of this country and a large portion of its people.

However, it still works beautifully for those at the top of the income spectrum; the powerful Corporatists who we might say "manage" it and use their power to acquire more and more personal income and wealth. Americans watch with a sense of trepidation as the lion's share of new income generated flows to those at the top, and an increasing number of the American people no longer receive their fair share.

Capitalism; a Love Story, was a hilarious, very cynical portrayal of America's system of capitalism. I thoroughly enjoyed how Michael Moore portrayed the masters of Corporatism. But what was portrayed in that movie is no laughing matter for the many millions of Americans whose quality of life has been greatly diminished over decades because of the way this system has been rigged to work against them.

The beginning of the transformation of the U.S. manufacturing sector from one that utilized the skills of American workers to one now greatly dependent on foreign workers had its roots in the late 1970's and early 1980's when huge corporations such as GE began to move jobs overseas.

GE's CEO Jack Welch strongly argued that corporations owed their primary allegiance to stockholders and not to employees; and that companies needed to seek lower labor costs and maximize their profits wherever such labor was the cheapest. His corporate colleagues quickly embraced that management philosophy.

Mr. Welch showed he had no allegiance to U.S. workers but he still wanted those same workers to be loyal to him and buy the products that GE was producing in other countries. Nothing like being a complete hypocrite is there? That trend in outsourcing jobs continued to escalate in the 1990's and really took off when America made the turn into the 21st Century. America's world class manufacturing system was decimated and has never been the same.

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NRNA Prez Ghale ranked 101st in rich Australian list

Shesh Ghale, president of Non-Residential Nepali Association (NRNA), and his wife Jamuna Gurung have been ranked 101th in the latest list of wealthy Australians.
Reprinted from ourfuture.org

Well, that happened. Pope Francis, who has made his mark with proclamations for social and environmental justice and a humble lifestyle, met the president whose life has been marked by self-indulgence, grandiosity, and greed. Their meeting took place as Donald Trump's administration was releasing a budget that, despite the president's self-proclaimed faith, makes a mockery of Christian teachings.

Contrary to what some might have expected, the universe did not explode in an antimatter fireball when these two opposites finally came together. Although they exchanged strong words during Trump's presidential campaign -- among other things, the Pope said Trump was "not a Christian" -- the tone of their meeting was civil. Nevertheless, the Pope's dissatisfaction was in plain view.

The Pope was polite enough to refrain from quoting Matthew 20:26 in today's meeting: "Whoever wants to be great among you must first be your servant "" But Francis did find ways to signal his dissatisfaction, starting with his facial expression. There must be days when even the Pope hates his job.

Then there was this initial exchange, as reported by the press pool:

"" the pope and the president were seated across from each other at the pope's wooden desk. POTUS told the pope 'it's a very great honor.' The pope did not say anything. He did not smile. He looked at pool several times. We were quickly ushered out ""

The Pope's attitude could most clearly be seen, however, in the gifts he gave Trump: Evangelii gaudium, his condemnation of capitalist economics; Laudato si, his environmental encyclical, and Amoris laetitia, an exhortation on the family that calls upon governments to provide a strong safety net for economically struggling households.

The Pope said this in 2015 in Bolivia: "A just economy must create the conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy a childhood without want, to develop their talents when young, to work with full rights during their active years and to enjoy a dignified retirement as they grow older."

How well does Trump's budget meet that standard? It slashes after-school programs for kids, labor protections for working people, and Meals on Wheels for seniors.(It also slashes life-saving science research, agricultural funding, food inspection, and clean drinking water.

Trump's budget includes massive cuts to both Medicaid -- more than $800 billion -- and Social Security ($72 billion), despite his promises not to cut either program. So much for "Thou shalt not lie."

It's a rich man's budget. It was crafted by far-right Republicans like Trump Budget Director Mick Mulvaney Republicans and HHS Secretary Tom Price, although "far-right Republican" is a redundancy in today's GOP and the predator-oligarchs who seem to comprise the rest of the Trump presidential team.

The budget is entitled, "A New Foundation for American Greatness." The White House budget promises extraordinary economic growth, something Trump thinks will happen as "we unleash the power of private sector job creation."

Francis nailed that kind of thinking in Evangelii gaudium when he wrote:

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The weather forecast was for a very hot day -- ninety degrees. Regardless, I wanted to witness an on the ground action by Rise and Resist, a group active in response to the election of Donald Trump. (Full disclosure: I am a member of a New York Indivisible group.)

While the rest of the country is dealing with the daily breaking news of "Trumpland," New York State has its own political drama which is picking up steam.

It's all about Albany politics, specifically the State Senate. Eight elected Democrats have joined a group called the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC). Under the tutelage of State Senator Jeffrey Klein, they have formed a coalition with Republicans.

With the arrival of Trump's agenda, voters are getting more tuned in to government at every level. The IDC, previously under the radar, now finds itself scrutinized, both by a newly energized electorate and New York newspapers.

The location of the protest was listed as being at Klein's Bronx office, 1250 Waters Place, located in the Hutchinson Metro Center. Rather, it was on a two-way street at the foot of the entrance to the large, gated complex.

I didn't see demonstrators when I arrived, and wondered if I were in the right place. The first thing I saw suggesting I was in the correct vicinity was a large truck. It sported the message, "Laborers Support New York State Senator JEFFREY KLEIN." In small print was the acknowledgement, "Paid for by New York State Laborers PAC."

I finally spotted a gaggle of people. They were behind a barricade that had a blue banner with a photograph of Klein. Many of the men had signs or shirts identifying them as belonging to the Transport Workers Union Local 100.

I engaged in conversation with a woman giving directives. She was from Klein's office, but declined to give me her name. She informed me the people in attendance were part of a community rally, because Klein supports efforts to fix the Tier 6 Bill. "John Samuelson [TWU Local 100 President] supports the IDC," she said. "Labor issues, working people, retirement - are all one and the same." When I pressed her on whether the IDC had been preventing legislation that would help most average New Yorkers she replied, "It's news to me."

Bronx Community Board 11 member, Marcy Gross, was anxious to share her enthusiasm for Klein. "He supports progressive issues as well as old-school issues," Gross told me emphatically. "He supports unions." Without missing a beat, she suggested, "He should run for President!"

I was given a flyer, a list of suggested chants. "Jeff Klein is on our side," and "The IDC fights for me," seemed to be favorites. A man yelled out, "There's nobody more honest than Jeff Klein."

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Protesting against Donald Trump

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After four enervating months of Donald Trump's presidency, Americans have seen four different sides of Trump.

Trump the politician: We've seen a lot of the same Donald Trump we saw during the 2016 political campaign. Trump the Tweeter. Trump the media basher. Trump the braggart. Trump the liar...

There's no indication that Trump's move into the Oval Office has changed him. If anything, he seems more insular. So far, Trump's presidency has been characterized by scandals, such as the hiring and firing of Michael Flynn, and unprecedented disapproval. Trump has responded by retreating into the White House (or Mar Al Lago) and firing off angry tweets. (The worst job in Washington is being a member of the White House press corps.) The only time Trump seems happy is when he's giving his occasional campaign speech to the Trump faithful. (Who, so far, have stuck with him.)

Trump the manager. During the presidential campaign, we got a glimpse of Trump's managerial style: he burnt through three campaign managers and preferred the advice of his family -- particularly daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared -- to that of seasoned political operatives. Once in the White House, Trump's managerial shortcomings have become more obvious.

His primary criteria for hiring is not "can they do the job" but instead "are they loyal to me." He stuck with Michael Flynn way much longer than he should have because Flynn was loyal. Trump fired James Comey because Comey would not pledge loyalty to Trump (and because Comey would not reign in the investigation of Russian collusion in the election.) As a result of Trump's hiring bias, the White House is understaffed and those that stand by Trump's side are, for the most part, in over their heads. In general, the Trump Administration lags far behind other presidential administrations in the number of political appointees.

Trump voters like him because he seems authentic: a guy who "shoots from the hip" and is not harnessed by Washington convention. Trump shoots randomly. He has no impulse control. Day-to-day there's no coherent Trump strategy.

There's an old joke about Dwight Eisenhower's decision-making style: "He was most influenced by the last person he talked to." That seems an apt characterization for Trump's decision-making process: he seems to change his mind from day-to-day. For example, he was for the House Republican healthcare bill, then he was against it, and then he was for it. Trump disparaged China's economic policies until he met Xi Jinping, then he decided he liked China's policies. Trump will tell his communication staff to respond to an allegation in a certain manner and then he'll tweet something different. Trump has no consistency -- other than attacking the investigations into collusion with the Russians.

Trump the Party Leader: By virtue of his presidential victory, Trump is also the leader of the Republican Party. This means he sets the Party's legislative agenda and ensures that Republican politicians are elected in 2018.

Trump's legislative agenda is not going well. He promised to repeal Obamacare and, so far, this hasn't happened. He promised to build a wall along the Mexican border and this, to say the least, is off to a slow start.

Trump and Congressional leaders seem to have agreed on a four-step plan: repeal Obamacare, enact massive tax cuts, reduce entitlements, and pass an infrastructure bill. While all of these have been discussed, the relevant legislation has been slow to take form. Part of this is due to confusion in Congress, where Republican leaders in the House and Senate are not on the same page. But much of the responsibility lies with Trump. He's not a hands-on policy guy and hasn't shown interest in pushing anything other than a big concept, such as "a terrific healthcare plan."

Theoretically, Trump's other responsibility is to ensure that Republican continue their control of the House and Senate. Trump pays lip service to this job but in fact hasn't done much; he's a lone wolf and not a team player.

Trump the ideologue: When he was running for President, Trump didn't seem particularly ideological, except on the issue of immigration. He often struck a populist tone in his campaign speeches. Nonetheless, as President Trump has taken an extremely conservative stance.

Once Trump gained the support of Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who had been Cruz supporters, many predicted that he would adopt the Cruz position on cutting government spending by eliminating the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and the Internal Revenue Service. (The Mercers are also in favor of eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency.)

So far, Trump hasn't proposed eliminating these Departments but he has appointed right-wing zealots to run them: Wilber Ross (Commerce), Betty de Vos (Education), Rick Perry (Energy), Ben Carson (Housing and Urban Development), and Scott Pruitt (Environmental Protection Agency). In his just-released budget, Trump proposes dramatic decreases in each agency budget .

Summary: Trump the leader is what we expected: a petulant showboat. Trump the manager is worse than we expected. Trump the Party leader is actually hurting the Republican Party. Unfortunately, Trump the ideologue threatens to do grievous harm to the environment and the least fortunate Americans.


human with roots

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The answers I promised in the first installment related mostly to the problematic aspect of the human world. I spoke more about the problem of evil than about the good, about brokenness more than wholeness, about the torment of history more than about the potential for joy and fulfillment in human lives.

And the one particularly fleshed-out piece of this Big Picture of the human story that I identified was about the force of brokenness that has become ascendant in America in these times.

My placing such emphasis on brokenness is, in some ways, fitting to what I've been about. For throughout most of the past half century, I've focused much less on the good, the true and the beautiful than on the evil, the lie, and the ugly.

Whatever that focus says about me -- that I'm oriented toward problem-solving, that (being but two generations removed from pogroms) I scan the horizon for potential disasters, that I yearn for the world as it should be -- the "integrative vision" I am offering can also illuminate the positive side of the value spectrum.

So in the previous installment, I sought to establish -- by showing how the evolutionary process naturally and even inevitably leads to the "emergence" of value based on the fulfillment experienced by sentient creatures -- the foundation for that positive side of value. And in this installment, I want to build a bit on that foundation.

*********************

In the saga of our species, as I said previously, the pattern of wholeness comes first, before the unleashing of brokenness, as natural selection crafted us to orient to what serves life and what, therefore, we by nature will find fulfilling.

It is in that context, that I'd like to introduce here another component of our human story -- very different from the pattern of brokenness we are dealing with in America in these times -- that I've lately been focusing on.

I call it "The Sacred Space of Lovers."

For more than a year, I've turned my attention in that direction because -- feeling depleted, even damaged, from looking so long into our national "heart of darkness" -- I craved a chance to look at something in our lives worth celebrating.

And what in life is more worth celebrating than the kind of "space" that lovers can create to inhabit together. A space, ideally, of open-hearted intimacy of body and soul, of romantic passion and deep attachment.

How much is there in life that brings greater fulfillment than experiencing -- to whatever degree one finds it possible to achieve it -- that kind of space with one's beloved?

*****************************

As a project, "The Sacred Space of Lovers" will mostly be developed separately from this series.

One aspect of the project that will be developed separately, for example, is a practical, how-to dimension.

To some extent, that "sacred space of lovers" is something that can just happen. (Falling in love, etc.) But it turns out that to an important degree, it is possible for lovers to build more of this "sacred space" for them to inhabit together.

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Bernie Sanders

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The budget introduced this week by the Trump administration constitutes nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor to the top 1%.

It follows in the footsteps of the Trump-Ryan health care bill, which gives massive tax breaks to the people on top, while throwing 24 million Americans off of their health insurance and dramatically raising premiums for older workers.

At a time when the very rich are already getting much richer while the middle class continues to shrink, this is a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country.

This is a budget that says that if you are the richest family in America, you will get a multi-billion-dollar tax break through the repeal of the estate tax. But, at the same time, if you are a lower income senior citizen you will not be able to get the one nutritious meal a day you now receive through the Meals on Wheels program or the help you desperately need if you have a disability and are trying to survive on a $1,200 a month Social Security check.

This is a budget that says that if you are the second-wealthiest family in America -- a family that has contributed many hundreds of millions to the Republican Party -- billions are also coming your way. But if you are a working-class student trying to figure out how you could possibly afford college, your dream of a college education could evaporate because of more than $143 billion in cuts to student financial assistance programs.

This is a budget which offers you tax breaks if you are a member of the Trump family, but if you are a child of a working class family you could well lose the health insurance you currently have through the Children's Health Insurance program and massive cuts to Medicaid. At a time when we remain one of the only major countries on earth not to guarantee health care to all, this budget makes a bad situation worse in terms of health care.

When Donald Trump campaigned for president, he told the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, one who would take on the political and economic establishment, stand up for working people, and consider the pain that families all over this country were feeling.

Sadly, this budget exposes all of that verbiage for what it really was -- cheap campaign rhetoric that was meant to get votes.

During the campaign, candidate Trump tweeted: "I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid." But it wasn't just a tweet. It was a cornerstone of his campaign.

On April 18, 2015, Trump said: "Every Republican wants to do a big number on Social Security, they want to do it on Medicare, they want to do it on Medicaid. And we can't do that."

But now that he is President, Donald Trump has proposed a budget that would cut Social Security for people with severe disabilities, raid Medicare and gut Medicaid by more than a trillion dollars over the next decade. He has put his name on a budget which will make it harder for our children to get a decent education, harder for working families to get the health care they desperately need, harder for families to put food on the table, harder to protect our environment, and harder for the elderly to live out their retirement years in dignity.

Let's be clear about something else: the economic theory President Trump has embraced with this budget, trickle-down economics, is an abysmal failure and a fraud.

Since Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush slashed taxes on the wealthy and deregulated Wall Street, trillions of dollars in wealth have been redistributed from the middle class and working families to a handful of millionaires and billionaires.

Today, we have more wealth and income inequality than at any time since the 1920s. The top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The Trump budget would make a bad situation worse by widening that gap with its trillions of cuts to social programs and gifts to the top 1%.

Trump's budget is not a moral budget and it must be soundly defeated.
In this essay, I explore the half-buried history of the creation of the CIA, the muscle of the Deep State whose heart beats to keep alive the predatory grasp of Wall St.



From flickr.com: .Glorious Victory., Diego Rivera

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The great irony of this history is that the man most responsible for creating the Deep State is honored today as a "decent" man who warned us of the dangers of the Military/Industrial Complex, while creating a secret army disguised by the mantle of intelligence gathering and who threatened both the Soviet Union and China with nuclear war unless they submitted to his demands, after building up the US nuclear arsenal to back up these threats.

This history takes us beneath the myth of "I Like Ike". I once liked him before I learned the real history behind his Lorelei propaganda tunes. Stripping away the mythology, we find the intensification of the Cold War that Truman started when he nuked two Japanese cities after Japan (as Eisenhower and all the top brass told Truman) had sued for peace and was no longer able to fight. We also find the nuclear arms race that since the late 40's has created the nightmare (I literally grew up with nightly nightmares about a nuclear attack and at age 10 joined a civil observation mission which scanned the skies of my remote desert town for signs of Commie aircraft) that we call, hoping that all nuclear powers will always have rational leaders, MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. It would take only one mad leader, and the world today has several, to make of MAD an illusion. Today, there are two leaders who have threatened to use nuclear weapons in a first strike: Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump.

But the doctrine of a first strike (after Truman's war crimes) goes back to the beloved general and President, Dwight Eisenhower. This essay will trace the parallel creation of the Deep State (or Shadow Government) and the rise of the Doctrine of First Strike of Nuclear weapons.

When Eisenhower ran for President, having told Truman that nuking Japan was militarily unjustified and a huge mistake, he ran as a peace candidate. Like Donald Trump, who also put on the peace mantle, he hid beneath his costume a plan to cut conventional defense by replacing it with nuclear weapons and using them to bully our "enemies," which under the Eisenhower Doctrine were not only the Communist nations but any nation that dared declare itself neutral ("swimming between two reefs") or independent.

The nuclear build up under Eisenhower, disguised as a reduction in defense spending (spending did go down as nuclear production skyrocketed), was used to threaten China and the Soviet Union, and the Deep State, under the Dulles brothers, whom Eisenhower selected to create the modern CIA as a paramilitary force used to assassinate and conduct covert wars, and to design US policy of hegemony backed up by nuclear superiority, thus became the secret muscle behind the heartbeat not only of US domination but of the Wall St interests that the Dulles brothers represented.

Thus the Deep State, rooted in the desire to conduct secret wars to protect US corporate interests, was backed up by the buildup of nuclear capacity which was used to intimidate the other major powers that were seen, despite evidence to the contrary, as threats to US security. What was really at stake was not the national security of the US but the corporate interests of Wall St, Big Oil, and the Military/Intelligence/Industrial Complex that Eisenhower is famous for having warned us about. The truth is, he created both the doctrine of opposition to all alternatives to capitalistic rule and US control and the nuclear muscle to support it, as the sinews of the Deep State, anchored in the Dulles CIA, to protect US hegemony and, to identify it in economic terms, US financial and corporate interests.

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by Franklin Lamb

Palmyra, Syria, May 23, 2017:

On any given Monday morning, at approximately 7:30 a.m. a car carrying highly trained archeologists and two Palmyra National Museum security guards, on weekly rotation, departs the Homs, Syria HQ of Syria's Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) along the previously dangerous 160 km Homs-Palmyra road east to Palmyra (Tadmor), the site of wanton destruction the past few years. Caused in the main by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists who insist that non-Islamic archeological sites offend God who apparently abhors any possible idolatry-if indeed that is what preserving our global culture heritage for those who follow us amounts to. "It's both propagandistic and sincere," says Columbia University historian Christopher Jones, who has chronicled the damage on his blog . "They see themselves as recapitulating the early history of Islam." Simultaneously, ISIS uses looting as fundraisers for military operations.

Since 2015, DGAM archeologists' travel to Palmyra has sometimes been curtailed and the route closed by the Syrian army given that the area just to the north and south of the highway harbored jihadists camped deep under the vast desert in tunnels as well as dug into nearby hillsides with heavy weapons. On 5/23/2017 the Syrian army informed this observer that ISIS forces have now been pushed back some 50 km into the desert northeast of Palmyra and no longer pose a threat to those visiting the ruins area. Moreover, this past month Syrian troops, seeking to expand a buffer zone north of the Homs-Palmyra highway have advanced on ISIS positions in the same area with intermittent clashes between the Syrian Army (SAA) and ISIS units ongoing. Consequently, an invitation from DGAM for this observer to join the group and again visit Palmyra, one of 300 of Syria's 10,000 archeological sites damaged and/or looted since the spring of 2011, was most welcomed.

Syria's current work at Palmyra includes conducting updated assessments of damage by ISIS during their second occupation of the ancient city which lasted for ten weeks between December 11, 2016 and March 2, 2017. Fortunately, this month's Syrian government assessment shows that ISIS damage at Palmyra is limited to the central part of the facade of the Second Century theater and to the columns of the Tetrapylon, with no new damage to the Tomb of the Three Brothers, Temple of Bel, Temple of Nebo, Camp of Diocletian, the Straight Street, Agora and other monuments. Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's director of antiquities, who had already arranged the transport of some 800 of the ancient statues and artifacts in Palmyra's museum to Damascus and elsewhere for safe-keeping explained: "This time, they don't seem to have damaged Palmyra as badly as we feared."



Photo: fplamb 5/23/2017. ISIS substantially leveled most of the Tetrapylon Tetrapylon a group of raised pillars signaling a crossroads, with only four of 16 columns still standing and leaving the stone platform now covered in rubble.

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ISIS substantially leveled most of the Tetrapylon Tetrapylon a group of raised pillars signaling a crossroads, with only four of 16 columns still standing and leaving the stone platform now covered in rubble. But again, ISIS failed to remove or pulverize the chunks of the columns such that the Tetrapylon will be relatively easily restored. ISIS also left behind most of the rubble at other sites during its first occupation. This means that approximately 80% of Palmyra's antiquities are in fairly good condition and 15% of those more heavily damaged also can and will be restored.

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Rebel Wilson is in Melbourne expressly to sue the Laura Ashley pedal-pushers off Bauer Media, a.k.a. the jerks responsible  she says  for her career taking a nosedive in 2015.

Wilson told the court today that after a series of articles painting her as a serial liar were published in the Bauer glossies Womans Day, New Weekly, OK Magazine and Womens Weekly, she was fired from Dreamworks production Kung Fu Panda 3  after shed finished recording her entire part.

The ABC reports her saying:

I was called in in July 2015 [] and Id already finished the whole movie [] and I believed I was just coming in to do a few additional lines.

Rebel says after recording part in Kung Fu Panda 3 she was sacked and replaced with Kate Hudson amid firestorm over Womans Day article. pic.twitter.com/6v8duhGWA0  Shannon Deery (@s_deery) May 25, 2017

She said that Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks chief executive, told her unfortunately youre just now too divisive to be in this movie, its a family movie.

I was just absolutely shocked and blindsided [] I didnt even know what to say, I was just extremely embarrassed. The director and producers had said theyd loved my improvisation so much that it reminded them of when Robin Williams recorded. I believe Mr Katzenberg was referring to the negative press  thats the only thing I can think of.

Wilson was replaced by Kate Hudson, but not before her voice had featured in one of the films early trailers.

The defamation case is alleging that Bauers articles meant that Wilson lost a number of jobs after they said that she lied about her age and other aspects of her life.

The trial is expected to continue for the next two weeks.

Source: ABC.

Image: Michael Dodge / Getty.
Obstructed, House unable to thank President for address

The obstruction of Legislature-Parliament session by opposition lawmakers immediately after President Bidya Devi Bhandari presented the governments annual policies and programmes on Thursday foiled the House agenda of passing a vote of thanks to the head of state.
PokerNews Podcast 445: Crushing Ladies Events and Tony Dunst Joins

May 25, 2017 PokerNews Staff

This week's #PNPOD starts with Matthew Parvis congratulating Sarah Herring on her ladies event victory at the 888Live event in Barcelona last week. Herring shares her strategy, where the more wine she drank, the more fearless she became at the table. Parvis and Herring then made some bold World Series of Poker predictions, with Parvis picking Sarah Herring as his darkhorse Player of the Year candidate.

Tony Dunst joined the show at around the twenty-minute mark to discuss his exciting new role with the WPT, what he's learned from Mike Sexton over the years and much more.

You can subscribe to the PokerNews podcast on iTunes here, or you can access the RSS feed here. The PokerNews Podcast family of podcasts is now available on audioBoom.
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A hot new record from indie hip-hop artists, Deuce Ellis and Brent Butler dropped today, and we've got the exclusive!

Lightning in a bottle - Deuce Ellis and I dropped #DarkCloud today!... https://t.co/5cH3yV2eIJ

 Brent Butler (@BrentBButler) May 26, 2017

You may know Brent from his appearances on PopDust Presents, or our coverage of singles like "When Wolves Attack" and "Hard To Be You" (released with Cold Press co-frontman Deascent). For those of you meeting Deuce Ellis for the first time, prepare to fall in love. Known for his artistically-eclectic, visually-entrancing, and spiritually-uplifting performances, Ellis had just walked off stage in Brooklyn when Matt O, founder of Upcoming HipHop, introduced him to the self-proclaimed "Zack Morris of Rap."

"It was instant chemistry," recalls Brent. "Deuce has such a laid back vibe and loving spirit, you can hear it in his verse... I'm nowhere near as chill, so his energy is the perfect balance."



Deuce meeting Brent at The Flat in Williamsburg, after performing, late 2014.

Over the next few months the artists shared the bill at local shows, festivals, community events, and secret art parties. That summer, Deuce traveled to Atlantic City to act in "The Dunning Man," an independent film for which Brent Butler was served as co-producer and music supervisor. Soon after wrapping on set, Deuce departed on a year-long journey into the pacific islands, meditating in nature and writing his next album. When he decided to return to mainland it was the movie that brought the two together once again, as Brent was attending the 2017 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA. Deuce rerouted a flight initially destined for Los Angeles, landed in San Francisco, and literally went directly from the airport to the movie's world premiere screening. Eager to take advantage of the reunion, Ellis and Butler transformed their Air BnB (shared also at that time with rapper and longtime collaborator, Deascent) into a recording studio.

The first fruit of that week-long session is "Dark Cloud" an eerie and provocative recollection of the artists' trials, travels, and triumphs during their time apart, including a car accident Ellis survived in Hawaii only a few weeks earlier. The overarching message: stay strong and "never let a dark cloud follow you around."

Photo of Deuce's car, struck by a driver running a red light in Hawaii

Today Deuce Ellis is in the mountains of Colorado, preparing for the release of "An Electric Ride." Brent Butler is NYC working on a solo album of his own (currently untitled) with engineer and producer Craig Levy of Little Pioneer Cider House.

Brent Butler with Craig Levy at Little Pioneer (Soho, NYC) Photo by Lauren Renahan

He continues to perform with Deascent and their live band, The Cold Press, named after their conceptual EP released the same week Brent and Deuce met in Atlantic City.

Catch The Cold Press live at Pianos on July 2nd and make sure to download and share Dark Cloud and let Deuce and Brent know what you think on Twitter.

@DeuceEllis

@BrentBButler
I Chalan Mona

One of my greatest joys is being a parent to two wonderful kids. I must admit that raising my toddler son gives me some anxiety. Raising him o Read morePondering CHamoru manhood
Panel tasked to suggest appropriate modality

The government has been working to determine the most appropriate modality for the construction of the planned airport in Nijgadh, Bara. It has constituted a five-member committee to recommend whether the modern facility should be built with public or private financing or both.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 13:23:01

Digi Communications NV (Former Cable Communications Systems N.V.) Announces Investor Call on The 2017 1st Quarter Results

For Digi Communications NV

Serghei Bulgac

Phone no: +4031 400 4444

ipo.relations@digi-communications.ro

investor.relations@rcs-rds.ro

Digi Communications N.V. ("Digi" or the "Company") announces that on May 30, 2017 (at 17:00 UKT/19:00 EEST) it will host a conference call to discuss the 2017 1st quarter results.

To participate in the conference please follow the instructions from the official websites designated of Digi: http://investors.rcs-rds.ro and www.digi-communications.ro (Investor Relations Section).

A webcast of the call and the presentation materials will be available on our official websites at www.digi-communications.ro (Investor Relations Section) and http://investors.rcs-rds.ro.

The webcast will be archived for 30 days.

About Digi Communications NV

Digi is the parent holding company of RCS & RDS, a leading provider of pay TV and telecommunications services in Romania and Hungary. In addition, RCS & RDS provides mobile services as an MVNO to the large Romanian communities living in Spain and Italy.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201705260052
PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 01:35:11

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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for EVITRADE Health Systems Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - EVITRADE Health Systems Corp. (CSE:EVA). has issued a press release with the following headline:EVITRADE Health Announces distribution of Eviana Health SharesTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on EVITRADE Health Systems Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/EVITRADE Health Systems Corp.Source: EVITRADE Health Systems Corp. (CSE: EVA, OTCQB: AXHLF)Date: May 25, 2017Time: 7:35 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of EVITRADE Health Systems Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
Mechanical Keyboard Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016 - 2020 Research Report By Future Market Insights

Global Mechanical Keyboards Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 07:01:57

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616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531

Mechanical keyboards will continue to witness stellar demand, owing to their growing application in PC gaming. Global revenues are anticipated to reach US$ 637.3 Mn in 2016.New PC games continue to lure consumers, fuelling higher demand for mechanical keyboards compared to membrane keyboards globally. While enhanced features of mechanical keyboards, such as improved response time and tactility will continue to foster demand, their high cost can pose challenges to widespread adoption. Declining sales of desktop PCs will also have a restraining effect on global mechanical keyboard market.By application, gaming segment will remain dominant, accounting for over 50% revenue share in 2016. Demand for mechanical keyboards from the gaming segment is anticipated to remain strong in North America and Europe. The gaming segment accounted for a market share of nearly 67.1% in Europe in 2015, and is anticipated reach a value of US$ 321.5 Mn in 2016.Ask For Report Sample @ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1764 Region-wise, North America and Europe are estimated to be the largest markets for mechanical keyboards, collectively accounting for more than 70% of the marketplace in revenues, in 2015. North America is anticipated to lead the market with over 40% of the total market revenues, followed by Europe. The U.S. will dominate the N. American market, with over 90% of the revenue share. Growing inclination of European manufacturers toward adoption of technologically advanced products is expected to create a lucrative market for mechanical keyboards in 2016.Demand for mechanical keyboards for gaming is strong in Europe, whereas whereas the office and industrial segment account for bulk of the demand in Asia Pacific and other emerging regions.Ask For More Information @ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-1764 Some of the major mechanical keyboard players include Logitech International S.A., Razer Inc., Corsair Components Inc., Roccat Studios Inc., SteelSeries ApS, Bloody (A4tech Co Ltd.) and Rapoo Corporation (Shenzhen Rapoo Technology Co.) Some of the major switch manufacturers include ZF Friedrichshafen AG  Cherry, Kaihua Electronics Co. Ltd., OMRON Corporation, Trantek Electronics Co. Ltd.  TTC, and Huizhou Greetech Electronics Co. Ltd.Long-term Outlook: Global mechanical keyboard market is projected for twofold growth during the forecast period 20162020 to reach US$ 656 Mn, registering a double digit CAGR of 17.9%. Global mechanical keyboard consumption is expected to increase at a CAGR of 16.9% over 20162020.
Vapour Recovery Units Market:Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026 Research Report By Future Market Insights

Vapour Recovery Units Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 06:51:03

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Environment pollution legislation will continue to drive the adoption of vapour recovery units, especially in developing regions. Rising awareness on reducing the impact of pollutants, combined with regulatory pressures on providing workers with safer working environments will continue to influence installation decisions. Potential economic benefits of installing vapour recovery units are expected to drive adoption; however, high initial costs can impede growth. The prevailing oil crisis in the Middle East is expected to have a ripple effect on the global vapour recovery market, with global revenues declining to US$ 471 Mn in 2016, down from US$ 481 Mn in 2015. The long-term outlook on the market remains positive, with the global market expected to increase at a moderate CAGR of 3.2% during the forecast period 2016-2026.North America, the largest market for vapour recovery units, will witness further proliferation of compressor-based VRU; however, the market will continue to have a low presence of players engaged in distribution of VRU at downstream process. John Zink, AEREON and ZEECO are key players in the production and distribution of VRU at downstream process.Ask For Report Sample @ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-993 VRU installations will continue to increase at a steady rate in Europe. While the current oil crisis will negatively impact the market in Middle East, the market will grow moderately in the long run. Asia Pacific and Latin America will witness moderate growth, and like North America, compressor-based VRUs will witness steady demand.VRU installations will continue to remain higher in upstream process vis-a-vis downstream process. Increasing preference for VRUs over flare gas recovery technologies will continue to impact VRU installations for upstream processes. The upstream process will continue to account for leading revenue share of the global vapour recovery unit market. By application, storage tank vents will continue to account for leading market share at upstream, whereas marine loading will remain a key application segment at downstream process. By end-use, oil & gas will remain the most attractive sector for VRU manufacturers and distributors, followed by brewery & food processing.Ask For More Information @ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-993 Key market participants covered in the report include Hy Bon/EDI, PSG Dover, AEREON, Petrogas Systems, John Zink Company, LLC, Cimarron Energy Inc.,Wintek Corporation, Accel Compression Inc., Whirlwind Methane Recovery Systems, LLC.
Guyana GoldStrike Inc. (GYA.V) is a Canadian based junior gold producer focused on the exploration, development and operation of the Marudi Mountain Mining License in Guyana, South America.

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 20:52:19

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1846 Nelson stOwner604 569 1801David Joseph Joseph6046199192

Reports 960,000 Ounces of Gold at Marudi Gold ProjectGuyana GoldStrike Inc. ( GYA.V) is a Canadian based junior gold producer focused on the exploration, development and operation of the Marudi Mountain Mining License in Guyana, South America.About the Marudi Gold ProjectThe Marudi Gold Project, a fully permitted mining license consisting of approximately 13,500 hectares, is located 230 Km from the town of Lethem in southern Guyana. The property is surrounded by good infrastructure, all-season road network with road access. The property was acquired in 1998 by Vanessa Ventures from Sutton Resources/Barrick, later acquired by Infinito Gold Ltd, and then Guyana Frontier Mining where the project was funded by Teck Resources. The Marudi property contains a historic non-compliant resource estimate of 960,000 oz of Au. The estimate is derived from two main development sites: Mazoa Hill and Marudi North. Both developments site are open at depth and to the west for further exploration upside.Historic EstimatesThe historic estimates contained in this news release should not be relied upon. These estimates are not National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") compliant. While the Company considers these historical estimates to be relevant to investors as it may indicate the presence of mineralization, a qualified person for the Company has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources as defined by NI 43-101 and the Company is not treating these historical estimate as current mineral resources.About GuyanaThe Republic of Guyana is located in South America between Venezuela and Suriname. The country is English speaking under British Common Law with a democratically elected government. It has an established mining act and rich history of gold production. In 2013, 458,000 ounces of gold were produced by operators mining in the country. The Guiana Shield belt has 110 million ounces of gold inventory and is world-recognized as a premier gold region. With geological continuity with West Africa, the shield is highly prospective and very under-explored. Two mines have recently declared the commencement of commercial production in 2016: Aurora deposit (Guyana Goldfields) and the Karouni deposit (Troy Resources).Shares Issued & Outstanding : 29,047,271
Ceramic Sanitary Ware Market : India Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016 - 2026 Research Report By Future Market Insights

Ceramic Sanitary Ware Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 06:44:56

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Demand for ceramic sanitary ware in India is expected to reach 28,013 thousand units in 2016, up from 26,267 thousand units in 2015. This will represent a market value worth US$ 1.96 Bn. Steady growth in the countrys real estate sector, combined with rising spate of government initiatives to boost infrastructure development will continue to positively influence the growth of the ceramic sanitary ware market in India.By product type, water closets will continue to account for the highest demand, with total consumption pegged at 4,789 thousand units in 2016. Among the sub-segments of water closets  1 piece, 2 piece, wall mounted, and EWC  wall mounted water closets sub-segment will witness the highest demand. Demand for wash basins is also expected to remain healthy in 2016, with this segment accounting for a revenue share of 28.6 %. The wash basins segment is further sub-segmented as table top, wall hung, pedestal, half pedestal, and under & over countersamong these, demand for table top sanitary ware will witness the highest y-o-y growth in 2016.In addition to growth in the real estate sector, rapid urbanisation, increasing per capita disposable income, and improving standard of living in urban areas are other key factors sustaining the demand for ceramic sanitary ware in India. Although FMI maintains a positive outlook on the India ceramic sanitary ware market, low replacement cycles will continue to remain a key challenge for manufacturers.Ask For Report Sample @ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-in-1682 The India ceramic sanitary ware market is in a period of consolidation, and key players are focusing on diversifying their range of product portfolio. Reducing operational expenses to boost profitability margin remains a key focus area for stakeholders in the India ceramic sanitary ware market.Demand for ceramic sanitary ware is strongest in South India, with total revenues expected to reach 546.1 Mn in 2016. The overall consumption of ceramic sanitary ware in the region in 2016 will be to the tune of 9,352 thousand units, up from 8,850 thousand units in 2015.Ask For More Information @ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-in-1682 Leading companies in the India ceramic sanitary ware market include Cera Sanitaryware Ltd, Hindustan Sanitaryware & Industries Limited (HSIL), Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Ceramics India Pvt Ltd, Roca Sanitario, S.A., Toto Ltd, Kohler Co., Duravit AG and Jaquar.Long-term Outlook: The India ceramic sanitary ware market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 10.3% in terms of value during the forecast period 2016-2026. In terms of volume, the total consumption is expected to reach 57,444 thousand units by the end of 2026.
Parties in Banke ready for polls, save RJP-N

The electoral mood in Banke is heating up despite the uncertainty on whether the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N), an alliance of six Madhes-centric parties, will participate in the second phase of the local election.
Prez gives parties 7 days to pick consensus PM

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has called on political parties represented in the Legislature-Parliament to pick a new prime minister through political consensus within seven days, the Office of the President said.
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012  2016 and Opportunity Assessment; 2017  2027 report to their offering.

Polyglycerol Polyricinoleate Market Trends

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 13:47:28

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# 647 Words

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Food additives enhances the flavour and shelf life of the food. With increasing inclination of consumers towards processed food is contributing to the growth of food additives market. Polyglycerol polyricinoleate is naturally and chemically obtained food additive with excellent emulsifying properties. Polyglycerol polyricinoleate is chemically obtained from polymerized ricinoleic acid and polymerized glycerol, whereas naturally it is derived from castor bean oil. Polyglycerol polyricinoleate has hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties, thus making it a water-in-oil emulsifier. Hence predominantly used in food & beverage industry. Polygylcerol polycricinoleate is chemically prepared through four stages starting from preparation of castor oil fatty acid up to the partial esterification process of castor oil fatty acid with polyglycerol. It can either be used in blended or individual form depending upon the quality to be obtained.Global Polygylcerol PolycricinoleateMarket: Drivers and RestraintsWith shifting food trends among consumers, demand for versatile food ingredient is increasing among manufacturer,s so as to enhance the functionality of food products. Thus, fuelling the demand for Polygylcerol polycricinoleate market. Polygylcerol polycricinoleate is predominantly used as stable emulsifying agent with low viscosity. Hence, preferred in baking industry and in manufacturing of low-fat spread products. However, its major application is chocolate industry. The adequate flow and water-in-oil emulsion properties of polygylcerol polycricinoleate contributes in improving the texture and tolerance to thickening effect of the chocolate during manufacturing process. Moreover, it is cost effective ingredient as compared to cocca butter, thereby, drawing interest among manufacturers. Hence, propelling the growth of polygylcerol polycricinoleate market. Apart from food & beverage industry, polygylcerol polycricinoleate is also used as emsulfying and skin conditioning agent in cosmetics products. Another prominent characteristics of polygylcerol polycricinoleate is the ability to limit the fat bloom thereby, leading to abundant use in the production of low fat spreads. Hence, its widespread application and versatile characteristics, is expected to fuel the growth of polygylcerol polycricinoleate market.However, the chemical manufacturing process of polygylcerol polycricinoleate involves high operating temperatures along with long reaction times. Thus adversely affecting the final product quality leading to decoloration and odour problems. Thus, hampering the adoption of polygylcerol polycricinoleate among manufacturers and inhibiting its market growth. Moreover, the permissible limit of the polygylcerol polycricinoleate intake recommended by FDA is to 7.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, if consumed beyond the limit may cause liver enlargement. Hence, usage beyond permissible limit by manufacturers and limited knowledge among consumers may hamper the growth of polygylcerol polycricinoleate market.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3896 Global Polygylcerol PolycricinoleateMarket: SegmentationOn the basis of industry, polygylcerol polycricinoleate market is segmented into:-Food & BeverageChocolateConfectionery fillingsLow fat spreadsFats & OilsPersonal CareOn the basis of source, polygylcerol polycricinoleate market is segmented into:-HalalVeganOrganicSyntheticOn the basis of application, polygylcerol polycricinoleate market is segmented into:-Emulsifying agentFilling agentThickening agentGlobal Polygylcerol PolycricinoleateMarket: Region wise OutlookThe global polygylcerol polycricinoleatemarket is categorised into seven regions, namely, Western Europe, Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Latin America and, North America. North America accounts for largest share of polygylcerol polycricinoleate market. As consumers are drifting towards processed food, demand for food additives have been increased in the food industry. Thereby propelling the polygylcerol polycricinoleate market. Europe is expected to hold a significant share of the market. Asia Pacific represents an opportunistic region for polygylcerol polycricinoleate market. As, it offers cost effective manufacturing facilities and increased inclination of manufacturers towards cost-effective substitute for expensive ingredients, thereby spurring the polygylcerol polycricinoleate market growth.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3896 Global Polygylcerol PolycricinoleateMarket: Key PlayersSome of the prominent players identified in the global polygylcerol polycricinoleate market includes:Ter Hell & Co. GmbhDuPont Nutrition & HealthPalsgaard A/SThe Hershey CompanyEstelle Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.Croda International PlcSigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.DPO International Sdn. Bhd.Univar Inc.
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020" report to their offering.

Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 07:29:25

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Polyvinylidene fluoride, also known as polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF), is a specialty plastic material belonging to the fluoropolymer family. It is a pure thermoplastic and highly non-reactive fluoropolymer which is produced by the polymerization of vinylidene difluoride. PVDF is primarily used in applications which require high resistance, strength and purity to solvents, bases, acids and heat. It is also used as an important ingredient in high-end paints for metal roofing in commercial and residential applications. Membranes of PVDF are widely consumed for the purpose of immobilizing proteins owing to its resemblance to amino acids. PVDF is also used extensively in sheets, films, membranes and coatings in various end-user industries such as chemical processing, oil & gas, construction and energy.The global market for PVDF, along with its end products has been witnessing noticeable growth over the past few years. Increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries, coatings, and photovoltaic films are anticipated to be some of the major influencing factors for the growth of the market with increased emphasis on its various applications and their end-users. North America accounted as the largest consumer for PVDF, followed by Asia Pacific. Moreover, future market growth is expected to be from Asia Pacific on account of growing demand of PVDF in various applications such as oil & gas, and coatings for building & construction industries. The market for PVDF in Western Europe is also expected to grow significantly with certain PVDF expansion projects anticipated to stabilize the overall business in this region.Request For Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-151 Other regions such as Eastern and Central Europe as well as Latin America are also expected to host future global events which would supplement the growth of PVDF in different applications. In addition, proposals for improvement in infrastructure, rising residential construction industry and increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries is also expected to fuel the demand for PVDF in these regions.High demand from different end-user industries such as coatings, photovoltaic films, oil & gas, and electrical are expected to be the major growth factors for the PVDF market. However, increasing use of substitutes to PVDF is expected to slow down the growth of the market. Research & development (R&D) has been one of the key factors in the PVDF market. Various associations, end-user manufacturers and PVDF manufacturing companies have planned significant investments for future advancements and technology innovations in PVDF to replace other metals and plastics. This factor is expected to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market. Large scale companies such as Arkema have made significant investments for the expansion of PVDF polymer capacity in emerging economies such as China to meet the rapidly-growing demand for PVDF resins in emerging application such as new energies and water filtration. Moreover, the company plans to expand its PVDF business portfolio in Brazil with the expansion of their coatings production capacity. The new investment would help the company offer diversified and more domestically-produced additives and waterborne emulsions which are substantially taxed as imports in Brazil.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-151 Arkema, Daikin Industries Ltd., Dyneon GmbH, Shanghai Ofluorine Chemical Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai 3F New Materials Company Limited, Solvay S.A., Zhuzhou Hongda Polymer Materials Co. Ltd., Zhejiang Fotech International Co. Ltd., Kureha Corporation, Quadrant Engineering Plastics Products Inc. are some of the key manufacturers of PVDF dominating the market.
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Lactic Acid Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012  2016 and Opportunity Assessment; 2017  2027 report to their offering.

Lactic Acid Market Value

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 13:46:27

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Lactic acid forms an important industrial product, which is used in the formation of various small or large compounds. Lactic acid is formed through the breakdown of glucose and its oxidation. Lactic acid can be processed both naturally and synthetically. The naturally obtained lactic acid is formed by the fermentation process through bacterial reaction, the prominent bacteria involved in the process are lactobacillus, bifidobacterium, pediococcus among others. Moreover, lactic acid is also naturally present in human body obtained from glycogen through muscles cells to support energy production when oxygen supply is inadequate in the body. However, chemically lactic acid is derived through the hydrolysis of lacto nitrile. Lactic acid finds extensive application in food industry as it helps to regulate micro flora in the food and act as food preservatives. It is formed by the natural fermentation process in food products such as cheese, soy sauce, pickled vegetables among others. Apart from food industry, it is widely used in pharmaceutical and chemical industry. The polymers of lactic acid are widely used as labelling and packaging material as they are biodegradable and being biocompatible in nature, they are being used in manufacturing of sutures, drugs and prosthetic devices.Global Lactic Acid Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe widespread applicability of lactic acid across various sectors is driving the demand for lactic acid market. Lactic acid possess various peculiar characteristics, which has different roles to be played in various food segments. . In meat poultry and fish products lactic acid helps to prolong their shelf life along with preventing the growth of pathogenic bacteria. In pickled vegetables and salad dressings, lactic acid helps to prevent their spoilage and enhances the product safety, whereas in dairy products certain bacteria breakdown the sugar of milk into lactic acid which provides a creamy texture and savoury flavour to the products such as yogurt whose flavour and texture is dependent upon the presence of lactic acid. Hence broad spectrum of applicability in food industry is spurring the growth of lactic acid market. Owing to antimicrobial, moisturizing property of lactic acid, it has a revitalising effect on the skin. Hence, is gaining popularity among cosmetics manufacturers. In other non-food application lactic acid is available as myriad which is extensively used in various industrial applications such as pharmaceuticals, chemical and textile industry Thereby, propelling the growth of lactic acid market.The major challenge faced by the lactic acid market is to fermentation process of the lactic acid which requires technological optimization and product purification. Moreover, this biotechnological production requires optimization of nutrients thus, leading to high manufacturing cost. Thereby, restraining the growth of lactic acid market.Request Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3895 Global Lactic Acid Market: SegmentationOn the basis of application, lactic acid market is segmented into:-Dairy ProductsMeat poultry and fishPickled vegetablesBaked productsSavoury flavoursSalad dressingOn the basis of end user industries, lactic acid market is segmented into:-Food & BeveragesChemicalPharmaceuticalCosmeticsTextilesOn the basis of functionality, lactic acid market is segmented into:-Flavouring AgentEmulsifierph RegulatorAnti-forming agentAnti-microbial agentRequest For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3895 Global Lactic Acid Market: Region wise OutlookThe global lactic acid market is categorised into seven regions, namely, Western Europe, Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan Latin America and, North America. North America accounts for largest share of the lactic acid market. The food industry accounts for the majority of the lactic acid market and rest is contributed by non-food application in North America region. Asia Pacific accounts for potential region which is expected to record significant growth during the forecast period. Increasing demand for versatility in the food products among consumers, is contributing to the growth of lactic acid market as it prolongs the shelf life of the food products and make them perishable. Europe also holds significant share in the market. Increasing demand for processed and functional food among consumers, is propelling the demand for lactic acid in the food products.Global Lactic Acid Market: Key PlayersSome of the prominent players identified in the global lactic acid market includes:NatureWorks LLCCorbionGalactic s.a.Archer Daniels Midland CompanyMusashino Chemical (China) Co.,Ltd Palsgaard A/SHenan Jindan Lactic Acid Technology Co., LtdSigma-Aldrich Co. LLC.Futerro
Future Market Insights has announced the addition of the Surface Mining Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014-2020" report to their offering.

Surface Mining Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 08:27:29

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# 679 Words

616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: www.futuremarketinsights.comAbhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531

Surface mining refers to the mining technique where the overlying layer of soil and rock is removed, followed by the recovery or excavation of the underlying minerals. This method of mining provides considerably better recovery, safety, flexibility, environmental conditions and grade control as compared to other mining methods such as underground mining. The technique of surface mining gained momentum in the 16th century and has been widely prevalent at a global level, especially in North America.Factors such as lower injury rates, better recovery, flexibility and grade control serve as drivers for the global surface mining industry. However, from an environmental perspective, surface mining tends to have an extensive and more prominent impact on the surrounding environment as compared to underground mining. This is a disadvantage for the global surface mining industry. Hence, to counter this environmental impact associated with the surface mining operations, a safety zone needs to be placed around the mining area. Another disadvantage associated with the global surface mining industry is the relatively higher transport cost involved during the mining operation. For instance, the transportation cost of rock in open pit mining method accounts for about 50% of the total operating cost. Supporting regulations for surface mining such as the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, 1977 in the US, and proper economic planning alongwith the establishment of safety zone near the mine surface have been introduced in recent times. These developments, the vast horizontal and low lying reserves and the surging demand of iron-ore, diamond, chromium and coal, will act as opportunistic factors for the global surface mining market.Request For Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-61 Market segmentation of surface mining can be done on the basis of mining methods, the type of mineral deposits and regions. On the basis of mining methods, the global surface mining can be categorised into 3 groups: strip mining, terrace mining and open-pit mining. Among these, strip mining is applied where both the surface of the ground and the ore body are relatively horizontal with a minimal depth under the surface. An example of strip mining is the coal mining operation at Mpumalanga. Terrace mining is opted for where the overlying layer is relatively thicker or the ore incline is too steep. Terrace mining is a multi-step method in which the entire mine moves over the ore reserve from one end to another. This type of mining is prevalent in Germany-based lignite mines, and in some of the coal mines in the UK and South Africa. Open-pit mining refers to the traditional cone-shaped excavation with a typical vein structure, and steeply dipping and stratified ores. This mining method is primarily used for the excavation of metals such as Sishen iron-ore and Palabora copper ore. However, at some places open-pit mining can also be used for the excavation of other types of deposits such as diamond ore at Finsch.On the basis of the type of mineral deposits, surface mining can be categorised as stratified and non-stratified. Stratified surface mining can be further sub-divided into horizontal and inclined. Non-stratified is divided into vertical vein, and massive stockwork or pipe.Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-61 On the basis of region, the global surface mining market includes North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Middle East & Africa. Among these, surface mining is mostly prevalent in North America, followed by Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Surface mining accounts for about 85% of the overall mineral exploitation in the US. The major countries using surface mining include the US, Canada, Mexico, Peru, India, China, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, Ukraine, Angola and Australia.Some of the prominent players of the global surface mining market include: Goldcorp, Teck, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Vale S A, Freeport-McMoran, Barrick Gold and others. With the adoption of safety measures, economical techniques and support from governmental legislations, the mining companies are expected to witness further positive growth, thereby contributing to a sustainable positive future for the global surface mining market.Browse Full Report@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/global-surface-mining-market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-05-26 12:45:01

Reference is made to the press releases as of 14 November 2014 and 23 November 2016 regarding incentive programs established for employees. Songa Offshore SE (the "Company") has on 26 May 2017 purchased 4,744 shares for the Employees Discounted Share Purchase Plan. The shares have been purchased at an average price of 29.01 per share.

Before distribution to the employees, the Employee Discounted Share Purchase Plan holds 36,754 shares.

On behalf of primary insider and CEO in Songa Offshore SE, Bjrnar Iversen, the Company has purchased 2,389 shares. Mr. Iversen's holding following this transaction is 55,714 shares in addition to 191,950 restricted stock units.

On behalf of primary insider and CFO in Songa Offshore SE, Jan Rune Steinsland, the Company has purchased 2,389 shares. Mr. Steinsland's holding following this transaction is 31,546 shares in addition to 140,530 restricted stock units.



This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Songa Offshore SE via Globenewswire









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26 May 2017Limassol, CyprusThis information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Renault launches new Lodgy Stepway range

Renault Nepal is launching the all new LODGY STEPWAY range, as it looks to appeal to customers looking for a fascinating value proposition.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




Reports of four new casualties on Everest are misleading

Recent reports that Nepali high-altitude rescue experts spotted four climbers dead in a tent near Mt Everest are misleading, an expedition organiser said on Thursday.
Parcus Group, a global provider of training and consulting services for the telecom sector announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom to provide training services around telecom product development.

Contact

Ian Gene

***@parcusgroup.com Ian Gene

End

-- Parcus Group, a global provider of training and consulting services for the telecom sector announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom to provide training services around telecom product development.Parcus Group has been selected by Sri Lanka Telecom to provide services based on its extensive telecom and product development domain expertise. Parcus approach is unique and is characterised by extensive hands-on delivery and practical tools provided during training and consulting workshops."We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with Sri Lanka Telecom who are a well-known brand in the telecom industry and a leader in Sri Lankan market. Another national carrier engagement proves the benefits of our telecom specific orientation and our rich consulting experience", said Igor Glavanic, Managing Director of Parcus Group."Parcus Group has demonstrated an approach which is unique by its framework completeness, end-to-end processes and ability to make product development interact easier with other parts of our organization", said Sanjeewa Jaymaha, DGM Product Development & Management at Sri Lanka Telecom. "In order to serve our customers in the best possible way, it is critical that our understanding of customer needs is high and that new products are created using best-in-class product development framework and approach. This has become even more important in recent years with the increased competition, OTT threats and growing complexity of new technology".For more information visit: https://parcusgroup.com
Traditional panel format meets speed-dating to discuss factors that impact the media and public relations professionals

By: Florida Public Relations Association SWFL

2017 Media Breakfast

Contact

Christina Mehta Prendiville

***@mehtacommunications.com Christina Mehta Prendiville

End

-- The Florida Public Relations Association Southwest Florida Chapter (FPRA SWFL) wants to invite you to their annual Media Breakfast "The 2017 Playbook: Media Relations in an Evolving Market" to be held from 7:30-10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, June 6, at the Holiday Inn Airport, 9931 Interstate Commerce Dr., Fort Myers. A panel of experts from print and digital media and television will discuss an evolving market impacted by politics, economy, technology, demographics and more. A speed-dating format will wrap up the event. Door prizes for advertising with local media valued in the thousands will be given away.The media panelists for the breakfast are: Phil Borchmann, Editor of Gulfshore Business; Jeffrey R. Cull, Executive Editor of Florida Weekly; Jigsha Desai, Digital Director at Naples Daily News; Ernest Hooper, Bureau chief and columnist at the Tampa Bay Times; Tim Klutsarits, Assistant News Director at NBC2/ABC7; Cindy McCurry-Ross, Executive Editor, VP Content at The News-Press; and Peter A. O'Flinn, President and Publisher of Spotlight News Magazines."The 2017 Playbook: Media Relations in an Evolving Market" will explore the impact of politics, economy, technology, demographics, and ethics with a traditional panel of regional media representatives. The experts will discuss the challenges and opportunities of 2017 as it relates to media relations for public relations professionals. This event will be of value to communication professionals, students, businesses, nonprofits, and anyone wanting to gain insight and tips into how to conduct public relations in this evolving market.During the group speed-dating portion, attendees will have the opportunity to engage on a more personal level with panelists.The cost for attending the presentation is $40 for members, $50 for non-members and $15 for students. Space is limited so please register early. Guests must RSVP online at fpraswfl.org.Event sponsors are Bradley's Jewelers, CONRIC PR & Marketing, CTN10, Gulfshore Business, Mehta Communications, The Naples Daily News, and The News-Press Media Group. FPRA SWFL Annual Platinum sponsors include LCEC and iPartnerMedia.For more information or to become a sponsor, please contact Christina Mehta Prendiville at (239) 470-4204 or christina@mehtacommunications.com The Florida Public Relations Association is dedicated to developing public relations practitioners who, through ethical and standardized practices, enhance the public relations profession in Florida. For more information on the Southwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association, visit fpraswfl.org ( http://www.fpraswfl.org/
NCC is divesting the Onskebrunnen logistics project in Brunna for an agreed property value of approximately 15.4 million (SEK 150 million). The buyer is NREP Logicenters. Onskebrunnen is the second phase of the Brunna Logistics Park in the Municipality of Upplands Bro outside Stockholm. The property has a total leasable

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This June Lindorff and mFinanse will move into the Promenady Zita building, the second property completed within the complex. Knight Frank acted on behalf of the investor, Grupa Vantage in the leasing process. Lindorff is a provider of liability management services on the European market. The companys office will occupy

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If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.
Two unlikely protagonistsa brown and a gray lump of clay with googly eyessquish and sculpt themselves into an array of silly shapes in Claymates, a picture book written by Dev Petty and illustrated by Lauren Eldridge (Little, Brown, June). Morphing into such creatures as an elephant, an alien, a blowfish, a dinosaur, and an octopus, the two good-naturedly flaunt their creativity, and become fast friends in the process.

The storys friendship theme is fitting, as Petty and Eldridge first connected on Twitter and became close pals through the kidlit online community before deciding to collaborate on a book project. We are a funny pair, said Petty. We couldnt be more different. I am 45 and Jewish and live in Berkeley, California, and Lauren is quite a bit younger than me, grew up in North Dakota, and now lives in Wisconsin. But we immediately hit it off and became very close, even though weve never actually met.

Petty, whose earlier picture books include I Dont Want to Be a Frog and I Dont Want to Be Big, had began thinking about the storyline for a book that became Claymates after Eldridge, who is a clay sculptor and a photographer, suggested working together on a project. I loved the idea of two little characters who start out as balls of clay and can become anything they want to at any time, she said. Its a completely haywire idea, and one with infinite possibilities.

The author and illustrator collaborated unusually closely as they developed the story and created a fully illustrated dummy, Skyping, texting, and talking constantly (sometimes 12 times a day! noted Petty) to swap ideas. I knew that a standard pitch to a publisher would never do the book justice, and that a fully illustrated dummy was the only way to sell it, the author recalled. Creating the dummy was a pretty organic process. We both had a lot of trust in one another and were very open with each other. And we also gave each other a lot of space.

The fact that she and Petty have a similar sense of humor enlivened their brainstorming sessions, explained Eldridge, a debut book illustrator, who developed a love of making small-scale models while studying landscape architecture in college. I later fell in love with sculpting with clay, she noted, and around the same time I also became involved with photography, two skills that she combines in Claymates. Photography takes the heavy lifting off the modeling, she explains. You dont have to sculpt the whole figureonly what the lens sees. The object can look weird from other angles. When I sculpted the dinosaur, for example, I didnt have to make the whole thing. Viewed from the back, its all tin foil and wire.

Little, Brown editor Deirdre Jones was immediately smitten with Claymates when a colleague showed her the dummy, which had been submitted by an agent. We always share submissions with other editors in our department if we think they might be interested in them, she noted. I was immediately hooked on the book, and loved how kid-friendly, deceptively simple, and smart it was. When I presented it to our acquisition team, I said, We have to buy this! 

Jones worked in tandem with Petty and Eldridge to further develop the books characters and story arc, and it was a collaboration she thoroughly enjoyed. Everything about this book was new and wonderful, she said. This is the first photographic book I have edited, and this is also the first time that I have collaborated so closely with an author and illustrator together. We had a lot of fun figuring out many of the detailslike how to change a peanut into a blowfish into a dinosaur in a series of panels. Dev and Lauren are so easy to work with, and we had a ball together.

That is a sentiment echoed by the creators of Claymates, who will meet for the first time on June 25, at the books launch event at Mrs. Dalloways Bookstore in Berkeley. I am a devout Californian, and Im very excited to share Berkeley with Lauren, said Petty. I feel very lucky to have collaborated with her on this book, and to have found a friendship that is weird, serendipitous, and wonderful all at the same time.

Claymates by Dev Petty, illus. by Lauren Eldridge. Little, Brown, $16.99 June ISBN 978-0-316-30311-8
Denis Johnson, the award-winning fiction writer, poet, and playwright whose best-known and most influential work, the story collection Jesus' Son, turned 25 this year, has died of liver cancer. He was 67.

Johnson won the National Book Award in 2007 for Tree of Smoke, and his Train Dreamspublished in The Paris Review in 2002 and reprinted as a novella roughly a decade laterwas shortlisted for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in a contest which, famously, no book won. Often hailed as a writer's writer and, on occasion, a " writer's writer's writer," he maintained an outsize reputation among his literary peers.

His current publisher, Random House, confirmed that his forthcoming story collection, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, is still on track for its January 2018 publication. Susan Kamil, publisher of Random House, said the imprint "mourns the loss" of Johnson, whom she called "a giant in the world of letters, a writer like no other."

Johnson's reputation as a favorite writer of writers was cemented again earlier this year at a 25th anniversary celebration of Jesus' Son at New York's Symphony Space. A panel of authors comprised of Jenny Offill, Michael Cunningham, Victor LaValle, and Chuck Palahniuk discussed the outsized reputation of Jesus' Son and why "so many people want to write this book over again." (The authors were joined there by actors Chris Bauer and Jesus' Son film adaptation star Billy Crudup, who read from the work.)

This reputation was earned, in part, by a prose style at once iconic and eclectic, ranging from the meditative cadences of Train Dreams to Jesus' Son's punchy, surreal chronicling of drug addiction. In an interview with the New York Times in 1984, Johnson explained some of his stylistic choices by rattling off a slew of influences: Dr. Seuss, Dylan Thomas, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Flannery O'Connor, and Bob Dylan, among others. Notably missing from this list was the author Raymond Carver, who taught Johnson at the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop, and whose work also focuses, often, on the overwhelming pains of ordinary people, addiction, and recovery.

Johnson's other prose works include 2014's The Laughing Monsters, 2009's Nobody Move, 2001's SEEK: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond, 2000's The Name of the World, 1997's Already Dead: A California Gothic, 1991's The Resuscitation of a Hanged Man, and 1986's The Stars at Noon. Johnson also published poetry, including The Veil (Knopf) in 1987 and Inner Weather (Graywolf) in 1976, and plays, such as 2000's Hellhound on My Trail: A Drama in Three Parts.

This story has been updated with further information.
In Barbara Browning's charming, erudite, and often devastating metafictional novel The Gift, a writer named Barbara Andersen works on her conceptual art project (Anderson, like Browning, makes ukulele covers of various pieces of music and sends them to friends and strangers) and carries on an intense email correspondence with a musician in Germanywho may or may not be who he says he is. Browning dives into the strange world of book blurbs.

In my most recent novel, The Gift, my narrator, Barbara Andersen, describes a conceptual art piece by her friend, Tye Larkin Hayes, which extends over several days and includes several live performances. In the culminating one, the photographer whos been documenting everything is choreographed into the piece, perching, for several minutes, on the lap of a distinguished older gentleman, Thomas von Frisch, who is perched on the lap of Larkin Hayes, who is perched on an awkward, narrow projection built into a wall. The narrator explains, Tye often choreographs any documentation of his work, so the documentation is part of the work, not the other way around. So Tom sat on Tye, and the photographer sat on Tom, and it was very precarious and difficult and a little sexual.

When I write a novel, I tend to have the same approach to blurbs: Id rather think of them as part of the work, and Id rather make explicit the economies within which theyre produced (financial, intellectual, affective, even libidinal). That is, if you ask people to think about it, theyre probably vaguely aware that writers agree to blurb books because they have some connection, either professional or personal, to the author  but the genre seems to demand a certain effacement of those connections, as though Famous Author X just happened to come across a delightful manuscript that somebody accidentally left in a Starbucks and was so taken with it he felt compelled to say something really nice about it. (I was actually going to give Famous Author X the name of Gary Shteyngart, but then Googled gary shteyngart blurbs and realized theres a whole cottage industry, including a viral YouTube video and a dedicated Tumblr site, documenting Shteyngarts prevalence on the blurb scene  which may indicate that Im not the only one who thinks about this as conceptual art.)

Since my novels tend to blur the line between fiction and non-fiction, and because real people, including artists and writers, often appear in my narratives, I decided when I published my first novel only to ask for blurbs from people who actually appeared in the book, whether or not their depictions were factual or factitious. That way, I figured a reader could make a choice as to whether to read the blurbs as truthful or as, well, part of the work of fiction in their hands. I was working with a scrappy, daring little press, Two Dollar Radio, and amazingly, my editor Eric Obenauf agreed to go along with this proposition. For my first novel, it rendered Harry Mathews and DJ Spooky  I thought a match made in heaven (now that Harrys gone, his presence both in and on that book is even more precious to me). We repeated the tactic on my next novel, and it rendered Karen Finley and Vaginal Creme Davis  nuff said.

Last September, when it came time to consider the blurb question in regard to The Gift, I was working with a slightly bigger, though still daring and independent, press  Coffee House, under the fledgling feminist imprint of Emily Books, run by Emily Gould and Ruth Curry. I wasnt so sure if this team was going to go for my weird blurb strategy. When the topic came up, I wrote to Coffee House: I mention both Ling So Manege and Rambler Jinn Snee (the latter only by the title of his book, which indeed I gave to Yin Loadstar, as described in the ms; Manege appears fictionally at a dinner party of poets up at Bard). And I mention Rick Hussar, but I have a feeling Hussar, like my own mother, might find me irritatingly saccharine. Amazon Trebek appears, and would possibly do it as she's been very supportive in the past. If you nix my conceptual game/joke, I will understand. I can't believe Eric put up with it in the past. Also, I would bag the policy myself if we could get either Hon. A. Tills or Eco el Jut to read it and say something nice. If you felt awkward approaching Snee, I would be more than willing myself to risk humiliation and rejection by sending him my cover of Ne me quitte pas, which according to his book was the song that made him want to have a child, and saying, You make a cameo appearance in my novel. I'd be so happy if you blurbed it. But no prob if you say, Bad idea. Though it's a great cover. Sorry to be a handful.

You may have surmised two things from that message. The first is that I scrambled the names of all those well-known authors into anagrams here just to avoid embarrassing them, and the second is that I had slightly broadened the parameters of my conceptual art project of blurb procurement by folding it into my other conceptual art project, the one at the heart of The Gift, which involves spamming innocent strangers with hand-crafted recordings of ukulele covers of sentimental songs. I actually sent two covers to the Hon. A. Tills, though he didnt write me back. So in October, I broached the topic again, this time with Emily. I said, Ive been working on the blurb front. I sent what I thought were fairly charming emails with personalized ukulele cover songs to Rambler Jinn Snee and Hon. A. Tills. Snee sent a short message back saying thanks, but he's not doing any blurbs at all. Tills didn't write back yet, though it's just been 5 days. But, feeling a wee bit fragile, I'm wondering about this strategy. In fact, Tills never wrote me back. I didnt even bother making a cover for Eco el Jut.

And frankly, even if I hadnt been asking for an enormous favor, who could blame anybody for not answering? People are busy, and we were all distracted by the calamitous political events that were unfolding. But, astonishingly, Emily and Ruth had ignored my anxiety about Rick Hussar and went ahead and made the ask on my behalf. And because she very generously agreed to read the book and ended up warmly endorsing it, I can now reproduce the email I wrote to Emily on November 28 without scrambling my blurbers name: Thank you so much for countering my premonition that Chris Kraus would find me simpering and sentimental! Go figure! xoxo Chris Kraus is actually referenced a few times in my novel, because people in my narrators social sphere really love I Love Dick. (So do people in my social sphere. So do I.) Well, that was one good piece of news in a bleak season. The other was that my dear friend Def Mentor, or maybe I should call him Red Foment, also offered to blurb the book. And by Def Mentor or Red Foment, I mean, of course, Fred Moten, so, as I wrote Emily, I sort of felt Id scored Wonder Woman and Captain America. Yow. Freds work is also referenced by my narrator in my novel, in relation to the Peoples Library at Occupy Wall Street. She sticks her own obscure little postmodern novel into the fiction bin down at Zuccotti Park, even though she notes theyd probably be better served by reading Fred. That wasnt false modesty on my narrators part  just the simple truth.

Well, so, I managed to stick to my conceptual art project and once again got a dream team. But feeling just a little greedy right before we went to press, I wrote Emily one more time about one of the characters in my book, who I thought could say something interesting about it. I said, Surely nobody will go for this but. The character called Lun-Yu Wolf is, in reality, a really great conceptual poet. But she asked to maintain her anonymity in the novel. But I love the idea of asking her for a blurb. But attributing it to Lun-Yu Wolf. The character. I know, I know.

Emily is sweet. She just politely ignored that message.
Canadas Aldea Solutions has reached a five-year agreement with Telefonica and its partner Huawei to support its online video platform in Mexico.





By using Telefonica Open Cloud, Aldeas Mexican operation expects to reduce OPEX and improve business efficiency.Through its technology partner Huawei, Telefonica is already offering public cloud services to a number of Mexican enterprises, SMEs and public sector organisations.As provider of services and solutions for TV and media , Aldea offers integrated transmission services through its fibre network and associated teleports in Mexico. The Aldea proposal includes: full-time and occasional use of services, video as a file, high-definition coding, and all production and transmission solutions that a client may need.Present in the main cities throughout the Americas, located in Canada, the US, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile, Aldea claims to operate the first fully-automated pan-American fibre optic network for TV broadcasting services.With the new services running in Telefonica Open Cloud, Aldea now is able to assign elastic resources (compute, network, storage, among others) to meet the fast-growing IT requirements of today's video platforms.This project is just a beginning; we hope to get more technical support from Huawei and Telefonica in business transformation. More critical applications in Aldea need to be migrated onto the cloud, with higher efficiency and lower TCO, said Aldea Mexico CEO, Edgar Ceron.
Rights all year round

NHRC needs to undertake structural reforms to make it fit for purpose in the new federal set-up
Call it the Laundromat. Its a complex system for laundering more than $20 billion in Russian money stolen from the government by corrupt politicians or earned through organized crime activity. It was designed to not only move money from Russian shell companies into EU banks through Latvia, it had the added feature of getting corrupt or uncaring judges in Moldova to legitimize the funds. The state-of-the-art system provided exceptionally clean money backed by a court ruling at a fraction of the cost of regular laundering schemes. It made up for the low costs by laundering huge volumes. The system used just one bank in Latvia and one bank in Moldova but 19 banks in Russia, some of them controlled by rich and powerful figures including the cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Afghan officials say at least 15 soldiers have been killed in the latest in a series of attacks by Taliban militants in Kandahar Province.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Wazeri said on May 26 that the Taliban "launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night in the Shahwali Kot district."



Waziri said five other soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which he said began when the militants attacked at about 1:30 a.m. local time and continued until morning.

A provincial official said the death toll was 20, the AFP news agency reported.

Officials said on May 25 that 13 soldiers were killed and eight wounded in fighting that took place after Taliban militants stormed several security checkpoints in Kandahar Province overnight.

Also, Wazeri said on May 23 that at least 10 soldiers and 12 attackers were killed in fighting that began the previous night when militants attacked a different base in Shawali Kot.

Afghan security forces are battling a 16-year-long insurgency led by the Taliban, an extremist group that was driven from power after a U.S.-led invasion following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

The United States is considering whether to send 3,000 to 5,000 more military advisers to help train and assist Afghan security forces.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa


BAKU -- Azerbaijan's opposition Popular Front Party (AXCP) says its deputy chief has been detained.

AXCP Chairman Ali Kerimli said late on May 25 that his deputy, Gozal Bayramli, had been detained at a border checkpoint when she was returning to Azerbaijan from Georgia.

Kerimli said that Bayramli had called him and told him that she was being detained. He said she told him something had been planted in her bag before Azerbaijani police detained her.

Azerbaijani authorities have not commented on the situation.

Critics of longtime President Ilham Aliyev's government say authorities of the oil-rich former Soviet republic frequently seek to silence dissent by jailing reporters, human rights activists, and civil-society advocates without grounds.

Dozens of the AXCP members have been arrested and some imprisoned in the last several years on what their supporters have called trumped-up charges.
Seven independent countries have emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

But, as a recent Gallup poll shows, the residents of two of them are more nostalgic than the rest for the former shared state. In Serbia, around 81 percent of people think that the breakup of Yugoslavia harmed their country in its current context. Bosnians are not far behind, with 77 percent expressing regret over Yugoslavias dissolution. But what do they all miss, and are those the same things for Serbians as for Bosnians?

"Cockta," the Yugoslav version of Coca-Cola, "Kiki" candies, or cheap "Jugoplastika" flip-flops stuffed in a backpack and a ticket for a weekend train to the Adriatic coast are some aspects of daily life still fondly recalled by former Yugoslavs in Bosnia.

"I think that this [positive] disposition toward Yugoslavia is more a reflection of present-day problems than a result of Yugoslavism as an ideology," Vjeran Pavlakovic, a Croatian historian who led a team investigating nation-building processes in the Western Balkans, told RFE/RL.

Belgrade art historian Branislav Dimitrijevic has just published a book titled Exhausted Socialism, in which he argues against two dominant competing myths about ex-Yugoslavia -- on the one hand, that it was a country of prosperity and security, and on the other, that it was a "prison of the peoples."

"I teach in an art school, and new generations are more and more interested in ex-Yugoslavia, as in their regular education they learn virtually nothing about that country. And not only do they learn very little about it, but the information they are receiving from their parents about that period is contradictory," Dimitrijevic told RFE/RL in Belgrade.

His observation was supported by a poll conducted among young people in Belgrade.

Vuk Panic, 19, said he believes that Yugoslavia was a nice place to live: "With a Yugoslav passport, you could go wherever you wanted!"

But his friend Milos Mihajlovic, 22, has little good to say about the former country: "It was not possible to build a state with Croats," he told RFE/RL's Belgrade bureau.

Interethnic Stability

Yet most residents of Serbia see the breakup of Yugoslavia as a negative development. Only 4 percent declared that the violent Balkan divorce that took place in the 1990s was beneficial to Serbia. The inhabitants of Kosovo and Croatia, on the other hand, have the fewest regrets when it comes to the breakup of the former country.

Asked what Bosnians miss about Yugoslavia, Besim Spahic said in a telephone interview that, above all, they miss the stability and harmony of interethnic relations.

"In [Josip Broz] Titos Yugoslavia, Bosnia was defined as a common state of Serbs, Croats, and Muslims. The focus was on shared values between different ethnic groups. Now the differences are highlighted and blown out of proportion."

"Bosnia was the most-Yugoslav of all the republics, with the largest number of multiethnic marriages," Spahic added. Twenty-five years later, only around 4 percent of all marriages in Bosnia are multiethnic.

"'Yugonostalgia' survives not because of Tito's dictatorship but because 'brotherhood & unity'" -- the motto of Socialist Yugoslavia -- "doesn't look so bad now," Robin Wilson of openDemocracy tweeted.

The gloomy present faced by many Serbians and Bosnians arguably makes them more likely than some of their neighbors to indulge a rosy vision of the past -- at least some of which is fantasy. This stereotype is seemingly perpetuated through popular culture and media that harken back to a better time.

Competing Pasts

The most popular radio station in Sarajevo, Stari Grad, only plays music from 1980s, apparently catering to the needs of listeners struggling to deal with the experience and memory of war (1992-95) and preferring to recall the comfort of the seemingly untroubled years before nationalist-inspired violence knocked at everyone's door.

But it may also reflect a bleaker future and a struggle between competing pasts. While Yugo-nostalgia has grown in Bosnia and other parts of the region in recent years, the goal of joining the European Union is becoming more distant.

Some former Yugoslav states may be less Yugo-nostalgic than others because they have been more successful in nation-building, suggested Pavlakovic.

"I think that Croatia has managed to secure its geostrategic goals, becoming a [relatively thriving] independent state, and maybe this is the reason why people support this new state [independent Croatia] more, influenced by this 'pumping-up' of the narrative of 'us as winners,'" Pavlakovic said, adding that he thinks the same would apply to Kosovo.

But according to Skender Lutfiu, a historian working at the Kosovo Institute of History, the absence of nostalgia among ethnic Albanians has as much to do with their experience in Yugoslavia as it does with the realization of nationhood in the present. Talking to BIRN, Lutfiu said that Kosovo Albanians "have no reason" to remember Tito fondly. He argued that Albanians in Yugoslavia admired Albania's communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, more than Tito.

"Albanians [in Yugoslavia] had to struggle constantly to defend their rights during Tito's time," he added.

While some might suggest that Albanians had greater cause for complaint than many in Yugoslavia, the Serbs were the largest and most dominant group -- too dominant, especially in politics and the military, some would say. Yet despite their preponderance -- and present-day Yugo-nostalgia -- many modern scholars have argued that the primary responsibility for the destruction of Yugoslavia lies with Serbia and the Serbs.

Although Croatia certainly was not blameless in the breakup of Yugoslavia, historian Tony Judt was one of many who have argued that "the primary responsibility for the Yugoslav catastrophe must rest with the Serbs and their elected leader Slobodan Milosevic."

"It was Milosevic whose bid for power drove the other republics to leave. It was Milosevic who then encouraged his fellow Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia to carve out territorial enclaves and who backed them with his army," Judt said. "And it was Milosevic who authorized and directed the sustained assault on Yugoslavia's Albanian population that led to the war in Kosovo."

Selective Memory

In his highly-acclaimed book, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Judt wrote that the destruction of Yugoslavia was not a case of spontaneous ethnic combustion. "Yugoslavia did not fall: it was pushed. It did not die: it was killed."

Some might regard it as paradoxical, then, that alongside rising Yugo-nostalgia, a parallel trend in Serbia has seen the steady rehabilitation of politicians who are allegedly most responsible for the disappearance of the former state.

Last year, Ivica Dacic, the Serbian foreign minister, was among those calling for a monument to Milosevic to be erected in Belgrade.

Meanwhile, Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin rarely squanders an opportunity to express his admiration for Milosevic.

Yet the contradiction may not be as striking as it appears.

Ultimately, both the nostalgia for the former Yugoslavia -- whether for a time when Serbia dominated its neighbors or, as many Bosnians remember it, a place of peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups -- and a desire to honor the architects of its demise are founded upon selective -- or faulty -- historical memory. The Serbian case in particular seems to bear out the 19th-century French historian Ernest Renan, who wrote that "Forgetting, I would even say historical error, is an essential factor in the creation of a nation."

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL.


Human Rights Watch says it has confirmed that police in Russia's Chechnya region rounded up, tortured, and humiliated dozens of gay or bisexual men during the spring of 2017 in "an apparent effort to purge them from Chechen society."

In a 29-page report released on May 26, the U.S.-based nongovernmental rights group said the "antigay purge" lasted from late February until at least early April -- and that "it was ordered and conducted by officials in Chechnya."

The report says the speaker of Chechnyas parliament, Magomed Daudov, "seems to have played a key role in both securing and giving approval from the Chechen leadership to set in motion the purge."

It says most of the purge victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch "reported hearing the police who held and abused them refer to Daudov and to orders he allegedly issued about violence against gay men."

It also said three of the interviewed victims witnessed Daudovs presence at unofficial detention facilities in Grozny and Argun, where the abuses were carried out.

Human Rights Watch said the purge began in Argun, about 18 kilometers east of Grozny, during the last week of February.

It says police who detained a young gay man found "intimate photographs and messages" on his mobile phone indicating he was homosexual.

"Using the information from the man's phone together with information the man provided under torture, the officials established the identity of several of his gay contacts," Human Rights Watch reported.

"The police officials reported their findings to their superior, who apparently raised it with Magomed Daudov," it said.

It said the first victim's contacts also were "abducted and tortured" by police, who forced them to provide information about other people presumed to be gay.

"It was like a chain," one of the former detainees told Human Rights Watch. "They get one person, go through his phone, torture him, make him name some others, get those others, and so it goes."

"In the place where I was held, we were four [gay men] at first, but several days later we were already 20," he said.

Graeme Reid, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch, said most of the victims were held and tortured for several days or even weeks.

Several allegedly died and some are still thought to be in detention.

Reid also said that when police returned most of the men to their families, they exposed their sexual orientation and indirectly encouraged their relatives to carry out "honor killings."

WATCH: Activists Detained For Seeking Inquiry Into Abuse Of Gay Men In Chechnya

Reid also said victims who have fled Chechnya after their ordeal remain in danger elsewhere in Russia, with threats continuing against them.

"All of the victims suffered repeated beatings," the report said. "Security officials kicked them with booted feet, beat them with polypropylene pipes and sticks, and made other inmates beat them" -- mostly on the mens buttocks and legs.

"They put you face down on the floor and beat you with pipes," one victim told Human Rights Watch. "Then they force other prisoners [held for allegedly supporting insurgents or for alleged drug offenses] to carry on with the beating. Each man gets some 70 to 80 blows. And so it goes.... And you literally turn black and blue from waist to toes."

The rights group says local Chechen authorities also used electrocution devices to torture the victims.

Former detainees described those devices as machines with a knob on one side and wires sticking out of it with metal clips at the ends -- clips which were attached to the victims' fingers, toes, and earlobes.

"They turn the knob, electric current hits you, and you start shaking," a former detainee told Human Rights Watch. "And they keep turning the hellish machine, and the pain is just insane. You scream and scream and you no longer know who you are."

"Finally, you faint," the former detainee continued. "It all goes dark. But when you come to your senses, they start all over again. And once theyre done with you and you get your bearings, you hear other inmates screaming. The sounds of torture are just there all day, and at some point you start losing your mind."

WATCH: LGBT Activists Protest Outside Russian Embassy In Belgrade

Since Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper first reported the abuses in early April, gay men from Chechnya have given personal accounts to RFE/RL and other media about their ordeal in the North Caucasus region, which Chechnya's leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has ruled for the past decade through what critics say is brutal repression -- and with strong Kremlin support.

"Law enforcement and security agencies under Kadyrov's de facto control have abducted people from homes, work places, and the streets, held them in secret locations, and carried out enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial executions, and collective punishment practices," Human Rights Watch said.

Yulia Gorbunova, a Moscow-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, noted that Russia's federal authorities initially dismissed the abuse allegations in Novaya Gazeta, which included reports of Daudovs repeated visits to the unofficial detention facility in Argun.

But under growing international pressure,President Vladimir Putin said on May 5 that he would speak to top law enforcement officials about the allegations -- though he also suggested that the reports might be merely "rumors"-- and federal agencies have reportedly begun inquiries.

"Chechnyas leadership said it was ready to cooperate with federal inquiries, but also vehemently denied the very existence of gay people in Chechnya and they repeatedly berated and threatened journalists and human rights defenders for raising the issue," Gorbunova told RFE/RL.

Meanwhile, Russian federal officials "have repeatedly pointed to the lack of victim complaints to suggest the allegations are merely rumors," Gorbunova said.

"The men who survived Chechnya's gay-purge ordeal are caught between two fires: their well-grounded fears of official retaliation, and fear of violence from their own families," Reid said. "Russian officials need to address the victims' extreme vulnerability and their legitimate fears about coming forward to complain."

Human Rights Watch concludes that the federal investigations should be "thorough and capable of bringing the perpetrators to account."

It says authorities should take extra steps to protect victims, witnesses, and their immediate families.

The rights group also called on foreign government to maintain pressure on Moscow, including regular inquiries about the progress of the investigation.

It said the European Union, the United States, and other democratic countries also should "provide prompt, safe sanctuary to victims of the purge seeking refuge in safe countries."
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has ordered Russian troops to withdraw from the west bank of the Dnieper River in the partially occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, another retreat amid a number of setbacks for Moscow on battlefields in Ukraine's east and southeast.

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.

"Begin to pull out troops," Shoigu said at a televised meeting with the commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, Army General Sergei Surovikin, on November 9, adding that the withdrawal must be implemented in "the nearest future."



"The lives of the Russian military personnel are always a priority for us. We must also take into account threats imposed on the civilian population and make sure that all civilians who chose to leave can do so," Shoigu said. "We also need to start withdrawing the troops and undertake all necessary measures to secure the move of military personnel, arms, and equipment to the other side of the Dnieper."



Kherson was the first city fully captured by Russia during what Moscow calls a "special military operation" and the only regional capital controlled by the Russians since the offensive began on February 24.



Ukraine's forces for weeks have been capturing villages as they advance toward the city, and Kremlin-installed leaders in Kherson have been evacuating civilians.

Earlier on November 9, the Moscow-installed deputy head of the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, died in a car crash.



Shoigu's order came after Surovikin said it was impossible to deliver supplies to the city of Kherson and other areas on the western bank of the Dnieper River.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were strengthening their positions "step by step" in the south.



"There is a lot of joy in the information space today, and it is clear why, but...the enemy will make no gifts to us," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.



Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy, said earlier on Twitter that the Ukrainian side sees "no signs that Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight."



Part of the Russian group remains in Kherson city, he said, adding that additional reserves are being sent to the region. Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, are "liberating territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements," he said.



Zelenskiy has suggested that the Russians could fake a retreat in order to lure the Ukrainian Army into an entrenched battle in Kherson city.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden said Moscow's order to withdraw from Kherson was "evidence of the fact that they have some real problems with the Russian military."

Moscow and Russian-installed officials in Kherson have said for weeks that they are evacuating residents of Kherson -- both the city and the region -- to "other parts of the Russian Federation" for their safety. Ukraine has said the Russian move amounted to their forced deportation.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the withdrawal announced by Shoigu is "part of an overall pattern or picture we have seen over the last month that Russia has absolutely lost the momentum."



But Stoltenberg also cautioned against underestimating Russia.



"They still have capabilities," he said in an interview with Sky News during a visit to London. "We have seen the drones. We have seen the missile attacks. It shows that Russia can still inflict a lot of damage."

Kherson is considered by many military analysts as the most important of the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that Russia announced as annexed in September.



It controls both the only land route to Ukraine's Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the Dnieper River that bisects Ukraine.



Earlier on November 9, Russia launched multiple suicide drones on Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding people and damaging civilian facilities, the head of the regional military administration said, as fierce battles were under way in the eastern Donetsk region and in the south.



"The occupiers attacked the area massively with kamikaze drones, said Governor Valentyn Reznichenko. Ukrainian air defense destroyed some of the drones, but others hit targets. The Russian forces also used drones in an attack on the city of Dnipro, targeting a logistics enterprise. Reznichenko said four employees were wounded, and three of them are in serious condition in hospital.



Russian forces also bombarded the Nikopol district in the region with Grad missiles and heavy artillery. Reznichenko said the shelling damaged private houses, a factory, and a power line, but people were not injured.



Zelenskiy vowed Ukraine will not surrender a single centimeter of our land in Donetsk, where heavy fighting has been under way, and he thanked Ukrainian troops who are holding positions in the Donbas region.



The epicenter of the battle for the industrial region of Donetsk is around the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar, and Avdiyivka.



"The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level -- dozens of attacks every day," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address late on November 8.



"They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same -- to advance on the administrative boundary of the Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimeter of our land," he said.

Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions Russia said it annexed in September following referendums deemed as sham by Kyiv and its Western allies.



Fighting had been going on there between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatist forces since 2014, the same year Russia illegally annexed Crimea.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and CNN
Estonia says it has expelled two Russian diplomats in the latest incident to strain relations between the two neighbors.

The Estonian Foreign Ministry made the announcement on May 26, without elaborating.

The Baltic News Service named the two diplomats as Dmitry Kazyonnov, Russia's consul-general in the city of Narva on the Estonian-Russian border, and consul Andrei Surgayev.

"This is another unfriendly and ungrounded move, which will not remain without a response," the Russian Foreign Ministry warned.

Relations between Russia and Estonia, a member of both the European Union and NATO, have been tense for years.

Earlier in May, an Estonian court sentenced a Russian citizen to five years in prison after finding him guilty of spying for Russia.

Based on reporting by Delfi, Interfax, TASS, AFP, and Reuters


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.
Moldovan anticorruption prosecutors have detained the mayor of Chisinau and several other city officials on suspicion of corruption.

Dorin Chirtoaca and the other officials, including a deputy mayor, were taken to Moldova's National Anticorruption Center (CNA) on the evening of May 25 and ordered held for 72 hours after prosecutors searched city hall for several hours.

The CNA accuses Chirtoaca of instructing his deputy to sign a contract with Austrian company EME Parkleitsystem GmbH.

Chirtoaca suspended the contract with the company this month. Neither Chirtoaca nor the Austrian company have commented on the accusations.

The CNA said the company won contracts due to "concerted actions" from city hall officials.

Seven other officials, including the city's two deputy mayors, have been recently detained in the case.

Chirtoaca, 38, is the deputy chairman of the Liberal Party. He has been mayor of Chisinau since 2007 and supports reunifying the country with neighboring Romania.

All 11 Liberal Party lawmakers in Moldova's 101-seat parliament were absent from the May 26 session.

The Liberal Party recently kicked off a campaign to collect signatures for a referendum to suspend the country's pro-Russian president, Socialist Igor Dodon, for actions incompatible with his office.

Dodon's Socialists in turn have started a campaign to suspend Chirtoaca.

With reporting by Unimedia.md, AP, and News.yam.md
Silk Road euphoria

Nepals preoccupation with domestic affairs has prevented it from moving ahead and joining the rest of the world
U.S. President Donald Trump shoved Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside as he pushed to get into a group photo at the NATO summit on May 25, but the Balkan leader says he took no offense.

Trump put his right hand on Markovic's right arm and pushed himself ahead as NATO leaders walked into the alliance's new headquarters in Brussels for a photo session.

Trump then stood near Markovic and spoke to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite during the shoot.

Video of the incident spread quickly on social networks in multiple languages.

While Balkan media reacted with indignation -- running headlines like "America First" -- Markovic shrugged off the slight.

"It didn't really register. I just saw reactions about it on social networks. It is simply a harmless situation," he said afterward.

Instead of being insulted, he said he took the opportunity to thank Trump for supporting Montenegro's membership in NATO. The small former Yugoslav republic is slated to become NATO's 29th member next month.

And in any case, Markovic said, "it is natural that the president of the United States is in the front row."

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters
The main campus of Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, in northwestern Pakistan, has reopened after closing on April 14 following the mob lynching of a student accused of blasphemy.

Officials in the university administration told RFE/RL on May 25 that the university's dormitories will remain closed until "circumstances are favorable" again. Strict security measures were put in place on the main entry gate.

Students told RFE/RL that their parents had advised them to avoid big crowds and political activities.

Mashal Khan, 23, a journalism student, was killed by a mob on the campus on April 13. He was accused of posting "blasphemous content" on social media.

Police say their investigation found that blasphemy allegations against Khan were untrue. Police have arrested more than 50 persons for alleged involvement in his murder.

Police official Mia Saeed told RFE/RL that police were searching for a man named Arif who allegedly incited the mob to kill Khan. He said the man fled to a tribal area.

The Pakistani Supreme Court is currently investigating the incident along with a Joint Investigation Team.
Bans on Russian social networks and search engines. Proposed restrictions on the Moscow Patriarchate. And a potential visa regime for Russian citizens.

Step by step, bit by bit, law by law, the authorities in Kyiv are severing the ties that bind Ukraine to Russia.

On this week's Power Vertical Podcast, we look at what appears to be adding up to a not-so-velvet divorce -- and where it may be leading.

Joining me is co-host Mark Galeotti, a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, head of its Center for European Security, and a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations; and Natalia Churikova, managing editor of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and host of the program European Connect.

Enjoy...

Listen to or download the podcast above or subscribe to The Power Vertical Podcast on iTunes.
The Kremlin says a meeting between the Russian and French presidents near Paris next week will be "an opportunity to talk frankly and to get a better feel for each other."

Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron are due to meet at the palace of Versailles on May 29 to inaugurate an exhibition devoted to a visit by Tsar Peter I to France 300 years ago.

"The main thing for the presidents is to get acquainted with each other" and discuss issues including terrorism and the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, a senior Kremlin aide, Yury Ushakov, said on May 26.

Putin and Macron discussed those conflicts in a phone call last week.

Moscow and the West are deeply at odds over Russian military actions and other interference in Ukraine and Syria.

Macron won the French presidency in a May 7 runoff against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has opposed sanctions against Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.

The French election was held amid concern over meddling by Russia following U.S. intelligence officials' conclusion that Putin ordered a hacking and propaganda campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

An Internet security firm said in a report last month that Macron's campaign was targeted in cyberattacks bearing the hallmarks of a hacking outfit, which intelligence officials say is a branch of Russia's espionage apparatus.

Based on reporting by Reuters, Interfax, and TASS
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is urging Russian authorities to conduct a thorough, unbiased, and effective investigation into the killing of the chief editor of a newspaper in the Siberian city of Minusinsk, and bring those responsible to justice.

"Russia is a country where too many journalists have been murdered for their work while their killers walk free," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said in a May 25 statement. "This toxic cycle of impunity must be reversed once and for all."

Russian investigators said Dmitry Popkov's body was found with multiple gunshot wounds in Minusinsk late on May 24.

They said they have opened a murder investigation and are looking into several possible motives including a link to the victim's "professional activities."

Popkov, 42, was the chief editor of Ton-M newspaper.

He is the second journalist to be killed in Russia this year, according to the CPJ.

The media watchdog said Popkov was known for his "investigative reports on abuse of power and corruption, as well as his criticism of functionaries" from the ruling United Russia party.
Masked security agents and local police raided a worship service that was being by Jehovah's Witnesses in the central Russian city of Oryol, the latest in a series of raids following a Supreme Court ruling banning the denomination.

The religious group said that at least 15 officers, some masked and some heavily armed, halted the service on May 25, recorded names of attendees, seized cell phones and other electronics, and took written statements.

Several of the officers were from the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's primary security agency.

The group said that police also searched the homes of several Jehovahs Witnesses in the city.

A Danish man, identified as Dennis Christensen, was also arrested during the raid.

A lawyer for the group, Yaroslav Sivulsky, told the Russian website Mediazone that Christensen was arrested only because he was reading the Bible along with other Jehovah's Witnesses.

A district court on May 26 ordered Chistensen held in custody while law enforcement conducted further investigation.

Jehovah's Witnesses have long been viewed with suspicion in Russia for their positions on military service, voting, and government authority in general.

Freedom of religion is formally guaranteed in Russia but legislation sets out Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism as the country's four traditional religions, and smaller denominations frequently face discrimination.

Last month, the Supreme Court labeled the Jehovah's Witnesses an extremist organization, ordering the seizure of its property in Russia and effectively banning worshipers from the country.

Since then, there have been a growing number of reports of worshipers being targeted for harassment.

A home and several cars belonging to a Jehovah's Witness outside of Moscow were vandalized in an arson attack on April 30.

"We believe that the closure of the Jehovah's Witnesses organization for extremism, the persecution of members of their communities, and the prohibition of their written texts all have no legitimate grounds and are an outright manifestation of religious discrimination," said the Sova Center, a nongovernmental organization that tracks extremism, xenophobia, racism and similar issues in Russia.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service
WASHINGTON -- A key U.S. Senate committee has moved forward on new legislation aimed at countering Russian propaganda and election meddling in the United States and elsewhere.

The bill, passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 25, is one of several Russia-targeted measures now circulating in Congress, reflecting the general attitude among many U.S. lawmakers toward Moscow.

President Donald Trump's administration has sent mixed signals about its approach to the Kremlin. Trump's conciliatory remarks have also worried lawmakers that he might try to lift the sanctions imposed by Barack Obama's administration following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Still, a growing number of Republicans and Democrats have sought to push back on everything from Russia's alleged interference in last year's presidential election to Moscow's actions in Ukraine and Syria.

Several Russia "hawks" in the Senate are seeking to keep existing sanctions from being lifted without congressional approval. Others, including John McCain (Republican-Arizona) and Ben Cardin (Democrat-Maryland), have pushed efforts to impose new economic sanctions on Moscow.

New Sanctions?

The push for new sanctions has been slowed in part by the position of the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee).

Corker said earlier this month he wanted to wait on new sanctions until the Senate Intelligence Committee completed its investigation into Russia's alleged interference in last year's election. He's also said he wanted to see if Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could reach some agreement with Moscow on front-burner issues like Ukraine.

The bill that passed the committee on May 25  called the Countering Russian Influence in Europe and Eurasia Act of 2017  seeks to strengthen cybersecurity, fight corruption, and bolster democracy-building efforts, among other things.

When and if it gets taken up by the full Senate will depend on the chamber's majority leader, Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky).

In a statement, Cardin, who is the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee and co-sponsor of this and other similar measures, suggested that the push for new sanctions continued and the committee would seek testimony directly from Tillerson by early June.

"Every day of inaction on our part is one where Russia continues to gain ground," he said.

$100 Million Effort

Earlier this month, Congress signed off on a new $100 million effort to counter "Russian influence and aggression" and to support civil society organizations in Europe and Eurasia.

That measure was included in the $1.1 trillion budget to fund the federal government for 2017.

Lawmakers also imposed new restrictions and oversight on Russian diplomats in the United States -- a measure that Moscow had angrily warned Washington against.

And this week, Representative Salud Carbajal (Democrat-California) introduced legislation requiring the State Department to report to Congress on the methods Kremlin is using to "achieve [its] goal of destabilizing foreign democracies."

That drew a biting rebuke from the editor in chief of the Russian government-funded TV network RT, who said she had lost count of the number of bills aiming to "limit, forbid, and suppress" the network.

"They have not suggested to arrest us yet, but I think it won't be long," Margarita Simonyan said in a tweet.

Meanwhile, Trump's top economic adviser told reporters during a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations in Sicily that the White House had no intention of easing sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.

"We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia," Gary Cohn said. "If anything, we would probably look to get tougher on Russia."

With reporting by AFP
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BRUSSELS -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the message in U.S. President Donald Trump's "blunt" speech urging alliance members to boost defense spending echoed that of previous administrations.

Stoltenberg spoke to RFE/RL in an interview on May 26, a day after Trump met with the other leaders of the 28-member military alliance at its new headquarters in Brussels.

Trump used a large part of his speech before unveiling a 9/11 memorial to admonish allies he said are not shouldering their share of the financial burden.

It is "not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States" that only five NATO countries currently meet a target of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, he said.

Trump "has a blunt and direct style," Stoltenberg told RFE/RL. "This plain speaking is something we have seen before and he expressed clearly an expectation that European allies and Canada should invest more in defense.

However, he added that "the language may be different and the words may be different but the core message is the same as we have heard before, also during the previous administration: that we need fairer burden-sharing in the alliance."

NATO countries pledged in 2014 to try to reach the 2 percent target within a decade, but so far only Britain, Estonia, Greece, Poland, and the United States are doing so.

Many NATO countries, especially on the organization's eastern edges, have expressed concerns about the perceived threats from an aggressive Russian foreign policy and about Trumps commitment to the Western alliance and to sanctions placed on Moscow for its interference in Ukraine.

'Strong, United Approach'

A U.S. official on May 26 caused concern when asked whether Trump plans to extend Ukraine-related U.S. sanctions against Moscow.

"I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we dont have a position," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters en route to a Group of Seven meeting in Sicily.

However, later on May 26 at the G7 summit, Cohn came out strongly in favor of sanctions.

We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia," he told reporters. "If anything, we would probably look to get tougher on Russia."

Stoltenberg insisted to RFE/RL that the alliance has a "strong, united approach" to Moscow.

"I know that NATO is united in our common approach to Russia, which is about credible deterrence and defense combined with political dialogue, and that is exactly what we are delivering on," he said.

The NATO chief said the alliance has "implemented the strongest reinforcement of collective defense since the end of the Cold War" but has also engaged in talks with Moscow "because Russia is our biggest neighbor."

"We have to avoid a new Cold War," he added. "We don't seek confrontation with Russia and, therefore, also our deployment of forces in the eastern part of the alliance is defensive. Its proportionate and it is done in a way which sends a clear signal of multinational presence."

Ukraine Crisis

He said NATO leaders discussed the Ukraine crisis during their Brussels gathering.

"Of course, we also addressed issues like Ukraine, where we see that Russia continues to destabilize Ukraine, continues to provide support for the separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and continues to illegally annex Crimea."

He said it was important that all NATO members express "strong political support" for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to seek a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the crisis.

"On top of that, we also provide practical support, helping Ukraine to build more modern security institutions, implement reforms fighting corruption, developing command and control, strengthening their cybercapabilities, and many other areas, logistics," he said.

Afghan Mission

However, he added that NATO is facing many other important issues.

NATO is about addressing many different security challenges, including the terrorist threat, the instability we see to the south, [the extremist group Islamic State], Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and also, of course, cyberthreats where, of course, we have threats coming from many different state and non-state actors.

Stoltenberg said the alliance is studying the need to send additional troops to Afghanistan to aid the battle against the Taliban, the Islamic State group, and other militants.

"What is clear is that NATO allies will continue to sustain our mission in Afghanistan," he said. "Its currently at 13,000 troops," adding that alliance leaders are assessing the request from their military chiefs to increase troop levels "with a few thousand."

That has not yet been decided. But its clear that will continue. The exact troop levels [will be known] in the coming weeks.
Sustainable emergency preparedness discussed

Various national and international stakeholders have discussed sustainable methods of preparedness for crisis situations in Nepal.
Ukrainians have taken to the Internet to criticize U.S. artist Jeff Koons over his sculpture of a sitting ballerina recently installed in New York, saying it appears remarkably similar to a work by a Ukrainian artist.

Koons has said his 14-meter, inflatable Seated Ballerina, now on view at Rockefeller Center, was inspired by a Russian porcelain figurine from the 19th century.

But many Ukrainians are calling it a ripoff of The Ballerina Lenochka, a porcelain statuette by Ukrainian artist Oksana Zhnikrup, who died in 1993.

A spokeswoman for Koons, Lauran Rothstein, told AFP in an e-mail, "We are aware of Oksana Zhnikrup's work and have a license to use it for Mr. Koons's work."

But Ukrainians and other critics continued to vent against the neo-pop artist on Twitter and Facebook.

"I advise the Ukrainian government to file a case," Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Roitburd said. "America will be surprised to see that we don't have just corruption and war, but also art."

Koons has been accused of plagiarism before. In March he was ordered to pay a fine over his Naked sculpture, which was deemed a "counterfeit" of a French photograph.

With reporting by AFP
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) leading global economies have vowed to fight against trade protectionism and expressed a readiness to impose further sanctions on Russia, but they failed to settle a disagreement with U.S. President Donald Trump on climate change.

A final communique issued on May 27 after a two-day summit in the resort town of Taormina, Sicily, said Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan reaffirmed their strong commitment to the implementation of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement.

However, the United States is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and, thus, is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics," it added.

Trump, who has previously threatened to pull out of the Paris accord, announced in a tweet that he will make his final decision on the matter next week.

"The entire discussion about climate was very difficult, if not to say very dissatisfying," Merkel told reporters. "There are no indications whether the United States will stay in the Paris Agreement or not."

Merkel said the debate over trade was also "very tough," but she expressed satisfaction that Trump agreed to language in the communique that pledges to keep markets open and to fight protectionism, while standing firm against all unfair trade practices.

The G7 leaders also expressed readiness to take additional action against Russia, if warranted, for its intervention in Ukraine.

"We recall that the duration of sanctions is clearly linked to Russia's complete implementation of its commitments in the Minsk [peace] agreements and respect for Ukraines sovereignty," the communique said.

Since 2014, the EU and United States have maintained sanctions on Russia over its seizure of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and its actions in eastern Ukraine, where a war between Russia-backed separatists and government forces has killed more than 9,900 people.

"Sanctions can be rolled back when Russia meets its commitments, the statement said. However, we also stand ready to take further restrictive measures in order to increase costs on Russia should its actions so require."

On Syria, the G7 leaders demanded support from Russia and Iran for the peace process. Moscow and Tehran support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the six-year-old civil war, while the United States and Turkey support differing rebel groups.

They also condemned in the strongest terms North Korea's recent nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, and said they were ready to strengthen measures after various rounds of UN sanctions.

On migration, the leaders agreed on the sovereign rights of states, individually, and collectively, to control their own borders and to establish policies in their own national interest and national security."

"Properly managed flows can bring economic and social benefits to countries of both origin and destination as well as to migrants and refugees themselves," it added.

Earlier on May 27, the leaders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, and Tunisia joined the G7 summit, along with representatives of the African Union, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, host of the meeting, said in opening remarks that the talks on Africa would focus on the need for a partnership across all sectors, with innovation and development our core objective.

In a speech, President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger called on the G7 leaders to take urgent measures to end the chaos in Libya and criticized them for not keeping to aid promises to fight poverty in West Africa.

Italy chose to host the G7 summit in Sicily to draw attention to the African migrants who risk the crossing of the Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe. More than half a million such migrants have landed in Italy since 2014.

On the first day of the summit, G7 leaders signed a joint statement calling on Internet service providers and social media companies to substantially increase their efforts to address terrorist content."

The leaders also vowed a joint effort to track down and prosecute foreign fighters from conflict areas such as Syria.

And they voiced solidarity with Britain after the May 22 suicide bombing in Manchester in which 22 people were killed, including many children. The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack.

WATCH: G7 Leaders Stroll Through Taormina

Earlier, European Council President Donald Tusk said the gathering would "no doubt" be "the most challenging G7 summit in years."

Some of the participants hold "very different positions on topics such as climate change and trade," Tusk said as he opened the summit.

Tusk also called on G7 leaders to maintain sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.

"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU's 28 leaders, told reporters.

Tusk spoke a day after White House economic adviser Gary Cohn indicated that Trump had not decided to extend the U.S. sanctions.

"I think the president is looking at it, Cohn told reporters on Air Force One en route to Sicily for the summit. Right now, we dont have a position."

However, on May 26, Cohn came out strongly in favor of sanctions, saying, We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia."

"If anything, we would probably look to get tougher on Russia," he told reporters.

Cohn also said that Trump's views on climate were "evolving."

"He came here to learn and get smarter," Cohn told journalists. "He said: 'I would rather take my time and understand the issues and then get to the right decision on that.'"

The G7 summit was the last leg of Trump's first foreign trip since taking office in January -- a nine-day tour of the Middle East and Europe.

After visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, Trump met Pope Francis in Rome on May 24 and held talks May 25 with the heads of the European Union and the NATO military alliance in Brussels.

In a tweet on May 26, Trump said his first trip abroad has been "very successful."

"Just arrived in Italy for the G7. Trip has been very successful. We made and saved the USA many billions of dollars and millions of jobs."

However, former U.S. State Department official, Ambassador Reuben Brigety, told RFE/RL on May 26 that Trump's first trip abroad had yet to articulate a positive view on how the United States would engage its traditional allies.

"The president's team have a lot of work to do when they get back to Washington to refashion American foreign policy in coherent manner, on one that can be something that the rest of the world can depend on," Brigety, now the dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, said.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa, and the BBC
A U.S. commander in Alaska has expressed concern about Russia's recent military buildup in the Arctic, saying it threatens the historically peaceful region.

"What concerns me about Russia is not that they have icebreakers and not that 25 percent of their economy is based in the Arctic. It's the offensive military capability that they are adding to their force thats Arctic-capable," Air Force Lieutenant General Ken Wilsbach told the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce on May 25.

"If you really want to keep the Arctic a peaceful place where heretofore it has been, then why are you building offensive capabilities?" he asked. "My question is, are the Russians taking a page out of the Chinese playbook...whereby they declare an area is now Chinese sovereign territory [and] have overwhelming military force in that area?"

Wilsbach defended Russia's five recent military flights near Alaska's coast, however, saying they were legal and never entered U.S. airspace.

On the growing threat from North Korea, he said that while Pyongyang had been test-firing missiles that have an increasing capacity to reach parts of Alaska, the United States had "strong defensive capabilities" to deal with them.

Based on reporting by AP and the Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Mercedes Benz India, Audi India, and BMW India have announced an immediate downward revision of prices of their Made in India models. Prices are being slashed by 12% so as to bring prices on par with (Goods and Services Tax) GST rates, will be with immediate effect.

Revision of prices in this manner will allow buyers to opt for purchases from now and through the month of June. This will add further impetus to purchase in the next two months rather than buyers postponing purchases till the month of July 2017, which is when the GST comes into effect officially.

Roland Folger, CEO and MD, Mercedes Benz India.

The Mercedes car models which have seen a revision of prices include  CLA, GLA, C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, GLC, GLE, GLS and Mercedes-Maybach S 500. For BMW India, it is their 1 Series, 3 Series, 3 Series Gran Turismo, 5 Series, 7 Series, X1, X3 and X5. For Audi, their local assembly includes models like the A4, A6, A8, Q3, Q5, and Q7.

In addition to slashing of prices, BMW India has also announced reduced rate of interest of 7.90%, complimentary 3 years service and maintenance and 1 year complimentary insurance along with assured buy back upto 4 years. However, these offers are for a limited period only.

All three luxury car brands now look forward to the positive effects of the introduction of GST. The trio visualizes growth momentum in the luxury car segment and is posed to see increased growth in the months ahead. However, while these reduced prices are being offered only on its Made in India range, the companies are yet to take decision on price revision on CBU vehicles.

Under the new tax regime which is expected to come into effect from 1st July 2017, all luxury vehicles on sale in the country would attract a 28% GST along with maximum cess of 15% which could mean that customers will have to pay 43%. As on date, the effective tax on price of luxury vehicle stands at 52%-55%.
Triumph Tiger 900 makes 94bhp and 87Nm from its 900cc inline-3 engine

With the configurator section of Triumph Motorcycles India website listing Tiger 900 as an option, we can now predict that the motorcycle will be launched in the country soon. If the lockdown (which currently extends to 3 May 2020) is lifted as planned, Triumph Tiger 900 could be launched in May itself. The company can also consider an online launch in case things are delayed further due to corona virus pandemic. It may be recalled that 2020 Triumph Street Triple RS was launched online earlier this week. Bookings were also opened online.

Triumph Motorcycles Indias portfolio currently has Tiger 800 and Tiger 1200 in the Adventure range. Reports state that Tiger 900 is a replacement to Tiger 800 to become the brands entry-level adventure motorcycle in the country. Outside, Triumph Motorcycles sells all three Tiger models. In international markets, Tiger 900 comes in five variants: standard, GT, GT Pro, Rally and Rally Pro. On the Indian market, Triumph Motorcycles is expected to offer only GT and Rally variants.

Triumph Tiger 900 gets fresh premium bodywork and is slimmer than Tiger 800. It looks a lot more aggressive with its sculpted fuel tank and full-LED headlamp. The standover width has been reduced to improve rider comfort, especially in stop-start riding conditions. Handlebars are now closer to the rider, which coupled with the new footrest positions, ensure a comfortable upright riding stance. Colour options include Pure White, Sapphire Black, Korosi Red and Matte Khaki.

Powering Tiger 900 is a new 900cc inline-3 engine that generates about 94bhp at 8,750rpm and 87Nm at 7,250rpm. Compared to Tiger 800, torque has increased by 10%. The new engine not only offers improved performance but also ensures an aggressive aural experience. The motorcycle is equipped with all-new twin radiators that reduce the ambient heat experienced by the rider.

Triumph Tiger 900 range offers advanced features such as a new full-colour 7.0-inch TFT instrument console, six riding modes, heated grips, cruise control, and secure phone storage (with charging). Cell phone paring is also available with My Triumph connectivity system, which is offered as standard with GT Pro and Rally Pro variants. A GoPro can also be attached and controlled via dedicated switch cubes on the handlebar. In terms of safety, Tiger 900 gets new optimized cornering ABS, tyre pressure monitoring system, LED fog lights and traction control.

Bookings for Triumph Tiger 900 have not officially started. However, you can probably contact your nearest dealership to check if they are taking bookings. Triumph Tiger 900 is expected to be priced higher than the model it will be replacing. This essentially brings the starting price anywhere between Rs 12 lakh to 14 lakh ex-showroom.
UMLs House obstruction affects pre-budget discussions

The main opposition CPN-UML has obstructed the Legislature-Parliament meeting on Friday to protest the governments recent decision to increase the number of local levels in Tarai districts.
Although computer tomography (CT) is widely used in medicine, its application in micro snail identification is still at the pioneering stage.

However, Dr Adrienne Jochum from the Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern (NMBE), Switzerland and her interdisciplinary team of German and Swiss scientists (Dr. Alexander M. Weigand, University of Duisburg-Essen, Estee Bochud and Thomas Inabnit, NMBE and the University of Bern, Dorian D. Dorge, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Dr. Bernhard Ruthensteiner, Zoologische Staatssammlung Muenchen, Dr. Adrien Favre, Leipzig University, Gunhild Martels and Dr. Marian Kampschulte, Justus-Liebig University Giessen) have recently applied it in their research, now published in the journal ZooKeys.

As a result of their revolutionary approach, the scientists report three new thorn snail species -- tiny, colourless and highly fragile creatures that measure less than 2 mm and belong to the genus Carychium.

Much like X-rays showing the degree of damage in broken bones, CT scans provide access to snail shells. Differences, such as the degree of sinuosity of the potato chip-like wedge (lamella), elegantly gliding along the spindle-like columella, become visible. These structures provide stability and surface area to exert muscular traction while manoeuvring the unwieldy shell into tight cavities. The alignment and degree of undulation of the lamella on the columella is also used by malacologists (mollusc specialists) to identify different thorn snail species.

Conventionally, examination of this signatory character requires cutting a hole in the shell with a fine needle under the microscope. This tedious method requires a much patience and dexterity and, all too often, the shell cracks open or disintegrates into dust under pressure. By exposing the delicate lamella to non-manipulative CT scans, Dr. Jochum and her team have found the best method to differentiate not only thorn snails but also many other micro creatures.

Together with G. Martels and Dr. M. Kampschulte, Dr. Jochum described new micro snails for the first time using CT in East Asian hypselostomatid snails in 2014. The first subterranean Asian relative of the thorn snails (Koreozospeum nodongense), was also described by Dr. Jochum thanks to CT scans in 2015.

The scientists studied and compared thorn snails collected from Mexico, Florida (USA) and Costa Rica.

Curiously, the new species Carychium hardiei was discovered by accident by Dr. Jochum en route to the Atlanta Airport during a rest stop in Georgia (USA). The snail is named after the American naturalist and field biologist Frank Hardie. Another species, Carychium belizeense, was found in the Bladen Nature Reserve in Belize and is named after its country of origin. The third, Carychium zarzaae from Panama, is named after Eugenia Zarza, collector of material for this study, including this species.

In total, there are fourteen species of thorn snails known in North and Central America. Their distribution ranges from as far north as northern Ontario, Canada through North America (including Bermuda and Jamaica) and south through Central America to Costa Rica. Thorn snails also live as far north as northern Sweden and as far south as sub-equatorial Java. Worldwide, this genus spans the Nearctic, Palearctic and Indomalayan biogeographic realms.

Thorn snails live in tropical and temperate forests, meadows and riparian zones, where they comprise the decomposer community in leaf litter of ecologically stable environments.
One out of three people in the world is exposed to earthquakes, a number which almost doubled in the past 40 years. Around 1 billion in 155 countries are exposed to floods and 414 million live near one of the 220 most dangerous volcanoes. The 2017 edition of the Atlas of the Human Planet, by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, looks at the exposure of people and built-up areas to the six major natural hazards, and its evolution over the last 40 years. The atlas will be presented during the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

More and more people and property are exposed to natural hazards

The atlas covers six major natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, tropical cyclone winds, tropical cyclone storm surge and floods. Global exposure to these hazards has doubled between 1975 and 2015, mostly due to urbanisation, population growth and socioeconomic development. Some of the hazards pose a threat to a particularly large number of people in different regions of the world.

Earthquakes pose a threat to up to one third of the population

Off all hazards, the largest number of people are exposed to earthquakes. The number of people living in seismic areas increased by 93% in 40 years (from 1.4 billion in 1975 to 2.7 billion in 2015). In 2015, more than 400 million people lived near one of the 220 most dangerous volcanoes, exposed to the consequences of possible eruptions. Tsunamis affect coastal areas in many regions, with dangerous areas more concentrated in Asia. The highest amount of built-up surface exposed to tsunamis is in Japan by far, followed by China and the United States of America. Its population is four times more exposed than that of China, the second most affected country.

European map of natural hazards exposure

More than 170 million people in Europe are potentially exposed to earthquakes, almost a quarter of the total population. In Italy, Romania, or Greece the share of exposed over total population reaches over 80%.

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Flooding is the most common of the hazards studied. Germany has the highest number of people exposed to floods, about 8 million (10% of the national population), followed by France with 5.7 million (9%).

Eleven million Europeans live within 100 km from an active volcano, which eruptions could affect not only housing and settlements, but also everyday activities, including transportation. The potentially exposed built-up surface increased by 86% from 1975.

Most potential flood victims live in Asia

Exposure to floods, the most frequent natural disaster, is highest in Asia (76.9% of the global exposed population) and in Africa (12.2%). The world population potentially exposed to flood is around 1 billion in 155 countries in 2015. 11% of the area built-up on Earth is potentially exposed to this hazard, too.

Tropical cyclones can shatter lives and homes in almost 90 countries

Tropical cyclone winds pose a threat to 1.6 billion people in 89 countries, up from 1 billion in 1975. In 2015, 640 million people were exposed to extremely strong cyclone winds, with the largest built-up surface exposed to strong cyclone winds found in China and Japan. Furthermore, 50 million Chinese are exposed to storm surge as consequence of tropical cyclones, up by almost 20 million in the last 40 years.

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Why do we need to calculate exposure to the natural hazards?

Global analysis of exposure and its development over the last 40 years helps us better understand what affects disaster risk over time and risk drivers. It is also useful in identifying effective policy actions for more resilient communities.

The exposure data and the findings of the Atlas support the implementation of the post-2015 international frameworks: the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the New Urban Agenda (Habitat III). The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL, see below) baseline data provides insights into developments over the last 40 years and into the impact that policies have on them. Researchers and policy makers can also use the data to aggregate exposure information at all geographical scales, from the city level to the region, continent and global.

How to estimate the exposure?

The Atlas of the Human Planet 2017 builds on its first edition published in 2016, in which JRC scientists combined earth observation with spatial modelling techniques to create the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL). The GHSL is the first global, fine scale, multi-temporal and open data on the physical characteristics and the dynamics of human settlements, covering 40 years of satellite observations data. The GHSL dataset has been now combined with the best available global hazard maps to measure the potential exposure to natural hazards over time.

At the UN Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, the JRC will present also the report 'Science for Disaster Risk Management 2017: knowing more and losing less', a flagship product of the European Commission's Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC), compiling the state-of-the-art in disaster risk management.
Imagine living in perpetual darkness in an alien world where you have to find food quickly by touch or starve for months at a time.

The limestone caverns of Mexico's Sierra del Abra Tanchipa rainforest contain deep cisterns cloaked in utter blackness. This is where researchers at the University of Cincinnati traveled to find a little fish (Astyanax mexicanus) that has evolved to feast or endure famine entombed hundreds of feet below the ground.

"They have been able to invade this really extreme environment. They are exposed to darkness their entire life yet they're able to survive and thrive," said Amanda Powers, a UC graduate student and lead author of a study on blind cavefish published in May in the journal PLOS One.

"They've evolved changes to their metabolism and skull structure. They've enhanced their sensory systems. And they can survive in an environment where not many animals could," she said.

Mexican cavefish are bizarre, not merely blind but born with eyes that regress until they are completely lost as adults. The bones of their once-round eye orbits have collapsed. In place of eyes, their empty sockets store fat deposits that are covered in the same silvery, nearly translucent scales as the rest of their pale, unpigmented bodies.

The UC study examined one biological adaptation that might help to explain how these fish navigate and find food without benefit of sight -- asymmetry. Researchers examined juvenile and adult cavefish to understand how their skulls change during their lives.

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Most fish are symmetrical -- their left and right sides are virtually identical and streamlined to provide the most efficient locomotion in the water.

Cavefish are genetically similar to their symmetrical and keen-sighted cousins, Mexican tetras, found in nearby creeks and rivers on the surface. They're so closely related that they easily interbreed and produce fertile young, even though the two species are believed to have diverged millions of years ago.

Cavefish start their lives with symmetrical features like other fish. But when they mature, their fragmented cranial bones harden in a visibly skewed direction, the study found.

UC's researchers speculate that this adaptation helps the typically left-leaning cavefish navigate by using sensory organs called neuromasts to follow the contours of the cave as they swim in a perpetual counterclockwise pattern. This behavior was observed among captive cavefish, which keep moving around the edges of their tanks while surface fish tend to stay motionless in the shadows of their tank or swim in haphazard ways.

"That was a real big piece of the puzzle for us," said Joshua Gross, a UC biology professor and co-author. "It's a mystery how they've been able to adapt. The amazing thing is that they're not just barely surviving -- they thrive in total darkness."

Gross has been studying cavefish for years at UC. They make an excellent model to examine regressive evolution, the process by which animals lose features over generations, he said.

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"The traits they've lost are very conspicuous -- their eyes, their pigmentation," Gross said. "The beauty of studying cave animals is it's a very robust model for understanding why features are lost, and it's a simple, stable set of environmental pressures that cause those features to go away."

Cave-dwelling animals as diverse as salamanders and crayfish have responded similarly by losing pigment and eyesight while gaining or augmenting other sensory structures.

"The fact that they're all moving in the same evolutionary direction is not a coincidence. They're all living in total darkness with a limited food supply," he said.

Cavefish are especially valuable for evolutionary study, Gross said, because of their genetic relationship with readily abundant surface fish. Many antecedents of other cave-dwelling animals have been lost to extinction from natural selection or calamity.

The UC biology lab has dozens of aquariums and breeding tanks full of cave and surface fish, each smaller than a goldfish. Researchers use QR-code stickers to keep track of the family history of the resident fish swimming in slow circles.

The hardy fish are easy to keep because they are not picky eaters. They get a mix of foods including flakes, brine shrimp and blackworms. UC gets its study fish from natural populations maintained by colleagues and reputable breeders.

"Our lab really tries to avoid taking any animals from nature," Gross said.

Mexican cavefish also are raised as a popular aquarium pet.

The skulls of all but a couple cavefish UC studied bend to the left. They seem to be right-finned, swimming in a lazy counterclockwise pattern around their aquariums in the biology lab.

"You could see how asymmetry might be an advantage in navigation," Powers said.

"They tend to swim in a unidirectional, circular motion around their tanks to explore their surroundings," she said. "Having asymmetry in their skull we think is attributed to handedness. If their skull is bent to the left, they could be 'right-handed.' They're feeling the wall to the right with their sensory structures."

This kind of asymmetry is uncommon in nature. Think of the fiddler crab with its outsized claw. Owls have asymmetrical ears -- one canal placed higher on the skull than the other -- perhaps to help the night predators target the faint rustling of a mouse in the dark.

In the biology lab, researchers breed surface fish with cavefish and study the resulting hybrids, co-author and recent UC graduate Shane Kaplan said. He and UC student Erin Davis also contributed to the study.

The interesting genetic combinations occur in the second generation or F2 population of hybridization, he said.

"You can capture the genetic diversity of the entire population," Kaplan said. "Some fish look exactly like surface fish. Others look exactly like cavefish. Then you'll have intermittent phenotypes. Some are pale but have eyes while others will have no eyes but are fully pigmented."

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Powers traveled with Gross to Mexico in 2013, in 2015 and again this year to study wild cavefish. They wore dust masks to guard against fungal spores associated with the respiratory disease histoplasmosis, which can be found in bat guano. Getting to the fish pools required a little spelunking.

"The group ahead of us disturbed some bats. As we were coming in, bats were going out," she said. "They have incredible echo-location. The bats knew where you were and would fly around you in the darkness, even though it was a very small chamber."

The cave had several distinct pools, each farther from the entrance. The deeper they went, the fewer surface-dwelling fish they found until they found only blind cavefish.

"Whenever you would touch the surface of the water with your finger, a swarm of cavefish would come right up to it," Powers said. "Not many fish would do that. These cavefish have zero predators so they're not afraid. That was a really cool experience."

Kaplan said it would be worthwhile to explore the cavefish's DNA to find out what prompts the asymmetry in adult cavefish.

"We haven't yet delved into why it's happening. I'd love to get more into the genetics and developmental processes that lead to these bizarre phenotypes," Kaplan said.

Gross said his biology lab will continue to pursue these and other questions about this fascinating fish that has mastered a dark, subterranean realm, indifferent to the bright, colorful and chaotic world above it.
A new cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and others suggests that $6 million in costs related to the opioid epidemic could be saved each year if a single "safe consumption" space for illicit drug users were opened in Baltimore.

It would also reduce overdose deaths, HIV and hepatitis C infections, overdose-related ambulance calls and hospitalizations -- and bring scores of people into treatment, they found.

Carefully monitored "safe consumption" spaces, which are not legal in the United States but have been used in dozens of cities around the world, provide a clean indoor environment in which people can use their own drugs with medical personnel on hand to reverse overdoses should they occur. These facilities serve as access points to substance use disorder treatment and other vital social services for drug users, such as medical care and housing.

The authors of the study, published this month in the Harm Reduction Journal, say that the findings add economic evidence to the body of research that already links such spaces to a reduction in fatal drug overdoses and an increase in people seeking treatment. "Safe consumption" spaces are especially critical right now: Last year, the United States hit a record for the number of people who have died from drug overdose, and fentanyl, a more dangerous and powerful drug than heroin, is increasingly being added to heroin in places like Baltimore.

"No one has ever died from an overdose in a safe consumption space," says the study's senior author, Susan G. Sherman, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Bloomberg School. "Thousands of lives have been saved. There are lots of doors people can walk through when they are addicted to drugs. We want them to walk through a door that may eventually lead to successful treatment -- and keep them alive until they are ready for that."

Says Amos Irwin, MA, the study's lead author and program director at the Law Enforcement Action Partnership in Washington, D.C.: "Today, thousands of Baltimoreans are risking their lives to inject drugs instead of seeking treatment. We estimate that more than 100 new people would enter treatment every year if the city had a supervised injection facility. Bringing these people into a safe space actually helps reduce drug use, not increase it."

For their study, the researchers looked at the costs of operating a safe consumption space in Vancouver, the only one in North America. Then they estimated the impact on several health outcomes, based on Baltimore data.

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They determined that running a 1,000-square-foot, 13-booth space in Baltimore for 18 hours a day would cost $1.8 million a year. Insite, the Vancouver facility, serves about 2,100 unique individuals a month, who perform roughly 180,000 injections per year in a space the same size.

Based on research done at Insite, they estimate that a Baltimore facility would generate $7.8 million in annual savings, preventing four HIV infections, 21 hepatitis C infections, 374 days in the hospital for skin and soft-tissue infections, six overdose deaths, 108 overdose-related ambulance calls, 78 emergency room visits and 27 overdose-related hospitalizations.

At the same time, an estimated 121 additional people would enter treatment.

"Six million dollars is a lot of money for one facility to save," Irwin says. "It is almost a third of Baltimore City's entire budget for HIV, sexually-transmitted infections and substance abuse treatment and prevention."

A bill allowing safe consumption spaces failed in the Maryland General Assembly this year. Last month, the Massachusetts Medical Society recommended opening safe consumption spaces in that state. These supervised injection facilities are a widely used public health intervention in 11 countries, mostly in Europe.

Sherman says many drug users in Baltimore are injecting on the streets or in abandoned houses, exposing them to possible violence, arrest and overdose death. Safe consumption spaces would provide clinical supervision and a clean environment, and they allow health professionals to connect drug users to critical health services. Such spaces maintain a strict prohibition on drug sharing or selling. These programs are not condoning illicit behavior, she says. They are meeting people where they are and connecting them with lifesaving resources.

The researchers did not estimate how many safe consumption spaces would be needed to service Baltimore's drug using population.

"We know what doesn't work when it comes to the so-called 'War on Drugs' in the United States because we have an opioid epidemic that is only getting worse," Sherman says. "The stakes are even higher now with so much heroin and other drugs adulterated with fentanyl. You can keep doing what you are doing or you can try something that has been proven by evidence and is considered usual care in a dozen nations."
Fathers with toddler daughters are more attentive and responsive to those daughters' needs than fathers with toddler sons are to the needs of those sons, according to brain scans and recordings of the parents' daily interactions with their kids.

Fathers of toddlers also sang more often to their daughters and spoke more openly about emotions, including sadness, possibly because they are more accepting of girls' feelings than boys', according to the study, published in the American Psychological Association's journal Behavioral Neuroscience. Fathers of sons engaged in more rough-and-tumble play and used more achievement-related language (e.g., words such as proud, win and top) when talking to their sons. Fathers of daughters used more analytical language (e.g., words such as all, below and much), which has been linked to future academic success.

"If the child cries out or asks for Dad, fathers of daughters responded to that more than did fathers of sons," said lead researcher Jennifer Mascaro, PhD, of Emory University. "We should be aware of how unconscious notions of gender can play into the way we treat even very young children."

The research examined whether the varying ways in which fathers treat sons or daughters may be influenced by different brain responses to male or female children. The study couldn't determine if those different brain responses meant fathers are somehow hard wired through genetics or evolution to treat sons differently than they treat daughters or if the fathers were conforming to societal norms relating to gender.

Studies about parenting often are biased in the lab because participants give answers that they think are expected of them or are not aware of their own behavior. The researchers, from Emory University and the University of Arizona, avoided that problem by taking their study out of the lab and into the real world. The study used data from 52 fathers of toddlers (30 girls, 22 boys) in the Atlanta area who agreed to clip a small handheld computer onto their belts and wear it for one weekday and one weekend day. The device randomly turned on for 50 seconds every nine minutes to record any sound during the 48-hour period. Some of the fathers in the study had more than one child, but the study focused only on their interactions with one son or daughter.

"People act shockingly normal when they are wearing it," Mascaro said. "They kind of forget they are wearing it or they say to themselves, what are the odds it's on right now."

The fathers also were told to leave the device charging in their child's room at night so any nighttime interactions with their children could be recorded, said Mascaro, an assistant professor in Family and Preventative Medicine at the Emory School of Medicine.

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Fathers also underwent functional MRI brain scans while viewing photos of an unknown adult, an unknown child, and their own child with happy, sad or neutral facial expressions. Fathers of daughters had greater responses to their daughters' happy facial expressions in areas of the brain important for visual processing, reward, emotion regulation, and face processing than fathers of sons. In a finding that the researchers hadn't predicted, the brains of the fathers of boys responded more robustly to their sons' neutral facial expressions, possibly because fathers are responding to the more ambiguous emotional displays of their sons. There was no significant difference in the fathers' brain responses to sad facial expressions from sons or daughters.

In daily interactions, fathers of daughters used more language referencing the child's body (e.g., words such as belly, foot and tummy) relative to fathers of sons. Previous research has shown that pre-adolescent girls are more likely than boys to report body dissatisfaction and lower self-esteem relating to body image.

The study focused on fathers because there is less research about fathers' roles in rearing young children than mothers, Mascaro said. The study couldn't make any definitive long-term connections between the varying treatment of sons or daughters as toddlers and future outcomes for those children, but the research explored some possible links that may offer some recommendations for fathers. Since the research was conducted in the United States, the study also couldn't draw any conclusions about fathers in other cultures with different societal norms for fathers.

If fathers are more present and attentive to daughters and open to expressing emotions, that may help girls develop more empathy than boys, so fathers of sons could take the same approach as fathers of daughters, Mascaro said. "The fact that fathers may actually be less attentive to the emotional needs of boys, perhaps despite their best intentions, is important to recognize," she said.

Other research has found that restricted emotions in adult men is linked to depression, decreased social intimacy, marital dissatisfaction and a lower likelihood of seeking mental health treatment.

Previous research also has shown that rough-and-tumble play by parents can help young children better regulate their emotions. Fathers of daughters may want to engage in more rough-and-tumble play with girls, even though such play is more often associated with boys, Mascaro said.

"Most dads are trying to do the best they can and do all the things they can to help their kids succeed, but it's important to understand how their interactions with their children might be subtly biased based on gender," Mascaro said.
Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) today announced six boxes of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) to study the impact of weightlessness on the heart. The fruit flies are scheduled to launch on June 1, 2017, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center and will travel to the ISS via a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Living in zero gravity is known to negatively impact the body's cardiovascular system. Roughly 75% of disease-causing genes in humans are also found in the fruit fly, and most of the components found in human heart cells are also found in the fly heart, thus providing a model for studying cardiovascular changes. A total of 1,800 fruit flies will travel to the ISS and reside in space for one month. Both eggs and parents that will lay eggs onboard the ISS will be sent, enabling study of flies that have spent their whole life in an almost zero -- microgravity -- environment. Wild type ("normal") flies and those that lack an important ion channel, which models a heart disorder, will travel to the ISS.

"As interest in space travel grows -- for both research and commercial aims -- it is increasingly important to understand the effect a microgravity environment can have on the human heart for both the traveler and their potential future children," said Karen Ocorr, Ph.D., assistant professor of the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at SBP. "This experiment will help reveal the short- and long-term effects of space travel on the cardiovascular system, using fruit flies as a model. Once we understand these molecular changes we can work on creating interventions that could help protect the heart in space, and potentially help us treat cardiovascular disorders in humans on Earth as well."

Once the fruit flies return from the ISS, comprehensive measurements of cardiac function will be taken, including climbing assays to measure skeletal muscle function, heart function assays as well as genetic assays. Generational studies of the offspring of the flies that traveled to space will be conducted, which will help reveal the impact space travel could have for individuals considering having children.

"We know that environmental stress can cause epigenetic changes -- modifications to our DNA -- that are passed along to future generations," said Ocorr. "In addition to potential therapeutic value, studying the progeny of these fruit flies will help us better understand the effects space travel could have on our children or grandchildren."

A preliminary experiment was competitively selected for launch to the space station by the Space Florida International Space Station Research Competition and was supported by NanoRacks, and the Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). The current mission is funded by a research grant from NASA to Rolf Bodmer, Ph.D., and Karen Ocorr, Ph.D., professors at SBP and Sharmila Battacharya, Ph.D., from NASA-Ames Research Center.
In a small, randomized Phase I/II clinical trial (SAT1), researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine say a 100-year-old drug called suramin, originally developed to treat African sleeping sickness, was safely administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who subsequently displayed measurable, but transient, improvement in core symptoms of autism.

ASD encompasses a group of developmental disorders, often characterized by communication and language difficulties, repetitive behaviors and inability to socialize. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that ASD occurs in 1 in 68 children, with the condition 4 times more common in boys than girls. ASD has no single known cause, but may involve both genetic problems and environmental factors, such as viral infections, pollutants or complications during pregnancy. One of the aims of the SAT1 study was to test the cell danger hypothesis as a possible unifying theory that contributes to the pathogenesis of ASD.

Writing in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, first author Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues describe a novel double-blind, placebo-controlled safety study involving 10 boys, ages 5 to 14 years, all diagnosed with ASD.

Five of the 10 boys received a single, intravenous infusion of suramin, a drug originally developed in 1916 to treat trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and river blindness, both caused by parasites. The other five boys received a placebo. The trial followed earlier testing in a mouse model of autism in which a single dose of suramin temporarily reversed symptoms of the neurological disorder.

The results in humans were equally notable, though the purpose of the SAT1 trial was fundamentally to test the researchers' underlying theory about a unifying cause for autism and to assess the safety of suramin, which is not an approved treatment of ASD. In fact, there are no approved drugs to treat the core symptoms of ASD.

All five boys who received the suramin infusion displayed improvements in language and social behavior, restricted or repetitive behaviors and coping skills. Assessment of improvements was based upon observational examinations and interviews using standardized tests and questionnaires, such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2), the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Testing (EOWPWT), the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC), the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire (RBQ) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) questionnaire. To minimize misinterpretation of natural day-to-day variations in symptoms, parents were asked to mark a symptom as changed in the 6-week CGI only if the symptom lasted for at least one week.

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The researchers found that ADOS-2 scores were improved in the suramin treatment group at six weeks, but not in the placebo group. Specifically, ADOS-2 scores improved by -1.6 points in the suramin group, but did not change in the placebo. Children who have a score of 6 or lower in ADOS-2 may have milder symptoms but no longer meet the formal diagnostic criteria for ASD. A score of 7 to 8 indicates the child is on the autism spectrum. Nine and above classifies the child as autistic.

Suramin treatment was also associated with improvements in the ABC, ATEC and CGI measurements, but not RBQ. The most changed behaviors, the authors said, were social communication and play, speech and language, calm and focus, repetitive behaviors and coping skills.

Participating families also reported benefits among the children who received suramin. "We saw improvements in our son after suramin that we have never seen before," said the parent of a 14-year-old who had not spoken a complete sentence in 12 years.

"Within an hour after the infusion, he started to make more eye contact with the doctor and nurses in the room. There was a new calmness at times, but also more emotion at other times. He started to show an interest in playing hide-and-seek with his 16-year-old brother. He started practicing making new sounds around the house. He started seeking out his dad more.

"We have tried every new treatment out there for over 10 years. Nothing has come close to all the changes in language and social interaction and new interests that we saw after suramin. We saw our son advance almost three years in development in just six weeks."

Cell Danger Response

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Naviaux, who is co-director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at UC San Diego, believes that ASD -- and several other chronic conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome and some autoimmune disorders -- are caused by metabolic dysfunction or impaired communication between cells in the brain, gut and immune system.

Specifically, this dysfunction is caused by abnormal persistence of the cell danger response (CDR), a natural and universal cellular reaction to injury or stress. "The purpose of CDR is to help protect the cell and jump-start the healing process," said Naviaux, by essentially causing the cell to harden its membranes, cease interaction with neighbors and withdraw within itself until the danger has passed.

"But sometimes CDR gets stuck," Naviaux said. "This prevents completion of the natural healing cycle and can permanently alter the way the cell responds to the world. When this happens, cells behave as if they are still injured or in imminent danger, even though the original cause of the injury or threat has passed."

At the molecular level, cellular homeostasis or equilibrium is altered, creating an abnormal cellular response that leads to chronic disease. "When this happens during early child development," said Naviaux, "it causes autism and many other chronic childhood disorders."

Suramin works by inhibiting the signaling function of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a nucleotide or small molecule produced by cellular mitochondria and released from the cell as a danger signal. When CDR is activated, the effect of extracellular ATP is similar to a warning siren that never stops. Suramin inhibits the binding of ATP and similar molecules to key purinergic receptors, according to Naviaux. It silences the siren, "signaling the cellular war is over, the danger has passed and cells can return to 'peacetime' jobs like normal neurodevelopment, growth and healing."

"There is evidence, gathered over the past 10 to 15 years, that children with ASD can exhibit oxidative stress, an outcome of the cell danger response," said Pat Levitt, PhD, Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and W.M. Keck Provost Professor in Neurogenetics at Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. "This can impact how well neurons and circuits function. Why this would impose problems on certain circuits that mediate specific behaviors, such as social communication, is unclear, but this is why understanding how genetic risk and environmental factors combine to increase risk for autism spectrum disorder is important."

Levitt was not involved in the study.

Dramatic, but Temporary Benefit

"We had four non-verbal children in the study," said Naviaux, "two 6-year-olds and two 14-year-olds. The six-year-old and the 14-year-old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion. This did not happen in any of the children given the placebo."

Additionally, Naviaux said, "that during the time the children were on suramin, benefit from all their usual therapies and enrichment programs increased dramatically. Once suramin removed the roadblocks to development, the benefit from speech therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavioral analysis and even from playing games with other children during recess at school skyrocketed. Suramin was synergistic with their other therapies."

Naviaux and colleagues do not believe CDR is the cause of ASD, but rather a fundamental driver that combines with other factors, such as genetics or environmental toxins. And suramin, at this stage, is not the ultimate answer.

Unlike treatment for African sleeping sickness, which involves multiple, higher doses of suramin over a period of time and frequently results in a number of adverse side effects ranging from nausea and diarrhea to low blood pressure and kidney problems, researchers said the single, low dose of suramin used in the ASD trial produced no serious side effects beyond a passing skin rash.

But the therapeutic benefit of suramin was temporary: Improvements in the treated boys' cognitive functions and behaviors peaked and then gradually faded after several weeks as the single dose of suramin wore off.

The primary import of the trial's findings, said Naviaux, is that it points a way forward, that suramin should be tested in larger, more diverse cohorts of persons with ASD. (Naviaux said his research has been limited by costs; his lab is primarily supported through philanthropy.)

"This work is new and this type of clinical trial is expensive," he said. "We did not have enough funding to do a larger study. And even with the funding we were able to raise, we had to go $500,000 in debt to complete the trial."

Larger and longer trials would include multiple doses of suramin over longer periods of time, allowing researchers to map whether improvements continue or if uncommon side effects appear when participant numbers are greater.

If Not Suramin, Maybe Something Like It

Andrew W. Zimmerman, MD, a clinical professor of pediatrics and neurology at the UMass Memorial Medical Center who was not involved in the suramin trial but is conducting similar research, described the study results as "very encouraging for the field of autism, not only for the positive effects of suramin for the children who received the drug, but also for confirmation of the important 'cell danger response.'

"As the authors point out, many genetic variants have been found in ASD, but few have led to specific treatments. The CDR includes a number of metabolic pathways that may be affected by a number of genetic mutations or by environmental factors that have effects epigenetically -- beyond the genes themselves."

The Food and Drug Administration has not approved suramin for any therapeutic use in the United States. It is not commercially available. Naviaux noted that new trials could prove suramin is not an effective ASD treatment. Its benefits may prove too limited over the long term, he said, or an unacceptable safety issue might arise.

But "even if suramin itself is not the best antipurinergic drug for autism, our studies have helped blaze the trail for the development of new antipurinergic drugs that might be even better," said Naviaux. "Before our work, no one knew that purinergic signaling abnormalities were a part of autism. Now we do, and new drugs can be developed rationally and systematically."

Levitt at USC agreed: "The suramin pilot study is too small from which to draw specific conclusions about the treatment, but there is no doubt that the pilot study reports positive outcomes for all five children who received the medication. The findings provide a strong rationale for developing a larger study that can probe functional improvements in children in greater depth."

The potential financial cost of ASD treatment using suramin cannot yet be determined for several reasons, the study authors said. First, additional trials are required to determine the effective dosage and frequency for different types of patients. Suramin is used much differently for treating sleeping sickness, but the cost for a one month course of treatment is modest: approximately $27. Second, the age of the drug means that, if approved, it would almost certainly result in cheaper, generic formulations, but there is no way to accurately predict how that would play out at this time.

John Rodakis, founder and president of the N of One: Autism Research Foundation, which provided funding support for the study, said that despite all of the necessary caveats and need for additional research, the findings are "promising, hopeful work for a community of affected families that have been given little in the way of answers by medicine."
Bir Lahlou (Liberated Zones), May 7, 2017 (SPS) The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Brahim Ghali, has addressed a message of condolences to the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, in which he expressed deep grief and sorrow of the government and people of the Saharawi Republic following the tragic death of former Mauritanian President Ali Ould Mohamed Fal.

"On this sad occasion, allow me, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people and Government of the Saharawi Republic, to transmit to Your Excellency and through you, to the brotherly people of Mauritania and to the bereaved family, our condolences and sincere sympathy ", wrote the President of the Republic in his message to Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.

"With passing away of former President Ali Ould Mohamed Fal, brotherly Mauritania has lost one of its sons, who sacrificed themselves for the service of their people through the various stages and experiences of transformation that the country witnessed" he added. (SPS)

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Wilaya of Awserd (Refugee Camps), May 21, 2017 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, praised the positions of the African Union towards the maneuvers of the Moroccan occupation state, which showed its adherence to its principles and resolutions and its determination to complete the liberation of Africa, with the decolonization of Western Sahara, the last colony on the continent.

The President of the Republic praised, in a speech during supervising the commemoration of the 44th anniversary of the outbreak of the armed struggle, brothers in the African continent, who has firmly defended the issue of Western Sahara as an African issue.

The African Union, which adheres to its position, is today subjected to a frenzied attack by the Moroccan occupying state, which seeks by all means to undermine its unity, cohesion and credibility, added the President of the Republic. (SPS)

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Voters of remote Bajura village demand rice before election

The people in remote Wai region of Bajura district have requested the political parties and their leaders to ensure food security before holding the second phase of local election.
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In early 2017 the Chinese airborne force, the 35,000 personnel of the 15th Airborne Corps, underwent a major reorganization in which the three airborne divisions and an aviation brigade became a force of nine separate brigades (six airborne, one special operations, one support and one aviation brigade). The airborne divisions no longer existed as the brigades report directly to corps headquarters. The headquarters and support units of the three divisions have been reorganized and assigned to the brigades or Corps headquarters. This makes it easier to rapidly deploy airborne forces and copies a practice that many other nations have adopted over the last few decades.

The Chinese have had some airborne units since the 1950s and these belonged to the air force. The 15th Airborne Corps was created in the 1960s and was always considered a strategic reserve unit. By the late 1980s China had enough air transports to move an entire division (about 10,000 troops) anywhere in China. At the time such a movement took weeks to organize and monopolized most of the air transport aircraft the military had.

Moving a division anywhere by air on short notice was first done in 2008 when one division was sent to Sichuan province to assist in earthquake relief. The early large scale movements by air movements were experimental. A lot of mistakes were made but they were fixed and by 2010 battalions and brigades could be moved reliably by air on a regular basis. Since 2006 as the air force acquired more, and larger, transports so that more troops, as well as vehicles (some armored) could quickly be delivered by air.

Since 2009 the 15th Airborne Corps has been receiving more helicopters and practicing tactical movements via helicopter for units as large as brigades. These exercises are becoming more frequent, as more of the 15th Airborne Corps paratroops battalions were trained to undertake these helicopter movements and assaults. These operations would be a major feature of an attempt to take Taiwan by force or quickly reinforcing remote Tibet in case there were a local rebellion. Another threat is the newly created Indian Mountain Corps that is based on the border and could cross the border unexpectedly in the 2020s, when this new Indian units reaches full strength of 80,000 troops.

Since the Cold War ended in 1991 most nations have converted all or part of their ground forces to a "brigade-centric" organization. This approach makes the brigades, not the divisions, the primary combat unit. The new brigades have more support units permanently attached, and can be more easily sent off to fight by themselves. In the past, doing this involved quickly adding a lot of support units to the brigade. But the new organization makes small support units part of the brigades, and, more importantly, the brigades train using these support units and learns to work well with them. The divisions still exist, but operate more like the corps has since the early 18th century; coordinating the actions of a few divisions and only having a few support units under its command. With a brigade centric force the slightly larger brigades are treated like the original 18th century divisions. As far back as World War II it was noted that technology was making it practical to form brigades that were capable of independent operations. Adoption of the new approach speeded up greatly in the 1990s as most armed forces reduced the number of personnel they had at the same time a lot of new technology became available that aided independent operations of smaller units. The U.S. Army began this reorganization in 2005, despite the fact that most of its ground forces were committed to combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. Marine Corps had already been successfully using a brigade-centric organization for decades. After the U.S. Army adopted brigades Russia followed as did most Western armies and now China is doing the same, starting with its best trained and equipped infantry units.

Currently the 15th Airborne Corps is a major component in the new rapid reaction forces. China now has enough air transports (Il-76s, Yu-8s, Yu-7s) to move one of the 11,000 man airborne divisions to anywhere in China within 24 hours. Since 2009 the 15th Airborne Corps has also been training a growing percentage (currently about half) of its paratroopers to carry out one or more specialized operations. This involves things like operating from helicopters as airmobile troops or learning how to jump in the thin air of Tibet and quickly get used to strenuous activity at high altitudes. Operating in Tibet is a particular challenge because most of Tibet is a unique high altitude (4,000 meters/14,000 feet) plateau. That means parachutists have to jump from a higher altitude on account of the thinner air and the longer time it takes for the parachute to open. The reduced air pressure also causes altitude sickness for many troops, especially after something as strenuous as a parachute jump, and the frantic activity following the landing. The Chinese Army wanted to find out how well prepared it is to deal with these problems. Since the late 1990s the Chinese Army has adapted. This process accelerated after 2008. Back then there was an uprising in Tibet and many of the troops sent in soon fell ill from altitude sickness. Since then acclimatization training detects those troops who would get ill quickly, and the worst of these are kept closer to sea level. Rapid reaction troops were given priority if going through the high altitude acclimatization process.
Hacker From Google Ports Windows Defender To Linux To Demonstrate New Tools Capabilities

Windows being the de facto operating system of the world is also a hot bed for security research. Microsoft has for years had a system where researchers could notify the company of new exploits  termed zero-day exploits  to patch the same. These exploits at times throw up interesting research just like Tavis Ormandy has done recently with his fuzzing tool.

Surprise, I ported Windows Defender to Linux. ?https://t.co/7eP48O87Vi  Tavis Ormandy (@taviso) May 23, 2017

Fuzz Testing

Fuzz testing or fuzzing is a software testing approach wherein invalid or unexpected data is fed to a computer program that is then monitored for unexpected behavior such as crashes or memory leaks. The technique that Ormandy has worked on is in the domain of vulnerability scanning by injecting data directly into a DLL file ( a Windows file format ). Fuzzing however, is better utilized on Linux since the open-source OS is gifted with better tools to deal with interconnected components  the lack of which makes the process much more complicated on Windows.

Distributed, scalable fuzzing on Windows can be challenging and inefficient. This is especially true for endpoint security products, which use complex interconnected components that span across kernel and user space. This often requires spinning up an entire virtualized Windows environment to fuzz them or collect coverage data, Ormandy explains.

The Development

Therefore, Ormandy developed a tool for Linux that included a library that was capable of loading and running functions from a Windows DLL file. He has put together a demo of this tool  which also required him to port Windows Defender  the default anti-virus on Windows 8.1 onward onto Linux. Ormandy has provided a detailed explanation of his tool along with details of the demo involving Windows Defender stating, The intention is to allow scalable and efficient fuzzing of self-contained Windows libraries on Linux. Good candidates might be video codecs, decompression libraries, virus scanners, image decoders, and so on.

mpengine.dll, which is a core component of the Malware Protection Engine, also known as MsMpEng, is one of the primary targets of exploits and therefore bringing it onto Linux for fuzzing enabled him to examine it for possible vulnerabilities  explains the Google security researcher. You can check out the demo for yourself here.

Source: Softpedia
White-rumped vulture population rising: Survey

Number of critically endangered White-rumped vulture in the country has risen in the last four years, according the latest survey report.
Vipshop Holdings Limited operates online platforms for various brands in the People's Republic of China. It operates in Vip.com, Shan Shan Outlets, and Others segments. The company offers women's apparel, such as casual wear, jeans, dresses, outerwear, lingerie, pajamas, and maternity clothes; men's apparel comprising casual and smart-casual T-shirts, polo shirts, jackets, pants, and underwear; and skin care and cosmetic products, including cleansers, lotions, face and body creams, face masks, sunscreen, foundations, lipsticks, eye shadows, and other cosmetics-related items. It also provides shoes and bags, which comprises casual and formal shoes, purses, satchels, luggage, duffel bags, and wallets; handbags; apparel, gears and accessories, furnishings and decor, toys, and games for boys, girls, infants, and toddlers; sportswear, sports gear, and footwear for various sporting activities; home furnishings, such as bed and bath products, home decor, kitchen and tabletop items, and home appliances; and consumer electronic products. In addition, the company offers food and snacks, beverages, fresh produce, and pet goods; beauty products; and internet finance services, including consumer and supplier financing, and microcredit. Vipshop Holdings Limited provides its branded products through its vip.com and vipshop.com online platforms, as well as through its internet website and cellular phone application. Further, it offers warehousing, logistics, product procurement, research and development, technology development, and consulting services; software development and information technology support solutions; and supply chain services. Vipshop Holdings Limited was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, the People's Republic of China.
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. was founded in 1869 by Marcus Goldman as an investment bank catering to institutions and businesses. Among the firm's first products are the revolutionary use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs which opened a new method of finance for business and industry.

The original firm expanded to Goldman Sachs in 1882 with the inclusion of son-in-law Samuel Sachs and again in 1885 with a son and another son-in-law. The firm joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1896 expanding into trading of its own and in 1898 it was worth $1.6 million. The company began its work in the IPO market in 1906 with the initial public offering of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and then moved on to Ford and other prominent names of the time.

The 1930s brings a change of leadership and a new direction for the firm. The company shifted toward a purer play on investment banking and embarks on a campaign of acquisition that lasted until the present day. The company doesnt go public itself until 1999 and from that point on it will change into a bank holding company that not only offers investment banking services but takes deposits too, and in 2016 the company added consumer banking to its list of services.

Today, Goldman Sachs is a financial institution that provides a range of financial services for corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals globally. The company operates through four segments that include Investment Banking, Global Markets, Asset Management, and Consumer & Wealth Management. According to US banking regulations, it is systemically important to the financial health of America.

The company is headquartered in New York, New York, and operates 6 regional headquarters as well. Regional headquarters are located in financial hotspots such as London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bangalore, and Warsaw. Among its many prominent CEOs are John Corzine and Hank Paulson who both went on to successful work in government.

The company's Investment Banking segment provides a full range of financial advisory services as well as underwriting for the public markets. The financial advisory services include but are not limited to strategic advisory for mergers and acquisitions, divestiture, restructuring, and spin-offs. This segment is also engaged in middle-market lending and transaction banking. Underwriting services include IPOs, preferred stock, debt instruments, and bridge loans.

Goldman Sachs Global Markets segment facilitates market transactions for institutions, banks, brokerages, corporations, and governments. Services include execution, derivatives, financing, clearing, settlement, and custody.

The Asset Management segment manages client portfolios across the investment spectrum while the Consumer & Wealth Management segment provides advisory and banking services to consumers.
AGCO Corporation manufactures and distributes agricultural equipment and related replacement parts worldwide. It offers horsepower tractors for row crop production, soil cultivation, planting, land leveling, seeding, and commercial hay operations; utility tractors for small- and medium-sized farms, as well as for dairy, livestock, orchards, and vineyards; and compact tractors for small farms, specialty agricultural industries, landscaping, equestrian, and residential uses. The company also provides grain storage bins and related drying and handling equipment systems; seed-processing systems; swine and poultry feed storage and delivery; ventilation and watering systems; and egg production systems and broiler production equipment. In addition, it offers round and rectangular balers, loader wagons, self-propelled windrowers, forage harvesters, disc mowers, spreaders, rakes, tedders, and mower conditioners for harvesting and packaging vegetative feeds used in the beef cattle, dairy, horse, and renewable fuel industries. Further, the company provides implements, including disc harrows leveling seed beds and mixing chemicals with the soils; heavy tillage to break up soil and mix crop residue into topsoil; field cultivators that prepare smooth seed bed and destroy weeds; drills for small grain seeding; planters and other planting equipment; and loaders. Additionally, it offers combines for harvesting grain crops, such as corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice; and application equipment, such as self-propelled, three- and four-wheeled vehicles, and related equipment for liquid and dry fertilizers and crop protection chemicals, and for after crops emerge from the ground, as well as produces diesel engines, gears, and generating sets. The company markets its products under the Challenger, Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson, and Valtra brands through a network of independent dealers and distributors. AGCO Corporation was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia.
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 - Wichita II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - Wichita LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Alexandria Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Bossier City Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Lake Charles Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Shreveport Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana  TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana  TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine - Bangor PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine - Lewiston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Cheverly PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Cumberland PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Frederick PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Laurel PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Rockville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Brockton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Dorchester PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Framingham PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Holyoke PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Natick PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Norwood PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Springfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Stoughton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Taunton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Worcester PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Alpena PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - 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 - Hackensack PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - Paterson PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - Clovis LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - Rio Rancho LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New York PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Burlington PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Clyde PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Elizabeth City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Jacksonville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - New Bern PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Rocky Mount PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Dakota  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Dakota  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Akron Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Batavia Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Canton Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Cincinnati II Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Cincinnati III Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Cincinnati Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Circleville Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Columbus II Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Columbus Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Dover Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - East Liverpool Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Fairfield Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Martins Ferry Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Westerville Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Youngstown Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio  TCG Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio  TCS Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oklahoma - Oklahoma City LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oklahoma  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oklahoma  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oregon - Portland PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oregon  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oregon  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Pennsylvania P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Pennsylvania  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Pennsylvania  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Rhode Island  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Rhode Island  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Richland County Ltd., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of San Luis Obispo County Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina - Aiken LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina - Rock Hill LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Dakota  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Dakota  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee  Columbia PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee  Franklin PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee  TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee  TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Amarillo PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Atlanta PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Austin II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Austin PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Bryan PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Burnet PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Corpus Christi II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Corpus Christi PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Cypress PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Dallas PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - El Paso II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - El Paso III PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - El Paso PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Fort Worth II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Fort Worth PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Fredericksburg PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Houston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Humble PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Kerrville PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Kyle PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Livingston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Lubbock PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Lufkin PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Mount Pleasant PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Plainview PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Rockwall PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Round Rock PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio III PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio IV PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio V PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio VI PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio VII PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Marcos PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Texarkana PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Tyler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Utah  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Utah  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Vermont  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Vermont  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Alexandria LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Front Royal II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Front Royal LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Mechanicsville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Midlothian LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Richmond II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Richmond LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Winchester LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia  TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia  TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Arlington PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Auburn PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Bellingham PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Bremerton PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Burien PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Coupeville PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Enumclaw PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Federal Way PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Gig Harbor PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Lakewood PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Mount Vernon PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Puyallup PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Tacoma II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Tacoma III PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Tacoma PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Vancouver PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington County LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia  Martinsburg PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia  South Charleston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia  TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia  TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia  Wheeling PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wisconsin Ltd., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming - 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. 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NEW YORKSears Holdings Corp. rallied after posting its first quarterly profit since 2015, bringing a ray of optimism to a retail chain struggling to regain its relevance.

First-quarter net income amounted to $244 million (U.S.), compared with a loss of $471 million a year earlier. The gain reflects efforts by Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert to sell assets and raise cash. But its main business  running the Sears and Kmart department stores  still struggled in the latest quarter. When excluding one-time items, the company posted a loss.

Investors took the results as a sign that Lamperts turnaround bid is making some headway. The 54-year-old hedge fund manager, who is also Searss largest investor, has scrambled to wring money from the sprawling chains real estate and close stores. On Tuesday, the company made a deal that pushed the due date for $400 million in debt from July to January. It also off-loaded some of its pension obligations.

While this was certainly a challenging quarter for our company, it was also one that clearly demonstrated our commitment to return Sears Holdings to solid financial footing, Lampert said in a statement. We recognize that we need to accelerate our efforts to improve our operational performance.

The stock climbed as much as 27 per cent to $9.45 in New York trading, the biggest intraday gain since Feb. 10. The rally followed a 20-per-cent decline this year.

Searss sales remain in a dire state. Revenue fell 20 per cent to $4.3 billion in the latest period. And when earnings were adjusted for one-time items, the company posted a loss of $230 million, wider than the $199 million reported a year earlier.

Much of the revenue decline stemmed from Sears operating fewer stores. But the company also posted a comparable-store sales decline of 12 per cent  roughly twice as large as in the year-ago quarter. These so-called comp sales are a closely watched measure because they exclude stores that opened or closed in the previous year.

With a shrinking store base and less advertising, Sears remains in a worse position than it was a year ago, said Matt McGinley, an analyst at Evercore ISI.

Sears continues to be less relevant with potential customers, vendors and landlords, McGinley said. Theyre in a really tough spot from pretty much every angle.

Despite Searss rally, McGinley said he doesnt see much cause for optimism in the current results. He pointed to the almost $900 million in cash used for operating activities in the quarter, more than in the year-ago period.

The pace of revenue decline is accelerating, so hope for an operational turnaround seems farther away than ever, he said. Sears is stuck in this shrink-to-survive mode, where external liquidity or asset sales are required to offset the operating losses.

The first-quarter net income was the first profit since the second quarter of 2015, when the creation of a real estate investment trust generated about $2.7 billion for Sears.

Lampert has injected more than $1 billion in financing to bolster Sears. Over the years, hes sold or spun off assets to raise cash, including its Craftsman tool brand and Lands End clothing business. Hes also shuttered hundreds of stores.

Last month, Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears raised its annual cost-cutting target by 25 per cent, to $1.25 billion. It also forecast a first-quarter adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $190 million to $230 million.

In a blog posted on Thursday, Sears made a case for its continued relevance. The company pointed to its status as the largest home-services provider, along with its millions of customers.

Sears and Kmart continue to be two of the countrys most iconic retailers, the company said.

Read more:Sears reports fourth quarter loss despite increased same-store sales

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Robert Bosch GmbH, the worlds largest auto-parts supplier, was linked to emissions-cheating allegations against a fourth automaker on Thursday, raising questions about the German companys role in the scandal gripping the car industry.

Bosch and General Motors Co. are co-defendants in a lawsuit filed Thursday by owners of diesel-powered pickups who accused the automaker of using illegal software, known as a defeat device, to pass U.S. emissions tests. Bosch participated not just in the development of the defeat device, but in the scheme to prevent U.S. regulators from uncovering the devices true functionality, according to the lawsuit filed in Detroit federal court.

We believe Bosch was the enabler, said attorney Steve Berman, a managing partner at Hagens Berman whos represented vehicle owners in lawsuits against all four carmakers and Bosch over diesel cheating. They provided the software in a format where manufacturers and Bosch could work together to calibrate their engines to cheat emissions tests.

Read more:

U.S. government sues Fiat Chrysler for alleged emissions cheating

Volkswagen Canada resumes selling diesel cars at centre of emissions-testing scandal END

Volkswagen emissions lawsuit in Canada reaches $2.1B settlement

The technology was so sophisticated that it could recognize when a car was being tested in a lab or smog station to feign clean emissions and compliance with pollution standards, according to U.S. regulators.

Bosch takes the allegations of manipulation of the diesel software very seriously, the Stuttgart-based parts supplier said in an emailed statement. Bosch is co-operating with the continuing investigations in various jurisdictions, and is defending its interests in the litigation.

Its the fourth time in less than two years that automakers using Boschs diesel engine software have been accused in court by regulators or vehicle owners of cheating on emissions tests. On Tuesday, the U.S. Justice Department accused Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV  which also uses Bosch engine software  of rigging its cars to pass emissions tests.

GM spokesperson Pat Morrissey said Thursdays suit is baseless and its vehicles comply with environmental standards. Fiat Chrysler said on Tuesday that it intends to defend itself in the Justice Department lawsuit and denied any wilful wrongdoing.

Another Bosch user, Volkswagen AG, admitted in 2015 to flouting pollution rules and has committed to spending more than $24.5 billion paying fines and penalties, including buybacks, across North America. Car owners also alleged in a 2016 lawsuit that Daimler AGs Mercedes-Benz used defeat devices. That lawsuit was thrown out but then amended and re-filed in December, adding Bosch as a defendant.

Mercedes-Benz has denied any wrongdoing, but earlier this year suspended seeking certification for 2017 diesel vehicles citing the significant increase in effort needed to win approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In each case, the vehicles used Boschs EDC-17 control unit, a computer used to regulate the diesel engines operation and control emissions, according to the GM lawsuit. That chip is a good enabler for manufacturers to employ defeat devices as it enables the software to detect conditions when emissions controls can be detected, according to the lawsuit.

Although this case is not about Volkswagen, Boschs history with Volkswagen provides background and support for its participation in the racketeering of which Bosch and GM were participants, the GM truck owners claimed.

In the VW case, vehicle owners accused Bosch of being an active participant in a massive, decade-long conspiracy with VW, according to court filings. Bosch didnt admit wrongdoing but agreed to pay $327.5 million to end the class-action in February.

After diligently balancing all aspects, we decided to settle in this case, Bosch Chief Executive Volkmar Denner said at the time in a statement. Bosch is in the middle of the biggest transformation of the companys history. We want to devote all our attention and resources to that change.

SHARE:
Giant tech companies are fighting over the technology in court. Startups around the world are racing to develop new versions of it. And engineers say it is essential to making autonomous cars safe.

The obscure object of desire: lidar.

We believe it will be the basis for autonomous driving, said Guillaume Devauchelle, who oversees innovation at Valeo, a major parts supplier to automakers.

The technology, which uses near-infrared light to detect the shape of objects around it, is the centrepiece of an intense court fight in California between Uber and Waymo, the self-driving business operated by Googles parent, Alphabet. In the case, Waymo accuses a former Google engineer, Anthony Levandowski, of stealing trade secrets about the companys lidar designs for his own autonomous driving startup  which he sold to Uber for nearly $700 million (U.S.).

Read more:

Uber opening Toronto research hub for driverless car technology

Uber self-driving car crash comes amid fierce debate on regulations

As Uber stumbles, Lyft and Waymo team up on self-driving cars

Lidar  pronounced LIE-dar  is shorthand for light detection and ranging. It is a type of sensor that is at the heart of many autonomous car designs and is critical to several worldwide high-resolution mapping efforts. The same technology is used to delineate terrain from airplanes and detect speeding violations.

The advantage of lidar is that it can generate precise three-dimensional images of everything from cars to trees to cyclists in a variety of environments and under a variety of lighting conditions. While autonomous car designs use numerous sensors, including ultrasonic, radar and video camera components, lidar has unique abilities. Unlike cameras, for example, lidar cannot be fooled by shadows or blinded by bright sunlight.

The biggest hurdle to widespread lidar adoption is an economic one, and that is where the battle is being waged.

When Google initially started its autonomous vehicle research eight years ago, the lidar sensors it used cost roughly $75,000. Those sensors were made by Velodyne Lidar, an industry leader. Velodyne declined to say what the current pricing is for such systems, but Waymos chief executive, John Krafcik, said in a recent presentation that his company had reduced the cost of its lidar system by 90 per cent.

But even at $7,500, such systems are seen as too expensive to meet automakers demands.

Car companies want it to cost $100 and perform 10 times better, be smaller  and very reliable, said Omer Keilaf, chief executive of Innoviz Technologies, a lidar developer based in Israel. So theres a big vacuum in the industry right now.

The race to fill that void is largely focused on producing solid-state lidar systems, which would shrink the size of the sensors, eliminate moving parts involved in the optical mechanisms and enable the kind of mass manufacturing that could bring costs down, said Hongbo Zhang, a research associate at Virginia Tech who is working on a lidar design. Established automotive suppliers, such as Velodyne and Valeo; technology companies like Waymo and Uber and relative newcomers like Innoviz, LeddarTech and Quanergy all have their sights set on making less expensive sensors.

Solid-state lidars tend to have a reduced field of view, about 120 degrees compared with the 360-degree view offered by rooftop models. So to create a cocoon around the car, you need to integrate four to six solid-state lidar sensors, said Marc A. Morin, a spokesperson for LeddarTech.

But most of the researchers working on these designs still believe they can produce them for much lower prices, and Hyundai has demonstrated in its Ioniq autonomous test cars how such sensors could be made less conspicuous and concealed in the bumpers and roof pillars of vehicles.

Luminar Technologies, a lidar company that recently came out of stealth mode, is focusing on improving the performance of sensors by extending the effective range of lidar past 200 metres. (Top-of-the-line sensors now have a range of 120 metres.) Austin Russell, Luminars chief executive, said the company accomplished the longer range by using a more sensitive receiver, as well as a more powerful light output that remains safe enough to avoid damaging peoples vision.

Velodyne, which says it is the only current third-party lidar supplier for fully autonomous vehicles now being tested, is well aware that startups are gunning for its business. Velodyne is working on its own solid-state Velarray lidar sensor, said Mike Jellen, Velodyne president, and it plans to start mass-producing them next year in a 200,000-square-foot factory in San Jose, California.

While there has been considerable speculation about how Velodyne will face the potential price competition, Jellen declined to estimate how much the new sensors might cost, saying only that a complete lidar sensor package for future vehicles might be priced in the low thousands per vehicle.

Other companies building complete autonomous driving packages expect prices to fall faster.

In five years, for ride-sharing cars, it could be an $8,000 option, said Jeffrey Owens, chief technology officer for Delphi. Delphi recently announced it was working with Intel, BMW and Mobileye on an autonomous driving platform. In 2025, it could be $5,000, he said.

The problem is that were still in AI learning mode and only buying in quantities of a couple thousand, said Jellen, referring to artificial intelligence. The problem is, the market isnt there yet.

There are also some technical kinks that need to be ironed out with new systems. Different versions of lidar paint images of the world around them in different ways, said Zhang at Virginia Tech. That means different lidar sensors from different companies cannot simply be exchanged for one another on an autonomous BMW or Ford vehicle. How a car is trained and learns will partly depend on the specific type of lidar used.

Despite these challenges, Keilaf of Innoviz and many others say there will not be fully autonomous cars without lidar  and it will have to be cheap.

It will also have to meet exceptionally high standards.

An autonomous vehicle thats 99 per cent safe wont be good enough, said Russell of Luminar. This is mission critical. You cant afford to miss a single object because that object could be a person.

SHARE:
Stephanie Little made a New Years resolution to write a diary. But instead, on Jan. 1, 2017 she decided to share someone elses, releasing an excerpt on social media each day.

As Little began her own diary, she found it difficult to write consistently. Then she remembered three diaries she bought for about $40 at the St. Lawrence Sunday Antique Market two years before.

Written by an unmarried, 27-year-old Toronto woman during the Great Depression, they detail her daily life  cooking and cleaning, working at department stores such as Kents, setting her hair, going to the Georgian Room to see the latest fashions and listening to Empire Club of Canada speakers on the radio.

It was really the coolest thing Id read in ages and I thought other people would think so, too, Little said. She wanted to share this glimpse into the citys history so she set up a Twitter account @_Diary_Dear__ and an Instagram account, @DiaryDear1938. On Jan. 1, she sent out her first tweet, a line from a diary entry dated Jan. 1, 1938: I hope we all have health and happiness this year.

Sharing the womans diary  something most people dont expect to become public  wasnt something Little took lightly. She had concerns about sharing personal thoughts of someone who hadnt meant for their words to be read by others, let alone posted online.

The ethics of sharing someone elses personal life after death was highlighted recently in the podcast S-Town, which detailed the life of an eccentric and outspoken man in Woodstock, Ala., before and after his death. In the podcast, journalist Brian Reed uses voice interviews he did with John B. McLemore to tell a story about a small town. He then shares intimate details gathered from friends, family and acquaintances after McLemores death to make the story more about McLemore.

The ethics of the S-Town podcast have been scrutinized in numerous publications from Time magazine to the Atlantic to the Guardian newspaper. Articles explored questions of who owns the rights to someone elses personal history and what are the implications of making that public. Some argued that the podcast shouldnt have been made because McLemore was unable to give consent for recordings of his voice to be published. Others asked whether the art of the podcast was worth the pain it may have caused the town and those who knew McLemore. Overall, the podcast sparked the debate of how private information becomes public property in the digital age.

Little struggled with the ethics of making the diary public and settled on sharing it anonymously.

I just felt conflicted, Little said. When you write a diary, youre not expecting it to be on the Internet ... I had them a while before I made that decision.

She thought it would interest other people to read about Toronto from a historical perspective. And since for the most part, the diary reads like an activity log, she felt nothing was too personal to share with online readers  except for her name.

Since that initial tweet, Little has sent more than 230 posts on each platform. And though she has a meagre number of followers  81 on Instagram and 30 on Twitter  the feedback has been positive  one follower even started listening to one of the Lux Radio Theater programs the diarist wrote about. (Broadway plays and films were adapted for Lux, a radio anthology series that started in 1934. American filmmaker Cecil B DeMille was one of the hosts and presented listeners with radio adaptations of films including Jane Eyre and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.)

The posts Little shared include details about the womans relationship with her mother, how she dressed and her circle of friends. Mom made a fuss over me wearing red velvet, she wrote on Feb. 9, 1938, so I wouldnt wear it. The womans personality also comes through in her description of others, for example when she refers to a man named Mr. Brown as the old horse.

Historian and Heritage Torontos plaques program co-ordinator Camille Begin said sharing the diaries through social media is an innovative way to get people interested in the citys history, as well as reflect on the ways were all creating our own histories.

We can draw parallels between this womans diary and our Twitter feeds and Facebook walls: we are all sharing little aspects of our lives that makes us happy, sad or proud, Begin said. Our Twitter feeds will, someday soon, be amazing sources for historians who want to know about our days, our emotions, or political beliefs.

Begin said the diaries are also valuable because information about womens daily domestic work was rarely recorded in traditional sources.

Her diary tells us a lot about food preparation, domestic chores and beauty habits, Begin said.

Begin, who writes about historical figures, said she generally waits until someone has been dead for around five years before publishing information about them so that we can appraise someones legacy in its entirety and not in the immediate shock of their death.

She says its important to involve the family of the deceased out of respect.

They knew their family member intimately and may be able to explain aspects of the historical record that may remain enigmatic otherwise. On the other hand, historians can provide context and interpret the sources. So, really its a back-and-forth, Begin said.

Little did try to find the woman and her family, before she shared the entries online. She is still searching. She signed up for Ancestry.ca, a searchable family history record site, and discovered the diarist was living in the Bedford Park area with her sister, mother and stepfather in the late 1930s, around the time she began writing the diaries.

Little also learned that the woman would later marry and that she died in the 1980s. She knows the diarist had a son but has found no information about him other than his name.

So thats still a mystery, Little said.

After diving into all the research, Little felt a greater connection to the diarist. It was a lovely feeling to read about her walks to Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave., trips to Old City Hall or the Eglinton Theatre, Little says.

So who has the right to publish someones words after they die?

Canadian copyright law protects the intellectual property of an author  in this case a diary  for the authors entire life and for 50 years after death, says copyright expert and associate professor at Osgoode Hall law school Giuseppina DAgostino.

In the case of orphan works, which dont have parents to enforce the rights, an attempt must be made to contact owners or family members, says DAgostino. However, if no owners are around to seek legal action, there likely wouldnt be any repercussions.

DAgostino said once an applicant has made all reasonable efforts to locate the owner an application to have an orphan work approved for publication can be submitted to the Copyright Board of Canada.

In this case, Little owns the diary, but the womans words are still the authors property for about another 20 years. Little said she wont be seeking publishing permission and is not sure if shell post the remaining two diaries, written in 1940 and 1942. The diary she is posting currently ends on December 31, 1938.

But she said after her fruitless search for living relatives she is interested in speaking to friends of the diarist and hopes someone recognizes the writer through the posts.

I imagine this sassy lady going about her day, being a little bit harsh to people but in a funny way, she said. I would love it if someone knew her and (could say), Yes, shes the one that was just cracking everyone up all the time.

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When Joanna Griffiths launched Toronto-based Knixwear in 2013 her products were considered taboo. Absorbent panties designed for women to wear during their periods instead of pads or tampons were hard for buyers to wrap their heads around.

I think we were maybe a little bit ahead of the time in terms of messaging . . . Over the past couple years, periods and this whole topic has had a movement and has really made its way into the mainstream, 33-year-old Griffiths said.

Initially, she marketed her brand as activewear because of the lack of openness when discussing periods with buyers and the restrictive, sometimes negative, language associated with menstruation.

Read more:

Lingerie backlash gives GTAs Knix Wear an edge

Its time for women to shed their menstrual hypocrisy. Period: Teitel

Some women are ditching the tampon, turning to reusable menstrual products

But the underwear, which can soak up 15 mL of liquid, or the equivalent of roughly two regular tampons, have proven so popular  the company is on track to do $20 million in sales this year  that Griffiths is launching a line for teens this week.

In the last few years, the period industry has seen growth in innovation, as companies aim to make more sustainable products. Knixwear was followed by U.S. company Thinx in 2014.

And while menstrual cups, such as the DivaCup, were invented decades ago, there has been a recent resurgence with women who want to use organic or reusable products. According to a 2016 report by tech research company Technavio, competition in the menstrual cup market is growing as businesses expand to developing countries and awareness of available options increases.

Companies such as Easy, a tampon mail-order service, have started making hygiene products from organic cotton, which is free from pesticides, bleach and artificial fibres. Natracare, another company, also uses organic cotton in its feminine hygiene products.

Elissa Stein, the author of Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation, said while there has been a movement toward organic products, the underlying message that periods are dirty and should be kept secret remains.

When I wrote Flow (in 2009), these conversations were impossible. These new products were not on the market. So, definitely theres a change in the air, which is heartening to see, she said, adding that she hopes the messaging can expand to make the conversation about periods more comfortable and realistic.

Five years ago, you wouldnt see the word period or menstruation mentioned openly and honestly. So those are really positive steps forward. Using real people and talking about their experiences (in advertisements), also a step forward, Stein said.

But she said there is still a long way to go when it comes to fully accepting that periods are not something that we have to hide.

There has been reinvention over the past couple of decades when it comes to pads, tampons and menstrual cups, says Dr. Yolanda Kirkham, who works as an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Womens College Hospital and at St. Josephs Health Centre Toronto.

If we think about years ago, people had to wear a special underwear with a belt or knee stockings, so over time, things have changed, Kirkham said.

Early versions of tampons were described as being made from wool or papyrus in ancient Rome and Egypt. An article published in 2008 in Early Modern Women concluded that many British women in the 17th century would menstruate directly onto their clothing.

It might be the case, though, that in the course of everyday life, using a method for absorbing menstrual flow was not considered necessary by many women because bleeding into layers of clothing was perfectly normal, wrote Dr. Sara Read in the article.

In the 1850s, women often wore sanitary aprons made out of rubberized cloth under dresses to avoid leaks. In 1896, Johnson & Johnson started distributing Listers Towels, the first commercial disposable pad. However, because the subject of periods was unmentionable, according to authors Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton and Emily Toth of The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation, the towels were unpopular. Women didnt want to be seen buying them and they were pulled from the shelves.

Women would have to wait until the 1930s for the first menstrual cup and modern tampon.

The options have remained relatively the same since then, but the materials have changed. The types of fibres and the absorbency have improved. Tampons, made out of polyester in the mid-1970s, were super-absorbent and attracted bacteria, a trigger for toxic shock syndrome. In severe cases, it resulted in kidney failure, according to the Mayo Clinic. However, since manufacturers have stopped making certain types of tampons, the incidence of toxic shock syndrome in menstruating women has declined.

(Companies have) also changed the shape, added wings and take into consideration different people. For example, for teens, they have slimmer pads, Kirkham said. But its always exciting when theres a completely new product to complement whats existing or replace it.

The Knixwear underwear, which sells for $26 to $32 per pair, is made from carbon cotton, often used for cyclists apparel such as jerseys, that dries two to three times faster than regular cotton, Griffiths said. The carbon-embedded fabric is bacteriostatic, meaning bacteria cannot reproduce.

A built-in pantiliner acts as an inner second layer with a thin membrane for absorbing liquid.

The idea is that you wear (our underwear) exactly as you would your regular underwear . . . When youre done you just throw it into the washing machine, Griffiths said.

In September, Knixwear switched from selling the majority of its products wholesale to stores like Hudsons Bay, to using an e-commerce format. Since, sales have seen a 500-per-cent increase and the company has continued to grow 25 per cent every month, she said.

Griffiths believes the companys growth was due to their popularity after becoming the most-funded fashion project on Kickstarter for its 8-in-1 bra in 2015  it raised $1.5 million  as well as shifting the business model in September.

Customer feedback prompted Griffiths to design a line targeting teens.

We were getting a lot of comments from women saying, I wish that this existed when I was a teenager. It could have saved me so many embarrassing moments or My daughter just started getting her period. Can you make (underwear) that are suitable for her?  Griffiths said. And so I started working on this a little over a year ago, but basically saw that if anyone could use these, its young girls when theyre first starting to get their periods. Because your cycle is so irregular, youre not used to the flow.

The teen line will be available online for $19 a pair.

The whole idea is to empower girls to be the bosses of their periods from day one, Griffiths said.

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ROTORUA, N.Z.-The concentration of the carvers at the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute is impressive. They barely look up when a group of tourists wanders in to snap photos as their chisels notch out intricate Maori designs in the long panels of wood in front of them.

Its the same story next door at the weaving studio, where two Maori women are using mussel shells to scrape off the tough outer surface of flax leaves, creating a striped pattern. When the leaves dry, they will curl up to create the rigid cords woven into many ceremonial Maori costumes.

Both the carving and weaving studios are housed at Te Puia, a highlight of any exploration of Maori culture on New Zealands North Island. The institute was set up to help preserve the two traditional Maori art forms and to pass them on to younger generations through classes and apprenticeships.

You can even try your hand at plaiting a decorative flower from a flax leaf. It looks simple, but appearances can be deceiving  my effort looked like a kindergarten craft project compared to the intricate work turned out by the weaving studio.

Te Puia, on the outskirts of Rotorua, is also home to several examples of traditional Maori meeting houses, called marae, as well as daily cultural performances. Yet its the geothermal park (Te Puia is Maori for the geysers) that draws busloads of camera-toting visitors.

The steaming pools and spewing geysers are eye candy for tourists, but for the Maori who once lived here, they served another purpose  as a source of heat for their homes, as well as places to bathe and to cook their food. And they are still used for cooking at Te Puia.

Book a tour that includes a steambox lunch and the meat and vegetables you select will be lowered into a traditional hangi, or underground pit, thats naturally heated with steam. Its hard to argue with the results, which you get to dig into at the end of the tour  everything is cooked to tender perfection.

Te Puia is by no means the only place where you can explore the history and culture of the Maori, who make up about 15 per cent of New Zealands population and are thought to have come to New Zealand between 700 and 1,000 years ago.

Almost next door and sharing the same geothermal area is Whakarewarewa, which bills itself as a living Maori village. About 25 Maori families still live in the village in much the same way they have for generations.

Steam rises from the ground between the streets lined with small, brightly painted wooden houses  there are 65 geyser vents and seven active geysers in the village. Our guide, Paora Tapsell, grew up visiting his grandmother in the village, so he had no qualms about peeking into what he called the Maori microwave  a communal hangi in the centre of the village  to see what was for dinner. He pointed out ham, chicken, potatoes and corn wrapped in cloth sacks and tin foil before closing the wooden lid to keep in the steam.

The communal bathing facilities, which residents use before and after the daily tours of the village, are similarly low-tech. Thermally heated water flows from a natural pond into a row of man-made concrete pools; when theyre full, a plug stops the flow of water.

Paora says there was once a proposal to make Whakarewarewa part of Te Puia, but residents of the village rejected the idea because it would have required them to move out. Most did not want to give up their traditional way of life. No hydro bills, a free steam oven and an outdoor spa  no wonder they elected to stay put.

Joanne Blain was hosted on this trip by Tourism New Zealand, which did not review or approve this story.

When you go

Get there: Rotorua, about 225 kilometres southeast of Auckland, is the epicentre of Maori culture in New Zealand, with several attractions that explore the history, arts and traditions of the Maori people. You can drive or fly there via Air New Zealand (airnewzealand.ca), which flies direct to Auckland from Vancouver (with Toronto connections via partner airline Air Canada).

Stay: The Regent of Rotorua (regentrotorua.co.nz) is a comfortable boutique hotel in the centre of Rotorua and a short walk from Eat Streat, a covered passage lined with bars and restaurants.

Do your research:newzealand.com or rotoruanz.com

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KINGSTONFahim Ahmad, one of the leaders of the group that became known as the Toronto 18, will remain behind bars, both a prisoner for his crimes and a system that is ill-equipped to deal with terrorism offenders.

The question Friday morning for two parole board members was not whether Ahmad would be released. It was simply when.

Member Scott Nettie described his role as this: Its an odds game  were like an insurance company here.

But the choice was essentially whether 32-year-old Ahmad is released now, under supervision and into the care of the Salvation Army and imams who once worked for Correctional Service Canada (CSC), or wait until his sentence expires on Jan. 24, at which time he walks out of prison a free man.

Inmates in Canada are released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. Only rare cases, where someone is considered likely to commit a serious offence, as Ahmad was, is the inmate held past their statutory release date for their full sentence.

When Ahmad was denied release last year, it was because he could not show that he had a viable release plan and the board members were unable to measure how he had benefited from programs and counseling during his incarceration.

But Ahmad had not participated in specific counseling for inmates convicted of terrorism offences, or had a release plan specifically tailored to his crimes because those types of programs  officially sanctioned by CSC  do not exist. They use the Catch-22, said in an interview with the Star from prison last year. They say there havent been any programs to assess where you are, so we cant let you out.

In the age of Daesh, and terrorist attacks such as the tragic bombing Monday night at a pop concert in Manchester, or the January mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec City, the case of the Toronto 18 seems like a distant memory.

Yet on that June 2 evening in 2006, when SWAT teams fanned out across the city and arrested 17 men and teenagers at gunpoint, the worlds attention focused on Canada (an 18th suspect was later arrested).

There was fear: the suspects were accused of plotting to pack two U-Haul trucks with fertilizer bombs and strike downtown Toronto during rush hour, a third bomb simultaneously exploding at a military base north of the city. The suspects called it the Battle of Toronto, and their dark fantasies envisioned maximum carnage, killing hundreds of pedestrians and hoping shockwaves from the blast would send vehicles flying, like toy cars tossed in the air by tantrum-prone toddlers.

There was doubt: lawyers for the accused argued that Mubin Shaikh, the outspoken and controversial informant for the RCMP who had infiltrated the group, pushed the suspects further than they would have ever gone on their own. Could the group have actually executed this plot?

There was ridicule: details later emerged that the youngest of the accused attended a winter training camp led by Ahmad and Shaikh, where the hapless jihadi wannabes had to retreat to the local Tim Hortons to use the indoor plumbing. A lawyer for one of the youths focused on the donut shop during his questioning of Shaikh  to underscore the juvenile nature of the experience. All right, lawyer Nadir Sachak finally concluded, so basically the trips to Tim Hortons were to take a dump and to eat some food? Shaikh agreed.

And, there was disbelief: Comedian Jon Stewart summed up what most of his American audience was thinking when he said, You hate Canada? Thats like saying, I hate toast. 

The trials of the 18 took years, a phalanx of lawyers appearing in a specially-designed Brampton courtroom, and many twists and turns. Seven of the group had their charges stayed or withdrawn, or were acquitted. Eleven, including Ahmad, who made a surprise guilty plea in May 2010, were convicted of terrorism-related offences.

Ahmad was given 16 years, with credit for time served, in return for his guilty plea. The sentencing judge said he believed Ahmad had a good chance at rehabilitation.

For three hours Friday morning inside Collins Bay Institution, the board members grilled Ahmad on everything from his beliefs and journey as a teenager to radicalism, to opinions on the current state of terrorism, trying to link Ahmads group to Daesh today.

Nettie also seemed unconvinced that Ahmad could be properly monitored, at one point he questioned how his supervisors would know what mosques Ahmad should avoid. You want us to put a terrorist back into an incubator? he said.

Yet he also appeared suspicious as to why Ahmad would support a highly-structured, closely-monitored release. Why did he feel he required that, Nettie asked?

Ive been incubated from the reality, Ahmad replied about his years in detention. When I go out there, theres so much more I have to deal with.

Nettie and parole board member Marilyn Kenny took 35 minutes to deliberate and did not give reasons for denying the release, other to say there was not enough new information presented.

Next January, Nettie said at one point during the hearing, mazel tov.

Written reasons for the decision are expected within the next two weeks.

Read more about:

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OTTAWAThe government still isnt complying with a ruling from more than a year ago that found it discriminates against thousands of First Nations children by failing to make adequate health and social services available to them, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal said Friday.

It marks the tribunals third non-compliance order since the finding of discrimination in January 2016, which itself came after a prolonged legal fight that stretches back to the early years of Stephen Harpers Conservative government.

The ruling published Friday slams Ottawa for its slow reaction to the January 2016 decision, and even blames the government for squandering any chance of preventing the suicides of two 12-year-old girls from Wapekeka First Nation last winter. The deaths occurred after Health Canada denied a request for mental health funding from the community, stating in an email that it was an awkward time for the departments budget, according to the First Nation.

Todays ruling includes evidence from the tribunal hearing that shows the deaths of at least two children are related to Canadas non-compliance, said Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, in a statement after Fridays ruling.

It should not take four tribunal orders and counting to get Canada to treat First Nations children lawfully and equitably.

In a joint statement Friday, Health Minister Jane Philpott and Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said they are reviewing Fridays decision and will continue to identify cases where First Nations children are not getting the services they need.

Last year, the Liberal government committed up to $382.5 million over three years to pay for services highlighted by the tribunals first ruling on discrimination. A spokesperson from Philpotts office said $11 million has gone to more than 4,900 requests for health and social services as of March 31.

We will continue to work with First Nations partners and communities, as well as the provinces and territories, ensuring that all First Nations children get the care they need, the ministers statement said.

At issue in the tribunal case is the definition of Jordans Principle, a term named after a young Manitoba boy who died in 2005. The House of Commons unanimously passed a motion to adopt Jordans Principle in 2007, to ensure that indigenous children immediately get health and welfare services they need, even if its unclear who should pay for them.

The tribunal says this means that, in cases where any First Nations child needs a government service available to all other children through provincial or territorial systems, the department first contacted for help should provide the service to avoid delays or denials of care during disputes over who should pay.

In January 2016, the tribunal ruled that the governments definition of Jordans Principle was too narrow in its focus on cases where children had multiple disabilities. This led to service gaps, delays and denials for First Nations children, the tribunal found.

Two more tribunal orders were made in the months to follow. The first faulted the government for starting discussions on how to expand the definition to apply to more kids, instead of simply using the one provided by the tribunal.

The second order, which was released last September, found the government had restricted its definition so that the principle only applied to First Nations children with disabilities and a discrete, short-term issue for which there is a critical need for health and social supports.

On Friday, the tribunal outlined inconsistencies between government communications on its Jordans Principle definition, and the claim from a senior bureaucrat who testified in March that the government was indeed using the wider Jordans Principle definition it was ordered to follow.

For example, the ruling describes how a First Nations mother emailed Health Canada in January asking for help bussing her son with cerebral palsy to an off-reserve program for special needs kids.

Two weeks after receiving the initial request, (the government) was still trying to navigate between its own services and programs, the decision says.

The tribunal is ordering the government to immediately stop relying on definitions of Jordans Principle that are not in compliance with its rulings, and make sure that it applies to a range of services available to non-indigenous children, such as mental health, special education and dental therapy.

The tribunal also ordered the government to review requests for funding that date back to April 2009, to make sure theyre in line with this definition of Jordans Principle. The government must make sure requests for funding under the principle are dealt with within 48 hours, and start tracking the requests it receives and how they are handled, the tribunal said.

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It has been 20 years this spring since the Reform party ran English-only election ads inviting voters to withdraw their support for federal parties whose leaders hailed from Quebec. The invitation backfired and Jean Chretien secured a second majority mandate in no small part by winning every seat but two in Ontario.

This weekend there are better than even odds that the reunited Conservative party will emerge from the second leadership vote of its short history under its current configuration with a francophone Quebecer at the helm. Maxime Bernier has been the frontrunner in the lead-up to Saturdays finale.

The Beauce MP is expected to win Quebec handily. His strength in the province that accounts for the second-largest number of votes after Ontario could be the ace in a winning hand. But if he wins it is Berniers score in the other provinces that will speak to the scope of his mandate as leader.

The stronger his showing in regions such as Ontario and the West from which hails the bulk of the Conservative caucus, the easier the task of selling skeptical MPs on his policies. Caucus support for a leader  especially in opposition  tends to be directly proportional to a demonstrated capacity to get MPs re-elected.

Stephen Harper was particularly proud to leave his successor a beachhead in Quebec. A leader that does not do well in the province in the weekends leadership vote would have a hard time preserving that legacy. But while winning Quebec can go a long way to pave the road to a Conservative leadership victory the partys last and only 21st century majority victory was achieved with a minimum of help from that province.

The regional breakdown in the support of the winning Conservative candidate is just one set of numbers that will speak to the mood and the state of the party post-leadership. Here are some others.

In the last election, the Conservatives dabbled in identity politics first with the promise of a niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies and subsequently with a proposed tip line to report so-called barbaric cultural practices.

As part of Saturdays vote, the Conservatives have an opportunity to signal whether they want the party to go further down the somewhat slippery identity road or to steer clear of it.

More so than any other candidate in the campaign, Ontarios Kellie Leitch has ridden the identity battle horse. Her signature policy has been a values test for would-be immigrants to Canada. A strong showing for Leitch on Saturday would send the message that there is a solid constituency within the party that would like the Conservatives to stay on Harpers controversial identity-related campaign message track.

The last election highlighted the fact that the Conservative party is plagued with a significant demographic deficit. Its voter base is ageing. The party lags far behind its competition among the millennials who will make up the largest age cohort within the electorate as of 2019.

This is a group of voters that is particularly attuned to environmental issues. Reform party founder Preston Manning has been arguing for years that unless the Conservatives take climate change seriously they will fail to thrive over time.

Under Harper, climate change was never front and centre in the Conservative narrative and most of the aspirants to his succession would rather fight any attempt at pricing carbon than undertake a greening of the party.

Ontario MP Michael Chong has been the exception. He has spent the leadership campaign promoting the notion of a carbon tax and the necessity for the party to recast itself as a strong contributor to the battle against climate change. His score on Saturday will provide some insights as to the relative strength of that particular current within the party.

By choice but also by default the Conservative party is the political home of the religious right in Canada. That has become particularly true since Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau decreed that his MPs would be bound to the partys pro-choice policy on abortion.

At their first post-defeat convention the Conservatives abandoned the heterosexual definition of marriage they had defended over the debate on same-sex marriage.

In the leadership campaign, Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux have been vying for the social conservative vote with promises to revisit the marriage definition issue. And although he did not court the religious right as part of his leadership campaign, Saskatchewans Andrew Scheer boasted of a perfect social conservative voting record.

If Scheer goes on to a strong finish Saturday, it will at least in part be because the religious right is still a force to contend with within the Conservative party.

Chantal Hebert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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A Toronto councillors attempt to suspend the citys annual grant to Pride Toronto over police participation has failed by a vote of 17-27.

Council voted down Councillor John Campbells motion  it moved that $260,000 flow only if uniformed, armed police officers are welcome to march in the annual parade that caps Pride Month  after almost seven hours of heated and often emotional debate Friday.

The Etobicoke councillor has never been to Pride, but said he was sticking up for officers, including those who are gay, after the huge LGBTQ festival failed to live up to its core value of inclusivity.

Pride issued the request for cops to not march in uniform and with weapons in January in response to demands from Black Lives Matter Toronto, members of which halted the 2016 Pride parade during a protest that lasted about a half-hour. The group, which in the past criticized police over carding, accused Pride organizers of anti-blackness.

Campbell told council: You dont bring people together by pushing them apart and that has been Prides solution. Youre either inclusive or youre not.

Many councillors, however, noted that Police Chief Mark Saunders has asked officers to not march in uniform in this years parade, while he works with Pride to try to find consensus on police participation in the 2018 event.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, Torontos only openly gay councillor, said parade-goers from communities including racialized, trans and disabled Torontonians will experience the uniform of a police officer differently, based on their own interactions with them.

She noted the city grant is for elements of the month-long festival, not the parade, itself, which she called a celebration of sexual liberation that grew out of protests against 1981 police bathhouse raids for which Saunders officially apologized last year.

Suspending the grant would cancel Pride events for families, clean and sober revelers, black Torontonians and more. If you want to support inclusion, thats what you support, she said.

Wong-Tam also noted city staff told council that Prides stance was closely examined and found not to violate any city policies on discrimination or inclusion.

Councillor Neethan Shan, who in February won a Ward 42 byelection and became Torontos first Tamil-Canadian councillor, said he wants more, not less, city money to flow to Pride and Caribbean Carnival as a way to help combat systemic inequities and historic disadvantages placed on members of those communities.

He urged council to reject Campbells motion, which, he said, was an attempt to micromanage Pride and was a misunderstanding of the idea of inclusion.

If you let everybody in without addressing power and privilege, you actually are going to send some of the people out by default of that decision, he said.

Mayor John Tory wants to see uniformed police back in the Pride parade.

However, both Prides executive director Olivia Nuamah and Saunders have told him that cutting Prides funding would hurt their efforts to bridge the gap and try to make everyone feel welcome at the celebration, and he agreed.

His deputy mayor, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, disagreed, saying he was standing up for the public in voting with Campbell to cut the funding unless uniformed officers are welcome.

I think the public are saying Stop, no, not this time. What theyre (Pride) doing is wrong and I dont want my money going to this event,  Minnan-Wong said.

Councillor Jon Burnside, a former police officer, said the city should not lower its standards of inclusion.

Surely these officers have as much right to march in uniform in Pride, and with pride, as anyone else.

Pride co-chair Alica Hall welcomed councils continued funding for the festival which city staff estimate gets huge crowds, including many tourists, and pumps big bucks into the local economy.

Its an important testament to the cultural and economic impact we have in this city, and, so, weve very excited and very pleased with the support of council, Hall told reporters.

However, some of the debate that seemed to favour inclusivity of police over everyone in the LGBTQ community was concerning, with definite undertones of homophobia, she said.

Campbell expressed disappointment with councils vote and believes Pride crossed a line politically.

He was also disappointed Pride did not agree to his suggested compromise of allowing a small contingent of 20 or so uniformed officers on bicycles in the parade to say this is the beginning of sort of healing, this is the beginning of bringing it together.

He plans, as usual, to attend Ribfest in Etobicoke, not Pride, but he did not rule out going to Pride in 2018 if police are allowed to march in uniform.

I heard its a great time.

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A judge with a history of releasing reasons for judgment years late was reprimanded by Ontarios top court Thursday for frustrat(ing) the proper administration of justice.

This time, it resulted in the court ordering a new trial for a case involving serious allegations of domestic and sexual violence.

After a nine-day trial that ended in March 2016, Superior Court Justice Susanne Goodman acquitted the accused of all charges.

Goodman briefly gave her decision on a Friday and promised detailed written reasons to come on Monday.

They never came.

On Thursday, more than a year later, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial, and, in a postscript to the ruling, gave a stern warning to Goodman.

Our order directing a new trial is a terrible result for everyone involved in this proceeding, Court of Appeal Justice David Doherty wrote for the three-judge panel.

The trial judges failure to give reasons, despite her repeated promises to do so, has frustrated the proper administration of justice. Nor is this the first time that this trial judges failure to provide reasons has required this court to order a new trial. It must be the last time.

Doherty also wrote the 2011 decision where the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial after it took more than two years for Goodman to provide reasons for her decision. The court found the delay compromised the integrity of her ruling.

In another case from 2011, the Star reported Goodman took 29 months to deliver a crucial decision on legal costs in a child support case. The decision was released the day after the Stars story ran.

And just five months ago, a different panel of Court of Appeal judges decided to go ahead with a hearing after Goodmans promised written reasons failed to materialize after six months.

It was not in the interests of justice to delay the hearing of the appeal any longer, Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Kathryn Feldman wrote.

A request for comment from Goodman, who has been a judge since 2000, was made through her judicial secretary and no response was received by this newspapers deadline.

The Office of the Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Justice said it would not be appropriate to comment as this matter is now before the Canadian Judicial Council.

The Canadian Judicial Council is the regulatory body that oversees federally-appointed judges and reviews complaints.

The Court of Appeal decision released Thursday involves a case where the complainant alleges she was punched, beaten with a mop handle, attacked with a knife and raped by Stanislaw Sliwka. The abuse allegedly took place in 2013 and 2014. She called 911 on March 1, 2014 and answered the door wearing sunglasses and a hood on her head, according to police testimony. A police officer convinced her to take off the sunglasses and said he was horrified by what he saw. She had extensive injuries, including bruising, cuts, swelling and bleeding, and needed immediate medical assistance, the officer said. The police officers testified Sliwka told the complainant to be quiet and that it was only when she was alone in the elevator with them that she said Sliwka had beaten her.

Sliwka, denied ever assaulting the complainant. He said she sometimes hurt herself when she was drunk. He said that two days before the 911 call he came home and found his place ransacked. He believed intruders had broken in and assaulted the complainant.

After the trial, Goodman said she was left with reasonable doubt and acquitted Sliwka on all charges.

Sliwkas appeal lawyer argued her reasons are clear based on the trial record, but the Court of Appeal disagreed.

Counsels submissions go only so far as to demonstrate the need for careful reasons in this case. Unfortunately, the trial judge gave none, Doherty wrote.

The Crown filed an appeal and repeatedly asked for the written reasons between April and September 2016, Doherty wrote. Each promised date was missed. By the end of September, the Crown informed Goodman that they would argue the appeal should proceed as if no further reasons existed.

The frustration from the Court of Appeal is clear in the decision, says Michael Lacy, the vice-president of the Criminal Lawyers Association. He was not involved in the case.

What I read from the postscript is, this could all have been avoided through the provision of reasons, he said.

Judges are required to do two things, he said: decide cases fairly and impartially, and explain the reasons for their decision.

Here there was obviously a really significant failing with respect to one of the two things we expect from judges, he said. Its very unfortunate.

Defence lawyer Reid Rusonik, who represented one of two men acquitted by Goodman, but ordered to have a new trial in 2011 after her ruling was released two years later, noted that the quality of Goodmans written decisions are excellent.

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We are witnessing the death rattle of a death cult.

But, oh, it can still sting.

In Manchester on Monday night, the good times of a pop concert were brought to blood-drenched carnage by a suicide bomber whose terrorism has been claimed by the Islamic State.

Daesh, as the pitiless organization is called by many media outlets in what is largely an attempt to avoid the I-word, is on its beat-back heels across the breadth of its mythical Caliphate in northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

The junior league of the terrorism circuit  Al Qaeda remains senior as a world-wide terrorist broker  has lost more than half of its territory in the past year.

A protracted battle to recapture all of Mosul, led by Iraqi forces and Kurdish militia, is reported to be within days of completing its operational goal. (Ruthlessly and in violation of international war protocols, in at least some incidents, as documented elsewhere in the Star today.)

ISIS is in command-structure retreat, its ideological recruits decimated by aerial assaults, scattering backward toward Syria, fleeing to Libya, a lawless and stateless nation where they hope to reassemble, or, for its acolytes from the West, going home, forged by combat and prepared to do Daesh-bidding on the civilian front in Britain, Germany, Belgium, France . . . anyplace where a franchised cell or lone-wolf cretin can wreak havoc.

Read more:

Sadistic acts by Iraqi forces undermine war on Daesh, critics warn

How an embedded photographer exposed torture at the hands of Iraqi heroes

Alleged Manchester bomber phoned mom before attack, said forgive me

Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old suicide bomber university dropout, is believed to have traveled to Syria, sharpening his radicalization before returning to Manchester, city of his birth, teed up for massacre, and where his Libyan father had sought refuge. Both father and younger son, Hashim, were this week arrested in Tripoli. Another son was arrested in Manchester. Libyan authorities claim Hashim has admitted he and Salman were members of Islamic State.

With Britains security level threat ratcheted up to critical and a thousand troops deployed on the streets, even before police raided the Manchester flat suspected of being the bomb factory where Abedis deadly device was manufactured, the fear is that the terrorist plot was much grander in scheme than slaughtering concert-goers at just one location in what was nevertheless the worst attack on U.K. soil since the 7/7 London bombing in 2005. (Five plots were disrupted in the last two months alone, The Independent reported Thursday, according to unnamed security sources.)

In recent days, Ive been impressed by how deeply just about everybody can get into a terrorists head. Cops and journalists and politicians, academics and psychologists, and, of course, the special interest groups and religious authorities who are more preoccupied with the perceived societal impact of identified zealotry than the wreckage unleashed by the terrorist act.

They havent even begun to bury their dead in Manchester and already were being scolded for appending Islamic radicalism to what happened: the murder of 22 people and injuring of more than 60 others.

If we dare name the phenomenon, as President Barack Obama always refused to do, and as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped around doing this week, then were promoting Islamophobia and the maligning of a faith group, no matter how many careful qualifiers are inserted into the discussion.

Its a tortured exercise in semantics, intended to distract.

Rather than assume the imagined voice of the assailant  Abedi (as far as weve been told) left behind no video or social media manifesto justifying his butchery  better to accept the boastful responsibility claimed by ISIS.

There is no shortage in the annals of ISIS of Koran-based rationalization for its apocalyptic vision.

It may indeed be a dreadful mutilation of religious texts, but theres no separating Islamic State from Islamist doctrine.

This was insightfully explained by Graeme Wood in a lengthy article he wrote for The Atlantic two years ago, his thorough research and interviews with Islamic State spiritual authorities, including one who guides foreigners to the Daesh cult, triggering intense backlash from academics and apologists.

Wood, a reporter and author whos spent years interviewing ISIS members, wrote: We are misled . . . by a well-intentioned, but dishonest campaign, to deny the Islamic States medieval religious nature.

Much of what the group does looks nonsensical except in light of a sincere, carefully considered commitment to returning civilization to a seventh-century legal environment, and ultimately to bringing about the apocalypse.

It is an end-of-days Holy War in which they are engaged.

The reality is that the Islamic state is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure-seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe.

But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

We are being disingenuous and dangerously dissembling by trying to erase the Islamist out of Islamic State and its fellow travelers.

It is frankly absurd to believe that ISIS or Al Qaeda can draw the West into a clash of civilizations and to crank that fat-chance scenario as an intellectual trope for framing hysterical consequences.

The warning against provoking ISIS, punishing ISIS, heightening security protections to thwart operatives in thrall to ISIS, is duck-and-cover hyperbole.

Except theres no ducking and covering from unforeseen attacks against soft targets  pretty much all that ISIS has left in its terrorist arsenal  is there?

We are advised to keep calm and carry on, which isnt a bad posture  defiance, solidarity, drawing strength from our democratic principles  although Id be hard-pressed to urge equanimity upon the parents of massacred children.

So Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham goes on a radio show to say, to remind  because apparently the rest of us are slobbering idiots and need reminding  that Abedi was a terrorist and his terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, certainly not as practiced by the overwhelming majority of 1.8 billion Muslims around the globe.

The message that I would want to get out  and this is how the vast majority of people feel  this man was a terrorist, not a Muslim.

Well, he was both.

And while most Muslims, themselves most often the victims of terrorist violence in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa, are dismayed by how their faith has been warped by radicals, there are some who, while certainly never considering aligning with ISIS, seek the exculpatory on its behalf.

Here I would like to share an email I received a few days ago from one Ahsan Jafri after writing about the Manchester atrocity: Hmm, I wonder if your humane Western heart has ever bled for the 1,200 children the RAF blew to bits in Mosul in the last 30 days alone. The narrative that the liberal media is complicit in is beyond criminal, that is, to apply deafening silence to the literally hundreds of thousands of Muslim children blown to bits by Western bombs decade after decade.

To ask the question why Muslims hate the West is the most shockingly atrocious query one can make.

Straight out of the ISIS playbook.

Mayor Burnham continued: The worst thing that can happen is that people use this to blame an entire community.

Who, except reactionary blowhard politicians and fringe crackpots, is blaming an entire community?

The condescension in some quarters is withering.

It hardly needs saying that a religion practiced peacefully the world over is not defined by the criminality of a deluded person here and there or by terrorists whove hijacked Islam as their cloak of righteousness.

Some terrorist groups are fundamentally political in their aspirations; others are intrinsically inspired by faith, not greatly different from the fundamentalist Islam preached by Salafists from Riyadh to Birmingham.

Pretending that Islamism is not a core denominator is false and deceitful.

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DALLAS A Houston-area school is apologizing after a seventh grade student was given an award that named her most likely to become a terrorist.

The student got the certificate during a mock awards ceremony after the official awards ceremony at Anthony Aguirre Junior High, the school said in a statement.

As principal, I want to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are NOT representative of the Aguirre Vision Mission, and educational goals for its students, the statement said.

Lizeth Villanueva told Click2Houston.com that she was given the award Tuesday in her AVID class, an advanced learning program to prepare students for college.

Her mother, Ena Hernandez, was furious and said her daughter was hurt by the award.

When she first showed me the paper, Im like, What is this? I read it again, and Im like, What is this? Thats when my daughter told me it was supposed to be a joke, Hernandez told the station. It doesnt look like a joke to me.

Lizeth said the teacher meant the awards to be funny and gave out others but added that it might hurt (students) feelings, the station reported.

It was not a joke, Lizeth said. I do not feel comfortable with this ... I do not feel comfortable being in the same classroom with the teacher.

The school principal also apologized in person for the mock awards, and the district, Channelview ISD, said the teachers involved have been disciplined. The district did not release the teachers name, however, Lizeth told the station the teacher was suspended.

Her mother said she doesnt think suspension is enough.

Get fired, at least, or something, she told KHOU-TV.

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Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trumps son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.

The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the president was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, though it did not name Kushner.

Read the latest news on U.S. President Donald Trump

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.

The Post has not been told that Kushner is a target  or the central focus  of the investigation, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Target is a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect of investigators attention, though prosecutors can and do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.

Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, said Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys.

In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are also looking broadly into possible financial crimes  but the people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not specify who or what was being examined.

Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokesperson, said, I cant confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of investigations or subjects of investigations. The FBI declined to comment.

At the time of the December meetings, Trump already had won the election. Contacts between people on the transition team and foreign governments can be routine, but the meetings and phone calls with the Russians were not made public at the time.

Read more:

Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner met with Russian ambassador in December 2016

U.S. Senate to question Trump adviser Jared Kushner over meetings with Russians

Democrats call on FBI to suspend Kushners security clearance over Russia contacts

In early December, Kushner met in New York with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak again. Flynn was also present at the early December meeting, and later that month, Flynn held a call with Kislyak to discuss U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn initially mischaracterized the conversation even to the vice president  which ultimately prompted his ouster from the White House.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russias annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the December meetings, a former senior intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating back to the spring of 2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak  along with close Trump adviser and current Attorney General Jeff Sessions  were present at an April 2016 event at the Mayflower where then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia. It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.

The New York Times reported that Kushner omitted from security clearance forms his December meetings with Kislyak and Gorkov, though his lawyer said that was mere error and he told the FBI soon after that he would amend the forms. The White House said that his meetings were normal and inconsequential.

Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee  which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House. He is arguably the presidents most trusted adviser, and he is also a close member of the presidents family. His list of policy responsibilities is vast- his foreign policy portfolio alone includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East  yet he rarely speaks publicly about any of them.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller III is now leading the probe into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and he has set up shop in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown District of Columbia. Even before he was picked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to take over the case, investigators had been stepping up their efforts  issuing subpoenas and looking to conduct interviews, people familiar with the matter said.

A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was recently notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing.

It is unclear exactly how Muellers leadership will affect the direction of the probe. This week, Justice Department ethics experts cleared him to take over the case even though lawyers at his former firm, WilmerHale, represent several people who could be caught up in the matter, including Kushner, Manafort and Trumps daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner.

Mueller resigned from the firm to take over the investigation.

Investigators are continuing to look aggressively into the dealings of Flynn, and a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, recently issued a subpoenas for records related to Flynns businesses and finances, according to people familiar with the matter.

Flynns company, the Flynn Intel Group, was paid more than $500,000 (U.S.) by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkeys current president believes was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.

Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagons top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.

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ATHENSFormer Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos was recuperating well Friday from injuries suffered when a parcel bomb exploded inside his car in central Athens, health officials said.

Two of Papademos aides were also lightly injured in Thursdays attack.

Hospital officials said Papademos will remain in intensive care as a precaution, but they said there is no cause for concern for his survival.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing. But it bears the hallmarks of a nihilist anarchist group, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, which has staged several similar attacks in the past.

Papademos, 69, is being treated for wounds in his right thigh and upper body. He served as prime minister for six months in 2011-2012 and is a former deputy governor of the European Central Bank.

Germany condemned the attack in the strongest terms Friday.

We . . . wish Lucas Papademos all the best, German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said in Berlin, adding that the government was dismayed by the attack.

Whatever motivates these people, this kind of attack  politically motivated terrorism  is completely unacceptable, Schaefer said.

Earlier this year, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire posted bombs to the German Finance Ministry and the Paris office of the International Monetary Fund, where a small explosion injured one person.

The group has also claimed responsibility for a spate of parcel bombings in 2010 targeting embassies in Athens and the offices of European leaders abroad. Most of the devices were intercepted or destroyed by police, but one device injured a parcel company employee in Greece.

More than a dozen people have been convicted of group membership and jailed.

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Canadas finance minister denounced unfair tax loopholes on Thursday and put Bay Street on notice that the Liberal government is committed to addressing blind spots and exposing shadowy corporate finances to public scrutiny.

We dont want to wait for the next Panama Papers to tell us whether or not someone may be trying to hide their income from taxation, said Bill Morneau, referring to the massive leak of offshore tax haven documents the Toronto Star and the CBC/Radio-Canada revealed last year.

Were laying down the gauntlet.

The federal government will release a discussion paper laying out policy positions in the coming weeks and invited Canadas business elite to weigh in on how to crack down on tax evasion.

The goal, he said, is not new revenue  it is fairness.

People have to have confidence in our system. They have confidence that its fair for them and their family . . . because at the end of the day, we know thats a foundation for a healthy and growing economy, and thats really what were after.

Speaking to a room of 80 people at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Morneau used his strongest language yet in pledging to close tax loopholes that give Canadians with private companies an unfair advantage.

When people pay their taxes, they want to know that their neighbour pays roughly the same taxes, Morneau said. Right now there are some loopholes in our system that means that that is not necessarily always the case.

When people see that the tax system is stacked against them, they can get frustrated. We need to make sure that everyone  especially including the middle class, the large group of people who dont have access to these sort of planning methodologies  feels that the system is working for them.

A review of the tax system, already underway, has raised, a number of issues around tax planning strategies by a growing number of people using private corporations, said Morneau.

The secrecy afforded to private corporations is a central concern in the fight against tax unfairness, he said, because it allows some to gain an unfair tax advantage.

You dont want people to be shielding money inside the private corporation at the private corporation tax rate with no long-term intent of actually making investments into the business; its just a way of shielding their gains from tax, he said.

The corporate veil conceals not only money, but the identity of those hiding it. Morneau admitted that the government isnt always able to know the incomes of Canadians  an important blind spot.

One of the things we need to look at is where people are actually earning their income . . . . If its in offshore accounts, we cant really tell ourselves that we know that theyre paying the fair share.

That blind spot was the focus of a Toronto Star investigation in January that detailed how Canadian corporations are able to exploit the countrys tax system by hiding transactions behind corporate veils  a culture of corporate secrecy that remains entrenched across the country.

The identity of the real owners of companies  called beneficial owners  is often impossible to determine in Canada for the public, auditors, accountants or law enforcement.

The Star investigation detailed how Canadas secretive corporate registration model is even luring international tax evaders, who use Canada to make illicit transactions appear legitimate  a process dubbed snow washing.

We need to be able to improve the availability of whats called beneficial ownership information. We need to know who owns the companies that are here at home. Thats critical because . . . it ensures law enforcement and tax authorities have timely access to this information to combat money laundering . . . terrorist financing, and finally tax avoidance, Morneau said.

Richard Leblanc, a leading corporate governance expert and professor at Harvard and York universities, lauded Morneaus commitment to action.

Right now, Canada has a reputation for secrecy and concealment, not transparency and accountability, he said. There is no justified reason for concealing the beneficial owners of Canadian companies. These owners should be fully accessible, online, by the police, CRA and the media.

These blind spots should be plugged. There should be nowhere for organized crime, terrorists and money launderers to hide, said Leblanc.

James Cohen, executive director of Transparency International Canada, was more cautious, calling on the government to table concrete proposals.

We look forward to concrete proposals in the coming weeks to meet commitments made by Canada at the G20 in 2014. We expect the minister to show commitment and leadership with the provinces in implementing a public registry of beneficial ownership, one which is already in place in the U.K., Cohen said.

Britain launched a public registry of beneficial owners last year that is now considered a global model of corporate openness.

When asked last November whether Canada would follow with a similar registry, Morneau told the Star, Were absolutely in favour of knowing who is registering companies, what their goals are and what taxes they should be paying in our country, and that theyre not in any way avoiding taxes somewhere else through their registry here.

The government later committed to action on the issue in the federal budget.

Morneau is now committing the government to reforming the countrys corporate registration system.

If we think we can sustain a market-based democracy where half the population feels it isnt working for them, we need to think hard about that, he said.

One of the challenges is jurisdictional.

Only about 10 per cent of corporations in Canada are registered federally. The rest are registered provincially through 10 different bureaucracies.

Morneau has told the Star he has been in discussion with the provinces since last year.

On Thursday, he said co-ordinated action is required with the provinces.

The provinces are stepping forward and working with us, he said.

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CAIROMasked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least 28 people, and Egypt responded by launching airstrikes against what it said were militant training bases in Libya.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced the retaliatory action hours after the bus was riddled with machine-gun fire on a remote desert road by suspected Islamic State militants riding in three SUVs.

What youve seen today will not go unpunished. An extremely painful strike has been dealt to the bases. Egypt will never hesitate to strike terror bases anywhere, el-Sissi said in a televised address to the nation.

He also appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to lead the global war against terror.

The ambush of the bus was the fourth deadly attack against the countrys Christians since December. The dead included two little girls, ages 2 and 4, local officials said. Twenty-two others were reported wounded.

Trump, in Italy on his first trip abroad as president, blamed the bloodshed on a thuggish ideology and said it should bring nations together to crush evil organizations of terror.

Senior Egyptian officials said fighter jets targeted bases in eastern Libya of the Shura Council, an Islamist militia known to be linked to Al Qaeda, not Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL. There was no immediate word on damage or casualties.

The bus attack deepens the woes of the majority-Muslim nation, where el-Sissis government is struggling not only to crush a burgeoning Islamic insurgency but to revive the battered economy.

The countrys Christians have complained that the government is not doing enough to protect them from Islamic extremists, and hundreds of them reacted to the bus attack by staging angry street protests in two provincial cities, destroying at least six cars and briefly cutting off railway lines.

Either we get retribution or die like them, some chanted.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the ambush, which came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

But it bore the hallmarks of Daesh, which has been spearheading an insurgency that has carried out deadly attacks in Egypts Sinai Peninsula and, increasingly, on the countrys mainland.

The Interior Ministry said the assailants opened fire as the bus travelled to the St. Samuel the Confessor monastery in Maghagha, about 220 kilometres south of Cairo. The Coptic Orthodox monastery is reachable only by an unpaved route that veers off the main highway.

Security and medical officials quoted witnesses as saying they saw eight to 10 attackers in military uniforms. They said one of the assailants SUVs got stuck in the sand, so they torched it and hijacked a truck travelling the same road, killing its occupants.

Arab TV stations showed images of a bus riddled with bullet holes, with many of its windows shattered and bloodstains on the seats. Bodies lay on the ground, some covered with black plastic sheets. Children could be heard screaming hysterically in the background.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters, said the death toll stood at 28 and could rise.

The government is likely to further tighten security around churches, monasteries, schools and pilgrimages to remote Christian sites, which may be suspended, the officials said.

El-Sissis government is in the midst of an ambitious and politically sensitive reform program to resuscitate the economy. The program has sent the cost of food and services soaring, feeding popular discontent. A new wave of increases for fuel and electricity is widely expected this summer.

Last month, el-Sissi declared a three-month state of emergency following twin suicide bombings that struck two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday. In December, a suicide bomber targeted a Cairo church. The attacks, for which Daesh claimed responsibility, left at least 75 people dead and scores wounded.

After a visit to Egypt last month by Pope Francis, Daesh vowed to escalate attacks against Christians and urged Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies.

On Wednesday, Egypt blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

Egypts Copts, the Middle Easts largest Christian community, account for about 10 per cent of the countrys 93 million people.

Christians rallied behind el-Sissi, the former head of Egypts military, in 2013 when he ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood. Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged.

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WASHINGTONAt least two Toronto men were involved in a violent confrontation in Washington, D.C. last week that was described by the local police chief as a brutal attack on peaceful protesters.

Toronto residents Alpkenan Dereci and Ahmet Dereci, enthusiastic supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are seen on video joining Erdogans security team in striking protesters near the residence of Turkeys U.S. ambassador.

Videos published by the New York Times and other media show that Alpkenan Dereci punched and shoved a protester. They show that the man identified by the Times as Ahmet Dereci punched a protester and then kicked him twice when he was lying defenceless on the ground.

The Derecis have not been arrested or charged with any offence. Alpkenan Dereci told a Turkish news agency that they were victims of assault, not perpetrators.

Alpkenan Dereci was also on the receiving end of violence during the melee; videos show he was struck in the face by a bullhorn tossed at him after he landed a punch near the head of a protester. His face and shirt were bloodied, and he told a Turkish news agency that he required 17 stitches.

People on the pro-Erdogan side were the real victims and were openly assaulted, Alpkenan Dereci said in a video published by the Andalou Agency. The media, he said, had failed to show that Erdogans supporters were themselves attacked.

We cannot understand this, he said.

The melee quickly turned into an international incident. Critics and even supporters of President Donald Trump, who had met with Erdogan earlier in the day, have demanded a forceful diplomatic response from his administration.

A spokesperson for the Washington police said Friday that the investigation remains active. The probe is being conducted by the police, the State Department and Secret Service.

Though Erdogans security team committed much of the violence, the civilians not employed by his government are more vulnerable to legal consequences: Erdogan bodyguards are likely protected by diplomatic immunity.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the confrontation a violent attack on a peaceful demonstration. Republican Sen. John McCain said there is no excuse for this kind of thuggish behaviour and called for the expulsion of the Turkish ambassador. A bipartisan group of senators called on the State Department to revoke the ambassadors credentials if Turkey did not waive immunity for the people involved.

The Turkish government, meanwhile, summoned the U.S. ambassador to complain about the actions of Washington police officers.

Turkey said its side acted in self-defence, but multiple videos contradict this claim at least in part. They show Erdogans security team pushing past police officers to punch, kick and, in one case, choke protesters who were not posing a threat.

The Derecis were described by the Times as cousins; the Star could not confirm this. They are highly visible in videos of the clash on account of their T-shirts: Alpkenan in yellow and Ahmet in purple. At one point, Alpkenan, his face and shirt bloody, holds back Ahmet, who is shouting at a police officer.

Two people were arrested at the scene, one for aggravated assault and one for assault on a police officer. At least 10 people were injured.

Alpkenan Dereci could not be reached for comment through Facebook and Twitter. Ahmet Dereci, whose Facebook and LinkedIn pages say he owns an electrical contracting company in North York, declined to respond to a request for comment.

I dont believe hes able to talk, or hes not going to return any calls or emails at the moment, said a man who answered the phone at the company.

The Derecis are vocal supporters of Erdogan on their Facebook pages and in Toronto, where they have attended pro-Erdogan events. The Turkish media reported that they were part of a group that travelled from Canada to greet Erdogan in Washington; Alpkenan Dereci said he had previously travelled to Cuba for an Erdogan trip there.

We love him very much and we would like to visit him and talk to him during his visits, he said.

The Washington incident occurred after Erdogan met with Trump at the White House. Erdogan, who has been criticized in Turkey and abroad for his crackdown on dissenters at home, was sitting in his car in front of the residence when his security team began chasing after the protesters standing across the street.

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Precarious work is the scourge of our time. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne promises to do something about it. We shall see what.

Wynne says shell base her actions on a wide-ranging report released this week. That Changing Workplaces Review is hardly radical. It makes 173 largely common-sense recommendations to update Ontarios workplace laws.

It is not clear that it goes far enough.

The problems of precarious work are well-known. Full-time jobs are no longer the norm. Neither is stable employment.

Those entering the labour force 40 years ago had a good shot at unionized jobs with good wages plus reasonable benefits and pensions. Those starting work today can count on none of these.

Instead, modern employees are likely to juggle multiple, part-time, low-wage jobs. Their schedules tend to be impossibly erratic, subject to change at the employers whim. Among other things, this limits their ability to search out better jobs

More often than not, they are treated not as employees at all but as self-employed independent contractors who, by Ontario law, are not eligible for vacation pay or overtime.

Employers get an extra bonus from such independents in that they need not pay Employment Insurance or Canada Pension Plan premiums on their behalf.

Precarious work makes life chaotic. It also contributes to income inequality.

While the ultimate cause of precarious work lies in the globalized economy, governments can take mitigating measures to ease the pain.

To its credit, the Ontario workplaces review takes a hard look at two such measures  the Employment Standards Act, which sets out the minimum requirement for employers and the Labor Relations Act, which sets out the rules for union bargaining.

To deal with the farce of so-called independent contractors, the report recommends that those allegedly self-employed persons who rely on one firm for their livelihood be granted all employee benefits.

If this recommendation were adopted and enforced, it would go a long way toward protecting workers rights.

Some of the reports recommendations, such as requiring employers to pay equivalent full- and part-time workers the same wage, reflect basic notions of fairness.

The same rationale can be used for the recommendation to phase out provisions of the law that allow lower minimum wages for those who serve alcohol as well as students under 18.

Other recommendations, such as letting domestics join unions, wont make any real difference. As the report points out, households employing domestics usually have only one on staff  which makes the right to bargain collectively in most cases illusory.

The recommendation that agricultural workers be allowed to unionize promises to be more controversial, even though the report calls for family farms to be exempted.

But there are two key areas in which the report pulls its punches.

One has to do with the crucial area of scheduling. The report accepts that arbitrary, last-minute changes to work schedules can make life unbearable for the precariously employed. But its recommendation in this area is to have panels study the issue sector by sector with an eye to making specific proposals later.

The second has to do with unions. Many economists argue that the sharp drop in unionization has contributed to inequality. The report speaks to this by, for instance, arguing that in cases where employers interfere unfairly in unionization drives the union should be automatically certified.

It also recommends that unions trying to organize franchises such as fast-food outlets be allowed to bargain with all franchise holders in the same geographic area. Right now, a union trying to organize, say, Toronto Tim Hortons workers must do so doughnut shop by doughnut shop.

But tellingly, the report does not recommend that the franchisor (say, Tim Hortons head office) be part of the bargaining.

Indeed, while recognizing that labour laws created in the factory era of the 1930s may not be useful in todays scattershot world, the report is hesitant to try so-called broader bargaining approaches, saying they are not practical at this time.

We shall see what the Wynne government does with all of this. If it is serious about dealing with precarious work, it will at the very least address the problem posed by employers who falsely treat their workers as self-employed contractors.

If it is just looking for cheap headlines, it will do considerably less.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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Brief relief

Trumps speech in Riyadh this week was normal foreign policy drivel, which came as a relief. It was no more preposterous than what Obama, either Clinton, or Trudeau deliver when they talk world issues. Foreign policy is a truth-free, fact-free zone. When leaders speak on domestic issues, citizens at least have points of reference to check them against. On foreign affairs they blather freely. What did the Riyadh speech blessedly avoid?

The clash of civilizations, a dim notion that has sloshed around academic and policy circles. It was generated by Samuel Huntington as a substitute for Cold War, good-evil dualism, then targeted specifically at Islam by Bernard Lewis. The clique around George W. Bush embraced it, though in democratic (versus religious) terms, to justify their crusades  W.s word  in the Mideast.

Trumps version came via the sloppy mind of Steve Bannon, who claims that We, the Judeo-Christian west, are inevitably destined for wars with both Islam and China. Thats scary stuff, injected into the seats of power. When Anderson Cooper asked Trump about Islam, you could see his tiny brain pause, searching for whatever Bannon had told him, then say: I think Islam hates us.

But Bannon, much demoted, was in Riyadh along with the rest of Trumps team, doing his silly version of the Saudi sword dance  showing how a whiff of power can vaporize even passionately constructed world views. Then he was whisked back to the U.S. Trump, meanwhile, voiced no hostility to Islam, nor did he say anything enthusiastic about spreading democracy. His speech scaled back the menace to merely demonizing Iran and rallying fundamentalist Arab monarchies against it, and against vaguely evil terrorists anywhere.

Why relief? This far more modest demonization of a single country is less likely to lead to hysteria and global incineration than the scaremongering threat of entire civilizations. Regrettably Iran, a more developed, pluralistic and democratic society than any Gulf monarchy  despite the theocracy also rooted there  will suffer as a result. They will, involuntarily, have to bear the burden for a somewhat less apocalyptic world. We should be duly grateful.

Let Spence Teach?

Id rather not revisit the Chris Spence debacle but he wont leave it alone. The former Toronto schools director is back with a self-justifying video. He was dismissed in 2013 for plagiarism, starting with a Star column on the Sandy Hook shootings in which he repurposed a U.S. columnists encounter with his son. Then came cases in his own books. (Theyre flimsy and air quotes are common among those whove read them.) Finally his PhD thesis. His license to teach was recently lifted.

His justifications are bizarre. He says he didnt write the Sandy Hook column himself, someone else did, and hes willing to name the person whose work he then took credit for, effectively plagiarizing a plagiarizer.

He says he takes full responsibility for mistakes and wants to move on. But taking responsibility doesnt mean you get to move on as if you never did anything, with no real consequences beyond vocalizing your guilt.

He says parts of that thesis  are reckless and careless but he was busy, he takes on too much. Why does he think people plagiarize  because they like the concept? Theyre all busy and preoccupied so they swipe stuff. He blames everyone else: the thesis committee that wanted changes, the thesis service he handed it to. Its all excuses, scant on responsibility.

The public scrutiny that Ive gone through has been unprecedented, he says, sounding like Trump announcing no politician in history has been treated worse or more unfairly. Perspective is the first casualty in plagiarism and dismissal cases. But it makes his claims about taking full responsibility baffling.

This is a notion of responsibility without consequences and its become a minor plague. One Spence backer says, he clearly says hes responsible but is he culpable  those are two different things.

No theyre not. If youre responsible, youre culpable. It has the ring of PR advice: Get out in front of this thing and say you take responsibility. Then forget it and get on with life exactly as before. Neat trick if you can manage it but at the least, the rest of us might say we have doubts about someone zealously performing this kind of mental contortion, then returning to serve as a renowned role model for kids.

Rick Salutins column appears Fridays.

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Congratulations to Premier Kathleen Wynne for grasping the vision of high speed rail (HSR). As she says, it should have been built 40 years ago; now is the second best time.

Linking Toronto to Kitchener in about 50 minutes and to London in 80 minutes will drive growth and prosperity, just as Highway 401 did when it was built 70 years ago. Toronto-Kitchener-London is the right route to start with. Its Ontarios busiest corridor, too short to fly, with Highway 401 overloaded through much of the day. International experience shows that rail can be very successful, even profitable, on this sort of route. Without HSR, Kitchener and London will always be stuck at the far end of a congested road.

So why hasnt HSR happened earlier? Probably because previous studies were led by the federal government, and only looked at Toronto to Montreal or the whole Quebec City  Windsor corridor. The last big study, in 2010, didnt even have a stop at Kitchener. Yet there are actually more Toronto-Kitchener-London trips than Toronto-Montreal.

Wynne gets the credit for turning over this stone, which nobody had looked under. In early 2014, she commissioned my company to do an initial study, and we discovered a great opportunity. It will cost about $4 billion to build, about the same as adding lanes to Highways 401 and 403. It can be extended west to Windsor, and east to Peterborough, Ottawa and Montreal.

The public response has generally been positive, but there are critics, some claiming to be experts (although none seem to have any actual experience building or operating HSR).

Some advocate an incremental approach, declaring it would be cheaper to improve existing services rather than build new tracks. Cheaper, yes, but making rail attractive is not just about speed, but also frequency, capacity and reliability.

As long as they must share the tracks with two kilometre-long freight trains, there can never be more than four or five passenger trains each day on the route to London. Trains will be slow and on-time arrival will be hit-or-miss. Trip times need to be competitive with driving or flying, but also frequent enough to match travel needs. With a car, you can go whenever you want. For rail to compete, it needs to run at least hourly, not just four times each day.

The incrementalists also miss the point of high speed. It is partly about journey times, but it also about train and staff productivity. Budget airlines may compete on price, not speed, but their planes go just as fast because there is no point going slowly if you dont need to.

Curves on the existing line will probably limit trains to 160 km/h from Toronto to Bramalea, but any new track should be built for 300 km/h. (In 1947, did incrementalists argue for widening old Dundas St. rather than building Highway 401? With traffic lights rather than interchanges?)

There are also skeptics who say Ontario densities are too low for HSR. They need to check the numbers. The corridor population has doubled over the past 30 years and may double again in the next 50. In England, city-pairs like London-Bristol or Edinburgh  Glasgow support four fast trains each hour, and operate without subsidy. HSR will capture about one-fifth of the Toronto  Kitchener  London traffic, enough for it to operate without subsidy.

Skeptics also complain that HSR will only link city centres, so whole journey times will be longer. Well, most European rail terminals arent actually in the city centre. Central London and is much more spread out than Toronto, which has the worlds most concentrated central business district.

There are 200,000 jobs connected directly to Union Station by the PATH system. Another 200,000 jobs, and three universities, are a short ride away on the subway. By sheer good luck, stations in Guelph, Kitchener and London are also right in their city centres, actually closer to most homes, jobs, and colleges than Highway 401.

Rail will be faster than road for trips to and from city centres, not just in rush hour. It will also be faster for many suburb-to-suburb trips. And where it is not actually faster, it will still be more convenient, less stressful, and cheaper for many business, leisure and commuter trips.

If we start now, HSR could be running within 10 years. Lets get on with it.

Michael Schabas is a partner with FCP, rail strategy consultants. Born and raised in Toronto, his experience planning and building railways in the U.K., including high speed rail, is described in his book The Railway Metropolis. He prepared the 2014 High Speed Rail study for the province.

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Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of U.S President Donald Trump and a senior White House adviser, is being investigated by the FBI as part of a wider probe into alleged links between the Trump election campaign and officials in Russia, multiple media reports indicated Friday.

The Washington Post said Kushner, who is married to the President's daughter, Ivanka, is the focus of an investigation that will examine meetings he had with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, and an unnamed banker in December of last year. The Post had reported last week that a senior White House insider was the subject of the latest FBI probe, but did not name Kushner specifically.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," said one of Kushner's attorneys, Jaime Gorelick, in a statement released to the media. "He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry."

Both the Post and NBC News, which also reported the FBI investigation, said Kushner was not suspected of having committed any legality and that, at this stage at least, there were not indications he would be charged with any crime.

However, the link between Kushner, the FBI probe and the President will likely return the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia back into the headlines this week as he arrives in Italy for a two-day summit of G-7 leaders in the Sicilian city of Taormina.

The revelation also comes amid a decision by the U.S. 4th District Court of Appeals to refuse to reinstate the President's travel ban, which targeted six majority-Muslim nations, saying the plan "drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination." Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration would seek a review of the decision at the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump arrived in Italy Friday for his first meeting as President with leaders of the world's biggest economies amid a cloud of controversy at home and an increasingly adversarial tone between Washington and key European leaders following yesterday's NATO summit in Brussels.

The so-called G-7 group of nations will hold two days of talks in the Sicilian city of Taormina, at the foot of the Mount Etna, the region's most active volcano, after what could be described as an explosive gathering of NATO allies in Brussels Thursday that could set the tone for a weekend summit focused on trade and climate change.

"We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means," said White House economic adviser Gary Cohn to pool reporters Thursday.

Trump's comments yesterday, however, when he accused NATO members of owing "massive amounts of money" and accused some of backsliding on funding commitments to shared defence, have altered the mood heading into the final stop on the President's 9-day foreign trip. The atmosphere was further eroded by a report in Germany's Der Spiegel,which claimed that Trump told EU leaders in a closed-door meeting that "the Germans are very, very bad. Just look at the millions of cars they are selling in the US. Terrible. We will stop this."

G-7 leaders are expected to press Trump on the U.S.'s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as part of the 2015 Paris Accord on climate change signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Trump's domestic issues, as well, intensified overnight with news that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is being investigated by the FBI as part of a wider probe into alleged links between the Trump election campaign and officials in Russia, according to multiple media reports.

The Washington Post said Kushner, who is married to the President's daughter, Ivanka, is the focus of an investigation that will examine meetings he had with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, and an unnamed banker in December of last year. The Post had reported last week that a senior White House insider was the subject of the latest FBI probe, but did not name Kushner specifically.

Both the Post and NBC News, which also reported the FBI investigation, said Kushner was not suspected of having committed any legality and that, at this stage at least, there were not indications he would be charged with any crime.

The revelation also comes amid a decision by the U.S. 4th District Court of Appeals to refuse to reinstate the President's travel ban, which targeted six majority-Muslim nations, saying the plan "drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination." Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the administration would seek a review of the decision at the Supreme Court.
Facebook (FB) - Get Free Report and Amazon.com (AMZN) - Get Free Report are part of more than two dozen U.S. technology firms that urged Congress today to reform an internet surveillance law, arguing that it was essential in improving privacy protections and heightening government transparency, Reuters reports.

The request is the first influential public initiative by Silicon Valley to voice its stance regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, parts of which will expire on December 31 unless reauthorized by Congress.

A primary concern to the tech industry is a section of the measure that would give U.S. intelligence agencies access to vast amounts of communications from foreigners but also incidentally collect some data belonging to Americans that can be searched without a warrant.

"We are writing to express our support for reforms to Section 702 that would maintain its utility to the U.S. intelligence community while increasing the program's privacy protections and transparency," the companies wrote in a letter.

(Facebook is held in Jim Cramer's charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS. See all of his holding with a free trial here.)

(Amazon.com is held in the Growth Seeker portfolio. See all of the holdings with a free trial).
The Federal Trade Commission said Friday it has acceptedSherwin-Williams' (SHW) - Get Free Report offer to sell Valspar's North America Industrial Wood Coatings Business to Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. as a condition of antitrust approval for Sherwin-Williams' $11.3 billion acquisition of Valspar (VAL) - Get Free Report.

Valspar shares were up 60 cents, or 0.53%, to $113.06 on Friday's news.

Sherwin-Williams previously announced plans to divest the wood coatings business to Axalta in April for $420 million in cash.

The FTC noted Friday that the acquisition of Valspar would combine two of the top three industrial wood coatings manufacturers and reduce competition for coatings used to make furniture, kitchen cabinets, and building products.

The merger also received approval from the Canadian Competition Bureau. Sherwin-Williams said it expects to close the Valspar acquisition June 1.

The FTC's complaint, filed in conjunction with the proposed settlement, alleges that after joining with Valspar the combined firm would be likely to exercise unilateral market power, and as a result it and the remaining competitors would compete less aggressively against each other.

The planned acquisition of Valspar was announced in March 2016.

Industrial wood coatings, include stains, topcoats, and sealants sold to wood-products manufacturers along with on-site technical assistance.

The FTC added in its market analysis that new competitors are unlikely to enter the market because barriers to entry the industrial wood coatings are high. That's because both the large capital costs needed to build a high-volume industrial wood coatings plant, and the reluctance of customers to switch to unproven new suppliers, the FTC said.

Under the terms of the consent agreement, Sherwin-Williams will divest to Axalta two Valspar industrial wood coatings plants, one in High Point, North Carolina, and the other in Cornwall, Ontario.

Axalta will also receive the research and development facilities, warehouses and testing facilities of Valspar's Industrial Wood Coatings Business, as well as customer contracts, intellectual property, inventory, accounts receivable, government licenses and permits, and business records.

The FTC said Axalta, as one of the leading suppliers of coatings to large automotive and industrial original equipment manufacturers, is well positioned to become an effective competitor in the affected coatings market.

The agreement will be subject to public comment through June 27, after which the commission will vote on finalizing the consent order.

This article was originally published by The Deal, a sister publication of TheStreet that offers sophisticated insight and analysis on all types of deals, from inception to integration. Click here for a free trial.

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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.
Did you know that most of the world's oceans belong to you? It's true: 64 percent of the waters that exist outside of national jurisdictions are known as the high seas. According to the United National Law of the Sea Convention, these unregulated bodies of water  and the fish and minerals they contain  belong to all of mankind and should be used to serve the common good.

A nonprofit, The TerraMar Project, aims to celebrate and protect those high seas. Officially launched Sept. 26 at the Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Conference in Monterey, California, the organization is the brainchild of lifelong marine enthusiast Ghislaine Maxwell.

"People traditionally see individual oceans and seas. The truth is that all the oceans are interconnected and related. It's all one sea," Maxwell says. "What TerraMar wants to do is give this part of the world an identity." An experienced deep-sea diver and ocean advocate, Maxwell says the goal of the organization is to inspire people to think of the ocean in a new way. "You can be attached to it. You can participate in in a deep way. You can also have a say in how it is used."

Maxwell has been planning the launch of the TerraMar Project for two years to fill what she perceives as a gap in how other organizations perceive the high seas. "There are a lot of people and organizations doing good work in specific areas"  she names the Sargasso Sea as one example  "but no one was looking at the high seas as one huge, homogenous place."

The main way TerraMar hopes to engage people is with its interactive website, where visitors can claim a parcel of the ocean, "friend" a marine species like green turtles or sea otters, take a virtual dive, or find educational projects for parents and teachers. "Social engagement is really key," says Samantha Harris, TerraMar's director of development. "That's what we're trying to develop here: a way to engage a large number of people with the ocean by using our site."

The spectacular virtual dive employs Google Ocean, which also premiered at the Blue Ocean festival and provides a similar experience to the search engine's popular Street Views but on the ocean floor. "Google's an amazing company that wants people to use their technology," Maxwell says. "Google Ocean makes the high seas super-attractive and engaging, so we chose to showcase it on our site."

The announcement about the nonprofit came from four celebrated marine experts: Dr. Sylvia Earle, Capt. Don Walsh, Dan Laffoley and virus hunter Nathan Wolfe. Earle, and oceanographer and explorer-in-residence with the National Geographic Society and founder of the Sylvia Earle Alliance, said at the time, "I am thrilled to be a founding citizen of TerraMar and to celebrate the vital significance of the high seas to all people, everywhere."

Laffoley, the marine vice chair for the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas, said he saw an important role for the TerraMar Project: "What this does is actually enable people to connect to the deep blue heart of the world beyond national jurisdictions, make it a country, to make it the responsibility of everyone in a sense."

Although much of TerraMar's focus is on celebrating the ocean, the website also calls attention to the many issues facing the high seas, including ocean acidification, overfishing, piracy, whaling, plastic pollution and illegal dumping. "It's kind of like the Wild West," Maxwell says. "If you asked people if they knew that almost half the planet is ungoverned, I really don't think they would know that."

Maxwell says greater understanding of these issues will come when more people look at the ocean as something that they are a part of, even though they live on land (the name of the organization comes from two Latin words: Terra for earth and Mar for sea). "Once you understand the value of what you have out there, people will pay more attention to it and be more engaged in what happens to it in the future."

The TerraMar Project plans to roll out several new features on its website to keep engaging visitors in the importance of the high seas. The site will also feature fundraising tools to help raise money for ocean-related research or other projects. "Not only will we be able to set individual sponsorship goals for fundraising for certain projects, but our citizen users can then create their own projects for other people to fundraise for," development director Harris says.

"We invite everybody to come and interact with us," Maxwell says. "The high seas belongs to you. It's the one major area in the world where we can be one species with one home and one common destiny."
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Eight employees of the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services have been referred
Militants launched 57 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO press center.

In Mariupol direction, militants used 120mm mortars, grenade launchers and small arm to shell Ukrainian positions near Krasnohorivka (29 km west of Donetsk). Due to this shellfire, several enemy mines fell into a residential block near the city hospital. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but a few houses were damaged.

In Donetsk direction, the tensest situation was observed in Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk), where illegal armed formations launched attacks, using Grad multiple rocket launchers. In addition, ATO troops came under mortar, grenade launcher and small arms fire outside Luhanske, Mayorske (45km north of Donetsk).

In Luhansk direction, Russian-backed militants used grenade launchers and heavy machine guns to shell Ukrainian troops in Krymske.

As a result of military operations over the past day, five servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were injured, the ATO headquarters reports.

ish
Ukraine and Bavaria plan to hold a joint business forum at the end of the year as part of the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to the federal land.

The corresponding agreements were announced during the meeting of the Ukrainian PM Groysman with Minister-President of Bavaria Horst Seehofer in Kyiv.

"We would like to invite you to Bavaria," Seehofer said and suggested holding the meeting with representatives of business circles of Bavaria to "present the program of attracting investments for further economic cooperation." The Minister-President of Bavaria noted that the visit of Groysman could be scheduled for autumn or winter this year.

In turn, the Head of the Ukrainian Government thanked for the invitation and accepted it.

"I think it is a very good idea to hold a business forum within the framework of the visit. We will be able to discuss the directions for deepening our economic cooperation. This fully corresponds to our bilateral interests," Groysman said.

ol
The North Atlantic Alliance continues to strengthen its partnership with Ukraine, providing practical assistance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated this following a meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government in Brussels on Thursday, own Ukrinform correspondent reported.

It was clearly stated by many allies - we are going to continue to strengthen our close partnership with Ukraine to provide practical support, he said.

Stoltenberg also stressed that NATO contributes to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

He also noted that NATO does not want a confrontation with Russia and will continue the policy of strengthening the defensive response to the actions of Russia, but at the same time, leaving the opportunity for dialog.

iy
Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has signed the law banning St. George ribbon and the law introducing quotas for the use of the Ukrainian language on Ukrainian TV.

This has been reported by an Ukrinform correspondent.

As Ukrinform earlier reported, the Verkhovna Rada on May 23 adopted a law on amending certain laws of Ukraine on the language of audiovisual (electronic) media, which envisages that the weekly share of TV programs and films in the state language must be at least 75% in each time span between 07:00 and 18:00 and between 18:00 and 22:00 for national and regional television and radio broadcasting organizations and at least 60% for local broadcasting companies.

On May 16, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law on amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses regarding the ban on the production and distribution of the so-called St. George (Guards) ribbon

On May 25, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine refused to approve a draft resolution submitted by two MPs from the Opposition Bloc faction to abolish a law banning the production and distribution of St. George ribbon.

The so-called St. George ribbon is a widely recognized military symbol in Russia.

iy
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin will take part in the GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum 2017 on May 27-28.

This has been reported by the Embassy of Ukraine to the Slovak Republic.

"On May 27-28, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin will pay a visit to Bratislava to attend the GLOBSEC Global Security Forum 2017," the report said.

The embassy has informed that the Ukrainian foreign minister intends to take part in the discussion panel "Eastern Neighborhood 2017: Challenges ahead?".

Within the framework of the visit, Pavlo Klimkin plans to meet with Miroslav Lajcak, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic.

ish
In the course of the working trip to Odesa region, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on additional measures aimed to ensure unhindered implementation by Ukrainian citizens of the right to visa-free travel to the European Union.

This has been reported by the press service of the Head of State.

"Here, in Odesa, I will sign a decree on additional measures aimed to ensure unhindered implementation by Ukrainian citizens of the right to visa-free travel to the European Union," the Head of State said.

"Having gained visa waiver with hard work, we must make its implementation for citizens as comfortable as possible. It goes about significant improvement of public services that accompany Ukrainians throughout the European route - from their hometown to the destination country in the EU," Poroshenko emphasized.

He noted that two days ago in Lutsk, he held a meeting with diplomats, border guards, customs officers and heads of local administrations. "We analyzed, figuratively speaking, all the bottlenecks on our visa-free way to Europe. Following this meeting, I will sign a decree now, which clearly stipulates what must be done to prevent any obstacles on this way. I congratulate you on that," the President said.

The Head of State emphasized that due to the visa-free regime, Ukrainians will not have to stand in queues to consular or visa centers anymore; will not have to pay visa fees and spend money for services of intermediaries; will not have to spend time and money on bureaucratic work aimed to collect unnecessary papers. "Ukrainian biometric passport is the only thing necessary," he emphasized and reminded that 3.5 million Ukrainians have already received such passports.

ish
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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UNICEF/UN020015/Gilbertson VII Photo

TAORMINA, Italy, 25 May 2017  At least 200 children have died along the dangerous Central Mediterranean migration route from North Africa to Italy so far this year  a rate of more than one child per day  according to the latest estimates from UNICEF. The updated child death figures come as leaders of G7 countries gather in Sicily, a major locus for the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe.

Data for 2017 shows that an increasing number of refugees and migrants, including children, are taking the perilous Central Mediterranean route to reach Europe, despite the journeys inherent risks. Between 1 January and 23 May, more than 45,000 refugees and migrants arrived to Italy by sea  an increase of 44 per cent over the same period last year. This includes some 5,500 unaccompanied and separated children  an increase of 22 per cent from 2016  who account for approximately 92 per cent of all children arriving to Italy via the Central Mediterranean route.



More children are braving the Central Mediterranean route to reach Italy which means that more children are literally dying to get there, said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth. A record high 26,000 unaccompanied and separated children arrived to Italy last year, but if current trends hold, that record will be smashed in 2017. That is not a record to be proud of, but a reminder of our collective failure to ensure the safety and wellbeing of refugee and migrant children.



Earlier today, on the eve of the G7 Summit, children, volunteers, the Italian coastguard, Italian and UNICEF officials took part in a symbolic rescue of paper boats to commemorate the thousands of children who have risked their lives crossing the Central Mediterranean and send a message to the G7 to take action to safeguard children on the move.



At least 36,000 of the refugees and migrants rescued since January have been taken to Sicily, the site of the 2017 summit, and the Italian G7 Presidency has made migration a priority for this years talks.



Sicily stands as a symbol of hope for uprooted children seeking a better life, but it is also the endpoint of an extremely dangerous journey that has claimed the lives of many children along the way, said Forsyth. It is fitting then that G7 leaders are meeting in a place so steeped in symbolism and meaning for what has become one of the greatest crises of our time. This is their moment to show true leadership in adopting a concrete policy plan that will help keep refugee and migrant children safe.



In the run-up to the G7 Summit, UNICEF has met the G7 Sherpas in their capitals, urging them to support Italys leadership and to adopt the UNICEF six-point Agenda for Action for the protection of refugee and migrant children. The agenda includes:

1. Protect child refugees and migrants, particularly unaccompanied children, from exploitation and violence;

2. End the detention of children seeking refugee status or migrating, by introducing a range of practical alternatives;

3. Keep families together as the best way to protect children and give children legal status;

4. Keep all refugee and migrant children learning and give them access to health and other quality services;

5. Press for action on the underlying causes of large scale movements of refugees and migrants;

6. Promote measures to combat xenophobia, discrimination and marginalization in countries of transit and destination.

In addition to the Agenda for Action, UNICEF has also launched a campaign urging the public to stand in solidarity with refugee and migrant children uprooted by war, violence and poverty. The #AChildIsAChild campaign, featuring a large billboard in the center of Taormina with the message G7 Leaders, protect migrant and refugee children, has so far been supported on social media by more than 2 million people.

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On Africa Day Thursday, about 300 young African leaders appealed to African heads of state to rescue South Sudan's 2015 peace agreement.

The Archbishop Tutu fellows said in a letter to the leaders that the conflict in South Sudan poses serious national security threats to neighboring countries.

"We, the Archbishop Tutu Fellows ['Tutu Fellows'], have been following the events unfolding in South Sudan with great dismay. We felt it incumbent upon ourselves to write and urge you, as neighbors and key members of regional blocs, to leverage your relationships with political and military leaders on all sides of the conflict in South Sudan to revive a political process and chart a way forward for the implementation of the August 2015 peace agreement," reads the letter addressed to "Your Excellencies," the presidents of Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, Namibia and Sudan.

Problem for all of Africa

Jackie Chimhanzi, chief executive officer for the African Leadership Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa, said South Sudan's conflict has become an Africa-wide problem.

"We felt that we needed to compel our leaders to act because we can talk about a peaceful Africa in 2063, yet we are not acting on South Sudan now, today," Chimhanzi said.

She said they purposely wrote the letter to the heads of neighboring countries because they have more at stake, adding, "the atrocities, and the war, actually those things threaten to spill over into neighboring countries."

Chimhanzi pointed out a number of Kenyan banks have had to shut down branches in South Sudan due to the insecurity, saying it's in their interest to work for peace in South Sudan.

The fellows urge the heads of state to deny South Sudan's political leaders access to amenities in their countries until they adhere to the peace deal.

Next generation of leaders

Chimhanzi said the Tutu fellows see themselves as Africa's next generation of leaders and therefore believe it's not right that "our current leaders continue to not hold each other to account, to support behavior that they know are not correct."

"It's time to be honest," Chimhanzi said, and to "speak to power, because such behavior is really not progressing the continent.

"We are watching 3.9 [million] people being killed, 4.9 [million] people are food insecure right now, there's famine, women and children are being raped; it cannot be right."

Chimhanzi calls the letter to the heads of state "a call to action."
Egypt answered a bloody machine-gun attack that killed dozens of Coptic Christians Friday with airstrikes on "terror bases" in Libya where the militant Islamist gunmen were believed to have trained.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced the retaliatory action in a televised address hours after masked gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians across the desert to a monastery. Egyptian officials said at least 28 people died at the hands of the gunmen.

An extremely painful strike has been dealt to the bases, el-Sissi said, referring to the targets in Libya.

Egypt will never hesitate to strike terror bases anywhere, he added. Military officials said camps targeted in Libya had been firmly linked to the men involved in the bus attack, who were widely suspected to be sympathizers of the Islamic State group.

Authorities said up to 10 assailants in three pickup trucks attacked about 320 kilometers (200 miles) from Cairo, training machine-gun fire on a bus carrying pilgrims to a remote monastery in Minya state honoring St. Samuel the Confessor, a 7th-century priest. In addition to the 28 people killed, 25 others were wounded.

No claim of responsibility

They used automatic weapons," state governor Essam el-Bedawi said. Egyptian television viewers saw images of the bus, its windows shattered, surrounded by police and ambulances.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, although it bore the hallmarks of Egypt's Islamic State affiliate, which has carried out four attacks on Copts since December. The worst came on April 10, Palm Sunday in the Coptic church calendar, when bombs exploded at two churches, killing 44 worshipers and wounding more than 100.

Egypt's Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. They have long been a target of Islamist extremism, as well as discrimination by the country's Muslim-majority population.

Trump reacts to 'merciless slaughter'

World leaders quickly condemned Friday's attack.

This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls," according to a statement from President Donald Trump released at the White House in Washington.  But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted and thuggish ideology.

UN Security Council condemns attack

The United Nations Security Council condemned in the strongest terms what it called a heinous and cowardly terrorist attack.

Security Council members said terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security.

A statement called on authorities to bring to justice everyone involved in the attack  organizers, perpetrators, financiers and sponsors.

Any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, the Security Council said.

Pope deeply saddened

From the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric attack in central Egypt and of the tragic loss of life and injury caused by this senseless act of hatred.

The pontiff visited Egypt last month, refusing to postpone his travel despite security concerns arising from the series of attacks carried out against Copts since December.

Francis instead visited one of the bombed churches to denounce violence carried out in the name of God.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story erroneously indicated Pope Francis is the leader of Egypt's Coptic Christians. Pope Tawadros II is the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. VOA regrets the error.
Three years of El Nino-induced drought and flooding left half of Malawi's population dependent on food aid, but this year, the country is reporting a good maize harvest. Malawis government banned the export of maize and maize products in 2015 amid food shortages.

But now things are changing.



Latest crop production estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture show that maize production will rise to 3.2 million tons, up from last years 2.3 million tons.



The surplus has already sent local selling prices tumbling. The Farmers Union of Malawi said in a statement that maize prices in the eastern region of Africa range from $300 to $700 per metric ton." Farmers say that is almost triple what local buyers offer.

They should lift the export ban on maize," says Felix Jumbe, a commercial maize farmer in central Malawi. "That would unlock the prices that are too low at the moment. Because K50, K30 per kilogram is equally stealing from farmers by vendors.



The government insists that the food security situation remains uncertain and it will not lift the export ban on maize.



Jumbe, who is also the chairperson for the Alliance for Commodity Trade in East and Southern Africa, says if anything, there is a need for a compromise via ADMARC, the national grain marketer, or NFRA, the National Food Reserve Agency.

I would suggest that the government should buy all the maize through ADMARC or NFRA at an export parity price  the same price that they would export  then the farmers will have the money and the government will have the stock," Jumbe says.

The government says it does not have the funds to do that.

I am sure you are aware that in 2002 we were in a similar situation," notes Joseph Mwanamveka, Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism. "We had surplus maize and we never kept, and then we sold the maize to Kenya. And then we ended up in a shortfall and then we were looking around to buy back the maize that we sold.

Mwanamveka says this time, the government will have to assess the situation before allowing exports.

There are surveys that need to be done and establish how much we keep in strategic grain reserve and how much should we export. We have not reached that stage yet," he says. "So once it has been established that we have enough, not only for this year, because people are just looking for this year, we will be able to allow exports.



Rafik Hajat, the executive director of the Blantyre-based research organization Institute for Policy Interaction, says the government is right to be cautious. Hajat recommends the ban remain in place until the National Food Reserve has stocked at least a two-year supply of maize.

We have no guarantee that we will have rains next year. We havent implemented [an] irrigation scheme as planned. So I am reminded of the dream that the pharaoh had in Egypt of seven years of plenty and followed by seven years of starvation," Hajat says.



The Farmers Union of Malawi warns that the low price farmers are currently fetching for their maize could leave them at risk of hunger and deepening poverty as they will have to sell larger quantities of their harvests this year to make ends meet.



Meanwhile, the government has deployed the military in all border districts to enforce the export ban. Malawis president, Peter Mutharika, made the order two months ago after police in northern Malawi impounded over 30 trucks loaded with maize intended for illegal export to neighboring Tanzania.
Taha Siddiqui was relaxing in his living room with his son after work when he received a telephone call. On the other end of the line was a man claiming to be with the counterterrorism department of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency. The man, who Siddiqui said identified himself as Nadeem Bodla, a deputy director of the counterterrorism wing in the FIA, told Siddiqui to "drop everything" and immediately report to his office.

"It wasn't a courteous call," Siddiqui recalled. "It was actually a call where he was talking from a point of authority. The tone was intimidating."

As a freelance journalist working with several international outlets, Siddiqui had been covering military affairs.

His work had drawn attention in the past. Journalists who did not know him would sometimes call and urge him to rethink what he was filing, telling him authorities thought he was overstepping a boundary.

This was the first time, though, that a government entity had officially approached him. The move concerned Siddiqui, who feared an arrest over "illegal charges" or the seizure of his equipment that could compromise his work and sources.

Others questioned, too

Others, namely political activists and opposition figures, had been called in for questioning based solely on their social media activity.

One of them, Salar Sultanzai, tweeted from his handle @MeFixer that the FIA had told him to submit his cellphone and laptop for inspection.

Siddiqui decided to file a petition of harassment in the Islamabad High Court.

Interior Minister Ali Khan, in a news conference this week, maintained that the steps taken by the FIA were legal. The constitution, Khan said, barred anyone from demeaning the country's armed forces, its judiciary or its national religion, Islam.

"I assure you no one is putting any restrictions on social media," Khan said, "but a free-for-all social media is also unacceptable for a democracy."

He also said that only 27 social media identities and eight individuals had been identified for questioning and that no one had been arrested or harassed.

Party activists feel targeted

Opposition leader Imran Khan, whose PTI party held protests across the country this week, disagreed. He said the government was using excuses to crack down against activists from his party. Others from the party concurred.

"This is all political," said Faisal Javed Khan of PTI. "It's political victimization. They're picking our guys because they have been highlighting [Prime Minister] Nawaz Sharif's corruption."

Another PTI activist, Shahzad Waseem, said the crackdown went against the norms of freedom of expression. "Unfortunately, the government in Pakistan is trying to curb the voice of civil society of Pakistan," he added.

The current crackdown has revived memories of the disappearances this year of at least five bloggers. Many in the country blamed the intelligence agency ISI for picking them up for having criticized the military in their social media posts.

A countrywide uproar led to their return, but they were afraid to speak up about what happened. Most of them and their families reportedly left the country soon afterward. At least one of them told the BBC he had been tortured for pleasure by a government institution linked to the military.

Rules for social media use

On Wednesday, Interior Minister Khan directed the relevant government departments to formulate a framework "which ensures that social media is used as a medium to facilitate positive, constructive and healthy interactions  and not as a tool to propagate false information, pass defamatory comments, ridicule or humiliate sacred personalities, national institutions or jeopardizing social, religious and cultural values of any community."

He has also requested that the national assembly speaker reach out to all political parties over this issue.

Meanwhile, Siddiqui is waiting for his hearing next week to find out why he was approached over his journalistic work.
The Philippines says foreigners are among the Islamist militants who took control of the southern island of Mindanao earlier this week.

"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Solicitor General Jose Calida said Friday. "It has transmogrified into an invasion of foreign fighters."

He said Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans and "other foreign fighters" were in Marawi.

Calida said the jihadists had answered a "clarion call" to establish an ISIS province in Mindanao.

Philippine troops entered Mindanao Thursday to begin clearing out the Islamist militants.

Military helicopters flew above the Marawi rooftops as armored tanks rolled through its neighborhoods amid sporadic gunfire and explosions. Many of Marawis 200,000 citizens are fleeing to safety.

The crisis began late Tuesday when Philippine security forces launched a mission to arrest militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, who was believed to be in Marawi recovering from wounds sustained in a previous clash. The raid collapsed after a wave of militants stormed the city and went on a rampage, burning houses, a university and Catholic churches and taking hostages, including a priest and more than a dozen others at a cathedral.

The military says at least 11 government troops and 31 militants have been killed in the fighting.

President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern Philippines, and has vowed to take harsh measures against the militants. He also warned he might expand martial law nationwide.

Dutertes use of martial law has raised concerns among human rights groups, who have accused him of ordering security forces to kill thousands of people as part of his crackdown on illicit drugs.

The southern Philippines, particularly the resource-rich but poverty-wracked Mindanao region, has long been a hotbed of activity by the Abu Sayyaf and other fundamentalist groups.

Hapilon has sworn allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

His time as leader of the brutal Abu Sayyaf terror group, which has been blamed for numerous bombings, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings in the Philippines, includes the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives.

The United States has placed a $5 million bounty on his head for alleged terrorist acts against American citizens.
A new study suggests that probiotics, so-called "good" bacteria that aid in digestion, may also ease symptoms of depression. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that what happens in the gut affects the brain.

Some 300 to 500 bacterial species inhabit the human gut, many aiding in digestion and the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

Experts say some of these bacteria produce proteins that communicate with the brain.

Your gut, your mood

The gut flora not only play a role in helping to orchestrate the neural responses that regulate digestion, scientists say, but evidence is emerging that gut bacteria can also affect a person's mood.

Premysl Bercik, a gastroenterologist at Ontario Canada's McMaster University, researches what he calls the microbiota-gut-brain axis, or the communication between the gut and the brain through the millions of bacteria that live in the gastrointestinal tract.

Bercik said between 40 and 90 percent of people with irritable bowel syndrome, a distressing intestinal disorder, also battle symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Research led by Bercik suggests the gut bacteria themselves may have an effect on mood.

In Bercik's pilot study of 44 patients with irritable bowel syndrome and mild to moderate anxiety or depression, half of the patients received a daily probiotic  a beneficial gut bacterium called Bifidobacterium longum  and the other half were given a placebo. The participants were followed for 10 weeks.

"What we found was that the patients that were treated with this probiotic bacterium improved their gut symptoms but, also surprisingly, decreased their depression scores," Bercik said. "That means their mood improved. And this was associated also with changes in the brain imaging."

Depression, anxiety improve

At the beginning of the study, the patients' levels of depression and anxiety were scored. The patients also underwent high-tech brain imaging to see which structures were activated in response to happy and sad images.

At six weeks, 64 percent of patients taking the probiotic had a decrease in their depression scores compared to 32 percent of the placebo patients.

A second round of imaging showed changes in multiple brain areas involved with mood control in the patients who felt better.

While the participants' gut symptoms improved, Bercik said it was not to a statistically significant degree, suggesting the probiotic may have improved their anxiety and depression independent of symptom relief.

Results of the study were published in the journal Gastroenterology.

More study needed

Bercik says larger studies are needed to confirm the findings.

"However, I think that it shows a great promise," he said. "I mean new treatments, not only for patients with functional bowel disorders like irritable bowel syndrome, but it may also offer some new treatments for patients with primary psychiatric disorders like depression or anxiety."

B. longum was developed by Nestle, a Swiss food and drink company, which funded the study. It is not yet commercially available.

However, Bercik says it's possible other probiotics found in the gut have the potential to improve mood. And he doesnt stop there. Bercik says he envisions a form of personalized medicine using genome sequencing techniques to create microbiome profiles of individuals, which can be tweaked with oral probiotics for maximum health.
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are speeding up training in preparation for a looming battle on Islamic State's capital, Raqqa, commanders told VOA.

Without giving a timetable, they said about 50,000 fighters would be participating in the battle for the IS stronghold, with aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition.

"Special experts from coalition countries are supporting the training with clothes, weapons and other equipment," Muhammad Fathi, an SDF commander, told VOA.

The SDF is a loosely knit alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that the U.S. sees as the most effective and reliable Syrian group fighting IS. The SDF has been closing in on Raqqa since November in a multiphased operation aimed at first isolating the city and then invading it. It recently claimed a major victory by seizing Syria's largest dam and Tabqa town, 50 kilometers west of Raqqa.

Driving IS from Raqqa is a major priority for the U.S.-led coalition. The U.S. announced this month that it would provide Kurdish forces around Raqqa with small arms, machine guns, ammunition and armored vehicles to counter improvised explosive devices and construction equipment. Washington sees arming the Kurdish fighters as the easiest way to bring about Raqqa's downfall.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered an "accelerated operation" against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said last week. Mattis called it a "tactical shift," saying the military would move away from operations designed to shove IS fighters out of seized locations, and instead focus on "surrounding the enemy in its stronghold."

Law and order

Kurdish commanders told VOA that hundreds of fighters were enrolled in seven-day training courses that would prepare them not only for the invasion but also to maintain law and order in Raqqa after IS. The training sites are in several locations in northern Syria, they said.

"Our goal has not been only to train fighters on how to take on the enemy, but also how to maintain stability in Raqqa," Fathi said.

A VOA Kurdish service reporter visited one of the training sites this week in a schoolyard in the town of Ain Issa, 50 kilometers north of Raqqa, where 50 young men and women finished a training program that Kurdish commanders said was supervised by the U.S.-led coalition. The graduates were dressed in green uniforms and wore light blue arm patches bearing the image of an eagle with its wings spread and emblazoned with the words "Raqqa Internal Security Force."

American military supervisors in the camp declined to comment.

But analysts and Kurdish activists in northern Syria say Syrian forces need training on how to use the U.S.-supplied weapons.

"The weapons are loaded on trucks and enter Rojava via the Iraqi Kurdistan's border on a daily basis," Jack Shahine, a Kurdish activist from northern Syria who monitors forces in the area, told VOA.

Shahine said the weapons are taken to military bases in Minbaj, Kobani and the Hasakah region, where U.S. special forces are present as trainers.

Turkish media reported that approximately 100 trucks have crossed into Syria from northern Iraq since May 15 with U.S. weapons.

Ankara opposes Washington's alliance with Syrian Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State. Turkey contends the SDF's Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, is a terrorist group affiliated with the outlawed PKK  the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a separatist group that has been battling the Turkish state for many years.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told VOA that the U.S. government had yet to provide weapons to the YPG. He said the weapons would be delivered to the YPG as necessary to accomplish specific military objectives in Raqqa.

"We're not going to comment on every delivery, the contents of those deliveries or the locations of the equipment we're providing," Pahon said. To "the extent possible, we want to keep IS in the dark to increase our partners' chances of a swift military defeat."

Stepped-up roles



A senior Kurdish official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity said coalition countries  mainly the U.S., France and Britain  had stepped up their advisory roles to the group.

"The forces are equipped with newly provided advanced anti-tank missiles to destroy armored suicide vehicles," the official said. "The advanced anti-tank missiles are very new to our forces, and therefore more training is needed in that area."

Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and an analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington public policy research group, told VOA that IS would most likely pose stiff resistance in Raqqa.

"Anti-tank missiles and anti-armor missiles are the top of the wish list since Daesh [an IS acronym] was able to acquire tanks, Humvees and perhaps MRAPs when the Iraqi army collapsed," he told VOA, referring to a type of mine-resistant military vehicle.

VOA'S Mahmoud Bali contributed to this report from Syria; Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed from Washington.
Attacks on hospitals, doctors, ambulances, the wounded and sick took place in at least 20 countries affected by conflict last year, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday.

Guterres told a U.N. Security Council meeting on health care in conflict that in most of the countries "fragile medical systems were already at the breaking point"  and in most cases no one was held accountable.



"These attacks are evidence of a broader trend: parties to conflict are treating hospitals and health clinics as targets, rather than respecting them as sanctuaries," he said. "This goes against the spirit of the Geneva Conventions, the fundamental tenets of international humanitarian law, and our basic humanity."



In Syria, Guterres said, Physicians for Human Rights documented over 400 attacks since the conflict began in 2013, and more than 800 medical staff killed. In Afghanistan, he said, reported attacks on health facilities and personnel almost doubled in 2016, compared with 2015.



The secretary-general lamented that little has changed on the ground since the Security Council adopted a resolution a year ago demanding that all parties to conflicts protect staff and facilities treating the wounded and sick.



Among the attacks in at least 20 countries documented by the U.N. World Health Organization, Guterres said that just a few months after the resolution was adopted, a hospital in Yemen whose roof was clearly marked and coordinates known was hit in an airstrike, killing 15 people including three medical staff.



He said the resolution and former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's recommendations must be turned into reality. Switzerland and Canada have gathered an informal group of U.N. member states to support implementation of the resolution, which also urges all countries to bring those responsible for attacks on health facilities and personnel to justice, he said.



Guterres urged parties to conflict to respect international humanitarian and human rights law, and urged arms suppliers to consider the potential consequences of any sales. He also called for stepped up protection of humanitarian and medical missions and greater investments to tackle the roots of conflicts.


Cecil Exum inside the employee's cafeteria, which is named "Cecil's Lounge" after him, at the Marriott Crystal Gateway hotel in Arlington. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

Cecil Exum figures hes made 130 omelets by now, but honestly, hes lost track. Its five hours into his nine-hour shift, and hes just realized he hasnt had his morning coffee. The crowds keep coming, asking for omelets, fried eggs and waffles, so he keeps cooking.

Now three more omelets are sizzling on the stove. He pats each one with a rubber spatula and flips them, with a slight flick of his wrist: One, two, three.

For mercys sake! says Sally McGinnis, 58, a longtime customer from Clover, S.C., whos lingering by the omelet station. Those flips, my gosh, they were perfect.

Exum, who will turn 80 in two weeks, has been cooking for Marriott since before it was called Marriott. He was 19 when he left a sharecroppers farm in North Carolina to take a job at Hot Shoppes, a root beer stand run by the Marriott family. He bused tables, served sodas and made banana splits.

The following year, the Marriotts opened their first hotel, Twin Bridges Motor Hotel in Arlington. Exum, a dishwasher, was among its first employees. He made about 75 cents an hour and took home $30 a week.

As Exum worked his way up from the back kitchen to the front, and then to the corner omelet station at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, where he has been for 24 years, the business grew, too: from a chain of local root beer stands to the worlds largest hotel company, with $17 billion in annual revenue.

[Size matters: Marriott to buy Starwood, creating the worlds largest hotel company]

Mr. Cecil is a living history of Marriott, Robert Tate, the hotels director of human resources, wrote in nominating Exum for a Marriott Award of Excellence earlier this year. He has become a legend to our guests.

Exum, his managers say, is the companys longest-standing employee. That puts him in the company of one other guy: J.W. Bill Marriott Jr., the hotel giants 85-year-old chairman, who also began working there full time in 1956 and retired a few years ago as chief executive.

We are so proud that Cecil is part of the Marriott family, Marriott said. He has been a shining example of putting people first. And I can testify he makes wonderful omelets.

Exum has stayed, he says, because he likes his work and has good benefits: a retirement plan, profit-sharing program and all the vacation time I could want.Company lore has it that in his 61 years, hes never once called in sick.

The first Marriott business, a root beer stand at 3128 14th St. in Washington. J. Willard Marriott Sr. is in the doorway; his first employee is in the window. (Courtesy of Marriott )

In many ways, Exum represents another era of American employment, when workers remained in one job  with one company  for decades and were celebrated for their loyalty with plentiful pensions and maybe a gold watch.

But over the past generation, much of that has diminished. Employers, in an ever-frantic race to cut costs, have slashed pensions and pushed out older workers through downsizing and buyouts.

Since the 1990s and through our recent period of economic malaise, companies have been cutting, cutting, cutting, said Aldy Keene, head of the Loyalty Research Center, an Indianapolis-based consulting firm. Their focus has been on holding on to the fewest workers: How can we get by? Whats the minimum we can do?

Decades ago, as Exum was entering the workforce, it was a different story. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, and especially after World War II, Americans  and corporations  sought a certain stability. Employees wanted reliable jobs, and employers wanted dependable workers.

For people like my parents, who lived through those things, that had a dramatic impact on their desire for stability, said Keene, 63. Not only in their jobs but in other parts of their lives.

And so it is for Exum, who was born as the decade-long Depression was ending and just before the war began. Job security is important, he says, particularly in an industry known for its high turnover. The average American worker stays in a job for about four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Food service workers, though, have the shortest tenures, remaining in one job for an average of 1.9 years.

Exum says he is taking steps, however small, to change that.

Whenever someone new starts here, I tell them two things: One, sign up for the retirement plan, he said one morning as he refilled tubs of cheddar cheese. And two, dont keep moving job to job.

At the omelet station, Exum is waiting on the next batch to cook through.To pass the time, he scribbles a shopping list on a napkin. He wipes the counters, then opens the refrigerator to count eggs.

When it gets slow, I check everything to see what I need for tomorrow, he says. Its important to keep moving, he adds, otherwise, my mind would wander.

A few yards away, McGinnis is still there, gushing to other customers about the omelet she just ate. She turns to Exum.

You think about retiring at all? she asks.

Sometimes I do, Exum says, sprinkling jalapenos over an omelet. Sometimes I dont.

Clearly youre not thinking about it all that hard, McGinnis says. Youre still here.



Cecil Exum commutes nearly an hour from his house in Waldorf, Md., each morning in his new Toyota Prius and arrives to work by 5 a.m. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

Not much for change

There was a time, in the 1970s, when Exum toyed with leaving Marriott. The details are fuzzy now, he says, but I was just getting tired of what I was doing. I wanted to make a change.

But, he quickly realized, he isnt a man who likes much change. He prefers familiarity and order.

Exum wakes to gospel music at 3:30 each morning in his four-bedroom house in Waldorf, Md., where he lives alone. He leaves for work at 4:15 a.m., driving his new Toyota Prius (which he bought after his 2001 Ford Ranger began giving him trouble) in the right-most lane the entire way. By 5 a.m., hes at the hotel, pulling a striped apron over his head.

There are other constants in his life, too. He doesnt drink or smoke. He goes to two church services each Sunday, at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., and afterward cooks himself the same breakfast: Hungry Jack pancakes, which he likes steaming hot; grits, which he prefers warm; and Jimmy Dean turkey sausage patties (no pork or beef), which he eats warm or cold.

In the summer, he goes fishing with his 73-year-old sister, Clara, whom he calls baby girl. He takes a week off every July to drive to his family reunion, an elaborate affair that draws hundreds. And every winter, he puts in the same vacation request at work: two weeks off in December and two weeks off in January to spend the holidays with his extended family.

Hes been able to settle into his routine, he says, because Marriott hasnt pushed him out  and that feels like a luxury these days. The company doesnt have mandatory retirement requirements, and Exum says hes never felt pressured to leave. (Marriotts board recently began requiring that all directors, with the exception of Marriott Jr., retire at 72.)

[Bill Marriott, Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch and the age of the everlasting executive]

Its become difficult for older workers to remain employed, says Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School.

Experienced workers are higher paid, and if youre trying to save money, you can save more, faster, by getting rid of older workers, he said. Fewer people are making it to traditional retirement age with one longtime employer.



In 1957, J. Willard Marriott and his wife, Alice, cut the ribbon at their first hotel, in Arlington. One of the country's first motor hotels, it had 365 rooms, with bellmen on bicycles. Rooms were $8 a car, with $1 extra for each person. (Courtesy of Marriott )

Bill Marriott with children Stephen, left, Debbie and John in 1966. (Washington Post File Photo)

As a result, Exum has become something of a legend at the sprawling, 697-room convention hotel where he works.

So many people have heard about him, and they are always stopping to say hello, said Mohammed Kamalzadh, 64, who fills in for Exum. Theyll say to me, Are you Mr. Cecil? 

He usually says no, but at times, he cant help himself: I dont like to lie, but sometimes I say yes, Kamalzadh said. People get so happy to meet someone whos worked here for so many years.

As Exum cleans up, Kamalzadh dumps plates of smoked salmon and capers into the trash. The two have been cooking together for 13 years, but they mostly work in silence. Sometimes they share stories about customers  Exum, for example, finds it puzzling when customers request egg whites, then load up on bacon  but they never talk about their lives.

I love fishing, Kamalzadh says. Exum does, too. But theyve never swapped stories. Lately, hes quiet, Kamalzadh says, during a moment when Exum has gone into the kitchen. Hes got a lot of stories  hes been here since Eisenhower was president  but hes not one to talk about himself.

At the M Club, Marriotts members-only dining room with marble-topped tables, three women are comparing notes. The topic: Exums omelets. One woman has been eating them for at least 10 years. Another discovered them yesterday and has had two since.

The texture of the eggs is perfect: fluffy, not runny, she says. Its like, I dont even know how to explain it, but I never imagined an omelet could be so perfect.

Hes an artist, thats all I have to say, adds another. An omelet artist. Theres nobody better.



Cecil Exum's name and title is stitched on his white cooks jacket. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

Cecil Exum prepares omelets. "I keep my workstation very clean," he says. "It's all about appearance." (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

We all knew how to cook

To be honest with you, Im not really an omelet person, Exum says after work one day.

His mother taught him to cook, he says, as soon as he was tall enough to reach the stove-top.

There were six of us: Three girls and three boys, he said. When we got old enough, we all knew how to cook. We took turns fixing dinner: Collard greens, potatoes, chicken, pork shoulder.

When his son, now 49, was growing up, Exum taught him, too. It was a matter of utilitarianism, Exum says, of not having to rely on others. I told him, You should always learn to cook so you dont go hungry,  Exum said. Thats the main thing.

His son, a security guard for the Smithsonian Institution, and his daughter-in-law, who works for Safeway, live a half-hour drive away in Upper Marlboro. He sees them twice a month, he said. And his daughter-in-law calls to check on him three times a week, or more when the weather is bad.

Lately, theyve been asking what he wants to do for his 80th birthday next month. They want to plan something big, Exum said. But I told them I dont want no big celebration. All I want is to be alive, healthy and strong. I dont make plans for nothing.



Cecil Exum is Marriott's longest-standing employee  and reportedly hasn't taken a sick day in 60 years. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

When youre retired . . . 

Exum has been thinking about retirement a lot lately. Ever since his sister left her government job a few years ago, hes started to think maybe it wouldnt be so bad to have some time to himself, to work in his yard and travel to parts of the country hes never seen.

It worries him, though, to give up the life hes known since 1956, when he left his work on a livestock farm to move to Washington for a job at Hot Shoppes.

Sometimes he runs into the other man who joined the company that year, the founders son. Their circumstances are different, he says  Exum wouldnt say how much he makes (although a human resources director at the company said the starting rate for an omelet-maker today is about $16 to $18 an hour); Bill Marriott, meanwhile, was paid $3.66 million last year and has an estimated net worth of $2.2 billion. Lately, though, it seems like the two of them are grappling with the same big questions, toying with retirement but also frightened by what it could bring.

My dad will never stop working, Marriotts daughter, Deborah Marriott Harrison, told The Washington Post in 2014. He would probably curl up in the fetal position and die. This company has been so much a part of his life.

Exum can understand that. Many days, his job is what keeps him going. When his arthritic knee is bothering him, or when hes just feeling down, Exum gets dressed and heads to work.

Pretty soon, Im making eggs, Im socializing, and I realize my pain has gone away, he said. As long as youre working, youre active and your body stays active. But when youre retired, your body slows down on you.

His doctor warned him, before his last checkup, that working on his feet could cause complications. But so far, hes healthy.

After work each day, he props his 6-foot-2-inch frame on a pillow and massages his legs. Sometimes, he takes a nap.

When Im falling asleep, thats when I let my mind wander a little bit, he said. What am I going to do in my yard? When am I going to go fishing? And then that big question: When am I going to retire?

Trapped in Trumpland: Washingtonians say politics follows them everywhere, even to the strip club
Invest in a 529 plan for your childs college fund, because hoping is not planning. (Butch Dill/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Even though its been around for 21 years, many people still dont know what a 529 plan is.

Seven out of 10 Americans couldnt identify the tax-advantaged savings account, according to recent findings by financial services firm Edward Jones.

Under a 529, if the money is used for qualified educational expenses, your earnings are tax-free.

I think part of the reason this savings vehicle isnt widely known stems from a number of misconceptions about how it works. So let me do some myth-busting in honor of National 529 College Savings Day, which falls each year on May 29.

To help, Ive asked Mark Kantrowitz, my go-to guru about paying for college. Kantrowitz is publisher of Cappex.com, a free website about college admissions and financial aid.

[Whats keeping you from being rich? Not that latte or avocado toast.]

Here are five common misconceptions about 529s:

1. Contributing to a 529 will hurt my childs chances for financial aid.

Im always perplexed by this notion, since most federal aid comes in the form of loans. Sure, theres a bit of truth to the statement but not enough that it should stop you from saving in a 529 plan.

As Kantrowitz points out, if a dependent student or the custodial parent owns the account, it is reported as a parental asset on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The savings reduces eligibility for need-based aid by a maximum of 5.64 percent.

If you save $10,000 in a parent-owned 529 plan, need-based aid will be reduced by, at most, $564, he said. That still leaves you with $9,436 available to pay for college costs. The college savings provides the flexibility to choose a more expensive college than you otherwise could afford. It also reduces debt, since every dollar you save is a dollar less youll need to borrow.

2. A 529 plan means my child is limited to going to a school in the state where I open the account.

You can use money saved in a 529 to pay for college costs at any college or university that is eligible for Title IV federal student aid.

You can even use 529 plan money to pay for college outside the U.S. at one of a few hundred eligible institutions, Kantrowitz said. You can use 529 plans to pay for two-year and four-year colleges, as well as certificate programs and vocational-technical school. You can even use the money to pay for graduate school.

3. The returns in a 529 plan are lousy.

All 529 college savings plans include an S&P 500 investing option that will mimic the performance of the stock market as a whole, Kantrowitz said. However, since the stock market will drop by 10 percent at least two to three times in any 17-year period, it is smart to manage the risk by using an age-based asset allowance. Like a target-date fund, an age-based asset allocation shifts the mix of investments from aggressive to conservative as college approaches.

Heres something else to keep in mind. Your state may give you a deduction for 529 contributions up to a certain amount. Vanguard has an online calculator that estimates what you could deduct ( vanguard.wealthmsi.com/stdc.php ).

4. You can use money in a 529 plan only for tuition.

[The college graduate with a double major  and no debt]

Nope. In addition to room and board, the money you save can be used to pay for books, supplies and equipment, including a computer, peripherals, software and Internet access. You can even pay for expenses for special-needs services.

5. Ill lose my money if the beneficiary doesnt go to college.

If the beneficiary doesnt pursue a higher education, you have options because the money is yours. You can switch the beneficiary to someone else, including yourself.

But lets say there isnt anyone else you want to give the money to or who needs it. You can withdraw the funds, but youll have to pay ordinary income taxes and a 10 percent tax penalty on the earnings portion of the distribution if the money isnt used for qualified education expenses. By the way, the 10 percent penalty is waived if your child gets a scholarship.

For more on this topic, read Kantrowitzs blog post Most common college savings mistakes at Cappex.com.

Some parents tell me that they havent set up a 529 because they believe their child will win enough money in scholarships.

Reality check: The average scholarship amount is just under $4,000 a year, according to Kantrowitzs research.

Less than 1 percent of students win a completely free ride through scholarships, he said.

Maybe your child will beat the odds. But do you want to take that chance? Invest in a 529 plan, because hoping is not planning.

Write Singletary at The Washington Post, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or singletarym@washpost.com. To read more, go to http://wapo.st/michelle-singletary.
Weddings are complicated. From plus-one invitations to picking the bridal party to discussing the budget, wedding etiquette can be tricky for the couple and their guests. And it doesnt help that expectations are constantly evolving with technology and changing social norms.

So, how can you avoid, or address, sticky and sometimes stressful situations?

Enter Lizzie Post, the president of the Emily Post Institute and co-host of the podcast Awesome Etiquette (and, yes, the great-great-granddaughter of society doyenne Emily Post).

In a recent telephone interview, Post tackled some all-too-common wedding dilemmas, offering advice on how best to navigate them.

Q: Who should be the first people we tell about our engagement?

Lizzie Post is the great-great-granddaughter of society doyenne Emily Post and co-host of the Awesome Etiquette podcast. (Sabin Gratz)

A: The very first people you should tell are your children, if you have any. Beyond that, parents and siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, best friends and then you can start opening it up to work colleagues and social media. You want to get through that list of your friends in your closest inner circle, and I advise that you do so in person and over the phone to your closest family members and friends, and a phone call or email to the extended family. Then, at last, social media. A lot of people ask, Well, why? and the reason is you dont want your Aunt Karen finding out about the wedding from what your co-worker posted on Facebook.

Q: Should I bring a present to an engagement party?

A: No, but this varies regionally. When I RSVP, I would ask the host, Are you expecting people to be bringing presents? Its a good question to ask because you can always send an engagement gift to the couples home. Ive been to engagement parties where it was all about opening gifts  almost like a bridal shower  which was very unexpected.

Q: Who hosts the bridal shower and who pays for it?

A: The bridal shower can be hosted by anyone, but its usually done by friends or family of the bride. It is not an obligation or an expectation of any of the bridal party members to host this, pay for it or contribute to it. Whoever offers to do the hosting should do the paying.

Q: How do I broach the subject of paying for the wedding with my parents or partners parents?

A: Have a candid and respectful conversation: Mom and Dad, Jim and I are looking at our budget for the wedding, and, before we start making decisions, we just want to double check and see if you want to, or are interested in, contributing to the wedding. We have no expectations, of course, but wanted to ask before we set our budget and started making decisions based upon it. Its a conversation, not an expectation.

Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette, sixth edition, by Lizzie Post and her sister Anna Post. (William Morrow)

Q: Im considering sending online wedding invitations. What do you think?

A: Not much. If you are hosting a casual, relaxed wedding, with just your peers, I think youre in a lot safer territory to do that. If youre hosting a formal or semiformal event with lots of generations attending, I think that you need to think more about your guest list rather than convenience. This is a big-deal day, especially if youre setting up a registry. Dont give it a small invitation, and all online invitations are small and casual in my book. A formal invitation suggests a formal event. You run the risk of the invitations going to spam or people forgetting about them.

Q: What if we dont want children at our wedding?

A: First of all, your wedding invitation should never indicate no kids. You shouldnt write adults only or please get a babysitter, or anything like that, on the invitation. . . . The bride and groom indicate a no kids policy by only inviting the adults of the family to come or, in some cases, kids over 14. When the person writes in, Oh, Kevin and Kelsey will be joining us, too! You call them up and say, I am terribly sorry, but I think there has been a misunderstanding with the invitation. We will have babysitters on-site, but were really keeping it to guests ages 14 years and older. Its okay to spell that out and make it clear to someone  you just have to do it politely.

[Whats it like getting married at Disney? Its not always a fairy tale.]

Q: How do we get our guests to RSVP in a timely manner?

A: You dont. This is one [topic] that has plagued etiquette experts and hosts alike for years. What you do is put an RSVP date on the invitation, but people just dont, its really annoying, so you have to call them up and ask for their RSVP. You are allowed to do that as often as you need to, but remember to be polite with each phone call.

Q: If someone asks me to be in their wedding, do I have to reciprocate when its my turn?

A: No.

Q: What if I want to back out of bridesmaid or best man duties?

A: First, when someone asks, dont immediately say yes. Say, Oh, my, that is such an honor, thank you so much. I would love some time to look at my schedule, and my budget, to make sure I can commit to everything so you have the support that you need.

And, if you cant do it, say, I really cant commit to this, but I want to show you my love and support on this day. Is there something else we can come up with, whether it be a toast, a reading or just generally being helpful, I can do to support you? I want you to know it has nothing to do with not being your close friend or standing up there and supporting you. Its totally circumstantial.

Q: I am a bridesmaid in a wedding and the maid of honor (MOH) isnt fulfilling her responsibilities. What should I do?

A: You can take the reins, by all means, but please dont micromanage the maid of honor. Check in with the bride directly, not the other bridesmaids (you dont want to step on any toes). Id say, I know when I was a MOH these were my duties and I just want to make sure its all being taken care of. If you need me to fill in or support you with anything at all, I would be more than happy to help.

Q: How much should I expect to spend if I am a MOH or best man?

A: That is completely dependent on what your bride is setting forth as her game plan. You need to find out, in advance, whats being requested and whats being offered. Some brides will pay for all the hair and makeup; others dont. It depends on what the bride is setting forth. I see brides set forth things like, We are going to do a five-day weekend in Vegas. And youre just like, What? Thats a $1,000 trip. Its daunting.

If your budget is tight, tell the bride, Ill be able to come to this, this and this, but I wont be able to make it to the others. Id really like to be there, but unfortunately my schedule, budget, etc., wont allow it. Provide the real reason, which is usually time and expenses.

Q: What do you do if you were invited to a wedding but did not receive a plus-one and would like one?

A: You do nothing. I hate to say it, but there are no options. Thats when you buck up and say, Maybe Ill meet someone cool at the wedding  whether it be a friend, a romantic interest or just a gal pal. You put on all your best person out on their own tactics, whether that be some good conversation starters or allowing yourself the permission to say, Im going to use this weekend as an opportunity to enjoy time with myself and celebrate the couple.

Q: My original plus one is no longer able to attend. Can I bring a friend or family member in their place?

A: I would call the bride or groom, whichever person youre closest to, and say, Hey, listen, it turns out my plus one cant come after all. Id love to bring someone else and I have a person in mind. Is it okay if I switch and get you the new, correct name?

I think as long as youve been issued a plus one, you should be fine, but a phone call conversation is the way to do it. If you send a note along with the invitation, it sounds as though you are dictating [the switch] rather than if you mention it to them directly. Either way, you need to let them know ahead of time. You dont want someone elses name showing up on the table cards.

Q: How much should I spend on a wedding present?

A: That is entirely dependent upon your budget. If you are going to 20 weddings in one year, you might have a $10 wedding budget, and that is perfectly fine. A sentimental gift can be an inexpensive gift, or it could be a very expensive gift. Its up to you and your current financial situation.

Q: What should I buy the couple if they dont have a wedding registry?

A: That is a trickier scenario, but I always go the route of an engraved picture frame with the date or something that may be meaningful to the couple. Everyone takes photos and you know the couple is going to get photos from their photographer, but what do they do with them? Frames.

[Forget the big wedding. More of todays couples include you through Facebook.]

Q: What should I buy a couple I dont know very well?

A: How about an engraved picture frame with their wedding date on it? [Laughs.] Or, instead select a smaller item off their wedding registry.

Q: How long do I have to give the couple a wedding present?

A: Three months. It used to be a year, but now, with our fast-paced society, weve upped it. You dont want people straggling or sitting on it.

Q: Is it inappropriate to give newlyweds a wedding check?

A: No! Who doesnt like money? Just make sure that check isnt going to bounce.

Q: If I cant attend the wedding, do I need to send a gift?

A: This is the only invitation that youll receive where the gift is considered obligatory. This is a big-deal invite; this is not a birthday party. The actual wedding itself  to be there and to be asked to be present when someone is committing his or her life to another person  is a massive honor. Its important to recognize that commitment and say, Thank you for considering me someone you would like to have at this very special moment.

Q: Can I wear a white dress to a marriage ceremony of two men?

A: Ask the grooms ahead of time, but I would assume yes.

Q: How much a faux pas is it to wear a suit to a black-tie function?

A: It depends on if the dress code is mandatory. I would say worse things could happen to you in life, however, if the attire has been listed as black tie, you really should show up in black tie. If you cant, I hope your suit looks incredible. Youll need a dark suit that looks sharp, a nice tie, shirt and shoes. . . . Everything has got to be in mint condition and fitting well.

Q: Can I live-stream or Snapchat the wedding ceremony?

A: Not unless the bride and groom have specifically requested it. The bride and groom will set that up if thats something they would like to do. I think itd be pretty rude to do it on your own accord without checking with them first. Id also caution people against posting anything at or about the wedding before the bride and groom have had a chance to do so.

Q: We want to cut corners and have a cash bar. Will our family members disown us?

A: No, and yes. Cash bars are inappropriate. You dont ask someone to come and celebrate one of the most special days of your life, suggest gifts that this person would buy and then say, Hey. Can you also pay for your drinks?

No. No, no, no, no, no. Instead, limit it to beer and wine, or serve a specialty cocktail. There are lots of ways to do it, but make sure you are picking up the tab for it.

Q: My ex is getting married to another person. Can I crash their wedding?

A: NO! Thats horrible. You dont get invited, you dont go and you dont go as someones plus one. Dont ever, ever do that.

On June 1 at 12:30 p.m., Lizzie Post will be offering etiquette advice and taking questions on Facebook at wapo.st/weddingdonts.


Victor Ekpuks Still I Rise, acrylic on paper, on view in These Moments, through May 31 at Morton Fine Art. Some of the pieces in the D.C. artists show were inspired by his recent four-month residency in his homeland of Nigeria. (Victor Ekpuk/Courtesy Morton Fine Art)

Some of the pictures in Victor Ekpuks These Moments, like his earlier ones, feature ideograms derived from Nsibidi, an ancient African writing system. But the most forceful piece in the Morton Fine Art show contains just one symbol: a crosshairs bulls eye over a faceless mans heart. The figure in Still I Rise is on his knees with his hands up, one in a gesture of surrender, but the other clenched into a fist. The D.C. artist is thinking not of his native Nigeria, but of places such as Ferguson, Mo.

Other pieces were inspired by Ekpuks recent four-month residency in the land of his birth, where he was struck by local idioms in which head refers to a persons mind or mood. That resulted in several sculptural paintings, all titled Head plus a number, on shaped wood panels. Ekpuk has a strong graphic sense, and snipping his images to their essential outlines gives then even more punch.

In the nearly all-red Head 2, Nsibidi characters fill the face and neck, suggesting someone stuffed with thoughts. Yet theres less text in these artworks than in previous groupings, and its sometimes pitted against elementary geometry, such as the horizontal stripes of Head 7. Executed mostly in black and red, with deep blue as an occasional counterpoint, these drawings and paintings are strikingly direct. Still I Rise is the only one that could double as a protest placard, but all are as immediate as street posters.

Victor Ekpuk: These Moments On view through May 31 at Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave. NW. 202-628-2787. mortonfineart.com.



Christina Tenaglias Untitled 422, on view at Adah Rose Gallery through June 4. (Christina Tenaglia/Adah Rose Gallery)

Anne C. Smith & Christina Tenaglia

Both artists of Adah Rose Gallerys In This Moment are builders of a sort. Christina Tenaglia actually works with construction materials, assembling wall sculptures from pieces of wood, sometimes painted. Anne C. Smith draws shapes, mostly rectilinear, in graphite on black charcoal backgrounds, suggesting architectural blueprints.

That may not be the intent: Smiths stated inspirations are night, memory and landscape. But the D.C. artists spare abstractions do conjure a sense of space. Although earlier works included here are more textured, the recent drawings are all line and tonal contrast. Theyre stark, yet suggest invisible expanses.



Anne C. Smiths Pinwheel, on view at Adah Rose Gallery. (Anne C. Smith/Adah Rose Gallery)

Tenaglias pieces have literal depth, yet emphasize straight lines, whether painted or indicated by wooden edges  or drawn by the shadows the latter cast. The New York artist also contrasts unfinished wood and neutral hues with patches of bright color. Tenaglias closest connection to Smiths work is in drawings that follow the same compositional model as her sculptures. But both artists employ a similar repertoire of minimalist gestures, whether in three dimensions or two.

Anne C. Smith & Christine Tenaglia: In This Moment On view through June 4 at Adah Rose Gallery, 3766 Howard Ave., Kensington. 301-922-0162. adahrosegallery.com.

J.T. Kirkland

J.T. Kirklands Subspace 257 and 258, on view at McLean Project for the Arts. (J.T. Kirkland/McLean Project for the Arts)

With the Grain, the title of J.T. Kirklands show at MPA@ChainBridge gallery, refers to his established technique. The Sterling artist is known for staining central areas of plywood sheets with the washes of the same color he uses to paint a hard-edge geometric border that surrounds the area of tinted grain. There are several examples of this format here, but also some effective variations.

A few recent works split the composition across two irregularly shaped planks. These diptychs, severed yet unified, are the same color on both sides and resemble interlocking puzzle pieces. More of a departure are pictures that employ diamonds and rectangles in multiple hues. These also emphasize the grain, but dont stain it. The unpainted wood is central, and the painted figures its frame. These paintings are one-piece rectangles, some dismembered visually by off-kilter shapes. The most orderly of them, the double-diamond Subspace 251 and 262, suggest Frank Stellas 1960s style. But even these give equal play to plywood and paint, thus foregrounding the backdrop.

J.T. Kirkland: With the Grain On view through May 31 at MPA@ChainBridge, 1446 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean. 703-790-1953. mpaart.org.



Leslie Parkes Golf-Juan, on view at Cross Mackenzie Gallery through June 3. (Leslie Parke/Cross Mackenzie Gallery)

Leslie Parke & Beth Kaminstein

At Cross MacKenzie Gallery in 2013, Leslie Parke showed realist paintings of ceramics submerged in surf, their surfaces glistening wetly. The work in the Upstate New York artists Particle Wave is rather different, yet also relies on reflection. Although the blurry, disorienting pictures look like abstract digital collages, theyre actually photos of objects seen through plastic.

Parke began photographing visually ambiguous vignettes as inspirations for painting, and only recently decided to exhibit the originals. They show such ordinary things as rolled-up metal fencing, wrapped in plastic outside a building-supply store. The transparent sheeting traps condensation, whose bubbles further distort the image and give it an underwater feel. Like those submerged dishes, the subjects of these photos have undergone a sea change.



Beth Kaminsteins ceramic leaf plattter on view at Cross Mackenzie Gallery. (Beth Kaminstein/Cross Mackenzie Gallery)

Also at the gallery, and quite compatible with Parkes photography, is Beth Kaminsteins earth-toned, nature-evoking stoneware. The trays and bowls are irregular in shape, marked with pebble-like forms and finished with different glazes on the same pieces. The Florida artist titled the two larger trays with the word leaf, but they also suggest oyster shells. Shimmery and eccentrically beautiful, her work appears as much found as made.

Leslie Parke: Particle Wave and Beth Kaminstein: Ceramics On view through June 3 at Cross MacKenzie Gallery, 1675 Wisconsin Ave. NW. 202-337-7970. crossmackenzie.com.

Natures Grasp

The title of Lee Arts Centers show, Natures Grasp, is open-ended. The work is not. Our environment is under assault in most of these prints, which feature skulls, skeletons, airborne bombers and other foreboding motifs. Joseph Velasquezs modern-day Atlas supports an Earth on which the U.S. is aflame. In Dylan Goldbergers vegan vision, animals often eaten by humans instead dine on them. Steven Munozs seemingly bucolic vision of bees and flowers is titled Monsanto Is the Devil.

There are nearly as many styles as there are artists, but most of the 18 contributors have an affinity for pop art, edgy comics and the sharply incised lines of woodblocks and scratchboards. These can be employed to depict both sickness and healing, as in Jun Lees thematically bisected print of a toxic city growing into a tree that flourishes, upside-down, beneath it. According to this juxtaposition, it may still be possible to flip the script.

Natures Grasp On view through May 31 at Lee Arts Center, 5722 Lee Hwy., Arlington. 703-228-0560. arlingtonarts.org/venues/lee-arts-center.aspx.
William Zwicharowski, mortuary branch chief at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, talks with the press during a tour of the mortuary in 2003. (Juana Arias/The Washington Post)

A scandal involving the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, the main point of entry for U.S. troops killed overseas, has rekindled with controversy over the care of astronaut John Glenns body.

On Monday, the Air Force reassigned the mortuary branch chief at the base in Delaware and opened an investigation into whether he improperly offered to allow a team of inspectors to view the embalmed corpse of Glenn, a former senator from Ohio.

Glenn, 95, died Dec. 6. But his widow, Annie, wanted to wait until April 6, the couples wedding anniversary, to bury the retired Marine pilot and astronaut at Arlington National Cemetery. So his body was transferred to the Dover mortuary for safekeeping.

In early March, a team of Pentagon inspectors was visiting the mortuary when the branch chief, William Zwicharowski, asked whether they wanted to view Glenns body. Military officials said the inspectors were shocked by the offer, which they declined but reported as a breach of protocol.

The Air Force inspector general is now investigating the incident and other unspecified management practices at the mortuary, officials said.

(NASA)

The investigation revives painful memories of a 2011 scandal at Dover that involved missing body parts, a mutilated corpse and other systemic problems.

That scandal was exposed by four whistleblowers at the mortuary who were disciplined or fired by commanders at Dover for reporting the troubles. One of those whistleblowers was Zwicharowski  who told The Washington Post on Friday that the investigation into the Glenn incident was another attempt by the Air Force to punish him for speaking out.

I have a target on my back, he said. Its continued retaliation.

Zwicharowski said he did nothing improper by offering to let the inspectors view Glenns remains. He said his staff had further embalmed the body because Glenns funeral was still weeks away and wanted to show the inspectors their techniques.

I was proud of the job we did and wanted them to see our care and work, he said. After all, that was what we were being inspected for.

Air Force officials denied any retaliation but declined to comment on the investigation, citing privacy concerns.

Caring for our nations heroes during the final leg of their journey home is our sacred duty, Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, said in a statement.

Senior Airman John Lee closes the door of the vehicle carrying the remains of Sgt. Joshua P. Rodgers and Sgt. Cameron H. Thomas at the Delaware base. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Zwicharowski and other Dover personnel questioned the legitimacy of the Pentagon inspection team. They noted that two members had previously served at the mortuary and had been publicly implicated in the 2011 scandal for their role in the mutilation of a Marine killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.

The body of Marine Sgt. Daniel M. Angus was shattered, with his upper left arm frozen at an angle that made it impossible to dress him in uniform. Without notifying his family, two embalmers sawed off Anguss arm so they could fit him in his casket.

Whistleblowers, including Zwicharowski, reported the incident to outside investigators at the time as a desecration of the dead. The two embalmers said they were following orders and were not disciplined, though they were transferred to other jobs.

Zwicharowski and other mortuary workers said they were stunned when the two embalmers returned in March as part of the Pentagon inspection team. Its absolutely insane, said a Dover official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was worried about reprisal. Those people dont have any credibility.

Defense Department officials did not respond to requests for comment about the members of the inspection team.

Other than the incident involving Glenns body, Air Force officials said, the inspection was a success. The mortuary passed with a score of 94 percent.

The inspection was mandated as part of changes adopted by the Pentagon in the aftermath of the 2011 scandal, in response to protests from Congress and veterans groups over the treatment of fallen service members.

Among other disclosures, the scandal exposed the mortuarys hidden practice of dumping the incinerated partial remains of hundreds of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in a Virginia landfill. The remains were body fragments that  unbeknownst to family members  were cremated, mixed with medical waste, taken to an incinerator and then disposed of.

The practice ended in 2008 but continues to haunt the military.

In another whistleblower case related to Dover, a federal administrative-law judge last week blasted the Army in a ruling for appearing to justify the landfill dumping.

In that case, a war widow claimed the Army had denied her a new job in retaliation for revealing to The Post and a member of Congress that the Dover mortuary had secretly dumped some of her husbands incinerated remains in a landfill.

An Army lawyer argued in legal briefs that the widow, Garilynn Smith, should not be classified as a whistleblower because the landfill disposal did not violate regulations and was not necessarily an undignified practice.

The judge ruled in favor of the widow and chastised the Army, saying it should be disabused of the notion that a landfill is a dignified resting place for the remains of a U.S. Army Soldier who gave his life in the service of his nation.

Smiths husband, Sgt. 1st Class Scott R. Smith, was killed by a bomb in Iraq in 2006. It took her four years to find out that some of his body parts were not buried with his casket and instead ended up in the landfill.

Jason Guiliano, the Army lawyer, said the judge twisted the meaning of his words.

We understand the judge may see us as the bad agency that threw her husband in the trash, he told The Post. Nobody thinks thats okay. Its just a technical legal argument as to whether she qualifies as a whistleblower. He said the Army would appeal.

In an interview, Garilynn Smith said the Armys stance was another sign of how the military has failed to take responsibility for mistreating the remains of her husband and other troops.

As if their repugnant policies were not reprehensible enough, she said, now they are making a nauseating defense which I find to be abhorrent and intellectually astounding.

An earlier version of this article misstated when Army Sgt. 1st Class Scott R. Smith was killed in Iraq. He was killed in 2006, not 2007. The article has been updated.
Westbrook's Key Lime Pie Gose is flavored with real key limes and is a refreshing elixir for a hot summer day. (Fritz Hahn/The Washington Post)

South Carolinas Westbrook Brewing makes one of the best American examples of gose, a briny, tangy wheat beer that has been brewed in Leipzig, Germany, for centuries. Traditionally brewed with coriander and sea salt, the acidic style has seen a resurgence in recent years as beer lovers have grown more accepting of funky and unusual flavors.

But Westbrook doesnt stop at a straight-ahead gose: The brewery also makes a Key Lime Pie Gose. It sounds like a joke, but its actually quite delicious. While the original gose is notable for its simple flavor and wheaty, bready body, the Key lime version is bright with aromas of lime peel and citrus fruit. It starts with a sharp blast of tart, puckering lime zest, almost like limeade, with a biscuity note that recalls pie crust. Fruity and complex but also light and thirst-quenching, this is something to reach for on a sunny weekend  and its only 4 percent alcohol by volume. Even serious gose and Berliner weisse drinkers should give this flavored gose a shot.

[The secret to building the perfect draft beer list]

Westbrook Key Lime Pie Gose. westbrookbrewing.com. About $10 for a four-pack of 12-ounce cans.

If you like flavored goses, try these:

Dogfish Head SeaQuench Ale : This isnt technically a gose  its a melange of gose, kolsch and Berliner weisse, each of which bring something to the table. Black limes and sea salt provide a briny finish.

Freigeist Geisterzug Gose : This Leipzig brewery is known for takes on old and semi-forgotten styles. It brews a traditional gose recipe with spruce thats earthy and funky compared to most goses on the market, and also makes two flavorful variations by adding fresh rhubarb and quince.

To Ol Gose to Hollywood : Danish brewer To Ols light gose gets its juicy flavor from California oranges and citrusy Citra hops.
Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte looks on during a campaign meet and greet in Great Falls, Mont. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A reporter asks a politician a question  and allegedly gets attacked for doing his job. Theres even an audio recording of the incident.

While it sounds like the alleged assault on Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte on Wednesday, the episode in question actually occurred three weeks ago in Alaska, part of what may be a rising trend of physical violence against journalists.

Reporter Nathaniel Herz of the Alaska Dispatch News said he was questioning state Sen. David Wilson (R-Wasilla) in the capitol building in Juneau on May 2 when the legislator turned and slapped Herz across the face. Herz, who recorded the confrontation, filed a report with the Juneau Police Department, which has turned the case over to the states Office of Special Prosecution.

It was the first of four incidents involving reporters and public officials in the past month.

Gianfortes alleged body-slamming of Jacobs on Wednesday night  which resulted in a misdemeanor assault charge against the Republican candidate  came less than a week after CQ Roll Call reporter John Donnelly said he was pinned against a wall by security guards at the Federal Communications Commission as he sought to question agency officials. The FCC has apologized repeatedly for its treatment of Donnelly.

(Courtesy of The Guardian)

Separately, reporter Dan Heyman of the Public News Service was handcuffed and arrested on May 9 as he tried to question Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway in the West Virginia state capitol. After Conway and Price declined to respond to his repeated questions, Heyman was charged with willful disruption of government processes by police. He spent seven hours in jail before being released.

In the Gianforte incident, the candidates campaign specifically labeled Jacobs a liberal reporter and argued that he aggressively shoved a recorder in [Gianfortes] face. Jacobs and eyewitnesses rebutted Gianfortes account of events.

Press advocates see an increasing climate of anger, disrespect and hostility aimed at the media from the public and elected officials. And they generally blame President Trump for rhetoric that has made attacks, verbal and otherwise, more common and even acceptable.

During the presidential campaign, Trump banned reporters who displeased him from campaign events, repeatedly demonized journalists as purveyors of fake news and sometimes called them out by name in front of jeering crowds. Reporters who covered him repeatedly described a sense of imminent violence  and sometimes actual violence  at his rallies.

His campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, yanked the arm of a reporter seeking to ask Trump questions at an event; Lewandowski denied bruising the reporter until a videotape emerged showing him in the act. (Police ultimately dropped the battery charge.)

As president, Trump has called mainstream news organizations enemies of the American people. He also reportedly urged then-FBI Director James B. Comey to jail journalists for publishing unflattering information based on leaks from administration sources.

Trumps verbal attacks led the press-advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders to lower the United States standing in its annual international press-freedom index. It ranked the United States 43rd out of 180 nations in its survey, placing it two spots lower than a year earlier and ranking the United States just behind Burkina Faso for government restrictions and threats against the news media.

(NBC Montana)

The election of the 45th president of the United States set off a witchhunt against journalists, it said. Donald Trumps repeated diatribes against the Fourth Estate and its representatives  accusing them of being among the most dishonest human beings on earth and of deliberately spreading fake news  compromise a long U.S. tradition of defending freedom of expression.

It added that Trumps hate speech helped unleash attacks on the media almost everywhere in the world, including in countries with long democratic traditions, such as Britain, France and Italy.

There is definitely a direct correlation between more aggressive rhetoric toward the press and this shocking incident, Delphine Halgand, the groups North American director, said in an interview, referring to the Montana episode. When you hear people at the highest levels insulting and targeting [journalists], its not a surprise that other politicians turn these words toward violence. Weve reached a new level in this game of war against the news media.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday that Gianfortes alleged assault of Jacobs sends an unacceptable signal that physical assault is an appropriate response to unwanted questioning by a journalist.

The National Press Clubs president, Jeff Ballou, called Trumps statements part and parcel of a pattern that has been happening to journalists. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama criticized and even indicted journalists, he said, but this president is upfront about [his hostility]. He has set an example that has given a license to people to have an open season on journalists.

While physical attacks against journalists are relatively rare in American history, they arent unknown. Perhaps most infamously, Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles was killed in 1976 in a car bombing linked to his reporting on organized crime.

In a lesser-known incident, Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) physically attacked syndicated newspaper columnist Drew Pearson in the cloakroom of a Washington social club one night in 1950, recalled media historian W. Joseph Campbell of American University. McCarthy was peeved over Pearsons columns attacking him as a bully and demagogue for his crusade to root out communist sympathizers in the federal government. (The fight was broken up by a young senator named Richard Nixon.)

McCarthy wasnt charged, but Pearson may have ultimately had the last word, notes Campbell. McCarthy was censured by the Senate in 1954, one of the few to be disciplined this way, amid relentlessly negative coverage by Pearson and other journalists.


Seth Adkins dances at the Chickahominy Tribal Center near Providence Forge, Va., in 2015. The tribe hosts a regular meeting to teach the history and culture of Native Americans in Virginia. (Timothy C. Wright/For The Washington Post)

In the summer of 1619, two dozen white men met inside a church in Jamestown, Va., to set tobacco prices and enact prohibitions on gambling and drunkenness. It was the first legislative assembly in America, although the colonists might not have survived long enough to hold it if it werent for assistance from Native Americans.

Four centuries later, the descendants of those Indians are demanding that legislators return the favor by finally granting them federal recognition.

The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the native peoples, who provided the environment that helped sustain the settlers, said Stephen Adkins, chief of the Chickahominy, one of six Virginia tribes seeking recognition.

Last week, the U.S. House voted in favor of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017, which would formally acknowledge the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Monacan and Nansemond tribes.

But the legislation needs approval from the Senate, which has twice blocked recognition.

We are inching closer and closer, said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who with Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) sponsored the bill in the Senate. Kaine said he planned on spending the next month drumming up support to right what he called an injustice.

The legislation wouldnt make up for centuries of suffering, its proponents acknowledge. But it would enable the tribes to join the 567 recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes in receiving federal money for housing, education and health care.

It would also allow the tribes to claim artifacts, religious objects and ancestors remains kept in museums.

Its a matter of pride, said Adkins, whose tribe has about 850 members. We want to be acknowledged as the sovereign people we are.

One thing the legislation would not allow is gambling.

The six tribes were part of the Powhatan Nation, a confederation of eastern Virginia tribes that met the first permanent English settlers in America at Jamestown in 1607.

The tribes are perhaps best known for Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan who, according to legend, saved the life of Capt. John Smith.

But their contributions to the countrys history go far beyond Pocahontas, Adkins said. He pointed to a 1614 peace treaty between the Chickahominy and settlers as the first of its kind in America.

We helped sustain these folks when they couldnt cope with the harsh conditions of the winters, the hot summers, and did not understand the growing seasons and hunting and fishing  much to our peril, because our land was lost, our language was trashed, and our ranks were decimated, he said. We had the artillery, even though it was primitive  bows and arrows and clubs  to eradicate these folks if that had been the will of the Indian leaders.



In 2015, members of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes, including Kolton Wallace, 1, and Bradley Dixon, 4, offered a deer to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The ceremony in Richmond has been happening for more than 300 years. (Timothy C. Wright/For The Washington Post)

In 1677, the tribes signed a peace treaty with the English government. In exchange for allegiance to the crown, they were granted rights to lands and promised protection. (To this day, some tribes honor the agreement by showing up on the Virginia state Capitols steps each fall to present deer, doves and turkeys to the governor.)

After the American Revolution, however, the United States did not recognize the treaty. And unlike other tribes, who fought the settlers and eventually secured treaties, the Virginia tribes were never recognized.

In an ironic way, the Virginia tribes became peaceful too soon, Kaine said. They shouldnt be penalized for making their peace with European settlers of the United States sooner than others did.

History continued to conspire against the tribes. During the Civil War, troops set fire to courthouses containing tribal records.

The biggest obstacle to the tribes gaining recognition was a racist state official named Walter A. Plecker.

[How a long-dead white supremacist still threatens the future of Va. tribes]

Pleckers name is practically a four-letter word for Native Americans in Virginia. The bespectacled physician, eugenicist and avowed white supremacist ran the states Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912 until his retirement in 1946.

Plecker pushed the Virginia legislature to pass the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized interracial marriage and required that every birth in the state be recorded by race with the only options being White and Colored.

The law, which literally erased Indians from state records, is sometimes referred to as the paper genocide. Plecker boasted that it was the most perfect expression of the white ideal, and the most important eugenical effort that has been made in 4,000 years.

Virginia recognized the tribes in the early 1980s. Around the same time, some of the tribes began applying for federal recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But that process required records that many tribes didnt have.



Walter A. Plecker, the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics, declared there were no true Indians left because of marriages with blacks. (Richmond Times-Dispatch/Staff Photo)

A birth and color registration form used by Walter Plecker, who ran Virginias Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912 to 1946. (Library of Virginia)

A lot of our records were destroyed, Adkins said, and those that werent were altered by Walter Plecker.

In the late 1990s, Adkins and five other chiefs began trying another route: asking Congress to pass a law recognizing the tribes.

For more than a decade, the efforts main backer was Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who persuaded the six tribes to waive their rights to gambling as a condition of recognition.

In 2007, the first time the bill passed the House, he said it was named after a Native American activist who had united the tribes in an effort to receive recognition.

Thomasina E. Jordan, who had Indian blood in her, came to see me one day, Moran told The Washington Post a decade ago. She had to be carried in because she was so ill. She held my hand and made me promise to do this. And she died the next morning. 

The legislation languished in the Senate, however, where a single lawmaker can hold up a bill. The same thing happened in 2009.

Kaine hopes his bill meets a different fate.

We do feel like there has been some slight forward movement, he said, noting that his bill breezed through the Senates Committee on Indian Affairs on the same day its sister bill passed in the House.

Some of those most staunchly opposed to recognizing the six tribes are no longer in the Senate, Kaine added.

[A renowned Virginia Indian tribe finally wins federal recognition]

Another positive sign came two years ago when another Powhatan tribe, the Pamunkey, became the first in Virginia to be federally recognized after a lengthy on-again, off-again administrative process.

Adkins said he had been lobbying Congress for almost 20 years. Along the way, several chiefs had died waiting for recognition.

The time is now, he said. Four hundred years is long enough.
There is no education news as interesting, at least to me, as the appearance of a group of astonishingly demanding charter schools in the poorest parts of Texas. The IDEA Public Schools began as one after-school program in a small Rio Grande Valley town in 1998. They now have nearly 30,000 mostly impoverished students in 51 schools.

Their lessons are tough. Thats what makes them intriguing. Even the most ambitious schools in low-income areas usually try to get no higher than grade level. IDEA aims far above that. Every student must take 11 Advanced Placement courses and tests to graduate.

The only major charters with similar goals are the 24 BASIS schools in Arizona, Texas and the District. They and IDEA fill eight of the top 10 slots in The Washington Posts list of Americas Most Challenging High Schools. But the BASIS schools in Arizona average only 5 percent impoverished students per school. The portion of children from low-income families in IDEA schools is usually 80 percent or more.

BASIS schools are drawing extremely ambitious middle-class families and producing test results reflecting that. At the moment, four BASIS schools are the only charters on The Posts separate Public Elites list of schools with the highest SAT and ACT averages in the country. Usually schools on that list are magnets that can choose the best students in their regions. BASIS must take every student that applies, and use random lotteries when oversubscribed, but it still gets magnet-caliber students because their parents are most drawn to AP-all-the-time schedules.

The heavy AP loads have led to criticism of BASIS. I suspect IDEA will get similar complaints when its schools become better known. But I think both the IDEA and BASIS high standards, as daunting as they may be, are worth it for their families.

AP tests, which are written and graded by outside experts and cannot by dumbed down by schools, reveal a gap between IDEA and BASIS, explained by their different percentages of impoverished students. The average AP test passing rate of the three BASIS schools in the top 10 is 84 percent. The average for the five IDEA schools in the top 10 is 21.4 percent. (Research points to significant academic benefits for AP students even if they fail the exams.)

That gap shows why we need much more challenging schools, said Joseph Hawkins, an education researcher who was denied a chance to start such a charter school in Marylands Montgomery County. He said the country has a learning gap because the majority of poor and minority kids are simply cruising the academic highways at 35 miles per hour while their counterparts never drift below 65 mph.

You cannot narrow or close gaps by equaling the speed of those that are ahead of you, he said.

Many dont want to go that fast, educationally speaking, but six IDEA high schools graduated 507 seniors last year who had each taken at least 11 AP courses. That is many more than expected from little towns such as Donna, Tex., where IDEA founders Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama, then in their mid-20s, started the network.

How does IDEA work? The kindergarten through second-grade program blends traditional instruction with online learning pitched at the level of each child. In third to fifth grade, students are exposed to colleges, museums, historical sites and other experiences disadvantaged children often miss.

Middle school students take pre-AP courses. The first AP course, Human Geography, comes in ninth grade. The load is increased gradually so the students can get used to it. Like their peers in many public schools, IDEA students and teachers receive bonuses for good scores on some AP tests from the National Math and Science Initiative. IDEA holds back students who fail to pass required state tests, but last year that was only 44 students in the network. Thirty-one of them are still with IDEA.

Torkelson and Gama say they want to have 100,000 students in 173 schools by 2022. Hardly anyone has heard of IDEA yet, but that will change.

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A West Virginia public school district has decided to suspend weekly Bible classes for elementary and middle school students for the next academic year while it reviews the content of the lessons.

Mercer County has offered Bible in the Schools as an elective during the school day for decades, and the classes are widely popular. But the program has come under fire from opponents who say it violates the Constitution. The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit in January with two parents of district students in calling for the program to be discontinued. The case is before Judge David A. Faber of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia.

[A popular public school Bible class in West Virginia faces legal challenge]

The Mercer school board voted Tuesday to suspend the classes, enabling a thorough review with input from teachers, community members and religious leaders, Schools Superintendent Deborah S. Akers said in a statement. The district also announced a new Bible class for high school students. The class will use The Bible and Its Influence, a curriculum in hundreds of public high schools in 43 states. Its publisher bills the textbook as the only First-Amendment-safe textbook that supports academic study of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Hiram Sasser, an attorney with the First Liberty Institute, representing the school district, said the purpose of the review period is to ensure that all instruction complies with Education Department guidelines and with The Bible and Public Schools: A First Amendment Guide, a 1999 report from the Bible Literacy Project that was endorsed by an array of religious leaders and legal experts.

The school district is committed to following the law, he said. The goal is to offer an approved curriculum. We take our constitutional responsibility very seriously.

Lynne White, a former Mercer school board member who had called for the end of Bible in the Schools, said she was happy with the decision.

I think this is an important first step, and I hope the board will now work to publicly prioritize how our scarce resources are best used for all academic opportunities, she said.

Although the Freedom From Religion Foundation said it was pleased that the Bible classes were halted, it said it will continue to pursue all legal options to have the classes permanently removed.

The Supreme Court has spoken directly on this type of public school indoctrination and has ruled that public schools may not engage in it, Annie Laurie Gaylor, the organizations co-president, said in a statement. Religion in schools builds walls between children and leads to ostracism of minorities  as experienced by our plaintiff Elizabeth Deal, who had to remove her child from the school.

Deal, a parent who transferred her daughter to a neighboring district last year, said Friday she hopes the classes will be discontinued for good. I dont think there is a way to teach the class in a historical or literary manner to elementary age children, she said. The teachers, she added, are biased toward teaching the Bible and their denominations interpretation of it as fact, and I cannot see a solution to that issue.

Some religious education experts think that Bible in the Schools will have a hard time surviving a court challenge. Charles C. Haynes, founding director of the Religious Freedom Center at the Newseum in Washington, says that it is particularly difficult at the elementary level to have Bible classes that meet constitutional demands because students are too young to differentiate between historical fact and religious belief.

The lawsuit against the district will continue, said Patrick Elliott, a lawyer for the foundation. The next hearing is set for June 19.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Friday vetoed a bill that would have barred colleges in the state from asking about criminal history on admissions applications, saying the measure was too restrictive for schools and would jeopardize student safety.

The action came a day after he rejected legislation that would require businesses with at least 15 employees to provide paid sick leave for their workers.

The governors vetoes hand a pair of issues  criminal justice reform and paid sick leave  to progressive Democrats who are deciding whether to try to challenge Hogan in 2018.

State Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), who has said he will enter the race, and former NAACP executive director Benjamin Jealous (D), who is exploring a bid, have been strong proponents of paid sick leave and efforts to ban the box for criminal history on college and work applications.

The college-application bill passed both chambers of the Democratic-majority legislature with veto-proof majorities and bipartisan support.

Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore), who sponsored the House version of the measure, said she would push for a veto override, which would be one of the first orders of business once the legislature reconvenes next year.

Im sorry to see he vetoed it, and Im also perplexed, she said of Hogans decision. This is part of the overall criminal-justice reform that has had bipatisan support and that we need to continue to support.

The governor noted in his veto letter that he has backed similar reform efforts in the past, including bills to reduce penalties for nonviolent drug offenders, place additional emphasis on treatment and rehabilitation, and expand opportunities for expungement.

Hogan said the college-application measure didnt strike the same balance between providing second chances and ensuring public safety compared to the other bills, adding that it didnt differentiate between violent and nonviolent criminal histories.

While individuals of all criminal backgrounds should be given educational, employment, and growth opportunities, colleges and universities must have the ability to know who they are accepting onto their campuses, he said. We should not turn a blind eye to a prospective students potentially violent criminal background.

The University System of Maryland opposed the bill, but McIntosh said she worked with many of the states private and historically black colleges to make sure it would not reduce safety on campuses.

The legislation would allow colleges to reject applicants with criminal records as long as they do not automatically or unreasonably restrict admission based on that factor, and schools could develop policies restricting such students from campus housing or certain academic programs, such pharmacy studies and law enforcement.

Additionally, the meaure would not prohibit colleges from using third-party forms such as the Common Application that ask about criminal history, as long as they add a statement on their websites saying that answering yes does not disqualify an applicant.

Several convicted felons who turned their lives around through higher education testified this year on behalf of the bill, including Stanley Andrisse, who spent time in prison on drug charges before earning advanced degrees and becoming a post-doctoral scientist at Johns Hopkins University.

Hogan on Friday also allowed dozens of bills to become law without his signature, including one that authorizes state Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) to sue drug companies that dramatically increase the price of drugs, and another that gives the Prince Georges County executive authority to appoint the jurisdictions liquor board members.

The price-gouging measure, which is the first of its kind in the nation, is limited to generic and off-patent pharmaceuticals that experience unconscionable price increases. It allows the attorney general to take action if a manufacturer raises the cost of such drugs to a level considered unjustifiable.

We are really leading the way on this issue, said Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens Health Initiative and a lead advocate for the bill. Its going to do a lot to deter price gouging in Maryland, and we hope it spreads across the country.

The liquor-board legislation was partly a response to a bribery scandal that led to indictments this year of two state delegates, the director of the liquor board, one of its members and the owners of two liquor stores.

Hogan said he supports many of the reforms in the measure, but he questioned the logic of handing more authority to the very local officials who were supposed to be providing oversight to the Board while this unethical behavior was taking place.

Another bill becoming law without Hogans signature allows Guinness to open a brewery near Baltimore and quadruples the amount of beer that craft brewers can serve in their taprooms. Brewers could get permission to serve more, but they would have to sell the additional beer to a distributor and then buy it back.
Marylands medical marijuana program faces a potential new delay after a judge Thursday ordered a temporary halt to the program pending a hearing as part of a lawsuit that alleges regulators failed to consider racial diversity in licensing businesses.

Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams granted a temporary restraining order barring the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission from granting new licenses to grow medical marijuana until a June 2 hearing.

The lawsuit by Alternative Medicine Maryland, a majority-black-owned company that failed to getdidnt get a license, argues that regulators failed to consider minority ownership despite a legal mandate to actively seek to achieve racial and ethnic diversity.

In a one-page order, Williams said he granted the motion on the grounds that irreparable harm will result to plaintiff in the form of loss of ability, once all licenses are issued to other businesses.

[Third jilted cannabis company sues Maryland]

The ruling comes as Marylands long-delayed and controversial medical marijuana program was finally getting off the ground. Regulators had preapproved 15 companies, none led by African Americans, and have given them until August to pass final inspections and background checks.

The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission last week cleared the first company, ForwardGro of Anne Arundel County, to start growing marijuana. It appears to be unaffected by the order, and Gail Rand, Forward Gros chief financial officer, declined to comment on the ruling.

[Maryland just got its first licensed marijuana grower]

The commission will comply with the order to not grant new licenses and continue working to develop the program, Executive Director Patrick Jameson said.

A group representing pre-

licensed growers and processors condemned the court ruling and dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous, noting the leaders of Alternative Medicine Maryland also failed to get a license to grow marijuana in New York. The company is run by a New York health-care executive.

AMM is simply not qualified to deliver high-quality medical cannabis to patients, and the Circuit Court should not let a failed out-of-state company cause even further delays in Marylands medical cannabis program, said Jake Van Wingerden, chairman of the Maryland Wholesale Medical Cannabis Trade Association.

An attorney for Alternative Medicine Maryland said the company wanted the lawsuit to end quickly and with licenses issued with racial and ethnic diversity in mind.

Court filings also suggest that Alternative Medicine Maryland was nowhere near the finalists for a license because it planned to locate in Talbot County, and a redacted list of the 60 top-ranked applicants included none in that area.

Questions about racial diversity are just one of several controversies that have embroiled the medical marijuana program and threaten further delays.

Two other cultivation applicants are suing cannabis regulators for rejecting them in favor of lower-ranked applicants from underrepresented parts of the state.

A bill that would give minorities priority to win five cultivation licenses failed in the final minutes of the General Assembly session that ended in April. Leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland are trying to reconvene the legislature for a special session to pass that legislation.

Cannabis commissioners say they didnt consider the race of applicants because the attorney generals office advised them that such a move would be unconstitutional, absent evidence of disparities in the industry.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has ordered his administration to conduct a study of racial disparities in the medical marijuana industry, the first step toward justifying racial preferences in licensing.
The Prince George's County Council passed a $3.8 billion budget but it was far more cautious than spending plans from previous years. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Prince Georges County lawmakers passed a $3.8 billion budget Thursday that would fund salary increases for county workers, recruit new police officers and firefighters, and reinvest in basic government services.

But the spending plan was far more conservative than in recent years, despite the countys rebounding economy.

Rising property values and a full year of operations at the MGM National Harbor casino raised revenue projections in the proposed budget crafted by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D). The budget called for increased spending but at far more modest levels than the three previous years of Bakers administration.

The county council, led by Chair Derrick L. Davis (D-Mitchellville), made few changes to the plan, saying he and his colleagues approached the budget with the same kind of prudence Baker expressed, given concerns about how President Trumps proposed 2018 federal budget could affect the Washington suburbs.

Cuts to federal funds could have severe consequences, particularly in Prince Georges, home to tens of thousands of federal workers. The county is depending on massive federal resources to complete such projects as the Purple Line. And it is competing to be selected as the home for a new FBI headquarters, which could be a boon to the county economy.

Derrick Leon Davis, Chairman of the Prince George's County Council, said he is afraid of how President Trumps budget cuts will impact the county budget and pending projects. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

If Washington sneezes, we are going to catch pneumonia, Davis said in a news briefing after the unanimous vote enacting the budget. I am really afraid of what will happen federally.

Major cuts to federal spending will affect the entire Washington region, but those reductions may slice more deeply in Prince Georges, where voter-imposed tax caps limit the amount of revenue the government can raise to mitigate the effects, Davis said.

Raising taxes is politically fraught in Prince Georges, as Baker learned two years ago when he proposed a 15 percent property tax increase to help the struggling school system. The county trails neighbors in school funding, but Bakers proposal triggered widespread public backlash and a dramatic standoff between the legislative and executive branches.

The council ultimately passed a more modest 4-cent increase, and the tax hike generated about $30 million more for schools  not nearly the amount school chief Kevin Maxwell said he needs for teachers, programs and repairs to a slew of half-century-old school buildings.

Maxwell requested a massive $122.6 million for fiscal 2018, but both the county executive and council resisted, authorizing less than half of that. Instead, lawmakers allowed the administration to transfer $12 million from the school systems rainy day fund to its operating budget. The total amount of education spending  $51 million  remains far above state-mandated levels.

Council member Deni Taveras (D-Adelphi) said the school system has vast needs and that if state and federal school funding falls, the county may not be able to adequately compensate.

The council, however, did find room for new but small investments in social programs to help seniors, home buyers and the homeless. It added an additional $5 million to Bakers proposal to pay for some school repairs and library materials and added $2 million for workforce development and training programs at the community college.

Money for road and infrastructure improvements were also a major priority. Lawmakers also plan to continue a grant program they initiated a few months ago, doling out county dollars to nonprofits working to help domestic-violence and abuse survivors.

The most controversial departure from the county executives budget was the councils decision to reallocate $3.5 million from Bakers economic-development incentive fund to pay for a one-time financing gap to stabilize services for residents with disabilities over the next two years.

Service providers lobbied heavily for the subsidy after the county raised the minimum wage above the state level in 2013. Advocates argued that their agencies, which are funded by the state, were struggling to comply and faced deficits in providing critical services to residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

To avoid service cuts, the council included the gap financing but called on the state to act to resolve the long-term funding challenges for service providers.

The county executive has 10 days to review the budget. If he does not veto it, the spending plan will take effect July 1.
The intruder passed by five new Apple laptops in the fifth-floor offices of Tauzin Consultants on New York Avenue. The person ignored the $50 bottle of Basil Hayden bourbon on the managing directors desk, a gift from a friend.

The only thing stolen was director Thomas Tauzins spare change  12 quarters and 15 dollar coins  that had been in his desk drawer.

A similar pattern was repeated in nearly 21 other office break-ins, all linked by D.C. police to a 57-year-old man who authorities said went on a burglary spree starting in January, targeting a dozen office buildings in the Districts downtown. After executing what appeared to be well-planned and meticulous break-ins, primarily in the pre-dawn hours in offices clustered in the Golden Triangle, most of the only items taken were small enough to fit in a hand or concealed in a pocket.

Other than the coins, said Tauzin, the firms co-founder and director, I literally could not find a single thing that was stolen from the office. He noted that the bourbon and the new computers were in plain sight. You would have imagined someone doing something with those types of things, he said. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but this is a nice bottle.

Earlier this month, D.C. police arrested Phillip Andrew Lomax of Northeast Washington after detectives said they traced a stolen Nikon digital camera taken from an eighth-floor suite of an environmental advocacy group to a pawnshop in Maryland.

[Man charged with 22 counts of burglary in downtown break-ins]

Lomax has been charged with 22 counts of burglary and is being detained until his next court hearing June 9. Relatives could not be reached, and his attorney, Sara E. Kopecki, declined to comment.

The suspect has numerous prior criminal convictions, including for burglary and attempted burglary. One of those convictions stems from a 2009 break-in at another downtown office building  in the 1700 block of I Street NW  for which he spent three years in prison. The particulars of this investigation are similar to the circumstances in the current case, police wrote in an arrest affidavit.

Authorities say that burglars often commit multiple crimes, and one arrest can impact many cases. Overall in the city, burglaries have been declining. The number of burglaries, commercial and residential combined, dropped from 3,182 in 2014 to 2,545 in 2015 and to 2,210 in 2016. This year, police have reported 632 burglaries, compared to 801 at this time last year, a 21 percent drop.

D.C. police Cmdr. Leslie Parsons, who heads the criminal investigation division, said that 22 burglaries is unusually high for one suspect. Ive seen high numbers, but this is not really typical, he said. Fortunately, we usually can capture suspects before they get up to 22. But this guy was going in after-hours, and it made it difficult. We didnt have any eyewitnesses to work with.

Parsons said that given what was taken in this spree, the suspect was targeting items of value and leaving behind items of lesser value. So, pocket change over bourbon.

Police said that Lomax got around in a three-year-old white Nissan Altima and carried a black and white backpack. According to police reports, he pried open doors; disabled security cameras; took remote keyless entry devices, known as fobs; broke windowpanes; and taped over locks. Police said the suspect got into a nine-story building on L Street by shoving a rod through a gap in the front doors and using the stick to tap the inside exit button, which opened the doors.

In most cases, police reports show that the haul from each office was made up of items of relatively small size, weight and value. Among them: An iPhone from a global food distributor on New York Avenue. Five euros and a $250 gift card from an academic research company on 18th Street. An envelope filled with $300 tucked into a desk drawer in a cubicle at a financial consulting firm on Pennsylvania Avenue. Two digital cameras and a checkbook from an organization that helps people better understand Japans relationship with the United States.

And from one desk at an environmental advocacy group on L Street, $10 worth of candy.

Police reports show that the suspect appeared drawn to locked desks and file cabinets.

Anywhere there was a locked cabinet or a drawer that had the capability of being locked, it was pried open and left open, Tauzin said. In one case, he broke the whole front part of a drawer off. It certainly feels like he was thinking there was something valuable in there.

That could explain the floor safe taken from the eighth-floor office of the National Association of Attorneys General at 20th and M streets in January. A police report says the suspect tried to pry open the safes doors with a Phillips screwdriver, but it snapped in half. He then put the safe on a dolly and wheeled it out a loading dock.

The safe was by far the largest item taken during the five-month spree. But a spokeswoman for the attorneys general group noted that it contained only petty cash  not much more than was taken from the desks of various offices downtown.

Authorities said the suspects undoing came on May 15 with the break-in at the League of Conservation Voters in the 1900 block of L Street NW. A police report says a mailbox key, coins and candy were taken from desks. Also taken was a Nikon D500 digital camera, valued about $500.

Using the cameras serial number, police scoured records from area pawnshops, who must record sales transactions and give them to authorities. Detectives said in an arrest affidavit that they learned the camera had been sold to a pawnshop in Prince Georges County the same day.

The man who sold it had provided his name, the court document states: Phillip Andrew Lomax, along with his address on C Street in Southeast. Police said his mug shot matched the surveillance videos from the office buildings.
The life sentences that Lee Boyd Malvo received for his role in the 2002 sniper shootings which occurred in Virginia were thrown out Friday by a federal judge, because Malvo was 17 at the time of the attacks.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles, and in 2016 the court decided that ruling should be applied retroactively. And so even though Malvo entered pleas in Spotsylvania County, Va., and agreed to serve two life sentences without parole, in addition to being convicted by a jury and sentenced to two life sentences in Chesapeake, Va., U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson vacated all four sentences and ordered resentencings.

The ruling does not apply to the six life sentences Malvo received in Maryland after he pleaded guilty to six murder charges there. His Maryland lawyers are appealing in both state and federal court on the same grounds, and a hearing is set for next month.

[Malvo, 10 years later: I was a monster]

The ruling also does not vacate Malvos convictions. Instead, the courts in Fairfax and Spotsylvania must resentence Malvo, on the new standards devised by the Supreme Court in 2012, and he could still receive life sentences again. But before that happens, the Virginia attorney general could appeal Jacksons ruling, which would postpone any resentencing hearings.

Malvo, now 32, and John Allen Muhammad were both convicted of 10 murders committed in a three-week period in the Washington area, beginning with trials in Virginia in 2003. Muhammad was sentenced to death for the slaying in Prince William County of Dean H. Meyers, and he was executed in 2009.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Malvo as well, for the slaying in Fairfax County, Va., of Linda Franklin outside a Home Depot in the Falls Church area. But a jury in Chesapeake, where the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity, chose a life sentence for Malvo, and Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Jane Marum Roush imposed that sentence in March 2004.

Malvos lawyers, his original trial team of Craig Cooley and Michael Arif, argued that because the jury was given only two options  death or life without parole  that when they chose life, Roushs sentence was mandatory. The Virginia attorney general responded that Roush could have suspended some of Malvos life term. Jackson rejected that argument.

In October 2004, Malvo entered Alford pleas to two more shootings in Spotsylvania County, Va.: the wounding of Caroline Seawell in Fredericksburg, Va., and the slaying of Kenneth Bridges at a gas station in Massaponax, Va. An Alford plea means a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict. Malvo then was found guilty and as part of a plea agreement was sentenced to two more life sentences without parole.

Virginia argued that Malvo waived his right to appeal when he entered his pleas. But Jackson ruled that Malvo didnt waive that right because it didnt exist in 2004, but must be acknowledged now.

[Malvo, teen in D.C. sniper case, challenges life-without-parole sentences]

The Supreme Court ruled in 2012, in Miller v. Alabama, that sentencing a child to life without parole is excessive for all but the rare juvenile offender whose crime reflects irreparable corruption. So in sentencing defendants 17 and younger, judges must now consider whether a juveniles crime reflects irreparable corruption or simply the transient immaturity of youth, Jackson wrote.

In Chesapeake, Roush did not consider those factors before imposing the jurys death sentence, even though those factors were not legally in existence. Malvos entire trial was essentially a sentencing hearing, as Cooley and Arif told a life story of abuse and neglect by his mother, and brainwashing by Muhammad.

Similarly, the issues of irreparable corruption or immaturity were not considered in Spotsylvania even though Malvo entered pleas, Jackson wrote. The Supreme Court has decided that the Miller rule is a substantive rule of constitutional law that is so fundamental that it requires retroactive application, Jackson concluded.

Im not surprised at the ruling, Cooley said Friday. I think he [Jackson] just followed the way the Supreme Court cases were leading. I think thats the appropriate resolution.

Michael Kelly, a spokesman for the Virginia attorney generals office, said Friday evening, We are reviewing the decision and will do everything possible, including a possible appeal, to make sure this convicted mass murderer serves the life sentences that were originally imposed.

Dan Morse contributed to this report.
Relatives of victims of the slaughter in the village of Dos Erres hold roses in August 2011 in Guatemala City during the trial of military men involved. (JOHAN ORDONEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES)

During his three decades in the United States, Jose Ortiz Moraless alarming past in Guatemala never caught up to him.

For 11 of those years, he toiled as a mail clerk at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies  just off Dupont Circle in the middle of Washington.

What few, if any, knew was that Morales had served in a special forces unit known as the Kaibiles that in 1982 descended on the small village of Dos Erres. They raped women and children, bashed their heads with a hammer, shot others, threw bodies down a 40-foot well and then threw a grenade into the well. By the time the soldiers left, they had killed more than 200 villagers.

That past was laid bare this week in U.S. District Court in Maryland, where Morales, 55, pleaded guilty to fraudulently trying to gain U.S. citizenship.

He also is wanted by Guatemalan officials on criminal charges of murder, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Dos Erres massacre, according to federal officials.

Those who would evade charges for atrocities committed abroad will not find safe haven in the United States, Andre R. Watson, a special agent at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier after Moraless arrest.

Morales was born in 1962, served in the Guatemalan army for eight years and migrated north in 1988, court records show. After unlawfully crossing into the United States, the records show, he made his way to Maryland.

In 1990, he applied for and was granted lawful permanent residency status in the United States. He was hired by Hopkins in 1995 and worked as a mail clerk at the Advanced International Studies school, leaving in 2006, said Dennis OShea, a Hopkins spokesman. OShea declined to comment further.

According to online Maryland court records, Morales has never been arrested in the state and appears to have kept a low profile. Nor was there any reason to know his connection to the Kaibiles.

Hopkins didnt do anything wrong, Stephen Schenning, the acting U.S. attorney in Maryland, said Friday. His office said that Morales had legally worked for many years, including at Hopkins.

Moraless troubles here appear rooted in actions he took in 2006 when he applied to become a U.S. citizen. He falsely claimed that he hadnt been part of any group the government needed to know about and did not list his membership in the Kaibiles, court records state.

On forms, Morales marked that he had never participated in any crimes for which he had not been convicted, the records state.

He repeated the falsehoods during a citizenship interview.

It is unclear how immigration investigators caught up with him. And it couldnt be learned Friday where Morales worked after he left Hopkins.

But on Jan. 6, 2017, agents from ICE arrested Morales, who lived in Hyattsville, Md. Immigration officials said he was the fifth participant in the Dos Erres massacre living in the United States to be targeted by ICE for enforcement action.

One of those men, Pedro Pimental Rios, was deported to Guatemala, convicted there for his role in the massacre and sentenced to 6,060 years in prison, according to ICE. The other three are either serving time in the United States, after which ICE will move to deport them, or had been deported to Guatemala.

In court papers this week, Morales admitted to trying to conceal his role with the Kaibiles.

He also knew the wrongfulness of the actions of his military unit at Dos Erres, according to a statement of facts he signed in the case. In the court papers, Morales did not admit to any specific acts in the village.

Desiree L. Lassiter, an attorney for Morales, declined to comment. Morales has a sentencing hearing scheduled for September on his immigration plea and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, federal prosecutors said.

In concealing being in the Kaibiles, Morales was hiding the fact that he had been part of the special forces unit that indiscriminately killed innocent men, women and over 100 children, according to federal court papers.

Many of the women were raped by the soldiers before they were forced to walk at gun point to a well in the center of the village, where they were bludgeoned in the head with a hammer, and their bodies were then thrown into the well, the federal court records state. Those villagers who did not die of the blow to their head were killed when a soldier fired a weapon and threw a grenade into the well.

In about 1994, according to ICE officials, an Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team exhumed the villages well and recovered 162 skeletons, including those of young children.

Other villagers bodies, according to ICE, had been left in nearby woods.
(WUSA)

The stage beneath the blue-and-white church steeple in Maryland was not where Richard Collins III was to be celebrated this week.

The young lieutenant, who had just been commissioned in the U.S. Army last week, should have marched across the stage at Bowie State Universitys graduation ceremony Tuesday to claim his diploma, in mortarboard and flowing black robe.

Richard Collins III (Reuters)

Instead, hundreds of students, family, friends and fellow soldiers gathered Friday morning at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden to honor the young man who was fatally stabbed in College Park at the University of Maryland.

The 23-year-olds death  now being investigated by the FBI as a possible hate crime  baffled and devastated both campuses at a moment of heightened racial tension in America. The seemingly random killing at the threshold of Collinss military career drew condemnation from lawmakers around the state and an immediate promise from the University Maryland to launch a comprehensive plan intended to combat hate.

Pauletta Handy, a 53-year-old Bowie resident and mother of a Maryland graduate, didnt know Collins, but she felt like she did.

Im a black mother, she said at the church, her eyes glassy. To have a good kid like that, somebody who wanted to serve our country, and for him to get taken out not in Iraq but right here in our own country over racism.

Collinss body arrived just before 8 a.m in a black hearse bearing the seal of the U.S. Army. White-gloved comrades in their dress blues quietly marched Collinss casket into the church as four others stood at the entrance in silent salute.

Wearing dark sunglasses, Collinss mother clutched a handkerchief as she accepted hugs and condolences from friends, uniformed service members, politicians and police.

The service was joyful at points, with cheers, applause and chants of hallelujah from the crowd.

Our pain, our grief, our suffering is very, very deep, said Pastor Steve Pierce. Let us work together for peace and justice.

The funeral comes six days after Collins was killed in what police said was a totally unprovoked attack while at a bus stop with two friends on the University of Maryland campus in College Park. Collins was visiting the campus when police say Sean Christopher Urbanski, a U-Md. student, approached the group at about 3 a.m. Saturday and told Collins to move. Collins refused before Urbanski stabbed him in the chest, police said.



Mourners embrace prior to the funeral of Richard Collins III at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

Urbanski, 22, of Severna Park, Md., has been charged with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree assault. Urbanskis attorney has said that drugs and alcohol may have played a role in the case.

[Authorities investigating whether U.-Md. stabbing death was a hate crime]

Prince Georges County police picked up Urbanski about 50 feet from where Collins had collapsed, court papers state. Police recovered a knife from Urbanskis front-right pocket, police said. He remains jailed on a no-bond status.

The attack rattled both universities, which have been in the middle of spring graduation celebrations. Collinss slaying has stoked fear and concern among students and administrators at the College Park campus, where racially motivated incidents already had unsettled the community in recent months.

Sean Christopher Urbanski (Reuters)

Collins was black, and Urbanski is white. Although police initially said the attack did not seem to be racially motivated, authorities announced Sunday that they had launched a hate-crime investigation after they said they learned Urbanski appeared to have some involvement with a social media page called Alt-Reich: Nation.

Were not supposed to be here, the Rev. Darryl L. Godlock said before the funeral service, insisting that people stop hating one another, stop attacking one another.

On Wednesday, U-Md. President Wallace D. Loh announced an action plan to combat hate and create a safer campus. The plan includes dedicating $100,000 for diversity and inclusion programs and the creation of a trained, rapid-response team offering services to the community hate-bias incidents.

How could this happen to a young man with so much promise? Prince Georges County Executive Rushern L. Baker III wrote in a letter that was read during the service. He quoted John 15:13: There is no greater love than to lay down ones life for ones friends.

Baker added that he hoped Collinss sacrifice inspires us all to drive out hatred, racism, and intolerance within our communities.

The audience  which included U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Former NAACP president Ben Jealous  interrupted the reading with standing applause.

One speaker suggested that Collins was standing up against bigotry the night of the stabbing.

When he said, No, he said, This war is not going to be one that Im going to lose, said Artie L. Travis, the vice president of student affairs at Bowie.

Travis said he longed for a day when he would not have to look over his shoulder in fear, simply because he was a black man, a comment that resonated with Vicky Bruce.

Thats something Ive never had to feel as a white person, said Bruce, who lives in the community where Urbanski resides.

Bruce, 50, didnt know Collins but attended the funeral along with women from Anne Arundel County Indivisible. In Collinss honor the organization is pushing anti-hate legislation in the county, where a noose was recently found hanging outside of a middle school.

If you let these racist groups survive and fester, its like a cancer in our society, said Bruce.

[Visiting student killed in stabbing attack at University of Maryland]

Throughout the services, Collinss family, commanding officers and colleagues spoke fondly of the young man who loved lacrosse and soccer, who helped a relative build a robot for an engineering class and who wanted to serve in the military to follow the footsteps of his father and grandfather.



Members of Bowie State University's ROTC program carry the casket of Richard Collins III into First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro, Md. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

Major Gen. Christopher Hughes, head of the U.S. Armys Cadet Command, said Collins kept the highest academic and physical test scores among his class while also encouraging other colleagues to succeed.

Collins would pick up fellow cadets from the Metro station in the morning so they could make their physical fitness tests.

He helped his fellow cadets reach their dreams and their goals, and I gotta tell you, that is pretty lofty for a man of a mere 23 years of age, Hughes said.

Collinss cousins described him as a fiercely opinionated person who was always eager to defend his beliefs. They shared stories of their mischief, including the time he cut a younger cousins hair. He was the fun coordinator, his oldest cousin, Kristal Godfrey, said, but he was also the preacher when they played church.

Godfrey told the gathered crowd to honor her cousins memory with love, remarks that drew swelling applause.

I want to challenge you to love, she said. Not the hippie kind of love. Im talking about that fierce, unrelenting love. . . A love that stands up for what is right. . . that does not allow hate to persist.

Services ended Friday with Collinss mother accepting an American flag on her sons behalf, in a gesture akin to her husbands days earlier when he had walked across the stage at Bowie States graduation to accept their Richies diploma.

Luz Lazo contributed to this report.
Roland Proctor, 64, is charged in the fatal stabbing of his 82-year-old father in Prince George's County. (Courtesy of Prince George's County police)

What have you ever done for me?

With that parting shot, police say, a 64-year-old son who had just stabbed his 82-year-old father walked away as the father pleaded for an ambulance.

The father died on his bedroom floor, and the son was found the next day walking along a nearby road before being arrested and accused of murder, according to Prince Georges County police. They had been called to the home after a relative could not reach the father.

Roland Proctor was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the slaying of his father, James Proctor, in their Fort Washington, Md., home and is being held on a no-bond status.

James Proctor was found dead Thursday in the home in the 9000 block of Mill Street by police called to make a check on his welfare.

A relative of the men, who lives at the home but was traveling out of state, called to check in on James Proctor at around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to police charging documents in the case. While on the phone, she overheard the men in a heated argument that escalated until the son threatened to kill his father, police documents show.

Police did not say what the dispute involved.

Concerned, the relative called a neighbor the next day to check on James Proctor, and the neighbor got no reply to a knock on the Proctor familys door, police said.

The neighbor peered through a bedroom window and saw James Proctor on the floor, the charging documents state. Police were called and at about 9:30 a.m. found no sign the home had been broken into and also did not find Roland Proctor at the house.

Roland Proctor was located at about 4:15 p.m. Thursday in the 1100 block of Livingston Road and was driven to the homicide unit where, police said, he agreed to make a statement.

He and his father had been in a verbal argument that blew up into a physical fight at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said he told them.

During the fight, James Proctor used his cane to hit his son in the head, according to the police account of the sons statement. The fight continued with Roland Proctor going to the kitchen, where he grabbed a knife and went to his fathers bedroom, the police documents state.

Roland Proctor stabbed his father once in the stomach, according to police.

When his father asked him to call for an ambulance, according to the arrest records, the son replied: What have you ever done for me?

He did not call for medical help, police said, and his father died of his injuries.
A Maryland man was charged with first- and second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of a 24-year-old, police said Thursday.

Officers arrested Xavier Johnson, 19, of Upper Marlboro. Johnson faces charges in connection with the death of 24-year-old Timothy Harris, authorities said.

[Police investigate fatal shooting of man in Fort Washington, Md.]

Harris was found lying in the 12300 block of Asbury Drive in Fort Washington. He was discovered around 10:40 a.m. Wednesday with a gunshot wound to his upper body. Harris, who is from Fort Washington, was taken to an area hospital, where he later died.

Officers arrested Johnson shortly after the shooting, said police. Authorities said Johnson and Harris were involved in a drug-related dispute, but did not release further details.

Xavier Johnson (Prince Georges County Police Department)

Johnson was being held in jail on a no-bond status, according to a Prince Georges County police press release.
A 43-year-old man has been charged with paying people $30 to draw samples of their blood, which D.C. police said he was storing in large quantities in an abandoned apartment near Nationals Park in Southwest Washington.

An arrest affidavit said police stumbled on the makeshift operation when a patrol officer saw people  many described in court documents as habitual substance abusers  congregating Wednesday afternoon in front of a three-story brick apartment building at P and First streets.

The officer overheard some of them discussing being paid to give blood, according to the affidavit filed by the Office of the D.C. Attorney General, and went to investigate. The suspect, Khoa Hoang Nguyen, told police that he was doing work for a biomedical company and that he was approved and certified to withdraw blood from citizens, according to court papers.

A woman at the apartment told police that she and Nguyen had drawn blood from 20 people that day, the documents state. They say that Nguyen had a ledger with an additional 205 names.

Authorities said they were unable to corroborate Nguyens account. The D.C. Health Department concluded that Nguyen had no medical license, according to the court documents. He was charged with one count of practicing registered nursing without a license. The woman was not charged and is listed as a witness in court documents.

Khoa Hoang Nguyen declined to comment after his hearing as he was leaving the court Thursday May 25, 2017. (Keith Alexander/TWP)

Nguyen, whose family came to the United States from Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, appeared Thursday for an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court, where a judge ordered him released from custody. A hearing was set for June 23.

The judge ordered Nguyen, of Rockville, Md., not to perform any medical procedures that require a license while on release on the misdemeanor charge. Nguyen was also ordered not to draw any blood from anyone.

Nguyen declined to comment after the hearing. His court-appointed attorney, Lauckland Nicholas, also declined to speak on the specifics of the case. We will just have to see what happens, Nicholas said. There is a presumption of innocence.

It was not immediately clear what Nguyen intended to do with the blood. Police said officers also confiscated used needles from the apartment in the public-housing complex. Court papers and authorities did not say how much blood was found or how it was being stored.

Nguyen spent five years in prison after pleading guilty in 2010 to conspiracy to distribute drugs after an FBI raid on a doctors office he worked at in Falls Church, Va.

Authorities said that from 2005 through 2007, Nguyen assisted a licensed rheumatologist and, despite not having a medical license, prescribed a variety of powerful painkillers, including opiates, more than 3,600 times to 13 different patients. Prosecutors said neither Nguyen nor the doctor had performed any examinations.

The drugs, federal prosecutors said in court documents, included some of the most addictive and heavily abused prescription drugs on the market. Prosecutors wrote that Nguyen prescribed the medicine without any training whatsoever and wrote prescriptions to people regardless of their medical condition.

Nguyens family said in court papers that they had struggled to adapt to life in rural Pennsylvania, where they were located in 1975. One of his sisters went blind from a brain tumor, and his mother died in 2008. According to family letters sent to the judge, that devastated Nguyen and sent him into drinking spasms.

His father, two brothers, a sister, his girlfriend and others wrote heartfelt letters pleading for lenience from the federal judge. They described hardships moving a large family overseas to escape communism and having to leave their patriarch behind to finish his work with the U.S. government.

His then-girlfriend Patricia Meadows said in a letter to the judge that she and Nguyen had a young child. She said Nguyen had grown up wanting to be a doctor and that he had helped her mother and his mother through various sicknesses.

Khoa has been working in the medical field in one capacity or another for the past decade, Meadows wrote. While working with patients, Khoa realized that he really enjoyed the challenge and satisfaction of being in the process of helping them get better. He told me he wished he had the opportunity to finish his medical degree.

At the time of his federal conviction, Nguyen had been enrolled in the medical program at the University of Science Arts & Technology in the British West Indies.

The schools dean of admissions, Orien L. Tulp, wrote the court that they would be willing to take him back as a student even with a felony conviction. We value him as a worthy and hard working student with the ability to become a fine physician, the letter said.

Editors note: An earlier version of this story said the incident happened Monday. It occurred Wednesday.
A January 2012 aerial view of the Central Virginia Training Center in Madison Heights near Lynchburg, Va. (Sam OKeefe/Lynchburg News & Daily Advance via Associated Press)

More than a half-dozen people died at a state-run residential facility in Virginia from infections that typically are easy to treat with antibiotics.

The state has acknowledged the deaths, which first were identified by a nonprofit watchdog organization that advocates for people with disabilities. Several of the residents who died, state officials also noted, had other medical issues.

Six deaths connected to urinary tract infections occurred within a 14-month period, part of a pattern documented by the Richmond-based DisAbility Law Center of Virginia, which monitors state institutions.

A seventh infection-related death occurred after the law center alerted the facility and state officials in September 2016 to the alarming conditions at the institution, leading to prolonged and painful death.

We are saddened by this unnecessary loss of life, said Colleen Miller, the law centers executive director. People should not be dying from urinary tract infections.

The deaths are particularly disturbing, she said, because such infections are usually easy to prevent and treat.

The findings are the latest in a series of problems identified at the Central Virginia Training Center near Lynchburg, which is slated to close in 2020 as the state moves away from institutionalizing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The living conditions at the campus were initially investigated by the Justice Department nearly a decade ago.

[Virginia to transform system of caring for developmentally disabled]

In response to the report last week, state officials said the center had already been taking steps to mitigate the effects of infections, specifically urinary tract infections, by training staff on the importance of hydration and spotting symptoms.

In a statement, Jack Barber, interim commissioner of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, thanked the law center for tracking this vital issue and highlighting DBHDSs efforts to address this challenge.

Virginia was one of the last states to begin shuttering its large institutions. In 2012, the state announced that it would close all but one of the facilities, known as training centers, and move people into smaller group homes or family houses.

The shift came as part of a $2.1 billion settlement with the federal government that is still under review in federal court. The Justice Department declined to comment on the new report.

Two state institutions, including a facility in Northern Virginia, have closed. The population at the center close to Lynchburg, where the infection-related deaths occurred, is currently about 150. At one time in the 1970s, there were more than 3,500 there.

[Va. anticipates sharp criticism from DOJ over disabled]

Of the six deaths that involved urinary tract infections (UTIs), state officials said four individuals had other complicated medical issues.

Department spokeswoman Maria Reppas confirmed a seventh infection-related death in November 2016 but said there have been no reported infection-related deaths since then.

Although most people can easily prevent such infections, individuals with developmental disabilities, particularly in institutionalized settings, may be more susceptible because of issues with urination or communication, she said.

Despite the cleanest of techniques, these individuals may be at risk for infection, Reppas said.

Jamie Liban, executive director of the Arc of Virginia, called on the state to take action to avoid such preventable deaths. Because people with developmental disabilities often communicate in different ways, and sometimes non-verbally, Liban said, it is important that the medical community pay attention to those forms of communication and respond appropriately.

The painful, slow death these people went through is unimaginably horrifying, said Liban, whose organization advocates for people with disabilities.

Del. Mark D. Sickles (D-Fairfax) said that even if the infections were not the sole cause of death, there is no excuse.

The department is doing its best to make sure basic care takes place without exception, said Sickles, who has worked on issues affecting the community. They must do this because UTIs could be a contributing factor in the death of a patient who is already in a fragile condition.

The nonprofit law center, which regularly monitors state-run institutions, first became concerned when it identified a disturbing number of deaths at the training center between March 2015 and May 2016.

In 2015, the state developmental services department had issued its own alert about the potential dangers of such infections and recommended preventive measures.

In the September 2016 letter to the facility and the state, the law center asked the institution to take immediate steps to improve prevention and treatment, according to the letter. By late 2016, the report says, the facility acknowledged the law centers concerns and began to increase training and awareness, outlining its plan in an April 2017 employee newsletter, the report shows.

Thankfully and at long last, Miller said in a statement, the center appears to be responding appropriately to prevent further suffering and death.


Vu Ngoc Xiem visits the Vietnam Memorial with as part of the 2 Sides project, a documentary featuring men and women who lost parents on both sides of the Vietnam War. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

Susan Mitchell-Mattera leaned her small American flag and the framed picture of her family against the black stone of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Thursday and raised her fathers old harmonica to her lips.

As she played the opening notes of taps, Vu Ngoc Xiem, a veteran of the North Vietnamese army whose father was killed in an American bombing attack during the war, reached out and steadied her hand.

Up on the wall, at Panel 14W, Row 14, was the name of Mitchell-Matteras father, James C. Mitchell Jr., a sailor who was killed when his helicopter was shot down in 1970, days before he was to come home. He was 24.

Mitchell-Mattera played only a few notes, but they hung in the humid air on an overcast day when the Wall was just starting to dry from the overnight rain, revealing the names of the 58,000 American dead in the Vietnam War.

It was one part of an emotional morning as Vietnamese and American children of parents killed on opposite sides in the war gathered to honor lost fathers and mothers and to embrace each other as brothers and sisters.

There were many tears and hugs on both sides, and the laying of hands on the dark stone.

(Claritza Jimenez,Michael Ruane/The Washington Post)

At the start of the Memorial Day weekend, the group was visiting Washington for the debut of a documentary about children who lost parents to the Vietnam War.

The film, which was shown Thursday at the GI Film Festival at the Navy Memorial in Northwest Washington, is part of the 2 Sides Project, an enterprise launched two years ago by Margot Carlson Delogne, 52, as she sought to fill the void left by the absence of her father, who was killed in the war.

The nonprofit aims to connect sons and daughters who lost parents on both sides of the Vietnam War.

In 2015, Carlson Delogne took a film crew and a small group of Americans who had lost fathers in the war to Vietnam. They visited sites where their fathers were believed to have been killed and met with Vietnamese who had lost fathers and mothers in the fighting.

Several of the Vietnamese encountered on the trip, including Vu, 65, a veteran and retiree from Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, were invited to Washington for the opening of the film and the weekends commemorations.

The Vietnamese had never been to the United States before.

They included Nguyen Thi Hong Diem, 49, also of Ho Chi Minh City, whose father and mother were killed fighting for the insurgent Viet Cong, and Dang Thi Le Phi, 53, of Da Nang, whose father died in the war when she was 2.

Both of Nguyen Thi Hong Diems parents were killed fighting for the Viet Cong. (N/A/Family photo)

They were joined by several Americans who had made the trip in 2015. Among them were Ronald R. Reyes, 49, of Moorpark, Calif., whose 19-year-old father, Ronald, was killed serving with the Marines at Khe Sanh in 1968, and Mitchell-Mattera, 52, a nurse from Carson, Calif., whose father was shot down over the Mekong River Delta, in what was then South Vietnam.

[Marine officers gather for reunion 50 years after they went to Vietnam]

The group arrived at the memorial at 10 a.m., with Vu bearing a bouquet of flowers to leave there.

After a translator helped explain how the names are arranged on the Wall, and Reyes described it as like a scar in the ground, the group descended the path into the memorial, which was thronged with visitors.

They paused at the center. Vu placed his flowers and spoke on behalf of the Vietnamese.

In an interview earlier in the week, he explained that his father was killed manning an antiaircraft battery at the Ham Rong Bridge near Thanh Hoa against a fierce bombing campaign the Americans called Operation Rolling Thunder.

His father, Vu Ngoc Sam, then in his 40s, had been fighting in the army since the Vietnamese enemy had been the French.

He was rarely home, his son said, and the family saw him mainly when he passed their rice farm in Nam Dinh Province, south of Hanoi, on the march.

After the attack on the bridge, in 1965, there was nothing left of his father, no body to bury. So the family erected a small tomb near their home and left it empty.

More tragedy struck two years later, when Vu was in high school. He was 16 and a class leader. He had been outside checking the schools adjacent bomb shelters when U.S. jets attacked.

To illustrate, Vu lined up a candy bar, a package of cookies and a small recorder case on a hotel lobby countertop to show how the three buildings of his high school were arranged.

One bomb landed beside the first school building, he indicated with his finger. Another bomb landed near the third building. But the middle building suffered a direct hit.

The shock waves blew him off his feet and into a pond, he said. He recovered, ran to the destroyed building and began trying to dig out his classmates.

Dozens of them, and a teacher, were killed, he said.

The incidents filled him with hostility, he said, and he went on to become a war correspondent during the closing chapters of the conflict.

Thursday, as he stood before the Wall in a coat and tie, hands clasped before him, he spoke of peace and healing.

We are the sons and daughters of the Vietnamese war martyrs, he said through an interpreter. We want to heal the wounds of the war . . . the pain and sacrifice and losses on both sides. Today Im very moved standing here. I am the son of a war martyr, and also a veteran.

But we travel on the same road, he said. The Vietnamese and Americans embraced and wept.

Then the group went to see the names of the American fathers.

[Fifty years after Vietnam, memories of a former love and his college ring]

When they reached the carving of Ronald Reyess fathers name, the son used his necktie to wipe moisture from the stone.

Ronald Reyes, a Marine, was killed March 30, 1968, at Khe Sanh. His son Ron Reyes is participating in a meeting of adult children who lost parents in the Vietnam War. (N/A/Family photo)

His father was a skinny teenager from La Puente, Calif., who joined the Marines and was killed in the fighting around Khe Sanh on March 30, 1968, weeks after his 19th birthday.

Reyes said his fathers spirit has followed him his whole life.

As he held his hand over his fathers name Thursday, Vu pressed his hand over Reyess in a sign of affection.

When the group got to the name of Carlson Delognes father, Air Force Capt. John W. Carlson, on Panel 13E, she said: My fathers name is not touchable. Its too high up.

But she explained how to count down from the top to Row 18, where he was listed.

Carlson Delogne, a resident of Walpole, Mass., was 2 when her father was shot down in an Air Force jet Dec. 7, 1966. His body has never been found, and although he has a tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery, there is no grave.

She said she remembers nothing of him.

I have searched long and hard in my memory, and I have just nothing, she said in an interview this week. Ive asked over the years people who knew him, What was he like? Always searching for what in me is from him.

Ive never had a satisfying answer, she said.

Carlson Delogne also studied his letters and papers and listened to some of the cassette tapes he sent home to his family.

At the same time, she detested Vietnam for taking her father. I had a hatred toward it, she said.

But her attitude started to change when she met other children of Americans killed in Vietnam. And she realized that bombs dropped by her father may have killed the fathers of Vietnamese women.

I began to wonder . . . [if] there was . . . a daughter on the other side who was like me, she said. I started to wonder how she felt and how she had grown up.

The 2 Sides Project seeks to answer such questions.

As she stood at the Wall on Thursday, Carlson Delogne pointed up to Row 18.

You see his name? she asked.

Her Vietnamese friends said they did.
A visitor to Scott's Run Nature Preserve in McLean, Va. is seen near a waterfall last week. Swimming and wading in the water near the falls is not allowed. Littering and underage drinking have also been issues in the park. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

With a waterfall and spectacular views of the Potomac River, the Scotts Run Nature Preserve in Northern Virginia is a magnet for hikers and anyone else looking to blow off steam during the long Memorial Day weekend.

For Fairfax County, that means dealing with a growing problem that has turned away some parkgoers and left the Great Falls retreat littered with trash: teenagers toting coolers full of beer and looking for some outdoor partying.

County officials this weekend will launch a summerlong crackdown at Scotts Run, with county police planning to ticket offenders for underage drinking and swimming in prohibited areas.

The enforcement effort is part of an attempt to address residents concerns that Virginias largest jurisdiction is allowing portions of its treasured park system to slide into disrepair amid limited resources.

Officials in the steadily changing county of 1.1 million residents are dealing with a wave of complaints that some of its parks have become too crowded, while others appear to be havens for crime.





We want our parks to be safe, said Sara Baldwin, a deputy director with the Fairfax County Park Authority. When there are people in the parks who are using them appropriately, thats the best thing.

In particular, residents who live near the Holmes Run Stream Valley Park in the countys Lincolnia section have been unsettled over the discovery earlier this year of two sets of human remains buried in a steep incline behind their cul-de-sac neighborhood  the focus of an ongoing murder investigation with possible links to the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, transnational gang.

The park was the site of an MS-13-related murder in 2013, and, in the wake of the most recent discovery, local residents have pushed the county to do more about what they say is a regular flow of teenagers strolling into Holmes Run during school hours or on summer nights.

You dont know whats happening back there at night, said Zoya Melnichenko, whose rear porch deck faces the area where the two most recent bodies were found.

County police say theyve been routinely patrolling Holmes Run and other county parks. Last year, the police department issued 35 citations for alcohol-related offenses inside county parks or playgrounds, including 18 liquor law violations that include underage drinking, according to county statistics. Police officers also handed out 144 citations for drugs or narcotics.

With 427 parks in Fairfax that make up a total of 23,400 acres of land and take in 17 million visitors per year, there arent enough resources for more aggressive monitoring, local officials say. The county, Virginias largest jurisdiction, has been trimming government services in recent years to balance the budget as revenue remains weak and demands from a rapidly changing population have grown.

Last week, park authority Director Kirk Kincannon told the county Board of Supervisors that his agency lacks the funds to adequately protect roughly half of the park land under its jurisdiction, mostly the undeveloped areas used for hiking, such as Scotts Run.

Visitors to Scott's Run Nature Preserve are seen near a waterfall. Swimming and wading in the water near the falls is not allowed. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

The maintenance is really, really important in our parks, and our parks badly need it, Kincannon said during a committee meeting about the park system.

At Scotts Run, the problem with teenagers drinking prompted the park authority to turn for help to the county police, who will patrol the area on bikes or on foot and issue fines of up to $2,500 for anyone under 21 caught drinking and for as much as $250 for swimming in a restricted area.

Problems inside other county parks will be referred to the police on a case-by-case basis, park authority spokeswoman Judith Pedersen said.

Though the underage drinking at Scotts Run doesnt appear to be gang-related, some of the teens have acted menacingly toward park authority workers who have seen them swimming in a natural pool below the waterfall and warned them that the county prohibits such activity, Pedersen said.

The crowds have been really belligerent, she said.

Pedersen said her agencys main concern is that the partying will lead to an accident. The rocks near the waterfall can be slippery, and the undertow inside the pool below is deceptively strong.

Swimming in that water isnt safe, she said. Its hard enough to do when youre sober. With people whove been drinking, something bad is going to happen.

On a recent afternoon at Scotts Run, some parkgoers said theyve mostly considered the partying teens an annoying disruption to the serenity they seek inside the nature preserve, where the steady rush of water echoes below a canopy of oak and birch trees.

You can tell when school is out, because they all come here, said Gilbert Ortega, 31, who was fishing for smallmouth bass on a Potomac River bank near the waterfall. Its usually really nice here.

Merriam Mashatt, who has lived near the park for 20 years, said she frequently comes across glass shards from broken beer bottles near the trail entrance while out walking her dog.

Its like the kids sit on a bench and throw them, she said.

Up on the waterfall rocks, two teenage boys taking in the view reacted warily to questions about the new attention from county officials.

We werent drinking or anything, one said. He declined to give his name before both scrambled down and left.
ALABAMA

Inmate who escaped death 7 times executed

A man once dubbed the Houdini of Alabamas death row after averting seven prior execution dates was put to death Friday, capping years of litigation challenging the humaneness of lethal injection.

Tommy Arthur, 75, was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. Central time Friday after receiving an injection at the state prison in Atmore, authorities said. Arthur was convicted of killing riverboat engineer Troy Wicker, who was fatally shot as he slept in his home.

Arthur was executed shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay on his execution as it considered arguments from his attorneys.

Arthur had maintained his innocence for the 1982 murder of his girlfriends husband.

Three juries had found him guilty of shooting Troy Wicker to death as he slept. Two convictions were overturned on constitutional grounds. After his third conviction in 1991, Arthur asked the jury to sentence him to death. He fought his punishment since.

 From news services

TENNESSEE

Contentious pro-gun bill signed by Haslam

Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill that requires cities and counties in Tennessee to buy metal detectors, hire security guards and check bags at many public buildings, parks and buses, or let handgun permit holders bring in their guns.

The Republican governor signed the legislation Friday. He has mentioned that a veto could be easily overridden.

Nashville and Knoxville officials have said the law offers bad choices and could be costly. The new law makes gun-rights groups eligible for triple attorneys fees in lawsuits if they believe local governments are wrongly banning guns.

Critics said the law could force Nashville to allow guns at its main bus station, and on buses that thousands of schoolchildren use. The NRA says the law holds local governments responsible for keeping citizens safe.

 Associated Press

COLORADO

1 killed, 3 injured in oil tank explosion

An oil tank explosion in northern Colorado killed a worker and burned three others, shooting up flames just miles away from an unrelated gas blast last month and prompting fresh questions about safety in one of Colorados largest industries  oil and gas extraction.

The fire flared Thursday when the workers completed upgrades to an oil tank battery, which is a collection of tanks that receive crude oil production from a well.

Anadarko Petroleum Co. said the facility in Mead, about 40 miles north of Denver, was not in service and the fire was under investigation.

The company also owns a well connected to a home explosion that killed two people in Firestone, a city a few miles from Mead. The April 17 blast was traced to a leaky well.

Anadarko said Thursday that it will permanently shut down the Firestone well and two others in the neighborhood.

 Associated Press

Man sentenced in acid attack on woman: A Connecticut man who police say threw acid at a woman who refused to marry him has been sentenced to at least six years in prison. The New Haven Register reported that Derek Rawls, 52, was sentenced Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to first-degree assault and violating a protective order. Authorities say Rawls threw acid on the woman last year at her apartment, where he had turned off the water so she couldnt wash off. She suffered third-degree burns to her face, neck and chest and was permanently scarred.

 Associated Press
Minnesotas measles outbreak has exceeded the total number of cases reported in the entire United States last year, with no sign of slowing. Health officials worry that the holy month of Ramadan, which began Friday night and brings Muslims together in prayer and festivities, will accelerate the spread of the highly infectious and potentially deadly disease, which is plaguing the close-knit Somali American community.

Minnesota health officials are working closely with faith leaders in an unprecedented effort to spread the message that parents should get their children vaccinated and keep them home if they show symptoms of the disease. Its the first time imams in the United States have taken such an active role in a public health crisis, health officials and Somali Americans said.

The imams are up against the anti-vaccine movement, which in recent years has targeted the Somali American community with misinformation linking the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to autism, a claim that extensive research has disproved. Somali American children in Minnesota had a vaccination rate of 92 percent in 2004, higher than the state average, but that rate has dropped to 42 percent, leaving children vulnerable to disease.



Suaado Salah comforts her 18-month-old daughter, Maida, and son Luqman, 3, who hadnt been vaccinated and contracted measles during the current outbreak in Minneapolis. Abdullahi, 5, left, was vaccinated and did not get sick. (Courtney Perry for The Washington Post)

Faith leaders and health professionals need to work side by side, said Sharif Mohamed, who has been the imam of his mosque in Minneapolis for nearly 20 years. The imams emphasize the role of the parent and the role of faith to keep people safe from any disease  not just yourself, but the entire community and also the state  so people have to be responsible citizens and do their part, he said. Health professionals can focus on the linkage between the vaccine and the measles. I think we can win the battle.

Health officials say there have been at least 8,250 exposures in day-care centers, schools, hospitals and clinics. As of June 1, there were 73 confirmed cases, the Minnesota department of health announced, most of them in unvaccinated preschool children. A significant number have been hospitalized. Last year, the United States recorded 70 measles cases.

Although the largest number of cases are in the Somali American community, the disease has begun to spread to the broader community through the Minneapolis public school system, infecting six white children.

Unfounded fears about vaccines have circulated among some in the white community for decades. Its white, middle-class parents who have made a decision not to vaccinate and feel very strongly about that choice, said Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious disease epidemiology at the Minnesota Department of Health.

The outbreak in Minnesota has been fueled by local and national anti-vaccine groups that organized meetings in the Somali community. Andrew Wakefield, the founder of the modern anti-vaccine movement, visited Minneapolis at least three times in recent years to talk to parents. At one meeting, during a smaller measles outbreak in 2011 that also affected Somali children, he downplayed the severity of measles, according to a health official.

In an interview, Wakefield, whose falsified 1998 study purported to link vaccines to autism, has said he feels no responsibility for the current measles outbreak.

At least 50 children have been treated at Childrens Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, and 20 have been hospitalized, staying an average of five days, said Patsy Stinchfield, who oversees infection control at Childrens. Some of the children are suffering severe dehydration because their mouths are so sore that they cant drink or swallow, she said. One child was hospitalized for 17 days. Some children who were discharged had to return to the hospital because of continuing respiratory problems.

We dont see a plateauing, Stinchfield said. Weve geared up for working on this through the summer.

But there have been some encouraging signs. Since the outbreak began in early April, there has been a surge in vaccinations as parents have seen firsthand the severity of the disease.

Statewide, the number of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine doses given before the outbreak was about 2,700 per week. Since the outbreak started, the health department has seen as many as 9,700 doses given in a week.

For ethnic Somali children between 2 and 13 years old, the department typically administered about 30 doses a week before the outbreak. That number began to rise after the outbreak started and reached more than 500 doses a week at the end of April and early May, Ehresmann said.

Despite the worst measles outbreak in the state in nearly 30 years, anti-vaccine groups have stepped up efforts to spread their message there. At a recent community forum in Minneapolis about the MMR vaccine, an anti-vaccine advocate handed out printouts that claimed the vaccine can cause permanent brain damage and death, according to a Public Radio International report.

When you have an open community meeting, that does allow a forum for the anti-vaccine groups to come and continue to present their misinformation, Ehresmann said.





Health department officials in Columbus, Ohio, and Seattle, home to other large Somali American communities, worry that the disease or misinformation or both could spread to their areas. They have increased outreach, adding education forums and programs to air on Somali-language television.

There is a strong oral tradition in the Somali community, and Somalis in Minnesota have shared the message from the anti-vaccine groups with the community in the Seattle area, so there has been indirect influence from these groups, said Libby Page, who manages the immunization program for Seattle and King County.

According to the Washington State Department of Health, only 65 percent of infants born to Somali families in 2013 had received one or more doses of MMR by 23 months, even though federal guidelines recommend that vaccinations begin at 12 to 18 months.

Columbuss Somali community of 50,000 to 60,000 people is second only to that concentrated in Minneapolis, with about 90,000. There is much travel between the two communities for family gatherings, such as weddings and graduations, as well as for Ramadan.

The most important message will come from imams, the most trusted community leaders, health officials say. Clinicians from Childrens Minnesota and Hennepin County Medical Center are working with a group of 30 imams and mosque executive directors who are eager to participate.

During the groups monthly dinner meeting in late May at the Dar Al-Farooq mosque in suburban Minneapolis, faith leaders sat at tables covered in white tablecloths and listened intently as clinicians explained that there is no medicine for measles. They showed photos of Somali children covered in rashes, as well as a chart illustrating the drop in MMR immunization rates.

Clinicians also described the characteristics of autism. The condition is often recognized at the age of 12 to 18 months  around the time the first dose of MMR is recommended. The timing is coincidental, but still makes some families incorrectly assume the vaccine caused autism. (In fact, brain abnormalities associated with autism have been detected much earlier and may emerge during fetal development.)

They were really listening, said Stinchfield, who led the presentation. You could hear a pin drop.

Several imams stood up to talk. Some spoke with great passion about their responsibility to make sure children in their community and the broader one do not die of a preventable disease.

They very much shared our sense of urgency about this topic, Stinchfield said. They very much confirmed they are allies with us. We are going to work together.

Some of the actions under consideration include suggestions for messaging during each night of Ramadan, immunization clinics at individual mosques, education forums to explain how the measles virus spreads, and sessions about autism.

For imams such as Mohamed, who is partnering with the Minnesota health department, that additional information will give faith leaders a stronger voice to battle falsehoods.

I think we will at least reduce the attack from the groups with anti-vaccine message, he said. They had a very loud voice. But they didnt get a group of strong imams. We will have impact.
D.C. LAWMAKERS spend a fair amount of time at the Wilson Building decrying developers and devising ways to make it harder to do business in the city. So it might actually have been constructive for so many members of the D.C. Council to attend the annual conference of real estate developers and major retailers. Hopefully they learned something about the needs and realities of doing business  lessons that wont stay in Las Vegas.

Nine of the 13 council members, a record number, attended the International Council of Shopping Centers conference this past weekend, along with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and administrative staff. The contingent of 24 people was, The Posts Aaron C. Davis reported, the largest of any city, prompting criticism about the use of city funds. No question there is value to the District in having a presence at this gathering. Other jurisdictions, including Maryland, also were represented. But its debatable (and that is being charitable) whether a supermajority of the council needed to make the trip. That the council was not immediately forthcoming with an estimate of costs suggests a certain defensiveness; it subsequently put the councils cost at $30,000, while the cost for the mayors group was $13,000.

Whether the citys money was put to good use remains to be seen. A major pitch was to grocers, especially to serve neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. We hope the message fell on receptive ears, but a good sales pitch can go only so far. More critical is the kind of climate that exists for business, and here the District has been its own enemy, with lawmakers regularly coming up with new demands on companies in the ways they hire, compensate and operate. A recent prime example was the adoption of an extravagant family-leave program financed with a new tax on businesses.

The District today holds far more appeal for businesses than it did in past years of terrible crime and fiscal mismanagement. Now, said D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), everybody wants to come open a store in the District. But council members who take that for granted run the risk of killing the golden goose, no matter how much wining and dining they did in Las Vegas.

By the way, heres who made the trip: Mr. Evans; Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4); Kenyan R. McDuffie (D-Ward 5); Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7); Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8); Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large); Anita Bonds (D-At Large); David Grosso (I-At Large) and Chairman Phil Mendelson (D).
The Manchester terrorist attack by an alleged Islamic State soldier will accelerate the push by the United States and its allies to capture the terrorist groups strongholds in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria. But it should also focus some urgent discussions about a post-Islamic State strategy for stabilizing the two countries.

For all of President Trumps bombast about obliterating the Islamic State, the Raqqa campaign has been delayed for months while U.S. policymakers debated the wisdom of relying on a Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG that Turkey regards as a terrorist group. That group and allied Sunni fighters have been poised less than 10 miles from Raqqa, waiting for a decision.

All the while, the clock has been ticking on terrorist plots hatched by the Islamic State and directed from Raqqa. U.S. officials told me a few weeks ago that they were aware of at least five Islamic State operations directed against targets in Europe. European allies have been urging the United States to finish the job in Raqqa as soon as possible.

The horrific bombing in Manchester, England, is a reminder of the difficulty of containing the plots hatched by the Islamic State  and the cost of waiting to strike the final blows. The Islamic State is battered and in retreat, and its caliphate is nearly destroyed on the ground. But a virtual caliphate survives in the network that spawned Salman Abedi, the alleged Manchester bomber, and others who seek to avenge the groups slow eradication.

The Raqqa assault should move ahead quickly, now that the Trump administration has rejected Turkish protests and opted to back the YPG as the backbone of a broader coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. These are committed, well-led fighters, as I saw during a visit to a special forces training camp in northern Syria a year ago.

(The Washington Post)

The Trump administration listened patiently to Turkish arguments for an alternative force backed by Ankara. But the Pentagon concluded that this force didnt have a significant battlefield presence and that the real choice was either relying on the Kurdish-led coalition to clear Raqqa or sending in thousands of U.S. troops to do the job.

The White House rightly opted for the first approach several weeks ago. To ease Ankaras worries, the United States is offering assurances that the Kurdish military presence will be contained and that newly recruited Sunni tribal forces will help manage security in Raqqa and nearby Deir al-Zour.

The endgame is near in Mosul, too. Commanders say only about 6 percent of the city remains to be captured, with 500 to 700 Islamic State fighters hunkered down in the old city west of the Tigris River.

Once Raqqa and Mosul are cleared, the challenge will be rebuilding the Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq  with real governance and security  so that follow-on extremist groups dont quickly emerge. This idea of preparing for the day after the Islamic State has gotten lip service from U.S. policymakers for three years but very little serious planning or funding. It should be an urgent priority for the United States and its key Sunni partners, such as Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Intelligence services from several key allies are said to have met in recent weeks with Sunni leaders from Iraq to form a core leadership that can take the initiative. But so far, this effort is said to have produced more internal bickering than clear strategy  a depressing rewind of failed efforts to build a coherent Sunni opposition in Syria.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo told me and several other journalists in an interview Tuesday that he plans to move the agency to a more aggressive, risk-taking stance. Heres a place to start.

The Kurds are the wild cards in both Iraq and Syria. The Syrian Kurds are already governing the ethnic enclave they call Rojava. That should be an incentive for Syrias Sunnis to develop similar strong government in their liberated areas. Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurds have told U.S. officials that they plan to hold a referendum on Kurdish independence soon, perhaps as early as September.

U.S. officials feel a deep gratitude toward Iraqi Kurds, who have been reliable allies since the early 1990s. But the independence referendum is a potential flash point, and U.S. officials may try to defer the Kurdish question until well after Iraqi provincial elections scheduled in September.

Iraq and Syria need to be reimagined as looser, better-governed, more inclusive confederal states that give minorities room to breathe. The trick for policymakers is to make the post-Islamic State transition a pathway toward progress, rather than a continuation of the sectarian catastrophe that has befallen both nations.

Read more from David Ignatiuss archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
This weeks bombing in Manchester, England, was another gruesome reminder that the threat from radical Islamist terrorism is ongoing. And President Trumps journey to the Middle East illustrated yet again how the country central to the spread of this terrorism, Saudi Arabia, has managed to evade and deflect any responsibility for it. In fact, Trump has given Saudi Arabia a free pass and a free hand in the region.

The facts are well-known. For five decades, Saudi Arabia has spread its narrow, puritanical and intolerant version of Islam  originally practiced almost nowhere else  across the Muslim world. Osama bin Laden was Saudi, as were 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists.

And we know, via a leaked email from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, in recent years the Saudi government, along with Qatar, has been providing clandestine financial and logistic support to [the Islamic State] and other radical Sunni groups in the region. Saudi nationals make up the second-largest group of foreign fighters in the Islamic State and, by some accounts, the largest in the terrorist groups Iraqi operations. The kingdom is in a tacit alliance with al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The Islamic State draws its beliefs from Saudi Arabias Wahhabi version of Islam. As the former imam of the kingdoms Grand Mosque said last year, the Islamic State exploited our own principles, that can be found in our books. . . . We follow the same thought but apply it in a refined way. Until the Islamic State could write its own textbooks for its schools, it adopted the Saudi curriculum as its own.

Saudi money is now transforming European Islam. Leaked German intelligence reports show that charities closely connected with government offices of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are funding mosques, schools and imams to disseminate a fundamentalist, intolerant version of Islam throughout Germany.

(Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

In Kosovo, the New York Times Carlotta Gall describes the process by which a 500-year-old tradition of moderate Islam is being destroyed. From their bases, the Saudi-trained imams propagated Wahhabisms tenets: the supremacy of Shariah law as well as ideas of violent jihad and takfirism, which authorizes the killing of Muslims considered heretics for not following its interpretation of Islam. . . . Charitable assistance often had conditions attached. Families were given monthly stipends on the condition that they attended sermons in the mosque and that women and girls wore the veil.

Saudi Arabias government has begun to slow many of its most egregious practices. It is now being run, de facto, by a young, intelligent reformer, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who appears to be refreshingly pragmatic, in the style of Dubais visionary leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. But so far the Saudi reforms have mostly translated into better economic policy for the kingdom, not a break with its powerful religious establishment.

Trumps speech on Islam was nuanced and showed empathy for the Muslim victims of jihadist terrorism (who make up as much as 95 percent of the total, by one estimate). He seemed to zero in on the problem when he said, No discussion of stamping out this threat would be complete without mentioning the government that gives terrorists . . . safe harbor, financial backing and the social standing needed for recruitment.

But Trump was talking not of his host, Saudi Arabia, but rather of Iran. Now, to be clear, Iran is a destabilizing force in the Middle East and supports some very bad actors. But it is wildly inaccurate to describe it as the source of jihadist terror. According to an analysis of the Global Terrorism Database by Leif Wenar of Kings College London, more than 94 percent of deaths caused by Islamic terrorism since 2001 were perpetrated by the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other Sunni jihadists. Iran is fighting those groups, not fueling them. Almost every terrorist attack in the West has had some connection to Saudi Arabia. Virtually none has been linked to Iran.

Trump has adopted the Saudi line on terrorism, which deflects any blame from the kingdom and redirects it toward Iran. The Saudis showered Trumps inexperienced negotiators with attention, arms deals and donations to a World Bank fund that Ivanka Trump is championing. (Candidate Trump wrote in a Facebook post in 2016, Saudi Arabia and many of the countries that gave vast amounts of money to the Clinton Foundation want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!) In short, the Saudis played Trump. (Jamie Tarabay makes the same point.)

The United States has now signed up for Saudi Arabias foreign policy  a relentless series of battles against Shiites and their allies throughout the Middle East. That will enmesh Washington in a never-ending sectarian struggle, fuel regional instability and complicate its ties with countries such as Iraq that want good relations with both sides. But most important, it will do nothing to address the direct and ongoing threat to Americans  jihadist terrorism. I thought that Trumps foreign policy was going to put America first, not Saudi Arabia.

Read more from Fareed Zakarias archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Aya Hijazi learned three years ago that being an American citizen can get you thrown in jail on trumped-up charges in Egypt  a country that claims to be a staunch American ally and accepts billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

Then she learned that being an American unjustly imprisoned abroad wont necessarily get you any help or attention from the worlds most powerful government, even if it has plenty of leverage. The State Department might just prefer to keep quiet rather than rock the boat with that supposed ally.

Finally, Hijazi discovered that when a U.S. president does use his influence, he can have a quick and powerful effect  even when it is Donald Trump, who has loudly sworn off U.S. advocacy on human rights. Within days of Trumps intervention on her behalf with Egyptian ruler Abdel Fatah al-Sissi last month, Hijazi was flown out of Egypt on a U.S. plane.

I met Hijazi and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein, this week to hear the story of how their attempt to do good in Cairo, and Hijazis American identity, did them harm  and then ultimately rescued them. Theirs is a tale not only about what can happen to activist Americans in an increasingly hostile world, but also about the difference it makes whether their government chooses to ignore them or go to bat for them.

Hijazi said she believes her U.S. citizenship is one reason she landed in an Egyptian prison after she and her husband founded a charity to help street children. Sissis regime regards civil society groups backed by U.S. money or activists as national security threats.

But there were other reasons, too: They were young and politically moderate. Young people drove the 2011 revolution against the military-backed dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and so are seen as a strategic threat by Sissis regime of restoration. And moderates are dangerous people because they can win hearts, Hijazi, now 30, said.

The irony is that this couple, who survived prison by writing and smuggling letters to each other, never saw themselves as particularly political. Hijazi, who graduated from George Mason University, met Hassanein, the son of a Cairo shoemaker, six months after the revolution. They were intoxicated by the seeming potential for change in the country but disillusioned by the polarization of its politics.

So they decided, Hijazi said, to start projects doing the work of politics  good governance  without getting into politics. First, they noticed the city had a garbage crisis, so we got into garbage. Then they turned to an even bigger need: the street children who thronged the center of the city. They rented an apartment for their Belady Foundation and set out to give some of the children homes.

On May 1, 2014, the facility was attacked by a group of civilian thugs. Hijazi and Hassanein went to the local police station to file a complaint, only to find themselves detained along with other Belady staff. Seven criminal charges were brought against them, six of them carrying a life sentence.

No evidence was ever offered to back up the charges; instead, trial proceedings against the group were postponed repeatedly over two years. Hijazi was smeared on Egypts state-run media as a sex criminal and U.S. agent. Yet inside prison, her captors were puzzled: Why, they asked, did the U.S. government do nothing to help her? For more than two years, the State Department offered no public protest or even expression of concern about her case.

I said either it was because I was not important enough, or because I was a dual citizen, Hijazi recalled. I felt abandoned. It was so sad to be forgotten and not cared about when America can do so much.

When Trump was elected, Hijazis fellow prisoners taunted her: His support for Sissi and disinterest in human rights were well-known. So, Hijazi said, it was a really pleasant surprise when the new president intervened in her case as Sissi came to Washington in early April. Even better, she said, was that the result was not only her release, but also her acquittal along with Hassanein and all the other Belady staff. After being flown to Washington, Hijazi met Trump in the Oval Office.

We actually didnt talk too much about Egypt, she said. We talked about how he actually had made a difference. He showed that meetings behind closed doors can have an effect.

Egypt, of course, is still festering, its prisons packed with as many as 60,000 political detainees, including as many as seven more Americans. Hijazi and Hassanein have drawn up a list of 50 dire humanitarian cases, people they believe may die if they are not freed. They hope their case will set a precedent. If they responded to one, Hijazi said of Sissis concession to Trump, they can respond to more.

Read more from Jackson Diehls archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
PRESIDENT TRUMPS distorted foreign policy was exemplified this week in the contrast between his meeting with Arab autocrats, on whom he lavished goodwill, and U.S. NATO allies, whom he harshly and publicly critiqued. Last weekend, Mr. Trump promised Saudi Arabia and other Sunni dictatorships that they will never question our support, adding, We are not here to lecture. But on Thursday he declined to restate the U.S. commitment to defend its democratic European allies if they are attacked, as Article 5 of the NATO treaty provides. Instead, Mr. Trump restated his wrongheaded and erroneous charge that allied governments owe massive amounts for military defense, and quarreled with the president of the European Council over climate change and the threat posed by Russia.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump gamely joined in a chauvinistic, males-only sword dance. In Brussels, he was captured on videotape as he rudely shoved aside Montenegros prime minister to position himself at the center of a group photo.

The presidents aides and apologists were reduced to arguing, as they frequently must, that the words he utters and the images he creates are of little consequence. Other senior administration officials have confirmed the commitment to Article 5, they said; and Mr. Trump was merely giving the Montenegrin leaders arm a friendly tug.

Unfortunately, what the U.S. president says and the impressions he makes do have consequences. One good example of that came Tuesday, when Bahraini security forces stormed an opposition encampment just two days after Mr. Trump promised the Persian Gulf nations king that there would be no more strain between their governments. Those strains, of course, concerned the Sunni regimes crackdown on its Shiite opposition, which has been escalating in recent months.

The United States has a challenging relationship with Bahrain, which is at once a key ally that hosts the U.S. 5th Fleet and a conspicuous violator of human rights. The Obama administration struggled to strike a balance between preserving the alliance and using its leverage to mitigate the abuses. We and other human rights advocates frequently criticized President Barack Obama for too easily accepting Bahrains repression. But at least the administration tried: Mr. Obama publicly called on the regime to liberalize and held up arms sales, including of F-16 warplanes, when it did not.

(The Washington Post)

That was the pressure Mr. Trump promised to eradicate when he met with King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa on Sunday. Our countries have a wonderful relationship together, but there has been a little strain, but there wont be strain with this administration, he said. In essence, the president promised not to subject this Arab autocracy to the harsh words and ambivalent defense commitment that he offered days later to the leaders of Britain, France and Germany.

Two days after his Sunday pronouncement came the bloodiest act of repression by Bahraini security forces in years, a raid in which at least five people were reported killed and hundreds arrested. The consequences of Mr. Trumps performance in Brussels may be less immediately evident  but there, too, there will be damage.
Im perplexed: Why did a reporter go to San Fernando, Calif., to do a story about animal rescue when precisely the same effort is going strong right here in Virginia, Maryland and the District [From death row to adoption: Saving animals by car, van, bus and even plane, front page, May 14]?

The volunteers are people from this area, cooperating in local and national organizations and using local resources to accomplish the same thing. We do it with planes, buses, trucks and vans, in an intense choreography of flights and shipments from the Deep South to the Northeast every week. The motivations and dedication are the same as in California.

Brian E. Carlson, Reston
Joel Simon is executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Alexandra Ellerbeck is the senior Americas and U.S. research associate at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Ten days ago, Javier Valdez, one of Mexicos most courageous investigative journalists, was gunned down outside his newspapers office in Culiacan, a center for drug trafficking. On Wednesday, Getachew Shiferaw, editor of a leading news website in Ethiopia, was convicted of inciting state subversion. He faces 10 years in jail.

Whenever a journalist in the United States is insulted, threatened or harassed, theres a natural tendency to want to avoid overreacting. After all, journalists in this country are not subjected to the level and kinds of threats that reporters working in repressive and violent places face every day.

Its true that this perspective is important, but the actions of Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte, who is accused of body-slamming Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on Wednesday after Jacobs pressed him for his view of the Republican health-care bill, represent an alarming escalation. Gianforte faces a misdemeanor assault charge in the altercation.

The experience of countries that have seen a serious and rapid decline in press freedom  from Mexico to Ethiopia, Russia and Turkey  shows that the process proceeds in stages, with the media first being delegitimized and undermined. The United States has reached a juncture in which critical questions must be asked: How much do we as a society value freedom of the press? How energetically are we willing to fight for it?

Based on the audiotape recording of the incident made by Jacobs, it appears that Gianforte acted impulsively and out of anger. More chilling was the response by his campaign staff, which put out a statement echoing the kind of anti-media rhetoric favored by President Trump. In their telling, Jacobs was an aggressive, liberal reporter  as if that justified a physical attack. This incident follows disturbing reports that Trump asked then-FBI Director James B. Comey to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information.

It is clear that the threat to journalists in the United States has escalated to a stage beyond angry rhetoric. Thats troubling enough for America, but whats at stake is not just the rights of journalists in this country but also press freedom as a global value. When Trump calls the media the enemy of the American people, he provides fodder for dictators around the world to justify their own press abuses. The Cambodian government cited Trump in February when it threatened to shutter foreign media outlets. The Russian and Syrian governments and Chinese state media have used Trumps fake news epithet in criticizing the press.

But the Trump administration seems to have little concern for this global impact. Already, the president has met with the leading jailers of journalists  Chinese President Xi Jinping, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  whose countries together accounted for 56 percent of all journalists imprisoned worldwide late last year. Trump has declined to publicly call on these countries to improve conditions for their media.

This is not to say that Trump or anyone in his administration bears responsibility for Gianfortes confrontation with Jacobs; Gianforte alone must grapple with any legal consequences of his actions. But as the president of the United States, Trump is responsible for upholding and defending our political values and the constitutional principles at the heart of our democracy. Our president owes it not only to the people of this country, but also to all those around the world who are fighting for a free press, to condemn the most recent attack. Let us hope he can find his voice.
To many observers on the left, the initial embrace of Seth Rich conspiracy theories by conservative media figures was merely a confirmation of the rights deformed soul. But for those of us who remember that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were once relatively mainstream Reaganites, their extended vacation in the fever swamps is even more disturbing. If once you knew better, the indictment is deeper.

The cruel exploitation of the memory of Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer who was shot dead last summer, was horrifying and clarifying. The Hannity right, without evidence, accused Rich rather than the Russians of leaking damaging DNC emails. In doing so, it has proved its willingness to credit anything  no matter how obviously deceptive or toxic  to defend President Trump and harm his opponents. Even if it means becoming a megaphone for Russian influence.

The basic, human questions are simple. How could conservative media figures not have felt  felt in their hearts and bones  the God-awful ickiness of it? How did the genes of generosity and simple humanity get turned off? Is this insensibility the risk of prolonged exposure to our radioactive political culture? If so, all of us should stand back a moment and tend to the health of our revulsion.

But this failure of decency is also politically symbolic. Who is the politician who legitimized conspiracy thinking at the highest level? Who raised the possibility that Ted Cruzs father might have been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Who hinted that Hillary Clinton might have been involved in the death of Vince Foster, or that unnamed liberals might have killed Justice Antonin Scalia? Who not only questioned President Barack Obamas birth certificate, but raised the prospect of the murder of a Hawaiian state official in a coverup? How amazing, Trump tweeted in 2013, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obamas birth certificate died in plane crash today. All others lived.

We have a president charged with maintaining public health who asserts that the vaccination schedule is a dangerous scam of greedy doctors. We have a president charged with representing all Americans who has falsely accused thousands of Muslims of celebrating in the streets following the 9/11 attacks.

(Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

In this mental environment, alleging a Rich-related conspiracy was predictable. This is a concrete example of the mainstreaming of destructive craziness.

Those conservatives who believe that the confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch is sufficient justification for the Trump presidency are ignoring Trumps psychic and moral destruction of the conservative movement and the Republican Party. Clinton, with a small number of changed votes, would have defeated Republicans. But Trump is doing a kind of harm beyond anything Clinton could have done. He is changing the partys most basic moral and political orientations. He is shaping conservatism in his image and ensuring an eventual defeat more complete, and an eventual exile more prolonged, than Democrats could have dreamed.

The conservative mind, in some very visible cases, has become diseased. The movement has been seized by a kind of discrediting madness, in which conspiracy delusions figure prominently. Institutions and individuals that once served an important ideological role, providing a balance to media bias, are discrediting themselves in crucial ways. With the blessings of a president, they have abandoned the normal constraints of reason and compassion. They have allowed political polarization to reach their hearts, and harden them. They have allowed polarization to dominate their minds, and empty them.

Conspiracy theories often involve a kind of dehumanization. Human tragedy is made secondary  something to be exploited rather than mourned. The narrative of conspiracy takes precedence over the meaning of a life and the suffering of a family. A human being is made into an ideological prop and used on someone elses stage. As the Rich family has attested, the pain inflicted is quite real.

A conspiratorial approach to politics is fully consistent with other forms of dehumanization  of migrants, refugees and the other more generally. Men and women are reduced to types and presented as threats. They also become props in an ideological drama. They are presented as representatives of a plot involving invasion and infiltration, rather than being viewed as individuals seeking opportunity or fleeing oppression and violence. This also involves callousness, cruelty and conspiracy thinking.

In Trumps political world, this project of dehumanization is far along. The future of conservatism now depends on its capacity for revulsion. And it is not at all clear whether this capacity still exists.

Read more from Michael Gersons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook .
Groups rally before a news conference to discuss a constitutional amendment on campaign finance reform in 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Stephen Nash is the author of Virginia Climate Fever  How Climate Change Will Transform Our Cities, Shorelines and Forests.

What if they didnt take the cash?

Some Democrats in Washington and Richmond mill and mull, dazed and Trump-flummoxed. Theyre compelled to look for new roles to play but cant unstick from the old ones  cant find clarity or hope to offer a mistrustful electorate.

Campaign finance reform at the state legislature would be a great place to start, but its hard for some Democrats to think outside the treasure box. Three-quarters of American voters  nearly equal numbers in both parties  are convinced that Congress is for sale. Given its record, the Virginia legislature cant make a credible claim to higher public confidence. Maybe Roanoke, of all places, offers inspiration.

Why are the real estate agents, the health industry, the beer wholesalers and bankers shoving all that cash into the Virginia legislature? Law professor William Black, a former bank regulator, summarizes the ordinary citizens street-level, tragic view when he writes that a campaign contribution always generates the best return on investment.

When I asked Republican gubernatorial candidate Frank Wagner, a state senator from Virginia Beach, about big money in state politics last year, he remarked that he can certainly understand the sentiment of some of the public that Oh, he received money from them, therefore he is beholden. . . . I think its a conclusion that many people would draw.

A mistaken conclusion, he assured me. But  funny thing  the state-regulated power utility Dominion Energy gave more than $7.4 million to Virginia legislators over the past decade, including $770,000 in 2016-2017 alone , according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Coincidentally, Dominion has racked up an astonishing string of legislative triumphs over those years, amping up its profit margins along the way.

You could ask your state senator or delegate: Why is it ethical to take money from a state-regulated entity or any corporation and then vote on measures that affect those corporations profits? Dont accept the easy answer: I need the money to get elected. Vermont, Connecticut and conservative Arizona have figured that out, with voluntary donation limits and public financing for candidates. Is your senator or delegate pushing  noisily  for that? Why not?

Democrats could change and grab onto this populist ethical issue, but many of them would burn their hands. Dominion  the top corporate giver on a long list of big donors  gives money to dozens in both parties. State Sen. Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) is the biggest individual prizewinner, thanks to his long legislative service, perhaps, with gifts of $298,000 from Dominion over the years.

Roanoke Del. Sam Rasoul, a 35-year-old management consultant, exited a leadership role in that chambers Democratic caucus: My party needs to evolve, he told me. After the election, which really signaled an all-time low for Democrats in modern history, it became evident that we were stuck in our rationalizations as to why we are losing. I dont want to be part of an establishment leadership apparatus that doesnt want to radically change the way they do business.

Soon after, he announced that hell decline campaign donations above $5,000 from anyone and will take no more campaign cash from special-interest PACs and corporations.

Does money really buy influence in Richmond? Its so obvious that this is not in the interest of Virginians, yet somehow this legislation passes with overwhelming support, Rasoul told me. Its sad to watch to watch that happen, because its clear that the legislature, as far as Dominion is concerned, is bought and paid for.

A higher multiple of $25 campaign donors can outweigh the few behemoths, and integrity inspires voter engagement. Rasoul thinks that in the social-media era, voters pay far less attention to all that high-dollar junk mail, the blaring television commercials and fake telephone push polls. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and President Trump proved that.

Rasoul doesnt seem to be strutting over his decision, though. It just feels better, he told me. Its not perfect until we have public financing of campaigns, or some other mechanism to limit dollars so people are playing on a level field. What I did is not the whole solution, but it was the biggest step I think I could take right now to send a clear message to the people of Virginia, or across this country, that we are not beholden to special interests  that we are operating in the interests of the people.

Candidates could gain support by signaling that. It would be great to see some more of them try.
In the May 16 front-page article High court shuts door on N.C. voter law, one can read all of the details regarding why the Supreme Court did not accept the case, but nowhere in the article did the name of the case itself appear. It would have been very helpful to include the name, which The Post usually does for cases that the Supreme Court decides.

I was interested in reading what Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in his two-page statement regarding the Supreme Courts refusal to take the case. Unfortunately, I had to go to Bloomberg Politics to get the case name, North Carolina v. North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP .

Because the Supreme Court sits here, The Post should include the case name in the article.

Darryl W. Jackson, Bethesda
Former House speaker Newt Gingrichs May 25 op-ed, Trumps titanic foreign policy shift, was marvelously imaginative in its argument that President Trump has finally rallied the Arab world against the threat of extremism and terrorism. But the former speaker was wrong in three ways.

First, President Barack Obama tried that in 2014 when he formed the 62-state anti-Islamic State coalition. Unfortunately, that coalition has not been effective. The administrations first special envoy to that coalition, retired Marine Gen. John R. Allen, was never given the authority to lead and direct this group decisively.

Second, in essence, Mr. Trump has tripled down on President George W. Bushs war on terror. Mr. Bushs war was doomed because it focused on symptoms and not causes. The fundamental cause of the malignant growth of entities such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State is failed and failing government. Until this cause is addressed, the next war on terror will be as unsuccessful as Mr. Bushs.

Third, make no mistake: The Saudis do not see the Islamic State as an existential threat. Iran is the enemy. Unless or until the Arab and Muslim worlds regard dangers such as those posed by the Islamic State as existential, do not place too much faith in this latest effort to defeat terrorism. And understand that this is not a titanic foreign policy shift.

Harlan Ullman, Washington

The writer is a senior adviser at the Atlantic Council.

Thank goodness for Newt Gingrichs op-ed. It was a most refreshing piece free from the desperate attempts to bring down President Trump and the Trump administration, and it reported the facts of Mr. Trumps successes. Mr. Gingrichs op-ed proved there are adults in the room.

Margie Tompros, Woodbridge

In his usual selective references to the words and thoughts of others, Newt Gingrich included quotes from President Ronald Reagan. I was disappointed that Mr. Gingrich failed to also focus on Reagans most famous speech, at Berlins Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987. The words are as timely today: Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Mr. Gingrich did make up for the omission, however, by ascribing a new, reality-based foreign policy to President Trump. Thats hardly a new concept; it was already in practice as realpolitik under Otto von Bismarck, the blood-and-iron chancellor to King Wilhelm I of Prussia, back in the late 1800s when he forcefully consolidated Germany. If Mr. Gingrich is right about Mr. Trumps titanic policy shift, a rough sailing awaits us.

Lorraine Polik, Springfield

While President Trumps rhetoric seemed to suggest a shift in U.S. foreign policy, all I could see and hear was the president calling the people who suborn or effect terrorist acts a bunch of losers. He used this term not once but four times in the same speech.

Command of the English language (including vocabulary, grammar and spelling) is a prerequisite for a world leader choosing to speak on world subjects. Mr. Trump demonstrates with shocking regularity his lack of facility in the language. In this case, loser is not remotely appropriate, nor does it transmit the horror and atrocity of the terrorist acts.

The president may have made a shift in policy, but the media missed nothing. At least they did not call him a loser.

David Bourque, Grafton, Ontario

Sometimes a leader says something so fatuous that when his acolytes hail his brilliance, they leave us breathless. Such is the case with Newt Gingrichs declaration that President Trumps drive them out statement offered a striking new direction in U.S. foreign policy. So when the Saudis or others drive out those Islamists who pursue their goals through violence, where should those Islamists go? Which place on Earth would the president and Mr. Gingrich like to see as the new, or the continuing, gathering place for violent Islamists?

Mr. Gingrich would have us believe that we would all be better off if Middle Eastern governments chose to export their radicals rather than trying to control and change them at home. That has been tried, and it produced al-Qaeda. While other public figures have become Mr. Trumps chumps when he throws them under the bus, Mr. Gingrich volunteers to shill nonsense.

Marianne Kamp, Bloomington, Ind.

Newt Gingrich tried to correlate speeches and policies under President Ronald Reagan to the current trip abroad by President Trump. The Middle East portion of the trip was a lesson on how to walk back all the negative campaign rhetoric about Muslims and the Islamic State and demonstrate no understanding of the political and religious challenges while focusing all the blame on Iran.

What we learned from Mr. Gingrich, a professional Trump supporter, is that Donald Trump is no Ronald Reagan.

Stephen Berg, Chapel Hill, N.C.
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Climate change is out. Resilience is in. Victims of domestic violence are now victims of crime. Foreign aid for refugee rights has become aid to protect national security. Clean energy investment has been transformed into just plain energy investment. 10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint ArrowRight The federal government is undergoing a rebranding under President Trump  although not all at his direction.

As Trump sets new priorities for Washington sharply at odds with what the town has seen for the past eight years, some officials working on hot-button issues such as the environment, nutrition and foreign aid are changing the names of offices and programs that might draw skepticism from the conservative Republican leaders he has installed atop agencies.

While entire departments are changing their missions under Trump, many of these rebranding efforts reflect a desire to blend in or escape notice, not a change in what officials do day-to-day  at least not yet, according to 19 current and former employees across the government, and nonprofit officials who receive federal funding.

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I do think it exemplifies a general sense of looking at our programs, looking at the way we characterize our activities, and trying to rebrand or repaint them in ways that hopefully make them less of a target, said one Energy Department employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely describe the changes inside the government.

The changes in messaging come as Trump and his Cabinet leaders are setting new priorities  and that will increasingly change the operations of most agencies as time goes on and the administration gets lower-level political appointees into top posts.

The Environmental Protection Agency has shifted from enacting climate change regulations to reversing them, while the Energy Department has moved from boosting prospects for renewable energy to promoting President Trumps fossil fuel-focused agenda. The Trump State Department is aiming to cut spending on diplomacy and foreign aid, and the Agriculture Department has backed away from Obama-era rules to ensure healthy school lunches.

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I think youre seeing a combination of people trying to stay below the radar so they dont get whacked, and also trying to morph so they can accommodate what the new administrations point of view is going to be, said Adam Cohen, who served as deputy undersecretary for science and energy at the Energy Department from October 2015 until this month.

Some of the most striking examples of rebranding come from agencies dealing with energy and the environment, where references to climate change and clean energy have sometimes disappeared.

In late April, the Energy Investor Center replaced the Energy Departments Clean Energy Investment Center, which was founded in early 2016 to help the private sector better learn how to put money into renewable technologies.

Language about the focus on the clean and alternative energy market vanished from the programs website.

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The old Web link, which included the word clean, redirects to one that doesnt, according to an analysis by the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, which tracks government website changes affecting the environment.

Energy spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler said these changes were not ordered by the Trump administration but were made by career staff to better reflect the broader focus of the project, which includes all traditional and nontraditional energy sources.

An Energy Department staffer who was not authorized to speak publicly and commented on the condition of anonymity said: Its our own career staff. Theyre in their keep-their-head-down, maybe they wont cut our budget mode.

At two other federal agencies  the EPA and the Federal Highway Administration  programs have shifted to talking about resilience rather than climate change.

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The EPAs Climate Ready Water Utilities site was renamed Creating Resilient Water Utilities  even before the inauguration, the timing of which suggests it was unlikely that Trump appointees were involved in the change.

At the Federal Highway Administration, a website focused on the environmental impacts of cars and other forms of-transportation replaced a page addressing climate change with one about sustainability sometime in January.

Another page, on climate-change adaptation, morphed into one titled resilience, and the overall program, formerly known as the Sustainable Transport and Climate Change group, was renamed the Sustainable Transportation and Resilience group.

The rebrandings extend beyond the energy and environment sphere.

A key Obama-era initiative at the Agriculture Department called Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food, which brought together seven farm-to-table nutrition programs, was moved from the agencys main website to an obscure one within the USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service, where it appears under the blander Local & Regional Food Sector. Instead of highlighting farmers markets, organic agriculture and a Farm to School program, the site features Opportunities for Farmers and Ranchers and guidance onAggregating, Processing and Distributing.

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Development programs, facing potentially drastic funding cuts to international aid, have reframed their missions to de-emphasize Obama-era priorities such as womens health and climate change and instead play up regional stability and religious freedom in areas where Christians are persecuted.

Civil servants running data-driven initiatives are trying to figure out how to reframe their work to appeal to a White House that has so far taken an ideologically driven Ready, fire, aim approach to understanding many of our federal programs, said Daniel S. Holt, founder of the Washington-based consulting firm Anchorage Partners and director of public engagement for the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2015 to 2017.

Staff shouldnt feel their jobs are threatened by those who havent looked into the efficacy of the programs theyre going after, Holt said. These are civil servants who have sworn an oath to faithfully do their jobs in service of our country.

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The rebranding has been made easier by a vacuum in political leadership at most agencies, where five months after Trump was sworn in, Cabinet secretaries have few if any of their senior leaders in place. Many of these changes have gone unnoticed as civil servants await policy direction from appointees who have not been confirmed by the Senate or even nominated.

The retooling poses risks. The more overt the changes, the more they leave digital fingerprints that are easily noted in an era in which outside groups and journalists are scrutinizing government sites and data sets for any sign of changes. Reframing cant escape the Internet archive.

Nongovernmental organizations reliant on federal funds are getting the message, too. One federally funded international aid organization that works in more than 50 countries now highlights its development work as a counterweight to violent extremism and a vital tool to shore up the national security interests of the United States. By stabilizing institutions in volatile parts of the world, the organization is saying to its partners and stakeholders, it is lessening the chance of a mass migration of refugees to the United States  a policy that is in line with the Trump administrations America-first priorities.

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The work is the same, but its a question of talking a little bit more about one thing versus another, said an official with the group who did not want to draw attention to the organization and spoke on the condition that it not be identified.

Other services that survive on federal funding say they are trying to determine the significance of budget cuts if they do not rebrand.

Domestic violence programs that receive money from the Justice Department and Health and Human Services have traditionally attracted bipartisan support. But bracing for cuts, some advocates say they are shifting their talking points. Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit group that receives federal funding to fight domestic and other forms of violence, is emphasizing its role helping victims of crime instead of violence to better align with the administrations affinity for law enforcement.

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There were victims on January 18th and there were the same victims on January 20th when Trump was inaugurated, said Kiersten Stewart, the groups director of public policy. Might we highlight certain voices? Of course.

Career employees are used to changing directions with new administrations. But Michael Termini, chief of staff at the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection group, is still concerned about how government employees are responding to the current environment.

Its not somebody telling me, Dont post that,  he said, but Im afraid that if I do, theyre going to pounce. We call that, in the whistleblowing world, a chilling effect.

Some career employees are simply keeping their heads down. Managers are actually not moving forward with new material for fear of actually being noticed, said one EPA employee who was not cleared to speak in public and asked for anonymity.

There are cases that look like outright censorship. The EPA took down its entire climate change website, an informational resource dating back to the Clinton administration, even though climate scientists say it is accurate and career staff resisted the move.

And there are changes that are almost imperceptible. At the Forest Service, the banner atop the website of its Office of Sustainability and Climate Change dropped a single word  change  sometime after Feb. 1, according to the Internet Archive. It now says Sustainability and Climate.

But the rebranding is pervasive. Even an agency as focused on climate change as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is shifting its messaging.

One marine scientist who works with state and local governments and other groups said that he and his colleagues are playing down climate as a factor in the protection of ocean habitats because they quickly realized that its a hot potato.

Were being encouraged to look at things holistically, said the scientist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. He described the change in approach as self-driven, because were trying to lay low.

Were trying not to be explicit about climate change anymore, the scientist said.

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The annual Sammie awards, handed out in the fall by the Partnership for Public Service, honor federal employees for their accomplishments. The Post is profiling the 30 finalists. The nonprofit partnership provided the names and descriptions.



Mia Beers. (Aaron Clamage/Partnership for Public Service)

Mia Beers

U.S. Agency for International Development

Led a team that responded to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa

Beers, who led USAIDs 40-member Disaster Assistance Response Team, arrived in Liberia in early November, where she coordinated thousands of U.S. personnel from five federal agencies working in four countries. The largest team worked in Liberia while three smaller teams worked in Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone, all willing to put themselves at risk to help with this humanitarian mission.

When the team arrived, the epidemic was at its peak. Emergency responders were looking for cases outside of the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and making treatment options available, said Beers, who was the third team leader in a job known to cause rapid burnout in humanitarian crises.

Responders set up Ebola treatment units, airlifted personal protective equipment into the region, and opened a dedicated medical unit to treat Liberian and international health-care workers and staff. Beers and the response team helped turn the tide by training health-care workers, deploying laboratories and doing contact tracing to identify individuals who may have been in close contact with infected people.

Mia landed on the ground and helped to create order out of chaos, said Nancy Lindborg, former USAID assistant administrator.



Timothy A. Blades, left, and Paul S. Gilmour. (Aaron Clamage/Partnership for Public Service)

Timothy A. Blades and Paul S. Gilmour

Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Maritime Administration

Led a team that destroyed Syrias chemical weapons at sea

In August of 2013, more than 1,400 Syrian civilians were killed when their government attacked them with the nerve agent sarin. In the aftermath, the international community brokered a deal to eliminate Syrias stockpile of chemical weapons. No country was willing to accept the deadly arsenal for destruction.

Thats when an interagency team led by Blades and Gilmour stepped in to carry out a historic mission to destroy the weapons at sea  a first in the history of chemical demilitarization.

The process began in the summer of 2013 when Blades and his team from the Armys Edgewood Chemical Biological Center completed the design and development of transportable neutralization technology that can convert chemical warfare material into compounds not usable as weapons and meets the 99.9 percent destruction rate standard set by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Gilmour and his colleagues at the U.S. Maritime Administration worked with Blades and his team to retrofit a military transportation vessel and install the systems to neutralize the chemical weapons.

Working around the clock, the team eliminated 600 metric tons of sarin nerve gas precursor and sulfur mustard blistering agent in 42 days without spill or injury.



Natasha M. de Marcken. (Aaron Clamage/Partnership for Public Service)

Natasha M. de Marcken

U.S. Agency for International Development

Spearheaded an effort to teach millions of children in developing countries to read

As the director of USAIDs Office of Education, de Marcken has led an effort to refocus the agencys work around the globe, shifting from not only getting students into school, but ensuring they receive a quality education and, most importantly, learn to read.

Although the number of children enrolled in primary schools in developing countries has increased by more than 85 million in the past 15 years, there are still 250 million children who are unable to read even after four years of education. Studies have shown that children who do not learn to read at an early age will likely make limited educational progress throughout their lives.

To shift USAIDs focus, de Marcken coordinated with other donors and governments to advance a new strategy that places a high priority on early grade learning. She has helped reshape the way the agency manages its $800 million annual investment in 140 basic education programs in more than 40 countries. USAID programs are now giving 30 million students the basic skills they need to learn to read.

De Marcken and her team have tried to overcome resistance to the new approach by sharing learning data with local education officials.
The angry forces that propelled President Trumps rise are beginning to frame and define the rest of the Republican Party.

When GOP House candidate Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter who had attempted to ask him a question Wednesday night in Montana, many saw not an isolated outburst by an individual, but the obvious, violent result of Trumps charge that journalists are the enemy of the people. Nonetheless, Gianforte won Thursdays special election to fill a safe Republican seat.

Respectfully, Id submit that the president has unearthed some demons, Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) said. Ive talked to a number of people about it back home. They say, Well, look, if the president can say whatever, why cant I say whatever? Hes given them license.

Trump  and specifically, his character and his conduct  now thoroughly dominate the national political conversation.

Traditional policy arguments over whether entitlement programs should be overhauled, or taxes cut, are regularly upstaged by a new burst of pyrotechnics.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The dynamic is shaping the contours of this years smattering of special congressional elections and contests for governor, as well as the jockeying ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

[An assault, a victory and then an apology]

Its an entirely different atmosphere, Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chairman, said. The president isnt ideological, and ideology is no longer the anchor. So when reporters put microphones in candidates faces, theyre asking about the president, tweets, character, your moral outlook and not about a particular policy.

Few Republicans expect party leaders to do anything to lessen the toxicity.

Charlie Sykes, a conservative former talk-show host in Wisconsin and author of the forthcoming How the Right Lost Its Mind, said every time something like Montana happens, Republicans adjust their standards and put an emphasis on team loyalty. They normalize and accept previously unacceptable behavior.

Those who still navigate by the old maps are having trouble staying the course.

Karen Handel, a conventional Republican running in next months special House election in Georgia, has railed against Obamacare, and campaigned alongside House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who called her tested and true. But she has been scorched endlessly on television for her support of the president her Democratic opponent has claimed embarrasses our country and acts recklessly.

Other GOP candidates, emboldened by Trumps success at shattering norms, have ventured further to test the limits of what the electorate can stomach.

Corey Stewart, a former state chairman for Trumps presidential campaign, has embraced Confederate symbols as his gubernatorial bid has flailed in Virginia, horrifying party leaders ahead of the June 13 primary and forcing the GOP front-runner to respond.

His primary opponent, former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie, has seen his steady, well-funded campaign for governor all but drowned out recently by Stewarts rage over the effort to remove Confederate statues from public spaces, which Stewart has said is proof that ISIS has won. Their primary clashes have been more over style and political correctness than any issue.

Gillespie has kept the edge. Corey has labeled himself as Trumps Mini-Me, but the mojo aint there, Shaun Kenney, the former executive director of Virginias Republican Party, said earlier this year. But it remains to be seen whether Stewart has damaged the GOP brand for the general election.

Other polished exemplars of the establishment have struggled to set themselves apart.

Handel, a fixture of state politics, has seen suburban voters in her district, which has been in Republican hands since 1979, grow so uneasy about Trump that her once unknown Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, has taken the lead in polls.

Appealing to voters weary over Trumps comportment, Ossoff has seized on Trumps decision to fire James B. Comey as director of the FBI, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race.

But for some Republican contenders, Trump has been a model  nowhere more so than in deeply red Montana. Gianforte, a wealthy businessman, touted his full-throated support for the president and pledged to drain the swamp in his campaign against Rob Quist, a country music artist.

Gianfortes election-eve eruption capped weeks of frothing frustration within the ranks in Montana and elsewhere about scrutiny of Trump and Republicans in the media, with the Trump-friendly candidate fuming and reacting physically to a question from Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs.

Ryan, who has labored to swing the spotlight away from GOP missteps and toward his agenda, criticized Gianfortes actions and said, There is no time a physical altercation should occur. But he did not rescind his endorsement and, along with other Republicans, plodded forward Thursday reluctant to delve into a character debate. Im going to let the people of Montana decide, he said.

The Republican lurch away from running highly disciplined, by-the-book campaigns on curbing spending and stoking economic growth is, in part, the evidence of how fully Trump has upended the party. Republicans havent abandoned the views and positions they have cultivated since Ronald Reagans presidency, but instead appear unable to focus on them.

Trumps barrage of news-making and controversy drives the GOP even at its lowest levels, with his raucous populism and blustering behavior reshaping its identity. Candidates often are either adopting aspects of his persona or finding themselves having to fitfully explain why they back him. Coupled with a national conservative media complex that sears the press as much as it does Democrats, they are navigating a highly charged and volatile environment.

Fox News, the network beloved by Republicans, has also found itself dealing with the rights disruptive fury and questions of conduct, even among its high-profile hosts. Sean Hannity has been criticized and lost advertisers for promoting a conspiratorial account of the slaying of a Democratic National Committee staffer. Hannity has reacted by charging that liberal fascists were conspiring to cripple his career.

Some advocates for the media say that the culture Trump has created within his party is responsible and has had a cascading effect on the way 2017 campaigns have unfolded.

Before the 2016 campaign, we could at least expect civility from candidates and their staffs, Lucy A. Dalglish, the dean of Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, said. Trump has declared open season on journalists, and politicians and members of his Cabinet have joined the hunt.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg School for Communication, added: By casting the press as the enemy of the American people, Donald Trump has contributed to a climate of discourse consistent with assaulting a reporter for asking an inconvenient question.

For Democrats, the GOP disarray presents perhaps the ripest opportunity for a blue political wave in over a decade, especially if the Republicans are alienating suburban professionals and independents.

In Georgia, for instance, Democrat Ossoff is running not as a vocal young progressive but a thoughtful, middle-of-the-road and careful Democrat. Republicans Gillespie and Handel are shying away from Trump-style theatrics.

Democrats, who are in the midst of their own political tug-of-war between progressives and centrists, have not yet been able to translate the Republican scandals and Trump tiffs into convincing wins.

Ossoff nearly captured the Georgia seat last month but did not garner enough votes, and the race went to a runoff.

Yet there have been flashes of opportunity: Democrats won two special state legislative elections this week in New York, with one of the pickups coming in a district that Trump won.

In early April, Republicans fended off a strong Democratic challenger in ruby-red Kansas in this years first special House election, following last-minute support from Trump and Vice President Pence. Republican Ron Estes won by eight percentage points; two years earlier a Republican had won the seat by 31 percentage points.

Meanwhile, in New Jerseys gubernatorial campaign, the two leading Republicans running ahead of a June 6 primary  Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli  are dealing with the cloud not only of Trump but of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), whose tumultuous leadership and bridge-closing scandal has left the state GOP fractured and been a burden on the Republican hopefuls.

Longtime watchers of Trump do not expect him to speak out against Gianforte or to urge his party against the politics of bellicosity.

They recalled that he fiercely defended his then-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, when he was accused last year of grabbing a female reporters arm. Trump himself once said of a protester at one of his campaign rallies: Id like to punch him in the face.

In Sicily at a G-7 summit on Friday, Trump praised Gianforte for a great win in Montana.

In the Trump era, it is far from clear what is over the line  or even if a line exists any more.

There is a total weirdness out there, Sanford said. People feel like, if the president of the United States can say anything to anybody at any time, then I guess I can too. And that is a very dangerous phenomenon.

Mike DeBonis and Paul Schwartzman contributed to this report.
Republican businessman Greg Gianforte won Montanas sole House district in a special election Thursday, keeping a seat in Republican hands despite facing assault charges for allegedly attacking a reporter whod asked him about the GOPs health-care bill.

In his victory speech, Gianforte admitted to the attack and apologized for it.

I shouldnt have treated that reporter that way, he told supporters at his rally here.

The victory, called by the Associated Press, offered some relief for Republicans, who have struggled to sell their Obamacare overhaul, the American Health Care Act. But it was a closer call than the party had expected when it tapped the multimillionaire to run in a state President Trump carried by 20 points  and when Democrats nominated folk singer Rob Quist instead of an experienced politician. With 83 percent of the vote counted, Gianforte led Quist 51 percent to 44 percent, according to preliminary returns.

Some in the crowd laughed at the mention of the incident. I made a mistake, said Gianforte.

Not in our minds! yelled a supporter.

Democrats, who called on Gianforte to quit the race after the assault charge, believed that late votes broke Quists way, and that the first-time candidate put the race in play by attacking the AHCA. Forcing Republicans to spend seven figures defending a typically safe seat, they argued, was worth it.

We said at the outset that this would be a very difficult election on very red turf, said David Nir, the political director of Daily Kos, which endorsed Quist and crowdfunded donations for him. The playing field next month in Georgia and next year in the midterms is much more favorable. Republicans might be breathing a sigh of relief that their morally reprehensible candidate won on Thursday night, but they should still be very worried about 2018.

Quist conceded defeat shortly after 11 p.m. local time. Your voices were definitely heard in this election, he told supporters at his election party in Missoula. I know we came up short but the energy and the grass-roots movement in this state goes on.

In-person voting began across the state just hours after Gianforte allegedly body-slammed Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, who was trying to ask him a question about the House Republican health-care plan. Gianforte has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Im glad I waited to vote until today, Wolf Redboy, 43, a software marketer and musician from Missoula, who backed Quist, said Thursday. It was the first election hed voted in since 2012. I couldnt believe what I was hearing in that tape. There are lots of words that come to mind for people who want to treat reporters that way.

The scuffle was caught on tape by the reporter and witnessed by a Fox News reporting team. Gallatin County police announced the charges late Wednesday after the Guardian published the recording.

On Thursday, as three major newspapers pulled their endorsements of the technology entrepreneur and some early voters sought in vain to change their ballots, GOP leaders urged Gianforte to apologize in an attempt to control the damage.

There is no time where a physical altercation should occur, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said at his weekly news conference on Capitol Hill. It should not have happened. Should the gentleman apologize? Yeah, I think he should apologize.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), one of Gianfortes closest allies in Montana politics and a former co-worker at his Bozeman company, called his actions unacceptable and agreed that he should apologize. Quist, meanwhile, told reporters Thursday that the scuffle was a matter for law enforcement and declined to comment further.

[Gianforte has history of controversial views, hostile comments to journalists]

Wednesdays incident took place after nearly four weeks of voting in a special election to replace Ryan Zinke (R), who became Trumps interior secretary in March. By Thursday, more than 200,000 of 700,000 eligible voters had cast early absentee ballots.

In interviews at Quists final rally, at a Missoula microbrewery, voters were skeptical that the attack could change the race. Gianforte entered the contest with high negative ratings and an image as a hard-charging bully who had joked about outnumbering a reporter at a town hall meeting and sued to keep people from fishing on public land near his home.

Greg thinks hes Donald Trump, said Brent Morrow, 60. He thinks he could shoot a guy on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.

Gianforte and the allied super PACs had deflected attention from his low approval numbers with ads attacking Quist over unpaid taxes and gaffes about gun rights and military spending. To the extent the assault charge hurt  a GOP-aligned poll found 93 percent of voters aware of it  Republicans thought it denied them another day of attention on Quist.

For 24 hours, the assault charge was the biggest political story in Montana. The Billings Gazette, which serves Montanas largest city, told readers that it had made a poor choice by ignoring questionable interactions the candidate has had with reporters in the past. Two other major newspapers also pulled their Gianforte endorsements, with the Missoulian suggesting that the Republican should bow out of public life.

As word spread of the alleged assault in Bozeman, some supporters who had been knocking on doors for Quist began playing voters the audio clip. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has invested more than $500,000 in the race, called for Gianforte to quit the race and released a last-minute radio ad featuring Jacobss audio of the incident.

In the recording, Jacobs could be heard asking Gianforte to respond to the newly released Congressional Budget Office score of House Republicans AHCA, a bill Gianforte had said he was glad to see the House approve.

After Gianforte told Jacobs to direct the question to his spokesman, there was the sound of an altercation, and a screaming candidate.

Im sick and tired of you guys! Gianforte said. The last guy that came in here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here! Get the hell out of here! The last guy did the same thing. Are you with the Guardian?

[Analysis: Gianforte is fighting for a House seat. He might be miserable in Congress.]

Quist surprised both parties by running  and by securing the Democratic nomination. A supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanderss 2016 presidential bid, he told activists he backed Canadian-style single-payer health care, and he waxed to local reporters about whether taxes should be raised on the rich, whether military spending should be slashed and whether assault weapon owners should register their guns.

In the first months of the race, Quist raised just $900,000 and appeared to be written off by Washington Democrats. Republicans attempted to define the candidate before he could go on the air, with the opposition research group America Rising paying a tracker to follow Quist, and the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC hiring a researcher to dig up damaging stories about the musician-turned-politicians tax problems. More than $5 million was spent by outside groups against Quist; Democrats responded with less than $1 million in positive spots.

We knew that because Rob Quist was an unknown quantity with voters, we had the ability to define him negatively out of the gates, said America Rising chief executive Colin Reed.

But after the March failure of the first version of the AHCA, Quists fundraising surged, adding up to more than $5 million by the final pre-election report  outmatching Gianforte, whom Republicans had hoped would self-fund his campaign.

The AHCA, the Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act, had become the dominant issue in the campaign. In the closing days of the race, Quist focused his events and TV ads on his opposition to the Republican bill and brought in Sanders (I-Vt.) to help promote his position on U.S. health care: universal coverage.

The Republican struggled to talk about the AHCA. In public, he said that he would wait to weigh in on the legislation until the CBO score was released and assured him that protections for people with preexisting medical conditions wouldnt be scrapped. On a call with donors that was leaked to newspapers including The Washington Post, the Republican said he was thankful for the Houses vote that moved the bill forward.

At campaign stops and on TV, the soft-spoken Quist either rebutted Republican attack ads or attacked the GOPs health-care bill, hitting Gianforte especially hard on the donor call remarks.

Greg Gianforte says hes thankful for the new health-care bill, the one that eliminates protections for preexisting conditions and raises premiums on every Montanan who has one, because he gets a big tax break at our expense, Quist said in his closing spot.

Until Wednesday, Democrats worried that a loss would bolster Republican confidence to move ahead with the health care bill. But Gianfortes triumph over the assault charges gave the winners another reason to cheer  a victory over what the president calls fake news.

In Missoula, where Quist rallied with his voters, Democrats looked for the bright side. Matt McKenna, an adviser to the campaign and a longtime Montana politics insider, noted the ugly tenor of the race, starting with anti-Quist ads the first day of the campaign.

This is the first day of the end of Greg Gianfortes political career, McKenna said. It may seem like he got away with this because so many people already voted, but they will deny him the prize he really wants which is the governors office. He could go to jail. He still has to be arraigned.

Viebeck reported from Washington. Ed OKeefe and Sean Sullivan in Washington and Kathleen McLaughlin in Missoula contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPos


ArtView at 1932 9th St. NW is a mixed-use development with live-work studios for artists, a multidisciplinary project area for showcasing artists work and six condos designed by Inscape Studio. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)

The intersection of Ninth and U streets NW in the Districts Shaw neighborhood may be the epicenter of cool in the city.

Within blocks are countless clubs, music venues and bars from the hip Brixton to the beloved 9:30 Club and the Howard Theatre; restaurants for every palate; and retailers like Warby Parker. The arts scene in the area includes the Hamilton Gallery, the first project by PT2SO Investments, led by Paul So, a painter and physics professor who founded Hamiltonian Artists in 2007.

Sos latest venture in the area, ArtView at 1932 Ninth St. NW, is a mixed-use development with live-work studios for artists, a multidisciplinary project area for showcasing artists work and six condos designed by Inscape Studio.

I gave the architects at Inscape a general framework of what I wanted in the building, but then I let them make all the artistic and aesthetic choices, says So. I think creative people like architects should be treated like artists.

[Saratoga Towns in Springfield, VA., offers a small community of townhouses, each with two-car garages]

Four of the six condos have sold. The remaining two one- and two-bedroom units are priced from $769,900 to $1.1 million. The building also has retail space where a Sugar Shack doughnuts location will open this summer.

D.C. always lacks enough good workspace and exhibition space for artists, says So. We can help finance that space for artists by developing the condos in the front of the building. In the back of the building, we have discounted live-work space that artists can rent for 60 percent of the market rate.

1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Buying New | ArtView condos in Northwest Washington View Photos The residences are priced from $769,900 to $1.1 million. Caption The residences are priced from $769,900 to $1.1 million. ArtView at 1932 9th St. NW is a mixed-use development with live-work studios for artists, a multidisciplinary project area for showcasing artists work and six condos designed by Inscape Studio. Benjamin C. Tankersley/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Sustainable design: Despite the buildings connection with art, the first resident to move in, Feras Karadsheh, says he chose his unit because of the location and interesting architecture.

I was living in a small one-bedroom condo in Chinatown and I wanted more space, says Karadsheh. I also like the idea that the finishes look different from most of the other condos in the city.

Karadsheh purchased a one-bedroom and den unit with two bathrooms and 1,145 square feet.

ArtView is LEED Gold certified and includes a green roof, solar panels that generate electricity for the common areas and highly energy-efficient air-conditioning systems.

The materials we chose were locally sourced and have the least possible chemical impact, says So. For instance, the flooring is made from recycled oak from local Virginia farms.

So says the courtyard is made of permeable concrete so that rainwater and melted snow drain into the ground.

We set up a rainwater collection and filtration system to provide nonpotable water for the building for things like flushing toilets, says So.

Sleek and rustic: The condos have contemporary style architecture with high ceilings, sleek modern features and rustic touches in the hardwood flooring and oak spiral staircases. Two of the remaining units have private roof terraces. Unit 401, a one-bedroom, two-bathroom condo with a den, has 1,145 square feet and is priced at $999,900 with a monthly condo fee of $340. This unit has an open floor plan with a living area, a dining area and a kitchen with access to a private terrace from the living area and the master bedroom.

[King Farm in Rockville, Md., offers luxury brownstones in a walkable neighborhood with Metro access]

The master suite, accessed through translucent doors, includes a dressing room with a laundry closet and a large bathroom with an oversize shower. This unit also has a full bathroom near the kitchen and a den with a closet and a spiral staircase to the upper level. The upper level has a small sitting area or office with glass doors that open onto a large private roof terrace with views of the city.



Each kitchen has stainless-steel appliances, custom-designed cabinets, a subway tile backsplashe and an oversized Caesarstone island with a waterfall side. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)

The largest unit, number 402, has 1,426 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. This unit, priced at $1.1 million with a monthly condo fee of $445, has an open floor plan, a living and dining area and center-island kitchen.

The front of the unit has floor-to-ceiling windows facing Ninth Street. A spiral staircase links this level to the second level, which has a small office or sitting area lined with glass doors to a roof terrace with views of the Washington Monument and the city skyline. Near the front door is a coat closet, full bathroom and translucent doors that open onto a bedroom with a large closet.

The master bedroom, on the opposite side of the living area, has translucent doors and windows on two sides. Next to the bedroom is a dressing room, a closet with laundry equipment and a large bathroom with a glass-enclosed shower, a soaking tub and a double-sink vanity.

Unit 301, a one-bedroom, two-bathroom unit with a den, has 1,119 square feet and is priced at $769,900 with a monthly condo fee of $310. This unit has a similar layout to unit 401 but is on one level with a smaller balcony.

Whats nearby: Karadsheh says he picked ArtView in part because it sits in the midst of bars and clubs that he enjoys.

Some people might think the location is too noisy or busy, but this is exactly what I love about it, being surrounded by city life, he says.

The neighborhood surrounding ArtView includes numerous bars, restaurants and clubs. Residents can walk along U Street to 14th Street or to 11th Street for even more restaurants or see performances at the Lincoln Theater, the Howard Theatre, the Source Theater or the Studio Theater.

Schools: Garrison Elementary, Cardozo Education Campus

Transit: Residents can walk to both the Shaw and U Street Metro stations for Green and Yellow line service. The neighborhood is also served by the DC Circulator bus and several Metrobus routes.



Two of the remaining units have private roof terraces. (Benjamin C Tankersley/For The Washington Post)
Internally displaced people who fled Raqqa ride in a vehicle in a camp near Ain Issa, Syria, on May 19. (Rodi Said/Reuters)

Airstrikes on an Islamic State-held town in eastern Syria killed dozens of civilians, monitoring groups said Friday, notably in an alleged raid on a building that housed family members of the extremist fighters.

The strikes on Mayadin, which took place Thursday evening and early Friday, were carried out by aircraft that locals identified as being from the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said coalition forces conducted airstrikes in the area in Deir al-Zour province on Thursday and Friday.

We are still assessing the results of those strikes, Davis said. We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously.

If confirmed as coalition airstrikes, the bombardment in Mayadin would mark the latest in a string of U.S.-led attacks that have killed perhaps hundreds of civilians in Iraq and Syria in recent months.

The Pentagon on Thursday released an unclassified summary of its investigation into a deadly March raid on a residential building in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Islamic State fighters are holed up and battling Iraqi forces. The U.S. Central Command acknowledged that a U.S. strike killed more than 100 civilians there, but it blamed the high death toll on secondary explosions from Islamic State weapons stored in the area.

The United States has carried out more than 8,500 strikes in Syria since 2014, according to the Pentagon. An additional 8,700 U.S. strikes have been conducted in Iraq. Islamic State fighters are based in parts of the two countries, where they declared a caliphate in 2014.

Since President Trump took office in January, we are now seeing the emergence of clear trends, said Chris Woods, director of Airwars, a group that tracks coalition strikes in Iraq and Syria. We are seeing high civilian casualties where six months ago we would not. This is the clearest evidence yet that protections for civilians on the battlefield appear to have been scaled back.

In a statement Friday, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged all air forces operating in Syria to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians.

The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by [the Islamic State] are also falling victim to the escalating airstrikes, he said. The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Deir al-Zour and Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks.

Civilian casualties have risen as fighting has intensified ahead of a U.S.-backed assault on the Islamic States de facto capital in Raqqa in northern Syria. There, the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by ethnic Kurdish commanders, are pushing toward the city with the help of U.S. advisers.

Mayadin, in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir al-Zour, is roughly 100 miles from Raqqa and lies along Syrias fertile Euphrates River basin. Most of that area is under the control of the Islamic State. The group  also known as ISIS and, in Arabic, Daesh  captured Mayadin from more-moderate Syrian rebel forces in 2014.

[How a woman in England tracks civilian deaths in Syria, one bomb at a time]

According to the Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of local contacts to track the Syrian civil war, the first strikes took place at 7:25 p.m. Thursday. Two reconnaissance aircraft and two warplanes flew overhead before the latter fired four missiles at the town. Two reportedly struck the Dahmoush building, where displaced family members of Islamic State fighters from elsewhere in Syria were staying. The monitoring group said 42 children were among the dead, but that figure could not be corroborated with other activists or sources in the area.

Then, early Friday, the warplanes returned and struck the municipal building, the local power company and the blood bank. At least 10 Islamic State fighters were killed, the Observatory said.

A separate local monitoring group said that it had dispatched a fact-finder to assess the aftermath of the strikes in Mayadin but that Islamic State fighters had blocked the entrances to the town. The activist group said the strikes took place in the Souk al-Mokhales and Saraya areas of Mayadin. Another strike hit a market, according to local media outlets operated by rebel-linked activists, and a separate missile reportedly landed between two hospitals.

The U.S. Central Command on Friday listed five strikes in Deir al-Zour, which it said destroyed a command and control node, and an ISIS headquarters.

Some analysts have said the Islamic State has moved family members and some assets to Mayadin as the U.S. ramps up pressure on the group in Raqqa.

Also Friday, the Central Command said that coalition strikes in Mayadin on April 27 and May 11 killed two Islamic State commanders involved in planning the groups attacks abroad.

The commanders were identified as Mustafa Gunes, a Turkish national, and Abu Asim al-Jazaeri, a French Algerian fighter. In April, the U.S. military said Special Operations commandos killed a senior Islamic State commander, Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, in a raid in Mayadin.

The aerial bombardments have been unusually intense in the last two weeks around Mayadin and other areas of Deir al-Zour, said Omar Abu Leila, the Germany-based editor of Deir Ezzor 24, a local independent news outlet.

Mayadin is home to tens of thousands of displaced Syrians, including civilians, according to Abu Leila and international rights groups.

Both the locals and the displaced are all deathly afraid now of the airstrikes and rising violence in the area, he said. The airstrikes come so suddenly . . . and people even get kicked out of places to make room for the families of Islamic State fighters.

But its all the same now, he said. The Russians, the international coalition and Daesh. The situation is extremely tense.

Heba Habib in Stockholm and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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An activist participates in a protest in Manila on May 26. (Aaron Favila/AP)

When President Rodrigo Duterte explained his decision to declare martial law across a wide swath of the southern Philippines, he described one of the most chilling scenes imaginable: a beheading.

In a news conference that made headlines around the world, Duterte said the police chief in Malabang was stopped at a checkpoint on his way home from work and slaughtered by terrorists on the spot. They decapitated him then and there, he said.

The Philippine presidents claim spread quickly, with much of the local and foreign press reporting it as fact. Soon, unconfirmed reports of beheadings became a major part of the story line.

Asked to comment on the declaration of martial law on the southern island of Mindanao, Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told journalists Friday in Beijing that she wouldnt want to second-guess what you would do in a situation where you have people being beheaded on television and church groups taken hostage.

But the Malabang police chief is alive  The Washington Post spoke to him on Friday. And The Post could find no new evidence of televised beheadings on Mindanao, though unconfirmed accounts of beheadings are circulating widely online. (There have been beheadings there in the past, and a priest and some followers were indeed taken hostage this week, according to a Filipino bishop.)

It is not yet clear whether the police chief story was a mix-up or a careful bit of messaging. What is certain, though, is that the inaccurate report shaped how the martial law news was covered  and potentially how it was received by the U.S. government.

In the wake of Dutertes speech, the police chief story served as a rhetorical link between unrest in the southern city of Marawi and the global threat of radical Islamist terrorism  spurring a social media frenzy.

One of the most troubling aspects of the aftermath of the Marawi siege is the rapid proliferation of fake news and deliberate disinformation, said Richard Javad Heydarian, an assistant professor of political science at Manilas De La Salle University. It is a classic case of a crisis being blown out of proportion by self-interested parties with ulterior agendas.

Battles between Philippine security forces and Muslim insurgent groups have raged for years, but the fighting made international news this week when Duterte, cutting short a trip to Russia, declared martial law across Mindanao, an area home to more than 20 million people.

The fact that the police chief story proved false does not mean there was no real fighting.

On Friday, the Associated Press described armored vehicles patrolling the streets of Marawi on the hunt for one of Asias most wanted militants, Isnilon Hapilon, who is believed to be in the area.



Images from the scene showed armed soldiers clearing houses and civilians fleeing town. Witnesses described being trapped inside by gunfire. A bishop said a local priest and 10 parishioners were taken hostage.

At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, AP reported Thursday.

However, with the conflict still unfolding, it is hard to separate fact from rumor from fake news.

On both mainstream and social media, credible reports have been combined with unverified rumors to suggest, among other things, that Islamic State fighters have made it to the Philippines and are rampaging across the country, beheading Christians as they go  a narrative that is not supported by evidence.

Leaders of the two insurgent groups battling the army, Abu Sayyaf and the Maute group, have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State, and Philippine officials said Friday that fighters from Indonesia and Malaysia are involved.

But Solicitor General Jose Calida stressed that the Philippine government has no evidence of a direct link to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Again, on the matter of ISIS, the president emphasized that theres ISIS footprint, but that does not confirm the clear presence of ISIS itself yet, Calida said.

Hours later, in a separate news conference, Duterte reportedly said the Islamic State was, in fact, on the ground.

Romeo Enriquez, the still-living Malabang police chief, meanwhile said he was shocked to hear the president report him beheaded.

He is not sure where the story came from but suspects he was mistaken for the former police chief, who was killed  but not, to Enriquezs knowledge, by decapitation.

Enriquez, who is in Marawi as the fighting continues, said he had yet to hear a confirmed report of a beheading.

With fighting ongoing, he said, it is hard to get facts straight. Its normal to have miscommunications and misinformation while the situation is not yet okay, he said. Everything is under investigation.

Kimberly dela Cruz reported from Manila.

Read more:

Duterte says martial law may be extended across whole country

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Protesters wear masks depicting the leaders of the G-7 countries during a demonstration organized by Oxfam in Giardini Naxos near Taormina, where the Group of Seven countries are holding their annual summit. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)

Most restaurants, pubs and ice cream parlors along the famous seaside of this tourist-friendly Sicilian town are literally battening down the hatches. Wooden planks and metal sheets now fortify most of their fronts, parasols are disappearing from the beach and police units constantly patrol the streets as the nearly 10,000 residents of this ancient Greek colony brace for impact ahead of a planned protest march on Saturday against the Group of Seven meetings in the next-door city of Taormina  where all demonstrations have been strictly forbidden.

Fearing outbursts of violence during the rally, the economic heart of the seaside town is temporarily shutting down at the very inception of the summer season.

Were expecting between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters, and more than 2,000 journalists said Nello Lo Turco, 65, a former math teacher who for the last eight years has been the mayor of a town used to a different kind of invasion, with up to 50,000 tourists every summer.

At least a thousand law enforcement agents are stationed here, a local police official said on the condition of anonymity. All of them are ready to wear their riot gear, the official explained. Its a tradition for events like this one. So experience tells me there is indeed a chance that fringe groups might . . . try to gain visibility by clashing with the police.

[U.S. allies plan to give Trump an earful on climate change at G-7 summit]

Rally organizers are aware of the towns growing anxiety. Luigi Sturniolo, 56, a placid librarian and veteran social activist from the nearby city of Messina, is one of them. Last Sunday, along with 15 other activists, he came to Giardini to distribute leaflets meant to assuage the fears of the locals by explaining their reasons for protesting:

On the 27th of May we will rally close to the G7s red zone, the leaflet said. We will do this because the meeting of the so called great seven is the political expression of a scary global inequality . . . because [theyre preparing for] a war on migrants. Well be there to oppose Trumps racism, xenophobia and sexism during his debut on the global stage.

The mayor seems to agree with the spirit of the protest. Theyre putting their finger on the sore spot, Lo Turco said. Most town residents, including those who seemed to be preparing for a siege, recognize the protesters right to express their opinions.

Everyone is free to protest. Their protest against these greats is fair. But the likelihood [of violence erupting] is high where black blocs are concerned, said Maurizio Donato, 39, owner of Schizzo, an ice cream parlor on the seaside. I can understand striking at multinational [corporations], but why should they hit a small-scale entrepreneur? he added while covering his store with cardboard and metal sheets.

I hope this is all for nothing, and that nothing happens, but Im afraid, he said. It feels like were bracing for a hurricane.

Read more:

Trump chastises fellow NATO members, demands they meet payment obligations

Trump and French President Macron get to know each other with a fierce handshake

Pope welcomes Trump to the Vatican despite past disagreements

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Masked militants in military-style uniforms opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt on Friday, killing at least 28 people in the latest bloodshed targeting the countrys Christian minority, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the Islamic State has claimed links to previous attacks against Egypts Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population.

The massacre took place on the eve of Islams holy month of Ramadan, a time when some militant factions have stepped up attacks in the past.

The ambush  in the Minya region about 150 miles south of Cairo  underscored the increasing pressures on Egyptian forces as Islamist militants gain greater footholds around the country, undercutting Egypts vital tourism industry and forcing greater security for Coptic Christians and others targeted by militants.

The Minya governor, Maj. Gen. Essam el-Bedewey, said at least 28 people were killed and at least 25 were wounded when the attackers fired on the bus heading for the St. Samuel Monastery, one of several pilgrimage sites in an area that is home to a large portion of Egypts Christian population. Among the dead were two small girls, 2 and 4 years old, local officials said.





[Palm Sunday bombings bring state of emergency]

A member of the regions security department, Maj. Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, told reporters that about 10 men wearing military-style gear carried out the attack.

The attack spurred global condemnations, and Egyptian warplanes retaliated by striking militant bases in eastern Libya after President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi warned in a televised address that training camps for terrorists who attack Egypt would be hit regardless of where they are. The planes targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the eastern Libyan city of Darna, where local militias have been linked to al-Qaeda rather than the Islamic State, the Associated Press reported.

Sissi also appealed to President Trump to lead the fight against terrorism. I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task, the Egyptian leader said.

Trump, attending a Group of Seven summit in Italy, denounced the merciless slaughter of Christians and called on nations to come together to fight evil organizations of terror and their thuggish ideology.

Pope Francis said he was deeply saddened by what he called a barbaric attack and a senseless act of hatred.

Israel joined the condemnation, as did its two main enemies in the region: Lebanons Shiite Hezbollah militant group and the Islamist Hamas group that runs the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah denounced terrorism that takes religion as a cover, while Hamas called the bus attack an ugly crime.

1 of 11 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The scene after gunmen opened fire on a bus, killing at least 28 Coptic Christians in central Egypt Friday. View Photos Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people. Caption Gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, killing at least 28 people. May 26, 2017 Security officials stand at the site of an attack on a bus near the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in Minya province in Egypt. Militants in military-style uniforms opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians. European Pressphoto Agency Wait 1 second to continue.

[A look at extremist attacks on Egypts Coptic Christians]

The victims included Gerges Mahrous, a 25-year-old accountant, and his brother, Kirolos Mahrous, an 18-year-old high school student who were on their way to pray at the monastery, family members said after identifying their bodies at a local hospital.

Why? screamed their cousin, Amal Fares. What have they done? Kirolos was just telling me he wanted to become a cardiologist and treat the people for free. An accountant and an honor student  what is their sin?

An uncle, Fares Ishak, 70, said that according to survivors, the attackers demanded that the victims recite the shahada Islamic creed. His nephews refused to give up on their faiths and died Christians, he said.

Another cousin, Sama Malak, 15, angrily demanded justice. No matter how strongly we condemn this and regardless of how much we speak out or even scream, nothing changes, she said, citing previous attacks on Christians. It is heart wrenching. We were shopping for dresses to attend Gergess wedding. Now we are wearing black to mourn him.

Egyptian Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, the countrys top Islamic authority, condemned what he called the disgusting terrorist operation that was carried out by extremists against our Christian brethren. He quoted the prophet Muhammad as having declared: Whoever harms a person of the covenant [a non-Muslim of a Muslim territory], I am his adversary, and I will be his adversary on the Day of Judgment.

Last month, twin bomb blasts rocked churches in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and the northern city of Tanta, leaving 44 dead and prompting Sissi, to declare a state of emergency.

After the latest attack, the Egyptian president called an emergency meeting of security officials, state-run media reported.

[Pope Francis calls for tolerance during visit to Egypt]

In late April, Pope Francis visited Egypt as part of Vatican outreach to Egypts embattled Christians, whose community dates back to the early centuries of the faith. But the papal trip also brought denunciations from Islamist militants and warnings of further reprisals.

In December, a bomb hit the main cathedral in Cairo, killing 25 people as part of what is being described as a new strategy by the Islamic State to target Christians.

Christians have been generally supportive of Sissis military-backed government, but have become increasingly critical of the inability of the countrys security forces to protect their places of worship.

The state is doing its best, but we need more efforts, Minyas Coptic Bishop Makarios told The Washington Post. They [security forces] are always present and on guard after the attack takes place, and keep their security measures tightened for a short while after. . . . What we need is real effort exerted to ensure this is not repeated, not just solidarity and compassion.

William Branigin and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

Palm Sunday attacks kill 44 in Egypt

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A child plays among the ruins of a house in western Mosul that was destroyed in a March 17 coalition airstrike that killed more than 100 people. (Balint Szlanko/AP)

The last thing Ahmed Manhal discussed with his six cousins and nephews was what they were all going to cook for lunch the next day.

It was March 16. By 9 the next morning, the 22-year-olds family members were dead, along with nearly 100 others sheltering in a three-story building in Mosuls Jadidah neighborhood.

An investigation released Thursday by the Pentagon said that a U.S. bomb targeting two Islamic State snipers inadvertently triggered a cache of Islamic State explosives stored on the second floor of the structure. The resulting blast, the Pentagon said, killed most of the 101 civilians inside the building and four others in an adjoining house. The targets of the airstrike, the two snipers, were also killed.

[Pentagon confirms airstrike killed more than 100 civilians in Mosul, blames ISIS explosives]

Manhal, who lives across the street from the destroyed house, heard the explosion, as did his father, Sameer. The two deny that the Islamic State moved any explosives into the building, however. Both recalled militants arriving the night before the airstrike, telling those still in their homes to leave before fighting began the next day. The snipers, they said, arrived at the house for the first time the morning of March 17, armed with rifles and little else.

It was an airstrike, Manhals father said of the incident. There were no explosives.

Brig. Gen Mohammed al-Jawari, the civil defense chief for Mosul, also disputed the U.S. report.

We were the first people who went to the site and evacuated all the bodies, and we didnt find any explosives there, only a few grenades and IEDs that werent exploded. . . . What caused that destruction was an airstrike, nothing else, he said.

The elder Manhal said civilians from the neighborhood had been sheltering at the house for a week before the strike, taking advantage of its basement  the only one on the block  for protection.

In its report, the Pentagon said U.S. and Iraqi forces believed that the structure was empty of civilians, having watched the Islamic State evict families from homes in the days before the strike.

The U.S. Central Command, however, was made aware that there were families trapped in the area on March 14, three days before the airstrike, according to direct messages sent to its official Arabic twitter account. The sender did not wish to be identified for security reasons. In a message, he requested the urgent evacuation of families trapped inside houses near the Fathi al-Ali mosque, saying they were at risk of being killed. The house hit in the U.S.-led strike was about 1,500 feet away from the mosque.

Information received, Central Command replied. Thank you for your message.

[Airstrikes on Islamic State-held town in Syria kill scores of civilians, monitoring group says]

Ahmed Abdulkareem, 32, was next door when the bomb, a 500-pound, satellite-guided munition called a GBU-38, penetrated his neighbors roof. The weapon was set with a delayed fuse, the Pentagons report says, so that the bomb would explode after it entered the house. The delayed detonation ensured that the ensuing blast would be contained on the second floor, killing the snipers firing from that level.

Instead, the Pentagon said, the bomb triggered additional explosives stored in the building, producing a powerful blast and overpressure that triggered a rapid progressive failure of the structure.

Abdulkareems brother was killed in the explosion, despite being next door. He, too, said that there were no Islamic State explosives stored in the structure.

There were only families, he said.

The Pentagons report said that the bombs blast should have resulted in no more than 16-20% damage to the structure, localized to the front of the second floor. The additional explosives, the report says, razed the structure. A crater found at the rear of the building, presumably caused by the militants munitions, indicated that the additional explosives contained more than four times the net explosive weight of the GBU-38.

A U.S. military pilot, who spoke on the condition anonymity because of his active duty status, said the reports damage estimates for the initial airstrike were low and unrealistic. The pilot, who flew hundreds of combat sorties over Iraq and Afghanistan, said that using a GBU-type bomb on a residential structure ensures that there is an extremely high probability that the entire building will be destroyed and every living entity inside would be killed.

The U.S.-led coalition has acknowledged killing more than 300 civilians since it started its air campaign against the Islamic State in 2014. Monitoring groups, however, put the number of civilian dead caused by errant airstrikes in Iraq and Syria in the thousands.

Americans have technology that they can see anything; sometimes they shoot one man from the air, the elder Manhal said. They did this on purpose.

Read more

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Jared Kushner and Russias ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trumps transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trumps first national security adviser.

The White House disclosed the meeting only in March, playing down its significance. But people familiar with the matter say the FBI now considers the encounter, as well as another meeting Kushner had with a Russian banker, to be of investigative interest.

Kislyak reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate  a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team.

[Jared Kushner now a focus in Russia investigation]

Neither the meeting nor the communications of Americans involved were under U.S. surveillance, officials said.

The White House declined to comment. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, declined to comment. The Russian Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Russia at times feeds false information into communication streams it suspects are monitored as a way of sowing misinformation and confusion among U.S. analysts. But officials said that its unclear what Kislyak would have had to gain by falsely characterizing his contacts with Kushner to Moscow, particularly at a time when the Kremlin still saw the prospect of dramatically improved relations with Trump.

Kushners apparent interest in establishing a secret channel with Moscow, rather than relying on U.S. government systems, has added to the intrigue surrounding the Trump administrations relationship with Russia.

[CIA director alerted FBI to pattern of contacts between Russian officials and Trump campaign associates]

To some officials, it also reflects a staggering naivete.

(Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

The FBI closely monitors the communications of Russian officials in the United States, and it maintains a nearly constant surveillance of its diplomatic facilities. The National Security Agency monitors the communications of Russian officials overseas.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that although Russian diplomats have secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushners apparent request for access to such channels was extraordinary.

How would he trust that the Russians wouldnt leak it on their side? said one former senior intelligence official. The FBI would know that a Trump transition official was going in and out of the embassy, which would cause a great deal of concern, he added. The entire idea, he said, seems extremely naive or absolutely crazy.

The discussion of a secret channel adds to a broader pattern of efforts by Trumps closest advisers to obscure their contacts with Russian counterparts. Trumps first national security adviser, Flynn, was forced to resign after a series of false statements about his conversations with Kislyak. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from matters related to the Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose his own meetings with Kislyak when asked during congressional testimony about any contact with Russians.

Kushners interactions with Russians  including Kislyak and an executive for a Russian bank under U.S. sanctions  were not acknowledged by the White House until they were exposed in media reports.

It is common for senior advisers of a newly elected president to be in contact with foreign leaders and officials. But new administrations are generally cautious in their handling of interactions with Moscow, which U.S. intelligence agencies have accused of waging an unprecedented campaign to interfere in last years presidential race and help elect Trump.

Obama administration officials say members of the Trump transition team never approached them about arranging a secure communications channel with their Russian contacts, possibly because of concerns about leaks.

The State Department, the White House National Security Council and U.S. intelligence agencies all have the ability to set up secure communications channels with foreign leaders, though doing so for a transition team would be unusual.

Trumps advisers were similarly secretive about meetings with leaders from the United Arab Emirates. The Obama White House only learned that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was flying to New York in December to see Kushner, Flynn and Stephen K. Bannon, another top Trump adviser, because U.S. border agents in the UAE spotted the Emirate leaders name on a flight manifest.

Russia would also have had reasons of its own to reject such an overture from Kushner. Doing so would require Moscow to expose its most sophisticated communications capabilities  which are likely housed in highly secure locations at diplomatic compounds  to an American.

The Post was first alerted in mid-December to the meeting by an anonymous letter, which said, among other things, that Kushner had talked to Kislyak about setting up the communications channel. This week, officials who reviewed the letter and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence said the portion about the secret channel was consistent with their understanding of events.

For instance, according to those officials and the letter, Kushner conveyed to the Russians that he was aware that it would be politically sensitive to meet publicly, but it was necessary for the Trump team to be able to continue their communication with Russian government officials.

In addition to their discussion about setting up the communications channel, Kushner, Flynn and Kislyak also talked about arranging a meeting between a representative of Trump and a Russian contact in a third country whose name was not identified, according to the anonymous letter.

The Post reported in April that Erik Prince, the founder of the private security firm Blackwater, now called Academi, and an informal adviser to the Trump transition team, met on Jan. 11  nine days before Trumps inauguration  in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean with a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Read more:

Flynn was warned by Trump transition officials about contacts with Russian ambassador

The strange Oval Office meeting between Trump, Lavrov and Kislyak

Political chaos in Washington is a return on investment for Moscow
El Salvador National Zoo personnel attend to Gustavito, an ailing hippopotamus, on Feb. 25. The animal would die later under mysterious circumstances. (El Salvador's Culture Ministry H/EPA)

Late one Sunday night in February, El Salvadors secretary of culture alerted the world to a cowardly and inhumane attack. The perpetrators had used severe and overwhelming blows. A beloved national figure was gone.

Gustavito, the lone hippopotamus at the National Zoo of El Salvador, had been killed.

It takes a lot to shock El Salvador, one of the worlds most violent countries, but Gustavitos death had done it. Tens of thousands of mourners streamed into the zoo, a leafy enclave in southern San Salvador, to pay their respects. The bereaved held candlelit vigils. When the environment secretary addressed reporters, she was in tears.

Had gang violence gotten this out of control?

Forgive us, Gustavito, one resident tweeted, reflecting the national shame.

Within a couple of days, however, the first cracks appeared in the official story. Had Gustavito actually been stabbed in the snout by vicious assailants using an ice-pick-like weapon, as zoo director Vladlen Henriquez alleged? Or did the hippo get sick several days before, as anonymous zoo workers leaked to the local media, then lose the ability to eat and, with poor medical care, fall onto some sharp parts of his enclosure?

Ricardo Amaya, the union boss for the zoo workers, could smell one thing.

There is negligence here by the zoo director and the veterinarians, he told reporters.

These initial suspicions soon twisted into more elaborate ones. Was Gustavitos death part of a conspiracy to shutter the zoo, pushed by shadowy business interests who want to build some mega-project on the property? El Salvadors attorney generals office was called in to investigate.

Before the investigators could finish their work, however, news of more bizarre occurrences trickled out of the zoo. On April 23, five scarlet macaw parrots were stolen. Four days later, an 8-year-old puma, Soberana, died of intestinal trouble, the same day that a spider monkey drowned in a pond.

Perhaps the strangest incident took place April 10,when the zebra died. Zoo authorities explained that an earthquake struck in the middle of a heavy rain, presumably spooking the zebra so much that it ran headfirst into the fence of its pen.

It seems that something weird and abnormal is happening at the zoo, but nobody, absolutely nobody, does anything about it, Ricardo Chacon, editor in chief of El Diario de Hoy, wrote in an April 29 editorial. This is almost a syndrome.

[The Trump effect has slowed illegal U.S. border crossings. But for how long? ]

The attorney generals office seemed to discount the Gustavito murder theory, announcing that the animal died of a pulmonary hemorrhage. You dont see ice-pick penetration, as was said initially, one of the prosecutors said, adding that the wounds in Gustavitos mouth could have come from his own tusks.

San Salvador Mayor Nayib Bukele finds the zoos explanations of its mysterious deaths even less credible. After Gustavito died, Bukele proposed closing the zoo and relocating all 600 of the animals to a wildlife sanctuary in Mexico.

The zoo here . . . its depressing, Bukele said in an interview. We have a lion that has eaten his own tail. Im not joking. Literally, he ate his tail. He also cited a photo on social media that he said showed four monkeys with about 100 rats eating their food.

Famous like Madonna

The zoo is large and jungly, with a big lagoon where the spider monkeys romp in the trees, and rocky outcroppings for the tigers and lions. On a recent Saturday morning, there were few visitors; since Gustavitos death, visits have dropped by half.

Born in captivity in 2002 at a zoo in Guatemala, the hippo was purchased for $5,000 by El Salvadors zoo two years later. When the zoos elephant died in 2010, Gustavito was the main remaining attraction.

He was famous, one zoo custodian told me. Famous like Madonna.

Gustavito lived in the herbivore section at the back of the zoo, in a grassy pen with several trees and a concrete bathing pool. He ate huge quantities of bananas, celery, spinach, watermelon and cucumber and spent a lot of time submerged. A two-story school and several houses border his pen, so if someone wanted to break into the zoo, this would be a good place to try.

Henriquez, the zoo director, stands by his murder theory and denies any wrongdoing. In recent years, Gustavito, who weighed more than 3,000 pounds, had minor ailments and injuries, but he finished 2016 apparently in good health, according to a 23-page report prepared by the zoo.

In early February, zoo staff noticed that Gustavito looked pale and ashen, the report said. He was not eating well and was constipated. A team of veterinarians gave him medicine . His rosy coloring returned, the report said.

Then, on Feb. 23, a zookeeper alerted superiors that Gustavito had not eaten his prior days food. He would not leave the water. Staff saw bruises on his eyebrows and jaw. When they coaxed him out, they noticed cuts and puncture-type wounds on his sides, limbs and inside his mouth. The stress had apparently disrupted his digestive system. His stomach was distended. He was unable to defecate, and he seemed in pain.

Inside his pen, zoo staff found a three-inch piece of corrugated iron rod and several small stones, according to the report. Henriquez said they also found a hole in the wire fencing, suggesting that one or more people could have entered.

He had cuts on all sides, which indicates that it was not a fall, Henriquez said in an interview. If he had fallen, he would have had wounds on one side.

The animal had been attacked, he added.

[How an innocent man wound up dead in El Salvadors prison system]

Over the next few days, despite treatment and medication, Gustavito refused to eat. On Feb. 25, zoo staff noticed that he expelled feces from his nose, a sign he was severely obstructed, according to the zoo report. He was given a nasal catheter. He later lost coordination and fell off the lip of the pool. His breathing became labored.

The next day, Gustavitos condition worsened, and he died that night. The cause, according to head veterinarian Virna Ortiz, was cardiorespiratory failure and paralysis of the digestive system due to stress, the product of an aggression suffered by the animal.

A Brazilian veterinarian, Rodrigo Teixeira, who happened to be in El Salvador when Gustavito got sick, defended the zoo staff.

I saw a team of professionals very involved in the case and very worried about the situation, said Teixeira, who hosts a reality show on Animal Planet in Brazil. They have and provide good food and medicine for the animals. During my stay, I did not feel or see a lack of resources in the zoo.

That is small comfort to the zoos regular visitors.

Its a shame, said Roxana Romero, 20, as she sat on a bench in front of Gustavitos empty pen. On the weekends, this place used to be full. Now that the hippopotamus isnt here, there arent big-name animals anymore.

Her sister, Veronica, agreed that Gustavito left a giant hole.

He was my favorite, she said.

Read more

Trump wants to deport MS-13 gang members. El Salvador dreads their return.

Police wage war on gangs in El Salvador

For the first time in 2 years, El Salvador marks a day without a killing

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a news conference in London on May 26, 2017. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

Britains top counterterrorism official said Friday that authorities believe they have rounded up most of the network suspected of involvement in Mondays terrorist bombing in Manchester, but the country remained braced for further violence ahead of a sunny long weekend packed with road races, soccer matches and other ripe targets.

The announcement eased worries from earlier in the week that the sophistication of the suicide blast that killed 22 people meant that a bombmaker could still be on the loose with further attacks planned. But authorities still cautioned vigilance, and more than a thousand soldiers remained deployed across Britain, an unusual measure in a country where few police officers carry firearms.

Were very happy weve got our hands around some of the key players that were concerned about, said Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of National Counterterrorism Policing at the Metropolitan Police. He said investigators were trying to unravel 22-year-old Salman Abedis life and also to reconstruct his final days and hours.

British Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Friday kept the countrys threat level at critical, the highest state of alert, leaving in place 1,000 troops who have been deployed to Britains streets to supplement the police. The security alert indicates authorities believe new attacks are imminent.

[Manchester bombing probe reaches across two continents]

(Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

But top officials said they had no specific knowledge of threats during the upcoming weekend. Monday is a holiday in Britain. Authorities said they were keeping an eye on more than 1,300 public events over the weekend, including a series of sporting events across Manchester.

There were signs of the strain on Britains diverse society, as Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said that reports of hate crimes in the city after the Monday-night attack had doubled between Monday and Wednesday.

In an early-morning raid on a barbershop in the Moss Side neighborhood of the city, police on Friday arrested a 30-year-old man, bringing to nine the number of people in custody. Their ages ranged from 18 to 44. An additional two people were detained, then released, this week. Part of Abedis family lives in Libya, and several members, including his father and brother, were also in custody there.

Police also raided an apartment building in Manchesters city center where Abedi is thought to have rented a $97-a-day flat in the week ahead of the attack and where bomb-making materials were found after Mondays explosion. British media reported that enough nuts, bolts and chemicals were discovered there to construct another bomb. Local journalists reported Friday that forensics teams were again searching inside the building and in garbage bins outside.

[Signs of the Manchester attackers possible radicalization appeared a year ago]

The raids came as top U.S. and British officials tried to patch a significant rift that had opened between normally close intelligence agencies. Leaks, apparently from U.S. authorities, prompted an unusual public rebuke from British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Visiting London on Friday to offer condolences after the attack, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the close relationship between U.S. and British intelligence agencies would survive the strain of the disclosures.

The rare dispute with Washingtons closest intelligence partner flared Thursday when police authorities in Manchester briefly interrupted information sharing with their American counterparts.

The cooperation later resumed after President Trump assured May that he would crack down on leaks.

We take full responsibility for that, and we obviously regret that that happened, Tillerson said after a lunch meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at the British diplomats London residence. This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event, Tillerson said.

All across America, hearts are broken about the victims of the bombing, Tillerson said.

Johnson played down any lasting rift between British and American intelligence authorities, praising the vital importance of work between U.S. and British authorities, including intelligence sharing.

Around the world you will find the U.S. and the U.K. facing the same problems together, Johnson said.

Trump called on the NATO defense alliance Thursday to focus on immigration as a security threat, a remark that seemed at least partly targeted toward Abedi, a British-born son of immigrants from Libya.

Tillerson said that during Trumps nine-day international trip that concludes Saturday, the president had repeatedly raised the issue that for whatever reason, as people immigrate into our countries, whether it be in Great Britain or in the United States or other countries, we seem to have difficulty assimilating those people so that they feel part of our society and would never consider supporting acts of violence against their fellow citizens and their fellow neighbors.

[Why Britains government doesnt leak the way Americas does

May buttonholed Trump on Thursday about keeping information from British investigations private. Some of the most important developments in the Manchester case were first made public by U.S. media outlets, which cited U.S. officials as sources.

The flare-up between the two nations was in part a reflection of their starkly differing cultures of leaks and media freedoms.

U.S. media outlets have a long history of publishing leaked intelligence, typically justified by the idea that a maximum amount of transparency helps inform the public about the actions and calculus of government agencies, so long as publishing does not directly endanger lives. Press freedoms are enshrined in the Constitution.

In Britain, however, media outlets have no such legal rights. They have been more deferential to official requests to withhold the publication of sensitive information  and are subject to prosecution if they ignore the demands.

Read more:

Trump calls for investigation of U.S. leaks in Manchester bombing probe

Manchester, a city thats been knocked down before, vows to get back on its feet

We had to pull nails out of childrens faces: Homeless men helped after Manchester blast

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
President Trump attends a working lunch during the Group of Seven summit May 26 in Taormina, Italy. (Eliot Blondet/AFP/Getty Images)

Allegedly heated comments by President Trump about a key U.S. ally  Germany  generated a fresh swirl of confusion Friday around an administration that has already had more than its fill.

During a meeting Thursday with European Union officials in Brussels, Trump allegedly said, The Germans are bad, very bad, according to Germanys Spiegel Online, which cited unnamed sources in the room. He continued, the outlet said, by saying: See the millions of cars they are selling in the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this.

On Friday, the report spread rapidly through the German press and social media, igniting a backlash, including one response by a German industry group saying Trumps protectionist stance would make him a loser.

But what did Trump actually say?

European officials  and Trumps administration  offered contradictory accounts.

(The Washington Post)

Part of the backlash stemmed, perhaps, from a poor translation: In its German-language editions, Spiegel used the word bose  which can mean bad but is closer to the English word evil. In another report, the German outlet Suddeutsche Zeitung cited a similar quote from Trump but translated the word he used as schlecht  a milder German word for bad.

In a later tweet from Spiegel Onlines main account, it clarified that Trump had indeed used the English word bad and not evil.

Yet even that remained in dispute, with the administration offering no clarity  again highlighting the communication problems that continue to plague the White House.

[Trumps visit to Israel was a success for what he didnt say]

One of the key figures in the room during the meeting, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said the Der Spiegel report was off.

He didn't say the Germans are behaving badly, Juncker told journalists in Sicily ahead of the start of a Group of Seven summit involving the leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Canada and Japan. He said we have a problem, as others do, with the German surplus. So he was not aggressive at all. Bad doesn't mean evil.

Soon afterward, White House press secretary Sean Spicer appeared to leap on Junckers comments to debunk the story. Responding to a tweet by New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman about the Der Spiegel article, Spicer wrote: Except its not true: Juncker says Trump was not aggressive on German trade surplus.

[Sean Spicer didnt get to meet the pope. Even reporters feel sorry for him.]

And yet, when asked on the sidelines in Sicily, chief White House economic adviser Gary Cohn seemed to confirm that the president had said something about bad German trade practices.

He said theyre very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany, Cohn said. He said his dad is from Germany. He said, I don't have a problem with Germany. I have a problem with German trade. 

Another official with direct knowledge of the Thursday meeting told The Washington Post on Friday that Trump had never used the word bad.

He did say yesterday that theres a massive deficit that he doesnt intend to put up with, but nothing about Germany being bad, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting with top leaders. Cohn was not taking formal notes during the conversation, the official said.

During an appearance with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump ignored a question from a reporter who asked whether he had called the Germans bad.

In Germany, however, the incident seemed to highlight suggestions of a growing rift between Washington and Berlin after the frosty March meeting between the president and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who Trump repeatedly jabbed at on the campaign trail last year. In a January interview with the European press, Trump called out German corporate titans including BMW, warning that they may face fat tariffs on U.S. imports should they keep building cars in Mexico.

Asked about Trumps alleged comments, Germanys deputy government spokesman, Georg Streiter, said in Berlin on Friday that a trade surplus is neither bad nor evil; its the result of the interplay between supply and demand on world markets.

Martin Schulz, the candidate from the center left who is challenging Merkel in this years election, appeared to more generally condemn Trumps aggressive behavior toward Germany as Europe as a whole Europe at the Brussels gathering. In the meeting, Trump also demanded that allies pay more for their defense and held back on offering an unconditional pledge to honor NATOs treaty commitment that an attack on a single alliance nation is an attack on all.

[Trump chastises fellow NATO members, demands they meet payment obligations]

Such humiliating treatment is to be rebuffed, Schulz said in Berlin, according to German press reports. One does not need to accept something like that.

Norbert Rottgen, head of the foreign affairs committee of the German parliament who hails from Merkels Christian Democratic Union, told Spiegel Online: U.S. President Trump isnt capable to lead the Western alliance. In any case, he isn't interested in it at the moment.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quipped: Its worth having a look at other Trump quotes: Who else does the president find bad. Suddenly the Germans find themselves in the company of North Korea . . . and Mexican drug gangs.

Some wore the alleged slight as a badge of honor: #The Germans are very, very bad #Trump. Havent been praised like that in a while, tweeted Bernd Ulrich, a journalist with Die Zeit.

Andre Schwarz, spokesman for the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA), called Trumps stance on Germanys trade surplus wrongheaded.

The right way is to improve ones own competitiveness instead of trying to gain advantages by means of some kind of import tariffs on good German products, he said.

He added, We shouldnt be too concerned with rhetoric, but it's important to clarity that [his position] will make him a loser.

Some in Germany, however, gave Trump the benefit of the doubt, instead blaming the German press for stoking the fires of animosity with a bad translation.

Its not easy, but sometimes evil German journalists should quote #Trump properly, tweeted German user Andreas Wolf. For example when he says BAD instead of EVIL! #germansarebad.

Philip Rucker in Sicily, Michael Birnbaum in London and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.

Read more

What weve learned about Trumps agenda from his first foreign trip

Trump and Obama are having very different trips to Europe

Breaking down Trumps shove

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
It was March 2020, and the world was closing down as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. At first, the news of...
Cenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States, and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Manufacturing, U.S. Manufacturing, and Retail segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen and heavy oil in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. This segments Foster Creek, Christina Lake, Sunrise, and Tucker oil sands projects, as well as Lloydminster thermal and conventional heavy oil assets The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, Clearwater, and Rainbow Lake operating in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as interests in various natural gas processing facilities. The offshore segment engages in the exploration and development activities. The Canadian Manufacturing segment includes the owned and operated Lloydminster upgrading and asphalt refining complex, which upgrades heavy oil and bitumen into synthetic crude oil, diesel fuel, asphalt, and other ancillary products, as well as owns and operates the Bruderheim crude-by-rail terminal and two ethanol plants. The U.S. Manufacturing segment comprises the refining of crude oil to produce diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, asphalt, and other products. The Retail segment consists of marketing of its own and third-party refined petroleum products through retail, commercial, and bulk petroleum outlets, as well as wholesale channels. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Coeur Mining, Inc. explores for precious metals in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company primarily explores for gold, silver, zinc, and lead properties. It holds 100% interests in the Palmarejo gold and silver mine covering an area of approximately 67,296 net acres located in the State of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico; the Rochester silver and gold mine that covers an area of approximately 43,441net acres situated in northwestern Nevada; the Kensington gold mine comprising 3,972 net acres located to the north of Juneau, Alaska; the Wharf gold mine covering an area of approximately 3,243 net acres situated in the northern Black Hills of western South Dakota; and the Silvertip silver-zinc-lead mine comprising 97,298 net acres located in northern British Columbia, Canada. In addition, the company owns interests in the Crown and Sterling projects located in southern Nevada; and the La Preciosa project located in Mexico. Further, it markets and sells its concentrates to third-party customers, smelters, under off-take agreements. The company was formerly known as Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation and changed its name to Coeur Mining, Inc. in May 2013.Coeur Mining, Inc. was incorporated in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Brazils President Michel Temer Thursday was forced to rescind an executive order he had issued the day before calling the army into the streets and giving it powers of arrest for the period of one week.

The measure was ostensibly taken to quell a protest Wednesday in the capital of Brasilia called by the unions and social movements to oppose pension and labor reforms attacking basic social rights and to demand Temers ouster and replacement through the calling of direct elections.

Calling out the army, however, had the air of an act of desperation on the part of a president who is facing multiple corruption charges and is viewed as illegitimate by the majority of the Brazilian population.

The most recent opinion polls indicate that Temer, the former vice president who was installed in the presidential palace through the impeachment of his predecessor, Workers Party (PT) President Dilma Rousseff in August 2016 on trumped-up charges of budgetary irregularities, is opposed by 95 percent of the population, with 85 percent favoring the immediate convening of new elections.

Wednesdays demonstration in Brasilia drew tens of thousands of protesters into the streets of the isolated, inland capital. The protest was largely peaceful until a group of masked members of the so-called black bloc, a group that has frequently been infiltrated by agents provocateurs, attacked police and vandalized government ministry buildings, setting one, the agricultural ministry, on fire.

Police responded with overwhelming and disproportionate force against the demonstrators as a whole, unleashing massive amounts of teargas, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets, sending mounted police with riot sticks into the crowds and, at one point, firing live ammunition at protesters.

Some 50 people were reported wounded in the repression. Among those most seriously hurt was a street vendor who was not even part of the protest but was shot in the face.

The order calling out armed troops to protect the capital came as the demonstration had already been largely dispersed. The confusion and seeming panic surrounding the decision raised serious concerns that Temer was resorting to the use of the military in a bid to prop up his crisis-ridden government and suppress mass opposition.

Bringing troops into the streets under the present conditions of extreme crisis has historic political implications in Brazil, a country that was ruled for over two decades by military dictatorship following the US-backed coup of 1964.

The issuance of the decree under Brazils Guarantee of Law and Order statute briefly saw troops deployed around government ministries and elsewhere in the capital. Army soldiers had already been stationed for some time outside Planalto, the countrys presidential palace.

Under the terms of the law, the army is to be called out only for limited periods when regular police forces are unable to cope with a supposed threat to social order and government institutions.

Neither the governor of Brasilias federal district, nor, apparently, the army command itself believed that this was the situation Wednesday.

Brasilias Governor Rodrigo Rollemberg charged that he had not been consulted, as required by law, before the troops were called out, condemning the decision as an extreme measure not warranted by the situation in the capital.

Gen. Eduardo da Costa Villas Boas, the commander of the Brazilian Army, made a statement Wednesday after the issuance of the order, assuring the population that the military would act in accordance with the Constitution. Our democracy is not in danger, he said. That such an assurance was deemed necessary underscored the depth of the current political crisis.

Villas Boas made his disagreement with the premise of the decree plain, telling the media, I believe that the police should still have the ability to maintain order. He said that the military would remain on alert in case something gets out of control.

The army commander went on to acknowledge that the atmosphere both in the presidential palace and in the military command itself was one of shock and great insecurity following recent revelations implicating Temer in corruption and obstruction of justice.

Brazils Supreme Court last week authorized the opening of a criminal investigation against Temer after he was taped by the CEO of the countrys giant meatpacking conglomerate JBS, Joesley Batista, voicing his approval for payoffs to buy the silence of Eduardo Cunha, the former head of the lower house of Congress. Temer was also recorded being told that Batista and his company were paying off prosecutors and judges to derail investigations into his company. The tape was given to prosecutors as part of a plea bargain deal.

While Temer has repeatedly declared that he will not resign and will have to be thrown out of office, his closest political allies in Congress are reportedly deserting him and calling for him to step down.

Political parties allied with Michel Temers government have come to the conclusion that the President has lost his ability to remain in office, the influential daily Folha de S.P. reported Thursday. The paper reported that the right-wing PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party) is leading the move against Temer and has communicated its attitude to the Brazilian president. The PSDBs own leading member and presidential candidate, who placed a close second to Rousseff in the 2014 presidential election, has been stripped of his Senate seat and ordered to surrender his passport as prosecutors prepare to order his jailing over related corruption charges.

According to Folha, the bourgeois parties that had backed Temer during the ouster of Rousseff are now banking on Brazils Federal Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) issuing a ruling early next month invalidating the 2014 election of Rousseff and Temer, then her vice presidential running mate, on the grounds that the campaign was illegally financed.

Such a decision would lead to indirect elections by the Congress, whose members main concern is to preserve their own skins, with dozens of congressmen and fully a third of the Senate under investigation in connection with the spiraling multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal centered on bribes and kickbacks in connection with contracts with the giant state-run energy conglomerate Petrobras.

The calling of direct elections would require Congress to pass a constitutional amendment, which is presently viewed as improbable. Folha reported that the Workers Party, which publicly is demanding direct elections, touting former President Lula da Silvaalso facing trial on corruption chargesas the likely front-runner, is behind the scenes negotiating with other bourgeois parties on a compromise candidate to replace Temer through a congressional vote.

The countrys leading financial journal Valor Thursday published an interview with leading economist Yoshiaki Nakano, dean of the Sao Paulo School of Economy at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, in which he argued that Temers resignation is the most favorable scenario for the economy.

The concern of Brazilian big business is that the corruption scandal has crippled Temers ability to push through the sweeping attacks on the basic rights and living standards of Brazilian workers contained, in the first instance, in the so-called pension and labor reform laws that are now stalled in Congress.

It was to implement such measures, which expand upon the attacks already begun under the PT governments of Lula and Rousseff, that Temer was brought to power. The aim is to place the full burden of the countrys worst economic crisis in a century squarely on the backs of the Brazilian working class.

However, the countrys government and all of the bourgeois parties, including the PT, have become so discredited that imposing such an agenda becomes ever more difficult, outside of a return to dictatorial methods of rule.
On Wednesday, May 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested three men working at Savas restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a university town in suburban Detroit. The agents purportedly went to the restaurant to arrest a man who turned out not to be working at the time. After having breakfast, the agents raided the kitchen, found three men of Hispanic origin, and arrested all three.

The three workers were taken to ICE offices in Detroit about an hour away and were detained until family members could submit documentation of their legal resident status. All were later released from ICE custody.

This type of Gestapo behavior is a sign of the deeply reactionary character of the ruling classs policy toward immigrant workers. By targeting workers who have legal status and who should have no reason to fear legal arrest and deportation, the fascistic types who populate ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) are intentionally trying to spread fear among millions of immigrants across the country.

The wife of one of the arrested men, Nicki Sanchez, told local news website Mlive that her husband was terrified by the incident.

They just slapped some handcuffs on him, said Sanchez. Not only is that offensive, he was embarrassed in front of the whole restaurant. Why didnt they ask him before they detained him?

Bree Stillwell, Marketing Director of Savco Hospitality, told media the incident created another high anxiety situation in our community.

She said that immigrant workers face the fear [that] even though they are living by the rules, those rules wont apply tomorrow.

As the news of the arrests spread in social media, many people gathered at the restaurant to protest the ICE raid.

According to data from ICE, arrests of immigrants increased 38 percent during the first three months of 2017 over the same period last year.

The number of people arrested between January and March 2017 was a shocking 41,000 individuals. More than 10,000 of these were classified as noncriminal immigrants, up 150 percent from last year. The spike in arrests takes place at a time when the number of undocumented workers entering the US is at a record low.

Other large raids have taken place in the Detroit area recently. In March, ICE agents detained more than 50 people in a raid on an alleged cockfighting ring. More than 140 officers from various agencies participated. New policies issued by the Department of Homeland security call on officers to detain all people during immigration raids, regardless of whether or not they are suspected of immigration violations or of participating in illegal activities.

The Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights reported last week that ICE agents arrested several individuals in Ann Arbor on separate occasions. On May 16, ICE arrested four men after following them into the parking lot of a restaurant. The next day, police detained another man near Miller and Main Street in Ann Arbor.

Reports of ICE raids nationwide are continuous. Federal agents recently arrested 188 people in Los Angeles as part of a dragnet targeting alleged criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants and immigrant fugitives. Those arrested included nationals of 11 different countries.

Frank Sharry, executive director of Americas Voice Education Fund told the Los Angeles Times that the majority of people targeted couldnt be considered serious criminals.

These guys spin, distort, exaggerate, and dissemble almost as much as the president they work for, Sharry said. The false claims are aimed at providing cover for an agenda that calls for the deportation of millions. Instead of targeting serious criminals, they are targeting every immigrant they can get their hands on and calling all of them criminals.

According to an ICE report, the number of noncriminal immigrants arrested has more than doubled, going from 4,200 in 2016 to 10,800 in 2017. Just six percent of those arrested were charged with violent crimes. Indeed, many of those picked up are held for the most minor of offenses. Reports show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens.

Some undocumented workers have been arrested while dropping their children off at school or even while applying for a green card, or permanent resident status.

Quite a few social media groups and a rapid response team have been set up by organizations opposed to the brutal attacks on immigrants begun by the Obama Administration that have been further escalated and made more visible by Trump. Several Facebook postings over the last two weeks read as follows:

 ICE agents are out here in unmarked vehicles arresting immigrants and people trying to help them. I just saw 3 elderly people pulled from their houses.

 BE CAREFUL TODAY. ICE (immigration) is going through Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor in unmarked cars following people to their houses and stopping in at restaurants. They have already taken people and a loved one.

 Yesterday (May 16) at around 8:00 AM: four men were arrested in the Red Robin parking lot near State and Eisenhower after being followed by law enforcement. Caller says vests said ICE.

 Today (May 17th) at around 9:15 one man was detained by law enforcement in an unmarked car at 308 Main Street, near Miller and Main.

While opposition to the arrests and detentions is deeply felt within the American population, it does not find political expression within the framework of official politics. Representatives of both the Democrats and the Republicans by and large support these deportations.

Moreover, although the Trump Administrations policies on deportation represent a qualitative deepening of the attacks on immigrants, these policies are the culmination of the eight years of record deportations under Obama, who deported 2.5 million men, women and children, the most by any president in US history.
From left, France's Brigitte Trogneux, Turkey's Emine Erdogan, Luxembourg's Gauthier Destenay, US Melania Trump, Slovenia's Mojca Stropnik, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Iceland's Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir, Norway's Ingrid Schulerud - Stoltenberg, Bulgaria's Desislava Radeva and Belgium's Amelie Derbaudrenghien pose for a group photo during the spouse and partner program at the Royal Castle of Laeken in Brussels on Thursday, May 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

While President Donald Trump has met with many male heads of government, First Lady Melania Trump has often mingled with their wives. But on Thursday, Mrs. Trump was introduced to the First Gentleman of Luxembourg.

Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourgs Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, joined Trump and other spouses for a dinner while their significant others attended a gathering as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conference in Brussels, Belgium.

Prime Minister Bettel, 44, and Belgian architect Destenay entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourgs legislators approved gay marriage. Bettel became the first openly gay Prime Minister of Luxembourg in December 2013, after an election campaign in which his sexuality was not a secret nor an issue.

Bettel is the worlds only gay head of government since Icelands former Prime Minister Johanna Sigurardottir, a lesbian, and Belgiums Elio Di Rupo finished their mandates in 2013 and 2015 respectively.

I have just one life, and I dont want to hide my life, Bettel previously said in an interview. But I was not the gay candidate. People didnt vote for me because Im gay or Im straight.

In April, Bettel and Destenay irked conservative members of the Catholic Church when they were invited to Rome by Pope Francis to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Unions founding Treaty Of Rome. Others saw the visit as a powerful message on the Vaticans position on gay rights.

Also in attendance at the dinner with Destenay and Trump were First Lady of France Brigitte Macron, First Lady of Turkey Emine Gulbaran Erdogan, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Ingrid Schulerud, Desislava Radeva, Amelie Derbaudrenghien, Mojca Stropnik and First Lady of Iceland Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir.

Earlier in the day, President Trump came under fire for appearing to shove Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside to get to the front of a group during a photo-op with NATO leaders.

Story continues

Members were seen walking together to get to a meeting when Trump emerged from behind and pushed Markovic aside, stepping in front of him. The president then smugly straightened in his jacket.

Some of the leaders interacted with one another on stage, but not Trump, members of the press stated in a pool report. He stood silently, shifting his stance at moments and looking around.

They said, Trump smiled for a brief moment, but otherwise kept a serious, perhaps even stern, expression on his face for the duration of the photo-op.
(Reuters) - An accused serial killer pleaded guilty to seven murders at a court in South Carolina on Friday and was given seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, avoiding the death penalty, local news reports said.

The defendant, Todd Kohlhepp, 46, admitted to chaining a woman inside a storage shed on his rural property for two months and to a 2003 massacre of four people at a motorbike store, among other crimes, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reported.

As a part of the plea deal, Kohlhepp agreed not to contest the validity of the conviction in state or federal court and gave up his right to appeal, the newspaper reported.

Lawyers for Kohlhepp and the Spartanburg County prosecutor were not immediately available for comment.

He pleaded guilty to all charges against him, which included the seven murders, kidnapping and sexual assault, the paper said.

The crimes date back to 2003 and the bodies of several of the people killed by Kohlhepp were found on his property.

During the hearing, several family members of the victims sobbed as they spoke to the judge about their loved ones. Kohlhepp, in shackles, showed no emotion, NBC reported.

Kohlhepp was arrested in November on suspicion of chaining a woman inside a storage shed on his rural property. He was subsequently charged with multiple murders.

(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Lisa Shumaker)
Deaths from Alzheimers disease skyrocketed in recent years, rising 55 percent in just 15 years. In 2014, there were 93,541 deaths from Alzheimers disease in the United States as compared with 44,536 in 1999, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts said the climbing rate was likely due to better diagnosis of the disease, an aging population and an increased willingness among doctors to ascribe death to Alzheimers. The CDC also noted that declines in other causes of death, like heart disease and cancer, were enabling people to live long enough to die of Alzheimer's.

Read: Air Pollution Could Be Linked To Dementia, Alzheimers Disease

There is currently no cure for the disease, but certain medicines can slow its progression.

Some experts noted that the numbers might be misleading due to better diagnosis.

People are more aware, Gayatri Devi, a neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, told USA Today. We are able to make a diagnosis much earlier.

Still, Alzheimer's was the sixth leading cause of death in the nation, according to the data. The researchers said most of the deaths occurred in a nursing home or long-term care facility and highlighted the burden of Alzheimers disease on caregivers.

Screen Shot 2017-05-25 at 5

Photo: Alzheimer's Association

Millions of Americans and their family members are profoundly affected by Alzheimers disease, said CDC acting director Anne Schuchat, according to NBC News. As the number of older Americans with Alzheimers disease rises, more family members are taking on the emotionally and physically challenging role of caregiver than ever before. These families need and deserve our support.

Those who care for Alzheimers patients bear a hefty burden, according to data on the subject. Nearly half of caretakers cut back on their own expenses like food and medical care to take care of others. Caregivers are also 28 percent more likely than other adults to go hungry or eat less because they cant afford to pay for food, according to the Alzheimers Association. Caretakers lose over $15,000 on average in annual income and provided 18.1 billion hours of unpaid care in 2015 at an economic cost of $221.3 billion.

Story continues

Read: Heart Disease Rates Down 20 Percent Since 1983

As Alzheimers disease progresses, caregiving becomes very important, Christopher Taylor, a CDC epidemiologist who led the study team, told NBC. Caregivers and patients can benefit from programs that include education about Alzheimers disease, how to take care of themselves and their loved one and case management to lessen the burden of care. Supportive interventions can lessen the burden for caregivers and improve the quality of care for people with Alzheimer's.

The problem, already devastating, will likely only be exacerbated by an aging population, experts said.

The numbers dying from Alzheimers are just going to get worse, said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs for the Alzheimers Association, according to ABC News.

GettyImages-616217418

Photo: Getty Images

Related Articles
A star exploded before the time of the dinosaurs, and average people just helped space scientists find it.

The stellar explosion called a supernova is 970 million light years away, so we are just seeing it now as it was 970 million years ago  well before dinosaurs dominated Earth. Australian National University scientists have been searching for supernovas and asked the public for help. Hundreds signed up, and, the university said, two online volunteers from Europe recently helped them spot one galaxys supernova. After the Belgian woman and Scottish man alerted the team, the scientists aimed a telescope at it to confirm what the object was in just a days time.

Read: Is This Bright Spot a Supernova or a Black Hole?

This is the exact type of supernova we're looking for  to measure properties of and distances across the universe, one of the lead researchers, Brad Tucker, said in the ANU statement.

Supernovas can potentially help us understand our universe because of how much light they produce.

These explosions are insanely bright, Tucker explained in a video (below). So if you can imagine a lightning bolt, imagine a powerful lightning bolt, and then imagine a hundred million billion billion billion of them. That is one star when it blows up.

supernova-found

Photo: ANU

Those star explosions are relatively rare on the scale of a single human life on Earth, as opposed to a universe that is billions of years old. As famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has pointed out, when describing a supernova explosion as his second favorite way to die in space (his favorite is a black hole), a supernova might happen once per century in each galaxy. Its the biggest kind of space explosion there is, and it happens when a star accumulates too much mass, either because it is so old or, in binary star systems, where two stars orbit the same point, because it has gobbled up matter from its companion.

Story continues

When scientists look at these exploding stars, the intense light coming off them is a candle to measure the universe as a whole, Tucker explained. Measuring how the light source fades over a distance  by looking at how much light is cast upon other objects, for example  tells you how far that distance is. From those measurements, scientists can determine how the universe is growing and what its doing.

Read: How a Black Hole vs. a Supernova Murders You in Space

But part of the problem in finding a supernova is manpower. The team needs a pair of eyes checking telescope images to know what to follow up. With the ANU program that leverages amateur astronomers and space enthusiasts, there are many more eyes doing that check work. Once an object is flagged, the scientists can enlist a telescope to better observe it and find out if it truly is a supernova.

So far, the project has identified dozens of possible supernovas.

In the first 24 hours we had over 30,000 classifications, another lead researcher, Anais Moller, said. Weve almost reached 40,000 classifications, with more than 1,300 images classified, since the launch of our project.

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As Melania Trump met with the pope, she and first daughter Ivanka Trump looked like they were attending a funeral  and not a meeting with the pontiff  as they donned all black and veils.

The first lady wore a long-sleeved lace Dolce & Gabbana dress with a veil, and Ivanka followed suit.

Read: Pope Francis Asks Melania What She Feeds President Trump

Melania's causing quite a stir during her first overseas trip as the first lady, and her wardrobe has come under close scrutiny.

A pumpkin-colored leather skirt worn at the White House last Friday and the white suit she wore in Israel speaks to a certain theme, Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan says.

I tend to connect her look to the 80s because of the strong shoulder, I think of Dallas and Dynasty, she told Inside Edition.

Then there's her belt, a go-to accessory for the first lady.

The belt is definitely emerging as one of her signatures. I sort of describe it as a way she can show off her slim waist, Givhan said.

Observers have noted that Mrs. Trump generally projects a very serious demeanor. It could be her way of exercising control.

"One of the interesting things is that even though she knows she's on the world stage, she does not feel compelled to smile, Givhan said. She smiles when she wants to or when it's appropriate.

But not even our self-controlled first lady could keep a straight face when the pope cracked a joke about her husbands weight.

Pope Francis spoke Italian as he asked her, "What are you feeding him, potica?

Melania, who speaks fluent Italian, laughed and replied, "Potica," a high-calorie pastry from her home country of Slovenia that is traditionally served on Christmas and Easter.

A Vatican spokeswoman has said that whenever the pope meets someone from Slovenia, he likes to talk about the pastry.

Potica is like coffee cake and it's made with all kinds of scrumptious ingredients.

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It can be either savory or sweet and too much of it could certainly add on some pounds.

Read: Trump Visits the Wailing Wall During His First Tour Overseas as President

Inside Edition went to Le Balcon, a European bakery in Los Angeles that serves traditional desserts from Slovenia.

They showed us that you roll out the dough and then add your favorite ingredients, in the version they made us, they put in nuts and honey.

Then, roll the dough like a pinwheel, bake it, slice it up and serve.

Watch: Melania Trump Appears to Swat Away Her Husband's Hand in Israel

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By Ed Stoddard THE CRADLE OF HUMANKIND, South Africa (Reuters) - An exhibit of the largest collection of fossils of close human relatives ever to go on public display opened on Thursday in South Africa, not far from the caves where they were unearthed. Launched on "Africa Day" in an area named "The Cradle of Humankind," the exhibit coincides with the publication of a controversial paper that questions the widely-held view that humanity's evolutionary roots lay in Africa. [nL1N1IO0IT] The displays contain more than 1,000 original fragments of Homo naledi, named in 2015 after a cache of its fossils was discovered in caves near the Sterkfontein and Swartkrans dig sites about 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. Initially believed to be about 2.5 million years old, subsequent dating showed Homo naledi was roaming the African bush between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago, around the time that modern humans were emerging. [nL8N1IA5F9] "Today going on display is a significant portion of all the Homo naledi fossils. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the public," Lee Berger, a professor at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand who has lead excavations of the fossils, told Reuters. Called "Almost Human," the exhibit is housed in the Maropeng Centre, about 15 km from the dig sites that yielded the fossils. Visitors will only be allowed to spend 10 minutes with the fossils, which are encased in glass. The scientific consensus for decades has held that humanity's ape-like ancestors evolved in Africa, a view first raised by the 19th century English naturalist Charles Darwin. That view was challenged this week with the publication of a paper detailing fossils from Greece and Bulgaria of an ape-like creature that lived 7.2 million years ago. The authors said the creature, known as Graecopithecus freybergi and known only from a lower jawbone and an isolated tooth, may the oldest-known member of the human lineage that began after an evolutionary split from the line that led to chimpanzees, our closest living cousins. They found dental root development that possessed telltale human characteristics not seen in chimps and their ancestors, placing Graecopithecus within the human lineage, known as hominins. Until now, the oldest-known hominin was Sahelanthropus, which lived 6 million-7 million years ago in Chad. The findings in no way call into question that our species, Homo sapiens, first appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago and later migrated to other parts of the world, the researchers said. But Berger said their assertions about our more distant evolutionary past could not be made based on such a scant body of evidence. "That is not enough evidence to make such an extraordinary claim. The headlines overstated the facts," Berger said. "I think on Africa Day, it's still safe to say that humanity owes its origins to this continent," he said. (Editing by Angus MacSwan)
BMW didn't wait long to show fans of the brand that it still could build a big coupe. Days after quietly pulling from sale the 6-Series coupe from the U.S., BMW showed in Italy what's likely coming next.

The BMW 8-Series Concept revealed Thursday at Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este on the shores of Lake Como, Italy, signals the next halo coupe from Munich. Shots of the coupe leaked early before the reveal, but BMW's announcement on the 8-Series gave us our first official hints on what to expect.

According to the automaker, the 8-Series will go on sale in 2018 as part of a larger push with even more luxury cars for the Bavarian brand. BMW mentioned that the concept coupe will be rear-wheel drive, but didn't divulge any powertrain details or specifications about the concept car or a production version.

The concept's styling is exaggerated, but squinting reveals some details likely destined for production. The concept's wide rear haunches are meant to underscore the coupe's performance pedigree, and the nose and interior hint about its advanced construction. BMW mentioned that the 8-Series Concept wears carbon-fiber in its grilled and was used in making its front seats, which could mean it has been used in other places. The current 7-Series sedan, which is already on sale, uses carbon fiber implants in its chassis for lighter weight and better efficiency.

Up front, the BMW kidney grille is flanked by laser headlights that were introduced on the i8 model. Around back, the wide and stretched rear taillights up high and large trapezoidal exhausts down low hint at a more aggressive destiny for the 8-Series. Along the sides, deeply cut side strakes toward the front wheels help to balance the incredibly wide rear stance, but its preference for rear-drive propulsion is unmistakable.

BMW showed off a coupe concept in Italy, but we've already seen spy shots of a possible convertible in the works and a four-door Gran Coupe body style may follow. Considering the coupe is just around the corner (on sale within 18 months or so) we expect to hear more details about the new luxury cruiser soon.
President Donald Trump speaks to British Prime Minister Theresa May during in a working dinner meeting at the NATO headquarters: AP

The top Democrat on the Senates Foreign Relations Committee has said that the inability to share information between the UK and the US would be extremely dangerous to the security of both countries and the global community.

Several senators support Donald Trumps call for a probe into alleged leaks coming out of US government agencies, after British government officials expressed dismay over the publishing of reportedly leaked photos showing the scene of the Manchester bomb attack. The bombing killed at least 22 people and left nearly 116 people injured.

In response to the disclosures, irate UK police forces said they would stop passing the US information regarding their inquiry into the blast outside of an Ariana Grande concert. But late on Thursday, senior UK anti-terror officials said the sharing of intelligence with the US had resumed after receiving fresh assurances.

Some British officials said the alleged leaks were undermining the UK's counter terrorism investigation, and Prime Minister Theresa May has also made clear that the trust between the two countries was at stake.

Democratic senator Ben Cardin, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the information sharing relationship between the US and the UK must be fixed quickly.

I think the President is right to try to find out what happened, but its difficult when the President himself has violated sensitive and confidential information that was shared with him from other sources, Mr Cardin told the Independent.

Mr Trump recently got into some hot water after he reportedly revealed Israels highly sensitive information about an Isis terrorist plot to Russian officials.

HR McMaster, Mr Trumps National Security Advisor, said that the information the President discussed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Kislyak was wholly appropriate, while Mr Trump tweeted that he had the absolute right to share facts pertaining to terrorism.

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Condemning the alleged leaks about the Manchester attack, Mr Trump said in a statement that there is no relationship we cherish more than the Special Relationship between the US and the UK. Winston Churchill coined the phrase special relationship to describe the USs partnership with Great Britain during World War II.

These leaks have been going on for a long time and my Administration will get to the bottom of this, Mr Trump continued. I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Mr Cardin asserted that the US would find a way to fix diplomatic relations, but that the President has to set the example.

Democratic senator Tim Kaine he was very disappointed when it turned out that we had shared that information without their permission.

You just dont do that, Mr Kaine added.

Republican senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said leaks are a violation of federal law.

If you break the federal law, you should be prosecuted, otherwise dont have the law, Mr Rubio said. Journalists only have access to the information if someone first gave it to them.

It has not been confirmed if the leaks came from American intelligence sources. Mr Trump called the leaks alleged in his statement, though the information has widely been presumed to have come from US sources since American news organisations have been the first to publish specific details around the Manchester bombing investigation and explosion.
Cat visits every national park Kings Canyon National Park overlook. Kings Canyon National Park is adjacent to Sequoia National Park in Californias Sierra Nevada mountains. (Photo: Our Vie / Caters News)

This adventurous feline really is an outdoors cat  as he is currently making his way around every national park in the United States. So far, Vladimir the cat has visited 52 of Americas 59 national parks, which have included deserts, mountains, forests, beaches and even volcanoes.

That has meant trips to Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains for adventurous Vladimir, who is traveling in a 1989 Toyota motor home with his owners, Cees and Madison Hofman, from the Bay Area in California. Through their website, Our Vie (their RV is nicknamed Vie), and social media, Cees and Madison are documenting their travels. (Caters News)

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr.
The 18-year-old said she would bring up the child with the help of her parents: Facebook

A pregnant teenager - an honour student with straights As - has been branded immoral by her school and told she cannot attend its graduation ceremony.

Officials at Heritage Academy, a private Christian school in Maryland, said Maddi Runkles, 18, was not welcome at the event because she had to be held accountable for her immorality.

Maddi is being disciplined, not because shes pregnant, but because she was immoral, David Hobbs, the school administrator, said in a statement.

I sat down w/ Heritage Academy Principal Dave Hobbs, who had this to say abt decision to bar #MaddiRunkles from graduation. @HeraldMailNews pic.twitter.com/8M0QsHjvtN  C.J. Lovelace (@cj_lovelace) May 23, 2017

Heritage is also pleased that she has chosen to not abort her son. However, her immorality is the original choice she made that began this situation.

The teenager said she had originally considered having an abortion, but decided against doing so. She told the New York Times she considered herself a practising born-again Christian.

She said she intended to raise her baby, a boy, with the help of her parents. She keeps a framed ultrasound picture next to her bed. The childs father is not a pupil at the school.

Her parents have supported her decision and have said they will organsise their own graduation ceremony for their daughter.

She has more guts than I have at 45 years old, to walk into school every day, to take the criticism that she takes, and to take it with grace that she takes it with. I think shes got it together and I think shes going to be fine, her mother, Sharon Runkles, told CBS.

Along with her parents, the 18-year-old told Mr Hobbs that she was pregnant. He told them he intended to inform the older students, pushing the teenager to tell her classmates herself.

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The school suspended the teenager for two days (Facebook)

I told on myself, she said. I asked for forgiveness. I asked for help.

She added: I know at the end of the day that I made the right choice and in a couple months, Ill have this little sweet reward just to remind me that I did the right thing.
By Pete Schroeder Washington (Reuters) - Banks were regrouping on Thursday, a day after being handed a large defeat in the U.S. House, where Republicans sided with retailers in agreeing to preserve limits on debit card fees. The financial industry insisted it was not done fighting to remove limits on the fees. Retailers were already looking to carry the fight to credit card fees. "We are glad this fight is over, and are happy with our victory," said Austen Jensen with the Retail Industry Leaders Association. "The banks should clearly know that this is over with." "This debate is not over," said Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association. The House had been considering a broad financial reform bill that included a repeal of the Durbin amendment, which established the limits on debit card fees. The limits were backed by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois when the Dodd-Frank financial reform law was enacted in 2010. The effort to remove the card fee limits had drawn strong opposition in the House. Representative Jeb Hensarling, the bill's author, announced Wednesday he would end the effort to eliminate the Durbin amendment because he did not want to see his entire finance bill upended. "Ive said before that repeal of the Durbin amendment was the most contentious part of the bill among Republicans," he said in a statement. "We wont let this one provision hinder passage of an important priority bill." The full House is expected to vote on Hensarling's bill in the coming weeks, but there is enough opposition in the Senate that it will probably not become law. The feud over government caps on the fees retailers pay when accepting debit cards has run red hot ever since the limits were imposed. With billions of dollars in revenue at stake, banks and retailers have battled nearly constantly in Washington. Retailers have argued the cap is critical to control sky-high costs imposed by a handful of card servicers, while banks insist the limit represents government meddling in private industry. Nichols said limiting debit card fees was "wrong and Congress should fix it." Under Dodd-Frank, the Federal Reserve was ordered to set limits on how much Visa and Mastercard could charge for processing debit card transactions. The end result nearly halved fees received by banks, dropping the cost of a debit card transaction from an average of 45 cents to an average of 24 cents. (Reporting by Pete Schroeder; Editing by David Gregorio)
When President John F. Kennedy addressed Congress on May 25, 1961, he set space exploration by the United States on the fast track to the moon. His request for funding for space exploration came just months after he was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States.

NASA was established in 1958, three years prior to this request and was still struggling to determine its role and goals, but with Kennedy's leadership, that quickly changed. Congress took his request seriously.

Read: NASA Budget Cuts: Senators Urge Trump Not To Slash Agency's Office Of Education

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth," he told a joint session of Congress. And with that, the plan to send a man to the moon began.

He noted it would be expensive and difficult but said there was no more vital task than space exploration. The address happened just a few days before Kennedy's birthday, May 29. If he were still alive today, he would be turning 100 years old on Monday. His legacy has lived on across the country, especially at NASA.

Kennedy's assassination in 1963 shocked the country and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn to finish the term. But even with the turmoil of the 1960s in America, NASA did not falter.

Read: Apollo 13 Story: Jim Lovell On How Mission Changed From Moon Landing To Survival

The agency sent its first man, John Glenn, into Earth orbit in 1962, before Kennedy's assassination. A week after Kennedy's death in 1963, NASA renamed the Launch Operations Center on Merritt Island in Florida the Kennedy Space Center. In 1969, the first men to walk on the moon launched from the very same center Kennedy had visited in 1962.

kennedy launch operations center

Photo: NASA

President Kennedy emphasized his goal of putting a man on the moon during a speech to 35,000 people at Rice University in 1962.

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kennedy rice speech

Photo: NASA

Before Kennedy even called on Congress to approve more NASA spending to put a man on the moon, he appreciated the space program. In 1961, at a White House ceremony, he honored astronaut Alan Shepard Jr. for completing a 15-minute suborbital mission.

kennedy award 1961

Photo: NASA

Shepard went on to participate in the Apollo 14 mission, which was the third lunar landing for NASA.

kennedy award

Photo: NASA

The Kennedy Space Center stands today as a reminder of the hard work Kennedy put into the space program.

kennedy space center

Photo: NASA

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During their first overseas trip as president and first lady, the Trumps visited the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where Melania was seen holding her husbands hand Wednesday evening.

Read: Pope Francis Asks Melania What She Feeds President Trump

The intimate moment was captured as they entered the church and continued when they gazed upon the Michelangelo paintings inside the famous house of worship.

As Melania held onto the president during the viewing, some see it as a far cry from the "swat seen 'round the world," when she apparently batted away Donald Trumps hand as they arrived in Israel earlier this week.

When the couple landed in Rome, the president reached out to grab his wifes hand and she causally pulled away and fixed her hair.

Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at the first couple on his show Thursday night.

We've seen how things have been going between him and Melania lately, he said. When Trump reached out, I know he had to be disappointed when the pope wouldn't hold his hand either.

Read: Melania Trump Appears to Swat Away Her Husband's Hand in Israel

The president and the first lady headed to Brussels, Belgium, Thursday for a NATO summit before returning to Italy. They will spend the weekend in Sicily.

Watch: Happy Birthday, Melania! President Marks Her Big Day With a Twitter Birthday Card

Related Articles:
The president's visit to the Vatican has brought the world plenty of memes, but amidst all the images of Pope Francis glaring in the presence of Donald Trump, there's one thing we all almost missed  the mysterious figure quietly lurking in the back of the photos.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Vatican Pool/AGF/REX/Shutterstock (8839851t) First Lady Melania Trump, US President Donald Trump with Pope Francis during the private audience Donald Trump visit to the Vatican, Rome, Italy - 24 May 2017

Image: Pool/AGF/REX/Shutterstock

SEE ALSO: Pope Francis just threw some serious papal shade at Donald Trump

The photobomber, as Business Insider pointed out, appears in multiple photographs taken during the very awkward encounter between the two leaders.

But turns out he's not just a stranger trying to cause a ruckus for laughs  the expert photobomber plays the very necessary role of translator to the Pope. BI identified the hilarious unintentional photobomber as Monsignor Mark Miles, a man who has served as the Pope's translator for awhile now, due to the fact that the Pope speaks Spanish, Italian, French, and German, and rarely English.

He even appeared in photographs with Barack Obama, though not quite in same way that induces chuckles like his peeping behind the Pope and Trump.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Michael Reynolds/Epa/REX/Shutterstock (8460039l) Pope Francis (c) Walks with Us President Barack Obama (r) at Joint Base Andrews Maryland Usa 22 September 2015 Pope Francis is on a Five-day Trip to the Usa Which Includes Stops in Washington Dc New York and Philadelphia After a Three-day Stay in Cuba Pope Francis Added the Cuba Visit After Helping Broker a Historic Rapprochement Between Washington and Havana That Ended a Diplomatic Freeze of More Than 50 Years United States Joint Base Andrews Usa Pope Francis Visit - Sep 2015

Image: Reynolds/Epa/REX/Shutterstock

There isn't much information about him online, spare the fact he was born in Gibraltar where he served as a Catholic priest, and later was awarded Medallion of Distinction in the country before becoming an interpreter for the Pope.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Vatican Pool/AGF/REX/Shutterstock (8839851x) First Lady Melania Trump with US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis during the private audience Donald Trump visit to the Vatican, Rome, Italy - 24 May 2017

Image: Pool/AGF/REX/Shutterstock

But wow, he can lurk!

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Vatican Pool/AGF/REX/Shutterstock (8839851c) US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis during the private audience Donald Trump visit to the Vatican, Rome, Italy - 24 May 2017

Image: Pool/AGF/REX/Shutterstock

(H/T Business Insider)
While speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, President Donald Trump told him you were my guy, and maintained that he never supported far-right candidate Marine Le Pen during the 2017 French Presidential election, although it was quite evident that he favored the latter, reports said.

He also congratulated Macron for his "incredible campaign" and "tremendous victory" as the two world leaders met for the first time over lunch at the U.S. embassy in Brussels on Thursday, Politico reported.

Read: Trumps Europe Visit To Focus On NATOs Role In Fighting ISIS, Paris Climate Deal

It is my great honor to be with the newly elected president of France, who ran an incredible campaign and had a tremendous victory. All over the world, theyre talking about it. And we have a lot to discuss, including terrorism and other things. Congratulations. Great job, Trump said, according to the report.

Macron briefly thanked Trump and told reporters the NATO summit, scheduled to take place later on the day, would allow us to have a first meeting and that he was very happy to be able to change a lot of things together.

Later, Macron took to Twitter to share his experience about meeting Trump. He wrote that his meeting with Trump was "constructive" and "direct."

The White House was quick enough to release a statement soon after the meeting stating that the discussion focused on the Syrian crisis, security and counter-terrorism issues. The two leaders committed to maintaining and building on the already strong alliance between the United States and France as they cooperate on these and other vital issues, the statement read, reported Politico.

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However, days before Macrons victory this month, Trump was seen praising Le Pen as the strongest on borders, and shes the strongest on whats been going on in France, the Guardian reported.

Whoever is the toughest on radical Islamic terrorism, and whoever is the toughest at the borders, will do well in the election, Trump told the Associated Press in an interview April.

Marine Le Pen

Photo: Reuters/Charles Platiau

Trump has often been compared to Le Pen as both have taken a strict stand on immigration and even condemned NATO alliance, a report stated.

The 70-year-old Republican president had never publicly spoken about Macron before the elections, it was reported. On the contrary, former President Barack Obama had endorsed Macron.

Macrons meeting with Trump was his first biggest diplomatic test since his victory May 8, 2017. Sources close to the French president said that he will urge the U.S. president not to take any swift decisions on the global climate change deal, Reuters said in a report.

I am very happy to be able to change many things together, Macron told Trump during the meeting, hoping to persuade the U.S. President to maintain Washingtons commitment to the Paris climate change agreement.

Trump, who had vowed during his 2016 presidential campaign that he would withdraw from the Paris climate deal, is in the process of deciding whether to stick to the climate accord or not, reported the Washington Post.

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Donald Trump appeared to link large-scale immigration to the terror attack in Manchester, even though bomber Salman Abedi was born in Britain.

Speaking at Nato headquarters in Brussels, the US president returned to a subject that has been a mainstay of his first foreign trip - that of confronting extremism.

My travels and meetings have given me renewed hope that nations of many faiths can unite to defeat terrorism, a common threat to all of humanity, he said in a speech during which he also berated those Nato members who had failed to contribute their fair share of the alliances costs.

Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever.

During his election campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly called for tougher screening of immigrants to the US, even though the process for refugees from countries such as Syria or Somalia can take up to five years.

The Muslim travel ban that he sought to introduce by means of an executive order, was based on his belief that migrants to the US, and other countries, were responsible for attacks in their new homes. Critics of Mr Trump and his policy pointed out there was no evidence to support such a claim.

Despite this, Mr Trump linked the issue in his speech to Nato country leaders.

@POTUS"When u see what happened 2 days ago #Manchester,u realize how important its 2 win this fight.We'll win this fight"#Terrorism #ISIS pic.twitter.com/jZJANNwaoW  TRUMP ANOMALY (@ANOMALY1) May 25, 2017

You have thousands and thousands of people pouring into our various countries and spreading throughout, and in many cases, we have no idea who they are. We must be tough. We must be strong. And we must be vigilant, he said.

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The Nato of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATOs eastern and southern borders.

Police in Manchester have said they are investigating what they believe is a network that may have been behind the attack that killed 22 people in Manchester and injured more than 60. Abedi was born to parents who had migrated from Libya.
Donald Trump and Mike Pence have reached new lows in approval ratings: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Donald Trump has hit a new low job approval rating of just 40 per cent.

Most of the voters that approve of the job Mr Trump is doing are white men. Of that bloc, only 28 per cent strongly approve of his performance in the White House.

This is down from 45 per cent in the same poll conducted in April.

The poll - commissioned by Fox News - was conducted by two research companies who called a random nationwide sample of 1,011 registered voters between 21 to 23 May.

About 45 per cent self-identified as Democrats, 38 per cent Republican, and 18 per cent Independent.

he same questions were asked of a different random sample of voters every month this year.

Fox News, owned by Mr Trumps longtime friend Rupert Murdoch, has repeatedly aired news reports and brought experts on air who are in favour of the president.

Vice President Mike Pence also experienced a drop in approval of eight points, down from 50 per cent in April to just 42 per cent in the most recent poll.

Of that, only 29 per cent of registered voters strongly approve of the job he is doing as Mr Trumps second in command.

Forty-five per cent of these voters have confidence in Mr Trump.

Mr Trump celebrated a victory when the Republican replacement to Obamacare passed the House of Representatives as a major legislative win. Given that his travel ban has been blocked by courts around the country and the proposed federal budget has received criticism from Republicans in Congress, it could be argued that it is only real win.

Of those polled only 40 per cent support the Obamacare replacement plan. The Republican healthcare plan is being reviewed by the Senate now.

Voters polled were also asked do you think Americas best days are ahead of us or behind us? A majority - 62 per cent - said yes, they are.

Among those surveyed, government spending was overwhelmingly important - 80 per cent of voters said it was their biggest concern.

The economy, infrastructure, a war with North Korea, attacks by Islamic terrorists, the job market, and Russian meddling were also on the list of choices for those polled to choose from.

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Sixty per cent said they were concerned with climate change, which Mr Trump has often called a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. It will be a major topic of discussion at the group of seven meeting (G7) in Italy which Mr Trump is attending.

Just over half of those polled said they were concerned about illegal immigration, however this is significantly less than the 62 per cent who said it concerned them just a month ago.

One of Mr Trumps loudest, most controversial campaign promises was to build a nearly 2,000 mile border wall with Mexico in order to stem illegal immigration.

However, of those surveyed, only 36 per cent said they think he will actually build it and only 32 per cent want him to do it.
The lesson for heads of state the world over is: if you ever have the chance to shake the presidents hand, come prepared



Donald Trump doesnt have to open up his mouth to make news anymore. The poor prime minister of Montenegro, a country with less people than El Paso, Texas, learned this the hard way when Trump gave him a big shove on Thursday to get to the front of a pack of world leaders. Doesnt Dusko Markovic know you cant box out the Donald?



The shove came as Trump met with the uncomfortable members of Nato in Brussels to lecture them on their need to spend more on their defense. What this has to do with shoving Markovic in an attempt to shake hands with Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is entirely unclear, but no one ever said making America great again was easy. Especially when the new president loves to shake hands.



But its his handy clash with Frances new president, Emmanuel Macron, that will probably overshadow whatever Trump has been trying to do on his first jaunt abroad as commander-in-chief.



We know already that Trump, who belongs to a wrestling hall of fame, likes to creatively shake hands. He once clenched the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abes hand for 19 excruciating seconds. He strangely clutched the hand of the British prime minister, Theresa May. He engaged in a battle of wills with his polar opposite, the young, liberal Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister.



With Macron, it was power on power. Both men are insurgents who won unlikely victories: Macron with his own political movement outside Frances dominant parties, Trump by seizing control of a weak Republican party and remaking it in his own image. Macron was no doubt swaggering after vanquishing Trumps bosom buddy, the far-right Marine Le Pen. And Trump, well  hes not someone who can go down without a hard shake.



The two men crushed each others hands, not letting go. Knuckles turned white. Polite smiles held firm. With the two perhaps equally matched, the internet seemed to believe the fresh-faced Frenchman won the round. No shoving necessary.



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But there was more. Later that day, Macron snubbed Trump to greet Angela Merkel, the powerful German chancellor who just might be the most un-Trump-like person alive today. Trump, of course, had failed to shake Merkels hand at a photo-op earlier this year. When Macron came around to Trump this time, having warmly greeted Merkel, the American president grabbed his hand and appeared to attempt the novel joint-dislocation handshake. Macron survived to fight another day.



What does this all mean? What can Trumps handshakes tell the world about American diplomacy? What can they tell us about the man himself? Is he overcompensating for his smallness? Its hard to say. Just as Trump doesnt overthink matters of policy, hes likely not undertaking in-depth planning of his handshakes.



There are hands he will like and hands he wont. Some, like the unfortunate prime minister of Montenegro, will be collateral damage. If you ever have the chance to shake the presidents hand, just come prepared.


By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - An Ethiopian journalist was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison on charges of subversion, his lawyer said, but is expected to be freed within a week as he has been in jail since his arrest in late 2015. Critics say Ethiopia, an important Horn of Africa ally of the West sandwiched between volatile Somalia and Sudan, regularly targets journalists for alleged security offences as a way to stifle dissent and clamp down on media freedoms. The Addis Ababa government denies those accusations. Getachew Shiferaw was arrested in late December 2015 and charged in May last year with involvement in the operations of the outlawed anti-government group Ginbot 7. That charge was later dismissed by a court but he was convicted on Wednesday of undermining state power by trying to prevent a government official from performing his duties through collaboration with an anti-government group. The charge was punishable by up to 10 years in jail. "The high court's ruling means he can walk out as a free man next week because he has already spent 17 months under detention," his lawyer, Ameha Mekonnen, told Reuters. Getachew, formerly a freelance writer for several magazines, was also editor-in-chief of the opposition Semayawi Party's Negere Ethiopia publication at the time of his arrest. Prosecutors accused him of colluding with a member of Ginbot 7, which the government has designated a "terrorist" organization, alongside two domestic secessionist groups, as well as Islamist groups al Shabaab and al Qaeda in Somalia. Ginbot 7 was formed by opposition figures who took part in the disputed 2005 election. They subsequently fled into exile and launched a rebellion against Addis Ababa. Ethiopia's 547-seat parliament does not have a single opposition politician, and opposition groups accuse the government of constant harassment and intimidation. On Thursday, an opposition politician was sentenced to six and a half years in prison over a series of anti-government comments on Facebook that the court deemed to have encouraged terrorist acts. (Reporting by Aaron Maasho; editing by Katharine Houreld and Mark Heinrich)
There are few people Mr Trump trusts more than his daughter and her husband: Getty

Hes the man Donald Trump considers a very smart guy, a very good guy, and a quality person. So smart, so good and with such qualities, indeed, that he blessed his marriage to his eldest daughter, gave him a White House job and tasked him with bringing peace to the Middle East.

Now, it has been confirmed Jared Kushner is a focus of the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged effort to influence the 2016 election.

The Washington Post said investigators were looking at a series of meetings Kushner held last year with Russian officials, including Moscows Ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.

Right now, were at the door of the Oval Office, Juliette Kayyem, a political analyst who served in Barack Obamas Department of Homeland Security, told The Independent. Its getting wider in terms of its theory, and its getting faster. All of these things explain why the President is lawyering up.

There are few people Trump trusts more than Kushner, who is married to his daughter Ivanka , and who is himself the scion of a real estate empire. Although the 36-year-old had no political experience, Mr Trump trusted him at the helm of his election campaign, and in a perhaps unprecedented step, insisted both Kushner and his daughter take up jobs within the White House.

Just this week, it was Kushner who sat in on Trumps meeting with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, while national security advisor HR McMaster was excluded.

But Trumps trust in Kushner, and his obvious closeness to him, may now come back to haunt the New York tycoon. If things start to get hot for his son-in-law, does he stick by him, or drop him?

I dont think it comes as a surprise that they want to speak to him. He was the man at the centre of things. They would want to speak to him even more than people like his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, says Jeanne Zaino, a professor of Political Science at Iona College in New York. Its obvious they are very close. Thats not to say Jared Kushner has done anything wrong, but if he does emerge tainted, that would be very difficult for Trump to shake. Its hard to think Jared Kushner was involved in anything that Trump didnt know about.

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The Post article stressed it had not been told Kushner was the central focus of the FBI investigation and said he had not been accused of any wrongdoing. Yet he is one of the people in Trumps inner circle known to have had a number of meetings with Russians, including an official from a Russian bank, Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which is owned by the Russian government and which has been the subject of US sanctions following Russias annexation of Crimea in March 2014.

On Friday, asked for comment about the revelation that Kushner was the focus of the FBI probe, the White House forwarded a statement from his lawyer Jamie Gorelick, which suggested he was prepared to cooperate with the investigation, now being led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings, it said. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.

Sarah Flores, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said: I cant confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations.

NBC said the FBI has collected data on computer bots, programs that perform repetitive functions like searches, allegedly linked to Russia that helped target and push negative information on Hillary Clinton and positive information on Donald Trump through Facebook. Kusher oversaw his own data mining operation for the Trump campaign out of Trump Tower in New York.

Trump has yet to comment on the revelation that Kushner is a reported focus of the FBIs investigation. Previously, Trump said one of the reasons for his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey was the ongoing probe.

You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they shouldve won, he told an interviewer. Later, it was reported that a meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the President described Mr Comey as a nut job.

Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Ethics at Georgetown Law School in Washington DC, says Trump had breached the usual precedents to prevent conflicts of interests and which typically kept family members out of the White House. Now, the decision could come back to bite him.

For anyone with normal ethical sensibilities, the hardest thing is when someone you have a reason to be loyal to, does something to imperil you, she says. We dont know the lengths Trump will go to, to protect Kushner. Its a situation ripe to create abuses.
PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron will seek to convince his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Thursday to stick to a global deal to combat climate change ahead of a Group of Seven leaders where there is currently no consensus on the matter, diplomats said. Trump, who doubts climate change is man-made and made a campaign pledge to "cancel" the 2015 Paris Agreement, has postponed a planned decision on whether to stay or leave that had been due before the May 26-27 summit in Italy. A newcomer to international diplomacy, Macron travels on Thursday to Brussels for a NATO summit before heading to Sicily for the G7 summit that also includes Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada. Ahead of NATO, he will meet Trump for the first time for an informal lunch that will immediately test his diplomatic skills given the unpredictable nature of the U.S. leader and France's desire to ensure the U.S. does not renege on the climate deal. "What's at stake is to be firm on the Paris accord," said a senior French diplomat, adding that Macron would put his case to Trump in the face-to-face talks in the Belgian capital. "We don't want the U.S. to pull out because it would be a very bad signal and lead others to pull out." Diplomats said there had been no agreement on these issues ahead of the G7 gathering, meaning the leaders will seek to strike an accord amongst themselves. "The U.S. did not accept (a common position) during the ministerial talks ... so one of the key issues is to try and obtain the commitment from all the G7 members and the Americans," said a second diplomat. He added that there was a possibility the Italian presidency could issue a separate statement on climate change if Trump did not endorse the Paris agreement. "It's strange because normally the final communique is agreed 10 days before, but here we will probably be negotiating overnight between Friday and Saturday." (Reporting by John Irish and Marine Pennetier; editing by Michel Rose)
By Crispian Balmer and Noah Barkin TAORMINA, Italy (Reuters) - Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations meet African heads of state on Saturday, the final day of their annual summit which has been marked by discord over climate change, but unity on tackling terrorism. U.S. President Donald Trump told his G7 counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Friday that he had not yet decided whether to honor a landmark 2015 Paris accord on curbing carbon emissions. European leaders have expressed frustration in private at having to go back over an issue that they believed had been signed and sealed two years ago. There was also continued friction over global trade, with Trump, who got elected promising to put America first, blaming multilateral commerce deals for U.S. trade deficits and demanding what he terms a "level playing field". However, the G7 leaders said there was broad agreement on an array of fraught foreign policy questions, including on Syria, Libya and North Korea. They also vowed to increase efforts to counter extremism after an Islamist militant suicide bomber killed 22 at a concert in northern England on Monday, and told internet service providers and social media companies to "substantially increase" their efforts to rein in extremist content. "The threat of terror is one that all our countries face and now more than ever we must strengthen our resolve to overcome this threat," said British Prime Minister Theresa May, who skipped the Saturday talks and returned home a day early because of the Manchester attack. MASS MIGRATION Italy hosted the G7 meeting in Sicily to draw attention to Africa and the plight of migrants who are risking their lives in ever greater numbers to make the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe. More than half a million have landed in Italy since 2014, with 1,400 brought ashore by rescuers on Friday alone. The leaders of Tunisia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria will join the discussions on Saturday morning, with Italy keen for the world's wealthiest nations to help the continent develop its economy in an effort to persuade young Africans to stay home. However, Italian proposals to highlight the positive impact of migration and to promote a major initiative on food security were both shot down in pre-summit talks, with the Trump administration unwilling to play up any benefits of human mobility, a diplomat said. The leaders are expected to issue a vastly shorter communique than in previous years, with one European diplomat suggesting it might be just six pages long compared to 32 last year. Diplomats worked late into the night to try to agree the wording with the United States on global trade. There appeared to be little expectation of any overnight breakthrough on climate change, meaning Washington's G7 allies might take the unusual step of issuing a statement just in their own names to stress their continued support for the Paris deal. Despite the impasse, Trump's economic adviser Gary Cohn said the president's views on climate were developing. "He came here to learn. He came here to get smart. His views are evolving which exactly as they should be," he said on Friday, adding that Trump would ultimately do what was best for the United States. (Additional reporting by Steve Scherer, Giselda Vagnoni, John Irish, Steve Holland and Andrea Rinke; Editing by Noah Barkin)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily on 26 May, 2017: Getty

Donald Trump has attacked Germans for being bad, very bad and vowed to limit US car imports from the country.

At a meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday Mr Trump reportedly said: Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible. We will stop this, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing people who attended the talks.

Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised Germany's large trade surplus with the US, which he said hurts US manufacturers. In January, he threatened to hit German car imports with a 35 per cent tax.

If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, he told Germanys Bild newspaper in January.

"I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 per cent tax, then you can forget that," Mr Trump said.

How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all  its a one-way street.

BMW chief executive Harald Krueger, later pointed out that his companys biggest plant worldwide is in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Shares in German car manufacturers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW fell slightly in Frankfurt trading on Friday.

White House economic advisor Gary Cohn defended the President's remarks.

He said they're very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany. He said his dad is from Germany. He said 'I don't have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade, Mr Cohn said on Friday.

Mr Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump had "tremendous respect" for Germany and was only commenting on the country's trade policies.

Watch news, TV and more Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, who was at the meeting, dismissed the claims about Mr Trump's remarks, which he said had been exaggerated.

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German media translated "bad" as "boese" which can also mean evil, which made the comments sound more serious when translated back into English.

"The record has to be set straight," Mr Juncker told reporters in Sicily ahead of the G7 talks..

"He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly.

"He was not aggressive at all and anyway we have taken the defence of the Germans," he continued.

"I was making clear that the US cannot compare their trade situation with individual member states of the European Union. They have to compare their performances with the global performances of the European Union and I made it clear that the commission is charged with trade issues and not the member states."

The closed-door meeting was part of broader talks among world leaders over defence, trade and the environment.

On Thursday, Mr Trump appeared to shove Montenegro's Prime Minister, Dusko Markovic, out of the way in a bid to get to the front of a group of Nato leaders - a moment which was captured on film.

He also attacked Nato members for failing to meet the military alliance's target to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence.

In the wake of the "barbaric" Manchester bombing, Mr Trump said two per cent was a "bare minimum" and that this should be increased to allow Nato to "stop terrorism in its tracks".

Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Athens (AFP) - Greek police scrambled Friday to figure out how a letter bomb managed to wound former PM Lucas Papademos despite security checks being beefed up after a wave of similar attacks in March.

"We want to determine whether security procedures were followed," a police source told AFP, hours after Papademos and two guards were injured Thursday by the bomb that exploded as they rode in an armoured car in Athens.

"The fact that the attackers managed to get past security is worrying," the source said, adding that experts were trying to determine the nature of explosive used.

Former PM Antonis Samaras, who spoke with Papademos in hospital, said the letter bomb had been delivered to his home after apparently undergoing screening.

"He feels lucky because his hands were far away from his face" when he opened the letter, Samaras told reporters.

Papademos sustained superficial injuries to the chest, abdomen and legs, Evangelismos Hospital in Athens said, after he apparently opened his mail whilst riding in the car.

The 69-year-old economist was in stable condition but is expected to remain in intensive care for at least two days, doctors said.

A later statement from Evangelismos Hospital said the former PM had undergone surgery to address a deeper thigh injury.

One of his guards has trouble hearing, the hospital said.

The police source said the attack was "largely symbolic" as Papademos was lightly hurt despite his proximity to the letter bomb.

- No claim -

Calls have already gone out to individuals who could be potential targets to boost security, and to the Greek postal service to step up searches for other similar devices.

As a former PM, Papademos has round-the-clock police protection and his mail is screened by special machinery at the Bank of Greece and parliament.

Leaders of all parties and former prime ministers condemned the attack, the first against an incumbent or former leader in decades.

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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi also expressed the executive board's "deep affection" for mild-mannered Papademos, who was ECB vice president from 2002 to 2010.

Draghi called Papademos "a brave public servant of Greece and Europe."

The methodology is similar to that used by Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, a domestic far-left group which in March mailed a letter bomb that injured a secretary at the International Monetary Fund in Paris.

The group had earlier claimed responsibility for an explosive device, also sent from Greece, discovered by the police at the offices of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

The bombs contained gunpowder used in firecrackers, police said.

The police source acknowledged that Thursday's attack on Papademos was "similar" to those in March, but authorities do not want to rule out other possibilities.

Papademos's name was on a target list compiled by Paula Roupa, a senior member of far-left group Revolutionary Struggle jailed in January.

So far there has been no claim of responsibility.

- Spotlight on 'Conspiracy' -

If Conspiracy does confirm the attack, "it would be a problem," the police source said.

"It would show that they have done their homework and are able to bypass security procedures," the source added.

In 2011, several Conspiracy members, many of whom were very young, were convicted of "participating in a criminal organisation" and given long prison sentences.

But three years later the group announced its return and has since committed sporadic attacks.

Experts note that Greece's continued economic crisis favours youth radicalisation.

"Socio-economic conditions favour recruitment" by extremist groups, the police source said.

After seven years of crisis and austerity cuts, the Greek economy is still struggling.

Unemployment is soaring -- especially among the young -- and wages and pensions have been drastically reduced by cuts and tax hikes.

Papademos served as prime minister from November 2011 to May 2012 after the resignation of George Papandreou's socialist government, steering a batch of austerity measures through parliament to secure a multi-billion-euro EU-IMF bailout before stepping down for elections to be held.

In 2012, Papademos's government negotiated a huge write-down of the country's privately held debt.

The move was widely criticised at the time, as Greek social insurance funds lost millions of euros in the process.

Papademos also drew fire for letting members of a far-right party join his coalition government.

Papademos also served as Bank of Greece governor from 1994 to 2002. He is currently serving as chairman of the Athens Academy, the country's highest research establishment.
Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas executed three people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday over the assassination of one of its military leaders allegedly on behalf of Israel.

Two men were hanged to death in Gaza City over the killing of Mazen Faqha in March, while a third was executed by firing squad, said an AFP correspondent who attended the executions.

Hundreds of people were allowed to watch the executions, though the streets around the site were closed to the public.

One of those executed, Ashraf Abu Leila, was named as the alleged assassin while the other two men, who were not named, were convicted of assisting him.

The executions, which come only two weeks after the announcement of their arrests, were immediately condemned by human rights activists.

Human Rights Watch said the "rush" to kill the men "smacks of militia rule, not the rule of law".

Mazen Faqha was shot dead on March 24 near his house in Gaza City.

He had been in charge of forming cells for Hamas's military wing in the occupied West Bank.

Hamas immediately blamed its arch-enemy Israel, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, and implemented strict border restrictions on those seeking to leave the Palestinian enclave.
Beirut (AFP) - The head of Lebanese movement Hezbollah said Thursday he was unfazed by "threats" of attacks or fresh sanctions, days after US President Donald Trump slammed the group and its sponsor Iran.

On his visit to Riyadh last week, Trump blamed Iran for destabilising the Middle East and called for a crackdown on its allies, including Shiite movement Hezbollah.

But party chief Hassan Nasrallah struck a defiant tone on Thursday, saying Hezbollah was "not afraid of any war, sanctions, or intimidation in the media."

"Threats of killing or dying do not scare us... No one scares us at all. They are weaker than ever," Nasrallah said.

He spoke via video-link to hundreds of supporters gathered in the northeast Lebanese town of Hermel to commemorate the 17th anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon.

But the border remains unstable, rocked by occasional skirmishes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah and its sponsor Iran are also fiercely despised by Saudi Arabia -- which Trump chose as his first foreign destination since he took office.

During a joint summit there last weekend, the US leader pointed the finger at Iran for destabilising the region.

"From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region," Trump said.

He called on all countries to work together to isolate Tehran "until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace".

Saudi's King Salman also lambasted the Iranian government as "the spearhead of global terrorism".

Ahead of the summit, Washington and Riyadh issued their first "joint terrorist designation" against a top Hezbollah official.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards created Hezbollah (Party of God) in the 1980s.

With political and military support from Iran, it remains the only side not to have put down weapons after Lebanon's civil war from 1975 to 1990.

The United States, Canada and Australia have listed Hezbollah as a "terrorist" group. The European Union has also blacklisted its military wing.
Addressing her alma mater for the first time after her election loss, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not hold back the barbs against her former rival.

Donald Trump has repeatedly come under fire for firing his former FBI director, James Comey, who was leading an investigation into his campaign's possible ties to Russia - and Ms Clinton was quick to invoke another president who faced a similar national scandal.



When she graduated Wellesley College in 1969, Ms Clinton told graduates, we were furious about the past presidential election, of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice, after firing the person running the investigation into him at the department of justice.

At the glaring comparison between President Donald Trump and former President Richard Nixon, the Wellesley class of 2017 erupted in cheers.

It wasnt the first time a Democrat had mentioned the i-word in reference to Mr Trump. The suggestion that the current president could be impeached has been circulating on Capitol Hill.

Republican Senator John McCain even suggested the Trump administration scandal was reaching Watergate size and scale.

It was however, Ms Clintons most stinging rebuke of her former rival since her November loss.

Besides comparing Donald Trump to a disgraced former president, she also took issue with his policies and rhetoric.

You are graduating at a time when there is a full fledged assault on truth and reason, she told graduates. ...Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds. And then defending themselves by talking about alternative facts'."

The comment was a dig at White House Press Secretary Sean Spicers disproved claim that Mr Trump had the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration  period, and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conways excuse that Mr Spicer was using alternative facts.

Clinton: There's a full-fledged assault on truth and reason, denying science, fear of immigrants, the size of crowds  alternative facts pic.twitter.com/1bwZcMjTLw  Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 26, 2017

Later in her speech, Ms Clinton attacked Mr Trumps recently released budget proposal, which calls for deep cuts to education and Medicaid, among other things.

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Ms Clinton called the budget a con and an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us. She also pointed to the budgets lack of funding for climate change, mental health initiatives, and treatment for the opioid epidemic.

But Ms Clinton ended her address of a lighter note, telling graduates that while they did not create the current political climate, they have the power to change it.

In the face of dire political circumstances, she said, theres only one answer: Keep going.

It was Ms Clintons third Wellesley commencement address in nearly 50 years. The former presidential contender spoke at her own graduation in 1969, and again in 1992.
Midwifery and home-birth advocates rallying in 2011. (Photo: Courtesy of Jennifer Crook)

Activists are celebrating the legalization of home-birth midwives this week in Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey signed the long-fought-for Childbirth Freedom Act into law on Wednesday night after it passed both houses.

I was completely in shock, Jennifer Crook, a leading lobbyist for the cause, tells Yahoo Beauty. Shes the vice president of the Alabama Midwives Alliance, which, along with the Alabama Birth Coalition, has fought to change the law for nearly 15 years. It was a nail biter until the end, due to continuous opposition from the Medical Association of the State of Alabama (MASA), as well as the Alabama Department of Public Health.

It really has been the perfect storm  changes in political leadership, an up swell in consumer support and work, and legislators coming together in a way Ive never seen before, Crook says. Now midwives must work to set up a licensing board and create rules and regulations, a process that could take 12 to 18 months, she says.

Alabama has become the 33rd state in the nation to legalize certified professional midwives (CPMs) to practice.

A patient has a prenatal exam by midwife Colleen Tullis. (Photo: Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for Yahoo News)

CPMs become accredited either through an apprenticeship or educational program, or a combination of the two. They differ from certified nurse midwives (CNMs), who must graduate from a CNM education program, maintain an active registered nursing license, and have a bachelors degree. In Alabama, CNMs cannot attend home births but can legally practice in hospitals; still, they rarely do because of highly restrictive physician supervision rules.

Until this week, midwives were banned altogether  not explicitly, but by legal precedent and as a result of the state having dissolved the path to licensure in 1976. Although 20 other states also ban or restrict CPMs to some degree, Alabama had become one of a handful (including California, Connecticut, and Illinois) willing to arrest midwives caught assisting a birth  as it did in the early 1990s, and again in 2002.

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Midwife Colleen Tullis of Mobile, Ala., is now free to practice in her home state. (Photo: Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for Yahoo News)

The ban sent a handful of Alabama midwives crossing state lines to practice so they could provide prenatal care and set up spaces in which to approximate home births for a steady stream of women. Yahoo News detailed the phenomenon, as well as the legal fight, in the story of Mobile, Ala., midwife Colleen Tullis and several of her patients in 2016.

It was a huge victory, Tullis tells Yahoo Beauty of the change in law, which decriminalizes Alabama CPMs in addition to setting up the path to licensing. The biggest drawback of the law, she says, is the inclusion of a mandatory malpractice insurance clause  something only two out of the 33 states with legal CPMs require. Tullis says shes uncertain of how shell pass on the cost (which she estimates could be about $6,500 a year) to her patients, many of whom are low income.

Part of the demand for home-birth midwives in Alabama arises is that quality maternal care is not available to most women. The state is consistently rated among the worst in which to give birth in the nation, according to the March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card, which recently issued Alabama another F (a grade it has maintained for years). Its also where hospital labor-and-delivery rooms have closed over the years for economic reasons, leaving 38 of 67 counties with no hospital delivery units.

A lot of it was consistently exposing this maternity care crisis, Crook says of what ultimately helped change the law.

The pro-midwifery side did have to make difficult concessions  including keeping it illegal for CPMs to handle births of breech babies or twins, or even deal with vaginal births after C-section (VBACS). Given our current maternity-care crisis in Alabama, any provisions that limit access to care are not ideal, although there was a political reality within they had to operate, Crook says. So were not done by any stretch of the imagination. But this is a remarkable step in the right direction.

Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and@YahooBeauty.
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Indian police arrested around 150 people protesting against a breakdown in law and order in the eastern city of Kolkata on Thursday, after street battles broke out during a march to police headquarters and police cars were set ablaze. Regional and national leaders from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged the march to protest against a perceived deterioration in security in the state of West Bengal, which is ruled by a rival left-wing party. West Bengal, with a population of nearly 100 million, has a long history of political violence. Modi's BJP is seeking to make political gains in the state, where the Trinamool Congress of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee won re-election in 2016. Clashes broke out after thousands of protesters, marching along three routes, found their way barricaded by police. Police staged baton charges, fired tear gas and deployed water cannon in an attempt to disperse crowds. Crude bombs were thrown by protesters from the BJP, said Vineet Goyal, Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police. These set off smoke but did not cause damage or injuries, according to witnesses, while protesters overturned and set ablaze police vehicles. Senior police officials said about 150 BJP workers and leaders had been taken into custody, among them Kailash Vijayvargiya, a general secretary of the BJP who heads the party organization in West Bengal. Several officers were injured. In a series of tweets, Vijayvargiya accused the police of carrying out "brutal" baton charges on protesters. (Reporting by Subrata Nagchaudhury; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Washington has added tens of millions of dollars in extra defence aid for Israel, a day after US President Donald Trump wound up a visit.

He did not say over what timeframe the money would be disbursed. The addition comes on the heels of a weekend announcement of a massive US-Saudi arms deal.

Under a 2016 agreement, Washington already bankrolls its Israeli ally's military spending to the tune of $3.8 billion dollars annually over 10 years, making the Jewish state the top recipient of US assistance.

"Three days ago, the US added another $75 million to the aid package for the missile defence programme," Netanyahu said at a memorial ceremony for Israel's dead in the 1967 Six-Day War.

He did not elaborate.

Israel relies heavily on US military aid. Its total defence budget amounts to some $16 billion, excluding the US aid.

Washington announced a $110-billion US sale of ships, tanks and the latest anti-missile systems to Saudi Arabia on Saturday as Trump began a two-day visit to the Gulf state before travelling on to Israel.

Phased over a 10-year period, US administration officials say it is the biggest single arms deal in American history.

In the first public comment by an Israeli official, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday he was uneasy over the deal, calling it part of a "crazy" regional arms race.

"I'm not at peace with any arms race and the huge Saudi purchase for sure doesn't add much to our peace of mind," he said in an interview with Israeli army radio.

Nevertheless, Lieberman said, "We are following developments and are aware and have ways of dealing with this."

"It's not just the Saudis, its also the Emirates, also the Qataris, also the Iranians; they are all acquiring weapons, he said."

"Weapons deals in the Middle East just in 2016 reached $215-216 billion and this is no small sum," Lieberman said.

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"It needs to be understood that there is a crazy arms race going on, the amount of arms all the players in the region are acquiring and the desire to produce weapons in places like Yemen and Lebanon."

The White House said that in talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, "President Trump underscored the United States ironclad commitment to Israels security, including to the maintenance of Israels qualitative military edge."

The thrust of the deal with Riyadh aims to help the Saudi military bolster its defences to deter bitter rival Iran and its missile programme, which Netanyahu has said potentially poses an existential threat to the Jewish state.
Investigators were focused on meetings Kushner held with Russian officials last year as part of inquiry into Russian interference in 2016 election, sources said

Jared Kushner is currently being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the Washington Post reported. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said he would cooperate with any investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia following reports that he is under FBI scrutiny.

Multiple news outlets reported on Thursday that investigators were focused on a series of meetings that Kushner, Donald Trumps son-in-law, held with Russian officials last year as part of the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings, attorney Jamie Gorelick said in a statement on Thursday. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.

The Washington Post first reported last week that investigators had identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, a major development following the news that former FBI director Robert Mueller would be acting as a special counsel to investigate Trumps connections to Russia.

Press secretary Sean Spicer did not deny the news reports at the time, and on Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Kushner was a focus of the FBIs case, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation. The Guardian could not independently confirm the reports.

The naming of Kushner in connection with the FBIs investigation is significant, though the scope of the inquiry into the husband of the presidents daughter, Ivanka Trump, is unclear. Kushner has not been accused of wrongdoing and is not the central focus of the investigation, the Post said.

The White House did not comment further on Thursday.

It emerged last year that executives of Vnesheconombank (VEB), a Russian bank, had talks with Kushner. The White House aide also held a meeting with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned in February after it emerged that he had misled vice-president Mike Pence about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak.

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Kushner is currently being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the Post reported.

The FBIs investigation is also reportedly continuing to focus on Flynn and Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who has had extensive business dealings for Russian proxies in Ukraine. Manafort has denied wrongdoing. Flynn is facing subpoenas from the US House and Senate and has refused requests for documents by invoking his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.

Kushner is in a different category than Manafort and Flynn in the investigation, according to NBC News report.

Last month, the New York Times reported that Kushner omitted meeting with Russians on security clearance forms.

Earlier this month, Kushners family was forced to apologize for mentioning his name while urging Chinese investors to pour money into a US real estate project, raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest.

Trump recently fired FBI director James Comey, later admitting he was he thinking of this Russia thing when he decided to sack him. Trump had also reportedly urged Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn.
By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New Jersey town has reached a settlement with the U.S. government and a local Islamic group to resolve allegations that the town illegally denied plans for a proposed mosque.

Officials in Bernards Township voted 4-1 on Tuesday night to approve settling lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, according to a spokesman for the town, Michael Turner.

Turner did not comment on the details of the settlement, which will not be made public until the agreement is filed with a federal judge in New Jersey.

The Justice Department lawsuit, filed in November in the waning days of the Obama administration, said the town's planning officials deliberately set out impossibly strict requirements that the Islamic Society could not meet, following objections from members of the public based on religious bias.

"The reasons set forth by the Planning Board for denying the site plan application were pretextual, and the Planning Board in fact denied the application based on discrimination toward Muslims," the lawsuit said.

Amid opposition from some residents, the mosque's mailbox was vandalized, with the letters ISBR changed to ISIS in a reference to the militant group Islamic State, the government said.

The Islamic Society, which currently holds prayer services in rented space at a community center, spent four years trying to get approval for a permanent building, including 39 separate hearings, according to the government's lawsuit. The group brought its own lawsuit earlier in 2016, and a number of religious freedom and civil rights groups have filed briefs in support of the complaint.

Bernards Township, about 30 miles (48 km) west of New York City, has a population of approximately 27,000.

A lawyer for the Islamic Society and a Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, saying the agreements have not yet been filed in court.

The firm that represented the group, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, filed a separate lawsuit on Thursday against Bayonne, New Jersey, claiming the town employed bogus reasons to deny an application to build a new mosque.

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The U.S. government, meanwhile, has other pending lawsuits against localities over denials of mosques, including Bensalem, Pennsylvania; Des Plaines, Illinois; and Culpepper County, Virginia.

The complaints are based on a federal law that bars local governments from imposing land use regulations that place undue burdens on the right of religious free exercise.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax)
The day after first lady Melania Trump slapped away President Donald Trumps hand in Rome, the couple made headlines again when Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling slammed him as a tiny, little man. The insult was in reference to Trump pushing the prime minister of Montenegro out of the way during a meeting for a summit at NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.

In the beginning of the clip, Trump is nowhere to be seen. But that doesnt last for long. Within moments, he appears on camera with the group of leaders and pushes aside Dusko Markovic with a smug smile. He then fixes his jacket once he gets to the front, apparently basking in the spotlight.

READ: Trumps Europe Visit To Focus On NATOs Role In Fighting ISIS, Paris Climate Deal

The act unsettled Rowling. You tiny, tiny, tiny little man, the British writer captioned a GIF of the moment. The post was shared nearly 10,000 times and like nearly 20,000 times by her 10.4 million followers within minutes.

In response to Rowlings caption, a fan shared an altered GIF, which depicted Trump as a physically smaller man. Youve got that right, the netizen wrote to Rowling. She retweeted the post to her millions of followers.

CNBC breaking news desk reporter Steve Kopack was apparently one of the first to share the shove on social media. Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? he tweeted to his nearly 30,000 followers. The GIF alone amassed more than 35,000 favorites and more than 32,000 shares.

He then slowed the GIF down in case anyone struggled to see it. Slo-mo: Trump appears to push aside/shove another NATO leader to get to the front of the group, he wrote. Update: Dusko Markovic of Montenegro is the person Trump pushed. Quite the welcome to the alliance. Montenegro becomes NATO member on June 5.

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Montenegro is slated to join NATO on June 5. The coastal country was once a part of the former Yugoslavia, and one of the six republics that included Slovenia, the native homeland of Trump's wife. Montenegro is bordered by Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania, and across the Adriatic Sea from Italy.

NATO was formed after the end of World War II in 1949. Its an international organization whose goal is to connect the armies of various countries, including the U.S. and Great Britain.

Trump once called the organization obsolete.

Its obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago, Trump said about NATO in January. Secondly, countries arent paying what they should and NATO didnt deal with terrorism.

Trump later altered his stance.

READ: Donald Trump And Health Care: Firm Run By Trump's Top Adviser Sounded Alarm About Obamacare Repeal

They had a quote from me that NATO's obsolete. But they didn't say why it was obsolete. I was on Wolf Blitzer, very fair interview, the first time I was ever asked about NATO, because I wasn't in government. People don't go around asking about NATO if I'm building a building in Manhattan, right? Trump told the Associated Press on April 24.

So they asked me, Wolf ... asked me about NATO, and I said two things. NATO's obsolete  not knowing much about NATO, now I know a lot about NATO  NATO is obsolete, and I said, And the reason it's obsolete is because of the fact they don't focus on terrorism. You know, back when they did NATO, there was no such thing as terrorism, he added.

The president echoed a similar sentiment Thursday, saying NATO leaders needed to pay more money for defense. He did not specifically affirm Article 5, which says the U.S. would defend a NATO country if it were attacked.

JK Rowling

Photo: Getty Images

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella

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The offseason seemed a bit strange  oh yes, Josh Normal hadnt ramped up any feuds with some inflammatory comments.

You knew it was coming at some point.

Norman, the Washington Redskins cornerback who has never shied away from controversial comments, took on two of his favorite enemies in a Bleacher Report story by Tyler Dunne, ripping New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham and Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant.

Beckham is an old nemesis, going back to a crazy game in 2015 when Norman was with the Carolina Panthers and the two spent most of the afternoon brawling. Apparently Norman wasnt violent enough on that day against the Giants. He told Bleacher Report he wished he would have let myself go that game. When asked if he meant fisticuffs, he answered in the affirmative.

Everything. The whole thing, Norman said. I was held back by trying to play it cool, trying to be a good guy. Screw that.

Then  this theme will be repeated later, when it comes to Bryant  Norman questioned Beckhams toughness.

He tries to be a tough guy, Norman said. He tries to put on this persona which hes not.

When people get physical, tough, like the Minnesota game, he acts out. Hes a kid. Hes a big kid, man.

On Beckham, Norman added, I hope I dont catch him outside. Lets just say that.

Norman isnt an admirer of Bryant either.

Thats a guy. Just a guy, Norman said. Dez was Dez in 2012, 13, 14. Maybe 14. Now? Hes a guy.

Norman said Bryant doesnt wow him because while he bullies other cornerbacks with his physical play, he cant do that to Norman.

Hes trying to be a tough guy and thats not him, Norman told Dunne. Thats not how you play ball. The media really created this talk trash with me. I dont really talk to these guys. Theyre talking to themselves. I just play them.

And to wrap it all up, Norman promised bad blood in divisional games, and it will get really ugly.

You think the NFC East didnt like each other before? Norman said. This year right here? Theres going to be a lot of fines and maybe some suspensions.Norman hadnt said much all offseason, but he made up for lost time.

Story continues

The entire interview with Dunne is interesting, because Norman is one of the NFLs more interesting players. Norman seems to feed off of creating tension with rival receivers, and hes never one to hold his tongue. While most of the big talk seems to be hyperbolic to get himself going  this is a player who has said he pretends to be a different movie character every game day  its going to be remembered in Dallas and New York. Maybe thats the point.

If you wondered what happened to Norman this offseason, or even if he planned to keep a lower profile, we got an emphatic answer.

Josh Norman and Dez Bryant had words during one meeting last season. (AP)

      

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!


Spring is here and we're happy to report that a hot new bromance is in full bloom.

The newly appointed president of France, Emmanuel Macron, is hitting it off with everyone's favorite Canadian heartthrob, Prime Minister Justin Truedeau, and the world may not be ready for this.

SEE ALSO: People are hilariously confusing Emmanuel Macron for a beloved French cookie

Footage of the two leaders meeting at the G7 summit in Sicily, Italy found its way to our hearts on Friday. In the video, Trudeau, 45, and Macron, 39, take a long bromantic stroll through beautiful, lush, flower-filled shrubbery.

They walked along stone paths side-by-side, chatting about the challenges faced by our generation in French. Macron even picked a freaking flower.

After Macron defeated President Trump during their highly-anticipated handshake battle at their Thursday meeting, it seemed as though the internet's love for him couldn't possibly grow any stronger. But then Macron graced us with this video.

Twitter users were immediately smitten by the dreamy political duo and readily hopped onboard this bromance train. Many began dissecting the relationship and crafting the most beautiful rom-com plots.

Justin Trudeau looks like The Bachelor and Macron has just stolen him away for a second. pic.twitter.com/tXLdSrD02j  Hanna Flint (@HannaFlint) May 26, 2017

Macron and Trudeau's summery stroll in Sicily looks insanely romantic pic.twitter.com/9RZsi7OIJM  Tara Mulholland (@tara_mulholland) May 26, 2017

Get a man who looks at you like Macron & Trudeau look at each other. (You'd probably also settle for a man who looks like Macron or Trudeau) pic.twitter.com/omDa1pjf8A  Tara Mulholland (@tara_mulholland) May 26, 2017

Apparently Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron flew to Sicily for their wedding photoshoot. pic.twitter.com/7trjOsXlfi  tessa (@sherlockify) May 26, 2017

can't believe Justin has proposed already pic.twitter.com/r1kovkdeV5  Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) May 26, 2017

@youngvulgarian omfg I thought Macron picked a flower off the wall to give to Trudeau at the end there  Finn Darby (@FinnTD) May 26, 2017

Let's get an UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN reboot with Trudeau and Macron asap thx pic.twitter.com/p4se5jfHDR  Slade Sohmer (@Slade) May 26, 2017

Macron x Trudeau, the fanfiction pic.twitter.com/jfwXPXzxTQ  Chloe Woitier  (@W_Chloe) May 26, 2017

The Macron Trudeau bromance is giving me serious tween giggles and all the feelz...  Ginnette (@caffeinehusky) May 26, 2017

ATTENTION EVERYONE. The first Macron/Trudeau picture has landed. I repeat: the first Macron/Trudeau picture has landed. pic.twitter.com/mQDSuWSI3K  Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) May 26, 2017

I mean just look at them! Are they not the cutest??! And if you're watching, Donald Trump, take a gander at that friendly AF handshake they're sharing ...

Story continues

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (R) and French President Emmanuel Macron talk during a bilateral meeting as they attend the Summit of the Heads of State and of Government of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union, on May 26, 2017 in Taormina, Sicily. The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the US and Italy will be joined by representatives of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as teams from Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria and Tunisia during the summit from May 26 to 27, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN (Photo credit should read )

Image: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands during a bilateral meeting as they attend the Summit of the Heads of State and of Government of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union, on May 26, 2017 in Taormina, Sicily. The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the US and Italy will be joined by representatives of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as teams from Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria and Tunisia during the summit from May 26 to 27, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN (Photo credit should read STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Image: sTEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Imagess

I'm so sorry, Obama. Your bromance with Trudeau will forever remain in our hearts and diaries, but WE. SHIP. THIS. SO. HARD.
Demetria Obilor, a local traffic anchor in Las Vegas, shared the kind of racist comments she gets for her natural hair. (Photo: Instagram)

On-air news reporters and anchors are pillars of poise. There can be disasters in the world, and mishaps in the newsroom, and they can still get in front of that camera and beam. Thats all the more impressive to us after reading a hurtful, racist letter Las Vegas traffic anchor Demetria Obilor shared on Twitter on Thursday.

The 26-year-old, who gives the morning traffic reports on KLAS 8 News Now, often wears her hair in gorgeous natural curls. As weve seen time and again, when a black woman decides to embrace her features, the trolls come out.

Heres one of the racist, hateful emails Ive received for rocking my natural hair on TV, she wrote, sharing a screen shot of the letter in which a person presumes her hair is unclean and smells bad.

Here's one of the racist, hateful emails I've received for rocking my natural hair on TV. pic.twitter.com/oA8L6gYCyw  Demetria Obilor (@DemetriaObilor) May 25, 2017

The first few times I got emails like that, I was enraged, but I knew if I responded (the way I wanted to) Id probably lose my job, Obilor told Yahoo Beauty via email. And honestly, its not worth going back and forth via email with someone that ignorant. Instead, I tell high school tour groups who stop by the station about these sorts of experiences, so they can prepare themselves for what its going to take to work in this industry, keeping your composure and picking your battles. Theres nothing to be won cursing out some racist fool online  much to lose, though.

Fans (and for someone who reports on traffic, Obilor has quite the following) tweeted back to Obilor with compliments right away.

Im so very grateful for the kindnesses people have shown me, but I think its important to expose the hate to show its not okay, she wrote. When someone suggested she block such people, she explained that she felt a responsibility to share how she deals with them. You can argue with stupid, but kids need to realize that bullying goes on forever, and its all about how u handle it.

Story continues

When ya curls get all stuck in ya lashes ???????? #curls #curlyhair A post shared by Demetria Obilor (@demetriaobilor) on Jan 10, 2017 at 9:57pm PST

Obilor, who is of mixed race, is one of several women of color who have decided not to straighten their hair for television, despite a society that still often sends the message that natural hair is unprofessional.

Ive been working on TV for about four years now, and Ive always worn my natural curly hair, even though, in college, I was told that I would most likely have to straighten it or wear a wig, if I wanted to have an on air career, she told Yahoo. Ive been fortunate enough to be employed by stations that have embraced my natural look, but I know that many black women would have a different story to tell [about their work] in the TV business.

Obilor said that since her post, many people have reached out to her with their own similar stories.

This is the nonsense black women face for just wearing hair as it grows out of heads, Twitter user Janine_J wrote to Obilor.

get right witcha A post shared by Demetria Obilor (@demetriaobilor) on Apr 6, 2017 at 8:44am PDT

In February, Brittany Noble-Jones, an anchor for WJTV in Jackson, Mississippi, went viral by going on air in braids with her natural texture for the first time. This is progress, considering that as recently as 2012, meteorologist Rhonda Lee said she was fired from Louisiana station KTBS for defending her hair on Facebook.

I want people to understand what its like simply being who you are when youre black, Obilor told Yahoo. Some people have the audacity to say things like racism doesnt exist anymore, but that email was a prime example [that it does].

The fight for acceptance continues off the air, too, with teenage girls at the front lines, unfortunately. Last week, a school in Massachusetts was ordered by the state attorney general to change a rule banning braided hair because it targeted black students. This week, a student in Florida was told she needed to stop wearing an Afro because it was too extreme and faddish.

We should not feel uncomfortable or ashamed of our cultural heritage, Nancy Abudu, legal director of the ACLU of Florida, told Yahoo Beauty. Our tone of skin, our texture of hair  these are parts of our identities that should be celebrated. White, dominant culture has no need to celebrate in this same way because its already mainstream. Any departure from that is seen as a threat and a departure from the mainstream idea of beauty.

Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
A 12-year-old girl is the hero of her Wisconsin neighborhood after she fearlessly faced down a man trying to lead away a 4-year-old girl who lives next door, authorities said.

Caylee Carr was outside playing with a group of kids when Jada Miller saw the little girl being grabbed by the man who lives across the street, according to Jeff Carr, Caylees dad.

Read: The Boogeyman in the Backyard: Stats Show Most Abducted Children Know Their Captors

Hes been a problem before, Carr told InsideEdition.com of Benjamin Spasogevich-Lee, 27, who lives in an apartment building across the road in Kenosha.

Hes just really creepy, Carr said.

Jada saw Caylee being walked down the street, and bolted from her front door, Carr said. She grabbed the small girl by the stomach and pulled her away, Carr said.

Come on, Caylee, were going home, Jada said. Caylee turned to the man and said, Ill be right back, her dad recounted. Jada looked at Spasogevich-Lee and said, No, she wont.

Other neighborhood children alerted Caylees parents, who were inside the house.

Carr said he didnt hesitate to call police. Spasogevich-Lee was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and abducting a child. He is being held in lieu of an all-cash $15,000 bond, authorities said.

He insisted he had done nothing wrong, Carr said.

Carr said the man told police he lives with his mother, but Carr said, Ive never actually seen her."

Since he moved into the family-dominated neighborhood three months ago, Spasogevich-Lee has approached the local kids several times, but never when adults were present, Carr said.

He asked a lot of questions about where they went to school, Carr said. He was seen outside in his underwear, Caylees dad said.

He hassled my wife, Carr said, threatening to call the police because she let Caylee walk unaccompanied to get the mail.

Story continues

Carr said he went to the mans apartment and told him to stop hassling my wife. In response, Carr said, Spasogevich-Lee threw his hands up and walked back inside his home.

When police arrived last week after the alleged abduction, Carr said a neighborhood boy told officers the man had previously approached a group of children and started talking about rape and sex.

The kids dont like him, Carr said. They told him to leave them alone.

Read: Abducted 6-Year-Old Girl Found Alive and Her Alleged Kidnapper Is a Sex Offender

Carr and his wife bought Jada a gift card to thank her so she can go and buy whatever she wants. The local Girl Scout troop contacted him because they want to give Jada a medal, he said.

Spasogevich-Lee's next court appearance is a competency hearing scheduled for June 14.

Right now, with him in jail, the whole neighborhood feels so much better with him gone, Carr said.

If the man raises his cash bail, a condition of his release is that he have no contact with anyone under the age of 18, authorities said.

Watch: Hero Medical Student Who Saved Woman From Being Abducted Is Now Doctor

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British police have resumed intelligence-sharing ties with US law enforcement after they were temporarily stopped in a row over leaks about the Manchester bombing investigation.

UK security services were said to be furious as their American counterparts apparently released sensitive information, including pictures of the arena crime scene, to the US media.

The New York Times published pictures which appeared to show parts of the bomb as well as torn fabric from the attacker's rucksack.

The bomber's name, Salman Abedi, was also leaked to the US media despite UK police not wanting it to be released.

British officers said the leaks had caused "distress and upset" to the victims' families.

Prime Minister Theresa May had warned the "special relationship" could be harmed by the repeated leaking of confidential details and raised her concerns with Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels.

Her spokesman said: "She expressed the view that the intelligence-sharing relationship we have with the US is hugely important and valuable, but that the information that we share should be kept secure."

The US President said intelligence leaks related to the Manchester attack in the US were "deeply troubling" and he promised to bring anyone caught leaking intelligence details to justice.

Now, the UK's top anti-terrorism officer, Mark Rowley, confirmed police had "received fresh assurances" from their foreign counterparts and were now "working closely" with them.

Mr Trump had said: "These leaks have been going on for a long time and my administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security.

"I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"There is no relationship we cherish more than the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom."

Defending its decision to publish the pictures, the New York Times said: "The images and information presented were neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims, and consistent with the common line of reporting on weapons used in horrific crimes."
Did First Lady Melania Trump avoid the Presidents hand again as they stepped off Air Force One in Rome? [Photo: Getty]

Donald and Melania Trumps marriage is endlessly scrutinised for signs of trouble, so when Melania appeared  for the second day in a row  to avoid holding her husbands hand, the Internet went wild with speculation.

On Tuesday, the couple landed in Rome as part of a nine-day world peace tour through Saudi Arabia, Israel, and finally Italy, where the pair will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican and visit the Sistine Chapel.

Melania Trump with the casual 'NOPE. Still not touching you' move. ????????????????pic.twitter.com/Hp1Kf0VXuu  Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) May 23, 2017

While walking down the steps of Air Force One onto the tarmac at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino International Airport Tuesday night, the president attempted to hold his wifes hand at the exact moment she reached up to adjust flyaway strands of hair. The presidents hand hung in the air with uncertainty before he placed it on his wifes behind.

Social media, having barely recovered from a Monday incident during which Melania appeared to swat away her husbands hand while walking across the airport tarmac after landing in Israel, took notice.

Oops She Did It Again! Did Melania Trump Reject Donalds Attempt to Hold Her Hand for a https://t.co/8wW9NM4446  Sekinat (@Sekinatlawal081) May 23, 2017

@NerdyWonka It's about time she had some cold ice behavior ???? ???????? and well deserved. He walks away all the time! He's not a gentleman.  kerri (@kerr1320_kerri) May 23, 2017

I'm no fan of Melania Trump, but I have to admit that her instinctual, keep-walking-and-look-straight-ahead hand swat was killer  Gloria Fallon (@GloriaFallon123) May 22, 2017

There seems to be significant strain in their marriage since Donald Trump was elected president, and what I think were seeing in these small exchanges is Melania attempting to stand up for herself, Susan Constantine, a body-language expert who trains law enforcement and the Department of Defense, tells Yahoo Beauty.

Story continues

Whats notable is that these arent private rebuffs  Melania knows that cameras capture her every move, Constantine adds. It seems like shes sending her husband a message that she wont play second-best anymore.

Donald, expecting the weight of Melanias grasp, seems uncertain when she doesnt reciprocate and his hand hangs awkwardly before he places it on her behind, a move Constantine views as alpha-driven. He could have put his hand on the small of her back to guide her down the stairs, she says. Not very respectful.

Donald and Melania Trump step off Air Force One in Italy [Photo: Getty]

Also notable is the distance between the couple  sure, each are capable of walking down a flight of stairs on their own, but theres a distance between their bodies, suggesting that while they move together, theyre very much separate, notes Constantine. By fixing her hair with the hand closest to her husband, Melania seems to reject him  she was looking down and surely noticed his hand reaching out, she says.

The couples relationship has been public fodder largely since their first dance as president and first lady, which was dubbed awkward and bizarre. During a live version of My Way at the Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C., Melania stiffly leaned away from her husbands face and placed her hand flatly on his chest.

On Inauguration Day, when the Trumps arrived at the White House to greet the Obamas, Donald exited the limo and bounded ahead without acknowledging his wife, fuelling rumours of marital strife. That same day, a meme of Melania smiling at her husband with her face melting into a solemn frown when his back was turned, went viral, along with the hashtag #FreeMelania.

For what its worth, the couple was photographed gripping hands at the airport on Monday before departing Saudi Arabia for Italy, suggesting that just like any other couple, they have their ups and downs.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

Did Melania Trump break the rules by showing her legs in Saudi Arabia?

8 things weve learned about Melania Trump since she became First Lady

9 things Vanity Fairs article taught us about Donald and Melania Trumps marriage
During four hard combat tours as a Marine commander, Jake Harriman began to understand why the United States is failing to eradicate violent Islamic extremism.

Individual heroics and immense sacrifice over 16 years have enabled American combat troops and special forces to win their battles with the Taliban, al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Those extremist militias are virtually powerless against U.S. drones and airstrikes, which have killed dozens of senior leaders. But still, jihadist movements persist and grow.

Afghan kids keep joining the Taliban, which controls a growing swath of Afghanistan. ISIS, despite battlefield setbacks, recruits passionate believers in Syria, Afghanistan and Libya, not to mention Manchester, England, and Minneapolis. Extremist militias across Africa, around the Middle East and in Southeast Asia draw volunteers. And terrorism continues.

What Jake Harriman and his fellow Marines saw was that the United States, for all its battlefield prowess, does not recognize or act on the causes of violence.

But the extremists do.

We were going out every night on these snatch-and-grab missions and we began to see we were taking three steps forward, two steps back. The guys we were fighting were out in these villages winning hearts and minds, Harriman, 42, told HuffPost. They were dropping off food, they were building schools, they were building clinics. And yes, they were horribly oppressive. But these vulnerable populations were so impoverished that the parents had no other choices to feed their kids.

Jake Harriman began developing his ideas on what defeats extremists and what doesn't during four combat tours in Iraq and southwest Asia. (Photo: Courtesy of Nuru International)

Standing in dusty battle gear in the desolate Iraqi landscape a decade ago, Harriman was struck by this epiphany: Military force alone isnt going to obliterate extremist violence. In his words, We just cant keep killing our way out of this problem.

Convinced he could do better, Harriman resigned his Marine commission, earned a graduate business degree at Stanford University, formed a company and moved to southwest Kenya. He went into the rural villages where he thought deep poverty might not cause violent extremism, but was likely providing fertile ground for the militias. There, he found impoverished farmers so desperate that they would support or even join al-Shabab, the Somalia-based extremist militia, for whatever help it might offer.

Story continues

Whats different about Harrimans approach from that of traditional aid efforts is that he combines the gritty realism of the warfighter with the data-driven analytics of the business entrepreneur.

Over seven years, Harriman and his Kenyan co-workers have helped organize locally owned and operated cooperatives that enable families to rise above subsistence farming, by marketing their excess crops and saving money in a communal banking system from which they can draw loans to expand their farms. His organization, Nuru International, has aided 85,000 people, he said, and blunted the appeal of the jihadis.

We began to have an impact in these gangs ability to recruit, by giving options to the young men in the villages, Harriman said. Now they could actually feed their families. They could actually have farming as a business. They now had a future  that diminished the gangs abilities to recruit in these rural areas.

Jake Harriman is one of a number of Americans who worked in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones and came away convinced that the United States needs a better plan of engagement for places vulnerable to extremist recruiting. America, they argue, needs to rely less on military power and more on smart power. Lasting change, they say, depends on intimate knowledge of the local population, understanding why people there turn to violence, and designing narrowly focused interventions to help.

Now if they can just get the funding to carry on.

Extreme poverty and malnutrition in parts of Nigeria enable extremist militias such as Boko Haram to attract recruits and support. (Photo: STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

Unlike traditional global development programs, the new reformers are using microdata to document the precise local causes of instability and to measure the impact of the resources invested in specific areas.

In the southern Philippines, former Green Beret Justin Richmond found a farming community where impoverished kids were joining the ISIS affiliate for money. He helped set up a village co-op and invest in a solar dryer for harvested rice and corn. Five tons of produce were saved from rotting and sold, and the profits were re-invested. The next time terrorist recruiters showed up, he said, the townspeople told them to get lost and called in the military.

In Libya, Development Transformations, which has several former members of the U.S. military among its leadership team, monitors the social media of extremist militias. With the aid of data processing and analysis firms ZignalLabs and DEV Results, the Washington, D.C.-based group designs counter-messaging initiatives and tracks any resulting change in local attitudes.

You dont just want to know that the enemy is there, but why he is there, said M. Shands Pickett, a company director who spent three years in Afghanistan as part of U.S. military intelligence and counterterrorism operations. If you shoot him in the face, there are more coming, and there is an infinite supply of enemy and a finite supply of us, he told HuffPost.

But if you can begin to answer why the enemy is there and understand the sources of instability in that particular place, then you dont have to shoot so many of them in the face, said Pickett.

This generation of war-hardened activists sees their work not necessarily as a replacement for military intervention, but as a critical element of the larger U.S. strategy. Their ideas are not entirely new, but theyve struggled to gain the ear of the national security establishment.

Some people listened. In 2008, for instance, State Department experts and special forces soldiers were teaching counterinsurgency techniques at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to troops bound for Iraq and Afghanistan. Thomas Baltazar, a retired special forces colonel working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, told the troops that it was part of their mission to listen closely to the local people in order to learn why a town was dominated by insurgents and to figure out what to do about it. Tie your actions to the root causes of instability, he said.

In 2010, Army Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn (yes, that Michael Flynn), then a senior intelligence officer in Afghanistan, wrote a stinging critique of the militarys failure to collect and act on information about the local drivers of violence and insurgent influence. Lethal targeting alone will not help U.S. and allied forces win in Afghanistan, he wrote.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

For years, however, these ideas were overwhelmed by the more urgent push to defeat the enemy on the battlefield. Attacking the root causes of war was relegated to a lower priority. It was too hard to figure out, some combat commanders said, and it took too long. With deployments lasting a year or less, there was no incentive to invest in a project that might take five years to pay off.

Not understanding the culture  we continue to make that mistake over and over, in Vietnam, in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Brendan Mulvaney, a former Marine helicopter gunship pilot and foreign area officer who teaches at the U.S. Air Force Air War College and the National Defense University.

He led a recent study for the Army on how we screwed up in Iraq and how not to do that again. It requires having people outside the typical military planning process, looking from a social-political-economic-cultural lens, he said.

That work can still be dangerous. If you are helping people build stability, you are taking power away from insurgents, said a special forces officer just returned from Afghanistan. Mother Teresa would have been beheaded out there.

But now, as Washington wrestles with how to bring Americas longest wars to a successful close, acceptance of this smart-power approach is growing within the military. At the training base in Twentynine Palms, California, Marines are learning to analyze the particular local drivers of violence and to bring nonlethal resources to bear against those trends. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis  who is a mentor to Jake Harriman  has spoken out in favor of more nonlethal programs. And in February, 121 retired generals and admirals appealed to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to reject Trump administration proposals to slash State Department funding.

Families fleeing violence in Syria, here huddled around a fire at a makeshift camp in Slovenia in 2015, are easy prey for extremists who promise food, shelter and adventure. (Photo: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)

Theres already too little government support for tackling the underlying causes of violence. People always say the right things about conflict prevention, but actually getting the resources is a hard thing, a senior U.S. official told HuffPost, acknowledging that his ability to support the work of Richmond, Harriman and others is shrinking.

The Trump administration has not yet released its new national security strategy, promised months ago, so its not known how Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plan to balance raw military force with a smart-power focus on causes of conflict. The Trump budget, issued this week, would slash funds for nonlethal intervention  although Congress has already made clear it wont blindly accept his plan.

Defense Department officials are currently allowed to transfer funds from their own combat operations to more diplomatic programs funded by the State Department. There is a limit to those transfers: $75 million, out of the Pentagons $606 billion budget this year.

That leaves Jake Harriman seeking private financing to expand his work into northern Nigeria, where communities are threatened by the extremist group Boko Haram. So far, his most reliable funding has come from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Right now were trying to elevate the visibility of this problem to get the Defense Department and State to collaborate more effectively to tackle these violent extremist groups, he said, adding, All we need is the funding.

Jake Harriman talks to agriculture field manager James Magaigwa Chacha in Kenya. Nuru's development projects are locally owned and operated. (Photo: Courtesy of Nuru International)

Federal money for similar programs hangs in the balance, and some organizations have already gone elsewhere for support.

In Somalia, researchers for Mercy Corps, an international humanitarian aid agency, found that kids were more likely to support violence if they were in school. A Mercy Corps program helped improve the quality of the schools, trained children in team-building and leadership skills, and got them involved in student-led community action programs such as hygiene education campaigns. Researchers subsequently reported a 14 percent drop in the likelihood of youth participating in political violence and a 20 percent drop in youth supporting violence.

The program in Somalia is underwritten by USAID, which, like the rest of the State Department, would see its budget drop by one-third in Trumps spending plan. It is unclear whether Congress will defend those funds.

In Iraq, where intense fighting has managed to clear ISIS from cities like Fallujah and much of Mosul, the U.S. has supported short-term stabilization programs that have helped 1.7 million people return to their homes, according to Brett McGurk, special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition. Much of that effort has involved clearing mines and unexploded ordnance.

Longer-term work to prevent a return to violence is being left to non-governmental organizations. For instance, Mercy Corps has trained 87 community leaders in dispute resolution, mediation and negotiation to defuse local conflicts between religious sects, landowners, political candidates, even between rival army and police units. Development Transformations is setting up a network of grassroots groups to monitor and head off retribution attacks against Iraqis suspected of having collaborated with the extremists. The latter is being funded by Canada.

The value of such investments in building stability may be hard to measure, but not impossible. Were running this as a business, said Harriman. His team in Kenya has trained local participants to track indicators of success, such as increases in crop yields, group savings, micro-lending and loan repayments, declines in infant mortality, completion of literacy classes and leadership training.

This is a 5-, 10-, 15-year strategy, Harriman concedes. But he is eager to take the model hes tested in Kenya and expand into Nigeria and beyond.

Our enemy, the violent extremist groups, are innovating at a rapid speed, he said. We have to get ahead of these guys and reach these vulnerable populations before they do.

Language has been adjusted to better explain the results of a Mercy Corps program in Somalias schools.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
The day before the special election to fill Montana's single House seat, Republican candidate Greg Gianforte allegedly assaulted and "body slammed" Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs for asking him a question about the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the Republican American Health Care Act. Audio of the incident quickly went viral. A Fox News camera crew corroborated Jacobs' account of the altercation, which greatly differed from the description in the statement issued by Gianforte's campaign. Gianforte eventually was charged with assault just hours before the polls opened.

Gianforte, who is running against Democrat Rob Quist to fill the House seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, is no stranger to Montanians, having lost last year's gubernatorial race to Democrat Steve Bullock.

To understand who Greg Gianforte is, and how the bizarre incident could impact Thursday's election, International Business Time's David Sirota talked to Eric Stern, a longtime Montana political strategist and adviser to both Bullock and Montana's previous governor, Democrat Brian Schwietzer. Stern also has served as a political columnist for Salon.com. Audio of the conversation is available below.

What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation.

Sirota: You live in Montana, you live in Helena, for people who don't know, who is Greg Gianforte?

Stern: Greg Gianforte is a person who came to Montana in the early '90s from the East Coast and he started a software company, which he sold in 2011 to the Oracle Corp. for almost $3 billion. So on that side, he is a Silicon Valley type. Massively successful. He probably walked away with close to $1 billion for himself. But he's also a very religious man. He's an ultra-religious Christian. He builds religious schools. He and his wife have fought very hard against nondiscrimination ordinances designed to protect gay and lesbian people in Montana towns and cities. They have opposed those types of things on religious grounds. So he's this sort of paradox, and he ran for governor unsuccessfully in 2016 and tried to knock off the incumbent, Steve Bullock, and failed. And then it looked like he wasn't going to do much of anything, but then Ryan Zinke vacated the congressional seat because he was chosen by Trump to be interior secretary, and so Gianforte kept running. He was now running for Congress instead of governor.

Story continues

Sirota: And now he's like the most ridiculous person 

Stern: This is the most bizarre incident. Everyone has always known that he had a short temper because you could hear it in the interviews he did with liberal reporters in places like Montana public radio. And you would often hear it. It would sort of bubble up a little bit. When this happened, I wasn't surprised. What was surprising is that it happened 24 hours before an election day on which he is projected to win because the polls were showing him leading by anywhere from 8 to 14 points. There's never really been a poll showing it very close.

Sirota: He's been massively outspending the Democrat.

Stern: He probably outspent his opponent by, I would say, in the end when you add up both piles of money I would say that you'll probably be looking at four or five to one Republicans and Gainforte outspending Democrats and Rob Quist. And Rob Quist has never run for Congress before, never run for office before. He's a musician. He walks around with a cowboy hat and kind of a scarf tie, and he is an interesting guy. He struggled in this campaign. They did a lot of good opponent research on Quist, and they made it tough for him, and there were all sorts of nasty articles in newspapers about his, you know, unpaid taxes and unpaid bills. But there is a huge enthusiasm gap right now. Rob Quist is drawing, literally, hundreds and sometimes thousands to his events. And Gianforte 

Sirota: And thousands of people in Montana is huge, because there are not that many people in Montana.

Stern: People marched on the capital three or four months ago. Which is something we've never seen in Montana at all. Those were all Democrats. So, you know, there is an enormous enthusiasm gap right now. And Republicans never really liked Gianforte that much. He's not really a Montana archetype. The attack on him, which Democrats have used, I don't care for it, but they do use it, is that he is quote-unquote an "out of stater." Meaning that he came from someplace else. So that attack unfortunately with Gianforte resonates with some of his own voters. It's something that resonates with Republicans probably more than Democrats when people come from New York and California and settle in Montana. And of course it takes one to know one, because I did it too.

Sirota: Well look, I lived up in Montana, too, and I remember when we worked with Brian Schweitzer years and years ago, Brian was the nine billionth generation Montana and that was a whole part of his story.

Stern: And that's exactly the talking point that Rob Quist the Democrat is using  third-generation, parents and grandparents were ranchers. That is the thing you do to get votes in Montana. And it's probably becoming less and less resonant with every year that goes on because nowadays I think 55 percent of people who are in Montana were not born in Montana. So that's changed. The state is changing somewhat, in many ways.

Sirota: Let's go to the question of whether an incident like this hurts Gianforte among voters. I know we are only hours away from the polls being closed. But there's this huge thing on Twitter, everyone's going nuts, the audio comes out and there are questions about assaulting journalists, and we can get into that, but first and foremost, do you think this matters to anybody in Montana?

RTX37IKH

Photo: Reuters

Stern: It does matter. The way in which it might not matter is as follows: Montanans vote absentee, meaning by mail, in high numbers. So generally speaking by the time Election Day rolls around you will have had close to 70 percent of voters having already submitted their vote. And so, with only 30 or maybe 35 percent of the vote still to be done on Election Day, the question is if, in fact, Gianforte was doing as well as the polls suggested he might, is that outstanding vote enough, even if it's been influenced by this event, to make a difference?

I've been around Montana politics a long time. I've run statewide races. It's a very tough thing to figure out until after it's over. It's just very hard to predict. I think that this one will have some effect because every front page of every newspaper is going to have this in bold letters, and several newspapers have withdrawn their endorsements: the Billings Gazette, the Missoulian from Missoula. These papers not only withdrew their endorsements, they're going to have front page articles saying so and strongly condemning Greg Gianforte, and effectively endorsing his opponent because when you do that you're effectively saying you need to vote for the other guy.

Sirota: Do you think we should read anything deeper into this beyond Greg Gianforte is a spaz?

Stern: This gets back to what I was saying before. I described it jokingly to someone as seemingly like something verging on temporary insanity. When you have one day to go and somebody is asking you a question, which is a boiler plate question  Ben Jacobs was asking about the American Health Care Act, the new act making its way through Congress. It was the most boring question. It was about whether he has a response to the new Congressional Budget Office score.

Sirota: That's the thing. Can I just stop you there? If you lose it over somebody asking you about a CBO report, it suggests you've got deeper problems.

Stern: Not only that, but this is a reporter who writes for the Guardian. There aren't a lot of readers of the Guardian in Montana and a good deal of Montanians probably don't even know that there is a Guardian. I mean, it's not really something that I'm even that familiar with. It's a foreign entity with a U.S. presence now.

Sirota: But that was the weirdest part of the story to me. There was some reference that I heard somebody make that was like "Gianforte was upset with a previous video" or something or another story that the Guardian had done. And I was kind of like "Dude, you're campaigning in Montana. Why are you focused on that?"

Stern: As I said before, he has a temper. He has a very deep dislike of reporters who pepper him with tough questions. He has not ever learned to deal with it with grace. It is something that's tough, and not everybody can do it so easily. And it's something he has struggled with. He might perhaps have anger management problems. I don't know. It's a speculation on my part. But I must tell you that it was, and David you've known me for a long time, I was deeply unsettled when I heard the audiotape. It made me very uncomfortable. I heard it three times, and even on the third time there is something about it that is very visceral and is really uncomfortable to listen to. This is a person who is completely losing it in the moment, and I think that is something that voters really need to know about and need to hear about tomorrow if they haven't already. And I do think it should influence, and I think it will influence, people's opinion of the candidate and again, whether it's going to make the difference who knows? Remember, Eric Cantor when he was the House majority leader in Congress?

In his primary, the polls showed him leading by 30 and he lost by 12 on Election Day. Why? Because none of his voters showed up. The only people that showed up to vote were for the other guy. So there was just a complete failure by all pundits and all polls to project the vote. What the Quist campaign is hoping for is that the turnout consists overwhelmingly of enthusiastic Democrats and that Republicans just aren't really interested because the president is struggling and because Gianforte is struggling and because Gianforte does not really generate that much enthusiasm among Republicans to begin with.

Sirota: And look, you've worked in national politics and you've worked in media, do you think there is a tendency, in a sense, to over read this? I've heard some people say "well you know Donald Trump has been demonizing the press, and says the press is the enemy of the people, and now Gianforte body slamming is part of it ..."

Stern: By the way, you say body slamming, the Washington Post reported it as he punched him in the face. The Fox News reporter who was at the scene said that Gianforte grabbed him by the neck, threw him down and punched him. My guess is that he punched him multiple times.

Sirota: Yes, and they quoted some WWF professional wrestler saying actually the technical term is "choke slam." I said, by the way, earlier that the one silver lining of all of this is that the term "body slam" has been resurrected from my 11-year-old WWF fandom.

Stern: Just so you know, Ben Jacobs called me the night before and said he was coming to Montana. And I know him from having worked with him from various times he would call me and get my opinion or have the governor speak on the record or whatever. I didn't want to do the interview with him because I was busy, but I said: "Listen, this race is not that exciting lately. I'm kind of hoping for it to be over soon." So that was the extent of our conversation. And the next thing I know, somebody texts me [about the alleged assault].

Look, people sometimes lose their cool. It is very difficult to be under the lights. It doesn't make you a bad person because you lose your temper. People do it. People make mistakes. But I think the bigger problem goes to what you were just saying about Trump, and about the narrative about the media in this country. This was a visceral hatred of a young man sitting there just putting a recorder up to him and saying, "I'd like your comment on a current issue." It was just a hatefulness that you hear. And I would encourage everybody who is listening to this podcast, if they haven't already done so, to listen to the recording and David perhaps he can play it on the podcast.

Sirota: I will.

Stern: It is really frightening and how angry and how hateful this guy is of a reporter who is doing his job, and it's not even a tough question. There's no such thing as a tough question if you know the question is coming.

Sirota: That's the part that was so disturbing to me.

Stern: The tough questions are the curve balls. You didn't see it coming and you think: "Oh my God. I've got to think of an answer fast."

Sirota: Again, that was the thing that was disturbing to me, like I've been around reporters when reporters are being aggressive and they're sort of jostling and really in somebody's face. The dialogue you hear on this is like, OK, he kind of pressed him a little bit. "You're saying no. I'm running out of"  there's some timing issue. And then the guy just exploded like crazy.

Stern: He absolutely  he exploded. And I think the part that you've got to be concerned about is he might not have even been aware of what he was doing. Because if you're 24 hours away from something that by all accounts is supposed to be a victory, you should be in great spirits. And this guy jumped someone and started attacking him physically. That's the place where I think you have to draw the line and say, "There might be something wrong, seriously wrong, with this man." And that's why I think it is very important for voters to really, really think about this thing tomorrow, read the news, listen to the audio and make the decision for themselves.

Sirota: So let me ask one last question then. It's kind of a disturbing question. I think Ben Jacobs had written a story that Gianforte didn't like before and some conservatives didn't like, and you've seen some on the right, on social media and the like, say, "Well if a reporter writes a bad story, a bullying story, you should expect to face some sort of retribution." I guess my question is how much do you think, among Montana voters, some people will perceive this to be like "Yeah, the guy got what he deserved"? Is there a sentiment there?

Stern: Anybody who is a big Trump supporter, you're already seeing it on Twitter and social media, these guys think it's great. The hardcore partisans think it's the greatest thing they've ever heard. He jumped a member of the liberal media, and he beat him up. And you know, you're not going to persuade those people. I do think there are always plenty of independent, persuadable voters who vote in Montana. We have one of the largest independent votes of any state in America. You know that because you and I worked on several campaigns together. There will absolutely be people who change their opinion going to the polls tomorrow. And the question is, is it enough to make a change in the race? And I wish I knew the answer. But I try never to make prophecies, especially about the future. (Laughs).

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Former Southern wide receiver Devon Gales is making some awesome progress in his rehab.

Gales, who was paralyzed in 2015 after a hit on a kickoff vs. Georgia, posted a video of himself taking steps on Thursday.

Gales suffered a broken sixth cervical vertebra when he collided with Georgia kicker Marshall Morgan during a game between Southern and Georgia on Sep. 26, 2015.

Throught the grueling process Gales has been an inspiration with his positive outlook. He offered up this memorable quote after he was released from Atlantas Shepherd Center in February of 2016 after months of inpatient rehab.

Basically this is just a temporary setback, Gales said. But its not a setback, its another blessing. I know Im going walk out. I know Im going to have a testimony that I will speak on.

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Devon Gales (L) was paralyzed in September 2015. (AP)

      

Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Marawi (Philippines) (AFP) - Philippine security forces bombed residential areas in a southern city on Thursday as they battled Islamist militants who were holding hostages and reported to have murdered at least 11 civilians.

An initial rampage by gunmen who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group through the mainly Muslim city of Marawi on Tuesday prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to impose martial law across the southern third of the Philippines.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because, although there were only 30 to 40 remaining gunmen, the militants were moving nimbly through homes, had planted bombs in the streets and were holding hostages.

Intense gunfighting could be heard constantly throughout the day, according to an AFP reporter in the city, and the military said it had dropped bombs on residential neighbourhoods.

"We are using surgical airstrikes," local military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera told reporters in Marawi shortly before big clouds of black smoke rose from a bombed area near the provincial government building.

Most of Marawi's 200,000 residents had fled the city, which is about 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Manila, but Herrera said those who remained had been warned to get out of the areas where there was bombing and fighting.

"We are requesting our people in Marawi to go to safe places... and to stay indoors," he said.

Eleven soldiers, two policemen and 31 militants have died in the three days of fighting, according to authorities. Thirty-nine soldiers have been wounded, the military said.

Herrera said two civilians had also been killed inside a hospital that the gunmen had occupied on Tuesday, and the military was investigating reports that nine people had been murdered at a checkpoint the militants had set up.

Local GMA television network showed images of nine bullet-riddled bodies lying in a field with their hands tied together.

Story continues

SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadists online, said IS claimed killing more than 70 soldiers in Marawi and 10 more in the remote southern island of Jolo. The claims could not be independently confirmed.

Duterte said on Wednesday that one of the policemen killed was caught at a checkpoint set up by the militants, then beheaded.

The militants are also holding between 12 and 15 Catholic hostages abducted from a church, according to the local bishop, Edwin Dela Pena.

- Failed raid -

The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.

The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.

The raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then went on a rampage across the city while flying black IS flags.

The gunmen belonged to the Maute group, which along with Hapilon's faction of the Abu Sayyaf, had pledged allegiance to IS, authorities said.

The militants raided two jails, leading to the escape of more than 100 inmates, according to Mujiv Hataman, the governor of a Muslim self-rule area that includes Marawi.

They also set fire to many buildings, including a church and a university.

An enraged Duterte, who was in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, declared martial law shortly after the fighting erupted and cut short his trip to fly home and deal with the crisis.

"It is brutality, cruelty," Duterte said on Wednesday after flying back to Manila.

- Rise of IS -

Duterte said martial law was required throughout the southern region of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, to stop the rising threat of hardline militants aligned to IS.

Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an independent or autonomous homeland in Mindanao, with the conflict claiming more than 120,000 lives.

The main Muslim rebel groups are now involved in peace talks with the government.

But the Abu Sayyaf, Maute and other hardline groups want to set up an Islamic caliphate in the south for IS, according to Duterte and security analysts.

Duterte said Wednesday he may impose martial law throughout the country if he believed the terrorism threat was spreading.

The president, who has waged a controversial war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives, warned martial law would be "harsh" and similar to military rule imposed by dictator Ferdinand Marcos a generation ago.
Donald Trump and his family/advisors met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Wednesday on a stop of the president's first foreign trip. While plenty of online jokes came from the meeting and photographs with a stone-faced pope, it sounds like the pope and first lady were in on the laughs.

SEE ALSO: Next up on Pete Souza's Trump trolling list: The Pope

A pool report from a gift exchange between the Trumps and Pope Francis (POTUS received three documents, including Pope Francis' 2015 climate change encyclical) included a sassy comment from the pope to the first lady.

The pope asked her, through a translator: "What do you give him to eat, potizza?" She responded with a chuckle that she did.

The initial report quoted the pope asking if she fed POTUS pizza (when in Rome...or at least nearby), but it was later amended. He'd asked about potizza, a Slovenian pastry from Melania's home country.

This exchange piles on to Melania's hand-swatting and refusal to hold Trump's hand during their trip. She is on a tear, shutting down Trump everywhere the pair goes.

For the latest papal incident, here's the online peanut gallery:

Pizza

Potizza

Postica



I don't know. I've seen all three. But the bottom line is, Pope Francis joked about Trump's weight. Mortifying. pic.twitter.com/CKogEXuOlo  April (@ReignOfApril) May 24, 2017

The art of the joke by @Pontifex.



Francis: "What do you give him to eat, Potizza?" (Potizza = Slovenian holiday pastry.)



*Melania laughs*  Alt. Sean Spicer (@AltUSPressSec) May 24, 2017

The @Pontifex asking Melania Trump if she is feeding @realDonaldTrump #potizza....so rich   natascha adama (@nataschaadama) May 24, 2017

And just like that, the pope and FLOTUS now have an inside joke.
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made a pre-inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof communications line with the Kremlin, The Washington Post reported Friday evening.

Kushner, a close adviser to Trump, went so far as to suggest using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States to protect such a channel from being monitored, The Post said, quoting US officials briefed on intelligence reports.

The revelation is yet another sensational element in the deluge of allegations raising questions about the Trump team's relationship with the Russians, who US intelligence agencies say tried to sway the November election in Trump's favor and thus deny Hillary Clinton the presidency.

And it ensures that Trump will be thrust back into the din of the Russia scandal upon his return to Washington this weekend following his first foreign trip, a tour of the Middle East and Europe.

The Washington Post said the secret communications proposal was made December 1 or 2 at Trump Tower in New York, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by US officials.

Michael Flynn, who would become Trump's national security adviser before being fired 24 days into the job for not telling the truth about meetings he held with the Russian ambassador, was also at the meeting, The Post reported.

The Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, was surprised by Kushner's idea of the secret channel and passed it on to the Kremlin, the Post said. It did not specify what came of Kushner's alleged pitch, if anything.

The White House did not immediately comment on the report.

Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC, that not disclosing such contacts "raises a lot of questions."

"If it's true that somebody did ask for some kind of private line, some kind of mode of communication that was secure, that was unusual, boy does that raise a whole bunch of questions."

Story continues

Besides the Kushner developments, which strikes at Trump's core by drawing his family into the crisis, the White House also faces a cascade of other worries in the coming week.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has "asked President Trumps political organization to gather and produce all Russia-related documents, emails and phone records going back to his campaigns launch in June 2015," The Post reported. There was no immediate White House reaction.

Fired former FBI director James Comey has promised to testify at an open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee, sometime after Monday's Memorial Day holiday.

The White House staff itself could be facing upheaval. CBS News reported that Trump is expected to consider plans for a shakeup of his communications operation upon his return.

And Oleg Deripaska, a Russian once close to Trump's former campaign manager, has offered to cooperate with congressional bodies probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, The New York Times reported Friday.

- Kushner at center stage -

But Kushner, a 36-year-old real estate developer who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is likely to take center stage in the coming days.

Reserved in public, he was on prominent view during Trump's first presidential trip, as befits a trusted behind-the-scenes adviser involved in everything from Middle East peace to an initiative to streamline the US bureaucracy.

The Post reported earlier that investigators are focusing on meetings he held in December with Moscow's ambassador and the head of a Russian bank that has been under US sanctions since 2014.

Kushner has offered to talk to Congress about these meetings, according to his lawyer Jamie Gorelick.

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Kushner is the only person currently in the White House known to be under investigation.

- Russia contacts -

At least four other former campaign aides or advisers have been reported to be under FBI scrutiny as well -- Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, sometime Trump adviser Roger Stone, and ex-campaign adviser Carter Page.

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Trump has denied any collusion, calling the probe "the greatest witch hunt" in American political history.

Former CIA director John Brennan revealed this week that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.

The Senate and House Intelligence Committees also are investigating, but not with an eye to bringing criminal charges.

In early December, after Trump had won the elections, Kushner and Flynn met in New York with Kislyak.

Kushner also met that month with Sergei Gorkov, chairman of VneshEconomBank, the state bank under US sanctions since July 2014.

Both those meetings have since been publicly acknowledged by the White House, but Kushner initially failed to declare them on forms submitted to obtain a security clearance.

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Trump's Ramadan statement mentions terrorism quite a bit: AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump has issued his first statement commemorating Ramadan as president, and fit mentions of terrorism into nearly half of it.

Mr Trump, who started his first foreign trip in a Muslim country, wished all Muslims a joyful Ramadan, and said that the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict." He also noted that Ramadan was starting at a time when the world "mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan."

The president has been talking about the need for counter-terrorism efforts frequently lately, and this week urged Nato allies in Moscow to commit to fighting against Isis in Syria. The recent bombings in Manchester that left 22 dead and dozens more wounded has only added urgency to Mr Trump's strong anti-terror rhetoric.

But some on the internet were quick to note that Mr Trump's Ramadan statement contrasted significantly with the statement released by former President George W Bush when Ramadan came just two months after the September 11 terror attacks in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people. Mr Bush at that time wrote of the diversity in Muslim communities, and of the teachings of Islam to be charitable, extend mercy, and search for peace.

Although the United States had sent troops to Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks a month earlier, Mr Bush still did not connect terrorism to the Islamic faith in his Ramadan statement. He instead noted that the US was "proud to play a leading role in the humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan, through airdrops and truck convoys of food, medicine, and other much-needed supplies."

Heres Mr Trump's whole statement.

On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan.

Story continues

During this month of fasting from dawn to dusk, many Muslims in America and around the world will find meaning and inspiration in acts of charity and meditation that strengthen our communities. At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict.

This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan. Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.

On my recent visit to Saudi Arabia, I had the honour of meeting with the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations. There, in the land of the two holiest sites in the Muslim world, we gathered to deliver together an emphatic message of partnership for the sake of peace, security, and prosperity for our countries and for the world.

I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh: America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it. During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace.

I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramadan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families.
Wealthy Montana Republican Greg Gianforte won his states only seat in the House of Representatives on Thursday despite facing a criminal charge for attacking a reporter a day earlier.

After his victory, Gianforte apologized to Guardian journalist Ben Jacobs by name and vowed to never embarrass fellow Montanans again.

Last night I learned a lesson, Gianforte said. I need to share something from my heart here, and I ask you to bear with me. When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. Thats the Montana way. Last night I made a mistake and I took an action that I cant take back. And Im not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that, Im sorry.

Jacobs had accused Gianforte of body-slamming him and breaking his glasses as the reporter attempted to interview him during a volunteer barbecue. Eyewitnesses corroborated Jacobs account. The Guardian also released audio of the incident in which Gianforte can be heard screaming, Get the hell out of here! He was charged with misdemeanor assault and is scheduled to appear in court next month.

The episode turned the national spotlight on Montanas congressional race and raised questions about the customary treatment of elected officials facing criminal charges. Yahoo News contacted several experts on Congress for their thoughts.

There is little likelihood that the charges will prevent Gianforte from taking his seat or keep him from serving. Experts say the episode could hinder his advancement in Congress, for the sake of appearances. But House Speaker Paul Ryan has already said he would not take action to hinder Gianfortes progress and that Congress would respect the will of the people.

The people of Montana are going to decide today who they want to send to Congress, Ryan said on Thursday. If he wins, hes been chosen by the people of Montana.

Greg Gianforte apologizes during his victory speech for becoming involved in an altercation with a reporter. (Photo: Colter Peterson/Reuters)

Mark Harkins, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute of Georgetown University, said that the House has no choice but to seat Gianforte because of the Supreme Courts decision in Powell v. McCormack in the early 70s.

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The court ruled that the House can only exclude a member (meaning not swearing them in) if they dont meet the constitutional requirements for office. In the case of the House of Representatives, the requirements are to be at least 25 years old, a U.S. citizen and a resident of the state they represent. However, the Constitution says a member can be expelled with a two-thirds vote in the House.

To put it simply: it doesnt really matter if the persons been found guilty of something  you have to seat him or her first. One can argue about absentee ballots cast before the attack, but the facts remain: Gianforte meets the criteria and Montana has spoken.

The upshot is that theyre going to have to seat him constitutionally. Then the political process takes over and Republican leadership has the unenviable task of figuring out how they want to mete out discipline, Harkins told Yahoo News.

Harkins said it would surprise him greatly if he were to be thrown out of office because the charge is only a misdemeanor and it doesnt directly involve his official actions or duties.

Josh Chafetz, a professor of law at Cornell Law School, agrees. He doesnt expect the charge to affect Gianfortes political career much, if at all.

I dont really know how common it is, but the fact that its a misdemeanor makes me think it wont have much of an impact at all, he told Yahoo News. If hes smart, hell negotiate a plea for community service or something like that and get it out of the way relatively quickly.

Gianforte speaking to Republican delegates before a candidate forum in Helena, Mont., in March. (Photo: Matt Volz/AP)

Harkins pointed out that the U.S. has a sitting member of Congress, Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who had been impeached as a federal judge for taking bribes in the late 80s.

He was actually convicted by the House of Representatives, which was at that time run by the Democrats. He said, Screw you, Im running, and became a member of Congress, Harkins explained. The first thing he did was get on the judiciary committee and sat among the people who wrote the articles of impeachment against him  a little awkward.

The Gianforte situation is peculiar in that the assault took place so soon before an election. Harkins said voters would usually be responsible for ensuring that someone under indictment is not elected.

David Lublin, a government professor at American University and a fellow of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, pointed out that freshmen in the House are relatively obscure and that Gianforte is now the lowest in seniority in the entire body.

Not only is he going to get a terrible office probably, hes going to I think get assigned to particularly obscure committees. House leadership is not going to do anything to promote his prominence. If he becomes more prominent, it only promotes the story, which they are going to want to disappear, Lublin told Yahoo News.

Lublin said the important questions have to do with the handling of his case in Montana. Now that hes a member of Congress, Lublin said, law enforcement officials will be under scrutiny to assure hes not given special treatment. The outcome will depend in part on Jacobs and the media.

My guess is that the media as a whole will not be sympathetic to someone who literally beat up one of their members. And the Guardian is not an obscure paper. It will continue to cover this, he said.

Lublin said its more common for legislators to face criminal charges in countries like India, where theres a lot of corruption. But, as Vox columnist Jeff Stein points out, it has happened in the U.S. as well: Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., and Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Ark., were all indicted while serving.

Its unusual for elected officials to be arrested for assault, on journalists or anyone else, but its not without precedent.

W. Joseph Campbell, a professor of communications at American University, said the Gianforte fiasco reminds him of Sen. Joe McCarthy physically assaulting Drew Pearson, a prominent syndicated columnist, in the cloakroom of the fashionable Sulgrave Club in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s. As Campbell writes in his book Getting It Wrong, Pearson had been one of the first journalists to call out McCarthy for his overzealous persecution of suspected Communists in government  and McCarthy didnt take kindly to that criticism.

But unlike Gianforte, McCarthy wasnt charged in the attack.

There were no sanctions against McCarthy for his conduct, Campbell told Yahoo News. Pearson wasnt the most popular guy in Washington. He wrote this column that skewered just about everybody. Nonetheless, it was a physical assault and there were no repercussions for the senator. Amazing  by todays standards, there wouldve been severe repercussions.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Taormina (Italy) (AFP) - G7 leaders on Friday found common cause on combatting terrorism after the bloodshed in Manchester but failed to bridge a gulf between Donald Trump and US partners on trade and climate change.

On the opening day of a two-day summit, the leaders endorsed a British call urging internet service providers and social media companies to crack down on the dissemination of jihadist content online, after 22 people were killed in the concert bombing in northwest England this week.

But US partners hit deadlock in their attempt to persuade Trump to keep the world's biggest economy inside the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement on curbing carbon emissions to reduce global warming.

Tensions over trade also flared. Unusually for such a set-piece event, leaders made no effort to hide their divisions in Sicily's ancient hilltop resort of Taormina.

The choice of venue overlooking the Mediterranean reflected the Italian hosts' desire for the summit to showcase cooperation against deadly flows of illegal migration from nearby Africa.

But discussions on that subject also hit stalemate because of differences with the US at what EU president Donald Tusk called "the most challenging G7 summit in years".

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni acknowledged there had been no breakthrough on climate change, describing the future of the Paris pact as "still hanging", as Trump reviews the arguments for and against ditching the global deal.

Gary Cohn, Trump's economic advisor, said the president's views were "evolving".

"He came here to learn," Cohn said. "His basis for decision ultimately will be what's best for the United States."

- 'Bad, very bad' -

British Prime Minister Theresa May led the discussion on terrorism, and won backing for her demand that extremist content should be quickly taken offline by platforms like Facebook and YouTube -- although details of what this will mean in practice were left vague.

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"Make no mistake: the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," May told her colleagues.

In a joint statement on terrorism, the G7 powers also vowed a collective effort to track down and prosecute foreign fighters dispersing from theatres of conflict such as Syria.

Transatlantic tensions on trade resurfaced after reports that Trump had described the Germans as "bad, very bad" and vowed to stop them selling millions of cars in the United States, during a meeting with senior EU officials in Brussels on Thursday.

Also in Brussels, Trump had fired an extraordinary broadside at NATO allies for failing to pay their fair share of the transatlantic defence bill, and notably did not endorse the group's commitment to collective defence, as his predecessors have done.

Both US and EU officials confirmed the outspoken president had raised the auto trade issue but sought to play down the language used, as Trump shared friendly words with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders at the G7.

Merkel said that Trump's criticism was "not really something new".

"The surplus is also a sign of the good quality of German goods," she said.

Trump rode to power on an "America First" platform but has yet to implement any significant protectionist measures, as the EU had feared he would.

"We are going to continue to fight for what we believe is right, which is free, open and fair trade, which the president has been very clear on what that means," Cohn said.

- Russia row -

For Trump, the talks were the final leg of his first presidential foray overseas.

The gruelling week-long trip briefly diverted attention from domestic concerns focused on alleged campaign collusion with Russia.

But that issue reared up again overnight as it emerged the FBI is examining his son-in-law Jared Kushner's contacts with the Russian ambassador in connection with the probe of alleged interference in the election campaign by Moscow.

Trump has refused to commit the United States to extending sanctions imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea. But Cohn said neither would the sanctions be curtailed, as Moscow hopes.

"If anything we would probably look to get tougher on Russia," the economic aide said.

In other talks, France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, gave short shrift to May's request for Brexit-bound Britain and the EU to negotiate their future trading relationship at the same time as they thrash out the terms of their divorce.

Japan meanwhile was using the summit to air its concerns about North Korea. Meeting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sicily, Trump bullishly promised the problem posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes "will be solved".
Scientists expected to see an enormous star explode in a supernova but they may have watched it collapse into a black hole instead.

NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center said astronomers spotted something fishy with the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona and the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes when they trained the equipment in the direction of the star  or rather they didnt spot anything; the star had simply disappeared. The space agency called it a massive fail, which may be especially true given that it resides in a galaxy that is nicknamed the fireworks galaxy because of the number of supernova explosions that occur there.

Read: Best Photos of Black Holes, the Universes Serial Killer

If the star, which is 22 million light years away, had exploded in a supernova, it would have turned into a black hole anyway. But this one transformed quietly, without a lot of fanfare.

It went out with a whimper instead of a bang, NASA said.

Supernovas happen with the biggest stars, which are usually old, and this one was 25 times more massive than the sun, in the red supergiant class. In such an event, the stars massive core collapses under its own weight and implodes before the reaction bounces back outward and forces material into space, leaving behind a super dense object.

But the stellar explosions, the largest kind of space explosion, still happen rarely. This recent failure might confirm that stars dont need to burst into a supernova to transform into a black hole and thus tell scientists more about why supernovas are so rare.

star-black-hole2

Photo: NASA/ESA/P. Jeffries (STScI)

As many as 30 percent of such stars, it seems, may quietly collapse into black holes  no supernova required, NASA said. And that makes sense when it comes to making the biggest black holes because the star would not have blown off so much material in an explosion, instead using that mass to power the black hole.

Story continues

The scientists observations, as described in a study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, would mark the first time witnessing a star turn into a black hole and the first time catching a failed supernova.

Read: Is This a Black Hole or a Supernova?

Black holes got their name because they appear as dark voids in space. They are so dense that the force of their gravity is too intense for even light to escape, preventing any from reflecting and showing us whats inside them. Any matter that comes too close gets shredded into atom-sized pieces as it is pulled into the black hole. And they are fairly common: Supermassive black holes lurk at the center of many galaxies, including the Milky Way.

Black holes are still mysterious objects, but we are getting closer to actually seeing one. An international team of astronomers announced earlier this year they think they captured the first-ever image of a black holes event horizon, the distance from the black hole that is the point of no return  where you cannot possibly escape its gravity. However, the scientists have not yet released their data.

star-black-hole

Photo: NASA/ESA/C. Kochanek (OSU)

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Close-up of President Trump and French President Macron shaking hands President Donald Trump (L) and Frances President Emmanuel Macron shake hands before a working lunch ahead of a NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Of President Trumps many unique mannerisms, one that stands out is his aggressive style of shaking hands, making his encounters with world leaders all the more closely-watched. In particular, his showdowns with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, have become spectacles in and of themselves.

When the two met for the first time at a NATO summit, a reporter in the room described the encounter with appropriate fervor: They shook hands for an extended period of time. Each president gripped the others hand with considerable intensity, their knuckles turning white and their jaws clenching and faces tightening.

Later, Macron told French newspaper Journal du Dimanche the intensity was intentional.

My handshake with him  it wasnt innocent, Macron said. Its not the be-all and the end-all of a policy, but it was a moment of truth.

More recently, after a Bastille Day parade in Paris, Trump and Macron had a similar encounter. While walking towards Trumps motorcade, the two began shaking hands. Trump eventually yanked Macrons arm, knocking him off balance. When French first lady Brigitte Macron approached, Trump greeted her with two kisses, all the while keep a firm grip on the French president. (Yahoo News)

See RELATED STORY by Gabby Kaufman/Yahoo News

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr.
Taiwan forces simulated an invasion by China Thursday as part of live-fire war games against a backdrop of rising tensions with Beijing.

The annual drills are Taiwan's biggest military exercise and mocked up a scenario in which Chinese troops launched an amphibious assault.

They took place on the outlying Penghu Islands, which sit in the strait that separates Taiwan from China.

The defence ministry has warned of a rising military threat from China, which still sees self-ruling Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary.

Taiwan's military is boosting its firepower to counteract the risk, including launching its first ever home-grown submarine project and building a new generation of jet trainers.

President Tsai Ing-wen presided over the drills and emphasised the importance of building up Taiwan's indigenous defence industry.

"When Taiwan shows its determination to take the road of defensive autonomy, it is putting on a display to the world of our determination to protect our home and land," she said at a military base in Penghu after overseeing the exercise.

As part of the drills, attack helicopters fired missiles and jet fighters including eight F-16s dropped bombs in the waters south of the archipelago to repel the enemy.

Rocket artillery and tanks also fired rounds as far as 18 metres from the coast. The live-fire was not in the direction of China.

The defence ministry has said there is a growing risk of invasion from Chinese forces as relations with Beijing-sceptic Tsai deteriorate.

China does not trust her traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and has cut off all official communication with Taipei.

Beijing has also sought to isolate the island diplomatically as Tsai refuses to acknowledge both sides belong to "one China" -- unlike her China-friendly predecessor Ma Ying-jeou.

Taiwan expressed outrage earlier this month when it was refused a meeting to the World Health Organisation's annual assembly under pressure from China.

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Thursday's war games were part of an annual week-long exercise called "Han Kuang" (Han Glory) aimed at measuring how effectively Taiwan forces could deal with a China attack.

Taiwan's defence minister Feng Shih-kuan confirmed in March that China is aiming advanced medium-range ballistic missiles at the island.

China has also increased drills in the Western Pacific and sent its sole aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait in January, moves Feng said were designed to pressurise Taiwan "to follow its plans in the development of cross-strait relations."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot will sign a bill into law Monday that will set statewide regulations on ride-hailing services, as well as allow companies Uber and Lyft to resume operation in the city of Austin after the companies ceased operations due to city ordinances.

The new law will implement state-level rules for ride-hailing companies while wiping out rules passed by local governments. Both Uber and Lyft intend to return to the city as soon as the bill, House Bill 100, is signed.

Read: Sex Discrimination: Texas House Adds Limited Definition Of Sex To Bill Regulating Uber, Lyft

Under the law, ride-hailing services will be required to obtain a permit from a state licensing body and pay an annual fee to continue operating. It also will mandate the companies perform background checks on drivers at the local, state and national level.

What the bill does not do, though, is require drivers be subjected to fingerprint-base background checks. The city of Austin, Texas voted in 2016 to require services like Lyft and Uber perform fingerprint checks, which the companies deemed to be too burdensome and chose to halt operations rather than comply.

The fingerprint checks are performed by searching through an FBI database that maintains a persons criminal record until they are 99 years old. Fingerprint background checks are typically used for positions considered security or safety sensitive.

The Austin Statesman reported both Uber and Lyft intend to begin operating within the city again starting Monday as the new bill will no longer mandate the companies run fingerprint checks on drivers.

Read: Uber, Lyft Lose Austin, Texas, Referendum After Spending Millions To Change Ride-Hailing Rules

Ridesharing in Texas took a tremendous step forward with the passage of HB 100, a spokesperson for Lyft told International Business Times. Lyft thanked lawmakers for defending consumer choice and all the stakeholders who have helped create safer roads and expand reliable, affordable rides for Texans. On behalf of the entire ridesharing community, thank you to all of the legislative champions who have helped guide this bill through the Capitol.

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Uber spokesperson Travis Considine echoed those sentiments, telling IBT: "Austin is an incubator for technology and entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be back in the mix. Our local team is focused on making sure that Uber works for Austinites and helping our driver-partners earn. We know that we have a lot of work to do in the city, but we couldnt be more excited for the road ahead."

The bill to allow Uber and Lyft to return to Austin caused controversy earlier this year when an amendment was tacked on that attempted to define sex" as "the physical condition of being male or female."

The original text of the law barred drivers from discriminating against riders on the basis of "location or destination, race, color, national origin, religious belief or affiliation, sex, disability or age." An amendment proposed by Republicans legislators added a stipulation that defines sex, which originally passed before being stripped from the bill.

Related Articles
By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A former Texas nurse known as the "angel of death" for allegedly having killed up to 60 babies was served a new murder warrant linking her to the death of an infant boy more than 30 years ago, a district attorney said on Friday.

Genene Jones, 66, was sentenced to 99 years in prison after being convicted of giving a fatal overdose to 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan in 1982. She was suspected by prosecutors of having given fatal injections to between 40 to 60 infants and toddlers.

"She has been suspected in dozens of infant deaths, she has only been held accountable for one," Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas LaHood told reporters on Friday.

LaHood said new evidence has been found to bring the new indictment charging her with the murder of then 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer in 1981.

When Jones was sentenced, she had the benefit of a 1977 mandatory release parole law. The law was changed in 1987, but did not apply retroactively, thus setting a March 2018 release date, LaHood said.

He gave no details of the new evidence but the new indictment could keep her behind bars and thwart next year's mandatory release.

"The possibility of this individual suspected of killing several dozen infants being set free, was shocking to many, including the victims' families," LaHood said.

In 1983, prosecutors in Bexar County, which contains San Antonio, said they were investigating 47 suspicious infant deaths at a county hospital where Jones had worked.

Since then, law enforcement have said she may have been linked to as many as 60 deaths of babies and toddlers. Many of the deaths involved drugs that are difficult to trace. She has only been convicted of killing one baby.

LaHood said Jones was emotional when served with the new indictment on Thursday night. She is imprisoned at the Murray Unit in Gatesville, Texas, and is set for release on March 1, 2018, according to online prison records.

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Jones worked as a pediatric nurse in several Texas hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices in the late 1970s and early 80s.

The baby named in the latest indictment, Sawyer, died amid a surge of pediatric deaths that occurred when Jones was working as a pediatric intensive care unit of a San Antonio hospital.

Witnesses at Jones' murder trial more than three decades ago testified that several babies at a clinic had to be saved from life threatening emergencies when Jones worked there.

Jones was driven by a desire to be seen as the heroic nurse who rescued dying children, expert witnesses said at the trial.

But later, she became intoxicated with the power of life and death she wielded over children, they said.

Jones did not testify at her trial and her lawyers contended the injection was not the cause of death.

She was later convicted in San Antonio of injecting a then four-week-old boy with a potentially fatal dose of a blood thinner. That baby survived.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Grant McCool and Sandra Maler)
While President Donald Trump was making his way through a multitude of international destinations, his approval rating back home remained low. Trumps approval rating stood at 39 percent Thursday, according to a new Gallup poll.

In the time since he took office, Trumps approval rating has dropped the most among independents, sinking 11 points from January to stand at 31 percent. Eighty-four percent of Republicans currently said they approved of the job he was doing, compared to 89 percent who said they approved during the week following his inauguration. Democrats, on the other hand, largely disapproved of Trumps performance, with an approval rating down 7 percent from January.

Read: Record Wagers Placed On President Donald Trump's Impeachment

The current 39 percent approval rating shown in the Gallup poll was roughly similar to that of recent weeks but below his all-time low of 35 percent.

GettyImages-681666930

Photo: Getty Images

Trump and his administration have been the subject of numerous controversies since taking office in January. Most recently, the firing of FBI director James Comey prompted significant backlash from the presidents critics. And while polls showed that Comey actually had a lower job approval rating that Trump, those same polls revealed that many were more unhappy with the way Comey was fired than the actual firing itself.

While I had deep reservations about the way Director Comey handled the investigation into the Clinton emails which I made clear at the time and since, to take this action without addressing the profound conflict of interest of the president and attorney general harkens back to a similarly tainted decision by President Nixon, said Rep. Adam Schiff.

Numerous Democratic officials have stepped up to call for Trumps impeachment amid the pervasive controversies and dwindling approval ratings.

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The Presidents sudden and brazen firing of the FBI director raises the ghosts of some of the worst Executive Branch abuses, said House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. We cannot stand by and watch a cover-up of the possible collusion with a hostile foreign power to undermine American democracy.

According to a Harvard-Harris survey released earlier in May, 66 percent of Democrats believed the president would be ousted before his term was over. Among independents and Republicans, however, 60 percent said they believed impeachment would go nowhere.

There is no way to spin or sugarcoat these sagging numbers, Tim Malloy, assistant director of Quinnipiac University polling, told The Hill earlier in May. [These] are red flags that the administration simply cant brush away.

The White House, however, has notoriously put little stock into polling and approval ratings, often citing polls that showed Hillary Clinton would clinch the 2016 election.

Read: Six Surprising Cuts And Proposals In Trump's Budget

The president has seen approval ratings lower than any recorded by Gallup since they started their surveys in 1953, the company said. Allan Lichtman, the professor who correctly predicted Trumps presidency before most others, said recently that Trump would be impeached before his term was over.

Justice will be realized in todays America not through revolution, but by the Constitutions peaceful remedy of impeachment, he wrote in his book The Case for Impeachment. But only if the people demand it.

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Photo: Getty Images

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Jared Kushner: Getty Images

Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is now reportedly a focus of the ongoing investigation into Russian collusion in the US election campaign.

Authorities are investigating a series of meetings held by the White House adviser with Russian officials, sources told The Washington Post.

Media speculation was rife Mr Kushner was a person of interest in the investigation after the paper claimed a senior adviser to the US President was among people investigators wanted to speak to.

The 36-year-old, who is married to Mr Trumps eldest daughter, is believed to be the only White House official considered a person of key interest in the probe.

Mr Kushner is being investigated for meetings he held in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow.

The latest revelations come after former FBI Director, Robert Mueller, was appointed special counsel to lead the investigation into the alleged collusion.

The Post said the investigation appeared to be entering a more active phase, with investigators moving from work that has been largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The newspaper said the intensity of the investigation was now anticipated to speed up even more.

The interest in Mr Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, US officials told NBC News.

It is not known whether Mr Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC said.

One of Mr Kushner's attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation.

Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, Ms Gorelick said.

Additional reporting by agencies
President Donald Trumps new budget has been faulted for craven cuts to a raft of health care and civil society programs that taken together literally help provide for the general welfare of the citizenry. But it also seeks to raise the Defense Departments budget by 10 percent, and that of the Department of Homeland Security by almost 7 percent, while cutting the State Department by 29 percent and eliminating funding for such estimable institutions as the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. These proposals in and of themselves signify cultural and political decline by any historical measure.

The rise of the military, if coupled with the undermining of civilian aspects of national power, demonstrates a spiritual exhaustion and a descent into Caesarism. Named after Julius Caesar  who replaced the Roman Republic with a dictatorship  Caesarism is roughly characterized by a charismatic strongman, popular with the masses, whose rule culminates in an exaggerated role for the military. America is moving in this direction.

It isnt that some civilian agencies dont deserve paring down or even elimination, nor is it that the military and other security forces dont deserve a boost to their financial resources. Rather, it is in the very logic, ideology, and lack of proportionality of Trumps budget that American decline, decadence, and Caesarism are so apparent.

The United States, while not a formal empire, has been in an imperial-like situation since the end of World War II, when America began to construct a liberal world order in Europe and Asia. That world order has been characterized  like Rome, Venice, Britain, and France at their zeniths  by a dynamic combination of military, intellectual, economic, and cultural power. Each element is as important as the others.

Cold War America boasted the United States Information Agency and the U.S. Agency of International Development to project its liberal and economic values, just as Rome spread Latin, built roads, and granted citizenship to the elites of distant lands to promote its values. Venice had its explorers and merchants augment its navy; Britain sponsored a whole class of linguists and area experts to extend its colonial ambitions; and France emphasized the teaching of the French language among peoples in the developing world. Rome began to decline when the empire gradually became top-heavy with a military armature at the expense of a civilizing mission. The balance between diplomatic and military elements allowed these empires to survive as long as they did, until exhaustion, often brought about by war and their own misrule, set in.

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In the modern era of the U.S. quasi-imperial experiment, the State Department, USIP, and the Wilson Center have been vital foundations of national power designed to project our values for generations. This is now ending. For example, Trump wants to increase the size of the Navy to more than 350 ships from its current total of about 275 ships. But a principal role of the Navy, by virtue of its deployment patterns, is to enhance the influence of American diplomacy. Thats why a weaker State Department works to undermine the effect of a stronger Navy. As for USIP, it took on its bureaucratic personality during the Ronald Reagan administration, when it was forged into an engine of area expertise and conflict resolution built on sturdily realist internationalist principles. The Wilson Center does for America something vaguely similar to what the granting of citizenship to foreign elites did for Rome  it brings some of the finest minds from all over the country and parts of the world together to study American foreign policy, thus familiarizing themselves with Washington and thereby improving relationships among countries. It is a subtle and indirect process. But put that all together with our diplomatic and military reach, and you start to have the basis of a benign form of American influence worldwide.

No one of these pillars can stand on its own, obviously. The military, absent these other elements, acquires a different, bleaker personality. A domineering American military, shorn of an equally effective diplomatic service and lacking cultural outreach, is itself undermined as a moral force. And without that, alliances  built on a shared liberal vision  become harder to maintain. The difference between alliance building and outright hegemony can be a fine one. All this affects the morale of the armed services for the worse. By drastically cutting or eliminating some of the main civilian elements of American power, Trump is redefining the military in a way that should make the Pentagon brass uncomfortable.

Decadence is cultural and moral decline joined with materialistic indulgence. A president who doesnt really read, who engages regularly in flagrant untruths, who rules through his family  which, in turn, engages in conflicts of interest that no one in the bureaucracy would be allowed to get away with  and who favors the glitz and gold trappings of Manhattan and Palm Beach to the exclusion of the spare and subdued environment of Camp David is a decadent leader. When such a leader raises the military to cult status, rather than preserving it as a prime tool of American power  in conjunction with other vital components  he simulates the values of an autocrat, not those of a democrat.

The Republicans have gone from being the party of Reagan to the party of Trump. The former was a conservative internationalist; the latter is a populist nationalist. The former represented national revival, the latter national decline. For rise and decline hinge on universal moral factors even more than they do on political and economic ones. And the presidents budget proposal could be a pivot point in this tragic process.

Photo credit: MARK WILSON/Getty Images
By Robin Emmott and Steve Holland BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday intensified his accusations that NATO allies were not spending enough on defense and warned of more attacks like this week's Manchester bombing unless the alliance did more to stop militants. In unexpectedly abrupt remarks as NATO leaders stood alongside him, Trump said certain member countries owed "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO -- even though allied contributions are voluntary, with multiple budgets. His scripted comments contrasted with NATO's choreographed efforts to play up the West's unity by inviting Trump to unveil a memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States at the new NATO headquarters building in Brussels. "Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever," Trump said, referring to Monday's suicide bombing in the English city that killed 22 people, including children. "These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very direct ... in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share," Trump said. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg defended Trump, saying that although he was "blunt" he had "a very plain and clear message on the expectations" of allies. But one senior diplomat said Trump, who left the leaders' dinner before it ended to fly to Italy for Friday's Group of Seven summit, said the remarks did not go down well at all. "This was not the right place or time," the diplomat said of the very public harangue. "We are left with nothing else but trying to put a brave face on it." In another unexpected twist, Trump called on NATO, an organization founded on collective defense against the Soviet threat, to include limiting immigration in its tasks. And Trump did say that the United States "will never forsake the friends who stood by our side" but NATO leaders had hoped he would more explicitly support the mutual defense rules of a military alliance's he called "obsolete" during his campaign. Instead, he returned to a grievance about Europe's drop in defense spending since the end of the Cold War and failed to publicly commit to NATO's founding Article V rule which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all. "Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying for their defense," Trump said, standing by a piece of the wreckage of the Twin Towers. "This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years," Trump said as the other leaders watched. Nicholas Burns, a former long-time diplomat and ambassador to NATO from 2001-2005, now a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said every U.S. president since Harry Truman had pledged support for Article V and that the United States would defend Europe. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was "100 percent" committed to collective defense. "We are not playing cutesie with this. He is fully committed," Spicer said. "BARE MINIMUM" Praise was always going to be in short supply after Trump's sharp election campaign criticism of the alliance, which he blamed for not doing more to combat terrorism. Last year, Trump threatened to abandon U.S. allies in Europe if they did not spend enough on defense, comments that were particularly unnerving for the ex-Soviet Baltic states on Russia's border which fear Moscow might try a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea. Although he has since softened his tone in phone calls and meetings with Western leaders, Trump's sharp words on Thursday recalled his awkward meeting with Angela Merkel in March, when he pressed the German chancellor for Germany to meet NATO's military spending target. NATO diplomats planned to placate Trump with a pledge on Thursday to agree to national plans by the end of this year showing how NATO allies will meet a promise to spend 2 percent of economic output every year on defense by 2024. But Trump increased the pressure, calling that agreement made at a summit in Wales in 2014 "the bare minimum". "Even 2 percent of GDP is insufficient ... 2 percent is the bare minimum for confronting today's very real and very vicious threats," Trump said. He also made his presence felt at his first NATO summit, literally, pushing his way past Montenegro's prime minister, Dusko Markovic, whose country joins the organization next month, in footage that went viral. Spicer said he had not seen the video but assumed the U.S. president was moving to his designated spot. NATO nonetheless strived to impress Trump with allied jets flying overhead and a walk through the new glass headquarters, which replaces a 1960s prefab structure. Trump, a real estate magnate, called the building "beautiful" and joked that he did not dare ask how much it cost. (Writing by Robin Emmott; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Gabriela Baczynska, Sabine Siebold, Phil Blenkinsop and Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Alison Williams and Alastair Macdonald)
Taormina (Italy) (AFP) - US President Donald Trump promised Friday that North Korea "will be solved", as G7 powers opened a summit that will confront a series of missile tests by the nuclear-armed nation.

Trump's tough talk came in a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, which along with South Korea is most immediately threatened by North Korean belligerence.

But the isolated regime has also threatened to target places further afield such as the US West Coast, and Trump has called North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un a "madman with nuclear weapons".

"We will be discussing many things including of course North Korea which is very much on our minds," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina as he held bilateral talks with Abe at the start of the two-day G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem.

"It will be solved, you can bet on that," he added, without giving further details.

North Korea carried out two atomic tests last year, and has accelerated its missile launch programme, despite tough UN sanctions aimed at denying Kim the hard currency needed to fund his weapons ambitions.

So far Washington has opted for sanctions and diplomatic pressure, while looking to China, the North's closest ally, to help rein in Pyongyang.

Earlier this month naval exercises were conducted in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, with South Korean and Japanese aircraft also taking part.

Abe said he intended to use the G7 summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea.

"The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act "resolutely".

Pyongyang's launches this year have included a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

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The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

- 'A lot of firepower' -

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention is an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said "we can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that".

"We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 -- but we don't want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable". The controversial Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart's "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment".

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with China.

But Beijing, the North's main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority.

North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computers.

Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.
Brussels (AFP) - Donald Trump meets NATO and EU leaders for the first time Thursday with the US president set to press nervous allies to do more on terrorism after the Manchester bombing.

Trump faced protests on his arrival in Brussels, but he is getting a red-carpet welcome from Western allies eager to persuade him that his earlier criticisms of them were misplaced.

NATO, which Trump on the campaign trail dismissed as "obsolete" for focusing on Russia instead of terrorism, is set to bow to his demands that it join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State.

"This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference ahead of the summit.

Trump's entourage however warned that the billionaire president will once again press the 28-nation alliance to pay their full share of the alliance's financial burden.

"I think you can expect the president to be very tough on them," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters travelling with Trump.

Trump himself however is set to face pressure from British Prime Minister Theresa May over leaks to the US media of details of the probe into the bombing of a pop concert Monday in Manchester that killed 22 people.

Brussels could be the toughest leg yet of what has so far been a largely trouble-free first foreign trip for Trump, who came direct from a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

- 'Hellhole' Brussels -

On his arrival on Wednesday in Brussels, the city he once said had been turned into a "hellhole" by Muslim immigration, the president was greeted by thousands of protesters saying "Trump not welcome."

Further protests were expected Thursday and security was tight across the city with helicopters flying overhead and key roads shut down.

The European Union, like NATO credited with keeping the peace in Europe since World War II, will also be hoping to convince Trump that it remains relevant.

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EU President Donald Tusk, who will meet Trump along with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, tweeted that "I'll aim to convince POTUS that euro-atlanticism means the free world co-operating to prevent (a) post-West world order".

Trump alarmed the EU by backing further countries to follow Britain's lead in quitting the bloc, and by calling it a vehicle for German dominance of the continent.

Tusk and Juncker will tell the US president that since last year's shock Brexit vote, the EU is "in a completely different place" after populist candidates lost in France and the Netherlands, a senior EU official said.

Trump will have a private lunch with new French President Emmanuel Macron, whose recent victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been seen as a beacon of hope by Brussels, before heading to NATO.

- 'Win this fight' -

Trump set out his stall on terrorism as he met Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel shortly after his arrival on Wednesday night, saying that the most important issue was terrorism after the "horrible situation" in Manchester.

"When you see something like what happened a few days ago you realise how important it is to win this fight. And we will win this fight," said Trump.

At least 9,000 people marched through Brussels on Wednesday night waving blond-haired effigies of the reality TV star president.

The NATO summit will however be full of pomp and symbolism, with the keen-to-impress alliance showing off its new $1.2-billion (1.1 billion-euro) headquarters and staging a flypast.

At a ceremony with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump will unveil a memorial to the September 11, 2001 attacks featuring part of the destroyed World Trade Center, while Merkel does the same for a fragment of the Berlin Wall.

In return, allies rattled by a resurgent Russia will hope for a public display of commitment from Trump to Article 5, the alliance's one-for-all collective defence pledge.

While this has been triggered only once, by the US after 9/11, Trump has said that any future use might depend on whether a NATO member had met its spending commitments.

The alliance is now set to formally join the anti-IS coalition after France, Germany and Italy dropped their opposition, diplomatic sources said.

But while it will provide help including the use of AWACS surveillance aircraft it will not join combat operations, Stoltenberg insisted.

Trump's wife Melania, meanwhile, is set to visit a museum dedicated to the surrealist artist Rene Magritte and a leading leather store while in Brussels.

Trump's sweep through Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican, centres of three of the world's main religions, is being followed by Brussels and a trip to Italy for the G7 leaders summit on Friday.

The high-profile trip has diverted attention from Trump's domestic pressures amid the probe into alleged Russian ties with his campaign.
President Trump isn't content to be leader of the free world. He wants to be head of all lines, too.

In yet another humiliating moment for the country, President Trump seemingly shoved Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic while at the NATO conference in Brussels today. After pushing Markovic, the president subtly demonstrated his dominance by pulling on his jacket like the big boy he is.

SEE ALSO: Here's what it would take for Trump to actually get impeached

Watch our adult child president at work.

Montenegro recently joined NATO, despite efforts by Russian allies in the country to block the move.

A White House Advisor responded to the video by claiming that Trump's push was a "casual greeting" that he's done many times before. How comforting!

WH official: Looks like Trump was slapping him on the arm as a "casual greeting," a "greeting" he's done many times before https://t.co/Mi0vkdg8Za  Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) May 25, 2017

Trump's push followed a historically embarrassing speech at the conference where he enjoined his fellow members to contribute more of their budgets to defense. As pundits all across the political spectrum have repeatedly pointed out, that's not how NATO works, but oh well.

It's not America first, it's Trump first, everyone.
(Corrects Comey firing to May 9 in fifth paragraph.) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the FBI in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday. Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation. Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe, the newspaper reported. The FBI, several congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into allegations of meddling by Russia in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the election. The controversy has engulfed Trump's administration since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies collusion with Russia. The interest in Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, the officials told NBC News. It is not known whether Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC News said. One of Kushner's attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation. Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, Gorelick said. The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday. Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation. Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe, the newspaper reported. The FBI, several congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into allegations of meddling by Russia in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the election. The controversy has engulfed Trump's administration since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 10. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion with Russia. The interest in Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, the officials told NBC News. It is not known whether Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC News said. One of Kushner's attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation. Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, Gorelick said. The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech and Peter Cooney)
Actress Eva Longoria rocking a Balmain dress. (Photo: Getty Images)

Eva Longoria just joined the Balmain army, and she didnt come in quietly so as not to disturb the models; she entered with a bang in a bold, sheer dress.

Longoria was at the Cannes Film Festival LOreal Paris party to celebrate Balmains Olivier Rousteing and his new lipstick collection for LOreal. She was basically covered in see-through mesh that had black panels attached to it.

So, to review: It really was a revealing dress, with some strips of perfectly placed fabric. Two pieces covered her chest but left her collarbones and cleavage exposed. A wide piece started at the waist and formed the front of the skirt. An identical piece covered the back. But the sides were open, save for a thinner strip of fabric that started at her waist on each side. The black panels were floor length and created a choppy skirt that showed just enough of this womans enviable curves, including her legs. There was also a black band around the neck, creating an illusion choker. The back was completely open.

What a dream come true to be the muse for a night of this man! Thank you @olivier_rousteing for this amazing dress and for your even more amazing spirit! #Balmain #LorealCannes #Cannes2017 A post shared by Eva Longoria Baston (@evalongoria) on May 25, 2017 at 12:19am PDT

The dress was daring, to say the least, but Longoria looked completely comfortable in it, as if she knew that anything Rousteing created would never move out of place  and that her cleavage was secured with a lot of tape. She was pictured dancing with models at the party, completely unfazed by the flapping panels.

Photo: Getty Images

Another thing that didnt bother her: her height. The petite actress  shes 5-foot-2  looked even tinier next to all the models who were at the party to support Rousteing and LOreal. Longoria came prepared in 5-inch heels and posed with them on the carpet  but that still didnt help, since the models also wore 5-inch heels. Theres one group shot of eight models, including Irina Shayk, Doutzen Kroes, and Cindy Bruna, towering over Longoria.

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Just us models ???? #Wore5InchHeelsAndStillCouldntKeepUp #SeriouslyShort A post shared by Eva Longoria Baston (@evalongoria) on May 24, 2017 at 5:26pm PDT

The Empire actress has a good attitude about it, though. She posted the photo on Instagram and joked, Just us models #Wore5InchHeelsAndStillCouldntKeepUp #SeriouslyShort.

However, no matter how short she is, Longoria emanated just as much ferocity as the models around her.

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The First Gentleman of Luxembourg, married to the worlds only openly gay Prime Minister, just posed for pics with a group of First Ladies

With the addition of its newest member, The First Wives Club might be looking to change its name. On Thursday during the NATO summit in Brussels, the First Gentleman of Luxembourg posed for pictures with a group of First Ladies while their husbands were off attending the conference. Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourgs Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (who is currently the worlds only openly-gay prime minister) looked dapper as ever as he stood among the beautiful bevy of First Ladies  including First Lady of France Brigitte Macron, First Lady of the U.S. Melania Trump, and Queen Mathilde of Belgium.

The First Gentleman of Luxembourg was all smiles.

I love this. #Luxembourg's openly gay first husband, #GauthierDestenay, poses with other NATO world leader spouses. pic.twitter.com/YPekSCplEQ

 Curtis Kimberlin Jr. (@SirKimberlin) May 26, 2017

The photos of #GauthierDestenay in Brussels have really made my day today. How happy and smiley he is, overjoyed. You go Gauthier Destenay! pic.twitter.com/60tjDXLoRD

 Alex Lewis (@rolacolaandalex) May 26, 2017

In 2015, after Luxembourgs legislators approved gay marriage, Bettel and Destenay (who is a Belgian architect) tied the knot just two months later. Bettel is the first gay prime minister in Luxembourg and the third in Europe, after Icelands Johanna Sigurdardottir and Belgiums Elio Di Rupo, and the only openly gay world leader currently in power.

During his election campaign his sexuality was not a secret nor an issue. In an interview he said,

I have just one life and I dont want to hide my life. But I was not the gay candidate. People didnt vote for me because Im gay or Im straight.

#GauthierDestenay married Luxembourg's PM #XavierBettel in 2015. They are pictured above on their wedding day at Luxembourg's pic.twitter.com/g9uTXh5i1b

 FX16 NEWS (@FX16NEWS) May 26, 2017

The group of First Spouses visited with sick children and toured a museum dedicated to Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte. And by the looks of it, everyone had a wonderful time.

Related:

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From left: Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Melania Trump meet the Pope during the Trump administrations first foreign trip. (Photo: Getty Images)

President Trumps first foreign trip has drawn global attention, both to his own interactions with world leaders and to the behavior of his family members. In particular, Melania and Ivanka Trump are center stage, their body language, style choices, and political agendas being examined more critically than even their domestic appearances.

Of course, this isnt new for women in the first family. Melania and Ivanka are scrutinized both for their candid moments in the public eye as well as for their curated social media profiles. Often, the scrutiny focuses on how their own personas clash with that of the president. For Melania, its promoting an anti-bullying campaign while her husband mocked a disabled reporter; for Ivanka, its leading a womens empowerment initiative while her dad filled the majority of his Cabinet with white men with whom hed done business in his life before politics.

Thank you to Queen Fabiola University Hospital for allowing me to meet w your amazing patients! Enjoyed creating paper flowers with them & getting a tour. A post shared by First Lady Melania Trump (@flotus) on May 25, 2017 at 5:52am PDT

But Ivanka and Melanias softer public personas may be strategic, according to Dr. Lauren Wright, author of On Behalf of the President: Presidential Spouses and White House Communications Strategy Today. Political spouses have the ability to influence public perceptions of a politicians character in ways others cannot.

Since their political capital is mainly their personal relationship with the person, spouses can highlight aspects of the presidents (or leaders) character or personality in a way the leader himself or his professional colleague cannot do as credibly, Wright told Yahoo Style in an email. A positive message about the president appears more authentic, more believable, coming from the person who has the most access to him, knows him the best, and has spent the most time with him.

This morning I participated in a powerful and constructive dialogue with an amazing group of Saudi Arabian women leaders. The need to empower and engage women transcends borders and cultures. Whether in the United States or Saudi Arabia, we must recognize that empowering women is key to driving economic transformation. #WomensEconomicEmpowerment #POTUSAbroad A post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on May 21, 2017 at 3:37am PDT

In this way, the United States is not unique. Take Frances new First Lady, Brigitte Macron, who has been called a breath of fresh air by gender studies experts. Her age (64, to her husbands 39), and the story of her relationship with now-President Emmanuel Macron, could have helped her husband avoid an overly masculine persona during his campaign, the experts theorize.

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In Canada, Sophie Gregoire Trudeaus Instagram page features photos of her and Prime Minister husband Justin and their children commemorating World War II soldiers and celebrating International Womens Day (though that post drew ire from some.)

Its still too early in the Trump presidency to determine what Melanias or Ivankas legacies will truly be, or to determine what kind of good the Trump presidency can accomplish. For some international leaders embroiled in controversy, even their wives best efforts to convince the public their husbands are benevolent arent enough.

Asma Assad, Syrian president Bashar Assads wife, was once referred to as a rose in the desert in a Vogue profile that lives in infamy (though not on the Vogue website). But the public perception of Assad now, at least outside Syria, has ostensibly stiffened, with many suggesting shes complicit in her husbands human rights abuses.

                 .. The First Lady Asma al Assad visiting al-Nour Kindergarten for visually impaired children in al-Midan neighbourhood in #Damascus     #Syria #love #LoveSy #assad #photooftheday #children #hope #OurFirstLady #WeLoveYouAsma #bestoftheday A post shared by The First Lady Asma al Assad (@asmaalassad) on May 20, 2017 at 5:28am PDT

Most recently, members of the British government have referred to Assad in opinion pieces as a cheerleader for evil and have called the British government to revoke Assads British citizenship, even though she was born in London.

But you wouldnt know that looking at her Instagram page, which has 132,000 followers. She posts photos visiting wounded heroes and disabled children, and often uses the hashtag #WeLoveYouAsma in what seem to be her own posts.

    ???????? Syrian Organization for Persons with Disabilities  Aamal #IMetTheFirstLady #WeLoveYouAsma #Syria #assad #LoveSy #love #photooftheday A post shared by The First Lady Asma al Assad (@asmaalassad) on May 17, 2017 at 9:42am PDT

Political spouses like Assad have greater control over the kind of coverage they receive, in part because they dont have to grant the kind of media access that their elected spouses do.

They have the luxury of choosing the outlet that will give them the most favorable coverage, or they can go to alternative media outlets, like late-night talk shows and scripted and reality TV where they know their message will be disseminated to a large and broad audience, Wright said.

Case in point: On Facebook, the Syrian first lady posted a 2016 Russian news documentary, of which she was the subject, which explored her role in the Assad administration. The documentary begins with an interview inside the Syrian presidential palace, then chronicles how she receives martyr families, (families of deceased Syrian army fighters) who then bestow upon her adoring praise.

Honeylet Avancena, common-law wife to Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte, is another example of a spouse whose presence adds a layer of warmth to a hawkish politician. While her husband forcefully tackles his countrys ongoing war against drugs, Avancena makes public appearances at museums and visits sick children in Cambodian hospitals. President Duterte, sometimes referred to as the Punisher, also appears on the Instagram page of his wifes daughter, Veronica Kitty Duterte, hardly as menacing as his nickname implies.

A post shared by Veronica (@vduterteee) on May 24, 2017 at 10:44am PDT

In Brazil, first lady Marcela Tedeschi Temer posts about her childrens initiatives on Instagram, saying in a post translated from Portuguese, talked about how the investment in each child can generate a better future for our country.

Com alunas de uma escola de Valparaiso de Goias que visitaram, hoje, o Palacio do Planalto. ???? A post shared by Marcela Temer (@marcelatemer) on Apr 6, 2017 at 4:45pm PDT

Meanwhile, President Michel Temer remains embroiled in an ongoing corruption investigation that has led an estimated 35,000 Brazilians to protest against the government. Temer responded by deploying federal troops to contain the violence.

#tbt da visita a uma escola no Japao que atende criancas brasileiras. ???????? ???????? A post shared by Marcela Temer (@marcelatemer) on Mar 16, 2017 at 3:17pm PDT

Trying to list all of the examples becomes exhausting. South African First Lady Bongi Ngema-Zuma, one of President Jacob Zumas four wives, joins the president on his international trips and leads a diabetes awareness foundation; President Zuma, meanwhile, fends off increasing momentum from opponents who are calling for his removal from office after evidence of corruption surfaced last year.

In Turkey, democratic-cum-autocratic President Recep Erdogan imprisoned at least 120 journalists in the last year for terrorism, what wed call dissent in the U.S. His wife, Emine, uses her Instagram to post photos of the events she attends that promote social, medical, and youth causes. In a recent post, she captioned a photo in Turkish of her delivering a speech, translated into English, saying, This land has always been a target in all periods of history, it has been blinded, and we have to look at it like our eyes, we have to live our life by understanding its importance, its value. I can do this only through a conscious and patriotic youth.

Although its not a hard-and-fast rule that a politicians wife must champion specific causes, it all comes down to strategically influencing public perception, Wright said. The idea that women have different concerns and priorities than men remains a controversial one, but what I found in my research was that there is often a normative benefit to having an active spouse in the White House, especially a spouse that travels internationally.

So, perhaps these women are more like wolves in sheeps clothing  if sheep wear Dolce & Gabbana, that is.

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Alexandra Mondalek is a writer for Yahoo Style + Beauty. Follow her on Twitter @amondalek.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Incidents involving a popular child's toy known as "fidget spinners" are being investigated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission after two separate reported cases of children swallowing parts of the gadget sparked concerns.



"CPSC is investigating the incidents with kids swallowing fidget spinners in Texas and Oregon," the agency wrote in a statement to ABC News. "We advise parents to keep these away from young children because they can choke on small parts. Warn older children not to put fidget spinners in their mouths."



Fidget spinners are a stress-relieving toy advertised as a way to help people focus.



Scott Kollins, clinical psychologist and director of the ADHD program at Duke University, said there is no evidence to support claims of the benefits of fidget spinners.



There has been no research into the efficacy or safety of these toys to help manage the symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, or any other mental health conditions in children (or adolescent, or adults, for that matter), Kollins told ABC News. The observations by parents or teachers are interesting but without carefully controlled studies, its impossible to draw any sorts of conclusions about whether these toys are useful, and its hard to imagine any sort of reasonable rationale as to why they would offer benefit.



Mom Kelly Rose Joniec of Houston, Texas, posted an X-ray she said was taken after her 10-year-old daughter swallowed a piece of the toy. The girl had to undergo surgery to have it removed, she said.



"Our full attention and focus is on caring for our daughter and ensuring she continues to lead a healthy life," Joniec said in a statement through Texas Children's Hospital, where her daughter's surgery took place.



The other case, in Oregon, involved a 5-year-old boy named Caden whose mother said he swallowed a part of the toy and choked before being rushed to the hospital. The boy's mother, Johely Morelos, said she showed Caden a photo of the incident in Texas as a warning, but the child still tried to swallow a piece of the toy.



Morelos said Caden's uncle bought him a fidget spinner as a gift on Amazon, which carries the toy made by multiple manufacturers.



Amazon declined ABC News' request for comment.



Fidget spinners have three prongs attached to a circle that spin when you hold onto the center. Twirling the toy makes the prongs become a blur.



Learning Express Toys, a company that sells fidget spinners online and in store around the country, said it recommends the gadget for ages 12 and up.



"Spinners are marked as a choking hazard containing small parts," Learning Express added in a May 18 statement to ABC News. "However, we will also be placing signs in our stores to make sure parents are aware that spinners are a potential choking hazard. As with any toy, parents must choose age-appropriate toys and use caution if their child has a tendency to put things in their mouth."



Nancy Cowles, executive director of the nonprofit Kids in Danger, said any toy that is sold in the United States has to meet toy safety standards, but added that it would be difficult to track down the manufacturers of all fidget spinner products. Cowles also noted that children seem to be choking on the spinner toys because they are falling apart.



Learning Express Toys said that the bearings on fidget spinners should not fall out unless consumers use a tool to remove them.



Some schools are now banning the toys, not just because they may be dangerous, but because teachers see them as a distraction.



Wyandot Elementary School in Dublin, Ohio, sent parents a letter this month stating that students are no longer allowed to bring fidget spinners to school. Other schools within Dublin City school district also implemented the new rule, according to ABC affiliate WSYX-TV in Columbus.



"The district said fidget spinners have become a distraction in the classroom," reports WSYX-TV. "Students are arguing over the spinners and get upset when theirs go missing."



The CPSC urges consumers to report any incidents with fidget spinners to CPSC at www.SaferProducts.gov.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
By Judith Atim

The UPDF Chief of Defence Forces Gen David Muhoozi has committed to protecting human rights at a meeting with Maria Burnett, the Director of the Human Rights Watch.

In a press statement sent to media houses, the army says the two discussed cooperation in the arena of human rights.

Gen Muhoozi also reassured Ms Burnett that the army will endeavour to preserve human rights wherever troops deployed both at home and abroad.

They further exchanged information on past reports by Human Rights Watch on UPDF operations in Somalia and Central African Republic.

The 2014 Human Rights Watch Report accused AMISOM forces including the UPDF of sexually abusing Somali women.

In May 2017, the rights body issued another report accusing the Ugandan army of rape and exploitation of women in the Central African Republic.

In todays meeting, the two parties agreed on a continued engagement between the institutions.

The meeting was also attended by former Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Ms Lydia Wanyoto Mutende.
By Ruth Anderah

City Lawyer Jackline Namazzi has faulted police for keeping her client in custody for more than the constitutionally stipulated period of 48 hours.

Namazzi says Ben Zziwa Kafuuma was arrested by police on 10th April 2017 as one of the key suspects in the murder of city businessman Wilberforce Wamala in 2012 but has never been produced before any court of law.

She tells KFM that on May 2nd 2017 the Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court ordered for the immediate and unconditional release of Kafuuma, a former driver to late Wamala but police defied the said order.

When contacted for a comment on the allegation, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Emiliano Kayima instead referred KFM to the CIID spokesperson Vincent Ssekate who also referred us back to Kayima.
By Kyeyune Moses

The Government has earmarked over 15 billion shillings in the next financial year to facilitate elections for Village and Women Councils across the country.

According to highlights of the adopted ministerial policy statement for the Electoral Commission, government has committed to funding the elections.

The Minister of State for Planning, David Bahati has also assured Parliament this afternoon that the funds will be availed.

The postponement of the local council elections has in the past drawn criticisms from a cross section of Ugandans and Civil Society groups who faulted the government for not prioritizing grassroots elections.
By Ruth Anderah

The Judiciary has today launched the Standards Utilities and Wildlife court to penalise consumers and manufacturers who dont conform to the Standards of consumer goods and services.

The court which is comprises a chief magistrate and two grade one magistrates, is temporarily housed at Buganda Road Chief magistrates court and derives its jurisdictions from the Uganda Communications Act, Wild Life Act and the Electricity and National Water and Sewerage Acts.

At the launch presided over by Chief justice Bart Katureebe at the High court Kampala, several stake holders including UMEME, National Water, UCC, Uganda Wildlife and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards applauded the judiciary for introducing this court to effectively handle their special and unique complaints.

The court will mainly handle cases of power and water theft, unregulated media and telecommunication companies, poachers and smugglers of animal species and traders who sell sub-standard products.

In addition to enhancing the efficiency of adjudicating upon these cases , the court will also facilitate the reduction of case backlog and decongestion of prisons.
By Ruth Anderah

A Kyadondo East Constituency voter has petitioned the High Court in Kampala seeking an order compelling the Electoral Commission to halt the ongoing update of voters register.

Muwadda Nkunyingi who has also expressed interest in contesting in a forth coming by-election has sued Electoral Commission, local musician Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi wine and the IGP Gen Kale Kayihura for allegedly mishandling the exercise.

Muwadda alleges that on 24th May 2017 he saw Bobi wines agent taking over Electoral Commissions role under police protection which violated the constitution and electoral laws.

He now wants court to halt the voter register update exercise and an order stopping the Electoral Commission from using the data collected.

He further wants court to issue an order barring police under IGP and Bobi wine from interfering with the Electoral Commissions role of organizing free and fair elections.
By Damali Mukhaye.

Makerere University staff has rejected the new method of election of College Principles, calling the process weak and fraudulent.

The chairperson of Makerere University Academic Staff Association Dr. Muhammad Kiguddu tells KFM that previously, the College Principles were elected through secret ballot as opposed to the proposal to have university council select committee search and recommend qualified candidates on their behalf.

Dr. Kiguddu says they will not allow the university council to disenfranchise staff members, raising fears that the committee could even recommend incompetent people.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor Prof Ddumba Ssentamu confirms to KFM that MUASA has indeed petitioned the university over this process but they will be given a respond after his meeting with the university council chairperson Eng Charles Wana-Etyem.
By Ruth Anderah

Four police officers accused of torturing Kamwenge Mayor Godfrey Byamukama have been charged and remanded to Luzira prison.

Byamukama is said to have been tortured after he was arrested in connection with the murder of Police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

The accused appeared before Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Jamson Karemani and were charged with 2 counts of torture and causing grievous harm.

Prosecution led by Nelly Asiku states that on the April 5th 2017 at Ministry of Lands within Kampala district, the accused picked Mayor Byamukama and unlawfully used iron bars and batons to beat him thereby causing wounds on his knees and ankles.

Court has heard that the accused committed the said offenses in the course of performing their duties as they transported Byamukama to the police station.

They have denied the offences and have been remanded to Luzira prison until the May 30th 2017 when prosecution will respond to their bail application.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 71F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low near 45F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Area municipalities will mark Memorial Day with remembrance ceremonies featuring local veterans and students.

Bangors service to honor those who have fallen in combat begins at 9 a.m. Monday in the Bangor Middle/High School gymnasium, 700 10th Ave. S. Sgt. 1st Class Robert W. Hankins, a senior logistics noncommissioned officer in the 181st Multi-Functional Training Brigade at Fort McCoy, will give the keynote address at the ceremony.

The event will also include performances by the Bangor High School band and Bangor Middle/High School choir. Bangor junior Cade Amborn will perform Taps.

Following the service, a procession led by Bangor American Legion Post 40 will travel through Bangor Cemeteries with senior choir students performing the national anthem.

Onalaska and Holmen will each hold a parade sponsored by their local American Legion posts.

Onalaska parade will leave at 9:30 a.m. from American Legion Struck-Klanrud Post 336, 731 Sand Lake Road, Onalaska, and conclude with a ceremony at 10 a.m. at Onalaska Cemetery, 1200 Main St. 10 a.m. Speaker will be U.S. Air Force Col. Doug Stoli Nicolai.

Holmens parade will begin at 9:30 a.m. by Holmen Middle School, 502 N. Main St., and end at Halfway Creek Park, 300 W. Roberts St. A ceremony at the park will begin at 10 a.m.

In West Salem, the programput on by West Salem American Legion Post 51is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in Village Park at the intersection of West Hamilton and South Mill streets.

La Crosse County Veterans Service Officer Adam Flood will be the keynote speaker. He will be joined by West Salem Elementary School fifth-grader Kate Fechner, the 2017 West Salem American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Princess.

Volunteers will read the names of fallen veterans from the West Salem area. Following the service at around 11:30 a.m., the West Salem American Legion Color Guard will perform a 21-gun salute at Veterans Memorial County Park, N4668 County Road VP, West Salem, and another at Lake Neshonoc Resort, N5334 Neshonoc Road, West Salem.

After the program, there will be a potluck open to the public at the West Salem American Legion hall, 148 Leonard St. S.

In the event of rain, the service will take place at the legion hall.
West Salem Elementary School teacher Mary Czajka wants to put the right tools for the job in the hands of her students and thanks to a $6,000 scholarship from the Kohl Foundation she is doing just that.

More than 70 Belken Bluetooth keyboards will be made available to fourth and fifth-grade students beginning next year. Students will be able to connect their iPads to the keyboards to complete larger writing assignments.

We are going to get enough for kids to have them if they want them, she said.

Making all this possible was a scholarship from Wisconsin philanthropist Herb Kohl. In the last 27 years, Kohl has donated more than $11 million to Wisconsin schools, students, educators and administration.

Czajka was one of 30 educators who received the Kohl Scholarship this year.

Recipients of the scholarship typically receive $3,000 to use in their classroom and a matching scholarship for their school. This year that amount was doubled after Kohl was unable to make it to the award ceremony due to poor weather conditions.

Of course I would have loved to have met him (Kohl), but my goodness what you can do with double the scholarship is huge, Czajka said. I was looking at my name tag and thinking is this the price is right?

She said with budget cuts hitting Wisconsin schools hard, and technology not getting any less expensive, even a small scholarship can make a big difference.

The keyboards, which cost $60-$70, will give students an alternative to typing on iPads.

Principal Ryan Rieber said the keyboards are a perfect use of the funds.

This is something that is going to benefit a lot of kids, he said. Shes got the right idea.

Its Czajkas hope that this technology will enable those students who enjoy writing to do more of it.

This will hopefully allow kids to elaborate more. We used to have kids type more, she said. They write papers and do work on their iPads all the time.

Czajka said it was ironic that a technophobe like herself would choose to invest her scholarship in technology. After 30 years of teaching she has watched technology in the classroom change dramatically and noticed a worrisome trend.

She said as the technology available to students has moved away from devices with keyboards she has seen a decline in typing speed and skill.

We used to have kids type more, she said. When we get into the computer lab with the keyboard they are typing slower.

Rieber agreed saying the hunt and peck method gets to be difficult.

Czajka said the keyboards should make writing assignments easier for students who struggle to type on the iPads displays.

The fifth-graders are really going to be gifted with this, she said.

Czajka said she was honored to receive the scholarship and added it was never something she expected to happen.

She said she might not have ever applied for the scholarship if it hadnt been for senior and former student Rayna Herbolt, who had nominated Czajka as part of a scholarship application.

Czajka said she was shocked to find out shed been selected for the Kohl Award.

Its nice to be recognized outside of the people who know you and work with you, she said.

Rieber said he plans to work with Czajka to find a way to use the schools portion of the scholarship to benefit as many students as possible.
Gina Miller has joined Merchants Bank in Onalaska as a vice president and commercial banker

We are excited to have Gina join our team, said Shawn Sackman, senior vice president for Merchants Banks southeast region. With her experience, ability and connections, as well as our increased presence in the La Crosse area, we know she will contribute to our continued growth.

Miller had been with the Wells Fargo organization for the past 17 years, most recently as a business relationship manager and commercial banker.

Merchants is a great match for me, because it is a community bank that is built on and values the relationships with its customers, Miller said. Building and maintaining those relationships has been my goal throughout my career, and I look forward to continuing that career with Merchants as it gains more market share in our area.

Miller is a graduate of Viterbo University. She is active in the community. She is a member of the Coulee Region Young Professionals, a member of the Womens Alliance of La Crosse, and a participant in the Chamber of Commerces La Crosse Area Community Leadership Program.

Onalaska is one of the fastest growing of all 21 Merchants locations. In 2016, Merchants reported record income of $14.2 million. The Onalaska location was one of the leaders in productivity, with nearly $2.2 million in net income.

In addition to Onalaska, Merchants has Minnesota locations in La Crescent, Rushford, Lanesboro, Caledonia, Spring Grove, Winona, St. Charles, Goodview, Rochester, Cannon Falls, Red Wing, Hampton, and the southern Twin Cities metropolitan suburbs of Apple Valley, Cottage Grove, Hastings, Lakeville and Rosemount. Merchants has an additional Wisconsin location in Eau Claire. All banks are FDIC members and equal housing lenders. Loans are subject to approval. Twin Cities-based Merchants Bank Equipment Finance is a division of Merchants Bank, N.A.
Facing a rising population and increased calls, the Holmen Area Fire Department is looking to add another full-time person to its roster.

The Holmen Area Fire District Association Board approved a three-phase plan for hiring a firefighter/emergency medical responder.

Holmen Area Fire Department Chief Paul Menches presented the hiring schedule at the Fire District Boards May 18 meeting.

The board also gave Menches the nod to put the first phase into action.

This involves drafting a position description with duties, responsibilities and qualifications as well as an advertisement strategy.

The advertisement for applications will be posted in July and August with selection of candidates for interviews to begin in September and October.

The goal is to select a candidate to start in November, Menches said. The addition of another full-time employee would provide 114 eight-hour days (of protection) that were not providing now. We would have seven days coverage including holidays. What we have now isnt sustainable in meeting todays needs.

The department has 22 members; four of the firefighters are full-time employees. The department has lost five of its part-time responders in the past few months due to conflicts with their full-time employment and other commitments.

However, as the fire department ranks have declined, the number of calls has increased.

The Holmen Area Fire District Association Board learned at its April 20 meeting the department had about 300 calls for the first three months of the year with medical services making up the majority.

The increased workload along with fewer personnel has meant no days off for the three companies.

Menches is undertaking a recruitment drive to market HAFD as an entry-level experience for first responders/firefighters. He reported on the progress of a potential new part-time hire thats scheduled to go through the interview process this month.

Two of the departments full-time employees have joined a union, and they reached a contract with the board earlier this spring. A new full-time hire would be eligible to be part of the union.

Fund disbursement

A recent audit revealed the department and the three municipalities making up the HAFDAB have been incorrectly entering a revenue source in the fire departments budget and recording how those funds have been used.

The funds are collected by the state from insurance agencies. The state then sends the rebate to municipalities as a pass-through to their fire departments. The funds are not to be included as part of the municipalities general fund. The village of Holmen and the towns of Onalaska and Holland have been including the monies in their general operating contribution to the fire department.

They say, if we give this money to you, you have to spend it this way, Menches said.

The rebate funds are to be used for purchasing fire protection equipment, fire inspection and public education, firefighter and fire inspection training and for funding pensions or special funds for disabled firefighters.

Since the Holmen Village Board voted a week earlier against adjusting its 2017 budget to fill the hole that would have been created if the amount of the rebate was taken out of the villages assessment for the fire departments operating expenses, no changes will be made to the HAFDs 2017 budget.

All three fire district association member municipalities had to agree to make the budget adjustment.

We just need to do it differently in the future, said Chuck Olson, Holmen Fire Board representative and HAFDAB clerk/treasurer.

It has to be a line item in and a line item out. Everyone has been pooling it. Previously, the administration didnt know how it should be handled.

Menches has proposed designating the funds for equipment, such as vehicles.

Fleet replacement is expensive, Menches said.

Over the next 10 years, it will cost over $1.6 million to replace an aging fleet.

Town of Onalaska HAFDAB representative Stan Hauser asked whether the two-percent rebate could be used to reduce the amount the municipalities contribute to the fire departments capital fund. Currently, the three municipalities contribute $25,000 toward a capital expenditures fund for improvements to the fire station and for purchasing equipment.

Holmens HAFDAB member Bill Ebner pointed out each municipality receives a different rebate amount.

Hollands newest representative to the HAFDAB, Steve Michaels, said the fire department also needs funds for daily operations.

We have growing communities and more calls and this budget isnt covering this, Michaels said.

Its about the safety of the residents.
Can Do Canines, a non-profit organization that trains assistance dogs for people with disabilities and provides them free of charge to those who need them, started its sixth prison training program at the Jackson Correctional Institution in Black River Falls.

Ten puppies from the P litter, which means all of their names start with the letter P, arrived to an excited group of staff and inmates ready to meet their canine companions.

Warden Lizzie Tegles said the whole institution has been dying of anticipation waiting for the dogs, who are all black lab and golden retriever mixed, to arrive.

This opens up a very different opportunity for rehabilitation, its so wonderful, Tegles said.

There was a virtual flood of applicants to join the program, so the prison went through a rigorous vetting process that led to 25 inmates paired into handler groups.

For some inmates, like David Ramos, this is the first time theyve been able to see or touch a dog in years.

Theres a lot of emotions for us right now, we really want to make sure this is successful, Ramos said.

Ramos said he applied because he wanted to start giving back to the community, but didnt think he would be picked.

It was a surprise, I really didnt feel like I would be picked because of my history, Ramos said. So Im really excited.

The program will run for 12 to 14 months where the dogs will get plenty of training during their stay before heading off to be given a career.

There are different specialties the dogs can be trained for: mobility, type 1 diabetes, vision impaired, etc. and once the dogs finish training at the prison, they will be assessed and chosen for a specialty.

I like to think of it as the inmates here bring the dogs through middle school and high school and then send them off to college, Tegles said.

It wont be just the inmates on their own though. Dyan Larson, a trainer with Can-Do Canines, will come in once a week to provide some training courses.

This venture in Jackson county isnt the first foray into Wisconsin Can-Do Canines, who are based out of Minnesota, has made.

Their first institution in Wisconsin was in Stanley, which has already trained some puppies of their own.

Before they were given their new pups, the inmates had a video conference with those in Stanley so they could get an idea of what to expect.

They really helped, Ramos said. They told us basically to just leave your ego at the door and just love.

Larson said the inmates who have been through the program before take tremendous pride in what theyve done.

On average, a fully-trained assistance dog like the ones in Jackson County could cost around $25,000, so partnerships like this benefit not only the inmates in the program, but also families in need as this allows Can-Do Canines to freely home them.

The dogs will spend most nights with the inmates in the cell, but some volunteers are needed to take the dogs home for weekends. This is so the dogs can experience things they might not in prison, such as stores or sporting events.

Larson will work with them on classes monthly to help the puppies become the best assistance dogs they can be. Potential volunteers can get more information on their website or call volunteer coordinator Laurie Carlson at 763-331-3000 x113.

Can Do Canines currently partners with three Minnesota prisons and now two Wisconsin prisons to help raise and train assistance dogs.

Tegels said, I have always believed the bond between humans and dogs was profound. Beyond providing Can Do Canines with assistance dogs for those in need, having a canine training program in the correctional environment will afford the inmate handler teams an amazing experience. They will learn responsibility, empathy and commitment from a new perspective; they will experience an unconditional bond with the dog and at the end of training when the dog leaves, they will understand the importance of doing something for the greater good and giving back to the community. Actually, Im not sure yet who will learn more, the dogs or the handlers.
A semi-truck leaked liquid zinc last Monday night near the Flying J truck stop in Black River Falls.

Initially the Black River Falls Fire Department was concerned phosphoric acid was the chemical that had been spilled.

The driver advised the only liquid he was aware of on the mixed cargo was 144 five gallon pails and four 55 gallon drums of phosphoric acid.

For this reason, the Regional Level A Hazmat Team from La Crosse was contacted and responded to the scene.

Upon further examination of the material on the truck while it was being unloaded, it was discovered that it was actually a 55 gallon drum of liquid zinc that was leaking.

The leaking drum was placed into an over pack container. Some of the leaked product was soaked up with floor-dri material and also then placed inside the over pack drum for disposal.

The driver called 911 after he noticed a liquid coming from the trailer after his dual tires on the semi tractor were wet and shiny upon stopping at the truck stop.

The driver did complain of some breathing trouble and was checked over by the Black River Falls EMS at the scene, but he refused transport.

The department was on the scene for almost six hours.
Its been six years since the fourth movie in the amusement park ride-inspired Pirates of the Caribbean, that one subtitled On Stranger Times, sailed into local theaters. It was beginning to look like the Disney Studios had keelhauled the franchise leaving Johnny Depp to make such forgettable flops as The Lone Ranger, The Rum Diary, Dark Shadows and Transcendence. Out of respect for Depp the film Mordecai will only be known as the movie whose name wont be mentioned.

Some time opened up in Depps schedule and hes slipped back into his raccoon-eyes makeup to return to the role of loveable lush Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Right off the bat theres trouble because the franchise has been loaded with dead men who have been telling tales in the form of ghost pirates and this one is no different. So, the name is a little misleading.

And, that is the biggest clue to what goes wrong with this fifth adventure on the high seas. Jeff Nathansons script is as choppy as an ocean during a hurricane bouncing on waves of bad puns, cheap jokes, convoluted family matters and a sea myth that makes as much sense as taking a woodpecker on a canoe ride. Nathanson strains to create emotional moments and has the same number of problems giving Sparrow anything fresh to say.

This is a summer movie where the design is supposed to be 98 percent action, 1 percent writing and 1 percent trying to come up with ways to make the 3D version have enough moments to make the film worth the extra cost. Too much time was wasted on the writing and 3D ideas and that keep getting in the way of the movies fun moments.

Dead Men features several high-energy action scenes staged by directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg (who have only minimal experience with feature films).

One sequence that includes dragging an entire building through the streets of St. Martin has the kind of fast and furious look that has become the hallmark of summer movies. Any momentum from that spectacular scenes gets lost when Nathanson tries to piece together all of the bits and pieces of ideas that went into the plot.

It would have helped if Nathanson had narrowed the cast of players. Sparrow is being chased by a young man trying to save his father from a sea curse, a female astronomer who everyone things is a witch, the grumpy Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), the ghostly sea captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) and most of the British navy. Theres a sequence on an island where Sparrow is forced into a shotgun (or would it be shot-sword?) wedding. All thats missing is a guest appearance by The Guardians of the Galaxy.

No cheap laugh is ignored. When Carina Smyth (played with spunky vigor by Kaya Scodelario) tells the crew of pirates that shes a horologist, they dont appreciate her skill with watches but assumes she makes a living with the worlds oldest profession. Sadly, her energy is never channeled into enough good to give the film the strong female lead it needed. Also, the forced romance between her and Will Turner (Brenton Thwaites) never shows the kind of sparks Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley showed during their Pirate days.

Dead Men shows life when there are big action scenes. If 30 minutes of jumbled mythology and cheesy writing had been cut, the movie would have had an action beat as driving as the heart-pounding score by Geoff Zanelli, who carries on the work done in the previous films by Hans Zimmer. Instead, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales mixes some fun moments with other scenes that leave the production high and dry. At least its not nearly as bad as the film whose name shall not be mentioned.
For almost a century, La Crosses Central High School has ensured those who gave their lives for their country are remembered.

On Friday, several hundred staff, students and members of the public crowded the lawn to celebrate the schools 95th annual Memorial Day Celebration, one of the oldest in the nation.

As part of the ceremony, the Central Robed Choir, Chamber Orchestra and Wind Ensemble performed the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Homeland, the color guard presented the national state flags, and wreaths were placed in honor of Central students who died in service to their county.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, the choir sang. With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me. As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free  while God is marching on.

Central senior Madeline Stevens gave this years address. She and her classmates graduated on Friday night. Unlike her classmates, Stevens, the first female Central graduate to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps, will head off in 40 days to basic training in South Carolina.

Before the ceremony on Friday, Stevens, 17, answered questions while the band and choir students had a last-minute rehearsal. Stevens is the first in her family to join the armed forces, a goal she said she has had since she was in the third grade. She chose the Marine Corps because of the work of local recruiters and her desire to take on the challenge the corps presents.

I just kind of always wanted to serve, she said. I believe it is very important to serve your country and protect it.

During her address, Stevens said Memorial Day is not just a day off from work but a day to honor the sacrifices of soldiers and their families, especially those who had given their lives.

That doesnt mean people cant enjoy the three-day weekend with barbecues and celebrations. But people should remember the spouses who worry about their partners safety when they go to bed, and the children whose parents miss holidays, birthdays and other milestones in their kids lives.

It is their duty to protect our countrys citizens, Stevens said. It is our responsibility to honor their sacrifice.

The ceremony concluded with the lowering of the flag to half-staff, the playing of Taps in honor of the fallen and the retiring of the colors as the students and members of the public who came to watch left in solemn silence.
Aquinas Catholic Schools will receive a boost thanks to Coulee Region Mardi Gras.

The Mardi Gras will present a donation of $17,000 to the Catholic school system on Tuesday. During the past 26 years, the organization has raised more than $237,000 for Aquinas.

The funds provide tuition assistance and support technology development, fine arts, and the health and well-being of students. Last years fundraising helped Aquinas implement a high school distance learning program, upgrades to Aquinas Middle Schools computer lab, the intercom systems at Blessed Sacrament and Cathedral, as well as internet access at St. Patrick School.

The reigning Mardi Gras Rex, Mike Bakalars, his Queen, Bethany, past royalty and members of the La Crosse Mardi Gras Board will present the five schools in the Aquinas system with the following donations:

$3,000  Aquinas High School

$3,500  Aquinas Middle School

$3,500  St. Patricks School

$3,500  Cathedral Elementary

$3,500  Blessed Sacrament School

Funds are raised each year at the Mardi Gras Ball, Fat Tuesday Celebration and various Mardi Gras-sponsored events.
The Republican congressional candidate who allegedly body slammed a reporter instead of answering his questions would be "very welcome" in Congress, a Wisconsin congressman said Thursday.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, also told a Washington Post reporter that Greg Gianforte, who is seeking to represent Montana in Congress and on Wednesday was charged with misdemeanor assault, seemed "like a good guy."

When asked whether Gianforte should face consequences if he did indeed assault Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian, after Jacobs pressed Gianforte to answer questions about the Congressional Budget Office's report on the American Health Care Act, Grothman did not directly answer the question.

"We need somebody who's going to come up here and help drain the swamp," Grothman said. "And if you're for draining the swamp, you're on our team, and if you are somebody who thinks government isn't big enough and wants open borders, you're part of the destruction of America."
The town of Holland is asking a court for clarification after a judge this week reversed his decision to halt work on a 7-mile stretch of high-voltage power line through La Crosse County.

The town of Holland last year sued to overturn the Wisconsin Public Service Commissions approval of the Badger-Coulee transmission line, arguing that the panel responsible for protecting utility consumers erred when it authorized a consortium of utility companies to build the nearly $580 million project. The town also challenged the PSCs decision to route the line along the Hwy. 53 corridor on separate poles across the highway from another high-voltage line.

Judge Todd Bjerke initially denied the towns primary claim but found the PSC failed to provide a rational basis for the routing and ordered construction of the La Crosse County portion stopped, saying the commission didnt provide supporting documents, including the environmental impact studies.

On Tuesday Bjerke said work could proceed after agreeing that the PSC had filed the necessary paperwork and that pausing construction could delay the project by a year and cost ratepayers an additional $2.5 million. He nevertheless maintained the PSCs siting decision lacked any rational basis and ordered the commission to reconsider.

After a closed meeting Thursday, the town board requested Bjerke clarify his order as it permits [American Transmission Company] to proceed to construct a second set of lines, which the Board feels is irrational.

A joint venture of American Transmission Co. and several regional utility companies, including La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative, the 180-mile line will run between the Madison suburbs and Holmen, where it will connect to another high-voltage line, CapX2020, that runs across Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

It was approved by the PSC in spite of objections that it isnt needed, and the town contends the PSC did not give adequate consideration to putting both lines on the same poles, ignoring the towns comprehensive plan and hindering future growth.

The town argues allowing ATC to proceed while the case is pending could result in irreversible damage.

In a written statement, town Supervisor Robert Stupi said, (I)f they end up cutting down trees to make a lane for the power lines and pour concrete foundations, I dont see how you could restore a 150-foot line of trees along eight miles of road.
Bill could fish before he could walk  his parents hitched a pair of training wheels to his fly rod and let him go. He never fell once.

Im fly-rod free. The only fly I ever fished for broke before a Category 5 bladder burst.

The night before a joint fishing expedition in Maine, a timely newspaper article describes what attracts deer flies: dark colors, carbon dioxide and movement.

The next day at odark thirty, we park in a wooded opening near a burbling brook. A swarm of savage deer flies instantly descends on the black, outside rear-view mirrors.

Say Bill, do you think the six-pack of insect repellent in the back seat will do the job?

Relax Jim, we arent moving and theres no carbon dioxide.

Uh, Bill, the mirrors are black, which as I recall is a dark color and were exhaling carbon dioxide. These flies look mean enough to take down a moose.

We scramble for the insect repellent.

Despite Bills flawless casting, alls quiet on the waterfront. My feet feel numb from freezing water.

The stream is too warm for good fishing, Bill says.

My feet disagree. Besides, the fish are hiding from the deer flies.
Talk to business leaders throughout Wisconsin and you will hear a recurring theme: There is a real need for skilled workers to fill jobs in just about every industry and in companies of all sizes. A survey by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, for example, says 70 percent of state businesses are struggling to find qualified workers and some are delaying expansions because of the problem.

That is why workforce development is a key component of Gov. Scott Walkers two-year budget proposal and why the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., along with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and other state agencies, is aggressively developing initiatives to meet the workforce demands of today  and tomorrow.

Gov. Walkers budget includes $140 million for workforce development during the next two years. That is on top of the $212 million the state has invested during the last four years in workforce readiness.

Those efforts involve ensuring that those who are already in the workforce have the skills they need to adapt to an ever-changing economy as well as providing students with the necessary tools to compete in the job market once they leave high school or college.

One of the initiatives aimed at K-12 students is Wisconsins Fab Lab network, which provides students in public schools in every region of the state with hands-on learning in areas of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). Gov. Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and I recently joined other leaders from around the state in awarding nearly $500,000 in grants to help outfit public schools with the type of equipment that helps students master the skills that are in high demand.

WEDCs Fab Lab Grants provide up to $25,000 to each district to establish or expand the labs, which are high-technology workshops equipped with the latest computer-controlled manufacturing components. During the last two years, WEDC has invested $1.1 million in Fab Labs by awarding grants to 34 school districts  including the Onalaska, Black River Falls and Granton Area school districts.

Wisconsins Fab Labs initiative is helping schools provide students with hands-on learning in STEAM-related areas of study. Those students will develop skills that will be invaluable once they graduate from high school  whether they are heading straight into the workforce, going to a technical college or attending a four-year university.

Beyond the technical skills, students in Wisconsins Fabs Labs are also learning about problem-solving, collaboration and teamwork, all important lessons that will last a lifetime.

It is not just students who will benefit from the grants as many Wisconsin Fab Lab schools offer community members, businesses and entrepreneurs the opportunity to use the labs after school hours. Opening school Fab Labs to local innovators is an aspect of the program that will spur more economic development throughout the community.

Wisconsin is well known as a state that rises to a challenge, pooling the collective talents of its people to overcome obstacles and create new possibilities. Were also a state that is respected for its ingenuity and manufacturing leadership. Our growing network of Fab Labs is a testament to Wisconsins long and celebrated history of innovation. That history will be carried forward by the students and communities throughout the state who will explore new way to express their creativity and passion with the latest technology housed in their local schools.
COON VALLEY  Ronald P. Olson, 65, of Coon Valley died at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse Tuesday, May 23, 2017.

He was born Sept. 23, 1951, to Paul and Blanche Olson in Black River Falls. Ron married Kristine Thompson Aug. 23, 1975, at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Black River Falls.

He graduated from Black River Falls High School, class of 1969. After completing high school, Ron attended the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and graduated in 1973, with a Bachelor of Science in geography with an emphasis in resource management.

Right after graduation, Ron began his career with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at the Black River State Forest. Over the course of his 33 year career at the DNR, he served in many roles including as a fire tower observer, park ranger, area land agent, and statewide review appraiser. Ron was especially proud of his work related to the acquisition of lands used for trout streams, state parks, and bike trails. After retiring, he opened his own appraisal business, Real Estate Services, and continued engaging in appraisal work until his death. For the past 13 years, Rons favorite job was being a Grandpa.

He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Kristine; his mother, Blanche Olson of Black River Falls; two daughters, Leah (Eric) Olson-McBride of Eau Claire, and Laura (Jason) Rohowetz of Oconomowoc, Wis.; and five beloved grandchildren, Tyler, Brock, Samuel, Sophia and Logan. Ron is also survived by two sisters, Ellen (Charles) Phillips of Marysville, Wash., and Mary (Tim) Dement of Baraboo; one brother, Tom (Linda) Olson of Black River Falls; two brothers-in-law, Charles (Marcia) Thompson of Evansville and David (Bonnie) Thompson of Pigeon Falls; and a special cousin, Calvin Olson of Black River Falls.

He was preceded in death by his father, Paul Olson; and his in-laws, Bernard and Harriet Thompson.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, May 26, at the Westby Coon Prairie Church. Pastor Daniel Wollman will officiate with burial to follow in the Coon Prairie Cemetery. Friends may call from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 25, at the Vosseteig Funeral Home in Westby. Friends may also call from 10 a.m. till the time of service at 11 a.m. at the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the Fine Arts Foundation of the Westby Area, for the Community Performing Arts Center, or to the General Maintenance Fund at Westby Coon Prairie Lutheran Church.

Online Condolences may be offered at www.VossFH.com.

The Vosseteig Funeral Home, 708 S. Main St. in Westby is serving the family.
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25 (1) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (2) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (2) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (1) Feb 14 (1) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (2) Feb 11 (1) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (1) Feb 08 (1) Feb 07 (1) Feb 06 (1) Feb 05 (5) Feb 03 (1) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (1) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (3) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (1) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (6) Dec 14 (4) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (5) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (6) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (3) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (5) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (6) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (2) Aug 07 (2) Aug 06 (2) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (6) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (4) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (2) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (2) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (1) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (2) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 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25 (3) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (5) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (2) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (2) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (4) Nov 15 (6) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (2) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (7) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (2) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 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Friday, May 26, 2017

The Vermont Supreme Court has publicly reprimanded a former judge

This matter was initiated based on media reports of allegations that former assistant judge Paul Kane may have engaged in improper conduct regarding the assets of his uncles wife, Katherine Kay Tolaro. On February 22, 2016, the Board initiated an investigation into these allegations. On February 25, 2016, Mr. Kane agreed to step down from his position during the pendency of the investigation. After the Boards initial inquiry pursuant to the Rules of Supreme Court for Disciplinary Control of Judges (hereinafter R.S.C.D.C.J.) 7(1), Attorney Ian P. Carleton was appointed to serve as Special Counsel to investigate the matter further. Attorney Carleton filed a formal complaint on June 27, 2016, alleging that Mr. Kane violated several Canons of the Vermont Code of Judicial Conduct. Mr. Kane retained Attorney Melvin Fink as his counsel and filed his answer on July 26, 2016. The Board held an evidentiary hearing on March 20-22, 2017.

Findings

Mr. Kanes treatment of the loan repayments as his own, his lack of forthrightness with the estate administrators, his intentional misleading of attorneys Moore and French, and his hiding and withholding of the $10,000 all demonstrate that Mr. Kane failed to observe high standards of conduct such that his actions diminished the integrity of the Judiciary. Further, his intentionally misleading testimony at the November 5, 2015 hearing demonstrated a failure to act in such a way to promote public confidence in the integrity of the Judiciary. In fact, his continued failure to inform the court that he had given intentionally misleading testimony demonstrates a continuing failure to observe the high standards of personal conduct and a continuing failure to act in a way that promotes public confidence in the integrity of the Judiciary. Taken as a whole, Mr. Kanes treatment of these loans during the time in which he was a candidate for, and holder of, the office of assistant judge demeaned the judicial office.

It was established by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Kane intentionally filed a facially implausible claim. The circumstances demonstrate Mr. Kanes conduct was intentional for several reasons. First, he claimed that he was providing services to Ms. Tolaro 159 hours out of 169 hours in a week, for 135 weeks, despite the fact that he had a full-time job and had previously indicated in emails that only Mrs. Kane was providing care for Ms. Tolaro. Second, even if the 159 hours was an accurate weekly estimate, the claim still attempted to double-charge the estate for his alleged services rendered by also claiming he was owed for management services provided five hours per week for 104 weeks. Third, the claim included a request to be reimbursed $31,827.51, which he had already received from the Jackson annuity. Fourth, the claim included the 159 hours of care for both himself and his wife, even though his wife was deceased and her estate was closed. Mr. Kane reviewed these figures and still signed the statement of claim.

Even if the Board where to find that these errors were mistakes, which the Board does not so find, it is undisputed that most of these errors have not been brought to the attention of the Probate and Civil Court, even though he filed an amended claim, and despite the fact that it has been months since Mr. Kane became aware of these errors...

It was established by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Kane failed to protect Ms. Tolaros assets in the Jackson and Great American annuities during the time he was subject to the Code. It is not the Boards responsibility to determine the propriety of Mr. Kane using his POA to take out the annuities and list himself as the beneficiary; that conduct occurred before he became subject to the Code. However, to the extent that Mr. Kane believed the proceeds of the annuities belonged to Ms. Tolaros estate, as he testified to the Board, he was obligated to provide the proceeds to the estate. Instead, he kept the Jackson annuity proceeds in his personal checking account between July and October 2014, when he was subject to the Code.

Sanction

Special Counsel seeks sanctions to the fullest extent of the Boards authority. He asserts that this can include an immediate suspension, a public reprimand, and the barring of Mr. Kane from serving as a judge for life. Mr. Kane contends that his resignation and a public reprimand briefly stating the violations of the Canons is sufficient...

In the Boards unanimous judgment, the appropriate sanction for Paul Kanes violation of Canons 1, 2A, 4A(2), and 5B(2) is the immediate and indefinite suspension from judicial office, a public reprimand, and a prohibition on his ever holding judicial office in Vermont. Although Mr. Kane and Attorney Fink represented that he has submitted his resignation to several officials, they did not provide the Board with proof that Mr. Kane had actually resigned. Therefore, an immediate suspension is appropriate. Moreover, because a formal complaint was filed, a public reprimand is required.

Brattleboro Reformer reported that he resigned his judicial office.

In his resignation letter emailed to the media, Kane noted that following Tolaro's death he was "attacked in the news with words such as stole/siphoned and bilked. These were all in reference to my handling of the affairs. ... Too much misinformation has been printed with seemingly no remorse. I am not going to argue my probate case nor my alleged ethical misconduct in the newspaper, but I will state that money from the Estate is intact and though I do not believe I breached any Ethical Canon, I will be stepping down from my elected position with great sadness. Though I was naive to some fiduciary responsibilities and did not fully understand and carry out all (Power of Attorney) statutes, I find it hard to believe that the press can print anything they want without repercussion."

Kane also wrote that his integrity, honesty and reputation have been challenged due to the perception that he had done something wrong in the handling of the Tolaro estate.



"I am beat emotionally/physically and financially. I do not think I have fight left in me. Therefore I am stepping down from my position of Assistant Judge to stem any further judicial dishonor that may be perceived," he wrote. "I do this with great sadness but without shame or guilt."

Seven Days (Vermont's Independent Voice) covered the probate case. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/05/the-vermont-supreme-court-has-publicly-reprimanded-a-judge.html
Friday, May 26, 2017

The web page of the California State Bar has been redesigned.

The State Bar of California announces the launch of its new website: www.calbar.ca.gov. The website redesign and overhaul comes at a time of ongoing reforms for the State Bar, and aims to provide greater accessibility for the public, attorneys and applicants.

With the agencys primary mission focused on public protection, the new website provides easier access to attorney discipline information and legal resources. The site is mobile-optimized to reflect the reality that many Californians access the web primarily through mobile devices. The site aims to help the public better find information on how to file an attorney misconduct complaint and other attorney discipline system resources.

Features and highlights of the new website include:

Resources for the Public

- Information about how to file an attorney misconduct complaint

- Information about how to avoid fraud from people posing as attorneys, and how to file a complaint against non-attorneys for the unauthorized practice of law

- Multilingual information: complaint forms and instructions on how to file a complaint are now available in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. Additional legal resource translations will also be available online soon. Google translate is also available on many legal resources pages for the public

- Information about disbarments, suspensions and other attorney discipline

- Multilingual intake hotline for complaints against attorneys (and for complaints about unauthorized practice of law): 800-843-9053

Information for attorneys licensed in California

- Revamped attorney records (known as the My State Bar Profile feature)

- Pro bono opportunities and other information about supporting legal aid

- Information about attorney ethics and other rules of professional conduct

- MCLE requirements and reporting

- Information about fees and licensing

- California Bar Journal and attorney discipline listings are now part of the main State Bar website

Easier access to information for greater transparency

- Public meetings of the Board of Trustees, as well as State Bar committees and commissions

of Board of Trustees meetings

- Listings of disbarments, suspensions and other attorney discipline now housed directly on the State Bar website

- Public comment

- Public records

- News releases

Information for prospective attorneys

- Better access to registration tools and Bar Exam information

Information about access to justice

- Details about the State Bars work to promote access to justice and diversity in the legal system, including the approximately $30 million distributed annual directly to legal aid

- Resources for those who wish to donate their time or money to helping Californians access the legal system

- Contact information for the public for legal aid organizations that receive grants from the State bars

The State Bar welcomes feedback and suggestions for further website improvements that help achieve the agencys public protection mission. Please provide feedback via this online survey.

###

The State Bar of California is an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court, protecting the public and seeking to improve the justice system since 1927. All lawyers practicing law in California must be admitted to the State Bar.

Here is the link to the new page for the State Bar Court.

While I always approach any change with trepidation - especially when I already know how to find what I am looking for to prime this pump (a phrase I invented, by the way) - the new California web page appears to improve access and transparency. (Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2017/05/the-web-page-of-the-california-state-bar-has-been-redesigned-here-is-the-link-to-the-state-bar-court.html


Imagine you are watching the 1991 American film City Slickers. It tells the story of an unhappy man and two of his friends. The men agree they need a short break from their day-to-day problems. So they decide to go on a trip to the southwestern United States.

In the movie, you hear the following lines:

"When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything  and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, 'What happened to my twenties?"

Our report today is not about aging. Instead, it is about a strange verb: make.

Have you ever wondered about the verb make? Have you noticed that it has different meanings in different situations?

On Everyday Grammar, we will explore three meanings of the word make. We will learn how make has different meanings depending on the noun phrase that follows it in a sentence.

The verb make

Make is an irregular verb. Unlike many other verbs, the past tense is not formed by adding an ed at the end. Instead, the past tense is made.

The literal meaning of make is "to produce or create something." However, this meaning is not common in everyday speech.

Instead, English speakers often use make to suggest different meanings. They show these meanings by using one of a number of noun phrases after the verb.

Together, these make+noun phrase structures have an idiomatic meaning. In other words, the structure make+ a noun phrase often has a meaning other than what the individual words suggest.

There are many different meanings of the structure make+ a noun phrase.

Two grammar experts, Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber, have identified over one dozen commonly-used make + noun phrase expressions!

Today, we will study three of them. These structures are all polite and can be used in almost any situation  at school, at work, or among friends and family.

#1 Perform an action

One common meaning of make is this: to perform an action.

Make has this meaning when it is followed by a noun phrase such as the bed or a telephone call.

Here are two examples.

You might hear a parent tell a child, "You need to make your bed ." Or you might hear someone say, "I would like to make a phone call ."

In both examples, the verb make suggests performing an action. So, when an English speaker says "make the bed," he or she means to perform the action of straightening the bedcover and sheets.

When someone says "make a phone call," he or she means the act of going to the phone, calling the number, and speaking to another person.

#2 Plan or decide to do something

A second meaning of the verb make is to plan or decide to do something. Make has this meaning when followed by a noun phrase such as an appointment, plans to, or a decision to.

Imagine you hear this short phone call:

Person 1: Good afternoon, this is Doctor Smith's office.

Person 2: Good afternoon. I would like to make an appointment with Dr. Smith.

Person 1: I'm sorry, he's not available until Friday. Would you like to make an appointment f or this Friday?

Person 2: I don't think that will work  I've already made plans to go out of town!

In the exchange, you heard two examples of make+a noun phrase. The words "make an appointment" mean to plan to meet with another person.

When the speaker says, "I've already made plans to go out of town," what she means is that she has already decided to do something  go out of town.

You will hear this structure often in other situations  such as in a news report or on a television show. Almost every day, news agencies report, "The president has made a decision to " or "The committee has made plans to...."

Now you know that they have the basic meaning of planning or deciding to do something.

#3 Earn money

A third common meaning of make is this: to earn money. Make has this meaning when followed by noun phrases such as a living, money, or a profit.

So, for example, a student might say, "Now that I've finished school, I have to make a living ." A businessperson might explain to a financial specialist, "My business made a profit last year."

In both cases, make means the act of earning money.

There was an example of this meaning at the beginning of our report.

"When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything  and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, 'What happened to my twenties?"

What can you do?

Now that you have learned about a few meanings of the verb make, you will have to make an attempt to learn a few other possible meanings of it.

The next time you are watching an American film or television broadcast, try to find examples of make+ a noun phrase.

Ask yourself how the speakers are using make, and what nouns or noun phrases go with the verb.

Learning these idiomatic meanings of make is not easy. However, with training and effort, you can make progress.

I'm Alice Bryant.

And I'm John Russell.

John Russell wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

blur  n. something that is difficult to remember

irregular  adj. not following the normal patterns by which word forms (such as the past tenses of verbs) are usually created

literal  adj. involving the ordinary or usual meaning of a word

idiomatic  adj. an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words but that has a separate meaning of its own

noun phrase  n. a group of words that acts like a noun in a sentence

polite  adj. having or showing good manners or respect for other people

tense  n. a form of a verb suggesting time or length of action

grammar  n. the study of words and their uses in a sentence

dozen  n. a group of 12
Americans have been fighting over how to create congressional districts since 1789.

That was when James Madison was elected to the House of Representatives although his Virginia district was created to give his opponent the advantage. Madison went on to become president of the United States, as did his opponent in that election, James Monroe.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision in the latest congressional redistricting dispute.

Redistricting is the process of redefining congressional districts on a map. Voters within each district elect a representative to the U.S. Congress.

The court rejected two congressional districts in the state of North Carolina. The court said race played too large a part in how the districts were created.

More African-American voters were added to both districts, making them majority black. Those disputing the redistricting said the result weakened black voting strength in other parts of North Carolina.

It happens every 10 years

Every 10 years the U.S. government carries out a census that counts the number of people living in all 50 states.

After the census, each state develops new district lines for the House of Representatives, and state legislatures, to reflect the new population numbers.

Common Cause is an activist group that supports measures to have independent commissions create districts.

That would be a change from the current system. Most states now permit the political party that controls state government to create district lines. That gives the majority partys candidates an advantage, according to Common Cause.

There are now more state governments controlled by Republicans than Democrats. The Brennan Center, a democracy and justice group in New York, says this has given Republicans an advantage.

The group says the benefits provided Republicans are worth 16-17 seats to the current Republican majority in the 435-member House of Representatives.

Like a salamander



Developing district lines to give one political party an advantage is known as gerrymandering. That term was created in 1812 to make fun of a congressional district, approved by Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry.

Some said the 1812 Massachusetts district looked like a salamander, a lizard-like animal that lives in water and on land.

Supreme Court Justice Elaine Kagan wrote the recent decision in the North Carolina redistricting case. She said states cannot make race a primary reason for creating district lines, as she said was the case in North Carolina.

Republicans, who controlled the redistricting process in North Carolina, said they were guided by politics, not race.

Their goal, Republicans said in a legal paper, was to make strong Democratic districts even stronger so Republican candidates in nearby districts would do better.

The Supreme Court may take up the question of how much politics can affect redistricting next year, said Justin Levitt. He is a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California.

There's no other major Western democracy that lets incumbents draw their own district lines, as we do, and that's the source of a lot of the problems we encounter, he said.

The Brennan Center for Justice said six states use independent commissions to create district lines. But most others let state legislators and governors create districts.

Eric Holder is the former attorney general under President Barack Obama. He is now the leader of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which backed the legal challenge that led to Tuesdays Supreme Court decision.

North Carolinas maps were among the worst racial gerrymanders in the nation, Holder said.

Robin Hayes is chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party.

Hayes complained that it is difficult for legislatures to create district lines, when courts "constantly" change rules "from case to case, often after the fact.

The Supreme Court ruling criticized how North Carolina creates districts. But the two districts considered by the court were already changed, as a result of earlier court rulings.

More and larger congressional districts

The size of House of Representative districts has grown as Americas population has increased.

In 1790, each of the 110 members of the House of Representatives represented about 34,000 residents. Today, there are 435 House members, with districts of about 711,000 people each.

Congress is divided into two bodies -- the House of Representatives and the Senate. The number of House members in each state is based on population.

In the Senate, each state has two senators, regardless of population. So California, with a population of 39.2 million, has the same number of senators as Wyoming, with about 585,000 residents.

I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Bruce Alpert.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page.

____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

advantage - n. something such as a good position or condition that helps to make someone or something better or more likely to succeed than others

census - n. the official process of counting the number of people in a country, city, or town and collecting information about them

gerrymandering  n. to divide a state or legislature into political units that give one group an unfair advantage

incumbent - n. a person who holds a particular office or position

draw - v. to create something

source - n. the cause of something

encounter - v. to experience problems or difficulties

constantly - adv. happening again and again


Several hundred students spent last week building robots in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

The students are from middle schools and high schools in Senegal and neighboring countries.

The robotics competition takes place once a year. Contest organizers say their goal is to urge governments and private donors to invest in science and mathematics education throughout Africa.

Teams of young people gathered in Dakar for the Pan-African Robotics Competition. The theme of this year's competition was Made in Africa.

The sound of machinery could be heard during the event. The students built small robots and used them to search for natural resources in the ground.

Sidy Ndao created the competition. He says the students were asked to show how robotics developed in Africa can help local economies.

We have noticed that most countries that have developed in the likes of the United States have based their development on manufacturing and industrialization, and African countries, on the other hand, are left behind in this race. So we thought it would be a good idea to inspire the kids to tell them about the importance of manufacturing, the importance of industry and the importance of creation and product development



During the week, the students were separated into three groups. The first group created robots that would work in and organize storage centers. The second group created machines that would mine natural resources. The third one was asked to create an African product and tell how to build it.

Seventeen-year-old Rokyaha Cisse is from Senegal. She helped her team develop a robot that sends sound waves into the ground to search for metals and then begins digging.

She says it is very interesting, fun, and they are learning new things, as well as having their first chance to operate robots.

Aboubacar Savage from Gambia was part of a younger team. He said his teams robot communicates with computers.

It is a robot that whatever you draw into the computer, it translates it and draws it in real life. It is kind of hard. And there is so much competition, but we are trying. I have learned how to assemble a robot. I have learned how to program into a computer

Seventeen-year-old Marieme Toure and her team built a robot that would be able to work in a mine.

She said, this helps us get more involved in science. Learning to program robots allows us to develop a certain aptitude in robotics that will serve us in the future.

Ousmane Lo competed against Toure. He is also from Senegal. He says robots could solve agricultural problems in Africa.

Right now, its machines that dominate. What we cant do, machines can do, Lo said.

Sidy Ndao, who is from Senegal, is now a professor at the University of Nebraskas Lincoln College of Engineering.

I have realized how much the kids love robotics and how much they love science, and you can tell because when it is time for lunch, we have to actually convince them to actually leave, and then [when] it is time to go home, nobody wants to leave...

Ndao said he hopes the event will persuade African governments and private individuals to invest in science and mathematics education, especially in universities.

He said, the idea is that we would have African universities that have similar or perhaps better standards than European and American universities so that the students who -- the thousands or the millions of them in Africa -- have the chance to have a higher, state-of-the-art education in the continent.

Im Phil Dierking.

Ricci Schryock reported this story from Dakar for VOANews.com. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

natural resources  n. natural materials or substances that can be used for economic gain

theme  n. a subject of a musical or artistic work; the main subject being discussed

focus  v. to direct ones attention on something

inspire  v. to influence

translate  v. to change words into ones own or another language

assemble  v. to put something together

aptitude  n. the ability to learn something

dominate  v. to have power over; to be the most important part of something
A United States Navy ship has sailed near a Chinese-controlled coral reef in the South China Sea.

The move was the first U.S. test to Chinas territorial claims in the waterway since President Donald Trump took office.

The guided missile destroyer USS Dewey came within 22 kilometers, or 12 nautical miles, of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands. China claims Mischief and other reefs in the South China Sea as part of its territory.

The United Nations defines territorial waters as extending up to 12 nautical miles from a state's coastline.

Chinese officials have sent workers to expand and develop the coral reefs. Satellite images suggest China has set up military bases and sent weapons to some of the new, man-made islands.

The United States and other nations have criticized China for its island-building activities in the area. The disputed waterway is one of the worlds busiest shipping routes.

Other countries with territorial claims in the South China Sea are the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

The U.S. military has carried out freedom of navigation operations in the area. They are designed to show military force and demonstrate support for free movement of shipping in international waters.

U.S. forces completed at least four freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea in recent years. The last one took place in October 2016.

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman said in a statement the latest action was a continuation of the operations. U.S. forces would keep operating in the South China Sea to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, the statement said.

Chinas Foreign Ministry protested the naval operation. A foreign ministry official told reporters the U.S. destroyer had "trespassed" near islands over which China has "indisputable sovereignty." He added that such patrols were "very likely to cause unexpected sea and air accidents."

"We urge the U.S. to correct this mistake and stop taking further actions so as to avoid hurting peace and security in the region and long-term cooperation between the two countries," the official said.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators urged President Trump to restart freedom of navigation operations. The senators described the South China Sea as critical to U.S. national security interests and to peace in the Asia-Pacific area.

The appeal came after a meeting in the United States between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The U.S. president said the meeting helped them to develop friendly relations. The Trump administration has said it is seeking Chinas help in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from VOA News, the Associated Press and Reuters. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

trespass  v. enter someone elses land without permission

indisputable  adj. impossible to question or doubt

sovereignty  n. power of a country to control its own government

bipartisan  adj. supported by members of both political parties, Democrat and Republican
On Nov. 1, Linn Benton Food Shares warehouse in Tangent received two truckloads of food and household supplies arranged by the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
COZAD  What started out as an idea talked about in the living room, has grown and morphed into a full-fledged business for Chris Rowe.

Rowe, owner of Rowe Cattle Company, started a beef delivery business called Beef Club a few years ago after talking to his girlfriend Kailin Sneller about the idea.

Beef Club provides home grown Nebraska beef to customers through delivery to their doorstep. For example a half beef can be delivered via 12 installments, with each delivery containing a variety of steaks and roasts plus ground beef.

Ordinarily there are two main ways to buy beef, said Rowe. A customer buys a whole, half or quarter beef, paying $700-$3500 at once, and stores around 250-450 pounds of beef in the freezer. In the second way, a customer goes to the grocery store and purchases enough beef to meet daily or weekly needs.

Rowe said he wanted a business to go right in between the two. Beef Club sells the amount of beef a family eats in a month, delivered to their door.

A family of four could purchase a half beef that would be divided into 12 monthly package deliveries and 12 monthly payments collected upon delivery. The price will not change during that 12 month period.

If a family is consuming more than that, they can increase the amount of beef in each package. Or, if a family is not using that amount of beef, they can decrease the package size. Beef Club is very flexible and will even allow customers to skip a month if they so choose.

"Some people havent had 100 percent Nebraska beef. I wanted to make that affordable and convenient," he said.

All beef sold by Beef Club is sourced from producers in the Dawson County area, is hormone free and is USDA inspected for resale.

Ground beef is at least 85 percent lean with 15 percent fat; the ground beef is more like ground chuck, Rowe said. When the ground beef is tested, it almost always tests above the 85-15 level, he said.

No additives are used in Beef Club beef and often there is no need to drain the ground beef when cooked, he said.

For steaks, only high quality cuts such as rib-eye, t-bone, sirloin, flat iron, sirloin, filet and New York strip are selected for delivery to Beef Club customers, Rowe said.

For the consumer who desires 100 percent home grown Nebraska beef, but who does not have freezer space to store a quarter, half or whole beef, nor the funds to pay for the beef upfront, Beef Club is the perfect solution, said Rowe.

He said he likes the personal delivery method of providing beef to customers because it allows him to meet and talk to customers and establish better relationships.

All Beef Club beef is processed and vacuumed packed at Steakmasters in Elwood, which is a USDA certified for resale facility, he said.

So far, advertising for Beef Club has been mostly confined to Facebook, but Rowe said he plans to further his reach by advertising in area newspapers, increasing his presence on Facebook and launching the new website trybeefclub.com.

Rowe said he is working on transforming his Facebook site, "Beef Club Nebraska," into a resource library where visitors could look up recipes, see cooking videos and interact. Beef Clubs website, trybeefclub.com provides more information on orders and will be the point of sale, he said.

He said he wants to market his product to the beef eater who is interested in the highest quality beef or the mother who wants to have home grown, lean ground beef from Dawson County to make spaghetti for her children.

Rowe is a first generation cattle feeder and entrepreneur who moved to Nebraska in 2007 from Kansas. He has a background in logistics via the trucking industry and has a long career in sales.

He said there is enough demand for 100 percent Nebraska beef within a 60 mile radius around Cozad for him to continue to grow his beef delivery business. Beef Club delivers to Cozad, Gothenburg, Lexington, North Platte, Eustis, McCook, Bertrand, Kearney, Overton, Minden, Ansley and Broken Bow.

Previously, Rowes marketing career focused on those in the agriculture sector, he said, and now he has transitioned to marketing to the general consumer wanting high-quality beef

"Theres an interest among people getting that monthly high quality product delivered to their door," Rowe said.
For more than 100 years Mead Lumber has been helping customers with their home improvement projects and assisting professional contractors, builders, and remodelers with their building and project needs.

In 1910, Morton Mead purchased his first lumber yard in Ashland, Nebraska. This would be the first of a chain of stores, now totaling over 40 locations across Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming, that makes up the family of Mead Lumber stores.

The company consists of lumber yards, hardware stores, home centers, rental centers, countertop, and millwork fabrication facilities, and truss plants.

For anyone considering a new home, a home remodel project or just want to do-it-yourself, Mead Lumber provides; cabinets/countertops, decking, drywall/insulation, roofing/siding, Lumber, Doors, and Trims.

Services offered at Mead Lumber include: rental centers, "how to" solutions, green - energy building, design and estimating.

Mead Lumber is committed to providing quality and sustainable building materials, a strong product mix and selections, competitive pricing and outstanding service. The company also provides value added design, estimating, timely delivery, in-house credit, and much more.

Mead Lumber in Lexington has 15 employees and is managed by Tyler Pratt. The business is located at 700 S. Plum Creek Parkway. The office number is 308-324-5636.

The business is currently undergoing a renovation both in the interior and exterior of the Lexington store.

The front of the store has a wide variety of tools, hardware tools, lawn care items, carpet items, and home improvement products and many more items.

Once the interior renovation is completed, Pratt said that half of the store would feature a design center with showroom, for interiors, including bathrooms and kitchens and for exterior including windows and doors, siding and shingles.

The kitchen portion of the design center will feature samples of kitchens with islands installed. An onsite design expert will be available to assist customers, he said.

Three offices behind the design center would each showcase different types of siding and roofing, in an effort to show customers how different styles of design look. Each office would represent its own "mini house" with different siding, different color and building type, he said.

Wall space above his office in the back of the store would be decorated with framed pictures of the founder of Mead Lumber company, to celebrate the Nebraska heritage of the company, Pratt said.

The entire remodel of the Lexington Mead Lumber is tentatively scheduled to be completed by the end of June, he said. A grand opening will be scheduled later this year after the completion of the renovation, Pratt said.
At My Book, The Movie

Ronlyn Domingue's "The Mapmaker's War"
Country

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Jason Merritt/Getty Images via ABCNBC has postponed its Jennifer Lopez-produced TV special, Bye Bye Birdie Live, from December to 2018, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Lopez's busy schedule is being blamed for the delay. She's already involved with two other NBC projects, including the police drama Shades of Blue and her upcoming dance competition, World of Dance, which she'll judge and executive produce. On top of that, there's her All I Have Las Vegas residency and she has a Spanish-language album on the way.

Bye Bye Birdie Live is based on the 1960 Tony-winning musical about an Elvis Presley-inspired heartthrob named Conrad Birdie, whose rock & roll lifestyle throws a small town into chaos when he's scheduled to give one of its residents a farewell kiss before he's drafted into the army. Lopez will play the girlfriend of Birdie's songwriter/agent.

This will mark the first year since 2013's The Sound of Music Live that NBC hasn't aired a live musical production. Others include Peter Pan Live, The Wiz Live and Hairspray Live.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Since 2014, world trade has declined by more than US$3 trillion with Sub-Saharan Africa's combined exports falling by about 40% - from US$403 billion to less than US$250 billion.

 cooldesign via 123RF

Amid an unprecedented global trade slowdown, African policy-makers, negotiators and trade analysts are meeting this week in Mauritius to discuss priorities for reviving world trade and strengthening their trading capacity.

Participants will discuss the most pressing trade and development challenges for Commonwealth African member states, in the light of unfavourable global economic and trade patterns, rising protectionism and growing discontent about globalisation.

The meeting will also be an opportunity for reviewing the current issues for multilateral trade negotiations, especially since the World Trade Organisation is hosting its 11th ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in December.

The regional consultation will take into consideration the outcomes of the Commonwealth Trade Ministers meeting, held in March this year in London, particularly to explore avenues through which intra-Commonwealth trade and investment opportunities can be enhanced.

One of the major challenges confronting Africa is the lack of capacity to undertake trade negotiations.

The meeting will also provide a platform for African member states to assess various trade policy options, including UK-Africa trade relations post-Brexit, advancing African integration through the Continental Free Trade Agreement, and priority issues for the upcoming Global Review of Aid for Trade in July.

The Commonwealth Secretariat will launch its new Handbook on Regional Integration in Africa: Towards Agenda 2063 in Mauritius. The handbook provides a unique resource on current dynamics, opportunities, challenges and policy options for Africas regional integration agenda. Agenda 2063 is the African Unions strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over 50 years.

Past and present trade negotiators will also convene to finalise a proposal to establish an informal Commonwealth African Trade Negotiators Network.

Brendan Vickers, economic adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat said: African countries are engaged in a range of global, regional and bilateral negotiations on trade and trade-related issues. However, one of the major challenges confronting Africa is the lack of capacity to undertake trade negotiations, although many experienced negotiators from Africa are willing to help.

This network aims to bring these negotiators together and provide a think tank for Africa for future trade negotiations. Drawing on the collective experience, knowledge and wisdom of present and past trade negotiators, the network will help set out strategic priorities for Africas current and future trade agenda, assess opportunities and challenges, brainstorm particular negotiating and policy issues, and explore ways to unlock any impasse in some of the negotiations.
The 28th Macao Arts Festival will come to a close on Sunday after two showings of a modern, Icelandic take on Anton Chekhovs The Seagull, brought to the stage of the Macau Cultural Center by the Reykjavik City Theatre, under the guidance of director Yana Ross.

Rosss interpretation takes the classic late-nineteenth century play by the Russian dramatist and sets it in a luxurious Icelandic lakeside summerhouse with parties and karaoke.

Ross said during a media session this week that she finds it essential to reproduce classics with a touch of localism  both in terms of time and space. That is, she imbues local names, characters and themes into her works, taking note of where they will be staged.

It is very important to take into account the context of where the play is happening. A big part of the work is to look at the original Russian culture [] when the play was written, said Ross. For me, its never an abstract Russian masterpiece; its a very practical text for the actors, written by a hot-blooded writer.

The key for me is open dialogue of what art means to us today. I am not interested in talking about what art meant 100 years ago that has changed, she continued. Perhaps, paradoxically, I am seeking authenticity, but the original is calling for an adaptation.

In giving an example of why an update to the play created in 1895 was required, Ross explained that in the original, one character walks into a room without wearing a hat  behavior that would be considered rude and shocking in the late-nineteenth century.

In the context of todays audiences, Ross said, this would no longer be shocking and some meaning would be lost. Therefore, changes were required to ensure parts of Chekhovs writings were not overlooked.

Nevertheless, many themes found in The Seagull and across Chekhovs works have not changed in more than a century, testifying to the relevance of the Russian playwright today.

I dont think there is any rule or necessity for updating classics, the Latvian-born director wrote in an introduction to the program. The point is that the play is relevant and it is an artistic choice of how to stage it.

The Reykjavik City Theatre ranks among Icelands oldest and most prestigious cultural institutions. It has successfully collaborated with many leading international companies such the Barbican Center and Young Vic in London, Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, and the Malmo City Theatre in Sweden.

Showings of The Seagull will be held on Saturday and Sunday night at the Grand Auditorium of the Macau Cultural Center. The performances will be held in Icelandic, with subtitles in Chinese, Portuguese and English.
Several lawmakers posed questions yesterday to the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, regarding the governments method of handling the problems reported by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) and by the Commission of Audit (CA). The secretary pledged to improve mechanisms for accountability of officials as well as legal training.

During yesterdays Legislative Assembly (AL) plenary meeting, Ng Kuok Cheong said that the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) took action following the CCACs report that condemned the ICs recruitment of outsourced staff.

Ng noted that reactions of different governmental departments towards the report were witnessed by the public. Some departments, however, did not apply disciplinary procedures or provide a public explanation, thus allowing the CCACs reported problems to continue.

Regarding the undertaking of responsibilities, Ng stated, after things are unveiled, [the government] says it will enhance supervision, and will make up for previous works.

The lawmaker wanted to know the consequences of the previous works frequently mentioned by the government.

He also pointed out that many cases were only disclosed after a few departments were dismissed. Those who should be accountable for these cases have already left.

Ng then encouraged the government to reveal how many people left [their work] for being accountable [for the problems], and how many left without having been asked to assume responsibilities.

Si Ka Lon, following Ngs statements, said that if the CCACs and the CAs criticisms are not addressed, it will crumble the departments energy.

Main government officials must pay importance to it; someone should be responsible for these things, declared Si.

Ho Ion Sang noted that government officials worked but were not held accountable.

Furthermore, Ho pointed out that high officials are either retired or were moved to other departments after the reports by the CCAC and the CA came out.

Au Kam San regarded the CCAC and the CA as the hands of the Chief Executive, with the former working for integrity and the latter for efficiency.

Leong Veng Chai continued his questions to Chan. During the last AL plenary meeting, he said there were many government departments which violated regulations during their recruitment.

What do you reckon when several recruitments within the Legal Affairs Bureau [DSAJ] violated regulations? [] I think you should review the recruiting process, and also review what you said, said Leong.

Chan first replied to Leong, explaining that her departments will correct their problems. She noted that the government has reached an agreement regarding the civil servant system.

According to Chans statement, the Macau government has decided to spend effort developing the governments integrity. Moreover, according to the secretary, less than 1 percent of the work conducted by the citys high officials is considered to be in need of improvement.

Government reports regarding the working behavior of Macau leaders in the year of 2016, show that nearly two-thirds of the citys high officials received evaluations classified as good or above. Approximately one-third received ok or expected.

Regarding leadership capability, around 88 percent of the governors were evaluated as good or above, while 11 percent obtained a pass. This supports Chans comments that only about 1 percent of government officials need to improve.

Regarding the sense of morality and the sense of responsibility while on-duty, 93 percent of the governors were assessed as good or above, while another 7 percent were rated lower but passed the evaluation, and less than 1 percent needed improvement.

On the lawmakers agenda

Electronic payment Angela Leong pointed out that the majority of Macaus tourists are from mainland China, with mainland studies showing that Alipay and WeChat Pay have become the preferred mobile payment platforms among mainland residents. Leong noted that Macaus mobile payment coverage is at a low percentage, as only a small number of large restaurants and retail companies have an installed electronic payment systems. The lawmaker claimed that regarding the sectors of transportation, medicine, services, and government departments, Macau does not provide an electronic payment platform, which means the city has a long way to go towards becoming a smart city. Leong questioned the authority on whether it will consider the installment of electronic payment systems within government departments.

Pool Hygiene Chan Hong says that the governments previous swimming pool hygiene tests indicated that the citys public pool hygiene management needs to be improved. Chan mentioned that the pools in the citys hotels are under the responsibility of the citys tourism authority, and that the latter provides instructions regarding the maintenance of these pools. Chan said that the instructions are merely suggestions, which are insufficient to secure the hygiene of pools in hotels. Chan questioned the government on whether it will issue a unified pool management license. The lawmaker also wanted to know whether the government will require a specific number of mandatory lifeguards at all public pools.

Elevator maintenance Kwan Tsui Hang stated that the city has nearly blank supervision towards mechanical and electrical engineering projects. Kwan noted that back in 2014, Macau had 5,193 declared elevators  however, according to a government report last year, only roughly 1,200 elevators obtained an annual safe operation certificate. Kwan says that the citys elevator maintenance and operation regulations have already been implemented for four years. Kwan noted that the regulations are not mandatory and have no punishment provisions. The lawmaker questioned whether the government has any supervision of the operation of the citys elevators at all.

Many questions about Iec Long Firecracker factory

Lawmakers have pressed the government for further explanation on a land swap deal related to the former Iec Long Firecracker Factory, which was reported by the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) last year.

The factory was reported to have gained thousands of square meters of public land from the government according to an agreement signed between the owners of the factory and the administration.

A report issued by the CCAC in 2016 indicated that the agreement was invalid.

Many lawmakers questioned whether violation of the regulations or illegal behavior was involved in the agreement.

Lawmaker Song Pek Kit doubted that any sense of responsibility was being instilled in government high officials regarding this case.

The lands belong to all the residents of Macau, said Song, adding that the Macau public cannot trust the government if the land was swapped that easily. The government cannot explain [its actions] to the public.

Lawmaker Lei Cheng I further questioned how the government followed up on the case. Lei says that the CCACs report has a small effect regarding the Iec Long Firecracker Factory.

The head of the Land Management Department of the Land at the Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT), Americo Viseu, disclosed that the investigations have concluded that the part of the factorys lands in question are indeed private lands.

Furthermore, the DSSOPT official declared that the bureau has already completed an investigation report into the lands, and has issued a notice to related people to clean the factory site and move out from the area within 60 days.

The government will reclaim the lands after this period. Moreover, Americo Viseu noted that the land swap incident was reported to the CCAC by Raimundo do Rosario, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, who took the initiative to compel the CCAC to investigate the case.

Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, added that the DSSOPT will follow up the case.
China protested a U.S. Navy patrol that sent a guided missile destroyer near a group of man-made islands in the South China Sea yesterday, in the first American challenge to Beijings claims to the waters since President Donald Trump took office.

Chinas Defense Ministry told reporters that it had sought an explanation with U.S. officials over the incident, which Beijing said involved the USS Dewey and took place around Mischief Reef, one of a chain of artificial islands China has built and fortified to assert its claims over the strategic waterway.

While U.S. officials did not immediately comment on yesterdays operation, Washington has in the past insisted that it has the right to conduct so-called freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPS, in the area because it is in international waters. The Navy conducted similar operations under former President Barack Obama, but had not done so since Trump took office and began talking up the prospect of warming ties with Beijing and cooperating over issues like North Korea.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the U.S. destroyer had trespassed near islands over which China has indisputable sovereignty.

We urge the U.S. to correct this mistake and stop taking further actions so as to avoid hurting peace and security in the region and long-term cooperation between the two countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Ren Guoqiang told reporters at a monthly news briefing that a pair of Chinese navy frigates had warned off the American ship after it entered the area without Chinas permission.

We urge the American side to take concrete efforts to correct its wrongdoings and add more positive energy to the military-to-military relationship, Ren said.

The spokesman added that the U.S. actions not only posed the risk of sparking an accident at sea but would only motivate the Chinese military to enhance its capacity.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has aggressively tried to fortify its foothold in recent years by transforming seven mostly submerged reefs into island outposts, some with runways and radars and  more recently  weapons systems.

The work is opposed by the other claimants to the atolls and the United States, which are wary of restrictions on ship movements in a key waterway for world trade which boasts rich fishing grounds and a potential wealth of undersea oil, gas and mineral deposits. An international tribunal last year rejected most of Chinas claims to the waters and said its land reclamation was aggravating tensions and violating the sovereignty of fellow claimant the Philippines. China has ignored the ruling.

China contends the man-made islands are primarily for civilian purposes and to increase safety for ships. It has said it wont interfere with freedom of navigation or overflight, but there have been questions about whether that includes military ships and aircraft.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators earlier this month urged Trump to resume freedom of navigation operations that had last been conducted in October. The senators described the South China Sea as critical to U.S. national security interests and to peace in the Asia-Pacific.

U.S. Defense Department spokesman Maj. Jamie Davis said in an emailed statement that U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region would continue to conduct freedom of navigation operations to challenge excessive maritime claims in order to preserve the rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law.

Davis gave no details of yesterdays operation, saying summaries would only be released in an annual report and adding that U.S. forces conducted such operations last year to challenge claims by 22 coastal states, including allies and partners.

U.S. forces operate in the Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, Davis said.

FONOPS are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements. Christopher Bodeen, Beijing, AP

Taiwan holds war games simulating Chinese island attack

Taiwans military practiced repelling a simulated Chinese assault on an outlying island group yesterday as part of annual military drills addressing the threat from across the Taiwan Strait.

Units from the army, navy and air force were deployed for the drills on the Penghu islands. They featured tanks, rocket launchers, assault helicopters and soldiers using shoulder-fired missiles to repel a force invading from across the 160-kilometer-wide strait.

Warships maneuvered offshore and fighter jets deployed flares.

The drills come amid heightened tensions with China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-

wen observed the drills wearing a helmet and flak jacket and said they would improve command and cooperation between the different branches of the military.
Authorities from China and Pakistan are working together to rescue a Chinese couple abducted in southwest Pakistan, a Chinese government spokesman said yesterday.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China had asked Pakistani authorities to take all necessary measures and do their best to rescue the kidnapped Chinese.

Lu added that the two governments were coordinating to ensure the safety of other Chinese citizens in Pakistan.

Pakistani police were searching for the two teachers from a private language school after they were abducted in the city of Quetta Wednesday.

Gunmen dressed as police stopped the couples car and shot and wounded a man who intervened after he rescued a third person who was in the car, according to Pakistani police and Chinas official Xinhua news agency.

No one immediately claimed responsibility and the motive behind the abduction was unclear.

Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan and have sometimes been targeted in attacks by anti-government militants.

China is a longtime ally of Pakistan and is currently building a network of roads and power plants under a project known as the China-

Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Gunmen attacked a highway construction site that is part of the economic initiative earlier this month, killing at least 10 Pakistani workers.
The China-Portuguese speaking countries (PSC) cooperation and development fund headquarters and protocol signing ceremony will be one of the highlights of this years edition of the 8th International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Forum.

The two-day event, to be held at The Venetian Macao on June 1 and 2, intends to be a platform for cooperation and exchanges for global enterprises, investors and professionals, especially those from Portuguese-

speaking countries and those along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative.

During a press conference held yesterday held by the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), the vice president of the China International Contractors Association, Yu Xiaohong, stressed that the forum will mark the official launching of the development fund in Macau, that will provide consultancy and project financing services to enterprises.

Yu further mentioned the publishing of the Belt and Road infrastructure cooperation authoritative indexes and reports. He also discussed the extension of the connectivity and development plans to not only the Portuguese-speaking countries, but also to the African, Latin American and Caribbean regions.

Yu also stated most of these countries and regions will be represented on this forum at the highest level. An expected 28 ministerial-level guests and officials from 23 African countries and 11 ministerial-level guests and officials from Latin American and Caribbean countries will attend.

As of May 23, 55 ministerial-level guests and officials from 43 countries and regions have confirmed their participation, said Yu, adding that 12 of them are from countries along the Belt and Road region and eight are from Portuguese-speaking countries.

Replying to questions of the media, Irene Lau, Executive Director of IPIM said that the event is in line with the establishing of Macau as a convention center, remarking that the event has reached its peak in terms of participants.

Lau also mentioned that in comparison with the previous edition, this years forum will be of a much larger scale due to the presence of one more country and especially due to more participants from Mainland China that will add more in terms of capital and human resources.

The event, which this year focuses on innovation and sustainability, will also be another opportunity to provide a platform for cooperation and exchanges for global enterprises, investors and professionals, especially for those from the countries along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Portuguese-speaking countries, the president of IPIM, Jackson Chang said at the opening speech.
Almost half of the restaurants interviewed in the March business climate survey reported year-on-year growth in revenue for that month, up by 10 percentage points from the proportion that registered growth in February.

Around 47 percent of the restaurants reported an increase in revenue. The proportions of Chinese restaurants (48 percent), Japanese and Korean restaurants (56 percent), and Western restaurants (35 percent) reporting growth went up by about 30, 25 and 10 percentage points, respectively.

The business climate survey is conducted by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). It analyzes the value of receipts from a total of 167 restaurants, accounting for 53 percent of revenue from the whole sector. It compiles the business performance and expectations of firms within the sample.

Concurrent with the increase in revenue recorded within the restaurant sector, the proportion of interviewed restaurants that reported a year-on-year decline in receipts went down by 17 percentage points from February to 35 percent. Chinese and Japanese-Korean restaurants recorded respective declines of 34 and 19 percentage points in March.

The survey also interviewed some 135 retailers, accounting for 70 percent of the industrys receipts.

DSEC said in a statement that, similar to the restaurant sector, half of interviewed retailers reported a year-on-year increase in March sales, up by 20 percentage points from the proportion in the previous month.

In the restaurant sector, around 41 percent of interviewed firms expected their revenue to hold steady in April, while a similar number (39 percent) expected a decline.

According to DSEC, the business sentiment for April was more positive for retailers in the city, with one-quarter saying that they expected an increase.
Indonesias president ordered a thorough investigation yesterday of twin suicide bombings that targeted police, killing three officers, in the deadliest attack by suspected militants in the capital in a year.

President Joko Jokowi Widodo said he ordered police to thoroughly investigate the networks of the perpetrators and hunt them to the roots. He spoke from his hometown of Solo in Central Java province.

Two suspected suicide bombings near a bus terminal in Jakarta Wednesday night killed three policemen and injured ten other people, including five officers, police said.

National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said there were two explosions by two suicide bombers.

I expressed my deep condolence, in fact three policemen were killed, Wasisto said. There were explosions and latest investigation found that there are two suicide bombers, all men.

He added that ten other people  five policemen and five civilians  were wounded and were taken to several hospitals.

Earlier, Vice National Police Chief Syafruddin, who uses one name, said an initial investigation showed there were two explosions and a suspected suicide bomber had also died.

Tonight, to Indonesian citizens and all of us who are here at the scene, I express very deep concern. There have been bomb explosions at the Kampung Melayu bus terminal and for now they are believed to have been a suicide bombing, he said.

Syafruddin said the officers had been guarding a parade by a group of local people.

The explosion occurred in a parking lot next to the bus terminal in eastern Jakarta.

A bomb squad was investigating the explosion as heavily armed police and soldiers guarded the area.

TV channels showed people helping a victim lying on the ground, and three policemen carrying another victim away from the scene.

Police sources said an anti-terror squad had immediately raided two houses believed to be owned by the perpetrators in neighboring provinces of Banten and West Java, but the results have not yet been known.

Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country, generally follows a moderate form of the faith.

The government has carried out a sustained crackdown on militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by al-Qaida-affiliated radicals that killed 202 people. A new threat has emerged in the past several years from extremists who sympathize with the Islamic State group. AP
OPEC and its allies extended oil production cuts for nine more months after last years landmark agreement failed to eliminate the global oversupply or achieve a sustained price recovery.

The producer group together with Russia and other non-members agreed to prolong their accord through March, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Irans Minister of Petroleum, said in Vienna. No new non-OPEC countries will be joining the pact, according a delegate familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isnt public.

Six months after forming an unprecedented coalition of 24 nations and delivering output reductions that exceeded all expectations, resurgent production from U.S. shale fields has meant oil inventories remain well above the level targeted by OPEC ministers. While stockpiles are shrinking, ministers acknowledged that the surplus built up during three years of overproduction wont clear until at least the end of 2017.

Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih said yesterday that the cuts are working, saying stockpile reductions will accelerate in the third quarter and inventory levels will come down to the five-year average in the first quarter of next year. While he expects a healthy return for U.S. shale, that wont derail OPECs goals and a nine-month extension will do the trick, he said.

We must complete our mission today, said Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, who said the agreement was working despite skepticism.

The extension prolongs a rare period of collaboration between OPEC and some of its largest rivals, including Russia. The last time both sides worked together was 15 years ago, and the agreement fell apart soon after it began. The current accord encompasses countries that pump roughly 60 percent of the worlds oil, but excludes major producers such as the U.S., China, Canada, Norway and Brazil.

Without a steer on what will happen beyond March, theres concern that OPEC could return to the free-for-all production that caused prices to slump from 2014 to 2016, though Al-Falih has insisted the organization will maintain control. We have said we will do whatever it takes, the minister said.

The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee  comprised on six OPEC and non-OPEC nations  has a strong mandate to continue watching the market and can recommend further action if needed, said his Kuwaiti counterpart Almarzooq.

Al-Falih earlier announced that OPEC is welcoming a new member, Equatorial Guinea, to its ranks. The African nation will be one of the groups smallest producers, pumping about 270,000 barrels a day, a little more than neighboring Gabon. It was already participating in the cuts as a non-OPEC producer. Bloomberg
Army tanks packed with soldiers rolled into a southern Philippine city yesterday to try to restore control after ISIS-linked militants launched a violent siege that sent thousands of people fleeing for their lives and raised fears of extremists gaining traction in the country.

At least 21 people have died in fighting that erupted earlier this week, when the army raided the Marawi hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washingtons list of most-wanted terrorists and has a USD5 million bounty on his head.

But the operation quickly went wrong. Militants called in reinforcements and swept through the streets, torching buildings, taking a Catholic priest and his worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city to the outside world.

There was no immediate word on Hapilons whereabouts, but there was no indication he had been captured.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared 60 days of martial law on Tuesday across the southern third of the nation, an area that includes Marawi but extends well beyond it. Mindanao is home to 22 million people. Duterte also warned that he may expand marital law nationwide.

Much of Marawi was still a no-go zone yesterday. Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard in the distance and plumes of black smoke rose from the direction of the city center. Air force helicopters swooped overhead.

At night we can hear the gunfire, said Mohammad Usman, 49, who was among thousands of residents streaming out of the city, jamming their belongings into cars. Im just praying that the bullets will not find its way to my house and hit us. I hope that the bombs will not land nearby and harm us.

Even though much of the city was sealed off, disturbing details were emerging.

Duterte said a local police chief was stopped at a militant checkpoint and beheaded. Military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano said the militants erected Islamic State flags at several locations. And Marawi Bishop Edwin de la Pena said the militants forced their way into the Marawi Cathedral and seized a Catholic priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers.

Duterte has repeatedly threatened to place the south, the scene of decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings, under martial law, which allows him to use the armed forces to carry out arrest, searches and detentions more rapidly. But human rights groups and others have expressed fears that martial law powers could further embolden Duterte, who already has been accused of allowing extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.

We are gravely concerned that the declaration of martial law in Mindanao might lead to more extrajudicial killings and other cases of human rights violations, said Teddy Casino, a former member of the House of Representatives.

Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. He is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group and was wounded by a military airstrike in January. Jim Gomez & Teresa Cerojano, Marawi, AP
The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) organized a presentation session in Lisbon for tourism government officials, operators and media concerning the 43rd National Congress of APAVT.

To be held in Macau from November 23 to 27, the theme of the congress will be Tourism: In the East, all new! according to a statement issued by MGTO.

The congress is expected to gather around 500 Portuguese tourism operators and travel agents; and provide them with an update about new tourism offers and opportunities.

During the presentation session at the Portuguese capital, the Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal, Ana Mendes Godinho, noted, the organization of the Congress of APAVT in Macau represents the unique golden key that will close this great year for Portugal-China relations.

Clearly, we will have a very significant moment on July with the inauguration of the direct flights Lisbon-Beijing-

Hangzhou, but throughout the year we have been also developing a string of intense initiatives in order to reinforce the presence and promotion of Portugal in China, Godinho added.

Meanwhile, Helena de Sena Fernandes said that the bureau is confident that the congress would lead to further networking between operators, attracting more Portuguese visitors to Macau.

The MGTO head noted that the event is in line with the Protocol on Cooperation in Tourism signed last year between Macau and Portugal to reinforce relations and stimulate tourism cooperation across different levels.

APAVT President Pedro Costa Ferreira, who was also at the meeting, described Macau as a kaleidoscope of emotions, cultures, stories and people.

Also, because Macau represents a whole global economic centeredness which is moving East, with the city embodying a true window of change of the economical structure that is being heralded, said Ferreira.

Further, the MGTO director had a meeting on Wednesday in Lisbon with the President of Portugal Tourism Board, Luis Araujo.

During the meeting, the two parties discussed enhancing bilateral and multi-destination tourism cooperation and exchanges, along with the possibilities provided by the soon to be opened direct flights between Portugal and Mainland China, among other topics.

The 43rd National Congress of APAVT is being organized with the support of MGTO.

This is the fifth time that APAVT is holding its annual national congress in the peninsula, and the second since the establishment of the MSAR. The last edition of the congress that was held in Macau occurred nine years ago.

Last year Macau welcomed 15,624 visitors from Portugal, marking a 3 percent year-on-year increase. The growth continued for the first four months of the year, with arrivals recording a 10.4 percent increase.
PHILIPPINES Government forces launched precision attacks yesterday to clear militants linked to the Islamic State group from a city that has been under siege since a failed raid to capture a militant on the U.S. list of most-wanted terrorists. Around 20 people have died in the fighting, including 13 militants and five soldiers, and the violence has forced thousands to flee amid fears of growing extremism in the country.

TAIWANs military practiced repelling a simulated Chinese assault on an outlying island group yesterday as part of annual military drills addressing the threat from across the Taiwan Strait.

INDONESIAs president ordered a thorough investigation yesterday of twin suicide bombings that targeted police, killing three officers, in the deadliest attack by suspected militants in the capital in a year.

SINGAPOREs government gave an upbeat outlook on the economy, saying it will probably expand more than 2 percent this year as exports continue to strengthen.

MONGOLIA The International Monetary Fund said yesterday lenders have approved a USD5.5 billion financing package for Mongolia to support reforms meant to revive economic growth and reduce reliance on mineral exports.

NEW ZEALAND California-based company Rocket Lab said yesterday it had launched a test rocket into space from its New Zealand launch pad, although the rocket didnt reach orbit as hoped. Politicians in the country are rushing through new space laws and the government has set up a boutique space agency, which employs 10 people.

CYPRUS The rival leaders of ethnically divided Cyprus are still far apart on holding a final peace summit next month that would aim for an overall deal reunifying the island as a federation, a United Nations envoy said yesterday.

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabes daughter has been appointed to the countrys censorship board. The 27-year-old Bona Mugabe (pictured right) now will be part of an agency that polices what Zimbabweans can watch on their televisions or in public.

US-NATO Meeting fellow NATO leaders for the first time, U.S. President Donald Trump aggressively challenged them yesterday to spend more on their own defense, putting the alliance under exceptional pressure to become tougher, sharper and newly relevant.

VENEZUELAs chief prosecutor said a 20-year-old protester had been killed by state security forces, giving a version of events that contradicted others in the socialist administration who have strenuously denied state forces were involved.
TWIN FALLS  Pat Weber quietly, slowly scanned the Snake River through binoculars  then suddenly came to life.

Theres a tern! Yay! Its a Caspian tern, Weber said. Then she added for my sake: Thats a good one.

Fellow birder Jan Simpkin didnt need the explanation. Weber swung her scope and its tripod to her shoulder, and both women hustled downstream for another glimpse of the tern.

This is where you walk fast, Weber said over her shoulder.

Until that moment, speed wasnt important on the morning of Aug. 10, as Weber and Simpkin watched and listened along the road to Auger Falls Heritage Park.

Breeding season was long past, but the lull before fall migration still offered good birding  and surprising close to the citys busy streets. I asked Weber to recommend three summer birding spots close to Twin Falls, then I tagged along as she and fellow Prairie Falcon Audubon members visited each one.

Novice birder? Download the Cornell Lab of Ornithologys free Merlin Bird ID app and head out to one of these spots at sunrise.

Road to Auger Falls Heritage Park

Where: From Blue Lakes Boulevard North at the north end of Twin Falls, take Canyon Springs Road west and down into the Snake River Canyon. Just after passing the citys wastewater treatment plant, park in one of the pullouts beside the road and continue on foot.

When: Weber chose 7 a.m., before traffic to the park picked up. (Then again, she chose the magic hour of 7 a.m. for each of our outings.)

The experience: Walking northwest on the gravel road, we had two habitats to watch: a steep sagebrush slope on our left and the tree-lined Snake River on our right. Before the sun broke the canyon rim, a Chi-ca-go call announced the presence of California quail, American white pelicans flew along the river and American crows appeared on the rim.

Oh, wow, look at them all  coming up along the ridge, said Weber, already tapping entries into her eBird app.

Spring and early summer are the best times to watch the swallows whose nests line the canyon walls cliffs here, she and Simpkin told me, but still they identified northern rough-winged swallow, violet-green swallow and barn swallow that morning.

More birdsong started popping as the first rays of sunlight descended the canyon wall onto the brush.

In this whole symphony of song, picking them out is kind of difficult, Simpkin said. Then a mallards quack broke in. That ones easy.

I reported a flash of bright yellow in the trees, and Simpkin suggested it might simply be sunlight on the wings of a mourning dove. But soon I was vindicated.

Oh, there he is! Weber said. Its a yellow warbler.

Good eye, Simpkin told me. I totally missed that.

These are encouraging companions for a novice. And Simpkin, a College of Southern Idaho biology professor, was handy for explaining the turkey vultures characteristic flight pattern or why all those double-crested cormorants were sunning themselves on rocks in the river.

This really should be how you start every morning, she said.

When Webers Caspian tern sighting dialed up the excitement and sent the women hurrying downriver, they were rewarded instead with another unexpected treat in the bushes on the bank.

Bushtits. How cool, Weber said.

Theres several of them in there. See how the bush is just shaking? Simpkin added. Then, after a pause: Wouldnt mind seeing that tern, though.

As Weber announced it was time to start back, the tern made another brief appearance on the wing.

Oh, come back, honey, she said, then she consoled herself: OK, I wasnt making it up.

That mornings bird list: 26 species, including red-tailed hawk, northern flicker, rock wren, canyon wren, yellow-breasted chat, song sparrow, spotted towhee and ring-billed gull.

Rock Creek Station and Stricker Homesite

Where: The grounds of the historical homesite at 3715 E. 3200 N., south of Hansen, are open to the public. You can wander through the trees behind the house, and from the road out front you might watch ravens, Swainsons hawks and red-tailed hawks on wheel lines in the nearby farm fields.

The experience: Weber recruited Simpkin and fellow biology professor Randy Smith for our Aug. 13 outing on the Stricker property. After focusing their binoculars on kestrels, robins and swallows from the parking lot, the three soon left the manicured lawn for the tall grasses among the song-filled cottonwoods, willows, elms and box elders.

Traditionally, Simpkin said, birders have seen a pair of nesting great horned owls behind the house; they didnt make an appearance that morning, but a couple of barn owls did. Nineteen white-faced ibis passed through in a ragged V above our heads. The birders lingered happily over a western wood pewee, watching a closeup of its behavior on the phone attached to Webers scope.

I struggled to point my borrowed binoculars at a black-chinned hummingbird, and Simpkin offered advice: Keep your eyes on the bird, then move the binoculars up to your eyes.

That makes sense, of course.

It does, she replied, but somebody always has to tell you.

Weber and Simpkin paused, puzzling over an unfamiliar call, before Weber suddenly identified it: Oh! Its a sprinkler.

Oh, for crying out loud, Simpkin said.

Weber turned to me and my notebook: Dont you dare.

Later, as we walked back to our vehicles, Simpkin asked Weber to play a recording of a male pheasants call on her Sibley eGuide to Birds app.

How about a sprinkler? Weber said. Would you like me to play a sprinkler, too?

That mornings bird list: 23 species, including great blue heron, belted kingfisher, yellow warbler, black-headed grosbeak, Bullocks oriole, house finch, house sparrow and rock pigeon.

CSI wetlands

Where: On the north side of the college campus, a series of settling ponds helps to clean the irrigation water of the Perrine Coulee on its way to the Snake River. Planted in cattails, bulrushes and other riparian plants, the wetlands attract a lot of red-winged blackbirds. Deer leave hoof prints, a trail camera has caught raccoons, and a fox has raised her litters there.

From North College Road, turn north into the same gravel parking lot that serves the Twin Falls Farmers Market. A fence separates the wetlands from the parking lot, but the public is welcome to enter a pedestrian gate and walk the wide dirt path that winds among the ponds.

The experience: The three birders of my previous outing returned Aug. 17 for our 7 a.m. date at the CSI wetlands, joined by Cindy Rapp, Sarah Harris and Austin Young. Rapp reported seeing an otter at an earlier visit to the ponds, and Simpkin quizzed her to determine whether it might instead be a muskrat. That conversation was inconclusive, but the sighting still earned the biology profs interest.

Recent reconstruction of North College Road at the Cheney Drive intersection brought the road right up against the riparian area, and Smith expects to see roadkill.

That road smashed through some sweet habitat, Young said.

About to head off for his first year of college, Young has earned the respect of older birders with his ability to identify species by ear. Weber consulted him on the swallows  Barn swallows are kind of squeaky, he said  and he tried to teach me to distinguish a yellow warbler. I wasnt a great birdsong student while also taking notes and photos, but I didnt want to admit it on the spot.

Everyone exclaimed over a western tanager.

See, Weber said, you always get a surprise bird.

That mornings bird list: 20 species, including lazuli bunting, yellow-headed blackbird, goldfinch, mallard, killdeer, belted kingfisher, kestrel and crow.
BOISE  The Bureau of Land Management will offer two public tour of its wild horse corrals.

Tour begins at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on June 8 at the Bruneau Off-Range Corrals at 28536 Jacks Creek Rd., about a 75 minute drive southeast of Boise.

The facility, which is privately owned and operated, provides cares for more than 1,600 wild horses. The facility encompasses 80 acres containing 39 large holding pens, each pen measures 70,000 square feet and safely holds approximately 100 horses. The BLM strives to place horses removed from the range into good, private homes.

Each tour can accommodate up to 20 people and will last about two hours. Spaces will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. The public can sign up to attend and receive driving directions to the facility by calling BLM at 208-329-4534. Please RSVP for one of the two tours by June 5.

Attendees are reminded that tours start promptly at the scheduled time. Wear comfortable shoes and clothes, and hats and sunscreen are recommended. Also dont forget to bring water, and cameras and video cameras are welcomed.

Visitors will not be able to walk around the facility unaccompanied. Visitors must travel with the group in the wagon at all times.
JEROME  Theres a chance Jerome residents may see a new school in town, but probably not for at least five years.

Nearly 4,000 students are enrolled in the Jerome School District. In recent years, it has gained about 100 students each year.

Like some other Magic Valley communities, Jerome is seeing an influx of students as the citys population grows and its looking for ways to accommodate them.

Right now, our elementary schools are pretty much full, so if we do have more growth, thats just something were going to have to be looking at, Superintendent Dale Layne said Tuesday.

Jeromes school board is receiving monthly updates about where new houses are being built and possibilities of where the school district could buy land for a future school site.

But Jerome school officials havent determined yet whether theyd need to open a new elementary, middle or high school.

Jerome currently has three elementary schools: Horizon (kindergarten to third grades), Jefferson (kindergarten to third grades) and Summit Elementary School (fourth and fifth grades). The newest is Summit, which opened in 2008.

Across the Magic Valley, other communities have already opened new schools to keep up with growth  or are in the middle of projects.

The Twin Falls School District opened two new elementary schools in 2016 and South Hills Middle School opens in August. A new Burley elementary school opens in August and a new Kimberly elementary school is slated to open in 2018.

Layne has visited with Jerome city officials and seen maps of where residential subdivisions have been plated.

Were trying to figure out where the growth might be, he said.

With residential growth, I would expect anything off Tiger Drive to continue developing, Jerome city administrator Mike Williams said, which is the east part of Jerome. That extends from north of the city to Nez Perce Avenue.

Five subdivisions have been plated within the Jerome city limits, Williams said, but construction hasnt started yet.

Most are in east Jerome, but some are in the north part of the city.

Another subdivision is in the final platting stages and should be approved within the next couple of months.

Layne said he has also talked with contractor Starr Corp. about how many acres of land the district would need for a new school.

And he has looked into what city services, such as utilities and roads, would be available in different areas.

Within the city limits, the district is somewhat limited with the number of available lots that would be suitable for a school, Layne said.

Outside the city limits, there would be added costs, such as for a septic system and water is a real issue, he said, especially with a requirement for fire sprinklers inside a new school building.

Currently, school officials are trying to look south of Jerome for land since all of the current schools are on the north side, Layne said.

Another topic of conversation: whether the school district could use voter-supported plant facilities levy money to buy land for a school site.

Ideally, a new school should be a neighborhood school where many children could walk to class, Layne said.

While Jerome school officials are looking to the future, theres a more immediate need: planning for next school year.

Im guessing were going to grow between 50 and 100 (students) again this year, Layne said.

The school district used to see about 250 students per grade level. But now, numbers typically hover in the 300s. And that means the district is left to figure out how to accommodate those extra students.

Williams said he has talked with Layne about the potential for a new school. It will be interesting to see what they decide.
TWIN FALLS  A laundry room fire at the Laurel Park Apartments has been extinguished after about 20 residents were evacuated Friday.

The fire was called in at 1 p.m. and firefighters discovered a haze of smoke in the building.

We evacuated the apartment complex, extinguished the fire and cleared the smoke, Twin Falls Fire Department Chief Tim Soule said.

Residents were allowed to return within an hour. No one was injured.

The fire is believed to have been caused by a water softener spilling water onto the electrical connections of a commercial hot water heater, Soule said. The heater caught fire, but the water inside it contained the fire.

A renovation company will assist with removing the significant amount of water in the hallway, Soule said.
Clifford Bymaster

TWIN FALLS  Clifford Bymaster, memorial service at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 27 at Rosenau Funeral Home Community Room.

Gloria Knowles

SHOSHONE  Gloria Knowles, memorial service at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 27 at Demaray Funeral ServiceShoshone Chapel. Inurnment will follow at the Shoshone Cemetery.

Ward Hamilton

SACRAMENTO, Calif.  Ward Hamilton, celebration of life at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 27 in Rupert Towne Square Park. Potluck picnic to follow.

Doris Scherupp

TWIN FALLS  Doris Scherupp, celebration of life at 3 p.m. Sunday May 28 at Rosenau Funeral Home, 2826 Addison Ave E, Twin Falls.

Robert Shelton

PAUL  Robert Shelton, memorial services at 1 p.m. May 31 at Hansen Mortuary. Services will conclude with burial in the Rupert Cemetery.
Dog owners often tell our carriers their dog wont bite. However, what they may not realize is their dog is trying to protect them; they see a uniformed carrier as someone who is invading their territory and their protective instincts kick in.

The truth is any dog can bite and all attacks are preventable through responsible pet ownership.

Two Twin Falls postal carriers were bitten by dogs while delivering the mail last year. Were very concerned about dog bites to our carriers, and the many close calls with dogs our carriers face on a daily basis.

Summer is almost here and with temperatures rising and children out of school, postal carriers tend to see more dogs running loose. Were asking pet owners to restrain their dogs and allow their carriers to deliver the mail safely.

We take the safety of our employees very seriously. We will not wait until a carrier is bitten before taking preventative action. A dog that runs loose not only affects the delivery of the dog owners mail, but often the delivery of their neighbors mail as well.

Nationwide last year, 6,755 postal employees were attacked by dogs  30 in southern Idaho, which is more than double the previous years 14 attacks.

Here are some critical points to remember:

If a letter carrier delivers mail or packages to your front door, place your dog in a separate room and close that door before opening the front door. Dogs have been known to burst through screen doors or plate-glass windows to attack visitors.

Parents should remind their children and other family members not to take mail directly from letter carriers in the presence of the family pet, as the dog may view the carrier handing mail to a family member as a threatening gesture.

Thank you for your help with this very important issue.
The United Nations denounced the attack on its envoy for war-torn Yemen whose convoy came under attack early this week in capital Sanaa while traveling from the airport to the UN compound.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmeds convoy was fired at Monday while heading to the UN compound in the Yemeni capital after his plane touched down.

The Special Envoy expressed his deep concern regarding the grave attack on his convoy while travelling from the airport to the UN compound on 22 May, the UN said in a statement.

It is the responsibility of the local authorities to ensure the safety of all UN personnel in the country, the statement said, urging them to investigate the incident, hold those responsible to account, and prevent any such incidents in the future.

The UN envoy was in the Yemini capital for a three-day visit to prevent military action at the strategic port of Hodeidah, the entry point for 70 percent of Yemens food supplies as well as humanitarian aid. He was also planning meeting with feuding factions.

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh allied with Iran and his party the General Peoples Congress condemned the incident and also called for investigation, Reuters reports.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels denied any involvement in the incident but added that gunshots were fired into the air by security forces assigned to guard the envoys mission to disperse demonstrators trying to block his path.

Yemen, the poorest Middle East country has been engulfed in more than a 2-year war in which Saudi-Arabia-led coalition has been trying since 2015 to restore Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as the legitimate President.

Hadi was forced to flee from capital Sanaa to establish his headquarters in the countrys second city Aden.

The port of Hodeidah became strategic point for fighting forces. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has accused the Houthi rebels of using the port to smuggle weapons and ammunition.
Three senators from both the Democrat and Republican parties introduced a joint resolution on Thursday, disapproving a part of the deal that was signed by President Trump during his recent visit to Riyadh.

The senators want to block the proposed sale of equipment and weapons systems used by the Royal Saudi Air Force, according to their resolution, reported the American newspaper The Hill, on its website.

President Trump signed a $110 billion arm deal with Saudi Arabia during his visit to the kingdom early this week. The deal could be expanded over a decade to reach $350 billion.

The senators are objecting to the sale because they believe selling weapons to Saudi Arabia will only worsen the war in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition supporting the ousted government, The Hill said.

The move by the lawmakers is to block $500 million of the sale the portion, including precision-guided munitions and other offensive weapons, Reuters said.

At the House of Representatives, some members have also voiced opposition to the deal on Thursday. A Republican and Democrat requested a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee to review the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh.

The US administration described the arm deal as a way to help Saudi Arabia tackle terrorism in the region and counter Irans growing influence. President Trump also indicated that deal will create jobs for American companies.
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
The International Organization of la Francophonie has awarded King Mohammed VI of Morocco its highest honorary order, the Order of La Pleiade, in tribute to his determining role in promoting the values of dialogue and tolerance worldwide and in establishing at home a modern state, a state of the rule of law.

The decoration was handed to the Monarch by President of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie, Aubin Minaku Ndjalandjoko, at an audience in the Royal Palace in Fez, the Royal Office said in a statement.

Ndjalandjoko was accompanied by a delegation of the Africa Regional Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie (APF), which held its session in Rabat on May 22-24.

The awarding of this honorary order of La Francophonie and dialogue of cultures translates appreciation of the Monarchs actions at the national and international levels to enhance the civilizational heritage of humanity and recognizes his initiatives that have anchored and consolidated the vocation of Morocco as a land of coexistence and cultural diversity, the Royal Office statement said.

The APF President delivered an address during the audience wherein he hailed the Kings humanistic initiatives in the service of the ideals of cooperation and friendship between peoples in general and in the Francophonie region in particular.

Aubin Minaku Ndjalandjoko underscored the progress scored by Morocco at the economic and social levels and also at the level of the promotion of the rule of the law. He paid tribute to the Kings commitment towards Africa and to his laudable actions across the continent, saying that the large number of delegations, which took part in the Africa Regional Assembly, evidences recognition of this commitment.

In a statement to MAP following the audience, Ndjalandjoko, who is also the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo, insisted on the Monarchs role in promoting South-South cooperation.

King Mohammed VI, who brought Morocco back to the forefront in Africa, both at the level of the African Union and of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie has laid bridges of a methodical and responsible South-South cooperation, the only way to allow Africa to occupy the place it deserves in the concert of nations, he said.

He said he is confident, that Morocco, which is willing to share its know-how and expertise with other African countries, can play a leading role in getting Africa out of the quagmire, especially that the Kingdom now plays a clear and unequivocal part at the institutional level of the African Union.

Moroccos role in the continent is appreciated by all African countries, which know they can and will benefit from the structural actions accomplished by the Kingdom, he added. The APF President insisted that the Order of La Pleiade was awarded to the Monarch for his endeavors to promote the values of the rule of law, gender equality, individual freedoms and respect for all languages and cultures.

The order of La Pleiade, created in 1976 at the initiative of the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie, is offered to people who particularly distinguish themselves in the service of the organizations ideals of cooperation and friendship and promotion of the French language.
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SOCAR Methanol reveals production volume since early 2017

The methanol plant of Azerbaijans state-owned company SOCAR produced 56,610 tons of methanol since early 2017, SOCAR Methanol LLC said in a message May 19.The transfer of the methanol plant, which earlier belonged to AzMeCo methanol production company, to SOCAR in November 2016 helped to restore the production process since January 2017 on the basis of new principles of the plants structure and management, reads the message.Some 99 percent of the plants production volume was exported mainly to Turkey, Western Europe and the Mediterranean countries, the message said, according to Trend.The company also said that it continues to analyze the local Azerbaijani market.The methanol plant was built by AzMeCo company and is one of the largest investments in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan. The plant, which is the only one in the South Caucasus and Central Asia region, started selling products in January 2014.The annual capacity of the methanol plant is 720,000 tons.AzMeCo for the debts was handed over to Aqrarkredit CJSC non-bank credit institution in accordance with a decision of Azerbaijans Cabinet of Ministers. (Aqrarkredit CJSC manages the distressed assets of the International Bank of Azerbaijan).SOCAR acquired the plant from Aqrarkredit CJSC.The need to transfer AzMeCo to SOCAR arose due to AzMeCos debts to the International Bank of Azerbaijan.The cost of the plant was estimated at $520 million.
The News in Brief

ECHR Judge Accuses Police of Work-related House Search



Nona Tsotsoria, the judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from Georgia, said on May 19 that the police search of her brothers house in Batumi a day earlier is related to her work at ECHR.



Media sources reported that the police seized two hunting rifles, a handgun and bullets following a four-hour long search in the flat of Otar Tsotsoria on May 18. They also said the investigation was launched on charges of the illegal purchase and possession of firearms. Otar Tsotsoria, however, has until now, not been charged and interrogated by the police.



Nona Tsotsoria released a brief note on Facebook a day later, saying the family did not know how those objects appeared in our house, referring to the handgun and bullets. They do not belong to my brother or to any of the family members. My brother never had any conflict with the law and has no criminal record. Freedom, honesty, hard work and respect of the law have been and will remain the main values for my family, she noted.



I have reason to believe that those actions are related to my work at the European Court of Human Rights, Tsotsoria added. I would like to state unequivocally that nothing will affect on performing my judicial duties and I will continue contributing to strengthening democracy and human rights in Georgia.



Otar Tsotsoria told reporters on May 19 that the two hunting rifles belonged to him and were registered, but added that the handgun and bullets were planted by the police in an attempt to get back at his sister for her past position in UNM government.



This is pressure...a reprisal, we cannot call it another word. This is a reprisal against my sister, through punishing me, Tsotsoria stated.



Otar Tsotsoria, who owns a car repair shop in Batumi, said that the police inspected his service garage a month ago as well.







Political Party Reactions



Opposition political parties denounced the police search, saying the move might be related to the governments dissatisfaction over ECHRs decisions on two ongoing cases, namely over the Rustavi 2 TV ownership dispute and over a case involving the former Prime Minister, Vano Merabishvili.



The Movement for Liberty-European Georgia, which has the largest opposition faction in Parliament, issued a statement calling upon the Georgian government to refrain from any pressure on Judge Tsotsoria and her family and respect her work in the European Court of Human Rights.



There is a high likelihood that this is politically motivated, because Bidzina Ivanishvili (the former Prime Minister) and the current government do not like the ECHR's decisions, on Rustavi 2, for instance, and they are trying to exert pressure on the brother of an ECHR judge, European Georgias Zurab Chiaberashvili added.



Khatia Dekanoidze of the United National Movement party said there were many unaddressed questions on the matter and called on the government to conduct a transparent investigation.



The ECHR decision suspended the Georgian governments step against Rustavi 2, which was very important for the countrys democratic development. So, instead of the carrying out their duties to conduct a non-biased and objective investigation, the law enforcement agencies are searching Nona Tsotsorias brothers house and [allegedly] finding a gun, which the person [Otar Tsotsoria] claims does not belong to him, Dekanoidze stated.



Aleksandre Jejelava, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, responded to the accusations on May 19, saying the Otar Tsotsorias statement was a defense strategy to cover up the violation.



Every person who violates the law prefers to come up with some kind of excuse, and in this case, this is a defense strategy. We would like to reiterate that no one stands above the law, neither the judges brother, nor the ministers brother, no one. Therefore, if we are dealing with a violation, this is absolutely justified, regardless of whos relative we are speaking about, Jejelava noted.



Nona Tsotsoria, who served as the deputy chief prosecutor before joining the ECHR in 2008, sits at court chambers on all Georgia-related cases. Tsotsorias tenure expired in January 2017, but was prolonged due to the PACE committee rejection of the three Georgia-nominated candidates to ECHR.

(Civil.ge)







Constitutional amendments to be discussed at Berlin conference



The constitutional amendments will be discussed at a conference in Berlin on May 22-23, InterpressNews was informed by the Parliaments press service.



According to them, Irakli Kobakhidze, the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, will introduce the draft constitutional law to Secretary of Venice Commission Thomas Markert and experts, constitutionalists and representatives of non-governmental organizations.



Irakli Kobakhidze will deliver a welcome speech at the conference.



The conference, supported by the German International Cooperation Society (GIZ), will also be attended by Georgian MPs Tamar Chugoshvili, Mamuka Mdinaradze, Giorgi Kakhiani, Giorgi Lomia, Salome Samadashvili, Zurab Chiaberashvili, representatives of the Presidential Administration, international organizations, NGOs and experts.

(ipn)






@PatriciaMazzei

Kellyanne Conway will headline the Miami-Dade Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day fundraising dinner, the party announced to its members Friday.

Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump and his former campaign manager, will be the keynote speaker at the dinner, which will be held June 27 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport and Convention Center, according to the "save the date" email Republican Executive Committee members received.

"We're extremely excited to host the architect of Donald Trump's victorious presidential campaign," Nelson Diaz, the local GOP chairman, subsequently told the Miami Herald. "Her courage and tenacity are second to none."

The star of last year's dinner -- held in October to rally Republicans ahead of the election -- was Mike Pence, then the vice-presidential nominee.

Photo credit: Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press
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By Said Ameir



When President John Pombe Magufuli took over the chairmanship of EAC Heads of State Summit during the 17th EAC ordinary summit held early March, 2016 at Ngurdoto, Arusha, none expected that he would give shocking plea to EAC secretariat- stop your lavish spending and spare the community funds to serve the poor!.



His first summit after being elected in power, President Magufuli never showed any newness to the occasion and instead showed his true color by hammering what was unexpected to any of his fellow Heads of State and government.



In his acceptance speech, he never wasted time to pin point that he was of the opinion that the regional body was unwisely spending community funds something which does not reflect the actual state of the economies of the member states.



President Magufuli urged the Secretariat to take cost- cutting measures to rid the regional body from wasting its hard fought resources from their poor citizens and strongly warned members of the secretariat not to mess around with community money!



He pledged to take same measures implementing in his country to reduce government spending including curbing lavish spending on travels and meetings and went further to question as to why the secretariat favors convening meets in expensive resorts instead of using conference halls at the regional bodys headquarters.



The President challenged the Secretariat to become problem solver instead of being always moaners and restrict them from being parasitic at the detriment of the poor citizens of member states.



He was of the opinion that the regional body is capable of effectively and efficiently running its business with the merger resources coming from members contributions if cost cutting measures were put in place and if Secretariat is to make rational financial decisions.



There were those who were not convinced if that would be possible and some even thought that the President was off target and ill informed. But today, one year down the road, President Magufuli has proved his doubters wrong.



During the 18th Ordinary Summit held in Dar es Salaam recently, where President Magufuli handed over the chairmanship to his Uganda counterpart, President Yoweri Museveni, it was reported that for the first time the regional bloc has managed to save about US $ 2.5 million from its budget due to cost cutting measures imposed during his chairmanship.



President Magufuli has identified himself with group of modern type of leaders who are earnest and shrewd with direct approach to issues. To many Tanzanians and to some of our neighbors, it was not a surprise! He was well known since he was a minister that he was a person who was fond of fine details of all matters under his jurisdiction.



He was never afraid of telling the truth or rather calling a spade a spade. The good thing of him is his strong willpower and firmness to achieve what he believed to be achievable. He is a result oriented leader who is always geared to get the best out everything he believes and cherishes. He likes challenges and that is what he distinguishes himself from others.



He clearly knew that the promise to employ cost cutting measures at EAC secretariat was not an easy task but he was convinced that he has firm support of his fellow Heads of State and government of the member states.



As a leader he made his homework and see how viable was his appeal to introduce cost cutting at the Secretariat and he realized that, it can be done if and only if everyone plays his part.



He warned to use his leadership moto Hapa Kazi tu in exercising his duties as Chairperson of EAC and also warned to use his style of kutumbua majipu to those who would not heed to his plea but fortunately things went well probably because Secretariat knew that Magufuli is a man of few words but means what he says.



Whilst, we congratulate President Magufuli for showing the way, appreciation should also go to members of the secretariat under chairmanship of the Secretary General Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko for not letting down President Magufuli and his fellow Heads of State.



And as the saying goes When there is will there is a way. He promised and he has delivered it. This is why they say Magufuli always means business. Congratulations for your efforts to make new and prosperous Tanzania, Your Excellency, Dr. John Pombe Magufuli.


U.S. Coast Guard(CAY SAL, Bahamas) -- The FBI has joined the investigation into the case of a South Florida woman who went missing at sea while sailing with her husband.



Isabella Hellmann was last seen by her husband, Lewis Bennett, while they were at sea on the night of May 14, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.



FBI Special Agent Michael Leverock confirmed to ABC News on Friday that the Bureau is now investigating Hellmann's disappearance, but declined to provide further information.



According to ABC affiliate WPBF-TV, Bennett said he and Hellman were aboard his 37-foot catamaran near the Bahamas when he went to bed around 8 p.m. Eastern time. He said his wife, who was wearing a life vest at the time, agreed to take watch above deck, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Eric Woodall told WPBF-TV.



Bennett said he later awoke to something hitting the boat and felt that it was starting to sink, WPBF-TV reported. He couldnt find his wife, so he jumped onto a life raft and sent out a distress call, he told the Coast Guard. Bennett was found on the life raft the following day.



After days of scouring the waters off the Bahamas, the Coast Guard called off the search for the missing woman late last week, according to WPBF-TV.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
BOZEMAN  Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said Thursday he will review the case involving Greg Gianforte, the Republican congressional candidate accused of shoving a reporter to the ground on the eve of a special election.

Lambert said he will set aside celebrity and hype and look at the facts surrounding Gianforte's altercation on Wednesday with Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper.

Lambert, who was elected as a Republican, says he knows Gianforte but not well. He sometimes encounters Gianforte at church, social events and GOP functions.

Sheriff's officials cited Gianforte for misdemeanor assault in the Wednesday altercation.

Lambert, who has not donated money to Gianforte's campaign, says he will review the sheriff's decision to pursue a misdemeanor and not a felony.

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin has donated money  $250  to Gianforte, and he apologized during a Thursday news conference for not disclosing that fact.

Gootkin said he should have revealed the donation at a news conference held Wednesday night after witnesses said Gianforte grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground at Gianforte's campaign headquarters.

Gootkin said the contribution had nothing to do with his duties as sheriff or his decision not to recuse himself from the investigation.

Gootkin said Gianforte left his campaign headquarters while deputies were talking with witnesses. When investigators later contacted Gianforte to request an interview, they were told that they needed to speak to Gianforte's attorney.

Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault because there was no serious bodily injury, Gootkin said.

Under Montana law, assaults that don't result in serious injuries or involve a weapon are considered misdemeanors, he said. Assaults that cause serious physical injuries or involve weapons are treated as felonies.

Gootkin said he never considered pursuing a felony charge against Gianforte based on evidence collected after the Wednesday incident.

Jacobs, the reporter, didn't have any visible injuries when he spoke to "Good Morning America" on Thursday but said he was taking "a lot of Advil" for pain.

He said he trusted that investigators had made the right decision on how to handle the case.

Jacobs also said he never touched the politician before he was thrown to the ground.

Jacobs told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he was doing his job and asking Gianforte about his reaction to the Congressional Budget Office review of the House health care plan as part of covering Thursday's special election.

Gianforte's campaign blamed Jacobs, saying the reporter was being aggressive and grabbed Gianforte  a scenario disputed by a Fox News crew that was in the room at the time.

Jacobs said Thursday of Gianforte's account that "the only thing that is factually correct ... is my name and place of employment."
HELENA  Montana's School Choice program can grant scholarships to students who attend faith-based schools, a state judge has ruled.

District Judge Heidi Ulbricht ruled Tuesday that the state Revenue Department incorrectly excluded such students from the program, which is funded by donations that can be offset by up to $150 in non-refundable tax credits. The 2015 bill that created the program limited its annual tax credits to $3 million.

"What a wonderful victory this is for all the families in Montana who have chosen private education for their children," said Kendra Espinoza, one of three people who challenged the Revenue Department's decision. "We are thrilled and encouraged. This is going to make such a difference for all the parents who will now have the opportunity to send, or continue to send, their children to the school of their choice."

In writing the administrative rules for the program, the Revenue Department said an institution controlled by any church or religious sect could not be considered a "qualified education provider." The agency argued the state constitution does not allow appropriations to faith-based schools.

A poll of lawmakers found a majority said it was not their legislative intent to exclude faith-based schools from the program. Still, the agency enacted the rule in December 2015.

Espinoza, Jeri Ellen Anderson and Jaime Schaefer, whose children attend Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell, challenged the rule with the help of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm.

In March 2015, District Judge David Ortley granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the Revenue Department from implementing the rule. The plaintiffs then moved for summary judgment.

Ulbright found that the program is funded through tax credits, not appropriations, and the constitution does not address the use of tax credits. "Non-refundable tax credits simply do not involve the expenditure of money that the state has in its treasury," Ulbright wrote.
Unhampered by being charged with the assault of a reporter just 24 hours earlier, Republican Greg Gianforte on Thursday won the special election to fill Montana's empty seat in the U.S. House by 7 percentage points.

The Bozeman technology entrepreneur, who did not appear publicly after the assault until his victory speech late Thursday, traded leads with Democrat Rob Quist as early results came in, but by 10 p.m. he took a lead Quist could not recover from.

Addressing supporters, Gianforte apologized to the reporter he had an altercation with, as well as other journalists who witnessed the event. He also apologized to Montanans, saying "When you make a mistake you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way."

With turnout at 51 percent and 462 precincts fully reported and 199 partially, Gianforte had 51 percent of the vote, or 181,371, to Quist's 44 percent, or 156,205 votes. A total of 360,508 votes were counted by 11:40 p.m.

Notably, Libertarian Mark Wicks had 20,736 votes, more than what his party's candidate got in the fall election.

Addressing supporters late Thursday, Quist said "Don't be discouraged. Be determined." He said Montanans would continue to hold Gianforte accountable.

"These issues and this fight does not end," Quist said.

In an unorthodox race that lasted just 85 days but broke spending and fundraising records, Gianforte faced off against Quist and Wicks, vying for the position after it was vacated when President Donald J. Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.

Gianfortes altercation with a reporter for The Guardian fixed Montanas race even more firmly in the national spotlight. Out-of-state reporters had been crisscrossing the state for months, looking to Montanas vote as a sort of barometer on the fledgling Trump presidency.

Democrats viewed the seat as one they could possibly flip, and Republicans grew more wary as the race wore on that they might not be able to find a path to victory in a state thats generally viewed as red but has a strong independent streak.

Jeremy Johnson, a professor at Carroll College in Helena, said Quist under-performed in key swing counties of Cascade and Yellowstone.

"Many of the strong Republican rural counties stayed strongly Republican, although Democrats had hoped a non-politician identified with rural Montana could make inroads," he said.

Neither Gianforte nor Quist has ever held public office, but thats where the similarities end. Gianforte, who lost his bid for the governorship last fall, is a wealthy Bozeman businessman who sold a technology company he founded in Gallatin County for $1.8 billion to Oracle in 2012. Quist is a musician and poet from Creston who for years toured the state with the Mission Mountain Wood Band.

This spring Gianforte displayed strong support for Trump that was absent in his race for governor last fall. He never failed to align himself with the president, billing himself as a business guy, calling for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He also brought Donald Trump Jr. to the state for two rounds of rapid-fire rallies across the state.

Quist played to the states Democratic base, holding campaign rallies just last week with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who won Montanas presidential primary over eventual nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump carried Montana in November by 20 percentage points over Clinton, even as Gianforte was losing to incumbent Gov. Steve Bullock by almost four points.

Quist emphasized he would work to preserve the Affordable Care Act and funding for programs like Planned Parenthood. He also created a sharp contrast between himself and Gianforte by playing up his support of preserving access to abortion and legalizing marijuana.

Montanans were inundated with election advertising as outside groups spent more than $7.1 million in attempts to sway voters. Both candidates reported raising more than $7 million, which included a $1.5 million loan Gianforte made to his campaign.

Just $9.5 million was spent last fall when Zinke faced Democrat Denise Juneau. Zinke easily won re-election with 56 percent of the vote.

[VIDEO] Watch Greg Gianforte's full victory speech and apology Republican multimillionaire Greg Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday de

More than 37 percent of registered voters had already cast absentee ballots by Wednesday night, when at a campaign event in Bozeman the Guardian journalist said Gianforte body-slammed him. Though some expected the event to cut Gianforte's chances of victory, it seemed like the news broke too late to matter much. Even some at the Gianforte watch party were unaware of the incident. A little over 2,000 registered to vote Thursday. In the 2012 election, 8,053 registered on Election Day.

There were no less than nine TV camera tripods set up for cable news networks, plus a couple local channels, at Gianforte's event at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman.

Gianforte remained silent about the altercation as voters went to the polls Thursday. Major Republicans in Montana stood by the candidate, while others nationally said his behavior was unacceptable.

Quists campaign was not without its own struggles. The candidate had a 16-year trail of debt that included unpaid taxes and loans. Quist said he fell behind after a botched gallbladder surgery kept him from working, though videos surfaced of him performing with his band during the period he said he was out of commission.

On Thursday the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that the U.S. House would decide if Gianforte's charge of assault could stop him from assuming the seat if he wins the election. The paper spoke with Anthony Johnstone, a law professor at the University of Montana, who said the House could punish or remove Gianforte based on the body's own rules.
The Montana Board of Regents appears poised to approve recommended tuition increases for some campuses, albeit with a reservation.

"I am a little concerned about the impact of some of these increases on enrollment," said Regent Fran Albrecht on Thursday.

Earlier this month after a financially tough legislative session, the Montana Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education proposed higher tuition at some but not all campuses, as well as flat mandatory fees, and restructuring to equalize tuition and fees at the flagships.

At UM, the increase for resident undergraduates would be 13 percent, but UM and Montana State University also would cost the same for those students. Thursday, Tyler Trevor, deputy commissioner for planning and analysis, said he did not believe the increases would negatively affect enrollment.

Regents generally spoke in favor of the recommendations, which they will vote on Friday, but higher education officials also said it will be important to monitor the effects of tuition increases.

So far, Montana's higher education costs have risen at a much lower rate than the regional average, according to data from Trevor. In the last 10 years, he said, the cost of education has grown 79 percent in the region, compared to just 23 percent across campuses in Montana.

But students want college to remain affordable, and Regent Robert Nystuen said many had been urging the regents against adopting increases.

"I think the board should acknowledge probably the three dozen or so emails that we have received from students, a vast majority saying, 'Please don't raise tuition,' 'This is a deal breaker,' 'This is the straw that broke the camel's back,'" Nystuen said.

The board typically sets campus budgets every other year, but Regent Bill Johnstone said it may need to look at allocations, including tuition, for the 2019 fiscal year.

Commissioner Clayton Christian agreed. He said his office would return to the board with questions, concerns, and potential changes as budgets unfold and the full impacts of the price changes come to bear.

"We consider this budget every other year, but I think as Regent Johnstone said, we need to be pretty open-minded and make certain that we're tracking these," Christian said.

In his comments, Christian also stressed program prioritization, as did some regents. The commissioner said he was optimistic about the future, but, at the risk of being repetitive and turning into "a one trick pony," he wanted campuses to set priorities and use their resources accordingly.

"I think we've got to look at not only what are we going to do, but what aren't we going to do," Christian said.

Higher education officials said the university system can save money by sharing services, too, although Trevor said it's becoming apparent the strategy is already widely in use, perhaps more so than initially recognized.

***

In discussion, Regent Casey Lozar also noted data he considered "alarming" in the most recent report on performance funding.

The university system distributes a portion of funds  some 8 percent  to campuses based on their success with targets such as graduation and retention rates. The formula is complex, but one of the weighted measures is a school's performance with under-represented and at-risk students.

Lozar pointed out that the three campuses with the most students  UM, Montana State University-Bozeman, and MSU-Billings  earned no points at all for helping under-represented and at-risk students. And he said those campuses enroll 70 percent of the system's students.

"Based on this year's data, I don't think we're cutting it," Lozar said.

"I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but this is critically important to our system."

Regent Martha Sheehy agreed the regents need to address the matter, and Regent Albrecht, chairing that portion of the meeting, said the topic deserved more time in the future.

"I'd like to request that we could get a report (from campuses) on that at the next meeting," Albrecht said.

***

At their recent meetings, the regents have heard from UM officials about how it's getting its budget on track. UM has experienced an enrollment decline of some 24 percent since 2010, and ensuing budget trouble.

Sheila Stearns, who took the helm in December as interim president after Commissioner Christian requested the departure of President Royce Engstrom, said a program prioritization process is underway at UM. She said a committee is meeting through the summer and anticipates reporting early results on Oct. 26.

She said the process is fast, furious, but also deliberate and thorough.

UM has offered 48 early retirement buyouts in an effort to save $4 million a year in salaries and benefits, and faculty have until May 31 to respond. Thursday, Stearns said an estimated 20 percent of the recipients have expressed interest in the deal, and UM may or may not receive an influx of interest by the deadline.

Enrollment is part of the budget puzzle, and Tom Crady, vice president for enrollment and student affairs, said UM is seeing more housing deposits this year compared to last. However, he said he did not want to make promises to the board, especially given the relatively large size of the class that just graduated, and the effect their departure will have on total enrollment next year.

"The goal is to stabilize the incoming class," Crady said.

***

Friday, the regents will vote on budgets and tuition for the campuses, and the proposal from the Commissioner's Office looks headed for approval. Thursday, none of the regents expressed reluctance to approve the recommendations, and no campus representatives requested changes.

President Stearns said she and members of her team already have been heavily involved in budget discussions with officials from the Commissioner's Office. MSU President Waded Cruzado said she hopes the new structure will allow flexibility for different campuses, which have different needs, and not become a "straitjacket," as the previous system had become.
Heartfelt huckleberries to all of Montana's law enforcement officers and the families who support them as they grieve the loss of Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore in a senseless, tragic shooting. The miles-long procession of emergency vehicles that escorted Deputy Moore to his final resting place this week also carried the gratitude of the state's citizens, all of whom can rest a little easier because of the sacrifices you make.

Bruised chokecherries to the big-money supporters of Greg Gianforte and Rob Quist, who filled Montana airwaves with mean, nasty and misleading advertising throughout the state's special election season. The only light generated by all that heat? It could put new energy behind efforts to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which said political spending by corporations and labor unions is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment.

Common sense huckleberries to Montana Sen. Jon Tester for leading the charge to push Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reconsider an ill-considered decision. This week, after a sharp poke from Tester and additional letters from Sen. Steve Daines and other members of Congress, DeVos said her department would take another look at the University of Montana's application for its Upward Bound program, which spends $340,000 annually to prepare students for college. The grant had been rejected because a single page was not double spaced, as required. UM already had to cancel its summer Upward Bound program. Let's hope the new look will give new life to this successful, 50-year-old initiative to make college possible for hundreds of Montana students.

Sleep-deprived chokecherries to Republic Services; Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and the Grant Creek Neighborhood Council for not sitting down together to find a bear-friendly solution to garbage pickup in the neighborhood. During the weeks that hungry bears are coming out of hibernation, it's reasonable to keep garbage cans off the street at night. But it's unreasonable to fine residents for failing to get up before dawn to take out the trash for trucks that roll through at 6 a.m. There has to be a better way, but it won't happen without conversation and compromise.

A-plus huckleberries to Hamilton High School, which this week dedicated an academic wall of fame for students who score 30 or higher on the ACT test, hit the 95th percentile on the SAT, get a perfect score of 5 on Advanced Placement testing, are named National Merit Scholars or who meet other national standards of academic excellence. As HHS alumnus Cassey Hammond said at the ceremony, Of course we want to recognize our tremendous athletes, but it is a school for a reason. It is about academia and what these students are doing.

A one-size-fits-all chokecherry to the Missoula City Council, which took a year to begin to listen to complaints that bike lanes in Linda Vista weren't being used and needed to be reexamined. The city's Complete Streets Policy, while fine in theory, doesn't necessarily work when the street has a 7 percent grade. Additional research before spending additional dollars on striping is a good move.
A NASA spacecraft is about to get up close and personal with one of the solar system's most famous storms.
A Butte physician is being recognized by the Montana Department of Justice for her victim advocacy work.

Dr. Jessie Salisbury, medical director of the Butte Child Evaluation Center, accepted the department's Outstanding Crime Victim Advocate of the Year award before an audience of more than 40 medical, mental health, law enforcement, and social work professionals who gathered Thursday afternoon at the organization's headquarters in the Southwest Montana Community Health Center on Centennial Avenue in Butte.

"You're only as good as your team members," said Salisbury to her colleagues as she accepted the award. "I couldn't do any of what I do without other people filling in. I'm a part of the team, and teamwork is so hugely important."

Salisbury, who is also a pediatrician at the Rocky Mountain Clinic in Butte, has served at the Butte Child Evaluation Center since the organization's inception in 1998, said Molly Molloy, CEC director of behavioral health.

There, Molloy said, children are evaluated for abuse, neglect, and drug endangerment, among other social and family issues, by a multidisciplinary team of professionals who perform forensic interviews and medical examinations.

Molloy added that the Butte CEC was the first accredited Child Advocacy Center in Montana and that Salisbury was instrumental in the accreditation process.

"This is a great day for honoring one of our best," said Molloy. "We are lucky to operate in Deer Lodge, Anaconda, Dillon, and Butte, and because of the commitment of each of you in this room, we get to make a difference in the lives of children throughout Southwest Montana."

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, who presented the award, noted that Salisbury is the first physician to receive the award.

Fox described being deeply moved by the stories of crime victims who spoke at a series of forums across the state.

"We heard heartbreaking stories from victims of very serious crimes, including armed robbery and stalking," said Fox. "But the stories that really touched me the most were the adults who had been abused as young people. For some of them, the abuse set the stage for a future filled with real vulnerabilities that shadowed them as they struggled to navigate life  For others, the abuse was the catalyst that propelled them to eventually become caring parents and adults who chose to help others either in a professional or volunteer capacity, finding freedom and a new way forward.

"Every one of these situations is difficult and complex," Fox continued. "(But) if there was one common theme for those who had successfully recovered, it was the importance of having an advocate to light their way and serve as a safe harbor in times of chaos."

Fox went on to note that Salisbury has worked at the Butte CEC since its founding and has served over 1,000 children who have been the victims of abuse. There are now 10 other such Child Advocacy Centers in Montana, he said, the most recent on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

As for Salisbury, she told The Montana Standard that she felt both honored and overwhelmed to receive the award.

"I want Butte to be proud that we have the first accredited Child Advocacy Center in the state and that for the past 20 years there have been very dedicated and driven people doing wonderful things," she said.

Becky Rate, emergency shelter coordinator at the YWCA Mercy Home in Great Falls, also received a 2017 Outstanding Crime Victim Advocate of the Year award, which she accepted Wednesday from Fox.
A recent shooting at the Hickory, North Carolina, residence of GOP congressional candidate Pat Harrigans parents and young children caused no injuries but has placed tremendous stress on the family in the final weeks of his campaign, Harrigans mother said. The firearms manufacturer and U.S. Army Special Forces veteran is running against Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson for an open U.S. House seat in North Carolinas new 14th District based in western Charlotte. A Hickory Police Department spokesperson said the department has not made arrests related to the incident and that the investigation is ongoing.
Rian Bartsch, 24, of Missoula did not vote in the presidential election and hadn't thought much about voting in today's special election for Montana's lone U.S. congressional seat.

But after seeing Wednesday night's barrage of stories about Republican candidate Greg Gianforte's alleged assault on a reporter, she said she felt compelled to make her voice heard.

The Gallatin County Sheriff's office cited Gianforte with misdemeanor assault Wednesday after he allegedly body-slammed a reporter from the Guardian who tried to ask him a question about the House Republicans' health care proposal.

"I would say the events from last night influenced me. It kind of lit a fire in me," Bartsch said.

On Thursday, the Missoula County Elections Office had issued 143 ballots for people who were either late to register, did not receive their ballot or needed a replacement ballot. At about noon, the office said it had received 67 percent of the ballots issued in Missoula County.

Dianna Kuhnhenn, who ultimately voted for Gianforte, said she had only started reading about the incident as she was waiting to vote.

She doesn't know much about what happened between Gianforte and the reporter, but said that from what she heard and read, she believed the reporter crossed a line.

For Bartsch, that didn't matter.

"You don't put your hands on somebody, I totally disagree with that. And I don't want someone like that to represent Montana," Bartsch said.

Tim Sayles of Missoula voted for Greg Gianforte on Thursday, although he said the candidate's actions Wednesday  Gianforte was cited with misdemeanor assault after allegedly "body-slamming" a reporter  disgusted him.

The violent confrontation and Gianforte's subsequent assault citation became a trending topic on Twitter, prompting a 137,000 percent increase in searches for body slam on the Merriam Webster dictionary website and resulting in a barrage of cable news and national newspaper headlines. Its unclear how much effect the incident will have on the elections outcome.

"He should have controlled himself," said Sayles, who voted at the Missoula County Fairground in the special election to replace former Congressman Ryan Zinke, appointed Interior Secretary by President Donald Trump. Democrat Rob Quist and Libertarian Mark Wicks also seek the seat.

But Wednesday's news didn't change how Sayles felt about Quist as an alternative.

"Why did the Democratic Party pick Rob Quist?" Sayles said.

Sayles was a Trump supporter and had hoped to see a change in Washington under the president's leadership. He isn't sure he sees that happening. But he sees Quist as inexperienced compared to Gianforte.

Even as a Gianforte supporter, any move on the candidate's part to limit freedom of the press would be met with strong resistance from Sayles.

"It's unfortunate this country can't have candidates to rally around," Sayles said.

Marielle Gallaghers vote in Missoula also wasnt influenced by Gianforte being cited for assault.

"I don't think it really affected my voting choice, but I can see why it would affect a lot of people who might have been looking to vote a certain way," said Gallagher.

She said that "on a cynical level" she didn't find the news of Gianforte's alleged misdemeanor assault on a reporter surprising.

"I suppose I suffer from the same confirmation bias where whenever I hear something negative about a side I'm not a part of, I go, 'Of course that's what happened.' So I'm surprised, disappointed and interested to see how it affects the outcome, though," she said.

Erik Myhre in Missoula also said he wasn't surprised by the news.

"It didn't change the way I was thinking about voting," he said.

***

In Billings, six people queued Thursday morning in front of the MetraPark Pavilion, waiting to cast their vote in Montanas special election. The scene stood in stark contrast to the long lines at the same polling station last November.

I got up early this morning because I was here for the November election. I also wanted to be the first person to vote then, said Sarah Whittle, who was the first voter in line Thursday morning.

Whittle said she was surprised and disappointed in Thursday's early low turnout at MetraPark.

She studied journalism and communications at the University of Wyoming. She said shes concerned with the increasingly violent rhetoric directed at the news media and sees its extension in the alleged assault Gianforte committed on Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs Wednesday during a barbecue at Gianfortes campaign headquarters.

Kelly Benson, a Billings Clinic nurse, cast his vote after finishing a 12-hour shift. Benson said he saw the news of the dust-up break on cable TV overnight, but the assault charge didnt keep him from voting for Gianforte.

I felt he could have handled it differently but Im not running for election and I dont have people constantly in my face either, Benson said.

He said not all reporters are bad but there are reporters with bad behavior and the national press in particular showed some bias while covering the special election.

Bret Rutherford, Yellowstone County election administrator, said by Wednesday night Yellowstone County voters had returned 47,500 absentee ballots. Thats about half of the 98,000 registered voters in the county.

Rutherford said people on the roll who dont vote are usually cleared, but regulations require the county to keep registrations intact 100 days before or after a federal election. Otherwise, only about 88,000 voters would be currently registered in Yellowstone County.

Voters may still drop off their absentee ballots at polling places. Those eligible to vote but not registered can do so at those sites. People who have already voted cannot change their vote, but if a ballot has been marked and not turned in, voters may file a provisional ballot at the polling station. These ballots are counted statewide at 3 p.m. on Wednesday to ensure that no votes are counted twice.

Rutherford said provisional ballots usually account for just a few hundred of the total votes in typical elections in Yellowstone County. Though they usually dont have a large influence on the outcome, the votes are always counted, even in the event of a landslide.

The Missoulian's Ashley Nerbovig and David Erickson contributed to this story.
A Butte man pleaded not guilty Thursday in Butte district court to charges stemming from an April 13 chase with police that began with a probation officer shooting out a tire and ended when the mans car crashed.

James Franklin Wasson, 28, was charged with five felony counts of criminal endangerment for putting people at risk during the chase, one felony count of possessing dangerous drugs, one misdemeanor count of having drug paraphernalia, and one felony count for later trying to escape.

Wasson entered not guilty pleas to all eight charges. He could face up to 75 years in prison if convicted on all counts, Judge Brad Newman told him during Thursdays arraignment.

Wasson was arrested after driving up to a house being searched by Butte police and probation and parole officers on April 13. Police said when probation officers walked up to his vehicle, Wasson took off, and a probation officer shot at least two rounds at the car's tires, flattening one.

Several squad cars pursued Wasson's vehicle to the overpass on Second and Shields, where it crashed.

Wasson tried to harm himself while in jail and was taken to the Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs for mental evaluation, police said. When he was returned, he jumped out a van door and ran, losing officers for about 20 minutes. He was found and arrested again outside of St. James Healthcare.

He remains in jail with bond set at $100,000. Another bond hearing is set June 8.

In other district court proceedings Thursday:

Notorious criminal pleads guilty

A notorious East Coast criminal in prison in Massachusetts pleaded guilty Thursday to robbing a Safeway pharmacy on Massachusetts Avenue in Butte in August 2014.

William P. Monopoli was sentenced to 20 years in Montana, but Judge Brad Newman suspended them during a videoconference hearing. Monopoli was arrested on other charges in Massachusetts later in 2014 and is serving prison time there. He would still be subject to probation terms from Montana after he gets out.

Monopoli was accused of pointing a pistol at a pharmacist at the Safeway store at 2500 Massachusetts Ave. in Butte on Aug. 7, 2014, and demanding painkillers. A woman told police that Monopoli made her drive him to the store and wait for him, and if she didnt, he said he would kill her and her family.

He made off with four bottles of painkillers and was driven the next day to the airport in Belgrade. He was arrested on other charges later in 2014 by police in Westboro, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.

Monpoli is a career criminal who once led Boston police on a high-profile chase in 2011. He was tracked down with the assistance of several police agencies, the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In 2006, Florida authorities arrested him on an array of warrants including assault on a police officer and being a fugitive from justice, charges stemming from crimes committed in Massachusetts and Virginia.
Vice President Mike Pence delivered an important message during his recent visit to Montana: The War on Coal is over.

Does that mean that environmental standards will be rolled back or that our environment will be more polluted? No  the Trump administration has not proposed changing any standards that protect our air or water, and our environment will continue to trend cleaner in coming years.

What we should expect from the Trump administration is more balance in policies related to energy and the environment. For the last eight years weve seen environmental policy  in particular related to climate change  be used as a means of social engineering and market manipulation.

From the Obama administration we saw policies that sounded like sweeping environmental protection programs  the Clean Power Plan and the Stream Protection Rule were two big examples. In fact, these moves had virtually no environmental impact, but they had profound effects on our economy, on property rights, and on choices available to consumers.

With President Trump, that propaganda machine is over. Its become apparent that with this administration we will get a more honest assessment of the facts on challenging issues like climate change and energy poverty.

And its important we understand those facts. Contrary to the political attacks from anti-coal activists, Trump administration officials do not deny climate science. They are, in fact, asking the appropriate questions: what is the magnitude of the impacts our world will experience from climate change, and what can responsibly be done to mitigate those impacts?

The at-all-costs approach advocated by President Obama is not responsible. Obamas approach cost our economy billions, killed hundreds of thousands of jobs, and nearly wiped out entire communities (hang in there Colstrip). And for those enormous costs, there was no discernible environmental impact.

The at-all-costs approach runs contrary to the best science we do have today. Based on the climate models produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world will warm by less than 2 degrees C in the next 100 years if modest emissions reductions are made in the near term.

The IPCC models do not call for an elimination of coal-fired generation, as advocated by some politicians. What we should be focused on is making coal cleaner by investing in new technology. That route was completely ignored over the last eight years.

The dirty little secret the leave it in the ground folks dont want to talk about is that the world needs to produce more energy in the futurea lot more, in fact. There are still over one billion people on the planet who live without electricity. To bring these souls out of energy poverty will mean producing more energy from a number of sources, including coal. Nearly every expert agrees that the world will be burning more coal in 40 years that we do today. The only way to address climate change, then, is to make coal cleaner.

Thats where we are today with the Trump administration. We have a renewed commitment to technologies that will make coal cleaner and a commitment to bringing energy resources to the worlds poorest people.

With some of the largest coal reserves in the world, thats great news for Montana. We have the opportunity to be among the leaders in solving climate change and lifting millions out of energy poverty. The War on Coal is over, and now its time to get to work.

-- Senator Roger Webb, R-Billings, represents Senate District 23.
Unhampered by being charged with the assault of a reporter just 24 hours earlier, Republican Greg Gianforte on Thursday won the special election to fill Montana's empty seat in the U.S. House by 7 percentage points.

The Bozeman technology entrepreneur, who did not appear publicly after the assault until his victory speech late Thursday, traded leads with Democrat Rob Quist as early results came in, but by 10 p.m. he took a lead Quist could not recover from.

Addressing supporters, Gianforte apologized to the reporter he had an altercation with, as well as other journalists who witnessed the event. He also apologized to Montanans, saying "When you make a mistake you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way."

With turnout at 51 percent and 462 precincts fully reported and 199 partially, Gianforte had 51 percent of the vote, or 181,371, to Quist's 44 percent, or 156,205 votes. A total of 360,508 votes were counted by 11:40 p.m.

Notably, Libertarian Mark Wicks had 20,736 votes, more than what his party's candidate got in the fall election.

Addressing supporters late Thursday, Quist said "Don't be discouraged. Be determined." He said Montanans would continue to hold Gianforte accountable.

"These issues and this fight does not end," Quist said.

In an unorthodox race that lasted just 85 days but broke spending and fundraising records, Gianforte faced off against Quist and Wicks, vying for the position after it was vacated when President Donald J. Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.

Gianfortes altercation with a reporter for The Guardian fixed Montanas race even more firmly in the national spotlight. Out-of-state reporters had been crisscrossing the state for months, looking to Montanas vote as a sort of barometer on the fledgling Trump presidency.

Democrats viewed the seat as one they could possibly flip, and Republicans grew more wary as the race wore on that they might not be able to find a path to victory in a state thats generally viewed as red but has a strong independent streak.

Jeremy Johnson, a professor at Carroll College in Helena, said Quist under-performed in key swing counties of Cascade and Yellowstone.

"Many of the strong Republican rural counties stayed strongly Republican, although Democrats had hoped a non-politician identified with rural Montana could make inroads," he said.

Neither Gianforte nor Quist has ever held public office, but thats where the similarities end. Gianforte, who lost his bid for the governorship last fall, is a wealthy Bozeman businessman who sold a technology company he founded in Gallatin County for $1.8 billion to Oracle in 2012. Quist is a musician and poet from Creston who for years toured the state with the Mission Mountain Wood Band.

This spring Gianforte displayed strong support for Trump that was absent in his race for governor last fall. He never failed to align himself with the president, billing himself as a business guy, calling for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He also brought Donald Trump Jr. to the state for two rounds of rapid-fire rallies across the state.

Quist played to the states Democratic base, holding campaign rallies just last week with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who won Montanas presidential primary over eventual nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump carried Montana in November by 20 percentage points over Clinton, even as Gianforte was losing to incumbent Gov. Steve Bullock by almost four points.

Quist emphasized he would work to preserve the Affordable Care Act and funding for programs like Planned Parenthood. He also created a sharp contrast between himself and Gianforte by playing up his support of preserving access to abortion and legalizing marijuana.

Montanans were inundated with election advertising as outside groups spent more than $7.1 million in attempts to sway voters. Both candidates reported raising more than $7 million, which included a $1.5 million loan Gianforte made to his campaign.

Just $9.5 million was spent last fall when Zinke faced Democrat Denise Juneau. Zinke easily won re-election with 56 percent of the vote.

[VIDEO] Watch Greg Gianforte's full victory speech and apology Republican multimillionaire Greg Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday de

More than 37 percent of registered voters had already cast absentee ballots by Wednesday night, when at a campaign event in Bozeman the Guardian journalist said Gianforte body-slammed him. Though some expected the event to cut Gianforte's chances of victory, it seemed like the news broke too late to matter much. Even some at the Gianforte watch party were unaware of the incident. A little over 2,000 registered to vote Thursday. In the 2012 election, 8,053 registered on Election Day.

There were no less than nine TV camera tripods set up for cable news networks, plus a couple local channels, at Gianforte's event at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman.

Gianforte remained silent about the altercation as voters went to the polls Thursday. Major Republicans in Montana stood by the candidate, while others nationally said his behavior was unacceptable.

Quists campaign was not without its own struggles. The candidate had a 16-year trail of debt that included unpaid taxes and loans. Quist said he fell behind after a botched gallbladder surgery kept him from working, though videos surfaced of him performing with his band during the period he said he was out of commission.

On Thursday the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that the U.S. House would decide if Gianforte's charge of assault could stop him from assuming the seat if he wins the election. The paper spoke with Anthony Johnstone, a law professor at the University of Montana, who said the House could punish or remove Gianforte based on the body's own rules.

Reporters Holly Michels, Jayme Fraser, and Tom Lutey contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
MUSCATINE  A Muscatine man was sentenced Wednesday to three years in jail after pleading guilty to child endangerment and domestic assault.

Ryan Reifert, 39, was sentenced to 180 days in Muscatine County Jail for domestic abuse assault, and another 180 days for operating a vehicle while under the influence. Reifert also will serve two years in jail, under the custody of the Iowa Department of Corrections, for child endangerment.
MUSCATINE  The City of Muscatine is asking for the community's help in raising enough money to shoot off fireworks on the Fourth of July.

The Muscatine Chamber of Commerce is preparing for its annual Independence Day celebration, which includes a parade, soapbox derby and a performance by the Muscatine Symphony Orchestra.

Events Coordinator Alicia Bull said the chamber needs to raise $20,000 to purchase the fireworks display and cover other expenses, such as insurance.

"We're trying to get the word out there," Bull said. "We want to make sure everybody understands that what makes the fireworks display possible is donations from residents."

Bull said usually individuals and businesses donate enough money to fund the display. Anyone who contributes $100 or more will receive a free parade entry.

The theme of this year's parade is "An Old-Fashioned 4th of July," and participants are encouraged to use the theme when designing floats.

Bull said usually 100 groups enter to participate in the parade, and parade entry forms are now available at the chamber's website.

The parade, which begins at 5 p.m., will follow the same route as last year, starting at Iowa and Fulliam Avenue, and then going down 2nd Street.

Other events on the Fourth of July include a children's parade at 9 a.m. and a soapbox derby from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. After the main parade at 5 p.m., there will be an Honor Guard presentation at 7:30 p.m., the Muscatine Symphony Orchestra concert at 8 p.m. and the fireworks display at 9:30 p.m.

Bull said, despite construction on Mississippi Drive, the riverfront will be open for people to view the fireworks.

"It might be harder to park with construction, so we're encouraging people to park and walk over if they can," Bull said.

Monetary donations for the fireworks display can be sent to the Muscatine Chamber of Commerce Foundation at 102 Walnut Street.

For more information on the Fourth of July celebration, or to submit an entry for the parade, visit www.muscatine.com.
Two years into Illinois' budget wars, Jeff Gripp has some advice for Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Don't back down.

A retired truck driver who lives in a middle class neighborhood in Rock Island, Gripp thinks Illinois' first-term governor is engaged in a worthy fight for control.

"If he can get power away from Chicago, then it's better for the rest of us," he said.

Given the slip in the governor's approval rating over the two-year budget impasse, voices like Gripp's are probably pretty welcome to Rauner. That's likely even more true given where it comes from. Gripp's single story house, in a tree-lined neighborhood just southeast of Longview Park, lies within a precinct that backed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In 2014, it shunned Democrat Pat Quinn and delivered Rauner a close victory, 50.7 percent to 46.3 percent.

That's roughly the same margin by which Rauner won Rock Island County.

If Democrats expect to win Rock Island County back next year, an important one in the fight for Downstate Illinois, neighborhoods like these will be important.

After months of cascading headlines about struggling social service agencies and college debt downgrades, Illinoisans' patience is wearing thin with Springfield, and Rauner is feeling the impact, too.

The governor's statewide approval rating in March was at 36 percent, according to a poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, down five points from the year before. Downstate, it was slightly better, at just short of 38 percent, but it too was down by about five points from the year before.

It's true that House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Democrat, fared worse. But Rauner's 58 percent disapproval rating statewide was up eight points in the poll from the previous spring and 26 points from the spring of 2015.

The governor has stepped up his presence in recent months. He's hit the road to sell his case against the Democrats, and campaign-like television ads featuring the governor with a roll of duct tape have been a constant presence in communities like Rock Island since early April.

It's not hard to find a harsh word for Springfield in Rock Island County. Complaints that people and businesses are fleeing the state abound.

"If you live in Iowa, stay there," Rich Simmons, a retired postal worker, said the other day. His house sits just a few blocks from where Gripp lives.

Simmons voted for Rauner in 2014, and he still supports him. Nevertheless, he doesn't think much will change. "I'm not real confident," he said.

That pessimism about change is also frequently heard. But so is a desire  its particularly loud in the business community -- that the state end the budget standoff.

Bill Anderson, a retired federal government worker who voted for Quinn in 2014, is resolute when he says, "we've got to get a balanced budget." And he's equally sure that he doesn't think Rauner is doing his share to get there. "It sounds to me like he's politicking more than he's doing his job," he said.

Since he came into office, Democrats have accused Rauner of an ideological campaign to bust unions and hurt working people. Now, they say, the states fiscal stalemate and its consequences cant help but hurt him with voters.

"He's held the state's budget hostage for two years," said Doug House, chairman of the Rock Island County Democrats and leader of the Illinois County Democratic Chairmen's Association.

With 18 months to go before next year's election, it's hard to tell what the political climate will be like, nationally and statewide. Christopher Mooney, director of the institute of government and public affairs at the University of Illinois, said even if a deal is reached, its elements will be important. And to make a dent in the state's debt, it will require sacrifice. Its not as if they get a deal and its happy days are here again. Thats when the pain is going to really start," he said.

Senate Democrats passed a budget package Tuesday that raises income taxes and expands the sales tax. They argued the state couldn't wait any longer, and there needed to be some certainty brought to the state's fiscal situation. Moody's Investors Service warned in March if the state can't get a budget by the scheduled adjournment date of May 31, its already weak credit rating would suffer further.

Rauner has argued that any deal with new revenue had to include a measure to curb property tax increases. He and Democrats couldn't come together on the issue, and after the vote the Republicans unleashed robocalls criticizing Democrats.

That Rauner is holding fast to his agenda wears well with the two dozen or so conservatives who attended the Ronald Reagan Breakfast Club on Wednesday at City Limits Saloon and Grill in Rock Island.

A weekly meeting, its members like to joke it is the "largest unorganized gathering of conservatives that meet weekly in the state of Illinois." Members pass a microphone and, over eggs and coffee, take turns making announcements, sharing information and offering opinions on events of the day.

Rauner has been a guest at the club, and so have other officeholders.

Support for Rauner here appears to be strong. Told of a reporter's interest in their opinion about the governor, several people at the table vowed their support as the microphone went around the table.

"He is doing what he said, and he is sticking to his guns. And that is what we want," said Bill Long, a Republican from Rock Island.
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 []
The term Boda boda has been included in the latest edition of Oxford Dictionary.

The authority in the English language defines it as A type of motocycle or bicycle with a space for a passenger or for carrying goods, often used as a taxi.

The word is also in some versions of Collins and Macmillan dictionaries.

Boda boda has its roots in the border town of Busia, Kenya. It is actually belived to have been derived from the English word border, as in border border. Apparently, motorcycles and bicycles were the cheapest mode of transport between Kenya and Uganda. They also provide some relief from authorities since no paper work is required as opposed to cars.
Apparently, a section of Kenyans believes that Maina Kageni still lives with his mother.

At 41 years of age, that would enter the popular radio personality into the Guinness World Records and make him a case study.

On his daily Classic 105 FM breakfast show, Maina was discussing with his listeners about young adults and when or if they should move out of their parents homes.

The topic came about after a judge from Spain ruled that young adults should move out of their parents houses at the age of 22.

As live listeners chipped in with their opinions on the subject, a Kenyan on Twitter, Boniface Atanasi, put Maina on the spot saying hes had things easy because he still lives with the mother. 

Watu watoke wakae independent, wawache kukaa kama Maina, amekatalia kwa mamake, said Atanasi.

Loosely translates: People should move out and live independently, unlike Maina Kageni who has refused to move out of his mothers house.

Responding to the claims, Maina made it clear that he doesnt live with his mother.

I dont leave with my mother, for your information Boniface, said Maina Kageni in a firm voice on air.
GEM Member of Parliament Jakoyo Midiwo has ruled out sabotaging NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga after losing in the ODM party primaries.

Midiwo, who is Railas cousin, had threatened to expose the rot in Railas party if he was not handed the certificate to defend his seat in the August 8 election.

The legislator lost to Elisha Odhiambo and ditched the party to vie independently after getting 8,900 to Odhiambos 13,400 votes.

Speaking during a national prayer meeting in Nairobi on Thursday, Midiwo said he cannot dream of getting in the way of the Opposition chiefs movement as his wife would kick him out.

It cant happeneven my own mother would never let me into our home. She would turn in her grave, he said.

He, however, reiterated that the ODM primaries were shambolic and that forces of evil do not want us around.

There is the hand of somebody outside NASA and there are people who think that when independents are not around, they will loot even if Raila takes power, he said.

The National Assembly deputy minority leader added: There are people who are planning ahead. Independents, especially from Nyanza and Western, are 100 per cent Raila supporters.
President Uhuru continued with his campaign at the coast yesterday. Used to exchanging harsh words with Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho, the head of state yesterday found a new target in Kwale gubernatorial hopeful Chirau Ali Mwakwere.

Mwakwere was until recently Kenyas ambassador to Tanzania, appointed by the Jubilee government. He however rekindled his political ambitions, quit his position and joined the opposition to contest in August.

Now yesterday, Uhuru sensationally threatened to expose him if he does not stop abusing the Jubilee government and spreading propaganda.
Another First Street Napa tenant has been announced.

Maris Collective will debut a lifestyle fashion retail concept adjacent to the 183-room Archer hotel in Fall 2017.

The store will be located at the base of the hotel building, in a standalone retail storefront, said a representative from Zapolski Real Estate.

The 3,000-square-foot boutique will offer Maris Collectives innovative approach to retailmixing an expertly curated selection of new and emerging brands with sought-after designer labels, said a news release.

Maris Collectives downtown Napa boutiqueits largest store on the West Coast  will feature a special shop within a shop by designer James Perse, as well as a range of contemporary brands including tailored shirts by Los Angeles-based Frank & Eileen, FRAME denim, Ancient Greek Sandals and heirloom bags by Cult Gaia, said the release.

Maris Collective will bring brands to downtown Napa and the Napa Valley that locals currently must drive out of town to purchase, the release said.

We are excited for Maris Collective to be part of the changing landscape of downtown Napas historic district by bringing a fresh, new fashion boutique to its residents and visitors, said LeeAnn Sauter, CEO and founder of Maris Collective.

The store will offer a true lifestyle experience mixing interesting and unique fashion finds with the great food and wine the region is known for.

There are 25 Maris Collective Boutiques, 24 of them located in or adjacent to hotels. Other Maris Collective shops are located in Houston, Dallas, Orlando, Anguilla, Bahrain, Punta Mita, Los Cabos, Palm Beach, Maui, Hualali, Lanai, Ko Olina on the coast of Oahu.

Inspired by Napa Valleys grand architecture and residences, customers will enter the store through a glass atrium with floor-to-ceiling windows and greenery.

Featuring a vine-encrusted stone entrance hall, Maris Collectives boutique will capture the regions natural beauty using organic materials to create an open-air shopping environment, said the release.

Maris Collective has also designed an iron and glass installation that will offer a rotating space for Napa Valleys celebrated artisans and purveyors to showcase and share their work with the community, said the release.

First Street Napa is a $200 million development slated to open the first series of 45 shops and restaurants in late 2017. It is owned and managed by Zapolski Real Estate, LLC and Trademark Property Company.

The project recently announced additional retail, culinary, hospitality and creative office space tenants, including: Archer hotel, Lush, Compline Wine Bar, Silicon Valley Bank, Pacific Union International, Napa Valley Jewelers, Eikos Sushi, Charlie Palmer Steak and Brown Estate.
SANTA ROSA -- The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors this week approved a three-year lease agreement that will lead to the development of 12 "tiny houses" for homeless people.

The tiny houses pilot project, known as the Community Housing of Sonoma County Veterans Village, will be located on 30,000 square feet of unimproved land at 665 Russell Ave. in Santa Rosa that is adjacent to veterans housing at the Sonoma County Administration Center complex.

The county owns the land and is providing it at no charge, and Community Housing Sonoma County will own the tiny houses.

Tenancy at the Russell Avenue site could be extended beyond three years, or the pre-built, modular structures could be relocated to a site owned by Community Housing Sonoma County on West Hearn Avenue in an unincorporated area of Sonoma County.

The project is consistent with the Board's goal of identifying housing solutions for all, and will demonstrate whether the combined housing and service model is a viable way to provide non-traditional housing structures for the homeless, according to the county's Community Development Commission.

The total development cost of the tiny house project is $1,029,565.

"We are going to put roofs over heads that would have otherwise been on the street," Board Chair Shirlee Zane said.

"It is clear we need more housing, and we need it now. I look forward to seeing Tiny Houses built and filled this fall," Zane said.

Officials said Sonoma County needs 17,144 affordable homes for low-income individuals and families. Median rents have increased more than 16 percent since 2000 but median-renter household incomes have decreased six percent, officials said.

The county's lowest income renters spend 68 percent of their income on rent, according to county officials.
My new book, Napa at Last Light, will be published in February 2018. For 25 years, I have written about the social and natural evolution of Napa, a diverse county that includes rare and valuable biological hotspots and 140,000 people, most of whom are associated with whats now referred to as the wine industry. During that time, I have learned something about developers.

Foremost is the fact that inside all of them is a 6-year-old kid dying to get out and dig a really deep hole. When they finally do get to do so, they fill the hole up with something that wasnt there before and then repeat the experience with minor variations ad infinitum.

More disturbing, with far-reaching ramifications for all Americans, is the other fact: developers deeply, irrationally, and often vindictively resent anyone who objects to their plans, for whatever reason. This includes neighbors, citizens, scientists, clergy, and elected officials. But none receive more opprobrium than environmentalists.

Developers discourse, already full of Orwellian neologisms  decrepit for uncut forests, unimproved for pristine land (by this reasoning Mount Desert and Bridle Veil Falls are unimproved)  turns nasty when developers find themselves up against the committed, knowledgeable people living on or near land for which they have improvement plans. In Napa, the very definition of agriculture is being changed to better accommodate yet more development.

Which brings us to Trump, as all discussions do these days.

Remember his reaction when a handful of locals on the west coast of Scotland at Aberdeen objected to his building a heretofore illegal dune between them and the sea? A farmer and his animals were disgusting, according to the man now president of the United States.

Napans protesting disruptive winery practices in their own neighborhoods are dismissed by developers and their clients as having nothing better to do and being out of touch, as well as geezers. The same language is applied to hundreds who have, in one decade-long struggle, so far prevented the cutting of thousands of oak trees on more than 2,000 acres in a remote part of Napa county by Dallas developer/lifestyle vintner Craig Hall.

This disruption of one of the last bits of untrammeled Napa isnt for food crops, its for more wine in deeply-punted bottles far beyond the financial reach of all but the upper two per cent. Meanwhile, locals fear more mansions in gorgeous, fragile terrain where vineyards in California often serve as stalking horses for more real estate development.

The amount of ready money sloshing around the valley in search of a vanity project is enormous. Much of it comes from abroad, including China, and not even global warming can scotch this bonanza. (In fact, it seems to have inspired some to get in on the last vendage, before everybody moves on to the Pacific Northwest or the Rockies.) The Napa Valley floor has no more plantable land available, which means all eyes are now on the forested hills, a priceless watershed for the valley below whose visual appeal draws more than 3 million tourists a year.

But the craving for lifestyle vintner status is inexhaustible and apparently untrumpable by concerns about conservation, social discord that has grown in the valley, and Napas reputation as home of Americas grand crus slipped.

Last year, thousands of Napans signed a petition to put an initiative on the 2016 ballot to increase regulation of timber cutting and bulldozing in the hills. But the Napa Valley Vintners Association, the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, the Farm Bureau and the Winegrowers of Napa County, an oddly named coalition of corporations and the wealthiest individuals, all opposed it. And the countys so firmly under their purple thumb that it disqualified the initiative on a technicality.

These struggles may be of little import to most Americans, but what the Lifestyle Vintner-in-Chief is doing on a national scale is something else again. Appointments such as that of Scott Pruit to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a man dedicated to its neutering, is, in my opinion, a direct result of Trumps many fights to get concessions wherever he wanted, and occasionally being thwarted. As all the world now recognizes, he lashes out with force and vitriol, without regard for lasting damage done.

Opening up public lands in the West, one of Americas greatest legacies, to heedless, unregulated development is part of the same impulse to get even. So is the scrapping laws regulating clean water and air, sought by complicitous Republicans, will not harm just the country and the planet but also sicken and eventually kill Americans.

In the West, as in Napa, natural beauty is being harvested, in the argot of the developer. And selling public lands denies Americans recourse to what has always been a last resort, an abridgment of citizens rights and a squandering of one of Americas great achievements.

Meanwhile, the president and his minions in Congress dig on, as the like-minded do in Napa. At the end of four years that hole will be very deep indeed; America could well fall into it.
(Natural News) During the Bush presidency, then-Sen. Barack Obama regularly criticized the administration for its privacy abuses, utilizing the National Security Agency to scoop up terabytes of data on virtually every Americans electronic communications, in the name of combating terrorism.

In 2004, while running for the U.S. Senate, Obama lashed out at the USA Patriot Act, saying it violates our fundamental notions of privacy. The following year, he joined fellow Democrats in claiming the law seriously jeopardizes the rights of all Americans and the ideals America stands for.

As he geared up for his White House run in 2007, he said he would ensure that U.S. intelligence agencies had all the tools they needed to protect the country  while honoring the Constitution.

That means no more illegal wiretapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime  No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient.

Then, of course, Obama won the presidency. And all of that sanctimonious preaching proved little more than political posturing.

As reported by Circa, it turns out that Obama committed more serial abuses of Americans constitutional rights to privacy and due process than any president before him, and even more so than Bushs violations that he so blithely dismissed. (RELATED: Obama admin spied on THOUSANDS of Americans in months leading up to 2016 election)

The site noted that, according to top secret documents that have been declassified, the NSA, under Obama, routinely violated American privacy protections as the agency combed through intercepts of subjects overseas. The NSA then failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, activity that amounts to some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community.

Whats more, Obamas abuses werent even committed with the noble intent of protecting the country; rather, they were the result of raw political intent.

The site noted further:

More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSAs so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa.

The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later.

In the vast majority of cases the FISA court is deferential to the governments intelligence agencies, but in this particular case the judges  who are appointed to single seven-year terms and who do not have prior intelligence training or experience  censured administration officials for their failure to previously disclose the extent of violations. They characterized the failure as an institutional lack of candor adding that the abuses amounted to a very serious Fourth Amendment issue, according to the declassified document quoted by Circa.

And heres the kicker: The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans [emphasis added]  especially those who just happen to have been associated with the campaign of now-President Donald J. Trump.

Except, the FISA court along with the NSAs internal watchdog found that to be BS.

Since 2011, NSAs minimization procedures have prohibited use of U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of upstream Internet collections under Section 702, said the unsealed court ruling. The Oct. 26, 2016 notice informed the court that NSA analysts had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court.

Now, do you fully understand why Obama changed  as in loosened  privacy rules back in 2011, as he was gearing up for his reelection bid? The loosening of the rules was also used by Obama hacks like former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, a political functionary and not an actual intelligence community operative, to unmask Trump campaign officials like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Carter Page.

If you ever needed more proof that Barack Obama lacks the hypocrisy gene  and that his was the most criminally corrupt administration in decades  this is it.

If we determine this to be true, this is an enormous abuse of power, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Fox News, as noted by Circa.

Learn more at RealInvestigations.news and NewsTarget.com.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

Circa.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

PBS.org
The contract, which came into effect on 19 May 2017, covers the supply of four remotely controlled NARWHAL systems, to equip the Stan 4207 patrol vessels, which have been in service in the Albanian Navy since 2008. The contract also covers the supply of associated 20mm ammunition, produced by Nexter Munitions, and maintenance equipment.



The first two systems will be delivered at the end of 2017, with the following two to be delivered in the second half of 2018.
Jacob Snyder, May 25, 2017 (WISTV)

[Chinese wind-turbine manufacturer Goldwind Americas, looking for workers to take permanent jobs on the Wyoming wind farms they supply, is planning] a free training program for one of the United States' fastest-growing jobs: the wind farm technician. The program is aimed at former coal miners who are having trouble finding work, as well as professionals from other industries. It's called Goldwind Works, and will begin next month with a series of informational seminars and safety training at a wind farm in MontanaGoldwind Americas has an agreement to supply nearly 850 wind turbines to a site in Wyoming, where the state's first coal mine opened a century ago. After construction is finished, up to 200 workers will be needed to work at the plantThe Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the national employment for miners and geological engineers will grow by 6 percent over the next decade, while those working in wind energy will enjoy a growth rate of 108 percent. click here for more

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Opinions and views expressed in this blog are personal views of the Author and does not involve organisations and companies being serviced by the Author as part of his profession as a Strategic Communications professional.
SATELLITE BEACH, Florida  Kimberly Loomis, a Brevard County Public Schools speech pathologist, has been arrested for allegedly making threats to a principal at Surfside Elementary School in Satellite Beach, Florida.

According to an arrest report, the 47-year-old speech teacher allegedly sent threatening texts to her co-worker, Lori Masterston.



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The long-running animosity between the two school employees began back in April when Loomis started posting some surprisingly negative things on social media about her principal and the school that were considered unprofessional, especially considering that students and parents were among her friends, said Brevard Public Schools spokesman Matt Reed.

A memo shows the principal counseled Loomis on that (she was not formally disciplined), Loomis didnt accept the principals criticism, and that somehow led to the threats by text message, which I saw.

This is the second time in less than a year that Brevard Public School instructional staff have been arrested when the BPS administration knew of their criminal history

This speech pathologist didnt fall through the cracks, said Reed. She was regarded as a good speech therapist who was arrested in 2014 for a domestic violence situation, and BPS was aware of it. The charges were dropped, which meant there was nothing to warrant a disciplinary action under BPS rules and due process procedures. Mrs. Loomis worked for BPS since 1999 and at no point was considered a threat to children or school staff.

But while the BPS administration didnt consider Loomis 2014 arrest a threat to children or school staff, the arrest report stated that the Surfside Elementary principal was in fear for her life due to Ms. Loomis violent criminal history

Loomis was charged with one count of making written threats to injure or kill which is a second degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. She was booked into the Brevard County jail and her bond was set at $5,000.

In addition to the pending criminal charges, Loomis is under a BPS investigation for a disciplinary action. The school district is also taking back her employee badge and keys. BPS is also ordering Loomis to stay away from Surfside Elementary School.

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Learn more about scholarships Students interested in learning more about the Humanity in Action Fellowship and other prestigious awards should contact Megan Friddle in Emory's National Scholarships and Fellowships Program. Find more information or schedule an appointment through the National Scholarships and Fellowships Program website.

Two Emory scholars will spend the next month immersed in the study of human and civil rights when they join a global network of students in Europe for the 2017 Humanity in Action Fellowship Program.

Jalyn Radziminski-Smith 18C and Virginia Spinks 17C were among 54 students and recent graduates selected for the fellowship program from among a competitive pool of more than 510 applicants from universities and colleges across the United States. They left this week to join fellows from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine to participate in the summer program.

Humanity in Action (HIA) is an international non-profit educational organization created to educate, inspire and connect a global network of students, young professionals and established leaders committed to promoting human rights, diversity and active citizenship in their own communities and around the world.

The goal of the interdisciplinary summer fellowship is to encourage future leaders to become engaged citizens and responsible decision makers through exploring the destructive social and political roots of prejudice, discrimination and dehumanization.

Students are assigned to one of seven locations around the world. Radziminski-Smith will be based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Spinks will be in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the conclusion of the program, fellows will gather for a final conference in Berlin, Germany.

HIA Fellows engage in daily lectures and discussions with renowned academics, journalists, politicians and activists and participate in site visits to government agencies, non-profit and community organizations, museums and memorials.

The program aspires to highlight different models of action to remedy injustice through a global education experience. Following the month-long program, students will also complete a final research project of their choosing.

Driven toward difficult dialogues

For Radziminski-Smith, a member of Emory's 1915 Scholars Program that supports students who are the first in their family to attend college, being chosen for the HIA Fellowship is a dream come true.

I actually learned about it my first year at Emory and have been wanting this ever since then, says Radziminski-Smith, a rising senior majoring in linguistics and interdisciplinary studies, with a research focus on human and civil rights.

It was in high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that she felt the awakenings of a desire to contribute to the world around her. I noticed different groups on campus were separate and not getting along and found myself thinking how I could help the community around me by bringing people together," she says.

Through a program called Champions, she created an awareness campaign at her school to help Special Olympics athletes. At Emory, that desire to make a difference has flourished, she says.

Ive found the resources, exposure and education to learn more about addressing difficult issues, she says. Ive been driven to learn more about how to start difficult dialogues and promote understanding. Its just how I am  if I see something wrong, I want to help people fix it.

Through a post-high school program, she had an eye-opening experience as an international student ambassador in Japan following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But it was a chance to visit the Baltimore neighborhood of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, through an African American studies class at Emory that provided a huge push toward exploring civil and human rights.

Seeing all these issues play out on a domestic and international stage, I just knew I wanted to go head-first into it, she says.

Having pursued research into black and Asian identity and solidarity, as well as World War II genocide and war crimes, while at Emory, Im hoping to learn more about the effects of that in Europe this summer, how discrimination plays out in a country different from mine and to learn what I can do about it, she says.

As a rising senior, Radziminski-Smith plans to complete a senior thesis that examines the experience of the NAACP in Japan, with a traditional paper and an awareness campaign.

Im hoping to use the skills I learn about human rights to take that issue to a global scale, she says.

Turning theory, discourse into action

For Spinks, a religion, anthropology and dance major who graduated with honors this month from Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the fellowship offers an opportunity to expand her scholarship into cultural anthropology and religion through an international lens before pursuing graduate studies.

I imagine I was assigned to Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the particular struggles there concerning integration, she says. This is a post-conflict, ethnically and religiously diverse country, now interrupted with the challenges of immigration  thats a lot of disruption.

But I think it was probably my experience with those types of conversations that led to the program, explains Spinks, who also studied Arabic for four years, studied abroad in Morocco and wrote her senior thesis on college student perceptions of Islam and terrorism.

In fact, it was while going through the HIA application process that Spinks says she realized, I essentially have been studying human rights at Emory through anthropology research and public scholarship and extra-curricular involvement with Campus Life, particularly Emory orientation programs.

You become very involved in conversations about difference, acceptance, identity, politics and integration  very similar conversations to human rights discourse, she explains.

Performing with the Emory Dance Company student dance group over the last four years, Spinks also found herself immersed in choreographic work that explored identity, narrative and personal voices with politically-minded artists, people making work that mattered on a level beyond an artistic statement, she says. Its been an integral part of who I am as a person.

Through the HIA fellowship, Spinks says she hopes to find guidance, honestly.

I feel like thats the reason I applied, she says. On some level, Ive always felt that I want to do human rights work, with scholarship that has a public aim.

Im just excited to learn, to find out more about other peoples experiences and how you turn theoretical discourses into action  the tangible steps I can take that can benefit a population, not just contribute to the conversation.
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 00:16:20|Editor: Zhou Xin

Queen Elizabeth II (R) visits the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to meet victims of the Manchester Arena attack, in Manchester, Britain, May 25, 2017. (Xinhua)

LONDON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Manchester Thursday to visit children and young people injured in Monday's terror bombing at the Manchester Arena.

As well as meeting casualties recovering and being treated for their injuries at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, the Queen spoke to doctors and nurses who worked throughout the night and the following days saving the lives of the injured.

Among the patients who the Queen spoke with was 15-year-old Millie Robson from County Durham in northeast England. Her mom Marie sat at her bedside as they chatted with the Royal visitor. The hospital is treating 14 injured children, with five of them described as critically ill.

Her visit came as NHS England reported that the number of people who have received in-patient hospital treatment as a result of injuries sustained in Monday's attack has reached 116.

An NHS spokesman said 23 of the injured are currently in critical care suffering from serious injuries.

The Queen's arrival came shortly after more than 1,000 people gathered in the city's St Ann's Square during a nationwide one-minute silence. The crowd, many with tears streaming down their faces, stood alongside city leaders as a tribute to the dead and injured.

At the end of the tribute they broke into applause and sang "Don't Look Back In Anger," the song performed by Manchester rock band Oasis and written by band member Noel Gallagher.

In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee and said later that the threat level will remain at "critical" in Britain, indicating a possible imminent attack.

May said eight suspects remained in custody as part of the investigation by Greater Manchester Police.

A woman arrested at an apartment block in the city has been released. All of those being held at police stations in Manchester are male. The eight include two men arrested by counter terror police on Thursday morning, one in Manchester and another at an undisclosed location.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 01:57:11|Editor: Song Lifang

Khalid A. Al-Falih (2nd L), Saudi Arabia's minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources speaks at a press conference in Vienna, Austria on May 25, 2017. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Non-OPEC states on Thursday decided to extend the joint oil output cut by nine months to rebalance the global oil market after the ministerial meetings in Vienna. (Xinhua/Pan Xu)

VIENNA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Non-OPEC states on Thursday decided to extend the joint oil output cut by nine months to rebalance the global oil market after the ministerial meetings in Vienna.

OPEC and some Non-OPEC oil producers jointly cut the 1.8 million barrel per day output from the beginning of 2017 to July 1, seeking to rebalance the oil market from a production glut.

With the extension, the output cut will be extended to March 2018.

It is not surprising that OPEC and its allies made the decision as the extension plan had been recommended by some major oil producers before the meeting.

Saudi Arabia, the largest producer among OPEC member states, openly supports the extension plan, though some other member states are suggesting a deeper oil cut.

"There have been suggestions; many member countries have indicated flexibilities (in deepening oil output cut)," Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia's minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources said ahead of the OPEC meeting.

He indicted that the simulation of the oil market suggests that the nine-month extension could be more feasible, in response to the possible deepening oil production cut.

OPEC currently accounts for about one third of the world's oil production. It has been trying to rebalance the oil market by cut its oil production amid surplus in the past two years.

Jamie Webster, an oil market analyst from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told Xinhua that the shale oil in U.S. is playing an important role in the oil market.

Time is still needed to monitor the shale oil output in the future, which could be influential on the efforts made by the OPEC and Non-OPEC producers to rebalance the market, said the analyst.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 04:38:30|Editor: Song Lifang

Counter-terrorism experts check the site of the attack against former Greek Prime Minister Loukas Papademos in Athens, Greece on May 25, 2017. Former Greek Prime Minister Loukas Papademos was slightly injured on Thursday after the explosion of a booby trapped envelope inside his car in central Athens, according to the latest report on Greek national news agency AMNA. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

By Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Former Greek Prime Minister Loukas Papademos was recovering in an Athens hospital on Thursday after an attack against him which was unequivocally condemned by political parties as an attack on democracy.

The 69-year-old president of the Athens Academy, who served as interim prime minister from November 2011 to May 2012, was slightly injured from the blast of a booby-trapped envelope while riding his car in the center of the Greek capital.

"The patient's condition is stable and there is no reason for concern," a statement issued by Evangelismos hospital read.

Papademos sustained superficial injuries to the chest, abdomen and legs and he underwent a surgery to clean the wound on his thigh, according to the press release.

The two men who escorted him, the driver of the armored car provided to the former prime minister by the central Bank of Greece and a security officer who was also inside the vehicle, were also admitted to hospital for precautionary reasons with minor injuries, the statement concluded.

Greek police was on alert in case similar letter-bombs have been sent to other recipients, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack so far, but suspicions fall on domestic terrorist groups who for several years have been attacking political, financial and police targets.

In recent years "Conspiracy of the Nuclei of Fire" has claimed responsibility for a series of such attacks with booby-trapped envelopes which have been sent also to European leaders.

In March this year the group claimed responsibility for a package with explosives found at the German Finance Ministry. Another booby-trapped envelope attributed to the group slightly injured an employee at the International Monetary Fund's premises in Paris a few hours later.

According to police sources, investigators were looking into possible links with the March attacks. Initial findings indicate that the explosive device contained gunpowder used in fireworks, AMNA reported.

The counter-terrorism squad has launched a full-scale investigation to determine how the letter bomb reached Papademos passing security screenings.

The attack against Papademos is the first targeting a serving or former prime minister since the restoration of democracy in 1974 after a seven-year military dictatorship, SKAI television channel noted.

"I unequivocally condemn the attack on Loukas Papademos. I wish a speedy recovery to him and the people accompanying him," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tweeted from Brussels, where he was attending the NATO summit.

Opposition parties issued similar statements, while several political leaders and public figures rushed to the hospital to be briefed on the condition of Papademos.

Among them was main opposition New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis who described the attack as a "cowardly terrorist attack carried out by enemies of Greece and of democracy."

Former prime minister Costas Simitis and George Papandreou also visited the hospital along government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos and the Governor of the central Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras.

Thursday's attack was a "cowardly attack against a man who kept Greece on its feet at a difficult time," Stournaras said.

Papademos has also served as Governor of the central Bank of Greece (1994-2002) and vice-president of the European Central Bank (2002-2010).
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 04:43:40|Editor: yan

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By Burak Akinci

ANKARA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Ailing relations between Turkey and Germany have taken a new blow when German lawmakers cancelled on Wednesday a much expected trip to Ankara to conduct political talks amid bitter differences between the two key NATO allies.

Green party deputy parliamentary speaker Claudia Roth was supposed to lead a small delegation of German MPs to the Turkish capital for a three-day visit scheduled to begin on Thursday.

Roth said to the press in Berlin that the Turkish side clearly issued at the last minute the information that they are not welcome.

"Yesterday we received the information that is currently not considered opportune at the very highest level to conduct political talks with the German parliamentary side in Turkey," said Roth. She described the incident as a "political provocation."

The German lawmakers also were told that they couldn't visit the Turkish parliament building. The group included the head of the German parliament's human rights committee that had scheduled meetings with NGOs.

During an official visit to China, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel called Turkey's actions a "serious event" that did not help make dialogue any easier.

"On a diplomatic level the message has been conveyed to the German side that this visit would not, at present moment, bare concrete results on improving bilateral ties," said to Xinhua a Turkish diplomatic source, preferring to remain anonymous.

"We will wait and see the position and steps of the German side in the future and eventually take a new decision concerning a possible visit," he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President attended NATO summit on Thursday in Brussels.

The two leaders held discussions on the sidelines of the summit, but with no apparent agreement on contentious issues, according to local Anadolu Agency.

Relations between the two countries have been particularly strained since the coup attempt in July 2016. Germany severely criticized the vast purges against the opposition and the Gulen network, accused of plotting the coup and granted asylum to military officers and diplomats who Ankara accuses of being involved in the botched coup.

Towards and in the wake of April's constitutional referendum which gave new sweeping powers to President Erdogan, relations have been dealt a big blow when the Turkish President accused Germany and some other EU countries of "Nazi" practices for blocking Turkish ministers from campaigning.

Tensions have also heightened over the arrest of a German-Turkish journalist, Deniz Yucel, on charges of terrorism, namely on suspected links with the Kurdish rebels.

And, Ankara is blocking German lawmakers to visit the German military contingent deployed on Incirlik airbase used for raids against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, which have infuriated Chancellor Merkel who is likely considering transferring her 270 strong troops to Jordan.

Six German Tornado reconnaissance planes and a refuelling aircraft are engaged in coalition efforts against IS.

German military missions abroad need parliamentary approval, and German authorities argue that it's essential for lawmakers to be granted access to troops serving on foreign ground.

"If this is their decision, we will say goodbye to them. It is their decision. It isn't really an important problem for us," an uncompromising Erdogan told reporters in Ankara before leaving for Brussels.

His remarks echoed the words of his Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had previously told a TV channel, "We are not going to beg the Germans to stay."

But as problematic as they seem, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel for both sides since their relations are intertwined, according to experts.

"Turkey and Germany have the most complex but interconnected ties that can ever be since the big wave of Turkish workers migration of the 1960's," explained to Xinhua professor Birgul Demirtas from Ankara's TOBB University political sciences and foreign relations department.

"The two countries need each other on political, economical and cultural fields," said this expert on German studies, pointing especially on the fact that the electoral process both in Turkey (April 16 referendum) and Germany (federal parliamentary elections scheduled for September 24) have had adverse effects on bilateral ties.

"Ankara and Berlin have in the past survived crisis from time to time but those have been largely overcomed by the prevalence on the grounds of common interests," added Demirtas, who feels confident that the current situation will eventually be solved after the German elections.
Chinese actor Yin Fang, actress Yang Zishan and director Li Ruijun (from L to R), pose for photos on the red carpet for the screening of the film "120 BPM" (120 Beats Per Minute) in competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France on May 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Chen Yichen)

CANNES, France, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese director Li Ruijun's "Walking Past the Future" film, selected in the "Un Certain Regard" (In some perspective) section of the 70th Cannes Film Festival, drew wide audience's appreciation during its screening Saturday last week.

Through the movie, Li featured the life of a family from the first generation of migrant workers in China. The parents of the heroine Yang Yaoting had worked in Shenzhen, a metropolis in southern China for twenty years. But they lost their jobs due to aging and poor health.

They decided to return to their homeland, a village in northwest China's Gansu province with their two daughters. However, living in the countryside is not easy as expected. So Yang, the eldest daughter, returns to Shenzhen, and dreams of buying an apartment for her family.

The Chinese director said he was "honored and surprised" to be selected by the festival. For him, the film reflects the other side of Chinese social development by telling a "family and love story", which could touch the audience all over the world.

After the screening, Dany Wolf, American producer, said the film is "different" and "powerful", and he was deeply touched.

Turkish journalist Defne Gursoy Birgun said the film, with a universal concern, is the most human film she has watched in recent years.

She argued that during the post-industrial era, migration from cities to the countryside represented a challenge for all countries.

"I watched all the Chinese films every year (at Cannes Film Festival). Although it is a worldwide film festival, we think the future of the movie and innovative works are in the East," said the journalist.

This is the first for Li to take part in the Cannes Film Festival, although his works have been selected in many international cinema gatherings. He took part in the 2014 International Festival of Tokyo with film "River Road", and in 2012, Venice International Festival with "Fly with the Crane".

This year, 18 films are selected for the "Un Certain Regard" section. The awards for the section will be unveiled on May 27.

The 70th Cannes Film Festival runs from May 17 to 28.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 06:09:22|Editor: yan

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by Martin Banks

BRUSSELS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S President Donald Trump on Thursday used the occasion of his maiden summit with NATO leaders to, once again, remind his fellow NATO alliance leaders for not being "fair" to U.S. taxpayers.

"23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying," Trump said, adding that they owe "massive amounts".

NATO says a rising number of European members have increased defense spending "significantly" in the last 12 months, although only a handful meet the 2-percent spending target agreed at a previous summit in 2014.

Trump's comments will disappoint alliance leaders who had hoped for a public commitment from the U.S. president to NATO's security guarantees, which he called into question during his presidential campaign last year.

It was also notable that Trump refused to publicly reiterate U.S. commitment to NATO's mutual defense provision, Article 5, which had been invoked just once before: after the terror attack of September 11, 2001.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO leaders had agreed to step up NATO's role in the fight against terrorism and "fairer burden sharing".

The meeting, he said, had adopted an action plan to enhance NATO's contributions and had also decided to expand to support to the U.S.-led "Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS".

Stoltenberg said, "This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism and improve coordination within the Coalition."

However, he stressed, "It does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations."

On burden sharing, he said, "In 2015, defense cuts came to a stop. And in 2016, total spending across Europe and Canada increased by billions of dollars. This is not just about cash, but also modern capabilities."

The summit had taken steps "to keep up the momentum" and agreed to develop national plans every year.

"These will set out how NATO Allies intend to meet their pledge. So that we continue to match words with action," said the NATO's chief.

Trump has previously supported Britain's shock Brexit vote, claimed the EU was a doomed would-be super-state and dubbed NATO "obsolete".

Even so, hopes were relatively high that the visit, Trump's first overseas trip as U.S. President, could help heal EU/U.S. relations and ongoing rows about European defense spending.

But the severe ticking off he gave alliance members risks souring relations even more.

In a sign of growing frustration felt by EU leaders, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, speaking after meeting Trump in Brussels, defended European defense spending, insisting: "Europe is taking on greater responsibility on defense."

Greens co-leader, Philippe Lamberts commented, "Trump's demands on the NATO countries for military rearmament is no answer to the threats and instability we face."

"In marked contrast to the U.S. president, Europe must defend the importance of conflict prevention, diplomacy and human rights, instead of spending ever more on upgrading military capacity. We need to find better ways of cooperating to ensure our security," Lamberts said.

Stoltenberg sought to seek a more conciliatory tone, hailing Trump's plan to expand, with 4.8 billion U.S. dollars, the European Reassurance Initiative, a military fund to counter "Russian aggression".

Stoltenberg said the "barbaric" attack in Manchester on Monday underlines the importance of his organization's role in combating terrorism and "the importance of standing together in defense of our open societies".

Reaction to the summit and Trump's visit was swift, with Charles Michel, the Prime Minister of Belgium whose country has hosted NATO for over 50 years, warning, "Security today requires much more than the traditional military tools. Civilian and military operations go hand in hand. So we will need both soft and hard power."

UK Conservative Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Tannock said, "Hopefully both sides took the chance to set aside the rhetoric, sound each other out and lay the foundations of a strong political and security relationship. It is much easier to reach an understanding when you are in the same room, not hailing each other across the Atlantic."

Giovanni Grevi, of the European Policy Centre,a leading think tank, said: "Trump's nationalist political instincts are at odds with what the EU stands for. However, given the breadth and depth of transatlantic ties, both Washington and Brussels have an interest in taking a pragmatic approach to mutual relations."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 06:14:21|Editor: yan

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ALGIERS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Thursday has conducted a cabinet reshuffle, in a government led by newly appointed Prime Minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a statement of the President Office said.

As many as 13 ministers have left their positions, ten others were maintained, while six new members have joined the cabinet.

Algerian energy and finance ministers were replaced in the reshuffle.

Prime Minister, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on Thursday revealed priorities of his cabinet, as he indicated that he will work to boost economy in a bid to curb the North African nation's dependence on hydrocarbons.

"The top priority is to reconvert our economy, which was initiated by my predecessor, Abdelmalek Sellal," Tebboune told reporters upon the end of the official handover ceremony with former prime minister Sellal.

Tebboune stressed that "economic reconversion is necessary and urgent to ensure that our country would no longer depend on fluctuations in hydrocarbon prices."

"Our goal is to reach healthier and more balanced economy, where the private sector would have key role," he noted.

Tebboune further indicated that due to the financial difficulties facing Algeria, the government is forced to reorient certain financial resources to other priorities set by the President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 06:14:22|Editor: Tian Shaohui

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People attend a candlelit vigil to mourn the victims of Manchester terror attack at Albert Square in Manchester, Britain on May 23, 2017. On Monday night, a suicide terror attack took place at Manchester Arena at the end of a pop concert, killing at least 22 people, several of whom were children, while injuring 59 others. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

LONDON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Police hunting a potential terror gang behind have found items significant to the probe into the Manchester Arena bombing, it was revealed Thursday.

Greater Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins described the on going investigation as fast moving as detectives continued to quiz eight suspects following the terror bombing at the Manchester Arena.

He said: "This continues to be a fast-moving investigation and there has been a significant amount of activity taking place."

Police are working in the search for accomplices of suicide bomber Salman Abedi alongside specialist national counter terrorist officers as well as UK intelligence services, said Hopkins.

Hopkins added: "The arrests that we have made are significant, and initial searches of premises have revealed items that we believe are very important to the investigation."

Hopkins did not elaborate on what police had discovered in the searches of homes and properties linked to those arrested.

In the latest development Thursday night police revealed they found potentially suspicious items during a raid in a house in Wigan in Greater Manchester. One of the eight men still being held was arrested in Wigan.

Police placed a large cordon around the house and evacuated families from nearby homes as an army bomb disposal team were drafted in. People told local media they had seen soldiers using a remote robot close to the property.

Greater Manchester Police said in a statement: "A house in Wigan was raided and is currently being searched. Potentially suspicious items were found at the address and a large cordon has been put in place.

"We have a number of officers on the ground and are evacuating people as a matter of precaution as public safety is paramount to our investigation."

Media reports in London said Thursday that investigators believed there may be more people at large who are part of a terror network linked to the Manchester Arena attack. It raised fears that more bomb-making materials still have to be found.

Theresa May said Britain's terror threat would remain at critical, indicating a terror attack was imminent.

Other sources quoted in the media raised the fear some members of a terror network may be in hiding.

In another response to Monday's attack, armed police officers are being deployed for the first time patrolling trains nationwide, British Transport Police announced.

Passengers on London Underground have become accustomed to seeing armed police on the Tube for some months, but until now they have not patrolled the national rail network.

As the round the clock hunt for more people linked to terrorism continued, people across the country stood in a minute's silence in tribute to the 22 adults and children killed, and the 116 injured.

Queen Elizabeth also traveled to Manchester to speak with young victims being treated at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Talking to doctors and nurses, the Queen described the attack at the end of a pop concert as "wicked".
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a family photo session during a one-day NATO Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Alexey Vitvitsky)

BRUSSELS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday hinted that he failed to woo U.S. President Donald Trump's support on Paris agreement on climate change.

Speaking at a joint press conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on the heels of their meeting in Brussels, Macron said :"As for climate, President Trump can assert his position. I respect the fact that he has a review of the Paris agreement."

"It's (the agreement) an important thing for international community. We have a political responsibility to assume, and we have to think also about jobs and economic development." he said.

"No hasty decision should be taken on this subject by the United States... our collective responsibility is to ensure that this commitment remains a global commitment." he added.

The Paris Agreement was agreed by the 195 member economies which attended the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris. It went into effect last November.

Trump, on his first overseas trip as U.S. president, on Thursday met with European Council President Donald Tusk and Juncker, before holding a lunch meeting with Macron.

However, Macron claimed that the lunch meeting with Trump was "a very good, frank and warm discussion".

"It's necessary for the United States of America to remain an essential partner as regards collective security, development and the fight against terrorism." he said.

Later on Thursday, Trump and leaders of other NATO countries are set to meet for the first time to map out the future of the organization, and try to narrow their differences on its budget.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 06:24:35|Editor: yan

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LONDON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- London Zoo's new treehouse-style luxury home for its family of apes is to open Saturday.

The zoo has created the new home for gibbons Jimmy and Yoda, where the pair will be able to swing through a maze of branches and ropes.

Visitors will be able to "hang out" with gibbons when the doors open to the zoo's newest exhibit on Saturday, taking people on a journey high into the Northern white-cheeked gibbon's new habitat,

A spokeswoman for ZSL London Zoo said: "Our zookeepers are looking forward to introducing the pair to their exciting new home, which has been designed to grow and change alongside the agile apes that live in it."

Senior zookeeper, Nicky Blundred, said: "We're excited to see Jimmy and Yoda explore their brand new treetop home here at ZSL London Zoo.

"We designed the leafy exhibit with lots of high branches and platforms for them to swing between, along with raised viewing areas to lift visitors up into their domain," explained the zookeeper.

While taking people on a voyage of discovery about the close connection between humans and small apes, the new exhibit will also highlight ZSL's important gibbon conservation work in China, where ZSL scientists are working to safeguard the world's rarest ape, the Hainan gibbon.

The spokeswoman added: "Due to threats including habitat loss and hunting, Hainan gibbons, of which there are approximately just 25 remaining, have been restricted to a single forest patch in Bawangling National Nature Reserve, on Hainan Island in China."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 06:44:35|Editor: yan

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By Stefania Fumo

TAORMINA, Italy, May 25 (Xinhua) -- As the 43rd yearly summit of the Group of Seven (G7) is to be start Friday, analysts say it could be an uphill battle for the summit to reach consensus over key issues such as migration, security, and climate change.

Tensions between Britain and the EU following last year's Brexit referendum, the protectionist and pro-carbon fuels stance of recently elected U.S. President Donald Trump, and the rise of populist, eurosceptic sentiment across Europe spell a tough time ahead for leaders at the Taormina meeting.

"The raison d'etre of the G7 is its ability to make decisions and coordinate policies swiftly," according to Leuven Center for Global Governance Studies Director Jan Wouters.

"This is no longer the case, as recent elections in Europe and the United States have shown," he said, writing for the University of Toronto's G20 Research Group, which monitors the extent to which leaders follow up on their summit commitments.

"If the like-mindedness on which it was always premised lapses due to the Trump administration" and to frictions between Britain and the EU over Brexit, "the G7 may face daunting challenges in the coming years," he concluded.

Meanwhile at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, Trump linked migration to Monday's terrorist attack in the British city of Manchester, in which a suicide bomber killed at least 22 lives.

This puts him at odds with Italy, which says that migration and terrorism must not be equated.

Since it began rescuing people off unseaworthy human trafficking boats in the Mediterranean in 2014, Italy has pushed the refugee and migrant crisis squarely onto the EU agenda, and has called for massive investments in Africa as a way to tackle the root causes of the exodus.

"At work for G7 Taormina on security, migrations, climate, Africa relations," Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted Thursday, outlining the key points Italy wishes to table at the two-day summit that kicks off in the Sicilian town of Taormina on Friday.

The Italian PM's words came as harrowing images from Wednesday's migrant shipwreck off Libya, in which 32 people including many young children drowned within sight of rescuers, followed on the equally distressing images from Manchester on Monday, where at least six teenagers and one eight-year-old child were blown up at a concert by American pop star and teen idol, Ariana Grande.

Meanwhile the exodus from Africa and the Middle East shows no signs of abating. Over 60,000 migrants and refugees have reached southern Europe by sea so far this year, according to the Rome-based International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Over 1,300 died or went missing in the attempt, the UN-affiliated organization said.

At a press briefing in Rome last week, senior United Nations and World Food Programme (WFP) staffers warned that 20 million people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen are on the brink of famine.

The looming humanitarian disaster is due to a combination of drought and armed conflict with fundamentalist insurgencies, such as the Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab groups, the staffers said.

A six-year civil war in Syria also continues to wreak havoc, driving an estimated 11 million people from their homes.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 4.8 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries and 6.6 million are internally displaced.

About 1 million Syrians have sought asylum in Europe, according to the Migration Policy Center at the European University Institute in Florence.

Considering the differences among the members and the complexity of the issues themselves, it will be a no easy task for the seven most advanced industrialized countries, namely Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States to reach an agreement on means to tackle these issues.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 06:54:41|Editor: Tian Shaohui

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UN chief said on Africa Day that the world must move from "managing crises to preventing them." (Source: Xinhuanet)

UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- UN chief said on Africa Day that the world must move from "managing crises to preventing them."

Africa Day 2017 comes at an important moment in the continent's endeavors towards peace, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday, urging humanity to listen and learn with the people of Africa.

"All of humanity will benefit by listening, learning and working with the people of Africa. It starts with prevention. Our world needs to move from managing crises to preventing them in the first place. We need to break the cycle of responding too late and too little," said Guterres in his message commemorating Africa Day.

Africa Day, formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day, is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union, on May 25, 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world.

The UN chief pointed out that most of today's conflicts are internal, triggered by competition for power and resources, inequality, marginalization, disrespect for human rights and sectarian divides. Often, they are inflamed by violent extremism or provide the fuel for it.

But prevention goes far beyond focusing solely on conflict.

"The best means of prevention and the surest path to durable peace is inclusive and sustainable development. It is critical to continue building more effective and accountable institutions to address governance challenges, advance the rule of law and promote civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights," he stressed.

As the international community has entered the second year of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to tackle global poverty, inequality, instability and injustice, Guterres highlighted that Africa has adopted its own complementary and ambitious plan: Agenda 2063.

"For the people of Africa to fully benefit from these important efforts, these two agendas need to be strategically aligned," he said.

Guterres referred to last month's first-ever UN-African Union annual conference as "a unique opportunity to strengthen our partnership and establish a higher platform of cooperation," saying: "Our work is based on four driving principles: mutual respect, solidarity, complementarity and interdependence."

Guterres said that the UN partnership with Africa is also rooted in a deep sense of gratitude.

"Africa provides the majority of United Nations peacekeepers around the world. African nations are among the world's largest and most generous hosts of refugees. Africa includes some of the world's fastest-growing economies," he elaborated.

The UN chief also reaffirmed his commitment as a partner, friend and committed advocate for changing the narrative about this diverse and vital continent.

"Crises represent at best a partial view. But, from a higher platform of cooperation, we can see the whole picture - one that recognizes the enormous potential and remarkable success stories throughout the African continent," said the secretary-general.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 07:44:53|Editor: Song Lifang

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VALPARAISO, Chile, May 25 (Xinhua -- Four Alliance countries, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, are seeking to increase tourists from China, said Chile's Minister of Economy and Tourism, Luis Felipe Cespedes, during the inauguration of the Pacific Alliance's IV Tourism Summit.

This event gathers executives and officials from the four Alliance countries, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, as well as around 250 tour operators and tourism companies, including from China.

Established in 2012, the Pacific Alliance is a trade bloc uniting these four Latin American nations that border the Pacific Ocean.

Cespedes explained to the audience that the Alliance's tourism diversity could attract tourists from China in a far more significant way.

"A tourist coming from Asia does not only to Chile, they want to go to other countries in the region. For this reason, strengthening tourism bonds between the countries of the Pacific Alliance increases the possibilities of attracting more tourists," he said.

He added that the Chinese market offered very high growth opportunities, given the fact that the number of Chinese tourists in Chile is rising, as well as in Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

Between January and April 2017, 10,997 Chinese tourists arrived in Chile, a 50.8 percent increase year-on-year.

Cespedes also said that increased tourism would lead to increased job growth and more development for small and medium enterprises.

The tour operators from the four Alliance countries have already agreed to combine their operations to encourage more Chinese tourists to visit all four members of the bloc.

This is the first year that Chinese and American tour operators, offering Latin American packages to Chinese tourists, according to the Chilean Minister of Economy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 08:25:23|Editor: Song Lifang

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- An international team of researchers suggests that sediment from the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau might have increased the severity of the catastrophic 2004 Sumatra earthquake.

Eroded over millions of years and transported thousands of kilometers by rivers and in the Indian Ocean, the sediment became sufficiently thick over time to generate temperatures warm enough to strengthen itself.

The magnitude 9.2 earthquake on December 26, 2004, generated a massive tsunami that devastated coastal regions of the Indian Ocean, killing more than 250,000 people and making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.

In a paper to be published on Friday in the journal Science, the research warned that the same mechanism could be in place in the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, also off Iran, Pakistan and in the Caribbean.

The team sampled for the first time sediment and rocks from the tectonic plate that feeds the Sumatra subduction zone. From the research vessel JOIDES Resolution, the team drilled down 1.5 kilometers below the seabed, measured different properties of the sediments, and ran simulations to calculate how the sediment and rock behaves as it piles up and travels eastward 250 kilometers toward the subduction zone.

"The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was triggered by an unusually strong earthquake with an extensive rupture area," expedition co-leader Lisa McNeill, an Oregon State University (OSU) graduate now at the University of Southampton, was quoted as saying in a news release. "We wanted to find out what caused such a large earthquake and tsunami, and what it might mean for other regions with similar geological properties."

"We discovered that in some areas where the sediments are especially thick, dehydration of the sediments occurred before they were subducted," noted Marta Torres, an OSU geochemist and co-author on the study. "Previous earthquake models assumed that dehydration occurred after the material was subducted, but we had suspected that it might be happening earlier in some margins. The earlier dehydration creates stronger, more rigid material prior to subduction, resulting in a very large fault area that is prone to rupture and can lead to a bigger and more dangerous earthquake."

Explaining that when the researchers examined the sediments, they found water between the sediment grains that was less salty than seawater only within a zone where the plate boundary fault develops, some 1.2 to 1.4 kilometers below the seafloor, Torres said "this along with some other chemical changes are clear signals that it was an increase in temperature from the thick accumulation of sediment that was dehydrating the minerals."

The discovery, according to Lead author Andre Hupers of the University of Bremen in Germany, will generate new interest in other subduction zone sites that also have thick, hot sediment and rock, especially those areas where the hazard potential is unknown.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 10:15:51|Editor: Zhou Xin

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UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The UN chief on Thursday called for better protection of civilians, as well as health facilities and medical and humanitarian personnel in conflicts.

While speaking at the Security Council's open debate, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said safeguarding health facilities and medical and humanitarian personnel was in the center of meeting of the 15-member body.

Guterres also urged countries to prevent forced displacement and finding lasting solutions for refugees.

He said that during his 10-year term as High Commissioner for Refugees, he saw "the tragic results of our failure to protect civilians caught up in conflict, in refugee camps and settlements" that he had visited all over the world.

"Despite our efforts, civilians continue to bear the brunt of conflict around the world," he noted.

He said that there are three ways to improve the security of civilians in armed conflicts.

"First, we must ensure greater respect for international humanitarian and human rights law. Second, we must step up the protection of humanitarian and medical missions. Third, we must do more to prevent forced displacement and find durable solutions for refugees and internally displaced people," he explained.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 10:41:06|Editor: Liangyu

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MELBOURNE, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A meeting of the China Wool Industrial Association (CWIA) in the Australian state of Victoria, the first time the organization has met outside China, has been hailed as a success.

More than 130 delegates representing China's 80 major wool processors attended the meeting of the event in Ballarat, about 105 km west of Melbourne, in what has been described as a major boost for Victoria's wool industry.

More than 80 percent of Australia's wool, an industry worth 2.2 billion U.S. dollars annually to the country, is exported to China for local use and manufacturing.

The meeting was held at the Lal Lal Estate, which is owned by Qingnan Wen, president of Tianyu Wool, and is home to 12,000 iconic merino sheep, renowned for producing the finest quality wool.

Jaala Pulford, Victoria's minister for Agriculture, said that the meeting was indicative of the government's commitment to Victoria's wool farmers.

"It speaks volumes that the China Wool Industrial Association has chosen Victoria to host its conference," Pulford said in a media release on Friday.

"We're leading the nation when it comes to food and fibre exports and our producers should be proud that demand for world-class quality you can trust continues to rise."

"With wool prices surging ahead, and China continuing to make record investments in processing and innovation, now is the time for Victoria to strengthen the relationship with our number one trading partner."

The association, which was established 20 years ago, discussed initiatives undertaken in Victoria to electrically tag all sheep and goats to ensure world-leading traceability and biosecurity.

Phillip Dalidakis, Victoria's minister for Innovation and Trade, said that the meeting was a sign of a blooming relationship between Victoria and China.

"China is an ideal market to expand Victoria's wool exports as it has the world's largest population, booming middle class and an increasing demand for premium goods," Dalidakis said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 10:41:07|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NAY PYI TAW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's ongoing 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference reached agreement for most points in five sectors on Thursday, the second day session of the conference held in Nay Pyi Taw, the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) told the press late in the day.

The 41 points agreed upon deal with political, economic, social, land and environment sectors.

In the political sector, all participants voiced commitment to signing the union agreement, while the other sectors also received positive results which will be submitted to the final-day meeting on Sunday for finalization, the secretariat said.

Discussions on the political sector on the day focused proposals on sovereignty and its exercising, equality, self-promulgation, policy of federal union and multi-party democracy, while debate on the economic sector covered effective implementation of market economy, banning the emergence of monopoly, effective implementation of the acquisition of equal rights on economic development in the union, regions and states, fair division of budgets, taxes, authority and power on economy among the union government, cabinets of regions and states, self-administered regions and regional groups.

In the social sector, plans were discussed for a durable solution on the victims and displaced people who were subject to man-made hazards or natural disaster by abiding international standard without any discrimination.

In the land and environment sector, six basic principles were touched regarding emergence of people-oriented land policy.

In the security sector, principles on the existence of the only one armed forces in the country were discussed.

The peace conference will enter into the third day on Friday when State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi will meet the seven non-signatories armed groups to the Nationwide Cease fire Accord (NCA), also known as the Northern Alliance, led by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

In their meeting with Suu Kyi, the Northern Alliance will outline their political stance which is 70 percent similar to the NCA, according to Zhao Guo An, External Relations Officer of the UWSA.

Describing the Panglong Peace Conference as "smooth and good", Zhao also voiced commitment to peace in the country.

Earlier on Thursday, Myanmar's Peace Commission met with the seven Northern Alliance armed groups with commission chairman Dr. Tin Myo Win saying that the alliance's willingness of attendance at the conference represented a step of confidence building towards peace.

The seven Northern Alliance group refers to the United Wa State Army (UWSA), Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Arakan Army (AA), Kokang's Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Mongla's National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP)-North.

The second meeting of the Panglong Peace Conference, which aims to unite all ethnic nationalities and build a democratic federal union through dialogue, kicked off here Wednesday.

With State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi inaugurating the event, some 1,400 representatives from the government, the parliament, the military, invited political parties, ethnic armed organizations and civil society participated in the five-day meeting.

The 15 ethnic armed organizations, present at the event, include eight signatories to the NCA, led by the Kayin National Union (KNU), and seven non-signatories or Northern Alliance, led by the UWSA.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 10:46:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

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SEOUL, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Approval rating for South Korean President Moon Jae-in reached nearly 90 percent, helping raise the support for his ruling party, a weekly survey showed Friday.

According to the Gallup Korea poll, 88 percent of respondents expected Moon to do well in his management of state affairs. It was up 1 percentage point from the previous week.

The results were based on a survey of 1,003 voters conducted from Tuesday to Thursday. It has 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

It was much higher than support for Park Geun-hye, Moon's predecessor, which was tallied in the third week of presidency.

Moon was sworn in as president on May 10 after winning a sweeping victory in the presidential by-election that was caused by Park's removal from office over corruption allegations.

Helped by public support for Moon, the ruling Democratic Party posted 51 percent in support scores. It was up 3 percentage points from the previous week.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party came next with an 8 percent support, followed by the centrist People's Party with 7 percent.

The minor progressive Justice Party and the minor conservative Righteous Party logged the identical support rate of 6 percent.

About 57 percent of the Liberty Korea Party supporters also gave a positive outlook for Moon's handling of state affairs.

It was mainly attributable to Moon's recent activities, which were viewed as folksy and people-friendly.

Also welcomed by the general public was Moon's appointment of reformist figures who assumed the key posts in the presidential office and the cabinet.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 10:56:12|Editor: Liangyu

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HANGZHOU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Five people died and another person was injured after a fire broke out in a residential house in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, early Friday morning.

The fire began at around 2:50 a.m. in the house located in an industrial cluster area. The fire has been put out. An investigation is under way to probe the cause of the fire.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 11:11:18|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MELBOURNE, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The premier of Australia's Victoria has formally apologized to the state's Chinese population for racist policies their ancestors endured during the Australian gold rush.

Daniel Andrews, leader of the Victorian government, issued the apology on the steps of parliament house on Friday morning surrounded by Chinese community leaders.

During the Victorian gold rush from 1851 to the late 1860s, Chinese migrants who came to Victoria were charged 10 pounds each when they arrived.

In an attempt to avoid the large tax, thousands of migrants instead landed in South Australia (SA) and walked hundreds of kilometers through the wilderness to Victorian goldfields.

Many died from starvation and exhaustion while those who completed the journey were subjected to rampant racism on the fields.

"It is never too late to say sorry," Andrews said on Friday.

"To every Chinese Victorian, on behalf of the Victorian Parliament, on behalf of the Victorian government, I express our deepest sorrow and I say to you we are profoundly sorry."

To commemorate 160 years since those dangerous pilgrimages took place, a group of Chinese-Australians did the same walk from SA to Melbourne, arriving at parliament shorty before Andrews apologized.

Adrian Hem, who was one of those who walked the 511 kms over 20 days, said that at the time 10 pounds was a large amount of money.

"They were... very much like slaves, they had to work off the amount of money they were loaned to come to Australia," Hem told reporters on Friday.

"It gives us a great sense of pride, in what our forebears did," he said.

"History is a great teacher. The present teaches us what a great country we have and the future will show, hopefully, that we can all live together in harmony."

People flocked to Victoria from all over the world during the gold rush, with the state's population booming from 75,000 in 1851 to more than 500,000 in 1861.

China was the second largest source of migration to the state during the period, with approximately 42,000 Chinese people migrating in the hope of striking gold.

Andrews praised the resilience of the Chinese migrants, saying they went on to form a rich and culturally significant community within Victoria even after the gold rush had ended.

"It was a very shameful act," he said.

"But with such a dedicated focus on hard work, family, on giving back... I don't think anyone has made a bigger contribution... to the modern multiculturalism that we cherish and value so very much.

"Our multiculturalism and our diversity is what sets us apart. It makes us stronger, it makes us safer."

Hong Lim, a Chinese Australian who serves as the Victorian Member of Parliament (MP) for the southeastern electorate of Clarinda, said that the apology meant that Chinese-Australians could now make peace with that period of history.

He said that he had been planning the form that the apology would take with Andrews for over two years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 11:26:26|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TOKYO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A man was held by the police for setting fire to a magazine in a Shinkansen bullet train in Okayama, western Japan, local media reported.

The fire was put out by other passengers on the train and no one was hurt, said the reports.
By Matt Walsh

CANBERRA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Australia's counter-terror organizations must realize that children and places of mass gathering are becoming the target for modern terrorists, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull warned on Friday.

The warning came after the terror attack in Britain's Manchester which targeted youngsters attending a pop concert.

In the fallout to the "despicable" attack, which left at least 22 people dead and 59 others injured, Turnbull said he had met with his counter terror coordinator and the federal police commissioner so counter-terror bodies become more "alert" and "agile" in response to potential terror risks.

Speaking to Macquarie Radio, the prime minister said schools, sporting events and concerts were no longer off limits for terrorists, and that Australia's security organizations would review their processes to ensure Australians remain safe.

"We should not underestimate the length to which these killers will go," Turnbull said.

"They are utterly without any moral compass at all. These are the most cruel, cynical and cowardly killers. They are despicable and reprehensible."

"What we need to do is be alert. We need to be alert to risks at all so and do so in a very agile and dynamic manner. Seconds ago, I was talking to my counter terrorism coordinator and the federal police commissioner about protection for places of mass gatherings.

"We need to be responding dynamically to these threats. I assure everyone that this is the highest priority and we have very good -- the best in the world -- police and intelligence services."

Turnbull said while Australia's terror threat level would remain at "probable" -- the level it has been since 2014 -- authorities would step up security measures, making it tougher for terrorists to access "places of mass gathering."

"We are constantly improving (security measures). The shocking assault on teenagers in Manchester did not surprise us. We recognize the extent to which these criminals will go and we are constantly upgrading and refining our responses."

"What this killer did in Manchester is he entered the crowd as it was leaving, apparently with a suitcase containing a sophisticated device," the prime minister said.

"We have to recognize that these people will stop at nothing. But equally, we need to be committed to going about our lives. We have the best police in the world. While we cannot guarantee that they will thwart every plot, they have been very successful (so far)."

Meanwhile, speaking at a Senate estimates committee overnight, Duncan Lewis, chief of Australia's intelligence agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), said the "threat of a terrorist attack against Australians and Australian interests" would only continue.

"This is not the end, it's not the beginning of the end, it's more like the end of the beginning. We don't see this finishing any time soon," Lewis said.

"Attacks such as this targeting some of society's most innocent cause my officers at all levels, both here in Australia and overseas, to redouble their focus and effort to counter this menacing threat."

Lewis said despite the latest attack, he has advised the government that the nation's terror threat level should remain at "probable", where is has been "since September 2014."

He added that one of the main threats facing Australia -- aside from "home grown" terrorists -- is the return of Australian foreign fighters from the Middle East war zone.

"We are particularly concerned about the return of foreign fighters to our region, and it's not just Islamic State (IS) that is of concern, but affiliates and sympathisers who will outlive this group," Lewis said on Thursday night.

There are around 200 people in Australia being investigated for providing support to individuals or groups involved in the Syria, Iraq conflicts, including through funding and facilitation or seeking to travel there, he said.

"(And) at least 64 and possibly as many as 76 Australians have been killed because of their involvement in the conflict, and as these figures indicate, Australians fighting and seeking to go offshore in Syria and Iraq remain a cornerstone of ASIO's priority work."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 11:51:35|Editor: ZD

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TOKYO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A man was held by the police for setting fire to a magazine in a Shinkansen bullet train in Okayama, western Japan on Friday, local media reported.

The man, in his 70s, put a magazine on his seat on a Shinkansen Mizuho 615 train and set fire to it around 11:00 a.m. local time, said local reports.

The fire was put out by other passengers on the train and no one was hurt, said the reports.

The train stopped at the Okayama Station, and passengers were shifted to other trains.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 12:41:52|Editor: Tian Shaohui

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UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Thursday that to better protect civilians in armed conflicts, countries should foster a sense of community of shared future.

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), made the remarks at a Security Council debate on the protection of civilians in war zones.

"Countries must foster a sense of community of shared future and promote the concept of global governance based on extensive consultations, joint contributions and shared benefits in order to build a peaceful and safe international environment," he said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been actively campaigning for initiatives on conflict prevention and durable peace, Liu said, adding that the international community should be working "with one mind implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and tackle the deep-rooted causes of conflict."

"It is necessary to advocate a culture of peace and promote national reconciliation," he said.

The ambassador called on the Security Council to effectively shoulder the responsibility of maintaining peace and security by promoting dialogues and negotiations, as well as sustaining efforts to find political solutions to hot-spot issues.

Liu noted that parties to conflicts must respect the international humanitarian law and implement relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

He also stressed the necessity of enhancing information exchange and policy alignment so as to help war-raging countries better protect their civilians.

"We must do a good job of providing humanitarian assistance in armed conflicts," he said.

"China hereby pays tribute to all medical workers and humanitarian relief agencies for their humanitarian spirit in healing the wounded and rescuing the dying in armed conflicts," said the envoy.

Guterres called for actions Thursday to ensure the protection of civilians in areas of conflict, including full respect for international humanitarian law.

The secretary general also called for safeguarding health facilities and medical and humanitarian personnel, an central issue of Thursday's session chaired by Uruguay.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 12:46:55|Editor: Tian Shaohui

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TRIPOLI, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Undersecretary of Interior, Abdossalam Ashour, condemned the Manchester bombing and all acts of terrorism targeting civilians in a press conference on Thursday.

Ashour stressed the importance of collaborations with Britain to find out the terrorist networks behind Monday's concert attack.

Ashour said that the Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj had offered assurances to his British counterpart Theresa May, emphasizing communication and coordination between the two countries in the fight against terrorism.

He announced that the special deterrent force is conducting investigations into the Manchester attack, adding that the Libyan security services are working with Britain on security coordination and ongoing investigations.

"Libya will not tolerate in the fight against terrorism and will stand firmly in support of efforts to eliminate it, both at the local or international levels," he added.

He called on the media not to make premature judgements before outcomes of the investigation are published.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 13:17:06|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NEW DELHI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth arrived Friday in India on a three-day official visit, state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) said.

"He will be accorded ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan (residence of Indian President) tomorrow," a foreign ministry spokesman said. "Later in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold delegation level talks with his Mauritian counterpart."

According to officials some agreements are expected to be reached between the two leaders during the meeting on Saturday.

The two leaders will also make a joint media statement.

The visiting Mauritius prime minister is also scheduled to call on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice president Hamid Ansari, besides holding meetings with different Indian ministers.

This will be Jugnauth's first visit abroad since he assumed office in January this year, Indian officials said.

"Today he will be addressing a business event organized by Indian industry lobbies," an official release said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 13:42:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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VIENTIANE, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Lao government has banned construction of public office buildings from now until 2020 as part of efforts to implement the nation's frugality policy.

The government has also reaffirmed that open bidding processes must strictly be followed in all state investment projects as stipulated in the country's laws.

These instructions were made via Prime Ministerial Order No.9 signed by Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith on May 19, local daily Vientiane Times reported Friday.

The order aims to ensure the frugal and effective use of the state budget to maximize the interests of the nation and retain the resources required for poverty reduction efforts.

Over recent years, the Lao government has increasingly imposed a number of measures in pursuit of a national frugality policy including the issuance of a 2016 decree regarding thrift and anti-extravagance.

In support of measures to control spending, the government has decided to prohibit the construction of new public offices.

In a case of necessity, proposals for construction of new office buildings must be submitted to the government for consideration and approval.

In 2014, the Lao government made a major cut in spending on development projects in response to the country's revenue shortfall to enable the government to maintain financial liquidity.

Instead, the government sought to increase focus more on projects that provide swifter returns on investment to minimize the impacts from such development projects stalling.

Over the past years, state investment projects have been plagued by allegations of misappropriation of funds and inflated budgets.

The prime minister order told relevant sectors to monitor such investment projects to ensure the state budget is being put to the most effective use possible while addressing any irregularities that may arise.

In addition, purchases of new vehicles for administrative affairs will not be permitted for 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 14:32:41|Editor: Zhou Xin

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COLOMBO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka on Friday said that at least 13 people have been killed following weather related incidents.

The government information department quoted Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena as saying that 4 people are also missing.

Of the 13 dead, nine were killed when a landslide occurred in Bulathsingala.

Earlier in the day Sri Lankan authorities ordered mass evacuations as heavy overnight rain resulted in rivers overflowing and floods inundating several areas.

The Disaster Management Centre said that people were ordered to evacuate areas surrounding major rivers and areas which pose a threat from landslides.

The military was deployed to evacuate people from the worst hit areas with the Sri Lanka Air Force using helicopters to assist in the operations.

The southern towns of Galle, Matara and Kalutara and Ratnapura in Sabaragamuwa province were among the worst affected areas.

Schools in Sabaragamuwa Province were closed as a result of the floods.

The Department of Meteorology said that heavy showers were reported from the southern and Sabaragamuwa provinces overnight with Ratnapura receiving 196.7 mm of rain.

The south-west monsoon conditions are establishing over the country and the showery and windy condition are expected to continue over the south-western part of the country, the Department of Meteorology said in a statement on Friday.

It warned that heavy falls of more than 150 mm can be expected at some places.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 15:13:01|Editor: ying

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RIO DE JANEIRO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Michel Temer signed Thursday a decree canceling a previous order to deploy troops in the streets of the capital city Brasilia for a week.

The order was signed less than 24 hours after the previous one in which Temer had asked the army to occupy the streets to quell a protest against him near the government's headquarters.

Police said there were 35,000 people gathering to protest against Temer administration and to call for direct elections, while organizers claimed that the number of protesters reached 150,000.

The police used regular weapons instead of the usual rubber bullets against the crowds, and the cavalry advanced over a peaceful section of the protest.

Protesters set fire to a ministry building, which led to the escalation of hostilities. No one was caught by the fire, as the building had been evacuated earlier in the day, but 49 got injured in the confrontations.

The army-deploying order was met with strong reaction in the Congress. The opposition vehemently disapproved the order, saying it is unconstitutional.

Temer's situation has already been complicated after a tape of him endorsing bribes and committing obstruction of justice was released earlier this month.

Despite backing off, the government did not admit any mistakes on the way they handled the situation. Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said the army will leave the streets considering that the order has returned to the city now.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 15:18:03|Editor: ying

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Four Taliban fighters including a key commander Mullah Mohammad Noor Haqani were killed after unmanned plane struck the Taliban position in Chardara district of the northern Kunduz province on Friday, district governor Zalmai Farooqi said.

"Acting upon intelligence report, drone attack was conducted against a Taliban hideout in Zadran locality of Chardara district at 03:00 a.m. local time today. As a result Taliban key commander Mullah Mohammad Noor Haqqani along with three of his armed bodyguards were killed," Farooqi told Xinhua.

Noor Haqqani had served as commander and head of military commission of the Taliban fighters in Kunduz province and his physical elimination could prove a major setback to the Taliban militants in Kunduz and adjoining areas, the official added.

The official further stated that Mullah Mohammad Noor Haqqani, besides involvement in organizing attacks on Afghan forces, was also involved in killing three foreign soldiers and injuring two others in Kunduz province in the past years.

Taliban militants are yet to make comments on the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 15:18:05|Editor: ying

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ANKARA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 29 PKK militants were killed in an anti-terror operation in Turkey's eastern province of Agri, local government said on Friday.

Gendarmerie forces conducted an operation after three trucks were set fire by PKK militants on a highway, the office said in a statement.

Three Turkish soldiers and one village guard martyred in the clash, the statement said.

Agri Province is a mountainous province located in eastern Turkey, near the Turkey-Iran border.

Founded in 1978, the PKK, which is listed as terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the Europe Union, resumed its armed campaign in July 2015 after a brief reconciliation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 16:08:50|Editor: ying

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KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia is identifying appropriate mechanism to address the non-tariff measures or barriers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reduce and eventually eliminate barriers to trade, said a Malaysian senior official.

Malaysian International Trade and Industry's Minister Mustapa Mohamed made the remarks at a seminar on ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on Friday.

He said despite the promising growth and liberalization of tariffs among the ASEAN member states, intra-trade in the bloc remains stagnant at around 20 percent to 25 percent, as the major impediment in achieving higher intra-trade lies in border measures or non-tariff barriers.

ASEAN is currently working towards implementing various trade facilitating measures, such as a national single-window system that is seamlessly linked to the ASEAN Single Window as well as harmonization of standards and customs procedures, he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 16:34:00|Editor: MJ

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LAS VEGAS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Organizations and creative companies dedicated to Chinese cultural relics drew a great deal of attention from international visitors at the Licensing Expo, which concluded here on Thursday.

Participating Chinese museums and cultural relics organizations at the Expo included the Palace Museum, China Agricultural Museum, Beijing Lu Xun Museum, Shanghai Museum, Chengdu Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum, the Potala Palace Management Office of Tibet Autonomous Region, Dun Huang Academy and others.

"The display is actually fantastic, the products are beautifully designed and of high quality. What I really like is how some of the museums are modernizing their techniques for sharing the rich and deep culture of China," said Charles M. Riotto, President and CEO of the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association, the world's leading trade group for licensing marketing professionals with over 1,100 member companies worldwide.

Jessica Blue, the senior vice president of licensing at event organizer UBM Americas, told Xinhua: "China is the fastest growing market for licensing in the world. It's very important for Chinese brands to be represented here on the global platform."

Blue noticed that more visitors were viewing the Chinese exhibition area this year than last.

"People are very excited to see the offering from China. I hope Chinese brands will find some manufacturing partners and retail partners here, so they can expand their product offerings to the wider global community," She added.

New business formats and technologies are the sources of innovation and power for changes in China's culture industry, which has witnessed a dramatic transformation in both products and operation.

Supported by consumption innovation and upgrade, market expansion, as well as VR/AR and live broadcasting technologies, China's culture industry has made remarkable achievements in recent years.

"The time-honored traditional Chinese culture and arts are profound and influential. As the carrier of traditional Chinese culture, the 600-year-old Forbidden City is also known at the Palace Museum today, with unparalleled collections of cultural heritage resources," said Yu Zhuang, the Palace Museum's deputy director of the digital information department.

"We have been making continuous efforts to revitalize and promote Chinese culture, including replacing a limited number of static cultural and creative products with animated and 3D digital works to generate brand-new cultural experiences, leveraging initiatives from China's 'Internet + Culture' plans," he said. "Through digital innovation, the Palace Museum has managed to vitalize traditional Chinese culture and cultivate people's tastes for fine arts," he said.

The purpose of the China Art & Culture Properties venue at the expo was to help Chinese cultural relics organizations and creative companies to explore international markets, as well as to introduce the latest development of China's culture licensing industry to the world.

The Licensing Expo is the world's premier brand and art marketplace, offering exclusive insights into the players and trends that drive the 251.7 billion-U.S. dollar licensing business.

According to the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association, more than 480 exhibitors gathered in the three-day event this year, creating the largest, most diverse collection of properties and brands available for licensing worldwide.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 17:14:26|Editor: Yamei

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WELLINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand is "curious and interested" about the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, and "is keen to get more understanding of it," its senior official Paul Goldsmith said Friday.

Coming back from the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing on May 14-15, Goldsmith who is New Zealand's minister of science and innovation, minister of tertiary education, skills and employment, told Xinhua that the forum "was a very impressive and significant event."

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

As the head of the New Zealand delegation, Goldsmith told Xinhua that he got a better understanding of the long history of the Silk Road during the forum. He sees the Belt and Road Initiative as the re-management, re-invention and re-invigoration of the ancient trade routes.

The Silk Road is a starting point, said Goldsmith, it is an expression of support for the open market, reducing trade barriers, increasing connectivity across the world. He said that as a small trading nation, New Zealand "obviously has a keen interest on all those things."

New Zealand and China signed a ground-breaking memorandum of understanding on Belt and Road Initiative in March.

Being Minister of Science and Innovation, Goldsmith is particularly interested in the themes of the Belt and Road Initiative on innovation, which is the particular field that New Zealand is focused on.

New Zealand is also looking into how the two countries can continue to work together on innovation in many fields.

A lot of New Zealand universities have long time relationships with Chinese leading universities. Goldsmith said that there's a good prospect for New Zealand and China to further develop science connections under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Goldsmith said that attending the forum showed that New Zealand wanted to be part of the discussion. The longer-term target, according to him, is to work with China to develop a plan on how New Zealand can participate and contribute to the initiative.

For New Zealand business, Goldsmith said that New Zealand is "well aware of the opportunities that China provide," especially for bilateral trade.

New Zealand is the first developed country to sign the Free Trade Agreement with China back in 2008, after which the two-way trade between New Zealand and China are increasing rapidly.

Goldsmith said that the two countries have a deep and strong relationship, which is very important for New Zealand.

As a Member of Parliament living in Auckland, Goldsmith said the Chinese communities in kiwi's largest city provide various opportunities for New Zealand economy, adding a layer of Chinese entrepreneurism and connections to the Chinese market. "The combination is proved to be very powerful," said Goldsmith.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 17:19:29|Editor: Yamei

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Up to 25 people including 18 soldiers and seven Taliban fighters were confirmed dead as the anti-government militant group attacked an army in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Friday, a local official said on the condition of anonymity.

"A Taliban terrorist group launched a coordinated attack on the army base in Zangitan area of Shah Walikot district in the wee hours of Friday during which 18 soldiers and seven Taliban rebels were killed," the official told Xinhua but refused to be named.

He said said that 16 more soldiers and 15 more militants sustained injuries in the firefight which ended in the morning.

Four more soldiers also went missing in the attack, the official added.

However, a local television channel Tolo reported that the attack on the army base in Shah Wali district late last night left 15 soldiers dead and injured eight others.

This is the second attack on Afghanistan's army base by Taliban militants in the southern Kandahar province over the past four days.

In the previous attack on Tuesday, at least 10 Afghan soldiers were killed and several others wounded.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 17:19:30|Editor: Yamei

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ULAN BATOR, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous region on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mongolia to enhance cultural ties.

During the signing ceremony, the Chinese side also donated 56,000 children's books, with a total worth of 1 million RMB (145,800 U.S. dollars), to public libraries and schools in the landlocked country.

Speaking at the event, Mongolian Education Minister Jamiyansuren Batsuuri expressed his gratitude to China for continuously supporting Mongolia's cultural and education sectors.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 17:24:38|Editor: Yamei

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LOS ANGELES, MAY 26 (Xinhua) -- A former playboy model pleaded no contest on Wednesday to a criminal charge of invasion of privacy for secretly photographing a naked woman and posting it online.

The 2015 Playboy Playmate of the Year, 30-year-old Dani Mathers, was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to 30 days of graffiti removal work in community.

Mathers had been globally backlashed after posting a nude photo of an elderly woman preparing to shower in a gym locker room last July in Los Angeles on Snapchat, along with the caption: "if I can't unsee this then you can't either." She soon apologized and explained she had intended to send it to her friend.

The model could have faced up to six months in jail if the case had gone to trial.

"The message today is clear: body shaming is not tolerated in the city of Los Angeles," Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said in a statement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 18:45:22|Editor: ying

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CAIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 23 Christians were killed and 25 others wounded on Friday when unknown militant opened fire on a bus carrying them to a church in Egypt's southern province of Minya, state-run TV reported.

The gunmen intercepted the bus, on the way to Samuel monastery south of Cairo, and opened the fire randomely, Xinhua reporter quoted a security source at the scene as saying.

The victims were transferred to Minya National Hospital.

Security force sealed off the desert road in combing and searching for the perpetrators.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 18:50:28|Editor: ying

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NEW DELHI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The wreckage of missing Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet of Indian air force (IAF) was spotted after three days of continuous search, officials said Friday.

The remains have been found 60 km northwest of Tezpur city in Sonitpur district of India's northeastern state of Assam.

"The wreckage of the missing SU-30 jet was found close to the last known position of the aircraft, which was 60 km north-west of Tezpur in Assam's Sonitpur district," India's semi-official news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted defense spokesperson at Tezpur, Lt Col Sombit Ghosh as said.

Officials said the rescue teams were yet to reach the spot which is inside forest and prevailing weather conditions in the area were bad.

So far there is no information about the missing pilots who were onboard of the fighter jet.

The fighter jet with two pilots onboard went missing on Tuesday after taking off from the Tezpur Indian air force base.

According to officials, the fighter jet was on a routine training sortie and lost the radio contact with the airbase.

Following the missing of jet, apart from helicopters that were pressed into service, four groups of IAF personnel, nine parties of the Indian army and two teams from the state administration were deployed to trace it.

The Sukhoi-30 is a Russian-made, twin-engine supersonic fighter jet.

In March this year a Sukhoi crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer. Since the induction of Sukhoi-30 fighter planes into Indian airforce in 1997, so far seven have crashed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 18:50:30|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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ULAN BATOR, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A group of 50 Mongolian journalists will start a week-long trip to China later this month to get a firsthand look at how innovation is changing various Chinese industries.

At a reception hosted for these media personnel by the Chinese embassy on Thursday, Ambassador Xing Haiming said he believed the trip will deepen the journalists' understanding of China as well as see the friendly feelings by the Chinese people toward the Mongolian people.

During President Xi Jinping's visit to Mongolia in 2014, China offered to invite 250 Mongolian journalists to China over five years.

Two delegations of Mongolian journalists, each comprising 50 members, have already visited China under the program in 2015 and 2016 focusing on different themes.

The upcoming China trip for this year's participants will include stops in Beijing, Guangdong and Zhejiang and an on-the-ground look at China's advanced technologies and innovation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 18:55:34|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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KUNMING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The first direct flight linking southwest China's Kunming city with Manila, capital of the Philippines, was launched Friday.

The flight departs from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, every Monday and Friday at 0:25 a.m. and arrives in Manila at 3:40 a.m. (Beijing time). The return flight takes off from Manila on the same day each week at 4:40 a.m. and arrives in Kunming at 8 a.m.

The flight is operated by Yunnan's Luck Air Airlines using a Boeing 737-800.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 19:05:38|Editor: ying

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BRUSSELS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- NATO leaders have agreed to step up NATO's role in the fight against terrorism and fairer burden sharing under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The details were outlined after a one-day summit in Brussels which included Trump and leaders from the western alliance.

Speaking at a news conference after the summit on Thursday night, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said "The decisions we have taken today are the best tools to make sure that NATO continues to deliver."

On defense spending and President Trump's repeated demand for European allies to "pay their fair share," Stoltenberg said "Trump was blunt on that message today. But we have seen and heard this kind of plain speaking from him before."

But he added that "we are all aware of the importance of this and we are now moving in the right direction."

Trump on Thursday used the occasion of his maiden summit with NATO leaders to, once again, remind his fellow NATO alliance leaders of being not "fair" to U.S. taxpayers.

On U.S. commitment to NATO, Stoltenberg said "Trump inaugurated a 9/11 Article 5 memorial today, which is the strongest expression of U.S. support for NATO. Just by doing he sent a strong signal."

The summit, he said, had taken steps "to keep up the momentum" (on increasing defense spending) and to "continue to match words with action."

It had, he said, also been agreed to adopt an "action plan" designed to enhance NATO's contributions while alliance leaders also decided to increase support to the U.S.-led Global Coalition to defeat the Islamic State (IS).

Stoltenberg said, "This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism and improve coordination within the coalition."

However, he stressed, "It does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations."

The fight against terrorism, one of the main issues discussed, requires a "wide range of instruments" but the action plan showed NATO was ready to "step up its efforts."

He said NATO would also become a "full member" of the anti-IS coalition.

On Russia, Stoltenberg said, "Our relationship with Russia was also discussed and we stressed the importance of meaningful dialogue."

Trump has previously supported Britain's shock Brexit vote, claimed the EU was a doomed would-be superstate and dubbed NATO "obsolete."

Even so, hopes had been relatively high that the visit, Trump's first overseas trip as U.S. President, could help heal EU-U.S. relations and ongoing rows about European defense spending.

But the severe ticking off he gave alliance members risks souring relations even more. In a sign of growing frustration felt by EU leaders, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, speaking after meeting Trump in Brussels, defended European defense spending saying "Europe is taking on greater responsibility on defense."

Belgian Greens MEP Philippe Lamberts commented, "Trump's demands on the NATO countries for military rearmament is no answer to the threats and instability we face."

However, British Conservative Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Tannock said "Hopefully both sides took the chance to set aside the rhetoric, sound each other out and lay the foundations of a strong political and security relationship. It is much easier to reach an understanding when you are in the same room, not hailing each other across the Atlantic."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 19:15:45|Editor: ying

A man follows the news of a deadly attack in Egypt's southern province of Minya in Cairo, May 26, 2017. At least 25 Christians were killed and 23 others wounded on Friday when unknown militants opened fire on a bus carrying them to a church in Egypt's southern province of Minya, health ministry said. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

CAIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 25 Christians were killed and 23 others wounded on Friday when unknown militants opened fire on a bus carrying them to a church in Egypt's southern province of Minya, health ministry said.

Some ten gunmen in two cars, intercepted two buses, on the way to Samuel monastery south of Cairo, and opened fire on the buses randomly, Xinhua reporter quoted a security source at the scene as saying.

"It was a religious trip," said the source.

No group yet claimed responsibility for attack.

About 70 Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State (IS).

In an IS video released on May 19, the group renewed its pledges for targeting non-Muslims anywhere.

"The attack targets stability of Egypt," said Ahmad Al Tayyeb, sheikh Al-Azhar, the Sunni seat in Egypt, asking the Egyptians to unit to face the heinous terrorism.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 19:25:52|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Reform, undoubtedly, is the major agenda of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Chinese President Xi Jinping has presided over all 35 meetings of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform over the past three years.

From those meetings, the reform methodology of Xi, who heads the leading group, can be summarized.

PILOT PROJECTS

At the 35th meeting of the leading group on Tuesday, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, reiterated the importance of pilot projects in generating experiences.

Pilot projects should be used as a tool for stress testing in revealing conflicts and problems, said Xi.

In previous meetings, pilot projects had been identified as the "scouts" for reforms, which are expected to help the authorities understand various situations.

With system innovation as the central task, dozens of pilot projects in various sectors and regions have been implemented in the past three years.

FOCUS ON PEOPLE

Xi told the 10th meeting of the leading group that concrete reforms were needed for people to have a stronger sense of benefit.

Reforms should focus on what people really care about, said Xi in the 11th meeting, in April 2015.

The leading group has urged local authorities to actively explore and carry out pilot reform programs in areas that are of vital interest to the people, such as education, employment, medical care, social management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Authorities have also been mobilized to learn about appeals of the people and to respect grassroots practices.

IMPLEMENTATION

As new reforms roll out, Xi and the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform are paying great attention to their implementation.

At the first meeting of the leading group in January 2014, Xi said the responsibility of the leading group was to implement the CPC's key reforms.

At the group's 15th meeting, in 2015, Xi called for the setting of accurate targets and concrete implementation of reforms.

During the group's 35 meetings, "implementation" has been one of the most frequently used keywords.

Xi last month stressed that all departments and localities should attach greater importance to delivering reforms and examining the reform's effects.

The group called for timely corrections to problems uncovered during supervision, saying that those found making insufficient effort should be called to account.

Leading departments and local authorities should regularly track reform implementation and report the effects, it said.

KEY ROLE OF THE "KEY FEW"

On multiple occasions, Xi and members of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform stressed the key roles of the Party and governmental leading officials, also known as the "key few," in pushing forward reform.

At the group's 32nd meeting in February, group members noted that leading officials should promptly take the lead in advancing, delivering and implementing reform decisions by the CPC Central Committee.

A month later at the next meeting, several senior officials reported on the progress made in reforms in various fields, including environmental protection, the judicial system, poverty relief, rural affairs, the Shanghai FTZ, and state-owned enterprises.

COURAGE, COMMITMENT AND RULE OF LAW

"Reform is a revolution that aims to rectify the system and challenge vested interests. There is no way to do it other than using real swords and spears," said a statement after a meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform last June.

Xi and the group members believe "reform will cause pain, but without reform the pain will be longer-lasting."

To advance the reforms, courage, commitment and perseverance are of great importance.

"Central departments responsible for policymaking and implementation, should have more confidence and composure in the face of difficulty and should unwaveringly push forward reform schemes," Xi said.

The group also required leading officials to be bold in making decisions if a reform is in line with the CPC Central Committee's requirement, the grassroots reality and the people's needs.

Moreover, Xi and the leading group have stressed the rule of law in reforms.

"Rule of law" must be followed and highlighted through the whole reform process and any major reforms must be legally grounded, Xi said at a meeting of the leading group in February 2014.

At another meeting, he said rational and logical legislation was important in the interplay between reform and rule of law.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 19:56:12|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Huawei on Friday sent the 3rd batch of 10 technical experts of the African Union (AU) to China for a two-week training on information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

Huawei and AU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January 2015 for cooperation between the two sides in the area of ICT and capacity building for the African continent.

In the implementation of the MoU, under the initiative dubbed "Seeds for the Future", Huawei has been organizing training and experience sharing visits for African experts in China, aiming also at familiarizing the experts with latest technologies in the ICT area.

The participants in the 3rd batch took part a pre-departure orientation and guidance by Huawei, AU, and the Chinese Mission to AU on Friday at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

In his remarks on the occasion, Kwesi Quartey, Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, hailed China's rise and development as "very, very impressive, incredible," which he said is best example for Africa.

The Deputy Chairperson, who recently visited China and attended the Belt and Road Forum, noted that China has dynamic, flexible leadership that shows Africa the way through inclusive education as foundation and its application of science and technology.

Quartey commended Huawei for its support by providing the training for African ICT experts on the topics very relevant for Africa.

He also urged the participants to use the opportunity to acquire the knowledge to effectively implement the African projects.

"Education, training, science and technology is key for Africa especially as we focus on the theme of harnessing the demographic dividend of the youth through investments. The skills and know-how transfer is key," he stated.

Cheng Ning, Counselor of Cooperation and Exchange at the Chinese Mission to AU, said that the training helps Africa's effort to develop capacity in the ICT sector.

Stating that the training is organized in collaboration and partnership with Huawei, Chen said it is in line with China's commitment to supporting Africa to realize sustainable development under the 10 major cooperation plans between China and Africa.

Besides Huawei's program, he said that China has been providing capacity building support to Africa, through various short and long-term training programs in China.

Stating that China has also been providing support to various social activities in Africa, Chen said China will continue supporting capacity building efforts on the continent.

He called for the participants to explore China during their stay in the country for the training.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy CEO of Huawei Ethiopia, Adam Ma, reiterated that the training is organized to support AU's effort in the ICT area.

With 18 years of experience within Africa's ICT industry coupled with extensive industry global network, Huawei is well positioned to partner with the African Union and share its experience, noted the Deputy CEO.

Two AU staff members, who have participated in the Huawei's program with previous batches, namely Yagouba Traore and Martha Yetayew shared their experiences during the training.
Aerial photo taken on May 12, 2017 shows the Mazeras Bridge of the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway in Kenya. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Growing Sino-Kenya ties are going to boost Kenya's economic growth, a Chinese embassy official said on Friday.

Economic and Commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya Guo Ce said in a commentary published in a local daily that nearly half of all Kenya's 30 flagship projects under the national economic blue print Vision 2030 are due to the close cooperation.

"Along the Kenyan coast, following in the more than 600 year old footsteps of the great navigator of the Ming Dynasty Zheng He, one can find three projects that bear witness of the benefits of the bilateral cooperation," Guo said.

Guo said that the Chinese funded Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway is Kenya's largest project since independence and is a crucial part of East Africa's railway network.

"By the end of last year, the construction of the 480 kilometer railroad had created 42,000 jobs for Kenyans, of whom 42.3 percent are technical and management staff," the Chinese official said in the commentary published in the Daily Nation.

The SGR will become both a regional artery of communication and a link to the adjacent industrial parks and special economic zones.

Guo said that through the SGR, Kenya is on a faster track to achieve a booming economic belt of modern manufacturing and accelerated growth.

Other Kenyan projects undertaken through a Chinese concessional loan is the Kenya Power Distribution System Modernization Project in the coastal region of Malindi.

"Since 2015, it has supplied 300,000 people and industrial projects in the River Tana with stable, high-quality electricity," Guo added.

Beijing has also supported the geothermal project at Olkaria, which is considered a model for "South-South cooperation" by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The 145 geothermal boreholes raised Kenya's power generation capacity by 20 percent, cutting the overall power cost by 30 percent.

China is Kenya's largest trading partner, contractor source country and loan provider and the fastest-growing source of overseas tourists.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:26:23|Editor: ying

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By Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, May 26 (Xinhua)-- A bus carrying elementary school students, teachers and parents on an excursion overturned in northern Greece on Friday, injuring 21 people, including many children, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

Only one child sustained serious injury in leg, while others were slightly injured, according to hospital doctors.

The accident occurred at the outskirts of the city of Serres, 570 km north of Athens, shortly after the children and escorts boarded the bus at the local school.

According to testimonies of some of the about 40 passengers, the bus overturned when the driver tried to avoid a collision with a truck.

The truck driver left the site of the accident and is being sought by police.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:26:25|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislature has launched an inspection over the implementation of the Copyright Law.

The inspection is aimed at ensuring the law's enforcement to improve intellectual property rights protection and promote cultural prosperity, said Wang Chen, vice chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, at a meeting on the inspection Friday.

Wang asked the inspection team, including members from the supreme court, police, and film and Internet authorities, to discover and correct problems in the law's implementation and help revise the law.

The Copyright Law was enacted in 1990 and amended in 2001 and 2010.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:26:27|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

A new sign showing the ticket prices is seen in a newly-decorated tram in Hong Kong, south China, May 26, 2017. The HK Tramways revealed its new logo on Friday. Trams, known as "ding-dings" for the sound of their bells, have serviced the city's main island for more than a century. (Xinhua/Wang Xi)

HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The tramways of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region unveiled a new logo and visual identity on Friday for its century-old tramcars, also known as Ding Ding car.

The background color of the new visual identity of tramcar is green, representing the tramcars are environmental and safe.

The new slogan, "catch a ride, catch a smile" is printed on the front of the tramcar. On the bottom of the vehicle, there is a smile expression, meaning tramcars' friendly personality and faithful service.

For the coming months, tramways is also going to make its 160 tramcars smile with an additional sticker on the bumper.

Besides this new graphic system, Hong Kong tramways also pledged to make its passenger information on stops and website more friendly.

As all tramcars are designed and built at tramways' depot by skillful and experienced craftsman in Hong Kong, to commend the hard work of them, tramways will install a bronze plate on board of each tramcar to remind the public of the unknown heroes.

Hong Kong tramways has been in service since 1904 and operates nowadays a fleet of 164 tramcars. It is the world's largest fleet of double-deck tramcars in operation, carrying about 200,000 passengers every day.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:31:31|Editor: ying

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HANOI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese prime minister has approved the Transport Ministry's final plan to start building a 1,372-km North-South expressway before 2020, at total investment of 13.8 billion U.S. dollars, local media reported on Friday.

The expressway will go through 20 cities and provinces nationwide, and be open for use after 2025, online newspaper VnExpress quoted the Government Office's document as reporting.

In the project's first phase, over 243 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 10.8 billion U.S. dollars) will be spent on constructing 713 km of the expressway by 2020, and another 659 km by 2022.

In the second phase, more than 69.1 trillion Vietnamese dong (roughly 3 billion U.S. dollars) will be earmarked for expanding and completing the expressway.

The expressway will connect socioeconomic development centers running from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, linking up industrial parks, economic zones and seaports, and reduce transport pressure on the national road No. 1.
South Sudanese refugees are seen at Ngomoromo in Lamwo, northern Ugandan, April 12, 2017. Since the start of the year, some 192,000 South Sudanese have fled to neighboring Uganda, a country currently hosting 832,000 refugees from South Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported. (Xinhua/Ronald Ssekandi)

KAMPALA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday said it is in urgent need of 60 million U.S. dollars to feeding over 1.2 million refugees in Uganda, half of them fleeing political instability and famine in South Sudan.

The food aid agency in a video statement on Thursday said the money would be used to feed the refugees starting this month to October this year.

The agency said the number of refugees it assists has more than doubled in the last year and its operation is under considerable strain to meet their full food needs.

"We need sufficient resources at the right time to keep our warehouses stocked in order to provide a constant supply of food for the refugees who depend on us. It takes time to convert cash contributions into food," the statement said.

The agency said it is spending 16 million dollars a month to support the refugees, warning that if the required money does not come in it will face a major crisis.

Uganda now hosts the largest refugee population in Africa - over 1.2 million people - and the Bidibidi refugee settlement in Ugandan northwestern district of Yumbe is now the world's largest refugee settlement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:41:40|Editor: ying

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By Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Greek main opposition conservative New Democracy party has widened the lead over ruling Radical Left SYRIZA party as most voters reject the new austerity measures promoted by the government in exchange of further aid by international lenders, a poll released on Friday showed.

In the first survey carried out after Greek MPs approved last week the new set of measures, about 76 percent of respondents said that they see the measures negative and counterproductive for efforts to restore economic growth.

Only 16 percent of participants in the poll conducted by Pulse polling firm for news portal Action24 viewed the measures positively.

Should general elections were conducted this weekend, the conservatives would win with 30 percent of votes against 17 percent for SYRIZA.

In a similar survey by Pulse in April, the margin was bigger by 1 percentage.

The third party to enter the parliament would be the far-right Chryssi Avghi (Golden Dawn) with 7 percent.

The socialists of the Democratic Alliance would follow with 6.5 percent of votes and the Greek Communist Party (KKE) would be the last party securing the needed threshold to enter the assembly, winning 6 percent.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:41:43|Editor: ying

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MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday called on NATO to stop confrontation and seek better relations with Moscow.

Russia-NATO relations are "in the deepest crisis since the end of the Cold War," said the ministry in a statement.

It noted that the military alliance has unilaterally frozen projects of practical cooperation on European security.

The Russian ministry issued the statement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between Russia and NATO.

The deployment of NATO hardware and personnel close to Russia's borders dilutes the provisions of the Founding Act and leads to a dangerous round of arms race, the ministry said.

"Growing negative trends are not Russia's choice. This is a direct result of the long-term destructive policy of the bloc aimed at recklessly achieving military and political domination in European and world affairs," the statement said.

NATO decided to freeze relations with Russia in April 2014 over the latter's incorporation of Crimea and its alleged role in the Ukrainian crisis.

Both sides said they have continued to keep channels for political dialogue open. In particular, the NATO-Russia Council, an important platform for dialogue, have held several meetings at the ambassadorial level.

In March, Petr Pavel, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, discussed by phone security issues with Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff. The conversation was the first of its kind since 2014.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:41:45|Editor: ying

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TAORMINA, Italy, May 26 (Xinhua) -- European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker called for unity on Friday ahead of the 43rd summit of leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations.

"This will be the most challenging summit in years," Tusk said at a joint press conference with Juncker.

"It is no secret that we have differing views on climate change and trade ... (but) unity must be preserved in face of global threats."

The European leader cited the ongoing civil war in Syria and the nuclear ambitions of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) among the destabilizing situations around the world.

He called on Iran and Russia to help put an end to the Syrian war and provide safe and legal passage for the Middle Eastern country's millions of refugees.

"If our group is not determined and united enough, the global situation could really get out of hand," Tusk warned.

When asked about the issue of immigration, he said: "We must hold to the position that migration is a global issue," and G7 countries must be united in dealing with it.

Tusk also said the EU supports the "full implementation of the Minsk agreements" which aim to bring a lasting peace to Ukraine, and that the Paris Agreement on climate change must be fully implemented.

Juncker echoed Tusk's words on climate change. He also said the EU stands for "freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights."

"As Europeans we believe in open societies and we wish to build bridges not walls," said Juncker.

A two-day G7 summit kicked off on Friday in the Sicilian town of Taormina. The heads of state of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States, plus the EU are expected to talk about anti-terrorism, immigration and other pressing topics.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:51:57|Editor: ying

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LONDON/WASHINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Britain has decided to resume intelligence sharing with the United States after receiving promises from U.S. President Donald Trump on a recent leak of classified information, the British counter terrorism police said Thursday.

"Having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with all our key partners around the world," the counter terrorism police quoted its head Mark Rowley as saying on Twitter.

The message implied that Britain had ceased a 24-hour suspension of intelligence sharing with the United States, following the leak of sensitive information regarding the Manchester terror attack, according to British media.

Britain and the United States, along with Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are members of an intelligence sharing organization called the Five Eyes.

The British intelligence unit has reportedly stopped sharing intelligence with its U.S. counterpart after American media exposed profiles of the suspects of Monday's explosion at Manchester Arena.

The leak, the source of which was believed to be from the U.S. government, has irritated British officials.

British Prime Minister Theresa May criticized the leaks at her meeting with Trump during a NATO summit in Brussels. She stressed that intelligence shared between Britain and the United States must remain secure.

British Interior Minister Amber Rudd said on Wednesday that the leak was "irritating" as the U.S. media outlets named the attacker, adding that she had made clear to the United States that the incident should not happen again.

Trump strongly condemned on Thursday the "troubling" leaks and promised that an investigation will be launched.

"I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he said.

The leak of intelligence on the Manchester attack happened days after Trump was criticized of sharing classified information with senior Russian officials.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 20:56:55|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

Photo taken by mobile phone shows one of the buses attacked by gunmen in the Minya governorate, about 220 kilometers south of Cairo, Egypt, May 26, 2017. Gunmen opened fire on buses carrying Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25, health ministry said. (Xinhua)

CAIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen opened fire on buses carrying Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25, health ministry said.

Some ten unknown gunmen in three four-wheel-drive vehicles, intercepted the victims' two buses, on the way to St. Samuel Monastery in the Minya governorate, about 220 kilometers south of Cairo, and opened fire randomly, a security source told Xinhua.

The attackers dressed in security uniform, said eyewitnesses.

"It was a religious trip," Xinhua reporter quoted a security source at the scene as saying.

Security checkpoints have been deployed after the incident and a manhunt operation has started, said the interior ministry.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi convened a security meeting to discuss the consequences of the shooting attack, a presidential press office said.

No group yet claimed responsibility for attack.

About 70 Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State (IS).

In an IS video released on May 19, the group renewed its pledges for targeting non-Muslims anywhere.

"The attack targets stability of Egypt," said Ahmad Al Tayyeb, sheikh Al-Azhar, the Sunni seat in Egypt, asking the Egyptians to unit to face the heinous terrorism.

Leaders of Saudi, UAE and Palestine condemned the attack strongly, saying they stand beside Egypt's people and government in combating terrorism.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:07:03|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- With just 100 days until the Ninth BRICS Summit in Xiamen in September, the world is keen to know if the summit can put a new shine on emerging markets and developing countries amid a sluggish global economic recovery and setbacks in globalization.

Under the theme "BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future," the summit will gather leaders from countries representing 40 percent of the world population and 25 percent of global GDP.

Coined by former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001, the term "BRIC" refers to Brazil, Russia, India and China, four emerging markets with fast growth and great potential.

In 2006, foreign ministers from those countries met in New York, formally starting the BRIC grouping. South Africa joined the group in 2010, the acronym changing to BRICS.

It is fair to say that China has always pinned high hopes on BRICS for emerging markets with which it finds natural common ground.

While the English acronym is catchy, the Chinese translation -- four characters that bear the literal meaning "gold bricks countries" -- conveys confidence in the future.

That sense of confidence is backed by concrete growth.

Originating at the height of the global financial crisis, the group has managed to exceed even the bullish expectations of O'Neill.

Together, the five countries have contributed to more than half of global growth in the past ten years, and the inclusion of South Africa gave the group more political weight when speaking up for the emerging world on the international stage.

It has truly been a "golden decade."

But BRICS countries are not without problems, particularly as the world struggles to close a widening development gap while protectionism rears its ugly head.

While China and India are expected to see their economies expand by around 6.5 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively, this year, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, which depend heavily on resources, are still struggling to escape the mire of economic recession.

To help finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, China co-founded the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) in 2014 with its headquarters in Shanghai.

Fully operational in 2016, that year the bank approved loans involving financial assistance of over 1.5 billion U.S. dollars for projects in green and renewable energy, and transport.

Meanwhile, China does not only aim for development within BRICS, but for all nations, with its Belt and Road Initiative.

Named after the historic Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 to better connect countries along and beyond the ancient Silk Road and chart new territories for international cooperation.

Most countries along the Belt and Road are developing nations eager for better economic performance and regional economic integration.

By linking countries and regions that account for about 60 percent of the world's population and 30 percent its GDP, the initiative is a perfect example of China sharing its wisdom and solutions for global growth and governance.

As the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation concluded earlier this month, Xi promised the equivalent of 380 billion yuan in loans for infrastructure and development projects from Chinese policy banks, and 60 billion yuan in aid to developing countries and international organizations.

So far, the Belt and Road Initiative has received a warm welcome from BRICS countries.

With such inclusive platforms as the Belt and Road and NDB, China will no doubt help add glitter to the BRICS of gold, building a new platform for south-south cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:22:09|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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GENEVA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Newly elected World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom on Friday reaffirmed the one-China principle.

Tedros told Xinhua that he would abide by the one-China principle as enshrined in the related UN General Assembly resolution and World Health Assembly resolution when handling issues in the WHO which are related to China's Taiwan.

During a meeting with Chinese Health Minister Li Bin on Wednesday, Tedros said the UN agency will properly handle the Taiwan-related issues based on the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the World Health Assembly, the WHO's decision-making body.

The WHO plenary on Monday rejected a proposal to discuss the invitation of China's Taiwan to the WHO's annual assembly.

Prior to this year's assembly, Li told a press conference in Geneva that from 2009 to 2016, the Chinese government made special arrangements for Taiwan to attend the WHO assembly as an observer in the name of "Chinese Taipei," in accordance with the "1992 Consensus" reached between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

However, Taiwan's current ruling Democratic Progressive Party has refused to recognize the one-China principle, thus undermining the political basis of Taiwan's participation in the WHO's annual conference.

The WHO is a UN specialized agency. UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and World Health Assembly Resolution 25.1 provide the legal basis for the WHO to follow the one-China principle.

During the press conference, Li also noted that proper arrangements have been made for Taiwan to participate in global health affairs and to conduct exchanges on epidemics and other health issues with WHO medical and public health experts, thus the so-called "epidemic prevention gap" doesn't exist at all.

Tedros, 52, a former health minister and foreign minister of Ethiopia, was elected on Tuesday as new WHO director-general at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He will succeed Margaret Chan, whose tenure ends in June.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:27:16|Editor: ying

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KIGALI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda's national airline RwandAir has launched first direct commercial flight to Gatwick International Airport, London's second busiest airport.

The airline's flight took off from Kigali International Airport on Friday afternoon en route to Gatwick International Airport, adding it to its network of 22 destinations worldwide.

The new route will be operated by recently acquired brand new Airbus A330 aircraft that boasts of in-flight connectivity.

The airline will fly to London three times a week and is expected to boost tourism and trade between the UK and Rwanda.

Speaking to reporters shortly after launching London flight destination, the airline's deputy chief executive officer in charge of corporate affairs, Yvonne Manzi Makolo said that the airline has embarked on expanding its wings to far destinations in order to serve a large clientele of travellers to visit Rwanda.

"It's great step for our country, because it will bring us closer to our trade partners and sources of tourists. Rwanda will be making a big impact as a must-visit country," she added.

Last year, the airline acquired its first A330-200 and A330-300 Airbus planes, boosting its fleet to 11 aircraft and capacity to compete globally.

It is also scheduled to take delivery of another brand new Boeing before end of May.

This direct seamless long-haul flight is an important milestone towards improving trade relations between Rwanda, the European continent.

RwandAir carried more than 650,000 passengers last year and projects to transport over three million in the next five years.

The Rwanda aviation industry which has become one of the largest and most profitable airlines in East Africa has continued to spread wings across Africa and beyond.

The airline has been growing at an average of 20 percent in the last six years and is currently positioning itself as the most efficient and reliable airline in the region, according to figures from the Rwanda's ministry of infrastructure.

The airline has 11 aircraft and expects delivery of the 12th, a Boeing 737-800, in May.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:37:19|Editor: ying

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TAORMINA, Italy, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The summit of the Group of Seven (G7) in Italian city of Taormina is due to deliver a common statement on terrorism later on Friday, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni confirmed here.

"G7 leaders gather here to meet the citizens' demands, concerning most of all terrorism and security," he said, adding "We will make an important statement in Taormina today, and we expect the G7 to deliver results."

"We know the discussion will not be easy, but the spirit of Taormina will help us proceed in the right direction," said Gentiloni.

Security, foreign policy, and global sustainable growth are the topics dominating the first day talks of the G7 leaders Friday afternoon.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who attends only the first-day summit, is expected to lead such talks on security on Friday.

Trade and climate change are expected to be tough topics, considering the gap currently dividing U.S. President Donald Trump and the other G7 leaders.

President Trump's stance towards trade will be a main point of Friday's meeting, as he has previously shown clear inclination to protectionism.

Analysts here say whether the U.S. president will soften his stance is noteworthy.

Climate is another hard nut of the summit agenda, considering Trump administration's reluctance to stick to the commitments of the Paris Climate Deal, which has put it at odds with the EU and other major allies.

As President of the European Council Donald Tusk put it "this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years."

"It is no secret that leaders who are meeting today sometimes have very different positions on topics such as climate change and trade," Tusk told a press conference ahead of the G7 opening.

But he stressed the European Union's role is "to do everything to maintain the unity of the G7 on all fronts."

"Most importantly, unity needs to be maintained when it comes to defending the rules-based international order," Tusk stressed earlier.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:37:20|Editor: ying

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ANKARA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- All demonstrations including "singing of songs, ballads and shouting slogans in a loud and disturbing way" after sunset are banned across Ankara Province, the Ankara Governor Office announced in a written statement on Friday.

The press releases and meetings are prohibited as well, according to the statement.

The move is in accordance with the Law on Meetings and Demonstration Marches, it said.

Those above actions "will disturb the public order and security, increase the risk of terror organizations to carry out bomb attacks against groups demonstrating, and make it hard for security forces to intervene in such events," the statement added.

The Governor Office said those who do not abide by the law will be faced legal procedures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:47:23|Editor: ying

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NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley on Friday lauded the contribution of school meals program in Kenya, saying it has helped keep children in schools.

Beasley, who visited a Nairobi primary school who receive daily lunches through WFP's school meals program, thanked donors for funding the program.

"School meals allow children to focus on their books instead of their stomachs. They are an investment in the next generation, helping ensure every child has access to education, health and nutrition," said Beasley in a statement issued after the visit.

"We are incredibly proud of our partnership with the Government of Kenya over the last 30 years. Together we have built a sustainable national school meals program that will be fully owned, financed and managed by the government by 2019," he added.

The program which has been funded through a successful global U.S. initiative is in danger of being cut in the proposed U.S. government budget.

School meals protect vulnerable children from hunger and offer a regular source of nutrients essential for the mental and physical development of young children.

They encourage parents to send their children - especially girls - to school and keep them there.

"I want to thank all donors who have supported us on this journey, in particular the U.S. through the McGovern-Dole initiative," Beasley said at a primary school in Mathare, an informal settlement on the northern edge of Nairobi.

"Not only are U.S. funds feeding hungry children, but they are crucial in the transition process to full Government ownership of this critical safety-net."

In partnership with Kenya, WFP has provided hot lunches to school-going children in Kenya for more than 30 years.

Since 2009, WFP has been transitioning this program to government ownership, with the launch of a national home-grown meals program. In this model, the government transfers cash to schools to buy food from the local market.

WFP supports the hand-over process by providing training, joint expert visits and exchange of staff to enhance national and local capability in program management, procurement and storage of food, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

The McGovern-Dole program of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) supports education, child development and food security in countries around the globe. With McGovern-Dole funds, WFP is providing school meals to 2.2 million children in 11 countries this year, including Kenya.

Both WFP and Kenya provide meals every school day for more than 1.2 million children across the arid and semi-arid areas and in the poor informal settlements of Nairobi. More than 850,000 of those children benefit from the government-led program.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:47:25|Editor: ying

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FRANKFURT, May 26 (Xinhua) -- German special police forces arrested a suspected Islamic extremist Thursday evening in the city of Essen in North Rhine-Westphalia, according to a press release by the local police on its website.

The 32-year-old male suspect who was due to be arraigned on Friday might have planned an attack, although there was no indication for specific danger of an attack so far, said the police.

Moreover, the man with German nationality had converted to Islam and behaved actively in the Salafist scene, drawing the attention of the police particularly due to several criminal offenses.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:52:28|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong will attend a ceremony in Kenya to mark the completion of the railway linking Mombasa and Nairobi, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

At the invitation of the Kenyan government, Wang will be in Kenya from May 30 to June 1 as the special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, spokesperson Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing.

The railway from Mombasa to Nairobi, the flagship project of China-Kenya practical cooperation, will be open to traffic on May 31, Lu said.

He said China is ready to work with Kenya to implement the outcomes of the Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, push forward the Belt and Road Initiative and capacity cooperation, strengthen friendly cooperation of mutual benefit in various fields, and bring bilateral ties to a new high.

Wang will also visit Niger, Angola and Zambia from June 1 to June 9 at the invitation of the three countries' governments, Lu said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:52:29|Editor: ying

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OSLO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Norway's oil fund will get help from economists to meet future climate changes, newspaper Aftenposten reported Friday.

"There are two characteristics of the oil fund. We are very long-term and we are global," said Ole Christian Bech-Moen, director of the fund.

Climate change is also both global and long-term and could thus affect the risk and expected return of the oil fund's 8 trillion kroner (954 billion U.S. dollars), invested around the world.

Climate change can, for example, occur in terms of more extreme weather, more drought, more precipitation, temperature rise and rising sea level.

The effects may vary between regions in the world, industries and over time, Aftenposten wrote.

"We have announced information on research projects in order to increase knowledge about the connections between climate changes and our management of money," Bech-Moen told Aftenposten.

In order to meet climate changes, the oil fund has given two research projects to two prominent U.S. economists.

Robert Engle, from the New York University's Stern School of Business and the Nobel prize winner in 2003, has been awarded almost 324,000 U.S. dollars for the period of three years. Engle will try to measure the connection between climate changes and risk and return in the management of oil fund money.

Harrison Hong from the Columbia University in New York has been awarded 105,000 dollars to research and arrange two conferences. Among other things, he will try to find out if today's financial markets are influenced by the climate risk.

"The hope is that, based on research from Engle, we will know more about the extent to which we should change our investments as a result of climate change," Bech-Moen said.

The two largest investments of the oil fund at year-end were in the food company Nestle and the oil company Shell.

More drought somewhere and more flood elsewhere can affect prices on Nestle's raw materials. This again affects the price of the products, which affects the sale and thus the trading course and dividend.

Shell sells oil and gasoline, which are the main sources of climate change. The oil company can be affected by sharpening climate taxes and the growth in the number of environmentally friendly electric cars.

In this way the research projects will provide Bech-Moen with pointers for balancing the shares in Shell and those in the electric car manufacturer Tesla.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 21:57:29|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Mekonnen Tsega, a 46-year-old patient, has suffered from nerve problem for years in Ethiopia's small town of Bishoftu, about 50 km south of the capital Addis Ababa.

Mekonnen is one of the many Bishoftu town dwellers, who were apparently suffering from varied types of illness, who have recently received free curative medical treatment by the 19th Chinese medical team.

Mekonnen said that he had been fighting the disease for almost 4 years now.

"I could hardly walk due to the health problem that I had. I tried to get treatment but it was expensive and I couldn't afford, given my poor financial background," he said.

The 19th batch of the Chinese medical team, which constitutes 16 medical professionals, is based at Tirunesh-Beijing Hospital, also known as the Ethio-China Friendship Hospital, located in Akaki at the outskirt of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The team, deployed at Tirunesh-Beijing Hospita which was built and equipped with the support of the Chinese government, is the continuation of China's medical mission to Ethiopia that has been serving the people of the east African country since 1974.

Team leader and Chief Physician Zhang Xiao Yang said that the medical team, during its nine months of free medical curative healthcare service, has treated a great number of patients in its hosting Tirunesh-Beijing Hospital.

According to Yang, the team also traveled to various other hospitals, such as Bishoftu Hospital outside the capital, to provide free healthcare treatment by applying both traditional Chinese and modern medical treatment methods.

"The feedback from the local community has been very good, and we are very happy to provide the service and to see them healthy," he said.

Mekonnen, who has received a free physiotherapeutic treatment by the visiting Chinese medical personnel in his home town, also commended their service saying that "I am very thankful for their kind support."

Amelework Fetene is another beneficiary. She has traveled close to 100km from her home town Wolega, south of the capital Addis Ababa, to get the treatment at the Bishoftu hospital.

"My health condition has improved now, after the treatment that I received here by the Chinese physicians," said 60-year-old Amelework.

Along with the provision of free medical service, the medical team also donated medical equipment and consumables to the hospital. According to team leader Yang, the donation of medical equipment will help the hospital in its quest towards quality healthcare service.

Dadhi Wodajo, Mayor of Bishoftu town and hospital board member, has lauded the support that has been given by the 19th batch of the Chinese medical team saying that such donations and free services "will reduce limitations in the provision of better curative healthcare service at the hospital."

Liu Yu, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, also commended the great effort and enthusiasm members of the medical have shown over the years.

According to Yu, their dedication and service manifests the growing people to people relations among the two brotherly countries.

Notably among the previous Chinese medical personnel in Ethiopia is the deceased doctor Mei Gengnian, who leads the first Chinese medical mission to Ethiopia some 40 years ago.

Mei Gengnian passed away in 1975 in a car accident while he was serving local communities in Jimma town of Oromia regional state, where he was still remembered and received homage by local community members.
File photo shows Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Erastus Mwencha (Center L) speaks during an event organized in connection with the Huawei "Seeds for the Future" program at the headquarters of the pan-African bloc in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, June 6, 2016.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech giant Huawei on Friday sent the 3rd batch of 10 technical experts of the African Union (AU) to China for a two-week training on information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

Huawei and AU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January 2015 for cooperation between the two sides in the area of ICT and capacity building for the African continent.

In the implementation of the MoU, under the initiative dubbed "Seeds for the Future", Huawei has been organizing training and experience sharing visits for African experts in China, aiming also at familiarizing the experts with latest technologies in the ICT area.

The participants in the 3rd batch took part a pre-departure orientation and guidance by Huawei, AU, and the Chinese Mission to AU on Friday at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

In his remarks on the occasion, Kwesi Quartey, Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, hailed China's rise and development as "very, very impressive, incredible," which he said is best example for Africa.

The Deputy Chairperson, who recently visited China and attended the Belt and Road Forum, noted that China has dynamic, flexible leadership that shows Africa the way through inclusive education as foundation and its application of science and technology.

Quartey commended Huawei for its support by providing the training for African ICT experts on the topics very relevant for Africa.

A visitor walks through the booth of Huawei during the CeBIT 2017 in Hanover, Germany, on March 20, 2017. The world's leading trade fair showcasing IT and communications products and solutions CeBIT 2017 kicked off on Monday and will last until March 24. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)

He also urged the participants to use the opportunity to acquire the knowledge to effectively implement the African projects.

"Education, training, science and technology is key for Africa especially as we focus on the theme of harnessing the demographic dividend of the youth through investments. The skills and know-how transfer is key," he stated.

Cheng Ning, Counselor of Cooperation and Exchange at the Chinese Mission to AU, said that the training helps Africa's effort to develop capacity in the ICT sector.

Stating that the training is organized in collaboration and partnership with Huawei, Chen said it is in line with China's commitment to supporting Africa to realize sustainable development under the 10 major cooperation plans between China and Africa.

Besides Huawei's program, he said that China has been providing capacity building support to Africa, through various short and long-term training programs in China.

Stating that China has also been providing support to various social activities in Africa, Chen said China will continue supporting capacity building efforts on the continent.

He called for the participants to explore China during their stay in the country for the training.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy CEO of Huawei Ethiopia, Adam Ma, reiterated that the training is organized to support AU's effort in the ICT area.

With 18 years of experience within Africa's ICT industry coupled with extensive industry global network, Huawei is well positioned to partner with the African Union and share its experience, noted the Deputy CEO.

Two AU staff members, who have participated in the Huawei's program with previous batches, namely Yagouba Traore and Martha Yetayew shared their experiences during the training.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 22:02:34|Editor: ying

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BAGHDAD, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi government on Friday condemned the deadly attack by unidentified gunmen on a bus carrying Christians travelling to a church in Egypt's southern province of Minya.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemns the ugly terrorist action, which targeted a bus carrying Coptic Civilians in Minya province," the Iraqi ministry said in a statement.

It confirmed that Iraq stands beside the people and government of Egypt against all extremist and terrorist groups, which target the unity of the Egyptian people.

Iraq reiterates its call for the need to strike harder the dens of extremism in the region, and the need to dry up the sources of support, funding and media platforms that promote the extremism and terrorism, according to the statement.

Earlier in the day, some ten gunmen in two cars, intercepted two buses, on the way to Samuel monastery south of Cairo, and opened fire on the buses randomly, leaving at least 26 Christians killed and 25 others wounded.

No group yet claimed responsibility for attack.

About 70 Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State (IS).
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 22:17:44|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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by Bedah Mengo

NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese phone manufacturers are competing to introduce new phones in Kenya, leaving East African nation's residents spoilt for choice.

Several Chinese manufacturers have in the last few months unveiled trendy gadgets in Kenya as they battle to take-over the market.

Some of the Chinese phone-makers operating in Kenya are OPPO, Tecno, Huawei, Wiko and Infinix, with the companies unveiling both high end and low-end phones.

The Chinese brands are firmly popular in Kenya and across East Africa for both among low and high-income earners, edging out other brands.

The result is that Kenyans have now a wider choice when it comes to buying the Chinese phones which have dominated the market.

The latest Chinese manufacturer to unveil its phone in Kenya is Huawei, which on Friday launched its Huawei P10 as it continued to push for a bigger market share in the smartphone market. The phone is the successor of the P9 which was launched in 2016 and goes for over 600 U.S. dollars.

OPPO Electronics, on the other hand introduced OPPO F3 last week going for over 300 dollars, as it also officially introduced itself to Kenyans.

Few months earlier, Tecno has launched the Camon series, which like OPPO showcases what they can do when it comes to selfie photos.

Wiko, Lenovo, Gionee and Infinix have equally launched new gadgets in the Kenyan market stepping up competition among the Chinese manufacturers.

"I was planning to buy a phone to replace what I currently have but right now I am at crossroads because I don't know which one to choose. I was to go for a mid-priced OPPO phone but I have checked Huawei and Tecno and I am completely dazzled," said Stephen Mundia, a banker in Nairobi.

His love for the phones is because of their stylishness, use of 4G network, quality cameras and good battery life.

Phone dealer Gilbert Wandera, who operates from the Nairobi central business district, said Chinese phones are fast-selling brands for both middle-end and low-end phones.

"One of the things that makes the Chinese phones a darling of consumers are their many features and the good price. They are popular among low and high income users. As they go for 100 dollars, one gets a very good phone that has a radio, a selfie camera, a torch, wide screen and 4G network, among other features," he said.

A recent survey by online market firm Jumia showed more than half of Kenyans (65 percent) buy smartphones that cost 200 dollars and below, where the Chinese phones lie.

The survey noted that Chinese brands were fast-rising in terms of popularity of smartphones sold in Kenya, due to their inexpensive nature.

Three things have made the Chinese phone makers popular, according to analysts. First is innovation, second affordability, and lastly, readily available customer service in Nairobi.

"Kenya's burgeoning demand for smartphones has lured the phone markers into the county and as incomes rise, so is the appetite among consumers. Expect more Chinese phone manufacturers to enter the market as Kenyans shower them with love," said Bernard Mwaso, a consultant with Edell IT Solutions in Nairobi.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 22:32:54|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Friday Taiwan resident Lee Ming-che is under arrest on suspicions of "subverting the state power."

According to the country's security authorities, Lee has been arrested in accordance with the law by the Hunan provincial security organ, said An Fengshan, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 22:43:00|Editor: yan

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PARIS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- France condemns "with the utmost firmness" the attack that took place Friday in the Egyptian province of Minya, which left about 20 Christian people dead, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday in a statement.

"I condemn in the name of France with the utmost firmness the cowardly and barbarous act that plagues Egypt. No one should fear for his life by exercising the fundamental right to freely practice his faith," the minister said.

"I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and express my full solidarity with the Egyptian authorities and people," he said, adding that "France stands firmly on the side of Egypt in its fight against the terrorism."
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trump isn't afraid to mix it up in the boardroom, and today in Brussels he showed he could throw some proverbial elbows.



One of the more surprising moments caught on camera today at the NATO summit in Belgium came when Trump pushed aside Prime Minister Dusko Markovic of Montenegro to get to the front of the group of leaders.



Markovic appeared to smile and turn toward Trump as if for a conversation, but none ensued.



The moment may have been fleeting, but the internet seemed to enjoy it Thursday.



I have not seen the video, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.



Trump is set to head back to the U.S. on Saturday, May 27.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 22:48:05|Editor: yan

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KATHMANDU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) and China Chamber of Tourism (CCT) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Kathmandu to promote tourism between the two countries.

NATTA President Madhu Sudan Acharya and CCT Vice President Hao Xukuan signed the MoU on Thursday on the sidelines of the 14th meeting of Nepal-China Non-Governmental Cooperation Forum, a platform formed by apex private sector bodies of two countries.

According to a press statement of NATTA, following the signing of the MoU, the Chinese side pledged to help in making China Sales Mission, tourism promotional activities to be organized by NATTA, a success.

The NATTA is preparing to organize China Sales Mission in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Beijing from June 7-17 in China in coordination with Nepal Tourism Board and Nepali embassy in Beijing.

During the meeting of Nepal-China Non-Governmental Cooperation Forum, entrepreneurs from the two countries had discussed on increasing joint investment in Nepal's tourism sector.

The Federation Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the apex private sector body of Nepal, and All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) had formed the forum in 1996 to promote economic and business cooperation, joint ventures and cultural promotions mutually from the private sectors of two countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 23:38:32|Editor: yan

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TAORMINA, Italy, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Environmentalist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are doing their part Friday to make sure climate change remains on the agenda at the ongoing Group of Seven (G7) summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina.

Greenpeace Italy positioned a four-meter high replica of the Statue of Liberty wearing an orange life jacket with the words reading "Climate Justice Now" on the beach at Giardini Naxos, a seaside resort nestling within view of the hilltop town of Taormina.

Activists from the environmentalist NGO floated just off the beach aboard eight canoes, holding up yellow signs that read "Planet Earth First" in large black letters.

That slogan is a response to U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" campaign slogan.

The U.S. billionaire president has threatened to pull his country out of the 2016 Paris Agreement on curbing climate change signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

"Ask G7 leaders not to turn back the clock on the Paris Agreement," Greenpeace Italy tweeted along with photos of the seaside action.

U.S.-based civic organization Avaaz also said in a statement that renewable energies make sense on the economic and business level.

"In 2016, over 8.1 million people worldwide were employed by the renewable energy industry, a 5 percent increase over the previous year," the Avaaz statement said.

Solar energy "is now the same price or cheaper than fossil fuels in 30 countries," Avaaz said, citing a 2016 World Economic Forum report.

"The U.S. will shoot itself in the foot if it quits the Paris climate change accord, because China, India and Europe will snap up the best power sector jobs," according to Avaaz, which promotes global activism on a number of social and environmental issues.
Newly elected Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom gestures during the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, May 23, 2017. (Xinhua/Alain Grosclaude)

GENEVA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Newly elected World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom on Friday reaffirmed the one-China principle.

Tedros told Xinhua that he would abide by the one-China principle as enshrined in the related UN General Assembly resolution and World Health Assembly resolution when handling issues in the WHO which are related to China's Taiwan.

During a meeting with Chinese Health Minister Li Bin on Wednesday, Tedros said the UN agency will properly handle the Taiwan-related issues based on the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the World Health Assembly, the WHO's decision-making body.

The WHO plenary on Monday rejected a proposal to discuss the invitation of China's Taiwan to the WHO's annual assembly.

Prior to this year's assembly, Li told a press conference in Geneva that from 2009 to 2016, the Chinese government made special arrangements for Taiwan to attend the WHO assembly as an observer in the name of "Chinese Taipei," in accordance with the "1992 Consensus" reached between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

However, Taiwan's current ruling Democratic Progressive Party has refused to recognize the one-China principle, thus undermining the political basis of Taiwan's participation in the WHO's annual conference.

The WHO is a UN specialized agency. UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and World Health Assembly Resolution 25.1 provide the legal basis for the WHO to follow the one-China principle.

During the press conference, Li also noted that proper arrangements have been made for Taiwan to participate in global health affairs and to conduct exchanges on epidemics and other health issues with WHO medical and public health experts, thus the so-called "epidemic prevention gap" doesn't exist at all.

Tedros, 52, a former health minister and foreign minister of Ethiopia, was elected on Tuesday as new WHO director-general at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He will succeed Margaret Chan, whose tenure ends in June.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 23:53:39|Editor: yan

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ISTANBUL, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish court on Friday rejected the appeal of the Dutch online travel agent, booking.com, against a ban on its activities in Turkey.

The court in Istanbul decided to uphold an earlier ruling on the agent's operations in the country that cited unfair competition against local agencies, according to Daily Sabah.

Booking.com was suspended in Turkey on March 29 following a lawsuit filed by the country's leading tourism institution, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), which argued that the online agent should obey the same rules and regulations for local travel agencies by paying taxes and opening a branch in Turkey.

Turkey's competition institution had previously fined booking.com over 700,000 U.S. dollars, press reports said.

Booking.com can be used in foreign countries to make reservations for Turkish hotels but cannot be accessed inside Turkey.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 23:58:53|Editor: yan

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LHASA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Tibetans on Friday embraced the first day of the fourth month in the Tibetan calendar, which marks the beginning of the holy month of Saga Dawa, the anniversary of Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death.

Tibetans believe religious activities including turning prayer wheels, giving offerings, freeing captive animals, making blessings and showing mercy in this month will bring them more merit than on ordinary days.

On Friday morning, Sodron was turning prayer wheels and walking with her dog following along in downtown Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

"I came across a homeless dog this time last year and took it home," Sodron said. "It is a result of my accumulation of merit."

"I believe in the equality of all lives. When turning the prayer wheel, I always pray for world peace," she said.

In the month, Tibetans have a custom of freeing captive animals. But Sodron doesn't think it is a good idea to transport fish from other provinces and release them into the river in Lhasa.

"These fish can hardly survive and the release will also affect the lives of the local fish," she said.

"Form is not so important. Doing good deeds is enough," Sodron said.

The city government has set up 19 service centers along the route for the convenience of people coming to turn prayer wheels.

Palbar, a staff member at the service center, said he and his colleagues started working at 7 a.m. to prepare tea and hot water for people coming to turn prayer wheels.

Volunteers helped a worshipper who felt sick when prostrating himself in prayer and provided a seat for him at the service center, according to Palbar.

Several ambulances were also ready to help worshippers if necessary.

A tourist, surnamed Li, from central China's Hubei Province, said she has received a lot of help from Tibetans in Lhasa over the past two days.

"I can feel their inner peace and happiness," Li said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-26 23:58:55|Editor: yan

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KIEV, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian government on Friday signed an investment protection agreement with the fund for international development of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said the Cabinet press service.

"The deal will facilitate investment channeled by the fund in the Ukrainian economy and support small and medium-sized enterprises in various sectors including energy, infrastructure, agriculture and others," Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv was quoted as saying by the Cabinet press service.

Kubiv signed the deal in Vienna, Austria.

The fund for international development of the Vienna-based organization is an institution established by its member states in 1976 to support developing countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 00:34:04|Editor: yan

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VILNIUS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Average nominal wage growth in the Lithuanian economy accelerated to 9.3 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, driven by rising wages in the private sector amid a shrinking labor force, Statistics Lithuania announced Friday.

Nominal growth of gross wages in private companies was 10.4 percent, while wages in the public sector increased by 7.2 percent, compared to the same period a year ago.

Wage growth in private sector was the fastest since 2008, amid employers' increased competition to hire employees in a shrinking labor force. The Lithuanian labor market has been negatively affected by emigration and shortage of qualified workers.

"Unemployment has been decreasing, economic situation is favorable to business development, and it is complicated to find an employee," analysts from SEB bank in Lithuania wrote in a note.

Economists are concerned that rapidly growing wages could hamper the country's competitiveness and economic stability.

In the first quarter of the year, Lithuania's GDP increased by 4.1 percent, compared to the same period a year ago.

Lithuania's central bank expects the country's economy to grow by 2.6 percent this year, accelerating from 2.3 percent growth last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 00:39:07|Editor: yan

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TAORMINA, Italy, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations on Friday signed a joint declaration on combating terrorism.

The 15-point document says the fight against "violent extremism" is "a major priority" of the G7, which "will bring the fight ... to a higher level by relentlessly preventing, investigating and prosecuting terrorist acts, their perpetrators and supporters".

The leaders pledged to "combat the misuse of the Internet by terrorists" to work together to manage "the risk posed by foreign fighters as they disperse from theatres of conflict" and to "take action to cut off sources and channels of terrorist financing".

Among the measure is "expansion of the use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) and Advance Passenger Information (API) in traveler screening", according to the declaration.
King Philippe of Belgium, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May (from L to R, front) and other NATO member states leaders watch air show at the handover ceremony of the new NATO headquarters during a one-day NATO Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

by Martin Banks

BRUSSELS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S President Donald Trump on Thursday used the occasion of his maiden summit with NATO leaders to, once again, remind his fellow NATO alliance leaders for not being "fair" to U.S. taxpayers.

"23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying," Trump said, adding that they owe "massive amounts".

NATO says a rising number of European members have increased defense spending "significantly" in the last 12 months, although only a handful meet the 2-percent spending target agreed at a previous summit in 2014.

Trump's comments will disappoint alliance leaders who had hoped for a public commitment from the U.S. president to NATO's security guarantees, which he called into question during his presidential campaign last year.

It was also notable that Trump refused to publicly reiterate U.S. commitment to NATO's mutual defense provision, Article 5, which had been invoked just once before: after the terror attack of September 11, 2001.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO leaders had agreed to step up NATO's role in the fight against terrorism and "fairer burden sharing".

The meeting, he said, had adopted an action plan to enhance NATO's contributions and had also decided to expand to support to the U.S.-led "Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS".

Stoltenberg said, "This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism and improve coordination within the Coalition."

However, he stressed, "It does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations."

On burden sharing, he said, "In 2015, defense cuts came to a stop. And in 2016, total spending across Europe and Canada increased by billions of dollars. This is not just about cash, but also modern capabilities."

The summit had taken steps "to keep up the momentum" and agreed to develop national plans every year.

"These will set out how NATO Allies intend to meet their pledge. So that we continue to match words with action," said the NATO's chief.

Trump has previously supported Britain's shock Brexit vote, claimed the EU was a doomed would-be super-state and dubbed NATO "obsolete".

Even so, hopes were relatively high that the visit, Trump's first overseas trip as U.S. President, could help heal EU/U.S. relations and ongoing rows about European defense spending.

But the severe ticking off he gave alliance members risks souring relations even more.

In a sign of growing frustration felt by EU leaders, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, speaking after meeting Trump in Brussels, defended European defense spending, insisting: "Europe is taking on greater responsibility on defense."

Greens co-leader, Philippe Lamberts commented, "Trump's demands on the NATO countries for military rearmament is no answer to the threats and instability we face."

"In marked contrast to the U.S. president, Europe must defend the importance of conflict prevention, diplomacy and human rights, instead of spending ever more on upgrading military capacity. We need to find better ways of cooperating to ensure our security," Lamberts said.

Stoltenberg sought to seek a more conciliatory tone, hailing Trump's plan to expand, with 4.8 billion U.S. dollars, the European Reassurance Initiative, a military fund to counter "Russian aggression".

Stoltenberg said the "barbaric" attack in Manchester on Monday underlines the importance of his organization's role in combating terrorism and "the importance of standing together in defense of our open societies".

Reaction to the summit and Trump's visit was swift, with Charles Michel, the Prime Minister of Belgium whose country has hosted NATO for over 50 years, warning, "Security today requires much more than the traditional military tools. Civilian and military operations go hand in hand. So we will need both soft and hard power."

UK Conservative Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Tannock said, "Hopefully both sides took the chance to set aside the rhetoric, sound each other out and lay the foundations of a strong political and security relationship. It is much easier to reach an understanding when you are in the same room, not hailing each other across the Atlantic."

Giovanni Grevi, of the European Policy Centre,a leading think tank, said: "Trump's nationalist political instincts are at odds with what the EU stands for. However, given the breadth and depth of transatlantic ties, both Washington and Brussels have an interest in taking a pragmatic approach to mutual relations."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 00:54:14|Editor: yan

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SOFIA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China's Yunnan province and Bulgaria hope to deepen agricultural cooperation within the Belt and Road Initiative and the 16+1 mechanism, officials said here on Friday.

Zhang Zulin, visiting Vice Governor of the province in southwest China, said here in a keynote speech during a business forum that Bulgaria is one of the most important countries on the New Silk Road.

The cooperation with Bulgaria would be an important bridge to the other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries within the 16+1 mechanism, Zhang said.

"We know that Bulgaria has extensive experience in all areas of agriculture, and therefore we will be pleased to cooperate (in this field)," Zhang said at the event dedicated to the Yunnan agricultural sector.

He said that in particular, Bulgaria could be attracted by Yunnan's coffee and Puer tea, while Yunnan province was most interested in Bulgaria's roses, rose oil and rose products.

Vasil Gelev, executive director of the Association for the Promotion of Agricultural Cooperation between China and the CEE countries, said that on Tuesday, China and Bulgaria signed a joint declaration on the establishment in Bulgaria of an Agricultural Cooperation Demonstration Zone between China and CEE countries.

"Yunnan province has more than 1,000 demonstration zones similar to what we are currently trying to build in Bulgaria," Gelev said.

Thanks to the exchange of experience with Yunnan province, the demonstration zone in Bulgaria could be built properly, Gelev added.

Chinese Ambassador to Bulgaria Zhang Haizhou, who also addressed the event, said that historically, Yunnan province is located in the south of the Silk Road and can be considered as a gateway for cooperation between China and the 16 CEE countries.

The visit by the Yunnan delegation and this event could be a good prerequisite for deepening the practical cooperation with Bulgaria, he said.

The 16+1 mechanism is a platform created in April 2012 by China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries in a bid to inject impetus to cooperation between them.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 00:54:15|Editor: yan

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by Peter Mutai

NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's artisanal and small scale gold miners (ASGM) on Friday received 4.2 million U.S. dollars from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to minimize the use of mercury in their activities.

The project that is known as the GEF Gold Kenya project will also safeguard people's health and the environment and support sustainable livelihoods of ASGM.

"This program intends to introduce and promote best practices and techniques for gold extraction in collaboration with the governments," David Maina, acting head of programs at the UN Development Program (UNDP), said during the launch of the project.

Maina said exposure to mercury has many serious health effects and also affects aquatic, plant and other animals.

"It is unfortunate that despite the dangers associated with the chemical, human contact in mining of gold is still high," he said.

The program that will be coordinated by the UNDP and the Kenyan government is also being carried out in Burkina Faso, Colombia, Guyana, Indonesia, Mongolia, Peru, and the Philippines.

The project is aimed at aligning small scale gold miners with the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury's agreement that banned the use of mercury in mining for health and environment conservation reasons.

Artisanal and small scale mining accounts for 60 percent of the total gemstone production in the country. Though lucrative, both the miners' health and the environment have taken a hit due to frequent mercury exposure.

A majority of large-scale players have shifted from use of mercury and embraced alternative methods of extracting the gold after the mercury ban in 2013.

Maina however revealed that exposure to mercury is high in children and teenagers, as many drop out of school to engage in lucrative gold mining.

"Of great concern is the reality that women are primarily the ones handling mercury in the ASGM community, when they engage in the processing of gold without protective equipment," he said.

The use of mercury is believed to be affecting the sensitive aquatic ecosystems in the Lake Victoria basin upon which approximately 5 million Kenyans rely for domestic and export fisheries activities.

The total mining population in Kenya may be close to 250,000, but this is on the increase as more people shift towards gold mining as a main livelihood source, due to a decline in agricultural productivity within the region.

According to Mismark Onyando, chairman of Mining Community Development Program (MICODEPRO), the support will go a long way in helping improve the lives of miners in the country.

Onyando told Xinhua that for many years, miners have risked their lives in the mines as they apply various mercury-using gold extraction processes that release mercury into the air without using any protection, leading to the exposure.

He said that in the past miners have been diagnosed with respiratory problems, renal failure and mental disorders that are symptoms of heavy metal poisoning.

"It is good news for miners in Kenya who have been operating without relevant equipments due to lack of funds," Aron Kecha, the Project Officer of Centre for Environmental Justice and Development said.

Kecha added that the assistance will also contribute to the miner's who are indirectly dependent on ASGM for their livelihoods, good health and also raise their daily income.

In Kenya mining activities occur mostly near Lake Victoria, western Kenya, where there remains of significant underexplored or underexploited reserves of gold in high concentrations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 01:14:23|Editor: yan

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JUBA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Friday welcomed the release of George Livio, its national staff member who had been in detention since 2014 without trial.

In a statement released in Juba, the UN mission also called for the release of its two other national staff members who are currently being held in detention without trial since 2014.

"UNMISS continues to urge the South Sudanese authorities to respect national laws and the fundamental principles of due process under international human rights law," it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 02:50:08|Editor: yan

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ASTANA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Kazakh Ministry of Energy said on Friday Kazakhstan intends to continue fulfilling its obligation of reducing oil production by 20,000 barrels per day under the current quota.

The energy ministry said in a statement that Kazakhstan also intends to review the terms of the obligations in November, taking into account the conjuncture in the world oil market.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC members met on Thursday in Vienna, Austria, to renew the deal of limiting oil production for another six months.

The ministry stressed it will not take a decision unilaterally, but will discuss the terms of the agreement with other oil-producing countries.

"Kazakhstan welcomes and supports the OPEC and non-OPEC countries in an agreement to extend oil production cutbacks to maintain acceptable prices in the market," the statement added.

Oil production in the country averages 1,673,000 barrels per day. In May-June, the level of production is expected to decline and, in general, the obligations will be fulfilled in full by half a year.

The OPEC and non-OPEC meeting in Vienna agreed to extend the existing level of oil production at 1.8 million barrels per day. The term of the agreement will be valid for 9 months, starting from the second half of 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 04:41:22|Editor: yan

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by Ronald Ssekandi, Yuan Qing

KAMPALA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Uganda and Tanzania on Friday signed an agreement which gives a legal framework to the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

At the signing here, both countries argued that the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) sets the foundation for the setting up of other legal instruments towards the management of the oil pipeline that will link Uganda's oil wells to the Tanzanian seaport of Tanga.

The signing of the IGA came days after the leaders of the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Tanzanian President John Magufuli signed a communique signaling the end of the year-long negotiations and a go ahead to start the construction.

Construction of the 1,445-km oil pipeline is expected to start towards the end of this year and will last up to 2020. The first drop of crude oil is expected the other side of the pipeline by the end of 2020, according to goals set by both governments.

The 3.55-billion-U.S.-dollar pipeline will be the longest electrically heated pipeline in the world. It is heated because of the waxy nature of Uganda's oil. Uganda has so far discovered over 6.5 billion barrels of oil.

Experts argue that during and after the construction of the pipeline, the two countries and the entire East African region stand to reap benefits from the project.

Palamagamba Kabudi, Tanzania's Minister of Constitutional and Legal affairs, said implementation of EACOP would open up the region for further opportunities for trade and in turn fast track socio-economic development.

He was speaking after the signing of the IGA with Irene Muloni, Uganda's minister of Energy and Mineral Development.

Kabudi said apart from increased tax revenue, there will be new infrastructure development, promotion of economic activities along the pipeline route and promotion of petroleum exploration activity in areas near the pipeline.

Uganda, according to ministry of finance figures, has planned to spend over 900 million dollars on construction of roads and an international airport in the oil wells area in the western part of the country.

Adewale Fayemi, General Manager Total E&P Uganda, argued that the EACOP has the potential to open a new era in East Africa.

"With an estimated cost of 3.55 billion dollars, it will significantly contribute to increasing the foreign direct investment per year by over 60 percent in the two countries during the construction phase," Fayemi said.

"It will trigger important economic growth. It will increase links and enhance business between East African countries through the corridor being opened," he added.

During the construction stage, according to official figures, over 10,000 jobs would be created, boosting the income of the households along the pipeline.

Stephen Isabalija, permanent secretary at Uganda's ministry of energy, argued that the private sector should position itself to take advantage of the mass opportunities that include skills development, technology transfer, and provision of goods and services.

Elly Karuhanga, Chairman of Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, an organization that seeks to promote and develop Uganda's mining and petroleum operations, argued that while there are all these opportunities for the private sector to take, the have to drastically improve their standards.

He argued that oil companies have very high standards which the private sector must conform to if they are to provide goods and services.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 05:01:26|Editor: yan

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A man follows the news of a deadly attack in Egypt's southern province of Minya in Cairo, May 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhao Dingzhe)

CAIRO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Friday that the Egyptian forces hit terrorist training camps after the shooting attack that killed 28 Copts in Upper Egypt's Minya governorate.

"Now, we have hit training camps used by those terrorists ... Egypt will not hesitate to target these terror camps anywhere," Sisi said in a televised speech aired by the state TV.

Sisi did not mention the place of the targeted camps, but Egypt's state TV have reported that the Egyptian jets have hit 6 terror bases in neighboring Libya.

Earlier on Friday, unknown gunmen opened fire on buses carrying Coptic Christians in Minya governorate, about 220 kilometers south of Cairo, killing 28 people and wounding 24.

Security sources told Xinhua that some ten gunmen in three four-wheel-drive vehicles, intercepted the victims' two buses on the way to St. Samuel Monastery in the Minya governorate, and opened fire randomly at them.

The source added that the attackers were dressed in security uniforms.

No group yet claimed responsibility for attack that was carried one day ahead of the Muslims Holy fasting month of Ramadan.

"These countries that support terrorism and provide terrorists with training and weapons must be punished," Sisi stressed.

The Egyptian president revealed that the terrorists want to the break the strong Egyptian social fabric as well as the country itself.

"They want to send a message to the Christians that the government cannot protect you...we must be careful," he said.

About 70 Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State (IS) which pledged last week in a video to target non-Muslims everywhere.

REVENGE ATTACKS

Observers believe that the IS is targeting Christians in attempt to hit back after the Egyptian army has done great achievements against terrorists in Sinai.

Samir Ghatas, chairman of Middle East Forum for Strategic Studies, said the terrorists know that the Copts are a sensitive issue for the government and causes troubles internationally for Egypt. "So they keep attacking Copts to embarrass the regime inside and outside."

"By targeting Copts, the terrorists would show the state is very weak, and would affect Egypt reputation worldwide as a country that couldn't protect Copts," he told Xinhua.

Ghatas pointed out that it would also cause division among the Egyptians themselves, adding that the terrorists also wanted to punish the Copts for supporting Sisi against the Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi.

Additionally, he said, the terrorists have a religious aspect, because they are convinced to kill whoever is not a Muslim.

GOVERNMENT FAILS TO PROTECT COPTS

Meanwhile, Kamal Habib, expert in religious movements, said the attacks against the Copts increased due to failed government security measures.

He also said that the intervention of Copts in issues related to the Islamic Sharia Law and Azhar, the highest Islamic teaching institution in the country, has led to tension that may lead radicals to think of revenge.

The expert expected that such attacks would be repeated, especially in Upper Egypt, which is "lost at the level of the development and suffers the spread of terrorism that runs groups of cells and networks."

Habib said the government has to stop tackling issues of religion in public discussions since they stir more sedition among Muslims and Christians.

"The government should enhance the moderate thinking that is based on Azhar and people of experience opinions," he said. "The government should also review the conditions in prisons that turn the radical to extremist and the extremists to terrorists."

ISLAMIC CONDEMNATION

The terror attack was largely condemned by top Islamic figures in the most populous Arab country who called for capital punishment for the perpetrators.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb strongly condemned the terrorist attack which meant to destabilize Egypt.

Al-Tayyeb, who is currently paying an official visit to Germany, urged in a statement the Egyptians to close ranks in the face of terrorism.

"Egypt's Muslims and Christians should stand against such incidents," he said.

For his part, Egyptian Awqaf (Islamic Endowment) Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa called for an international action to punish terrorism sponsoring countries.

The minister said that Egypt is undergoing a real war against terrorism, offering his condolences to the families of the victims, wishing speedy recovery for the injured.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Mufti, highest Islamic Jurist, Shawki Allam strongly condemned the terrorist attack.

"Those traitors breached all the religious principles and humanitarian values by shedding the blood of innocent people and targeting our Coptic brothers," MENA quoted Allam as saying.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 05:16:34|Editor: yan

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BRASILIA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Gilmar Mendes, who sits on Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), on Friday said the Court should discuss further the confession made by JBS owner Joesley Batista, which placed corruption allegations on President Michel Temer.

Speaking to the press, Mendes said that only Edson Fachin, who oversees Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash), had approved Batista's confession but that all STF justices needed to do so as well.

On May 18, Fachin accepted Batista's confession, including the recording of a conversation with Temer, in which the president could seemingly be heard signing off on bribing judges, prosecutors and former Speaker Eduardo Cunha.

It led the STF to open an investigation into Temer for obstruction of justice.

"It seems to me that, for this case, as it involves the president of the republic, we will certainly have to discuss them with the entire court," said Mendes.

This week, Brazil's prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot asked Justice Edson Fachin to approve calling for Temer to give a deposition. Janot also asked Fachin to define a date for this deposition but the justice has not responded to the request so far.

Temer's defense team has fought back against the deposition request, saying that the analysis of the audio recording had not been completed.

Last week, Temer refused to resign, saying that the tape had been doctored and that he had done nothing wrong.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 05:36:40|Editor: xuxin

Libyans carry the bodies of fallen militias allied with the UN-backed government of national accord during their funeral in Tripoli, capital of Libya, on May 27, 2017. Fresh clashes on Friday between rival militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli killed more than 50 and injured over 100, according to the ministry of health. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

TRIPOLI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Fresh clashes on Friday between rival militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli killed more than 50 and injured over 100, according to the ministry of health.

The clashes erupted in southern Tripoli between militias allied with the UN-backed government of national accord in Tripoli and a rival militia loyal to the deposed government of Khalifa Gwell.

Loud explosions and heavy firing could be heard in many areas of the capital, witnesses said.

"The figures are not final as there are severely injured people, and we could not receive statistics from some clinics due to connection failure," the ministry said regarding the final death toll.

Gwell's government was replaced by the UN-backed unity government, headed by Fayez Serraj, last year. Allied with militias from the city of Misrata, Gwell's government continued attempts to take back the capital.

Serraj's government issued a statement on Friday condemning the violence: "The government of national accord strongly condemns intimidation of safe residents of the capital Tripoli, who woke up on Friday morning on heavy bombing by an outlaw group."

"This group, led by Khalifa Gwell, has crossed the line and committed a heinous and intolerable crime by endangering the lives of residents," the statement said.

Martin Kobler, the Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, also condemned the clashes, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

"Voices of reason should prevail for the benefit of the country. Political aims must not be pursued through violence. Civilians must be protected. I remind all parties of their duty to respect the provisions of international humanitarian and international human rights law," Kobler said.

Libya has been suffering escalating violence and unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The country is plagued with insecurity and political division.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 06:36:55|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The UN Migration Agency (IOM) said Friday that 1,530 migrants and refugees died crossing the Mediterranean in 2017.

The IOM reports that 60,521 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea this year, with over 80 percent arriving in Italy and the remainder divided between Greece, Cyprus and Spain, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the daily news briefing.

"This number does not include some 6,000 people who have been rescued over the past 72 hours," said Dujarric.

In terms of fatalities, there have been 1,530 migrants and refugees who have died this year on this route, a figure that roughly matches those for 2016 for the same period, he said.

However, the IOM warned that the deadliest season is starting right now, said the spokesman.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-27 06:46:58|Editor: yan

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MINSK, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Belarus condemns terrorist attack in the Egyptian province of Minya, which killed dozens of people, the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said that no purpose can serve as an excuse for such inhuman acts directed against unarmed and innocent people.

The Belarusian side expresses its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wishes them a speedy recovery.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also sent his condolences to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. In his message, the Belarusian leader said that the ruthless killing of people is a crime that will never be forgiven.

The head of state expressed his confidence that such actions will not prevent the elected leadership of Egypt from the course on strengthening peace and stability in the country.
2 men gunned down in Arima

Autopsies at the Forensic Science Centre were postponed to today after no relatives visited the centre in St James to positively identify both bodies.

Police identified the victims as Keon Carr of Santa Rosa and Anderson Alexis of Maloney. Police said that despite their best efforts yesterday they could not locate any relative of the two to have them go to the centre to identify the bodies.

Carr and Alexis were shot dead at 10.05 pm on Wednesday while liming with another man Andrew Pyle. The trio was standing in front of the Ali Bocas car care centre near The Crossings on Tumpuna Road, when they were approached by three masked gunmen, who opened fire.

Both Carr and Alexis were struck several times and died at the scene.

Pyle was struck in the buttocks and was later taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Centre in Mt Hope for treatment. The killers escaped in a black Nissan Tiida car.
Mayo businessman in court

Christopher Faiz Mohammed was brought to court in handcuffs and he stood before Senior Magistrate Cherril-Ann Antoine who read out seven charges. One charge alleges that at Houssa Trace in Gasparillo, Mohammed shot at Kerwin Williams with intent to do him grievous bodily harm.

Williams, 26, is from Tahal Avenue, Gasparillo and court prosecutor PC Cleyon Seedan said he remains warded at San Fernando General Hospital in a stable medical condition. Williams was shot in the chest and arm. The other charges alleged that Mohammed of Medford Lane, Mayo had in his possession an unlicensed pistol; six rounds of ammunition; ammunition to endanger life; not having a firearm users licence, firing a pistol to endanger life and discharging a firearm within 40 metres of a public road.

PC Seedan displayed the pistol and six rounds of ammunition in court. Charges were laid by PC Kerron Castillo. PC Angelene Bassarath who assisted in the investigations, brought the pistol and ammo to the court.

Attorney Louis Andrews pleaded for bail saying his client Mohammed had no previous conviction, is a regular member of the Gasparillo ASJA Mosque, is married and has a five-year-old daughter. PC Seedan did not object to bail but told the court Mohammed had a charge for malicious damage in 2006.

He disclosed to the attorney Andrews a summary of evidence, victims medical record, station diary extracts, search warrants and criminal record document.

Magistrate Antoine granted Mohammed $350,000 bail with a cash alternative of $50,000. The case was adjourned to June 30.
Ex-NP CEO wrongfully dismissed

His contract was terminated on April 15, 2011 after NP claimed (as its reason for firing him) that credit was extended to one of the companys former gas station dealers without appropriate approvals. NP also claimed the Board had lost confidence in Callender.

In their ruling yesterday, Justices of Appeal Allan Mendonca, Prakash Moosai and Andre des Vignes set aside a previous ruling of Justice Carol Gobin who in 2013 dismissed Callenders wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

The three found that Callender was wrongly dismissed by NP and is now entitled to three months salary in lieu of notice.

In his wrongful dismissal and breach of contract claim, Callender sought damages and special damages in excess of $1.7 million.

He claimed NP breached the contract of employment by its own conduct toward him, which was calculated to destroy the relationship of trust and confidence between the himself and the company.

NP contended that under Callenders watch as CEO, Trebro managed to rack up a debt of $1.6 million despite all in-built checks on the digital system, despite all processes and rules under the policy to secure and protect the Company from harmful credit exposure. In their ruling, the judges disagreed with all of Justice Gobins finding except for the facta relating to the variation of Callenders contract of employment which he sought months before the 2010 general election.

They also held that Callenders role in the implementation of the Boards decisions should not have been construed as a repudiation of his contract of employment but as a demonstration of his effort to ensure that the boards decisions as it related to Trebro were complied with.

We think the judge was plainly wrong to find otherwise, the appellate judges said. Callender was represented by attorneys Douglas Mendes, SC; Elton Prescott, SC; and Shelly Ann Daniel while attorneys Seenath Jairam, SC; Kelvin Ramkissoon and Shobha Persad represented NP.
Ex-Caroni Green head sues Govt

He said despite assurances by the chairman of CGL in April, that all monthly paid staff contracts will be honoured, Lalla was told later that month that he will only be paid a portion of what he claims is owed.

According to Lallas lawsuit, filed yesterday in the Port of Spain High Court by attorneys Larry Lalla and Rajiv Chaitoo, as a result of governments termination of his contract, he is owed $1,537,165.02 which represents unpaid salaries, accrued vacation leave, 12 months gross salary inclusive of benefits, 20 per cent gratuity payment, performance incentive bonus, vehicle acquisition benefit as a result of the termination of his contract.

According to Lalla, CGL was a special purpose company set up by the State to carry out and execute government policy of bringing idle or under-utilised agricultural lands into active agricultural production.

He said directors were appointed by Cabinet on the recommendation of the Minister of Agriculture, and held office at the will of the minister.

He said the company operated as an agent of the State and not as a separate legal entity and the state is jointly and liable to him for damages for breach of his employment contract, which was expected to come to an end in August 2018.

Lalla said when the decision was taken by the Cabinet to shut down CGL in March, a board of directors was appointed to implement the liquidation of the company.

He said at no time did chairman of CGL take the time to get an appreciation of the operations of the company and was induced into breaching his contract of employment.

During a post-Cabinet media briefing, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said CGL was spending $6 million to produce 700,000 peppers and faced private sector competition.
$75, 000 bail for Sheron

The businessman as well as all other prisoners due to appear in court was not present yesterday before Magistrate Wendy Dougdeen- Bally due to a water problem at the Remand Prison in Arouca.

Sukhdeo was however represented by attorneys Tadarath Singh, Jagdeo Singh and Stephan Ramkissoon.

When Sukhdeo appeared in court on Wednesday, following his arrest on Tuesday, Magistrate Dougdeen-Bally denied him bail and asked for his passport at the next court appearance. Yesterday, attorney Jagdeo Singh produced a passport, but Magistrate Dougdeen- Bally said something was amiss.

She recalled that at an unrelated court hearing about a year ago, Sukhdeos attorney claimed that the businessman was out of the country at that time. The passport given yesterday, however, showed no evidence of Sukhdeo ever leaving the country as claimed by his attorney at the previous hearing.

Sukhdeos wife Rachael who was in court yesterday, was asked by her husbands attorneys to look into the matter. It was later discovered that an old passport was brought to court in error. Magistrate Dougdeen- Bally stood down the case to allow for the current passport to be brought to court. When this was done later yesterday, the magistrate granted Sukhdeo bail.

He was also ordered to vacate his home. Sukhdeo was granted time between 2 pm and 4 pm this Saturday, to return to his home to collect his belongings. He was warned to stay at least 100 feet away from Rachael and stop all communication with her. He must report to the court on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Sukhdeo will reappear in court on June 14.

Last February, Sukhdeo was charged with assaulting his wife who decided eight months later that she did not wish to continue with the case. Sukhdeo is also out on bail for charges of receiving stolen vehicles and uttering false documents.
$2M in weed destroyed in South

Police said 2,000 fully grown marijuana trees which went up in smoke were ready for the market.

While four marijuana fields, four makeshift camps, 40,000 seedlings, 15 pounds of cured marijuana, five pounds of marijuana seeds and one drying rack were destroyed, no one was arrested in connection with the find. The ten-hour exercise, which saw officers being airlifted into the forested area, ended at 5 pm on Wednesday and was co-ordinated by Head of Southern Division Snr Supt Zamsheed Mohammed, ASP Ali Mohammed and Insp Don Gajadhar.

It was conducted and supervised by Insp Tewarie, Sgt Conliffe, Sgt Ramlogan and involved officers of the Organised Crime Narcotics and Firearms Bureau, Princes Town CID, Southern Division Task Force, Moruga and St Mar ys Police Stations and the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment and the Air Support Unit.
Laventille East MP robbed

At 12.30 pm, someone broke a window of the vehicle and removed a bag containing Leonces cellphone, iPad, laptop computer and documents.

The MP discovered the theft after he went to the vehicle to retrieve his cellphone. A report was made to the Morvant police and Inspector Baird along with other officers carried out enquiries and alerted the police Cyber Crime Unit in a bid to trace the cellphone.

A check was also carried out for prints on the vehicle and one and a half hours later someone threw the stolen bag with the documents over the wall of the Ministers Morvant home. The stolen items were not in the bag. Police were unable to retrieve CCTV footage from the MPs office but they were yesterday hoping to look at camera footage from the MPs home to ascertain who threw the bag over the wall.

Yesterday, Newsday contacted Leonce who said, I am disappointed because I have been trying my best to get the young people to be more proactive, I am also trying my best to get the state agencies to give these young people real opportunities, and I feel attacked but it will not stop me from doing what I have to do because up until the day of the robbery a young person told me that I inspire him, and this keeps me going.
Liquor seized by Customs

The exercise was conducted in Tacarigua.

Police are working on the theory that the liquor was illegally imported from Miami.

Police sources said they were on patrol on St Michael Road at 2.30 pm, when they saw six men off-loading cases from a container and putting them in another vehicle. Police asked the men where they got the liquor from and when none could answer, they were arrested.

Police and Customs officials later went to Bahrosa Street in Tacarigua where several properties were searched.

Police found 637 cases of Absolut Vodka, 40 cases of Johnny Walker Scotch Whiskey, a generator and a power washer.
Warrant issued for suspect

Police found six pounds of marijuana in the house. The mans 23-year-old wife was arrested. Police said that at 2 pm, Sgt Edwards, PCs Joseph, Seenath, Singh, Hypolite and DAbreau went to the mans house to execute a search warrant when he ran into the nearby forest. The 30-year-old is well-known by police who expect to arrest him soon.

In an unrelated incident, Sangre Grande and Toco police led by Inspector Ken Lutchman and including Sgt Chris Edwards, Cpl Randolph Castillo, PC Joseph and others carried out a search over the weekend in Toco for a 24-year-old man wanted for crimes including shooting, wounding and robbery.

On Tuesday, the man surrendered to officers at Port-of-Spain CID.

He was taken to the Sangre Grande police station and is expected to be placed on several identification parades.
Kimberly, the perfect sister

Her younger sister, Rikiesha Hosein, delivered a tearful and heartfelt eulogy which moved almost everyone in the intimate congregation to tears. Kimberly, you were my sister, my best friend, my soulmate, the best part of me, said the weeping sister as she was being supported by family members. It is not fair for you to leave us like this, but both you and I know that life is not fair. In the eulogy, Lewis was described as wise, kind, loving and responsible.

Bishop Victor Bowen, tried to comfort the congregation with passages of scripture and encouraging words. He told the congregation that death comes to all people, and no one knows the manner or time of their death.

He, however, encouraged the congregation to have faith that the Almighty has a plan.

After the service, Lewis was cremated at the Port-of-Spain Crematorium, on Long Circular Road, St James. Kimberlys husband, Jonathan Garcia, could not be present to pay his final respects. He was still at Port-of- Spain General Hospital, being treated for the chop wounds he sustained during the incident that claimed his wifes life.

On Monday, at about 10 pm, a group of men stormed Lewis home, armed with cutlasses and knives, and hacked and stabbed both Lewis and Garcia.
Woman, children homeless

Anne (not her real name) has spent much of her adult life; shes now 40 years old, working hard to provide a proper home for her 16-year-old son and ten-year-old daughter.

Originally from Barataria, Anne said when her father died in 2010, she and her children were kicked out of the house by her half-siblings.

Searching for somewhere to build a permanent home for her family, Anne ended up buying a small lot of land in Enterprise that same year.

The land came with a small structure. It only had one bedroom and apart from wanting to give my kids their own space, I have a form of autism and need darkness to sleep while my daughter prefers a night light and my son likes music.

So I worked hard, saved my money, and two years and five months after we moved in, I completed the addition, Anne said with a smile.

It was a rare moment of happiness during her interview with Newsday yesterday.

At times, Anne cried; there was no other outlet for her frustration, as she asked why a law-abiding citizen like herself was now homeless while gangsters had taken over her home.

Our house is in the middle of territory controlled by the Unruly Isis and Rasta City gangs.

Two years ago, the police tore down our fence while chasing down some men.

Since then, these fellas criss-crossing our yard and sneaking along the drain to get at each other. It wasnt as bad before that; the fence mostly kept them out but now..., Anne paused and wiped away her tears.

Anne estimated that the deadly conflict between both gangs started about three years ago. The police know we not in anything, she told Newsday.

So every time they came around, they would tell us to sleep on the ground in the kitchen because that room was in the middle of the house, so it was the safest place if shots fired. I want to know my rights! Anne declared. I want to know how, after I worked hard to provide a home for my children, that they have to be using street lights to do their home work and we homeless while people who doing wrong have a home still in Enterprise?! This led Anne to share that while shes a proud woman; one whos not looking for charity, she chose to speak with Newsday because shes fed up of the lack of answers from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) as to when her August 2015 application for emergency housing would be granted.

I went by the HDC today (yesterday) and the woman who spoke to me said, We still waiting on feedback from upstairs. Why cant they give me a proper update? When will the people upstairs have some information on my application? This brought me to Newsday.

This and my daughter asking me the other night, When we getting back a home? Whats the point to life if we have to live like this? That broke my heart, Anne shared, as she wiped away more tears.

Newsday attempted to speak with the HDC but the relevant official was in meetings all day yesterday.

We also reached out to an official at the Housing Ministry, who said Annes information had been forwarded to the ministrys Client Relations Officer.

The ministry official told Newsday this person would call Anne immediately to arrange a meeting with her to determine the status of her request for emergency housing.

Her daughters question about their future comes after two weeks spent camping out on beaches, following an unceremonious eviction from their landlord in Caparo.

Anne explained that this past March, she moved out of Enterprise and into a place in Caparo, because her children had developed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Something which the psychologist she saved up to send them to told her would not improve until and unless they were taken out of the situation causing said stress; gang warfare in their Enterprise neighbourhood.

However, their landlord kicked them out two weeks ago after learning about their situation in Enterprise.

Anne said he told her he didnt want any connection to gangs whatsoever, thus her eviction.
Sabgas legacy honoured

I want to tell you the story of a little boy named Anthony Sabga who escaped his war-torn country to travel half-way across the world to a country few people back then had ever heard of. At the age of 14, this boy had to leave school and take over his family business. He went on to start his own business, building an empire which now feeds over 7,000 families.

So if a poor, dyslexic, seven-year-old who could not speak a word of English could build a business empire, imagine what you can achieve, as you who have so much more than he did when he started out, Garcia- Brooks said.

She urged graduates to plan their goals wisely and use the tools available to help themselves and others.

She said remaining focused on ones goals is especially challenging in the age of social media, where youths are bombarded by stereotypes and negative imagery.

We are surrounded daily by negative images, conversations and choices. Please shut the door on these negative conversations and dont spread them.

Dont like or share them on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp.

Replace them with a positive thought or suggestion, she said.

Republic Bank Executive Director Roopnarine Oumade Singh agreed with Garcia- Brooks sentiments and said greater introspection is needed among youths as they plan their next step in life to seek success.

When it comes to thinking about the future, you cant get too caught up in picturing just what it might be.

It is far more rewarding and worthwhile to focus on what you can do today to ensure that future becomes a reality, Singh said.

This the 31st anniversary of the programme which entails a seven months training programme where 36 secondary school graduates gain firsthand exposure to the banks operations.

They also attended workshops aimed at enhancing financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills.
Young: Rowley reminds us of costs

On the heels of questions of spending by Sport Minister Daryl Smith and Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe on a Tobago trip and a telephone bill respectively, reporters asked if yesterdays Cabinet meeting saw the PM warn ministers about overspending.

Young replied that there was no specific conversation yesterday, but that the PM generally reminds them.

Young said a report on Smiths trip had been sent yesterday to the PM, but that this matter was not discussed in Cabinet. The PM must now peruse and decide upon such matters, the minister said. He disputed media reports that a Ministry of Sport employee who went on the Tobago trip had since been transferred to the OPM.

Young said ministers generally had worked hard to shave hundreds of millions of dollars off of their ministries expenditure.

Asked if ministers have spending guidelines, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said guidelines on the use of public funds are contained in circulars held by permanent secretaries. Otherwise Imbert said he had not learnt of any local bid of $1 million to host the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
No-confidence motion against Glenn defeated

The Corporation, which is controlled by the Opposition UNC, is almost equally split between both parties with the UNC having seven council members- (five councillors and two aldermen) and the ruling PNM which has six council members (four councillors and two aldermen).

However, during yesterdays motion of no confidence, two council members- the corporations vice chairman, Leo Doodnath and the PNMS Gerald Debisette, were absent.

This reduced the sides to five members each with Ramadharsingh presiding over the proceedings although PNM council members objected to him chairing the meeting as the motion was against him.

And when it was time to vote, council members voted along party lines leaving the vote at 5:5. At that point, Ramadharsingh announced that he was voting against the motion and then, while the PNM councillors roared their disapproval, shouted that he was using his second or casting vote to further sink the motion.

The motion is now defeated, Ramadharsingh announced.

The chamber then erupted as PNM alderman Christopher Max Encinas, who had filed the motion of no-confidence, jumped to his feet as he shouted that Ramadharsinghs action was illegal.

His fellow PNM councillors joined in while UNC councillors, led by councillor Doodnath Mayrhoo shouted Sangre Grande- a clear reference to what had transpired at the tied Corporation following the 2016 Local Government elections.

In that instance, incumbent chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Terry Rondon used his deciding vote as chairman, thus giving him two votes in the process, to break the 4-4 tie in the corporation between the UNC and the PNM.

Ramadharsinghs action did not sit well with members of the public gallery some of whom steupesed loudly as they left the council hall. Both sides had brought their supporters to the meeting as they sought to drum up support for their respective councillors.

Speaking with Newsday after the vote- La Brea MP, Nicole Olivierre said while she was aware that the PNM did not have the required votes to compel Ramadharsingh to resign, however, she said his action as chairman may not have been legitimate.

I understand the PNM did not have the majority number of votes for the motion to pass, but I recognise the importance of filing the motion to bring to light the issues they have raised with the chairman acting ultra vires, section 57 of the Municipal Corporations Act, she said.

I was really surprised that the chairman continued to chair a meeting which was debating a motion of no confidence in himself and I was even more surprised that he insisted on voting in that meeting as well so, I am really wondering about the chairmans interpretation of the standing orders of the Siparia Regional Corporation and the Municipal Corporations Act, she said.

I do not pretend to be a lawyer by any means but I certainly see a clear conflict in him, one having presided in the meeting and secondly, because there is a clause in the standing order that speaks to a person having a particular interest in a particular matter and voting on that matter and you cannot deny that the chairman has an interest in a motion which names him in the motion itself so, I am very concerned that he felt it was appropriate to not only chair but vote in that motion, she said.
Colm: Tax registration is voluntary

He spoke at yesterdays post Cabinet media briefing where he said he would not get drawn into a debate as the matter is now sub judice, that is, before the law courts.

Imbert also made it clear that the contents of media statements from his ministry were not drafted according to any mere whim of his but on the basis of advice from senior counsel.

His counsel had advised that the court issued no injunction against the Property Tax Act nor the Valuation of Land Act, nor the voluntary submission of forms.

The senior counsel advised us that the process had not been injuncted against. He said that (as of now) Opposition-linked attorney Anand Ramlogan was right to argue that people are not obligated to pay the tax.

Pressed on the June 5 extended deadline for submissions, Imbert said people are not obligated to pay by this date.

Imbert used the occasion to share details of revenue-generation for the $6 billion deficit Budget of fiscal 2017, including a US$300 million loan from the Andean Bank, drawdowns on the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund and borrowing on the local market. This latter included a third tranche of $1 billion borrowed via Republic Bank at a rate of 4.25 percent for 15 years, a better rate than a loan earlier this year via the Central Bank at 4.5 percent
Baptiste-Primus pilots Fire Service Bill

Piloting the bill in the Senate yesterday, Minister of Labour, Small and Micro Enterprise Development Jennifer Baptiste-Primus said it was with great joy and pride that she was doing so as she would have negotiated the particular terms and conditions and signed of on it with the Chief Personnel Officer in 2003 when she served as president of the Public Service Association.

Expressing delight to round off the last leg in the legislative process to enable fire officers who should have been enjoying their retirement benefits, she said, It is unfair for fire officers, who may have acted continuously for over three years and would have retired without their pension benefits being calculated at a higher level, but calculated at their substantive position. The bill will give effect, she said, to a Cabinet decision of March 22, 2012, when Cabinet agreed that the Attorney General should amend the fifth schedule of the Fire Service act to give effect to the terms of the memorandum of understanding between the Chief Personnel Officer and the Fire Service Association (Second Division) dated March 6, 2012.

This bill will ensure that fire officers are given superannuation benefits of the higher position as all other public officers dated back to 2003, she said. With the bill, she said, Government is giving effect to the principles of decent work. It will provide for a fair income, productivity, security in the workplace and social protection, whether they were promoted or not, she said. Apart from the amendment to the Fire Service Act, Baptiste-Primus said, there are many pieces of labour legislation that no longer effectively address the rights and obligations of employees or employers in the country.

The need to modernise the legislative framework to ensure that the rights of the countrys 580,000-labour force are upheld, she said, cannot be over-emphasised. On the legislative front, she said, the ministry has some 22 pieces of labour legislation under review.

Noting that they are all outdated, she said, the Employment Exchange Act is 98 years old.

We have identified ten pieces of labour legislation as legislative priorities of the ministry and which forms part of this Governments agenda, she said.

The list of legislative priorities, she said, include amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, Retrenchment and Severance Benefit Act, Workmens Compensation Act, Occupational and Safety and Health Act, Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperatives Studies Act, Friendly Societies Act, and Cooperative Societies Act.

There was also need, she said, for legislation in respect of the private security sector, legislation aimed at the elimination and prevention of child labour, and legislation outlining basic terms and conditions of work for all citizens who would enter the labour market.
Govt should look at the Pensions Act

I would like the Government to look at the Pensions Act, look at what is before us and to determine whether legally does it not make sense to ensure that all fire officers, not only those who retired since 2008, and who acted in their positions, but all officers who are still alive, who may have worked during the coup, during the difficult times, could we look and see what provisions could be made and whether the Pensions Act would not be the law, that would rule, Mahabir queried.

Mahabir was speaking on the bill to mmend the Fire Service Act Chapter 35:05 in the Upper House in the Parliament, yesterday. The Bill was piloted by Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus in the Parliament Chamber.

He said an officer who acted in a higher position for three years, and then returned to his former position for two months and then went into retirement, would not be compensated for the years that he acted in that former position.

Mahabir said Clause 2 in the Pension Act stated that such officer, immediately prior to the date of his compulsory retirement, shall be eligible to have his pension, gratuity or other allowance calculated as if he were substantively appointed to that higher office. This clause came from somewhere, it was lifted from somewhere, and so from where was it lifted? What we are doing is simply following the law that is stated in the pension plan. Section 16 (a) is the law of the land he said.

The Pension Act 16(a) stated where an officer who immediately prior to his compulsory retirement or date on which he proceeds on annual leave prior to the date of compulsory retirement has acted in a higher office for a period three continuous years, that officer shall be eligible to have his pension, gratuity or other allowance calculated as though he was confirmed in that higher office. I am wondering whether it is Governments policy in that situation we dont consider giving them a lump sum to compensate for the fact that the beneficiary, via the luck of the draw, for not having acted continuously until retirement? Mahabir queried. He put to Baptiste-Primus whether she would inform them as to what was happening with respect to other areas of the public service, whether other officers were in similar circumstances and whether consideration would be given to officers whose service, while continuous, may have been truncated a few months before their retirement.

Mahabir proposed that a fire officer who retired in 1988, and was still alive, should fall under the provision of this bill.

He said this was a small bill cost to pay to the fire officers.

We cannot challenge the need to regularise pensions. We have too many hodge podge pieces of legislations in Trinidad and Tobago, and we need to make sure that the system becomes fairer and fairer as our society ages. The issue is not cost, the issue is priority, he said..

All fire officers, I would hope, all public officers, who were under the states employ, and who come under the protection of the laws of TT, and who acted for three years continuously, let us see if they are not entitled to the same benefits as those who retired in 2008, he said.
Ramdial: Investors in limbo

Ramdial asked this of officials from the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) and the Planning Ministry during a public hearing held by the Local Authorities, Service Commissions and Statutory Authorities Joint Select Committee (JSC) at Tower D of the Port-of-Spain International Waterfront Centre.

In response, CDA member Robert Cezair said the Authority is aware of an estimated $2 billion in investment made by investors on the projects which she mentioned.

However, We must bear in mind, it is a legal matter. The Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs is examining the leases on these projects.

Ramdial expressed concern that billions in investment could be lost, if the second legal opinion being sought, says the leases of the investors are illegal. Speaking later with reporters, she said, These projects should get the green light to go ahead. She indicated that the former CDA board said the leases were not illegal and this is causing, disenchantment with lease holders for these mega projects. Saying these investors, Dont know where they stand, Ramdial said none of these projects are harmful to the environment or are in breach of the CDAs 1974 development plan. She said that a hotel, eco park and water park are among projects earmarked for Chaguaramas. Ramdial said steps should be taken to, keep these investors in rather than running them away. During the hearing, acting CDA general manager Deowattee Dilraj-Batoosingh said there are tenants in Chaguaramas that are not paying the rent they are supposed to. There are others who always dispute the quantum of rent they are supposed to pay.

Cezair disclosed that some tenants have constructed jetties and encouraged boats to berth there for a fee.

He said the CDA has revisited a 1994 Cabinet note which would allow the Commissioner of State Lands to collect revenue from these people. Dilraj-Battoosingh also told JSC members that the authority incurred a $110 million debt under its previous board.

She said part of that debt is Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) debt and the Authority is communicating with the Finance Ministry on this. She said the CDA has to generate the revenue to pay off the remainder of the debt.

Dilraj-Battoosingh also said, We (CDA) are running a deficit and have been running a deficit for the past four years. She said the CDA has been conversing with service providers and has been undertaking part payments on some of its bills. Asked by JSC chairman Hugh Russell Ian Roach about the allocation the CDA receives in the national budget, Dilraj-Battoosingh said the Authority receives $7,750,000 for development projects.

Dilraj-Battoosingh also said payment of salaries exceeds the revenue the CDA earns.We struggle to pay salaries every month, she stated. Acting CDA human resources manager Susan Russell-Edwards told JSC members that within the Authoritys 463 employees, there are 179 monthly paid and 14 temporary employees. Russell-Edwards said in order to reduce the overtime bill, the temporary workers operate on shift basis on weekends.

She also said the Finance Ministry allocated a sum of $10 million to assist with pension payments.

Dilraj-Battoosingh said there was no pension plan in place prior to the new CDA board taking office.

However she said a plan was established last year.
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The outlook for the 2017 crop year bodes well for Morocco with a total cereal output reaching 102 million quintals, i.e. a 203% rise compared to last year (33.5 million quintals).

These positive prospects for Moroccos agricultural sector were confirmed by Spokesperson for the Moroccan government, Mustapha El Khalfi, who was speaking to the press following the weekly cabinet meeting Thursday.

Quoting the Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Aziz Akhannoch, El Khalfi said that Moroccos cereal production was planted on 5.1 million hectares of arable soil compared to 3.62 million hectares last crop year.

He added that Moroccos cereal production includes 49.9 million quintals of soft wheat, 23.4 million quintals of durum, 28.9 million quintals of hordeum.

El Khalfi added that the government adopted effective measures to buy this output from farmers. Among these measures, he mentioned setting the reference price of 280 dirham per quintal for soft wheat.

Concerning livestock, El Khalfi highlighted the beneficial impact of the abundant rainfall in main pastoral areas as well as the subsidies given to farmers.

Last year late rainfall made the country double its wheat imports to meet demand, as Moroccos wheat production remains vulnerable to unpredictable weather patterns.

Due to its significant contribution to the countrys GDP (around 15 percent in recent years), the agriculture sector largely determines the growth level of the whole economy. The large fluctuations in output are also reflected in fluctuation in agricultural imports of commodities such as animal feed, wheat, and oilseeds.
Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- President Donald Trumps views on the Paris climate agreement are evolving, his chief economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters Friday.



He came here to learn, Cohn said. So his views are evolving, which is exactly what they should be.



The presidents national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, then chimed in to say that the presidents decision about whether to remain in the agreement would ultimately be based whats best for the United States; Cohn concurred.



The basis for the decision is ultimately going to be whats best for the United States, Cohn said.



The future of the United States involvement in the landmark agreement, which the president repeatedly criticized as a candidate, has been a sticking point at the ongoing summit, with the Italian prime minister pointing to it as an "open question" at the day's conclusion.



There is one open question, which is the U.S. position on the Paris climate accords.  All others have confirmed their total agreement on the accord, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said at the end of the first days session. We are sure that after an internal reflection, the United States will also want to commit to it.



The president is not expected to make a final decision on the accord until after he returns home. But Cohn indicated earlier Friday that the president was growing more attuned to the European stance on the issue.



"I think he is leaning to understand the European position, Cohn said when asked which way the president was leaning. Look as you know from the U.S. there's very strong views on both sides.



In addition to getting pushed on the topic at the G7 summit, the president also got an earful at the Vatican, where the pope presented the president with one of his writings on the environment and the Cardinal secretary of state further raised the issue during a bilateral meeting.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Congress is tough on crime, but not in its own chamber. Photo: William Campbell/Corbis via Getty Images

Hours after Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte was accused of body slamming Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs on the eve of a special election for the states U.S. House seat, moveon.org began running an ad intended to make sure every voter heard the audio of the incident. At the end, this line flashed on the screen: Greg Gianforte. Unfit to serve.

Three local papers came to the same conclusion, rescinding their endorsements of the Republican candidate. But technically, thats incorrect. Gianforte won the election on Thursday night, and theres no reason that he cant be sworn in as the next congressman from Montana, though hes been charged with misdemeanor assault.

The Constitution says members of the House and Senate must meet three requirements:

 All members of the House must be at least 25 years old, and members of the Senate must be at least 30 years old.



 Members of the House must have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and members of the Senate must have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years.



 They have to be an inhabitant of the state when elected.



The Constitution also says that the House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members. That suggests the House has vast control over who gets to be a member of Congress, but as the Washington Post notes, the Supreme Court shot down that idea in 1969. Three years earlier, when Representative Adam Clayton Powell was reelected despite an ethics scandal, members of the House voted to exclude him from the 90th Congress. He challenged the move and the Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. McCormack that the House can determine if members meet the three requirements listed above, but they cant create new qualifications  like, for instance, not facing assault charges.

So while House Speaker Paul Ryans comment on Gianfortes alleged body slam was a dodge, it was also technically correct. If he wins, he has been chosen by the people of Montana, who their congressmans going to be, he said. Im going to let the people of Montana decide who they want as their representative.

A sitting member of Congress can be removed by a two-thirds vote in the House, but that method has only been successfully used five times, and three occurred in the wake of the Civil War. Its highly unlikely that a misdemeanor assault charge would spur Congress to take action against Gianforte, as its fairly common for members to serve while facing charges. By the Posts count, more than two dozen members of Congress were indicted between 1980 and 2015.

Even if Gianforte receives the maximum penalty for misdemeanor assault in Montana, six months in jail, he could still continue serving in Congress. As factcheck.org explains, the Constitution does not say people convicted of crimes are barred from serving, and one member of Congress was actually elected from prison:

In 1798, Rep. Matthew Lyon ran for Congress from prison and won. He assumed his seat in Congress after serving four months in prison for libeling President John Adams. An effort was made to expel Lyon from the House, but it failed.

Since some Republicans in Congress responded to the Gianforte assault story by cracking jokes about attacking journalists, theres obviously little political will to take drastic measures against him. But Vox notes that when convicted, other members of Congress have been privately pressured to resign.

At the very least, Gianfortes political future is now a little less bright.

If [Gianforte] is elected, theyre going to want to hide him. So [the assault] probably harms the chances of him getting a really good committee assignment, Michele Swers, a congressional expert at American University, told Vox. He almost certainly wont get as prominent a committee assignment as he would have otherwise.

Down the line, that could prevent him from achieving his real goal, which, according to Matt McKenna, a longtime Montana politics insider and adviser to Gianfortes opponent Rob Quist, is another crack at the governorship.

This is the first day of the end of Greg Gianfortes political career, McKenna told the Post, following his win. It may seem like he got away with this because so many people already voted, but they will deny him the prize he really wants which is the governors office. He could go to jail. He still has to be arraigned.
Greg Gianforte (left), Donald Trump (right). Photo: Janie Osborne/Getty Images; Philippe Wojazer/AFP/Getty Images

I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters, boasted Donald Trump during his presidential campaign. The Fifth Avenue Principle turned out to be the cruelest but also most insightful summation of the psychology of Trumps fan base. But, as much as Trump would like to imagine the principle applies uniquely to himself and his cultural magnetism to red America, it has more to do with his adorers than the subject of their adoration. The principle was demonstrated aptly enough by newly elected Republican congressman Greg Gianforte.

The incoming representative did not literally stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue (which lies well outside his Montana district) nor did he shoot somebody. He did, however, make a brutal and unprovoked physical attack on a reporter who merely had the temerity to ask him a pertinent policy question Gianforte preferred to dodge. Gianfontes attack was recorded on audio and witnessed by a full crew from  of all places  Fox News.

The response to this incident has broken down along almost exactly the same lines as the responses to the various outrages committed by Donald Trump. The mainstream media, liberals, and a handful of conservative pundits have howled. The latter camp overlaps almost entirely with those conservative intellectuals who have criticized Trump.

Against those conservatives aghast at a member of Congress acting like Tony Soprano is a much larger and more influential array of party regulars. Fox & Friends covered the story in a perfunctory and misleading fashion. Sinclair News, an up-and-coming conservative propaganda network that controls a wide array of local news stations, blacked out the story altogether. Talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh swooned over Gianfortes display of machismo. And evidence suggests the vast majority of the Montana Republican electorate followed the latter.

There is an interesting debate over whether, or to what degree, Trump has legitimized political violence or rough treatment of the media. But what Gianforte clearly shows is the willingness of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement to deny or legitimize any misbehavior, however gross, obvious, and unrelated to conservative principle. And the episode offers a road map to how those same people will continue to follow Trump wherever he takes them. The election of a thug is a dry run for the battles that lie ahead in Trumps Washington.
Mick Mulvaney. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Earlier this week, the Trump administration released a federal budget that contradicted itself. This wasnt terribly surprising. After all, the president spent his entire campaign vowing to realize a long list of mutually exclusive policy goals: large increases in funding for the military and border defense; the maintenance of Medicare and Social Security at their current benefit levels; a $1 trillion infrastructure package; enormous tax cuts for both the wealthy and middle class; and a balanced budget within ten years.

The most gifted fiscal-policy thinkers in the world would struggle to produce a document that complied with such commitments. And the Trump White House does not boast a world-class team of economic advisers  or, really, any team of economic advisers, at all.

And so, on Tuesday, Mick Mulvaney unveiled a budget that:

1) Included cuts to federal agencies and anti-poverty programs so draconian, multiple Republicans declared them dead on arrival.

2) Pretended that Trumps infrastructure pledge did not exist, Social Security disability benefits arent really Social Security, and the estate tax will still provide the government revenue even after its abolished.

3) Baselessly assumed that Trumps enormous tax cut will pay for itself, by generating $2 trillion in new revenue through higher economic growth.

And all that still wasnt enough to get the dang thing to balance one decade from now, without also arbitrarily counting that $2 trillion a second time.

So the administration arbitrarily counted that $2 trillion a second time.

It seems doubtful that the administration deliberately chose to portray itself as incapable of performing basic arithmetic. The error was likely driven less by dishonesty than a combination of carelessness and necessity.

But, once its error was exposed, Mulvaney decided to err on the side of mendacity.

Asked about his budgets Dada approach to mathematics at a Senate hearing Thursday, Mulvaney explained that there had been no error: His budget assumed that Trumps tax plan will pay for itself purely through the abolition of loopholes. Thus, the greater revenues it would generate through faster growth could be allocated to defraying the cost of Trumps spending plans.

It would be about as reasonable for Mulvaney to assume that the Mexican government will pay for the presidents border wall, the F-35 program, and Medicare Part D.

There has been a lively debate among Republicans about whether their tax plan should increase the deficit or pay for itself. The presidents tax blueprint and recent public statements suggest the White House is fully behind option No. 1. But even those pushing for revenue-neutral tax reform assume that magic, growth-induced revenues would be part of the pay for. No elected Republican has proposed a reform package that raises taxes as much as it cuts them. Given the partys commitment to massive tax cuts for the rich, such a plan would involve a politically toxic tax hike on middle-income households.

So, by itself, Mulvaneys absurd excuse would be about as embarrassing as the math error it was formulated to deny. And its absurdity was only exacerbated by this Wall Street Journal story:

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told a Senate committee that the administrations tax plan doesnt bank on any revenue stemming from faster economic growth. Four floors below that hearing, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave a contradictory answer to a different Senate panel, insisting that the administrations tax plan will partly pay for itself with economic growth.

Senior Trump administration officials split with each other publicly Thursday on a core feature of the presidents tax plan.

Is it really better to portray yourself as ignorant of the basic contours of your partys tax debate  and your administration as internally divided over the basic principles of its tax policy  then to admit you made an adding error?

At any rate, Mulvaneys budgetary debacle is a vivid illustration of his own incompetence, and that of the Trump White House more broadly. But its worth noting that the incoherence of the administrations budget is rooted in the incoherence of the fiscal agenda of the entire Republican party: It makes little sense to drastically cut taxes on the rich, when your nation has a public pension system and an aging population. It makes even less sense if you also want to increase defense spending; and less sense, still, if you have proven politically incapable of making that public pension more austere, or of passing truly radical cuts to the governments discretionary budget.

But the Republican coalition depends on the money of defense contractors and libertarian billionaires  and the votes of the elderly. And they all want what theyve been promised.

The Trump administration didnt create the GOPs budget problem. Its grotesque incompetence has simply made that problem harder to conceal.
There was something different about KECIs Gianforte coverage. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Last night, Montana residents who tuned into their NBC affiliate, KECI, would not have heard the now infamous audio of Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs being roughed up by GOP congressional candidate Greg Gianforte. The anchor of the evening newscast, Laurel Staples, read a statement that said, in part, NBC Montana takes pride in reporting only verifiable facts from an independent, reliable sources.

New York has learned that KECI news director Julie Weindel was called by NBC News to see if KECI would cover the story or had any footage of the Gianforte incident that NBC News and its affiliates could use. A well-placed source familiar with communications between KECI news director Julie Weindel and NBC News says that she was unyielding in her refusal to share any footage she may have had access to, or run a report on the incident. According to the source, Weindel said that they werent covering the story, though it was featured in outlets across the country at the time, explaining, The person that tweeted [Jacobs] and was allegedly body slammed is a reporter for a politically biased publication. Weindel then added, You are on your own for this.

Weindel told New York that those remarks were made in a private email shortly after the story broke, and had been taken out of context between numerous phone calls as well with NBC.

Like any responsible journalist with unconfirmed accounts, we needed to be confident that we were able to verify the information and report the facts, she said, adding that at the time there were no clear and undisputed facts. We were eventually able to confirm, and we did aggressively report the facts of the story, the investigation, and the assault citation, based on the sheriffs information and press conference, which we covered and sent in its entirely to NBC and MSNBC immediately, she said.

A report in HuffPost reveals that the station was acquired, last month, by the conservative media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcasting. The KECI station manager told HuffPost that the station did not have specific instructions or any instruction from Sinclair regarding the Gianforte story. But specific instruction isnt needed. A story earlier this month in the New York Times said that Sinclair requires its stations to run stories that lean right. And last year Politico reported that the Trump campaign struck an exclusive deal with Sinclair to broadcast interviews with Trump across all of its networks, an unprecedented arrangement.

Its important to note that NBC News, including the Today show and affiliates across the country, played the audio of the altercation between Jacobs and Gianforte, who was charged with misdemeanor assault.

This post was updated to include Weindels statement. Follow Yashar Ali on Twitter @Yashar.
Yet another federal court agrees that Trumps travel ban is really an unconstitutional Muslim ban. Photo: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Once again, the Trump administration has suffered a judicial setback in seeking to implement its second proposed travel ban, as an unusual 13-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed by a 103 margin that a lower court had reason to believe the ban was simply a veil for an unconstitutional ban affecting Muslims, based on comments before his election by the president and key aides.

On its own timetable, there is a separate Ninth Circuit review of a Hawaii judges injunction against the travel ban, made on very similar grounds. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit held a hearing on May 15, in which the judges did not sound sympathetic toward the Justice Departments argument that preelection statements were not germane to a presidents executive orders, so long as they are not unconstitutional on their face. So the odds are high that the administration is going to lose there, too. But either way, only the Supreme Court can clear the path to enforcement of the order. And it may well choose to clear up the law in this area, since a district-court judge in Virginia turned down arguments identical to those made in lower courts in the Fourth and Ninth circuits. The president has repeatedly vowed to appeal the adverse decisions to SCOTUS.

But SCOTUS may not rush to the presidents aid, as Matt Ford observed earlier this month:

A final decision could be almost a year away even if the justices accept the case. The Courts summer recess begins next month, meaning the administration would likely have to wait until the next term begins in October before the justices could hear oral arguments in the matter.

What are the administrations options if SCOTUS drags its feet or turns down its appeal? Well, presumably, it would have to make some pronouncement designed to show that the policy-makers in the White House had decisively changed their minds about Muslims. Perhaps they could display some photos of that orb-sharing Friend of Islam in Riyadh last week, and say: Never mind!
Romney. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Mitt Romney, an obscenely rich 70-year-old with unfulfilled political ambitions, has decided to continue enjoying his vast wealth and beautiful family rather than grind out a U.S. Senate campaign. So says Utah senator Orrin Hatch, whose retirement rumors sparked speculation that Romney would take another crack at landing a job in D.C.

Ive talked to Mitt Romney. Hes not going to run for this seat. I would be glad for him if he would, Hatch told the website UtahPolicy this week. Ive chatted with Mitt, and hes not going to run for the Senate, he added.

The 83-year-old Hatch is the Senates longest-serving Republican. Hes up for reelection next year but he hasnt made clear if he plans to run again. Politico notes that he is raising money, suggesting he may run again. Utah voters are hoping he doesnt. A January poll found that 80 percent of them would rather he call it quits after his seventh term.

Last month, The Atlantic reported that Romney was laying the groundwork for a Senate run and dreaming of going to D.C. to needle President Trump from Capitol Hill. Instead, hell apparently spend the next few years with his fortune and lots of free time, which sounds a hell of a lot better than the Senate anyway.
James Comey and Loretta Lynch. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Last year, the FBI obtained a document that suggested Attorney General Loretta Lynch had promised to obstruct the investigation into Hillary Clintons email server should it start to threaten her campaign. The intelligence consisted of a supposed email exchange between thenDemocratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and a Clinton campaign operative  one whom Schultz did not actually know.

James Comey quickly discerned that the document was a forgery composed by Russian agents. But the thenFBI director chose to act as though it were real, anyway  presenting the emails to Congress as authentic intelligence, and freezing Lynch out of major decisions on the Clinton investigation, as though she were, in fact, compromised.

This decision led Comey to declare the investigation over last summer  while offering a detailed, public criticism of Clintons actions, in apparent violation of Justice Department protocol  without soliciting the attorney generals input.

Or so a bunch of anonymous officials whispered to CNN on Friday:

In classified sessions with members of Congress several months ago, Comey described those emails in the Russian claim and expressed his concern that this Russian information could drop and that would undermine the Clinton investigation and the Justice Department in general, according to one government official. Still, Comey did not let on to lawmakers that there were doubts about the veracity of the intelligence, according to sources familiar with the briefings. It is unclear why Comey was not more forthcoming in a classified setting.



Sources close to Comey tell CNN he felt that it didnt matter if the information was accurate, because his big fear was that if the Russians released the information publicly, there would be no way for law enforcement and intelligence officials to discredit it without burning intelligence sources and methods.



In at least one classified session, Comey cited that intelligence as the primary reason he took the unusual step of publicly announcing the end of the Clinton email probe.



In that briefing, Comey did not even mention the other reason he gave in public testimony for acting independently of the Justice Department  that Lynch was compromised because Bill Clinton boarded her plane and spoke to her during the investigation, these sources told CNN.

CNN does not interrogate Comeys rationale, and frames its story as an illustration of the Putin regimes formidable powers.

But if this report is true, the FBIs actions are far more alarming than the Kremlins. The idea that Russia would disseminate (transparently) false intelligence to undermine Hillary Clinton is, at this point, less than surprising. The idea that federal law enforcement would knowingly represent that intelligence to Congress as plausible  and then abandon the Justice Departments chain of command on the basis of that false information  is shocking.

Comeys rationale for taking these actions, as represented by CNN, make little sense. Ostensibly, Comey reasoned that if he made the FBIs rationale for ending the investigation public  and did so while keeping Lynch out of the loop  this would mitigate the impact of Russia releasing its fake emails to the public.

But thats insane. Marginalizing Lynch, and publicly calling Clinton extremely careless, did not buy Comey the trust of Fox News or the Republican nominee. Even without Russias fabrications, both Trump and right-wing media accused Comey of rigging the investigation in Clintons favor. If the fake emails had been released last August, there still would have been no way for Comey to convincingly discredit them without revealing sources and methods  or, honestly, even with revealing sources and methods.

Whats more, Comeys rationale does not explain his decision to withhold his doubts about the intelligence from Congress. If your goal is to avoid tarnishing the Justice Departments reputation, why would you present a mendacious attack on that reputation to lawmakers as legitimate?

Its possible that CNNs story is simply false  itself a fabrication of administration officials looking to tarnish Comeys reputation.

But if its true, Comeys actions say less about Russias capacity to subvert our government than the conservative movements: The FBI directors actions do not make sense as a coldly rational response to a foreign adversarys attempt at realpolitik, but rather as a panicked attempt to placate conservative politicians and media institutions whose demand  lock her up  he could not satisfy.

Trumps firing of Comey was rightly seen as a disturbing attempt to politicize federal law enforcement. But its possible that said firing never would have happened had Trumps party not already politicized the FBI in 2016.
Republicans win another special election, but its unclear if it has much value as precedent. Photo: Janie Osborne/Getty Images

Last nights vote-counting for Montanas special congressional election was less exciting than the election-eve incident, wherein the ultimate winner, Republican Greg Gianforte, assaulted journalist Ben Jacobs. He wound up defeating Democrat Rob Quist by a six-point margin. A win is a win, but it was certainly much less impressive than nowInterior Secretary Ryan Zinkes 15-point breezer last November in taking the same seat, much less Donald Trumps 20-point margin over Hillary Clinton. But it did improve on Gianfortes own four-point loss last November in the Montana governors race.

Here are some takeaways from the race:

1. Trump is not necessarily the kiss of death for Republican candidates. In his losing gubernatorial race, Gianforte all but ignored Donald Trump. In his winning House race he went all MAGA, promising over and over to help the president drain the swamp in Washington, campaigning with Donald Trump Jr., and using robocalls from the Mogul himself. At least one survey showed Trump with a surprisingly poor approval ratio in Montana shortly before this election. Disdain for Trump was not evident in the results, though without exit polling, well never know for sure.

2. Populism is not a magic elixir for Democrats. Its no secret that some Democrats have for a long time believed their partys biggest problem, particularly in rural states like Montana, was a habit of running corporate centrist candidates, instead of populists who are culturally in touch with local traditions while waling away at distant, evil economic elites. There was even some recent precedent for this approach in Montana with the success of fiery former governor Brian Schweitzer.

Well, in Rob Quist, Democrats had a populist right out of central casting. A well-known country/bluegrass musician, Quist was never seen without his cowboy hat and his big metal belt buckle. He combined support for gun rights with support for a single-payer health-care system. And he barnstormed around the state in the final weekend of the campaign with Bernie Sanders.

Quists personal financial problems, which Republican attack ads ruthlessly exploited, may have blurred his economic appeal, but the fact remains that he lost to the same candidate that centrist Governor Steve Bullock defeated last November. So intoning populism and expecting victory is not always a great idea.

3. Early voting turned and bit the donkey. In Montana and elsewhere, Democrats have almost always advocated more early voting opportunities, and have typically benefited from a wide-open franchise. Had Democratic governor Steve Bullock had his way in a dispute with the Republican-controlled legislature, yesterdays special election would have been conducted entirely by mail. But as it turned out, the prevalence of early voting helped insulate Greg Gianforte from a backlash over his election-eve assault. Its doubtful he would have lost without early voting (he seems to have done a little worse among Election Day voters, usually a GOP stronghold), but perhaps if he hadnt felt like he had a victory in the bank, he would have left Ben Jacobs alone.

4. Montana does not provide much of a precedent for Georgias sixth district. There will be a lot of talk going forward about Gianfortes win giving the GOP momentum for the next big competitive contest, the runoff election between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel in the sixth congressional district of Georgia. Maybe thats true on the margins in terms of volunteer and donor enthusiasm. But the two places are wildly different in everything other than their history as Republican strongholds.

Georgias sixth district is one big suburb in a 5-million-person metropolitan area. Traffic congestion is one of its most significant problems. Billings is what passes for an urban area in Montana. The very idea of highway speed limits remains controversial in Big Sky country. Even politically, there are sizable differences: Donald Trump carried Montana by 20 points; he won Georgias sixth district by just 1 point. In Montana, nobody was really sure about Rob Quists political appeal. In Georgia, Ossoff won 48 percent of the vote in the first round of the special election, so theres no doubt he can (though there is doubt he will) win on June 20.

5. The GOP money advantage still matters. Though Quist, like other 2017 Democrats, did very well in raising big money (an estimated $6 million) in small batches, in the end non-campaign outside groups supporting Gianforte had the upper hand. According to one estimate, Republican TV ad spending doubled that of Quist and Democrats. So once again, some Democrats are going to charge their own national organizations with insufficient support.

6. None of 2017s special elections are necessarily precedent for 2018. While Democrats fear their grassroots base could have a collective nervous breakdown if they dont win somewhere in 2017, there is actually no reason a very good midterm requires winning in special elections over seats that, after all, were vacated by people joining Donald Trumps cabinet  not exactly a representative sample of House districts. A better barometer for 2018 than these special elections is probably the regular off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia. And better than those might be various indicators  from candidate recruitment to Trumps net approval ratings to the congressional generic ballot  that at the moment are looking quite good for Democrats.

In the Donald Trump era, of course, anything can happen at any minute; November 2018 seems decades away. The best predictions dont stray too far from the road immediately ahead.
Their differences go way deeper than immigration policy. Photo: Evan Vucci/AFP/Getty Images

The contrast between a grim-faced pope and the grinning president at the Vatican this past week was not lost on the press or late-night TV. But they missed the mark, it seems to me. They noted merely that the two leaders profoundly disagree on, say, the dignity of immigrants, the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, or the urgency of tackling climate change. While these disagreements exist, they are, it seems to me, merely symptoms of a deeper chasm  the vast, empty, and dark space that lies between Donald Trump and anything resembling Christianity.

I dont believe that there is a Christian politics as such  there is plenty of scope for disagreement about how to translate a Christian worldview into secular politics, or whether to translate it at all. But I do believe there is a Christian set of core human virtues and values, rooted in what we Catholics still think of as the truth, and that those virtues are rooted in the Gospels. We all fail the virtue test, of course, including yours truly, perhaps more than most. But Trump is a special case  because when you think about those virtues, it is very hard to see Donald Trump as anything but a living, breathing, shameless refutation of every single one.

Trump is not an atheist, confident yet humble in the search for a God-free morality. He is not an agnostic, genuinely doubtful as to the meaning of existence but always open to revelation should it arrive. He is not even a wayward Christian, as he sometimes claims to be, beset by doubt and failing to live up to ideals he nonetheless holds. The ideals he holds are, in fact, the antithesis of Christianity  and his life proves it. He is neither religious nor irreligious. He is pre-religious. He is a pagan. He makes much more sense as a character in Game of Thrones, a medieval world bereft of the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth, than as a president of a modern, Western country.

He loves the exercise of domination, where Christianity practices subservience. He thrills to the use of force, while Jesus preached nonviolence, even in the face of overwhelming coercion. He is tribal, where Jesus was resolutely universal. He is a serial fantasist, whereas Jesus came to reveal the Truth. He is proud, where Jesus was humble. He lives off the attention of the crowd, whereas Jesus fled the throngs that followed him. He is unimaginably wealthy, while Jesus preached the virtue of extreme poverty. He despises the weak, whom Jesus always sided with. He lies to gain an advantage, while Jesus told the truth and was executed for it. He loathes the other, when Jesus radical embrace of the outsider lay at the heart of his teaching. He campaigns on fear, which Jesus repeatedly told us to abandon. He clings to his privileged bubble, while Jesus walked the streets, with nothing to his name. His only true loyalty is to his family, while Jesus abandoned his. He believes in torture, while Jesus endured it silently. He sees women as objects of possession and abuse, while Jesus  at odds with his time and place  saw women as fully equal, indeed as the first witnesses to the Resurrection. He is in love with power, while Jesus  possessed of greater power, his followers believe, than any other human being  chose to surrender all of it. If Trump were to issue his own set of beatitudes, they would have to be something like this:

Blessed are the winners: for theirs is the kingdom of Earth.

Blessed are the healthy: for they will pay lower premiums.

Blessed are the rich: for they will inherit whats left of the earth, tax-free.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for oil and coal: for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciless: for they are so, so strong.

Blessed are the liars: for they will get away with it.

Blessed are the war-makers: for they will be called very, very smart.

Blessed are those who support you regardless: for theirs is the Electoral College.

Blessed are you when others revile you and investigate you and utter all kinds of fake news about you. Rejoice and be glad, for the failing press is dying.

The week Trump visited the Vatican, a transcript of his April 29 phone call with the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, leaked. In it, Trump tells Duterte that his extrajudicial murders of hundreds suspected of being in the drug trade was an amazing job. Trumps proposed budget, released this week, would eviscerate basic support for the poor in order to reward the already stupendously superrich, and would lay waste to the natural world so that our collective wealth, already greater than any countrys in human history, could be goosed some more. His partys health-care plan would throw 23 million people off their insurance, even as he pretends it will cover everyone. Every pillar of Trumps essential character is a cardinal sin for Christians: lust, gluttony, greed, envy, anger, and pride. We are all guilty of these, of course, but there is in Trump a centrality to them, a shame-free celebration of them, that is close to unique in the history of the American presidency. I will never understand how more than half of white Catholics could vote for such a man, or how the leadership of the church could be so terribly silent when such a monster stalks the earth.

Then there was his choice to visit Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip. Of all the countries! Most presidents have begun their foreign excursions with Mexico and Canada, democratic neighbors and trading partners. Not Trump. He picked a gruesome, militarized, misogynist dictatorship, that makes Margaret Atwoods Gilead look like a feminist playground. It is a country that imports millions of foreign workers in what amounts to near-slavery conditions and that refuses to cooperate in efforts to restrain human trafficking. In a week when extreme Sunni terrorism claimed yet more lives in Manchester, Trump visited the country that was central to spreading Wahhabist ideology and Salafist theology throughout the world in the first place, that funded the precursor to ISIS, that denies minimal freedom of religion, and that gave us the perpetrators of 9/11. While Obama prudently leveraged the Shia-Sunni conflict by engaging Iran as well as the Sunni states, Trump has returned to the pro-Sunni and pro-Israeli playbook.

This was particularly weird on the same weekend that Iran  the focus of Trumps ire  actually held an election, in which both men and women voted. Yes, of course, the choices were constrained by Tehrans theocracy but the reelection victory of Rouhani, the architect of the nuclear deal, was striking. Seventy percent of the country turned out, and Rouhani won by a near-20-point margin against his hard-line opponent. He has a mandate for more liberalization, and picked up momentum in the final weeks of the race by emphasizing more liberal themes. This is, of course, Obamas long game vindicated. The former president gambled that by engaging Iran and getting a nuclear deal, he could buttress the resistance movement that fueled the Green Revolution, and slowly pull Iran back into a more moderate path. While the mullahs grip holds, its remarkable how successful Obamas strategy has turned out to be:

Despite controlling most unelected councils, the conservative clerics and Revolutionary Guard commanders have suffered a string of political defeats, starting with Mr. Rouhanis election in 2013. That led to direct talks with their archenemy, the United States, and ultimately to the nuclear deal, which they opposed. Then moderate and reformist candidates made strong gains in last years parliamentary elections.

Among the more profound shifts in Iran under Rouhani has been the opening up of superfast internet access, giving ordinary Iranians instant exposure to the West. Can you imagine an election in Saudi Arabia  much less one in which women were allowed to vote and the internet operated as a key pillar of an open media? And the potential for further change only opens up further as the 78-year-old Supreme Leader faces mortality.

Of course, the U.S. relationship with the Saudis is worth keeping; and the arms sales are lucrative. Im a realist. But to throw the American lot entirely in with the Sunnis in the regional Sunni-Shiite war, to embrace the Saudis so openly in Trumps first trip abroad, to effectively deepen the U.S. involvement in the brutal assault on Yemen that the Saudis have launched, and to punish Iran for its internal liberalization and adherence to the nuclear deal makes absolutely no sense to me. Yes, it serves Israels interests, which is why Netanyahu is happy. It enables him to isolate Israels key rival in the region, while he further entrenches Israels occupation of the West Bank. But it is not at all clear it serves Americas.

On May 31, 1982, this magazine published the first report on a mysterious new disease that was afflicting gay men in New York City. Earlier this month, 35 years later, the BBC reported on a new study in the Lancet that found that an HIV-positive 20-year-old who started anti-retroviral treatment in the past decade can now be expected to live for 78 years  indistinguishable from a normal life span. From a survival rate of a few months or even weeks after diagnosis in the early 1980s, we have finally arrived at the effective end not just of a plague but of an illness.

This is the kind of news, of course, that never gets to be news. Its one of the greatest success stories in the history of human medicine  the first successful checking of a sophisticated retrovirus  and yet few noted this landmark moment. But a landmark it is. In the mid-1990s, I was taking up to 30 pills a day. Now I take two  with far fewer side effects. The credit for this goes to those activists who refused to give in to complacency, to the scientific and academic researchers who pioneered deep research, to the doctors who persevered through unimaginable loss, and, yes, to the evil drug companies who formulated every single one of the treatments, and saved hundreds of thousands of lives. I remember when I was privileged to write an essay marking the end of the plague experience, in 1996  and was subjected to a tsunami of criticism, denial, and hostility for pointing out the now-established empirical truth. Good news is often first rejected, then taken for granted, and then finally forgotten. And this, of course, is the ultimate irony. Gay men in their 20s have no idea of what happened in their own communities only 25 years ago  and they care even less.

Last Augusts Carnival Week theme in Provincetown  one of the enclaves utterly devastated by the virus a few decades ago  was, I kid you not, Back to the 80s. It was as if a Jewish community decided to put on a parade whose theme was Back to the 30s. And almost no one even noticed. Gay men do not have gay biological parents, and so the usual ways in which history is remembered  the passing down of memories through the generations within families  are weirdly absent. The AIDS epidemic is as real to todays gay 20-somethings as, say, the American Civil War. Maybe this is a good thing  it prevents trauma being passed down as well. But it also stings to remember the faces of the dead and the trauma of the survivors and know that almost none of this matters to gay men any more.

Always Forget. Its a strange moniker for a community that only a couple of decades ago was in an existential crisis. Perhaps its a mercy that the dead are no longer here to note the callowness of it all.

See you next Friday.
Unlike Manafort and Flynn, Trump cant fire Kushner. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Jared Kushner is caught up in another Trump scandal, and this time a well-placed leak about how he and wife, Ivanka Trump, really tried to push a more moderate viewpoint probably isnt going to help.

The Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday that Kushner is under FBI scrutiny as part of the Russia election-meddling probe. While Kushner has not been accused of any wrongdoing, according to CNN, the FBI is looking into his role in the Trump campaigns 2016 data analytics operation; his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn; and Kushners own contacts with Russians. It was previously revealed that he met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, and Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, a Russian bank thats under U.S. sanctions.

Those meetings, which he initially failed to disclose, took place in December, so obviously if there were any Russian election meddling it had already taken place. While the investigation was originally launched to determine if the Russians colluded with Trump associates to sway the election, its expanded to include potential financial crimes committed by people close to the president.

NBC News noted that while Kushner has drawn the attention of investigators, hes not been named a formal subject of the probe, like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. A grand jury has subpoenaed records from the two former Trump aides, but so far there are no reports that similar demands have been made of Kushner.

A week ago, the Post reported that a current White House official had become a significant person of interest in the probe. Many guessed that it was the presidents son-in-law and top adviser, and New York contributor Yashar Ali confirmed on Twitter that it was him.

Following Thursdays reports, Kushners lawyer said he would be willing to testify before Congress about his contacts with the Russians. Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings, said his attorney, Jamie Gorelick. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.


Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: David L. Ryan/Boston Globe via Getty Images

This afternoon, Mark Zuckerberg, the most famous Harvard dropout since some guy named Bill Gates defined personal computing, returned to campus to receive his honorary degree. It was not Zuckerbergs first visit back to campus, but it was clearly his most triumphant.

Zuckerberg has spent his time in Cambridge taking a full-throated victory lap of his accomplishments, beginning with a handful of nostalgic posts on social media. There was the grainy, standard-def footage of Zuckerberg receiving his acceptance, opening his email on a bulky, turn-of-the-century PC tower set up so that he didnt even need to leave his bed to get online. There was a stilted livestream tour of Kirkland H33, the dorm where he made Facebooks first iteration, in which the dropout reminisced about defining college memories, like some guy mooching his microwaved Hot Pockets. There was a visit to Pinocchios, where an embarrassing paparazzi shot of the CEO from a few years ago, mouth stuffed with pizza, hangs on the wall.

But Zuckerbergs just a regular guy hokeyness  Mom, I always told you Id come back and get my degree, he posted shortly after receiving the degree  stands in contrast to a campus that has been transformed by his looming shadow. Its only a matter of time before he cuts a check to build his own Maxwell Dworkin, the campus building that houses the computer-science department, and which is named for the mothers of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.

Over the past decade, CS 50, the introductory computer-science course, has multiplied in size to become the most popular course on campus (overtaking, in somewhat ironic fashion, Economics 10, a prerequisite for future investment bankers). And like Goldman Sachs, Facebook recruits heavily from Harvards campus. In his dorm-room livestream, Zuckerberg serendipitously ran into two students who had worked or were going to work for the social network over the summer. Those who return to Facebook full-time after college are said to receive six-figure signing bonuses. Everybody works at Facebook, one student said.

Even if you dont work at Facebook, or werent inspired to pursue a CS degree, Zuckerbergs work is still central to campus life. Multiple students said that Facebook is a central hub for organizing campus events and for messaging. Posting photos has since migrated to Instagram, which Zuckerberg purchased in 2012 for $1 billion, in one of the most unquestionably prescient moves of his career. Like Zuckerberg himself, Facebook is not cool, but its all-encompassing social graph is supremely useful.

In a Simpsons episode from 2010, Zuck tells Lisa, after confessing to dropping out of Harvard, that hell get the best kind of degree: honorary, baby! He had to know that this opportunity would present itself at some point, and the decision to return this year presumably has some sort of agenda behind it. Zuckerberg left the school a frumpy hacker, and has returned a global statesman.

His speech this afternoon, wooden as ever, but still genuine, centered around the concept of purpose  feeling that you are part of something bigger than yourself is how he put it. He spoke about the social safety net, and jobs that might soon be lost to automation. He spoke of a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone, and endorsed a universal basic income. He spoke about how people like me should pay for it, and a lot of you are going to do really well, and you should too. (That last comment received hesitant, muted applause.)

Zuckerberg noted that his famous path from college dropout to billionaire was possible largely due to the fact that he had assets to fall back on, financially and career-wise. We all know how much luck weve had to get to this point in our lives, Zuckerberg admitted at one point, though luck is an odd synonym for privilege.

But his speech also seemed to indirectly address the controversy his company has generated over the last year. Speaking of the origins of News Feed, Zuckerberg recalled thinking, If we could just launch this, it could change how we learn about the world. Given how key the News Feed algorithm has been in helping distort information, hes not necessarily wrong.

The reality is anything we do today is going to have some issues in the future, but that cant stop us from getting started, he declared, shortly before asking people to donate money or time or their genome to such efforts anyway. Those two ideas often clashed within his speech: People should be allowed to fail and feel safe enough to do so; also, we can be the generation that ends poverty, that ends disease. Zuckerbergs never been hesitant to go all in on things, including stumbles like the rollout of Free Basics in India, or his $100 million waste of a donation to Newarks public schools.

Still, the speech was light on how any of this gets done  like all commencement speeches, it was a lot of vague proclamations. But the lack of specifics also speaks to his precarious position leading a wildly diverse, unimaginably large population of 2 billion global users. He emphasized that we should start building local communities right now, mercifully leaving out the fact that hed prefer you do so with Facebooks Groups product.

Zuckerberg closed on an anecdote about a student of his, undocumented, who was worried about being deported. If a high-school senior who doesnt know what his future holds can do his part to move the world forward, the CEO said, visibly and audibly tearing up, then we owe it to him to do our part too. Zuckerberg might lack any intent to run for office, but his speech today was one of his most political. The guy clearly wants to get started on fixing the world, but he knows now that he cant do it all on his own.
the fluffy one pulling its head back and looking so confused is killing me



i want an all dog administration

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This is my favorite gif

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lmao i love your dog gifs

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This is my new favorite thing.





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I haaaaaate that smug little thing he does with his jacket after

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me too

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OMG HIS HANDSSSS

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THE HANDS OMG

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I am slain

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I can't believe someone who is charged with assault is going to win an election and ppl are going to celebrate, this shit is crazy

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I feel like this has happened before, hmmm...

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yeah I know I shouldn't be surprised by anything, people suck

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Is he ahead?!

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Can we just burn this country to the ground and start over? Or maybe it should be burned to the ground and the earth salted.

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NEW: Source close to Gianforte campaign says it's raised $100K+ online in last 24 hours -- most of it coming after reporter "body slam."  Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) May 25, 2017 It's mind-boggling

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Piece of shit trump normalized this behaviour/mentality.. I mean it's only going to get worse.

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Will Trumpcare cover injuries sustained from body slamming? Asking for a reporter friend.  George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 26, 2017

Thank you OP!!!

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The state of the world rn has me more depressed than I was immediately after the election. Even if our dreams come true and Trump is impeached ASAP, the damage cannot be undone. The extreme racial hatred and lack of tolerance is never going away. We have people who don't give a damn about facts or that our democracy is under attack because their bigoted leader won. The deplorables in this country have been emboldened and all of us who ain't white or hetero are in more danger just stepping outside of our homes. The police won't protect us. The justice system won't defend us. Soon the education system won't support our children. We're all fucked.

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jfc this comment is depressing



accurate, but depressing

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Do you think we can end up in another civil war? It just seems like we're so divided, especially now more than ever :(

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I doubt quist will win, unfortunately, but hopefully this taints gianforte for his congressional career. which I hope is short tbh.



has ben said anything else?

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Just got this text from GOP natsec official: "Had to apologize to a European defense attache just now. 'I'm sorry. He's an idiot.'"  Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) May 25, 2017

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if tr*mp doesn't somehow consolidate power like his BFFs erdogan and putin, I feel sorry for president kamala harris in 2020 who will have to clean up his mess

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President Kamala Harris deserves better!

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Oop I read cause I just posted about this lol. This is a mess a HUGE mess. Bet he had to open up with that line with every foreign link

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i lol'd but this is insane.

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That first tweet is killing me. That eyebrow raise LMAO

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Bless you for this comment

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loving all these macron gifs <3

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Macron greeting Angela first is amazing. Yo go Macron!

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nous sommes allies

nous sommes unis



are we, though? ARE WE?!?!

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wow what a legend macron is

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Oh. My. God. His weird handshake really stands out there. It is so embarrassing. He's so embarrassing. To top it all off absolutely everyone has a better looking leader than us. He's an embarrassment and an oaf.

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TRUMP HAS NO EYEBROWS

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I logged into lj for the first time in forever to thank you for your recaps, bb! Bless you for all of this.

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trump should really stop trying to do his dominance handshake with men that are younger and fitter than him, like macron and trudeu, he looks especially ridiculous.

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Look at you cheering for the guy who is going to destroy my country's social security and labor laws!



So progressive :) !

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lol hell yeah @ macron managing not to get pulled in by that dumbass douchey "power move" of trump's. trudeau taught ha!

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lol damn you weren't kidding about him swerving on greeting Trump. Catch that Trump had to stick his hand out like a child afraid they won't get one of the sweets 'My turn!'

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He's so embarrassing, it's almost funny except it isn't AT ALL

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yaaas Rob Quist is up!

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@armandodkos for one: quist is doing worse in the early vote than i would have guessed  Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) May 26, 2017

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I & @th3j35t3r warned this was goal of @LouiseMensch & Schindler. #ChaosAgents planned to lead oppos to look crazy. Mission accomplished. https://t.co/pKridALrlV  Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) May 25, 2017 I don't believe this, I think she is honestly just that unhinged.

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She's fucking crazy. That Seth Rich conspiracy theory also originated from her site.

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oh really? ugh. even though that contradicts her whole Russia obsession. I just hate her so much (but sometimes she's like a trainwreck you can't look away from when her theories get really wild)

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I don't think enough people know/care who Louise Mensch is for it to work as a smear campaign for the left lol



I also don't think that she's smart/calculated enough to pull off a plot like that - IMO she just thrives on the attention and when the real news is as crazy as it is, the only way she can get it is by making shit up and then taking credit when the vaguest of her predictions somehow gets borne out. (Claude Taylor & the rest of that crew are the same.)

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the wale tweet killed me



Edited at 2017-05-26 02:30 am (UTC)

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his disdain for tomi lahren is fantastic

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He has snatched her wig off once again!

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The adults in national security are having to do major damage control for what trump did/said at the NATO summit 

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Yay! I'm finally in when a post is new! LOL

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IKR. i have the other posts loaded in browser and idk if i should read them now lol.

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It seems that hedge funds and money managers had built up too big a bullish position before the OPEC deal, send oil prices down when the 9-month extension was announced.

Friday, May 26, 2017

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OPEC and non-OPEC members secured a nine-month extension of their deal, pushing the combined 1.8 million barrels per day in reductions through to the first quarter of 2018. The cohesion among the disparate members was notable, although the markets, hoping for a bullish surprise, were less than impressed. After hinting at deeper cuts or perhaps an extension through the middle of 2018, oil traders were left disappointed. There is evidence that hedge funds and other money managers built up a bullish position ahead of the meeting on the off chance that OPEC would surprise the market with more aggressive action. Once that was off the table, there was a selloff in crude positions. OPEC officials shrugged off the price drop, arguing that they cant be concerned with daily price movements.

OPECs cut aimed at Saudi Aramco IPO. One of the principle motivations for Saudi Arabia to keep the production cuts going is to boost the valuation of Saudi Aramco when it stages an IPO next year. The Saudi government needs higher oil prices in 2018 in order to maximize the sale of Aramco. Saudi officials allege that the company is worth some $2 trillion, although others dispute that figure. Nevertheless, the timing of the Aramco IPO ensures that Saudi Arabia will do whatever it takes to keep oil prices afloat.

No exit strategy yet for OPEC. OPEC is confident that the nine-month extension will drain inventories back to average levels by the end of the compliance period. However, some analysts have raised the prospect of a renewed glut once the deal expires. If that were to happen, OPEC might find itself in a position of having to extend the cuts indefinitely. Obviously, it does not want to do that. When asked about an exit strategy, Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that they did not have one, but that they would work on coming up with a plan over the next nine months.

Related: UAE Gains Edge In $165 Billion Caspian Oil & Gas Market

OPEC and non-OPEC alliance surprisingly strong, but road gets tougher from here. The compliance rate from within OPEC has been very strong, save for Iraq. Non-OPEC cuts were less impressive over the initial six-month period. Nevertheless, the display of unity in Vienna on Thursday is a sea change from the past, and the understanding between Saudi and Russian officials in particular is important. However, compliance will be much more difficult going forward, with more members achieving higher levels of production capacity. Historically, such alliances to restrain output have proven to move oil prices in the short-run, but they eventually fall apart, Robert McNally, president of energy consultancy the Rapidan Group, told the Wall Street Journal.

Iraq looks at hedging. Iraq is considering a hedging program to ensure it has predictability regarding oil revenues for next year. The head of Iraqs state-owned oil marketing company said that the country is considering a plan to hedge as much as a quarter of its production. That move is likened to the strategy pursued by Mexico, which routinely locks in large volumes of crude sales a year ahead. The tricky thing about this size of a hedge is that it can actually influence futures prices. At this point, Iraq says it is only in the early stages of such a plan.

Global shipping fleet braces for fuel emissions standards. By 2020, the global shipping industry will have to begin using cleaner fuels in order to cut down on acid rain and other air pollution problems. The regulations come from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and will affect the 90,000-ship merchant fleet around the world. The industry could spend as much as $60 billion complying with the standards, according to Wood Mackenzie. The problem is that it is uncertain where sufficient volumes of cleaner fuels will come from. The regulations could disrupt shipments and add to the cost of global trade.

China downside risk to oil prices. Chinas credit rating was downgraded earlier this week by S&P, raising a red flag for oil demand. Chinas economy is showing weakness and growth concerns could weigh on oil demand. "Without China, the oil market cannot survive," said Fereidun Fesharaki, founder and chairman of FGE. Still, falling domestic production could mean that oil imports rise going forward. Related: Unstoppable: U.S. Adds Oil, Gas Rigs As OPEC Extends Deal

Canada introduces methane regulations. Canadian regulators proposed new rules on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, with an objective of cutting emissions by 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025. The industry has said the rules would be costly while the government says the benefits will make them very achievable. Still, the industry won a reprieve as it now appears full implementation will be pushed back to 2023 from the originally proposed start date of 2020.

BNEF: Electric vehicles to beat internal combustion engine on price by 2025. New research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance concludes that EVs will be cost competitive with traditional gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2025. Batteries account for about half of the cost of the EV, and battery costs are trending downward, with costs to fall by an additional 77 percent by 2030.

BlackRock investing in renewables. The worlds largest investment group is getting into renewables  which should scare coal investors. BlackRock says that renewables are not only already competitive with coal, but that looking forward, it isnt even a close race. "Coal is dead. That's not to say all the coal plants are going to shut tomorrow. But anyone who's looking to take beyond a 10-year view on coal is gambling very significantly," global head of BlackRocks infrastructure investment group, Jim Barry, told The Australian Financial Review.

By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com

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The latest OPEC meeting was uncharacteristically tranquil, with little of the eleventh hour infighting and arm-twisting that has been so prevalent in previous meetings. The cooperative spirit has allowed OPEC to roll over its production cuts for another nine months, as expected, a move that has to be described as a successful outcome. "Nine months with the same level of production that our member countries have been producing at is a very safe and almost certain option to do the trick, Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters.

Yet the oil markets are unimpressed. Crude prices dropped on Thursday as it became apparent that a much more aggressive move  a lengthier extension or deeper supply cuts  was off the table. For OPEC, the price reaction is surely frustrating. Keeping so many oil producers on board with a plan that requires significant sacrifice has always been a monumental task, not least because many of the countries involved seriously distrust one another. More importantly, they are extending the cuts for another nine months, longer than anyone expected up until just a few weeks ago.

But oil traders are difficult to please. After Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled earlier this month that they had agreed to extend the cuts for nine months rather than six  a surprise announcement at the time  the oil markets essentially said, Great. What else can you give me? The nine-month extension became the baseline and was quickly incorporated into market assumptions. If OPEC had come away with anything less than a nine-month extension, prices would have plunged. So, the markets were a bit disappointed that OPEC only came away with nine months. "It is a disappointment that OPEC hasn't done more to balance the markets," Olivier Jakob, energy markets analyst at Petromatrix, told CNBC. "A nine-month extension of the output cuts is already baked into prices. This shows there's not much more OPEC can do." Related: Europe Joins Race For Cheaper Batteries With This Gigafactory

In that sense, OPEC is a victim of rising expectations and its own efforts to inspire confidence in the oil market. Amrita Sen, the top oil analyst at Energy Aspects, agreed. "I think the market now, given that they announced the nine months already a few weeks ago, is expecting something a little bit more, maybe deeper cuts, maybe at least keeping the door open possibly for more cuts if inventories don't fall," she said in a CNBC interview.

Indeed, there is still more work to do. Oil inventories in the OECD are still 300 million barrels above the five-year average, which is not all that much lower than they were when the initial six-month OPEC deal commenced in January. Although several notable energy watchers including the International Energy Agency and investment bank Goldman Sachs argue that the oil market is probably already in a supply deficit, most agree that it will take an extended period of time for inventories to come back down to average levels.

However, according to asset management company AB Bernstein, even if the market is in a deficit and inventories are in decline, the normalization process will stretch well into 2018. The firm says that if inventories declined by 1 million barrels per day, for example, it would take 11 months until stocks fell back to the five-year average. As a result, the OPEC nine-month extension was necessary and appropriate, but not a radical game changer that would spark a major oil price rally in the short run. JBC Energy offered a more pessimistic assessment, arguing for the OPEC cuts to be extended through the end of 2018 if the market is to reach some sort of balance.

OPEC is a bit more bullish, expecting this balance to be reached by the end of this year. Left unsaid is what happens after the deal expires in 2018  some warn that the glut would simply return. If that appears to be the case at the end of the first quarter of 2018, OPEC might be forced to extend once again. We have said we will do whatever it takes, Saudi energy minister al-Falih said on the possibility of further action, channeling his inner-Mario Draghi.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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A new article in Science magazine suggests that the nuclear industrys lobbying activities in Washington have resulted in the disapproval of a measure that would have protected Americans from the harmful effects of a nuclear-waste fire at reactor sites across the nation.

Princeton University researchers say in the article that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissions inaction regarding spent-nuclear-fuel cooling pools near reactors leaves the public at high risk. The pools in question contain radioactive fuel rods and are densely packed with harmful nuclear waste. If set aflame, the radiation from its contents could affect an area two times the size of New Jersey.

A large earthquake or a terrorist attack using the pools could cost $2 trillion in damages and force eight million people to relocate.

"The NRC has been pressured by the nuclear industry, directly and through Congress, to low-ball the potential consequences of a fire because of concerns that increased costs could result in shutting down more nuclear power plants," said Princeton research physicist Frank von Hippel, who co-wrote the paper. "Unfortunately, if there is no public outcry about this dangerous situation, the NRC will continue to bend to the industry's wishes."

The end result of the Fukushima incident, in which a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that disabled cooling systems necessary to maintain reactor cores, would have been much worse if the pools had been damaged, the researcher said, pushing Congress to pass a regulation on the matter since the NRC had declined to do so.

"In far too many instances, the NRC has used flawed analysis to justify inaction, leaving millions of Americans at risk of a radiological release that could contaminate their homes and destroy their livelihoods," said Edwin Lyman at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It is time for the NRC to employ sound science and common-sense policy judgments in its decision-making process."

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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If India backs out of the Farzad-B natural gas block deal, Russian companies could be stepping in to fill the vacuum, according to remarks by Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh on Thursday.

It originally looked as if the field in the Persian Gulf would be offered to India after the country offered a $3 billion investment plan, but Tehran has been on the lookout for better bids since negotiations with the Asian country became topsy-turvy. A consortium of Indian companies originally discovered the field in 2008, before international sanctions against Iran for its controversial nuclear program went into effect.

Last week, there were signs that talks between India and Iran regarding the deal had broken new ground.

"Senior officials in both countries are willing to discuss and find an agreement over the Farzad B project," Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Amirhossein Zamaninia said. "The two sides agreed to a meeting between representatives of ONGC Videsh (OVL) and National Iranian Oil Company executives, including chief executive officer Ali Kardor and deputy for development and engineering, Alireza Manouchehri.

The foreign wing of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. of India (ONGC) began the process of acquiring the rights to develop the Farzad-B block in the Persian Gulf back when sanctions against Tehran were lifted last year. It is estimated to contain over 350 billion cubic meters of natural gas, with a productive life of 30 years. Iran argues that the ONGCs $3 billion proposal to work in the natural gas reservoir are not financially attractive.

As a result, New Delhi had instructed local refiners to shrink the input from Iran to 190,000 barrels daily from 240,000 bpd  close to half of the total daily import rate for Iranian crude for the period from April 2016 to this February. In fact, Iran managed to get to the number 3 spot among the top crude oil exporters to India, after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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Intesa Sanpaolo, Italys largest bank by market capitalization, has started the process to syndicate the US$5.8 billion (5.2 billion euro) loan it had extended to Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority to help them fund the acquisition of a 19.5 percent interest in Russian oil giant Rosneft in December last year, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing banking sources.

Intesa Sanpaolo is now looking at ways to spread the risk, and has launched a loan syndication process with a limited group of banks, a banker told Reuters.

The deal for the privatization of 19.5 percent of Rosneft, announced in December and completed in January, valued the stake at around US$11.3 billion.

Upon announcing the deal, Rosneft said that the acquisition would be financed with own funds from the buyers as well as debt financing, the bulk of which would be provided by Intesa.

The Italian banks loan to Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority came under regulatory scrutiny over whether it would violate EU sanctions against Russia.

In March this year, Italys Financial Security Committee approved the loan. The Italian committeewhich includes representatives of Italys foreign, justice, and finance ministries, as well as the financial police, the central bank and the anti-mafia authoritiesfound no violations. Rosneft, as well as its chief executive Igor Sechin, are among the sanctions targets.

No Russian banks are involved in Intesas current syndication process, according to two of Reuters sources.

It is a complicated deal and not everyone will have the appetite for it, according to one banker.



In February, the head of Intesas operations in Russia, Antonio Fallico, told Reuters that the bank was talking to 14 banks to syndicate the loan, and would pick 2-3 banks to take up to US$3.364 billion (3 billion euro). Back then, Fallico said that Intesa was in no rush to complete the syndication deal.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Ive been asked to speak at the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial for its annual Memorial Day ceremony to tell the story of Corporal Lyle Tate. He was killed in action 50 years ago this month in the Republic of Vietnam.

I wrote about him for the Catalyst five years ago, having uncovered this story while doing research for my next book, which will be about his battalion during the Tet Offensive. The 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines saw a lot of combat. So there are many such stories to tell, but for me, next Monday will be Lyle Tates day.

Its a great honor to be picked as the keynote speaker. Ive been attending these events for years. Indeed I was at the very first one in 1987. Back then the Oregon Air National Guard would do a low-pass flyby in their F-4 Phantoms, giving many Vietnam Vets one more chance to hear that signature roar, the welcome sound of close air support to an American and no doubt a sound that induced fear in the Viet Cong, portending the imminent delivery of napalm canisters.

The ceremony starts at 10am. Perhaps Ill see you there.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of A Brief History of Political Cultural Change.
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"We need to invest in our kids," said resident Brenda Robinson. "That's how we keep graffiti out of Waterhouse Center and mischief out of the downtown on Saturday night."
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, said she has not yet reached a conclusion on whether the United States should remain in the international Paris Climate Agreement.

That discussion is going to be ongoing, she said in a telephone interview on Friday.

Im working with my colleagues who are on my climate change resolution to address that issue, she said. I think we need to hear view points from manufacturers. I need to continue hearing from groups in my district.

Stefanik said she has been preoccupied with federal budget discussions.

But Ive really been focused on the budget in terms of the impacts to some of the cuts to the EPA and working with environmental groups on the budget issue primarily, she said.
GREENFIELD  A Greenfield woman faces multiple charges for allegedly striking a school bus carrying students Wednesday afternoon and fleeing the scene, leaving drugs and paraphernalia behind, State Police said.

According to a State Police news release, troopers received reports at about 3:50 p.m. of a Saratoga Springs school bus being sideswiped while traveling northbound on Route 9N in Greenfield.

A Dodge pickup truck operated by Theresa H. Travis, 26, was traveling southbound at the time and crossed over the center line, striking the drivers side of the school bus, State Police said.

No occupants of the bus were injured and the bus was able to safely pull off to the shoulder of the road, according to the news release.

Travis vehicle came to rest after striking a utility pole. She exited the vehicle and was observed getting into an unknown vehicle leaving the scene, police said.

A search of the pickup found a controlled substance, a hypodermic instrument and a marijuana smoking device, police said.

Travis was found Thursday and was subsequently charged with leaving the scene of a property damage accident, criminal possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a hypodermic instrument and unlawful possession of marijuana, all misdemeanors, and traffic violations.

Travis was later turned over to the Rotterdam Police Department for two outstanding warrants.

Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office.
QUEENSBURY  Queensbury High School senior Hailey Barnaby, at first, thought shed be serving lunch Friday at the Open Door soup kitchen in Glens Falls on Senior Give Back Day.

She was intrigued when she learned that she and nine classmates assigned to volunteer at the Open Door actually would be cleaning out cavernous rooms at the former warehouse and furniture store building on Warren Street.

The Open Door plans to renovate to relocate the mission from Lawrence Street and expand services to include a homeless shelter, day activities program and vocational and recovery training.

Honestly, its kind of relaxing for me. I like cleaning, said Barnaby, who will attend the University of Rochester in the fall to major in psychology and French language.

Barnaby said the work reminded her of a two-week course for high school students planning to major in psychology that she took last summer at Marist College.

The class took a field trip to a former mental hospital that is now a psychology museum.

I like the idea of restoration and renovation, but keeping the idea of that old history, she said.

Barnaby said she also was reflecting on a Queensbury school class she took in the eighth grade on interior design and architecture, a background she expects will be a lifelong avocation.

As Ive been cleaning in here, Ive been thinking about how great this space here is, she said.

Friday was the ninth annual Senior Give Back Day, when seniors volunteer on community service projects to set an example to younger students in the school district.

Dont talk about it. Be about it, said senior Dylan Moore, who has enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and will head to boot camp in September.

Seniors started the day with a march through the elementary school hallways, and then were dispatched for two hours of volunteer service at 17 locations around Glens Falls and Queensbury.

Students organized themselves into groups of 10, and the school assigned each group to a project.

It was an opportunity for camaraderie before graduation, said Mike Marks, who was volunteering along with Moore at the American Red Cross office on Warren Street in Glens Falls.

The group cleaned CPR dummies, moved boxes, planted flowers and pulled weeds.

It was light work for Marks, who will attend SUNY Delhi in the fall to major in construction management, a career that will enable him to travel the country to different construction sites for a few years and eventually return to Queensbury.

Its the passion of building and being able to look at something and say, Wow  I did that!  Marks said.
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Id be very surprised if Trump was impeached. For me, this scandal looks much more like Iran-Contra than it does Watergate. And I certainly think thats true with the Republican House and Senate. So in the run-up to 2018, if after midterm elections the Democrats were to actually sweep, then wed be in a different environment. It becomes politicized in a direction thats much more problematic for Trump and if there are smoking guns that become known to the public through the investigation process, then he might be more vulnerable. But impeachments a very high bar, its a political bar. Theres nothing that Ive seen so far remotely that implies that Trump has done something that would hit that bar. We dont see any notions of illegality, what we see is a lot of lying. Well, not lying under oath, just a lot of lying. More lying than the average politician, by a large margin, and thats already a high bar.

But what you see is that the polarization in the United States is only getting greater every day. There has been weakening of Trumps support. So the strength of committed support from his base is not as enthusiastic as it was a month, two months ago. But still the vast majority of those core supporters are very much with Trump and theres nothing that the mainstream media can report thats going to shake that because theyve lost all trust in those institutions and those individuals. In fact I do believe that the fact that the media has basically acted like their hairs on fire with everything that Trump does, if he colludes with the Russians or if he misspells a tweet, its a national security disaster. That crying wolf has really worn patience down to a nub for people that support Trump.
Those killed by suicide bomber Salman Abedi at an Ariana Grande concert include a serving police officer and an eight-year-old girl. Several teenagers were also caught up in the blast.

Moving tributes have been paid to the 22.This is a full list of victims:

15-year-old Megan Hurley was named as the final victim of the terror attack on Thursday, according to the Telegraph. She was from Halewood and a neighbour said the family is "devastated."

Elaine McIver

McIver was the police officer killed in Monday's incident, Greater Manchester Police confirmed on Thursday. She attended the Manchester Arena event with her family.

McIver was an officer for Cheshire Police and was off-duty at the time of the attack. In a statement, her family said: "Elaine just loved life, and had a major love of music. Despite what has happened to her, she would want us all to carry on regardless and not be frightened by fear tactics, instead she regularly urged us all to rise up against it."

Her partner, Paul, was also seriously injured in the blast.

Courtney Boyle and Philip Tron

Boyle attended the concert with her mother's partner, Tron. Their families paid tribute to them in a statement released by Great Manchester Police.

Courtney's mother and Tron's partner, Deborah Hutchinson, said: "My stunning amazing beautiful daughter. You were my rock, you made me so proud with all you had achieved and my gorgeous crazy Philip, you made my world a happy place and now you are both my angels flying high in the sky."

Wendy Fawell

Falwell, a teacher from Yorkshire, was waiting outside the Manchester Arena after dropping off her children. Her children are safe.

Her school, St Oswald's Primary, confirmed the news of her death on Twitter. "It is with deepest sadness that I confirm that our former colleague Wendy Fawell was killed in the Manchester bombing. RIP, Wendy," it said.

Eilidh Macleod

The 14-year-old Scottish girl's parents confirmed her death on Thursday.

"Words cannot express how we feel at losing our darling Eilidh," they said, according to the BBC. "Eilidh was vivacious and full of fun. She loved all music whether it was listening to Ariana or playing the bagpipes with her pipe band."

She was at the concert with her friend& Laura MacIntyre, who is in a serious condition in hospital.

Sorrell Leczkowski

Another 14-year-old, this time from Leeds. Her death was confirmed by her grandfather Michael Healey in a statement through Greater Manchester Police.

"Sorrell was only 14, but she was our rock, she kept us all grounded. She was such a clever, talented, creative girl, there was nothing she couldn't do," he said.

The BBC reported that Leczkowski had gone to Manchester Arena with her mother and grandmother to collect her sister. Her mother and grandmother were injured, the latter seriously, while her sister was unharmed.

Chloe Rutherford and Liam Curry

The families of Rutherford, 17, and Curry, 19 released a joint statement on Thursday morning. The pair were at the Grande concert together. "They wanted to be together forever and now they are", the statement said.

Kiss attended the concert with her daughter. "Excited girlies ready to watch Ariana," she wrote on Facebook prior to the gig on Monday.

Her niece, Laura Murray, confirmed the news on Facebook. She said: "It's true thank you everyone for your help we are all heartbroken."

Nell Jones

The 14-year-old's cousins appealed for information, but the head teacher of her school confirmed her death. Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School's David Wheeler said: "Nell was a very popular girl, always smiling, always positive."

51-year old Jane Tweddle-Taylor was from Blackpool. She reportedly went to the arena with a friend to pick up the friend's daughter. She was a receptionist at South Shore Academy School in Blackpool.

Martyn Hett

The 29-year-old was not seen or heard from following the blast.

Friend Russell Hayward announced on Twitter that Hett was among those killed.

He said: "We got the news last night that our wonderful iconic and beautiful Martyn didnt survive. He left this world exactly how he lives, centre of attention."

Olivia Campbell

Campbell went to the concert with her best friend Adam Lawler, who was treated in hospital. The 15-year-old's phone was not ringing and calls to hospitals proved fruitless. Her mother Charlotte confirmed her death on Wednesday morning.

Alison Howe and Lisa Lees

The friends were waiting in the foyer of Manchester Arena to collect their 15-year-old daughters when they were caught up in the suicide bombing. News of their death was confirmed on Facebook.

"They took a caring, beautiful Mum and step mother away," Howe's stepson Jordan said on Facebook. Lees' brother Lee Hunter wrote: "Gone but never forgotten. I love you Lisa and I'll miss you so much."

Kelly Brewster

Brewster's boyfriend Ian Winslow confirmed the news of her death on Facebook. She attended the Grande concert with her sister, Claire, and her niece, Hollie Booth, who were both injured in the attack, according to The Mirror.

"Not sure how this works but it isn't good news. Kelly Brewster wasn't one of the unidentified hospital patients. She has sadly passed away in the terror attack yesterday," he said. "Kelly really was the happiest she has ever been and we had so many things planned together."

Angelika and Marcin Klis

Sky News reported on Wednesday morning that the husband and wife died in Monday's attack. The news was confirmed by the Polish foreign minister, Sky said. The Klis' daughter, Alex, had appealed for information on Facebook.

Georgina Callander

Callander was named as the first victim of the attack. Friends of the 18-year-old said she was one of the first people rushed to hospital after the attack. She died with her mother at her bedside in hospital, according to a close friend.

Runshaw College Sixth Form Centre, where Callander was studying, confirmed her death on Facebook. "It is with enormous sadness that it appears that one of the people who lost their lives in Mondays Manchester attack was one of our students here at Runshaw College," it said.

Saffie Rose Roussos

Eight-year-old Rose Roussos attended the Grande gig with her mother, but the pair were separated, according to reports.

"Saffie was simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word. She was loved by everyone," said, Chris Upton, headteacher at Tarleton Community Primary School.

John Atkinson
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This is according to Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo.

He said this when he delivered the keynote address during the closing ceremony of the Fourth Annual Conference of the African Federation of Institutes of Internal Auditors (AFIIA) held in Accra.

He said to resolve this, governments and other institutions on the continent must strengthen their internal audit systems. He added that this will help save the region huge sums of money that are lost due to corruption and bribery.

He also indicated that the internal auditors have a huge role to play in saving their governments and institutions some revenues. He said it was their mandate to protect the public purse or that of their various institutions.

Good internal audit helps to save institutions a big sum of money through effective findings and diligence, he said, adding that practitioners are expected to function to safeguard and strengthen the scope of knowledge through quality counselling to management.

He called on auditors at large to desist from supporting corrupt practices when they uncover them.

He said many internal auditors on the continent have refused to present true findings of the investigations because they have either tribal, political, religious or any other form of affiliation with the culprits.
The work done by Twellium Company is enough to warm the heart of any sympathetic Ghanaians and the latest to find happiness in the brand is the King of the Ashantis, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

This was at the launch of the company's Verna Changing Lives initiative in in Kumasi at the Golden Bean Hotel.

According to the speech, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, was pleased with the tremendous impact of the project and believed Verna Changing Lives is a good initiative and he will support it in any way he can and everyone should support this good course as well.

The industry has a foundation which was established in October 2016 and was officially launched in January 2017.

The foundation, which is not even a year old, has taken up the social responsibility mandate which is the vision of the foundation to be a leader in social impact projects that directly touches the lives of the disadvantaged ; hence the mission of Verna Changing Lives.

The guest present at the event could not hold back tears as they listened to the harrowing conditions some beneficiaries of the initiative lived in before meeting the Changing Lives team.

Also present at the event were, Dr. Akpalu the Chief Executive Officer of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Nana Adu Mensah Amakomhene, the Inspector General of Police in the region, Mr. David Asante-Appeatu and a representative of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science.
Speaking to Accra FM Thursday, he said: "It is God we say thanks to. When I received the news I knelt down and thanked God for glorifying Himself.

If Gods glory has manifested itself in this matter, I say a big thanks to Him so that those who are headstrong will take a leaf from it.

Lebene announced that she was parting ways with Adjorlolo because her family is against the relationship because of the age difference between them.

She said she was in a position where she had to decide between her family and Adjorlolo.

She said: I just think that I want to make it up to my father and the reason is that he hasnt been in agreement with the wedding and the whole marriage thing going on between me and Kofi Adjorlolo.

"It is something that has always been at the back of my mind that my father is not in support of it.

"So I have decided to make my father proud and to let him know that I have listened to him and I dont want the marriage to come between me and my father because he is one of the reasons why I am who I am today.

"He knows me better and my father has been like my first boyfriend so I think he wants me to get someone younger. He said he is not comfortable with Kofi definitely because he is much older than I am.

She said Kofi Adjorlolo is aware that her father doesnt approve their relationship, adding that this is the reason why their much-anticipated wedding have been hanging for some time now but she wants to end it all and move on.
The Chairman of Coalition of Local Government Pensioners, Mike Vembe, made the disclosure on Wednesday, May 24, during a peaceful demonstration at the Government House Makurdi.

He said Mr Nomsha hanged himself a week ago due to frustration over his inability to feed his family and pay his children's school fees.

"One of our members, Gabriel Nomsha, from Gwer West Local Government Area, committed suicide last week as a result of poverty and frustration."

Vembe also explained that the deceased had been screened and came with the hope of receiving his pension but was disappointed when he received no payment.

LIB reports that no less that 2,000 local pensioners from 23 Local Government Areas of the state slept at the gate of the Government House in Makurdi on Tuesday, May 23, to protest the non-payment of their pension to the tune of N1.1 billion.

The pensioners reportedly arrived the Government House at noon but were unable to see the Governor, so they decided to pass the night at the gate of government house.

Despite efforts by security agencies at the gate to disperse them, the pensioners held their ground.

Governor Samuel Ortom who was traveling to Abuja, came to address them the following morning.

LIB reports that Vambe who led the pensioners stated that the protest became a necessity after the Ministry of Finance stopped giving money to Local Government Pensions Board.

"We slept at the gate of the Government House since yesterday to press home our demands for the payment of our pension. The finance ministry stopped giving money to Local Government Pensions Board and this is causing our hardship."
Scores of protestors have converged at the Obra Spot at Kwame Nkrumah Circle and are expected to march towards the Farrisco Traffic Light, through to TUC before arriving at the offices of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

Many of them, clad in red and black are demanding the investigation and prosecution of persons who have reportedly engaged in some corrupt practices.
The two, Courage Boadi, a travel and tours operator, and Michael Akantoganya, a self-styled businessman, were arrested at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) last Monday, as they were facilitating departure formalities for the victims.

Speaking to journalists, the Deputy Executive Director of EOCO, Mr Walter Amewu, said that the suspects were arrested with the assistance of personnel of Aviation Security and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

READ ALSO: 18 children rescued from slavery on Volta Lake

According to him, EOCO picked up intelligence that some persons were facilitating the trafficking of girls to Jordan.

EOCO subsequently alerted its surveillance unit when it got the victims schedule of travel, Mr Amewu said.

The Aviation Security and the GIS were also notified and the suspects were picked up at the airport while they were going through departure formalities.

The suspects and the victims have since been handed over to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for further investigations.
Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect, joined the likes of US First Lady Melania Trump in Brussels while their partners were off discussing world matters.

Prime Minister Bettel, 44, and Belgian architect Destenay entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourgs legislators approved gay marriage.

READ ALSO: This video of Jackie Appiah and Nadia Buari is the best friend goal we all wish for

The First Gentleman, who married his Prime Minister husband in 2015, posed for photos with the group of women at Royal Castle of Laeken ahead of a dinner especially for spouses.
The Agona District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Francis Akwasi Asante told The Mirror that in the course of the scuffle, Boakye was armed with a pair of scissors, which he used in stabbing Mpong in the chest.

READ ALSO: Man shot in Wa

He said Mpong was rushed to the Bepoase Health Centre but was pronounced dead on arrival.

The remains have since been deposited at the morgue of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital pending autopsy.

The suspect has also been arrested and is currently being held in police custody.
The man, only identified as Adams was shot in the abdomen Thursday evening after he had paid a visit to the Assembly Member for the area, Rasheed Suleiman, Accra-based Starr FM reports.

The assemblyman said he heard sporadic gunshots aimed at the victim in what he will describe as an unprovoked attack.

According to him, he immediately alerted the police and they later arrived at the scene after the victim had been taken to the hospital.

He is currently responding to treatment at the Wa regional hospital.
The visit forms part of the Presidents official working visits to countries of the ECOWAS region.

He will hold bilateral talks with President Sirleaf Johnson and also address the Ghanaian community in Monrovia.

The President has already toured the three countries bordering Ghana-Togo, Burkina Faso and Cote dIvoire- in a wider move to introduce himself to and deepen relations with them.

The tour would further the Presidents quest to strengthen bilateral ties and to restate Ghanas commitment to the ECOWAS project.

READ ALSO: Nana Addo visits Sierra Leone

He has also paid working visits to Guinea, Senegal, Cape Verde
He said the former president is more concerned about rebuilding the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after their defeat in 2016 than his personal presidential ambitions.

Speaking to Accra-based Starr FM, he said former President Mahama is so much concerned about the NDC. It is not about his personal interest and I am being frank with you. President Mahama is not fixated in becoming president at all cost.

What he wants is the best for this country. And that from the conversation I had with him his preoccupation is to build the party, his preoccupation is to ensure that the party structures, the partys foundation is solid.

And he in my opinion and based on the conversation is prepared to support the party in any capacity, he added.

After the NDC lost in the 2016 general elections, the party has been in turmoil. Party supporters keep accusing each other as the reason they lost. Others have also been seeking an alternative flagbearer to former President Mahama.

However, John Jinapor believes Mahama is the best person to lead the NDC into elections 2020.
The Iraqi government is said to be looking into the abuse allegations against the Interior Ministry's Emergency Response Division, according to The Washington Post.

The allegations stem from video footage recorded by Ali Arkady, an Iraqi photojournalist embedded with the ERD  a special forces-like team that had been praised by US military commanders as one of the principal liberators of Fallujah.

Footage of the alleged torture depicts a man suspended from the ceiling  hanging just from his hands that are tied behind his back  with a case of water bottles placed on top of his shoulders to weigh him down. Another image shows an individual poking his fingers into the eye sockets of another man.

One officer struck a man in the head 15 times and ordered him to recite a pledge to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS' purported leader."Say the pledge, say the pledge," he said, according to ABC News. "I will hit you in the nuts."

Arkady said that the man eventually recited the ISIS pledge. Afterward, the officer asked Arkady to edit the footage to make it seem like the man had recited the pledge without instruction.

"This is a powder keg for strategic failure," retired Special Forces officer Scott Mann told ABC News. "This is the narrative fuel that groups like ISIS look for."

After publishing the footage, Arkady and his immediate family fled to Europe in fear of retaliation from the ERD. "I don't know," Arkady said after being asked whether he thinks he'll be returning to Iraq. "Really, I don't know. I'd like, because I love Baghdad and Iraq."

The threat of retaliation for Arkady's whistle-blowing appears to be credible, as ABC News reports that his family members have received evocative text messages from the group.

"Sir, we have a matter that concerns us and I want to solve it with you quietly," one of ERD's officers texted to Arkady's father. "Tribal law holds you responsible as his father."

The Interior Ministry stated that it would "investigate the matter clearly and impartially," and that it would "take legal action in accordance with the laws," reported The Post.

US officials claimed that they were unaware of the incidents; however, in a statement to ABC News, they said the US "has not provided military aid, arms or assistance to the Emergency Response Division."

The US is bound by the Leahy Act, a federal law that prevents the US from issuing military aid if there is "credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights."
"When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it," Gianforte said. "That's the Montana way. Last night, I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can't take back, and I'm not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that I am sorry.

"I should not have treated that reporter that way. And, for that, I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs," Gianforte said, referring to the Guardian reporter who said Gianforte "body-slammed" him during a campaign event the night before.

Watch Gianfortes apology below:

Read Gianfortes full apology here:

The altercation happened at Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, on Wednesday. Jacobs said he was asking Gianforte some questions at a campaign event before their encounter turned violent.

"Greg Gianforte just body slammed me and broke my glasses," Jacobs tweeted Wednesday.

Local authorities said in a statement on Wednesday that after "multiple interviews and an investigation by the Gallatin County Sheriff's office, it was determined there was probable cause to issue a citation to Greg Gianforte for misdemeanor assault."
Perhaps the most dramatic new face is US President Donald Trump. He may find himself thriving in this environment, according to John Kirton, the director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto.

"It is a forum made for Donald Trump's particular style," Kirton told the Associated Press. "It is highly informal, highly interactive, and they speak in very colloquial language to each other. It is the ultimate lonely hearts club. No one understands how tough it is to have the top job except the peers with the top job in other countries."

Trump may see some pushback from the other heads of state, however, for his contrarian views on climate change and free trade.

Meet the G-7 leaders below >>

Newly elected US President Donald Trump may find himself as the center of attention.

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, enjoyed good relationships with many of his G-7 counterparts.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is also attending her first G-7.

May took the helm of the UK after David Cameron resigned following the June 2016 Brexit vote.

Emmanuel Macron is the newest leader, having won the French presidency earlier this month.

Macron replaced Francois Hollande, who declined to seek reelection.

Paolo Gentiloni, Italy's prime minister, fills out the new faces and is this year's host for the summit.

His predecessor, Matteo Renzi, resigned in December following the rejection of his constitutional-reform referendum.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is attending his second G-7, making him one of the old guard.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, increasingly seen as one of the defenders of Western democracy, faces an election of her own in Germany this year.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will also be at meeting, the only Asian head of state.
China said the USS Dewey, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed just a few miles off the coast of the Mischief Reef on Wednesday; the reef is an artificial island built and militarized by China.

On the US side, there was silence  the US did not issue a press release acknowledging the maneuver, and Navy officials refused to comment on the specifics of the challenge.

From China, there was outrage.

"Stop taking further provocative actions that hurt China's sovereignty and maritime interests, so as to avoid hurting peace and security of the region and long-term cooperation between the two countries," China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, according to AFP.

The Chinese official went on to say that the US had entered Chinese waters "without permission," that the ship "trespassed" in violation of the law, and that it was "warned" to leave.

But according to Lawrence Brennan, a former Navy captain who is an expert of maritime law, the US doesn't need and would never ask for permission for the type of mission the Dewey was said to have carried out Thursday.

The Dewey seems to have engaged in a Freedom of Navigation Operation, or Fonop as they are known within the military. Essentially, the US respects the maritime borders of all legitimate nations and won't sail within 12 miles of their coast.

But when a country makes excessive, unlawful maritime claims, as an international court ruled China has done in the South China Sea, the US sends a Navy ship, usually a destroyer, to sail within 12 miles of the disputed territory's coast as a way of demonstrating that extrajudicial claims won't be respected by the world's most powerful Navy.

Cmdr. Gary Ross, a Navy spokesman, told Business Insider that the Navy challenged excessive claims from 22 nations in 2016. Of those, he said, only challenges to China make headlines.

Fonops against Chinese claims in the South China Sea  once a semiregular occurrence  had taken a hiatus under Trump, despite a presidential campaign filled with fiery rhetoric against Beijing, as he has since warmed to Chinese President Xi Jinping and sought to work together against North Korea's military provocations.

Andrew Shearer, a senior adviser on Asia-Pacific security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who was previously a national security adviser to Australian prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, told Business Insider that Trump's Fonop was "better late than never."

Shearer said it was "imperative to have these things happen routinely and without fanfare," as a Fonop represents standard procedure for the Navy. But not all Fonops are created equal.

Shearer questioned whether the Dewey made an "innocent passage," which would entail simply sailing along, or whether the maneuver "was conducted using normal military prerogatives, which would be a proper assertion of Fonops," meaning the Dewey would do a bit of flexing  firing up its radars, emitting signals, maybe even flying armed helicopters around the ship to make a point.

But the problem here is that China, without international law or precedent on its side, threatened to escalate the conflict not with direct military confrontation, previously the sole main concern, but by slowing down cooperation in other, vital areas like on North Korea.

"What the US has done is cause severe disruptions to this process of dialogue and consultation," the Chinese official told AFP.

Indeed, Trump didn't discuss the South China Sea, human rights, or climate change when Xi visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this year. Instead, they discussed North Korea, according to reports.

China, North Korea's biggest backer, has been distancing itself from Pyongyang while Trump has repeatedly stressed the strength of his personal relationship with Xi. But if Trump bargains away the US's legal, historical right to sail the open seas for a little help with North Korea, the US could be in for hard times at the negotiating table in the future.
The trend is noteworthy in light of President Donald Trump's executive order, which aims to bar citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days.

The future of the ban is currently in limbo. On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld a freeze on the ban, stymieing White House efforts to block new visa issuances to citizens on the six countries.

Still, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, and experts believe the ban could have far-reaching implications on enrollment at US colleges.

US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE), foreign students in the US were up 7.1% this year from academic year 2015-2016, with 1,043,839 students total. International students now make up 5.2% of all higher education students in the US.

The influx of foreign students is vital for American universities, and especially public universities, which have become increasingly dependent on foreign students to fund their budgets.

Here are the 10 foreign countries that send the most students to American colleges:

10. Mexico

With a population of about 122 million, Mexico sent 16,733 of its students to the US for college during academic year 2015-16.

9. Japan

Japan, which has a population of about 127 million, had 19,060 of its citizens attend American colleges.

8. Brazil

Of the roughly 200 million people in Brazil, 19,370 went to the US for college.

7. Taiwan

Taiwan has close to 24 million people in it, and 21,127 went to college in America.

6. Vietnam

Vietnam has a population of about 90 million  21,403 went to school in the US.

5. Canada

America's neighbor to the north, Canada, has a population of about 35 million, and 26,973 of them attended a US college.

4. South Korea

South Korea has a population of close to 50 million, and 61,007 of its people went to college in the US.

3. Saudi Arabia

With a population of about 29 million, Saudi Arabia sent 61,287 of its students to the US for college.

2. India

India is the second largest country by population in the world with about 1.3 billion  165,918 of its students went to an American college.

1. China
While the coffee giant has recently launched an initiative to improve customer service and better support in-store staff, many baristas say Starbucks has refused to address underlying issues. They say they're more strained than ever because of an uptick in orders coming from the mobile app and drive-thru, as well as an ever-changing menu of hard-to-make drinks.

Business Insider spoke with a dozen current and former Starbucks workers on condition of anonymity in an attempt to get to the bottom of what in-store employees think Starbucks needs to fix. Starbucks says it's talking with partners, the company's term for retail employees, to improve work conditions.

"Over the years, one of the strengths of our business has continued to be the connection we have with our partners," a Starbucks representative told Business Insider. "We know we are not perfect, but we are regularly engaged in discussions with the over 160,000 partners who wear the green apron in the US and continuously work to make their experience even better and more valuable. We know when we exceed the expectations of our people, they, in turn, exceed the expectations of our customers. To us, every voice matters."

Here's what Starbucks workers say the company needs to fix, in their words.

Its frowned upon if I stop to have a conversation with a regular.

"They'd rather us be machines. They are, whether they like it or not, a fast-food chain with lousy food that I am required to push on people.

"When I started in 2010, we had partners who had been there for eight-plus years. The customers were like family. We had seen their children grow. Now it's frowned upon if I stop to have a conversation with a regular I haven't seen in a while. ...

"It has kept me alive, to be perfectly honest, to know that so many people have been touched by conversations with me. And it has sapped just about every last ounce of my energy to know that I am now a hindrance to the Starbucks (corporate America) agenda."  A current Starbucks employee of seven years

("I think a key differentiator for Starbucks is that emotional connection our partners have to what we stand for, and the fact that we are in the business of human connection," CEO Kevin Johnson told Business Insider in an interview in March.)

Were running around like crazy.

"I don't know how many times I've heard that we're the most important part of the company. ... I almost wish they would read that same letter they read to us, to the board, so they could know why they need to change the pay scale. If we're the most important part of the company, and our connection is that important, [they shouldn't be] paying as little as they can get away with paying. ...

"Managers say ... we need to do a better job at connecting. Obviously, we're not connecting, because we have mobile here and we have drive-thru here, and we're running around like crazy."  A current Starbucks employee of more than five years working in Florida

(Starbucks has said the company is working to provide better solutions for mobile ordering and that mobile should not prevent workers from establishing an "emotional connection" with customers.)

Its a cult that pays $9 per hour.

"At first, you watch all these videos about how wonderfully you're treated and all the great benefits, your manager will tell you that your store is like another home, your partners are your family, and you should always feel comfortable there. First Taste, the initial coffee tasting, definitely makes you feel like you're valued and welcomed. It all also feels genuine and unique when you're going through it.

"The problem is that it's not unique. Managers literally have a guide on how to onboard new hires in such a way that they learn to love the brand and feel valued. The First Taste experience is not a unique experience between you and your store manager  it is a carefully detailed and structured activity with a checklist and steps the manager follows, given to them by corporate.

"Every single thing you experience that makes you love the company is designed to manipulate you into doing so. It's not a company; it's a cult that pays $9 per hour."  A former Starbucks employee who recently left the company after working in Florida for about a year

My team wants to be able to afford rent and groceries.

"The company tries to sell the total pay package to partners, but that does not speak to the younger generation, which is what most of our teams primarily consist of. My team wants to be able to afford rent and groceries.

"The company offers free college, which, at a base level, is an amazing benefit, but I can guaran-damn-tee you that if you had asked partners if they could have the option for higher pay or the college-achievement program, somewhere around 90% of all partners would have asked for increased pay."  A current Starbucks employee

(According to Glassdoor data, baristas are paid $9.50 an hour on average. Starbucks emphasizes that the chain offers benefits beyond hourly pay, including college tuition assistance, 401(k) matching, and the ability to purchase Starbucks stock through the Bean Stock program.)

The stress is overwhelming.

"It's exhausting being the only one on the floor and having to do register and hot bar and customer support while you've got a medium-volume drive-thru and your [drive-thru] person is taking orders, paying people out, and running cold bar.

"Nothing gets cleaned. Nothing gets stocked. We're getting screamed at by customers for not being fast enough, so we try to go fast, and we mess up the money, or we mess up the drinks, and then we get yelled at for messing up the money and messing up the drinks. It's all incredibly tiresome. Just one more person on the floor in the afternoons and evenings would be incredible. ...

"There is no customer connection when we're as busy and understaffed as we are. Again, put another person on the floor, and we can talk. I've had people call the store to complain that we seemed rushed and upset. The stress is overwhelming. A four-hour shift is too exhausting at this point, because there's nobody to help us."  A current Starbucks employee

(.)

Starbucks demands that we do several tasks at once.

"Most stores are understaffed, and I believe that's the way corporate wants it. Store managers would rather be shorthanded rather than pay a penny of overtime. ...

"As far as connecting with customers, what do they want? Do they want to ring as many customers through as fast as possible (yes!) or do they want us to chat (yes!). Impossible to do both at the same time.

"[Customers] want their latte 30 seconds ago, and they're irate when they have to wait or wait while we're making small talk. The glares we get are not friendly ones.

"Starbucks demands that we do several tasks at once, so how can it be expected to 'connect with customers'? When I'm making drinks, I barely make eye contact with customers when handing off drinks; I'm just calling names out."  A current Starbucks employee from Illinois

Its just hard to tell the truth.

"Starbucks has this website called 'partner perspectives.' It's basically a website where they survey their partners about their experiences.

"I and so many other baristas don't feel secure in our [roles] enough to tell them how we actually feel, because it is not anonymous. You have to log in with your partner numbers and name, and it's just hard to tell the truth when you don't know how they could retaliate."  A current Starbucks employee

(Starbucks executives say they encourage in-store workers' feedback through several platforms.)

Starbucks has a tendency to use people up and spit them out.

"Even four years ago, the corporate mantra at Starbucks was heading in the path your recent article was touching on: 'The customer is always right, even when they are obviously wrong.' ...

"Stores were being slowly, carefully destaffed, creating real problems during peak business hours. Customers would comment on the hurried, frantic pace behind the counter, and managers were instructed to respond with a cheery retort and then berate the staff to work faster with less space, more products, and smaller time windows. Timing devices were added to the drive-thru lanes so that everybody could see how long it was taking orders to move out of the window. ...

"For all the bluster and braggadocio, Starbucks has a tendency to use people up and spit them out. Fair compensation, appropriate staffing, and true cooperate support would be wise problems to fix before attacking other problems that have been solely created by those three shortcomings."  A former Starbucks employee who worked for the company for three and a half years in Kansas
We started the week with Tinubu offering to fly in the body of late Moji Olaiya.

Toke Makinwa says she lost a sponsorship deal over Maje Ayida's lawsuit.

The media personality recounted how she lost a sponsorship deal because of Maje Ayida's lawsuit.

On her Instagram page on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, Toke Makinwa wrote she lost an endorsement deal worth N20m.

D'banj has refuted claims he's expecting a baby. Franklin who is D'banj's representative has said that the information is just a rumour. "That information is not correct at all," Franklin said.

Moving on, Moji Olaiya's body is still in Canada. Friends of the actress have revealed they recently just got her death certificate.

Plans are currently underway to fly in the late actress' body by former Lagos state governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Olumide Bakare and Pastor Ajidara were finally buried today, May 26, 2017.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The men are: Frank Obiorah, 20, and Sunday Paul, 21, were alleged to have robbed a shop while having in their possession, a double barrel gun.

The prosecutor, Mr Joseph Ekwebele, told the court that the accused persons committed the offence on March 22 at Anwai Road, Mile 5, Asaba.

He said that the offence contravened Sections 6(b) and 3 (1) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provision) Act Cap R 11 Vol 14, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the one count charge.

The the Magistrate, Okonkwo Akanume, ordered that both accused be remanded in Ugwuashi-Uku Prison.
Sowetan Times report that Mhlongo was abducted by unknown men who took turns to rape her before stabbing and strangling her in a plantation not far from her home in Elokishini, near Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal.

Mhlongo mutilated body partially clothed and riddled with stab wounds was discovered by children playing in the trees on Saturday, May 20, 2017.

According to her sister, Hlengiwe Mathenjwa, the teenager could have been killed on Friday as she did not come home from school.

We think she died on Friday night but we are not sure; all we know is that she didnt come home.

They (police) told us that she was gang raped. Our family was worried when she didnt come home on Friday night, so we began to look but we couldnt find her Mathenjwa said.

The victim's grandfather Nkanyiso Mhlongo said what the teenager endured in the moments before she was killed was what worried him most.

What has happened has shocked us as a family because there is so much we still dont know.

We are very worried about the condition she was found in and what is worrying us, even more, is that we dont know what happened to her.

These things are happening too many times for comfort. Society itself needs to participate in the fight against these horrible incidents he said.

However, the police say they are trying to piece together Mhlongos last moments after she returned from school to change her clothes and then left to meet with her friends.

The family had reported to the police about Mhlongo missing on Monday only to be notified that a body matching her description had been discovered days before.
Kareem, a resident of Abule-Egba, Lagos, is charged with obtaining money under false pretence.

The Prosecutor, Insp. Ezekiel Ayorinde, said that the accused committed the offence on March 13 at Abule-Egba, in Lagos.

He said that the accused obtained N1.2millon from one Mr Marlon Moses for the sale of a Murano Sport Utility Van, knowing full well that the car was not in good condition.

The prosecutor said that the accused sold the car to the complainant, who later discovered that almost all the parts of the vehicle were faulty.

The car refused to work as the complainant kept buying one auto part after another from the first day he purchased the car."

The complainant was forced to ask for the refund of his money, but the accused refused to pay back, he said.

Ayorinde said the offence contravened Section 315 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 (Revised).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the section prescribes 15 years jail term for a person convicted of obtaining money under false pretence.

The accused, however, pleaded innocence of the offence and was granted bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.
She was, however, released on bail in the sum of N500,000 with two responsible sureties in like sum.

The accused, 31, is facing a charge of beating her maid to death.

She, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge brought against her.

But the Prosecutor, Insp. Julius Babatope told the court that the accused committed the offence on May 20 at about 6.00 p.m. at No. 1, Aregbe St., Ago Okota in Isolo area of Lagos.

He said the accused beat Edogwu, who she brought from her village to work as a domestic help with a leather belt until she gave up the ghost.

The offence contravened Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. (Revised)

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs M.O. Olajuwon, directed that the case file should be duplicated and a copy sent to the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.
The accused, who resides at No. 13, Alhaja Raheem St., Ayobo in Ipaja, near Lagos, is being tried for burglary and stealing.

Ajebe said that the accused burgled a safe belonging to her employer, Mrs Chioma Acho, and stole N270, 000.

When the employer got to her shop and discovered that her safe had been burgled, she confronted the accused, who was unable to give any reasonable explanation."

The woman went and reported to the police station and the accused was arrested, Ajebe said.

The offences contravened Sections 280(1) and 309 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Alexander Komolafe, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N50, 000 with two sureties in like sum.
The world has reacted to the sad news of the murder of children who wanted to listen to the music of Ariana Grande.

Leaders from around the world have sent in their condolence messages. The Queen of England has visited the victims and Barack Obama has spoken about the evil act.

The most heartwarming response has come from people in the United Kingdom. The people of Manchester and the UK have bonded during this time and have not allowed the attacks hold them back.

Minutes after the attack, people were helping the victims from the venue, cab men offered to take victims to the hospital for free and people opened their homes to parents who were looking for their kids.

There was a communal spirit that showed itself after the attack. The people of Manchester refused to allow a bunch of cowards make them run in fear.

Minutes after the attack #PrayForManchester was everywhere. These people immediately got around to building their lives. Yesterday, Manchester United and Manchester City announced that it would be donating 1M to the emergency fund for victims.

Within the last few years, Nigeria has had its share of acts of terrorism. Boko Haram has killed thousands of Nigerians. For the most part, our response as a people after a terrorist attack isn't hopeful.

Nigeria is a fragmented country where 'every man for himself' is the order of the day. When Boko Haram attacks the North East, Nigerians moan for a few seconds then move on with life. There is no collective grief, mourning and rebuilding. Life goes on. In the mind of an average Nigerian, as long as he is not dead all is right with the world.

I find it odd that Nigerians complain that the international media doesn't focus on our plight when the Nigerian media doesn't even cover the basics.

We expect the international community to sympathise with us when there is a terrorist attack when we can't compassionately mourn our dead.
His preferred tool is not the camera, but a constant glance, the white earphones that stay plugged to his ears, steady hands and the charcoal and graphite pencils that he uses over painstakingly long hours to achieve the level of detail that runs through all his hyper-realistic drawings.

It becomes even more impressive when you consider that he has not enjoyed a single day of training.

23-year-old Arinze works out of the home where he lives with his parents in Lagos. His studio is a makeshift space carved out of his office where by day, he helps his father with the family business.

Inside, along the walls, he hangs his easel where unfinished works await his attention and in another corner, four drawings that he calls the most important of his fledgling career.

I dont think I will ever sell these drawings, he tells me as we stand in his studio, eyes poring over each work. They are very special to me. I hope I never have to sell them

The most special of these is a drawing of President Muhammadu Buhari that he made in the weeks following his election.

Arinze calls it is the most important drawing he has made yet - the one that launched his career and put his art in the spotlight.

Many people dont agree with his methods of leadership he says of President Buhari. That drawing put me in that frame of criticism too and it got a lot of people talking about me. Many people were asking why I did it, why I drew it. Basically, it put me out there

Somehow the drawing continued to inspire conversation in the background, until it found its way to the eyes of iconic music producer and record label executive, Michael Collins Ajere, known to most as Don Jazzy.

I had very few people that knew about me back then. he says of that day. I had about 500 people that followed me on IG. I was in the bathroom when I got a notification on my phone. I checked my phone and I saw a post by Don Jazzy. I figured it was probably a bug. I opened up my IG and saw he reposted my work  he reposted it to a couple of million people

I feel like that was where the whole vibe started from because that night alone, I got about 1500 followers, he adds.

Like the Buhari drawing, all of Arinzes work is deeply personal. His special collection has a drawing of his kid brother, Charles and another of Henry, Charless best friend.

Arinze says he created them because of his respect for the relationship that they shared, and above all, he simply wanted to preserve their chemistry on paper for the rest of time.

The fourth piece speaks to his desires, a drawing of his crush, Ghanaian actress, Juliet Ibrahim, that like all his work, manages to capture the distinct glint in the actress eye as well as the facial distinctions that make her one of the most recognizable faces in Nigerian film.

But as far as special women go, there is a 5th piece, an unfinished drawing of what looks like a young woman holding on to her braids, lost in thought.

While on youth service in Kaduna, Arinze chanced upon a meeting with her, a fellow artist called Chisom. In that small time that they spent together, he says he found some chemistry, so he decided to put her on paper, and immortalise that connection for as long as time will allow.

I know Ill never see her again, he tells me when I ask if hell show her the drawing when its done.

Im never going to sell this drawing.

The hallmark of hyper-realism, as can be seen in the work of Arinze and contemporaries like Kelvin Okafor, is precision; the attention to detail that allows the artiste to convey the most minute element of an object or individual.

Hyperrealism, in itself, is not a strict interpretation of photographs or other visual media.

Instead, it calls on auxiliary, often delicate details to re-create a personal interpretation of the subjects truth or an illusion that is either the creation of the artists mind or a reality that, otherwise, would not be seen by the human eye.

What sets Arinze in his own lane is the emotive essence of his work. Every drawing is an experience that, as he calls it, is him putting his emotions on paper.

Emotive artists like this appreciate getting the visual idea across but it is not the priority. Instead, he prefers to find a connection to his subject that allows him to recreate, in strokes and shades, what he sees of that person for the viewer.

What he hopes to achieve is that those who view the drawings will see what he sees; that they will connect with his interpretation of his muses emotions.

There is nothing more cliche that the idea that artistes use their work as an outlet, it is how we explain the many varieties and forms of art and how artistes use their abilities.

For Arinze, the creative process is more, a release of sorts; I feel like I can escape from this world when Im drawing, he tells me, without taking his eyes of the canvas for a second.

Before finding release in his hyper-realistic portraits, Arinze remembers his humble beginnings when all his pencils could draw were stick people.

I was about 6 years old. Back then, we were making stick drawings he says, as he outlines the basic stick-man shape with his hands. I remember doing that in primary school, but then I grew into realising that hands were not actually sticks

During my schooling days, I used to have a lot of friends that used to motivate me. I used to do assignments for my friends, when we had projects, Id take mine and do for like 5 of my friends too. I just found it as fun. I didnt know I was training myself

The typical Nigerian hunt for a degree took him to Imo State University where he studied Agricultural Engineering. It was while here that he found hyper-realism and began to treat his art as a career.

I started taking my drawing as a full career in 2012 after I met a couple of artists on social media that really gave me that push to start drawings and take it seriously, he continues.

I have always had the urge to learn how to make drawings that look relaistic. Sometimes when my friends drew round heads, I found myself adding hair to it", he remembers.

"Over the years, I did not know that it was possible that looked real until I discovered hyper-realism as a movement of art. I decided to dive into it, I got all the things I needed, I followed a lot of footsteps, I practised a lot of new techniques - Im still learning

The influence of his mentors is clear in his work, but what inspires his urge to create these hyper-real drawings is something more personal, it is his connection to a world where he is completely free, unhindered and in total control.

The building blocks of that world are all Arinze's but what smoothens the edges are the emotions that give each drawing a unique personality, and that is what he wants his viewers to see.

I feel like whenever I touch my pencils and my paper, I just snap out of this planet and go into it. he says when I ask why he draws. When I snap, I find myself saying things and being a person I cant be with my normal self. I feel like thats best way to express myself, lose touch of reality and build that world for myself in my little space.

In the real world, Arinze splits his time between two roles. During the day, he works with his dad, and when night falls, he becomes the artist.

It is tasking work, so much that on week days, he only manages to make time for a few hours for sleep.

My average day is not like the regular persons day. We wake up by 5 in the morning and say our prayers till around 7. I get ready for work and resume by 8 in the morning, he tells me midway into our interview.

From 8 in the morning, his daily activity involves managing the family-owned firm that produces and sells envelopes, alongside his father. The factory is in the same compound as the family home, so for Arinze, work is never really far away.

I work till 5, 6 in the evening. Then I go to my second office, thats my studio, he chuckles, I start working till about 3 in the morning. I sleep, and wake up at 5. Apart from Saturdays and Sundays, thats how every day goes for me

Finding balance with such a routine can feel like juggling dumbbells, especially where your chosen endeavour requires emphasis on detail, technical prowess that can take years to build, and time, a lot of time.

Arinze spends between 300500 hours on a single drawing. For context, if he was an artist-employee at a firm or gallery, that would be about two months of work by the standard of regular work hours.

For every true creative, writer, musician, dancer or painter, heaven is the place where all they have to do is create art in their preferred medium.

They hope, in the most precious parts of their ambitious minds, for that day when they no longer have to worry about extraneous obligations.

And Arinze is entitled to those dreams.

But for now, he understands his reality, draws inspiration from it and finds his balance between responsibility and his art by sheer will and effort  and it works for him, as it has for years.

His mother, Mrs Ifeoma Lucy Egbe, has watched him grow over the years, from stick figures to portraits of former dictators.

She believes that her sons gift is God-given and it is that grace, along with his own tenacity, that has helped to find success at both ends of the spectrum.

Drawing is inborn in him. He started it as something he had a passion for but I didnt know it would generate this level that hes at now, she tells me outside the familys factory. Its just been by having set goals and knowing wheres headed, and I believe by being focused, trusting in God, the sky is his limit

It helps that Arinze sees his work ethic as a major driving force behind the quality of his drawings. For someone who is mostly self-taught, it makes sense that he appreciates the long hours.

But that hunger can so easily be lost when the accolades come in and work-in-progress begins to resemble the finshed article.

So he keeps himself grounded by looking to the future.

His dreams are big, for himself and for other Nigerian artists, hyper-real and otherwise.

It is a function of the attention and success he has gathered in the last few months, coupled with the understanding that his art is universal and the emotions that he depicts in these vivid drawings speak no distinct language.

Being a young artist in Nigeria is actually challenging because you naturally find yourself trying to find balance between making money and making your art and you have to choose, he says.

Many people go into art then realise theyre not making money so they say, I probably have to get out of it for a while and come back later. All this without focusing on building themselves

I feel like you need to grow to appreciate as an artiste. Its something that requires patience, practice and persistence. Ive been working with these rules so I just remove distractions, Im still learning. Im always learning. If young artistes can focus on that, well all grow, he adds.

When that growth comes, hes sure that the shores of this country will cease to be limitations.

In a couple of years, I see myself going out of the country he tells me with a big laugh that makes you feel like hes left already. Ill be exhibiting in France, in London, the United States, in many prestigious places. By the grace of God, we go global, he continues.

Considering that Arinze has such a clear idea of the future, he appears almost precise to the extent of being infallible.

There are no half-done or abandoned drawings in his studio. But like us mortals, the errors exist; he has things he wishes he could change or do better at least.

When our conversation was all said and done, I asked him what he would say if he met a younger version of himself, the person he was just before he began to find hyperrealism.

Id tell him to not stop what hes doing. Youre going to face so many things in the future. There are times where you wont sleep. But dont stop. Keep going, he says to this imaginary 15-year old person.

Simple words but a very clear message.
President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN), Dr. Bartholomew Brai while giving an address at the briefing showered praises on Dano for taking a bold step by partnering with NSN and contributing to the well-being of Nigerians.

Dr. Brai said, We are glad with this strategic partnership with TG Arla, manufacturers of Dano milk. This partnership is part of our resolution to associate with individuals and brands taking significant steps to help get rid of malnutrition of Nigeria.

As a nation willing to curb malnutrition, lets cultivate the habit of milk drinking. A glass of milk everyday makes that significant difference. We are proud to associate with Dano on this malnutrition campaign as it is a brand that is contributing positively to the well-being of Nigerians.

The Managing Director, TG Arla, Mr. Mads Burmester stated that Dano would live up to its promise of providing of Nigerian children and adults with healthy and highly nutritional dairy products.

"As a leading dairy brand in Nigeria, we will live up to our promise of boosting milk intake among Nigerians. We will continue to provide Nigerians with dairy products that are of high quality and satisfies their nutritional needs.

Country Category Manager, Mr. Olumide Aniyikaiye said Dano would continue to provide Nigerian mothers and other Nigerians with healthy, nutritional and affordable range of Milk products, capable of boosting the mental and physical wellbeing for the young and old.

Dano milk has been a major player in Nigerias dairy sector for more than 30 years. During this period of time, we have provided Nigerian mothers with dairy products for their children. This explains why we are championing milk drinking habit through this conversation.

Our products are natural, delicious and full of essential vitamins and minerals for children and adults. Our milk powder and UHT milk varieties ranging from skimmed, semi-skimmed to full cream milk satisfies each generations milk needs.

The World Milk Day, a significant day created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is celebrated annually on June 1.

It was created in 2001 by FAO to raise awareness for milk as a global food for healthy living. The Day provides stakeholders with the opportunity to focus attention on milk and to publicize activities connected with milk & the milk industry globally.
Saraki, wife of the President of the Senate, made the call during healthcare innovation award, roundtable and media briefing organised by GlaxoSmithKline and Save the Children in Abuja.

Alma Sana Nigeria, one of the winners in Africa, won 100,000 dollars award for stimulating uptake and demand for immunisation, by wearing a bracelet.

The innovation uses the simple bracelet to empower mothers by presenting them with a constant reminder of their babys vaccination schedules.

Saraki said such stakeholders include NGOs, advocacy bodies, philanthropy funds, and community leaders should be encouraged.

Policy must make and reflect a greater social obligation to vaccinate promptly, easily, and properly, and enforce this amongst all people.

There is need to be better disease surveillance nationally and regionally and an improved disease monitoring system to catch potential outbreaks early are essential if lives are to be saved.

This requires stronger training for health workers, and greater funding to make this happen, health workers must understand how the reporting mechanism for preventing an outbreak, she said.

Saraki said better health education and advocacy should be given to citizens on symptoms through media campaigns.

According to her, we must rebuild community trust in medicine and healthcare workers, so they will look for a doctor or a nurse, when they have symptoms instead of ignoring it or fearing a hospital.

We can, through innovations like this bracelet, and through patient-custody records, make the family, an agent-driver of their own change, an informed and active partner.

We cannot rest until global figures reflect victory comprehensively, completely, inclusively, and permanently, she said.

Wife of the President of the Senate said there had been a growing misconception about vaccinations as some argue that vaccinations are dangerous and ineffective, with some pseudo-science even hypothesising the link between vaccinations and autism.

We must inform citizens and local communities that vaccinations and immunisation will not lead to autism and their children are safer and healthier by being vaccinated.

Vaccinations apart from other medical practices have the ability to protect not just an individual, but a community.

For those who have limited access to frontline healthcare workers, a vaccination schedule can be self directed and appropriately informed such by the bracelet by Alma Sana, Saraki said.

The Deputy Country Director of Save the Children, Mr Babatunde Ojei said immunisation was one of the worlds tools for reducing mortality and morbidity.

Alma Sana selected Nigeria for their next programme because of its poor vaccination rates and large population.

We welcome the fantastic innovation, which can and should be replicated across the country, he said.

The Managing Director of GSK pharmaceutical, Mr Bhushan Akshikar said the successful implementation of the project would support the Nigerian government to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We look forward to the commencement of the pilot programme, he said.
Malami made this known on Thursday at the inauguration of the Ibadan Zonal office of EFCC.

He said that the review would ensure that the frequent removal of the commissions chairman was checked.

There would also be emphasis on strengthening public education and awareness.

 The agency will be repositioned to function at par with its international counterparts in developed countries, he said.

The minister said that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to ridding the country of corruption, noting that government had intensified efforts at taking the anti-corruption campaign to the grassroots.

Malami said that the whistle blowing policy had demonstrated greater success and had shown that Nigerians were ready and willing to partner with government in the fight against corruption.

He assured the people of governments determination to revamp the nations economy and ensure the security of the people.

Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State urged the people to partner with the anti-graft body in ridding the nation of corruption, adding that it remained an obstacle to progress and development.

 Corruption is a cancer that has eaten deep into our society. For us to develop in Nigeria, all of us must come together to fight corruption.

The president has always cautioned Nigerians that if we dont kill corruption, it will kill us.

 So, please let us support government in the campaign, he said.

Ajimobi said that the EFCC was a major player in the protection and promotion of the socio-economic well-being of the people.

We are very lucky that we have a sincere and incorruptible man in President Muhammadu Buhari.

 Buhari is the one Nigeria needs now.

We thank God that he is there and he would be there for many years, he stated.

The governor commended the acting chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu, saying the anti-graft body had made tremendous progress.

Ajimobi called on the National Assembly, particularly the senate, to consider the gains made in the anti-corruption campaign and confirm Magu.

Magu, on his part, said the inauguration of the Ibadan Zonal Office was to bring the agencys services nearer to the people.

 In spite of the efforts at fighting corruption, some people are still out there celebrating it.

 All these are put together to frustrate us. I want to assure you that they have failed.

The fight has just started. We will fish them out, just give us 12 months and you wont see them again, he said.
Gimi, who represents Makarfi constituency, said such gesture would ease off the burden faced by most Nigerians to even feed themselves.

The lawmaker told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Kaduna that it was very disturbing that prices of commodities tend to spiral during the Ramadan.

We have to advise them to reduce the price of their goods so as to help the poor and earn maximum reward from Allah during the Holy month of Ramadan.

Gimi reminded Muslims of the promise of Allah to double rewards for good deeds during the month.

We hope our marketers will hear this and not use the opportunity of the fasting period to hike prices of good."
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- For over five seconds, the presidents of two of the world's most powerful countries gripped and shook each other's hands with an amount of force uncommon for the ritual -- an action some are interpreting to be symbolic of their budding relationship's dynamic.



U.S. President Donald Trump and newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron met for the first time as they convened at a NATO summit in Belgium, and, as is tradition in the Western world, shook hands at the conclusion of remarks in front of reporters.



The shake lasted over 5.2 seconds and included an unsuccessful attempt by Trump at one point to release himself from his counterpart's grasp.



Trump's hesitancy to engage in such a lengthy series of ups and downs may stem from his aversion to the gesture. He has previously commented that he is "not a big fan of the handshake," though has regularly and publicly participated in them since launching his bid for the presidency almost two years ago.



"I think it's barbaric," said Trump on "Later Today" in 1999. "I mean, they have medical reports all the time. Shaking hands, you catch colds, you catch the flu, you catch this. You catch all sorts of things. Who knows what you don't catch?"



During a January press conference prior to his inauguration in which he refuted unsubstantiated claims about his conduct during a trip to Russia included in an intelligence dossier that had been leaked to the public, Trump again shared his position.



"I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the way," said Trump.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Osinbajo made the call at the colloquium on 50 years of Biafra organised by the YarAdua Memorial Centre in Abuja on Thursday.

The event, tagged Memory and Nation Building, Biafra; 50 years After, was co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Initiative West Africa.

The Acting President commended the organisers of the event for offering the platform for such conversation, saying that they deserve our deep gratitude for this opportunity for individual and collective introspection.

He said that introspection was probably what separates human beings from beasts, adding that the ability to learn from history was perhaps the greatest defense from the avoidable pain of learning from experience.

Osinbajo, who said he lost his friend and aunt to the Biafra war, added that Nigerians are greater as a nation together than being apart.

Nations are indeed made up of many nations; the most successful of the nations of the world are those who do not fall into the lure of secession, but who through thick and thin forge unity in diversity.

The reasons for this tragic separation of brothers and sisters were deep and profound, so much has been said and written already about the whys and wherefores and that analysis will probably never end.

The truth is that the spilling of blood in dispute is hardly ever worth the losses.

Of the fallouts of bitter wars is the anger that can so easily be rekindled by those who for good or ill want to resuscitate the fire, Osinbajo said.

He stressed that no country was perfect  as there has always been expressions of intra-national discontent.

He said the more beneficial way for us individually and collectively was to apply the effort and patience to understand one another.

This, he said, was critical to ensure that we progressively aspired to create one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.

He maintained that this should be the Nigerian dream and the enthusiasm to create a country that provides reasons for its citizens to believe in it.

The acting president said the country may not be there yet, but has a strong chance to advance and be the envy of other nations.

This, he however said, would not happen if we as a people allowed our frustrations and grievances to transmute into hatred.

It will not happen if we see the media and especially social media as platforms for the propagation of hateful and divisive rhetoric, he said.

Imagine for a moment that an enterprising young man from Aba had to apply for a visa to travel to Kano to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.

Or that a young woman from Abeokuta had to fill immigration forms and await a verdict in order to attend her best friends wedding in Umuahia.

Nigeria would be a much less colourful, much less interesting space, were that the case, the acting president said.
Some traders could not control their joy upon sighting Osinbajo when he arrived at about few minutes past 3pm on Friday, 26 May 2017.

The Acting President was accompanied by Aisha Abubakar, the minister of state trade and investment.

Osinbajo interacted with traders at the market even as they complained about the rising cost of shop rents and wares.

Alhaji Nasiru Maiyaki, a rice seller complained about inadequate storage space in the market.

The Acting President assured the traders that he would speak to market authorities on the annual N250,000 shop rent.

ALSO READ: Osinbajo wants Nigerian foods, drinks served at state banquets

A fish seller also spoke to the acting president on the increasing cost of doing business in Nigeria.

Osinbajo who encouraged the traders urged them to look at the gains of agriculture.

The more we farm the cost of products will come down, Osinbajo told the traders.

Laolu Akande, Spokeman to the Acting President who briefed journalists at the end of visit noted that Osinbajo wanted to feel the pulse of Nigerians, two years after the APC-led government took over power.

"He wanted to feel the pulse of Nigerians and hear directly from the people and have one on one with them and assure them that the administration was committed to improve if the economy and ensure life gets better for them, he said.
NEC, an official economic platform for dialogue among the 36 state governors, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other co-opted members, is chaired by the Vice-President.

Addressing State House correspondents on the outcome of the NEC meeting, which was presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo said members of the Council were impressed by the way and manner Osinbajo was handling the affairs of the country.

He said But the highlight of the whole discussion today was a special commendation the Council made on the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who we have all resolved to call a `System Stabiliser.

For the mere fact that Mr President (Muhammmadu Buhari) is on medical vacation, the system is still as smooth as it has always been.

So, we commended the acting president for a job well done.

Okorocha, who disclosed that the Council discussed monetary issues concerning Nigerias economy, said the nations Excess Crude Account stood at 2.3 billion dollars as at May 24.

He said the Council also reviewed the discrepancies in the figures and directed the Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris to reconcile the discrepancies.

He said: we were made to understand from the office of the Accountant-General that the excess crude account as at May 24 stands at 2.3 billion dollars.

Council also reviewed the discrepancies in figures and we have said that the Accountant-General will look at it and at the next meeting he will brief the council appropriately.

On the budget support facility for state governments which would be terminated by the end of May, the governor said the Council expressed concern that this may affect the economies of the states negatively.

He said the Council resolved that the budgetary support be extended to enable state governments to meet some of their financial challenges.

As regards the loan support called the budget support facility for states which is suppose to come to an end by the end of this month, council was concerned about the fact that we are gradually coming out of recession," he added.

According to him, if this budgetary support ceases at the end of May, it may create some lapses in our bid to stabilise the economy.

So council resolved that the budgetary support be extended to enable states catch up with the economic challenges of the moment, he added.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the passage of the Bill was a long-awaited exercise and that the legislation promised broad reforms to the nations downstream sector.

In passing the Bill on Thursday, the Senate said that it was its first tranche that was approved and that the second and final tranche was passed subsequently.

According to the Chairman, Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd., Mr Emmanuel Iheanacho, the enactment was a welcome development which is capable of revamping the dwindling oil sector.

The law will liberalise and fully deregulate the downstream sector to operate without hindrance, and this will create right mix and completion for the sector.

It will also bring about better economic value and attract investment to the country.

The non-passage of the Bill all these years has caused the country to lose billions of naira in terms of investment, most of the opportunities were diverted to Ghana and Angola, he said.

Mr Abiodun Adesanya, President, Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), said that the passage of the PIGB would bring the needed stability, transparency and accountability in the sector.

 It is encouraging to see that we now have new set of rules and regulations that will guide operations in the oil and gas industry.

This will create room for certainties and boost confidence for investors going forward.

However, I want to hope that we will not have another set of delay from the executive from final signing it into law.

If the executive is able to identify some loopholes in the PIGB that may set us back again. I hope that will not be the case, he said.

ALSO READ:5 Importance of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill

The National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo, said the Bill, when assented to would finally break NNPCs monopoly.

Okoronkwo said that it was also gratifying that the law, when promulgated, would promote local content, adding that local industries would now have wider latitude to join the sector hitherto controlled by foreign oil companies.
The Governor also called on the agency to embark on projects that will add value to the lives of people of the oil rich region.

According to Leadership, Dickson said this while speaking with the chairman of the NDDC, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba at the Bayelsa Government House.

The Governor also condemned the actions of political office holders in the Niger Delta who think of themselves only, and not the region.

ALSO READ:Bayelsa govt declares fast over recession

He said The ancient community of Oloibiri where the crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity is now a shadow of itself.

Most of the International Oil Companies operating in the state neither have their offices or pay taxes to Bayelsa State government.
Akindele has been a household name since her days on the screen as Bisi in "I Need to Know."

According to her, she didn't expect her acting journey to become this celebrated.

When I started I Need To Know, I never thought I would be this celebrated. I was 20 years old then," explained Funke Akindele.

"When I shot the pilot I just wanted to do it, I wanted to showcase my God-given talent. I remember the director telling me I was overacting because I was excited about it."

Funke explained why her hilarious character as Jenifa in "Jenifa's Diary," has continued to appeal to the audience.

Jenifa is witty, shes crazy, shes a go getter, she doesnt want to take no for an answer and I think I have that  I dont want to take no for an answer," the actress said.

Akindele's new music-oriented show "Industreet" makes its debut today, Friday, May 26, 2017.

Speaking about the series which debuts new acts, the actress said, We reach out to young people, we empower them.

"We help them acquire skills, we help them discover their special gift, their talent in acting and music and dance.

Funke Akindele came into limelight after her role in "I Need to Know," which ran from 1998 to 2002.
Ajimobi also said that Nigeria is lucky to have an incorruptible man like Buhari as its leader.

He made the comments on Thursday, May 25, during the inauguration of the Ibadan Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

We are very lucky that we have a sincere and incorruptible man in President Muhammadu Buhari, Ajimobi said according to Vanguard.

Buhari is the one Nigeria needs now. We thank God that he is there and he would be there for many years.

Corruption is a cancer that has eaten deep into our society. For us to develop in Nigeria, all of us must come together to fight corruption. The president has always cautioned Nigerians that if we dont kill corruption, it will kill us. So, please let us support government in the campaign, he added.

Buhari is currently in London on an indefinite medical leave after departing Nigeria on May 7.
A former Agege council chairman, Hon. Jubril Abdulkareem, and a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Hon. Taofiq Adaranijo, are allegedly parading non-APC members as the party excos.

This was disclosed in a statement jointly signed by the exco members of the APC in Agege and Orile-Agege, Mr. Lucky Samuel (JP), and Femi Falade respectively.

According to the statement, the reason for the alleged impersonation was to facilitate the emergence of Abdulkareem and Adaranijo's favoured candidates as Chairmanship and councillorship candidates of APC in the two councils by disenfranchising the real exco members.

The excos accused Abdulkareem and Adaranijo of sponsoring campaign of calumny against the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, and Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi.

They said at a press briefing in Lagos, the accused persons hired thugs to carry placards bearing slandering inscriptions against Obasa and Afikuyomi.

The statement reads in part, "Our attention has been drawn to a press briefing organised by Hon. Taofiq Adaranijo and Hon. Jubril Abdulkareem held on Wednesday at Blue Roof Hall, Ibido Street, Agege, where some disgruntled non-Exco members of our great party, and avowed members of the Peoples Democratic Party, were paraded before newsmen as APC Ecxo members in Agege and Orile-Agege.

"In the clip of the event in our possession, Adaranijo and Abdulkareem are seen lambasting the party's apex body over its decision to conduct the party primary outside Agege like other local government areas to forestall wanton destruction of lives and property that may occur following bitter rivalry the party primary for council election has generated across the state.

"Worst hit by their verbal attacks were the Chairman, Electoral Committee for the party primary, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi and Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.

"We wish to state categorically and unequivocally that we are not party to the verbal abuse hauled at our highly respected leaders. We condemn their shenanigans, and their anti-democratic tendency in strong terms.

"As we look forward to the day of the primary when we will make our choice in the open and not in 'other room', the general public and stakeholders are hereby advised to ignore anyone or group of persons purporting to represent APC Excos in Agege and Orile-Agege."
Suleiman told the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) on Friday in Minna that observing the rules attached to fasting was very significant.

He also urged Muslims to always seek knowledge to enable them practice the religion in accordance with the dictates of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

Muslims should also use the Ramadan period to imbibe the lessons of the life of humility, sacrifice and sharing of the holy Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), he said.

He urged wealthy individuals to use their resources in the cause of Allah and to assist those in need to enable them observe the Ramadan without stress.

 Our business men and women should desist from indiscriminate increase of basic amenities during the Ramadan period.
Guterres made the remarks at the opening of a UN Security Council session devoted to the protection of civilians during armed conflicts.

Citing the World Health Organization, he said there were attacks on hospitals, doctors, ambulances, and on the sick and wounded in at least 20 countries last year.

He singled out Syria and Afghanistan as countries where such attacks have risen sharply.

"These attacks are evidence of a broader trend: parties to conflict are treating hospitals and health clinics as targets, rather than respecting them as sanctuaries," he said.

In Syria, Physicians for Human Rights has documented 400 attacks on medical facilities since the conflict there began in 2011.

Guterres said more than half the country's medical facilities are closed or only partially functioning. Two-thirds of specialized medical personnel have fled the country.

A similar scenario he said is occurring in South Sudan, where less than half the medical facilities in areas affected by the conflict are operating.

"I urge parties to conflict to take concrete steps to limit harm to civilians in their military operations, as they are obliged to do under international law," Guterres said.

"And I call on all member states to use their influence to promote respect for international law and ensure accountability for violations," he said.

Countries supplying arms used in these conflicts, he said, should "show greater responsibility and consider the potential consequences of those sales, for human lives and for our common security."

Guterres also urged support for international efforts, including the International Criminal Court, to hold violators accountable.

Christine Beerli, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said attacks on medical facilities had been carried out by states as well as by armed groups.

Bruno Stagno Ugarte of Human Rights Watch said that in order to introduce more accountability for such attacks, the UN secretary general should "commit to alerting the Security Council of all future attacks on healthcare facilities on an ongoing rather than annual basis."
"Unfortunately, despite serious efforts to overcome their differences regarding the modalities for meeting in Geneva, the leaders were unable to find common ground," envoy Espen Barth Eide said.

"Without a prospect for common ground, there is no basis for continuing this shuttle diplomacy," he added.

Eide had been engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in a bid to secure their agreement on the proposed conference.

It was agreed that talks on Cyprus could go no further and only an international conference involving the three guarantors of the island's sovereignty - Britain, Greece and Turkey - could achieve real progress.

"As both leaders have publicly expressed their desire to reconvene the conference on Cyprus and to finalise all outstanding issues in Geneva, our sole focus has been to agree the modalities by which this can be achieved," Eide said.

Although he had hoped to get agreement on the conference by the end of the week, he conceded the differences between the two leaders were insurmountable.

"I briefed the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council in a joint meeting. I will now inform the secretary general (Antonio Guterres) and seek his advice on the way forward," Eide said.

The envoy had previously said there was a "desire to go the final mile and go to Geneva" but "there are real differences we still have to work on."

A previous conference involving the guarantor powers in Geneva in January failed to agree on a post-peace security strategy.

UN-backed peace talks seek to reunite Cyprus under a federal roof.

Anastasiades and Akinci remain at loggerheads over core issues such as power sharing, territorial adjustments, security arrangements and property rights.

The Greek Cypriot leader wanted Geneva to focus on post-solution security arrangements while Akinci wanted issues of power sharing at the fore.

Anastasiades, who heads the island's internationally recognised government, faces re-election in February complicating the talks process.

The goverment's drive to explore for offshore oil and gas has also clouded the negotiations with Ankara calling for it to be halted until a settlement has been reached.

The two sides have been engaged in fragile peace talks since May 2015 that observers see as the best chance in years to reunify the island.

This process now looks in jeopardy, although a UN spokesperson put a brave face on the setback.

"The talks have not collapsed. The process remains leader-led and we now have to hear from the leaders how they see a way forward," the spokesperson told AFP.

Much of the progress until now has been based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

But in recent months there has been a negative climate of blame and mistrust.

The eastern Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece.
Trump's tough talk came in a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, which along with South Korea is most immediately threatened by North Korean belligerence.

But the isolated regime has also threatened to target places further afield such as the US West Coast, and Trump has called North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un a "madman with nuclear weapons".

"We will be discussing many things including of course North Korea which is very much on our minds," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina as he held bilateral talks with Abe at the start of the two-day G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem.

"It will be solved, you can bet on that," he added, without giving further details.

North Korea carried out two atomic tests last year, and has accelerated its missile launch programme, despite tough UN sanctions aimed at denying Kim the hard currency needed to fund his weapons ambitions.

So far Washington has opted for sanctions and diplomatic pressure, while looking to China, the North's closest ally, to help rein in Pyongyang.

Earlier this month naval exercises were conducted in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, with South Korean and Japanese aircraft also taking part.

Abe said he intended to use the G7 summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea.

"The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act "resolutely".

Pyongyang's launches this year have included a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

'A lot of firepower'

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention is an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said "we can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that".

"We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 -- but we don't want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable". The controversial Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart's "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment".

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with China.

But Beijing, the North's main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority.

North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computers.
It gave Budapest until Thursday to respond to questions in its "letter of formal notice" or face being taken to court.

"The European Commission has not provided one single argument why the law should be modified," Janos Lazar, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief-of-staff, told a press briefing.

The Commission alleged that the new legislation targets the Central European University (CEU) founded by Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, and that it breaches fundamental EU free-market laws as well as the right of academic freedom.

The government has denied the allegations and says it wants to remove advantages enjoyed by some foreign-based institutions.

The law requires foreign colleges and universities to operate on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement and to have a campus in the country in which they are based.

Set up in 1991 by Soros to foster democratic values after the end of communism, the English-language and Budapest-based CEU attracts students from 117 countries, but has long been seen as a hostile bastion of liberalism by Orban's right-wing government.

"(Soros) lobbied well in Brussels, he has managed to mobilise the European Commission and the European Parliament," Lazar said Thursday.

Chartered by the State of New York, the CEU has just one campus, in Budapest, where its continued operation would be made "impossible" by the new law according to the CEU rector Michael Ignatieff.

"The Orban regime can't stand free institutions," he told AFP last month.

The bill has sparked large street protests in Budapest and international condemnation including from universities, academics, and Nobel prizewinners around the world.

Budapest has insisted that under the new law an intergovernmental agreement between Hungary and the US federal administration is required to let the CEU keep its operating license.

The US State Department said this week however that the US government has "no authority or intention to enter into negotiations" over the CEU, and that education is not a matter for the federal administration.

In a statement it urged Budapest to "suspend implementation" of the law which it said "places discriminatory, onerous requirements on US-accredited institutions in Hungary and threatens academic freedom and independence".

New York state governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that he is "ready to enter into discussions with the Hungarian government" to keep open "a treasured resource for students around the world".
The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

"The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province," ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP.

"Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded."

A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20.

The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

It highlights a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq.

Raziq had lashed out at the central government in Kabul on Thursday, accusing them of a plot to destabalise his province.

"Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering.

"Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help."

The attack marks another setback for NATO-backed Afghan forces. It comes just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001.

And in another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.
Simeonov, 62, is co-leader of the United Patriots (UP), the junior party in the governing coalition.

He has been sharply criticised in the past for extreme anti-migrant talk and for demands for "a stronger hand" in the treatment of the country's Roma and Turkish minorities.

In December 2014, Simeonov told parliament that the Roma were scrounging "ferocious humanoids" whose children "play with pigs in the street" and whose women "have the instincts of street dogs".

The panel that he will head includes government members and about 50 non-governmental organisations.

It notably works on integrating Bulgaria's 700,000 Roma, which account for about 10 percent of the population. The minority is highly ghettoised and suffers from widespread discrimination.

"This is a grave form of cynicism," said Mustafa Karadaya, head of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) party, which represents the country's 800,000-strong Turkish minority.

A former chief of the council, ethnic issues expert Mihail Ivanov called the appointment "an outrage against minorities."

The government press office did not explain the reason for Simeonov's appointment, but noted the requirement that the council has to be headed by one of the government's vice-premiers.

UP came third in the general elections on March 26. It significantly toned down its rhetoric to secure its entry in the government of conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on May 4.

But its members' past actions have come back to haunt the government.
The violence marks a sharp escalation in the long conflict that began when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition overthrew then-president Francois Bozize in 2013, prompting reprisals from Christian anti-balaka militias.

The UN humanitarian office and the minister of social affairs said in a joint statement that the clash in the last two weeks has hit the towns of Bria, Bangassou and Alindao, all hundreds of kilometres east of Bangui.

Social Affairs Minister Virginie Baikoua told newsmen after a visit on Wednesday to Bria that it was a catastrophe.

Houses are burnt down, others pillaged, the displaced are afraid it could degenerate at any moment because armed men are roaming around the camps.

Over 41,400 of Brias 47,500 inhabitants were displaced by fighting between May 15 and 18, Baikoua said.

The Red Cross recently said it had found 115 bodies in Bangassou, a diamond-mining area on the border with Democratic Republic of Congo after it was seized by hundreds of militia with heavy weaponry.

UN peacekeepers, part of a 13,000-strong force, have since secured Bangassou and reinforced their positions in other areas, the mission (MINUSCA) said in a statement.

About 440,000 people were displaced throughout the country by the end of April and that number could reach 500,000 by the end of May.
Marixa Lemus, a 45-year-old Guatemalan who went by the nickname "The Boss," was arrested in the west of El Salvador near the Guatemalan border.

She had dyed her hair blond "to try to avoid being identified," Guatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Rivas told reporters.

Lemus had escaped her military-run prison north of Guatemala City on May 11.

She was sentenced to her lengthy term in March 2015 for heading a gang that specialized in abductions and contract killings.

The group was notably accused of carrying out a bomb attack on December 13, 2013 against the mayor of the southeast town of Moyuta, which failed to harm its target.

After her jailbreak, several guards who were supposed to be watching her were arrested, the prison warden was sacked and a nationwide search launched.

Lemus had tried to escape once before, from a women's prison in May last year, but police caught her hiding in woodland nearby.
"The door handle was ripped out by force, which you can see by the trim plate, by the city hall janitor during the Warsaw Uprising," Trybus told reporters at the Museum of Warsaw, which reopened Friday after four years of renovation and redesign.

He "recognised that something had to be saved from city hall" as tens of thousands of Poles fought the occupying German Nazis in the ill-fated 1944 uprising. It was one of the war's bloodiest episodes, taking the lives of some 200,000 Warsaw residents.

The failed two-month rebellion would go on to spark reprisals by the Nazis, who exacted their revenge by razing the city house by house, street by street, until it was just a pile of rubble.

"I think this story tells us more than a lot of articles," Trybus said, adding that the janitor also salvaged 11 spoons and a chunk of the floor.

"It shows how dramatic the uprising was, during which it was necessary to save such seemingly everyday objects as a door handle or a spoon."

The old city hall was eventually rebuilt after the war, as was the museum itself, which takes up 11 connected tenement houses that form a maddening maze of rooms and staircases as complex as the city's own history.

"I actually think it's a good thing that you can get lost. It gives you a chance to stop and look around you" and appreciate not only the exhibition but also the historic buildings themselves, museum director Ewa Nekanda-Trepka told AFP.

Postcards, packaging, mermaids

The museum is located on the Old Town Market Square, which was carefully reconstructed after the war and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

To tell the story of the city, one left with next to nothing after the war, the museum staff chose to focus on objects, which Trybus described as "witnesses and themselves participants in the history of the city".

"Our parents and grandparents used to show us old things and use them to communicate family history. This is a normal, natural way of passing along knowledge found in objects," Trybus said, contrasting the method with the abstract way history is taught in schools.

The new permanent exhibition, "The Things of Warsaw," showcases 7,352 objects across 21 rooms with themes like postcards, clocks, maps, silverware, packaging and mermaids -- the symbol of the city.

In the Room of Archeology, excavated pottery from the Middle Ages is displayed alongside a couple of modern-day pots whose bright red and blue surfaces show signs of serious damage.

"These pots were also dug up from the ground... during excavations on the site of the former Warsaw ghetto" set up by Nazi Germany during the war, according to Trybus.

The museum's overhaul cost 64 million zloty (15 million euros, $17 million) and was co-funded by the city and the Norway Grant: money provided by non-EU states Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein to poorer EU members in return for access to EU markets.
"Operations like this are emblematic of the vital work ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers do every day, seeking to locate, arrest, and ultimately deport at-large convicted criminals and other immigration fugitives who pose a threat to public safety," David Marin, the ERO director in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

"By taking these individuals off the streets and removing them from the country, were making our communities safer for everyone," he added.

The raids took place amid a surge in such operations since President Donald Trump took office in January vowing to deport as many as three million undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

A similar large-scale crackdown in February in at least half a dozen states netted hundreds of undocumented immigrants including some without criminal records, prompting an uproar among rights groups.

Authorities said the latest crackdown led to the arrest of a 29-year-old Salvadoran national convicted of rape in California and a previously deported 51-year-old Mexican man who had been convicted of cocaine trafficking.

More than two dozen of those arrested also had been convicted of domestic violence and driving under the influence.

The suspects -- 177 men and 11 women -- included nationals from 11 countries.

The majority -- 146 -- are from Mexico while two are from Russia and one from Cambodia.

Most of the arrests took place in the Los Angeles area.

According to federal authorities, more than 41,000 people have been arrested by ICE since Trump signed an executive order in January strengthening immigration enforcement policies.
Salman Abedi, the man suspected of carrying out the attack on a pop concert in Manchester that killed 22 people and wounded dozens, was born in Britain but visited Libya before the bombing that was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Rebellion to jihad

At the start of the uprising against Kadhafi, dozens of Libyans who lived abroad travelled home to take up arms alongside other Muslim extremists against the veteran strongman.

They were supplied weapons by Western countries and fought the regime as NATO warplanes provided them with air cover.

Post-Kadhadi Libya quickly turned into a breeding ground for heavily armed groups, including Islamists, some of whom were paid by transitional authorities to secure the country's borders.

Among them was the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia which wooed jihadists and slowly spread its presence from Libya's second city Benghazi to Derna in the east.

Ansar al-Sharia was also present in Sirte, Kadhafi's hometown which was the Islamic State group controlled for more than a year before they were routed by Libyan pro-government forces late last year.

The Islamists who fought Kadhafi controlled army barracks and installations in the east and south of the country after his demise and transformed them into training camps.

Hundreds of jihadists were trained to fight in Iraq and Syria.

Military and ideology

The recruits first received ideological guidance and then military training, experts say.

Thanks to Libya's long and porous borders with Egypt and Tunisia, networks were able to radicalise, train and send fighters to battlefields in Syria and Iraq.

Foreign jihadists flooded Libya to prepare for battle.

Some joined Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate now known as Fateh al-Sham, while others joined ranks with its rival the Islamic State group.

As IS faced repeated setbacks in Syria and Iraq at the hands of the US-led international coalition, some fighters returned to Libya.

IS still active

Despite losing Sirte to pro-government forces in December, IS continues to be active in Libya, particularly in the country's remote south and in the east.

According to analysts, IS diehards in Libya consist of fighters from many nationalities.

Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Manchester bombing suspect Abedi could have been trained in an IS camp before the jihadists were routed from Sirte.

The Washington Institute think-tank says that "previously, most of the foreign fighters travelling to Libya hailed from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, and Tunisia.

"Yet once IS became the main recruiter there, individuals from Europe, North America, South Asia, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa began to show up as well."

Although the Islamic State group claimed the Manchester bombing there has been no confirmation it was behind the attack.
On the night of the election in April, Assange took to Twitter to celebrate Lasso's loss.

But Moreno -- speaking at a ceremony at Cochasqui archeological site in the northern Andes Thursday -- "respectfully" asked the Australian "not to interfere in Ecuadorian politics, nor in the politics of its allies."

"His status does not allow him to talk about the politics of any country, let alone ours," he said.

It was Moreno's second warning for Assange in as many months, after he urged him following his election victory to "not meddle" in Ecuador's affairs.

The admonishment comes a week after Swedish prosecutors dropped a seven-year rape allegation against Assange and withdrew the European arrest warrant that had prompted his flight to the embassy and an appeal for asylum.

Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa said earlier this week that his country had "done its duty" by granting him asylum in 2012.

Moreno added on Thursday that his country "will ensure" that Britain "allows the transfer of Mr Assange to Ecuador or to the country in which he wishes to reside."

However, British police have said they still intend to arrest Assange if he leaves the London embassy after he violated the terms of his probation in Britain in 2012 when he took refuge in the diplomatic mission.
The party, known as Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia (LSNS), has campaigned heavily against letting migrants into the country, and won seats in parliament for the first time in March 2016.

It currently has 14 MPs sitting in the 150-member parliament.

"In the opinion of the prosecutor's office, the objective of this political party is to remove the current democratic system in the Slovak Republic," Andrea Predajnova, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor general, told AFP on Thursday.

Party chief Marian Kotleba, 40, is notorious for having led street marches with party members dressed in black neo-Nazi uniforms before he entered parliament.

Hostile to both Slovakia's sizable Roma minority and the established elite, he was repeatedly detained and charged with hate speech, chiefly against Roma, before becoming an MP.

Kotleba has also praised former Slovak president Jozef Tiso, who agreed to deport tens of thousands of Jews to Nazi Germany during World War II.

"A large amount of evidence proves that the Kotleba-People's Party Our Slovakia is an extremist political party with fascist tendencies that violate the constitution of the Slovak Republic, our laws and international treaties," Predajnova said.

Prosecutors had received around 170 formal complaints requesting that the party be banned, she added.

A spokesman for the Slovak parliament told AFP that LSNS deputies would be able to keep their seats regardless of a ban.

But with opinion polls ranking the LSNS as Slovakia's third most popular party -- the latest survey gives it 11.1 percent voter support -- analysts point to a potential backlash against a ban.

Prime Minister Robert Fico, a Social Democrat who is nonetheless staunchly anti-migrant, this month urged justice officials to take action against the party.
The EU and United States under then president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia rebels.

But it is as yet unclear whether Obama's successor Donald Trump, who is under fire domestically over allegations that Russia meddled to aid his election campaign last year, will maintain these sanctions.

"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU's 28 leaders, told reporters in Sicily.

"I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy," he added before the latest summit of seven leading industrialised nations kicked off in the town of Taormina, with Trump one of four leaders new to the G7 party.

Tusk already met with Trump on Thursday in Brussels, and said that while both sides did not have a "common position about Russia", they appeared to be on the same line where the Ukrainian conflict is concerned.

In March, the US State Department said Washington's "Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine".

But Trump's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn appeared to cast doubt on this Thursday.

"Right now, we don't have a position," he told reporters on board Air Force One as Trump headed to Sicily, the final stop of his first foreign trip as president.

"He's got many options," Cohn added, without giving further details.
Since troops recaptured Palmyra from the Islamic State group in March, the UNESCOWorld Heritage site had been accessible via Syria's third city Homs, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) to the west.

But after major advances on Thursday night, the army now controls the direct road from the capital to Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

With the support of Russian air strikes, regime fighters "pushed IS fighters out of desert territory amounting to more than 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles)," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The jihadists were withdrawing because of how intense the Russian air strikes were," Abdel Rahman said.

Palmyra's temples, colonnaded alleys and elaborately decorated tombs -- some of the best preserved classical monuments in the Middle East -- attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.

IS fighters first overran it in May 2015, and government troops recaptured it 10 months later.

The jihadist group retook it in late 2016, but Russian-backed Syrian forces wrested back control in March.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow has been carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's troops since September 2015.

The Syrian army appears to be conducting a multi-pronged drive towards the oil-rich territory near the country's eastern borders with Iraq and Jordan.

But parts of the frontier are controlled by rebel groups backed by the US-led coalition fighting IS.

Earlier this month, coalition warplanes struck a convoy of pro-government forces headed towards a remote coalition garrison near the Syrian-Jordanian border.
Air raids on Islamic State group targets in Syria have left hundreds of civilians dead since 2014.

The latest strikes that hit a series of residential buildings on Thursday in Mayadeen, a town in Syria's eastern province of Deir Ezzor, killed at least 35 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

The rights office had no specific information about Thursday's bombings.

Zeid's spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that identifying the air force responsible for civilian deaths is often difficult given the number of countries in the anti-IS coalition and the lack of credible information.

The Pentagon released findings on Thursday of an investigation that concluded at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to that, the US military had said coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

Zeid underscored that civilians were now being hit by both sides in the conflict.

"The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by (IS), are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes", he said in a statement.

The rights office has also received credible information that IS fighters slit the throats of eight people earlier this month who were accused of providing the coalition coordinates to guide strikes, Colville said.
The British-born 22-year-old of Libyan descent detonated the blast on Monday evening, killing 22 people outside a packed Manchester Arena after a show by US pop star Ariana Grande.

British interior minister Amber Rudd on Wednesday described the bombing as "more sophisticated than some of the attacks we've seen before", adding that "it seems likely -- possible -- that he wasn't doing this on his own".

Ten men are now in custody in connection with the attack, including Abedi's brother and father in Libya.

Abedi reportedly returned from Libya only a few days before the bombing and police are still trying to pin down his movements and determine whether he was part of a wider network.

Police have revealed little about the explosive. But photographs from the bomb scene leaked to The New York Times -- to the fury of British officials -- suggest Abedi carried "an improvised device made with forethought and care", the newspaper wrote.

The images showed shreds of a blue Karrimor backpack, metal screws and nuts, the remains of a powerful battery, and an apparent hand-held detonator.

While some parts of the device would be easy to acquire, "the detonator itself is not something that's easy to get your hands on without raising suspicions," British security expert Will Geddes told AFP.

"Putting together devices of this nature is not an easy job," said Geddes, who heads the corporate security ICP Group.

"Rarely is there going to be a lone actor with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) -- there are lots of individuals, lots of moving parts."

'Taught at a camp'

Britain's The Times newspaper on Friday said Abedi was believed to have planned the attack for at least a year, buying nails and screws for the device from hardware stores in the northwestern English city before his Libya trip.

Security sources fear he may have also made a second device which is now in the hands of other jihadists, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

"This is not a lone-wolf case involving a knife," said Republican lawmaker Michael McCaul, who chairs the US House committee on homeland security.

McCaul told Fox News television that Monday's bombing was "a very soft target, a very premeditated sophisticated attack using a very sophisticated explosive device".

After his return from Libya, Abedi was seen on security cameras last Friday buying the Karrimor rucksack at a Manchester shopping centre, after which he is thought to have assembled the device at two different addresses, the Telegraph said.

"He will have spent time at a camp somewhere, possibly in Libya, being shown how to do it," former Metropolitan police officer David Videcette, who helped investigate the 2005 London bombings, told the broadsheet.

The New York Times said there were no initial details of the type and strength of the explosive used in the attack.
Fake food inspectors targeting ethnic and minority-owned restaurants have reappeared in Scott County and as well as areas in central Iowa, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals said this week.

The department received the first report of a fake food inspector scamming local restaurants from the Scott County Public Health Department on Monday, David Werning, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, said Thursday.

A local restaurant apparently called the Scott County inspectors regarding the contact and the information was passed on to us, Werning said.

The department, too, received a few telephone calls from establishment owners after an individual claiming to be a food inspector visited their restaurants and offered to get their licenses renewed quickly if the owners provided the inspector with a $5 payment by credit card, Werning added.

Unfortunately, at least one of the owners provided his credit card information to the fake food inspector and then found that his account had been hacked, Werning said.

The fake food inspectors, it appears, are targeting ethnic restaurants - Asian, Mexican, and other minority-owned establishments, he said.

The last time we heard about fake food inspectors operating in the state was in 2011, Werning said.

At that time, he said, the fake inspectors were a bit more aggressive and offered to "make violations go away" in exchange for a cash payment.

They would also bully staff in food establishments for personal telephone numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal information, Werning said.

A legitimate restaurant inspector will never ask an establishment owner or staff for personal information, will never threaten or intimidate a restaurant employee, and will never attempt to extort money in exchange for fixing a problem, said Steven Mandernach, chief of the food and consumer safety bureau of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.

Food safety inspectors at both the state and local level are dedicated individuals who assist owners in the operation of their food service establishments, their role is as much educational as it is regulatory, he added.

Restaurant owners and operators should contact their local health department or the Department of Inspections and Appeals for verification of a persons identity if they have any doubts about an inspector. Food establishment operators who are contacted by anyone claiming to be a food inspector who asks for personal information, such as credit card account numbers, should immediately notify their local police department.
A Davenport man is facing charges after Davenport police allege he brandished a handgun during a road rage incident late Wednesday.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police officer Ryan Leabo, officers were dispatched to the area of River Drive and Gaines Street at 11:26 p.m. to investigate a driver of a car who displayed a gun at another vehicle.

Officers were able to locate the vehicle described by the victims.

The driver of the car, Michael Raymond Oldenburg, 24, of 523 W. 13th St., was arrested on charges of assault while displaying a weapon and carrying weapons, both of which are aggravated misdemeanors under Iowa law that carry a prison sentence of up to two years.

He also is charged with possession of marijuana after officers seized 3.2 grams of marijuana from the car's glove box. The charge is a serious misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to one year in the county jail.

According to the arrest affidavit, there was a verbal altercation between the people in the vehicles. Oldenburg displayed his pistol and pointed it at the other vehicle, stating, How about this.

Oldenburg had a valid permit to carry that dated from Aug. 4, 2015 through Aug. 4, 2020.

Scott County Sheriff's Major Shawn Roth said that Oldenburg's permit to carry can be suspended immediately if there is a violation of the conditions regarding the permit, "which this sounds like there was."

Roth said all incidents reported to police that involve firearms where the person has a permit to carry are reviewed to insure that the laws are being obeyed.

Oldenburg was booked into the Scott County Jail at 3:34 a.m. Thursday. He was released at 7:09 a.m. after posting 10 percent of a $2,000 bond through a bonding company.
They were called the "Graybeards," because all of them were older than 45 when they joined the Union Army at the encouragement of President Abraham Lincoln.

The idea was that these older men could be assigned guard duties that would free up younger men for fighting, and a regiment was mustered out of Muscatine on Dec. 15, 1862.

Among the members was Enos McNall who, at age 65, was the oldest man from Rock Island County who tried to enlist. He was turned away, so in the fall of 1862, he crossed the Mississippi River to Muscatine where he trained with the 37th Iowa Regiment, Company B, at Camp Strong.

Eventually, a train took the Graybeards to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, where they guarded Confederate prisoners. During the course of the war, the regiment was transported by train to numerous other locations, but St. Louis turned out to be McNall's first and last duty post.

He fell ill and died of pneumonia on May 15, 1863.

All this was unknown to McNall's great-great-great granddaughter, Deb Donaldson of Davenport, until just last year.

The discovery came during an event at which members of The Civil War Soldiers' Monument Restoration Project had a display, and Donaldson was looking through a book with the names of all the soldiers listed on the monument.

She knew that her great-great grandfather, Osias McNall, had served in the war and was wounded, but he had survived, so she wasn't sure she would find a "McNall" among the names of the dead.

Just as she hit upon Enos, she was approached by Doug Lambert, treasurer of the project, who said something to the effect, "Enos McNall? You're related to Enos McNall?"

Lambert knew all about him and the Graybeards, and Donaldson was "just floored."

Although Osias McNall's story was part of family lore, "his father Enos was never mentioned by my relatives," she said.

Donaldson and a researcher friend began digging into the Graybeards' story, reading through newspaper articles and other materials at the Muscatine Library, tracking down the information provided above. They also found the site of Camp Strong, marked by a stone monument at what is now the entrance to a mobile home park in the south section of town.

Lambert said that fewer than 10 of the 354 men whose names are listed on the monument were brought back to the Quad-City region for burial. But Enos McNall is one of them, laid to rest in the Drury Reynolds Cemetery in rural Rock Island County.

Donaldson does not know the story of how his remains were brought back, but when she went to the cemetery to check on his gravestone, she found that it was broken, with parts missing.

She learned of a program in which the Veterans Administration will supply free headstones for pre-World War I veterans if a person or group provides documentation.

She applied, and the granite marker with the shield of the Grand Army of the Republic was shipped to Moline Monument Co., with a birth date of Sept. 10, 1796, the oldest date the company had ever handled, she said.

The stone will be rededicated this weekend in Memorial Day services at the cemetery.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued the order Friday, in accordance with U.S. Flag Code. All U.S. flags should be flown at half-staff from sunrise to noon Monday. President Donald Trump issued a similar order on Wednesday.

Flags will be at half-staff on the Iowa Capitol Building, on flag displays in the Capitol Complex and upon all public buildings, grounds and facilities throughout the state. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.
DES MOINES  In her first significant action as governor, Kim Reynolds likely managed to sidestep a dramatic legal challenge and also set the groundwork for her potential election campaign.

Reynolds last week hired Adam Gregg to serve as her lieutenant governor, albeit in an incomplete role. Gregg will work with Reynolds in a manner similar to his predecessors: He will lead program initiatives, attend events on behalf of the administration, appear with Reynolds at others and be involved in policy decisions.

But Gregg will not be in the line of succession. If Reynolds for any reason cannot serve as governor, Gregg will not be promoted. Instead, the Iowa Senate President  Jack Whitver, a Republican from Ankeny  would become governor.

The unique arrangement was developed by the Reynolds administration after the state attorney general ruled recently that an individual promoted from lieutenant governor to governor  as Reynolds was this past week after the resignation of Terry Branstad to become U.S. ambassador to China  does not have the authority to name a new lieutenant.

Administration officials said they thought they had three options in the wake of the attorney generals formal opinion:

 Not name someone and leave the position vacant.

 Name a lieutenant and run the risk of a legal challenge.

 Name an acting lieutenant who is not in the line of succession.

Reynolds wanted a lieutenant with whom to work and represent the administration, but she also wanted to avoid what likely would have been an expensive and contentious, public legal dispute. The setup with Gregg attempts to thread that needle.

Now, Reynolds has in Gregg a working partner in the administration and a potential running mate for the 2018 election campaign, which essentially already has started with candidates from both political parties touring the state.

This (decision) came from meetings with her core team of advisers and staff, said Tim Albrecht, Reynolds deputy chief of staff and a veteran of the Branstad-Reynolds administration. "We went through all three of the scenarios ... all of them had upsides, and all of them had downsides."

Maximizing staff, prepping for campaign

The unique setup seems to accomplish the administrations goals of naming a lieutenant governor without drawing a lawsuit, said Timothy Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.

The advantage to Reynolds, of course, is she has another person in her administration that she can rely on, Hagle said.

Hagle said a lieutenant governor can help spread the administrations message by making public appearances where and when the governor cannot. That can be especially useful during a legislative session or an election campaign.

A lot of times, its filling in for that top executive, because that person cant be everywhere at the same time, Hagle said. By having him there, hell be able to attend a variety of events and represent the administration, and thats going to be an important thing.

Putting Gregg on the administrations staff now also means he will be around for the next 19 months, which will give him an opportunity for voters to get familiar with him before next years election.

Reynolds has not officially said she will run for election in 2018, but she has hinted at it and is widely expected to run. She insisted in an interview last week that she is not making staff or policy decisions based on what it could mean for the politics of the 2018 election.

It appears likely she will face a primary challenge from Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett. And at least a half-dozen Democrats already are running for governor or giving serious thought to a run.

Should she run, Reynolds will have some built-in advantages, in particular experience and name recognition from having served as lieutenant governor for the past six-plus years, and she has a huge head start on fundraising with more than $1 million in her campaign account.

Having Gregg serve with her in the administration could help their potential campaign get that running start.

That gives them a chance to go around the state and increase his name recognition, Hagle said. At a minimum, that increases his name recognition so he can do a better job representing the Reynolds campaign in the general election, assuming she survives a primary challenge.

Gregg's intro to center stage

The 34-year-old Gregg brings a relatively fresh face to the main stage of Iowa politics, but not to Reynolds. He served as a legislative adviser in the Branstad administration for roughly a year and a half from late 2012 to 2014.

More recently, Gregg served as state public defender, whose office is designated to ensure low-income Iowans are given adequate legal representation.

Gregg also ran for attorney general in 2014, losing to longtime officeholder Tom Miller. It was Miller who delivered the formal opinion that, in part, led to Gregg serving as lieutenant governor in a partial role.

Kurt Swaim, an assistant state public defender and former Democratic state legislator, praised Greggs work to exonerate wrongfully convicted Iowans and his oversight and modernization of the state public defenders office.

Adam has a brilliant mind, a compassionate heart, impeccable character, and a resolute will to do the right thing always, Swaim said in a statement. The governors first decision, to appoint Adam Gregg as lieutenant governor, could not have been a better one. Its hard to imagine a better pick.

Jennifer Solberg, the chief public defender for Sioux City, said she worked with Gregg as an attorney and a supervisor in the public defenders office and that she appreciated his professionalism and fairness.

His leadership style and ability to make the tough decisions during the tough times is ideal, Solberg said. Although Adam will be sorely missed by the public defenders office, he will be a huge asset to the state of Iowa.
Along with the majority of soldiers who died in the Civil War, James H. McNutt, a Rock Island County farmer, succumbed to disease.

He was 22 years old when he died on Aug. 18, 1863, in Helena, Arkansas, across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, Mississippi, according to the Illinois State Archives. Health and sanitation facilities in the town were so poor that soldiers called it "Hell-in."

As a member of the 126th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry, McNutt served throughout the battle of Vicksburg, a protracted engagement led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that lasted from December 1862 to July 4, 1863, when Confederate forces surrendered after a 47-day siege of the town.

The victory in which Vicksburg was literally starved into submission was significant because it split the Confederacy in two. President Abraham Lincoln had said: "Vicksburg is the key (and) the war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket," according to the website of the National Park Service, which maintains a memorial there.

McNutt was great-uncle to Ruth Mildt of Bettendorf, and a framed photo of him in his uniform is among her prized family possessions. The picture is from a memorial card, the type given out at funerals, and his name is engraved with that of his parents on a headstone at the Dunlap pioneer cemetery in rural Rock Island County.

Mildt isn't sure, however, if his remains are actually buried at the cemetery. The card could have been made for a memorial service, and his name inscribed on his parents' stone as a way of remembering him.

In traveling to Vicksburg in 1995, Mildt was amazed to find a large memorial in the adjoining national military park, dedicated to the Illinois soldiers who served in that battle. Inside are the names of 32,312 soldiers who served, including James McNutt.
When members of the 37th Illinois Infantry started out from Chicago, they were greeted with parades, cheering crowds and gifts of food, and they rode trains from camp to camp.

But once they reached Boonville, Missouri, in the fall of 1861, they were in enemy territory, and the good times were over.

By the second week of October, "cold weather, driving rain and bad water were causing widespread sickness," J.H. Wilder writes in his book, "Thirty Seventh Illinois: Civil War Stories from the Back of the Battle."

"They ... were out in the elements at Boonville. Taking a drink of Missouri River water was not much more than gulping a draught of bacteria, sowing the seeds of dysentery."

Among this group of soldiers was 1st Lt. Joseph Eaton of Rock Island and his 14-year-old son, Charles "Little Charlie" Eaton, a drummer. And for much of the Missouri campaign, Eaton's wife, Lavinia, also was with them, a not uncommon practice at the time, Wilder writes.

One of the small pleasures of daily life was nighttime concerts by the regimental band that included Charlie with a snare drum.

For food, the company supplemented its rations by "foraging," the semi-official euphemism for stealing.

"Anything the soldiers wanted in the way or food or fuel was taken from the owner," Wilder writes.

About a year later, the 37th was in Springfield, Missouri, on a "two month running and chasing episode through southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas," according to Wilder, in a chapter titled "Mindless Marching."

"The months of October and November were filled with cold and drizzle, dirty little guerilla ambushes, depredations on civilians, burned houses, stolen pigs and hard discipline." Among those imposing discipline was Gen. Totten, known for "little cruelties and excessive drinking."

In December, Eaton sent a letter with his observations to the Rock Island Argus newspaper:

"When morning came (a day in early December 1862), we found the enemy had left us in possession of the field to look after their dead and wounded. Today (Dec. 11) we have just got through burying their dead. We found many of them scattered through the woods, half eaten up by the hogs. It was a most horrible sight."

In late April 1863, the 37th boarded a riverboat for Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where they began a pursuit of a Confederate general that included 80 miles of marching. Union forces caught the general at the ford of a river.

And it was here that Eaton's life ended, snuffed out by a burst of a friendly artillery shell. "He took a piece of shrapnel in the right ear and died instantly."

Eaton was survived by his wife and five children, ages 4 to the then-16-year-old Charles.
Lt. Wellington "Will" Wood was, according to an account written shortly after his death in 1863, quite the young man.

He grew up in Moline and was studying law when he enlisted. "He was a graceful rider, and it ever appeared that his ... particular forte was to ride horses and command men," according to a biographical sketch contained in "The Martyrs and Heroes of Illinois," edited by James Barnet, first published in 1865.

"He was a splendid marksman with both pistol and rifle ... in fact he excelled in almost everything he attempted."

Letters to his mother speak to his commitment.

Expecting a battle within a few days and knowing he could be killed, Wood exhorted her to "cherish the consolation that I am engaged in the performance of a sacred duty," according to an excerpt in "Martyrs and Heroes."

"Our country is writhing and bleeding on the altar of madness and treason, and my arm shall never be withheld as long as strength remains to strike a blow," he wrote.

Wood met his death at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee, fought Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863, just as President Abraham Lincoln was desperate for a military victory.

Union armies were stalled, and the terrible defeat at Fredericksburg in mid-December spread a pall of defeat across the nation.

In describing the battle, soldiers used words such as "carnage" and "slaughterhouse."

"I cannot remember now of ever seeing more dead men and horses and captured cannon all jumbled together, than that scene of blood and carnage  on the (Wilkinson)  Turnpike; the ground was literally covered with blue coats dead, according to a Confederate soldier whose words are recorded on the website of the National Park Service, which maintains a military park at Stones River.

Union soldiers recalled the carnage as looking like the slaughter pens in the stockyards of Chicago.

Wood was wounded as he "was at the head and a few feet in advance of his company, waving his sword above his head and cheering on his men...," according to "Martyrs and Heroes."

"The fatal ball, supposed to have been shot by a rebel sharpshooter, struck him just to the right of the claps of his sword belt.

"The ball passed through the belt, but lodged in his body, the force of which knocked him down, and sent his sword several feet from him. After he fell, his first words were  'Give me my sword.'"

Instead, his comrades placed him behind two trees, and from there, he was transported to a hospital. He died Jan. 2, according to the Illinois State Archives.

By then, more than 3,000 men lay dead on the field, and nearly 16,000 more were wounded. Some of the men spent as much as seven agonizing days on the battlefield before help could reach them, according to the the park service website.

President Lincoln got the victory he wanted.
By the time Russell Huntley of Rock Island died in August 1864 in Georgia's Andersonville prison camp, the open-air pen was jammed with more than 30,000 men.

Andersonville was the worst of the worst. It operated only 14 months at the end of the war, but during that time, nearly 13,000 of 45,000 Union soldiers imprisoned there died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding or exposure, according to the website of the National Park Service that maintains a memorial park there.

In addition to Huntley, a married laborer born in New Hampshire, four other men from Rock Island County died at Andersonville. According to the Illinois State Archives, they are:

 Josiah Dudley of Hampton, a single farmer born in Maine. He was about 20 when he died on July 10, 1864. His grave in the National Cemetery at Andersonville is number 3,123.

 James Bowser of Hampton, a single farmer born in Pennsylvania. He was about 23 when he died Aug. 8, 1864. His grave is number 11,921.

 Franklin Merrill of Hampton, a married farmer born in Vermont. He was about 27 when he died on June 29, 1864. His grave is number 2,634.

 William Mee of Zuma Township, a mason born in Pennsylvania. He was about 31 when he died on Aug 20, 1864. His grave is number 6,266.

Huntley was about 43 when he died on Aug. 18, 1864. His grave is number 6,085.

The first prisoners brought to Andersonville arrived in late February 1864. Over the course of the next few months, about 400 prisoners arrived daily.

"As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us," Robert H. Kellogg of Connecticut wrote in a diary entry found on the national park website.

"Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;  stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin.

"In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating."

The 26-acre site was mainly open-air, with some tents. The Confederate government was unable to provide the prisoners with adequate housing, food, clothing and medical care.
Jill Hoff of Moline had no idea she had a relative who died in the Civil War until she decided to "adopt" one of the soldiers whose name is on the monument at the Rock Island County Courthouse.

For a $50 contribution to the monument restoration campaign, she would receive a certificate with the soldier's name and biographical information.

Hoping to find a solider with whom she had some connection, Hoff scrolled through the list of 354 names.

When she got to "Michael O'Mara," she stopped. In consulting her family tree charts, she found that Michael O'Mara was a brother to her great-great grandmother.

She also found that Michael and his siblings had been born in County Calway, Ireland, and lost their father on the voyage to the United States in 1847, at the beginning of the potato famine.

Michael was 21 and employed as a farm worker in Rock Island County when he enlisted in the Army on Aug. 8, 1862. All three of this brothers  including one who was just 15  also enlisted.

Two months later, in October, Michael was a member of the 89th Illinois Infantry, Company F, that took heavy losses at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee. He was cited for bravery in that battle and went on to fight in the Tullahoma Campaign and at Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Spring Hill and Franklin, all in Tennessee.

On Dec. 15, 1864, O'Mara was shot in the arm and left lung at the Battle of Nashville. He died the next day. He was 23.

The Union prevailed, however, shattering the Army of Tennessee and effectively ended the war in that state.

Six days after his death, the Nashville Union newspaper reported that a letter addressed to "M. O'Mara" was unclaimed in the Nashville Post Office.

O'Mara is buried at Nashville National Cemetery.
Imagine sharing a weekly meal with a dozen or so people where everybody can relate to one anothers experiences, drilled into their memory banks more than 60 years ago.

A self-proclaimed "thick-skinned" crew of Korean War veterans count on that time together every Wednesday morning at Maid-Rite in East Moline. Beginning about 6:30 a.m., they sit and reminisce over breakfast about their days  good and bad  in the military.

All we can do is talk about it, said John Puebla, an 88-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, who received two Purple Heart medals for his service in 1950 and 1951. If you tell somebody thats never been through it, they think were full of crap.

The Korean War began in June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea, and ended in July 1953 with an armistice. While it often is called the forgotten war, these comrades cannot erase what they encountered overseas.

Sitting next to Puebla, Robert Fitts of Rock Island, a national director of the Korean War Veterans Association, captured the spotlight this week at the breakfast table.

The 86-year-old departed Friday morning for Washington, D.C., hauling his camouflage green military jeep, a 1945 Willys, on a trailer behind his truck. A fellow U.S. Army veteran, 72-year-old Dennis Johnson of Moline, joined him for the 1,700-mile round trip.

Fitts, who enlisted in the National Guard at 17, and served as a motor sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1953, will drive the open-air vehicle Monday along Constitution Avenue in the National Memorial Day Parade.

Equipped with various original features, including a mount for a .30-caliber machine gun, the quarter-ton, three-speed machine is an antique, one that Fitts knows how to tear apart and piece back together.

As an early 20-something, he managed 13 of the vehicles and drivers younger than him, who transported food, water, ammunition and other equipment to troops on the front line in South Korea.

"You'd send them out, and they didn't come back," said Fitts, a southern Illinois native. "We all know what our jobs were, and everybody was in danger all the time."

He purchased the vintage wheels almost 15 years ago from the widow of a military buddy who died of cancer.

During the parade, Fitts said he will honor service members who died in the line of duty in the Korean War  almost 34,000.

"I'll be thinking about the guys I lost," he said, "and remind people that freedom is not free."

Back at the diner, the members of Chapter 168 of the Korean War Veterans Association continued to trade stories as they finished eating.

Another Purple Heart winner, Bill Weber of East Moline, recalled the moment a piece of shrapnel struck him in the throat on Christmas morning in 1952.

It started bleeding like somebody turned a faucet on, he said, dipping scraps of toast in his steaming mug of coffee. If I had been facing the other way, I might be blind now.

The U.S. Army veteran served as a rifleman, one of the soldiers out in front of everybody.

At 85, Weber, who worked 40-plus years for Alcoa Davenport Works, does not dwell too much on the negative.

Weve got all our limbs, were not disabled and we still can see, he said. We made it back here, and some didnt.

Over the years, Brandi Lester, a server at Maid-Rite in East Moline, said she has memorized most of the guys' names and orders.

"I love it," she said. "Wednesdays are the best."

At their next meal, Fitts plans to catch up with his pals about his time in the nation's capital.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- John Todd Anderson attended grade school, junior high and three years of high school in Muscatine. He graduated from Fountain Valley High School, Denver University and Oklahoma City School of Law. He worked in a trust department at a bank in Denver, managed a TV station in San Francisco, practiced law in Florida and, more recently, worked with his brother in Colorado Springs. John will be remembered for his kindness and loyalty to his friends and family.
Women in the Quad-Cities find themselves with significantly fewer options for health care, as Iowa's GOP-run Legislature achieved its ultimate goal by shuttering the region's Planned Parenthood clinic. And Iowa didn't even try to fake it by rolling out some half-baked list of alleged alternatives.

The Bettendorf clinic was among four that will close in Iowa after the state banned spending Medicaid for any procedure there, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland announced late last week. The organization and its supporters were aghast. The pro-life movement rejoiced.

And, per usual, it is impoverished women who will pay more than their share of the bill.

Medicaid, mind you, provides health care for the poorest Iowans. It's already foundering in Iowa since last year's privatization. President Donald Trump has targeted Medicaid for deep cuts in his draft budget. Hospitals and physicians typically admit Medicaid recipients out of ethical duty or legal mandate. There's little or no money to be made in serving Medicaid patients. In fact, patients with insurance often end up making up the difference, multiple studies have concluded.

Yet, it's these patients to whom Planned Parenthood brought otherwise out-of-reach gynecological care. They're a population with an abnormally high risk for sexually transmitted diseases. They're less likely to receive regular gynecological exams. They're at substantially greater risk for unwanted pregnancy.

Women across the socio-economic strata relied on Planned Parenthood. But, suddenly, those in the lower tiers are destined to have fewer options.

To these women, Iowa just said, "Tough."

Medicaid  in Iowa or anywhere else  doesn't pay for a single abortion, under federal law. No, the Legislature's play here was to structurally hamstring Planned Parenthood while maintaining legal deniability in a constitutional challenge. And, of course, lawmakers hoped to score political points. They refused to back down no matter how many warnings they heard from physicians and social workers; partisan dogma superseded reason or constitutional right.

The timing was especially astounding, as the lawmakers spent this year's session hacking and slashing to plug budgetary holes. Defunding Planned Parenthood will cost Iowa $3 million in federal funds this year. Another $3.3 million will be spent creating a state-run program to, feasibly, make up for the self-inflicted shortfall of women's health care providers.

It's that yet-to-be drafted list that's at the heart of the matter. Four clinics across the state are closing. Many states that have tried similar attacks on a woman's access to health care at least attempted to compile other options. Not in Iowa. Lawmakers just did it blind and directed the state Health Department to force reality into their partisan narrative somewhere down the line.

About 4,000 women have received treatment at Planned Parenthood in Bettendorf over the past three years, the organization's officials say. Representatives with the national Planned Parenthood organization love to parrot statistics that abortions constitute just 3 percent of its procedures. Opponents counter that revenue from abortions make up more than 10 percent of the organization's revenue.

Either way, the vast majority of care received by thousands of women in the Quad-Cities was dealing with women's health outside of abortion. These women suddenly find themselves without access to their provider. They're without the guarantee of a comforting, non-judgmental place in which to grapple with some of life's most personal decisions. They're victims of an anachronistic worldview that treats a woman's body as something over which to lord.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | The U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue visited Ellsworth for a familiarization tour and listening session, May 19, as his first military installation visit since his confirmation.

During his tour, and accompanied by South Dakota Senators John Thune and Mike Rounds and Representative Kristi Noem, Perdue received a mission brief from the 28th Bomb Wing Commander Col. Gentry Boswell and toured a B-1 bomber. Both events provided an overview of the mission, organizations, capabilities and successes.

Ive been back to Robins (Air Force Base, Georgia) as a state senator and as governor many times Perdue said. We used our military installations in Georgia as economic development tools. We wanted to make sure our military members were well served for their families and their communities.

As a prior Air Force captain, Perdue understands the transitioning process service members and their families experience. He was focused on sharing information about the USDAs Veterans to Agriculture initiatives.

During a town hall at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, just outside the base, Perdue spoke on matters of entrepreneurship, employment and educational opportunities in the agriculture industry under the Vets to Ag initiative. Perdue also opened the floor to questions and comments from audience members.

What we understand is that (the industry) has become more technical, scientific and challenging, but the veterans who are separating come out with skillsets (in many areas), Perdue said. We want to help them understand that agriculture is a broad industry where we can use their talent.

Within the USDA, professions include biology, infrastructure, communications and marketing.

Prior to visiting Ellsworth, Perdue visited the Black Hills with Senators Thune and Rounds, and Rep. Noem for a listening session with tribal leaders and a tour of pine beetle-infested timber.

For veterans and transitioning service members, visit the USDA website where press releases will be posted, and a search using the key term veterans will provide additional information about the program.
Two people were arrested Wednesday after their companion was found with stab wounds in the arm and back, according to the Rapid City Police Department.

Around 12:35 p.m. that day, police found a 49-year-old Rapid City man with stab wounds at the Exxon gas station at 2808 Sheridan Lake Road. Police said his injuries, caused by an unknown weapon, were not life threatening. Investigators don't know where the assault happened. They also don't have a suspect because the victim has not cooperated with them.

But two Rapid City residents who were with the victim at the time were detained on offenses unrelated to the stabbing, said police Lt. Mark Eisenbraun. Schuyler Swan, 35, was arrested on a probation violation and alcohol offense, while Jill Kerstiens, 30, was arrested on drug and traffic charges. Eisenbraun said police continue to investigate the stabbing.
KYLE | Oglala Sioux tribal and federal officials gathered Thursday for the second in a series of public forums intended to root out violent and drug-related crimes on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Under his young administration, Oglala Sioux President Troy Scott Weston told the small audience at Little Wound High School that collaborative efforts between the tribe and federal prosecutors are reaching a new and purposeful high.

I am committed to change things, Weston said, because we need to take care of our people.

Westons partnering with governmental entities beyond the sovereign borders of the reservation has already begun to bear fruit. Last month, Randolph Seiler, U.S. attorney for the district of South Dakota, opened an office at the Criminal Justice Center in Pine Ridge where tribal members can go every Wednesday to report crimes and get questions answered about ongoing law enforcement matters.

Seiler said that visits and calls to his Pine Ridge office have led to an uptick in reports of criminal activity on the reservation. Weston also hopes to spread word of his joint crime fighting initiative at public forums in each of the reservations nine districts.

But people like tribal member Don Doyle, 64, remain skeptical amid the seemingly constant white noise of crime, perceived investigative delays, and an overworked tribal police force plagued by controversy and high turnover rates.

Theres a lot of frustration from the people, said Doyle, a former tribal police investigator. I know changes are coming. I see it. But our people are still hurting out there.

Newly appointed Police Chief Mark Mesteth assured the group that the recent resignation of former Police Chief Harry Martinez and the tribal councils subsequent move to take direct control of the police department are both closed chapters, and that work is being done to increase police presence on the reservation.

That could prove challenging in a department that has only 33 patrol officers and four highway safety officers in a reservation that covers more than 3,000 square miles with a population estimated between anywhere between 15,000 and 40,000 people.

Doyle remembered from his 23 years working in tribal law enforcement that there used to be more than 100 officers to cover that same area.

Thirty-three people, Doyle said. God, thats not enough.

"We have to defend ourselves," he added, "because the people we pay to defend us aren't doing it."

Mesteth agreed that there is much work to be done but insisted that he wants to put the departments recent upheaval in the rearview mirror and focus on what lies ahead. The biggest thing we have to do right now is restore confidence in the police department, he said.

Much of the discussion Thursday centered on methamphetamine and violent crimes.

Its not just a reservation problem, said Justin Hooper, a special drug enforcement agent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Northern Plains Safe Trails Drug Task Force. Its everywhere.

Meth first began to spread on the reservation in 2014, bringing with it a new wave of violent behaviors from those addicted to the substance, according to Hooper. When it took hold, it spread like wildfire, he said.

That year, Pine Ridge saw 14 drug-related offenses prosecuted, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn N. Rich. In 2016, the number spiked to 37. There have been two drug-related offenses so far this year.

Meth comes from outside the reservation, Hooper said, mostly Rapid City, but originates from places like Mexico, Colorado, Washington and California. Not once in his three years of chasing drug suppliers in Indian Country, he added, has he come across a meth lab within the borders of the reservation.

Heroin, fentanyl, and prescription opioid abuse have also been on the rise in recent years, but meth remains the most pervasive, Hooper said.

I look at it as a cut, as an open wound, he said. You want to stop the bleeding of a cut, you have to apply pressure. And that pressure has got to come from everyone. From the community, its got to come from law enforcement, from mental health services.

Though the situation can seem bleak at times, Seiler and Robert Perry, assistant special agent-in-charge of the FBI, emphasized the volume of work that is already being done to combat crime on Pine Ridge.

The FBI is actively investigating 163 open cases, Perry said, and Megan Poppen with the U.S. Attorneys office has 88 criminal cases from reservation that she is working on. And that's just one federal prosecutors case load, Seiler noted.

Were down here because we do care, Seiler said, adding that his office, President Weston, tribal police and the FBI need the communitys help. Dont just complain about it. If you see something and you dont report it, youre part of the problem. Youre complicit in what goes on in the Pine Ridge reservation.
A man who was shot and killed by police last month in a Rapid City apartment complex told law enforcement his apartment was "wired" with explosives and was going to have a standoff with police "just like San Bernardino."

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley released a summary of the incident on Friday and ruled the shooting of Tim Holmgren by South Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Dale justified.

According to the synopsis, the incident started just after 1:30 p.m. on April 27 at Harmony Heights Apartments. Holmgren had called dispatch and requested specifically to speak with Rapid City police officer Allen Nelson. Nelson had responded to Holmgren's apartment two days earlier for a welfare check.

When Nelson approached Holmgren's apartment he noticed through an open window that Holmgren had a cellphone in one hand and a beer can in the other.

Holmgren saw officer Nelson and told him he wanted to show him something, at which point Holmgren reached below the window and pulled out a black handgun and pointed it at Nelson. Investigators at the scene later found the handgun to be a black CO2-powered pellet handgun. The pellet handgun closely resembles a real semi-automatic handgun.

Officer Nelson sought cover and continued talking to Holmgren. Holmgren then made a comment that the standoff was going to be "just like San Bernardino," and that officer Nelson knew what he meant.

A husband and wife who killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in a shooting rampage and bombing attempt at a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015 were killed in a shootout with law enforcement after they fled in a rented SUV.

During the standoff with Holmgren in April, additional law enforcement officers were called to the scene, a perimeter was established and a crisis negotiator started speaking with Holmgren.

At that point, Holmgren refused to exit his apartment, was waving his handgun and told police he had his apartment "wired," making a reference to possessing an explosive device.

Just after 5 p.m., law enforcement officers in an armored vehicle approached the apartment playing a prerecorded message asking Holmgren to exit his apartment.

Trooper Michael Dale was positioned on the top of the armored vehicle and saw Holmgren point a handgun in his direction. Dale shot seven times and struck Holmgren "at least six times," according to the autopsy report. Holmgren was pronounced dead at the scene.

During an interview with state Division of Criminal Investigation agents, Dale said when Holmgren pointed the handgun directly at him he felt he had no other option but to use deadly force and that he was concerned for his own safety, the safety of others in the apartment complex and the safety of other officers.

Other witness interviews and video from the scene confirmed Dale's retelling of the incident, the report said.

After Holmgren was shot, DCI agents found the CO2 pellet gun on a chair near the apartment window. Holmgren also had three fixed-blade knives and a straight razor on his body. His apartment had various remote control devices taped together, but no explosives were found.

A toxicology report showed Holmgren had "numerous" prescriptions drugs in his system and his blood alcohol content was 0.094 percent. The legal limit for driving a vehicle in South Dakota is 0.08 percent.
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Moscow court acknowledges $70.5 mln debt of Transaero-Finances before VTB bank

MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI)  The Moscow Commercial Court has granted a motion filed by VTB bank seeking to include over 4 billion rubles (about $70.5 million) debt owed by Transaero-Finances organization in the creditors demands list, the courts ruling reads on Friday.

In addition, Transaero airline also demanded 3.9 billion rubles (about $68.7 million) from Transaero-Finances.

On January 27, the court ruled to introduce supervision procedure against Transaero-Finances on the request of Transarero with latter demanding 172.5 million rubles (about $3 million) of debt.

On October 24, 2016, the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region refused to initiate bankruptcy of Transaro-Finances. The organization, according to media reports, is responsible for placement of Transaeros bonds.

In 2015, Transaero found itself unable to pay its debts valued at 250 billion rubles (about $4 billion). Government-approved plan of transferring 75% of companys shares to Aeroflot failed. Its problems resulted in a large number of flight cancels and delays.

In October 2015, Sberbank and Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy petitions against the troubled airline. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region initiated a bankruptcy procedure against Transaero on December 16.

On November 17, 2016, Transaero filed an application with the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region seeking to drop bankruptcy proceedings against it. Transaero managers submitted the companys business resumption plan. The airlines management headed by Director General Alexander Burdin analyzed alternatives which could make it possible to return money to creditors via relaunching the airline on the base of its assets.
Three defendants in large-scale cybertheft case admit guilt

MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova)  Three alleged members of an organized criminal group charged with cybertheft of one billion rubles ($17.6 million) from Russian banks had admitted guilt, RAPSI learnt in the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow on Friday.

Fourteen defendants are charged with organizing a criminal group, membership in a criminal group, cyber fraud and theft. Three of them, Sergey Makhnichev, Nikita Khadzibekyan and Mikhail Oreshkin have admitted guilt.

According to investigators, in July through November, 2014, Yury Lysenko organized a criminal group specializing in theft of funds from the commercial banks, allegedly managing to embezzle over one billion rubles. It is also suspected that the group is responsible for stealing additional 5.7 million rubles (about $100,500) in March through July of 2015.

The Prosecutors General Office noted that one of the members, Anton Testov, had already been convicted in this case.
State Duma adopts bill on supervision over convicted drug traffickers in first reading

Context State Duma Committee backs bill on supervision over convicted drug traffickers

MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI)  The State Duma has passed a bill establishing administrative supervision over criminals repeatedly responsible for illegal drug trafficking in the first reading.

Administrative supervision over persons released from penitentiary facilities and having an unspent conviction may only be established by a court ruling and set in a period from one to three years. This supervision will limit the right to visit public events, leaving a defined territory and visits to a number of public areas.

According to the head of the Committee Vasily Piskarev, this measure is required for prevention of drug addiction and repeated crimes in this sphere. The government is achieving two tasks: aiding those who made a wrong turn in life to find a way to rehabilitation and ensuring a more effective level of public safety and order for citizens, Piskarev said.

He added that persons convicted of drug consumption often become drug traffickers - a very dangerous situation for the society. Thats why persons released from penitentiary facilities should stay under law enforcement supervision.
BOZEMAN  A Republican congressional candidate in Montana charged with shoving a reporter to the ground on the eve of a special election kept a low profile Thursday even as supporters prepared a hotel ballroom for a possible victory party.

Greg Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck on Wednesday and threw him to the ground at Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman.

Gianforte, a millionaire tech entrepreneur who has aligned himself with President Donald Trump, said the reporter was being aggressive and grabbed him by the wrist at his campaign office.

The altercation occurred hours before voters went to the polls to decide whether Gianforte or Democrat Rob Quist will fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, a Republican who is now Trump's Interior secretary.

Many see the closely watched election as a referendum on the policies and practices of Trump.

Republicans have held the state's lone congressional seat for two decades.

"I don't know Greg Gianforte personally, and I don't know if he's got a hot temper. But I can understand how somebody could push somebody's buttons," said Republican voter Tina Stark of Townsend, a suburb of Helena. "I don't advocate violence, but when you're told to back off, you need to back off."

Luanne Biggs, who voted for Gianforte, told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, "I understand the frustration of someone being right in your face."

It wasn't clear how the last-minute melee would affect the race. More than a third of the state's registered voters had cast absentee ballots before polls opened Thursday.

Three of Montana's biggest newspapers pulled their endorsements of Gianforte  without endorsing his opponent  while leaders of both major parties called on him to apologize.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said what occurred was "wrong and should not happen." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, called Gianforte "a wannabe Trump."

"I don't think it probably changed very many minds or votes today, unfortunately," said voter Patrick Paradis, who supports Democrat Rob Quist. "Politics are pretty entrenched right now in terms of who people are going to follow and who people are going to vote for."

Gianforte was preparing for an interview with Fox News on Wednesday at a private office when Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian, came in without permission, campaign spokesman Shane Scanlon said.

As Jacobs pressed the candidate on the GOP health care bill, "Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him," Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna wrote in an article . She added that Gianforte then began to punch Jacobs.

In an audio recording posted by The Guardian, the reporter asks the congressional candidate about the health care bill.

"We'll talk to you about that later," Gianforte says on the recording, referring Jacobs to a spokesman.

When Jacobs says there won't be time, Gianforte says "Just--" and there is a crashing sound. Gianforte yells, "The last guy who came here did the same thing," and a shaken-sounded Jacobs tells the candidate he just body-slammed him.

"Get the hell out of here," Gianforte says.

Gianforte's whereabouts weren't immediately known Thursday. Two people at his campaign headquarters in Bozeman referred all questions to Scanlon, who could not be reached. A sign on a gate thanked people for not trespassing at Gianforte's home.

Repeated phone calls to Gianforte's cellphone went unreturned. Twice it seemed someone picked up then immediately hung up.

Jacobs told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he never touched Gianforte. He said of the politician's account: "The only thing that is factually correct ... is my name and place of employment."

Quist declined to comment on the incident.

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin announced the misdemeanor assault charge shortly before midnight Wednesday in a written statement, about six hours after the incident.

Gianforte could face a maximum $500 fine or six months in jail if convicted; he's due in court on or before June 7.

Gootkin said Jacobs' injuries did not meet the legal definition of felony assault.

In Montana, he said, assaults without a weapon are considered misdemeanors; assaults that cause serious physical injuries or involve weapons are treated as felonies.

Gootkin previously contributed $250 to Gianforte's campaign, according to elections records. He apologized Thursday for not revealing the donation at a previous news conference.

___

Associated Press writers Amy Hanson in Helena and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report.
Hamilton residents turned out early to cast ballots Thursday, prompting election officials to increase their estimates of overall turnout.

By 8:20 a.m., each precinct election judge in Hamilton reported an average of 30 voters. And Ravalli County elections chief Regina Plettenberg said she was getting calls Thursday from people who had thrown away their ballots but now wanted to vote.

Plettenberg said the misdemeanor assault charges filed against Greg Gianforte Wednesday night after he body slammed a reporter have had a dramatic impact.

Because of this issue, this race has increased our turnout today, she said. Our judges are seeing more voters at the polls that they expected. They were expecting to be slow today but they all say it has been steady busy. I love the turnout, but I hate why.

I dont know what this means for anybody, Plettenberg said. Its anybodys race right now. People want this over, people wants the ads over.

Ravalli County voters were making decisions on a $400,000 general fund levy and a $9.75 million dollar bond for the Hamilton School District, and selecting the next Montana representative in the U.S. House.

Election judges at the Floral Building polling place at the Ravalli County Fairgrounds were bundled in coats, hats and gloves or blankets as the Floral building is not heated and had the large door to the outside open. The morning was cool and the voters and election officials said they were cold.

I like that people have renewed interest because you dont like to put in all this work and money and have no one show up, Plettenberg said. Election administrators like being busy, so for us it is great. I dont know if it is going to be great for the candidates.

Plettenberg said had been anticipating a 50 percent turnout with 35 percent of ballots coming from absentee voters.

That tells you how dismal I thought the poll turnout would be  possibly 15 to 20 percent, she said. Now Im thinking it will be a much better turnout over 50 percent.

Plettenberg said that as of Wednesday she had received 10,824 absentee ballots.

Ill tell you this has been the craziest election, start to finish, Plettenberg said.
Rob Quists wife and daughter, Bonnie and Halladay, visited with supporters in Hamilton this morning, the day before the Federal Special Election to determine which Montana will sit in the U.S. House.

The low-key coffee and conversation about the election and about health issues affecting Montanans had nearly 20 community members, in the MineShaft Pasty Company.

Bonnie Quist talked about raising a family, farm life, family history and growing up in Montana.

She praised her husband as being ready for congress.

Rob has never been reactionary, she said. Hes a researcher and always looks at a complete picture, gathering all the information before he makes a decision. I cant believe the votes on bills that they dont read before voting, it makes me crazy.

Bonnie Quist said she grew up as an activist and encourages all Montanans to be involved.

Women are really the backbone of our state, she said. Women determine what family values are. Women have to get more involved in bringing issues to the dinner table.

Bonnie Quist recommended a change to the electoral system shortening the terms for elections. She praised the event with Bernie Sanders last weekend in Missoula and how Sanders wants the country to strive to be free of dark money.

Bonnie said her husband is super healthy.She said he had some health issues but has healed and has been keeping such a rigorous schedule since January that there should be no doubt.

We have a huge decision on our plate  health care, she said. It will affect several generations. We cant go backwards. If this administration throws 24 million people off insurance I think there will be a revolution of some sort. People, now, are used to having health care for their families.

Hamilton residents Nancy Neal, Becky Petersen and Robin Pruitt were in the gathering and asked questions they gathered from going door to door to ask people to vote for Rob Quist.

Bonnie Quist had helpful answers.

Halladay Quist played her guitar and sang two songs from her first Nashville solo album.

She said the negative campaign ads by the republicans hurt.

They are a nasty political trick to make you tune out the elections and the issues that are real, she said. In the last two weeks theyve spent $11 million.

Neal said, They are not trying to win anybodys vote, they are trying to make people not vote.

This is a local fight, Halladay said.

The eyes of the nation are on Montana, Bonnie Quist said. I think Rob has found his calling. I think hell make a great congressman. We have to start thinking of Montana as purple.
BOZEMAN  The latest on the assault case against Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for a Montana congressional seat in a Thursday special election. (all times local):

10:55 p.m.: Newly elected Republican congressman Greg Gianforte apologized to the reporter he's charged with assaulting.

After being declared the winner in the U.S. House race in Montana, Gianforte told supporters Thursday night that he should not have treated Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs the way he did.

Gianforte told the crowd: "I should not have responded the way I did and for that I am sorry."

Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault Wednesday after witnesses said he grabbed Jacobs and slammed him to the ground.

Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist and Libertarian Mark Wicks.

10:30 p.m.: Republican Greg Gianforte has won the special election for Montana's sole U.S. House seat a day after being charged with assaulting a reporter.

Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist on Thursday to replace Ryan Zinke, who is now President Donald Trump's interior secretary.

Gianforte was elected despite being charged with misdemeanor assault on Wednesday after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter for the Guardian newspaper and slammed him to the ground.

The multimillionaire technology entrepreneur is an enthusiastic Trump backer, and his victory was seen as an endorsement of Trump.

Gianforte's campaign was boosted by rallies featuring Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr. plus millions of dollars in ads by Republican groups.

5:15 p.m.: A county attorney in Montana says he will review the case involving a Republican congressional candidate accused of shoving a reporter to the ground on the eve of a special election.

Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said Thursday he will set aside celebrity and hype and look at the facts surrounding Greg Gianforte's altercation with Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian.

Lambert, who was elected as a Republican, says he knows Gianforte but not well. He sometimes encounters Gianforte at church, social events and GOP functions.

Sheriff's officials have cited Gianforte for misdemeanor assault in the Wednesday altercation.

Lambert, who has not donated money to Gianforte's campaign, says he will review the sheriff's decision to pursue a misdemeanor and not a felony.

4:15 p.m.: The sheriff who cited a Montana congressional candidate for misdemeanor assault has apologized for not disclosing that he contributed $250 to the Republican's campaign.

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said Thursday that he should have revealed the donation at a previous news conference held after witnesses said candidate Greg Gianforte had grabbed a reporter by the neck on Wednesday and threw him to the ground at Gianforte's campaign headquarters.

Gootkin said the contribution had nothing to do with his duties as sheriff.

Gootkin said Gianforte left his campaign headquarters while deputies were investigating the case, and investigators later heard from Gianforte's attorney that they would need to contact him before speaking with Gianforte again.

3:45 p.m.: In a first from an official Republican group, the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee issued a statement affirming Gianforte, though it failed to address the candidate's current controversy.

"The Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee stands with Greg Gianforte and based upon the comments weve received from inside Yellowstone County and across the state, so do Montanans. The YCRCC (Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee) firmly believes that Greg Gianfortes strong track record as a successful job creator and generous servant will shine in Congress. We look forward to his ideas and how we can help him make Montana great again."

3:40 p.m.: The sheriff who cited a Montana congressional candidate for shoving a reporter to the ground says the Republican was charged with misdemeanor assault because there was no serious bodily injury.

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said Thursday that under Montana law, assaults that don't result in serious injuries or involve a weapon are considered misdemeanors. Assaults that cause serious physical injuries or involve weapons are treated as felonies.

Gootkin said he never considered pursuing a felony charge against Greg Gianforte based on evidence collected after the Wednesday incident.

The reporter, Ben Jacobs, didn't have any visible injuries when he spoke to "Good Morning America" on Thursday but said he was taking "a lot of Advil" for pain.

He said he trusted that investigators had made the right decision on how to handle the case.

1:18p.m.: The Montana congressional candidate accused of assaulting a reporter hasn't been seen or heard from Thursday as voters go to the polls.

Repeated phone calls to Greg Gianforte's cellphone went unreturned Thursday. Twice it appeared someone picked up then immediately hung up.

His home in Bozeman is set back on property along the Gallatin River and isn't very visible from the road. Its gate was half-opened, with a sign thanking people for not trespassing.

People at Gianforte's campaign headquarters referred all questions to spokesman Shane Scanlon, who was not there. No one answered the door at Scanlon's home.

Gianforte has backed out of at least one planned television appearance. MSNBC's "MTP Daily" says he canceled on the show.

12:00 p.m.: ACLU of Montana Executive Director Caitlin Borgmann released a statement that said in part:

The ACLU of Montana condemns in the strongest terms yesterdays apparent assault on reporter Ben Jacobs for doing his job on behalf of the public.Without a free press, government at all levels  from presidents to police officers  would rarely be held accountable to the people."

11:32 a.m.: Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a democrat, released a statement shortly before noon on Thursday.

"This is in the hands of law enforcement. But part of the job representing the people of Montana is answering basic questions on important topics, topics such as how a dangerous healthcare plan could impact the very people you are trying to represent. It's part of the job," he said in a release to The Gazette.

In addition to Republican figureheads like Paul Ryan, others in the party have weighed in on Gianforte. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse tweeted, "A big part of a public servant's job is teaching civics. If the First Amendment means anything, it means you can't body-slam a journalist."

Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis tweeted a statement from South Carolina Sen. Mark Sanford, who spoke more generally about the political climate: "There is total weirdness out there," he said.

11:03 a.m.: Democrat Montana Gov. Steve Bullock issued a statement condemning Gianforte's actions.

It is unsettling on many levels that Greg Gianforte physically assaulted a journalist and then lied, refusing to take responsibility for his actions. Yesterdays events serve as another wake up call to all Montanans and Americans that we must restore civility in politics and governing, and demand more from people who hold the publics trust, said Governor Steve Bullock. One thing is clear: no matter what happens today, the actions of Gianforte do not reflect the values of Montana or its people.

10:19 a.m.:

10:09 a.m.:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says the GOP House candidate in Montana charged with assaulting a reporter is "a wannabe Trump."

"That's his model, Donald Trump," Pelosi said of Greg Gianforte, the wealthy Republican running in Thursday's special election for Montana's sole House seat.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is calling for the Republican candidate in Montana's special House election to apologize after allegedly attacking a reporter and getting charged with assault.

Ryan says "that's wrong and should not happen."

But Ryan wouldn't say if Greg Gianforte should be barred from joining the House GOP conference if he wins Thursday's election. Instead Ryan said, "I'm gonna let the people of Montana decide who they want as their representative."

The chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Congressman Steve Stivers, also weighed in Thursday. Stivers said: "From what I know of Greg Gianforte, this was totally out of character, but we all make mistakes."

9:45 a.m.: U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana republican and close friend of Gianforte's, issued this statement Thursday morning:

"I have confidence in local law enforcement. I do know Greg Gianforte has been charged with misdemeanor assault and will leave the questions and answers to local law enforcement. I do not condone violence in any way."

A Daines spokeswoman declined requests for further comment. The Montana Republican Party has also failed to respond to requests from The Gazette on the morning of an election day that has many wondering how much the alleged assault will affect the returns.

Montana's secretary of state's office says 37 percent of registered voters had returned absentee ballots as of Wednesday.

Montana has just over 699,000 registered voters.

Mark Wicks, the Libertarian candidate in the race, issued a statement that reads in part:

"While details are still not entirely clear about what happened between Greg Gianforte and the Guardian reporter, it is clear that Greg Gianforte lost his temper when he shouldnt have. Most days in Washington D.C. wont go as planned and obstacles will arise daily."

8:40 a.m.: GOP lawmakers emerging from a closed-door caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday said they didn't know the facts about Republican Greg Gianforte being charged with misdemeanor assault.

A reporter from the Guardian accused the tech millionaire of slamming him to the ground and breaking his glasses in an altercation at Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman on Wednesday afternoon. The reporter had tried to ask Gianforte a question about the latest budget analysis of the GOP health care bill.

A few lawmakers did comment.

Asked if assaulting a reporter is appropriate behavior, California Rep. Duncan Hunter said, "Of course not. It's not appropriate behavior. Unless the reporter deserved it."

Indiana Rep. Luke Messer said he wasn't sure whether the incident would hurt or help Gianforte in Thursday's special election for the open House seat.

___

7:50 a.m.: The polls are open in a race for Montana's only congressional seat just hours after the front-running candidate was charged with beating up a reporter.

Republican Greg Gianforte has not appeared in public since he was charged with misdemeanor assault late Wednesday. A reporter from the Guardian accused the tech millionaire of slamming him to the ground and breaking his glasses in an altercation Wednesday afternoon at Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman.

Gianforte's camp issued a statement hours before the charge was filed disputing reporter Ben Jacobs' account. But an audio recording Jacobs made and a Fox News crew that witnessed the altercation back up Jacobs' version.

Three of Montana's biggest newspapers pulled their endorsements of Gianforte but did not endorse his opponents.

Jacobs told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he was doing his job and asking a question.

___

5 a.m.: The Guardian reporter who authorities say was assaulted by a Montana Republican candidate for a U.S. House seat says he never touched the politician before he was thrown to the ground.

Ben Jacobs told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he was doing his job and asking a question of candidate Greg Gianforte as part of covering Thursday's special election.

Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault. He's accused of grabbing Jacobs by the throat and throwing him to the ground in his campaign office Wednesday night. Gianforte's campaign blamed Jacobs, saying the reporter was being aggressive and grabbed Gianforte.

Jacobs said Thursday of Gianforte's account that "the only thing that is factually correct ... is my name and place of employment."

Gianforte and Democrat Rob Quist are seeking to fill the U.S. House seat left vacant when Ryan Zinke resigned to join Trump's Cabinet as secretary of the Interior Department.

___

12:30 a.m.: Thursday's special election for Montana's sole congressional seat got a last-minute twist when the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, was charged with misdemeanor assault.

Greg Gianforte was cited for grabbing a reporter by the throat and throwing him to the ground in his campaign office Wednesday night. The reporter, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian, was asking Gianforte about the Republican health care bill. Three Fox News employees witnessed the attack, which was also captured on an audio recording.

Gianforte's campaign blamed Jacobs for the incident.

Many voters cast their ballot early so it'll be hard to know the impact of the charge on the election results. Authorities said Jacobs' injuries weren't severe enough for a felony assault charge.
Guwahati: The member-journalists of Guwahati Press Club on 25 May paid heartfelt tributes to journalist Mithu Choudhury, who died on 19 May 2017 after suffering from various ailments. Organized by Journalists' Forum Assam, the memorial meeting also observed one minute silence as a mark of respects to the departed soul.

Choudhury, 53, breathed his last on Friday afternoon at his rented residence in Guwahati and his cremation was done in the same evening. Hailed from Silchar, the soft spoken scribe left behind his wife, only son and a host of relative & well wishers. Earlier the JFA urged Assam chief minister Sarbanand Sonowal to sanction some financial helps to the bereaved family.

An honorable member of the press club, Choudhury started his journalism career two decades back and lately was associated with popular Bengali daily 'Dainik Jugashankha' for many years. For some time he also worked for 'Sakal Bela'. Lately used to contribute for various news portals and his focus area was insurgency in northeast India.

The speakers in the meeting described Choudhury as an honest and dedicated journalist. They also appreciated Choudhury's commitment to the medium who maintained his identity as a working journalist till his untimely demise. The participants also contributed individual financial assistances to Choudhury's family.

The meeting was addressed by senior journalists Rupam Barua, Ranen Kumar Goswami, Nava Thakuria, DN Singh, Prasanta Majumder, Dilip Sarma, Peter Alex, Arindam Roy, Dixit Sarma, Sabyasachi Sarma along with Beauty Barman, Azlina Khanam, Sanjay Roy, Sanjoy Das, Bhaskarjyoti Das, Diganta Das, Dhiraj Deka etc.
Kathmandu, Nepal : Following the call of the political parties particularly the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the parliament, has initiated inter and intra party consultation to form a consensus government.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has on Thursday called on the political parties represented in the Legislature-Parliament to pick a new prime minister through political consensus within seven.

The President had made the call as per the Constitutional provision that the president has to call the parties to form a consensus government before calling the majority government.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had tendered his resignation on Wednesday.

Article 298 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal has provisioned for the consensus government.

Article 298 (3) of the constitution has also provisioned for the majority government if the parties fail to pick a consensus candidate for the post of prime minister in seven days.

Being the largest party in the parliament, the Nepali Congress has initiated consultation with various parties including the main opposition party CPN UML to form a consensus government under its chairman asher Bahadur Deuba.
Guwahati, May 26 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated India's longest river bridge Dhola-Sadiya bridge over Brahmaputra in Assam.

which is situated around 100 kms from the McMahon line separating India and China.

Built on the Brahmaputra river and known as the Dhola-Sadiya bridge, it will help in reducing travel time for around civilians of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by over 5 hours.

According to the reports, the 9.15 km long bridge is capacity of carrying the weight of a 60 tonne battle tank and will help development in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

The bridge reduced distance from Rupai in Assam to Roing in Arunachal Pradesh by 165 km.

The bridge was constructed by Navayuga Engineering Co Ltd is 3.55 km longer than the sea link over the Mahim Bay in Mumbai.

According to the reports, the bridge will save transport fuel worth Rs 10 lakh per day in the region.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Supreme Court (SC) of Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal: The Supreme Court (SC) the Apex Court of the country has on Friday issued an interim order to the government not to implement the decision to increase the number of local units.

Responding to the writ petition filed by Dhan Bahadur Shrestha, a division bench of Justices Ishwar Khatiwada and Sapana Malla Pradhan ordered the government to put the government decision on hold.

The SC has stated in the order that the Article 295 of the constitution envisage a commission for fixing the number of local units. The order has indirectly hinted that the government has no authorities to fix the number of local units.

Following the government decision to increase 22 local units in Terai districts, a notice was published on the Gazette to formalize the decision.
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This week The Criterion Collection released Jacques Audiard's Palme d'Or winning drama, Dheepan, and it's a film everyone needs to see.

Dheepan, a Sri Lankan refugee and former Tamil Tiger, is on the run for his lafe after the Sinhalese government in his homeland attempts to wipe out the rebel forces following the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. In order to find a home away from the violence, he takes a Sri Lankan woman and orphan child and cobbles together a makeshift family for appearances sake. The trio end up in France, where they soon discover that even though they've left the battlefield at home, they've landed in a new warzone. The film tells the story of one immigrant family's experience as they attempt to escape the violence within and without.

I loved Dheepan, it's a different kind of outsider art. A film made by a Frenchman, starring a Sri Lankan Tamil, the vast majority of the film's dialogue is in Tamil, which Audiard doesn't speak, it manags to encapsulate the journey of the stranger in a strange land right down to its core. The feeling of alienation experienced by the character of Dheepan is as much a part of the film as it is built into the process. A truly fascinating experience.

Jason Gorber saw the film when it premiered in Cannes two years ago and was similarly overwhelmed:

For me a film like this is even more a joy the less you know about it, but it's I believe safe to know that its one of the more powerful and illuminating stories about immigrant experiences, and how often times behind the new faces that enter their new community there's a rich and remarkable story that proceeds their arrival.

In this case, we have an ersatz family unit that's in their own way to become a real one, an extremely messy circumstance that on screen could easily descend into melodrama. Instead, Audiard's script (co-written with Thomas Bidegain and Noe Debre) manages to beautifully balance all these elements in both convincing and engaging ways.

[...]

A powerful film that has moments of sheer bravado, Dheepan proves Audiard to be a truly remarkable talent, having managed in this film to bring about some extraordinary performances while navigating the tension between the film's various genre elements. Provocative and profound, this is a film that through its many twists and turns manages to get things so very right indeed.

It's rare that I agree so completely with Gorber, but he's right on in this case. The film is an emotional roller-coaster, and even though many of the twists and turns seem tuned up to the level of absurdity here and there, it feels like real life. Imagine echoes of La Haine, but without the intrinsic awareness of being a part of that community. This is the challenge that Dheepan and his "family" face day in and day out, and while they may not have felt like family going in, they share a bond as deep as blood coming out.

The Disc:

The Criterion Collection Blu-ray of Dheepan looks exceptional. There's really no reason that a modern film shouldn't these days. Dheepan was shot on digital, so there's no reason for any incosistencies to exist from source material to end product, and the result is glorious. Apart from the exeptional cinematography of the young Eponine Momenceau, there is also some fantastic work from the sound design team that the disc replicates wonderfully. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track puts you in the middle of the action.

Criterion provides us with a small but effective group of extras that help contextualize the film and the experiences that led to its creation and ultimate success. There is an audio commentary with Audiard and co-writer Noe Debre that is full of scene specific anecdotes as well as deeper discussions of the film and its production. There are also a pair of interesting interviews with Audiard and the actor who plays Dheepan, Antonythasan Jesuthasan. Audiard explains in detail the road that led him to the film and his desire to make a film about the plight of these rebels fighting an invisible war. Jesuthasan, on teh other hand, talks in depth about his background as a child member of the Tamil Tiger rebel group and his own life as a refugee and how it led him to this project. The latter interview is one of the most interesting I've seen on a Criterion disc lately and it's worth your time and energy.

Dheepan is a wonderful film and Criterion's Blu-ray is a great way to not only experience it, but also to broaden your knowledge around the film, its influences, and its production. Highly recommended.



contributed to this story.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- A U.S. service member was killed in a vehicle accident in northern Syria on Friday, according to a statement from the anti-ISIS coaliton.



"A U.S. service member died of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover in northern Syria, May 26, 2017," said a statement from Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, the formal name for the military coalition helping to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria.



"Further information will be released as appropriate," the statement added, saying it is the coalition's "policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."



The United States has slightly more than 900 military personnel in Syria to advise and assist Kurdish and Arab rebel forces fighting ISIS.

Two other American service members have died in Syria since U.S. troops arrived there in early 2016.



Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, 42, was killed by an improvised explosive device in northern Syria on Nov. 24, 2016.



U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin L. Bieren, 25, died from suspected natural causes while deployed to northern Syria on March 28.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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 "Capital Punishment and the Courts" | Main | Full Senate confirms Donald Trump's first circuit pick, Judge Amul Thapar, to Sixth Circuit 

May 26, 2017

Alabama finally carries out death sentence for Thomas Arthur

As reported here by CNN, "Alabama executed death row inmate Tommy Arthur early Friday after a lengthy court battle that included multiple lethal injection delays." Here is more:

Arthur, 75, was convicted in the 1982 murder-for-hire of romantic rival Troy Wicker. The inmate, who was nicknamed the "Houdini" of death row because he'd had seven prior execution dates postponed, died by lethal injection at the Holman Correctional Facility at Atmore. The Supreme Court issued a temporary stay Thursday, then lifted it later that night, leading to his execution. "No governor covets the responsibility of weighing the merits of life or death; but it is a burden I accept as part of my pledge to uphold the laws of this state," Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. "Three times Tommy Arthur was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Each time his case was reviewed thoroughly at every level of both our state and federal courts, and the appellate process has ensured that the rights of the accused were protected." Arthur's lawyers had filed motions arguing that Alabama's method of execution was cruel and unusual, and that the attorneys should have access to a cellphone while witnessing the execution. Before the Supreme Court decision, stay requests had been rejected by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the governor.... Arthur was convicted of killing Wicker of Muscle Shoals by shooting him in the right eye on February 1, 1982, according to court documents. He was a work release prisoner at that time. He had been convicted of killing his sister-in-law in 1977, also by shooting her in the right eye.

May 26, 2017 at 09:29 AM | Permalink

Comments

Sotomayor had a solo dissent reaffirming her concerns about the specific lethal injection drug, including not allowing the lawyers to have access to a phone if any problems arose. On Twitter -- which now has a somewhat morbid death watch in respect to certain reporters -- press at site said the "no phone" policy applied to the media as well.

The concern for the particular method has been discussed in the past. The state argued the phone claim was in effect made too late etc. I'll grant that but wonder of the logic of the policy. It is sensible to have a right to a lawyer while being executed to assure it goes smoothly, including access to the outside to flag problems.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/tommy-arthur-alabama-execution-2017?utm_term=.epr1Pbp2P#.vgJmGbdpG [briefs]

The specific claims here were limited and not likely to succeed. Ultimately, one is led to think big term. Why execute him? His crime was heinous, a murder for hire, but don't think decades in prison isn't an appropriate punishment. The argument will be made the sentence was set and there was an interest in carrying it out. This brings us back to the need for the sentence in the first place. Yet again a few heinous people are executed while many more are not. This is the choice and obvious result of the policy in place.

The author of the blog is concerned with all the attention given to such cases. But, perhaps the solution there is to stop executing people, so we can use our criminal justice system resources for better things.

Posted by: Joe | May 26, 2017 11:42:02 AM

"But, perhaps the solution there is to stop executing people, so we can use our criminal justice system resources for better things."

Then convince your fellow citizens to repeal laws authorizing capital punishment instead of trying to get the courts to twist the law to put a stop to it. As it stands though, capital punishment is the choice of the democracy, and spending resources to ensure that it happens IS important as it is an investment in self-government.

Sotomayor's opinion is dense. The science doesn't support her view that massive doses of midazolam (and, by the way, the dose of the paralytic) don't render the guy insensate. As for the no access to phone--ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Posted by: federalist | May 26, 2017 12:59:04 PM

Then convince your fellow citizens to repeal laws authorizing capital punishment instead of trying to get the courts to twist the law to put a stop to it.

I am all for that and in practice my fellow citizens, except for a few states, by their actions show they are against the death penalty except at best in a few special circumstances. I don't think the courts are "twisting" the law as a whole either.

As it stands though, capital punishment is the choice of the democracy, and spending resources to ensure that it happens IS important as it is an investment in self-government.

As it stands, the democracy, as it does in general, puts in place imperfect legislation that in practice has many problems, some of a constitutional dimension. Among the many things we need to do to carry out democracy in this country, focusing on executing a few more people is an arguable priority. The people themselves think so too given how much doing so is repeatedly put on the back-burner including by the people they directly or indirectly put in place to carry things out here.

Sotomayor's opinion is dense. The science doesn't support her view that massive doses of midazolam (and, by the way, the dose of the paralytic) don't render the guy insensate. As for the no access to phone--ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

There are expert testimony that disagrees with you on "the science" as I have repeatedly referenced, at times citing specific examples of analysis on the point. This leads experts to argue if we execute alternative methods would be best. But, I'm not an expert and there surely is dispute on the question.

Finally, glad it amuses you, but as a basic principle, having an attorney there while the execution goes on that has access to the outside if something goes wrong -- especially given repeated evidence that things has -- is not as funny to me.

Posted by: Joe | May 26, 2017 5:26:12 PM

Joe, when you have judges like the idiots on the 11th Circuit who thought that the identity of a drug manufacturer was relevant after the purity of the drugs were tested, then that's pretty strong evidence of a judiciary that twists the law. (Or you could look at the Maples case from a few years ago . . . .) But your credibility is pretty much shot on that--you cannot defend a lot of the decisions that come down the pike from 'rat judges. (I love that term--almost as good as the "wise [sic] Latina."

What I think is funny about the "lawyer gotta have a cellphone" is the utter bereftness of legal analysis. Open courts provisions have NEVER been interpreted to require that the government facilitate the filing of a last-minute lawsuit. There are limits. I just think Sotomayor clowns herself with this nonsense---there's nothing that says that the condemned even gets to have a lawyer present at an execution.

As for the evidence--newsflash, experts are willing to testify to just about anything. They juice the guy up with enough to kill a horse, and the mecuronium bromide or pancuronium bromide is enough to kill an elephant. (Ain't the stuff a curare derivative?)

Posted by: federalist | May 26, 2017 10:47:31 PM

Hope you enjoyed it, DAB.

Posted by: anon | May 27, 2017 1:02:56 PM

"The Democracy" once placed laws into effect laws that outlawed marriage between different races; so that's okay with you? Fortunately, constitutional rights aren't subject to popular vote.

Posted by: Mark M. | May 28, 2017 10:50:03 AM

Mark, your posts are tiresome. The polity has the right to execute murderers.

Posted by: federalist | May 28, 2017 5:47:09 PM

Post a comment
 Full Senate confirms Donald Trump's first circuit pick, Judge Amul Thapar, to Sixth Circuit | Main | US Sentencing Commission releases report on "Youthful Offenders in the Federal System" 

The title of this post is the title of this brief "Fact Sheet" from The Sentencing Project, which gets started this way:

While states and the federal government have modestly reduced their prison populations in recent years, incarceration trends continue to vary significantly across jurisdictions. Overall, the number of people held in state and federal prisons has declined by 4.9% since reaching its peak in 2009. Sixteen states have achieved double-digit rates of decline and the federal system has downsized at almost twice the national rate. But while 38 states have reduced their prison populations, in most states this change has been relatively modest. In addition, 12 states have continued to expand their prison populations even though most have shared in the nationwide crime drop.

Six states have reduced their prison populations by over 20% since reaching their peak levels:

 New Jersey (35% decline since 1999)

 New York (29% decline since 1999)

 Alaska (27% decline since 2006)

 California (26% decline since 2006, though partly offset by increasing jail use)

 Vermont (25% decline since 2009)

 Connecticut (22% decline since 2007)

Southern states including Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana, which have exceptionally high rates of incarceration, have also begun to significantly downsize their prison populations. These reductions have come about through a mix of changes in policy and practice designed to reduce admissions to prison and lengths of stay. Moreover, the states with the most substantial prison population reductions have often outpaced the nationwide crime drop.

The pace of decarceration has been very modest in most states, especially given that nationwide violent and property crime rates have fallen by half since 1991. Despite often sharing in these crime trends, 15 states had less than a 5% prison population decline since their peak year. Moreover, 12 states have continued to expand their prison populations, with four producing doubledigit increases since 2010: North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Minnesota.
Yeah, I know, the above clip from the 1997 documentary Volcano is set in a transit tunnel in Los Angeles, not San Francisco. And yet, it was the first thing I thought of when I learned that the San Francisco Police Department's radios don't work when officers are in the city's BART and Muni tunnels.

Would an operative radio have kept that poor guy from melting (or whatever) into the lava as he heroically leaped from that subway car? No, of course not. But as CBS 5 reports, operative police radios are key when the city is faced with a dangerous situation like the terror attack in Manchester (or, obviously, a volcanic eruption or other disaster).

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott freely admits that one of the city's big vulnerabilities are the "dead spots" in the departments radio system, which Scott says are "throughout this city and region."

The Chron reports that one of the most significant dead spots are BART and Muni tunnels, where "SFPD officers have to switch over to Muni or BART radio systems when they go into the tunnels."

When police go into the tunnels, they are patched into and use the Muni and BART system, SFPD spokesperson David Stevenson says. It could be challenging, but it generally seems to work.

SF Police Officers Association president Martin Halloran isn't so sure about that, saying that officers have "brought up the problems that they were having with the departments new radios," but said that Its something that the city is working on.

One solution, it appears, is a $78 million project to upgrade police radios and towers. Also on the horizon, a Department of Emergency Management spokesperson says, are communication relays in the tunnels that should be online by the end of the year.

But for now, it looks like we'll have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. For as former FBI agent and current KPIX 5 security analyst Jeff Harp says, "I can tell you as former commander of the SWAT team, that you have problems...Its tough to communicate. That is the Achilles heel for any kind of operation.
The North Panhandle neighborhood has quickly become a household name in San Francisco, although it is better known as NoPa.

NoPas borders surround mostly residential properties, but its key location is convenient to some of the citys most popular destination restaurants and a growing number of storefronts. The eastern border runs along Divisadero Street, which is fast-paced with foot-traffic energy, boutique and vintage shops, epicurean desirables, and organic grocers.

Residents who live in this neighborhood enjoy the amenity of not having to own an automobile to get around in the district and out to every corner of the city. Some longtime residents will also admit that they find little reason to leave the area, as all of the citys amenities are within reach.

The neighborhoods westernmost border opens right up into Golden Gate Park providing endless opportunities for outdoor recreation and activities. Across the Panhandle, the long southern border along Fell Street provides a direct route to the freeway for residents that work outside the city or need a quick getaway. Other neighboring districts offer proximity to the University of San Francisco as well as the main facility for Kaiser Permanente.

With a growing number of destination restaurants and storefronts igniting its soaring popularity, becoming a resident of the North Panhandle would be an honor in the eyes of many San Franciscans. For the latest North Panhandle listings, check out Zephyrre.com.

North Pandhandle is 1 of 89 neighborhoods in San Francisco. With so many distinct areas, understanding the Citys real estate market requires a nuanced and highly local approach. As a business operating in San Francisco since 1978, with nearly 400 agents, Zephyr Real Estate is specially positioned to cater to your real estate needs, whether buying or selling.

Have a question about the local market? Contact Zephyr Real Estate today through their site or 415.496.2600. They'll match you up with a member of their team who can assist you.

This post is brought to you by Zephyr Real Estate.
Another one bites the dust in the food delivery realm: Sprig announced Friday that their SF-based, warm meal delivery service is shutting down, capping off four years for one of the main players in meal delivery in the Bay Area. CEO Gagan Biyani posted to the company's blog and sent out an email to customers and the media making the announcement, saying, "We apologize to those of you who relied on Sprig for daily meals, and to our extended Sprig team for how this will impact them."

TechCrunch notes that the closing of Sprig means the loss of jobs for 200 people here in SF, including part-time employees. Biyani says that all employees are getting two months' severance as part of the company's shutdown plan.

In their four years, Sprig began with the model of delivering healthy meals at dinner time, beginning with just three daily options, guaranteeing delivery in most cases in under 30 minutes. They accomplished this by having drivers pick up boxed food in bulk at a central commissary kitchen on Van Ness and then having them drive around with warm food kept in warming boxes in the car, able to respond quickly to customers' orders.

They expanded operations to Chicago, but then "paused" the Chicago business in the middle of 2016, with Biyani saying at the time that the company needed to test out a new operational model and "It is incredibly difficult to make and test changes to a new model in multiple markets."

Those changes included the addition of multiple daily options to the app's menu, with some 20 daily choices as of January of this year  something that Biyani had said was in response to customer feedback about wanting more variety. Also, Biyani told Fast Company that they discovered over time that "speed is not the thing that people care the most about," and that customers actually were more interested in "the quality of the food.

Logistically that apparently did not work out, or else Sprig simply did not have the growing customer base it needed to keep attracting new investment. TechCrunch notes the odd decision the company made to open up a fast-casual cafe at their Van Ness headquarters last month, which may have been a sign of the collapse to come.

In his note today, Biyani says,

No question, Im sad that the Sprig model did not work out  but the food delivery space on the whole is growing. The demand for Sprigs convenient, high-quality food was always incredibly high, but the complexity of owning meal production through delivery at scale was a challenge. After spending four years as a food-tech industry insider, Im amazed at what the space has become. Food is one of the foundations of society and I believe strongly that it must become more sustainable and ethical. Im hopeful that the food delivery companies that are succeeding will make this a priority. Please continue to help us inspire change: encourage sustainable food systems, better treatment of workers and more awareness of nutrition. These are serious issues and they cannot have enough attention.

Local competitor Munchery, meanwhile, lives on, though there were grumblings last fall that all was not totally well there either, as the company underwent a CEO shuffle. And then there are the delivery apps that simply provide delivery services to existing restaurants, including UberEats, which clearly probably took a chunk out of Sprig and Munchery's business in the last year.

Previously: SpoonRocket Shuts Down On Same Day That UberEats Launches Standalone App




The road to success is simple for Christian music pioneer John Michael Talbot. "I just pray and if God asks me, I make music."

With 55 spiritual albums to his name, Talbot is recognized as Catholic music's most popular artist, but his work extends far beyond just music.

"I'm always doing something," says Talbot, who published his 26th book in 2016. Talbot enjoys writing, but says music is his "primary calling."

"Most often, my books are longer descriptions of the inspirations behind my songs."

After dropping out of school at 15, Talbot began playing guitar with folk-rock band Mason Proffit. Talbot says the band taught him about the meaning of music and community.

"Some of the band members argued intensely, yet the show always went on." Talbot says the same thing is true in monastic communities and ministry teams. "Sometimes people with radically different personalities must learn how to get along with each other and do the greater work for Christ and the church."

Talbot's most recent album was written when he felt the time for words was over. "The Inner Room" is a result of Talbot's deep prayer and silence in the hermitage.

"People in our culture tend to talk at, or past each other, but very little communication occurs. Only prayer can really change our culture. Beginning not with others, but with ourselves."

After Mason Proffit, Talbot embarked on a spiritual journey that led him into the Christian music scene. Talbot became a Roman Catholic in 1978 and founded the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, an "integrated monastic community" of celibate brothers and sisters, in 1980. He started his own music label in 1992.

Talbot's songs were the first written by a Catholic artist to cross boundaries and gain acceptance by Protestant listeners.

Over the years, Talbot has been honored with multiple awards recognizing his many humanitarian efforts. Talbot says he was "touched" when he received the prestigious Mother Teresa award in 2005, but hasn't kept many of the awards. "I'm appreciative that I'm appreciated," Talbot says.

After a fire at Little Portion Hermitage in 2008, Talbot took his music to parishes around the country to raise money to rebuild his monastery.

Talbot says he is humbled by listeners who refer to his music as "the soundtrack of their spiritual journey." "Music takes us back to very special times in our lives, I think that's especially true with spiritual music. I'm always a bit stunned at how God works through such meager and simple efforts on my part."

Talbot hopes his listeners will take the time to really listen to music and to each other. "Nowadays we are bombarded with information and sound, but there is little real communication and soul-touching in art."

Talbot says his traveling "prayer experience" will be an evening of music and ministry. He will play music from the beginning of his music career up to the most current recordings, "with some stories and meditations sprinkled in."

John Michael Talbot will perform his 2017 concert tour "A Lifetime of Music & Ministry," at 7 p.m. on June 4 at St. Michael Catholic Church, 2223 Indian Hills. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $50 for a VIP experience. For additional information, visit johnmichaeltalbot.com.
NEW YORK  "Sgt. Pepper" was only the beginning. Half a century after the Beatles' psychedelic landmark, it stands as just one of many musical astonishments of 1967 that shaped what we listen to now.

The rock album became an art form, and the tight, two-minute hits of Motown and Stax began to give way to the funk of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone and the fiery candor of Aretha Franklin and "Respect." It was the dawn of the rock festival, in Monterey, and of the pop soundtrack, Simon & Garfunkel's music for "The Graduate."

And it was the year Bob Dylan and the backing musicians who would name themselves the Band quietly gathered at a pink house outside of Woodstock, New York, and recorded dozens of songs that were the birth of "roots music" and the foundation for rock's most famous bootleg, "The Basement Tapes."

"We were in our own little world, up in the mountains, kind of isolated from everything that was going on," says the Band's Robbie Robertson. "But looking back at that time, you could see that the stars were aligned and there was a magic people have been trying to dissect ever since."

There were endings in 1967  the deaths of Otis Redding and Woody Guthrie  but many more beginnings. Few years contained so many notable debuts, from recording artists who would influence punk, heavy metal, glam rock, progressive rock, new wave and other musical trends of the following decades: The Velvet Underground, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Doors, along with first albums by Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin (with Big Brother and the Holding Company), the Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Sly and the Family Stone.

Music scenes thrived throughout the United States and in England, where the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Cream and others were making some of their best music; and a young Reg Dwight renamed himself Elton John and began his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin.

Besides "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the Beatles released the hits "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" and unveiled their paean to the Summer of Love, "All You Need is Love." The Stones issued the acclaimed "Between the Buttons" album and the classic two-sided single "Ruby Tuesday" and "Let's Spend the Night Together." The Who's "The Who Sell Out" interspersed mock-radio commercials and jingles and such hits as "I Can See for Miles." Cream's "Disraeli Gears," often listed among rock's greatest albums, includes the band's signature song, and signature riff, "Sunshine of Your Love."

"The classic album era begins around this time and it canonizes music in a very different way than when you hear a single," says Ann Powers, a music critic for NPR and author of "Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music," which comes out in August. "And that's a powerful reason why the music remains so resonant, because the album is a like a novel set to music. It's the form we share with our children and the form we teach and the form we collect."

In the U.S., San Francisco's Haight-Asbury district was the home of Flower Power and Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" the unofficial anthem. It was the year Joplin, the Dead and other San Francisco acts broke through nationally and Jefferson Airplane released its two most famous songs, "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit."

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, the founders of Hot Line Music Journal helped out a high school friend and released his debut album, "Backup Train"; Al Greene would soon drop the final "e'' from his last name. In Memphis, Stax was at its peak, with a triumphant tour of Europe featuring Redding and Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Redding's dazzling performance at Monterey and classic singles by Sam and Dave ("Soul Man") and Arthur Conley ("Sweet Soul Music)." Stax never approached such success again; Redding was killed in a plane crash in December, days after adding overdubs to what became his greatest hit, "(Sittin' On the) Dock of the Bay."

In Philadelphia, producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff had their first top 10 hit, the Soul Survivors' "Expressway to Your Heart." In Cincinnati, James Brown gathered his backing musicians and recorded "Cold Sweat," widely considered one of the first funk records and a track sampled by Public Enemy, DJ Shadow and other rap and hip-hop artists.

"We like to celebrate debut work, but the best work often happens when mature artists have to confront challenges from outside music. James Brown had been making music for quite a while by 1967. But being part of African-American culture, he's looking at the rise of Black Power and Afro-centrism and he knows he needs to try different things," Powers says.

"And this leads to a new phase and a new freedom. And you can still see that impact. Black Power became extremely influential with hip-hip artists. You look at Kendrick Lamar and you can imagine Kendrick Lamar as part of 1967. He has a different sound, but the sentiments and the political stance are not that far off."
Screenings

Free blood pressure screenings, 9:30-11 a.m. Wednesdays at Countryside Senior Living, front lobby. No appointment necessary.

Programs/Self-Help Groups

Al-Anon Information Center, call 712-255-6724.

Al-Anon and Alateen, meetings locally. For times, dates and locations of area meetings, call 712-255-6724.

Alcoholics Anonymous, beginners information, call 712-252-1333.

Arc of Woodbury County, serving the mentally challenged, 5:15 p.m. meeting, second Monday of the month at Mid-Step Services, 4303 Stone Ave. For families and interested persons.

Child Care Resource and Referral, provides resources, education and advocacy for children, parents, and child care providers. Assists in child care needs. For more information, call 712-277-1180.

Co-Dependence Anonymous, 7 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays at First Lutheran Church, Fireside Room.

Co-Dependents Anonymous (CODA), 10 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St.

Compassionate Friends, 7 p.m. fourth Wednesday of each month (third Thursday in November and second Sunday December) in Mercy Medical Center's Leiter Room. For families who have lost children. Contact Nancy Webb 712-212-4032 or Don Mulder 712-541-5512.

Clinics

Siouxland District Health immunization clinics, call for appointment, 712-279-6119 or 1-800-587-3005.

Information

Family and Addictive Illness series, for more information, call 234-2300.

Iowa Fathers, 6 to 8 p.m. fourth Tuesday of each month at Hope Lutheran Church, Education Building, 218 W. 18th St., South Sioux City, Neb. Support group to help single, divorcing and divorced parents residing in the state of Iowa.

Mercy Pathways Outpatient Program, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, on the third floor, Mercy's Central Medical Building, 801 Fifth St., Suite 360. Provides hope, help, opportunity to connect through group therapy for individuals experiencing personal, relationship, psychiatric issues. For more information, call 712-279-5991.

Narcotics Anonymous, meetings daily, various times, dates and locations. For more information, call 712-279-0733.

Overeaters Anonymous, 1 p.m. Tuesdays at Wesley United Methodist Church, 3700 Indian Hills Drive; 6 p.m. Tuesdays at St. John's Lutheran Church, 402 Lane Ave., Storm Lake; 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Church of the Nazarene, 226 N. Main St., Viborg, S.D.; 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays at Newman Center, 320 E. Cherry St., Vermillion, S.D.; 10:30 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St. A 12-step recovery program for people who have problems with food and weight. No fees.

St. Lukes Outpatient Behavioral Health Program, 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on fifth floor of St. Luke's, located at 2720 Stone Park Blvd. Offers several levels of outpatient care including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and group therapy. This program provides support and integrated treatment to individuals experiencing personal or relationship issues as a result of their mental illness. For more information and admission criteria, call 712-279-3906.

Sobriety By Faith, 8:30 a.m. Saturdays at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For more information, call James Mothershead at 712-577-9715.

The Link-Recovery and Freedom, 1603 Glen Ellen Road; 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday workshop, and Christian 12-step meeting 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. For all ages. Call Dee at 389-7432.

Women in Recovery, meets monthly at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For details, call 712-255-4623.

Tarahouse Meditation Center, 8 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 6:30 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, all at 3112 Rebecca St. Three easy 10-minute sessions in small group; beginners welcome. For more information, call 490-6410.

Blood pressure and blood sugar screening, 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays in the lobby at Westwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Free to public.

Support Groups

Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Hawkeye Club basement, 420 Jones St. For more information, call 277-5935.

Celebrate Recovery, Bible-based 12-step recovery group. Thursdays at 6 p.m. at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive. Childcare provided. 712-490-3343. All welcome.

PFLAG of Siouxland, (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays), 7 p.m., fourth Monday of January, March, May, July, September and November. St. Mark ELCA Church, 5200 Glenn Ave., in the upstairs meeting area. 712-258-3116.

Singles widowed and divorced, all ages, 4 p.m., Sundays. McDonald's at Sixth Street and Lewis Boulevard. 712-252-2675.

GriefShare, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

HIV/AIDS Support Group, meets weekly. For more information, call Darla or Teri at Siouxland Community Health Center, 712-252-2477 or 888-371-1965.

Hospice of Siouxland, seeking volunteers. For more information, call 712-233-4144 and ask for a volunteer coordinator.

La Leche League of Siouxland, breastfeeding support group meets every third Thursday at 11 a.m. at Morningside Lutheran Church. Children are welcome. For more information, call Mary at 712-546-7280 or Jacquie at 712-255-2998.

Living Each Day Cancer Support Group, 7-8 p.m. second Thursday of the month, Floyd Valley Hospital, Conference Center Room 2, Le Mars, Iowa. Open to all cancer patients, cancer survivors and family members. No charge. Pre-register by calling 712-546-3441 or 800-642-6074, ext. 441.

Mom and Baby Support Group, 10-11 a.m. last Monday of the month at the Orange City (Iowa) Hospital, lower level. For new moms and babies. 712-737-5260.

Tri-State Sober Project, 12-step meeting, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Friendship Community Church, 305 Sergeant Square Drive, Sergeant Bluff. 6-7 p.m., Thursdays, Transitional Services of Iowa, 1221 Pierce St., Sioux City.

Doug's Donors Support Group, information for organ donors and recipients, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Fridays, 5:15-6:30 p.m. second Thursdays of the month at Mercy Cafeteria Woodbury Room. 712-277-1050.

Divorce Care, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

NAMI Siouxland, (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Support Group meets 6:30 p.m., second Tuesday of the month at Friendship House, 1101 Court St. For individuals and family members dealing with mental illness. 712-255-4209.

New Life Life Support Group, 3:30 p.m. every Saturday at 2929 W. Fourth St. Spiritual 12-step program. For more information, call Donald at 712-574-1744 or James at 712-255-7624.

Orphan Sunday, 3:30-5 p.m. Sunday at Sunnybrook Community Church loft, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive.

Post Polio Support Group, 11 a.m. first Thursday of the month at Perkins Restaurant by Menards. 712-490-8213.

Relationship Support Group, 7 p.m. Fridays at Marketplace Mall. For more information, call 239-3129.

Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, Individual and Support Groups. For more information, call CSADV in Sioux City at 712-258-7233; Plymouth County at 712-546-6764; Monona County at 712-423-3443. Advocacy and support available 24 hours a day at 1-800-982-7233. All services free of charge and confidential.

Sickle Cell Disease Support Group, 11 a.m. third Saturday of each month at St. Luke's Hospital, meeting room 1. For patients, their family and any concerned member. Call La'Keshia Rainey at 712-203-2019 for more information.

Single and Parenting, 6:30 -8:30 p.m. every Tuesday until Dec. 6 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814.

Sioux City Association of the Deaf, 7 p.m. third Saturday of the month at Morningside Church of Christ, 5015 Garretson Ave. Regular meeting, September-May; no meeting, June, July, August and December.

Siouxland Autism Support Group, second Thursday of the month at Northwest Area Education Agency, 1520 Morningside Ave. For more information, call Julie Case at 712-490-8939.

Siouxland Epilepsy Support Group, 5 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at Prestwick Apartment Clubhouse, 4230 Hickory Lane. For anyone diagnosed with seizures or epilepsy and family or friends. For more information, call Steve at 274-6927.

Siouxland IC support group, meets quarterly in Sioux City. For patients struggling with interstital cystitis. For more information, call Jacque Dundas 316-641-9766.

Siouxland Informational Group for the Blind, 2-5 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at Northern Hills Retirement Community, 4002 Teton Trace. For more information, call 712-266-8926 or 258-8151.

Grief support group, 5:30-7:30 p.m., beginning Oct. 5 for 13 weeks (may join at any time), Crescent Park United Methodist Church, 2826 Myrtle St., Sioux City. Scott, 712-899-6315.

Siouxland Ostomy Association, 2 p.m. first Sunday of each month (except September, which will be second Sunday; and no meetings June, July, August), in Room 300 at Mercy Medical Center, 801 Fifth St. For more information, call Dick Lindblom at 251-2453.

Siouxland Parkinson Disease Support Group, 1 p.m. fourth Monday of the month at Siouxland Center for Active Generations, 313 Cook St. For more information, call Sally Reinert at 402-987-3516.

South Sioux City Weight Support Group, 8:30 a.m. Wednesdays at St. Paul United Methodist Church, South Sioux City. For more information, call 494-1401 or 494-2133.

Disabilities Resource Center of Siouxland, 520 Nebraska St., Suite 101: Women's Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Wednesday of the month; LGBT Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Friday of the month; Adult ADHD, 6 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; Advocacy Group, 1:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month. For more information, call 712-255-1065.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, group meetings various times, days and locations in Siouxland. For information on the chapter in your area, call 1-800-932-TOPS.

Voice Disorder Support Group, meets as needed at Mercy Medical Center, Buena Vista Room. 712-279-2686.

Women's Peer Support Group, in Wayne and South Sioux City, Neb., for those who have experienced domestic abuse. For more information, call the Wayne office at 402-375-4633 or 1-800-440-4633; in South Sioux City, call 402-494-7592. Help and support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services free and confidential.

Woodbury County D.M.D.A., noon-2 p.m. first Saturday of the month at Country Friendship Acres, 4501 West St.; 7-8 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at 515 Court St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at 441 W. Third St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at 409 W. Third St. in the Community Room. Support group for people with disabilities and mental disorders.

Natural Mamas in Siouxland, 1 p.m., third Tuesday of each month in the Garretson room of the Morningside Public Library. All ages of children are welcome to come with moms. For sharing natural living tips, recipes, natural remedies and health, homemaking, mothering, etc. For more information, call 402-913-0038 or visit their Facebook page.

A Step Beyond support group, 3:30 p.m. second Tuesday of the month, except for August, November and December when it meets at 5:30 p.m. (no meeting in January) at the Christy-Smith Resource Center, 1819 Morningside Ave. For more information, call 712-276-7319.

Divorce care, 5 p.m., Sundays. Fireside room, Morningside Lutheran Church, 700 South Martha St.

Gamblers Anonymous meetings, 4 p.m. Thursdays at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 315 Hamilton Blvd.; 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Morningside Presbyterian Church, 4327 Morningside Ave.; 7 p.m. Tuesdays, St. John Lutheran Church; 7 p.m. Sundays, Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St.. 712-277-2901.

Art therapy support group, 5:30 p.m. second Thursday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. Registration required, call 252-9387.

After Breast Cancer Support Group, 5:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call Brenda, 252-9370.

After Prostate Cancer Support Group, 5:15 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call 252-9426.

Alzheimer's Association, Big Sioux Chapter Support Group, 2 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; 4 p.m. third Tuesday of the month (under age 65) at 201 Pierce St., Suite 110 (Famous Dave's building); and 6 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the Barnes and Noble Cafe. For more information, call Emily Lord at 712-279-5802.

Christy-Smith Funeral Homes of Sioux City, extensive grief library at the Morningside location. Open to the public during weekday hours. For more information, call 276-7319.

Chronic Pain/Chronic Illness Support Group, 7:30 p.m. fourth Wednesday of the month in the lower level of the Orange City Hospital. For more information, call 712-737-5260.

Connections Area Agency on Aging, and Mercy Medical Centers Older Adult Services Welcome to Medicare, 1:30-4 p.m., the first Friday of every month at Connections Area Agency on Aging, 2301 Pierce St. To pre-register, or for more information, contact Connections Area Agency on Aging at 712-279-6900.
WASHINGTON  Minutes matter when it comes to treating sepsis, the killer condition that most Americans probably have never heard of, and new research shows it's time they learn.

Sepsis is the body's out-of-control reaction to an infection. By the time patients realize they're in trouble, their organs could be shutting down.

New York became the first state to require that hospitals follow aggressive steps when they suspect sepsis is brewing. Researchers examined patients treated there in the past two years and reported May 21 that faster care really is better.

Every additional hour it takes to give antibiotics and perform other key steps increases the odds of death by 4 percent, according to the study reported at an American Thoracic Society meeting and in the New England Journal of Medicine.

That's not just news for doctors or for other states considering similar rules. Patients also have to reach the hospital in time.

"Know when to ask for help," said Dr. Christopher Seymour, a critical care specialist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who led the study. "If they're not aware of sepsis or know they need help, we can't save lives."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year began a major campaign to teach people that while sepsis starts with vague symptoms, it's a medical emergency.

To make sure the doctor doesn't overlook the possibility, "Ask, 'Could this be sepsis?'" advised the CDC's Dr. Lauren Epstein.

Sepsis is more than an infection

Once misleadingly called blood poisoning or a bloodstream infection, sepsis occurs when the body goes into overdrive while fighting an infection, injuring its own tissue. The cascade of inflammation and other damage can lead to shock, amputations, organ failure or death.

It strikes more than 1.5 million people in the United States a year and kills more than 250,000.

Even a minor infection can be the trigger. A recent CDC study found nearly 80 percent of sepsis cases began outside of the hospital, not in patients already hospitalized because they were super-sick or recovering from surgery.

There's no single symptom

In addition to symptoms of infection, worrisome signs can include shivering, a fever or feeling very cold; clammy or sweaty skin; confusion or disorientation; a rapid heartbeat or pulse; confusion or disorientation; shortness of breath; or simply extreme pain or discomfort.

If you think you have an infection that's getting worse, seek care immediately, Epstein said.

What's the recommended care?

Doctors have long known that rapidly treating sepsis is important. But there's been debate over how fast. New York mandated in 2013 that hospitals follow "protocols," or checklists, of certain steps within three hours, including performing a blood test for infection, checking blood levels of a sepsis marker called lactate, and beginning antibiotics.

Do the steps make a difference? Seymour's team examined records of nearly 50,000 patients treated at New York hospitals over two years. About 8 in 10 hospitals met the three-hour deadline; some got them done in about an hour. Having those three main steps performed faster was better  a finding that families could use in asking what care a loved one is receiving for suspected sepsis.

Who's at risk?

Sepsis is most common among people 65 and older, babies, and people with chronic health problems.

But even healthy people can get sepsis, even from minor infections. New York's rules, known as "Rory's Regulations," were enacted after the death of a healthy 12-year-old, Rory Staunton, whose sepsis stemmed from an infected scrape and was initially dismissed by one hospital as a virus.

What's next?

Illinois last year enacted a similar sepsis mandate. Hospitals in other states, including Ohio and Wisconsin, have formed sepsis care collaborations. Nationally, hospitals are supposed to report to Medicare certain sepsis care steps. In New York, Rory's parents set up a foundation to push for standard sepsis care in all states.

"Every family or loved one who goes into a hospital, no matter what state, needs to know it's not the luck of the draw" whether they'll receive evidence-based care, said Rory's father, Ciaran Staunton.
CHICAGO  Remarks by a top U.S. health official have reignited a quarrel in the world of addiction and recovery: Does treating opioid addiction with medication save lives? Or does it trade one addiction for another?

Health Secretary Tom Price's recent comments  one replying to a reporter's question, the other in a newspaper op-ed  waver between two strongly held views.

Medication-assisted treatment, known as MAT, is backed by doctors. Yet it still has skeptics, especially among supporters of 12-step programs like Narcotics Anonymous, because it involves opioid-based medications.

Price appeared to side with that camp when he said during a recent visit to Charleston, West Virginia: "If we just simply substitute buprenorphine or methadone or some other opioid-type medication for the opioid addiction, then we haven't moved the dial much."

But in an opinion piece published last week in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, he twice mentioned his agency's support for medication-assisted treatment. Here's a closer look.

How medication can treat addiction

Because of how opioids act on the brain , people dependent on them get sick if they stop using. Withdrawal can feel like a bad flu with cramping, sweating, anxiety and sleeplessness. Cravings for the drug can be so intense that relapse is common.

Medication-assisted treatment helps by moving a patient from powerful painkillers or an illicit opioid like heroin to a regular dose of a legal opioid-based medication such as buprenorphine or methadone. The ideal dose is big enough to fend off withdrawal, but too small to produce a euphoric high. Patients can drive, rebuild relationships and get back to work.

"They're not walking around high" and it gives them the chance to practice new ways of coping with family and psychological issues, said Dr. Joseph Garbely of Pennsylvania-based Caron Treatment Centers.

With counseling and education about addiction, patients can get back on track. They eventually can taper off medications, but some take them for years.

What research says

Researchers studying these treatments use drug screening to see whether patients are staying off illegal drugs. If someone uses heroin while in treatment, it shows up in their urine.

A 2014 review of 31 studies found methadone and buprenorphine keep people in treatment and off illicit drugs.

The review by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group of scientists that evaluates research, found each drug worked better than a dummy medication. A side benefit worth noting: Methadone also helps prevent the spread of HIV by reducing needle sharing, a different research review by Cochrane found.

Methadone and buprenorphine can be abused and both can cause overdoses, particularly methadone. But researchers have found that methadone prevents more overdose deaths than it causes.

For most patients, medication combined with counseling is superior to other strategies, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Other options

"What's right for one person isn't necessarily right for another person," Price said during a May 9 visit to West Virginia.

When asked whether he and his team leaned toward medication or faith-based approaches to opioid addiction, his reply lined up with those who favor abstinence.

Abstinence-only philosophies "are not scientifically supported," according to the first surgeon general's report on addiction, published in November.

Yet people who describe themselves as in recovery consistently say abstinence is important. All told, remission from opioid addiction can take years and multiple tries at treatment.

"The public needs to know that there are proven, effective treatments for opioid addiction," former U.S. General Vivek Murthy told The Associated Press. Murthy was fired by the Trump administration after he refused to resign.

Price also mentioned a non-opioid alternative  namely an injection of naltrexone called Vivitrol  as "exciting stuff." Vivitrol, a newer drug, can be used only with patients who have completely detoxed and has a limited track record compared to buprenorphine and methadone. Early studies have shown promise, but relapse is a danger after injections stop.

Health and Human Services spokeswoman Alleigh Marre told AP that Price's comments don't signal a policy change. Price "has argued that we should be open and supportive to the broadest range of options, from medication-assisted treatments - including methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone - to faith-based recovery programs," Marre said.

Not informing patients about the effectiveness of treating addiction with medication is like a doctor not telling a cancer patient about chemotherapy, said Dr. Mark Willenbring, a former director of treatment research at the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "Scientifically, this is a settled matter."
SIOUX CITY | Sioux City posted its second consecutive year of slight population growth in 2016 while Le Mars, Sergeant Bluff and North Sioux City also continued upward trends, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

South Sioux City and Dakota City, metro cities across the Missouri River in Nebraska, saw slight declines during the same time period according to the data, which estimates cities' total population as of July 1, 2016.

The Census Bureau puts Sioux City's most recent population total at 82,872 -- 209 people higher than the July 1, 2015 estimate. It's Sioux City's second year of growth following three years of modest decline in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

"That's encouraging news," Mayor Bob Scott said. "Were not going backwards anymore -- we've stopped that."

The growth in 2016 also propelled Sioux City back above its 2010 census population of 82,684. The city's population had grown as high as 83,040 in 2011 before dipping the next three subsequent years, bottoming out at 82,571 in 2014.

A news release from the Census Bureau stated that Midwest small towns declined by .3 percent on average, but both Sergeant Bluff and North Sioux City have bucked that regional trend.

Sergeant Bluff gained 76 people, increasing from 4,475 to 4,551 between 2015 and 2016. The city has grown 324 since the 2010 census.

North Sioux City increased from 2,718 to 2,731 last year. The southeast South Dakota city's population has risen 201 since 2010.

Le Mars, Iowa, classified as a mid-sized city, saw a population increase to 9,935 in 2016, up 126 from the previous year. That puts the city at its highest population total in the past seven years, 109 higher than in 2010.

In northeast Nebraska, South Sioux City decreased 155 people, from 13,275 in 2015 to 13,120 in 2016. Dakota City decreased 21 people, from 1,901 to 1,880.

Both cities have posted overall decreases since the 2010 census: South Sioux City has dropped by 233 people, and Dakota City has dropped by 39.

Sioux City remains the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The city ranks behind Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, which all grew in the past year. Davenport posted the most sluggish rate of growth among the top four cities, only adding four people.

Ankeny was the fastest-growing city in Iowa, increasing from 56,109 in 2015 to 58,627 in 2016. The 4.5 percent increase also made it the 14th-fastest-growing city in the nation.

Iowa, as a whole, added 12,696 residents since the previous year, with a new population estimate of 3,134,693. Nebraska gained 13,351, bringing its population up to 1,907,116. South Dakota grew 7,535 to 865,454.

The U.S. population as a whole grew from 320,896,618 to 323,127,513 in July 2016, according to the data. The Census Bureau's population clock estimates the nation passed the 325 million mark earlier this month.
This week on the podcast the reporters discuss Gov. Kim Reynolds' and her first few days in office.

On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast which re-creates the conversations that happen when Iowa's political reporters get together after deadlines have been met. This week's show features Erin Murphy, Christinia Crippes, Todd Dorman, Ed Tibbetts, and James Q. Lynch.

This week's show was produced by Sarah Muller and the music heard in the podcast is courtesy of Dead Larry. Chat with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @OnIowaPolitics, and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Know an Iowa musician who should be on our show? Send their band sound files to oniowapolitics@gmail.com
SIOUX CITY | The wait to play in the new splash pad at Leeds Park is over.

Sioux City's Parks and Recreation Department on Friday announced the splash pad at the north side park, 3810 41st St., has opened and will operate seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The new 3,100-square-foot splash pad, Sioux City's second such water facility, includes water dumping buckets, floor geysers, water shooters and shower sprays. Users can activate the splash pad for four minutes at a time by pushing a blue activator located on a drain cover.

"We are excited to open our second splash pad," Matt Salvatore, Sioux City's Parks and Recreation director, said in a news release. "The Leeds community has shown great support of the project. We are extremely pleased to be able to provide a free and accessible water amenity for everyone to enjoy."

The splash pad will close Tuesday for a caulking project but will reopen Wednesday. The Parks and Recreation Department will hold a dedication for the splash pad 1 p.m. Thursday.

Also opening Friday was the Dale Street Park Splash Pad, 1514 Dale St. It will operate during the same days and hours.
Maas assaulted his mother on May 12 at her Sioux City home after she refused to go with him to pick up another person. After she offered him money for a cab, he hit her repeatedly in the face and tried to strangle her.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City man has been sentenced to prison for stabbing a woman while robbing her of marijuana. He also will serve time for vandalizing a concession stand at the Miracle League complex.

Colten Stroman, 21, pleaded guilty Thursday in Woodbury County District Court to single counts of second-degree robbery and second-degree criminal mischief. District Judge Julie Schumacher sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Stroman must serve at least six years before he's eligible for parole.

Stroman went to a house in the 800 block of 15th Street on March 30 to meet a woman and buy 6 grams of marijuana for $80. After the woman arrived, she was escorted to a back porch and Stroman confronted her while displaying a small folding knife and demanded she give him the drugs.

The woman was stabbed multiple times in the hand and eyebrow area during an ensuing scuffle. She was treated and released from UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's.

Stroman was among a group of people who were partying March 27 at the Miracle League complex, 1301 Riverside Blvd., when they broke two water fountains off the wall of the concession stand, broke through an overhead door, entered the stand and damaged and took property inside.

Stroman was ordered to pay $4,514 in restitution for the damage jointly with a co-defendant, Trent Tadlock.

Tadlock, 32, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty to single counts of second-degree criminal mischief and third-degree burglary.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for passing stolen checks and forcing another vehicle off the road and stealing the occupant's purse.

Stephanie Dunscomb, 42, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Woodbury County District Court to first-degree theft and forgery.

On May 5, Dunscomb used her vehicle to force another vehicle off the road on 110th Street east of Sioux City. Once the vehicles came to a stop, Dunscomb exited her vehicle, approached the victim's vehicle and reached through the partially open passenger's side window and opened the door, then stole the victim's purse, which contained a wallet, checkbook and other items.

Dunscomb drove back to Sioux City, where police found her vehicle broken down near the intersection of Nebraska and 21st streets. Dunscomb was located shortly thereafter, and officers found the purse, with the wallet and checkbook, in her vehicle.

On Nov. 9, Dunscomb stole a billfold from a residence and later in the day forged one of the victim's checks for $200 and tried to pass a second forged check for $200.
CHICAGO -- For the past decade, the narrative of an upcoming Hispanic demographic tsunami has been alternately energizing and scaring people into believing that America will eventually become Latinized beyond recognition.

Don't worry, it isn't going to happen.

I recently attended a Latino studies forum at an urban university boasting a student population that is 39 percent nonwhite. The diversity in the room was astounding: Latinos 17 to 60 who represented families living in this country since the 1600s, as well as those who have been here for only a few years.

There were Hispanics of every race, many that were biracial and more that were merely bicultural, with delightful combination names like Bruce Hernandez and Esmeralda Rosenstein or names that didn't "sound" Latino at all.

This is the trend.

Last week, the Pew Research Center released an analysis of census data showing that in 2015, one in six American newlyweds married someone of a different race or ethnicity.

This represents a fivefold increase in the past 50 years, with Asian and Hispanic newlyweds representing the most likely to have intermarried -- nearly three in 10 marry someone of a different race or ethnicity.

According to Pew, the most common intermarriages in 2015 were between someone of Hispanic ethnicity and someone who wasn't Hispanic. Those marriages accounted for more than half the total, with most of those Hispanics marrying non-Hispanic whites.

These intermarriages are ushering in changes to how society perceives ethnicity and race.

"Demographers have not taken into account how the perception of race is likely to change in the coming years," wrote Herbert J. Gans, a professor emeritus of sociology at Columbia University, in The New York Times, in reference to the U.S. Census predictions of a majority-minority population as soon as 2040. "For example, whites are already seeing the descendants of some Asian and Latino immigrants as being similar to them. Consequently, whites treat them as white. This 'whitening' process will only increase in the future."

But if there's such a thing as reverse-whitening, that's happening, too. People are increasingly deciding for themselves what ethnicity or race they identify as.

For instance, a January 2012 Census Bureau report titled "The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2010" says 175,494 Mexicans (Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano) self-identified as American Indian, making Mexican-American Indians the fourth-largest tribal group in the country.

There are other variations on this idea of ethnic identification fluidity.

In 2015, Mark Hugo Lopez, the director of Hispanic research at the Pew Research Center, told me that there were approximately 2.1 million to 2.5 million people who say they have an ancestry that is Hispanic but don't identify as such. And the opposite can be true: If anyone wants to be Hispanic, they need only say so. "There are no genetic tests; it's a self-labeling thing," Lopez told me.

There are even some who are starting to consider whether racial identity can, or should be, as changeable as gender identity.

Writing in the spring issue of the academic feminist philosophy journal Hypatia, Rebecca Tuvel, an assistant professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, wonders whether it is possible or acceptable to change one's race in the way some change their sex.

In her article, "In Defense of Transracialism," Tuvel says, "I argue that considerations that support transgenderism extend to transracialism. Given this parity, since we should accept transgender individuals' decisions to change sexes, we should also accept transracial individuals' decisions to change races. I entertain and reject ... objections that suggest a society should not accept an individual's decision to change races. ... I conclude that if some individuals genuinely feel like or identify as a member of a race other than the one assigned to them at birth -- so strongly to the point of seeking a transition to the other race -- we should accept their decision to change races."

This dissatisfaction with the traditional ways to self-segment and build identity is at the root of why, in the years to come, America will not be embroiled in a race war: The races will find a way to intermingle.

Just as was the case back in 1967, when the Supreme Court decided in the landmark Loving v. Virginia case, which recognized the right to intermarriage, some people will be open to and comfortable with the melding and mixing of different ethnicities and races.

Others will have no choice but to deal with the opportunities and challenges of a thoroughly interracialized society.
YANKTON, S.D. | The longest kayak race in South Dakota kicks off Saturday in Yankton.

More than 120 kayak enthusiasts from places as far-flung as Ohio, Mississippi and Colorado will paddle 72 miles down the Missouri River, ending in South Sioux City.

The South Dakota Kayak Challenge starts at 7 a.m. Saturday morning and ends 30 hours later, at 1 p.m. Sunday in South Sioux City's Scenic Park.

Top-finishing racers will be presented awards Sunday evening.

Jarett Bies, an organizer and co-founder of the race in 2010, said officials at one time considered making the race a 24-hour affair, but decided 30 hours would be more accommodating for participants.

"We built it that way specifically so that if we had those people that weren't very fast, you know maybe in the shorter, wider boats, that if they got to a point on Saturday night when it was starting to get dark and they still wanted to finish but they didn't want to paddle after dark, they could stop, hunker down on a sandbar, or stop at the last checkpoint, and they could make a simple campsite there," Bies said.

Most participants do finish at some point on Saturday, Bies said, but some do take the opportunity and wait until Sunday to finish the race.

Last year, Dave Hutchinson, of Montana, set the course speed record, reaching the end in eight hours and 19 minutes.

Renee Benoche, of Jefferson, S.D., has raced in and completed the South Dakota Kayak Challenge every year. She set her personal best time of 10 hours and 59 minutes in 2016, coming in fifth in the women's solo division.

Benoche, who has been kayaking for 11 years, has managed finished the 72-mile course in one day each year, except in 2010 when she took two days. Like every year, Benoche said Saturday's race will be a challenge.

"This year, the river is up, and everybody thinks we're going to be really fast, but there's a lot of different sections that have sandbars, that you really have to know how to read the river to get through," Benoche said. "I did a race down in Kansas City that wasn't channelized, and this is a lot more challenging, because you have to be able to read the river and know where you're going."

The weather and river conditions for Saturday are looking favorable, Bies said, so racers might expect another good year.

"Conditions - I don't want to jinx anything - but conditions are looking really good," he said. "We might see that record get beaten, or see some individual records set."

River safety

Some who complete the race Saturday have to continue paddling after nightfall to do so. Kayaking or canoeing after dark is allowed but not necessarily recommended because of the inherent danger of unseen river hazards.

"Most experienced paddlers would not be out on the river after dark, just because there's logs and debris and snags," Bies said.

Organizers of the race have four check-points along the route, and Bies said he asks participants to let him know if they stop for lunch or to take a break, so that everyone is accounted for.

Local law enforcement agencies assist with safety, including the Dakota County Sheriff, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, the Army Corps of Engineers and Yankton County Search and Rescue, who will have an airplane watching over the race.

"If we do have a situation where someone gets, you know, injured or too tired, we'll have a boat get to them and extract them and get them to medical attention as needed," Bies said. "Knock on wood that we will not have to use those resources, but priority is safety."

All skill levels

The race is tailored to suit a wide array of participants, from hard-core kayakers to more leisurely paddlers.

"We've always billed it as a competition, but we started it from the beginning to try to make it a 'big-tent' event, so that it wasn't just for competitors but people who maybe just wanted to have the adventure of paddling that far on the river," Bies said. "So that's why when we started we didn't have any cut-offs for time."

While more-committed kayak people will drive great distances to take part in races like this, people in other states are sometimes skeptical about the idea of having a kayak race in South Dakota.

"You get a lot of people, especially up in Minnesota, Wisconsin... and they would be like, 'How can you have a kayak race in South Dakota, do you even have enough water to host such a thing?'" Bies said. "Or they were asking, 'Doesn't the oil fracking get in the way of paddling?'"

Thus, Bies, who is an organizer for all four of South Dakota's kayak races, acts as an ambassador for the state's kayaking community.

"So we had to explain, you know, that we've got the longest river in North America that runs right through our state," Bies said. "So it's been nice to kind of put the state on the map, and remind people that there's a lot of beauty right here."

There will be a safety briefing and meal for participants Friday night in Yankton.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Jarett Bies' name.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
Members of the news media were given a tour of the Brightline train station in West Palm Beach Tuesday. Brightline, billed as the only privately funded express inter-city passenger rail service in the United States, is expected to commence rail service later this summer.

Brightline will provide a much needed, hospitality driven alternative to South Floridas congested roadways, said Chief Executive Officer Dave Howard.

Howard came on as Brightline CEO in March. He previously worked as an executive vice president of business operations for the New York Mets.

The impact we will have in transportation in South Florida will be significant, Howard said. Were going take cars off the road.

Joining Howard at the West Palm Beach station were Palm Beach County Mayor Paulette Burdick, West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, Florida Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Mark Wilson and Dennis Grady, CEO for the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches.

Burdick said train travel means increased productivity and less stress.

There will be more productive time, Burdick said. You can work, answer emails, relax and let someone else do the driving.

Howard said Brightline passengers can expect a one hour journey from West Palm Beach to Miami. Theyll cover the 46-mile trek to Fort Lauderdale sooner and in comfortable fashion, the CEO promised.

Were redefining the standard and raising the bar, Howard said. On top of that were going to make sure our service is hospitality-based, culture of care, guest experience. That will be our mantra and it will be unlike anything -- from a passenger railroad standpoint -- anyone has seen in this country.

The West Palm Beach station is located at 501 Evernia Street, just steps away from downtown dining, government buildings and shopping. Inside the station, lounges and a food and beverage area are under construction.
Brirth of a black hole NASA

Astronomers have watched as a massive, dying star was likely reborn as a black hole.

It took the combined power of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and NASAs Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to go looking for remnants of the vanquished star, only to find that it disappeared out of sight.

It went out with a whimper instead of a bang.

The star, which was 25 times as massive as our sun, should have exploded in a very bright supernova. Instead, it fizzled outand then left behind a black hole.

Massive fails like this one in a nearby galaxy could explain why astronomers rarely see supernovae from the most massive stars, said Christopher Kochanek, professor of astronomy at The Ohio State University and the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Observational Cosmology.

As many as 30 percent of such stars, it seems, may quietly collapse into black holes  no supernova required.

The typical view is that a star can form a black hole only after it goes supernova, Kochanek explained. If a star can fall short of a supernova and still make a black hole, that would help to explain why we dont see supernovae from the most massive stars.

He leads a team of astronomers who published their latest results in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [paper MNRAS, preprint: astro-ph].

Among the galaxies theyve been watching is NGC 6946, a spiral galaxy 22 million light-years away that is nicknamed the Fireworks Galaxy because supernovae frequently happen there  indeed, SN 2017eaw, discovered on May 14th, is shining near maximum brightness now. Starting in 2009, one particular star, named N6946-BH1, began to brighten weakly. By 2015, it appeared to have winked out of existence.

After the LBT survey for failed supernovas turned up the star, astronomers aimed the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to see if it was still there but merely dimmed. They also used Spitzer to search for any infrared radiation emanating from the spot. That would have been a sign that the star was still present, but perhaps just hidden behind a dust cloud.

All the tests came up negative. The star was no longer there. By a careful process of elimination, the researchers eventually concluded that the star must have become a black hole.

Its too early in the project to know for sure how often stars experience massive fails, but Scott Adams, a former Ohio State student who recently earned his Ph.D. doing this work, was able to make a preliminary estimate.

N6946-BH1 is the only likely failed supernova that we found in the first seven years of our survey. During this period, six normal supernovae have occurred within the galaxies weve been monitoring, suggesting that 10 to 30 percent of massive stars die as failed supernovae, he said.

This is just the fraction that would explain the very problem that motivated us to start the survey, that is, that there are fewer observed supernovae than should be occurring if all massive stars die that way.

To study co-author Krzysztof Stanek, the really interesting part of the discovery is the implications it holds for the origins of very massive black holes  the kind that the LIGO experiment detected via gravitational waves. (LIGO is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.)

It doesnt necessarily make sense, said Stanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State, that a massive star could undergo a supernova  a process which entails blowing off much of its outer layers  and still have enough mass left over to form a massive black hole on the scale of those that LIGO detected.

I suspect its much easier to make a very massive black hole if there is no supernova, he concluded.

Adams is now an astrophysicist at Caltech. Other co-authors were Ohio State doctoral student Jill Gerke and University of Oklahoma astronomer Xinyu Dai. Their research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASAs Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

The Large Binocular Telescope is an international collaboration among institutions in the United Sates, Italy and Germany.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C.
Jupiter NASA

The Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since July 2016, passing within 3,000 miles of the equatorial cloud tops.



NASAs Juno mission, led by Southwest Research Institutes Dr. Scott Bolton, is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about Jupiter specifically, and gas giants in general, according to a pair of Science papers released today.

What weve learned so far is Earth-shattering. Or should I say, Jupiter-shattering, said Bolton, Junos principal investigator. Discoveries about its core, composition, magnetosphere, and poles are as stunning as the photographs the mission is generating.

The solar-powered spacecrafts eight scientific instruments are designed to study Jupiters interior structure, atmosphere, and magnetosphere. Two instruments developed and led by SwRI are working in concert to study Jupiters auroras, the greatest light show in the solar system. The Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) is a set of sensors detecting the electrons and ions associated with Jupiters auroras. The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVS) examines the auroras in UV light to study Jupiters upper atmosphere and the particles that collide with it. Scientists expected to find similarities to Earths auroras, but Jovian auroral processes are proving puzzling.

Although many of the observations have terrestrial analogs, it appears that different processes are at work creating the auroras, said SwRIs Dr. Phil Valek, JADE instrument lead. With JADE weve observed plasmas upwelling from the upper atmosphere to help populate Jupiters magnetosphere. However, the energetic particles associated with Jovian auroras are very different from those that power the most intense auroral emissions at Earth.

Also surprising, Jupiters signature bands disappear near its poles. JunoCam images show a chaotic scene of swirling storms up to the size of Mars towering above a bluish backdrop. Since the first observations of these belts and zones many decades ago, scientists have wondered how far beneath the gas giants swirling facade these features persist. Junos microwave sounding instrument reveals that topical weather phenomena extend deep below the cloud tops, to pressures of 100 bars, 100 times Earths air pressure at sea level.

However, theres a north-south asymmetry. The depths of the bands are distributed unequally, Bolton said. Weve observed a narrow ammonia-rich plume at the equator. It resembles a deeper, wider version of the air currents that rise from Earths equator and generate the trade winds.

The SwRI-led UVS spectrograph images Jupiters massive auroras. Collected during Junos third orbit around the gas giant, this false-color image is inset with an image of Earths south pole aurora, approximately to scale, collected September 11, 2005. The streaky colors away from the Jovian auroral region are associated with penetrating electrons.

Juno is mapping Jupiters gravitational and magnetic fields to better understand the planets interior structure and measure the mass of the core. Scientists think a dynamo  a rotating, convecting, electrically conducting fluid in a planets outer core  is the mechanism for generating the planetary magnetic fields.

Junos gravity field measurements differ significantly from what we expected, which has implications for the distribution of heavy elements in the interior, including the existence and mass of Jupiters core, Bolton said. The magnitude of the observed magnetic field was 7.766 Gauss, significantly stronger than expected. But the real surprise was the dramatic spatial variation in the field, which was significantly higher than expected in some locations, and markedly lower in others. We characterized the field to estimate the depth of the dynamo region, suggesting that it may occur in a molecular hydrogen layer above the pressure-induced transition to the metallic state.

References: These preliminary science results were published in two papers in a special edition of Science [http://science.sciencemag.org]. Bolton is lead author of Jupiters Interior and Deep Atmosphere: The Initial Pole-to-Pole Passes with the Juno Spacecraft. SwRIs Dr. Frederic Allegrini, Dr. Randy Gladstone, and Valek are co-authors of Jupiters Magnetosphere and Aurorae Observed by the Juno Spacecraft During Its First Polar Orbits; lead author is Dr. John Connerney of the Space Research Corporation.

Juno is the second mission developed under NASAs New Frontiers Program. The first was the SwRI-led New Horizons mission, which provided the first historic look at the Pluto system in July 2015 and is now on its way to a new target in the Kuiper Belt. NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, SwRIs Bolton. Lockheed Martin of Denver built the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency contributed an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.
In coffee beer genealogy, coffee stout is like a great great great great grandfather. Big-bodied and full of toasty and chocolaty flavors, a good stout is able to stand up to whatever notes its bittering agent brings to the table. Well, coffee and beer have both grown up since the bygone days when stout was all there was, but stillthe classics have a place in our hearts here at Sprudge. Which is why we now bring you the Big Bad Baptist, a whiskey barrel-aged imperial stout by Epic Brewing.

Part of the Salt Lake City via Denver brewerys Exponential Series, the Big Bad Baptist is a seasonal release that utilizes coffee from a variety of different roastersdepending on where you are in the country, your local Big Bad Baptist may be made with coffee from Blue Copper Roasters, Dark Horse Coffee, Novo Coffee, or one of nine others. Being from Texas, my regional version utilizes Dallas Cultivar Coffee Roasters, which just so happens to be one of my go-to shops in the Metroplex.

This is Cultivars third year of collaboration on the Big Bad Baptist, which always features their Finca Malacara, a washed Red Bourbon from El Salvador. But Cultivar co-owner Jonathan Meadows tells me this year is a bit different.

This is the first year we went with a lighter roast, Meadows says. Previous years, [the coffee] has been more developed, almost to second crack.

This year the roast profile is similar to that of Cultivars production batches of Finca Malacarathe ones youd find at coffee shops all around Dallas.

With the lighter profile, the coffee imparts more than just a coffee-ness to the beerinstead, it loans flavors you would expect to find in cups of the coffee on its own. Notes of caramel and chocolate give the Finca Malacara a presence in the boozy, high ABV Big Baptist13 percent in the Cultivar versionbut one that meshes well with the cocoa nibs used in the beers aging process.

The Big Bad Baptist is everything people have come to know and love from this style of beer. Its a big beer, pitch-black and motor-oil-thick, and pours with a tan head that dissipates somewhat quickly. Sugary richness pervades throughout, and underscores notes of vanilla, molasses, caramel, and chocolate, with a touch-of-heat finish owed to the whiskey barrel aging. The coffee is most present mid-palate, but lingers until the whiskey begins to dominate.

Epics Big Bad Baptist isnt really trying to forge new ground on how coffee and beer can commingle. It is an expression of an older but still loved coffee beer tradition, seen through a modern lens. Beyond its flavor notes, the Big Bad Baptist keeps intact my favorite part of this style of beerthanks to the high ABV, its a beer best shared with friends.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Another blow has been dealt to longevity of coffee production as World Coffee Research announced on Friday that a once leaf rust-resistant coffee variety no longer is.

In a press release issued Friday, WCR announced that Lempiraa variety of coffee planted across Honduran coffee farms in 2012 because of its resistance of leaf rust, or royahas been confirmed to be vulnerable to leaf rust after discovering incidents of the disease on farms as well as on mother plants at the Instituto Hondureno del Cafe, the Honduran national coffee institute.

According to the press release, there are two possible explanations for Lempiras newfound vulnerability:

One is that a known rust race traditionally present in Honduras may have mutated and overcome Lempiras resistance. It is also possible that a race of rust not previously present in the country has moved into the region. Researchers and breeders have been concerned for years about both possible scenarios emerging in Central America.

The statement notes that there are dozens of rust races that affect coffee globally and that no coffee variety is resistant to all races. Races I and II have typically plagued Central America, but more tests are required to discern whether this is a mutated version of roya common to Honduras or if this is a known race that has migrated. Collected rust spores have been sent to Portugal for identification, but the results arent expected back until August.

In the meantime, Word Coffee Research will be meeting with experts from the region at the end of this month to come up with a plan of action moving forward, both locally and globally.

Neither possibility bodes particularly well for the health of coffee production, and there are more questions than answers at this point. If youd like to help, please consider donating to World Coffee Research via their website here.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
Vienna (Austria), May 23, 2017 (SPS) - The Saharwi Coordinator with MINURSO, member of the National Secretariat, Mr. Emhamed Khaddad, held meetings with the Austrian Foreign Ministry as well as with Ambassador Bernhard Wrabetz at the headquarters of the Austrian government

During the two meetings, Khaddad briefed the Austrian authorities on the latest developments in the Sahara issue at political, legal and human rights levels, reviewing in detail the recent Security Council resolution, which called on the parties to the conflict to enter into direct negotiations without preconditions to reach a just and lasting solution that guarantees the right of Saharawi people in self-determination and independence.

Sahrawi official has also mentioned the decision of the European Court of Justice of December 21, 2016, which explained that Western Sahara "is not Moroccan and does not form part of the geography of Morocco, therefore Morocco is not legally entitled to sign agreements with a third party on the wealth of this region, which has not yet completed the process of decolonization, calling on the Austrian government to respect this decision and defend it in European forums.

In the field of human rights, Mr. Khaddad discussed with the Moroccan authorities grave violations of the rights of Sahrawis in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

His intervention to the friends and supporters of the national cause in Austria during the annual meeting of the Austrian-Sahrawi Friendship Association, he talked on the latest developments of the national cause, voicing on behalf of the Saharawi people, a sincere thanks to it solidarity and continuous support to our people in our just struggle to achieve our legitimate rights. SPS

125/090/TRA
John Kokinos is the first to admit that coming up with that special horse isnt easy and thats why he feels blessed to have a horse like Molson Pace starter Clear Vision in his stable.

The son of Western Hanover has banked more than $2.7 million and at age 11 shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, hes earned more than $130,000 this season with a 4-3-3 record from 13 starts.

Hes a horse that I would have never imagined ending up in our barn, said Kokinos, who trains the veteran pacer with wife, Jennifer Lappe. Hes a horse that will have a home for a lifetime. Hes easily the best horse Ive ever been around.

Clear Vision spent the majority of his career in the Ron Burke barn, before ending up with Kokinos and Lappe.

We put a deal together to purchase Bettors Edge through agent Marc Reynolds and I kept asking him if Clear Vision was for sale. To be honest, I thought it would never happen, but I got a call a month later from Marc starting that Clear Vision was available. We quickly jumped at the chance and were overwhelmed to get a horse of his calibre.

The speedy pacer made 201 starts prior to moving into the Kokinos barn with the majority of those races at the highest level.

There have been times that I have gone back and watched some of his replays and I still have a hard time believing hes in our barn, he said with a chuckle. When you see the big trips hes gone and the horses hes raced against - its unbelievable. Hes raced in pretty much every stake race that has been offered in North America.

Kokinos and Lappe own the 37-time winner with first-time owner Bob Santagata.

Im a large animal veterinarian by trade and Bob and his wife own and operate a horse ranch and are a client of mine, the 53-year-old said. Bob has always sounded interested in standardbred racing and decided to come on board with Bettors Edge and Clear Vision.

It didnt take long for Santagata to enjoy the thrill of winning.

It was their first trip to The Meadowlands and they were in the dining room and Bettors Edge won in 1:49.4. They were hooked after that. Its great to see new owners enjoying our sport. said Kokinos.

As for Clear Vision, Kokinos says the 11-year-old couldnt be coming into the Molson Pace much better.

He had a really good week, but he doesnt do much in between starts, he said. Hes pretty easy on himself and were easy on him. He wont impress you when hes jogging, but when you put the hopples on him he shows you a completely different side of him. Hes all business.

Kokinos has also studied the program for Friday night and likes what he sees on paper.

Its hard to say how the race is going to unfold because the eight horse trails and that could change the complexion a little, he said. I like that we drew inside (post three) and well likely race from off-the-pace. Brett Miller has told me that hes the type of horse that likes to be first-over and that doesnt bother me. I wouldnt be surprised if that happened. I do feel Bit Of A Legend is the horse to beat.

The field for the Molson Pace will line up as follows:

1. Bit Of A Legend ($1,525,011)  Jordan Stratton

2. Rockin In Heaven ($548,971)  Trevor Henry

3. Clear Vision ($2,703,859)  Brett Miller

4. Fool Me Once ($963,778)  Doug McNair

5. Evenin Of Pleasure ($773,857)  Sylvain Filion

6. Sunfire Blue Chip ($1,181,939)  Mark MacDonald

7. Rockin Ron ($665,988)  Matt Kakaley

8. Night Pro ($738,432)  Bob McClure

First race post is 7:05 p.m. For more information, visit www.molsonpace.com.

(The Raceway at Western Fair District)
Friends of the late Donald Finley Donnie MacDonald, who recently passed away on Saturday, April 29, have announced they will be holding a memorial on Tuesday, May 23 at the Nassageweya Community Centre-Brookville Hall in Milton, Ont.

Amy Davis has told Trot Insider that the short memorial/drop in will take place from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., with a few prayers said at 3:30 p.m.

The Inverness, N.S. horseman spent several years in Ontario working in the harness racing industry where he made many life-long friends.

Funeral services have already taken place in Inverness.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Donnie MacDonald.
World Congress of Families XI, The Budapest Family Summit Opens; Viktor Orban Delivers Keynote Speech Stressing the Importance of Children

Contact: Larry Jacobs, World Congress of Families, 815-997-7106 mobile, ljacobs@profam.org

BUDAPEST, May 26, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- World Congress of Families XI, The Budapest Family Summit has opened with a Demographic Forum in Hungary's historic capital with a keynote address by Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary. Mr. Orban stressed the importance of Hungary being a family-friendly nation and stressed the importance of children, "We Hungarians believe that children magnify the strength of their parents, they magnify the strength of the family, and a generation of children magnify the strength of a nation, of a whole country, and finally our entire civilization. Mr. Orban delivered the speech before joining world leaders in Brussels for the NATO Summit.

The theme of WCF XI Budapest Family Summit is "building family-friendly nations, making families great again." The World Congress of Families ( www.worldcongress.org ), is a project of the International Organization for the Family ( www.profam.org ) and unites and equips leaders worldwide to promote the natural family as the fundamental and only sustainable unit of society and to defend the sanctity and dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. As the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights observes, "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state."

Other sessions at the Congress which lasts through Sunday, May 28 include: "Family and Education," "The Sanctity and Dignity of All Human Life from Conception to Natural Death," "The Importance of Motherhood and Fatherhood," "National Movements on Marriage" and "Family, Population and Demographics."

Previous Congresses have been held in Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw (2007), Amsterdam (2009), Madrid (2012), Sydney (2013), Salt Lake City (2015) and Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia (2016).

WCF XI is taking place in the Congress Center in Budapest. More than 2,000 delegates have registered  among them leaders, activists, scholars and legislators, from more than 65 countries.
Catholic Publisher Creates World's First Evangelizing AI

Contact: Jason Deal, 914-502-1855, jason.deal@aleteia.org NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- It is perhaps not popularly known that the father of the Big Bang Theory was a Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre, or that an Ohio nun named Sister Ignatia Gavin developed the first hospital treatment center for alcohol and substance abuse, but Catholics have a habit of innovation, except (perhaps ironically) in the field of evangelization, where they often seem downright bashful when compared to your average smoothie enthusiast. One Catholic organization, however, is ready to change that perception. Aleteia, the global Catholic website that launched PopeEmoji during Pope Francis' 2015 visit to the United States, has launched an evangelizing chatbot, and he's got quite the personality."All Christians are called to share our faith, but it's not easy for most," said Jesus Colina, Global Editor at Aleteia.org. "Unless you are able to offer something that you know will be welcome, evangelization can quickly become uncomfortable and leave people feeling intruded upon, instead of inspired."Aleteia's solution to this challenge is an intelligence software agent that recommends articles and stories based on need. Accessing Aleteia.org's 5-years-deep archive of content, the chatbot  nicknamed ePaul after the evangelizing apostle  asks a few questions about the person and situation one is trying to address, and then suggests articles that it thinks will be relevant and helpful.ePaul, who responds to users with a conversational and understanding voice, lives on Aleteia.org and within Facebook Messenger and draws from a curated database of shareable content. "He's lively," says Colina, "but he has a serious job: to help people find a way to say 'I am aware, I care, and so does God.'"Commissioned by Aleteia.org in an effort to support the Roman Catholic Church's World Communications Day Sunday, May 28th, the chat bot was designed to answer Pope Francis' call to communicate hope and trust in our time."As far as we know, ePaul is the world's first evangelizing chatbot, " said Jason Deal, Aleteia's EVP of Strategy and Marketing. "We hope it is a fun and easy way to share stories of hope, trust, love and faith with loved ones, friends, and acquaintances."For more information, please visit the ePaul web page ( http://aleteia.org/ePaul ) or search for AleteiaEN on Facebook.Aleteia USA, Inc is a New York-based Christian media company that develops digital media products for Catholics worldwide including Aleteia.org ( www.aleteia.org ), which reaches over 12MM visitors globally per month in seven different languages.
Media Still Hyping Pope-Trump Photo

Contact: The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue (photo) comments on the way the media are playing a photo of President Trump and Pope Francis:

In a classic example of Groupthink, the media and late night talk-show hosts are fixated on one photo of the pope and the president; the former looks dour and the latter is smiling. So what?

Here is a photo they are not flagging.

And just in case you missed it, here a photo of Pope Francis standing with President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

What do these photos mean? Nothing--nothing at all--unless you work for the mainstream media or need script for a monologue.
The essential component of totalitarian propaganda is artifice (het toepassen van kunstgrepen. svh) . The ruling elites, like celebritie...
Three people have been killed and hundred of homes burned down as Russia declares a state of emergency in the Krasnoyarsk region after an apocalyptical inferno engulfed Siberia on May 24, 2017.

More than 340 people are now homeless, among others 47 children. State of emergency has been declared.

3 people died and more than 170 houses burned down as an apocalyptical dry grass fires swept across several hundreds of hectares of prairies in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.

Mainly two cities have been severely affected: Lesosibirsk and Kansk.

The uncontrollable fire killed two people in Kansk and more than 40 houses burned down.

Another one died in one of the horticultural cooperatives in the city of Bratsk.

In Lesosibirsk, more than 40 homes burned down and the threat of the spread of fire is maintained.

State of emergency has been declared in both cities.

In overall more than 171 houses have burned down during this intense blaze. Have a prayer for them!

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Canyon Creek will not be stocked with trout for May 27s fishing opener due to the closure of road No. 54 in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

We cannot get the planting trucks to the location we normally plant up near Canyon Creek campground, said John Weinheimer, district fish biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Lower possible suitable sites were not found.

The stream was scheduled to get 5,500 trout. They will be redistributed to Rowland Lake in Klickitat County and Battle Ground Lake and Klineline Pond in Clark County.

The Little White Salmon River in eastern Skamania County also opens Saturday. It is getting planted with 3,000 rainbow trout.

Swift Reservoir opens June 3 and is slated to get 45,000 fin-clipped rainbow trout.

Horseshoe Lake at Woodland has been stocked with 2,600 catchable-size rainbow trout plus 50 large broodstock rainbow.

Trollers at Merwin Reservoir are doing well, for the most part, for kokanee. As water temperatures warm, the fish are moving deeper. Weekend reports listed 10 to 15 deep as a productive depth by mid-morning.

Walleye catch rates are slowing in the upper The Dalles pool, although are still decent. Smallmouth bass catches have improved.

Forty-nine shad had been counted at Bonneville Dam through Tuesday. The 10-year average cumulative count is 50,663.

Angler checks from the Washington (WDFW) and Oregon (ODFW) departments of Fish and Wildlife:

Cowlitz  Ninety-four boaters with 28 adult spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus five cutthroat trout released; 285 bank rods with 22 adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and a steelhead kept plus two adult chinook and five cutthroat released. (WDFW)

Water visibility is 6 feet. The temperature is 46.4 degrees.

At the salmon hatchery separator, 315 adult chinook, 34 jack chinook, 43 winter steelhead and 18 summer steelhead returned.

Kalama  One-hundred-fifty-three bank rods with two spring chinook and one hatchery steelhead kept plus one spring chinook and one wild steelhead released; 137 boaters with seven spring chinook and one steelhead kept plus one wild steelhead released. (WDFW)

East Fork Lewis  Two bank rods with no steelhead. (WDFW)

Wind  Six bank rods with four adult spring chinook and one jack kept; 227 boat rods with 52 adult and three jack spring chinook kept. (WDFW)

Drano Lake  Four-hundred-seventy-one boaters with 151 adult spring chinook and six jack chinook kept plus three adult chinook and one jack released. (WDFW)

Klickitat  Thirty-eight bank rods with 12 adult spring chinook, one jack chinook and four steelhead kept. (WDFW)

Beginning June 1, angling is open daily on the Klickitat from the mouth to Fisher Hill Bridge and from 400 upstream of No. 5 fishway to boundary markers downstream of Klickitat Salmon Hatchery. The daily limit is six hatchery-origin chinook, of which two can be adults. Three hatchery steelhead also may be retained.

Lower Willamette  Downstream of St. Johns Bridge and Multnomah Channel, 1,965 anglers with 311 spring chinook kept and 26 released. (ODFW)

Through Monday, the count at Willamette Falls was 8,440 spring chinook. The sport catch totals 5,314 spring chinook.

Coldwater Lake  Two trollers with 14 rainbow trout released. The fish ranged from 6 to 14 inches.

Mid-Columbia  The Dalles pool, 30 boaters with 104 walleye kept and 15 released. (ODFW)

John Day pool, 104 boaters with 358 walleye kept and 149 released.
An 18-year-old homeless man is accused of perjury and possessing a stolen vehicle.

Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Marilyn Haan Wednesday found probable cause to charge Camryn Timothy Eugene Rogers with second-degree perjury and possession of a stolen vehicle. She set bail at $1,500. Rogers will be arraigned at 1 p.m. June 6.

On Sunday, a Cowlitz sheriffs deputy on patrol in Kalama spotted a vehicle reported stolen out of Toledo. The deputy stopped and interviewed the driver and three passengers.

The driver, identified as Rogers, told the deputy that one of the passengers had picked up him and his girlfriend earlier in Longview and that he later took over driving. He told the deputy he didnt know the vehicle was stolen and signed a written statement under penalty of perjury, according to court records. The deputy also collected statements from the other passengers.

The next day, the deputy found discrepancies in the statements. One of the passengers wrote that Rogers told him he (Rogers) and his girlfriend, a juvenile, stole the vehicle, according to court records.

The deputy interviewed Rogers girlfriend at the juvenile detention center, where she admitted that Rogers told her he stole it.

She also said Rogers cried and was scared when the four of them were originally pulled over, because he knew the vehicle was stolen. She said she had lied to protect Rogers, according to court records.

Rogers was arrested in Winlock and taken to the Cowlitz County Jail. When the deputy confronted Rogers about the discrepancies in his statement, Rogers admitted to stealing the vehicle from Winlock. Rogers said he and his cousin were prowling vehicles and found one with the key still in the ignition. They drove off after pushing the vehicle down the road and then drove away, according to court records.
Aditya Madanapalle

In October 2008, ISRO launched the Chandrayaan-1 mission on board a PSLV rocket. There were two payloads, a lunar orbiter and a lunar impactor. The impactor disturbed the surface at the landing site, and collected samples for analysis. The impactor also enabled India to become the fourth country to put its flag on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and Japan.

The orbiter encountered a series of technical problems, including malfunctions of its star sensors and the thermal shielding. ISRO lost contact to the spacecraft well before the planned mission duration of two years. However, the orbiter still managed to fulfill most of the goals of the mission, and even managed to find Ice in the north pole of the Moon.

In March 2017, NASA used new and more precise ground based radar to track down ISROs Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, still going in circles around the Moon. Madhavan Nair, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation hailed NASA for finding the lost spacecraft.

Even before the launch of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, ISRO was already making plans for the follow up Chandrayaan-2 mission. In September 2008 itself, the Chandrayaan-2 mission was approved by the government for a cost of Rs 425 crore. The budget does not include the cost of the GSLV launch vehicle, or the lander. The mission is an important step in Indias plans for planetary exploration, a program known as Planetary Science and Exploration (PLANEX).

ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar revealed to reporters the timing of the Chandraayaan-2 mission during an event that announced details of the South Asia Satellite, Prime Minister Narendra Modis pet project and Indias gift to neighbouring countries. When asked about the Chandrayaan-2 mission, Kumar said, We are targeting first quarter of 2018 for the launch.

Chandrayaan-2 Overview

Indias second mission to the moon is more advanced than the first. There are three components of the mission, an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The rocket ISRO is planning to use for Chandrayaan-2 is a GSLV MKII, and will take off from the space agencys launch facility at the Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR) in the first few months of 2018.

The orbiter will be deployed at an altitude of 100 kilometers above the surface of the Moon. The lander will then separate from the orbiter, and execute a soft landing on the surface of the Moon, unlike the previous mission which crash landed near the lunar south pole. ISRO is in the process of testing the actuators and sensors for the soft landing. A rover will then explore the surface. The lander, rover and orbiter will perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission is being tested at an ISRO facility in Chitradurga, Karnataka. Artificial craters have been created for the Lander Sensors Performance Test. Drop tests for the lander, and mobility tests for the rover are also being conducted at the facility. The six wheeled rover is going to be semi-autonomous, and its movements will be partially controlled by ISRO stations on Earth.

The Russian Connection

In 2007, ISRO signed an agreement with Russia, to get technical support for the Chandrayaan-2 mission. According to the agreement, the Chandrayaan-2 mission was supposed to be a joint project between ISRO, and the Russian space agency, ROSCOSMOS. As part of the agreement, Russia would provide the lander and rover parts of the mission, while India would be responsible for the orbiter. The mission was originally planned for 2015.

In 2011, the Phobos-Grunt, a Russian sample return mission to one of the two moons of Mars failed. The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was launched along with the Yinghuo-1, meant to be the first Chinese spacecraft to go to Mars. The mission failed, and the two spacecraft ended up in the Pacific Ocean. Russia began a review of the mission, and the future of the Chandrayaan-2 mission depended on that review.

Russia pointed out that there was a high risk of failure if the rover went up in 2015, and asked India to supply the rover component. ISRO had already been conducting some prelimnary tests for indigenous rovers, and had proven its capabilities with the Impactor in the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

As a result, ISRO undertook a review of the entire Chandrayaan-2 mission. The integrated review recommended that India could provide both the lander as well as the rover components, given a few years. The orbiter was reconfigured to accommodate the Indian made lander and rover, and the particular scientific payloads on board were finalised.

In August 2013, in a letter responding to a question raised at the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy said: "Chandrayaan-2 would be a lone mission by India without Russian tie-up." Russia is still involved in minor ways with the mission though. A Russian company, Isotope, has provided a Cm-244 alpha-emitter for one of the scientific instruments on board the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

The Orbiter

The Orbiter and the Lander will be stacked together and will be injected into an Earth Parking Orbit. After going around the Earth several times, the Orbiter will be inserted into an extremely elliptical Lunar orbit, which will be reduced to 100 km over the surface of the moon after a number of orbits. The orbiter will carry the Lander, with the Rover on board, from Earth orbit to Moon orbit. The orbiter will survey the landing site before deploying the lander.

The primary structure of the orbiter has been constructed, and has been delivered to the integration team in 2015 itself. The integration teams adds in all the components, scientific payloads and sensors to the orbiter. The actual payloads are an effort that involves many facilities across the nation, and are expected to be integrated in the first quarter of 2017. The interface between the orbiter and the launch vehicle has also been completed.

The Lander

The configuration of the Lander for a soft and safe landing on the Lunar surface has been completed. The payload configuration, and the manner in which the Lander will be attached to the Orbiter has been finalised. The lander craft will have a propulsion system on board, which will de-boost the spacecraft during the surface landing.

The lander also has legs, which will deploy during the landing. The legs have been engineered, and drop tests on a single leg conducted. A facility has been established at the Lunar Test Facility in Chitradurga, just for further drop tests of the lander legs.

The lander will have on board a radio altimeter, a pattern detection camera and a laser inertial reference and accelerometer package (LIRAP). These three components have already been tested. A system demonstration module (SDM) for evaluation the propulsion system on the lander, the Lander Actuator Performance TEST (LSPT) and the electrical packages for the Lander are in the advanced stages of realization.

The Rover

The Rover is a six wheeled vehicle that will have on board software that will allow it to roam the surface of the moon in a semi-autonomous manner. ISRO will be providing partial command and control instructions from the ground.

The rover has on board a navigation camera, an inclinometer, and a dedicated imager for capturing pictures of the lunar surface. The three systems have been tested and integrated. The rover will transmit back data from the lunar surface, but there are no plans to actually collect samples of soil, rock or moondust.

The Rover is being tested at a special facility in Bengaluru, where ISRO has created the kind of soft soil with fine particles that is expected to be on the Moon. Tests are underway to evaluate the way in which the wheels of the rover interact with the soil.

Components and Scientific Payloads

The bits and pieces that make up the Chandrayaan-2 mission come from various ISRO and government facilities around the country. The Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), is an autonomous unit under the department of space in Ahmedabad. PRL is actively participating in ISROs PLANEX mission, and is developing several of the scientific payloads to be used in the Chandrayaan-2 mission.

One of the two instruments on board the rover to analyse rock and soil samples on the lunar surface is known as the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). The PRL is developing and testing the APXS, which uses X-rays to analyse the samples.

The Space Astronomy Group (SAG) at ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in Bengaluru is developing a Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) for the Chandrayaan-2 mission. The Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) in Thiruvananthapuram is developing three payloads for the Chandrayaan-2 mission. These are the CHandras Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), Chandras Surface Thermophysical Experiments (ChaSTE), and Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hyper Atmosphere and ionosphere (RAMBHA).

The Systems Reliability Group is a part of the Space Application Centre (SAC), which has its headquarters in Ahmedabad, and is responsible for development and testing of the camera module on the Rover. The same facility is also responsible for creation of the software to be used on the rover. The software includes the capabilities for the rover to operate in a semi-autonomous fashion.

The Aerial Services & Digital Mapping Area (AS&DMA) is a part of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO. The facility specialises in end to end cutting edge solutions for aerial photography. The AS&DMA is conducting airborne tests in Chitradurga for over the simulated lunar terrain with artificial craters, for some sensors proposed to be included on board the lander.

Partners from the private industry have provided some of the sensors and optics on board the Chandrayaan-2.

The mission is entirely indigenous, and is more of a technological mission than a scientific one. The primary goal is to test the soft landing capabilities, as well as the semi-autonomous movement of the Rover. The mission has deepened the links between the space agency and the private industry, and has fostered the creation of many new indigenous technologies. The Chandrayaan-2 mission will allow ISRO to take its scientific studies of the moon to the next level. The scientific goals of the mission include analysing the surface samples, and to learn more about the origin and evolution of the Moon.

Before Chandrayaan-2, ISRO has another exciting Indian moon mission scheduled. At the end of 2017 team Hakuto from Japan and Team Indus from India will both make an attempt at the Lunar XPRIZE by landing a rover on the moon. The two teams will rideshare on an ISRO PSLV rocket scheduled for a December 2017 launch. The first private Indian company to reach the moon is expected to do so just before Republic Day, 2018.
IANS

The government will look into the proposal of the Indian telecom regulator on penalising three companies for not providing adequate points of interconnections (PoI) to industry newcomer Reliance Jio and will take a decision at the proper time.

"Let the proposal come, we will look into it. We will decide in proper time," Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said on the sidelines of a press meet here on Thursday when asked what will be the government's stand regarding penalising Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai has put a penalty of Rs 3,050 crore collectively on these three telecom operators. In similarly worded decisions against the three operators, the Trai on Wednesday said it "considered it appropriate to recommend penal action... in view of the large public interest involved."

The regulator sent the letter to the telecom department on Wednesday. The regulator, in response to queries by the DoT, said on Wednesday that its earlier penalties imposed on the three companies on the basis of licence service areas (LSA) were being confirmed. It had proposed penalties of Rs 1,050 crore each on Airtel and Vodafone and Rs 950 crore on Idea for 21 and 19 licence service areas.

The sector regulator in October said the top three telecom operators in the country had violated licence norms by denying adequate PoI to Jio. The Trai said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may appreciate the fact that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea were "intentionally denying and delaying the provision/augmentation of PoIs to RJIL (Reliance Jio Infocomm), only to restrict a new entrant, thus violating the terms and conditions of licence and regulations/directions of the Authority, which also caused a lot of inconvenience to consumers."

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.
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Mark Zuckerberg returned on 25 May, 2017 to Harvard, where he launched Facebook and then dropped out, telling graduates it's up to them to bring purpose to the world, fight inequality and strengthen the global community.

"Change starts local. Even global changes start small - with people like us," the Facebook CEO said. He shared stories about graduates such as David Razu Aznar, a former city leader who led the effort to legalize gay marriage in Mexico City, and Agnes Igoye, who grew up in conflict zones in Uganda and now trains law enforcement officers. "And this is my story too," Zuckerberg added. "A student in a dorm room, connecting one community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we can connect the whole world."

Such lofty talk now comes naturally to Zuckerberg, a 33-year-old billionaire who has committed to giving away nearly all of his wealth. In February, he sketched out an ambitious, if vague, vision for Facebook that committed the company to developing "social infrastructure" that would help build a "global community that works for all of us."

But it also strikes a sharp contrast with the criticism Facebook has taken recently - not so much for connecting the world (a big chunk of it, anyway) as for failing to anticipate how vulnerable that connectedness could be to those who abuse it.

Journey Back

Zuckerberg, who like the graduates is a millennial, started Facebook in his dorm room in 2004. What began as a closed networking site for Harvard students is now a global communications force with nearly 2 billion members. Facebook's founding was the subject of a Hollywood movie, "The Social Network," in 2010.

Facebook's effect has been profound. It has connected people who would have never met otherwise, letting them form supportive networks online and offline. And it has allowed people to communicate in developing countries even if they don't have a phone number or a smartphone.

But it has also served to spread misinformation bordering on propaganda, hateful views and bullying, reflecting the worst parts of humanity back to us. In his commencement speech, in interviews and in his February manifesto, Zuckerberg is decidedly optimistic about all that. He's been saying he wants to make the world more open and connected for more than a decade now, and he doesn't relent.

Higher Purpose

He told the graduates how, when Facebook's investors and executives wanted him to sell the company early on, he resisted. "You see, my hope was never to build a company, but to make an impact," he said. But as a young CEO, he never explained this to his co-workers, and the subsequent fight "tore our company apart."

"I wondered if I was just wrong, an impostor, a 22 year-old kid who had no idea how the world worked," Zuckerberg said. "Now, years later, I understand that is how things work with no sense of higher purpose. It's up to us to create it so we can all keep moving forward together."

Later in the speech, Zuckerberg's voice cracked with emotion as he talked about a high school student he mentors who is living in the U.S. illegally. When Zuckerberg asked him what he wants for his birthday, the student started talking about others he wanted to help, and asked for a book on social justice.

"Here is a young guy who has every reason to be cynical," Zuckerberg said, his eyes welling with tears. "He wasn't sure if the country he calls home - the only one he's known - was going to deny him his dream of going to college. But he wasn't feeling sorry for himself. He wasn't even thinking of himself."

If he can do this, Zuckerberg said, "then we owe it to the world to do our part too." Zuckerberg isn't all talk on this front. He signed the "Giving Pledge" commitment to donate the majority of his money in 2010; five years later, he upped that to 99 percent. Together with his wife, paediatrician Priscilla Chan, he formed the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organisation focused on advancing science and education.

Honorary Degree

Zuckerberg follows another famous Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, who spoke before its graduates a decade ago. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon, gave Stanford's commencement speech in 2005, reminding students to "stay hungry, stay foolish."

In addition to delivering the speech, Zuckerberg received an honorary degree, 12 years after dropping out of Harvard, and was subsequently introduced to graduates as "Dr. Mark Zuckerberg." Others receiving honorary degrees included the actress Judi Dench, the composer John Williams (known for "Star Wars," ''Harry Potter" and many other scores) and Somali human rights activist and physician Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe.

"If I get through this speech today it'll be the first time I actually finish something here at Harvard," Zuckerberg said. He did.

Associated Press
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Software giant Microsoft has announced its 2016-2017 class of education innovators featuring 238 Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIE) Experts across India, the company said on Thursday. The MIE programme recognises global educators who use technology to pave the way for their peers for better learning and student outcomes.

Leveraging technology, the selected educators have created unique projects to provide a learning environment which is interactive and beneficial for students. "This is the biggest group of MIEs from India since we initiated the programme in the country. By leveraging the power of technology, these passionate teachers are adopting new approaches to teaching and learning, and reinforcing critical 21st century skills in today's youth," said Pratik Mehta, Director (Education), Microsoft India.

Microsoft Expert Educator Programme witnessed huge participation from India, as well as world over. Currently, more than 7,600 educators from 83 countries are part of the global community of MIE Experts. Meanwhile, eight Indian educators were further selected to attend Microsoft's annual event Education Exchange (E2) in Toronto, Canada. This comes days after Microsoft signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) to drive skill development through Project Sangam.

With inputs from IANS
IANS

Chip manufacturer Qualcomm has asked a US court to force Apple to pay up royalties for phone patents owned by Qualcomm. Apple has stopped paying royalties to contract manufacturers for phone patents owned by Qualcomm over an "unresolved issue" - a move that will hit the US-chip maker's financial results.

In a court filing, Qualcomm asked for a preliminary injunction against four of Apple's suppliers - Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron, and Compal - all of which it began suing for breach of contract earlier this month, the Verge reported on Thursday.

According to Qualcomm, Apple had instructed these companies in April not to pay royalties for devices they made using Qualcomm technology. "Apple could litigate against Qualcomm indefinitely; it has virtually unlimited resources (more than $256 billion in cash reserves) and already has filed multiple cases against Qualcomm not just in this court, but around the world. And when those cases end, Apple can file more cases," Qualcomm wrote in the court filing.

Qualcomm also alleged that Apple was trying to force a settlement by throwing its weight around. Because of the missing payments, Qualcomm would suffer a loss of $500 million in revenue this quarter alone.

Earlier in April, the US chip manufacturer lambasted Apple for breaching deals between the two companies and urged that the lawsuit filed in January against it by the iPhone maker should be rejected. Qualcomm also accused Apple of harming its business and sought unspecified damages.

Apple sued Qualcomm in January for nearly one billion dollars over royalties, with the Cupertino-based tech giant alleging the wireless chipmaker did not give fair licensing terms for its processor technology.

But Qualcomm refuted the allegations, saying that Apple had intentionally mischaracterized the agreements and negotiations, as well as the enormity and value of the technology they had invented, contributed and shared with all mobile device makers "through our licensing programme".
PTI

Google's vice-president for South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan has been appointed new chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). He took over charge from FreeCharge co-founder and chief executive officer Kunal Shah. MakeMyTrip Chairman & Group CEO Deep Kalra has taken over as vice chairman from music app Saavn co-founder and President Vinodh Bhat.

Facebook's Managing Director - India & South Asia, Umang Bedi has been elected as the new Treasurer of the Association. Subho Ray continues to be the President of the Association, IAMAI said in a statement. The tenure of the new council is for two years. "Anandan assumes office at a time when the industry is going through a growth trajectory with more than 400 million Internet users and with more than 300 million mobile Internet users," the statement said.

In Rural India, with an estimated population of 906 million, have only 156 million Internet users. "Thus, there are potential 750 million users still in rural heartlands; if only they can be reached out properly. Thus, the new council will work towards increasing the Internet users base, especially in rural areas," the statement said.

Another key focus area of work for the new council would be the promotion of local language content. Currently, much of the content on the Internet is in English. English language accounts for nearly 56 percent of the content on the worldwide web, while Indian languages account for less than 0.1 percent, the statement said. Enabling Indic content on the Internet will lead to a growth of 39 percent with the current Internet user base of India.

IAMAI, which helps Internet based firms in handling industry and policy issues, said that the new council would also work towards promoting the digital startup ecosystem in India. "The Council believes that apps economy in India will drive the next level of Internet growth, along with Indic.

With over 300 million mobile Internet users and more than 200 million local language consumers on the Internet, the growth trajectory for apps development is bound to be exponential," IAMAI said. The companies in the new council include Times Internet, OLX, Policy Bazaar, Yatra, Paytm, Hungama, Mobikwik, Indiamart, Itzcash and Pepperfry.
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Hackers sought to discredit leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny in a disinformation campaign that implied he was working with a U.S. government group, Canadian cyber researchers said on Thursday.

That effort, which took place in October 2016, was part of a cyber spying operation with more than 200 targets in 39 countries, according to an online report published by Citizen Lab, an institute at the University of Torontos Munk School of Global Affairs.

Targets included a former Russian prime minister and other officials from Russia, military officers, energy executives and an American working for a broadcaster funded by the U.S. government whose emails were used to discredit Navalny, Citizen Lab said.

Citizen Lab said it did not know who was behind the campaign, but said strong circumstantial evidence linked it to a hacking group known as APT28 or Fancy Bear. Private cybersecurity firms have tied that group to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, blaming it for hacks on election campaigns in the United States and Europe.

Navalny and the Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment. The Russian government has previously denied that it was involved in election hacks or other attacks blamed on APT28. Navalny is the most prominent opposition challenger to President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to run for a fourth term in 2018.

In February, a Russian court found Navalny guilty of embezzlement. He said the trial was politically motivated. Officials have since said he cannot run for the Russian presidency unless the conviction is overturned. In March, Navalny organized the biggest anti-government protests in Russia for years.

The Citizen Lab report included images of what it said were doctored emails stolen on Oct. 6 from David Satter, an American working for broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by Washington. The stolen emails were published Oct. 22 on CyberBerkut, a site that claims to be operated by a group of pro-Russian hacker activists.

"They are trying to suggest that Russian opposition figures and journalists are actually being directed by foreigners, Satter said in a telephone interview with Reuters. Citizen Lab said it expects these types of attacks to continue because they are proven effective in swaying public opinion.

"Tainted leaks plant fakes in a forest of facts in an attempt to make them credible by association with genuine, stolen documents," said Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton. "We expect to see many more."
tech2 News Staff

Vertu, previously run by Nokia, has launched a new flagship mobile phone called the Signature Cobra. The limited edition mobile phone is available for purchase online at the Jingdong Mall for a whopping $360,000.

Yes. Converted to Indian rupees, that would be approximately Rs 2,32,34,400. GizChina reports that only 8 units of the device will be produced and sold in China.

Delving into the smartphone, it cannot do much apart from placing calls and sending text messages, but it sure looks exclusive.

Thats because this smartphone has been designed and made by French royal jewellery brand Boucheron. The handsets design comes from Vertu, but its the fancy bits on it (ones that make it special) come from Boucheron.

Those expensive bits would include precisely cut gems that have been created using a mosaic process. A total of 439 rubies have been crammed on to the body of the serpent that wraps itself on the front face of the mobile phone. In case you were wondering, the eyes of the cobra are made of 2 emeralds.

According to Vertu, the Signature Cobra is made of 388 parts and will be assembled in the UK by hand. Also those interested will need to leave a down payment for 1000 CNY (roughly Rs 10,000) and pay the full price when you get the handset delivered.

If you read the title correctly, we did mention that this is a feature phone. Yes, this Rs 2.3 crore mobile phone does not run Android and will not be able to run WhatsApp either. But hey! If you can afford one, you will not have the time or the patience to use any of those apps anyways (probably hire an assistant to get those tweets out for you).
ABC News(NEW YORK)  President Trump is in Italy for the G7 summit with uncertainty over the U.S.'s commitment to the Paris accord. During his campaign, Trump said he would cancel the Paris agreement but has yet to take action since entering office. Experts are anticipating that some European parties at the G7 will try to get the U.S. to affirm its commitment to the deal at the summit. Heres what you should know ahead of the meeting.



What is the Paris Climate Agreement?



The Paris Agreement is an accord sponsored by the U.N. to help slow global climate change. The 145 parties who ratified the convention set a goal to ensure global temperatures do not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It also aims to limit temperature increases by only 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.



After the conference, each country set their own "Nationally Determined Contributions" (NDCs) and agreed to report their progress regularly on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. To remain in the deal, the U.S. must cut its emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.



Learn more about the specifics of the agreements here.



Where does the Trump administration stand on the agreement?



Throughout his campaign for the presidency, Trump said he would roll back environmental protections and regulations. He threatened to "cancel" the deal, but since taking office has said he's studying it. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said the Paris Agreement is bad for America because its bad for jobs. However, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive of Exxon, said he supports staying in the deal. White House adviser Ivanka Trump set up a review process to make sure her father received information from experts in both the public and private sector before making a decision on the agreement. President Trump and Ivanka Trump have both postponed meetings with consultants about the agreement.



Are the Paris accords binding?



The U.S. can decide to withdraw from the agreement but stipulations outlined in the deal would require the U.S. to remain in the pact until November 2020. However, the Trump administration can adjust the U.S.'s Nationally Determined Contributions very simply.



The Paris agreement was designed to be flexible so that parties could respond to changing domestic circumstances, Andrew Light, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute told ABC News.



The agreement was signed on the U.S.s behalf by former Secretary of State John Kerry, with his granddaughter on his lap on Earth Day April 22, 2016. President Obama signed it into law via executive action, bypassing the then Republican-controlled Senate.



What are the consequences of withdrawing?



Light said that the Trump administration could face a fallout if it withdraws from the agreement.



It could potentially harm U.S. businesses who are trying to compete with businesses from other countries in the exploding global market in renewable energy, Light told ABC News. He went on to explain that withdrawal could look like Trump is turning his back on the world by walking away from the spirit of global cooperation that the Paris agreement created.



For example, the Pope gave Trump copies of his published works on climate change as a parting gift following their meeting on May 24, 2017. Some are inferring the Pope was trying to convince Trump to support the Paris agreement.



If Trump manages to avoid taking a stance at the G7 meeting this weekend, his team will most likely try to settle the issue ahead of the G20 meeting in July.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Mother, daughter hacked to death in Feni: Two held

Staff Reporter :

A woman and her minor baby were hacked to death by unidentified miscreants at East Bashikpur village in Fulgazi Upazila of Feni district on Wednesday morning.

The victims are Fatema Sathi, 25, and her 4-year old daughter Shantika Islam Isma.

After receiving information, Police recovered the bodies lying in a pool of blood and sent to Feni

Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy, said SM Jahangir Alam Sarkar, Superintendent of Police (SP) quoting locals.

"From Wednesday afternoon, their door was shut and there was no movement in and around the house. Later, the relatives and neighbours went to the house and found the dead bodies," the Police official said.

Fatema was perhaps stabbed to death while her daughter Isma strangled, the SP said.

"Fatema along with Isma used to live with her mother Hosne Ara Begum at East Bashikpur village since her separation from her husband a few months ago.The mother and daughter were last seen on Wednesday afternoon," he said.

Fatema's sister Ayesha Koli Uaimel though Fatema's former husband Shahadat Hossain Rimon, 35, is in jail, he may have planned the murders.

"Sathi and Shahadat got married about seven years ago," said Fatema's mother Hosne Ara Begum, who was not at home during the incident as she went to visit her younger daughter.

"Since the wedding, Ripon was involved in criminal activity and made accused in around a dozen of cases," she said.

"After much struggle, Fatema finally asked him for a divorce. Ripon became infuriated and gave threats. Though he was arrested on a kidnapping charge, his friends continued to give threats."

Two persons have been detained in connection with the murders, said Fulgazi Police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) MM Morshed.

Hosne Ara Begum filed a case with the police station in this connection, the OC said.


Masked gunmen kill 26 in attack on Christians in Egypt

Copts make up about 10% of Egypt\'s population of 92 million

Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, the Health Ministry said.



Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were traveling in a bus and other vehicles.



Local television channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and blackened by smoke.



There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan. It followed a series of church bombings claimed by Islamic State.



President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said, and the cabinet said the attackers would not succeeded in dividing the nation.



Muslim leaders condemned the killings. The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old center of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilize the country.



"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, condemned the perpetrators as traitors



The attack took place on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles.



Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.



ISLAMIC STATE



Coptic Christians, whose church dates back nearly 2,000 years, make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.



They say they have long suffered from persecution, but in recent months the frequency of deadly attacks against them has increased. About 70 have been killed since December in bombings claimed by IS at churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta.

An Islamic State campaign of murders in North Sinai prompted hundreds of Christians to flee in February and March.



Copts fear they will face the same fate as brethren in Iraq and Syria, where Christian communities have been decimated by wars and Islamic State persecution.



Egypt's Copts are vocal supporters of Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. He declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of the latest church bombings in April.



But many Christians feel the state either does not take their plight seriously enough or cannot protect them against determined fanatics.



The government is fighting insurgents affiliated to Islamic State who have killed hundreds of police and soldiers in the Sinai peninsula, while also carrying out attacks elsewhere in the country. --- By Omar Fahmy | CAIRO (Reuters)






Social movement to stop child marriage stressed

BSS, Rajshahi :

Public representatives and development activists at a brief pre-rally discussion here observed that waging social movement alongside creating mass-awareness has become an urgent need to halt child marriage.

To this end, all concerned including teachers, parents, religious leaders and members of school managing committee should put in their level best efforts.

The collective efforts will supplement the national work plan 2013-2025 for combating violence against women and children and achieving the sustainable development goals- 2030, they added.

The Hunger Project Bangladesh (THPB) organized the-rally at Vaya Luxmipur Union Parishad area under Charghat Upazila in the district in association with Her Choice Programme and Safe School for Girls Campaign on Thursday.

Union Parishad Chairman Shawkat Ali Bulbul, Headmaster of Raipur High School Sazder Ali, Headmaster of Pannapara High School Rabiul Alam, Headmaster of Bankishore High School Manjurul Islam, Managing Committee President of Budirhat High School Shahabul Islam, UP members Moina Khatun and Hawa Begum and Area Coordinator of THPB Subrata Kumar Paul spoke on the occasion.

They mentioned that adequate support from the community including the public representatives is very effective to ensure safe school for girls students that could be the vital means of transforming them into worthy citizens.

Ensuring safe schools for the girls through combating all sorts of violence especially sexual harassment against them is a very vital for boosting skilled human resources coupled with women empowerment.

Child marriage restricts girls' rights to education, rights to mobility and rights to freedom. So, the social ill must be resisted through forging social movement.

Gender-sensitive social mindset can help establishing rights of the adolescents through reducing violence and repression against them.

"We need to establish social networks and alliances involving government and non-government organisations, community people, civil society and media to reach the cherished goal," said UP Chairman Shawkat Bulbul.

More than 1000 students from four schools along with public representatives and others concerned passed through localities with a big rally carrying banners disseminating various messages on demerits of child marriage.

BSS from Khulna adds: Over 500 adolescents, mostly girls, from different adolescent clubs and secondary schools in Dacope upazila of Khulna said 'no' to child marriage.

The teenagers also vowed to create awareness against child marriage in an adolescent gathering observing the World Menstrual Hygiene Day on Thursday.

Dacope Upazila Adolescent Groups in association with 'Accelerating Action Towards Ending Child Marriage (AECM) project and Dacope Upazila Administration organised the event at the hall room of Dacope UNO office.

Chairman of Dacope Upazila Parishad Sheikh Abul Hossain addressed the gathering as the chief guest with Dacope UNO Maruful Alam in the chair.

Vice-Chairman of Upazila Parishad Advocate Suvodra Sarkar, Secondary Education Officer Sohel Hossain, Team leader of AECM Project of CARE Abdul Matin Sharder, teacher of Pankhali Momtaz Begum Secondary School Mohitur Rahman Sheikh, NGO personnel Banani Das Gupta, addressed the event as special guests.

Assistant Commissioner (land) Parveen Sultana delivered the welcome speech. Teachers and parents of the adolescents, civil society members, public representatives, government officials and representatives of different professional organisations also attended the gathering. Chief guest Sheikh Abul Hossain conducted the oath taking function.

Speakers at the gathering said collective efforts had become indispensable to increase the number of school-going girls which would help to stop child marriage in the society.

At the programme, the adolescents shared their achievements in changing social norms and engaging civil society member in their fight against child marriage.

They also urged authorities concerned to accelerate the equal access of women and girls to education and healthcare services.

About menstrual period, parents and guardians called upon adolescent girls to use clean clothes or hygiene pad, take healthy foods and build awareness to ensure sound health.

Earlier, the adolescents brought out a colourful procession with banners and festoons from the upazila parishad office premises.

BSS from Rangpur adds: Speakers at a meeting laid stress on the need for comprehensive efforts of all concerned to put an end child marriage.

"Child marriage shatters life and hinders education of the children," they opined.

Government officials and development activists expressed the view at an opinion-sharing meeting organised by the district administration at the conference room of the Deputy Commissioner in the city on Thursday afternoon.

The Girls' Advocacy Alliance Project, LAMB and Plan International Bangladesh (PAB) extended assistance in arranging the meeting moderated by Divisional Coordinator of LAMB Rehana Begum.

With Deputy Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS) Abdur Razzaque in the chair, Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Ruhul Amin Mian attended the meeting as the chief guest.

Divisional Manager of PAB Abdul Kuddus, District Women Affairs Officer Kawser Pervin and General Secretary of Rangpur Press Club Ali Asharf addressed as special guests.

Programme Manager of LAMB Bapon Mankin delivered the welcome speech in the meeting narrating the negative impacts of child marriage and the way-outs to eradicate the chronic social curse.
Why Melania Trump wore a head covering in Rome but not in Saudi Arabia

The Washington Post :

During the Trumps' meeting with Pope Francis on Wednesday, first lady Melania Trump wore a long-sleeved Dolce & Gabbana black dress and a black veil, following a tradition of many first ladies before her to wear black when meeting the pope. The other women in attendance, including Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, wore similar dresses and veils.

There was some confusion, however, over why the first lady wore a veil - or a mantilla - at the Vatican while she didn't wear a headscarf in the Muslim country of Saudi Arabia.

Her spokeswoman wrote in an email that the first lady was following Vatican protocol where women who have an audience with the pope wear long sleeves, formal black clothing and a veil to cover the head. "There was no request/requirement for her attire in Saudi," Stephanie Grisham wrote.

Foreign dignitaries typically follow a dress code when visiting the Vatican, although that dress code started to relax under Pope Benedict XVI, said Rocco Palmo, editor of Whispers in the Loggia, a site on church news and politics. Men typically wear a black suit, white shirt and black tie. Only Catholic queens and the princess of Monaco can wear white in the presence of the pope, Palmo said. Women tend to wear a veil as a kind of throwback to Catholic women who wore them in church before Vatican II in the 1960s.

Pope Francis has relaxed the expectation that bishops wear cassocks when meeting him, so now they wear clerical collars. And Francis famously stopped wearing the red shoes of his predecessor.

"It's been part of his message of simplicity," Palmo said.

Queen Elizabeth II wore a black dress with a veil under her crown several times when she visited the Vatican in previous decades, but in a 2014 visit, she wore a purple dress and hat. And if a first lady meets the pope outside the Vatican, the expectations are different; Michelle Obama wore a blue dress to meet the pope at the airport in Washington, D.C., in 2015.

"The last place the White House would want to snub is the Vatican," Palmo said. "Presidents who win the white Catholic vote win the White House. If she hadn't worn a veil, people would've been reading into it."

In Saudi Arabia, Muslim women are said to be required to wear a headscarf, but foreigners aren't required to adhere to the same dress code. Some prominent women have worn headscarfs for official visits to Saudi Arabia, but it isn't necessarily considered an insult to the country's leaders to not wear one. Like Trump, former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush also visited the country without wearing a headscarf.

"I think people are reading into it and misinterpreting it," said Jane Hampton Cook, a presidential and first lady historian. "The pope is the head of a church. The king of Saudi Arabia is the head of state. There is a difference between seeing a religious leader vs. showing respect to a king who's the head of state."

And while Trump did not wear a headscarf, she dressed in loose clothing with her arms and legs fully covered, fitting for Saudi Arabia's standards for modesty, Cook said. Trump's visit was not with religious leaders or at a house of worship, and while Saudi women cover their hair in public, many Muslim women around the world do not.

Some have heralded Western politicians' decisions not to wear headscarves in Saudi Arabia as revolutionary. Michelle Obama's 2015 visit to the country with her head uncovered was called a "bold political statement" and one that sparked a backlash.


Suzana returns with Eid work

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :

Popular model and TV actress Sumayia Zafar Suzana, popularly known as Suzana Zafar, has returned to acting after returning from abroad. She is working for an Eid telefilm directed by Iftekhaar Ahmed Fahmi. Suzanas co-actors are Shahiduzzaman Selim, Apurba and Sumaiya Shimu. The shooting began at a house in Uttara last week.

While talking about to start work again media Suzana told this correspondent: I have acted in several telefilms under Fahmis direction. I feel free working with him because he provides a pleasant atmosphere. Besides, Fahmi does not like make-up in his plays. It is quite comfortable because there is no extra pain for taking make-up. I am feeling good to work after a break of several months. I hope the audience will like the telefilm.

Suzana became the model for a music video titled Keo Na Januk which was rendered by Tahsan and composed by Imran. It has already created a buzz among the music lovers. Mizanur Rahman Aryan has directed the music video.

It is noted that Sumayia Zafar Suzana began her journey in showbiz with ramp modeling in 2001. She is now one of the most popular Bangladeshi models for her performance in TV commercials. In 2003, she came into the limelight by winning the Lux-Channel i Beauty Contest Award.


BNP Standing Committee Member Barrister Moudud Ahmed., among others, in a protest meeting at the Jatiya Press Club on Friday demanding release of BNP Vice-Chairman Barkat Ullah Bulu.
Before fixing liabilities wrong doers be served with show cause notice

High Court Division

(Special Original Jurisdiction)

Zubayer Rahman

Chowdhury J

Md Mozibur Rahman

Miah J

Mainul Hasan (Md) ...

...................Petitioner

vs

Commissioner of Customs, Customs

House, ICD Dhaka and others................

...............Respondents*

Judgment

November 20th, 2016

Constitution of Bangladesh, 1972

Articles 102(2) and 111

Customs Act (IV of 1969)

Sections 83A and 32(3)(4)

Show cause notice should be issued prior to make final demand to fix the liabilities of the person or persons involved in such wrongdoing.

We hold that, the respective Respondent will bring in necessary amendment to section 83A of the Act authorising the custom authority to issue a show cause notice prior to making final demand on account of short levy, if charged and if it is so legislated the Government in one hand would be able to realise its due customs duties and other charges free from all legal complexities and on the other hand, the importer would get the opportunity to make their defence in an effective manner.

Chairman, Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education vs Amir Hossain, 56 DLR (AD) 24; University of Dhaka vs Zakir Ahmed, 16 DLR (SC) 722; Sheikh Ali Ahamed vs Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, 40 DLR (AD) 170 and Hamidul Huq Chowdhury vs Bangladesh, 33 DLR 381 ref.

Zakir Hossain Munshi, with Md Modersher Ali Khan, Advocate-For the Petitioner

SM Maniruzzaman, DAG with Pratikar Chakma, AAG and Mosammat Khairun Nessa, AAG-For the Respondents.

Judgment

Md Mozibur Rahman Miah J : This Rule was issued calling in question the propriety of the demand dated 4-5-2016 issued by the respondent No. 2 directing the petitioner to deposit short levied without issuing a notice under sub-section (3) of Section 32 of the Customs Act, 1969 and exhausting the procedure as laid down in sub-section (4) of the said Act.

2. At the time of issuance of the Rule operation of the said impugned demand notice has been stayed for a period of 6 (six) months with a condition that no further extension would be given..

3. Facts leading to issuance of the Rule in precise are:

The petitioner is the proprietor of a proprietorship concern under the name and style "Business Plus" having its office at Nowabpur Road, Dhaka. The petitioner carries out business, amongst others importing different kind of materials from abroad. In the process of said business, the petitioner opened a Letter of Credit bearing No. 1951-1301-0505 dated 26-8-2013 for importing the goods named "Energy Savings Tube, 10W" under HS Code No. 8539.31.20, quoting its C&F value at Taka US$ 4,500.

4. After arrival of the said consignment petitioner duly submitted Bill of Entry bearing No. C-19530 dated 20-10-2013 to the Customs authority and after receiving the said bill of entry dated 21-10-2013 and upon holding 100% physical examination the authority found the goods in accordance with the declaration and assessed the goods under HS Code No. 8539.31.20 and finally released the same on 23-10-2013 on receiving the customs duties and other charges. However, the customs authority all of a sudden on 4-5-2016 issued a demand notice directing the petitioner to deposit Taka 13,56,825/21 on account of short levy within 30 (thirty) days.

5. Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the said demand notice petitioner thus came before this court and obtained the instant Rule and order of stay.

6. Mr Zakir Hossain Munshi, along with Mr Md Modersher Ali Khan, the learned counsels appearing for the petitioner upon taking us to the writ petition and annexure appended thereto at the very outset submits that, the impugned demand notice is in violation of the principal of natural Justice as well as contrary to the mandatory provision of sub-section 3 of Section 32 of the Customs Act, 1969 (briefly "the Act") and therefore impugned demand is liable to be declared illegal and without any lawful authority.

7. The learned counsel further submits that, even though, under the purview of Section 83A(2) of the Act the Respondents could have heard the petitioner by issuing a prior notice but without issuing any show cause notice and hearing the petitioner, the very issuance of demand notice is completely illegal and without any lawful authority.

8. The learned counsel goes on to submit that, on close reading of the impugned demand dated 4-5-2016 it reveals that, the Respondent No. 1 alleged the short levy upon misconstruction of HS Code of the goods which is clear violation of the provision of Section 32(3)(4) of the Act and, as such, the very notice served, is without any lawful authority and is of no legal effect. The petitioner imported the goods under HS Code No. 8539.31.20 and accordingly, released the same paying all applicable duties and charges so assessed by the customs authority even on physical examination and, as such" the issuance of the impugned demand on the basis of alleged HS Code No. 8539.31.90 without holding any chemical examination is absolutely illegal and without any lawful authority.

9. The learned counsel next submits that goods under H5 Code No. 8539.31.20 and accordingly, released the same paying all applicable duties and charges so assessed by the customs (authority even on physical examination and, as such" the issuance of the impugned demand on the basis of alleged H5 Code No. 8539.31.90 without holding any chemical examination is absolutely illegal and without any lawful authority.

10. The learned counsel draws the conclusion by asserting that, had the said assessment suffered from 'any inadvertence or error that will definitely fall within the purview of subsection (3) of Section 32 of the Act which demands issuance of a show cause notice by asking the petitioner to reply as to why the extended/amended demand should not be made but without such prior notice making the demand straightaway is absolutely without lawful authority and is of no legal effect.

11. With such submission the learned counsel eventually prays for making the Rule absolute.

12. Per Contra, Mr SM Maniruzzaman, the learned Deputy Attorney General, along with Mr Pratikar Chakma and Mosammat Khairun Nessa, Assistant Attorney Generals, entered their appearance by filing a power though no affidavit-in-opposition has been filed controverting the assertion so made by the learned counsel for the petitioner. However, the learned Deputy Attorney General finds it difficult to assail the assertion so advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner even though, he prays for discharging the Rule on the count that, since there has been no provision to issue any show cause notice prior to making demand in the relevant section therefore, Respondents have not committed any illegality in that respect.

13. We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and that of the learned Deputy Attorney General and perused the writ petition and other materials available on record.

14. Record shows, by the impugned demand notice (Annexure-'D' to the writ petition) the respondent has alleged that, the petitioner imported the goods showing HS Code No. 8539.31.20 instead of- appropriate HS Code No. 8539.31.90 and had the petitioner paid the correct customs duties and other charges it would have stand at Taka 18,93,2897 but he paid customs duties and other charges at Taka 5,36,463.82 basing on HS Code No. 8539.31.20 and thereby the petitioner has short levied to the tune of Taka 13,56,825.21 which has been claimed by the impugned demand notice.

15. There is no gainsaying of the fact though in sub-section (2) and (3) of Section 32 of the Act, there provides an express provision to issue a show cause notice prior to imposition of penalty but in Section 83A no such provision has been laid down which is totally arbitrary and discriminatory one.

16. It's true, legislature does not legislates any provision in Section 83A to issue any show cause notice prior to making any demand on account of short levy but it is imperative on the part of such imposing authority to give an opportunity to the aggrieved person to defend his position before the said of demand is finalized and if it is not done it would amount to curtail his/her right of defence that cannot be taken away in the name of having no such provision in the statute.

17. Then again, even though, section 83A does not provide any show cause notice before making any demand on account of short levy, but it has persistently been decided by our Hon'ble Appellate Division settling the point once for all deciding that inspite of having no provision in the statute it is sine qua non to abide by the principle of natural justice, that is to say, to give prior notice to an aggrieved person against whom penalty or any other regressive action is likely to be taken if it is not expressly barred in the respective statute.

18. In that parlance, we may profitably rely in the case of Chairman, Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education vs Amir Hossain reported in 56 DLR (AD) 24 where it has been propounded:

"It is now settled that, even where provision for show cause notice and opportunity of personal hearing are not available, the principal of nature Justice shall be applied unless it is specifically barred, " (emphasis supplied)

(To be continued)
Lawyers' dress code violates Article 31 of the Constitution of Bangladesh

Barrister Tarikul Islam :

The Civil Rules and Orders (CRO) started its journey to regulate the working system of courts in 1918 under the then British colonial rule. Following the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 and Bangladesh in 1971, the CRO has been amended to adopt and adapt the demands of ever changing times and circumstances. The amendments made our CRO i.e. courts' working system smarter, more brilliant and efficient. Much of the credit of this amendments and developments must go to the Supreme Court of Bangladesh which has responsibility to do it. On this particular occasion, it is to seek one more amendment of Rules Nos. 825 & 826 and Rule 2, Chapter XVIA of Supreme Court of Bangladesh (High Court Division) Rules 1973 to change the existing dress code and introduce a dress code which would be comfortable in Bangladesh with extreme hot weather on the following reasons and circumstances:

The dress code, we are following today in a burning-summer-country like Bangladesh, had been introduced by those who had come from an ice-cold-winter-predominant country, the United Kingdom.

Our predecessors could not afford the power to oppose the dress code when it came in force in 1918 and almost 100 years had been passed away, still we have been carrying on a completely unsuitable and uncomfortable dress code which has been just unbearable and a massive cause of immense suffering for law professionals in our country. Our question is, if we, instead of alien British ruler, made the CRO, had we ever have imagined a dress code which is not suitable in our weather condition with average temperature of fiery 31.7 degree centigrade for minimum 8-month-long-summer country (Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) report). Weather here even takes more furious nature than what it looks under average temperature. Record shows, our summer temperature reached as high as 42.2 degree centigrade last year (2016) which actually turned into a natural disaster and claimed many lives across the country. So, our prayer for changing present dress code should be considered as extremely compelling as it had been chosen by an alien body on the basis of what they were wearing in a completely alien and freezing weather.

Time has truly come long before to advent a dress code which appropriately suits our summer weather and bears the elegance of distinctiveness of legal profession. By this time, we along with our past generations have suffered a lot by this dress code already. Demand of amendment has thus been very long standing.

The recent day's weather reaches about 40 degree centigrade in Dhaka. It seems like the touch of flame really but the advocates still need to run with black coat and black gown denying how furious the weather is. In true senses, the existing dress code is just meaningless.

The law of dress code goes against the basic health science too. Any doctor would suggest wearing light and loose cloths in the hot weather of recent days to keep good health and to avoid heat-stroke.

In terms of mental health, nobody should be capable of maintaining a good psychological condition in the present days heat wave with the black coat and gown on. So, by this dress code, any lawyer's physical and psychological state may be put in danger at anytime. The probability of heat-stroke may be increased and which may tragically cut short of a lawyer's life even.

If life is put in danger by any provision of law then it would be the violation of Article 31 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. Article 31 of the Constitution reads as follows: "To enjoy the protection of the law, and to be treated in accordance with law, and only in accordance with law, is the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other person for the time being within Bangladesh, and in particular no action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with law." The High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh interpreted the Article 31 to the effect that right to life includes a right to protection of health and normal longevity (Dr Mohiuddin Farooque v Bangladesh, 48 DLR 438).

It is us who should introduce the law of dress for ourselves which we could not in the first place. However, we can do it now.

The heat wave of the present days gives us the message really strongly that we cannot just continue it any longer. May the authority be considerate enough to bring the appropriate amendment to introduce a comfortable dress code for advocates and judges for Bangladesh so that the dress code may not be playing a role to distress a lawyer's psychological and physical health any more.



(Barrister Tarikul Islam, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh)
Call to ensure transgender and dalit peoples' rights

City Desk :



Speakers at a discussion stressed the need for ensuring fundamental rights especially the health, social and legal rights of the transgender people for uplifting their living and livelihood conditions.

They viewed people should come forward with a positive attitude to them for their co-existence in society with decent livelihood.

City Social Service Office yesterday organized the discussion at its premises in Rajshahi

on the occasion of distributing education grants cheque among 33 transgender and 34 dalit community people. Member of National Social Welfare Council Shahin Akter Rainy and Deputy Director of Department of Social Service (DSS) Rubina Yeasmin addressed the meeting as chief and special guests respectively with city social service officer Abdullah Al Firoj in the chair.


Govt on a mission to kill BNP leaders : Khaleda

UNB, Dhaka :

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday alleged that the government has been on a 'mission' to kill 'diehard' BNP leaders and activists to perpetuate its power.

In a statement, she said, "Hanging onto power by killing the leaders and activists of BNP and other opposition parties and creating a reign of terror is Awami League's political culture. The current government is working with a mission to selectively kill the dedicated BNP leaders and activists."

The BNP chief issued the statement condemning and protesting the murder of Khulna district unit BNP organising secretary Alauddin Mithu.

Unknown assailants shot and killed Mithu and his bodyguard Nowsher Gazi at his office in Phultala area on Thursday night.

"Alauddin Mithu has been brutally subjected to the government's mission to kill BNP men. Mithu's murder is another manifestation of the government's continued deadly atrocities," Khaleda observed.

Describing Mithu's killing as cowardice act, she said the government is turning independent country Bangladesh into a 'graveyard' by killing BNP leaders and activists.

Khaleda said Awami League is crossing all the limits by annihilating democracy and killing BNP leaders and activists. "The motive behind the killing of opposition leaders and activists is to frighten people so that no one dare raise their voice against the government."

The BNP chief warned the government that it will not be able cling to power by resorting to bloodletting and intimidating people. "People won't sit idly anymore. Instead, they'll get united to face the regime and resist its continued bloodletting programmes."

She also prayed for salvation of the departed soul and conveyed sympathy to the bereaved family members.
Prices of essentials continue to soar

Anisul Islam Noor :

Prices of the essential commodities continue to rise in the city's kitchen markets, giving no relief to the consumers of the middle and the lower middle income groups.

The reporter while visiting different kitchen markets at the weekend on Friday observed

an upward trend of price despite adequate supply.

Market observers said, the price hike is illogical, as there is no short supply of essential commodities in the markets.

The month of Ramzan will, however, begins on Sunday, as the new moon was not sighted on Friday.

Meanwhile, prices of chickpea (gram), one of the key Ramzan essentials, further increased by 11 per cent last week as medium quality was traded at Tk 90-Tk 105 a kg, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data.

Finer chickpea was sold at Tk 110-Tk 130 a kg, up by six per cent in a week.

Besides, prices of sugar, grass pea (khesari), garlic, puffed rice (muri), palm oil, date, brinjal, and coriander leaf have further increased.

The price of grass pea rose by five per cent, imported garlic by 12.5 per cent, sugar by three per cent, palm oil by six per cent, muri by 10 per cent, some brinjal varieties by 30 per cent and date by eight per cent in a week, according to TCB and Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM).

But prices of rice, beef, mutton and soybean oil are now 10-42 per cent, 14 per cent, 22 per cent and 11-14 per cent higher respectively compared with that of last year, TCB said.

Raihan Uddin, a grocer of Malibag Bazar, accused the wholesalers of raising the prices of many essentials.

He said, chickpea, khesari and sugar prices increased at Moulvibazar wholesale market in the city.

When asked, President of Bangladesh Pulses Wholesalers Association Haji Md Shafi said prices have witnessed at Tk 0.5-1.0 hike per kg in last one and half weeks following a normal market trend. He said retailers are charging higher for the items.

Polash Saha, a Khatunganj-based trader, said prices of palm oil and sugar have surged further in Chittagong.

He said the cost of a maund of sugar is now Tk 2,500 against DO (delivery order) price of Tk 2,200.

He said that prices of chickpea was static at Chittagong wholesales market for last 10 days and sold at Tk 2,725-Tk 2,800 a maund (37.32 kgs) on Thursday. He said, however, some varieties showed a slight decline.

According to the Price Monitoring and Forecasting Cell (PMFC) under the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) private sector imported 0.303 million tonnes of chickpea in last 15 months against a demand for 0.08 million tonnes. The import costs were Tk 70-Tk 75 per kg based on qualities.

The country has a demand for 1.5 million tonnes of sugar when 1.65 million tonnes are available now and the price of refined sugar is maximum Tk 56 per kg.

Imported garlic prices hit Tk 250-Tk 270 a kg last week while grass pea Tk 90-Tk 100 a kg. Nearly 0.3 million tonnes of garlic was imported at a cost of Tk 140-Tk 180 a kg while local production was above 0.4 million tonnes, according to PMFC.

Md Akhter Hossain, team leader of PMFC, said both local production and import of some key essentials are good enough to meet the demand.

The importers brought in about 35,000 tonnes of date against demand for 20,000 tonnes, according to PMFC.

Additional Research Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem said, though the country follows open market economy, competition is almost absent as the market is dominated by a section of traders.

He said the government should gear up monitoring to keep pressure on traders to prevent irrational price hike.

The Commerce Ministry should publish data on local production, import and international prices on monthly basis to inform consumers about prices.

He said the government's share in the market should be increased significantly to give limited income group some relief.

"It should take measures to buy a good volume of essentials through TCB and provide them at subsidised rates to limited income consumers," he said.

Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said, overall expenditure of people has increased and set to surge further in the fasting month as most of essentials have become pricier.

Market monitoring should be increased and punishment should be given to unscrupulous traders to prevent any artificial shortage.

Of fishes, cat fish was selling at Tk 650 to 800, cultivated cat fish (Shing) at Tk 500- 550 per kg, barbell (cultivated) at Tk 600 to 800, butter fish at Tk 250 to 300, sheat (boal) at Tk 350 to 400 per kg on Friday, lobster at Tk 500 to 650 kg, shrimp (River) at Tk 400 -550, puti at Tk 250 per kg, cultivated koi at Tk 140 to 180 per kg, Fali Chanda (Rupchanda) at Tk 750 to 800 per kg, walking fish (Shoal) at Tk 500 per kg, lata fish at Tk 200 to 250 and Eel at Tk 600 per kg, batashi at Tk 450 to 550 per kg, koi (river) at Tk 450, aire fish at Tk 500 to 600 per kg, pabda at Tk 600, Ek-thota (Kaitta fish) at Tk 350 to Tk 400, baila at Tk 500 to 700 per kg, coral fish at Tk 550 kg, river pangas at Tk 350 per kg, cultivated pangas at Tk 130 per kg, rajputi at Tk 300 per kg, telapia at Tk 140 to Tk 200 per kg, ruhit at Tk 250 to Tk 380 per kg, medium size carp (katol) at Tk 230 -360 per kg.

Beef was selling at Tk 480-Tk 520 per kg and mutton at Tk700 to 780 per kg, poultry chicken was selling at Tk 170 to 175 per kg and Egg local at Tk 60 per hali (four piece), farm egg at Tk35 hali and egg (duck) at Tk 48 per hali.

Of the vegetables, brinjal was selling at Tk 40 to 50 per kg, tomato at Tk 45 to 50, Sajina at Tk 100 per kg, potato at Tk 20 to 25, cucurbitaceous at Tk 60 to 70, carrot at Tk 40 to 50, bitter gourd at Tk 40 to 50, cucumber at Tk 30 to 40, spone gourd at Tk 60 to 70, green papaya at Tk 45 to 50, french at Tk 60 to 70, snake gourd at Tk 40 to 50, okra at Tk 40, pumpkin (medium size) at Tk 50 to 60 per piece, bottle gourd at Tk 40 to 50, ash gourd at Tk 35 to 45 per piece, cauliflower at 30 to 35 per piece, coriander leaves at Tk 220 per kg, green chilli at 60 to 70 kg, capsicum (red) at Tk 250 per kg and capsicum (green) at Tk 200 to 220 per kg. Lemon was selling at Tk seven to eight per piece.

Coarse variety Swarna rice was selling at Tk 47 to 50 per kg in different in the city. Present price of the coarse variety is an all-time high, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) and Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM).

Miniket was selling at Tk 52 to 54, Nazirshail at Tk 54 to 56 and BR-28 at Tk 48 to 50 only.
Probashi Kalyan Bank: Not helpful for migrant workers

MEDIA reports indicate that six-year old Probashi Kalyan Bank (PKB) is still unable to receive migrant workers' remittances for which it was established. As PKB is still a specialized bank and not a commercial bank it is not authorized to open foreign exchange houses abroad, though it was its core mission principles. PKB also failed to extend migration and rehabilitation loans to a significant number of returnee migrant workers for which it was established by the government. In six years, PKB extended rehabilitation loans to only 156 returnee workers in distress. In this backdrop, the government should either run the bank properly or shut its operation quickly.

The bank extended migration loans to only 22,836 workers to facilitate their migration during the period when over 33 lakh workers migrated for work abroad. Due to a shortage of paid up capital, PKB has not been given the status of a commercial bank by the Bangladesh Bank until now. PKB has Tk five crore as paid up capital and it borrowed Tk 145 crore from the Wage Earners' Welfare Fund created with contributions from the migrant workers. Despite its commitment, the Finance Ministry did not provide Tk 250 crore as credit to make up PKB's paid up capital shortage.

PKB has not been able to provide its charter bound services to the workers due to fund shortages. Insiders said the bank completely failed to serve the country's migrant workers due to its rigid collateral policy of extending loans carrying high interest. They called PKB's conditions requiring workers to deposit their land ownership documents and two bank account holders standing as guarantors as 'completely unrealistic.' PKB's migration loan carries nine per cent interest and its rehabilitation loan carries 11 per cent interest. The bank should lower the lending rates and simplify collateral policy to make it useful for the poor workers.

The government should make the bank effective and helpful for migrant workers and extended its paid up capital to enable it to run efficiently. If necessary, the charter of the bank can be amended. It is unacceptable that the bank got funds from migrant workers but are not providing them with due services. which form part of its core mission.
HC ruling on illegally charged session fee of private English medium schools

THE High Court Division on last Thursday declared that all forms of session fees charged by the numerous English medium schools in the country as illegal. The verdict came against the backdrop of a writ petition filed with the HC in 2012 challenging the legality of Session Fees and value added tax (VAT) charged by the numerous English medium schools in the country. However, the verdict was long overdue.

What the many English medium schools scattered across the country have been doing for decades is charging students almost the equal amount of money in the name of "adjustments" to the annual and other fees. This malpractice among our English medium schools had become rampant over the years because of evident lack of transparency and accountability. The HC also issued a set of directives for running these English medium schools according to the government's rule books. It further stated that a Managing Committee must be formed at every English medium school as per the Private (English medium) School and College Ordinance 1962 and the Private English Medium School Registration Rules, 2007.

Understandably, the law in terms of running privately run English medium schools had existed - but similar to many existing laws - the strict monitoring of its implementation was missing. Now that the verdict concerning the Session Fee has been declared illegal - it is upto all the three parties - schools, law enforcement agencies and guardians to collectively ensure its effective enactment. Otherwise it will remain in pen and paper.

Last Thursday's verdict also included another provision for forming a school Managing Committee for every school for auditing the accounts of English medium schools while make the audit reports available to all parents and on the respective websites of the institutions. This is particularly important which should have been introduced long ago.

In most Western countries credibility of public and private academic institutions is built on how transparent they are with their fees, and also how they are spent. However, better late than never, we now have been presented with a similar legal ruling. Now the schools are expected not to be able to hike fees or take any decision as per their whims. That said - the country's 150 English medium schools, catering to the needs of some 1.93 lakh students should also be accredited by a government body, which will check the quality of education provided by them.

In recent times, we have observed many of the students passing out from these schools to have mastered American or British accents, instead of learning accurate English for the purpose of correct speaking and writing. This phony and artificial trend must be highly discouraged at all levels. Moreover, a legal mechanism should be introduced for preventing the mushrooming of poor quality schools administered by low quality teachers.

Finally, we want all schools falling under the Bangladesh Education Statistics of 2016 to be brought under the scanner of last Thursday's landmark verdict while making our schools and colleges more accountable for all types of fees, charges and adjustments.






Controversial Greek statue removed

Police action on protesters leaves 20 hurt; Lawyers extend support to CJ's move for relocation; It's SC's decision: Quader

The Statue of Greek Lady Justice, taken down from the Supreme Court premises, is being loaded in a truck to remove it on Friday.

Staff Reporter :

The controversial statue of Greek lady justice has finally been removed from the Supreme Court premises early Friday, which trigged protests from some student bodies and mixed reactions from different circles.

Police said protesting students looked in clashes with them which prompted them to take action to disperse them, leaving several students hurt.

However, the radical Islamists outfit Hefajat-E-Islam, hailed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for meeting their demand for the statue's removal.

The statue was erected in December 2016, holding the familiar sword and scales of justice in her hands, amounts to idolatry.

But the statue erected in December last year provoked the anger of hardliners who demanded removal of the statue showing its spiritual conflict with Islam.

They also claimed that the statue was in full view of Muslims pray at the National Eidgah.

On April 9, 2017, a writ was filed with the High Court, seeking removal of the statue from the Supreme Court premises.

Later, on Apr 11, Hifazat Chief Shah

Ahmed Shafi led Qawmi madrasa representatives at a Ganabhaban meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recreated its demand for removal of the statue.

The PM said she, too, dislikes the statue. Defending her view, she also said, "The sari-clad statue is half-Greek and half-Bengali."

Chief Justice SK Sinha ordered the relocation of the Lady Justice statue from the Supreme Court premises after seeking opinions from lawyers.

Before ordering 'relocation' of the statue, Justice Sinha sat with senior lawyers where he got positive response over the removal, said Attorney General Mahbubey Alam.

Sculptor Mrinal Haque was present at the spot during the removal work.

However, there are mixed reactions over the issue.

Ruling and opposition party leaders have expressed opinions over the issue.

Obaidul Quader, Awami League General Secretary on Friday said that the removal of the statue of Greek goddess from the Supreme Court premises is the decision of the Supreme Court.

Quader, also the Road Transport and Bridges Minister said, "The statue has been removed as per the decision of the apex court. The matter is not under the government's jurisdiction."

BNP senior leader Moudud Ahmed on Friday said, "The Chief justice in consultation with senior lawyers decided to relocate the statue from the Supreme Court premises. So, I want to let you know it's the Chief Justice who removed the statue on his own, not at the government order."

Appreciating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for removing the statue of the Greek goddess from the Court premises, Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ) on Friday said the decision was a time-befitting and nice one.

"We want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for removing the idol by taking a brave step against the communal power. This decision reflects the spirit of the Liberation War, equality, human dignity and justice," said a press release issued by Mufti Foyzullah, the IOJ's Secretary General.

Meanwhile, enraged by the decision, leftist student bodies began demonstrating outside the court premise.

At noon, police put up barricades near Bangladesh Shishu Academy to stop a procession by 'progressive students' who were marching towards the Supreme Court from the Raju Memorial at Dhaka University.

Police used teargas shells, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters as they tried to break through the barricades, said Samajtantrik Chhatra Front's General Secretary Snehadri Chakroborty Rintu.

Bangladesh Chatra Union General Secretary Liton Nondi was among five who were detained by the police. At least 20 were injured in the police attack, according to the protesters.

Sanjoy Kanti Das, Shamima Ara Mina, and Mukta Bhattacharya from Samajtantrik Chhatra Front suffered injuries, said Rintu.

Being prevented by the law enforcers, the students finally took back their procession to DU campus chanting slogans against government's "surrender to fundamentalists."


Raids in 2 `militant dens` in Savar

Staff Reporter :

Law enforcers began raids in two separate multi-storied buildings suspecting militant hideouts at Ganda in Savar, outskirts of the capital on Friday evening.

Mohibul Islam Khan, Deputy Commissioner of the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said

"A team of Police cordoned off two multi-storied building at Ganda around 7:00pm."

We started the raid around 8:00pm and the operation drive will continue to nab the suspected militants, the CTTC official said.

ASM Abu Sayeed, Officer-in-Charge of Detective Branch (DB-North) of Dhaka district, said, "The first raid began on the ground floor of a five-storey building. After entering the ground floor of the building no militant or any explosives were found there."

The second raid began in another nearby six-storey building. The raid is still continuing, he said.

The law enforcers suspect existence of explosive materials in the six-story building and advised everyone to maintain a safe distance, the DB official said.
The Senate Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works moved three bills changing aspects of how one obtains a drivers license in Louisiana, including how to deal with traffic cops, online courses and an additional fee.

The Senate Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works moved three bills changing aspects of the drivers license acquisition process in Louisiana, including how to deal with traffic cops, online courses and an additional fee.

Additionally, the committee moved to the full Senate for debate a resolution that urges the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to consider sound-reduction methods, such as the planting of bamboo, along I-10 in Ascension Parish.

House Bill 241, by Rep. Chad Brown, D-Plaquemine, would require the Department of Public Safety to create and implement a curriculum within the 30-hour drivers education course regarding routine traffic stops.

HB241s mandates that new drivers be instructed on the importance of officers, drivers, and passengers maintaining integrity and respect during traffic stops, as well as demonstrations of appropriate interactions with law enforcement.

Every situation is unique, Brown noted,. This is essentially saying, Listen to the officers instructions and comply.

HB241 also seeks to add information about the negative impacts of littering to the curriculum.

House Bill 437 by Malinda White, D-Bogalusa, would make drivers education curriculum accessible online for new drivers over the age of 18.

This bill would not affect first-time drivers under 18 who will continue to be required to take portions of the 30-hour classroom course. New drivers over 18 would be able to take the 6-hour course online, currently available in a classroom only.

The course must be approved by the Office of Motor Vehicles.

House Bill 547, by Rep. Chris Hazell, R-Pineville, would increase the drivers license issuance and renewal fee by $1 with the extra buck going to the department of Veterans Affairs military assistance fund.

The fund is a last resort, according to VA executive officer Holly Talley, who mentioned family emergencies like flooding or a broken water-heater. It is currently primarily funded by donations.

Some committee members were concerned the bill joined two unrelated interests  transportation and veterans affairs  and set bad precedent that allows the Legislature to help subsidize any underfunded program out of the drivers license fee.

Additionally, Sen. Jim Fannin, R-Jonesboro, a veteran, was concerned the HB547 does not explicitly state where the money is going.

When you force someone to do something, the grants and donations stop coming, he said. Right now, the person that contributes out of the goodness of their heart knows exactly what this money can be spent on.

About 25 percent of the current issue and renewal fee is distributed to the state police and the anti-litter campaign. The rest belongs to the Office of Motor Vehicles.

The bill was moved to the Senate Finance Committee for further consideration.

Senate Resolution 125, by Sen. Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzales, requests the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to consider planting shrubbery along I-10 to reduce noise in Ascension Parish.

A decibel study has not been conducted yet.

Some type of natural barrier like cane or bushes may hold the noise down, Lambert said. It might also reduce some of the area that needs to be mowed, too. You would want something thats an evergreen.

Lambert also suggested the bamboo could provide some cushion for vehicles that run off the road, and noted the homeowners in the area might be willing to foot the bill.

[Some bamboo] would also add a little landscaping flare to the interstate, noted Sen. Dale Erdley, R-Livingston.
The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.
SPRINGFIELD  Fallen Chester Police Officer James Brockmeyer was honored twice this week in Springfield.

House Resolution 157, mourning the death of Brockmeyer, sponsored by State Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton, passed Thursday. Meanwhile, in the Senate, Senate Joint Resolution 22, sponsored by Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, advanced. The resolution would name part of Illinois 3 in Chester after Brockmeyer.

This young man was one of our best and one of our brightest," Schimpf said on the Senate floor Thursday, flanked by friends and family of Brockmeyer. "He epitomized everything that is good about our first responders and his loss was a tragic blow not only to his family but also to the City of Chester.

I cant think of a more fitting tribute to Officer Brockmeyer than to have a section of Illinois Route 3 from Water Street to State Street in Chester named as the Officer James I. Brockmeyer Memorial Highway, he said.

The resolution passed with 58 yeas and one senator not voting. The resolution now makes its way to the House, where it will be sponsored by Costello. If it passes both chambers, the City of Chester and the Illinois Department of Transportation will work out the details of marking the memorial stretch of highway.

Its symbolic in that our officers mean a lot to us in the community, Chester Police Chief Ryan Coffey said.

Chester Mayor Tom Page said because the memorial is a state dedication it seemed only appropriate to use a state road.

Every time I will drive down that highway I will be thinking of James, Page said.

Both Page and Coffey said they hope the dedication will preserve Brockmeyers memory.

I dont want it to ever be forgotten, Page said.

Brockmeyer, 22, died in the line of duty Oct. 28, 2016, pursuing Jason Stoker in a high-speed chase. Brockmeyers vehicle crashed along Palestine Road in rural Randolph County. Stoker is being charged with first-degree murder in Brockmeyers death. He is scheduled to sit before a Randolph County Jury later this summer.
MARION  The staff at Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois have another reason to celebrate. The airport was named Primary Airport of the Year by Illinois Department of Transportation during the Illinois Aviation Conference Thursday in Champaign.

Three times is a charm. This is the third time in the last 11 years this airport won this award, so we are very proud of that, Bernard Paul, chairman of the airport authority, said.

The airport also was named Airport of the Year in 2006 and 2009.

We certainly thank the Illinois Division of Aeronautics for presenting us the award. And, how grateful we are to have won against some stiff competition, airport director Doug Kimmel said.

He explained that the primary category has 11 airports, including MidAmerica Airport on the grounds of Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, Springfield, Champaign, Bloomington, Peoria, Rock Island, Quad Cities, Moline and Midway and OHare airports in Chicago.

We are smaller than some of the larger facilities, but we have to uphold the same standards as they do on a daily basis in operating and maintaining a safe facility, Kimmel said. Its nice to be recognized in such competition, thats for sure.

Each facility was acknowledged for its accomplishments throughout the year, including an outstanding partnership with IDOT, a strong commitment to customer safety and satisfaction, facility safety record, promotion of seminars and aviation events, and maintenance of the facility.

Kimmel said the fact they won a third time speaks to the recognition of the airports new airline terminal.

All of our peers here today know how much as gone into that project, Kimmel said.

The airport opened its new terminal building on Veterans Day in November. At that time, Paul announced the airport was being renamed Veterans Airport of Southern Illinois.

Im awful proud of it, but all the credit goes to our top-notch airport director Doug Kimmel and his staff. Those people work hard day after day to keep it award-winning, Paul said.

A second Southern Illinois airport also won an award during the conference. Sparta Community Airport was named General Aviation-Runway 5,000 feet or less Airport of the Year.

These awards are our way of recognizing the tremendous dedication exhibited by airports and heliports throughout Illinois. Our sincere congratulations go out to all of this years recipients, Illinois Transportation Secretary Randy Blankenhorn said.

Other 2017 recipients are: Chicago Executive Airport, Reliever Airport of the Year; Macomb Municipal Airport, General Aviation-Runway greater than 5,000 feet Airport of the Year; Tri-County Airport in Yates City, Private-Open to the Public Airport of the Year; and Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee, Heliport of the Year.

To learn more about aviation in Illinois, visit www.idot.illinois.gov/travel-information/passenger-services/aviation-services/index.
This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luthers famous "95 Theses," which helped spark the founding of the Reformation and the division of Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism.

The "95 Theses" critiqued the churchs sale of indulgences, which Luther regarded as a form of corruption. By Luthers time, indulgences had evolved into payments that were said to reduce punishment for sins. Luther believed that such practices only interfered with genuine repentance and discouraged people from giving to the poor. One of Luthers most important theological contributions was the priesthood of all believers, which implied that clerics possessed no more dignity than ordinary people.

Less known is the crucial role Luther played in making the case for ordinary people to read often and well. Unlike the papacy and its defenders, who were producing their writings in Latin, Luther reached out to Germans in their mother tongue, substantially enhancing the accessibility of his written ideas.

In my teaching of philanthropy, Luthers promotion of literacy is one of the historic events I often discuss with my students.

Early years

Born in Germany in 1483, Luther followed the wishes of his father to study law. Once, while caught in a terrible thunderstorm, he vowed that if he were saved, he would become a monk.

Indeed, Luther later joined the austere Augustinian order, and became both a priest and a doctor of theology. Later he developed objections to many church practices. He protested the promotion of indulgences, the buying and selling of clerical privileges, and the accumulation of substantial wealth by the church while peasants barely survived. Legend has it that on Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, the town where he was based.

He was branded an outlaw for refusing to recant his teachings. In 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther from the Roman Church. His patron, Frederick of Saxony, saved Luther from further reprisal and had him taken in secret to a castle, where he remained for two years.

It was during that time that Luther produced an immensely influential translation of the New Testament into German.

Impact of Luthers writing

Gutenbergs earlier introduction of the printing press in 1439 made possible the rapid dissemination of Luthers works throughout much of Europe, and their impact was staggering.

Luthers collected works run to 55 volumes. It is estimated that between 1520 and 1526, some 1,700 editions of Luthers works were printed. Of the six to seven million pamphlets printed during this time, more than a quarter were Luthers works, many of which played a vital role in propelling the reformation forward.

Thanks to Luthers translation of the Bible, it became possible for German-speaking people to stop relying on church authorities and instead read the Bible for themselves.

Luther argued that ordinary people were not only capable of interpreting the scriptures for themselves, but that in doing so they stood the best chance of hearing Gods word. He wrote, Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.

Luthers Bible helped form a common German dialect. Prior to Luther, people from different regions of present-day Germany often experienced great difficulty understanding one another. Luthers Bible translation promoted a single German vernacular, helping to bring people together around a common tongue.

Expanding literacy

This view, combined with the wide availability of scripture, shifted responsibility for scriptural interpretation from clerics to the laity. Luther wanted ordinary people to assume more responsibility for reading the Bible.

In promoting his point of view, Luther helped to provide one of the most effective arguments for universal literacy in the history of Western civilization.

At a time when most people worked in farming, reading was not necessary to maintain a livelihood. But Luther wanted to remove the language barrier so that everyone could read the Bible without hindrance. His rationale for wanting people both to learn to read and to read regularly was, from his point of view, among the most powerful imaginable  that reading it for themselves would bring them closer to God.

For much of Luthers life, his remarkable output in theological treatises was exceeded only by his Bible commentaries. He believed that nothing could substitute for direct and ongoing encounters with scripture, which he both advocated for and helped to shape through his detailed commentaries.

Luther had many reasons to favor the dissemination of learning. He was a university professor. His 95 Theses were intended as an academic disputation. His teaching and scholarship played a crucial role in the development of his theology. Finally, he recognized the crucial role students would play in carrying his movement forward.

So powerfully did Luthers influence reverberate down through the ages that, during a visit to Germany in 1934, Rev. Michael King Sr. chose to change both his and his sons name to Martin Luther King. MLK Jr., namesake of the great German reformer, would make full use of the power of free speech in catalyzing the American civil rights movement.

In posting his 95 Theses, Luther was encouraging a vigorous exchange of ideas. The best community is not the one that suppresses dissent but one that challenges ideas it finds objectionable through rigorous argumentation. It is largely for this reason that the founders of the United States took so seriously freedom of religion, free association and the protection of a free press.

Luther trusted ordinary people to discern the truth. All they needed was the opportunity to interpret what they read for themselves.
BAMBERG -- Bamberg's police chief is apologizing for remarks he made related to eliminating the School Resource Officer Program during a heated meeting to review the city's proposed budget Monday night.

Police Chief George Morris claimed that the SRO Program is not working and that he has no control over the SRO officers in the schools. He also criticized the lack of action by the high school resource officer, saying he had spoken with a number of parents and kids about rampant drug and sex activities at Bamberg-Ehrhardt.

Morris suggested the majority of the athletes at the high school were either using or selling drugs.

Bamberg-Ehrhardt High Assistant Principal Jordan Smith pushed back, asking Morris, Are you saying all our athletes?

Some, Morris responded.

His claims caused an uproar in the community in the aftermath of Monday's meeting, prompting Richard Carroll Elementary School PTO President Trent Kinard to post the following statement on the RCES PTO Facebook page Wednesday morning: "As your PTO president, I felt it my obligation to share this on our RCES PTO page. I have four children in the Bamberg school district and a wife that teaches at the high school. I value them more than money, titles, anything and as a concerned father, husband -- this is appalling to me. I read the (Times and Democrat) article in disbelief as we are talking about doing away with our school resource officers.

He defended the work of a specific SRO, saying she is one of the most professional officers that I have ever met. She not only does her job but she does it the way it should be done with respect for others. She is a vital part of our school community.

Folks, we are in one of the most trying times in American history with school shootings occurring at a rate never before seen. We have seen a spike in violence not only at schools but also in communities around this country, and now is the time to do away with SROs? We have an obligation to our children to protect them when they are at school and we must.

"I was very disappointed in the comments made by the chief of police when he stated that all athletes are either using drugs or are selling drugs. I will be asking that he make a public apology to the students of Bamberg-Ehrhardt.

"The Bamberg City Council will meet again on Friday at 3:45 p.m. at the Bamberg City Hall. It is open to the public if you would like to have your voice heard as a parent. Please plan on attending."

The Bamberg Police Department on Thursday morning released the following statement from Morris: "I would like to apologize to (Superintendent) Mrs. (Phyllis) Schwarting and the high school staff and especially to the high school athletes when I misspoke about drug use.

As far as I know, no B-E athlete has been cited for drugs or drug use. We have had a few incidents at the high school, but it is very rare. I do feel the SRO needs to run a tighter ship. Budget restraints have brought the police department and the city to the realization that this is a program that we cannot afford at this time. The school district now funds half of the officer's salary. They can continue with one SRO with these funds."

Morris had previously proposed eliminating the SRO Program for Bamberg School District One and reducing the police department's current force from 11 budgeted officers to eight officers.

He said he made the proposal because the city is short of money and the streets of Bamberg are suffering due to the officers being assigned to the schools part of each year.

Bamberg 1 supports half of the salary, fringe benefits and other necessities for the two officers that are currently assigned to the schools during the 180-day school year, with the city picking up the other half of the tab.

At Monday's budget committee meeting, Morris noted that with his proposal, the police department would lose two positions currently open to attrition and would cut one additional position for a $95,000 savings.

He said his officers would respond to any calls from the schools, suggesting the district could also approach the Bamberg County Sheriffs Office for school resource officers.

Bamberg City Council's budget committee will meet at 3:45 p.m. Friday.

First reading of the budget will be held at the council's regular meeting on June 12, with a public hearing and final reading tentatively scheduled for June 22.
Gene Gartman Jr. has announced that he is running for Orangeburg City Council.

In a prepared statement, Gartman said he can make a positive impact though actions, not words.

Gartman is seeking the District 3 seat in the Sept. 12 City Council election.

If elected, he wants to make it easier for citizens to address City Council. He believes they should be able to announce their intention to speak to council up to the day of a meeting.

Gartman says with his background as a U.S. Army Gold Badge Recruiter and in education, private and public service, he feels he can make Orangeburg a better place for businesses to come to and people to live.

Gartman was born and raised in Orangeburg. He graduated from Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School and attended The Citadel. He graduated from Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y. with his associate and bachelors degrees in liberal studies with a focus in administration and management.

He retired from the regular active U.S. Army in 2006 and moved from his home in Orange Park, Fla. in 2007.

Gartman opened his own medical staffing agency after arriving in Orangeburg. He ran it until it closed in December 2010.

He then started working with the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce as the disabled veterans outreach program coordinator for Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties. He assisted veterans with resumes, cover letters, job searches and other items.

After two years, Gartman went to work for the Orangeburg Social Security Administration as a service representative for roughly another two years. He assisted people with their disability claims, SSA and SSI, retirement filings, spousal benefits and a range of services such as initial claims, appeals and hearings.

Gartman left the SSA after two years and now volunteers as the marketing and outreach specialist for the Dalton House for Veterans and Non-Veterans Transitional Housing and Permanent Housing.

He also serves as executive director for the Help U Project, which he says is focused on helping the needy one person at a time.

Gartmans press release says he can impact Orangeburg with his business acumen, having run a successful business, his public service at state and federal agencies, and his focus on crime prevention, keeping DPU rates down, and city taxes and property taxes down and doing more with less.

He said his ear is bent to everyone.

Filing for the City of Orangeburgs Sept. 12 election begins June 14 and ends June 28. The District 3 seat is currently held by Councilman Charles H. Buddy Barnwell.

Gartman is asking supporters to contact him at 803-662-6825.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced the Lake Marion Regional Water Agency will receive $4.7 million.

These funds, combined with significant state and local funding, will extend the agencys reach to Ridgeville, S.C. in Dorchester County, Congressman Jim Clyburn said in a release.

The WIIN Act, passed last year, authorized the expansion of the project, which will eventually serve the new Volvo site in Berkeley County, Clyburn said.

The Volvo manufacturing facility is expected to create over 4,000 new jobs and is one of most significant economic development projects for South Carolina in decades.

Without critical infrastructure like the Lake Marion water agency, companies like Volvo would locate elsewhere, he said.

The Corps is also setting aside $17.5 million to begin the Charleston Harbor deepening project.

Clyburn said, While this funding is welcome news and will allow the project to begin, I am concerned about future funding of the project.

President Trumps budget request for 2018, released this week, fails to include any funding for the Charleston Harbor deepening, instead prioritizing funding for harbor and navigation projects elsewhere.

The Corps is also allocating an additional $7.2 million for beach restoration in Myrtle Beach following erosion and damage from Hurricane Matthew.
Orangeburg County will have a new fire coordinator when the current leader retires on June 2.

Orangeburg County Fire System Coordinator Gene Ball, 74, will step down from his role in the county fire district. Ball has served as the top official in the district since its formation in 1997.

Ball will remain with the fire district, serving as a project manager and consultant reporting to the Fire Commission. He also plans to volunteer with the Vance Fire Department.

Orangeburg County Chief Fire Operations Officer Teddy Wolfe will become the county fire service director.

Orangeburg County Fire Commission members on Monday unanimously voted to hire Wolfe at an annual salary of $69,500.

"I think he is the most qualified person for this job in the state of South Carolina," Ball said. "His qualities far exceed most all of your fire personnel management in this state, really and truly."

The commission considered another person from Kentucky, but Wolfe's qualifications were deemed ideal.

Wolfe, 44, has served the Orangeburg County Fire District for 17 years as the chief fire operations officer.

A 1991 Edisto High School graduate, Wolfe received his bachelors degree in fire science from Columbia Southern University in 2013.

He served about three years with the United States Navy as a shipboard firefighter.

Wolfe began working with the fire service at the age of 16 as a volunteer firefighter with the Cordova Fire Department. He progressed through the ranks as firefighter, lieutenant, captain and assistant chief.

He was also a member of the Eutawville Fire Department, serving as interim chief.

Wolfe was previously employed with Orangeburg County Emergency Medical Services as a medical technician and eventually a paramedic.

Ball said while he will cut down on his workload, there are a few fire department construction projects he will need to work on as well as other procedural and administrative tasks.

He said he will not be managing Wolfe, who knows what to do."

Following Monday's decision, several officials from various fire departments around the district offered words of support to Wolfe.

"I can't tell you how humbled I am that the commission has chosen me and the support you guys and gals have been by showing yourself here tonight," Wolfe said. "Volunteers are the backbone of fire service in Orangeburg County and they will continue to be. I hope that we can continue to progress as we move forward.

I accept the challenge and I look forward to working with you."

Ball was a charter member of the Santee District Volunteer Fire Department. He served as co-chief of the department in the early 1990s, a position he held for about 18 months.

In November 1992, Ball was named chief of the Santee Fire Department.

During his tenure, the Santee fire district's Insurance Services Organization rating improved to a Class 4.

Ball has received certification through the S.C. Fire Academy as a fire marshal.

He was an early advocate for a countywide fire protection system. Orangeburg County voters approved the countywide system in 1996.

Today, the fire district is comprised of 23 fire departments, 35 stations, about 400 volunteers and 172 pieces of apparatus including pumpers, tankers and service trucks.

In addition to his role in firefighting, Ball is also pastor of Santee Bible Church and currently serves as chaplain for the South Carolina State Association of Fire Chiefs.
Throughout the Trump-Russia investigation, the core question -- the question that mattered above all others -- was whether President Donald Trump or his associates colluded with Russia to try to influence the 2016 election. If there were proof of that, the effect on Trump's presidency would have been devastating, and possibly fatal.

The problem, for the confederation of Democrats, pundits, Obama holdovers and NeverTrumpers who hoped to see that result, has been that so far, after a lot of investigating, no evidence has emerged that collusion actually occurred. Although they allowed that previously unknown proof could always emerge, some of the lawmakers most deeply involved in the investigation, and most closely in touch with the intelligence community and law enforcement working on the probe, conceded there appeared to be no there there.

That was then. Now, rather than focusing on alleged collusion, the thrust of leaks in recent days has been directed almost exclusively toward building a case of obstruction of justice against the president, charging that he actively tried to derail the investigation into his campaign and his associates. More and more, day after day, Trump's adversaries believe that, when it comes to bringing down the president, it might not matter if collusion occurred or not. A cover-up would be enough to do the job.

The Trump-Russia case could become the ultimate illustration of the old Washington saying that it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. In this case, there might be no underlying crime at all.

The latest story in the cover-up timeline broke Monday night in the Washington Post. Citing current and former officials, the paper reported that Trump called the Director of National Intelligence and the head of the National Security Agency to enlist their help to "push back" against the FBI investigation and to "publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election."

Before that came a spate of reports and developments, all arising out of Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey.

First, the White House portrayed the firing as 1) not Trump's doing, and 2) not related to the Russia investigation.

Then Trump told NBC's Lester Holt that he had in fact decided to fire Comey because "this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story."

Then, with accusations of obstruction in the air, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed a special counsel to investigate the Russia affair. Rosenstein specifically gave that prosecutor, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, authority to pursue any "federal crimes arising from the investigation" and specifically referenced 28 CFR 600.4(a), which is the part of the Code of Federal Regulations dealing with special counsels and obstruction: "The jurisdiction of a Special Counsel shall also include the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel's investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses; and to conduct appeals arising out of the matter being investigated and/or prosecuted."

Then the New York Times reported that Comey wrote contemporaneous memos of his interactions with the president, and that during one of those interactions Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation into fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Then the Times reported Trump, in an Oval Office meeting, bragged to Russia's foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S. that firing Comey relieved Trump of "great pressure" in the Russia investigation.

As each revelation came, there was more talk of obstruction. (A Google search of "Trump" and "obstruction of justice" Monday night drew 597,000 hits.) Democrat after Democrat suggested Trump might have engaged in obstruction, while the list of Democrats calling for impeachment grew long enough for party leaders to worry about the situation escalating too soon. The newest stories will do nothing to slow things down, even with the president on a foreign trip.

Before Trump fired Comey, a likely conclusion of the Russia affair was coming into view. Flynn would be in trouble for his connections to Turkey and possible violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort would be in trouble for some sort of sleazy business dealing in Ukraine. Maybe another figure or two from TrumpWorld would get into trouble, as well, but in ways tangential to the investigation. There would be scalps for Democrats to celebrate, but the most consequential issue -- collusion -- would end in nothing.

That was before Comey was sacked. Now, the investigation has taken what is for Trump a more ominous turn. Focusing on alleged obstruction, the president's enemies no longer have to find an underlying crime to attempt to remove him from office.

All the while, some Republicans have found themselves asking over and over: But what about collusion? Remember that? If there's no crime at the bottom of the Russia affair, then isn't all of this just much ado about nothing?

The answer is no. Certainly Trump has good arguments to make in his defense, beginning with what legally constitutes obstruction. But after the last two weeks, his supporters can no longer assume that his detractors will have to find an underlying crime to make big trouble for the president.
NOUAKCHOTT -- Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz said Friday that Mauritania supports and stands ready to participate in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Speaking during a meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Aziz said Mauritania would like to further enhance coordination with China on issues such as the reform of the UN Security Council so as to jointly safeguard the benefits of developing countries, especially African countries.

Expressing his appreciation to China's long-term support and assistance, Aziz said that Mauritania attaches high importance to its relations with China, adding that the rapid development of bilateral relations in recent years has brought about concrete benefits to the Mauritanian people.

He said Mauritania stays open to China and welcomes Chinese companies to invest in the country and enhance cooperation in industries including mining, fishery and manufacturing.

Aziz also hoped that China would provide help to the development of Sahel G5, a regional mechanism established to safeguard regional peace and stability.

For his part, Wang said Aziz had reached broad consensus with Chinese President Xi Jinping when visiting China in 2015, and the consensus has been carried out in a practical manner.

Wang said China supports Mauritania's path of development that suits the nation's conditions, and the two countries have always understood and supported each other, citing the Chinese-aided Friendship Harbor in Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, which has become a model for China-Africa cooperation.

Meanwhile, he said Chinese companies' participation in the road construction projects at present is helping the country's development.

Wang said China encourages Chinese companies to invest in Mauritania and cooperate with the country in areas including sea port construction, mining development and maritime economy, so as to help Mauritania grow its economy, improve people's livelihoods, and gradually establish its own industrial system and the capacity for independent development.

"China also hopes that Mauritania will provide a sound environment for the investment and operations of Chinese companies," he said.

He said China supports the Sahel G5 mechanism, and is willing to work with Mauritania in improving the country's peacekeeping and law enforcement capabilities.

"China and Mauritania, being both developing countries, should further enhance coordination and cooperation on international matters," said Wang, adding that China's vote in the United Nations always belongs to developing and African countries.
Maybe our senators think memories are short in Orangeburg. We had a county school board. These good citizens were giving of their time for the benefit of education.

Our two senators decided without notice or explanation to abolish that board. So have they already selected the people they want on their board? Do we have to pay for another election?

How will this new superintendent be selected? Have they already selected one of their own?

If the citizens are not allowed a vote on this bill to consolidate Orangeburg County school districts, we certainly can make our voices heard in the next general election. We will not forget.

Louise Hughes, Orangeburg

Consolidation, not merger

I have read two of your recent articles about the pending bill that would consolidate school districts in Orangeburg County. A lot of the "range of views" can be attributed to the use of the word merger interchangeably with consolidation.

The bill clearly calls for consolidation -- a new entity, with a new name. It does not state or imply one or more districts being merged into and existing district.

Merger -- District 5 + District 4 + District 3 = District 5

Consolidation -- District 5 + District 4 + District 3 = Orangeburg County School District

Help the citizens understand, don't contribute to the misunderstanding.

James L. Myers, Orangeburg

Dont Fry Day

What follows Wednesday and Thursday? This week, its Dont Fry Day  an occasion to raise awareness for sun safety and encourage everyone to protect their skin.

An estimated 5.6 million Americans will confront skin cancer in 2017. Unfortunately, the all natural movement puts millions more at risk by advocating against common sunscreens.

In its sunscreen guide released this week, EWG attacks oxybenzone, one of our most effective broad-spectrum (UVA and UVB) protectants, and Vitamin A, an antioxidant that prevents the suns aging effects. But dermatologists say it would take 200 years of regularly applying either of these ingredients before youd ever see a health effect. Conversely, just 15 minutes of fun in the sun can damage your skin.

Fear over sunscreen nanoparticles is also farfetched. The tiny particles clump together, which prevents your body from absorbing them. Plus, when natural mineral ingredients like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are small enough, they dont leave that annoying white residue on your skin (good bye lifeguard nose!).

In reality, sunscreens face the same rigorous safety screenings as over-the-counter medications. So as you splash your way into warmer months, remember to lather up and trust the science of SPF for a sunburn-free summer.

Dr. Joseph Perrone

Chief Science Officer

Center for Accountability in Science

Washington, D.C.
COLUMBIA -- In observance of Memorial Day, May 29, the South Carolina National Guard is pausing to remember those who paid the ultimate price in defense of freedom, along with the memory of 16 soldiers from their ranks who lost their lives in the Global War on Terror.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 19,000 South Carolina Army and Air National Guard men and women have answered America's call and deployed overseas. This Memorial Day, there are more than 300 soldiers from the S.C. National Guard deployed to various regions.

"Life and liberty are precious gifts. On Memorial Day, we remember those selfless patriots who did not return home to their loved ones while serving our nation," said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston Jr., South Carolina adjutant general. "Freedom often comes at a cost. It is important to always remember the families these heroes leave behind."

Five have died in Operation Iraqi Freedom:

Pvt. Algernon Adams - 36, of Aiken; assigned to the 122nd Engineer Battalion, S.C. Army National Guard, Edgefield; died Oct. 28, 2003, of non-combat-related injuries at Forward Operating Base St. Mere, Falluja, Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Patrick Leach - 39, of Rock Hill; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment, South Carolina Army National Guard, Columbia; died Dec. 9, 2004, in an Apache helicopter accident in Mosul, Iraq. Leach died when his AH-64 collided with a UH-60 helicopter during a night mission.

Staff Sgt. Jerome Lemon - 42, of North Charleston; assigned to the 1052nd Transportation Company, South Carolina Army National Guard, Kingstree; killed Oct. 27, 2004, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Balad, Iraq.

1st Lt. Andrew Shields - 25, of Campobello; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment, South Carolina Army National Guard, Columbia; died Dec. 9, 2004, in an Apache helicopter accident in Mosul, Iraq. Shields died when his AH-64 collided with a UH-60 helicopter during a night mission.

Master Sgt. Thomas Thigpen, Sr. - 52, of Augusta, Georgia. Thigpen died in Camp Virginia, Kuwait (north of Kuwait City), of non-combat-related injuries. He was assigned to the 151st Signal Battalion, Greenville. Thigpen died on March 16, 2004.

Eleven have died in Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan:

Sgt. Stephen High - 45, of Spartanburg; assigned to the 228th Signal Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard, Spartanburg; killed April 6, 2005 when the CH-47 helicopter in which he was riding crashed in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Spc. Chrystal Stout - 23, of Travelers Rest; assigned to the 228th Signal Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard, Spartanburg; killed April 6, 2005 when the CH-47 helicopter in which she was riding crashed in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. James Bullard - 28, of Marion; assigned to the South Carolina National Guard's 1st Battalion, 263rd Armor Regiment, in Marion; died Oct. 30, 2007, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using rocket-propelled grenade fire, machine gun fire, mortars and small-arms fire during combat operations.

Sgt. Edward Philpot - 38, of Latta; he was killed from a non-combat-related Humvee rollover accident in Afghanistan Oct. 3, 2007. Philpot was assigned to 1st Battalion, 263rd Armor Regiment, South Carolina National Guard, Dillon.

Sgt. Shawn Hill - 37, of Wellford; assigned to the 178th Engineer Battalion, 218th Infantry Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard, Rock Hill; died Jan. 2, 2008, in Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. David Leimbach - 38, of Taylors; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 118th Infantry, Fountain Inn, and attached to the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry (Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition), New York Army National Guard; died May 25, 2008, near Bala Baluk, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when his unit was attacked with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Staff Sgt. Willie Harley - 48, of Aiken; assigned to the 1221st Engineer Clearance Company, Graniteville; died Oct. 1, 2010, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his military vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. Luther Rabon - 32, of Lexington; assigned to the 1221st Engineer Clearance Company, Graniteville; died Oct. 1, 2010, in the Paktika province, Afghanistan. Rabon was killed when the vehicle he was riding in struck an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. John "J.D." David Meador II - 36, of Columbia; assigned to 133rd Military Police Company, Florence; died June 20, 2012 in Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.

1st Lt. Ryan Davis Rawl - 30, of Lexington; assigned to 133rd Military Police Company, 51st Military Police Battalion, Florence.; died June 20, 2012, in Khost, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Bradford "Brad" Thomas - 30, of Travelers Rest; assigned to 133rd Military Police Company, Florence; died June 20, 2012, in Khost province, Afghanistan, of wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.
Taxi Operators at the Argyle International Airport have thrown up a challenge for the airport management.

"Sixty-five dollars from Argyle Airport to Kingstown just cant make it.





This was how one taxi operator at the Argyle International Airport reacted when he and his colleagues got wind, late last week of a rate (price) sheet with which they must comply.





Reports are that the taxi operators at the AIA were summoned to a meeting with the airport manager  Barbadian Hadley Bourne, who presented to them the new rate sheet, and informed them that non-compliance with same would result in them being removed from the airport.





According to information reaching THE VINCENTIAN, the new rates were fixed by the Ministry of Tourism without any final consultation with the taxi operators and/or their representative body  the SVG Taxi Association (SVGTA).





The rates are computed on a base charge of $30.00 for the first three miles of a trip and $5.00 for each additional mile. The ten-mile journey from Argyle to Kingstown works out to be $30.00 for the first 3 miles and $5.00 for each of the remaining 7 miles, i.e. $35.00, thus the total charge of $65.00

Inquiries by this publication confirmed that the new rates were fixed by the Ministry of Tourism, after officials there had received reports of over charging by some operators.





Another operator told THE VINCENTIAN, they (taxi operators) had proposed $75.00 for the Argyle to Kingstown trip, "but it look like the bigger ones just discard us so.





In reacting to this , an official of the SVGTA sought to establish a case that those who would have found it "advantageous to overcharge were in the minority, and they would be investigated once the relevant information, e.g. registration number of vehicle and registration number assigned to the operator  were made known to the Association.





The official also took umbrage with what he said was total disregard for the proposals that his Association had submitted for consideration, which , he added, he expected to have been discussed with his Association before a final decision with respect to adjusting the rates.





Another operator told THE VINCENTIAN, they (taxi operators) had proposed $75.00 for the Argyle to Kingstown trip, "but it look like the bigger ones just discard us so.





Taxi Operators at the AIA are required to pay an annual operators fee of $150.00, in addition to $50.00 for an official authorised stamp of approval by the Ministry of Tourism.





But all is not lost, says another taxi operator. There is still hope that officials from the Ministry of Tourism and the Transport Board would sit with the SVGTA to work out an amicable solution.
Ali Gibson (centre) convicted murder  being led away to the her Majestys Prison, from which he will return to know his fate.

The prosecution will be seeking the death penalty in the case of convicted murderer Ali Gibson, 39, of Diamond.





Crown Counsel Karim Nelson gave the High Court notice of this Wednesday afternoon, after a 12-member jury, comprised of 11 women and one man, found Gibson guilty of murdering 21-year-ld Lakeitha Duke, 12 years ago.





The jury took close to three hours to return the verdict.





The matter has been adjourned to today (Friday) for mitigation.





The nude body of Duke, a Diamond resident at the time of her death, was discovered in bushes on a pasture at Diamond on the morning of August 13, 2005. A two-strand rope was tightly bound around her neck.

An autopsy showed that she was strangled.

The prosecutions case was that Duke was sexually assaulted and killed sometime between August 11 and 13, 2005.





Their case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence, as there was no evidence as to anybody seeing who killed Duke.





The evidence included DNA analysis done at the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.





FBI DNA expert Eric Pokorak testified via video link from the United States last week Tuesday, May 16.

In his closing arguments on Tuesday, Crown Counsel Karim Nelson used the rope issue as an analogy for his case. He, however, noted that while the rope that strangled Duke had two strands, the prosecutions rope had three.





He went on to explain that on the first strand, witnesses Cosmore Glasgow and Maureen Daniel, both Diamond residents, testified that they were at Daniels gate at Diamond when they saw Gibson walking about 25 ft.

behind Duke around 8:30 pm on August 12, 2005. It was the last time Duke was seen alive.





On the second strand, Nelson pointed out that, based on the experts testimony, Gibsons semen was found in Dukes vagina, and thirdly, Dukes blood was found on the pants Gibson was wearing at the time of his arrest on August 13, 2005.





The defences case was that Gibson was not the killer. While Gibsons lawyer Euchrista Bruce-Lyle did not challenge the results of the DNA analysis, she took issue with the way the samples and other items were collected, packaged and stored in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, prior to them being taken to the FBI laboratory in the United States.





She indicated that there was a possibility that they could have been mixed up, contaminated or tampered with, and therefore, the jury could not be sure that the samples allegedly taken from Gibson were indeed his.

She noted that none of the doctors who collected the samples gave evidence to verify anything, and that there was no other evidence to corroborate that of the investigator, Selwyn Jack, a retired Sergeant of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF).





However, Nelson had said in his arguments what was important was that there was continuity in the chain of custody. He pointed out that the samples and other items were packaged, labelled, stored and ultimately taken to the FBI laboratory in the U.S. He added that what was shown in Court and identified by Jack were also identified by Pokorak as being the samples submitted for analysis.





In her summation, Justice Latchoo told the jury that the issue as to whether Jacks evidence, by itself, was reliable or not, was a matter for the jury to decide. She, however, explained that it was not necessary for everybody who handled the samples to testify.





Gibson opted not to testify at the trial, and did not call any witnesses. But in a caution statement, he had given to the police, he said he went to the home of Diamond resident Kenneth Bolo Barzie close to 4 p.m. August 12, 2005. He left about 5:40 p.m., went back to Barzies home and left between 9 and 10 p.m.

Gibson was charged with Dukes murder on October 10, 2006, after the results from the DNA analysis were received. He was at the time serving a sentence for robbery. He was committed to stand trial on the murder charge in 2007.
The St Vincent and the Grenadines Rowing Association is in search of a female para rower to partner Devin Richards.





This, if St Vincent and the Grenadines wants to enter any of the International Rowing Federation (FISA) Paralympics Regattas (name given to such competition events).





Born with incomplete leg formation making him unable to walk unaided, Devin, now 18 years old, is a resident of Calder, and is one of a triplet of boys, the others being Devonthe and Devon.





Devin said he was told that he was lodged between his two two brothers during his mothers pregnancy, hence he "got squeezed, which may have resulted in his deformity.





However, with the aid of prosthetics (artificial lower limbs in his case) from the age of six, Devin has been able to live a normal life.





So much so, the teenager has embarked on a new and unexpected challenge.

Devin recently attended the Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota- Bradenton, Florida, USA, where he got a formal introduction to the sport of rowing.





His class included representatives from Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Great Britain and host country, the United States of America.





A total novice to the sport before his USA trip, Devin stunned the facilities and his colleagues when he ventured out with the scull at the camp.





Devin was in the stern and with Chris Meyer of the USA in the bow, clocked 11 minutes 37 second to beat out the Chile/ Trinidad and Tobago pair of Wladimir Cardenas and Keith Richards, whose time was 12 minutes.

"I am not a beach person I never tried the sport before I had to row without my prosthetics The only assistance I needed was to hold the boat, but I did well as I listened to the instructions and even won a race, Devin said with a smirk





Having whetted his feet, Devin is hopeful that a female Vincentian para -rower can be identified so that they can compete in more regattas as a mixed team.





Secretary General of the SVG Rowing Association- Nicha Brancker confirmed that her organisation was on a search for such an individual, so that St Vincent and the Grenadines could get an opportunity to show their wares in para-rowing.





Rowing made its Paralympics debut at the Beijing 2008.

New Prosthetics





Devins trip to the USA, turned out to be of twofold benefit. In addition to his exposure to the sport of rowing, he was able to have a new pair of prosthetics fitted in Tallahassee.





This came about through the initiative of the Caribbean American Educational Organisation, which provides medical missions to poor countries, and assists with medical bills as well as complex medical procedures.

Devins new prosthetics were donated by the Rehab Engineering and carries a price tag of US $ 2500.

A thankful Devin Richards noted that the new legs have been of considerable help. He now walks without the assistance of a cane.





"I got the first one (prosthetics) at age six and I have outgrown that one  This new one is better as its fits me perfect, Devin stated.





A student of the St Clair Dacon Secondary School, Devin said that he will be able to move more freely, and be able to climb stairs better, as he continues his hobby of being a part time disc jockey.
The overflow of cases coming out of the annual Scoliosis Clinic in November, 2016, have received due attention.





Some nineteen children who had had to be referred, received their consultations during the World Pediatric Project (WPP) Scoliosis Clinic, held on Sunday, 14th May.





The WPP surgical team, new to St. Vincent and the Grenadines but not new to such missions, was led by Kate Corbett, who attended skillfully to the logistics. Other team members were: Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon - Dr. Steven Hwang; Orthopedic Surgery Fellow - Dr. Andrew Vivas; Adult Orthopedic Surgeon - Vincentian Dr. Charles Woods; Adult Orthopedic Specialist from Trinidad and Tobago  Vincentian Dr. Kirani White; Paediatric Anesthesiologist - Dr. Michael Schwartz; OR nurse - , Jan Steinieck; Neuro-monitoring Specialist - Heather Greenberg; Physicians Assistant; and Heather Keeney.

Of the nineteen children seen, eight were identified for surgical procedures.

The first day of surgery, May 15, listed fifteen-year-old Hadassah Alexander of St. Lucia as Patient Number One.





When her spinal fusion intervention was complete, Hadassah became the 50th patient to have undergone such a procedure, since the WPP commenced scoliosis surgeries in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in 2009.





The Hadassah Alexander Story





Webmd.com describes Scoliosis as a condition which causes the spine to curve towards the side. Spinal fusion is a surgical procedure that attaches rods, hooks, wires and /or screws to the curved part of the backbone, in order to straighten the spine.





Hadassahs journey towards spinal fusion was not an easy one. According to her mother, Mrs. Philomene Alexander, Hadassah was twelve when a family friend noticed that when she (Hadassah) stood erect, an unevenness was noticeable about her shoulders.





When she subsequently took Hadassah to the doctor, it was for an abnormally curved finger - nothing to do with the curvature off her spine. It was during that visit though, that the doctor explained scoliosis to the Alexanders, and referred Hadassah to the WPP hub in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.





That was 2015. Unfortunately, the curve of Hadassahs spine was becoming more pronounced. Comforting for the Alexanders was a special circle of friends.





"In school, everyone was always so protective of her, Mrs. Alexander said reflectively, "and there was a special group of friends who looked out for her.

By 2015, when the family did come to the Scoliosis Mission, it was with the hope that Hadassah would receive surgical attention. This was not to be.





Mrs. Alexander recalled, "When I looked around and saw the number of children with their backs so much worse than Hadassahs, I knew it wasnt going to happen!





As time wore on, Hadassahs spinal curve became more accentuated. So, when the November 2016 visit didnt end in surgery, she was disappointed, but never lost faith.





When this (May) surgical mission was scheduled to deal with overflows from November 2016, an anxious, moreso desperate, Philomene Alexander and Hadassah travelled to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Hadassahs spinal curve was now what her mother described as "alarmingly advanced compared to former visits.

Faith paid off when Hadassah was reviewed. Hadassah had become critical for intervention and the World Paediatric Project had seized another opportunity to "heal a child, save the world  the 50th child to receive the procedure.





Like the other 49 children, Hadassahs surgery was successful and she is recovering well.

By the end of the mission, on Friday 19th May, the total number of scoliosis surgeries performed by the WPP team had risen to fifty-seven.
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By Azernews





By Sara Israfilbayova

The Government of Slovakia is interested in opening of filling stations of the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR in the country, said Jafar Huseynzadeh, the head of the diplomatic mission of Azerbaijan to Slovakia.

SOCAR, which is the only producer of oil products in Azerbaijan, owns filling stations in Georgia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Romania and Azerbaijan. The total number of SOCAR filling stations amounts to 300.

Huseynzadeh further said that Slovakia is also ready to buy Azerbaijani gas. The Southern Gas Corridor is among the possible directions for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Slovakia in the oil and gas sector, he said.

Today, Azerbaijan exports gas to Turkey and Georgia. After the completion of the construction of the Southern Gas Corridor project, gas from Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field will also be supplied to Europe.

The Azerbaijani gas can be supplied to Slovakia via Eastring gas pipeline as well, Pavol Kubik, the representative of the Slovak company Eustream said earlier.

There is great potential for this, taking into account the fact that the Eastring project is not tied to a particular supplier and is therefore open to gas supplies from any source, according to Kubik.

Initiated by Slovakia in 2014, the Eastring project is designed to connect the gas networks of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. At the first stage, the pipeline will provide the Balkan countries with gas from the European market.

In the future, the gas pipeline can ensure the import of gas to Europe, both from established and alternative sources from the Caspian region and the Middle East.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe. Later, other sources may be connected to the project.

SOCAR is 100 percent owned by the government of Azerbaijan. SOCAR participates in joint ventures (including ventures in Georgia and Turkey), consortia, and operating companies established with SOCARs participation.

The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerkimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.
By Azertac





Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev visited the memorial in honor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in the Istiglaliyyat Street in Baku on May 26.

The guard of honor was arranged around the memorial, Azertac reported.

The head of state laid a wreath at the memorial. The national anthem of Azerbaijan was played.

May 28, 1918, marks the establishment of the ADR, the first independent republic and democratic state on the East. Although it existed for only 23 months, it brought about great progress in foreign policy, and introduced Azerbaijan to the international community.

To appreciate the historical significance of this event not only for Azerbaijan, but also for the entire Islamic world, it is enough to recall that at that time there were only seven independent Muslim states in the world - Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, Emirate of Bukhara, and three small monarchies of Inner Arabia.




By Trend





Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy, US Department of State Robin Dunnigan will visit Azerbaijan.

The US Embassy in Azerbaijan told Trend that Dunnigan will lead a US delegation during the annual international exhibition Caspian Oil & Gas 2017.

The 24th Caspian International Oil & Gas Exhibition will be held in Baku from May 31 to June 3.
By Azernews





By Kamila Aliyeva

A set of documents and agreements was signed in Tashkent on May 25 following a meeting of the Uzbekistan-Turkey Intergovernmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation and the Uzbekistan-Turkey business forum.

The documents and agreements, worth more than $2 billion, envisage the implementation of around 30 projects in pharmaceutics, textile industry, electro-technical, construction and banking sectors.

The state and prospects of trade, economic, financial and technical cooperation between Uzbekistan and Turkey were mulled at the meeting. Uzbekistan and Turkey have great potential for increasing trade turnover, said Rustam Azimov, Uzbek deputy prime minister and co-chair of the intergovernmental commission.

In 2016, the mutual trade turnover between the countries reached $1.2 billion, Azimov added.

This figure does not reflect the potential of the two countries. We have all the opportunities to increase the trade turnover by 3 or 4 times.

Trade and economic relations gained a new momentum thanks to the agreements between the presidents of the two countries, said Tugrul Turkes, Turkeys deputy prime minister and co-chair of the commission from the Turkish side.

We have all the opportunities to implement new promising projects, Turkes said. New areas of cooperation will allow increasing the trade turnover twice in the shortest period.

Turkes mentioned that the most promising areas for expansion of the Uzbekistan-Turkey cooperation are the textile industry, construction materials industry, pharmaceutics, agriculture, food, automotive industries and production of household appliances.

Besides Turkes, Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Nabi Avci, Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci and other officials participated in the meeting.

Turkey became the first country to recognize Uzbekistans independence on 16 December 1991. The diplomatic relations were established between two countries on 4 March 1992.

More than 90 bilateral agreements and protocols were signed to form the legal basis of relations and numerous mutual high-level visits were carried out.

Uzbekistan occupies an important place in terms of regional peace and stability with its population of nearly 30 million, geostrategic position, deep-rooted history, rich cultural values and economic potential. Turkey attaches great importance to the improvement of cooperation with brotherly Uzbekistan in all fields and maintains its willingness to further relations strengthened by the close bonds between Turkish and Uzbek people.

There are currently 700 companies in Uzbekistan with Turkish capital, 100 of which are representation offices. They carry out activities in the sectors of textile, commitment, food, hotel management, building materials, plastic, medication, and service. There are 114 companies in Turkey with Uzbek capital.

In February, Turkey and Uzbekistan signed cooperation agreement to boost economic relations.
For a small group of landowners in northern Wyoming, the final word on whether a contested coal mine will move forward in the small town of Ranchester wont arrive until midsummer.

The five-day hearing closed midday Friday in Sheridan, with few answers for the four parties that testified.

Ramaco, a Lexington, Kentucky-based company, received an early nod from state regulators on its plan to mine coal north of Sheridan, an area heavily mined in the early 20th century and the site of thousands of dollars worth of reclamation due to weak soil and sinkholes from earlier mining. The last mining operations in the region, by Big Horn Coal, closed in the mid-1980s.

The Brook Mine would be the first new coal operation in decades in the state but has been stalled by a slew of legal and regulatory proceedings in the last few years.

Local landowners say they fear the worst if Ramaco begins operations next door, as laid out in its plan, which begins mining at the confluence of the Tongue River and Goose Creek. Big Horn Coal argues that Ramaco drew its permit boundary to include land already permitted to Big Horn. The coal company also shares locals concerns that Ramacos plan lacks the finer details to safely mine in the area.

Ramaco has repeatedly contested these complaints, particularly those of Big Horn Coal, a potential rival.

The final party in the mix is the Department of Environmental Quality, which is defending its decision to determine that the mine plan was technically accurate.

After declining a request from the Powder River Basin Resource Council for an informal hearing on the plan in February, the matter was placed before the Environmental Quality Council, an independent board that hears contested cases and approves new rules or regulations.

***

At the end of five days of testimony, a final decision is only slightly closer than it was last week.

Its hard to read the tea leaves, said Shannon Anderson, a lawyer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, the landowners group contesting Ramacos plan. The whole week was confusing on some levels.

The strongest defense for Ramacos plan came from witnesses for the DEQ, who defended the states decision to approve the mine plan over the course of three days.

Keith Guille, a spokesman for the DEQ, described the hearing as another opportunity for the public to be a part of regulatory decisions.

We believe that the permit is technically adequate, Guille said. That doesnt mean we are done here. We will take those comments back with us, but keep in mind this is a contested case and we need to let the EQC make a determination.

Ramacos CEO Randall Atkins said in a statement Friday that he hoped his company would be able to move forward after the final hearing.

We are confident that the evidence and testimony presented, has demonstrated both the technical and engineering professionalism of the DEQ in reaching their original decision that Ramaco had complied with all of the requirements necessary for its Brook Mine permit, he said.

Former coal miners Anton Bocek and Brooke Collins both testified that they were worried blasting would destroy the foundations of their homes, which sit close to the proposed mine site. Collins lives in a historic rock church in the former coal town of Monarch, within walking distance of the Brook mine boundary. Boceks family homestead also sits close by.

A second-generation coal miner, Bocek raised concerns about water. According to the letter of the law, mining companies are responsible for groundwater impacts outside of the mine boundary, meaning if wells go dry, the company would be obligated to make amends, the landowners argue.

One common complaint by landowners was that they had limited avenues to contest what seemed like incomplete plans for new mining before the Department of Environmental Quality made its preliminary determination on the plan.

The DEQ disagrees, as it sought public comment after its preliminary review, which brought the matter before the EQC.

From subsidence  the phenomenon when weakened soil caves in  to burning coal seams to contamination of the Tongue River, locals felt Ramaco was inadequately prepared and the state regulators too swift in their determination that the mine plan was sufficient.

Its been hard to get the information that landowners need in order to move on with their lives, said Gillian Malone, a member of the council since 1972, at the hearing Friday morning. You need to know what is going to happen in your backyard if you are going to be able to sleep at night. And we have not gotten that from this proposal.

The council started asking questions about the mine early on but found little to assuage its concerns, she said.

***

Confusion about the mine may have been exacerbated by Ramacos evolution since it first proposed the Brook Mine years ago, the company admitted in earlier interviews.

Ramaco originally planned a relatively modest mine operation compared with the large open pit mines in Campbell County. Now their intentions are far broader, with the Brook Mine providing the resource for studying alternative uses for coal at a large complex adjacent to the mine. The coal industry has changed in the years since Ramaco first sought to dig for coal. Its leaders admit that using coal to make carbon fiber products, for example, may offer a stronger business than selling coal for electricity use like other Powder River Basin companies.

Such an enterprise would draw high-paying jobs and increase the value of Wyomings coal at a time when burning it for electricity production is compromised, the owners have said in earlier interviews with the Star-Tribune.

Politicians from Sheridan and neighboring towns have been largely supportive of the mine, which they hope would bring jobs and local revenue.

In his statement Friday, Atkins reiterated the benefits the mine and the proposed carbon center could bring to the area.

We feel strongly that the Brook Mine, the Wyoming iPark and the iCAM will be of significant long term benefit to the Sheridan and Wyoming economy and their communities, Atkins said.

Atkins told the Star-Tribune in previous interviews that he believed the mine plan provided a safe proposal for beginning operations. Big Horns objections, he said, were a delay tactic.

The date to continue the Brook hearing has not been set but is likely to take place in mid-June in Cheyenne. The Powder River Basin Resource Council has expert witnesses to testify on the likely geologic and hydrogeological impact of Ramacos mine. The Kentucky company will be allowed rebuttal witnesses.
LONGMONT, Colo.  Authorities say three workers were injured in an oil tank fire in northern Colorado.

Roger Rademacher, chief of the Mountain View Fire Battalion, said one worker was seriously injured and the other two suffered moderate injuries Thursday afternoon at the site owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. Their names have not been released.

Investigators with the Weld County Sheriff's Office say it's possible maintenance was being done on the oil tanks when the fire broke out. No other details were released.

The site is about 4 miles north of an Anadarko gas well in Firestone that was linked to a fatal home explosion in April.
Friday support meetings

Alcoholics Anonymous: 6:30 a.m., 917 N. Beech; 8:30 a.m., 500 S. Wolcott; 10 a.m., 328 E. A; noon, 500 S. Wolcott; 2 p.m., 917 N. Beech; 5:30 p.m., 1124 Elma, Imitate the Image Church; 5:30 p.m., 328 E. A; 8 p.m., 328 E. A; 8 p.m., 328-1/2 E. A, closed; 8 p.m., 917 N. Beech; 10 p.m., 917 N. Beech. Douglas: 7:30 p.m., 628 E. Richards (upstairs in back). Unless otherwise noted, Casper info: 266-9578; Douglas info: (307) 351-1688.

Narcotics Anonymous: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 6 p.m., 500 S. Wolcott, 12-24 Club; 8:30 p.m., 302 E. 2nd St., Methodist Church. Web site: www.urmrna.org.

Overeaters Anonymous: 10 a.m., 12-24 Club, 500 S. Wolcott. Info: Candace, 359-6225; Rebekah, 320-6779.

Al-Anon Family: Noon, 500 S. Wolcott, Ste. 200, 12-24 Club, all ages welcome. Info: 377-7260 or 258-1444.

International Addictions Program: 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1800 S. Conwell. Info: 266-5417.

LGTBQ AA/NA: 7 p.m., A 12-Step AA/NA Recovery Group for gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual and questioning persons meets at the United Church of Christ, located at the corner of 15th and Melrose. Info: 259-5026.

Cruzin with the Oldies starts

The 17th annual Cruzin With The Oldies starts at 10 a.m. with the Greiner Ford Mustang Show at 3333 CY Avenue. Greiner Ford is the host for registration and awards at the dealership on Friday.

Again this year there will be an All Mopar Show at Fremont Motors at 10 a.m. at the dealership at 6101 E. Second St. in Casper. Fremont Motors is the host for registration and awards at the dealership on Friday.

New this year, Fremont Volkswagen is hosting a import and tuner show at the VW dealership. This will also be at 10 a.m., adjacent to Fremont Motors Chrysler dealership. It will be the host for registration and awards on Friday for the import show.

Learn about Airbnb

The Natrona County Library will offer an Airbnb class from 10 a.m. to noon. Learn how to navigate the site and create listings. Feel free to bring digital photos of the space you would like to list along with any other information about your listing, and well help you with your first post. Call 577.READ x2 or email reference@natronacountylibrary.org for more information.

Roosevelt, KW graduation

The Natrona County School District has set the graduation ceremony dates for the senior classes of 2017. The dates are as follows:

Roosevelt High School, Friday, May 26, 3 p.m., Casper Events Center; Kelly Walsh High School, Friday, May 26, 7:30 p.m., Casper Events Center; Midwest High School, Sunday, May 28, 2 p.m., Wheeler Concert Hall, Music Building, Casper College.

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.
Food for Fines

The Natrona County Library will hold its semiannual Food for Fines drive June 1 through June 15. Bring nonperishable food to any library branch, including the Bookmobile, between June 1 and 15 to clear your late fees. The promotion applies to late fees on books and other library items, and does not include fees for lost or damaged items or collection accounts. All collected food will be donated to Joshuas Storehouse to benefit our local community.

Hospice needs volunteers

Would you like the opportunity to truly make a difference in someones life? Choose how you would like to give back, whether being a companion to our patients, helping run the Memory Lane Boutique, or sit vigil through patients last hours. Join us for our next Volunteer Training Program beginning June 6 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Please call Tammy at 577-4832 or go to cwhp.org and fill out an application. We would love to have you on our team.

Hospice boutique accepting donations

Memory Lane Boutique at Central Wyoming Hospice and Transitions is in need of donations for its inventory. Items accepted include furniture, jewelry, household goods, knickknacks, craft supplies, toys and sporting goods. Donations may be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 319 S. Wilson. The public is invited to shop during the same hours.

Would you host a hockey player?

The Casper Coyotes are preparing for the next season already and that means finding loving families to host young men, ages 17 to 20 years old from across America and foreign countries. The boys arrive in August and stay until March or April. They should have a room of their own and become a part of your family. Their expenses are paid. Team rules are simple and you add family rules. If you raised a young man this age, then you know that it takes love, but the love and cultural experience that comes back is many times greater. Interested? Call a veteran of hosting and lets talk, Joe at 315-1987.

Volunteer for family event

Its time for the 5th annual HUD Fathers Day event. Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies is in search of volunteers to help with set up, distribution, and clean up for our mobile pantry assisting single fathers in Natrona County. Come join us in Washington Park on June 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information or to sign up as a volunteer, contact Ashley Nickolai at 265-4016 or anickolai@foodbankrockies.org.

Quilts of Valor every Wednesday

The Central Wyoming Chapter of Quilts of Valor meets from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays to sew at the Central Wyoming Senior Services Center, 1831 E. Fourth St. Quilts of Valor are made by volunteers. Donated fabrics, supplies or monetary donations are appreciated. The group makes all quilts for service men and women who have been touched by war. Our chapter awards quilts to veterans who reside in the Central Wyoming region. Dues are $5 per year and new members are always welcome. If you have any questions, please contact Yung Hui Torske at 258-5578, Sandy Elliott at 307-5540331 or any chapter member.

Theater appreciates donation

Casper Theater Company would like to send a huge thank you to Karen and Jims Restaurant (soon opening as The Office Bar and Grill) for donating all of their tableware and flatware. As the theater proceeds through its season, it will have all of our own table settings for its dinner theater. The theater wants Karen and Jim to know how very grateful it is to be the recipient of their generous donation. Karen and Jim have a history of donating to the community and without generous people like them in our community, a huge contingent of nonprofit organizations would not be where they are today. So thank you Karen and Jim, you are so very much appreciated!

Donate blood, win a Harley

Blood donations tend to drop as the school year winds down and summer vacation season kicks into high gear, but every day patients need blood in hospitals across Wyoming and beyond. Donors who make time to give blood at United Blood Services (UBS) community donor centers in Cheyenne or Casper or a UBS blood drive in Wyoming during May and June are automatically entered to win prizes, including a Harley-Davidson motorcycle as a special thank you for helping ensure patient needs continue to be met.

In all, five names will be drawn during a Facebook live event on Wednesday, July 12. The grand prize is a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. Four finalists will receive a $100 gas gift card.

Donors must be age 18 or older by the drawing date to be eligible to win. Donors who are 16 or 17 will instead be entered to win an iPad mini 4 tablet. Twenty will be awarded to donors who give in May and another 20 for those who come in during June.

Official entry rules are available at unitedbloodservices.org/wy.

Whole blood donors are eligible to give blood every eight weeks and are encouraged to donate at least three times each year to help UBS meet the needs of patients.

Donors can save time and fill out their Fast Track Health History Questionnaire online at unitedbloodservices.org the day of their donation. To donate blood, volunteers must be at least 16 years old (16 and 17-year-old donors need a minor donor permit which is available online) and be in good health.

Find the hero in you. To make an appointment call 877-827-4376 or visit unitedbloodservices.org. Walk-ins are also welcome.

Scarves for Special Olympics

Special Olympics Wyoming invites those who knit and crochet to make scarves for the Wyoming Special Olympics athletes to wear at State Winter Games in February 2018. Please use black, gray and white in the scarves, which should measure approximately 6 by 60 inches in any pattern. The deadline to receive the scarves is January 2018. Please send scarves to Special Olympics Wyoming, attn. Scarf Project 2017, P.O. Box 624, Jackson, WY 83001. There is more information available at www.sowy.org/other-fundraisers.

Support team hosts reception

J.R.s Hunt For Life is having a reception at Metro Coffee from 6 to 8 p.m. June 5. Many of J.R.s professional outdoor photos will be on display for the month of June and for sale by ordering. There will be free bracelets, decals to purchase, free signup for J.R.s Hunt, a hunting giveaway and other things. This is all for suicide prevention and awareness.

Food of the month

Wyoming Food for Thought Project has announced its food of the month suggestions for the nearly 1,000 weekend food bags its volunteers prepare for food-insecure school students in Natrona County each week. Often, schools, churches and other groups designate certain collection days for a specific type of food as a donation.

The suggested food items may be taken to program headquarters at 900 St. John, but its best to call ahead to make certain someone is there to receive it.

May, tuna; June, peanut butter; July, pork n beans; August, mac n cheese; September, Chef Boyardee products; October, cereal; November, soup; December, chili.

For more information, call Cassandra at 337-1703.

Disabled vets need volunteer drivers

The Disabled American Veterans need volunteer drivers to take veterans to their medical appointment at the VA hospital in Cheyenne. The volunteer driver will transport them in a VA vehicle. If you are interested, please call the DAV transportation office in Cheyenne at 307-778-7577 for further information.
Two Wyoming Army National Guardsmen have been awarded the DUSTOFF Associations Rescue of the Year award for a medical evacuation mission that saved five lives in Afghanistan nearly two years ago.

The men, Staff Sgt. Derrick Perkins and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bryan Herget, received their awards at a ceremony at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Cheyenne earlier this month. The DUSTOFF Association is a nonprofit veterans organization for Army Medical Department personnel, aviation crew members and others who are or were engaged in Army air medical evacuation programs.

On Dec. 4, 2015, Perkins and Herget loaded a Charlie Company, 5-159th Aviation Regiment, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to respond to forces in southern Afghanistan, according to a narrative provided by the Wyoming Army National Guard. The two were part of a four-man crew that would join a second Black Hawk in responding. Herget served as a pilot while Perkins worked as a medic.

Both of the men had been deployed for less than a month and were about to fly their first medevac mission on the tour. While monitoring a satellite radio, a team leader heard talk about enemy contact with ground forces about 10 minutes away.

We heard the chatter on the radio and anticipated we needed to go, Perkins said in a statement.

The team operated under a golden hour philosophy, which hold that the first hour after an injury is critical to a patients survival.

The two helicopter crews lifted off and heard about the casualties on the ground  eight soldiers and a wounded dog.

As Herget flew the helicopter, Perkins walked himself through possible scenarios for the wounded. Unsure of what caused the injuries, he prepared himself for the worst.

I was going through traumatic scenarios, going through numbers and steps ahead of landing, thinking which casualties would go where, Perkins said in a news release.

They men learned that an improvised explosive device had caused the injuries. Three of the wounded were urgent care patients, with injuries severe enough that they needed to be evacuated immediately.

The medical helicopters experienced difficulties contacting ground forces. Eventually information was relayed to them that their landing zone was going to be a hot, with enemy soldiers were engaged by friendly troops in the area, according to the narrative.

As we got closer, we decided a quick, direct approach would be best because there were enemy forces with weapons in the area, Herget said in a statement.

Colored smoke was used to mark the landing zone, which was inside a building.

(Wires) were everywhere, Perkins said.

Usually, crews like to fly over the landing area to view the area to ensure for a safe landing.This time, they needed to land right away.

Hergets crew brought their aircraft safely into the compound and realized that friendly troops were still fighting with enemy forces.

Perkins began to evaluate the casualties.

There were a lot of head injuries, Perkins said. The most seriously wounded went onto the lead aircraft. We took on five, a dog, and an escort from the ground forces.

While the ground fighting continued, the two helicopters took off, racing to Kandahar Airfield and a military hospital.

We went directly over bad spots, Perkins said about the 35-minute flight.

The crews transferred the wounded soldiers to medical personnel, and Herget and Perkins resupplied their aircraft for new missions.

According to the personnel, had the aircraft arrived later, some of the soldiers could have died due to their injuries.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some May 26 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.
Pima County Supervisor Ally Millers comments took her fellow board members by surprise.

During a discussion at Tuesdays meeting about how to pay for road repairs, Miller, a Republican, said, Funding it via property tax in my opinion is not the way to go about this.

Supervisors Chair Sharon Bronson, a Democrat, cut in: If you dont want to go with property tax are you willing to support a sales tax?

Miller answered, Im willing to discuss one.

Now, it appears, shes going to have a chance.

The interesting turn of events in which Miller first supported the property-tax plan, then opposed it, is leading to another interesting turn: A new proposal to use sales tax instead of property tax to put more money into repairs of Pima County roads.

All the supervisors did Tuesday is approve a top limit on their spending. They tentatively approved a plan to increase the property tax, probably for a year, to put more money into road repairs, but that plan wont receive final approval until June 20.

Supervisor Ramon Valadez, also a Democrat, has asked County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry to put on the agenda that day an alternative to the property-tax plan: A new countywide sales tax that would raise about the same amount of money.

She claims its negotiable, but were going to see if she puts her money where her mouth is, Valadez said of Miller.

The turn of events is especially surprising because Miller campaigned on the idea she, as she put on her campaign signs, stopped a countywide sales tax. Actually, she hadnt, at least not alone: None was ever proposed, and it was likely that then-supervisor Ray Carroll would have voted against a sales-tax as well. The board must vote unanimously to impose a sales tax, so either could have killed it.

Miller correctly pointed out during the meeting Tuesday and afterward that she hadnt been opposed to using sales-tax money to pay for roads. She proposed a plan during the campaign that would have used half of the Regional Transportation Authoritys half-cent sales tax revenue for road repair and maintenance.

But she hasnt acknowledged that she would consider adding to that tax till recent weeks. (Formally, Pima County itself does not have a sales tax, but the RTA tax is imposed throughout Pima County.)

After the meeting Tuesday, Miller told me and other reporters, I would be willing to add a half-cent given certain conditions are met.

What those conditions are is unclear. How she got to this position is pretty interesting, though. Last week, Miller told my colleague Murphy Woodhouse that she would support Huckelberrys plan to use a dedicated stream of property tax money to pay for road repairs.

That must have been a tough position for her to take, given her consistent opposition to Huckelberrys initiatives, but she also has been under some pressure to get behind a solution, any solution, to the road problem. Miller defended the idea up through the end of the week but got increasing pushback from supporters.

This week, her tune changed to support of the sales-tax idea  with conditions that she did not get back to me to expand on Thursday. My best guess is that whatever conditions she demands will be unacceptable to the Democratic board members, and well end up in the same place we are now, with Huckelberrys property-tax plan.

Miller would come out of that looking both pragmatic, for having offered a solution, and principled for opposing the solution that her constituents despised. Thats having it both ways.

If the board ends up unanimously approving a new sales tax, well end up in the surprising position of having the county pile one new sales tax for roads on top of the city of Tucsons new, voter-approved sales tax for roads.

Smith in for CD1

State Sen. Steve Smith is clearing a path to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. House in Congressional District 1.

Smith announced last week hell be running for the GOP nomination, and that will give him a big jump on others who want to take on Democratic Congressman Tom OHalleran. Smith, of course, has long represented Legislative District 11, which encompasses the northwest side of metro Tucson and much of Pinal County.

Thats far from the outer edges of the vast congressional district, which reaches the Navajo Nation, but it is the center of the districts population base.

Smith has been a conservative Republican in the Legislature but told me his own history shows he can win over voters in traditionally Democratic areas. Plus, he pointed out, CD1 voted for Trump in the November election.

I think the district is showing that its open to what I would call commonsensical political ideas, he said.

Not GOP enough

Gary Watson has been a registered member of the GOP all his adult life, he told me, so when he decided to run for Tucson City Council in Ward 3, it was natural he would run as a Republican.

Then he met with the Pima County Republicans.

As Jim Nintzel reported in the Tucson Weekly, the local party interviewed Watson and found they didnt really like his positions. Most importantly Watson, a firefighter with Northwest Fire, supported Tucsons Proposition 101. That initiative, which passed earlier this month, increases the sales tax for five years to pay for road repairs and public-safety vehicles for Tucson firefighters, among other things.

When they finished talking, Pima County GOP Chair David Eppihimer told Watson his positions meant the GOP wouldnt be able to support him. Watsons support for Prop. 101 was a deal breaker.

Watson acknowledged he agreed with the party on some issues, and that he agreed with Democrats on others. So now, Watson is collecting signatures to run as an independent in the seat being vacated by Democrat Karin Uhlich.

Romneys back

Mitt Romneys run for the presidency seems like it was a lifetime ago, but he apparently remains a draw for some Republicans.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake has been heavily promoting fundraisers hes having with Romney in Tucson and Phoenix. Flake hasnt disclosed the details of next Fridays event but has been putting on a contest in which people who donate $5 or more will be given a chance to win seats at the event.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  A Tucson man has been arrested on federal charges accusing him of threatening New Mexico police officers, including one who is also a special federal agent.

A complaint filed in federal court in Albuquerque charges 49-year-old Brian Clayton Charles of Tucson with retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer and mailing threatening communications.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for New Mexico says Charles was arrested Wednesday in Tucson.

Online court records don't list an attorney for Charles who could comment on the allegations.

The complaint says authorities began investigating Charles in 2016 after he allegedly mailed a threatening letter to the then-Secretary of State John Kerry's home.

The complaint also alleges Charles previously mailed threatening communications to other federal officials.

Charles remains in custody in Arizona pending transfer to New Mexico.
PHOENIX  The Arizona Supreme Court is giving former state Attorney General Tom Horne another chance to escape a $1.2 million fine for campaign finance violations.

In a unanimous decision Thursday, the justices said it was wrong for Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, who initially concluded Horne and a former aide had broken the law, to then overrule the findings of the administrative law judge who was hearing the appeal. That administrative law judge had concluded Horne had broken no laws.

We hold that due process does not permit the same individual to issue the initial decision finding violations and ordering remedies, participate personally in the prosecution of the case before an administrative law judge, and then make the final agency decision that will receive only deferential judicial review, wrote Clint Bolick for the court.

Thursdays ruling, however, does not end the matter or absolve Horne of guilt. Instead, the justices directed the current attorney generals office to review the findings of the hearing officer and issue a final decision.

That office is run by Mark Brnovich who defeated Horne in his 2014 reelection bid in the Republican primary. Asked if Brnovich wold have someone else handle the matter, press aide Mia Garcia said, We are reviewing the ruling, evaluating our options, and conducting a conflict review.

Despite the fact the Supreme Court refused to declare him innocent, Horne is viewing Thursdays ruling as a victory.

I was hit with a false, malicious, defamatory charge of having coordinated with an independent campaign, he said in a prepared statement. The only neutral judge to hold a hearing and take evidence was the administrative law judge, who found for the defendants, Horne said, indicating he expects that to be upheld on review.

At issue is $513,340 spent by Business Leaders for Arizona on a last-minute commercial attacking Felecia Rotellini, Hornes Democrat foe, when he first ran for attorney general in 2010.

The group was formed by Kathleen Winn, a staffer in Hornes office, and was registered as an independent campaign committee. That status prohibits it from legally coordinating its expenses with the candidate.

The FBI, looking into other matters after the 2010 election, came across what it said was evidence that there was, in fact, communication. The case went to then-Secretary of State Ken Bennett who, by law, had to pass it on to the attorney generals office.

But with Horne now running that agency, an aide farmed the case out to Polk. She found evidence of violations, citing a series of phone calls between Horne and Winn.

When they appealed, the case was sent to an administrative law judge, with one of Polks deputies presenting the evidence against the pair. Polk acknowledged later she was involved with the prosecution of the case, by assisting with the preparation and strategy.

That hearing officer accepted the testimony from Horne and Winn that they were not talking about the case but instead discussing a pending real estate deal.

Polk, however, rejected the findings, saying they was evidence that Horne directed Winn to not just raise money for her independent group for his election but also told her how to spend it. Polk said Winn repeatedly changed her story and that her pattern of contradicting sworn affidavits to conform to newly revealed facts calls into question her credibility.

The result was Polk concluding that Winns expenses really were contributions to Hornes campaign, contribution that exceeded the limit by $400,000 of what he could take from any one source. So Polk imposed a penalty equal to three times that.

Both a trial judge and the state Court of Appeals rebuffed the bid by Horne and Winn to overturn those findings. That led to an appeal by their attorneys.

Dennis Wilenchik, representing Horne, argued to the justices that the system is unfair, with Polk acting like shes judge, jury and executioner all in one.

If anybody describes these facts, youd think you were in a Third World country, Wilenchik continued. Putting Horne aside, whether you like him or dont like him, I mean, the reality is its not right.

Polk said she does not take the ruling personally, saying she was following the statutes for appeals as enacted by the Legislature. What happened Thursday, she said, was that the Supreme Court concluded those procedures are unconstitutional.

I respect our Supreme Court and the rule of law, she said.
PHOENIX  The attorney for two top Republican lawmakers is laying the groundwork to quash a legal challenge to new hurdles they erected to voters creating their own laws.

During a preliminary hearing Thursday, David Cantelme did not address whether the Legislature exceeded its constitutional authority by requiring those who propose initiatives to be in strict compliance with each and every election law. That is a significant change from current law that requires only substantial compliance, a standard that allows the public to vote on measures despite technical violations.

Instead, Cantelme told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rogers he believes theres a legal flaw in the case by challengers, a flaw he contends bars the judge from considering their request to block the law from taking effect.

If they havent suffered an injury, a real, palpable, discrete injury, they dont have a case, he said. And Cantelme, who represents Senate President Steve Yarbrough and House Speaker J.D. Mesnard, said there is nothing in the record so far that shows the various challengers will be harmed if theyre forced to have to live under the strict compliance standard.

But attorney Roopali Desai, who represents challengers, objects to the fact that Cantelme wants to question her clients, ahead of the hearing, some of whom have been involved in past initiatives.

Cantelme wants to ask them about future plans, an issue he said goes to the question of whether they would be harmed if the strict compliance standard takes effect as scheduled Aug. 9.

Desai, however, told Rogers she sees something more sinister in what Cantelme is arguing.

The (Republican-controlled) Legislature is going to try to get into facts relating to the strategy and details with respect to the who, what, when, and details of initiatives that the plaintiffs are not required at this stage to have to (disclose), she said. It would be completely inappropriate for the Legislature to get into those sort of political, strategic issues that they otherwise would not have access to.

After the hearing, Cantelme did not dispute that he wants to ask the challengers about their future plans.

I get to ask them what is appropriate for the case, he said, refusing to be more specific.

Among the plaintiffs in the case is Matt Madonna, former regional president of the American Cancer Society. His organization was behind a successful ballot effort to ban smoking in public places.

Sandy Bahr, chapter director of the Sierra Club, has been involved in various ballot fights including a ban on leghold traps on public lands and creating an optional system of public financing for state and local elections.

And the Animal Defense League helped get voter approval of a ban on gestation crates for calves and pigs.

Others who have joined the case may be interested in future ballot measures, including Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona.

Desai said all the plaintiffs do have an interest because she believes having to live under the strict compliance standard will make the initiative process more expensive. She said if innocent mistakes can have every petition voided, organizers may decide not to use volunteers.

So you may have to move to an all paid-circulation effort because at that point you can be more assured that every i is dotted, every t is crossed, she said.

People should be doing that anyway, Desai continued. But you dont spend millions of dollars on an initiative and think to yourself, This is going to get thrown out for some minor defect. 

In addition to the lawsuithe to block the new law, a separate referendum drive has been launched to block the law from taking effect. If backers gather 75,321 valid signatures before Aug. 9, the measure remains on hold until voters decide in November 2018 whether to ratify or reject what lawmakers have enacted.

A separate referendum has been launched to challenge another change in initiative law, making it illegal to pay petition circulators based on the number of signatures they get.
Mary Jacobs, the assistant city manager in Sierra Vista, has been named the new town manager for Oro Valley.

Her first day on the job will be Sept. 5, the town said Friday in a news release. Jacobs was one of four finalists for the job named by the town earlier this month. Her base annual salary will be $160,000.

Oro Valley has been working to find a new town manager since June 2016, following the resignation of Greg Caton. Town officials restarted the hunt in February after not finding a suitable replacement during an initial search.

During that time, Police Chief Daniel G. Sharp served as interim town manager. Sharp will return to his position as police chief when Jacobs begins in September.

Jacobs has served more than 17 years in her position with Sierra Vista, where she functions as the citys chief operating officer, supervising all nonpublic safety operational departments and services.

Ive lived and worked in Arizona local government long enough to know that Oro Valley is indeed a gem, Jacobs said. I am excited to be joining an organization committed to providing superior services and an exceptional quality of life for its residents, a commitment I passionately share. I look forward to leading the organization into the next phase of Oro Valleys bright future.

Oro Valley Mayor Satish I. Hiremath said Jacobs has a wealth of knowledge and contagious enthusiasm.

I am confident Oro Valley residents, business owners and stakeholders will be thrilled with our decision, he said in the towns news release.

Prior to her position in Sierra Vista, Jacobs served as assistant town manager of Barnstable, Massachusetts, for six years. She also worked in several professional and managerial positions for Maricopa County from 1989 to 1994.

Jacobs holds a bachelors degree in political science and a masters degree in public administration from the University of Arizona. She grew up in Tucson, where her parents and many family members still reside.
It's graduation day at the Universidad de Sonora, and a group of gowned students are posing for pictures in front of the grand facade while onlookers wipe sweat off their faces and text excitedly.

Across the parking lot, there's another kind of scene. One that involves lots and lots of hot dogs. Ten carts are lined up under red and blue tarps, each with the same menu and a colorful salsa display lining the front of their operations. Up top they have rows of little weenies encased in flour tortillas and wrapped in bacon.

This is apparently the slow period at Dogos de la Uni, the sunny plaza adjacent to Sonora's highest-ranked university. When it picks up after 5, the space can hold more than 20 different hot dog vendors who work in 12-hour shifts throughout the night. The well-trodden park is called Emiliana de Zubeldia after a Spanish pianist who taught on the faculty here, but it really goes by the nickname la Plaza del Hot Dog.

It's a common misconception that Sonoran hot dogs come from Tucson. I mean, what's not American about a hot dog wrapped in bacon with beans, tomatoes and mayo? But the real origin story points down to Hermosillo, and talks of Mexican ballgames and Oscar Mayer marketing pitches from the '50s.

Today, there are at least five distinct styles of Sonoran hot dogs in different cities throughout the Mexican state, according to author Minerva Orduno Rincon. (Road trip, anyone?) It's obvious, from the get-go, that these Sonoran dogs are very different from the ones we know in the Old Pueblo.

For one, they're freaking huge! I counted more than a dozen ingredients including: bacon, beans, mayo, tomatoes, mushrooms, thousand island, avocado sauce and nacho cheese. (My new favorite is a white condiment called aderezo, with cucumbers and corn immersed in fresh Mexican cream.) The hotdogueros just pile it on, until the dogs are fat and bulbous and difficult to eat. But so rich. So rich.

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The second thing I noticed, is that all these dogs have soft crumbles of chunky chorizo on top. This takes it to a whole new savory level and adds a little hint of spice. Number three, they all seem to come with seasoned steak fries.

Walking the line, all the menus look very similar at first glance. It's a wonder that this place even exists, with everyone selling the same thing. But when you order, you'll notice that the dogs have subtle differences. Some might use steamed buns, while others are toasted on the grill. (After tasting both, I prefer the latter.) Some proprietors have fussier salsas, and some get crazy with the hot dogs themselves.

Armando Vargas stands out at the green Uni Dogos tent. His menu is much larger, with different varieties like the Rosarito and the Bomba hot dog, featuring a hefty link stuffed with jalapenos and cheddar cheese that he gets from Magdalena, Sonora. This, he does not wrap in bacon, because it is so big and savory already. And for 10 extra pesos, you can add a generous plop of "Queso Philadelphia," or you guessed it, cream cheese.

Vargas also goes big on the momia, a side snack that seems to have originated in Hermosillo. It's a hot dog (Vargas likes to use turkey dogs to differentiate himself) wrapped in a flour tortilla, then wrapped in bacon. He tosses it on the grill for a few, then splits it open lengthwise and stuffs it with the same ingredients you get on the Sonoran dog. It's easier to eat, that's for sure. But damn, it is hot.

Last but not least, you've got the toritos. If you've been to a cart in Tucson, you'll know what these are. They're the little yellow peppers that come on the side. Sometimes spicy, sometimes limey, sometimes covered in more chile flakes. The heat really cuts through the richness of the dog, making your lunch a visceral experience of different bodily aches. (Psychedelic.)

The peppers in Hermosillo are of course stuffed with various ingredients. Because that's what they do here. Nearby they were stuffing them with shredded cheddar and wrapping in bacon. But Armando chooses to do something different. He covers his pepper in nacho cheese and stuffs it with ... are you ready? A hot dog!
Help India!

By Ubaid Salfi for Twocircles.net

The role played by Muslim clerics (Ulema) during freedom movement in India cannot be undermined. The sacrifices they made and the way they inspired and motivated youths to actively participate in freedom struggle is commendable. Although we do not remember all of them, they continue to be a rich part of our history.

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Nowadays, our clerics mostly do their religious duty by preaching lessons on Islam and construct madrasas to impart Islamic knowledge among Muslims which is very obligatory but they are not leading the community from front as their counterparts did in the earlier ages.

There are very few clerics who are actively taking part in building and changing the community with a holistic perspective. One such cleric would be Maulana Syed Shahabuddin Salfi Firdausi , who built the Blood Bank instead of Madrasa. It is quite astonishing to see a cleric breaking the general trend and building a Blood Bank with state-of-the-art facilities.

Maulana Shahabuddin is renowned Islamic scholar, Author and Peace Activist. He has authored Seerat-e-Badr-ud-Duja, a biography of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in 2016 and recently he wrote a booklet Talaq Talaq Talaq detailing the procedure of Nikah, Talaq and Halala. Maulana has always been keen on keeping communal harmony among Indian society. He played a vital role during the Solapur riots happened in 2002. In fact, Asghar Ali Engineer lauded the role played by Maulana in his article published in Secular Perspective November, 2002 issue. In the words of Engineer, It should also be mentioned here that the role played by Maulana Shahabuddin Salfi was very laudable. He restrained the Muslim youth in Sahara nagar area and Asra nagar area otherwise the Muslims would have suffered far more damage. The Muslim youth were quite violent in their behaviour. It was restraint and wisdom exercised by the Maulana and also Police Commissioner Mr. More that saved the situation. The Maulana also protected many Hindu lives in these areas.

Maulana Shahabuddin was born in Darbhanga district of Bihar in a highly religious family. His ancestors include Shaikh Tajuddin Madari Darbhangwi who is one of the elderly Sufis of Bihar. He graduated from reputed Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Ahmadiyya Salafia Darbhanga.

Maulana Shahabuddin is the founder and chairman of Athar Blood Bank. To construct the blood bank, the residents of Solapur selected the most suitable persons and made a public trust, Athar Minorities Social and Welfare Association. After 6 years of hard work put up by Maulana Shahabuddin, The Athar Blood Bank, Solapur was completed and on June 02, 2012 was inaugurated by Sushil Kumar Shinde, the then Minister of Power India.

When asked about the reason for building the blood bank, Maulana Shahabuddin says, They are here to serve the humanity and not just one community. For the same reason we chose Service to Humanity as a slogan for the blood bank. People from all communities have contributed in building the blood bank and pooled in Rs 1.5 crores to make the dream a reality. Also, the trust is now handling the construction of new Maternity Home.

The blood bank is equipped with all the latest technology and equipment and has capacity to store 700 units at a time. Eighteen staff, including 3 MD doctors work at the centre and the Bank organises an average of seven blood donation camps in a month. Even this is not sufficient and more co-operation from society is needed. It is operational for 24*7 and supplies blood to Government Civil Hospital and Private Hospitals across Solapur district. It also provides emergency blood delivery to Hospitals if need arises.

According to their motto of serving the humanity, the Bank provides free blood to Thalassemia and HIV patient. Also financially weak sections are given a discounted and sometimes they are not charged at all. Blood is transported through an ambulance which also serves as mobile medical facility. People can reach blood bank on +91 0217-2622999.

Maulana Shahabuddin urged more people to come forward and strengthen the blood bank through blood donation camps, financial aid etc. The Blood bank is covered under section 80G of IT Act and all donations can avail tax exemption.

But Maulana Shahabuddin is someone who does not stop with just one such endeavour. He has always actively participated in promoting educational awareness among Muslims and he hosted Saiyid Hamids (Ex-Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University) initiative All India Taalimi Karwan to promote educational awareness among Indian Muslims in 1992 at Solapur. He also presided over the Paigaam-E-Taalim Conference organised by Anjuman-e-Bashindagan-e- Bihar Welfare Association on March 31, 2013 at Jhula Maidan, Mumbai, which was attended by various MPs and other leaders cutting across party lines.

Apart from his social responsibility, he also balanced his religious responsibilities by constructing a mosque Masjid-ul-Salam in Ambedkar Nagar, Solapur and also under the guidance of Maulana Shahabuddin, Makkah Masjid, Solapur (One of the central and oldest mosque) was demolished and a new mosque having capacity of 6,000 people has started and currently construction of mosque is on the verge of completion.

The efforts of clerics like Maulana Shahabuddin who are actively involved in shaping the good future for our children on all fronts must be lauded and acknowledged. We hope that in future there will be more clerics coming forward and leading the community from front and set the example for others to follow.

(The author is an IT professional currently settled in Pune)
Help India!

By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net

Srinagar: Women have always been the silent sufferers of conflict. As Kashmir erupted against the rigged elections of 1987, many Kashmiris picked up guns to fight against the Indian rule.

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The Indian government too decided to deal the uprising with an Iron hand to put a curb on Kashmiris joining militancy. As the crackdown on militants started in early 1990s, jails and torture centers of different Indian security agencies in Kashmir were filled with alleged militants and thousands of sympathizers picked up mere on suspicions.

According to the conservative estimates, there are around 8,000-10,000 cases of involuntary and enforced disappearances in Kashmir mainly attributed to be the work of Indian security establishments since the onset of militancy.

The disappearances which continued unabated during 1990s created a sub group of widows who were called as half widows, the wives who dont know whether their husbands are dead or alive.

The term half widow is used for women whose husbands have disappeared and are still missing during the ongoing conflict in Kashmir. These women are called half-widows because they have no idea whether their husbands are dead or alive.

The estimates of Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JCCS), puts the figure of 1,500 half-widows in the state at around 1500 whereas others put the number between 2,000-2,500.

The issues and ordeals of half-widows have often remained under reported in mainstream media. In an attempt to address this issue, Danish Renzu, a Kashmiri filmmaker has made a 96-minute movie on the half widows. The trailer of the movie, which was released recently, has already become an instant hit in the valley and across the globe.

Renzu, who was born and raised in Kashmir and is now settled in Los Angeles had studied electrical engineering at the University of California. But his interest in filmmaking prevailed over his other interests and he decided to work as full time filmmaker.

According to Renzu, there are many untold stories from Kashmir. We were trying to see which one is most realistic to shoot. We had 2-3 scripts that we were working on.

When Renzu met Parveena Ahangar, chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), he realized that this is the story he wanted to tell.

Since all my films will be made for worldwide audience, it was clear to me that the fear of loss and suffering is relatable to everyone, he told TwoCircles.net.

On the 10h of almost every month, a corner of Pratap Park near city center Lal Chowk is occupied by the kin of missing persons and half widows headed by Parveena Ahangar with streamers and photographs of the victims seeking answers and justice from both the state and central governments on whereabouts of their loved ones.

The film Half Widowwas shot entirely in Kashmir in 2-3 schedules sporadically starting from October 2015 to December 2016. It was shot at various seasons in the valley. The most important feature of this film is the entire cast is local and brings authenticity to the film.

We did have a huge difficulty to film out last pending scenes last summer in the valley, however we are grateful that we finished it on time. We had crew from Mumbai and my cinematographer Antonio Cisneros flew from Los Angeles multiple times. Even my producer Gaya Bhola is based in Los Angeles, Renzu said.

The director is planning to release the film internationally first and then do a theatrical release in the Valley, even though Kashmir has no theatres left. He is also planning to release film in other Indian states.

When asked if his film can bring back attention to the issue of half widows, he said, It is a universal story and I think this film is the beginning to bring Kashmir to a worldwide audience. We have not only the introduced the suffering of the local people but have also introduced the landscape, culture, music, history, poetry etc to a worldwide audience.

He feels that the loss of culture and music in Kashmir needs revival and this film and many more in the future will bring about that change. Renzu was particularly appreciative of his local cast. They are exceptionally talented.

He is also working on multiple screenplays keeping Kashmir and his cast in mind.
Help India!

Patna, (IANS): A Special Court here on Friday named former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin  currently lodged in Delhis Tihar Central Jail  the 10th accused in the murder of Bihar journalist Rajdeo Ranjan last year.

CBI lawyer Sharad Sinha told the media here that the agency, which probed the case, will file a charge sheet against the jailed politician in the case.

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He said Shahabuddin was linked to the special CBI court in Muzaffarpur district through video conferencing. The court has fixed June 9 for the next hearing.

After an uproar at the national level, the Grand Alliance government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar handed over the investigation to the CBI in September 2016.

On the basis of preliminary investigations, local police had said that Ranjans killing was a result of a premeditated conspiracy.

Ranjan was shot dead on May 13, 2016, in a busy market area near Station Road in Siwan district of Bihar. He was the Siwan Bureau Chief of a Hindi daily.

His widow Asha Ranjan has repeatedly alleged that Shahabuddin was behind the murder as the latters close associate Laddan Miya is the prime accused in the case.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Bihar had also blamed Shahabuddin for the journalists killing.

Shahabuddin has represented Siwan four times in the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 2009 as a member of Parliament of the Rashtriya Janata Dal led by former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad.
Help India!

Patna, (IANS): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped an opposition meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Friday, is likely to attend a lunch being hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, setting political tongues wagging.

Nitish Kumar has been invited by Modi for the lunch on Saturday in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister P. Jugnauth, a JD-U leader said.

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JD-U leaders, while reluctant to say much on Saturdays meeting, remarked that it will be purely an official meeting and nothing to do with politics.

Nitish Kumar will submit a list of unfulfilled promises made to Bihar, including a special financial package and his old demand of special category status for the state. It is not going to be a meeting to discuss politics, a senior JD-U leader said.

Sonia Gandhi had recently called Nitish Kumar over phone and discussed with him the possibility of a consensus opposition candidate in the Presidential election. The Bihar Chief Minister is reported to have favoured a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee.

However, his absence on Friday at the luncheon meeting convened by Gandhi to discuss the issue set off speculation that something could be amiss in the opposition camp, more so after the recent Income Tax raids on the properties of RJD chief Lalu Prasads kin.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

As Uttar Pradeshs Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is on his two-day visit to Varanasi, the very repercussion of his visit was faced by two Muslim sisters.

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On Friday morning, when Yogi was yet to arrive in Varanasi, Alina Fatima was going on her tution classes with her sister on scooty.

When the sisters reached Mahmoorganj area of the city, they had to stop their bike as the patchwork of road was going on. It is crucial to mention that ahead of Yogis visit, roads to those routes were being patched within hours through which Yogi would supposedly pass.

Alina asked the workers to stop patching to let her pass,but workers did not stop as their contractor denied.

However, when both sisters tried to pass anyway, someone from the workers threw hot and boiling coal-tar at Alina Fatima. Alina started crying and screaming at the very instant.

Locals intervened into the matter, and few of them beat the accused. By the time police arrived at the scene and send the girls for the first aid.

Alinas father Mashahar Hussain informed that government hospital denied the treatment as Alinas skin was stuck with tar and gravels. She was transferred to a private facility for further treatment.

Moreover, the locals are blaming city administration for carrying out last hour patchwork, that too in times of peak traffic.

Police has arrested workers and they are charged with section 326 of IPC. The case is pending for further investigation.
Help India!

Mumbai, (IANS): The BJP bagged the Panvel civic body in Maharashtras Raigad district, but was virtually rejected in the Muslim-dominated Bhiwandi and Malegaon towns as per election results declared on Friday, the day when the NDA central government celebrated its third year in power.

In Panvel Municipal Corporations first civic polls after it was elevated to a corporation last October, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 51 of the 78 seats where it contested the polls independently.

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The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and Peasants & Workers Party which fought in alliance, secured 27 seats, of which the PWP bagged 23 and the other two partners secured two each.

The BJP had virtually made it a prestige issue to win the civic body and left no stone unturned to capture the corporation, and in the process, Shiv Sena, other parties and independents were wiped out.

Panvel and surroundings are considered critical in the near future with the upcoming new international airport, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and a new city, Naina, which will attract investments in excess of Rs 60,000 crores.

In Malegaon Municipal Corporation with 84 seats in the Nashik district, the Congress emerged the largest single party with 28, followed by Nationalist Congress Partys 20.
Ever since he was sworn into office, Donald Trump has run into issues when it comes to some of his most controversial executive orders. When it comes to immigration, the president has run into legal issues, which he now plans to take care off on his own.

Trump on the court

During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump made a lot of promises to his supporters, which helped propel him to the Republican nomination and later the upset win over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last November. One of the most talked about issues in Trump's campaign was his plans on immigration, dealing with border security and international terrorism.

The former host of "The Apprentice" spoke about deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants, making Mexico pay for a proposed border wall, as well as enacting a possible ban on Muslims from Middle Eastern countries where there is a high rate of terrorist activity. Since his inauguration, Trump has attempted to push through multiple executive orders, including his now infamous "Muslim ban," as well as his plan to defund sanctuary cities of their federal funding. After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump in each case, the president is now deciding to take drastic measures, as reported by The Hill on April 26.

During an interview with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, Donald Trump threatened to break up the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for ruling against him.

When asked if he thought about breaking up the court, Trump replied, "Absolutely, I have." "There are many people who want to break up the Ninth Circuit," Trump continued, before adding, "It's outrageous."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump "absolutely" looking at breaking up 9th Circuit https://t.co/jAoZoGiDZo pic.twitter.com/Ho84aXNqqY  Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 26, 2017

Donald Trump then accused the court of being partisan in their opposition against him, making it an easy place to go for his critics to oppose his policies.

"Everybody immediately runs to the 9th Circuit," Trump claimed, while adding, "They immediately run to the 9th Circuit because they know that's like, semi-automatic."

First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

Moving forward

In addition to his comments to the Washington Examiner, Donald Trump also took out his frustrations with a series of Twitter message where he once again doubled down on attacking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"They used to call this 'judge shopping!'" the billionaire real estate mogul tweeted out early Wednesday morning. Trump went on to label the judicial system a "Messy system" in the process, while saying he is ready to take their ruling to the Supreme Court. As of press time, it's unknown what further steps Trump will take to follow through with his threat, but it's clear he's not willing to sit by and be defeated over his proposals and executive orders.
It's no secret that Donald Trump has wanted to get tough on immigration, as he made it a corner stone of his campaign for president since the very start. After a judge blocked his latest attempt to defund sanctuary cities, the president wasn't too happy about it.

Trump on Twitter

When Donald Trump first announced his campaign for president, he labeled illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers." Backlash quickly followed, as many accused the former host of "The Apprentice" of being a "bigot" and "racist" due to his stance on immigration.

Trump went as far as proposing to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants from the United States, while vowing to get Mexico to pay for the construction of a border wall between the two countries. After he was sworn into office, Trump took his immigration policies to another level with his now infamous "Muslim ban" executive order, though it was eventually blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump's latest attempt to make a move on immigration was to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities, but once again a judge at the appeals court blocked the president's attempt. As seen on his Twitter account on April 26, Trump decided to lash out.

Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the "ban" case and now the "sanctuary" case is brought in ...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

Taking to his Twitter feed on Wednesday morning, Donald Trump was not pleased with the latest ruling regarding his defunding of sanctuary cities.

"First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings," Trump wrote on Twitter, before adding, "See you in the Supreme Court!"

...the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%). They used to call this "judge shopping!" Messy system.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

In a pair of follow-up tweets, it was clear that Donald Trump was not going to let the latest ruling slide without a fight.

"Out of our very big country, with many choices, does everyone notice that both the 'ban' case and now the 'sanctuary' case is brought in the Ninth Circuit, which has a terrible record of being overturned (close to 80%)," he tweeted, before adding, "They used to call this 'judge shopping!' Trump concluded by noting that the judicial system in the United States is a "Messy system."

First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

Twitter reacts

In response to Donald Trump's latest rant on social media, Twitter users were quick to fire back.

"Wow, you REALLY are an abject failure, aren't ya?!" writer Jules Suzdaltsev wondered. "Next time you sign an Executive Order, you should try reading The Constitution first," writer Nick Jack Pappas tweeted out.

@realDonaldTrump Wow, you REALLY are an abject failure, aren't ya?!  Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) April 26, 2017

@realDonaldTrump If you need a copy, we know someone you can ask: pic.twitter.com/w8e4CY4YdB  Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) April 26, 2017

@realDonaldTrump Do you plan to attend the hearing in the Supreme Court? Can you even name all 9 sitting judges right now?  Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) April 26, 2017

"Your lack of respect for the judiciary is astounding! Your lack of compassion for refugees is incredible. You are horrific," Twitter user Roland Scahill fired back. The reaction continued, as it was made clear that many Americans are not on the same page as the president.
One of the biggest debates happening in American politics is over the role Donald Trump's family members are playing in his administration. With First Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband jared kushner having key advisory spots in the White House, it's caused many on cable news to voice their opinion.

MSNBC on Trump

When it was clear that Donald Trump had defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States, all eyes then shifted onto who he would surround himself with in the White House. While names like former Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon have often dominated the discussion, it's been the inclusion of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner that has since been in the headlines.

Kushner's role has caused problems behind the scenes with Bannon, leading reports to speculate over whether or not the former head of Breitbart News would be fired from his job as chief strategist. For Ivanka, she's being used as an adviser to Trump, making her first foreign trip representing the United States earlier this week in Berlin, Germany. These issues, and more, were discussed during the April 26 edition of "Morning Joe" on MSNBC.

MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski got into a testy exchange with each other when the topic of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner was brought up. Scarborough did his best to understand why Donald Trump was using his family members as advisers, while noting the president could do a lot worse.

"Better her and Jared than some other people who had his ear," Scarborough noted, while pointing out that National Security Counsel has been running better since Kushner was given more of a role and Steve Bannon was removed.

You Dont Have to Be So Rude: Joe Slams Mika to Her Face Over Cheap Shot https://t.co/iNg2Oqoeik (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/4YiOBJ4coz  Mediaite (@Mediaite) April 26, 2017

At this point, the panel continued with Joe Scarborough appearing to compare the addition of Ivanka and Kushner to when former President John F.

Kennedy brought his brother Bobby Kennedy into the White House. "My political hero was appointed Attorney General for his brother, and Republicans didnt like that back then," Scarborough said, before noting, "If you looked at Bobby Kennedy's record, some good things came out of that."

Clear tension

Mika Brzezinski was quick to fire back, asking, "You're comparing Ivanka Trump to Bobby Kennedy?" "You dont have to be so snotty," Joe Scarborough replied, before adding, "you didnt let me get it out.

You don't have to be so rude." Scarborough then accused Brzezinski of trying to get in a "cheap shot," before clarifying that "No I am not saying Jared and Ivanka are Bobby Kennedy." While the debate over the White House continues, it doesn't appear that Donald Trump is going to change the way he does business anytime soon.
Three Islamic State militants from a group of eight got the surprise of their lives when a herd of Wild Boars grazing in a nearby field launched a full-scale attack on them. The group was initially setting up an ambush, but ended up getting ambushed themselves. The area in which the rebels were setting up their ambush was in an intensely challenged region in the North of Iraq.

Rebels about to kill tribesmen, killed by wild pigs

Sheik Anwar al-Assi, who is the leader of the region's Ubaid tribe and the chief of the anti-Islamic State movement disclosed the story to The Times of London.

According to Al-Assi, the group of eight rebels were hiding at the edge of a mountain about 50 miles southwest of the city of Kirkuk. The men were getting ready to launch an assault on some local tribesmen, who had managed to escape from the militants a few years ago.

The neighborhood tribesmen fled into the mountains from the town of Hawija three years ago when ISIS assaulted them and captured their township. The herd of wild pigs occupied the mountainside as well as a nearby cornfield where they grazed daily. However, the actions of the merciless killers irritated the herd, and they came charging at the men in full force, giving them a dose of their own medicine.

Just three days before the militants were trampled to death, they launched an attack, executing 25 individuals who tried to escape said attack by the ISIS group.

Since taking over several areas in Northern Iraq, many inhabitants from Hawija (about 100 miles south of Mosul) have fled for their lives. The Iraqi military vowed to dispatch soldiers to the area after freeing the rest of Mosul from the Islamic State's grip.

US-backed army re-captured another city from ISIS

According to Al-Assi, many residents have been making their daily escape to Kurdish Kirkuk, the oil-rich region of the country.

Meanwhile, the citizens wait for the United States-backed army to arrive and break the hold that ISIS has in the Iraqi town.

U.S.-backed troops successfully re-captured Eastern Mosul from the rebels in January and rid the town of Al-Tanek on Tuesday. However, the offensive launched last October still has a long way to go before the Iraqi military can free the town of Hawija from the Islamic rebels.
21 Human Traffickers have been charged in an international sex trafficking ring, which brings the total number of people indicted in this case to 38. As recently reported by CNN, the traffickers mostly forced Thailand women to travel to the United States, so as to work as sex slaves. The traffickers were 10 Thai nationals and 11 U.S citizens. Their arrests occurred in various locations countrywide such as Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, Houston Dallas, and Chicago. One defendant still remains at large.

How the traffickers conducted the trade

Trafficking of the Thai women began in 2009.

Most women were from impoverished backgrounds and spoke little or no English. The traffickers lured them with promises of a steady income and a better life in the US. Once in the country, the women were denied freedom until they paid a bondage debt as high as $60,000 per woman. Most were unable to pay their debt as they were required to cater for their needs while in the U.S. They were forced to engage in sex with strangers at any time of the day with up to 10 men or more. They were often threatened not to escape. They were also forced to undergo forced cosmetic surgery so as to make their bodies more appealing to clients. The traffickers added the costs of the surgeries such as breast implants to their bondage debt.

The women only received 40% of the payment received from customers while the rest would go to traffickers and owners of brothels.

A directing attorney working with the Thai Community Development Centre in Los Angeles said that one of the victims left her family in Thailand for a massage job in the US. Her passport was taken away from her upon arriving and told she would have to pay $35,000 debt.

She later escaped after realizing she was brought to the U.S for commercial sex when her trafficker took her to buy lingerie. The leaders of this ring are believed to be based in Thailand and are still at large.

Sex trafficking in the United States

The Commercial Sex Act of 1951 of the US makes it illegal to entice, recruit, obtain, provide, move or accommodate a prostitute or to benefit from commercial sex activities.

The act is currently applicable in 31 states for forced victims. Sex trafficking in the U.S is present in Asian massage parlors, online escort sites, Mexican cantina bars, truck stops, street-based pimp-controlled prostitution and residential brothels. Organizations that control the trade are believed to originate from Mexico, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Research by the University of California found that about 46% of people in slavery in the U.S engage in forced prostitution. Prostitution is only legal in the U.S in eight rural counties within Nevada.
Whilst #President Trump has said that he likes Italy a lot, his former and current wives have had more to do with the country through their various associations, as the New York Times reported Friday in a lengthy article about the G7 summit.

When current wife #Melania Trump embarked on her modeling career in her birth country of Slovenia, she would often head to Milan with her father, where she was officially discovered in the 1990s and then was a few years later introduced to Trump.

First wife really likes the country, a lot

The president's first wife, #Ivana Trump (mother to Ivanka Trump), according to the Times loves Italian men, as told to them by Rossano Rubicondi, her fourth husband.

After their brief and sporadic 2008 wedding, marriage and relationship he took on a role in the Italian variety of a reality show based on #Celebrity Island and gained a minor sort of fame that saw him being not celebrated exactly, but recognized in Italy.

Developing a pizza place and reality show

Mister Rubicondi is seen as being positive about his tenuous relationship with Trump and is currently developing a reality show based on the opening of a pizza place based right by the presidents Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Long before he earned the White House position, Donald Trump was always vocal about his perception of the Muslim community. In fact, in 2011, he questioned Barrack Obama's religion, stating that being a Muslim could be a bad thing for the then-president.

'When can we get rid of them?'

During his campaign, a member of the crowd said one of the main problems in the United States is the presence of Muslims. The man then asked Trump if he can kick them out of the country, to which Trump answered with a promising commitment to look into the matter along with "plenty of other things."

Before he won the presidential elections, Trump promised to get rid of all Syrian refugees whom he said could be members of ISIS.

According to Politico, the POTUS even considered closing all mosques in the country as part of his ploy against the said community.

When he was asked whether Islam is a peaceful religion or a violent religion, Trump candidly said that the Americans are "not loved by many Muslims" and that he thought that there is "something going on." He even slammed Obama for not using the words "radical Islamic terrorism" when two attackers killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California in December 2015.

After the act of terrorism, Trump announced his stand to block Muslim people from entering the United States until the officials can figure out the real issue in the country. In one of his interviews, the Washington Post reports that Trump said, "there's a group of people that is very sick" seemingly referring to the Muslim community.

Travel ban against Muslims

Just this March, the POTUS signed an executive order that prohibits six Muslim-dominated countries from entering the United States. The new travel ban is a revision of the original order he signed in January, which was blocked by an appeals court even before it took effect.

The new travel ban, however, still covers a 90-day ban on visitors just like the original version.

It did, however, excluded Iraq from the list of countries banned from the US. The removal of Iraq came after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis requested the exclusion.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court appealed to block Trump's travel ban against these six countries in a 10-3 ruling from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals. The administration, on the other hand, is reportedly planning to make an appeal to the Supreme Court to review the case.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Department of Justice will continue to protect the Executive Branch for the welfare of the American people.
According to the Guardian, ISIS militants have gone on a rampage in the southern Philippines. In their quest, the terror group has beheaded a police chief and abducted a Catholic priest and his followers. As this sounds like the same old song and dance, there are differences. For one thing, they had not started in the Asian countries before.

Now, as time marches on, it seems that no country is exempt from the Islamic terror groups attacks. Also reported by ABC News, 21 casualties have been reported in the small Asian country. President Rodrigo Duterte had declared martial law in the area of attack, but he says he may soon declare martial law in the whole country.

Is there an end to the terror put out by ISIS, or will there be more to come?

The Philippine president condemns the attack

The attack happened after the Philippine army raided the hideout of the terror group "Abu Sayyaf," who pledged loyalty to ISIS. The group, commanded by Isnilon Hapilon, pledged loyalty sometime during the Obama administration. Isnilon Hapilon is on the FBI top 10 terror list, and 5 million was offered for his capture.

As the raid come to a close, the followers of Isnilon Hapilon vowed to take over the Philippines in retaliation for the raid. As the details of the attack in Marawi unfolded, fears abounded that the largest Roman Catholic country in Asia would fall victim to a hostile takeover -- fears that the terror group would cause a displacement of Christians in the country like they caused in Syria.

Well, ISIS has started in the Philippines. Don't these pigs ever give up their terror spree? pic.twitter.com/LYSQO4oALC  Ledbetter Freelance (@LanceLedbetter) May 26, 2017

ISIS is a global issue

In an article I wrote in August 2016, I provided proof by interviews from the border patrol that ISIS was coming over the US border with the immigrants.

This is happening all over the world. According to sources, the Islamic State is leaving Syria and Iraq in droves, and infiltrating the world. Soon, the war won't be just in Syria, but all over the world.

So what about the refugees that are actually trying to seek refuge and safety from war-torn Syria? They will have to be vetted with all the others entering.

The only problem with this is the ones that claim it is unconstitutional. So according to these people, knowing who is coming into your country is against the constitution. Sounds strange, doesn't it? Well, you are not alone in thinking this, as over half of America finds it strange as well. As I study the constitution, I notice that a lot of things expressed in it are widely misinterpreted by many who claim to know it. I strongly urge my readers to read the constitution for themselves. You will be surprised at what you will find.
James Huling and Natalie Negrotti met on "big brother 18" and seemed like a great couple. They were together for quite a while after the show ended and rumors even came out that they were engaged due to a practical joke that Natalie shared online. Now it turns out that these two aren't getting along at all and James went to his Twitter to share that she actually sent him a Cease and Desist.

What went down between Natalie and James?

James launched a GoFundMe campaign for Natalies family in Venezuela that allegedly raised over $5,000. James didn't give the money to her family but instead gave it straight to Natalie planning on her taking care of it.

A lot of people have asked Natalie for details about where the money went, but she won't answer them and even blocks them for asking. People feel like they have a right to know where the money went, especially if they sent money in for the cause.

There have been rumors about what Natalie used the money for and that it wasn't for her family, but nobody can confirm that at all. James went to his Twitter today and shared that she sent him this cease and desist letter. He even shared a picture of it on his page. They even want him to retract the statements he made and take them off social media. It doesn't sound like James has big plans to do that right now, though. Along with the picture, James said "I made that 30 min Rant after I got a visit from the mail man.

Of course I'm going to Rant on. Plus her (family lawyer told me to do so.) "

Natalie Negrotti also went to her Twitter and shared about it all. She said, "For all false allegations made against me here is a letter from my attorneys. Justice will prevail with EVERY allegation with legal action." It is very obvious that Natalie is upset.

Along with it, she shared a photo showing that she allegedly has receipts and records to prove that the money went to her family as promised.

It doesn't look like Natalie and James are ever going to work through their issues and get along. Things are not going well between them right now, but they may decide to put it all behind them at some point and at least stop arguing with each other nonstop.

This split was not a good one for the couple from "Big Brother 18."

Are you shocked by what happened between Natalie Negrotti and James Huling? Do you think these two will ever get along again? Sound off in the comments section below on your thoughts, and don't miss a new season of "Big Brother" this summer on CBS.
Over the last week, Donald Trump has decided to pick a fight with another foreign country, this time setting his sights on Canada. In the aftermath, many are wondering what Trump's motive is to push back against the Great White North, with Stephen Colbert making sure to give his opinion on the issue at hand.

Trump on Canada

During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump used a lot of talking points to sell himself to the American people, and was able to ride that momentum to a Repubican primary victory and a general election win over Hillary Clinton last November.

One of those talking points was his tough stance on trade. While the former host of "The Apprentice" usually focused on China while discussing future trade deals with the United State, recently Trump's gone after a surprising target. On Monday night, the president met with a group of conservative news outlets and informed them that he would place a 20 percent tariff on softwood lumber and other goods coming from Canada. Trump went on to explain that Canada had been "really rough" on the United States when it comes to trade, and that he refused to be "taken advantage" of as commander in chief. On Tuesday morning, Trump doubled down on Twitter, writing that Canada has been "very difficult" for farmers in the U.S., while adding, "We will not stand for this." The reaction has been split down party lines, but was highlighted during the April 25 edition of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on CBS.

Tonight! Stephen is concerned about the dangerous escalation in tensions between the United States and Canada. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/b0F3SnDtGe  The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 26, 2017

Kicking off his show with an opening monologue, which was posted earlier on Twitter, Stephen Colbert trolled Donald Trump over his new feud with Canada.

"Everyday tensions are rising between the United States and our sworn enemy Canada," Colbert said with sarcasm, before mockingly labeling the country "cold Mexico" and the "Great White North Korea."

Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2017

Stephen Colbert then continued to mock Donald Trump for meeting with only conservative news outlets, which he referred to as "his version of comic con." "As far as I know, this is the first time that anyone has rejected Justin Trudeau's wood," he continued, to the laughter of the audience.

Canada's response

Following the announcement from Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed back following a phone call with the president, saying that the executive order would be bad for both countries. "You cannot thicken this border without hurting people on both sides of it," Trudeau said. before noting, "Any two countries are going to have issues that will be irritants to the relationship." Despite Canada's response, the White House referred to the conversation as "amicable."
If there's one story that has continued to linger in the headlines over the last two years it's been regarding Donald Trump and his potential ties to Russia. The latest twist in the story has involved Trump's son-in-law jared kushner, which has led to comedian Bill Maher offering his thoughts on Twitter.

Maher on Kushner

When Donald Trump announced his was running for president back in June 2015, many wondered if his candidacy should be taken seriously. After a few short months, Trump proved the doubters wrong as he was able to jump ahead in most polls as his controversial and unorthodox campaign style earned him enough popularity from angry Americans looking to vote against the system.

Trump would go on to lock up the GOP nomination and eventually the general election over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but it didn't come without its problems. While the former host of "The Apprentice" was able to weather the storm of controversy, speculation grew over what link he had to Russia. From refusing to release his tax returns, to praising Vladimir Putin, to past and present advisers and associates being tied back to the Kremlin, Trump has been unable to shake the controversy. On Thursday, NBC News reported that Jared Kushner has come under FBI scrutiny in regards to the current Russian investigation, which prompted Bill Maher to troll Trump's son-in-law on Twitter.

EXCLUSIVE: Jared Kushner now under FBI scrutiny in Russia investigation, officials tell NBC News https://t.co/li3z8Vyj78 pic.twitter.com/yF6i2BUVqW  NBC News (@NBCNews) May 25, 2017

According to the NBC News report, those investigating Russia believe that Jared Kushner has "significant information relevant to their inquiry." The officials elaborated further and explained that Kushner is not expected to be charged with a crime, and is not considered a suspect.

While investigators don't appear to be linking Kushner to Russia directly, it appears as if the scandal is only getting deeper into the Trump family and the White House.

Maher reacts

Within minutes of the story breaking, social media users quickly gave their thoughts as Jared Kushner was trending worldwide on Twitter. Though many had a lot to say about the son-in-law of the commander in chief, none made their thoughts known as clear and with humor as Bill Maher.

Looks like Russia probe getting close to First Family - I mean, the Me-First Family. Jared, U can never be too thin or pretty. For prison.  Bill Maher (@billmaher) May 26, 2017

Taking to Twitter on Thursday night was Bill Maher and the host of HBO's "Real Time" made sure to mock, troll, and unload on Jared Kushner. "Looks like Russia probe getting close to First Family - I mean, the Me-First Family.

Jared, U can never be too thin or pretty. For prison," Maher tweeted out.

Moving forward

As the pressure continues to mount on the White House, Donald Trump is currently dealing his first foreign trip as president. After stops in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Rome, Trump touched down in Brussels on Thursday as all eyes remained on the President of the United States.
Warner Bros. -- the studio behind this summer's latest superhero epic -- has cited the tragic attack in Manchester as the reason they are cancelling next week's "Wonder Woman" premiere in London. Without saying it directly, it would seem that the studio and premiere organizers likely had concerns about security surrounding the event, as Britain's MI-5 raised the country's security level to "critical" in the wake of the violence.

London premiere scrapped, international promo continues

The news that the London premiere would be cancelled was delivered by Warner Bros.

in a short statement on Wednesday afternoon. In the brief release to the media, the studio cited the "current situation" in the U.K. as the reason behind the cancellation and went on to explain that both the "premiere and junket activities in London" would be scrapped from the schedule. (A junket is a series of interviews, usually over the course of several days, where those involved in a movie are able to speak with multiple media outlets from one location.)

All of the London events for "Wonder Woman" had been scheduled for the city's Leicester Square, an incredibly popular tourist area filled with restaurants and shops. The Square is also the main hub of London's International Film Festival each fall.

Word of the cancellation has not yet been posted on the movie's official Twitter feed, but since the release of the studio's statement, fans have been invited to attend the red carpet premiere in Los Angeles on May 25th. In fact, it would appear to be business as usual for the film, outside of the London cancellation, with actors still scheduled to appear on late night shows in both New York and L.A.

LA: Wear your #WonderWoman costume to tomorrow's premiere for a chance to get a special seat on the carpet! Details: https://t.co/6BbE7aeqsU pic.twitter.com/W5dSHeEohd  #WonderWoman (@WonderWomanFilm) May 24, 2017

Film's release date remains unchanged

Despite the cancellation of the big premiere in the U.K., "Wonder Woman" is still scheduled to open in theaters across that country on June 1st.

There is no word from the studio regarding whether actors will be able to make up for the promotional time they will be losing in London, possibly via satellite with major media networks.

There is a lot riding on both Warner Bros. and the DC film universe to ensure the success of "Wonder Woman" on a global scale. As the first movie fronted by a solo female superhero, and the first big-budget superhero movie directed by a woman ("Monster"'s Patty Jenkins), the film represents a concept that most studios didn't think was possible (or marketable) for most of modern film making.

"Wonder Woman" will hit theaters in the U.S. on June 2nd.
A May 9 story in the Los Angeles Times opens with the question, "There's a Chinatown in Las Vegas?"

The story answers affirmatively, adding that "you'll find about 140 restaurants in a three-mile stretch to choose from".

Most Americans are aware of New York's and San Francisco's storied Chinatowns, but not as many are familiar with the sprawling up-and-comer west of the Las Vegas Strip, in the casino gambling capital of the US.

Similar to Houston's Chinatown, Las Vegas' is an agglomeration of strip malls. It runs along Spring Mountain Road, in an unincorporated part of the city, and yes, it does have a paifang (arch).

"When I told people I was going to Las Vegas to visit its Chinatown, the response I got was nearly the same each time: 'Las Vegas has a Chinatown?' " Bonnie Tsui wrote in her 2009 book American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.

In the early 1990s, James Chen, an immigrant from Taiwan, frequently visited Las Vegas from California but couldn't find any decent Chinese restaurants.

So Chen began to wonder what it would take to build a Chinatown in Las Vegas.

Chen and his partners acquired seven acres on Spring Mountain Road and built the Chinatown Plaza mall, which remains the neighborhood's anchor.

"One of the things I loved about Las Vegas Chinatown is that a motor-vehicle, strip-mall-centered area actually evolved into a real community," Tsui told China Daily this week. "It's almost like the reverse of what happened in older Chinatowns like San Francisco and New York, where the physical community of residents was always there along with the businesses that served them. In Vegas, there was a Chinese and Chinese-American population, but it was scattered.

"There was no physical place for people to gather until James Chen built the anchor Chinatown Plaza; other malls followed, and then the density of businesses on the Strip reached a tipping point that encouraged the malls to be gathering places," she said.

"During the time I was writing the book, I'd watch people come to get the Chinese-language paper, chat with friends, buy groceries, eat dim sum, drink boba tea."

Tsui said, "There were cultural celebrations during which young people and families gathered. The fact that they were coming by car and congregating in the parking lot didn't make it any less of a community."

In 1999, the area was designated Las Vegas' official Chinatown by Governor Kenny Guinn, although it is also considered pan-Asian.

"Try anything from Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese cuisine to various types of food, such as a platter of mouthwatering and scrumptious Hong Kong-style roast duck or succulent won ton noodles, a wonderful bowl of healthy Vietnamese pho noodle soup, fresh Japanese sushi, or a refreshing cup of cold Taiwanese boba tea on a scorching desert day," is how website lvchinatownplaza.com describes the restaurant choices.

The Joyful House, selected by Las Vegas Review-Journal readers as the city's best Chinese restaurant in 2014, and which thedailymeal.com voted the best Chinese takeout in the US, serves up traditional Hong Kong dishes.

"You'll see plates of roast duck, honey walnut shrimp, and salt and pepper pork chops exit the kitchen at breakneck speed. Rather than trying to intercept a startled waiter, get your 6-pound lobster to go," dailymeal says.

Then there is The Golden Tiki, open 24 hours, which a local CBS website listed as one of the city's iconic bars: "The dcor features an animatronic skeleton, shrunken heads and the hull of a pirate ship with lights (and possibly ghosts) shining on the patrons."

If an area has growth potential, then real estate investment usually confirms that.

Fore Property, based in Las Vegas, broke ground in 2016 on "Lotus", a 295-unit luxury rental project at Spring Mountain Road and Valley View Boulevard, a mile west of the Strip. The $52 million development is expected to open next spring.

Chinese tourism to Las Vegas has almost quadrupled in the last decade. There were approximately 206,000 visitors in 2015, up from 188,000 in 2014.

Contact the writer at williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com
A new Lenovo computer is on show at an innovation summit held in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province. ZHANG JIE / FOR CHINA DAILY

Contracting annual PC shipments and declining mobile phone sales cast a shadow over the outlook for Lenovo Group Ltd on Thursday, despite the technology giant reporting a profit turnaround in the 2016 fiscal year.

The Hong Kong-listed company reported a $535 million profit in the fiscal year ended Mar 31, recovering from its $128 million loss a year earlier. However, Lenovo's annual revenue fell 4 percent from the previous fiscal year to $43 billion.

The revenue of its personal computer and smart device business group, which accounts for around 70 percent of Lenovo's total income, decreased 2 percent year-on-year to $30.10 billion. Its global PC unit shipments decreased by 1 percent from a year earlier to 55.7 million units. Consumer PC unit shipments declined 6 percent year-on-year.

Although Lenovo still had the top spot in terms of PC shipments in 2016, competitors such as HP Inc and Dell Technologies are catching up rapidly, registering annual growth of 1.3 percent and 4.3 percent respectively, according to technology market research firm International Data Corp.

While Lenovo retained the largest slice of the global PC market21.3 percentin 2016, HP narrowed the gap by taking 20.9 percent, according to IDC. A year earlier, Lenovo took 20.8 percent, while HP had 19.4 percent.

Facing difficulties in its PC business, the 33-year-old PC firm has invited Liu Jun, its former executive vice president, to re-join Lenovo on May 16 to take charge of its biggest business sector.

Before he left the company in June 2015, Liu had worked with Lenovo for 22 years, and was responsible for its PC business. He introduced the business model of combining commercial and consumer PC sectors to Lenovo, helping it consolidate its leading position in the industry.

Upon Liu's return, Lenovo has also announced that it will reorganize its business in China. It will set up two independent groupsa personal computer and smart devices group and a digital center group.

While its PC business is confronted with growing competition, Lenovo's mobile sector, which accounts for around 18 percent of the company's revenue, is deteriorating. The unit's losses widened to $566 million from $469 million a year earlier.

Lenovo shipped only 15 million mobile phones in 2015, plummeting from 47.3 million in 2014. And this further contracted to 5 million in 2016, leaving Lenovo nowhere to be found among the top five mobile phone makers list in China. It also announced last month it would scrap the ZUK mobile phone brand.

However, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chief executive officer, said the company was not prepared to give up on the mobile phone sector. He said earlier this year it would try to "reset" the situation.

Lenovo rose 3.7 percent to close at HK$5.05 (65 cents) on Thursday.
Peng Kaiping, chairman of the psychology department at Tsinghua University, says Chinese people talk about challenges, but seldom about happiness. PROVIDED to CHINA DAILY

Peng Kaiping says employing positive psychology in planning and education can help people achieve happier, more meaningful lives

Despite almost 40 years of rapid advances in living standards, evidence shows that many Chinese people feel unhappy. Peng Kaiping argues that positive psychology gives insights into how individuals can improve their own happiness and how policies can boost public happiness.

Peng, who is the founding chairman of the psychology department at Tsinghua University and head of the wonderfully named Tsinghua Happiness Technology Laboratory, explains his decision to return to Beijing, after having achieved a tenured professorship at the University of California, Berkeley:

"I thought the sense of purpose and the ability to feel happy got lost in those years of economic growth. Chinese at that time didn't even want to say they were good at something. It sounds like humility, but it's not. It is just the habit of not saying anything positive  emphasizing the negative part.

"Chinese expressions are very negatively focused. They talk about challenges, obstacles and tackling problems, but seldom about happiness and inspiration. I felt very much I should work on promoting positive psychology in China."

Traditional psychological studies usually focus on mental illnesses and disturbances. But, beginning with the late 1990s work of Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania, a new field has arisen that applies scientific analysis to understanding how people become happy. This is known as positive psychology.

Peng stresses that positive psychology is based on testable conclusions, not vague feelings. Psychological research shows that individuals can use technologies and training to improve their positive emotions and their feelings of living meaningfully. Especially, evidence from big data shows how policymakers can improve public happiness.

Peng did not start his career intending to be a psychologist. When he entered Peking University as a 16-year-old freshman in 1979, he was admitted to his preferred major  physics. On his arrival at the campus, he received a note instructing him to report to the new department of psychology, which had been created on the suggestion of Deng Xiaoping.

In 1978, Deng said that psychology must be important because the first visiting delegation of US scientists was headed by psychologist Richard Atkinson. Deng asked to meet with leading Chinese psychologists and was surprised to be told that there weren't any, because the field had been banned since 1952.

Peng says he was lucky to be in the first class of 20 psychology students because the university invited famous international psychologists to teach these classes.

He stayed at Peking University to teach after his graduation and then went to the University of Michigan in 1989, eventually receiving his PhD. He became a leader in the field of social and cultural psychology and a professor at Berkeley.

His early research dealt with differences in the psychology and philosophy of Americans and Chinese. He found that Americans tend to analyze the world using Aristotelian logic, which emphasizes the characteristics of an object. Chinese, on the other hand, focus on holistic relationships.

"For example, how would you categorize a cow, a chicken and grass? Americans say that the cow and the chicken fit in the same group because they are both animals. Chinese usually put the cow and grass in a group, because the cow eats the grass," he explains.

Most Americans are unsatisfied if they cannot sort things into mutually exclusive categories. But, the yin-yang tradition leads Chinese to be more psychologically accepting of complex relationships.

Peng concludes: "The Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget argued that this Chinese style of reasoning was not very developed. But, this is wrong. The great German philosopher Emmanuel Kant said there are two types of rationality  integrative and analytic. Earlier psychologists had not read Kant."

Chinese philosophy may also be more consistent with the insights gained from the correlations of big data.

Most studies use surveys asking people how happy they are, but that is very unreliable. "Instead of one-time information from college students in laboratories, big data gives you lots of longitudinal data from real life," Peng argues.

Peng and his colleagues used big data techniques to search 200 million users of WeChat and Weibo for keywords indicating joy, happiness or pleasure. Combined with other variables known to tie to happiness, especially education levels and crime rates, this big data was used to identify the five happiest cities of China  Hangzhou (Zhejiang province), Chuzhou (Anhui), Yuxi (Yunnan), Yingtan (Jiangxi), and Yangzhou (Jiangsu).

What underlying factors explain the high happiness levels of these very different cities? Peng lists three factors: "First, the people feel blessed because each of these places is traditionally rich in Chinese history and culture. Second, the governments have been following "happy city" policies and often talk about optimism and positive factors. Finally, these cities are not poor, even if they are not the richest."

"Interestingly, people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou don't talk about happiness. Even the government doesn't talk about it. They talk about the problems they are going to tackle, but there is not a feeling of optimism. In the happy cities, the mayors and party secretaries express optimism. The interaction between the government and the people generates happiness."

Using big data techniques to analyze the last 200 years of writings in Chinese and 13 other languages, Peng and his colleagues found that Chinese writers were the least happy and most pessimistic. Spanish writers were the happiest. English texts were in the middle. "This is the reason I'm doing positive psychology," Peng says.

More than 170 Chinese cities have joined the Happy City campaign. Peng advises the government to boost happiness by talking about happiness and optimism. Don't fixate on negativity. Also, focus on removing misery, rather than trying to boost already happy areas.

"If you have a beautiful picture, it won't help very much to add more flowers to it," he says.

"Psychological education and positive experiences such as art or science make people happy. Make life convenient for people. It is very important to have a sense of working together, not a hierarchy," Peng advises.

"One city, Dehong in Yunnan, built an open, public space in the center of the city, instead of high rises or a city square. They show movies every night. It creates a sense of community since you can see almost everybody there," he notes.

Tsinghua is also working on integrating psychology into China's schools. Peng says that 140 school principals have signed up for a happy school program. Last October, more than 4,000 principals from around the country came to Tsinghua''s campus for a meeting on positive education  the largest gathering of educators in Chinese history.

Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister of Australia, gave the keynote address to the third international conference on positive psychology at Tsinghua in 2015. President Xi Jinping invited him to breakfast before the conference and told him that the topic was very important.

Peng notes an interesting coincidence: "President Xi introduced the concept of a Chinese Dream' in 2013, one year after China's urban population passed more than half the population. Incidentally, the concept of an American Dream was proposed by businessman and historian James Truslow Adams in 1931, after the US became majority urban in 1930. Both originated when the people lost the traditional social support they had in their hometowns. The Chinese Dream has the same psychological foundation as the American Dream. Since China is a collective society, people want to make the country prosperous and happy."
A couple enjoy food and have fun exchange with staff at Pepper Twins' River Oaks location. Soft Square Bacon is a popular dish with customers. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Pepper Twins offers a youthful take on traditional cuisine and a timeless love of food

I counted myself lucky when I finally found a parking spot at one of the popular Houston restaurants in Montrose area.

Pepper Twins (previously known as Cooking Girl), a restaurant serving authentic Sichuan cuisine that opened in 2015, is located amid the busy, assorted restaurants in the area west of downtown Houston.

A small group of young alumni of Rice University gathered around a table for their reunion. They came from Austin, San Antonio and Houston, respectively.

"I have been coming here ever since this was opened. When my friend from China took me here, she said it's exactly how it is in China, it's very like home-style cooking, and it reminded her of a restaurant in Chengdu," said Steven Sharifi, a data engineer at General Motors in Austin.

Sharifi said that prior to graduation, he and his friends often visited Pepper Twins. "We tried everything on the menu, and everything is delicious. Now this is where we go to eat every time we come to Houston," he said.

"The food is incredible. Honest to god, this is equal or greater to any food I had in China," said another member of the group who is half-Chinese and visited China a few times.

The group of young professionals ordered a variety of dishes: mapo tofu, pepper twins chicken, stewed fish in hot sauce, and Jumping on the Mountain  in plain English, pig feet. In short time, all plates were picked clean as if storm had swept over.

At the table next to the Rice group, I found Max Levit and his wife enjoying a night out with a few dishes and a bottle of wine.

Levit, whose family-owned Grocers Supply is on the list of Forbes America's Largest Private Companies, said he is an avid food lover. He has dined at the best restaurants in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

"I have been to places all over US. I don't know what they did here, but this is the best Chinese food I ever had. People here are wonderful, too," said Levit, who regularly dines at Pepper Twins and calls it the best restaurant in Houston.
Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate change negotiator, speaks at the 2nd US-China Climate-Smart / Low-Carbon Cities Summit in Beijing on June 8, 2016. The major climate summit is scheduled to come to Boston in 2017. Chen Jianli / Xinhua

President Donald Trump has yet to decide whether to keep the US in the Paris climate agreement, as many call for the US and China to continue cooperating on curbing global warming and increasing green development, Zhao Huanxin reports from Washington.

Despite the Trump administration being in limbo on agreeing to the Paris Agreement on climate change, researchers and officials say that the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases should ramp up cooperation in green development and curbing global warming.

US President Donald Trump won't make an announcement regarding the agreement until after he returns from the G7 meeting in Sicily that ends on May 27, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

As the future of the landmark Paris climate accord hangs on the US decision, former US president Barack Obama broke his silence. "It's important that big countries that are big emitters like the US and China... lead the way," Agence France Press quoted Obama on May 9 as telling a conference in Milan. He added that developing countries were watching the two nations and that they had to lead the way in the fight against climate change.

The world can't solve climate change without both countries' leadership, said Barbara Finamore, Asia director and founder of the China program at the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York.

"Cooperation on climate change between China and the US has been so constructive for so many years, it really has formed the cornerstone of the relationship between the two countries," Finamore told China Daily.

The US vowed to cut carbon emissions by 26 to 28 percent below its 2005 level by 2025, and China promised to reduce carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 compared with 2005, reaching its peak of carbon emissions by 2030 or even earlier.

Bridging the gap

The joint pledges helped bridge the gap between developed and developing countries and spurred momentum for nearly 200 countries and regions to join the historic climate agreement in late 2015, according to Finamore.

"In turn, the Paris Agreement provides the framework for continued cooperation between the US and China," she said.

In Beijing, Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate change negotiator, said that the country is ready to work with the US in dealing with global warming and pushing forward green development.

Changes in US domestic poliacies would most likely affect the realization of its nationally determined contribution (NDC) goal and were a major concern of the world, Xie said at a media briefing following a ministerial meeting of the "BASIC" bloc of four major emerging economies  Brazil, South Africa, India and China  on April 12 in Beijing.

The Clean Power Plan and other actions by the Obama administration had a 26 to 28 percent emissions cut in mind, according to Xie. However, in March, Trump signed an executive order that triggered a review aimed at killing the Clean Power Plan.

Xie noted that the US external policies regarding climate change have not yet been finalized

"To actively adapt and react to climate change is an action responsible to all mankind, and green, low-carbon growth is conducive to global sustainable development," China's chief climate envoy said. "It is a prevailing trend that no country will run counter to."

China, as one of the BASIC group which was formed in 2009, is willing to work closer with the US to push forward the process, he said.

Xie said that he expected China and the US to hold talks on climate issues, and, according to a Reuters report, discussions are ongoing at multiple levels.

Liu Jieyi, China's top envoy to the United Nations, also said China would work with the rest of the international community to implement the Paris Agreement, and turn the challenge of climate change into the opportunity of transforming to green and low-carbon development so as to realize sustainable development.

Barbara Thompson, South Africa's deputy minister of environmental affairs, said that as the position of the US on the Paris pact was unclear, the BASIC bloc's firm position on addressing climate change and their staunch support for the multilateral process might influence the US.

A policy recommendation report by the Asia Society, the Center on US-China Relations and the University of California San Diego submitted to the Trump administration in February also urged the president to sustain and broaden US-China collaboration on global climate change.

"Energy, climate, and environmental cooperation have been one of the most successful and necessary areas of US-China relations," noted the report by a task force chaired by Orville Schell and Susan Shirk.

Finamore of the Natural Resources Defense Council said she hoped that Trump would come to recognize the value to the US of continuing its constructive engagement with China on climate change issues, especially clean energy.

Working together

The two countries have had decades of cooperation in the energy sector, she said, noting that there is a whole range of issues that both countries can work together to solve: developing new technology for battery storage, sharing information, best practices and policies and figuring out how to make the economic transition to the energy of the 21st century.

Finamore also said Trump's concern that the Paris Agreement would give China an unfair advantage over the US in manufacturing was "groundless".

"China is moving away from heavy industry as fast as it can to make a long-term transition towards a low carbon, service-based economy," she said in an article written with Alvin Lin.

"China is shutting down excess industrial capacity and working to reduce CO2 emissions in the iron and steel, chemical, and building materials industries  The country's overall 2020 target for industry is to decrease CO2 emissions per unit of industrial value added by 22 percent below 2015 levels," the article said.

On April 18, the White House abruptly postponed a scheduled meeting to discuss whether the US would stay or pull out of the Paris Agreement, and on May 9 it again put off the meeting.

"I'd hope that this is a positive sign that President Trump is starting to listen to the will of the American people, because  seven out of 10 Americans want the US to remain in the Paris Agreement," Finamore said, citing a nationally representative survey  Climate Change in the American Mind.

Polls support agreement

The survey, conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change in December, also found only 13 percent of respondents said the US should not stick with the deal.

A Quinnipiac University poll in early April found that 62 percent of respondents said Trump shouldn't remove specific regulations intended to combat climate change.

Despite Trump's hardline pre-election rhetoric against the deal, his inner circle has been tasked with providing him with a range of policy options, according

to media reports.

"Foes of the Paris climate agreement have gained the upper hand in the ongoing debate at the White House over whether the United States should pull out of the historic pact, although President Trump has yet to make a final decision, according to participants in the discussions and those briefed on the deliberations,'' The Washington Post reported on May 3.

On May 4, several Cabinet members met with top White House advisers, including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, both of whom support the pact. Also attending were Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has called for exiting the accord; Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who wants it renegotiated; and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who advocates remaining a party to it.

"I'm not going to say I'm going to go tell the president of the United States, Let's just walk away from the Paris accord,'" Perry said at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance conference in New York late last month.

"But what I am going to say is, I think we probably need to renegotiate it," he said, according to an AFP report." We need to sit down and they need to get serious about it."

Jason Schwartz, media officer of the Greenpeace USA, said the world is turning away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy. "Until last November the US was right there with China in leading this global movement," he said.

Even if Trump decides to leave the Paris agreement, it would take four years for the US to officially drop out of the agreement, because of the pact's structure, according to Schwartz.

"We are heartened by the rest of the world's ambitions, and we hope that the world's major economies are able to compensate, with respect to reducing carbon emissions, for what the US is sure to add during Trump's presidency," he told China Daily in an email.

Contact the writer at huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com
Public service path - College Park, MD Ted Lieu (left), a member of the US House of Representatives, talks about his journey as a Chinese American in public service, with Charlie Woo, co-founder and CEO of Megatoys, at the 2017 Committee of 100 Annual Conference in Washington on May 19. Dong Leshuo / China Daily
Durham, North Carolina is a vibrant city that offers couples and families an array of things to see and do. Dont miss a visit to the beautiful Sarah P. Duke Gardens, the The Nasher Museum of Art and the Durham Performing Arts Center. Best things to do in Durham, NC with kids include the Museum of Life + Science, the Duke Lemur Center and Eno River State Park.

We recommend that you call the attractions and restaurants ahead of your visit to confirm current opening times.

1. Sarah P. Duke Gardens  Courtesy of Nicola - Fotolia.com

Located on Anderson Street on the campus of Duke University, Sarah P. Duke Gardens is a 55-acre public garden that features both wooded and landscaped areas. The garden is a memorial to Sarah Pearson Duke who was the wife of Benjamin N. Duke, a benefactor of Duke University. There are five miles of trails and walks that wind their way through the garden, which is divided into four main areas. The garden offers tours and programs such as Nature Adventures Camp, Japanese Tea Gatherings, Summer Internships, and many more. Sarah P. Duke Gardens is one of the best romantic places to visit in Durham, North Carolina. Duke University, 420 Anderson Street, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-684-3698

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2. Museum of Life and Science  Museum of Life and Science

Located on West Murray Avenue north of downtown Durham, the Museum of Life + Science is a natural science museum that features many hands-on exhibits. Formerly known as the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, the museum sits on 80 acres of land and consists of several buildings and attractions. Some examples are the main building, a butterfly house, dinosaur trail, farmyard, and a train, and there are both indoor and outdoor exhibits. One of the best things to do in Durham, North Carolina, the museum is known for its Aerospace exhibit that displays many early NASA space program artifacts on loan from the National Air and Space Museum. The three-story glass Magic Wings Butterfly House is one of the museums most popular exhibits. Browse weekend getaways in NC 433 West Murray Avenue, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-220-5429

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3. Duke Lemur Center, Durham, North Carolina  Courtesy of Marcella Miriello - Fotolia.com

Sitting on 80 acres of land, the Duke Lemur Center is the worlds largest sanctuary for rare and endangered prosimian primates. It is located on Erwin Road close to Duke University, and it is open to the public. One-hour tours are offered but require advance reservations. The Center had its beginnings in 1966 when 90 primates were relocated from Yale University to Duke University. Since then, the Center has housed and taken care of almost 4,000 primates including lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers. Currently, there are approximately 250 primates representing 21 species. The Center hosts events such as Lemurpalooza, when visitors bring blankets and picnics and are introduced to some of the primates. If you are wondering what to see in Durham with kids, this is a fun place to visit with the whole family. 3705 Erwin Road, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-489-3364



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4. Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University  Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University



Located on Campus Drive, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University is an art museum that contains more than 13,000 works ranging from antiquity to contemporary art. The museums collection includes 3,300 Pre-Columbian art objects, works on paper, medieval art, and much more. Opened in 2005, the museum is housed in a building designed by architect Rafael Vinoly. In addition to the museums permanent collection, the Nasher Museum of Art hosts temporary exhibits and events such as music concerts and Free Family Day. The Nasher Museum of Art is one of the must-see Durham attractions for art lovers. Public tours are held on Thursday and Sunday, and private group tours are also available. The museum can be rented for corporate events, parties, and weddings. 2001 Campus Drive, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-684-5135

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5. DPAC - Durham Performing Arts Center  Courtesy of maxcam - Fotolia.com



With a capacity of 2,700, the Durham Performing Arts Center is the largest performing arts center in North and South Carolina. The Center is located on Vivian Street and hosts over 200 performances per year. It is a highly praised establishment that serves as the venue for touring Broadway shows, comedy events, music concerts, the American Dance Festival, family shows, and many other kinds of performances. The Center opened in 2008 with a sold out concert by B.B. King. If you are looking for date night ideas in Durham, watch a performance at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Owned by the City of Durham, the Center has proved to be a great success for the city, as evidenced by the new business it has generated; several new restaurants have opened in the vicinity of the Center. Public tours of the Center are held once a month. 123 Vivian Street, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-680-2787

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6. Stagville State Historic Site, Durham, North Carolina  Stagville State Historic Site



Stagville State Historic Site is a historic house museum made up of buildings from the Stagville Plantation, one of the largest plantations in the American South. The Bennehan-Cameron family originally owned the plantation, and the buildings date from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century. The Bennehan House, built in 1878, and Horton Grove, an area that holds slave houses built in 1850, are both listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Located on Old Oxford Highway, the historic site offers guided tours three times a day. There are summer programs for school children and special events like the Harvest Festival Pie Auction. 5828 Old Oxford Highway, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-620-0120

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7. Things to Do in Durham: American Tobacco Historic District  Courtesy of Sean Pavone Photo - Fotolia.com

Located on Blackwell Street, the American Tobacco Historic District is a tobacco factory area consisting of 17 historic structures. Listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2000, the structures were built between 1874 and the 1950s. Some of the most noteworthy buildings include the Italianate style W.T. Blackwell and Company Building, the Hill Warehouse built in the Romanesque Revival style, and several structures in the Art Moderne style including the Crowe, the Fowler, and the Strickland buildings. The district was formerly the home of the American Tobacco Company, and the redevelopment of this historic area was a part of a large urban renewal plan to revitalize downtown Durham. Today, the district is known for its many restaurants and shops. 318 Blackwell Street, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-433-1566



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8. Metro 8 Steakhouse, Durham, North Carolina  Metro 8 Steakhouse

How can you make a classic American steakhouse even better? You add an Argentinean touch to it. At Metro 8 Steakhouse, the Argentinean touch is the chef and owner Francisco Pirillo. He mixes elements like shrimp and simple filet mignon stuffed with crabs or turns your steak into a churrasco and serves it with chimichurri. For dessert, try the souffle or the decadent crepes filled with dulce de leche. With such amazing food, the menu does not have to be extensive and complicated. The restaurant is also as simple as it is perfect, and features soft colors, clean lines, rich hardwood floors, and a large inviting bar. There is also a nice outdoor patio if you want to enjoy the fresh air while you dine. 1116 Broad St, Durham, NC 27705, 919-416-1700



9. Durham Central Park  Durham Central Park

Theres a lot to see and do in Durham, and a great number of those things can be found at Durham Central Park. A hub for recreation, special events, and even great eats, Durham Central Park is a five-acre green space that is beloved for regularly hosting farmers' markets, movie screenings, food truck rodeos, and concerts at their 9,000-square-foot pavilion. The park is also home to an interactive play area for children called Mount Merrill, and a gorgeous grove of trees filled with species from other countries like a Japanese Higan Cherry Tree, and a Russian Red Maple. Recreational activities at the Great Lawn are absolutely enjoyable, while other features include the 10,000-square-foot skate park, the free-pick public garden, Garden of Eatin, and several other manicured gardens to rest in. 501 Foster Street, Durham, North Carolina 27701, Phone: 919-794-8194

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10. Things to Do in Durham: Eno River State Park  Courtesy of Irina Silayeva - Fotolia.com

Eno River State Park consists of 4,200 acres of land and, along with the West Point on the Eno City Park, preserves more than nine miles of the Eno River. Located northwest of downtown Durham, the park is a popular place for outdoor activities such as camping, canoeing, and fishing, and there are also 24 miles of hiking trails. If you are wondering what to do in Durham with kids, this is a great park to explore. The area was home to several Native American tribes. Once the settlers arrived, they built over 30 gristmills on the river. The park was created in 1972 to protect the area from development. The park is known for its natural beauty including its springtime wildflowers and its animals such as beavers, birds, deer, fish, and turtles, among others.



11. Guglhupf Bakery, Cafe & Restaurant  Guglhupf

You do not have to be able to pronounce its name to fall in love with Guglhupf. This exciting cafe, patisserie, and bakery located on a commercial strip of the Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd will take you by surprise: it features modern touches with exposed beams, lots of steel, a waterfall feature, at the entrance and yet the dining room and patio areas are incredibly cozy. The wonderful aromas are perhaps reminiscent of a different era. Youll be struck by the smell of homemade hot bread, fresh brewed coffee, and vanilla cake cooling on the windowsill. This incredibly popular German-influenced eatery offers Central European delights like pork schnitzel and house-smoked sausages, but most people come for the cakes and breads. Once you try their guglhupf, you will find the word much easier to pronounce because youll never forget the wonderful taste. 2706 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd. Suite #1, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-401-2600

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12. Only Burger, Durham, North Carolina  Only Burger

We often want life to be simple. For example, sometimes all we want is a burger, but at the same time, we want that burger to be absolutely perfect. This intense desire for the perfect burger drove the owners of OnlyBurger to come up with such a tasty burger that they had to open two more shops to satisfy their happy customers. OnlyBurger started as a food truck serving burgers made of Certified Piedmontese beef free of hormones, antibiotic, and steroids; they are freshly ground every day and served on a toasted bun. Add fried green tomatoes and pimiento cheese and you end up with the burger that tops all burgers. When the customers got tired of chasing the truck all over Durham, the company opened two restaurants downtown. They also offer turkey and veggie burgers for those who prefer lighter fare. 3710 Shannon Rd., Suite 118, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-937-9377



13. Brightleaf Square, Durham, North Carolina  Courtesy of realstock1 - Fotolia.com

Housed in two historic tobacco warehouses in downtown Durham, Brightleaf Square is a bustling area full of restaurants, shops, and a venue for special events. The two historic brick warehouses, the Watts and the Yuille tobacco warehouses, were built in the early 20th century and are located at 905 West Main Street in the American Tobacco Historic District. Opened in 1981, Brightleaf Square has been a part of the urban renewal plan to revitalize downtown Durham. The restaurants offer a variety of cuisine including Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and many more. Shops sell items such as antiques, books, and clothing. Events include music concerts including performances by the Durham Symphony Orchestra String Ensemble. 905 West Main Street, Durham, North Carolina, Phone: 919-682-9229



14. Museum of Durham History  Museum of Durham History

Come to the Museum of Durham History to hear incredible tales and learn the interesting histories of the citys people, places, and simple things that create and foster curiosity. After all, the museum is dedicated to helping the community and visitors alike understand the history of Durham and its community, while promoting an understanding of the citys diversity. The museum proudly displays an exhibit on Durhams historic timeline, a gallery on Durham stories, and it also has plenty of information on Durhams historical sites. The museum is also the host of 150 Faces of Durham, a traveling exhibit that features the familiar and perhaps lesser-known personalities of Durhams past. Admission is free. 500 W. Main Street, Downtown Durham, North Carolina 27702, Phone: 919-246-9993



15. Forest Hills Park  Alinsa/stock.adobe.com



Built by James O. Cob and Fuller Glass in the 1920s, the 45.8-acre Forest Hills Park and its surrounding neighborhood stands on what used to be farmland. Today, it is a picture of rest and recreation with its towering trees, beautiful curving streets, and spacious spaces to relax and just enjoy the sun and air. At the Forest Hills Park, guests can tee off on its nine-hole golf course, splash around the pool, or spend some time at the parks colonial revival-style clubhouse. Forest Hills Park is also home to a sprayground  the water park equivalent of a playground, a picnic shelter, several athletic rentals, and four tennis courts. 1639 University Drive, Durham, North Carolina 27707, Phone: 919-560-4355

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16. Things to Do in Durham, NC: West Point on the Eno  Courtesy of SeanPavonePhoto - Fotolia.com



Located on North Roxboro Street north of downtown Durham, West Point on the Eno is a 404-acre city park on the Eno River. The park is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and is home to several preserved buildings, including the 1850s McCown-Mangum farmhouse, West Point Mill, which is a museum housed in a reproduction of a colonial mill, and the Hugh Mangum Museum of Photography, a museum with historic 19th and 20th photos in a restored tobacco pack house. In addition to these historic buildings, the park features a childrens play area called Natural Play Space, five miles of hiking trails, and an amphitheater. Popular activities include canoeing, hiking, and kayaking.



17. Honeygirl Meadery and Tasting Room  Honeygirl Meadery and Tasting Room



Sip on award-winning, tummy-warming mead at the Honeygirl Meadery located at the center of Durhams downtown area. Specializing in small-batch and seasonal meads, Honeygirl Meadery primarily uses ingredients related to the hardworking honeybee to make their meads such as flowers, seasonal fruits, herbs, and of course, honey. The meaderys tasting room is open every weekend and welcomes craft beverage enthusiasts and mead aficionados to come by and sample their uniquely made and flavorful offerings. Guests can also get an insider's look at how fermenting with honey is done at Honeygirl. Be sure to try their signature meads like the Blueberry Mead, the Farmhouse Wildflower Mead, the Orange Blossom Mead, as well as the Spiced Apple Cyser. 105 Hood Street, Durham, North Carolina 27701, Phone: 919-399-3056

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18. Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham, NC  Durham Bulls Athletic Park



The home to the Durham Bulls, Durham Bulls Athletic Park opened in 1995 in downtown Durham. It was expanded to fit 10,000 seats in 1998, when the Bulls started playing in the Triple-A International League. The stadium was designed so that all fans can have a great view of the field in total comfort. A roof covers about 2,500 seats. All seats are extra wide with extra legroom, and most have cup holders. The ballpark, called the Blue Monster, has many similarities to Fenway Park  the Green Monster. The structures characteristics follow architecture of todays Durhams downtown and those of many old-time athletic parks. The park's most famous feature is the Snorting Bull sculpture that stands above the park, and it was featured in the popular movie Bull Durham. 409 Blackwell St, Durham, NC 27701, 919-687-6500



19. Duke University Chapel, Durham, NC  Courtesy of sframe - Fotolia.com



Located on Duke Universitys West Campus, Duke Chapel is a magnificent example of neo-Gothic architecture. Built in 1930 and designed by Julian Abele, the structure features huge stone piers, ribbed vaults, pointed arches, and flying buttresses that create a vast interior open space without the need for columns. The result is an awe-inspiring structure that inspires reverence and a sense of wonder. The chapel is built with volcanic stone the University bought for its West Campus. The stone, called Hillsborough bluestone, was brought from a Hillsborough quarry and plays a big part in the beauty of the building with its range of colors, from rust to gray, in 17 different shades. Duke Chapel is a Christian church of interdenominational purpose and character. It welcomes people of all faiths and any circumstance with its music and worship. It is a symbol of the Universitys goal of bridging learning and faith. 401 Chapel Dr, Durham, NC, Phone: 919-681-9488

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20. Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, North Carolina  Courtesy of Sergey Ryzhov - Fotolia.com



Cameron Indoor Stadium is a 9,314-seat indoor arena located on the West Campus of Durham, North Carolinas Duke University. It is the home of the Duke women's volleyball team and women's and men's basketball teams. It is also the main indoor athletic venue for the Duke Blue Devils. It was named Cameroon Indoor Stadium from 1940 when it opened until 1972, when it was renamed Duke Indoor Stadium in honor of Eddie Cameron, the legendary coach of Dukes men's basketball team. Cameron is considered the crown jewel of classic college basketball's venues. It was renovated in 1980 when its seating capacity was increased to 9,314, and in 2009 with the installation of the new video scoreboard. The Blue Devils won 817 games in Cameron and the Duke womens team won 411. Many of these victories have been attributed to the special atmosphere of the Cameron halls. 115 Whitford Dr, Durham, NC, Phone: 919-684-2633



21. Carolina Theater, Durham, NC  Courtesy of dechevm - Fotolia.com



Located in the Carolina Theatre complex of downtown Durham, Carolina Theatre has been the citys most popular and most loved art institutions for more than 20 years. The theatre presents Durhams art lovers with more than 60 concerts every year, new and classic films daily and several annual film festivals. The Carolina produces the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, as well as the Nevermore and Escapism film festivals. The theatres popular Arts Discovery educational program serves 15,000 of Durhams school children. The facility is frequently used by a number of not-for-profits and other organizations for their events. The Carolina Theatre historic building was constructed in 1923 in the Beaux-Arts style. 309 West Morgan St., Durham, NC, Phone: 919-560-3030



22. Bennett Place Historic Site, Durham, North Carolina  Bennett Place Historic Site



Bennett Place or Bennett Farm in Durham, North Carolina, is a small, simple farmhouse where Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Union General William T. Sherman met in April 1865 to sign the surrender of Southern states armies in Florida, the Carolinas, and Georgia. It was the biggest surrender of the American Civil War troops. The original Bennett family farmhouse was carefully reconstructed in the 1960s using original sketches and photos in order to show the farmer and his familys way of life during this tragic period of the nation's history. This historic site has a well-organized Visitor Center and the extensive Everett-Thissen Research Library, which contains over 1,000 books and documents relating to the Bennett family and Civil War. Visitors can also see the short very informative film Dawn of Peace. The farmland has many scenic trails visitors can enjoy during their visit. 4409 Bennett Memorial Rd, Durham, NC, Phone: 919-383-4345

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23. Duke Homestead State Historic Site  Duke Homestead State Historic Site Duke Homestead is the site of the early farm and 1852 home of the Duke family and factories where Washington Duke started growing and processing tobacco. Duke's sons founded The American Tobacco Company, the worlds largest tobacco company. The tour of the homestead includes a visit to the Duke family's home with four furnished and restored rooms, two tobacco factories, a tobacco packhouse, and a curing barn. The Tobacco Museum, which is part of the Homestead, contains 5,500 square feet of historic exhibits that tell the story of tobacco, ranging from the times of Native Americans to today. The museum also shows a short film Legacy of the Golden Leaf on the history of tobacco and the Duke family. 2828 Duke Homestead Rd, Durham, NC, Phone: 919-4775498



24. Wallace Wade Stadium, Durham, NC  Courtesy of moomsabuy - Fotolia.com Duke Stadium is a football stadium that opened its doors on October 5, 1929. The stadium is designed in a horseshoe shape and is surrounded by the towering green pines of the Duke forest. The stadium changed its name in 1967 in honor of the legendary Duke coach Wallace Wade, who led the Blue Devils to two appearances at the Rose Bowl and a 110-36-7 record. The stadium was upgraded in 1984 when a new lighting system was added, making nighttime football games possible. There are 64 lights on four 110-foot-high poles, providing great illumination not only for the stadium but also for walkways and parking. A video board was added in 1998, and the Wallace Wade Stadium was the first North Carolina football stadium to have this feature. 110 Frank Basset Dr, Durham, NC, Phone: 919-684-4112



25. Urban Axes Durham  Urban Axes Durham Test your arm strength and your aim at Urban Axes Durham, a fun and exciting activity to participate in for a great night out with friends, co-workers, or family. Open to legal adults, Urban Axes Durham is a refreshing break from the monotony and stress of everyday city life. Visitors can enjoy the oddly and deeply satisfying act of hurling an axe at a wooden target and hearing it stick to the board with a delightful thunk. At the same time, guests can grab their preferred beverage to sip and chat with companions as each person takes their turn at throwing the axe. First-time visitors need not worry as trained specialists will be there to help you get a hang of things. 619 Foster Street, Durham, North Carolina 27701, Phone: 948-377-3697



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Relax on sandy beaches, stroll along the scenic Virginia Beach Boardwalk and explore local attractions in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Kids will love the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, the Military Aviation Museum and the Ocean Breeze Waterpark. Best things to do in Virginia Beach for couples include the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the Adam Thoroughgood House and a romantic picnic on the ocean's edge.

We recommend that you call the attractions and restaurants ahead of your visit to confirm current opening times.

1. Virginia Beach Boardwalk  Courtesy of sherryvsmith - Fotolia.com

The Virginia Beach Boardwalk is the heart and soul of the area and provides a range of fun entertainment and activities for visitors and locals alike. Stretching for three miles along the oceanfront, the boardwalk has an energetic mix of restaurants, shops, entertainment, and laid-back beach vibes. The boardwalk features a separate bike path with vendors offering bike and surrey rentals, making it ideal for strolling, rollerblading, and biking. The boardwalk is also a center for performing arts, including live musical acts, summer concerts, and a range of nautical sculptures such as the famous bronze statute of King Neptune.

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2. Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA  Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art is dedicated to encouraging and fostering the exploration and understanding of contemporary and modern art. Located at 2200 Parks Avenue, the museum is housed in an award-winning building designed by Boston architect E. Verner Johnson and boasts over 6,000 square feet of exhibition space. The museum features a range of ever-changing exhibitions spanning a variety of art forms and genres, from painting, drawing, and sculpture, to photography, video, and glass. The museum also offers educational outreach programs, studio art classes, and outdoor art shows featuring local and upcoming artists to promote their works and encourage the community to take an interest in the arts. Fun Things to Do in Virginia Beach 2200 Parks Avenue, Virginia Beach, VA, Phone: 757-425-0000

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3. First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, VA  Courtesy of sherryv smith - Fotolia.com

Named after the landing of the first English colonists in 1607, First Landing State Park is a beautiful oasis in the heart of Virginia Beach, and it is the regions most-visited state park. Built in the early 1930s, the park is a National Natural Landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It offers an array of recreational and educational activities, including over 20 miles of hiking and biking trails and uninterrupted views over Chesapeake Bay. A variety of diverse habitats ranging from maritime forests and lush lagoons to marshy cypress swamps serve as the home to myriad fauna and flora. Meanwhile, the visitor-friendly Chesapeake Bay Center features historical and educational exhibits, as well as a pavilion and amphitheater that can be rented for special events.



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4. The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, Virginia Beach, VA  Courtesy of Simi - Fotolia.com



Located just south of Rudee Inlet, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center is home to over 12,000 animals representing over 700 species. The animals are cared for in a variety of habitats, including the Bay & Ocean Pavilion, which features animals from oceanic marine environments, and the Marsh Pavilion, which hosts a variety of river and marsh creatures. The two pavilions are connected by a lovely outdoor hiking/walking trail that runs alongside Owls Creek Salt Marsh. If you are looking for fun things to do in Virginia Beach with kids, this is a great place to visit. The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center also offers a range of educational programs and workshops that aim to encourage and inspire the preservation of the marine environment through research and sustainable practices. 717 General Booth Blvd, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-385-3474

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5. Grommet Island Park  Grommet Island Park



Grommet Island Park is a place in Virginia Beach, Virginia that was designed for everybody. The first park of its kind in the United States, this unique playground and park is a 100-percent accessible oceanfront park. Grommet Island Park is approximately 15,000 square feet in size and features a playground consisting of a sway boat, sensory board for visually impaired and autistic children, raised sand tables designed for building sand castles at an accessible height, and poured-in-place surfacing. The playground features several sculptural features as well. There are also wheelchair-accessible entrances to the park and accessible seating areas. 100 2nd Street, Virginia Beach, VA 2345, 757-385-1100

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6. Virginia Beach Attractions: False Cape State Park  Courtesy of Noel - Fotolia.com



The former home of Native Americans, False Cape State Park is situated between Back Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and it is one the last remaining undeveloped areas along the Atlantic coast. The park is home to a diverse range of wild and untamed ecosystems and offers excellent outdoor activities such as hiking and biking opportunities through various trails, kayaking trips, beach combing, and camping. The park is also home to the historic Wash Woods community where visitors can explore the old church and cemetery, as well as take an enjoyable round-trip tram ride through the park from the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The park is open from dawn until dusk and has no public vehicular access  it is only accessible by foot, bicycle, beach transport, tram, or boat.

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7. Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, VA  Military Aviation Museum

The Atlantic Military Aviation Museum is located at the Virginia Beach Airport and is home to one of the largest collections of World War I and World War II military aircrafts in the world. Spanning a vast complex of four hangars and an exclusive museum space for the collections non-flying pieces, this fascinating living history museum grew from a passion for World War-era aircraft. It features an impressive selection of meticulously restored aviation treasures. Examples of World War I bi- and triplanes include a Bleriot XI and an Albatross DVA, and World War II pieces include a Spitfire and a MIG. Enjoy guided tours of Master Jet Base NAS Oceana on a special double-decker bus and get up close views of F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet fighter jets. You will have the exciting opportunity to watch Naval Aviators and ground crews at work. 1341 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-721-7767



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8. Blue Seafood and Spirits, Virginia Beach, VA  Blue Seafood and Spirits

Located on Upton Drive in Virginia Beach, Blue Seafood & Spirits is a chef-owned and operated restaurant dedicated to serving high quality, fresh seafood accompanied by a range of signature cocktails, wines, and beers. Managed by Chef Charles Thain, the 60-seater restaurant boasts an elegant yet casual ambiance and specializes in a variety of freshly prepared seafood dishes such tempura fried shrimp and crab cakes. The restaurant does not accept reservations, so be sure to get there early to get a table. 2181 Upton Drive, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-698-5395



9. Ocean Breeze Waterpark, Virginia Beach, VA  Courtesy of tutye - Fotolia.com

Ocean Breeze Waterpark is a family-friendly water park and entertainment center in the heart of Virginia Beach. The Caribbean-themed Park features more than 30 exciting rides and exhilarating water slides, river adventures, a pirate ship, and a massive wave pool, as well as other fun attractions. Popular rides include the Log Rolls, Walk the Plane, and Jungle Falls. Smaller children can enjoy themselves on a real pirate ship, and adults might enjoy spending a few hours browsing the shops. The park has several restaurants and cafes that serve a variety of food, snacks, and drinks, and the park offers free sunscreen and inner tubes for all visitors.

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10. The Bee and The Biscuit, Virginia Beach, VA  The Bee and The Biscuit

The Bee and The Biscuit is a delightful Virginia Beach restaurant housed within a 1919 cottage in the city's Pungo district, opened in 2016 by restaurateur Karen Johnson. The restaurant serves up breakfast and lunch entrees throughout the week, known for its delicious fare crafted with locally-sourced farm ingredients. Guests can enjoy delicious breakfast entrees all day, including Southern-style favorites like buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy, Tex Mex selections like vegan or sausage breakfast burritos, and gourmet bistro offerings like stuffed French toast with mascarpone filling and orange sauce. A full menu of creative omelettes and Benedicts are also served, including favorites with bay lump crab meat. Lunch selections include health-conscious wraps, mushroom melts, and Carolina pulled pork biscuits. 1785 Princess Anne Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23456, Phone: 757-689-6243



11. Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum, Virginia Beach, VA  Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum

The Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum is a small museum dedicated to showcasing the history and migratory patterns of Atlantic Wildfowl that pass through Eastern Virginia. Located in the historic de Witt Cottage on the Virginia Beach oceanfront, the museum is home to a variety of exhibits and displays showcasing wildfowl and shorebirds and their migratory movements, as well as an array of artworks with this particular subject matter, from contemporary lifelike carvings to traditional decoys. Other interesting exhibits include a diorama of the surrounding Back Bay habitat and wildlife, a mural of the Atlantic Flyway, and a modern, interactive computer that gives immersive lessons about the local wildfowl. 1113 Atlantic Avenue, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-437-8432

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12. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Baker's Crust  schab/stock.adobe.com

Baker's Crust is a charming regional Virginia restaurant chain, offering seven locations today throughout the state, including a spacious location in Virginia Beach's Hilltop North Shopping Center. The full-service restaurant offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner service throughout the week, focusing on entrees prepared from scratch highlighting the restaurant's hearth-baked European-style breads. Artisan sandwiches feature hearty ingredients sourced from regional Virginia farms, including organic-grown greens that are free of pesticides and GMO modification. Neapolitan-style pizzas highlight traditional flavors such as fennel sausage, prosciutto, and portabella mushrooms, while beef, turkey, and vegetarian burgers are served up charbroiled on housemade brioche buns. Weekly specials include half-price wine Wednesdays and pizza and pint nights on Thursdays. 704 Hilltop North Shopping Center, Virginia Beach, VA 23451, Phone: 757-422-6703



13. Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge  sherryvsmith/stock.adobe.com

The Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a freshwater refuge encompassing approximately 8,000 acres bordering the Back Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The wildlife refuge consists of barrier islands featuring large impoundments used by wintering wildfowl, ocean beach, ponds, freshwater marshes, maritime forests, and large sand dunes. The peaceful habitats found throughout the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge can be reached by the beach, the boardwalk overlook, bikes, and marsh trails. The refuge itself can also be accessed by the Back Bay Tram Tours, which run from the resort area from the beginning of April through the end of October. 4005 Sandpiper Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23456, 757-301-7329



14. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Terrapin  Terrapin

Just a short walk from the famous boardwalk of Virginia Beach, Terrapin offers diners an intimate dining experience with a menu of award-winning contemporary American Cuisine made from seasonal, farm-fresh ingredients. Chef Rodney Einhorn has created an innovative menu of farm-to-table fare that features dishes such as truffle mac-and-cheese, fresh sea scallops, and rib eye steak. The evolving menu is paired with an interesting list of signature cocktails, boutique wines, and craft beer. The recently renovated restaurant that can accommodate 50 patrons is warm and inviting with an elegant wooden bar, floating lanterns, and an open kitchen. A stylish terrace is ideal for outdoor dining during the warmer months. 3102 Holly Road, Pinewood Square, Suite 514, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-321-6688



15. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Adam Thoroughgood House  Adam Thoroughgood House



Named after an apprenticed servant who made a fortune in tobacco farming, the Adam Thoroughgood House is a National Historic Landmark and is said to be the oldest surviving colonial home in Virginia Beach. Built in the 1680s and later restored to its former glory in 1957, the small farmhouse is located in a quiet neighborhood near the banks of the Lynnhaven River. It features an incredible collection of late 17th and early 18th century English furniture and beautifully manicured gardens. Guided tours of the house are conducted by costumed staff members, and the museum offers a range of interactive educational programs for children to learn about the life and traditions of the past. 1636 Parish Rd, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-460-7588

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16. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: The Bagel Baker  The Bagel Baker



The Bagel Baker is a friendly bagel and coffee shop located in the Great Neck area of Virginia Beach. Established in 2011, this family-owned and operated bakery brings a taste of New York to Virginia Beach with freshly baked bagels with delicious toppings, breakfast sandwiches, soups, salads, and home-brewed coffee. Bagels are made daily in the traditional way  they are kettle-boiled, stone baked, and preservative free. Visitors can choose from a variety of fillings such as cream cheese, hummus, butter, and jelly for their bagels. A range of other sandwiches, breakfast rolls, deli salads, and soups are also available. Gourmet coffee is freshly brewed throughout the day to accompany the delis range of meals and snacks. 1340 N. Great Neck Road, Suite 1248, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-965-3050



17. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Sandbridge Beach  Courtesy of sherryv smith - Fotolia.com



Sandbridge Beach is a beautiful beach paradise and secluded hideaway just 15 miles south of the main resort area of Virginia Beach where you can escape the crowds. Stretching for five miles along the coastline and featuring pristine sand dunes and waving sea oats, this seaside oasis is home to breathtaking natural landscapes and a diverse range of wildlife. Explore the thick marshes and mercurial backwaters of Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in search of wildlife, venture along the Seashore to Cypress Birding Trail to find some fantastic birds, or head into the False Cape State Park to enjoy hiking, kayaking, or fishing.

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18. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Lake Lawson  Courtesy of ballabeyla - Fotolia.com



The Lake Lawson/Lake Smith Natural Area, a natural preserve situated in the Bayside Borough, boasts over 12,000 feet of shoreline and a variety of diverse habitats. The area offers locals and visitors alike a range of fun water-based and beach activities, including fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and paddle boating. There are several walking trails, a pedestrian bridge, and picnic areas families can use, as well as a newly built playground for young children. The 42,000-acre reserve offers several fishing and overlook platforms, formalized boat and trailer parking, and a new boat ramp for fishing and boating enthusiasts.



19. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Rudee Flipper Dolphin Tours  Rudee Flipper Dolphin Tours



Explore the Virginia Beach coastline and see dolphins in their natural habitat on a fun-filled cruise aboard the Rudee Flipper. Renowned as one of the longest running and most experienced dolphin cruise companies in the region, Rudee Tours offers unforgettable tours that allow you to experience the beauty of the coastline and watch dolphins frolicking in the bay. Tours are conducted on the Rudee Flipper, a classy cruise boat with upper and lower sightseeing levels and interior windows that boast 360-degree views so you dont miss a thing! The boat is manned by a professional crew who will share their knowledge and passion about the area and help you find the best locations to sight dolphins. The Rudee Flipper is equipped with modern amenities for comfort, including two restrooms, climate control, and a snack bar that serves hot and cold beverages and freshly made snacks. 200 Winston Salem Ave, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Phone: 757-425-3400

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20. Things to Do in Virginia Beach: Little Island Park  Courtesy of eurobanks - Fotolia.com



Situated just north of Back Bay Wildlife Refuge in Sandbridge, Little Island Park is a lovely beach park that provides the public with a variety of outdoor activities. The park is home to a 400-foot fishing pier, which is a great place to surf, as well as a pristine beach where visitors can swim, beach comb, and fish. There are also sheltered picnic and barbecue sites throughout the park for family fun days in the sun. The brackish lake of Back Bay is ideal for kayaking, canoeing, fishing, and crabbing, while lighted tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts provide extra entertainment for more energetic individuals.



21. Tarnished Truth Distilling Company  Tarnished Truth Distilling Company



Founded in 2013 by two Virginia natives, Josh Canada and Andrew Yancey, Tarnished Truth Distilling Company in Virginia Beach boasts the title of being the first in-hotel distillery in the United States. The distillery is located inside The Historic Cavalier Hotel & Beach Club and uses both new and old distilling techniques for crafting a great selection of locally crafted and award-winning gin, vodka, rye whiskey, bourbon, and other types of small-batch specialty spirits. Larry Ebersold, a master distiller, leads the distilling team. Visitors can take a guided tour of the distillery or sample some Tarnished Truths spirits in the tasting room. 4200 Atlantic Ave, Virginia Beach, VA 23451, 757-965-9652



22. Cape Henry Lighthouse  sherryvsmith/stock.adobe.com



Originally built back in 1792 and now a National Historic Landmark, Cape Henry Lighthouse began to crack in 1870, leading it to be replaced just 357 feet away by the new Cape Henry Lighthouse. This new lighthouse serves as a navigation aid and is operated by the United States Coast Guard. Preservation Virginia operates the old lighthouse. Which has become the City of Virginia Beach's official symbol. Since the lighthouses are located on the Fort Story military base, visitors will have to go through the security gates. Visitors must also be at least 42 inches tall to climb the Cape Henry Lighthouse. 583 Atlantic Ave Fort Story, VA 23459, 757-422-9421

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23. Mount Trashmore Park  sherryvsmith/stock.adobe.com Mount Trashmore Park totals approximately 165 acres of Virginia Beach and is made up of multi-use paths, a vert ramp and skate park, two playgrounds, two lakes, and two man-made mountains. This world-renowned park is noted for its environmental feat of transforming a former landfill into a beautiful water-wise garden boasting xeriscaping. Mount Trashmore is the larger mountain at 60 feet high and the smaller mountain in the park is called Encore Hill. Fishing at the lakes is allowed from land, but requires a fishing license. Wading, swimming, and boats, however, are not permitted on either Lake Trashmore or Lake Windsor. 310 Edwin Dr, Virginia Beach, VA 23462, 757-385-2995



24. Hunt Club Farm  Hunt Club Farm A unique family owned and operated farm, Hunt Club Farm in Virginia Beach, Virginia spans across more than thirty acres and offers fun for people of all ages. The Petting Farm offers kids a chance to pet pigs, llamas, donkeys, cows, chickens, and goats, while the BirdWalk Aviary provides an opportunity to visit with more than 500 parakeets. Theres also the TreeWalk Adventure, an in-air playground made up of treehouses connected by wooden and netted bridges. Hunt Club Farm also hosts a seasonal Farm Market from April to December, a Pumpkin Patch during the fall, and a holiday market in December. 2388 London Bridge Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23456, 757-427-9520



25. Motor World  Motor World Motor World boasts itself as your place to race in Virginia Beach. This fun-filled destination attraction features more than a dozen different style go-karts for guests to choose from and over ten go-kart tracks, including the European-style race track called the Adult Speed Track. Theres also a year-round Splat Zone with a shooting range, inflatable bunkers, and paintball fields. A place for the entire family to enjoy, Motor World also includes miniature golf, a variety of thrill rides, bumper boats, the Skycoaster, a climbing wall, and much more. For younger visitors, theres the Kiddie City theme park. 700 S Birdneck Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23451, 757-422-6419



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HCM CITY  Bibica Joint Stock Company plans to earn revenue of VN1.4 trillion (US$62 million) in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 9.8 per cent.

The company has also targeted profit after tax of VN86.6 billion and dividend payment from 12 to 18 per cent, it was reported at the companys annual shareholder meeting in HCM City today.

Truong Phu Chien, Bibicas deputy chairman, said in 2016, the company focused on improving the quality of moon cake, thereby contributing to this products net sales of VN100 billion (3 per cent higher than the plan).

In addition, Bibica also deployed Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) at its factories to reduce production costs from 1.7 per cent in 2015 to 1.6 per cent in 2016 and successfully developed "shop key "solutions, exceeding 34 per cent of the sales growth over the same period.

In 2016, Bibica hit revenue of VN1.26 trillion, up 7.8 per cent against the same period last year, and exceeded 1 per cent of the target. Moreover, the firms after-tax profit reached over VN81.2 billion (exceeding 24.8 per cent of the plan).

Bibica is one of the leading confectionery makers in Viet Nam, with popular brands such as Hura, Choco Bella, Orienko, Zoo and One Two Three.

Currently, Bibica has more than 200 products which are distributed at some 1,200 exclusive distributors, more than 115,500 retail outlets and 500 supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide.

In addition, Bibica exports its products to more than 15 countries and regions around the world.  VNS
HA NOI  The Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency held a workshop in the capital on Thursday on trade promotion to the Middle East and Africa, which followed a conference on South American trade promotion on Wednesday.

Khai Hoan, deputy director of the Africa, Western and South Asia Markets Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, told Thursdays attendees that these populous regions have a high demand for imports of many key Vietnamese export products, including garments, footwear, fisheries, food and consumer products.

To date, Viet Nam has established diplomatic relations with more than 70 countries in the region, opening opportunities to boost exports to these markets.

However, the ministry urged firms to study market information carefully to seek out trustworthy partners.

In addition, payments are a difficult matter, as many firms are not used to using the letter of credits. If using document against payment method, Vietnamese firms should require deposits of at least 30 per cent.

For South American markets, deputy director of the Trade Promotion Agency Ta Hoang Linh said Wednesday that a region with more than US$6 trillion GDP and a population of more than 600 million must hold significant opportunities for Vietnamese firms.

In recent years, Viet Nams exports to the region have experienced an annual average growth of 30-40 per cent, Linh said.

However, Vietnamese enterprises still face several challenges in exporting to the region, such as geographical distance, high transportation costs and cultural and institutional differences.

Former Vietnamese Trade Counselor to Chile Tran inh Van agreed. He mentioned inadequate market information and difficulties in language as two obstacles facing Vietnamese exporters.

As for the Chilean market, Viet Nams goods also face fierce competition from their peers from South America and Asia, he noted.

Le Thi Van Anh, director of Thanh at Joint Stock Co, which exports farm produce in the northern province of Hung Yen, said her enterprise stopped searching for export opportunities to the region after it failed to receive payment for a cashew nut shipment in 2014 from a South American partner.

Her company couldnt even retrieve its products, Van Anh told the Industry and Trade (Cong Thuong) newspaper.

To facilitate Vietnamese exports to the region, Van called on closer co-operation between relevant State agencies and enterprises, especially in trade promotion.

He also suggested domestic firms improve their understanding about South American trade information, customs procedures and payment methods.  VNS
HCM CITY  The huge volume of cheap sugar smuggled in from Thailand is among the key reasons for high inventories at sugar factories, according to the Viet Nam Sugar and Sugarcane Association.

Speaking at a meeting in HCM City on Wednesday, Pham Quoc Doanh, chairman of the VSSA, said as of May 19, sugar mills had crushed 12.2 million tonnes of sugarcane to produce 1.13 million tonnes of sugar, about the same as during the last crop.

But demand for their products has been very low compared to last year, and inventories have risen to more than 748,000 tonnes, a record high for the industry, he said.

He listed several reasons for this.

This years crushing season started 15-30 days later than usual due to the changing climate, causing inventories to pile up, he said.

Smuggled sugar entering the local market affected demand for local products, he added.

Smuggling of sugar into Viet Nam is becoming more sophisticated. It used to come mainly through border gates in the south-west, but now this has spread to the central and Central Highlands provinces and even the north.

Smuggling is done not only on motorbikes but also boats, he said.

The prices of the smuggled products are VN1,000-2,000 per kilogramme lower, he said.

Despite authorities efforts to combat the smuggling, the situation has not been improved, and in fact is worsening, he said.

Le Trung Thanh, vice chairman of the Lam Son Sugar and Sugarcane Company, said the volume of smuggled sugar this year is more than 500,000 tonnes.

It comes mainly from Thailand, which subsidises sugar production and export, he said.

Besides, sugar is imported for re-export but a portion is sold in the domestic market at lower prices, he said.

The average consumption in Viet Nam is estimated at 1.5 million tonnes a year, but has been lower this year.

Many beverage and confectionary firms have reduced production due to an increase in imported beverages and confectioneries, ang Phu Quy, a board member of Quang Ngai Sugar and Sugarcane JSC, said.

Traditional villages in Ha Noi did not buy its sugar this year and major factories bought less than 50 per cent of what they had registered to buy, he said.

Delegates at the meeting said an increase in the use of sweeteners by many processing firms also affects consumption of sugar.

Urgent solutions

The association as well as businesses have suggested many measures to resolve the problem, including stepping up the fight against smuggling, establishing technical barriers and inspecting the quality of sugar in the market, tightening checks of imports for re-export and others.

Local authorities should step up inspection of business establishments that are licensed to produce sugar but do not have factories and instead sell smuggled sugar.

The association urged the Ministry of Industry and Trade to auction quotas for sugar imports under Viet Nams WTO commitments in the third quarter.

Bui Thi Quy, general director of Van Phat Wine JSC, said sugar mills need to improve quality of domestic sugar and reduce their prices.

Tran Van Hung, deputy general director of Can Tho Sugar and Sugarcane Company, said authorities should penalise smugglers more severely and organise the auction to smuggled goods.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said his ministry would work with other ministries, agencies and localities to check smuggling.

He suggested that sugar mills should invest more in technology to cut production costs and extract all the sugar from sugarcane.

If home-made sugar is cheap, there would be no chance for smuggled sugar to flood the country, he pointed out.

His ministry would consider the petitions received at the meeting from the association and businesses to find solutions to their difficulties, he promised.  VNS
Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh Sugar JSC (TTCS) will make a share swap to fully acquire Bien Hoa Sugar JSC in order to create the biggest sugar producer in Viet Nam.  Photo vneconomy.vn

HA NOI  Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh Sugar JSC (TTCS) will make a share swap to fully acquire Bien Hoa Sugar JSC in order to create the biggest sugar producer in Viet Nam.

TTCS will issue nearly 304 million shares to convert all outstanding shares of Bien Hoa Sugar at a ratio of 1:1.02. In other words, each share of Bien Hoa Sugar is equal to 1.02 shares of TTCS.

The conversion ratio was calculated by a third-party company that valued each share of TTCS and Bien Hoa Sugar at VN20,944 (93 US cents) and VN21,356, respectively.

The share swap will help TTCS take total control of Bien Hoa Sugars capital. The deal will be carried out within 90 days plus additional time (if needed), starting from the day TTCS receives the permit from the State Securities Commission on share issuance.

The merger will increase the chartered capital of TTCS by more than VN3 trillion ($133.3 million) to VN5.57 trillion.

After the merger is completed, Bien Hoa Sugar will be renamed to Thanh Thanh Cong Bien Hoa-ong Nai Sugar Co Ltd to marks TTCSs sole ownership of the company.

TTCS expects its combined revenue will reach VN8.35 trillion after the merger, and its combined pre-tax profit will tap VN674 billion.

The merger is also expected to help TTCS accrue a 30 per cent market share in Viet Nam. The new company will have total assets of VN14.67 trillion and total payable assets of VN7.86 trillion.

TTCS shares, listed as SBT on the HCM Stock Exchange, are trading near the all-time high of VN29,000. SBT closed Thursday at VN28,450.

Shares of Bien Hoa Sugar are listed on the same bourse as BHS and also move around the all-time high of VN20,000. BHS ended Thursday at VN20,050.

TTCS chairman Pham Hong Duong said at the companys extraordinary shareholder meeting held on Thursday that the M&A between the two firms will help TTCS heighten its position in the sugar market and improve its quality of financial management, corporate governance and business operations.

The merger will combine good qualities of two sides, which include a strong retail network and good reputation for Bien Hoa Sugar and good production for TTCS, Duong said. He also said that the post-merger company will be able to create more added values and reduce its total cost.

According to a report presented by Bao Viet Securities (BVSC) at the meeting, the post-merger company will have 40,000ha of total planting area, equal to 16 per cent of total sugarcane area across the country.

The brokerage also said that the post-merger company will have an average annual growth rate of 6.6 per cent, while doubled capital will help the new firm negotiate with suppliers to reduce input costs.

In addition, TTCS will be able to share the retail network of Bien Hoa Sugar to slash its selling cost and increase its profit, resulting in the rise of price of companys shares and benefiting its shareholders.  VNS
HA NOI  The Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX) recently issued a stock classification code on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), in order to help investors keep closer watch on existing companies owners equity and prepare to categorise a large number of goods to be released into the market soon.

Classification rules on the UPCoM will categorise registered stocks into three categories, except for stocks on the Investors Warning list.

Under the system, stocks issued by companies or organisations with a registered owners equity of more than VN1 trillion (US$44.67 million) will belong to the UPCoM Large category, while stocks from those with VN300 billion ($13.4 million) to VN1 trillion in equity will be classified as UPCoM Medium. The UPCoM Small is for those from VN10 billion ($446,747) to below VN300 million.

These lists will be displayed on the live screens at the HNXs headquarter in Ha Noi and will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. There are exceptions for stocks whose companies fail to meet the required level of capital, stocks being replaced by another or exchanged between lists.

UPCoM classification, based on levels of current capital, will sort registered companies stocks into their respective list according to the companys owners equity, which will be calculated from the closest balance sheet stated in the latest audited and published financial report.

In case the registered organisation is the mother company of another firm or is a firm with non legal entity subsidiaries, owners equity will simply be based on audited financial reports.

The new classification rule will replace the UPCoM Premium currently being used, and the official list of categorised stocks will be published by the HNX on June 24, 2017 on the occasion of the UPCoMs eighth year in operation.

For the first five months of 2017, 125 businesses have been newly listed on the UPCoM, with an average of 10.74 million shares being traded each session, amounting to VN202.9 billion ($9.06 million). This marks a 10.2 per cent increase in terms of quantity traded and 62.4 per cent in terms of quality compared to the same period in 2016.

At the end of Thursdays session, there were a total of 540 listed companies on the UPCoM, with VN419 trillion ($18.71 billion) in capital and VN185.55 trillion ($8.28 billion) in traded value.  VNS
HA NOI  National carrier Vietnam Airlines and FPT Corporation signed a three-year strategic co-operation agreement in Ha Noi on Thursday.

Under the agreement, which is effective from this year until 2020, the carrier having four-star international service standard will supply its transport service for passengers, luggage and goods, and other trade services, as required by FPT. The firm will give preferential trade status to FPT as one of its big customers.

Meanwhile, FPT will provide Vietnam Airlines with its best technological solutions, products and services following the carriers requirements, such as mobile devices, website development, e-commerce, cloud computing, security, big data, hosting/data centre, internet service and the appliance for enterprise resource planning.

The two sides will co-operate for research and investment in the development of products and services on the basis of shared investment capital, revenue, expenditure and copyright.

In 2013, Vietnam Airlines and FPT inked a bilateral co-operation agreement on supplying their best services to each other in three years. They have gained good results from this agreement.  VNS
HA NOI  The Vietnamese Governments decision on providing incentives for solar energy projects in the country has attracted foreign investors to the field, including those from Taiwan.

Under Decision No. 11/2017/QD-TTg, dated April 11, 2017, solar power investors have to pay corporate income tax at just 10 per cent for the first 15 years of operation. They will also receive tax exemptions for the next four years and pay half tax for the next nine years.

In addition, they are exempt from import tariffs to create fixed assets for the projects. The State will purchase all electricity produced by the projects for VN2,086 (US9.35 cents) per kWh.

According to Nguyen Thu Trang, senior sales representative of Taiwanese Big Sun Group, one of Taiwans leading businesses specialising in solar energy solutions, Big Sun wants to introduce state-of-the-art solar panel trackers in Viet Nam to improve the efficiency of solar power plants in the country.

Big Sun also hopes to work with local steel firms to open tracker factories to reduce production costs. Although tracker import tax is currently at zero per cent, transportation costs remain high because of their weight.

Further Taiwans Neo Solar Power Corp (NSP) is working with Vina Solar Technology Co., Ltd of Viet Nam on a large solar energy project.

Tim Sun, a representative of NSP, said the cooperation was NSPs first step to increasing its presence in Viet Nam and that the company would consider expanding its cooperation with Vina Solar while seeking other Vietnamese partners.

LTI ReEnergy, another Taiwanese group specialising in inverter technology, is also considering making a foray into Viet Nam.

LTI ReEnergy general director Tom Wang said he would visit Viet Nam early next year to explore the market, noting that he wants to introduce inverter technology, an advanced technology helping reduce energy loss, in the country.

Alen Wu, a representative of Motech Industries, Taiwans largest solar cell manufacturer, said the company was cooperating with Vina Solar and would seek more Vietnamese partners to benefit from the countrys friendly business policies.

According to the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam has 16 foreign direct investment projects in green energy with total registered capital of US$778 million, of which solar energy projects are valued at $137.4 million.  VNS
HA NOI  Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agriculture International JSC (HNG) will issue 55 million shares worth VN660 billion (US$29 million), the firm announced on Thursday.

The sale aims to swap the debt owed to its parent company Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAG).

The shares will be sold at a price of VN12,000 per share, higher than the current market price of VN11,300 per share on Thursday.

The convertible debt accounted for only a small part of the total debt of VN9.6 trillion that HNG owed to HAG as of December 31, 2016.

Following the issuance, the chartered capital of HAGL Agrico will increase to VN8.2 trillion. HAGs rate of ownership in HNG will increase from 67.8 per cent to approximately 70 per cent, equivalent to 575.5 million shares.

In the first quarter of 2017, HNG recorded net sales of VN470 billion, equaling to just 37 per cent of the same period last year. This fall was due to the decrease in the sale of cattles, which dropped from VN892.4 billion to VN196.2 billion, plus HNG no longer recorded the revenue from the sales of sugar and corn products.

Post-tax profit of HNG in Q1 of 2017 reached VN2.7 billion, down 92 per cent year-on-year. However, this profit helped HNG end the previous three consecutive quarterly losses.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam is expected to export shrimps worth some US$3.4 billion to Japan this year, up 9 per cent year-on-year, the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said.

Of the total, exports of white-leg shrimp will contribute some $2 billion, surging 8 per cent against the same period last year, VASEP said.

Viet Nams shrimp exports to Japan reached $135.4 million over the past three months, a year-on-year increase of 29.6 per cent, making Japan the largest market for Vietnamese shrimps.

The association attributed the significant growth to the rise of the yen, which encouraged Japanese enterprises to move to imported shrimp.

In addition, Japanese consumers tend to switch to cheaper seafood, which increased the demand for shrimp as it is more affordable than other seafood such as tuna, salmon and squid.  VNS
On the occasion of the Republic Day of Azerbaijan on May 28 and the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Viet Nam, Azerbaijani Ambassador Anar Imanov gave an interview to the Vietnam News Agency.

This year, Viet Nam and Azerbaijan will celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations. Serving as a bridge in the bilateral relations between the two countries, would you please speak about landmark events in our relationship?

Steady ally: Ambassador Ambassador of Azerbaijan Anar Imanov.  VNA/VNS Photo Le Danh Lam

This year we are celebrating 25th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. The first two decades of diplomatic relations were smooth, but not active. Later on, in 2013 Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Viet Nam. I am honoured to be the first ambassador of Azerbaijan to your beautiful country. It is a privilege and big responsibility. During the last 4 years, our embassy has worked hard to activate bilateral cooperation between our countries, to rebuild ties of friendship between our nations. I would like to share that I was amazed by Vietnamese sides approach to me as ambassador of Azerbaijan. I have very strong support in all levels. Thus, in each and every meeting with different officials, including high levels, I was told that Vietnamese people appreciate the aid of Azerbaijan during the nations hard times and have an intention to activate cooperation. It was a great message for me, one that actually shows the great character of your nation. Your people never forget goodness.

In a short time we were able to make great achievements. There was the state visit of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Viet Nam in 2014, just one year later in 2015 President of Viet Nam Truong Tan Sang paid an official visit to Azerbaijan. Both visits played a crucial role on boosting bilateral cooperation between our countries. There were numerous visits in different levels, including visits of members of both governments, parliaments, officials of ruling parties. There were established friendship groups in both parliaments, as well as Azerbaijan-Viet Nam inter-governmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation. Besides, the Viet Nam-Azerbaijan Friendship Association and the Centre of Azerbaijani History and Culture Studies were founded in recent years. Both play active roles in people-to-people contacts and offer an opportunity to our Vietnamese friends, especially the young generation, to know more about Azerbaijan. This all was done in 4 years, and we had not been able to achieve it without strong political will on both sides and very sincere and clear approach to our friendship. Both sides are interested in developing, enhancing the relations between our countries as actively as possible.

Midnight city: Baku, Azerbaijans capital at night.  Photo courtesy of the Embassy of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan could be a gateway for Viet Nam to approach a large potential market in Europe. On the other hand, Viet Nam could become the gateway for Azerbaijan to enter the Southeast Asian market. In your opinion, how should the two countries fully tap our cooperation potential in the future?

I share view that Azerbaijan can be Viet Nams gateway to the European market. For your information, the location of Azerbaijan between Asia and Europe, between East and West, allows us to play an important role in economically connecting the two continents. We have implemented a number of energy projects, such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum oil and gas pipelines to deliver oil and gas to Europe. Currently the TANAP pipeline is being built, which is of great significance.

Another important project is Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will connect Asia to Europe. Viet Nam can benefit from the railway while sending its goods to Europe. It can be one of the most affordable and fastest ways of delivering goods by rail through Asia to Europe and vice-versa. Additionally, that the location of Azerbaijan is near major markets in Europe, Russia, Turkey and Iran. This is attractive for those who want to open factories to produce their goods in Azerbaijan. I want to say that Vietnamese manufacturers and businessmen are most welcome to start their businesses in Azerbaijan, and the market conditions will satisfy them.

Personnel training has been defined as a long-term strategic cooperation aspect between Viet Nam and Azerbaijan. In the past, a lot of Vietnamese were granted scholarship to study in Azerbaijan in various fields such as petroleum, geology, law or economy. Many of them have made worthy contributions to the promotion of relations between our two countries. According to you, how should we make bilateral personnel training cooperation more effective in the future?

Indeed, we had fruitful collaboration in the field of education, and thousands of Vietnamese were able to study in Azerbaijan. We are willing to continue and to boost cooperation in the field of education and training. Many of those who graduated in Azerbaijan achieved very much in their careers This fact indicates that the education in Azerbaijan is really a good one, and it should attract more students from Viet Nam. We are ready to cooperate, and our universities are ready to grant more scholarships for Vietnamese students. I hope that in the very near future we will continue the traditions of cooperation between our countries in the field of education.

Also, I would be happy to see my compatriots - young people from Azerbaijan who wish to come and study in Viet Nam to learn Vietnamese language - to know more about your country, to become specialists on Viet Nam. Therefore, there are things which should be done and we are working on that. I am confident that very soon we will see positive developments in this field as well.  VNS
Viet Nams President Tran ai Quang (right) received Park Won-soon, Special Envoy of the Republic of Koreas President Moon Jae-in, in the capital city of Ha Noi on Thursday.  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang



HA NOI  Viet Nam attaches importance to and wishes to bolster ties with the Republic of Korea (RoK), for the sake of the two people, and peace, stability, development and prosperity, President Tran ai Quang has said.

He made the remarks at his reception for Park Won-soon, Special Envoy of the RoKs President Moon Jae-in in Ha Noi on Thursday.

President Quang hailed the Special Envoys visit, made soon after President Moon Jae-in took office, as showing the Presidents respect for the two countries partnership.

He said he is delighted to see the two countries robust co-operation across sectors over the past 25 years, especially after relations were upgraded to a strategic co-operative partnership in 2009.

High-level meetings between ministries and localities have been maintained, while economic co-operation and trade have been growing fast, the President noted.

The RoK has become one of Viet Nams top partners, as evidenced by its first position in terms of foreign direct investment, second in official development assistance (ODA) and tourism, and third in trade.

The President suggested the two countries increase and diversify high-level meetings, broaden co-operative fields, optimise exchange and co-operative mechanisms, boost collaboration in diplomacy, security and defence, and develop trade to hit the target of US$70 billion by 2020.

He expected that the RoK will continue prioritising Viet Nam in development co-operation, ODA and soft loan provision, technology transfer, and assistance for the auxiliary industry development.

He took the occasion to invite President Moon Jae-in to attend the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting 2017 in the central city of a Nang in November and to make an official visit to Viet Nam.

For his part, Special Envoy Park Won-soon confirmed that the RoK wants ties with Viet Nam to advance in the context of the two countries celebrating the 25th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

Park noted that this is the first time the RoK President has sent a Special Envoy to ASEAN, a move that shows the RoK Governments policy of treasuring ASEAN and Viet Nam.

The RoK stands ready to work with Viet Nam to achieve productive diplomatic, economic, commercial, investment ties and people-to-people exchange, he said, adding that he will make proposals on policies for the Vietnamese community in the RoK to the President.

The Special Envoy informed that President Moon Jae-in will attend the APEC High-level Week 2017 in a Nang in November and wishes to pay an official visit to Viet Nam.

Important trade partner

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong hailed the RoK as one of Viet Nams most important economic and trade partners in his meeting with Park Won-soon.

He called for enhanced co-operation via Party, Government, legislature, and locality channels to increase political trust and economic ties.

The Party leader suggested strengthening co-ordination at international multilateral forums for the sake of the two peoples as well as peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

Park Won-soon described the political trust between Viet Nam and the RoK as a firm foundation for the two nations to forge ahead with co-operation.

He recognised the recent strong development of the bilateral relations in various fields, especially in economics, trade, investment, culture and tourism. The RoK will continue sharing Viet Nams viewpoints on regional and international matters of mutual concerns, he added.

Viet Nams Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) on Thursday held a meeting with the visiting Special Envoy of the RoKs President Park Won-soon in Ha Noi.  VNA/VNS Photo Thong Nhat

Call for investment

The same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on the RoK to invest more in renewable energy, infrastructure, high technology, and processing industry in Viet Nam, during his reception for Special Envoy Park Won-soon.

The PM reiterated Viet Nams determination to effectively implement the free trade agreement with the RoK to achieve the bilateral trade target by 2020.

He proposed the RoK support Viet Nam to develop the auxiliary industry, sign a credit framework agreement for the 2016-20 period, and help Viet Nam access credits from the International Development Association (IDA) after 2017.

Viet Nam hopes to expand the economic-trade relations with the RoK, he said, adding that the Vietnamese Government will create all possible conditions for Korean enterprises to do business in the country.

The Special Envoy confirmed that the RoK will spare no effort to increase bilateral trade, and expressed his belief that more Korean businesses will come to Viet Nam to develop the latters auxiliary industry.

Viet Nam and the RoK established a strategic partnership in 2009. The RoK is currently the biggest foreign direct investor in Viet Nam and the second largest trade partner.  VNS
HA NOI  A law on foreign trade management is needed to better manage foreign trade activities as Viet Nam integrates deeper into the global economy, said lawmakers while discussing the draft law at the ongoing third session of the 14th National Assembly (NA) on Thursday.

NA deputies said the law would serve as a tool for the State to better manage foreign trade activities to ensure transparency and compliance with international law as well as increasing economic competitiveness.

However, they said some articles of the draft should be adjusted to ensure the efficiency of the law, particularly regulations relating to issues on State management responsibility on foreign trade, import and export quotas, the appointment of border gates for import-export, the management of licences, as well as procedures and policies.

Deputy Pham Van Tuan from the northern province of Thai Binh said the draft law should clearly regulate the responsibilities of the Government, ministries and local authorities, particularly the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in issues like administrative procedure reform, management of and granting of export licences, to ensure transparency.

It is also necessary to have clear criteria relating to lists and amount of products that are licensed for export to support businesses, organisations and individuals, he said.

Deputy Nguyen Thanh Thuy from the Mekong Deltas Hau Giang Province said the law was related to many current laws such as laws on commerce, tax and customs so the law should be built carefully to prevent overlaps.

Regarding regulations on products banned from import and export, many deputies said there should be clear principles and criteria on the lists of these products in line with Viet Nams international commitments, including the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade.

Based on these criteria and principles, the Government will have detailed lists of products banned from export and import to protect national interests in national defence, security, health, environment and traditional customs, they said.

To develop foreign trade activities, many deputies pointed to the necessity to have policies promoting foreign trade and empowering localities and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad to hold trade promotion activities.

Deputy ing Cong Sy from Son La Province, northern Viet Nam, said the draft law should add principles of establishing organisations specialising in doing trade promotion activities and have clear regulations on the operation of these organisations.

Some deputies said measures to support businesses in foreign trade activities were also needed.

Earlier the same day, lawmakers heard a Government report on the draft revision of the 2009 Law on Public Debt Management.

The report said after seven years of implementation, the law has created a legal framework for socio-economic development, contributing to stabilising the macro-economy and promoting growth and the development of the domestic capital market.

However, public debt management still has shortcomings, so revising the law is necessary to deal with them and to concretise Party and State policies and guidelines, it said.

Under the draft revision, public debt still includes Government debt, debts underwritten by the Government and debts incurred by provincial and municipal authorities as regulated by the current law. Debts incurred by State-owned enterprises are not counted as public debt.

Later the same day, NA deputies discussed the implementation results of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in 2016; the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and State budget in early months of 2017; and State budget balance of 2015.  VNS
HA NOI  Measures to protect Vietnamese citizens involved in incidents abroad were clarified by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang at a press conference in Ha Noi on Thursday.

In response to reporters questions about a Vietnamese fishing boat detained by Indonesias fisheries resources surveillance ship, the spokeswoman said Viet Nams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has provided information about this incident.

The two sides are co-ordinating to resolve the issue in a spirit of friendship and on the basis of the countries strategic partnership, she noted.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Indonesian authorities have released four Vietnamese boats and most of fishermen who were detained on May 21.

The ministry said five Vietnamese fishing boats were stopped by Indonesian sea patrol while operating in waters about 18 nautical miles to the north from the delimitation line of continental shelf between Viet Nam and Indonesia.

One Vietnamese boat sank during the process and Vietnamese authorised force rescued one Indonesian officer. Viet Nam is requesting Indonesia to release the remaining fishermen they seized in the incident.

Regarding Vietnamese people following terror attacks in Jakarta (Indonesia), Marawi (the Philippines) and Manchester (the UK), she quoted Viet Nams representative agencies there as saying that there hasnt been any new information about Vietnamese in the incidents.

As an agency in charge of overseas citizen protection, the foreign ministry has ordered its representative agencies in those areas to update the situation and report to the ministry, Hang said, adding that they are ready to undertake protective measures if Vietnamese citizens encounter difficulties.

Regarding oan Thi Huong, a suspect in the death of a Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea citizen in Malaysia in February 2017, Hang said representatives of the Embassy of Viet Nam in Malaysia and Malaysian lawyers paid consular visits to Huong on May 18 and 24 to give her support and seek arguments to defend her in the May 30 trial.

Huong said she was in good health and spirits.

The foreign ministry is continuing close co-ordination with domestic agencies, the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia and lawyers to protect Huongs interests, the spokesperson noted.

PMs visit to the US

Viet Nam and the US will discuss measures to promote their comprehensive partnership during the upcoming visit to the US by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said at the conference.

She said during the visit, leaders of the two countries will seek to enhance the partnership, especially in politics, diplomacy, economy-trade, education, war consequences settlement, and regional and international issues of shared concern, for the sake of peace, stability, co-operation and development.

The official visit to the US by the Government leader of Viet Nam will last from May 29 to May 31, at the invitation of US President Donald Trump.  VNS
Nguyen Van Thien, former Secretary of the Binh inh provincial Party Committee.  Photo congan.com.vn

HA NOI  The Party Central Committees Secretariat has decided to give a warning to Nguyen Van Thien, former Secretary of the Binh inh provincial Party Committee, for his wrongdoings between 2010 and 2015.

Chaired by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Secretariat convened a meeting in Ha Noi on Thursday to review a report by the Party Central Committees Inspection Commission.

The report proposed punishment be imposed on Thien, who is a former member of the Party Central Committee and former Secretary of the central provinces Party Committee.

The Secretariat concluded that while serving as Secretary of the Binh inh Party Committee in the 2010-15 tenure, Thien contributed to local development. However, through the Inspection Commissions report on denunciation settlements, the Secretariat learned that he supplemented candidates and appointed unqualified persons, going against regulations as provinces leader.

On behalf of the provincial Party Committee, Thien also signed a document regarding the equitisation of Quy Nhon Port sent to the Secretary of the Party Delegation to the Ministry of Transport and the Minister of Transport. This was not under the responsibility of the province. That action was made without consulting the provincial Party Committees standing board, as it should be according to the provincial Party Committees working regulations.

Thiens violations affected the prestige of the local Party organisation and his reputation, the Secretariat said, adding that he admitted his violations, shortcomings and responsibility, and voluntarily accepted discipline.

All Secretariat members agreed to take a disciplinary measure of warning against Thien through secret ballots, according to the Secretariat.  VNS
LISBON  Portugal attaches special importance to and wishes to deepen the friendship and cooperation, including legislative ties, with Viet Nam, President of the Portuguese Parliament Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues told visiting Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.

During their meeting on Thursday as part of the Vietnamese officials ongoing visit to Portugal, the two sides expressed their satisfaction at the flourishing development of bilateral relation in recent time, and agreed to increase exchange of visits and meetings at all levels, towards effectively and extensively promoting bilateral ties.

Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues appreciated the role and position of Viet Nam in the Southeast Asia region, asserting that the Portuguese parliament backs all-round cooperation with Vietnam, especially economic, trade, cultural and tourism links.

Portugal was willing to share experience in law-making and supervision with the Vietnamese National Assembly, and supports the signing and approval of the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement, he said.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese official spoke highly of the role of Portugal in the EU as well as in addressing common issues facing the international community.

The two nations should continue supporting each other at multilateral forums such as the UN, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), the EU-ASEAN cooperation mechanism, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP), he suggested.

He asked Portugals parliament to assist and encourage Portuguese enterprises to expand business and investment in Viet Nam, affirming that Viet Nam always creates favourable conditions for foreign firms.

Regarding East Sea-related issues, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues stressed the maintenance of peace, stability, and navigation and over-flight safety and freedom, and peaceful settlement of disputes in the sea would bring interest to the international community, including his country.

The Vietnamese official called on the Portuguese parliament to contribute its voice for peace, and security in the Southeast Asian region and the East Sea, and enhance exchanges and coordination on the issue at international forums, contributing to retaining peace and stability in the region and the world.

Deputy PM Minh conveyed National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngans invitation to visit Viet Nam to the host.  VNS
Duong Phong

KRONG NO, AK NONG  Some nights, when only one classroom light shines at Nam Xuan Communes Le Loi Elementary School, you can find students older than the usual elementary schooler.

The school offers a literacy class for nearly 30 middle-aged women from minority ethnic groups in the commune--like Thai, Tay and Dao--who usually speak their ethnic language rather than Vietnamese.

The class is dubbed the three Zeroes class, because here, students dont have to pay any fees, teachers dont receive any payments and there are no men.

The youngest student is 35 years old, while some others are already grandmothers. However, in class they seem to leave their ages and roles behind to enjoy being students for the first time in their lives.

Luong Thi Khuyen, 43, was the latest to come to class one night. She made everyone burst into laughter by her explanation: I overslept.

Khuyen is a special student in the class. When she first decided to join the class, she had to keep her husband in the dark about her decision.

She said that when school teachers came to her house to call for her participation, her husband did not want her to go, because he thought there would also be men here.

He told me he would teach me at home, but I know it would not work because he is no better than me. I attended the first day of the class without telling him.

On the second day, he secretly followed me. But when he saw that all the class members were women he just silently came home. Now, not only does he not complain, he also drives me here everyday, Khuyen said.

Khuyen, who hails from the countrys northwest mountainous region, never attended school when she was a child, because her family is poor and she is a woman. After getting married and moving to this Central Highlands province, she was too busy earning a living and looking after her children, so learning to read and write was never on her to-do-list.

Things changed about three months ago when the communes Womens Association came to check for the number of illiterate people in the commune.

Le Thi Tuyet, vice principal of Le Loi Elementary School was behind the idea of opening the literacy class for commune women.

She said her idea stemmed from a talk with a students mother.

During our talk, I noticed that she was fumbling with her phone. She then revealed that she cant read and had been struggling to use the phone.

She also told me that many other women in her hamlet are the same and wish to go to school. That gave me the idea of opening this class, she said.

Her idea was supported by the school management board, the Nam Xuan Commune and Krong No Districts authority. Only one week later, literacy class was in session.

Two teachers at the school were assigned to be in charge of the class with a curriculum specifically designed to suit their special students.

Although we dont get any extra payments or allowances, we are committed to do the job with all our heart and enthusiasm because we know that our role as teachers is to bring knowledge to the local people, said Le Thi Thuy Van, a teacher of the class.

The class is now being held four times per week.

Having been a teacher for more than 20 years, Van said it was the most special class she has ever had.

It does not only require teaching, we also have to coax our students. Because they are all middle-aged, they are very shy and hesitant to express themselves in class.

We have to coax and encourage them as if they were children. Especially, in front of them, we never call this a literacy class but a class to enhance the Vietnamese language capability, she said.

After more than two months since the first day, all participants have recognised letters and started knowing how to write.

Vi Thi Nhiem, 47 and already a grandmother, is the oldest student in the class.

Despite finding it harder to absorb the knowledge than others, she never feels discouraged; knowing how to write has been her dream for very long.

Before, we never went to school. Every time going to the authority to do paperwork, we just pressed our fingerprint on the papers. Even with our childrens birth certificate, we had to ask another person to help us out.

I am very happy that I can read and write now. It is as if I was turning back time to be 9 or 10 years old again, she said.

Teacher Tuyet from Le Loi Elementary School said many women who missed the first class had asked the school to open a second class with the capacity of nearly 30 students.

She said the school was asking the local authority for permission to open more classes at each hamlet to make it easier for local people to attend.  VNS
HAI PHONG  Social insurance authorities in Viet Nam are developing a compulsory social insurance scheme for foreign workers in the country, citing the need to follow international practices as the country deepens integration.

Social insurance for foreign workers was made compulsory in the Social Insurance Law 2014, both to protect the foreign workers rights in Viet Nam and to serve as a basis for bilateral and multilateral agreements in which workers rights, either Vietnamese or foreigners, are treated equally, said Tran inh Lieu, deputy director of the Viet Nam Social Insurance (VSI) at a conference held earlier this week in Hai Phong to discuss a draft decree on the issue.

However, the development of the decree is facing numerous issues, such as a consensus on the insurance premium and payout rates, a mutually accessible and synchronised database between countries, as well as currency conversion and tax issues, he said.

Tran Hai Nam, deputy head of the Social Insurance Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), cited the increasing number of foreign workers in Viet Nam as justification for detailed legislation on obligatory social insurance.

According to Nam, the number of foreign workers in Viet Nam has jumped nearly sevenfold in more than a decade, from 12,600 in 2004 to the current figure of 84,000, most of whom are highly qualified and fully registered.

The 2014 Law on Social Insurance stipulates that employees who are foreign citizen working in Viet Nam with work permit or practice certificate/licence granted by a Vietnamese agency are entitled to compulsory social insurance.

Hiroshi Karashima, chairman of the Japan Business Association in Viet Nam, said a distinction must be made clear between foreign workers who are obliged to join the social insurance and those who can opt out. He also called for bilateral agreements on social insurance between Viet Nam and other countries so foreign workers wont have to pay for social insurance in two countries.

According to many businesses, most labourers are on short-term employment or project-based contracts, so they would like to be able to opt for short-term coverage, like illness, maternity, and occupational accidents.

Labourers also want to know if they will receive insurance payouts quickly enough or in the currency of their choosing when their contract ends and they return home. Labourers also complained about the confusing terminology and language of the draft decree.

Pham Thanh Du, director of VSIs Finance and Accounting Department, said the nature of social insurance for foreign workers would require social insurance staff to have a good command of foreign languages, IT knowledge, and familiarity with international practices, all of which would require State investment.

Former MoLISA Minister Pham Minh Huan said social insurance for foreign workers is a necessary move but would not be easy to implement, as it involves other countries laws. Bilateral agreements are a must, he said, otherwise, foreign workers would not be interested in the insurance, and the implementation would be met with resistance.

The mandatory social insurance decree for foreign workers in Viet Nam is expected to take effect from the beginning of next year, 2018.

Those subject to the decree include foreign workers with employment contracts longer than one month, or those who have obtained work permits from Vietnamese authorities. These workers are required to participate in all five social insurance regimes according to the Law on Social Insurance, which would include sickness, maternity/paternity, occupational accidents or occupational hazards, retirement, and death.

Foreign workers are also eligible for lump-sum payouts.

According to the draft decree, the monthly premium would be 8 per cent of the participants monthly salary.

Employers are to pay 18 per cent of their employees monthly salary, 3 per cent into sickness and maternity/paternity insurance, 14 per cent into the retirement and death insurance, and 1 per cent into the occupational accidents insurance.  VNS
NINH BINH  The hotline of the Party Committee of northern Ninh Binh Province will officially be put into use on June 1.

The hotline has been set up to receive feedback and recommendations of individuals and organisations on crime, corruption prevention and ways to improve the lives of residents.

Accordingly, people can call the number 1-800-8135 to provide information related to socio-economy, security, defence, justice and prevention of crime in the province.

In addition to the telephone number, email address duongdaynongtunb@gmail.com will be publicised to receive feedback and suggestions of individuals and organisations.

Officials will receive reports on all days of the week except Saturday, Sunday and holidays.

The provincial authority also requested residents and organisations to report honestly and objectively.  VNS
HA NOI  Around 30,000 farmers across nine provinces in the country will get support from Google over the next three years to learn to use the internet for their work.

Google announced this support initiative today during the launch workshop of a project aimed at enhancing the computer and smartphone skills of Viet Nam Farmers Union staffers.

Google will help the union train 500 staffers and 40 trainers, who will then go on to teach 10,000 farmers through offline sessions. This activity is expected to benefit another 20,000 farmers through online training programmes.

The nine provinces include Lai Chau, Bac Giang, Nam inh, Nghe An, Lam ong, Binh Phuoc, ong Thap, Tien Giang and Bac Lieu.

The company believes that IT can help solve some of the greatest and most complex challenges, including improving economic efficiency in agricultural production, Googles representative said, adding that it would make a difference to a sector threatened by urbanisation and climate change.

Nitin Gajria, Googles country manager for Viet Nam, said the company hopes farmers will be able to improve cultivation and farming techniques, increase productivity, and access useful information in their daily lives through the internet.

Lai Xuan Mon, chairman of Viet Nam Farmers Union, appreciated Googles support and said the initiative is practical and meaningful. It will contribute towards accelerating the use of scientific and advanced technology in agricultural production and business, and help in the agricultural sector restructuring, Mon added.  VNS
Visitors to HCM Citys Ho Thi Ky flower market in District 10 can easily find many Vietnamese people of Cambodian descent selling mainly Cambodian specialties at what is known informally as the Cambodian Market.

Guests should stop by Co Cos sweet soup stall to enjoy the flavour of Cambodian-style steamed pumpkin pudding, mixed pudding served with durian, sweet egg soup, and sticky rice made with durian and coconut milk called Xoi Xiem, with prices starting from VN20,000 (US$0.9) each.

Visitors should not miss Pahok noodle soup at Tu Xes restaurant. Made with Pahok sauce, snakehead fish, vermicelli, and lemongrass leaves, the specialty reflects authentic Cambodian fare. The restaurant is popular with homesick Cambodians in the city.

Shoppers can buy dry foods made from various types of fermented fish, fish sauce and shrimp, as well as clothes, fashion items and jewelries imported from Cambodia.  VNS
The Viet Nam Festival 2017 will take place at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo on June 10 and 11, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The festival aims to strengthen mutual understanding between the two nations and bring Vietnamese people living in Japan closer together, said Deputy Ambassador of Viet Nam to Japan Nguyen Truong Son at a press conference last week.

According to the organisers, this years festival will include an exhibition of over 100 booths, including 60 food booths and 40 booths offering souvenirs. The event will also feature art performances in an effort to introduce Viet Nams history, culture and people to the Japanese people.

Tourists will have the opportunity to enjoy Vietnamese food, cultural programmes and art performances. The event is expected to attract 150,000 visitors. Last year, the event saw 200,000 visitors, the highest ever.

Apart from culinary and cultural exchange activities, the festival will feature performances of talented artists from Japan and Viet Nam. In addition, shows highlighting the ao dai (Vietnamese traditional long dress) will be staged at the event.  VNS
WELLINGTON  Kim Dotcoms Internet Party in New Zealand unveiled plans on Friday to contest the September general election, but the mogul, who is fighting extradition to the United States, will not be involved.

In a statement on its website, the Internet Party said Dotcom had resigned from its executive committee and was no longer involved in operational decision-making.

"As such, Kim Dotcom has no advance knowledge that we are issuing this statement," it said in confirming "we are currently preparing our campaign for the 2017 New Zealand general election".

The flamboyant German-born Dotcom, who founded the file-sharing website Megaupload, established the Internet Party to contest the 2014 New Zealand election in an attempt to change the government, believing that could help his fight against extradition.

However, the party received just 1.42 per cent of the vote.

Just before the poll, the Internet Party held a public meeting  featuring video appearances by former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- to accuse the government of mass surveillance on its people.

In its statement on Friday, the Internet Party said further information "will continue to come to light about the extent to which New Zealand and the world have been actively deceived by their politicians and the state".

The FBI alleges Megaupload netted more than US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than US$500 million by offering pirated content.

A New Zealand court ruled in February that Dotcom was eligible to be extradited to the United States on fraud charges. He denies any wrongdoing and is planning to appeal.  AFP
CEDAR FALLS -- Community of Christ Church at 4616 Cedar Heights Drive will host a dedication of the Cheryl Edwards McCullagh Labyrinth at 10 a.m. June 3.

The labyrinth was made possible by Cheryls husband, James G. McCullagh, in her honor. The dedication will consecrate this new space for use by all members of the Cedar Valley community. The church hopes the meditation path will be used as a spiritual resource for the entire community.

Labyrinths are meditative walking paths that pre-date the Christian era.

HOLLAND -- A kids' vacation Bible school, "Faith Expedition," will be hosted at Colfax Center Presbyterian Church, 18935 K Ave., from June 5 to 9.

Kids will take an excursion though the Bible.

They'll also join a mission effort to provide children in poverty-ridden areas in the Philippines with Bible storybooks, coloring books and crayons.

A closing program by director Abbey Harberts is set for June 11, following the 9:30 a.m. morning worship service.

WATERLOO -- The Unity Choir will lead the annual choir celebration at 4 p.m. June 4 at Union Missionary Baptist Church, 209 Jackson St.

Pastor is Marvin Jenkins.

CEDAR FALLS  Riverview Womens Ministry will host a day trip to Boone on June 6.

The trip will include local shops, Mamie Doud Eisenhower Birthplace and Museum, lunch and an afternoon train ride with the Boone & Scenic Railroad and museum.

Cost of $22 includes transportation and the train ride.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call 268-0787 or go to www.riverviewministries.com.

WATERLOO -- Resurrection Baptist Church, 738 April St., will host kids' summer activities from June 12 to Aug. 3.

Kids ages 6-12 are invited to participate in activities from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday. There will be free food, free pick up and drop off.

Activities will include field trips, swimming, educational instruction, home economics and good/bad choice rap discussions.

If interested, contact site coordinator Kim Caldwell at 830-8498. Donations are appreciated, and volunteers are welcome.

WATERLOO -- Kimball Avenue United Methodist Church, 1207 Kimball Ave., will host vacation Bible school from 5:15 to 7:30 p.m. June 18-22. Supper is included.

Children pre-K through fifth grade should register at http://2017.cokesburyvbs.com/KAUMC2017.
Memorial Day events planned

PARKERSBURG -- American Legion Post 285 will host Memorial Day activities Monday.

Wreath ceremonies will be held at 8:15 a.m. at Depot Park, 8:45 a.m. at St. Patrick's Cemetery and 9 a.m. at Oak Hill Cemetery.

A breakfast buffet will be from 7 a.m. to noon at the Veteran's Memorial Building. Adults are $7, and children younger than 12 will be $3.

Reception set to meet author

CHARLES CITY -- There will be a reception to meet author Wendy Johnson from 1 to 2 p.m. Monday at the Carrie Chapman Catt home at 2379 Timber Ave.

Johnson wrote "Preserving Carries Legacy: The National 19th Amendment Society," a book commissioned by the National 19th Amendment Society.

The public is welcome.

Catt was instrumental in passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Hearst to screen last 'beauty' film

CEDAR FALLS -- The final offering in the Hearst Center's "A Thing of Beauty" series is "Stage Beauty" on Tuesday.

The 2004 film is rated R and will be shown at 7 p.m. in Mae Latta Hall. Admission is free and no tickets are required. The Hearsts film series is sponsored by Far Reach.

Button club will meet Wednesday

WATERLOO -- "The National Button Society Convention Experience" is the program topic of the Black Hawk Button Club's Wednesday meeting, beginning at 1 p.m. at St. Paul's Methodist Church, 207 W. Louise (two blocks behind Allen Hospital).

Buttons will be for sale as well as items made with buttons. Anyone interested in the art and history of buttons is welcome.

Church to hold garage sale

CEDAR FALLS -- Bethlehem Lutheran Church will have a garage sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 3 at 4000 Hudson Road.

All proceeds will go to three local charities.

Kids fishing event planned

ELGIN -- There will be a "Take A Kid Outdoors" fishing adventure from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 3 at the pond on the Gilbertson Nature Center by Elgin.

This is the annual free fishing weekend by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

There will be some equipment and worms available, or people can bring their own. Several volunteers will be on hand to show kids and families how to cast and bait, and a lunch will be provided by TAKO.

Take A Kid Outdoors was created in 2006 in Fayette County with several volunteers, designed to reconnect kids of all ages and their families to the land and the outdoors.

CBHS sets June adoption fees

WATERLOO -- The adoption fee for cats at the Cedar Bend Humane Society during June -- National Adopt a Shelter Cat month -- will be $20.

On June 24 and June 25, cat adoption fees will be only $5. Spay and neuter deposit may apply.

The arrival of springtime kittens quickly fills the shelter to capacity. CBHS hopes this adoption special will make room for arriving young kittens and provide good homes for the existing shelter cats.

The adoption center is at 1166 W. Airline Highway. Adoption applications may be filled out online at www.CedarBendHumane.org.
HAMPTON  Doug and Robyn Pralle of Hampton have started a nonprofit to provide free flights for those who need to travel a long distance to receive medical treatment.

Compassion Flights officially took off in January.

When Doug was younger, his father was diagnosed with cancer and received treatment in Chicago.

There were people who did nice stuff for us, he said.

Once a couple of doctors gave Doug and his mother tickets to a Chicago Cubs game while Dougs dad was getting treatment. They even arranged for them to get a limo ride to the stadium.

Doug said thats how he got the idea to do something for those who need medical treatment not available in North Iowa.

Doug, who has been a licensed pilot for 10 years and owns a Cessna 183 plane, flew a few people to get medical treatment before Compassion Flights got its nonprofit status.

The first official Compassion Flight was for 8-year-old Elliot Burgos of Mason City, who has a brain tumor.

Doug flew Elliot from Mason City to Mankato, Minn., on April 28 for treatment.

Elliot sat beside Doug in the front of the plane. It was an adventure for the little boy, who took over the GPS during the flight, under Dougs supervision.

He did great, Doug said.

The Pralles keep their plane in a hangar at the Hampton Municipal Airport, but Doug flew the plane to the Mason City Municipal Airport to make it easier for the family.

Donations to Compassion Flights pay for the cost of the trips.

We have had good response from the community in sponsoring the flights, Doug said. Its been great to see the reaction.

Compassion Flights recently received a $5,000 grant from the Franklin County Community Foundation.

The funds will be used to remodel a long-vacant avionics shop adjacent to the hangar where the Pralles plane is located. The remodel will create office space for Compassion Flights.

The space also will serve as a waiting room for those going on Compassion Flights.

We want people to feel as comfortable as possible, Doug said.

Robyn does the paperwork for Compassion Flights, including the applications for flights. The organization has a board of directors that chooses flight recipients from those applications.

The Pralles are looking for more pilots and other volunteers.

They are planning a fly-in breakfast at the Hampton Municipal Airport on Labor Day as a fundraiser for Compassion Flights. Doug hopes there will be lots of planes there.

Compassion Flights will transport patients to locations in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri and North and South Dakota.

Doug said the organization has access to a couple of bigger planes if someone needs treatment outside that service area and might even be able to arrange for a commercial flight.

Go to the organizations website, compassionflights.com, for more information on how to volunteer, donate or apply for a Compassion Flight.
WATERLOO -- Nearing the end of rehearsal for the musical My Son Pinocchio, Director Greg Holt organizes the cast for a run-through of the productions show-stopping number.

Acting veteran as Geppetto, alongside Chelsey Linza as the Blue Fairy and Brittany Kinscherf as Pinocchio, take their places with the rest of the cast. Holt gives a nod and familiar music fills the multipurpose room at North Star Community Services as the cast begins to sing When You Wish Upon a Star.

Clients, seated at tables watching the rehearsal, erupt into applause as the cast take their bows.

It wont be long before June 7 arrives, stage lights come up on the Great Hall stage at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center and scenery is moved into place. Then the real performance of My Son Pinocchio will begin.

The show allows adults with a wide range of disabilities and special needs served by North Star to display their skills and talents on stage and as crew members. Some performers may be nonverbal, while others are in wheelchairs.

With most productions, youre working in a vacuum, with just a few people in the audience for rehearsal. Here, everyone gets to watch, and its good experience for the actors, says Holt, artistic director for the Waterloo Community Playhouse.

Holt has directed six shows for North Star Community Services, including The Jungle Book, The Wizard of Oz, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Alice" since 2008.

Its always a lot of work and effort, and theres something that just draws me to it. Part of it is working with the clients. Theyre so appreciative and so in the moment, and that forces me to be in the moment, too. Theres so much joy and appreciation for the people working on the show. Its very affirming, Holt explains.

For each production, there is a dress rehearsal and public performance in a single day, which follows months of rehearsals. Its a huge undertaking, says Jodie Muller, North Star director of development and public relations, so the shows are only presented every two years.

Approximately 2,400 people attended "The Jungle Book" public performance and dress rehearsal in 2015.

Greg gets us, he understands us. Everyone loves him  hes a rock star among our clients, she explains. "As soon as this show is over, they'll start talking about the next one. Being in the show is something they remember and talk about."

Roles are cast by North Star staff, and Holt adds more characters so anyone who wants to participate has an opportunity to perform.

My Son Pinocchio twists the classic tale about a puppet who learns what it means to be a real boy into a story about a man who learns how to be a real father. The audience will see what Geppetto is doing while Pinocchio is off on his adventures with Stromboli and on Pleasure Island until they reunite in the belly of the whale.

The family-friendly show features 82 costumed characters, ranging from Pinocchio to fairies, birds, talking animals and puppets. In an unusual move, a female  Brittany Kinscherf  was cast as the boy puppet who comes alive.

In addition, North Star staff members shadow actors so they dont need to memorize lines, and Holt says actors learn to rely on and trust each other.

The director sets the bar high for each production. "We want to give the audiences a performance that looks as professional as possible," he explains. GBPAC staff run lights and sound.

New Hartford artist Bill Close contributes his time to built elaborate stage sets to fill the GBPAC stage. Volunteers pitch in to help paint and ready the scenery.

Haley Krall, day habilitation services manager, and her mother, Diane Fineran of Denison, sew the costumes.

I appreciate everyones worth ethic. Its interesting whether someone is playing the lead or a bush being rolled across the stage, they are incredibly nervous the night before. Then they get out on stage. Its a huge moment for them, whatever the role, and each person is a star, adds Holt.
Two days before the confirmation of long-time Gov. Terry Branstad as ambassador to China, his former lieutenant governor, Joy Corning passed away at the age of 84.

Joy was a very dedicated mother and grandmother and an excellent role model, Branstad said in a statement. She was an outstanding, unflappable leader who treated everyone with the respect and dignity they deserved.

In 1984, Corning won a seat in the Iowa Senate and served in that capacity until Branstad asked her to join the Republican ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor in 1991. She was the first person to run for lieutenant governor after the Constitution was amended to have the governor and lieutenant governor elected as a team.

She served as lieutenant governor for two terms, and also served as chair of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors from 1996-1997. Corning was the first woman to seek the Republican nomination for Iowa governor.

Iowas new governor, Kim Reynolds, also issued a statement.

Joy Corning was a tremendous mentor and role model for me personally, as well as so many other women, Reynolds said. I treasured the times we got together, and the guidance and encouragement she gave me.

The words mentor and role model have been seen frequently in stories and social media posts about Cornings passing. They are quite appropriate.

In order to place her accomplishments in perspective, we need to consider Iowa history.

Until very recently, Iowa was one of only four states that had never sent a woman to the U.S. Congress. Republican Joni Ernst broke through in 2014, becoming the first female to represent Iowa in Congress or the governors office.

Cornings public service career included nine years on the Cedar Falls School Board, which included time as the president of the board, and six years in the Iowa Senate.

She possessed a quality we seemingly dont see enough of from either major party any longer. The passion for issues came from her heart, not a political persuasion. She was a proud moderate.

In the years since leaving elected office, Corning served on the board of Planned Parenthood. She teamed with Democratic former Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson to found and co-chair Justice Not Politics during the 2010 judicial retention elections.

She was one of the founding members of 50-50 in 2020, a bipartisan initiative created in 2010 to get more women elected to the Iowa Legislature, Iowas congressional delegation and the governors office.

One of the major state intiatives Corning promoted, and one with which she is most identified, is the Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa, or HAWK-I, health care program for underprivileged children.

She and her husband, Burt, who died in 1990, raised their family in one of the older sections of Cedar Falls, close to Lincoln Elementary School.

Corning penned her own obituary, without mentioning much about her political achievements.

After teaching for a short time, I married Burt Corning in June 1955, which was the smartest thing I did in my life, she wrote. We lived in Cedar Falls, Iowa our entire married life. We had three wonderful daughters, Carol, Claudia, and Ann. I quickly became involved in community organizations and have continued giving my time to organizations for which I am passionate. I am most passionate about issues related to children and families, womens health & rights, equality and justice, education and the arts.

The years of public service, and the passionate support of issues that moved her, form an impressive legacy. Cedar Falls, the Cedar Valley and the entire state of Iowa can be proud to call Joy Corning one of our own.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

May. 23, 2017 | BENTON, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 23, 2017 | 01:46 PM | BENTON, KY

A Paducah teen formerly charged with murder after a fatal crash Saturday morning in Marshall County is now facing lesser charges.



Marshall County Attorney Jeff Edwards says he ammended the original murder charge against 18-year-old Kori Lane to second degree manslaughter after learning that Lane's blood alcohol content was lower than he originally thought.



"When the officer told me [Lane's blood alcohol content] was .06, I thought he said .16. Once I confirmed it wasn't, and became more aware of some of the other circumstances I thought that second degree manslaughter was a better fit." Edwards said.



Edwards added that a grand jury could choose to indict Lane on the manslaughter charge, or may charge her with a lesser crime.



Lane also faces a DUI charge. The legal blood alcohol limit in Kentucky for someone under 21 years old is .02.



Marshall County Sheriff's Deputies responded to the crash just after midnight on Griggstown Road at the intersection of Salyer Creek Road. Their investigation determined Lane was driving at the time of the crash. Lane's passenger, 16-year-old Sierra N. Jones, died at the scene. The Sheriff's Department says Lane was driving recklessly and at a high rate of speed when the accident happened.



Lane is set to be in court May 31 for a preliminary hearing.
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European industry rates decommissioning opportunities

25 May 2017

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Germany is offering a great opportunity for new suppliers of decommissioning services because over the next five years all of its shutdown nuclear power plants will enter the decommissioning phase, Jorg Klasen, director of nuclear decommissioning services at EnBW, said yesterday. Klasen spoke at the 8th Annual Nuclear Decommissioning & Waste Management Conference Europe 2017 being held in Manchester, England. Asked where they see the biggest opportunities in nuclear decommissioning and waste management over the next five years, 57% of the conference delegates selected Germany. The UK, France, Sweden and Switzerland followed with 30%, 6%, 2% and 2%, respectively.

EnBW, Germany's third biggest utility, received a decommissioning and dismantling permit for Neckarwestheim 1 from the Baden-Wurttemberg environment ministry in early February. Neckarwestheim 1 thus became the first of the eight units shut down in 2011 to begin dismantling work. Two months later, EnBW received a permit for this work to start at unit 1 of its Philippsburg plant.

Neckarwestheim 1 and Philippsburg 1 were among the eight oldest German reactors taken out of service , days after a tsunami hit Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011.

In February 2016, EnBW also received permits for the construction of decommissioning infrastructure - including residual material treatment centres and interim site-waste storage facilities - at Neckarwestheim and Philippsburg.

EnBW has had experience in decommissioning nuclear reactors since 2008  at its Obrigheim power plant, which was disconnected from the grid and entered the post-operational phase in 2005.

According to Jorg Klasen, EnBW follows strictly the philosophy of immediate D&D for all of its shut-down power plants. Consequently dismantling of systems and components in the reactor building started immediately after receiving the permit for Neckarwestheim 1 and Philippsburg 1. Detail planning and execution of D&D is supported by suppliers with special knowledge in different fields, he said. Klasen made it clear that the process also offers possibilities for foreign companies, but they need to be aware that the challenge is at the project level where the actual work is done. It is expected that knowledge of German regulations and language will be required of the applicant company, he said.

To the question, 'Which German utility has the biggest opportunities for your company in nuclear decommissioning over the next five years?', 64% of delegates said they did not know. Of the rest, 14% said EnBW, 9% Vattenfall, 6% RWE and 6% Preussen Elektra.

Simon Carroll, a senior analyst in the operation and decommissioning of nuclear facilities at the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, said this indicated a contradiction. "In one question the majority thought that Germany would be the biggest market, so this question shows the respondents here don't know currently what [opportunity] there really is." Carroll is also chair of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's Decommissioning Cost Estimation Group.

Swiss vote



To the question on the recent Swiss referendum - 'This week Switzerland voted to phase out nuclear power, following on from Germany's decision to do so in 2011. Do you foresee this happening in any other European country?' - 57% of delegates said they did, while the remainder said they did not.

Geoffrey Rothwell, principal economist at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, said the recent Swiss referendum needed to be "seen in context".

"They've had four or five votes. They could have another four or five. They haven't voted for [immediate] phase-out, so they have to come up with resources to replace those [nuclear plants]. You can't assume that there isn't going to be another referendum as there was in Sweden."

Barry Moloney, managing director, NSE International GmbH & Olenian Ltd noted that the Swiss vote was not for immediate phase-out, but for at the end of the operating life of the exiting plants.

"So it's not perhaps as dramatic and abrupt as what happened in Germany in 2011. However it's still an important step in that people have voted for an end to nuclear, which is a troubling sign for our industry, but as [Rothwell] said, maybe theyll change their minds again."

Cost

The question 'What do you see as the biggest challenge for the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear power plants?' offered seven possible answers. Estimating the cost of decommissioning attracted 29% of the vote; choosing and utilising the optimal waste management strategy 25%; managing the decommissioning trust fund or provision agreed in line with cost estimates 18%; lack of innovations to assist decommissioning 14%; meeting regulatory requirements for decommissioning 8%; final site clearance 3%; and transferring used fuel to dry storage 1%.

Norman Harrison, a director with the UK's Nuclear Liabilities Fund, said Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) funding for decommissioning spend in the UK is "dominant in Europe". He added: "In addition in the UK, we'll see preparations for decommissioning of the AGR fleet as they come to the end of their operating tenure. So, I think I'm largely in agreement [with the poll results] with the exception of expenditure which I just don't see in the next five years."

Moloney, who chaired the discussion of the poll results, asked delegates why is it so difficult to estimate the costs of decommissioning.

Bill Roberts, the former chief financial officer of the NDA, said: "Nobody knows how much these things are really going to cost. The NDA provision has grown 70-fold in the last 20 years. One of the key contributing factors is poor program management, so the inability to control the program is the largest factor in the cost estimates."

Saulius Urbonavicius, head of planning at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania, said estimating the cost of decommissioning is "a big challenge".

Lithuania agreed to shut down Ignalina units 1 and 2 as a condition of its accession to the European Union. Unit 1 was shut down in December 2004 and unit 2 in December 2009. The closure of the two Soviet-designed RBMK reactors at Ignalina left Russia as the only country operating RBMK reactors.

"This is the first RBMK in decommissioning and we can't compare different plants. One thing we can do though is work out our costs through the value of contracts," Urbonavicius said.

All the used fuel from the Ignalina units is expected to be moved into storage at a new facility by the end of 2022. Known as the ISFSF B1 Project, the facility is at the plant site in Visaginas municipality. The start of 'industrial operation' of the ISFSF is expected this October.

Support

To the question 'What more can industry bodies, such as the Nuclear Industry Association, the French Nuclear Society and the Swedish Nuclear Society, do to help businesses break into supply chains in other countries?', 43% of delegates said they could do more to help facilitate introductions with potential clients in other countries, while 40% said they could do more to create a collaborative framework to support European trade. Of the remainder, 14% said they could do more to provide better information on the nuances of working in countries of interest, and 3% said they already provide adequate support.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
May 26, 2017 | By Benedict

Researchers at MITs Tangible Media Group have devised a method for 3D printing food that changes shape before you eat it. They say the weird shape-shifting food is also easier to store and transport.

MIT researchers have used a 3D printing method to create pop-up pasta shapes

A surefire way to get kids engaged with reading is to present them with a pop-up book. Theres never a dull page in sight, and the dynamic nature of the experience ensures that even the most lit-phobic kids can get into a story.

New research taking place at MIT suggests that a similar strategy could soon be taken with food. Kids refusing to eat your concoctions? A 3D printed pop-up dinner should get them interested.

The new food printing technology being developed by MITs Tangible Media Group is actually a little more complex than it sounds, but the expert scientists have essentially been playing with their food to make it more fun. Who wouldnt?

Their unusual new method for creating interactive, moving dishes involves the use of flat sheets of gelatin and starch that turn into 3D structures when exposed to water. These 3D structures include classic pasta shapes like macaroni and rotini, as well as weirder forms and structures.

A paper detailing the researchers findings was presented at this months 2017 Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. In the paper, the MIT scientists explain the advantages of their food 3D printing method. They say such dishes are not only entertaining, but are also highly convenient for storage and shipping, potentially reducing the cost of food transport by a significant margin.

We did some simple calculations, such as for macaroni pasta, and even if you pack it perfectly, you still will end up with 67 percent of the volume as air, said Wen Wang, a co-author on the paper and former graduate student in MITs Media Lab. We thought maybe in the future our shape-changing food could be packed flat and save space.

The 3D printing technique was used to create several elaborate dishes

The crazy 3D printed foodstuffs came about almost by chance. Wang and lead author Lining Yao had been working together for a long time, studying how various materials respond to moisture. An important part of their work involved working with bacterium that can transform its shape, shrinking and expanding in response to humidity. (Sound familiar? Yesterday we saw how the same team of researchers used bacteria to create incredible biological workout clothes.)

With this particular area of the research, the duo were experimenting with gelatin, a substance that expands when it absorbs water.

Yao and Wang made a flat, two-layer film made from gelatin of two different densities, since density affects how much the substance expands when exposed to water. They found that, by giving one layer a greater absorbing power, the entire structure would curl up over the layer with less density.

This discovery opened up a world of food-making opportunities.

To achieve a high degree of control over their gelatin shapes, Yao and Wang 3D printed strips of edible cellulose over the top gelatin layer. Since these cellulose strips absorb very little water, they act as a barrier, controlling exactly how much water the layer of gelatin is exposed to, and where. By 3D printing this cellulose strips in intricate patterns, the researchers found they could make their creations turn into a range of different shapes.

The MIT scientists used a 3Drag 3D printer chassis with a Velleman 8400 control board using Marlin firmware, adding Choco syringe extruders from Futura Group to enable the 3D printer to print foodstuffs. In terms of software, the researchers used Hot-Worlds RepetierHost and Slic3r.

This way you can have programmability, Yao explained. You ultimately start to control the degree of bending and the total geometry of the structure.

The researchers created a number of shapes using the 3D printing technique, including traditional pasta shapes and more original forms like flowers and horse saddles. They even showed their creations to the head chef of a high-end Boston restaurant, eventually collaborating on two highly unusual dishes.

The researchers have discovered how certain 3D printed shapes will transform when exposed to water

The first of these dishes consisted of transparent discs of gelatin flavored with plankton and squid ink. These discs would instantly wrap around small beads of moist caviar when coming into contact with them. The second dish consisted of long fettuccini-like strips made from two gelatins that melt at different temperatures. This mixture of gelatins causes the noodles to divide, seemingly of their own accord, when hot broth touches certain areas.

They had great texture and tasted pretty good, Yao reported.

Amazingly, the researchers think they have found a way to predict exactly how the 3D printed foodstuffs will behave when they touch moisture. By building computational models of a number of transformations, the scientists now have an online interface which people can use to design their own shape-shifting foods.

We did many lab tests and collected a database, within which you can pick different shapes, with fabrication instructions, Wang said. Reversibly, you can also select a basic pattern from the database and adjust the distribution or thickness, and can see how the final transformation will look.

Given how exciting this culinary project sounds, its no surprise to hear that Wang and Yao already have one eye on commercializing their research.

We envision that the online software can provide design instructions, and a startup company can ship the materials to your home, Yao says. With this tool, we want to democratize the design of noodles.

The researchers paper, Transformative Appetite: Shape-Changing Food Transforms from 2D to 3D by Water Interaction through Cooking, is available to read here.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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May 26, 2017 | By Benedict

Maciej Kodzis and Grzegorz Owczarek, of Polish design studio Pillcrow, have been helping budding designers create new fonts with the help of 3D printed guides. The duo used a ZMorph 3D printer to make 3D printed grips for their typographical tools.

While most of us rely on classic fonts like Helvetica and Times New Roman, the library of fonts these days goes way behind what Microsoft provides for us. In fact, font creation is now a popular field of designyou can make them by hand-drawing each letter, by cutting your own stamps, and by other means too.

At Pillcrow, a design studio in Poland, a group of typeface junkies are using 3D printing to assist their font creation. Using a ZMorph Multitool 3D printer, designers Maciej Kodzis and Grzegorz Owczarek have been able to 3D print grips for a set of individual font-making stamps. 3D printing helped the design experts create the grips in a short space of time; once printed, the grips were then glued to PVC foam stamps.

Pillcrow recently held a font-making workshop in which a number of budding type designers each had 10 minutes to design a new look for the letters A, D, and G using just a couple of these 3D printed stamps. Each stamp had a simple shape that could form part of a letter. At the end of each 10 minute session, the participants swapped their stamps with a neighbor before proceeding to try a new design.

In just one hour, the group managed to come up with nearly a hundred new font designs. Some were better than others, but the exercise proved just how quickly creativity can bloom with the right tools.

The Pillcrow designers said that, although 3D printing was only used to create the grips for the stamps, their ZMorph Multitool could also have been used to cut out the foam stamps. The machine could even be used to cut the complete letters, rather than the simple shapes that were used in combination to form letters.

This simple application clearly shows how 3D printing can deliver really amazing results and add value to every type of creative endeavors, commented ZMorphs Marcin Traczyk.

While most 3D printers dont have the resolution to print, say, small physical types for a printed book, the technology has been used in other areas of printed media. Back in 2015, Dutch craftsman Luc Volders used 3D printing to create artificial leather book covers. A year before that, car company Aston Martin commissioned an impressive 3D printed typeface.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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franz wrote at 5/31/2017 12:36:21 PM:One question: what for?




John Psaropoulos at The American Scholar:

In seven years of nearly continuous protests, this one was the most articulate. Some 400 speech therapists, occupational therapists, and child psychologists stood outside the Greek parliament in late January, calling on the government not to cut subsidies they receive from the national health system. The protesterswell dressed, middle class, and highly educated, many of them at universities in the United Kingdom and the United Stateswere not the sort who generally take to the streets. And yet, so angry were they with the government that they marched out into traffic, led by a stray dog that had instinctively placed itself at the head of the column, and paraded their banners and slogans across the center of town, from Syntagma Square to the doors of the Ministry of Health. Given the makeup of the crowd, the elocution on display was unusually refined that day. For no reason, for no cause do we demean speech therapy, the protesters chanted in rhyming, scanning Greek. There is no therapy for austerity, read one banner. Ever since 2010, when the first of three austerity packages aimed at reducing the debt crisis was approved, Athenians have grown accustomed to routine disruptions. At least at this protest the entire street wasnt cordoned off, as happens every few days for larger demonstrations. Motorists simply weaved their way around.

The Greek government pays for less than half of a childs therapy costs, but that subsidy still means treatment for thousands of families. The health budget has been in free fall for years; this year alone, it has plummeted by 129 million, and since 2009, the reduction has amounted to 35 percent.

more here.
7x7's inaugural Big Eat Oakland tasting series was a popping success.

For three nights in mid May, the sun shone through the windows of four-month-old Gastropig in Uptown Oakland, where owners Ann Thai and Loren Goodwin welcomed some of The Town's hottest chefs who came to serve their finger-licking bites from 7x7's Big Eat Oakland 2017. The folks from Bulleit Bourbon even rolled up in their iconic Woody to pour signature cocktails, including a Kentucky mule and a whisky sour, for the occasion.

Previous Next Big Eat Oakland, Night 1 Savory French toast, Grand Lake Kitchen (Photography by Patricia Chang) Previous Next Deviled avocado, Abura-ya Japanese Fried Chicken Previous Next Tornado potato crisp, alaMar Previous Next Pozole verde, Cosecha Previous Next Ode to Genova, The Gastropig Previous Next Chocolate agave sorbet, Tara's Organic Ice Cream Previous Next Abura-ya's chef Adachi, aka Captain Fried Chicken (left), and Fiona. Previous Next Cosecha chef/owner Dominica Rice and Grand Lake Kitchen's David Wasem Previous Next Bulleit gifted cozy beanies to guests. Previous Next Bulleit Bourbon cocktails were a hit. Previous Next The chefs kept the party going with Bulleit drinks throughout the night. Previous Next Serving up Cosecha's pozole. Previous Next Previous Next AlaMar chef Nelson German plating up. Previous Next The chefs! From left: Chef Adachi (Abura-ya) and assistant; Tara Esperanza (Tara's Organic Ice Cream); Dominica Rice (Cosecha); David Wasem (Grand Lake Kitchen); Nelson German (alaMar); Loren Goodwin (The Gastropig) Previous Next SF Bartenders slangin' drinks! Previous Next Big Eat Oakland, Night 2 Goose terrine with Cumberland sauce, A Cote Previous Next Canapes, Commis Previous Next Cali burrito, Belly Previous Next Cubano sandwich, Cholita Linda Previous Next Mole negro de Oaxaca, Agave Uptown Previous Next Miso pork ramen, Itani Ramen Previous Next German chocolate cake, Flora Previous Next Keep the Bulleit cocktails coming! Previous Next The chefs have a toast. Previous Next Previous Next Previous Next James Syhabout, chef/owner of two-Michelin-starred Commis, plating his canapes. Previous Next The chefs! From left: Michael Cook (A Cote); Kyle Itani (Itani Ramen); Alice and Alan Chun (Belly); James Syhabout (Commis, center); Murat Sozeri (Cholita Linda); Octavio Diaz (Agave Uptown); Kari Zaft-Gutierrez (Flora) Previous Next Big Eat Oakland, Night 3 Spicy pork cracklins, Hog's Apothecary Previous Next Bomba with Manila clams, chorizo and local fish, Shakewell Previous Next Oxtail stew, Kingston 11 Previous Next Grilled rib-eye steak, Wood Tavern Previous Next Eggplant parmigiana, LoCoco's Previous Next Salted maple donut, Donut Savant Previous Next A warm spring night meant open windows and outdoor dining. Previous Next Look who rolled up: Bulleit Bourbon's Woody! Previous Next Previous Next Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey Previous Next Chef Jen Biesty and Kaitlin Mitza shakin' bomba! Previous Next Donut Savant's Owen Everett makes a very tempting offer. Previous Next Previous Next Previous Next Previous Next Kingston 11 chef Nigel Jones and his daughter dished mad oxtail stew. Previous Next Previous Next Previous Next John Streit, of Hog's Apothecary, brought the cracklins! Previous Next A final round of applause! Previous Next Let's hear it for the chefs! From left: John Streit (Hog's Apothecary); Esteban Escobar (Wood Tavern); Nigel Jones (Kingston 11, top); Jen Biesty and Kaitlin Mitza (Shakewell); Owen Everett (Donut Savant); Maria LoCoco (LoCoco's, front center).

While some Oaklanders were celebrating the Warriors' win on the night of May 16th, foodies scored at Night One of the pop-up series, where sweet and savory tastes came courtesy of Grand Lake Kitchen, Tara Organic Ice Cream, Abura-ya, The Gastropig, alaMar, and Cosecha.





Night Two got even busier when Commis' two-Michelin-star chef James Syhabout arrived on the scene. He was joined by toques from some of Oakland's most beloved restaurants: Itani Ramen, A Cote, Agave Uptown, Belly, Cholita Linda, and Flora.





Night Three capped the series with a bang, as a particularly party-loving set of chefs dished everything from spicy pork cracklins to traditional eggplant parmigiana. The night was summery and the Bulleit cocktails flowedeven back into the kitchen. The evening's tastebuds were tickled by the chefs from Shakewell, Wood Tavern, Kingston 11, Hog's Apothecary, LoCoco's, and Donut Savant.

We're still stuffed, but that's not stopping us from drooling over all the delicious pictures. Thanks to everyone who came and made our first Oakland pop-up a tasty success!
Flea markets are one of the last urban frontiers for discovering treasures that are both unique and reasonably priced. Find yours at one of these Bay Area flea markets this summer.

Handmade jewelry at the Treasure Island Flea Market. (Courtesy of Treasure Island Flea Market/Facebook)

Treasure Island Flea Market

Pier 1 on Treasure Island transforms into a bustling marketplace on the last weekend of every monthand on May 28th and 29th, this Bay Area fave will celebrate it's sixth birthday with a bash. The tchotchke-sale-meets-festival vibe makes this event more fun than most. Yes, you can find vintage goods, housewares. and clothing, but 15,000 people don't attend this monthly market just to shop for trinkets. Organizers bring in a food truck corral, plus tents offering baked goods and sweets, so you can nosh your way through the stalls hawking original art, custom-made jewelry, and newly constructed furniture (from reclaimed wood, natch). Even better, there's booze: specialty cocktails, wine, and craft beer vendors help round out the experience, so the only thing you might bring home is a slight buzz. Entry is $3 but check out their website or newsletter for special entry discounts and drink deals.

// California Ave. and Ave. N (Treasure Island), treasureislandflea.com





Beautiful vintage umbrellas at the Alameda Point Antiques Faire. (Courtesy of Alameda Point Antiques Faire)

Alameda Point Antiques Faire

More than 800 vendors specializing in vintage goods ranging from home decor to furniture to books and collectibles descend on the gym at the College of Alameda to sell genuine antiques. Look for incredible pieces like colorful parasols from the early 20th century, intricate and functional hardware like doorknobs and light fixtures, and an array of fantastic furniture. Browsers can find vintage fashions, too, but their seasonal Alameda Point Vintage Fashion Faire offers a staggering variety of pieces from the Victorian era through the 1980s. The market is free and draws locals as well as busloads of out-of-town shoppers. To ease overcrowded parking lots they offer hourly free shuttle buses from the Fruitvale BART station and the Alameda Ferry station. The faire is held the first Sunday of every month.

// 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Pkwy (Alameda), alamedapointantiquesfaire.com





Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling at the Solano Way Swap Meet. (Courtesy of West Wind Drive-In and Public Market/Facebook)

West Wind Solano Way Swap Meet

It's a swap meet, not a flea market, an important distinction to remember, when attending this traditionally American event. Even its venue, one of the Bay Area's remaining drive-in movie theaters, is a nod to its mid-century roots. There's little about this regular weekend event that is "specialized," and that's what makes it unique: At this market, you almost forget you are in the middle of one of the most expensive regions of the country. At the Solano Way Swap Meet you'll find fresh fruits and vegetables, second-hand toys and household goods, haircuts, massages, and a variety of other offerings at over 500 no-frills stalls. Even the food offerings at Solano Waysimple stalls offering Nathan's hot dogs and homemade tacossomehow feel more authentic. The market is open each weekend year-round. On Sundays, hang out to hear a live local band, usually one rocking lively latinomusic, or watch some spectacular Mexican wrestling. Entry is 50 for adults and free for kids under 11 years.

// 1611 Solano Way (Concord), westwindpm.com





Perennials for sale at the De Anza CollegeFlea Market. (Courtesy of De Anza College Flea Market/Facebook)

There's a little bit of everything at the De Anza College Flea Market, which takes place the first Saturday of every month, rain or shine. The majority of vendors specialize in second-hand goods including toys, electronics, collectibles, clothing and jewelry, and during the school year draws a crowd of students as well as area families. But the DeAnza College Flea Market also offers its fair share of new, locally made gifts such as leather-bound journals and bath and body products. This market is also a great place to find plants, seeds, and cut flowers. With over 800 stalls to browse, including a number of food offerings, you can haggle till your heart's content at this 30-year-old Cupertino staple.

// 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Parking Lots A & B (Cupertino), deanza.edu/fleamarket





Alemany Flea Market in San Francisco (Courtesy of Alemany Flea Market/Yelp)

Alemany Flea Market

Alemany may be smaller than some of the other flea markets in the Bay but it works to maintain a balance of vintage and newer goods. They require at least 50 percent of their vendors to specialize in antique goods like collectibles, books, posters, books, and recordsvinyl collectors make regular pilgrimages. All non-vintage goods sold on-site are required to be handmade. Excavate your way through second-hand clothing, analog camera equipment, and piles of kitchenwaresbut, strap in, this place is a bargain hunter's Mecca. Alemany Flea Market is open every Sunday, rain or shine, throughout the year from 7am to 3pm. Parking can be tough, so public transportation is recommended.

// 100 Alemany Blvd (Bernal Heights)





Annual Niles Antique Faire and Market (Courtesy of Niles Antique Faire and Market/Facebook)

Annual Antique Faire & Flea Market

For one glorious day in August, the small, out-of-the-way neighborhood of Niles in Fremont goes from historic town to marketplace. Now in its 53rd year, this gathering is truly a community effort, hosting both commercial sellers and local residents hawking household items. This mixture of vendors gives the annual event a decidedly down-home garage sale feel. You can find merchandise of just about any kind, but keep an eye out, in particular, for stalls featuring the picturesque town's year-round specialty: antiques and decorative vintage collectibles. The event, which hosts more than 200 vendors, begins at 6am and kicks off with a pancake breakfast. Lots of other yummy home-made and food truck snacks ware available for purchase throughout the day. This year's free fair takes place on August 27.

// 37592 Niles Blvd. (Fremont), niles.org/antique-faire
San Francisco's prestigious, referral-based beauty salon specializing in custom facials, coloring, and styling, is celebrating five years in business this month.

The salon's clients include executives from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Uber, Apple and others; they celebrated the anniversary with a VIP invite-only party on May 18th.

Sisters Samera and Meetra opened Samitra five years ago to bring a new concept in personal beauty and care to SF, allowing their clients to customize their appointment experience without the hurried, crowded feeling many get from a typical salon. It was a huge risk, but it's worked. The salon works on a referral system to provide personalized and intimate one-on-one care to every client who enters the door. This philosophy has allowed Samitra to flourish, and to provide every client with the VIP treatment.

The salon offers services including men's and women's haircuts and color (including balayage, ombre, touch-ups, corrections, and grey blending), bridal hair and makeup, blowouts, custom facials (skin tightening, Glow oxygen treatment, Glycolic facial treatment, acne treatment, LED light treatments for collagen growth), natural hair and skincare products, and more. In honor of its anniversary, the salon has added new services, including permanent beach body hair wave treatments, and microblading. They are also working to add natural skincare and haircare brands to their selection of products.

// Samitra, 73 10 St.,samitrasalon.com
Ballot stamps cause minor issue in Brown, turnout in Codington 63%

While there was a minor issue counting some ballots in Brown Co., local election officials said Tuesday night went pretty well. SD voter turnout 57.5%
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Rouyn-Noranda, May 26, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Last week's video interview has been very well received. I've had a number of messages, and calls that expressed that attitude, especially the impromptu nature of it. Its just two guys talking about the Company, focussed on the current drilling at the Timmins Porcupine GOLD Deposit.



For those of you that haven't seen it, visit:

http://www.abnnewswire.net/press/en/88378/exs



My sources near the TPW are indicating that the deepening of Hole #109 is nearing completion, having surpassed the 800meter mark this past Monday, May 22nd. Obviously, the extracted core is being visually inspected, logged, sawed, and prepped for lab analysis. Once the work on #109 is finished, Chris Dupont's 'Step Out' plan will commence, drilling to improve the TPW Resource Estimates.



I will monitor progress, and report as quickly as I can. For a really good visual, watch the attached Explor animation (link below), giving viewers not only an excellent perspective on the location, size & scope of the Timmins Porcupine GOLD Deposit, but also shows the location of some of the Company's property holdings along the prolific Porcupine Destor Fault, in, & around Timmins, Ontario.



I would also suggest you review the TPW Presentation, at:

http://www.abnnewswire.net/lnk/2LI81C1J



I especially like Page 15, presenting actual pictures of core samples obtained during previous work at the site, and, the GOLD gradings associated with those samples, ranging from 29.58 grams/tonne to 56.05 grams/tonne. Those are really good grades. You never know, maybe even better this time around?



Dupont is heading to Timmins for the annual 'Canadian Mining Exposition' taking place at the end of the month. Hopefully, with continued success at the TPW GOLD Deposit, the Explor booth will be a very popular place this year.

https://canadianminingexpo.com/

Explor Resources R1-11 (Arena 2 and Upper Deck).



The only other item to report is geologists on scene at the Company's East Bay GOLD prospect in Quebec are apparently prospecting some interesting outcrops, before commencing the proposed drilling at the site.



To view the Explor Animation, please visit:

http://www.abnnewswire.net/press/en/88479/exs



NOTE: This forum commentary was published from a third party source. It has not been verified by the company.





About Explor Resources Inc.





Explor Resources Inc. (CVE:EXS) (OTCMKTS:EXSFF) (FRA:E1H1) is a Canadian-based natural resources company with mineral holdings in Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. Explor is currently focused on exploration in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The belt is found in both provinces of Ontario and Quebec with approximately 33% in Ontario and 67% in Quebec. The Belt has produced in excess of 180,000,000 ounces of gold and 450,000,000 tonnes of cu-zn ore over the last 100 years. The Corporation was continued under the laws of Alberta in 1986 and has had its main office in Quebec since 2006.


Appoints Vanessa Guthrie as a Director

Sydney, May 26, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Santos Limited ( ASX:STO ) ( SSLTY:OTCMKTS ) today announced that Vanessa Guthrie has been appointed to the Santos Board as an independent non-executive director with such appointment to take effect on 1 July 2017.



The appointment of Dr Guthrie is part of the Board's ongoing renewal process, following the retirement of Scott Sheffield at the conclusion of the recent Annual General Meeting.



Dr Guthrie brings with her a deep understanding of geology, the environment and management of natural resources. She has substantial experience in the mining industry across a variety of roles including operations, environment, community, indigenous affairs, corporate development and sustainability.



Dr Guthrie has qualifications in geology, environment, law and business management including a PhD in Geology. She was previously Managing Director and CEO of Toro Energy Limited and VP Sustainable Development at Woodside Energy, and is currently Chair of the Minerals Council of Australia and a Non-Executive Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.



Santos Chairman, Mr Peter Coates said he was delighted with the appointment and looked forward to working with Dr Guthrie on the Santos Board.





About Santos Limited





Santos (ASX:STO) is one of the leading independent oil and gas producers in the Asia-Pacific region, supplying the energy needs of homes, businesses and major industries across Australia and Asia.

With its origins in the Cooper Basin, Santos has one of the largest exploration and production acreages in Australia and extensive infrastructure and is committed to supplying the domestic markets, unlocking resources and driving value and performance.

Underpinned by a portfolio of high-quality liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipeline gas and oil assets, Santos seeks to deliver long-term value to shareholders.

Santos' foundations are based on safe, sustainable operations and working together with our shareholders, host communities, governments and business partners.
Dancers and dance enthusiasts love aggressive and forceful dances, theses emotions are expressed by all and even look dynamic on stage and if you love Spanish guitar, then there is only one dance form you need to discover. The one and only dance form that is on the face and bold is the popular dance from Spain The Flamenco.

This Spanish dance has always fascinated me, it is daring with intricate footwork, pretty flowing dresses, aggressive attitude. At the same time, Flamenco can be made soft and gentle too, but this side of flamenco is rarely seen on stage. When I think of Flamenco I am reminded of Bollywood star Salman Khan, even he has his two famous sides, the bold, aggressive and the Being Human.

The very first thing, I would like you to know is the difference between Flamenco and a Flamingo! A Flamingo is a pink bird whereas if you say FLAMENCO with a CO it is a dance form that comes from the South of Spain! So be careful how you say it! Or it can mean two very different things!

My love for Spanish dance especially Flamenco grew even more when I met Ivan Yankov the director of well known Spanish dance school Be Flamenco few years back. The young, very good looking and dynamic Mr. Yankov grew with a dream to make Flamenco and Spanish culture popular world over. This dream of his made him establish his dance school and company called Be Flamenco. After experiencing the Flamenco culture, I too believe that we Indians must know more about this dance form especially because it derives inspiration from our very own classical Indian Kathak.

Ms. Iratxe Pazos an accomplished dancer, a dance teacher and a theater artist of Be Flamenco and is currently in India touring and conducting workshops and classes for dance lovers. I am glad that I have been able to bring Mr. Yankovs dream to India.

Iratxe was born in Bilbao in Spain, she was always a dance lover and enthusiast, but took her first serious professional step in dance at a tender age of 13, after studying Jazz and Contemporary dances at Barcelona she moved to learning her favorite dance Flamenco. She completed her education in flamenco from world-renowned flamenco schools like Flora Alabicin, Latani, Elena Martin and Lucero Cardenas in Spain.

As a theater artist, Iratxe studied Comedia Musical at the Coco Comin School in Barcelona, where her forte was Drama with Spanish dance Escuela Bolero and Flamenco. She performed many Broadway Musical shows in the Tivoli Theater of Barcelona and Pueblo Espanyol. Some popular shows in which she displayed her dancing and acting skills were El Sur Pirates and Tales from the World. This is when her love for Flamenco grew even more. Taking her love for Flamenco forward Iratxe she moved to Dublin, Ireland where along with Ms. Anna Castellano, she formed a group called Flamenco y Mas. They performed at various events and theater in Ireland alone by teaching Flamenco to students of different technique levels.

Being in India Iratxe says, When I got into Flamenco and studied its history I realized that it has Indian roots. The Gypsies from India traveled through Arabic countries and moved to settle in Europe and Spain. Their original dance Kathak got influenced with different cultures and finally took the form of Flamenco. Today I am in India, to me it feels like coming to meet my mother who gave birth to my dance.

Iratxe will be in and around India for few months visiting few dance schools in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad, Delhi, Jaipur, Indore and other cities. So what are you waiting for, join in the flow and enjoy the Passionate, obsessive world of Be Flamenco.

History and background about Flamenco:

Flamenco is a Spanish genre of music and dance which originated in Andalucia in the XVII century, which has its foundation Andalucian music and dance and, in whose creation and evolution, ethinic Gypsies from Andalucian played an essential part. The cante (singing), toque (guitar playing) and the dance are the principal facets of Flamenco. The dance has Indian Classicla dance Kathak base which has believed to have got influenced with the Jewish and Arabic dances. In recent years, the popularity of flamenco in Latin America is such that in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador several ensembles and flamenco academies have sprung up. In Japan flamenco is so popular that more academies exist there as compared to Spain. On November 16, 2010, UNESCO declared Flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

(Sandip Soparrkar is a well known Latin and Ballroom dancer, a World Book of Records holder and a Bollywood choreographer who has been honoured with National Achievement Award and National Excellence Award by the Govt of India. He can be contacted on sandipsoparrkar06@gmail.com)

Sandip Soparrkar

Artscape
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Windy at times with rain. High 66F. NE winds at 25 to 35 mph, decreasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 65F. Winds E at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Rain. High 66F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low near 65F. Winds ESE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch.
May 25, 2017

The past few days in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been dramatic. A ticker on Qatar News Agency attributed controversial statements about US President Donald Trump, Iran, Israel and Hamas to Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The news agency's Twitter feed also quoted Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, announcing Dohas decision to withdraw its ambassadors from Egypt and most GCC states.

In response, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates blocked Al Jazeera and other Qatari networks and media platforms. Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper accused Doha of "breaking ranks" with the GCC by siding with "enemies."

Qatari officials quickly denied these statements attributed to their monarch. They accused an "unknown entity" of hacking Qatar News Agency and publishing false statements. Officials vowed to investigate the matter and prosecute those held responsible. Nonetheless, Saudi and Emirati media broadcast this "fake news" throughout the night of May 23, leading many Qataris to believe that a foreign-orchestrated coup was underway in Doha.

This drama unfolded in the aftermath of Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia and his speech before several dozen Muslim leaders at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh. It also follows growing anger in Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Riyadh over Al Jazeera's recent coverage of conflicts in Libya and Yemen.

Although Trump praised Qatar, which hosts the US Central Command's (CENTCOM) forward headquarters at Al-Udeid Air Base, as a "strategic partner" in the struggle against terrorism, some GCC states, Egypt and influential voices in Washington see the Trump presidency as a golden opportunity to change Washington's relationship with Qatar. The administration must tell Doha that its days of sponsoring Islamist movements and hosting Muslim Brotherhood figures are over if the emirate wants to maintain good ties with Washington, according to these voices.

Speaking in Washington at a conference sponsored by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on May 23, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates advised the Trump administration to remind Qatar that the United States can establish an alternative to Al-Udeid elsewhere in the GCC if Qatar's alleged support for terrorism continues. US Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., accused Doha of harboring the "worst of the worst" and declared that Qatar must display "a change in behavior immediately." Earlier this month, John Hannah, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who served on Vice President Dick Cheney's national security team, alleged that Doha backs the "region's most radical, destabilizing and dangerous forces." Former Ambassador Dennis Ross recently wrote that "Qatar is most definitely not an ally" of the United States regarding counterterrorism, and that unless Doha becomes "a genuine partner and not a party that contributes to the very threats we need to counter" Washington should make its intention clear to Qatar that it will transfer CENTCOM headquarters.

A Qatari interlocutor, speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, maintained that those in Washington going after Doha are working in tandem with those behind this week's hacking  a "cheap move," as the interlocutor described it. On May 21, Sheikh Saif Al Thani, the director of the Government Communications Office, claimed that Qatar had become the victim of a "smear campaign," asserting that all claims of Qatar supporting terrorism are entirely false. Upon Trump's arrival to Saudi Arabia, such publications were intended to hurt Qatar's interests, according to the government statement. "In fact, as the authors of these articles must know, the government of the State of Qatar  like all of its neighbors in the Middle East  is a target for these terrorist groups."

On May 18, Arab News interviewed the Qatari foreign minister. He asserted that Qatar doesn't sponsor the Muslim Brotherhood, yet it will not label the Brotherhood a terrorist group because it represents no threat to Qatar's security. Thani defended Doha's hosting of prominent Brotherhood figures as "political opposition" and stated that Qatar prohibits such individuals from using its territory as a "platform to abuse or attack their own countries." Regarding Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an incendiary Egyptian-born Brotherhood cleric who has resided in Qatar for many years, the foreign minister stated that because he is a Qatari citizen and elderly, Doha "cannot inform him to depart Qatar."

Since Emir Tamim succeeded his father in 2013, he has taken major steps to ensure Qatar's good standing in the GCC. Determined to avoid a repeat of the 2014 diplomatic spat, in which Abu Dhabi, Manama and Riyadh withdrew their ambassadors from Doha for eight months to punish Qatar for supporting the Brotherhood, Emir Tamim has aligned his country's foreign policy quite closely with the Saudis vis-a-vis Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Yet such tensions have not disappeared, especially with the UAE, and the prospects of Qatar becoming isolated within the GCC again are real.

It's not clear how Trump will approach Qatar or how his administration will view Doha's relations with Hamas and other Islamist entities. Thus far, the US administration has sent Qatar warm signals. Last month, Secretary of Defense James Mattis traveled to Doha to affirm Washingtons commitment to strengthening US-Qatar relations. On May 8, Qatar's foreign minister met with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson in Washington to discuss enhancing bilateral ties and regional security. While in Riyadh, Trump sat with down with the emir and affirmed that "we've been friends now for a long time" and that Washington plans to sell Doha "lots of beautiful military equipment."

Recently, the Qatar Investment Authority has made massive investments across the United States. As Trump seeks more foreign exchange to create jobs at home, Qatar is in a position to use its wealth to support the president's "Make America Great Again" ambitions. Ultimately, the authority's investments in America and future lucrative arms deals may establish "insurance" policies for US-Qatar relations against agendas directed against Doha.

Although Trump praised Qatar as one of America's key strategic partners, some in Washington and certain Arab capitals believe that Doha is hindering regional and international efforts to combat terrorism by providing media platforms (chiefly through Al Jazeera) and a safe haven to extremists in the emirate. In Doha, there are legitimate concerns about the new US administration agreeing with this understanding of Qatar's ties with Islamists threatening US security and requiring Washington to pressure the Arab Gulf monarchy into changing its foreign policy.
May 26, 2017

Egypt has blocked 21 websites it claims support terrorism and spread lies in a move free speech advocates fear will further stifle free expression.

Among the banned websites is that of the Qatari-based Al Jazeera network, which Egypt has accused of carrying out a hostile media campaign against the country and of spreading Muslim Brotherhood propaganda. The move follows similar bans imposed on Qatars official websites by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates earlier in the week over controversial statements about Iran and Israel attributed to the Qatari ruler and published on the Qatari state-run news agency website.

The majority of the websites blocked by Egypt are pro-Muslim Brotherhood news sites and were either founded by members of the outlawed Islamist group or are funded by Qatar, with which Egypt is at odds over the Gulf states sympathetic views toward ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

However, at least one of the blocked websites  the privately owned Mada Masr news platform  is neither linked to Islamists nor sponsored by the enemy Gulf state. Mada Masr is an Egyptian independent news portal founded in mid-2013 by a group of liberal journalists who formerly worked for Egypt Independent, an English-language newspaper that closed in April 2013. In a statement released May 25, Mada Masr informed readers that they could access the website through proxies and cached copies, defiantly vowing to continue to publish through existing platforms as well as our website.

Shortly after the statement was released, Amro Ali, an assistant professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo, victoriously declared in a tweet, "Not to be outsmarted, Mada Masr publishes its articles on Google Drive. Regime Censorship: 0. Mada: 1.

Lina Attalah, the co-founder of Mada Masr and editor-in-chief, told Al-Monitor, The blockade took us by surprise, simply because it is not the norm. We are used to hearing about arrests and prosecution of journalists and closure of media outlets but not blockades.

She said that Mada Masr management had not been informed prior to the move and that she had been on the phone all day contacting the newly formed National Media Council and the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority trying to get information from a primary source; we only heard we were on the list of banned websites from a secondary source.

Her efforts left her even more frustrated, as no one is taking responsibility for the action nor telling us why this has happened, she complained. Attalah believes that the blockade was prompted by Mada Masrs content over the last several months, which she said has at times been critical of government policies and which must have embarrassed a few people out there.

Mada Masr has in recent months published a number of investigative reports covering sensitive issues such as corruption within the government, repression and the militarys expanding business activities  topics that in the climate of fear and intimidation few other Egyptian media outlets have dared discuss.

We simply state facts, but not everyone wants to hear them, Attalah said.

And that precisely is the role of good journalism: disseminating facts and holding governments to account. But not so in Egypt, a country that ranks among the three worst jailers of journalists in the world (along with Turkey and China), according to a 2016 report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. A report published in November by the Cairo-based nongovernmental organization The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information claimed there were 63 journalists and media workers languishing behind bars in Egypt. The report cited dates of their arrests and the charges against them, saying that 58 out of the 63 were arrested as part of a severe crackdown on journalists following the overthrow of President Morsi in July 2013. Furthermore, Egypt has a very low ranking (159 out of 180) in the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders in April 2016.

In a much-publicized case, three journalists who worked for the English-language Al Jazeera news network were arrested on Dec. 29, 2013, and detained for more than two years on charges that included belonging to a terrorist group and spreading false news. The case provoked international uproar and harsh criticism from other governments and human rights groups after the journalists were given sentences of between 7 and 10 years. The sentences were slammed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay as a travesty of justice. While all three have since been released  two of them were pardoned by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi  the slogan journalism is not a crime from a virulent social media campaign calling for their release is still widely used today to express solidarity with other jailed journalists.

Meanwhile, in an unprecedented ruling, two Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced to death (in absentia) on June 18, 2016, for allegedly colluding with Morsi to pass state secrets to Qatar in the so-called Qatar espionage case. In April 2015, 13 journalists accused of belonging to an outlawed group and attempting to overthrow the regime in the Rabia Operations Room case (reference to a pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-in staged at Rabia al-Adawiya Square in August 2013) were sentenced to life in prison and another was sentenced to death in the mass trial. Earlier this month, five of the defendants were acquitted in a retrial, while four others were sentenced to five years each. Mohamed Soltan, a dual US-Egyptian national who was among the 13 sentenced to life, was released in May 2015 and deported to the United States where he has since continued to campaign for the release of his colleagues.

The websites blockade has provoked an outcry from free speech advocates who called it a clear attack on freedom of speech. Yehia Kalash, the former head of the Journalists Syndicate, condemned the move as unconstitutional and an attack on the rights of journalists and media workers. He himself was fined and given a suspended two-year prison sentence along with two other syndicate board members in November on the charge of harboring fugitives. The charge stemmed from a police raid on the syndicate building in May 2016 to arrest two wanted journalists who had taken refuge there. Mahmoud El Sakka and Amr Badr, the journalists in question, had weeks earlier participated in protests condemning the handover of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. They were held in custody for four months on charges of spreading false news and possessing fire arms. Both have since been released, but last years raid on the syndicate set off a wave of angry protests by journalists who have since been at loggerheads with the Interior Ministry.

Members of the newly formed National Media Council, tasked with regulating the affairs of broadcast, print and digital media, could not be reached for comment on the recent blockades. Abdel Mohsen Salama, the current head of the Press Syndicate, meanwhile, took the opposite stance of his predecessor, justifying the ban.

The banned websites posed a threat to national security as they support terrorism and incite violence, he argued. He refused to comment on the banning of Mada Masr, however, saying only that it is still uncertain if any Egyptian site has been blocked, as we have not received any complaints from the websites founders or administrators. If this is found to be true, we will take action to resolve the matter.

But Mada Masr employees and readers remain unconvinced. The government needs to come to terms with the fact that this is no longer the 1960s when state radio could broadcast propaganda and the public had no choice but to swallow it. This is the digital age: censorship is outdated and can be circumvented, freelance journalist Aya Nader told Al-Monitor.
May 25, 2017

TEHRAN  President Hassan Rouhani won a second term in the May 19 presidential election with 57% of the vote. The polarization of the Iranian electorate led to a strong turnout of 73%, with some 41 million casting ballots. Rouhani, a Reformist, defeated hard-line rival Ebrahim Raisi, who had the backing of conservatives. The strong presence of pro-reform citizens and "gray voters" was key to the incumbents victory.

In the Iranian political lexicon, gray voters are those who usually dont vote but are swing voters whenever they do participate in elections  such as in 2013 when Rouhani was first elected. The president has been representing both moderates and Reformist groups since 2013 after Reformists were marginalized over the disputed 2009 elections.

Raisi, who had reached out to low-income households with tempting promises of higher monthly cash subsidy payments, managed to fetch 15.7 million votes even though he is new to presidential races. Parviz Kazemi  a Cabinet member in the government of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13)  had predicted that only 9 million to 10 million voters might be loyal to the conservative candidate, the Tadbir Khabar website reported April 28. Official data show that nearly 14 million people did not vote, leaving about 31 million voters categorized as loyal to moderates and Reformists or as gray voters. Nearly 6 million of the gray voters seemingly turned right toward the conservative hopeful.

This indicates that Raisis social base is now strong enough to oppose many of the policies of the elected president. His success in snaring so many votes in a short period of time is largely attributed to the verbal support he received from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, it should also be noted that many non-conservative citizens will vote for a candidate the supreme leader dislikes. Previous elections show that millions of gray voters, who normally do not vote for a variety of reasons, may turn out if they feel a certain candidate backed by Khamenei might be elected president.

Khamenei has never voiced explicit support for any candidate. However, media outlets that were faithful to Rouhani indicated that Raisi and Khamenei share many ideological stances. For instance, they both had identical approaches toward cultural affairs and also foreign policy, where Rouhani has tried to adopt a moderate stance. Thus, one key question is why Khamenei would have implicitly supported his favored candidate knowing that his backing could hurt Raisi.

The answer is that Khamenei views a high turnout as more important than the election of any one candidate, including Raisi  a judiciary official who had no experience in government. Indeed, Khamenei is now in a win-win situation, as the high turnout could suggest that the social popularity of the Islamic Republic is still high decades after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. On the other hand, his seeming support for Raisi helped the conservative candidate form a strong opposition backed by 38% of voters.

Moreover, the conservatives  who had failed to reach consensus on a single presidential candidate in past elections  have found a person who is potentially able to lead a far stronger opposition. The significance of an integrated conservative opposition is better understood when considering that Reformists and moderates already control a majority of seats in parliament. It also should be noted that Reformists swept the city and village council elections, which were held concurrently with the May 19 presidential vote. They gained control of local councils in Tehran and many other major cities, ending longstanding conservative dominance of local politics.

After the release of the results of the presidential elections on May 20, Khamenei hailed in a written message the high turnout as a clear sign that Islamic democracy has strong roots in the country and citizens are deeply interested in this great gift of the Lord. Notably, there was no mention of direct congratulations to Rouhani. Instead, Khamenei urged the next administration to take care of Iranian households who are most vulnerable to economic woes.

Though a majority of those who voted for Raisi have a conservative slant, it can be assumed that many were also attracted by his promises of vastly expanded monthly cash subsidy payments. Indeed, this years elections proved that the populist rhetoric still has supporters among Iranian voters  an issue that could turn into Rouhanis Achilles' heel in coming years.

Rouhani has major differences with ultraconservatives on a wide range of issues ranging from foreign policy and cultural affairs to human rights and the economy. But the key point, as Khamenei mentioned in his May 20 message, is the economy. Should the president manage to further ease ties with the West, more expertise and more resources will be arriving in the country, reviving the Iranian economy.

Some analysts argue that the Rouhani victory will give him a mandate to push through domestic reforms and pursue talks with the United States and major European countries, but the tone of Khameneis message and the formation of a stronger conservative opposition indicate that Rouhani will be facing more serious challenges than ever.

Rouhani vowed during campaigning that he will be doing his best to remove remaining US sanctions against Iran should Khamenei support him  a prerequisite that needs to be fulfilled before anything else. This promise seems too good to be true, as it not only needs Iran to reshape its foreign policy but also requires Tehran to comply with international human rights standards. In this vein, it should not be forgotten that the European Union recently extended until April 2018 sanctions against Iran over "serious human rights violations," with Rouhani failing to take any action over the move.
May 24, 2017

ERBIL, Iraq  Amid fierce fighting pitting Iraqi forces against the Islamic State (IS) over Mosul, in Ninevah province, tensions have risen between the predominantly Shiite Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and Kurdish peshmerga. On May 23, the Committee on Kurdish Areas Outside the Region, an official entity in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), called PMU activity in Sinjar suspicious, based on the force not coordinating with the peshmerga in the area, which is close to Iraqi Kurdistan and among the territory over which Baghdad and Erbil have had disputes about control.

The PMU on May 13 had launched an operation to liberate the district of Sinjar and surrounding villages from IS. On May 23, PMU fighters took Qayrawan, which is administratively part of Sinjar but not far from Iraqi Kurdistan. After the battle for Qayrawan, dozens of members of the Yazidi peshmerga, including military officers, deserted ranks to join the Baghdad-supported PMU.

Serbest Leskin, a peshmerga official in Sinjar, told Rudaw Net on May 14, We told the PMU that they were not allowed to enter the Yazidi areas, but here they are today surrounding the Yazidi-affiliated Tal al-Qasab and Tal al-Banat. When we learned that they had changed their plans, we immediately informed President [Massoud] Barzani. That same day, Barzani had instructed peshmerga leaders not to allow the PMU to enter Yazidi areas in Sinjar.

According to press statements by a Kurdish source reported on by Rudaw News, Baghdad and Erbil had agreed that the Iraqi army and the PMU would not enter Kurdish areas. Leskin stressed that the agreement bars the PMU from areas populated by Yazidis, whom the KRG argues are ethnically Kurdish. Regardless, the PMU took and continue to control Tal al-Qasab and Tal al-Banat and argues that it must be able to operate anywhere in Baghdad-controlled areas, which would include Qayrawan and other Yazidi areas outside Iraqi Kurdistan.

A statement by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in his weekly press conference on May 16 appeared to indicate that the sides had agreed not to engage in infighting and instead to focus on battling IS. Abadi announced, We have agreed with the Kurdistan Regional Government on the peshmergas positions being limited to what they were before the start of the battle to liberate Ninevah, and our forces will carry out the operation. The text of that agreement still holds.

Despite this agreement, the two sides still hold different points of view. According to Abadi's assertion, the peshmerga forces are supposed to return to areas along the border of KRG-administered Iraqi Kurdistan that they controlled before the battle to liberate Mosul began last October, while the rest of Nineveh province, including Yazidi areas, is to be liberated by Iraqi forces. Meanwhile, however, the KRG insists on the peshmerga liberating Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, including Yazidi ones.

On May 15, PMU spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi confirmed coordination between the PMU and peshmerga leaderships, but said the PMU does not respond to statements the media claims Barzani has made.

On May 14, the second day of the operation to liberate Qayrawan, west of Mosul, PMU leaders stressed that they would not allow cutting off any part of Mosul, noting that removing peshmerga from Mosul would be easier than expelling IS.

Al-Monitor tried, to no avail, to contact Asadi for comment on this PMU position. One PMU leader told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity, I urge our brothers in the peshmerga leadership to know their limits and respect that we are waging a fierce war against IS.

Some claim the PMU in the area, consisting of militias backed by Iran, is heading toward Sinjar with the purpose of connecting Iraqi and Syrian territory and opening a pathway for Shiite fighters to safely cross over into Syria, hence the aversion to peshmerga involvement there. Leskin, in Rudaw Net, alleged this, asserting, The support of the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] forces in Sinjar by Iran and Shiite fighters in Iraq all serve this purpose. Iran has already begun to implement this plan through the PMU, located 60 kilometers [37 miles] away from the border with Syria.

Al-Monitor contacted Zardasht Shingali, the spokesman for the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), who denied any association by the YBS with the PKK in Sinjar, and hence with Iran. We are here to protect our people [Yazidis] in Sinjar, Shingali said. The fact that Iraqi forces have arrived at the Syrian border is their business. However, we will not accept any Iraqi forces between Sinjar and Syrian Kurdistan. If the PMU were to reach the borders through [the mixed area of] al-Baaj, again, its their business. We do not intervene.

Observers ruled out the possibility of armed clashes erupting between the peshmerga and the PMU at this stage, especially after Faleh al-Fayyad, an Iraqi national security adviser and head of the PMU committee, visited Barzani May 15. At that time, both stressed continued coordination between the peshmerga and the Iraqi army.

Hussein Al-Alawi, a professor of national security at Al Nahrain University, told Al-Monitor, After Fayyads visit, an understanding over military operations was reached. The confusion was overcome and the crisis was resolved. However, due to regional interference and the sensitivity of the situation in the region, some bickering through the media might occur, but there will not be a direct confrontation.

Although signs indicate that the dispute over Sinjar has been resolved, regional disputes with historical baggage as well as regional interferences point to the difficulty that Erbil and Baghdad will reach mutually acceptable understandings in the future. This makes a military clash between the parties a possibility down the line.
May 24, 2017

Ahmad Wahid, one of Iraqs first stand-up comedians, struck a chord over social media when he suggested, tongue in cheek, that a friendly security officer or a sheikh was much better than karate for protection. Mocking the security situation in Iraq in a video he posted on Facebook May 14, Wahid said, Karate lessons will not do you any good in Iraq. There are several ways of self-defense. First, befriend a decent security officer who would vouch you out if you ever get arrested. You should also keep in touch with the sheikh of your tribe, so he can protect you in case of tribal conflicts. Get yourself a decent weapon to protect yourself should someone try to attack you.

Within four hours, the video was viewed over 27,000 times, shared 136 times and it received over 200 comments. As of the time of writing, the video has 266,000 views, 851 shares and more than 1,000 comments.

Wahid is proud of his social media fame and his followers, but he prefers live interactions from a stage, where he can tease his audience and mock the political and social events of the country in his unique, homegrown style. The biggest challenge in stand-up comedy is knowing how to give it Iraqi charm instead of adopting a foreign routine, Wahid told Al-Monitor.

Wahid had previously given about 10 performances in various Iraqi cities, the first in the city of Basra, where he was born and raised. He also worked with NRT TV to produce and broadcast two episodes of a show called "Esh, which means do not talk in the local Iraqi dialect.

Speaking to Al-Monitor about the show, Wahid said, I am proud of this experience and I want to do it again [return to stand-up comedy]." He added that part of the reason he stopped was the need to find a balance between production standards and the right audience. We found an audience in Basra, but the station did not think that the production standards were appropriate for broadcast. When the channel moved the show to another part of Iraq where better standards were available, we lost the audience. So we stopped producing other episodes and waited to find a location that contained both factors.

Wahids stand-up shows are usually sold out. His audiences laugh out loud as he mocks worn-out customs or does impressions of politicians. Some of his shows have been filmed and broadcast on YouTube, attracting over 500,000 views.

Stand-up comedy is very well-known abroad as well as in Gulf countries," said Wahid, who is one of few stand-up comedians and the most well-known in Iraq. The audience was receptive to this kind of bold performance, because it presented something different. It highlights aspects of our lives that usually go unscrutinized. Here, [reality] is the punch line, he added.

Some young people in Iraq ridicule social and political phenomena, but most of them work individually to produce videos that they post on social media. Iraqi society keeps up with them and seems quite pleased with videos that display their concerns using black comedy.

There are some satirical Iraqi shows broadcast on Iraqi and international television channels, such as Hona Baghdad's Melon City, which mocks social phenomena such as the increasing divorce rate and corruption in state institutions. There is also Deutsche Welle's Al-Basheer Show, which is filmed in Amman and covers political news and boldly criticizes politicians.

Wahid makes a distinction between comedy and irony. Stand-up comedy relies more on irony than comedy. My first intention is criticism before laughter; laughter is just a means for me to get my goal," he said.

Although Wahid addresses social and religious issues, politics gets the most of his attention. I focus on politics because it is the main reason our society, religion, lives and culture have been distorted. We must first criticize and fix politics before addressing social affairs in our art, he noted.

I have met many I have mimicked or mentioned in my performances and they laughed about it. I know very well how to criticize without hurting anyone or humiliating people, he explained.

Wahid has not received any threats from politicians, although he has been heckled. When I address a topic that has a religious aspect, viewers sometimes begin using foul language and insulting me, he said.

Today, Wahid is having trouble finding a place to perform. He said, Theaters are mostly run by the government, and many of them cannot afford to allow a satirical performance to address sensitive topics. Theaters ask to examine the content of the performance before allowing me to go on stage, and I will never accept that.

Wahid is not interested in giving workshops for youths to learn how to perform stand-up comedy. Either you love this art or you don't.  If not, no workshop will ever be enough to teach you how to become a satirical artist, he concluded.
May 26, 2017

Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, coordinator of government activities in the territories, is warning that Israel cannot keep supplying Hamas with free electricity, and in the coming days it will reduce the power supply to the Gaza Strip. In an interview with BBC Arabic, Mordechai explained that Israel is the sole power supplier to the coastal enclave because Gazas only power station has been crippled, due to a dispute between Hamas and Fatah regarding payment for the diesel fuel needed to get it running.

Mordechai said that Israel supplies Gaza with 125 megawatts (MW), enough for only four hours of power a day for residents, and had adopted a decision to increase the amount by 100 MW. Last month, Mordechai accused Hamas of stealing electricity from residents to fulfill its operational needs and for use by the movements senior officials.

Ever since the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah stopped paying for Gazas power in the wake of the decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cease PA involvement in Gaza, Israel has in fact been supplying Hamas' leaders in Gaza with power, for free. In the BBC interview, Mordechai claimed that top Hamas official Fathi Hamed, for example, has four wives, and power runs to the four separate homes he maintains 24 hours a day. Other residents have to make do with their four or so hours a day.

In January, Qatar transferred $12 million to the PA to buy diesel fuel for Gaza. At the same time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan volunteered to help resolve Gazas persistent power shortage. These were all temporary measures. Last month, the money ran out, and the Gaza power station was shut down. By the way, none of the countries helping Gaza has offered to pay Israel for the 125 MW that it provides and that enables its residents and Hamas to survive, for the time being.

With Abbas having disengaged the PA from Gaza, Israel finds itself in a dilemma. On the one hand, Israel clearly should not be funding Gazas power consumption in lieu of Hamas and the PA. On the other hand, totally cutting power to Gaza would result in immediate humanitarian and environmental crises, which could deteriorate into a threat to Israels security. Hamas has threatened that should its grip on power be imperiled by a power cut, it would not hesitate to initiate an armed confrontation with Israel. This is how the absurd situation came about that Israel alone funds electricity in Gaza and indirectly keeps Hamas in power.

Mordechais remarks indicate that the Israeli military has decided that enough is enough. His threat is designed to force the issue, to generate a power crisis in Gaza that, Israel hopes, will result in international intervention and a solution to the problem. Although Mordechai points an accusing finger at Hamas, judging by past experience he knows that the organization will not lift a finger to resolve the problem and will not pay for the power.

As of this writing, none of the countries that have in the past helped pay for Gazas electricity are willing to assume responsibility for the situation. None of them are willing to engage as the sole party responsible for paying for the electricity of some 2 million Gaza residents.

In coming days, Israel will gradually reduce the extent of its electricity supply to Gaza in an effort to exert pressure on Hamas, Abbas and, to a large extent, the Arab states, which currently benefit from Israel alone funding Gazas power consumption. Israel hopes the induced crisis will result in the establishment of an international fund, with the participation of Arab states, Turkey and the European Union, that will ensure a permanent and steady power supply to Gaza.

Israels military authorities claim Hamas is totally unperturbed by the plight of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Hamas, which was formed in Gaza at the start of the first intifada in 1987, was initially perceived as a welfare organization dedicated to caring for the Palestinian population there mired in a perennial state of poverty and distress. In the 2005 elections, the Hamas Change and Reform list garnered a majority based on its leaders pledges to take care of residents and fight the corruption endemic among Gaza's rulers from Fatah. Those promises went unfulfilled, however.

The Hamas of today is unable to look after its constituents. The movement holds on to power by the use of force and looks to others to fund its activities. In this regard, Abbas is not blameless: It took a whole decade for him to wise up and stop paying the salaries of Gaza residents who worked for the PA but were made unemployed after Hamas threw him out of power in Gaza.

In the case of Gaza, theres a difference between the desirable and the factual, an Israeli defense source concluded, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Since Hamas wont pay for the power, he said, the only realistic way forward is to create an international fund to ensure a regular flow of electricity for the residents of Gaza.
May 25, 2017

At the official ceremony on Ammunition Hill to mark the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem's reunification, President of Israel Reuven Rivlin said, "We can't sing the praises of a united Jerusalem in which 40% of the population live in what is the most impoverished urban area in Israel. We must not accept that 50 years after the reunification of the Jerusalem, the situation of Jerusalem, capital of the State of Israel, has declined, so that it is now ranked among the lowest socio-economic clusters in the country." Not for the first time, Rivlins remarks interrupted a series of impassioned cliches May 24. As has happened before, the president told Israelis the way things really are.

Rivlin had shown the same courage during the Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony exactly one month earlier. At that event, he pleaded with Israelis to stop using the Holocaust as "the prism through which we view the world," to steer clear of a tendency toward victimhood and to adopt a perspective based on inner strength and self-confidence.

This week, the Jerusalem-born Rivlin, a member of the Likud, presented Israelis with an unflattering view of what is actually happening in the capital city. He did not bring up partition, nor did he doubt for a moment that Jews have historical and emotional ties to the city. What he did tell them about was the city's 323,000 Arab residents, who live in poverty and neglect in East Jerusalem's neighborhoods. It is hard to recall another speech at an event like this in which an official figure dared to taint the celebrations with a message so important and so sad.

The jubilee celebrating Jerusalem's reunification was marked by relatively few problems. This year, organizers tried to make the event more grandiose than usual. The budget for the main parade, known as the "Dance of the Flags," was increased from 300,000 to half a million shekels (from $84,000 to $140,000). A record 60,000 people participated in the march, which passed through the main streets of East Jerusalem for the first time in years. In the past, police had kept it off that route out of concern for a possible eruption of violence between Jewish marchers and local Arab residents. This year, the police increased their presence along the route significantly to secure the marchers, many of whom were young people from the religious Zionist sector.

"The biggest Israeli flag ever," measuring 180 square meters (2,034 square feet) and weighing 40 kilos (88 pounds), was flown on Ammunition Hill, a symbol of Israel's victory in the Six-Day War. Reminiscent of Culture Minister Miri Regev's Jerusalem gown on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival this month, it showed excessive nationalism and a lack of self-assurance, rather than confirmation of Israel's right to the city.

The powerful trends underway in Jerusalem 50 years after its reunification should alarm all Israelis, regardless of their religious or political affiliation. The current political leadership, including the center-left, is in no hurry to tell the public the truth about the city. Ever since 1967, Arab population growth in Jerusalem has outpaced Jewish population growth. This means that some 323,000 people live in an impoverished environment with serious sanitation problems. It should be noted that these same people have the status of Israeli residents, with the right to vote in municipal elections. If they decide to organize themselves politically, they could have a decisive impact on the selection of the city's mayor. A report by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel based on data from the National Insurance Institute noted that some 76% of people in Arab neighborhoods (and 83% of children there) live below the poverty line.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem is home to 833,000 people, 63% of whom are Jews. Negative migration continued in 2017. Just 21% of the city's population describes itself as secular.

The year began in Jerusalem with a municipal strike led by Mayor Nir Barkat, who claimed that the Finance Ministry withheld funds allocated to the city, which is in a deficit. For days, trash piled up in the streets and there was pandemonium in municipal offices.

In 2016, Haim Ramon, a former minister for Jerusalem Affairs, introduced a plan called "Saving Jewish Jerusalem," advocating for its separation from the Arab neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city. Ramon's arguments included the claim that such a step would lead to a dramatic improvement in the economic and security situation in Jerusalem. In an interview with Al-Monitor at the time, he said that his proposal, which included the construction of a fence, would improve security and alter the demographics: From a situation of 60% Jews and 40% Palestinians, we will move to a ratio of 80% Jews and 20% Palestinians. Furthermore, Ramon noted that the country would save the 2 billion to 3 billion shekels ($559 million to $839 million) per year that it now allocates to East Jerusalem for education and national insurance payments. That money, he said, could be used to make Jerusalem thrive instead of languish in deficit.

Ramon's proposal failed to win any significant public support. While this loss can be attributed in part to internal divisions, the main issue was that the gamut of politicians from center-left to right consider any concessions in Jerusalem taboo.

Ever since the 1993 Oslo Accord and the 2000 Clinton Parameters, the partition of Jerusalem has been raised more than once during negotiations with the Palestinians. In general terms, the proposal involves the transfer of control over certain neighborhoods of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians and reaching an agreement over who will be responsible for the holy sites. In the summer of 2000, while attending the Camp David Conference together with PLO leader Yasser Arafat, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak put the partition of Jerusalem on the table. At the time, opinion polls showed that Israelis would be willing to accept concessions in their capital in exchange for an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made an even more generous offer to the Palestinians. In an interview with Newsweek in 2009, Olmert revealed that he proposed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the "Holy Basin" would be under no one's sovereignty. Instead, it would be administered by an international consortium made up of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians and the United States.

The proposal for an exchange of territories suggested by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman also includes the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. On the other hand, apart from Liberman, almost no other elected Israeli politicians will speak openly about the partition of the city, out of fear that the public will accuse them of being unpatriotic. While they may be right, it is obvious to just about everyone that some kind of partition will be an essential component of any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
May 25, 2017

On May 22 in Jerusalem, US President Donald Trump affixed his signature to a note and tucked it between the stones of the Western Wall in accordance with Jewish tradition. On June 1 in Washington, Trump will sign a waiver suspending the move of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He will tuck the signed suspension of the 1995 act mandating the embassy transfer into an Oval Office drawer, where it will gather dust until he pulls it out in six months and extends the suspension.

Trump  like all three of his immediate predecessors, Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican George W. Bush  is expected to sign the document that says moving the embassy to Israels self-declared capital (international law does not recognize it as such) would endanger US national security interests. Had House Speaker Newt Gingrich not been lured in 1995 into taking part in the political dirty trick that resulted in passage of the controversial embassy bill, engineered by AIPAC and Likud, his good friend Trump would not have been obliged to disappoint his very good friend Benjamin, as Trump referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a May 23 speech.

Israelis are used to the reality that the US Embassy is located in Tel Aviv and never made a big deal over it. The current ruckus over moving the embassy is a reminder that on top of the United States not recognizing East Jerusalem, annexed to Jerusalem in 1967, as part of the Israeli capital, it has also never actually recognized de jure Israels sovereignty over West Jerusalem. This is why the United States has avoided opening an embassy at the building designated for it in West Jerusalem, within the 1967 line.

The US law on moving the embassy was preceded by damaging and populist Israeli legislation. The Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, adopted by the Knesset in 1980, stipulates, Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel. It resulted in the unanimous passage of UN Security Council Resolution 478, with the United States abstaining, determining that the legislation was null and void and must be rescinded forthwith. The resolution called on the foreign embassies located in Jerusalem at the time to pull out of the city, which they did.

Thus, a handful of Israeli pyromaniacs led to Israel being the only country in the world where the seat of its parliament, president, government and Supreme Court is not recognized as its capital by any other country. The annexation of Jerusalem's walled Old City and the villages in East Jerusalem captured in 1967 are considered a violation of UN resolutions and international law.

Even as Trump, who has earned a reputation of volatility, remains careful not to make moves and declarations that might damage the delicate fabric of life in Jerusalem, the Israeli regime is rocking the boat. Government agencies are helping organizations of Jewish settlers move into Palestinian homes in the area known as the Holy Basin, around the Old City, to establish a Jewish majority there and undermine any prospect of a diplomatic resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians. Thus, for example, a report by the anti-settlement organizations Ir Amim and Peace Now finds that between 2014 and 2016, 20 Palestinian families were evicted from the village of Silwan, which settlers call the City of David, at the foot of the Western Wall, to make room for members of the right-wing Ateret Cohanim. An additional 100 Palestinian families are under threat of eviction.

The annual marking of Jerusalem Day, on May 24 this year, has become a raucous, nationalist demonstration of Israeli ownership of the city, in general, and the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, in particular. Tens of thousands of youths affiliated with religious Zionism march through the Muslim Quarter on their way to the Western Wall, waving Israeli flags and calling out slogans peppered with curses at the Palestinian residents hiding out in their shuttered homes. Instead of defending the Palestinians against these power-drunk youths, the police oblige merchants to close their shops along the parade route and to stay away. This year, to mark the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem, the police permitted the extension of the so-called dance of the flags to include the walls of the Old City from the Jaffa Gate to the Dung Gate.

A well-known Israeli public figure wrote several years ago, Pushing thousands of youths once a year into Arab alleys in a kind of dance mixed with screaming, instant patriotism, religious fascism or, if youll excuse me, pure bad taste, is bad, very bad. He suggested that the Jewish affinity for Jerusalem be expressed in silent prayer on the Temple Mount rather than in logistical operations transporting young people in the middle of the night, holding flags and screaming themselves hoarse. The writer is no left-wing, anti-religious zealot. He is former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, affiliated with the ultra-right wing of Netanyahus Likud. His comments appeared in 2011 in the right-wing Makor Rishon and are available on his Facebook page.

Jerusalems only saving grace is the closing on the evening of the parade of dozens of kiosks, bars, restaurants, stores and cafes in the western part of town in solidarity with their fellow Palestinian merchants in East Jerusalem. Some 50 business owners signed a petition against the damage inflicted on the Old City traders and hung signs of support on their doors.

Another encouraging gesture is that while thousands demonstrated in support of claims of Jewish ownership of the city, an unusual event took place in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Zehava Gal-On, leader of the left-wing Zionist Meretz, joined fellow lawmaker Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, and Mahmoud al-Habash, religious and Islamic affairs minister for the Palestinian Authority, at Jerusalems American Colony Hotel. The three signed a joint declaration calling on the Israeli government to reach an agreement with the Palestinians on ending the occupation based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state and the western part of town accorded international status as the capital of Israel.

In a study that I edited 15 years ago with Nimrod Goren on the various moves leading to the US law on moving the embassy, we wrote that US presidents had been blocking the move due to a desire to safeguard stability in the Middle East, to nurture ties with friendly Muslim states and to avoid providing ammunition to radical Muslim states and organizations. We also wrote that there were no indications that these long-term interests would disappear in the foreseeable future. We can only welcome the fact that the current US administration is well aware of these interests and rue the Israeli governments continued recalcitrance, buttressed by the hollow slogan of a unified Jerusalem and a flag raised in defiance.

That said, at the end of each day, Israeli ministers go home. They drive back to Tel Aviv, the Etzion settlement bloc in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevaseret Zion. None of the ministers who hail unified Jerusalem as the capital of Israel actually live in the city.
May 25, 2017

Powerful female figures of cinema and television, from cruel Cersei Lannister in "Game of Thrones" to unyielding Ellen Ripley in "Alien," take striking poses in the posters by Samar Haddad, one of the new generation of women graphic designers in Lebanon.

Sadly, women still must fight for their place in a patriarchal society, Haddad told Al-Monitor.

Haddads Space Vacation is one of the works in the exhibition "Critical Mass: Women in Graphic Design," which was held May 19-26 at Beirut Design Week (BDW) at KED, a refurbished factory built in the 1930s in Karantina. The exhibition also displayed the posters of three other Lebanese women graphic designers: Rana Zaher, Yasmine Darwiche and Stephy Ibrahim for Saturn In Motion.

The styles of the four designers were widely divergent. Haddads representations of powerful fictional women included characters from famous TV series or movies. Next to her, Ibrahim displayed posters of six different cities (Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, Rotterdam, Athens and Beirut) as seen by the artist. Beirut was also the focus of the vibrant colors mixed with photographs of Darwiche, depicting Beirut in striking, almost postcard images  a positive city far from the pollution, traffic and construction people see every day. Zahers posters marked a contrast with the rest, with one series of posters on Pink Floyds song titles and another series about the forgotten culture of the region, playing on archaeology, identity and graphic design.

The decision to reserve a whole corner of the second floor of the exhibition for posters made by Lebanese female visual artists was made by Doreen Toutikian, director of the MENA Design Research Center, the force behind the BDW. Women are the majority in the graphic design scene in Lebanon, Toutikian told Al-Monitor. And even though there are no statistics to prove her right, you can see it during events and exhibitions. Even in graphic design classes in universities, the majority are women. But as a feminist, I dont think they are given enough appreciation and respect for their hard work and talent.

With very different styles, these four women managed to attract the audiences attention. This exhibition is an ode to all these young talented women who deserve to shine, Toutikian told Al-Monitor. These four artists here are very talented and unique in their styles, especially when it comes to illustration, which I believe is the hardest and most impressive part of graphic design.

Toutikian maintains that graphic design creates an essence that is truly art, and yet clients sometimes undervalue it. With such an exhibition, we are not only helping graphic designers to sell their own work instead of what is requested by clients. This guarantees more encouragement from others, she said.

Zaher thinks women have more freedom than men when it comes to choosing graphic design as a major. Parents are usually stricter when it comes to choosing a profession for men, she told Al-Monitor. In my class, men were quite rare actually. I am just happy to share my work with people  not as a woman but as an artist, because we are just as good as men at everything.

Haddad favors BDWs idea to reserve a corner for female graphic designers. It is vital for an artist or anyone with talent to have [the] opportunity, space and outlet to showcase their work, she told Al-Monitor, adding that women still must fight for these. I think it's a solid step that Beirut Design Week is highlighting women in arts this year.

Ibrahim told Al-Monitor that the focus on women in graphic design and women having their own studios started only five years ago. Women are not heard, and their work is not well communicated, Ibrahim said. Interestingly, Lebanese female artists are more appreciated internationally than in their own country. I hope this exhibition and other events like this one will inspire other women in arts to do more and not be afraid of standing up.

Darwiche thought it was important to enlighten womens work and success in general and not only for artists, so their voice and thoughts could be heard and shared.

At last year's seventh edition of the Beirut Art Fair  a gathering of artists from all over the world  an exhibition focused on Lebanese female artists: Lebanon Modern! Women artists in Lebanon 1945-1975. Curated by the art fairs cultural director Pascal Odille, the latter told The National that the idea was to try to make people understand that it is not because one is a female artist that one doesnt have that force of temperament, that energy and that avant-garde spirit because, for a long time, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, womens artwork was seen as a hobby. It wasnt. We have the proof.

For Haddad, the "Critical Mass" exhibition allowed Lebanese female graphic designers to spread a universal message. I like to think of visual arts as a movement rather than an activity. I don't think it's limited to women. It is for those who appreciate endless possibilities through diverse mediums expanding to anyone who chooses to see the world differently, she said.
May 24, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Independent and tribal lists made remarkable progress in the Palestinian local elections held May 13, as they defeated factional lists such as Fatah and the Palestinian left.

Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine boycotted the elections on the grounds that they were held in the West Bank and not the Gaza Strip. Hamas refused to hold the elections in Gaza in protest against the Palestinian High Court of Justices calling off in September 2016 of the local elections that were scheduled for the next month, as well as in protest of President Mahmoud Abbas formation of the Local Elections Court on Jan. 10 without consulting the Palestinian factions.

The elections were called off after the court accepted a lawsuit filed by Palestinian lawyer Nael al-Houh to stop the elections on the grounds that the institutions that were tasked with supervising them in the Gaza Strip were illegal and included Hamas employees.

There were 536 lists competing in the elections. The independent lists got 65% of the seats, Fatah got 27.6%, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine 2.8% and a coalition formed by several parties 2.8%. The Palestinian National Initiative got 0.6%, the Palestinian Democratic Union 0.45%, the Democratic Alliance 0.3%, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front 0.3% and the Palestinian People's Party 0.2%.

Despite the progress achieved by the independent and tribal lists, the turnout in the elections was remarkably lower than in 2005. This year's turnout was 53.4% of the people eligible to vote. In 2005, turnout was 82.5%; those elections were the last to include all Palestinian factions both in the West Bank and Gaza.

Hisham Kahil, the executive director of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission, told Al-Monitor that the electoral process was conducted as planned and ended without any major problems. He said that there were only some minor violations and electoral irregularities carried out by some independent, tribal and political lists such as continuing their electoral campaigning in some constituencies, but that the electoral process remained unaffected.

He said turnout in the recent elections was similar to the turnout registered in the local elections of 2012 in the West Bank.

Yousef Tamiza, a campaign manager for the tribal National Alliance list in the town of Idna in Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, told Al-Monitor that the National Alliance list won 10 out of 13 seats, and included an alliance of seven families in the city of Hebron, namely the Tamiza, Islimiya, Abu Jahisha, Khalawah, Abu Zeltah, Awad and Abu Asaad families. Independent lists won the other three seats.

Tamiza told Al-Monitor that the candidates of the tribal list are selected based on an organized system  each of the seven families presents its member who best fits the candidate profile for the list  and that people were impressed by the candidates, who are effective individuals with institutional experience.

He said the electoral process within the tribes is very similar to the electoral process carried out by the Palestinian parties and independent lists, as they establish an electoral committee within the families and tribes; fill out and sort the electoral register; run for internal elections; and organize internal electoral campaigns, so that the winners in these elections serve as candidates in the local elections. Also, tribal lists won in several other towns  Beit Ula, Taffuh, Beit Kahil and Sair  in the south of the West Bank.

Mohamed al-Nashar, a member of the Unified Nablus list, which mostly included independent candidates, told Al-Monitor that the list won 11 out of the 15 seats allocated to the municipal council of Nablus, gaining 75% of the votes. Low turnout was registered in the city (20%).

Nashar said that in many of the West Bank governorates and villages, voters opted for independent and tribal lists because they are tired of the Palestinian parties and their political affiliations, which he said have a negative impact on the interests of citizens. Also, he added, voters have become convinced that partisan lists never implement their electoral programs.

Abdel Sattar Qassem, a professor of political science at An-Najah National University in Nablus, told Al-Monitor that the victory of the tribal lists in many municipal councils in the local elections poses a threat to the Palestinian people because of the return of what he called "tribal reunification" at the expense of the national public interest. He attributed this to the peoples loss of confidence in political parties.

He told Al-Monitor, There is a great leadership vacuum in the Palestinian arena  both socially and politically  and someone had to fill this vacuum, so families and tribes managed to do so.

He added, Tribes are a separatist social structure, not a unitary one. Each family works to preserve its own interests, regardless of the public interest, and this is why a great danger is lurking. Social and political division will come to affect individuals and families in one town, whereas it has been until now only confined to Hamas and Fatah.

Qassem called on Palestinian experts, thinkers and academics to start a discussion about the political situation and the political and social deterioration in order to reach a practical vision that isnt focused on the views of the current political leadership and parties. The latter, he said, were the main reason behind the various divisions plaguing Palestinian society.

Emad al-Bishtawi, the head of the political science department at Hebron University, agreed with Qassem and told Al-Monitor that what prompted the Palestinian citizens to look for an alternative is that they are fed up with the Palestinian political parties, as evidenced by the results of the recent local elections.

Bishtawi said that many Palestinian factions and parties forged alliances with some tribes in the local elections based on their conviction that citizens have lost confidence in them. He warned that the looming danger lies in voters' convictions that electing tribal candidates who may be less effective is better than voting for more effective independent or partisan candidates. Bishtawi believes that tribal fanaticism could lead tribes to vote for tribal candidates, instead of other candidates who could be more competent.

He said this is due to the imbalance in the Palestinian political system and the rampant corruption in all of the Palestinian institutions, noting that Palestinians need a new project to support an alliance between civil institutions and independent figures.

The Palestinian local electoral results showed that Palestinian citizens seek to convey their discontent about the political, institutional and partisan situation in the Palestinian territories. This requires political parties to reconsider their policies.
May 26, 2017

Political rupture has been plaguing Palestinian-Israeli relations ever since political negotiations between the two were disrupted in June 2014, while security coordination still stands.

On May 17, Israels Channel 2 reported a secret meeting held that day in Jerusalem between Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and his Palestinian counterpart Shukri Bishara. During the meeting, an agreement was reached whereby Israel would provide economic concessions to the Palestinians. It was also reported that both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and president, knew about this meeting.

Confirming the meeting, a senior official at the Palestinian Ministry of Finance told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Israel and the PA agreed to hold regular meetings to settle many financial issues all the while guaranteeing the Palestinian interests. These issues include accounting and missing clearing bills that were not received by the Palestinian side, in addition to the amounts of money Israel is yet to transfer to the Palestinian treasury, of which he did not specify their value.

On May 21, Haaretz reported that US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt succeeded May 2 in bringing together Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi with senior Palestinian officials, on the sidelines of meetings between donor countries in Brussels.

On May 22, al-Hurra news site cited an anonymous Israeli official as saying that the Israeli government had ratified on May 21 Palestinian economic and living concessions, such as increasing working hours on crossings in the West Bank for Palestinian workers to have more time to enter Israel as well as expanding the Ephraim crossing near Tulkarm.

The concessions also included making the Allenby crossing on the Jordanian border provide 24/7 service, allowing Palestinians to pass between the West Bank and Jordan at any given time; expanding the industrial zone in Tarqumia, south of Hebron; granting permits to thousands of Palestinian housing units in Area C; and connecting the city of Jenin to the Israeli train network.

In this context, Nasr Abdel Karim, a professor of economics at Birzeit University in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor, Holding such economic meetings between Israeli and Palestinian officials to discuss concessions for Palestinians is an extension of the economic peace project advocated by Israel for years at the expense of the political path. [Israel] is looking to reach a solution through the economic portal, since offering economic projects is much easier than making political concessions to the Palestinians.

Abdel Karim added, At the same time, the feeling of achieving economic gains with Israel may create a sense of security and political stability for Palestinians, which means a good number of Palestinians will be interested in preserving these gains and will no longer care for the political issue; they would only be motivated to preserve their interests and maintain the status quo when it comes to politics. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, if economic and living hardships were to persist amid high unemployment rates amounting to 26% during 2016, the crisis in the Palestinian society would worsen and thus its security implications would lead to an open field confrontation with Israel.

It seems Israel may have used these economic meetings with the Palestinians to send a message to the international community in general and the US administration in particular. And this message aims to show coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians despite political tensions, which could give Israel more time to prepare for any possible US pressure to reach a political agreement with the PA. This is particularly true since it coincides with US President Donald Trump's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on May 22-23.

Abdullah Abdullah, a member of Fatahs Revolutionary Council and the head of the political committee at the Palestinian Legislative Council, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinian goal is to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories  not improve its conditions. The concessions Israel is providing are not enough because this is a mere plan to trick the Americans and influence their approach to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The economic measures taken by Israel in the West Bank do not contribute to resolving the conflict, as the only solution would be to end the occupation and establish the Palestinian state.

He said, We refuse to have such concessions as temporary steps to reach a comprehensive political solution because we are against partial and intermittent solutions, and we demand a final solution to the conflict.

The Palestinians may be well aware that Israel recycles the same policy all over again whenever it senses security threats or political pressures. It is reusing these economic concessions for several purposes, mainly to prolong the conflict with the Palestinians.

Khalil Shaheen, a political analyst and director of the research unit at the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies (Masarat), told Al-Monitor, The seriousness of the Israeli concessions lies in the fact that Israel may draw the Palestinians into an economic solution and distract them with managing the conflict instead of finding a final solution for it. Israel would launch a political path in the coming months only as a formality and a cover for the economic solution.

He noted, But over the past 10 years, Palestinian economic, political and security elite figures have been working on maintaining the situation as it is in the West Bank in order to serve their interests. So it bodes well for them to benefit from the Israeli concessions, even if it were at the expense of the political issue.

Some of the economic concessions Israel has announced are old projects, namely expanding industrial zones, allowing workers to enter Israel and giving Palestinian construction permits in Area C. Yet interestingly enough, Israel has put them forward as Trump prepared to visit the region, in an attempt to ensure economic peace with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the PA may see anything it gains from Israel as a victory, regardless of whether or not it facilitates political progress.
May 26, 2017

Russian media paid little attention to US President Donald Trump's recent visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but Russian experts, when asked, had plenty to say on the matter.

Trump delivered a speech May 21 to the leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries in which he outlined his vision for US policy in the region and Americas relations with Muslim nations. As international media and experts discussed the meaning of the speech for US policy in the region, even Russia's state-run TV Channel 1 kept silent about the speech during its weekly news program that evening. Instead, it focused on the domestic problems Trump faces, including the prospects for impeachment.

On his weekly TV news show, Dmitry Kiselyov, the head of the biggest state-run news agency, Rossiya Segodnya, mentioned Trumps visit to Riyadh, but he still ignored the speech. Instead, he paid close attention to the US-Saudi arms deal, which he said indicated a qualitatively different US policy in the region.

With US support, the Saudis want to establish a new military alliance in the region, which some media call the 'Arab NATO.' Its members will be more sensitive toward Trumps anti-Iran statements than the more cautious European NATO members. It is dangerous," Kiselyov said.

Russian officials made no public comments, and those Al-Monitor reached either declined comment or simply did not respond. Andrei Baklanov, a Russian Middle East expert and former Russian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, suggested that the lack of response indicates the officials are still investigating how its Middle East partners understood the speech and what was actually accomplished during Trumps visit. He said Trumps speech and visit were outstanding.

As a former ambassador, I always pay attention to the organization of any international visit and I could say that this visit was very well organized. Trump used very nice, warm words while addressing Saudi King Salman [bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud]. He called Saudi Arabia 'the heart of the Muslim world,' which was highly appreciated by the Saudis," Baklanov told Al-Monitor.

During his Riyadh speech, Trump said he has no plans to impose the American way of life on Middle East nations: We are not here to lecture. We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership  based on shared interests and values  to pursue a better future for us all."

Baklanov views this part of the speech as very important: It is a message that Arab nations have been waiting for from an American leader for a long time."

During the visit, Trump and Salman launched the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. Baklanov said, If this center aims to counter the spread of extremism in the region and fight [the Islamic State] and other radical organizations, it is a good initiative. But if they want to establish a sort of military alliance, it could be negatively accepted in the region."

The most important part of the speech, which attracted the attention of Russian experts, was Trumps statement that countries in the region should rely more on themselves when it comes to security and fighting radicalism.

The nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them. The nations of the Middle East will have to decide what kind of future they want for themselves, for their countries and for their children. It is a choice between two futures  and it is a choice America cannot make for you," Trump said.

Trump's key concern in the Middle East is extremism, said Igor Istomin, a lecturer at Moscow State Institute of International Relations and an expert on Russian-American relations.

American policy in the region resembles a 'back-to-basics' principle, which means it wants to be influential in the region as it used to be in the early 2000s," he told Al-Monitor. "But on the other hand, Trump wants to mobilize American allies in the Middle East. He assures them that the United States will not leave them, but they should resolve the regions problems by themselves."

In Riyadh, Trump did not hesitate to lash out at Iran, saying, From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region. For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror. Trump also called on "all nations of conscience to work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they deserve."

However, Leonid Issaev, a Moscow-based Middle East expert, told Al-Monitor, I dont think that Trump wants to form any anti-Iran coalition. His aim is to get rid of Obamas heritage." Issaev suggested Trump's anti-Iran stance is just a signal to the Saudis that Trump wants to cooperate with them and maintain good relations."

And don't expect Trump to renege on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Andrei Manoilo, an expert on international relations from the Russian Security Council, told Al-Monitor.

Despite the anti-Iranian rhetoric, Trump will not annul the nuclear deal, although he, as many other Republicans, view it as a mistake. He could use the deal as a tool to influence Iranian authorities," Manoilo said.

All the Russian experts Al-Monitor spoke with stressed that Russia wants to distance itself from any Iranian-Saudi or Sunni-Shiite contradictions in the region.

"Washington is working against rapprochement between key regional players; this approach only deepens contradictions between them," Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council (Russias Senate), told Al-Monitor. "Russia, on the contrary, managed to unite such different countries as Turkey and Iran in the unified negotiation format. Instead of taking on the role of a mediator and peacemaker in the Sunni-Shiite confrontation, the United States has taken a clear position on supporting one side."

Istomin said, It is very unlikely that Russia could be involved in Iranian-Saudi contradictions.The partnership with OPEC and the Syrian peace talks in Astana, where Russia cooperates with Iran, confirm that. The only possible risk Moscow could face is the misunderstanding of its policy."

Russia shouldn't pay much attention to Trumps anti-Iran rhetoric," Issaev said. "It will not lead to serious changes in the Syrian peace process."

According to Baklanov, Trump intentionally plays up the potential Iran threat to scare the Saudis. I have been in Iran. They have no intention to start a war against the Saudis. Trumps anti-Iran stance is disappointing," he said.
May 18, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Dozens of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were taken to hospitals May 24 to be examined as a nearly six-week mass hunger strike continues with no negotiations in sight.

An estimated 1,300 to 1,600 prisoners are participating in the "Freedom and Dignity" hunger strike, which began April 17 to demand better living conditions in prison. (An Israeli official claimed that the number of participants dropped to 870 after two weeks.) The prisoners say they have managed to survive so far on nothing but water and salt, which they use to try to stabilize their health.

Aarab al-Barghouti  the son of prominent Fatah prisoner Marwan Barghouti, who started the strike  initiated the "Saltwater Challenge" on social media when he filmed himself drinking saltwater and challenging Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf to do the same. A number of Arab celebrities joined the challenge, which went viral among Palestinians on social media.

Palestinians have made widespread shows of support for the strike as they look to publicize the cause. In one such display, nearly 50 Gaza Strip restaurants joined the Saltwater Challenge, which Gaza's Hotels and Tourist Restaurants Commission launched for one day on May 2. Under the initiative, restaurants exclusively served their customers saltwater to voice solidarity with the prisoners.

Commission Chairman Salah Abu Hasira told Al-Monitor, "The commission launched the Saltwater Challenge the moment the prisoners went on hunger strike. Dozens of the Gaza Strip restaurants joined the campaign, under which customers were served salt and water, and 'honor' for dessert. Also, all of the staff wore black uniforms reading 'salt and water.' [The initiative] is a part of the commission's national, humanitarian and moral duty toward prisoners in Israeli jails. It is to support their just cause and to tell them that all of the Palestinian social segments  are standing by their side and support their fair rights."

Abu Hasira added, "This initiative is one of a kind, but will not be the last." He called on all tourism sectors to stand by the prisoners.

Gaza restaurants and hotels responded "the moment the initiative was announced," said Abu Hasira. The businesses hoped their actions might help console the prisoners and boost their morale, he said. He added that further steps will be taken to shed light on the prisoners' suffering. He expressed gratitude to those who took part: "Standing side by side with heroic prisoners reflects the authenticity and bravery of the Palestinian people."

Restaurant manager Mahmoud al-Afghani described the event. "The restaurant served customers exclusively saltwater between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., to tell our prisoners in Israeli prisons that they're not alone in their battle and that their cause is also the whole Palestinian peoples cause," he told Al-Monitor.

It's a duty toward the prisoners that we join the national campaign. They are going through hard health and humanitarian conditions. It's an obligation for us to support them and their cause fully, which they need, even with the simplest actions.

Rami Abu Shanab, who handles public relations for a restaurant in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, "All of the restaurant's staff supports the prisoners in their battle.  After the great martyrs, prisoners are an honor to us and to Palestine. It's our national and moral duty to stand by them and to convey their message to the world, in light of the deliberate attempts to disregard their case."

He said the initiative drew a great response, and customers "insisted on trading their food for only water and salt, to stress their patriotism and support for the prisoners on hunger strike."

Ashraf Zeiter arrived at a restaurant for lunch with his friends. He said he was surprised when the waiter said, "We are offering only saltwater for lunch. Do you have a problem with that?" Zeiter said, "We agreed to drink saltwater in solidarity with the brave prisoners in Israeli jails and to put ourselves in their shoes and feel the suffering they are going through by drinking saltwater for many days, which could negatively affect their bodies in the long run."

He called upon all Palestinians to unite to support the prisoners' cause "and refrain from all disputed issues that threaten security and social peace."

"Prisoners in Israeli jails are taking a step forward toward obtaining their rights and defending their dignity," Zeiter said. "This requires concerted efforts by all Palestinians, who should make this case their main cause in all events and rallies. The prisoners need our support and solidarity by all available means.  With the hunger strike, the prisoners are sending a clear message that, despite different affiliations, they are facing the same danger, lying in one cell and suffering the same abuse at the hands of the Israeli jailers."
May 25, 2017

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee overwhelmingly passed Iran sanctions legislation May 25, but only after making several changes requested by Barack Obama administration officials who helped negotiate the nuclear deal.

The modifications are the latest example of the broad but discreet bipartisan commitment to keeping the much-maligned Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in place even while tightening non-nuclear sanctions on Iran. The revised bill ended up passing 18-3, with even outspoken nuclear deal advocates such as Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., voting in favor.

The Iranian regime, and its clients and proxies, should take from this legislation that while we will continue to fulfill US obligations pursuant to the JCPOA  we remain committed to pushing back on Irans ballistic missile program, support for terrorism, violations of the arms embargo, and human rights abuses against its own citizens, the panels top Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said in a statement after the vote.

The bill was co-authored by panel chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., with input from Cardin. It would impose mandatory sanctions on persons involved with Irans ballistic missile program and arms transfers, and apply terrorism sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The effort follows several Iranian ballistic missile launches and repeated warnings by the Donald Trump administration about further pressure on Iran. For pro-deal Democrats, the bill is a way to both hit back against Iran for behavior deemed belligerent while potentially restricting the Trump teams ability to craft its own sanctions that could wreak havoc with the nuclear deal.

The bill prompted an all-out push from former Obama administration officials worried that it would violate the terms of the nuclear deal, which all Republicans voted against. Lawmakers and staffers held several conversations with them over the past several weeks, most notably Adam Szubin, the acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in Obamas Treasury Department.

Szubin is somebody we have always respected, Corker told Al-Monitor. Hes been in my office. And we have a very close relationship with him. We thought some of his points were not correct, but we did think some of them were appropriate to be addressed.

Chief among these was a change in Section 8 of the bill, which initially called for a certification that entities not engage in Irans ballistic missile program for 90 days before sanctions can be removed. The nuclear deal, however, calls for the removal of UN ballistic missile sanctions after eight years, and some worried that the 90-day provision created a new standard; that provision is now gone, replaced with a presidential review of the sanctioned entities conduct.

The architects of the JCPOA felt that that could be interpreted as an additional requirement that was not in the JCPOA, Cardin told Al-Monitor. So we eliminated that.

Another point of contention is the extension of terrorism sanctions on the IRGC. Corker insisted that the bill doesnt designate the entity as a terrorist group, but some argue that the practical impact is the same. An amendment to remove the provision by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., failed 17-4.

Udall was one of only three senators, along with Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to vote against the revised bill.

Paul said the idea that more sanctions would lead Iran to stop its ballistic missile program while the United States is getting ready to sell $110 billion worth of weapons to its regional rival Saudi Arabia was a fools errand. He said Riyadh has similar weapons aimed at both Israel and Iran, evidence of which was spelled out in a 2013 report by Britains Telegraph newspaper.

If we really, really wanted to get rid of their ballistic missile program, we should look at who else in the region they may perceive as a threat, Paul said.

Hours later, he, Murphy and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., introduced legislation that would bar the United States from selling precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia because of concerns they will be used carelessly in Yemen.

Just last week, key Obama officials involved in the deal, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, launched Diplomacy Works, a task force to defend the deal amid pushback against Iran from the Trump administration and Congress. The changes appeared to alleviate some of the groups concerns.

Diplomacy Works and other advocates of the [JCPOA] applaud some of the amendments made to the bill, but concerns remain that certain provisions carry unnecessary risks to the agreement, the group said in a statement after the bills passage. As Congress considers bills that move to address Iran's other negative behaviors, members should carefully consider implications to the JCPOA, since these other actions are better addressed in the absence of a nuclear-armed Iran.

The bill could come up for a floor vote as soon as next month, a Corker aide said.
May 24, 2017

After a 998-day interval, Turkeys larger-than-life President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, thanks to the constitutional amendments passed in a highly contested April 16 referendum amid allegations of fraud, formally reacquired the chairmanship of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). No one ran against him, and he received 1,414 votes from the delegates assembled at the AKPs extraordinary congress.

Previously, whoever was serving as president of the republic was supposed to be apolitical and not be affiliated with a political party, much less be a party leader. The recent constitutional amendments not only are going to equip Erdogan with extraordinary powers, but also are enabling him to firmly grasp the reins of the AKP.

For many people, this may not seem that significant a development. Although Erdogan held no formal party affiliation, it was public knowledge that he had never severed his links with the AKP and was leading the party from without. But Erdogan, who seems to have an increasingly control freak personality, wanted to exercise formal leadership.

Some new rules were added to the AKP charter. According to the amendments, the AKP is committed to the principle of one nation, one flag, one homeland, one state; the last term accentuates the unitary nature of state, rejecting any notion of autonomy or federalism as a mode of governance. The changes were made at Erdogans demand. He has long been very fond of repeating the phrase, no matter how much its words resonate with Hitler Germanys Ein volk, ein reich, ein fuehrer  "One people, one state, one leader." Instead of Nazi trinity, the AKP adopted four terms, with an allusion to the Muslim Brotherhoods Rabia gesture, which connotes four in Arabic and which has become Erdogans favorite salute. He bends his thumb of right hand and salutes people with wide-open four fingers. Indeed, implicit in the AKPs new Rabia is ein fuehrer  one leader  and that is Erdogan.

The AKP was founded in 2001, and among its founders four people were considered as its core. One is Erdogan, who served as prime minister from 2003-14 and party leader from 2001-14. The other three are Abdullah Gul, who served as president from 2007-14; Bulent Arinc, who served as speaker of parliament from 2002-07 and is considered to be the elder among the founders; and Abdullatif Sener, who served as deputy prime minister of economic affairs from 2002-2007, the year he fell from favor. Erdogan was no more than a first among the equals  for a time.

The unwritten rules of power struggle in any drift to autocracy were present in Turkey, and Erdogan tended to accumulate power in his hands. His main target, albeit never declared, has always been Gul, known as the real architect of the AKP. Gul had led the Reformist-dissident faction of the Islamist Virtue Party of the late 1990s that evolved into the AKP in 2001.

Erdogans grip on the AKP had begun to consolidate a decade ago. A close aide of then-President Gul had told me in April 2007 that the two of them had scrutinized the AKP list of candidates for the June 2007 parliamentary elections and could not find 20 candidates among the 550 who would nominate Gul for the presidency, a constitutional requirement in that period.

The AKP list of candidates was strongly inclined toward Erdogan even back in 2007. Yet Erdogan never felt fully secure or in complete command. But after the acute intra-Islamist power struggle that culminated in the coup attempt of July 2016, Erdogan felt it was imperative to further impose control over the AKP.

In May 2016, he was not satisfied with the degree of loyalty of then-Prime Minister and party Chairman Ahmet Davutoglu, who had succeeded Erdogan in those posts, and unceremoniously pushed Davutoglu aside and replaced him with a staunch loyalist, Binali Yildirim.

But even the loyalty of Yildirim could not be counted on without any qualms as long as both those titles  prime minister and party chairman  were held by somebody other than Erdogan.

The referendum of April 16, widely believed to have been rigged, is to establish a peculiar presidential system designed for Erdogan and sidelines the post of the prime minister, making it possible for Erdogan to regain the title of chairman of the party.

In his speech after being elected with 1,414 votes May 21, Erdogan pledged to keep the state of emergency as long as necessary without any hint of when it might end. Given the unprecedented crackdowns witnessed since July 15 that have seen 50,000 people put in jail and 200,000 people purged from the civil service, one can assume that the purges will continue nonstop.

After the AKPs extraordinary congress, the trajectory of the purges may now move to within the party to achieve a pure Erdoganist party. The AKP was founded in 2001 and had ordinary congresses in 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2015, and extraordinary congresses in 2014, 2016 and 2017. The one in 2014 took place because Erdogan was vacating the prime minister's post to succeed Gul as president; the second one was to replace Davutoglu.

Only 10 people from the first AKP congress are currently in leadership posts, such as being on the central executive committee. The AKP of today has nothing to do with the party founded in 2001, a year before it took power. From now on, the AKP will resemble more Saddam Husseins or Bashar al-Assad's Baath parties. It will be a one single party of one and only one leader.

Inevitably, that would necessitate further power consolidation; thus, any potential symbols that might attract the gathering of AKP dissenters and discontents should be eradicated.

This means that the purges most probably one day will reach Gul and Arinc, no matter what they do or don't do. As long as their names provide a rationale for the discontented to assemble, they may share the fates of those old Bolsheviks purged in Stalins infamous Moscow Trials between 1936 and 1938.

Stalins power struggle in the late 1920s initially had targeted Leon Trotsky, the name that was closest to Lenin, the leader and the founder of the new Soviet state. Then the accusation of Trotskyism involved every big name of the Bolshevik Revolution from Grigory Zinoviev to Lev Kamenev, from Nikolai Bukharin to Karl Radek and so forth. The purges continued full steam ahead in the 1930s and became Stalin's main mechanism of governance. Even a hero such as Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a Bolshevik military hero of the Russian Civil War, was not spared from execution.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, in his celebrated book Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar, wrote, Within a year and a half, 5 of the 15 political bureau members, 98 of the 139 Central Committee members and 1,106 of the 1,996 from the Seventeenth Congress had been arrested.

If 1930s Nazi Germany could be more and more becoming a reference point for today's Turkey, the Moscow Trials of Stalins Soviet Union could also become one for Turkeys ruling party following Erdogans return as AKP chairman.
The Liberty National building's owners are in the process of breathing life back into the 80-year-old building.

A Delaware limited liability company called Liberty Redemption LLC is working with lenders, lawyers and renovation experts to revive the building, a representative for Liberty Redemption confirmed to AL.com.

The old Liberty National building on 20th street between Third and Fourth avenues south has been sitting vacant since 2010. The 80-year-old structure is riddled with asbestos, and one of the walls had begun to buckle. Last year, bricks and debris began falling off the building and onto the sidewalk below.

A group including Scott Bryant of Scott M. Bryant & Co. and Dick Schmalz of RGS Properties - the pair that developed the Publix-anchored 20 Midtown - bought the building in late December for $3.6 million from Pembroke Academy Investments LLC.

Liberty Redemption bought the rights to redeem the building out of foreclosure and executed that right last month. Liberty Redemption was incorporated on March 21, records show. Liberty Redemption said none of the building's previous ownership is involved with the current project.

"The primary reason we bought the property is we feel like that building needs to become a contributing member of the city, and we intended to do that," Schmalz said. "If anyone comes in and makes that building functional again safely, then I'm all for it, because that's going to help the area, help the city, and help what we're doing."

Liberty Redemption is working with Renasant Bank on the project. It's using Bradley for legal services and has retained the Birmingham office of Johnson Controls International to evaluate renovation of the building including heating, air conditioning, ventilation, energy efficiency, fire safety and security. The company is in the process of interviewing firms for engineering, architecture, marketing, branding, leasing and property management.

Schmalz told AL.com in January that investigators had determined the cost to safely eliminate the asbestos in the Liberty National building would be upwards of $10 million.

"Details will be forthcoming as final decisions are made," the company said in a statement.
A wrongful death lawsuit against a Chambers County auto parts manufacturer remains unresolved nearly a year after a 20-year-old machine operator was killed by a robot at work.

Kendall Dunson, principal of Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery, said they are working to determine whether the manufacturer of the machine that killed Regina Elsea in June 2016 should be held liable in the accident at Ajin USA, a metal stamping plant that makes parts for Hyundai and Kia in Cusseta Industrial Park.

Elsea entered a robotic station on June 18 to clear a sensor after the assembly line came to a stop. Investigators said the robot unexpectedly restarted, crushing the Five Points resident in the process.

The contractor for Alliance Total Solutions died the next day.

Ajin, Alliance Total Solutions and Joynus were slapped with more than $2.5 million in fines from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration following the incident. Dunson said he has never seen a fine that high against a company.

"I think they were totally responsible to the extent that we believe based on the OSHA report and the size of that fine that there may have been safety devices on the machine that were rendered neutral, so that's why we have such a high interest in wanting to see the machine and understand the design of it," he said.

The lawsuit filed in late December by Elsea's mother claims the victim was operating the machine as instructed when the incident occurred. The suit describes the machine as "unreasonably dangerous and defective in that it created an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death to the intended user."

The document originally listed co-defendant Joynus, a staffing company that was dismissed from the lawsuit by a judge in March. The lawsuit said Elsea's employer failed to provide a safe working environment, properly maintain the machinery or manage the hazards associated with the machinery involved in the accident.

It also states the defendant failed to warn of potential hazards associated with the machinery and did not incorporate adequate safety guards, devices or protocols, resulting in Elsea's untimely death.

"We're not against corporations trying to make money," Dunson said. "That's fine but you have to be responsible and being responsible means following the safety regulations that are in place. It means putting on machines the proper safeguards we all know will help protect lives. They're not mutually exclusive."

Ajin is disputing the allegations of the lawsuit and the citations and fines by OSHA.

In a statement to AL.com, the company said it is proud of its record as a corporate citizen, having provided more than 500 jobs in Chambers County where there were no such jobs previously. Ajin said it regularly conducts safety training, and is happy to be part of Alabama's union-free automotive industry.

"It is important to note that less than three months earlier OSHA had reviewed and found no deficiency with our policies regarding lockout tagout, operational procedures, and operation of an A900 machine similar to the machine Ms. Elsea was working on," the company said. "The unfortunate fact is that Ms. Elsea entered the machine in violation of her lockout tagout training and Ajin safety regulations."

Ajin said litigation constraints prevent the company from saying more at this time, but it "looks forward vigorously to defending itself and telling the real story in the appropriate venue at the proper time."

The accident recently caught the attention of Bloomberg writer Peter Waldman, who shared Elsea's story in a report on the pitfalls of the South's automotive boom. The article also profiles Reco Allen, a former Matsu Alabama employee who lost his right forearm in a metal stamping accident in Huntsville.

Valley resident Angel Ogle, Elsea's mother, said Bloomberg did a good job with the piece but certain details about her daughter's accident were upsetting to read.

"It just went into a little more detail than I cared to know about like as far as talking about how long she was in the machine and her being conscious and stuff," she said. "I would've just rather not have known that."

One part of the Bloomberg piece was particularly striking to readers, as well as Ajin leadership. In the eighth paragraph, Waldman said Ogle still hasn't heard a word from Ajin's owners or senior executives and the company sent only a single artificial flower to the young woman's funeral.

Ajin said this "outrageous" claim is totally false.

"Ajin's temp agency site supervisor (ATS) visited the family prior to the funeral," the company said in a letter to Bloomberg's editor. "He and others from the plant attended the funeral, including the Ajin general manager of human resources and Ajin's senior HR coordinator and senior safety coordinator. Ajin sent a casket spray of real flowers for the funeral ceremony. Additionally, ATS paid funeral costs and Ajin paid for the cost of the headstone."

The company provided receipts to AL.com, proving the expenditures are real. Dunson said the lawsuit makes a distinction between Ajin and Elsea's employer, which was ATS.

Ajin USA's plant in Chambers County. (Ajin USA)

"They are not the same entity," he said. "We don't have any receipts so we cannot dispute any of their claims. Under Alabama Workers' Compensation laws, the employer is required to cover funeral expenses."

Ajin also takes issue with Bloomberg's claim that the company never gave workers at the plant their own safety locks or training on how to use them.

Extensive lockout tagout and other detailed safety training was given to all line employees, including Elsea, Ajin said. The supplier said OSHA had reviewed its lockout tagout procedures only a few months before the accident and found nothing deficient.

Amber Meadows, a 23-year-old woman who worked beside Elsea on the line at Ajin, told Bloomberg the team had a quota of 420 dashboard frames per shift but rarely made more than 350. "We were always trying to make our numbers so we could go home," she said. "Everybody was always tired."

Ajin said the production schedule at the time of Elsea's accident was "significantly lower than normal."

"Completed pieces on the day of the accident were 240," the company said. "Normal production per shift was 400. The average produced was 370, not 350 as the article states. There is no evidence that Ajin's production schedule had anything to do with Ms. Elsea's accident."

Dunson said they do not know if fatigue was a factor in Elsea's death.

As Elsea was trapped in the machine, Bloomberg writes "no one knew how to make the robot release her." Waldman said a Korean technician who barely spoke English didn't know what to do and ran away in fear before emergency crews arrived.

Ajin also disputes this claim.

"In fact, the plant maintenance worker who was called to help actually adjusted the pressure of the robot while Ms. Elsea was pinned and did get her out of the machine before the rescue workers arrived," the company said.

Dunson said he isn't surprised by Ajin's explanations as "employers commonly blame the employee" in accidents like this.

The Business Council of Alabama published a rebuttal to the Bloomberg story, saying the pro-union message paints a picture of the state "as surrealistic and distorted as a Salvador Dali painting."

"Rather than reflect our status as a national leader in manufacturing and industrial recruitment whose successes and achievements regularly appear in the pages of Fortune Magazine, Bloomberg portrays us as a state of ignorant and uneducated hillbillies who would be more at home in the pages of a Lil' Abner comic strip," the organization said in a statement.

The BCA went on to say Bloomberg should be ashamed of the "false caricature, unsupported accusations, and 'fake news' that it allowed to be printed within its pages." The full rebuttal is available here.

As the one-year anniversary of Elsea's death nears, her mother is left with more questions than answers about what happened that day. Ogle, who described her daughter as outspoken and a hard worker, said Mother's Day this month was especially difficult.

Elsea's identical twin, Ginger, is also having a hard time living without her sister.

"They did everything together," Ogle said. "If it wasn't for medication, I don't think neither one of us could make it through the day."

Elsea was engaged to her Kindergarten sweetheart, Joshua Daniel, at the time of her death and had plans to book her wedding venue a week after the accident. Although she had put her college plans on hold to work for Ajin, Ogle said her daughter loved animals and dreamed of someday being a pediatrician.

She doesn't know how the lawsuit will play out in court, but she said "there will never be enough justice for what they took from me."

"If they had done their job, I would have my child," she said. "I would be walking her down the aisle in less than two months. They have no idea what they've done to us."
Remarks attributed to President Donald Trump about Germany during a European summit may have unintended effects...on Alabama.

The German news outlet Der Spiegel quoted Trump as saying during a closed-door meeting Thursday in Brussels that "the Germans are bad, very bad."

"Look at the millions of cars that they sell in the U.S.," he was quoted as saying. "We're going to stop that."

The statement was shot down by the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who confirmed the statement in part but said it had been exaggerated due to a translation error. Instead, he said, Trump was saying that he, like others, has problems with the German trade surplus of $65 billion.

Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, also said Trump's problem was with "German trade" not Germany.

Critics were quick to pounce on the statement, noting that German manufacturers produce vehicles at their own plants in the United States - most notably in southern states like Alabama that went heavily for Trump in last year's election. The Washington Post called the comments "bizarre" while Business Insider said his "ignorance" of trade practices was "terrifying."

"There are so many ways to unpack what's wrong in that statement," wrote Matthew DeBord. "German car brands  namely Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Mercedes  account for only about 7 percent of annual US auto sales. We're talking a little over a million cars a year. Ford and GM sell five times that."

Mercedes-Benz's Tuscaloosa County plant just celebrated its 20th anniversary in Alabama producing automobiles. It employs 4,000 people and has produced more than 2.5 million automobiles and SUVs over two decades. It's also in the midst of a $1.2 billion expansion.

In addition, it was Mercedes' decision to locate in Alabama in 1993 that marked the beginning of Alabama's emergence as an auto producing state, with 57,000 people now employed in jobs at auto plants and parts producing factories, according to the Alabama Department of Commerce.

Daimler, Mercedes' parent company, has not released a statement about Trump's comments. Share prices of German car manufacturers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW saw a slight dip after Trump's statement, according to Motoroids.
A homeless man making a cross-country "urban dog sled" journey was spotted passing through Alabama this week on his way to Venice Beach, Calif., according to WVTM.



Georgie Cutright and his two rescue huskies, Sarah and Lobos, were spotted in Oneonta in Blount County on Wednesday as onlookers watched and captured his passage on video. The trio started their journey in Knoxville, Tenn.



The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Cutright is an Illinois native who has been planning for the 2,200-mile journey since February of this year. As he makes his way, Cutright plans to work odd jobs here and there to help fund the trip. Prior to losing his job and becoming homeless two years ago, Cutright worked as a carpenter.



If he makes it to Venice by dog sled, the trip would surpass the current record for the world's longest annual dog sled race, which is held by the Iditarod in Alaska, by more than double. However, Cutright said the main goal of the journey is to see the country and bring happiness to those that see him.



"People just smile and videotape and clap, and it just brings a lot of joy and a lot of smiles to the world," Cutright told The Knoxville News Sentinel.
Millions of Muslims begin their observance of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan tonight.

On Saturday, they begin a month of daytime fasting.

Muslims abstain from food, drink and sensual pleasures from the break of dawn until sunset each day of Ramadan. Each night, they break the fast with a communal meal.

The Birmingham Islamic Society welcomes groups of other faiths to join them to observe their prayer rituals and share the evening meal at the Hoover Crescent Islamic Center.

That helps promote community understanding, said Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society.

"Ignorance is the biggest source of fear," he said.

An open house held Feb. 26 at Hoover Crescent Islamic Center drew more than 1,000 visitors.

"People who didn't talk to each other are talking to each other," Taufique said.

"There is genuine compassion and support for Muslims and other communities that are being marginalized."

Just as all white people should not be associated with white supremacists, average Muslims should not be blamed for terrorists carrying out attacks in support of the terrorist group ISIS, Taufique said.

"People are becoming more conscientious, more understanding," Taufique said. "We all have a responsibility to fight terrorism."

Terrorists such as the suicide bomber who killed 22 people outside an arena after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England on May 22 are routinely condemned by the Birmingham Islamic Society, which posts condemnations of terrorism on its web site.

More war and bombs that kill civilians are not the answer, Taufique said.

"There is a historical context to this unrest over several decades," he said. "There is more terrorism since we started the war against terrorism."

The United States and its allies need to promote peace and goodwill, not more war, he said.

"We need to have a completely different outlook that includes goodwill, without weapons of mass destruction," Taufique said. "Education is the way there. Education is the key."

Fasting is performed during Ramadan to emphasize discipline, self-restraint and generosity, while obeying God's commandments, Taufique said. Fasting, along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca, is one of the "five pillars" of Islam.

Because Ramadan is a lunar month, it begins about eleven days earlier each year.

To make a reservation for a group to visit the Islamic Center, register by calling the Birmingham Islamic Society at 205-879-4247
When Frankie Little was working as a bartender and manager at several Mobile restaurants, he decided that when he owned his own place he would hold a fundraiser in honor of his late brother, Lt. Col. Mark Stratton, who was killed in Afghanistan.

In February, Little opened his own restaurant, Roosters Latin American Food, on Dauphin Street in downtown Mobile. The restaurant will be closed on Memorial Day in honor of his brother, who died on Memorial Day eight years ago. For the remainder of the week following the holiday, Little plans to donate a portion of his sales to a charity that has helped his brother's grieving family.

The last time Little saw his oldest brother, the two of them took Stratton's three children to visit the Exploreum. "You really should have kids!" he urged.

Though Little now has two daughters - one of whom was born while Stratton was serving in the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan - they will never know their Uncle Mark.

Stratton had assured Little that he didn't need to worry about him in Afghanistan because he would be surrounded by security at all times. "I'll be safer there than y'all are," he said in their last phone conversation.

So it was quite a shock when, on May 26, 2009, the morning after Memorial Day, Little received word that his brother had been killed, along with three others, when a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into the Humvee in which they were riding. He remembers feeling his then-infant daughter's tiny hand on his back as he cried.

His brother's death was "completely unexpected," he said. "I never even thought of danger."

Senior Airman Ashton Goodman and Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton stand atop "Lion Hill" behind their Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan on May 24, 2009, two days before both airmen lost their lives from wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Stacie N. Shafran)

Stratton, a 1987 graduate of Foley High School who went on to Texas A&M University, was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force when he died at age 39. He was serving as commander of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team, charged with rebuilding the region. His projects had included building a girls' school and an irrigation system for local farmers.

"His convoy was in the process of building a road to connect farming communities with the local market," said Little. "He was one month away from coming home" to his wife and three children in Washington.

Later, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Stratton had been the victim of mistaken identity.

Stratton, who had come up through the ranks in the Air Force as a navigator and was working at a desk job in the Pentagon before he was deployed, had requested to go to Afghanistan, Little said.

A year after his death, a Joint Chiefs of Staff conference room in the Pentagon was named in his honor, and Little was in attendance along with dignitaries including Adm. Mike Mullen, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the dedication ceremony.

Little, who is 10 years younger than Stratton, said his brother had wanted to be an Air Force pilot since he was 5 years old. "It was his main focus," he said. "He was dead set on doing that with his life, and he did it 100 percent. He was a very hard worker who was dedicated to his country."

His funeral at Arlington National Cemetery was "the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life," Little said. Stratton was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Air Force Combat Action Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal.

After Stratton's death, one of the ways his widow and their three children found solace was through a program called Knights of Heroes, which allows families of fallen soldiers to attend a wilderness adventure summer camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., at no charge. When Little asked Jennifer Stratton what charity he should donate proceeds to during his Memorial Day week fundraiser, she immediately suggested Knights of Heroes.

From May 30 to June 3, Little will donate 5 percent of sales at Roosters to the nonprofit organization.

Roosters Latin American Food is located at 211 Dauphin St. The phone number is (251) 375-1076. Roosters is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
All five suspects arrested Thursday in a probe that yielded nearly $1 million worth of drugs were in the U.S. illegally, authorities said Friday.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced the arrests of Elsy Judith Martinez-Lopez, 30, Bernardo M. Lopez, 36, Misael Agosttini-Otero, 32, Rafael A. Arvayo-Lopez, 31 and Armando Escobar-Jackes, 39. Two of the suspects - Martinez Lopez and Escobar-Jackes - are being held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail. It's unclear who has custody of the other three.

Lawmen carried out two raids on Thursday in the Birmingham area, but didn't disclose the specific locations. The Birmingham Police Department's Neighborhood Enforcement Team, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Homewood Police Department's SWAT team, K-9 Unit and narcotics detectives joined the State Bureau of Investigation's narcotics unit in carrying out the search warrants.

Authorities have not released the locations of the raids, but said they seized $920,000 worth of drugs: 140 pounds of marijuana worth $420,000; two pounds of cocaine worth $100,000 and four pounds of meth worth $400,000. Investigators also confiscated $95,000 in cash and two guns.

All five suspects are charged with drug trafficking.

Senior Trooper Chuck Daniel said all five suspects "did not have legal status." Three of them have previously been deported from the U.S. because of felony charges. Their return to the country now constitutes the crime of aggravated reentry, which could result in prison time and fines.

ALEA officials are not releasing additional details about the drug operation, but said the case is now closed.
Multiple law enforcement agencies seized more than $900,000 worth of drugs during an investigation into a drug trafficking organization in Birmingham.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said two search warrants were executed on Thursday. During the searches, 140 pounds of marijuana worth $420,000, $95,000 in cash, two pounds of cocaine worth $100,000, four pounds of meth worth $400,000, and two guns were found. The findings led to the arrests of five suspects from Birmingham:

Elsy Judith Martinez Lopez, 30

Bernardo M. Lopez, 36

Misael Agosttini-Otero, 32

Rafael A. Arvayo-Lopez 31

Armando I Escobar-Jackes, 39

All five individuals were charged with trafficking meth, marijuana and cocaine. No bonds have been set at this time.

ALEA's SBI narcotics unit along with ALEA's Tactical Team, Homewood police, Birmingham Police NET Team and Homeland Security Investigations worked together on the case.
An hour after watching the execution by lethal injections of her father for the murder-for-hire of Troy Wicker Jr in 1982, Sherrie Stone called for a law requiring nationwide mandatory testing of DNA evidence in capital murder cases.

"First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathy for the family of Troy Wicker. I hope what has transpired today will allow them to have some peace and closure," Stone told reporters at a press conference after her father, Tommy Arthur, was executed at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

But for Stone she says she will never know closure or whether her father killed Wicker or not. Without having DNA testing on certain evidence in the case she said she will never know for sure.

"I've never known for certain whether my father killed Troy Wicker. At times I was convinced he did. At times I believed he was innocent," Stone said. "Over decades you go through a roller coaster."

"Now I will never know the truth because the evidence that could prove if my father was innocent or guilty has not been tested using the latest DNA testing procedures," Stone said.

"That's why I am calling for mandatory DNA testing on all available evidence in all capital cases and not just in Alabama but across the United States," Stone said. "When a human life is stake it is essential and, in this day-and-age, it's really uncalled for that we could not use advance technology available to us."

The testing should be mandatory for those charged with a capital crime as well as those who are already on death row, Stone said.

Stone said that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey denied her father's request for DNA testing on hair samples "and I don't understand why when the stakes were so high."

Ivey's legal counsel, in a letter to Arthur's attorneys on Thursday denied the request.

"As you know, the fact that the hair samples in question did not come from Mr. Arthur has never been in dispute. All three juries were well aware of this fact, and all three juries still convicted Arthur of capital murder, indicating that all three juries considered the hair samples and concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that they were unrelated to this case," Ivey's legal counsel Bryan M. Taylor wrote.

"Moreover, the Court of Criminal Appeals considered these hair samples and concluded that the presence in Wicker's vehicle of 'a large amount of Negroid hair that had been forcibly removed' actually corroborated the State's case - that Mr. Arthur planted the hairs at the scene in furtherance of his scheme to make it appear as if a black man had committed the crime," Taylor wrote.

Testing on a wig allegedly worn by the killer for a 2009 court hearing found no genetic material that could be tested for DNA. The judge rejected requests by Arthur's attorneys for more DNA testing at the time after ruling that Arthur had likely played a part in another inmate's confession to the crime.

Stone said she doesn't know why the state was reluctant to do DNA testing.

Here is AL.com's coverage of the death penalty in Alabama.
Gov. Kay Ivey today signed into law a bill that supporters say will shorten the duration of appeals in death penalty cases in Alabama.

Attorney General Steve Marshall, who supported the bill, announced the signing in a press release. Marshall said the law, called the Fair Justice Act, "does not diminish the thoroughness of appellate review of death penalty cases, but simply streamlines the appellate process so that the direct appeal and the state post-conviction stage occur simultaneously."

Ivey said in the press release: "The Fair Justice Act strikes an important balance between protecting the rights of a defendant and the state's interest in allowing justice to be achieved effectively and swiftly."

Opponents, including the American Bar Association, say the law will increase the likelihood that the state will put an innocent person to death.

The bill, by Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, requires defendants to pursue certain types of appeals sooner, setting new deadlines for when certain appeals can be filed and when courts must rule.

Ward said the bill will shorten the duration of state appeals in death penalty cases from about 15-18 years generally to about 9 to 12 years. Ward said it would not take away any steps in the process. It will not affect federal appeals.

The bill cleared the Legislature last week with support from the Republican majorities in the House and Senate and opposition from most Democrats.

American Bar Association President Linda Klein, in a May 12 letter to the Legislature, said the law "will diminish the ability of counsel to provide effective representation and the capacity of courts to deliberate in order to make fair and responsible determinations, increasing the risk of executing an innocent person."

The new law will apply to any defendant sentenced to death after it takes effect. The effective date is August 1.
An investigation is underway after a teen was shot Friday morning in Center Point.

The shooting happened about 7 a.m. Chief Deputy Randy Christian said deputies responded to the a report of someone shot the 1800 block of Martinique Drive in Center Point. The caller reported that he had been shot and then disconnected the call.

Once on the scene, they found the 17-year-old male in a wooded area behind The Point Apartments. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Christian said the victim initially didn't cooperate with deputies, and then said he had been walking through the wooded area when an unknown person shot him.
The Ogiek people, evicted from the Mau Forest since colonial times, have won a historic battle in African land rights.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the organisation Namati is called Namati International. It is called Namati.

Ngongongeri, Nakuru County, Kenya  Kenyas Ogiek, an indigenous minority of hunters and gatherers, have won a historic case against the Kenyan government, close to a decade after they began their legal battle.

The African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, a continental court established in 2006 by African countries, on May 26 delivered its verdict in Arusha, Tanzania  ruling in favour of the Ogiek and recognising their right to Kenyas Mau Forest as their ancestral home, and their role in protecting it.

The court ruled that the Kenyan government had violated seven articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, of which Kenya is a signatory, and which is intended to protect basic freedoms and human rights.

The verdict recognises the Ogieks indigenous status and their right to reparations from the Kenyan government for the suffering they have endured through forcible evictions. It recognises the Ogieks strong attachment to the forest, their legal right to live on the forest land, their freedom to practise their traditions and deemed evictions to be disproportionate to conservation aims. The Kenyan government in court said it accepted the judgment.

The room has never been so full. It was packed to the brink, said Lucy Claridge, legal director of Minority Rights Group International (MRG), a campaign group working closely with the Ogiek. She has been working on the case since April 2010.

Speaking from Arusha, Claridge said around 75 Ogiek attended the court hearing, dressed in their traditional clothes. After the victorious judgment, the Ogiek broke out in celebratory singing and dancing.

It is an unprecedented legal victory for an indigenous people in Africa. The ruling marks the first judgment from the highest institutional human rights body in Africa to favour the cause of indigenous peoples.

This sends a message to governments of the standards around indigenous peoples rights in Africa, says Claridge. Its a very clear message for governments that they need to respect indigenous peoples rights.

The victory could set a precedent for similar cases across the continent.

I know that the case also gives hope to other indigenous peoples, said Daniel Kobei, executive director of Ogiek Peoples Development Program (OPDP), an NGO which advocates for the communitys rights, in an MRG press release.

IN PICTURES: Tanzania Maasai evicted from ancestral land

Forest connection and history of evictions

The Ogiek have dwelled in Mau Forest for generations. This small community of about 35,000, which lives in and around the forest complex spanning about 4,000 hectares and five counties in the countrys west, claims to have suffered injustices, harassment, and evictions at the hands of successive governments and more powerful groups with an interest in the forests resources.

We saw different people take our land, Lebidas Lesingo, a 78-year-old Ogiek elder, said in February.

The Ogiek, sometimes referred to as Kenyas castaways, have always maintained they have a right to this land. Our fight has never changed, Lesingo said.

Mau Forest is the source of the Ogieks traditional livelihoods and is synonymous with their cultural and religious identity. They hunt game such as hyrax and bushbucks, collect nuts and berries and harvest honey, which they use for healing and nutritional purposes. They use the forests indigenous plants as medicine, such as the bark of the Kopukeriet tree.

Mau Forest is also the site of Kenyas biggest water catchment and the source of seven rivers. It is also the largest closed-canopy forest in Kenya, thus seen by some as a lucrative source of timber.

Since the early 20th century, the tribes way of life has come under threat. The first forcible evictions date back to 1911 after a deal between the Maasai community, one of Kenyas tribes, and colonialists culminated in the former losing land to the white settlers.

It was lost on the colonial authorities that the land signed over by the Maasai was Ogiek land, writes Joseph Sang, an Ogiek activist, in a 2001 report for the advocacy organisation Forest Peoples Programme.

That was a problem we inherited from our elders, Sang says.

Governments since independence in 1963 have expelled Ogiek from the forest, citing conservation reasons such as re-planting. But the Ogiek say the forest is being destroyed.

The forest has turned into a plantation forest, where fast-growing trees are planted for commercial work, says Kobei, adding that indigenous plants are disappearing.

READ MORE: Tribe, land and politics  Africas toxic mix

There is illegal logging, illegal settlements and encroaching, says Sang, the activist, who is a paralegal at Namati, an international NGO working at the grassroots level to help people understand, employ and shape the laws affecting them.

The Ogiek allege that they are being forcibly evicted by land grabbers and illegal loggers while corrupt authorities stand by. Their homes have been ransacked and burned to the ground.

Sang says evictions have displaced and dispersed their people, who respect and revere the forest. The term Ogiek literally means carer of all plants and wild animals.

The forest is what we call home, Sang says when asked why it is so important to the Ogiek.

When you talk to them, what really comes across is that they want their land back because its part of their livelihood. It defines them, says Lucy Claridge, legal director at MRG.

It might be difficult to understand, but the forest is part of them. It is where they feel home. Its where they feel Ogiek.

Landmark case

In 2008, the Kenyan government began a campaign to evict inhabitants of the forest.

The following year, in a David against Goliath scenario, the Ogiek filed a case against the Kenyan government. They claimed that in October 2009, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), an agency of the Kenyan government, gave the Ogiek and other people living in Mau Forest a 30-day eviction notice on the grounds that they lived in a reserved water catchment zone. They reject that this decision was a conservation attempt and alleged a number of violations of the African Charter.

The Ogiek demanded the halting of evictions, and that their ancestral land in the Mau Forest be legally recognised as theirs. They also asked for compensation for loss of property and natural resources, and freedom to practise their culture and religion, among other things.

The OPDP and MRG, with Claridge as the lead lawyer, brought this case to court. It was the first time the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights had heard a case from an indigenous group.

In 2013, the court ruled that the Kenyan government ban all land transactions in Mau Forest, and suspend evictions until it reaches a final verdict.

Despite the ruling four years ago, the Ogiek claim they continued to suffer abuses. In June last year, police and KFS rangers forcibly evicted Ogiek families in Mount Elgon and burned down their homes.

In March last year, Stephen Munyereri, an Ogiek elder in his 60s, was salvaging belongings from the burnt-out remains of his sons property when he was shot and killed.

Just days earlier, land grabbers had burned down his sons house.

Munyereris death came at a time when the Ogiek had been involved in land disputes with members of a neighbouring tribe in the Ngongongeri area of western Kenya. More than 100 Ogiek families had been evicted from their homes, and 15 houses were destroyed.

While Munyereri was at the property, a man claiming to be the landowner confronted him. According to neighbours, an argument over land ownership escalated and the man shot the Ogiek elder, who was unarmed. The culprit was arrested but released on bond that same day.

Kobei, of OPDP, says Munyereris family is still waiting for a trial, which has already been postponed several times.

How would you feel seeing somebody who has killed your father moving around? Kobei says.

MRG have demanded a proper investigation.

Before we used to experience eviction, but nobody had been killed, Kobei says.

The Ogiek have in the past turned to the courts to address their grievances such as land grabs, without much success.

Some cases dated back to 1997 and were determined in 2014, Kobei says. This [length of time] is indeed an insult to human rights, especially in a community where mass violation has been experienced.

Survival methods

In a fast-changing world, the Ogiek have had to adapt to modern life, and consequently have already lost many of their traditions, such as those related to medicines or coming-of-age ceremonies connected to the forest.

If they are not allowed to have their land back then, as a people, they are threatened with extinction, Claridge said in an interview before todays verdict.

Sang, who is in his 40s, has worked towards securing the Ogieks indigenous and land rights for decades.

He told Al Jazeera that his activism has taken him around the world with different organisations to conferences on indigenous rights and he has been inspired by groups such as New Zealands Maoris.

Once, while at a conference in the Philippines as coordinator of the Ogiek Welfare Council, an NGO working towards Ogiek rights until it closed in 2005, he saw farmers mapping their land.

I thought, how can we reclaim our land using this method? he said.

Using aerial photographs and elder knowledge, he says the Ogiek mapped their land in eastern Mau by 2010.

Now we had evidence of the land we were claiming, said Francis Lesingo, an Ogiek elder from eastern Mau.

Although mapping one area wasnt enough to support a comprehensive land claim, Lesingo believes the exercise was important for his community.

When the elders came together and mapped their land across all the clans, they finally realised they were one, he said.

Namati is currently supporting OPDP in finding ways to expand the mapping exercise to cover all Ogiek land.

Uncertain future

The Ogiek have tried to safeguard their culture by passing traditional knowledge on to younger generations. The OPDP also organises a cultural festival every year in Nakuru, but the months change, depending on how successful they are at fundraising.

Nevertheless, experts say these efforts are not enough for the Ogieks cultural survival.

Its dying out. It has already died out, said Claridge of Ogiek language and traditions.

The Ogiek were initially expecting a verdict from the African Court in March, but the hearing was delayed, according to Claridge, because the judges needed more time to deliberate on a case with such wide-reaching ramifications.

This case is of fundamental importance for indigenous peoples in Africa, and particularly in the context of the continent-wide conflicts we are seeing between communities, sparked by pressures over land and resources, said Claridge in a press release on May 22.

Speaking ahead of the May 26 ruling, John Samorai, programme officer at the OPDP, said: Many of us will be able to see our fate determined. Then he had added, with pride: Whatever the verdict, we will have fought our battle.

With general elections taking place in August, Claridge said today: [The Kenyan government] needs to honour the [court] decision immediately. It cannot continue to give out land to carry political favour, it needs to respect Ogiek land rights, it needs to respect the distinct culture and identity and it needs to do so now.

Kobei said this evening that he is optimistic that the current or incoming government will honour the court verdict.

This is a historic moment for the Ogiek. We have seen success for the first time, he said. We expect the government of Kenya to respect the decision and give Ogiek recognition.
Hammam al-Alil, Iraq  Ask anyone in the northern Iraqi town of Hammam al-Alil where Mustafa Taei lives and they will direct visitors down increasingly narrow streets through the bazaar towards a vibrantly painted breeze-block house.

Outside, a mural depicts painted palm trees and Iraqi flags fluttering over a mosque and a church. Standing alongside are a winged Assyrian deity, the Ziggurat of Ur and the ancient Babylonian Ishtar Gate. They are symbols of Iraqs cultural heritage and historic plurality. Taei, a resident of Hammam al-Alil, says he was briefly jailed by fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) who controlled the town until last November.

Daesh beat me with sticks when they heard I was painting, Taei says, beaming widely through broken glasses perched precariously on his nose. He has reason to smile: He is now free to paint openly again.

A town about 20km south of Mosul on the western bank of the Tigris River, Hammam al-Alil was once notable mainly for the spa baths from which the town derives its name. Taei grew up here, working most of his life as a gas engineer and later as a jack of all trades.

Some people smoke but I paint. It's in my blood. by Mustafa Taei, Iraqi artist

He can do everything, says Hamid Yassin Ahmed, a cousin of Taei. People come to him to get their cookers, or generator, or even their car fixed. But hes most famous for his paintings.

For the last 20 years, Taeis passion has been art. I cant imagine a day without this, says the 53-year-old of the drawings, woodcuts and Arabic calligraphy that cover the walls of his home.

In mid-2014, though, Taei was forced to hide his art. That summer, ISIL fighters tore across the desert from Syria to capture much of Nineveh, including the provincial capital Mosul. ISIL imposed a strict regime that banned everything from mobile phones to smoking.

Also banned were any pictorial depictions of the human form.

Taei stashed his artworks but continued to paint in secret, describing it as an addiction. Some people smoke but I paint, he says. Its in my blood.

The other townspeople of Hammam al-Alil did not cooperate willingly with ISIL either. Under ISIL rule, draconian punishments were imposed, including numerous public executions and floggings.

Taeis work took a subversive turn, becoming a gruesome record of atrocities: decapitations, hangings, injured children and sobbing widows, all painted in an unschooled Naive art style.

Taei was detained for two weeks and tortured, and was lucky to escape execution.





Last October, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the military operation to retake Nineveh province, some of the townspeople of Hammam al-Alil staged an uprising that was crushed by ISIL.

A month later, in one mass grave just outside the town, the Iraqi military uncovered about 100 decapitated bodies.

Taei has since depicted many of their deaths in his paintings. This is martyr Hany; he was killed shortly before the liberation, says Taei, showing a painting of a dead body.

He was naked when they killed him, but I painted him in his uniform because I respected him and wanted to give him back his dignity.

READ MORE: Syrian refugee children transform Iraqi prison with art

Some of these grislier paintings make the townspeople uncomfortable. He recently staged an exhibition in a school in the town, and confesses to being slightly disappointed with a lack of recognition.

No one said anything much about them or asked me any questions, he says.

While his painted record of Hammam al-Alil offers a grim testament to what life was like under ISIL, Taei has recently applied his skills to painting martyr posters that pay tribute to the growing number of soldiers and police who have died in the ongoing military operation to liberate Nineveh.

Taei says hes struggling to keep up with demand.

As he rifles through stacks of paintings, two blue-uniformed federal policemen knock at the door. They have come straight from duty, hand grenades still dangling from their belts.

Amin Saad, a 31-year-old sergeant from Baghdad, carries photographs showing two young men in uniform, Ahmed Nagi and Assad Gerid, friends from his unit. They were killed yesterday, Saad says.

He wants to honour their memory by commissioning Taei to paint a commemorative poster, he says. Well take this painting back to our base and hang it on the wall as a memorial.

Since Hammam al-Alil was retaken by the Iraqi army in November, Taei has become renowned among Iraqi forces for his posters. Hes famous here, says Saad. Hes done other posters for us before.

In all, Saad estimates that 40 members of his unit in the federal police have died fighting ISIL. For his part, Taei says he has painted over 100 memorial posters.

With the policemen waiting, Taei excuses himself to begin painting. He knows it is not the last such poster he will have to do before the fighting is over.
All of a sudden, the Philippines is grappling with the spectre of ISIL and, for some, Marcosian authoritarianism.

It would not be any different from what President [Ferdinand] Marcos did, declared Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shortly after declaring martial law across the restive island of Mindanao. Id be harsh, he warned.

The tough-talking Filipino president was on a five-day trip to Moscow, when news broke out that the Maute, an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), laid siege to the city of Marawi, the biggest urban centre in the Muslim-majority provinces of the Philippines.





At first, the Philippine military tried to play down the situation by claiming that everything was under control. Yet, as hours went by, it became increasingly clear that the armed group was far from subdued, as it was still rampaging across the city, taking a Christian priest and several civilians hostage, and vowing to declare an Islamic State Wilayat (province) in Mindanao.

It will likely take weeks, if not months, before the Philippine government takes control of the situation since the ongoing violence has already forced thousands to flee Marawi to seek refuge elsewhere.

The whole episode rekindled horrific memories of the bloody clashes in Zamboanga city in 2013, when a splinter faction of the Moro National Liberation Front, reportedly led by leading Moro ideologue Nur Misuari, tried to lay siege on the Christian-majority city.

READ MORE: Foreigners fighting with ISIL-linked Philippine group

The prosperous port city of Zamboanga was torn asunder by weeks-long clashes between the rebels and the Philippine military, which repeatedly pounded enemy positions from both the sky and the ground. Despite the militarys efforts, the rebels initially managed to occupy several neighbourhoods, take control of government buildings, and take hundreds of civilians hostage.

Duterte, the first Filipino president from Mindanao, faces a similar, if not more menacing, conundrum in Marawi, as public pressure mounts on the government to address the growing threat posed by extremist groups that have wrecked havoc across the island for decades.

A City on Fire

The attacks by the Maute group, also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, were likely an opportunistic revenge operation. A few days earlier, the Philippine military staged a failed raid on a safe house in a bid to capture Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of the more known Abu Sayyaf group, which is also affiliated with ISIL. Hapilon is on the FBIs most wanted list and is largely seen as a prospective leader of a proposed Caliphate in Southeast Asia.

The extremists were likely also emboldened by the fact that not only the president, but also his key cabinet members, including National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, were in Moscow to secure a series of defence and trade deals.

Perturbed by the scale and audacity of the attack, Duterte, who cut his Russia trip short, immediately declared all-out martial law across Mindanao. The Philippines 1987 constitution allows Filipino leaders to declare it only when there is a rebellion and invasion.

Most likely the decision to declare martial law was based on an intelligence report suggesting that ISIL- affiliate groups were planning coordinated attacks across the whole region. Government officials cited the troubling presence of foreign fighters among Maute elements as an evidence of invasion, a term that usually applies to full-scale military assault by an invading foreign army.

Road to Perdition

Far from signifying strength, Duterte's threat reflects the inability of the government to pre-empt and effectively address the conflict in Mindanao, which has provided a hospitable environment for extremist ideology and mobilisation. by

Upon his hasty return, Duterte upped the ante by suggesting he may place, if needed, the entire country under martial law to protect and preserve the Filipino nation. The announcement provoked a flurry of criticisms, including from leading legislators, who argued that a nationwide Martial Law is a step too far.

Others wondered why Duterte didnt resort to milder constitutional measures, such as declaring a state of lawlessness or emergency, which would have still allowed him to effectively mobilise the military with maximum legal leeway.

Nonetheless, there are multiple built-in safeguards in the Philippine constitution against abuse of executive power. First of all, to implement martial law, the president will have to immediately get the approval of the Philippine Congress. Also, the Supreme Court has the mandate to nullify any martial law declaration, if deemed unjustified, within the first 60 days of implementation.

Dutertes allies in the legislature will be happy to get through the martial law declaration in Mindanao, but extending emergency measures across the country will likely face stiff opposition.

Reassuringly, the Philippine military, which has the task of protecting the Constitution, sought to assuage fears of a renewed Marcosian dictatorship by immediately releasing a set of guidelines, which safeguard basic political rights and civil liberties of citizens.

Far from signifying strength, Dutertes threat reflects the inability of the government to pre-empt and effectively address the conflict in Mindanao, which has provided a hospitable environment for extremist ideology and mobilisation.

OPINION: Peace is still possible in Dutertes Philippines

Throughout his first year in office, the Filipino leader obsessively pursued a brutal campaign against illegal drugs, which has come under heavy criticism by Western countries and human rights groups. Duterte also prioritised peace negotiations with communist rebels over talks with the much more powerful Islamist insurgents, particularly the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

After months of strategic flirtation with China and Russia, Duterte will now have to seek support from tried and tested allies such as the United States, which possesses high-grade intelligence, defence equipment and been a partner in counterterror operations throughout decades.

Duterte may also have to revisit his earlier threat to reject, in light of disagreement on human rights issues, grants from the European Union, which has heavily invested in the Mindanao peace process.

All of a sudden, the Philippines is grappling with the spectre of ISIL and, for some, Marcosian authoritarianism.

Richard Javad Heydarian is a specialist in Asian geopolitical/economic affairs and author of Asias New Battlefield: The USA, China, and the Struggle for the Western Pacific.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
The EU should stop blaming NGOs for saving lives at sea and start tackling the problems that force people to migrate.

In recent months, a debate has been brewing inside Italy and across the European Union about NGOs that operate in the Mediterranean Sea between the coasts of Sicily and Libya to conduct search and rescue operations (SAR) to save refugees fleeing Africa  where at least 1300 people have drowned attempting the dangerous journey so far this year, according to the IOMs Missing Migrants project.

The dispute surrounding SARs started in December last year, after a Financial Times news report alleged that the EUs border agency, Frontex, had accused charities operating in the Mediterranean of colluding with people smugglers. The news report, which was based on leaked memos by the border agency, also suggested that Frontex believes the lights used by rescue boats act as a beam for the migrants.





Frontex was quick to distance itself from the news story and deny that their memos ever suggested that the NGOs were colluding with people smugglers. But the agencys denial has not stopped Italian prosecutors and politicians, far-right activists, EU leaders, as well as Fabrice Leggerie, the director of Frontex, from continuing to accuse NGOs like Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, or Save the Children who have been operating in the Mediterranean, of playing a role in the refugee crisis.

The arguments currently being made against NGOs and their role in the refugee crisis are not only disingenuous, but according to Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch (HRW), are also a damaging distraction from the real challenges and responsibilities facing not only Italy, but Europe as a whole.

Sunderland, of course, is right  EU leaders and Italian politicians have avoided taking any responsibility for the current crisis in the Mediterranean or the nightmare situation unravelling inside and around Libya, where Sub-saharan migrants have been tortured, abused, killed and are now being sold into slavery in open markets.

OPINION: Death in the Mediterranean

While Italian prosecutors accuse NGO workers of colluding with smugglers, Italian politicians such as Interior Minister Marco Minniti have pushed and passed a series of laws making it more difficult for refugees to appeal rejected asylum cases as well as plans to build more detention centres to hold asylum seekers throughout the duration of their cases.

Excuses, Excuses

Although brief accommodations were made for Syrian refugees by some EU countries, especially Germany, after millions were displaced as a result of the deadly civil war in the country, the EU has opted to find any rationale, no matter how flimsy and untrue, to reject the claims of asylum seekers.

In March 2016, a leaked EU document (pdf) was released which described EU plans to deport 80,000 or more Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan.

Instead of creating outlandish conspiracies against NGOs to shore up the support for Europe's anti-migrant racists and empowering far-right elements, the EU and the Italian government should take a look in the mirror and correct their own actions. by

The leaked document spelled out how the EU planned to make aid packages to Afghanistan migration sensitive, meaning that aid would be contingent upon the Afghan governments signing of the Joint Way Forward Agreement  which is illegal according to international law.

The State Building Contract for EUR 200 million in preparation is intended to be made migration sensitive, probably through one indicator linking it to the governments policy on migration and return and possibly to the implementation of the Joint Way Forward, the document said.

Also within the leaked document, a narrative was introduced where Afghans seeking asylum in Europe were compartmentalised into groups where some were no longer called refugees, but referred to as irregular or economic migrants.

The downgrading of Afghans from refugee to migrant has allowed for the EU to circumvent international laws regarding the rights of refugees the world over. The change in narrative has loosened restrictions on EU deportations  allowing for quick and easy rejections of asylum cases of not just Afghans, but of Somalians, Eritreans, Nigerians and others as well.

Inter-European Colonialism

In order to stop the flow of migration from the south to northern Europe, EU leaders have been enforcing first entry laws attached to the Dublin Regulations which trap asylum seekers in the first EU country they have entered until their cases are ruled upon. For the most part, this means asylum seekers have been stuck anywhere from six months to several years in Greece and Italy with little to no support.

Considering that both Italy and Greece are the hardest hit EU countries from the 2007-2008 economic collapse, the two countries have had little power to confront Germany or other northern states, due to heavy reliance on austerity deals and loan forgiveness.

OPINION: I listen to refugees and I hear my own story

With failing economies, rising unemployment and growing anger, the EU has largely managed to avoid the wrath of its southern citizens by trapping asylum seekers in Italy and Greece where right-wing activists and neo-fascists, as well opportunist politicians, have fed and grown off anti-migrant sentiments rather than challenging EU leadership for what many in the southern states are continuing to call inter-European colonialism.

Manufacturing Fascism

In Italy, the charge against NGOs is being led by the Catania (Sicily) prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro, who despite admitting to having no evidence has repeatedly claimed NGOs are in direct contact with traffickers. Italys far-right political party Lega Nord, or Northern League, as well as the up-and-coming Five Star Movement have backed Zuccaros claims in order to capitalise on anti-immigrant racism inside the country in time for next elections.





In the EU generally, neo-Nazis and far-right groups like the transnational Generation Identitaire (GI) have also used Zuccaros argument to increase their numbers and galvanise racists across Europe into taking action. Earlier this month, GI teamed up with white supremacists from Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Canada and the United States in an effort to stop Aquarius  a rescue boat used by MSF for SAR operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Alt-right, white supremacist activist and former Rebel Media journalist Lauren Southern lit flares with three others and attempted to block Aquarius from leaving the coast of Sicily towards Libya before being briefly detained and released by the Italian coastguard.

The groups actions have received praise from neo-Nazis and neo-fascists across the globe and they already started to plan their next move against rescue missions at sea.

Nowhere in the arguments of in Italys far-right parliamentarians and prosecutors is there any mention of how EU policies and laws have exacerbated the situation. There is no mention of the EUs role in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq  or how that has led to the current situation in Syria which has displaced up to five million outside the country.

Also missing from the argument is how Italian officials have held secret meetings in Libya with questionable armed militias to patrol Libyas southern border. Securing Libyas southern border means securing Europes southern border, Minniti said last month after striking a deal with Libyan tribal groups, essentially moving EU borders and border controls well into Africa.

READ MORE: EU roadmap for Libya to stem flow of sea migrants

Instead of creating outlandish conspiracies against NGOs to shore up the support for Europes anti-migrant racists and empowering far-right elements, the EU and the Italian government should take a look in the mirror and correct their own actions. They should start with rebuking US President Donald Trump at the upcoming NATO summit in Brussels, where he is expected to ask NATO leaders to commit more troops to combat in Afghanistan  a move which will only cause more waves of refugees to leave the country and start a perilous journey towards Europe.

Editors note: An earlier version of this article implied that Lauren Southern is still associated with Rebel Media. She left the organisation in March and is working as an independent journalist now.

Mohammed Harun Arsalai is an independent journalist and political activist from the Bay Area of California, and cofounder of the independent media project, Documenting Afghanistan Currently based in his native Afghanistan, Mohammed has reported on US social movements, police violence, and racism for Bay Area Intifada which he cofounded. His recent work focuses on refugees, the war on terror, and violent groups operating in Afghanistan.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Assault on Shah Wali Kot base marks third major Taliban attack in one week on the military in Kandahar province.

A Taliban attack on a military base in Kandahar province has left at least 15 Afghan soldiers dead, according to government officials.

Dawlat Waziri, Afghanistans defence ministry spokesman, told AFP news agency on Friday that the assault happened late on Thursday.





The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night in Shah Wali Kot, he said.

Waziri said the fighting continued until Friday morning.

Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded  but the base remains under the control of our forces, he said.

A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20, adding that some soldiers were missing after the attack and that the Taliban had seized four military Humvees.

The attack was the third major Taliban assault this week on the military in Kandahar.

At least 30 soldiers were killed in a similar attack in Shah Wali Kot late on Monday.

Two days later 13 soldiers died in another raid in Kandahars Maiwand district, a provincial official told AFP.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks as their annual spring offensive intensifies and the violence expands more than 15 years after they were officially toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

Kandahar is a hub of Taliban activity, although there has been a relative improvement in security in recent years under the grip of General Abdul Raziq, the police chief and a regional commander.

Raziq, arguably the most powerful security commander in southern Afghanistan, has criticised the central government in Kabul over the growing insecurity in Kandahar, accusing them of a plot to destabilise his province.

Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like [neighbouring] Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, Raziq told a public gathering on Thursday.

Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help.

His remarks did not immediately elicit a response from authorities in Kabul.
Statue of a sari-clad woman holding scales taken down amid tight security after months of protests by religious groups.

A statue depicting a goddess of justice has been removed from outside the Supreme Court in Bangladeshs capital, Dhaka, following months of protests by conservative religious groups who had deemed it un-Islamic.

The statue of the blindfolded, sari-clad woman holding scales  a Bangladeshi version of the Greek goddess of justice, Themis  was taken down amid tight security in the early hours of Friday.

There was no official comment from the court or the government, but Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the statues removal was a decision of the court.

He added that the statue had been moved to another place within the court premises.

Sculptor Mrinal Haque choked back tears as he oversaw the statues removal, saying it felt like clearing a dead body.

Even my mothers death did not make me so grief-stricken, Haque told the AFP news agency.

Later on Friday, hundreds of students and left-wing activists protested against the statues removal outside the court premises and on the Dhaka University.

It is a betrayal of the people. The depressing thing is that the government is using it as a political tool, activist Imran Sarkar told AFP.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters.

Hefazat-e-Islam and Bangladesh Olama League were among the groups who had been calling for the statues removal since its installation in December 2016, with thousands turning at demonstrations in front of the main mosque in the capital.

Leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, on April 11 demanding the removal of the statue.

I dont like it myself, Hasina said at the time, calling the statue ridiculous.

Its being called a Greek statue, but how did a Greek statue get here?

Haque rejected that claim, saying: It is a piece of sculpture of a Bengali woman wearing a traditional sari, blouse, petticoat and bangles.

Azizul Hoque Islamabadi, a spokesman for Hefazat-e-Islam, thanked Hasina on Friday, saying she has prevented the country from a destabilising and confrontational situation.

Bangladesh, ruled by secular laws, has experienced increasing tensions between conservative religious groups and secularists in recent years.

Dozens of atheists, liberal writers, bloggers and publishers and members of minority communities and foreigners have been targeted and killed.

In 2008, protests led to the removal of a statue of a Bangladeshi mystic poet at a road crossing near Dhakas airport.
Indonesians and Malaysians among those killed by army in Marawi, where clashes with Maute force thousands to flee.

Foreign fighters were among local gunmen clashing with the Philippine army in Mindanao island, authorities said on Friday, in a rare admission that outsiders were collaborating with domestic groups.

Military officials said Malaysians and Indonesians were among six killed on Thursday in battles that have raged for four days in Marawi City, where the army has been trying to flush out rebels of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf armed groups, which are linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

The Philippines has deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive the gunmen out of the besieged southern city of 200,000 people, with at least 11 soldiers and 31 fighters killed.

Before it was just a local terrorist group. But now they have subscribed to the ideology of ISIS, Solicitor General Jose Calida told a news conference. They want to make Mindanao part of the caliphate.

READ MORE: Mindanao  Churchgoers taken hostage amid Marawi siege

The ongoing violence has forced thousands to flee Marawi, located about 816km south of the capital, Manila.

We are sad to see our children like this. They are just sleeping anywhere, Somaira Aloon, an evacuee, told Al Jazeera. We cant work, its a difficult life.

The International Committee of the Red Cross described the situation as very fluid.

We are seriously concerned about those who are trapped or have chosen to stay in the city, who are in need of food and water.

This is currently a challenge for our teams on the ground as they assess the situation in order to have a clear picture of the number of displaced people and their needs, said Pascal Porchet, who heads ICRCs efforts in the country.

Presence of foreign fighters verified

Al Jazeeras Jamela Alindogan, reporting from Marawi, said: The Maute has specifically harassed and killed Christians in the area. Since last year, they have been raising ISILs black flag in government facilities.

She said reports that foreign fighters had joined the group had been circulating since 2012.

But for years, the Philippine military denied even the existence of Maute and its links with ISIL, our correspondent said. Although there is very little evidence that Maute is indeed connected to ISIL, the presence of foreign fighters here is verified. They come here and engage in combat training.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday delivered on his longstanding threat to impose martial law on Mindanao, the countrys second-largest island and home to 22 million people  roughly one-third of the population.

A day later, Duterte said he may impose nationwide martial law.

He recently warned that ISIL was determined to establish a presence in the southern Philippines and the country was at risk of contamination.

Calida said the Maute group and ISIL wanted to create its own province in Mindanao and the government was not the only target of their aggression.

People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets of opportunity, he said.

What it worrisome is that the ISIS has radicalised a number of Filipino Muslim youth.

His admission elevates the threat of what experts says are moves by ISIL to exploit the poverty and exclusion of the majority Muslim southern Philippines to establish a base for fighters from Southeast Asia and beyond.

Bae a Labi Alsham Cayongcat, a humanitarian worker, told Al Jazeera: Children in an evacuation centre, or children in remote areas who may have not felt the basic services that can be afforded to them by the government, they can be vulnerable to any indoctrination.

The Mautes rise

The Maute is a fierce, but little-known group that has been a tricky battlefield opponent for the military.

It was blamed for a bombing in Dutertes home city of Davao in September last year, which killed 14 people and wounded dozens.

The Mautes rise is a source of concern for Mindanao native Duterte, who is familiar with Muslim separatist unrest but alarmed by the prospect of rebels helping ISIL to recruit and establish a presence in the volatile region.

Hostilities erupted after security forces raided a Marawi apartment in a bid to capture Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of Abu Sayyaf.

OPINION: Peace is still possible in Dutertes Philippines

The operation went wrong after allied Maute fighters called in reinforcements, and then went on a deadly rampage throughout the city.

The government says Hapilon has been the point man for ISIL in the Philippines and has been collaborating with the Maute leaders.

Calida, the solicitor general, said ISIL had declared that Hapilon was their emir, or leader in the Philippines.

Richard Heydarian, assistant professor in international affairs and political science at De La Salle University in Manila, told Al Jazeera that until now, Duterte was more focused on his war on drugs.

In the past two years, peace negotiations have been in hibernation mode, he said. Duterte, who is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, strangely has not prioritised peace negotiations because of his almost obsessive focus on the war on drugs which he has been waging for the past 10 months or so.
Awaqir tribesmen demand answers to how escape from Derna and Benghazi was possible through Haftar-controlled areas.

Armed groups in Libyas east are demanding the disclosure of investigations into the escape of ISIL fighters from Derna and Benghazi through areas controlled by Khalifa Haftar, the retired Libyan army general and self-proclaimed commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Members of a prominent tribe in Benghazi, Awaqir, are demanding answers to how supporters of ISIL, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, were able to leave Benghazi and Derna unhindered on two separate occasions  early 2015 and early this year.

The tribesmen believe the ISIL fighters were smuggled out deliberately.

Libyas Government of National Accord (GNA), formed in 2015, has struggled to exert its authority in Tripoli and beyond, or rein in armed groups, including ISIL, that have held power on the ground since the countrys 2011 uprising.

Deteriorating conditions

In a video statement, commanders of about 15 armed groups in eastern Libya said assassinations and murder have returned to Benghazi after the ISIL fighters escape.

Security conditions have deteriorated and assassinations and bombings have returned to the city, they said as they demanded the truth behind the escape.

Last week, Braik al-Lwati, an Awaqir leader, was killed in a car bomb explosion in Benghazi.





Earlier this year, ISIL fighters operating in Benghazi were allowed a safe corridor to leave the city into the desert, according to local news media reports.

Several activists accused the Haftar-led Dignity Operations Saiqa Force of facilitating the escape.

The Awaqir tribesmen, who say they belong to the LNA, have also pledged not to allow anyone to exploit their sacrifices for personal gain.

We do not recognise any party speaking on our behalf and we will not allow anyone to use our blood for personal benefits, they said.

And in what appears to be a thinly veiled reference to the LNAs commander, Haftar, they have stressed that no one speaks for them.

The LNA does not recognise the authority of the UN-backed GNA, which took the reins of power in Tripoli last year but continues to draw on armed support, especially from the western city of Misrata.

Egyptian air strikes

The protests against Haftar in Libya come against the backdrop of six strikes by Egyptian air force planes directed at camps near Derna, where armed men responsible for a deadly attack on Christians in Egypts Minya province are believed to have trained.

At least 28 Coptic Christians were killed and dozens more wounded on Friday by armed men who attacked them while they were travelling by buses and a truck to a monastery.

Later in the day, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced that he had directed strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.

Egypt will never hesitate to strike terror camps anywhere  if it plans attacking Egypt whether inside or outside the country, Sisi said.
US-led strikes kill 35 in east Syria, just days after monitor reports highest monthly civilian death toll for coalition.

US-led coalition air raids killed at least 35 civilians, including many women and children, in an eastern Syrian town held by ISIL, according to a war monitor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the strikes on Thursday hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Deir Az Zor province.

Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of SOHR, told the AFP news agency, using a different name for ISIL.

The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children.

READ MORE: Syrias civil war explained from the beginning

Thursdays toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the SOHR said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday.

The Britain-based monitor tracks developments in Syrias conflicts via a network of contacts on the ground.

This week, it said a total of 225 civilians were killed in coalition air raids between April 23 and May 23  the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on September 23, 2014.

The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on ISILs remaining bastion cities: Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital in northern Syria, and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians were killed in an air raid on an ISIL weapons cache in Mosul in March. Reports at the time said that more than 200 people had died in the strike.

READ MORE: US says Mosul strike in March killed more than 100 civilians

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks non-combatant deaths in Iraq and Syria, estimated earlier this week as many as 366 civilians were killed in Iraq and Syria in April alone.

It said it had seen civilian fatalities surge since US President Donald Trump came to power and gave greater leeway to battlefield commanders.

Airwars figure and its claim that fatalities had risen under Trump were denied by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syrias conflict broke out in March 2011.
1,500 soldiers deployed in Brasilia are removed after accusations President Michel Temer only trying to cling to power.

Brazils president canceled an order that sent 1,500 soldiers onto the streets of the capital following criticism the move was excessive and merely an effort to maintain power amid increasing calls for his resignation.

The troops were deployed late Wednesday following a day of bloody clashes between police and protesters demanding President Michel Temers ouster amid allegations against him of corruption.

Fires broke out in two ministries and several were evacuated. Protesters also set barricades ablaze and vandalised government buildings.

The issue of troops on the streets is sensitive in a country that lived under military rule from 1964-1985.

In a decree, Temer revoked the order on Thursday to deploy the soldiers considering the halt to acts of destruction and violence and the subsequent re-establishment of law and order.

READ MORE: Embattled Michel Temer deploys troops to streets

On Thursday afternoon, soldiers began to leave their posts in Brasilia.





Defense Minister Raul Jungmann insisted the deployment was necessary to stop the barbarity of the riots.

We had no choice in order to prevent casualties among public servants and the destruction of public heritage, Jungmann said.

Images in national media, meanwhile, appeared to show police officers firing weapons, and the Secretariat of Public Security said it was investigating. In all, 49 people were wounded, including one by a live round. The person was shot in the jaw and was sedated and in serious condition Thursday evening, the Secretariat of Health said.

Temers popularity has been in freefall since he took office a little more than a year ago after his predecessor was impeached and removed. Some Brazilians consider his presidency illegitimate because of the way he came to power, and his efforts to pass a series of economic reforms to cap the budget, loosen labour laws and reduce pension benefits have made him even more unpopular.

In addition, several of his advisers have been linked to Brazils big corruption investigation, known as Operation Car Wash.

As part of the Car Wash probe, Temer now faces allegations that he endorsed the paying of hush money to a former lawmaker who has been jailed for corruption. Brazils highest court is investigating him for alleged obstruction of justice and involvement in passive corruption after a recording seemed to capture his approval of the bribe. Temer denies wrongdoing.

READ MORE: Michel Temer accused of obstruction of justice

Many Brazilians want him out one way or another and are calling for him to resign or be impeached. The demands for his resignation have heated up since the release of the recording and came to a head in Wednesdays protest, when 45,000 demonstrators took to the streets.

Opposition lawmakers have submitted several requests in Congress for Temers impeachment.

The use of troops in the nations capital is particularly fraught in Brazil, where many still remember the repression of the countrys 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Images of soldiers patrolling Brasilia increased the impression that Temer is struggling to maintain control and further ratcheted up pressure on him.
Ramadan Mubarak! Saudi Arabia officially declares May 27 as the first day of Ramadan. Pakistan, India start on Sunday.

Saudi Arabias High Judicial Court has announced that, based on confirmed sightings of Ramadans new moon crescent, the first day of Ramadan 1438 fasting will be Saturday, May 27.

Saturday was confirmed the first day of Ramadan in 33 other countries also, whereas Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Shia Muslims in Iraq declared Sunday May 28 to be their first day of Ramadan.

As per tradition, the sighting of the new moon marks the beginning of the Muslim lunar month of Ramadan.

         .      pic.twitter.com/GaHOHuoZtd     (@AstronomyCenter) May 26, 2017

Turkey and Muslim communities in America, Europe and Australia previously announced they would observe Ramadan fasting from May 27, based on astronomic calculations.

Confirmed May 27 Afghanistan

Albania

Algeria

Australia

Bahrain

Bosnia

Brunei

Canada

Egypt

Ethiopia

Ghana

Iran

Iraq (Sunnis)

Indonesia

Jordan

Kuwait

Lebanon

Libya

Oman

Palestine

Philippines

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Syria

South Africa

Somalia

Sudan

Tunisia

Malaysia

Mauritania

Morocco

Nigeria

UAE

Uganda

UK

United States

Yemen

In Muslim-majority countries, offices are required by law to reduce working hours, and many restaurants are closed during daylight hours in Ramadan.

Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Kareem are common greetings exchanged in this occasion, wishing the recipient a blessed and generous Ramadan.

Moon sighting

Muslim lunar months last between 29 and 30 days, and depending on sighting of the moon on the 29th night of each month. If the moon is not visible, the month will last 30 days.

Astronomic predictions indicate that the new moon crescent should be visible either with the naked eye, or with a telescope from around the world on Friday evening.

Moon sighters in the UAE posted a photo showing the new moon crescent during the day on Friday.

Last year in May, member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, at the International Hijri Calendar Unity Congress held in Istanbul, voted in favour of adopting a single unified lunar calendar.

However, local sighting continues to be the default policy in each country.

End of Ramadan

Ramadan lasts either 29 or 30 days, depending on sighting of the moon on the 29th night of Ramadan, on Saturday June 24.

At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate breaking their fast with the three-day festival of Eid al-Fitr, but holidays differ by country.

This year, Saudi Arabia announced holidays from the 25th of Ramadan until the 7th of Shawal, the lunar month after Ramadan.

As per astronomic calculations, Turkey and Muslim communities in the US and Europe expect the first day of Eid al-Fitr on Sunday, June 25.
At least 52 Government of National Accord fighters killed, shattering period of relative calm in the capital.

At least 52 fighters of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) have been killed in heavy clashes with rival militiamen in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, according to a GNA official.

The fighting on Friday was concentrated in the Abu Salim, Salahedeen and Qasr Bin Ghashir districts, where plumes of black smoke could be seen rising above the citys skyline.

The clashes, which also wounded dozens of fighters, continued throughout Friday prayers, witnesses said.

Hachem Bishr, a national security adviser to the GNA, said that at least 17 of those killed were summarily executed by rival militias in Al-Akwakh district in Abu Salim.

Three governments

Following a UN-brokered deal in December 2015, the GNA arrived in Tripoli last year.

Led by Fayez al-Sarraj, it has struggled to exert its authority in the capital or beyond. It has also failed to rein in the militias that have held power on the ground since the 2011 uprising that toppled Libyas ex-ruler, Muammar Gaddafi.

The GNA issued a statement on Friday blaming the latest violence on Khalifa Ghwell, the head of a self-declared National Salvation Government (NSG), and Salah Badi, an allied militia leader.

Ghwells NSG, which was set up in 2014, is also based in Tripoli but has extended its influence to Libyas west too. It is not recognised by the international community, but is backed by politicians from the now-dissolved General National Congress.

READ MORE: Libya foreign minister names Khalifa Haftar army chief

Besides the GNA and NSG, a third parallel  and rival  government is based in Tobruk, in eastern Libya.

The Tobruk-based House of Representatives does not recognise the leadership of Sarraj or Ghwell, and is backed by renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar, whose forces control key oil ports, is a dominant figure for factions in eastern Libya that have rejected the GNA, contributing to its failure to expand its power.

Calls for calm

The latest clashes follow a period of relative calm in Tripoli since March, when GNA-aligned groups pushed rival factions back from central neighbourhoods.

Al Jazeeras Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli on Friday, said fighting between pro- and anti-GNA groups had intensified, with rival factions mobilising their forces against their rivals.





Hospitals told us the fighting is so heavy that they cant even get in the area to collect bodies.

An aid worker told the Reuters news agency: We have received calls from families who want to get out, but unfortunately we cant reach them because of the clashes.

A Reuters reporter saw tanks, armoured vehicles and pickups mounted with anti-aircraft guns driving towards the battle from the north of the city.

Pictures posted on the internet also showed firefighters trying to extinguish a blaze in an office building in central Tripoli belonging to Mellitah Oil and Gas, a joint venture between Libyas National Oil Corporation and Italys Eni.

Martin Kobler, UNs envoy for Libya, condemned the violence in a statement and called for an immediate restoration of calm.

Voices of reason should prevail for the benefit of the country, he said. Political aims must not be pursued through violence. Civilians must be protected.
Maimane says he was denied entry to the country over his support for a Zambian opposition leader charged with treason.

Mmusi Maimane, South Africas main opposition leader, has accused Zambian officials of denying him entry to their country as he tried to show support for an imprisoned Zambian opposition leader who is being held on treason charges.





Maimane, of the Democratic Alliance party, planned to attend the trial of Hakainde Hichilema, the leader of Zambias United Party for National Development (UPND), on Friday.

But Zambian officials boarded his plane on arrival in Zambias capital, Lusaka, and prevented him from leaving the aircraft.

[The Zambian government sent an] arrest team  to meet me at the airport. Assaulted me & took away my phone so I couldnt get help, Maimane said on Twitter late on Thursday.

Maimane, who returned to South Africa after the failed attempt, told local media that the incident was madness and he had been subjected to apartheid-era treatment.

The rest of the arrest team that the Zambian gov sent to meet me at the airport. Assaulted me & took away my phone so I couldn't get help pic.twitter.com/cdhtO1HY85  Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) May 25, 2017

Zambias ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party had warned Maimane against his visit.

It is common knowledge that there is an explicit court order detailing who can visit the incarcerated opposition leader and it would be rather unfortunate for Maimane to violate the prescripts of this order which will find him in conflict with the laws of our land, the PF said in a statement before he arrived.

A Zambian court on Friday is expected to rule on whether to dismiss the treason charges against Hichilema, who was arrested in April after his motorcade allegedly blocked President Edgar Lungus convoy on a road.

Hichilema was accused of endangering Lungus life and charged with treason, a crime for which the maximum penalty is death. He been held without bail as treason is a non-bailable offence in Zambia.

READ MORE: Zambia denies opposition leader barred access to lawyer

Maimane has called on the Zambian government to drop the charges against Hichilema.

Mr Maimane had strongly denounced the trumped up charges against Hichilema, and had condemned the [South Africas ruling] ANC government for not yet taking a stand against his treason charges, the DA said.

Al Jazeeras Fahmida Miller, reporting from Lusaka, said Thursdays incident has added another level of controversy to the case.

Critics are saying that this is just another show of what seems to be an authoritarian style of governance in Zambia and they are also concerned about the independence of the courts and what may transpire on Friday, Miller said.

OPINION: Zambia: Democratic victory or vote snatching?

Hichilemas case has stoked political tensions after the most recent contested elections.

Zambia was seen as one of southern Africas most stable countries until relations soured between the government and opposition in August, when Lungus PF party narrowly beat the UPND in elections marred by violence.

The opposition says the vote was rigged, but Hichilema has so far failed to successfully challenge the legality of the result.
Spate of recent mosque and Muslim-business attacks blamed on hard-line Buddhist leader who is now on the run.

A manhunt is on in Sri Lanka for a hard-line Buddhist leader after a series of attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses that authorities accuse him of encouraging.

President Maithripala Siresena had vowed to investigate anti-Muslim hate crimes after assuming power in 2015, however, attacks have escalated over the past two weeks. Another Muslim shop in the town of Kahawatte was reportedly burned to the ground this week by unidentified attackers.

Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General-Secretary Galagoda Atte Gnanasara has encouraged his Buddhist supporters to lead another campaign against Muslims following the deadly Aluthgama riots in June 2014, which attempted to create disunity between Buddhists and Muslims.

Less than 10 percent of Sri Lankas population of 20 million are Muslim. The majority are Sinhalese Buddhist, while most Tamils are Hindu.

Political analyst Amjad Mohamed Saleem told Al Jazeera it was worrisome that violent Buddhist nationalism had re-emerged.

If the government doesnt address this issue, it will spill over. We all know the ramifications of these types of tensions that are unchecked. The government has to respond with rule of law and justice if it wants to assure communities its not behind it [violence], said Saleem.

A number of Sri Lankan Muslim ministers urged Siresena to take action this week in critical comments, and a meeting was arranged on Thursday to discuss a move to arrest Gnanasara, who is currently in hiding.

A Sri Lankan court has now issued a warrant for his arrest.

The BBS secretary-general has re-started this anti-Muslim campaign as he himself was having problems with the police  for going against the authorities in a number of incidents, Hilmy Ahamed, vice president of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, told Al Jazeera.

Gnanasara  wants to re-start his campaign to fuel tensions in the country. What he is trying to do now is to give the impression to the majority Buddhists that he will be imprisoned indefinitely due to Muslim complaints against him and his group. He is driving the attention away from his crimes.

READ MORE: Sri Lanka shaken by religious violence

Ahamed also accused BBS activists of intimidating the Muslim community.

They have attacked holy places of worship such as our mosques and destroyed Muslim property and livelihoods The problem was that the government had been lenient all this time towards the BBS crimes these last two weeks, he said.

Azath Salley, an advisor to the government, told Al Jazeera the Buddhist hardliners were allowed to flourish under the previous administration.

The BBS had been very active in the last regime of Mahinda Rajapakse and have done damage to unity and created many problems for Muslims in the country. With the new President Siresena we hoped that improvements would be made to facilitate peace within the country.

We had to bring in pressure to the government in order to take this case up against the BBS, and I am glad that finally action is being taken with special teams being deployed to find Gnanasera, he said.

Salley noted the countrys devastating 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and said he didnt want to see any return of violence.

As a politician, I am concerned about the tensions escalating. We are peace-loving people and we do not want another calamity after Sri Lanka already went through a war with the LTTE. We want coexistence and peace in the community. I am glad the government has realised that he [Gnanasera] is a threat to national security.

WATCH: Who is behind Sri Lankas religious violence?

Amanthi Ratanakaye, 48, is a Sinhalese mother who said the BBS group does not represent the majority of Buddhists in the country.

We want to live peacefully and we do not support the acts that are done on our fellow Muslim neighbours, she told Al Jazeera.

They do not represent us, but they are worryingly influencing our young, which is why action must be taken against them.
Monitor says most of those killed were Moroccan and Syrian nationals who had fled from ISIL-controlled Raqqa.

At least 106 civilians, including 42 children, have been killed in a series of air strikes by the US-led coalition on an ISIL-held town in eastern Syria, according to a monitoring group.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says the deaths resulted from air strikes targeting Al Mayadeen in the province of Deir Az Zor.

There were two rounds of strikes: one at Thursday night and the second after midnight, targeting buildings housing families of [ISIL] fighters, Rami Abdel Rahman, the SOHRs head, told DPA news agency.

Abdel Rahman said most of those killed were Moroccan and Syrian nationals who had fled to Al Mayadeen from ISILs de-facto capital, Raqqa, in northeastern Syria.

OPINION: Dismantling ISILs propaganda machine

The first round of air strikes reportedly killed 35 civilians.

The SOHR tracks developments in Syrias conflicts via a network of contacts on the ground.

Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesperson for the 68-member coalition against ISIL, told Al Jazeera that any loss of civilian life in the battle against ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, is a tragedy.

The coalition goes through very significant and deliberate processes to make sure that we can mitigate the human suffering and the human casualties as we continue our fight to defeat [ISIL], he said.

The faster we can defeat [ISIL], the quicker human suffering can stop.

December Directive

The US-led coalition is backing two ground offensives against ISILs last remaining strongholds: Raqqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

Al Jazeeras Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington DC, said the latest air strikes may relate to the so-called December Directive  a memo sent by Barack Obama before the end of his presidency changing the command structure enabling commanders on the ground to bypass the Pentagon and order air strikes, while also easing the restrictions on when they could fire.

President Donald Trump has maintained this directive.

They used to have to have near certainty that no civilians would be killed, our correspondent said. Its a much looser rule now.





And thats why youre seeing many human-rights groups coming out and saying that those changes need to go back to how they were before the December Directive.

The latest developments come even as the UN urges all countries bombing ISIL in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the UN human rights chief, said on Friday that civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating attacks against ISIL, also known as ISIS, in Syria.

The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL, are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of Raqqa and Deir Az Zor, Al Hussein said in a statement from Geneva.

Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas.

Al Hussein cited a May 14 strike that reportedly killed 23 farm workers in a rural area of Raqqa province and an air strike the following day that is said to have killed at least 59 civilians and wounded dozens in ISIL-controlled al-Bukamal (also known as Abu Kamal), another town in Deir Az Zor.

ISIL retaliation

Al Hussein also said he was concerned about retaliatory measures taken by ISIL against civilians suspected of facilitating the air strikes and reports that civilians were being prevented from leaving ISIL-controlled areas.

The day after the al-Bukamal incident, ISIL fighters reportedly cut the throats of eight men at the site of the attack, accusing them of providing coordinates for the air strikes.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an air raid on an ISIL weapons cache in Iraqs Mosul in March.

Dillion, the coalition spokesperson, did not comment specifically on Thursdays Al Mayadeen incident, but told Al Jazeera that allegations of civilian casualties are taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.

IN PHOTOS: Inside Syria  How life goes on in a besieged town

He also said ISIL sometimes use civilians as human shields.

The US-led coalition began bombing ISIL targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the SOHR reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalitions operations in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.
Leaders of biggest economies make no effort to hide their divisions on some topics, but unite against armed attacks.

Leaders of seven biggest economies known as the G7 have found common cause on fighting terrorism, but failed to bridge a gulf between US President Donald Trump and other leaders on trade and climate change.

On the opening day of a two-day summit, the leaders endorsed on Friday a call by the UK urging internet service providers and social media companies to crack down on the dissemination of content that inspires violence in the name of religion.





In a joint statement on terrorism, the G7 powers also vowed a collective effort to track down and prosecute foreign fighters dispersing from Syria and other conflict zones.

But US partners hit deadlock in their attempt to persuade Trump to keep the worlds biggest economy inside the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement on curbing carbon emissions to reduce global warming.

Tensions over trade also flared. Leaders made no effort to hide their divisions in Sicilys ancient hilltop resort of Taormina.

The choice of venue overlooking the Mediterranean reflected the Italian hosts desire for the summit to showcase cooperation against deadly flows of illegal migration from nearby Africa.

But discussions on that subject also hit stalemate because of differences with the US at what EU President Donald Tusk called the most challenging G7 summit in years.

Evolving views

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni acknowledged there had been no breakthrough on climate change, describing the future of the Paris pact as still hanging, as Trump reviews the arguments for and against the US ditching the global deal.

Gary Cohn, Trumps economic advisor, said the presidents views were evolving.

He came here to learn, Cohn said. His basis for decision ultimately will be whats best for the United States.

Also in Brussels, Trump had fired an extraordinary broadside at NATO allies for failing to pay their fair share of the transatlantic defence bill, and notably did not endorse the groups commitment to collective defence, as his predecessors have done.
Politicians and officials accused of glossing over worsening poverty and child mortality rates in Sindhs Tharparkar.

Failure of a former Pakistan president and co-chairman of the ruling PPP party in Sindh province to address the deteriorating conditions in the poverty-stricken Tharparkar district shows how the poor and deprived are not on politicians agenda, local residents and activists say.

Asif Ali Zardari, who was Pakistans president from 2008-2013, visited Tharparkar on Thursday with Sindhs chief minister to review progress of the ongoing Thar coal power projects and oversee construction of a dam in Gorano village.

Almost 2,000 children aged under five have died in Tharparkar  a district spread over 20,000sq km  since 2011.

While lack of accessible medical care and health officials is touted as one of the major reasons, poverty, illiteracy, lack of clean drinking water and teenage pregnancies also play a major role in the high child mortality rate.

READ MORE: Tharparkar  Pakistans ongoing catastrophe

Failure of either official to address the worsening situation shows the ruling partys neglect and lack of concern for the district, said Partab Shivani, an educationist and social activist in Tharparkar.

These politicians visit the coal projects frequently but despite the increasing death and suicide rates, and the deteriorating health condition of the residents, there is no intention on the Pakistan Peoples Partys (PPP) part to improve things, Shivani told Al Jazeera.

It doesnt look like Tharparkar and its people are on the PPPs agenda. If you dont provide basic facilities for residents and help them out, they will die.

At least eight infants, including two-month old Jugesh, have died at the Mithi Civil Hospital Mithi, the sole medical facility serving the districts 1.5 million people, in the last three days.

Patients present at the hospital complained of being forced to drink highly contaminated water of the wells which, according to them, was the main reason behind the current deaths.

Despite repeated attempts, the district health officer of Tharparkar, the civil surgeon of Mithi Civil Hospital and the PPP spokesperson could not be reached by Al Jazeera for a comment.

Local journalists who had gathered to question the PPP co-chairman and the Sindh chief minister on Thursday said the visitors toured a model village but refused to meet locals, including PPP supporters, or visit the affected areas.

Villagers affected by the construction of the new dam have been protesting for over 200 days. The politicians came to oversee work on the dam but failed to meet those who are being affected by its construction, said Shivani.

Tharparkar is in a need of an additional 332 doctors; yet earlier this year, the Sindh government dismissed 25 doctors, including five female doctors, according to a report in Pakistans Dawn newspaper.

We have not been given medicines and other facilities in government hospitals, one of the parents at the hospital complained to reporters.

The doctors here are insisting we get our kids admitted into private clinics.

The Dawn report said at least 20 doctors working at civil hospitals in the district have set up private clinics in Tharparkar.

Prem Chandar, who lost four children in five years, told Al Jazeera last year how his repeated trips to the hospitals made little difference.

I sold my wifes jewellery, I sold my shop, my business, my motorcycle. I sold it all off. We came down to zero. But nothing could save our children, said Chandar.

The government is blind and deaf. It doesnt care about the poor. It gets into power through our votes but doesnt actually do anything for us. It doesnt even give kerosene oil for the poor man to pour and kill himself and his family.

Earlier this month, Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistans federal minister for planning, development and reform, was quoted in the media as saying that the desert region of Tharparkar was home to some of the worlds largest coal reserves and thus could not be left unexploited.

Whatever the plans of the PPP and the federal government for Tharparkar, they seem far removed from reality to local residents, who say their modest demands remain unmet by both the provincial and national assemblies, said Shivani.

The politicians and stakeholders need to look beyond the photo opportunities they come to Tharparkar for, said Shivani, the educationist.

The poor have to be back on the agenda. Right now, its mostly the locals and the nongovernmental organisations working. The health situation needs to be looked into and doctors need to be paid. The focus needs to be on the common man of the district.

With additional reporting by Hanif Samoon: @HanifSamoon1
Laughing men surrounding Kim Jong-un in photos are serious technocrats who have vastly improved the Norths arsenal.

After successful missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un often exchanges smiles and hugs with the same three men and shares a celebratory smoke.

The three, shown with Kim in photographs and TV footage in North Korean media, are of great interest to Western intelligence agencies since they are the top people in the secretive countrys rapidly accelerating missile programme.

They include Ri Pyong-chol, a former top air force general, Kim Jong-sik, a veteran rocket scientist, and Jang Chang-ha, the head of a weapons development and procurement centre.

Photographs and TV footage show the three are clearly Kims favourites. Their behavior with him is sharply at variance with the obsequiousness of other senior aides, most of whom bow and hold their hands over their mouths when speaking to the young leader.

READ MORE: North Koreas nuclear weapons: Here is all we know

Unlike most other officials, two of them have flown with Kim in his private plane Goshawk-1, named after North Koreas national bird, state TV has shown.

With their ruling Workers Party, military and scientific credentials, the trio is indispensable to North Koreas rapidly developing weapons programmes  the isolated nation has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year, all in violation of UN resolutions.





Rather than going through bureaucrats, Kim Jong-un is keeping these technocrats right by his side, so that he can contact them directly and urge them to move fast. It reflects his urgency about missile development, said An Chan-il, a former North Korean military officer who defected to the South and runs a think-tank in Seoul.

Kim Jong-sik and Jang are not from elite families, unlike many other senior figures in North Koreas ruling class, North Korean leadership experts say. They said Ri, the former air force commander, has been to one of the better-regarded schools in North Korea, but he and the other two were hand-picked by Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un is raising a new generation of people separate from his fathers key aides, said a South Korean official with knowledge of the matter, referring to Kim Jong-il, who died in late 2011 leaving the younger Kim in charge.

The official requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The big potato

The most prominent of the three is Ri, according to analysts.

Always shown smiling in photographs, he is now deputy director of the Workers Party Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the development of North Koreas ballistic missile programme, according to the South Korean government and US Treasury.

The department was blacklisted by the US Treasury in 2010 and Ri was named by the South Korean government last year for activities related to the countrys weapons programmes.

The big potato in that trio of people is Ri Pyong-chol, said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership. Hes been around since before Kim Jong-un was even talked about with any seriousness.

Born in 1948, Ri was partly educated in Russia and promoted when Kim Jong-un started to rise through the ranks in the late 2000s, Madden and the South Korean government official said.





Ri has visited China once and Russia twice. He met Chinas defence minister in 2008 as the air force commander and accompanied Kim Jong-il on a visit to a Russian fighter jet factory in 2011, according to state media.

Ri looks like the partys guy in the missile programme, said Kim Jin-moo, an expert on North Koreas elite.

The rocket scientist in the trio is Kim Jong-sik.

He started his career as a civilian aeronautics technician, but now wears the uniform of a military general at the Munitions Industry Department, according to experts and the South Korean government.

But it was his role in the North Koreas first successful launch of a rocket in 2012 that really helped him earn recognition, Madden said.

When that thing went off and entered into a lower Earth orbit, he got credit for that, said Madden. The nuclear and missile guys under Kim Jong-un are getting their jobs based on merit.

READ MORE: North Korea on maximum alert after US threats

Last year, Kim Jong-sik was at the National Aerospace Development Administration or NADA, North Koreas official space agency, where he escorted Kim Jong-un through the mission control room ahead of a successful long-range rocket launch in February.

State TV footage showed him riding to a launch site in Kim Jong-uns private plane. Upon arrival, he accompanied the young leader down the red carpet and received flowers from other senior officials.

Of the three men, the least is known about Jang Chang-ha, president of the Academy of the National Defence Science.

The body is in charge of the secretive countrys research and development of its advanced weapons systems, including missiles and probably nuclear weapons, the US Treasury said in 2010 in its decision to blacklist the group.

These are the men bringing North Koreas missile programme into the 21st century, said Madden.
Twenty-six people, including six policemen, are on trial over a 2015 beach attack that left dozens of tourists dead.

A Tunisian court held on Friday its first public hearing in the trial of 26 people in connection with an attack on a beach resort that killed dozens of foreign tourists in 2015.

Six of the defendants are policemen accused of failing to assist a person in danger.

The remainder, all Tunisians, are accused of terrorism offences, murder and conspiracy against the security of the state, the prosecution said.

In the June 26, 2015 attack Seifeddine Rezgui, a 23-year-old student armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades, went on a rampage in the Port el-Kantaoui resort near Sousse, killing 38 holidaymakers, 30 of them British tourists, before being shot dead by police.

He acted alone during the attack but had accomplices who supported him beforehand, authorities said.

It was the second of two deadly attacks on foreigners claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that year, and devastated Tunisias once-lucrative tourism sector.

OPINION: Tunisias security-first approach

Security was tight at the Tunis court for the trial opening.

The examining magistrate finished his investigation in July last year, but defence lawyers said they would ask for an immediate adjournment at the opening hearing to give them more time to study the prosecutions case.

Ines Harrath said her client, Achraf Sandi, was charged with belonging to a terrorist group and using weapons, but was neither a Salafist nor a terrorist.





She said he had been arrested because his brother, who is on the run, is accused of involvement in the case.

There has been widespread criticism of the Tunisian police forces response to the killings.

British judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, who held an inquest into the deaths of the Britons among the holidaymakers, said in February that the police response had been at best shambolic, at worst cowardly.

Their response could and should have been more effective, he said.

Andrew Ritchie, a lawyer representing 20 victims families, read out a January 2015 report by a British diplomat, saying there had been little in the way of effective security to prevent or respond to an attack at the beach.
Nearly one million ethnic Arabs fleeing war and violence back home have come to Germany since 2015.

This film follows one of them, newspaper editor and Syrian asylum seeker Ramy Alasheq, as he looks into historical patterns of Arab immigration and how the latest arrivals are being received in their new country.

For Ramy and many others, life has not been the same since young men said to be Arab were accused of robbing and attacking German women on New Years Eve 2015 in his new hometown, Cologne. It is a city that Ramy has come to love. But while he and fellow immigrants initially received a warm reception, there are now widespread calls to halt the entry of Arab refugees into Germany.

For hundreds of years, Germany has been a magnet for migrants and refugees from all over the world. But its specific focus on encouraging migration from countries in the Middle East like Egypt, Syria, Iraq and to a lesser extent Jordan, Palestine and North Africa, is not often discussed.

Through the human stories of second and third-generation migrants, as well as incoming new refugees, this film paints a picture of how the experience of Arab immigrants in Germany has changed over the decades.

We ask what it means to be a foreigner in Germany, and at the same time come to understand Germany itself and the reasoning behind its immigration policies. We also hear from German analysts and decision-makers about Germanys dependency on migrant communities to re-populate its dwindling towns and keep its economy strong.

FILMMAKERS VIEW

By Mariam Shahin

It has been nearly a decade since my initial curiosity was aroused about the fate of the thousands of Arab students and emigres who had come to Germany in the late 1950s.

In 2007, I made a short film about Muslims in Berlin, the city of my birth. Having left at the age of eight, my memory was selective, but I remembered the fun gatherings of my fathers friends in our homes in Berlin: graduate students from Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. My father became a biologist and cancer researcher, his friends became surgeons, physicians, archaeologists and insurance agents.

When I returned to Berlin to make the film, I realised I knew very little about the community which had been the cradle of my early childhood. Unlike the now increasingly documented narratives of Arab immigrants to the Americas, France, England and other countries, Germanys Arab immigrant history was a vast unknown, even to those who grew up there.

It took the opening of Germany's doors and borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from predominantly Arab countries to stir an interest in the Arab-German relationship by Mariam Shahin

It took the opening of Germanys doors and borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from predominantly Arab countries to stir an interest in the Arab-German relationship.

The reasons for Germanys doors wide open policy were a bit of a mystery to me. The justifications are not widely discussed or even documented. There are tidbits here and there  and of course the words of Frank Walter Steinmeier. In 2015, the then foreign minister and now president of the German Republic said that with a shrinking workforce and aging population, Germany needed the refugees to boost its aging workforce.

Travelling from the far west of Germany in Freiburg to the east in Dresden, I found that the relationship between the old Arab immigrants to Germany and the new Arab refugees and asylum seekers mirrored the changes of over five decades in the Arab world itself. The older generation, many of whom came in the late 1950s and 60s, basically assimilated and accommodated their status as tolerated and, sometimes, welcomed guests.

The new generation, symbolised by the presenter of the film Ramy Alasheq, a newspaper publisher, poet and asylum seeker from Syria, is fully versed in the multicultural mindset which developed in the past 50 years in dozens of societies around the globe. Unlike many of their predecessors, they dont accept the dominance of one culture over the other. They seek parity  they insist on it.

Germans of the 1950s and 2017 are as different as the old and new Arabs of Germany. In the 1950s, Germans were still shell-shocked from the second world war and grateful for their own survival. They were focused on moving forward and eager to be and remain part of the Western civilisation. Today, Germans are more confident in their ability to lead Europe and the West towards a more integrated global economy and internationally accepted norms.

A poll in late February showed 15 percent of Germans support the right-wing, anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Perhaps this 15 percent will resist the transformation of Germany into a more multicultural society, but the vast majority is willing to accept it  within limits. Both Angela Merkel and her more left-wing challenger Martin Schultz espouse policies of inclusion, which are challenged by both the right and left as being too much or too little.

The new refugees, especially those from Syria and Iraq, are struggling culturally and economically. They will need to conform to the German way of doing things, working through the bureaucratic elephant to reach their goal of becoming citizens with equal rights to others. But they are unlikely to be forced to assimilate culturally, like those who came before them. In cultural terms, they will remain Arabs in Europes largest country and strongest economy. For them, in many ways, it is the new promised land.
We ask close ally of newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani and prominent former Iranian diplomat, Hossein Mousavian.

Iranians took to the polls and overwhelmingly voted to re-elect incumbent and so-called moderate Hassan Rouhani in last weeks presidential election.

But can we expect his next four years on the international stage to be any different from the previous years?

According to Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a close friend and ally of Rouhani, while the focus of the first term was on the nuclear issue, the second term will focus on regional diplomacy.

I think in the second term he would really like to focus on the regional issues to bring peace, cooperation, engagement, diplomacy with the neighbours, says Mousavian, who also headed the Foreign Relations Committee of Irans Supreme National Security Council.

The problem is whether Saudi Arabia would be ready  [they] now prefer to ally with Israel rather than Iran, to fight Iran.

In this UpFront special, Mehdi Hasan challenges Iranian policymaker and former diplomat Hossein Mousavian to explain Irans policies in the region and what some see as the double standards with regards to Yemen and Bahrain.

For more on Irans internal power dynamics and the extent of political reform, go to fb.com/ajupfront

Editors note: We covered human rights and the extent of democracy in Iran previously here: http://aje.io/pezl

Reality Check  Is everything really better in Canada?

Canada, the land of a gender-balanced, diverse government that offers free healthcare to all and is a beacon to progressive values.

But the truth is, Canada is not the post-racial, liberal utopia you may think it is.

In this weeks Reality Check, we acknowledge that Canada is a model in many areas, but also look at the increasing bigotry faced by Muslims in the country and look at the harsh realities faced by the neglected indigenous population.

Follow UpFront on Twitter @AJUpFront and Facebook.
Tribal leaders in Namibia fight the German government for the return of hundreds of skulls taken for racial experiments.

Editors note: This film is no longer available to view online.

Tribal people of Namibia claim that between 1904 and 1908 Germany perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century in their country, the former Imperial German colony of South West Africa.

After colonists confiscated their land, the cattle-rearing Herero and Nama people rebelled and as a result were massacred by German troops. They were shot, hanged from trees, or forced into the desert where they starved to death.

Survivors were taken to work in concentration camps where many died. Women and girls were raped. An estimated 100,000 people were killed, leaving just 15,000 survivors.

Hundreds of skulls of Herero and Nama people who died were taken to Germany for scientific racial experiments by the colonists. This film is a testimonial account of the descendants of the Herero victims and their ongoing struggle to reclaim their land, get compensation and the return of their ancestors skulls from Germany.










English News India should worry about Kashmir after US proposed Sunni-Shia war

Alwihda Info | Par Hem Raj Jain - 26 Mai 2017





Bengaluru, India Sub:- (i)- Americans will support Sunni-Shia war with gusto (ii)- Sunni-Shia war bound to convert Sunni- NATO into Sunni  Caliphate (iii)- India should stop under-estimating Islam (iv)- In Sunni-Shia war and for consolidating Sunni-Caliphate the SaAr will reap rich harvest from the crop of Wahabi-Islam, it sowed for decades (v)- In Sunni-Shia war Pakistan will emerge as most important country of Sunni-NATO (vi)- Without nukes from China or Russia, the Shia Iran has no chance against Sunni-NATO (vii)- China and Russia will not like to antagonize Sunnis (~ 85 % Muslim population) for Shias (viii)- Sunni-Jihadis will play important role in Kashmir war (ix)- India sandwiched between Sunni-NATO countries east of Iran (namely Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia) will face tough situation to handle during Sunni-Shia war (x)- If does not make course correction in Kashmir policy, there may be another partition of India after trifurcation of India in 1947 at the hands of Islam



---When US President Donald Trump gave following clarion call on May, 21 to Sunni Muslim countries from the soil of Saudi Arabia (SaAr) to wage war against Shias / Iran and to engineer regime change in Iran that [No discussion of stamping out terrorism would be complete without mentioning the government that gives terrorists the safe harbor, financial backing, and the social standing needed for recruitment. It is a regime that is responsible for so much instability in the region. I am speaking of course of Iran. For decades, Iran has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror. It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room. All nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism, and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they deserve]  the USA knew that SaAr sponsored Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism (IMAFT) or Sunni-Caliphate as is popularly known of 41 Sunni Muslim countries has already come into existence with former Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif as its first commander-in-chief. With such politico-strategic backdrop what Trump has said in said speech is to make Sunni-Shia war inevitable. In addition to extremely grave implications for entire world this Sunni-Shia war will have serious implications for India also and if India does not make course correction in Kashmir policy, there may be another partition of India after trifurcation of India in 1947 at the hands of Islam as explained below:-



(1)- Americans will support Sunni-Shia war with gusto because (i)- After war of independence (1776  83) the USA got economic prosperity mainly by supplying war material to warring European countries for ~ 150 years from late eighteenth to mid twentieth century (including during Napoleon Wars, Colonial Wars and World Wars I & II). Hence supplying war material to Sunni-NATO countries (Trump has already signed deals with SaAr for ~ $ 350 Billion out of which $ ~ 110 Billion is for defense purpose) will appeal to Americans in the interest of American prosperity (ii)- Trumps argument that these deals with SaAr will provide huge employment to Americans will further appeal to Americans (iii)- This Sunni-Shia war will be seen by Americans to solve all the gory problems in NAME (North Africa Middle East) region without putting American boots on ground (iv)- It will provide moral ground to Americans that this Sunni-Shia war will get rid of President Assad who ruled Syria when Syria faced worst human-rights-crises.



(2)- This Sunni-Shia war is bound to convert Sunni- NATO into Sunni  Caliphate. Because the world is composed of mainly four major human groups namely Christians, Muslims, Chinese and Hindus, All other three except Muslims have one military that is the reason Muslims are militarily weak hence no body is bothered about solving the problems of Muslims though tens of millions of Muslims are bleeding and weeping profusely all over the world. Through this Sunni-NATO [like Christians (through NATO), Chinese and Hindus having one county for them hence one military] the Sunni Muslim community will also have one military power which will go a long way in solving all the hitherto intractable problems of Muslims all across the world. In this Sunni-Shia war and for consolidating Sunni-Caliphate the SaAr will reap rich harvest from the crop of Wahabi-Islam, it has been sowing for decades. Without nukes from China or Russia, the Shia Iran has no chance against Sunni-NATO. Moreover China and Russia will not like to antagonize Sunnis (~ 85 % of Muslim population) for Shias (~ 15 % of Muslim population)



(3)- In Sunni-Shia war Pakistan will emerge as most important country of Sunni-NATO because (i)- Pakistan (as is the case with India) has professional military since the days of Britishers (ii)- Pakistan military is battle hardened (iii)- Pakistan has nukes (iv)- Pakistan shares border with Iran hence in Sunni-Shia war the Sunni-NATO will expect Pakistan to open front against Iran from the soil of Pakistan



(4)- It is precisely here that India may come in problem. (Even if China remains neutral in Indo-Pak war over Kashmir) for opening front against Iran, Pakistan will demand from Sunni-NATO to allow it (with funds) to increase its military might (military personnel, arms/ machines / ammunition etc) and which is highly likely to be used by Pakistan in Kashmir war. Otherwise also, as per media report, Islam has laid down the lives of about one hundred thousand Jihadis for Kashmir hence hundreds of thousands of Sunni-Jihadis (from all over the world) are bound to take active part in Kashmir war and which will be an important factor in Kashmir war



(5)- India will face one more serious problem during Sunni-Shia war. India (with ~ 200 million Muslim population both Sunnis and Shias) sandwiched between Sunni-NATO countries east of Iran (namely Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia) will face tough domestic situation to handle during Sunni-Shia war especially in view of the fact that the Jihadis will intervene hugely in Kashmir war.



(6)- One more factor will create serious problem for India. Even if this weeks demonstration by Kashmiris (in front of the White House which was attended by Separatists too where Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Yasin Malik gave speeches) is overlooked, the condition in Kashmir after July 2016 (after death of Hizbul Commander Burhan Wani) is of practically total alienation of Kashmiris from India. In recent election only ~ 2 % was voter turn-out and now not only boys but even girls of schools and colleges are throwing stones at security forces. What is more worrisome is that Kashmir struggle is increasingly departing from political struggle for freedom and instead getting converted into struggle for Islam.



(7)- India should stop under-estimating Islam. The Sunni-Caliphate is politically not that nonviable as the jingoist & communal Hindu Indians think. These naive Hindu Indians should know that Islam is the most modern (because it believes in worship of abstract in this age of modern science & technology) and humane religion (because it is against usury and promotes Zakat, Waqf). Hence given some up-dating of Islam (regarding this-worldly matters in order to make it human rights friendly) along with pan-Caliphate political parties, will make Sunni-Caliphate the most vibrant & stable political model.



Therefore in view of above mentioned India should make course correction in Kashmir policy, otherwise India may face another partition after trifurcation of India in 1947 at the hands of Islam.



Regards



Hem Raj Jain



(Author of Betrayal of Americanism)



Bengaluru, India



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)
Will President Trump achieve the impossible breakthrough his predecessors were unable to accomplish? Or, like his predecessors, will he fall victim to two-faced Arab Palestinian leadership?

Let's not forget how hard President Bill Clinton tried to forge an agreement between Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and PLO founder Yasser Arafat during the Camp David ll negotiations in 2000. Prior to negotiations, Arafat was all smiles and sounded committed to peace between the Arab Palestinians and Israel. Negotiations dragged on and on. Barak provided Arafat with an incredible offer, which would have placed Israeli security at great risk: virtually 100% of Judea and Samaria, commonly called the West Bank. Jerusalem would have been divided, and eastern Jerusalem would be awarded to the Arab Palestinians. A land bridge between Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip was included, effectively splitting Israel in half. Compensation for so-called refugees was included.

President Clinton would later say he could not believe how good the offer was. Yet all Arafat said was "no." In the end, Clinton was furious with him and publicly blamed him for the collapse of the talks. Subsequent to the failed negotiations, the Arab Palestinians rioted, and an extended intifada ensued.

Arafat fell from favor as far as Clinton was concerned. He learned a painful and embarrassing lesson: Arafat could not be trusted.

In 2002, when the late Ariel Sharon was prime minister, President George W. Bush was attempting to persuade Arafat to stop his terrorist activity and pursue peace with Israel. Sharon then dropped the hammer on the two-faced Arafat. He provided documents that proved that while Arafat kept up the diplomatic chatter, he was signing off on terrorist operations. Bush was angry and embarrassed. He had had faith that Arafat could be a genuine peace partner.

However, when Sharon proved Arafat to be a liar, Bush publicly called for Arafat's ouster. Relations between the Bush administration and Arafat went flat and never recovered.

Abbas Echoes Arafat

Subsequent to Bush came eight years of Obama. In 2008, another incredibly generous offer was put forth by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. This time, the recipient was Mahmoud Abbas, who had succeeded Arafat, who had passed away in 2004. Abbas rejected the offer out of hand. Abbas demanded that Israel halt "settlement" construction as a precondition for peace negotiations.

In an effort to entice Abbas to the table, Israel did stop construction for ten months. However, Abbas failed to return to negotiations. Obama was never able to achieve any measurable diplomatic breakthrough during his two terms as president.

Enter the Trump Era

He's called a peace agreement between Israel and the Arabs the "ultimate deal." He's met with Israeli prime minister Netanyahu and P.A. president Abbas. This past week, he made his first foreign trip as president. The first stop was Saudi Arabia, where he spoke to an assembled audience of 50 Arab leaders. The Saudi royal family rolled out the red carpet, signaling a clear departure from uneasy relations with the Obama administration.

In Trump's speech to the audience of Arab leaders, he said they must "drive out" the terrorists from their countries and from the Earth. These are the strongest words ever spoken by a U.S. president while in an Arab nation, speaking to Arab leaders. Trump also signaled that the Saudis are warm to his efforts to achieve a peace agreement with Israel.

Trump moved on and flew to Israel. He met with Mahmoud Abbas, who has already told Trump he is ready to begin negotiations with Israel right away...without preconditions. This is a departure from his long held position of demanding that Israel halt all construction before he would consider coming to the table.

The question arises: is Abbas sincere? Will he come to the table while Israel continues to build?

Something else noteworthy took place while President Trump delivered his remarks as he stood next to Abbas. Not once did Trump mention the words "Palestinian state," nor did he use the phrase "two-state solution."

While in Israel, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Kotel (Western Wall). He also paid a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial museum. While in Israel, he restated the U.S. commitment to Israel's security and promised a continued qualitative edge in weaponry for Israel.

Yet, as was the case in Bethlehem [not Ramallah ed.] with Abbas, in all of Trump's remarks while in Israel, he neglected to use the terms "Palestinian state" and "two-state solution."

A Quid Pro Quo?

One cannot help but wonder what took place in the private discussion between Trump and Abbas as well as with Netanyahu. Did the Saudis whisper something in Trump's ear while he was there? Is there a quid pro quo brewing?

Will Donald Trump be able to achieve the impossible and forge an agreement between Israel and the Arab Palestinians as well as the Arab world in general? Is Mahmoud Abbas changing his colors and expressing genuine interest in peace with Israel? Will he sign off on what no other Palestinian leader has been willing to? Will he recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state? Will he accept Israeli sovereignty over Temple Mount?

President Trump seems to suggest there is a fresh wind of optimism blowing through the halls of power in the Middle East. He is eager to facilitate the most dramatic diplomatic breakthrough ever in the Middle East. He deserves an opportunity to do the unthinkable.

What remains to be seen is what Abbas will do. Will he follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and say one thing publicly in English while continuing his Islamic agenda of terror when he speaks in Arabic? Will he string President Trump along, only to ultimately show his true colors and embarrass President Trump as Arafat did with two previous presidents?

Or will Abbas do what no other Arab Palestinian leader has done?

Read more articles by Dan Calic on his Facebook page.
Provided a second term not by the people but the ruling elite, Hassan Rouhani is merely another tear of the cloth known as the Islamic Republic of Iran. He provided the grounds needed for Tehran to go ahead with multiple ballistic missile tests, fired rockets close to American warships in international waters, revealed a new missile bunker, assumed an intransigent posture with respect to a full accounting of past nuclear research, sanctioned the capture of American sailors and the harassing of our ships in the Gulf, and dispatched Iranian agents to Germany in search of nuclear technology, as explained by the Financial Times.

There are also signs of Rouhanis initiatives inflicting permanent damage to the mullahs rule. Through the course of his campaign trail Rouhani raised the stakes of his ousting by the senior ruling clerics, unveiling secrets of the regimes dark history and pledges he obviously has no intention, let alone ability, to meet.

Rouhanis practices have already sidelined the regimes higher ranks, and considering the rigged nature of Irans voter turnout numbers, he is on course to disappoint the dismal few who actually did vote for him. As seen in the past 38 years, the road ahead with Rouhani as Irans president -- a puppet of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei -- will prove the fact that reform from within in Iran is nothing but a hoax.

Rouhani is known to be the first Iranian regime official to openly call for public executions in order to inflict a graver influence on the general public and impose a certain climate of fear to quell dissent.

Conspirators should be hanged in Friday prayers for people to see them and to have more of an impact, he said on July 14th, 1980.

At an election rally Rouhani went as far as emphasizing that the people will say no to those who over the course of 38 years only executed and jailed. This is considered a clear reference to Ebrahim Raisi, his then conservative rival known for his notorious role in the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners across the country.

While Raisi played a leading part, Rouhani, then a member of the regimes so-called parliament, was fully informed of the atrocities in the regimes dungeons and remained through the course, and to this day. Ever since, the Iranian regime has portrayed the issue as a taboo and no-mans land in order to maintain a lid on it.

And yet a major campaign is ongoing inside the country and abroad, with brave activists rising to the challenge and demanding answers about the regimes atrocities in general, especially the executions of the entire 1980s.

<iframe width="814" height="455" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XJBBOtI6UVg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Rouhani also served as Irans secretary of the Supreme National Security Council for decades and orchestrated the horrific crackdown of the 1999 student uprising, a prelude of the 2009 nationwide outburst. Rouhani has also boasted how he deceived the European Troika in in the 2003 nuclear talks, providing Iran the opportunity to maintain their nuclear program, only to expel UN inspectors in 2005 and relaunch the regimes nuclear weapons drive with firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

More recently, Rouhani is also supervising the regimes ongoing need to maintain a certain degree of domestic crackdown. Over 3,000 people were sent to the gallows during Rouhanis first term, and ironically, his minister of justice has been none other than Mostafa Pourmohammadi, another member in the four-man commission overseeing the 1988 massacre.

While Rouhani in the elections surprisingly warned the Revolutionary Guards not to interfere in the regimes so-called election process, his first term provided the platform of the Guards expanded their reach across the region. Rouhanis remarks just two days after the election facade are quite interesting.

He pledged the mullahs regime will continue their warmongering in the Middle East, adding they are on the ground in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon... Iran has and will support these efforts through its diplomats and military advisors, he said according to a statement released by Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Considering the fact that Rouhani lacks the ability or will to realize any change in Tehrans foundations and conduct, measures are now needed to correctly confront the mullahs flagrant human rights violations, expanding ballistic missile program, and support for terrorism, extremism and meddling in other states.

The recent Arab Islamic American Summit sent such a necessary message to this regime.

Heshmat Alavi is a political and rights activist. His writing focuses on Iran, ranging from human rights violations, social crackdown, the regimes support for terrorism and meddling in foreign countries, and the controversial nuclear program.

He tweets at @HeshmatAlavi & blogs at IranCommentary
Niccolo Machiavelli writing in 1513 did his best to warn Donald J. Trump. In Chapter VI of The Prince he wrote, "nothing is more difficult to set up ...than a new system of government, because the bringer of the new system will make enemies of everyone who did well under the old system, while those who do well under the new system still won't support it warmly."

This assertion has been confirmed by a report coming from the U.S. Ivy League on May 23, 2017, specifically in a study by Harvard Universitys Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. It reported that in the first 100 days of the Trump administration, the news coverage of it had been 80% negative to 29% positive, with CNN and NBC leading with a 93% negative tone, and the Wall Street Journal had 70% negative and even Fox News 52%.

These findings of course were obvious and hardly needed an elaborate statistical analysis, after the plentiful media coverage of mistakes by the new president and concentration like short-sighted detectives on allegations and false information about connections of some kind between the U.S. administration and Russia. However, in view of recent events, what is surprising is that the negative tone was 82% on foreign policy and 70% on the threat of terrorism.

It is probably true that President Trump does not know the name of the president of Romania or the prime minister of Estonia, is unaware of the relations between Albania and Kosovo, and has no insight on whether Montenegro should become the 29th member of NATO. But he is right on two far more important issues: the reassertion of American leadership in the Middle East; and on the main contemporary issue of foreign affairs, overcoming and ending the threat of Islamic terrorists, the crucial issue today.

That reassertion was forcefully made in Trumps address on May 21, 2017 to the large number of Arab leaders in the palace of the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, an address that can be considered a belated reaction to the speech of President Barack Obama in Cairo on June 4, 2009. Predictably, the major media were critical of the Trump speech for not dealing with the problem of womens rights and human rights in general, the need for political reform in Saudi Arabia, or Arab political instability.

In an academic paper, or in the U.S. Congress, this criticism would be wholly in order, but Trump explained we are not here to lecture, to tell other people how to live. Instead the U.S. was offering partnership with countries, even those that have autocratic or less than democratic systems, who are pursuing the same objectives as the U.S. in fighting terrorists.

What is new and important is the dramatic change in the U.S. from the policy or non-policy of President Obama on Middle Eastern issues. Those policies meant no intervention against the Assad regime in Syria, even after the red line was crossed, lack of support for President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, tacit approval of the Muslim Brotherhood, less than enthusiastic support of Israel, coolness toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a nuclear deal at all costs with Iran.

Whatever ones opinion of Obama policies, they were interpreted as weakness, which in the Middle East is said to breed contempt. Obamas policy was unwelcome and criticized by Saudi Arabian leaders. King Abdullah often urged the U.S. to cut off the head of the snake by destroying Irans nuclear program. He declared that his country was disturbed by President Assads war against the Sunni majority in Syria, including his use of chemical weapons against civilians, and by the Syrian subservience to Iran. Because of American policy and United Nations inaction on Syria the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in September 2013 cancelled his speech to the UN General Assembly.

A month later, Saudi Arabia rejected the offer to be a member of the UN Security Council for two years as a non-permanent member because of its frustration at U.S. policy and UN inaction. The Saudis called for comprehensive reform of the UN system based, among other things, on regional balance. Saudi Arabia, however, was ironically elected to a three-year seat on the UN Human Rights Council, and is a member of UNESCO.

Saudi criticism of President Obama intensified as a result of the article in the Atlantic, April 2016 which repeated the presidents earlier comment that a number of American allies in the Persian Gulf were free riders, eager to drag the U.S. into conflicts that had little to do with American interests. The strongest rebuke and undiplomatic tongue lashing came on March 14, 2016 from Prince Turki al-Faisal, head of intelligence and former ambassador to the U.S. He replied directly to Obama, We are not the free riders to whom you refer. We lead from the front and we accept our mistakes and rectify them.

That rectification may now be starting. Saudi Arabia, because of the strong influence of Wahhabism in decision-making, has long been responsible for spreading religious Sunni extremism and consequent jihadism. President Trump himself was suspicious of the country for aiding the 9/11 terrorists. The Saudi position now appears to have changed, and overlaps with that of the U.S. president on crucial issues. Saudi leaders and the Gulf Cooperation Council now unequivocally reject jihadism and have agreed to join Trump not only in the fight against Islamic terrorists but also in limiting the power of Iran. That country, the leading Shia state, must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon, and must cease immediately its funding, training, and equipping of terrorists and expansion of military forces.

The primary objection to the Trump initiative is that Saudi Arabia is hardly the epitome of democracy. Serious disconcerting factors remain. Most obvious is the gender rights gap. Women are discriminated against in marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, property ownership. Guardianship of women is still the rule, education is single sex, and women are still not permitted to drive a car. The Sunni Muslim religion is dominant. Moreover, there is religious intolerance. No non-Muslim clergy can enter the country to conduct services. The country has a poor human rights record, being marked by a considerable number, perhaps 3000, political prisoners, and the judicial system is characterized by arbitrary arrest, secret trials, and long detention periods.

Yet change, small as it is, has been occurring in the country. In 2013, three women were appointed to the 150-member Shura Council, a consultative body. Women can now vote and be candidates in municipal elections. Women can run businesses, including law firms, and newspapers. They publish novels and direct films. There are more women than men in higher education, and a considerable number of the total of 150,000 who study abroad are women.

This is slow progress but should not prevent common policy by the U.S. and the Saudis on the main issues. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that common dangers are turning former enemies into partners. The old saying is still pertinent, The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Put forthrightly, the enemy of Iran is a friend of the U.S. and of Israel. For all three countries, Iran is an existential threat, and all agree that Iran must not have nuclear enrichment facilities, or stockpiles of enriched material.

The Trump visit, both in its symbolic and realistic aspects, cannot end sectarian rivalries, the endless and brutal war in Syria, the reality of Arab political instability in the Middle East, or terrorist activity against Israelis. It was telling that on the very same day as Trumps visit to Israel, Palestinian terrorists were active in the coastal city of Netanya, stabbing an Israeli police officer, and in Abu Dis, attempting to strike another police officer. Moreover, and again on the same day, Palestinian TV featured a woman terrorist, who had murdered 16 Israelis, declaring that We long for the days of the Intifada, the days of the revolution.

Yet, though the continuation of terrorist attacks is troubling and needs to be ended, the Trump visit in an optimistic way signifies two possibilities. One is a major shift by Saudi Arabia, which already benefits from U.S. arms sales and infrastructure investments, and other Sunni countries, towards common action with the U.S. The continuation of this is all the more meaningful considering that two thirds of the Saudi population is under 30, and almost half of the 27 million people is below the age of 24. The other is that it may at last create the conditions for negotiation of a peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Not everyone relishes President Trumps blunt language and not all will agree with his plainspoken and straightforward and Frank Sinatra-like description of terrorists as losers, or his portraying the fight against them as one of good against evil. But, without denying other serious Middle East problems, no one can mistake that the essential objective is to defeat the Islamic terrorists, especially ISIS and al-Qaeda, who threaten the world and the urgent need to crush their hateful millenarian ideology. Significantly, British Prime Minister Theresa May on May 23, 2017 after the terrorist bombing in Manchester, England, vowed to take on and defeat the ideology that often fuels this violence. The improbable coalition of countries must focus on ending the violence of Islamist extremists.
As I write this, there is a crowd outside the house of FCC commissioner Pai. His crime? He is returning control of the internet to internet service providers (ISPs).

The Obama administration enacted "Net Neutrality" in defiance of a Supreme Court decision. In essence, Barack Obama seized ISP property because the ISPs weren't serving the public interest. This was exactly how socialist revolutionary Benito Mussolini defined Fascism: a system where citizens own private property so long as they serve the public interest.

Churchill said Fascism would take root in the West under the guise of anti-Fascism, but I digress.

My real concern here is the rise of the radical left  those people who believe that their cause is so good that it justifies any means. It's a rapidly growing idea and movement with a campaign to harass, intimidate, and threaten anyone who dares disagree with it. This is the type of reactionary stuff that portends a shift toward tyranny.

Never in my life before have I actually been afraid for myself and my family simply for giving a political opinion.

This isn't the way it's supposed to work in the United States. Elections bring new forces in, but there are things those victors can't do. It's this system that maintains the peace and insures a free flow of ideas. This is the system that has prevented tyranny since our founding.

But in 2017, liberals at every level have decided that those rules (be they constitutional or local) just don't apply to them. This has terrifying implications. Calls for violence against those who disagree with the liberal narrative are becoming all too common, and not just in backwater channels of the internet.

Calling for violence against our fellow citizens has never been found to be protected by the First Amendment. Ironic that these people want to lecture us about how "unsafe" they feel.

The most disturbing thing about all these calls for chaos has been the reaction of our elected officials and leaders, various law enforcement, and administrators of our justice system, which have held every opinion from encouraging the rioters to lazy apathy. These are the people who are supposed to be protecting the bedrock of our peace and civility. They all took oaths to uphold this  not just for their friends, but for everyone.

In Berkeley, California, the mayor told police to stand down in the face of rioters because he is a member of the group doing the rioting. In Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby went on a crusade against the police department. Now crime is spiking. As I write this, our courts are throwing out border executive orders meant to protect us from hostile foreigners. The courts take these actions based not on the rule of law, but on campaign rhetoric.

Are all of these people blind to the irony of the implications of their arguments? Our government depends on good citizens to uphold the law and treat it like it's serious. If people can pick and choose which laws they're going to obey, what do I need politicians, judges, lawyers, and administrators for? From illegal immigration to the First Amendment, these morons are actually arguing themselves out of their jobs.

What are these liberal leaders going to do when their anarchist and revolutionary friends make good on their demands and ban the offices these politicians occupy? "Anarchy" means "no government." These people are talking about "tearing down the establishment." How can any politician back this? The American left likes to condescend that we don't understand the forces we're dealing with. I think it's the other way around. They're tampering with things they clearly haven't thought through.

And where are the Republican leaders on all of this? Why are they sitting silently? These rioters and troublemakers are breaking the law. Why aren't we seeing mass arrests? Where are the lawsuits?

These are largely rent-a-mobs showing up. They're well funded. That means they're backed by people with deep pockets. Aren't they liable for the destruction and violence? Somewhere under those thousands of pages of laws, rules, and regulations, they are constantly hammering conservative groups with, these liberal organizations have to be guilty of violating something. Why aren't these people being held responsible? If not civil suits, where are the criminal charges? Many of them and their supporters brag openly about what they're going to do. People have the right to assemble peaceably.

Why does the law seem to protect only those who break it?

Do Republicans in leadership realize that the American left is intimidating their voters to get them unelected? Isn't their first duty to get re-elected? Why aren't they standing up for their supporters? Liberals do (see illegal immigration).

The law is supposed to apply to all of us equally. But it just doesn't seem to be that way in 2017.

So what do we do when faced with all of this? If you're a leader, you use your position. Hammer these people with the same rules they use against conservative groups.

If you're a lawyer, you help the good guys sue the bad guys. When the money runs out, when the big money backers realize they're going broke as they're dragged through every backwater legal channel, they'll pull their money real quick, and the rent-a-mobs won't show up.

If you're just a concerned citizen, go to these rallies. Hold these rallies if you can. If we show up en masse, we're going to be a lot harder to intimidate. Liberals are bullies at heart: they're tough when they're in a position of power. But if they're outnumbered 10 to 1, they'll back down. If they don't, that's on them.

It's said that when God created the world, the angel Lucifer became jealous. He thought he could create a world better than God  a world that would be more fair.

Some argue that the Devil is evil and wanted a world of misery. Some say that the Devil had nothing but good intentions, but things just didn't work out quite the way he wanted. What's not debatable is that the Devil's world is a place of pain, suffering, and horror. His is a place of hatred, anger, jealousy, property destruction, and sexual depravity.

It's hard not to think of this story as we watch social justice warriors, liberal politicians, and media elites trash our system, our nation, and its founding in the modern day. Just like the Prince of Darkness, their pride leads them to believe they know better and have all the answers.

Ronald Reagan once said that we're never more than a generation away from losing our freedom. It seems that we are looking at the generation that is going to take it right now.

Jeremy Meister is a writer somewhere in the Midwest. He can be reached at Meister@windstream.net.
In The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, radical evil is described in the following fashion:

By the way, a Bulgarian . . . told me about the crimes committed by Turks and Circassians in all parts of Bulgaria[.] They burn villages, murder, outrage women and children, they nail their prisoners by the ears to the fences, leave them so till morning, and in the morning they hang them all  all sorts of things you can't imagine. People talk sometimes of bestial cruelty, but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel. These Turks took a pleasure in torturing children too; cutting the unborn child from the mother's womb, and tossing babies up in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets before their mother's eyes. Doing it before the mother's eyes was what gave zest to the amusement. Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion; they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk, points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains.

The above passage was used in a 1980 essay by Kenneth R. Seeskin titled "The Reality of Radical Evil," wherein he describes the actions of the Nazis against the Jews during the Holocaust.

Seeskin maintains that such evil describes "the actions of someone who understands only too well what human dignity is and takes pleasure in mocking it." In fact, "he has chosen to profane the tenderest and most sacred of living creatures and to do so in a manner destined to show the victim and everyone else that he is fully aware of the horror in what he is doing."

Seeskin makes a distinction between those murderers with a conscience and those who do not possess one. He maintains that this describes the "essence of radical evil. It both denies God and puts something awful in His place. In theological terms, it is really a form of idolatry  only not the kind which is satisfied with pagan gods or graven images. The person who attempts to exterminate a whole people does not just succumb to evil, he worships it."

As with the Holocaust, Islamic jihadist evil is a "nihilistic, demonic celebration of death." Consider the word celebration. In the Muslim world, when the infidel is slaughtered, "they hand out sweets in jubilation" as the murderers are praised, and the families of the evildoers are paid for the evil perpetuated.

Unfortunately, despite philosophers' and religious leaders' attempts to explain the evil, "morality has nothing to say to those who appear to choose evil purely for its own sake, nor reason to those who insist on knowing why such choices are made."

But there certainly is a common thread that describes such evil. It "unites cruelty, desecration, humiliation, and every other form of depravity. Where God creates what has dignity or lasting significance, [evil doers] seek to reduce it to nothing. Human beings, sacred articles, transcendent ideals  all are turned to waste." Consider the destruction by ISIS of artifacts dating back thousands of years.

Furthermore, "[a]s Joseph Contrad once said: '[t]he belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary, [as] men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.'"

As many so-called pundits and politicians attempt to mitigate the evil by equivocation and mouthing absurdities, it is important to recall "that when evil is so foul that its full horror defies description, the categories of more or less and of better or worse no longer apply."

Hence, "radical evil, unlike any normal transgression, cannot be forgiven  even by God." For after all, "if there are sins whose evil lies beyond the bounds of fallibility  sins which involved not just the doing of evil but the adoration of it  can God forgive them as well?"

So, the eternal question: why evil?

Seeskin asserts that "evil allows God to test the faith of the righteous. Evil occurs so that God can discipline the righteous. Evil is a means of making the wicked alter their ways. The suffering of the innocent and the flourishing of the wicked will be corrected at some unspecified point in the future."

Yet, he admits that surely, "this line of thinking pushes our moral sensibilities to the breaking point or beyond."

Ultimately, "we must distinguish between permitting man to make his own choices and rescuing innocent victims when those choices [incline] towards catastrophe."

On speaking of the Holocaust, Eliezer Berkovits maintains that "God hid his face." For Seeskin, "to the atheist, suffering presents no problem because the universe lacks a transcendent power capable of redeeming it. Likewise, suffering is not a problem for the orthodox theist because he believes that eventually all evil will be punished and all good will be rewarded." Yet "intellectual honesty prevents us from being content with pat answers or simplistic theodicies."

The 20th century was the prelude to the terrible reality of Islamic jihadist evil that now permeates the 21st century. Europe is currently in a war for its very soul, but its leaders dabble in a Faustian game. Likewise, in Canada, a Senate bill has been passed that "removes the right to revoke citizenship from dual nationals who are convicted terrorists."

One cannot make deals with evil. Its very strength lies in its intractability and forbearance.

Jennifer Roskies at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs explains that in "Israeli eyes, the trend to bend over backwards in order to avoid being labeled Islamophobic is a politically-correct nicety the West can ill afford." Consequently, "Israelis look at European reluctance to label the nature of the threat they face by its true name  radical Islam  with the belief that they do so at their own peril."

We must rise up and fight this jihadist scourge with every ounce of strength we have. On Saturday, June 10, 2017, ACT for America is having the first ever March Against Sharia in cities across the nation. The site explains that "[t]his is a march against Sharia law and for human rights. Our nation is built on the freedom of religion  a pillar of our democracy  which we must always respect, protect, and honor. However many aspects of Sharia law run contrary to basic human rights and are completely incompatible with our laws and our democratic values. Therefore, as American citizens, we must become familiar with what Sharia is all about and we must speak out loudly about its tenets that are unacceptable  both to Americans and to humankind."

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.
One of the things President Donald Trump should be most proud of from his short time in the White House is his decision to move the U.S. away from the hideous business of promoting abortion-on-demand around the world.

On Jan. 23, 2017, just three days after his swearing-in ceremony, President Trump reinstated what has been known as the Mexico City Policy (because of its roots at a population conference in Mexico City). The policy, initiated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, to the delight of most Americans, prohibits U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning abroad.

Big Abortion, of course, despises the policy and effectively forced both Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to rescind it. On the other hand, President George W. Bush, and now President Trump, moved quickly to protect the dignity of human life once in office by reinstituting it.

But President Trump deserves great credit for the deliberate way in which he is following through on the implementation of the policy.

On May 9, 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced a plan of implementation that expanded the policy, now appropriately to be known as Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance. The plan will apply to over 8 billion dollars appropriated to the Department of State, Department of Defense, and the Agency for International Development, commonly known as USAID.

Under the new policy, any organization that agrees to not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning or fund other groups that do so can receive taxpayer money. Although the policy does not apply to U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it will apply to any money it gives out to any foreign NGOs.

It is important to note that the U.S. will not reduce the amount invested in global health, but the U.S. is merely revising the way in which that money is distributed. There are plenty of organizations providing help for women around the world that do not feel the need to perform and promote abortions.

Those who scream of impending doom because of this policy run into the age-old problem of facts. As we have mentioned, this policy has been implemented before while the U.S. continued its great work around the world. No, the world did not come to an end.

There is no question that we can be a great influence for life, health, and prosperity around the world, without promoting the dark business of abortion, which most Americans reject in the first place. Indeed, we are better when we do so.

Obianuju Ekeocha, the president of Culture of Life Africa, said, Contrary to what the abortion giants and their pro-abortion liberal friends are saying, this expanded Mexico City Policy will be welcomed across Africa.

Ekeochas enthusiastic statement reminds us of one of the most pernicious aspects of President Obamas (and sadly, those of the Democratic party in general) commitment to abortion promotion abroad. Many countries do not want it, and yet the U.S., under their leadership, continued to pressure these countries to bow to their particular (radical liberal) view of reproductive rights.

No more. The more than 80 percent of Americans who oppose using taxpayer dollars to support abortion in other countries can rejoice today. We are out of the abortion business overseas. (No, not completely. I understand there is much work to be done. But this development is truly a blessing for America and the world.)

It is encouraging also that we have heard a clear commitment from the Trump Administration to actively monitor the progress of implementing the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance grants. Furthermore, they show a willingness to conduct a comprehensive review of its processes to assess its success. This is important, given the volatile nature of the topic and the vast opportunities around the world where the process can break down.

Let us remain diligent in prayer and hold our elected officials accountable in the years ahead.
Learn about gourmet Spanish winemaking.

Instituto Cervantes Albuquerque will host a Wine Tasting Seminar on May 24th, 25th and 26th at the Grand Hall and the restaurant Farm & Table in collaboration with the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Helio San Miguel is a Spanish professional from Madrid who works as New Yorks Correspondent for Club de Gourmets -Spains leading wine and food magazine- and he will be the presenter.

This event represents our love for gourmet Spanish products and the will to spread the word about them. Spain has an ancient winemaking tradition, it is the third largest wine producer and the second wine exporter according to the International Wine Office.

The Wine Tasting will consist of three different seminars, each one providing a variety of 10 types of wine. Schedule:

Wednesday, 24th at 6 to 8:30pm. The seminar will lead participants to the region of La Rioja and it will be celebrated at the Grand Hall within the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

Thursday, 25th at 6:30 to 9pm. Helio San Miguel will be introducing the area from Ribera del Duero to Galicia and the seminar will be celebrated at the restaurant Farm & Table.

Friday, 26th at 6 to 8:30pm. The seminar will delve into the area encompassing the Mediterranean arch, from Andalusia to Catalonia and it will be celebrated at the Grand Hall within the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

The price for a single day is $50 and $70 if attending on 25th to Farm & Table (wine tasting + tapas at the restaurant).

RSVP to our email prensa.albuquerque@cervantes.es and telephone 505-724-4777 provided above. Tickets are on sale in the website:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spanish-wine-tasting-tickets-34152681590.

Unveiling the intricacies of a long lasting and fine industry is our mission at Instituto Cervantes Albuquerque: yours is to be delighted and travel to Spain with all the senses!
The violent antifa protesters in Berkeley expected that masks and disguises they wore would protect them from apprehension  for example, the stocking cap and sunglasses worn by the man videotaped assaulting the head of a pro-Trump demonstrator with a heavy, U-shaped bicycle lock and drawing blood.

But they failed to reckon with the sleuthing capacity of collaborative forums like 4Chan. Rob Shimshock of the Daily Caller:

4Chan users matched the former professor's facial structure, jeans brand, shoes and backpack straps to that of the assailant. Berkeley Police arrested Clanton over a month after 4Chan's evidence surfaced. Clanton was an instructor at a community college, and it sounds as though he was pursuing radical leftist "philosophy."

The East Bay Times reports:

A former DVC staff directory on its web page said Clanton has worked at the school since 2015, teaching an "introduction to philosophy with a background in teaching ethics, critical thinking, and comparative philosophy East/West" with "primary research interests" of ethics and politics. Although he taught part time at DVC in the past, he was not employed there this semester, DVC officials said.

Shimshock also notes:

Clanton, who is being held by police with a $200,000 bail, taught ethics, philosophy and critical thinking at Diablo Valley College, reported Heat Street. He obtained a bachelor's degree from California State University, Bakersfield, and a master's degree from San Francisco State.

"Critical thinking" does not mean learning how to examine evidence with a skeptical mind. It means criticizing everything that's wrong with America (author's translation).

Cameras are everywhere, and the capacity of the internet for collaborative analysis means that demonstrators will have to completely cover their faces when assembling for violence, thereby identifying themselves for arrest in any sane jurisdiction.

The big question I have now is whether Alameda County D.A. Nancy E. O'Malley's ADAs are trying to turn Clanton by offering a deal if he implicates others. I wonder who his lawyer is, and who is paying for his representation.
When Chicago's police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, announced new regulations on the use of deadly force May 17, it was widely applauded as a step forward for a department under siege. The New York Times reported:

Chicago officials, and even some longtime skeptics of the department, hailed the new regulations as a sign that the police here are improving even though federal scrutiny of the department has eased since President Trump was inaugurated.

But one aspect was not well received among the rank-and-filers who blog at Second City Cop. The Chicago Sun-Times explains:

Supt. Eddie Johnson touched on the possibility of an officer being injured by a vehicle. "If a vehicle is coming at an officer and that's the only threat of force, the officer can get out of the way of it," Johnson said. "If someone is firing a handgun out of a vehicle, then the officer is authorized to use deadly force."

So officers are prevented from firing their guns at a vehicle attempting to run them down. It is not always possible to get out of the way, obviously. And the perps know it. Thus, as Second City Cop reports:

So on 21 May, we had this: A Chicago police officer was run down by the driver of a stolen SUV.



It happened just before midnight at Odgen and Trumbull. The officer was approaching the vehicle on foot when the driver hit the gas and knocked him down. The very next day: A Chicago police officer was injured after being struck by a car speeding away from an attempted traffic stop Tuesday evening, police said.



Officers attempted to perform a traffic stop in the 100 block of East 75th Street in the city's Park Manor neighborhood about 5:02 p.m., police said. The vehicle officers were pulling over struck an officer as it fled the area, police said, and a person is in custody. And the day after that - yesterday: A person was shot by Chicago Police after an officer was pinned by a vehicle Wednesday morning in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.



The incident happened at 11:15 a.m. in the 1600 block of North Leclaire Avenue. The damage to the pinned Officer's leg is said to be "severe."

It cannot be a good thing that Chicago's street cops are being mown down by perps who know they can't be stopped by gunfire. Yes, Chicago has had bad problems, according to the Lynch Justice Department. But the only rational response of cops is to back off from situations where the suspects are armed with cars. And that immunity will escalate crime, inevitably.

Hat tip: Peter von Buol
A vast poverty industry employs and distributes wealth to a huge political constituency dependent on massive federal appropriations. Any suggestion that money is not the solution to the persistence of poverty is anathema and must be harshly ostracized by them.

They immediately recognized the danger when Housing and Urban Development secretary Dr. Ben Carson told the truth during a Sirius-XM interview with Armstrong Williams. The New York Times summarizes the remarks that generated what it calls an "intense backlash."

"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind," he said, according to a transcript of the interview that was released on Wednesday. "You take somebody that has the right mind-set, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there." He added that helping people may not better their lives. "You take somebody with the wrong mind-set, you can give them everything in the world  they'll work their way right back down to the bottom," he said.

The responses are so predictable that it is almost tedious to note them. The Times is happy to list them here. Incisive stuff, such as George Takei calling this world-famous professor of medicine emeritus a "blithering idiot."

Dr. Carson receives the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. (He received news of it during a seven-hour operation.)

What concerns me is the obvious truth of Carson's point.

I experienced the difference between poverty and lack of money and stuff when I first went to Japan in 1967 as a student of 19 years' experience of life. Fifty years ago, Japan was not yet a rich country. The average Japanese middle-class family, such as the one I lived with for a year, had much less stuff than most Americans below the poverty level did. Fewer middle-class Japanese had cars than poverty-level Americans did. The same went for living space and most appliances.

But the Japanese were on a roll, growing 10% a year or more, and most everyone's life was getting better and better each year. Middle-class Japanese people had less money and fewer goods than Americans below the poverty level, but making the case that this lack of money and stuff made them "poor" or "impoverished" was impossible for me. I was raised in a very liberal family, so this basic truth came as a revelation to me. It was one of my first steps in becoming a conservative.

Following graduation, I spent several years at or below the poverty line as a graduate student. But I knew how to make good food on the cheap, and I had a plan.

Okay, I realize this is not an inspiring story of overcoming great odds. It can be read as a confession of white privilege, or educated privilege, or maybe even liberal privilege. But it is also proof good enough for me to conclude that lack of money and stuff does not on its own cause poverty.

Dr. Carson's own experience of overcoming lack of stuff with a positive mindset is far more persuasive than mine, of course. But both illustrate the truth of his comments.
You may have heard that in Muslim fundamentalist countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, people have been machete-chopped to pieces for saying things that hurt the "sentiments" of Muslims.

It is a peculiar expression, not one we commonly use here in the U.S. We might say, instead, that someone's feelings were hurt. But never before, to my knowledge, have we had a judicial ruling based on hurt feelings, or sentiments.

Until now. On May 25, 2017, the Fourth Circuit Appeals Court denied Donald Trump's temporary ban on immigration from six dangerous majority-Muslim countries. Underneath legal commentary about whether Trump's executive order was legal on its face or not, protecting Muslim sentiments appears to be what brought about the decision.

A look inside the judges' ruling reveals why your right to be protected against the risk of being blown to Manchester smithereens has been overridden.

On pages 25 and 26, we read about some of the plaintiffs who objected to Trump's travel ban. The plaintiffs cited below are all Muslim. Whether or not they are even citizens is not stated in the court's document.

Beyond claiming injury to their family relationships, several of the individual Plaintiffs allege that the anti-Muslim message animating EO-2 has caused them feelings of disparagement and exclusion. Doe #1, a scientist who obtained permanent resident status through the National Interest Waiver program for people with extraordinary abilities, references these "anti-Muslim views,"...J.A. 304, 306. Plaintiff Meteab relays that the "anti-Muslim sentiment" motivating EO-2 had led him to feel "isolated and disparaged in [his] community." [Emphasis added.]

Additionally, the Middle East Studies Association, an organization with known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, will lose $18,000 and suffer a conference attendance reduction. Somehow, that prevails over our collective safety!

The final Plaintiff, the Middle East Studies Association, an umbrella organization dedicated to fostering awareness of the Middle East, asserts that EO-2 will, among other injuries, reduce attendance at its annual conference and cause the organization to lose $18,000 in registration fees.

Muslim sentiments. Muslim money. Just as if we were in Bangladesh or Pakistan. Feelings can infiltrate subtly. Can it be that the appeals courts have been that undermined, that quickly?

Trump's temporary travel ban, as an executive order, will undoubtedly appear before the Supreme Court. If the Supremes cannot come up with a more rational approach to the travel ban, we are in serious trouble.
"Free Trade"  my assemblage currently featured at the Barrett Art Gallery in Santa Monica.

With the usual gross exaggeration, the media have been reporting that President Trump told European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and E.U. Council president Donald Tusk that "the Germans are bad, very bad" for making and selling lots of cars, contributing to their trade surplus, due to all their exports.

Juncker said it never happened and the conversation was about Germany's trade surplus and it was quite civilized. When you've got an arrogant, supercilious, disdainful European Union official such as him defending Trump, you know he must be telling the truth. Via Google Translate, the quote disavowing the media claims is here in Der Spiegel:

Trump had in no way been aggressively put forward. "'Bad' does not mean evil  bad enough," said Juncker. The atmosphere was constructive. "He did not say the Germans behave badly. He said we have a problem," said Juncker.

Still, there's a bit of an argument worth looking at, given the issue at hand. Trump is criticizing the Germans for their cutting-edge industry selling first-rate cars? How could that be bad? Or a problem? Shouldn't every nation do what it does best? Some nations produce the world's best hoteliers, others produce the world's finest agricultural products, still others produce the world's best chess players and computer programmers. Germans do precision tools and cars. The metalworking industry has been a German area of excellence since the rise of Nuremberg, in Bavaria (where the cars are now made), on a major trade route to Italy. Albrecht Durer, the greatest painter Germany ever produced, was the son of a Nuremberg metalworker in the 15th century, and his life and work were intimately connected with the commercial rise of this city, showing that great art arises from great commercial prosperity. The city itself fell into decline when wars took over. But Bavaria remained Germany's industrial center.

This brings me to my real point. They're Germans. What do Germans do when they aren't busily cranking out cars? It's either Germans making and selling cars, or else they go Nazi. Germany has a hideous record of military aggression when it is not kept busy with commercial pursuits. Is it a really good thing to tell Germans not to make cars anymore?

And to address the trade surplus issue that comes of it, it's worth noting that the lines are not as clear as the statistics suggest. Trade is a complex thing, which is why some of the best free-market economists say deficits don't matter. Germany is one of America's largest foreign investors, with $208 billion in investments here, employing 620,000 American workers. They locally source when they produce their cars here because it's the most cost-effective way to do it, visiting German auto executives told me a few years ago. So when Germans build cars for the German market, they like to use Romanian factories because they are closest to the spare parts makers around the region, and this cuts inefficiencies and transport costs. Same thing with the U.S. BMW cars sold in the U.S. assembled at plants in South Carolina, and Mercedes-Benzes sold in the U.S. made in Alabama. (Volkswagen is now mostly in Mexico, but that keeps the illegals employed in their home country.) Japan, too, locally sources its production, with Toyota's operations in Kentucky and Texas, and Nissan's in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Juncker pointed out that the argument Trump was making was directed at Germany but insisted there was no going to Germany directly. Any dealings with Germany would have to be done through the E.U. which makes no distinction between countries.

I was making clear that the U.S. cannot compare their trade situation with individual member states of the European Union. They have to compare their performances with the global performances of the European Union and I made it clear that the commission is charged with trade issues and not the member states.

That may be what Trump really meant to get at, and he is likely right that bilateral agreements based on individual countries' particulars is a better way to go in negotiating better treaty deals, which seems to be what he wants with Germany. There's no sense applying the same muscle to Greece as is required in a deal with Germany  and that is where Juncker slides into unreality.

In any case, it's an unfortunate thing that car-making is what Germany is being criticized for. There are so many things the Germans need to be blasted for  their laziness on defense, their kowtowing to the gamier elements of the Middle East, their open-borders migrant policy, their miserable socialist taxes that keep their birthrate down, and their intrusive government structure that discourages religion and family formation, in addition to their disgusting affinity for the European Union. But car-making isn't what makes Germany "bad" or a problem. Juncker pretty well explained that the E.U. would be a roadblock toward any adjustment of trade terms with Germany. That's where the real problem is, and it will likely be a chronic one until the European Union breaks up. It really isn't German cars.
The elegance, wisdom, and class President Trump has displayed on his first foreign policy trip continue to baffle political elitists and fake news media. First Corinthians 1:27 comes to mind. "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise."

Trump is a man of the people who speaks like a human being. Obama spoke like an arrogant blowhard. He spoke so high above us commoners that it took leftist professors to explain the brilliance of his oratory.

Am I the only one who has noticed President Trump's humility ever since taking office? We were told Trump's legendary ego would be a major stumbling block. But all I have seen is a man who realizes the huge responsibility placed upon his shoulders by We the People. Trump appears laser-focused on winning for America.

Obama was rude to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on several occasions and hostile toward Israel. Never have I seen Netanyahu so relaxed and smiley with a U.S. president as he has been with Trump. When Trump spoke at the Israel Museum, his words brought tears to my eyes.

Israel is a testament to the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish people. From all parts of this great country, one message resounds, and that is the message of hope. Down through the ages, the Jewish people have suffered persecution, oppression, and even those who have sought their destruction. But, through it all, they have endured and, in fact, they have thrived. I stand in awe of the accomplishments of the Jewish people, and I make this promise to you: My administration will always stand with Israel. (Applause.) Thank you very much.

Regarding Israel, God said, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse" (Genesis 12:3).

Trump has restored our relationship with Israel. Praise God!

The late Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "Nobody knows enough to be a pessimist." I interpreted his comment to mean there are too many unknown variables in a situation to correctly predict a negative outcome. Over the eight years of Obama, pessimists faithfully emailed, calling me a naive idiot for writing and working to restore my beloved country. They said it was too late and all was lost. Obama and the left had successfully brought down America from her throne as the world leader. Rather than our tradition of striving to be all one could be, we had become a nation of deadbeats, happy to feed at the breast of big ultra-controlling government.

No one imagined that Trump, whom political elites and media regarded as the cartoon presidential candidate, would win in an electoral landslide, proving pessimists wrong. This is why it is unwise to stop fighting for what is right. Leftists use the Madison Avenue advertising technique of promoting their extreme views as sophisticated and mainstream. They say our patriotic and Christianity-rooted views are backward and racist. In reality, we are the majority, and leftists are the weirdo minority. Trump's election confirmed this truth.

Signing 90 executive orders in his first 100 days, Trump is swiftly dismantling Obama's horrific legacy. It is as if Obama's reign of terror was only our shared national nightmare that never really happened. I realize we still have a long way to go to overturn Obama's mess. But Trump has made remarkable headway.

Grasping at straws to criticize Trump and brand us hypocrites, leftists ask why we aren't demanding that Trump use the term "radical Islamic terrorism," considering that we criticized Obama for not using it.

Well, the obvious difference is Obama not only refused to name our enemy, but protected our enemy at every turn. In response to numerous Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, Obama's DOJ threatened to jail anyone caught speaking badly about Islam.

We know where Trump stands in regard to Islamic terrorism.

During his speech in what some might call the belly of the beast, Saudi Arabia, Trump challenged Muslims to fight Islamic terrorism. Trump said, "Drive them out. Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land, and drive them out of this Earth." Folks, that is incredibly bold, anointed, and God-inspired.

I marvel at what this unpretentious common man is achieving on our behalf on foreign soil. As always, I advise you to keep President Donald J. Trump in your prayers.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Author: Confessions of a Black Conservative: How the Left has shattered the dreams of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black America

Singer/Songwriter and Conservative Activist
What is the likelihood that the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press, USA Today, and other major news outlets will cover the fact that the Obama administration repeatedly violated the law by spying on Americans from 2011 until he was almost out of office, when his administration finally admitted it?

Is it any surprise that an administration that would target political opponents through the IRS would do this, or an administration that would start monitoring a political opponent four months prior to the election? Does anyone think Obama's people didn't spy on other Republicans running against Hillary? Or, for that matter, her socialist challenger, Bernie Sanders?

So far, after ten months of monitoring and investigations on the Russia-hacked-the-election brouhaha, there is still no evidence of a crime or collusion. But the media are still all in for that one. Why haven't we seen any media monitoring of Hillary, her staff, or John Podesta, since we know they had Russian connections? If the intelligence community and the Obama administration are concerned about collusion, why are they concerned only about Republicans? Why hasn't James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, or Barack Obama been asked why they targeted only Republicans for monitoring?

Aren't the media curious?

Here are some quotes from the above article:

"Since 2011, NSA's minimization procedures have prohibited use of U.S.-person identifiers to query the results of upstream Internet collection under Section 702. The October 26, 2016 Notice informed the Court that NSA analysts had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had previously been disclosed to the Court." "At the October 26, 2016 hearing, the Court ascribed the government's failure to disclose those IG and OCO reviews at the October 4, 2016 hearing to an institutional 'lack of candor' on NSA's part and emphasized that 'this is a very serious Fourth Amendment issue.'" In describing the violations, the FISA court said the illegal searches conducted by the NSA under Obama were "widespread" and created a "very serious Fourth Amendment issue."

We have been told that the only way Gen. Michael Flynn's conversations were picked up is because we monitor foreigners, and he just happened to be talking to the Russians. That is probably a bald-faced lie. The Obama administration essentially monitored Americans and used the excuse that they were monitoring foreigners.

Why would anyone believe Clapper, Brennan, Comey, or Obama, since they have such a history of not telling the truth?

Comey has said under oath that Trump did not impede any investigation. My guess is that if he now changes that testimony, the media won't care and will seek to destroy Trump, as they do every day.

Obama was never scared to break the laws because he knew that the Justice Department, the media, and the Democrats wouldn't care. On Fox News Wednesday night, Charles Krauthammer said he hopes people don't spend a lot of time looking back to see who violated the law, but instead focus on stopping it in the future. I do not understand that at all. I believe that powerful people like Obama and his staff and Hillary and her staff should be held responsible for what they did. If you don't hold the powerful to account, how do you ever hold lower-level people to account for the same or lesser things? I believe that the treatment for powerful privileged people should be harsher, not easier.

Contrast the way Trump is being treated with the way Obama was treated. With Trump, the Justice Department, the media, the Democrats, and some Republicans are trying to essentially find Trump guilty and destroy him when there haven't been any known actual violations of law. I believe that the difference in treatment is because Trump is an outsider who is trying to clean the huge Washington swamp with an R behind his name.

The media and the Democrats keep searching for the next Watergate. Well, here it is:

President Obama was so concerned about his legacy and continuing his far-left agenda that he and his Justice Department absolved his handpicked successor-designate and her staff of any of the continuous, serious violations of law they committed throughout their four years at the State Department. They didn't charge her despite charging lower-level people for similar crimes. Then, at least four months prior to the election, the Obama administration, the intelligence community, and the Justice Department started investigating and monitoring a political opponent and people who knew him, under the ruse that they were worried about Russian collusion. (Somehow, they had no concern about the Democrats' obvious, extensive connection to the Russians.) Then, after his political opponent was elected and almost eight years into his term, Obama all of a sudden changed the rules on how widely classified intelligence information is disseminated. Obama obviously did this so the information could be leaked to the media and chosen opponents' names could be unmasked.

The leakers knew that all they had to do was distribute anonymous information to the Times, the Post, and the AP. As long as it was against Trump, they knew these news outlets would prominently print the stories with no questions asked. Then networks and other newspapers throughout the country would just reprint or retell these stories with no questions asked afterward. Propaganda is easy to spread when most of the media is in the tank for a specific agenda and against a specific person like Trump.

The media, the Justice Department, the intelligence community, and the Democrats are essentially guilty of dereliction of duty these last eight years. They never cared how many laws Obama, his Cabinet, or his staff didn't obey, or how much they lied, or how much they targeted political opponents as long as they voted for him and liked his agenda that they were glad to support him and cover things up.

The media are especially guilty because they knew how little transparency there was with Obama and how hard the Obama administration worked to ignore and fight FOIA requests, but they didn't care. They just went along.

There are two additional extremely important stories that almost all the media is intentionally ignoring. The murder of a DNC staffer in the summer of 2016 who may have been sharing Democratic Party emails with WikiLeaks and the hacking of government computers by foreign I.T. staffers who worked for multiple Democrat House members. We do know that reporters have some investigative skills left because we have learned that Trump takes two scoops of ice cream while others take only one and that he eats ketchup on his steak. Those are two extremely important stories that they may win Pulitzers for, but the murder of a DNC staffer isn't worthy of reporting.

And one last thing: I do have to admit that my reporting here is biased as it relates to ketchup. I have to confess that sometimes when I eat steak and fries, I sneak ketchup on my steak. I am not a ketchup denier. I believe in equal rights and equal treatment of all condiments. Unlike others, I do not pit classes against each other. I believe that ketchup has the right to share space with all classes of meat, whether the lowly hamburger or the obscenely rich filet mignon. Above all, I believe in ketchup getting its fair share.
The political and religious leaders of Indonesia stand out among Muslim nations in attacks on Islamic radicalism and terrorism. We hear little about their hatred of Islamic hate and violence from our media, because it doesn't fit the politically correct narrative that any criticism of the Religion of Peace is Islamophobic. The Muslim Indonesians have plenty of harsh words for the ugly extremism of modern Islam, the Islam promoted around the world by Saudi and Qatar oil money, and based, they admit, on "classic Islamic law."

While Trump was in Riyadh, trying to enlist our frenemy, the Saudis, to take responsibility for the radical jihadism they themselves spawned, across the world in Indonesia, there was an international meeting of 300 Muslim scholars to address the same issue.

"President Trump called for honesty in Riyadh. Indeed, let us be honest," one speaker declared at the event, put on by the 5-million-member Indonesian Muslim "youth movement" Gerakan Pemuda Ansor, according to a press release.

It is false and counterproductive to claim that the actions of al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram and other such groups have nothing to do with Islam, or merely represent a perversion of Islamic teachings. They are, in fact, outgrowths of Wahhabism and other fundamentalist streams of Sunni Islam.

The two-day event concluded with an official declaration, calling for a campaign "to transform Muslims' understanding of their religious obligations, and the very nature of Islamic orthodoxy." This is some of what it said:

For more than fifty years, Saudi Arabia has systematically propagated a supremacist, ultraconservative interpretation of Islam among Sunni Muslim populations worldwide. The Wahhabi/ultraconservative view of Islam ... by Saudi Arabia and Qatar ... al-Qaeda and ISIS  is intricately wedded to those elements of classical Islamic law that foster sectarian hatred and violence. Wahhabism is ... characterized by antipathy  at times violent  towards Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Sunni Muslims who do not share the Wahhabis' rigid and authoritarian view of Islam[.] ... [Legitimate] Saudi opposition to Iran[ian], ISIS and al-Qaeda [supremacism] does not and should not absolve it from responsibility for promoting the very ideology that underlies and animates Sunni extremism and terror. Muslims face a choice between starkly different visions of the future. Will they strive to recreate the ... Caliphate  and thus seek to restore Islamic supremacy  as reflected in ... orthodox, authoritative Islam? Or will they strive to develop a new religious sensibility that reflects the actual circumstances of our modern civilization, and contributes to the emergence of a truly just and harmonious world order, founded upon respect for the equal dignity and rights of every human being?

President Obama's policy of promoting Iranian nuclear might and hegemony in the Middle East (motivated by our former president's anti-colonialist spite toward America) has further destabilized that already violent region. This presents us with opportunities, as well as the more obvious dangers. The Saudis are open to change because they are terrified of both Iran and ISIS. The monster of jihadism they have unleashed upon the world, along with the Shiite mullahs, has become a danger to themselves.

President Trump's Riyadh trip was a brilliant and practical effort to seize upon this fear and use it for our benefit. He is enlisting the Saudis to cut off funding for ISIS and al-Qaeda, Hezb'allah and Hamas, and to monitor jihadis on the internet.

At the same time, we have work to do here at home to counter the widespread jihadi presence in America. If we are serious about protecting American lives, we must drive out the jihadis from American mosques and communities. That means taking on their Wahhabi financing. (See my post earlier this week, "Drive them out: Time to deport known American jihadis.") Saudi Prince Talal, a senior member of their monarchy, pledged $32 billion  that's "billion"  to Islamize America.

The picture of Saudi activities in the United States is not a pretty one. Freedom House's Muslim volunteers went to 15 prominent mosques from New York to San Diego and collected more than 200 books and other publications disseminated by Saudi Arabia (some 90% in Arabic) in mosque libraries, publication racks, and bookstores. What they found can only be described as horrifying. These writings - each and every one of them sponsored by the kingdom - espouse an anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, misogynist, jihadist, and supremacist outlook. For example, they: Reject Christianity as a valid faith: Any Muslim who believes "that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel." Insist that Islamic law be applied: On a range of issues, from women (who must be veiled) to apostates from Islam ("should be killed"), the Saudi publications insist on full enforcement of Shariah in America. See non-Muslims as the enemy: "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law." See America as hostile territory: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways." Prepare for war against America: "To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government." The report's authors correctly find that the publications under review "pose a grave threat to non-Muslims and to the Muslim community itself." The materials instill a doctrine of religious hatred inimical to American culture and serve to produce new recruits to the enemy forces in the war on terrorism. To provide just one example of the latter: Adam Yahiye Gadahn, thought to be the masked person in a 2004 videotape threatening that American streets would "run with blood," became a jihadi in the course of spending time at the Islamic Society of Orange County, a Saudi-funded institution.

President Trump would be wise to heed the advice of Indonesia's Islamic reformers: the violence against Christians and Jews and non-Muslim nations is being actively promoted by Wahhabi imams in every country on the globe  including America. Eighty percent of the mosques in America are Saudi-funded.

It's fine to create a pragmatic alliance with the Saudis to advance our interests in the Middle East, just as FDR and Churchill allied with Stalin in WWII. The Saudis are not our friends, any more than was Stalinist Russia. Saudi citizens, including the royal family, are actively working to subvert our constitution and our culture throughout America.

There is something simple we can do to drive jihadis our of our mosques and communities, and Freedom Caucus member Representative David Brat of Virginia proposed it last summer: no Saudi money for American mosques. It is time to resurrect and push that bill.
The other day, a pair of giant hands appeared rising out of a canal in Venice, as if to support the sides of the Ca Sagredo Hotel. It was an installation art by Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn who wanted to make a visual statement of the impact of climate change and rising sea levels on the historic city.

Quinn isnt the only one to use hands to deliver a powerful message. Let us look at other giant hand installation around the world.

Mano del Desierto, Atacama Desert, Chile

Perhaps the most famous dismembered hand is Mano del Desierto in the middle of the Atacama Desert, located 75 kilometers south of the city of Antofagasta. The art piece was created by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal in honor of the victims of injustice and torture during the military regime in Chile. The concrete structure stands 11 meters tall.

Photo credit: MarcosEscalier/Wikimedia

Photo credit: Juan Eduardo Donoso Rosas/Flickr

Hand of Punta del Este

The Hand of Punta del Este, or Mano de Punta del Este, is another hand sculpture by the Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal, located in the popular resort town of Punta del Este, in Uruguay. The sculpture was unveiled during the summer of 1982, and has since become a symbol for Punta del Este and one of Uruguay's most recognizable landmarks. Over the years the sculpture came to be called by different names such as Emergiendo a la Vida (Man Emerging into Life), Monumento los Dedos (Monument of the Fingers), and Monumento al Ahogado (Monument to the Drowned), although the creator prefers it to be called simply the Hand.

Photo credit: Vince Alongi/Flickr

Photo credit: Josue Gomez/Flickr

Praying Hands, Tulsa, the United States

These pair of mighty hands locked in prayer stands at the entrance of the Oral Roberts University campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At 60 feet high, and weighing 30 tons, its reportedly the largest bronze sculpture in America.

Photo credit: Jeffkao/Flickr

Photo credit: Joseph Novak/Flickr

Hand of Harmony, Cape Homi, South Korea

The Hand of Harmony is a sculpture of a hand located on Homigot Beach, one of the easternmost points on the Korean peninsula. The sculpture made from bronze and granite was built in 1999.

Photo credit: jeito/Panoramio

Photo credit: Cranky/Panoramio

Giant Hand at Bandung, Indonesia

This giant steel sculpture of a hand is located at the gate of Setraduta, an upper class housing complex in the north of Bandung, Indonesia. It is designed and made by Nyoman Nuarta, one of the most prominent and prolific Indonesian sculptors today.

Photo credit: theartstack.com

Holocaust Memorial, Miami

At the Holocaust Memorial, in Miami, Florida, is a 12-meter-tall sculpture of an outstretched arm, reaching for the skies as hundreds of small human figures cling to it and to each other. The hand displays a tattoo with a number similar to the ones Auschwitz survivors sport in their forearm. The sculpture was designed by architect Kenneth Treister.

Photo credit: Dennis Goedegebuure/Flickr

Photo credit: Scurzuzu/Flickr

Hands & Molecule, Ramsgate, Kent

A pair of hands, 8 feet tall, emerging from the ground and cradling a molecule is located on the Westcliff Promenade, Ramsgate, Kent, UK. The sculpture was funded by David Barnes and funded by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It was unveiled in June 2000 to mark the opening of the National Cycle Network (Route 15) in Thanet, Kent.

Photo credit: John Sheldon/Flickr

The Hand, Madrid, Spain

This sculpture made in 1987 is the second giant hand made by Mario Irarrazabal. It is located in Parque Juan Carlos I in Madrid, and is similar to his original sculpture in Punta del Este, Uruguay .

Photo credit: Camilo Rueda Lopez/Flickr

And finally,

Giant Hands of Venice

The giant hands on Venices Grand Canal is the latest set of hands to appear in the world. It is not a permanent installation, but will remain till the end of November.

Venice is a floating art city that has inspired cultures for centuries, Lorenzo Quinn said. But to continue to do so it needs the support of our generation and future ones, because it is threatened by climate change and time decay.

I wanted to sculpt what is considered the hardest and most technically challenging part of the human body, the artist said. The hand holds so much power  the power to love, to hate, to create, to destroy.

via armchairtravelogue.blogspot.in
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque has extended warm congratulations to the Government and People of Guyana on the countrys 51st Anniversary of Independence.



Guyana is celebrating this years anniversary under the theme Unity in Diversity in a Green Economy.



In message on behalf of the Community, the Secretary-General said the progress made by Guyana over the last five decades was indicative of the determination and resilience of its citizens.



This allied with the countrys natural resources, fertile agricultural lands, and thrust to a green economy, Ambassador LaRocque said, boded well for the nations future.



Guyana has a proud tradition of being a leader in regional integration and has provided leadership to the Community in the area of Agriculture in its role as the country responsible for that sector in the CARICOM Quasi-Cabinet, the Secretary-General said.



The Caribbean Community joins with the Government and People of Guyana in their celebration of this milestone and looks forward to continuing the journey together towards further progress of the country and the Region, he added.
(ANSA) - Rome, May 26 - Italy is responding to the usual cliches about Sicily by holding the Group of Seven summit in Taormina, ex-premier and Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi said Friday.

Recalling that the summit had been destined for his native Florence, Renzi said "we decided to move it when, during an international meeting, some leader made one too many quips about Sicily, on its stereotypes and prejudices." "Today Italy is responding to the cliches with the superlative setting of Taormina, with the Theatre, with La Scala playing in a breathtaking setting, with Etna, with the beauty of the values of Sicily and the Sicilians," Renzi said on Facebook.

"You know my love of Florence but (when we made the decision) we thought it was right to send a signal to say that the South and Sicily are full of pearls that can enchant the world.

"And the Florentines were the first to understand this and to forgive us".

"Starting with the welcome, the culture, the curiosities, the images that will travel around the world will be an advertisement for tourism but also, and above all, a universal message of education and culture".

"To those who live off prejudices, Italy is responding today with Beauty. Viva Taormina, viva Italy!".


(ANSA) - Rome, May 25 - The entire Sicilian seaside town of Taormina is on lockdown ahead of the G7 summit taking place there on Friday and Saturday, with no one allowed to enter or exit without a specially issued, color-coded photo ID.

Even residents, both adults and children, have to wear their own color-coded badges, issued as part of an entire system with different colored badges assigned to event technicians, military personnel, law enforcement and intelligence officers, journalists, and summit delegates. The town is eerily quiet, with armed military personnel stationed every 10 metres along the town's main street, Corso Umberto.

Security for the summit has been arranged in a series of concentric circles whose circumference begins with checkpoints in the nearby town Giardini Naxos and at the Messina-Catania highway exit, and ends at the summit location, Hotel San Domenico, where one employee said he's had to undergo "50 checks a day; but by now they know me".

The only entrance points to Taormina's city centre - two historic arches, Catania and Messina, standing on opposite sides of the centre - are equipped with airport-standard metal detectors that can also detect whether the color-coded entry badges are authentic or counterfeit.

Surveillance cameras are strategically placed everywhere, and all the data gets sent back to the main operations centre inside the city hall building, where 7,000 people are temporarily working within the historic Palace of the Dukes of Santo Stefano.

Video images come from as far as the town of Giardini Naxos and also include those transmitted from body cameras being worn by hundreds of undercover law enforcement agents.

Messina police chief Giuseppe Cucchiara said although the coming days will require intense effort, "we're giving it our all".

The ground floor is set up for those managing bodyguards, public safety and checkpoints, while downstairs are offices where local and national law enforcement and intelligence agents are working alongside agents from European police agency Europol and international police agency Interpol.

Roberto Maugeri, the police staffer managing the operations centre, said it's equipped to handle "any situation that might occur".

"We can immediately share any information and access all databanks," he said.

Local residents are mostly resigned to the situation, although some complain that it should have taken place earlier than now, before tourist season hit.

Outside a coffee shop called the Wonderbar, whose 16 tables are vacant, thoughts turn to the philosophical.

"We've adapted; we knew it was coming and we can't do anything about it. And in any case, this will be great publicity for Taormina".


Greek and migrant students in Salonica create short film Innovative educational project aims to build cultural bridges

(ANSAmed) - SALONICA, MAY 26 - The book and short animated film started with a simple box, in which pupils of an elementary school in the Thermi area of the city and migrant students placed texts, letters, drawings, paintings and various other objects, which was then passed on from one group of children to another throughout the year.



Along the way the children, communicated with each other and reflected on one another's thoughts and concepts, with the end result being the book and short animated film called 'The Meeting' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AUEUXoXpeU).



The project, organized by 'LitBridge', an educational program about Bridging Cultures through Literature and Narrative, was helped by young local writers and filmmakers, the goal being to bring children from different social and cultural backgrounds together, enhancing reading culture through literature and storytelling, and to develop critical thinking and to show the value of their own discourse.



"We use literature as a tool to bring together different cultural groups and to get children to become familiar with other cultures," the manager of LitBridge, Sofia Byzantiou, told Greek radio station RES-MPE 104.9.



She added: "At this early stage, the program has been implemented in the 1st Primary School of Thermi, with 3rd and 4th grade pupils specifically taking part. At the same time, we involved Syrian refugee students at the nearby relocation structures in cooperation with [the NGO organization] Praxis.



The program to include refugee and migrant children in the Greek education system was launched last September, and despite initially sparking negative reactions from some parents in various parts of the country with demonstrations being held, the opposition has given way to a wider show of solidarity.



LitBridge is an innovative program created and implemented by Greek educators and artists who love literature, writing, narrative and different cultures. Focused on intercultural education, it aims to create a framework for dialogue and dialogue between elementary school pupils and refugees who have not yet entered school. In total, there are approximately 600 refugees and migrants currently attending classes to date, with more expected to be enrolled in educational programs in the new academic year from September 2017.(ANSAmed).




CAIRO - At least 28 people, according to medical and security sources, including several children, were killed by a commando of 10 gunmen who attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians near the city of Minya, in southern Egypt. According to the former spokesman of the Orthodox Coptic Church, Anaba Ermya, 35 people were killed.

Meanwhile Egypt's security forces have sealed off Minya to try to apprehend the gunmen.



Ahmed Al Tayyeb, the grand imam of Al Azhar, the prestigious seat of Sunni Islamic learning in Cairo, condemned the attack in Minya as ''unacceptable''. ''Each Muslim and each Christian condemns it'', he added.

He also told broadcaster Nile TV that ''such an act vies to damage Egypt's stability''.

In Maghagha, in the Minya governatorate, about a hundred Coptic Christians took it to the streets to protest against the Interior minister, asking him to step down.
ROME - Over 2,300 migrants landed at various ports across Italy on Friday after being saved in numerous rescue operations in the southern Mediterranean.



The biggest group, numbering 1,004, arrived in Salerno in the southern Campania region on board the Aquarius operated by the Italian-French-German NGO "Sos Mediterranee" in partnership with Medecins sans Frontieres.



The group included 110 women, of whom 21 were pregnant, and 214 minors of whom 193 were said to be unaccompanied. Following routine medical examination and identification part of the group will be sent to reception centres in Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Tuscany and Puglia, while approximately 600 migrants are set to remain in Campania. Another group of 465 migrants arrived in Taranto in Apulia region on board the cargo ship 'Sds Green' after being rescued on Wednesday in the Gulf of Sirte off Libya. Separately, 635 migrants - 577 men, 58 women (of whom 6 pregnant) and 71 minors (67 unaccompanied) - arrived at the Calabria port of Corigliano Calabro in the province of Cosenza on board the Vos Hestia operated by Save the Children.



The migrants came from various countries, particularly Ivory Coast, Guinea, Nigeria, Ghana and Bangladesh. Another group of 280 migrants arrived at the Calabrian port of Crotone on board the British navy patrol boat Protector.



Meanwhile, the Phoenix operated by the NGO MOAS was expected to arrive late afternoon, carrying over 600 migrants and 34 bodies.


TEHRAN - The supreme court of Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death 14 young Shiite activists in the eastern province of Qatif, where many Shiite protests were staged over the past few years against the regime of the Al Saud family, Iranian broadcaster PressTV reported Friday.



The trial was allegedly held in the special section of the court dealing with terrorism cases and which, according to opposition members, is a tool of the Saudi interior ministry to crack down on anti-regime activists.



According to some defense attorneys, quoted by the television, the young Shiites were physically and psychologically tortured to obtain a confession.



The sentence was issued using a 2014 Saudi 'law against terrorism' with harsher penalties for those found guilty of terrorism.



The law has prompted concern from the United Nations and the special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism has called on Saudi Arabia to stop using it against people peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly.
Syria: '100 dead in anti-ISIS raids, many relatives' At the border with Iraq. SOHR, almost half of victims are kids

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MAY 26 - Over 100 people, half of them children, have been reported dead after US-led Coalition air raids on an area at the border between Syria and Iraq, according to the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human rights (SOHR).



Most of the victims were reportedly family members of ISIS jihadists.



The raid was carried out overnight in central Syria near the border with Iraq, according to the NGO.



The monitoring group said the raids carried out on Mayadin, in the eastern region of Dayr azz or, killed 42 minors under 16, among the 100 victims. (ANSAmed).




ANSAmed - Weekly diary from May 29 until June 4, 2017

(ANSAmed) - Rome, May 29 - Weekly diary of the main events scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean area from May 29 until June 4: MONDAY MAY 29 BRUSSELS - EU, high-level seminar on Islam in Europe organized by the European Political Strategy Center (EPSC) ROME - ETUC, conference for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome organized by the European confederation of unions with Labor Minister Giuliano Poletti, among others.



BERLIN - EU, round table on refugees and migration MALTA - EU, plenary session LVII of the conference of parliamentary committees for union affairs of parliaments of the European Union on the 'expansion of the blue economy - towards a more sustainable integrated maritime policy of the European Union' ROME - Foreign press association, presentation of 'visual course guidance navigation - the story of search-and-rescue operations of migrants in the central Mediterranean', by the Observatory of Pavia, Rome Charter and Cospe TUESDAY MAY 30 ROME - Lower House, seminar on 'Islam and the prevention of violent radicalism' WEDNESDAY MAY 31 MILAN - University of Studies, conference on 'Elections in Iran and the challenge of the future' BRUSSELS - EU, third meeting of the high-level group of the European Union on the fight against racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance ISTANBUL/ANKARA - Anniversary of the start of protests that gathered over two million Turks for three weeks against the conservative Islamic government of then-premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the area of Gezi Park THURSDAY JUNE 1 Nothing to report FRIDAY JUNE 2 ROME - Republic Day VARIOUS CITIES - Start of Migrarti, cultural events to get to know the 'new Italians' SATURDAY JUNE 3 LA VALLETTA - Political elections SUNDAY JUNE 4 Nothing to report.



(ANSAmed).




TAORMINA - The main aim of the Group of Seven summit in Taormina concerning migrants is to maintain a unity of intent, European Council President Donald Tusk told a press conference before the start of the meeting Friday.



"The most important objective on migrants it to maintain a united G7 on the consideration that immigration is a global and not a regional matter," Tusk said.



"We hope to be able to convince our new colleagues around the table on this point," he added.



European countries and the US remain divided over several agenda items including climate and trade.



Instead there is greater unity of intent in the fight against terrorism. The G7 summit is being hosted by Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni.



British prime minister Theresa May and French and US presidents Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump are also at their first meeting as heads of government.
G7: Yes to migrant rights but also border defence, draft doc Partnership for countries of origin. 'Good compromise', sources

(ANSAmed) - TAORMINA, MAY 26 - A draft of the final G7 statement, still being negotiated, said that "while supporting the human rights of migrants and refugees, we reaffirm the sovereign rights of Stats to control their borders and set clear limits to net levels of immigration, as a key element in their national security and economic wellbeing".



The draft of the statement of the G7 summit in Taormina calls for a partnership with migrants' countries of origin, according to a copy of the document that is still subject to negotiation and was seen by ANSA. "The management and control of migrant flows requires - while taking account of the distinction between refugees and economic migrants - both an emergency and long-term approach," it read. It said the G7 leaders "agree on establishing a partnership to help countries create conditions within their borders to resolve the causes of migration.



Italian diplomatic sources said that a "good compromise has been reached" on migrants for the G7 summit's final statement.



"The global approach to the problem, including a long-term one with the involvement of the countries of origin and shared responsibility, is recognised," the sources said. They said that the discussion of the issue by G7 leaders "will be tomorrow" and that work was continuing on two special paragraphs of the final document, while stressing that "there are no problems" with the Americans on this. (ANSAmed).




YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The exclusive project of ARMENPRESS entitled Yerevan Bestseller brings the top ten bestselling books of Yerevan every week.

Mark Arens Where Wild Roses Bloom is this weeks top bestselling book in the city.

The story describes the inner world of an Armenophobic Turkish former serviceman, when he, already an old man, suddenly hears a lullaby song that reminds him of his mother and later finds out that the song is in Armenian: realizing his parents were Armenians. He spends his remaining life searching the graves of his parents, without knowing that it was a misunderstanding.

Edgar Harutyunyans Unfound Chamomiles collection comes next. This is the second book of the author. Unfound Chamomiles is about human relationship, love, friendship and betrayal.

Spencer Johnsons Who Moved My Cheese is third. Published on September 8, 1998, Who Moved My Cheese is a motivational business fable. The text describes change in one's work and life, and four typical reactions to those changes by two mice and two "little people," during their hunt for cheese. A New York Times business bestseller upon release, Who Moved My Cheese? remained on the list for almost five years and spent over 200 weeks on Publishers Weekly's hardcover nonfiction list. It has sold more than 26 million copies worldwide in 37 languages and remains one of the best-selling business books.

The Kite Runner by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini comes next, after it debuted in the list recently. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, whose closest friend is Hassan, his father's young Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet military intervention, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is ranked 5th in the list. It is a 2006 Holocaust novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. Unlike the months of planning Boyne devoted to his other books, he said that he wrote the entire first draft of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in two and a half days, barely sleeping until he got to the end.

The Alchemist by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho comes next. Originally written in Portuguese, it has been translated into at least 69 languages as of December 2016. An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

Francis Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby is ranked 7th. It was first published in 1925, and is considered one of the typical works of American literature of the "jazz era".

Milan Kunderas The Unbearable Lightness of Being has returned to the list. It was published in 1984. The book chronicles the fragile nature of an individual's fate, theorizing that a single lifetime is insignificant in the scope of Nietzsche's concept of eternal return. In an infinite universe, everything is guaranteed to recur infinitely. In 1988, American director Philip Kaufman released a film adaptation.

Oscar Wildes The Picture Of Dorian Gray comes next in the bestselling list of the week. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty; he believes that Dorian's beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

Stefan Zweigs Collected Stories concludes the list. Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most popular writers in the world. The book was translated by Ara Arakelyan and Margarit Arakelyan.

YEREVAN BESTSELLER presented by Angela Hambardzumyan

Bookinist, Hay Girk, Edit Print and Zangak book stores were surveyed for the project.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Minister of Emergency Situations Davit Tonoyan on May 24 participated in the UN 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Cancun, Mexico, the Ministry told Armenpress.

The event was organized by the Mexico Government and the UN Disaster Risk Reduction Office.

The main objective is to enable the governments, NGOs, scientists-experts, as well as the UN organizations to make exchange of experience and develop a strategic guideline for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The Global Platform is attended by over 5000 representatives from 176 countries, including heads of states, ministers, members of governments, prominent experts, scientists and etc.

Within the frames of the Platform, over 100 workshops and thematic discussions are being organized with participation of political leaders, ministers, scientists, representatives of international organizations and NGOs of different countries.

Under the co-chairmanship of Minister Tonoyan, a special session on the topic of Availability and access of early warning systems against various threats and information on disaster risk was held.

The main mission of the special session was the following:

-effective guidance of investments of countries and international organizations

-presentation of methodology assessing the use of early warning systems in countries

-exchange of experience and information, as well as promotion of spreading successful experience of early warning systems

Minister Tonoyan welcomed the participants and thanked the Mexico government, stating that the current technical progress enables people not only to understand what is happening today, but also in future.

The Minister stated: I would like to once more emphasize the importance of early warning for sustainable development. Todays imperative is to create an effective system which will be available for all. In this sense, it is impossible to underestimate the mission of the Global Platform on forming our mission to unite the efforts of all actors and create a resistant planet.

After the session, Minister Tonoyan presented a national report on behalf of the Armenian Government.

The Minister presented Armenias disaster preparedness and response capacity development.

The Global Platform is being held since 2006 and is the main meeting of international stakeholders aimed at reducing disaster risks and creating resistant communities.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump will attend the 43rd G7 summit with leaders of the world's major economies in Sicily, Italy, on the last leg of his first foreign trip, BBC reports.

A tough debate is expected on issues including trade and climate change.

The G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. The EU also has representatives.

Four of group's leaders - including Mr Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May - will be sitting around the table for the first time.

The summit comes just days after Monday's deadly bombing in Manchester in which 22 people - including children - were killed.

Mrs May is expected to urge world leaders to do more to combat online extremism, saying the fight against so-called Islamic State is "moving from the battlefield to the internet".

The two-day G7 summit will officially open at 09:30 GMT in Sicily's picturesque town of Taormina
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan released a statement congratulating schoolchildren on the Last Bell  the graduation event, the City Hall told ARMENPRESS.

I cordially congratulate you on finishing school which was one of the most important stages of your life. Here you gained significant knowledge and the aspiration for being useful to the society, which will lead you throughout your life.

Our country has great expectations of the new generation, believes in its big potential. From now on you will participate in the responsible work of strengthening the independent statehood of Armenia assuming the responsibility and simultaneously the right to be the master of the country.

I wish you success in this mission.

On the event of the Last School Bell I also congratulate your parents and teachers who took any efforts to ensure your carefree childhood and provide you with proper knowledge. And today you are taking the responsibility to make their dreams and hopes regarding you come true.



Dear friends,

as the Mayor of Yerevan I hope that owing to you new glorious pages will be written in Yerevans chronology. I wish you a happy trip to your adult life feeling certain that you will realize all your dreams for the benefit of our country and the welfare of our capital city Yerevan, the Mayor said.
YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS. The culture ministry of Armenia plans to present the Yereruyk Basilica for UNESCOs tangible cultural heritage list, deputy minister of culture Arev Samuelyan told ARMENPRESS, adding they also want to present Dvin, which is also a very significant value for including in the world heritage list.

We want to add the Sanahin Bridge to the bid of the Sanahin monastic complex and Haghpat monastery  the UNESCO world heritage site. However this is a long process and it might take years, she said.

Speaking about the Iranian Blue Mosque in Yerevan, she said the ministry is negotiating with the Iranian side for several months already over including it in UNESCOs world heritage list, however no clear agreement has been reached so far.

Back in the 90s the Armenian and Iranian sides signed a commercial and scientific cooperation agreement, and later a memorandum of understanding, based on which the Blue Mosque was partially restored by 1998 and was given to the Iranian Embassy as a cultural center of Iran.

The deputy minister also spoke about UNESCOs intangible cultural heritage. Each country has the right to make submissions once every two years. This year, our agenda includes submitting Kochari to the UNESCO list of intangible heritage, she said.

The UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list already includes four cultural values of Armenia  Duduk and its music, Armenian cross-stones art. Symbolism and craftsmanship of Khachkars, Performance of the Armenian epic of 'Daredevils of Sassoun' or 'David of Sassoun', Lavash, the preparation, meaning and appearance of traditional bread as an expression of culture in Armenia.

Yereruyk Basilica is located in the village of Anipemza in the Shirak Province of Armenia.

The fourth-fifth century basilica of Yererouk, which is built on a rocky knoll pierced by caves, is one of the earliest Christian monuments in Armenia.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The awarding ceremony of the Presidents Awards 2016 of the Republic of Armenia was held in the Presidential Palace on May 26, press service of the Presidents Office told Armenpress.

President Serzh Sargsyan and Diaspora-Armenian philanthropist Jean Poghosyan (Robert Poghosyan & Sons Foundation) presented the awards to a number of distinguished and prominent figures of different spheres.

The President congratulated all Laureates and wished new achievements in their future endeavors.

***

Serzh Sargsyan delivered speech at the ceremony:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Laureates,

I cordially welcome you and congratulate on receiving the Presidents Awards of the Republic of Armenia. I am very happy that today we meet and communicate on such a pleasure occasion, by properly assessing your value.

This work for already many years has been supported by respectful members of Poghoyan family. By using this chance, I want to once again express gratitude on behalf of all of us to them for jointly implementing this important work.

Dear Jean, for already several years we together reveal the creative potential of our country and people, encourage our scientists and artists to continue their dedicated work. This is a significant contribution to Armenias development, and of course, it is highly appreciated from us.

Dear friends,

According to tradition, one of the most importany achievements of the creative thinking and flight of our people, the Armenian Alphabet, appeared to St. Mesrop Mashtots in the form of vision. Historians say many scientific discoveries were made as a result of an accident, even a dream.

Such evidence may have grounds, however, the truth is only partially reflected. Yes, enlightenment can happen instantly, even in subconscious. However, the so-called accidents occur only with people who for years prepared grounds for that.

Creative work requires careful and consistent targeting of years. The combination of information, science, skills and experience can never be without consequences. Those are the firm grounds that bring creative flight.

I am confident that everyone who received this award has a unique history of his/her long-term efforts, search for truth, detecting mistakes and improving them.

Let this award firstly be the first page of success history for youth so that new awards and international recognition are not late.

Dear Laureates,

Concluding my speech, I once again congratulate you and wish you new achievements in your future endeavors for the benefit of our people and humanity.

Thank You.

***

Below is the list of the recipients of the Presidential Awards.

For significant contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide  Bagrat Estukian (Turkey)  for constantly referring to the topic in Agos newspaper, Hans-Lukas Kieser  for input in exploring the history of the Armenian Genocide.

IT and technical sciences Gevorg Baghdasaryan and Marine Mikilyan - for the monography on the Effects of Magnetoelastic Interaction in Conductive Plates and Shells (in English)

Literature  Ghukas Sirunyan - for the Open up, its me book of poetry

YOUTH AWARDS

Arts  Rima Nanyan - for the Uncertain Images graphical works, Levon Poghosyan - for the Old Gods sculpture series

Literature Armen Sargsyan - for the Instead of Books Unread book of poetry, Aram Mamikonyan - for the Heavy Water book of poetry

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Vocals  Sargis Bajbeuk-Melikyan and Marianna Martirosyan - for the supreme art of performance

Instrumental  Roman Namalyan (piano) and Arsen Zakaryan (clarinet) - for the instrumental music performance

Since its creation (2011) the Presidential Award has been awarded to 348 individuals and organizations, including 24 international.






















YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. A fire in a residential building in Marseille, France killed four people, including three Armenian citizens, foreign ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan told ARMENPRESS.

Balayan said the victims have been identified as the Kocharyan family. Arsen Kocharyan, the father of the family, suffered burns and is currently hospitalized.

The blaze broke out at 03:00 in the multi-storey building. Twenty residents were evacuated.

The Marseille Prosecutor said authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

Jean-Claude Gaudin, Mayor of Marseille, extended his condolences to the family of the victims.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. People like you dont have anything to do in the US any longer, you are not representing your people  these were the words addressed to Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used by US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher when he opened the Congress hearings on the recent Washington D.C. attack on demonstrators.

US lawmakers discussed the brutal attack on protesters outside the Turkish Ambassadors residence on May 16 in Washington, when, according to Congressmen, Recep Tayyip Erdogans bodyguards attacked peaceful American protesters.

We dont want to speak with a man who is trying to create Islamic fascism in his own country, and become the main fascist. He is the enemy of everything that we stand for, moreover, he is the enemy of his own people, Dana Rohrabacher said. He Congressmans call was loud and clear  Erdogan must never be invited to the US any more.

The Congressmen emphasized that Turkish security personnel violated the constitutional rights of the American people on American soil, at the order of Erdogan.

Congressman Brad Sherman said the incident was an attack on US sovereignty. We shouldnt even discuss Turkeys issues with him until we receive an official apology from personally Erdogan, Sherman said.

The Turkish Embassy in US had previously said that the Turkish security agents were forced to interfere in order to protect Erdogans security. Responding to this statement, Congressman Sherman said the Ambassadors statement is a lie, because footage clearly shows that Erdogan was not threatened whatsoever by the 10 protesters who had gathered far away.

The Ambassadors statement is a lie and he is trying to cover up the physical aggression. He must be expelled from our country immediately, the Congressman said.

Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), also testified, and said that the attack happened surprisingly, seemingly upon an order.

When the police were ordering them to stop, they simply ignored this order, something Ive never seen in America, he said.

Congressmen said the US response must be harsh and definite.
YEREVAN, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian governmental delegation led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan is in the Russian city of Kazan on a working visit to take part in the sessions the CIS heads of governments council and the Eurasian inter-governmental council, press service of the Government told Armenpress.

Narrow and extended format sessions of the CIS heads of governments council was held on May 26 during which issues related to further developing and deepening the economic mutual partnership within the structure were discussed.

After the end of the extended format session, heads of CIS governments signed a number of documents aimed at deepening the mutual partnership between the CSI states in various spheres. International agreements were also signed on combating production and distribution of fake products, intellectual property protection and etc.

The Council made a decision to hold the next session in November, 2017.

The Armenian PMs delegation participated in the official reception organized on behalf of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for the delegations participating in the sessions.
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Artesias sales tax rate will jump from 7.8125 to 8.1458 percent effective Jan. 1, 2018

The Eddy County Commission voted this morning to approve all three of its proposed Gross Receipts Tax (GRT) increases.

With that, effective Jan. 1, 2018, Artesias local GRT rate will increase from 7.8125 percent to 8.1458, the fifth-highest rate in Southern New Mexico.

The commission made its decisions following an at-times prickly debate.

The least-contentious of the three ordinances  a 1/12 of 1 percent increase to aid the county with Safety Net Care Pool payments previously funded by the State of New Mexico  passed with little objection.

The remaining two ordinances amounted to a total 2/8 of 1 percent increase to the GRT, 1/8 to add funding to the Eddy County Detention Center and 1/8 for the General Fund to be used at the countys discretion. Eddy County Manager Rick Rudometkin indicated the primary motivation for the increase involved funding needs for road improvements, facilities maintenance, and the Eddy County Sheriffs Office.

Artesia Mayor Phillip Burch and Commissioner Jon Henry of Artesia both expressed belief the board has not done enough to inform both its municipalities and citizens of precisely why the funds are needed and for what they would be used.

Burch pointed out city governments were not invited to the table during county budget planning, nor were any town halls held in Artesia or Carlsbad. He urged the commission to postpone its votes on the proposed 2/8 in order to allow time for such actions to be taken.

Henry seconded that, telling the commission that, with the tax hikes not taking effect till January, there was no rush to pass the increases today. He stated it is the duty of the commission to ensure citizens are as informed as possible when it comes to raising their taxes.

Commission Chairman Stella Davis responded by stating the commission had explained itself to death in 2015 when it sought to implement all 3/8 of the states allowable hold-harmless GRT increases. It ultimately, in the face of significant public backlash, opted to enact only 1/8.

Two residents of Artesia and one of Carlsbad also spoke during the public hearings, saying they were concerned with the lack of representation regarding the need for todays tax increases and asking the commission to take the time to better educate the public before taking action.

County department heads and one Carlsbad resident said the funds were needed and urged the commission to pass the increases.

Additional details will be published in Fridays edition of the Daily Press.
'it is sad" Murthy told about recent job layoffs in various IT Companies.

Bengaluru: Founder Chairman of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy today expressed sadness over the IT companies laying off their employees as part of their cost cutting strategy.

"...It is sad...," Murthy told in an email reply to a PTI query about recent IT layoffs. Murthy, however, did not elaborate on the matter. Infosys had announced that it could hand out pink slips to hundreds of mid and senior-level employees as it carries out bi-annual performance review amid a challenging business environment.

The development comes at a time when its peers Wipro and Cognizant are taking similar measures to control costs. The US-based Cognizant had rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPs and senior VPs, offering them 6-9 months of salary.

Wipro, too, is learnt to have asked about 600 employees to leave as part of its annual "performance appraisal" even as speculations were that the number could go as high as 2,000.

According to executive search firm Head Hunters India, the job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

A report submitted by McKinsey & Company at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum said, nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be "irrelevant" over the next 3-4 years.

IT companies have been one of the largest recruiters in the country. However, they have warned that increasing automation of processes would lead to reduction in hiring in coming years.

While the outsourcing model has placed India on the global map, increasing scrutiny and rising protectionist sentiment are also posing challenges for the USD 140 billion Indian IT industry.

Companies are now working towards reducing their dependence on work visas and instead hiring more locals to ensure continuity of work for clients, even though it impacts their margins.
Jio had filed complaint with Trai against Airtel in April saying that Airtel had violated tariff rules by issuing misleading offers.

Trai said it has received complaint that some telecom operators are launching tariffs without filing it with the regulator and offering discriminatory tariff to individual customers within the same class.

New Delhi: Regulator Trai on Thursday directed telecom operators to stop providing discriminatory tariffs to the subscribers of the same category and report all plans to the sector watchdog within seven days of their launch.

Clause 10 of the Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999 provides that no service provider shall, in any manner, discriminate between subscribers of the same class and such classification of subscribers shall not be arbitrary. Provided that different tariffs in the nature of 'Vertical Price Squeeze' shall be a case of discriminatory tariff, Trai said in a direction issued to telecom operators.

Trai said it has received complaint that some telecom operators are launching tariffs without filing it with the regulator and offering discriminatory tariff to individual customers within the same class.

Jio had filed complaint with Trai against Airtel in April saying the telecom major violated tariff rules by issuing misleading offers and arbitrarily discriminating among its own customers subscribing to the same plan.

The Mukesh Ambani-led telecom venture demanded highest penalty on Airtel alleging that the two plans of Airtel priced at Rs 293 and Rs 449, respectively are being marketed in a misleading manner.

It said that Airtels advertisements of these offers are an attempt to lure prospective subscribers making them believe that they will be provided 1 GB data per day for 70 days.

However, the subscribers who do not satisfy Airtels dual criteria, will be provisioned only 50 MB data and post that, they will be charged the exorbitant data tariff of Rs 4,000 per GB, Jio said.

Bharti Airtel spokesperson had denied the allegations saying the company was fully complying with all regulatory guidelines, including tariff orders.
Priyanka Chopra's mother Madhu Chopra represented the production house at the 70th Cannes film festival.

Cannes: Priyanka Chopra's production banner, Purple Pebble Pictures, has registered its presence at the 70th Cannes Film Festival with a slate of at least half a dozen films that are in the works.

The company was represented in Cannes by the actress' mother, Madhu Chopra, who helms the company as managing director, Purple Pebble Pictures, and who unveiled the first look of the new Sikkimese film, 'Pahuna', written and directed by Paakhi A Tyrewala. It is scheduled to release in October.

"We've been enthused by the success of 'Ventilator' to step out into the big wide world of global independent cinema," Madhu said at an event hosted by the India Pavilion here to unveil the first look of 'Pahuna'.

The film, which unfolds entirely in Sikkim and uses many local talents in the junior crew, is about three children who are separated from their parents while fleeing from the Maoist violence in Nepal.

"It was a logistical challenge shooting in Sikkim because the state does not have a film industry but the government went out of its way to support the project," she said.

"The film is currently in post-production. It should be ready for release before Dussehra. We will have the premiere in Sikkim."

Explaining the rationale behind their banner's regional-language forays, Madhu said, "Stories from the various Indian states are routinely turned into Hindi films. Bollywood benefits commercially in the bargain. Our core idea is to narrate these tales in the languages that they stem from."

Among the other films that Priyanka's production house currently has in the pipeline is 'Nalini', a Bengali-Marathi bilingual inspired by a little-known romantic chapter from Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's early life.

To be directed by Ujjwal Chatterjee and scripted by his wife Sagarika, the film will present a 17-year-old Rabindranath, who found his first love in Maharashtra when his father sent him to his elder brother Satyendranath to learn English.

"We are looking for a young actor to play the teenage Tagore, while we are close to casting Jisshu Sengupta in the role of the poet's older avatar," Madhu said in an interview.

Also up ahead is a film set in Goa, 'Little Joe, Kahaan Ho?', about a boy who tides over his loneliness by sitting by the sea and sketching. A German tourist spots his talent and a bond develops between the two.

The film, pitched as a tribute to the art of celebrated cartoonist Mario Miranda, is directed by first-timer Suvrata Nasnodkar, who has her roots in Goa. She cut her teeth as an assistant to Prakash Jha.

Purple Pebble Pictures also has a Bhojpuri film, 'Bam Bam Bol Raha Hain Kashi', and another Marathi production, 'Kai Re, Rascala,' lined up for release over the next year.

The sixth film that Madhu spoke about with special interest is the Bengali-language 'Brishtir Opekhaye' (Waiting for Rain).

"It is based on a book by seasoned litterateur Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay. We have just brought the rights from the writer in Kolkata and cast Rahul Bose and Rituparna Sengupta in stellar roles," she said.
In hope to get some scoop out of Priyanka, the shows host Wendy brought up Meghan and Prince Harry's topic.

Mumbai: Priyanka, who is being applauded for her role in her Hollywood debut film Baywatch, appeared on The Wendy Williams Show on Tuesday to talk about her movie. Its no secret that Priyanka and Suits star Meghan Markle are pretty close and share a great bonding, and the shows host, Wendy was well aware about the fact as well.

As it happens, Meghan is currently dating Prince Harry, and in hope to get some scoop out of Priyanka, the shows host Wendy steered the conversation in that direction while referring to the American actor as Prince Harrys girlfriend, which not-so-surprisingly didnt go down well with Priyanka.

Wendy started the topic by saying, Youre friends with Meghan Markle, Prince Harrys girlfriend! The actress was quick to add, Also, Meghan Markle, actress, Suits, her achievements.

Internet absolutely loved the way Priyanka sweetly pointed out that Meghan is more than Prince Harrys girlfriend and has many achievements of her own to not be overshadowed by her dating life.

Watch the video below:
Laying the foundation stone for an agricultural research institute, Modi said that farmers loved the governments schemes.

Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in Gogamukh of Assam.

According to a report in NDTV, speaking on the occasion, Modi said, I have come here for very important work. I have come to lay the foundation stone for a project that will change the face of rural India.

Stating that time and technology did not wait for anyone, Modi asserted that Indian farmers should reap the benefits of the countrys progress.

Friday also marked the third anniversary of the Narendra Modi government coming to power. In this regard, the PM thanked the people of Assam for voting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power at both the Centre and in the state.

Asserting that the government would double farmers incomes, Modi claimed that his government had taken many major steps in the last 3 years.

Three years is not a lot of time for a big country like India. (But) we launched the soil health card for farmers," he stated.

"The science of helping farmers always existed. Scientists did not take birth after we came to power. But tokenism did not help the country develop," Modi said in a jibe at the UPA government which ruled for 10 years.

"Before our government came, there were 15 soil health card laboratories. Today there are 9,000. We have also fostered startups that will help the farm sector," Modi said.

Claiming that if given water, our farmers can grow gold, the PM said the government had launched a number of irrigation schemes. Modi declared that the farmers loved the governments schemes as they were now getting more money from crop insurance than they ever had before.

The 66-year old PM asserted that the Northeast can become a hub of organic farming, said the report. He said that there was a big market for organic farming globally, and that while regular farm produce sold for Re 1, organic farm produce sold for 1 dollar.

Modi stated that instead of aiming for another Green Revolution, India should now aim for an Evergreen Revolution.

According to the report, Modi unveiled a five point programme to improve connectivity to the Northeast - Highway, Railway, Waterway, Airway and I-Way or information way.
The significant observation has been made by Special Judge Bharat Parashar in his verdict convicting the former top bureaucrat and others.

New Delhi: The "unscrupulous acts" of five convicts including former Coal Secretary H C Gupta led to non-extraction of coal from a mine in Madhya Pradesh causing "immense" loss to the country, a special court here has said.

The significant observation has been made by Special Judge Bharat Parashar in his verdict convicting the former top bureaucrat and four others including beneficiary firm Kamal

Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL) and its Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia in the allocation of a coal block in MP.

"Non-availability of such an important raw material has, in fact, caused an immense loss to the country in its journey to achieve higher infrastructural/industrial development.

"Thus it is the country as a whole which has suffered loss on account of such unscrupulous acts of the convict persons," the judgement said.

The special court rejected the fervent plea of the accused of leniency on the grounds that no loss was caused to anyone as not even a single ounce of coal was extracted from the allocated mine.

The court has also imposed a fine of Rs one crore on the firm while Ahluwalia was awarded three-year jail term.

Rejecting the submissions, the court said, "it would suffice to state that non-extraction of coal in itself has caused huge loss to the country".

Gupta and two serving senior officials -- K S Kropha and K C Samaria -- were awarded two-year jail term by the court in the case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of the Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to the firm.
The proposed challenge is on June 3 for which seven national and 48 regional parties recognised by the EC have been invited.

The poll watchdog also said the demonstration held inside the Delhi assembly was carried out on a 'look alike' EVM and not on the one used by the Election Commission. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday rejected the demand of the Aam Aadmi Party to allow it to tamper with the motherboard of the electronic voting machines during the EVM challenge. The EC said the EVM would lose its originality if changes are made to its internal circuitry.

The AAP had on Wednesday asked the Commission not to have any set guidelines for the EVM challenge as a person planning to hack the machine would not go by the rules set by the poll panel.

The poll watchdog also said the demonstration held inside the Delhi assembly to prove that the machines can be hacked was carried out on a "look alike" EVM and not on the one used by the Election Commission.

"Such so called demonstration on extraneous and duplicate gadgets, which are not owned by the EC cannot be misused and exploited to mislead and influence our intelligent citizens to assail or vilify the EVMS used by the Commission," it told AAP.

Referring to the partys demand to allow it to tamper with the motherboard of the machine, the EC said "allowing any change of the motherboard or any internal circuit of the EVM is like saying that anyone should be permitted to manufacture a new machine and introduce newly made EVMs in EC system, which is implausible and irrational".

The proposed challenge is on June 3 for which seven national and 48 regional parties recognised by the EC have been invited.
The 9.15 km long bridge will reduce the travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh from six hours to just one hour.

Sadia: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated the Dhola-Sadia Bridge, the country's longest river bridge, over the Lohit in the eastern most tip of Assam connecting Arunachal Pradesh.

After inaugurating the Rs 2,056 crore strategic bridge at Sadia in Assam's Tinsukia district, Modi walked a short distance over it.

A vehicle carrying the prime minister, union minister Nitin Gadkari, Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal and other senior government officials then passed over it.

The 9.15 km long bridge is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai. It has a three lane carriage way and connects Sadia town in Assam's Tinsukia district with Dhola village in Arunachal Pradesh across the river.

The bridge will reduce travel time between strategically located Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by four hours as the earlier means of transport was only by river.

Bearing in mind the necessity for quick movement of troops and artillery to the bordering state of Arunachal, the bridge has been designed to accommodate the movement of tanks, according to official sources.

Addressing a public gathering, Modi said the bridge was delayed because of the UPA government.

This bridge will now be known by the name of Bhupen Hazarika, the son of Brahmaputra who enchanted the world with his voice, said Modi.

Congratulating Sarbananda Sonowal and his team, the prime minister said it is remarkable that he has taken on so many difficult problems in one year.

Also taunting the previous government, Modi asserted that the bridge would have completed earlier if it wasnt for the UPA government.

"Our lawmaker at that time had requested for the bridge and Atal ji's government had ordered a feasibility study. If Atal ji's government had been re-elected in 2004, you would have got this bridge 10 years ago," Modi said.

He urged people to take out their mobile phones and celebrate this achievement.

The BJP government in Assam completed a year and are solving Assam's problems one-by-one, he added.

He described the bridge as not just Assams pride, but the country's pride. Stressing on physical and social infrastructure, he added that the BJP's intent is to make development sustainable and fulfil the dreams of the country.

This bridge will bring Assam and Arunachal closer and open doors of economic prosperity as it shortens a distance of 165 km and saves hours of transit time. It will also provide a new market to ginger farmers of Sadiya. At the same time, it will further save Rs 10 lakh of fuel every day for the common man.

The PM also said that the east and the northeast have the highest scope to contribute to India's unprecedented development. "We have endavoured to take development to new heights," he claimed.

The government is now working to give a thrust to waterways in the region, so that it can play a huge role in connecting India to South East Asia and become a hub of economic activity.

He also alleged that Railways in the sect needed more attention. "Railways in the northeast hasn't received as much attention as it should have," Modi said.

"Due to connectivity problems, many Indians are unaware of how beautiful this place is. If we can make this a tourist hub, the economy of this region will benefit a lot," he added.
However, the party's muslim outreach strategy did not work as none of its 27 Muslim candidates won in

Malegaon: The Bharatiya Janata Party has made serious inroads into the Malegaon Corporation, despite its strategy of nominating 27 Muslim candidates failed miserably, as none of them managed to win.

According to reports, the poll results which were announced on Friday saw the party come third with 11 seats. Placed behind Congress and ally Shiv Sena, BJP, however, had easily clinched Panvel in Raigad district and Bhiwandi, another Muslim ghetto.

The Congress bagged 28 seats out of the 84 wards that went to polls in Malegaon, while the ruling Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won only 20 seats.

"Earlier the BJP did not even have candidates here. This time there was a candidate with the Lotus symbol. Maybe next time we will win," said BJP candidate Shaheen Sayyad.

Around 55 per cent average voting was reported in municipal corporation elections in Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Panvel in Maharashtra on May 24, according to the State Election Commission.

Around 77.9 per cent average polling was recorded in four Nagar Panchayat and Nagar Parishad elections in Chandrapur, Ahmednagar, Latur and Sangli districts, the SEC said.

Altogether 1,251 candidates were in fray in the three municipal corporations.

Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) had its first election after it came into existence in October last year.
Mishra has mentioned seven matters of 'corruption' including an 'exchange' of Rs 2 crore between Kejriwal and Satyendar Jain.

New Delhi: AAP MLA and former minister Kapil Mishra on Thursday gave his statement to the Delhi Lokayukta over his allegations of corruption against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and others.

Mishra has mentioned seven matters of 'corruption' including an 'exchange' of Rs 2 crore between Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

"I have given statement on 7 serious issues of corruption by @ArvindKejriwal and his associates before Hon'ble Lokayukta," he said in a tweet.

The Lokayukta is mandated to enquire into corruption cases at state level.

However, Mishra did not submit any evidence with Lokayukta Reva Khetrapal, saying he would do so later as some of the evidences were with his associate and 'independent investigator' Neil Haslam, who was out of town.

Mishra said he would provide the date and the time of his visit to the chief minister's residence when Jain allegedly gave Rs 2 crore to Kejriwal in his presence after completion of the CBI investigation in the matter.

Latching on to the rebel AAP leader's statement, the Delhi unit of the BJP demanded that Kejriwal step down as the chief minister on 'moral grounds'.

"It is a very serious matter that a public representative has given a statement before the Lokayukta against Kejriwal and now he has no moral right to continue as Chief Minister," BJP's Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari said.

The matters of corruption raised by Mishra in his statement included the water tanker 'scam', PWD 'scam' which involved Kejriwal's relative late Surender Bansal, foreign trips by five AAP leaders and funds obtained by the party allegedly from 'shell' companies.

Mishra was removed as Water Resources and Tourism minster from the Delhi cabinet on May 6 and had made the startling corruption allegation against Kejriwal the next day.

A complaint of 'corruption' against Kejriwal and Jain was filed by the Delhi BJP's legal cell following Mishra's allegation before the Lokayukta.

The Lokayukta had sent a notice to Mishra for recording his statement in connection with his allegation.
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Friday said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government will very soon control the unrest prevailing in the Kashmir Valley.

Shah was addressing a press conference in New Delhi to mark the first day of the M.O.D.I. (Making of Developed India) fest to celebrate the three years of Narendra Modi government.

Replying a question why did the Modi government and Jammu and Kashmir government fail to contain the Kashmir violence, the BJP president said that success or failure of a government should not be evaluated on the developments of two-three months.

"Since the outbreak of terrorism in the Kashmir Valley in 1989, a trend has been witnessed that there have been spells of violence for three to six months. I want to assure the countrymen that the Modi government is taking the Kashmir violence very sincerely," said Shah.

When asked about his reaction on Indian Army's reward to Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi who saved the lives of security forces, election duty officials by tying a man in front of his jeep as a "shield" to avoid stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP leader appreciated and supported the latter's action.

He further urged everyone to support and respect the army as "jawans guard the borders and enable us to speak and live freely".

Earlier, the BJP president asserted that the Modi government's political will was behind the Indian Army's surgical strike against Pakistan.

He said around 40 lakh retired defence personnel had been demanding One Rank One Pension (OROP) since long but it was Modi government that implemented OROP and earmarked Rs 8000 crore in this regard.
The lunch hosted by Modi is in the honour of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, who is here on a 2-day tour.

New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar is likely to attend a lunch to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after missing the lunch organised by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which was attended by JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav.

The lunch hosted by Modi is scheduled to be held on Saturday in the national capital, in the honour of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Read: My absence at Sonia's lunch 'misinterpreted': Nitish

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is on a two-day visit to India beginning on Friday. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Mauritius Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

This is Jugnauth's first abroad visit after taking over as the Prime Minister from his father, Anerood Jugnauth in January.

Shortly after landing, the Mauritius Prime Minister visited Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Besides this, the Mauritius Prime Minister will also hold delegation-level talks with his counterpart, which would also be attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Prime Minister Jugnauth will also address a business event in New Delhi, jointly organised by Charmers and Commerce of Industry (CII), FICCI and ASSOCHAM.
Nath further said that the diversionary tactics used by the BJP of diverting the people's mind are 'Kalakari ki Rajneeti'.

New Delhi: On the occasion of completion of three years in power by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government on Friday, as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continues to shower praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereas the Congress is trying to hound the saffron party on its false promises.

Hitting at the Prime Minister, the Congress said that the BJP has spent Rs. 2000 crore on the celebrations, adding that these three years of Modi government can be summed up as 'Bhashan aur aashwaasan, yeh hai mera shaasan' (Speeches and promises, thats their governance).

"The entire focus of the Modi government is only on its publicity. They do not have any concrete policy for the country and have not done anything in the last three years. This government has only given attention to the promotion of schemes like Make-in-India, Jandhana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan," Congress leader Kamal Nath said while addressing media here.

He added that millions of rupees have been invested in the promotion of these campaigns, adding the present government should rather highlight the amount of black money that has been returned.

"They should tell what the country has got from the demonetization move. In these three years, the conditions of the farmers have deteriorated. Most farmers have committed suicides only during the tenure of Modi government and these farmers have got no benefit from the crop insurance scheme," he asserted.

Nath further said that the diversionary tactics used by the BJP of diverting the people's mind are "Kalakari ki Rajneeti".

"With the largest aspirational society on this planet, the youth of the country are looking for employment. We see employment at a 15 year low. With approximately 550 million youngsters in the country, employment has been the lowest in the past seven years," he added.

He further said that the Prime Minister during his election campaign promised about two crore jobs a year.

"What is the outcome? We see that only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and by 2028 India needs to create 34.3 crore jobs and that is not to meet the shortfall but we need to create it to be able to have employment," Nath added.

Earlier on Friday, the Prime Minister arrived in Assam and began the celebrations by inaugurating the Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya.

The Prime Minister took to the social media to ask the people their views on completing three years as Government at the Center.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

The BJP will be organising a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign to highlight the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led NDA three-year rule.

The campaign's name has been linked with the surname of the Prime Minister- ' Making of Developed India (MODI).

A central Control Room will be established at the party headquarters in Delhi to coordinate and monitor the mega event that will continue till June 15.

All union ministers, BJP's Members of Parliament, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the BJP ruled states will take part in the massive exercise to ensure that Prime Minister's message of growth and development reaches every district in the country.

Party president Amit Shah will take part in the MODI fest in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will attend the events in Jaipur and Mumbai, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be in Delhi and Lucknow.

Union Ministers Arun Jaitley will participate in the MODI fest in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad; M. Venkaiah Naidu in Bhuwaneshwar and Chhattisgarh, Nitin Gadkari in Chennai and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states will not only take part in the MODI fest in their states but also in other states.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will attend functions in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh; Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh; Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in Kochi, Kerala; Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Hubli, Karnataka; and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30 went missing in Assam earlier this week with two pilots onboard.

Tezpur: The wreckage of the IAF Sukhoi fighter jet that went missing with two crew members on board was found today after three days of search operations.

The Sukhoi jet had gone missing after taking off from the Tezpur Salonibari Air Force station in Assam at 10:30 AM on Tuesday on a routine training sortie.

Defence spokesperson, Tezpur 4 Corps, Lt Col Sombit Ghosh told PTI that the wreckage of the missing SU-30 jet was found close to the last known position of the aircraft, which was 60 km north-west of Tezpur in Assam's Sonitpur district.

"As of now, weather is bad and the place has dense foliage and members of the search operation are yet to reach the spot", he said.

The two-seater SU-30 MKI aircraft had gone missing after taking off from Tezpur airbase of Salonibari and lost radar and radio contact on May 23 at around 11.10 am.

Unconfirmed reports said the fighter plane had on board one squadron leader and a crew member but the IAF has not yet released any name or rank of the two members in the missing plane.

The countrys front line aircraft SU-30 MKI was inducted in Tezpur air base during the tenure of former IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal P K Barbora on June 15, 2009.

At present Tezpur has a strength of two squadrons of SU-30 aircraft with one squadron comprising 12 to 16 aircraft.
The chief minister flagged off the campaign on Thursday from Kushinagar which is among the worst affected districts along with Gorakhpur.

Lucknow: UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, on Thursday, launched a massive immunisation campaign in 38 districts across the state to combat the deadly Japanese Encephalitis (JE) that claims hundreds of lives each year.

The chief minister flagged off the campaign on Thursday from Kushinagar which is among the worst affected districts along with Gorakhpur. The campaign began with about 200 children getting vaccinated.

UP health minister Siddhartha Nath Singh said that it was Yogi Adityanath who had first raised the issue of ence-phalitis in Lok Sabha in 1998.

He is fully committed to the eradication of the disease that kills hundreds of children every year and the massive immunisation drive is a step in this direction, he said.

The minister said that children up to 15 years of age will be included in this campaign and the campaign was deliberately launched from a slum are in Kushinagar to educate the people. The minister said the drive will cover over 88 lakh children for which the central government has provided one crore vaccines.

The campaign will run from May 25 until June 1, 2017, for which the Central government has sent 1 crore vaccines. Senior ministers will launch the campaign in other districts.

Significantly, the Swachchh Bharat campaign is being linked to the drive against encephalitis.

The minister said that about 85 per cent cases of Japanese Encephalitis and AES are reported among dalits and minorities whose living conditions lack cleanliness. In the past 40 years, approximately 40,000 children have died, but the previous governments did not take concrete steps to its complete end.

Simple steps like ensuring that there is no water logging and keeping the area clean will check acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) and so the cleanliness drive will be run alongside. The chief minister has sought help from MPs, MLAs, ministers and other peoples representatives to join the campaign by issuing an appeal, Mr Siddhartha Nath Singh said.
Altogether, these 17 parties add up to 120 Lok Sabha MPs, as opposed to the BJPs 282.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh with Congress President Sonia Gandhi, party vice president Rahul Gandhi and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and President, National Conference Omar Abdullah after a meeting to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Presidential elections, in New Delhi. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Cracks surfaced in the Oppositions attempt at unity as Bihar chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Friday skipped the lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, but is expected to fly in to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

Citing prior engagements for his inability to attend, Mr Kumar sent senior party leader Sharad Yadav to represent the party.

Conspicuous by their absence were also the Aam Aadmi Party and Naveen Patnaiks BJD. Sources said that the two parties had not been invited by the Congress as they were its rivals in their respective states of Delhi and Odisha.

A total of 17 parties met for the luncheon meet hosted by Mrs Gandhi, which was apparently a show of strength on the third anniversary of the Modi government.

Altogether, these 17 parties add up to 120 Lok Sabha MPs, as opposed to the BJPs 282.

Mr Kumars decision to skip Mrs Gandhis lunch, but attend the lunch being hosted by Mr Modi in honour of the Prime Minister of Mauritius has given rise to speculation that he could possibly be looking at the option of dumping RJD and returning to his old ally  the BJP.

Mr Kumar dismissed these misinterpretations and said that he could not attend the Mrs Gandhis lunch due to prior official engagements, while adding that Bihar had an old connection with Mauritius as it has a large of number of Bhojpuri-speaking people.

A senior BJP leader told this newspaper, Nitishji has made it clear that he is not interested in being projected as a prime ministerial candidate, this can also be viewed as a signal that the JD(U) could be inching closer to accept Modiji as the Prime Minister for the next elections.

If the JD(U) eventually decides to lean towards the BJP, it could come as a major boost for the saffronites, and the absence of Mr Kumar could possibly have an adverse impact on a united front against the BJP. Though the lunch meeting was ostensibly called to discuss a potential name for the Oppositions presidential candidate, the attempt was to come under one umbrella and prepare ground for the 2019 general elections.

The parties gave Mrs Gandhi the mandate to form a committee comprising four-five people to decide on the future course of action as far as the presidential polls were concerned.

Mrs Gandhis lunch saw Samajwadi Partys Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, as well as CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy and national secretary D. Raja bury hatchet and put up a show of strength.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were also present at the meeting.

Others who attended Mrs Gandhis lunch at the Parliament House library included RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, JD(U)s Sharad Yadav, DMKs Kanimozhi, and National Conferences Omar Abdullah.

Sources said that Ms Mayawati told the gathering of leaders that she was in favour of a united Opposition to take on the BJP. SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav, who was also present along with Mr Yadav, seconded her comments on the need for Opposition unity.

Main alag nahin hoon. Main apke saath hun (I am not separate. I am with you), the BSP chief is understood to have told the gathering. Mrs Gandhi, in her brief opening remarks, said that the need of the hour was to come together.

Both Ms Banerjee and Yadav said that it was time that the SP, BSP and Congress came together in Uttar Pradesh to form a grand alliance before the 2019 general elections. At this, sources said, many leaders gave a round of applause. The Opposition meet also discussed joint floor coordination during the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament. No names were discussed for a potential presidential candidate from the Opposition side.

Instead, the parties put the ball in the governments court saying if it failed to come up with a secular name, then the Opposition would field its own candidate.

Sources said that this was the standard protocol as the Opposition needs to give a reason to the government to put up a candidate of its own.

Also discussed in the meeting was the situation in Kashmir and the attacks on Dalits in Saharanpur. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav said that the only achievement of the Modi government in the past three years was that the Pakistani flag was fluttering in Kashmir.

Mr Pawar, who is seen as one of the possible presidential candidates, flagged the issue of farmers plight across the country due to the policies of the Modi government.

A joint statement issued after the meeting and read out by the Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sharad Yadav said the normal practice has been that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for these important offices.

The statement further said that since this had not happened so far, if an acceptable, consensus candidate does not emerge, then the Opposition parties shall decide to field such persons who can steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our Republic.
Former RJD MP named as 10th accused in murder of scribe.

Patna/New Delhi: Former RJD MP from Siwan Mohammad Shahabuddin is in for fresh trouble. A special CBI court in Muzaffarpur on Friday named Shahabuddin as the 10th accused in the murder of senior journalist Rajdeo Ranjan.

The CBI, on Friday, argued in the court that it has enough evidence to prove that Shahabuddin had played an important role in the murder of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan. The former RJD MP is, at present, lodged in the high-security Tihar Jail in Delhi. He was linked to the special CBI court in Muzaffarpur through a video conferencing on Friday. There are also reports that the CBI is likely to take him on remand for further investigation. Sources from Muzaffarpur told this newspaper that the CBI had prayed for 10 days remand for Shahabuddin, but the court granted only eight days for interrogation. The CBI is preparing to file a chargesheet on the basis of evidence collected by the agency sleuths during investigation, CBI lawyer Sharad Sinha said in Muzaffarpur on Friday.

The case was handed over to the CBI in September last year after the slain journalists widow Asha Ranjan and his father Radhe Krishna Chaudhary repeatedly alleged that Shahabuddin was behind the murder. The suspicion over Shahbuddins involvement had deepened after names of two of his henchmen  Mohammad Kaif and Mohammad Javed  had surfaced.

Chargesheet against six accused has already been filed in connection with the case... Shahabuddin has been made the 10th accused in the case, CBI lawyer Sharad Sinha said.

Though the CBI lawyer didnt disclose much about the evidence presented before the court on Friday, sources from Muzaffarpur said, A 51-page sealed report was submitted before the court during the hearing.

The court has fixed June 9 for the next hearing in the case. Local police had earlier claimed that the murder was the result of premeditated conspiracy. Sources also claimed that the slain journalist had become a big threat for criminals because of his news reports against the deteriorating law and order condition in Siwan. There are also reports that the Siwan police had provided the CCTV footage to the CBI of the area where the gruesome killing had taken place. Mohammad Shahabuddin was in jail when the journalist was gunned down in Siwan while he was returning from office on May 13, 2016.

Shahabuddin, facing more than 39 criminal cases, including those of kidnapping and murder, was transferred to Tihar Jail on February 18.
According to the police, the deceased lady, Premlata, believed in black magic and would often call occultists home which enraged her son.

The son allegedly stabbed his mother in the stomach with a vegetable knife after one such argument on Thursday, police said. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: A 62-year-old woman was stabbed to death allegedly by her son at their house in southwest Delhi's Palam area on Thursday following an argument over her belief in black magic, police said.

An FIR has been registered against the suspect and he has been taken into custody, they said.

According to the police, the deceased lady, Premlata, believed in black magic and would often call 'tantriks' (occultists) home, which enraged her 42-year-old son and his

wife.

Her son and his wife had tried to explain to Premlata about how such things did not exist, but she would turn a deaf ear to their advice.

The son allegedly stabbed his mother in the stomach with a vegetable knife after one such argument on Thursday, police said.

Alarmed by the woman's cries, the neighbours alerted the police.

After the police arrived, the injured woman was rushed to the hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

Premlata's husband had passed away a few years back. She was staying with her son, his wife and their two children at Lal Bahadur Shastri Nagar. Her son was working as an operator with a private company at the Delhi Airport, police added.
The Opposition members will instead hold a mock Assembly session at the gate on Friday and would stage a sit in demonstration.

Kolkata: The Congress and Left Front MLAs have decided to boycott the ongoing Assembly session till May 29 following the Speaker Biman Banerjee refused to allow No-confidence Motion against the Trinamul government on Wednesday, alleging rigging in the civic polls and attack on Left supporters by the police during their Nabanna Abhijan on Monday.

The Opposition members will instead hold a mock Assembly session at the gate on Friday and would stage a sit in demonstration. Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan, along with 13 others, had appealed for the Speakers consent for a No-confidence Motion. However, Mr Banerjee said, Such a motion needs to be discussed within 10 days after being placed. The session is concluding on May 29 and there are scheduled important businesses till then. So, it will not be possible to hold discussions on the motion. He also added that a similar No-confidence Motion was brought by the Opposi-tion in December 2016, barely six months back.

Mr Mannan, however, retorted and said that rules do not bar an Opposition party to move a No-confidence Motion against the ruling party within six months. However, the Speaker persisted with his stand pointing out lack of time.

The Opposition members rushed to the Well of the House and raised slogans, tearing pages in protest and staged a walkout.

Later, Mr Mannan and Left Front legislature party leader Sujan Chakraborty held a joint press conference to announce their decision to boycott the proceedings of the ongoing session. The government is afraid of us though we have much less legislators in comparison to them. This shows that the government lacks power to condemn our allegations, Mr Mannan said.
The six girls, all cousins, had come to Mumbai to catch a glimpse of their hero.

Shah Rukh Khans home, Mannat. According to police sources from Bandra police station, the girls, aged between 12 to 15 years, were residents of Mhasrul Gaon in Nashik and were infatuated by Shah Rukh.

Mumbai: Six minor girls who had gone missing from their homes in Nashik on May 23, were traced to Mumbai and finally reunited with their families. According to the police, the six girls, all cousins, were fans of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and had come to Mumbai to catch a glimpse of their hero. The police caught up with them outside Mannat, the actors residence, and taken into custody on May 24 in a joint effort by the Mumbai and Nashik police.

According to police sources from Bandra police station, the girls, aged between 12 to 15 years, were residents of Mhasrul Gaon in Nashik and were infatuated by Shah Rukh, which gave birth to this bizarre idea of travelling to Mumbai to see their hero.

Subhash Chandra Deshmukh, in-charge of Mhasrul police station said the cousins left their home on the evening of May 23 and proceeded to the Nanduri temple in Kalwan taluka of the district.

Thereafter, they went to Nashik Road railway station and boarded the Shatabdi Express and landed at Dadar, from where they made their way Khans residence. Their parents lodged a missing complaint in Mhasrul police station on the night of May 23.

When the family disclosed that the girls were fascinated by Bollywood, the police launched a search at railway stations and bus stands, while a team was sent to the metropolis. The team found these girls outside Mannat and brought them back to Nashik and handed them over to their parents within 24 hours.
Petitioner claims trees, which need to be relocated are being cut too.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to grant a stay on a petition filed by a Worli resident regarding cutting trees for Metro III Project. The plea claimed that trees, which were supposed to be transplanted are also being cut. But the court refused to allow the petition after the BMC and the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) told the court that trees were being cut as per plan and sanction.

The vacation bench, comprising of Justice Prakash Naik and Justice Makrand Karnik, heard the intervention application filed by Kunal Birwadkar, seeking a stay on cutting of trees across the city for the Metro III Project.

In his petition, Birwadkar contended that wrong trees were being cut, and if it not stopped, it would grossly violate the HC order and prove to be an irreparable loss to the environment. He also requested the court to immediately constitute a committee consisting of two judges, as mentioned in the HC order, so that the petitioners could table their grievances before it.

Advocate Mustafa Doctor, appearing on behalf of MMRCL, refuted the allegations and told the bench that the process of cutting the trees was being carried out by following due process of law, and only after receiving permission from the Tree Authority. Anil Sakhre, counsel for BMC, reiterated the MMRCL stand. He claimed that earlier this week, BMC officers, along with officers of the high court and the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority had inspected all sites in south Mumbai where trees were being cut to ensure compliance with the norms.

Advocate Doctor argued that if the petitioner had any grievance regarding this, he could approach the Member Secretary of the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority and the Deputy Registrar. It may be recalled that on May 5, the HC had appointed these officers to oversee the compliance in regard to the re-plantation and transplantation of trees.

During the hearing, the BMC lawyer had stated that the Junior Tree Officer of the concerned ward would oversee the compliance with regard to re-plantation and transplantation of trees. The MMRCL agreed to it and hence the court refused to stay cutting of trees and deferred the matter for further hearing on June 5.
Choudhury faces arrest in a sexual harassment case.

Los Angeles: A California judge on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for the yoga guru Bikram Choudhury after he failed to pay nearly $6.5 million to a former legal adviser in a sexual harassment case.

Los Angeles superior court judge Edward Moreton also set bail at $8 million for the founder of the Bikram yoga empire, which involves practising yoga in sweltering rooms.

Mr Choudhury was sued in 2013 by his onetime legal adviser Minakshi Mikki Jafa-Bodden, who accused him of sexual harassment, saying he fired her after she refused to help him cover up allegations that he raped a yoga student.

Ordered to pay $6.47 million in punitive damages in January of last year, he fled California shortly after the verdict, Jafa-Boddens attorney, Carla Minnard, said.

The guru  who had no attorney representing him in court on Wednesday  first travelled to India and then Thailand and Japan before heading to Mexico, where he was served court papers in May, Minnard said.

He is currently in Acapulco conducting teacher training classes, she said. Our intent is to have him arrested before he leaves Mexico.

The 70-year-old Choudhury had managed to move some of his assets, including a fleet of luxury cars, to Nevada and Florida, but court orders were issued to prevent him moving property out of the country, Minnard said.

We will keep pursuing him however long it takes, wherever it takes, she said.

I dont care where he goes, how much money it costs us, how many lawsuits we have to file, how many hundreds of hours we have to spend  we are going to collect on this judgment and see that Mikki gets justice.

Originally from India, Mr Choudhury is said to have made a fortune after he moved to California.

He claimed during his trial that he was nearly bankrupt after spending millions of dollars in legal fees and because his business was no longer thriving. His yoga routine involves 26 posture exercises performed in a room heated to 40 degrees Celsius.
Pakistan is one of the largest recipients and has received $14 billion since 2002.

Washington: The Trump administration plans to slash $100 million and give $800 million as reimbursement to Pakistan in the next fiscal for its military support in fighting terror, a defence department official said.

The administration has proposed the $100 million cut in its annual budget proposals under the Coalition Support Fund (CPF), a Pentagon programme to reimburse US allies that have incurred costs in supporting counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations.

Pakistan is one of the largest recipients and has received $14 billion since 2002. But for the past two years, the Congress has imposed conditions on disbursal of the fund.

The FY 2018 budget proposal seeks $800 million in CSF for Pakistan. The CSF authority is not security assistance, but reimbursements to key cooperating nations for logistical, military, and other support provided to US combat operations, Adam Stump, defence department spokesman for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia said.

For 2016 fiscal year, Pakistan was authorised to receive up to $900 million.

The deputy secretary of defence signed the authorisation to disburse $550 million in the fiscal year 2016 coalition support fund to Pakistan for logistical, military, and other support provided to the US operations in Afghanistan for the period of January-June 2015, Stump said.

The Department recognises the significant sacrifices the Pakistan military has made in the fight against terrorism and appreciates Pakistans continued support for the transit of materiel to coalition forces in Afghanistan, he said.

Disbursement of the remaining $350 million requires the Secretary of Defence to certify that Pakistan has taken sufficient action against the Haqqani Network. The Secretary has not yet made a decision on certification, Stump said.

For the first time in 2016, then Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter had declined to certify that Pakistan met the requirement, resulting in the loss of $300 million funds to it.

This amount was reprogrammed by the Pentagon for Department of Defences Overseas Contingency Operations Funding, a second defence department official said.

In its latest budget, the Department of Defence has attached no conditions for disbursement of CSF to Pakistan. However, it was only the Congress which imposes such strict conditions on giving CSF money to Pakistan.

Justifying the need to give such a huge money to Pakistan, the Pentagon said Pakistan has served as a key ally in operation Enduring Freedom since 2001 and will continue to play a key role in maintaining stability in the region.

Pakistans security forces regularly engage enemy forces, arrest and kill Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, and provide significant support to US forces operating in Afghanistan.Pakistan continues to meet the enemy insurgency and has made enormous sacrifices in support of these operations, it said.

The expenses Pakistan incurs to conduct operations against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces include providing logistical support for its forces, manning observation posts along the Afghanistan border, and conducting maritime interdiction operations and combat air patrol, the Pentagon said.
Police said officers were called to the day care Tuesday afternoon for a report of a baby not breathing.

"Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured," said Col. Stanley Brandford, the chief of the police department's criminal investigations division. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

Baltimore: A day care worker in Maryland was captured on video "torturing" an 8-month-old girl who later died, authorities said Thursday. She has been charged with murder.

Leah Walden, 23, is charged with murder, assault, child abuse and reckless endangerment in the death of Reese Bowman at Rocket Tiers Learning Center on Tuesday, Baltimore Police said in a statement.

"Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured," said Col. Stanley Brandford, the chief of the police department's criminal investigations division.

Brandford said the video shows Walden using "excessive blankets, which fully covered the child's head, violently snatching the child out of the crib with one arm, swinging at the baby as if she was slapping her, and placing pillows over the baby's face." Walden also walked out camera range several times while holding the baby.

Police took Walden into custody early Thursday. Court records for her case were not yet available online to show whether she had obtained an attorney.

Police said officers were called to the day care Tuesday afternoon for a report of a baby not breathing. Medics performed CPR on the infant, who was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center and pronounced dead a short time later. Brandford said there were no obvious signs of trauma, but detectives started a routine investigation.

Brandford said Walden told them she fed the baby, wrapped her in a blanket and put her down for a nap. The management of Rocket Tiers alerted police to the video, which told a different story, Brandford said.

Reese was awake at the time; another baby in the same room with Walden and Reese was not hurt.

Reese's family released a statement saying they were suffering "tremendous pain" and asking for privacy, news outlets reported.

"Our hearts are broken. No family should ever have to experience the loss of a child under any circumstances," the statement said.
Sahna ElBanna says she endured 2 semesters of Toby Grodner making derogatory comments toward Muslims.

A spokesman for the college says they are investigating a complaint ElBanna filed against the professor. (Photo: Representational)

Cranford (US): A student is suing a New Jersey college, claiming her professor gave her an F in a course because she is Muslim.

NJ.com reports Sahna ElBanna alleges she endured two semesters of Toby Grodner making derogatory comments toward Muslims at Union County College.

ElBanna asked Grodner to stop after the professor made comments during a 2016 marketing class. ElBanna's lawyer says she received an F for that class, even though she received two A's on assignments worth 60 percent of her grade.

A spokesman for the college says they are investigating a complaint ElBanna filed against the professor. He declined to comment on the lawsuit.

ElBanna's lawyer says the grade could delay her graduation and she will have to pay to make up the course. Grodner didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.
Indonesia has suffered a series of mostly low-level attacks by ISIS sympathisers in the past 17 months.

After visiting the site of Wednesday's attacks, President Joko Widodo said Indonesia needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws to prevent new attacks. (Photo: AP)

Jakarta: Indonesian police arrested three people on Friday suspected of being linked to suicide bombings in Jakarta, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed three police officers at a bus station and wounded 12 others.

The attack was the deadliest in Indonesia since January 2016, when eight people were killed, four of them attackers, after bombers and gunmen attacked the capital Jakarta.

After visiting the site of Wednesday's attacks, President Joko Widodo said Indonesia needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws to prevent new attacks.

"If we make a comparison with other countries, they already have regulations to allow authorities to prevent (attacks) before they happen," Widodo told a news conference.

The president said he had ordered the chief security minister to get the revisions done as soon as possible.

Long-standing plans to reform Indonesia's 2003 anti-terrorism laws have been held up by opposition from some parties in parliament and concerns about individual rights.

The revisions would broaden the definition of terrorism and give police the power to detain suspects without trial for longer. The changes would allow police to arrest people for hate speech or for spreading radical content, as well as those taking part in para-military training or joining proscribed groups.

Muhammad Syafi'i of the opposition Gerindra party, who chairs a committee deliberating the bill, said discussions should be completed this year but there were still outstanding issues such as ensuring checks and balances on the counter-terrorism agency.

"This bill needs to be discussed in a cautious and comprehensive way because the purpose of all regulations in this country is to ensure they do not result in the slaughter of Indonesian people,... but protect them," Syafi'i said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for this week's attacks. "The executor of the attack on the Indonesian police gathering in Jakarta was an Islamic State fighter," the group's news agency Amaq said.

Indonesia has suffered a series of mostly low-level attacks by Islamic State sympathisers in the past 17 months, but there are concerns that the sophistication is improving.

Police said Wednesday's attack had targeted officers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives.

"The explosions were described by police on 24 May as 'pretty big', and the number of wounded and dead would suggest a still-crude but developing bomb-making capability for militants in Indonesia," said Otso Iho, an analyst at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center (JTIC).

Police have identified the suspected suicide bombers as two 30-year-old men from the West Java city of Bandung.

Indonesian police made three arrests on Friday in Bandung related to the attacks and said they had seized Islamic teachings, phones and other items during the raids, Yusri Yunus, head of public relations at West Java Police, said.
A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20.

The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion. (Photo: Representational/AP)

Kandahar: At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Friday, in the second such assault this week.

The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late on Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

"The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province," ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told. "Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded."

A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20. The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

It highlights a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq. Raziq had lashed out at the central government in Kabul on Thursday, accusing them of a plot to destabalise his province.

"Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering. "Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help."

The attack marks another setback for NATO-backed Afghan forces. It comes just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001.

And in another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.
British authorities did not say that the investigation had in fact been compromised by the leaks.

London/Manchester: British police stopped sharing information about the Manchester suicide bombing with the United States on Thursday after leaks to US media that police said had risked compromising their investigations.

In a rare public show of dissatisfaction with Britains closest security ally, Prime Minister Theresa May said she would tell US President Donald Trump at a NATO summit later on Thursday that intelligence shared between their two countries had to remain secure.

I will make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure, she said in a televised statement.

The BBC said that home secretary Amber Rudd was confident the leaks, which she had described as irritating, would now stop. The decision to stop sharing police information with US agencies was an extraordinary step as Britain sees America as its closest ally on security and intelligence.

This is until such time as we have assurances that no further unauthorised disclosures will occur, said a counter-terrorism source on condition of anonymity.

Manchesters chief constable Ian Hopkins said the leaks of details of the investigation to US media, which included forensic photographs of the bomb site published by the New York Times, had been hurtful to the families of the victims.

It is absolutely understandable the distress and upset that this caused to these families that are already suffering, he said.

British authorities did not say that the investigation had in fact been compromised by the leaks.

The most senior US diplomat in Britain condemned the leaks as reprehensible and said the US government would take action to identify those responsible and stop them.

Britain routinely shares intelligence with the US bilaterally, and also as part of the Five Eyes network, which also includes Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Trump came to Brussels on his first foreign trip as President to push Nato allies to take on a more active role.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during ceremony at NATO headquarters at the NATO summit in Brussels. (Photo: AP)

Belgium: Nato will join the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, ahead of a summit with US President Donald Trump.

This will send a strong political message of Natos commitment to the fight against terrorism, Mr Stoltenberg said.

He stressed this did not involve Nato taking on a combat role in the fight against ISIS and other Islamist terror groups in Syria and Iraq.

Mr Trump came to Brussels on his first foreign trip as President to push Nato allies to take on a more active role, having dubbed the Cold War-era alliance obsolete for failing to focus on the threat from Islamist terrorism.

Arriving in the city on Wednesday, Mr Trump said Mondays deadly bomb attack in Manchester only showed how dangerous the threat was and that the fight against terror had to be won.

All 28 allies have individually joined the anti-ISIS coalition of more than 60 countries, but Nato as an institution has not followed suit until now despite intense pressure from Washington.

Diplomatic sources said some member states such as France, Germany and Italy had opposed such a move for fear the alliance would be dragged into a ground war and risk relations with Arab powers.

Nato sources told AFP on Wednesday that those reservations had now been overcome.

Mr Stoltenberg said Nato would expand the role of its AWACS surveillance planes in supporting anti-ISIS operations and step up its training programmes in Iraq.

A special cell would be set up at Nato headquarters in Brussels to coordinate anti-terror intelligence and planning, he said. He said the allies would also meet Tusks demands to share more of the security burden and reaffirm a commitment to spend two percent of annual GDP on defence.
by Mathias Hariyadi

In a letter from prison, Jakartas former governor says he accepts the verdict and does not plan to appeal it, calling on his supporters to stop protesting, fearful of possible Islamist infiltration.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama has decided to drop his appeal against a controversial two-year prison sentence for blasphemy. His wife Veronica Tan made the announcement two days ago.

The former governor of Jakarta is currently in jail at the National Polices Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention centre.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Tan read a handwritten note from her husband, explaining the reasons behind his decision not to proceed with the appeal. After accepting the verdict, Ahok told his lawyers not to go ahead with the case at the Jakarta District Court.

Veronica Tan told reporters that her husband knows the importance of forgiveness and has accepted his conviction in the interests of the nation.

"Bapak (head of the family) accepts the verdict and does not intend to proceed for the good of all the Indonesian people and the family, she said, in a trembling voice, her eyes filled with tears.

We are no longer interested in extending this problem. We are bound to accept the sentence and support [Ahok] in the best possible way."

She then read her husbands letter in which he calls on his supporters to stay calm, accept the decision of the judges and stop protesting against the sentence.

"I know it is not easy for you to accept this reality, he writes, but it is not appropriate to demonstrate in the process I am experiencing right now. I am afraid that many will be riding the protest. If something should happen, it would be a loss to the citizens of Jakarta.

The jailed leader goes on to say The Lord does not sleep. Put your hope in the Lord, now and forever. In my faith, I say The Lord will work out his plans for my life.

Ahok is concerned that protests by his supporters might be infiltrated by Islamist movements who in recent months have led a violent campaign against him and his policies in favour of a modern and pluralistic society.

Ignoring the public prosecutors request, the North Jakarta court sentenced Ahok on 9 May to a far heavier sentence than the prosecution had suggested.

The verdict has sparked contradictory reactions across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians, of all religions, have taken to the streets in torch-lit protests in support of Ahok and holding peaceful rallies in solidarity with the former governor.
by Sumon Corraya

The sculpture of the Lady of Justice was considered pagan and bearer of secular values. She was facing the supreme court. The statute had drawn criticism from radical Islamic groups and terrorists. University students contest the removal.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - After months of protests, in the dead of the night, the statue of Themis, the Greek goddess of Justice, who was standing in front of Dhaka's Supreme Court, was removed.

The Lady of Justice statue was erected last December 2016 and had attracted the protests of Islamic radicals as "offensive to Islam". The sculpture - a robed woman, holding scales and dressed in the traditional Bengali Sari - was considered pagan and the personification of secular values.

Some Catholics have expressed concern to AsiaNews over the Court's decision, which has ceded to the demands of extremists, including some well-known parties affiliated with international terrorism. "If the government gives up on Islamist questions - it is their fear - the next sculptures to be removed will be those within Catholic churches."

Removal operations started around 9pm last night (local time) and continued until early dawn. The statue was lifted with a crane, then carried off by a van. Throughout the duration of the operation, the area was excluded from the transit and the curious kept away.

In the night, some fifty students of the capital's university protested against the removal of the monument and challenged the attitude of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who for the first time expressed his opposition to the installation of the statue. According to John Tripura, Catholic, "it is very alarming to remove the symbol of justice". Nirmol Roy, Hindu, believes the move is just "an attempt by the government to win votes in the upcoming general elections."

The terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, al-Qaeda affiliate in the Indian subcontinent, and the radical groups, Islami Oikya Jote, Awami Olama League and Islami Andolon Bangladesh had campaigned against the statue. A Catholic journalist, anonymous for security reasons, speaks of their alarm: "Islamic radicals wanted to remove the monument, and the government has contented them. This country does what Islamists want. But one day it will pay dearly for supporting extremists. " "The day that the government will agree to remove all religious symbols in churches is not far away," they conclude pessimistically.
Fasting and praying start tomorrow in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon. Other Mideast and North African countries are still waiting. Iran is waiting for Khamenei's announcement. Lebanons grand mufti expressed wishes of renewed peace and serenity. In the UAE, working hours are cut and advice given to drivers.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Muslims around the world are getting ready for the holy month of fasting and prayer, during which the faithful are called to refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk, as well as smoking, and sexual relations.

Saudi authorities announced that the month of Sha'baan ends today, Friday 26 May, with the first glimpse of the crescent moon on the first day of Ramadan tomorrow, Saturday 27 May.

The main Sunni religious authorities of Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed with their Saudi counterparts. Lebanons Sunni Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on Thursday announced that Ramadan would begin on Saturday. [W]e ask God Almighty to fill its days with security and serenity for all Muslims and Lebanese, Daryan said.

During the month, Muslims can eat and drink before sunrise (suhur) and have their main meal (iftar) after sunset.

According to tradition, God revealed the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad during the sacred period of fasting and abstinence, which ends on 25 June with the great celebration of Id al-Fitr and lavish banquets.

The period of fasting and praying starts with the sighting of the new moon, which varies from country to country. This explains why the start has already been announced in the UAE, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Muslim religious leaders in other Middle East and North African countries are still waiting. Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not yet spoken.

Fasting is one of the five pillars (duties) of Islam along with the pilgrimage to Makkah, praying, the declaration of faith, and charity. It was established on the second year of the Hjira (622 AD) when, according to tradition, Muhammad fled Makkah for Yathrib, renamed al-Madinah an-Nabawiyah, (the city of the prophet), to escape the hostility of local tribes who saw him as a threat.

He established fasting to make his followers better in spirit and morals. Hence, Muslims perform acts of charity toward the poor and the sick. Everyone above puberty who is sound of mind and body must follow the precept.

Traditionally, fasting begins when a white thread can be distinguished from a black one. In villages and cities, this actually happens when the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer at dawn (al-fagr). Fasting ends at sunset with the al-magrib prayer, followed by the iftar meal.

People with psychological problems, pre-pubescent children, seniors, sick people, travellers and women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or going through menstrual bleeding are exempt.

Those who do not fast still have to pray and perform an act of charity every day for the poor. Many parents have their children perform a partial fast of half a day.

In recent years, the sacred month has lost some of its holiness under the weight of business pressures, affecting national economies.

In the UAE, working hours have been cut to relieve the weight of fasting. The authorities have also warned drivers that fasting can cause irritability and loss of concentration behind the wheel. Drivers have been advised to avoid long trips, to travel with companions, and take more stops to rest.
According to Fr Greiche, a spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, militants want to "purify Egypt and the Middle East of the Christian presence." The attack on the eve of Ramadan is the "the worst advertisement". It is a sad moment for Egypt and Muslims who want to live peace". Tonight, prayers and services will be held in memory of the victims.

Cairo (AsiaNews)  Christians are targeted by terrorists; this is a fact. From their distorted perspective, such actions "are an attempt to purify Egypt and the Middle East of the Christian presence, said Fr Rafic Greiche, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, who talked to AsiaNews about todays attack against Coptic Christians.

"Different sources give contradictory figures for the number of casualties, Fr Greiche noted. Some reports say 23; others, 25; the latest rumours say 26 dead (36 according to others). What is certain is that there are also many children among the victims."

In its initial reporting, Egypts state news agency, citing local sources, said that about a dozen men armed with automatic weapons, stopped a bus carrying pilgrims to the monastery of Anba Samuel in Minya Governorate, south of Cairo, then opened fire on the passengers. One apparently taped the slaughter with a smartphone. According to the latest news, The terrorists attacked at least three vehicles, Fr Rafic said.

In addition to the dead, dozens of people were wounded, some in serious conditions, by a group of Jihadis, perhaps linked to the Islamic State group, active in the area. Eyewitnesses claim that gunmen were wearing military uniforms.

The pilgrims were travelling to an orthodox monastery in Upper Egypt, about 300 kilometres from Cairo. Many people visit the monastery on week-ends to pray and attend Mass, especially on Friday, which is the day off in Egypt.

"Many people came for the [religious] services, Fr Greiche said, and were an easy target for terrorists. In fact, "Today is the eve of Ramadan, which the terrorists picked for their attack, he added. They did the same on 11 December, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. They attack when there are a lot of people. "

In addition to being a sad moment for Egypt and Egyptians, especially for Muslims who want to live in peace, this new attack a few hours before the start of the Islamic month of fasting and prayer "is the worst advertisement" terrorists can have. "This evening, we shall pray for the new Christian victims during Mass and other services.

Today's incident is but the latest in a long trail of blood among Egypts Christian minority (10 per cent of the population). At least 75 Christians have been killed by Muslim extremists over the past few months, in last months church attacks, in the Palm Sunday bombing, as well as last Decembers attack against St Catherine Coptic cathedral in Abassiya, Cairo.

Following these attacks, the Islamic State group (also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh) claimed responsibility for them and threatened more violence against the countrys Christian minority.

The rising violence almost scuttled Pope Francis's apostolic visit to Egypt in late April. The pontiff went ahead anyway and met with Egyptian President al-Sisi, al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayeb, and celebrated Mass in front of tens of thousands of faithful.

Recently, Egypts public prosecutor charged 48 alleged Islamic State militants and sympathisers in connection with three attacks against Coptic churches. At present, 31 are in prison, whilst the others are still on the run.

In light of the escalation of violence, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has imposed a state of emergency across the country. Today he chaired a meeting of his security council during which he pledged an all-out war against extremist and Jihadi movements operating in the country. (DS)
by Mathias Hariyadi

Wednesdays was the groups second attack in Indonesia. Indonesian police have been subjected to numerous Islamist attacks in recent years. The authorities are on high alert for more attacks. Three people are arrested on suspicion of having ties with the attackers.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack at the Kampung Melayu Transjakarta terminal in East Jakarta. Wednesdays co-ordinated twin suicide bombings targeted police officers who were monitoring a traditional pre-Ramadan procession. Five people were killed, including three police officers, and 12 were wounded.

At first, the attacks modus operandi led investigators to believe that the perpetrators belonged to Jamaah Anshar Daulah (JAD), which carried out an attack in Bandung on 27 February. No one died on that occasion, except for the attacker who was killed by police.

Martinus Sitompul, a spokesman for Indonesias national police, said that the same kind of explosive was used in Bandung as well as in East Jakarta. Media later reported a brief statement by Amaq, a news agency linked to IS, in which the group claimed responsibility for the attack against the Indonesian police.

Wednesdays was ISs second attack in Indonesia. In January 2016, the group carried out an operation near the Sarinah, a large department store in central Jakarta. Armed with bombs and guns, four assailants caused the death of four people before being killed.

In recent years, Indonesian police have been the subject of numerous attacks by Islamist terrorists. According to some analysts, IS-linked groups want to show off their capabilities despite effective anti-terrorism actions by law enforcement agencies.

Indonesian authorities have been on high alert, in anticipation of further attacks. Densus 88, an elite police unit that has played a leading role in tracking down and killing some of Indonesia's most wanted fighters, is now investigating the East Jakarta attack.

Meanwhile, West Java police spokesman Yusri Yunus announced the arrest of three people suspected of having links with the Kampung Melayu Transjargarta bombers. The three alleged accomplices, identified only as J, W and A, were arrested in three separate locations in West Java, and are currently being interrogated by Densus 88.
By Adam Hulbert, Sonic Arts Convener, UNSW

Shutterstock

This is the first episode of a special Speaking With podcast series titled No Problem Too Big, where a panel of artists and researchers speculate on the end of the world as though it has already happened.

Its not the world we grew up in. Not since artificial intelligence. The machines have taken control.

Three fearless researchers gather in the post-apocalyptic twilight: a computer scientist, a mechanical engineer and a sci-fi author.

Together, they consider the implications of military robots and autonomous everything, and discover that the most horrifying post-apocalyptic scenario might look something like unrequited robot love.

Joanne Anderton is an award-winning author of speculative fiction stories for anyone who likes their worlds a little different. More information about Joanne and her novels can be found here.

No Problem Too Big is created and hosted by Adam Hulbert, who lectures in media and sonic arts at the University of New South Wales. It is produced with the support of The Conversation and University of New South Wales.

Sound design by Adam Hulbert.

Theme music by Phonkubot.

Additional music:

Beast/Decay/Mist by Haunted Me (via Free Music Archive)

Humming Ghost by Haunted Me (via Free Music Archive)

Additional audio:

Stephen Hawking interview, BBC News

Adam Hulbert is affiliated with The University of New South Wales

Originally published in The Conversation.


(Kagenmi/Bigstock.com) (Kagenmi/Bigstock.com)

While details of a new tougher approach to granting Australian citizenship have yet to be officially announced, it is clear that there will be tougher checks on those applying.While it has been made clear that the residency requirement will increase from 12 months to four years, applicants will need to show during that time that they have integrated into Australian society and more detail is expected next month.When he announced the changes, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, hinted that having a certain standard of English will not be enough to prove they have taken on the Australian way of life.He told journalists that while certain checks are already done they are 'clearly insufficient' and there will be further tests. When the consultation finishes next week, the 01 June, the details will then be revealed and they will also include more questions placed in the multiple choice citizenship test and changes to the pledge that every new citizen takes.'What we're saying is that we want people to demonstrate the fact that they have, if they're of working age, that they have worked over that period of four years, that they have sent their children to school,' said Dutton.'We would ask questions for example, as we're seeing in Melbourne at the moment, if kids are roaming the street at night as part of gangs in the apex gangs or elsewhere in cities like Melbourne, whether or not that is adopting an Australian value. Clearly it's not,' he added.He explained that he does not believe that such issues are currently tested properly. 'There are some checks undertaken at the moment but they're clearly insufficient,' he added, hinting that the background of those applying is set to be scrutinised more highly.'I want to emphasise the fact that this really is about asking people who come to our country seeking Australian citizenship not to abandon their heritage or their culture or their background, but to honour and respect that, as many migrant communities do right across the country right now,' Dutton pointed out.'When you decide to come to our country, you decide to abide by Australian laws. You decide in your application, when you want to become an Australian citizen, that you will adopt Australian values. We want people to be able to send their kids to school, to take advantage of a great education system. We want people to be able to work if they're of working age and to make sure that if they have a capacity to work, they're contributing and not leading a life on welfare,' he added.But, according to the Refugee Council of Australia, it is refugees who want to formalise their new life in Australia that will be most affected by the changes. The council's chief executive officer Paul Power said tougher English language requirements would most likely result in fewer former refugees seeking citizenship.''While the majority of refugee and humanitarian entrants are children and young people who typically learn English quickly, those brought to Australia as refugees include some older adults, torture survivors and people with disabilities who struggle to master English,' he pointed out.'These are the people who are most likely to miss out on citizenship under the changes being planned by the Government. We have more to lose if a growing group of Australian residents feel that they are not really welcome, that they have no long term stake in building the nation,' he added.
To say that this is the high point of our Great India Drive is not an exaggeration. We are standing at the highest point of the twin-peaked hill rising at the centre of the Kathmandu Valley. This is the Swayambhu Stupa. Legend has it that Kathmandu valley used to be a lake in which Swayambhu hill existed as an island. And on top of this hill stood a natural crystal stupa. Buddha, when visiting the place, declared that it was a wish-fulfilling stupa and whoever is touched by the wind that passes over the stupa receives the seed of liberation from the cycle of existence. Whether its legend or fact, there is no argument that its history goes back to ancient times. The earliest written record of the Great Stupa of Swayambhu is a 5th century stone inscription. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, Swayambhu Stupa is an important stop for us as we follow the Buddhist trail through India and Nepal. As we look at the panoramic view of the city below, visitors and pilgrims walk around the stupa in a clockwise direction and recite mantras, make offerings, turn prayer wheels and make wishes for the benefit of all beings.

Joining us in Kathmandu is the winner of Autocar Indias Great India Drive contest, Emon Mitro. Emon is a digital content producer whose two passions in life are photography and motorcycles. He has flown down to Kathmandu to join us on the second leg of the drive where we will take the Hyundai Tucson from Kathmandu to Gangtok. But before we can do that, we have another important Buddhist site to visit.

Boudhanath Stupa, built sometime around the 14th century, is one of the largest stupas in the world. Historically, the stupa was an important staging post on the trade route between Lhasa and Kathmandu, and Tibetan traders prayed here for a safe journey before taking their yaks on to the high passes of the Himalayas.

Treading the big SUV through Kathmandus streets is no problem. The high seating position and automatic gearbox make the drive stress-free. The architecture, the way the people dress, the signboards and even the cars on the streets are so familiar that we could be driving in an Indian city. The only thing that gives it away is the colour of the number plates  red for private, black for public and green for tourist vehicles. The Boudhanath Stupa pulsates with life as thousands of pilgrims ritually circumnavigate the dome clockwise, beneath the watchful eyes of the Buddha who gazes at from the gilded central tower. Tibetan monks in maroon robes and with shaved heads wander the prayer flagdecked streets. The lanes around the stupa are crammed with monasteries and workshops producing butter lamps, ceremonial horns, Tibetan drums, monks headgear and other paraphernalia.

After a fascinating day in Kathmandu, it is time to say goodbye to Nepal and head back to India. It is going to be a long days drive of about 500km, but, having made the Tucson our home for the past few days, we know it is going to be a walk in the park. Having left Kathmandu early in the morning, we estimate a 10-hour drive to Siliguri. Add another two hours for photography and we should be in Siliguri by early evening. But fate has other plans. It is late morning and we are still in the hills when we see a long queue of vehicles lined up by the side of the road. We too pull over at the end of the queue. Two buses have collided further down the road. There are no injuries, but the road is blocked and they are waiting for the police to come. While we wait, we see people taking this opportunity to have an impromptu picnic by the side of the road as they wait for it to clear. No angry words, no impatient honking, nobody trying to jump the queue. Nepal might be a less developed country than India,

but we have a lot to learn from them. Though we lose an hour in the incident, we find a new respect for the Nepalese people.
Mitsubishi's seven-seater SUV to come with a 2.4-litre petrol; will be imported from Japan.

Mitsubishi made its comeback in the Indian market with the Pajero Sport in 2012, a direct rival to the Toyota Fortuner and the Ford Endeavour. The next for India was the reintroduction of the Montero facelift in 2016. As a CBU import, it was priced at an eye-watering Rs 71 lakh (ex-showroom).

Now, Mitsubishi is readying the Outlander crossover for a market relaunch later this year. The model is not entirely new to India; it was sold in its second-gen avatar in 2008 and got a major facelift in 2010. At this time, the Indian market was swiftly shifting away from petrol and towards diesel, and the Outlander being a petrol-only model was sidelined by other similarly priced SUVs like the Toyota Fortuner. The all-new Outlander is the third-gen model that went on sale in international markets in 2012. The crossover will be imported from Japan, like the larger Montero, and will be sold by around 50 Mitsubishi dealerships pan India.

Being five years old, this Outlander has already been given its mid-cycle refresh, which has brought a major change to the appearance in line with the companys new design language. The front gets a very intricate grille design, which Mitsubishi calls Dynamic Shield; it gives the crossover quite a lot of presence. It is laden with brushed aluminium and chrome, including a vertical chrome frame on either side. The headlights are LED projector units with separate LED daytime running modules. Moving on to the sides, the Outlander has a more wagon-like profile with mild cladding around the base, a silver strip on the bottom of the doors and smart 18-inch alloy wheels. At the rear, theres a large but simply-styled tailgate, with subtle chrome accents surrounding the horizontally-positioned LED tail-lamps.

Measuring 4,695mm long, 1,810mm wide and 1,710mm high, the Outlander has a similar footprint to a Pajero Sport (although its much lower), but is longer than five-seat crossovers like the Hyundai Tucson and Honda CR-V. For India, Mitsubishi will sell the Outlander in a single variant with seven seats. Like the Tucson and CR-V, the Outlander uses a more space-efficient monocoque construction that allows for better interior space and more car-like driving dynamics, compared to a ladder-frame SUV like the Pajero Sport.

Under the hood, the India-bound Outlander will come with a single engine option  the tried and tested 2.4-litre, four-cylinder petrol motor (Code: 4J12) that delivers 169hp and 225Nm of torque. This engine will be mated to a six-step CVT gearbox, and will get Mitsubishis latest Super-All Wheel Control (S-AWC) AWD system with an Active Front Differential and a number of selectable driving modes.

There is no official confirmation from the company about the India launch as of now, but dealers in some cities have started accepting bookings. Deliveries are likely to begin around September this year, with dealers quoting an ex-showroom price of around Rs 29 lakh. This places it squarely between five-seaters like the CR-V, Tucson and the upcoming Jeep Compass SUV, and seven-seaters like the Hyundai Santa Fe and upcoming Skoda Kodiaq. At this price, the fully imported Outlander will slot in just above the locally assembled Pajero Sport (Rs 27.4 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi). Some might consider this a bit too much of a risk, considering the sole petrol engine option and relatively high price, not to mention Mitsubishis weak aftersales network. But with more buyers opting for petrol cars, and the Outlanders easy-to-drive yet practical nature, perhaps there is a market for it yet.
Previewing the reborn 8-series coupe, the concept will heavily influence the appearance of the next generation models from BMW.

BMW has unveiled its bold concept 8-series design study at the Concorso dEleganza, previewing the production 8-series coupe that is planned to return to the carmakers international line-up in 2018 - after an almost two-decade hiatus.

The comeback of the 8-series is part of what the company bosses describe as the biggest model offensive in BMWs history. Speaking at the 8-series concept unveiling, BMW board member Ian Robertson said: "We want to bring more cars into the upper luxury segment. We have already announced we are in the development phase of the X7. We are working on other products as we feel there is a lot of opportunity there. The new 8-series is part of this. In the next couple of years, we will see the most comprehensive change in the history of BMW."

The concept boasts a traditional two-door layout and classically hinged boot at the rear. It flaunts a bold look that BMW says will heavily influence the appearance of the next-generation models from the German carmaker.

It showcases a new approach to the use of forms, which is reflected particularly prominently in the surfacing, says BMW design boss Adrian van Hooydonk, who describes the new coupe as a full-blooded driving machine. Crisp lines mark out clear surfaces, and the volumes are powerfully sculptured.

Speaking at the launch, van Hooydonk added: "It is more than just a concept car; it is a very big step in BMW design. It is the start of a new form of [design] language - cleaner surfaces, more emotion, more sophistication."

While the concepts dimensions and overall form will be reflected on the production version of the new BMW coupe, van Hooydonk acknowledges various elements and cues will be altered before it enters showrooms.

A number of characteristic BMW concept car flourishes, such as the oversized kidney grille, thin-line laser projector-touting headlamps, exaggerated air breather elements behind the front wheel arches and within the rear bumper and OLED imbued L-shaped tail lamps have all been altered with a more conservative appearance for the production version of the new 8-series.

Built on BMWs latest rear-wheel-drive platform, the so-called CLAR (cluster architecture) structure, the new 8-series receives its own unique wheelbase and track widths to provide it with a suitably low and hunkered down stance reminiscent of the first-generation model. The 21-inch wheels will be retained as an option on the production car, according to BMW.

Among the hi-tech chassis features set to appear on standard versions of the new range-topping BMW is a double wishbone (front) and multi-link (rear) suspension with constantly variable air springs all around as well as an integral rear steer function aimed at providing it with class-leading agility. The car also adopts the lightweight construction initiatives found on the existing 7-series.

Alongside standard rear-wheel-drive versions of the new 8-series, BMW also plans a limited number of four-wheel drive xDrive models. BMW is holding back on details to the drivelines it plans to make available in the new 8-series, though it is expected to feature up to three standard front, longitudinally-mounted petrol units.

Recent trademark applications hint at a likely entry-level 840i model running a turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder, an 850i with a turbocharged 4.4-litre V8, and an M860i xDrive M Performance fitted with the same turbocharged 6.6-litre V12 that powers the M760Li xDrive. Also under consideration is an 840e plug-in hybrid model using the same petrol-electric powertrain seen in the 740e iPerformance.

Set to challenge the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S-class coupe at the very top of BMWs current 12-model-strong international line-up, the reborn 8-series will indirectly replace the existing third-generation 6-series, which is due to cease production in coupe and convertible guises after being superseded by a new fourth-generation liftback model in the form of the upcoming 6-series GT later this year.

Alongside the bullish coupe variant of the new model previewed by the 8-series concept, BMW also has plans for a plush open-top version of its new range-topping two-door. Set for an international launch in 2019, it eschews the folding hardtop arrangement favoured by BMW for its convertible models in recent years for an automatic multi-layer fabric hood.

Take a closer look at the 8-series concept in our image gallery
The GST Council will reconsider the proposed tax of 43 percent on hybrid cars after the Indian auto industry voices its disappointment.

A draft proposal for new mobility policy by the India governments think-tank NITI Aayog has a strong tilt towards electric vehicles (EV). However, the proposed GST on hybrids passenger vehicles at 43 percent, from an existing levy of 30.3 percent, compared to the 12 percent proposed tax on EVs has not gone down well with automakers.

While most OEMs have welcomed the GST rates, there is some apprehension on the high rate of taxation on hybrid vehicles which are typically seen as a pathway to going full electric. Vinod Dasari, president, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, said, Differential GST for EVs will also help electric mobility to gain momentum in India. We would have liked to see a similar differential duty on hybrid vehicles to continue.

Prior to the GST rates being announced, hybrid cars attracted an excise duty of 12.5 percent, similar to entry-level small cars, 1 percent national calamity contingency duty, 2 percent sales tax, and 12.5 percent VAT, bringing the total tax incidence to 30.3 percent.

The FAME India scheme, which was initiated in April 2015 to support hybrid/electric vehicle market development and a manufacturing eco-system, incentivises consumers to adopt newer and cleaner technology.

The hybrid car segment has received a far better consumer response compared to EVs. While an estimated 22,000 EVs, including 2,000 two-wheelers were sold in India in FY2015-16, demand for hybrids, more specifically mild hybrids, was much higher. Lack of charging infrastructure, high ownership cost and low range of EVs continue to be a deterrent for their mass adoption. It may be recollected that on April 1, 2017, after 73,633 mild hybrids were sold under the FAME India scheme, the subsidy to mild hybrids was withdrawn.
Motoroyale plans to introduce a new Italian manufacturer, SWM Motorcycles, to the Indian market.

After a partnership with MV Agusta has seen Kinetic Motorcycles - Motoroyale division bring down beauties like the F4, F3 and the Brutale, a new tie-up with another Italian manufacturer, SWM Motorcycles, could be in the works. While there is a wider range of models, initially we could see the 650cc, dual-sport (Superdual) and the 440cc, cafe racer (Gran Milano 440) make their way to India via the CKD route.

SWM Motorcycles' factory is based in Varese, Italy, and was formerly used for motorcycle manufacturing by BMW, Husqvarna, KTM and a few others. SWM in itself has started manufacturing motorcycles here since 2015. Last year it sold 4,000 bikes in 25 countries, including those in South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. It aims to sell about 6,000 by next year. The models that could come to India are the Gran Milano and the Silver Vase (based on the 440 platform), and the Superdual T/X. The 440 platform is manufactured in China, while the bigger 650 platform is made in Italy.

GRAN MILANO 440

With retro-styled motorcycles becoming all the rage right now, the Gran Milano 440 could be an interesting proposition for the Indian market. Although it gets retro styling, a few modern bits have been thrown into the mix.

It gets a 4-valve, SOHC 445.3cc single  which is an air-cooled  4-stroke motor that produces 29.9hp of power and 36Nm of torque. The engine is both air- and oil-cooled. While riding it in the hills around Varese, this engine feels more relaxed in nature. The seating position is a bit on the aggressive side but still comfortable. The bike's handling is predictable and although it isn't extremely nimble, it should be a fair amount of fun to ride in the twisties. The brakes from Brembo offer more than sufficient bite and stopping power. There was, however, a fair amount of vibration present in the handlebars and footpegs.

In terms of dimensions, it gets a 1,416mm wheelbase, 2,082mm length, 724mm width and 1,110mm height. The seat height is a decent 813mm and it gets 183mm of ground clearance. It weighs 145kg. Since this motorcycle will make its way to India via the CKD route, we expect the pricing to be competitive and in the range of Rs 2.5-3.5 lakh.

SUPERDUAL T/X

Another segment gathering steady momentum in India is the Adventure Tourer. And why not! With their long travel suspension and comfy ergonomics, they'd be great for our Indian road conditions.

The Superdual gets a 600cc, single-cylinder, 4-valve DOHC liquid-cooled motor that makes a healthy 57hp of peak power, although SWM also offers a lesser powered version that makes 47.5hp. This motor is mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. As expected from a large, single-cylinder engine, there's ample torque on tap and power delivery is predictable and linear.

The frame is a dual cradle made of steel pipes with a lightweight alloy sub-frame. Up front, the Superdual gets chunky 45mm upside down forks which offer rebound adjustment, while at the back, the bike is suspended on a Sachs monoshock that is fully adjustable for preload, compression and rebound. Suspension travel is a plentiful 210mm at the front and 270mm at the rear, making it ideal to handle bumpy and broken roads.

It also offers a fair amount of ground clearance of 180mm, though that does make the saddle height extremely tall at 898mm, even besting that of a lot of full-size adventure touring bikes. This riding position, however, is tall and commanding, and quite comfortable overall. It would do well for some light off-roading too. The overall length, width and height are 2,240mm, 905mm and 1,240mm, respectively. The wheelbase is 1,510mm. Dry weight is kept to a fairly light 169kg and the Superdual gets an 18-litre fuel tank.

The 19 front and 17 rear wire spoke wheels are on the T version, while the X version gets 21" front and 18" rear wire spoke wheels. Braking comes via a single, 300mm disc at the front and a 22mm disc at the back. Both front and rear brake calipers are floating-type and equipped with off-road ABS.

This is a motorcycle that could show a lot of promise for the Indian market if Motoroyale gets the pricing right. So far it has been mentioned that this bike could be priced under Rs 5.5 lakh. If that is the case, or Motoroyale manages to price it even lower, this motorcycle has the potential to sell in India.

SILVER VASE

The Silver Vase is a retro-scrambler motorcycle made by SWM and based on the same 440 platform as the Gran Milano. Barring the Ducati Scrambler, there aren't any other scramblers around.

The Silver Vase is powered by the same 445.3cc, single-cylinder SOHC air- and oil-cooled 4-stroke engine that the Gran Milano gets. With electronic fuel injection, this short-stroke motor makes 29.9hp of peak power. Drive is sent to the rear wheel through a 5-speed manual gearbox.

It's a fairly compact motorcycle at 2,142mm in length, 1,170mm in height and a maximum width of 813mm. Wheelbase is a relatively tight 1,441mm. At 191mm, it offers ample ground clearance, yet manages to keep saddle height at a fairly low 820mm. It has a dry weight of just 151kg and, just like the Gran Milano, offers a massive fuel tank with 23.5 litres of capacity.

The Silver Vases frame is single-tube, double-cradle made from high-strength steel and it sports 43mm conventional telescopic forks up front and dual shock absorbers at the back. Travel at the front and back is 125mm and 99mm, respectively.

Further, it gets a single, 260mm disc brake at the front and a 220mm disc at the back. They are made in China. It, however, does miss out on the larger brakes from Brembo that are seen on the Gran Milano; this is quite evident and these brakes really do fall short. Wheel sizes are 19 and 17 at the front and rear, respectively, and the Silver Vase is equipped with 100/90 and 130/80 tyres.

WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT?

While more motorcycles are always a good thing, the pricing of these machines will be crucial to their success when and if they do make it to India. Homologation of these motorcycles will begin shortly and should be completed by the end of 2017. We do look forward to riding the Superdual in India. Although, the 440 platform could do with a little more refinement and better levels of fit and finish before the actual production models make it to our shores.


Data shows TheraT replicating viral vector platform based on LCMV delivers potent alarmin release

TheraT mediated alarmin release crucial for active immunization in cancer immunotherapy

Vienna, Austria, May 26, 2017 / B3C newswire / -- Hookipa Biotech AG, a company pioneering a new class of immunotherapies for oncology and infectious diseases, today announces publication in leading peer-reviewed publication Nature Communications(1) of research data in a transgenic mouse model showing how its replicating viral vector platform TheraT delivers potent innate immune activation including key alarmin signals.

Hookipas CSO, Professor Daniel D. Pinschewer, M.D., of the Division of Experimental Virology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Switzerland, and senior co-author of the paper, said, This key research data is the first publication on Hookipas platform technology TheraT (also referred to as artLCMV). The paper shows TheraTs tremendously potent anti-tumor effects and also the underlying molecular mechanism. Eliciting the most potent cytotoxic T cell responses is a crucial step in treating patients with aggressive cancers.

Hookipas TheraT, based on live-attenuated lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (artLCMV), has been designed to harness the immune system to combat cancer. TheraT works by delivering tumor-associated antigen-specific immunization alongside the release of the alarmin interleukin-33 (IL-33). IL-33 is a key driver of potent and protective CD8+ cytotoxic effector T lymphocytes (CTL), and TheraT is engineered to target stromal cells, which release IL-33 to trigger this alarmin pathway, providing a discriminating feature of TheraT. The Nature Communications paper details experimental work in gene-targeted mice showing triggering of such IL-33 signals provides potent tumor immunotherapy.

Hookipa has an exclusive license to commercially exploit the unique novel cancer immunotherapy platform (TheraT) developed by scientists at the University of Basel and University of Geneva.

Commenting on the publication, Hookipas CEO, Mr. Jorn Aldag said, With Hookipas novel Vaxwave and TheraT platforms, the Company has a strong technology foundation. This publication in the high impact factor journal Nature Communications is another important milestone on our drive to deliver next-generation cancer immune therapeutics and vaccines to patients. We intend to start clinical development of an HPV+ head and neck cancer program based on TheraT in 2018.



About Hookipa Biotech

Hookipa Biotech is developing next-generation immunotherapies for infectious diseases and cancer using novel proprietary arenavirus vector platforms. By end April 2017, Hookipa has raised EUR 15 million in non-dilutive funds and EUR 37 million equity investment from internationally renowned venture capital investors including Sofinnova Partners, Forbion Capital Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Takeda Ventures and BioMedPartners.



About Vaxwave

Hookipas Vaxwave technology presents a completely new replication-defective viral vector platform designed to overcome the limitations of current technologies. Vaxwave is based on lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) and in this vector the gene encoding the LCMV envelope protein, normally responsible for virus entry into target cells, has been deleted and replaced with a target gene of interest. The resulting vectors infect target cells and stimulate very potent and long-lasting immune responses, however they can no longer replicate and are therefore non-pathogenic and inherently safe.

About TheraT

Hookipas TheraT platform is based on an attenuated replicating virus and is capable of eliciting the most potent T cell responses - a crucial step in treating patients with aggressive cancers. Significant pre-clinical data demonstrates that TheraT is a powerful modality capable of turning cold tumors hot which should result in an additional layer of efficacy in the fight against solid tumors. Specifically, TheraT has proven to be safe in animals as well as capable of eliciting uniquely potent antigen-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T cell responses and strong tumor control in mice. The first clinical trial with HB-201 targeting human papilloma virus-induced head and neck cancer is currently being prepared. This immuno-oncology technology is further being leveraged to target tumor self-antigens or shared neoantigens.

Issued for and on behalf Hookipa Biotech AG by Instinctif Partners.



Contacts



At the Company

Marine Popoff

Communications Analyst

Hookipa Biotech AG

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Unless youve been busy reading Mark Zuckerbergs Harvard speech, you should know that members and non-members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have just concluded their much-awaited meeting in Vienna.

What happened during the meeting?

If you recall, members and non-members made history back in November when they agreed to reduce their collective daily oil output from 33.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 32.5 mb/d for six months starting January 2017.

However, they qualified that the deal could be extended by another six months depending on prevailing market conditions and prospects.

Fast forward to the end of May when theres no significant rebalancing in the oil market and Black Crack prices have barely improved from their pre-OPEC deal days.

This is why it was no surprise that the Vienna group has extended its deal by another nine months. After all, Saudi Arabia and Russia have already announced that they would do so earlier this month, while the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) has recommended the move before the meeting.

Saudi Arabias Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih was pretty satisfied with the decision, saying that (emphasis mine):

We considered various scenarios, from six to nine to 12 months, and we even considered options for a higher cut. But all indications discovered that a nine-month extension is the optimum.

OPEC has also welcomed Equatorial Guinea into the fold effective immediately, which means that a total 14 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC members have pinky-sworn to extend their oil production cut deal from July 2017 to March 2018.

There are no deets yet as to the exact distribution of production cuts now that Equatorial Guinea is in the cool table.

However, we do know that Libya and Nigeria continue to be exempt from the deal while Iran, which was allowed to ramp up its production, retains its output target.

For now, Al-Falih is confident that oil stockpile reductions will accelerate in Q2 3017 and that the nine-month extension will do the trick in bringing down inventory levels even as he expects a healthy return for U.S. shale.

How did oil prices react?

About as optimal as you would expect. If youre an oil bear, that is.

Thanks to OPEC members speeches and jawboning, as well as Saudi Arabia and Russia announcing their nine-month output cut extensions before the Vienna meeting, market players began to expect more results from the meeting.

Some had expected deeper cuts to the tune of 2 million bpd, while others believed that OPEC would extend the deal for as long as 12 months.



Not surprisingly, oil prices clocked in their biggest slide since March 8. Brent crude oil fell 4.6% lower to $51.46 per barrel, while WTI crude futures dropped by 4.8% to $48.90. Thats the first dip below $50 this week, yo!

What now?

If Al-Falih was right and that the extended deal will do the trick, will this mean that its back to pump-all-you-can business for major oil producers in 2018?

After all, he did say back in March that Saudi Arabias game plan involves restricting oil output for a spell with the aim of accelerating rebalancing, and then allowing the free market to work.

Problem is, this plan doesnt encourage price stability. Unless OPEC presents some kind of exit strategy, market players will price in an oversupply in 2018 and maybe for oil to return to its $30/barrel prices.

In the meantime, OPEC seems to be on plan yolo, with Al-Falih saying that well do whatever is necessary and that well cross that bridge when we get to it.
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While a healthcare reform bill will impact many healthcare trends, Harvard Business Review said an ACA repeal will not impact the following three entities.

1. Technology. Healthcare will continue to go digital with 90 percent of physicians regularly using EHRs. More wearables are hitting the market and the government is paying providers for outcomes assessed through technological tools. HBR states, "Technology has become rooted firmly in U.S. healthcare and, as elsewhere, consumers will choose many of the winners."

2. U.S. demographics. A law cannot change the fact the nation is facing an aging population. The median age for U.S. men and women is currently 37.9 years old and per capita healthcare costs are rising. For people between 19 and 44, these costs are nearly $4,500 and double for Americans aged 45 to 64. The industry must address this population's needs moving forward.

3. Personalized medicine. Working alongside technology, providers can make individualized treatment plans. American can share more personalized health data through the cloud.

HBR concludes, "Taken together, these three trends will drive dramatic changes in healthcare, regardless of government policies. We see several areas where patients and care providers, as well as entrepreneurs and investors, will likely benefit."
Fort Myers, Fla.-based 21st Century Oncology Holdings, a cancer care services provider, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday, according to Reuters.

The company, which operates 179 cancer treatment centers across the U.S. and Latin America, blamed the bankruptcy on costs associated with litigation, legal settlements and complying with electronic records regulations, as well as declining revenue per treatment, according to Reuters.

The cancer care provider paid nearly $55 million to settle false claims allegations last year, and it is also being investigated in regards to a 2015 data breach.

Interim CEO Paul Rundell told Reuters 21st Century Oncology will lower its debt by $500 million through the bankruptcy process.

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McLean, Va.-based VitalSpring Technology, which provides data analysis and services related to healthcare expenditures, and its subsidiary Enziime have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to the Washington Business Journal.

The companies entered bankruptcy about six months after VitalSpring CEO Sreedhar Potarazu, MD, pleaded guilty to $32 million in shareholder fraud and $7.5 million in employment tax fraud.

VitalSpring and Enziime said in their bankruptcy petitions they have estimated combined liabilities of $65 million, which the companies owe to more than 350 creditors. The creditors, including several physicians and investment groups, are investors in the companies. The companies reported less than $50,000 in combined assets, according to the report.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs' financial information may not be secure, according to an audit by the VA Office of Inspector General.

VA OIG Deputy Assistant Inspector General Nicholas Dahl on May 24 discussed the audit at a House Committee on VA financial management hearing. VA OIG contracted with an independent public accounting firm, CliftonLarsonAllen, to audit VA's consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2016.

The firm identified numerous weaknesses in the VA's financial management processes that made it more difficult to audit and ensure the accuracy of VA financial statements.

One of the weaknesses the firm identified was IT security controls  which has been a "repeat finding" since 2000, according to Mr. Dahl. This shortcoming related to untimely patching of security vulnerabilities, inconsistent enforcement of password standards and overall inadequate security management and contingency planning.

"Without good information technology security controls, VAs financial information may not be safe in terms of confidentiality, integrity and availability," according to Mr. Dahl.

Click here to view Mr. Dahl's statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently discussed the prospect of healthcare reform in an interview with Reuters.

The interview comes as the Senate is working on its own healthcare legislation to repeal and replace the ACA, after the House approved the American Health Care Act May 4.The Congressional Budget Office also recently released its score on the House-approved AHCA, which found the legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $119 billion but increase the projected number of uninsured Americans by up to 23 million throughout the next decade.

Here are three takeaways from the interview.

1. Mr. McConnell was uncertain Wednesday how Republicans will get the needed votes to repeal and replace the ACA, according to Reuters. However, he told the publication he has no plans to reach out to Senate Democrats on the healthcare bill due to partisan feelings on the issue.

2. He would not say what provisions he seeks in the healthcare bill, or provide an exact timeline as far as a Senate ACA repeal and replacement plan, according to the report.

"I don't know how we get to 50 (votes) at the moment. But that's the goal. And exactly what the composition of that (bill) is I'm not going to speculate about because it serves no purpose," Mr. McConnell said.

3. He also told Reuters he may ask President Donald Trump's administration to weigh in as the Senate works on healthcare reform.

"Honestly I haven't asked for any [guidance on the healthcare legislation]. I told the president there would be a point at which we might well want him and the vice president to be helpful," Mr. McConnell added.

Read more from the interview here.
From a Missouri hospital and clinic agreeing to pay $34 million to settle false claims allegations to a physician winning a retaliation lawsuit against his former employer, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits and settlements making headlines.

1. Lawsuit: Nurse raped while held hostage at Illinois hospital

Two nurses who were held hostage earlier this month at Geneva, Ill.-based Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital by a Kane County Jail inmate filed a lawsuit against the county, a corrections deputy and the security firm used by the hospital.

2. 5 charged with insider trading involving confidential CMS information

Five people were been charged for their alleged roles in a scheme that involved using confidential CMS information to engage in insider trading.

3. Lawsuit claims Minn. hospital failed to protect teen patient from sexual assault

University of Minnesota Medical Center-Fairview in Minneapolis is facing a lawsuit after a developmentally disabled teen was allegedly sexually assaulted twice while in the hospital's emergency department.

4. Physician who raised concerns about concurrent surgeries at NY hospital wins retaliation lawsuit

A New York Supreme Court judge ruled that a neurosurgeon was retaliated against by his former employer for objecting to a policy that allowed another surgeon to oversee two spine surgeries at the same time.

5. Feds investigate UHS psychiatric hospitals' billing practices

An investigation into whether King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services' psychiatric hospitals hold patients longer than necessary to maximize reimbursement from insurers broadened to include the FBI and Department of Defense.

6. Trump administration requests another delay in ACA subsidy lawsuit

President Donald Trump's administration and the House of Representatives asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to further delay a lawsuit over ACA insurance cost-sharing subsidies.

7. Democratic attorneys general take legal action to defend ACA cost-sharing subsidies

Sixteen Democratic attorneys general filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in an attempt to preserve insurance subsidy payments under the ACA.

8. Missouri hospital and clinic to pay $34M to settle false billing allegations

Mercy Hospital Springfield (Mo.) and Mercy Clinic Springfield (Mo.) Communities agreed to pay the federal government $34 million to resolve allegations they violated the False Claims Act.

9. J&J to pay $33M in 43-state settlement over distribution of contaminated drugs

Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil-PPC reached a $33 million settlement with 43 states to resolve allegations the company sold contaminated drugs and used inappropriate marketing practices.

10. Omnicare to pay $8M to settle false claims allegations in 28 states

Omnicare, a pharmacy services provider owned by Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Health, agreed to pay 28 states a combined $8 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act.

11. 20-year-old repeat physician imposter sentenced to 10 years in prison over forgery charges: 7 things to know

A Virginia judge sentenced Malachi Love-Robinson  who was accused more than once of practicing medicine without a license as a teenager  to 10 years in prison.

12. Ex-Heritage Pharma execs settle national price fixing lawsuit: 4 things to know

Two former executives of Eatontown, N.J.-based Heritage Pharmaceuticals reached a settlement with 41 states after pleading guilty to fixing drug prices.

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New Jersey Sen. Paul Sarlo introduced legislation Thursday aimed at preventing future lawsuits against the state's 58 nonprofit hospitals over property taxes, according to NJ.com.

In June 2015, a tax court judge ruled Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center should not be exempt from property taxes as it failed to satisfy the legal test that it operated as a nonprofit, charitable organization for several tax years.

Since the judge's ruling, 41 towns in New Jersey have filed tax appeals against 35 hospitals in their local municipalities.

To stop future lawsuits, Mr. Sarlo proposed legislation that would require the hospitals to pay their municipality a fee of $2.50 per day for each licensed bed they operate to keep tax-exempt status. The fee would rise 2 percent each year. The legislation would require 5 percent of the bed fee revenue to be used for public safety services, according to NJ.com.

"These hospitals have blanket tax-exempt status even though they have profit-making facilities," Mr. Sarlo said in a statement to NJ.com. "They should be helping pay their fair share to compensate for vital services, including homeland security, emergency response, snow removal and the myriad of municipal services."

New Jersey Hospital Association spokeswoman Kerry McKean Kelly told NJ.com, "We are glad to see there is some attention being paid to this issue." She said the NJHA is still reviewing the bill.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

Lawsuit: Nurse raped while held hostage at Illinois hospital

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Sepsis, a complication caused by the body's response to infection, can lead to organ failure and death, according to the CDC.

Read on for 14 recent findings on sepsis.

1. A study published in the Journal of Critical Care found that an educational program for the identification and treatment of sepsis implemented in coordination with rapid response care teams can result in a 10 percent reduction in sepsis deaths. Researchers reviewed data on sepsis patients treated at UF Health Jacksonville (Fla.) between Oct. 1, 2013, and Nov. 10, 2015.

2. Administering antibiotics earlier, along with completing a three-hour bundle of care, helped improve outcomes for sepsis patients as compared to administering intravenous fluids earlier, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers examined data from patients with sepsis and septic shock reported to the New York State Department of Health from April 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016.

3. Children who develop sepsis tend to feel the effects of the infection on their physical, social and emotional well-being until months after hospital discharge. For the study, researchers reviewed EHRs and identified 778 children at Seattle Children's Hospital between 2012 and 2015 who were diagnosed with sepsis within four hours of arrival. The research was presented at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting, May 6 to May 9, in San Francisco.

4. People who take short-term prescribed steroid pills may be at risk of developing serious conditions that could turn life-threatening, including sepsis, according to a paper published in The BMJ. The study included data from 1.5 million non-elderly adults with private insurance in the United States.

5. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that septic shock patients treated at a hospital with an insufficient supply of the drug norepinephrine were more likely to die than those treated at a hospital not experiencing the effects of the 2011 norepinephrine drug shortage. For the study, researchers examined data on 27,835 septic shock patients treated at 26 hospitals between 2008 and 2013.

6. Researchers found a biomarker that may forecast death in sepsis patients, according to a study published in Science Advances. Researchers identified the biomarker  methylthioadenosine  after examining genetic pathways in mice infected with Salmonella bacteria, which is known to incite sepsis. They then detected the biomarker in sepsis patients.

7. A study published in Cell Chemical Biology found non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to be a potentially effective treatment for sepsis. The researchers screened 1,280 existing drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the ability to inhibit caspase, a family of enzymes that play a key role in aggressive immune responses, like sepsis.

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8. Sepsis accounts for more readmissions than any of the four conditions CMS tracks for reimbursement purposes: heart attack, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia, according to a research letter published in JAMA. For the study, researchers analyzed data from the 2013 Nationwide Readmissions Database, which documents acute care hospitalizations from 21 states.

9. Procalcitonin, or PCT, screening on the first day of an intensive care unit patient's admission reduced hospital stays by an average of 1.2 days, as compared to patients who were not screened, according to a new study in CHEST. Researchers examined 15.04 million patient cases of which 730,088 had a potential sepsis, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, septicemia or shock-related diagnosis on admission or discharge.

10. A certain type of sugar in the body may restore the ability of cells to respond to infections after sepsis has compromised the immune system, according to a study published in Cell. Researchers introduced beta-glucan into blood samples of subjects with compromised immune systems and the sugar reactivated the immunoresponse of the macrophages.

11. Antibiotics during hospitalization could increase the risk of sepsis following discharge, according to study results presented at the IDWeek 2016 meeting in New Orleans in October. Researchers analyzed adult hospitalization and pharmacy data from the Truven Health MarketScan Hospital Drug Database, 2006-2010. In all, researchers examined 9.4 million adult patient visits.

12. Disinfecting the hospital room environment with an ultraviolet air sterilizer can reduce the occurrence of sepsis and mortality in cardiac surgery patients. Researchers monitored the outcomes of 1,097 patients admitted to ICUs after undergoing cardiac surgery, of which 522 were randomly admitted to an ICU sterilized with UV air purification system. The study results were presented at the 2016 Congress of the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association in Lisbon, Portugal in October.

13. Early detection of sepsis by hospital ward nurses can help reduce the disease's progression and improve survival for patients, a study in Critical Care shows. The study examined the efficacy of an intervention at a community hospital in Norway. There were 472 patients in the pre-intervention group and 409 patients in the post-intervention group.

14. U.K.-based University of Birmingham researchers identified three biomarkers that can be used to accurately predict risk of sepsis for burn patients. The biomarkers are neutrophil function, elevated immature granulocyte count and plasma cell-free DNA as markers indicative of onset of sepsis. The researchers published their findings in Annals of Surgery.
Journalist Charles Seifi on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration over the withholding of documents surrounding the controversial approval of Exondys 51, a Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, reports Boston Business Journal.

Here are four things to know.

1. The FDA approved Exondys 51  developed by Sarepta Therapeutics  last September. While FDA staff who reviewed the drug's application opposed approval saying there was no proof of the drug's efficacy, an FDA director overruled the group and approved the drug. Analysts suggested the move could set a dangerous precedent by dropping the standard level of efficacy required for a drug's approval, and critics questioned whether emotions tied to patient advocacy efforts affected the agency's decision.





2. Mr. Seife, who also teaches at New York City-based NYU, in December requested FDA records pertaining to the drug's approval under the Freedom of Information Act, including emails sent between high-ranking FDA officials about Exondys 51, reports Boston Business Journal.





3. The lawsuit alleges the agency unnecessarily delayed responding to Mr. Seife before denying his request. Since Exondys 51 costs $300,000 annually  and many insurers are hesitant to cover it  the lawsuit argues releasing the documents is in the best interest of the public, according to the report.





"It will shed light on the hotly debated issue of whether the FDA approved an entirely ineffective drug based on faulty clinical trials and undue industry influence, or whether an effective drug is being unjustly excluded from reimbursement in many prescription drug plans," the lawsuit reads.

4. An FDA spokeswoman told Boston Business Journal the agency "does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation."





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Medical school enrollment continues to rise, especially at osteopathic schools, according to Medscape.

Here are five observations:

1. The United States is home to 147 allopathic and 33 osteopathic medical schools.

2. For the 2016 to 2017 school year, 21,000 first-years enrolled in allopathic medical schools, reflecting a 28 percent boost from the 2002 to 2003 year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

3. In the same time period, osteopathic school enrollment skyrocketed 148 percent, jumping to 7,369 first-years for the 2016 to 2017 school year.

4. An AAMC survey revealed competition for training sites is growing between allopathic and osteopathic schools. For the 2009 to 2010 year, 26 percent of allopathic schools said they competed with their osteopathic counterparts, compared to 53 percent for the 2016 to 2017 year.

5. The increasing medical school enrollment will help combat the predicted shortage of 105,000 physicians by 2030.
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The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on a trip to the Giants Causeway, which saw an increase in visitors

The Giant's Causeway is proving to be the most popular tourist spot here - approaching almost a million visitors a year - but new figures show locals are increasingly choosing to holiday outside Northern Ireland.

Visitor numbers from the Republic have increased by around one-third due to the weak pound.

A total of 455,000 people came North last year, according to the Northern Ireland Statistical Research Agency.

But while the overall number of trips to Northern Ireland rose to 4.6 million, up marginally on the previous year, tourists stayed fewer nights than in 2015.

There was a drop of 2% in overall nights spent in Northern Ireland, falling to 15.2 million last year.

Fewer visitors - around 7% - said they were travelling for business reasons.

The number of those coming to Northern Ireland on holiday increased by 10%.

There were also fewer people in Northern Ireland choosing to spend their holidays here.

The number of overnight trips from Northern Ireland residents fell by 11%.

That was attributed to a rise in the number of outgoing flights, in particular the return of Ryanair to Belfast.

But spending is on the rise among visitors to here, increasing by 13% to 613m.

The figures showed that overall estimated overnight trips to Northern Ireland by external visitors stood at 2.6 million.

That was the highest number on record and a 12% increase on 2015.

Last year, 93 cruise ships docked at Northern Ireland ports, up by 26 on the previous year.

As for tourist spots, the Giant's Causeway continued to grow its visitor numbers. There was an increase of 11% in the last year, bringing annual visitor numbers to close to one million.

Meanwhile, visitors to Titanic Belfast rose by 7% to 667,000, but Belfast Zoo saw numbers fall by 6%, to 223,000.

Overall hotel occupancy stood at 70% for the year. It is understood hotel numbers increased during the end of 2016, fuelled by the cheap pound.

The figures showed that holidaymakers and visitors from the Republic were staying for shorter periods, while those from Great Britain were staying longer.

While the number of visitors from the US and the rest of Europe rose, they made up just 16% of total overnight stays here.

Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Tourism Ireland, said the latest figures "confirm that we welcomed a record number" of overseas visitors to Northern Ireland.

"Visitor numbers from mainland Europe grew by 15%, from GB by 7% and from North America by 9%," he added.

"Tourism Ireland is determined to ensure that tourism growth continues, and we are rolling out an extensive programme of promotions throughout 2017 to highlight Northern Ireland around the world.

"We are highlighting iconic experiences such as Titanic Belfast, the Giant's Causeway and our unique National Trust properties.

"And, once again, we will join forces with Game of Thrones creators HBO this summer, leveraging the huge popularity of the TV series to showcase Northern Ireland."

Mr Gibbons said the key markets remained the rest of the UK, Europe, North America and Australia.

"We will continue to monitor the implications of Brexit on outbound travel from GB," he added.

"We are committed to ensuring that Northern Ireland continues to increase its share of the global travel business."
A Belfast architects' practice has landed design contracts for new schools worth 37.5m. Hamilton Architects, which has offices in London and Londonderry, is already working on a 7m redevelopment of Methodist College in Belfast and a new campus in Enniskillen for South West College.

However, it did not reveal how much the deals would be worth to the company itself.

Mark Haslett, a partner at Hamilton Architects, said: "We are delighted because the education sector is an important part of our portfolio, but we also deliver landmark projects in the leisure, health, culture and residential sectors."
A Belfast fit-out firm that has worked with top names including Harvey Nichols and Fortnum & Mason has posted a 1m rise in pre-tax profits.

Portview Fitout Ltd's latest accounts showed pre-tax profit for the year ending November 30, 2016, was up by almost 1m, from just over 2.2m to 3.2m.

Despite the increase in profits, sales were down by 742,000 on the previous 12 months, dropping from 40.3m in 2015 to 38.2m.

Managing director Simon Campbell told this newspaper: "Around 40% of that increase (in profits) was down to the disposal of some property.

"The rest is due to an increase in margin.

"Our business model is to improve the quality and size of the projects we are working on.

"Having the right mix of clients has meant we have seen profits go up."

The majority of the firm's orders were made in the UK, however, sales to the rest of Europe accounted for almost 6%, or just under 2.2m of turnover- up from 2% the year before.

However, Mr Campbell said there had been no intentional push outside the UK.

He added that repeat business and referrals were also important to the business, with 83% of orders coming this way.

"This year we have carried out some work in Paris," Mr Campbell explained.

"If a retailer has worked with us before and decides to open a flagship shop elsewhere, a lot of the time they will want to work with the same team who they have been happy working with before."

The firm's strategic report stated that the performance had "remained consistent" with the previous year, adding that the directors were "satisfied" with the results.

Portview, which was established in Belfast 1975, is a fit-out specialist that works with the UK's leading brands in the retail, leisure and office sectors.

The company has 81 employees - up from 77 in 2015 - with plans to continue to grow its workforce this year as it continues to take on more orders.

In 2016, Portview's major projects included conversion and re-fit work on the London Olympic Stadium. The company was also named one of Ireland's leading businesses in the Deloitte Best Managed Awards earlier this year.

The luxury fit-out specialist was just one of three companies here to be awarded platinum membership.

In addition to Harvey Nichols and Fortnum & Mason, Portview Fitout has carried out work for some of the biggest names in high-end retail, including Selfridges and Oscar de la Renta.
The FTSE closed at an all-time high of 7,547.63

London's premier index pushed to a record high and the pound sunk after a shock poll showed the Conservatives' lead was slipping ahead of the General Election.

The FTSE 100 Index hit a mid-session record of 7,554.21, before rising 29.92 points to close at an all-time high of 7,547.63.

The pound dropped to a two-month low against the euro, slipping 0.9% to 1.143, after Theresa May's advantage over Labour narrowed to just five points in the first opinion poll since Monday night's suicide bomb attack in Manchester.

A YouGov survey put the Conservatives down a point on the previous week on 43% and Labour up three on 38%, with the Liberal Democrats up one on 10% and Ukip up one on 4%.

Sterling was also tracking a one-month low versus the US dollar, down 1.2% to 1.278, with the greenback compounding the pound's woes by rising on better-than-expected economic data from America.

Blue-chip companies, which report in US dollars or euros, get a lift on the FTSE 100 Index when the pound suffers because their earnings benefit from a more favourable currency translation.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "With the pound already under pressure due to weaker than expected economic data, this surprise poll has acted as an additional catalyst in pushing the pound to a two month low against the euro and its lowest level this month against the US dollar.

"Having started the campaign on a 'strong and stable' footing, recent policy missteps by Mrs May have seen the election campaign take on the look of an 'ugly contest' of mediocre candidates, and that appears to be being reflected in the recent performance of the pound."

Away from the top-tier, the FTSE 250 Index, seen as a better barometer of the health of UK business, also reached an all-time closing high, rising 57.34 to 20,024.92.

Across Europe, Germany's Dax was down 0.2% and the Cac 40 in France was 0.1% lower.

The price of oil was up 0.4% to 51.65 US dollars a barrel during a tumultuous day's trading in the wake of Thursday's Opec meeting.

The cartel extended an existing deal to curb production to help tackle the global glut of Brent crude, but batted away calls to make deeper cuts.

In UK stocks, database and exhibitions firm Informa was in the ascendency thanks to a positive trading update.

Shares rose close to 6%, or 38p to 688.5p, after the firm said it was on track to record its fourth year of growth on the bounce.

Group chief executive Stephen Carter said: "We continue to make good progress in 2017, benefiting from our strengthened operating capabilities, increased scale and international breadth.

"We remain on track for a fourth consecutive year of growth in revenue, earnings and cashflow."

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline was also enjoying an uplift following a broker upgrade, rising 25.5p to 1,643.5p.

In contrast, Royal Bank of Scotland dropped 4.4p to 261.6p, as investors continued to digest Thursday's announcement that a multimillion-pound High Court action brought by thousands of shareholders against the bank would be adjourned until June 7.

The civil case was due to begin on Monday and last for 14 weeks, but the judge overseeing the action has granted a series of adjournments to allow settlement discussions to continue between investors and the bank.

On the FTSE 250, the Restaurant Group raced ahead after it said full-year pre-tax profits would be in line with expectations.

Shares were up 33.2p to 350.6p despite the struggling owner of Frankie & Benny's enduring another period of tough trading , with like-for-like sales dropping 1.8% in the 20 weeks to May 21.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index were Informa up 38p to 688.5p, Johnson Matthey up 80p to 3,175p, Rolls-Royce Holdings up 21.5p to 873p, British American Tobacco up 96p to 5,591p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 Index were Lloyds Banking Group down 1.4p to 71.74p, Shire down 86.5p to 4,651.5p, United Utilities Group down 19p to 1,035p, Royal Bank of Scotland down 4.4p to 261.6p.
Pets At Home pre-tax profits rose 5.8% to 95.4 million in the year to March

Sales at Pets At Home were boosted by price reductions and the success of its veterinary service last year. Pre-tax profits rose by 5.8% at the business, which has 10 stores in Northern Ireland, hitting 95.4m in the year to March, off the back of a 7.2% growth in sales to 834m.

Revenues at the group's veterinary arm rocketed 25% to 47m, with like-for-like sales rising 1.5% across the group.

The firm said it had launched price reductions "across a number of everyday pet essentials" and was "also starting to reposition prices in branded foods".

George Salmon, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, added: "Pets At Home has a leading position in a reliable and growing market.

"It offers pretty much exactly what you would want when tasked with picking up some goodies for your pet - a clean and efficient service."
Theresa May will chair a session on counter-terrorism when G7 leaders gather in Taormina in Sicily

Theresa May has defended her record on tackling violent extremism as she welcomed backing from the world's leading industrial nations for new measures to prevent online radicalisation by Islamic State.

In the wake of the suicide bomb in Manchester, leaders of the G7 states - the US, UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Italy - agreed a package of measures to step up pressure on tech giants like Google and Facebook to take down "harmful" content.

Agreement came at the end of the first day of a summit at the clifftop resort of Taormina in Sicily marked by divisions between US President Donald Trump and other leaders over issues of climate change, free trade and migration.

Mrs May said: "We agreed that the threat from Daesh is evolving rather than disappearing. As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning and the group's hateful ideology is spreading online.

"Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet.

"I am clear that corporations can do more. Indeed they have a social responsibility to now step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks."

The agreement included support for companies to develop tools to identify and remove harmful materials automatically and to report damaging content to the authorities while blocking the users responsible for spreading it.

The G7 also agreed a range of measures to return and prosecute foreign fighters and to cut off sources of terrorist finance.

In the face of questions over whether more could have been done to prevent the Manchester attack, Mrs May defended her record on the issue when she was home secretary under David Cameron.

"I excluded more hate preachers from the UK than any other home secretary has done before. We didn't hesitate in protecting our national security," she said.

In their joint statement, the leaders said they were "united in expressing our deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims of the brutal terrorist act in Manchester", adding: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."

Mrs May said the investigation into the Manchester attack was ongoing, but that bomber Salman Abedi's links with Libya "undoubtedly shine a spotlight on this largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe".

She said: "We must redouble our support for a UN-led effort that brings all parties to the negotiating table and reduces the threat of terror from that region."

Mrs May was cutting short her attendance at the two-day G7 gathering and flying back to the UK at the end of Friday.

Before leaving, Mrs May sought to play down disagreements with Mr Trump on climate change and the international Paris treaty which he had previously said he wanted to scrap.

"The United States is considering its position in relation to these matters and what its policy is going to be," she said.

"But there was no doubt around the table about how important this issue of climate change is. We were all very clear about that and the role the Paris agreement plays in that."

The deputy chief executive of Tech UK, Antony Walker, said: "Tech firms are clear that extremist content has no place on their platforms and are committed to continually improving measures to identify and remove such content.

"The PM's speech highlights the importance of international co-operation and the need to work together - industry, governments and NGOs - to tackle this evolving challenge. That work is already under way.

"As a number of companies set out in a recent letter to the Home Office, they are committed to working through an international forum to accelerate and strengthen existing work, to encourage development of new technologies and processes to improve identification and removal of terrorist propaganda, and to using the reach and diversity of their platforms to promote counter-speech and empower those with inclusive and positive messages."
Guns N Roses will perform at Slane Castle on Saturday.

With over 80,000 Guns N' Roses fans travelling to Slane Castle this weekend, organisers are once again urging people to plan their journeys in advance.

The US rockers will be taking to the iconic site in Co Meath from 7.30pm on Saturday, May 27, with support from Royal Blood, Mark Lanegan and Dublin band Otherkin.

Ahead of the massive concert, organisers are asking people to travel early to Slane Castle in order to minimise distruption.

They said:

When it comes to the traffic management in place for the venue, patrons are being urged to use public transport and arrive at the venue by 5pm.

Fans are warned of significant traffic delays and to add on two additional hours to your expected travel time.

The extended weather forecast is sunny with possible showers to attendees are urged to dress appropriately, with comfortable footwear being of utmost importance.

They should expect to walk at least 2km from the drop-off points with three public car-parks in operation.

You can find all relevant maps on the Garda website.

Read More

No alcohol is permitted onto the event site and searches will be in place at the entrances.

Prohibited items include: Aerosols, food, glass, or cans, fireworks or flares, large umbrellas or flag poles, megaphones, selfie sticks or spray cans.

For a full list and more information, visit the MCD website.
The zoo vet and senior keeper caught the trio up to find out their gender yesterday - three little girls.

White-belted ruffed lemurs are from the island of Madagascar and are critically endangered.

These lemurs are part of a global and collaborative breeding programme and mum Mianta has welcomed more than 10 babies since she arrived in 2009.

You can suggest names for the new arrivals at www.belfastzoo.co.uk or during a visit to the zoo.

The babies remained in their nest for the first few weeks and have only recently ventured out with the rest of the family.

Belfast Zoo has called for help in naming their three newborn white-belted ruffed lemurs.

The trio were born in April to dad Wakka and mum Mianta, who have had more than 10 infants since arriving at the north Belfast site in 2009.

The ruffed lemurs are a critically endangered speices.

Senior zoo keeper, Allan Galway, said: Ruffed lemurs are different from other lemur species, as their babies dont cling to the mother. Babies are either carried in their mothers mouth or left in a safe nest in a nearby tree.

"The triplets are now becoming more confident and mischievous and are starting to leave the nest to explore their surroundings. This has given us the opportunity to discover the sex of the new arrivals, three little females, and we now need the publics help to name them.

People can submit their suggestions on the Belfast Zoo website or by completing a form at the zoo.

White-belted ruffed lemurs are found on the island of Madagascar, which is home to a diverse range of species, many of which are unique to the island.

As the fourth largest island in the world, Madagascar is home to more than 100 different species of lemur and unique species which are found nowhere else in the world.

However, Madagascar has one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet and more than 80 percent of its forests have disappeared since the 1950s, leaving many irreplaceable species in danger of extinction.

This is mainly due to slash and burn agriculture in Madagascar, which means chopping down a bit of forest, burning the trees and planting rice or crops.

Expand Close Ruffed lemurs are different from other lemur species as their babies don't cling to the mother pictured in the nest in first weeks. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Ruffed lemurs are different from other lemur species as their babies don't cling to the mother pictured in the nest in first weeks.

Zoo manager, Alyn Cairns, said: Some research has estimated that if the rate of deforestation in Madagascar continues, lemurs could be extinct within 25 years.

"We are home to a number of Madagascan mammal, reptile and amphibian species, including crowned sifaka, red bellied lemur, ring-tailed lemur, Madagascan tree boa, Dumerils boa, golden mantella and fossa.

"We work with zoos around the world through collaborative breeding programmes. Every birth is not only a celebration for Belfast Zoo but for the conservation efforts to ensure the future survival of these lemurs.
The Ulster Farmers Union has said the granting of official BSE negligible risk status to Northern Ireland will be welcomed by livestock farmers

The Ulster Farmers Union has said the granting of official BSE negligible risk status to Northern Ireland will be welcomed by livestock farmers.

The change to negligible risk status - the safest level - was confirmed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) at a meeting in Paris yesterday.

Northern Ireland has had no cases of BSE since 2012.

UFU deputy president Victor Chestnutt said: "This will give Northern Ireland beef a more positive image on the world stage. It should help us gain access to key target markets, such as China, USA, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

"Beef exporters believe securing access to these markets could put an extra 12m a year into the supply chain.

"In countries we already trade in, it opens up the possibility of amending access agreements. This could boost trade in offals, again adding value to the local supply chain."

Chief veterinary officer Robert Huey said: "This is a significant achievement that has been many years in the making."
There is no forensic evidence against a Northern Ireland man accused of killing and skinning a Collie dog, a court has heard.

William Mocsari is set to be released on bail after he supplies police with an address that raises no objections, defence barrister Chris Holmes told Newtownards Magistrates' Court yesterday.

During a bail application after the 27-year-old had been acquitted of possessing class C diazepam tablets, Mr Holmes said the only evidence the Public Prosecution Service had was "admissions" made during police interviews.

He added he intended to have the case referred to Crown Court.

Highlighting that the defendant, who stood in the dock in handcuffs, "clearly" has mental health issues, Mr Holmes said that while his client had made "full admissions, police investigated those admissions and it now transpires that there is no forensic evidence to support the existence of a dog".

Mocsari, from Rodden Street in Kircubbin, is charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a dog on December 3 last year. He is to be freed on bail once he can obtain an address that police are satisfied is appropriate, but is barred from having "custody or control of any animal".

Previous courts heard that Mocsari told his social worker and police that, having obtained a dog advertised as "free to good home", he strangled it with its lead, skinned it, cooked it and then fed it to his own Collie.

A police constable previously revealed that what could have been "traces of dog fur" were uncovered in the fireplace when the defendant's home was searched.

However, the defence contends the alleged dog killer is a "fantasist" and that this "isn't the first time that he has confessed to something that turned out to be impossible."

Dismissing the drugs charge because police had failed to disprove claims the diazepam had been prescribed, and ordering pre-sentence probation reports on two sets of driving offences and a charge of having a knife, Judge Mark Hamill lamented the fact that various animal rights groups "seem to have taken it into their heads that I have performed a role (in this case".

"All I've done is keep him in custody," he added. "I've played no role in this case whatsoever. Let's correct that and hope it permeates through their conscience because the prosecution are raising no issue about bail."

Adjourning the case until June 22, Judge Hamill granted Mocsari bail, ordered him to register with his GP "as soon as possible", barred him from having any animals and ordered him to report to police twice a week.

The defendant, who said from the dock that he believed his solicitor had already found an approved address, was told he would only be freed once police were satisfied he had a suitable residence.
Two men have been charged with human trafficking after four women were rescued by police following raids in Belfast and Banbridge.

The pair, aged 20 and 28, are due to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court on Saturday.

They are accused of a number of offences, including conspiracy to traffic within the UK for exploitation, controlling prostitution and concealing criminal property.

One woman was discovered in east Belfast, where the 20-year-old man was arrested.

The other three women were found in Banbridge, where police arrested the 28-year-old man.

Earlier Det Chief Insp Mark Bell said: "The arrests are part of an extensive investigation into an organised criminal gang with eastern European links."

The searches were carried out at properties on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast and at Kenlis Street in Banbridge on Thursday.

A related search was conducted in London by the Metropolitan Police but no victims were found and no one was arrested.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said she was 'very confident' a referendum on a united Ireland would not be held

Former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster has said she does not expect to see a referendum on a united Ireland in her lifetime.

The DUP leader dismissed renewed talk of a border poll on the issue, which has been driven largely by Sinn Fein.

During an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Foster was asked if she was confident there would not be a border poll in her lifetime.

She replied: "I'm very confident about that.

"One of the difficulties with Brexit is the fact that people are superimposing Brexit on another issue, which of course in Scotland is independence and in Northern Ireland is a united Ireland.

"There are many unionists who voted to remain within the European Union, but if they were asked the question around staying in the United Kingdom or going into a united Ireland, they would very firmly say that they wanted to stay in the United Kingdom, for all of the reasons I have spoken about.

"It won't happen."

Ms Foster said the forthcoming Westminster elections were an opportunity to "send a very clear message" about Northern Ireland's place in the UK, as she denied that Brexit had fuelled republicanism.

Ms Foster also hinted that technology could ease the issue of a hard border with the south, citing the example of the border between Norway and Sweden.

"I'm not saying that we copy what goes on there, but I am saying there are already examples," she said.

Ms Foster stepped down as first minister earlier this year in the fallout from a renewable energy scheme, which has led to the collapse of the executive in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein's Chris Hazzard accused Mrs Foster of "running scared" of public opinion on a border poll.

He claimed she was showing "arrogance and contempt for the democratic process".

"The Tory government's attempt to drag us out of the EU against the democratic wishes of the majority of people in the north has put the debate on Irish unity front and centre in the political agenda," he said.

"The Good Friday Agreement contains provision for a referendum on Irish unity and that cannot be swept aside by Arlene Foster or anyone else.

"It is not in the DUP's gift to determine when the people can have their say on Irish unity. Her comments are another example of the arrogance of the DUP.

"Sinn Fein has called for a referendum on unity to be held within the next five years and we are building support for that."
Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Belfast City Hall. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye - Tuesday 16th August 2016

Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Belfast City Hall. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye - Tuesday 16th August 2016

Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Belfast City Hall. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye - Tuesday 16th August 2016

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye 

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Picture by Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye

Tilly, Debbie, Charlotte 7 and Daniel 5 Ingram. Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye 

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye

Seapark, Holywood, Co Down. Temperatures have hit the glorious 20s in Northern Ireland. Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye

Aaron Callaghan and Sophie Jefferies on the beach at Newcastle

Students from Chicago enjoy the sun on Portstewart Strand

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Grace McGuigan 8. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Aisling Denny Siberian huskies Nanook, nando and shadow. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Lisa Marie McCambridge 9 Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Belfast Telegraph 01-05-2017 In the sunshine at the Waterworks North Belfast. Leah, Rebecca and Hannah McMurray. Picture Colm O'Reilly 01-05-2017

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern Irelands premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Eden John Robinson from Antrim. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern Irelands premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine are P5s Philip and James with Mr Thompson from Kilbroney IPS. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Alice Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Finlay Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Finlay Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

5 May 2017 - Picture by Darren Kidd / Press Eye. The glorious May weather continues today (Fri 5th May) as the gates open to Northern IrelandOs premier gardening event - Allianz Garden Show Ireland at Antrim Castle Gardens. Promising a fabulous Festival of Flowers, Food and Fun, the three day Show is set to welcome a bumper crowd to the stunning Antrim setting over the weekend. Enjoying the sunshine is Alice Smyth from Ballymena. The Allianz Garden Show Ireland will run from 5th - 7th May at Antrim Castle Gardens and is open daily from 10am-6pm with parking in town centre car parks and at The Junction with a shuttle bus running. Adults tickets cost 10 (concession 8), the event is FREE for children under 16 and there is a reduced rate for online booking. For more information visit www.gardenshowireland.com.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan (L-R) Sarah McGarry from Belfast and Catherine laverty from Birmingham enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Tom Clarke from Wexford enjoys the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Tom Clarke from Wexford enjoys the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Clare Miller, Sion Mills, Emma Arkinson, Killyclougher Roisin Campbell, Dungannon and Cathy O'Neill Dungannon, enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Belfast City Hall , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 7/5/2017 Enjoying the sunshine at Helen's Bay Beach in Co Down , during the warm weather across Northern Ireland on Sunday. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan (L-R) Sarah McGarry from Belfast and Catherine laverty from Birmingham enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan William Crawshaw and Becky Holdich from Leeds visiting Belfast for the weekend enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Tom Clarke from Wexford enjoys the sunshine in Botanic Gardens.

Press Eye - Weather Pictures - 7th May 2017 Photograph By Declan Roughan Sunshine in Botanic Gardens Belfast getting some ice cream

Niamh Cooper from Belfast shows her running skills on a sunny day at Portstewart Strand Beach. PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.

Students Amy Gallagher and Claire Beattie soak up the sun at Portrstewart Strand Beach. PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 17th July 2017 People enjoy the sunny and warm weather at Seamark outside Holywood in Co. Down. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 17th July 2017 People enjoy the sunny and warm weather at Seamark outside Holywood in Co. Down. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 17th July 2017 People enjoy the sunny and warm weather at Seamark outside Holywood in Co. Down. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

PACEMAKER BELFAST 17/07/2017 People enjoy the summer weather in Botanic Gardens in Belfast Northern Ireland. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press

(L-R) Clare Miller, Sion Mills, Emma Arkinson, Killyclougher Roisin Campbell, Dungannon and Cathy O'Neill Dungannon, enjoy the sunshine in Botanic Gardens. Photograph By Declan Roughan Presseye

Enjoy it while it lasts folks because come Saturday you could be bathing in heavy rain instead of the glorious sunshine we've been enjoying of late.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for rain across Northern Ireland for Friday and Saturday.

Many places will escape the rain on Friday evening with showers confined mostly to parts of Fermanagh, although they will be heavy and thundery.

Forecasters are warning of the potential of localised flooding.

Meanwhile, on Saturday the barbecue plans will have to be shelved.

Meteorologists are predicting heavy, thundery showers on Saturday afternoon and evening with the potential to bring localised flooding, hail and frequent lightning.

The Met Office warning is in place from 1pm on Saturday until 11pm.

Sunday will be fresher, though mostly dry and sunny. Heavy overnight showers in the south will continue into Monday. Tuesday will probably be mainly dry, except in the far northwest.
Local RNLI lifeboat crews were tasked to the scene after the vessel went down about 100m off Skerries harbour

A major search and rescue operation is under way for a missing fisherman after a boat sank in the Irish Sea.

One of the two men on board was pulled from the water after their vessel went down about 100m out from Skerries harbour in north Dublin at around 1.30pm, local RNLI crews reported.

The rescued fisherman was said to be conscious when he was brought ashore about half an hour after the alarm was raised.

He was rushed to hospital for treatment.

The local RNLI lifeboat crew in Skerries was the first rescue boat on the scene and later supported by teams from Howth and Clogherhead.

The Navy ship LE Orla was also in the area to co-ordinate the search and rescue mission along with the Dublin-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter.

A spokesman for the Irish Coast Guard said: "A number of other boats are in the area as well."

The men were believed to be on a small local vessel involved in razor fishing.

It is understood a doctor and an advanced paramedic were on the scene when the rescued fisherman was taken from the water. He was treated on the shore before being taken away in an ambulance.

T he Garda Water Unit was later dispatched to the scene.

Others taking part in the mission included the Navy vessel LE Niamh and the Air Corps' Casa maritime patrol aircraft.
A seven-month-old baby girl has died after apparently suffering heat stroke after she was left in a car in the sun for a number of hours.

The baby, named locally as Chloe Fogarty, from Kilfeakle, Dundrum in Co Tipperary was discovered unresponsive in a car at 1.45pm on Thursday.

It is suspected she may have developed heatstroke as temperatures in the area reached 25C yesterday. A post-mortem will be carried out on the childs body today, Friday.

Gardai confirmed they attended the scene after a 999 call was made, as did other emergency service personnel and a local GP.

It is understood the girls father, Paul Fogarty, went to work at a local steelworks at about 8am and had been due to drop his daughter off at creche.

It is believed Mr Fogarty was distracted by a phone call when he got out of his car and was unaware he had left the child in the vehicle.

When he returned to the car at 1pm, he found the child unresponsive.

The girl was airlifted from the nearby Kickhams GAA field to University Hospital Limerick in a critical condition but was pronounced dead later in the afternoon.

A Garda investigation is underway and a file on the matter will be prepared for the Tipperary County Coroner.

Gardai described the incident as a "tragedy". However, it is understood the incident is being treated as an appalling accident.

Chloes distraught father and her mother Louise were last night being comforted by relatives, friends and neighbours in west Tipperary. Its understood the seven-month-old was the only child of the couple, who married last year.

Its an awful tragedy, said former Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes, who lives in the nearby village of Golden.

Fianna Fail county councillor Roger Kennedy said the whole area has been left numb by the terrible tragedy.

Its just so sad. The whole area is in shock, he said.

Mr Kennedy described the childs parents as a popular, well-known family and said they are very involved in the community.

Sinn Fein councillor Martin Browne said it was the hottest day of the year so far in the area, which would have made conditions more difficult for the child in the car.

He added the sight of the baby being airlifted to hospital was truly heart-breaking.

Its not something that anyone would be used to seeing, he said. They are a very nice, very respectable family and its just a complete tragedy.

Mr Browne said the local community is doing all they can to comfort the Fogarty family.

Family and neighbours are offering their condolences and asking locals for anything they can do to help, he said.

Im sure the whole community will rally around the family.
People react as they stop to observe a minute's silence in St Ann's Square in Manchester

British police have reopened information-sharing ties with the US following a spat over leaked evidence from the Manchester bombing, police chiefs have said.

Mark Rowley, the country's most senior counter-terrorism officer, confirmed they had "received fresh assurances" from their foreign counterparts and were now "working closely" with them.

An extraordinary row erupted between the US and British authorities after a host of sensitive information was leaked to American news outlets in the wake of Monday's attack.

Mr Rowley said: "We greatly value the crucial relationship with our trusted partners around the world so we can collaborate and share sensitive information to defeat terrorism and protect the public at home and abroad.

"While we do not usually comment on information-sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organisations, we want to emphasise that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance."

Apparent leaks from the investigation, including evidence photographs from the scene of the attack, were said to have caused "distress and upset" to victims' families.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd publicly rebuked the US authorities for passing on the information unauthorised, only for more material to surface in the New York Times hours later.

The Prime Minister said she would raise the leaks with President Donald Trump in the margins of a Nato summit in Brussels, stressing that the "special relationship" was based on trust.

President Trump vowed to investigate, calling the leaks "deeply troubling" and warning the sources of the security lapse could be prosecuted.

On Thursday, a sombre silence in memory of the bomb victims came to a rousing end with a spontaneous rendition of Don't Look Back In Anger.

The Oasis hit rang out across Manchester's St Ann's Square after hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects.

The tribute was one of many nationwide events taking place at 11am to mark Monday night's tragedy, including one at Belfast City Hall.

With the country remaining braced for another terror attack:

Eight people remained in custody in connection with the investigation.



Officers carried out searches at properties in Manchester, Wigan and Nuneaton. A bomb disposal unit returned to the Wigan address last night.



NHS England said 23 people remained in critical care across eight hospitals. They include five children at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

As detectives continued a huge inquiry into the outrage, it emerged attacker Salman Abedi was known to security services and his risk to the public remained "subject to review".

Abedi, whose sister said he "wanted revenge" for Western military strikes in the Middle East, was a "former subject of interest" to MI5, a Whitehall source confirmed.

Hours before his deadly assault, he had phoned his mother and said "forgive me", according to a Libyan anti-terror official.

Libyan investigators believe Abedi acted alone when perpetrating the atrocity, Special Deterrent Force spokesman Ahmed bin Salem added.

Relatives of the British-born bomber are being interrogated by authorities in Tripoli, where his father Ramadan and teenage brother Hashim were arrested on Wednesday.

Abedi's mother, Samia Tabbal, was said to have told them her son left the North African country bound for the UK four days before detonating his device at Manchester Arena.

Hashim (18) allegedly claimed his older brother learnt to build bombs from the internet, hoping to "seek victory for the Islamic State", Mr Bin Salem added.

Despite the belief of the Libyan authorities that Abedi acted alone, British investigative efforts remained focused on smashing the potential terror ring which may have assisted him.
A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A moments silence is held at Belfast City Hall in memory of those who died at the Manchester Arena bombing. May 25th 2017 (Photo - Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (third right back) joins fire fighters at Islington Fire Station, north London, as he observes a minute's silence to remember the victims of the Manchester terror attack. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 25, 2017. See PA story POLICE Explosion. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Residents of Lindum Stree, Moss Side observe a minutes silence in memory of the victims of the Manchester bomb attack on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show pause to observe a minute silence for the victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack on May 25, 2017 in London, England. 22 people, including children were killed and dozens injured in an suicide bomb attack during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on May 22nd. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show pause to observe a minute silence for the victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack on May 25, 2017 in London, England. 22 people, including children were killed and dozens injured in an suicide bomb attack during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on May 22nd. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show pause to observe a minute silence for the victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack on May 25, 2017 in London, England. 22 people, including children were killed and dozens injured in an suicide bomb attack during an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on May 22nd. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

People observe a minute's silence in St Ann's Square, Manchester, to remember the victims of the terror attack in the city earlier this week. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 25, 2017. See PA story POLICE Explosion. Photo credit should read: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

People stop to observe a minute's silence in St Ann's Square gathered around the tributes, in central Manchester, northwest England, on May 25, 2017, as a mark of respect to the victims of the May 22 terror attack at the Manchester Arena. Police said they arrested two men Thursday in the Manchester area in connection with the deadly bombing of an Ariana Grande pop concert, while a detained woman was released without charges. Britain has raised its terror alert to the maximum level and ordered troops to protect strategic sites after 22 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Manchester pop concert. / AFP PHOTO / Ben STANSALLBEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

People observe a minute's silence in St Ann's Square, Manchester, to remember the victims of the terror attack in the city earlier this week. Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: People sit in Parliament Square as a minute silence is held in memory of the victims of the Manchester attack, on May 25, 2017 in in Parliament Square, London, England. People around the country stopped at eleven o'clock to observe one minute of silence to remember the 22 people killed by the attack at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 25: People observe a minute silence in memory of the victims of the Manchester attack, on May 25, 2017 in in Parliament Square, London, England. People around the country stopped at eleven o'clock to observe one minute of silence to remember the 22 people killed by the attack at an Ariana Grande concert on Monday. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn observes a minute's silence with members of Islington Fire Brigade in London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 25, 2017. See PA story POLICE Explosion. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack, on May 25, 2017 in Manchester, England. An explosion occurred at Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22 as concert goers were leaving the venue after Ariana Grande had performed. Greater Manchester Police are treating the explosion as a terrorist attack and have confirmed 22 fatalities and 59 injured. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham lays flowers after a minute's silence in St Ann's Square, Manchester, to remember the victims of the terror attack in the city earlier this week. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday May 25, 2017. See PA story POLICE Explosion. Photo credit should read: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

Members of the public observe a national minute's silence in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in the Manchester Arena attack. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Police fear the Manchester suicide bomber may have made a second bomb, after raids on his home uncovered a stash of chemical explosives, it has been reported.

Officers discovered evidence of a "working bomb factory" at Salman Abedis address, according to The Daily Telegraph, raising fears he may have distributed further explosive devices to other radical extremists.

It comes after The Independent revealed on Thursday police and security services had found bomb-making materials as they conducted raids across the country, which they feared could be primed for imminent attacks.

One suspect device was blown up in a controlled explosion and security sources said on Wednesday there was a real possibility other materials were yet to be found.

A security source told The Daily Telegraph: "The worry is there was enough to build two or three bombs and we can't rule that out."

The developments unfolded as police worked to establish Abedis final movements after it emerged he flew back to Britain via Turkey and Germany just four days before carrying out his attack.

German intelligence services said Abedi flew to the city via Istanbul and Dusseldorf, although questions remained over the 22-year-olds previous location.

Expand Close Authorities identified Salman Abedi as the bomber who was responsible for Monday's explosion in Manchester. (AP) / Facebook

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Frances interior minister previously said Abedi had visited Libya and then most likely gone to Syria, although no concrete evidence has emerged to support the claim.

Analysts pointed out that Turkey is a frequent transit point for Isis fighters crossing the border to and from Syria by land.

Former Metropolitan Police officer, David Videcette said Abedi had likely spent months practising how to assemble the device while he was abroad.

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He told The Telegraph: "This is not something you can just put together by reading a book or watching a YouTube video. He will have spent time at a camp somewhere, possibly in Libya, being shown how to do it. But once you have the skills and the materials, assembling the device itself can be done fairly quickly."

The number of arrests in the UK rose to eight on Thursday as police continued to work to uncover a UK network of extremists working with Abedi.
A woman prays as she views floral tributes for the bomb victims left at St Anns Church in Manchester

The greatest weapon police have against warped killers like Salman Abedi is the Muslim community itself, writes former RUC Special Branch detective Dr William Matchett.

A small constabulary is larger than MI5. It is unrealistic to expect Britain's main intelligence agency to follow every lead, monitor every suspect and stop every attack. Even for Northern Ireland, 3% of the UK population, it is impossible to thoroughly research everyone who expresses "Up the 'RA"-type support for active terrorist groups.

The men and women of Thames House are the UK's top intelligence experts. It is not, however, a law-enforcement organisation, but a part of the civil service. Its remit is to protect national security. And, in my view, it is the best in the world.

Although MI5 runs informers and conducts surveillance, it also excels in strategy, policy-making and organisational structure when it comes to guiding the National Crime Agency, police services and other branches of law-enforcement on intelligence.

Jack Morton, a former MI5 chief, was the father of the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Special Branch. He had served in many foreign hot-spots. People like him shaped an intelligence apparatus that defeated the IRA.

They knew what was needed to counter a violent threat and how to integrate MI5 with a constabulary. This compensated for MI5's limited operational reach.

Morton's successors also know what is required to combat the current crisis. In many ways, this is different to the IRA terrorist campaign. But, in many ways, it is the same.

The most obvious overlap is a militant ideology based on ancient hatreds and modern grievances. This persuades its followers that murder is a legitimate act. In their eyes, killing will stop the unlawful occupation of a territory.

Where bombs exploding in England delighted the IRA and their supporters, the same applies to groups like Isis and al Qaida. They get their message out by attacks that shock. Success is getting headline news.

At times, there is a cell structure and a network. With this, you have an opportunity to intercept communications, recruit an informer, or run surveillance. But for an individual who has self-radicalised and shown no real capacity to carry out an attack, it is almost impossible to stop.

In Manchester, it appears the bomber, Salman Abedi, was not alone. This is unsurprising. Bomb-makers are a precious resource. They are not wasted as martyrdom canon fodder.

In combating a diverse terrorist threat today, the main challenge for MI5 is a criminal justice system that routinely leaks secrets, modern policing and society's confessional culture.

Disclosing sensitive methodologies in open court makes it harder to catch terrorists in the future. This has been a source of frustration for MI5, as it was for the RUC Special Branch. An investigative-led police model aggravates the issue.

In an investigative-led approach - the norm in the UK - senior officers, like detective superintendent Stella Gibson in The Fall crime drama, call the shots. Intelligence supports the investigation. Which is the way it should be.

Getting forensic and witness evidence is the priority. This - and not intelligence - is what proves guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Of confessional culture, one needs to look no further than the New York Times publishing details about the explosive device Abedi detonated. It was an unsolicited disclosure that angered the investigating team. Today's society is fixated with revealing everything.

Towards the end of the Troubles, as the investigative-led approach started to replace an intelligence-led approach, it was not uncommon to read a sensitive piece of intelligence in a national newspaper.

Secrecy is a knight in an age where transparency is king. For MI5, this poses problems.

I have lots of Muslim friends. They are decent people, who raise their kids right and love this country. Quite a few have seen the horrors of conflict up close and have had family members murdered by terrorists. They are outraged by Manchester. For the police, this is a great baseline.

The vast majority of British Muslims support the rule of law. In Muslim countries where I have worked, a minority of hate-filled zealots label the rest non-Muslims for criticising them. Violent extremists are bullies. They despise and demonise those who stand up to them.

After the Westminster Bridge incident, the Muslim community held a vigil for the five victims. The wife of Khalid Masood, the attacker, condemned his actions. None of them saw him as a victim.

I cannot think of a similar protest, or condemnation, having happened in Northern Ireland when the IRA murdered a police officer and civilians.

In Manchester, the Muslim community was again quick to condemn the atrocity. Their message was clear; it said the people who perpetrated this act are not representative of Islam, but are extremists who disgrace the religion. The more Imams and Muslim leaders that spread this message the better.

The pain and misery of thousands of innocent victims and survivors of terrorism in Northern Ireland would be mightily relieved by words of this kind from Sinn Fein.

Ultimately, the point being made by this article is that, the unarmed British bobby style of policing is investigative-led. The police rely on the consent of the community. It is a not a counter-terrorism model. It is not a natural fit for counter-terrorism intelligence. Regional counter-terrorism police hubs under a variety of names are an effort to offset the shortcoming. But the set-up is fine.

Violent extremists crave repressive security measures to attract sympathy. The last thing they want is a bobby on the beat talking with local people. I have worked on overseas projects with superb officers from Greater Manchester Police. They get it. Manchester is in good hands.

The greatest weapon the police have against warped men like Abedi is the Muslim community. This is because the police depend on information from the local community to catch offenders and prevent future attacks. MI5 plug into this large operational footprint.

Understanding this, as MI5 and Greater Manchester Police do, is why this evil that offers nothing but death, destruction and division will be defeated.

Combating terrorism is not about containment. It is about beating a bad ideology with a good ideology.

With the challenges MI5 face in mind, a re-elected government may look to unearth the intelligence lessons of the Troubles that a "peace process" has buried.
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos on Friday joined mounting calls questioning the government's decision to place the entire southern island of Mindanao under martial law to defeat a small band of Islamic State-linked militants.

Ramos, whom President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier credited for convincing him to run in last years elections, has become the most senior former government official to question the declaration of military rule.

"Martial law all over Mindanao may be proper in the eyes of the administration, but there are enough peaceful areas there that do not need to be subjected to martial law, Ramos, a former general, told reporters in Manila.

Ramos cautioned Duterte against expanding military rule to also cover the entire country.

Dutertes threat to widen martial rule, Ramos said, created anxiety among Filipinos by provoking a sense of fear and foreboding, which is very unbecoming at this time when the present administration claims to be scoring successes.

He urged the 72-year-old Duterte to instead calm widespread fears by assuring the public that the gunbattle in the southern city of Marawi would soon be over.

The violence must be confined to smaller and smaller areas until martial law is no longer necessary, he said.

Ramos also called on Dutertes aides, some of whom did not live through the horrors of martial law, to limit their statements at this period of "violence, conflict and tension."

He warned that expanding martial law could lead to more military abuses and rights violations, rather than stop terrorists.

Our government must take strong measures (against violence) without abusing human rights, to limit the violence without any violation of human rights, Ramos said.

"There are already a lot of human rights violations even when theres no martial law," he said, alluding to claims by various human-rights experts that thousands have died since last year on Duterte's war on drugs.

Quelling a rebellion

Duterte earlier this week declared martial law across Mindanao to quell what he said was a clear rebellion by a small group of militants called the Maute group that had allied with Abu Sayyaf extremists.

Intense clashes since Tuesday have left 31 militants, 11 soldiers and two police officers dead as of Thursday night. At least 30 soldiers have also been wounded, officials said.

The death toll was expected to rise as the military, backed by armored vehicles and fighter helicopters, attempted to dislodge militants in at least three villages in Marawi, about 1,170 km (730 miles) south of the countrys capital Manila.

Security officials disclosed on Friday that the Filipino militants were backed up by fighters believed to be from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

But Duterte, in a speech to troops in nearby Iligan city, on Friday dismissed the Maute fighters as led by two brothers "who got enamored with money from shabu (meth)." He said the Maute leaders funded their movement with drug money, enabling them to recruit militants and fuel the movement.

Duterte did not say where he got the intelligence information, but the president has been known to say things that are unverifiable snippets of information.

Earlier this week, he claimed that one of those killed by the Maute fighters was a policeman who was beheaded, which was later disputed by the supposed victim himself, who turned out to be alive.

The Commission on Human Rights on Friday also called on the military to uphold the peoples rights as it moves to enforce tough security in the south.

"The Commission reminds the members of its police force and army in Mindanao where the limits of their power lie in regards to protecting its civilians," it said in a statement. "There is legislation and protocol in place to ensure that the human-rights abuses that have occurred in the past are not repeated."

"Those who are arrested or detained person cannot be charged beyond the period of three days, nor can civilians be tried in military tribunals. The declaration of Martial Law does not suspend the functioning of the civil courts and the legislative assemblies," the body said.

Thousands of activists were killed or went missing and presumed killed by state forces when dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in September 1972, in what many consider as the darkest chapter in recent Philippine history.

After martial law was declared, Marcos political opponents, including his archrival Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., were arrested without warrants and jailed.

Marcos, who lifted the military rule on Jan. 17, 1981, reasoned out that it was necessary to quash communist and secessionist rebellions. He continued to rule the country until 1986 when he was toppled by a civilian-backed military revolt led by Ramos and former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile.
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For Immediate Release, May 26, 2017 Contact: Randi Spivak, (310) 779-4894, rspivak@biologicaldiversity.org Bears Ears National Monument Wins Overwhelming Support Interior Receives More Than 685,000 Pro-monument Comments WASHINGTON Supporters of Bears Ears National Monument sent a flood of comments to the Department of the Interior urging that the Utah monument be protected, with more than 685,000 messages of support submitted in just 15 days. Interior's Bears Ears comment period closes tonight. Trump and Zinke need to listen to the American people for once instead of corporate polluters. The people have made it crystal clear that they stand with Bears Ears and in solidarity with the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition, said Kieran Suckling, the Center for Biological Diversity's executive director. They won't stand by while Trump and anti-public lands zealots plunder and pillage the country's most stunning landscapes and cultural treasures for profits. President Trump last month ordered a review of Bears Ears and 26 other national monuments at the behest of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one of the most anti-public-lands members of Congress. Hatch's political career has been well funded by the fossil fuel industry, including the Koch brothers and Chevron. A survey of dozens of organizations reveals that more than 685,000 public comments have been submitted to Interior in support of Bears Ears. The regulations.gov website displays each bundle of comments submitted from concerned groups as a single comment, significantly understating the number received. Trump's order to review' national monuments is a sham. A president doesn't have the authority to change or rescind national monuments, Suckling said. The designation of Bears Ears followed years of advocacy by tribes to protect their ancestral lands and sacred sites. The public wants this magnificent landscape and the natural wonders within to be protected for future generations. Under the order Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is to recommend whether to retain monument status, shrink or rescind certain monuments designated since 1996. Zinke opened a 60-day public comment period for all monuments except Bears Ears, which was allowed only 15 days for public comment. The close of the comment period for the other monuments is July 10. Zinke is to issue interim recommendation on Bears Ears by June 10. The Antiquities Act is one of America's oldest and most important conservation laws. It allows presidents to quickly protect natural and cultural resources when Congress fails to act, in order to preserve objects of historic and scientific importance. The act has protected some of America's most iconic and important natural and cultural landscapes, including Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Acadia and Olympic national parks. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
For Immediate Release, May 24, 2017 Contact: Jared Margolis, (802) 310-4054, jmargolis@biologicaldiversity.org

Jonathon Berman, (202) 495-3033, Jonathon.berman@sierraclub.org

Jake Thompson, (202) 289-2387, jthompson@nrdc.org Lawsuit Expands to Highlight Keystone XL's Threats to Endangered Species Pipeline Would Place Whooping Cranes, Other Wildlife at Risk GREAT FALLS, Mont. Landowner and environmental-protection groups added a new claim today to their ongoing lawsuit challenging the Keystone XL pipeline project. The claim highlights the project's threats to critically endangered whooping cranes and other threatened species. The additional claim is against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to thoroughly analyze Keystone XL's threats to the cranes, and other protected birds, before federal approvals of the project began earlier this year. These threats include increased risk of oil spills, habitat loss and collisions with hundreds of miles of new power lines that would serve the pipeline's pump stations. The Fish and Wildlife Service arbitrarily concurred with the U.S. Department of State's determination that despite these serious threats, Keystone XL was not likely to adversely affect the crane or other listed birds. The State Department relied on that decision to issue a cross-border permit for Keystone XL in March. The Keystone XL pipeline was rejected by the Obama administration because it's an absolute disaster for wildlife, water and our climate, said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Approving this massive pipeline without ensuring that iconic endangered species like the whooping crane are adequately protected is simply unacceptable. The groups  including the Center, Friends of the Earth, Bold Alliance, Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council  also filed a notice of intent to sue the State Department regarding its review of the pipeline's impacts to whooping cranes, interior least terns and piping plovers. Construction of the pipeline and the associated power lines would harm these birds by significantly increasing the risk of collisions and providing artificial perches for predators that target these imperiled species. Collisions are a leading source of death for whooping cranes, and the proposed pipeline route follows the main migratory corridor for the largest surviving wild population of whooping cranes, which numbers fewer than 300 birds. Habitat fragmentation from construction activities and inevitable oil spills during operation will also threaten cranes, terns and plovers and the natural areas they depend on for feeding, breeding and nesting. The groups seek a more comprehensive analysis of Keystone XL's threats to these protected species and a reconsideration of the conservation measures needed to prevent serious harm. Not only will Keystone XL worsen the climate crisis, poison waters and threaten communities along its route, it will drive wildlife closer to the brink of extinction, said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. Indigenous peoples and ranchers led the fight against Keystone XL and Trump's effort to force through this dangerous and destructive project is a slap in the face to them, as well as all who care about our planet. The Trump administration rushed to approve the Keystone XL without properly evaluating the pipeline's impacts, said Sierra Club attorney Doug Hayes. A comprehensive review would show that Keystone XL poses a grave danger to our climate, waterways and endangered species along the pipeline route. In their amended complaint and a related notice of intent to sue sent to the State Department today, the groups noted that the State Department and Fish and Wildlife Service failed to fully consider the risk of harm, ignored the best available science and relied on inadequate conservation measures. Threats from habitat fragmentation and oil spills along the entire route were downplayed or ignored, and the agencies disregarded harms from the construction and operation of Keystone XL in Canada. The groups argued that imperiled migratory birds like the whooping crane may be jeopardized in order to allow a Canadian corporation to pump dirty tar sands across the United States. The groups will pursue the species issues raised in today's filings in their ongoing litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana; they have already challenged the State Department's review of Keystone XL under the National Environmental Policy Act. That review severely underestimated the project's dangerous impacts on the environment and communities along the pipeline route. These threats to the iconic whooping crane and other wildlife underscore why we can't allow the Trump Administration to rubber-stamp Keystone XL, said Anthony Swift, director of NRDC's Canada Project. The tar sands pipeline would put at grave risk our waters, wildlife and climate. We cannot continue to sacrifice our most precious resources on the altar of tar sands greed, said Ken Winston, an attorney for the Bold Alliance. In addition to the well-documented risks to our life-giving water and land, Keystone XL poses significant and unacceptable risks to the rare and beautiful whooping cranes. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. Bold Alliance advocates for clean energy, fights fossil fuel projects, and works to protect rural landowners in the Midwest and South, in cooperation with Tribal nations, farmers, ranchers, hunters, anglers, and environmentalists. The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, not-for-profit public-health and environmental advocacy organization whose purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org. Friends of the Earth fights to defend the environment and create a more healthy and just world. Our current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, keeping toxic and risky technologies out of the food we eat and products we use, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.
It can be tough to be a vegetarian. You have to work harder than everyone else to make sure youre getting all the nutrients your body needs. So, when its time to take a
The MoUs were signed by Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General, ICMR, New Delhi and Dr C K Katiyar, CEO, Emami Healthcare, Kolkata.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Emami Healthcare have signed two memoranda of understanding (MoU), one for the development of standardized phytopharmaceutical formulation to prevent or delay the development of Type-2 Diabetes in people with pre-diabetes and another for the development of standardized herbal or ayurvedic formulation to treat sleep disorders.

The MoUs were signed by Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General, ICMR, New Delhi and Dr C K Katiyar, CEO, Emami Healthcare, Kolkata.

ICMR will mainly support and manage the pre-clinical, toxicological and clinical development phase of the product development programmes, whereas the industry will look after and undertake the chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) part of the product development phase.

Emami Healthcare is expected to manufacture the herbal drugs within a period of 18 months. The company will take care of all CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control) including pre-clinical toxicology, and later on ICMR will sponsor the clinical trials at AIIMS to prove the safe parameters and effectiveness of the drugs.
The International News Media Association (Inma), a global community of market-leading news media companies, has selected the new board members and officers for 2017/18.

Sandy Naude, CEO of African community media, Independent Media  Inma website

Eduardo Garces, general manager of Colombias El Espectador, was elected president of Inma, marking the first Spanish Latin American to hold the two-year post in the associations 87-year history.

Damian Eales, chief operating officer of News Corp Australia, was elected Inma vice-president. Pursuant to association by-laws, Eales is scheduled to serve as Inma president in 2019-2021.

Having served as Inma president the past two years, Mark Challinor, commercial director for Trinity Mirror in the UK, will serve as immediate past president.

Board members

Board members elected to new terms at the Inma Annual Business Meeting are:

Pit Gottschalk, editor-in-chief, Funke Media, Germany

Sandy MacLeod, chief operating officer/print, Toronto Star, Canada

Frank Mahlberg, MD, Bild/BZ Axel Springer, Germany

Murdoch MacLennan, CEO, Telegraph Media Group, UK (affirmed by members after an appointment in late 2016)

Sandy Naude, CEO of African community media, Independent Media, South Africa

Maribel Wadsworth Perez, senior VP and chief transformation officer, Gannett US

Pam Siddall, president, Advance Central Services, US

During the annual business meeting, held in conjunction with the 87th Annual Inma World Congress of News Media in New York, retiring board members, cited for their contributions to Inma included, Laura Evans of the New York Times, Jim Moroney of The Dallas Morning News, and Harold Gronke of Nordwest Zeitung. Yasmin Namini, formerly of the New York Times, steps down as immediate past president after 14 years of service on the Inma board of directors.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general, WHO

What is the significance of this appointment?

This is the first time the entire 194-strong WHO assembly voted for the position. Votes were cast by secret ballot. Previously the organisations executive board selected the DG. The massive margin for Tedros  133 votes vs 50 for the UK candidate David Nabarro  suggests that the entire Global South voted for him. The size of the landslide had not been expected.

The vote almost certainly represents a vote against big power domination and machinations in the WHO which often appears to ignore the main challenges and aspirations of low and middle income countries.

What does he bring to the table?

As Ethiopias former minister of health, Ghebreyesus spearheaded major reforms to the country's health system. This included a massive expansion of primary healthcare infrastructure and a dramatic increase in health human resources at all levels. He oversaw a rapid increase in the training of doctors, shifted the responsibility for key interventions such as Caesarean sections to mid-level workers, and the introduction of community-level workers (Health Extension Agents).

All contributed to impressive improvements in health outcomes  especially in child health.

This track record is certainly behind his election. But hell have his work cut out for him. The WHO is experiencing its greatest crisis since its founding in 1948. Its biggest challenges are finance-related.

The organisation is facing a financial crisis with a $456m deficit this year. This is bound to mean that there will have to be a major cuts to some programmes. Some might even have to be closed. Retrenchments are also on the cards.

For the past few decades the organisation has increasingly relied on donor funds because member states  particularly richer ones  have been reducing their contributions. A full 80% of the organisations funding is now from sources other than member states. Donors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are making major contributions.

This means that the priorities of donors tend to dominate, thus making it difficult for the WHO to carry out the policies identified by its member states. In addition, intergovernmental bodies such as the World Bank have weakened the WHOs role.

And some key programmes have had their budgets significantly reduced. One example is the programme to control non-communicable diseases. They are now the top cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and in low and middle-income countries.

Some vital programmes central to the WHOs mandate remain underfunded. Sometimes this is due to the fact that they conflict with the interests of rich countries and big donors, particularly those with links to industry. For example, governments have consistently opposed putting in place food regulations to address the rise in consumption of unhealthy food. This is presumably because they would affect big corporations that are prominent investors in those countries.

The result has been that the WHOs leadership role in global health has been undermined.

Another big challenge is strengthening health systems. The Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014 showed up weaknesses in the WHO as well as in the health systems of low and middle income countries.

Finally, health systems, particularly in Africa and Asia, face drastic resource shortages. Huge investments are required in human resources, the most expensive and important component. Africa in particular has an extreme shortage of health workers. Their numbers are further threatened by inadequate training programmes and external migration (brain drain) to rich countries. A WHO Voluntary Code of Practice on International Recruitment of Health Personnel has failed to impact positively on such losses. The clear challenge remains for health human resource shortages to be urgently and effectively addressed.

What does he need to do to deal with these challenges?

Ghebreyesus needs to use his strong mandate  notably from the Global South  to truly reform the WHO and its operations in favour of the worlds poor majority.

To do this, he needs to push strongly for member states to honour their commitments to the WHO and to rapidly and significantly increase their financial contributions.

He also needs to ensure that the influence of the food, beverage, alcohol and tobacco industries to control non communicable diseases is resisted. This will be difficult given that a framework has been passed that allows non-state actors to participate in WHO policy-making processes.

On top of this Ghebreyesus must ensure that the health systems of low and middle income countries are strengthened so that health emergencies such as infectious disease outbreaks can be contained.

The current investments in building surveillance capacity for infectious diseases are welcomed. But these efforts will remain inadequate without sustained investment in health systems.

This will ensure that agenda for health security isnt focused on securing the health of rich country populations against contagion from the poor but on protecting all, particularly the most vulnerable.

What will be interesting to watch over the next five years is whether the evident solidarity between low and middle income counties in voting in Ghebreyesus as their candidate is maintained during the debates and decisions about world health. Until now, rich countries have been dominant in WHO meetings.
Questions remain about how universal healthcare coverage (UHC) should be funded in countries with limited resources, especially where issues such as the escalating burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), infrastructure challenges and the dire shortage of healthcare providers persist.

The main objectives of UHC is to provide affordable, equitable access to quality healthcare to all people, reducing out-of-pocket spending and providing financial protection against catastrophic healthcare costs in a sustainable way.

Achieving UHC is not just about government support, having risk pooling and mandatory contributions. Without the necessary infrastructure and enough healthcare providers to provide the required services, people will be reluctant to contribute towards national healthcare insurance funds because they want appropriate and improved quality services and treatments for their contributions, explains Dr Stuart Bennet, director, healthcare: head of operations, Africa of the Abraaj Groups Growth Markets Health Fund.

Shifting resources to prevention

Noting that 10 times more people die of NCDs in low- to middle-income countries per year than from HIV, malaria and TB, Dr Bennett stresses that a mindshift is needed to divert more money and resources towards prevention to reduce the massive burden treatment of these diseases are putting on health spending.

Owing to the extreme paucity of awareness of NCDs in low- and middle income countries, people are not realising that 80% of the deaths caused by these diseases globally each year, occur in developing countries, says Bennett. In most of these countries, patients have to pay out of pocket for treatment of these conditions with dire financial consequences to them and their families. In Kenya alone, it is estimated that up to a million people are pushed below the poverty line as a result of catastrophic health conditions.

Convincing governments to invest in preventative care rather than spending massive amounts of money on treating preventable conditions, could result in significant savings, making more money available to improve the quality and delivery of services to more people while also extending coverage by making contributions to health insurance funds more affordable.to more people, Bennett says.

GDP spend on healthcare

But ensuring sufficient funding will require governments to increase the proportion of GDP spent on healthcare. Currently, the proportion of GDP spent on healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa averages less than 5%, which will probably need to be doubled to extend and improve the delivery of services.

Referring to the role the private sector can play, he emphasises the huge opportunities it offers in terms of building and upgrading infrastructure, as well as providing training and education to both healthcare providers and patients. In Kenya, for example, where Abraaj has invested millions of dollars in healthcare over the past five years including hospitals and clinics, it has also introduced an NCD training and screening programme aimed at screening at least 100,000 people by the end of the year. This screening service is provided to patients free of cost, and includes collaboration with the Kenyan ministry of health to raise awareness and build capacity to identify and treat NCDs in government facilities as well as in the community.

While financing mechanisms are important to realise the objectives of universal healthcare coverage, the focus should not be only on putting money in that pot, but also on reducing the size of the pot required to treat patients through interventions aimed at improving health rather than spending exorbitant amounts of money on treating preventable diseases, Dr Bennett says.

Bennet will be speaking at the Hospital Build conference, which will form part of the 7th annual Africa Health Exhibition & Congress 2017 taking place from 7-9 June 2017 at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
With the growing consumer trend of using more than one screen while watching television, Vizeum has brought TV sync technology to South Africa. The new product, which is a local market first, allows brands to synchronise adverts across television, mobile and tablet screens.

This technology was used to build brand awareness of the new BMW 5 Series. The Vizeum team used three different creative ads (banners, video, rich media) synchronised with various TV spots contained in their above-the-line TV schedule.

The business challenge given was to launch the new BMW 5 Series to the market, to achieve awareness of the model and as a result of activity - sales of the new model in the SA market.

The key insight and strategy created by Vizeum was that the BMW 5 Series target audience is time starved, which meant that any media booked needed to take this into account and make it as easy as possible to consume.

This work displays innovation within digital to achieve business results. Digitally synching ads with the TV spots that were run allowed Vizeum to meet BMW's innovation brand ideal, which is core to their business approach.

The innovation was a market-first example of TV syncing, by combining TV spots their digital advertising to the same target audience through TV sync, Vizeum was able to improve performance as a result of the extra layer of brand association gained from seeing an ad on TV, and your mobile phone at the same time. The ads (rich media, video, banners) were scheduled to fire to the target audience during the same time that our TV spots were flighting for the campaign, giving a through the line brand experience not seen before in South Africa.

Kelvin Storie, group managing director for Vizeum SA, stated, In our quest to be digital first and drive innovation for our clients, I am very proud of this piece of work which takes the continuous topic of multi-screening and makes it a reality. The market is continuously evolving and we need to have a major step-change in how we plan audio visual content. A great collaborative effort between the Vizeum team and Y Digital.

The world is evolving rapidly and changing consumer behaviour. At BMW, we are focussed on being as relevant to consumers as possible and this means staying on top of digital as well as technology trends that make it convenient and seamless for consumers to interact with the brand, said Alexander Baraka, general manager for BMW Brand Management & BMW Group Marketing Services South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ricky Hendricks, head of digital for Vizeum South Africa, said, As a media agency with digital at the core of all our strategy and recommendations, synching TV with our digital advertising for the BMW 5 Series launch provided us with the opportunity to showcase this thinking in a way that addressed an important business problem for the brand. Innovation is key for both BMW and Vizeum and when were able to innovate based on data insights in a way that solves business problems, this puts us at the forefront of what is happening within digital marketing.




Founded some five years ago by designer Sarah Massy-Hicks, the company started moving up the scale from its beginnings with the arrival of Margi Sheard, a well-known figure in the creative industries.

From our first steps, we had a core premise that we could combine great fashion and empowerment in a uniquely African product, says Sheard. We have fans and developing markets across the continent, who love our Shweshwe fabrics and fashion-forward designs.

Myang started producing mainly tiny shoes but has developed the range to include accessories, toys and the like. A new clothing range will be launched for summer 2017.

There are devotees of the brand in several African countries including Uganda, where we are exploring using some of their local fabric designs in our products. The company has resisted the temptation to manufacture in the East to cut costs. It has eight full-time women in their design and manufacturing studio.

We soon realised, however, that part of the challenge for our women is that they have young families that need them at home, so we provide training, mentoring and material that enable additional dozens of women to earn a living - without compromising their duties as a mother and often a breadwinner.

European and American clients are supportive of our ethically-sourced products and find the designs appealing. Our main challenges are logistics and the cost of delivery but we are making headway, concludes Sheard.

The company now says it's interested in hearing from African countries about distribution opportunities, as well as textile designers whose products suit the gorgeous fashion products.
Two years into its launch, Operation Phakisa Oceans Economy is making inroads and growing the aquaculture sector. To date, 450 direct jobs have been created and 2,000 additional tons of fish have been produced. This is a 35% increase for the sector, while a contribution of R500 million has been made to the country's GDP.

Stefanos Kyriazis via 123RF

This was announced by Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana on Wednesday during his Budget Vote speech in the National Assembly.

The Oceans Economy is one of the three streams of Operation Phakisa and takes the country closer to unlocking the potential of South Africa's oceans, which has the potential to contribute up to R177 billion to the gross domestic product (GDP) and create over one million new jobs by 2033. The focus in the oceans economy has meant a new wave in aquaculture, making it one of the fastest growing food production sectors.

Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish.

"The sector presents a good opportunity to diversify fish production to satisfy local demand (import substitution), food security, export opportunities, create jobs and contribute towards GDP," the Minister said.

Opportunity to bring in new entrants

The Minister said the new growth in aquaculture presents an enormous opportunity to bring new entrants in the sector as it grows and expands. It also presents an opportunity to bring in the youth, women and historically disadvantaged people into the sector.

"The sector can accommodate new entrants because of the nature of activities that are diverse from small scale to commercial, as well as different technology, methodologies, and species."

Managing drought risks

Meanwhile, Minister Zokwana said his department has put in place disaster risk mitigation measures to avert drought risks and to ensure that they are better dealt with when they occur. "The drought conditions in 2015 and 2016 had a devastating impact on agriculture production throughout the country. These drought conditions, dare I say, appear to linger in the Western Cape as we gather today."

The department will cooperate and lend support to the Western Cape, as it deals with the drought, the Minister assured.

During this financial year, the department will also develop a Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) strategic framework, which will contribute to the regulation, promotion, coordination and implementation of an effective CSA programme. Furthermore, in this financial year, government will finalise the Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation Plan.
Recent research from London Business School has shown that encouraging people to bottle up their emotions, whether good or bad, can hinder them and their organisation.

Conducted by Michael Parke, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and Myeong-Gu Seo, Associate Professor of Management and Organisation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the paper points out that workers, who feel comfortable and safe about expressing their true feelings, tend to be more productive, innovative and creative.

What emotions and experiences are allowed, encouraged and supported and how does this impact an organisations strategic priorities such as innovation? Dr Parke asks. When people are invested in their jobs, they can get upset or frustrated with things but they should be able to share those emotions so it doesnt stymie their work or creativity.

The study also proposes that leaders are one of the main driving forces when it comes to establishing such a climate. The researchers came up with four positive traits found in organisations where people are encouraged to be open and honest about their emotions:

Relationship performance  establishing strong ties with colleagues



Productivity  the amount of work a team accomplishes when given a certain level of resources



Creativity  the number of new and helpful ideas a team generates



Reliability  the ability to avoid making mistakes or errors, particularly in high-pressure situations

As the researchers point out, from early on in our careers, people are often taught to put emotions to one side when dealing with colleagues. Feelings of frustration, disappointment or even anger are discouraged by leaders who want a harmonious workplace with no disruptions, says Dr Parke.

Ultimately this creates higher levels of conflict and stifles creativity and any authentic climate that leads to better team work, staff retention and customer satisfaction. Organisations are made up of individuals with different skills sets, talents, life experiences, prejudices and personalities. All of these constitutes the basis of inter-personal and group dynamics and provide many opportunities for misunderstanding, miscommunication, contentious disagreement and conflict.

Becoming a driving force

The research suggests managers start by assessing the type of emotion climate in the organisation  through surveys, observing peoples emotional responses and asking people.

The challenge is that traditional ways of addressing these issues are often ineffective. Some managers do not like dealing with emotionally charged conflicts. Often conflicts are solved in an autocratic way; the symptoms of the matter are dealt with but the underlying causes not, so resentment or underlying issues remain; the process for dealing with conflict or issue in organisations is not clear. People just leave their positions or they escalate the matters to the legal system because they do not believe that it will be resolved and don't want to expend energy on trying.

What we need is a new approach and tools for alternative ways to engage staff, ensuring employees feel genuinely enthusiastic and excited to be at work, and new ways to resolve conflict that lead to solutions that are more creative and sustained positive relationships.

In a tough economic climate with uncertainty such as in South Africa, managers tend to default on focussing on functions such as scrutinising budgets, operations and projects. South Africa now seems to epitomise the leadership-training acronym VUCA  Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

There appear to be many challenges lying ahead, especially as we look for find ways to navigate the economic and political landscapes as they unfold before us. It is easy to feel despondent, overwhelmed and negative about where we find ourselves. When uncertainty and risk seems to be everywhere, we tend to retreat to what we know.

However, as the research points out, the untapped potential within the organisational culture and positive outcomes from authentic emotional experiences could be where our resilience and success rests.

There will be a Creative HR workshop on 8 June 2017; for more information, email az.gro.idcc@ecir.nommad
WASHINGTON, USA: Thirteen years after dropping out of Harvard University to work on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday finally got his degree - well, sort of.

Zuckerberg returned to the university where he launched what would become the world's biggest social network, and basked in the spotlight by receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree and addressing the 2017 commencement.

His speech capped a nostalgic visit for the 33-year-old billionaire, which included a visit to his old dorm room.

"Mom, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree," read the caption of a picture he posted of him posing with his honorary diploma and his parents.

Facebook - now one of the biggest tech firms, with nearly two billion members worldwide - grew out of a website he created on campus. He left Harvard in May 2004, according to his Facebook profile.

In his address, which he said he'd been working on "for a long time," Zuckerberg urged graduates of his alma mater to "build great things."

He highlighted themes of equality, inclusiveness and opportunity, while urging students to be unafraid to take chances.

"I'm here to tell you that finding your purpose isn't enough," he told the rain-soaked crowd in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"Our challenge is to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose."

Zuckerberg said he is from the same generation as the new graduates, and that the so-called Millennials will be facing a challenge of inequality, disillusionment and a loss of jobs to automation.

"It's our generation's turn to build great things," he said.

"Let's do big things ... not just to create progress but to create purpose."

Zuckerberg said opportunity is hindered by "a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone" and that this is one of the social problems that need to be addressed.

"Right now our society is way overindexed on rewarding people who are successful," he said.

"There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of students can't even afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business."

Zuckerberg said this generation needs to find creative solutions to social problems.

"We should explore ideas like universal basic income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas," he said.

"Now it's time for our generation to define a new social contract. We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful."

Source: AFP
RwandAir will today, 26 May 2017, take off for the first direct commercial flight to Gatwick International Airport in London.

The first European destination of the airline will be serviced by a brand new Airbus A330 aircraft that boasts in-flight connectivity.

The addition of Gatwick, London takes the airline to 22 destinations served currently. The airline will fly to the English capital three times a week.

This direct flight, according to aviation experts, is an important milestone towards improving trade relations between Rwanda, the region, and Europe. It also makes the route more competitive and more efficient which will ultimately benefit passengers.

Opportunity for exporters

Rwandan exporters say they are excited and looking forward to taking full advantage of the opportunity.

"We anticipate increased volumes in terms of exports to the European market through the UK," said Epimaque Nsanzabaganwa, the horticulture division manager at the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB).

RwandAir has already offered to cut freight charges for exporters to as low as $0.95 per kilogramme.

Donatille Nibagwire, the managing director of FLORIS Export Company, said the new developments are very likely to change the dynamics of the country's export business.

Boosting tourism

Meanwhile, experts say the flights will boost tourism between the UK and Rwanda. And, according to Osborn Kinene, the Rwanda Eco-Tours country manager, the flights will lead to increased number of tourists visiting the two countries.

"Rwanda is counting on tourism to boost its exports, therefore creating a seamless connectivity between Rwanda and other markets means people can now find it easier to travel between destinations," he told The New Times.

Connecting Kigali to markets in Asia, Europe and later America, means an increase in volumes of trade as well as enhanced tourism which will drive economic development and sustainability, Kinene added.

In addition, Rwanda has recently become one of the countries that offer tourists a 'Big 5' experience, having reintroduced both lions and eastern black rhinoceros into Akagera National Park.

Last month, the airline launched direct flights to Mumbai, India's financial capital.

More flights in the offing

Meanwhile, RwandAir is scheduled to launch flights to New York as well as other Asian destinations.

On the African front, the airline plans to fly to Conakry in Guinea, Bamako in Mali, as well as Dakar, Senegal, Lilongwe in Malawi, and Durban in South Africa.

Last year, the airline acquired its first A330-200 and A330-300 Airbus planes, boosting its fleet to 11 aircraft and capacity to compete globally.

It is also scheduled to take delivery of another brand new Boeing before the end of the month.

Patrick Gakuru, a Kigali-based aviation expert, says: "The growth of aviation business in Rwanda is a reflection of the general economic performance which has showed resilience under the good leadership of President Kagame."
#AfricaMonth: Creating our own entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa

When Abiot Mahlatse Ledwaba was nine years old, he moved from Limpopo to Johannesburg in search of a better life and today he owns his own PR agency. He is the biggest distributor of the MoFaya energy drink in the Limpopo province and is an inspiration for many young people, presenting regular motivational talks. Abiot talks to me about the importance of the 'hustle', finding yourself and how to stay magnificent, whilst still improving...

Tell us about yourself and your journey from being a young boy in Limpopo to starting your own PR company, Magnificent Communications. Tell us about yourself and your journey from being a young boy in Limpopo to starting your own PR company, Magnificent Communications. Abiot Mahlatse Ledwaba's Twitter page I came to the City of Gold when I was nine years old. My father had to move back to Limpopo and left my sister and I behind to get a better education and possibly live a better life. I couldnt speak a word of English and thus resorted to bullying others but when I started learning how to speak the language I got comfortable which contributed to me repeating the fourth grade. I was only nine years old when this happened but it changed my perspective on life and I vowed to never get comfortable but to always strive to improve hence when you ask me how I am, I will say I am magnificent but still improving.

In grade 9, I began to understand my leadership qualities when I got appointed as a member of the Representative Council of Learners at Midrand High School but this was for rebellious reasons; to help my friends get away with breaking school rules. Joining the RCL was a blessing in disguise as this was my way of finding my purpose. My presence did not go unnoticed because in grade 11 I was appointed public relations officer for the schools senior council. I started managing artists, doing events at school and hosted a few of my own events. Thereafter I went to Varsity College in Waterfall Midrand to study PR. I applied to be a part of their marketing team. I was appointed and for two years organised every event that was hosted on the campus.

Like most people in varsity, I wanted to get a good paying job when I completed my studies to gain experience. But when I got rejected after applying for numerous positions, I decided to start my own agency. I based my agency on building African brands. My goal is to create and build African entrepreneurs and that is exactly what I am doing with Skinny Sbu Socks, Tshepo The Jean Maker and Creative Mind Space. These people were people I looked up to during my high school and varsity years but today I am helping these brands escalate to greater heights. I do social media for Creative Mind Space, Tshepo The Jean Maker, Skinny Sbu Socks, Massiv Metro and Mofaya.

You are extensively involved in the distribution of the Mofaya energy drink in Limpopo. How did this come about? You are extensively involved in the distribution of the Mofaya energy drink in Limpopo. How did this come about?

I met DJ Sbu in matric and he was hosting a seminar but I did not have money to attend the event. I tweeted DJ Sbu telling him that I wanted to attend the event and Sbus response was, Hustle it, which is exactly what I did. I sold oranges at school to try and raise the money but it was not enough. I then decided to contact the sponsors of the seminar and sent them my story about where I was from, what I was about and my attempts to raise enough money to attend the event. The first sponsor replied and said they would handle half the amount of the ticket and just as I was about to respond saying that I did not even have the rest of ticket fee, another sponsor responded, by the grace of God, and I was told to just give my name at the entrance and I would be let in. My friend, Sizwe Mbiza gave his last R50 so that I could get to the venue.

At the event, innocently dressed in my school uniform and my broken spectacles, I stood up during the Q&A and told Sbu that I was the guy he told to go and hustle the money to get to the event. I then went on to share my story. Sbu gave me his business card and since then I have been working at his events, working for his foundation, attending events/seminars hosted by Leadership2020. I also familiarised myself with people that work with Sbu and that opened up doors for me.

I got an internship at Massiv Metro, an online radio station founded by DJ Sbu, which enabled me to start distributing Mofaya out of my own pocket until I built trust with the brand and now I am the biggest distributor of Mofaya in Limpopo and possibly quickly becoming the biggest in Southern Africa, even internationally. Sbu is my mentor but hard work and determination scored me all these gigs.

Tell us more about your company? Any big brands in the pipeline that you can share with us? Tell us more about your company? Any big brands in the pipeline that you can share with us?

For now, we can only mention Skinny Sbu Socks, Tshepo The Jean Maker, Creative Mind Space and Mofaya as brands working with Magnificent Communications.

You host regular talks called, 'A Conversation with AML' in which you speak to young people, empowering them. Please tell us more. Where can youngsters go to listen to your talks? You host regular talks called, 'A Conversation with AML' in which you speak to young people, empowering them. Please tell us more. Where can youngsters go to listen to your talks?

For now, these events are all held in Naboomspruit but anyone who is interested, can follow me on social media. I post and tweet on a daily basis about my life and thoughts which I hope inspire and motivate others. I also share podcasts, whenever I can, on SoundCloud and aim to inspire on all platforms.

What drives and empowers you? What drives and empowers you?

I am driven by three things; myself, family, and my hometown. Myself in that I never doubt or limit whatever I set out to do or put my mind to. I never play it safe or take no for an answer. I believe I will build the first skyscraper in Naboomspruit and thats exactly what will happen. My dream not only scares me but also those that are around me. Whenever I meet people, I always ask them how they will make me a million. I believe in myself and whatever dreams I have. Family drives and empowers me because everything I do is a step toward keeping them happy. Sometimes we may have clashes and it may not make sense at the time but in the end, all I do is for them. I wish to see my whole family retire all because of what I started. I wish they find hope and see that all is possible. My hometown because, like said previously, in order for Naboomspruits potential to be recognised, I need to became something magnificent.

Any exciting and important projects in the works? Any exciting and important projects in the works?

There are magnificent plans in the pipeline for Mofaya, which I can unfortunately not share with you at this moment. But I can share that we will be doing events with TheHookUp Dinner, Creative Mind Space, Skinny Sbu Socks and Tshepo the Jean Maker. We also have exciting things coming up like campaigns with big brands and well-known brands that we will be partnering with.

Where do you see yourself and Magnificent Communications in ten years' time? Where do you see yourself and Magnificent Communications in ten years' time?

Still doing what I am doing but on a bigger scale. I dont want to get comfortable. International brands better watch me.

What do you think are some of the challenges facing young entrepreneurs living in Africa? What do you think are some of the challenges facing young entrepreneurs living in Africa?

Family! Family! Family! Thats a challenge on its own. Trying to sell them a vision, but they will always try to play it safe. Its sad what families do to young people with big dreams. We get more support from outsiders than we do from our own families.

What opportunities do you think Africa can offer in terms of job creation for young people and young entrepreneurs striving to make it big? What opportunities do you think Africa can offer in terms of job creation for young people and young entrepreneurs striving to make it big?

Africa doesnt offer you opportunities. That kind of mentality leads to people feeling entitled to a lot of stuff. We create those opportunities for ourselves. We are about to start distributing in Botswana because of our trip to Zambia then to Zimbabwe. I had a Mofaya can with me and people took me to Botswana to go and sell Mofaya. Go out there and get it! Stop feeling entitled. You say you want a ML or a G-Class but you dont look the part, you dont wake up early to work. Youre watching too much TV. You are wasting time just speaking about your dream. You also need to act on it.

For more information on Abiot's motivational talks, keep an eye on his social media pages: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
The WTM portfolio is set to smash last year's achievement of $7bn worldwide industry deals after posting impressive visitor increases at its recent 2017 events - WTM Latin America, WTM Africa and Arabian Travel Market.

All three events, which took place this spring, have recorded increases in numbers of exhibitors, visitors and meetings, while early indications are that 2017 is set to be a record-breaking event for business for WTM portfolios flagship exhibition, WTM London, in November.

Now in its fourth year, WTM Africa 2017  held in Cape Town from 19-21 April  recorded a 17% increase in travel professionals and media, and a 9% increase in registered travel agents, with 21 different African countries represented. The total number of countries represented grew to 38, up 5.2%. Overall, there were 650 exhibitors. Over the three days of the event, WTM Africa 2017 facilitated 8,900 appointments. Representatives from Zambia, Ethiopia and Namibia were among 140 first-time hosted buyers from key and emerging source markets.

This years Arabian Travel Market recorded a 7% increase in international visitors and a 10% increase in visitors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to the event, which took place in Dubai from 24-27 April. For the second year in succession, visitor numbers smashed through the 28,000 mark, with 466 main stand holders representing 87 countries and more than 100 new exhibitors making their debut. The number of countries represented at ATM 2017, taken from all attendees, totalled 157. Furthermore, exhibition stand contracts signed during ATM 2017 for next year are up 38% year-on-year, with exhibitors keen to reserve their space for what promises to be a record-breaking event in 2018 as ATM celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Latin Americas premier travel event, WTM Latin America, which took place in Sao Paulo from 3-5 April 2017, saw visitor participation up 20%, with representation from 50 countries, spread out among more than 600 exhibitors, with the show itself occupying a net area that was 20% greater than last year. More than 12,000 speed networking meetings took place and there was a 7% increase in the number of buyers participating over the first two days.

Meanwhile, WTM connect Asia  which took place in Pengang, Malaysia, 17-19 May - saw 52 buyers hold business meetings with 48 buyers.

Reed Travel Exhibitions Director Nick Pilbeam said: The impressive growth at our three recently held events, WTM Latin America, WTM Africa and Arabian Travel Market, just goes to show the strength of the travel and tourism industry across the world. Its our aim to bring the global travel and tourism industry together and to facilitate business to help the industry grow. The success of initiatives such as our Buyers Clubs, speed networking, dedicated lounges and our events programmes that focus on the key industry issues, makes the WTM portfolio shows must-attend events for everyone who wants to do business in the travel and tourism industry.

WTM London is expected to generate even more business in 2017 following its most successful year ever, with business opportunities that generated 2.8 billion in industry deals last November. WTM London 2016 was attended by a record 51,500 participants  the highest number of exhibitor invitees and buyers in the events 37-year history. WTM London takes place at ExCeL, London, from 6-8 November 2017.

For more information or any media-related questions relating to WTM Africa, please contact RedLip PR:

Robyn Elford

az.oc.pilder@nybor

+27 83 460 5751

Casey van Niekerk

az.oc.pilder@yesac

+27 82 214 7582




We are a full-service Market Research Agency and now part of SA's leading Management Consulting firm IQbusiness. We use technology and a deep understanding of human motivations to uncover powerful insights to help our customers to grow.
According to the report, commissioned by Ricoh Europe, seven in ten consumers say the best brands are those that treat them as individuals. Furthermore, more than half (57%) said they would spend more with brands that make them feel valued as a customer.

An interesting finding is that consumers believe brands care most about them before a purchase (50%), yet they want brands to focus on them more during and after a purchase. Almost six in ten believe brands are only out to make money and do not care about customer service levels.

Ricoh Europe uses an in-house rating system called Triple R to allow consumers to rank how brands build good relationships. Triple R refers to the three stages of the purchase  Reach (before), Respond (during), and Retail (after).

Consumers see Triple R brands as being at the top of their game when it comes to providing a fast and tailored service, David Mills, CEO, Ricoh Europe.This makes the need for optimized internal processes and the right technology essential to giving customers what they want.

The brands currently ranked as excellent across all three Rs within Europe are PayPal, Yamaha Motors and Amazon.com.
As non-signatories to the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), the UNFC members were initially invited to the second round of the governments 21st-Century Panglong Conference with observer status, meaning they could watch over the event, but not fully engage in the dialogues or present papers. Despite a last-ditch effort by the government to entice the seven members to attend as special guests, the groups decided at an emergency meeting in Chiang Mai to boycott the event.

Khu Oo Reh said the UNFC members were still in the middle of negotiating a deed of commitment, a sort of intermediary before signing the NCA, when the Panglong conference approached.

The UNFC had already stated that it wouldnt attend the conference if we were not allowed to be involved in discussion and make decisions on equal terms. We were invited to the conference as special guests or observers. So, the KNPP has decided to stand by the UNFC [in choosing not to attend], he said.

He added that the second Panglong event, a delayed follow-up to the conference last August, focuses on proposals from ethnic groups collected during the national-level political dialogues. The KNPP wasnt allowed to hold a national-level political dialogue in the Karenni (Kayah) State since it hasnt signed the NCA.

We would only be filling up the seats as witnesses for the submission of papers by other ethnic groups, Khu Oo Reh said.

Among the eight NCA-signatory groups, only the Karen National Union, the Chin National Front and the PaO National Organization have been able to hold the national-level political dialogues. The Restoration Council of Shan State and the Arakan Liberation Party havent yet been able to hold the dialogues due to venue troubles, and lack of Union government permission, respectively.

In a statement released following the emergency Chiang Mai meeting, the UNFC said that although its members would not attend the Panglong meeting, they continue to support political dialogue in the name of building a federal democratic Union.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited by Laignee Barron
On November 8, the coup council said that it would deactivate mobile SIM cards that did not match the information provided by the Ministry of...
PR Newswire

HOOD RIVER, Ore., May 26, 2017

HOOD RIVER, Ore., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A team of government and non-government entities have teamed up to launch helpful travel tips for visitors to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area as part of their ongoing "Ready, Set, GOrge!" campaign to improve visitor planning, safety and sustainability.

Through local businesses, visitor centers and more, the group will distribute 50,000 brochures and have launched a new website, ReadySetGorge.com, that provides tips for visitors on how to plan, prepare and safely enjoy their time in the Gorge, while practicing leave-no-trace principles. Combined with a social media campaign and frontline staff training in the Columbia Gorge region, the campaign will provide local businesses with tools for assisting travelers, and participating organizations will receive web badges.

"The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area is a national treasure, and we want visitors who come here to take 'Ready, Set, GOrge!' to heart," said Stan Hinatsu, recreation staff officer for the U.S. Forest Service. "With 3-4 million people visiting the Columbia Gorge every year, we want people to understand that a bit of good planning and preparation can go a long way toward improving their experience and protecting the Gorge for future visitors."

The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area was established in 1986 to protect 292,500 acres of trails, forest, waterfalls, parks and historical sites within the spectacular river canyon. Unlike other national scenic areas, the Columbia Gorge is home to 13 communities, all of which have unique shops, eateries and local attractions that make them well worth visiting.

Ready, Set, GOrge! recommends that planning, preparing and taking these key steps can help visitors avoid congestion on the trails, and have a safe and enjoyable trip:

Get Ready

Get Set

GOrge!

"We want to sustain the Columbia Gorge for centuries to come," said Kevin Gorman, executive director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge, which maintains a comprehensive website with information about hiking trails and their various degrees of difficulty at gorgefriends.org. "To do so, we all need to be respectful, courteous, pick up litter and take care of our natural areas and local communities. The Gorge give us all so much, let's always leave it better."

Travel Oregon's Kristin Dahl noted, "We want 'Ready, Set, GOrge!' to be the first thing people say as they advise visitors to the Columbia River Gorge, or to prepare for their own hike or water expedition. Visit ReadySetGorge.com and make sure you've taken the steps necessary to have a safe and fun visit."

Gorge Transit Options

The Columbia Gorge Express, launched in 2016 to ease congestion in the Gorge Waterfall Corridor, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) will return this year in mid-June and run through September 24, operating Friday through Sunday (and federal holidays). For $5 per roundtrip, it offers a convenient, reliable and fun way to get from Portland to Multnomah Falls with stops at Rooster Rock State Park.

More information on Gorge transit options can be found at gorgetranslink.com and gorgefriends.org/hikebybus.

We Speak The Gorge Trainings Held

In May, Columbia Gorge Tourism Alliance held a series of "We Speak The Gorge" frontline customer service trainings to teach retail, hospitality and restaurant staffs in Washington and Oregon about "Ready, Set, GOrge!" travel tips, which encourage visitors to explore less-visited places. Funded with a $5,000 grant from Travel Oregon's Rural Tourism Studio Matching Grant Program and the Hood River Area Chamber of Commerce, the program is sponsored by Skamania County, Hood River County, Mt. Adams, The Dalles area and West Columbia Gorge Chambers of Commerce.

The east end of the Gorge tends to receive fewer visitors than the west end of the Gorge. "The eastern end of the Gorge contains a wealth of unique visitor attractions, from outstanding museums to unique historical sites, all within a beautiful natural landscape that is strikingly different from the western end of the Gorge. We're excited to have more people discover all that the area has to offer," said Lisa Farquharson, CEO of The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce.

About Ready, Set, GOrge!: Begun in 2016, Ready, Set, GOrge! is the product of a collaboration between Travel Oregon, Friends of the Columbia Gorge and the United State Forest Service and other land management agencies and nonprofits. The program offers tips to "Make it Fun. Make it Safe," advising visitors to avoid crowds by going east, early or midweek; to plan ahead to have a safe and fun experience; and to take steps to help protect the Gorge, so future visitors can enjoy it, too. ReadySetGorge.com.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ready-set-gorge-campaign-to-promote-safe-fun-sustainable-travel-to-the-columbia-river-gorge-national-scenic-area-300464857.html

SOURCE Travel Oregon
*We continue to lack genitals in this country. There is a lack of genitals, there is a lack of citizenship. We need to recover the streets, dignity, and I think thats up to journalists. We need to leave behind the kind of journalism that counts deaths, the execution-meter, and [instead] tell stories of life in the midst of death, stories of stoicism, of struggle."

"

Many of us can die, and many have died, who were not in the business (of drug trafficking) [they] were not collateral victims, nor numbers, they were people."

" We can think that its only the messengers of the cartels that give the execution order. But no. Its not just the cartels that kill journalists.

Politicians also do their extermination homework. Police. Colluding agents.





State prosecutors. Government officials. Soldiers.





They kill them for the sin of denouncing their mismanagement.





They are killed for having made the grave mistake of living in Mexico, and being journalists.





In his column, Malayerba, (Badweed) for RIODOCE, he once wrote the following lines under the title They are going to kill you:





"But he had a bulletproof vest on. The moon in his gaze resembled a lantern that lit up even during the day. The pen and notebook were routes of escape, therapy, crucifixion and exorcism. He wrote and wrote on the blank sheet and on the screen, and foam came out from his fingers, his mouth, touching everything. Weeping and rage and pain and sadness and anger and dismay and fury in those texts in which he spoke of the governor stepping on shit, of the mayor of bills overflowing, of the representative who smiled and looked like a cash register receiving wads of cash and making a chi-ching sound with every millionaire's deposit."





Valdez, like other Mexican journalists reporting on the sensitive nexus between organized crime and government in Mexico, was well aware of the dangers he faced.





In March, when a gunman killed Miroslava Breach, a journalist in the northern state of Chihuahua, Valdez sent out a defiant message on Twitter.





Let them kill us all, if that is the death penalty for reporting this hell, Valdez wrote in response to the slaying of Breach, who was also regional correspondent for La Jornada. No to silence.





"Drug trafficking there is a way of life," Valdez said in an October interview with Rompeviento TV. "You have to assume the task that falls to you as a journalist  either that or you play dumb. I don't want to be asked, 'What were you doing in the face of so much death ... why didn't you say what was going on?'"

Valdez refused to be silenced when it came to reporting on violence and corruption, joining other Mexican reporters determined to investigate and publish on the subject despite the dangers. "He said he had to talk and write about it because if nobody does it will be worse," said Turati. "He felt it was his duty."

Javier's style of reporting specialized in chronicling the human toll, not just the numbers and statistics of the violence in Mexico. A story from 2014 published in La Jornada, he described the pain of realizing that your child has been kidnapped:

Raul felt like his eyes were filling with shattered glass. The tears didnt beg permission. They began to fall. They ran down his skin. One of his children had been kidnapped. The police said it was an abduction. But he knew instantly that they were going to call to ask for ransom.

His mobile phone rang. It rang to the tune of El Palo Verde. Its macabre sound during this tragedy made him feel ashamed. His sixteen-year old son. The middle child. He saw his wife bowled over, brought low, sat in an armchair with the pain of rushing salty tears drying her out...

He hit the green button on the Motorola and let out an imperceptible tremulous hello. Look you son of a bitch we have your kid. He pointed the phone at the boy so that he could let out the terrified cry of dad. He asked for money in exchange for letting him go and he explained where and how to drop it off... he cried again. He begged him not to hurt his boy.

He got the money together and he delivered it. He didnt tell the police because he was afraid. They are one and the same, his wife told him. Its not worth telling them. He waited and waited and waited. He hadnt had news of his son for two days. On the third day they found his dumped body. Covered in bruises and holes. Colourless. Wasted. Eyes half-shut.

He also documented the extraordinary violence rocking his home town, with children routinely killed. The violence, he reported, had become banal, so common that young people would gather at crime scenes to take pictures and post them to social media.

This is cheap, easy death, crouching at two paces, near at hand, behind the corner, death not for having or not having a connection to narcotrafficking, but for living in a region wracked with violence and impunity, where crime is a routine and fear is no longer a novelty, he wrote in 2015. Culiacan, where it is dangerous to be alive, where everything is the same, except that on the skin of this northern region, a few steps from the Pacific and at the edge of the abyss, there are more bloodstains, scars and crosses on the side of the road.

The government's promises of protection are next to worthless if the cartels decide they want you dead.



As Valdez put it: "Even though you may have bullet-proofing and bodyguards, [the gangs] will decide what day they are going to kill you."



FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT MEMORIAL SERVICE

A not so final goodbye from Javier's son posted on Face Book:

"Father, where are you? I look for you everywhere, in every space, every object you felt, I look for you in my dreams, but I don't see you. I don't see your face, your big body already worn, already with half a century. Half a century you fought for many, gave what you had, gave the most human of you to us, your children and to my beautiful mother.





"Now, who will enlighten me, who will give me books in abundance, who will embrace me like you did, who will applaud me for my achievements, who will give me love so warm ? You have left me without your love, without half of my heart. You stole my heart, you won my love, and I gave you the best of me: my love. I can feel you, with every step, in every verse I read, in every poem you wrote and that I wrote.





"I keep your music, your movies, your books, your glasses, your inkless pens, your hugs, your kisses, your smiles, I know you in the deepest way. Now, I hold you in my arms, and hug and snuggle with you in the same way you did with me when I was a baby.





"Now its my turn, now I walk with you, we have a beer, we sing together. I'm going to watch the sunrise more often, I'm going to watch the ducks in their season, I will go to the places we frequented, I will embrace every person that reminds me of you, for that will be like embracing your love in others, it will be like embracing and feeling you again. You are the person who motivated me, we may be very different, but you're the best example I have in my life; because you always did what you wanted to, you achieved what many wanted; you unveiled yourself, you cried, sang, danced and smiled in so many murky moments of your life.





"Now you are at peace and that is what I want for you. And do not doubt that I will talk with my kids about you, tell them how brave and awesome you were, I will emulate all your love as my love in them, and for me, that will be the way to keep you alive, to keep you with me and everyone. Already dead, I said in your ear that we will never forget you and now that I am going to be a dad I will raise your arm every step of the way, I will greet them the way you did me because I am now you.





"Every time Justice is done it is going to be in your name too.

This is just a little of what I want to tell you, and when you come back, here you will have your house, your chair, your coffee, and all our love from all of us who love you.





"Let's not leave my father alone, the work will need the help of all, that is all I ask for".

Maybe Javier's most profound and prophetic words he left us are:







Where I work, Culiacan, in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, it is dangerous to be alive.




MAST Asia 2017, Japan's only international 'Maritime/Air Systems & Technologies International Trade Show, Conference and Community Enabler' will be held in Makuhari Messe, Tokyo, Japan from 12th to 14th June, 2017.



Biennial MAST Asia unites a growing global community of senior-level naval operators, technologists and procurement leaders from over 40 countries in: Asia-Pacific/Far East; Europe; Americas; Gulf States; and Africa, and of course ALL the key decision makers from Japans: Ministry of Defence; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI); Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA); Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA); Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF); Air Self-Defence Force (JASDF); and Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF).



The 2017 edition is expected to exceed the 4,000 participants that attended MAST Asia 2015, to meet and discuss future missions/capabilities requirements and evaluate exhibitors state-of-the-art platforms, systems and solutions for their specific needs.



Long established as the only international conference and trade-show dedicated to senior-level technologists in maritime defence and security, MAST promotes debate amongst experts from surface, undersea, and air & space domains, giving new perspectives on developments to meet future capabilities. The trade show will provide plattform to the most innovative and world-leading maritime defence and security manufacturers and suppliers, agencies, research and technology labs, and academia.



Particularly focused on Undersea, Surface, Air, Space, and Cyber Platforms, Systems, and Technologies, MAST provides unmatched information, debates and networking opportunities, trusted and acted upon by Services, Government, Research & Technology, and Defence Industry worldwide leaders.



MAST Asia 2017 is supported by Japan's Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.



View the Link


Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford. A US Navy photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): The US Navy's next generation aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78), has departed the Naval Station Norfolk for acceptance trials on May 24, paving the way for the powerful warship's commissioning into service later this year.



During the trials, the warship will demonstrate to the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) its ability to conduct operations at sea and that the ship is constructed in accordance with contract specifications.



Over the next several days, CVN 78 sailors will operate many of the warship's key systems and technologies, overseen by INSURV and the Navy's Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair and accompanied by shipbuilders from Huntington Ingalls Industries-Newport News Shipbuilding, the US Navy said in a statement.



The USS Ford completed shipbuilder's trial in April this year.



The Gerald R Ford-class is being built by US shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) as the next generation of aircraft carriers for the US Navy, using advanced technology and flaunting new design.



As the lead ship of the class, USS Gerald Ford was christened in November 2013. Construction of the warship, started in 2008, has been marred by cost overruns and delivery delays. The platform will be followed by the 'John F Kennedy' and 'Enterprise' carriers.



The multi-billion dollar nuclear-powered carrier is equipped with an array of advanced technology and systems. The carrier flaunts a new design to allow up to 25 per cent more sorties for fighter jets and helicopters on board, generate more electrical power and produce more fresh water from desalination systems.


Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local university student hopes the Brandon community will come together this summer for a fundraiser in support of her cousin recovering from a triple amputation.

One & Only Design Studio/ O&O Coffee will host the event on July 8, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Delma McLeod, a student in Brandon Universitys psychiatric nursing program, will perform at the coffee shop with Gimli-based band The Mellow Ds. All donations collected will go to Cari Kirkness of Winnipeg.

Shes amazing, she is so positive, McLeod said. Shes always smiling and laughing  she gives a lot of people a lot of strength.

(Submitted) Cari Kirkness pictured with her two sons, Chaz, 11, and Andrew, 3, along with her brother, Leslie Kirkness, mother Loretta Kirkness, and sister Courtney Kirkness.

Cari, a single mother, nearly lost her life in early February. An infection that began as strep throat developed into a rare flesh-eating bacteria. Within a matter of days, she lost both legs and her right arm.

They werent sure if she was going to make it, and she pulled through, McLeod said.

Cari, 28, has two sons, aged three and 11. Family members have been by her side through the traumatic ordeal at the Health Sciences Centre.

Shes still not quite healed, so she cant go (home) just yet, and thats why were doing the fundraiser, McLeod said.

With the new reality of living with only one limb, major rehabilitation is needed, in addition to home renovations to make it more accessible.

Karen Zapisocki, a barista at O&O Coffee, said they felt compelled to hold a fundraiser in Brandon for the young mother.

Shes an amazing woman, very strong, Zapisocki said. Her whole life is changing, theres just years of expenses ahead of her  People have been really generous to her story, and were hoping to try and do something from this end.

Caris mother, Loretta Kirkness, said her daughter is now in the rehabilitation stage, learning how to manoeuvre herself, and working to improve strength in her arm and core area.

Her case is unique because theyre used to people that lose one or two limbs. With Cari, its all three limbs that are gone, Loretta said.

Despite the terrible circumstances, Cari has managed to stay positive and keep her spirits up.

She loves life more now than before this happened, Loretta said. It made her  look at life in a different perspective. Shes very happy that she survived it, and that shes still here for her boys.

Submitted Delma McLeod (left) visiting her cousin Cari Kirkness in hospital, along with McLeod's sister, Nadean Sanderson.

As Caris mother, Loretta said she has to stay strong, but she has her emotional moments.

I think we all have our ups and downs, its so new to us, Loretta said. It was so scary, I guess we were all traumatized.

Thinking back to the events of Feb. 7, Loretta still can hardly believe what transpired. Cari thought she had a simple flu, and then noticed a bruise on her arm. They went to the emergency room when the bruise became more worrisome, and she was diagnosed with Group A streptococcal infectionnecrotizing fasciitis. After surgery, Caris organs began to shut down and she was put on life support.

Ive never prayed so hard in my life, Loretta said. Sitting by her side, I was telling her to fight, fight, fight.

A GoFundMe campaign for Cari has raised more than $31,000 since February. Her mother says money raised through the campaign and other fundraisers will help with medical expenses, and finding a suitable home for the family that is wheelchair accessible.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jilllianaustin
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A close-up shot of a prairie crocus with a stunning sunset backdrop was unveiled as the winner of Our Manitoba Photo Contest on Thursday night.

Photographer Oleksii (Alex) Vasyliez received the most votes in the fifth annual contest, organized by Sunrise Credit Union, Keywest Photo and the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba.

Its so great, I didnt expect that I will win, said Vasyliez, who made the four-hour trek to Brandon on Thursday from his home in Hilbre.

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun Oleksii (Alex) Vasyliez, winner of the Our Manitoba Photo Contest, poses beside his image of crocus flowers, during the grand unveiling of all the winning work at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba on Thursday evening. Vasyliez's image will be featured on the cover of the 2018 Sunrise Credit Union Calendar.

I found crocuses  and the sunset, you could see special colours. I never saw colours like this, I was amazed, he said.

As the winner, Vasyliezs photo will be featured on the cover of the 2018 Sunrise Credit Union Calendar. He will also receive a cash prize of $500, which he plans to donate to a charity for children in his home country of Ukraine.

I will give this money to charity organization in Ukraine to feed poor kids, he said. I am so happy that I could help somebody.

Vasyliez came to Canada from Ukraine five years ago with his wife and daughter. It was when he arrived here that he was able to pursue the new hobby.

I didnt have a camera in Ukraine, he said. Im lucky in Canada  I started to take pictures, and I found that I have kind of a skill, so I became a photographer, not professional, but its my hobby now.

The contest received nearly 300 entries this year. A review committee sat down and made a short list of 30 photos, based on technical specifications and how well it represented the province.

The main goal is just really to celebrate Manitoba, said Terri Roulette McCartney, marketing manager with Sunrise Credit Union.

The photos were then posted on ourmanitoba.org, and the public was invited to vote for their favourites.

Since the contest began in 2013, it has received more than 1,500 entries.

The quality, its just crazy how it just keeps getting better and better and better every year, Roulette McCartney said.

A total of 14 winners were determined, which will be included in the 2018 calendar and are on display at the AGSM until June 3. All of the winning photos can be found at ourmanitoba.org/winners.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whats-his-name was the most popular Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate among a random survey of people in downtown Brandon on Thursday.

Pressed further, it was revealed that the majority of those who answered as such were referencing former candidate Kevin OLeary, who appears on the ballot but has since backed out of the race.

The nations second-place party is hosting its leadership convention in Toronto on Saturday, during which final voting will take place and a new leader will be announced.

Both Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire and Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Robert Sopuck will be in attendance in hopes of cheering on their longstanding leadership choice, Erin OToole, for whom both Westman MPs have already cast their votes.

While whats-his-name was the most popularly recognized candidate among the couple dozen people who responded in downtown Brandon on Thursday, the strong majority of respondents were unable to name any  not even OLeary.

Most respondents declined to share their names.

I dont want to get involved in that stuff, one heavily moustachioed gentleman said.

(Maxime) Berniers one, isnt he? one man accurately asked, citing one of a handful of candidates who have visited Westman during recent weeks, adding, Im not really into the Conservatives anyway.

I cant really know, because there are so many of them battling it out like a bunch of Brandonites, one man said, adding that ever since whats-his-name dropped out he has lost track of whos running.

Earlier this week, local Liberal Party of Canada member Stephen Montague said that none of the current 13 Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates have resonated well with voters.

The Brandon-Souris Liberal constituency association member co-chaired the Manitoba chapters annual general meeting in Brandon earlier this month, during which he said there was still an enthusiastic energy surrounding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as ignited during the last election.

On Thursday, he said that he wasnt surprised by the Brandon Suns survey findings.

I think it does speak volumes that this has been an uninspiring race, he said, adding: Theyre not seeing the press that you want to see.

In a Conservative-held riding like Brandon-Souris, people cant even name a few of them? That kind of speaks to what kind of a snoozer this leadership has been, and I think it spells trouble that this partys going to face going forward.

 tclarke@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB

We asked: Can you name three Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates?

Irene Gamey: I cant, now that whats-his-name quit.

Gary Ewan: (Andrew) Scheer. Not (Rona) Ambrose; she quit And theres (Brandon-Souris MP Larry) Maguires boy, whats-his-name (Erin OToole) And (Maxime) Bernier and (Kellie) Leitch.

Keith Thorburn: Nope. I hate them all.

Jon Mini: No.

No.

Mac Halkett: I dont know politics.

Taylor McTavish: No, I certainly cannot.

Callan Harvey: No, I cant. I havent been keeping up.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the top rated breweries in the United States, Surly Brewing out of Minnesota will be making its debut in Canada right here in Manitoba!

On June 7, various Surly Brewing products will be featured on tap at Liquor Marts and beer vendor growler stations throughout the province.

The 10th and Victoria Liquor Mart will be getting Hell Lager and Furious IPA. If youve never had Surly before and you consider yourself a craft beer connoisseur, you will be in for a treat. While Ive never tried Hell before, Im quite familiar with Furious.

Furious is a strong, bitter India Pale Ale thats full of pine, grapefruit and citrus notes. Im a bit disappointed that 10th and Victoria wont be getting their Todd the Axe Man or Xtra-Citra IPAs, but Ill take what I get!

Ive been fortunate enough to sample Surly many times in Minot and have converted many friends into Surly fanatics, so if you love India Pale Ales, you should be excited.

The third annual Coast to Coaster event is taking place at Liquor Marts, beer vendors, restaurants/pubs and licensed liquor vendors throughout Manitoba from June 1 to July 31. This years event will feature 30 Canadian craft beers sprinkled throughout the eight-week event. Im not sure what to expect in this years event, but I do know that Torque, Farmery and Beaus are all coming out with beers exclusively for Coast to Coaster.

Im happy to say that its finally getting easier to find Torques beers here in Brandon.

Torque doesnt have regular delivery service to Brandon yet, but they made a large delivery earlier this month with a fresh batch of all their staple products as well as cases of their What the Helles and mix pack, both in 355 ml 12 packs which are perfect for the patio and camping. Im not completely up to date where Torque is available at restaurants or pubs, but their strong, bitter Diesel Fitter stout is available at the Dock on Princess and possibly still at the Keg.

Torques Red Line Red IPA has been my favourite beer that they brew, even though everything Ive tried by them so far has been amazing  even their lager packs a bit of a punch to it. The current trend of IPAs is toward a more tropical hop-based beer with a liberal amount of pineapple, oranges and kiwis, with an appearance that looks as if youre drinking a beer mimosa. Torques Red Line goes against the current trend: its a bitter, hop-intense IPA thats more in line with the IPAs that most people were getting sick of  the ones I loved most.

Torques Red Line IPA has a dark, ruby-red body with a thick, yellowish-beige head on top. The foam doesnt really want to go anywhere, so I end up waiting about 15 minutes until theres enough beer to foam ratio that I wont get a bunch of foam on my nose and lip. It leaves behind a good amount of lacing on the glass, giving off a bit of an abstract spiderweb-like art presence to it.

The aroma is strong, bitter and very much present in here. Im getting notes of pine, and a bit of earthiness (peat). Theres a good amount of malt, which kind of gives it the Red in Red Line. Theres also a bit of toasted malt that gives it a bit of an almost stout-like presence that reminds me of Diesel Fitter. The flavour starts out with the earthiness right from the start. Its earthy, bitter with notes that reminds me of roasted rye malt but I dont think rye is used in this beer. The hop presence attacks my tongue, but in a good way with pine and a hint of grapefruit, leaving a rich, bitter aftertaste lingering for quite a while after each sip. There are moderate notes of caramel, almost like caramel syrup to an extent, and a slight metallic bitterness at the end.

The strange thing is that Red Line isnt the most bitter beer out of their core products. Torques Diesel Fitter stout is! This IPA gives off much more of an earthy presence compared to most other IPAs out there, which makes it an IPA that would be perfect for autumn.

I havent been too keen on Half Pints Little Scrapper in the past while so this has filled my Manitoba IPA void. This might actually be a bit too much for some IPA drinkers, but for those who like hops and rich roasted malt in their beer, this is for them!

Red Line IPA is available in 473 ml cans at all three Brandon Liquor Marts (sans Liquor Mart Express) for $3.71 per 473 ml, 6.5 per cent ABV, 60 IBU.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/05/2017 (1994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tired of paying for you

I would like to know how to get people who are not paying their taxes to have their property seized and wages garnished. They are not poor, so why should other taxpayers pay for them to earn well over the poverty level because they are too lazy to claim? I hope the government will get smart and  oh well, when they get old, maybe no pension plan for what you didnt pay in the first place, plus interest.

More stinking up the city than the lagoon

Get your head out of wherever  the smell in this city doesnt just come from the lagoon. People driving by the lagoon itself dont smell anything, so it isnt just from there.

bigger names, bigger carbon footprints

Has anyone else noticed the biggest advocates of environmentalism are filthy rich and also have the largest carbon footprint? (i.e. Justin Trudeau, Saint David Suzuki, Leonardo DeCaprio, Al Gore and the individuals who attended the various climate summits around the globe in their private jets).

Carbon tax will cause more harm

A carbon tax will destroy global competitiveness, financially cripple the middle class and cause absolutely no measurable statistical difference in global carbon emissions. It will drastically hurt the economy and our standard of living with an inclemental yearly increase to boot. Only the Liberals could be this dense.

Taxpayers cannot afford more social programs

In reply to the letter to the editor by Heather Doty, National Pharmacare The Solution To Ballooning Drug Costs, in the May 20 edition. Who is going to pay for the program? Of course, the only answer is the taxpayer. Many workers in Brandon are already covered with a benefit plan that includes drugs. I believe the federal government should look at subsidizing individuals who require very expensive drugs that are the only drugs available for treatment. Adding a benefit package costs an employer about a dollar an hour. Removing this package will not make our workforce more competitive. As for buying power to decrease the cost of drugs: the drugs that have been on the market for more than 10 years are not that expensive. A drug company in the U.S. must pass all the trials of the Federal Drug Administration. These trials cost a drug company such as Pfizer north of $1 billion to bring the drug to market. I cannot see a drug company bargaining a new drug to a national pharmacare program in Canada. As Canadians, we are already taxed enough. We are in for a large increase in hydro rates, which is not a direct tax but an increase to the cost of living in Manitoba.

Spend the money on weeds, not flowers

I would like the city to do something about the out-of-control dandelions at the parks. Just skip the boulevard planters and use that fund to tackle the weeds.
A businessman's bid to prevent the sale of shares held by the government in AIB bank has been struck out by the High Court, writes Ann O'Loughlin.

Mr Justice Paul Gilligan said he was satisfied proceedings brought by Mr Vincent O'Donoghue with an address at Church Street, Dublin 7 to prevent the sale of the shares could not succeed.
A Dublin man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a single mother-of-one hours after her sons third birthday party, in what the judge described as an unspeakable tragedy for the child.

Sonia Blounts family employed the services of a child psychologist to help explain to the boy why he would never see his mother again, the Central Criminal Court heard.

Eric Locke had used a fake Facebook profile to lure the 31-year-old to a city hotel when she cut contact with him. She had been in fear of him due to his reaction to the break down of their brief relationship.

He then strangled her with his hands and the cable of her phone charger, and suffocated her by forcing her t-shirt into the back of her mouth with such force that he dislodged her teeth.

The 35-year-old, with an address at St Johns Park East in Clondalkin, had pleaded not guilty to her murder, but admitted causing her death in a room at the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght on the 16th of February 2014.

Locke had argued that he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time and that this diminished his responsibility. The defence, which falls under the Insanity Act, can result in a verdict of not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

This was rejected by a unanimous jury verdict on Monday, and he was found guilty of murder after just an hour and 33 minutes of deliberations.

Two of his sisters delivered emotional victim impact statements at his sentencing hearing yesterday.

Claire Reddin shook as she entered the witness box. She recalled the birth of Ms Blounts beautiful baby boy, Jake, in February 2011.

(Centre) Sonia Blounts sister Claire Reddin outside court after Eric Locke was sentenced to life for murder. Picture: Courtpix

She couldnt believe it was possible to love someone so much, she recalled.

Ms Reddin said her sister made sure her child never went without and that she had gone all out for his third birthday party on the 15th of February.

He didnt stop smiling all day. The next day, he started to wonder why his Mammy wasnt coming to pick him up, she recalled. We had to tell him your Mammy is an angel now, she had to go to heaven.

She said Jake was so confused.

His Dad was gone and now his Mammy too, she said. He said my Daddy left me and my Mammy promised she would never leave.

Three weeks before she died, his mother had asked Ms Reddin to raise Jake if anything happened to her. So he went to live with his aunt, uncle and cousins.

At night, he would sob for her, she said, explaining that Jake used to sleep with his mother, so he was used to her soothing him to sleep.

The family engaged a child psychologist to help them explain things to him

His birthday is a particularly hard time, she said.

She said she now fulfilled the role of his mother and would get to watch him grow, but that nobody would ever replace his real mother.

She said she had made a memory book for Jake, filled with photographs and some of Ms Blounts Facebook posts about him.

She said he still remembered a lot about her and that not a day went by without him talking about her, but that his memories would fade and this memory book was now all he had of her.

If she could, she would be by his side, she said. This opportunity was taken from her and Jake.

She said his life would always be tainted by what had happened.

He is her legacy and he is doing her proud, she said. Shes looking down every day and smiling at him.

Tracey Blount said that preparing for the trial was something no family would ever expect to have to do.

She described the deceased as a beloved daughter, sister and aunt, who had been taken from them in a sudden, horrific manner.

She was always so adventurous, whether travelling around the world or going out dancing with her friends, she said.

She explained that family was always important to her sister, who was delighted when she found out she was going to be a mother herself.

She was a romantic and loved the idea of having a happy, little family of her own, she said. She was an active, happy mother.

She recalled Ms Blounts relationship with Jakes father breaking down.

No matter how hard things got, she always bounced back, she said.

However, she said that their lives had changed forever on the day she died.

Sonia was never the type to stay out all night without contact, she said, explaining that they had searched high and low for her and called all her friends.

As the day wore on, we got more and more frantic, she recalled.

This was when a post on Facebook alerted them to the body of a woman being found in Tallaght. Their father rushed to the hotel and saw his daughters car being towed away.

The next week passed like a nightmare, she said.

She also described the effort to explain what had happened to her three-year-old nephew.

He was inconsolable and his young mind was plagued with questions, she said.

She recalled that the family was coached by a play therapist to say that a bold man had hurt his mother but was in jail now

He was worried that this bold man might hurt him too, she explained. He cried for his Mammy most nights.

She said the past three years had been absolute torture because of the sudden, violent death of Sonia.

No parent should have to bury a daughter, she said. No three-year-old should have to visit his Mammys grave. Jakes special place is her grave. He leaves notes and he talks to her.

She said her sisters life had been taken in the most violent way, with not a thought spared for the heartache it would leave in her wake.

She said that people often thought that a conviction would lead to closure, but that they had still been left them with questions.

How much did she suffer in her final moments? What were her final words? she asked. Nothing can be undone. We will never have our beautiful Sonia back.

Eric Locke

Mr Justice Michael Moriarty thanked the sisters, saying he knew it wasnt easy.

Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said Locke had written a short letter of apology earlier in the week. However, the barrister said it would seem trite to read it out in light of the mornings evidence. The judge said it would be put on the court file instead.

Justice Moriarty then asked Locke to stand.

You have been convicted of the murder of your former very close associate and friend, Ms Blount, after a taxing and emotional two-week trial, he noted.

He said it had required immensely professional police work to gather the evidence that in my view very properly resulted in your being convicted unanimously by the jury.

He said the extremely touching evidence of Ms Blounts two sisters had given some impression of what an exceptional person the deceased had been.

He said it was a tragedy for the whole family

For little Jake, it is an unspeakable one, he said.

He explained that the sentence was mandatory.

I pronounce you be sentenced to imprisonment for life, he concluded.

Ms Blounts family and friends left the courtroom as her murderer was being led away to begin his life sentence.
A District Court judge has accused two parents of using their son as a pawn and told they both have a behavioural problem.

The mother today/yesterday (FRI) told Judge Ann Ryan at the Dublin District Family Court she was requesting a safety order basically to put a stop to all the abuse she was receiving from her former partner.

She said her former partner lives abroad but returns home to Ireland twice a year to see their son.

She said herself and her son, who is in primary school, live together in the family home, and have always done so, while her former partner moved away a number of years ago. She said she always lets her former partner see their son whenever he is in Ireland.

But earlier this week, she said the father gave her a fright when he turned up unexpectedly at her back door, unannounced. He used the back door as the locks were changed on the other door.

A couple of days later, she received a phone call from the gardai in the middle of the night. They told her that her former partner had reported their son as missing, and requested that she bring the boy into the garda station, so they could make sure he was alright.

My son has lived with me all his life and I had to wake him up at 1am to take him to the garda station, she said. Im not stopping [the father] from seeing my son. If he had sent me details [of his trip here] I could have arranged things.

The mother said the abuse from her former partner is verbal. Its on message. Email. Social media. Viber messages. The mother handed Judge Ryan a print-out of the messages she had received from the father.

During his evidence, the father said he had always paid the mortgage on the house he owns with the mother, but he no longer wished to, and had asked her to buy him out or make some other arrangement.

I said you cant expect me to pay for a mortgage when some other fella is sleeping in the bed that used to be mine, he told the court.

He said he reported his son as missing to the gardai because he hadnt seen the boy in two days, and he wanted to see him while he was in Ireland.

I havent seen my son in three days. Im home for two weeks, he said. Every email thats been sent  I just want to see [our son].

I left the country to pay for the house for him to stay in.

He said his former partner brought her neighbour round to tell him he was just a sperm donor.

But Judge Ryan struck out the mothers application for a safety order, telling both parents they were playing the boy off against each other.

You two need to cop on to something  that you two have a small child and you are both using him as a pawn, Judge Ryan told them.

Referring to the print out of messages from the father to the mother, Judge Ryan asked the father: Would he like you to call his mother those words? That is no way to speak to someone. Thats appalling behaviour.

Addressing the mother, Judge Ryan said, And its appalling behaviour from your point of view.

This is not a matter for these courts. You both have a behavioural problem. I would suggest the two of you sit back and think about your child.
A man will be sentenced this morning for murdering his ex-girlfriend after luring her to a Dublin hotel in February 2014.

Eric Locke, who is from St. Johns Park East in Clondalkin, strangled Sonia Blount a month after she ended their relationship.

It has been four days since Locke was found guilty of murder. It took the jury just an hour and a half to reach a unanimous verdict.

He admitted luring Sonia Blount to the Plaza hotel in Tallaght and he admitted doing so through a Facebook profile he set up under the alias Shane Cully, but he denied her murder claiming he was suffering from a mental illness at the time.

The jury heard extensive psychiatric evidence from both sides.

His psychiatrist claimed he was suffering from a pervasive development disorder, but the prosecution expert found no evidence to back that up.

In the end, the jury did not believe him and dismissed his defence of diminished responsibility.

The Blount family will be given an opportunity to deliver a victim Impact statement this morning before Mr. Locke is handed the mandatory life sentence for murder.
A new poll shows Simon Coveney is the favourite among ordinary Fine Gael members to take over the party.

Leo Varadkar, his rival to replace Enda Kenny, has so far had more support from Fine Gael Ministers.
Former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster has said she does not expect to see a referendum on a united Ireland in her lifetime.

The DUP leader dismissed renewed talk of a border poll on the issue, which has been driven largely by Sinn Fein.

During an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Foster was asked if she was confident there would not be a border poll in her lifetime.

She replied: "I'm very confident about that.

"One of the difficulties with Brexit is the fact that people are superimposing Brexit on another issue, which of course in Scotland is independence and in Northern Ireland is a united Ireland.

"There are many unionists who voted to remain within the European Union, but if they were asked the question around staying in the United Kingdom or going into a united Ireland, they would very firmly say that they wanted to stay in the United Kingdom, for all of the reasons I have spoken about.

"It won't happen."

Ms Foster said the forthcoming Westminster elections were an opportunity to "send a very clear message" about the North's place in the UK, as she denied that Brexit had fuelled republicanism.

Ms Foster also hinted that technology could ease the issue of a hard border with the south, citing the example of the border between Norway and Sweden.

"I'm not saying that we copy what goes on there, but I am saying there are already examples," she said.

Ms Foster stepped down as first minister earlier this year in the fallout from a renewable energy scheme, which has led to the collapse of the executive in the North.
A woman has told the Central Criminal Court that a man who she met on the dating app Tinder raped her in the Dublin mountains on their first date.

The Louth man (36) has pleaded not guilty to rape at Kilmashogue Lane, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin on September 11, 2014.

The alleged victim told Alex Owens SC, prosecuting, that after matching on Tinder the pair exchanged messages on Whats App, with the accused sending up to 20 messages to her within a 24 hour period.

The 31-year-old woman, who was a university student at the time, said the accused sounded cross when she cancelled their first arranged meeting at short notice.

However a subsequent date was arranged for September 11 and an arrangement was made to go for a spin and a coffee.

She said he told her they would take the long way back to the city as he drove down an unlit rural road. He stopped the car and said: I wouldn't abandon you in the mountains.

She said that after a brief kissing session she asked him to take it easy. He said to her then what the fuck do you think we're here for?

She said she didn't want a one night stand and she left his car after he told her to get the fuck out. She got out and he drove off. She took out her phone to ring a friend but there was no signal.

The car disappeared from sight but the car returned a few minutes later and stopped by her. The man told her it's grand, get in and she got in because she felt like she didn't have a choice.

She said she didn't know where she was and he seemed a bit calmer.

He drove the car back to where they had been and he stopped the car. He turned off the car lights and they were in complete darkness, she said.

He began kissing her again. She told him to take it easy. He leaned over and pulled a lever to drop her seat back and moved quickly to get on top of her.

He took her hand and put it inside her pants. He called her a sexy bitch. She said she moved her hand away but he said to her just f**king touch it.

She said he was cross and was in a completely different mood to earlier in the night.

I was afraid he was going to beat the shit out of me, she said. The witness said she put both her hands to his chest and said seriously, stop.

He pulled her jeans down to her knees, she said, and she said she was terrified.

He lifted up my legs. I stopped resisting him then, she testified. She said the accused then raped her.

Afterwards he said: That was shit. I would have last longer if you hadn't teased.

He dropped her home and she said the accused sent her a Whats App with a smiley face, which she deleted.

During cross examination, defending counsel Michael Bowman SC put it to the complainant that while the date did not go as anticipated, she willingly undressed herself and had sex with the accused.

It was a consensual sexual encounter between two young people who met on the internet, he said. The woman rejected that this was what took place.

The court heard that in the 36 hours following the date the woman had Tinder conversations with six men.

She acknowledged that she had gone to college the next day and resumed her activity on Tinder because she wanted to pretend that the alleged rape hadn't happened.

Several examples of sexting between the accused and the complainant were read out to the jury by Mr Bowman. The court heard that the accused sent the alleged victim semi-naked pictures of himself.

Mr Bowman said to the alleged victim that she omitted to tell gardai she had gotten out of the accused's car in her initial statement and only told them this information two weeks later.

I remembered it but I was upset and I just didn't say it, she replied.

Referring to data recovered from the complainant's phone by gardai, Mr Bowman told her You went on Tinder the morning after the date with the accused."

The complainant told Mr Bowman that she never met up with the six men she spoke to on Tinder in the 36 hours after the alleged rape. Her activity on Tinder ceased once she handed her phone over to gardai a couple of days later.

Reading from a transcript of communications, Mr Bowman said that during an online conversation with one Tinder match the complainant told him I definitely have a naughty side.

The woman agreed with Mr Bowman that she had used other internet dating websites in the past and had exchanged sexually loaded messages with different men.

She told the court that the accused had texted her several times in the days leading up to their date.

However, Mr Bowman said the complainant had given gardai the wrong impression in saying that the accused bombarded her with texts, and said she had responded to nearly every text he sent her.

Mr Bowman also told the alleged victim that despite her telling gardai that the accused had suggested meeting at short notice it was in fact she who suggested the initial date, which was later postponed.

It was your friend who reported the alleged rape to the gardai, it was your friend who arranged your visit to the doctor and it was your friend who gave the gardai the clothes you wore the night you met the accused, Mr Bowman said.

The court also heard from the complainant's friend and housemate who told Mr Owens that the alleged victim rang her while in the accused's car on her way home.

She sounded very shaken, so I waited up for her to come home. she said.

The witness described the alleged victim as shaking, very, very pale, in desperate shock and hunched over when she arrived back to their home after her date with the accused.

She said to me 'I had to do it, I had to have sex with him', the witness told Mr Owens.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul Butler and a jury. Both the accused and the complainant are entitled to anonymity throughout the trial.
Boris Johnson has condemned Jeremy Corbyn's speech in which he sought to draw links between the war on terror and attacks in the UK as "absolutely monstrous".

The British Foreign Secretary said he found it "absolutely extraordinary and inexplicable in this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way".

Speaking alongside US secretary of state Rex Tillerson in central London, Mr Johnson told reporters: "This is a moment ... when we should be coming together, uniting to defeat these people, and we can and we will, not just in Iraq and in Syria but of course in the battle for the hearts and minds."

He added: "They are wrong, their view of the world is a corruption and perversion of Islam and it can be completely confounded.

"But now is not the time to do anything to subtract from the fundamental responsibility of those individuals, that individual in particular, who committed this atrocity and I think it is absolutely monstrous that anybody should seek to do so."

Mr Tillerson, who was making his first official visit to the UK, said the US took "full responsibility" for and "regrets" the leaking of information from the Manchester bombing.

A row erupted between the US and British authorities after a host of sensitive information, including photographs from the scene of the attack, was leaked to American news outlets in the wake of Monday's attack.

Mr Tillerson said: "This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event."

Mr Johnson spoke of how he was "struck by how often our international friends and supporters have mentioned not so much the crime as the response - the acts of instinctive kindness by people in Manchester".

He said the people of Manchester had shown in "their unity and their determination" that it is "by coming together that we can beat this scourge".

"I think that the people of Manchester are showing the way for the world and we've seen again today what's happened to innocent people in Egypt as a result of this challenge that we all face, this affliction that we all face together."

He thanked Mr Tillerson for visiting the UK in an "instinctive act of solidarity" between the states.

Mr Johnson and Mr Tillerson signed a condolence book at the Foreign Secretary's official residence in London, after holding talks on a range of foreign policy issues including Syria, Iran and North Korea.

That was as well as the "vital importance of the work that we do together across such a range of fields including, of course, intelligence sharing".

Mr Johnson added: "Around the world you will find the US and the UK facing the same problems together and defending our ideals together - we defend democracy and the rule of law, our values and our freedoms - not just because they are ours but because they are universal.

"If the world community can unite, I think, in the way that the people of Manchester have come together and united, then I think together we can prevail and will prevail."

The US Secretary of State said "all across America hearts are broken" after the bombing which left 22 people dead.

"For those families there will be forever a void in this world that will never be filled."

He said the British people were "renowned for their strength in times of darkness" and they "will not be broken by terrorists".

Mr Tillerson added: "America stands with the British people at this time of great sorrow and pain and we pledge to you an even greater resolve to defeat Islamist terrorism and extremism."
Egypt's government forces have struck bases in which militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said fighter jets struck militant bases in eastern Libya in retaliation for an attack by suspected Islamic State militants that killed 28 Christians and wounded another 22 south of Cairo.

The officials said the warplanes targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al Qaida, not the Islamic State group.

Me el-Sissi warned that Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in the country, wherever they may be.

He also directly appealed to US President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after the attack, Mr el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries which finance, train or arm extremists be punished.

In response, Mr Trump condemned the attack blaming "'evil organisations of terror" and "thuggish ideology".

In a strongly worded statement, Mr Trump referred to the "merciless slaughter of Christians" and said a "wound is inflicted upon humanity" every time innocent blood is spilled.

He said the attack by masked militants on a bus taking the worshippers to a monastery should bring nations together to crush "evil organisations of terror".

The assault happened while the bus was travelling on a side road in the desert leading to the remote monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Maghagha, in Minya, about 140 miles south of Cairo.

Witnesses saw between eight and 10 attackers, dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks.

The victims were en route from the nearby province of Beni Suef to visit the monastery.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of Islamic State (IS).

The attack came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Islamic militants have for years been waging an insurgency mostly centered in the restive northern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, although a growing number of attacks have recently also taken place on the mainland.

The militant Islamic group Hamas, which rules Gaza, has condemned the attack.

Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the shooting "an ugly crime", of which "the enemies of Egypt" are the only beneficiaries.

Security and medical officials feared the death toll could rise further. According to the Copts United news portal, only three children survived the attack. It is not immediately known how many of the victims were children.

On Wednesday, Egypt blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

"The growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring," Fr Rafic Greiche, the spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic church, told a local television station.

Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians in this Muslim majority Arab nation following the December and April attacks.

Following the Pope's visit, IS vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group's followers.

Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have long complained of discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at the hands of the country's majority Muslim population. They account for about 10% of Egypt's 93 million people.

AP
Human rights activists have said senior officials in Chechnya humiliated people being held and tortured at detention centres during an anti-gay purge.

The claims came in a report released by Human Rights Watch, detailing a purge which it said took place in the first week of April in the Russian federal republic.

The group said it had spoken to six former detainees who said Chechen officials, including two high-level figures, visited the unofficial prisons and humiliated the inmates, who were allegedly held illegally.

In April, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that gay men in Chechnya had been tortured and killed by police.

The Associated Press last month spoke to two victims of the crackdown who supported these claims.

Although Chechen officials have denied the reports, federal investigators have been dispatched there to conduct a probe.

The rights group said no new detentions have been reported in recent weeks but several men remain in detention.

LGBT activists have helped about 40 gay men who fled Chechnya to other Russian regions. Many seek asylum abroad.

Lithuania's foreign minister last week said the Baltic nation had given refuge to two gay men from Chechnya.

The Chechen men "remain at great risk of being hounded by Chechen authorities or their own relatives as long as they remain in Russia", Human Rights Watch said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this month assured the country's human rights ombudswoman that he would speak with law enforcement officials about the reported torture of gay men.

Novaya Gazeta wrote earlier this week that federal investigators dispatched to Chechnya have faced sabotage by local law enforcement officials allegedly involved in the anti-gay purge.

In a sign that the government might be taking the reports seriously, Igor Sobol, the federal investigator dispatched to Chechnya, has been promoted to a top position, permanently based there.

The Russian programme director of Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina, said: "Russia's federal investigation into the abductions, torture, and humiliation of people presumed to be gay in Chechnya should be thorough and investigators should bring perpetrators to account."

PA
Counter-terror police investigating the Manchester Arena bombing have carried out fresh raids, searching addresses in Manchester and Merseyside.

One man was arrested in the Moss Side area of Manchester in the early hours of Friday morning and detectives searched a property in St Helens.

Eight men are in custody in connection with Monday's atrocity, with police and security agencies working at pace amid fears of further attacks.

Meanwhile, with the British General Election campaign due to resume on Friday, Jeremy Corbyn has signalled his intention to bring the issue of terrorism into the political arena.

The Labour leader is expected to make a veiled attack on the Conservatives for underfunding the police service at a time of heightened threat, while linking Britain's overseas military campaigns with terrorism at home.

On Thursday, UK police resumed "working closely" with US authorities on the probe after a tense showdown between the allies over leaked intelligence.

With Britain on critical alert, a huge operation is under way to dismantle a suspected "network" linked to suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people, seven of them under 18.

Mark Rowley, the UK's most senior counter-terrorism officer, confirmed British chiefs had "received fresh assurances" from their overseas counterparts that they could be trusted with confidential material.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she expected the "critical" assessment of the terror threat - suggesting a fresh attack may be imminent - to remain in place in the coming days.

Ms Rudd told BBC1's Question Time: "During this period of 'critical', which we hope will only last for a few days - it could be longer, it will depend on the operation - we've pulled out additional support from the Army so we can go about our normal life."

The developments followed a fraught day in which Greater Manchester Police severed intelligence-sharing ties with the US due to evidence being repeatedly passed to journalists without permission.

"While we do not usually comment on information-sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organisations, we want to emphasise that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance," Mr Rowley said.

Abedi, who was known to security services for his radical views, was said to have been in close contact with family members moments before slaughtering concert-goers on Monday.

A relative of the 22-year-old said he had felt increasing frustration at his treatment in the UK, heightened after a friend was fatally knifed in what he perceived to be a religious hate crime.

She added that the British-born bomber began referring to others in the country as "infidels" who were "unjust to Arabs".

Libyan authorities, who are questioning Abedi's parents and siblings, claimed he made a final phone call to his mother on the eve of the attack, in which he said: "Forgive me."

Music fans were targeted at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in the worst terrorist attack on British soil since the July 7 bombing in London in 2005.
A ninth man is being questioned by police after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences in connection with the Manchester bombing.

The 44-year-old was detained in the Rusholme area on Friday evening, bringing the total number arrested to 11, Greater Manchester Police said.
The UN's human rights chief has appealed for more careful selection of military targets after a fresh wave of air strikes against Islamic State (IS) in eastern Syria reportedly killed at least 35 civilians, including women and children.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating attacks against IS in the country.

His comments came hours after air strikes on the IS-held eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, where air strikes on Thursday night killed dozens of people, many of them family members of IS fighters.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes were conducted by the US-led coalition fighting IS.

It added that the air strikes began around sunset on Thursday as people were heading to mosques for evening prayers, and continued until the early hours of Friday.

Mr al-Hussein said: "The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by IS, are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes, particularly in the north-eastern governorates of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour.

"Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas."

Mr al-Hussein urged all parties conducting strikes against IS in Syria to take greater care differentiating between military and civilian targets.

He cited a May 14 strike which reportedly killed 23 farm workers in a rural area of Raqqa province and an air strike the following day that is said to have killed at least 59 civilians and wounded dozens in the IS-controlled eastern town of Boukamal, also in in Deir el-Zour province.

Mr al-Hussein, who is a member of the Jordanian royal family, said the rising toll of civilian casualties suggests "insufficient precautions" are being taken in the attacks.

He said he was concerned about retaliatory measures taken by IS against civilians suspected of facilitating the air strikes and reports that civilians were being prevented from leaving IS-controlled areas.

The day after the incident at Boukamal, IS fighters reportedly slit the throats of eight men at the site of the attack, accusing them of providing coordinates for the strikes.

The air strikes came as the US military said it killed three IS fighters in attacks in Syria and Iraq over the past month.

The Observatory later said a total of 106 people have been killed in Mayadeen since Thursday evening, including IS fighters and 42 children.

The monitoring group said among the 106 were 80 people who perished when a four-storey building housing families of IS fighters from Syria and north Africa was destroyed in an air strike.

More than 20, including 10 IS fighters, were killed in other air strikes which hit the municipality building among other places.

Syria's state news agency SANA also said 35 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the air strikes, also blaming the coalition.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition.

It is not unusual to have conflicting casualty figures in the immediate aftermath of air strikes in Syria.

Reports of deaths among civilians have been on the rise as the fighting against IS intensifies in northern and eastern Syria.

Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist who is originally from eastern Syria, said Mayadeen residents were urged through mosque loudspeakers to head to hospitals and clinics to donate blood.

He also said that more air strikes occurred in the early hours of Friday. He added that about a dozen people were killed and that he is still waiting for casualty figures to emerge following the destruction of the building housing families of IS fighters.

The US Central Command meanwhile released a statement describing the three IS members killed by the US-led coalition over the past month as senior military officials and planners.

It said one was a Syria-based "facilitator" from Turkey, who was killed in an air strike in Syria on April 27. He was described as an IS recruiter in the central Turkish city of Konya.

Another was described as a French-Algerian IS fighter based in Syria. He was killed by an air strike in Syria on May 11.

The third was killed near the Iraqi city of al-Qaim on May 18.

Central Command said he was an IS military official who operated in Iraq's Anbar province.

PA
Donald Trump's team has vowed to take the fight over his controversial travel ban to the US Supreme Court after a federal appeals court ruled against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries.

In a 10-3 vote, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination", and probably violates the constitution.

The travel ban triggered protests and vigisl across the US.

It upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March.

Mr Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems the first version from January encountered.

A second appeals court, the 9th US Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

The Supreme Court would almost certainly step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Mr Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe.

If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.

A central question in the case before the 4th Circuit was whether courts should consider Mr Trump's public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

His administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which does not mention religion.

The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

Chief Judge Roger L Gregory wrote that the government's "asserted national security interest ... appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country".

Attorney general Jeff Sessions said the court's ruling blocks Mr Trump's "efforts to strengthen this country's national security".

The president is not required to admit people from "countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism until he determines that they can be properly vetted" and do not pose a security threat, Mr Sessions said.

- AP
A man who was arrested after investigators found a woman chained up on his property has admitted seven counts of murder over 13 years in South Carolina.

Todd Kohlhepp, 44, who owned a successful property business, accepted a plea deal that will send him to prison for life without parole.
Do we still need or want compulsory voting in Australia? If President Trump is impeached and replaced by Vice-President Pence the US system of government will have worked as designed. Paul E. Bowler, Holder US President Trump wants all 28 NATO partner countries to pay their fair share for NATO. Only five partner countries have met the target of 2 per cent of GDP: the US, the UK, Greece, Poland, and Estonia. German Chancellor Angela Merkel argues that although they only pay 1.2 per cent of their GDP to NATO, their international development assistance program contributes significantly to global security.

That sounds like the beginnings of a commonsense plan  less military posturing, more economic assistance. It is a pity that Dr Merkel's enlightened attitude towards international development assistance is not shared by our federal government. Imagine where we would be now if Bush, Blair and Howard had taken economic assistance rather than military posturing into Afghanistan and Iraq. David Bailey, Kambah I was once in a school where a hall full of apparently adult students chatted their way through a speech by the school captain and through performances by their fellow students. And, at an ACT school, through a principal's weekly message.

These people had never heard of decorum. Today, the vast unwashed Unseemly have their own platform (social media) to insult, threaten, cajole, intimidate  no polish, no manners. King Unseemly now rules Moronia, from where His Trumpic Majesty flings abuse at peasants, princes, potentates, popes. And what say his unseemly followers? "Give him time. He's just a bit unconventional." Barrie Smillie, Duffy Changing face of coal I have the distinct impression that Dr Neville Exon (Letters, May 25) failed to properly read Ian Dunlop's article ("No rhetoric: the Adani mine will kill millions", May 19, p19).

What Dunlop said was: "...opening up a major new coal province is nothing less than a crime against humanity." That includes the Adani Carmichael mine, even if the coal is marginally better in terms of emissions when burnt. Meanwhile, Adani has delayed a decision on the mine while the Queensland cabinet debates whether Adani gets a "royalty holiday" or not. It is patently clear this mine is economically unviable without such subsidies. Why is it unviable? Because, as new Climate Council report Risky Business: Health, Climate and Economic Risks of the Carmichael Coalmine finds, converging global trends all point to rapidly reducing demand for coal. The cost of renewable energy is plummeting, it says, and efficient and increasingly affordable storage technologies are emerging. Coal demand in China is dropping as it ramps up the rollout of renewables and India, home of Adani, is moving towards energy independence. Exon's principal argument for the Adani mine was that global coal demand would continue. If China and India are indicative of such demand, it appears not to be the case.

Jenny Goldie, Michelago, NSW "What's wrong with that?" asks ANU geologist Dr Neville Exon (Letters, May 25). But his prefix is "Leaving aside other arguments about the mine". There's only so much carbon that can be released into the atmosphere and Adani will greatly increase the working mines for coal. If it's allowed, I expect it will be mined or perhaps taxpayers will pay to close it before exhaustion. Neither are good options.

I have long wondered, why is it that so many geologists argue for coal? A geologist mate said because they work for the mining industry. I trust they don't simply sell their souls, but they do deal with long "geological" time (billions of years) and varied climates. The problem is that civilisation doesn't. Civilisation has aged only 10,000 years within a favourable climate. The Earth is not threatened by climate change, just humans and their civilisation: us, our families, our cities, our wealth. And that threat is real and existential and closer than we are ready to admit.

Eric Pozza, Red Hill Cull under code of cruelty Many thanks to The Canberra Times for publishing "Another unnecessary kangaroo slaughter" (May 25, p19). All of the points Maria Taylor makes in her article were made in recent submissions regarding the government's proposal to turn its Kangaroo Management Plan (KMP) into a legislative instrument. Many of these submissions were made with full citation of sound scientific authority. The same cannot be said for the government's arguments in favour of killing kangaroos.

Worse than the government's blindness to science is its blindness to compassion. The kangaroo slaughter is conducted at a time of year when, according to the Kangaroo Management Plan itself (p10, 11), almost every mature female kangaroo has both a pouch young and a young at foot in her care. It is conducted under a code of practice which exists for the purpose of permitting acts of cruelty that would otherwise be prohibited by law. Yet eyewitnesses report that government shooters often ignore even the minimal provisions of the code. Orphaned joeys areleft to starve. Wounded animals suffer for hours before the shooters deliver the death shot. In 2012, one of the government burial pits revealed a kangaroo that had been shot, stabbed and bludgeoned before dying of suffocation or blood loss. Although submissions against the slaughter outnumbered the submissions supporting the kangaroo slaughter by three to one, no changes of any significance were made in the revised version of the KMP which has now passed into law. Robyn Soxsmith, Animal Protectors Alliance, Canberra

I was delighted to read Maria Taylor's excellent article "Another unnecessary kangaroo slaughter" in The Canberra Times. This article speaks eloquently for thousands of residents of Canberra and surrounding NSW who are appalled by the ACT government's unrelenting war on kangaroos. Ms Taylor's mention of the orphaned joeys who "jump in front of cars near reserves" or suffer "a slower death without their mothers to feed and guide them" brought back all the nights, May through July, for seven years, when I have witnessed this suffering firsthand. Every year I have seen them, dozens of baffled, terrified, shivering, unweaned, orphaned joeys lining the roads surrounding the reserves after a night of slaughter. Many are killed by speeding vehicles the same night. Most are dead from cold or hunger or shock stress after a couple of days.

With so few kangaroos left in most reserves this year, at least we can hope there will fewer young left to orphan. Frankie Seymour, Queanbeyan, NSW Preserve diminishing green Canberrans will welcome Andrew Barr's promise (Comment, May 20) that his government will "make sure major decisions are underpinned by statistically sound and genuinely representative information about what the community really thinks". This is more complicated than it sounds as Canberra is no ordinary city, it is also the nation's capital. It belongs to all Australians and not only voters in the ACT.

Consideration needs to be given to how this wider community is to be represented, particularly where decisions are made regarding designated national land. This is the case in West Basin where public parkland is being appropriated by the ACT government for private residential and commercial development. The planning environment in West Basin has changed enormously since the City to Lake Project was first mooted in 2006. It is time for a thorough review of plans for West Basin. This is no ordinary site, it's the city centre's interface with the lake, an important public green space for a citywhere the green space per resident diminishes by the day as apartment building proceeds apace. Surely an "issue for a pilot project where citizens shape a complex policy" which Mr Barr promises to identify in the next year? What odds the community will choose an exciting 21st century, world-class urban park for generations of locals, Australian and international visitors to enjoy over a private apartment development with million-dollar views for a few rich people?

Trevor Lipscombe, Campbell Coining by the shore The Kingston Foreshore development gobbled a chunk of Lake Burley Griffin via land reclamation to create a near useless boat harbour and a previously non-existent island now covered in multistorey apartment buildings  a nice little earner. The West Basin development proposal announced by Chief Minister Barr will now reclaim 4.1 hectares of our lake. This newly created 80-metre-wide lake front patch of dirt will also be given over to developers.

The boardwalk along the shoreline will sit over the water, presumably so as not to reduce the prime development acreage. The Point Park area designated for public recreation is but a small fraction of the overall basin area. If this development proceeds as planned I suggest it be named West Kingston, which should surely push up apartment prices, rates and taxes. Heather Stewart, Weston The economics of veracity

Peter Martin has pointed out the Treasurer said that the top marginal tax rate of 49.5 per cent proposed by Labor would mean working "one day for the government and one day for yourself  not a competitive way to run your economy" ("The top tax rate myth", May 25, p18). That's no myth. The top rate only applies to income above $180,000. It's an outright lie by the Treasurer. In private enterprise such statements would be subject to the ACCC. Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor Ennui and error I have oft been puzzled why the West Basin broadwalk is called a "boardwalk" despite there being no boards! After seeing the photograph (May 24, pp2, 3) the issue has been resolved. It is a simple spelling mistake for "boredwalk".

Peter Snowdon, Aranda TO THE POINT DODGING RESPONSIBILITY I imagine George Brandis and his staff are relieved that they don't appear to have received a mention in the report on the siege of the Lindt Cafe. But, I suppose that if one dismisses a written warning from Man Monis three weeks out from the sad event then one is able to dodge any responsibility. W. Book, Hackett

VANISHING BUSHLAND Maria Taylor is worried about the bush capital losing its most notable inhabitants, kangaroos. My main concern is the bush capital losing its bush! As we encroach on our borders and land is consumed for development we will not have to worry about culls as there will be no bush left. Nick Corby, Hawker DRIVERLESS REALITY Further to John L. Smith's letter (Letters, May 25), driverless trains are operating all over the world and driverless buses are being tested in normal traffic in Japan. A driverless tram could be easily achieved with existing technology and such trams should be used in Canberra to reduce operating costs.

John Simsons, Holt HEAL ZONING WOUND The Winnunga Nimmityjah health service is abandoning the proposed $12 million Bush Healing Farm because its rural zoning prevents a clinical service from being run out of it. The government can amend the relevant precinct map to allow the necessary clinical services. Leon Arundell, Downer
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson talks to media as he leaves the siege this week. Credit:Daniel Munoz A few members of the army's special forces, including people with experience of forced entry into buildings in Iraq and Afghanistan, had invited themselves into police command posts. They were tolerated, but it would be hard to say they were advising, liaising or being consulted. Since they weren't, the Commonwealth has drawn a veil over what they could have done, or what they thought about what was done. There are extensive written protocols about when or if a terrorism incident invites the participation of Australia's armed forces, but, as the police saw it, those circumstances hadn't arisen, because the cops had the matter under control and didn't want or need help. No one has quite said so, but the presence of outsiders, while "useful", was not regarded as essential, and there was no moment in which the advice of outsiders figured in command decisions. Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson died during the siege. Most of the NSW police involved were among the officers regarded as the best and the brightest, with extensive experience in dealing with hostile and dangerous men, including armed men and professional criminals. There has always been a status, glamour and swagger  and extra pay  associated with being a member of the police's armed-response units (which, these days, also get glamorous names). But over recent decades, there has also been extensive training and frequent exercises, and most of the paunchy guts have disappeared.

But though the coroner did not mention it as such, it seems that a good deal of the experience and instinct held by these officers, particularly those in command, was gained from dealing with domestic siege situations, where an angry, perhaps drunk or mentally disturbed, armed man is holding off police and others from his own house. Containment and negotiation tactics adapted for that experience are not necessarily applicable when a determined and armed person has decided to take hostages for some political purpose, in the process manifesting some hope or expectation of being killed, if not without taking the lives of some or all of his hostages. Allowing cops to engage in a more and more expensive arms races with each other is a recipe for further, perhaps worse, disasters. Halfway through the siege, there was evidence that neither patience nor containment was working. Nor was an only half-understood injunction in the terrorism hostage protocols that there were to be no concessions made to terrorists. Police commanders took this literally, and refused even requests that might have made the hostage-taker less erratic and hostages slightly safer. The no-concessions rule is about political demands  for example, Monis's demand to speak to Tony Abbott on the phone  not about whether, say, vehicles in the street be moved away. More dangerously, police and their consultants, including a psychiatrist, failed to recognise clear signs that Monis was getting more agitated; instead, they thought he was seeming more relaxed. They had thought their negotiation strategy was succeeding when, in fact, no police officer had had direct conversations with him, and police were ignoring messages coming either from escaping hostages, or from text or oral messages from hostages still inside the cafe. And they had no strategy for an assault on the cafe, nor agreement about what would trigger it. The final assault was 10 minutes after Monis had shot a hostage and executed clumsily, and with a police bullet killing another hostage.

One might say there was both timidity and rigidity in most of the decision-making processes. Flexibility and boldness were missing at critical moments. There was almost no continuous process of reviewing the evidence, or adapting to changing circumstance. The coroner believed that one reason police seemed paralysed into inaction flowed from their experience of being criticised in the past for having been aggressive in siege situations. They were thus predisposed for patience, and waiting. That this is the police predisposition might surprise those (such as myself) who have criticised how police have rushed, crowded and shot mentally disturbed people in recent times. But these are not siege situations. The NSW Police, one sometimes suspects, learnt their basic siege tactics with Wally Mellish and the famous Glenfield siege of 1968. That reached the high farce of then police commissioner Norm Allen taking charge of negotiations, and arranging that Mellish (armed with an Armalite rifle) would surrender provided that Allen organise first a marriage to his girlfriend Beryl. Allen was a man of his word: he organised a $20 ring and reportedly "hosted a wedding dinner of braised steak and mushrooms for Beryl, curry and rice for Wally, and rice pudding for both for dessert". He also lent Mellish another Armalite and 200 rounds of ammunition, and agreed to have the police warrant, which had precipitated the siege, dropped. Mellish, too, was a man of his word, and surrendered; he was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Allen never was. Nor was this the first occasion in which bullets fired by armed NSW police, forcing an entrance into a building, have ended up ricocheting and rebounding around a room to kill innocent people, including other police. It is not something that happens in SAS training for siege conditions in aircraft cabins.

Being critical, with all of the benefits of hindsight, of how the NSW Police managed the siege does not in any way exculpate Monis from complete responsibility. It may still be moot whether Monis is properly to be regarded as a terrorist, on a mission for Islamic State, or merely a very dangerous and narcissistic nutter. But one can have a terrorist incident without a terrorist, and there can be no doubt that it was a terrorist incident, and a very successful one, which paralysed central Sydney for 18 hours, and which attracted the world's attention. No one really knows what motivated Monis, or even what his hopes and expectations were when he entered the Martin Place cafe with a shortened shotgun and began the siege. But as the NSW Police began responding fairly coolly and professionally, it was able fairly soon to identify Monis and to recognise he was a person whom it they knew quite well. The NSW Police had him on charges of being an accessory to murder and of numerous sexual assaults, and had also coped with his grandstanding, attention-seeking and claims to represent significant Muslim opinion, as well as offers to provide information. ASIO had conducted numerous interviews with him, had repeatedly made careful assessments of his propensity for political violence and whether he represented a threat. He had frequently offered ASIO information, or his services as some sort of go-between; ASIO had enough experience of his information and his personality to listen, but to decline with thanks. The AFP had similar experiences. So had any number of members of the public, or others, such as lawyers who had acted for Monis in the past, who volunteered information during the day. As it happened, the NSW police officer coordinating incoming intelligence (until she was unaccountably detached to set up a one-way long-range megaphone device) had been on the detective squad that had investigated and charged Monis with his sexual assaults on women. The coroner says  and on this I think he is legally and constitutionally wrong  that there was no occasion for the Commonwealth (in the form of the ADF) to intervene, both because NSW Police were always in control of the situation and because the state government had not asked for a military call-out or for help. That's rot. Even before the 2006 amendments to the 1903 Defence Act, the Commonwealth had executive power to intervene in Commonwealth interests; after the 2006 amendments, there was clear authority, whether the state agreed or not. Barnes has called for better protocols to determine whether and when the Commonwealth should intervene. He's right, but he should he gone on to say that, once it is clear that terrorism is involved, the lead role should pass to the Commonwealth. Local skills, particularly from police, will still be critical. But it's a war, after all. This does not mean that police should not have a central role in hostage and siege situations, whether of a "domestic" or terrorist sort. But it is safe to say that Australian special forces are better trained and equipped to force buildings, rescue hostage and neutralise terrorists. And to be able to make the judgments about waiting it out, or acting quickly and forcibly. However much cops want the action and the glory, and whatever their own experiences of dealing with angry and irrational men, they are second best when the men are bent on inflicting terror on the population at large.

Pretending otherwise, and allowing cops, on that account, to engage in a more and more expensive arms races with each other, in the process becoming more militarised and more remote from the ordinary population, is a recipe for further, perhaps worse, disasters. The sight, for example, of AFP officers carrying submachine guns while patrolling outside Parliament House ought to be regarded as more comical than comforting, were it not for the obvious risk that they might shoot themselves, if not tourists. They do not even display the equanimity to mockery or teasing demonstrated outside Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty's Brigade of Guards, folk who actually know what they are doing. But one can be sure that it will not be police, whether in Sydney, Brisbane or Canberra, who will call in the ADF and implicitly admit that a situation is beyond their skills. And local politicians will usually be scared, for political reasons, to override them. Putting in the pros calls for some political leadership, which may involve some courage. Barnes' most interesting suggestion was that there ought to be both national and state and territorial bodies set up, in effect, to note, register, monitor and "manage" nutters, or what the coroner calls "fixated loners"  the sort of people, like Monis, from whom confrontations with authority can be expected. There are many in Canberra who know the type  once described by Ian Freckleton, QC (who appeared for the NSW Police at the inquest), and by ombudsmen as "querulous paranoids". Queensland provides the model, with a taskforce consisting of police and mental-health workers. The "typical" fixated person is described as male, aged in his mid-50s, in pursuit of some idiosyncratic cause and engaged in some inappropriate correspondence, telephone calls or direct approaches to a public office holder. He is likely to be known to police, more likely than not to have a mental disorder, but to be not receiving treatment. In about 9 per cent of cases, he will have (as Monis did) as a primary diagnosis a personality disorder of a paranoid, anti-social and/or narcissistic sort. Such folk wage dogged and single-minded campaigns against perceived injustices, have highly unreasonable expectations, present as rigid and ruminative individuals resistant to criticism, or, sometimes, alternately obsequious and condescending behaviour. It could describe a host of people who have terrorised and made nuisances of themselves around Australia over many decades. It could, on the other hand, describe a few police commissioners or ministers of the crown.
The Australian Electoral Commission has launched a formal investigation into the funding of a $100,000 private aircraft used by Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers confirmed the AEC had already been conducting an inquiry into the party, and revealed a further investigation was authorised in early May.

The Jabiru light aircraft, used extensively by the party for campaigning purposes, has been the subject of increasing scrutiny. Senator Hanson and her chief of staff James Ashby have offered differing explanations for its omission from the usual disclosures about political donations.
It is no revelation that an increasingly unabashed discourse of racism, nativist superiority and religious intolerance floats on ignorance.

But for Pauline Hanson  a parliamentary leader for whom the expansion of these prejudices is the central project  being outed as bigotry's uncritical conduit was less revelation and more like hitting a brick wall. At speed.

The collision of prejudice and evidence came late on Thursday, once Hanson had finally deigned to come to Canberra to meet her core responsibilities in the "house of review"  namely, scrutinising the executive's taxing and spending priorities via budget estimates committees of the Senate.
Rihanna stole the show at the 2016 Met Gala. Credit:AP In short order she signed a deal with Puma to become its creative director and design her own line (Fenty x Puma), took that line to the runways of New York Fashion Week and then to Paris (where she showed in the same site as Valentino), became contributing creative director of Stance Socks, received the Footwear News Award for shoe of the year (the first woman to do so) and dipped in and out of collaborations with Dior (on sunglasses), Manolo Blahnik (on shoes) and Chopard (on high-end jewellery). She did this all while maintaining her position as an ambassador for Dior and wearing clothes from a broad assortment of names  from Vetements to recent Parsons grads  with whom she has no contractual relationship. Rihanna attends the "Okja" screening during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 19, 2017 in Cannes, France. Credit:Getty Images "She has a quite unique ability to do it all at the same time," said Burak Cakmak, the dean of fashion at Parsons. And he is referring not just to her own creativity but also to her ability to get the global brands with whom she works to agree to her (very flexible) terms. This has never really happened before.

A brief history review: Up to this point, there have been effectively three kinds of strategies for celebrity would-be designers. First, the "license your name and make a profit from your fame" approach, one that has had varying levels of success: Jennifer Lopez's Sweetface line failed; Jessica Simpson's namesake empire was a wild success. Rihanna won the Met Gala (again). Credit:Getty Second, the "humble yourself before the industry and disappear into the atelier to pay your dues" tack. This has been the favoured mode if you want to be seen as a serious fashion person, as exemplified by Victoria Beckham, the Olsen sisters and (at least at the moment, a somewhat chastened) Kanye West. And third, the newest iteration: the pop-up rock collection gambit, as adopted by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and the Weeknd; essentially an expanded, upstyled version of what used to be called "tour merch." Rihanna, however, fits into none of the above. She is both serious about, and promiscuous in, her style. While she says she is heavily involved with her brand, she also freelances widely across the fashion world, often for competing names.

Sure, she has the buffer of her social media fan base, a potential consumer bonanza to dangle in front of any brand, a weapon to wield and ensure her freedom. But that's only part of the explanation. There are a few different theories as to the rest. One has to do with the reputation she built as a risk taker who does not hew to a singular path but zigs and zags as she desires: musically, sartorially and professionally. In this hypothesis, her career in fashion simply reflects her career in music and thus has its own authentic internal logic (authenticity being a big deal these days). Especially when you consider her evident delight in dressing up. And it is also possible that she is simply the most visible beneficiary of a battle that was fought first by Beckham et al., who took the initial heat for (we all assumed) daring to think that because they wore clothes well, they could make clothes well. "Kanye paid the dues for Rihanna," said Marina Larroude, the fashion director of Barneys, referring to the fact that West, with all of his ambition, hubris and early attempts to show in Paris, softened us all up and made us willing to entertain the idea that celebrities can legitimately become designers and that their work should be judged on its own merits.
If you are old enough to remember the Cold War-induced fear of nuclear annihilation, then you're probably at least passingly familiar with Sting's operatic anti-war ballad, Russians.

"We share the same biology, regardless of ideology," he implores the frightened citizens of Europe and America (and presumably Australia), over the soaring melody sampled from late Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev.

"What might save us, me and you," Sting concludes, "is if the Russians love their children, too."

Earnest and schmaltzy it may be, but I've never forgotten the lyrics. Perhaps it's because I was a child myself, barely 10 but, like Sting's own son, already struggling to fathom the existence of a weapon that could wipe us all out.
We are jammed between a marginal, precarious existence or employment in a more traditional sense, where employers know exactly how lucky employees are to have work like that.

"And they are going to work them as much as they possibly can to get their money's worth," says Jim Stanford, the director of the Centre for Future Work. "It comes with a precarious employment market."

Brinkmann has good advice for those of us who want some reality in our lives and that includes learning to say no. But my favourite of his seven tips for moving forward includes learning to focus on the negatives in your life.

More than ever, that's particularly important in our workplaces. There is little point in going to yoga or Pilates. Those classes don't fix the intrinsic problems in your workplace and put all the responsibility on you, the individual. Overwork and underresourcing will never be cured by you doing Downward Dog  it will only ever be fixed by you doing Upward Managing and doing it with others in your workplace who feel similarly. Collective action works and I don't mean chanting in the meditation room.

I had a long chat with RMIT's Sara Charlesworth, professor and deputy head of the School of Management. She's a longtime researcher in employment and an executive member of the Centre for People, Organisation and Work in the College of Business. She was also one of Australia's very first researchers into insecure employment in 2012 was part of an inquiry.
In April, Careers Australia was told that it was among 150 private colleges that would lose its accreditation under the Turnbull government's new VET student loans scheme. It earned more than $264 million in taxpayer funding between 2013 and 2015. But just 14.7 per cent of students graduated in this period. One teacher from the Bowen Hills campus in Brisbane, who did not want to be named, said staff were called into a meeting yesterday afternoon and "told it was all over". "People were crying and clearing out their desks," he said. "We were all joking that this was going to happen, but it took a lot of people by surprise."

He said that the campus became a "ghost town" following negative media coverage which exposed the college's unscrupulous recruitment practices, which involved targeting vulnerable students and offering them free laptops. "I am concerned about what it will mean for students," he said. Master Electricians, the largest trainer of electricians in the country which signed a contract with Careers Australia to deliver training, said the job prospects of hundreds of electrical apprentices in Queensland "were in jeopardy". Chief executive Malcolm Richards said while young electrical apprentices could move to another training provider, the funding for the courses would not follow them.

Mr Richards called on the government to provide support for young apprentices to complete their electrical training. Careers Australia entered voluntary administration after unsuccessfully trying to appeal an Education Department's decision to cancel its accreditation. An Education Department spokesman said that it notified Careers Australia that it had upheld its original decision on Thursday afternoon. "The original decision was that Careers Australia did not meet three of the provider criteria: financial performance, management and governance and student outcomes," he said. He said strong tuition assurance arrangements were in place to support students to move to another provider to complete their training, or receive a refund of unspent tuition fees.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said his office had been in touch with the administrators and tuition services to ensure "appropriate support" would be available to students. But Victorian Training and Skills Minister Gayle Tierney took aim at the federal government for "taking a hands off approach" to students affected by college closures. The minister said Careers Australia does not hold a current funding contract with the Victorian government, but there are about 150 continuing students who started training under earlier contracts, who would have the option of enrolling in a TAFE. Careers Australia has campuses across the country, including Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. The collapse comes after a series of college closures following a federal government crackdown on the scandalous VET FEE HELP scheme after costs blew out from $325 million in 2012 to $2.9 billion in 2015.

On Friday, the sector's regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, cancelled the registration of a training organisation, Gurkhas Institute of Technology, which has campuses in Melbourne and Hobart. The regulator found the organisation had insufficient resources and facilities including work placement and assessment practices did not meet requirements. ASQA also suspended courses at a Queensland organisation, the Australian Academy of Business, due to non-compliance involving enrolment and assessment practices of diploma-level qualifications. Careers Australia admitted it breached Australian consumer law and "engaged in unconscionable conduct" last year, after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission successfully pursued the company. The ACCC won a court-enforced order compelling Careers Australia to repay $44 million in debt for students who had been signed up to courses they believed were free or who had been lured through inducements such as iPads.
Onlookers mill around the wreckage of the burned out Whiskey Au Go Go night club. "They'll never catch me because they'll never find the bodies," O'Dempsey told Mr McDonald. In 2011, Kerri Scully was engaged to O'Dempsey when he told her to buy the true crime book Shotgun and Standover from the local Big W. Vincent O'Dempsey has been found guilty of the McCulkins' murder. Credit:7 News Queensland While in bed, O'Dempsey showed her a picture in the book of himself walking from court with a leather jacket slung over his shoulder and bragged about the McCulkin murders.

"I'm good for it but they'll never get me for it," O'Dempsey said. Ms Scully left the relationship the next day and remained in fear of the man who she later told police was an intelligent "serial killer" who covered his tracks. "He takes you in the middle of the night, like an angel, and you're gone for good," Ms Scully told a committal hearing in November 2015. The final key witness emerged just months before O'Dempsey's trial - a remand prisoner, who cannot be identified, had noted down a confession on scrap pieces of paper and crosswords. "She had to be dealt with," O'Dempsey said.

"In those days you got paid to do a job, you did a job. "I never laid a hand on the two kids, Shorty did." The informant also said O'Dempsey solicited him, once he was granted bail, to contact a person who would stop Ms Scully and Mr McDonald from giving evidence at the trial. "He was trying to arrange to get at him (Mr McDonald)," the informant said. "He knew what time he left for work, which road he took, which roadhouse he stopped at for breakfast ... the number of his house."

Dubois and O'Dempsey are expected to be sentenced on Thursday and will likely spend the last years of their lives behind bars. 'Best we could have hoped for' The family of Mrs McCulkin and her two daughters have expressed relief at the conclusion of the case, but are appealing for information about the remains of their loved ones murdered by O'Dempsey 43 years ago. O'Dempsey's guilty verdict was an outcome Mrs McCulkin's nephew, Brian Ogden, described as the best outcome they could hope for. "The verdict received today has been a long time coming," he said on behalf of the family outside court.

"For 43 years, our families have longed for information and justice. "Although today's outcome has been the best we could have hoped for, we still need information as to the location of our loved ones' remains." She knew too much Mrs McCulkin knew too much - but the children were not meant to be there. That was the best guess prosecutors could make as to why O'Dempsey and Garry Dubois brutally killed the young Brisbane family on the night of January 16, 1974.

The juries in separate Brisbane Supreme Court trials were told the blonde mum "spoke knowingly" about the Torino nightclub fire - a 1973 arson attack carried out by Dubois and the Clockwork Orange Gang. Gang member Peter Hall testified Dubois told him that O'Dempsey was paying them $500 for the attack because "apparently the nightclub wasn't doing too well". Nobody was harmed in the Torino blaze, but two weeks later the Whiskey Au Go Go club burned down, killing 15 people in what was, at the time, Australia's biggest mass murder case. Mr Hall said the gang feared it would be implicated in the Whiskey fire on the basis it did the Torino job. Those concerns were alleviated when James Finch and John Stuart were arrested and later convicted of arson and murder in October 1973.

But Mrs McCulkin suspected Stuart, a family acquaintance, had been set up and told her neighbour as much. Prosecutor David Meredith suggested the suspected connection between the Torino and Whiskey fires and Mrs McCulkin's candour were motive for Dubois and O'Dempsey to keep her quiet, even though there's no evidence either were involved in the fatal inferno. "It may not sound a sufficient motive or even a sensible one, but there never is for murder," Mr Meredith said. But what the juries were not told was just how much noise Mrs McCulkin was making. The 34-year-old began drinking too much toward the end of 1973 after a bitter split with her husband Billy "The Mouse" McCulkin, who left her for another woman.

Billy, a debt collector and Clockwork member, was at one stage charged over the Torino blaze but the charges were withdrawn because of a lack of evidence. Mrs McCulkin bragged around town that she would blow the lid on the real perpetrators of the Whiskey bombing and had allegedly overheard Billy on the phone in early 1973 planning upcoming fires. Mrs McCulkin disappeared from her Highgate Hill home on the night of January 16, 1974 along with her two daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11. In Dubois's trial, the jury heard Dubois told his brother Paul in 1980 that O'Dempsey killed Mrs McCulkin because she had information that would put him in jail for 20 years - although that evidence was not admissible at O'Dempsey's trial. "Barbara McCulkin was blackmailing O'Dempsey," Dubois told the court.
Police believe Maddilyn-Rose Stokes died from severe burns suffered from a bath at her Northgate home, in what is being described as "a terrible accident" caused by "a moments inattention".

The toddler, just shy of her third birthday, died late Thursday night after paramedics found her not breathing at the Ridge Street address about 3.30pm that day.

Police at the Northgate townhouse last month, where paramedics found Maddilyn-Rose Stokes unconscious and not breathing. Credit:7 News Queensland

The family of the young girl were known to Child Safety but were not being investigated at the time of the incident, according to the department.

Maddilyn-Rose's five-year-old sister was also at the house when her parents called for an ambulance, with paramedics resuscitating the toddler for about half an hour before taking her to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital.
Isabel and Judy Stephens only ordered something light at the Tatong Tavern on Sunday afternoon, to save themselves for the evening meal.

Not long after they finished their lunch, the 89-year-old woman and her 53-year-old daughter vanished.

Police and SES search the banks of Lake Benalla for missing mother and daughter Isabel Stephens, 89 and Judy Stephens, 53. Credit:Mark Jesser / Fairfax Media

Usually Sunday lunch is one of the busiest times for the English-style country pub in the state's north-east, but that day the Benalla women did not need a booking.

They walked in and sat in the dining room, with six other customers.
Sex Assault Squad detectives have charged a masseur over the alleged sexual assault of a woman in her 30s during remedial massage appointments at a clinic in Booragoon.

The 29-year-old Langford man is charged with two counts of sexual penetration without consent and one count of unlawful and indecent assault, in relation to three separate alleged incidents.

The man was practising at a Booragoon clinic. Credit:File image.

He is due to appear at Fremantle Magistrates Court on June 6.

If you are or have been a victim of sexual abuse, or if you have information about someone being abused, call police on 131 444.
A 20-year-old man who was caught on camera kicking a quokka on Rottnest Island in February has pleaded guilty to ill-treatment of the animal in court on Friday.

Harrison Angus McPherson chased the quokka around a tree and kicked it at least twice into a courtyard wall during a trip to the popular holiday destination on February 11.

Harrison Angus McPherson pleaded guilty to animal cruelty after he was caught on camera kicking a quokka.

He was filmed by his friend Corey Douglas James, 21, who laughed as he captured the attack on his mobile phone.

The recording was widely shared online, sparking a social media name-and-shame campaign that quickly led police to the men.
Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, people familiar with the investigation say.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.

The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the President was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, although it did not name Kushner.

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.
A Republican won a special election on Thursday for a US House seat in Montana, even after being charged with assaulting a reporter the day before polls opened, in a race seen by some as a referendum on President Donald Trump.

"Great win in Montana," President Trump told reporters in Italy, where he's attending a Group of Seven summit, after tech millionaire Greg Gianforte won the statewide contest for Montana's only House seat over Democrat Rob Quist, a political novice and musician.

Greg Gianforte was charged with assault on the eve of the special election. Credit:AP

Mr Gianforte had 50.4 per cent of the vote to Mr Quist's 43.9 per cent, according to the Associated Press, with 98 per cent of precincts reporting. It was a closer margin than the 2016 presidential race in Montana, which Mr Trump beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton 56 to 35 per cent.

More than half of the ballots expected to be cast in the race had already been returned before the alleged assault occurred.
Taormina: Prime Minister Theresa May accused rival Jeremy Corbyn of saying that Britain had brought terrorism upon itself, in an unusually personal attack that thrust the Manchester bombing into the centre of an election campaign less than two weeks before the vote.

The verbal assault was made all the more unusual by the setting.

May was at the Group of Seven in Sicily discussing global affairs with fellow leaders after campaigning had been suspended for three days. The mud-slinging marked May's own return to electioneering after a series of opinion polls showed her once dominant lead evaporating.

"I have been here today at the G-7 working with other international leaders to fight terrorism. At the same time Jeremy Corbyn has said that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault and he's chosen to do that just a few days after one of the worst terror atrocities we have experience in the UK," she said before leaving the summit early to return to London.
Latest News ubank launches $6,000 cashback offer Digital bank hopes to entice new home loan borrowers

AFG appoints three new managers Aggregator's move to boost broker recruitment, support

Future decisions to decrease broker commissions have analysts predicting a negative impact on mortgage franchises such as Mortgage Choice A research note released by investment research firm Morningstar looked at the headwinds facing Mortgage Choice and determined that although the firm is performing well now, potential changes to the broker commission model could lead to several detrimental effects.Mortgage Choice currently pays franchisees 73% of upfront and 61% of trail received from lenders, putting it in a good position to pass on the negative impact of lower commission rates to franchise owners, analysts said.However, despite the companys strong market presence, it has been losing market share of the mortgage broker segment as smaller players take a cut of the commission themselves. This could lead to higher turnover for those with the firm.Commission cuts from banks could encourage more franchisees to look for a better deal outside the Mortgage Choice franchise model, analysts said. This trend may also have the same effect on other mortgage franchises around Australia.A downturn in the national housing market could also produce lower returns for Mortgage Choice over the long term, Morningstar predicted.Future profitability relies heavily on the ongoing strength of the Australian housing market and the preparedness of the four major banks to continue using mortgage brokers to distribute mortgages and continue to pay current levels of upfront commissions.In the event that housing finance approvals decrease in a downturn, Morningstar analysts predict Mortgage Choices upfront commission income will be affected.Upfront accounted for 45% (or $39m) of gross broker commission income, while trail accounted for the remaining 55% (or $48m) in the first half of the 2017 financial year.Finally, Mortgage Choice is subject to regulatory changes by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) both of which may affect the firms ability to grow, analysts said.ASICs review into broker remuneration could result in regulatory changes requiring a rebasing and/or reduction in the current commission structure, and if lenders reduce commission rates or negatively alter commission structures, Mortgage Choices revenue and profitability would be under pressure.However, despite these potential risks, analysts said the franchise was still financially sound in the present. As well as the high levels of expertise amongst the board and senior management, Mortgage Choices strategy to diversify into financial advice has also been effective at raising revenue.The business has consistently delivered on its strategy and business targets and we expect more of the same in the future.
Latest News ubank launches $6,000 cashback offer Digital bank hopes to entice new home loan borrowers

AFG appoints three new managers Aggregator's move to boost broker recruitment, support

Specialist lender Bluestone Mortgages has announced the closing of yet another $250m residential mortgage backed security (RMBS) transaction  the third in a period of 12 months.This latest transaction, Sapphire XVI, brings the total issuance for the company to more than $650m throughout the past year. This is the 16th transaction for Bluestone in Australia over its lifetime with the most recent two occurring in May and November last year.Our goal is to consistently deliver a best-in-class specialist lending experience for brokers, our customers and to rebuild the Sapphire RMBS program, said Bluestone CEO Campbell Smyth. I am delighted with the progress we have made but there is still much for us to achieve and the team is excited about the challenge.A total of 16 investors, domestic and offshore, were involved in the transaction. The overall portfolio composition was in line with past deals containing 17.6% investor loans, 17% interest only loans and 16.8% non-metro exposures.The success of this strategy is evidenced through sustaining a year-on-year growth rate of over 100% since our return to market in 2013, Smyth said.This is a result of channelling our efforts to support start-ups and self-employed borrowers, being in tune with their evolving demands and consistently providing products that are highly appealing to the sector.Bluestones vision was to be recognised as an industry leading specialist lender with an added focus on brokers outcomes and clients, he told Australian Broker. This comes down to access to BDM teams and credit teams and ensuring brokers were sufficiently resourced in terms of handling inquiries and queries.We see RMBS as a function of being a best-in-class specialist lender. By that I mean RMBS is one of the mechanisms by which we fund our business and our loan book. The fact that weve managed to transact three times in the past 12 months and raise $650m from these transactions is really a reflection of recognition of the market.For the future, the focus would be maintaining or improving the areas in which Bluestone delivers value, Smyth said, including ensuring that BDMs are knowledgeable, capable and available to brokers.Similarly in terms of credit, we see providing brokers access to credit as a win-win. We get to understand a deal better and the broker gets to understand Bluestone and our thinking better. This means that the broker is more likely to have a deal approved when they put it in.Finally, ensuring a good turnaround time on deals was a priority. Instead of providing a simple time to approval  which may not work under certain circumstances  Smyth said the focus was on genuinely making the deal work and getting it settled as quickly as possible from start to finish.He continued, saying that Bluestone would try to get back to brokers within 24 hours.However for us the point of providing access to the credit team is not to ensure that brokers get a 24 hour turnaround on their first contact back; its really to ensure that they get the deal settled as quickly as possible.
Bucks Democrats expect to have majority in state House

Democrats expect to gain one more seat in state Senate, but still be in minority there.
Families need help: Donate and Give a Christmas

During the holiday season, in partnership with NJ 211, we are pleased to offer the Give a Christmas program to Burlington County residents.
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Fresh from the launch of her exclusive capsule collection with Net-a-Porter, designer Rebecca Vallance offers her guide to the South of France

As far as homegrown international fashion talent goes, Rebecca Vallance and her label are a formidable force. After launching with powerhouse stockist Net-a-Porter last year, Vallance has debuted an exclusive capsule collection with the e-store of seven pieces that celebrate the brands signatures of lace, playful frills, bows and silk. Here, the designer chats to Buro on a recent inspiration trip to the South of France, and the treasure trove of spots she discovered while there.

EAT



Le Cap at the Four Seasons, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

Visit

"This Michelin starred restaurant is quintessentially chic European dining. It uses on the best local French Riviera ingredients; the fish being an obvious stand-out for me. French interiors, couples with the breathtaking view of the Mediterranean and impeccable service make this a perfect date spot with your loved one."

Must try: The slow-cooked sea bass in zucchini flower with avocado, burratina and lemon caviar.



La Colombe d'Or, Saint Paul de Vence

Visit

"This eclectic restaurant has a very rustic Riviera feeling, it is true old-school Euro at it's best. Great food, ambience and a most superb backdrop as well as famous paintings that adorn the walls from Picasso to Matisse make it easy to lose track and get lost in the art."

Pro tip: Book well in advance as it can get quite busy.



Eden-Roc Grill at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Cap d'Antibes

Visit

"This is definitely my favourite place in the world to have lunch. Perched at the tip of Cap d'Antibes with stunning views over the sea, it is the perfect spot to soak in the Mediterranean sun and people-watch while drinking vodka lime sodeas. This restaurant prides itself on great seafood and lives up to the hype."

Must try: Seabass a la Eden-Roc, it is extremely tender and flavoursome, served alongside of artichoke puree - delish!

STAY



Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Cap d'Antibes

Visit

"My absolute favourite hotel of all time is this place. Everything about it is perfection. From the rooms, the incredible food, the staff, the view of the Meditteranean Sea, it geniunely doesn't get any better than this. The absolute in luxury."



Four Season French Riviera Hotel, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

Visit

"Cap Ferrat is such a beautiful, old-school European experience. Boasting classic, French provincial interiors, infinity pool and stunning rooms."

DO



Saint-Paul de Vence, French Riviera

"One of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, it is well known for its modern and contemporary art museums and galleries such as Fondation Maeght which is really special."



Boating

"When we stay at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, we get around by boat. Sometimes it's fun to spend the day in Cannes or St. Tropez and then sail back later afternoon just in time for sunset cocktails at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc's balcony.



Le Club 55, St. Tropez

Visit

"My favourite beach club for lunch in St. Tropez is Le Club 55 - best people watching in the world!"
Indian information technology (IT) firms led by Infosys are now discovering that states in the United States (US) are offering incentives, including tax grants, to improve local employment.
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Taxi aggregator Ola has kicked off a pilot project in Nagpur to demonstrate mass electric mobility, in partnership with the Centre and carmaker Mahindra. Ola will have an electric fleet of 200 vehicles, including taxis, buses, e-rickshaws and autos.
has announced that its latest flagship, 3T, will soon be discontinued. The production of 3T has already been halted, and sale of the devices will continue only till the present stock lasts.
Maharashtra labour department officials have called information technology (IT) services major Cognizant and members of Forum of IT Employees (FITE), a union that represents IT workers, for talks on June 1, after complaints were made by former employees that they were forced by the company to resign from its Pune centre.
The Dhola-Sadiya Bridge, the country's longest river bridge, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Assam on Friday, will provide a big boost to the Indian Army as it protects the nation's Northeast region against China.
The results of Class 12 were expected to be released by May 24 (Wednesday). However, the Delhi High Courts ruling on marks moderation policy stated the continuity of giving grace marks this year. This caused a huge confusion in everyones mind.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with Uzma Ahmed at Jawahar Bhawan after she reached Delhi on Thursday. Uzma, who alleged that she was forced to marry a Pakistani man, was allowed by the Islamabad High Court to return India. Photo: PTI
A man who allegedly murdered his mother, wife of a police officer associated with the probe of the sensational Sheena Bora murder case, was arrested today from a hotel here.

Siddhant Ganore, 20, had fled his house after allegedly killing his mother and took a train to reach Jodhpur on Wednesday, police said.

After arriving here, he stayed in a hotel opposite the city railway station, where the Jodhpur police arrested him this afternoon, they said.

Jodhpur police, after their preliminary investigation, informed their Mumbai counterpart, whose officials would be arriving Jodhpur to take his custody, they added.

The wife of a police inspector, who was part of the Sheena Bora case probe, was found brutally killed with her throat slit at their Vakola residence in suburban Santa Cruz in Mumbai yesterday.

"Siddhant had stayed in a hotel opposite the railway station. He purchased a new mobile phone and as soon as he connected with wi-fi and accessed internet, Mumbai police got his location," SHO (Udaimandir) Madan Beniwal said.

"On receiving the information from Mumbai police, we reached the hotel and detained him and brought him to the police station, where he confessed to have killed his mother," the officer said, adding the accused did not put up any resistance and accompanied police to the police station without any hesitation or fear.

According to police, after killing his mother with a kitchen knife, Siddhant had tried to slit his wrist but could not do so and fled leaving her mother behind in a pool of blood.

The officer said that he left his cell phone there and did not contact any known all this while.

"On Tuesday, his mother had asked for his progress report and was also to accompany him to college. This scared him and brought him under severe stress, under which, he decided to kill his mother," Beniwal said.

"We have arrested him and are awaiting Mumbai police to arrive in Jodhpur," said Beniwal, adding that his family members have also been informed, who also are reaching Jodhpur.

Meanwhile talking to media, Siddhant, a student of BSc Ist year, expressed no regret and alleged that he killed his mother because she was quite querulous and had made his and his father's life miserable.

"I was under severe stress because of her nature. She would always quarrel with my father and keep scolding me for my studies. On Tuesday, she was to go with me to my college and did not want her to, so I killed her," he said.

After killing her mother Dipali Ganore, he had a bath, gathered his clothes, stuffed them in a bag and fled. He took a train from Mumbai and reached Jodhpur on Wednesday through Surat.
Suspected Naxals set on fire signals and communication setup of a railway station and the engine of goods train in Bokaro district of Jharkhand.

Officials said the incident occurred at about 11:30 PM last night at the Dumri Bihar Railway Station after which a team of CRPF and state police personnel were rushed to the spot.

"The Maoists burnt down the signals and communication set of the station and partially damaged the engine of a goods train stationed there by putting it on fire. Security forces under the command of CRPF have been rushed to the spot," a senior officer said.

The Maoists also posted handbills against the state government in the station premises, the officer added.

A team of the 26th battalion of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Bokaro police have reached the spot, he added.
On his third anniversary of taking over as Prime Minister, will be in Assam on Friday to inaugurate a number of projects, including the country's longest bridge  the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge.
Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, the man seen responsible for stamping out several years of terrorism in Punjab, has died. He was 83 years old.
US President does not like to stand at the back of a line, and he definitely will not have someone else steal his thunder at a photo session. According to the New York Times, video footage of world leaders getting ready for a group photo during a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday shows Trump push aside Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic to make his way to the front.
Mark Suzman, President of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on a visit to India for the African Development Bank summit tells Sai Manish that India's Aadhaar model is generating significant interest among nations across the world. Here are excerpts from an interaction with Suzman held at the foundations office in New Delhi



What came out your meetings at the African Development Bank summit in Gujarat?

One of the major discussions revolved around agricultural finance and how to extend more credit to small and marginal farmers. From the BMGFs perspective, we are looking to work with the African Development Bank on two key issues  sanitation and financial inclusion. This is where some of the work we are doing in India could be a model for Africa. For instance here in India, the work that is being done on Aadhaar and financial inclusion is generating a great deal of interest among African countries. A seed fund in collaboration with the African Development Bank can be set up for the purpose. The second area of discussions was sanitation especially non-piped sanitation for fecal sludge and septic management.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has banned the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter  a move that could hurt the countrys buffalo meat export.
The labour ministry has proposed to reduce the employers contribution to the Employees (EPF) from 12 per cent to 10 per cent. The proposal, which will be opposed by trade unions, will come up for approval in the meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) on Saturday.
For long Mauritius and more recently Singapore have been the preferred conduits for global financial transactions by Indian companies. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data shows that both countries have become equally mouth watering destinations for to fund global operations, buy stakes in overseas companies or pay off their international loans. While Singapore attracted $5.7 billion from Indian companies, Mauritius saw $5.6 billion flowing in the country from India in 2016-17. The key similarity between Indian investments in these two countries was that most of the money was invested in equity and corporate guarantees in foreign subsidiaries. Loans formed a comparatively smaller component of the investment portfolios of Indian companies.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has pitched for including Bhubaneswar in Air India's Varanasi-Colombo circuit. The step, Patnaik, feels would contribute to promoting Buddhist tourism and boost tourist footfalls.

In a letter to civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, he said, "In the recently held International Buddhist Conclave and other discussions in different forums, the tour operators, academicians and revered monks from Sri Lanka have expresses strong desire to come to Odisha to explore the Buddhist heritage sites. However, as there is no direct connectivity, Sri Lankan tourists find it difficult to visit Odisha."
After GST regime, telecom companies would be required to re-work their costing and credits availability and re-jig their prices and ensure that the increased availability of credit is passed on to the customers by lowering their costs.

Telecommunication services presently attract Service Tax of 14% along with Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) of 0.5% and Krishi Kalyan Cess (KKC) of 0.5%. While Service Tax is a pure value added tax, the above mentioned cesses are not. This is the reason that while no ITC (Input Tax Credit) of SBC is available, the ITC of KKC is allowed to be set-off only against KKC. Therefore, both the cesses are turn-over tax.As against the above, the Telecommunication Services will attract GST of 18% in the GST regime, which is a pure Value Added Tax because full ITC of Inputs and Input Services used in the course or furtherance of business by the telecommunication service providers would be available.Moreover, presently Telecom Service providers are neither eligible for credit of VAT paid on goods nor of Special Additional Duty (SAD) paid on imported goods/equipments. However, under GST, Telecom Service Providers would avail credit of IGST paid on domestically procured goods as also imported goods.

As per some estimates, this additional Input Tax Credit would be as much as 2% of the turnover of the telecom industry. Further, ITC of Service Tax paid on assignment of spectrum by the Government in 2016 is presently allowed to be availed of by the telecommunication companies over a period of 3 years. In the GST regime, the entire credit can be taken in the same year. Resultantly, the balance two-third credit of the previous year would be admissible in the Current Financial Year itself. All of these would reduce the telecom companies liability to pay GST through cash to about 87% of what they paid in the last fiscal. Thus, the telecom companies are required to re-work their costing and credits availability and re-jig their prices and ensure that the increased availability of credit is passed on to the customers by lowering their costs.
In pursuance of Indias Act East Policy, Indian Naval Ships Sahyadri, Shivalik, Jyoti and Kamorta under the command of Rear Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, YSM, VSM, the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet are on an overseas deployment to the South East Asia and Southern Indian Ocean. Indian Naval Ships Sahyadri and Kamorta are on a port visit to Jakarta from May 26 to May 30, 2017 and to Surabaya from June 01 to June 05. .

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The visit of the Indian Naval Ships seeks to underscore Indias peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly and harmonious countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain and to strengthen existing bonds between India and Indonesia. The two countries share a rich history with deep civilisational links between the two countries. A number of bilateral agreements exist between the two countries in a various spheres. The Indonesian President Joko Widodo had visited Indian in December 2016 and called on his counterpart, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon'ble Indian President and Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. During the visit, the leaders had directed their respective ministers to convene the Defence Ministers Dialogue and the Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC) Meetings to review and upgrade the Agreement on Cooperative Activities in the Fields of Defence to a substantive bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement. The Statement on Maritime Cooperation issued during the visit was one of the highlights. .

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Indian Naval assets have been increasingly deployed in recent times to address the main maritime concerns of the region. In addition, as part of the Indian Governments vision of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region), the Indian Navy has also been involved in assisting countries in the Indian Ocean Region with EEZ Surveillance, Search and Rescue, and other capacity-building and capability-enhancement activities. The current deployment will contribute towards the Indian Navys efforts to consolidate inter operability and forge strong bonds of friendship across the seas. .

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Over the past few decades, India has made substantial advances in terms of designing and building warships indigenously and the visiting ships bear testimony to these capabilities. INS Sahyadri, and INS Shivalik both multi-role stealth frigates rare commanded by Captain Anil Jaggi and Captain R Vinod Kumar respectively while INS Kamorta, an Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette is commanded by Commander Vipin Gupta. INS Jyoti, the fleet replenishment tanker is commanded by Captain S Shyam Sundar. .

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During the stay in harbour, various activities such as official calls, formal reception on board ships, ships open to visitors, guided tours for Indian naval personnel and professional interaction between naval personnel of both the nations have been planned. .

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Indias First Fleet of 200 Electric Vehicles Launched in Nagpur

The Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis launched Indias first multi-modal electric vehicle project at the Nagpur airport complex today. This unique project brings together e-buses, e-cabs, e-rickshaws and e-autos on a single platform, the Ola App, which will enable commuters in Nagpur to book them. The fleet of 200 vehicles consists of 100 of Mahindras new e20 Plus vehicles, besides those from other manufacturers like Tata Motors, Kinetic and TVS.Speaking on the occasion Shri Gadkari said that it was his Governments vision to make India a 100 percent e-vehicle nation.

Shri Gadkari said his Ministry was prepared to facilitate manufacturers and other companies to take the Nagpur model to other parts of the country. He said e- vehicles need to be promoted in order to cut down the huge crude oil bill, reduce pollution and create cost effectiveness in transportation. To begin with, the emphasis would be on commercial vehicles and then on others. Shri Gadkari informed that growing demand, coupled with R&D would gradually help to bring down the operational costs, and especially the battery cost. He added that once the cost of batteries comes down, e-vehicles will compete with diesel and petrol vehicles and finally phase them out.
The Prime Minister said the Union Government had taken a number of steps for farmers' welfare in the last three years. In this context he mentioned the soil health cards, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. He spoke of the vast network of soil health laboratories being set up across the country, and the popularity of the Fasal Bima Yojana among farmers.
President of India receives books Mann Ki Baat: a social revolution on radio and marching with a billion - analysing Narendra Modis government at Mid Term

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee received the first copies of books Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio and Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modis Government at Midterm from Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker Lok Sabha who formally released these books at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan today in the presence of Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India, Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance and Defence and other dignitaries.Speaking on the occasion, the President said effective communication is important for any leader. Without having the capacity to communicate, a leader may not be able to inspire people to follow his ideas and approach. He said that undoubtedly, in the contemporary period Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators of the times. In independent India, Prime Minister Pt. Nehru effectively propagated the values in our Constitution including secularism. Smt. Indira Gandhi mobilized public in favour of the Liberation war of Bangladesh effectively.

Various initiatives taken by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi have resulted in the Indian economy moving forward in a steadfast manner. The President congratulated and expressed gratitude to the publishers for bringing out the two books. He said the books cover important issues of topical concern and should have a wide readership because of their inherent merit. Vice President of India, Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Speaker Lok Sabha, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan and Union Minister for Finance and Defence, Shri Arun Jaitley also addressed the gathering and gave an account of how the books capture key aspects of the personality of Shri Narendra Modi and achievements of the Government. The book Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio is a compilation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modis addresses to the nation on radio every month under the programme Mann Ki Baat. It contains a comprehensive, qualitative and academic analysis of Mann Ki Baat the themes, the choice of topics, the salient features. It illustrates how Mann Ki Baat has connected with the New India the youth in particular. It also presents a coherent narrative about the manner in which Mann Ki Baat has created mass movements, be it in cleanliness, in promoting Indias tourism potential, safer roads, drugs free India etc. The book has been compiled by Shri Rajesh Jain. The book Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modis Government at Midterm analyses the monumental changes that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has brought on multiple fronts as Prime Minister on Indias governance landscape by ushering in an unprecedented culture of transparency to create a level playing field so necessary in a developing country. It is authored by Shri Uday Mahurkar. The books have been brought out by BlueKraft Digital Foundation and LexisNexis.
Gunmen on Friday opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt, killing at least 23 people.

The bus was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo.

Twenty-three Christians were killed and twenty five injured, according to the Ministry of Health.

Security forces were searching for the attackers.

The ambulances rushed to the place of the incident to transfer injured to hospitals.

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.

Two suicide bombings targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria on April 9 left at least 46 people dead.
It is also the latest event in a long history of . And it is a history that transcends the narrow political and religious dimensions often associated with it today.
An editors first instinct is always to publish. And the news executives at the New York Times will not have had to think too long and hard about the ethical issues when images from the investigation into the Manchester bombing landed on their desks.

It would have been a very different matter had the leak been to a paper in Manchester or London, where the shock of what happened is palpable and the sense of hurt and harm is very close to home  even among journalists hardened to atrocities such as this. But even here, the imperative to publish would have been strong, and the images have been carried by the British press.
Cities get under your skin, imprint an individual and collective civic pride that defines your identity and sense of community. Though I grew up in nearby Buxton in Derbyshire, Manchester  or more accurately  Greater Manchester has been my home for nearly 25 years. The city has powerfully moulded my life through education, culture, politics, sport, and its people.
A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early today killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group said.

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."



The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of the fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

Yesterday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.
The stock market continued to charge ahead on Friday with the BSEs benchmark Sensex scaling the 31,000-mark for the first time and the National Stock Exchanges Nifty testing 9,600. Both rallied close to a per cent each, led by strong gains in heavyweights such as ITC and Reliance Industries, which rose three per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively.
With the completion of three years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government in power at the Centre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday took to micro-blogging site twitter and on behalf of Uttar Pradesh, heartily congratulated the former for fulfilling his commitment to the public.

Adityanath in his tweet said, "I on behalf of the people of Uttar Pradesh congratulate Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi for three years of good governance and development."

Echoing similar sentiments, in a series of tweets, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar wrote; last three years of the NDA Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi have seen dawn of a new era of Governance that is Corruption Free, Transparent and Accountable.

He further tweeted, "Last three years have seen phenomenal progress in almost every spectrum of governance- including finance, education, defense etc ,"

Asserting that Indian borders are more secure than ever under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, Khattar said we are replying to provocations with firmness and our jawans have been empowered.

"Haryana is playing its role in realising @narendramodi ji's vision of a #NewIndia," he added.

Prime Minister has received congratulatory messages from other prominent personalities also:-

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra S Rawat: "I congratulate PM @narendramodi , his entire team and millions of countrymen & supporters on successful #3yearsofModiGovt."

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister tweeted, Dr. Rama Singh: "DhanyawadPMModi for transforming India in these 3 years! #MODIfiedChhattisgarh salutes your visionary leadership."

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje: "My congratulations & best wishes to PM @narendramodi ji & #TeamIndia ?on ?an outstanding tenure of 3 years#3yearsofModiGovt #3SaalBemisal."

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan: "New India emerging under the leadership of PM @narendramodi', My Thoughts (Blog) on #3yearsofModiGovt #3SaalBemisal."

On the occasion of completion of three years of the Democratic Alliance's ( NDA) government at the Center, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said these years have seen concrete steps that have transformed people's lives.

Earlier today, the Prime Minister arrived in Assam and began the celebrations by inaugurating the Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya.

The Prime Minister took to the social media to ask the people their views on completing three years as Government at the Center.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be organising a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign to highlight the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led NDA three year rule.

The campaign's name has been linked with the surname of the Prime Minister- ' Making of Developed India (MODI).

Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the festival from Guwahati in Assam on Friday. A central Control Room will be established at the party headquarters in Delhi to coordinate and monitor the mega event that will continue till June 15.

Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani on Monday addressed a press conference here to unveil the official schedule of the MODI fest.

All union ministers, BJP's Members of Parliament, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the BJP ruled states will take part in the massive exercise to ensure that Prime Minister's message of growth and development reaches every district in the country.

Party president Amit Shah will take part in the MODI fest in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will attend the events in Jaipur and Mumbai, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be in Delhi and Lucknow.

Union Ministers Arun Jaitley will participate in the MODI fest in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad; M. Venkaiah Naidu in Bhuwaneshwar and Chhattisgarh, Nitin Gadkari in Chennai and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states will not only take part in the MODI fest in their states but also in other states.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will attend functions in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh; Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh; Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in Kochi, Kerala; Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Hubli, Karnataka; and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Jammu and Kashmir.

Intellectual meets will also be organised across the country wherein the achievements of the Modi government will be presented.

All the union ministers, MPs will attend two functions in the assigned state, one programme each in home state and constituency.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After four days of massive search operations, the wreckage of the missing Indian Air Force's (IAF) Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft has been spotted.

"Wreckage found. Close to the last known position of aircraft. As of now weather is bad and the place has dense foliage. Further update follows," said the IAF in an official statement.

Two pilots were onboard the aircraft and their location is yet to be ascertained. However, it is being presumed that they did not survive the crash.

The jet lost contact on May 23rd following which massive search operations were launched to track the jet. However, bad weather did serve as an impediment in the rescue mission.

Four ground teams of IAF personnel, nine of the Indian Army and two of state administration, were deployed on different axis to scour the area.

The aircraft airborne from Tezpur Air Base lost radar and radio contact approximately 60 km North of Tezpur.

More details to follow.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In an adorable gesture, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, spent a day with 5 year old Bella Thompson and built pillow forts!

CBC Kids posted a delightful picture of the two, tweeting, "What happens when a 5 y.o. gets to be prime minister for the day? Pillow fort!"

The Canadian Prime Minister could also be seen visibly enjoying his day informing everyone about some 'redecorating' in the office.

The Prime Minister, who has received appreciation for bringing a human touch to the office, took his 3-year-old son to work earlier.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After a Chinese couple was abducted from Quetta's Jinnah Town, in Balochistan Province of Pakistan on Wednesday, the state-run Global Times said that incident highlights the risks along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The restive region of Balochistan is in the center of which is expected to link China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the southern coast.

The Global Times said in an article, that Chinese people have also been targeted occasionally by the Islamic militants in Pakistan, despite the friendly relations between the two countries.

Last year, a Chinese engineer was injured in a bomb attack in southern Pakistan and a separatist group, the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting the .

The Chinese presence in Pakistan has increased in the past few years due to and the Pakistani government has deployed 15,000 military personnel to protect projects under the economic corridor.

China has also urged Pakistan to intensify its efforts in protecting the safety of Chinese personnel in the nation.

Pakistan is betting big on the economic corridor which will be a major boost to its future development and will help eliminate the challenges posed by political extremists, radicals and jihadists in the country.

But these challenges have posed risks to this ongoing project that require attention and solutions from both sides, it said.

It noted that terrorism, unstable domestic politics, and disagreement among various parties within Pakistan about how CPEC transportation routes should be mapped out are prominent challenges to the implementation of the CPEC.

Meanwhile, China said it will spare no effort to rescue its kidnapped citizens while adding that it will also step up efforts to safeguard the security of Chinese citizens and agencies in Pakistan.

(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.)
In a fiery commencement speech at her alma mater of Wellesley College on Friday, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton drew a comparison between US President and former President Richard Nixon.

"We were furious about the past presidential election of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice, after firing the person running the investigation into him at the Department of Justice," Clinton said, discussing the sentiment on campus the year that she graduated.

Clinton was referencing the ongoing FBI investigation into alleged ties between members of Trump's campaign and Russians that attempted to hack the US presidential election, reports the CNN.

Clinton went on to take other thinly veiled digs at Trump, saying that "when people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society."

Clinton's commencement speech came more than six months after her defeat to Trump.
The Centre on Friday slammed the Congress party for criticising the NDA government on the completion of three years, saying that the grand old party is jealous of the popularity and success of their dispensation.

"The Congress party is simply jealous as they couldn't do the things in 55 years which the Modi government has done in last three years. I condemn their remark. They should acknowledge the work of our government," Union Minister Hansraj Ahir told ANI.

Asserting that the nation had never expressed confidence on the Congress party, Ahir further said that the grand old party should praise the work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and acknowledge that poverty is decreasing, jawans are being motivated and diplomatic relations are getting better.

Reacting to Congress leader Kamal Nath's assertion on the three years celebration, Ahir said, "I support and welcome this celebration because our government is successful. Not only our government, but the entire nation will celebrate this as occasion," he added.

On the occasion of completion of three years in power by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government today, the Congress cornered the saffron party on its false promises.

Hitting at the Prime Minister, the Congress said that the BJP has spent Rs. 2000 crore on the celebrations, adding that these three years of Modi government can be summed up as 'Bhashan aur aashwaasan, yeh hai mera shaasan'.

"The entire focus of the Modi government is only on its publicity. They do not have any concrete policy for the country. Modi government has not done anything in the last three years. This government has only given attention to the promotion of schemes like Make-in-India, Jandhana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan," Congress leader Kamal Nath said while addressing media here.

He added that millions of rupees have been invested in the promotion of these campaigns, adding the present government should highlight how much black money has returned.

"They should tell what the country has got from the demonetization move. In these three years, the conditions of the farmers have deteriorated. Most farmers have committed suicides only during the tenure of Modi government and these farmers have got no benefit from the crop insurance scheme," he asserted.

He further said that the Prime Minister during his election campaign promised about two crore jobs a year.

"What is the outcome? We see that only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and by 2028 India needs to create 34.3 crore jobs and that is not to meet the shortfall but we need to create it to be able to have employment," Nath added.

Earlier today, the Prime Minister took to the social media to ask the people their views on completing three years as Government at the Center.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

The BJP will be organising a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign to highlight the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led NDA three-year rule.

The campaign's name has been linked with the surname of the Prime Minister- ' Making of Developed India (MODI).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Samajwaadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Friday asserted that crime is on the rise in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government.

"Since the Bharatiya Janata Party has come to power in the state, law and order has deteriorated massively," Yadav told ANI.

Yadav asked why was the SP government termed as 'gunda raaj' when even one incident was reported?

He said, "Be it the Greater- Noida Highway rape and murder case, or the Rampur incident, Saharanpur, Muzzafarpur or other numerous incidents, it proves how unsafe the place has become for women and minorities."

"People in the state are scared to the extent that they don't even file FIRs against criminals. And if such lawlessness spreads further, things will worsen," he added .

"Under Yogi Adityanath there is alarming rise in of murders, rapes, caste violence and communal tensions," he said.

On Wednesday night, a family was looted by as many as six criminals on the Jewar-Bulandshahr Highway in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida region.

According to primary information, the criminals held the family (four men and four women) hostage and allegedly molested and raped all the women.

The criminals also shot a person dead after he objected.

On May 5, a person was killed and 16 other were injured in clashes between Dalits and Rajputs in Shabbirpur and Simlana villages. The clash started because police stopped the Maharana Pratap procession after Dalits complained.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With Topsgrup garnering praise as a trusted security services group in India, its Group Chairman Dr. Diwan Rahul Nanda forayed into the consumer-to-consumer segment with the launch of an on-demand home services marketplace app called Cheep, in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

Cheep is a one-stop solution, bringing consumers and home service professionals together on a single technology-driven platform, which empowers users to find any home service at the tap of a button.

"In the modern times, where people are already so drained with the taxing responsibilities at office and towards the family, finding trusted, qualified and verified domestic services tend to add to the stress. We bridge the gap between consumers and home care services with our trustworthy and skilled professionals, who attend to plumbers, carpenters, electricians, baby sitters and so on," said Nanda.

An interactive platform, Cheep not only lists a wide range of service providers, but also displays genuine user feedback and ratings, helping users make an informed decision of choosing the right professional.

"The idea behind the app is to provide genuine and safe services at your fingertips and ensuring consumers are stress free. We enable our users to scan through individual profiles of listed service providers, take a look at their work history and reviews, speak directly with the service professionals and book the task once they are happy with their choice," said Rasshi Nanda, Vice President Marketing and Co-Founder of Cheep.

Backed by the country's foremost security services company, Topsgrup, the app allows users to chat with service providers in a secure window where they can also share photographs to explain the issue better and discuss the scope of work. Online payment methods make the process transparent and nullify the need for cash transactions, making it further secure.

Addressing the users' hesitation of dealing with new service providers, every engagement via the app comes with an insurance cover, in case of unforeseen damages at the time of the task. They also provide legal liability and fidelity insurance to all users and provide insurance against accidents or death.

"Cheep, backed by Topsgrup, ensures ultimate security with thorough background checks of all its professionals. The app also has an inbuilt Alert feature that allows women and elderly people to call for help if they sense any threat or danger from any of our professionals at their homes. On receiving an alert in our Command and Control Centre (CCC), our trained emergency response teams at Topsgrup instantly react and respond to the alert and ensure that the consumer is safe at all times," said Viraat Saxena, CEO, Cheep India.

The app is currently available in seven cities in India and by mid-August, is projected to be operational in 20 cities. The curators are also looking to go international, with immediate plans to launch the app in Abu Dhabi, Dhaka, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 2017 and Europe, Canada and Australia in 2018.

The app will be available in India for downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following attacks on the Coptic Christians in Egypt, government jets have attacked positions in eastern Libya.

The bombings were aimed at "terrorist" outposts, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said, adding that any form of state-sponsored terrorism should be punished. Irrespective of whether terrorists are inside or outside Libya's borders, they will be targeted by Egyptian attacks, the president added. Six "terrorist" camps were struck by the sortie, the Sputnik reported.

Earlier on Friday, 28 Coptic Christians were ambushed and killed while en route to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Egypt's Minya province.

U.S. President Donald Trump has condemned the murder of Christians.

"Evil organizations of terror" with a "thuggish ideology" are culpable for the attacks against Christians, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Total eight political parties have accepted the challenge of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to hack the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

The Election Commission on Friday informed that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has nominated its three representatives for participating in EVM challenge.

"The AAP and the Congress raised some issue but as per existing framework of challenge, they did not express their interest in participating," stated EC in a press note.

The EC said that the NCP have not chosen any EVMs as per the framework and has left it to the polling commission.

"EC will bring EVMs from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand for challenge," EC said.

Earlier, the poll panel had asked the opposition parties and experts to prove that the EVMs, used in the assembly elections, can be tampered with.

However, the EC put forth terms and conditions for the parties attempting to tamper the machines.

The EC said that only those parties, and regional, that took part in the recently concluded assembly elections can hack the EVMs.

The poll panel said that the EVMs need to be picked from its warehouses in Delhi at parties' own cost.

Each political party was allowed to pick at least four EVMs of their choice from any four polling stations out of the five poll-gone states. The EVMs involved in the election petition or those sealed will not be allowed in the hackathon.

The poll panel said that if the EVM becomes non-functional after the tamper attempt or if the tamper result is same as the one put out by EC or if the challenger violates the rules-set, the challenge will be struck down.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Unperturbed by the Opposition's criticism over Saharanpur clashes, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said that maintenance of law and order has been the priority of his government and assured that they would work for the same in the coming days.

Adityanath also blamed the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had inherited a "jungle raj" in Uttar Pradesh when their government took over the administration.

"Uttar Pradesh is a big state. Around 22 crore people live here. When we took over, we inherited a jungle raj, lawlessness, a situation where criminals were nurtured by politicians," Adityanath told ANI.

"The incident came to light very soon and we swiftly put an end to that. I can, with confidence, say that the vision of development and law and order in Uttar Pradesh, as promised by our prime minister, will be fulfilled," he added.

Meanwhile, the Centre has sought a report from the state government over Saharanpur violence incidents.

The Home Ministry has asked the state government to send details of the incidents leading to death of a person and injuries to several others.

The Centre has deployed 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the state restore peace in the region.

The state government has already suspended District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police over failure to control the situation.

The Divisional Commissioner and the Deputy Inspector General were also transferred out.

The state government also announced to give compensation of Rs. 15 lakh to the victim's family.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
U.S. President Donald Trump and his counterparts from six of the world's most powerful countries have gathered for a two-day summit -- the G-7 -- to discuss the globe's most pressing problems in the medieval Sicilian coastal town of Taormina, Italy.

The heads of state of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union are expected to have tough talks on issues ranging from global economic issues, climate change, the Syrian civil war, Russian aggression, fight against ISIS and the recent Manchester attack.

Newly elected leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, President Trump and veterans like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe will discuss ways to change the shape of global events.

Russia, for a third straight year, will not be allowed to be part of the summit, previously known as the G-8.

But discussions on Russia will persist for having annexed Crimea and subsequent ongoing support for separatist rebels in Eastern Ukraine. Russian interference in France and United States elections has been condemned by other countries. G-7 counties will decide about the Russia's aggressive actions around the .

ISIS

U.S. President Trump in Saudi Arabia had sought the unity of Muslim countries in the region to redouble their efforts to fight against ISIS. IN G-7 summit, Trump is likely to emphasize on curbing the financing part of (ISIS) Islamic terrorism.

Climate Agreement

President Trump had pledged during the election campaign to pull out the United States from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement that compels countries around the to reduce their carbon emissions to combat climate change. And now, Trump is mulling whether he will make good on that pledge.

France's Macron is already pressurizing Trump on the issue during their first meeting on Thursday amidst the NATO summit in Brussels. And Trump is likely to face more pressure to stay in the climate agreement, bolstering the arguments Trump's Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner -- both senior advisers -- have leveled to urge him to stay in the deal.

Economic issues

The global economy is always a core topic of the G-7 summit, but Trump's presidency and the United Kingdom's referendum vote to leave the European Union have already moved markets and have brought new uncertainty.

Trump has vowed to renegotiate international trade agreements, railing against free trade deals that he have said are lopsided against the United States. Other leaders will look to ensure their economies won't suffer as a result of Trump's new approach, CNN reported.

Syria

Syrian civil war will be a point of discussion and the recent U.S.' involvement in the conflict by launching cruise missiles attacks against the Bashar al-Assad regime. But Russia and Iran are supporting Assad regime .The G-7 will discuss ways to resolve the conflict.

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Former U.S. president Barack Obama today said as the father of two daughters, he is heartbroken by the extraordinary tragedy that has occurred in Manchester.

Obama said in a video posted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesperson, the CNN reported.

Standing alongside Merkel and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in Berlin, Obama offered his condolences to those affected by the suicide bombing, which targeted a pop concert attended mostly by teenage girls.

"To all the families who have been affected, to all those who are still recovering, to those who have lost loved ones, it's unimaginable to think about the cruelty and the violence that the city of Manchester has suffered," Obama said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. There are families all around the who are grieving with you," he added.

Obama said that the city had shown its character in the "kindness and ways in which you are assisting each other" in the wake of the attack, which left at least 22 dead.

President Donald Trump condemned the perpetrators of the attack, calling them "evil losers.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday questioned Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar if he was adding to the agenda of separatism by meeting with separatist leaders Shabir Shah and Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

"They (separatists) stand with the terrorist, they give a romantic name of militants but they are terrorists against humanity. So these people, when they have such an agenda, if they are willing to change it, speak in favour of the constitution.then one would have understood that Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar has played some part. Because unless the statement comes and if they stick to their own stand, then the question will arise that is Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar adding to their agenda of separatism, and if that is the case then what is the Congress party's stand?" BJP leader Nalin Kohli told ANI.

Kohli further said if an Indian citizen wants to meet someone, then it is up to them to think about the agenda of the meeting.

"But more important than who Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar is meeting, what is he going to discuss is more important thing. Because as far as the so called separatist leaders are there, the Hurriyat conference leaders they have so far not condemned the stone pelting, not condemned that the youth are being instigated in this direction, not condemned that the development are suffering, employment is suffering," he added.

Meanwhile, the Congress distanced itself from Aiyar's meeting with Hurriyat leaders, saying it never recognised those who are "unelectable and unrepresentative".

In an effort to resume dialogue with the stakeholders in Kashmir, five-member delegation led by Aiyar yesterday called on moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and discussed ways to calm down the protestors.

The delegation discussed the prevailing situation in the Valley and the necessary steps to be initiated for bringing peace in Kashmir, which has been marred by violent protests since July 2016.

Considering the situation very critical where students and youth have joined the protests, Aiyar insisted that the Central Government should hold dialogue with all the stakeholders in Kashmir as it would bring enduring solutions by bringing peace in the Valley as well as reduce tensions between India and Pakistan.

The five member delegation that includes O.P. Shah, Air Vice Marshal (retd.) Kapil Kak and Vinod Sharma, are likely to meet hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

Aiyar also showed his willingness to meet the pro-independence JKLF chief Yasin Malik, but he refused to meet the delegation.

The meetings with Hurriyat leaders assume significance after the group insisted that the Central Government should hold talks with Pakistan including separatists for resolution of the Kashmir issue.

It is pertinent to mention that a five-member delegation led by former external affairs minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha met Kashmiri hardliner Geelani in 2016 to break the ice between the centre and the Hurriyat leadership. But Geelani demanded release of all youth and separatist leaders as a pre-condition for talks.

The delegation stressed that Central Government must interact with Kashmiri people and assuage the feelings of the protesters to find a solution for the progress and development of the state.

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A group of terrorists attacked at Indian Army's patrolling party at Jammu and Kashmir's Saimooh village in Pulwama's Tral area on Friday.

The entire area has been cordoned off as the army and the police are conducitng combing operations. The operation is still underway.

Earlier in the day,the Indian Army recovered two bodies along with weapons including one AK 47 rifles and one pistol after foiling an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri Sector, the jawans gunned down two Border Action Team (BAT) terrorists.

On May 13, amid the ongoing firing by Pakistan along the Line of Control, an Indian Army patrol party was fired upon by terrorists in Pulwama's Tral area.

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A court in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) plea for questioning Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin in connection with journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case.

Shahabuddin is alleged to have had Ranjan---the bureau chief of a Hindi daily in Bihar---murdered on May 13 last year.

Five persons were arrested in connection with the case within a few days of the murder.

Shahabuddin has several other cases pending against him.

The CBI counsel submitted that it would soon file charge-sheet against Shahabuddin, who is currently lodged in high-security Tihar jail in New Delhi.

The premier investigating agency has already filed charge-sheet against seven accused persons in the case while two accused, Mohammad Javed and Mohammad Kaif, are on bail.

.

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Widening the area of investigation of the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections, the FBI is looking at the role of Donald Trump's son -in -law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner , who has been identified as a "person of interest'.

Federal investigators have been taking a closer look at the Trump's campaign and Points of focus that pertain to Kushner include: The Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation which was supervised by him; his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Kushner's own contacts with Russians , CNN reported.

Currently, there are no allegations that Kushner committed any wrongdoing but investigators believe that he will be able to assist the FBI in probe by providing information .

Kushner attorney, Jamie Gorelick said The FBI has not yet made any contact with Kushner but previously he himself volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings and he will assist if he is contacted in connection with the probe."

There are conflicting reports that Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump wanted Flynn as national security adviser .Kushner has also acknowledged meeting during the transition with Russian Ambassador and separately with the head of Russian bank but sanctions part was not at all discussed.

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According to latest revelations about the Manchester arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi, the accused carried out the horror as he wanted "revenge" for the injustices inflicted against Muslims.

According to media reports, Abedi was angry about the death of a friend, Abdul Wahab Hafidah, 18, who was run down by a car and then stabbed in Manchester.

Prosecutors argue the killing was gang-related and six men and a 15-year-old boy are on trial for the murder. But a family friend said Abedi viewed the crime as a hate crime.

His sister Jomana Abedi, 18, also told The Wall Street Journal, that her brother was a kind man who wanted "revenge" for injustices inflicted against Muslims.

"I think he saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere, and wanted revenge. He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge," she said.

The Independent reported that attacker reportedly called his mother and brother just 15 minutes before he blew himself up his mother to "forgive him".

His father and brother have now been arrested in Libya, with the latter confessing to know "all the details" of the terror plot.

Meanwhile, authorities have arrested a tenth man in relation to the bomb attack that killed 22 people this week.

The latest suspect was being held in the Moss Side area of the city in the early hours of Friday.

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Friday said that the Prime Minister Modi led government is a transparent and decisive government.

Addressing a press conference here to mark the first day of the M.O.D.I. (Making of Developed India) fest to celebrate the three years of Narendra Modi government, the BJP President outlined the various steps taken by the BJP led Democratic Alliance (NDA).

He said at the time of forming the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the new government would be transparent, decisive, pro poor, dalit, youth and women.

"After three years, the Modi government has fulfilled all those promises, said Shah, adding that "the BJP led Union Government has marginalized family politics, politics of appeasement and casteism in the country".

He said that the demonetisation was a bold step and thereafter the action against shell companies has eradicated the black money.

Citing the example of strong and decisive government, the BJP President said the Modi government's political will was behind the Indian Army's surgical strike against Pakistan.

He said around 40 lakh retired defence personnel had been demanding One Rank One Pension (OROP) since long but it was Modi government that implemented OROP and earmarked Rs 8000 crore in this regard.

The BJP leader said the Modi government had given the due respect to the backward classes by giving the Constitutional status to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Commission.

"Country's every family has been linked with economy by opening 28.52 crore bank accounts under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna," said Shah.

He said the India has become a global leader in the field of space by launching 108 satellites in a single day.

Terming the Modi government as a women friendly government, Shah pointed out that the Modi government has taken various steps for the welfare of women.

'For example, the Modi government extended maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks," Amit Shah said.

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Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar is likely to attend a lunch to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is scheduled to be to held tomorrow in the capital, in the honour of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Interestingly, Nitish on Friday missed the lunch organized by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which was attended by JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav.

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth is on a two-day visit to India beginning today.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Mauritius Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

This is Jugnauth's first abroad visit after taking over as the Prime Minister from his father, Anerood Jugnauth in January.

Shortly after landing, the Mauritius Prime Minister visited Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Besides this, the Mauritius Prime Minister will also hold delegation-level talks with his counterpart, which would also be attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Prime Minister Jugnauth will also address a business event in New Delhi, jointly organised by Charmers and Commerce of Industry (CII), FICCI and ASSOCHAM.

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Pakistan on Friday proposed to increase its defence budget to Rs. 920 billion, a hike of seven percent, during the government's federal budget announcement.

Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented the fifth budget of incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government with an estimated outlay of Rs 4.75 trillion.

"The defence budget allocation for 2017-18 has been increased to Rs. 920 billion," the Express tribune quoted Dar as saying.

Apart from that, Rs180 billion have been allocated for China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) related projects, even as the tensions with India have been increasing over the same.

Pakistan's National Assembly also proposed 31 new projects, including a new international airport, 200-bed hospital, 200MW power generation plant and a desalination plant in Gwadar port.

The Nawaz Sharif-led government has also allocated Rs. 45.6 billion for projects in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA area.

India considers PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan a part of its territory.

The finance minister said that the salaries of army officers have also been increased by 10 percent in addition to a 'special allowance' of over 10 percent on their income.

"Pensions of federal government employees and army personnel will be increased by 10 percent," Dar said.

Dar claimed that Pakistan would be one of the largest economies by 2020.

"Just four years ago, this extraordinary turnaround would have seemed impossible," Dawn quoted Dar as saying.

"International observers are cognisant of Pakistan's successes, and Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch have raised their ratings for the country," Dar claimed.

The proposed hike in defence budget comes in the wake of escalating tensions with India over ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) and the arrest of alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.

Last year, Islamabad recorded a 5.28 percent GDP growth and the volume of its economy crossed USD 300 billion.

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As the release date comes near, Priyanka Chopra is busy juggling between different chat shows to promote her Hollywood debut 'Baywatch'.

The 'Mary Kom' star recently made her first appearance at 'The Late Late Show' with James Corden and seemed to have 'such a fun' time there.

Joining her were guests Ed Helms and Kaya Scodelario Davis who is starring in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales'.

She posted a picture from the sets and wrote alongside, "@j_corden...you are too funny! Such a fun time on your show, especially with @edhelms @kayascods. Tune in to @latelateshow tonight!"

Priyanka also posted a picture with Chelsea Handler, the host with whom the actress always has the 'best time'.

"Thank you for having me back @chelseahandler. We always have the best time together!," read her caption.

In another picture, the 34-year-old is seen on the sets of an American talk show 'The Talk', which is hosted by Julie Chen.

Directed by Seth Gordon, 'Baywatch' also stars Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Jon Bass and Ilfenesh Hadera.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Dibrugarh on Friday to inaugurate Dhola-Sadiya Bridge in Assam's Tinsukia district, the nation's longest bridge, besides other projects.

He will also address a public meeting where he is expected to speak about the three years of his government.

Earlier, in a series of tweets, he described the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge as one of the most important infrastructure projects to be undertaken in India.

He also congratulated Sarbananda Sonwal for completing one year in office as Assam's Chief Minister.

Chief Minister Sonowal received the prime minister at the Mohanbari Airport in Dibrugarh from where he proceeded to the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge for the inauguration ceremony.

The bridge has been constructed across the River Brahmaputra and connects Dhola with Sadiya in upper Assam's Tinsukia district.

The bridge is longer than Mumbai's Bandra-Worli Sealink by 3.55 kilometers, and has been created to carry T-72 tanks.

According to reports, to cross over to Sadiya near the Lohit border in Arunachal, will take 30-minutes, reducing the travel time by four hours.

After the inauguration, Prime Minister Modi is expected to proceed to Gogamukh in Northern Assam's Dhemaji district to lay the foundation stone for Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). He will then leave for Guwahati at around 1.50 p.m., where he will lay the foundation stone of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the first such institute come up in the Northeast.

The proposed medical college will come up at Changsari in Kamrup (Rural) district, 28.5 kilometers from Guwahati.

He will conclude his visit to the state by addressing a rally at Khanpara on the achievements of his government over the last three years.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will undertake a four-nation tour of Germany, Spain, Russia and France beginning May 29 with an aim to bolster counter-terrorism cooperation with these countries and invite investments in India.

Prime Minister will travel to Germany on May 29 for the 4th Indo-German Inter-governmental Consultations and Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel will host PM Modi at her official Mossberg Country Retreat where the two leaders will have extensive talks on bilateral, global matters and issues of mutual interest. France is a strategic partner of India. Make in India programme has pushed India-France ties to a next level as there are 1600 German companies in India along with 600 Indo-German joint ventures.

SPAIN

Modi will leave Germany for Spain on May 30. He will meet President of Spain Mariano Rajoy and discuss bilateral and other matters of mutual interest.PM will be calling on King Felipe VI of Spain. He will attend a round-table interaction with leading Spanish business leaders to invite investments in India.

RUSSIA

PM Modi will be on a three-day visit to St Petersburg in Russia beginning May 31 to June 02. On the first day , Prime Minister will be having his bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin where both the leaders will discuss ways to enhance ties in trade, defence and nuclear sector.Under the 'Strategic Partnership' PM Modi will invite foreign firms to share technology with local players relating to defence equipment to be manufactured in India. PM Modi is likely to raise India's concerns over the China's One Belt One Road initiative.

On the second day, PM and Indian delegation will be participating in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which will be attended by thousands of business leaders from across the globe.The strategic partnership established in the year 2000 was raised to the level of Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in the year 2010. Ever since Russia is the only country with which India have annual summits.

Moscow and New Delhi are in talks over finalization of the general framework agreement for units 5 and 6 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant in Tamil Nadu. Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry's Eurasia division G V Srinivas said "the work is in progress" and added "I do not want to steal the thunder of the meeting."

FRANCE

Modi will visit France on June 2 and 3. He will hold extensive talks with President Emmanuel Macron on June 3 to strengthen Paris-New Delhi ties. The two leaders are also like to discuss terrorism, nuclear cooperation besides trade ties.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed his deep condolence over the demise of K.P.S. Gill, saying the former Punjab director general of police (DGP) will be remembered for his service to the nation in the fields of policing and security.

"KPS Gill will be remembered for his service to our nation in the fields of policing & security. Pained by his demise. My condolences," the Prime Minister said in a tweet.

Pained by Gill's passing away, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also expressed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.

"Saddened to learn of Shri KPS Gill's demise. Known for his bravery and courage he always inspired others by leading from the front. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of Shri KPS Gill. May God give them strength to bear this loss," Rajnath tweeted.

Political leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh also condoled Gill's death.

The Congress president expressed grief at the passing away of Gill, saying he will be remembered for his steadfast fight against terrorism and restoration of peace and normalcy in Punjab.

"Sad loss. #KPSGill contribution in fighting terrorism and restoring peace to Punjab cannot be forgotten. My prayers with bereaved family," Captain Amarinder tweeted.

Raman Singh also condoled Gill's death and tweeted, "Deeply saddened by the passing away of Shri KPS Gill, former DGP of Punjab. May the departed soul rest in peace."

Earlier in the day, Gill, 82, passed away due to cardiac arrhythmia at the Sri Ganga Ram Hospital in the capital.

As per doctors, Gill was suffering from End-Stage Kidney Failure and significant Ischemic Heart Disease. He was recovering from Peritonitis.

Popularly known as the 'Lion of Punjab', Gill served twice as the DGP of Punjab and is credited for wiping off Khalistan terrorism from Punjab.

He received Padma Shri award, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 1989 for his work in the civil service and has also served as the Security Advisor to Chhattisgarh government in 2006.

Gill was known as the "supercop" for his extraordinary work in Punjab, when he was serving as the DGP of Punjab from 1988 to 1990 and then again from 1991 until his retirement from the Indian Police Service in 1995.

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With Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi being denied permission to visit Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh tomorrow, Uttar Pradesh ADG Law and Order Aditya Mishra has requested all political parties to steer clear of the violence-hit area until the situation returns to normal.

"We have requested all political parties not to visit the state until the situation is brought back to normal in Saharanpur." Mishra told ANI.

Mishra further stated that to ensure safe environment in the state, several measures are being taken like prohibiting political visits.

In the wake of clashes between two communities in Saharanpur, yesterday, the Yogi Adityanath Government Thursday transferred 174 Sub-Divisional Magistrates.

The MHA also asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to submit report on the recent worrisome clashes in Saharanpur.

Earlier, Saharanpur District Magistrate Nagendra Parsad Singh was sacked after he was unable to control the clashes between two communities in the area.

Fresh clashes occurred on Tuesday after Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati's visit to Saharanpur, where one person was killed and several others were injured.

The State Government also announced to give compensation of Rs. 15 lakh to relatives of the person, who was killed during this incident.

On May 5, one person was killed and 16 people, including a head constable, were injured in clashes between the Dalits and the Rajputs in Shabbirpur and Simlana villages.

Reports said that the police stopped the Maharana Pratap procession after some Dalits informed the police. This angered Rajputs, who allegedly resorted to violence.

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The Rajasthan Police has assured that legal action was taken by the local cops at the time when Sikh men were allegedly beaten up by local residents of Chainpura in Ajmer district.

Speaking to ANI here, Senior police officer of Rajasthan, Rajendra Singh Rathore said, "A video went viral following which the incident was reported. This happened around one month back and at the time, the police reached the spot to take control of situation and necessary action was taken."

In a 51-second video, four members of Sikh community were seen being abused and thrashed by a mob as people witnessing the incident filmed the entire episode.

According to reports, the four Sikh men to from Alwar district had visited the village to collect donation.

The local residents then beat them up alleging that they molested their women.

Those involved in the assault were arrested under the Indian Penal Code section 151 (knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons after it has been commanded to disperse).

However, according to police, the Sikh men were not found involved in any kind of molestation and were asked to file a cross FIR against those who thrashed them but apparently did not do so.

According to reports, the four accused were arrested and released on bail.

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Amidst a spat over intelligence leaks, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make his first official visit to Britain on Friday to reaffirm Washington's commitment to London.

Tillerson is scheduled to meet British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, "in an expression of UK-US solidarity following the terrorist attack in Manchester earlier this week," said a Foreign Office statement.

The two officials are likely to discuss a range of issues that include foreign policy; future action on terrorism; the UK's upcoming general election on June 8; and the improvement of trade ties as the UK looks to strengthen its hand in its Brexit withdrawal negotiations, reports the CNN.

Tillerson and Johnson will also sign a condolence book for the victims of the Manchester attack.

The visit comes after senior UK officials lambasted the US over a series of intelligence leaks to U.S. media of details surrounding the Manchester bombing investigation.

United States President Donald Trump expressed regret over the leaked information and has reportedly ordered the Justice department to launch an investigation into the incident.

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Looks like a ray of hope can be seen for the patients suffering from early stage oropharyngeal carcinoma (cancer of the mouth, neck and throat), in form of robotic surgery.

Fortis Memorial Research Institute (FMRI) piloted a first of its kind study on the oropharyngeal cancer patients

Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) was conducted on 57 patients, under the leadership of Dr Surender Dabas, director, head, neck and thorax surgical oncology, FMRI. This surgical technique is instrumental in healing patients suffering from HPV negative cancers, which are caused mostly due to tobacco consumption.

A study, published in 'Oral Oncology' journal, was conducted between March 2013 to October 2015 on 57 patients suffering from early stage (I&II) oropharyngeal carcinoma, who underwent TORS robotic surgery.

Out of these 57 patients, 48 were males and nine were females, who underwent TORS. When presented, the mean age of the 57 patients was 59.4 years. The most common site of involvement was the base of tongue (BOT) in 31 (54.8 percent) patients. Twenty-four (42.1 percent) patients were stage I and 33 (57.9 percent) were Stage II at presentation. Forty-three (89.6 percent) patients were disease free with an overall survival of 93.8 percent at a mean follow-up of 29 months.

In TORS, the arms of the robot are strategically placed inside the mouth of the patient. The main advantage of TORS is, it allows the surgeon access, via the mouth, those areas that his/her hands probably couldn't reach.

TORS is a relatively new approach to remove cancers from areas in the throat that are difficult to access, including the base of tongue and low down in the bottom of the tonsil. These two areas, along with other parts of the oropharynx (soft palate, posterior oropharynx wall), remain the main tumour sites for which TORS is used.

Speaking at the conference, a cancer survivor, 76-year-old Amalkanti Bhowmik explained how opting for Robotic surgery proved a boon for him.

"I developed difficulty in swallowing food and soon even water in March this year. When my family took me to a doctor, an endoscopy revealed a lesion inside my throat. Subsequently, samples were sent for biopsy which confirmed stage I cancer of the Larynx (voice box). We went to several doctors thereafter to and most gave us the option of radiation followed by surgery, due to my age. However, we knew that the outcome of radiation would have led to further deterioration in my . It was then that a nephew practicing medicine in UK recommended robotic surgery for my cancer. I have been disease free since my surgery and have been recovering well for my age," he said

Dr Dabas said, "In comparison to HPV negative cancers HPV positive cancers are more responsive to chemotherapy and radiation treatment. In India majority (nearly 70 percent) of all oropharyngeal cancers are HPV negative. This is the reason that TORS is a viable treatment option of HPV negative cancers. In order to avoid the side effects of undergoing a traditional open surgery, if the cancer has been caught at an early stage, TORS is adopted. Posing significant benefits to the patients, it prevents functional impairments to speech and swallowing. It is a fast surgery and precise, intricate and intensive in its execution. The amount of blood loss and the recovery time required post the operation is remarkably minimal. As this method can be implemented without prior chemo therapy, it allows the patient to be free of any toxicity associated with the same."

Dr Simmardeep Singh Gill, zonal director, FMRI said, "This is a first-of-its-kind single institutional prospective study which evaluated the functional outcome and oncological outcome in early stage HPV negative carcinoma. This has been made possible by Dr Surender Dabas, who is one of the few surgeons who has conducted close to 500 robot-aided surgeries for head and neck cancer in India.

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United States President Donald Trump expressed regret over the leaked information in regard to the deadly Manchester terror attack on Thursday.

Fox News reported the statement released by the White House saying, "These leaks have been going on for a long time and my Administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security."

"There is no relationship we cherish more than the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom," Trump said in the statement and promised that his administration would get to the bottom of the matter.

President Trump also reportedly ordered the Justice department to launch investigation into the leaks from the Manchester blasts.

The UK Government has expressed its anger after U.S. newspaper New York Times published photos showing the scene of the Manchester Arena attack that left 22 dead and several others injured.

The photos were also consequently published in the UK media.

UK Prime Minister, Theresa May's office released a statement ahead of her meet with the US President at Brussels saying that May will "make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure."

Politico confirmed that May rebuked the leaks and reported that senior UK official saying, "The prime minister expressed her view that the intelligence sharing relationship with the U.S. is hugely important and valuable but obviously the intelligence needs to be kept secure.

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Rejecting a resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives condemning last week's clash outside the Turkish embassy in Washington D.C., Ankara said it "distorts the facts".

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu called the resolution "one-sided" and said it "distorts the facts", reports Anadolu news agency.

"We reject the resolution in question," he added.

Muftuoglu said the May 16 incident that occurred during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu came "as a result of the refusal of U.S. authorities to take necessary security measures, despite repeated official warnings."

"There is no answer to the question why the U.S. authorities did not take proper security measures in front of the Embassy residence as they did in other stages of the visit," Muftuoglu added.

The resolution passed by the U.S. committee calls for charging and prosecuting Turkish security officials under U.S. law, and urges efforts to prevent future incidents.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the U.S. ambassador to Ankara in protest against the "aggressive and unprofessional actions" of U.S. law enforcement officials towards the foreign minister's security detail outside the Embassy residence.

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Ensure that the increased availability of credit is passed on to the customers by lowering their costs

Telecommunication services presently attract Service Tax of 14% along with Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC) of 0.5% and Krishi Kalyan Cess (KKC) of 0.5%. While Service Tax is a pure value added tax, the above mentioned cesses are not. This is the reason that while no ITC (Input Tax Credit) of SBC is available, the ITC of KKC is allowed to be set-off only against KKC. Therefore, both the cesses are turn-over tax.

As against the above, the Telecommunication Services will attract GST of 18% in the GST regime, which is a pure Value Added Tax because full ITC of Inputs and Input Services used in the course or furtherance of business by the telecommunication service providers would be available.

Moreover, presently Telecom Service providers are neither eligible for credit of VAT paid on goods nor of Special Additional Duty (SAD) paid on imported goods/equipments. However, under GST, Telecom Service Providers would avail credit of IGST paid on domestically procured goods as also imported goods. As per some estimates, this additional Input Tax Credit would be as much as 2% of the turnover of the telecom industry. Further, ITC of Service Tax paid on assignment of spectrum by the Government in 2016 is presently allowed to be availed of by the telecommunication companies over a period of 3 years. In the GST regime, the entire credit can be taken in the same year. Resultantly, the balance two-third credit of the previous year would be admissible in the Current Financial Year itself. All of these would reduce the telecom companies' liability to pay GST through cash to about 87% of what they paid in the last fiscal.

Thus, the telecom companies are required to re-work their costing and credits availability and re-jig their prices and ensure that the increased availability of credit is passed on to the customers by lowering their costs.

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Sales decline 49.21% to Rs 0.97 crore

Net profit of Bombay Cycle & Motor Agency declined 31.25% to Rs 0.22 crore in the quarter ended March 2017 as against Rs 0.32 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2016. Sales declined 49.21% to Rs 0.97 crore in the quarter ended March 2017 as against Rs 1.91 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2016.

For the full year,net profit declined 27.27% to Rs 1.20 crore in the year ended March 2017 as against Rs 1.65 crore during the previous year ended March 2016. Sales declined 19.92% to Rs 6.03 crore in the year ended March 2017 as against Rs 7.53 crore during the previous year ended March 2016. ParticularsQuarter EndedYear EndedMar. 2017Mar. 2016% Var.Mar. 2017Mar. 2016% Var.Sales0.971.91 -49 6.037.53 -20 OPM %15.4614.14 -16.4219.52 - PBDT0.400.54 -26 1.892.56 -26 PBT0.370.50 -26 1.762.41 -27 NP0.220.32 -31 1.201.65 -27

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Cipla reported consolidated net loss of Rs 61.79 crore in Q4 March 2017 compared with loss of Rs 92.83 crore in Q4 March 2016. Total income rose 6.84% to Rs 3604.79 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

ITC, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries will announce Q4 results today, 26 May 2017.

Tata Power Renewable Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power company has successfully issued Guaranteed, Unsecured, Non-Cumulative, Redeemable, Taxable, Listed, Rated Non-Convertible Debentures of Rs 500 crore on private placement basis. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

Infosys and HP Inc. yesterday, 25 May 2017 launched joint Retail Point of Sale (RPOS) and Enterprise Device as a Service (DaaS) solutions to help businesses accelerate digital transformation as part of the HP Global System Integrator (GSI) Alliance Program. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

The joint RPOS solution offers a digital approach across the supply chain, enabling real-time collaboration between shoppers, retailers and vendors at the point of purchase, providing a true omnichannel experience. The joint Enterprise Device as a Service solution defines and delivers technologyenabled transformations that optimize how organizations acquire, manage and use devices with end-to-end services, enterprise applications, fleet reporting, analytics, insights and more.

TTK Prestige announced that the board of directors of the company in a meet on 30 May 2017 will consider share buyback. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

NMDC's net profit rose 11.5% to Rs 511.88 crore on 87.69% rise in total income from operations to Rs 2871.98 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

HeidelbergCement India's net profit rose 49.25% to Rs 37.03 crore on 14.05% rise in total income to Rs 542.38 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

UPL and Sinagro Group, a Brazilian company in the state of Matto Grosso, comprising of (i) Sinagro Produtos Agropecuios S.A and (ii) 3SB Produtos Agrolas S.A. has obtained necessary approval for an agreement and has consequentially completed a transaction in terms of the agreement in which UPL through its step down wholly owned subsidiary has subscribed to additional 9% shares in Sinagro Group, so as to increase its interest in the Sinagro Group share capital from 40% to 49%. Sinagro Group based out of Primavera de Leste in the state of Mato Grosso, is one of the leading distributors of farm inputs in the Cerrado region of Brazil and is also in the business of agricultural production and trading of grains. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA has been granted final approval by the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for Olmesartan Medoxomil Tablets, 5 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg, the generic version of Benicar Tablets, 5 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg, of Daiichi Sankyo, Inc. Glenmark's Olmesartan Medoxomil Tablets will be manufactured by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals in its manufacturing facility located in Goa, India.

According to IMS Health sales data for the 12 month period ended March 2017, the Benicar Tablets, 5 mg, 20 mg and 40 mg market achieved annual sales of approximately $950.0 million in US. The announcement was made before market hours today, 26 May 2017.

Mphasis and DXC Technology announced a new solution partner relationship to tranform and modernize enterprise applications for public, private and hybrid cloud. The announcement was made before market hours today, 26 May 2017.

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FICCI will also sign an MoU with PIDF to strengthen collaboration between India and the Pacific Islands countries

India engages with the Pacific Island Countries on a wide range of issues including climate change. Forum for India Pacific Islands Co-operation (FIPIC) was formed in November 2014, to strengthen India's relationship with the Pacific Island Countries. The first FIPIC summit was held at the level of Heads of Government in November 2014 in Suva, Fiji, followed by the FIPIC-II summit held in August 2015, in Jaipur, India.

Blue Economy has increasingly occupied a central place in international discourse on oceanic affairs.

Blue Economy needs to secure sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems, while achieving inclusive economic growth, said Ambassador Anup Mudgal, Member, FICCI Task Force on Blue Economy & Former Indian High Commissioner to Mauritius.

There is a need for these island nations a balanced approach, combining imperatives for growth and sustainability. The focus of the sessions would be to stress on the value of Public-Private Partnership for generating additional investment, deploying technology for optimal development of Blue Economic opportunities for India Inc and its international partners and capacity building including MSME development, education and a skills repository.

Following Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi's policy initiative 'SAGAR' - Security and Growth for All in the Region, FICCI has created a Special Task Force on Blue Economy to explore India's business engagement with ocean neighbours.

The Task Force has had several stakeholder consultations throughout India especially coastal areas to understand the economic potential of Blue Economy.

The potential for economic ties with FIPIC will be explored during

FICCI will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF). PIDF is Pacific's first and truly representative and participatory platform with a mission to enable Green-Blue Pacific economies through inclusive strategies, multi-stakeholder governance, and genuine partnerships. The MoU aims to strengthen India's economic and strategic engagement with the Pacific Islands countries and promote trade and investment relations, exchange of information, cooperate in identifying and discussing areas with export/import potential amongst many others.

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OPEC's decision to extend production cuts by nine months should provide some support for oil prices around the average year-to-date levels and help digest a significant part of excessive inventories during the rest of the year, Fitch Ratings says. However, a production surplus could return in 2018 if the deal is not rolled over again, as new projects continue to come online and US shale production is set to grow.

The extension, which also includes Russia and other non-OPEC countries, was widely expected and had already been factored into oil prices. Brent slipped below USD53/bbl after of the agreement broke.

We believe average annual prices for the year are likely to remain around USD50-55/bbl for Brent, given impressive US shale production growth, and potentially worse compliance with the output cuts than in 1H17. US production could be up to 800-1,000mbpd higher year on year by end-2017. This is half of the roughly 1,800mbpd taken off the market by the OPEC-led cuts.

The deal originally agreed in November 2016 has had mixed results. Compliance rates among OPEC members have been unprecedentedly high, and based on IEA data for 1Q17 global consumption exceeded production by 300mbpd.

But there has been little visible impact on excess stocks, as the deficit has probably been covered, largely from less transparent non-OECD and floating storage.

We estimate that in 2H17 the deficit could average 600-800mbpd. However, it may be lower if demand underwhelms, OPEC compliance deteriorates significantly, US production growth proves more robust, or if Libya and Nigeria are able to increase production faster than expected.

OPEC's appetite to extend cuts further into 2018 may be reduced if crude stocks remain resilient and market prices subdued. OPEC could decide to return production to pre-cut levels as the cartel may not want to lose its market share and look to raise revenues through volumetric growth.

Fitch's base case expectation is that the market will gradually recover, leading to Brent crude market prices in the mid-USD50 range in 2018 and at around USD60 in 2019. This is likely to come from a combination of steady demand growth and an improvement in crude stocks.

Non-shale non-OPEC production, which has been resilient so far, is likely to require material reinvestment in new and existing projects over the coming years. Long-term oil prices will depend on whether US shale, with its short investment cycle, will be able to fill any potential supply gaps in 2019-2020. Our current long-term assumption is USD65/bbl for Brent.

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Key benchmark indices surged on broad-based buying support. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, up 278.18 points or 0.90% to 31,028.21, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index rose 85.35 points or 0.90% to 9,595.10, as per the provisional closing data. The Sensex and the Nifty, both, hit their record high levels in late trade.

The Sensex provisionally settled above the psychologically important 31,000 mark after crossing that level in intraday trade. The Nifty provisionally settled below the psychologically important 9,600 mark after hitting that level in intraday trade. Gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) and ITC boosted key benchmarks higher.

The Sensex and the Nifty, both, hit their record high levels in late trade. The Sensex rose 324.04 points, or 1.05% at the day's high of 31,074.07 in late trade, its record high level. The index fell 4.46 points, or 0.01% at the day's low of 30,745.57 in early trade. The Nifty rose 95.15 points, or 1% at the day's high of 9,604.90 in late trade, its record high level. The index fell 14.35 points, or 0.15% at the day's low of 9,495.40 in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index provisionally rose 2.06%. The BSE Small-Cap index provisionally rose 1.60%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,809 shares rose and 858 shares fell. A total of 181 shares were unchanged.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3811.93 crore, higher than turnover of Rs 3398.89 crore registered during the previous trading session.

Cigarette major ITC rose 2.14% to Rs 306.10 after net profit rose 12.13% to Rs 2669.47 crore on 6.2% growth in total income to Rs 15410.92 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The result was announced during market hours today, 26 May 2017. The stock hit a high of Rs 313.40 and a low of Rs 300 in intraday trade.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 2.69% to Rs 1,338. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,344.05 and a low of Rs 1,301 in intraday trade.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries lost 4.44% to Rs 565.55, with the stock extending recent sharp slide ahead of the company's Q4 earnings today, 26 May 2017.

Metal shares were in demand. Jindal Steel & Power (up 5.57%), Tata Steel (up 5.57%), Hindalco Industries (up 4.77%), Bhushan Steel (up 4.58%), Vedanta (up 4.32%), JSW Steel (up 3.89%), Steel Authority of India (up 3.68%), Hindustan Zinc (up 3.07%), Hindustan Copper (up 3.02%) and National Aluminium Company (up 2.55%), edged higher.

NMDC fell 0.72% to Rs 116.65. NMDC's net profit rose 11.5% to Rs 511.88 crore on 87.69% rise in total income from operations to Rs 2871.98 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 25 May 2017.

Meanwhile, copper price edged lower in the global commodities markets. High Grade Copper for July 2017 delivery was currently down 0.21% at $2.592 per pound on the COMEX.

Meanwhile on the national front, the Indian Army today, 26 May 2017, reportedly said its troops foiled an attack by Pakistan's Border Action Team (BAT) on a patrol party along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of Kashmir, killing two militants. The BAT attack was effectively repulsed, the official said.

Overseas, Asian ended on a mixed note while most European stocks were trading lower as a slump in crude prices spoiled global risk appetite. In the global commodities markets, Brent crude oil futures fell overnight as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) extended the production cut, but was silent on a long term plan.

Brent for July 2017 settlement was up 36 cents at $51.82 a barrel. The contract fell $2.50 a barrel or 4.63% to settle at $51.46 a barrel in the previous trading session.

OPEC and some non-OPEC members agreed yesterday, 25 May 2017 to extend oil supply cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day for a further nine months in a bid to stem sliding prices.

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At least 23 people were killed and 25 injured when gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt on Friday, the state media reported.

The incident occurred in Minya province, about 220 km south of the capital Cairo, as the bus headed to the St. Samuel Monastery.

Ambulances dispatched from the cities of Beni Suef and Minya were transporting victims to local hospitals in Adwa, Minya, Maghagha, according to local news outlet Youm7.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, which followed Islamic State-claimed bombings that killed at least 46 people at churches in Tanta and Alexandria last month.

--IANS

soni/bg

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Indonesian police on Friday arrested three suspects in connection with the Islamic-State claimed twin suicide bomb attacks that rocked a bus terminal in the Indonesian capital, killing five people.

Three policemen died in the attacks that occurred on Wednesday at Jakarta's Kampung Melayu bus station.

"Yes, we have arrested three people. Their initials are JIS, WS and AK," East Java Police spokesperson Yusri Yunus told EFE.

"We are still examining the crime scene," he added. "So far, we have gathered evidence such as mobile phones, personal documents and eyewitness accounts."

The suspects were arrested in the city of Bandung, located 149 km southeast of Bangkok, and other locations in East Java province.

The Islamic State terror organisation on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack through its news agency Amaq.

Several embassies and the delegation of the European Union in Indonesia and Brunei condemned the attack and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

The double bombing was the latest in a series of violent attacks in Indonesia in recent months, all of which were claimed by the IS.

--IANS

soni/dg

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A local court on Friday remanded the three Pakistan nationals held for staying illegally with fake identities in the city to 14-day police custody till June 9 for interrogation.

"The First Additional Magistrate Court judge remanded the four accused, including their Indian accomplice to 14-day police custody to ascertain their purpose of entering India and staying in the city over the last nine months illegally," Bengaluru Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) S. Ravi told reporters here.

The Pakistani trio from Karachi -- Khasif Shamshuddin, his wife Kiron Gulam Ali, their friend Sameera Abdul Rehman -- and her Indian husband Mohammed Sihad from Kochi in coastal Kerala were arrested on Thursday after they were found staying in a rented house in the southern suburb under fake identities.

The city crime branch learnt that Sihad married Sameera while he was working in Qatar in the Gulf region two years ago despite opposition from her parents.

The four accused reached Patna in Bihar after crossing the Indo-Nepal border from Kathmandu a year ago. They came to Nepal from Qatar via Muscat in Oman.

A case has been registered against the accused under the relevant sections of the Passport Act and the Foreigners' Act.

--IANS

str/fb/vgu/

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An Indian Army patrol was attacked by the Pakistan Army's Border Action Team (BAT) in Uri sector near the Line of Control on Friday, in which two BAT personnel were killed, army sources said.

The operation is still on, the sources added.

--IANS

ao/rn

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BJP national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, the party's West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh and Rajya Sabha member Rupa Ganguly, among others, were presented before a city court on Friday, a day after the party activists clashed with the police here during a protest march.

They were taken to Bankshall Court, along with over a hundred BJP activists.

Around 141 people, including prominent BJP leaders, were arrested on Thursday during a protest march that turned parts of the city hub into war zones, and left over 50 BJP workers and 21 police personnel injured.

One police vehicle was torched, and a number of government and private cars were damaged in the violence.

While the BJP claimed 200 of its workers were injured and accused the police of "unprovoked attacks" by roping in state's ruling Trinamool Congress cadres, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rejected allegations of police excesses. Instead, she accused the BJP of unleashing violence.

--IANS

sgh/ssp/nir/vt

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German luxury car manufacturer Audi India has commenced a discount offer on its entire range of vehicles ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh, dealer sources said on Friday.

According to the German luxury car manufacturer, it has commenced offers on sales and service on the entire range of its product offerings with immediate effect until the end of June, 2017.

The company, however, did not divulge or confirm the rate of discounts it has offered.

--IANS

rv/vt

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A court here on Friday granted bail to all senior BJP leaders including its national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh, and Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly, but remanded seven party workers to police custody till Monday in connection with disturbances during its protest here a day back.

A total of 135 Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and workers were presented before the Bankshall Court, a day after the party's activists clashed with security personnel here during a protest march to the city police headquarters Lalbazar.

All the BJP leaders and workers were arrested on Thursday and spent the night in the Lalbazar police lock up.

State BJP secretary Locket Chatterjee, a former actress, also secured bail.

Altogether 128 BJP leaders and workers were bailed out on Friday, but seven others were remanded to police custody till May 29 for their alleged involvement in specific cases relating to destruction of public property, rioting and hurling bombs.

Moving the bail plea, the defence counsel said no bombs were seized from the arrested workers. They were arrested first, and the bombs seized only later.

Wondering why the workers - if they at all wanted to create lawlessness - would burst only one bomb, counsel said it was a political agitation, but police carried out a "ruthless" baton charge.

"The police claim bricks were thrown at them, but they have made no such seizure. There is no evidence that those seven protesters were throwing bombs," counsel said.

Opposing the bail prayer, the public prosecutor said for maintenance of law and order, the protestors were arrested first, as the topmost priority of the police is to save people's lives.

The prosecutor said the accused were detained after the incident, but the case was started only after a specific enquiry.

"There are several non-bailable sections. So those under such sections need to be interrogated to go into the depth of the case," he added.

After listening to both sides, the judge sent the seven workers to police remand and gave bail to 128 others including the top leaders.

--IANS

sgh-ssp/vd

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The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) will announce the Class 12 results on Sunday, the board said on Friday.

The results will be announced online and can be accessed on -- www.results.nic.in, www.cbseresults.nic.in and www.cbse.nic.in

The results are coming out after an ongoing controversy over the board's moderation policy.

The CBSE had proposed scrapping the policy on April 25 that entailed according extra marks to students as compensation for tough, inarticulate, confusing questions.

However, when the matter reached the Delhi High court, it shot down the proposal, saying the rules cannot be changed at the eleventh hour.

--IANS

vn/pgh/vt

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Taormina (Italy), May 26 (IANS/AKI) Officials expect tough talks at the G7 summit in Sicily on Friday and Saturday between US President Donald Trump and other leaders of the world's wealthiest nations on a raft of issues from climate and trade to security, migration, North Korea and Russia.

"We will demand results at the G7. It won't be an easy meeting," said Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni ahead of the summit. The Italian G7 presidency has made migration a priority for this year's talks and is eager for rich nations to stem the influx by boosting their aid to Africa's economic development.

The two-day summit opened at the picturesque coastal resort of Taormina with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theatre perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, where warships patrolled Mediterranean amid a massive security lockdown.

A day earlier, Trump slammed NATO allies in Brussels, accusing them of "owing massive amounts of money" to the US - although contributions to the military alliance are voluntary. He also deplored German trade policies at a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, saying Germany's export prowess was "bad", EU and US officials confirmed on Friday.

"No doubt this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years," European Council president Donald Tusk said before the meeting opened. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told journalists travelling to Taormina aboard Air Force One that he foresaw "robust" discussions on trade and climate at the summit.

Other G7 leaders at the summit will be trying to convince Trump, who has called human-made global warming a "hoax", not to pull his country out of a landmark climate deal reached in Paris in 2015.

The G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the US, and the EU also has representatives. Russia was expelled from the group in 2014 after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

Tusk said on Friday he was less "optimistic" and "sentimental" on Russia than Trump, who urged better ties with Moscow during his election campaign and whose presidency has been clouded by investigations into his campaign's contacts with Russian officials.

The G7 summit brings Trump's first foreign trip as US president to a close. The four-nation tour aimed at galvanising support for action against Islamist terrorism included Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Italy, Belgium and the Vatican.

--IANS/AKI

vd

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China on Friday said the Dalai Lama has no right to change the rituals and processes, set by the Chinese government, for appointing his successor.

Reacting to the Tibetan spiritual leader's remarks that his incarnation cannot be born in a place where "there is no freedom", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a briefing, "The title of Dalai Lama is given by the central government. There are fixed set of religious rituals and processes and these cannot be changed by one individual."

"As for the reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama reincarnation is concerned, the competent departments of the government have talked about it and have also issued a white paper. The 14th Dalai Lama is also clear about this," Lu said.

"The 14th Dalai Lama was also enthroned under the representatives of the Republic of China at that time," he added.

China calls the 14th Dalai Lama a separatist who has been demanding autonomy in Tibet. The Tibetan spiritual leader fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and has been living there since then.

--IANS

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The Delhi government has taken up several measures on war footing to prevent water-logging during the monsoon, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said here on Friday.

Sisodia said inputs would be taken from public before preparing an action plan, and senior officials would make personal visits to review desilting and other major preparatory works.

"We've given time till June 7 to officers to identify vulnerable areas in the city where water-logging happens every year after taking feedback from public," the Deputy Chief Minister said.

The list will be uploaded on the government website by June 7 and an action plan will be made after taking suggestions from public, according to him.

"We are also working on a mechanism through which public can send photos and details of water-logging if it happens despite our efforts," Sisodia said.

The government will also set up a helpline number by June 12, through which people can share their grievances about water-logging.

"As roads and drains are managed by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Public Works Department (PWD), a joint committee of MCD and PWD officials, with PWD Secretary as Chairman, has been formed to carry out the preparatory works," the Deputy Chief Minister said.

"At places where MCD and PWD drains meet, there is always a blame game over whose responsibility it is to clean the drain," he said.

Now, the government had asked the joint committee to identify such areas in the city and fix them first to avoid such blame game in the future, Sisodia said

"Wherever major desilting works are happening under PWD, the PWD Secretary has to personally visit the spot. Chief Minister himself will be visiting different areas during the monsoon," he added.

--IANS

nkh/nir/dg

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The Delhi Police launched 10 anti-terror 'Parakram' vans on Friday, each carrying five commandos armed with assault rifles, to provide round-the-clock security in high footfall areas of the national capital.

The five commandos, all trained by the National Security Guard, who will man each van include a driver and a team in-charge.

'Parakram' personnel will act as a first response team in case of a terror attack until reinforcements arrive.

"Parakram vans will be deployed at Vijay Chowk, Palika Bazar, IP Marg, Saket Select City Mall, Vasant Kunj Mall, Pacific Mall (Subhash Nagar), Market/Mall Complex (Netaji Subhash Place), Akshardham temple, Lotus temple, and Jhandewalan," Special Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak said.

"Commandos dressed in fatigues will be armed with AK-47 assault rifles," he added.

The 'Parakram' vans were flagged off by Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik at the Delhi Police Headquarters here around 12.30 p.m.

"Around 200 commandos have been trained for the project and will work in three shifts to provide round-the-clock protection," Pathak told IANS.

All 'Parakram' vans are GPRS-enabled and will be tracked by the Police Control Room.

The first batch of 'Parakram' vans is part of a pilot project that will be extended to more locations after assessment of its success, Pathak added.

--IANS

nkh/tsb/vt

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has refused Congress' request to turn over the memos that sacked Director James Comey wrote in which he detailed his interactions with President Donald Trump.

Both the House Oversight Committee and the Intelligence Committee requested the memos in early May after The New York Times reported that Comey noted in one of them that Trump had asked him to end the investigation into the links his former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, had had with Russia.

In a letter to Republican committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, the FBI's assistant director for congressional affairs, Gregory Brower, on Thursday said the agency cannot turn over the memo until it consults with Robert Mueller, the newly appointed special counsel heading the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, Efe news reported.

After Mueller's appointment "and other considerations" the FBI is conducting "appropriate consultations" to ensure that "all relevant interests implicated by your request are properly evaluated", Brower said.

The FBI official added, though, that the bureau will update the committee "as soon as possible".

In response to the letter, Chaffetz on Thursday repeated the committee's demand to be provided with the memos by June 8.

"Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the special counsel's investigation," Chaffetz said.

"I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decision - to produce these documents to the committee immediately and on a voluntary basis," he added.

Congress, simultaneously with different federal agencies, is conducting several investigations to determine possible coordination between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin to interfere in the presidential election to hurt the chances of Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this week, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan told Congress that Russia "brazenly" interfered in the US election process.

He confirmed that Russian officials made contact with Trump's team, although he said he was unable to confirm if - in the final analysis - there had been collusion between them with an eye toward ensuring Clinton's defeat.

--IANS

ksk

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The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday said it has arrested four persons in connection with a murder and gang rape of four women of a family near Jewar.

"The Special Task Force (STF) arrested four persons today (Friday) morning for killing a scrap dealer and gang raping his mother, wife, sister and sister-in-law two km from Jewar on the Yamuna Expressway on Thursday," an STF offical told IANS.

He identified the arrested as Hazi, Munna, Wahim. The fourth person is yet to be identified.

Said to be neighbours of the victim family, they are being questioned by the STF officials.

The arrests were made on the basis of statements given by the women, who have undergone medical examination, he said.

The crime occurred some 60 km from here on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway around 1.30 a.m. on Thursday when eight members of a Greater Noida-based family, including four women, were headed to Bulandshahr to visit an ailing relative.

According to the victims, six armed men forced their Eeco van to stop by shooting at its tyres near Sabota village. The armed men then gang raped the women at gunpoint in a nearby field.

When scrap dealer Shakeel Qureshi, 40, put up resistance, the men shot him dead. The victims were also looted of their valuables, mobile phones and Rs 47,000, police said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A spiritual friend gave me some advice last week: "Be the change you want to see in the world."

So now I have to work out how to become a giant killer robot and inspire other guys to take the same journey.

My idea is that if men are occupied fighting tournaments encased in Gundam-style robot gear, the whole masculine aggression thing will be channeled into a healthy sport, and women can get on with running the planet. Everybody's happy.

Humans MUST actively shape our futures -- and the first item in my mailbox that day contained a perfect example.

A householder got fed up with motorists driving dangerously fast in his district, I read in a news link forwarded by reader Sunita Chou. Authorities in the US city of Cleveland, Ohio, ignored his complaints. So the man dressed up as a road-worker and spent the day installing more than 20 official-looking speed limit signs in the area, becoming a hero to his fellow citizens.

This columnist pinged regular contributors to see if there were examples from elsewhere.

A barber in Chiang Mai in Thailand started opening for business on Wednesdays, despite a superstition that hairdressers stay shut on that day. Furious protestors said he'd bring a curse on the community. But he'd discovered that the practice had nothing to do with ancient tradition or luck. Some barbers had at one time got into the habit of reserving one day a week for haircuts for members of royalty -- a practice no longer needed.

Talking of Thailand, one of my neighbours bought a Siamese cat, so I said "sawatdee khrap" (hello) but it just sat there, baffled. Should I tell my neighbour it's almost definitely an imposter?

But back to our topic. The most shocking example of a man grabbing his destiny was a news item from New Zealand, forwarded by a colleague.

Doctors told a man named John Griffin that his heart was beating in an irregular rhythm and he would have to get on a waiting list for electrical treatment to jolt it back to steady beats. So he went home, strolled over to his neighbour's high voltage electrified security fence and touched it. ZAP! Electricity surged through his body - and fixed his heart problem. Doctors were horrified.

The moral of this story? The Universe has a wacky sense of humour and will sometimes reward people who do stupid, dangerous things.

This is extremely important for the male sex, as we seem to have evolved to do that stuff.

How come? I asked a university scientist friend and he said that evolution in the long run doesn't make mistakes, so guys are meant to be extreme risk-takers.

He also told me that a risk study at Nanjing University last year revealed why guys treat the eating of spicy food as a competitive sport. Researchers gave volunteers a test to measure their appetite for risk. Then they gave half the group spicy food and repeated the test. The chili-chompers had become risk-takers.

Note: Readers, keep curry-eating males in your family away from electrified fences. Unless they have climbed inside giant robots, as all right-thinking men should.

(Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send ideas and comments via his Facebook page)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"Pyaar Ka Punchnama" star Kartik Aaryan, who improvised his lines while shooting for his forthcoming film "Guest Iin London", says improvising is natural for actors.

Kartik said in a statement: "I love the comedy genre. It is such a good space to be in. I like that I have done films that make people laugh. Improvising is natural for any actor. We have ideas and share it with the director and if he likes it, it becomes part of the film."

He will be seen with actor Paresh Rawal in the film.

"Paresh ji has been more than amazing. His off-screen humour translates on-screen, and that is the best part about him. He even goes out of his way to help his co-stars deliver the best that they can. I'm so glad to have had him as my mentor on this comical journey called 'Guest Iin London'," Kartik said.

"Guest Iin London", directed by Ashwni Dhir, is slated to release on June 16.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian firms' (ECBs) in April went up more than three-fold to $1.30 billion, while ECBs were at $304.57 million in the same month of 2016, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said.

According to RBI data released here on Thursday, the borrowings by Indian companies in April this year included $1.27 billion through the automatic route, and $39.26 million via the approval route.

During the month in consideration, Indian firms also made additional borrowing of $394.53 million through rupee denominated bonds (RDBs), which have been permitted from September last year.

In the category of automatic route, JSW Steel took a loan of $500 million for overseas acquisition and refinancing of earlier ECB, while HPCL-Mittal Energy raised $372 million to pay-off earlier ECB.

A substantial portion of ECBs in April was taken to start new projects.

Under the approval route, Essar Shipping was the only company, which raised $39.26 million for import of capital goods.

The firms which floated rupee denominated bonds overseas were - $310 million by NTPC for power, $62 million by Nissan Renault Financial Services for on-lending and $22.48 million by UCWeb Mobile for general corporate purpose.
India and Mauritius on Friday discussed various issues including security cooperation as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and other Ministers called on visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth here.

"During the meeting, Rajnath Singh and Jugnauth discussed bilateral relations and security cooperation, including maritime security and counter-terrorism," a Home Ministry official said.

The official said that the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and reflected the mutual desire to deeper cooperation between the two countries. "Senior officers of Home and External Affairs Ministries were also present on the occasion."

Jugnauth also held discussions with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Jugnauth, a person of Indian origin, on Friday arrived in Delhi on a three-day visit to India, during which he will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. This is Jugnauth's first abroad visit as Prime Minister.

He will hold delegation-level talks with Modi on Saturday after a ceremonial welcome, besides meeting Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 45-year-old man has been arrested for kidnapping the four-year-old son of a civil contractor who employed him, the police said here on Friday.

Israel, a labourer, has been arrested from his hideout in Mustafabad in Uttar Pradesh and the child was rescued, the police said.

Sarfaraj, who works as a civil contractor, found his four-year-old son missing from Kalkaji area of south Delhi on Thursday.

"Sarfaraj said he has taken a contract for construction of a wall in Deshbandhu College (in Kalkaji). He suspected one of his labourers, Israel, as he was missing. He told the police that Israel was demanding his pending salary Rs 15,000, which he refused to pay. Following this, Israel threatened him of dire consequences," Deputy Commissioner of Police Romil Baaniya said.

Israel was planning to take the minor boy to his native place in Bihar. He said he kidnapped the child for ransom as he needed money urgently, the police 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.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a host of political leaders on Friday to mourn the death of 'supercop' K.P.S. Gill, who was hailed for his role in stamping out militancy in Punjab in the 1990s.

"K.P.S. Gill will be remembered for his services to our nation in policing and security. Pained by his demise. My condolences," the Prime Minister tweeted.

Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, 82, died around 2:55 p.m. on Friday at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here, where he was admitted on May 18. He was suffering from terminal kidney failure and ischaemic heart condition.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said Gill always inspired others by leading from the front.

"Saddened to learn of Gill's demise. Known for his bravery and courage, he always inspired others by leading from the front. I offer my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. May God give them strength to bear this loss," the Minister tweeted.

Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh also condoled the former Indian Police Service officer's death.

"My deepest condolences on the passing away of K.P.S. Gill ji. He was an iconic IPS officer who served the nation with honour and pride," Shah tweeted.

The Congress chief expressed grief, saying he will be remembered for his steadfast fight against terrorism and restoration of peace and normalcy in Punjab.

"Sad loss. K.P.S. Gill's contribution in fighting terrorism and restoring peace to Punjab cannot be forgotten. My prayers with the bereaved family," Amrinder Singh tweeted.

Raman Singh tweeted: "Deeply saddened by the passing away of K.P.S. Gill, former DGP of Punjab. May the departed soul rest in peace."

"We deeply mourn the sad demise of the iconic IPS officer, the legendary K.P.S. Gill. His work in defeating Punjab militancy will always inspire us," the IPS Association tweeted.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP bagged the Panvel civic body in Maharashtra's Raigad district, but was virtually rejected in the Muslim-dominated Bhiwandi and Malegaon towns as per election results declared on Friday, the day when the NDA central government celebrated its third year in power.

In Panvel Municipal Corporation's first civic polls after it was elevated to a corporation last October, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 51 of the 78 seats where it contested the polls independently.

The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and Peasants & Workers Party which fought in alliance, secured 27 seats, of which the PWP bagged 23 and the other two partners secured two each.

The BJP had virtually made it a prestige issue to win the civic body and left no stone unturned to capture the corporation, and in the process, Shiv Sena, other parties and independents were wiped out.

Panvel and surroundings are considered critical in the near future with the upcoming new international airport, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and a new city, Naina, which will attract investments in excess of Rs 60,000 crores.

In Malegaon Municipal Corporation with 84 seats in the Nashik district, the Congress emerged the largest single party with 28, followed by Nationalist Congress Party's 20.

The Shiv Sena stood third with 13, the BJP secured nine, the AIMIM bagged seven, the Janata Dal six and a sole independent was elected.

The BJP has contested 55 seats including around 27 Muslim candidates hoping to exploit the triple talaaq issue, but all its Muslim candidates were defeated.

While the Congress, BJP and Shiv Sena fought the polls independently, the NCP fought in alliance with Janata Dal in the elections held on May 24.

The Congress came up trumps in the 90-seats strong Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation in Thane district, by bagging 47 seats and will elect its mayor.

The BJP came a distant second with 19 seats, the Shiv Sena won 12, the Republican Party of India-A four, the Samajwadi Party two, and other smaller parties and independents bagged the remaining six seats.

The Congress bettered its performance dramatically over the last elections in 2012, when it held only 26 seats, but the SP took a massive fall from 17 seats then to just two now.

The Congress announced today that it would govern both BNCMC and MMC - which has thrown up a hung house - by getting its mayors elected in the two civic bodies.

Of the total 252 seats in the three civic bodies, the BJP won 79, Congress 77, Shiv Sena 25, PWP 23 and NCP 22.

The AIMIM bagged seven, the JD six, the RPI-A four, the SP two, other parties and independents won seven.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
When a chopper carrying Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and five others came crashing down here on Thursday afternoon, the first person to rush to the rescue was small-time scrap dealer Irfan Shaikh, who shouted "Our king (CM) is trapped in the chopper".

Seeing the chopper hurtle down, Shaikh ran the 100 metre distance to reach the copter in order to rescue those inside. But many others nearby bolted in the opposite direction, fearing the chopper might explode.

The chopper fell from a height of nearly 80 feet in a thick cloud of dust, accompanied by some flashes of light and a loud booming sound.

Unmindful of the risks, the 28-year-old Shaikh sprinted towards the craft.

"The copter door was jammed and could not be opened... I pulled it but it didn't budge... The Chief Minister then responded by pushing it from inside... Then I managed to force it open from outside... I offered my hand to the CM and helped him step down," Shaikh told a local media-person, Govind Ingle of Lokmat Group.

A shaken Fadnavis told Shaikh that he was "fit and ok", and asked him to help the pilots and others on board.

Officials of the Chief Minister's Office in Mumbai confirmed the developments on Friday, but declined to say whether Fadnavis would felicitate or honour the scrap dealer for rushing to assist them, as the chopper could have exploded.

Later, Fadnavis told people that it was the "blessings of the 12-crore people of Maharashtra and Jai Bhavani" which helped him and the others survive the crash.

As Shaikh helped the other occupants out, police jeeps, private vehicles and security personnel along with ambulances sped to the crash site and joined the rescue operations.

Fadnavis subsequently left in an ambulance for the home of Latur Guardian Minister Sambhajirao Patil-Nilangekar before returning to Mumbai later in the day.

Speaking to IANS on Friday, Shaikh said when Chief Minister Fadnavis took off in the copter, he like many others, dropped everything to view the take-off and try and catch a glimpse of "the king (CM)".

"When it crashed down, my only thought was how to help those trapped inside to come out safely," Shaikh said.

Later, he followed the Chief Minster's convoy to the minister's house but the security officials refused to allow him inside, so he quietly returned to his shop for work as usual.

Celebrating Fadnavis' miraculous escape, Mumbai's Dabbawallas on Friday acknowledged and congratulated Shaikh for rushing to help the Chief Minister without caring for his own life.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The NCP and the CPI-M will participate in the Election Commission's challenge on June 3 to test the credibility of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The EVM challenge in which doubting political parties have been given an opportunity to prove that the EVMs can be hacked, will be held between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the Election Commission said in a statement. The deadline expired on Friday for seven national parties and more than 40 state parties to send their interest to participate in the challenge.

The Election Commission, which said that only the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has nominated three representatives for participation in the challenge, later said that after rechecking, it found that the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) had also agreed to participate.

The NCP has not chosen any four EVMs as per the framework and left it to the EC.

Therefore, to organise the challenge, the ECI will bring a few EVMs from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand for conducting the challenge, the commission said.

In all, eight parties sent their response to the ECI till 5 p.m., when the deadline expired, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal's message about its willingness to participate only came at 5.39 p.m. and was hence rejected.

The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress raised some issues and had not expressed their interest in participating in the challenge as per existing framework, commission sources said.

The Communist Party of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Rashtriya Lok Dal only expressed their interest in observing the challenge.

Pudducherry-based All India NR Congress has written to the commission that it is not participating.

The Election Commission in its challenge has not allowed parties to attempt tampering of an EVM's motherboard, citing which the AAP decided not to participate in the challenge.

The Congress also wrote to the EC, asking for access to all the components of an EVM, including the motherboard.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nine Members of Parliament -- six from the Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members -- will be honoured with the 'Sansad Ratna Awards 2017' here on Saturday.

"The awards will be presented to the parliamentarians by Justice (retd) P.Sathasivam, Governor of Kerala," K. Srinivasan, chairman, Prime Point Foundation, told reporters here on Friday.

"These awards were instituted by Prime Point Foundation and eMagazine PreSense based on the suggestion given by late President Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This is the eighth edition of the award. This is the only award on behalf of the civil society to honour achievers in Parliament," Srinivasan said.

The MPs' performance is measured based on the number of debates they participate in, the number of questions raised, the number of private members' bills introduced, attendance and usage of funds under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.

Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena, Mavel, Maharashtra), Rajeev Shankarrao Satav (Indian National Congress, Hingoli, Maharashtra) and Dhananjay Bhimrao Mahadik (Nationalist Congress Party, Kolhapur, Maharashtra) have been nominated by the Jury Committee for awards under different categories.

Bhartruhari Mahtab (Biju Janata Dal, Cuttack, Odisha) and N.K. Premachandran (Revolutionary Socialist Party, Kollam, Kerala) have been nominated for Special Awards by the Jury Committee for their excellence in quality of debates and other Parliamentary proceedings.

Heena Vijayakumar Gavit (Bharatiya Janata Party, Nandurbar, Maharaashtra) is nominated for the award under Women MP category, Srinivasan said.

Srinivasan said since last year outstanding Rajya Sabha Members, who had retired the previous year after completing the full six-year term were also awarded.

In 2016, 58 MPs retired after completing the full term of six years.

Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena, Maharashtra), K N Balagopal (CPI-M, Kerala) and Dr T N Seema (CPI-M, Kerala) have been nominated among the Rajya Sabha MPs who had retired in 2016 for their outstanding performance.

A Jury committee headed by Anandrao Adsul (fifth time MP), along with Hansraj G Ahir (Minister of State - Home and fourth time MP) and Arjun Ram Meghwal (Minister of State - Finance and Corporate Affairs) and second time MP) selected the winners.

The Jury members, who are outstanding Parliamentarians themselves in terms of their performance in the house, were honoured with the 'Sansad Maha Ratna' Awards for their sustained performance in the 15th Lok Sabha.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A notorious robber carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head has been arrested in south Delhi, a police officer said on Friday.

A stolen Royal Enfield motorcycle and a countrymade firearm were seized from Vicky Panwar's possession, police said.

Vicky Panwar, 26, was arrested on Thursday night from the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan Trauma Centre in Safdarjung Enclave area on a tip-off. He is a resident of Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.

"He was evading arrest since October 2016. He was involved in an armed robbery at an ice-cream parlour in Preet Vihar area in east Delhi," Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh told IANS.

During the robbery, they had shot at and injured a customer at the ice-cream parlour.

His accomplices Ravi and Badal, who were involved in the robbery, were arrested last year.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday requested the union government to provide Visa on Arrival facility and a halt here for Air India's Colombo-Varanasi flight to increase the tourist footfall in the state.

The Chief Minister wrote separate letters to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Civil Aviation Minister A. Gajapathi Raju in this regard.

Highlighting that Odisha has established international connectivity with Air Asia, that started its operations between Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur, Patnaik said it has received good response from the Indian citizens travelling abroad through Bhubaneswar.

A sizeable number of foreign arrivals have also been noticed, he added.

"In order to facilitate the travel of arriving tourists, it is requested that Bhubaneswar be included as a Visa on Arrival station for citizens of eligible nations," Patnaik said in a letter to Swaraj.

In a separate letter to Raju, the Chief Minister said Bhubaneswar may be included as a stop for the Colombo-Varanasi flight.

He said the just launched Air India flight from Colombo to Varanasi, would be useful in promotion of heritage tourism and in increasing the traffic from Sri Lanka into India.

"Odisha is a land of rich cultural heritage. Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and spread the message across the world from Odisha.

"Apart from that, the diamond triangle of Buddhist sites has conclusively established that Odisha was an important centre of Buddhism during 3 BC," said Patnaik.

He also said that in the just concluded International Buddhist conclave and other discussions at different forums, the tour operators, academicians and revered monks from Sri Lanka have expressed strong desire to come to Odisha to explore Buddhist sites.

"However, as there is no direct air connectivity, Sri Lankan tourist find it difficult to visit Odisha," he said.

"In order to meet this strong, unmet demand, I would request that Bhubaneswar may be included as a stop for the Colombo-Varanasi flight. This will help in increasing the tourist footfall for both Odisha and Varanasi," the Chief Minister said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Haryana Police have arrested a Pakistani national who was living illegally in an Iskon temple in Jhajjar district with Indian identities for over nine months, an official said on Friday.

A Pakistani passport, with an Indian visa stamp of 33 days' validity, and Indian identity cards were recovered from his possession. His visa expired in 2016.

The name mentioned on the passport is Raja, a resident of Hindu Colony in Larkana, Pakistan, a senior police official told IANS here.

Raja was arrested on Thursday evening from the Iskon temple in Bahadurgarh town close to the Delhi-Haryana border. He was living in the temple as a volunteer.

The police said they have also recovered an Aadhaar card, a voter card and a PAN (permanent account number) card from his possession. Both bear his name as Rasraj and the address is Iskcon temple in Bahadurgarh.

His passport has January 1, 1978, as his date of birth, while his Aadhaar and PAN cards have March 13, 1987, as his date of birth.

"Some more identify proofs have been recovered from him and we are verifying whether they are original or fake," said the official.

A case is yet to be registered.

In a similar incident in Karnataka, three suspected Pakistani nationals, including two women, were arrested from Bengaluru with fake Indian identity cards and passports on Thursday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Accusing the Narendra Modi government of "peddling lies and celebrating non-performance, propaganda and platitudes", the Congress on Friday flayed the ruling BJP-led NDA for splurging Rs 2,000 crore on celebrating its "three years of failure".

Addressing the media on "Three failed years of BJP government" here, Congress MP and former Union Minister Kamal Nath "credited" the Modi government for the "shameful record" of highest farmer suicides and demanded a white paper on its employment strategy.

"Bravado, rhetoric and hyperbole are the hallmark of the years of Modi government. Peddling lies and celebrating non-performance, propaganda and platitude are its recognition," Nath said.

"When the economy is in shambles, 35 farmers are committing suicide daily and unemployment is rising, this government is spending Rs 2,000 crore on celebrations of its three years," he said.

"No government in the country's history has spent so much on publicity like this government. The amount spent on the publicity of schemes is so exorbitant that it negates the benefits of these schemes," claimed Nath.

Referring to key economic sectors and indicators, Nath enumerated the "failures" of the Modi government.

"Thanks to this government, employment is at a 50-year low and lowest in the last seven years."

"Against Modi's promise of two crore jobs annually, only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015. We need to create over 34 crore jobs by 2028, but what is the state of domestic investment and bank credit? Both are at their historic lowest," the former Minister added.

The party demanded to know the government's plans to counter the growing joblessness.

"The IT sector is facing joblessness and will be losing 20,000 jobs annually. We want to know the government's plans to counter disruption in employment creation due to innovation in technology."

"We demand a white paper on the government's employment strategy. The country is not interested in speeches and assurances, we want this government to come out with hard facts on how it plans to create jobs for the next two years," he said.

Talking about the agrarian distress, Nath said: "Today India boasts of a shameful record of 35 farmers committing suicide daily. No country, not even the least developed countries have this shameful record. The figure of farmer suicides in 2016-17 is expected to be 16,000. This is the credit and achievement of this government!"

He said that agricultural growth has come down to 1.3 per cent, which was "one of the lowest", and accused the government of rendering farmers debt-trapped.

"The farmers today are left at the mercy of traders. Today the farmers are debt-trapped and all the initiatives are nothing but sham," he said.

Pointing to complex procedures and rules, Nath claimed the farmers' insurance policies were actually benefiting companies instead of the farmers.

"While farmers paid premiums to the tune of Rs 17,185 crore for kharif crops in 2016, only 3.9 crore farmers received benefits amounting to Rs 6,808 crore. This scheme, therefore, should be called the 'Insurance Company Benefits' scheme because the companies made a profit of over Rs 10,000 crore," he said.

Nath also questioned the government's motive of writing off corporates loans of over "Rs 1.54 lakh crore" but not extending the same benefits to debt-ridden farmers.

On Prime Minister Modi's November 8 move to demonetise Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes, Nath said the country was yet to know about its benefits.

"The government has still no record of the amount of black money and counterfeit notes recovered. People suffered so much hardships in the hope to see black money being removed, but where is the result?" he asked.

"The future of the country is dark both from the economic and social point of view. The country is on the verge of seeing strifes," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied permission to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to visit the violence-hit villages of Saharanpur district, where caste conflict has left two dead and scores injured.

But the Congress party questioned the decision, saying Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is nobody to stop Rahul Gandhi from visiting Saharanpur.

The Gandhi scion had sought permission to visit Saharanpur on Saturday.

"The permission has been denied based on the state policy of keeping the region out of bounds for leaders until the situation returns to normal," Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Aditya Mishra clarified.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "Who is Adityanath to stop Rahul Gandhi from visiting the Dalit brothers? Doesn't it show the anti-Dalit mindset of the BJP government? This kind of mindest is deplorable."

"Congress and Rahul Gandhi will continue to speak against injustice. Nothing will be able to stop us," he added.

Sources said that as the violence broke out soon after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati's visit, the Chief Minister's Office asked district officials not to grant any permission to political leaders to visit the area in future.

Newly-appointed SSP of Saharanpur Babloo Kumar also said that in case the Congress leader still tried to come to Saharanpur, he would be prevented from doing so at the air strip itself.

Earlier, former union minister Kumari Shailja and senior Congress leader P.L. Punia were denied permission to visit Saharanpur.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russian officials are actively investigating claims of a purge of gay men in Chechnya, the media reported on Friday.

Dozens of men in the southern republic are reported to have been held in extrajudicial detention and tortured as part of a campaign against gay males in Chechnya that began several months ago, reports the Guardian.

Many have fled and are in hiding in other regions of Russia or have gone abroad.

The story was initially reported by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was confirmed by the Guardian, which reported about four gay men who had been caught up in the campaign.

One of the men gave details of beatings and electric shock torture in a secret prison where he was held for more than a week.

Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to conduct a full investigation into the reports.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Friday that provided further evidence of the anti-gay campaign.

The organisation said three men it had spoken to had reported the presence of high-level Chechen officials when they had been tortured.

Homosexuality is a huge taboo in Chechnya and many fear reprisals from their own families if they come out publicly, reports the Guardian.

They also fear their families will be made to suffer a "stain on their honour" for having a gay relative, according to the HRW.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied all allegations so far and in an interview in April said there were "no gay men in Chechnya".

"These are not traditional things, psychiatrically abnormal things. We don't understand them. Our people do not understand."

--IANS

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As the Note 7 fiasco had begun dying down, Samsung is again facing multiple lawsuits following reports that its other models too are plagued with battery issues, media reports said.

The other smartphone models that reportedly face similar issues include the Galaxy S6, S7 Edge and Note 5.

Earlier this month, Dale Holzworth from Massachusetts filed a class action lawsuit that claimed the Galaxy S7 Edge he purchased last year burst into flames while it sat charging in his son's bedroom, a report in DailyMail reported on Thursday.

According to the report, cases in three US states have claimed that Samsung was aware of the battery issues and fire hazards for years, but opted not to inform its customers.

Another lawsuit filed by Claire Gilligan in New York noted that the other smartphones use similar or identical batteries to those used in the Note 7.

Almost 112 Galaxy Note 7 devices caught fire worldwide within a month of the smartphone's launch in August last year, prompting Samsung to recall all the 2.5 million products after five months of its launch.

"Samsung manufactures and sells smartphones which pose a threat to the safety of consumers," reads the Samsung class action complaint.

Plaintiffs have demanded that "users with the older models should be provided with the same refund and exchange programme set for the Note 7".

They alleged that Samsung recalled the Note 7 while leaving other dangerous products in the marketplace as the problem was not limited to a single product only.

"Samsung's team responsible for designing the system further stated that due to the spatial limits of smartphones, the cooling system's cooling capacity alone is not enough to cool the device," the report quoted a plaintiff as saying.

--IANS

qd/ruwa/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Special Court here on Friday named former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin -- currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Central Jail -- the 10th accused in the murder of Bihar journalist Rajdeo Ranjan last year.

CBI lawyer Sharad Sinha told the media here that the agency, which probed the case, will file a charge sheet against the jailed politician in the case.

He said Shahabuddin was linked to the special CBI court in Muzaffarpur district through video conferencing. The court has fixed June 9 for the next hearing.

After an uproar at the national level, the Grand Alliance government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar handed over the investigation to the CBI in September 2016.

On the basis of preliminary investigations, local police had said that Ranjan's killing was a result of a "premeditated conspiracy".

Ranjan was shot dead on May 13, 2016, in a busy market area near Station Road in Siwan district of Bihar. He was the Siwan Bureau Chief of a Hindi daily.

His widow Asha Ranjan has repeatedly alleged that Shahabuddin was behind the murder as the latter's close associate Laddan Miya is the prime accused in the case.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Bihar had also blamed Shahabuddin for the journalist's killing.

Shahabuddin has represented Siwan four times in the Lok Sabha from 1996 to 2009 as a member of Parliament of the Rashtriya Janata Dal led by former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad.

--IANS

ik/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump has "reignited" tensions with his EU counterparts as he called the Germans "bad, very bad" for their trade surplus with the US.

Trump vowed to block German car exports to the US during a meeting with top EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel.

"The Germans are bad, very bad," Trump said, according to participants in the room who spoke to the magazine.

"See the millions of cars they are selling in the US. Terrible. We will stop this," Trump said during the meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk.

Both Juncker and Tusk showed solidarity with the Germans at the meeting and contradicted Trump's rebuke.

Juncker, later, dismissed the claims on Friday, saying that the German media reports were exaggerated. "He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly," Juncker told reporters in Sicily ahead of G-7 talks.

"He was not aggressive at all and anyway we have taken the defence of the Germans," he said.

"I was making clear that the US cannot compare their trade situation with individual member states of the European Union.

"They have to compare their performances with the global performances of the European Union, and I made it clear that the commission is charged with trade issues and not the member states," Juncker added.

Trump has long voiced his frustrations with Germany's trade surplus with the US, insisting that German imports have damaged the US manufacturing industry.

In January, he threatened to slap a 35 per cent tax on German auto imports.

White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn on Friday defended the President's remarks.

"He said they're very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany... He said 'I don't have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade'," Cohn said.

The closed-door meeting was part of broader talks among world leaders over defence, trade and the environment.

He also attacked NATO members for failing to meet the military alliance's target to spend two per cent of GDP on defence.

--IANS

soni/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump on Friday described North Korea as a global problem that would be "solved" as he held a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before the start of the G7 summit in Italy.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem and it will be solved. At some point it will be solved. You can bet on that," Trump said in reference to Pyongyang, Efe news reported.

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington over North Korea's continued missile programme have escalated since Trump took office in January.

In April, Trump claimed to have sent a fleet of US Navy vessels towards the Sea of Japan in an apparent show of force in the region, but the US President has since signalled that he would prefer a diplomatic solution to the situation in North Korea, using China's President Xi Jinping as a mediator.

In early May, Trump even suggested that he would meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un under the "correct circumstances", although this was later downplayed by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

G7 leaders from Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy, Japan and the UK were meeting for a two-day summit in Sicily.

--IANS

soni/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two burglars and four car thieves were arrested in Ghaziabad in two separate incidents and stolen jewellery, cars, and motorcycles, besides some weapons, seized from them, police said on Friday.

Superintendent of Police, City, Akash Tomar, in a press conference, said that the Sahibabad police nabbed two suspected burglars during extensive checking programme. During sustained interrogation, the two, identified as Mohammad Wasim and Rihan, admitted to their crimes.

Acting on their revelation, police recovered jewellery worth over a lakh, two pistols and an Apache motorcycle from their possession.

In second incident, the Sahibabad police nabbed four car thieves near the Hindon Air Force station on Friday morning. Two luxury cars, four pistols and tools to open car locks were seized on the basis of the information.

The thieves, identified as Abdul Hussain, Pummy Shokeen, Umesh Jain and Mohamamd Imran, said one more of their accomplices Sameer was still absconding. Efforts are being made to arrest him soon, added Tomar.

--IANS

sps/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on Friday inspected the ghats along the Ganga river here as part of her 15-day trip across five states to assess the execution of the central government's 'Namami Gange' (National Mission for Clean Ganga) programme.

According to Namami Gange's Twitter handle, Bharti started the tour with an inspection of the cleanliness of ghats along the Ganga river in Kolkata.

The officials of Namami Gange, Central Groundwater Board and other departments were also present.

The minister is expected to meet the stakeholders of the project as well as public along the Kashipur ghat on Friday evening.

--IANS

sgh/pgh/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US military blamed the Islamic State (IS) group for the death of more than 100 civilians in Iraq's northern city of Mosul in a March airstrike by coalition forces.

The airstrike on March 17 against two IS snipers ignited a large amount of explosive material the group had placed in the structure, where 101 civilians were sheltered, the US Defense Department said in a statement on Thursday.

Neither Coalition nor Iraqi forces knew that civilians were sheltered within the structure, the statement said, adding that an additional 36 civilians who were reported to be connected to the structure remain unaccounted for, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Our condolences go out to all those that were affected," said US Major General Joe Martin, the commanding general of coalition forces.

"The Coalition takes every feasible measure to protect civilians from harm. The best way to protect civilians is to defeat ISIS," the general said, using an alternate acronym for the group.

The US Defense Department said in April that at least 352 civilians were killed as a result of US-led campaign against the IS in Iraq and Syria from August 2014 to March 2017. The figure is lower than the estimation of monitoring groups.

--IANS

vgu/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian American attorney Amul Thapar, US President Donald Trump's first appellate court nominee, has been confirmed by the Senate to a key judicial position.

Thapar, who sits on the US District Court for Kentucky's Eastern District, was confirmed for the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals by a 52-44 vote on Thursday and is the first Indian-American to be nominated by Trump for the key seat.

Republicans said the judge is a good example of the kind of picks Trump should make. The President has made five other picks, with more than a dozen other vacancies still awaiting nominations, The Washington Times reported.

"He will fairly apply the law to all who enter his courtroom because, in Judge Thapar's own words, 'The most important attribute of a judge is to be open-minded and not to prejudge a case without reading the briefs, researching the law, and hearing from the parties'," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

Thapar becomes the second South Asian judge to be on the US Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan, the report said.

During the judge's confirmation hearing, Democrats complained about his record, saying he equates campaign donations with speech and is tied to The Federalist Society, an association of conservative and libertarian legal minds.

Curt Levey, Executive Director for the Committee for Justice, said he doesn't expect a major impact on the court's rulings because a majority of the judges are already GOP appointees.

"Perhaps the most important thing about Thapar's quick confirmation is that it puts him in a perfect position to fill any Supreme Court vacancies that occur in 2018 or thereafter," said Levey.

--IANS

soni/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expansion in the operating profit margin of the cigarettes business was a key positive in ITCs results for the March quarter (Q4), and so were flat volumes given that analysts were
Melania Trumps windswept locks at Riyadh airport prompted a vision of Margaret Thatcher at the same venue but tightly encased in sombre black from head to foot when visiting King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Britains 42-billion sale of Tornado fighters was attributed as much to her punctilious observance of Saudi sartorial protocol as to a rumoured multimillion-pound slush fund for Saudi royals.
On the occasion of completion of three years by the Narendra Modi-led Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre on Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is counting its positive points whereas the Congress is trying to surround the saffron party on its false promises.

Hitting at the Prime Minister, the Congress said that the BJP has spent Rs 2,000 crore on celebrations, adding that these three years of can be summed up as 'Bhashan aur aashwaasan, yeh hai mera shaasan'.

"The entire focus of the is only on its publicity. They do not have any concrete policy for the country. has not done anything in the last three years. This government has only given attention to the promotion of schemes like Make-in-India, Jan Dhan Yojana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan," Congress leader Kamal Nath said while addressing media in New Delhi.

He added that millions of rupees have been invested in the promotion of these campaigns, adding, the present government should highlight how much black money has returned.

"They should tell what the country has got from the demonetisation move. In these three years, farmers' conditions have deteriorated. Most farmers have committed suicides only during the tenure of Modi government and these farmers have got no benefit from the crop insurance scheme," he asserted.

Nath further said the tactics used by the BJP to divert the people's mind is a "Kalakari ki Rajneeti".

"With the largest aspirational society on this planet, the youth of the country are looking for employment. We see employment at a 15 year low. With approximately 550 million youngsters in the country, employment has been the lowest in the past seven years," he added.

He further said the Prime Minister during his election campaign promised about two crore jobs a year.

"What is the outcome? We see that only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and by 2028 India needs to create 34.3 crore jobs and that is not to meet the shortfall but we need to create it to be able to have employment," Nath added.

Earlier on Friday, the PM Modi arrived in Assam and began the celebrations by inaugurating the Sadia Bridge  longest bridge in India  across River Brahmaputra in Purana Sadiya.

The Prime Minister took to the social media to ask the public their views on completion of three years of the NDA government at the Centre.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

The BJP will be organising a pan-Indian publicity campaign to highlight the achievements of the Modi-led NDA's three-year rule.

The campaign's name has been linked with the surname of the Prime Minister  'Making of Developed India (MODI)'.

A central Control Room will be established at the party headquarters in Delhi to coordinate and monitor the mega event that will continue till June 15.

All union ministers, BJP's Members of Parliament, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the BJP ruled states will take part in the massive exercise to ensure that Prime Minister's message of growth and development reaches every district in the country.

Party president Amit Shah will take part in the MODI fest in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will attend the events in Jaipur and Mumbai, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be in Delhi and Lucknow.

Union Ministers Arun Jaitley will participate in the MODI fest in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad; M Venkaiah Naidu in Bhubaneswar and Chhattisgarh, Nitin Gadkari in Chennai and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states will not only take part in the MODI fest in their states but also in other states.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will attend functions in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh; Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh; Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in Kochi, Kerala; Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Hubli, Karnataka; and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Jammu and Kashmir.
On the Narendra Modi governments third anniversary on Friday, a united Opposition decided to wait and watch before finalising their nominee for the in July. They want the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to name its candidate for the top constitutional post first.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief on Friday said achhe din, or better days, were here at least for some.
Two persons were killed and three others injured in two separate incidents of lightning in Birbhum district today, police said.

Shibani Tudu and her brother Purna Tudu were killed while their mother Sabi Tudu was injured when lightning hit them at Faridpur village, the police said.

In a separate incident Manabendra Saha and Samir Bagdi were injured when lightning struck while they were waiting for bus at Labhpur bus stand, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Unidentified gunmen today opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt, killing at least 24 of them and injuring 27 others in the second major attack on the community in nearly two months.

The bus came under attack when it was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo.

Twenty four Christians were killed and 27 others injured in the attack, Khaled Megahed, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, said.

Security forces were searching for the attackers.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The ambulances rushed to the place of the incident to transfer injured to hospitals.

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.

Two suicide bombings targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria on April 9 left at least 46 people dead.

Egypt had imposed a nationwide three-month state of emergency after the bombings, with the option to extend for another three months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 26 people, mostly children, were killed and 25 others injured today when heavily-armed gunmen wearing army fatigues opened indiscriminate fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, the second major attack on the community in nearly two months.

The masked gunmen attacked a bus taking a group of Coptic Christians to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo, the Ministry of Interior said.

The gunmen were riding in three 4x4 vehicles, it said.

Twenty-six Christians were killed and 25 others injured in the attack, it said.

Sources and eyewitnesses said that most of the victims were children.

The ages of the victims ranged from children to over 60, the bishop of El-Minya told Egyptian private-owned TV Channel DMC. Many victims were children, only three kids survived the attack, a source from the Orthodox Church told Al-Ahram newspaper.

Reports said there had been between eight and 10 attackers who were wearing military uniforms.

Security forces have cordoned off the area and were searching for the attackers.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack comes as the country is still under a three- month state of emergency period following twin attacks on Coptic churches on Palm Sunday last month that killed dozens of people, in attacks claimed by ISIS.

President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi called for an emergency security meeting to follow up on the attacks.

In a statement from the presidency, El-Sisi also instructed authorities to take all necessary measures to attend to the injured and arrest the assailants.

Egypt's Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek has ordered an extensive investigation to arrest the attackers, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State militants.

The Minya attack is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypt's Christians, following the Palm Sunday Suicide Bombings.

On April 9, two suicide bombers hit Saint George's Cathedral in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing and injuring dozens in the deadliest attack against civilians in the country's recent history. A total of 29 people died in the Tanta explosion and 18 in Alexandria.

In December last year, an attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people.

Coptic Christians, which make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's 91 million population, have faced persecution in Egypt, which has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's regime in 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 26 people, mostly children, were killed and 25 other injured today when masked gunmen wearing army uniforms opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, the second major attack on the community in nearly two months.

The bus came under attack when it was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo.

The gunmen were riding in three 4x4 vehicles, the Ministry of Interior said.

Twenty-six Christians were killed and 25 others injured in the attack, it said.

Sources and eyewitnesses said that most of the victims were children.

Reports said there had been between eight and 10 attackers who were wearing military uniforms.

Security forces were searching for the attackers.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.

Two suicide bombings targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria on April 9 left at least 46 people dead.

In December, an attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people.

Coptic Christians, which make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's 91 million population, have faced persecution in Egypt, which has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's regime in 2011.

Egypt had imposed a nationwide three-month state of emergency after the April bombings, with the option to extend for another three months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sonalika International Tractors today opposed the 28 per cent levy on tractor parts proposed under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure, saying it will hurt the sector and also farmers.

The tractor manufacturer said the tax on tractor parts should remain at the existing level of 14 per cent.

"The government has proposed to raise GST on tractor and car parts to 28 per cent while at present it is 14 per cent. This will result in an increase in cost of tractors and would adversely impact farmers in a major way," Sonalika International Tractors Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Munish Kumar told reporters.

"We, along with other tractor companies, are discussing the matter with the government and have demanded that GST remain at 14 per cent in the interest of farmers," Kumar said.

Rise in GST on tractor parts will will also affect companies, he said.

However, Kumar did not specify the expected increase in price of tractors post-GST (at 28% levy).

The Centre is targeting a July 1 roll-out for the unified tax system.

Kumar said in the fiscal 2016-17, the company sold 8,507 tractors, registering a growth of 22.6 per cent over FY 2015-16, when the figure stood at 6,841 units.

In April, the company sold 932 tractors while the figure was 683 in the same month last year, he said.

Buoyed by sales in Madhya Pradesh, the company is planning to introduce more new products in the state to maintain its leading position, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today said five MoUs were signed during his visit to Singapore and Hong Kong recently.

He said the MoUs would garner an investment of Rs 18,000 crore and provide employment to about 10,000 youths.

The chief minister maintained that apart from the above mentioned global cities, his visits to the United States, Canada, Japan and China also aimed at bringing more investments to the state.

During the visit to these countries, a total 14 MoUs were signed, out of which nine are in advanced stage, whereas the remaining five are in progress, he told reporters here.

He said the state government has appointed a relationship manager each with the companies with whom the MoUs have been signed so as to facilitate them and resolve all their queries.

"About 450 MoUs were signed during the 'Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit-2016' organised at Gurugram in the past. Out of these, in 152 MoUs, either land or license has already been taken," he said.

He added that MoUs worth Rs 86,000 crore have been materialised which would provide employment opportunities to 1.61 lakh youths.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
He hails from a family of actors in Spain and Javier Bardem, who decided to carry forward the legacy by taking up the same profession, says he looks at acting as an opportunity.

Bardem's rich filmography boasts of collaborations with celebrated directors like Pedro Almodovar, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Woody Allen.

He won three Academy Award nominations for his roles in "Before Night Falls", "Biutiful" and "No Country for Old Men", for which he won the Oscar for the best supporting actor, besides accolades for his diverse performances.

Despite his glowing resume, the 48-year-old Spanish star believes it is hard to make a living as an actor and he considers himself fortunate to have had the opportunities in his career, which elude many.

"In my country, my mom is an actress, she is 78 and she was an actress since she was six. My grandmother was an actress and the parents of my grandparents were actors. In Spain, there is 92 per cent of unemployment as actors," Bardem told PTI.

"I don't see acting as a career, I see this as an opportunity. I try to make the best out of it. You never know when the next film is coming. I have been blessed, I have been lucky. It is hard to make a living out of this. I belong to the 10 per cent of actors who are successful in making a living out of it."



Bardem is married to Spanish star Penelope Cruz. They have two children: a son and a daughter.

When asked if he and Penelope would allow their kids to become actors, Bardem says, "I think if that is what they want, I would respect that."



Bardem's latest film "Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge", which also stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom, released today.

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JNU Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar has said he welcomes "open-minded discussions" to end hostilities between the administration and students who have been accusing the varsity of framing "anti-student" policies.

Talking to PTI, the VC said he preferred to have discussions -- and not arguments --with students to find solutions to contentious issues.

"The Objective of a discussion is to find what is right, whereas in arguments, the objective is to point out who is wrong," Kumar said.

Arguments that hold on to a single point of view will not lead to solutions, especially when the administration is focussing on creating more facilities for students and faculty besides "working to excel academically" with limited resources, he added.

Students and teachers have been protesting against the administration in the recent past over multiple issues -- such as the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, seat cuts for M.Phil and Ph.D programmes and allegations that minutes of the 142nd Academic Council (AC) meeting, held recently, had been tampered with.

The latest to protest was an Assamese student, who rapped a song expressing dissent. The video with the song went viral on the social media.

Speaking on a range of issues, Kumar asserted that all procedures were being followed in AC meetings.

"All the procedures, including seeking views from every member, are followed in a professional way. There is no tampering done and all the minutes are made public once a particular meeting has been concluded," he said.

He added that in an institution such as JNU, it was "quite natural" that some people might not agree with certain decisions.

"But ultimately decisions are taken keeping in mind what is good for the varsity in the long run," he said.

Referring to seat cuts, he explained that the regulation of the University Grants Commission had to be followed by the varsity for improving the quality of research work.

"Comparing seats allotted for M.Phil and Ph.D programmes in the previous years with the present year is not a fair one. We cannot have 60 students under one professor and make it look like a classroom," Kumar said, pointing out that the top institutes had a better student-teacher ratio.

Responding to allegations of being inaccessible to students, he said he was available - without appointments - to all students on the first Monday of the month, and to faculty on the third Thursday every month.

"A lot of students do meet me on these days, apart from those who interact with me seeking appointments," he said.

Reacting to the appointment of V K Saraswat as new Chancellor of JNU, Kumar said that the former DRDO chief would be able to guide the university and provide it with inputs for moving forward.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today exhorted the youths to take on the economic and military challenges faced by the country from its neighbours, particularly China.

He said India was being cornered by its neighbouring countries, thus posing a new threat to our country and our youths.

"There is no country which does not have Chinese presence, thus underlining the need for India to be on its guard 24X7, which the youths are best equipped to do," he said.

Observing that India was passing through a highly demanding phase, the chief minister said while all citizens of the country had a responsibility to protect the nation, the future lay in the hands of the youths, especially since 70 per cent of the country's population was now under 40 years of age.

"Future wars will be economic in nature," he warned.

The Congress leader noted that the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, bordering Pakistan and China, was in particular "vulnerable to external threats since it has hostile neighbours on all sides."



Captain Amarinder was addressing a function organised by a national daily here to facilitate young achievers from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

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President Donald Trump's revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination," a federal appeals court has said in ruling against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries.

In a 10-3 vote yesterday, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the ban likely violates the Constitution. And it upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March. Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems that the first version from January encountered. A second appeals court, the 9th US Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

White House spokesman Michael Short said the administration was confident that its order is legal.

"These clearly are very dangerous times and we need every available tool at our disposal to prevent terrorists from entering the United States and committing acts of bloodshed and violence," he said.

The Supreme Court almost certainly would step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe. If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.

A central question in the case before the 4th Circuit was whether courts should consider Trump's public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

Trump's administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which doesn't mention religion. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

But Chief Judge Roger L Gregory wrote that the government's "asserted national security interest ... Appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country."



The three dissenting judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, said the majority was wrong to look beyond the text of the order. Calling the executive order a "modest action" Judge Paul V Niemeyer wrote that Supreme Court precedent required the court to consider the order "on its face." Looked at that way, the executive order "is entirely without constitutional fault," he wrote.

Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, said the partisan split was troubling.

If the Supreme Court follows the same kind of partisan divide, the Trump administration may fare better since five of the nine are Republican nominees. Still, he said, it's difficult to make a confident prediction because "Supreme Court justices don't always vote in ideological lockstep."



The first travel ban issued on January 27 was aimed at seven countries and triggered chaos and protests across the country as travellers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the ban.

The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesn't apply to those who already have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.

Critics said the changes don't erase the legal problems with the ban.

The Maryland case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Centre on behalf of organisations as well as people who live in the US and fear the executive order will prevent them from being reunited with family members from the banned countries.

"President Trump's Muslim ban violates the Constitution, as this decision strongly reaffirms," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, who argued the case. "The Constitution's prohibition on actions disfavouring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the government's request to set that principle aside.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Army today said its troops foiled an attack by Pakistan's Border Action Team (BAT) on a patrol party along the Line of Control in Uri sector of Kashmir, killing two militants.

"Alert troops foiled a BAT attack on our patrol party in Uri sector today. Two BAT terrorists were killed in the operation," an army official said here.

The BAT attack was effectively repulsed, the official said.

According to police sources, the bodies of the two slain militants were lying in "no man's" land along the LoC.

Two Indian soldiers were beheaded in a BAT action in Krishnaghati sector of Poonch on May 1 which had triggered a strong reaction from India.

On Tuesday, the Army had said it launched "punitive fire assaults" on Pakistani positions across the LoC, inflicting "some damage".

Army sources said the two armed intruders infiltrated from a Pakistani post which is 200 metres from the LoC in the area.

They were spotted on the Indian side around 8:40 AM in South of Jhelum in the Uri sector.

In exchange of fire, both were neutralised at distance of 500 metres from the LoC in the Indian side, the sources said.

One AK-47 rifle, one pistol and other warlike stores were recovered, they said.

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Premium beer maker Bira 91 is looking to clock sales of Rs 150 crore this fiscal and have presence in 15 cities.

Besides, the company is aiming at leadership position in the premium segment and today extended its portfolio by adding two new beers - Bira 91 Light and Bira 91 Strong.

"We are aiming to have sales of Rs 150 crore this fiscal," Bira 91 Founder Ankur Jain told PTI.

The company is focusing on the premium beer space and will have presence in 8 more cities this quarter, he added.

"We have one manufacturing unit in Indore and soon we would have another one in Nagpur," he said, adding that it will push through its expansion plans.

Asked about investment, Jain said it was getting the same through leased plants only.

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The West Bengal BJP unit today accused the Kolkata police of filing false cases against the party activists who took part in Thursday's agitation, and organised a demonstration outside Bowbazar police station.

The party workers also staged a protest at Howrah bridge, demanding immediate release of all their activists.

"We are here to protest against the Kolkata police who are behaving like party cadres of TMC and are filing false cases against our leaders and workers. Most of the cases were filed in Bowbazar police station so we are here to demonstrate outside the police station," BJP leader Kishan Jhawar said.

The BJP workers were stopped near Bowbazar police station where they organised a demonstration.

BJP workers had yesterday clashed with the police at different places across the city during their march to the Lalbazar police headquarters demanding arrest of "corrupt" TMC leaders, prompting the force to use teargas shells, water canons and batons to disperse them.

Over 20 police personnel were injured in the violence and 141 BJP workers arrested including 21 who tried to enter the city police headquarters.

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, state chief Dilip Ghosh, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha, party Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly and state secretary Locket Chatterjee were among those arrested during the protest-agitation.

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Large tracts of fields and several residential areas were inundated after a breach occurred in a sub-canal here in the early hours today.

A joint team of the district administration and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has launched a relief operation. No loss of life was reported in the incident, district officials said.

Bathinda SDM Sakshi Sahni said about a 40-feet wide breach occured in the sub-canal. The water entered houses in low-lying areas, and submerged cotton and paddy fields.

"The NDRF personnel shifted the affected people to safer areas. Two boats were deployed for the rescue operation," the SDM said.

A team of doctors rushed to the scene. Several NGOs are helping the administration organise relief camps.

"No assessment has been made yet of the damage caused to the crops," Sahni said.

Meanwhile, the local residents blamed the authorities for not repairing the sub-canal despite repeated complaints.

A resident said the water inundated over 100 houses in Sai Nagar area.

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A 20-year-old British man was sentenced to 15 years in prison today for planting a bomb on a busy London Underground train last year in what he claimed was a Halloween prank.

Student Damon Smith, who has a form of autism and an obsession with weapons, left the bomb in a backpack on a crowded train in October.

The abandoned bag was spotted by two members of the public who handed it to the driver, who in turn raised the alarm when he saw wires sticking out.

Smith was convicted for possession of an explosive substance with intent and sentenced to 15 years in a young offenders' institution, a type of prison.

The bag was packed with explosives and ball bearings and the device was timed to go off within minutes.

Judge Richard Marks said there was no "clarity or certainty" as to the motivation for Smith, who was interested in Islam but denied being an extremist.

"The seriousness of what you did cannot be overstated, not least against the background of the fear in which we all live from the use of bombs here and around the world, an all too timely reminder of which were the events in Manchester earlier this week," Marks said.

Suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people and injured dozens more on Monday when he detonated a device outside one of the exits of the 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena after a pop concert.

That attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

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A former top police officer was executed in China today after being convicted of homicide and corruption, authorities said.

Zhao Liping, 65, was executed after China's Supreme Court approved the sentence.

Zhao, who headed the police in Inner Mongolia for seven years until his retirement in 2012, was found guilty of murder, bribery and possession of firearms and explosives by a court in Taiyuan in November.

He was also found guilty of shooting dead a 26-year old woman in Chifeng in Inner Mongolia on March 20, 2015.

He took advantage of his post to secure business contracts and official positions for associates, and accepted bribes totaling 23.68 million yuan (USD 3.45 million) from 2008 to 2010, as the police chief of Inner Mongolia, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Zhao was also a deputy head of the regional People's Political Consultative Conference.

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China today successfully installed the heavy containment dome for its first domestically developed third-generation reactor design which may also be used at the Karachi nuclear plant where Beijing is building two 1100 mw reactors.

The hemispherical dome, weighing 340 tonnes and measuring 46.8 metres in diametre, was installed by crane on the No 5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in Fuqing City, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The installation marks the completion of construction work on the pilot project and the beginning of the assembly stage, said Yu Peigen, deputy general manager of CNNC at the site of installation.

The dome will be used for protection against nuclear accidents under extreme conditions, and both its design and installation are very demanding processes, the report said.

The design may be replicated in Karachi plant in Pakistan where China is building two 1100 mw reactors at a cost of USD 6.5 billion.

"The installation is much more difficult than that of traditional nuclear reactors because the whole weight of the dome and the ropes is more than 500 tonnes," said Yang Jianguo, the lifting commander at the site.

Construction of the pilot project began in May 2015 and was scheduled to take about 62 months to finish.

The successful installation of the dome will contribute to the development of China's domestic third-generation reactor design and enhance the confidence in Hualong One among Belt and Road countries to boost cooperation, Wang Shoujun, chairman of CNNC said.

The country has actively promoted Hualong One at home and abroad. There are now four projects using Hualong One design under construction, including two reactors in Karachi, the report said.

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Ten Indians, facing execution in the UAE for murdering a Pakistani man, may soon return home as their death sentences were commuted to prison terms after a charity paid the blood money to the family of the victim, a media report said today.

The ten men, who are from Punjab, were sentenced to death



In October last year.

The Al Ain Court of Appeals following the payement of blood money sentenced two of the men to three-and-a-half years in jail and three others to three-year jail terms, Gulf reported.

Two others will now have to serve one-and-a-half years in prison and the remaining three persons will be jailed one year each.

Dinesh Kumar, first secretary for community affairs at the Indian Embassy, said that the verdict is a relief to the accused, who have been in jail since July 2015 and were sentenced to death in October 2016, and their families.

"We are grateful to the courts for this decision, and to the victim's family, who agreed to pardon these young men. [What transpired in 2015] is indeed unfortunate, but these men hail from poor families that need their support," he said.

An Indian charity organisation, Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust, has already deposited the blood money in court on behalf of the accused, and this means that five of the men will soon be able to return home, said S P S Oberoi, chairman of the trust.

The rest will be able to go back home by the end of the year or in early 2018 after serving the remainder of their sentences.

The Indians allegedly killed the Pakistani man during a brawl over bootlegging in Al Ain. Eleven men were convicted in the case but one was spared the death sentence.

Following the initial verdict, the victim's father appeared at the Court of Appeals in March 2017 and submitted a letter of consent to pardon the defendants.

"It was a tough task to convince the victim's family to pardon the accused. The [father eventually] told me there was no solution to his family's pain. He said he didn't want to inflict the same pain to ten Indian families [through their son's death]," Oberoi said.

The Indian Embassy will soon issue air tickets and outpasses for the men who have finished serving their one- and one-and-a-half-year sentences and now face deportation.

The convicted men worked in Al Ain as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons. Most of them are in their twenties.

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The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) has called for a "medical bandh" on June 6 against the rising number of attacks on doctors.

As part of the bandh, the DMA has urged its members and owners of hospitals, nursing homes and health facilities in the city to keep their establishments closed till 2 PM. However, emergency services will remain open.

The decision was taken in the DMA's state executive committee held today, a statement said, adding the body also called for a stringent Central act to stop the violence against doctors.

The members of DMA further said that if their concerns were not looked into, they would call for a nation wide indefinite strike.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) is organising 'Dilli Chalo Movement' on the same day against the "atrocities" faced by the medical fraternity.

More than one lakh doctors are expected to take part in the protest march, which would start from Rajghat and end at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

A 'pen-down satyagraha' would also be observed by all doctors across India as no doctor would give any prescriptions for one hour i.E. Between 10 AM to 11 AM on June 6, the statement added.

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Trustees of retirement fund body may approve a proposal on Saturday to reduce the mandatory contributions toward social security schemes run by it to 10 per cent for workers as well as employers.

Presently, employees and employers contribute 12 per cent of basic wages each towards Employees Provident Fund Scheme (EPF), Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) and Employee Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme (EDLI).

The proposal to reduce the contributions by employers and employees to 10 per cent of basic wages, including basic pay and dearness allowance, is listed on the agenda for meeting of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) scheduled on May 27, 2017 in Pune, a source said.

The source said the labour ministry received several representations stating that the move will leave more money with workers for expenditure and reduce employers liability, which will eventually perk up economy.

However, trade unions have decided to oppose the proposal saying this will dilute these social security schemes.

An trustee and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh leader P J Banasure said, "We will oppose this proposal. This is not in workers interest."



Another trustee and All India Trade Union Congress Secretary D L Sachdev said, "The reduction of contributions will reduce the benefits for workers by four percentage point. At present employer and employee contribute 24 per of basic wages. This will be reduced to 20 per cent."



At present, the employees' entire 12 per cent contribution is deposited into his EPF account.

Besides, 3.67 per cent is also contributed to the EPF account by the employer who also contributes 8.33 per cent of basic wages to the EPS account.

That apart, the employer also contributes 0.5 per cent of basic wages towards the EDLI for insurance benefit. Thus the employer eventually contributed 12.5 per of basic wages.
Estonia's foreign ministry said today it had expelled two Russian diplomats, in the latest incident to strain relations between the small NATO state and Moscow.

"We can confirm that Estonia has expelled two Russian diplomats," ministry spokeswoman Sandra Kamilova told AFP.

The incident follows a string of spy cases. Most recently, a Tallinn court earlier this month sentenced a Russian citizen living in Estonia to five years behind bars for spying on behalf of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.

The Baltic Service named the two men as Dmitry Kazennov, the Russia's consul general in the eastern city of Narva and consul Andrey Surgaev.

Perched on Estonia's border with Russia, around 90 per cent of Narva's 60,000 residents are ethnic Russian.

Relations between Moscow and Tallinn have been fraught since Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, joining both the EU and NATO in 2004.

NATO is currently deploying four battalions to the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - and Poland to reassure its allies spooked by Russia's frequent military exercises near the region and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

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European leaders have mounted a last-ditch effort to stop President from abandoning the Paris climate accord, using multiple meetings this week to sell the American leader on the global agreement to reduce carbon emissions.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump at length about the climate deal during a meeting yesterday in Brussels.

At the Vatican earlier in the week, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin made his own pro-Paris pitch to Trump and his advisers. The matter was also a central focus of Trump's two days of talks at the Group of 7 summit, which kicked off today on the picturesque Sicilian coast.

At the close of today's talks, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said six of the G-7 nations -- Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan -- confirmed "our commitment and our determination" to the Paris agreement.

The United States, meanwhile, confirmed "a period of reflection" on the issue, Gentiloni said.

The White House's slow decision-making on the future of the landmark 2015 climate change agreement created the opening for the European leaders' persuasion campaign.

Multiple White House meetings on the matter were delayed in recent weeks, and Trump advisers ultimately said he would not make a decision until after he returns to Washington from a nine-day, five-stop trip.

As a candidate, Trump vowed to withdraw the US from the accord, which was negotiated during the Obama administration.

But as the opening months of his presidency have shown, Trump can be moved to change his positions and can be heavily influenced by other world leaders.

He backed away from his tough campaign talk about trade with China after a summit with President Xi Jinping and abandoned his criticism of Saudi Arabia's human rights record following his warm welcome in the desert kingdom earlier this week.

Gary Cohn, Trump's top White House economic adviser, said the president "wants to hear what the Europeans have to say" about the climate accord.

In Washington, discussions over the climate deal have sown divisions within the White House, splitting the nationalists and the globalists competing for influence within Trump's administration.

One potential compromise that's emerged in the White House discussions involves staying in the climate accord, but adjusting the US emissions targets.

Cohn hinted at that prospect as he briefed reporters last night as Air Force One flew from Brussels to Sicily, the final stop on Trump's trip.

"The last levels we put out in the Paris agreement were levels that would be constraining to our economic growth," Cohn said.

"But then you get into the whole discussion on Paris, is it non-binding, is it not non-binding, can you change your levels, how easy is it to change your levels."



In a striking comment given Trump's support during the campaign for American coal miners, Cohn also said "coal doesn't even really make that much sense anymore as a feedstock."



He singled out natural gas as "such a cleaner fuel" and also noted that the US could become a "manufacturing powerhouse" by investing in wind and solar energy.

Nearly 200 countries are part of the Paris accord and each set their own emissions targets, which are not legally binding.

The US pledged to reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels, which would be a reduction of about 1.6 billion tons of annual emissions.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) has seen a sharp jump of 400 per cent in IFSC transactions to USD 4 billion covering banking, insurance, and capital market services in the last six months.

While International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) units of the banks have done business worth USD 3 billion, insurance companies have clocked in USD 1 billion worth of transactions.

BSE's international stock exchange within GIFT IFSC has seen a single day trading of around USD 100 million, GIFT IFSC said in a statement.

Union Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal, who visited the GIFT IFSC, held discussions with 14 banking and insurance units and 15 capital market entities.

Meghwal discussed regulatory clarifications with all the units and promised to take up all the issues at the next IFSC Task Force meeting.

The minister is also Chairman of the IFSC task force.

"My endeavour has been to oversee the operationalisation of regulations and policies in order to facilitate further growth of IFSCs in the country, particularly GIFT IFSC, Gandhinagar. In coming days, we want GIFT IFSC to emerge as a 'price setter' for various global financial products," Mehgwal said.

India International Exchange, along with its members, attended the meeting.

GIFT, the Gujarat government's project, in partnership with IL&FS is developing India's first global financial hub.

GIFT is India's first multi-service SEZ with IFSC status which is catering to the country's large financial services market by offering global firms world-class infrastructure and facilities.

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Greek police scrambled today to determine how a letter bomb wounded former PM Lucas Papademos despite security checks being beefed up after a wave of similar attacks in March.

"We want to determine whether security procedures were followed," a police source told AFP, hours after Papademos and two guards were injured by the bomb that exploded as they rode in an armoured car in Athens.

"The fact that the attackers managed to get past security is worrying," the source said, adding that experts were trying to determine the nature of explosive used.

Papademos sustained superficial injuries to the chest, abdomen and legs, Evangelismos Hospital in Athens said, after he apparently opened his mail whilst riding in the car.

The 69-year-old economist was in stable condition but is expected to remain in intensive care for at least two days, doctors said.

A later statement from Evangelismos Hospital said the former PM had undergone surgery to address a thigh injury.

One of his guards has trouble hearing, the hospital said.

The police source said the attack was "largely symbolic" as Papademos was lightly hurt despite his proximity to the letter bomb.

Calls have already gone out to individuals who could be potential targets to boost security, and to the Greek postal service to step up searches for other similar devices.

As a former PM, Papademos has round-the-clock police protection and his mail is screened by special machinery at the Bank of Greece and parliament.

Leaders of all parties and former prime ministers condemned the attack, the first against an incumbent or former leader in decades.

The methodology is similar to that used by Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, a domestic far-left group which in March mailed a letter bomb that injured a secretary at the International Monetary Fund in Paris.

The group had earlier claimed responsibility for an explosive device, also sent from Greece, discovered by the police at the offices of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

The bombs contained gunpowder used in firecrackers, police said.

The police source acknowledged that Thursday's attack on Papademos was "similar" to those in March, but authorities do not want to rule out other possibilities.

Papademos' name was on a target list compiled by Paula Roupa, a senior member of far-left group Revolutionary Struggle jailed in January.

So far there has been no claim of responsibility.

If Conspiracy does confirm the attack, "it would be a problem," the police source said.

"It would show that they have done their homework and are able to bypass security procedures," the source added.

In 2011, several Conspiracy members, many of whom were very young, were convicted of "participating in a criminal organisation" and given long prison sentences.

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The Delhi High Court today agreed to hear a plea challenging the trial court's order dismissing a suit filed against the President of India seeking deletion of some portions from his book published in 2016 for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.

Justice Vinod Goel fixed September 16 for hearing of the appeal against the trial court's order on November 30 last by which the law suit which had sought deletion of portions from Pranab Mukherjee's book 'Turbulent Years 1980- 1996' was rejected.

Advocate Barun Kumar Sinha, appearing for a group of lawyers, submitted that the trial court had wrongly dismissed the petition.

Sinha contended that the trial court judge had not heard arguments and neither recorded evidence in the matter and dismissed the same.

During hearing of the suit before the trial court, the judge had asked the complainant to explain how can the President of India, who has immunity under the Constitution from legal proceedings, be dragged in a lawsuit.

A group of lawyers and a social worker had filed the law suit against Mukherjee seeking deletion of portions from his book in the references to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992 for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.

The plaintiffs' advocates had claimed before the trial court that a civil suit can be filed against the President during his tenure in respect of any act done by him in his "personal capacity."



"We are not saying anything against the President of India. We are concerned with the author of the book who is Pranab Mukherjee. How can he write such things in his personal capacity where sentiments of lakhs and crores of people are concerned," the petitioner's counsel had told the trial court.

The President's counsel, however, had opposed the plea before the trial court and had said that it was not maintainable.

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The Delhi High Court today took a serious view of the conduct of an Indian doctor, who was barred from practising in the US for sexual offences against women, for coming here and setting up a clinic.

"You avoid a 25-year imprisonment by taking a plea bargain and you come here and start practising. It is not acceptable at all," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

"If he had done this (offence) in India and then gone back to US, he would have been in jail there," it said.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after coming across a report about the doctor who, after being barred from practising by a US court in 2011, was now treating patients in the National Capital Region (NCR).

As per the report, a court in Georgia in the US had asked the doctor to surrender all US medical licences, leave the country and "not practice medicine in any form within the United States or any other country".

The report had also said that the medical practitioner had pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual battery, for unwarranted medical examination on women patients, a crime that carries a mandatory 25 years in prison in the US.

The court said women in the US had the courage to report his conduct, but here not many would complain when there is an offence of sexual violence or of such nature.

"You (the doctor) are playing with the lives of people. We are rooting for the rights of the people," the court told senior advocate Amit Sibal, who represented the doctor.

The bench noted that the doctor, who was present in court today, was "desperate" to avoid the prison sentence of 25 years and hence opted for plea bargaining, a concept under which the quantum of sentence is negotiated after guilt is conceded by the accused.

It also observed that the doctor had started his practice here without informing the Medical Council of India (MCI) about his conviction.

The central government, during the hearing, said the US court had barred the doctor from practising anywhere else in the world in future, but he had started treating patients in Delhi and Gurgaon.

Sibal, however, said the US court's order was not clear on whether the prohibition was forever or just for a probation period of 36 months. In this connection, he has also sought a written legal opinion from an American lawyer associated with the case in which the doctor was convicted.

The bench did not agree with the submission regarding the probation period, saying in the instant case the prohibition did not appear to be for just 36 months.

It also noted the claim made on behalf of the doctor that as his license expired on May 7 and his plea for renewal was pending before the MCI, he has not been practising anywhere in India since then.

The court also asked if the doctor, an American citizen, can return to the US, to which his lawyer said legal opinion on this issue has also been sought from the American lawyer.

Sibal also said that the MCI, which has the statutory powers to suspend, revoke and renew the license of a medical practitioner, is looking into the whole matter.

He said all the documents related to the doctor's conviction would be placed before the MCI where the first hearing was on May 18 and the next slated for June 7.

The bench, on the other hand, said it has made MCI a party in the matter as it wanted the council to frame guidelines.

It also directed that the records of the doctor's conviction, plea bargaining and settlements entered into with the victims be placed before the court before July 19, the next date of hearing.

The high court had earlier observed that doctors indicted for sexual misconduct, deserved to be caught and barred from practising.

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The Indian Air Force today ordered a court of inquiry into the accident involving a Sukhoi jet, whose wreckage was found today 60 km from Tezpur in Assam.

The Su-30 MKI jet, with two pilots on board, had gone missing on Tuesday shortly after taking off from the Tezpur Salonibari air force station on a routine training sortie.

"A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident," IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said here.

The wreckage of jet has been found in the thick forest around 60 km from Tezpur where it lost radar contact with the base.

"The wreckage was located today and ground parties are standing by to be airlifted to the crash site as the area is totally inaccessible.

"Search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be perused by the ground parties after they reach the crash site," Banerjee said.

He said search teams from the Army are attempting to reach the crash site by trekking cross country, adding their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of the terrain.

The Su-30 jet had gone off the radar and lost radio contact around 1110 hours on Tuesday when aircraft was around 60 km from Tezpur.

The aircraft was on a routine training mission as part of a two-aircraft formation. A massive search operation was launched hours after the jet went missing.

However, incessant rain and dense clouds had hampered the search operations in air and on the ground.

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Actor Saqib Saleem says he has to be cautious while choosing the his films as he is not an industry insider and will not get a second chance to prove himself.

Saqib's father Saleem Qureshi is a restaurateur, and runs a chain of restaurants called Saleem's in Delhi. His sister Huma Qureshi is a Bollywood actress.

The actor says he is not bothered by people questioning him for doing less number of films as his focus is on choosing the right movies.

"To find a good script is very important, because the chances and opportunities I would be getting will be very far and few.

"I am not from here (film industry), I come from Delhi, I've nothing to do with this. To make inroads here, I've to find the right films. If my films don't do well, nobody is going to give me films," Saqib told PTI.

The 29-year-old actor says instead of doing 10 mediocre films, it's better to do one good project.

"It becomes important to do the right films, than do 10 films in a year. You may do it once, but it'll never happen again.

"If you screw up five films straight, then you're done. It's a business, the producer invests money and you need to make sure his money is recovered and in the process you give out the best film," he says.

Saqib made his debut in 2011 with "Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge" and then starred in films like "Mere Dad Ki Maruti", "Bombay Talkies", "Hawaa Hawaai" and "Dishoom".

He is awaiting the release of his next film "Dobaara" which also stars his sister Huma.

Saqib is aware that new actors constantly keep coming in the film industry, but he isn't interested in trying to catch up to them.

"I can't fight that (newcomers coming in). They do their job, I do mine. What my work is, nobody can take from me. All I can do is work hard.

"I don't look at things like 'what is he getting?', it's better to focus on 'what can I do'," he says.

This year the actor has two releases. "Dobaara", a supernatural-horror film, and a love story with Taapsee Pannu.

"The film with Taapsee that I have almost completed is 'Makhna', it's tentatively called that. Just a couple of songs are left which I'll shoot. I think it should release sometime towards the end of the year, by November," he says.

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Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet colleagues on completion of three years in office.

"On behalf of the people of Jharkhand, I congratulate the prime minister and his Cabinet ministers on completion of three years," Das told reporters here.

"I can tell that maximum people admit that the country is secure under the leadership of Modi," the Jharkhand chief minister said.

The country's economic growth matched that of America and China in the last three years while initiatives have been taken for the youth, the poor, dalits, farmers and women to make them empowered, the chief minister said.

Doubling farmers' income, implementation of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, which would change the life of farmers were the other achievements, he added.

Das also stated that no minister of the Narendra Modi government faced any corruption charge during the three years.

The central government should also be given credit for having made development an issue, the chief minister said. Even the prime minister's mantra is "together with all, development for all", Das said.

The prime minister has also focussed on women and children and implemented programmes like Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samriddhi, Das said.

Providing LPG cylinder to the poor, empowering women, creating self-help groups, promoting women's literacy and making them economically strong were notable achievements made in the last three years, Das said.

Similarly, for the poor there is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, according to which, by 2022 nobody should remain homeless in the country and both the Centre and the state governments are working in that area, he said.

Another important achievement in the three years of rule is passing of GST that would strengthen the economy in the coming times and increase revenue of the country and states, Das said.

The country was also moving towards digital India and cashless India and moving towards a digital society, he said.

The foundations of Make in India, Skill India, Startup India and such programmes laid during the three years would open employment opportunities for the youth, he said.

The prime minister, Das said, has enabled crores of people, who did not have bank accounts, open pass books under the 'Jan Dhan Yojana'.

The prime minister also set up SIT against black money, Das said.

Budget allocations have been made for the tribals, the deprived, the poor and the minorities, Das said.

"Even now much work has to be done and the central government is working towards that endeavour", Das said.

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Media should not have cosy relations with government as journalists are crusaders of truth, Press Council of India Chairman Justice (Retd) C K Prasad said today.

Speaking at a seminar on 'Ethical Journalism and role of Press Council' here, Prasad said he opposed the idea of cosy relations with government and authority.

"Journalists are crusaders of truth.You have to expose the wrongdoing in government.Conflict between government and media is good for democracy," Prasad added.

The PCI chairman said paid was a menace and a reality. However, he said it was difficult to detect it.

"But as any other criminal activities, it also leaves a trace," he said.

Prasad said PCI stands for preserving the freedom of press and not for regulating its freedom.

Extending all support to the media in the country, he said "if your freedom is threatened, or independence is questioned, come before us. We will not betray you."



He also wanted journalists to report on the achievements and developments in the country.

Inaugurating the seminar, Governor P Sathasivam said social media also should come under the purview of the PCI.

"The irresponsible use of the social media deserves the attention of bodies like the Press Council, since the traditional media are also active on the social media," he said.

"Therefore, we should think of a media council that can check violations of ethical practices through stronger measures," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) Legislature Party today unanimously endorsed that Chief Minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu should become a member of the state assembly and work together as a solid team.

The endorsement was made by 42 out of the 60 DAN legislatures during DAN Legislature Party meeting held tonight in the State Banquet Hall here, stated a CMO release.

In this connection, the DAN Legislature Party, also appealed to the Election Commission of India to conduct the by-election for the Northern Angami-I Assembly Constituency at the earliest.

The seat was vacated by sitting Parliamentary Secretary for State Lotteries and Music Task Force, Khriehu Liezietsu on May 24 last, paving way for his father to become an elected member of the Assembly.

Shurhozelie Liezietsu, who is also the NPF President but not a member of the NLA, had taken over as the Chief Minister on February 22.

Meanwhile, the DAN legislators in today's meeting also reiterated their positive to pave way in the event of an honourable and amicable settlement is achieved as a result of the ongoing political talks between the Centre and NSCN(IM).

They also resolved to request the Government of India to expedite the political dialogue and bring an early solution of the ongoing almost 20-years political dialogue before the scheduled Assembly election in early 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
French President Emmanuel Macron today brushed off Theresa May's request for early talks on a trade deal with the EU after Brexit.

As the two held their first official talks on the sidelines of the G7 summit, British Prime Minister May repeated that she would like to start talks on trade at the start of the negotiations, rather than waiting until after the thorny issues of Britain's financial settlement and expatriate rights are resolved.

"The prime minister reaffirmed her wish for early clarity on the position of EU citizens in the UK and vice versa," a Downing Street spokesman said.

"She also made clear that Britain and the 27 EU member states should be discussing our future relationship with the EU at the same time as discussing the terms of our withdrawal."



However, a source in the French delegation said Macron had repeated the EU's position that the terms of the divorce must be first.

"The European Union will be united in the Brexit negotiations, but France and the United Kingdom will continue to maintain close ties in areas of economic, security and diplomatic cooperation between our two countries," a source said.

Britain triggered the two-year process of leaving the European Union on March 29, following a referendum vote last year to end its four-decade membership of the bloc. The start of formal negotiations must wait until after a general election that May has called for June 8.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration seized illegal drugs worth Rs 40 lakh during raids at premises of Pioma Chemicals in Mumbai and Thane.

The raids were carried out at the company premises in Vile Parle (East) and at their godowns at Prerana Complex, Anjur Road, Bhiwandi, in Thane district after a tip-off, FDA Commissioner Dr. Harshadeep Kamble, told PTI.

"Pioma Chemicals imported Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP, a drug illegally without registration and import license, as required under provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and rules," Kamble said.

"Acting on this information the premises were raided and stock of 12,730 kg of Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP which is prohibited and worth Rs 40 lakh, was seized," the senior IAS officer said.

"Primary investigation has revealed that Pioma Chemicals gave an undertaking to the Centre about the import of this dual use drug for the purpose of 'not for medicinal use'", he said.

Though this raw material can be used as bulk sweetener for manufacture of low calorie food products, it is also used as an active ingredient in drug manufacturing, he added.

This drug is used for treatment of constipation, prevention of encephalopathy, fissures, hemorrhoids, hyper cholestrolaemia, anorectal disease, etc, said Kamble.

Pioma Chemicals also gave an undertaking to the Central Government agency, CDSCO, that the said material will not be used or sold for medicinal purpose and that they will take similar undertaking about 'not for medicinal use' from the purchaser on said product, he said.

The drug is imported from Shandong Lujian Biological Technical Co. Ltd., China and is sold to various pharma companies like Sun Pharma, Medley Pharma Ltd., Tirupati Medicare, Akums Drugs and Pharmaceutical Ltd., he said.

Investigation has also revealed that Pioma chemicals have imported more than 3 lakh kilograms of the drug worth Rs 10 crore, he said.

According to the IAS officer, as per provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, import of drug requires registration of the manufacturer.

In this case since the manufacturer is based in China, registration for import will make their manufacturing facility available for audit and inspection by the Indian authorities, he added.

It also requires import license for import of drug to be issued by licensing authority of the Centre.

The import of drugs without license is prohibited as per provision of sec 10 (c) read with rule 23, 25, 25 (b), 26 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, informed Kamble.

As the drug has been supplied to the manufacturers located in various states of the country, I have informed the concerned State Drug Controllers to verify and investigate the matter with respect to stock received by manufacturer located in their jurisdiction, said Kamble.

He also said that notices were issued to the users/ manufacturers of Lactitol Monohydrate USP/EP, namely Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Medley Pharma Ltd., Tirupati Medicare, Akums Drugs and Pharmaceutical Ltd.

Sample of the drug has been drawn for test and analysis to ascertain the quality of the drug imported illegally, he added.

The Drugs Controller General of India, New Delhi has been informed about the issue to conduct further enquiry, if necessary separately, and for reviewing the policy of issuing no objection certificate for import of dual use drugs, particularly for Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP by Pioma Chemicals, Mumbai, said the officer said.
Police have arrested a 41-year- old man for allegedly killing a 60-year-old jeweller inside his shop in central Delhi's Karol Bagh last month.

Earlier this week, two men were arrested and a juvenile was apprehended for the killing.

According to Anto Alphonse, additional deputy commissioner of police (central), the accused, Sanjay Chawla is the mastermind of the killing-cum-robbery case.

On the day of incident, Chawla and his accomplices went to Ravinder Kapoor's shop on two motorcycles. They went upstairs in the shop and tied his hands and legs and put tape on his mouth which led to his death.

Then, they robbed the jewellery shop. In the meantime, Kapoor's servant Bhagirath arrived there. They tied him up also and decamped with the jewellery worth lakhs.

On the basis of a tip-off, Chawla was arrested yesterday from Mangol Puri.

He was found carrying a loaded pistol with six live cartridges at the time of his arrest, said Alphonse.

During interrogation, Chawla disclosed that he had gone in disguise to kill the jeweller so that he could not be identified, police said. He had been cheating jewellers in Karol Bagh and Chandni Chowk since 2003.

The accused opened a shop in Kucha Mahajani in Chandni Chowk area in the name of Muskan Jewellers after he was released from Tihar Jail where he was lodged in a cheating case.

Thereafter, he duped many jewellers along with his associate, who has already been arrested in the present case.

Chawla was looking for a soft target and identified Kapoor due as his old age.

The accused procured two SIM cards on fake IDs from Amritsar on April 6. He called Kapoor posing as Vishal Bhatia from Bhatia Jewellers of Amritsar in order to gauge his financial strength.

On April 30, the accused, in order to disguise himself, wore a wig and goggles. He went to Kapoor's shop and killed the elderly man, tied up his servant and fled with the jewellery.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Senior leader Shankarsinh Vaghela today asserted he had no plans to join the BJP even as he once again rubbished reports that he was unhappy with the Congress, after the party's pointsman in Gujarat Ashok Gehlot rushed to his residence and held a meeting.

Vaghela, who returned to Gandhinagar last night after a week-long stay abroad, accused the BJP of spreading such rumours ahead of the state Assembly polls to be held later this year.

The Congress leader was speaking at his residence at a joint press meet with Gehlot. Before the press meet, Gehlot had a meeting with Vaghela.

"Who told you that I am having any problem with Congress? Who told you that I am leaving the party and joining BJP? These are all rumours spread by BJP ahead of polls.

"Neither I have contacted any BJP leader nor have any of them contacted me till date," the 77-year-old former Gujarat chief minister said.

An air of suspense has prevailed over Vaghela's next move since he set out on a foreign tour on May 17 after 'unfollowing' Congress scion Rahul Gandhi and many other party leaders on his official Twitter account.

Gehlot, during his meeting with the Gujarat strongman, discussed the party's strategy for the Assembly polls.

Responding to queries on his rumoured differences with state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki, Vaghela said "I never had any problem with Solanki. We are all part of a team. I do not have any difference of opinion with Solanki".

Asked about the speculation triggered by the recent Delhi visit of his son and MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela, he said he had gone there just to meet senior party leader Ahmed Patel regarding some work about their educational institute.

"Though BJP leaders are trying to lure Mahendrasinh to join the party, he will not quit Congress," Vaghela claimed.

Gehlot also refuted the impression that Vaghela is not happy with the party.

"It seems that there was some confusion among the media and the people about Vaghela. But I want to tell you that he was never unhappy with the party. He is a senior and good- hearted person and the entire party stands by him. I hope that everything will be alright in the coming days," Gehlot said.

In March, Vaghela had claimed that he was not in the race to be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly elections.

Last month, 36 of the 57 Congress MLAs had demanded that Vaghela should be made the party's chief ministerial face if the Congress wanted to win the polls.

Posters were also put up in various cities in the state demanding the party veteran be projected as the CM face.

However, Gehlot had ruled out naming the party's chief ministerial candidate in the run-up to the polls.

For Vaghela, who quit the BJP in 1995, the coming polls might be the last chance to aim for the coveted post.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Obesity is a "major factor" that leads to osteoarthritis and patients seek medical treatment mostly at moderate or severe stage of the disease, according to a city-based study.

The Arthritis Foundation of India (AFI) carried the epidemiological study on the situation of osteoarthritis in Delhi on 600 OPD patients drawn from four hospitals.

"Most respondents sought medical treatment at a moderate to severe stage. It could have been possible to prevent the progression of the disease and the suffering to quite an extent had it been reported in the mild stage," the study said.

In addition, women reported it more than men, the study said.

The AFI, member of the International Osteoporosis Foundation and the WHO, conducted the multi-centric study at Hedgewar Hospital, Vir Savarkar Hospital, Jagpravesh Hospital and R K Hospital.

"55 per cent of the patients were women. Shockingly, the severity of arthritis was also much higher in women as compared to men," it said.

"Obesity was a major contributing factor, with 53 per cent of the respondents found to be obese. Also with risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, thyroid, etc., the progress of the diseases was much quicker in many cases, within two years," it added.

Over 73 per cent of the patients who attended the arthritis OPD for knee arthritis, were aged more than 40 years. However, an alarmingly high incidence of arthritis, i.E. 26.5 per cent, was reported among younger people, in their 30s, the study further said.

It throws light on the prevalence of osteoarthritis in Delhi, and the general public's response to the disease. Unfortunately, there is very little awareness among the masses, which is not a good sign and is preventing people from getting the right treatment at the right time, said Sushil Sharma, Senior Orthopedician and Chairman, AFI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala and the Congress-led UDF on Friday attacked the Centre for the ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the Centre's decision was "surprising" which was unsuitable for a democratic nation.

"It is not right that a government decides the choice of food of the people. With this decision, the Centre is destroying a sector which employees thousands of people," Vijayan said in a strong reaction to the Union government's decision.

The notification was part of Centre's attempt to implement "RSS agenda". The Centre should have consulted with the states and sought their opinion before coming with the notification, Vijayan said in a statement here.

While state Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said the decision was 'illogical' and the state would introspect what it could do legally, Local Administration Minister K T Jaleel and Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar felt it was an infringement on the powers of the state and the decision cannot be accepted.

"This was a state subject and the Centre cannot infringe on the state's rights", Jaleel told reporters here.

Sunil Kumar said the notification was a challenge to the country's federal system. India is a democratic nation and the centre's decision to impose the ban without consulting the states amounted to violation of the federal system, he said.

Animal Husbandry Minister K Raju opined that the decision will destroy the federal structure and will have far reaching consequences.

CPI(M) state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said in his Facebook post that the government led by Narendra Modi, who was an RSS Pracharak, has come out with the notification at a time when the country was all set to celebrate Ramzan.

Echoing similar sentiments, Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said the ban was an attempt to usurp the human rights of citizens.

"The Modi Government's effort from the beginning was to curb the constitutional rights and the ban was the latest example of the alleged fascist moves of the government," he said.

KPCC President M M Hassan also criticised the decision saying it was against the Constitution and encroachment on the fundamental rights of the citizens.

The notification banning cattle trade for meat was unconstitutional and violation of federal principles, Dr Varughese George, General Secretary of Janata Dal(U).

However,Justifying the Centre's decision, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, blamed the mediafor "distorting" the notification.

The notification had only restricted the sale of animals for slaughter which were used for agricultural purposes, he said attributing "political motives" on the part of media in hiding.
Dozens of farmers today protested in front of the Pakistan's parliament building here to press the government to allocate more funds for agriculture, prompting police to fire tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protest.

The protest near the D-Chowk was held ahead of the annual budget speech to be delivered by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar later in the day.

The protesters demanded the subsidies be increased to control prices of agricultural inputs and sought better prices for their crops.

All protests have been banned in the D-Chowk due to security situation and the protesters were warned before the use of force, a police official said.

Police used batons, tear gas and water cannons as the protesters marched towards the parliament house, the official said.

The protesters had demanded that they be allowed to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and also raised slogans against him after police action.

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah arrived at the site of the protest shortly after it started to express solidarity withe the protesters.

"My Pakistan Peoples Party stands by you. We believe that Pakistan will only succeed when the poor man is well-fed and his children go to school," Shah said.

The government is planning to increase the defence budget but it is not known if any special package will be offered for the agriculture sector.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan on Friday proposed to hike its defence budget by nearly seven per cent to Rs 920 billion amid growing tension with India along the Line of Control.

"We have increased the defence budget to Rs 920 billion (from Rs 860 billion)," Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said as he presented the federal budget for 2017-18 financial year in the National Assembly.

Dar also announced a 10 per cent increase of "special allowance" to the armed forces for their contribution in defeating militants throughout operation 'Zarb-e-Azb' launched three years ago.

Pakistan's proposed increase in the defence outlay and for its armed forces came as tension with India soared over a host of contentious issues.

Tensions have run high between India and Pakistan over a host of issues, including the status of Kashmir.

India has accused Pakistan of supporting militants, who infiltrate from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir into the Valley and target Indian security forces. One such attack in September last year killed 18 Indian soldiers and India retaliated with "surgical strikes" on terrorist launchpads in PoK.

Most recently, the Pakistan Army sentenced Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav on charges of espionage after a secret trial. India had demanded consular access to Jadhav, which Pakistan repeatedly denied, claiming the man was an Indian spy.

India took Pakistan to the Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague over the matter, which in an interim order stopped Pakistan from executing Jadhav, and said India should have been given consular access as per the Vienna Convention.

India and Pakistan are also at loggerheads over a China- backed economic corridor that runs through PoK. China says it is a developmental project and will aid Pakistan's .

Last year, Pakistan recorded a 5.28 per cent GDP growth - the highest in 10 years and the volume of its crossed USD 300 billion.

The total estimated outlay of the budget presented today will be 4.75 trillion rupees, according to minister Dar.

The government proposed a six per cent GDP growth for 2017 -18 financial year and the development expenditure for next year will be 1.001 trillion rupees, Dar said.

Infrastructure would get maximum allocation in the development sector, according to Dar.

He said the minimum wage will be set at 15,000 rupees, while announcing a 10 per cent increase in the basic salary of government employees and pensioners.

It was the fifth and last budget of the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz government which came to power in May 2013.
A Pakistani national, who was living in a temple here for nine months under a false identity and had even got Aadhar and PAN cards, was taken into custody, police said today.

According to his passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistan's Sindh province, police said.

The PAN card seized from him mentioned his name as Rasraj Das, police said. The date of birth mentioned in his passport is different from the one mentioned in Aadhar and PAN cards, police added.

"During questioning, Raja told us he was spiritually inclined," Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, B Satheesh Balan said.

As per investigation conducted by police, Raja came to India in 2013 and his visa expired in 2016.

The SP said Raja, who is a Hindu, applied online for extension of visa in order to stay in India. "We are in contact with the External Affairs ministry on this issue," he said.

Raja has two brothers who have been doing menial jobs in Pakistan. He has been associated with Iskcon for some years, the SP said, adding that he had also stayed in Delhi.

The SP said a team of intelligence bureau and police was questioning him and no case has been registered so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today sought steps from the Centre to provide Visa on Arrival facility and a stop in Bhubaneswar of Air India's Colombo-Varanasi flight.

The Chief Minister made the requests in separate letters to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju.

"The state government has established international connectivity recently with Air Asia starting its operations between Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur. The state government is providing viability gap funding to the international carrier for its operations," Patnaik said in his letter to Swaraj.

Stating that there has been a good response to this international connectivity with Indian citizens travelling abroad through Bhubaneswar, he said a sizeable number of foreign arrivals have also been noticed.

"In order to facilitate the travel of arriving tourists, it is requested that Bhubaneswar be included as a 'Visa on Arrival' Station for citizens of the eligible nations," Patnaik said.

"It would encourage people from countries connected by the recently launched international connectivity and boost tourist footfalls to our state," he said.

In his letter to Raju, the Chief Minister said launching of Air India flight from Colombo to Varanasi recently would be useful in promotion of heritage tourism and in increasing the traffic from Sri Lanka into India.

Emphasising that Odisha is a land of rich cultural heritage where Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and spread the message across the world, he said the diamond triangle of Buddhist sites has conclusively established that Odisha was an important centre of Buddhism during 3rd century BC.

In the recently held International Buddhist conclave and other discussions in different fora, the tour operators, academicians and revered monks from Sri Lanka have expressed strong desire to come to Odisha to explore Buddhist sites, the chief minister said.

"However, as there is no direct air connectivity, Sri Lankan tourist find it difficult to visit Odisha," he said.

"In order to meet this strong, unmet demand, I would request that Bhubaneswar may be included as a stop for the Colombo-Varanasi flight. This will help in increasing the tourist footfalls for both Odisha and Varanasi," the Chief Minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the third anniversary of his government, the Congress today accused him of maintaining a "strategic silence" on a host of issues including "rising atrocities" on dalits and "violence" being perpetrated by cow vigilantes.

While the BJP has been terming the three years of Modi government as "historic", the Congress is criticising the prime minister and the BJP-led NDA dispensation on scores of issues.

"Though our prime minister talks a lot, he remains silent on the key issues like corruption in the BJP-ruled states, country's security, fleeing of big loan defaulter Vijay Mallya, illegal help extended to (ex-IPL commissioner) Lalit Modi by BJP leaders, rising atrocities against dalits, spiralling unemployment, violence by gau rakshaks etc," senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik alleged while addressing reporters.

The former Union minister was in the Madhya Pradesh capital to put forward his party's view on completion of three years of Modi government today.

"His (Modi's) silence is deafening. This is a 'strategic silence' by prime minister. He remains silent on alleged 'Vyapam' scam in Madhya Pradesh, mining scam worth Rs 45000-crore in Rajasthan, the Rs 3600 crore PDS scam in Chhattisgarh, the land scam in Gujarat involving the daughter of former chief minister Anandiben Patel, a CAG report indicting (the then) Modi regime in Gujarat among others."



He alleged the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje had helped Lalit Modi, who fled India in 2010 after facing charges of financial irregularity in IPL. "Vijay Mallya, a defaulter of Rs 9000-crore, also escaped the country," Wasnik added.

He said the prime minister should speak on issues like rising infiltration by Pakistan and China, growing incidents of attacks on Army, and on terrorism and naxalism.

Questioning the foreign policy of Modi government, he said the country's relations with neighbours like Nepal are at an "all time low".

Wasnik asked the government to present White Paper on the country's economy, saying banks recorded the lowest growth rates in the past 60 years last year.

"In contrast to Modi's promise of (creating) two crore jobs annually, only 1.35 lakh jobs were actually created in 2015. We need to generate over 34 crore jobs by 2028, but what is the status of domestic investment and bank credit?..Both are at their historic lowest," he said.

Experts are saying the information technology sector is facing joblessness and around 20,000 jobs will be lost annually while 60 per cent jobs in unorganised sectors would be reduced this year, Wasnik said.

He alleged atrocities against dalits have gone up by 38 per cent since Modi government came to office after defeating the Congress-led UPA government, whereas 12,602 farmers have committed suicide in 2015.

"Government's decision to revoke import duty on wheat only harmed the farmers' interests," he said.

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Actor Rajkummar Rao is gaining weight and learning Bengali for his portrayal of Indian leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for upcoming web series "Bose".

"I am doing a lot of prep work for the film. I am reading a lot of books and watching videos. There is a lot of material in the script that is available to us. I am learning Bengali for it and gaining weight... I am gaining around eight to 10 kilos," Rajkummar told PTI.

The 32-year-old actor has also gone half bald to resemble the late freedom fighter. Taking to Twitter, he shared the new haircut and announced that the makers will release the first look soon.

"For the look we will not make use of prosthetic, we will have less make up. We will find way to get as close to his look as possible. I am leaving no stone unturned for this," he says.

According to the "Shahid" actor, the makers will touch upon the childhood of Bose and his growing up years among other things in the web series, to be directed by Hansal Mehta.

"We are showing his story, journey from his school and college days to his disappearance," he adds, without divulging further details.

"I am feeling a lot of responsibility on my shoulder to play this role of a larger than life personality. I am a fan of Subhash Chandra Bose and we are getting close to reality as much as possible but let's see how it shapes up. I am keeping my fingers crossed."



It will be aired on Ekta Kapoor's web channel ALT Balaji on Independence Day.

On Twitter, Rajkummar wrote, "Got a hair cut done for #Bose. We'll soon put out the first look as Bose. Until then, these are the post hair cut pictures. Thank you @AalimHakim (sic)"



The series also features actress Patralekhaa. She will play the role of an elitist Bengal woman.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump today wished Muslims a "joyful Ramadan" and urged them to reject violence and help fight terrorism around the world.

"At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict," Trump said in his first Ramadan message to the Muslim world as the President of the United States.

Trump referred to this week's bombing of a concert in Manchester and the shootings of Christians in Egypt in his statement.

"This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan," Trump said.

"Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology," he said.

Trump mentioned his recent trip to Saudi Arabia, during which he decried terrorism but avoided controversial terms like "radical Islamic terror". He had frequently argued during his campaign that politicians can't be afraid to use that term.

The message is a departure from the more aggressive rhetoric Trump used on the trail.

Referring to his visit to Saudi Arabia, Trump said he had the honour of meeting with the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations.

"There, in the land of the two holiest sites in the Muslim world, we gathered to deliver together an emphatic message of partnership for the sake of peace, security, and prosperity for our countries and for the world," said the US President.

"I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh:America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it," he said.

"During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace," Trump said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Five senior BJP leaders, including its national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, were today discharged by courts in connection with the protest- march to the city police headquarters here.

Of the 14 other BJP activists arrested for allegedly indulging in violence during yesterday's protest, seven were remanded to police custody by a city court, while the other seven were granted bail by another court.

Vijayvargiya, who is BJP's in-charge of Bengal, was discharged by metropolitan magistrate Mohammed Rafique in connection with a case registered by Bowbazar police station against him to prevent commission of cognisable offences.

Party state president Dilip Ghosh, Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly, state secretary Locket Chatterjee and former state president Rahul Sinha were discharged by acting chief metropolitan magistrate Satya Arnab Ghosal in connection with cases registered against them by Hare Street police station on similar charge.

All five leaders had yesterday refused to take bail on personal bond, which is granted from police stations in case of preventive arrest, and preferred to be produced before the courts today which discharged them.

Acting chief metropolitan magistrate Ghosal refused the bail prayers of seven BJP activists, who were charged under several sections of IPC, Explosives Act and the newly- instituted West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order Amendment Act 2017 and remanded them to police custody till May 29.

These seven persons were accused of being involved in the hurling of a bomb and indulging in violence during the protest.

The bail prayers of seven other accused, who were produced before metropolitan magistrate Mohammed Rafique were granted as they were charged under bailable sections of IPC read with West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order Amendment Act 2017.

Rejecting the prosecution's prayer for police remand of the seven accused, the judge granted their bail prayer on a bond of Rs 2,000 each, along with a surety of similar amount.

All these people were arrested yesterday during a protest by BJP activists against alleged violence by the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Unruly scenes were witnessed during the protest at different places near Lalbazar, the city police headquarters, as the BJP held protest march from different directions towards it.

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Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar made a veiled attack on ally Shiv Sena in the backdrop of poll results of the three municipal corporations announced today.

Municipal corporations of Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon went to the polls on May 24.

He said BJP has won an absolute majority in Panvel and increased its strength in Malegaon and Bhiwandi civic bodies.

The two parties, allies at the state level and also at the Centre, fought these elections separately.

During the campaigning, Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' was critical of BJP over a host of issues, ranging from non- procurement of tur dal in the state to the Maharashtra- Karnataka border dispute.

"It is sad to see that the ink of editorials from a Prabhadevi lane (where the 'Saamana' office is located) has gone waste. People still choose (PM Narendra) Modi. You (Sena) keep up playing up with new words... What (those who are) disconnected from the society else can do?" Shelar tweeted.

The Sena could not win a single seat in Panvel in adjoining Navi Mumbai. In the 90-member Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation, Sena won 12 while BJP bagged 19.

In the 84-member Malegaon civic body, Sena bagged 13, while BJP won nine.

Shelar also hit out at Shiv Sena over the BMC's plans to increase entry fee for Jijamata Udyaan (zoo) at Byculla to Rs 100 per person from Rs 5 now.

The Mumbai civic body, which runs the zoo, is controlled by Shiv Sena.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor T J Miller best known for his portrayal of blowhard entrepreneur Erlich Bachman on HBO comedy "Silicon Valley" will not be back for the upcoming fifth season.

of Miller's departure comes just five months after he was arrested on suspicion of battery, reported People magazine.

"The producers of Silicon Valley and T J Miller have mutually agreed that T J will not return for season five. In Erlich Bachman, T J has brought to life an unforgettable character, and while his presence on the show will be missed, we appreciate his contribution and look forward to future collaborations," HBO said in a statement.

The rest of the show's ensemble cast - made up of Thomas Middleditch, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Josh Brener, Amanda Crew, Matt Ross, Jimmy O. Yang and Suzanne Cryer - is expected to return for the forthcoming season.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said today, in the second such assault this week.

The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late yesterday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

"The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province," ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP.

"Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded."



A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20.

The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

It highlights a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq.

Raziq had lashed out at the central government in Kabul yesterday, accusing them of a plot to destabalise his province.

"Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering.

"Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help."



The attack marks another setback for NATO-backed Afghan forces. It comes just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001.

And in another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 16-year-old boy from Thane district of Maharashtra was killed after a group of unidentified persons allegedly assaulted him in Upnagar here, police said today.

The incident took place last evening when the vicitm, Tushar Sabale, a resident of Kasara in Thane, was at his relative's place in Gasavi Nagar in Upnagar locality when a group of unidentified people assaulted him near the house, Upnagar police station in-charge Bajirao Mahajan said.

According to Mahajan, there were around four-five persons who arrived in a four-wheeler and took the victim out of the house before attacking him in the parking lot of the residential building.

The miscreants fired a round at him with a country made pistol and attacked him with a sharp object.

Upon receiving information, Upnagar police rushed to the spot and took the victim to a nearby hospital from where he was referred to a private hospital in Nashik Road locality, the official said.

Tushar was declared brought dead at the private hospital, he said.

Police have launched an extensive search and have set up two police teams to nab the assailants. One team was dispatched to Kasara, while another towards Shirdi, he said.

Police is ascertaining the reason behind the attack and have lodged a case under IPC section 302 (murder) rw 34 (common intention) in this connection.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress MP on Friday filed a civil defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and newly- launched news channel Republic TV in the Delhi High Court claiming damages and compensation of Rs two crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him while airing news relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram has also sought a direction from the High Court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi police.

The Congress leader, in his lawsuit, has made Goswami and Arg Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited, the company which owns Republic TV, as parties.

He has referred to the broadcasting of news items from May 8 to 13 when the TV channel claimed to air an expose connected to the death of his wife.

The lawsuit filed through advocates Muhammad Ali Khan and Gaurav Gupta denounced the news, claiming that the recordings were released in a sensational manner so as to appease the viewers and created a non-existing controversy by maligning his public life and public image.

"It is not out of place to say that defendants (Goswami and TV channel) broadcasted news reports and alleged expose' which were intended to lead the viewers to believe that the deceased was murdered either by plaintiff (Tharoor) or at the instance of the plaintiff.

"Such a broadcast clearly has the potential of adversely impacting the ongoing investigation into the death of the deceased," the plea said, while seeking to restrain from "maligning and defaming him in any manner" by reporting or broadcasting the news relating to the death of Pushkar.

Tharoor also said earlier Goswami as the editor-in-chief with another TV news channel had aired such news, which was restrained by the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

In the lawsuit, he was entitled to Rs two crore damage and compensation "for having suffered humiliation and having suffered severe loss of reputation in the eyes of the public and he has baselessly been declared by the defendants as the alleged murderer of his late wife".

He stated that the police is probing into the matter and has also lodged an FIR.

"It is pertinent to mention that the Delhi Police took statements from a number of people, including him," the suit said, adding that during the probe not a single allegation has been made by the investigating authorities against the MP.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five star hotel in South Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted extremists must be wiped out and that "fires for justice" were burning hot over the Manchester attack, during a solidarity visit to Britain today.

Tillerson joined his British counterpart Boris Johnson at the foreign secretary's official residence in London to write a message in the book of condolence for victims of Monday's suicide bombing, which killed 22 people.

Tillerson wrote that the attack broke people's hearts all across the United States.

Britain was renowned for its "strength in times of darkness" and would not be broken by terror, he told reporters after 90-minute talks with Johnson.

"Even as our ally and friend mourns, the fires for justice burn very hot in all of our hearts," Tillerson added.

"We will drive out the terrorists and the extremists... we must drive them off the face of the Earth."



Priests, rabbis and "every imam in every mosque must condemn the souls of those who carried out these attacks."



Tillerson's first official visit to the UK was a previously unscheduled stop on his return to the United States from yesterday's NATO summit in Brussels.

The Manchester attack was perpetrated by Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old born and brought up in a Libyan family in the city he targeted.

Both secretaries acknowledged there were problems in properly integrating immigrant communities.

Tillerson said Western countries had to address their "inability to assimilate people", while Johnson said immigrants "have to become British".

"We seem to have difficulty assimilating those people so that they feel part of our society and would never consider supporting acts of violence against their fellow citizens and their fellow neighbours," Tillerson explained.

Johnson said Britain should aspire to achieve integration.

"But I'm not going to pretend to you that every individual and every community feels as well-adjusted as they should," the former London mayor said.

"When people come to this country, they have to become British. And if they're going to live here and work here, they must become part of our society and espouse its values."



British investigators have shared information on the Manchester attack with their closest defence ally, but repeated leaks of the material out of Washington have infuriated London.

Tillerson tried to provide reassurance during his visit.

He said the United States took "full responsibility" for the leak of pictures and details shared by the British investigators.

"We condemn that," he said.

"We take full responsibility for that and we obviously regret that that happened."



The "special relationship" between London and Washington "will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event," Tillerson added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in.

The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from making comment on the issue, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move.

"Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars.

However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.

"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause.

"We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development.

"As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI.

"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question.

The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush.

Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity."



The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."



The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.

It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.

The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office.

(Eds: Reopens FGN 3)



According to the CRS, retaining this earmark has become a major priority for the Central Tibetan Administration in India. With a major drop in budget of USAID, it is not clear what impact it would have on funding for the Tibetan Government in exile.

Congress required the establishment of "programmes of educational and cultural exchange between the US and the people of Tibet," including opportunities for training, in the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 and again in the Human Rights, Refugee, and Other Foreign Relations Provisions Act of 1996.

In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2000, Congress renamed the program the ANgawang Choephel Exchange Program, in honour of an India-based Tibetan ethnomusicologist and former Middlebury College Fulbright Scholar who in 1996 was sentenced to an 18-year prison term in China on espionage charges.

According to a 2015 CRS report, in 2014 the total financial assistance to the Tibetan cause was more than USD 24 million.

This included USD 1 million for the Office of the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, USD 10 million for the support to ethnic Tibetans in China through Economic Support Fund, USD 575,000 for the Ngawang Choephel Exchange Program, USD 3.8 million for Radio Free Asia Tibetan Service, USD 3.2 million for the Voice of America Tibetan Service, USD 2.8 million for NGO Programmes Benefiting Tibetan Refugees in South Asia (Migration and Refugee Assistance), USD 710,000 towards Tibetan Scholarship Program for Tibetans outside Tibet and USD 621,000 to the NED's Tibetan programmes.

Since 2014, there has been a gradual decline in Tibetan funding.

Slashing down of the Tibetan funding has come as a surprise to the supporters of the Tibetan cause in the US. During his confirmation hearing, the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had assured lawmakers about the Administration's support for Tibetans.

"Should I be confirmed, while recognising Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China, I will continue to encourage dialogue between Beijing and representatives of Tibet's "government in exile" and/or the Dalai Lama. I will also encourage Beijing and the governments of all nations to respect and preserve the distinct religious, linguistic, and cultural identity of the Tibetan people worldwide," Tillerson said during his confirmation hearing in February.

Powerful lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate have introduced identical legislations, which if passed, would deny access to the United States by Chinese officials who are responsible for creating or administering policies on travel to Tibetan areas until China eliminates discriminatory restrictions on access by Americans to Tibet.

Ahead of the April 6-7 US-China Summit, a group of influential lawmakers had urged Trump to raise the issue of Tibet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid to the Tibetans in 2018, reversing the decades-old US policy of providing financial help to the community to safeguard their distinct identity under the Chinese rule.

The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described the move as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in to help the Tibetan community.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from commenting on the Trump administration's move, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally- driven.

The president of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Lobsang Sangay had said on Wednesday in Washington that the Chinese government "is hell bent upon the destruction of Buddhism in China".

Beijing views the 14th Dalai Lama as a "separatist" working to split Tibet from China. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Communist rule, the Dalai Lama fled to India.

The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades-old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars.

However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.

"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause.

"We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move by the Trump Administration.

Pelosi had this month led a high-powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama.

"Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

"As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill said.

"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said.

The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush.

Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity."



The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."



The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.

It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.

The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office.

Earlier this month, China's ruling Communist party for the first time publicly said some of its officials were funding the Dalai Lama by donating money to the 81-year-old exiled spiritual leader, undermining Beijing's fight against "separatist" forces.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump today decried an attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt that left at least 28 dead, calling on allies to band together to defeat terrorism.

"The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished," he said in a statement issued by his press office as he attends the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy.

"Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilisation, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil."



Hours earlier, masked men in three pick-up trucks had attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of Cairo.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack on Copts after the Islamic State jihadist group bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.

"This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls," said Trump, who met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at a summit in Riyadh last week.

"Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon humanity. But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organisations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted and thuggish ideology.

Sisi said Egyptian forces had hit a jihadist training camp in an undisclosed location in retaliation for the attack on the Christians' bus. Egyptian state television reported that the air force struck training camps in neighbouring Libya.

Christians have been targeted by Islamist militants across the Middle East in recent years, forcing thousands to flee a region which has been home to some of the oldest Christian communities in the world.

Trump said the United States "makes clear to its friends, allies and partners that the treasured and historic Christian Communities of the Middle East must be defended and protected.

"Civilisation is at a precipice -- and whether we climb or fall will be decided by our ability to join together to protect all faiths, all religions, and all innocent life. No matter what, America will do what it must to protect its people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The alleged culprit in a deadly concert bombing was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain, a relative has said, confirming he made a final phone call to which he pleaded, "Forgive me."

Salman Abedi was particularly upset by the killing last year of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by "infidels" in the UK, said the relative yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity over concerns for her own security.

"Why was there no outrage over the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way?" she asked. "Rage was the main reason," for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.

The new insight into Abedi's motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber's family lived.

The number of arrests in the UK ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism. Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said, without elaborating, that searches of suspects' homes brought "very important" clues in the probe of the bombing. But leaks from the investigation were creating a trans-Atlantic diplomatic mess.

Manchester police halted their sharing of investigative information with the US through most of the day until receiving fresh assurance there would be an end to leaks to the media.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who spoke about the matter with US President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels, said the countries' partnership on defence and security was built on trust. But "part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently," she said.

Trump pledged to "get to the bottom" of the leaks, calling them "deeply troubling" and asking the Justice Department and other agencies to "launch a complete review of this matter."

British officials were particularly angry over photos published by The New York Times showing remnants of a blue backpack which may have held the explosive. But it wasn't clear US officials were the source of the images, which the Times defended as "neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims" and consistent with basic reporting "on weapons used in horrific crimes."

British security services were also upset that 22-year-old Abedi's name was apparently leaked by US officials while police in the UK continued withholding it and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya. Hopkins said the leaks "caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss."

Meanwhile, the investigation into the blast widened. Authorities chased possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East. They were exploring potential ties to Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan jailed in the UK for terror offences, and to Raphael Hostey, an Islamic State recruiter killed in Syria.

Abedi's family remained a focus, too, with a brother in England, his father and another brother in Libya among those detained. Abedi's father was allegedly a member of the al- Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, a claim he denies.
Amid a massive Chinese military buildup in Indo-Asia-Pacific, an influential Republican lawmaker today introduced a legislation in the US Congress to increase military capabilities of the countries in the region.

Introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, the Indo-Asia-Pacific Act has proposed a minimum of USD 2.1 billion towards strengthening defence capabilities of the countries in the region.

This includes USD 1 billion to improve critical munitions inventories and enhance munition capabilities and another USD 1 billion to procure Terminal High Altitude Area Defence interceptors (THAAD) or lower tier air and missile defence interceptors.

It has also proposed USD 15 million for missile defence exercises with Japan, South Korea, and Australia for defence against the ballistic missile forces of North Korea.

"No one needs reminding of the escalating tensions in the Asia-Pacific. It is essential that the US reassures our allies and friends that we are committed to stability and security in that region now and in the future," Thornberry said.

"One of the best ways to do that is to increase our military presence and enhance our readiness there. To do that, we need to invest in a broad range of defence capabilities and this legislation does just that," he said in a statement.

Thornberry said he intends to include the measure in the upcoming annual defence bill which is currently scheduled to be considered by the Committee in late June.

While there is no specific provision for India in the bill, it reaffirms US extended deterrence commitments to the Asia-Pacific region, including maintaining robust nuclear capable bombers.

It requires a plan to maintain a forward-stationed combat aviation brigade in South Korea to better position the Armed Forces for major contingencies on the Korean Peninsula.

The bill requires a plan to incorporate cyber planning with joint planning exercises in Indo-Asia-Pacific, enhance operations and strategic communication strategies to counter Russian, Chinese, and North Korean information warfare, and identify potential areas of cooperation on cybersecurity with allies and partners.

Among other things, the bill reinforces America's key defence relationships with allies and partners -- including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Australia -- and calls for the US to regularly exercise freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea.

It reinforces the importance of strengthening key regional institutions such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that address shared economic and security challenges, the bill added.

The development comes a day after the US sent a navy warship near an artificial island built by China in the disputed South China Sea as part of the first freedom of navigation operation under President Donald Trump, prompting Beijing to strongly condemn the "provocative action."



The guided-missile destroyer, USS Dewey, conducted a patrol within 20 kilometres of Mischeef Reef, part of the Spratly Islands.

A crucial shipping route, China claims ownership of the vast majority of the South China Sea, including the Paracel and Spratly island chains, a claim disputed by numerous other countries including the Philippines and Vietnam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Metal czar Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta group has lined up Rs 285-crore investments in Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in FY18.

"We spent Rs 126 crore towards CSR activities last year and are looking at spending around Rs 285 crore in FY18.

"The Vedanta group, in partnership with Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, plans to modernise around 4,000 anganwadis as 'Nand Ghars, which will focus on children's health and education and skilling women," Vikas Sharma, CEO of Bharat Aluminium, a group firm, told PTI here.

The company today received Award of Appreciation in CSR Innovation for Nand Ghar initiative from Union Minister of State Ramdas Athawale.

Sharma said the company will spend 50 per cent of the proposed investments on building 4,000 Nand Ghars (modern anganwadis).

"We have also launched projects 'Sakhi', 'Mamta' and 'Bhagyalaxmi' for skilling. We have presence in 1,759 villages and 2.37 million people will benefit from these projects," Sharma said.

Nand Ghars are equipped with BaLA designs (Building as learning aid) and TV for delivering interactive learning for holistic development of children. Each cluster of it is equipped with a mobile health van to ensure primary healthcare for children, pregnant and lactating mothers, he said.

'Project Nand Ghar' is committed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare and empowering women with skill development, Sharma said.

The company is working on CSR activities in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

The Nand Ghar project will run as children's education and health centre in the morning and train women in entrepreneurial skills in the second half, the company said.

The programme will help to eradicate malnutrition in children and create women entrepreneurs across the country. An estimated 25 lakh community members, including children, will benefit through this project each year, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Ernest Scheyder

VIENNA (Reuters) - First, they ignored each other. Then, they went into a bruising fight. Finally, they are talking, albeit with opposing agendas.

The history of the relationship between OPEC and the U.S. shale oil industry has evolved a great deal since the cartel discovered it had a surprise rival emerging in a core market for its oil around five years ago.

U.S. shale bankers came to Vienna this week and OPEC is readying a trip for its top officials to Texas in a bid to understand whether the two industries can co-exist or are poised to embark on another major fight in the near future.

"We have to coexist," said Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, who pushed through OPEC production cuts in December, reversing Riyadh's previous strategy to pump as much as possible and try to kill off U.S. shale with low oil prices.

OPEC and non-OPEC countries led by Russia agreed on Thursday to extend oil output curbs by nine months to March 2018, keeping roughly 2 percent of global production off the market in an attempt to boost prices.

But OPEC now realises supply cuts and higher prices only make it easier for the shale industry to deliver higher profit after it found ways of slashing costs when Saudi Arabia turned up the taps three years ago.

In the Permian Basin - the largest U.S. oilfield - Parsley Energy Inc, Diamondback Energy Inc and others are pumping at the fastest rate in years, taking advantage of new technology, low costs and steady oil prices to reap profits at OPEC's expense.

OPEC's latest calculus acknowledges the global clout of shale but seeks to hinder its growth by keeping just enough supply on the market to hold prices below $60 per barrel.

"All shale companies in the U.S. are small companies," said Noureddine Boutarfa, who represented Algeria at the meeting. "The reality is that at $50 to $60 a barrel, (the U.S. oil industry) can't break beyond 10 million barrels per day."

That is the level many analysts estimate U.S. oil production will reach next year, in what would be a 1 million bpd rise, a staggering jump for an industry marked during 2015 and 2016 by scores of bankruptcies and thousands of layoffs after a two-year price war with OPEC.

Still, that extra volume may not be enough to meet rising global demand or offset natural declines in traditional oilfields, which OPEC is banking on.

"For all OPEC members, $55 (per barrel) and a maximum of $60 is the goal at this stage," said Bijan Zanganeh, Iran's oil minister. "So is that price level not high enough to encourage too much shale? It seems it is good for both."

Some OPEC members seem keen to show they have shed any prior naivete about shale, making it a key topic during Thursday's meeting after barely mentioning it before. Shale's limitations, including rising service costs, also were discussed.

"We had a discussion on (shale) and how much that has an impact," said Ecuador Oil Minister Carlos Perez. "But we have no control over what the U.S. does and it's up to them to decide to continue or not."

Mark Papa, chief executive of Permian oil producer Centennial Resource Development Inc, was asked by OPEC delegates to give a presentation on shale's potential last week. He appeared to have played his cards close to his chest.

"In terms of the threat, we still don't know how much (U.S. shale) will be producing in the near future," Nelson Martinez, Venezuela's oil minister said after the talk.

WARNING FOR SHALE

By the same token, some U.S. shale leaders may also want a better insight into OPEC thinking and help OPEC understand that shale is not a flash in the pan.

"OPEC looks at shale and it scoffs," said Dave Purcell of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co, a U.S. shale investment bank that attended the OPEC meeting for the first time. "There's a rational skepticism globally, but it misses the mark."

For example, the UAE Energy Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said he did not believe U.S. oil production would rise by 1 million bpd next year.

Some of OPEC's customers are happy to see an alternative. India, the world's third-largest oil consumer, said this week it is looking to the United States for greater supply.

"The new normal has to be accepted," Dharmendra Pradhan, India's energy minister said this week ahead of the OPEC meeting.

OPEC meets again in November to reconsider output policy. While most in the group now appear to believe that shale has to be accommodated, there are still those in OPEC who think another fight is around the corner.

"If we get to a point where we feel frustrated by a deliberate action of shale producers to just sabotage the market, OPEC will sit down again and look at what process it is we need to do," said Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu.

(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal, Ahmad Ghaddar, Dmitry Zhannikov, Alex Lawler, Shadia Nasralla; editing by Dale Hudson and Philippa Fletcher)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JK House, a prime property in South Mumbai's tony Breach Candy area is up for sale with a 90 per cent discount. But don't get too excited just yet. The property, owned by Raymond Ltd, is being offered only to promoters of the firm, the Singhania family.

Touted as the second tallest private residence after billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Antilia, the newly-built JK House has been proposed for sale to Singhania family at just Rs 9,200 per square feet. However, the prevailing market rates in the area are well above Rs 1,10,000 per square feet.

In a report titled 'Raymond Ltd: The Complete Rip-Off', proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) India Ltd has urged shareholders to reject the proposal when it comes up for voting at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) on June 5.

IiAS warned that if this transaction goes through, it will result in an opportunity loss of more than Rs 650 crore for the company and its shareholders. "In our opinion, the board has failed to protect the interests of the minority shareholders. The company and its directors must prepare themselves for shareholders seeking recompense," the report said.

"Raymond Limited's own valuation report states that the residential property is valued at Rs 1,17,000 per square foot (built up), putting a value on the entire transaction at Rs 710 crore," it added.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Gautam Singhania said Raymond adheres to the 'highest level' of corporate governance. "All relevant facts pertaining to this matter have been set out in the AGM notice for shareholders to take a considered view. Needless to say, the promoters, being interested parties, will abstain from voting on this matter."

IiAS added that Raymond had spent Rs 270 crore, not including the cost of land, on rebuilding JK House. "IiAS believes the board has failed to protect the interests of the minority shareholders. The quality of board oversight at Raymond Limited is of concern if the board is unable to separate the interests of the company and its promoters," the proxy advisory firm said in the note.

In an AGM notice filed on 15 May, Raymond had said it will seek shareholders' nod to sell JK House. The company had bought the property in 1945 for 'residence of its directors'. It houses four duplex flats, a Raymond's showroom on the ground floor and a museum.
The central government employees are truly unaware about the allowances they will get - they do not know when will the reformed structure for allowances will finally be implemented, or what reforms have been made in structure in the first place.



A letter submitted by National Council (Staff Side) Joint Consultative Machinery for Central Government Employees to Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha reflected that the central government employees have not been told about the recommendations by Lavasa Committee about allowance reforms under the 7th pay commission.



"The Committee on Allowances took longer time while finalizing its recommendations, but it is a matter of deep regret that, even after submission of the report by the said committee, the same has not been made available to the Staff Side (JCM), therefore, we do not know what recommendations have been made by the said committee," stated the letter undersigned by secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra.



"Staff Side (JCM), therefore, requests that the recommendations of the Allowances Committee should be made available to the Staff Side (JCM). Moreover, it would be highly appreciated that, the Allowances should be implemented without any further delay, and the date of the implementation should be w.e.f. 01.01.2016," the letter further read.



The 7th pay commission had recommended that 52 allowances out of a total of 196 should be abolished completely and 36 allowances should be merged with existing ones instead of being treated with separate identities. The Lavasa Committee was formed to look into these changes regarding allowances and to address the representations sent in by various staff associations and ministries.



Now, the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (E-CoS) will go through the review report by Ashok Lavasa-led Committee of Allowances on or before June 1 and will let their findings be known by the same date, according to reports. It will then be consolidated and sent to the Cabinet for final approval.



The recommendations include several issues of conflicts between the government and staff, like House Rent Allowance, arrears on delayed allowances and increase in basic pay. The Lavasa Committee has made suggestions for the central government employees on matter like HRA, TA, DA and such. Here's a look:



House Rent Allowance (HRA)



The 7th pay commission has suggested that HRO should be reduced for central government employees irrespective of their place of deployment. For employees living in metros, the 7th CPC has recommended their HRA be reduced to 24 per cent, 16 per cent and 8 per cent of basic pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively against the outgoing rates of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent.

The Lavasa Committee has suggested the rates be revised to 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent when DA is more than 50 per cent, and revised to 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent when it is more than 100 per cent.



Arrears on revised allowances



The recommendations made by the 7th CPC regarding salaries and pensions have been approved by the Cabinet in June last year, but those about allowances have been put on hold considering the radical changes suggested. Employees and pensioners are getting paychecks and pensions according to the new pay scale. That is not the case with allowances, though, which are being paid on old rates.

Central government employees have demanded that the changes regarding allowances should be put into effect from January 1, 2016 and relevant arrears be paid against the allowances.



Hike in basic pay



The central government employees were disappointed with the marginal pay hike in their salaries and pensions. They have been depending on the recommendations by the Committee of Allowances to bump up the pay scale for their benefit.
Addressing a press conference on three years of the Modi government, BJP President Amit Shah today said that in last three years opposition could not level single charge of corruption against the government.

#3yearsofModiGovt pic.twitter.com/kb3CZ5v1oC Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 26, 2017 PM is monitoring developments in Kashmir closely, situation will improve soon: Amit Shah Helped women by increasing the number of maternity leaves, says Amit Shah This government is clean and progressive, no corruption taint on us: Amit Shah 3 @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/lRzMXhTZVh Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 26, 2017

Gave befitting reply to Pakistan via surgical strikes, says Amit Shah

Certain things that could not be achieved in the 70 years of independence have been attained in these 3 years: Amit Shah

Indian Army displayed their valour by surgical strikes, and PM Narendra Modi showed political will: Amit Shah
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the occasion of third anniversary of his government, inaugurated a number of projects on Friday, including the country's longest bridge, in Assam. Modi is on a day-long visit to Assam.

Here are seven things to know about the bridge.
You may rejoice that India has surpassed superpower China in at least one field. You will have to hold your jubilations for this field may very well be population figures.

According to an independent researcher, India may have seen more births last year than its neighbour, resulting in a difference of 80 million, with India in the lead. If reports of Yi Fuxian, a researcher from University of Wisconsin-Madison, are to be believed, then the China might have miscalculated its fertility rate.

Fuxian claims in his study that China's fertility was a meagre 1.05 children per women, which the official figures estimate at 1.6. This would mean that the China has accounted 90 million children that may not have been born, claims Fuxian's study.

Based on his findings, Financial Times pegged the total population of China at 1.29 billion in 2016. Meanwhile, India's population in the same time has been 1.37 billion as per the data available with National Bureau of Statistics.

Even United Nations had predicted a similar scenario but that was supposed to come to pass no earlier than 2022. Fuxian believes that China has been exaggerating its population figures since long, something which has been on the minds of other researchers as well. He claims that China has had only 377.6 million births since 1991 to 2016, much less than official figure of 464.8 million.

China has seen a sharp decline in its population after implementing stringent population control measures like 'one child, one policy', which has been repealed now. Now, the country is finding it difficult to get young workforce to drive its economic activities.


| BY Ricki Green |

303 MullenLowe is ramping up its media offering joining forces with its global network media partner, MullenLowe Mediahub to form 303 MullenLowe Mediahub Australia.

The expanded media offer will be headed up by Andrew Livingston (pictured) as chief media officer, who joined 303 MullenLowe in January and will be housed in 303 MullenLowes offices in Sydney and Perth. Mediahub will continue to be fully integrated with 303 MullenLowes creative, digital and PR capabilities, but will add scale and significant international credentials to the offer. Livingston will be supported by Phil Ely in a new role as head of communications planning and 303 MullenLowes general manager for media, Jacqui Purcell.

Says Nick Cleaver, CEO, 303 MullenLowe: Over the past 18 months we have grown our client base, launched a Media Sciences team delivering programmatic media and performance analytics, and welcomed Andrew Livingston to lead our media team nationally. Bringing the MullenLowe Groups media resources together represents the next natural step in our journey, enabling a bigger media footprint, a wider set of clients and enhanced access to a global network of media resources and talent.

Headquartered in Boston, MullenLowe Mediahub was named MediaPosts Creative Media Agency of the Year in the USA last year, with an enviable client list that includes JetBlue, Netflix, Bose, Harley-Davidson, Royal Caribbean, Western Union, Chipotle, and its most recent win Remy. Globally, Mediahub employs over 450 people in 12 offices worldwide, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai, and is affiliated with IPG Mediabrands for global media buying.

Says Livingston, who was previously CEO of IPGs Initiative Media in Australia: Partnering with one of the worlds most creative media agencies will cement our status as a truly hyperbundled shop here in Australia. Our clients will benefit from a global media toolkit, an expanded local team, continued access to 303 MullenLowes creative, digital, social and PR teams, and MullenLowe Proferos digital transformation capabilities. Our ambition is to grow our media business more aggressively whether that be as a bundled or as a stand alone media offer. We believe we offer media clients something compelling and unique.

303 MullenLowe Mediahub Australia will launch with a client roster including internationally aligned business Netflix, Western Union, CFA and Nutricia, joining with 303 MullenLowes existing media roster, which includes TK Maxx, Harley-Davidson, Fujitsu Australia, Edith Cowan University and Braintree.

This move creates the only media agency of any scale in the market to be fully integrated with creative, digital and PR capabilities.
| BY Ricki Green |

Effie Worldwide has named the most effective marketers in the world, based on the global results of the 2017 Effie Effectiveness Index. Unilever, Vodafone, WPP, BBDO Worldwide, Sancho BBDO and ACG Advertising Agency held the top rankings in the categories of Most Effective Marketer, Brand, Agency Holding Group, Agency Network, Agency Office and Independent Agency, respectively.

Affinity Sydney has ranked #11 Most Effective Independent Agency in the world in the 2017 Index and Red Planet Sydney ranked #72. The Monkeys ranked #38 Most Effective Agency in the world.

Now in its seventh year, the Effie Index recognises the companies that create the most effective marketing communications ideas from around the world, determined by their cumulative success in more than forty national, regional and global Effie Awards competitions. The 2017 Effie Index is compiled from 3,601 finalists and winning entries from worldwide Effie Awards competitions held between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016.

Says Neal Davies, president and CEO, Effie Worldwide: From an inspirational nonprofit campaign that achieved incredible success across India to a multinational telecommunications company that grew its market share throughout Europe, Effie continues to reward ideas that work across the globe. The top ranked companies demonstrate a strategic commitment to marketing effectiveness.

Most Effective Marketers

Global food and beverage companies continue to dominate the most effective marketer ranking. Unilever jumped one spot to regain the title of Most Effective Marketer, globally, in this years rankings. It previously held the top spot from 2012-2014. Nestle moved up two spots as the second most effective marketer, while Procter & Gamble retained its third place ranking. The Coca-Cola Company slid down three spots to fourth and PepsiCo retained its fifth place ranking. Along with mobile phone leader Vodafone, Mondelez International, McDonalds, Mars and global furniture retail giant IKEA round out the top 10.

Most Effective Brands

Vodafone moved up one spot to replace Coca-Cola as the most effective global brand in 2017. After dominating the top spot for the past four years Coca-Cola moved to second, followed by McDonalds. Pepsi moved to number four, while IKEA broke into the top five for the first time ever, ranking fifth. Global brands Heineken, Burger King and MasterCard, along with Spanish mobile phone operator Movistar and Malaysian communications service provider, Maxis are included in the top 10.

Most Effective Agency Holding Groups

The top five most effective holding groups remain unchanged from 2016. WPP Group remains the most effective holding company for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Omnicom, IPG, Publicis Groupe and Dentsu.

Most Effective Agency Networks

BBDO Worldwide unseated Ogilvy & Mather as the most effective agency network globally. BBDO was previously ranked number one in 2015, 2014 and 2011. Ogilvy dropped to second with McCann Worldgroup retaining its third place ranking. Young & Rubicam jumped up three spots to number four and J. Walter Thompson moved up an impressive four spots (from number nine in 2016) to round out the top five.

Most Effective Agency Offices

Sancho BBDO (Bogota) regained its title as the Most Effective Individual Agency Office in 2017, behind its success for brands Fundacion Exito, HUAWEI and Visa, among other regional and global brands. MullenLowe Lintas (Mumbai) moved up three spots to number two, followed by McCanns FP7/DXB (Dubai) at number three. Ogilvy & Mather (Mumbai) dropped two spots to number four and Colenso BBDO (Auckland) was included in the top five for the first time since 2013. The top 20 most effective agencies are a globally diverse mix of agencies from Argentina, Colombia, Hungary, India, New Zealand, Peru, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, and the United States.

Most Effective Independent Agencies

Budapest-based ACG Advertising Agency retained its title as the Most Effective Independent Agency for the second year in a row. Istanbul-based agencies Alametifarika, Blab and Guzel Sanatlar ranked second, third and fourth respectively, while Madre Buenos Aires rounded out the top five.
| BY Ricki Green |

How will Australia perform at Cannes this year? In the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the work we hope will impress the judges

Y&R Brisbane

Christmas is the busiest time of the year for advertising clutter. So Powerball decided to take a less traditional approach, taking over one of Australias busiest airports to create one brave outdoor stunt. The gift-wrapped 80-seater private jet, combined with a snap-and-share promo, generated a wave of social media shares. Holiday-makers snapped and shared it, and coverage on prime time news helped reach 1.5 million people in just 24 hours.

Australian Road Safety Foundation: SafelyBackpacks

Y&R Brisbane
| BY Ricki Green |

The journey of KFCs food and how it ends up Finger Lickin Good is celebrated in a new story-based campaign launched this week via Ogilvy Sydney.

Developed to give meaning to the good in its famous tagline, the new campaign extends across a range of digital only executions including YouTube Masthead, TrueView long form, Bumper ads, Desktop and Mobile banners including Mi9 page takeover, digital radio (Spotify), Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, eDMs, in App message, SEO, and website landing page. A range of mini loop animated movies have also been created that each talk to 11 different secrets about how KFC makes its food so Finger Lickin Good.

Says Shaun Branagan, creative head, Ogilvy, Sydney: KFC has been in Australia for 50 years in 2018, and many consumers have forgotten or may not be aware of some of the great stories around its food. This campaign takes consumers on a journey to explain how KFC is created, in a beautiful and hand crafted way  the same way KFC treats its food.

Says Catherine Tan, chief marketing officer, KFC: At KFC our food tastes Finger Lickin Good  not just because of the Secret 11 Herbs & Spices, but because of the way we prepare it. This campaign tells the full story from sourcing the highest quality Australian chicken, to our unique hand breading preparation and our small batch approach to cooking.

The campaign will run until the end of October, with the launch supported by an Open Kitchen Event that was held on May 20 in more than 550 KFC stores across the country.

Agency: Ogilvy Sydney

Creative Head: Shaun Branagan

Creative Director/Copy Writer: Boris Garelja

Art Director: Sian Binder and Leisa Ilander

Senior Account Director: Carolina Briscoe

Senior Account Manager: Anna Michael

Agency Producer: Alison Chambers

Director: Buck

Creative Director  Gareth OBrien

Executive Producer  Erica Ford

Art Director  Lucas Brooking

Music Production: Song Zu

Strategy: Donna Yan

Media agency: Mediacom

Client: KFC Australia

CMO: Catherine Tan

Marketing Director: Fatima Syed

Marketing Manager: Ben Simmons
| BY Ricki Green |

Tom McFarlane, one of Australian advertisings most influential and effective creatives, has been inducted into the AWARD Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Sydney.

M&C Saatchis founding creative director took his place among adlands greats as just the 17th inductee into the Hall of Fame at the Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association awards ceremony.

According to the AWARD charter, the Hall of Fame is reserved for the best of the very best. For pioneers who have defined a generation and shaped creativity. Those that have been on top, stayed there and will always be there. The very few we can call legends.

Says Wilf Sweetland, chair, AWARD: Letting Tom Mac know that he was to be inducted as this years recipient was both an honour and a career highlight for me. AWARD introduced the Hall of Fame in 2009. Nominations are sought from our membership base before being put to the committee.

This years AWARD committee voted unanimously for Tom McFarlane. Tom has had an impact like no other creative leader over the past three decades. His credentials span a decades long career in agency leadership, his building of M&C Saatchi into a creative powerhouse, his contribution to many of the strongest and longest-running campaigns for so many famous brands, and his legacy in discovering and nurturing the careers of countless industry creatives.

McFarlanes storied career began in Melbourne as a young despatch boy. Four years of part-time study at RMIT, and four agencies later he headed to London to hone his writing skills.

At 34, he was appointed executive creative director at J Walter Thompson Melbourne, followed by several years in the same role at DDB Melbourne. A major turning point came in May 1996 when he received an offer from friend Tom Dery, his former MD at DDB, just a year after Dery had opened M&C Saatchis first international office.

Within a year of McFarlane taking the creative tiller, the new entity had 14 clients, 39 staff, an Agency of the Year title and an office in Macquarie St. His uniquely effective creative approach has been key to sustaining that remarkable run of year-on-year growth and acclaim that continues to this day. M&C Saatchi now boasts more than 400 staff, 14 businesses, 32 Agency of the Year titles, one Agency of the Decade crown and a whos who of iconic brands on its roster.

Crucial to McFarlanes copywriting gifts is an ability to cut right to the heart of any brief and a pitch perfect ear for the Australian vernacular  one that his work has added considerably to over the decades thanks to his hand in some of the most memorable campaigns for the nations biggest brands.

McFarlanes genius has cut through the age of media disruption with big brand platforms such as CAN for Commbank, NRMADE better, 100%Pure New Zealand, Thats why I pick Woolies, and globally, the Flying Reimagined platform for Etihad. At the start of 2016, McFarlane threw himself into heading up creative on the giant Woolworths business, which he was instrumental in winning back after a four-year absence.

McFarlane has also been a prodigious identifier and nurturer of talent. Many young creatives blessed with his generous tutelage over the years have gone on to become huge players, both in Australia and overseas, such as Matt Eastwood, Ben Welsh and Gavin McLeod, to name a few.

McFarlane himself commented: For me, it is always about finding a big idea that will genuinely help a clients business grow, nurturing young talent and watching an industry I love continue to flourish.

Along the way I have been privileged to work with so many talented people, who are also good people. Not the least Tom Dery who has been my partner and friend for over 27 years.
| BY Lynchy |

Ogilvy & Mather Singapore and Greenpeace Australia Pacific have joined forces to create an interactive display that appears to reverse gravity as a way to provoke new thinking about global warming and climate change.

The video shows crowds interacting with the standing exhibit, which was installed in central Sydneys Pitt Street Mall in April.

The exhibit houses a three dimensional model iceberg with a polar bear perched on top and an invitation to interact.

Closer inspection reveals the iceberg is melting. Drops of water are steadily eroding the polar bears home. When someone interacts with the display with their mobile phone, immediately the descending drops begin to slow down, until they are completely suspended in thin air, even reversing to flow back up into the iceberg. The effect becomes stronger as more people get involved.

One of the challenges of climate change is that people find it difficult to see the effect their efforts have on such a huge, global problem, Greenpeace campaigner Nic Seton said.

With this installation, we hope to illustrate that a collective effort can indeed make a real difference. It is only by rallying together that we will be able to slow down, stop, and even begin to reverse the damage that has been done to our environment.

As a passer-by gets involved, the melting starts to slow down. And as more and more people get involved, their efforts make a visible difference in the fight against climate change.

Greenpeace worked with Ogilvy & Mather Singapore to conceptualise and build the reverse climate change interactive display.

Credits 

Project title: The Reverse Global Warming Project

Client: Greenpeace Australia

Creative Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Singapore

Chief Creative Officer: Eugene Cheong

Executive Creative Director: Melvyn Lim

Creative Director: Xander Lee

Senior Copywriter: Augustus Sung

Agency Producer: Alvin Chin
| BY Lynchy |

Tribal Worldwide China has made three key hires to bolster its digital expertise.

The round of appointments follows that of Allen Wang as Managing Director, and Danny Chan as Chief Creative Officer of the digital group.

Joining Tribal Worldwide Shanghai in a newly created role as Client Services Director, Daphne Chen (pictured left) has 15 years experience as a digital marketing strategist and team leader, most recently as Director of Business Development at Cheil Worldwide. In 2015, Chen was named among the 2015 AdAge Women to Watch in China.

Daphne is a technologist at heart. Her sweet spot is the interaction between business and engineering. She is an enigmatic leader on the front lines, and has a real passion for technology, said Wang.

Supporting Chen in her new role as Senior Account Director, Celine Liu (pictured centre) comes on board from Isobar China. Over nine years working in the FMCG industry, most recently on Coca-Cola, Liu has built a reputation as a passionate and focused customer relations professional, winning and retaining several accounts throughout her career. In 2015, Liu won the New Star contest at the Ad Stars Festival in Busan, recognising the next generation of outstanding young advertising professionals.

Celines versatility and outstanding client management and new business development efforts will be a great addition to our continued success, said Wang.

Rounding up the trio of new appointments, digital specialist Fibi Cheng (pictured right) joins Tribal Worldwide China as Creative Director. Over a decade in the creative industry, Cheng has gained invaluable experience across a diverse range of industries, including media, fashion and publishing. She has held creative leadership positions, and built multi-disciplinary teams in both Taiwan and China.
"They come to me and they ask for my help. I help them set goals and we look at ways of getting them into employment or university."
"I think we want to try to encourage an approach that is led by government but also comes out of the community that essentially says people with disabilities have something to contribute to the lives of Canberrans and we want to make sure they're given the opportunity to do that just like everybody else in Canberra.
Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper.
"I'll happily take the questions on notice which will allow me to determine the answer but also to consider privacy aspects. Officials do not bring information about individuals to estimates hearings ... and evidence can be provided at aggregate levels, statistics or other means to de-identify [individuals]."
One teacher from the Bowen Hills campus in Brisbane, who did not want to be named, said staff were called into a meeting yesterday afternoon and "told it was all over".
The project will be a joint venture between OpEn Fiber and the city of Ravenna, in north-eastern Italy.

Ravenna, in the province of Emilio-Romagna, will be one of the first cities to get OpEn Fibers fibre to the home (FTTH) service.

The company plans to complete the 300km construction within 18 months, serving schools, offices and public administration as well as houses and apartments.

This is a major investment in terms of money and impact with regard to services to citizens and businesses, said Massimo Cameliani of Ravenna Digital. Companies will be able to develop ever more innovative services and advance their economic and business activities.

Marco Martucci, OpEn Fibers manager for network and operations in north Italy, said: We will undertake a comprehensive, reliable FTTH network with high performance, able to provide access to the latest facilities for freelancers, companies, the public administration and citizens.
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.
After MS Office Founder Bill Gates who was a school drop out, here is Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerburg who achieved great heights as a college droup out. After 13 years of hiatus from graduation, he finally got to attend his convocation on Thursday in his alma mater Harvard University.

What is the educational qualification of Mark Zuckerberg?

Zuckerberg on 25 May 2017 received the honorary doctor of laws degree from Harvard University.

What was the speech address of Mark Zuckerberg on convocation day?

In a nostalgic address that Zuckerberg confessed to have been preparing for long, on convocation day, he inspired his fellow graduates with words of wisdom. "I'm here to tell you that finding your purpose isn't enough. Our challenge is to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose," he told to the crowd in Cambridge, Massachusetts who did not mind drenching in the rain to listen to him.

Young Scientist Scores 75% in +2, Designs Satellite for NASA

Speech on purpose by Mark Zuckerberg

"Purpose is a part of a cause that is bigger than yourself. When I launched facebook for the college community, I told my friend that someone would do the same to connect the world but I never realised that 'that someone' would be us!"

"When you know that a change in the world is going to be sure that someone else will do it, but they won't, you will. There are three ways in creating a sense of purpose - by taking on meaningful projects together, by redefining quality, so that everyone can be comfortable and by creating community all across the world."

"Ideas don't come out fully formed, they come as you get into it. If there was a single eureka moment, people would've felt adequate already and demotivated to move further. It's really good to be realistic, but be prepared to be misunderstood. Let's do things to not just create progress but purpose"

How To Stay As A Motivated Student? 4 Tips For You

Mark Zuckerberg's ideas for change

Get millions of people involved in

Climate change project before we destroy the world

Finding cure for diseases

Personalising education so that people can study whatever they want

Modernising democracy so that everyone can vote online

Manufacturing and installing solar panels

Mark Zuckerberg's quotes on success

"The greatest successes come from the comfort of having the freedom to fail."

"We should explore ideas like a universal basic income so that everyone can explore ideas and fall back on a cushion when it fails."

Also Read: Secret of Success in JEE Main Exam: Topper Reveals Tricks and Tips to Follow
Renault has offered a sneak peek of the new Megane R.S. at the Monaco GP circuit, giving us a first chance to see the new hot hatch in action.



With Renault F1 pilot Nico Hulkenberg sitting behind the wheel, the new Megane R.S. completed a couple of laps in front of the audience, sporting a special black and yellow livery as a nod to the 40th anniversary of the companys involvement in F1.

Renault didnt reveal any technical details at this point, apart from offering for the first time customers the choice between a manual or dual-clutch EDC transmission.

I dont think we could have chosen a more appropriate or more impactful moment than the 40th anniversary of Renaults involvement in F1 to launch a new model, said Renault Sport Cars Managing Director Patrice Ratti.

I got an opportunity to test New Megane R.S. during its development and I was hooked first time out by the excellence of its chassis, said Nico Hulkenberg. Renault Sport has done a tremendous job on its performance credentials. It was a huge pleasure to drive it around the legendary street track at Monaco today!

Under the bonnet we expect to see a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine with around 300hp, which the chassis is expected to feature a bespoke version of the companys rear-wheel steering system, a limited-slip differential, an advanced aero agenda and of course a sport suspension.

Renault Sport also said that their engineers have used F1-derived technologies to make the 2018 Megane R.S. the new benchmark in its class. Renault is planning to reveal it in full at the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 12, with sales to start on the first quarter of 2018.

PHOTO GALLERY
The Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) has partnered with the Isle of Man to create a one-off police car based on the BAC Mono.



Set to become an active member of the police fleet, the car features a minimalist police livery and little else. The changes arent very drastic but the Mono is a single seater so its police capabilities are somewhat limited to begin with.

The car will be shown at a number of local festivals and officers will use it as a tool to encourage discussions about safe and responsible driving.

Considering the Mono is different from traditional police cars, it will be driven exclusively by Andy Greaves who is described as an advanced driver and police motorcyclist. According to Greaves Its a remarkable vehicle, and clearly will be of huge interest to bikers and car drivers alike. We are here to promote safe use of the road, and its amazing how many people want to talk to you when this is your transport.

BAC didnt mention specifications for the police car but the 2016 Mono has a 2.5-liter Mountune four-cylinder engine which produces 305 hp (309 PS). It enables the 1,278 pound (580 kg) car to rocket from 0-60 mph in just 2.8 seconds.

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Ford has issued two separate safety recalls in North America for certain 2015-2017 SUVs and trucks.



The first campaign covers approximately 2,500 units of the F-150, Explorer, and Super Duty, which may have an inadequate weld between the driver seat back, and the manually operated seat back recliner mechanism.

As a result of this manufacturing error, the vehicles may not restrain the occupants in the event of a crash, thus increasing the risk of injury. The Dearborn automaker is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this issue, though.

Dealers will inspect the F-150s, made at Dearborn from December 11 to 16, 2016, F-150s assembled in Kansas City between December 8 and 9, 2016, Explorers put together in Chicago from December 9 to 10, 2016, Super Duty made at Kentucky from December 19, 2016, to January 19, 2017, and the Super Duty made at Ohio, between December 23, 2016, to January 19, 2019, and replace the driver seat back frame, as necessary, at no cost to the customer.

The second recall includes 551 units of the 2015-2017 F-150s, and 2017 F-250s to F-550s, which were equipped with aftermarket chrome exterior door handle covers, purchased as an accessory from one of the brands dealers.

These may not comply with the federal motor vehicle safety standards, as the company states, and may experience inertial loads that could cause it to unlatch during a side impact.

Dealing with this problem will see technicians remove the covers from the affected vehicles, and reimburse owners for the cost of the parts and labor.

PHOTO GALLERY
The final Chevrolet SS has been built by Holden in Adelaide, Australia and is currently on its way to the United States.



The vehicle was painted in a shade of black and fitted with the available six-speed manual transmission. To commemorate it as the final vehicle, employees at the production facility signed the engine bay at the request of the U.S. owner.

Just as the vehicle was being produced, the Holden manufacturing team received a request from a US customer, asking the manufacturing employees to sign their Chevrolet SS, a Holden spokesperson confirmed to Motoring.

Throughout the vehicles production run, Holden built a total of 12,953 Chevrolet SS sedans for the U.S. market as well as 7,305 Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol vehicles.

Before the SS launched, Holden built roughly 41,000 Pontiac G8s between 2007 and 2009 as well as 31,500 Pontiac GTO models between 2004 and 2005.

PHOTO GALLERY
Luxury dealer group HR Owen will host the UKs first Centenario, an Aventador-based supercar built to celebrate Ferruccio Lamborghinis 100th birthday.



As you may already know, Lamborghini built just 40 models in total, with 20 coupes and 20 roadsters. This coupe model arriving in South Kensington will go on display in the London showroom for the duration of the Bank Holiday weekend.

This news comes just 5 days after Lamborghini delivered its first Centenario in the US, a car that featured Blu Nethuns accents instead of orange ones.

Powering the Lamborghini Centenario is a 6.5-liter V12 naturally aspirated engine, good for 770 PS (760 HP) and 690 Nm (507 lb-ft) of torque. It allows for 0-100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration times of just 2.8 seconds and a top speed of more than 350 km/h (217 mph).

Despite prices starting at just under $2 million, all 40 Centenario models have already been purchased.

PHOTO GALLERY
Theres virtually no end to the list of automakers that test the cars they have in development at the Nurbugring. But a select few go one step beyond and enter their prototypes in actual races around the Green Hell. And Hyundai is set to join their ranks in just a couple of days.



Thats when this years Nurburging 24-hour race will take place. Among the dozens of cars that will take part will be two pre-production prototypes for the forthcoming Hyundai i30 N that promise to closely preview the production model to follow.

Pictured here in the photos and video below is our best look at the new hot hatch yet. The 2.0-liter turbo four, six-speed manual transmission, and bodywork are mostly stock, but Hyundai has applied a few key upgrades to race spec. It has competition-spec tires and brakes, a specific front splitter and rear spoiler, a full roll cage, fire extinguisher, and racing seat

The Hyundai racers will compete in the catch-all SP3T class for vehicles with engines between 1.6 and 2.0 liters, and will be driven by a combination of professional racing drivers, Hyundai R&D engineers, and even a couple of automotive journalists from Germany.

Itll be interesting to see how they fare, but more interesting, were sure, for Hyundais engineers to see how their project holds up under the torturous racing conditions as the first model in the Korean automakers new performance sub-brand prepares for production.

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Video
Photo: Contributed There are things people can do to decrease human-wildlife conflicts.

Andrea Tait is on a mission to keep human-wildlife conflict to a minimum.

Tait is back as regional WildSafeBC community co-ordinator, thanks to funding from the City of West Kelowna, District of Peachland, Regional District of Central Okanagan and provincial government.

"Our motto of keeping our wildlife wild and communities safe is based on the belief that if we work together to properly manage attractants, we can make our community safer, and also prevent wildlife from coming to harm," says Tait.

She encourages residents to take care of wildlife attractants now to avoid unwanted visitors this spring, summer and autumn.a Residents should store garbage in a secure location, such as inside a shed or garage, until the morning of pickup.

Bird feeders should be removed, as it attracts everything from rats to bears. Residents are also asked to pick up any ripe or fallen fruit promptly, feed pets indoors and avoid the use of outdoor fridges and freezers.

Tait can be reached on Facebook at WildSafeBC Okanagan Westside, by email at [email protected], or by phone at 250-862-7336.
Photo: abnc.ca Raptor Weeks return July 18 to Aug. 20 to the Allan Brooks Nature Centre.

The big birds are back.

People have a chance to experience the thrill of an up-close encounter with some of natures most amazing predators at the Allan Brooks Nature Centre (ABNC) in Vernon this summer.

Raptor Weeks return July 18 to Aug. 20 for what has proved to be an unforgettable and unique experience for many.

Last summer, nearly 2,000 people made their way to the ABNC to experience live birds-of-prey programs in the grasslands.

Raptor Weeks in 2016 were so popular, ABNC and partner Pacific Northwest Raptors decided to extend the program to five consecutive weeks in 2017. The birds will be flying daily with flight demonstrations at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to Sunday as well as at 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Not only will participants get up close and personal with the majestic birds, they will also learn something about the issues raptors face and how to help the beautiful creatures.

"We are excited to host the birds and the public for this amazing program, said Aaron Deans, executive director at ABNC. It is not only a unique and engaging experience, it is educational and fun for all ages and a great fit for us as we grow public awareness and appreciation of nature in the Okanagan."

Tickets are now available for morning and afternoon programs from July 18 to August 20.

Program details and pricing can be found at the ABNC website.

The Raptor programs are offered in collaboration with The Raptors of Duncan, BC whose flying demonstrations and interactive experiences have long been praised as a standard in conservation messaging and bird care and well-being.

We are so excited to bring our raptors back to ABNC. Our goal is to get people closer to these incredible birds and the ABNC is such a perfect location for our raptors to soar, said Robyn Radcliffe, operations manager of The Raptors. We are all about inspiring awe for wildlife  what better way to foster a connection between nature and people than to experience these beautiful and fierce predators of the sky up-close.
Photo: GoFundme.com Eli Johannson's cancer has returned, says family.

He's only six, but Eli Johannson of Coldstream is fighting an aggressive neuroblastoma cancer for the second time.

The disease allows cancer cells to form in the nerve tissue of the adrenal gland, neck, chest or spinal cord and is the third most common childhood cancer.

Eli was first diagnosed at the age of three and spent 18 months fighting the illness at the BC Children's Hospital.

After winning his battle, the youngster returned home.

Last August, with the help of local firefighters, an Optimus Prime transformer-themed playhouse, donated by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of BC & Yukon, was erected at the family's residence.

Disaster struck last month, when the family was told the cancer had returned.

Eli's scans detected two masses and a couple other active spots in his body, wrote Faith Johannson, Eli's mom, earlier this month. We are already back at the Children's Hospital and he has started chemo as of a few hours ago....please send positive loving healing energy and prayers."

According to family members, Eli is facing another lengthy year of intense chemotherapy, surgery and possibly radiation.

The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with costs as they remain by the small boy's bedside.

As well, friends are holding a zumba fundraiser at the Vernon Rec Centre on May 29, 5-7 p.m.

For tickets, download the Soul Studio app or call 250-540-3922.
Photo: Contributed Broken bikes and other things can be fixed at Repair Cafe.

What do you do with a bicycle when the chain has broken, with a book that has fallen apart, or that favourite sweater that needs mending?

Don't toss it.

Back by popular demand, Vernons fourth annual Repair Cafe will be held at the Okanagan Science Centre parking lot on Sunday, May 28th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

People are urged to take in their broken computers, electronics and small appliances, knick-knacks that need gluing, knives and tools that need sharpening, musical instruments that need repairing or stringing, audio equipment, torn or moth-eaten clothing, knitwear or leather, telescopes and microscopes, and dysfunctional bicycles and skateboards  and specialists will help you fix them.

We throw away vast amounts of stuff in Canada, said Mary Stockdale, Repair Cafe spokesperson. Things that are barely used get tossed when a simple repair could fix it.

Stockdale said people have forgotten how to repair things and hopes the Repair Cafe is changing that.

Some of Vernons handy people will be available to help fix stuff and share this practical knowledge. The result is things won't be thrown away and they will be used longer. This reduces our CO2 emissions, the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products and the amount of stuff going into our landfill.

The Vernon in Transition group is sponsoring the industrious get-together, in co-operation with the Okanagan Science Centre and the Regional District of the North Okanagan.

For more information, email the Vernon in Transition group.
Photo: Colin Dacre "The Romp" now ready for high water

The iconic Romp statue on the shores of Okanagan Lake in Penticton is now prepared for steadily rising waters.

Castanet reader Daniel Ironside was on a walk with his son along Okanagan Beach on Thursday when his son declared, those guys should have life jackets on daddy.

So I went up to Razors Edge Marine and got them to donate three to his cause, Ironside said. We put them on the statues of the kids playing at the water's edge

Okanagan Lake continues to rise 3-4 cm a day, as snow at high elevations melts rapidly.
Madison Erhardt

David Bell was forced to evacuate his Brookside Avenue home when Mill Creek spilled its banks.

Now, he's living in a tent in his backyard because he can't afford to rent an apartment for two months while his home gets renovated.

"It's hard to find a place to rent for only a month or two. I have my tent and a little cooking and sleeping space," said Bell.

"I love camping, but I wish I had a little bit more facilities. They have already knocked out the bathrooms downstairs, so when I have to go, I have to make a run to the mall," he said.

The landlord isn't exactly on board with Bell setting up home in the backyard, however, and neither is the city.

"The landlord is trying to sell the place, so he doesn't really want all this mess around. The city doesn't want you camping anywhere that isn't an actual campground," said Bell, who wonders where else he can go.

Bell looked into campgrounds for a few weeks, but says they are too expensive for a long run.

"(It) leaves me in a bit of a conundrum," he said.

Emergency Social Services was only able to help for three days, and after that he's been on his own.
Photo: Google Maps

People living around the shore of Kootenay Lake and in low-lying areas in the Slocan Valley should prepare for the possibility of floods as high temperatures hit the area, say emergency officials.

With temperatures expected to be above 30 C for the next week, the Regional District of Central Kootenay is telling residents flooding could occur due to the melt of high-level snow pack.

Heavy precipitation in early spring has pushed the snowpack in the Central Kootenay to 120 percent of normal.

BC Hydro forecast last week that the lake could be pushed to 0.6 metres above capacity, or 535 metres.

The RDCK says its now possible that target could be hit by June 9 or 10.

Kootenay Lake levels are currently at 533.31 metres and are expected to rise to 534.34 metres by June 2.

The Slocan River will also reach close to a once-in-10-year level next week, emergency officials say.

Officials say residents should continue to monitor river and creek levels, and property owners in low-lying areas should prepare for flooding.

Sandbags and sand are available at many fire halls across the Regional District.
Photo: CTV The annual 4/20 celebration cost the City of Vancouver $254,000 this year.

This year's 4-20 marijuana day of protest in Vancouver cost the city more than $245,000.

The city says estimates 40,000 people were at Sunset Beach Park and the Vancouver Art Gallery during the April 20 protest.

The city says in a news release that police costs came to over $170,000, while other costs such as sanitation, and fire and rescue pushed the costs even higher.

The city refused to grant a permit to protest organizers, but the event went ahead without approval.

The release says the bill doesn't include ambulance service or hospital costs.

The city says it will bill the organizers of the Sunset Beach event to recover expenses.
Photo: CTV Coast Guard dive team in Vancouver to be eliminated.

B.C.'s Coast Guard dive team is being eliminated.

Members disregarded a gag order on the information to tell CTV they worry that lives will be lost.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans apparently made the decision because the dive team is not part of the Coast Guard's mandate.

"I'm shocked. It's a step backwards in conducting search and rescue," retired Coast Guard commander Fred Moxey told CTV.

"Overturned boats, overturned vessels, cars, that's what happens in and around the Vancouver area, and the diving capability is needed."

The team was cut in 2001 but was brought back after two high-profile fatalities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also reopened Vancouver's Coast Guard station last year after it was closed by the Conservative government in 2013. The Kitsilano base will stay open despite the dive team being cut.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Granite Creek Preservation Society

Someone is digging holes in the cemetery of a Similkameen ghost town, and a member of the local historical society believes it's the work of misguided treasure hunters.

Bob Sterne has tended the cemetery of the long-abandoned former gold rush town of Granite Creek for more than a decade and says he was surprised to find 16 holes when he checked the site earlier this week.

The holes were all located in the area where Chinese miners were buried at the turn of the 20th century and Sterne says he believes they were dug by people using metal detectors to search for trinkets.

He says this is the third time someone has tried to dig into some of the 133 marked graves of the cemetery, near Coalmont, west of Princeton.

The cemetery is part of a designated heritage site commemorating what was one of the oldest communities in the Colony of British Columbia, and Sterne says the grave robbing attempts are disrespectful and disturbing.

Sterne says it's possible many of the remains from the Chinese section were removed more than 50 years ago, during provincial efforts to repatriate the bodies to China.
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
Caribbean Cement donates bags of cement for flood victims

26 May 2017

Caribbean Cement has donated 3000 bags of cement bearing market value of JMD3.2m (US$24,598) to Jamaica's Office of the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) on Tuesday for the assistance of flood victims. The ODPEM will have responsibility in the distribution of the cement.



Sophia Lowe-Pinnock, corporate communication and public relations manager at Carib Cement, told The Gleaner that the decision to donate the item arrived out of a previous meeting with Prime Minister, Andrew Holness,. "As a company we saw the need; before we had the flooding about a month ago, the country was getting a tremendous amount of rainfall. We had a formal meeting with the prime minister and it was out of that, we recognised that this was something serious."

Published under
Holcim Philippines capacity to reach 10Mta by 2Q-end

26 May 2017

Holcim Philippines Inc said its production capacity is expected to reach 10Mta by the end of the second quarter through upgrades to its plants at Mabini and Norzagaray.



Holcim Philippines Chief Operating Officer, Sapna Sood, said in an interview with The Standard (Philippines) debottlenecking of existing cement facilities would add 2Mta of capacity.



We certainly had a project where we were looking at all of that safety, debottlenecking. That is near completion. To be completed at the end of this quarter. We will be at 10Mt, Ms Sood said.



Holcim Philippines operates four cement plants in La Union, Bulacan, Misamis Oriental and Davao.

Published under
Pakistan Economic Survey forecasts growth in cement industry

26 May 2017

The performance of the Pakistan cement industry has been remained encouraging and recorded good growth in the fiscal year to-date. Going forward, the prospects continue to be bright, according to the recently-released Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-17, as the government identifies locations for future investment in the cement sector.

The new survey, published yesterday, shows that growth in the cement sector has been underpinned by robust domestic demand, which has enabled local producers to increase capacity utilisation rates.

The outlook remains positive due to the development of housing schemes and increased spending, along with anticipated China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)-related projects.



Cement consumption has reached historic heights, touching almost 4Mt in March 2017. Domestic dispatches in April 2017 were 9.53 per cent higher YoY. Exports in contrast declined by a massive 50.75 per cent, which limited overall dispatch growth in April 2017 to just 0.7 per cent.



In the first 10 months (July-April) of FY16-17, the industry delivered 33.8Mt cement showing overall YoY growth of 6.21 per cent. However, while local consumption rose by 10.74 per cent, exports were down by 18.63 per cent.



In the 10-month period, domestic demand increased by 10.22 per cent in the north and by 13.14 per cent in the southern part of the country. In contrast, exports from the north declined by 14.42 per cent compared with a decline of 26.19 per cent in the south. Industry commentators caution that this should be a matter of concern given that southern-based plants, situated by the sea, were the leading exporters.



Capacity utilisation during the first 10 months of the current fiscal was 87.64 percent.



In recent months, Pakistan has lost a major share of exports to Afghanistan due to the high cost of production, according to industry sources. However, in March, a rise in monthly exports by other manufacturing sectors of 17.4 per cent suggest a reversal in this trend thanks to government initiatives.



Locations for future investment

In terms of areas for further investment, in the Mianwali district in Punjab province, mineral resources of limestone, silica sand, fireclay, gypsum and rock salt are available for the establishment cement, glass, ceramic and chemical industrial plants. The Mianwali district also benefits from its strategic position near the CPEC route, which passes near Daud Khel-Kalabagh. Therefore, the establishment of a mineral-based industrial zone near the route's Daud-Khel interchange has been proposed.



Moreover, following the completion of a study for the delineation of positive and negative areas for installation of cement plants, the directorate general of Mines & Minerals will offer solicited proposals and process applications for installations for new cement plants in the Salt Range in Punjab province to meet the demand of around 105Mt of cement in coming four years in wake of CPEC.

Published under
Young professionals in developed markets may not be as upbeat as their peers in emerging markets about the economic future of their country, but the generation that in 2020 is projected to make up about one-third of the global workforce does have a lot in common, Deloittes 2017 Millennial survey suggests.

Young professionals worldwide believe businesses should strive to have a positive social impact. They embrace the opportunities technological advances offer. And they want to make their clients or customers happy.

In many respects, young professionals are no different from previous generations trying to make their mark in the workforce, said Lindsay Stevenson, CPA, CGMA, vice presidentfinance at 1st Financial Bank USA in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. Is it really about a different generation, or is it about a world thats constantly changing and adapting to that? Stevenson said.

The constant changes and the technological advances driving many of them are reflected in the Deloitte survey, which involved about 8,000 young professionals from 30 countries.

Motivators

Young professionals participating in the survey are increasingly pro-business and planning to stay longer with an employer, but they also believe large multinational companies fall short of their potential to address global problems such as corruption, income inequality, health care, and unemployment.

Seventy-six per cent regarded business as a force for positive social impact in 2017, and the number of respondents who credited business and business leadership for ethical behaviour and social awareness increased in the past two years. Perceptions were lowest in Belgium, South Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, and Switzerland. Almost as many (74%) said multinationals have the potential to address political, social, and economic issues of concern, but only 59% of respondents felt multinationals fulfilled their potential. The impact gap was larger amongst respondents in developed markets than amongst their peers from emerging markets.

How engaged employers are in trying to improve social issues of concern matters to young professionals around the world. It gives them a sense of empowerment and purpose, which increases their loyalty to employers. About one-third of respondents (35%) said they would be motivated to stay five years or longer with an employer that provides charitable opportunities. Only 24% felt that loyalty towards an employer that provides no charitable opportunities.

Young professionals especially appreciate smaller-scale activities on the local level, such as volunteering or raising money, to support good causes.

Workplace flexibility

A year of upheaval, particularly in developed markets, has more young professionals looking for stability, which was reflected in rising loyalty to employers. The number of survey respondents who intended to leave their current employment within two years decreased to 38% in 2017, from 44% the previous year. The number of respondents who planned to stay beyond five years rose to 31% in 2017, up from 27% the year before.

Also, 70% of respondents in developed markets said they prefer full-time employment over freelance work or a consulting job, compared with 61% in emerging markets.

What full-time employment is, however, is a matter of definition for young professionals, Stevenson said. For example, two accountant friends of hers define it as a certain annual income and work as contractors reviewing tax returns from January through mid-May. The rest of the year, they live in a small condo in Costa Rica. Another accountant friend of hers with children, Stevenson said, defines it as having benefits. Her friend works 32 hours, gets paid benefits, and has time to spend with her children.

Within traditional full-time employment, technology offers flexible working arrangements, such as telecommuting or working fewer days but longer hours per day. Stevenson said she can work from home when needed. Others telecommute exclusively or a certain number of days a week.

How to attract and keep young professionals

To help employers attract young professionals in a constantly changing world, survey results suggested they follow these five strategies:

Retain young employees longer by getting the business involved in social issues. Be transparent about corporate responsibility activities and update young employees on the activities, especially in large companies. Offer workplace opportunities to give Millennials a sense of empowerment. Young employees find smaller-scale activities on the local level that make clients or customers happy as most satisfying. Communicate in plain, straightforward language and take an inclusive, relaxed approach to management. Offer flexible work arrangements within employment, from where employees work to what they do as part of their job. This flexibility is strongly linked to improved performance and employee retention, and Millennials regard it as having a positive influence on every aspect of their job.

Sabine Vollmer (Sabine.Vollmer@aicpa-cima.com) is a CGMA Magazine senior editor.
photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship photo by Sharon Blankenship Previous Next

The Hamilton County Republican Party GOP 2017 Lincoln Day Dinner welcomed Vice President Mike Pence's mother, Nancy Pence Fritsch, as keynote speaker.

The witty 84-year-old opened by singing "Chattanooga Choo," paying homage to this year's event location, the Chattanooga Choo Choo's Imperial Ballroom. She regaled the audience of over 300 with personal antecdotes of her life as a wife, and mother, of the Vice President.

Unknown to attendees, Nancy Pence Fritsch had first traveled to Chattanooga on her way from Chicago to Florida for her honeymoon in 1956. She vividly remembered and shared her trip through the Tennessee mountains on two-lane roads, and how struck she and her husband, the vice president's future father, were by the beautiful bright lights of Chattanooga.

As a daughter of immigrants from Ireland, Nancy Pence Fritsch grew up in a extremely patriotic family. She shared her father's great love and pride in this country. And, when Mike Pence, the youngest of three, did not talk until age three, his Irish grandfather would teach him his first spoken words "You're welcome." Nancy smiled, "He never stopped talking." In elementary school, Michael became interested in public speaking, and won a speech contest in the sixth grade. Young Pence also showed an early interest in politics and history, and notes his favorite Presidents were Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. His early understanding of politics resulted in his election as president of his high school senior class. Later, he would excel in college, complete law school, marry, work in radio, run and be elected U.S. Congressman, and governor of Indiana.

She also recalled Mike saying when he accepted the bid to run for vice president with candidate for President Trump, he shook his hand and exclaimed, "It's going to be great."

The speaker said she was proud to be at the inauguration for her son and President Trump. She was seated on the row in front of Hillary and President Bill Clinton, and turned and acknowledged Hillary with a smile. She said Hillary smiled back. She and husband, Basil, have not visited the White House since the inauguration, but, so far, the vice president reports he loves working with President Trump, she said. "He's a great guy, he really is," Ms. Fritsch said of the president. He is a businessman and I was married to a businessman, it was wonderful. We had a great life, and he worked hard as a salesman and dealt with customers. I admire President Trump so much."

Also speaking throughout the evening were Congressman Chuck Fleishmann, Tennessee GOP Chairman Scott Golden, HCGOP Chairman Joe DeGaetano, Event Chair and HCGOP Vice Chair, Marsha Yessick, and candidates for governor, Congresswoman Diane Black and Randy Boyd. Bill Lee provided a spokesperson.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, left, took leaves of absence when he was suffering from pancreatic cancer; CME Group CEO Terry Duffy is recovering from a collapsed lung. (Chicago Tribune)

Terry Duffy, the CEO of the publicly traded CME Group, is recovering from a serious illness and is expected to be back on the job in a few weeks.

That's the latest update from officials at the trading exchange, which this week disclosed to surprised shareholders at its annual meeting that Duffy was not in attendance because he recently suffered a collapsed lung.

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As a high-stakes global derivatives player, the giant CME is all about managing huge financial risk.

But this time, the company is handling another type of challenge, one many other publicly traded corporations must also confront: Determining how much investors and the community are entitled to know about an ailing CEO, and when they need to know it.

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Like it or not, these companies are being pushed to be more forthcoming than ever.

"This is a very touchy subject," says Douglas K. Chia, executive director of the Conference Board Governance Center in New York. "You've got privacy issues balanced against the interests of the shareholders, the company and investment community."

The CME declined to talk with me about management's thinking and the timing behind its annual meeting announcement.

Another day, perhaps.

But the way Duffy's health situation came to light could raise some eyebrows. The company didn't make an official announcement until the meeting was underway.

It's possible the CME thought Duffy would make the shareholder confab, so let's give it the benefit of the doubt.

That said, however, when a CEO falls ill, most corporations' first instinct is to tell shareholders, stakeholders and the media to butt out of a very private and typically family affair.

A notable example: Apple didn't fully reveal that co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, was battling pancreatic cancer even after two long absences.

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Yet increasingly, companies have to face the reality that they are going to be pressed to say more than they want.

Legally, if a CEO's illness threatens to affect a company's financial health, that information must be disclosed to shareholders in a timely manner, corporate governance experts contend.

But it's not always a cut-and-dried decision. A board of directors has a lot of leeway in determining what is "material" to a company's performance and if  or when  that information must be revealed to the outside world.

Nonetheless, the pressure to come clean is getting intense.

Global hedge funds and money managers, who are commanding huge blocks of shares in the country's publicly traded companies, believe they are entitled to know about a CEO's well-being and will push hard for more information.

Adding to the strain is the pervasiveness of social media, which can easily put a company on the defensive if a tweet or photo about an ailing CEO unexpectedly goes viral.

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Think that can't happen?

Let's say someone snaps a photo of a CEO entering a medical center, or worse yet, getting treatment, and then posts it online. Before a company knew what hit it, Wall Street could react on a suspicion that something was amiss.

"Everything speeds up because of social media, which has the ability to take over situations," says Ron Culp, a Chicago business consultant and professor of public relations at DePaul University.

As a result, a savvy corporate board would be smart to think ahead and try to take command in case its CEO is stricken.

As mentioned, an argument can be made that Apple's board exposed the Silicon Valley firm to shareholder legal action because it didn't reveal Jobs' condition.

In contrast, superinvestor Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway, announced in 2012 that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer (which has been successfully treated) and was applauded for his candor.

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Aside from being upfront about an ailing CEO's condition, a board also should craft a succession plan. It's essential that investors, vendors, employees and communities know who will run the company even on a temporary basis.

McDonald's, which in the early 2000s lost two CEOs to illness, is considered to be at the forefront of such crisis management and top-level executive planning. The fast food juggernaut has been lauded in the press for learning from those painful experiences and for drafting a blueprint to quickly replace an ailing CEO.

However, many publicly held companies don't have such plans in a drawer, nor do they have a "name in a sealed envelope" of an immediate successor to an ailing CEO, according to the Conference Board.

Some boards shy away from the ghoulish nature of planning for a disturbing medical episode. Others just think it's a waste of time.

But that's an unflinchingly short-sighted view.

In 2016, the average age of a Fortune 500 CEO was 58, which is up from 56 about 10 years earlier, according to consulting firm Korn Ferry. CEOs in their mid-60s and up are more plentiful than ever and they're staying in the corner office longer, data also show.

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Right now, many companies could profit from a conversation about "best practices" and what to do should a hard-charging CEO get sick on the job.

roreed@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @reedtribbiz
A worker finishes a sign at a Payless ShoeSource in Independence, Mo., in 2006. The shoe chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Apriil 4, 2017, and said it will close 400 stores. (Charlie Riedel / AP)

Bankrupt discount shoe retailer Payless ShoeSource is seeking court approval to close up to 408 more stores, including as many as 19 in Illinois.

Topeka, Kan.-based Payless already had announced plans to shut down nearly 400 stores when filing for bankruptcy protection last month.

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Since then, the retailer has been trying to negotiate reductions in rent at some additional stores.

"While many of those negotiations have been successful and significant savings have been realized, other negotiations have not been as successful," Payless said in a bankruptcy court filing.

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Only about a quarter of the 408 stores Payless sought the court's permission to shut down earlier this week will definitely close, according to a company website. That list includes stores in Chicago's Logan Square, Avondale and Uptown neighborhoods and in Cicero, Broadview, Elgin, Bolingbrook and Decatur, joining 13 Illinois stores in the first batch of closings.

The nearly 300 remaining stores could join them if ongoing negotiations fall through, Payless said. That list includes Payless's State Street store as well as locations in Chicago's Bridgeport, Kelvin Park and Montclare neighborhoods and in Naperville, Lincolnwood, Skokie, Hodgkins, Johnsburg and Peoria.

Payless' latest batch of closures joins the 3,658 announced store closures tallied by Fung Global Retail & Technology so far this year, up 119 percent over the same period last year.

Some of those have come from large-scale closings as traditional retailers like Payless, The Limited and RadioShack sought bankruptcy protection. Others, including J.C. Penney and Macy's, are shrinking their bricks-and-mortar footprints to adapt to changes in consumer shopping habits, including a shift to online and off-price retailers.

In its bankruptcy court filing, Payless said it plans to invest in areas it thinks will help it stay competitive, including its online business and international expansion in Latin America, while cutting debt and closing unprofitable stores.

Payless said it currently has about 4,000 stores in 30 countries.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @laurenzumbach
Big-box retailers have beat back banks' latest attempt to kill a legislative provision that has cost lenders billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Known as the Durbin amendment, after Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the measure was included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to limit how much money banks can charge retailers when consumers use their debit cards.

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While House Republicans have proposed a bill to rip up most of Dodd-Frank, they've concluded that they don't have the votes to pass the legislation as long as it includes a repeal of the Durbin amendment, said two congressional aides with direct knowledge of the matter. The decision to leave the debit fee cap in place likely clears the way for a full House vote on the Dodd-Frank overhaul as soon as next month, said the aides.

The decision on the amendment is a victory for the retail industry, which has spent millions of dollars lobbying politicians. The issue has always been a sensitive one for lawmakers, many of whom are loath to pick sides in a fight between powerful corporations such as Wal-Mart and JPMorgan Chase.

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Members of Congress generally want cordial relations, and campaign contributions, from both industries.

Debit card fees are set by Visa and Mastercard, but most of the money goes to banks. The provision that mandated the fee cap has cost lenders an estimated $9 billion, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

The bill to revamp Dodd-Frank's post-financial crisis reforms was written by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and included the repeal of the fee cap. Hensarling's panel approved the legislation earlier this month, but he has faced resistance from other GOP lawmakers over the Durbin amendment. Hensarling said on Wednesday that he would remove the provision.

When House Republicans held an internal vote count this week, they found that scrapping the amendment would derail Hensarling's Financial Choice Act, said the aides, who asked not to be named because the vote was private.

House Republicans are eager to move the bill forward, as removing constraints that Dodd-Frank imposed on the finance industry is a top goal that is shared by President Donald Trump. Administration officials have repeatedly blamed Dodd-Frank for curtailing lending and economic growth.

"I've said before that repeal of the Durbin amendment was the most contentious part of the bill among Republicans," Hensarling said in a statement. "We won't let this one provision hinder passage of an important-priority bill that will end bank bailouts and help renew economic growth for all Americans."

"We welcome today's news that Congress is listening," said Cicely Simpson, executive vice president at the National Restaurant Association.

While other aspects of Dodd-Frank  such as the Volcker Rule restriction on banks' trading  get more attention, repealing the Durbin amendment has been one of the finance industry's top priorities in Washington for years. The American Bankers Association, a lobbying group, pledged to keep fighting over the issue despite Wednesday's setback.

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"This is unfortunate, but certainly not the end of this debate," James Ballentine, an ABA executive vice president said in a memo sent to banks. The group will "continue to work with and educate members who are interested in removing this language."

Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at Cowen Group, predicted the battle between retailers and banks is far from over, which he said is good news for lawmakers.

"This is a great issue to fundraise off of given how much it matters to banks, credit unions and merchants," Seiberg said in a note. Banks will continue to lobby for a removal of the cap and retailers may push for it to be expanded to include credit cards, he added.

Regardless of what happens in the House, Hensarling's Financial Choice Act faces long odds in the Senate, where most bills need some Democratic support to pass. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said earlier this month that he's not optimistic Congress will overhaul Dodd-Frank because of a lack of Democratic votes.
A man with ties to Algonquin and St. Charles skipped out on his trial this week, but couldn't avoid a jury convicting him of selling heroin to an undercover police officer in 2014, according to court records.

Donevin A. Quick, who turned 40 on Monday and most recently lived in Algonquin, was found guilty of delivery of heroin within 1,000 feet of a church and faces a July sentencing hearing. Quick, a St. Charles resident at the time of his arrest, had been free on bail since authorities charged him with selling $40 in heroin to the officer in the parking lot of a restaurant on North State Street in Elgin near St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, according to records.

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A female accomplice who helped arrange the sale previously pleaded guilty to delivery of a controlled substance and received three years in prison, according to prosecutors and court documents.

Court documents indicate Quick has been sentenced at least three times to the Illinois Department of Corrections in the last 13 years. He received a five-year prison term for a 2004 robbery in Will County; two years for 2007 possession of a controlled substance charge in Will County; and a nine-year sentence in connection to a 2008 burglary in DeKalb County.

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In an unrelated pending case, Quick is charged with possessing heroin and drug paraphernalia in 2015 while out on bond for his 2014 arrest.

Quick's conviction is one of two that occurred during drug trials this week where the defendant did not appear in court. Quick last appeared in court in February. Judge D.J. Tegeler issued an arrest warrant on May 17 when Quick didn't show up for a pre-trial hearing.

Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.
Safety-Kleen intends to build a 20-foot-tall monument sign at its Elgin campus off Villa Street on the citys southeast side. ( Handout/Safety-Kleen )

The Elgin City Council Wednesday unanimously moved along zoning considerations that will allow Safety-Kleen Systems to build a bigger entrance sign and to construct two new buildings on its southeast side property.

"Thank you for your continued support of Elgin," Council member Terry Gavin said to representatives of the company at the meeting before casting his vote. "You went the extra mile."

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"This is a sign the company is committed to staying in Elgin," City Planner Damir Latinovic said of the plans earlier in the week.

"We see this as an investment in both our company and the Elgin community as a whole," David Proud, Vice President, Corporate Communications for Safety-Kleen's parent company, Clean Harbors, said by phone earlier this week.

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Latinovic said the company intends to put up a monument-style sign that would be larger than what is currently allowed by the city. Plans also include adding a 6,000-square-foot building and a 12,000-square-foot building to the 24.5 acre site, with those buildings used for vehicle repair on the company's fleet.

"The two new facilities on our campus will allow us to construct state-of-the-art vehicles with the latest safety equipment and superior fuel efficiency," Proud said.

Latinovic said other work would include parking lot improvements, creating a detention pond, landscaping and upgrading the two southernmost buildings at the site.

According to material provided to the council, the new sign would be 10-feet wide and 20-feet tall. Each of the two buildings would have an 8-foot high brick base and metal cladding to match the design and exterior materials of existing buildings on the property.

At the May 1 Planning and Zoning Commission hearing on the matter, attorney Peter Bazos said that the new buildings would not only be used to expand the company's truck maintenance but also its truck building operation.

According to information presented at the Planning and Zoning meeting, Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc. recycles industrial and mechanical oils and lubricants, such as automotive oil. The company also operates various bulk-like industrial operations such as providing vacuum service trucks to pick up oily waters solutions, and leasing industrial washer machines used to remove grease from engine parts.

The Elgin facility, along the 1500 block of Villa Street, operates as a collection and distribution facility for oil and lubricants and also holds some company offices.

The Planning and Zoning Commission was told that Safety-Kleen has 150 branches across North America with 73 employees presently working at the Elgin location.

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"More important than infrastructure is people-power. We plan on hiring 25 people from the Elgin area to help us do that," Proud said on Tuesday.

Bazos told the Commission that Safety-Kleen also intends to demolish a run-down building that is on railroad property the company leases.

Latinovic said the company hopes to have all the intended work completed by September 2018.

"Working hand-in-hand with Elgin officials has been a pleasure, and we can't wait to see the plans come to fruition," Proud said. "We've been in Elgin since the 1960s, and we continue to be extraordinarily proud to be a part of this fantastic city."

Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said the moves show Safety-Kleen reinvesting in Elgin and dressing up their property in the process.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
The Lake Bluff History Museum honored six properties in Lake Bluff as Distinguished Homes, including this one at 610 Sunrise Avenue that was built in the 1880s. (Lake Bluff History Museum )

The Lake Bluff History Museum honored six properties in the village this week for their architectural or historical significance or their contribution to the character of Lake Bluff.

The winning properties, which were recognized in a May 21 ceremony at the museum, fall into two historical eras, said Paul Bergmann, head of the Distinguished Home Committee.

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One is the Camp Meeting/Country Club era from 1875 to 1895. Area Methodists formed the Lake Bluff Camp Association and held lectures, concert and other activities, Bergmann said.

"That's when all the tiny little houses were built in east Lake Bluff," Bergmann said. "Then it became a more secular resort area with mom and the kids coming up for a couple weeks to get out of the dirty city (Chicago) and dad coming up on the weekends."

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Among the properties honored from this era is a home at 314 East Prospect Avenue, part of which dates back to 1872, according to documents supplied by Bergmann. While additions were made over decades, "it is recognized as part of 'old Lake Bluff' by its board & batten siding, center gable and open porch. The oldest part of the house contains a huge water cistern that is still under the dining room floor," according to the documents.

The other historical period is the Conversion to Suburb era from 1920 to 1940.

"That's when Lake Bluff converted into a four season community and a real suburb," Bergmann said. "Outhouses started to disappear and homes had insulation. After that was the World War II build-out."

Among the houses honored from this era is 735 Ravine Avenue.

"The house was built by George A. McKinlock, an electric utility executive, after he sold a 20-acre estate on Deer Path in Lake Forest," according to the document. "McKinlock founded the Lake Forest American Legion McKinlock Post 264 in honor of his son who was the first Lake Forest and/or Lake Bluff soldier to be killed in World War One."

The current owners  who could not be reached for comment  had appeared before village officials several years ago seeking permission to demolish the house and built a new one, documents said. When they learned the history of the house, the owners instead decided to fix it up. They had it re-shingled, refinished the walls and replaces windows while retaining the character of the house.

"There are a great many houses in Lake Bluff, and very few people get hooked by a house and seek to preserve it," Bergmann said.

The Distinguished Home Awards were started by Beth Keepper, who also served on the committee. Around 2000, many of older homes in Lake Bluff were being torn down, she said.

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"When they came down, a part of our heritage came down with them," Keepper said.

While visiting a sorority sister in Chatham, Mass., she found homes there dating back to the 1700s were being torn down. The local museum had started an awards program to "maybe give people an incentive to restore the houses," Keepper said.

Keepper brought the idea to the Lake Bluff History Museum, where she was then a board member. They began the awards in 2004. Including this year, 48 homes have been honored, Bergmann said.

The other homes honored this year were 610 Sunrise Avenue, 552 Sunrise Avenue, 306 Scranton Avenue and 503 Simpson Avenue.

mlawton@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter: @reporterdude
What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com.

This assault on our media has got to stop. What happened in Montana with the assault of the reporter is sadly a sign of our president and his constant antagonizing of their credibility.

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My idea of making America great again does not add 24 million people to the position of being uninsured. How exactly do you think this administration is making anything great?

You seem to have an extremely selective memory. You claim that Trump is performing under fire and President Obama would have resigned under that pressure. Where were you during his eight years in office when the GOP vowed to obstruct him at every turn?

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Venting to Washington politicians should be the solution. But if you don't live in their district they won't accept your calls, if you can even get through. Usually, their answering machine is no longer taking messages.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not know who their elected officials are. Everybody in Indiana has one state representative and one state senator who represent them in Indianapolis. Everybody in Indiana has one U.S. representative and two U.S. senators who represent you in Washington, D.C. You also have local and county elected officials. Learn who these people are and get involved. It's called democracy. If you don't vote, don't complain.

British leaders now say they will no longer share intelligence information with the U.S. after they leaked information about the Manchester bombing. Nice going. We won't have any allies after this administration is done.

If you are an ordinary citizen accused of a crime, you will be arrested, tried and convicted in a matter of days or months. If you are a pol, official or rich person, you will have so many investigations and hair-splitting time that a bald man will end up with a full head of hair.

Obamacare is broken. Without continued funding from Medicare and forcing young people to buy insurance that they do not need, the cost structure is way out of whack. Young people are not signing up to pay premiums for insurance that they do not need, and Obamacare was banking on this. Something needs to change where monthly fees and co-payments are not beyond reason. Sure, the GOP plan needs some tweaking, but it is the best chance we have.

A lot of pundits and politicians are telling us not to worry. The Trump budget that gives the rich a huge tax break while gutting Medicaid and other social programs doesn't have a chance of passing. Yeah, right. They also told us not to worry, there was no way Trump would be elected president.

The liberal media is over the top and out of control. Leaking information on a daily basis to try to stop the president's every move. If stations like MSNBC or CNN are your go-to sources for news, good luck with that Russian thing.

Read more at www.post-trib.com/quickly.
What bread would you travel across town to taste? If you're like many Chicagoans, you're more likely to pick up a loaf at your neighborhood grocery store than trek to the bakery with the best dough starter.

But when convenience wins, you lose. Our city is in the midst of a great bread renaissance, one marked by sunflower ryes and nutty sourdoughs worth traveling for. In bakeries, restaurants and new bakery/restaurant hybrids, Chicago bakers are, while respecting tradition and craft, making breads unlike what you'll find anywhere else in the world.

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Take chef Ethan Pikas and baker Tony Bezsylko, co-owners of Cellar Door Provisions in Logan Square. The two are widely considered trailblazers in bread, offering everything from a coriander and fennel-seed sourdough to a savory-sweet brioche made with koji, the starter used to ferment miso and soy sauce.

Their business model is also a bit revolutionary: They sell to-go orders by the slice, but not the loaf. This stems from necessity  "We have very limited oven space, and even more so, a small staff and no fridge space," Pikas says  but it's also the way he, as a consumer, prefers to buy bread.

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"I do every now and again buy a loaf from Pleasant House (bakery) at the Dill Pickle (co-op)," he says. "It's really excellent bread. But what happens at home is I don't end up eating a whole loaf before it stales, and then my wife and I have to figure out a way to use it."

Makes sense. Or maybe, for you, it doesn't. The good news: Whether you're seeking a slice, loaf or eat-in bread plate paired with a glass of wine, you have plenty of destination-worthy options. I recently polled local bakers, chefs and critics on their favorite breads being made right now in the Chicago area, and tasted them all to pick my top 12. Five are restaurant/bakery hybrids, where you can order bread by the plate or buy it to go. Five are restaurants where you can order extraordinary bread that's best while dining in. The final two are bakeries only, each with a few seats, but primarily offering loaves to take home.

Just remember: Bread, unlike our love for it, is fleeting. Menus change, and some popular spots sell out quickly  it's always smart to call first.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 12 Coriander and fennel-seed sourdough, currently the house bread at Cellar Door Provisions, is served with a quenelle of soft, house-made cultured butter. (Louisa Chu / Chicago Tribune)

BAKERY/RESTAURANT HYBRIDS

Toast plate at Baker Miller Three slices of bread ($6), all different types, will be lightly toasted in the open kitchen at this Lincoln Square spot. But there are homey toasters on each table for guests who want a little more crunch. Once the bread is to your taste, hit the jam and butter bar, featuring house-made, seasonal options. I asked owner David Miller to dress my breads, which he did beautifully. Rugbrod, a hearty Danish seeded rye and oat bread, came spread with orange butter and tart lingonberries in honey; savory sunflower rye got fragrant herb butter and house-fermented hot sauce; and his signature bread, whole-wheat sourdough, was the perfect canvas for classic salted butter and preserved, sweetened rhubarb. Bread options change daily and are also sold by the loaf ($9) or half-loaf ($5). 4610 N. Western Ave., 773-654-3610, www.bakermillerchicago.com

Country bread and cultured butter at Cellar Door Provisions A big chewy slice halved in two of the always-changing house bread ($3) is served with what seems to be a too-big quenelle of soft, house-made cultured butter. But as you eat the last crumb of bread, you'll realize that you've used  and savored  every single swipe of butter too. This order is also readily available to-go; take the slices home and use them to make an epic sandwich. 3025 W. Diversey Ave., 773-697-8337, www.cellardoorprovisions.com

Bread basket at Floriole The assortment of breads in the basket ($6) from wife and husband Sandra and Matthieu Holl can change not just daily, but with each person who orders it. Recently, mine came with a thick slice of sweet and nutty sourdough, a crisp-crusted sesame-seed baguette, crunch-flecked seeded sourdough and a classic baguette, plus sweet butter and house-made tangerine jam. Prices vary for whole loaves, from house sourdough ($5.50) to semolina ($10); the semolina is the only bread available by the half-loaf too ($5.50). 1220 W. Webster Ave., 773-883-1313, www.floriole.com

Toast and butter plate at Pleasant House Pub You will almost always find the house whole or durum wheat sourdough on the toast plate ($3.50) at this Pilsen pub, served with butter and seasonal jam, recently strawberry basil. Owner Art Jackson built his own bakery at The Plant in Back of the Yards even before he opened the pub in Pilsen. Head baker Alexander Roman, formerly of Floriole, sells whole loaves to go (multigrain, $7; whole wheat, durum wheat or rugbrod, $6; baguette or ciabatta, $4) at The Plant (1400 W. 46th St.) on bake days: Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. You can also buy loaves Saturdays at the 61st Street Farmers Market (6100 S. Blackstone Ave.); plus look at some local stores, including Dill Pickle Food Co-op (3039 W. Fullerton Ave.). Pleasant House Pub, 2119 S. Halsted St., 773-523-7437, www.pleasanthousepub.com

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 6 Baker Alexander Roman pulls a tray of bread out of the oven at Pleasant House Bakery's space inside The Plant in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Some of this bread will be sold by the plate at Pleasant House Pub in Pilsen, while other loaves will be kept here to be sold whole. (Kristan Lieb / Chicago Tribune)

Bread plate at The Publican You can order just the bread alone ($4) at the West Loop restaurant, thick yet airy slabs of barely toasted Spence Farm multigrain 1979 sourdough (the year an inside joke referencing the many grains and the decade of love for all things granola and grainy). It's the signature bake by Publican Quality Bread head baker Greg Wade, this year's James Beard award Outstanding Baker nominee. But I highly recommend adding all three available spreads ($7 extra) for the full sensory experience: creamy cultured butter with sea salt, intriguing sunflower seed sikil pak dip with mint, and chunky white cheddar pimento cheese. You can also buy whole loaves, including the 1979 ($7.50), an olive bread ($9) and ciabatta ($4), across the street at Publican Quality Meats (825 W. Fulton Market), but remember it closes at 6 p.m. daily, and 5 p.m. Sundays. The Publican, 837 W. Fulton Market, 312-733-9555, www.thepublicanrestaurant.com

RESTAURANTS

Pita at Avec The delicate, wood-oven-baked pita rises so dramatically that heads turn and conversations stop, improbably, when it's brought into the dining room. After I tasted the impossibly thin and tender puff recently, a communal table neighbor from Syria decided to order it as well. Chef Perry Hendrix serves the bread with silken hummus, intensely roasted carrots, pickled egg and chile almond sauce ($14), but a bread lover's secret: You can order pita separately ($2) if you're compelled. 615 W. Randolph St., 312-377-2002, www.avecrestaurant.com

Naan at Giant Described as naan or pita by staff and fans, this puffed, crisp-crusted, fatty and flavorful flatbread from chef and owner Jason Vincent is like nothing else in Logan Square, or perhaps anywhere. And it's not even mentioned on the menu, served only with the sweet-and-sour eggplant dish garnished with cashews and pancetta ($14). Giant, 3209 W. Armitage Ave., 773-252-0997, www.giantrestaurant.com

Wild rice and koji porridge bread at Kitsune Butter molded into the face of a fox, adorable yet boasting a sophisticated aged flavor, accompanies this daring Japanese-Midwestern bread ($10) in North Center. It's studded with soft, sweet koji porridge pockets and punctuated by crisp, puffed wild rice grains. Add complex house pickles ($6), which really means pickled vegetables that change seasonally  recently, carrots, chile asparagus, watermelon radish and molasses maitake mushrooms. 4229 N. Lincoln Ave., www.kitsunerestaurant.com

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

Tigelle at Monteverde The warm, made-to-order, lard-laced rounds of Italian flatbread are only available with the burrata and ham plate ($20) at the West Loop restaurant. Stuff your own sandwiches with Broadbent country ham from Kentucky, creamy burrata cheese from California and charred local Mighty Vine tomatoes. Seasonal garnishes change, currently grilled and pickled ramps, but in the summer, find Grueneberg's favorite Italian-inspired variation with melon and country ham. 1020 W. Madison St., 312-888-3041, www.monteverdechicago.com

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Baked potato bing bread at Parachute Breathtakingly beautiful and skillet-cooked to a golden crunchy crust, this lovely Asian-inspired bread ($10) interpreted by chefs and owners Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark boasts chunks of fatty bacon and tender baked potato. Bright chive plus tangy, whipped sour cream butter complement the plate. 3500 N. Elston Ave., 773-654-1460, www.parachuterestaurant.com

BAKERIES

Bostock at Hewn

Slices of brioche baked with cherries, almonds, frangipane and powdered sugar make the lesser-known cousin to French toast known as bostock ($4.15), a good reason to eat too much bread. Owner and baker Ellen King also offers buttery brioche, the same kind used to make the bostock, by the whole loaf ($8), as well as many naturally fermented breads on a daily-changing menu. 810 Dempster St., Evanston, 847-869-4396, www.hewnbread.com

Ensaymada at La Patisserie P The pastrylike bread originally from Spain, then brought to Latin America by explorers, is served here in a Filipino-inspired variation ($1.25 small, $4.50 large), using sugar with butter instead of lard, by classically French trained baker and owner Peter Yuen. It's sweet and soft, with a hint of savory. 1050 W. Argyle St., 773-878-3226, www.lapatisseriepbakery.com

lchu@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @louisachu






Cynthia Nixon, left, and Jennifer Ehle star in A Quiet Passion. Ehle is also starring in Oslo on Broadway and has several other film projects coming up. (Hurricane Films/Music Box Films )

NEW YORK  In a play or on a movie, nearly everybody who works with Jennifer Ehle says the same thing: She's one of the greatest, most authentic, least showy actresses alive. If her relative degree of fame in America  medium-ish  puzzles some of her champions, and her face remains more familiar than her name (pronounced EE-lee), so be it.

"In an ideal world, I would work with her on every project I do," says director Kathryn Bigelow. The Oscar winner for "The Hurt Locker" cast Ehle in a key supporting role of a CIA analyst in "Zero Dark Thirty," and brought her in for a cameo in Bigelow's upcoming '60s drama "Detroit."

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"Detroit," from the director of "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty," stars John Boyega and is based on the civil unrest that rocked Detroit in the summer of 1967. (Annapurna Pictures)

"She's the actress of her generation," asserts veteran stage director Jack O'Brien, who staged Tom Stoppard's "Coast of Utopia" trilogy at Lincoln Center Theater. For that project Ehle won the second of two Tony Awards; the first was another Stoppard play, "The Real Thing," a transfer from London and her high-profile introduction to Broadway. "I don't think anyone can touch her. She has the quiet authority that marks a star. She commands the stage, and the screen, without even seeming to acknowledge that she's being watched."

In the perplexing editing phase of his virus epidemic thriller "Contagion," filmed largely in Chicago, director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns ended up scrapping entire storylines in order to write and shoot additional footage focused on the Centers for Disease Control doctor played by Ehle, the one who ends up saving the world.

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"She can do anything," Soderbergh says of the actress. "She radiates intelligence, and she has the verbal facility to sell some pretty difficult language." In "Contagion" Ehle's character rattles off the following sentence, blithely: "I can see some structures on the surface that look like glycoproteins, but there's nothing morphologically pathognomonic." How Ehle deploys that one line to A) impart information, B) reveal something of the idiosyncratic character saying it, and C) hand the audience a strangely funny moment may well be the subject of a future graduate thesis project.

Jennifer Ehle and Laurence Fishburne on have they became involved in the film "Contagion." the project at the Contagion Interviews: Venice Film Festival 2011 at Venice . (Footage By Wireimage Video/Getty Images Entertainment Video/Getty Images)

In J.T. Rogers' play "Oslo," which is up for seven Tonys including a best actress nomination for Ehle, she plays Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul, who, along with her husband (Jefferson Mays), quietly established a back-channel negotiation in the Oslo Peace Accords in the early 1990s between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Israel. It's a heady play, and Ehle's a narrator as well as a determinedly recessive character. Someone, in other words, typically not nominated for a Tony.

"She's a back-foot person, quite low-key," Ehle told me between a recent matinee and evening "Oslo" double-header, on the Lincoln Center plaza. A theatrical press agent brings sandwiches and coffee. "So my questions (in rehearsal) are: What are this woman's obstacles to expression? What are the reasons for her restraint? She's diplomatic by profession and by nature. She's cautious. It takes a lot for her to speak up, to speak her mind. But in terms of the story, she has to have a level of charisma, a level of attraction, for these people to find her compelling. It's fun to put somebody like that together."

Oslo - Jennifer Ehle, left, and Jefferson Mays in Oslo. (T. Charles Erickson)

Ehle, 47, was born in Winston-Salem, N.C., to a famous English actress mother (Rosemary Harris, 89) and an American novelist (John Ehle, 91). In London, Jennifer dropped out of drama school to take a major, ultimately notorious female lead in the 1992 Channel 4 miniseries adaptation of "The Camomile Lawn," set in World War II. Her role, the impetuous Calypso, required copious, full-on nudity. The ogling didn't die down for years. She was 21 at the time. "It never occurred to me," she told the Sun newspaper in 2013, "that I was too young to deal with it all."

Her triumph in the role of Elizabeth Bennet opposite Colin Firth (they dated for a year or so) in the 1995 BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice" reset expectations for good. She lived in England until the age of 30; the work came, sometimes more fulfillingly than others. Then, in 2001, she married an American, writer Michael Ryan, whom she shares a home in Dutchess County, N.Y., with their two children, George and Talulah.

It's a determinedly remote part of the world for someone with a film and stage career. Shortly after the birth of their daughter, a couple of things happened. One, she says, was getting cast in the pilot of "Game of Thrones," as Catelyn Stark. "Talulah was so young," she recalls, "and I really didn't want to be working at all at that point, but I needed to." So she did it, and then took on the role of Geoffrey Rush's wife in "The King's Speech." That was that, she thought.

But "Game of Thrones" got picked up as a series. Ehle panicked; she'd signed an iron-clad three-year contract, and all she wanted to do was be at home, with her newly expanded family.

The producers, as it happened, were exceptionally gracious and let her out.

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It was "Contagion," which came up a little while later, that "changed a lot of things for me," she says. "I really thought I'd be completely cut out, from day one." After all, she'd recently been axed from the final cut of "Michael Clayton," which Soderbergh produced; her scenes as George Clooney's girlfriend were deemed less than crucial to the storyline.

"It was one of those heartbreaking decisions filmmakers so often have to make," Soderbegh told me. "I remember thinking: 'Well, note to myself: Put her in one of your own films.' "

He did. The role of Dr. Ally Hextall, CDC wonk and Laurence Fishburne's right-hand woman, was right up her alley. Nothing flamboyant on the page, but compelling and full of interpretive possibilities. Since she figured she might not make the final cut anyway, on "Contagion" Ehle felt "completely liberated, like I had the freedom to play her a little weird." As luck had it, the preview cards and audience survey results indicated younger audiences, especially, wanted more science and more Ally, not less. Eager to comply, Soderbergh brought Ehle and her family to Chicago for a week of additional footage, written on the fly, delivered impeccably.

"Whatever her process is," Soderbergh says, "Jennifer has that British or at least half-British quality of not burdening other people with it. Also, I should mention that if she doesn't have the best cheekbones in the world, they're tied for first." Before I even get the question out, Soderbergh answers: "Faye Dunaway, circa 1974."

The adjective "luminous" comes up with wearying repetition in Ehle interviews spanning three decades. "She has extraordinary dignity," director O'Brien says, "and she's incredibly warm and open. But she lives a very individual, very private life. On film, and on stage, you're drawn to her. Even when she's off in the corner you watch her listening."

The sort of career Ehle is pulling off in America is far easier, geographically, to pull off in England, where actors zip from a West End play to a BBC miniseries to a film project without major time zone disruptions. Last summer she opened the off-Broadway edition of "Oslo" in the smaller Lincoln Center Theater space. When that run closed, in preparation for a transfer to the larger Broadway house, she promoted "A Quiet Passion" at the Toronto International Film Festival. In writer-director Terence Davies' film, Ehle plays Vinnie, the ebullient sister of poet Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon).

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From there, Ehle worked on five films in two months. In Dublin, she co-starred with Mel Gibson and Sean Penn in first-time director Farhad Safinia's adaptation of the nonfiction best-seller "The Professor and the Madman," about the birth of and murderous intrigue surrounding the Oxford English Dictionary. While in Dublin, Ehle filmed a small role in "I Kill Giants," the Zoe Saldana-headlined graphic novel adaptation directed by another first-timer, Anders Walter.

In Manhattan, she shot "Monster," with Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson; then a quick day in Boston for Kathryn Bigelow and "Detroit." Also Ehle squeezed in "The Miseducation of Cameron Post," for second-time feature filmmaker Desiree Akhavan.

"I hit a vein, a mother lode vein," she says. The wind whips up on the Lincoln Center plaza. "I guess there's been a sea change the last couple of years, starting with 'A Quiet Passion.' For years I took the smallest, tightest-scheduled jobs I could, to spend the least amount of time away from home. But I've started loosening my bonds a little bit. My children are 14 and 8 now, and I suddenly have these opportunities. And maybe as a family that's of value, too. Children do love to be around grown-ups happily toiling. So I've been doing more. I feel fortunate to still be able to get work, and oddly more and better work than I've had before. It's lovely. I'm grateful."

She's happiest, she says, "when the work isn't results-oriented. When it's back to, you know, just putting on a show, figuring out how to tell a good story. It's easiest to find that in the theater. But I've been on a lot of film sets this last year where it feels like that, too." With a quick gathering up of the sandwich wrappings, Ehle smiles and says it again, for emphasis. "That's when I'm happiest in my work."

"Oslo" continues through July 2 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center Theater, 150 W. 65th St., New York City.

"A Quiet Passion" continues its Chicago run this week at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.

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"Contagion," "Zero Dark Thirty" and many other films featuring Jennifer Ehle are available on a variety of VOD and streaming sites and on DVD.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

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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)
"Have you ever ridden a camel?"

The question doesn't arise often in jazz performances, but it was pertinent Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase, where tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman posed it.

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"A horse walks around in 4/4," explained Freeman, referring to a musical time signature suggesting a steady gallop.

On a camel, however, "the hump gives you an extra something," he continued, miming the motion of sitting atop the moving beast. "So I wrote this next song because of the rhythm I felt riding a camel."

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And with that, Freeman and his Plus+Tet launched into "Crossing the Sudan," its slightly off-kilter meter and unexpected syncopations indeed conveying the idea. Add to that his quartet's arid textures and the exotic harmonies of the tune, both of which evoked "Caravan," and you had a most unusual centerpiece to a consistently intriguing first set.

Yes, Freeman is very much his father's son  meaning the fierce individuality of his work reflects that of Von Freeman, one of the most admired Chicago tenor men (he died in 2012, at age 88). But Chico Freeman reflects the spirit more than the letter of the great Vonski's art, in that Chico Freeman's sound is cooler, his tone less keening, his delivery not so hypervirtuosic. Or at least that was the case on this night.

At the same time, though, every piece that Freeman performed was built on unusual melodic structures, unconventional phrase lengths and constantly shifting rhythmic syntax. Nothing he played fell into convenient patterns; everything strove to say something different. And that, of course, stands as a Freeman family signature, upheld to this day by the saxophonist's uncle, 90-year-old guitarist George Freeman (who will join the ensemble on Sunday).

The most serenely effective moments of the set occurred toward the end, with Chico Freeman's ballad "Dance of Light for Luani." Dedicated to his daughter, the tune stood out for its sublimely understated melody. Freeman delivered this valentine with throaty low notes and not a hint of sentimentality, saying a great deal with a few, well-chosen pitches. The simplicity and straightforwardness of this music proved disarming.

In this piece, and others, drummer Rudy Royston played a pivotal role, his work ranging from barely hinted pianissimos to tautly controlled fortissimos. More than anyone else in the band, Royston served as Freeman's foil. The drummer answered Freeman in some passages, challenged him in others, but constantly responded to the emotional contours of Freeman's statements.

Bassist Kenny Davis offered a warmly lyrical manner throughout, especially in his opening solo to Antonio Farao's "Free Man" (from Freeman's "Spoken Into Existence" album). This was poetry in motion, Davis sustaining an unmistakable line even amid fleetly nimble passagework.

What this quartet needed, however, was more sound and presence from pianist Anthony Wonsey. Without a fuller chordal accompaniment, the band couldn't project as much tone and color as Freeman's scores demanded.

Wonsey finally found some energy in Freeman's "Blues Like," the set's finale. Freeman hit hard here, too, his wide-open horn calls and crisply articulated runs finding ample support from drummer Royston and bassist Davis.

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If these musicians can summon this degree of common cause earlier in their sets, an already strong performance will become that much more striking.

Howard Reich is a Tribune critic.

hreich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @howardreich

When: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4, 8 and 10 p.m. Sunday

Where: Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court

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Tickets: $25-$40; 312-360-0234 or www.jazzshowcase.com

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Watch the latest movie trailers.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just put out a grim report about Alzheimer's disease in the United States.

Death rates from Alzheimer's climbed 55 percent from 1999 to 2014, CDC found, and the number of Americans afflicted is likely to rise rapidly in the coming years. About 5.5 million people 65 years and older have the disease - a wretched and fatal form of dementia that erases memories and ultimately can destroy mental and physical capacity. By 2050, that's expected to more than double to 13.8 million people.

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The report is based on state- and county-level death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System, and CDC researchers said the sharp increase in death rates may be due to the aging population, earlier diagnosis and greater reporting by physicians.

There's also the cruel fact that as we have become more sophisticated in our ability to operate and medicate away physical issues associated with aging - such as heart disease and stroke - there's more time for something to go awry with our minds.

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The new data, released in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, shows some disturbing racial and ethnic disparities. The increase in death rates from Alzheimer's for African Americans was 99 percent; for Hispanics, 107 percent; and for Asian/Pacific Islanders, 151 percent. By comparison, the rate increase for whites was 54 percent.

George Vradenburg, the former AOL Time Warner senior executive who co-founded UsAgainstAlzheimer's with his late wife Trish, has long lobbied for a bigger commitment by government, industry and scientists to find a cure.

"The CDC findings raise needed public awareness of how fast this disease is growing and destroying families, and how we must stand firm against any action that reduces the nation's ability to innovate and speed cures," he said in a statement Thursday.

Another important change identified by the report is where those with Alzheimer's pass away. Though just over half still died in a nursing home or long-term-care facility in 2014, that percentage, as well as the percentage who died in a medical facility, was down significantly from 1999. During the same period, the proportion of people with the disease who died at home went from 13.9 percent to 24.9 percent. This is a key finding from a public health standpoint because of the impact on families.

"The debilitating nature of Alzheimer's means that there are financial and societal costs borne by patients and their families, and by states and counties that operate publicly funded long-term care facilities," the researchers wrote. According to the Alzheimer's Association, the disease and other dementias will cost the country $259 billion in health and care costs this year, with more than two-thirds covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

The researchers took the opportunity to recognize the toll the disease takes, not only on patients but on their loved ones. They called for more support for caregivers.

"Given the increasing number of Alzheimer's deaths and persons with Alzheimer's dying at home, there is a growing number of caregivers who likely can benefit from interventions like education, respite care, and home health assistance," they wrote, adding that "such interventions can lessen the burden of care-giving and can improve the care received by persons with Alzheimer's."

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If summer in the city is sounding a little too hot and hectic, we have the remedy you're after: A quiet, close-to-nature break on a little island just beyond where Washington state stops and the mighty Pacific begins. We've seen our gloating friends' Instagram shots of the islands off Seattle  they're spectacular, we get it. But Lummi Island is a dot farther up the coast and a ferry line away from the heart of the Northwest Coast hubbub. It's home to not much more than the quaint, 100-year-old Willows Inn. Which just happens to have a world-renowned restaurant that draws its inspiration straight from the dark blue waters that surround its pebbled coast.

The arrival of chef Blaine Wetzel has transformed both the Willows and Lummi Island  an eight-minute ferry ride off the mainland north of Seattle  into one of the Pacific Northwest's most iconic summer destinations for food and peace and quiet.

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Wetzel is a Washington native who worked at the distinguished noma restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, and turned the Willows' three-course menu of locally sourced ingredients into a tasting menu running 17 to 20 courses. Local ingredients, especially fish, remain the focus: scallops, oysters, sea urchin, mussels, clams, crab, cod and roe all appear on a sample menu.

"He dug in and started carving out the restaurant that he wanted to make happen," said Reid Johnson, general manager of the Willows. "He saw the potential of making it special."

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Saturday night dinner reservations were largely gone by spring, but weekday reservations usually remain available all summer. The restaurant is also open for breakfast and lunch.

Just don't plan on doing much more than eating and relaxing while on Lummi Island (population 900), which has no downtown and no shopping. It is, as Johnson said, "a quiet, get-back-to-nature, piece-of-mind type of place."

After all, the very first place most guests go after checking in isn't the restaurant  it's the inn's private beach just across the road.

Eat: The reason for a trip to Lummi Island is most likely to eat at the Willows. The tasting menu costs $195 plus a 20 percent service charge.

Sleep: The Willows includes eight rooms ($230-$450) on-site and eight off-site, larger rentals ($400-$695), six of which include kitchens.

Do: There isn't a lot to do on Lummi Island, but that's the point. However, the island is home to four nature preserves. Otherwise, you can try whale watching, kayaking and fishing. And that's about it.

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com







Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 20 Taking flight at the AF Vandevorst Haute Couture collection. (Getty photo)
Amtrak has chosen Riverside Investment & Development to lead a more than 3 million-square-foot redevelopment of Union Station and surrounding land. Office space and a hotel will be added above Union Station's Great Hall. The headhouse will be topped by a pair of 12-story residential towers. (Goettsch Partners rendering)

Almost apologetically, backers of the just-announced plans for redeveloping Chicago's Union Station are characterizing their proposals as preliminary and conceptual. Apologies are indeed in order. The drawings fail to live up to the lofty rhetoric that Amtrak executives and Mayor Rahm Emanuel mouthed Thursday about turning the historic station and its surroundings into a vibrant urban center, complete with "new and dynamic" additions to Chicago's skyline.

The problem is not a lack of architectural refinement. It's a lack of strong concepts. There's no bold idea to signal Union Station's transformation from a workaday rail hub to a festive gathering place.

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A planned food hall with the station is dull with a capital "D." The high-rises as presented are mere placeholders. Raised plazas and terraces  the obligatory package of public green space, supposedly easily accessible  are unlikely to lure people from the sidewalks.

To be sure, there are promising kernels in the designs prepared by Chicago's Goettsch Partners for Riverside Investment & Development, the hometown developer Amtrak chose to carry out this $1 billion-plus project. But what we are seeing suggests that the financially struggling railroad, which has tried before to redevelop Union Station, put a premium on getting things done rather than getting them done right.

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The three-phase project is supposed to be finished in just six years (developers are eternal optimists).

Phase 1 calls for inserting offices and a hotel into the existing structure of Union Station's historic head house. In addition, two thin residential towers would go atop the building. The foundations of the original structure, designed by Chicago architects Graham Anderson Probst & White, successors to famed architect and planner Daniel Burnham, can accommodate them.

A second phase would construct a pair of office towers, roughly 40 to 50 stories high, on the block to the south, which is now chiefly occupied by a multistory parking garage that is to be demolished.

Phase 3 would erect a residential tower on the air rights above Amtrak tracks to the east.

The extent of planned changes to Union Station's concourse  the labyrinthine, overcrowded underground structure east of the head house, which is used by thousands of Metra commuters each weekday  remains unclear.

The first phase makes a few steps toward addressing Union Station's fundamental urban design problem: The austere, neoclassical structure is more imposing than inviting.

An entrance to the planned food hall would be cut into the station's fortresslike west facade. Assuming tenants can be found, new shops would line the sidewalks around the station. The proposed hotel and office space, as well as the new residential towers, would bring the station's retailers a built-in clientele  a proven strategy of transit-oriented development.

Yet in other respects, the plan is conceptually timid, doing little to broach the critical issue of how Union Station should signal its new identity to passers-by. There are no flags, banners or signs. Nor is there colorful night lighting, as there is at Denver's Union Station.

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Chicago's Union Station is an official city landmark, but treating it like a museum or, worse, a mausoleum won't do. The architects and developer need to suggest festivity without compromising the station's architectural integrity.

Interior renderings are worse  or simply nonexistent. No drawings were displayed Thursday to allow the public to envision the future of Union Station's heart  the Great Hall, the soaring, skylit space that now serves as a down-at-the-heels Amtrak waiting room. The renderings that were shown, which portray the proposed food hall just off the Great Hall, are utterly generic. Why would anyone go there?

The urban design of Phase 2 is equally dubious, largely because of the route the architects have chosen to accommodate Amtrak's desire to keep 800 parking spaces on the block that now houses the garage. The parking, as well as retail space, would occupy the low-slung base, or podium, of the office towers. Amphitheaterlike steps would lead from street level to outdoor plazas atop the podium. The architects' renderings show these features teeming with people.

The reality is likely to be very different.

In real life, elevated public spaces often struggle to draw crowds because they're raised above the flow of pedestrian traffic. Exhibit A: the raised plaza at the new Goettsch-designed, Riverside-developed 150 North Riverside office tower. When I passed through during lunchtime on Thursday  the temperature was in the mid-50s and other riverfront plazas were full of people  just one person was up there, a guy taking a nap on a concrete ledge.

Raised plazas offer a questionable strategy for creating a continuous swath of vital urban fabric that stitches together Union Station with fast-growing areas to its south and west. Street-level public space is a better way to go. Thankfully, it's called for in the plan's otherwise unremarkable Phase 3.

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A final objection to what we saw Thursday: One of raised plazas called for in Phase 2 would be built atop the city's recently completed $41.5 million Union Station Transit Center on the block to the station's south.

Granted, that's a better course than forcing out this conveniently located link between trains and buses. But it makes a mockery of the transit center's carefully designed, light-emitting glass canopies. Buried beneath an outdoor plaza, they'll serve no purpose. Why was precious public money spent on them?

Did no one at City Hall think this through? This is not a textbook example of civic foresight. But it is an apt warning to city officials and their counterparts at Amtrak who are playing for much bigger real estate and city-building stakes than the poor little transit center: For the good of downtown, rethink the flawed Union Station plan.

bkamin@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @BlairKamin
On a rare day when the sun was out during this Seattle-like spring, my 13-year-old talked me into not only going to Six Flags Great America but also going on four roller coasters in less than 90 minutes.

Not a good idea on this side of 50.

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The rides were, in order, the American Eagle, which I waited for more than two hours to ride when it debuted in 1981; Batman: The Ride, which I once outran a group of teenage boys to be the first to board one day in October 1992; Vertical Velocity, which is basically a louder version of the Tidal Wave that I once rode three times in a row on a low-attendance day in the late 1980s; and Superman: Ultimate Flight, which I tackled multiple times with college students half my age in 2003.

Now that I am somewhat more than twice the age of college students, the above experience was very nearly a disaster. In fact, as I wobbled my way off Superman, it was an open question whether or not I would vomit for the first time since the White Sox were in the World Series.

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That last statement is factual, though correlation does not necessarily imply causation in this case.

Through sheer force of will and/or good fortune, I managed not to shame myself in front of my offspring. But the near-hurl misadventure was a reminder that my days of freely boarding motion rides are long gone. As Jay Pitchett explained on "Modern Family," "the fluid in your inner ear is thickening. That's what happens when you get old."

And then Thursday arrived, bringing with it an invitation to be among the first to ride The Joker, a new roller coaster at Six Flags Great America that from even a casual inspection appears to deliver not only rolling and coasting but also tumbling and spinning.

Like a dog that keeps eating wood chips or blades of grass despite the result, I had long since decided that I would ride The Joker. Life, after all, is meant to be lived. Preferably without nausea, but still.

Naturally, Thursday dawned with ominous clouds, but Mother Nature somehow carved out conditions acceptable for riding a roller coaster. The Joker's purple-and-green, 120-foot-tall profile stood boldly against the drab sky, ready to roll after a long winter and spring of assembly within mere feet of the now-iconic Batman: The Ride.

After an opening ceremony that featured an acceptable Cesar Romero version of the famed DC Comics villain, it was time to try out this "free spin" coaster designed by Utah-based S&S  Sansei Technologies. While strapping in, I noticed a sign that I might have ignored in my youth, advising me to "sit upright" and "hold onto handle bars at all times."

This turned out to be good advice. After floating straight up to the top of the track, you find that the car almost immediately starts tumbling  in some cases, slamming you back and forth in your full-torso harness. If that's not your thing, don't say I didn't tell you.

From there, Joker is an entertaining if remarkably brief series of somersaults and sudden drops that defies you to orient your location on the map of Gurnee. This is not a ride that invites you to admire the view.

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Among the tips that were passed along by park officials who had been on the ride often enough to get a read on it: Joker has two tracks  green and purple  and the green side is wilder; by choosing between not only the different tracks but also between front- and rear-facing seats, it's possible to get up to eight different variations on the ride; and if you kick your legs out at certain points, the side-hinged seats allow you to tumble more than once (one rider said he had gotten three complete somersaults out of this tactic).

What I can tell you is that the green side did deliver more impressive motion. I can also rank The Joker somewhere in the second tier of Great America coasters, somewhere below the Raging Bull and Goliath category but better than, say, The Demon, which is not aging well.

Oh, and Batman is also better than Joker, both in fictional and ride form. This should come as no surprise.

Of course, full disclosure compels me to report that my review is limited  I decided that two rides of this new kid on the block were enough. Even if you have never been afraid of roller coasters, you do earn a healthy respect for them  or, perhaps more accurately, an unhealthy respect  at some point in your existence.

danmoran@tribpub.com

Twitter @NewsSunDanMoran
Federal and local authorities have charged nearly 50 members or associates of the Gangster Two-Six Nation street gang accused of dealing guns and drugs on Chicago's South Side and surrounding suburbs.

The investigation, dubbed "Operation Bunny Trap" in a nod to the gang's rabbit symbol, uncovered gun and drug dealing inside a pizza parlor in the Brighton Park neighborhood as well as numerous other illegal gun deals, including in January in the parking lot of a South Loop grocery store, authorities said.

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The charges describe illegal firearm transactions in several other neighborhoods on the South Side, including Chicago Lawn, Clearing, Chatham and Englewood, as well as the suburbs of Berwyn, Homewood and Alsip.

Among those charged was Francisco "Smokey" Sanchez, 50, a reputed Two-Six leader who works as a program services specialist for CeaseFire, according to the University of Illinois at Chicago, where the anti-violence group is based.

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"This is one gang in Chicago, and this is not the only gang that our law enforcement efforts are looking at," acting U.S. Attorney Joel Levin told reporters Friday in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse.

The investigation spanned more than two years and resulted in seizures of about 120 firearms, including several assault rifles and shotguns, 25 rounds of ammunition and two ballistic vests, as well as cocaine, fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine, authorities said.

Authorities said 27 defendants were charged in Cook County Criminal Court and another 21 in federal court.

The gang, which is national in scope, has been under investigation by federal and local law enforcement agencies since late 2014.

The probe, led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and including Chicago police, used extensive surveillance measures and purchases of narcotics by undercover officers, authorities said.

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @JeremyGorner
A Summer of Faith and Action event and a police district outdoor roll call begin Memorial Day weekend in the South Side on May 26, 2017. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

A wooden cross stands atop a patch of grass near a boarded-up apartment building in the 3400 block of West Walnut Street, where three men were shot and wounded during last year's violent Memorial Day weekend.

Covered with a maroon cloth, the approximately 3-foot-high cross is crowded with photos of those who have passed on: some from natural causes, two who died in a car crash, but others who were casualties of the all-too-common street violence in the West Side's East Garfield Park neighborhood.

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Michael Green, an area resident, welcomes the recent uptick in the numbers of Chicago police officers patrolling around Walnut Street. Even with his own past brushes with the law, he thinks the neighborhood badly needs police protection, especially after last year's holiday weekend saw 20 people shot within the Harrison patrol district, including the three men shot on Walnut.

"When we was young, the streets used to be full of kids," Green, 35, said Wednesday as he hung out on the block. "You don't even see kids playing outside no more. Right now, it's just a free-for-all."

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Coming off a disastrous 2016 that saw more than 760 slain and some 4,300 shot across the city, Chicago police are preparing for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, and the unofficial start of summer  traditionally, the year's most violent stretch.

During last year's extended weekend, 71 were shot, six fatally, making it one of the most violent Memorial Day weekends in recent memory. A year earlier, 57 people were shot, 12 fatally.

In a telephone interview, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the department will deploy an extra 1,000 officers on the streets each day from Friday through Monday. Johnson said he expects some officers' days off will be canceled and some shifts extended beyond the normal 8 hours  both typical moves for a summer holiday weekend.

Johnson said the added officers will patrol the parks and other open spaces where large gatherings are expected.

"I am comfortable with the amount of resources they'll have," the superintendent said. "You'll see a lot of police visibility in the (Harrison) District, as well as citywide, over the Memorial Day weekend."

The Harrison District has been among the city's most violent for years. But so far this year, police officials have been encouraged by a drop in violence in the West Side district, which includes neighborhoods such as West Garfield Park and Lawndale in addition to East Garfield Park.

"We've got a lot of good people that live in those communities, and they're just as sick and tired of this violence as I am," Johnson said. "So they are coming forward, giving us the information, and the officers are working hard in those areas."

Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson watches as 2nd District officers gather for an outdoor roll call in Washington Park on Friday, May 26, 2017. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Through Sunday, Harrison has recorded 23 homicides, a 28 percent decline from 32 a year earlier, official police statistics show. Shootings have declined even more, to 111, a 33 percent drop from 165 a year earlier, the department said.

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Throughout Chicago, homicides have dropped more modestly, by 6 percent to 219 from 233, while shootings are down more sharply, by 13 percent to 987 from 1,129, the official statistics show.

As in other parts of the West Side, much of the violence in the Harrison police district is fueled by disputes over drug dealing, entrenched gang problems and the easy availability of guns. Communities within Harrison have long struggled under the weight of low employment and poverty.

Police brass, though, are touting improvements in Harrison and the South Side's Englewood District, the two deadliest districts in Chicago last year, when they accounted for about one-fourth of all of the city's homicides.

Since late January, the two districts were the first in the city to use technology geared toward helping officers better predict where shootings may occur and respond more quickly to violence while allowing supervisors to analyze shooting data in real time to quickly determine where best to deploy manpower.

"We're going to target the times and the places where we've seen historic (violence) issues and the times and places that are currently causing the problem," Johnson said.

A cross atop a memorial at St. Louis Avenue and Walnut Street is seen on Thursday, May 25, 2017, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood. There are three different memorials in the 3400 block of Walnut Street to those killed by gun violence as well as those who have died as a result of other circumstances. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune )

At these district nerve centers, called Strategic Decision Support Centers, officers analyze large screens that display crime maps and surveillance camera footage.

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They also keep a close watch on ShotSpotter, technology that detects the sound of gunfire and helps pinpoint its location. Officers receive the shooting data in real time on their work cellphones. Police officials have claimed that ShotSpotter has helped officers respond to shootings an average of five to seven minutes before 911 calls come through on the same incidents.

In addition, police have teamed up with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on targeted raids this year on the West Side, where open-air drug markets pose problems distinct from the South Side.

On Wednesday, back on Walnut Street, the rumbling of freight and CTA trains sounded amid the occasional wind gusts. Green stood over the wooden cross, reminiscing about some of the victims commemorated there.

Among them was 25-year-old Ed Brown, an undefeated welterweight boxer who was killed in a drive-by shooting in December just a few blocks away. Down the block, an Everlast punching bag tied to a light pole serves as a makeshift memorial for Brown.

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"It hurts to even see these reminders sitting right here," Green said. "But I guess it helps some people."

Anthony Mack, 36, started filming b-roll footage of the cross for a friend making a rap music video.

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Mack, who grew up on Walnut, said the neighborhood has always had its share of problems. But today the violence has become more senseless, he said.

"I'm not condoning violence from back in the day. But  when you got shot, you got shot for something," Mack said. "You didn't just get shot because  I said something or I maybe bumped your kids."

"People are just going crazy."

jgorner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @JeremyGorner
A woman and three men were shot in attacks on Chicago's South and West sides Friday morning, according to police.



Two men were wounded shortly before 10:30 a.m. in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, police said.



They were in the 1500 block of South Christiana Avenue, across the street from a primary school, when someone opened fire, police said.

A 26-year-old man was hit in the face and neck. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition, police said.

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The other man, 24, was shot in the face, abdomen and arm. He also went to Mount Sinai, where he was stabilized, police said.

Shortly before 8 a.m. on the Far South Side, a woman was shot in the Roseland neighborhood, not far from the Gwendolyn Brooks Preparatory School, police said.



Police said someone walked up to the 27-year-old woman and shot at her several times in the 400 block of East 109th Street. She was hit once in the right leg and taken in good condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.



Around 6:50 a.m. on the South Side, a man was shot in the ankle while walking in the Chatham neighborhood, police said. The shooting occurred less than a block from Augustus Tolton Catholic Academy.



The shots came from a passing car in the 7900 block of South Eberhart Avenue, police said. The victim, 24, was hit in the left ankle and taken in good condition to Jackson Park Hospital.



Police reported no arrests.



Check back for updates.
A Cook County judge has recused herself from a murder trial less than a week after making bizarre comments at a hearing in which she castigated defense attorneys for what she called "a personality defect regarding me" while adamantly refusing to step aside.

Judge Diane Gordon Cannon, a former longtime prosecutor who has sat on the bench for years at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, called attorneys to her courtroom Thursday to announce that she was abruptly withdrawing from presiding over Malvin Washington's murder case.

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"I'm elated for my client and his family," Jeffrey Urdangen, one of Washington's attorneys, said later. "This was long overdue."

Judge LeRoy K. Martin Jr., presiding judge of the Criminal Division, declined to comment on Cannon's sudden reversal after months of refusing to step down from the case.

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Urdangen and the rest of Washington's legal team from Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law had long sought Cannon's removal from the case, alleging she openly displayed bias toward the defense.

Those attempts repeatedly failed, and just last week, Cannon insisted in court that she would stay on the case.

"I'm not recusing myself. I'm not  I can be fair," the judge said at the hearing May 19.

At that hearing, Cannon lectured Washington's attorneys at length, responding to their allegations that she called Urdangen "Mr. Underpants" behind his back.

"And if you have, I can only call it now the underpants motion, and if you think I'm laughing, I am. If I said 'underpants,' you know, if I said 'bra' here, you could laugh, and that's the most it is," she said, according to a transcript of the hearing. "If I did say it, I never have said in my life Mr. Urdangen is Mr. Underpants."

"I am so thick-skinned," Cannon said. "I'm not here to make friends. I honestly do not care if a case is reversed, if a lawyer likes me.  If I cared about these things, or dead people, or anything of that, I'd never sleep. So I don't care."

The judge also accused Urdangen multiple times of telling people he hopes she dies of cancer, an accusation Urdangen strenuously denied.

"I have never, ever said to anybody that I wished you dead," he told her in court.

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Washington was found guilty of murder in the 2004 shooting of Marquis Reed, but he has long maintained he acted in self-defense after being attacked by a group of older, armed assailants.

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That conviction was reversed after an appellate court determined Cannon erred by not letting the trial jury consider whether Washington was guilty of second-degree murder.

The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed that reversal, a decision that brought the case back to Cannon.

In February, Washington's legal team asked the state Supreme Court to randomly assign another judge, accusing Cannon of, among other things, falsely insisting one of their key witnesses was a fraud. Last month, the state's highest court denied the request.

Court records do not give any reason for Cannon stepping down from the case.

Another judge could be assigned to the case as soon as Friday.

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mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @crepeau
An elderly couple was beaten by robbers who broke into their Northwest Side home Thursday night in the Cragin neighborhood, Chicago police said.



The man and woman, 81 and 77, suffered facial cuts and were treated at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. The robbers fled with the woman's purse, some cash and cellphones, police said.

The attack occurred around 11:45 p.m. in the 5400 block of West Henderson Street after two people dressed in black hoodies entered the home, police said.

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Police reported no one in custody.



A week ago, a 78-year-old woman was severely beaten in a home invasion in the Irving Park neighborhood about 3 1/2 miles away, police said. There was no indication that the two attacks were related.



Check back for updates.
Anthony Frontera, 53, is charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl "multiple times" between Jan. 11 and May 11 in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. (Chicago Police Department)

A teacher at the Chicago Military Academy in Bronzeville is accused of having a six-month sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl who was his student.

Anthony Frontera, 53, of the 3800 block of North Ottawa Avenue, is charged with criminal sexual assault of a victim between the age of 13 and 17, according to a police statement.

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The girl turned 16 during the school year and may have been 15 when the sexual assaults began, according to prosecutors.

Before he set bail at $750,000, Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. told Frontera, "These accusations and these facts are egregious, sir. You are a teacher."

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The assaults took place at the military academy, 3519 S. Giles Ave., prosecutors said.

Sometime after Nov. 1, Frontera told the girl she was beautiful and that he wanted to date her, according to prosecutors. He started having sex with her in his office on a regular basis, locking his classroom and drawing the shades, prosecutors said.

Several witnesses saw Frontera alone with the girl in his classroom during the school year, prosecutors said.

At a report card pickup day, Frontera told a relative of the girl that he thought the girl would "make a great wife" and that he was "helping (the girl) become a lady," according to prosecutors.

In April, the girl told a friend she was having a sexual relationship with Frontera, prosecutors said.

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The assaults came to light when Frontera and the girl had a fight and another friend told school administrators about the relationship, prosecutors said.

After the fight, Frontera took May 12 off and was in touch with another teacher at the school, prosecutors said. After asking the other teacher to look for cameras in his back office  where he had had sex with the girl  Frontera told the teacher that he had had a sexual relationship with a younger person whom he didn't identify.

Frontera "was removed from his teaching position earlier this month after CPS investigators discovered he was potentially harming a student," according to a statement from schools spokesman Michael Passman. "CPS notified the proper authorities when the allegations arose, and we are grateful for law enforcement's quick attention to this matter as we work to support the school community during this difficult time."

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School officials informed police and the Department of Children and Family Services after the allegations came to light, according to officials.

Frontera was arrested around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday in the 100 block of Douglas Avenue in Elgin. Police and prosecutors did not explain why he might have been there.

Frontera is listed in Chicago Public Schools and state databases as a science teacher at the school. He has been a CPS teacher since at least fall 2001 and a teacher at Chicago Military Academy since at least 2006, according to records. A spokesman for CPS did not respond to a request for comment.



As the charges were announced, a Facebook page appeared in support of Frontera. It was not known who created the page, but it had 100 likes by Friday afternoon.



"Mr. Frontera has dedicated his life to education and helped several of students succeed in the sciences," a posting on the page read. "His dedication has allowed students to pursue higher education and reach their potential in science, math, and technology. ... Support this page and help Mr. Frontera seek justice!"

The Chicago Tribune's Megan Crepeau contributed.
In the final scheduled days of the spring legislative session, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is returning to a familiar themes of his political life  pushing to freeze property taxes. (Kim Geiger/Chicago Tribune)

In the final scheduled days of the spring session, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is returning to familiar themes of his political life  bashing legislative Democrats and pushing to freeze property taxes.

The General Assembly is scheduled to finish on Wednesday amid doubtful prospects for an end to Illinois' historic budget stalemate, again leaving schools, universities and social services providers uncertain about what they can expect in the coming year.

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In the late-session political posturing, Rauner has focused on property taxes, symbolizing a multipart strategy aimed at weathering political fallout in his 2018 re-election bid. To make his pitch, Rauner this week conducted numerous interviews and held a news conference at an Orland Park home to demand a freeze as a precondition for a budget agreement.

"We've got to bring down our property tax burden," Rauner said, standing in the home's back yard. "We cannot have the General Assembly pass a massive tax hike on income and sales and not provide property tax relief that is true and lasting."

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The governor's push for a property tax freeze comes after Senate Democrats this week approved a package of spending plans and tax increases aimed at ending Illinois' streak of operating without a budget. That group of proposals didn't include Rauner's property tax demand, and majority Democrats in the House also haven't shown much inclination to go along with the state's Republican leader.

Moreover, House Democrats have indicated privately that they plan to go their own way on a budget proposal rather than accept the Senate's. A closed-door vote of Democrats on Friday found only 42 House votes in favor of the Senate plan. It would need 60 votes to pass.

As Democrats and Republicans continue to squabble over who is to blame for Illinois' budget troubles, a property tax freeze has become the latest in Rauner's must-haves after he has pared down what was once his "turnaround agenda" and relabeling it as "structural reforms."

Compared to some of his other asks, like complicated changes in workers' compensation rules or to legislative redistricting, a property tax freeze is easier for voters to understand.

In seeking a four-year freeze of real-estate tax levies, Rauner is reaching out to homeowners in the Republican-leaning suburbs. They typically face the highest bills, particularly because schools rely on those local taxes to operate. Under his plan, a voter referendum would allow taxpayers to reduce or increase individual levies of schools and local governments.

The issue also allows Rauner to continue to lash out at his favorite political target, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, a partner at the property tax appeals firm Madigan and Getzendanner.

And Rauner's attack on the property tax system reprises Republican criticism of the assessment reduction that Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker received on appeal in Cook County, where the assessor is county Democratic Party chairman Joseph Berrios.

Last week on WGN AM-720, Rauner noted, "by the way, the rigged system for property tax assessments, property tax reductions, that our politicians are part of and make their money from, by the way. I want local residents who pay the taxes to control the process, not the local politicians."

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Rauner's repeated injection of the phrase "by the way" was a vocal wink-and-a-nod to underscore a theme of insider dealings on property taxes likely to be repeated in campaigns against Democrats running for governor and for the General Assembly next year if no property tax relief is forthcoming. And it would be tossed on top of a Rauner campaign message that the first-term Republican rejected Democratic tax hike efforts.

Rauner isn't new to campaigning on the issue of onerous property taxation, first proposing a freeze and running ads about it during his bid for governor in 2014.

But local governments  villages, cities, counties  derive most of their funding from property taxes.

A property tax freeze "is the ultimate state unfunded mandate," said Brad Cole, a former mayor of Carbondale who is executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, an association of local governments.

"When you have a local city council or a village board that takes action to generate revenue and in some cases lower their property tax rates, those are decisions that are made locally," he said, after the group's annual meeting last month. "We don't think the state should dictate a  property tax freeze since they're not involved in that decision-making and local residents can elect their city council members and their mayor. They can make those decisions best at home."

But Rauner's call for a freeze could play havoc with school districts in a statewide education system that relies on local property taxes and fees for more than 67 percent of its income. Schools statewide get only a quarter of their money from the state. Federal funds make up the rest.

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Rauner has frequently touted his desire to increase the state's share of funding for schools. It would take a significant tax increase to do it in a way that local property taxes could be pared back, though. At the moment, school districts and vendors are owed more than $1 billion because of the budget impasse's effect on state cash flow and delayed payments, State Board of Education records show.

The acknowledgment that Senate Democrats might even consider a more modest temporary tax freeze for schools is a recognition that Rauner's criticism over their lack of action may be having some political impact  something that has yet to be felt by Democrats in the House.

"I know (Rauner) knows it polls well. Everything he talks about he knows polls well," said state Rep. Greg Harris, a Chicago Democrat who is a key point person on budget issues. But Harris also said it is just another of several shifting demands Rauner has created for his acceptance of a comprehensive budget package.

"If you remember, he's held out for something  it's just different things all the time. You remember when it was, 'I won't do anything if I don't get term limits. I won't do anything until we get redistricting. I won't do anything now until I get local government consolidation.' It's a constantly moving target," Harris said.

When the House returns on Sunday after a brief holiday break, it's scheduled to hold a series of committee hearings to examine the Senate Democrat-passed budget plan. Harris said the goal is to try to reach consensus between House and Senate Democrats on a final plan to send Rauner, but there are significant disagreements.

One main point of contention: Harris said House Democrats are united in their opposition to making the income tax hike retroactive to Jan. 1 of this year as the Senate called for. If lawmakers approved a higher rate starting at the first of the year, Illinoisans would have more money withheld from their paychecks to cover income from the first several months of 2017. The biggest question that remains, however, is what kind of tax proposal House Democrats could get behind, and whether they would be willing to pass it without Republican support.

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Madigan has long insisted that Republicans must share in the responsibility  and blame  of raising taxes. But some Democrats frustrated with years of inaction say they'd rather be able to tell voters back home that they took a stand to help dig Illinois out of the financial morass, even it if it's not politically popular.

They contend that no matter what path they take, Rauner is likely to go on the attack against them in next year's legislative contests, similar to how he spent millions of dollars against Democrats in last year's elections for the General Assembly.

rap30@aol.com

mcgarcia@chicagotribune

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com
Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

Ending what the campaign considers to be an introductory phase, Democratic governor candidate Chris Kennedy is set to speak Tuesday to offer his vision for the state.

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The early afternoon speech Tuesday at the Harold Washington Cultural Center will take place the day after the 100th birthday of Kennedy's uncle, the late President John F. Kennedy.

Campaign aides said Kennedy will talk about how the state "needs a complete break from the status quo" and will try to distinguish his candidacy, announced in February, from his Democratic rivals, namely J.B. Pritzker.

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The concept of breaking from the "status quo" would appear to be a further attempt by Kennedy to try to cast himself as a political outsider in the contest. Despite his famous name, the wealthy businessman previously has gone after some establishment elements of the Democratic Party, including dismissing the power of an endorsement from the Cook County Democratic organization.

Kennedy also is expected to call for property tax and education funding changes. He has been hitting his rival, Pritzker, over a controversial tax assessment reduction for a mansion he purchased next to his own Gold Coast mansion. He also has been seeking to tie the issue of the state's property tax system to the unfairness of education funding.

Kennedy took to the Democrat-supporting website Daily Kos on Thursday, contending the state's property tax-dependent system of funding schools has led to educational segregation because "the poor no longer have access to the tax base that the wealthy have access to."

"Property taxes are determined by how you appraise the property, which means the wealthy and connected who can hire lawyers can do a better job of getting the value of their homes or commercial properties knocked down. And in the end, our public schools suffer. That's a terrible system," Kennedy wrote.

Also on Thursday, the Kennedy camp sent out a fundraising email, accusing Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner of "trying to silence members of his own party through financial bullying and economic intimidation. And he's doing it to try to tear down the very programs, institutions and policies that we, as Democrats, have dedicated our lives to building up."

"Some Democrats believe that the best way to combat Rauner's campaign war chest is with another billionaire who self-funds his campaign. But we should not elect a candidate to represent our party who does not need our money, our ideas or our support," said the email from Kennedy campaign manager Brendan O'Sullivan. (Rick Pearson)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel will attend a morning event to thank Safe Passage workers at McCormick Place.

*Gov. Bruce Rauner will talk about property taxes at a morning event in Orland Park.

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*The Illinois House and Senate meet. The House plans to meet Sunday, both chambers are set to convene on Memorial Day, as well.

*Programming note: The Morning Spin won't be published on Memorial Day, returning Tuesday.

From the notebook

*Pawar spars with Emanuel: Mayor Rahm Emanuel declining to back a controversial Northwest Side apartment plan earned him a Twitter rebuke Thursday from his alderman, who also happens to be running for governor.

Ald. Ameya Pawar, who represents Emanuel's 47th Ward, posted a series of tweets on the subject Thursday. One said the mayor's comments about the proposed seven-story building in Jefferson Park "gave cover & legitimized ugly rhetoric" from opponents of the development.

After touting a household goods drive for military veterans at a news conference Wednesday, Emanuel declined to support the apartment project, which is set to include affordable housing for veterans of the kind he has championed.

The mayor instead talked about the need for Ald. John Arena to have a collaborative process to consider the concerns of Jefferson Park residents. "As much as (Arena) is offering his idea, residents who live in that area need to be heard," the mayor said.

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Arena's plan would include 80 units rented at below-market rate, with 20 of those set aside for people with Chicago Housing Authority vouchers and vets with vouchers getting a preference. Backers of the proposal say opponents who argue the building will be too big and that Arena won't listen to them are really worried about minorities moving into the units.

In a tweet to Emanuel on Thursday morning, Pawar called the mayor's comments a "cheap/petty shot at (Arena). For those paying attention to this project, we know there's been a REAL process."

Pawar has had a mostly strong working relationship with Emanuel. But he's not seeking re-election, instead running for governor and courting progressive support for his candidacy. That makes criticizing the mayor a politically advantageous move with relatively little downside for him.

"In any decision we make on land use, people will disagree. That's ok. But some will use density/process as cover for bias," Pawar said in another tweet aimed at the mayor.

"Your comments gave cover & legitimized ugly rhetoric. And this kind of politics is why building affordable housing is hard," Pawar said in a third tweet.

Emanuel's office declined to comment. (John Byrne)

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*Pritzker has new ads, robocall, firefighters endorsement: Democratic governor candidate Pritzker is trying to provide some cover to 19 House Democrats who are the subject of state Republican robocall attacks over a tax hike approved by Senate Democrats this week.

The Pritzker campaign announced it was placing its own robocall statewide to attack Rauner, but with a special focus on those targeted 19 House Democratic districts.

Like the state GOP robocall, the Pritzker call uses a female narrator. "Illinois is approaching 700 days without a budget under Bruce Rauner. Seven-hundred days. Social service agencies are shutting down, schools are scraping by and working families are suffering. But Bruce Rauner doesn't care. He continues to hold our state hostage," the narrator says.

"Just like he has since the day he took office, Bruce Rauner would rather play politics instead of doing the job he was elected to do. Don't believe Bruce Rauner's lies. It's time to hold him accountable. Illinois deserves a budget and we deserve it now," the call says.

The robocalls come as Pritzker is scheduled to travel to Peoria on Friday to accept the endorsement of the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois.

Pritzker on Thursday also unveiled a new TV ad and the campaign's first radio ad. The TV ad focuses on Dana Holland of Sauk Village, who was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery, attempted murder and sexual assault and sentenced to 118 years in prison. After serving 10 years, Holland was released with the assistance of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions.

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Pritzker and his wife gave $100 million to Northwestern's law school, which included endowing the wrongful conviction center.

"I will never forget the people who stood by me, refusing to let my life be thrown away. People like J.B. Pritzker," Holland says in the one-minute ad.

The radio ad features the endorsement of Barbara Bowman, an early childhood expert and co-founder of the Erikson Institute, the Chicago-based graduate school for child development. (Rick Pearson)

*On the Sunday Spin: Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson's guests are Tribune statehouse reporter Monique Garcia, former state Republican Chairman Pat Brady, and Bob Secter, director of investigations for the BGA. The Sunday Spin airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720.

What we're writing

*Revamped plan to raise sentences for some gun crimes advances.

*Kinzinger backs more U.S. troops, expanded mission in Afghanistan.

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*Bid for innocence certificate gains new life in case that doomed Illinois death penalty.

*Teamsters say Navy Pier protest has been peaceful, dispute lawsuit allegations.

*Nonprofit head found guilty in fraud trial with ties to politicians.

*Illinois Tollway board approves $25 million Route 53 study.

What we're reading

*Nonviolence is a choice: Group's message of peace seeks footing in tough Chicago neighborhood.

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*Wisconsin seeks to be first state to drug test Medicaid applicants.

*Working at Kraft Heinz means competition, cost-cutting, and for some, reward.

Follow the money

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

Beyond Chicago

*Trump pushes other NATO members to pay more.

*Trump's travel ban likely going to the Supreme Court.

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*Montana Republican keeps low profile after assault charge.

*Britain asks if it could have stopped the Manchester attack.
SPRINGFIELD  Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Thursday implored lawmakers to pass a revamped plan to crack down on repeat gun offenders, saying it was time to hold people accountable for terrorizing neighborhoods.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been working with House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs, who is sponsoring the proposal to raise prison sentences for some gun felons. The effort marks a rare area of agreement between Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner, who supports the legislation.

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Following Johnson's testimony before a House committee, lawmakers advanced the plan over the objections of some Democrats representing predominately black and Latino communities. They contended that the bill would lead to a spike in minority incarceration and that there was little proof increased penalties reduce crime. They also said Chicago police already struggle to lock up those doing the shooting.

"I guess my concern is that the thought in creating this culture of accountability, wouldn't that be more so related to people believing that they are going to get caught versus just looking at the punishment," said Rep. Juliana Stratton, D-Chicago. "Because right now, isn't that the sense, that people feel they can just get away?"

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Johnson said he rejected the "narrative" that police are responsible for the violence, saying "the police are not the ones picking up the guns and killing these people."

"It's the repeat offenders that consistently come back in our neighborhoods and shoot and kill, and if we don't send a message that we are serious about holding them accountable, then what are we doing?" Johnson said. "When I talk to my neighbors they are asking me, they are begging me to do something about this violence."

The bill seeks to go after habitual offenders by increasing the sentencing guidelines for judges deciding punishment for some repeat gun felons. Instead of a range of three to 14 years, judges would hand out sentences in the range of seven to 14 years. If they wanted to depart from that guideline, they would have to explain why. The proposal is a key effort of Emanuel, who has repeatedly been rebuffed in other efforts to wring funding out the state to help struggling Chicago Public Schools.

After the committee's 10-3 approval Thursday, the plan now moves on to the House floor. An earlier version of the legislation cleared the Senate, but it faces a tougher go in the House.

House debates on gun restrictions often fall among economic and regional divides, as Downstate lawmakers push to protect the rights of hunters amid the concerns of city and some suburban legislators who want to tackle gun crime.

Durkin sought to address the concerns of some lawmakers by offering changes that establish a trial program for first-time, nonviolent offenders charged with certain weapons crimes that is focused on rehabilitation and keeping them out of the prison system. Johnson said he was hesitant about the idea of going easy on people who carry guns without a license, but Durkin noted state's attorneys would have a say in who can participate.

Other new provisions in the proposal include allowing the Illinois State Police to create a statewide task force to combat gun violence and requiring the legislation to be reviewed in five years.

While the gun legislation marked a key win for Emanuel on Thursday, the House also delivered him a loss. The House approved a measure that would take away the mayor's power to appoint the Chicago Public Schools board. A similar proposal to have board members elected passed the House last year too. But it stalled in the Senate, which is controlled by President John Cullerton, an Emanuel ally.

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Proponents say an elected board would give local control to Chicago residents. But Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, cautioned against the bill, saying it wouldn't necessarily improve student outcomes.

"Anybody who thinks that the mayor of the city of Chicago was not held accountable for the Chicago Public Schools in the last several years may have missed the information that he was in a runoff," she said.

In other action, the House passed a measure that would make it easier for transgender people to change their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity. Currently, Illinoisans can only change the sex on their birth certificates if a doctor says they've had transition surgery. But under the new plan, a birth certificate could be updated if a medical or mental health provider confirms someone has received "clinically appropriate" treatment.

Several Republicans opposed the measure, contending it's too broad and essentially eliminates standards for changing sex designations on birth certificates. But proponents say the plan would bring Illinois in line with current medical standards. It now goes to the Senate.

"What this bill is about, plain and simple, is consistency, science and medicine, and most importantly, the dignity, the safety and the security of the people that we serve," said Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago.

The House also signed off on legislation that would require schools to offer tampons and sanitary napkins in bathrooms at no cost, which supporters said was a health care necessity that can prevent students from missing class due to a lack of access. The measure now heads to the governor.

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mcgarcia@chicagotribune.com

hbemiller@chicagotribune.com
Democrats and some Republicans are pushing ahead with an attempt to overhaul the way Illinois doles out tax dollars to elementary and high schools. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

Democrats and some Republicans are pushing ahead with an attempt to overhaul the way state government doles out tax dollars to elementary and high schools, setting up a potential showdown with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner over funding for Chicago Public Schools.

Few issues have kicked around the Capitol for as long as the education funding formula  a controversial system that's proven resistant to major change thanks to a combination of political and financial factors.

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Rauner, who's billed himself as Illinois' education governor, attempted to jump-start the issue last year when he formed a task force to come up with ways to change the formula. The commission approach came after Rauner spent months pushing for extra spending on schools and Democrats complained he was putting more money into a system regarded as flawed and unfair.

Critics say the formula, which distributes tax dollars across the state's about 855 school districts, rewards wealthy schools while shortchanging those in need, including CPS and Downstate districts. Rauner has said he agrees the formula is "broken" and unfair to rural districts. But when it comes to CPS' financial troubles, Rauner blames mismanagement and corruption, not Illinois' funding system.

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So a familiar situation has emerged at the Capitol, where Rauner and Democrats are perpetually at odds over CPS. In this case, Democrats want the massive city school district to be guaranteed a certain level of funding, but Republicans dispute the calculation. That means the formula change, which would affect how the state distributes about $5 billion in general school aid, could be held up in a fight over roughly $250 million for CPS.

Still, lawmakers on both sides are hopeful they're closing in on a deal in the bigger debate over how school money gets handed out, touting the relative progress they've made. Key to that is lawmakers slowly warming to the idea that the rewritten formula shouldn't take dollars away from wealthier school districts. If state government wants to spend more on poorer schools, it will have to find extra money to do so.

"The idea is to put the most reasonable bill on the governor's desk," said Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, who teamed up with Republican Rep. Bob Pritchard of Hinckley to push funding formula legislation in the House. "Something has to be done. We just have to figure out what's reasonable."

"There's a group of us who are really committed to education funding reform," said Rep. Avery Bourne, a Republican from Raymond in central Illinois whose schools would benefit from the formula change. "I think that we are closer than we've ever been. But we still have to make sure that it's a fair system."

Multiple factors contribute to what critics complain is an inadequate system for funding public schools.

Illinois schools rely heavily on property taxes for funding, in part because the state's contribution to school budgets is low. In 2015, state dollars accounted for just one quarter of school funding, with local governments kicking in more than 67 percent and the federal government the rest. That year, Illinois' share of state funding for public education was lower than every state other than New Hampshire, South Dakota and Nebraska, according to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau.

As a result, a huge disparity exists between schools in high property wealth areas  which can rely on hefty property tax revenue to fill school budgets  and those in poorer or more rural areas. Illinois' top-spending school district, Rondout Elementary District 72 in Lake County, spends more than $32,000 per pupil, according to Illinois State Board of Education data. The lowest-spending district, Cherry Grade School District 92 near Spring Valley, spends just $4,340. CPS spent nearly $15,000 per pupil in 2016.

The funding formula is supposed to help close that gap by funneling more money to needier schools. But critics say it is only adding to the divide between rich and poor.

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"Today, we redistribute hundreds of millions of dollars every year according to a set of rules that's 20 years old," said Democratic Sen. Andy Manar, of Bunker Hill in central Illinois, who has been leading the formula rewrite effort for years. "And the redistribution in today's construct is, the poor lose and the rich win."

Past efforts to change the formula have run up against two problems. The first is that lawmakers who represent well-funded districts are loath to vote for a plan that would take dollars from their constituents.

The second is that giving more money to poorer districts without taking from wealthy districts means spending more money, which almost certainly means raising taxes. Talk of tax hikes usually leads to complaints about property taxes, and lawmakers from wealthier districts look to the state to help ease homeowners' property tax burdens. This is what derailed the "tax swap" school funding reform effort then-Republican Gov. Jim Edgar attempted in the 1990s.

What's different this year, Manar said, is that the formula change is premised on the idea that every school district will be guaranteed to receive the same amount of money as it received last year. The new formula would apply only to "new" dollars  money appropriated above and beyond the $5 billion the state is scheduled to pay out in general aid for the current school year.

The new money would be distributed according to what's known as an "evidence-based" model, which uses 27 metrics to determine an "adequacy target"  a dollar figure that each school district should spend per student in order to provide an adequate education. Schools that can't afford to reach their target would be first in line for the extra state money and entitled to the largest share. About 1 percent of the new dollars would be set aside for the state's wealthiest districts to share.

Manar, whose Senate bill is now up for debate in the House, said the evidence-based formula could make the funding system far more fair in just a few years if it were applied to the entire $5 billion in general state aid that Illinois spends on schools each year. As such, he said Senate Democrats made a major concession when they agreed to apply that formula only to money above and beyond that $5 billion.

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"There were town hall meetings in suburban communities about winners and losers. And so as a result of compromise and the need to put into motion incremental change, that's what these bills are," Manar said. "It's going to take us longer to get to equity  much longer. It's going to be more expensive. But it's the result of what we recognized as difficulty for some members of the legislature."

Still, the proposal faces hurdles.

Rauner hasn't offered his own bill, deferring to the education task force that was supposed to produce legislation but instead came up with a broad framework for fixing the formula. His education secretary, Beth Purvis, says the governor has been "pretty clear about what he would like to see in these bills" and noted that it's not up to the governor to write legislation.

Historically, though, Rauner has not been shy about introducing legislation when he has an idea that he'd like to see enacted by lawmakers. That Rauner's left the process up to the General Assembly has some critics questioning how badly he wants to see the formula changed.

Also complicating negotiations is the historic budget impasse. The deadline for renewing funding for state government, including schools, is approaching. Rauner has called for increased spending on K-12 education this year, but it's unclear what he'll get from Democrats who control the General Assembly. Last year's stopgap budget approach was reached on the eve of the July 1 start of a new budget year and was viewed by many as a Band-Aid that allowed the budget impasse to drag on. Elementary and secondary schools received full funding for an entire school year as part of that deal, while universities and human services were left with a barer stream of cash that has since run out.

But the most politically charged issue involves CPS.

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Chicago has the only school district in the state that doesn't receive state help in paying the normal costs of its teacher pensions and health care costs for retired teachers. CPS CEO Forrest Claypool and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have spent recent years complaining about the arrangement, which amounts to about $215 million they think CPS should get.

Rauner counters that the district receives its own "special deals" through block grants worth about $250 million. He's said state government should pick up the Chicago pension costs only if the district is willing to give up its block grants.

The dispute spilled over into the funding formula negotiations when Democrats argued that some of the special block grant money should count in CPS' guaranteed baseline under the new formula. The district should also be reimbursed for the pension and health care costs, they said.

Purvis said the governor's office sees the extra money for CPS as taking away from other school districts that need help covering costs like transportation expenses.

"People need to understand that $200 million or that $250 million, it has to come from somewhere," Purvis said.

Illinois spends about $11 billion a year on K-12 education. Four billion goes toward pension costs, $5 billion in general state aid distributed through the funding formula and an additional $2 billion in grants and funds earmarked for specific purposes. In the current school year, Chicago Public Schools, whose 381,000-student enrollment accounts for about 20 percent of the state's K-12 school population, received $1.1 billion in general state aid.

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The dispute over CPS has put the bill to change the funding formula into the same political limbo that's tied up the state budget and kept the government in a constant state of crisis. With days to go before the end of session, lawmakers said they're pushing ahead in the hope that something will emerge that can satisfy all sides.

"If we don't get this done in the next seven days, it will not get done before 2019. That's my belief," said Manar, a reference to lawmakers' reluctance to take controversial votes during the 2018 election year. "And in that time, the current system will continue to evolve. That gap will get wider next year."

On Wednesday, a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats in advancing Manar's bill out of a House committee. It was an unusual move because Democrats, who hold a strong majority in the House, don't need help from Republicans to move a bill through the legislative process.

Rep. Sheri Jesiel, a Republican from Winthrop Harbor in northern Lake County, said the Republicans wanted to make sure there was enough time to adjust the bill before the legislative session ends Wednesday  and to make it clear they're in the mood to negotiate.

"There are things that are not acceptable and I think the reason is not to punish CPS. If you believe in the formula, and you believe in the funding model that we're setting up, then that's why we have a formula, so that everybody is treated fairly," Jesiel said. "The reality is sometimes you have to do some negotiating. We may or may not be able to get everything we want. We're hoping that we do and will probably hold out until we do."

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com

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This photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Genene Jones. Authorities said Friday, May 26, 2017, that Jones, a Texas nurse who is in prison for the 1984 killing of a toddler and who faces new charges in the 1981 death of an infant is suspected of killing as many as 60 young children who were in her care around that time. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice. via AP)

DALLAS  A Texas nurse who is in prison for the 1982 killing of a toddler has been charged with murder in the death of an infant a year earlier, and authorities said Friday that they think she may have killed up to 60 young children around that time.

Genene Jones, 66, is serving concurrent 99-year and 60-year sentences at a Gatesville prison for the 1982 killing of 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan and the sickening of a 4-week-old boy who survived. The girl was given a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant and the boy received a large injection of a blood thinner.

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Jones was due to be freed next March under a mandatory release law that was in place when she was convicted. But on Thursday, the Bexar County district attorney's office announced that she has been charged in the 1981 death of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who investigators say died of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug, Dilantin.

During Jones' time working in hospitals and clinics in San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas, children died of unexplained seizures and other complications.

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At a news conference Friday in San Antonio, District Attorney Nico LaHood said investigators believe Jones may have killed some or all of those children because they died under unusual circumstances during or shortly after her shifts.

"She's been suspected in dozens of infant deaths and she's only been held accountable in one," he said.

It's not clear why Jones' actions, involving so many suspected victims, were not detected earlier. But Sam Millsap, a previous district attorney in Bexar County, told KSAT-TV in 2013 that medical records at the San Antonio hospital at one point were accidently destroyed, hampering efforts by investigators to prove their suspicions.

Chelsea McClellan died after receiving an injection at a clinic in Kerrville, northwest of San Antonio, and prosecutors at Jones' 1984 murder trial said the nurse lethally injected children there to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital.

Other prosecutors theorized that Jones' tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims, making herself appear to be a sort of miracle worker.

LaHood said the new murder charge is based on fresh evidence that came to light and a review of old evidence. He also said the deaths of some of the other children are being re-examined and that additional charges could be coming.

Jones has been consistently denied parole over the years. She was due to be released next March after serving one-third of her sentence under a mandatory release law adopted in 1977 to help alleviate prison overcrowding. The law was overhauled 10 years later.

Jones, whose case has been chronicled in two books, a TV movie and numerous articles, was "emotional" when she was served an arrest warrant Thursday, LaHood said.

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"We have every reason to believe that she fully expected to get out next year," he said.

Because of the new charge, Jones will be transferred to the Bexar County jail and held on a $1 million bond while the case is prosecuted. A murder conviction brings a maximum sentence of 99 years. LaHood said Jones is not eligible for the death penalty because Texas did not have such a sentence at the time of the 1981 death.

"We will do our best to ensure that Genene Jones takes her very last breath behind bars," LaHood said.
ILIGAN, Philippines  Foreign fighters are among the militants linked to the Islamic State group who are battling government troops in the southern Philippines, an official said Friday.



Solicitor General Jose Calida said Indonesians and Malaysians are fighting alongside the gunmen who attacked Marawi, a city of some 200,000 people on Mindanao island.



"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Calida told reporters. "It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign terrorists who heeded the clarion call of ISIS."

But Calida at the same time stressed that the Philippine government does not have evidence of a direct link to the Islamic state, also known as ISIS.

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"Again, on the matter of ISIS the president emphasized that there's ISIS footprint but that does not confirm the clear presence of ISIS itself yet," Calida said.

Philippine troops backed by armored vehicles and rocket-firing helicopters are fighting to re-take control of Marawi, which has been under siege by gunmen linked to the IS group since a raid earlier this week failed to capture one of Asia's most-wanted militants.



Rebels have torn through the streets of Marawi since Tuesday night, torching buildings, taking a priest and his worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city. The violence forced thousands to flee and raised fears of growing extremism in the country.



At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials said Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead.



In a sign of the confusion over events inside the city, a local police chief told The Associated Press on Friday that he was alive and well  two days after President Rodrigo Duterte told the media he had been beheaded by militants.



Police Chief Romeo Enriquez said there may have been confusion because his predecessor in Malabang, a town near Marawi, was killed in the fighting on Tuesday, although he was not beheaded.

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In a press conference that made headlines around the world, Duterte said that the police chief in Malabang was stopped at checkpoint on his way home from work and slaughtered by terrorists on the spot. "They decapitated him then and there," he said.

The Philippine president's claim spread like wildfire, with much of the local and foreign press reporting it as fact. Soon, unconfirmed reports of "beheadings" became a major part of the Philippines storyline.

It is not yet clear whether the police chief story was a mix-up or a careful bit of messaging. What is certain, though, is that the inaccurate report shaped how news of the declaration of martial law was covered - and potentially how it was received by the government of the United States.



Despite the false report, as authorities worked to clear the city, residents spoke of their terror.



"At night we can hear the gunfire," said Mohammad Usman, who watched from his home just outside Marawi as thousands of residents streamed out of the city Thursday. "I'm just praying that the bullets will not find their way to my house and hit us. I hope that the bombs will not land nearby and harm us."



Duterte imposed 60 days of martial law Tuesday on the island of Mindanao, a traditional homeland of minority Muslims that encompasses the southern third of the nation and is home to 22 million people. Marawi has a population of around 200,000.



Duterte warned he may expand martial law nationwide, an unnerving development for many in the Philippines who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and used it to maintain his grip on power for more than a decade.



The man at the center of the Marawi violence is Isnilon Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults. He is at the nexus of several militant groups that are trying to merge into a more powerful force.



Hapilon, who is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. He also heads an alliance that includes at least 10 smaller militant groups, including the Maute, which have a heavy presence in Marawi and were instrumental in fighting off government forces in this week's battles.



All these groups are inspired by the Islamic State group, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties.



"We have not seen any concrete evidence of material support from IS," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday. But he added that the smaller groups "are working to really get that recognition and funds, of course."



Washington has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Hapilon's capture, but he has proved elusive. The Philippines launched an airstrike that wounded him in January, but he got away.



The army raided what it believed to be his hideout on Tuesday night in Marawi, but the operation quickly went wrong. Militants called in reinforcements and were able to overpower government forces. Once again, Hapilon escaped. The military said it believes Hapilon was still in Marawi.



Much of Marawi was still a no-go zone. Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard clearly and plumes of black smoke rose from the direction of the city center. Air force helicopters swooped overhead.



As authorities tried to gain more control over the city, disturbing details have emerged.



Militants forced their way into the Marawi Cathedral and seized a Catholic priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers, according to the city's bishop, Edwin de la Pena. The black flags of the Islamic State group were planted atop buildings and flown from commandeered vehicles, including a government ambulance and an armored car, said Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., vice governor of Lanao del Sur province, of which Marawi is the capital.



More than half of the population of Marawi has cleared out, Adiong said.



The problem of militancy in the south, the scene of decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings in the predominantly Catholic nation, is not new.



Duterte had repeatedly threatened to place the region under martial law, which allows him to use the armed forces to carry out arrests, searches and detentions more rapidly. But human rights groups and others fear that martial law powers could further embolden the president, who already has been accused of allowing extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.



Cerojano reported from Manila. The Washington Post contributed to this report
ANN ARBOR, Mich.  The owner of a Michigan restaurant said U.S. immigration agents who were conducting enforcement at the business ate breakfast  and complimented the chef  before arresting three workers, according to media reports on Thursday.

The Ann Arbor News reported that two of the men arrested Wednesday at Sava's Restaurant remain in custody. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said agents were doing "a targeted enforcement action" at the Ann Arbor restaurant.

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ICE officials said two of the men entered the country illegally and another overstayed his visa. Authorities said the men tried to leave the restaurant before being arrested. Another man was handcuffed and briefly detained, then released after showing agents his permanent resident card.

Restaurant owner Sava Lelcaj told the newspaper several agents came to the restaurant near the University of Michigan, and two ate breakfast at the restaurant bar. One ate waffles and bacon and the other eggs and toast. Lelcaj said they praised the food before entering the kitchen area.

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ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow said in a statement the agency uses various techniques during enforcement but couldn't comment on whether agents ate at the restaurant.

Lelcaj said her company vets employees to determine their eligibility and that she had believed they were in the country legally. She said she lived illegally in the U.S. in the 1980s, but became a citizen and now owns three restaurants.
An undated photo provided by the Energy Department shows crude oil pipes at the Bryan Mound site near Freeport, Texas. President Donald Trump's proposal to sell nearly half the U.S. emergency oil stockpile is sparking renewed debate about whether the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is still needed amid an ongoing oil production boom that has seen U.S. imports drop sharply in the past decade. (AP)

Remember the energy crisis? If so, congratulations on your good memory.

The United States is producing more oil than it has in three decades. Our dependence on foreign petroleum is way down. And now, the Trump administration wants to sell off much of the government's emergency stockpile of oil.

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This will come as a surprise to the millions of Americans who were unaware that the government has an emergency stockpile of oil. It brings to mind the country song: "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?" But we're not likely to miss it even if it does.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve consists of oil stashed in salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas, solving the age-old puzzle of what to do with giant underground holes after you have taken the salt out of them. It amounts to 688 million barrels, which equals what we import in 141 days. The stash is there in case foreign supplies are cut off and we need oil to avert disaster  or prices spike and we want to bring them down.

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It was created in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo against the United States, which coincided with a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production and raise prices.

Long gas lines and economic disruption ensued. Americans, who were used to endless rivers of cheap fuel, suddenly felt terribly vulnerable. The reserve calmed fears by supposedly ensuring that oil exporters could never again use the oil weapon to punish us. If they tried, we could tap our hoard to foil them.

But the stockpile was based on a fallacy. It wasn't the embargo, the price increase or the production cutback that caused the chaos. It was the price controls imposed by President Richard Nixon, combined with the clumsy system the feds created for allocating supplies.

The problem was that markets were not allowed to work normally. Had they been, the pain and disruption would have been far less.

When prices are allowed to rise and fall in response to changes in supply and demand, as they are today, there is no such thing as a shortage. If Saudi Arabia or Venezuela reduces its output, prices will increase and consumption will decline, a process that quickly equalizes supply and demand.

In the summer of 2008, world oil prices soared to more than $140 a barrel  but not for long. The increase fattened profits, which encouraged more production, which expanded supplies, which reduced prices. By the end of the year, oil was fetching just $30 a barrel.

Eventually, prices crept up, only to slide back down. Lately, the going rate has been around $50 a barrel, with prices at the gas pump in the neighborhood of $2.40 a gallon.

Americans have learned to adapt. There has rarely been a popular outcry to tap the reserve. "A presidentially-directed emergency release has occurred twice in the history of the SPR," says the Energy Department. Even in 2008, when prices hit a record, President George W. Bush didn't use the reserve to bring them down.

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So what's the point of having it? Maintaining fuel in storage is not free. A 2005 Cato Institute paper by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren put the cost to taxpayers at between $65 and $80 per barrel  and the figure would be higher today. The administration plan, which would mean selling off some 300 million barrels over a decade, promises to bring in more than $16 billion.

If it made economic sense to put millions of barrels of oil aside for a possible emergency, we wouldn't need the Department of Energy to handle the job. Private companies would do it in hopes of selling high someday. As long as the federal government has the reserve, they have no incentive, since it could release its supplies to flood a tight market and erase their profits.

Another rationale for the reserve has also vanished. The United States used to import more than half the oil consumed here. Today, it's only a quarter. And our biggest foreign source is also the least worrisome: Canada. The chance of being blackmailed by Middle Eastern nations is roughly zero.

The petroleum reserve is a costly and unnecessary solution to a problem we will probably never have. The energy crisis is gone, and it's not coming back.

Steve Chapman, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/chapman.

Download "Recalculating: Steve Chapman on a New Century" in the free Printers Row app at www.printersrowapp.com.

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schapman@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SteveChapman13
Among the slings and arrows that have been dispatched against Donald Trump by disappointed Democrats and their allies in the media is the suggestion that the president is the kind of demagogue the framers warned us against, and that men like Washington, Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton are shedding tears in heaven as they watch our republic descend into incompetence and chaos.

This, I think, betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about our constitutional scheme, and the kind of leaders the framers contemplated. As a longtime student of 18th century legal and constitutional history, I think it is much more likely that those who adopted and implemented the Constitution would have been pleased by President Trump.

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Perhaps it should be admitted at the outset that some elements of Trump's approach to government would have raised Washington's eyebrow. The practice of firing off tweets in the early morning hours would have been regarded as a bit outre, without a doubt, but Trump's atypical candor and lack of previous public office would have been applauded.

When George Washington went back to his farm after two terms, much as Cincinnatus went back to his after serving the Roman Republic, our nation's first president was reflecting the belief, common among the framers, that professional politicians were a bad idea, because the temptation to take spoils, to feed at the public trough, had to be discouraged. If the framers were to find anyone in the 2016 contest horrifying, I suspect it would be Hillary and Bill Clinton, whose fortunes gained from their time in government demonstrated the very corruption rampant in Great Britain and that our Constitution was designed to discourage.

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Trump's 2005 "locker room" banter with former TV personality Billy Bush, which the media amplified to such a degree that it appeared to threaten Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy, might be thought to suggest that he was something other than the 18th century's model of a gentleman, but this, too, may miss the mark. Alexander Hamilton, undoubtedly our greatest secretary of Treasury, was nearly done in by an extramarital affair, and even the semisainted Thomas Jefferson blushed to admit that he once "offered love to a handsome lady" who was not his wife. Washington and James Madison were not known for similarly randy behavior, but Madison made clear in the Federalist Papers that our Constitution was designed to come to grips with the fact that men were not angels (if they were, no government would be necessary). Thus the constitutional schemes of separation of powers and federalism, by means of which the framers erected checks and balances to counter inevitable human tendencies to indulge in excessive behavior with harmful consequences.

In our last presidential administration, the principle of separation of powers was all but ignored, as President Barack Obama tended to govern by executive orders (at least when he was unable to secure his aims through congressional legislation), and when his administration engaged in behavior that was repeatedly struck down by the courts.

In contrast, even when he vehemently disagreed with and lambasted the courts who frustrated his initiatives (and Jefferson was famous for railing at what he took to be the partiality of John Marshall's Supreme Court), President Trump meekly follows the orders of the lower courts.

There is another side to President Trump that was in evidence during his recent trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and to Rome that resonated as well with the ideology of the framers. We tend to think of those who forged the Constitution as figures not deeply committed to religion, with Jefferson, a noted Deist, and a man skeptical of the divinity of Christ, as the most prominent example. Jefferson and a handful of other framers like him were the exception, however, and most of the framers would have shared the notion of Washington, Hamilton, and their contemporary Samuel Chase of Maryland, that there could be no order without law, no law without morality and no morality without religion.

These timeless truths are rather out of fashion in our day, but if Trump's speeches made in his stops abroad are any indication, he is comfortable with this perspective that has prevailed throughout most of American history. The rabid secularism and political correctness which Trump has always railed against would have alarmed the framers much more than any of Trump's vulgarities.

It is too early, after only a few months, to fully and accurately assess the character of President Trump, but many of the framers (Washington and Hamilton are examples here) were speculators, and Hamilton, in his time, was involved in founding a bank and a newspaper, as well as one of the leading commercial legal practices in New York.

Rather than something new and disconcerting, I think President Trump is rather a throwback, and quite possibly a fortunate one for the republic at that.

Stephen B. Presser is a professor of legal history emeritus at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law and the author of "Law Professors: Three Centuries of Shaping American Law."

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Editor's note: This op-ed has been corrected to state that it was Cincinnatus who went back to his farm after military leadership in Rome, not Cato.
When the Korean War started in June of 1950, there was a shortage of doctors in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. To serve this need, the government instituted a "doctor draft" and by the beginning of 1951, the first drafted doctors began arriving in Korea.

I was one of them, just a few years out of medical school with little surgical training and certainly no experience with "battlefield medicine." The thought of going to Korea scared me to death. It wasn't so much that I feared getting injured or even killed, but what really worried me was that I might not be a good enough doctor to provide the lifesaving skills that our soldiers would need.

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After a few weeks of training at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, I was sent to Korea, assigned as a surgeon with the 8209th MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) Unit. I arrived at the unit the morning of Sept. 22, 1951. MASH units were designed to be mobile and operate close to the battlefield, and the 8209th was about 10 miles from the front when I arrived. I remember hearing the sounds of artillery shells in the distance and thinking "Wow, this really is happening." I don't recall much of that first day, but I do remember being cold and homesick my first night. One of the nurses brought me a sweater and blanket. The blanket was from Marshall Field & Co. Strange what you remember.

The medical work

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Almost every day there was work to do. It would always start with the announcement over the camp's public address system of "incoming wounded." This was quickly followed by the sound of "choppers" coming in. I recall our unit had four helicopters. There were many examples of heroic acts in Korea, but the helicopter pilots were heroic on every flight. They would pluck wounded soldiers from the battlefield, sometimes under heavy fire. I was always amazed how brave those pilots were.

The workdays were long, 12 hours on and 12 hours off, and the work was a constant challenge in terms of the sheer volume of cases and in the complexity and variety of wounds. Out of necessity, we often operated solo, with the assistance of a nurse or medical technician.

The wounds could be horrific. A common injury was the result of an anti-personnel mine known as the "Bouncing Betty." When tripped, it fired straight up about three feet before it exploded  usually disemboweling or maiming those unfortunate enough to be within range. It was a horrible weapon. A lot of the surgery we did was on the lower extremity, doing our best to repair eviscerated abdomens and slaughtered lower limbs.

The work was also emotionally challenging. I remember one particular case where a young soldier had been badly injured. Myself, Ray (Capt. Ray Crissy) and Mert (Maj. Merton White) worked on him for hours. We had opened his chest when his heart just stopped beating. We did everything we could to keep him alive, including injecting blood directly into his aorta and massaging his heart.

I still remember the feeling of holding his heart in my hand. We were able to bring him back and I remember joking with him a few days later. He seemed to be doing well and I really thought he was going to make it. But his kidneys ultimately failed and we lost him. Like so many of the GIs, he was nice kid whose life ended way too early.

Off time

Korea was not all work and we definitely had fun too, although not quite to the extent portrayed on the "M*A*S*H" television series. Our living quarters were tight with six men to a tent. I was lucky and got along really well with the other five guys. Three of us were from the Chicago area, and to make it seem a little more like home we painted signs on the door and inside the tent naming it the "Drake Hotel." We had fun with that and would often answer the phone "Drake Hotel." We had a potbelly stove to keep the place warm and would try to cook all sorts of things  from pizza to apple pie. On a few occasions I can remember us "hotel dwellers" preparing dinner for the nurses. We would make a big deal out of that. We would serve drinks, dinner and play music on an old phonograph. Maybe dance a little too. It was a lot of fun, but also a way for us to say "thank you" for the work they did  which went way beyond nursing. They would assist in surgery, suture wounds and start transfusions. They really were true medical professionals.

Military life

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During my time in Korea I quickly learned that military life was not for me. There were a lot of comforts American soldiers lived without in Korea; there was often no hot water or toilet paper, and our sleeping quarters could get really cold. But what I really I disliked were the Army-issued boots. I found them very uncomfortable. When I wore them I laced them only half way up. One day I was walking past a colonel who noticed this and told me that the next time he saw me, my boots better be laced all the way to top. So I "amputated" the top portion of the boot to comply with his request. The next time I saw that colonel, my boots were laced to the top but he was still not pleased. Needless to say, the colonel got his way and what I got was a very "costly" (and still very uncomfortable) pair of new high-top boots

Going home

Two of the scariest days in my my life were the day I learned I was going to Korea, and the day I learned that I was going home. I don't know that I can fully explain why it was so hard to return home, but it was, and I think many (most?) veterans have felt this.

Why I wrote this

I am now 96 years old and at this age I don't know if this upcoming Memorial Day will be my last one or not. But for some veterans, especially those who served in Korea, it will be their last.

So while I'm still able I wanted to write down some of my experiences as a way to remember and say "thank you." Not just to the men and women of the 8209th MASH Unit, but to all those who served in Korea, and all the other wars, who allowed me to live such a fulfilling life because of the sacrifices they made.

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Dr. Robert L. Emanuele has been a lifelong resident of the Chicago area and lived most of his life in Riverside. He was on the medical staff at Oak Park Hospital for many years. He lives in Glen Ellyn.
A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace on May 22, 2017, shows President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump waving as they board Air Force One before leaving Riyadh to Israel. (Bandar Al-Jaloud / AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  "Whom the gods would destroy, they first tempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict."

 Irving Kristol

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The quixotic American pursuit of Middle East peace is a perennial. It invariably fails, yet every administration feels compelled to give it a try. The Trump administration is no different.

It will fail as well. To be sure, no great harm has, as yet, come from President Donald Trump's enthusiasm for what would be "the ultimate deal." It will, however, distract and detract from remarkable progress being made elsewhere in the Middle East.

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That progress began with Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, the first of his presidency  an unmistakable declaration of a radical reorientation of U.S. policy in the region.

Message: The appeasement of Iran is over.

Barack Obama's tilt toward Iran in the great Muslim civil war between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arabs led by Saudi Arabia was his reach for Nixon-to-China glory. It ended ignominiously.

The idea that the nuclear deal would make Iran more moderate has proved spectacularly wrong, as demonstrated by its defiant ballistic missile launches, its indispensable support for the genocidal Assad regime in Syria, its backing of the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, its worldwide support for terrorism, its relentless anti-Americanism and commitment to the annihilation of Israel.

These aggressions were supposed to abate. They didn't. On the contrary, the cash payments and the lifting of economic sanctions  Tehran's reward for the nuclear deal  have only given its geopolitical thrusts more power and reach.

The reversal has now begun. The first act was Trump's Riyadh address to about 50 Muslim states (the overwhelming majority of them Sunni) signaling a wide Islamic alliance committed to resisting Iran and willing to cast its lot with the American side.

That was objective No.1. The other was to turn the Sunni powers against Sunni terrorism. The Islamic State is Sunni. Al-Qaida is Sunni. Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. And the spread of Saudi-funded madrassas around the world has for decades inculcated a poisonous Wahhabism that has fueled Islamist terrorism.

Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states publicly declaring war on their bastard terrorist child is significant. As is their pledge not to tolerate any semiofficial support or private donations. And their opening during the summit of an anti-terrorism center in Riyadh.

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After eight years of U.S. policy hovering between neglect and betrayal, the Sunni Arabs are relieved to have America back. A salutary side effect is the possibility of a detente with Israel.

That would suggest an outside-in approach to Arab-Israeli peace: a rapprochement between the Sunni state and Israel (the outside) would put pressure on the Palestinians to come to terms (the inside). It's a long-shot strategy, but it's better than all the others. Unfortunately, Trump muddied the waters a bit in Israel by at times reverting to the opposite strategy  the inside-out  by saying that an Israeli-Palestinian deal would "begin a process of peace all throughout the Middle East."

That is well-worn nonsense. Imagine if Israel disappeared tomorrow in an earthquake. Does that end the civil war in Syria? The instability in Iraq? The fighting in Yemen? Does it change anything of consequence amid the intra-Arab chaos? Of course not.

And apart from being delusional, the inside-out strategy is at present impossible. Palestinian leadership is both hopelessly weak and irredeemably rejectionist. Until it is prepared to accept the legitimacy of the Jewish state  which it has never done in the 100 years since the Balfour Declaration committed Britain to a Jewish homeland in Palestine  there will be no peace.

It may come one day. But not now. Which is why making the Israel-Palestinian issue central, rather than peripheral, to the epic Sunni-Shiite war shaking the Middle East today is a serious tactical mistake. It subjects any now-possible reconciliation between Israel and the Arab states to a Palestinian veto.

Ironically, the Iranian threat that grew under Obama offers a unique opportunity for U.S.-Arab and even Israeli-Arab cooperation. Over time, such cooperation could gradually acclimate Arab peoples to a nonbelligerent stance toward Israel. Which might in turn help persuade the Palestinians to make some concessions before their fellow Arabs finally tire of the Palestinians' century of rejectionism.

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Perhaps that will require a peace process of sorts. No great harm, as long as we remember that any such Israeli-Palestinian talks are for show  until conditions are one day ripe for peace.

In the meantime, the real action is on the anti-Iranian and anti-terror fronts. Don't let Oslo-like mirages get in the way.

The Washington Post Writers Group

The Washington Post Writers Group

Charles Krauthammer is a Washington Post columnist.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com
It was heartbreaking to read recently about Naperville 16-year-old Corey Walgren, who committed suicide following being threatened with sex offender registration for allegedly audiotaping a consensual sexual encounter with a classmate. For those of us who regularly work with youth on the sex offender registry, it also highlighted a truth that we know too well: Placement on the registry is a modern scarlet letter that can lead our young clients to want to take their own lives.

Research has shown time and again that placing juveniles on sex offender registries doesn't make communities safer and can, in fact, result in tragedy.

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Yet in Illinois, the law is quick to label young people as "sex offenders" for a surprisingly broad range of behaviors. During my career as an attorney for youth, I have seen clients as young as in middle school placed on the registry for sexting, for having consensual sex with youth their same age and for playing inappropriate games.

I also have had clients who were placed on the registry for more serious behaviors where it was clear that intervention was needed. Many of these youth, as it turns out, had themselves been sexually abused, sometimes unimaginably so. Others had been exposed to pornography or witnessed sexual acts between adults at an age where they couldn't possibly know how to understand or process what they were seeing. Putting these children and adolescents on the sex offender registry did nothing to help them or help make any of us safer.

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If placing youth on the sex offender registry positively impacted public safety, a discussion about whether and which of these youth belong on the registry would be appropriate. But to the contrary, empirical evidence recently cited by both the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority and the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission suggests that placing youthful offenders on registries can actually be counterproductive in this regard.

Meanwhile, the damage done by placing kids on the registry is all too real. Once labeled a "registered sex offender," it becomes harder for young people to find and keep gainful employment, to continue their education, even to find a place to live. Add to this the psychological burden of shame, isolation and stigma, and it becomes too much for some youth to bear.

At the direction of the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission thoroughly examined this issue and released recommendations in 2014 in a detailed report, "Improving Illinois' Response to Sexual Offenses Committed by Youth." It is too late to help Corey Walgren, but the General Assembly should not waste any more time and should adopt those recommendations before this tragedy is repeated.

Carolyn E. Frazier is clinical assistant professor and staff attorney at the Children and Family Justice Center, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.
Early next week, the Illinois House will vote on the Illinois Right to Know Act, or Senate Bill 1502, an important bill whose outcome could affect every resident. For the first time, Illinois citizens are being afforded an opportunity to find out whats really happening with the personal information they share online.

These days, most people are aware that much of what they do online is tracked. Nearly everyone has had the experience of searching for something one week, and then seeing ads for it pop up everywhere the next. The internet functions in large part by showing users ads based on massive collections of personal data.

What you may not know is that some mobile apps and internet companies secretly collect personal information from your phone and computer and sell it to any number of organizations that can use it for whatever purpose they wish. These include banks that use your personal information to make assumptions about your creditworthiness, insurance companies to price your coverage, and employers to evaluate whether to hire or fire you. It happens without your knowledge, and when these decisions go poorly for you, you wont know why. Theres even a whole industry that collects personal data and sells it to law enforcement agencies, even though they could not otherwise obtain or act on such personal data without a warrant.

The Illinois Right to Know Act will require app and internet companies to tell you what categories of personal data they collect from your phones and computers and whom they sell it to. It doesnt make these companies change their business practices in any way; it simply makes transparency a requirement. If you know where your data will end up, you can make the best decisions for you and your family when choosing where to bring your online business.

 Derek Eder, Chicago, board member, Digital Privacy Alliance, and founder and partner, DataMade
As political scientists tell us, the breakdown of democratic regimes around the world is due more to the breach of underlying norms than to breaking the law. In just this way, the firing of FBI Director James Comey and the transmission of classified information to Russian officials are among the latest in a cascading series of moves by Trump that, while not illegal, effectively undermine the principles of democratic government. From threatening to jail his opponent during the election to using the presidency to enhance his personal fortune and distributing key positions of government to his own family members, Trump's regime is more reminiscent of a classic Third World dictatorship than the classic American republic.

We are being made rudely aware that democracy does not consist simply in a constitution and representative government. Already during the Trump transition, more than one Washington insider was surprised to learn how much our political system was based on custom rather than law. But there is a long political scholarly tradition, beginning with Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, demonstrating that a democratic government is founded on a democratic society of customs, rules, norms and ethics  or else, it fails. Democracy is a culture.

 Marshall Sahlins, Chicago
A vigil is held for Richard Collins III at Bowie State University. He was stabbed to death at the University of Maryland campus this past weekend and was due to graduate from Bowie State this week. (Kenneth K. Lam, Baltimore Sun video) (Baltimore Sun)

As the group Vanguard America sees it, a white person these days just can't catch a break.

"We hear it every day: 'Whiteness' is evil, and must be destroyed," says the group on its website. "Our religion, our traditions, and our identity are dragged through the mud by the globalist establishment while millions of nonwhites flood our nation every year."

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Geez, these guys make Donald Trump sound like Bernie Sanders.

"If current trends continue, White Americans will be a minority by 2044," their statement babbles on. "It's time to take a stand."

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Right. Whatever happened to lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps?

Why do these so-called alt-right white nationalist groups (neo-Nazi or neo-Ku Klux Klan is more accurate) tirelessly complain about intolerant, hypersensitive "snowflake" liberals even as they clutch their pearls and whine at the slightest offense to white male privilege?

I have tried mightily to ignore this latest surge in white supremacist activism that happens to have coincided with the rise of President Trump, until our son came home with one of the flyers that American Vanguard has distributed on the University of Maryland campus in College Park in the past academic year.

He was visibly upset. One of his closest white friends was falling for the white-Christian-supremacist bulljive.

"It's like I don't know him anymore, Dad," he said.

I sympathized. Some people are going to disappoint you in life, I counseled. Maybe your friend is just going through a phase. Maybe he is insecure and confused about growing up. That's the sort of easy mark that these crackpot groups always target.

The University of Maryland flyers appeared three times on the campus this year. Similar flyers popped up at George Washington University in nearby Washington, where the FBI stepped in recently to help American University investigate the hanging of bananas in little nooses on campus. The strange fruit was found the same day that a black woman took office as student government president for the first time in the university's history.

The Anti-Defamation League says more than 140 such incidents have happened this academic year at more than 100 campuses in 33 states, with more than half of them since January. The newer groups go by such names as Identity Evropa, the Right Stuff and Traditionalist Worker Party.

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The dangers in this national hate crusade poked through with bracing clarity Friday as mourners gathered at the funeral of Richard Collins III, 23, a newly commissioned U.S. Army lieutenant.

Mourners embrace during a funeral service for 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III, on May 26, 2017, in Upper Marlboro, Md. Collins was a Bowie State University student who was stabbed and killed on May 20 on the campus of the University of Maryland. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

On May 20, three days before he was to graduate from Maryland's Bowie State University, he was stabbed to death while waiting for an Uber with two friends who were University of Maryland students at a bus stop on that campus.

A 22-year-old Maryland student named Sean Christopher Urbanski walked toward them, according to witnesses, and said gruffly, "Step left, step left if you know what's best for you."

Collins stood his ground. "No," he said.

With no more provocation than that, witnesses said, Urbanski stabbed Collins in the chest and fled. Collins died at the hospital. Urbanski was arrested a short distance from the scene.

The story went viral nationally after police found on Urbanski's Facebook page that he was a member of an online hate group called "Alt-Reich Nation," a website that was later taken down.

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Urbanski is white and Collins was black.

Campus police Chief David Mitchell asked the FBI to assist after learning of Urbanski's connection to Alt-Reich, which Mitchell described as "despicable" in its extreme bias against women, Latinos, Jews and "especially African-Americans."

Yet, Urbanski was charged with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree assault but not a hate crime. Evidence was insufficient to link Urbanski's racial attitudes to his alleged actions. His lawyer said drugs and alcohol may have been a factor.

At least, we can see the claims of alt-right snowflakes proved wrong again. White people still get the benefit of the doubt when suspected of a hate crime, as they should  just like anybody else.

Beyond that, it is encouraging to see students and university officials push back against the racist right's recruitment drives, as long as they keep their actions peaceful. Good people can't hide from hate on campus or anywhere else. Bad speech must be met by better speech.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

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cpage@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @cptime

RELATED STORIES:

I confronted Richard Spencer at my gym. Racists don't get to lift in peace.

No denying: Sessions' moves revive allegations of racism

What happened when a white man was scared
Winner: Now, Kennedy Now, Pritzker Now, Biss and Pawar  On, Stufflebeam On, Madigan On, Cullerton and Daiber / To the top of the porch to topple his Honor / Now, Bash away  Bash away  Bash away  at Rauner." - Don Farrell, Glenview

Extras:

"My campaign buttons came from Jeb Bush, how about yours"

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"Does this ass make my Democrats look big?"

Vincent A. Boone, Dekalb

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"LEFT! I said to the Left!"

Jamie Zambuto, Mount Prospect

"Here come a couple more dude ranch riders."

M. Steiner, Naperville

"Hey Sancho, how much do impossible dreams go for these days?"

Jeff Gaut Morton Grove

"With all the money we've kicked in, couldn't the party spring for a limo?"

Heidi Labuszewski, Westmont

"Great idea taking the donkey rather than the Bentley JB. We need to maintain the illusion that money has no role in Illinois politics."

Alan Kanter, Arlington Heights

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"It's okay to be a 1% 'er if you're a Democrat."

Robert Kwiatkowski, Chicago

"Hi ho Madigan away--to Springfield!"

Charles A. Krugel, Chicago

"Sure we're rich and feel we're entitled, but at least we're Democrats."

Jim Cunningham, Homer Glen

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"Are we there yet?"

Mike McPartland, Tinley Park

"Budgets? We don't need no stinkin' budgets!"

Jerry Levy, Deerfield

"Is that why we are called 'BEASTS OF BURDEN'?"

Joe Sison, Huntley

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"Two billion dollars a ride "

John Meyering, Western Springs

"I feel strangely uncomfortable sitting behind a Kennedy!"

Marc Connelly, Hinsdale
New Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin has outlined plans to focus on education in the city, a move he described as key to attracting jobs and retaining residents.

Among his plans are establishing an Aurora education commission and a student advisory council, as well as work to enhance opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math, city officials said. Irvin said he wants to partner with all educational institutions in Aurora and work together across public school district and county lines.

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"We've got to make sure all our kids, regardless of the color of their skin or ethnicity, have the skills to compete," Irvin said, pointing to the city's diversity.

The education commission will be designed to help share best practices and resources across the school districts that draw students from Aurora, he said.

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The student advisory council, which would be represented on the education commission, would be made up of students from area high schools and colleges who would meet to discuss their experiences and opportunities they want to see for future generations, Aurora's Director of Communications Clayton Muhammad said.

"We want (students) to know that you have a voice," Muhammad said.

Separately, city officials also plan to meet with groups of millennials who have graduated in recent years to determine what the city would need to do to encourage them to continue to work and live in Aurora, Muhammad said. The effort is focused on keeping residents in the city, he said.

Irvin also plans to work to tie together several science and technology efforts in the city, including the Aurora-based Illinois Math and Science Academy, the third- through eighth-grade John C. Dunham STEM Partnership School at Aurora University, certain East Aurora School District 131 programs, and an ongoing career-readiness effort in the city called Pathways to Prosperity, Muhammad said.

Irvin highlighted education throughout his campaign and spoke of it again as he was sworn into office earlier in May. He has visited several schools in his first weeks in office, and has more stops scheduled, according to city officials.

Recently walking the halls of Waubonsie Valley High School on the city's Far East Side, Irvin frequently stopped to shake hands and grab a photo with staff or students. Waubonsie Valley Principal Jason Stipp said he looks forward to working with the mayor in the coming school year, and said he plans to start a mentoring program for high school seniors of color. He asked Irvin if he would be available to share his insights, and Irvin said he would be happy to participate and offer encouragement to all Waubonsie students at the start of the school year.

Irvin returned to the East Side's Beaupre Elementary, where he said he attended kindergarten, to help present bikes to students who met certain reading and behavior criteria.

He visited students at McCleery Elementary on the West Side, telling one fourth-grade class the story of his upbringing in low-income housing on the other side of the city. As he read a book about hairy monsters to a class of kindergarteners, he asked if they knew who he was. One student suggested he might be the president.

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Between classroom stops at McCleery, Irvin said education will help create a prepared and educated workforce, which will attract jobs to the city.

He described education as "a great equalizer," and said he would like to particularly focus on graduation rates and getting students to college. But he also wants to encourage college graduates to return to Aurora, which he said they are more likely to do if they feel they have opportunities in the city.

Ultimately, he described his vision for education in Aurora as a 10- to 15-year plan.

Muhammad said officials plan to have the student advisory council and the education commission in place by next school year.

"He wants education to be a hallmark of his administration," Muhammad said.

Naperville Sun reporter Suzanne Baker contributed

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sfreishtat@tribpub.com

Twitter @srfreish
Plans for a 16-unit apartment building for income restricted people with physical and mental challenges in Oswego have been withdrawn.

Village Community Development Director Rod Zenner said the Association for Individual Development submitted an application for the project hoping it would receiving state funding. However, the project was withdrawn before it was about to go before the village's Plan Commission.

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Developer Cottage Hill Development, LLC was seeking preliminary approval for a 20,726-square-foot mixed-use building with offices and community space on the ground level and apartment units on the second and third floors on a 0.9-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Washington Street and Route 34.

Association for Individual Development President Lynn O'Shea said the agency had to withdraw their plans because it did not receive funding through the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

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"We are very disappointed but we understand that funds are limited," O'Shea said.

The Association for Individual Development since 1961 has provided services to individuals who have developmental, physical and intellectual challenges, she said.

O'Shea said the group has residential facilities throughout the Fox Valley. They had hoped to have another in Oswego. However, the agency did not meet requirements in its request for funds through the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

"The projects that were awarded funds had multiple funding sources where we had only a couple. They also told us there was not sufficient public transportation in the area for residents. Those seemed to be the two reasons for not accepting our project," O'Shea said.

The group was also pursuing a grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank for the project.

"We were working with banks in the greater Aurora area but did not receive the approval as yet," she said.

O'Shea said the apartments would have primarily served the group's clients.

"We have very long waiting lists. There are more than 1,500 people waiting for housing," she said.

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O'Shea said the group does have clients already living in apartments in Oswego and Sugar Grove. Additionally, there are group homes in Yorkville, Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, South Elgin, Elgin and Campton Hills.

According to Oswego Village Planner Bethany Salmon, the ground floor would have had 3,500 square feet of office space and meeting rooms for use by a property manager and staff during regular business hours. The lower level would also have had a fitness room and a community room for residents. The 16 apartments would have been on the second and third floors of the building.

O'Shea said the project had an estimated cost of $3 million.

"This was considered a relatively small project for the Illinois Housing Development Authority. They normally like to see 60- to 80-unit sized buildings. This was a unique situation where we worked to get an application in by the deadline. We may not see an opportunity like this for many years," she said.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Democratic Socialism: Now I know why America fought Communist expansion for over 60 years. The Democratic Party wanted to create its own brand of Socialism. Controlling the masses with programs that keep them under their thumb like school breakfasts and lunches.

Kindness counts: I want to start out by saying I am a black man. I was walking out of a store one morning, and the weather was bad. It was very windy. I was walking behind an older white lady. I said: Good morning, how are you? She said: I'm doing great now. You just made my day even though it's nasty out here. I said: I'm glad I made your day. What I'm getting at is just because you have never met a person before doesn't mean you shouldn't say good morning or good afternoon. You never know whose day you will make better by saying just a few words. I want to end this by saying it doesn't matter what color a person's skin is. Next time you walk past a person, say: Hi, how are you? It won't hurt you to do that.

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Hats off to Heartland: I want to thank Heartland Blood Center for reaching out to the community to give blood. All the centers are running short on supplies. When I went in to give blood, the ladies who drew blood were fantastic. I got a little lightheaded, but they were phenomenal. Heartland does a good job in our community.

Free boxes: I read in the newspaper that the United States Postal Service is losing some $400 million. They could probably recoup half of that if they quit giving out free boxes. Everyone takes the boxes from the post office and use them for FedEx or UPS. It's ridiculous that the post office gives out free boxes.

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End the enabling: I know everyone has been harping about President Trump and rightfully so. It seems more and more like he wants to be a dictator. That won't fly in the United States. The Republicans are in the driver's seat. They need to put this president in his place. Right now, we are getting absolutely nothing done. We are in limbo. Until these enablers in Congress start to put their feet on Trump's throat, nothing will be done. There is some reason why they are allowing this president to do and say what he does and says. They need to put an end to it.

Rating the United States: In the old movie "It's a Wonderful Life," George Bailey learns what his surroundings would be like if he had never been born. What would the world be like if the United States did not exist? We have enjoyed 70 years of prosperity during less than 250 years of government. Everyone wants a piece of our cake.

Grateful for crossing guards: We approach another end of the school year in Aurora. Isn't it time we acknowledge and thank the crossing guards who protect our children coming and going? We have excellent crossing guards.

Troubled about Trump: To all the President Trump supporters, I know you want to stand behind your man and save face, but think about our country. This man is a total disaster. He is a liar and a manipulator. He cannot be trusted. The people who stick with him will crash and burn right along with him. I understand that you want to hang onto your hopes, but this man is not fit to be our president.

Note about nurse: I'm calling about the story of the Romanian immigrant who became an award-winning nurse. I applaud her. She came here legally. She did not sneak into the country. I have absolutely no problem with people who come to this country for religious freedom or any other kind of freedom as long as they do it legally. How about it? We are a nation of laws. Why can't people obey the laws? Everyone who came here illegally should be deported. The children of illegal immigrants should not be citizens even if they were born in America. They are not true Americans.

Dump Trump: Have the people who supported President Trump had enough yet? What he recently did was threaten the national security of the United States. He is in over his head. He doesn't know how to be the president. He needs to go. The enablers around him need to go, too. Countries are not going to trust us. This is the worst president in history. It's a downward spiral. It's dangerous.

Roused about roundabouts: I have a question for people who are pushing traffic roundabouts. How are pedestrians or even animals going to safely cross them when traffic is constantly going round and round? There might be less vehicle accidents but more dead pedestrians.

Strive for citizenship: This is pertaining to all the people who are here illegally. Every year, another kid is born and the government pays for them while they don't take care of seniors. If you come here, you should become a citizen. A country should take care of its own citizens.

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Special treatment for Trump: I want to remind everyone that back in 2016 when former FBI Director Comey said there was no reason to charge Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan asked the Obama administration to stop giving classified information to Clinton. Those words should be echoed today because President Trump can't handle classified information. I also want to hit on one more subject. Remember when former President Jimmy Carter had to sell his peanut farm? Trump gets to keep all of his businesses.

Irritated with Irvin: What's with Mayor Irvin creating the position of deputy mayor? Do we need to spend tax dollars for someone to attend special events in place of the real mayor? We have serious issues in Aurora. Next time you need your catch basin repaired but you're told to be patient until someone can get to your neighborhood, think about this $130,000 position. What's next? Toilet room attendants for our aldermen? Elevator operators at city hall? Valet service for city officials? This must be the change we can expect from Mayor Irvin and his new team.

Disappointed about deputy mayor: What a waste for Aurora to appoint a deputy mayor. There are already more than enough executives in the city. The money should have been used to hire more police and workers on the street who are serving the public and getting things done.

Turning away from Trump: In the beginning, I liked President Trump. I don't like him now. He and his right-hand man said that illegal immigrants can stay in the country as long as they don't have a record. What a president. Trump is on his way out. I assume that Vice President Pence will take over. Maybe he will be a better choice. Trump is not a politician. I do believe Russia was involved in getting him elected. Everyone is going to pay more taxes when they build more schools for the children of the illegal immigrants. What has happened to our country? I'm getting out of Dodge.

Blame game: The comment about evil Republicans and Obamacare is so unfair. The caller said we should do the math. Isn't it a shame former President Obama did not do the math when he promised that Obamacare would save $2,500 for every family? A lot of the insured never see any money coming back because the premiums and deductibles are so extreme. Maybe they should let Obamacare implode on its own, but then President Trump would be blamed. He gets the blame for everything these days no matter what he does.

Editor's note

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Speak Out is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you see something you disagree with or think is incorrect, call us at 312-222-2460 or email couriernews@tribpub.com. Please include "speak out" in the subject line.
Hinsdale Central graduating seniors pass by the entrance to their high school as they walk to the stadium. (Mike Mantucca / Pioneer Press )

On a cool, clear evening, 670 seniors graduated from Hinsdale Central High School Thursday.

The students said they would take memories of the friendships they had made during the past four years, as they move on to new experiences.

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"I'll probably miss my friends a lot," said Michael Yaeger, who will be attending Texas Christian University next year. "We are all splitting up. And I am going to miss my teachers."

He mentioned his Spanish teacher, Christina Brodell, in particular.

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"And I am going to miss the town. It's a great community," Yaeger said.

Eric Chang, Hinsdale Central High School Student Council president, gives his address. (Mike Mantucca / Pioneer Press )

Luke Northey of Hinsdale said he, too, will miss teachers, such as his consumer economics teacher, John Madden, and the studies skills class.

"That's where I did all my homework, said Northey, who will attend College of DuPage next year.

"I am going to miss seeing all my friends everyday," said Tracy Wohlever of Clarendon Hills, although she knows a lot of students who, like her, will attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dan Wright of Hinsdale said he will miss playing bass guitar in the jazz band.

"And theater, I got involved in that this year," Wright said.

He will attend DePaul University in the fall. He knows a few other seniors by name who are going there, too, but no close friends.

"I am going to miss the familiarity of the place, since I have been here four years," said Lisa Pitts of Clarendon Hills.

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A memory she expects to last forever is the school trip to Spain she went on this year.

"It was awesome," said Pitts, who will attend Purdue University. "They have a stellar engineering program and I like the campus."

Matthew O'Doherty said he will remember the relationships and friends he made at Central.

"You can't trade that for the world," he said. But other than that, "I will not miss anything. I am glad to get out," said O'Doherty, who will attend Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Teachers, such as Katie Janicek, stood on the grass on either side of the lines of seniors as they walked to Dickinson Field, where the commencement was held.

"Some of them are very in the zone," Janicek said.

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"We like to see them on the way in," she said, because teachers who do not have a role in the ceremony sit behind the students. "Otherwise, we just see their backs."

The Hinsdale Central Senior Choir sings the national anthem. (Mike Mantucca/Pioneer Press )

Lynn Lindsey of Clarendon Hills stood on the sidelines, too, as the Class of 2017, including her daughter Emma, moved to their seats on the field.

"I'm happy for her, but it's emotional as well," Lindsey said.

Frank Hernandez of Hinsdale stood with his daughter waiting to hear his son Christopher's name called to receive his diploma.

"His mother just passed away two weeks ago," Hernandez said. "Her wish was fulfilled. She wanted him to graduate."

His wife, Oralia's, illness was a very difficult time for his son, Hernandez said.

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"But after her passing, we are optimistic, as is our graduate," he said.

Phoebe Knable of Hinsdale said her daughter's four years in high school were not easy ones.

"There was so much drama these four years," Knable said. "The cliques changed every year."

Her daughter will attend "Ole Miss," University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss., she said.

"She is going South," Knable said. She does not know why her daughter chose that school.

"If I knew the reason she chose it, or her direction or her actions, I would be stupefied," Knable said.

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Razan Wafai, the mother of two Central graduates and one in Hinsdale Middle School, did not have any children graduating this year, but she was quietly watching the ceremony, dressed in running gear.

"I was running, passing by and I couldn't resist," Wafai said. "The red and white (of the student's graduation gowns) against the green grass is so beautiful."

kfornek@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @kfdoings
Linda Estrada, director of the Animal Welfare League, holds Angel, a poodle who is recovering from injuries, at the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge on May 22, 2017. Two poodles were dropped from the fifth floor of a parking deck at an Oak Lawn hospital on Saturday, and one of them died, according to Oak Lawn police. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

A public safety employee at Advocate Christ Medical Center notified police of the two toy poodles believed to have been dropped from the fifth floor of a parking deck at the Oak Lawn hospital on Saturday, according to an audio recording.

In a recording of the 911 call obtained by the Daily Southtown, the caller identifies himself as "public safety at Christ" and tells the dispatcher that two badly injured dogs are in the walkway between two parking towers.

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"Apparently there's two small dogs in the walkway between our Garage C and Garage B," the man calmly tells the dispatcher. "One is like barely breathing and the other one has got a really bad broken leg, so I don't know if somebody threw 'em off the garage or how they ended up there."

As the dispatcher attempts to confirm the exact location of the injured animals, the caller tells him that an officer has arrived at the scene. The dispatcher then confirms the location and tells him that he'll send an officer to "take a look and see what's going on."

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"Ok, sounds good," the security worker responds in a friendly tone that belies the severity of the situation.

Upon arrival at the scene, Oak Lawn police "rushed" both dogs to the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, its president Linda Estrada said.

Four-year-old Guero, the older of the two dogs, died en route, Estrada said. The other dog, 14-month-old Angel, was in "horrible shock," and his legs were badly broken, but he survived, she said. Angel underwent successful surgery and is in recovery, according to a post Wednesday on a crowdfunding page aimed at raising money for the dog's medical expenses.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Edward Hanania, a 22-year-old Oak Lawn man, has been charged with two felony counts of animal cruelty in connection with the incident, and for violating the conditions of his probation on an unrelated March conviction for delivering a controlled substance.

Prosecutors allege Hanania obtained the dogs, which previously had escaped from their owner's home, by responding to a Facebook ad for the found dogs and paying a reward to the person who found them. He had no connection to the dogs, prosecutors said.

Hanania then allegedly drove the dogs to the fifth floor roof of the Oak Lawn hospital garage and flung them off, prosecutors claim.

A judge on Tuesday set bail for Hanania at $350,000. He appeared in court again Thursday for the probation violation and was ordered held without bail, the state's attorney's office said.

Hanania is scheduled to return to court June 19 on the animal cruelty charges and again June 23 for the probation violation.

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Director of the Animal Welfare League Linda Estrada believes this Toy Poodle has the perfect name: Angel. The dog is miraculously still alive after being thrown from the fifth story of a parking garage in Oak Lawn. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)

zkoeske@tribpub.com|

Twitter @ZakKoeske
A nine-year restoration effort of 918 acres at Flossmoor Road and Central Avenue resulted in the site being designated as the Bobolink Meadow Land and Water Reserve, the highest form of protection given to land. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown)

Following a nine-year restoration effort, the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission has designated 918 acres at the intersection of Flossmoor Road and Central Avenue as the Bobolink Meadow Land and Water Reserve.

The land is owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and was restored by the non-profit Openlands, a conservation organization as part of the forest preserve's Next Century Conservation Plan.

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The designation  awarded on May 9  is not only the "highest form of protection" for a piece of land but also indicates that it contains the highest quality of plant and animal habitat, said Emy Brawley, Openlands' vice president of conservation.

Bobolink Meadow is south of 183rd Street, east of Ridgeland Avenue, spanning the north side of Flossmoor Road, on both sides of Central Avenue, and includes land at the southeast corner of that intersection. It straddles Tinley Park, Flossmoor and Country Club Hills.

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"This is a life raft for a species that is declining," Brawley said, referring to the bobolink and other grassland birds that need vast expanses of open land to breed. These birds have faced a "steep decline globally" and are in the greatest need of conservation, she said.

Adjoining the Bobolink Meadow, on the south side of Flossmoor Road, is the 585-acre Bartel Grassland and given its proximity to the 898-acre Orland Grassland, all three make up a 2,400 acre network of Land and Water Reserves, she said.

"By identifying and restoring conservation areas in proximity to one another like these, we create the habitat on the scale needed for wildlife to thrive," she said.

Bobolink Meadow is home to the second largest bobolink population in Illinois, (the largest is Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie) and it is among the state's largest Land and Water Reserves, she said.

As funding allows, Openlands has taken these parcels and other lands and turned them into high quality habitats, all part of a series of initiatives in the south suburban area, said Joe Roth, director of restoration programs at Openlands.

At Bobolink, they have observed 157 species of nesting, 84 of which are breeding on site, and migratory birds, like the short-eared owl and the Northern Harrier.

"It's a great place for bird watchers," he said.

The restoration work at Bobolink Meadow was funded through the O'Hare Modernization Mitigation Account (OMMA). The expansion of O'Hare Airport impacted wetlands, and Chicago had to compensate for that by setting aside funds for wetlands elsewhere, Brawley said.

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The nine-year effort included disabling 15 linear miles of abandoned drain tiles and bringing water back to the site, Roth said.

Since Bobolink Meadow and Bartel Grassland are at the top of the Des Plaines River Watershed, "if we can stop the water here, it will benefit people and property downstream," he said, adding that it includes Hickory Creek, which feeds into the Des Plaines River.

They also removed invasive species and did controlled burns to spur the growth of prairie grasses.

Openlands put in native plants and removed trees to rebuild the grasslands that were here before the area was settled, he said.

"We wanted to take this back to its native landscape  prairie and grassland as far as the eye can see," he said.

In addition to creating an ideal environment for grassland birds, the land also is becoming a home to pollinators, such as the Monarch butterfly, Roth said.

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Openlands will continue to monitor and count species, and is responsible for maintaining the site for the next five years, to "make sure it continues to improve," Brawley said.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

The LWR designation also restricts how the land can be used.

Roth said the forest preserve district has reserved the option of adding a trail along the perimeter of the property, but there are no plans to add trails within the Bobolink Meadow.

There is a steel bridge on the site over the restored wetlands, and Roth said the forest preserve district will eventually create a walkway over the bridge to a seating area, where people can watch the birds and view the grassland.

In a news release, Arnold Randall, general superintendent of the forest preserves, said he appreciates the "partnership with Openlands, and their dedication to conserving and restoring land in Cook County. This project is helping us achieve one of our Next Century Conservation Plan goals of restoring 30,000 acres, in addition to adding to the amount of land that is designated as a Land and Water Reserve."

Public access to the site is via the parking lot on the north side of Flossmoor Road at Killdeer Wetlands.

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slafferty@tribpub.com

Twitter @SusanLaff
Before the South Suburban Airport could ever take off, there must be assurances of strong political support, timely government approvals and solid feasibility studies, said the six private firms that recently expressed interest in building and operating the airport.

Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Randy Blankenhorn last month requested information from private businesses to see if any were interested in developing the airport in a public-private partnership (P3), noting that the state was not interested in spending public money on the project.

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Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Daily Southtown obtained copies of the documents submitted by the six firms.

Among the firms was the Great Lakes Basin Transportation Inc., of Crete, which has previously proposed a new railroad circumventing Chicago, and the Daniel Burnham Expressway to connect Interstates 80 from Morris to Interstates 55, 57, 65, and 80/94, all of which would complement the South Suburban Airport. GLBT was the only respondent that had no experience in building such infrastructure, but stated it would have partners with "relevant experience."

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Others that submitted information were:

 ACS/Dragados/FH Paschen of Coral Gables, Florida, a team that includes ACS Infrastructure Development Inc., Dragados USA, Inc., FH Paschen, and SN Nielsen and Associates LLC. Paschen said it has done over $400 million of work at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Midway Airport, and was recently the low bidder on a $98 million new runway at O'Hare. Other team members have been involved in other P3 projects in the US and Canada, according to its submittal.

CACC (China Airport Construction Group Corporation), which belongs to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, a state-owned enterprise, with 60 years of experience that includes 150 airport projects in China with award winning engineering designs.

Kiewit Infrastructure Co., Chicago, a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation, a North American construction and engineering organization with a team of investors, developers, designers, engineers and facility operators with P3 experience in several infrastructure projects, including O'Hare Airport.

OHL USA Inc., based in Spain, with headquarters in New York, and a local office in Lisle. It currently manages 20 "transportation infrastructure concessions" including rail, highways, ports and airports, according to its information.

Transpacific Alliance, a Downers Grove-based group that includes 14 companies with experience in engineering, financing, and development of projects, including several at Midway and O'Hare airports.

In its request for information, IDOT said it wanted to "explore industry interest" in the South Suburban Airport, which will be a "new supplemental air carrier airport," to serve a "vital role in the region" by providing a commercial passenger service, cargo operations, as well as corporate and general aviation activities.

It held private meetings with representatives of each firm, and is analyzing the information and data, officials said.

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In the questionnaire, firms were asked about their experience, what incentives, terms and conditions they would require, what they considered to be the primary risks in this project, and what were the key factors in determining if they would participate.

Most said they needed the state's political leaders to make a strong and clear commitment to a well-defined project, and acquire all the needed land first.

From 2001 to 2016, IDOT has acquired more than 4,400 acres at a cost of $95.6 million, but there are still missing pieces. In June, 2014 the state acquired Bult Field and renamed it the South Suburban Airport.

When Gov. Bruce Rauner took over in January 2015, he put the airport and all major infrastructure projects on hold.

Potential developers said they wanted a well-defined plan, completion of all environmental and feasibility studies and approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration.

They also were concerned about the timeliness of the project, and wanted expedited approval of all permits, environmental studies, not just for the airport, but for the supportive infrastructure, such as new roads and rails to serve the airport.

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The firms also expressed their own ideas about what was needed to make the South Suburban Airport a reality.

OHL said in its submittal that the proposed airport "does not appear likely to produce an adequate return on investment" if it's all privately funded, based on the estimated investment and expectations of traffic and revenue currently in the studies.

"A substantial amount of governmental funding must be considered," it said, adding that it would want a "strong commitment" from IDOT in seeking possible funding and grants.

The existing studies need to be updated, and a forecast of aeronautical activity at the airport should be reviewed to validate the airport's feasibility, OHL said.

"We expect IDOT to protect us from delays and cost overruns," OHL said in its submittal.

Transpacific wanted to choose its own name for the facility, suggesting the Chicago Southland International Airport, with approval to operate commercial jet aircraft 24 hours a day and handle shipments of livestock.

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It also did not like the "awkward layout of the initial footprint" of the airport, and wanted IDOT to "quickly and economically" acquire some of the missing pieces of property and be responsible for all environmental mitigation.

The firm said it "must have" a firm schedule for the construction of the air traffic control tower, an I-57 interchange for the airport, and a rail spur east across Route 50 into the airport.

Additionally, it proposed permanent closure of all current north/south roads running through the site  including Ashland Avenue, South Will Center Road, Eagle Lake Road east of airport and modifications to Offner Road.

Routes 1 and 50 would remain open, and Pauling Road would connect to I-57 and function as a "truck friendly connection" between I- 57 and the proposed Crete intermodal.

Transpacific also wants to be sure airport employees have easy access to work, and has had preliminary discussions about providing shuttle bus service between the airport and Pace and Metra stations.

Transpacific said it has already decided to submit a proposal, if IDOT takes that next step, but key factors that may impact its ability to participate would be the political situation in Korea, any changes in US/China relations and the overall conditions of the US economy, it stated.

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Like others, CACC stated in its submittal that the primary risks were the "feasibility of SSA," and the integration and cooperation of all government agencies involved.

The China firm also wanted tax incentives and "foreign developer assistance."

It also sought specific information, including which airlines were interested in the airport, the predicted passenger volume, and five years of financial reports from O'Hare and Midway airports, (including parking fees, salaries and number of personnel, fees for water and electricity and weather data.

GLBT was looking to "share costs with IDOT" to develop the plan and questioned if federal or state funding was available.

The timing of the airport development would have to include construction of highways and other transit assets to support the opening of the airport, which would need access to I-57, Route 50, Metra, freight lines, and feeder roads throughout Will and Kankakee Counties, it stated.

GLBT said it would add 1,0000 to 1,500 feet of additional runway to the east at Bult Field to allow for regional jets to start passenger service, which would require updated security, Transportation Security Administration support, and improved road access.

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ACS noted that since the airport has "no proven revenue stream" it would be "challenging" to transfer the revenue risk to the developer.

It recommended that the private sector be responsible for the design, construction, long term operations and maintenance risks as it relates to delays, cost overruns and price increases.

IDOT would manage risks related to governmental approvals, appropriation of funding to the developer, acquisition of land and right-of-way and "unforeseen geological conditions," according to its document.

ACS recommended that a "clear and robust financing plan be developed and adopted as early in the process as possible."

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Kiewit did not respond to IDOT's specific questions, but stated that there must be "broad political support" for this process.

To enter into a predevelopment agreement with IDOT, Kiewit said it would need to solicit public input, validate the project's feasibility and explore more economical, technical and financial solutions.

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IDOT said it is interested in potentially developing the airport through a pre-development agreement because it believes that partnering with an experienced private sector airport developer could provide the commercial and technical expertise and financial investment to accelerate the project's implementation and commercial success.

Under such an agreement, IDOT said it would be responsible for the environmental and Airport Master Plan work, while the developer would do a feasibility analysis.

Pending the results of that, Phase 2 of the agreement would be to finance, design, build and maintain the airport. IDOT is now producing an Airport Master Plan for FAA review and approval.

slafferty@tribpub.com

Twitter @SusanLaff
St. Charles Township Superintendent of Cemeteries Brooks Ronzheimer places the remains of a stillborn baby girl into a crypt following a ceremony Thursday. The babys remains were unclaimed so the Kane County Coroners office had them placed in an unmarked crypt. ( Gloria Casas/The Courier-News )

A tiny white box sat on the edge of a table next to white flowers and a bible. A label on the box read: Alana Waver, March 12, 2017.

The stillborn baby girl's body was among 13 never claimed from the Kane County coroner's office. Alana's remains joined 161 others in a crypt at a St. Charles Township cemetery, 1200 N. Fifth Ave., St. Charles, during a short ceremony conducted by the Rev. Timothy Perry of Nationwide Chaplain Services.

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"We thank you, Lord, for these special lives," Perry said. "These lives were claimed well before they came into the world."

It was the third service Coroner Rob Russell has organized since he was elected four years ago and found unclaimed remains of 41 people in a storage unit in his office. He began an effort to reunite families with the remains. Six have been returned to families, including one shipped to next of kin in Australia, Russell said.

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St. Charles Township Supervisor John Anderson suggested placing unclaimed remains in an empty unused tomb that had been donated to the township. Anderson attended Thursday's service along with Superintendent of Cemeteries Brooks Ronzheimer.

The crypt is almost at capacity, Ronzheimer said.

Russell estimates his office has an average of 13 unclaimed remains a year. His office tries to connect with next of kin to claim the remains, but some families do not or cannot claim the remains, he said. The coroner's office is then responsible for burial, he said.

The state of Illinois has a fund for indigent burials, used to reimburse coroner's offices. However, the state's financial situation has meant no reimbursements have been made in about three years, Russell said. State officials have been discussing terminating the indigent burial fund, he said.

"Now they tell us there is nothing they can do because there are no funds," Russell said. "We pick the low-hanging fruit and handle what we can. With the state being in the condition it is in, we have to find alternatives to take care of those who are indigent."

Russell wants to have more partnerships with county townships that have cemeteries to provide a location for indigent burials. The donation of a location helps offset the cost of the burials, he said. He is also considering establishing a nonprofit foundation through the coroner's office to help with fundraising for burials, he said.

Russell started a policy that states remains cannot be stored indefinitely in the coroner's office.

"No matter what, they will not stay on my shelves," Russell said.

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Those entombed Thursday were: Monty Ford, date of death Dec. 15, 2016; Michael Jansen, date of death Oct. 25, 2016; Karen Rangel, date of death Feb. 15, 2017; Luis Hernandez, date of death June 21, 2016; Linda Marx, date of death Jan. 6, 2016; Alvin Refke, date of death Aug. 17, 2015; Bonnie McKinney, date of death Sept. 2, 2015; Howard Myers, date of death June 15, 2016; Alicia Lemos, date of death Dec. 21, 1961; Vito Calabrese, date of death Jan. 14, 2009; Penny Calabrese, date of death March 8, 2007; John Lundstrom, date of death March 20, 2017; and Alana Waver, date of death March 12, 2017.

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.
World War II veterans (left to right) Al Provenzano, Joe Russo, Joe Pareti, Lou Prempas and Jim Phillips attend a tribute to veterans at the River Grove Moose Lodge on May 20. (Pioneer Press )

Ralph Joseph Imbrogno, a Korean War veteran, saluted the veterans assembled on May 20 during an event called Thank You For your Service in River Grove.

"These are my heroes," he said, gesturing toward a group he was sitting with. "The people here are the real heroes, and they've really sacrificed."

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Imbrogno said he especially admires 97-year-old World War II veteran Al Provenzano.

"I admire what they've done," Imbrogno said. "They have been through the trenches, and they've been through hell."

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Frank Clause helped organize the event to thank to those who have served. He said the event was a River Park Moose Lodge 2578 event.

"We started mingling with the idea of how to show our appreciation to the veterans," Clause said, adding it is planned to be an annual event. He said organizers wanted to have the event on Armed Forces Day.

Clause said the Moose Lodge set a goal of raising $2,000 to donate to Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital. He said veterans were invited to eat for free. Others could sponsor the veterans to eat for $12, with donations going to the hospital. Some organizations sent donations.

"I honestly believe we don't do enough for our vets," Clause said. "The average person doesn't realize what the vets went through."

Like Imbrogno, Clause said he is also "amazed" by Provenzano, who not only attended, but also sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" a capella at the beginning of the event.

"It makes me feel good that people are realizing what we did," Provenzano said of the event. "We had to be really disciplined."

Several local politicians were at the event, including River Grove Mayor David Guerin, Schiller Park Mayor Nick Caiafa, Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri (9th District) and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

White, who served in Vietnam, made a speech to the crowd and took pictures with those in attendance.

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"I admire and respect these individuals who have served," White said. "I believe that you should do something good for someone."

As for Provenzano, he stressed his love for his country.

"We're free to go where we want and do what we want," he said.

World War II veteran Al Provenzano, 97, sings the national anthem at the start of a tribute to veterans at the River Grove Moose Lodge on May 20. (Pioneer Press )

Maryann Pisano is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
The Evanston Symphony Orchestra has been named the Community Orchestra of the Year for 2017 by the Illinois Council of Orchestras.

"It's an honor," said music director Lawrence Eckerling. "Not only is this wonderful for the organization in terms of public perception, but these players are volunteers. Music is a big part of their lives. When their hard work is recognized, that's a good thing."

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The Evanston orchestra was honored earlier this year as part of the council's annual awards. Musicians were recognized on stage at a performance this month.

The Illinois Council of Orchestras was founded in 1974 to "encourage, promote and assist" orchestras throughout Illinois, according to the organization's website.

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This is the second time that the orchestra has received the honor under Eckerling, he said, who has twice been named community orchestra conductor of the year.
Evanston Public Library Adult Services Librarian Lesley Williams, pictured at the library in this 2014 photo, returned to work May 24, 2017 following a 15-day suspension. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press )

Embattled Evanston librarian Lesley Williams returned to work at the Evanston Public Library Wednesday, vowing to appeal her 15-day disciplinary suspension that drew protests from around the community.

"I was really touched, so many patrons and staff have come up and welcomed me and hugged me," Williams said about her first days back.

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"I plan to appeal my suspension on June 5," Williams said, although "I am not confident it will change things."

Williams was suspended without pay, effected May 1, following a hearing about what have only been described as workplace issues.

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While neither she nor library officials would go into detail about the allegations, Williams said she was accused of "gross incompetence, insubordination and not contributing to a healthy work environment."

She also has said that "none of the charges against me involve criminal behavior, sexual improprieties, or financial improprieties."

Dozens of people rallied in her defense in April when Williams went before library officials for the disciplinary hearing. A diverse group of supporters emerged that included members of several church organizations, people from various racial and ethnic groups and participants and leaders of community organizations, including the local chapter of the NAACP.

Williams said the community support was born out of, in part, the fact that she is the only African American librarian in a city where African American residents make up 20 percent of the population. She has worked at the library for 21 years, she said.

Members of the non-profit American Library Association, a professional group, are among the latest to offer support to Williams. She said the group awarded her a grant to help cover legal expenses and missing pay as a result of this ordeal, paid for through the association's LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund.

The fund was set up to help librarians who are "denied employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, religion, age, disability, or place of national origin," as well as those "denied employment rights because of defense of intellectual freedom," according to the ALA website.

Williams declined to say the amount of the grant, except to add that she considered it "significant" and hopes she can pay the association back to help future librarians fight discrimination.

Williams said she spent the last week of her time off on a previously planned trip to Palestine with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence for a "peaceful effort to reclaim land for Palestinian families."

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Williams, who is Jewish, said the organization was there to help observe the 50th anniversary of Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Library officials have declined to comment on the allegations against Williams, saying they are a personnel matter.

"We have chosen not to litigate Ms. Williams' personnel issues on social media or in the court of public opinion," said library board President Michael Tannen in a statement. "EPL's stance remains the same: we do not comment about the details of an ongoing personnel matter. This dispute should be not a headline; it should be a footnote."

Library board trustees in April issued a statement announcing renewal of library Director Karen Danczak-Lyons' contract and praising her performance.

On Thursday, Tannen said he hoped the library system could move on from what he called "a garden variety personnel dispute." He also praised employees for expanding library programs and other work that they continue to do.

"Our wonderful staff is getting ready for an awesome summer," Tannen said.
Lyons Township School Treasurer Susan Birkenmaier (left) and office manager Lauralee Conway at an August 2015 meeting at the agency's office in La Grange. (Jane Michaels/Pioneer Press)

The third time could be the charm for state legislation allowing Lyons Township High School to chart its own financial future and withdraw from control of the Lyons Township School Treasurer's Office.

A bill introduced May 10 by House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, a Republican from Western Springs, also allows five surrounding elementary districts and the La Grange Area Department of Special Education cooperative to break from the treasurer's office and appoint or elect their own treasurers.

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Durkin has sponsored two similar bills since 2014, which passed the House but were blocked by Democrats in the Senate.

But the latest version stipulates that any changes as a result of districts withdrawing will not affect legal action pending against LTHS.

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High school officials have been seeking to leave the treasurer's office since 2014, soon after the district was sued by the treasurer's office for $4.4 million, including $2.6 million in back fees for financial services.

The legal outcome, which remains unresolved, was a sticking point for Sen. Steve Landek, a Bridgeview Democrat, who held the first bill in committee and amended the second bill to require the high school to set aside $6.5 million in escrow in case it lost.

Although a Senate version hasn't been introduced, Landek said he has met with Durkin and agreed to work on legislation "amenable to all" over the summer. "We are both committed," he said.

The lawsuit followed charges in 2013 that former Treasurer Robert Healy stole more than $1.5 million in school funds during his 24 years on the job. A Better Government Association investigation uncovered a host of financial irregularities and a glaring lack of oversight by a three-member elected board charged with managing the office.

Healy pleaded guilty in 2015 to stealing $100,000 and is serving a nine-year sentence at the Taylorville Correctional Center.

The school treasurer's office is responsible for investing more than $280 million in assets and managing payroll and expenses for 13 school districts in La Grange, Western Springs, Burr Ridge and surrounding towns.

LTHS officials contend no money is owed, because an agreement was reached in 1999 in open session with Healy so that the high school would process its own payroll and accounts receivable and payable, and receive a credit from the treasurer's office to avoid paying twice for the same function.

Both the high school and treasurer's office boards approved operating procedures based on the agreement, LTHS officials have said.

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Township School Treasurer Susan Birkenmaier said negotiations are continuing in the lawsuit and no trial date has been set. The treasurer's office legal expenses are more than $1 million, she said.

Birkenmaier said the treasurer's office offers member districts greater returns by pooling money for investments, providing financial expertise and offering services smaller districts may not be able to afford, as well as economies of scale in processing financial transactions.

But area school officials have been critical of fees charged by the office with no voice on how the money is spent, as well as legal expenses.

In addition to LTHS, La Grange elementary districts 102 and 105, as well as the La Grange Area Department of Special Education, are on record seeking to withdraw from the treasurer's office and handle their own finances.

Durkin's bill also names Western Springs District 101, LaGrange Highlands District 106 and Pleasantdale District 107 in Burr Ridge as eligible to withdraw if those school boards choose to do so.

Birkenmaier said it's unclear whether the treasurer's office could remain viable if more than half the member districts leave.

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"It would be speculative at this point," she said. "The legislation would have to pass first before we're in a position to see how the districts or this office would be impacted."

Durkin noted most township school treasurer offices were eliminated in the 1960s, except for Cook County, and area districts should have the option of exercising local control over their finances.

State law requires township treasurer offices in Cook County to handle all financial transactions. Districts may withdraw only if an amendment is passed, or by a lengthy process contingent on whether other school boards in the township agree and a majority of township residents approve the matter by referendum.
Lake County authorities say a man wanted after failing to appear in court in connection with a Spring Grove two-day kidnapping and battery incident from 2015 was located Thursday in Bolingbrook after months of switching vehicles and residences to avoid arrest.

Dvino E. Thomas, 31, of the 300 block of Woodcreek Lane in Bolingbrook, was being held Friday in Lake County Jail after his capture by the Lake County Sheriff's Office Warrants Team and the U.S. Marshals Service  Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force (USMS-GLRFTF) outside his home, said Sgt. Christopher Covelli with the sheriff's office.

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"Thomas would frequently switch vehicles and stay overnight at different locations, in an apparent effort to avoid apprehension," Covelli said in a statement.

Thomas had been charged with aggravated battery and aggravated kidnapping charges for an incident in unincorporated Spring Grove on Dec. 27, 2015, and he violated his probation with a failed drug test recently, according to court records, and then failed to appear in court. He was also wanted on a Boone County drug violation warrant, Covelli said.

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In the original 2015 incident, Thomas and another man, Jori A. Urgo, 21, of the 39200 block of North Jackson Drive in unincorporated Spring Grove, were living together and both were accused of attacking a woman visiting the home after a verbal argument ensued. The victim allegedly was punched in the face and struck with an object by Thomas, and then Urgo also punched the victim, Covelli said.

According to information released by the sheriff's office in early 2016, the victim said that following the beating, Thomas then produced a gun and threatened he would kill her if she left the residence or notified the police, and he took the keys to her vehicle so she couldn't leave.

After two days, police report, she was able to leave and was driven to a local hospital, where she was treated for a broken eye socket, broken nose and numerous bruises.

Thomas plead guilty to aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and was sentenced to probation, according to court records. A warrant was issued for Thomas on Feb. 21, 2017, and the task force began looking for the suspect, Covelli said.

According to Covelli, authorities then learned Thomas was switching vehicles often and staying overnight in different locations. Covelli added that investigators moved in to arrest him Wednesday as he was driving a vehicle in the area of South Ashland Avenue and West 43rd Street in Chicago, but he refused to stop and avoided apprehension.

On Thursday, authorities developed information that he was in Bolingbrook, and the arrest was made without incident, he said.

Thomas was held in Lake County Jail on the failure to appear warrant and is scheduled to appear in court June 1.

"Often, locating wanted individuals proves to be difficult, as many with warrants attempt to hide and avoid apprehension," Sheriff Mark Curran said in a statement. "This is another example of our warrants deputies working diligently to apprehend a wanted fugitive."

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fabderholden@tribpub.com

Twitter @abderholden
Memorial Day parades, services and other ceremonies are scheduled in Lake County communities from Libertyville to Winthrop Harbor. (Dan Moran/Lake County News-Sun )

Following the Civil War, Americans wanted to honor those who died serving in the military. Originally known as Decoration Day, the holiday is claimed as the birthplace of what is now called Memorial Day by several cities in different states across both the north and south, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

As commemorative services sprang up in cemeteries across the nation  mostly around May 30  it wasn't until 1971 that the official Memorial Day was established by an act of Congress as the last Monday in May. The first large observance was held in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery.

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In Lake County this year, many residents will honor military service members with parades and memorial ceremonies. Here is a list of Monday's events:

Deerfield

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Freedom Run: 7:45 a.m. The Essence of Freedom Run is an annual 5K or 10K that raises money for Illinois' veterans organizations, including Support Our Soldiers Freedom, Inc. Check in begins at 7 a.m., with the race staring at 7:45 a.m. at the corner of Orchard and Todd Court, behind Runners Village. The award ceremony is 9:30 a.m. https://www.essenceoffreedomrun.com/

Service and Procession: The service begins at the Veterans' Memorial in Jewett Park, 836 Jewett Park Drive, followed by a process to Deerfield Cemetery, located at Waukegan Road and Central Avenue.

Grayslake

Parade and Ceremony: 9:30 a.m. The annual parade is taking a different route this year, stepping off from Hillside Avenue parking lot across from Grayslake Central High School, then traveling south on Lake Street and east on Park Avenue. The ceremony will take place immediately following the parade at Millennium Court Veteran's Memorial Site, at the corner of Seymour Avenue and Center Street, near the village clock tower.

Gurnee

Ceremony: Noon. Held at the Gurnee Memorial, located in front of the police station, 100 N. O'Plaine Road, Gurnee. Hosted by the Gurnee American Legion Post 771, it will be moved to the post in case of rain, 749 N. Milwaukee Ave., Gurnee.

Lake Villa

Parade and service: Noon. The Lake Villa Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4308 and Boy Scout Troop 323 will host the parade from Palombi School, 133 McKinley Ave., traveling to Lehmann Park, 148 Cedar Ave., where a memorial service will be held following the parade.

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Lake Zurich

Parade and ceremony: 10 a.m. The parade steps off at the American Legion Post 964, 51 Lions Drive, Lake Zurich. It will proceed to the Veterans Monument, 200 Mohawk Trail, where a brief service will be held.

Libertyville

Parade and ceremony: 9:30 a.m. The annual parade will be led by the Veterans of Foreign War Post 8741. Starts at the Metra Station, 200 Lake St., to Cook Memorial Park, 100 W. Church St., where the ceremony will be held at 9:45 a.m.

Lincolnshire

Ceremony: 10 a.m. The ceremony will take place at Spring Lake Park, 49 Oxford Drive, featuring the Daniel Wright Middle School band. The guest speaker is Cmdr. Omar Martinez, executive officer of Naval Station Great Lakes.

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Lindenhurst

Ceremony: 10 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial, located at the entrance to the Lindenhurst Village Hall, 2301 E. Sand Lake Road. In case of rain, it will be moved to the public works garage behind the village hall. It will include the Lindenhurst-Grayslake Police Explorer Post 2008 Color Guard, and the Lake Villa/Lindenhurst Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4308. The Lakes High School Band and vocalist Rebecca Labb will perform. Keynote speaker is retired judge John Phillips. The Three Volley Salute will be conducted by the Lake County Detachment 801 of the Marine Corps League.

Round Lake

Parade and ceremony: 9:30 a.m. The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. at the American Legion, 111 E. Main St., in Round Lake Park. The parade begins at 10 a.m. from there and travels down Cedar Lake Road to Clarendon Drive, ending at Round Lake Beach Memorial.

Waukegan

Parade and ceremony: 10:30 a.m. The parade steps off at the corner of Genesee Street and Grande Avenue, west on Clayton Street, south on MLK Jr. Avenue, west on Washington Street ending at Veterans Memorial Plaza, 15 S. Park Ave., where a short ceremony will be held. It is hosted by the American Legion Homer Dahringer Post 281, Explore Waukegan, Waukegan City Hall, Waukegan Main Street, the Waukegan Park District and the city of Waukegan. The ceremony will include placing of the wreaths, a rifle salute and "Taps."

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Winthrop Harbor

Parade and ceremony: 11 a.m. Parade steps off from Sheridan Road and State Line Road, south to 9th Street, west to Village Park, 2700 9th Street, where the memorial service will be held at noon.

Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Lake County News-Sun.
Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin talks to a group before a Morton Grove Village Board meeting onMay 22, 2017, outside Village Hall. The rally was to support board approval of a pro-immigrant resolution and to coordinate asking the board not to opt out of a new Cook County minimum wage set to begin in July. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press )

The Morton Grove Village Board unanimously approved a pro-immigrant resolution Monday, less than a month after residents voiced diverse opinions over whether trustees should take such action.

Trustee Connie Travis introduced the resolution, stating that it "formalizes" already existing practices surrounding residents' immigration status in the village.

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"This resolution will insure all interested persons that our police department will continue following all existing policies on the enforcement of federal immigration laws," she said.

The resolution is intended to confirm the village's "culture of openness," she said, adding that it is not intended to "designate Morton Grove as a sanctuary city or to provide refuge for any person who has committed any crime."

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For many municipalities, the issue of adopting new or reaffirming existing so-called sanctuary legislation emerged in the wake of President Donald Trump's executive orders on immigration earlier this year, which have been legally challenged.

Trump has threatened to deny federal funding to communities that assert sanctuary city status.

Nearby Evanston already had "welcoming city" legislation and aldermen there recently voted to reaffirm it. The Skokie Village Board approved a similar ordinance.

A group of Morton Grove residents asked the village board to adopt legislation, but others expressed concern that it would put important federal funding at risk and send the wrong message.

Trustee Bill Greer said Monday the resolution outlines what Morton Grove has already been doing.

"I feel there is no loser, there is no winner," he said. "We've always been doing this. The police are not going to do anything different than what they've ever done because of this resolution. It's just verifying what we have in place in the village of Morton Grove."

The resolution formalizes certain prohibitions for police, including stopping anyone to check his or her immigration status; questioning a person in custody about immigration status unless required by federal law; holding people under arrest who are ready to be released just to check immigration status; and enforcing or arresting people for federal civil immigration violations such as someone who entered the country legally but stayed too long.

Under the resolution, police officers are prohibited from holding any person on a federal civil immigration "detainer" from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, unless it is accompanied by a valid arrest warrant or the person has been charged with a federal crime.

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Village officials said these have been long-standing practices in Morton Grove.

"The Morton Grove Police Department understands people who are new to this country are often uncomfortable dealing with the police as victims or witnesses and is therefore very proactive in community policing and outreach to facilitate trust between local law enforcement and new immigrants," the resolution reads.

But the resolution is also clear that it does not direct anyone acting on behalf of the village to disobey any lawful order or state or federal law.

It notes that the U.S. Department of Justice recently issued a statement that local jurisdictions applying for Justice Department grants are required to certify they follow federal laws requiring local authorities to share information regarding any person's immigrant status with certain federal agencies.

"It is the intent of the village board to comply with all federal laws, and allow the village to remain eligible to apply for and receive federal funding," the resolution states.

Those in attendance at the Village Board meeting, many of whom spoke at the April 24 town hall meeting on this subject, praised and thanked the village board for passing the resolution.

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Morton Grove resident Jon Lahn of Americans in Solidarity  Chicago supported Morton Grove taking action early on.

"Overall, I think we did go through a tough process," he said. "We had a lot of people speaking at board meetings. We had a town hall meeting. Certainly there was a lot of energy and angst that might have been associated with that process."

Resident Mary Elsner thanked the village board and the mayor for supporting a resolution that makes Morton Grove "kind of a more welcoming community."

Unlike at the town hall meeting, no one spoke out against the resolution at the Village Board meeting.

Ted Smuckler, justice team organizer for Open Communities, read a letter from that organization's executive director David Luna. Open Communities aims to educate, advocate and organize to promote just and inclusive communities in north suburban Chicago, according to its mission.

"Since 39 percent of Morton Grove residents are foreign born, and 51 percent speak a language other than English at home, this goes a long way towards easing the fear of cooperating with the police among immigrants," the letter reads.

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The audience May 22 broke into applause when the board approved the resolution.

"As usual, Morton Grove rallied to the occasion," said Mayor Dan DiMaria. "I know a lot of people were getting impatient with us on this. We have a very, very responsible role here as a village board. We have to listen. There's a lot of people."

He said the resolution confirms what the sign behind his seat on the Village Board dais says: "Morton Grove: Incredibly Close Amazingly Open."

misaacs@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @SKReview_Mike
As Libertyville faces a deadline to make nearly $4 million in mandatory upgrades at its waste water treatment plant, a consultant has been hired to research options for merging services or combining the entire plant with Mundelein's nearby facility.

The two treatment plants are both located along Milwaukee Avenue, with clean water being released into the Des Plaines River. The plants collect and treat storm water and household waste. Officials from both villages said the plants' coincidentally close proximity had them thinking about consolidation for a while.

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"We are very similarly sized plants with the same treatment processes, so it makes a lot of sense to look at any available opportunities to merge some of our existing operations," said Adam Boche, Mundelein's director of public works.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in 2011 began enforcing a limit on phosphorus in discharged water. An Illinois EPA spokeswoman said communities connected to the Des Plaines Watershed, such as Libertyville and Mundelein, were notified of the new regulation in 2015 as part of their regular permit renewal notices.

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Boche said Mundelein is almost done with a $900,000 addition onto its plant with machines that apply chemical treatment.

However, Libertyville Village Administrator Chris Clark said the circumstances are much different for his team. He said early estimates came in at $6 million to add the new equipment, but now those quotes are around $4 million.

Libertyville's treatment plant already has other work that needs to be done, Clark said. With this new mandate, Clark said more than $21 million in upgrades or replacements will need over the next 15 years.

"Our plant is on the older side," Clark said. "Our fund has some cash in it, but ultimately with the kind of numbers we're looking at it'll require more debt."

Both villages agreed to share the cost of a $67,000 consolidation study in hopes of finding ways to reduce future spending.

"The goal is to look at ways to not duplicate services beyond what's already being done," Clark sad. "The geographic proximity of these plants is remarkable. They're right across the railroad tracks from one another and both adjacent to the Des Plaines River, which is the outfall for treated water."

In the meantime, Clark said Libertyville is moving forward with engineering and design plans for a new building that would remove phosphorus just in case the two plants cannot be merged in any way. Results of the study are expected by late summer or early fall, Clark said.

Phosphorus is a natural water nutrient that stimulates growth and is commonly found in fertilizers and other industrial products, according to the EPA's website. Too much of it creates toxic levels for humans and can overpopulate algae that destabilizes waterway ecosystems.

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Both Libertyville and Mundelein approved ordinances in 2015 that restrict the sale and use of phosphorus products, especially on lawns that drain into public sewers.

Libertyville has until April 2019 to install equipment, which public documents indicate would be a new building with a similar chemical treatment process. Clark said if the consultant discovers a way to connect the two systems and both village boards agree to the project, then Libertyville would request a permit extension.

"We've heard very loudly from the state its desire to see us get things done that cross jurisdictional boundaries and to merge some of our services," Boche said. "This falls in that category."

While phosphorus finally pushed the issue, Boche said a joint operation could help both communities absorb the cost of similar projects in the future.

"As far as maintenance, we've handled a lot of our big ticket items already, but the challenge for us and our treatment plant is keeping up with the federal and state requirements that manage our operations through the permit process," Boche said.

He said most people are in favor of protecting the environment and basic human health, but it's difficult to plan for upgrades before the problems are discovered or legislated.

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"The lifespan of this facility, in our mind, is infinite and we have to assume it's going to be there forever," Boche said. "The need definitely will be. So those costs are going to be there forever too, and reducing them in any way is a positive."

A total of about a dozen people work at the two plants. Regardless of what the consultant may recommend in terms of a consolidation, Boche said the machinery still needs that level of staffing. He said money could be saved through other operational and maintenance expenses.

rkambic@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @Rick_Kambic
Kevin Sabet, a professor and former presidential advisor, shares statistics supporting his belief that legalizing recreational marijuana will, among other things, increase health care costs and lead to greater drug use. (Diane Moca / Naperville Sun )

A former presidential adviser shared his fears about the effects of marijuana legalization during a lecture Thursday at Linden Oaks Naperville Outpatient Center.

"People have to stand up to this industry," said Kevin Sabet, an assistant professor who served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama's drug control director and worked in the Clinton and Bush administrations.

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"It's about getting health care voices involved. We need more partners at the table. Right now this industry is getting away with murder."

Sabet shared slides, statistics and anecdotes to support his premise that legalized recreational marijuana in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Washington, D.C., is a lucrative industry that's misleading the public about pot's risks and benefits.

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"We learned the hard way about tobacco, which caused tens of millions of needless deaths," said Sabet, who founded the nonprofit SAM, or Smart Approaches to Marijuana, in 2013. His organization's goal, according to its website, is to prevent "another Big Tobacco (by) stopping marijuana legalization and commercialization, educating policy-makers and the public on marijuana issues, and fundraising."

Sabet said marijuana use causes respiratory problems, results in low-birth-weight babies and can impair learning with permanent IQ loss when consumed in large quantities by someone who's young, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

While he acknowledged that marijuana can eliminate nausea for those fighting cancer or other illnesses, he did not mention other benefits commonly cited by medical advocates, such as reducing pain and seizures.

"The medical marijuana industry is already making a lot of money here" in Illinois, he said. "It's all about the money."

In the past four years, Illinois has legalized cannabis for medical use and decriminalized recreational use. In March 2017, state lawmakers proposed a measure legalizing recreational marijuana that could be voted on next year. Proponents estimate marijuana could generate between $350 million and $700 million in annual sales, reaping a sales tax windfall for the state.

"We're looking at one side of the ledger. People are not counting the costs," said Sabet, who presented statistics on health care costs from pot-related illnesses.

Marijuana advocates counter that legalization would save money on enforcement and boost opportunities for minority youth. An NAACP report from 2015 said marijuana arrests account for more than half of all drug arrests in the country, with blacks being six times more likely than whites to be arrested for pot possession, making it harder for them to obtain student loans and jobs.

Dawn Neylon said she plans to share Sabet's message with the middle and high school students with whom she works at 360 Youth Services, a Naperville nonprofit prevention program. "We're learning new ways to give them information to make healthy choices. Alcohol and tobacco use is down dramatically (in Naperville school districts 203 and 204). There's not much change in marijuana use."

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In recent years, teenagers' perceptions of marijuana have changed and she is seeing a decrease in their belief that pot poses a risk, Neylon said.

"That's concerning. When there's a decreased sense of harm, there's a greater risk to use it," she said.

Based on her interactions with teens, she said Naperville parents should be just as concerned about "a little weed" or "a little beer" as they are about opiates because "the earlier they start to use (alcohol or marijuana), the more likely they are to abuse. We want to push the first age of use to help prevent challenges later in life."

Sabet said a 2013 study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed marijuana can lead to other drugs for some people.

"A majority of people who try pot stop using it after three times or less," he said. "Three to four percent of the time they will try other drugs. More than ninety percent of people using heroin say marijuana or alcohol were drugs of choice before."

Diane Moca is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
President Donald Trump's decision earlier this year to toss out an Obama-era directive requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and other facilities that correspond to their gender identity came as a blow to East Leyden High School graduate Charlie Zielinski.

Zielinski, an 18-year-old Schiller Park resident, is transgender. He said the directive, which was issued jointly by the Department of Justice and Education last May and provided protections for transgender students under Title IX  a federal rule that bars sex-based discrimination in public schools  "was a big step for the community because we were validated and recognized on a federal level."

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When he heard the news in February that Trump has rescinded the directive, Zielinski said he was really upset and angry. He said he reached out to numerous news outlets offering to tell his own story with the hope that his experience would help generate awareness about the challenges facing transgender students. Weeks after Trump rescinded the Obama directive, the transgender community suffered another blow when the U.S. Supreme Court declined in early March to hear a case brought by a Virginia transgender high school student, Gavin Grimm, who was suing to use school restrooms that corresponded with his gender identity.

Despite these national setbacks, the state of Illinois and Illinois State Board of Education provide similar protections to transgender students as outlined in the Obama-era directive, said Kimberly Small, general counsel for the Illinois Association of School Boards. Both the ISBE rule and the Illinois Human Rights Act prohibit schools from discriminating against students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, she said.

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The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to hear the Virginia student's case sent the message that protecting the rights of transgender students comes down to the states, Small said. In Illinois, she said, public school districts are required by state law to provide those protections.

Officials at Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200, Maine Township High School District 207 and Ridgewood Community High School District 234 all follow Board Policy 7:10, which provides for equal educational and extracurricular opportunities regardless of race, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, gender identity, homelessness, immigration status or marital or parental status.

Ridgewood District 234 Superintendent Jennifer Kelsall said most districts in the state subscribe to the IASB's Policy Reference Education Subscription Service (PRESS), which provides sample policies and procedures vetted by legal experts to ensure schools are conforming to state and federal laws.

Small, who helps draft PRESS policy and procedures, said the IASB worked with transgender advocates to develop a sample procedure for districts to follow with regard to transgender students. She said the procedure "talks about how to go about accommodating a request and says it has to be done on a case-by-case basis depending on what the student needs from the district."

Karin Sullivan, director of community relations for OPRF, wrote in an email that the high school now has several gender-neutral bathrooms.

"We do not require that transgender students use these particular bathrooms however," she wrote. "Our staff works closely and individually with our students who identify as transgender, letting them know that they may use the bathrooms and locker rooms in which they feel the most comfortable."

The director of communications for District 207, David Beery, wrote in an email that transgender students in the high school district are able to use the restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

When Zielinski was a sophomore at East Leyden, he said he got up the courage to come out as transgender to a school counselor. To his surprise, he said, he was met with understanding and support by that school's administration.

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The principal of East Leyden, Jason Markey, said the school's policy is to work with transgender students on an individual basis to figure out the best solution for them. The Obama-era directive reassured administrators at the high school district that "we were going in the right direction, but it didn't change our practice," he said.

Darcy Kriha, partner at Franczek Radalet, a law firm that represents public schools in Illinois, said schools in the state are "doing an exemplary job of serving transgender students." Regardless of the Obama-era directive, she said, schools are going to keep serving their students' needs and "Illinois is an unusual state in that way."

Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
A Merrillville man with a previous conviction was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to more than two years in prison for possessing a sawed off shotgun, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Indiana.

On Feb. 15, 2015, Merrillville police were called in regard to a man shooting a shotgun in his yard, according to the release. Police recovered a sawed off shotgun and 24 shotgun shells, including a few spent shells, the release states. Terry Kilburn told police he bought the firearm like that a week before, according to the release.

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Kilburn, 34, pleaded guilty last year was sentenced Wednesday to 27 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for being a felon in possession of a firearm, the release states.

Kilburn has a prior felony conviction for theft in Lake County in 2013, the release states.

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The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, with the assistance of Merrillville Police Department.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
Dear Mr. Bradshaw,

I will begin college shortly and want to make sure I get off to a good start. I hope to pursue a career in law. What advice can you give me about preparing for law school?

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Sincerely,

College Freshman

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Dear Freshman,

This is a question I wish all students who are entering college would ask.

If you want to be accepted into law school, you must concentrate on your studies and build a top-notch grade-point average from Day 1. And if you think that as a college freshman you can afford to kick back and blow off your grades for a year, then make up for it during your sophomore, junior and senior years, be forewarned: There never will be enough time to overcome a weak first-year GPA.

Although your last three years may show evidence of what well-meaning academic advisers call the "showing of improvement trend," it won't pull any weight with potential law, medical or business school officials as they sift through transcripts of undergraduates who aced their first-year classes.

It's a buyers' market, and poor grades can devalue your transcript by as much as 25 percent. Many students think the freshman year is a time to experiment with classes and find out where their true intellectual and creative selves lie. As a result, grades plunge as students struggle with symbolic logic and Advanced Placement French.

You might even need a fifth undergraduate year to bolster your academic record. College freshmen also should consider applying for internships during summer breaks. Some of the most successful business and professional people I know enhanced their educations and professional acumen with summer employment. Be reminded that with anything lower than a 2.5 freshman GPA (on a 4.0 scale), you can kiss goodbye an internship at a consulting firm or investment bank.

The biggest mistake I see freshmen make is not having clear career direction. When you do not have the slightest idea about a major, you end up taking a hodgepodge of classes, selected for you by academic advisers more interested in filling open classes than helping you define a career strategy and build your GPA. If you want to pursue a law degree, take courses that relate to the area of law in which you hope to specialize.

Typically, the hardest classes to earn an "A" in are the so-called required or general education subjects that must be taken in order to fulfill degree and graduation requirements. Some of these classes must be taken in sequence, but can be postponed until a student's junior or senior years, when they have built a solid GPA and are better equipped to handle them.

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Remember, your academic performance in the first three years of college will count most when you apply to law school, and good grades in your freshman year are critical in building a solid GPA.

Gerald Bradshaw is an international college admission consultant with Bradshaw College Consulting in Crown Point.

gerald_bradshaw@post.harvard.edu
Rachel Kunnen has been fascinated with science since fourth grade. After double majoring in biology and secondary education at Purdue Northwest, shes set to start a masters degree program in global health this fall at the University of Notre Dame. ( Purdue University Northwest )

Rachel Kunnen has been fascinated with science since fourth grade. Through the years, her interest in the subject has deepened and she decided to study biology when she enrolled at the Purdue University Northwest Westville campus.

Ultimately, she declared a double major and earned bachelor's degrees in biology and secondary education during the recent PNW commencement ceremonies.

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The Plymouth resident will continue her education at the University of Notre Dame to pursue a master's degree in global health.

"I chose this program because I always had a desire to help those in need," she said. "My parents taught me to leave the world a better place. I hope to achieve that goal by helping people in third-world countries."

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She would like to work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization. She also plans to earn her Ph.D.

Kunnen said she planned to start working toward her bachelor's degree at the Westville campus, then transfer to West Lafayette. But her plans quickly changed.

"After meeting my research adviser, (assistant professor of biology) Lindsay Gielda, I realized my area of interest in biology and found my true calling in the field of microbiology and the interactions that take place between pathogens on plant surfaces," Kunnen said.

Her work earned first place for poster presentations in the 2016 and 2017 PNW annual Student Research Day. In 2016, she presented her research at the Butler University Undergraduate Research Conference. She looks forward to presenting her current research in June at the 2017 ASM Conference in New Orleans.

In addition, Kunnen earned an Indiana Space Grant and a PNW Honors College Research Grant.

Her other campus activities included helping to transcribe videos for the School of Education & Counseling that will aid in research, and she worked with assistant professor of microbiology Scott Bates to help catalog all known fungal species in Indiana. She served as Honors College president, equestrian team president and captain, was as a member of Delta Sigma science club and Tri Beta biological honor society, and helped with the Delta Sigma Science Fair.

Off campus, she holds down a job and has volunteered with her local fire department and the Portage Animal Shelter.

Kunnen believed she had the usual worries and obstacles facing most college students, "trying to pay for college and afford groceries, keeping up with classes, maintaining a stable job and home life  the normal college stresses."

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Her advice to anyone contemplating attending PNW is to "write out the benefits and downfalls of the colleges that interest you."

She is pleased with her decision to pursue her degree at the Westville campus.

"PNW showed me the value of attending a smaller school," Kunnen said. "Attending a small school eased my transition from high school to college; I think many students will feel the same.

"PNW presents many opportunities. It was easy to form relationships with students and professors. Professors take time to speak with individual students. At PNW, you can experience the wonders of a small college."

Carol Connelly is director of media relations and communications for Purdue University Northwest's Westville campus.
Poster contest winners to be honored

Poster contest winners for the 17th annual Wolf Lake Bi-State Wetlands, Wind and Water Festival will be honored at 9:05 a.m. Saturday at the Environmental Education Center, 2405 Calumet Ave., Hammond. Local poster contest winners are: first place  China Williams of Emerson High School, Gary, and Cece Post of Discovery Charter School, Porter; second place  Latavia Cooks, Emerson High School, and Quinn Frey, Discovery Charter School; third place  Rachel Gallup, Discovery Charter School, and Ben Pollock, Cub Scout Pack 518 of Whiting; honorable mention  Rimecca Morris, Emerson High School; Logan Klein, Cub Scout Pack 518; Finn Dailey, Discovery Charter School; and William Malerich, Cub Scout Pack 518. The festival, sponsored by the Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative, is free to the public and will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to noon Sunday at the Environmental Education Center, Wolf Lake. The festival will feature rowing demonstrations, canoeing, fishing, kite flying, nature walks and bike tours. More information is at 312-220-0120 or 219-933-7149.

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Evening campground program

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore will host an evening program showcasing the area and its recreational opportunities from 8-9 p.m. Saturday at the Dunewood Campground Amphitheater, 645 Broadway Ave., Beverly Shores. More information is at 219-395-1882 or www.nps.gov/indu.

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Meeting to address potential merger

A town hall meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Ivy Tech Community college, 1440 E. 35th Ave., Gary, to discuss the potential merger of Methodist Hospitals in Gary and Merrillville and Franciscan Alliance Healthcare. The meeting will provide an opportunity for employees and residents to voice their concerns about the future of jobs and the delivery of health care services. More information is with Lorenzo Crowell at 219-380-1120 or lorenzo.crowell@seiuhcil.org.

Summer theater season to begin with a Splash of Red

The Dunes Summer Theatre season will kick off with a Splash of Red special event at 5:30 p.m. June 3 at 288 Shady Oak Drive, Michigan City. The evening will include a silent auction, food, drinks and live music followed by the production of "Red," a play by John Logan. After the play there will be a live auction of the artwork created for the play. Tickets for the event are online at www.dunesartsfoundation.org/boxoffice. Tickets also can be bought for future performances of "Red," playing now through June 4. More information is at 219-879-7509.

Library to celebrate Black Music Month

In observance of African-American Music Appreciation Month in June, the East Chicago Public Library, in collaboration the I Too Sing America Organization of Northwest Indiana Inc., will honor distinguished musicians with a program titled "Dance to the Music, an Apollo Theater Presentation." In addition, three artists will be inducted into the local Black Music Hall of Fame: Crystal L. Franklin, of Gary; Gregory Brokemond, of East Chicago; and Cheryl Frith-Brown, of Hammond. The induction ceremony and reception will be from 1 to 4 p.m. June 3 at the main library, 2401 E. Columbus Drive. The event is free and open to the public. More information is at 219-397-2453.

 Staff reports
Lawmakers said a two-year committee will study alcohol retail laws this year and other matters, including alcohol distribution, after the 2018 session. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune)

INDIANAPOLIS  Legislative leaders formally announced Thursday that they will form a study commission to look at ways to overhaul Indiana's antiquated and confounding alcohol laws.

Lawmakers announced 51 specific issues that will be given a closer look by committees during the summer and fall, including lead contamination, the placement of concentrated animal feeding operations and government regulation of short-term rental websites such as Airbnb. But the alcohol law study committee might generate the most public interest.

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Many of Indiana's booze laws date back to prohibition, filling a thick book that governs everything from how alcohol can be advertised to which types of retailers are allowed to sell cold beer. The latter became a heated issue during this year's legislative session after lawmakers discovered that the owner of Ricker's convenience stores found a legal loophole and obtained permits allowing him to sell cold  and not just lukewarm  beer at two locations.

In the final days of session, Republicans who control the Statehouse pushed through a bill that will likely prevent Ricker's owner Jay Ricker from renewing his licenses in the future. But amid populist uproar, they also pledged to consider a complete overhaul and left open the possibility of eliminating the state's prohibition on Sunday alcohol sales.

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Lawmakers said the two-year committee will study alcohol retail laws this year and other matters, including alcohol distribution, after the 2018 session.

"Let's deal with the most public topic of alcohol reform right off the bat," said Republican Senate leader David Long, of Fort Wayne. "I think the public probably wants that, as well, and we're reacting to that sentiment."

The state's entrenched liquor store industry, which has fought fiercely against changes that would affect its members' profits, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to lawmakers' campaign funds over the years.

Long and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma, of Indianapolis, said they hope to limit their influence on the study committee, which will be comprised of lawmakers and "laypeople." To do so, they pledged to bar alcohol permit holders and alcohol industry lobbyists from serving on the commission. They also plan to appoint someone who is not a member of the General Assembly, where liquor interests have considerable influence, to serve as its chairman.

Still, nothing will prohibit lawmakers on the commission from receiving donation from alcohol interests.

"It has crossed my mind also as an issue. We didn't know exactly how to deal with that," Bosma said. "But legislators study items all the time that of interest to the regulated community."

Bosma added that lawmakers need to be "mindful" of their "integrity."
The Gary Fire Department will use just a little more than $260,000 from a federal grant to pay for medical examinations for firefighters and other department personnel.

Money will come from an Assistance to Firefighters program grant provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The federal government provided funds to some 392 departments across the country and three in Indiana, including Gary, which will receive $261,364.

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Fire Chief Paul Bradley said the bulk of the grant would be used to pay for physical examinations for all fire department personnel, which numbers nearly 200.

Some of the funds also will be used to buy exercise equipment that will be placed at fire stations and at the department's training facility.

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"We believe that a healthy firefighter constitutes a healthy fire department, thus enabling us to better serve our city," Bradley said, in a prepared statement.

The program provides funds for emergency response organizations to purchase equipment, emergency vehicles and training for their officers.

The Gary Fire Department applied for this particular grant program with the help of U.S. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville. Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said she was pleased the congressman provided his assistance to get the funding.

"We are happy to receive this  grant that will assist in a number of upgrades for our firefighters," the mayor said.

Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
A broken window at Brunswick Elementary leads to a library still full of books. (Carole Carlson / Post-Tribune)

An American flag swirls in shredded tatters above Gary's deserted Brunswick Elementary School on West 7th Avenue where the grass hasn't been mowed this year.

A broken, tempered-glass library window lies on a sill offering easy access to the building. Someone already has been inside the library and scribbled graffiti above shelves still lined with books.

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Shirley Smith has a front-row seat in her living room to the decay and decline.

"People are destroying the building. It's depressing to see it like that. I wish they would at least cut the grass," said Smith, who's lived in her tidy, well-manicured ranch home for 50 years and sent all nine of her children to the school.

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If you're a vagrant or a vandal, there's plenty of school choice in Gary, where there are dozens of vacant and mostly open school buildings. They're mixed in and around some 9,000 vacant houses. Thirty schools have closed since 2003.

Those now-debased school buildings were once magical places that valued achievement and toasted accomplishments of kids meant to be the city's future. The schools carried names such as famed World War II journalist Ernie Pyle and scientist and inventor George Washington Carver.

Shirley Smith sent all nine of her children to now-closed Brunswick Elementary. (Carole Carlson / Post-Tribune)

Today, food wrappers, booze bottles and used syringes litter school grounds where weeds have overtaken rusted playground equipment. In the past six years, the bodies of three homicide victims were dumped at vacant Emerson, Horace Mann and Riley schools.

In the early morning of May 3, someone started a fire in the auditorium at Horace Mann, whose illustrious graduates include a Nobel Prize recipient and a Heisman Trophy winner.

The Gary Fire Department spent more than five hours pouring water into the school's hallowed auditorium. The fire seared the cushions off the seats. The school's front door remains open to new vandals or urban explorers like Michael Kinsch, of Chicago.

"This is horrible," he said of the destruction in the auditorium. Gripping a camera, he recorded the fire damage. Kinsch said he's been inside the school several times. "Nobody cares," he said of his presence in the old school.

The Gary School Board has made little progress disposing of or demolishing shuttered buildings that also include its former mold-infested central office at 620 E. 10th Place. In some cases, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service placed liens on buildings because the district owes more than $8 million in back payroll taxes.

In other instances, the school board resisted overtures to sell the property.

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The task is now out of the school board's hands.

A state-appointed emergency manager will take over in July and try to wrestle down the school district's debts, estimated at $103 million.

State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Merrillville, helped write the takeover bill, initiated by powerful statehouse Republicans. He'll advise the state on the takeover progress. Meanwhile, the school district will have little academic or fiscal authority.

Melton, a Horace Mann graduate, wants the emergency manager to secure the buildings quickly and develop a long-term plan for the empty schools that includes input from the community.

"It should be a top focus. It's definitely a public safety issue," he said. Melton said the school blight also hurts property values.

With the state now in control of the once-thriving school district, more closings are imminent as the academic and social fabric that once held neighborhoods together unravels like the flag above Brunswick.

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Smith and her neighbors remember the brighter times when Brunswick anchored the west side community, where there are fewer abandoned homes than other places in the city. The neighborhood put up a fight, but the school board closed Brunswick with four other schools in 2014.

Since then, Smith has complained about the overgrown grass and tattered flag, but nothing has changed.

Since the 1970s, the city's population has been in a steady freefall. Combined with state-mandated property tax caps that limited revenue and the advent of charter schools, the district's survival has been rocky, said Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson.

"The cliff came so quickly and the population loss so fast, you can't pivot that quickly," said Freeman-Wilson of the school district's dilemma.

She fields complaints regularly from citizens about abandoned schools. She took a photograph of Nobel Elementary and sent it to state Rep. Tim Brown, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means committee. She wanted him to understand the dangers of the crumbling schools as the state moves to take control.

Nobel's entire west wall is gone, exposing first and second floor classrooms still full of books and furniture. "Kids were playing there," said Freeman-Wilson. "It's a hazard." Nobel has been closed since 2006.

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Freeman-Wilson is hopeful some of the schools can be transformed or demolished, but there's no money available at this point. She said one local minister hopes to build an urban farm on the land where Emerson High School stands. She described Horace Mann's location as ideal for condominiums.

City Councilwoman LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, said there are more closed schools in her district than open ones.

"I propose giving them away if they're salvageable to non-profits," she said.

Meanwhile, Smith and her neighbors watch the grass go uncut and the shredded flag flutter over the battered school.

Booker Martin has lived across from Brunswick Elementary, in background, for 51 years. (Carole Carlson / Post-Tribune)

Booker Martin's front porch also provides a view of Brunswick. He's been in his home for 51 years. He could pack up, he says, but his wife doesn't want to leave.

"My two kids went to school there," said Martin, 79. "But they left; they felt like there were no jobs here."

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He's called police a few times after seeing people breaking into the school.

"I would like for them to tear the school down and build a park," Martin said.

"I just hope somebody can do something," adds Shirley Smith. "It used to be so nice."

Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

ccwriter16@gmail.com

Twitter: @ccwriterPT

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Closed Gary schools

2003: Washington Elementary

Edison Middle School

2004: Aetna Elementary

Horace Mann High School

Beckman Middle School

Riley Elementary

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Spaulding Elementary

2005: Carver Elementary

Locke Elementary

Norton Elementary

2006: Nobel Elementary School

Pittman Square Elementary

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Melton Elementary

2007: Emerson High School

Franklin Elementary

2009: Banneker Elementary

Chase Alternative Middle School

Ivanhoe Elementary

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Kuny Elementary

Ernie Pyle Elementary

Tolleston Middle School

John Vohr Elementary

2011: David O. Duncan Elementary

2014: Brunswick Elementary,

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Lew Wallace High School

Lincoln Achievement Center

Webster Elementary

2016: Williams Annex Middle School

2017: Jefferson Elementary*

New Tech High School at Gary Career Center*

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*closing in June
Drinking coffee with your dad out of a penguin mug "the size of my face" is a rite of passage probably better saved for one's teen years, Allie Westerfield admitted.

But when you're 10 and when you don't get to see your dad but on weekends, coffee with him becomes the coolest thing in the world, even if the memory would end up turning bittersweet in the end.

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Westerfield, the oldest child of fallen Gary Police Officer Jeffrey Westerfield, told the crowd Wednesday during the Hammond Police Department's annual Memorial to Fallen Officers at the Hammond Civic Center that the little things are what helps her get over the huge hole left in her soul. Jeff Westerfield was shot to death while on duty July 6, 2014; his killer pleaded guilty and was given life without parole.

"Being a survivor means holding on to the small things to get over the big humps. My wedding is next year, and my dad won't be there to walk me down the aisle  that's a huge hump for life, to be honest," Allie Westerfield said.

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But the kindness of her "blue family" as well as that of strangers continues to buoy her when it sometimes gets too much to bear.

"Every person in uniform tells me something wonderful about my dad or my mom, who's also a police officer," she said. "Or people come up to me in the store and say, 'Your dad was my hero; one time, he saved my life.'"

State Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, reminded the crowd that officer fatalities continue to rise each year; in 2016, 135 officers were killed in the line of duty in the United States. And those officers are the same people who witness the worst of humanity on a daily basis.

"They're the ones meeting with the next of kin, trying to help them come to terms with tragedy. They're the first ones to administer CPR of people under attack, and the first to remove babies from homes unfit to live in," he said. "They're also often the first person to listen to the lives of the lonely when they want to talk about the pictures on their walls. I can think of nothing as a truer hero than an officer and their families."

Fraternal Order of Police President Lt. Mike Elkmann described the awe and emotion he felt the last time he visited the Fallen Officers monument. And State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, a former Hammond Police officer, asked her fellow officers to keep looking after each other as much as they protect people on the street.

Michelle Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Tender Loving Spirits, a day care on West 53rd Avenue in Merrillville, is the subject of a change in town ordinance Merrillville wanted. ( Javonte Anderson / Javonte Anderson/Post-Tribune )

Merrillville's Town Council is hoping to get a new bill on day care regulations introduced in the Legislature next year, pointing to current state law that prevents the town from outlawing these centers in residential areas.

"The General Assembly for the last 10 to 20 years has actively pre-empted local governments from doing what they're supposed to do," Town Attorney John Bushemi told state Rep. Vernon Smith, D-East Chicago, during Tuesday's Town Council meeting.

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"As you continue to do your work, please be sensitive to the fact that the Town of Merrillville needs the ability to apply its authority," Bushemi said.

Smith attended the meeting to provide a synopsis of some of the bills enacted by the Legislature during its most recent session.

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The Town Council was looking to pass a new ordinance with tighter restrictions on day care centers after police discovered a center in town in deplorable condition and with loaded guns and other weapons and alcohol within the reach of the children there.

Police Chief Joseph Petruch recommended outlawing day care centers in residential areas, saying they could be better monitored in a business area.

However, upon doing research, Bushemi said he found a state law that pre-empts the town from outlawing day care centers in residential areas as part of the new ordinance.

"Under a special state law, day care centers must be allowed by the town in residential areas despite the fact that they can have up to 16 kids and that they are a business," Bushemi said.

He said the council still intends to pass an ordinance calling for annual licenses and inspections, complaint-driven inspections and code enforcement.

Smith agreed with Bushemi. He said more residents need to be heard and urged members of the Town Council to come to Indianapolis and put more pressure on the legislatorsto give them a better chance of being successful.

Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6th, said he'd like to meet with Smith and state Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point, to discuss the issue and perhaps get a bill introduced next year.

"If we can get Julie to authorize a bill, it would give it a lot of weight," Council President Richard Hardaway, D-2nd, said.

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Smith recommended the council invite the whole Northwest Indiana delegation to the meeting.

Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
An empty field sits on the west side of Manor Drive north of Ridge Road. A plan to expand the South Shore line into Munster and Dyer calls for a train station in that area. (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune)

Munster officials are happy that a planned South Shore Railroad station at Ridge Road and Manor Avenue has been moved to the vacant land on the west side of Manor.

Munster residents had voiced their displeasure with the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District's original proposed station site on the south side of Ridge. The Munster Town Council passed a resolution requesting NICTD change the location. Town officials had worked with residents, who initiated the resolution over the course of several meetings.

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"The town is very pleased with this result as it directly addresses the concerns it brought forward earlier this spring," Town Manager Dustin Anderson said. "NICTD has been consistent when they say they would listen to our comments and concerns."

In addition to a change in the station's location, the resolution seeks configuration of the station to eliminate one of the three traffic lights between easternmost Harrison Avenue and Manor. The resolution requests a traffic study to help facilitate safe passage of pedestrian and bicycle traffic near the station.

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Anderson said it's premature for NICTD to act on items other than changing the station site until the station is actually designed.

NICTD spokesman John Parsons said the original station site looked like a good fit, but the railroad was happy they could accommodate a different location. He said it was an example of how the community input process was supposed to work.

"At the end of the day, when you get public input you get a better project," he said, noting the new site for the South Shore rail yard on the north side of Hammond when residents objected to using the former Monon yard along 173rd Street.

Parsons hoped uncertainty over the West Lakes Corridor Project will start to level off and that the region will enter a time of acceptance. However, funding is well away from a done deal.

"Once you come to these decisions together as a community you can then move forward," he said.

There are still opportunities for the public to review plans and offer input. Land use concepts for areas adjacent to the Ridge station as well as one to be built at the Munster-Dyer border will be on display during a public meeting sponsored by NICTD at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 30 at the Centennial Park Clubhouse, Calumet Avenue and Centennial Drive, Munster.

Anderson said that the land use plans are only conceptual, but they may eventually influence potential zoning decisions for Munster.

"A zoning change could make the land more economically desirable," he said. "But if a property owner chooses not to sell or change the use, that is their right."

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Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Porter County prosecutor Brian Gensel announced Friday that a Portage Police Department officer who fatally shot a 39-year-old man in April "responded appropriately to the situation" and acted out of "self-defense," according to a press release.

William Spates, of Portage, was fatally shot during a traffic stop by Officer Grant Crizer, 34, on April 22 in the 5200 block of Royal Avenue in Portage, police said. Hours before, Spates had been released from the Porter County Jail after being arrested April 19 "for domestic battery and strangulation charges involving family members," according to the release.

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The announcement came as a surprise to his widow.

"My husband always respected the police," Marina Spates said in a Facebook message. "He wouldn't want to take his own life. His babies, who he loved dearly, were only 2 and 4. He had something to live for, his children."

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Crizer was placed on paid administrative leave after the April shooting. The Portage Police Department Shooting Review Board reviewed the incident and found that the shooting was "justified," according to Portage police Chief Troy Williams. As of Friday, Williams confirmed Crizer was back at work.

Williams said in a release Friday that the prosecutor's office determination "confirms that the response our officer took that evening based on Mr. Spates' actions were absolutely legal and justified, just as I had expected."

Before being taken to jail, Spates was transported to Porter Regional Hospital "because of physical distress complaints," according to the prosecutor.

"On the way to the hospital, Spates made comments to the transporting officer about not wanting to live if he was taken away from his family and asking what it would take for the officer to shoot him," Gensel said in the release.

Once Spates was cleared by hospital staff, he was taken to the jail, where he was read the terms of a no-contact order "preventing any contact with his wife and their children," and he also was "prohibited from being in the area of the family home on Brown Street," the release states.

While in jail, Spates violated the no-contact order "by attempting to call his wife numerous times," and while the two spoke briefly during some of the calls, "Spates was agitated and despondent," the release states.

Spates was bonded out of jail on April 21 by a family member, and he was supposed to stay in East Chicago with his mother, according to Gensel.

William Spates, of Portage, was killed by Portage police last month in this driveway on Royal Avenue. (Becky Jacobs / Post-Tribune )

At 1:47 a.m. on April 22, Crizer stopped Spates "for disregarding a stop sign at Brown Street and Mulberry Avenue," according to the release. Spates pulled into a driveway on Royal Avenue and gave false identification information "and appeared very emotional, indicating that he 'messed up' and didn't want to go back to jail," according to the prosecutor.

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Crizer asked Spates to exit the car several times, and Spates instead "started up the car in an attempt to leave," according to the release. Crizer activated his stun gun, hitting Spates in the arm, and Spates put the vehicle in reverse and rammed Crizer's vehicle parked behind him in an attempt to push it out of the way, according to Gensel.

"Crizer had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by the open door," the prosecutor said.

Crizer went to the front of the vehicle with his weapon drawn and continued to order Spates to comply, and "at that point, Crizer observed Spates reach for the gear shift, believing that Spates intended to put the vehicle in forward and hit him," the release states.

Crizer was boxed in by a fence and had no room to escape, and he "fired eight shots through the windshield and passenger window," according to the prosecutor.

Spates suffered "multiple gunshot injuries to the torso and head," according to the Porter County coroner's office. Toxicology reports for Spates had not been completed as of Thursday, according to Coroner Chuck Harris.

Williams previously said there was no body camera or dashcam footage of the incident, as the department does "not currently have that technology."

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But Gensel said that physical evidence collected at the scene, including vehicle damage and witness reports of a vehicle loudly revving its engine, verifies the officer's story. Witness statements also support Crizer's verbal attempts to get Spates to comply before firing his weapon, the prosecutor said. Gensel added that statements from family members and other witnesses "about his recent state of mind corroborate the officer's observations," according to the release.

"Officer Crizer responded appropriately to the situation and his decision to discharge his weapon was done in the course of reasonable self-defense as a result of the actions taken by Spates," Gensel concluded in the release.

Williams said Crizer "will have to live with the decisions Mr. Spates chose that evening," and said he commends the officer "on his ability to survive an encounter like that."

"Officer Crizer did not go to work that night looking to be involved in shooting, but he also did not go to work looking to be murdered by Mr. Spates, who tried to run him over with a 4,000-pound vehicle," Williams said.

While Williams said his focus "is not to speak ill of the deceased," he also said he is "not here to sugarcoat Mr. Spates' proclivity for violence and getting himself arrested."

Spates was arrested 21 times in 20 years in Indiana and Illinois, according to Williams. Gensel said in his release that "there was previous history of domestic violence."

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Some people "will want to dissect Officer Crizer's actions and his tenure as a police officer," but "it is only fair that the totality of Mr. Spates' criminal history be a part of the total narrative of this incident," Williams said.

Williams said Crizer "is a fundamentally sound, courteous and fair officer." Crizer was hired with the department in August 2014, serving with the Portage Police Department SWAT team. Crizer previously worked with Lake Station Police Department, and he had no disciplinary issues with either department, according to Williams.

Crizer previously received an Exception Service Award for an August 2015 incident in which he de-escalated a situation "without injury or incident" when an intoxicated driver raised his hands, mimicking a handgun pointed at Crizer and shouted "gun," Williams said.

Williams thanked the Porter County Sheriff's Office, with the assistance of Indiana State Police, for investigating the shooting and Gensel for reviewing the incident.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
The plans, when they became public, sounded simple enough.

Pavilion Partners, in a public/private partnership with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, would renovate the pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park to include fine dining and build an adjacent banquet center to host weddings and other festivities. Both facilities would have liquor licenses.

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The original plan, as revealed in February 2015, called for the snack bar, fine dining and other amenities at the pavilion to be complete by Memorial Day of that year. The rest of the work, including the banquet center, would be done in time for the start of the 2016 summer season.

On what should have been the one year anniversary of the project's completion this weekend, the pavilion remains gutted and shuttered, though Pavilion Partners has paid to repair the structure's roof and built new restrooms and showers to the west of the building. Plans for the pavilion will be released soon, with renovation to possibly begin around Labor Day, a spokesman for Pavilion Partners said.

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"As we continue to work with both the State of Indiana and our architects, we anticipate final renderings to be available in late June. Once we receive feedback from the state, we hope to begin renovation of the pavilion around Labor Day," Steve Patterson, spokesman for Pavilion Partners, said in an email.

Construction will continue through the winter, with an expected opening next spring.

Pavilion Partners hopes to be able to announce its partnership "with a well-known, family-friendly restaurateur" for the first floor and rooftop dining spaces at the pavilion next summer, Patterson said.

"The banquet facility has always been envisioned as phase two of this project and we would look to begin that work sometime in 2018," he added.

The 2015 proposal drew instant criticism and scrutiny. Hundreds of people crowded into public meetings about the project, held at the Dunes Visitor Center, Chesterton Middle School, and the Memorial Opera House.

They questioned serving liquor at the park after it was banned in the early 1990s because of safety concerns, and perceived secrecy between state officials and Pavilion Partners' principal, Valparaiso businessman Chuck Williams, on the project, as well as the use of public land for private profit.

Supporters touted the project as a way to bring visitors to the park year-round and provide a unique dining and event experience that would draw even more people to the already popular park.

After a request for a liquor license bounced between Porter County and state boards and a public hearing drew more than 500 people to the Porter County Expo Center, during which the county board voted against a license for Pavilion Partners, the state law was changed to allow state parks to apply for liquor licenses.

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Dunes Action, a grassroots group that opposes alcohol at the park and the construction of the banquet center, is waiting to hear back from state and federal officials about a land conversion, to make up for property lost for recreational purposes because of the project.

Because the DNR receives federal grant money for Indiana Dunes State Park, it must adhere to the tenets of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, which requires the conversion.

Officials from the National Park Service determined in the fall that the DNR will not need to come up with recreational land to make up for the fine dining restaurant and other amenities at the pavilion, a decision disputed by Dunes Action, but will have to find comparable land with the construction of the 17,000-square-foot banquet center.

Dan Bortner, director of the DNR's Division of State Parks and Reservoirs, said in an email he had little to report in the way of updates on the project.

"As planned, we are working our way through the Land and Water Conservation requirements during this recreation season," he said.

Dunes Action co-founder Jim Sweeney said any action by the group is "in a holding pattern" until DNR officials complete their work on the conversion and file it with the National Park Service.

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"I think all parties agree the new building would have to be converted," he said, adding despite the National Park Service's determination, Dunes Action believes a conversion should be required for the pavilion as well.

He hasn't heard from the DNR in more than a year, and said the lease agreement between the DNR and Pavilion Partners, under which Pavilion Partners is paying the state $18,000 a year for 35 years with the option of a 30-year renewal, will have to be changed to reflect the conversion.

"I don't know if the project is dead or they're ready to start construction," Sweeney said, adding the project can't move forward without the blessings of the National Park Service because of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act.

Amy Lavalley is freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
A Hebron house tipped over at the northwest corner of the intersection of North Jefferson Street and U.S. 231 is shown on a 1917 postcard. (Steve Shook photo )

Matt Mullins turned a tarnished 1879 silver dollar in his fingers.

The coin, he said, was in the pocket of his great-grandfather, Ephraim Burrell "Burly" Pratt, 52, when Pratt died on May 29, 1917, three days after he was injured when a tornado swept through Kouts and Hebron.

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Mullins, 53, is the fourth generation of his family to be born in Hebron and the fifth or sixth generation to live there. He said he received the coin from his grandfather, Edward Mullins, who died around 1972.

"My grandfather left this for me," Mullins said.

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The coin, put away for safekeeping at the time, came with a note from his grandfather, "Matthew: Here is a start on your first Million Dollars with (the) last dollar your Great Grandfather had. Grandpa Mullins."

The coin is a reminder of May 26, 1917, when a tornado tore through southern Porter County before it dissipated east of Kouts, part of an outbreak of tornadoes that day in the Midwest.

Five people died in Porter County the day of the storm or in the days that followed. According to the website www.porterhistory.org, also killed were C.J. Bessecker of New York City, a cook for a railroad crew; Fairy P. "Julia" Lane, 15, of Kouts, who was struck by a falling tree; Leslie Maurice Kenney, 13, of Hebron, killed by a flying timber; and Daniel Benton Resh, 70, of Kouts, who died when his home was destroyed. Dozens of people were injured.

Property loss in Porter County alone was estimated at $500,000, approximately $9.5 million in today's economy, officials said.

"The tornado of 1917 that went through Hebron and Kouts was by all accounts the most intense tornado to ever hit Porter County," said Bart Wolf, a Valparaiso University meteorology and geography professor, during a recent program on the tornado at the Porter County Museum.

There were no warning sirens at the time and the technology to predict such storms wasn't developed until the 1940s, he said, adding meteorologists didn't start rating tornadoes until 1971.

Ultimately, using historical accounts from the time, meteorologists believe the tornado rated an F-4, which account for about 1 percent of the tornadoes that strike each year.

"Those are the most violent," Wolf said. "That's what the 1917 tornado was."

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The tornado, which started in Illinois, traveled eastward roughly along what is now Indiana 8, producing hail up to 10 inches in circumference and destroyed or heavily damaged homes, businesses and orchards in its path, as well as killing livestock in the two farm communities.

Porter County historian Kevin Pazour, who also is executive director of the Porter County Museum, provided an account of the storm written by Ira Fry, who lived in Hebron as a child at the time.

"In midday some clouds drifted in and the sky became overcast. Later in the afternoon a few rumblings of thunder were heard; a darkening sky presaged a summer thundershower  yet there was a definite difference," Fry wrote, recalling how his father, recognizing the signs of a tornado, rushed home and ushered the family into the basement, where they could hear the storm overhead.

The saving grace in the storm's aftermath, said Pazour and Wolf, was the outpouring of volunteers who came out after the tornado, including Boy Scouts and members of the county's chapter of the American Red Cross.

Lucy Doty Putnam founded the chapter on April 26, a month before the storm, Pazour said.

"Thank goodness they were going through the anticipation of World War I, because it really put them into action," he said.

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Mullins said he has heard the story about what happened to his great-grandfather the day of the tornado many times. The family was in a barn at the time.

"He sent the rest of the family back to the cellar, including my grandfather, and was going to follow but was hit by a barn timber," he said, adding folks tending to his great-grandfather did what they could at the time to save him.

Everyone in Mullins' family alive at the time of the tornado died long before he was born, but the story of what happened that day lived on.

"They watched the sky. They listened. That's all they could do," he said.

Mullins' aunt, Alice Finstad, 86, still lives in Hebron and she heard the stories, too. The family's home, at the corner of North Main Street and McAlpin Street on the town's north side, made it through the storm, though it was damaged.

Finstad said she slept in her grandfather's room when she was growing up. "It wasn't haunted," she said. He owned a livery stable, selling horses to merchants in Chicago, as well as having acreage with livestock. He was a well-thought-of businessman at the time, she said.

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Though Finstad said there wasn't much talk in her family about the tornado, its impact was long lasting.

"My mother (Eva Pratt Mullins) was always afraid of storms," since her father had been killed by the tornado, Finstad said, adding her mother would bring the family to the first floor of the family's home.

"I'm not afraid of storms so it didn't bother me," Finstad said, "but my mother, she lived through it."

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
St. John residents demanded Thursday that town councilmen name the person who proposed a resolution that would explore making the board's five members eligible for benefits through the Indiana State Retirement System, even potentially making those benefits retroactive to when they were first elected.

The council voted unanimously to give Council President Michael Forbes permission to write a letter to the Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) offices to say that the council will no longer pursue the proposition.

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"This letter will eliminate any further discussion of PERF during our terms," Forbes said.

The resolution, which has since been dropped, would have been a first step toward members becoming eligible for retirement benefits through PERF. The councilmen were prepared to vote on the resolution at the meeting Thursday.

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Although the proposal was dropped earlier in the week, the St. John Town Hall meeting room was filled and residents let the council know what they thought of the resolution.

"I can't believe you would think of padding your pockets with a retirement plan that would require our taxpayers to fund it," Gerald Swets, president of the St. John Homeowners Association, said. "Sounds like greed to me. When you tried to sneak it through quickly, it was bad government. I hold all of you guys responsible for this, not anyone in particular. At last month's meeting, no one spoke up against it."

The resolution, as originally proposed, would include the members in to join PERF starting in January 2018, pending approval from the state retirement system. The town would cover the 3 percent contribution to the retirement plan.

Many residents were quick to criticize the proposal, signing a petition and citing the amount of money it could cost taxpayers.

The petition and subsequent Facebook group, "No PERF for Town Council Members" was created by resident David Delgado, who posted a live stream of the entire meeting on Facebook.

Delgado stood before the council, asking them to vote on the issue and "put it to bed," instead of merely signing a letter. He also demanded they admit who brought up the resolution in the first place.

"We'd like to know whose idea this was," he said. "This didn't just drop out of the clear, blue sky. Does anyone want to say whose idea this was?"

Forbes denied that he ever agreed with the proposition.

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"It just seems wrong," Delgado said. "Town council is less than part time. They only work a few hours a month. They're trying to give themselves a full pension, retroactive to their election to the town council. It's just wrong."

Resident Joe Hero also spoke up at the meeting, asking the council the repeated question of the night  Who started it?

"You were all caught padding your pockets," Hero said. "You took a cowardly retreat. Is anyone going to admit that they started it?"

Samantha Gross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Schaumburg is the latest Illinois community to enter into an agreement with Airbnb that will allow the village to begin receiving taxes from the online vacation rental giant.

Starting Thursday, an 8 percent hotel and motel tax will be added to the cost of Airbnb rentals in the village, according to the home-sharing business and Schaumburg officials.

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News of the agreement comes nearly a year after the village board approved an ordinance to make it clear that short-term vacation rental properties advertised on sites like Airbnb and Vacation Rentals by Owner are subject the same tax as local hotels and motels.

Schaumburg officials were prompted to consider village-wide regulations of such rentals after learning about an elaborate furnished treehouse in town advertised for rent on Airbnb.

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Schaumburg resident Dan Alexander has used Airbnb to rent out his treehouse  which includes a fireplace, air-conditioning, WiFi and cable TV  to travelers since 2013.

Airbnb and similar online platforms match up travelers with property owners who rent out rooms or entire homes.

Alexander said he encouraged village officials to hammer out a tax remittance agreement with Airbnb because financial transactions between hosts and renters are all handled through the online platform. Without the agreement, hosts would have to collect and remit the tax to the village themselves, which Alexander said "doesn't work with the Airbnb scenario where we don't exchange money."

Airbnb spokesman Ben Breit said the agreement ensures the village will recoup 100 percent of the taxes they're owed from company bookings.

"I think an important thing to keep in mind when considering Airbnb hosts is the vast majority are not professional vacation rental people," he said. "They're just regular folks sharing a room. ... (The agreement) just makes it easy for everyone."

Though the village passed the ordinance requiring Airbnb hosts to pay the tax, Lisa Happ, Schaumburg's finance director, said it took some effort to just to reach the appropriate company representatives to begin negotiations.

She said village officials finally began talks with the company this spring and the taxation agreement was finalized over the course of a few weeks. Happ said she's not sure how much the village can expect to receive in tax revenue from Airbnb because "we don't have any estimates as far as how often the listings are actually being rented."

The agreement is not retroactive, meaning the village won't receive any taxes from bookings prior to June 1, Breit said.

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There are about 15 Schaumburg homeowners currently renting rooms or entire houses, including Alexander's treehouse, on the platform, Breit said, adding the number has grown over the past couple of years.

The company has similar agreements with other Illinois municipalities, including Oak Park and Chicago, though the Chicago ordinance, which both regulates and taxes home-sharing rentals, was delayed by lawsuits and continues to face legal challenges.

Travelers booking Airbnb stays in Chicago are subject to a 4.5 percent hotel accommodation tax and a 4 percent shared housing surcharge. Oak Park officials approved a 4 percent tax on Airbnb rentals last fall. According to the company's website, some listings in Cook County are also subject to a 1 percent county tax.

Breit said the tax agreements vary depending on the state. In Illinois, he said, hotel and motel occupancy taxes are typically assessed by individual municipalities and "we don't have the resources to reach out to everyone."

"What we try to do is make it known far and wide this is important to us that we want to help our hosts pay their fair share and help local governments collect what they're owed," Breit said.

While Alexander thinks Schaumburg's 8 percent tax "is a little high," he said he's happy to contribute to the village's finances so long as he's not the only Airbnb host paying it. He's still renting out his treehouse on Airbnb, and it's frequently booked for stays, he said, so he hopes the new tax won't hurt business.

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"Hopefully, it won't have too big of an effect," he said. "But the village wants their cut, and they're going to get it."

Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter.
An Illinois State Police, seen in the side mirror in this April 26, 2017 file photo, keeps an eye out for drivers who are using their cellphones as troopers are ticketing drivers as well as giving warnings. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune )

The nearly 300 distracted driving tickets area police officers collectively issued recently could mean thousands of dollars in revenue for municipalities, but, officials say, also demonstrates how common it is for motorists to drive while using devices.

In May, police officials began releasing results from Distracted Driver Awareness Week enforcement, giving a count of how many people were ticketed during the April 24 through April 28 initiative for such no-no's as texting and driving, operating a vehicle while using a cell phone and other outlawed distractions.

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Police departments from the villages of Niles, Skokie, Evanston, Lincolnwood and Morton Grove were among the scores of law enforcement agencies statewide that participate in the effort.

"We're looking to raise public awareness of distracted driving in the same way we address drunk driving, speed safety and seat belt use," said Park Ridge Deputy Police Chief Lou Jogmen, who chairs the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police's Traffic Safety Committee.

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The organization asked lawmakers to officially establish the awareness week, which was done through resolutions passed in the Illinois General Assembly.

"One week is not going solve this problem, but it engages both police officers and members of the public who may not know the finer details of distracted driving laws," he said.

Of the five nearby reporting police departments, Niles police issued the highest number of citations, with 155 police pullovers resulting in 130 written citations issued  each with a $100 fine  and 25 verbal warnings issued without a fine.

Sgt. Ronald Brandt, commander of the Niles Police Department Traffic Unit, praised the enforcement effort, but expressed doubt about his department's ability to sustain that level of intensity on a regular basis.

"Doing a blitz is great but we could never hold up that kind of dedication year-round," Brandt said.

Niles police Commander Robert Tornabene explained that the verbal warnings don't go undocumented. He said those are logged by police and "if they are stopped again, they get cited."

In neighboring Skokie, police officers pulled over 72 drivers for distracted driving, but only issued 21 written citations. Fifty-one motorists got off with a verbal warning, according to citation records.

Skokie police's Deputy Chief Brian Baker said his department has given distracted driving "a good level of importance" among patrolling officers.

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"Our officers see the effects of distracted driving every day out on the streets in the form of accidents and fatalities," said Baker. "In the past, our biggest concern was speed, which is equally dangerous."

Under the guidelines of the five-day effort, said Jogmen, participating police departments across Illinois were asked to voluntarily assign a discretionary number of patrol officers to enforce the distracted driving law passed in 2014.

The legislation prohibits the use of "hand-held cell phones, texting or using other electronic communications while operating a motor vehicle," according to information on the Ill. Secretary of State website.

Devices include hand-held wireless telephones, hand-held digital assistants and laptop computers, according to police.

The three-year-old law prohibits listening and talking on an electronic device, text messaging, sending, reading or listening to an electronic message and browsing the Internet, officials said.

Evanston police reported issuing 54 written citations and 12 verbal warnings to drivers over the five days. Police Commander Joe Dugan confirmed that about six officers were assigned to patrolling for distracted driving violations.

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All five of the law enforcement agencies did not provide the names of people ticketed for distracted driving because it is more an ordinance violation or petty offense. The scofflaws are fined, but not arrested and charged with a crime, officials said.

But in announcing the North Shore city's participation in the enforcement effort, Evanston officials noted National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics about incidents involving distracted motorists.

According to NHTSA, Evanston officials quoted, in 2015 there were 3,477 people killed and nearly 400,000 injured in car accidents involving distracted drivers. Further, 10 percent of fatal crashes, 15 percent where someone was injured and 14 percent of police-reported crashes were said to be caused by distracted driving.

"A driver using a cell phone while waiting at a traffic light or stop sign is also in violation of the law," said Dugan.

In Lincolnwood, the smallest of the five area towns, police issued a total of 18 written citations and 35 warnings, devoting a total of five officer hours to the Distracted Driving Week initiative.

"I know that several years ago, when this was a new law, officers issued a lot of warnings," said Sgt. Laura Namovicz, head of the Lincolnwood Police Department's traffic unit. "We're at a point now where it's taken very seriously. Cell phones contribute to a lot of accidents."

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Morton Grove police Commander Ed Panko confirmed that 39 officer hours were dedicated to the initiative, resulting in 27 written citations and 16 verbal warnings.

Panko said his department has seen a significant rise in serious car accidents caused by distracted driving.

"We're seeing more rear end collisions at speednot just low speed fender benders," said Panko. "It's because people are texting and don't realize the car in front has stopped."

Panko said drivers using cell phones as navigational tools are also in violation of statewide distracted driving laws.

"A phone in a hand is just as dangerous as texting," Panko said. "Unless a device is permanently affixed to a car, it's considered distracted driving."

Jogmen said that 75 percent of all participating law enforcement agencies have reported their distracted driving tallies to the IACP, with the remaining 25 percent expected be the end of May. Jogmen says the association will recognize the top five to 10 performing agencies with a certificate or plaque.

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The Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police launched the traffic safety initiative this year  for the first time ever  in partnership with the Automobile Association of America, the Illinois State Police and over 200 state and local agencies, officials said.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said he supports the effort.

"I do believe that with public education and vigilant law enforcement efforts, we can work to reduce the number of traffic crashes and fatalities caused by distracted driving," White said.

Libby Elliott is a freelancer
Frisch maintains razor-thin lead in CD-3 after new data reported in Pueblo County

Frisch's lead over Boebert has been in decline as more counties in CD-3 continue to report results after election day
Our weekly round up of other news affecting foreign investors throughout Asia:

Individual Income Tax in Malaysia for Expatriates

Personal Income taxation in Malaysia is laid out in general terms under the Income Tax Act of 1967. In this article, we explain how expatriates should calculate their individual income tax in Malaysia. We highlight exceptions to tax rates and penalties for noncompliance.

Indias GST Rates for Goods and Services Released ahead of July 1 Implementation

Effective July 1, 2017, the GST will serve as a single value added tax, replacing the current structure of multiple taxes. In this article, we report on the final GST Schedules released for goods and services by the GST Council, and analyze the possible impact on consumers and businesses.

Indonesia Targets Maritime in OBOR Investment Push

The Indonesian Government has developed a deliberately limited portfolio of projects for Chinese businesses to invest in as part of the OBOR maritime routes. Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) chairman Thomas Lembong has confirmed that Indonesia would only offer infrastructure projects in a limited number of regions as the government had found that a lack of focus could make Chinese investors hesitant.

Russia Connecting With India Via International North-South Transport Corridor

While all eyes have been on China concerning Silk Road developments and the so-called One Belt, One Road initiative, other countries have also quietly been engaging in massive infrastructure projects that essentially accomplish the same aims  interconnecting Eurasia. One of these quiet projects is the plan to link India and Russia via the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

Azerbaijani Banking Crisis Threatens To Spill Into Caucasus, EU & Central Asia

The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) has defaulted on scheduled repayment loans and declared that it needs to restructure its debts. This has been followed by an immediate downgrading of IBA debt to Caa3, meaning the debt is now classed as extremely risky.

Da Nang Emerging as Southeast Asias Next Startup Hub

Da Nang is emerging as one of the fastest growing startup cities in Southeast Asia. Read more for a breakdown of investment trends and government programs.



About Us Our Briefing updates are written by and provided by the various regional offices of Dezan Shira & Associates throughout Asia. To obtain a complimentary subscription to Asia Briefing please click here. To contact Dezan Shira & Associates concerning foreign investment and assistance in Asia, please email us at asia@dezshira.com

Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in ASEAN 2017

Doing Business in ASEAN introduces the fundamentals of investing in the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, concentrating on economics, trade, corporate establishment and taxation. We also include the latest development news in our Important Updates section for each country, with the intent to provide an executive assessment of the varying component parts of ASEAN, assessing each member state and providing the most up-to-date economic and demographic data on each.

An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017

Doing Business in China 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates in January 2017, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Hong Kong 2017

Doing Business in China 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates in January 2017, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017

An Introduction to Doing Business in India 2017 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in India. As such, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Indian market, but also for companies who already have a presence here and want to stay up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2017

An Introduction to Doing Business in Singapore 2017 provides readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Singapore and outlines the citys role as a trading hub within ASEAN. The guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, and social insurance in the city-state.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017

An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 will provide readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Vietnam. Compiled by Dezan Shira & Associates, a specialist foreign direct investment practice, this guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, payroll, and social insurance in this dynamic country.
With the scope and penalties of Chinas social credit system being further clarified in 2021, legal and regulatory compliance has become more important than...
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The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), one of the country's largest lenders, said Thursday it had issued a 500 million euro (560 million U.S. dollars) of loan to German car giant Volkswagen Group.

It is the first loan that ABC has given to Volkswagen.

The cross-border loan was granted by ABC branches in China's Tianjin, Frankfurt, Dubai and Britain, with the Tianjin branch loaning 200 million euros.

"The new loan business to overseas firms is conducive to improving the brand image of Chinese banks," the bank said.

Volkswagen is one of the world's largest automakers. China is the most important market for the group, which sold almost 4 million vehicles in the country in 2016.
As China's total imports are expected to reach $8 trillion in the next five years, it will bring immense business opportunities for companies in the United States to further balance bilateral trade, the Ministry of Commerce said in a major report released on Thursday.

Phil Miles of Maine Coast company carries a lobster in Portland, Maine, the United States, March 29, 2017. In 2016, China bought 40.9 million dollars' worth of lobsters from Maine, where most of America's lobsters are caught. [Photo/Xinhua]

Products and goods from the energy industry, agriculture, general manufacturing and services will boost trade between the two countries, according to the Research Report on China-US Economic and Trade Relations.

China also plans to import more US soybeans and cotton as well as advanced manufactured items such as passenger aircraft, integrated circuits and machine tools, it said.

"An increase in these imports will support China's services and also help us upgrade our industrial sectors," said Sun Jiwen, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.

Sino-US trade surged from $2.5 billion in 1979 to $524.3 billion last year. It also accounted for 14.1 percent of China's total foreign trade in 2016, according to the General Administration of Customs.

China and the US also will discuss plans to expand US film imports this year, according to the report.

"Economic globalization is a basis for further development of China-US trade relations," Sun said.

China is a manufacturing powerhouse in mid-and low-end goods. But the US is still the dominant player in high-value industries. The US also has an extremely sophisticated service industry and thrives on innovation, research and development.

"China and the US still have sensitive economic fields and their own focuses of concern," Sun said. "Factors such as national conditions and stages of development determine the status, division of labor and openness of the two countries in a globalized world."

The report also stressed that the US continues to enforce high-tech export controls to China, which prohibits the sale of a range of highly competitive products in the country. This has played a big role in slowing down the exchange of scientific and technological knowledge.

In 2001, US high-tech exports accounted for 16.7 percent of China's imports of similar goods. Last year, the figure fell to 8.2 percent.

"A historical view of their differences is important to accurately grasp the trend and development of bilateral economic and trade relations between China and the US," Sun said.

Still, closer trade ties look possible, according to Wei Jianguo, vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Wei is confident the China-US Bilateral Investment Treaty can be completed under the 100-day action plan agreed on by the two countries.

This will cover a range of sectors like agriculture, financial services and energy.

"The key to the negotiations lies in the negatives," said Wei. "It's likely that the US thinks China's negative list is too long." A negative list shows areas where investment is prohibited; all other areas as presumed open.

"China ought to take action like relaxing foreign equity limits for banks, while the US should consider opening its high-tech sector to China."
Contracting annual PC shipments and declining mobile phone sales cast a shadow over the outlook for Lenovo Group Ltd on Thursday, despite the technology giant reporting a profit turnaround in the 2016 fiscal year.

A model holds the new device YOGA 710 of Chinese company Lenovo just released at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 23, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Hong Kong-listed company reported a $535 million profit in the fiscal year ended Mar 31, recovering from its $128 million loss a year earlier. However, Lenovo's annual revenue fell 4 percent from the previous fiscal year to $43 billion.

The revenue of its personal computer and smart device business group, which accounts for around 70 percent of Lenovo's total income, decreased 2 percent year-on-year to $30.10 billion. Its global PC unit shipments decreased by 1 percent from a year earlier to 55.7 million units. Consumer PC unit shipments declined 6 percent year-on-year.

Although Lenovo still had the top spot in terms of PC shipments in 2016, competitors such as HP Inc and Dell Technologies are catching up rapidly, registering annual growth of 1.3 percent and 4.3 percent respectively, according to technology market research firm International Data Corp.

While Lenovo retained the largest slice of the global PC market21.3 percentin 2016, HP narrowed the gap by taking 20.9 percent, according to IDC. A year earlier, Lenovo took 20.8 percent, while HP had 19.4 percent.

Facing difficulties in its PC business, the 33-year-old PC firm has invited Liu Jun, its former executive vice president, to re-join Lenovo on May 16 to take charge of its biggest business sector.

Before he left the company in June 2015, Liu had worked with Lenovo for 22 years, and was responsible for its PC business. He introduced the business model of combining commercial and consumer PC sectors to Lenovo, helping it consolidate its leading position in the industry.

Upon Liu's return, Lenovo has also announced that it will reorganize its business in China. It will set up two independent groupsa personal computer and smart devices group and a digital center group.

While its PC business is confronted with growing competition, Lenovo's mobile sector, which accounts for around 18 percent of the company's revenue, is deteriorating. The unit's losses widened to $566 million from $469 million a year earlier.

Lenovo shipped only 15 million mobile phones in 2015, plummeting from 47.3 million in 2014. And this further contracted to 5 million in 2016, leaving Lenovo nowhere to be found among the top five mobile phone makers list in China. It also announced last month it would scrap the ZUK mobile phone brand.

However, Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chief executive officer, said the company was not prepared to give up on the mobile phone sector. He said earlier this year it would try to "reset" the situation.

Lenovo rose 3.7 percent to close at HK$5.05 (65 cents) on Thursday.
Logistics giants UPS and SF Holding on Friday announced a joint venture to provide international delivery service from China to the US and eventually include other destinations.

SF Holding, the parent company of SF Express, is China's largest delivery service; UPS is the world's largest express delivery company. The joint venture will combine SF's extensive Chinese network with UPS' global network across 220 countries and territories.

The joint venture is an opportunity to penetrate the small- and medium-sized businesses in China, said Alan Gershenhorn, chief commercial officer at UPS. "[We'll be] providing much deeper opportunities for those Chinese businesses," he said.

Gershenhorn said that SF Holding was a natural partner because of the company's comprehensive coverage of China and market dominance. "This is one of those one-plus-one-equals-10 type of opportunities," he said, combining SF Express' coverage across China and UPS' delivery network.

China is expected to be the largest express delivery market in the world by 2020, with revenue predicted at more than $100 billion.

"China is leading the world in terms of e-commerce market size, growth, penetration and mobile business usage," said Alan Wong, SF's group vice-president, in a statement.

"Coupled with a rapidly growing and internet-savvy consumer base, it's imperative that SF and UPS collaborate to revolutionize the logistics sector,'' he said. ``Together, we aim to bring greater competitive advantages to our customers in China, to succeed globally."

UPS has been operating out of China since 1988, but US courier services like UPS and FedEx have had limited market share in China where local players dominate.

"This is just another step on the journey here" in China,Gershenhorn said.

UPS said it moves about 19 million packages a day. It does not break out sales figures or activity in China, but the company reported in its first-quarter earnings that average daily export volumes in the Asia-Pacific region were up by more than 10 percent.

International revenue increased 4.9 percent year-on-year to $3.1 billion.

Shenzhen-based SF Express reported profit of $609 million last year, with annual growth rate three times that of 2015. It delivered more than 31 billion packages in 2016.

It went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in March, bringing its founder Wang Wei's net worth to $27.6 billion and making him the third-richest man in China behind Dalian Wanda Group's Wang Jianlin and Alibaba's Jack Ma.

The Chinese e-commerce boom from the last decade led by Alibaba has made SF Holding one of the most valuable tech stocks in Shenzhen, with the company's market cap at $29 billion.

The company has about 117,000 employees, 80,000 of whom are couriers. It was the first courier service in China to have its own fleet of aircraft, and announced in February that it will build its own airport in Ezhou by 2020.
Chinese media should be innovators in news coverage and dissemination, the publicity chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said Thursday.

"The CPC stresses integrated media development and fostering a new type of mainstream media. The CPC underscores media innovation to make their products more accessible," Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said when addressing a seminar attended by Chinese and Vietnamese Communist Party members to discuss Party leadership in publicity.

Liu said the CPC has always considered news reporting and publicity work as an important part of state governance and stability. He said since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has improved the Party's leadership in publicity to inspire the whole nation to work for a better future.

"The CPC will continue to lead the media so that it guides public opinion toward a right direction, and the CPC counts on mainstream media to unite and inspire the people to form cohesion," Liu said.

Vietnamese media organizations are also working to transform themselves to meet the reality of new media, said Vo Van Thuong, Liu's counterpart in Vietnam.

Liu and Thuong held talks Wednesday on consolidating the relationship between the two parties and countries and had exchanges on deepening cooperation between publicity departments and media outlets.
The deployment of armaments on southern China's Hainan Island is within the country's sovereign right and the so-called no-fly zone is entirely fabricated by Japanese media, according to a spokesperson with the Ministry of National Defense Thursday.

Ren Guoqiang made the remarks in response to a question on a Japanese report that "China is apparently beginning to build a no-fly zone in the South China Sea," for the deployment of a HQ-9 surface-to-air missile air defense system on Hainan Island.

"I was surprised at the large scale of the fabrication," Ren said.

In response to a question on the Diaoyu Islands, Ren said that the Diaoyu island and its affiliated islets are China's inherent territory since ancient times, and China's official activities were within the country's sovereignty.

"China's armed forces will fully monitor Japan's relative activities and take necessary measures," Ren added.
Companies and individuals donate more than 6 million yuan for needy children to continue their education during a fundraising night in Beijing on May 24, 2017. [Photo by Li Huiru / China.org.cn]

Just days ahead of International Children's Day, the Showyes Project, together with Voices of the Youth (Chinese: http://qnzs.youth.cn/), launched a fundraising night in Beijing on May 24. The activity is one of a series of charity projects dating back to 2015.

Voices of the Youth, a social networking platform under the All-China Youth Federation, launched the targeted poverty alleviation scheme together with China Social Welfare Foundation's Showyes Project that year in response to Chinese President Xi Jinping's call for "high precision" poverty relief during a Communist Party of China symposium on poverty relief and economic and social development in the 2016-2020 period.

In China's underdeveloped areas, left-behind children whose parents are migrant workers in big cities, orphans and children from very poor families frequently face the risk of being withdrawn from school and even going hungry. Education and skill training are effective ways to help them shake off poverty.

Aiming at helping needy children with vocational training and reeducation, and further supporting them with careers guidance, the project is seen as hopefully helping plug a skills shortage in poor areas.

The object of this fundraising night is to raise enough money to support as many as 1,000 Chinese children continue their education.

During the fundraising activity, Perfect (China) Co., Ltd, together with other caring companies and individuals donated a total amount of more than 6 million yuan, which will benefit poor students from Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, Yunnan, Hebei, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces to realize their dream of going to school.

According to Jin Dong, an administrative staff member of Voices of the Youth, the activity is one of many important measures in realizing The Middle- and Long-term Youth Development Plan (2016-2025) released recently by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council.
Officials and representatives from international organizations, embassies as well as businesses launch the Global Poverty Reduction Online Knowledge Sharing Database in Beijing, May 26, 2107. [Photo/China.org.cn]

The Global Poverty Reduction Online Knowledge Sharing Database was launched on Friday at the 2017 China Poverty Reduction International Forum in Beijing being attended by officials and representatives from international organizations, embassies as well as businesses.

Created by the Global Poverty Reduction & Inclusive Growth Portal (GPIG), the database ( http://case.iprcc.org.cn/ ) is a platform to share successful models of poverty reduction from both China and the international community, which is distinguished by its use of tree diagrams, standardized templates and a strong network of contributors.

Designed for worldwide use, its systematic presentation of poverty alleviation cases is unprecedented. Through the use of the tree diagrams, it provides a clear depiction of how China and other international bodies are seeking to address the problem, in particular focusing on cases with a high degree of technical applicability for various countries. To facilitate social participation, the platform contains a guide to help users upload cases in standard templates.

The Chinese poverty reduction cases are divided into three categories: market-oriented, government-led, and community-driven. The international cases are classified as poverty reduction through increasing opportunities, improving human capital and capacity, and through reducing vulnerability. Each has various subcategories.

By analyzing factors impacting poverty reduction, the diagrams extract experiences in a more intuitive way, inspiring the international community, low-income nations in particular, to rapidly grasp specific successful practices so as to be able to learn from or even replicate them. It is hoped that the process will generate new solutions to poverty alleviation problems.

The database benefits from a strong network of contributors. While the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) is taking the lead on the Chinese side by leveraging its own resources and its partnerships with universities and research institutes, a raft of international organizations also play their part.

With major contributions from the World Bank, GPIG is also building strong partnerships with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The public are also encouraged to upload cases that they believe could be valuable.

As a systematic project, it is planned to summarize new poverty alleviation strategies, develop new representative cases, and add them to the database on a regular basis in the future. It is expected that, after years of efforts, the database will evolve into a knowledge-sharing center in the fields of poverty reduction and south-south cooperation.

China has recorded tremendous achievements in poverty alleviation by lifting more than 700 million people out of backwardness. However, there is a lack of comprehensive or systematic publicity of China's experience in the existing research.

Meanwhile, in the process of building a well-off society in an all-round way, China has been constantly exposed to new challenges. Hence, it is necessary to build an exchange platform that provide China with successful models from the international community while introducing China's own achievements to the world.

The Global Poverty Reduction Online Knowledge-sharing Database has transformed GPIG from an information sharer into a producer, which was officially launched at the forum last year. Initiated by the World Bank and supported by ADB, it is co-hosted and co-managed by IPRCC and China Internet Information Center (CIIC).

With one year of development, the portal now brings together information from different sources in a standardized way, promoting knowledge-sharing online and offline. It contributes to the successful achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well, gaining a positive response from the poverty reduction community.
Soldiers on a flight deck deploy a floating target to act as the simulated enemy destroyer during a drill in the South China Sea on Feb 19, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have reached an agreement on a draft framework for a code of conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, seen as an historic step toward regional peace and stability that both sides are striving to maintain via rule-making and development of an appropriate mechanism.

The signing took place during the 14th Senior Officials' Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), held on May 18 in China's Guizhou Province.

The advancement of the COC consultative process is a definite sign of progress in reaching a final code of conduct to which China and ASEAN committed themselves 15 years ago, and a useful confidence-building measure to prevent clashes in the South China Sea, channel for around $5 trillion in maritime trade annually.

The COC consultation is part of the effective implementation of the DOC aimed at maintaining and promoting peace and stability, freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea area without external disturbance. Certainly, talking and even arguing about related disputes is much better than not talking.

With a peace-oriented "good neighborhood" policy, the Chinese leadership has been striving to work together with neighboring countries. A few words of President Xi Jinping's remarks deserve to be quoted here: "China adheres to peaceful settlement of disputes through consultation and negotiation with parties directly concerned, and safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea along with ASEAN member states."

However, while China and ASEAN have increasing mutual interests in developing their economies and maintaining regional stability, since 2015, the United States and its allies have been "militarizing" the waters under Chinese jurisdiction.

The U.S. deployed the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the South China Sea under the cloak of "freedom of navigation" on February 18, 2017. This is illegal and intentionally provocative behavior. More than 700 patrols have been conducted by U.S. vessels and aircraft in the South China Sea region in the past year. U.S. navy patrols in waters under Chinese jurisdiction seem to be motivated by a "desire to see the world in chaos."

The latest US provocation in South China Sea took place on May 24 when a US Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Dewey, illegally entered the waters within 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef, part of the Nansha Islands. It is the first "provocative attempts" under the administration of Donald Trump that disrupts the peace and stability of the South China Sea.

Furthermore, by trying to fish in troubled waters, the U.S. has encouraged the Philippines and Vietnam to confront China to fulfill its dream of hegemony in East Asia. However, the Philippines has decided to shelve its campaign to protect its perceived maritime interests in the South China Sea.

Since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power on June 30 last year, he has moved the country away from its longtime ally  the United States  and has sought to build strong alliances with China and Russia. In his first meeting with President Xi last October in Beijing, he declared his "separation" from the United States and both sides agreed to resume talks to resolve their "border" disputes regarding the South China Sea.

On May 15, 2017, in his meeting with President Duterte, President Xi described the two countries as neighbors across the sea whose peoples were brothers linked by blood. He highly appreciated the positive, friendly and constructive attitude adopted by the Duterte government.

China is now promoting economic cooperation projects, under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative, for further reconciliation with Manila. The Initiative complements the efforts of ASEAN to further integrate as an economic community. President Duterte said recently that his country would be willing to explore the natural resources of the South China Sea with China and Vietnam, and this should be commended.

During the 20th diplomatic consultation between China and the Philippines last January, they agreed to set up a bilateral consultation mechanism on the South China Sea issue to discuss issues of common concern and foster appropriate maritime cooperation and security.

The first meeting of the China-Philippines bilateral consultation mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea, held in Guiyang on May 19, sends an important signal that a new page has now opened for bilateral dialogue and consultation.

Meanwhile, on May 11, President Xi held talks with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in which they agreed to continue stabilizing the situation in the South China Sea.

Thanks to unremitting efforts by China and ASEAN, the advancement of the COC consultation under the DOC framework will undoubtedly boost the China-ASEAN relationship. It is heartening to see the South China Sea issue being brought back onto the right track of dialogue and consultation after last year's turbulence.

Rabi Sankar Bosu, Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
An announcement indicating that there is a disruption to the hospital's information system because of the virus is attached behind a computer monitor at the Dharmais hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 15, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The WannaCry "ransomware" cyber-attack on May 12 impacted some 150 countries, with the financial damage estimated to exceed U.S.$ 4 billion. In Asia, China suffered the most with the attack impacting thousands of universities as well as hospitals, shopping malls and other facilities.

Looking beyond the headlines, what are some of the lessons learned by this major attack that caused much damage and yet is estimated to have earned the perpetrators a relatively small sum of money? Here's my list:

More attacks will come. First, it is important to realize that this attack is not an aberration. More will be launched and they will become more sophisticated. Health care and education are especially vulnerable to attack and those in charge of security and risk management need to prepare themselves.

Cyber security and managing the risks must be a priority. This means that all those in leadership positions must ensure security is high on the agenda, and that security awareness and preparation are part of every manager's responsibility. This will require training and education. While older managers are well-versed in traditional risks to people and physical property, studies show much less awareness and understanding of risks to digital assets, especially intellectual property. Professionals, such as lawyers and accountants providing services to organizations must also ensure their own security is adequate.

Security is everyone's responsibility. Every employee and stakeholder must also give adequate attention to security at all levels within an organization.

Integrated risk management is required. Security is not an isolated issue. It must be part of an overall strategy for regular risk assessments and information management.

It must include extended security chains and networks. Organizations must focus beyond the four walls of their own activities and encourage and, where possible, require suppliers and customers to also develop adequate security protection.

Get involved with regulatory authorities and standard setting bodies. In addition to working with suppliers and other external members within an organization's network, another vital step is partnering governments, industry associations and bodies such as those that create security and other related standards in order that a workable regulatory and best practice framework is in place and is regularly reviewed.

Mobile devices and the "Internet of Things" make the task harder. In our increasingly mobile world (over 6 billion mobile devices worldwide and over 1 billion in China alone) the context and complexity of security have dramatically changed as these devices increasingly communicate with one another and exchange data. Security can no longer be confined to the four physical walls of an organization. The fact that most employees bring to work their own devices as well as bringing work devices to their home and elsewhere also present new challenges.

The need for speed. One cannot be slack when it comes to security. It is thus important, for example, to implement patches as soon as they become available from product companies. In the case of this particular virus, Microsoft had advocated a patch several months ago and by-and-large, those companies who adopted it were not impacted by this attack.

Have a cyber-attack recovery plan in place. If an attack cannot be prevented, it is important that organizations have a back-up plan, which should be regularly audited/tested to take into account latest developments. Where the attack rises to the level of disaster, organizations must also have communication protocols in place to help limit the damage and ensure an effective recovery.

There are no shortcuts. When it comes to technology and security there are no shortcuts. You get what you pay for, so forget pirated software.

Heed warnings. Organizations should also pay close attention to and heed government warnings on security risks.

Consider cyber insurance. Cyber insurance is becoming part of standard risk management practice for most organizations. As with all forms of insurance, one must read the contract carefully and regularly review the insurance coverage as circumstances change.

Take advantage of existing outside resources. Many governments, institutes and other organizations publish a range of useful security related information and other resources. See for example: GASSP: Generally Accepted System Security Principles, sponsored by the international Information Security Foundation. Find out what resources are available and use them.

Track legal and other regulatory changes. An important component of security and the wider context of information governance relates to legal requirements. Information governance must be an important consideration. Organizations must find the best path through a maze of laws and regulations that impact this area. These include telecommunications laws, corporations law, record keeping requirements, intellectual property protection, privacy, contract law, consumer law, employment law, tort law (e.g. defamation), competition law, criminal law, and others. For those engaged in China, for example, they need to be aware of China's new cybersecurity law going into effect on June 1.

Security is not something that can be left to someone else. Organizations cannot be complacent and think that nothing will happen to them. In this networked world, governments, public and private sector organizations must work together to ensure that risks are identified, security monitored and plans/practices constantly adapted to meet threats hopefully BEFORE they occur.

Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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China is willing to work with the United States to realize balanced development of trade and investment, a research report by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

"Looking into the future, China is willing to make joint efforts with the United States to encourage Chinese enterprises to participate in U.S. infrastructure construction, further open up markets, promote two-way investment and advance bilateral investment treaty negotiations to further strengthen China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation at local levels," said the Research Report on China-U.S. Economic and Trade Relations.

China will also consider increasing imports from the United States in agricultural products, energy, high-tech products and services, to increase the total benefits while realizing a balanced development of trade and investment, according to the report.

Both China and the United States benefit from trade and economic cooperation. China has maintained a trade surplus in goods, but the United States has also gained tangible benefits.

China is the U.S. largest export market outside North America, and an important export destination for soybeans, cotton, aircraft, automobiles and integrated circuits. In 2016, the United States had a trade surplus in agricultural products of 16.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Over the past 10 years, the average growth rate of U.S. exports to China was nearly three times the growth rate of U.S. exports as a whole, and twice the growth rate of China's exports to the United States.

The United States has maintained a long-term surplus in service trade. In 2016, it exported 51 movies to China, receiving revenue of 16 billion U.S. dollars. Chinese tourists and students in the United States spent more than 51 billion U.S. dollars.

With respect to investment, U.S.-funded enterprises in China have maintained good performance and gained high profits. Sales revenue in 2015 totaled 517 billion U.S. dollars, and profit reached 36.2 billion U.S. dollars.

Investment from Chinese enterprises in the United States is growing rapidly. Chinese investment projects have taken place in 46 states and 425 congressional districts, creating over 140,000 local jobs.

According to the U.S.-China Business Council, in 2015, U.S. exports to China and China-U.S. two-way investment contributed 216 billion U.S. dollars to the U.S. GDP, and supported 2.6 million local jobs.

China has made relentless efforts in recent years to balance China-U.S. economic and trade relations, the report said.

China has frequently dispatched trade and investment delegations to participate in trade and investment promotion activities in the United States. In February 2012 and September 2015, two large Chinese delegations visited the United States and signed trade, investment and cooperation agreements across all sectors, totaling about 44 billion U.S. dollars.

China has been addressing the specific concerns of the U.S. enterprises through the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. Since 2004, the two sides have strengthened policy communications through dialogue and consultation and great progress has been made in several areas, including antitrust law enforcement procedures, exports of agricultural products to China, software legalization, and access to China Compulsory Certification (3C) services of foreign-funded enterprises.

Moreover, China has been vigorously promoting trade and economic cooperation between Chinese and U.S. cities, and has been actively building exhibition platforms to expand imports from the United States.

The report called on the United States to give China fair treatment in export and investment issues.

The United States has exercised strict control over high-tech exports to China while criticizing China for encouraging independent innovation, an apparent paradox, according to the report.

The U.S. export control is based on a Cold War mentality, ignoring the rapid development of bilateral ties and not fitting to its future development, the report said.

China hopes that the United States will take concrete actions in easing the export control and effectively loosen the restrictions on products exported to civilian users for civil purposes, which will also help reduce the U.S. trade deficit, according to the report.

China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation has an increasingly important global impact. As important members of the WTO, China and the United States, together with other members, have pushed for the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation, and are parties to the negotiations on the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement and on the Environmental Goods Agreement.

The two sides have increased policy coordination under the framework of the G20, and maintained communication and exchange under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

The cooperation results have showed the vitality and potential for development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, as well as the responsibility of the two powers to the world.

Needless to say, the development of relations has not always been plain sailing. The two sides have had heated debates on several issues, even tensions at times, the report said.

However, the two sides have generally aimed for win-win results through constructive cooperation.

"Dialogue costs much less than confrontation, and cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States," the report said.

The backdrop for the report is a 100-day action plan for China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, which has had "initial results," MOC spokesperson Sun Jiwen told a press conference Thursday.

Sun also highlighted the global impact of economic ties between the world's top two economies, whose economic aggregate accounts for nearly 40 percent of the global total.

"All economies attach great importance to the status quo and future of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation," Sun said.
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Russia and China on Thursday agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields and enhance joint efforts in coping with concerned issues on the international agenda.

In the context of improving Russian economy, Russia and China should maintain the development of pragmatic cooperation by way of promoting mutual communication and consultation between government departments, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the Kremlin, who was on an official visit to Russia.

The two countries should also work closely with each other within multilateral frameworks, including the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the Group of 20 (G20), in resolving thorny issues and maintain global strategic stability, he added.

In addition, Putin warmly congratulated China for successfully hosting the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation earlier this month and expressed his welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Russia.

On his part, Wang pointed out that China and Russia agree with each other on development strategies and share broad prospects for bilateral cooperation.

He echoed Putin's appeal in saying that the two countries should further deepen cooperation in such fields as trade and investment and explore new sources of economic growth.

The two countries should also consolidate their strategic cooperation in international affairs and jointly promote the peaceful settlement of international and regional issues, Wang added.
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UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Italy, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Thursday urged the leaders of G7 industrialized countries to adopt its six-point action plan for the protection of refugee and migrant children.

At least 36,000 of the refugees and migrants rescued since January have been taken to Sicily, the site of this year's summit, and the Italian G7 presidency has made migration a priority for this year's talks, according to UNICEF.

"Sicily stands as a symbol of hope for uprooted children seeking a better life, but it is also the endpoint of an extremely dangerous journey that has claimed the lives of many children along the way," said Justin Forsyth, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director.

UNICEF's call comes at a time when the dangerous Central Mediterranean migration journey from North Africa to Italy draws renewed attention.

At least 200 children have died while crossing the Central Mediterranean from North Africa to Italy so far this year, a rate of more than one child per day, according to the latest data from UNICEF.

Between January 1 and May 23, more than 45,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy by sea, up 44 percent over the same period last year. This includes some 5,500 unaccompanied and separated children, an increase of 22 percent from 2016, who account for approximately 92 percent of all children arriving to Italy via the Central Mediterranean route.

A record high 26,000 unaccompanied and separated children arrived to Italy last year, but if current trends hold, that record will be smashed in 2017.

"That is not a record to be proud of, but a reminder of our collective failure to ensure the safety and wellbeing of refugee and migrant children," Forsyth said.

Earlier Thursday, on the eve of the G7 summit, children, volunteers, the Italian coastguard, Italian and UNICEF officials took part in a symbolic rescue of paper boats to commemorate the thousands of children who have risked their lives crossing the Central Mediterranean and send a message to the G7 to take action to safeguard children on the move.

UNICEF has urged the G7 leaders to adopt its six-point Agenda for Action for the protection of refugee and migrant children. In addition, UNICEF has also launched the "#AChildIsAChild" campaign, which has so far been supported on social media by more than 2 million people.
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Queen Elizabeth II (R) visits the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to meet victims of the Manchester Arena attack, in Manchester, Britain, May 25, 2017. (Xinhua)

Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Manchester Thursday to visit children and young people injured in Monday's terror bombing at the Manchester Arena.

As well as meeting casualties recovering and being treated for their injuries at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, the Queen spoke to doctors and nurses who worked throughout the night and the following days saving the lives of the injured.

Among the patients who the Queen spoke with was 15-year-old Millie Robson from County Durham in northeast England. Her mom Marie sat at her bedside as they chatted with the Royal visitor. The hospital is treating 14 injured children, with five of them described as critically ill.

Her visit came as NHS England reported that the number of people who have received in-patient hospital treatment as a result of injuries sustained in Monday's attack has reached 116.

An NHS spokesman said 23 of the injured are currently in critical care suffering from serious injuries.

The Queen's arrival came shortly after more than 1,000 people gathered in the city's St Ann's Square during a nationwide one-minute silence. The crowd, many with tears streaming down their faces, stood alongside city leaders as a tribute to the dead and injured.

At the end of the tribute they broke into applause and sang "Don't Look Back In Anger," the song performed by Manchester rock band Oasis and written by band member Noel Gallagher.

In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee and said later that the threat level will remain at "critical" in Britain, indicating a possible imminent attack.

May said eight suspects remained in custody as part of the investigation by Greater Manchester Police.

A woman arrested at an apartment block in the city has been released. All of those being held at police stations in Manchester are male. The eight include two men arrested by counter terror police on Thursday morning, one in Manchester and another at an undisclosed location.
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South Korea on Friday approved the first civilian contact with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) under the new government of President Moon Jae-in, indicating a gradual resumption of inter-Korean exchanges.

Seoul's unification ministry vice spokesperson Lee Yoo-jin told a press briefing that the government gave a green light to the request by the civic group Korean Sharing Movement for the contact with the DPRK to tackle malaria in border areas.

It was the first approval by the South Korean government of the inter-Korean contact since the DPRK conducted its fourth nuclear test in January last year.

The vice spokesperson reiterated the Moon government's position that Seoul will flexibly review civilian exchanges such as a humanitarian aid within the limits of undamaging the international community's sanctions on the DPRK while sternly dealing with any DPRK provocations.

Earlier this month, the Korean Sharing Movement requested a contact with the DPRK to discuss the humanitarian assistance to the DPRK people. If discussions go smoothly, the civic group's visit to the DPRK could be pushed in early June.

The vice spokesperson said that if any request for its visit to the DPRK and the supply of relief goods is made, the ministry would decide on it according to the inter-Korean relations and the security of the visitors.

About 20 requests for contact with or visit to the DPRK have been made by South Korean civic groups, according to local media reports.
The first China-Europe freight train in Shenzhen is about to depart from the city for Minsk, Belarus on Monday. XUAN HUI / FOR CHINA DAILY

Goods worth up to $8m on route to Minsk as part of B&R Initiative

BEIJING  China's southern city of Shenzhen launched its first Europe-bound freight train on Monday.

It became the 29th Chinese city to introduce rail service to Europe with the train loaded with goods worth $8 million.

Products included high-tech electronics while the containers will arrive in Minsk, capital of Belarus, in 13 days.

The Shenzhen-Minsk freight train has turned the coastal city, a high-tech hub in the Pearl River Delta, into a bridge for the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Goods such as rice and fruit from ASEAN countries like Vietnam and Laos can first be transported to Shenzhen by sea and then to Russia and Belarus by freight train," said Li Wenhai, deputy director of the Guangzhou cargo transport center under Guangzhou Railway Corporation.

On May 19, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region launched its first freight train with cargo bound for India. The train set off from the regional capital, Urumqi, and will deliver goods to Lianyungang in East China's Jiangsu province, where they will be shipped to India.

The booming international rail cargo service is a boost to trade between China and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

On May 14 to 15, the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing.

Leaders there pledged to build an open economy, ensure free trade and support the Belt and Road Initiative to enhance connectivity.

At the forum, China vowed to provide massive financial support for Belt and Road construction and take new measures to strengthen cooperation with countries taking part in the initiative.

The cooperation momentum is continuously growing.

The China (Shanghai) Free Trade Zone will set up a service center to help companies break technical obstacles to trade with Belt and Road countries and regions, FTZ authorities said on Monday.

The service center will help Chinese companies learn more about markets along the Belt and Road and set up a new cooperative model of connectivity, according to the Shanghai FTZ administration.

The first crude oil shipment from Myanmar reached China via the China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline, China National Petroleum Corporation announced on May 19.

The 1,420-kilometer-long cross-border pipeline is part of the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project.

Strengthening financial connectivity is an important aspect of Belt and Road development.

China Construction Bank's branch in Warsaw, opened on Monday. It is the fifth branch of the Chinese bank in Europe.

So far, 13 Chinese commercial banks have joined a global payment innovation initiative to offer faster, more transparent and traceable cross-border payments for Chinese companies.

The initiative was launched in December 2015 by SWIFT, a global member-owned cooperative that provides financial messaging services.

Since then, nearly 110 banks operating across more than 200 countries and regions, including almost all Belt and Road countries and regions, have joined the initiative.

Belt and Road countries have huge potential for development.

Chinese companies have been making robust investments abroad in sectors such as manufacturing and service industries, said Long Guoqiang, deputy head of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Total trade between China and other Belt and Road countries and regions exceeded $3 trillion between 2014 and 2016. Chinese investment in these countries exceeded $50 billion.
AirAsia planes prepare for takeoff at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, June 29, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

SEPANG, Malaysia - Southeast Asia's leading budget carrier AirAsia would look into C919, China's first homegrown large passenger jet which recently completed its maiden test flight, AirAsia's chief executive said Thursday.

"It is an interesting aircraft, as soon as the test light is up, we will look at it," AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes told reporters after the group's annual general meeting here.

As at December, 2016, AirAsia operates with a fleet of 174, with average age of 6.5 years.

Fernandes also said that AirAsia has a great relationship with China, and it has tied up with several Chinese companies, such as Huawei, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Tencent.

As the first potential foreign low cost carrier to enter China, Fernandes hopes to see some progress of the group's Chinese venture next year.

"We have got proposals, help in terms of financing, so we hope something can happen next year," Fernandes said.

AirAsia said earlier this month that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Everbright Group and Henan Government Working Group to establish a low-cost carrier in China.

According to Fernandes, the Chinese venture with an estimated investment of $100 million, represented the final piece of the AirAsia puzzle after building a successful presence in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Japan.

AirAsia entered Chinese market in 2005. The low-cost airline and its long haul affiliate AirAsia X currently fly to 15 destinations in Chinese mainland, which makes it the largest foreign budget carrier operating in China.
A shopper selects beef products at a supermarket in San Diego, California. Talks on restarting US beef exports to China are moving fast and final details should be in place by early June, the US Department of Agriculture said. [Photo/Agencies]

As China's total imports are expected to reach $8 trillion in the next five years, it will bring immense business opportunities for companies in the United States to further balance bilateral trade, the Ministry of Commerce said in a major report released on Thursday.

Products and goods from the energy industry, agriculture, general manufacturing and services will boost trade between the two countries, according to the Research Report on China-US Economic and Trade Relations.

China also plans to import more US soybeans and cotton as well as advanced manufactured items such as passenger aircraft, integrated circuits and machine tools, it said.

"An increase in these imports will support China's services and also help us upgrade our industrial sectors," said Sun Jiwen, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.

Sino-US trade surged from $2.5 billion in 1979 to $524.3 billion last year. It also accounted for 14.1 percent of China's total foreign trade in 2016, according to the General Administration of Customs.

China and the US also will discuss plans to expand US film imports this year, according to the report.

"Economic globalization is a basis for further development of China-US trade relations," Sun said.

China is a manufacturing powerhouse in mid-and low-end goods. But the US is still the dominant player in high-value industries. The US also has an extremely sophisticated service industry and thrives on innovation, research and development.

"China and the US still have sensitive economic fields and their own focuses of concern," Sun said. "Factors such as national conditions and stages of development determine the status, division of labor and openness of the two countries in a globalized world."

The report also stressed that the US continues to enforce high-tech export controls to China, which prohibits the sale of a range of highly competitive products in the country. This has played a big role in slowing down the exchange of scientific and technological knowledge.

In 2001, US high-tech exports accounted for 16.7 percent of China's imports of similar goods. Last year, the figure fell to 8.2 percent.

"A historical view of their differences is important to accurately grasp the trend and development of bilateral economic and trade relations between China and the US," Sun said.

Still, closer trade ties look possible, according to Wei Jianguo, vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Wei is confident the China-US Bilateral Investment Treaty can be completed under the 100-day action plan agreed on by the two countries.

This will cover a range of sectors like agriculture, financial services and energy.

"The key to the negotiations lies in the negatives," said Wei. "It's likely that the US thinks China's negative list is too long." A negative list shows areas where investment is prohibited; all other areas as presumed open.

"China ought to take action like relaxing foreign equity limits for banks, while the US should consider opening its high-tech sector to China."
The authorities are actively considering allowing foreign investors to participate in futures trading in China, one of the leaders of the country's main securities regulatory body said on Thursday.

Fang Xinghai, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, made the remarks at a conference on the derivatives market in Shanghai  addressing the importance of market building, opening the market up, liquidity, innovation and compliance.

Fang said that China will continue to prepare for the launch of stock index options.

He also said that regulators are actively studying allowing commercial banks to participate in the treasury futures market, and will introduce more varieties of commodity futures, including those covering agricultural products and resources.

China's futures market has been developing steadily amid reforms, but still needed to enhance its capabilities and market tools, Fang said. Trading of quite a few products had not been active in recent months, and wildly volatile prices could affect the risk management of companies, Fang said.

"The CSRC is accelerating preparations for the launch of crude oil futures," he added.

By the end of this year, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange will launch China's first crude oil futures product that has adopted international trading standards, according to Jin Xingming, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government.

The Shanghai International Energy Exchange said in a note that the crude oil futures product to be launched will be renminbi-denominated.

"China plays a significant role in the crude oil market given the size of consumption and imports," said Jin Xiao, an analyst with Orient Futures.

Jin said that the renminbi-denominated crude oil futures product would help Chinese companies in the supply chain hedge currency exchange rate risks for oil prices, and help increase global use of the renminbi.
Doctors examine a patient's CT images at a hospital in Beijing. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Medical imaging changed the face of medical science and now it is big business.

In China, the market is estimated to grow between 600 billion yuan ($87 billion) and 800 billion yuan by 2020 from 400 billion yuan in 2015.

Diagnosing major health problems has been revolutionized by imaging technology, which creates a visual representation of the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention.

But the process is still suffering key problems, according to a report by Firestone Inventing, a consulting company specializing in the medical industry.

"China's medical imaging sector is growing at a rate of 30 percent annually, but the demand for superior medical treatment can not be met at present," said Ni Meng, founder and chief executive officer of Wingspan Technology Inc, a medical imaging company.

Long waiting times, poor diagnosis rates and data managing problems plague the industry here.

But the government is making inroads into tackling the challenges with policies that will open up new opportunities for the medical imaging sector.

One of the priorities will be to manufacture high-tech equipment in China by domestic companies as patients are demanding state-of-the-art treatment techniques.

"Home-made medical imaging equipment is going to be a future direction," said Zhang Jiang, general manager of Ping An Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in various sectors including healthcare.

"Medical imaging is a core technology of diagnosis, especially for cases such as cancer screening. In fact, more foreign companies are investing in Chinese firms that make domestic medical imaging equipment."

Still, problems persist. The Firestone Inventing report showed there were just 402 Chinese companies manufacturing the equipment, accounting for only 10 percent of the market.

In addition, the healthcare sector lacks imaging technology in ophthalmology and dentistry.

"The major breakthrough for China is to upgrade it by producing high-end products instead of midto low-end devices," said Yang Hongfei, chief executive officer of Firestone Inventing in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

During the past five years, there has been a rapid growth of Chinese patents covering the sector. The country now ranks third in terms of the number of medical imaging patents filed behind Japan and the United States.

"Big data and artificial intelligence are going to lead the development of medical imaging sector," the Firestone Inventing report highlighted. "Artificial intelligence provides medical imaging with intelligent analysis applications. As for big data, it offers detailed analysis into patients' health."

Last year, the State Council issued a guideline on promoting the application of medical big data in clinical diagnosis, and medical research and development.

Big data are a term used for crunching vast amounts of statistics to show trends and flaws in market information.

"From human body X-rays to telemedicine and medical imaging, we are on the brink of entering a new age of artificial intelligence," said Mou Xiaoyong, president of United Imaging Healthcare.
Workers from Zhejiang Fengrui Engine Co Ltd assemble engines for Geely automobiles in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. LYU BIN / FOR CHINA DAILY

Plans to relax foreign ownership limits in key sectors, including automotive electronics

China is planning to relax foreign ownership limits in key sectors, including automotive electronics, new energy vehicle batteries and motorcycles, as the country moves to level the playing field for business, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman said on Thursday.

Sun Jiwen said the government has been expanding efforts to further open up high-end manufacturing to foreign investment.

He told a news conference in Beijing that a revised version of the Catalog for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries will be released and put into effect in the near future.

Sun's comments follow recent remarks made by German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries that China's foreign investment limits went against its position on free international trade.

Sun said absorbing foreign investment was an important part of China's opening-up policy. He said the government had striven to open the market more to foreign investors in accordance with World Trade Organization rules.

According to data from the ministry, foreign direct investment totaled 286.4 billion yuan ($41.6 billion) in the first four months of this year, a year-on-year drop of 0.1 percent. During the same period, 9,726 internationally funded companies were established across the country, up 17.2 percent from the same period last year.

In addition to the manufacturing sector, the guidance is expected to offer more foreign investment access to the services sector and the mining industry, and reduce the number of restrictive measures from 93 to 62.

Wang Binggang, a senior researcher working on a new energy vehicle research project financed by the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that the policy changes showed the government's resolution to level the playing field and encourage fair economic activity.

Wang added that in this new environment, local manufacturers would have more incentive to optimize their production technology and improve the quality of products.

The researcher said that local governments should not overreact in implementing the central government's policy, by giving much more preferential treatment to overseas companies than their mainland competitors.

Otherwise, he said, it would hamper wider efforts toward creating a fair and competitive environment.
Move is part of effort to enhance energy security and secure available resources

The construction of the ultra-deep-water semisubmersible drilling rig Blue Whale 2, which can mine both combustible ice and oil, will be completed in the second half of this year, according to its manufacturer.

China Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd, the producer of the Blue Whale 1, succeeded in collecting methane gas trapped in ice-like crystals beneath the surface of the South China Sea last week. It said the functions of the Blue Whale 2 will be slightly different from the first model in terms of flammable ice drilling.

Combustible ice, a particular kind of natural gas hydrate usually existing in seabed or tundra areas, is formed under strong pressure and low temperatures. It is regarded as a clean energy option with high energy density and huge reserves.

CIMC Raffles, a subsidiary of China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd, the country's transportation equipment producer, did not disclose the owner of the Blue Whale 2.

Eager to enhance energy security and secure more available resources, China will select another location in the South China Sea to test the drilling and production of combustible ice for the second time after three to five years. It hopes to undertake commercial mining by 2030, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.

"The priority now is to lower production costs and environmental risks," said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Energy Policy Studies at Xiamen University.

"The 118-meter-tall Blue Whale 1 oil exploration platform is able to reach the seabed 3,658 meters below the surface and dig a record-breaking 15,250 meters into the seabed," said Wang Jianzhong, president of CIMC Raffles.

The Chinese government has set a target of developing deep-sea energy resource production, at depths of 1,500 to 3,000 meters using domestically developed technology during 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). It will also enhance mine detection, drilling technology and equipment upgrading for natural gas hydrates and transportation.

"The frequent and fierce typhoons in the deep-water area of the South China Sea are the biggest obstacle to oil exploration. The uncertain temperature also adds to the difficulty in deep-sea drilling," said Yang Yongtao, project manager of CIMC-Raffles' drilling product department.

He said therefore both oil rigs need to have a solid base to eliminate the risk in future operations. Otherwise it will be unable to stand firm, not to mention carry out oil drilling.

Compared with other prototypes being used in the world, the Blue Whale series of products are 30 percent more efficient and 10 percent less energy consuming.

China found combustible ice in the South China Sea in 2007. The land reserves in Qinghai province were discovered in 2009.
Ground crew members escort a Boeing 737 MAX as it returns from a flight test at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, Jan 29, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Boeing Co said Air China will become the first Chinese airline to take the delivery later this year of its single-aisle B737 MAX plane, a new fuel-efficient and updated version of the B737.

The US manufacturer plans to deliver some of its B737 MAX aircraft directly to Chinese customers from its completion and delivery center in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, where construction got underway in early May.

With a maximum annual delivery capacity of 100 planes at its center in Zhoushan, Boeing plans to deliver the B737 MAX aircraft from the center, as it aims to meet the strong demand for single-aisle aircraft in China.

The Zhoushan center, Boeing's first overseas completion and delivery center, will consist of a completion center under a joint venture between Boeing and Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd and a delivery center owned by Boeing, capable of tasks including cabin installation, painting, flight testing and aircraft maintenance.

John Bruns, vice-president of Boeing and president of Boeing China, said the nation has become a strong engine driving the global aviation industry, and Boeing is planning to further expand its partnerships with Chinese aviation industry players.

"Boeing spent 40 years to deliver its first 1,000 aircraft to China. We only need seven years to deliver our second 1,000 aircraft to China, and about three years to deliver the third 1,000 aircraft," he said.

In the past five years, Boeing has consecutively delivered more than 140 aircraft to China. This year, the number is expected to reach 200, according to the company.

Meanwhile, the Airbus A320 final assembly line in Tianjin will start assembling the A320neo in July and delivering in September. Airbus Group SE's first overseas completion and delivery center for the A330 is also expected to deliver its first aircraft in September and produce two aircraft per month by 2019.

Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst and columnist at Carnoc.com, one of China's largest civil aviation website portals, said, "With one-fifth of narrow-body aircraft in the world delivered to China, it is a huge market that Boeing hopes to seize."

He said the Airbus assembly line in Tianjin became operational in 2008, and it has helped to lift its market share in China to around 50 percent.

"Boeing is making more efforts in China by establishing its first overseas completion and delivery center in Zhoushan, in order to seize the big market potential in China for narrow-body aircraft," Lin added.
China's new third-generation reactor, using technology known as Hualong One, starts its dome installation in Fuqing, Southeast China's Fujian province, May 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

FUZHOU - China successfully installed the containment dome for its first demonstration nuclear power project using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, in east China's Fujian Province on Thursday.

The hemispherical dome, weighing 340 tons and measuring 46.8 meters in diameter, was installed by crane on the No 5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in Fuqing City at 5:58 pm.

The installation marks the completion of construction work on the pilot project and the beginning of the assembly stage, said Yu Peigen, deputy general manager of CNNC at the site of installation.

The dome will be used for protection against nuclear accidents under extreme conditions, and both its design and installation are very demanding processes.

"The installation is much more difficult than that of traditional nuclear reactors because the whole weight of the dome and the ropes is more than 500 tons," said Yang Jianguo, the lifting commander at the site.

Construction of the pilot project began in May 2015 and was scheduled to take about 62 months to finish.

The successful installation of the dome will contribute to the development of China's domestic third-generation reactor design and enhance the confidence in Hualong One among Belt and Road countries to boost cooperation, said Wang Shoujun, chairman of CNNC.

The country has actively promoted Hualong One at home and abroad. There are now four projects using Hualong One design under construction, including two reactors in Karachi, Pakistan.

During the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation earlier this month, CNNC also signed a cooperation framework agreement with Argentina, a key emerging market for Chinese companies, which included using the Hualong One design for the country's fifth nuclear unit.
Boxes of Ansell condoms are displayed for sale at a local pharmacy in Sydney, Australia, May 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

A Chinese consortium is buying Ansell Ltd's condom division, the world's No 2 condom maker, for $600 million, betting on surging demand in China as sex becomes less of a taboo subject and more emphasis is placed on public health education.

The Australian firm, which put its oldest but smallest division up for sale last August, said it had reached an all-cash deal with China's Humanwell Healthcare Group Co Ltd and CITIC Capital China Partners.

Ansell's brands include Jissbon, which sounds like James Bond in Chinese, and it is the second-largest maker in China behind Reckitt Benckiser which owns Durex. It also competes with large local brands Donless, Double Butterfly and Gobon.

Foreign brands tend to have more of a cachet in China after some scandals involving cheap Chinese products.

For Ansell, however, it made sense to let go of a non-core division that comes with hefty marketing costs to focus on industrial and medical rubber products.

"It is our only consumer business, it is the only business where we're not number one in the world, it is a business with a dramatically different go-to-market in terms of marketing spend," Chief Executive Magnus Nicolin told investors on a conference call.

"The fact that we can now focus a little bit more narrowly on hand-and-body protection in both industrial and medical settings will give us a stronger platform, if you will, from which to lead the industry," he said.

The company expects to receive net after-tax proceeds of $529 million from the sale, and proceeds will help fund a $265 million share buyback of 10 percent of shares on issue as well as future acquisitions.

The business sold at nearly 16 times earnings from 2016.

"They've sold what was a smallish part of their overall business for a very good price, we think it's a good move," said Anton Tagliaferro, investment director at Investors Mutual Ltd, the biggest holder of Ansell stock.

Shares in Ansell climbed 4 percent on Thursday, their biggest daily gain in six months, while the broader Australian S&P/ASX 200 index was flat.

According to a 2016 Transparency Market Research report, China's condom market is seen growing at 12 percent per year in the 2016 to 2024 period, despite the scrapping of the One Child policy - rising from a $1.8 billion market in 2015 to over $5 billion by 2024.

Ansell said it sees condom sales growth there moderating in the future.

Humanwell declined to comment and CITIC Capital China partners were not available for immediate comment. Private equity investment into the China health, pharmacy and self-care space has boomed, as investors cash in on rising incomes.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to complete at the end of September.
China has huge market demand and potential for civilian aircraft, and this demand enables new competitors to emerge and grow, said John Bruns, president of Boeing China.

Bruns was on site when the C919 passenger plane took its maiden flight on May 5. He said Boeing is open to new players, such as the C919, to join and compete in China's aircraft industry.

"The new competitor will force us to work harder in order to maintain Boeing's leading position in the industry," Bruns said with confidence.

The American company has its largest overseas market in China, where it currently builds over 50 percent of operating passenger jets. In March, a Boeing 737 completion center arrived in the eastern city of Zhoushan; it is scheduled to make the first delivery of Boeing 737MAX to Chinese buyers in 2018.

Bruns disclosed that Boeing contributes over $1 billion to the Chinese economy annually. Nine thousand in-service Boeing planes contain parts made by Chinese suppliers. In the future, the company hopes to cooperate with private enterprises in China.

Boeing has projected a demand for 6,810 new airplanes in China over the next 20 years, estimating that the total value of those new planes will be over $1 trillion. If this prediction comes true, China will become the first trillion-dollar aviation market in the world.
BEIJING - The joint feasibility study on China-Mauritius free trade agreement (FTA) has been completed on a positive note, an official with the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

"Building the FTA is in line with the interests of both countries, and good for deepening bilateral economic and trade relations," ministry spokesman Sun Jiwen said at a press conference, citing the conclusion of the research.

Launched in November 2016, the feasibility study was the first FTA feasibility research between China and African economies. Completion of the research was announced during Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming's visit to Mauritius on Wednesday, Sun said.

China takes FTAs as a platform for opening wider to the world and an effective approach to integrate into the global economy and strengthen cooperation with other economies.

Currently, China has signed and implemented 14 such agreements involving 22 countries and regions.
BEIJING - Since China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, traditional trade and production centers in China's Guangdong province, represented by such cities as Guangzhou and Dongguan, have seen and seized the new opportunities for further development.

Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province in southern China, is a traditional business and trade center, while Dongguan was among the first regions growing rapidly after China adopted the reform and opening-up policy in late 1970s.

Facilitated by the Belt and Road Initiative, the two cities have stepped up efforts to upgrade their industrial structures, trade and business environments, and transportation facilities, to best combine their traditional advantages with new opportunities.

New industries

As a vanguard of reform and opening-up for decades, Guangzhou has been in the lead in promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road designed to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond.

In recent years, Guangzhou has striven to shift its economic focus to capital- and technology-intensive industries, as enterprises here have picked up their pace to "go global".

UC Mobile Co Ltd, which is attached to China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has emerged as a global provider of mobile Internet software technology and services, especially in India, Indonesia and Russia.

"Our operations are deeply localized, which means we have kept an eye on local cultures and customs. We have provided down-to-earth services," said Huang Hao, president of Alibaba's mobile business group.

Meanwhile, the 2017 THero International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition organized by Guangzhou's Tianhe district government is underway, with sub-contests in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel, and the United States, to help the winning foreign high-tech companies solicit investment and do business in Guangzhou.

New platforms

Guangzhou has also exploited new platforms to promote trade and cooperation, besides its traditional ones such as the Canton Fair, or China Import-Export Fair, a leading platform linking overseas and Chinese traders held biannually since 1957.

The 121st Canton Fair was held from April 16 to May 5 in Guangzhou, attracting 364 companies from countries and regions along the Belt and Road, according to the organizer.

In 2014, Dongguan began hosting China Guangdong 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo, a new platform promoting trade and cooperation with a theme of "Go to Guangdong for business and cooperation."

The first of such expo attracted 42 participating countries and regions, including 25 located along the Maritime Silk Road, with 451 projects inked and a fund of 174.7 billion yuan ($25.4 billion) involved.

The third Expo held in October 2016 attracted 73 countries and regions, including 52 along the Maritime Silk Road, with 700 projects signed and a fund of 206.8 billion yuan ($30 billion) involved, according to the organizer.

Two years ago, Nansha District in southeast Guangzhou became one of the pilot free trade zones (FTZs) to promote foreign trade and investment.

By 2016, the import and export volume of the Nansha FTZ reached nearly 170 billion yuan ($24.66 billion), one fifth of the total of Guangzhou.

In a bid to provide better services, Guangzhou has also set up a number of administrative service centers to simplify paperwork for doing business in the city. The Pazhou Administrative Service Branch Center, opened in March 2016, is one of them.

Pazhou, a historical venue with an ancient port linking the Maritime Silk Road some 200 years ago, is currently housing the Canton Fair.

"The center is a window to display the city's policy, economy, culture, arts and investment environment," said Jiang Wei, head of the Pazhou center.

New partners

"In recent years, with the development of the economy ... we have shared our development experience with cities along the Belt and Road," said Chen Jie, director of the Asian, African and Oceanian Affairs Division of Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office.

"Last year, a special team was established to deal with affairs of Asia, Africa and Oceania, to facilitate cooperation between Guangzhou and cities along the Belt and Road," Chen said.

Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, Guangzhou has redoubled its efforts to expand its circle of friends.

Since 2013, Guangzhou has cemented friendly ties with Rabat of Morocco, Phnom Penh of Cambodia, Incheon of South Korea, Binh Duong of Vietnam, Prague of the Czech Republic, Ahmedabad of India, Pokhara of Nepal, Lodz of Poland, Tbilisi of Georgia, Suva of Fiji, and Mombasa of Kenya, among others.

For now, Guangzhou, in which 57 countries have established consulates, is looking for friends in the Middle East and West Africa.

"The Belt and Road Initiative has injected new impetus in the economic and trade exchanges between Guangzhou and foreign cities," said Luo Zheng, director of the Comprehensive Division of the Commission of Commerce of the Guangzhou municipal government.

New traffic hubs

Guangzhou, also a key point linking China with countries and regions along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, has been upgrading its transport capacity.

China Southern Airlines, based in Guangzhou, is a leading carrier in China with a fleet of more than 700 passenger and cargo aircraft, ranking No 1 in Asia and No 4 in the world, said Qu Guangji, a management official of the airline.

As of April 2017, it reached destinations in 68 cities of 38 countries and regions along the Belt and Road, Qu told Xinhua recently at a symposium.

The airlines also plans to open new flight routes from Guangzhou to destinations along the Belt and Road, such as Johannesburg, Tehran and Islamabad.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, with an ambition to become a world-class air transport hub, has launched flights to 87 destinations overseas, including 52 in 27 countries and regions along the Belt and Road, according to the airport.

In August, 2016, Guangzhou launched its first weekly cargo train to Europe as a new way to import and export goods. Meanwhile, by collecting goods by train form Chinese inland and then transferring them by sea, Guangzhou has also become a major port shipping goods to international destinations.

Dongguan has similar plans to transform its transport facilities.

Situated some 60 km southeast to Guangzhou at the mouth of the Pearl River, the city is seeking to become a key traffic hub to link the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, by combining its two major advantages, namely huge production capacity and perfect geographic location both by land and by sea.

"Dongguan has been actively taking part in the building of an international logistics channel to become a major traffic hub," Lei Huiming, deputy consultant of the Bureau of Commerce of Dongguan City, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Guangdong Railway International Logistics Base in Shilong, Dongguan, which was inaugurated in July, 2015, is the only National First Class Railway Freight Port in Guangdong.

Shilong in Dongguan is an ideal place to link the Belt and the Road, Xie Yi, general manager of the Marketing and Sales Department, Sinotrans Guangdong Co LTD, told Xinhua.

"Shilong has the advantage to combine several ways of transportation, including road, train, river and sea, due to its perfect location, which makes Guangdong a key point linking the Belt and the Road," said Xie.
NEW YORK - China's recent move to tighten the oversight of outbound investment helps promote healthier and more balanced investment in the United States, industry leaders have said.

A latest report on investment relations between the United States and China showed while China's US investments in 2016 tripled the amount seen in 2015, it largely focused on industries like real estate and hospitality.

Chinese investment in real estate reached a new record high, whereas investment in US agriculture and energy remains small, according to the report released last Thursday.

Business executives attributed an imbalanced mix of industries to irrational and illegal outbound investment activities that Chinese authorities have been working hard to curb.

They observed speculative cases, illegal transfer of assets, and fake transactions under the guise of outbound investment.

"Some newly established firms, which had produced nothing, were providing large sums of outbound investment. Other companies with a small amount of registered capital are making huge investments overseas," said Tu Guangshao, vice chairman and president of China Investment Corporation.

He added that such investments clearly have nothing to do with their company business and regulations to rein in such activities are necessary.

In January, after noting an "irrational tendency" in outbound investment, Chinese authorities set stricter rules and advised companies to make their investment decisions more carefully.

Overseas merger and acquisition (M&A) activities are like "a rose with thorns" and business enterprises need to be "cautious," said Pan Gongsheng, director of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

After half a year, stricter supervision has already yielded positive results.

"Chinese investment in the United States will be healthier and more closely connected to domestic economic restructuring," said Xu Chen, chairman of China General Chamber of Commerce - USA.

Echoing Xu's remarks, Ni Pin, president of Wanxiang America Corporation, said: "Chinese companies invest more rationally in the United States under current rules, which may even cool down the US asset markets a little."

Looking forward, China is willing to work with the United States to realize balanced development of trade and investment.

Xu is optimistic that the two countries will increase trade cooperation under the 100-day action plan, which has already achieved initial results in agriculture, energy, financial services and investment.

Under the plan, China will allow the import of US beef and the United States will import poultry from China. The United States expects China and other partners to import liquefied natural gas and China will allow wholly foreign-funded financial services to provide credit ratings in China.

"US beef exported to China does not have to be produced by US enterprises. Chinese investors could acquire plants to process agricultural products in the United States and sell products to Chinese consumers," said Xu, who is also president and CEO of Bank of China USA.

According to Xu, Chinese enterprises are also very interested in investing in the natural gas industry, not only with M&A, but also green field investment.

"It's a win-win situation. The US market offers low-cost resources such as natural gas and land, while the Chinese market has a large demand for products like methanol," said Xu.

Meanwhile, Chinese business executives acknowledged inconvenience brought by tightened regulations.

"Companies may have experienced inconvenience when scheduling their investment under tightened regulation, but people should understand authorities need time to improve cross-border capital management," Xu said.

He added the increasingly globalized Chinese economy will lead to larger cross-border capital flow and pose management challenges.
Wang Xiang, chairman of Hyleen Capital [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In response to the Belt and Road Initiative, a Chinese-Israeli joint-venture asset management company will bet big on agricultural industries in Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, the venture's chairman said.

Wang Xiang, chairman of Hyleen Capital, which manages a total of $3.2 billion in assets, said on May 19 in Beijing that the company has made investing in Southeast Asia and South Asia a major strategy, adding that its staff's main focus is on projects in these countries now, even though possible deal values might not seem that large.

Hyleen Capital has started weaving a network around Southeast Asia over the past two years. Yunnan Cross-border Equity Investment Fund Management Company Limited, one of its subsidiaries, gained approval to directly use Chinese currency to invest and extend loans overseas on Jan 21, 2016.

The private equity company, based in Southwest China's Yunnan province, has raised 2 billion yuan in the first fundraising phase in its Renminbi Cross-border Investment and Lending Fund. The funds will go to sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and education in Southeast Asia, according to a prospectus from Hyleen Capital.

"The Belt and Road Initiative has shed light to the Southeast Asian and South Asian countries, which used to be downplayed by private investors in China due to geographical and language barriers," Wang recalled.

"Now it's the right time for private equity funds to go there as there are actual needs for foreign direct investment, while it's getting increasingly hard to pick good projects for investment at home," he added.

Yin Jiayin, general manager and executive partner of Hyleen Capital, said that the company and its partners are working on a cattle quarantine project in Myanmar. The project, which could require investment of $30 million and is now waiting for governmental approvals, aims to enable cattle to be legally exported to China, adding that Myanmar people raise cows and bulls but do not eat beef while others smuggle cattle into China.

A man rides an ox cart during an ox cart competition near U Bein bridge in Mandalay, Myanmar on March 22, 2015.[Photo/VCG]

"If the project is approved, the Myanmar government could boost exports and Chinese people could get safe beef," Wang said, adding that he thought it is highly possible for this project to get approval.

During the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held between May 14 and 15 in Beijing, the Ministry of Commerce of China signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of China-Myanmar Border Economic Cooperation Zone with the Ministry of Commerce of Myanmar.

Hyleen Capital is also investing in a sweet sorghum plantation project in Myanmar with a possible investment of $20 million. Yin said currently trial planting is been conducted with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture of the country and added that hopefully sweet sorghum grasses will be planted to replace sweet canes to generate sugar in two years.

Hyleen Capital and its partners are also investing in a coffee planting project in Vietnam and expect it might need $60 million, and in a shrimp raising project in Sri Lanka, which might need $65 million.

Wang said these are all competitive industries in Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka and have strong potential to boost the local economy and employment, and bilateral trade with China as well.

"It is still too early to invest in other industries in some countries like Myanmar as infrastructure there is still weak and it takes time for improvement," Yin said. "Electricity is not even enough for civilian use in the country."

Both Wang and Yin believe there are tremendous chances in Myanmar, but they also admitted that risks are high as it is not a mature market. "The market requires approval from multiple governmental entities if a foreigner wants to set up a company and there are not established laws telling companies what can and cannot be done," said Yin.

What's more, it is hard for private equity fund managers to screen projects on criteria such as clear exit channels in some Southeast Asian and South Asian countries as capital markets there are still in the very early stage of development, Wang said. He added that Myanmar only established its own stock exchange last year and there have been just four listed companies.

"Instead, we based our investment on an enterprise's own profitability and capability to generate continual cash flow," Wang said.

He added that selling equities to late comers might be an option for exit.

"Progress of our investment is faster than expected and we are determined to explore this region," Yin said, adding that as they get more involved in the local economy, they have come across new projects worthy of investment and expect to find more opportunities.

She cited language teaching and training as an area with potential and said they are considering investing in Chinese-teaching app developers. "We hire local people to push forward our investment plan, and we have to communicate."

"As we are among the early private investors in Myanmar, we are as highly respected as what Goldman Sachs were when it first came to China in the early days of the nation's opening up," Yin said.
ISLAMABAD - The first generate unit of the Sahiwal power plant inaugurated on Thursday, marking that the first major power plant under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) start to generate electricity for Pakistani people and will meet power demand of 10 million locals.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister of Punjab Province Shahbaz Sharif attended a ceremony held in the power plant which is one of the early harvest projects of CPEC.

The first unit of Sahiwal coal fired power project will generate 660 megawatt of electricity to the national grid of Pakistan and will help in reduction of power shortage in the country. The total capacity of the project is 1,320 megawatt and the second unit is expected to be put online late next month.

The plant, completed in a record period of 22 months, has already been linked to the national grid, officials said.

"This (project) will help overcome the power load shedding in the country. Completion of first Unit of Sahiwal Coal Power Plant gigantic project in just 22 months is unprecedented," Nawaz Sharif told the inauguration ceremony at Sahiwal.

"The role of the Chief Minister of Punjab, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Chinese engineers and Pakistani engineers in the completion of the project is best example of Pak-China friendship and partnership," the prime minister said.

Officials said about 190 Pakistani young engineers trained in China have been employed for plant operations.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong addressed the ceremony, saying that the operation of the first unit of Sahiwal power plant marks that "CPEC ushers in the stage of early harvest from comprehensive implementation and more and more tangible outcomes are on the way."

He added that CPEC begins to benefit the Pakistani people's livelihood as the two units of Sahiwal plant will generate electricity of 9 billion kWh, which could meet the energy needs of 10 million people.
The Chinese cardiovascular health index (2017), the world's first national-level index on cardiovascular (CV) disease prevention and control, was released on Friday in Shanghai, which is also regarded as the first scientific, objective and comprehensive report reflecting the core health of Chinese.

The index system established national level big data in CV health index for the first time, outlining CV health prevention and control in China.

"The index will provide scientific basis for the policy makers and strive to reduce the illness," said Ge Junbo, chairman of Asia-Pacific Society of Interventional Cardiology.

Chronic diseases have become one of the biggest challenges in China's public health sector partially due to the aging population.

More than 40 percent of Chinese die of CV disease - the first cause of death in China.

"With the increasing number of CV diseases year-by-year, CV health index, as a comprehensive evaluation system, is very necessary," said Wang Honglin, director of chronic disease center at Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"It will help reflect overall CV health conditions and its development trends. It also measures the development status, development pattern and governance structure of CV diseases from prevention to treatment,"Ge said.

The report is not only the most authoritative large-scale integrated CV health index, but also the worlds first national level index evaluation on CV disease prevention and control.

Eight institutions, such as the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 40 experts participated in creating the health index.
Janssen, the pharmaceutical company, will expand its investment in China to drive growth as it races to seize more market shares in lung-related diseases.

Part of the Johnson & Johnson group, Janssen will focus on developing medicines, including drugs to fight lung disease, which is a major problem in the country.

"We will launch these drugs in the Chinese market before going global," said William N Hait, global head of Janssens research & development division.

To combat lung cancer, Johnson & Johnson aim to set up a global research and development center in the country.

Through innovative methods, the center hopes to lower the cases of lung cancer and increase survival rates among those affected by the disease.

During the next five years, Janssen will launch more than 10 new pharmaceutical products and expand its line in 50 existing medicines.

In addition, the company will promote sustainable growth through core product mix and innovative measures.

"Johnson & Johnson has witnessed rapid development in the Chinese market. One of the major global strategies of our company is to invest in China constantly. It is estimated that the R&D will continue to play an essential role in the innovative process of Johnson & Johnson," said Alex Gorsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson.

Joaquin Duato, executive vice president and worldwide chairman of pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson said, "China is one of the most important pharmaceutical markets for us globally. It is the second largest market after the United States." "We have a strong presence, including manufacturing, commercial, as well as research and development."

Johnson & Johnson owns more than 265 subsidiaries in more than 60 countries and regions worldwide.
Chinese Vice-Premier Ma Kai called for deeper big data cooperation among countries around the world on Friday, as big data will play a significant role in boosting the global economy and driving the manufacturing revolution.

"Big data is a fundamental strategic resource," Ma said at the ongoing China International Big Data Industry Expo in Guiyang, Guizhou province. "The development of big data is driving profound changes in a number of areas including social and economic fields. As a key entity of real economy, the manufacturing sector will become a main application area of big data technologies."

Ma said China plans to work with other countries on the development and application of big data, aiming to promote connectivity of data resources worldwide.

Big data technology is playing an increasingly important role in driving the worlds economic growth. It is expected that big data technology will grow global GDP by an over two percent year-on-year increase by 2020, said Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Bai said people should have a more open attitude towards the profound changes big data will bring to society, asking for more cooperation between science and industries.

"Big data technologies will involve various disciplines and industries. We should establish an international big data innovation organization, working together on setting regulations, research and development and the application of the new technologies."
Franz Jung, president and CEO of Porsche China, gives a speech at the event on May 25,2017.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

German premium carmaker Porsche kicked off its new program with the ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair on May 25 in Shanghai, as part of efforts to encourage young, innovative artists in its largest market.

The program, called Young Chinese Artist of the Year, aims to find the most innovative artists in China and encourage their artistic exploration, according to Porsche China.

A five-member nomination committee composed of artists, curators and critics has been established. Each member will nominate no more than five artists, whose works will be displayed later this year. Three winners will be announced in November.

The event is a professional platform for pioneering artists who are bold rule breakers, challenge takers and independent thinkers.

"With our future-oriented sustainable development strategy, we not only seek today's success, but also aim for future development," said Franz Jung, president and CEO of Porsche China.

"With the first Porsche Young Chinese Artist of the Year, Porsche China has taken an important step towards offering long-term support to young Chinese artists. I sincerely hope that it becomes a platform for these artists to exchange and showcase their talents."

Cultivating and supporting young artists is one focus of Porsche's corporate social responsibility program, called Empowering the Future.

In 2009, Porsche China launched the program to improve education and the integrated early development of disadvantaged rural children, and to support promising young artists in the country.

From 2010 to 2016, the company held art contests with Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, giving young Chinese artists an opportunity to exhibit their artwork.

Porsche China is now working with UNICEF on three projects that focus on education for rural children and their early childhood development.

By the end of 2016, the automaker had donated more than 60 million yuan and 10 Porsche Cayenne SUVs to programs in collaboration with UNICEF, benefiting 915 schools in western China.

Porsche entered the Chinese market in 2001, which has been its largest market worldwide since 2015. The company delivered 18,126 new cars in the first quarter of this year, representing 10 percent growth year-on-year.
Joe Kaeser, chief executive officer of Siemens AG. BLOOMBERG

German industrial giant sees huge potential from China's growth and upgrading

Siemens AG Chief Executive Joe Kaeser is passionate about a free global economy and a strong supporter of internet-connected technologies.

"We must remain committed to developing global free trade and investment, promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation through the opening up, and say No to protectionism," Kaeser said.

As a German and the CEO of a company that generates 87 percent of its revenues outside Germany and employs more than 31,000 people in China, Kaeser said Siemens will focus on areas of electrification, automation and digitalization to enhance its earning ability in the country.

He also said many opportunities would also come from China's ongoing urbanization, industrial upgrading and sustainable energy development, as well as new market growth points brought by the Belt and Road Initiative, the Made in China 2025 strategy and the Internet Plus era.

As China makes progress on the path to an advanced and competitive economy, Kaeser said it would take time for the changes to have an effect. Patience and consistency were needed, he said, as well as continuous reforms along the way.

Kaeser spoke to China Daily on Siemens' strategy for business growth and various other aspects. Following are the edited excerpts from the interview:

How do you see China's market?

China has many world-leading areas, well ahead of the average of the world, especially in infrastructure technologiesjust think about Huawei Technologies Co, a world-leading company.

On the one hand, there are leading companies and cutting-edge technologies, but then there are also a lot of developing areas. You have the whole spectrum here, which is unique.

It is unusual to find a country with that huge spread between high technologies, with its global-leading edge, and areas which don't even have electricity.

What is your assessment of the Chinese economy, and how will the country's economic transformation affect your investment strategy?

We continue to invest in China, not only because it is an attractive market, but because of the country's many skilled and talented workers and its big demand. We are very much localized already.

I believe it was a good choice to have one of our two most automated Industry 4.0 production lines located here in Chengdu, and the other flagship is in Germany. So (the German strategic industrial initiative) Industry 4.0 has already arrived in China.

In general, I think the decision made by the Chinese government to open more sectors up to foreign investors was a good one.

Do you have plans to develop markets taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative?

Siemens operates in more than 200 countries and regions in the world. We naturally want to be a partner of any local institution. We wish to have more of those global initiatives which connect local and global partners to a leading system.

How do you assess the prospects of your business in China, in conjunction with the Chinese market and economy?

I am confident about the Chinese market, because China has a lot of well-established companies and universities. For example, if I make phone calls in a city here, I never get a call dropped. In some areas in Germany, this is unfortunately different. Many urban areas in China have the most modern infrastructure in the world. Having this wide spectrum, from basic industries to high technology, integrating it for the government is very hard. I can see that the task is not simple.

How do you see China's ongoing supply-side structural reforms?

We do see the urgent need what is called supply-side structural reform, which is in essence restructuring. I am very familiar with the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), which is also about next-generation manufacturing and high-end manufacturing, in industries such as automotive, aerospace and aviation.

If you look at China today, you have sectors like steel, cement, shipbuilding and mining, where there is massive overcapacity that needs to be corrected in a meaningful and responsible way, because there are so many jobs involved. On the other hand, if you want to add Industry 4.0, more sustainable energy and environmentally friendly technologies, you need to build in the front end of innovation. It has to do with migration to modern manufacturing.

What do you see as the benefits of trade globalization?

I am a person who thinks without borders. The economies of both China and Germany rely heavily on international trade. China is the No 1 exporting nation in the world and Germany is No 3. In 2016, China was also Germany's most important trade partner for the first time. Our economies are linked by strong trade ties; our value chains are increasingly intertwined. What we don't like is protectionism and favoritism. If you protect your own industry for too long, you will lose competitiveness simply because you can't benchmark yourself anymore. This is a global market, and at the end of the day, globalization has helped this planet become a better world. What we need to do now is to tackle and solve such concerns as caring for the environment. There's still a lot to be done.

What do you think about the market potential of China's western region?

The western region of China have a lot of potential in terms of space and its workforce. When China acts on the Made in China 2025 strategy, you cannot have manufacturing only in the eastern coast anymore, simply because of the issue of available space. Just like Singapore: in the late 1980s and 1990s, Singapore was an electronics manufacturing factory.

And then, when it was running out of space, it moved operations to Indonesia or Malaysia. China of course has the space, but there is a lot of competition for human resources from the manufacturing industry. In the coastal areas, people want to be engineers, managers, not manufacturing workers.

What's your advice to Chinese companies wanting to make acquisitions in Germany?

Germany is an especially attractive place for China to do business: Chinese companies made direct investments of about $13 billion in Germany last year, more than ever before. Chinese companies can buy and should be able to buy anything anywhere in the world, as long as German companies can buy anything, anywhere in China. The ultimate goal should be a "level playing field" where Chinese and German companies have equal opportunity.

You are a businessman, but also well known in German political circles. How do you see yourself?

What you need to do is stay human and humble. In top management, the power is only lent or given to you for a period of time. You should treat people the way you would want to be treated yourself.

What do you regard as your biggest achievement in China as the group CEO?

Siemens does business in over 200 countries worldwide. Wherever we do business, our promise is to provide technologies that support sustainable development. That's how we serve society  in China and all over the world.

What's the secret of your business success in China?

The key factor behind our success in China has been our employees in China. We have the best.

We also realize that localization matters. Innovation and technology needs to be brought to the country where we do business. We have been very adamant about it.

For decades, Siemens has been increasing R&D investment in China. We launched Siemens Innovation Center project in China last year, and within this project we established Corporate Technology Suzhou in 2016. Corporate Technology China had already become Siemens' largest research institute outside Germany.

How do you get along with local partners?

We like partnering with customers best. They are our most important partners. And we also honor our relationships with the authorities, our suppliers and society.

How do you motivate your international team?

The key is you need to be there for them, when they need you and show them the way forward. We need to let our people own their job and extend them trust.

I always say: no matter who you are and what you do in this company, always act as if it's your own company. If your manager isn't there to help you, just decide what you believe would be right if that was your company, if that was your money to spend, if that was your reputation to lose.

And we need to make our employees owners of their company. Employees who are also owners of their company act with greater responsibility and motivation, since they directly participate in the company's development.

Currently we have 165,000 employees, who own Siemens shares, so almost every second employee is a shareholder in our company.

CV

Age: 60

Nationality: German

Career:

August 2013 onwards: President and chief executive officer, Siemens AG

May 2006: Member of the managing board of Siemens AG, chief financial officer, Siemens AG

October 2004: Chief strategy officer, Siemens AG

1980-2004: Various responsibilities in business administration and finance

Education:

Studied business administration

Master of Business Administration at Regensburg University of Applied Sciences.
More big data technologies will be widely applied, not only to e-commerce business but also to the booming e-governance sector and civil services, benefiting both citizens and governments, experts and company leaders said Thursday as the Big Data Expo trade show prepared to open in Guiyang, Guizhou province.

The show runs Friday through Monday.

A huge IT system and a variety of big data technologies are needed to better govern and serve people from cradle to grave, given that as many as 2,500 kinds of civil services are used during an ordinary citizen's life, said Hu Xiaoming, president of Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group Holding.

On Thursday, Alibaba Cloud announced it would jointly launch a block data center and a cloud platform project with the Guiyang Municipal Public Security Bureau, offering more robust computing power and smarter artificial intelligence algorithms.

Block data, a kind of big data concept, refers to the aggregation of data from a particular region. With the help of the new block chain project, the bureau will collect all the data related to social security services, allowing faster response times.

"The power of big data will enable us take full advantage of various data as key resources to reduce costs and improve work efficiency," Hu added.

The recent deal is only a small part of Alibaba's ambitious blueprint to develop cloud storage, enabling local governments to better collect and analyze data and thus optimize its civil services, including urban traffic.

With the help of the cloud computing platform and AI technologies, vehicles with fake licenses will be automatically identified, according to the Guiyang Municipal Public Security Bureau.

"For us, big data has become a powerful weapon against criminals," said Yu Yang, executive deputy director of the public security bureau. "With the use of big data analysis, the crime of burglary and robbery dropped 5.99 percent in Guiyang last year, compared with 2015."

As far back as 2014, has Alibaba signed deals with Guizhou, and 612 application systems of different administration branches have been successfully tested on the cloud platform.

Contact the writers at ouyangshijia@chinadaily.com.cn
Michael Perry, director of strategic partnerships of DJI, demonstrates the palm-sized drone Spark during an event in New York. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Shenzhen-based group SZ DJI Technology Co, the world's biggest consumer drone maker, launched its new product, Spark, in New York on Wednesday, with key innovations it hopes will see the device take off in the burgeoning market.

DJI said Spark is an easy-to-use camera drone that can lift off from the palm of a hand.

It is also the first drone that users can control with hand gestures alone, removing the barriers between the user and the camera in the sky.

Michael Perry, director of strategic partnerships at DJI, introduced Spark to around 200 people at a launch event at Grand Central Station.

"Controlling a camera drone with hand movements alone is a major step toward making aerial technology an intuitive part of everyone's daily life, from work and adventure to moments with friends and family," said Paul Pan, senior product manager at DJI.

"Spark's revolutionary new interface lets you effortlessly extend your point of view to the air, making it easier than ever to capture and share the world from new perspectives," Pan added.

Aside from being user-friendly, DJI's drones are also known for being small and lightweight.

Wired magazine wrote on Wednesday: "Isn't DJI's new drone just the cutest little thing? A one-pound drone just seven or eight inches across is something you can toss into your backpack without a second thought."

"By far the coolest Spark feature is its gesture-controlled flight mode, allowing you to send the drone overhead to take an aerial photo of you and your buds with just simple hand movements."

DJI claims to account for 70 percent of the global consumer drone market.

According to The Economist, the company is at the forefront of the civilian-drone industry. "A Chinese firm has taken the lead in a promising market," it wrote in 2015, comparing DJI to what Boeing Co did with commercial airliners in the 1930s.

"DJI is today leading the charge in transforming civilian-drone manufacturing from something for hobbyists into a proper business," the magazine wrote.

The founder of DJI, Wang Tao created the world's leading drone company from his hobby, launching DJI from his dorm at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in 2006 when he was 26.

Aside from its success in the global consumer drone market, DJI is also devoting attention to industry-level drones, according to an earlier report in China Daily.

In November 2016, DJI launched an upgraded agricultural drone, the MG-1S, which is equipped with an advanced flight control system, radar and sensors.

Last month, DJI and Qianxun Spatial Intelligence Inc, a company that uses China's homegrown Beidou navigation satellite system for location and data analysis, announced a strategic partnership to promote the application of the navigation system in the drone industry.
A child tries out a VR gadget at a science exhibition in the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing, May 21, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

BEIJING - Whether it's soaring above Mars or diving below the Pacific, science fans now have a host of scientific immersive experiences they can explore through virtual reality (VR).

At a science exhibition in the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing, people queue up at a VR experience zone where they can "dive" to 2,000 meters and "collect" coral.

It is based on the sea expedition conducted by China's research vessel Kexue ("Science") in 2015. People are instantly taken to the departure port once they put on the headset, when they can hop on the vessel and begin their adventure.

"I was so scared at first, it was very dark under the sea and I was stuck in the middle of rocks," said nine-year-old Ren Haoming. "But I managed to finally pick up a huge crab."

Kexue has launched sea expeditions at the Yap Seamount sea area in the west Pacific, where scientists have collected sea animal and rock samples.

"Science and nature are my favorite classes at school. It is so cool to have such an experience," Ren said. "I can't wait to board a real vessel when I grow up."

As one of the activities held across China to mark the 2017 National Science and Technology Week, the exhibition looks at various scientific achievements from pedal-powered nanogenerators and driverless cars to unmanned helicopters.

Another highlight of the exhibition enables visitors to "roam on Mars" through VR.

"People always have many questions after experiencing it, such as about the geographical features on Mars or whether there will be strong storm on it," said Deng Chao who works for the exhibition.

The launch of China's first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1 last month inspired people's interest in science, and their enthusiasm was further fueled by the dive of Chinese submersible Jiaolong on Tuesday.

Jiaolong reached a depth of 4,811 meters in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest water, where scientists worked for more than three hours observing and collecting rocks and marine life samples.

A robotic arm at the exhibition provides people with a similar experience to scientists on the Jiaolong, enabling people to try to grasp simulated rock samples.

The science exhibition has also attracted professionals. Invited by China Science and Technology Exchange Center, Ulrichova Jitka, vice president of Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, came to China earlier this week.

After visiting the 2017 Shanghai Science Festival, one of the activities held across China this week, Jitka and two of her colleagues were also fascinated with the exhibition in Beijing.

"I haven't tried VR yet, and I'm very interested in the 3D-printed vertebrae," Jitka said. "This exhibition has more high-tech elements, whereas the science festival in Shanghai had more interactive activities."

"We are glad to provide people with more interesting experiences than just watching space and ocean exploration on TV," Deng said. "We hope to increase public knowledge in science through exhibitions and other scientific activities."
Frigates deployed to warn ship sent by Washington to leave S. China Sea area

Beijing strongly condemned Washington on Thursday over a US Navy warship sailing close to the Nansha Islands without permission, and warned that such action could damage the peace and stability of the South China Sea.

Experts said that the move shows the United States military wants to remain a presence in the region for both its domestic and international goals.

The USS Dewey, a guided missile destroyer, sailed less than 12 nautical miles from the Meiji Reef of the Nansha Islands early Thursday, the first such case under the administration of US President Donald Trump, US media reported, citing US military officials.

China deployed the guided-missile frigates Liuzhou and Luzhou to identify and warn the US ship to leave, Ren Guoqiang, spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, said at a regular news conference. China also made solemn representations, a diplomatic protest, to the US, he said.

"Such wrong conduct of the US military will only encourage the Chinese military to further strengthen its capacity building and firmly defend our national sovereignty and security," he said.

He said China has undisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and surrounding waters. "We strongly oppose such practices of the US military, which shows off its might, promotes regional militarization and easily causes unexpected air and sea accidents."

Ren said that a healthy and steady military relation between China and the US is in line with the common interests of the two countries, and it needs concerted efforts on both sides. "We urge the US to take concrete measures to correct the mistake and inject positive energy into the development of bilateral military relations," he said.

Lu Kang, Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Thursday that the situation in the South China Sea is cooling down and showing positive signs of development, thanks to the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries.

But the US action risked severely disrupting the negotiations between the stakeholders in the South China Sea, "and benefits no one", he said.

"China resolutely opposes any country using freedom of navigation to undermine China's sovereignty and security interest," Lu said. "The determination to protect its territorial sovereignty, security and maritime interest is unshakable."

China strongly urged the US to stop the provocations and refrain from damaging the peace and stability of the region as well as Sino-US cooperation, he added.

Major General Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the People's Liberation Army Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that the excuse of "freedom of navigation" allows the US Navy to boast of its military presence in the region to achieve its domestic and international goals.

"By stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, domestically, the US military can ask the Trump administration for more resources to contain China," he said. "Internationally, the US military can reassure its global allies that it has not lost footing in the South China Sea, and appear tough before the upcoming Shangri-La Dialogue, where defense officials from around the world will meet in Singapore."
A spokesman for the Chinese mainland warned on Thursday that the Taiwan administration's attempt to resist reunification by force will "get the island nowhere".

The administrationled by the Democratic Progressive Partyshould abandon its "Taiwan independence" stance and antagonistic mentality, said An Fengshan, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, during a news conference.

The comment was an answer to a question about an ongoing military drill in Taiwan simulating an attack from the mainland.

"Only by recognizing the common political foundation of the 1992 Consensus can the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations be maintained," he said.

The 1992 Consensus embodies the one-China policy.

When asked to comment on Taiwan's attempt to attend the World Health Assembly, An said: "The authority of the principle of one-China policy is beyond question."

He said the policy has been widely recognized by the international community and is also reflected in United Nations Resolution 2758 and World Health Assembly Resolution 25.1.

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of the WHO. It is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland. This year's assembly opened on Tuesday and will run to May 31.

"As a matter of course, the WHO, the health agency of the UN, has handled Taiwan-related issues according to the principle, and we hope the assembly will not be disturbed," An said.

Newly elected WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom reiterated the organization's adherence to the one-China policy on Wednesday.

Tedros, 52, a former health minister and foreign minister of Ethiopia, will succeed Margaret Chan, whose tenure ends in June.

In a meeting with Li Bin, head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Tedros said the UN agency will properly handle Taiwan-related issues based on the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the World Health Assembly, the WHO's decision-making body.

Tedros noted that it was his first bilateral meeting after being elected and told Li that he will continue to lead the WHO to closer cooperation with China.

Li congratulated Tedros on his election and said China is willing to continue its in-depth cooperation with the organization.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
"I can't afford to marry a Chinese girl because I'm too poor, so I intended to buy a Vietnamese bride," said a 22-year-old from Henan province, surnamed Wang, who was arrested as he attempted to select a woman near the border between Yunnan province and Vietnam.

"My parents arranged a few blind dates for me. As betrothal gifts, one girl demanded a house and car costing more than 200,000 yuan ($30,000), but I couldn't afford them," he said.

After several failures, Wang's parents became concerned and arranged for marriage brokers to visit Yunnan to help their son find a less-expensive Vietnamese wife.

Wang's confession and careful investigation helped police uncover a major cross-border human trafficking ring.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, Vietnamese traffickers search for young women with low levels of education and poor social awareness, then illegally transport them across the border under the pretext of tourism or well-paid jobs.

After buying the victims, Chinese traffickers arrange accommodations and contact brokers to resell them at a profit in rural areas across seven provinces and regions, including Yunnan, Henan and Shandong.

According to Chen Jianfeng, director of the anti-human trafficking office at the ministry's Criminal Investigation Department, most of the buyers are residents of poverty-stricken areas who are too poor to marry Chinese women.

"The buyers secretly come to the border area in Yunnan to choose Vietnamese brides. All the deals are made via agents," he said.

In February, the ministry ordered public security departments in seven provinces and regions to take unified action. The police arrested 75 traffickers and rescued 34 Vietnamese women, smashing a major transnational human trafficking ring, according to the ministry.

The suspects were transferred to the local prosecuting department for questioning, and most of the women were repatriated to Vietnam.

Under China's Criminal Law, people convicted of knowingly buying abducted women face jail terms of less than three years.
The recent widespread ransomware cyberattack is a landmark incident showing that computer viruses can attack anyone anywhere rather than just targeting certain groups, senior Chinese cybersecurity officials said.

They also said China must be able to handle similar and even worse attacks in the future.

"WannaCry has no specific target. All Windows users are potentially the targets of the highly infectious virus. It has caused enormous panic among people around the world because it poses a direct threat," said Liu Xinran, deputy director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Coordination Center.

He made the remarks during the center's 2017 annual conference in Qingdao, Shandong province, held Monday to Wednesday.

WannaCry, exploiting a security loophole in Windows, blocks users from accessing their own files. It encrypts data and system files, which the user can then access only by paying $300 in online bitcoin currency within seven days.

The attacks peaked between May 13 and 14 in China. Some gas stations run by China National Petroleum Corp in several cities could not process card and mobile payments because of the ransomware.

"It's really difficult to calculate the exact damage the virus has caused in China because it disrupts the normal functions of many organizations, which can hardly be quantified," said Yan Hanbing, director of the operation department at CNCERT, as the response team is known.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said that as internet-based services have been deeply integrated into people's daily activities, such attacks now have more effect on people's lives than just interrupting cyberspace.

Threats of such attacks already represent severe security threats to key sectors including finance, transportation and energy in China, he added.

"WannaCry is just a warning sign. We need a better defense and warning system for severe attacks that are beyond our imagination in the future," said Yang Peng, a senior engineer at the center.

"China will be in great danger if similar viruses are used by other governments to start a cyberwar," he said.

Large corporations cannot afford to have cybersecurity loopholes caused by poor management because it matters to national security, Yang said.

Some corporations in key sectors were completely unaware that hackers implanted a virus in their system three years ago and their data had already been stolen, he added.

Contact the writers at cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn
A former senior official in the Ministry of Justice who provided false personal documents and who is suspected of corruption has been expelled from the Communist Party of China and removed from office, the top disciplinary watchdog said on Thursday.

An investigation found that Lu Enguang, a former member of the leading Party group of the ministry, provided fake information regarding his age, family members, education and employment background when he joined the Party, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The commission said in a statement that he used money and personal connections to "buy official positions and honorary titles" that enabled him to rise "from a private enterprise owner to a vice-ministerial-level official".

He was also found to have been simultaneously acting as an official and a businessman, and had sought benefits for multiple enterprises he controlled in improper ways, it said.

To benefit his business operations and get promotions in public office, he was said to have offered large amounts of money and gifts to government officials, it said.

The case has been delivered to judicial authorities for further investigation.

"Lu's values are severely twisted, and what he did seriously violated Party discipline," the CCDI said. "He tarnished the image and the personnel selection system of the Party and undermined the political environment of related regions and units."

It noted that the circumstances were serious, which is why he was dismissed from public office and expelled from the Party. In addition, the titles he obtained dishonestly will be revoked, it added.

Lu, a native of Shandong province, graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai. In the past he was a teacher and then the head of a science and technology facility.

He joined the ministry in 2009 and became a member of its leading Party group in 2015.
Staff members prepare for the dome installation at No 5 unit of Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant in Fuqing, east China's Fujian province, May 25, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

FUZHOU -- China successfully installed the containment dome for its first demonstration nuclear power project using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, in East China's Fujian province on Thursday.

The hemispherical dome, weighing 340 metric tons and measuring 46.8 meters in diameter, was installed by crane on the No 5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in Fuqing City at 5:58 pm.

The installation marks the completion of construction work on the pilot project and the beginning of the assembly stage, said Yu Peigen, deputy general manager of CNNC at the site of installation.
Memorandums of understanding aimed at enhancing cooperation between the State Oceanic Administration and six foreign polar research organizations were signed on Thursday night.

Parties to the agreements included the Norwegian Polar Institute, Argentina's National Directorate of the Antarctic and Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, according to a news release from the administration.

It said the memorandums pertain to a wide range of fields such as on-scene inspections, scientific study, logistical support, and personnel and technical exchanges.

China highly values international cooperation in polar exploration and research and has signed collaboration agreements with more than 10 nations in this regard, the administration noted.

The signing ceremony took place amid the ongoing 40th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting that is being held in Beijing until June 1.

About 400 delegates from 42 countries and 10 international organizations are taking part in the meeting, which is an annual decision-making mechanism established under the Antarctic Treaty. This is the first time China has hosted the consultative meeting.
A woman at her home in Naweng, a mountainous village in Southwest China's Guizhou province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Relocating poverty-stricken families out of their rural hometowns is one of China's poverty alleviation measures, but not everyone wants to move.

Naweng is a mountainous village in Zhenfeng county in Qianxinan Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Guizhou province. With a harsh natural environment, parts of the village have been included in the local government's relocation program.

Xinhua reporters visited the village recently to find out why locals are reluctant to relocate.

When they drove to the village, they discovered a section of the road had been washed away by heavy rain the night before, forcing them to walk for 40 minutes on a muddy trail.

When journalists asked one villager whether she would like to move to the county seat, she said no with no hesitation.

The woman said she doesn't know how to speak Putonghua - the official spoken language - and would not even know where to find a bathroom or shop for groceries if she moves to the county seat.

"What if all the other people in the village have moved away?" a reporter followed up.

"I would still not move even if I am given 1,000 yuan. I don't even know how to withdraw money using a bank card," she said.

Her comments reflect the barriers many impoverished families would be faced if they relocate to new places.

Many of the villages included in the relocation program lie in the depths of the mountains where locals live in relative isolation. In villages inhabited by ethnic minorities like Bouyei or Miao people, most of the residents are illiterate and many have never left the villages where they were born and don't know how to speak Putonghua.
The General Administration of Customs is planning to make one-stop service a reality in all ports nationwide by the end of this year, a move to further simplify customs clearance procedures, said the administration's vice-minister on Friday.

The new service to facilitate China's foreign trade, so called "Single Window", aims to help efficiency in customs clearance and in turn save enterprises time, Zou Zhiwu said at a press conference.

Companies are able to provide materials required by all port authorities in a single submission, and the information is then distributed automatically to related governmental bodies, Zou elaborated.

"By the end of this year, a new version of the system will run at all ports across the country," said Zou, adding that so far 17 provinces and cities have the system in place.

At the same time, GAC is preparing a platform to share declaration data, monitor the logistics process and collect companies' credit status.

Zou said local customs offices ought to enact monitoring reforms, which could avoid repetition of checks and uncontrolled fieldwork.

In June 2016, GAC launched a pilot project to enhance the reform of customs clearance. The reform was to help stabilize and improve the country's foreign trade environment through improving customs clearance efficiency, shortening operation time and reducing clearance costs, according to Zou.
Hu Chunhua was re-elected as Party chief of Guangdong province during the 12th Guangdong Provincial Party Congress, which occurred in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, on Friday.

Hu promised to build a clean and honest Party and government leadership and construct a well-off society in Guangdong in the next five years.

Hu, born in 1963, is a native of central China's Hubei province. He has been the top official of Guangdong, an economic powerhouse in China, since December 2012.

Ma Xingrui and Ren Xuefeng were elected as deputy Party chiefs of the southern province.

Ma, born in 1959, is governor of Guangdong province, while Ren, 52, is Party chief of Guangzhou.

Shi Kehui, 56, was elected as secretary of Guangdong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection, the province's top anti-graft body.

Other members of the standing committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China are Wang Weizhong, Shen Haixiong, Lin Shaochun, Zou Ming, He Zhongyou, Jiang Ling, Yan Zhichan and Zeng Zhiquan

Meanwhile 70 Party members have also been elected to represent Guangdong province at the Party's 19th National Congress in Beijing later this year.

About 900 Party members from the province have attended the congress which occurred on May 22.
By CANG WEI in Nanjing and TANG YAOCHANG in Hangzhou | China Daily | Updated: 2017-05-26 21:34

Women from different countries wear qipao, the traditional Chinese dress, and pose for a selfie during the Hangzhou Global Qipao Festival in Zhejiang province on Friday. DONG XUMING/CHINA DAILY

Thousands of women from many countries wore qipao, a traditional Chinese women's dress, in fashion shows and on the streets of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Friday.

Hundreds of women attended the three shows at West Lake, Gongchen Bridge on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and China Silk Museum. They sang, read poems and posed for cameras at the picturesque sites.

People wearing qipao were allowed special discounts in many shops and places of interest in the city on Friday, including bookstores, coffee shops and the famous Xixi National Wetland Park.

"Qipao remind me of China and the beauty of Chinese women," said Mathilde Blaschyk, a French woman who has been living in China for six years.

"Women in qipao are very beautiful and walk in a graceful way. I want to be more beautiful, and that's why I chose to attend the qipao fashion show today."

She said that she is very interested in Chinese culture and learning to walk in a qipao was fun.

Some of the women and girls wore qipao printed with views of Hangzhou, a renowned tourist city in China.

Women and girls, aged from 8 to 63, attended 12 qipao fashion shows in Hamburg, Madrid, London and Sydney in May. They were part of the Global Qipao Festival initiated by Hangzhou to promote the traditional dress, and the city, to the world.
The second meeting for Chinese and Arab countries' library and information field experts was held at the National Library of China in Beijing on Wednesday.

The meeting gathered delegates from China as well as library administrators from 14 Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq. It aimed to promote cooperation in library construction, technology and academic communication from both sides.

A cooperative digital library was also announced, with 300 kinds of Chinese files from National Library of China became the first entries into the database.

Echoing China's Belt and Road Initiative, libraries from China and Arab countries began to seek closer ties in recent years. The first such meeting was held in Cairo, Egypt, in 2015.

According to Han Yongjin, curator of National Library of China, a Silk Road international library alliance spanning to countries relevant to Belt and Road Initiative will also be launched.
The former shop front of Wu Fang Zhai [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

With the fresh smell of reed leaves, as well as the scent of rice and meat wafting through the air, the Wu Fang Zhai factory is a scene of orderly tension as workers prepare stacks of orders for the upcoming Duanwu Festival, also known as Dragon Boat Festival.

Wu Fang Zhai, a time-honored brand of zongzi (stuffed glutinous rice dumplings) is based in Jiaxing of Zhejiang province. Founded in 1921 with a small workshop, the enterprise now produces over 1.8 million zongzi each day at peak times during the Duanwu Festival.

The custom of eating zongzi during the festival in Jiaxing dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). As the technique for making zongzi in Jiaxing gradually developed, zongzi produced here became more popular around the country, especially meat zongzi. The most famous brand for meat zongzi is Wu Fang Zhai and the technique for making Wu Fang Zhai zongzi was placed on the list of national intangible cultural heritage in 2011.
Italian brand Valextra showcases its 2017 autumn/winter collections during a recent Beijing event.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Celebrities and internet personalities often have a dramatic influence on the consumption patterns of Chinese fashionistas. A good example is the Italian luxury-bag and accessories brand Valextra. It was relatively unknown before it opened its first China store in Shanghai in January.

But within eight days of the store's opening, pictures of brand's bags went viral as people spotted celebrities and internet personalities carrying them.

The frenzy even spread to Europe where Chinese tourists stood in line outside the brand's stores seeking the same types of bags that the celebrities were carrying.

"In 20 years in this business, I have never seen a reaction like this," says CEO Sara Ferrero.

Despite the attention, Ferrero is focused on the future.

"Being the new kid on the block gets you a lot of attention. But we really need to understand the consumers and what they need. We have to be able to create a love story, more than a love affair," she says.

Meanwhile, Valextra, which plans to open a second store in Beijing by July, recently marked its 80th anniversary with a photography event in the Chinese capital called the Personal Subject, which was earlier held in Milan, where the brand originated.

In Milan, designers, musicians and artists were invited to pose with their favorite Valextra bags in the city.

They were photographed by renowned photographer Marco Pietracupa.

The event will also be held in Tokyo and New York, and selected pictures from the events in the cities where it was held will be exhibited in Milan in November.
Smart gadgets turn heads at 19th Cross-Straits Fair ( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2017-05-25

A virtual reality classroom, a real time physical examination device, and other smart gadgets attracted huge attention at the 19th Cross-Straits Fair for Economy and Trade. In its 19th year, the fair has been dedicated to bringing the latest, most intriguing products to visitors.

The fair attracted 352,100 visitors in five days from May 18 to the venue in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. Many Fuzhou citizens came looking for new inventions that could offer an amazing experience, and possible discounts for onsite purchases.

Besides tropical fruit from Thailand, agate from Pakistan and carpets from India, smart devices for daily use also interested many citizens.

Big data healthcare management

Wuchuang Xindian Co, based in Fuzhou Binhai New City, a new development zone in Fuzhou, exhibited its real time monitors, which can prevent heart attacks from taking a heavy toll on patients. Its remote control function makes it possible for villagers from remote regions to get medical advice from the best doctors in distant towns.

All medical institutions in Fuzhous Taijiang district have been working with the company to provide cardiograms for 42,000 people and blood sugar data for 31,000.
Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Vanuatu Prime Minister Sato Kilman in Beijing on Sept 1, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

A lot has been said about China's diplomacy in the Pacific region, but not as much positive role that China is playing in the development of the Pacific island countries has been mentioned. One viewpoint believes that what China is doing in the Pacific is aimed at trapping the Pacific island countries into a relationship which will in the future become more of a liability to the governments and states. This is mostly a Western framed argument.

Most of China's guiding principles for its foreign policy are based on its Confucius culture of universal peace and sharing, such as "doing unto others what you would have them do to you", and "in poverty one should hold himself to a high standard, when prosperous one should contribute to the well being of all". China holds dear the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which are the critical elements of China's foreign policy.

China is still a developing country and is one that has gone through aggression in its history. That's why China adopted a type of foreign policy that is to pursue independence and peace. Such path of peace will lead to greater mutual and inclusive development around the world. The fundamental rationale behind China's diplomatic relations with the Pacific island countries is based on peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit.

Today China has become the second largest economy in the world. As China becomes economically influential, it is trying to demonstrate growing capability to contribute to international peace and maintain global order. China's help is widespread in the Pacific and it provides more development options to the Pacific island countries. China's activities are also based on its belief that the 21st Century is an era of globalization and interdependence where strategic network is forged with all the regions of the world to achieve universal peace and global prosperity.

And because of its growing significance as an international player, China will increasingly be called upon to contribute to finding solutions to the rising global challenges, such as terrorism, climate change, provision of development finance and so on.

China's President Xi Jinping embarked upon the Belt and Road Initiative. This is a policy that is aimed at increasing cooperation and connectivity through trade and people to people bond. It is a policy of open cooperation that makes for facilitating financial and economic integration. On recent Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, China pledged to provide positive support.

The Vanuatu Government sees the opportunity in its relations with China. China is helping Vanuatu in a few major projects, including National Convention Centre, Tanna-Malekula Road rehabilitation, Luganville wharf, Prime Minister's Office Complex, MSG Secretariat building, Korman Stadium and so on. Vanuatu must also be able to navigate in this policy and see what legislation and policy we need to have in place to take advantage of the opportunities that China has to offer.

China's assistance is becoming more and more evident to Vanuatu people who are now learning more about China's capability to positively contribute to our development aspirations. We speak highly of the growing responsibility that China must take up in a complex world. If China is going to continue to grow, we the nations of the Pacific must celebrate that as an opportunity and not as a threat to our region.

The author is Vanuatu prime minister's parliamentary secretary and a member of parliament.
MA XUEJING/CHINA DAILY

That leaders from the world's leading industrialized countriesCanada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United Statesare expected to discuss "building the foundations of renewed trust" in Sicily, Italy, on Friday and Saturday offers a glimpse of the challenges facing the G7 amid growing concerns over global governance.

Established in 1975 by "the world's six major industrialized democracies" before Canada joined it a year later, the G7 seems to have passed the baton of international economic coordination to the G20 after the 2008 financial crisis. The G7 still accounts for more than 40 percent of the world's economy, but their combined contribution to global growth is not equal to that of China alone. And given the continuing currency and trade disputes, it is only natural for the G7 to yield place to the more inclusive G20 to build the foundations of renewed trust.

The founding of the G20, which comprises the G7 as well as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and other major economies, also poses a challenge to the G7's legitimacy. The co-existence of concerting mechanisms upheld by different regional economic blocs, to some extent, could deal another blow to the G7's once-dominant role now that the G20 enjoys more international credibility.

The major hindrance to the G7's ambitions is the waning coordination between the US and the European Union after Donald Trump was sworn in as the US president and leader of the world's largest economy. Trump's "America First" slogan, strident comments on the role of NATO, and his decision to pull the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement have added to the US-Europe disparities over free trade, multilateralism and global governance. And many observers say he could face headwinds at the ongoing NATO summit in Brussels and the G7 summit in Sicily.

The G7 also needs to deal with the global security challenges and better manage its relations with China and Russia, which was suspended from the erstwhile G8 in 2014. Without Washington leading the way, the seven-member bloc will likely become a supplement to bilateral negotiations between the US and other G7 members like Japan and Canada. And after the EU-Canada and EU-Japan free trade agreements came into effect, however, Brussels seems to expect less from Washington.

More important, the major issues haunting some G7 economies, such as Italy's debt crisis, raise questions on the bloc's credentials in economic governance. The group's ambitions of reducing inequalities, safeguarding cyber security, closing the financing channels of terrorists and dealing with the tax challenges of a digital economy are laudable. But it will take more than seven countries to find a fundamental solution to the problems, not least because Trump's recent moves suggest something different from the previous G7 consensus on fighting protectionism and climate change.

Whether the G7 summit will raise an alert over competitive depreciation should be closely watched given the possibility of the new US administration undermining the consistency of the G20 economies' global monetary policy.

Seeking closer cooperation with China and taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative could be a wise choice for the G7 members aiming to build solidarity and efficient global governance. The two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, which ended on May 15, was attended by representatives of both developing and emerging countries, as well as the G7 countries. That is evidence of the difference the inclusive, reciprocal initiative can make to the international community and regional groups.

The author is a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, and a senior researcher at The Charhar Institute.
A worker at a steel company in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, in Jan 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

On Wednesday, Moody's Investors Service downgraded China's sovereign credit rating from Aa3 to A1, the first time in nearly 30 years, saying China's financial strength could erode in the coming years as its growth slows and debt continues to rise.

The Chinese government has never cared much about the outlook of rating agencies that use tinted glasses to assess the country's economy, but people should guard against their commercially motivated rating moves and their underlying logic.

Some researchers have even linked a certain rating agency's assessments to the subprime crisis in the United States.

The logic behind Moody's latest move is confusing, because it did not change China's ratings in the 1990s when its economic growth slowed or in the 2000s when its GDP growth was very high. Moody's move, therefore, reveals its prejudice against China.

The majority of the countries that have got Aaa or Aa ratings from Moody's are developed economies, which have seen lower economic growth or have higher debt than China. For example, Moody's has extended a better outlook to some European countries plagued by recession and/or skyrocketing debts, ignoring the fact that compared with the developed economies caught in the "high-income trap", China enjoys a much better economic outlook.

Moody's cited China's likely slower growth and rising debt as the reasons behind its latest move to downgrade the country's credit rating, which again does not hold water.

China's growth rate has been above 6.5 percent in recent years, and the figures for the first quarter of this year promise even stronger growth. Besides, China's debt level has come down as a result of accelerated deleveraging efforts.

By downgrading China's credit rating, not at the time when its growth slowed and debt soared but at a time when its economic growth has stabilized and its debt pressure eased, Moody's is trying to send a signal that it itself cannot understand. Given their irresponsible attitude, rating agencies such as Moody's seem hellbent on committing suicide.

--GLOBAL TIMES
Shi Shenwei works as a construction worker. [Photo/VCG]

DATA ON AN employment exchange website show the average monthly income of construction workers in Chengdu, Sichuan province, was 8,300 yuan ($1,210) last year, with skilled bar benders, bricklayers, carpenters and painters earning more than 10,000 yuan. In contrast, the average monthly salary of clerks and secretaries was about 3,800 yuan. An article on youth.cn comments:

The huge income gap between blue-collar and white-collar workers may be surprising for many people. But manual workers' incomes have been rising over the past few years because of the supply-demand law.

Each year, 7 million college graduates enter the job market, while the number of skilled laborers joining the workforce is much lower, because it takes years for a worker to become an expert in his/her field while clerks can learn their job in months.

The demand for skilled workers is high because of the boom in the infrastructure, interior decoration and service sectors. Besides, most of the skilled workers are migrants, who get fewer social welfare benefits than while-collar workers. To some extent, their relatively high income includes the compensation for that.

Those people surprised at the "decline" in the incomes of clerks and secretaries should understand the division of labor today, as the advancement of technology has divided white-collar as well as blue-collar jobs into more categories. So we should stop comparing the incomes of white-collar and blue-collar workers.
Passengers wait for flights at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Shanghai, on January 13, 2017. [Photo/CFP]

CHINESE PASSENGERS are allowed to use their passports, instead of identity cards, to book and board domestic flights, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Tuesday. The statement came in response to some reports that said, at several airports passengers are also required to present their IDs while boarding a domestic flight even if they had booked tickets using their passports. Legal Daily commented on Thursday:

The CAAC's clarification came just one day after the reports were published creating confusion among passengers. The new guidelines on civil aviation security from the country's top aviation authority, which took effect on Jan 1, require passengers to present valid IDs, including passports, to board domestic flights.

It is thus surprising that some airports, including Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Zhuhai Airport, both in Guangdong province, refused to accept a passport as valid identification for Chinese passengers earlier this month. Their misinterpretation of the aviation rules caused unnecessary delays for passengers.

Of the 29 airports in 28 provincial-level regions, including the four municipalities, which China Daily reporters contacted on Monday, 13 required Chinese passengers to carry their identity cards to fly within the country, including those who had booked an international flight with their passport and intended to use one of China's airports as a stopover.

An estimated 430 million people flew with Chinese airlines in 2015, which shows flights are the preferred mode of transport for many people in the country. As such, passengers deserve proper service, not mixed signals, from airport authorities.

A major question that remains unanswered is: Why have the revised aviation rules not been followed by all airports over the more than four months?

Clearly, there has been a lack of understanding among aviation authorities at all levels. It is not yet known why some airports required identity cards from Chinese residents to board a flight while others didn't. The misunderstanding could have been avoided had those airport authorities thoroughly read the CAAC guidelines, and the aviation authorities informed passengers that they should book and board a flight using the same ID.
Baidu prepares for the era of AI Updated: 2017-05-24 By Sun Hui, chinadaily.com.cn

"From think mobile to think AIthe internet is just an appetizer, but artificial intelligent (AI) is the entree," said Li Yanhong, founder and CEO of Baidu Inc, at the 2017 Baidu Union Summit in the municipality of Chongqing on May 23.

Baidu Union, a Baidu AdSense product, consists of several third-party websites and software applications. Over 230,000 partner websites have already been displaying Baidu Union ads as of May 2011.

The 2017 Baidu Union Summit is held in the municipality of Chongqing on May 23. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

Hundreds of IT leaders, union members and IT entrepreneurs attended the summit to discuss the coming era of AI and the future evolution of Baidu Union.

Baidu has taken several steps to integrate AI technologies into peoples lives. Baidu announced the Apollo project to launch an autonomous driving platform for its partners on April 19, a move to promote the development of self-driving technology. The company plans to introduce fully autonomous driving capabilities on highways and urban roads by 2020.

Li shared his thoughts on the AI era with entrepreneurs during the summit. He thinks internet companies have focused primarily on software in the past, but technology and customer experiences will play a more important role in the AI era.

Li Yanhong, founder and CEO of Baidu Inc, shares his thoughts with entrepreneurs on how to seize chances in the coming AI era. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

"What promotes social progress is algorithms, not data," Li added.

Deng Mingsheng, general manager of Baidu Union, pointed out that dividends of union members have reached up to 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion) since the union was founded in 2002.

Deng said Baidu will provide more support to union members, such as technology and management support, to cultivate more success for entrepreneurs in the coming era of AI.

Hundreds of IT leaders, union members and IT entrepreneurs attended the summit to discuss the coming era of AI and the future evolution of Baidu Union. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

Edited by Zachary Dye
Queen Elizabeth II (R) visits the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to meet victims of the Manchester Arena attack, in Manchester, Britain, May 25, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

LONDON -- Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Manchester Thursday to visit children and young people injured in Monday's terror bombing at the Manchester Arena.

As well as meeting casualties recovering and being treated for their injuries at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, the Queen spoke to doctors and nurses who worked throughout the night and the following days saving the lives of the injured.

Among the patients who the Queen spoke with was 15-year-old Millie Robson from County Durham in northeast England. Her mom Marie sat at her bedside as they chatted with the Royal visitor. The hospital is treating 14 injured children, with five of them described as critically ill.

Her visit came as NHS England reported that the number of people who have received in-patient hospital treatment as a result of injuries sustained in Monday's attack has reached 116.

An NHS spokesman said 23 of the injured are currently in critical care suffering from serious injuries.

The Queen's arrival came shortly after more than 1,000 people gathered in the city's St Ann's Square during a nationwide one-minute silence. The crowd, many with tears streaming down their faces, stood alongside city leaders as a tribute to the dead and injured.

At the end of the tribute they broke into applause and sang "Don't Look Back In Anger," the song performed by Manchester rock band Oasis and written by band member Noel Gallagher.

In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee and said later that the threat level will remain at "critical" in Britain, indicating a possible imminent attack.

May said eight suspects remained in custody as part of the investigation by Greater Manchester Police.

A woman arrested at an apartment block in the city has been released. All of those being held at police stations in Manchester are male. The eight include two men arrested by counter terror police on Thursday morning, one in Manchester and another at an undisclosed location.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Federica Mogherini, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, during the EU-USA Leaders' Meeting at the European Council headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

BRUSSELS -- European Council President Donald Tusk admitted on Thursday that the bloc is still at odds with the United States over issues like climate, trade and Russia.

"My feeling is that we agreed on many areas. First and foremost, on counterterrorism... But some issues remain open, like climate and trade," Tusk told reports after meeting with visiting US President Donald Trump.

"And I am not 100 percent sure that we can say today -- we meaning Mr. President Trump and myself -- that we have a common opinion about Russia, although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, it seems that we were on the same line," he added.

Tusk said he told the billionaire US president that they should consolidate "the whole free world around those values, and not just interests."

"Values and principles first - this is what we, Europe and America, should be saying," said Tusk.

Trump, on his first overseas trip as US president, on Thursday met with Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, both of whom have been critical of Trump's remarks in the past.

Later on Thursday, Trump and leaders of other NATO countries will meet for the first time to map out the future of the organization, and try to narrow their differences on its budget.

The US President has had a fractious relationship with Europe since his candidacy, in which he publicly applauded the pro-Brexit campaign before and after the referendum which saw Britain decide to leave the European Union.

In January, as president-elect, he rattled many European allies by stating in an interview that NATO (North Atlantic Trade Alliance) was obsolete, and indirectly threatening allies to leave the pact if they did not boost defense spending.

Donald Trump's first trip abroad as president has already taken him to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank of the Palestinian territories, the Vatican before arriving in Brussels. His final leg of the journey will be in Sicily, Italy, where he will join a G7 summit in Taormina.
TAORMINA, Italy - As the 43rd yearly summit of the Group of Seven (G7) is to be start Friday, analysts say it could be an uphill battle for the summit to reach consensus over key issues such as migration, security, and climate change.

Tensions between Britain and the EU following last year's Brexit referendum, the protectionist and pro-carbon fuels stance of recently elected US President Donald Trump, and the rise of populist, eurosceptic sentiment across Europe spell a tough time ahead for leaders at the Taormina meeting.

"The raison d'etre of the G7 is its ability to make decisions and coordinate policies swiftly," according to Leuven Center for Global Governance Studies Director Jan Wouters.

"This is no longer the case, as recent elections in Europe and the United States have shown," he said, writing for the University of Toronto's G20 Research Group, which monitors the extent to which leaders follow up on their summit commitments.

"If the like-mindedness on which it was always premised lapses due to the Trump administration" and to frictions between Britain and the EU over Brexit, "the G7 may face daunting challenges in the coming years," he concluded.

Meanwhile at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, Trump linked migration to Monday's terrorist attack in the British city of Manchester, in which a suicide bomber killed at least 22 lives.

This puts him at odds with Italy, which says that migration and terrorism must not be equated.

Since it began rescuing people off unseaworthy human trafficking boats in the Mediterranean in 2014, Italy has pushed the refugee and migrant crisis squarely onto the EU agenda, and has called for massive investments in Africa as a way to tackle the root causes of the exodus.

"At work for G7 Taormina on security, migrations, climate, Africa relations," Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted Thursday, outlining the key points Italy wishes to table at the two-day summit that kicks off in the Sicilian town of Taormina on Friday.
Leaders pose for a family picture during the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit at the NATO headquarters, in Brussels, May 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

BRUSSELS - US President Donald Trump on Thursday used the occasion of his maiden summit with NATO leaders to, once again, remind his fellow NATO alliance leaders for not being "fair" to US taxpayers.

"23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying," Trump said, adding that they owe "massive amounts".

NATO says a rising number of European members have increased defense spending "significantly" in the last 12 months, although only a handful meet the 2-percent spending target agreed at a previous summit in 2014.

Trump's comments will disappoint alliance leaders who had hoped for a public commitment from the US president to NATO's security guarantees, which he called into question during his presidential campaign last year.

It was also notable that Trump refused to publicly reiterate US commitment to NATO's mutual defense provision, Article 5, which had been invoked just once before: after the terror attack of September 11, 2001.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO leaders had agreed to step up NATO's role in the fight against terrorism and "fairer burden sharing".

The meeting, he said, had adopted an action plan to enhance NATO's contributions and had also decided to expand to support to the US-led "Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS".

Stoltenberg said, "This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism and improve coordination within the Coalition."

However, he stressed, "It does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations."

On burden sharing, he said, "In 2015, defense cuts came to a stop. And in 2016, total spending across Europe and Canada increased by billions of dollars. This is not just about cash, but also modern capabilities."

The summit had taken steps "to keep up the momentum" and agreed to develop national plans every year.

"These will set out how NATO Allies intend to meet their pledge. So that we continue to match words with action," said the NATO's chief.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg accepts an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Marc Goodheart, Secretary of the Board of Overseers, during the 366th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 25, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

NEW YORK  Mark Zuckerberg returned Thursday to Harvard, where he launched Facebook and then dropped out, telling graduates it's up to them to bring purpose to the world, fight inequality and strengthen the global community.

"Change starts local. Even global changes start small  with people like us," the Facebook CEO said. He shared stories about graduates such as David Razu Aznar, a former city leader who led the effort to legalize gay marriage in Mexico City, and Agnes Igoye, who grew up in conflict zones in Uganda and now trains law enforcement officers.

"And this is my story too," Zuckerberg added. "A student in a dorm room, connecting one community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we can connect the whole world." Such lofty talk now comes naturally to Zuckerberg, a 33-year-old billionaire who has committed to giving away nearly all of his wealth. In February, he sketched out an ambitious, if vague, vision for Facebook that committed the company to developing "social infrastructure" that would help build a "global community that works for all of us."

Zuckerberg, who like the graduates is a millennial, started Facebook in his dorm room in 2004. What began as a closed networking site for Harvard students is now a global communications force with nearly 2 billion members. Facebook's founding was the subject of a Hollywood movie, "The Social Network," in 2010.

Facebook's effect has been profound. It has connected people who would have never met otherwise, letting them form supportive networks online and offline. And it has allowed people to communicate in developing countries even if they don't have a phone number or a smartphone.

But it has also served to spread misinformation.
By AMY HE in New York | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-05-26 11:55

SF Express' branch in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning province is seen in this Nov 11, 2016 file photo. [Photo/Xinhua]

Logistics giants UPS and SF Holding on Friday announced a joint venture to provide international delivery service from China to the US and eventually include other destinations.

SF Holding, the parent company of SF Express, is China's largestdelivery service; UPS is the world's largest express delivery company. The joint venture will combine SF's extensive Chinese network with UPS' global network across 220 countries and territories.

The joint venture is an opportunity to penetrate the small- and medium-sized businesses in China, saidAlan Gershenhorn, chief commercial officer at UPS. "[We'll be] providing much deeper opportunities for those Chinese businesses," he said.

Gershenhorn said that SF Holding was a natural partner because of the company's comprehensive coverage of China and market dominance. "This is one of those one-plus-one-equals-10 type of opportunities," he said, combining SF Express' coverage across China and UPS' delivery network.

China is expected to be the largest express delivery market in the world by 2020, with revenue predicted at more than $100 billion.

"China is leading the world in terms of e-commerce market size, growth, penetration and mobile business usage," said Alan Wong, SF's group vice-president, in a statement.

"Coupled with a rapidly growing and internet-savvy consumer base, it's imperative that SF and UPS collaborate to revolutionize the logistics sector,'' he said. ``Together, we aim to bring greater competitive advantages to our customers in China, to succeed globally."

UPS has been operating out of China since 1988, but US courier services like UPS and FedEx have had limited market share in China where local players dominate.

"This is just another step on the journey here" in China,Gershenhorn said.

UPS said it moves about 19 million packages a day. It does not break out sales figures or activity in China, but the company reported in its first-quarter earnings that average daily export volumes in the Asia-Pacific region were up by more than 10 percent.

International revenue increased 4.9 percent year-on-year to $3.1 billion.

Shenzhen-based SF Express reported profit of $609 million last year, with annual growth rate three times that of 2015. It delivered more than 31 billion packages in 2016.

It went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in March, bringing its founder Wang Wei's net worth to $27.6 billion and making him the third-richest man in China behind Dalian Wanda Group's Wang Jianlin and Alibaba's Jack Ma.

The Chinese e-commerce boomfrom the last decade led by Alibaba has made SF Holding one of the most valuable tech stocks in Shenzhen, with the company's market cap at $29 billion.

The company has about 117,000 employees, 80,000 of whom are couriers. It was the first courier service in China to have its own fleet of aircraft, and announced in February that it will build its own airport in Ezhou by 2020.
Startimes hosted the seventh Africa Digital TV Development Seminar on May 22 in Beijing. Provided to China Daily

As the recently concluded Belt and Road Forum sketches a new blueprint for international cooperation, Startimes, a Chinese company that provides digital television programming, will enhance connectivity in broadcasting and promote development of the digital TV industry in Africa, Startimes President Pang Xinxing says.

Startimes hosted the seventh Africa Digital TV Development Seminar on May 22 in Beijing.

With the theme of universalized digital TV and enjoying the "smart" life, the seminar was aimed at exploring and discussing the development of Africa's digital television industry to make the continent's people have higher-quality lives.

The digital TV provider is looking forward to having discussions with guest countries on the implementation of digital broadcasting and the popularization of digital TV and hopes to help Africa's transition to a "smart" society, Pang says.

Since setting up its first branch in Rwanda in 2007, Startimes has broadcast to more than 30 African countries with 9 million subscribers within a decade, leading the company to become the fastest-growing, most influential digital TV operator in Africa.

To provide a better viewing experience, dubbing artists who are winners of dubbing competitions have translated 240 Chinese TV series - a total of 7,500 hours of programs - in local languages.

When the dubbing center's Beijing headquarters begins operations, the dubbing production will reach 100,000 hours each year, Startimes Vice-President Guo Ziqi says.

Tong Gang, the vice-minister of China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, says officials will continue to strengthen the political communication of media cooperation between China and Africa. China will deepen media cooperation with Africa to expand content cooperation to boost the development of China's and African countries' media industries, Tong says.

Raufu Lai Mohammed, Nigeria's minister of information and culture, thinks highly of Chinese development progress and hopes for a successful experience for his country.

Working with Chinese enterprises such as Startimes to enhance communication and cooperation about digital broadcasting and content production will boost overall economic development, he says.

The digital TV development seminar, which lasted for two days, drew government officials and representatives from enterprises and organizations from 46 countries. Western delegations included Time Warner, Disney and AB Group.

caoyingying@chinadaily.com.cn
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A special representative of President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of a flagship railway project in Kenya next week, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), developed by China Road and Bridge Corp, will be completed on Wednesday. State Councilor Wang Yong, Xi's special representative, will visit Kenya from Tuesday to Thursday to attend the ceremony, spokesman Lu Kang said at a news conference.

The railway, linking Kenya's largest city Nairobi with the country's second largest city Mombasa, will shorten the travel time from over 10 hours to only four.

The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR is a flagship project of the cooperation between China and Africa, and the biggest infrastructural project in Kenya since its independence.

Kenya plays a leading and exploratory role in capacity cooperation and is at the forefront of China-Africa cooperation, Lu said.

China would like to work with Kenya to implement the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, promote capacity cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative, comprehensively strengthen cooperation in all aspects and promote bilateral relations to a new level, he added.

Zhou Jin contributed to this story.
Ten past and several yet to air series of the iconic British science fiction show Doctor Who will soon be available on TV channels and on-demand platforms in China, following a deal struck on Thursday between BBC Worldwide and Shanghai Media Group Pictures (SMG Pictures).

The BBC series has run intermittently since 1963 and chronicles the adventures of a time-travelling extraterrestrial called "The Doctor."Doctor Who has garnered a significant cult following and is broadcast in 239 territories around the world.

The new deal will grant SMG Pictures access to series one through 10 of Doctor Who, as well as the yet-to-film 11th series, and first looks at series 12 through 15. The deal includes Doctor Who spin-off shows Torchwood and Class.

Jaclyn-Lee Joe, chief marketing officer of BBC Worldwide, said: "This marks the start of a longer and even more fruitful partnership with SMGP. Doctor Who already has a substantial fan base in China. Now, Chinese fans will be able to access the entire catalogue of Doctor Who and its spin-offs thanks to this agreement.

Joe said the deal is an affirmation of both parties commitment to build the Doctor Who brand and fan base in China.

Doctor Who has already gathered a following in China where it is available on digital platforms Youku, LeTV and BesTV, whose own deals will remain in place until they expire. In the series "The Doctor"has visited China on several occasions, during historically significant periods in the 3rd Century BC, and the 13th, 20th and 21st Centuries.

Chen Sijie, general manager of SMG Pictures, said: "China is going through a time of tremendous growth and rapid market development. Everyone here is curious about popular cultures around the world. At the same time, they want to share their Chinese culture and values."

He added: "Doctor Who, with its long television history and iconic place in popular culture, is a great representative of British pop culture. We hope that this partnership with BBC Worldwide will enable both parties, as well as Chinese and British fans to share and exchange ideas and learnings to grow the universe of Doctor Who in China.
University of Nairobi students participate in the GGT dancing show held in Nairobi, Kenya on May 26. Edith Mutethya/China Daily

Global Good Trust (GGT), a Chinese consumer goods company in partnership with China Daily Africa, today hosted a dancing competition at the Confucius Institute of the University of Nairobi.

The show, named after the company's brand of "fofas", attracted many young people, including university students and neighborhood secondary school children, who showed their dancing flair and were greeted with cheers.

Speaking during the event, Kimingichi Wabende, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi department of literature/performing arts and one of the dancing competition's judges, applauded GGT for providing the opportunity for the young people to showcase their talent, noting that many corporations look down on arts as something that is not crucial to economic growth.

"The creative industry contributes a lot to growth of a country as seen in United States and other developed countries," he said.

Wabende said many performers exhibited great potential that needs a little guidance. "Next time, students should register early so that they can be helped in structuring their performance in the right way so that they can gain from the skills of those already in the field," he said.

"I was, however, impressed by the winners because some performed Chinese dance and others African dance, meaning they had a sense of variety and depth in their performance," he said.

Wabende said GGT is doing a great job of fostering the relationship between Africa and China, giving Kenyans an opportunity to learn from exchanges.

Juliah Ngugi, one of the winners, said she was excited for being given such an opportunity. "The judges were fair, and given another opportunity I would definitely participate in a better way," she said.

Gorreti Mirera, the 2016/1017 Miss University Kenya, who emceed the event, praised GGT for giving the young people a platform to showcase their talent.

"Initiatives like GGT's is what we are looking for. We don't have to only focus on white collar jobs but also other activities that can bring income. Talent is growing fast and should be promoted," she said.

Mirera said the performance and the number of contestants was good and surpassed expectations.

She said the initiative promote talent development.

"Most companies are only focusing on building their brands, sales and customers. While that is important, the companies should try to give their customers an opportunity to express themselves through events like the dancing show. This way you understand them better and they feel valued," she said.

Liu Yuncheng said his company was not only interested in selling its products and growing its market share, but also growing young people's talent.

"We have been organizing similar events in Angola and Liberia. This is the first one in Kenya and we will be holding more," he said.

China Daily Africa awarded the first five winners of the competition a free one-year subscription. It was in addition to other GGT's sanitary products. The top winner also received 10,000 Kenyan shillings as a scholarship.

edithmutethya@chinadaily.com.cn
China praised Germany's position over Article 15 in the protocol on China's accession to the World Trade Organization, saying it hopes to see Germany continue to play a positive role on the issue.

Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's vice-chancellor and foreign minister, called for the implementation of the article during talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday.

Gabriel said Article 15 should be implemented and that revision of the European Union's laws should not target or discriminate against any country and should comply with the WTO's rules.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that Gabriel's statements reflect "a responsible attitude of the German government".

Lu called on the EU to implement the article "comprehensively and thoroughly as soon as possible", and said China hopes to see Germany continue to play a positive role in helping accomplish this.

According to Article 15, WTO member nations should have ceased on Dec 11, 2016, from using the surrogate country approach in anti-dumping investigations on China. This date was 15 years after China became an official member of the organization.

Under the surrogate country approach, WTO members use costs of production in a third country to calculate the value of products from countries on its "non-market economy" list, which includes China.

Lu said that if it honors the agreement soon, the EU will show the world its "commitment to promises and observance of rules".

"In a time when protectionism is rearing its head in the world, the attitude major economies take over multilateral trade rules will eventually impose a fundamental influence on their own interests," the spokesman said.

China should have gained market economy status automatically at the end of 2016 according to Article 15, Gabriel said at a news converence with Wang in Beijing.

Gabriel said Germany will work in the EU so that the EU trade remedy measures will focus not only on whether a target country has market economy status, but on whether the country has dumping practices or actions that violate WTO rules.

He said, "We shouldn't discriminate against any country, including China", adding that Germany's position is clear, which is that new EU anti-dumping rules should comply with WTO rules.

Premier Li Keqiang will pay an official visit to Germany starting on Tuesday.

wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn
(Photo : PLAN) J-15 fighters on the Liaoning.

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Given their current capabilities, there is little doubt the U.S. Navy will easily defeat the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) should there be wars over the South China Sea and East China Seas, according to Chinese military experts.



The qualitative and quantitative inferiority of the PLAN is the most marked in the weapon that will dominate all future sea battles -- the aircraft carrier.



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The experts conclude PLAN can't beat the U.S. Navy even decades into the future and will never become the world's most powerful navy.



PLAN currently operates one obsolete aircraft carrier -- the CNS Liaoning (CV-16) -- which it considers a training carrier unfit for combat. PLAN last month launched its second carrier, CNS Shandong (CV-17), which is expected to see service by 2020. It's building a third carrier.



"A sole aircraft carrier cannot become a fighting force because it needs the presence of other warships to form a strike group, as well as the protection given by other vessels," said Li Jie, a leading researcher at the People's Liberation Army Navy Naval Military Studies Research Institute.



He's also a retired Senior Captain of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). The institute is PLAN's think tank.



Li said China's carrier strike group air crews are still far below international standard.



"An aircraft carrier needs regular large-scale maintenance. China should have more than four carrier groups if it wants to fulfill escort missions on the high seas and safeguard its overseas national interests," said Li.



The US Navy operates 10 Nimitz-class carrier strike groups worldwide. An 11th carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) will be commissioned in June, giving the U.S. Navy 11 active aircraft carriers.



A severe PLAN inferiority is in the number of naval fighter pilots in the PLAN Air Force. PLAN only has 37 pilots qualified to take-off and land the Shenyang J-15 multirole fighter on the Liaoning, said Li.



In contrast, a single U.S. Navy aircraft carrier has anywhere from 48-60 single seat McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 E/F fighters.



The naval and air wing crews that man the Liaoning are just "kindergarten students," said Li, compared to the U.S. Navy whose carrier fleet has more than a century of operational experience in combat at sea.



"It's still a long way to go for Chinese carrier strike group crews to catch up their U.S. counterparts," said Antony Wong Dong, a military observer based in Macau.



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TagsU.S. Navy, People's Liberation Army Navy, PLAN, CNS Liaoning, Li Jie
(Photo : KCNA) Launch of a Hwasong-10 IRBM from which the Hwasong-12 seems to have been derived.

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An attack by the United States on North Korea's nuclear weapons production facilities will not only fail to destroy all those facilities but will ignite a nuclear war that will destroy both North and South Korea.



Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Dennis Blair, former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) under President Barack Obama, argues that because a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula will be "tragic on an unbelievable scale," the best and only option for the U.S. is to accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.



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Adm. Blair's startling comments come as the U.S. has accelerated obvious preparations for a punitive precision strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities.



There are clear signs of a massive build-up of U.S. naval and air power within striking distance of the Korean Peninsula over the past few months.



The U.S. Navy nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) will soon join another navy carrier, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and its Carrier Strike Group One (CSG-1). The Reagan's Carrier Strike Group 5 (CSG-5) is the navy's largest and most powerful carrier strike group.



Both carrier strike groups are expected to patrol in the Sea of Japan (or the East Sea) to the east of the Korean Peninsula and await orders for action.



Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II stealth fighters of the U.S. Marine Corps deployed to Japan are also on alert. U.S. government representatives are expected to brief Guam on civil defense, terrorism, and Korea on May 31, an ominous sign since North Korea has missiles capable of reaching Guam.



Adm. Blair said there is absolutely no way for the U.S. to safely knock out all of North Korea's nuclear facilities in one attack.



"If I were to run the national intelligence again and the president comes to me and says, 'Here is General Mattis' strike plan, and can you ensure me that this will take out of all the North Korea nuclear capabilities?' it won't be easy to say yes," said Adm. Blair.



He said that before he'd support an attack on North Korea, he'd accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.



Military experts say the idea of eliminating the threat from North Korea with a single strike or a series of strikes is a dream. North Korea will respond to a U.S. attack with a stupendous missile and artillery barrage directed at Seoul, slaughtering thousands of South Korean civilians and igniting the Second Korea War.



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A team of Korean American leaders in ministry are aiming to reclaim and share the story of a Korean American pastor who they believe modeled the faith through his life and death.

Called A Triple Immigrant: Rev. Kye Yong Kims Spiritual Legacy, the project will spotlight the life of Kye Yong Kim, the founding pastor of Young Nak Presbyterian Church (YNPC) in Los Angeles, who is also known for passing away during his last trip to North Korea.

The project is being spearheaded by a committee including Paul Yang, the senior pastor of Pilgrim Church in New Jersey and the project committee chair; Michael Lee, the senior pastor of Young Nak Celebration Church (YNCC) and the vice chair of the committee; Kwang Ja Park, the former director of education at YNPC; and Young Lee Hertig, the executive director of the Innovative Space for Asian American Christianity (ISAAC) and the project director.

I was so influenced by his leadership and character, that even today I sometimes ask myself, If Rev. Kim was in my position, what would he do? Yang, who previously served at Young Nak as its first English ministry pastor when Kim was the senior pastor, said at a project launching meeting hosted by YNCC on May 19. YNCC is the independent English congregation that emerged from YNPC.

I really want to share his legacy with as many people as possible, and writing a book would be the best way, Yang added.

Indeed, the aim of the project is to interview those who have had firsthand interactions and relationships with Kim, and publish a book that highlights aspects of Kims life, character, and impact, as well as lessons from his life that ministers could apply in todays context.

The idea came about from a student named Jonathan Hong who participated in an ISAAC summer internship, said Hertig at the launching meeting, which was attended mostly by members of YNCC.

Hong, who is also a member of YNCC, was placed as an intern at West Angeles Church of God in Christ through ISAAC. During the internship, the leaders at West Angeles shared the history of the church. After that experience, Hong expressed to Hertig that he wished such resources on the history of his own church were also available. Though there are resources available in the Young Nak library, all of them are in Korean, Hertig said.

As part of the younger generation, I think I can speak for a majority of my generation when I say that we long to learn from people who are living by faith, Hong, whose grandfather Soon Kun Hong was a founding elder of YNPC, said during the internship.

Hearing about the lives of people who have come before us, who have prayed for the future faith of the Church, and who have lived the faith that the Bible teaches, would not only encourage us as believers in this world but challenge us to remember the faithfulness of God, he said.

Documenting and disseminating Kims story will not only allow the members of Young Nak to gain a deeper understanding of their church roots, but will also provide Korean Americans in ministry an opportunity to learn from someone who has come before and lived out his faith from a similar ministry context, according to Hertig, who added that she hopes this resource will be made available in seminaries as well.

Kim as a person has lived a life that could serve as exemplary for any Christian, she and the other project committee members said. He had foresight and was inclusive, as Hertig put it, to hire a woman on a pastoral role at that time, and to initiate an English-speaking ministry at a Korean immigrant church. He was a trailblazer, and someone who gave his life living out his faith, she added.

Its time to reclaim this amazing, inspiring founders story and transmit it to the younger generation, said Hertig. They have a yearning to know.

This is not just about the past, but also about the present and the future, she added.

The project committee aims to have the book published in 2018.
Dozens of pastors crowded around Hun Sen with smartphones extended, snapping selfies to commemorate the Cambodian prime ministers first-ever meeting with local Christians.

The government session with 2,500 church leaders last summer was a significant gesture in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation where Christians were martyred and forced underground only a few decades ago.

Huns meeting was a historic event that never happened before, said Tep Samnang, executive director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia (EFC), an interdenominational network representing most of the countrys believers. Its a sign that [the government] accepts the Christian community more publicly.

While persecution still percolates in other Southeast Asian countries, Cambodian Christians enjoy a promising sense of openness from leaders and neighbors.

You are at peace, and I appeal to all religions in Cambodia not to harass you or your sects, Hun told the pastors gathered in a luxe city hall in Koh Pich, the fast-developing Diamond Island in the center of the capital, Phnom Penh. Though Christians were not allowed to pray or share remarks during the meeting, Tep said, at least its a spark to keep the fire burning.

Christians remain a small-but-growing 2.5 percent of the 16 million people living in the former communist nation, where gold-trimmed temple rooftops twirl over both city skylines and rural landscapes. The temples serve as gathering places for dozens of nationally observed Buddhist festivals throughout the year.

But Cambodia finally has a generation of church leaders with the training and freedom to evangelize on a nationwide scaleand these ...

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I never miss the opportunity to read Justo Gonzalez. The eminent Cuban American church historian has long provided a wealth of insight into the development of Christian doctrine as it has spread across the globe.

At first, I was puzzled by the title of his latest book, A Brief History of Sunday: From the New Testament to the New Creation (Eerdmans). Could 150 pages really do justice to such a massive subject? Yet the book, though small in size, packs a substantial punch, correcting a number of misconceptions long held by historians and theologians alike.

The second half of the book covers expected topics, like how the British Puritans approached the Sabbath, and how secularization has influenced Sabbath observance in modern times. But in the first half, Gonzalez makes a provocative claim: that the argument for naming Sunday the Sabbath day might not be as obvious as we suppose. Many may be surprised, he writes, to learn that connecting Sunday with the fourth commandment [Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy] finds very little warrant in the early church, and that calling Sunday the Sabbath is a relatively new phenomenon.

The first Jewish Christians gathered after sunset on Saturday in order to break bread. With the incorporation of Gentiles, however, meetings were moved to after midnight or prior to the sunrise the next morning, since these Gentiles had work responsibilities. Moreover, for Gentiles, the week started at midnight of the seventh day anyway. But Gonzalez finds that no theological reason seems to have compelled the change. As he observes, there are very few passages that might seem to claim that the Christian Lords ...

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Last December, two Muslim college students visited an upstate New York megachurch as part of an assignment to learn about different faiths. After the service, some congregants shared stories and offered hugs. One called Homeland Security.

The incident was an anomaly. But it still made national news, because it played into stereotypes of American evangelicals unfamiliarity with Muslims and tendency to conflate Islam with terrorism.

Surveys suggest that what evangelicals think Muslims think is quite different from how Muslims in the United States and abroad describe their beliefs. White evangelicals are also the least likely Americans to know a Muslim.

This concerns evangelical experts on Muslim missions. Because as more Muslim migrants flee unstable and violent homelands, the mission field that was once half a world away has made its way into many American communities. Last year, the US admitted about 39,000 Muslim refugees, a record high.

This is the best chance weve had in human history to share the love of Christ with Muslims, said David Cashin, an intercultural studies professor at Columbia International University.

But survey after survey indicates that white evangelicals are the least excited about their new neighbors. They show the highest levels of support for restrictions on Muslim immigration and the most skepticism toward Muslim Americans.

Case in point: President Donald Trumps revised executive order on travel, which temporarily halts the refugee program and restricts entry from several Muslim-majority countries. Self-identified white evangelicals support the policy by a 3 to 1 margin (Pew Research Center) and are the only religious group in America that has grown more supportive of ...

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During the 2016 presidential race, Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, struck a chord on social media with principled opposition to his partys nominee, Donald Trump. But his posts on the political scene werent the only ones getting attention. That same year, his teenage daughter, Corrie, went away to apprentice at a cattle ranch, where she performed variety of unpleasant, sometimes gross-sounding jobs. Sasse began relaying some of her text-messaged observations to his Twitter followers under the heading lessons from the ranch. (A sample: Today we checked to confirm some cows were pregnantwhich Megan did by jamming her hand up their rectums. Eww.)

That dirty, sweaty, achy work builds character is one of many axioms reverberating through the senators book, The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisisand How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance. During his tenure as president of Midland University (a small Lutheran school in his hometown of Fremont, Nebraska), Sasse often observed students who seemed stuck in adolescence, having never acquired the virtues and character traits theyd need to raise families, run businesses, and revitalize communities. His book warns that Americans have lost touch with cultural scripts that used to guide the journey from childhood to responsible adulthood.

Matt Reynolds, CTs associate editor for books, spoke with Sasse about how parents can equip their children to escape the protective cocoon of extended adolescence.

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Ask Americans about their personal views on moral issues, and they are more likely than ever to hold a liberal position. Ask them about the countrys moral values, and theyre becoming more and more pessimistic.

The church today finds itself in a precarious position, as an ethical shift pushes public opinion in favor of stances that Christians have traditionally sided against. Meanwhile, Americans from all political and theological stripes have their own reasons to be concerned over moral decline.

In a recent poll, Gallup found a widening embrace for more than a dozen moral issues, including record-high acceptance for gay relationships, divorce, pornography, polygamy, and physician-assisted suicide.

Of the 19 issues queried about, Americans have become more liberal on 13 of them (with 10 hitting record highs) and stayed consistent on 6most notably abortion, which 43 percent of Americans and 34 percent of Protestants deem morally acceptable.

Americans have not shifted more ...

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Houston police on Friday were looking for three people who apparently used a stolen church van to crash into a convenience store and flee with cash and cigarettes.

The three used the van around 5 a.m. Friday to crash through the front of the business, at 7242 Ley in northeast Houston, said Victor Senties, spokesman for the Houston Police Department.
A benefit for Roman Forest Police Chief Stephen Carlisle is being planned for Saturday, June 10, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Trinity Armory in Cleveland.

Carlisle is facing a six-week recovery related to injuries he suffered in a May 10 motorcycle accident.

"He's looking at some pretty substantial medical bills," said Carlisle's friend and colleague Splendora Police Chief Wally Wieghat, owner of Trinity Armory.

Carlisle broke seven ribs, punctured a lung and ruptured his spleen in the accident. Carlisle was en route to his home in the Houston area after a trip to El Paso, where he had visited with his military son before he flew out on a tour to the Middle East. Along the way, he encountered a storm and was in the process of pulling off the road to put on rain gear when a deer leaped out in front of him, grazing his motorcycle and causing Carlisle to lose control.

The impact caused the motorcycle to roll, injuring Carlisle.

"He's going to be off work for a month," Wieghat said. "A lot of folks will turn out for this thing. Chief Carlisle is well known and well respected in this area."

The city of Roman Forest is assisting Wieghat with the event, according to City Secretary Liz Mullane.

"We are thankful for Chief Wieghat for organizing the event. We are anxious to have our chief back and can't wait for him to get better," Mullane said.

The fundraiser will include the sale of barbecue sandwiches, a bounce house, snow cone vendor and a silent auction. In addition, half of the range fees at Trinity Armory on the day of the event will go toward Carlisle's fund.

Among the items to be auctioned are a custom-built AR 15 assault rifle with a value of $1,500, a Browning .22 pistol valued at $500 and a SCCY 9-mm handgun.

"There will be a whole lot of other things up for auction. We also plan to auction off a platinum membership to the range, valued at $1,300. This provides a person with a year's membership to shoot all they want at the range and also have simulator weapon time. It also includes a range bag," Wieghat said. "Anyone who supports law enforcement should be at this event."

Now recuperating at home, Carlisle said he was surprised and felt supported when he learned the fundraiser was being planned in his honor.

"I am the kind of person who is normally helping other people so it's strange to be on the other side," Carlisle said. "We have medical insurance but it doesn't pay for everything and I know these medical bills are going to be excessive, which is why I am not opposed to the event."

Carlisle said he is anxious to be completely recovered and back at work.

"I know the department is in good hands. I have confidence in the people I work with," he said. "And I know I need to heal but there are things I just need to do. I do a lot of things in the community and I am ready to get back to it."

For more information on the event or to make a donation, call Trinity Armory at 281-659-2800.
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A new grant approved by Montgomery County commissioners May 23 will help some veterans who are facing criminal charges.

The Texas Veterans Commission awarded 359th state District Court Judge Kathleen Hamilton's Veterans Treatment Court a $100,000 grant earlier this month, which will help the court run smoother and take on more veterans. The specialty court focuses on giving veterans with felony or misdemeanor charges a chance to join an outpatient treatment program rather than face prosecution.

The court has a certified psychiatrist, according to Hamilton, who helps the court rehabilitate veterans who have committed crimes.

Defendants must be a veteran or current member of the U.S. armed forces or a member of the reserves, National Guard or state guard; and suffer from a brain injury, mental illness or mental disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, that resulted from the defendant's military service in a combat zone or other similar hazardous-duty area; and materially affected the defendant's criminal conduct at issue in the case.

With the extra $100,000 grant, Hamilton said she can hire a court coordinator exclusively for the Veterans Treatment Court. The money will fund the position and any benefits and office supplies for the coordinator, she said.

The funds also will help the veterans directly by paying for certain court mandates, such as drug tests, that can be costly to some defendants.

Hamilton, a longtime veterans advocate, said she got the idea of applying for the grant in 2016 when she helped present similar grants from the Texas Veterans Commission to other entities at a banquet in Houston.

"I came and spoke and I wasn't getting anything," Hamilton said after Commissioners Court. "I saw these huge checks going by. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent to help these programs."

Hamilton has been in the 359th state District Court since being elected in 2002. In 2016, the State Bar of Texas recognized the judge for her dedication to using specialized dockets, including the Veterans Treatment Court and juvenile drug court.

"Specialty courts work," Hamilton said then. "And they're almost the only thing that does. I hope they continue to grow."

Courts in Montgomery County are relatively specialized, whether by hosting specific courts or specialized dockets. Hamilton is one of four district court judges who hears felony criminal cases exclusively, joining 9th state District Court Judge Phil Grant, 221st state District Court Judge Lisa Michalk and 435th state District Court Judge Patty Maginnis on handling the higher criminal offenses.

Grant recently started hearing cases on a new felony domestic violence docket. Similarly, Hamilton handles Veterans Treatment Court, DWI court and the juvenile drug court. Michalk oversees the felony mental health court, while Maginnis handles the adult drug court. All of those special dockets and courts are held on top of the normal docket.

Judge Cara Wood in the 284th state District Court handles only civil cases, while 410th state District Court Judge Jennifer Robin hears civil and family cases. Judge Tracy Gilbert and Associate Judge Scharlene Overstreet in the 418th state District Court hear family cases exclusively.

Wood handles all of the tax cases in the county.

On the county court side, County Court-at-Law 1 Judge Dennis Watson, County Court-at-Law 4 Judge Mary Ann Turner and County Court-at-Law 5 Judge Keith Stewart handle misdemeanor cases. County Court-at-Law 2 Judge Claudia Laird handles all probate matters in the county as well as civil cases, and County Court-at-Law 3 Judge Patrice McDonald handles civil cases only.

Watson also handles all the felony and misdemeanor juvenile cases, unless the case is a drug case placed in Hamilton's juvenile drug court. Turner handles all mental health commitments throughout the county and has a misdemeanor domestic violence docket. Watson handles all the collection cases for the county courts as well.
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Montgomery County commissioners finally approved a $5 million-per-year contract for a California-based company to provide health and mental health services for inmates housed at the Montgomery County Jail May 23.

The cost is about $800,000 less than what originally was proposed during the May 9 Commissioners Court meeting, where Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson said the year-to-year costs would be $5.8 million for the contract with Southwest Correctional Medical Group. The $5 million figure came about following two weeks of negotiations between county and SCMG officials.

That full year of coverage for the jail will not start until the 2018 fiscal year begins in October, however. In the meantime, SCMG will be providing full medical and mental health services for about $1.25 million for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The Sheriff's Office will use about $450,000 of its current budget for jail medical services along with about $800,000 from funds previously swept away from former Sheriff Tommy Gage in 2016.

County officials took about $2.5 million from Gage's budget in the middle of the fiscal year. After confronting commissioners months later in June 2016, they eventually gave Gage $1 million back from the $2.5 million they swept.

Almost since his first day in office, Henderson has asked commissioners to return the remaining $1.5 million of the funds, which they did last week. While only $800,000 will help pay for this year's remaining jail medical contract, the other $700,000 will go toward capital projects within the Sheriff's Office.

Henderson also alerted commissioners to the high price tag the new contract would bring.

The county was only paying $1.6 million to Correct Care Solutions for jail medical services, which recently terminated its contract with the Sheriff's Office after telling Henderson they were "woefully understaffed."

"(The $5 million contract is) a little hefty, but you get what you pay for," Precinct 1 Commissioner Mike Meador said Tuesday as he motioned for the contract's approval. "Obviously this is the next step we need to take in their medical coverage."

One of the biggest changes in service with SCMG is additional mental health services for inmates.

The contract is also future proofed in anticipation of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing the Sandra Bland Act, which was sent to the governor's desk Tuesday with unanimous approval among state legislators in both the Texas House and Texas Senate.

Senate Bill 1849 requires jails to ramp up around-the-clock monitoring of prisoners and to install sensors or cameras to ensure "timely in-person checks of cells" containing at-risk prisoners, according to a Houston Chronicle report. The sensors and cameras would be paid for through a gubernatorial grant program and are only required when funding to pay for them is available.

It also mandates additional mental health training for jailers and mental health de-escalation training for police officers, as well as diverting people with mental health issues to treatment.

Henderson has consistently voiced his opposition to the bipartisan legislation, often times telling commissioners it's an unfunded mandate that will hurt sheriffs across the state. However, Henderson said the new contract is built with those regulations in mind.
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Washington Corridor bar Julep has claimed a coveted spot on Esquire magazine's Best New Bars in America. Local bar maven Alba Huerta launched Julep, 1919 Washington Ave., in 2014 to great acclaim. Since then, it's maintained its momentum.

In the June/July 2017 issue of Esquire magazine, sommelier and author Jason Tesauro writes:

"Between devil-may-care thoughtlessness and flair-first egoism is the bull's-eye of barmanship. Julep has reverence for the past yet manages to serve elegant, unpretentious drinks. It starts with architecture. There are cushy booths and a curvilinear bar that draws you to its bosom. The drinks, too, have impeccable structure: Jefferson cups, chipped ice, fine garni. Look up and a polished copper canopy winks like a lady's lashes, reminding you that Julep's owner, Alba Huerta, has her eye on every detail. 1919 Washington Avenue Worth the splurge: The julep is great, but the exquisitely composed, $20 Ramos gin fizz is the quiet champion."

Julie Soefer

Huerta is no stranger to national accolades. She has been featured for her mixing talent, and even style sense, in several major outlets.

"Receiving national attention such as this pushes me to keep Julep fresh by making sure my staff is constantly learning, our menu is always evolving, and our patrons return eager to experience the high level of service and execution they have grown to love," she said.

GUIDE: Where to find Galveston's best drinks

The establishment is a nod to Southern sips, which Huerta researched extensively before launching Julep

"When I opened Julep three years ago, I designed a bar that could showcase my love of Southern spirits and classic cocktails served in an environment conducive for conversation and connection," Huerta said.

Another Texas spot on this year's best bars list is Half Step at 75 Rainey Street in Austin.
A Baytown police officer has been dismissed from the department and indicted for bribery after soliciting sexually explicit photos from a woman to whom he issued a citation, according to a news release from the Baytown Police Department.

The department was notified on March 28 about Michael Coppock allegedly asking for the photos from the woman in order to switch the citation to a warning, the news release stated. Police detectives presented evidence which on Thursday led to Coppock's indictment on bribery.
Splendora High School welcomed Major Patrick Brom as the new Senior Aerospace Science instructor to lead the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program.

Brom retired from the active-duty Air Force May 5 and wasted no time in assuming leadership of the unit May 8. Brom, who fills the vacancy left by Lt. Col. Mertens, enlisted in the active-duty Air Force in 1994 as a contract administrator and paralegal with assignments at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., and Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.

He has spent time in Cambodia, Turkey and Guam, supporting the Army demining teams, as well as supporting operations in Iraq. He obtained his commission as an officer in 2002 where he spent over 14 years as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. In this capacity, he investigated a variety of felony level crimes affecting the military and the military members.

In addition, he led and directed Protective Service Teams for senior leaders of the Air Force, Presidential details, and numerous foreign dignitaries at the highest levels of government. His experiences and dedication afforded him the opportunity to command two units of special agents; one at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, and the other at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. Throughout this time, he was deployed to Iraq twice and over the last two years has managed and trained senior officers to respond to natural and manmade disasters.

Brom takes over a unit which has had an incredible school year, contributing and participating in numerous community events and competitions. Under the leadership of Lt. Col. Mertens and MSgt. Carpio, cadets volunteered over 800 community service hours; the color guard proudly presented the colors to over 25 public events; and the Rocketry, drill and fitness teams participated in eight competitions, placing or winning in all of them. The Corps raised over $600 to support the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life; led, mentored, and recruited over 60 new cadets; and 12 cadets have been selected to attend the Cadet Leadership Course at the University of Houston for further leadership development. All of this and more was accomplished while maintaining the highest of standards in leadership, professionalism, integrity, selflessness and service.

The Splendora AFJROTC Cadet Corps is already anticipating the next school year and the innovative approach of Brom.

"The AFJROTC is first and foremost a community service and leadership development program," Brom said. "The focus is to teach leadership, personal responsibility, self confidence, and to take pride in what you do individually and as a team. Each block of instructions is dedicated to prepare the cadets to learn how to make disciplined decisions through integrity, service before self, and excellence in all they do," added the major.

The AFJROTC program prides itself in being a leadership training program, where students learn and demonstrate their work through performing on teams and in real jobs helping their fellow students. Some of the teams are Color Guard, Rifle, Unarmed Marching, Physical Fitness and Tunnel Team. The cadets learn teamwork and leadership skills while acting in functional job roles as well.

Each year the program holds interviews and training classes to help the cadets discover their leadership abilities through specific functional jobs within the Corps. Cadets serve in positions that actually run the various aspects of the program. Some of the functional areas that the cadets manage are Logistics, where they assist new cadets in fittings and issuing of uniforms; Public Affairs, where they take pictures of events and then write newspaper articles; or Awards and Decorations, where they help plan, organize, and award cadets for their accomplishments at their annual awards ceremony. Teamwork and communication skills are practiced daily in the Corps.

Congratulations to the Splendora Corps for another successful school year and the school district is looking forward to more great things under the leadership of Brom.

"My wife Claire and our three children are excited to be back in Texas," Brom said.
Jacob McAdams

This week, the first of thousands of Houston-area high school seniors will cross the stage to receive their diplomas. But the ceremonies will likely create some traffic headaches near NRG Stadium, the M.O. Campbell Education Center in Aldine, the Don Campbell Coliseum in Memorial City and elsewhere throughout the metro area.

Here's a list of school districts and their scheduled graduation ceremonies, along with where to live-stream some of the action.
After responding to a reported shooting and brawl in southeast Houston, police Tuesday night found a young girl apparently hit by a car.

Around 6 p.m., officers swarmed the scene at King's Row apartments near Scott and Barberry and were unable to locate any shooting.

Instead, a resident flagged down patrol units for an injured 13-year-old who had been hit by a car. Residents said she'd been hit while fleeing the melee.

She was taken to the hospital but the extent of her injuries were unclear.

Police said that around 5:41 p.m. a group of about 20 people were fighting near the 4100 block of Barberry Drive.

Authorities said shots were also fired from the location.
Pearland Mayor Tom Reid wants to continue leading a city that has seen phenomenal changes and growth during a tenure totaling 22 years, while runoff challenger Quentin Wiltz believes his time has come to assume the post.

The two are rallying supporters for a June 10 runoff as the city faces issues including concerns about a landfill and calls for mobility improvements.

Wiltz, a 36-year-old project manager for Stupp Coatings Inc, says that of the issues facing his city, concern about the nearby Blue Ridge Landfill is "the biggest elephant in the room."

"I think we fell short on how the landfill was originally handled, and now we need to work really hard to get the problem fixed," Wiltz said. "At one point, Pearland said there was nothing that could be done - that's not the action I would have taken."

The Fresno landfill has been a longtime source of community complaints, with residents in the Shadow Creek Ranch subdivision reporting strong odors attributed to the site.

Reid, 91, who retired after a career at NASA, has also weighed in on the landfill issue, asking residents to write letters to TCEQ demanding faster results.

"The TCEQ is not moving fast enough to enforce their rules and regulations on Blueridge," Reid said on his mayoral campaign's Facebook page.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality investigated the claims and is moving forward on an agreement to correct violations. Under a proposed order, Blue Ridge has paid $17,485 out of $43,712 in administrative penalties. The facility will implement a corrective action plan and conduct an environmental project to offset some of the remaining penalty fees if the order is approved.

"The landfill isn't just a concern for the Shadow Creek Ranch area," Wiltz said. "Residents showed up in droves to say that this landfill is changing their lives, that it's an environmental hazard that has been neglected and the people who operate the landfill have been negligent."

Wiltz said the landfill has the potential to make Pearland less attractive to prospective residents. The city's population has tripled to about 120,000 since 2000.

In Pearland, the mayor is the city's spokesperson and presides at City Council meetings and votes only in cases of a tie on a council.

Reid has been mayor since 1995 and also served in the position from 1978-80.

In a May 6 election featuring three candidates, Wiltz, secured 45.64 percent of the vote while Reid garnered 48.85 percent. The other candidate, Jimi Amos, got 5.51 percent.

"We got as far as we did by walking the neighborhoods, talking to residents and having a message that I feel really resonated with the population in Pearland," said Wiltz, who moved to Pearland in 2007. "And that has been my strategy for the runoff - getting out in the community and really listening to what voters have to say, listening to their concerns and creating a dialogue about what we can do to address those concerns."

Mobility

Both candidates are focused on mobility issues. Motorists back up on some area roads such as FM 518 during peak traffic hours.

Reid said he has long supported the development of transportation projects.

"I have been effectively working on these issues for the last 15 and 20 years," he said.

Reid is a member of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, an organization which coordinates the planning of mobility and transportation issues in the region. He says his membership has been instrumental in at least 10 Pearland roadway projects.

Reid believes experience at Johnson Space Center from 1965-1997, where he was part of a team that supervised and managed missions including Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle program, helped shape his vision for the city.

"We had a master plan in place, and we were preparing Pearland to be a future large city," he said. "I was the one that spoke about the need for us to very carefully plan where we need to be 15 and 20 years into the future and start working in that direction."

Wiltz said that Pearland should see how larger cities handle mobility issues, find funding for potential solutions and put those solutions to residents for a vote. Options could include a rail system and specific traffic lanes for vehicles carrying at least two people.

"We've heard the mayor talk about mobility issues in terms of traffic," Wiltz said. "But mobility is an issue separate from traffic that is going to take some strategic planning. We need to think about traffic in terms of 'How do we move people around in the city?' and not 'How do we fix traffic?' "

"We keep hearing that Pearland has traffic issues," he said, "What is going to be most important is that we give people options."

Wiltz also would like the city to look over emergency service worker's current plans "to ensure they're have the best benefits for the jobs that they're doing."

A DIVERSE CITY

Reid said he embraces the city's diversity, noting that a Muslim woman, Dalia Kasseb, is in a runoff for a City Council position, and that 18-year-old Dawson High School student Mike Floyd has won election to the Pearland ISD school board.

"One of the promises I made when I first ran for mayor is that if I was elected I would make sure that will develop a city that people will want to come to and work and play in. Well, they are," he said. "We are one of the most diverse cities in the Gulf Coast area and probably the nation, and because of that we have become a very special community. When members of our diverse community want to be part of that community, want to contribute and be a part of its growth, I think it means that we're setting an example in Pearland to the rest of the world."

Wiltz said his strong showing in the May 6 election may signal winds of change in the city.

"Mayor Reid is a good man," he said. "But I think that maybe people are looking at who our community is and who they'd like to represent them. I hope that when they vote (in June), they make an objective choice when they pick someone to lead their community into the future."

Pearland, he said, is not the same town it was 30 years ago.

"I think there could be some people who want to hold on to how the city was, and voting the same people in office for almost three decades might be part of that fear of letting go, but we're not a small town anymore. We're growing; we're changing and that's exciting. We have an extremely diverse community and it would be the biggest joy for me to represent this community. I love Pearland, and it would be an honor to do it. That's what lies at the heart of my campaign."
A Channelview ISD teacher has been disciplined after presenting a seventh-grade student an award that read "most likely to be a terrorist," a district official said Friday.

Lizeth Villanueva told KPRC-TV that a teacher at Anthony Aguirre Junior High School presented her with the certificate as part of a mock awards ceremony on Tuesday. It happened during her AVID class, an advanced course meant to prepare younger students for college.

"I was shocked," Lizeth told the news station. "[The teacher] said, 'Most likely to become a terrorist,' and she said my name, and she gave me this."

The dubious "award" came the day after a terrorist attack in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people and wounded dozens more.

Channelview ISD and AVID officials quickly apologized for the incident as they tried to distance themselves from the scandal. Other students were given awards for "most likely to cry for every little thing" and "most likely to become homeless," according to other media reports.

Mark Kramer, a spokesman for Channelview ISD, confirmed the incident took place and apologized for the "insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom."

"Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district's vision, mission and educational goals for our students," Kramer said. "The teachers involved in this matter have been disciplined according to district policy and the incident is still under investigation."

He declined to provide any additional details about disciplinary action the school had taken. The district had been flooded with calls and comments about the incident on its Facebook page, he said.

"We've received lots of comments, we're keeping track of all of those," he said.

AVID officials said the program's logo had been used without permission and that the teacher responsible for the "award" was not an AVID employee and that they had discussed the incident with Channelview ISD's Superintendent.

"This is a reprehensible action of a single teacher that does not in any way reflect the AVID values, or the values of the thousands of AVID teachers across the US who impact our students daily," AVID CEO Sandy Husk said, in an email.

Lizeth's mother, Ena Hernandez, told KHOU-TV that the award was especially upsetting as it was given to her daughter one day after the Manchester bombing.

"It doesn't look good at all, especially coming from a teacher, a grown-up woman," Hernandez said. "It doesn't look good because everything that's going on right now."

As word of the incident spread on Facebook and Twitter, outraged users of social media flooded Channelview ISD and AVID with angry messages.

"Mock awards? I find no humor in this at all," one Facebook user wrote. "I feel sorry for, not only this 7th grader, but for all of the students taught by this teacher."

Anthony Aguirre Junior High's administration took to social media to apologize, saying in a tweet that the awards did not reflect the school's mission or values and that an investigation would look into the incident. By Friday afternoon, however, its Facebook page was not available.

Reached by phone, a representative from the northeast branch of the American Federation of Teachers, which represents Channelview ISD teachers, declined to comment and then hung up.

The suburban school district is located off Interstate 10, about 25 miles east of downtown Houston.
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Melvyn Wolff, the Houston-born son of a Russian immigrant who transformed his family's modest store into Star Furniture, one of America's most successful retail furniture operations, died Thursday. He was 86.

Melvyn Lee Wolff was born on May 12, 1931, at St. Joseph Hospital to Boris and Fannie Wolff. His father fled Russia, arriving in America around 1915, not knowing a word of English or having two cents to his name.

Boris Wolff made enough money to become part owner of Star Furniture. At the time, it was more of a low-end operation that did a lot of business on credit. But that would change once his son took over.

After graduating from high school, Melvyn Wolff set off to Austin to study law at the University of Texas but returned to Houston when his father had a heart attack.

He took over his father's responsibilities and enrolled at the University of Houston. At the time, the school was sometimes known as "Cougar High," Wolff said in a 2008 interview with the Houston Chronicle.

"It didn't have a lot of respect as an educational institution. But it had a certain quality level, and it provided a business education for those who reached out and wanted it," Wolff said.

After earning his business degree - and a two-year stint in the Army as an officer - Wolff rejoined the family business.

He took control of Star Furniture after the death of his father and the remaining senior partner. After bringing his sister Shirley into the business, Wolff began to reposition the company to better appeal to Houston's growing middle- and upper-income population - the genesis of the store's slogan: "Different by Design."

In 1997, Warren Buffett bought the company. But Wolff stayed on as chairman. Always nattily dressed in clothes he had laid out the night before, Wolff continued his mission to expand the company's outreach. In addition to the stores in Houston, Star Furniture also opened operations in Austin, San Antonio and Bryan. Buffett was on hand for the grand opening of each store.

"He doesn't offer advice on how to run the company. He's a cheerleader and lets each of his managers run their own businesses," Wolff said in 2008.

Along with Cyvia, his wife and life partner who he married in June 1956, Wolff took an interest in his hometown and his beloved University of Houston. In 2008, UH changed the name of its Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation into the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship, regularly taking the top half of the class to Omaha to learn from Buffett.

In addition to his business and educational interests, Wolff and his wife supported the fine arts and Houston's Jewish community.

Wolff is survived by his wife, the former Cyvia Rose Grossberg, their children, Carrie Boudreaux and Curtis Wolff, granddaughter Sherrie Boudreaux, sister Shirley Toomin, along with many other nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends.

A memorial service is to be held at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday at Congregation Beth Israel, 5600 N. Braeswood Blvd.
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Two years have passed since major storms flooded Houston with nearly a foot of water in less than 10 hours.

The flash floods submerged roadways, homes and took the lives of seven Houstonians.

Houston racked up an incredible $459.8 million in damages, placing the Memorial Day Flood as the 14th most costliest flood in American history.

Unfortunately, Houston's flooding problem did not slow down the following year. In 2016, Texas saw more flood victims than any other state, namely due to the April Tax Day Floods in which eight people lost their lives.

EL NINO: NOAA predicts above normal hurricane season

In fact, Texas has lead the nation in flood-related deaths for the past 50 years. As a result, flooding is the number one cause of weather-related deaths in Texas.

Even worse, these fatalities might only get worse as Houston flood-prone conditions show no signs of improving.

RISING TEMPERATURES: Maps and charts that explain why Houston is flooding more often

"The population has exploded here in the last 10 years, much of it settling north and west of the city," Houston meteorologist Matt Lanza told Weather.com. "What was once farm or wetlands is now pavement and suburbia. Thus, there is less barren land to suck up the rain now, and that further exacerbates flooding."

Click through above to see photos of the 2015 Memorial Day Flood ...
WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's 2012 campaign improperly reported loans he received from Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Citigroup, according to a preliminary Federal Election Commission audit.

The audit, approved unanimously by the commission on Thursday, found that the campaign failed to disclose to voters some $1.1 million Cruz had received in personal bank loans.

Cruz campaign spokesman Catherine Frazier issued a statement Friday calling it the "same inadvertent reporting error that was widely reported during the presidential campaign," and that the campaign has long been working with the FEC to rectify the matter.

Cruz, running for reelection next year, said in 2012 and in a subsequent autobiography for his 2016 presidential run that he and his wife Heidi Cruz, a Goldman Sachs executive, had financed his Senate bid largely by liquidating their family assets.

In fact, FEC auditors found that he made five loans to his campaign during 2011 and 2012 totaling $1.4 million. They said that $800,000 of that total came from Goldman Sachs and $264,000 came from Citigroup, with the rest coming from Cruz's personal funds.

Questions about the loans first came to light in the early stages of his presidential bid in January, 2016, when the New York Times questioned Cruz's public accounts of his long-shot Senate race against a better-funded establishment favorite, then Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst.

Thursday's unusual unanimous vote by the FEC leaves open whether Cruz could face penalties. The vote, which was procedural in nature, now triggers a final audit report, expected in the coming months.

The Senate campaign for El Paso U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running against Cruz next year, seized on the FEC report Friday, sending out a fundraising email saying "If we can't trust Ted Cruz to disclose who's funding him, why should we trust him with representing Texans in the U.S. Senate?"

Federal law allows candidates to take out commercial bank loans, so long as they disclose them.

Cruz argued that the loans were reported in personal financial disclosure reports filed with the Senate. But the campaign has acknowledged that it erred in not reporting the loans to the FEC, and has offered to amend their filings.
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Cannes: Priyanka Chopra's production banner, Purple Pebble Pictures, has appeared in at least half a dozen films of his scenes at the 70th Cannes Film Festival. Actress Mother Madhu Chopra, Managing Director of Cannes, Purple Pebble Pictures, and Piki A Tire, which released the first version of the new Sikkim's film 'Pahuna'. It will be released in October. "We are enthusiastic about the 'ventilator' success that is going into the world wide film big wide world, "said Madhu. India Pavilion hosted the first look of Pahuna. The film uses a variety of local talent in the separation of Sikkim and the junior crew of the three children separated from their parents when fleeing from Maoist violence in Nepal.

"This was a shooting logistics challenge in Sikkim, as there was no film industry in the state but the government went to support the project". The film is currently in post production. It should be ready for release before Dasara. Sikkim is the premier." Explaining the rationale behind their banner's regional-language forays, Madhu said, "Stories from the various Indian states are routinely turned into Hindi films. Bollywood benefits commercially in the bargain. Our core idea is to narrate these tales in the languages that they stem from." Currently Priyanka's production company Pipeline is a Bengali-Marathi bilingual inspired by the little known romance chapter from Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's early life.

Ujawl Chatterji is directing the film written by his wife Sagarika, directed by and film based on a 17 year old Ravindranath, he met his first love in Maharashtra when his father Satyendranath sent for learning English. "We are looking at a young actor for the young character of Tagore, when we are playing Jisshu Sengupta in the role of the old avatar of the poet, "said Madhu in an interview. Goa, Little Joe, Kahan Ho? Is also about a boy who has lived alone in his loneliness by sitting in the sea and sketching. A German tourism site develops between its talent and relationship. The film is a tribute to the famous cartoonist Mario Miranda and is directed by first-timer Suvarna Nasnadkar, who has its roots in Goa. She cut her teeth as a helper to Prakash Jha.

Purple Pebbel Pictures is also a Bhojpuri film 'Bam Bam Bol Raha Hasha Kashi', and another Marathi product 'Kai Ray, Rascala', was released the following year. The sixth film directed by Madhu is the Bengali language 'Brishtir Opekhaye' (Waiting for Rain). "This is a book by seasonal literature Shirshed Miopadhyay. Rahul Bose, Rituparna SenGupta cast the rights we have brought from the writer in Calcutta.
Mumbai, May 26 (IANS) Indian actress Priyanka Chopra has called her "Baywatch" team the "best crew ever".Priyanka on Thursday shared a photograph of herself on Twitter along with the cast of her maiden Hollywood film, which hit the screens in the US on Thursday."All day Zac Efron! Best crew ever! 'Baywatch' today. Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Daddario" she captioned the image. Directed by Seth Gordon, "Baywatch", has been adapted from the popular 1990s show by the same name, which featured Pamela Anderson in a pivotal role. The film, which features Priyanka in a negative character named Victoria Leeds, also stars Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.
BNM anunta concurs pentru postul vacant de expert principal, pe durata determinata, responsabil de elaborarea/actualizarea cerintelor metodologice de reglementare a procesului de raportare la BNM
Target Corp. has reached an $18.5 million settlement over a massive data breach that occurred before Christmas in 2013, New Yorks attorney general announced Tuesday.

The agreement involving 47 states and the District of Columbia is the largest multistate data breach settlement to date, Attorney General Eric T. Schneidermans office said. The settlement, which stipulates some security measures the retailer must adhere to, resolves the states probe into the breach.

Target spokeswoman Jenna Reck said in a statement that the company has been working with state authorities for several years to address claims related to the breach.

Were pleased to bring this issue to a resolution for everyone involved, she said.

Target had announced the breach on Dec. 19, 2013, saying it occurred between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 of that year. It affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts and exposed contact information for more than 60 million customers.

The breach forced Target to overhaul its security system and the company offered free credit reports for potentially affected shoppers. Targets sales, profit and stock price all suffered months after the disclosure as shoppers were nervous about their security of their credit cards. The breach also contributed to the departure of Targets then-CEO, chairman and president Gregg Steinhafel, who resigned in May 2014. CEO Brian Cornell took the helm in August 2014.

Targets data breach was the first in a series of scams that hit other retailers including SuperValu and Home Depot. It forced the retail industry, banks and card companies to increase security and sped the adoption of microchips into U.S. credit and debit cards.

An investigation by the states found that in November 2013, scammers got access to Targets server through credentials stolen from a third-party vendor. They used those credentials to take advantage of holes in Targets systems, accessing a customer service database and installing malware that was used to capture data, including full customer names, telephone numbers, email and mailing addresses, credit card numbers, expiration dates and encrypted debit PINs.

The settlement requires Target to maintain appropriate encryption policies and take other security steps, though the company has already implemented those measures. Reck said the costs of the settlement are reflected in the reserves that Target has previously disclosed.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Federal safety regulators are telling airlines to remove a certain type of seat from their planes, saying the seat could cause neck injuries during otherwise survivable crash landings.

The order covers 10,482 seats used mostly on mostly smaller regional jets. Airlines will have five years to remove the seats.

The FAA proposed the action last year and made it final on Wednesday.

The FAA says the seats can slide forward in crashes and cause passengers heads to slide down the back of the seats in front of them, hitting their chins on the tray tables.

Zodiac Seats California, the seat maker, and two companies that use the seats in their planes, Canadas Bombardier and Brazils Embraer, argued that the order was based on limited research. Delta Air Lines called for more testing.

Zodiac, Bombardier, regional airline SkyWest and others protested that the FAA underestimated the cost of removing 10,482 seats, which the FAA put at $890,970.

The seats have been installed on planes including some models of Boeing 717s and MD-90s, Bombardier Series 900s, and Embraer 190s and ERJ 170s.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Construction crews in California have begun demolishing the destroyed portion of the main spillway at Oroville Dam as they race to repair the structure in time for the next rainy season, state water officials and construction managers said Wednesday.

Using heavy equipment and explosives, crews were clearing away sections of concrete and rebar that have not already washed away. They hope to begin pouring fresh concrete in June, starting from the bottom of the 3,000-foot chute and working their way up.

Were always working to accelerate faster, said Jeff Petersen, project manager from Kiewit Corp., said in a conference call with reporters. Kiewit, based in Omaha, Nebraska, was awarded a $275 million contract to complete the massive project.

The spillway is the main outlet for Oroville Dam, the countrys tallest.

Huge swathes of the spillways lower portion began washing away in February. When a second, emergency spillway also began giving way Feb. 12, authorities ordered the temporary evacuation of 188,000 people downstream.

Officials described a Herculean operation that includes the construction of miles of access roads, two concrete plants and a maintenance facility for heavy equipment.

By August, 500 employees will be on the site, with work spanning 20 hours a day, six days a week, said Jeanne Kuttel, chief engineer for the project with the California Department of Water Resources.

Crews aim to replace the lower portion of the spillway by Nov. 1, when winter rain and snow increase the flow of water into the lake. Theyll reinforce concrete near the top of the structure, which was not damaged then tear it out and replace it next year.

Plans for the emergency spillway call for drilling 30 to 50 feet into the ground and building a wall anchored to the bedrock in order to prevent erosion. Next year, crews will reinforce the hillside.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Sherwin-Williams Co. on Friday afternoon announced it has received the final regulatory green light to acquire the Valspar Corp., clearing the way for the Cleveland-based paint company to become one of the world's largest.

The approvals from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Canadian Competition Bureau were the final obstacles required to close the acquisition of Valspar for $113 per share in cash, or about $11.3 billion.

Sherwin-Williams is acquiring Valspar Corp. paints and coatings on June 1, 2017.

Valspar, a Minneapolis-based global paints and coatings company whose consumer paints are sold in home-improvement stores, will be the largest acquisition in Sherwin-Williams' 151-year history. The deal will create a mammoth global paint company with combined estimated revenues of $15.6 billion, adjusted earnings of $2.8 billion, and about 58,000 employees.

The transaction, first announced in March 2016, is expected to close on June 1, the earliest possible date after Friday's approval.

Sherwin-Williams and Valspar Corp. last month sold off Valspar's North American industrial wood coatings business to Axalta Coatings Systems for $420 million in cash, as part of efforts to win over regulators.

The news sent shares of Valspar up to a 52-week high of $113.07 per share before it closed at $112.99. Sherwin-Williams' share price rose as well, closing at $334.95, up 86 cents from Thursday's close of $334.09.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It should be no surprise that the Vatican's good shepherd appeared less than thrilled to have The White House wolf paying him a visit.

Before Pope Francis and President Donald Trump traded gifts during their Vatican meeting, the two leaders had traded barbs, during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, over Trump's immigration plan and Pope Francis' frugal modesty.

Last year, when asked about Trump's intention to build a massive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Pope Francis said a man who builds walls instead of bridges is "not Christian."

Trump called the Pope's comment disgraceful, adding that "If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS' ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president."

When Pope Francis paid his own hotel bill after being elected, Trump tweeted: "I don't like seeing the Pope standing at the checkout counter ( front desk) of hotel in order to pay his bill. It's not Pope-like!"

Pictures of a smiling President Trump posing with a dour looking Pope Francis, have launched a sea of memes spoofing the photo-ops at the Holy See.

Pope Francis looked as if he had just finished reading Trump's budget or the CBO report on the House version of Trumpcare. The set of Martin Luther King books Trump gave the pope should be a much better read.

Pope Francis presented the president with a copy of his encyclical on preserving the environment, which is a rebuke of climate change deniers. Unless the encyclical contains more pictures than words, Trump is unlikely to read it.

The Vatican's Secretary of State urged Trump not to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord. Trump said he would not make a decision on withdrawing from the accord until after he returns to The White House.

Trump was also presented with a large medallion engraved with the image of an olive tree representing peace.

It might have also been useful to present Trump with an engraving of one of the earliest known Executive Orders issued - The Ten Commandments - with the ninth commandment to not lie, highlighted.

Trump nominates adulteress to be Vatican Ambassador.

Trump's visit with the pope could have been even more awkward than it appeared had Trump brought along his choice for U.S.Ambassador to the Vatican, former adulteress Calissta Gingrich.

The third Mrs. Gingrich had carried on a six year affair with Newt while he was still married to the second Mrs. Gingrich.

At the time Gingrich was having his extramarital affair,he was leading the impeachment of President Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Calissta Gingrich once worked as a clerk on the House Agricultural Committee. She sings on the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of The Immaculate Conception. Those are slim qualifications to be ambassador to the Vatican.

As a devout Catholic and graduate of a Catholic grade school, high school and university, I find the choice of Mrs. Gingrich insulting, but typical of Trump. There are far more deserving and qualified Catholics Trump could have chosen.

Writing about Calistta Gingrich for the National Review, Kevin Williamson was on the mark when he wrote: "We do not need to fit her for a scarlet letter, but there is no particular reason to dispatch her to the Holy See, either.

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Every state has taxes in some form. What would work best?

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Like them or not, there's no escaping taxes in one form or another. Regardless of what you're taxed on, chances are, you think your bill is too high.

But what's the right balance?

This post is part of cleveland.com's series, "Western Reserve: the 51st State?" For more stories, click here.

Should the fictional new Western Reserve mimic the nine states with no tax on wages? Ohio already eliminated tax business income for nearly all self-employed people, under Gov. John Kasich.

But eliminating the income tax on all wage earnings would mean finding money elsewhere. Texas, for example, has no income tax but the Lonestar State has some of the highest property tax rates in the country. (Ohio does not tax land.)

Increasing the sales tax is one option. But that can become controversial because sales taxes disproportionately hit poorer people, who spend a higher percentage of their money on taxable things.

What would you think about a annual tax of hundreds of dollars based on the value of your car? West Virginia and Kentucky, among other states, take that route.

Or, like Alaska, should we rely more on natural resources, collecting more money from oil and natural gas?

Currently, more than 80 percent of the tax money Ohio raises for its general revenue fund is from either the sales tax or the individual income tax.

The new Western Reserve would need to come up with about $9.6 billion in annual tax revenue, assuming we need to raise about the same amount as our portion of Ohio now.

Currently, Ohio's sales tax is the biggest revenue generator at $10.3 billion in fiscal year 2016, accounting for 47 percent of the $21.8 billion in taxes for the state's general revenue fund. Next closest is the personal income tax at $7.8 billion.

Cleveland.com asked four tax experts to draw up the ideal state tax system, starting from scratch. Here's what they said.

Graduated personal income tax is crucial

Zach Schiller

Research director

Policy Matters Ohio

Two principles are most important for a tax system: We need to raise enough revenue for strong public services like education, health care and infrastructure and we need to do it fairly.

Neither of these principles has been followed closely with our current state and local tax system. We don't raise enough to make needed investments in people, and we reinforce inequality by taxing a larger share of the income of poor and middle-class residents than of rich ones. In structuring a new tax system, we need to bear in mind the lesson from a dozen years of state tax cutting: It doesn't work.

The crucial element of an adequate and fair tax system is a strong, graduated personal income tax. That means the rate rises with income, so it is based on ability to pay. It also grows with the economy. A well educated workforce is a key to prosperity, and business should contribute to that through a corporate income tax.

Other sources of revenue also are needed to generate the resources we need. Whether we tax sales, property or income, we need all of our taxes to be broadly based, without loopholes that reduce revenue and distort the economy in favor of certain taxpayers.

The only exception should be those needed to protect the low-income, who otherwise could be taxed further into poverty.

Start with a low flat tax rate

Rea S. Hederman Jr.

Executive vice president

The Buckeye Institute

A simple tax code with one low flat tax rate that encourages investment and work would be best for Ohio's families and businesses. People wouldn't have to waste hours and hours and hundreds of dollars to figure out how much they owe, not to mention their anxiety and fear that would be avoided.

A flat tax is easily calculated and transparent, which increases trust and accountability in the system. As a result, a low flat tax with a broad base would raise more revenues to spend on vital state services than the complex tax code we have today, and would spur economic growth.

Writing a new tax code would enable policymakers to strip out the confusing language that makes it difficult for Ohioans to feel confident they are complying with the law, and lawmakers could strip out special interest give-a-ways that end up increasing the tax rates on everyone else.

As a result, families and businesses would save money by spending less on accountants and tax lawyers.

Critical in any new tax code would be the elimination of the job killing commercial activities tax. This tax hurts businesses, who pay the taxes regardless of whether they make a profit or not; and it hurts families, who end up paying higher prices for the good they buy.

For example, when you buy beer at the ballgame or at the grocery you are paying for taxes assessed on the wheat, on the barley, on the hops, on the brewery, on the distributor, on the grocery, and finally a separate tax on you the consumer.

Start with equity, achieve balance

John R. Corlett

President and Executive Director

The Center for Community Solutions



Taxes are the price of liberty, and President Abraham Lincoln's 1861 decision to implement a national income tax in order to finance the Civil War and preserve the union is a perfect example.

Any new tax system should keep three principles in line - equity, efficiency and balance. Ohio's tax system over time has become less equitable, more inefficient, and less balanced.

Equity means the wealthy should pay more taxes in both absolute terms and as a percentage of their income. This is why I would suggest a progressive income tax that charges more to those who can afford to pay.

Efficiency means keeping the tax code simple by reducing administrative burden and avoiding having the government pick winners and losers via tax loopholes. Any new tax system shouldn't duplicate all of Ohio's $8 billion in sales and use tax expenditures; instead it should provide a much lower rate to every tax payer.

Finally any new tax system should be balanced so as not to be overly dependent on any one source of revenue and to insulate the system from economic shock. So a balanced tax system would include income, sales, property, and other taxes to ensure that government has what it needs and everyone, individuals and businesses, pays their fair share.

Reduce the income tax, increase the sales tax

The Kasich Admistration

Ohio Office of Budget Management



We also asked Gov. John Kasich's Office of Budget Management, and Director Timothy Keen, to offer a plan for a state tax code, starting from a clean slate.

Through a spokesman, the office declined. The administration pointed instead to previous budget proposals and testimony.

The stated goal of the Kasich Administration has been to change Ohio's the tax system for the purpose of making Ohio more competitive in attracting investment and jobs.

The governor's current budget proposal, as has been the case in previous years, includes a lowering of the income tax rates and paying for that, in part, by raising other taxes such as the sales tax and those related to fracking.

The sales tax proposal involves both increasing the rate and reducing what is exempt from the sales tax. For example, this year's proposal includes adding a sales tax on cable TV.

During the last several years, Kasich has signed legislation sharply reducing income tax rates, abolishing the estate tax and eliminating state income taxes for most self-employed people operating their own businesses, while raising the sales tax, increasing the cost to homeowners of new property taxes and eliminating an automatic property tax reduction for all senior citizens. (Now, only those with incomes below $31,800 qualify.)

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland was forged in places like the building at 1831 Columbus Road.

The historic 1893 foundry on the north bank of the Oxbow operated for decades, filled with hardworking men who melted, molded and pounded metal casing into shape, building Cleveland into an industrial powerhouse as well as new lives for their families in the growing town.

It was one of so many foundries and factories and warehouses and docks that grew up on the banks of the Cuyahoga River in the second half of the 19th century. Places where immigrants and other men - including one named Rockefeller - built businesses and a city. This, the industrial Flats, is where Cleveland was born.

The site of this foundry has an even deeper history than that, though. The Columbus Road location was the site of St. Mary-on-the-Flats, the first Catholic Church in Cleveland, organized by Irish immigrants in 1826.

What started as the U.S. Bronze Co. and the Standard Brass Co. eventually became the Foundry Equipment Co. in 1917. It was surrounded by other businesses in the bustling area, including lumber companies, a ship-repair shop, heating and cooling companies, and a soap maker. It also seems there was a speakeasy on the site at some point, too.

By the middle of the last century, though, most of these businesses had been shuttered, with the Westlake-based Pipeline Development Co. taking over most of the nine-building complex. Some of the structures, such as the original foundry building, fell into disrepair.

By 2015, the buildings were mostly used for storage and a few non-industrial businesses.

It seemed the historic complex would go the way much of the industrial Flats had, sliding into neglect and oblivion. Where once industry had built the city, now the city seemed to waste away, sitting on one of its most valuable resources - the Cuyahoga River.

Enter Mike Trebilcock, chairman and CEO of MCPc, a technology consulting company based in Cleveland. Along with his wife, Gina, Trebilcock had a vision for the vacant property on Columbus Road.

He wanted to build a new, nonprofit rowing facility that would be accessible for youth of all income levels in Cleveland through outreach programs, and which would also be a world-class rowing facility that would attract and breed national talent.

"When I was growing up, people talked about the Mistake on the Lake," says Trebilcock. "I say the mistake is we're not on the lake. We don't take advantage of and use this great natural asset."

Trebilcock purchased the 2.7-acre Columbus Road complex from the Pipeline Development Co. for $3 million in 2015 and started to work on rectifying that situation, in partnership with MCPC Family Charities. He wasn't alone in wanting to re-energize the river.

The Foundry is one of several new ventures that have taken root on Columbus Road in recent years. The mini-renaissance on the Cuyahoga includes Merwin's Wharf restaurant and the skate park across the street, as well as the Brick and Barrel Brewery.

Though he's not a rower himself, the Trebilcocks' three children were passionate rowers and hooked their parents on the sport. To head up his $9 million investment in Cleveland's past and present, Trebilcock hired Aaron Marcovy as the Foundry's executive director.

Marcovy, a St. Ignatius High School grad who rowed at Columbia University, has headed up the efforts to transform the industrial site into a state-of-the-art rowing facility. It hasn't always been easy. With facilities dating from the 1890s to 1960s, different historical preservation concerns and ordinances affect the various buildings.

On a recent tour of the site, which after a year-and-a-half of construction is nearing completion, Marcovy was like a proud father as he showed off the indoor, state-of-the-art, 65,000-square-foot rowing facility, boathouse, workout facility, parent areas, office space and spaces intended for event rental. While paying homage to the buildings' complex and intriguing histories, the new design is sleek and modern.

"We wanted to stay true to the buildings, while making them modern and functional," says Marcovy. He's especially proud of the locker rooms, which transformed rudimentary industrial space into spacious private changing rooms and showers.

Work was done by the Krill Co. contractors. The final architectural design is by Kaczmar Architects Inc. Though the Foundry is now operational, the current phase of construction is slated to be completed in September. That includes the foyer, front entrance, locker rooms, offices and conference areas.

The transformation of the Foundry is about far more than architecture, though, and the Foundry is far more than a rowing facility.

"It is very important to us that this be accessible to all children in Cleveland," says Trebilcock. "This is not just a yacht club or a rowing facility; it's something for everyone in the city."

To that end, the Foundry has formed partnerships with the Cleveland Parks and Recreation Department, Urban Community School and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Other schools, such as Magnificat and St. Edward's, also use the facility, as well camp and scouting groups this summer.

Through the Cleveland Youth Rowing Association, which offers financial assistance via the Foundry, any interested youth can take up rowing. That's a big deal in a sport where rowing shells often cost tens of thousands of dollars, as does training.

No one under sixth grade is allowed on the river, but groups of younger children can practice in the indoor rowing tanks. All youth rowers must be enrolled in a Foundry rowing program to go on the water.

The Foundry has created four curricula for interested school groups, too, including a STEM offering that focuses on the physics of rowing. The others concentrate on physical fitness, nature and history. Physical fitness, is, of course, part of all the school programs.

There are also programs aimed at adults interested in rowing, including meet-up groups and tank drop-in sessions. And the Foundry is starting a program for under-23 and elite rowers this summer, with the goal of helping them get to the Olympics.

So far this year, despite the fact that the complex is not completely refurbished, more than 2,000 area students have participated in Foundry programs. Trebilcock and Marcovy expect that number to increase exponentially when the complex is fully open. "We want to get 10,000 kids per year in here," says Trebilcock.

"Getting people to the river, to the lake, is great."

The site of Cleveland's past may just be its future, too.

The Foundry is at 1831 Columbus Road, Cleveland. For more on rowing programs for children or adults, or tours, go to http://www.clevelandfoundry.org/.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The city's refusal to accept petitions seeking repeal of an ordinance that allowed use of city tax dollars to renovate Quicken Loans Arena has sparked a bigger issue about democracy, lawyers for proponents of the referendum said Friday.

The lawyers, representing a group of taxpayers from Cleveland, sent the city a letter threatening a lawsuit if the city does not accept the petitions to start the referendum process.

"People have decided that rules and fairness and democracy don't matter," attorney Subodh Chandra said. "This is the kind of thing that happens in banana republics that America mocks where politicians try to subvert the democratic process.

"The issue is moving beyond the issue of the merits of The Q deal itself," Chandra said.

Chandra and attorney Peter Pattakos sent the letter on behalf of five people, all of whom were involved with circulating the petitions. Greater Cleveland Congregations confirmed all five are active with the organization, as well as being taxpayers in the city.

The letter gives the city until June 7 to act. After that, a taxpayer lawsuit could be filed to force the issue.

You can read the letter below. Mobile users click here.

"We don't have the right to file the suit until the law director refuses to act," Pattakos said. "I am hopeful that the law director will do the right thing and consider the law."

Neither the administration of Mayor Frank Jackson nor City Council President Kevin Kelley had a reaction to the letter.

Kelley has said previously, though, that the city's interpretation of language in the city charter is that the repeal effort is precluded. Ultimately that could require interpretation by a judge.

Greater Cleveland Congregations is the lead group in a coalition seeking to overturn the ordinance authorizing use of admissions tax that the city collects on tickets for events at The Q to help pay for upgrades at the arena.

The Quicken Loans Arena project would dramatically alter the facility's appearance, creating more space for dining, bars and public gathering. The Cavaliers contend that the work will keep the 22-year-old arena competitive with other cities and extend the life of the arena into the 2030s.

The price tag for the work is about $140 million. The final bill, though, after paying off the bonds over several years, will top $200 million. Cleveland's portion of the project would direct admissions taxes collected at the arena from 2024 to 2034 -- estimated to be about $8 million a year for 11 years -- toward paying off the debt.

The coalition has argued that The Q improvements deal should leverage money for use in neighborhoods for job development, community improvement and for help addressing mental health and addiction issues.

On Monday the coalition, which also includes the Cuyahoga Progressive Caucus, Service Employees International Union Local 1199, AFSCME Ohio Council 8, and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 268, attempted to file 20,000 signatures on petitions seeking a referendum on the ordinance to City Council.

Council officials refused to accept the petitions, claiming that accepting them, given that the city already has entered into a contract on The Q deal with Cuyahoga County and the Cleveland Cavaliers, would "unconstitutionally impair an already executed and binding contract."

The lawyers' letter to the city disputes that contention.

"We believe based on our research that they're flat out wrong," Chandra said. Otherwise, the provisions in the city charter that allow for citizen initiated referendums would be rendered meaningless, he said.

"I'm really saddened by the conduct of the City Council because they have abdicated their responsibility," Chandra said. "What they ought to do is step back and realize that the public wants to be heard."

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Shares of Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia could potentially rise by another 19 percent, even as the airline reported a 30 percent fall in first quarter net profit, one analyst said Friday, shortly before AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes told CNBC's "Squawk Box" he was confident on earnings in the coming quarters.

Ahmad Maghfur Usman, Asean transport and logistics analyst at Nomura, told CNBC's "The Rundown" that he maintained a "buy" rating on AirAsia with a target price of 3.72 ringgit ($0.87) per share. The company's shares was trading at around 3.13 ringgit ($0.73) on Friday morning.

"I wouldn't say the results were disappointing  AirAsia actually displayed the best results among all the listed carriers that I cover in Asean, that's why I'm still very positive on the stock and moving forward, there are cost saving initiatives that they have planned for so this should bode well for the upcoming quarters," he said.

He added that AirAsia's long haul flights to Haiwaii, due to launch next month, will also be a key profit driver for the group.

Fernandes said he is confident that the company can deliver a better report card in the coming quarters.

"We're seeing a much better environment. Some of our competitors are cutting costs, they're raising fares," he said.

"We're also driven by very good results in the Philippines and Indonesia, these were two laggards for us before  and India is doing much better than expected so all the guns are moving in the right direction."

On Thursday, Asia's top budget airline reported net profit for the first quarter fell to 615.8 million ringgit ($144 million) from a year ago, and revenues rose 31 percent to 2.2 billion ringgit.

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An agreement has been reached on increasing the number of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office international observers to up to seven, at the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

May 26, 2017, 16:09 Popov: Number of OSCE international observers at Karabakh conflict zone will increase to 7

STEPANAKERT, MAY 26 , ARTSAKHPRESS: Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador Igor Popov, informed about the aforesaid to APA news agency of Azerbaijan.

In his words, both parties to the conflict agree to this change.

However, there is no agreement on details; these include placing observers, financing their activities, and other technical issues, added Popov.

Along with relevant OSCE structures and representatives of the sides, Austria, which chairs the organization, is working to bring the sides to an agreement on this issue."
In honor of graduation season, CNBC Make It is rolling out the speeches and advice that America's leaders are most excited to share with the Class of 2017. Follow along using the hashtag #MakeItNewGrads. Steve Levitan, co-creator and executive producer of ABC's Emmy-winning comedy "Modern Family," is known for his sometimes brutal honesty. True to form, his graduation speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison started with frank and unconventional advice. He told graduates, "I'm supposed to impart wisdom. This is where I tell you a bunch of cliches like 'follow your dreams' and 'be yourself.' But I'm not going to say that, because I don't know your dream. Your dream may be stupid. Your dream may be to open a DVD store or sell Jell-O art. Those are bad dreams. Don't do it! "And if you were anything like my freshman roommate, maybe you shouldn't be yourself. Anybody else would be better!" So instead of repeating trite, or even potentially harmful, ideas, Levitan shared some wry, heartfelt stories about his journey from University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate to a television legend. Based on his experiences, here are his top five most important pieces of advice for anyone just starting out and looking to get ahead in the working world.

The 'Modern Family' cast and crew at the 66th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards including Nolan Gould, Eric Stonestreet, Ariel Winter, Sofia Vergara, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, Ed O'Neill, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Rico Rodriguez, Sarah Hyland and Steve Levitan. Larry Busacca/NBC | Getty Images

1. Roll the dice in your 20s

Levitan argues that you should take advantage of your freedom to take chance when you're young, "when you're unencumbered, when your expenses are low, and when you're still on your parent's health insurance." After Levitan graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he worked as a TV news reporter in Madison and could imagine a stable future. Still, he eventually built up the courage to quit his job in order to try crafting sitcoms. If he hadn't left his job and his comfort zone, he would never have dedicated himself to writing for television and made that work. Your 20s, he argues, are the best time to take risks like these.

2. Succeed or fail on your own terms

Levitan stresses the importance of playing by your own rules, whether you win or lose. He recalls a friend who wrote a pilot with characters he was proud of. When producers told him he would need to make them less fiery, he agreed to tone them done. Later, the producers complained the characters were too bland. If he had stuck to his vision, Levitan posits, his friend might have done better. Staying true to yourself may seem risky at times, but often, Levitan argues, it can be the most honest way to create art and conduct business. It is important to be respectful but also to stand by what you believe in.

Joe Klamar | Getty Images

3. Learn how to fail

Levitan's career took a while to really get going. For a period in his life, he failed repeatedly, and, after creating nine shows in a row that flopped, he felt like giving up. Instead of quitting, he called and conferred with an old friend and decided to write about his own personal experiences of being an uncool dad. "We took everything we learned from our few successes and many failures and wrote what we knew best," says Levitan. That's how he was able, at last, to create, and break through with, "Modern Family."

4. Be calm in a crisis

When Levitan got stuck in an elevator with a stranger, he panicked and began punching on the ceiling. Eventually he broke the lights, forcing the two of them to sit in total darkness. The stranger, however, stayed level-headed and tried to make the most of the unfortunate situation. Once they finally escaped, she shook her head and called Levitan a fool. "The point is, no matter how dark it gets, the door will open," says Levitan. Hard times will pass, but the character you demonstrate when the going gets tough will stick with you forever. Also, "always use the restroom before getting on a sketchy elevator," he says.

Eric Stonestreet and Steve Levitan Peter "Hopper" Stone | Getty Images

5. Love what you do
Despite tight capital control measures from Beijing, Miami is emerging as a cheaper buying destination in the U.S. for Chinese investors, Peggy Fucci, CEO of real estate broker OneWorld properties told "Squawk Box" on Thursday.

The city has remained a hot property for mainland investors even as Chinese regulators fined prominent brokerages Citic Securities, Haitong Securities, and Guosen Securities this week as a part of long-term capital control efforts in the country.

"I don't think that's going to stop the investment," Fucci said, referring to Beijing's efforts of cleaning up China's financial sector. "I think that the U.S. real estate will continue to be that safe haven and that the Chinese will always look into it."
Iraqis inspect the damage in the Mosul al-Jadida area on March 26, 2017, following air strikes in which civilians have been reportedly killed during an ongoing offensive against the Islamic State (IS) group.

The Pentagon completed its two-month probe of a U.S. airstrike in Mosul, concluding ISIS militants booby-trapped the building where more than 100 civilians were killed.

"The investigation determined that ISIS emplaced a large amount of explosive material in a structure containing a significant number of civilians and then attacked Iraqi forces from the structure," the Department of Defense said Thursday.

A team of investigators visited the western Mosul site after the March 17 airstrike and detected post-blast residues common from explosives used by ISIS. The probe also used modeling to look at the structural damage to the building and concluded it could not have been caused by the GBU-38 precision-guided munition, or 500-pound bomb, dropped by the U.S. aircraft.

"A secondary explosion triggered a rapid failure of the structure, in which two ISIS snipers, 101 civilians sheltered in the bottom floors of the structure, and four civilians in a neighboring structure were killed," DoD said.

"Neither coalition nor Iraqi forces knew that civilians were sheltered within the structure."

Another 36 civilians remain unaccounted for in the airstrike, which caused the deadliest single incident in the battle to retake Mosul.

The DoD said the coalition selected a single GBU-38 munition because it was "the most appropriate and proportionate means of engagement to neutralize the threat and to minimize collateral damage.

The GBU-38's detonation, localized to the top floor of the structure, ignited a large amount of explosive material which, unknown to the coalition, ISIS fighters had previously placed in the house."
Soaring shares of are set to stream even higher, according to Rob Sanderson, a research analyst who covers the stock for MKM Partners.

Ahead of Thursday's bell, Sanderson raised his 12-month price target on the then-$158 stock to $195. His bullish report appeared to put a bit more wind in Netflix's sails , as the tech giant rose a bit more than 3 percent in the session to close at $163. But if the analyst is right in his long-term call, the stock has even more substantial gains ahead than his current price target implies.

To be sure, his target change did not rest on any massive reworking of expectations. Actually, the methodology that leads to his $195 price is almost pleasantly clinical.

More from CNBC:

Chart points to another 19% rally for Netflix, says top technician

Analyst predicts a 50 percent crash for Netflix - but admits: 'It is likely that we will be wrong for a while'

How one trader plans to make a 300% profit on Netflix

Sanderson continues to expects the stock to earn $12.12 per share in 2021, and to trade at a forward price target of 22.5 in 2020  leading to an expectation that the stock will trade at $273 in two and a half years' time. He expects investors to "discount" this price by 25 percent for every year in the future it is (as a way to be compensated for the risk of Netflix not achieving those earnings and/or multiple).

At the end of January, when Sanderson slapped his prior one-year price target on the stock, one year from then was about two years away from 2020  so $273 was divided by 1 plus 25 percent, raised to the second power. Now, a year from now is about a year and a half from 2020, so $273 is divided by 1 plus 25 percent, raised to the 1.5st power. Hence the price target moves from $175 to $195.

This simple arithmetic can cause one to forget the fact Sanderson is forecasting that Netflix's earnings will explode from about $0.50 in 2016 to more than $12 in five years' time. And to further forecast that even after the stock does so, investors will still be sufficiently optimistic about future profits to slap a high earnings multiple on the company.

Sanderson said in an interview Thursday on CNBC's "Power Lunch" that the company has "more than ample opportunity to continue to scale up [its] content investment on a global basis," and that "the subscriber opportunity is sufficiently large."

While some might be tempted to bet against such heady expectations, Dennis Davitt of Harvest Volatility Management uses the harshest language to warn against doing so.

"I've seen a lot of really good investors lose a great amount of money on stocks like Netflix, and that usually comes from when they short them," Davitt said Thursday on "Power Lunch." "It's a momentum stock."

However, Davitt says it would be prudent for Netflix investors to buy a downside put on the stock, in order to maintain their upside while protecting themselves from the potential for great downside.

"I think Rob's right, personally," he said. "But if Rob's not right, it costs you 5 percent to own the 'insurance policy' on the stock."

Netflix is up more than 30 percent year-to-date.
The Anita Borg Institute has told Uber that it was ending its partnership, due to "continuing allegations that Uber faces about the treatment of women employees as well as other business issues."

In a letter obtained by Recode that was sent to Uber's CTO Thuan Pham and its head of human resources, Liane Hornsey, the Silicon Valley group  which focuses, in part, on getting more women into technical roles at companies  added that "we believe that with Uber's current internal focus you are unable to take full advantage of the programs and resources that ABI offers."

Translation: ABI does not think Uber can do much right now given the big controversies over what some consider systematic sexism and sexual harassment issues at the company.

To fix this. Uber has subjected itself to an internal investigation, being conducted by former Attorney General Eric Holder, the results of which will be delivered to its board next week. A redacted version of the report is expected to be released to employees and perhaps the public after the management and its directors decide on what steps to take from the investigation's recommendations. (Recode will try to get a non-redacted copy before that, natch!)

Under its partnership program, ABI works with and gets commitments from companies to move the ratios of women in technical jobs and to improve the culture around diversity.

More From Recode:

More manufacturing jobs came back to the US than left last year

Read Mark Zuckerberg's full commencement address at Harvard

Mark Zuckerberg called on Harvard's graduates to help save the environment and cure all disease

"Our communities have expressed significant concern about ABI's partnership with Uber due to the severity of the allegations," wrote its CEO Telle Whitney in a statement to Recode. "We recognize our responsibility to stand up for women in tech and address the issues they face, and we continue to welcome and support individual women technologists that work at Uber."

(In technical terms, for you geeks of all genders out there, that's called being "deprecated," which describes software that is "replaced, or not officially recommended.")

Uber also commented via Komal Mangtani of its senior engineering leadership:

"We are working hard to transform our culture to support women engineers at Uber, to foster their growth and to attract more women in technical roles. We have received a lot of support from ABI thus far and we have participated in successful Grace Hopper events in the past. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us and while were surprised to hear of this development, we're committed to continuing the conversation with ABI."

Here's ABI's full note to Uber, so you can judge for yourself:

We are concerned about the continuing allegations that Uber faces about the treatment of women employees as well as other business issues. The Anita Borg Institute (ABI), and other diversity organizations have offered advice, concrete strategies, and resources to assist in improving the culture in Uber's technical organization and the status of your women technologists. We appreciate the initial steps that Uber has taken to address the issues but we believe that with Uber's current internal focus you are unable to take full advantage of the programs and resources that ABI offers. Annual partnership with the Anita Borg Institute is a year-long engagement that includes access to programs and resources but also includes commitments to specific actions focused on the retention and advancement of women technologists. Based on the above, the feedback that we have received from our communities and the ongoing public issues, it is appropriate to take a step back and end our current partner engagement. We will return the pro-rated partnership fee and also provide the Top Companies report based on the data that you have provided. ABI continues to welcome and support the individual women technologists that work at Uber to be a part of our Systers and local communities and to take part in ABI events worldwide. Please let me know if I can answer any question. Kind regards, Jody Mahoney Senior Vice President Industry Partners Anita Borg Institute www.anitaborg.org

By Kara Swisher, Recode.net.

CNBC's parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Recode's parent Vox, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement.
Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a U.S. surveillance aircraft a couple hundred miles southeast of Hong Kong this week in a maneuver the Navy described as "unsafe."

The Chinese J-10 fighter aircraft flew about 200 yards in front of the U.S. Navy P-3 Orion on May 24, making quick and erratic turns and restricting the plane's ability to maneuver, one official said. One of the Chinese jets came within 100 feet of the U.S. plane.
Plumbers could find they have an untapped line of business in modern politics, according to the European Council's President Donald Tusk, who said the workmen would do a better job of preventing information leaks than some high-level diplomats.

"My impression is that today's diplomacy needs professional plumbers rather than indiscreet diplomats," Tusk said at a G-7 Summit press briefing in Sicily Friday.

His comments come hours after reports emerged in German media that U.S. President Donald Trump described Germans as "very bad" and threatened to block German auto imports to the U.S.

"I don't want to be a part of this new political culture of permanent leaks," told a room of journalists.

"There are too many leaks. I don't want to comment on any leaks."

It is thought that the comments from President Trump were leaked by participants seated within a talk among EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday.

Tusk and his counterpart from the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, were among those in attendance. Juncker insisted at the press conference that the reports were exaggerated, and instead described the discussions with the U.S. president as "friendly, constructive."

The European Council, like other EU institutions, however, has a well-documented history of leaking information to the press. One such recent leak was the disclosure of comments made by Juncker following Brexit talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May, in which he described her as living in a "different galaxy."
Gunmen attacked buses and a truck taking a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, witnesses and the Health Ministry said.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Eyewitnesses said masked men stopped the two buses and a truck and opened fire on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.

"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said. The Health Ministry put the toll at 26 dead and 25 wounded.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.

About 70 have been killed since December in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State. There was no immediate claim of

responsibility for Friday's attack.



Speaker Ryan tweet
Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) was joined by Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) in introducing House Resolution 354, a resolution condemning the violence against peaceful protesters outside the Turkish Ambassador's residence on May 16, 2017, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) reported. The House Resolution calls for "the perpetrators to be brought to justice."

May 26, 2017, 17:46 Congress Introduces Resolution Condemning Turkish Violence in Washington

STEPANAKERT, MAY 26 , ARTSAKHPRESS: The House Resolution calls for "the perpetrators to be brought to justice."

H.Res. 354 states: "after hours of peaceful protest, violence erupted when pro-Erdogan supporters and individuals from the Turkish Embassy grounds pushed past District of Columbia police officers to brutally attack the demonstrators." The Resolution expressed deep concern that "Turkish officials blatantly suppressed the First Amendment rights of United States citizens, and multiple armed Turkish security officials beat, kicked, and choked unarmed demonstrators."

In addition, the Resolution noted that the Washington Metropolitan Police Department and other reports confirm that "the demonstrators did not instigate the violence," and that this is the third instance of violence perpetrated in the U.S. by members of Turkish President Erdogan's security detail.

H.Res. 354 calls for "any Turkish security officials who directed, oversaw, or participated in efforts by Turkish security forces to illegally suppress peaceful protests on May 16, 2017, should be charged and prosecuted under United States law."

Taking a strong stand against the growing trend of repressive authoritarianism in Turkey, H.Res. 354 states that "the United States should take steps to strengthen freedoms for the press and civil society in countries such as Turkey, and combat efforts by foreign leaders to suppress free and peaceful protest in their own countries."

"The Assembly applauds Representatives Royce, Engel, McCarthy, and Hoyer and their introduction of bipartisan legislation condemning Turkey's outrageous attack against peaceful protesters and assault on our cherished democratic values," Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny said.

In last week's statement, the Assembly called upon Members of Congress and the Administration to condemn this latest affront by Turkey on basic freedoms. The Assembly also launched a grassroots campaign to urge Members of the House and Senate to condemn the Turkish attack and hold those who perpetrated these acts of violence accountable.

In addition to the House Resolution, 28 Members signed a bipartisan letter urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "to speak out publicly against these actions and, just as importantly, ensure that these men are held fully accountable for their actions." The previous day, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic, which says in part: "We encourage local law enforcement personnel to prosecute perpetrators of this attack to the fullest extent of the law and support the expulsion from the United States of any diplomatic personnel involved." Other Members have spoken out against these attacks as well.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
The pan-European ended 0.2 percent lower with most major bourses and sectors in negative territory. The European benchmark, French CAC and the German DAX were all little changed on the week.



The FTSE 100 was the standout performer as it closed up 0.4 percent to hit a fresh record high. Sterling's fall to 10-day lows helped boost the stock market on Friday on news the U.K.'s governing Conservative Party had slipped in the polls. British voters are set to cast their votes in the general election on June 8. The U.K.'s blue-chip index was also up by around 0.7 percent for the trading week.

Oil and gas stocks were the worst performing on Friday as traders digested the extension of production cuts from OPEC and some non-OPEC members. On Thursday the group announced from its Vienna headquarters that it would extend oil supply caps of 1.8 million barrels per day for a further nine months. Despite the extension being the base-case scenario for the market, traders seemed disappointed with the level and duration of pledged cuts.



Oil prices slumped more than 4 percent immediately after the deal was announced on Thursday but were trading higher on Friday. The oil and gas sector was down more than 1 percent as Saipem , ENI , OMV and Technipfmc all contracted around 2 percent lower.

Financial services and banks were also both down more than 0.6 percent. Societe Generale , Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank were all lower by more than 1.5 percent.

Media stocks were the best performing on Friday, up 0.57 percent. Italian media group Mediaset led the gains and was placed near the top of the European benchmark.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street, stocks continued little changed ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. The Dow Jones industrial average fell marginally, with 3M contributing the most losses and Boeing the most gains. The S&P 500 inched down just 0.07 percent, while the Nasdaq composite moved 0.03 percent lower.
It's part of an initiative for advertisers called "Facebook Health," run by a small team reporting into former Google director Meredith Guerriero . The team includes about a dozen people based in New York, our source says, as well as others in Washington, D.C., and Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, according to Medical Marketing & Media .

Facebook is hosting an invitation-only summit dedicated to health on June 6 in New York, according to a source familiar with the matter. CNBC tracked down a screenshot of the invitation, which has the tagline, "Health in the era of mobile."

The source said the June 6 meeting is primarily geared to marketers in the pharmaceutical industry, although other health industry leaders might also be in attendance. The person expects Facebook Health to unveil tweaks to the ad product, so pharma companies can more easily plug themselves on the platform. It could focus on mobile video, as that's been a major focus for the team.

At the Cannes festival later in June, Guerriero is hosting a session with Carey Reynolds, a marketer with the drug maker Allergan, to discuss how pharma companies can form "stronger connections between patients" via Facebook.

Our source said that Google and Twitter hired large teams to work with pharmaceutical companies on ad campaigns, but Facebook hasn't had a real seat at the table until the past year. In November, the company made its first appearance at a conference to show off its scrolling ISI feature to pharma executives. That feature allows drug companies to remain inside Facebook's limits for text and photo copy but incorporate required safety information. After the rollout, Bayer launched its first Facebook ad campaign for a multiple sclerosis drug and injector.

Unlike other industries, the pharmaceutical industry faces strict regulations on how it can promote its drugs on social channels. On Facebook, for instance, a drug company might target a person who has "liked" an advocacy page, or fits a certain demographic profile. But it would not be allowed to target ads to specific people based on a disease that Facebook knows or suspects they have.

Industry reports show that pharma has been slower than other industries to shift its ad budgets from television and print to digital, making it a prime target for tech companies. The research firm eMarketer estimated in 2016 that pharma and health care marketers spent $1.64 billion on mobile and online advertising, but projected that number to rise to $2.55 billion by 2019.
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Friday as traders appeared to move away from riskier assets amid fluctuating oil prices. Investors also digested key economic data.

Dow futures slipped about 23 points, while S&P and Nasdaq futures declined 2.75 points and 3.5 points, respectively.



The first revision to first-quarter GDP showed the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 1.2 percent, higher than a previous reading of 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, durable goods orders declined 0.7 percent, less than expected. Consumer sentiment data for May are also scheduled for release at 10 a.m. ET.

OPEC and non-OPEC members reached a deal to extend production cuts for an additional nine months on Thursday. However, investors seemed disappointed that more aggressive measures to reduce a global supply overhang were not taken.

In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $51.65 a barrel on Friday, up 0.37 percent, while U.S. crude was around $49.03 a barrel, up 0.27 percent.



Meanwhile, President Donald Trump attends the G-7 meeting in Sicily on Friday and traders will also be watching for any new developments in the investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia after reports that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is now under FBI scrutiny.



In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx-600 index was around 0.49 percent lower on Frida. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite in China closed 0.08 percent higher, while the Nikkei in Japan closed 0.64 percent lower.



CNBC's Patti Domm contributed to this report
World leaders braced for contentious talks Friday with President Donald Trump at the G-7 summit in Sicily after he earlier lambasted NATO allies for not spending more on defense.

Trump's confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which America's partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change.

The summit will kick off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theater perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, before the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States begin talks on terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

"We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters late Thursday.

He also predicted "fairly robust" talks on whether Trump should honor a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Trump tweet 1

Trump tweet 2

Trump, who dismissed man-made global warming a "hoax" during his election campaign, is not expected to decide at the summit whether he will stick with the Paris deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama.

Even if a decision is not forthcoming, European leaders have signaled that they will push Trump hard on the Paris emissions deal, which has comprehensive support across the continent.

The summit, being held near Europe's most active volcano, Mount Etna, is the final leg of a nine-day tour for Trump  his first foreign trip since becoming president  that began in the Middle East.

On Thursday in Brussels, as NATO leaders stood alongside him, Trump accused members of the military alliance of owing "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO  even though allied contributions are voluntary.

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 140 miles from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean. More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

Italy is eager for wealthy nations to do much more to help develop Africa's economy and make it more appealing for youngsters to stay in their home countries.
Google has established a new organization to invest in artificial intelligence startups, according to a new report. The new effort shows Google taking its experience with venture capital and applying it to AI, a type of computing that it has been increasingly using across its applications.

The new organization will be separate from Google parent company Alphabet' s funding activity within GV (formerly Google Ventures) and CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), Axios reported on Friday. Google itself has also made venture investments on its own.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai in the past year has started positioning the company as being "AI first" as opposed to being "mobile first." Having an investment group focusing on that does make sense given that thesis.
A report this week on how many Americans will likely lose health coverage under a bill passed by the House GOP raises the stakes for Republicans in districts where voters are at risk.

The bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, which Congressional Democrats opposed in a party line vote, would leave some 23 million fewer Americans with health insurance coverage by 2026 if it becomes law, the Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday.

Only 20 percent of American voters said they would be "more likely" to vote for a Senator or member of Congress who supports the Republican plan, while 44 percent say they are "less likely," according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
The biggest guarantee that Greece and its creditors will finally reach an agreement on its debt burden is the upcoming payment deadlines that will force through a deal, an IMF official has told CNBC.



European creditors and technical teams from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been unable to agree on certain economic forecasts  key to determine how to make the Greek public debt more sustainable.

Sensitive political issues, including the upcoming election in Germany, have also delayed the process. But, according to the IMF official, who has knowledge of the talks but didn't want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, the upcoming July repayments that Greece owes to creditors will ensure an agreement will be reached in about three weeks' time.

"Somebody needs to give something away. There's confidence there will be a deal in three weeks' time because of the time pressure," the official told CNBC on Wednesday.

An EU official, who has also knowledge of the talks, told CNBC on Friday morning: "It is our goal to reach an agreement on June 15."

Greece has to pay about 8 billion euros ($8.96 billion) to its creditors in July and the current impasse over its debt is also delaying further disbursements from its current bailout program. Without fresh money, Athens will struggle to repay its creditors. Failing to make a payment to creditors would make the situation for the Greek economy even worse, with an immediate effect on markets and investor sentiment.

Euro zone finance ministers and the IMF are scheduled to meet on June 15. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs such meetings, said last Monday that all sides were working "to try to come to a conclusion at the next Eurogroup." His remarks followed an eight-hour meeting in which the ministers had a "first in-depth discussion on the topic of debt sustainability."
In honor of graduation season, CNBC Make It is rolling out the speeches and pieces of advice that America's leaders are most excited to share with the Class of 2017. Follow along using the hashtag #MakeItNewGrads.

When you are truly pushing your limits, failure is inevitable. But it's not always so public as the election was for Secretary Hillary Clinton, who in November lost the presidency to Donald Trump.

And yet Friday, Clinton appeared in front of the Wellesley College Class of 2017 and delivered a confident, and at times political, commencement speech.

"You may have heard that things didn't exactly go the way I planned," she says. "But you know what? I'm doing okay."

Clinton found inspiration to continue moving forward by spending time with those she loves and reminding herself of her own purpose.

"I've gotten to spend time with my family, especially my amazing grandchildren," she says. "But here's what helped most of all: remembering who I am, where I come from and what I believe."
May 26, 1962

Holy Family School will again present a summer session of the Catherine McAuley College Reading Laboratory from July 3 to July 27, according to Sister Mary Rosario, summer school administrator. Classes will be held at the school. Subjects to be offered are reading, English, mathematics and French.

A series of 20 one-hour lessons will be provided for students of grade one through grade eight. The students will be taught in small groups, classified according to achievement and needs. The class will be limited to seven students. All students will receive standardized reading and personality tests, the results of which are interpreted to parents, Sister Rosario said.

Registration is being held daily at Holy Family School and evenings at Holy Family Convent through June 12, Sister said. She added that registration will be closed when classes are filled to their capacity of seven in each group.

Sister Rosario said the purpose of the summer sessions is to assist the normal learner who reads below grade-level, the bright student not working to capacity, and any student weak in one of the three factors of reading ability.

Also aided is the indifferent reader who never opens a book except under compulsion and the non-writer, who can read, but cannot write or spell with any fluency.

Sister Rosario said it is an opportunity for those who seem immature, insecure, apathetic, frustrated or who seem good in all other subjects to prepare themselves for better grades during the regular school term.

She said that students from any school or religious denomination from grades one through college may register. The classes will be taught by teaching nuns of the Sisters of Mercy.

Further information may be obtained by contacting Holy Family School or the Holy Family Convent.
The means to advertise products to people have never been more prevalent. More than half the world's population has a smartphone, and Facebook alone has more than a billion daily mobile active users. It reported an 18 percent increase in daily users between February 2016 and February 2017 and more social media eyeballs means more ads: eMarketer predicts that brands will spend a staggering $34 billion on Facebook this year alone. But as businesses spend ever more money on advertising  nearly $500 billion in 2016 globally according to MAGNA  there are clear signs of nervousness among big business and a recognition that ads can be super annoying. YouTube, for example, will pull its 30-second non-skippable ad format next year, because it wants to provide "a better ads experience for users online," according a statement emailed to CNBC. In April, Procter and Gamble, one of the world's largest advertisers, blasted the ad industry for overwhelming consumers with advertising. "There's too much crap," said P&G's chief brand officer Marc Pritchard, in a speech to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, in a transcript seen by CNBC.

Procter & Gamble's Marc Pritchard speaking at the Olympic Pride event in Washington, DC, in September 2016 Paul Morigi | Getty Images

"We bombard consumers with thousands of ads a day, subject them to endless load times, interrupt them with pop-ups and overpopulate their screens and feeds," he said. Pritchard called for advertisers and agencies to work together to make better content, and said that P&G will be "focusing on fewer and better ideas that last longer." Is advertising over? Earlier this month, Forrester research published a stinging report: "The end of advertising as we know it." "The end of advertising is coming because interruptions are coming to an end," wrote co-author James McQuivey in a blog post. "It's the casual indifference to advertiser interests that will enable consumers to finally inhabit a world free of advertising. That casual indifference is only possible because people will spend less and less of their time doing interruptible things on interruption-friendly devices," McQuivey wrote. Digital assistants, he suggested, will replace Google search, and bots will be able to "scrape" and present people's Facebook feeds back to them, removing the stuff they don't care about, including advertising. Forrester's research suggests that 38 percent of U.S. adults who use the internet have installed an ad blocker, and 50 percent claim to actively avoid ads on websites. And while the marketing industry has recently been justifiably occupied with preventing their ads from appearing next to videos promoting hate and other extreme content on YouTube, ad blocking remains a massive issue, said Keith Weed, chief marketing officer at Unilever.

Keith Weed, Unilever's chief marketing officer, speaking at Advertising Week Europe in London on 20 March 2017 Shutterstock | Advertising Week Europe

"Ad blocking is a hugely hot topic There has always been ad blocking. Ad blocking was the 30-second TV ad coming on air and you got up to make a cup of tea. That was real physical ad avoidance and what did we try and do to stop that happening is to create more engaging advertising. "There is a huge fragmentation and clutter out there in advertising absolutely, and so people have more choice and I totally agree [that] this idea of the attention economy, of course people have choice, they can switch around more, and hence if we as advertisers don't show great advertising, people switch around more," he told CNBC during the Advertising Week Europe conference in London in March. People are continuing to download ad blocking software: there were 615 million devices blocking ads globally in December 2016, an increase of 142 million on the previous year, according to a February 2017 PageFair report. "We have a ton of Millennials and they are not going on TV, so it's about how do you find them in ways that's not so interruptive and annoying?" Meredith Jurek, Self Esteem Brands For Sanjay Nazerali, global chief strategy officer at media agency Carat, ad blocking is a welcome wake-up call. "I have to say I am really excited by ad blocking, which is incredibly controversial in our industry If it is forcing brands to speak with greater meaning, with greater relevance and greater value ultimately to consumers, bring it on," he told CNBC by phone. "We have languished for much too long, and the ability to throw messages out there that we assume that people are just going to watch, without any sense of the value that we are offering people. And guess what, they are saying they don't want it anymore," he added. Influencer marketing Ad blocking means marketers are looking to be more creative about how they reach consumers, and one way they're doing this is by using "influencers," or people who have a lot of followers on social media, to communicate. Nearly half (48 percent) of advertisers said they planned to increase their spending on influencers, according to a poll by agency Linqia of 170 U.S. marketers in December 2016. However, ad spend on Instagram is increasing. It said in March that it had 1 million advertisers, an increase of 400 percent year over year, while 100 million members joined in the six months to December 2016. But not everyone is convinced that an ad-funded model is the way to go on social media. Billionaire businessman Ayman Hariri founded social network Vero with the aim of reaching a more grown-up audience, but without advertising.

Social network Vero Vero

"We felt that by excluding ads out of our business model allows us to look at our users as our customers, rather than advertisers," he told CNBC by phone. And instead of pure advertising, Nazerali at Carat suggested that branded content  ads that are more like editorial  will come to the fore, as long as marketers can get them right. "That again brings all of its own challenges. You can make something because you have a brand objective in mind and not the audience's delight in mind," he said. Being an entertaining brand Meredith Jurek, chief marketing officer at Self Esteem Brands, which owns the Anytime Fitness and Waxing the City chains, agreed that brands are looking for ways to entertain people in their communication. "We have a ton of Millennials and they are not going on TV, so it's about how do you find them in ways that's not so interruptive and annoying, but entertaining, and to insert your brand into that conversation, or do you go a step further and provoke a conversation?" she told CNBC by phone.

Waxing the City worked with website Scary Mommy on branded content Waxing the City
Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers the commencement address at Harvard's 366th commencement exercises on May 25, 2017 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

In honor of graduation season, CNBC Make It is rolling out the speeches and pieces of advice that America's leaders are most excited to share with the Class of 2017. Follow along using the hashtag #MakeItNewGrads. Finding your purpose can seem daunting, but Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it's also not enough. In his address to the 366th graduating class at Harvard University Thursday, Zuckerberg challenged graduates to build a world where everyone has the chance to find their purpose. "Today I want to talk about purpose. But I'm not here to give you the standard commencement about finding your purpose. We're millennials. We'll try to do that instinctively," says Zuckerberg. "Instead, I'm here to tell you finding your purpose isn't enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose," he says. The 33-year old entrepreneur, who is worth $63 billion, has been traveling across the country to meet people in every state as part of a personal challenge for 2017. Part of what he's learned so far is, when people don't have a sense of purpose, that's when their lives seem veer off track.

"As I've traveled around, I've sat with children in juvenile detention and opioid addicts, who told me their lives could have turned out differently if they just had something to do, an after school program or somewhere to go. I've met factory workers who know their old jobs aren't coming back and are trying to find their place," he says. "To keep our society moving forward, we have a generational challenge  to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of purpose." Zuckerberg lays out three ways that the next generation should go about building a world where everyone has the opportunity to have purpose.

I'm here to tell you finding your purpose isn't enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose. Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook

1. Take on "big, meaningful" projects

Previous generations rallied together to put a man on the moon, build the Hoover Dam and immunize children against polio, he says. These monumental efforts give entire communities a sense of purpose. Tackling the largest problems in society today can be overwhelming, but he advises young people not to be intimidated if they don't know exactly what they are doing or how to fix the problem. "I know, you're probably thinking: I don't know how to build a dam, or get a million people involved in anything. But let me tell you a secret: no one does when they begin. Ideas don't come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started," he explains. "If I had to understand everything about connecting people before I began, I never would have started Facebook." According to Zuckerberg, large problems young people could tackle include fixing climate change, improving health care and modernizing the voting process.

2. Fix inequality so that everyone can chase their dreams

Zuckerberg says part of the reason he was able to build Facebook is that support from his family meant he was not scared of trying things. His father was a dentist and they were financially secure. "The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail," and he had that, he says. "If I had to support my family growing up instead of having time to code, if I didn't know I'd be fine if Facebook didn't work out, I wouldn't be standing here today," he explains. To give everyone the chance he had, Zuckerberg calls for a strengthened social safety net, that he says the wealthiest in society  including himself  ought to pay for. "We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things. We're going to change jobs many times, so we need affordable childcare to get to work and healthcare that aren't tied to one company," he says. "We're all going to make mistakes, so we need a society that focuses less on locking us up or stigmatizing us. And as technology keeps changing, we need to focus more on continuous education throughout our lives."

We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things. Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook

3. Build a global community
On Wednesday, Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for a House seat in a special election Thursday, was charged in Montana with misdemeanor assault for allegedly grabbing Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by the neck and slamming him to the ground after Jacobs asked him about the GOP health care bill. Gianforte could be fined up to $500 or get six months in jail if convicted.

Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested during the campaign on battery charges for grabbing a female reporter. A Florida prosecutor later dropped the charge.

During the White House campaign, reporters at Trump rallies were often confined to a penned-in area, vilified by the candidate and subjected to such insults and threats from his supporters that some members of the media feared for their safety. At one rally, a man was photographed in a shirt that read, "Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some Assembly Required."

For months, Trump, first as a candidate, now as president, has attacked the media, calling it dishonest, branding it the "enemy of the people" and accusing it of putting out "fake news."

"It definitely started before Trump, but he definitely exacerbated it," said Kelly McBride, a vice president at the Poynter Institute, a media think tank and training center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The case of a Montana congressional candidate accused of body-slamming a reporter is being blamed by some media watchers on a wave of hostility toward journalists that President Donald Trump helped generate.

Gianforte, who has tried to align himself with Trump, said the reporter was being aggressive and grabbed him by the wrist. Jacobs said he never touched Gianforte. And a Fox News reporter who witnessed the incident said Jacobs was not physically aggressive.

"The attack in Montana is only the crudest and most visible expression of the rising hostility toward the media," Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University, wrote in an email. "The chilling fact is that half of the people seeing the Guardian reporter being beaten may actually  if privately  relish the image."

Among other recent incidents, all of them reported in May:

 The editor of Alaska's largest newspaper said a state senator slapped one of his reporters when the reporter sought the lawmaker's opinion on a recently published article.

 A Washington-based reporter from CQ Roll Call said he was pinned against the wall by security guards and forced to leave the Federal Communications Commission headquarters after he tried to question an FCC commissioner after a news conference.

 A West Virginia journalist was arrested after yelling questions about the opioid epidemic at U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price.

McBride said that while the hostility toward the media really began decades ago with talk radio and the rise of Fox News, Trump has stoked it.

"Reporters are subject to abuse all the time. Most of it's verbal, but it's not hard to imagine some of that verbal abuse transitioning to physical abuse, especially when you have the president calling journalists scum, bad people, evil people and 'enemies of the people,'" McBride said.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the conservative watchdog Media Research Center, said that while he is not condoning an attack on a reporter, it's "goofball analysis" to lay blame for the Montana episode at Trump's feet.

"If Ann Coulter gets hit by a pie, I'm blaming everyone who has ever criticized her," he said sarcastically.

Carlos Lauria of the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists wouldn't draw parallels between the U.S. political climate and what happened in Montana. But he said, "I think this incident sends an unacceptable signal that physical assault is an appropriate response by an unwanted question by a journalist."

"Everybody needs to take a step back and realize the press has a role to play. We have a right to do our jobs," said Bernie Lunzer, a former journalist and the president of the NewsGuild, a union representing some 25,000 journalists in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. "You don't have to like it and you don't have to talk to us. ... If you want to attack journalists for doing their job, then there's something very wrong."

Turley said something more chilling than the recent clashes between politicians and reporters might be underway.

"The White House has admitted that it is actively studying new avenues to increase the liability of journalists. President Trump reportedly pressed former FBI Director Comey to arrest reporters using leaked information," he said. "I don't think the U.S. media has ever faced this type of concentrated threat that runs the gamut from physical to legal actions."

He added: "I've tended not to be alarmist, but I think there's a real danger here."
"Why should someone without a home, income, and the educational or physical tools to provide for herself have her total potential assistance diminished by a massive fund that goes to all takers? In this way, a UBI actually steals from the poor instead of helping them."

That said, of course there are millions of people worldwide who do need significant help. That's where the "universal" in universal basic income" is so flawed. Instead of giving everyone some kind of minor handout, society's charitable wealth should be concentrated and focused on the truly disabled and poorest people who literally cannot help themselves adequately at all. (And kudos to people like Bill and Melinda Gates who seem to get that with their very focused efforts at getting vaccines and the most basic medical supplies to people who have almost no subsistence at all).



Why should someone without a home, income, and the educational or physical tools to provide for herself have her total potential assistance diminished by a massive fund that goes to all takers? In this way, a UBI actually steals from the poor instead of helping them.

No one should be excused for this kind of thinking. The fact that every human being needs to feel needed and valued and not just an entity to be pitied is something we've known since ancient times. And the Jewish philosopher Maimonides even explained in detail how the only righteous charity is giving someone a job that really needs to be done. You also don't need to be poor for this to be true. A recent study by the Institute of Economic Affairs showed that retirement increases the chances of depression by 40 percent and raises the likelihood of a person contracting a physical illness by 60 percent. Not feeling needed or economically productive is literally hazardous to your health. It's tough enough on our retirees, but now there are people who actually want to spread this notion to everyone over 21!

Some political observers have posited that President Trump is just the kind of populist type who could support the UBI. But that seems like a big stretch for someone who puts so much value in his image as a job creator and an icon of entrepreneurship. It was his promise of keeping and adding to American jobs that was his most persuasive message during the campaign.

The public needs more leaders in politics and among the corporate elite who push a message of belief in the value of the American people and all people on any scale. Ideas like the UBI aren't really ideas, they're a pre-emptive surrender to a problem that hasn't really presented itself yet.

It all boils down to the classic optimist vs. pessimist argument. The pessimist UBI supporters are convinced that society cannot continue without a permanent handout structure. The optimists believe the free market will always create enough jobs and wealth for those believing enough in themselves to get it.

For our own dignity and survival, Americans need to seize the optimistic side of this argument or our society is doomed.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
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From popularizing "cushion foundations" to making snail slime an "It" ingredient in skincare, South Korean beauty trends have played a massive role in shaping the beauty industry in Asia in recent years. One of the companies responsible for taking those beauty innovations beyond South Korea's borders is Amorepacific , which counts brands such as Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Innisfree and Etude House among its portfolio. Suh Kyung-Bae, the company's chairman and CEO, now has his sights set on global expansion. "Our company is operating in the Korean market, the Chinese market and the ASEAN market. The U.S. market will be our fourth pillar for our business, so we are very much committed to developing the U.S. market," Suh told CNBC's "Managing Asia."

A customer tries out lipsticks in an Etude House store in Myeongdong, Seoul, South Korea. Etude House is just one of the beauty brands in Amorepacific's portfolio. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

China was one of the markets Suh spearheaded the push into. The world's second largest economy is currently a major market for Amorepacific, amounting for around 20 percent of the company's sales. Part of the secret of breaking into the lucrative market involved paying attention to the tastes of Chinese consumers. "The Chinese customers are quite concerned about the dryness of their skin, so we developed a sleeping mask for these customers. We studied which color tones, shades and beauty routines most interest them," Suh explained. "In China, there are many dynamic young people who are busy trying to build a career for themselves, so their main concern was how to effectively put on cosmetics in the most convenient way, in the shortest period of time."

An employee stocks shelves in an Amorepacific Innisfree brand store in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Brent Lewin | Bloomberg | Getty Images

International exposure, however, also brought with it potential downside risks. Shares of Amorepacific fell, among other South Korean retail players, when tensions between China and South Korea ramped up over the implementation of the THAAD anti-missile system earlier this year. Sales of Korean retailers on the mainland were also affected when Chinese consumers boycotted their stores in protest of THAAD. "In the short term, I think there (was) some impact," Suh said, referring to sales at the company. Across the Pacific, Amorepacific is focusing on targeting millennials consumers in the U.S. market, even as Suh acknowledged that it was "one of the toughest markets" worldwide. The company has launched its Innisfree brand stateside in response to the interest in natural products among millennials. The company is not shying away from Europe either, even though its first foray into France failed. Amorepacific has plans to re-enter the market in the second half of the year. "The huge lesson we learnt (after failing in France the first time) was whenever we go into a new country, we need to first understand what our customers like and how best to communicate the brand story," Suh said.

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Dozens of health care activists protest in front of a Harlem charter school before the expected visit of House Speaker Paul Ryan on May 9, 2017 in New York City.

One new poll found that just 20 percent of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a senator or member of the House who supported the current version of the bill.

The CBO found that if the bill becomes law 23 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026, and that people with pre-existing health conditions, as well as older Americans, could face sharply higher insurance costs.

The current version of the replacement bill, which was approved by just a single-vote margin by the House on May 4, received Wednesday a sobering analysis by the Congressional Budget Office .

Those lawmakers include a group of senators who in recent weeks have been meeting regularly to discuss crafting their own version of a bill to make big changes to the Affordable Care Act.

A series of polls showing widespread unhappiness with the GOP bill have been released, just as Congress heads into a week-long recess that will give lawmakers opportunities to hear, at home, what their constituents think about that legislation.

The Republican bill to replace key parts of Obamacare is hugely unpopular with the American public.

But 44 percent of voters they they would be less likely to vote for a member of Congress who backed the bill, according to that poll from Quinnipiac University.

The same Quinnipiac Poll found that 57 percent of voters disapprove of the bill, known as the American Health Care Act. Just 20 percent of voters approve of the bill.

"Advisory to Republicans who support the replacement for Obamacare: Backing this bill could be very hazardous to your political health," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. The poll questioned 1,404 voters, and had a margin of error of 3 percent.

The Q-Poll's findings were mirrored by those of another survey, the Harvard-Harris poll, which found that 55 percent of voters see the AHCA as a step backward.

But support for the bill was higher in the Harvard-Harris poll, which found that 45 percent of voters see it as a step forward.

That said, 57 percent of respondents told the poll they want significant changes made to the bill by the Senate. The working group of senators reviewing the bill has indicated that their version will look greatly different from the House version.

Mark Penn, co-director of the poll, told TheHill.com, "The voters want to neither go back to Obamacare nor to the House bill."

"The Senate is going to have to thread the needle here and craft a new compromise," said Penn, whose poll questions 2,006 voters. The poll's methodology does not have a traditional margin of error, according to TheHill.com.

A third poll came from Hart Research Associates, which was commissioned to survey 1,005 voters online by Protect Our Care, an Obamacare-defense group.

That poll found that just 40 percent of voters have a favorable impression of the bill, compared to 54 percent with an unfavorable impression.

However, support for the bill worsened after respondents were told about provisions in the measure that would lead to some older insurance customers and people with pre-existing conditions facing higher health plan premiums, as well as about a big tax cut in the bill for wealthy Americans.

After hearing that, 65 percent of respondents said they saw the bill unfavorably, compared to 35 percent who viewed it favorably, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 3 percent.

A total of 62 percent of voters said they wanted to see the Senate "work on a new bill that keeps what works and fixes what doesn't in the [Affordable Care Act] rather than repealing the law altogether," according to a summary of the results from Hart Research.

Watch: CBO scores new health care bill
President Trump's relentless message about creating new jobs in the U.S. is at odds with the message that is coming from his proposed travel ban and related comments about Mexico, China and other countries. The message foreign travelers are hearing is that the U.S. isn't anxious to welcome visitors to our country.

The seven-nation travel ban announced in January has been blocked by the Federal Courts, most recently on Thursday by the Fourth Circuit, but it has already had an impact on destination tourism travel to the U.S.

These actions have set in motion consequences that could affect our country for years to come.

International travel to the U.S. creates and supports a large number of jobs in the travel industry. Since the January White House travel ban announcement, international tourism to the United States has seen a substantial decline. The result of that is jeopardizing the jobs and economic growth that comes from the U.S. travel industry.

Clearly, in this new age of terrorist threats, we need to carefully vet international arrivals to the U.S. That makes sense. Our safety and security depend on it.

But at the same time there are powerful reasons we should be encouraging travel to the United States by citizens of other countries who want to see America. The opportunity for others to learn about our people and our country is another important way to make us more secure.

In addition to the proposed travel ban, the actions taken against some international travelers in recent months have sent the same negative message about travel to the U.S.

For example, on February 26th, French historian Henry Rousso, who had travelled to our country more than thirty times, was landing in Houston to speak at a Texas A&M Conference.
Auburn Correctional Facility was put on lockdown after a large fight in an outdoor recreation yard.

According to the New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association, a fight broke out as the south yard was being closed by officers at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, May 23.

The fight between inmates escalated to involve approximately 10 inmates who ignored orders by officers to stop fighting, NYSCOPBA said. Additional staff was called to the yard, and several orders were given to the inmates to stop fighting, but they were all ignored.

An officer on the roof post deployed a gas canister into the yard as it appeared that more inmates were going to get involved in the fight, NYSCOPBA said. Three inmates then broke away from the large group and continued to fight. An officer deployed pepper spray to two of the inmates to get them to stop fighting. Once the fighting stopped, the inmates were removed from the yard and returned to their cells.

A search of the yard recovered two ceramic blades with tape wrapped around them as handles. No staff was injured in the incident.

State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesman Thomas Mailey said in a statement that the facility has been locked down for a full facility search for contraband and investigation. The outcome of the investigation will determine what further actions are necessary, Mailey said, and that DOCCS cannot comment while the investigation is on-going.

In other news, NYSCOPBA reported that on Monday, May 22, officers confiscated a drone with camera capabilities at ACF.

An officer assigned to a recreation yard witnessed inmates pass an object back and forth while they sat at a table before three of the inmates brought the drone over to a sergeant and turned it over to him.

The drone, which had a ninja turtle painted on one side, was taken as evidence and turned over to state police, NYSCOPBA said. It was unclear how and when the drone was flown into the yard at the facility.

Also on Monday, at about 9:50 p.m. an officer observed the two inmates fighting and one inmate make slashing motions during the altercation. The two inmates continued to fight as several officers attempted to intervene.

One inmate was forced to the ground by officers and then complied with their orders. He was removed from the yard in restraints and taken to the infirmary for minor injuries. While in the infirmary, the inmate told an officer he had drugs on him and turned over synthetic marijuana that was wrapped in cellophane.

The second inmate was taken to the infirmary to be treated for two lacerations to the left side of his face and two small cuts to his left hand. During a frisk of the inmate, he put an unknown object in his mouth and swallowed it, NYSCOPBA said, and it is believed that the object was drugs.

Two officers sustained minor injuries during the incident and remained on duty.

The number of fights occurring as well as drugs still making their way into Auburn Correctional Facility is alarming," NYSCOPBA Western Region Vice President Joe Miano said in a news release. "This week alone we had one large yard fight where gas had to be deployed to get inmates to stop fighting and two weapons were found in the yard. Another fight between two inmates appears to have involved some type of cutting instrument based on injuries to one of the inmates. Synthetic Marijuana was located on one inmate and officers, based on a tip, recovered the same drug hidden in the chaplains office. To top off the week, a drone appears to have been flown into the facility without knowing for what, if any, purpose.

"As the facility remains on lockdown, these security issues simply are not being addressed by the administration and comes at the risk of the safety of our members, Miano said.
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President Donald Trump's first trip to a NATO summit Thursday did not sit well with former ambassadors to the alliance. "I do think Trump's visit to NATO was the least effective of any American president since 1949," Nicholas Burns, who served as ambassador to the 28-member defense alliance under President George W. Bush, tweeted Friday. NATO came into existence in 1949. In Brussels, Trump admonished members of the alliance for not paying their "fair share" for defense. The president failed to publicly endorse "Article 5," the NATO mutual assistance clause that he was widely expected to back publicly for the first time. Trump was silent on Article 5 while standing next to a twisted metal piece of the World Trade Center, a new memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump poses with fellow world leaders during a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

NATO states came to America's aid after 9/11  the only time in the alliance's history that it has invoked Article 5. About a third of the NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan have come from countries other than the United States. Leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Emmanuel Macron looked on uncomfortably and exchanged private asides as Trump spoke Thursday. Trump's speech Thursday likely created more unease for the leaders of NATO countries, said Ivo Daalder, another former U.S. ambassador to the alliance. "The leaders of NATO were ... hoping to hear those words of affirmation. It didn't happen ... and that was a problem," he told MSNBC on Thursday. Trump, who won the White House with an anti-global message, has repeatedly bashed NATO and the European Union, which have formed the basis of U.S.-Europe cooperation for decades. His failure to commit to honoring Article 5 if a U.S. ally is attacked has come as Russia has become more militarily assertive.

Rumsfeld 'glad' Trump urged NATO to pay up
A social media campaign from U.K. potato chip manufacturer Walkers Crisps has failed spectacularly after it was hijacked by Twitter users.



Ahead of the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff on June 3 -- the most prestigious game in the European season -- Walkers launched the #WalkersWave campaign, offering fans the chance to win tickets to the big match between Real Madrid and Juventus.



The idea behind the initiative was simple: users would reply with a selfie to a Tweet from the official Walkers Crisps account, using the hashtag #WalkersWave. Their picture would then appear in a video alongside former England international Gary Lineker.

Unfortunately, and despite its best intentions, the #WalkersWave soon became the victim of a macabre prank. Instead of sending genuine selfies of themselves, some users decided to upload portraits of mass murderers and serial pedophiles.

These included Harold Shipman, a doctor who murdered hundreds of his patients; the disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile, regarded by many as one of the U.K.'s most prolific sex offenders; and the sadistic serial killer Fred West. An image of Joseph Stalin, the former leader of the Soviet Union, was also uploaded.

Stalin Tweet



Walkers took steps to limit the damage once it realised the campaign had been hijacked. "We recognise people were offended by irresponsible & offensive posts & we apologise," the company said in a Tweet. "We are equally upset & have shut the activity down."

Walkers Tweet

For his part, Lineker  known for his witty asides  Tweeted that he had "had an unusual day in some very strange company."

This is not the first time a major brand  or high profile individual  has been duped online.



In 2014, a Twitter user managed to trick now President Donald Trump into retweeting a picture of serial killers Fred and Rose West.



The user told Trump that his late "parents" said he was a "big inspiration" and asked for a retweet in their memory, which Trump duly provided. When he realized the true nature of the image Trump was, unsurprisingly, unhappy.

Trump Tweet One

Trump Tweet Two

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U.S. government debt prices were mixed on Friday as investors digested a fresh batch of economic data. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury notes , which moves inversely to price, was lower at around 2.247 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also lower at 2.912 percent. The short-term two-year note yield, meanwhile, rose to 1.2976 percent.

The first revision to first-quarter GDP showed the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 1.2 percent, higher than a previous reading of 0.7 percent.

"Still, as the weakest quarterly increase since Q1 2016, activity January to March remains characterized as lackluster and the headline storyline of a virtually nonexistent consumer remains unaltered," said Lindsey Piegza, chief economist at Stifel Fixed Income.

Meanwhile, durable goods orders declined 0.7 percent, less than expected. Consumer sentiment for May came in at 97.1, just below the expected print of 97.5.
U.S. stock futures were lower this morning, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all riding six-session winning streaks heading into the long Memorial day weekend. The S&P and Nasdaq closed Thursday at records. The Dow finished within 32 points of an all-time. (CNBC)

The government's second estimate of first quarter GDP is seen slightly higher than the first estimate at 0.8 percent. April durable goods is also out at 8:30 a.m. ET. The University of Michigan issues its final May consumer sentiment index at 10 a.m. ET. (CNBC)

St. Louis Fed Bank President James Bullard said the Fed only needs to hike rates one more time, and should then pause until it's clear the economy has shifted into a higher gear. Bullard is not an FOMC voter this year. (WSJ)

As Amazon (AMZN) approaches $1,000 per share, investors are buzzing about whether it's time to cash in or stick with the momentum. Shares of the e-commerce and web services juggernaut hit an all-time high of $999 Thursday but closed at $993.38. (CNBC)

Oil edged lower this morning after U.S. crude prices sank nearly 4.8 percent on Thursday on disappointment that an OPEC-led decision to extend current production curbs did not go deeper. (Reuters)
Just two genuine examples of the 1974 Lincoln cent struck in aluminum are publicly known, so it was only a matter of time before counterfeits would begin to surface.

A U.S. collector, Jonathan Brecher, paid roughly $5, including shipping, to acquire in an April 30, 2017, eBay auction what was offered as (and appears at first glance to be) a 1974 Lincoln aluminum cent.

Last minted in 1909, Indian Head cent still a collector favorite: Our first monthly issue of the summer is rich with Indian Head cent insights, along with State quarters for world coin collectors  a fascinating contrast.

Brecher placed the winning  and only  bid, of 1, equivalent to $1.11 in U.S. funds. Shipping cost an additional 3.

The seller is identified as being from Liepaja, Kurzeme, Latvia.

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The Latvian seller responded to Coin Worlds inquiry about the piece by advising that it was a souvenir copy, although it was not advertised as such.

Brecher said that, with the price so low, there was little downside risk. Brecher said he was expecting to receive a plated copper alloy cent, but was surprised that when he weighed the piece, it was 1.005 grams. A genuine 1974 aluminum cent weighs 0.93 gram. A genuine 1974 copper alloy cent weighs 3.11 grams.

While the weight of Brechers purchase is close to that of a genuine aluminum cent, Brecher says it is obvious the piece is counterfeit.

The dies are HEAVILY polished, with massive detail loss across the board, Brecher said in a May 17 post on the U.S. Coins Forum on the Collectors Universe Message Boards. Look especially at Lincolns coat, which blends into the field.

There is no sign of V.D.B. initials [of cent designer Victor D. Brenner] on the truncation of the bust. None of these features match the example in the Smithsonian.

Additionally, all of the lettering has a mushy or pitted quality that is never seen on US Mint products.

I think this is a spark erosion counterfeit, where the surface of the die was polished smooth to remove the pitting in the fields.

That polishing removed much of the details, and wasnt able to remove the pitting from the design elements that were recessed on the die. Once you have counterfeit dies at all, you can strike them on anything. Im not an expert on counterfeits; maybe someone else can provide more details.

Ive never seen even a counterfeit aluminum cent, so Im happy enough with my $5 purchase for what it is.

On May 3, 2017, a similar 1974-dated aluminum cent offered on eBay sold for $217.50 from a seller in Arkansas. That seller did not respond to Coin Worlds inquiry.

Composition substitute

The Treasury Department considered the use of aluminum and bronze-clad steel, among other compositions, as possible alternatives for the Lincoln cent amid rising copper prices. The copper crisis eventually abated, negating the need for the composition substitute, and the 95 percent copper alloy was retained until 1982.

Of the only two genuine 1974 aluminum cents verified, one is in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of American History.

The other example is in private hands, initially discovered in 1973 by a purported U.S. Capitol police officer, who, when trying to return the coin to an unnamed congressman who had dropped it, was told to keep it.

That example was originally graded About Uncirculated 58 and encapsulated by Independent Coin Grading Co., now Independent Coin Graders, in August 2005.

The coin was crossed over two months later in 2005 to a Professional Coin Grading Service holder where it was labeled Mint State 62.

Although examples of the 1974 Lincoln aluminum cent and its bronze-clad steel counterpart are considered by U.S. Mint officials to be experimental prototypes and illegal to own, federal authorities, including at the Mint, have been in no great hurry to seek confiscation of the examples in private hands.

Coin World recently learned that the 1974 aluminum cent once held by heirs of the U.S. Capitol police officer who found it has been sold, and it is currently held by an East Coast collector.

The Denver Mint also struck a handful of 1974-D Lincoln cents as experimental pieces on aluminum planchets, but U.S. Mint officials claim that production was not authorized.

An extant example that had been given to Denver Mint Assistant Supt. Harry Lawrence upon his retirement in 1980 was scheduled to go to auction in 2014, consigned by Lawrences son, Randall, and Michael McConnell, the La Jolla, Calif., dealer that the younger Lawrence had consulted.

The 1974-D aluminum cent was withdrawn from the auction and eventually voluntarily turned over to U.S. Mint officials in March 2016, ending federal officials pursuit of legal options to seize it.
Bonhams will offer an eclectic mix of coins and related items at its June 5 Coins and Medals auction in Los Angeles.

Among the most intriguing lots are two galvanos depicting Native Americans as sculptured by Edward Warren Sawyer. Sawyer trained with Hermon Atkins MacNeil  designer of the Standing Liberty quarter dollar  at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the mid-1890s and after 1900 would live predominantly in France.

Dick Johnson wrote in 2010 in his Medalblog, One of the most famous medal series, but also one that no collector owns, is the series of Indian bas-relief portraits by sculptor Edward Warren Sawyer. The series is known simply as Sawyers Indians. They are known only in museums!

Read companion story on Bonhams June 5 sale:

What to expect from Bonhams June 5 sale: Personal examination before bidding is highly recommended for several lots in Bonhams' Los Angeles auction.

As the American Numismatic Society wrote in a press release upon its November 2013 digitization of its collection of Sawyers portraits, This exceedingly rare collection of uniface medals was produced in the first decades of the twentieth century as an attempt to preserve the likenesses of prominent Native Americans in a medium acceptable to them.

Sawyer would travel to the American West at least three times, where he lived with Indian tribes to gain their confidence and create portraits. Johnson explains, This was not an easy task as the Indians believed such reproductions also captured their spirit. Thus they disliked, even prohibited, being photographed. Sawyer had to first gain their confidence  by living amongst them  then gently urging his chosen model to sit for him. Perhaps that action didnt seem to extract the [spirit] from the body he was modeling with his clay. It was not like a photograph. His subject could see the slow progress in replicating his features and his adornment in the slowly mounting clay.

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Lot 264 depicts the Navajo Chief Tja-Yo-Ni and Lot 265 depicts Sunka-Hanska of the Oglala Sioux. Both galvanos measure 70 millimeters in diameter, are set in a wood frame, and each carries an estimate of $3,000 to $5,000.

Johnson explains, Galvanos are a necessary intermediate step between an artists bas-relief model and the die to strike a coin or medal. The exact details of many of Sawyers galvanos have been lost to history, creating an opportunity for future research.

In his essay My Work among the Indians published in the 1913 American Journal of Numismatics, Sawyer wrote of his 1904 trip where he visited Navajo country, and he recorded that, although he modeled many heads, Chief Tja-Yo-Ni was among the most important.

Last minted in 1909, Indian Head cent still a collector favorite: Our first monthly issue of the summer is rich with Indian Head cent insights, along with 'State quarters' for world coin collectors  a fascinating contrast.

He modeled Sunka-Hanska in 1912. As Sawyer recalled on his visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation to work among the Oglala Sioux, I arrived at Pine Ridge just as a big council was being held and Indians from all the surrounding country were there. I drove out with an Indian farmer who knew all the Indians and pointed out to me all the celebrated men, among others being old Red Clouds son.

I picked out three or four good types and made all arrangements to have them pose when an agent for a Wild West Show came along and hired all the Indians he could. I saw it was useless to stay, so I took the stage and went north to Manderson on the edge of the Bad Lands where I could be out of reach of the Wild West Shows. I stopped with the Indian Trader, who was very much interested in my work, and helped me get three good types, Chief Sota (Smoke), Sunka-Hanska (Long Dog), and Hunpe-Ka (Picket Pin). The artist would then return to Paris to finish the medals in bronze.

Today Sawyers approximately 40 medallic depictions of Native Americans are celebrated, and groups of the artists work are held at the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. Though, as the Art Institute of Chicago has observed, Sawyer produced idealized profiles rather than ethnographic records.
A group of coins stolen during World War II is now being returned to Austria.

The American Numismatic Society on May 26 repatriated 94 medieval coins that had been stolen from the Museum Carolino-Augusteum of Salzburg in 1945.

Last minted in 1909, Indian Head cent still a collector favorite: Our first monthly issue of the summer is rich with Indian Head cent insights, along with State quarters for world coin collectors  a fascinating contrast.

The coins were recovered more than 20 years ago with the help of one of Americas leading names in the hobby, Chester Krause, but only recently were confirmed as among those stolen during the war.

The recovery and repatriation were possible, according to the ANS, because of the digitization of ANS records in recent years.

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Many of the coins in the Salzburg museum came from the greatest collection of Salzburg numismatics at the time, collected by Karl Roll, author of much of the literature on the topic, according to the ANS 1996 annual report.

As the annual report notes: At the end of the war, in May 1945, most of this collection was packed in chests and hidden in a salt mine outside of the city. The chests were removed from the mine a month later by the occupying American forces.

The following January, the Americans returned about 1,400 of the coins to the museum. But that still left 2,600 coins that were unaccounted for. About 100 of those coins were recovered during the intervening decade, but as of 1955, some 2,500 pieces remained missing.

Writing in the 1996 report, the ANS notes that Information has recently been released which indicates that not only were Austrian and American individuals responsible for the dispersion of coins and other art objects, but that the commander-in-chief of the American forces in Austria in the period allowed the transport of wagon loads of treasures out of the area.

Returning the treasure

The ANS welcomed the director and CEO of the Salzburg Museum, Martin Hochleitner, and Peter Lechenauer, an attorney representing the Salzburg Museum, to New York City for the repatriation.

The coins were turned over to Hochleitner and Lechenauer by Kenneth L. Edlow, chairman of the board of trustees of the ANS, and Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director of the ANS.

This group of coins came to the ANS in 1995 after Krause, now deceased, brought them to the attention of the curators.

Krause donated to the ANS the funds to purchase them, so as to ensure that they could be returned to any rightful owner rather than being dispersed on the market.

The ANS accepted the gift and acquired the coins in order to preserve the group intact, while then-curators Alan Stahl and William Metcalf immediately began inquiries with colleagues in Austria to determine whether a legitimate owner could be identified so that the coins could be repatriated.

According to the ANS, publications from before and after the war made it clear that the coins the ANS had acquired closely matched some of the missing coins from the Salzburg Museum, but no clear proof was available at that time.

According to the 1996 report, We have communicated these observations to the Salzburg museum and are in the process of working out with them how to confirm which, if any, of these coins are among those missing from their collection and the way to resolve this unfortunate, though unfortunately not uncommon, situation.

Open-access publication of old ANS annual reports has made them much more widely available, and this brought the story to the attention of numismatists in Austria.

As a result, recent work has been able to match a few coins with earlier photographs and many others, which have inventory numbers written in ink on the surface of the coin, with an old card file in the Salzburg Museum bearing similar numbers.

Why these coins matter

These coins represent an important body of material for the study of the history of Salzburg and Austria.

Highlights include a gold florin of Archbishop Pilgrim II of Salzburg (1365 to 1396), a silver pfennig of the same archbishop, a silver pfennig of Archbishop Hartwig of Salzburg (991 to 1023), and a circa 1400 Bohemian groschen that was counterstamped for validation by three different cities, Nordlingen, Ulm, and Salzburg.

Wartenberg commented on the return of the coins to Austria: We are delighted that these interesting coins will be returned to the museum where they belong and where people will view and study them. I am also so grateful to the late Chet Krause for his extraordinary initiative in trying to preserve Austrian heritage. A case like this one illustrates that even today museums in the US should be acting perhaps as safe havens for looted objects and be more proactive in acquiring looted objects with the specific purpose to eventually repatriate them.
PORT BYRON  Concerned parents spoke their minds about the extended school day for fifth-grade and sixth-grade students at a Port Byron Central School District Board of Education meeting Thursday night.

Jane Seamans said her reason for attending was her daughter, Ruby Seamans  who is in fourth grade  presenting a photo of her child to the board. She said she was worried about the health of her child and other children in relation to handling the extended school day.

Seamans had previously handed board member Chris Recckio a letter detailing her concerns about the extended days, which were implemented in 2015.

"When I wrote this up I just wanted to point out some things that were of concern because decreased sleep  especially for any child with any kind of neurologically-based condition, like ADHD or with our increase in autism, autism-spectrum disorder, any of those, that's really going to cause an impact in certain behavioral outcomes, I guess you would say, towards the end of the school day," Seamans said.

"I also wanted you to know she is a part of the after-school program, she dearly loves it, and I'm worried the next year she might not be able to participate in the after-school program simply because she's already going to be going through quite a long school day," Seamans said.

The district extended the days in order to give students extra time to improve their reading skills. That extra hours add up to 30 days over the course of the school year.

Superintendent Neil O'Brien said the district has been looking at things such as test scores and referrals to judge the effectiveness of the increased day.

"We always said at the very beginning that when we did it we did notice some data that bothered us as a school district and that was the drop off in reading scores especially," O'Brien said.

He said these things have been part of the district's conversation about that added hour, and that these conversations predated the letter.

"But it's helpful because we want what's best for kids to learn and some the pieces of the puzzle that the board's aware of and administrators have eloquently talked about is that administrators try to do more for our kids in a school day and we try to parse that and not lose instructional time in the process," O'Brien said.

Another parent, Earl Dauenhauer, also spoke at the meeting, saying his fifth-grader Thomas Dauenhauer, gets listless by the end of the school day.

"He gets on the bus at 6:30 in the morning and doesn't get home until 4, so if somebody was working a 40-hour job, that's basically what he's doing. That's rough on an 11-year-old," Dauenhauer said after the meeting.
AUBURN  U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand visited the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn Friday morning, part of her central New York tour speaking about the newly passed Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission Act.

Passed earlier this month, the law provides educational programs to celebrate the upcoming centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. That groundbreaking amendment was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said it was an honor to be at the new national park, emphasizing the influence Harriet Tubman had not only as an abolitionist, but also as a suffragist.

"Harriet Tubman knew that all of us are better off when women have a say in what happens in government," Gillibrand said. "She knew that our country could only reach its God-given potential if every woman in the world were able to reach theirs."

Gillibrand said women are still fighting  working to get equal pay, working to eliminate sexual assault on school campuses and in the military, and working for an equal voice in government, health care and many other areas. Today's women and men have inherited Tubman's fight today, she added.

Following the event, Gillibrand commented on the latest GOP health care bill, calling it horrible and a "tax cut disguised as a health care bill." She said not only is she concerned that 23 million people will not be eligible for health care, she said the bill is dangerous for women, too. With 13 Republican male senators on the health care bill working group, Gillibrand added that women will be discriminated against.

During her speech, too, Gillibrand referenced the Women's March on Washington, a worldwide demonstration on Jan. 21 of which Gillibrand took part.

"You're the new suffragists of your time," she said. "We are all the new Harriet Tubmans, if we are willing to take her mantle and fight as hard as she did. Every single one of us has the responsibility to fight for women's rights because if we don't do it, than no one is going to do it, and we're going to be stuck in a world where too many women are left behind."

Executive Director of the Harriet Tubman Home Karen Hill said she was proud to have Gillibrand visit the park. Gillibrand, Hill said, helped make the park what it has become with its new national park designation, even before she became a senator. She is also fighting for many of the same things Tubman did, Hill added. Gillibrand's visit also came hours before the 43rd annual Harriet Tubman Pilgrimage Celebration beginning 7 p.m. Friday at the Franklin Street church.

Also in attendance Friday morning were Auburn Mayor Michael Quill, Auburn City Councilors Jimmy Giannettino, Dia Carabajal and Debby McCormick, Cayuga County Legislature Chairman Keith Batman and Cayuga County Legislator Joe DeForest.

Following her visit in Auburn, Gillibrand was set to tour the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, the home of the women's rights movement.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form.
Iain Dale is Presenter of LBC Drive, Managing Director of Biteback Publishing, a columnist and broadcaster and a former Conservative Parliamentary candidate.

Lets give credit where credit is due. Donald Trumps first trip broad as President was tipped by everyone to be a disaster. People assumed there would be gaffe after gaffe, and he would embarrass himself, his country and his hosts.

Well, it didnt happen, did it? Even his speech on Islam in Saudi Arabia barely caused a feather ruffle. He sailed through two days of potential pitfalls and political icebergs in Israel, and even his meeting with the Pope went off without a hitch  though the latter, unusually, found it difficult to crack a smile.

As I write this column, Trump has moved on to Brussels, where he is attending his first NATO summit. Get through that without controversy, and he can rightly regard the last nine days as something of a triumph.

         

UKIP unveiled their election manifesto yesterday. Like anyone cared.

         

I am a massive supporter of the so-called Special Relationship, although the very mention of the term brings me out in hives. But by definition, it has to work both ways. It is outrageous that US intelligence is leaking details of the Manchester bombing to the US media, and it is to our Governments credit that it are making no secret of the fact that there is massive fury about it on this side of the Atlantic.

Trump has been complaining for months that the US security services leak like a sieve  and here is further proof. But why is it happening? To cause problems for Trump? Possibly. But the extent of these leaks seem to indicate that its not just one malcontented person thats doing it. Greater Manchester Police have decided no longer to share information with the Americans about the Manchester bombing. I wonder if MI6 and GCHQ will do the same.

When I interviewed Michael Fallon about it on Wednesday evening, he described it all as disappointing. After I put it to him that what he really meant was bloody furious he didnt say yes, but his answer indicated that he didnt really demur. If youve ever seen Love Actually, youll know what I mean when I say that Theresa May ought to have a Love Actually moment, and make very clear exactly at her next press conference what she thinks about the behaviour of Americas security services over the last few days. Shed have the whole country behind her.

         

Its difficult to know what effect the last few days will have on the general election campaign and result. I suspect that the level of debate will be slightly less aggressive than it would have been, and that the voting public wont be in the mood for the usual political games.

Will the agenda be dominated by the parties reactions to the terror attack, or will other domestic issues creep back up the political agenda. The social care debacle seems a distant memory, although it may not remain so.

If I were Jeremy Corbyn, Id now concentrate on the cuts to the police, which have led to a net fall of 20,000 police officers since 2010. Theres gold to be mined for Labour there, and the Conservatives had better have a well thought-out response.

         

Words Ive never said until this week: Alexa, play Ariana Grande.

         

So immigration was down by 84,000 in 2016 compared to 2015. Its net total was 248,880. Thats nearly fifteen tens of thousands away from the much-vaunted target.

What those who call for a dramatic fall in net migration dont seem to be able to compute is that most of the people that come here are absolutely vital to the functioning of our economy. Without them  well, wed be in a lot of trouble.

Im afraid that anyone thinks that we can reduce immigration to less than 100,000 is either deluded or will be sadly disappointed. It. Will. Never. Happen.

         

Diane Abbott has become the Scarlet Pimpernel of British politics. They seek her here, they seek her there, they seek her everybloodywhere. Since her car crash interview with my LBC colleague Nick Ferrari she, has barely been seen. We asked for an interview with her on Wednesday to talk about security issues, but were told she wasnt available. Well keep trying, on your behalf, dear reader.
Jeremy Corbyn will suggest today that British foreign policy causes Islamist terror attacks here at home. Certainly, it would be absurd to claim that there was no connection at all between western military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and 7/7, or 21/7, or the attempted terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport in the same year, 2007.

But is is worth pausing at the start, as the Labour leader seeks to get ahead of his critics, to ask what our foreign policy is now, rather than what it was ten years ago. We have withdrawn our soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. We have no boots on the ground in Syria. Indeed, the Government has spent a lot of time and trouble trying to persuade Russia to ditch Assad, the mortal enemy of Islamists like Salman Abedi, the perpetrator of the Manchester atrocity. Mention of Abedi takes us to Libya, the country from which his Islamist father fled in 1992 to escape Gaddafi before Britain gave him and his family asylum. A decade or so later, David Camerons Government played an indispensable part in the overthrow of the dictator who that father hated.

The main Islamist force against which our armed forces are engaged in military action today is ISIS, the terror group which is attempting to form a pre-modern state in Iraq and Syria, complete with bans on music at parties, the teaching of evolution in schools, and the display of photographs in shop windows and women appearing in public  all complemented by forced conversions, the murder of prisoners of war, religious cleansing, floggings, rapes, stonings, the throwing of people from tall buildings, beheadings, crucifixions, burnings-alive and the use of children as suicide bombers. All this is expended on Alawites, Yazidis, Druze, Christians, Shia Muslims and indeed anyone ISIS disapproves of, including very many of their fellow Sunni Muslims.

A moments thought will confirm that there is no foreign policy Britain could introduce that could possibly appease the likes of Abedi. We are damned if we intervene, and damned if we dont. If we intervene, we are accused of imperialism and wars for oil. If we dont, we are accused of indifference to the plight and slaughter of Muslims. Either way, we lose.

But in any event, foreign policy is not, repeat not, the sole or even the main cause of Islamist terror. The twelve people murdered in the offices of Charlie Hebdo were not slaughtered because of Frances foreign policy. They were killed because the magazine had run cartoons of Mohammed. Kurt Westergaard had nothing to do with Denmarks foreign policy. But he was one of the Danish cartoonists who had also dared to draw such a cartoon  and was duly assaulted with an axe. The women fingered for slaughter in for example, the biggest nightclub in central London had nothing to do with foreign policy either. No-one can even turn around and say Oh they were innocent,  those slags dancing around, said Jawad Akbar a member of the gang that plotted mass murder.

Military intervention, non-intervention, secular government, liberal democracy, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, womens freedom, gay rights, Jews, Shia Muslims, Sufis, the technological superiority of the west, the backwardness of much of the Muslim-majority world  all these assemble in the minds of Islamist fanatics, like a collage on a teenagers wall, to provoke a primal scream of fear and hatred. That many of them have previous form as criminals and addicts, are not in a stable relationship, and come from broken families shovels fuel on the fire. And just as there is no foreign policy that could appease people like these, so there is no domestic policy either, short of handing them Muslim-majority enclaves of our cities to govern, and wishing them the best of British.

To point all this out to much of the Left, however patiently, is to meet accusations of racism and Islamophobia. Since the facts are incompatible with its worldview, which is shaped by a sense of adolescent protest, the facts must therefore be wrong. So it must stop its ears.

ISISs barbarity is too noxious even for Corbyns stomach. But there is scarcely another terror group that he has not presented, during his 40 long years in politics, as morally equivalent to British demoracy. Hamas, Hezbollah, the IRA  he has cuddled up to the lot. Doing so has not been, as it is for some politicians on the far Left, incidental to his main political interests. Explaining away terrorism has been an abiding political fixation  from those press conferences with Gerry Adams during the 1980s though welcoming his Hezbollah friends to Parliament eight years ago to his engagement of Andrew Murray, of Stop the War, as an aide for this election. That Corbyn never once condemned an IRA atrocity during its terror campaign will be long remembered.

Boiled down to his essence, Corbyn is Peter Simples Dr Heinz Kiosk, with his catchphrase of we are all guilty. When push comes to shove, the west must be wrong  or so he cannot help thinking, because that thought has been integral to his best part of half a century of political agitating. This is the man who got on the ballot paper for Labours leadership election because the likes of Frank Field and John Cruddas and Margaret Beckett put him there, believing he couldnt win. This is the leader in whom Labour MPs passed a no confidence motion, by 172 votes to 40. Since they have no confidence in this lifelong apologist for terror, this renouncer of our nuclear deterrent, how can they now ask the British people to vote for him?
CORNWALL, Ontario  The Cornwall Summer Beer Fest is in its third year and this is the year that they plan on going big.

For the first time, Summer Beer Fest will be held in Lamoureux Park. This larger venue will accommodate representatives from 15 breweries, eight market vendors and eight food vendors.

Gates will open at 11 a.m. on June 24 and the party will continue until 11 p.m. that evening.

There will be musical performances throughout the evening, with the show being headlined by Canadian hip-hop artist Classified, who recently won Song of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards.

Summer Beer Fest is excited to bring big things to Cornwall, said organizer Sebastien Manigat. Our event headliner, Classified, is one of the biggest shows Cornwall has ever seen.

Going big, innovation, and connectivity are all important themes of this years Beer Fest, which is why Summer Beer Fest is proud to have Ontarioeast as a major sponsor.

Were happy to have Ontarioeast on board as our title sponsor, said Manigat. Ontarioeast is an exceptional local company and community supporter. With this relationship, were able to have the cool and connected event our community has asked for. Our goal is always to enhance the guest experience, and having Wi-Fi available in the park during Summer Beer Fest helps us achieve that.

Manigat is also proud to have a strong, diverse team around him who are helping him make this years Beer Fest a huge success.

We brought together a strong bunch of young, local people, he said. They came to Summer Beer Fest with great ideas and lots of passion for putting on this fun and innovative event for the people of Cornwall.

General Admission is $30 and deluxe is $90. Attendance is projected to be 2, 500+.
Close

The effect of global warming is gradually getting worse in Antarctica, the coldest place on the planet. The continent is turning green with the constant rising in temperature and this is creating a huge impact on the growth of moss, as scientists have discovered.

The Greenery And Moss Occurrence In Antarctica Is 4-5 Times Higher Now

The study published in Current Biology revealed that scientists have identified significant change-points in all the sites and proxies and then suggested fundamental and widespread alterations in the terrestrial biosphere. The greenery occurrence in the Arctic is parallel to the changes taking place in the Antarctica.

The constant alternations in moss levels were previously tracked by analyzing carbon after 1950. The temperature in the Antarctic has so far risen by around half a degree Celsius each decade, as the rate is quite faster than the global average.

According to The Independent, the growth rate of moss and greening of Antarctica is happening four to five times the level before 1950. This study is performed by the UK-based researchers who had studied three sites sprawling across 1000 km stretch across the peninsula.

Scientists are looking to consider 1950 as the start of the new geological era termed Anthropocene. This name is kept due to the surprising global effects that modern humans are having on this planet.

Green Parts Of Antarctica Are Likely To Be Greener Due to Global Warming



According to one of the researchers at the University of Exeter, Matthew Amesbury, people usually think of Antarctica as a very icy location. Now, recent research work shows that some parts of this icy continent are green and these parts are likely to be getting greener.

Even these relatively remote ecosystems, that people might think are relatively untouched by humankind, are showing the effects of human-induced climate change, Amesbury added, as reported by The Star. Stay tuned for more updates on global warming.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare
The National Weather Service has issued another Red Flag Warning Friday for the Little Colorado River Valley and the White Mountains amid strong winds and low humidity.

Gusts could top 40 mph beginning around 8 a.m., when a wind advisory will take effect.

In Flagstaff, the Friday forecast calls for winds of 30 mph and cooler weather, with temperatures rising again through the weekend. There is a chance of afternoon thunderstorms in the region beginning Monday.

6 a.m. Thursday: Strong winds in Flagstaff region prompt Red Flag Warning Thursday

Much of northern Arizona will be under a Red Flag Warning for critical fire conditions today as winds gusting to 40 mph move into the region.

The National Weather Service says winds will pick up in the afternoon across a wide area stretching from western Coconino County to the New Mexico line. Temperatures in some places will reach 90 degrees with low relative humidity.

Winds will continue strong Friday across the region, especially in southern Navajo and Apache counties.

Although no formal fire restrictions are in effect on the Coconino and Kaibab national forests, campfires and open flames in the forest are discouraged on Red Flag Warning days. Drivers of high-profile vehicles should use caution amid gusty winds and blowing dust.

Winds will decrease by 8 p.m. today, with the holiday weekend forecast in Flagstaff calling for sunny, warm weather. There will be a slight chance of thunderstorms in the afternoons early next week.

Following is the detailed National Weather Service forecast for Flagstaff through next week:

Today

Sunny, with a high near 74. Breezy, with a southwest wind 20 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph.

Tonight

Clear, with a low around 43. Breezy, with a southwest wind 19 to 24 mph decreasing to 13 to 18 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 38 mph.

Friday

Sunny, with a high near 68. Southwest wind 11 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph.

Friday Night

Clear, with a low around 39. Southwest wind 15 to 20 mph decreasing to 8 to 13 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.

Saturday

Sunny, with a high near 71. West wind 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 40.

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 75.

Sunday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 43.

Memorial Day

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.

Monday Night

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 45.

Tuesday

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 74.

Tuesday Night

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46.

Wednesday

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 73.
PHOENIX  The attorney for the state's largest electric utility said the fact that Bob Burns may think the other members of the Arizona Corporation Commission are scoundrels does not give him the right to issue his own subpoena for the company's records.

Mary O'Grady told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Kiley on Thursday that Burns has no legal basis for issuing his own demand for the records of Arizona Public Service and parent company Pinnacle West Capital Corp. She said only the full commission has the power to make such a demand, particularly in the middle of its consideration of an APS rate hike case.

What that means, she argued, is that Burns needs to make his case for the subpoenas to his four colleagues and get at least two of them  creating a majority  to demand the records. O'Grady said only if and when APS and Pinnacle West were to refuse to comply, and only after the commission issues an order to compel disclosure, would it be proper for Kiley to intercede.

But Bill Richards, who is representing Burns, told the judge that's not necessary. He contends the Arizona Constitution specifically gives each commissioner the right to demand documents of regulated utilities. And that, said Richards, trumps everything else.

Anyway, he suggested it would be improper to force Burns to actually ask the other commissioners to vote on his request.

Burns contends that APS may be the source of dark money spent to elect Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little in 2014, a contention the company will neither confirm nor deny.

APS did admit to spending money to elect the three Republican candidates this year: Andy Tobin, Boyd Dunn and Burns himself. But Burns said the money spent on his behalf was only because APS executives were far more scared of the possibility of Democrats getting elected.

What all that means, said Richards, is that the other commissioners may actually be legally disqualified from voting on anything involving APS. And that, he told Kiley, underscores the need for Burns to be able to act on his own  and for the judge to enforce the subpoenas.

O'Grady, however, told Kiley he cannot usurp from the commission its ability to act first on the subpoenas.

Sometimes commissioners get outvoted, she said.

And maybe he thinks his colleagues are scoundrels and ought not do the job that the voters elected them to do, O'Grady continued. But the commission and the commissioners, all of them, need to sort through those things and have an opportunity in the first instance to address them.

Richards said Burns has a legitimate right to seek the documents to get answers to questions he has been asking.

One is whether or not APS and its parent company have been setting their rate requests in a way to ensure that its customers will unknowingly be funding millions of dollars that the company uses to try and exert and create political influence over its designated regulator, he told Kiley. Richards said that includes questionable, perhaps even unlawful coordination between other commissioners and APS or their surrogates.

The fear that a regulated monopoly might nevertheless try and capture, through spending millions of dollars, a majority of the commissioners is one reason we respectfully submit that the framers of our constitution wisely granted ... each elected commissioner the individual power to conduct investigations, issue subpoenas, inspect corporate records, he said.

Kiley noted that one thing that might work against O'Gradys argument to let the commission handle the issue is that her client filed a request with the panel months ago to quash Burns' subpoena. Yet the commission has neither approved nor rejected that request, leaving it in legal limbo.

O'Grady said that failure to act does not give Burns the power to now seek judicial intervention.

Kiley gave no indication when he will rule.
In the Western world, witch hunting has mostly gone the way of leeching and dumping tea in the harbor -- that is, only used as a political metaphor. In other parts of the world, though, honest-to-God, torch-and-pitchfork witch hunting is still a thing. In Africa, 55 percent of people believe in witchcraft, up to 95 percent in some areas.

In theory, that's not a huge deal -- a farmer will go to a shaman to get a protection charm to keep his cattle safe, that sort of thing. But it stops being fun the moment an angry mob accuses you of being a witch. Just ask "Steve", a Peace Corps volunteer who, through a calamitous chain of events, found himself naked, filthy, and exhausted, being hunted by an angry mob ...
Get the FULL Monaco Grand Prix FP2 Results HERE

Jenson Button may have enjoyed getting back behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix on Thursday, but the 2009 world champion has no regrets over his decision to quit racing full-time.

Button announced last September that he would be stepping back from his McLaren race seat for 2017, becoming the team's ambassador and reserve driver.

The Briton thought he had made his final F1 start in Abu Dhabi last November, only to be drafted in for Monaco when Fernando Alonso secured a drive in the 101st Indianapolis 500 on the same weekend.

Button turned down the opportunity to test the 2017 McLaren-Honda MCL32 last month, with his first running in the car coming on Thursday in Monaco.

Button still managed to display a good pace through FP1 and FP2, finishing the day 11th-fastest and noting that it felt "natural" to be back in the car.

However, Button insists he has no regrets about the decision to quit racing, adding that he has not missed driving an F1 car over the past seven months.

"No. I definitely stepped away at the right time," Button said.

"I haven't missed driving a Formula 1 car. But today I really enjoyed it, more than I have for a couple of years. That's two things probably, because the cars are better to drive and because I haven't driven one for seven months.

"I enjoyed it. I tapped the barrier a couple of times. It's good to know that I'm pretty much online and pushing the limits, but no damage so far. So that's good as well."

"It was funny when I did the install lap this morning, I had a little giggle to myself as I headed into Mirabeau. It's a lovely experience for me to drive these cars.

"Have I missed it? I haven't missed it, no. But when you jump in the car you definitely enjoy the moments that you have."
Human rights activists told Capitol Hill lawmakers that Christians in North Korea are facing persecution that is likely on par with the level of persecution that the Early Christian Church endured under Roman emperor Nero.

The activists, convened by International Christian Concern, told lawmakers about the human rights abuses that Christians face. They also asked lawmakers to support a resolution to reauthorize the North Korean Human Act of 2004.

"Our colleagues in South Korea have thoroughly documented cases of religious persecution, said Greg Scarlatoui, the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

Organizations such as Database Center for North Korean Human Rights and the Korean Institution for National Unification [have] interviewed thousands of defectors who brought testimony of extremely severe religious persecution," Scarlatoiu said. "Like other Communist leaders, as mentioned earlier, Kim Il-sung and the Kim regime has rejected religion as the 'opium of the people.'"

For the past 15 years, North Korea has ranked as the top persecutor of Christians by Open Doors USA. Any Christian worship, or religious worship, is illegal and can be punished be arrest, torture or execution.

"One can confidently say that it is the Kim family regime that has taken religious persecution, in particular the persecution of Christians, to a level, perhaps, on par with Nero's Rome as well as the Assyrian, Greek and Armenian genocide of World War I or the Yazidi genocide today," Scarlatoiu said.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: May 25, 2017
Northern Arizona will commemorate Memorial Day with several local ceremonies. In advance of Monday's ceremonies, veterans organizations are organizing volunteers to place flags on veterans' graves over the weekend. Anyone interested in helping plant flags on veterans' graves this weekend can contact the American Legion at 774-7682.

In Flagstaff on Monday at 9 a.m., V.F.W. Post 1709 will host a ceremony at Calvary Cemetery. Then at 11 a.m., the Flagstaff citywide ceremonies, conducted by The American Legion and other veterans organizations, will be at the Citizens Cemetery. The public is invited to attend both ceremonies. Immediately following the citywide ceremonies there will be a barbecue at The American Legion.

The Arizona Veterans' Memorial Cemetery at Camp Navajo will host its Memorial Day ceremony Monday at 2 p.m. The program will include bagpipes, guest speakers and more. The cemetery is located at 14317 Veterans Drive in Bellemont. Camp Navajo is located west of Flagstaff and east of Williams. From I-40, use exit 185. Turn south onto Hughes Avenue, go across East Bellemont Road and over the overpass that crosses railroad tracks. Turn right onto Veterans Drive, then drive 1.7 miles to the main gate.

Navajo Nation Department of Veterans Affairs Western Agency will be hosting an event in Tuba City on Memorial Day to honor deceased veterans from the area. The ceremony will begin at 8 a.m. at the Tuba City Veterans Complex, 100 Maloney Street. A ceremony commemorating the service of late area veterans will culminate in their names being added to the Fallen Warriors Wall there. A lunch afterwards will be provided for the family members and community members. All are welcomed. Call 283-3450 for more information.

Over the holiday weekend, members of the Flagstaff VFW will be passing out Buddy Poppies around the community and collecting donations. The poppy is the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Buddy Poppies are assembled by disabled and needy veterans in VA hospitals. The Buddy Poppy program provides compensation to the veterans who assemble the poppies, provides financial assistance in maintaining state and national veterans' rehabilitation and service programs, and partially supports the VFW National Home For Children.
Egypts Coptic Christians continue to be the target of terrorist attacks. Masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Christians to a monastery. At least 26 people were killed and 25 were wounded.



According to CBN News, the Christians were traveling by bus to Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Maghagha, south of Cairo.



Witnesses reported seeing eight to 10 attackers. No terrorist organization has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but officials believe it to be the work of the Islamic State, as it bears all the tell-tale signs.



The Islamic State has also issued warnings to Egypts Christians in recent months that more attacks are to follow ones already carried out, such as the church bombings in December and on Palm Sunday, which killed over 75 and wounded dozens more.



This recent attack is the third major attack of Egyptian Christians in only six months. Children were reportedly among the victims.



Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, commented on the increased threat faced by Coptic Christians: "They have never been targeted in the way that they are now. Egypt is extremely dangerous for Copts in ways it hasn't been dangerous before."



Coptic Christians have ancient roots in Egypt, but are vastly in the minority in a Muslim-dominated country. Christians make up only about 10 percent of Egypts 83 million population, according to NBC News.

Photo courtesy:Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: May 26, 2017
A recent survey asked employees why they didnt follow the rules and much of the response sounded a bit like a child answering their parent. They might have been bored or there were too many rules to deal with.

The rule breakers were called out in violating company policies. Other responses included:

"Sharing of information that clients need to know but we may or may not have been given permission but is needed information for clients to have for testing success"

"They are borderline infractions."

"Unhappy with job, company."

"Sometimes it is necessary to bend the rules a bit."

"So many policies I don't know them until I break them."

"I'm bored and I want to get on the internet and play games."

"We can not possibly know when a client is going to need certain information for testing success and often times it is spur of the moment so although the management team has not given permission, we have to make on the spot decisions with the hope we do not give too much information."

Softwareadvice surveyed 110 employees across a variety of industries to better understand the (in many cases) daily violations of company policy they commit. One in five employees admitted to daily or weekly policy infractions. Out of the top industries in the survey, employee compliance violations are most common in banking/finance, and least common in manufacturing.

Daniel Harris, market research analyst for Software Advice cited the following examples of the rule breakers:

Employees open phishing emails because they don't get the proper training on how to distinguish them from normal emails. Compliance management programs include LMS modules that can get employees up to speed on this point. Employees tend to store data where it's easiest to store data unless they get specific training or unless workflows are designed to ensure that they store data in the right places. Employees use company resources for personal use because they're bored. Phone dial-ins are easier than joining virtually in some instances. Telecom expense management policies are also arcane and complex to understand. People get sloppy with data People don't like paying for copyrighted work if they can avoid it, as witnessed by the success of file-sharing, torrenting, streaming, key-gens etc. Again, people get sloppy, and network policies are tough for non-IT personnel to understand.

He said compliance processes for preventive action, accident reporting can be tracked in a variety of tediously manual ways, particularly at smaller organizations. GRC platforms that offer workflow modules, templates and governance features can streamline such inefficient, paper-based processes.

"When we add in the 16 percent of the sample that have issues with the complexity of applicable regulations, we can see that overall, the diversity and complexity of compliance requirements creates the potential for violations for over half of our respondents, Harris said.

Data privacy violations are also disturbingly high, he noted. As weve seen in cases such as the Target hack, such violations can have devastating consequences. Risk-averse companies should explore software-guided training courses in these areas. Automated workflows can also help to streamline processes such as incident reporting, thereby increasing employee compliance."

The answer to the problem is compliance management software, which is said to reduce both conscious and unconscious violations via training modules, automated workflows and compliance surveys. Compliance management software helps normalize features to reduce the number of policies employees have to contend with by mapping emerging requirements to existing policies, aggregating similar policies. Policies can also be mapped to controls to enhance visibility into the implementation of policies.

"Compliance management software can reduce both conscious and unconscious violations via training modules, automated workflows and compliance surveys, Harris said.

ASG Technologies products help businesses meet the challenge of increasing compliance demands and changing regulations. Ian Rowlands, vice president of Product Marketing at ASG Technologies, says ASGs Data Intelligence product collects all the supporting information about data that makes it useful and understandable. It also allows compliance officers and their teams to locate data needed to deliver on-time answers audit and regulatory compliance questions.

Compliance management software doesnt halt an action though. Take for instance if an employee was sending out something that they shouldnt. Rowlands said that would be more in the realm of email filtering technologies. ASGs software maps the data estate, traces data movement and understands data transformation.

Does compliance management stop an insider threat? Rowland said sadly it does not. Many forms of insider threat are really caused by the misapplication of proper business facilities, he said. That kind of activity is best intercepted by the use of threat analytics  for which a solid base of data intelligence is a key component. Another key issue is that most insider breaches are caused by privileged users  using data intelligence to document who is entitled to do what with data is another key element of protection.

ASG's content services product, Mobius, can enable a company to adhere to corporate policies, industry regulations and government mandates. Specific use cases include:

Redaction is able to obfuscate information. Therefore the company can create internal controls to enable compliance with PCI DSS 3.0, HIPAA, HITECH, Federal Privacy Act, and prevent employees, customers and criminals from obtaining Personally Identifiable Information.

Mobius View Records Management is able to automatically capture, classify, retain, dispose and destroy records regardless of location according to corporate policies, industry regulations and government mandates. When a legal event occurs, all required records can be put on hold to prevent manipulation or deletion.

ViewDirect Audit and Balancing System can prevent abuse and enable compliance. For example, one Mobius customer uses the product for fraud detection, account reconciliation and financial audits.

Kennet Westby, president and co-founder at Coalfire, said compliance management software is invaluable to larger organizations and those with multiple compliance programs they are managing. Targeted solutions can be very effective for smaller organizations with limited resources to manage compliance.

It is critical for an organization to select solution and implementation services that are focused on meeting the intent of the compliance requirements driven by risk management objectives. Buying solutions that drive a check-in-the-box approach that dont conform to the scope of the environment, organizational structures and technology risks will fail, he said.

Good compliance management solutions are more than issue or document management solution, he said, and should deliver valuable risk awareness and a risk reduction return on your compliance management spend.

Westby said compliance is only achieved by implementing and operating required administrative, physical and technical controls continually to meet the intent of the compliance requirements. When solid compliance management solution is implemented correctly it should be able to alert organizations to compliance gaps in implementation or operation and potential non-compliance. They can reduce many of the biggest risks to organizations going out of compliance. It also can greatly assist in demonstrating compliance to management, third party assessor or regulators, he said.

Engaging a qualified third party assessor with your solution design and implementation beyond your vendor can be the best money spent to achieve compliance and risk mitigation objectives.

"Without traceability and transparency, you cannot be compliant. To achieve compliance, regardless of the regulation, you must have a knowledge base telling you what data you've got, how it's being handled and who is touching it. As such, the continued strengthening of data intelligence and understanding of data is one of the most critical enabling components of compliance, he said.

What to expect in compliance management

Rowlands said data governance will become a regulatory requirement, and core to compliance with many regulations. As an example, he cited the European GDPR (which does not explicitly require Data Governance, but which cannot be complied with in the absence of Data Governance), or Risk Data Aggregation regulations that explicitly require governance.

Failure to maintain a full knowledge of the data inventory, its relationship to business policies and processes, and the ways in which data moves and is transformed will not be acceptable, he said.

Policy management and machine learning will also be increasingly important elements of Compliance and Governance capabilities. He believes we are at the very dawn of the automation of data-related compliance. Active Data Governance will emerge so that problematic data actions are automatically detected and flagged for resolution.

Westby said the goal for most organizations is achieving continuous compliance management where a platform can coordinate scheduled administrative actions and monitor real-time technical control compliance to demonstrate current and ongoing compliance.

Coordinating and integrating compliance and cyber risk management tools has the biggest payoff. When an organization can assign and tailor their compliance program based on informed risk mitigation strategies they are able to achieve the real intent of most compliance regimes. Conversely when compliance management solutions can bring real control operational effectiveness information back to your risk management program the accuracy of your risk assessment is significantly increased, he said.
PHOENIX  A federal grand jury has indicted a former state utility regulator and his wife for taking bribes for him to vote to approve giving more money in a rate-hike case to a family-owned utility company.

The indictment, unveiled Thursday, charges that Gary Pierce was given the opportunity to purchase land from George Johnson for below-market price in exchange for pushing through a policy to allow owners of small utilities, including Johnson Utilities, to pass on the cost of their personal income taxes to ratepayers.

That, according to the indictment, was only part of the deal. His wife, Sherry, was given what the indictment claims is essentially a do-nothing job for $3,500 a month by an unidentified and unindicted co-conspirator, with the money going into the couple's joint checking account.

According to the indictment, the ultimate source of those payments, laundered through that unnamed and unindicted conspirator's consulting firm, was Johnson, owner of Scottsdale-based Johnson Utilities. That firm provides water and sewer service in Pinal County.

Johnson also was indicted on the same charges of conspiracy, bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud.

Also facing the same charges is Jim Norton, who was a lobbyist for Johnson Utilities.

The indictment says Norton acted as a go-between for his client and Pierce. Norton also is accused of trying to hide that transfer of property from Johnson to Pierce: It would be Norton's name listed as buyer of what Johnson was selling, not that of Pierce.

Norton is now managing partner in Axiom Public Affairs.

Calls to the parties were not immediately returned.

The underlying issue involves small utilities that are organized as either S corporations or limited liability companies. Under federal tax law, the income is not attributable to the company but instead passes directly through to their owners.

Commission staffers had recommended against allowing the cost of owners' income taxes to be included in what customers have to pay. In fact, the commission had rejected a similar proposal in 2009.

Despite that, Pierce and three other commissioners voted in 2013 to go ahead anyway, two years after the indictment says checks started going out to Sherry Pierce.

The dissenting vote at that time was Brenda Burns, who said that it made no sense to give the owners of these small companies the same ability to charge ratepayers for their taxes that exists in larger corporations.

According to the indictment, Pierce's vote was not independent.

It says that Pierce and his wife received $31,500 from Johnson, funneled through Norton in exchange for defendant Gary Leonard Pierce's favorable and unlawful official actions on matters before the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Separately, the commission added a wastewater division plant valued at more than $18.2 million back into the company's rate base. A higher rate base increases what the company can charge.

Pierce, a former lawmaker, was first elected to the commission in 2006 and re-elected four years later before retiring in 2014.

The indictment does not say what led to federal investigators looking at Pierce and the commission vote.

Capitol Media Services reported last year that the FBI interviewed Pierce, supposedly over election issues related to the 2014 bid by his son, Justin, for secretary of state.

Pierce said two agents showed up at his door with multiple questions. He told Capitol Media Services the focus was that election but said the federal agents asked him not to say more to others.

But it became apparent the inquiry was wider, with a spokeswoman for the commission saying at that time the agency had been contacted by the FBI and was cooperating fully.

The federal probe appears to have been an outgrowth of an investigation originally started with the state attorney general's office.

That included allegations that Pierce, while a regulator, had meet secretly with Don Brandt, the chief executive officer of APS, and Don Robinson, his predecessor, while the utility was in the middle of a rate case before the regulator agency. These were laid out in a letter from a whistleblower, later identified as a former commission staffer, to Attorney General Mark Brnovich and others.

There also were charges by Wil Cardon, running in the Republican primary against Justin Pierce, that the utility regulator was using his position on the commission to get financial support for his son's campaign from companies that are regulated by the panel.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Noah Rossiter / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Kensington Publishing Corp. / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





Nan Rossiter tells a powerful and touching love story in her new novel, Summer Dance (Kensington Publishing Corp.), and will celebrate its release at several local events, including two this week.

The New York Times best-selling author, who lives in New Milford, will be at the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, Conn., on Thursday, June 1, and at House of Books in Kent on Saturday, June 3.
Cuban and Danish companies to set joint venture to produce pork

Submitted by: Juana

Europe

Havana

Business and Economy

05 / 26 / 2017



The Swine Research Institute (IIP by its Spanish acronym) and the Danish company DanAvl develop a project for the future creation of a joint venture, which will enable Cuba to achieve higher yields in pork production.

Hector Hermida, IIP deputy director, told ACN that it will also enable the delivery of more meat and its derivatives to the domestic market.

During the 7th International Seminar on Tropical Poultry, which started last Monday at Melia Habana Hotel, the specialist said that Denmark will provide technology, one of the best in the world, thus contributing to the animals to have high genetic potential.

Meanwhile, Jan Nicolaysen, DanAvl representative in Cuba, noted that the main objective of this collaboration is the construction and establishment of a farm for the production of F1 hybrid crosses (between Yorkshire and Landrace breeds).

This means that by 2019 the unit must provide approximately eight thousand animals of that type for the national market, he stated.

DanAvl is a high-impact genetic company in Europe which mission is to create the best pig for the world's producers and consumers; it also serves in countries like China, Vietnam, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and others. (ACN)
US Companies Urge Trump to Maintain Travel to Cuba

Over 40 US companies and associations sent on Wednesday a letter addressed to President Donald Trump urging him to maintain and expand travel to Cuba, reported Prensa Latina News Agency.

In a letter addressed to the US President entities like the American Society of Travel Agents and the US American Tour Operators Association warned that a setback in travel to Cuba would mean a significant loss of jobs in the US.

The letter stressed that in recent years an enormous growth in the number of authorized travelers have visited Cuba through the services of these institutions.

According to the letter, traveling under a general license has allowed US federal officials to dedicate more time in real threats to the national security and not to spend so much time and resources in investigating those that desire to exercise their constitutional right in traveling to a neighboring country.

Agreements between US and Cuban aviation, points out the letter, has reduced the cost in flights for people from the US and has expanded the routes to the island.

The letter also says that this has provided more jobs for US workers, payment of local and federal taxes and contract national companies for our services.

According to the associations, a continued increase will allow more jobs for Americans and support the economy, but a setback of the current policy will incur in significant layoffs.

We urge for your administration to take note of the economic benefits and prioritize the increase and creation of jobs in your revision of the policy towards Cuba, concludes the letter.

James Williams, President of Engage Cuba expressed hope that the revision announced by Trump regarding the Caribbean island includes the opinion of an industry that supports 7.6 million jobs.

He stressed that the desire of the sector, majority of the people of the US and Cuban people are taken into consideration over a few politicians in Washington.

Meanwhile, Zane Kerby, of the American Society of Travel Agents, offered data of a recent study carried out by the company in which 3 out of 1 American support the lifting of the US travel restrictions to Cuba.

We urge the Trump administration to not only maintain the current regulations, but also lift the travel ban to Cuba, said Kerby according to a note issued by Engage Cuba.

The text recalled that the US people are prohibited from traveling Cuba as tourists. They can only travel to Cuba under the current 12 categories. (PL)
PAUL SCHNEIDEREIT: Treatment centre for PTSD in first responders, military opens in Nova Scotia

Imagine its your job, every day, to be ready to rush to scenes where men, women or even children had been killed or badly injured, often in horrific circumstances. Really, consider what that might be like. If youre like most of us, the thought ...
25 Mays 2017 Persembe, 13:08

Seyma Pasayigit

Ozakcas wife Esra Ozakca also stated that Canikli promised that Gulmen and Ozakcas would be the first files to be examined at the state of emergency investigation commission.



Academic Nuriye Gulmen and teacher Semih Ozakca, who were taken into pre-trial detention on the 76th day of their hunger strike, said in their defences, We have no other concerns apart from our jobs. It has also been learnt that Ozakcas wife, Esra Ozakca, who has been dismissed under a decree with the force of law, had a meeting with Deputy Prime-Minister Nurettin Canikli in the company of the resisters mothers and, at the meeting, Canikli promised that Gulmen and Ozakcas files would be the first files to be examined at the state of emergency investigation commission. Canikli reportedly remarked to Ozakcas wife and mother how reasonable they were and that Esra Ozakca should also be reinstated.

It has emerged from Ankara Penal Judgeship of the Peace No 5s examination transcript made at the time of Gulmen and Ozakcas detention that Deputy Prime-Minister Nurettin Canikli and AKP Deputy General Chair with Responsibility for Human Rights, Yasin Aktay, have spoken to the resisters families and Canikli said that they should be restored to their posts. Esra Ozakca, who attended a meeting at Cankaya Mansion at 14.30 on 16 May along with Nuriye Gulmens mother Cemile Gulmen and Semih Ozakcas mother Sultan Ozakca, said, We had a very measured meeting with them. They told us their lives were very important and this was one of the first matters that would be addressed at the commission.



Meeting lasted two hours

Esra Ozakca recounted, We said that we just wanted our jobs and were not making this conditional on anything else. We stated that they would abandon their hunger strike if they returned to their jobs thanks to the commission, but they would not contemplate abandoning the hunger strike now in the anticipation of returning. Ozakca, stating that Canikli and Aktay were very measured at the meeting of more than two hours in duration and said that they wished to stay in touch, said, Either those who staged this attack are trying to pull the rug from under those who are striving for a solution or those striving for a solution lack the strength. The meeting was positive and then there was an attack and they were detained. We are now concerned for their lives.



My sole concern is my livelihood

Gulmen said in the defence she mounted before the duty Penal Judgeship of the Peace, I am not staging a protest at the behest of an organisation. My sole concern is my fight for my livelihood. Gulmen, saying that her arrest on the charge of organisation membership was not based on just grounds and was an act whose aim was to bring the strike to an end on the 76th day of the hunger strike, voiced her curiosity as to what the application for her detention consisted of. As to Semih Ozakca, saying that he did not know which action of his since 2 May amounted to the commission of a crime and recalling that he had been expelled along with his wife Esra Ozakca, continued his statement, My wife and I have been deprived of our livelihoods. Our domestic situation has been wrecked. I just staged a sit-down protest holding a banner saying I want my job. We have no other concern apart from our jobs. I wanted to make my voice heard in this way. I have been arrested and released many times. If we had returned to our jobs and been reinstated none of these things would have happened.



Intervention is impossible

General Chair of the Contemporary Jurists Association, closed under a decree with the force of law, Selcuk Kozagacl, said, No intervention can legally be made without their consent as their health situations currently stand. Kozagacl interpreted the regulation in the Penal Execution Law whereby medical intervention can be made while there is loss of consciousness saying, We are not at that point and may not be there for days. Both of them are currently in pretty good command of their mental faculties and are continuing this protest while conscious. Intervention can only take place in the form of attack and unlawful injury.



Families denied visitation

The families, who went to the judicial complex in the early hours of the morning to get permission to visit, were denied permission to visit on state of emergency grounds. Lawyers who have managed to speak to Gulmen and Ozakca have said that they are in good health and spirits. Lawyer Anl Arman Akkus, who made known that prison administration had concerns over the hunger strike and the pair were subjected to health checks as soon as they arrived, conveyed the information that, Prison administration says they will conduct normal routine checks and will not make a medical intervention. Akkus, intimating that Gulmen was being kept in a three-person and Ozakca in a two-person F-type cell, described the situation on the inside as follows, Both of them are aware that what has been done to them is a plot. They said they will not abandon their resistance having been thrown in prison and will continue to ask for their jobs and students.

Alleged threats

On the other hand, Esra Ozakca has said that some of Gulmens relatives had been threatened, with it said, They will detain Nuriye. They will kill her. If her remains arrive they will break the windows and doors of your house.
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.
Its college graduation season, and with it comes the annual protests by students over commencement speakers whose politics or resumes dont meet with their approval.

Some turn their backs, others hold up signs or yell out improprieties. Still others simply dont show up.

NAU saw none of those commencement confrontations earlier this month, but the academic year was not without tensions on the Mountain Campus over free speech on the both the left and right. They mirrored events on college campuses across the country, in part as members of the alt right movement and other conservatives asserted themselves in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.

Campus officials have had to insert new pages into their playbook of what is considered appropriate conduct and speech, and how or if it should be protected or sanctioned. Some speakers known for white supremacist and nationalist views have been officially invited to campus, only to be shouted down by students. At NAU, conservative students have videotaped lectures they consider biased or politicized, then fed them to websites that are red meat for alt right internet trolls. These are often video snippets that lack the context of full lectures and result in caricatures of professors, who become target of harassing emails and spam.

J.S. MILL TOO BROAD

On the other side of the political spectrum, LGBTQ students and racial minorities have demanded what they call safe spaces for closed meetings on issues of discrimination and bias  only those with an invitation may attend, and certainly not the press. NAU President Rita Cheng has spurned such spaces, contending a university should promote open dialogue even of sensitive topics  similar to what students will face after college. Yet campuses are also by design cloistered from the outside world just so students are given the space to innovate and experiment without fear of ridicule if they fail. J.S. Mills defense of free speech so long as it does no harm to basic rights may be too broad for an intentional community like a college campus, but it is one that this countrys legal system strictly observes.

The bottom line for many campus officials, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education, is that just being a member of a hate group or distributing offensive material on campuses is not criminal, nor is it usually a violation of campus policy. Its also impossible to predict every case of a student engaging in violence or other criminal actions as a result of their views.

Further complicating enforcement is the remote nature of internet harassment. Many campus codes of conduct, including NAUs, cover students and staff, but they lack jurisdiction over speech that originates off-campus and thus are silent. Only if the online communications  emails, texts or posts  include threats against a specific person, not, for example, the denigration of an entire class of people or professors in general, would law enforcement get involved.

Some college departments have adopted the position that if you cant beat em, join em  invite alt right and conservative speakers to campus, if only as a way to put a human face to what in some cases is anonymous online hate speech. But hate speech doesnt have to be subsidized by student speaker fees -- UC Berkeley officials could have gotten the white nationalist perspective without inviting Milo Yiannopoulos, the then-Breitbart editor known for his abusive language toward women and minorities.

INTOLERANCE UNJUSTIFIED

On the other hand, a speaker like Charles Murray, known for his controversial bell curve that takes a deterministic approach to intelligence and class structure in America, is a mild-mannered scholar whose research is controversial. To shout him down, as Middlebury College students did, then attack him as he left the stage, injuring a professor who was attempting to shield him, is the kind of intolerance that has no place on a campus touting academic freedom. Administrators were right to hand out various sanctions to more than 70 students  frankly, some were fortunate they werent prosecuted for assault.

If colleges are going to invite people to campus with contrarian or provocative views, why not make it a two-way or even three-way dialogue instead of a one-way speech. Have a professor conduct an in-depth interview on stage, with a chance for audience participation. Or invite another advocate with opposing views, then conduct a public debate with an informed moderator.

FIND COMMON GROUND

The goal of any institution of higher learning should be to not only expose students to a wide range of views while they are enrolled but to engage those views critically and constructively. Faculty and staff can help by being facilitators and, if needed, referees. But its not censorship to insist that invited speakers observe basic codes of respectful speech toward any person or group, and students do the same. To close off college campuses on the premise that no common ground is possible is essentially to close the American mind, and thats a dead end for students as well as democracy.
Nearly 80 PA people have been charged for Jan. 6 riot. Three are dead.

news
The Globe and Mail, A most exceptional month, by Azza Radwan Sedky

In Egypt, the spiritual and the celebratory of Ramadan go hand in hand, Azza Radwan Sedky writes

WENTING LI

Ramadan Gana is an Egyptian song, about 70 years old or so, that celebrates the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is here and its arrival is joyous, it begins.

Ramadan begins tonight. It entails a gruelling sunrise-to-sunset fast for its duration: no drinking, no eating, no sex, and no insolence.

You would think that Muslims around the world would dread Ramadan, fear its restrictions and shiver in anticipation of the draining and debilitating fast. And yet, it is amazing how Muslims await the months arrival with anticipation, sing in its glory and love its spirit.

This juxtaposition between Ramadans binding restrictions and the delight in its arrival is not easily comprehensible, but the giving and the goodness associated with Ramadan transcend limitations and turn it into a phenomenal month.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, making it a fundamental part of the Muslim faith. The aim is to feel empathy toward those who go hungry and are in need and to elevate oneself above physical demands. It also revolves around asking for repentance and seeking forgiveness.

It is not an easy feat to fast in the summer heat  no water and no nourishment  and no pills, no shots, no eye drops, no tea or coffee. In many parts of the world, Junes scorching heat is a killer. With the longer summer daylight hours, this year Muslims will fast for what seems forever: In Vancouver, the daily fast will last for over 17 hours; in Reykjavik, 21 hours; in Berlin, 19 hours.

In Egypt, where I grew up, Muslims (and Christians for that matter) await and enjoy Ramadan. The atmosphere is merry with Ramadan lights and lanterns hanging from balconies and along the streets, and Happy Ramadan photos adorn social media.

It is an ongoing month-long party where Egyptians, after breaking their fast, eat to their hearts content and stay up until the wee hours of the morning. They party in the window of time allowed: meeting friends at 10 and 11 p.m., then to bed at sunrise after a hearty early morning meal. A little sleep, and then its off to work. Although, Ramadan enforces a leniency in the workplace. During the daytime hours, those who fast are often lethargic and unable to function, arriving at work later than usual and going home earlier than usual.

In Canada, its a whole different ball game. The spiritual fulfilment is there, but the celebratory part is non-existent. You maintain the usual hours at work. Whilst still teaching, I often broke my fast in the midst of a class by eating a dried date or having a sip of water, a little thing to keep me going until I headed home.

But in Egypt, the month of Ramadan goes beyond what any other Muslim country can offer. The spiritual and the celebratory atmospheres go hand in hand. Even on television, the best programs and series are produced only for Ramadan. In its own way, Ramadan in Egypt resembles Christmas festivities in the West, for Ramadan is as festive and as it is giving.

Many Arab and Muslim tourists visit Egypt during the holy month because of that atmosphere. The spirit of Ramadan is exemplified at the Al-Hussein Mosque. The square is packed until sunrise when the fasting begins; visitors roam around buying knick-knacks, pray at the mosque, drink tea and coffee at neighbouring cafes along the square, and have their early meal.

In Egypt, no one breaks their fast alone. Its the one time of the year when the whole family sits at a meal together. Lavish dishes that someone slaved over for hours on end will be consumed by friends and relatives in one sitting, but the party is just beginning; three or four rounds of teas and desserts make up for the lost consumption and caffeine-free hours.

It is also a time of year when many Muslims are on their best behaviour: They complete reading the Koran, they pray diligently and they help those in need. Streets and squares around the country are filled with the tables of the merciful with free breakfasts. It manifests the social solidarity that Ramadan is known for  the wealthy providing for those in need.

Ramadan calls for helping the needy and understanding the underprivileged. Some, because they cant fast for medical reasons, give to charity instead. Many give because it is the time of year when, according to Islam, God listens to their prayers and acts upon them. And many more apply Islamic guidelines and donate zakat, a portion of their income similar to a Christian tithe.

Growing up in the 1950s in Heliopolis, Cairo, it didnt matter who fasted and who didnt in my family. My mother fasted the whole month; I fasted for a mediocre half day, if at all; my father fasted on and off; my brothers had their share of reasons not to fast, but we all ate the sunset meal together. Then we sat and listened to the radio as it spat out one glorious soap opera after another. I cherished my Ramadan lantern and showed it off to the dozens of unexpected visitors who came and went throughout the night.

Ramadan is an exceptional month everywhere. It does not emulate the grudge and the hatred we often see. It exudes joy, warmth and love. Happy Ramadan to all.

Azza Radwan Sedky lives in North Vancouver.
While many countries, especially the underdeveloped ones, are suffering significant damage and are having to accept the reality that they have not much say in the war that is taking place in Eastern Europe, the Western countries are also having to pay the price of the war despite their having steamed full speed ahead in supporting it.

This support has ranged from humanitarian and economic aid to fully-fledged armaments provision and training, along with receiving droves of Ukrainian asylum-seekers with open arms. However, is that support now subsiding and interest dwindling in the horrific Ukraine war?

As the conflict continues month after month, attrition has been setting in, and interest, and, more importantly, empathy and support, are eroding. One main factor behind this decline is news fatigue  the phenomenon of becoming tired of prolonged bad news. It is a common pattern that takes place after the first wave of shock that comes with a crisis.

Earlier on, the world, hypnotised by the shocking invasion of Ukraine, was fixated on what was happening. In time, however, information overload occurred. Today, the world has been worn out by the news from Ukraine: headlines are often given a half-hearted glance, and stories in the media are given even less. Even the worst of events are met with a shrug of the shoulders by some. Interest is definitely dwindling, not because the world does not care, but because it has got tired of following the news, acknowledging and accepting the existence of the ongoing war.

Steinar Ellingsen, a Norwegian journalism lecturer, told the Euronews channel recently that theres a pattern when the news cycle moves on after the first wave. And then, particularly the further geographically away from the conflict you are, the quicker the interest pales. With distance, time and resources and budgets drain very quickly.

According to Statista, a German data company, after a peak of interest following the outbreak of the war, the popularity of Ukraine has now returned to almost pre-war levels on the worlds search engines.

Other news has also been competing with the Ukraine war. Hurricane season came with a vengeance this year as the east coast of the US was hit by storms Fiona and Ian. Civil unrest in Iran has never been stronger. Rishi Sunak, Britains new prime minister, has hit the ground running after Liz Truss, the previous prime minister, lasted only 44 days. Famine and starvation are extending across Africa. These are all reasons why the worlds attention is being directed elsewhere.

Furthermore, crucial needs are at the top of the list of peoples preoccupations, including the cost of living, declines in disposable income, inflation, interest rate hikes, and fuel and food shortages. These troubles in some cases translate into an inability to have a roof over ones head, to feed ones family, and to commute to work. Fundamental needs can supersede interest in the situation in Ukraine.

Many major economies, such as that of the US, Canada, Britain, and Germany, are bound to suffer recession from the fallout from the Ukraine war. In fact, most economies around the world are reeling from the pressures of inflation and the high cost of food and energy, all reasons why interest in the Ukraine war is waning.

The US has provided Ukraine with more than $60 billion to date, but for many the question is how long this level of support can be sustained. According to US Democrats, if the Republicans retake control of the US House of Representatives in this months midterm elections, they may not keep up the same level of aid to Ukraine.

US House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has said that with a recession forecast in the US Americans are not going to write a blank cheque to Ukraine. They just wont do it Its not a free blank cheque, he said.

Throughout July, Europes six largest countries offered Ukraine no new bilateral military commitments, said Politico, a US political publication based in Virginia. Christoph Trebesch, head of the team compiling its Ukraine Support Tracker, noted that European military aid commitments for Ukraine have been on a downward trend since the end of April and also compared the funding provided to the Eurozone crisis and the coronavirus pandemic to the Ukraine crisis.

When you compare the speed at which the chequebook came out and the size of the money that was delivered, compared to what is on offer for Ukraine, it is tiny in comparison, he said.

In August, Politico doubted the continuation of Europes military support for Ukraine in the coming months. It explained that Germany is moving too slowly to implement much-touted tank swaps with European neighbours and said the major European powers are not keeping up with the military aid coming from the US Having led the charge, big-hitting Britain and Poland may be running out of steam.

Of course, the Ukrainians are disheartened by the changes. They had hoped governments around the world would continue to contribute more to help bring the war to an end, but this does not now seem likely.

Meanwhile, as the war drags on with no end in sight, no settlement negotiations on the horizon, and all sides engaging in escalation, the world is focusing on its own challenges and dilemmas. It is less and less likely to become involved, all the more reason for the war to come to an end as soon as possible.

* The writer is former professor of communication based in Vancouver, Canada.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 10 November, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
Theresa May and Amber Rudd are said to have told off American sources for leaking details about the Manchester attack

It is a profoundly saddening betrayal of trust. With Britain on high alert and a major manhunt under way, significant amounts of sensitive information about Monday nights bomb attack have been leaked by the United States.

Within hours of the blast, US television networks reported it was a suicide attack involving a nail bomb. They knew the name of the bomber at least six hours before it was confirmed in this country and details of how he was identified.

In perhaps the most egregious example, The New York Times printed pictures of the blood-smeared detonator and other bomb parts  which risk revealing what the police know about how it was made.

One of the great strengths of the Special Relationship has been the sharing of intelligence material between Britain and Americas security services, which for decades has made the world a safer place.

So quite why rogue agents in the CIA or FBI have been drip-drip leaking this information  despite warnings from Greater Manchester Police and the Home Secretary  is a mystery.

But more disturbing is what it reveals about the parlous state of Americas great institutions. For months, the US has been shaken by revelations about wars between the CIA, the FBI and the White House.

Donald Trump and Theresa May have met at the G7 summit, after she criticised their sources for getting detail out to papers before it was confirmed here

Indeed, there seems to be a catastrophic breakdown of trust between the executive and the security agencies. This cannot be healthy for the worlds greatest superpower, or for Britain.

As for this weeks leaks, the culprits should consider what their reaction would have been if, in the hours and days after 9/11, MI5 or the police had done the same.

When it comes to learning the lessons of the Manchester massacre, ministers will have to think carefully about how much we can trust our closest ally with our secrets.

Meanwhile, the past week has also exposed the urgent need to upgrade and extend counter-terror powers and ensure those already on the statute book are used.

It is an affront to common sense that, despite the Cameron government creating exclusion orders, not one of the hundreds of jihadis who went from this country to join Islamic State has been banned from returning.

The Prevent programme  which is designed to uncover Islamists before they turn to violence  must be extended, even if it offends the bien pensant liberals who would risk potential terrorists going unchallenged.

With Britain on high alert and a major manhunt under way, significant amounts of sensitive information about Monday nights bomb attack have been leaked by the United States

Consideration must also be given to restoring control orders, which were shamefully watered down by Nick Clegg, and which restrain the movements of terror suspects, stop them using the internet and restrict who they can see.

But nowhere is action needed more urgently than in tackling the torrent of terrorist poison flooding social media sites.

The day after the attack, it took Mail reporters just 30 seconds to find extremist manuals with instructions for making home-made bombs and urging would-be bombers to kill children.

So Theresa Mays plans  announced today at the G7  to force Google, Facebook and Twitter to automatically take down the noxious material on their sites and to compel them to pass on leads which could prevent an attack, cannot come too soon.

Shaming these amoral, tax-avoiding multi-billion dollar web giants has failed, so they must instead face an unflinching international effort  and ultimately the full force of the law.

In a cynical and nasty attempt to exploit terrorism to score political points, Ukip claims that Mrs May must bear some responsibility for the Manchester attack. This stunt  and the partys risible manifesto  only reinforces what polls suggest the public has already concluded: this washed-up party and its two-bit leadership are an electoral irrelevance.
We all have that best friend who knows our style so well they can always be counted on to recommend a great heel or dress during a shopping trip.

But what if that same best friend's sole job was to search through the Australia's boutiques to find you unique pieces that would fit right in with your wardrobe.

That best friend exists, and their name is Jamie.

Jamie & I is a virtual shopping assistant who learns about your personal style and then sends a curated selection of outfits just for you.

Antonia (left) and Lidia Bolla (right) have launched Jamie & I, a virtual shopping assistant who learns about your personal style and then sends a curated selection of outfits just for you

It was designed by Antonia and Lidia Bolla, Swiss-born sisters who are now Sydney-based and have launched their website just six months after the idea first struck.

Antonia, 25, first came up with the idea behind Jamie & I when she found herself in a predicament any woman - and plenty of men - know all too well.

She had a friend's birthday party to go to, and she couldn't find a thing to wear.

'I was standing in front of the closet and I was just putting something on and running out the door,' Antonia told Daily Mail Australia.

Antonia was riding the ferry into the city from Manly when she put on Spotify's Discover Weekly, a playlist curated from each user's musical preferences.

'I was thinking, "Wow, this is so on point,"' she said of the playlist. 'And then I thought, "It'd be so great if we had that for fashion.'"

Shortly after the idea first popped into her head, Antonia across a start-up program taking place at the University of Sydney.

Antonia first came up with the idea behind Jamie & I six months ago when she had to get ready for a friend's birthday party but felt she had nothing to wear

For three months Antonia, a Masters of Commerce candidate at the University of Sydney, took workshops that taught her the ins and outs of launching a business.

She continued to work on her concept and then applied to the pitching competition that capped off the end of the program in November.

Antonia took first place, nabbing $10,000 in funding as well as mentoring. It was proof that her idea could turn into a business.

'That was the bit of validation I still needed to really say, "Okay, I'm going to try and do this.'"

That's when Antonia also was able to convince her sister Lidia, 31, to finally make to move to Sydney from Switzerland and help launch the business in March.

Lidia, who moved to Australia in January, had a background in programming and wrote the algorithm behind Jamie & I.

'She moved over and helped me execute the whole thing,' Antonia said. 'We built a prototype and started getting feedback on how people interacted with it.'

'We worked on it and improved it, and improved it, and went from there.'

To get started, Jamie needs to get to know the 'I' it's working with.

So Antonia and Lidia created a fun style quiz with pictures to try and help the robot understand each user's individual style.

Antonia launched Jamie & I after winning a start-up competition at her school, the University of Sydney, and receiving $10,000 in funding as well as mentoring

It asks questions like 'Which outfit do you prefer', 'What age do you feel', and even makes sure to figure out which of those outfits you love that you'd actually wear.

Antonia said they wanted to keep the style game 'really fun, visual and light' as they attempted to capture each user's style 'on a more holistic level'.

That meant steering away from being item-based, like most retailers' websites, and instead showing women full outfits to gauge their preferences.

'We want to understand someone's style,' Antonia said. 'It's not just a black pencil skirt, but how you wear it - that's what we try to gauge.'

After users complete the 10-minute quiz, Jamie will send off it's first recommendation within a day's time.

Each recommendation offers links to every piece in the look, as well as prices and the ability to rate it one to five stars.

If a user didn't love a certain look, they can also tell Jamie exactly what part of the outfit they didn't like and why.

Jamie & I begins by asking users to complete a 10-minute style quiz in which they use stars to help the robot learn their style

It asks questions like 'Which outfit do you prefer', 'What age do you feel', and even makes sure to figure out which of those outfits you love that you'd actually wear

Antonia said Jamie is designed much like Netflix and Spotify's recommendation engines, using data from an individual as well as users with similar preferences.

Much like Netflix would recommend the same movie to two people who love Sex and the City, Jamie would recommend a similar outfit to two people with the same style.

'Jamie finds people with similar tastes and, if one really liked an outfit, it thinks you might like the outfit as well,' Antonia explained.

As users rate more and more outfits from Jamie, the robot becomes smarter about your style and which pieces you'll really love.

'We want everyone who uses Jamie to feel that they have the one best friend that really knows your style, and their full-time job is to just go out and look at different brands and come back with the perfect outfit for you,' Antonia said.

'And give you that little confidence boost, so you can focus on the important things in life.'

It's that inspirational kick that Antonia hopes Jamie & I will provide to women, encouraging them to try new looks and add unique pieces to their wardrobe.

After users complete the 10-minute quiz, Jamie will send off it's first recommendation in a day

'We really want to send an outfit that you haven't seen a million times before,' she said.

That's why the sisters chose to partner with smaller independent Australian brands, hoping to introduce them to a wider audience who wouldn't find them otherwise.

'We think Australia has an amazing landscape of really cool little brands with a unique vibe,' Antonia said.

'But it can be hard for small brands to break through, so we'd love to be a bit of a connecter.'

Antonia and Lidia are already looking forward, planning to launch Jamie & I into the European market within the next month.

'We want to be a global service,' she said, 'and handpick the cool little brands all over the world, and connect you to them.'

As for now, Antonia said the best thing about launching Jamie & I has just been watching how many women are sending in their own feedback so it can learn.

'Seeing so much engagement, it boosts our confidence that women out there want this and are excited about this and want Jamie to learn,' she said.

'It's the most beautiful thing that we've seen.'
Bizarre, quirky but brilliantly entertaining, nothing puts a spring in the step like the nations favourite talent show Britains Got Talent.

For the past six weeks Saturday nights have been a smorgasbord of British eccentricity  from jaw-dropping contortionists and spine-tingling choirs to quirky comedians, awesome dance troupes and mind-blowing magicians.

Tonight the judges will whittle down their favourite acts ahead of this weeks daily live semi-finals  two of these six acts will definitely be there because they were given the Golden Buzzer at their auditions, and the other four are hoping to join them.

Judges David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden will tonight select their BGT semi-finalists - here we pick our favourites

Theyre competing for the chance to perform live at the Royal Variety Performance and a prize pot of 250,000.

Taking centre stage is magician Josephine Lee, then there are dance troupes Paws With Soul and Mersey Girls, Malawis most famous (and possibly only) comedian Daliso Chaponda, dancing duo Grace Durkin and Ali Rasul... and to top it off theres the Queen and Prince Charles (sort of)! So who are they, what inspired them, and what does BGT mean to them?

THE MAGICIAN ON A MISSION

After soldier Richard Jones won the last series of BGT, magic has been to the fore this year.

Magician Josephine Lee, 30, from London, wants to do something different

But Josephine Lee, 30, from London, wants to do something different. I want to bring illusion and mystery back into magic, says the woman who stunned the judges at her audition, which included several gravity-defying balls and a vanishing act.

I dont think theres anything quite like what Im doing on British TV.

Josephine trained as a dancer and worked on magic shows until one day she was asked to fill in as an assistant. I fell in love with it, she says. It felt special to be able to make people gasp.

Two years ago when she was an assistant on the West End magic show Impossible, critics noted that all the acts were men, and the next year the producers asked Josephine if she wanted to perform on her own. It was the push I needed, she recalls.

Josephine, whos dating a music student, spent eight months devising the tricks for her first audition, but also has a guardian angel she relies on. I took the stage name Lee after my best friend who died of pneumonia when he was 24, she says. Whenever I feel nervous I think of him and it calms me down.

Success on BGT will mean, she hopes, that the paucity of women magicians will start to be redressed. There are so few women in magic, but Id love to inspire more to enter this wonderful, crazy world, she says.

MALAWIS MOST HILARIOUS COMEDIAN

Daliso Chapondas family did their best to put him off a performing career. The Malawi-born comedians father is a politician, while his brother is a doctor. But growing up, Daliso just wanted to write comic books.

His despairing family sent him to Canada to study computer programming, but while there he discovered comedy. My family was furious, says Daliso, 37. Theyre still getting over it.

Malawi-born comedian Daliso Chaponda says that his family was furious when he chose a career in comedy but he is determined to win

He returned to Malawi but couldnt make a living out of comedy, so came to Manchester ten years ago where hes been earning a steady, if unspectacular living ever since. When I first got to Britain people said Id be the next big thing but I wasnt, he says. I scrape by but its a lovely life because its laughter and fun.

After a friend of his appeared on the American version of the show, Daliso decided to try Britains Got Talent. His hilarious audition made Amanda Holden reach for the Golden Buzzer, guaranteeing him a place in the semi-finals, and since then lifes been a bit strange. Its nuts actually, he says. Random people approach me in the street and Ive had three ex-girlfriends come out of the woodwork too.

In Malawi his success has made him front page news, and now even his family is coming to terms with his new-found success. Part of the reason I felt I had to leave Malawi was to get out of my fathers shadow, he admits.

As the son of a politician people will always base their opinions on you by what they know of your dad. But now weve swapped places. People ask him, Are you Dalisos dad?

THE COUPLE WHO FELL IN LOVE DANCING

Its fitting that the first time they kissed, Grace Durkin, 17, from Stockton, and Ali Rasul, 16, from Hartlepool, were on stage.

The pair had been part of the same competitive dance world from the age of five and had long known of each other. When they both started studying performance art at the same college, Ali asked Grace if she wanted to be his partner. She said no... three times.

I had a huge crush on him but when he first asked me to be his partner I was really shy, admits Grace. I was really nervous, Id never danced with a boy before. But he kept asking and in the end I said yes. So why did Ali persevere? There was just something about her, a magic spark, he says. And I had a bit of a crush on her too.

Grace Durkin and Ali Rasul hope to charm the public with their romantic dance performance

The first time they danced together they clicked. And then Ali came up with the clever ruse of ending one of their routines with a kiss  which ended up going on and on. Smart boy.

Their audition routine, depicting a couple falling in and out of love, captivated the judges  and was partly based on their own arguments as they worked on the dance together.

Come September theyll face a fresh hurdle when they both start at different drama schools where, in all likelihood, theyll have to dance with other people. But well still find time to dance together, says Grace. Nothing will come between us.

THE CLOWNS WITH A ROYAL TWIST

Somerset couple Ginny Adams, 45, and Neil Nelly Fowler, 42, who together are comedy act Rare Species, want to bring a bit of innocent fun back into peoples lives.

We grew up watching Dick Emery and the Two Ronnies, these larger-than-life characters, says Ginny. Comedys become so cynical over the past few years, we want to take it back to what it was and give everyone a good laugh.

Ginny Adams and Neil Fowler are comedy act Rare Species

They took to the stage for their audition as the Queen and Prince Charles and performed a hilarious wacky dance routine. At one point Charless trousers fell down exposing a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts.

We arent laughing at the Royal Family but with them, insists Ginny. If the Queen met us shed realise that its not spiteful. Its good wholesome fun that appeals to the whole family.

Ginny and Nelly have been performing at festivals and corporate events for more than two decades, but teamed up after the deaths of their fathers. Both our dads died quite young and quite suddenly, says Ginny.

My father committed suicide in 1997 when he was 47 and Nellys dad died from cancer in 2000 when he was 54. We were drawn to one another because we understood the extreme grief the other was experiencing.

The couple, who have a two-year-old son, try to bring as much happiness as they can into their lives by creating ever more madcap characters, but their take on the Queen and Prince Charles has always been their most popular act.

Tragically, two days before they were due to audition Ginnys brother-in-law died suddenly  the cause is still unclear.

My sister said just go and do it for him, recalls Ginny. Because we were both going through so much, appearing on BGT was the light relief we needed. Now we just want to make people laugh.

THE ANONYMOUS ANIMAL DANCERS

Last year there was a mysterious Star Wars stormtroopers dance group, and this year the phenomenon has become even more surreal.

Paws With Soul, made up of several cats and dogs and a mouse, try to keep their identities secret but your intrepid journalist can confirm that beneath the masks they are, in fact, human, a mix of early 20-something men and women, all amateur dancers from Barnet, north London.

Paws With Soul, made up of several cats and dogs and a mouse, is a mix of early 20-something men and women, all amateur dancers from Barnet, north London

They wont reveal their names, preferring to remain in character. So whats unique about them?

First our cool suits, second that were cats, dogs and a mouse that love to dance and finally, weve got soul, a cat called Diablo tells me. If they reach the semi-final theyre promising a pawtastic performance and theyre hoping that one day theyll get to meet Prince Williams dog Lupo. We think hed love us and wed love to shake his paw one day, says bull terrier Angel.

THE GIRLS FULFILLING A BUCKET LIST WISH

The nation, and the judges, fell in love with Wirral lasses Just Us when they auditioned. It wasnt just their moves, or the fact 15-year-old member Julia Carlile was due to have an operation that will end her dance career. It was their love for each other that had the nation sobbing into their hankies.

The girls, whove had to change their name to Mersey Girls because theyve discovered a dance act called Just Us already exists, are made up of Julia, her sister Alice, 17, Annie Winstanley, 17, Poppy Gerrard, 15, and Becky Jordan, 16 (whos missing on the day of our shoot as shes sitting a GCSE). Theyve been performing together since they were tiny after meeting at after-school dance classes.

Dance troupe Just Us member Julia Carlile was due to have an operation that will end her dance career

But theyve always known time was limited for them because Julia has scoliosis, or curvature of the spine, diagnosed at age six. She was encouraged to dance as a way of loosening her vertebrae but her condition has deteriorated.

It causes a lot of pain, especially in the mornings when I havent moved much in the night. she says. And I have to wear a brace which I hate. Shes 3in shorter than she should be.

Appearing on BGT was her dream, knowing an operation was scheduled which would help her condition but put an end to her dancing.

The operation is called spinal fusion. They put titanium bolts in your spine and screw it down; after that you lose flexibility in your back, spine and head, she says. It took me a long time to prepare myself for it mentally but Im ready now.

Theres an operation available in America called tethering which would allow her to retain her flexibility but that would cost nearly 100,000. The girls have already said that if they win the competition theyll give the prize money to Julia for the operation. But for now Julia is just enjoying the BGT experience.

It was always on her bucket list, says her sister Alice. And its already gone better than they could have imagined  their favourite judge Alesha Dixon pressed the Golden Buzzer for them. Alesha probably thinks were mad, says Poppy. When she met us all we could say was, Thank you, thank you, thank you! Julia must have said it 20 times.

Britains Got Talent, tonight, 8pm & Monday-Friday, 7.30pm, ITV.
Michelle Pfeiffer stars along side Robert De Niro in The Wizard of Lies

Michelle Pfeiffer is back at work. Actings been on the back burner in recent years as shes seen her children through college and spent more time at home in Palo Alto, California, while her husband of 23 years, TV writer David E Kelley  the man behind Ally McBeal  knocked out such masterpieces as Boston Legal, Harrys Law and, most recently, Big Little Lies.

This year, though, Mrs Kelley can be seen in two very different projects. Later, shell appear as Mrs Hubbard, a glamorous widow on the prowl in Kenneth Branaghs all-star remake of Murder On The Orient Express.

But first comes the much more serious role of Ruth Madoff, the wife of notorious real-life financial fraudster Bernie Madoff in TV movie The Wizard Of Lies, directed by Barry Levinson and co-starring Robert De Niro as Madoff.

I wasnt that familiar with the story, confesses Michelle of the investment advisor who paid returns to his existing clients from capital invested with him by new clients, rather than from profit earned on earlier investments  a so-called Ponzi scheme thats the largest financial fraud in American history. I just liked the script and wanted the opportunity to work with Barry and Bob.

Having worked on three films together in the past, the two leads have a natural on-screen chemistry, and De Niros resemblance to Madoff is uncanny.

There are some scenes where I did a double-take and thought, Oh, did they use real footage there? because he looks just like Madoff, says Michelle.

Its always exciting to work with people you admire and whove inspired you and this is the fourth movie Ive been in with Bob. The better the people youre working with, the more you feel the need to rise to the occasion.

'When you know you can hit the ball and theyre going to volley it straight back, it creates a trust. When you have that trust youre more willing to take chances, and unexpected things can happen.

De Niro plays notorious real-life financial fraudster Bernie Madoff with Pfeiffer playing the role of his wife Ruth

Ruth Madoff was not only Bernies wife but also his bookkeeper, though she has protested her ignorance of Bernies wrongdoing ever since the fraud was uncovered in 2008.

She now lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Connecticut, and although still married to Bernie who was jailed for 150 years in 2009, stopped going to visit him after the suicide of their elder son, Mark, in 2010 on the second anniversary of his fathers arrest.

Tragically, their younger son Andrew also died, three years ago, of lymphoma at the age of 48.

The film concentrates less on the financial victims of the scandal, more on the devastating effect of the events on the Madoff family. I thought you were going to protect me forever, says Ruth at one poignant point. Shes been through so much, says Michelle.

Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira Hancock and Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface in 1983

What happened to her was tragic  she lost everything she had in just one day. Along the way shes been unfairly villainised. We spent a bit of time together and she was lovely. I hope this film will shed new light on her, because I think a lot of people have assumptions about her that arent true.

She says she thinks Ruth, whod been married to Bernie for nearly 50 years when the scandal broke, was simply caught up.

She was very young  16 or so  when she fell in love with him. He was her first love and her only love. Its hard to say what any of us would do when you have that kind of love.

'Its like when youre the parent of a child who commits a horrible crime. Do you stop loving that child? I cant imagine my children doing anything that would make me turn my back on them.

She admits its her children, adopted daughter Claudia Rose, 24, and John, 22, her son by husband David, whove been the reason for her absences from the screen  the last time we saw her was in 2013 crime comedy The Family, one of those films also starring De Niro.

When the kids were younger I wasnt really inclined to work because they were the priority and it was too challenging to be away from them. But now theyre grown up its nice to be able to re-prioritise my career again. Its like a newfound freedom, which is really exciting.

Michelle says that she has devoted her time to her family in recent years

Certainly no one will have forgotten her. For one thing there are the looks, which are as startling today at the age of 59 when we meet in Los Angeles as they were at 25  those luminous wide-set grey eyes set in the delicate features, the skin now lightly lined with life. Then there are the many memorable films, including The Witches Of Eastwick in 1987, The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1989 and Hairspray in 2007.

The evolution of a screen goddess? Not at all, she says, simply the story of a girl from unglamorous Orange County, California, who worked hard for everything.

I come from a very working-class family. My father was a heating contractor and he and my mother raised all of us kids with the work ethic that if you really apply yourself and you work hard, you can do anything. It certainly worked for me.

She drifted into acting almost by accident. I was working at a supermarket and a customer was giving me a hard time about the price of melons. She was going on and on about it, and in a fit of frustration I just sat down and told myself, You cant do this forever. What do you really want to do? And the answer came up, I want to be an actor.

I didnt know the first thing about how to do it but I had some photographs taken, signed up with a model agency and moved to LA. I didnt know anybody in showbusiness but I just put one foot in front of the other and thought, Well, if I fail, I fail.

I didnt go to drama school, I just got jobs and learned on screen. I didnt have a lot of opportunities at first, and I dont think I deserved them because I was still learning.

'It wasnt until I made Scarface in 1983 that I started to feel like, OK, Ive caught up with myself now. Maybe Id have had more confidence if Id gone to drama school but actings very intangible. You can have training to give you tools but its kind of magical, it either takes off or it doesnt.

She was 34 when she adopted Claudia, originally as a single parent. Shortly before the adoption came through, shed been set up on a blind date with David and, as she wryly puts it now, I thought, Oh damn, I dont think this ones going to go away  I think hes still going to be here when the baby arrives. Well, this will separate the men from the boys quickly!

'The man stayed in the picture, and he and Michelle married when Claudia was eight months old, to be joined nine months later by John.

I think the secret is choosing well, she says of her long and happy marriage. If you dont choose somebody for the right reasons, youre doomed to failure. I havent always chosen well in my life, but I was mature and ready when I met David and I did choose well with him.

Will we ever see her in a role her husband has written for her? Im too superstitious, she says.

Ive seen too many couples on the cover of People magazine because theyre working together, and before you know it theyre divorced. Im not going to risk it!

'Besides, I think its better if you work apart. Its good to go to work and come home and moan about the day and how wronged you were, and have the other person agree with you because theyve only heard your side of it. Shes no dummy, Mrs David Kelley.

The Wizard Of Lies will be shown on Thursday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic.
Jane Austen danced the night away at the Earl of Portsmouths country ball at Hurstbourne Park in Hampshire  and woke up with a terrible hangover the next morning.

Oh dear, not the kind of behaviour the nation expects from our favourite lady novelist.

I believe I drank too much wine last night... I know not how else to account for the shaking of my hand today, a 24-year-old Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra that morning in November 1800.

Historian Lucy Worsley looks at the houses Jane lived in to show how they influenced her in a new BBC2 documentary Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors

She was scathing about her dancing partners and mean about the ladies, especially three to whom I was as civil... as their bad breath would allow me.

Poor Jane; by this point she must have been well aware that she had little chance of meeting a Mr Darcy among her limited social circle in Hampshire, where shed lived all her life (another dazzling engagement that same week involved dinner with neighbours, card games and being read to aloud from a pamphlet on cow-pox).

A ball could mean simply rolling back the carpet and inviting a few neighbours for a dance.

This meant that when Jane went to balls she wasnt always meeting new people. There were a lot of familiar faces, says historian Lucy Worsley, who looks at the houses Jane lived in to show how they influenced her in a new BBC2 documentary Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors.

Unfortunately, when Jane had met an interesting man at a ball in 1796  an Irish law student, Tom Lefroy, who was visiting on holiday  it had quickly become apparent they had no future together.

As an eldest son with ten siblings, Tom had to marry money. Jane, a country parsons daughter, could only be a youthful flirtation.

A portrait of Jane Austen circa 1790

I dont think its a coincidence, says Lucy, that this is the year Jane wrote the first draft of Pride And Prejudice. In fiction she could make sure the poor but clever heroine won both the man and his impressive house.

The Austens struggled financially; they were gentry without the money to fund a genteel lifestyle. They had rich relations but their hopes of a substantial inheritance were never fulfilled.

Jane Austens novels revolve around homes lost and mansions gained, the threat of poverty and the promise of wealth, explains Lucy, whose latest book Jane Austen At Home  released for the 200th anniversary of her death  charts Janes experiences as a poor relation.

Her life began in 1775 at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire where she would spend 25 years  more than half her life  living in the house where she was born. George Austen, her father, was a clergyman-farmer and boosted his income to 1,000 a year by running a boarding school.

There were servants, but Janes mother still had her hands full with eight children. Not that they were all at home. Janes brother Edward was adopted as a teenager by wealthy childless cousins  common at the time to advance a relatives prospects  who made him their heir. Another brother, George, who was epileptic, lived with a foster family, paid for by the Austens.

As a young woman, Jane had an allowance of 20 a year from her father, which had to cover everything except board and lodging. When Mr Austen decided to retire to Bath in 1801, when Jane was 25 and Cassandra 28, they had no choice but to tag along. Jane fainted when she was told.

They took lodgings at 4 Sydney Place, still available to rent today as holiday flats. The 150 annual rent made quite a dent in Mr Austens income, and when the lease ran out they moved downmarket to a house they had rejected as being damp. Soon Mr Austen fell ill, possibly from malaria, known as the ague and rife in Britain then. He died in January 1805.

It was the start of a downward spiral for his widow and daughters, who were reduced to living on the charity of their male relations. They left Bath in July 1806 for Southampton, on the very same day that a wealthy old lady died: the Honourable Mary Leigh, mistress of Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire and a distant cousin of Janes mother.

The women hurried there in an unedifying scramble to claim part of this potentially life-changing inheritance.

It was far and away the grandest mansion in Janes life, says Lucy. There were two prospective heirs: Mrs Austens wealthy cousin the Rev Thomas Leigh and her rich brother James.

Chawton Cottage in Hampshire, where Jane spent her final years

Janes uncle James struck a deal to give up his claim to Stoneleigh in exchange for the enormous sum of 24,000, plus 2,000 a year for life. The bulk of the estate, which by the mid-Victorian era was worth 30,000 a year, went to the cousin and the Austens left without a penny.

At the lowest ebb of her fortunes, Jane became a visiting aunt, earning her keep on long stays with her brother Edward by entertaining his children. Edward had an income of 15,000 a year thanks to his adoptive family; more than Janes fictional Mr Darcy.

Jane enjoyed the luxury of his home, Godmersham Park in Kent (thought to be the inspiration for Mr Darcys Pemberley), but was embarrassed at being unable to tip the servants properly. Even the visiting hairdresser noticed and gave her a cut-price haircut.

After the death of his wife, Edward decided to spend more time at his other property, Chawton House in Hampshire, and offered his mother and sisters a rent-free cottage nearby. Here was a home at last. In 1811, Janes first book was published  Sense And Sensibility, the story of sisters who lose their home. It made 140, enough to keep her for three years.

And yet Jane could have married and had a home of her own. She had her chances. As Lucy points out, she accepted one proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, heir to a large estate, then turned it down in a panic.

When it came down to it, Jane Austen was no romantic: a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife  a single woman of ambition might get along better without him.

Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors, tonight, 9pm, BBC2. Jane Austen At Home by Lucy Worsley is published by Hodder & Stoughton, 25.
A woman who worked on makeup counters and dreamed of having her own beauty brand has seen it become a reality - after launching a booming A-list approved beauty brand that's now stocked in the very shop she worked in.

Jade Elliott, 32, from Essex, was working in department store Myer in Australia in her teenage years and was inspired to create her own range of cosmetics.

Fast-forward 12 years and her own brand, Iconic London, which she developed in her bedroom, has just been snapped up by the store and secured the Kardashians, Jourdan Dunn, Chrissy Teigen, Little Mix and Vanessa Hugeons as fans.

Jade launched Iconic London - a range of pure-friendly strobing creams, contour palettes and specialist brushes - because she wanted to create a 'fun and rebellious' range of makeup.

Jade Elliott, 32, launched Iconic London in her bedroom in Essex and now the Kardashians and Chrissy Teigen love her products, which are stocked in the beauty stores where she first started working

Speaking to FEMAIL about launching the brand, Jade, who went on to work as a stylist after relocating to Essex from Australia, explained: 'A few years ago I decided to start my own brand and I risked everything.

'I quit my job as a successful stylist and sold my car to fund the first contour palette production.'

Jade explained that she established the brand because she wanted to empower women.

She said: 'Iconic London is a brand created by women for women. My goal when starting was to produce really good products which rival - and in some cases exceed - the leading brands.'

Iconic London is a range of pure-friendly strobing creams, contour palettes and specialist brushes that are reasonably priced

Jade set out to create on-trend makeup at an affordable price point and her range has been snapped up by Harvey Nichols, Fortnum & Mason and QVC.

But seeing her products sold in Myer - where she started her career and first got a taste for a future in beauty - was the cherry on the cake.

She said: ' I first started my love for the beauty industry when I worked in one of the Myer stores in Sydney on one of the top beauty counters.

Vanessa Hudgens wore the brand's 29.99 illuminator at the Billboard Awards and it sold out four times, with pre-orders for new stock going through the roof

Kim's makeup artist, Ariel Tejada, created a look on Kim using Jade's 20 strobing stick and it sold out overnight as a result

Jade, who went on to work as a stylist after relocating to Essex from Australia, quit her job as a successful stylist and sold her car to fund the first contour palette production

'Now I am launching my own brand in multiple Myer stores across the country; it is honestly something I never could have dreamt of.'

As well as stocking her products into some of the biggest stores around the world, Jade has amassed an impressive roll call of celebrity fans, too.

Earlier this year, Kim Kardashian's makeup artist, Ariel Tejada, created a look on Kim using Jade's 20 strobing stick and it sold out overnight as a result.

Then Vanessa Hudgens wore the brand's 29.99 illuminator at the Billboard Awards and it sold out four times, with pre-orders for new stock going through the roof.

'The British brand started in a bedroom in Essex really has hit Hollywood,' said Jade.

Jade has forged friendships with plenty of celebrities - including Peter Andre - through her job as a makeup artist

Jade launched Iconic London in her bedroom in 2015 because she wanted to create a 'fun and rebellious' range of makeup and now Chrissy Teigen, left, and Little Mix's Perrie Edwards, right, are fans of her range
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It was the fiercest fashion face-off of the year so far.

In the French corner was the new first lady Brigitte Macron in a distinctly skimpy 2,200 black Louis Vuitton minidress paired with a chain-link bag by the same designer, likely to cost around 2,000.

Mrs Macron  who at 64 is more than 24 years older than her husband Emmanuel and used to be his teacher  had an undone top-knot and showed off an impressively toned pair of legs. The look was chic, age-defying and utterly French.

Brigitte Macron (left) was the epitome of French chic in a Louis Vuitton mini-dress that had a low-waisted belt featuring a jewel clasp with a signature gold V motif

Glossy Melania Trump (right), 47, wore the most American outfit imaginable: a bouncy blow-dry, pointy snakeskin First Lady heels and a suit made entirely from beige leather likely to cost around 3,500 by Belgian designer Maison Ullens

Look, it seemed to say, this style has netted me a hunk 24 years my junior... while the best youve managed is a husband 24 years your senior.

On the other side was glossy Melania Trump, 47, in the most American outfit imaginable: a bouncy blow-dry, pointy snakeskin First Lady heels and a suit made entirely from beige leather likely to cost around 3,500 by Belgian designer Maison Ullens  perhaps a nod to the fact she was on a visit to the nations capital.

Certainly Brigitte seemed impressed by the ultra-smart outfit judging by her face... though its possible she was considering how much it must cost to dry clean.

The two women were meeting for the first time in Brussels yesterday, and both were clearly dressed to impress as they posed with the partners of other world leaders

The two women were meeting for the first time in Brussels yesterday, and both were clearly dressed to impress.

The pair visited the Magritte Museum while their husbands had a private meeting before a Nato summit. Mr Trump, 70, and Mr Macron, 39, had a frank exchange about a range of issues, including climate change, the Syrian crisis and counter-terrorism.

Despite any tensions, Mr Trump described Mr Macrons defeat of far-Right candidate Marine Le Pen as a great job.

The pair enjoyed a very friendly chat, while Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg's prime minister, Xavier Bettel, looked on

Emine Erdogan, the first lady of Turkey, posed with Melania Trump in front of a painting at the museum devoted to the works of Belgian painter Rene Magritte

Asked afterwards how he found the US leader, however, Mr Macron said: Its not for me to make psychological comments.

But who won the war of the wardrobes between two of the worlds most powerful women?

Well, it is likely to come down to whether you favour cool and trendy over classic and polished. But on the back of the cleaning bill alone, Brigitte gets my vote.
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When it comes to parenting, Bec Judd is known for her candid revelations about motherhood.

But her latest confession might just take the biscuit as her most outlandish yet.

The Melbourne-based TV host and WAG, 34, admitted to trying her own breast milk on Friday.

She said it 'tasted like a vanilla milkshake'.

Australian TV host, Bec Judd (pictured with her son), admitted to tasting her own breast milk

According to the 34-year-old (pictured), it 'tasted like a vanilla milkshake - sweet and milky and delicious'

'I was just curious one day and I had a teaspoon so I thought I'm just going to put some on a teaspoon and try it, it was amazing,' the 34-year-old told Mamamia's Hello Bump podcast.

'It tasted like a vanilla milkshake  really sweet and milky and delicious,' the mother-of-four added.

The subject came up while Ms Judd was chatting to another Australian woman, who eats her placenta in a smoothie in search of bizarre health benefits.

'I put it in a smoothie, like berry smoothie, coconut water  like a full health thing,' the other mother said.

Bec Judd (pictured with two of her four children) isn't known for being shy and retiring when it comes to sharing details about motherhood

'I was just curious one day and I had a teaspoon so I thought I'm just going to put some on a teaspoon and try it, it was amazing,' she said of her breast milk experience

Recent revelations from Ms Judd include her admitting that the first six weeks with a new baby are the hardest (pictured with some family members)

Bec Judd isn't exactly known for shying away from talking about all aspects of motherhood, whether they're good, bad or ugly.

Recent revelations include her admitting that the first six weeks with a new baby are the hardest:

'What am I doing? Who is this thing? I don't know if I want him. My life is over,' she said of her feelings after she brought her son, Oscar, home.

'What am I doing? Who is this thing? I don't know if I want him. My life is over,' she said of her feelings after she brought her son, Oscar, home (pictured with her family)

Ms Judd also remembered how much her boobs hurt, how her nipples bled, and how she was feeling a surge of emotions she didn't understand

Ms Judd also remembered how much her boobs hurt, how her nipples bled, and how she was feeling a surge of emotions she didn't understand.

'About day four all of a sudden you turn into this crazy hormonal woman, that's the first kind of shock,' she said on Thursday.

'No one tells you that you might cry all day because you had a bad tasting risotto.'

She described all of this as 'torture'. This surge of emotions is commonly called the Baby Blues.
Three Sydney-based siblings stumbled upon a sweet way to make money - after setting up a business selling Nutella doughnut bouquets in the shape of a dozen roses.

Their company, called Dessertboxes, aims to end 'boring gifts' that people send for special occasions like Valentines Day and Mother's Day, and in just three months has proved a huge success.

'People are in high demand for a gift that can't be re-gifted. And what do you give a man? Flowers? I don't think so,' co-owner Samantha Khater told Daily Mail Australia.

Three Sydney-based siblings are selling Nutella doughnut bouquets in the shape of a dozen roses for $78

The company, called Dessertboxes, aims to end 'boring gifts' that people send for special occasions like Valentines Day and Mother's Day. And they've only been running for three months

On an average day the kitchen staff will whip up 660 doughnuts by mid-morning to be shipped out by 2pm AEST.

At $78 for a bouquet of a dozen it means the family are making up to $4,300 a day.

The doughnut bouquets are wrapped in hessian and bright tissue paper and have a personalised syringe filled with Nutella for the recipient to eat should they need more chocolate with their treats.

'Jewellery rusts and flowers die but nobody has ever turned down a doughnut,' Samantha said

The Khater family have another successful business in Kayter co which sells cronut towers and their original personalised dessert coconuts

'Jewellery rusts and flowers die but nobody has ever turned down a doughnut,' Ms Khater said.

The Khater family have another successful business in Kayter co, which is based on their name, which sells cronut towers and their original personalised dessert coconuts.

'We did Nutella bouquets through Kayter co last year and they were so successful that people wanted to purchase total 'boxes' from us filled with treats. That's how our new company was formed,' Ms Khater said.

'We did Nutella bouquets through Kayter co last year and they were so successful that people wanted to purchase total 'boxes' from us filled with treats. That's how our new company was formed,' Ms Khater said

While the prices may initially appear steep they can be shared between a group and are made entirely fresh everyday. So the quality and taste are kept intact

You can purchase a 'Cronut naughty 9' pack for $83, the 'Donut 6' pack for $46 and even an 'Ultimate' box for $119.

While the prices may initially appear steep they can be shared between a group and are made entirely fresh everyday. So the quality and taste are kept intact.

'We could ship nationally but it would compromise the fresh taste. We do have plans to expand into Melbourne soon because there is a big demand there,' Ms Khater said.

Other plans in the works include a 'brookie' - half brownie and half cookie - which the Khater family believe will be super successful but for now making cronuts, which take 12 hours to create, is keeping them on their toes.

'A lot of what we do is meant to be fun and funny so we're excited people are really enjoying it,' Samantha said.
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Glance at 329 Warnerval Road, Hamlyn Terrace, from the outside, and you might think it's a totally normal four-bedroom home.

But peer a little closer and you'll see one feature that sets the Central Coast-based property apart.

The house's epic 'man shed' takes the form of an outback-style pub.

It even comes complete with bar stools, a neon sign and ice-cold brews.

An Australian couple have created the ultimate 'man shed' - which takes the form of this Outback-style pub (pictured)

The couple have just put the property - in NSW - up for sale - it has a price guide of AUD $630,000-$690,000 (pictured: the exterior)

According to Kim Burke of Wiseberry Charmhaven, the current owners - a couple whose children have left home - installed the unusual pub feature into their property primarily to entertain:

'The husband would use the room for entertaining, he just loves to have friends and family in there,' Ms Burke told Daily Mail Australia.

She added that the quirky pub came together organically, thanks to the man's love of beer and the aesthetics of an Australian pub.

According to Kim Burke of Wiseberry Charmhaven , the current owners - a couple whose children have left home - installed the unusual pub feature into their property primarily to entertain (pictured: another room in the house)

'The husband would use the room for entertaining, he just loves to have friends and family in there,' Ms Burke told Daily Mail Australia (pictured: the outside)

The quirky pub came together organically, thanks to the man's love of beer and the aesthetics of an Australian pub

The property is sure to appeal to families as it includes many rooms for entertaining (pictured)

This includes a living room and formal dining and lounge rooms, all on a 706 square metre block

'He likes travelling and trying the different beers and all that,' Ms Burke told Real Estate.

'He just collects everything  as much as he possibly can,' she added.

The property - which has recently gone on the market with a price guide of AUD $630,000 - $690,000 - is sure to appeal to families with a need for space and amenities.

'It's close to the schools, shops, the train station,' Ms Burke said of the amenities

The property includes a decent-sized outdoor area (pictured)

'He likes travelling and trying the different beers and all that,' Ms Burke said of the husband in the family

To look at the house from the outside, you wouldn't necessarily see the man shed

But it is of course the man shed which is the property's main attraction - and the reason why it has already proven popular online (pictured: the interior)

'It's close to the schools, shops, the train station,' Ms Burke said.

It also features plenty of other entertaining spaces, including a living room and formal dining and lounge rooms, all on a 706 square metre block.

But it is of course the man shed which is the property's main attraction - and the reason why it has already proven popular online.

Do you have a better man cave or shed? Email FemailAU@mailomline.com
Jimmy Kimmel is taking Donald Trump to task in a new clip that compares the US President's speaking style to that of a fourth grader.

On Thursday night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! the late night host pointed to several speeches that Trump has given on his current nine-day, five country tour through Europe and the Middle East.

'I've noticed [his speeches] sound a lot like a fourth grade book report,' Kimmel jokes. 'He speaks very slowly and simply - not too bigly,' Kimmel added, mocking the famous moment in which the then-Republican nominee revived the fake-sounding adjective.

Scroll down for video

'A lot like a fourth grade book report!' On Thursday night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! the late-night host mocked Trump's simplistic speeches

Vocabulary lesson: Kimmel had fourth grade students read Trump's recent speeches in order to highlight their elementary nature

In order to highlight the fact that Trump 'uses vocabulary even a child could understand,' Kimmel enlists the help of several fourth graders.

Standing behind a miniature podium, the precocious kids proceed to read segments of speeches from Trump's recent visit abroad in a hilarious segment entitled 'My Big Trip.'

'The Middle East is rich with natural beauty, vibrant cultures, and massive amounts of historic treasures,' reads one little girl. The clip then cuts to actual footage of Trump repeating the same line while addressing the people of Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

'Saudi Arabia is home to the holiest sites in one of the world's great faiths,' the kids continue. 'Each year millions of Muslims come from around the world to take part in the Hajj. In addition to ancient wonders, this country is also home to modern ones.'

The readings highlight just how simplistic and vague the speeches are. When the kids move on to read Trump's address in Jerusalem, they reveal not only patterns in vocabulary, but patterns in the structure of his speeches, too.

Spot the difference: After the kids read the speech sections, footage of Trump reading the same section plays for a truly comedic effect

Vague: Like many kids' writing, the Trump speeches were filled with little detail and lacking in concrete terms

So-so: At the end of the clip, the 'My Big Trip' report received a bright red B-minus grade

'Jerusalem is a sacred city. Its beauty, splendor, and heritage are like no other place on Earth. This is a land filled with beauty, wonder and the spirit of God.' This section almost directly parallels the speech given in Saudi Arabia.

Like any fourth grade book report, there are also pieces of Trump's speeches that veer off-course and seemingly make no sense: 'During my travels, I have seen many hopeful signs that lead me to believe we can truly achieve a more peaceful future for this region, and for people of all faiths, and all beliefs, and frankly, all over the world.'

Despite these kids' best efforts, the 'My Big Trip' report ultimately receives a mere B-minus as a grade - not catastrophic, but certainly nothing to applaud. Perhaps this grade is a metaphor for something else?
After being mercilessly cyberbullied for last year's prom pictures, one high school senior is back for this year's dance with a beautiful new dress and a positive new attitude.

When 18-year-old Tayja Jones-Banks of Pottstown, Pennsylvania posted her prom photos on social media in May 2016, she received hundreds of critical comments from complete strangers - many of them specifically targeting her weight.

Though Jones-Banks said she felt 'good and happy' attending her junior prom, when she woke up the next day to find the slew of cruel comments, she was crushed.

Scroll down for video

Back, and better than ever: 18-year-old Tayja Jones-Banks chose to attend this year's prom - even after being ruthlessly cyberbullied for last year's prom pictures

A tough choice: Last year, Jones-Banks said she was unsure if she would attend her senior prom - but this year, she ultimately chose to go

2016: When Jones-Banks attended her junior prom wearing the sparkly black dress pictured, she said she was feeling 'good and happy' only to later receive hundreds of cruel messages

'It was just really hurtful because I was so confident the day before and it just changed my view of myself,' she told Fox 29 at the time.

Jones-Banks's mother revealed to Fox 29 that her daughter was so hurt, she didn't want to go to school or even leave the house. The teen also proceeded to delete all of her Instagram pictures in self-defense.

Once the good samaritans of the Internet became aware of the abuse Jones-Banks was faced with, an overwhelming number of people reached out in support. Twitter was soon flooded with messages bearing the hashtag #TeamTayja.

'Make-up was on point! Hair was perfect! Dress slaying, beautiful in every way! No one should be judged like that!' wrote one Twitter user. In addition to praising Jones-Banks's appearance, many messages openly condemned cyberbullying in any form.

Despite the outpouring of support for Jones-Banks, the student remained uncertain if she would attend her senior prom.

Yet, this past weekend, Jones-Banks could be seen dancing the night away at the Pottsgrove High School senior prom, in a bright pink dress with white lace detailing.

Life lesson: Jones-Banks said she realized that it was more important to be 'confident in her own skin' than to let herself be brought down by online bullies

'I like the way I look!' Despite initial fears about posting prom pictures to her recently-reactivated Instagram account, Jones-Banks decided it was worth the risk

Turning the page: Unlike last year, Jones-Banks's senior prom pictures were met with an outpouring of positive, supportive comments

Though last year's prom proved to be a difficult time for this high school senior, Jones-Banks said it was ultimately a learning experience: 'I learned every one is going to comment on something, so I learned to be comfortable in my own skin,' she told Yahoo! Style.

She was even able to overcome her fear of sharing the special night on social media. 'I was afraid to post any photos this year because of last year, but then I realized that I liked what I looked like, and thats all that matters.'

Needless to say, reactions to her glamorous photos were a far cry from last year's cruel comments. When Jones-Banks posted this year's prom pictures to her recently-reactivated Instagram, she was met with an over-abundance of positive comments. Many expressed their admiration for Jones-Banks's confident and resilient attitude.

'I hope you had a great prom. I love this color on you,' said one. 'You are so beautiful inside and out. The dress looks amazing on you. Keep smiling and keep your head up,' said another.

By transforming last year's prom woes into a motivational message, Jones-Banks has truly proven that confidence is everything.

Support system: Last year, following the attacks on Jones-Banks, hundreds of supportive comments flooded Twitter

Stunning! In addition to praising Jones-Banks's glamorous prom look, many condemned cyberbullying in any form
Countless lives around the globe could be at risk if hackers attacked medical devices such as pacemakers and insulin pumps, experts have warned.

Wireless devices in hospitals harbour security problems that leave them vulnerable to infiltration, two separate studies suggest.

Alarmingly, one study just on pacemakers discovered more than 8,000 known vulnerabilities in code inside the cardiac devices.

Worldwide around 3 million patients have pacemakers - with many depending on them to stay alive.

Another report which focused on the broader device market, found 83 per cent of manufacturers had not taken adequate steps to secure gadgets.

Equipment that relies on the integration of information technology includes implantable medical devices such as cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators, cochlear implants, neuro-stimulators, as well as drug delivery systems such as insulin pumps.

Medical device manufacturers face 'serious challenges' in security, experts warn

The warning comes after more than 60 health organisations in the UK fell victim to a global cyber-attack that caused chaos across the NHS.

'The security of medical devices is truly a life or death issue for both device manufacturers and healthcare delivery organisations,' said Dr Larry Ponemon, co-author of the broader study by security company Synopsys.

'It is urgent that the medical device industry makes the security of its devices a high priority,' he said.

In the report on pacemakers, security experts Whitescope said manufacturers faced 'serious challenges' in trying to keep devices patched and free from bugs that provided weaknesses which attackers could exploit.

Few manufacturers encrypted data on a device or when it was being transferred to monitoring systems, it said.

Worryingly, none were protected with basic login name and password systems and there were no checks on the authenticity of the devices they were connecting to.

Device makers must step up their efforts to 'protect against potential system compromises that may have implications to patient care', the authors said.

Pacemaker implantation is one of the most common types of heart surgery carried out which more than 100,000 Americans and 25,000 Britons undergo each year.

Screen that appeared on hacked computers when the WannaCry ransomware encrypted files

Whitescope said they had reported their concerns to the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees medical device companies.

A separate study by Synopsys found 80 per cent of the manufacturers, hospitals and health organisations they quizzed said they felt their devices they used to treat patients were 'hard to secure'.

Along with bugs in code, a lack of knowledge among IT staff about how to write secure code and time pressures were flagged as issues, the study reported.

The research found that only one in ten device makers and one in 20 health organisations tested equipment on an annual basis for potential security vulnerabilities.

A higher percentage of manufactures, 17 per cent, took steps to secure the equipment they produced, said the firm - but this means a worrying majority do not.

Almost half of makers were not following advice from the US Food and Drug Administration about how to secure devices, it was discovered.

The WannaCry ransomware attack earlier this month led to worldwide cyber chaos, crippling vital computer systems such as those used by the NHS.

It infected more than 200,000 systems in more than 150 countries, including the US, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France, with demands (pictured) for payments of $300 (230) in Bitcoin per victim.

NHS bosses and the Government faced questions over why hospitals had been left susceptible to a cyber attack - the largest in NHS history - that caused a weekend of chaos and jeopardised lives.

It emerged many trusts were using obsolete systems, while others failed to apply recent security updates which would have protected them.
A baby boy's 'butterfly' skin is so fragile that even cuddles from his mother can leave him covered in deep, raw wounds.

Jamie White, from Eccleshall, Staffordshire, was born with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) - an incurable condition.

It sees the 11-month-old's skin blister and tear at the slightest touch, forcing him to wear his clothes inside out to stop the seams and labels rubbing against him.

His mother Katie, 32, is forced to spend up to an hour-and-a-half each night bandaging his wounds to protect him from any possible infection.

While she also gives him morphine to help him overcome the immense pain he suffers from the blisters, of which he can suffer up to 30 a day.

Jamie White, from Eccleshall, Staffordshire, was born with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) - an incurable skin condition that causes his skin to blister

Mrs White, who is married to fireman Matt, also 32, said: 'I've even had to put a sticker on his pushchair asking people not to touch him.

'People don't mean to, but something as simple as tickling him can lead to a whole arm of scabs and wounds.

'I say to people, "Would you tickle a butterfly's wings? No, because they'd disintegrate." And that's how fragile Jamie's skin is.'

But despite all he faces, the nurse praised her boy for his bravery.

She said: 'He's where I get my strength. He never cries or complains. He's the happiest baby I've ever met.

'EB kids in general are incredible. Their determination to live a normal life in spite of everything is very special.'

His mother Katie, 32, is forced to spend up to an hour-and-a-half each night bandaging his wounds to protect him from any possible infection

Working as a tissue viability nurse, Mrs White, who is also a mother to three-year-old Joey, had heard of EB before, even going to a talk about it while pregnant.

As it's so rare, with charity DEBRA estimating just 5,000 in the UK suffer with it, she never dreamt it would affect her unborn child.

But as soon as Jamie was born weighing 5lb 7oz at Royal Stoke University Hospital in June 2016, she noticed he was missing skin on his feet and knees  a common sign.

I say to people, "Would you tickle a butterfly's wings? No, because they'd disintegrate." And that's how fragile Jamie's skin is Katie White, 32

He was taken straight to neonatal intensive care, with doctors telling the couple that it looked like he had been 'burned'.

But Mrs White just screamed in despair: 'Please don't let it be EB.'

There are three main types of EB  symplex, dystrophic and junctional, some of which carry a low life expectancy.

A form of the latter, called EB generalised severe, is usually fatal in infancy, with only a few babies surviving to the second or third year of life.

After Jamie's birth, the parents faced a tortuous wait for the results of a skin biopsy which would reveal exactly which type he had  and with it, his prognosis.

The condition sees the 11-month-old's skin blister and tear at the slightest touch, forcing him to wear his clothes inside out to stop the seams and labels rubbing against him

Jamie is also given morphine each day to help him overcome the immense pain he suffers from the blisters, of which he can suffer up to 30 a day

At first, Jamie could break out in up to 80 blisters (left and right) a day, and it'd take his mother two-and-a-half hours to dress his wounds

Mrs White said: 'I almost didn't want to get to know him, because once I was attached, it'd be so much harder if I had to lose him.'

Three-and-a-half weeks later, just as Jamie was discharged from hospital, doctors confirmed he had EB simplex, the most common form of the illness, which is not terminal.

Mrs White continued: 'I literally fell off my chair with relief. Everyone around me was sobbing.'

At first, Jamie could break out in up to 80 blisters a day, and it'd take his mother two-and-a-half hours to dress his wounds.

Now, though, he gets around 30  although some of them can be internal, causing the toddler immense pain, which he takes morphine for.

Because his skin is so incredibly fragile, simple day-to-day tasks can be rife with difficulty.

It can also take up to 20 minutes to change Jamie's nappy as Mrs White must pad out his skin with dressings to avoid it rubbing against him.

She also can't dry him with towels as they're too rough, using soft blankets instead, and must line his car seat with blankets and sheepskin.

Mrs White, who is married to Matt, 32, and has another child, Joey, three, (pictured together) said: 'I've even had to put a sticker on his pushchair asking people not to touch him'

Because his skin is so incredibly fragile, simple day-to-day tasks can be rife with difficulty

EPIDERMOLYSIS BULLOSA: EXPLAINED Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a general term used to describe a group of rare inherited skin disorders that cause the skin to become very fragile. The skin is missing type VII collagen - a protein that usually binds the top layer of skin to the bottom layers. Any trauma or friction to the skin can cause painful blisters. In most cases, the symptoms of EB are obvious from birth. It is caused by faulty genes inherited from one or both parents. There are many cases when both parents are carriers of the faulty gene without realizing it. EB is rare - just one in every 50,000 children in the US has it, while it is believed that 5,000 people in the UK are sufferers. There is no cure for EB so the treatment aims at preventing blisters becoming infected. Advertisement

Breastfeeding can also prove tricky, as Mrs White said: 'I can't just shove him under my top like you'd normally do, but at the same time I have to maintain my dignity.'

As something as small as being held in a different way than he's used to can leave him covered in wounds, only his parents and their parents are allowed to cuddle him.

Mrs White added: 'I have suffered with depression over it in the past. I'm normally a very positive person but seeing my baby in so much pain was too much.

'Some of the things I have to do, like physically cut away dead skin, are hard to deal with.

'Sometimes when Jamie was younger, I'd stare out the window and cry. I used to think, "If people passing by on the street knew what was going on, what a baby was going through, they'd be shocked".

'It's unimaginable in this day and age that there's no cure for this.'

Mrs White has been working closely with charity DEBRA, and has even given educational talks on EB at the very neonatal unit where Jamie spent his first three weeks of life.

She's also found a number of other mothers through support groups, striking up firm friendships.

Now, her daily routine involves dressing Jamie as and when she sees blisters spring up, giving him morphine at 4pm, a bath at 5pm then swaddling him in bandages for the night, which takes ninety minutes.

For information, visit www.debra.org.uk
Autism could be treated by a drug that has been around for more than 100 years, new research suggests.

The drug, known as suramin, which was originally developed to treat sleeping sickness, produced dramatic results in young sufferers after just one dose.

These included improvements to their language and social behavior, as well as their coping skills.

Study author Professor Robert Naviaux, from the University of California in San Diego, said: 'We had four non-verbal children in the study, two 6-year-olds and two 14-year-olds. The six-year-old and the 14-year-old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion.'

Around one in 68 children in the US and up to one in 100 in the UK are on the autistic spectrum.

A drug that is more than 100 years old improved autism symptoms in young sufferers

SUICIDE RATES AMONG AUTISM SUFFERERS ARE 'WORRYINGLY' HIGH Suicide rates among people with autism in England have reached 'worryingly' high levels, according to experts. Researchers believe the condition is poorly understood and action is urgently required to help at-risk patients. A study previously revealed 66 per cent of adults newly diagnosed with a form of autism have contemplated ending their life. In the same study, 35 per cent of the 365 participants said they had planned or attempted to end their own life. Some 31 per cent also reported suffering depression. Study author Dr Cassidy from the University of Coventry, said: 'What relatively little we know about suicidality in autism points to a worryingly high prevalence of people with the condition contemplating and attempting to take their own life. 'More concerning still, the small body of research that does exist exposes serious shortcomings in how prepared we are to intervene and provide effective support to those with autism who are most at risk of dying by suicide.' Advertisement

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, administered a single dose of suramin to five male autistic children, while another five were given a placebo.

Suramin was developed by German scientists in 1916 to treat sleeping sickness and river blindness, both of which are caused by parasites.

Results, published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, revealed that all of the patients given suramin displayed improvements in their language and social behavior, restricted or repetitive behaviors and coping skills.

Improvement was assessed according to examinations and interviews using standardized tests and questionnaires.

The researchers found ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition) scores improved by -1.6 points in the suramin group, with lowers score indicating lesser symptoms.

Changed behaviors included social communication and play, speech and language, calm and focus, repetitive behaviors, and coping skills.

The only side effect was a temporary skin rash.

A parent of a 14-year-old study participant who was given suramin and had not previously spoken a complete sentence in 12 years said: 'We saw improvements in our son after suramin that we have never seen before.

'Within an hour after the infusion he started to make more eye contact with the doctor and nurses in the room.

'There was a new calmness at times, but also more emotion at other times.

'He started to show an interest in playing hide-and-seek with his 16-year-old brother.

Suramin (pictured in its 1916 form) 'silences' autistic sufferers' 'internal siren' allowing their bodies to focus on development, growth and healing, according to a study author

They said: 'He started practicing making new sounds around the house. He started seeking out his dad more.

'We have tried every new treatment out there for over 10 years.

'Nothing has come close to all the changes in language and social interaction and new interests that we saw after suramin.

'We saw our son advance almost three years in development in just six weeks.'

Study author Professor Robert Naviaux added: 'We had four non-verbal children in the study, two 6-year-olds and two 14-year-olds.

'The six-year-old and the 14-year-old who received suramin said the first sentences of their lives about one week after the single suramin infusion.

'This did not happen in any of the children given the placebo.

'During the time the children were on suramin, benefit from all their usual therapies and enrichment programs increased dramatically.

He said: 'Once suramin removed the roadblocks to development, the benefit from speech therapy, occupational therapy, applied behavioral analysis and even from playing games with other children during recess at school skyrocketed.

'Suramin was synergistic with their other therapies.'

PEOPLE WITH 'SMART GENES' ARE MOST AT RISK OF AUTISM Researchers have found a surprising connection between intelligence and autism. Earlier this month, scientists from the Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research in Amsterdam, announced the discovery of 40 new genes linked to human intelligence, and found that many people with the genes were also on the autistic spectrum. Most of the newly discovered gene variants linked to elevated IQ play a role in regulating cell development in the brain. The findings could one day help shed light on the condition's origins. Advertisement

Professor Naviaux believes autism is caused by impaired communication between cells in the brain, gut and immune system.

Specifically, this results from the abnormal persistence of the cell danger response (CDR) - a natural reaction to injury or stress.

Professor Naviaux said: 'The purpose of CDR is to help protect the cell and jump-start the healing process.

'But sometimes CDR gets stuck. This prevents completion of the natural healing cycle and can permanently alter the way the cell responds to the world.

'When this happens, cells behave as if they are still injured or in imminent danger, even though the original cause of the injury or threat has passed.

'When this happens during early child development, it causes autism and many other chronic childhood disorders.'

When CDR is activated, the effect is similar to a warning siren that never stops, he said.

Suramin silences the siren, 'signalling the cellular war is over, the danger has passed and cells can return to "peacetime" jobs like normal neurodevelopment, growth and healing,' Professor Naviaux explained.

Yet the study revealed the drug's benefit was only temporary as improvements peaked and then gradually faded after several weeks.

Larger and longer trials including multiple suramin doses are required to allow researchers to determine whether improvements continue or if unexpected side effects appear, the scientists said.
NHS staff are thoroughly prepared for a potential terror attack at any given moment amid the warning of a similar incident to the Manchester suicide bombing this Bank Holiday weekend, experts stress.

An urgent alert was sent to hospitals across the country yesterday to make sure they are on standby in case of another massacre following the deaths of 22 innocent concert-goers on Monday. A further 119 were injured.

NHS England issued the memo to the 27 major trauma centres after the threat level of another terrorist monstrosity was raised to critical - the highest level it could be - in the wake of the suicide bombing at the Ariana Grande gig.

Leading names in their fields have said the surprise attack in Manchester highlighted the 'skill, commitment and compassion' of all nurses, doctors, paramedics and surgeons who responded to the mass-slaughtering.

The urge for hospital staff and first-responders to be prepared for shrapnel and injury blasts comes despite their 'superb' reaction to the major incident, which ISIS claimed responsibility for.

Chris Moulton, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, praised the response of all NHS staff and said it proved they are prepared for any kind of unexpected emergency.

An urgent alert was sent to hospitals across the country yesterday by NHS England to make sure they are on standby in case of a similar incident to the massacre of 22 innocent concert-goers in Manchester on Monday

He said: 'NHS Emergency Departments are well prepared for the possibility of a further terrorist attack, as has been demonstrated by the effective and well-coordinated response in Greater Manchester earlier this week.

'Each locality has its own well-rehearsed plan for similar situations. Emergency care staff work under great pressure at the best of times but, in the event of a major incident, will always demonstrate skill, commitment and compassion.

'We are confident that, should such a terrible scenario occur again, the NHS and its staff will rise to meet the challenge.'

The same sentiment appears to be shared across the board. A spokesperson for the Royal College of Surgeons said: 'The NHS is well prepared for a further terrorist attack, as shown by the tremendous commitment of NHS staff in dealing with the horrific events of Manchester this week.

'Trauma surgeons in particular are well-trained to deal with the most serious of situations, including severe bleeding and shrapnel wounds.

'We know that our colleagues across the country will pull out all the stops in the event of another tragedy.'

Leading names in their fields have said the surprise terror attack highlighted the 'skill, commitment and compassion' of all nurses, doctors, paramedics and surgeons who responded to the mass-slaughtering

Letters obtained by the Health Service Journal showed the message from Chris Moran, NHS England's national clinical director for trauma, responding to the worst terror attack on British soil since the 7/7 bombings in 2005.

The last time hospitals were issued with a notice of imminent threat was nearly a decade ago in November 2008, following the Mumbai attacks in India when more than 160 lives were lost.

NHS Emergency Departments are well prepared for the possibility of a further terrorist attack, as has been demonstrated by the effective and well-coordinated response in Greater Manchester earlier this week Chris Moulton, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine

It was sent to the major trauma centres, located at hospitals scattered across major English cities, which are set-up to provide specialised care and rehabilitation to people suffering life-changing injuries that could result in death.

Mr Moran urged all staff to make sure they have easy access to their major incident plans, and instructed them to carry identification at all times. He also asked them to ensure they knew what to do in case the hospital is in 'lock down', and review their designated meeting point should such an incident occur.

The letter read: 'The trauma community in Manchester has provided a tremendous response to the atrocity on Monday night and this is a credit to their dedication and clinical skills and also the preparation that has taken place.

'You will be aware that we have a bank holiday weekend approaching.

'There are a number of things that all trauma units and major trauma centres can do to prepare for a further incident and I should be grateful if you could disseminate these within your network so that front-line clinicians are aware.'

BUT FIREFIGHTERS WEREN'T DISPATCHED FOR 90 MINUTES... Firefighters were held back from helping victims of the Manchester Arena bomb for 90 minutes by bosses - despite being based just half a mile from the incident. Crews have spoken of their 'shame' as they revealed that while they knew that paramedics were in urgent need of back up in the aftermath of the bomb, which killed 22 people, they were prevented from going in and helping amid fears the site was unsafe. Eventually five appliances from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were dispatched, but by then the dangerous work of entering the blasted Arena foyer to tend to badly hurt and dying victims had been done. One firefighter slammed brigade bosses saying: 'Their lack of leadership was reflected in the desperate pleas of North West Ambulance Service staff shouting that firefighters were needed at the scene. 'They were sat at Manchester Central fire station watching the incident unfold on TV. The station is half a mile from the incident.' The nearest crews - based at Manchester Central - were sent two 'pre-alerts' by their regional control room within a few minutes of the bomb going off. They prepared to go to the scene, but were instead told to rendezvous at Philips Park station. Advertisement

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens announced in a board meeting this morning that trusts are being urged to check staffing levels this Bank Holiday weekend, HSJ reported.

In a separate letter sent to trusts yesterday, Anne Rainsberry, national incident director at NHS England, said trusts need to take specific steps following the renewed threat level.

These include reviewing equipment stocks and blood supplies, as well as identifying patients who could be discharged to create extra room if necessary amid a growing bed shortage.

An NHS England spokesperson said yesterday: 'Since JTAC has announced the threat level has changed from severe to critical, this triggers longstanding tried and tested NHS protocols reflected in this letter which reminds NHS organisations of the precautionary measures they need to take ensure care is in place should it be needed.'

NHS workers helping people injured by the bomb attack in Manchester were almost immediately praised for their 'superb' response on Monday night.

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust sent 60 ambulances to the scene at Manchester Arena on Monday.

Patients were sent to eight hospitals within close proximity. Some 23 patients are believed to still be in critical care units.

Following the attack, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health service organisations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said: 'Together with the other emergency services, frontline NHS responders, managers and other staff have once again responded superbly to a major incident and are providing the treatment, care and support that is needed.

'It is at times like these that as a society we really appreciate how important the health service is in all our lives.'

Professor Bob Pearson, of the Manchester Childrens University Hospital NHS Trust, said some of the patients may be able to leave hospital by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend.

In a press briefing yesterday afternoon, Professor Pearson said 32 patients were still in hospital after an initial 55 were admitted on Monday evening after the bomb explosion in the city centre.
Taking part in Tai Chi could help to combat depression, new research claims.

Going to classes in the ancient Chinese martial art for 12 weeks significantly reduced symptoms of the blues.

It can work independently of treatment, suggesting it can scupper the need for an antidepressant prescription, the small study shows.

The findings hold promise amid soaring rates of depression worldwide, with drugs and therapy often proving ineffective.

The meditative practice, which has been used for more than 1,000 years, combines deep breathing and slow and gentle movements.

Going to classes in the ancient Chinese martial art of Tai Chi for 12 weeks significantly reduced symptoms of the blues in depressed adults, a study found

Researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital enrolled 50 Chinese-American participants for the study.

All of the volunteers had mild to moderate depression and were not receiving any other forms of treatment at the time.

They were placed at random in three groups. The first took part in Tai Chi, a second received educational therapy and the third was a control group.

Those given Tai Chi were taught basic traditional movements and asked to practice three times a week.

DEPRESSION RATES ARE SOARING More Britons than ever are taking antidepressant drugs, figures in February suggested. Prescriptions for the most common type, known as SSRIs (serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors), rose by 165 per cent between 1998 and 2012. But a controversial book, The Sedated Society, claims these drugs, are the wrong thing to give to emotionally vulnerable people. In an excoriating assessment of the drug industry and psychiatry, experts claim the evidence for antidepressants is flawed. Worldwide, the rate of depression has jumped by 18 per cent since 2005, the World Health Organization stated earlier this year. It estimated that 322 million people were living with depression across the planet, with 16 million of these being from the US. Advertisement

All 17 volunteers in the martial art reported significantly greater improvement in depression symptoms than the other two groups.

Follow up assessment after six months showed sustained improvement, the report published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry states.

Lead author Professor Albert Yeung said if the findings are confirmed in other trials, it could be used as a primary treatment.

While he said that the results of the study were important due to many adults of Chinese American ethnicity deciding not to seek help with depression.

Professor Yeung added: 'Finding Tai Chi can be effective is particularly significant because it is culturally accepted by this group of patients who tend to avoid conventional psychiatric treatment.'

Previous research has shown Tai Chi makes the brain bigger an improves memory and thinking - possibly delaying the onset of dementia.

The devastating neurological condition is associated with increasing shrinkage of the brain, as nerve cells and their connections are gradually lost.

Tai Chi has also been linked with reducing high blood pressure and relieving symptoms of cancer, heart failure, osteoarthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The burgeoning bitcoin has blown away the stock market bull run and the shinning bullion.

The cryptocurrency made global buzz after international hackers demanded it as ransom to disinfect computers.

But growing demand has made it a top investment choice for many even in India, leaving behind the traditional gold rush.

Bitcoin has almost tripled in value in the last twelve months as it traded at over Rs 2 lakh on Thursday.

Analysts had earlier projected the price of the cryptocurrency to reach $3,000 (Rs 1.93 lakh) by the end of this year, but the recent rally suggests that this target could be hit within a couple of days.

In fact, bitcoin price has already surpassed the $3,000 mark on Indian exchanges.

The rate in India is much higher than in other countries because there is high demand but limited supply.

People here are only interested in buying bitcoins at the moment and not in selling them, which has also led to increased valuation.

Bitcoin is a digital token that is computer generated and not printed or minted physically like a country's currency. It is created and held electronically in a decentralised system, so no single person, bank or authority has control over it.

It works as conventional forms of currency and is traded worldwide. On Indian exchanges, bitcoin prices are being quoted at premium of $400-500 higher than cost.

The interest among Indian people fuelled largely after government's demonetisation.

'In India, bitcoin has already crossed the $3,000 mark. The demand has risen phenomenally and there is scarcity in supply,' said Sandeep Goenka, CEO of Zebpay, India's largest Bitcoin exchange by volumes traded.

At Zebpay a bitcoin was available for Rs 2,28,023 while another Indian exchange, Unocoin was selling it at Rs 2,33,175.

On November 8, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes would cease to be legal tender, bitcoin was priced at about Rs 52,000 on Unocoin and Zebpay.

On that day, the international cost of one bitcoin, when converted into Indian rupee, stood at Rs 46,942.

The surge in interest for the e-currency came as it evolved as an alternative and safe investment option.

Google search data show that Indians' search for the keyword 'bitcoin' was at its peak soon after note ban. But increasing demand has also raised security concerns.

Experts say there was a rush following the cash crackdown announcement as many traders exchanged their black money against bitcoins.

The demand of the largest and oldest among crypto-currencies is high as it is untraceable by security agencies and does not require physical storage that can be raided by authorities.

A massive spike in the value of Bitcoin was reported by coindesk

Experts say the price has gone up as many countries are now making bitcoins legal. In April, Japan began accepting bitcoin, which also fuelled the international price.

Indians too are catching the bitcoin fever as there is a demand of Rs 40-50 crore daily.

The volume here though is still just the tip of the global iceberg of Rs 10,000 crore and too little to influence the price.

However, traders caution that new investors should be careful before pumping money into the e-currency.

Experts say bitcoin is an emerging asset class and the price is volatile.

Sceptics feel this is just another investment fad which will wither away. A rise in bitcoin prices has led to a surge in Ponzi schemes in India.

The central bank too has cautioned people against cryptocurrency use. Security agencies say global criminals are transacting in bitcoins while dealing in drugs, arms and porn.

This creates a hurdle in their investigation as tracking this money on the web and beyond the country's boundary is impossible.

The currency has been used by terrorists too.

The recent Wannacry ransomware attackers also demanded payments in bitcoins, which bothers regulators or countries who want to legalise the digital money.
Departing staff: Polished City spinner and Brunswick founder Sir Alan Parker, 60

Polished City spinner and Brunswick founder Sir Alan Parker, 60, is losing two of his senior lieutenants, Mike Harrison and Mike Smith. Harrison is off to write crime thrillers, while Smith plans to resume learning the piano. It is said that numerous talented practitioners have previously quit Brunswick, frustrated at Parkers unwillingness to relinquish control of his company. Some harshly compare him to Colonel Tom Parker, Elviss famously controlling manager who wouldnt release the King from his contract even after he died.

Pudgy hedge funder Crispin Odey remains bearish about the British economy, insisting too many of us are starting to borrow money we cant pay back. He cites Adolf Hitlers armaments minister Fritz Todt, who predicted the German war effort would stall in Russia in 1942, remarking: What he could see was that lines of supply were at breaking point. A little de trop? Nazi analogies are never wise.

Have you noticed how there are no new photos of Fred Goodwin since his public disgrace over Royal Bank of Scotland? The last known picture was taken in 2009. The go-to snap remains the one of Fred dressed like a country squire with shotgun broken over one arm, a penny-loafered hoof resting triumphantly on a hay bale like a Roman Praefectus. Photographer Lesley Donald predicts the pictures copyright fees will keep him in silk stockings well into his dotage.

Plummy Dixons Carphone boss Seb James, 51, is excited about the firms new store in Copenhagen called Elgiganten. He says: Anyone visiting Copenhagen on their travels really shouldnt miss seeing it. If he says so. The James family holidays must be a riot.

Brainbox ex-GlaxoSmithKline chairman Sir Richard Sykes, 74, met with Prince Andrew on Wednesday in his capacity as chairman of The Royal Institution. According to Court and Social, Andrew later held a meeting about driverless cars. Do cerebral business dignitaries find these intimate pow-wows with His Highness helpful, I wonder?

Have you any gossip for our City diary? Email: mrdeedes@dailymail.co.uk
The FTSE 250 is often dubbed the engine room of Britain  because it contains the manufacturers, retailers and investors that are the lifeblood of the nation.

Yesterday, it passed the landmark 20,000 for the first time ever, finishing up 0.3 per cent at 20,024.92 points.

It's a far cry from the sell-off in the days following last June's referendum. The index of medium-sized UK companies tanked 13.7 per cent in its first two sessions after the Brexit vote, in line with a large decline in the value of the pound.

Many worried that the FTSE 250 would continue to struggle because of its high concentration of companies that make their earnings in the UK.

The thinking behind this was that international firms get more for their money when they bring their earnings back to the UK when the pound is weak. So, what has led to such a dramatic turnaround?

Since hitting its lowest post-Brexit level on June 27, the FTSE 250 has returned an impressive 33.8 per cent, helped in part by a strengthening of the pound.

This is even more than the FTSE 100, which has returned 26.8 per cent over the same period.

The FTSE 250 returned to its pre-Brexit value in just over a month when it hit 17,465 on August 5.

Since hitting its lowest post-Brexit level on June 27, the FTSE 250 has returned an impressive 33.8 per cent, helped in part by a strengthening of the pound

With many economists posting an overwhelmingly negative knee-jerk reaction to the vote, Trevor Green, head of UK equities at Aviva Investors, says the sell-off was initially emotional.

He argues that the UK was never going to head off a cliff because it went into the vote in a healthy position. Indeed, the FTSE 250 had outperformed for three straight years before the referendum.

'As time has progressed and resilient data has kept emerging, overly pessimistic forecasts have been upgraded,' says Green.

With three quarters of its earnings coming from overseas, the FTSE 100 is often seen as Brexit's biggest beneficiary.

But 12 per cent of the FTSE 250's members generate their revenues mainly in the US, 15 per cent get most of their income in Europe, and 23 per cent have sales largely across the rest of the world.

According to Nathan Sweeney, senior investment manager at Architas, many investors initially ignored this in a state of panic.

He says that after this left the FTSE 250 looking very cheap, a buying frenzy among bargain-hunting investors stoked a rally in the index ,which continues to this day.

So can the bulls continue to drown out the bears?

Indriatti van Hien, deputy fund manager of the Henderson Smaller Companies Investment trust, certainly thinks so.

He says that despite a strong run, UK medium-sized companies still look cheap when compared to their larger peers in the FTSE 100.

Companies that service ageing population such as wealth managers, annuity providers, healthcare, and insurance providers are favourable, according to fund manager Paul Spencer

But Ben Yearsley, director at Shore Financial Planning, is less convinced by the FTSE 250's ability to keep growing.

He says: 'The more the FTSE 250 rises, the more that companies have to produce stellar profit numbers to keep pace, and where are those realistically coming from?'

So what stocks should investors use to make the most out of the FTSE 250's rally, while also protecting themselves against the chance it could decline?

Paul Spencer, manager of the Franklin UK Mid Cap fund, says: 'The UK has an ageing, wealthy population and therefore companies that service this market such as wealth managers, annuity providers, healthcare, and insurance providers are favourable.'

In particular, he recommends wealth manager Rathbones, annuity and equity release providers such as JRP Group, specialist house builders such as McCarthy & Stone and private healthcare providers such as Spire Healthcare.
ITALIAN DREAM Asian-themed chain Wagamama is opening its first restaurant in Italy, in partnership with W Italia Srl.

MILITARY MIGHT Defence giant Qinetiq has hiked its dividend by 5 per cent as it announced a boost in profits. Bosses said the company, which tests and develops military and space equipment, was particularly relevant during a year of growing threats to global security.

BID BLOCK Activist investor Gatemore Capital has upped its stake in DX as it prepares to block the mail delivery firms takeover of the distribution arm of Menzies. The investor, which has been vocal in its criticism of the deal, raised its stake from 11.3 per cent to 21 per cent.

Healthy appetite: Asian-themed chain Wagamama is opening its first restaurant in Italy, in partnership with W Italia Srl

STORE DELIVERY Cornershops signing up to a service that allows shoppers to get goods bought online delivered to their local store rather than home has boosted Paypoint, which saw revenues climb 36 per cent to 39 million in the year to March 31.

STEP DOWN Marwan Chedid, a board member at oil firm Petrofac, has resigned after he was suspended amid a corruption probe.

WELL DONE Greetings card retailer Card Factory revealed in a trading statement ahead of its AGM that it was on track to open a further 50 stores over the year.

PET POWER Sales at Pets At Home grew 7.2 per cent to 834 million in the year to March, pulled up by soaring revenues in its veterinary arm which jumped by a quarter to 47 million.

GOING UP Newly listed oil firm Ades International Holding says revenues soared in the first quarter of the year to 36 million, up from 21 million during the same period last year.

WASTE NOT The fall in the pound has helped profits soar 22 per cent to 25.7 million at European waste management company Renewi.

NORTH SEA Oil and gas production firm Enquest said its Kraken development in the North Sea is on track to produce its first oil before the end of June. The company expects to produce 45,000-51,000 barrels of oil per day on average this year.

AIR SERVICE Shares in aviation services company Gama Aviation nudged up yesterday after it confirmed that trading remained in line with expectations. It said its US Air division had performed strongly and its EU arm remains on track to deliver modest growth.
The price of oil has continued to fall

The price of oil has continued to fall despite the Opec oil-producing nations agreeing to extend production cuts for a further nine months.

Russia and other non-Opec members have also agreed to slash production for another nine months.

However, despite the cut, Brent crude slid 3.8 per cent to $51.92 amid expectations the extension would have been much longer and the looming threat of shale gas expansion in America.

Opec countries and 11 other oil-producing nations had first agreed to reduce production in December in an effort to boost flailing prices.

The cut, of 1.8 million barrels per day, was the equivalent of about 2 per cent global oil production.
A US warship carried out a 'maneuvering drill' when it sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea, to show it was not entitled to a territorial sea around it, US officials said on Thursday.

The operation, which took place near Mischief Reef on Thursday, Pacific time, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has disputes with its neighbors, was the boldest US challenge yet to Chinese island-building in the strategic waterway.

It drew an angry response from Beijing.

Previous US 'freedom of navigation operations' in the Spratly archipelago have involved 'innocent passage,' in which a warship effectively recognizes a 12-nautical-mile territorial sea by crossing it speedily, without stopping.

On Thursday, the destroyer USS Dewey conducted a 'man overboard' exercise, specifically to show that its passage of the warship within 12 nautical miles was not innocent passage, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

US officials said on Wednesday that the USS Dewey (seen in the above 2014 stock image) traveled close to the Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands

The South China Sea is home to a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors, including Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan

'USS Dewey engaged in normal operations by conducting a maneuvering drill inside 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef,' one official said.

'The ships actions demonstrated that Mischief Reef is not entitled to its own territorial sea regardless of whether an artificial island has been built on top of it.'

China has warned that America risks 'severely disrupting' negotiations in the disputed South China Sea after the USS Dewey incident.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang urged the US to 'correct its mistake' and refrain from future patrols around the Spratly Islands, which have been transformed into a military base by Beijing in an attempt to exert control over the region.

China declared the base part of its sovereign territory, which automatically creates a 12-nautical-mile body of territorial water around it, according to UN charters.

In this April 21, 2017, file photo, Chinese structures and an airstrip on the man-made Subi Reef at the Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea are seen from a Philippine Air Force C-130

The United States has criticized China's construction of the man-made islands and build-up of military facilities in the sea, and expressed concern they could be used to restrict free movement

However, the Obama administration refused to recognize the claim and continued what it called 'freedom of navigation operations' in those waters.

Defense officials said the USS Dewey traveled close to the islands on Wednesday - the first such patrol to be carried out under the Trump administration.

Chinese warships had warned the Dewey to leave after it sailed toward the islands, a request which it says the crew ignored.

The latest US patrol exacerbated US-China tensions that had eased since President Donald Trump (right) hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) for a summit at the US leader's Florida resort last month

Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang added that China lodged stern representations to the US over the patrol.

One US official said it was the first operation near a land feature which was included in a ruling last year against China by an international arbitration court in The Hague.

The court invalidated China's claim to sovereignty over large swathes of the South China Sea.

The US patrol, the first of its kind since October, marked the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing's efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.

The United States has criticized China's construction of the man-made islands and build-up of military facilities in the sea, and expressed concern they could be used to restrict free movement.


Donald Trump took on all comers on the first day of the NATO gathering in Brussels: shoving the prime minister of Montenegro, slapping a man on the arm and getting into a pair of handshake competitions with the French leader.

The president's brash behavior stirred up the world, but exactly what he was thinking has remained a mystery - until now.

DailyMail.com spoke to Patti Wood, a body language expert, for an insight into Trump's bizarre behavior - and her insights are as shocking as they are fascinating.

Trump vs NATO leaders: Trump's brash behavior is 'primal, angry peacocking'

The most controversial moment saw Trump barging his way to the front of a group of NATO leaders, ahead of a photo shoot.

He was seen shoving aside Montenegro prime minister Dusko Markovic without even a sideways glance.

Markovic, whose country will not be an official NATO member for another month, was to be positioned at the rear of the image, while the US gets pride of place at the front, alongside the UK.

But the leaders appeared to be talking among themselves when Trump entered, and were not yet in position for the photo.

Shove it: Trump's anger about being stuck at the back of a crowd when he needs to be an 'alpha' led to him shoving the leader of Montenegro on Thursday, a body language expert said

Wood says that Trump's reaction to finding himself at the back of the group was one of pure anger.

'His eyes are narrow and the teeth show slightly as [Markovic] is pushed,' she said. 'It wasn't a mistake, it wasn't "I didn't really mean to," it was motivated by anger, and that propelled him to the front of the room.

'Contextually, it was anger at being at the back of the photo op, but I think underneath that is the desire to be alpha, to be first, to be at the front.'

Once he's at the front of the group, Wood notes, Trump straightens his back, puts on a proud face and buttons up his jacket.

'When he brings his shoulders up and back, elongates his neck and brings his head and chin up - this is something I have labeled "peacocking,"' she said.

'At that moment he's not really aware of the [world leaders] around him; it's like he's only aware of how he looks to his public, to the camera.'

Peacock: Expert Patti Smith said Trump's resulting posturing was 'peacocking' - showing off that he'd made it to the front of the world leaders - caused by a 'primal' drive to be 'in charge'

That 'switch from anger at being in back to pride at being in front' takes just 'milliseconds,' Wood says - a sign that it comes from Trump's limbic brain, which houses the emotional area of human consciousness.

'Underneath that, nonverbally, that tells you that's what he needs,' she says. 'It's primally wired, to go there.'

She adds that Trump is not doing what so many others in the scene are doing: making eye contact or connecting with those around him.

'He wants to be alpha, he wants to be first, he wants to be in charge. Connection or equality is not what we're seeing, not verbally.'

She notes that the other world leaders act with surprise to his brazen display, but not anger. But world leaders do generally control their emotions, she said.

'What's always interesting about his behavior is that we typically see world leaders that control their anger or displeasure; they have a facade or a sense of decorum, that's what we're used to seeing,' she explained.

'This is not what we're seeing with him, which is why he continues to surprise.'

Best laid plans: Trump and Montenegro PM Dusko Markovic had gathered before an official NATO photo. This plan put Trump ('US') in the front row and M Markovic ('MON') in the corner

Ignoring: Wood said that while other world leaders were connecting with one another before the photo, Trump was only concerned with how he would be seen on camera, not by his peers

Trump vs Macron, Round 1: 'Keeping people off guard' and Macron's winning 'power move'

Trump had two run-ins with Emmanuel Macron, the newly elected leader of France, on his first day at the NATO gathering - both of which saw the pair being combative in their handshakes.

In the first, Trump is seen walking with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg and German chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of the day's events, when the group are approached by Macron.

Trump holds out his hands, only for Macron to weave away from him and embrace Merkel. Macron then shakes hands with Stoltenberg, who is between her and Trump.

Trump would be next, but Macron turns away from him, to the right, to shake hands with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

Finally, he turns his attention to the president, who wears a rictus grin.

'We know he's angry because his lips are folded back and he's squinting his eyes,' Wood says.

Blanked: New French president Emmanuel Macron greets German chancellor Angela Merkel. Trump (left) had attempted to shake his hand, but Macron swerved to Merkel and met three others before Trump. Wood said Trump's smile here is a fake - he is actually angry

Macron holds out his hand and Trump yanks it towards himself. The pair then engage in a vigorous tug-of-war with one-another.

Wood, who has done three years of research into the psychology of handshakes, is familiar with Trump's practice of tugging on arms instead of engaging in a more traditional greeting.

'It's important to remember that Trump didn't used to shake hands,' she said.

'He said he is a germophobe, but also handshakes are designed to show that you're equal, that "You're safe and I'm safe," and sometimes people in power see that as giving away some of their power.

'I think it's less to do with germs and more about keeping people off-kilter and unequal.

'And this tug-of-war handshake does that, because people have an expectation of what [a handshake] should be, and they don't expect this.'

Tug of war: Trump attempted to get control back by yanking on Macron's arm (left) - a 'power move' said Wood. But Macron fought back (right), frustrating Trump's attempt

But Macron isn't as easy a target a Trump expects, she says: After a second or so of tugging, the French president puts his free hand on top of Trump's forearm.

That's what Wood calls a 'power move'.

'That's actually a technique I teach for dealing with bonecrushing handshakes and shaking too long,' she says.

Macron went over-the-top by putting his hand on Trump's forearm, she says, but doing so effectively showed that he was in control and had power.

After they break the shake, Macron pats him on the shoulder and leans past him to greet someone else. Trump pats him on the back before turning away.

French resistance: Macron is seen here about to pat Trump on the forearm with his left hand - another 'power move' that says he is in control and has the power, Wood said

Trump vs Macron, Round 2: Donald's 'insincere congratulations' and world's longest handshake

More awkward handshake shenanigans came during a second meeting between the US and French leaders on Thursday, prior to their working lunch.

The pair appeared for a brief photo-op at the residence of the US ambassador to Belgium.

Trump - who had previously commended Macron's opponent, far-right anti-immigration politician Marine Le Pen - congratulated the new president on his win.

But he didn't mean what he said, says Wood.

'As he begins talking, he pulls his whole body away from Macron - that's a mismatch with his words,' she said.

'He's saying great things - normally in that situation you would face towards, move towards or lean towards the person,' she said. 'You want to connect with them.'

Instead, she says, he keeps twitching away from Macron as he speaks, and stumbles over the words 'newly elected' - a subconscious clue that Trump didn't want Macron to win.

But Trump does lean right into Macron at one point: When he says the young politician had a 'tremendous victory.'

'That's interesting,' said Wood. 'This is a difficult read for me, but I'm thinking he always talks about his own "tremendous victory" and there's a bit of that in there.

'It's not that he likes [Macron winning], but that he's harking back to his own election. He's not really congratulating him... I think he's thinking about himself.'

Seeing the point: Trump's body language - steepled fingers at the crotch, legs wide - in this second meeting between Macron and Trump is 'alpha' and 'sexual,' Wood said. Macron, meanwhile, appears to be trying to 'protect his manliness' with his hands

She also notes their positions on the chairs, with Trump steepling his fingers in front of his crotch and sitting with his legs spread.

'That's very alpha male,' she says, 'it's very sexual - the placement [of the steepled fingers] is sexually charged and says "I'm alpha male."'

Macron is less commanding, she says - 'he has the outside leg pointed out, like he wants out of there. Usually you see the legs of both men more formally placed.'

And while Macron's hands are also by his crotch, they are clenched and less powerful.

'Macron is doing it more protectively, hands are down and flat out - he's protecting his manliness,' she said.

But Macron goes from Trump's beta to Trump's beater soon afterward, when the pair engage in their second brutal handshake of the day.

At first, it looks like Trump has the upper hand - literally.

'He says, "Congratulations good job," but he keeps his hand close to his body, which means Macron has to do the reaching,' Wood says.

'That shows that he has some power, so Macron has to lean over.'

But things soon change for Trump.

No great shakes: Macron again triumphed in the handshake part of their meeting, with a stern face - like he's lifting weights - that said he was powerful, Wood suggested

Get a grip? Trump attempted to release his hand from the shake but Macron kept pumping for five seconds, 'winning' the competition, Wood said

'Macron is doing the pulling back,' Wood said. 'He's pulling back, it's a fair contest, equal.'

The excruciating, white-knuckle shake rolled on for five second as the cameras flashed and Trump and Macron gazed at one another, jaws tense.

'Macron does that facial expression, with his face tight, like he's lifting weights - he's getting power and energy over him.'

Trump attempted to release his hand from Macron's grip twice, but the French president - the country's youngest leader since Napoleon - kept pumping.

Eventually, Macron let go and spoke in his native French about the need to discuss several things with Trump, including climate change.

But before he did so, there was one thing Wood noticed: 'Macron looks to the camera like, "Did you see that?" A little moment of pride that he didn't let Trump win.

'He's really pleased with how he won. That he didn't lose the handshake competition.'

French pride: Macron's grin shows that 'he's really pleased with how he won,' Wood said - even though he initially had to lean in to meet Trump's hand, losing power at the start

Trump vs Britain: Trump slaps man 'for ignoring him' and 'punishes' UK foreign secretary for not greeting him sooner

A final clip shows Trump walking through a room filled with politicians ahead of a NATO meeting. He strides through, head up, alongside Stoltenberg. But it's not a warm reception.

'Nobodys making eye contact with him, nobody's turning to greet him, which is what would be normal,' she said.

'But he's not making an effort either... He has the expectation that people should turn to him.

'He could go to people [and project the message]: "I'm the president of America, let me come and acknowledge you. I am presidential and powerful and benevolent, and I want to give you my greeting."

'But he has a different sense of what it means to be powerful, and it doesn't match what we typically see in a US president.

'He has a need to be number one, alpha, powerful, and needs to be winning over someone in every moment. No restraint, no decorum, but overpowering.'

No introduction: Trump is seen entering a meeting alongside NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg (center, with gray hair). His attitude suggests he expects attention, Wood said

At one point a man glances up and sees Trump as he strides past, but as he spins to face the president, he turns away, not towards him - and gets a quick slap on the arm from Trump as a result.

'He hit him for turning away, not turning towards him. Trump felt like, "You didn't acknowledge me, you didn't turn to me - and I'm going to hit you for that."

'It was a hit, not a touch. He didn't linger there and say, "Hey, we should acknowledge each other." And he didn't think he would get caught.

'It is in no way normal leader behavior - it's more like a locker room.'

Wood said that the action was instinctive for Trump - an 'immediate response'. 'It's very primal,' she said, 'a lack of self control. which I think we've said before, and in [NATO] of all places!'

Unhappy slapping: Trump, upset that he had been 'ignored' by the man on the left, slapped him as he walked by - which shows anger, a need to be noticed and a lack of self control, Wood said

Trump - not breaking stride with the slap - then comes across a huddle of UK politicians, including Prime Minister Theresa May and the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson.

None of them look at him until Stoltenberg intervenes, at which point Johnson turns around - but he's the only one to acknowledge Trump.

The rest of the Brits - who that day announced they would stop sharing intelligence with the US after a recent leak - continue chatting among themselves.

Wood says they are 'making a choice' not to engage - and that 'he didn't go to them either, which would have been OK, but he would have to make a move and then he would feel that he is losing power.'

Instead, Trump and Johnson engage in some banter while they shake hands.

But it's not as friendly as it might appear.

Blonde on blonde: Trump slapped the back of UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson's hand - as a 'punishment' for not turning around and acknowledging him sooner, Wood suggested

While Trump isn't tugging on Johnson's arm, he is repeatedly slapping the Brit's hand with his spare hand.

'Its admonishment, "Bad boy, bad boy!"' Wood said. 'He's punishing Johnson for not turning around sooner - it's not about the handshake it's about not doing it sooner.'

Trump finishes off the handshake by putting his hand on Johnson's shoulder and rocking him back and forth.

'Thats a power move as well,' Wood said. 'It's not a pat on the back, he's pulling him into his space, pulling him off center. You can see how he levers him.

'And look how Trump smiles. He's pleased he won the competition.'

For his part Johnson seems surprised, and turns to the cameras as he points at the president.

'When he points at him, that's a symbolic gun shooting at Trump,' she said. 'There's a bit of anger in there.'

Gun and games: Trump then put his hand on Johnson's shoulder - not as a friendly gesture, but to push him around. Johnson's pointing fingers are a 'symbolic gun' shooting Trump Wood said

May then turns around, seeing Trump apparently for the first time, but doesn't fully turn to face him. Trump pats her on the back and walks away.

'She is pulling away and down, instead of pulling towards him, and he reaches pretty far to do that pat on the back,' Wood said.

'She turns to follow him, but she doesn't choose to turn to shake hands with him, or be in the moment with him, or put her hand on him.

'And its interesting that his initiation is a hit - a pat on the back - rather than going in front of her and offering his hand, or making eye contact first.

'You dont hit somebody from behind, because it's a surprise - it puts them off-kilter.'

A slap on the back: UK prime minister Theresa May got a pat on the back when she chose not to turn around properly acknowledge Trump, Wood said. But Trump didn't try to talk to her either

Finally, Trump stands at an empty chair and pats it, apparently at a loss, until Stoltenberg directs him to another chair, next to May.

Trump moves over to it before giving a smile for the cameras.

'He holds the back of the chair with two hands and then he has a very forced grin,' Wood says. 'I think in that moment he's realized he's fumbled a little bit and - like that peacocking before, he's trying to recover for the photo.

'He touches his tie for comfort, and then he's grabbing at the chair for security.

'If you look at his weight, he's forward, he's not totally upright, he's touching it to ground himself, and then he has that very forced smile.'

Trump's smile vanishes suddenly before the video ends.
When Marcos Antonio Huete was hit by a car as he cycled to work in Key West, Florida, he hoped police could help him.

Instead, police responding started asking Huete about his immigration status while he lay crippled on the ground.

Footage obtained by Univision shows a Monroe sheriff's deputy interrogating before even bothering to administer first aid after the accident, which occurred last month.

The deputy (pictured left) can be seen asking Mr Huete whether he was 'illegal'

He asks: 'You illegal? Are you a legal citizen or not? Speak English? You got ID? Passport, visa or what?'

Marcos had to call his sister, Olga, for help, who soon arrived on the scene.

The 31-year-old was then taken to hospital where he was discharged with crutches and sent to Krome Detention Center, where he spent more than a month in detention awaiting deportation.

Marcos was also fined $75 by the Florida Department of Highway Safety for hindering traffic.

The Florida Highway Patrol crash report says Marcos Huete 'darted out' in front of the truck in Key West and was cited for hindering traffic. The driver was not fined.

Olga Huete was outraged over the callous indifference with which her brother was treated.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have made more than 41,000 arrests of illegal immigrants have made more than 41,000 arrests since Trump's inauguration

She said: 'The fact that we do not have papers does not mean that we do not have rights.'

Huete's sister added that officers told them to return to the scene of the crash, where the 31-year-old Honduran man was turned over to the Border Patrol.

Lawyer Willy Allen told Telemundo: 'Generally police in Monroe don't bring undocumented persons to the immigration authorities. The Florida Keys were considered a sanctuary area for immigrants.

'Everything is changing with the administration's attitude towards sanctuary cities.'

Since Donald Trump became President Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have made more than 41,000 arrests of illegal immigrants.

There are concerns however that the uptick in deportations will make Hispanic communities less likely to report crime

However, police officials have warned that Trump's immigration policies will have a chilling effect on Hispanic communities throughout the country and make them less likely to report crime.

In Houston, Texas, which has a large Latino population, the number of Hispanics reporting sexual assault has dropped by nearly half since last year, MPR News reported.

The number of Hispanics reporting robberies and aggravated assaults are also both down 12 per cent.
US-led coalition air strikes have killed at least 106 civilians, including 42 children, in an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State group, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said strikes on Thursday hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

'Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans,' said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The US-led air campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria began on September 23, 2014

'The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children,' Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Thursday's toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the Observatory said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday.

The UK-based monitor this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on September 23, 2014.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, the Observatory said.

The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on IS's remaining bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria had 'unintentionally' killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

US forces were accused of killing at least 40 civilians by dropping a bomb on a Syrian mosque in western Aleppo in April. which they reportedly believed was an Al Qaeda meeting. Pictured, volunteers sorting through the rubble after the reported airstrike

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks non-combatant deaths in Iraq and Syria, estimated earlier this week that as many as 366 civilians were killed in Iraq and Syria in April alone.

It said it had seen civilian fatalities surge since US President Donald Trump came to power and gave greater leeway to battlefield commanders.

Airwars' figure and its claim that fatalities had risen under Trump were denied by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

The US military insists that its precision targeting abilities are the best in the world and that it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone.

More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011.
The husband and wife terrorists who launched a deadly attack in San Bernardino, California were shot more than 40 times by police after their 2015 rampage, an official report has found.

Syed Rizwan Farook was shot 27 times and his wife Tashfeen Malik was shot 15 times during the stand off with police after they killed 14 people and wounded 22 others at the Inland Regional Center.

The suspects fired about 80 rounds from rifles and one bullet from a handgun. Officers shot 440 rounds from rifles, shotguns and handguns. Several nearby homes and cars were struck by bullets, but no civilians were hit during the shootout.

Armored vehicles surround an SUV following a shootout in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015

The report released by the San Bernardino County district attorney's office on Thursday provides grisly details into the shootout with both the perpetrators.

A San Bernardino police sergeant recalled grabbing a rifle from his son - a fellow officer - and pointing it straight at Farook and shot at him five or six times after he got out of his SUV and fired from a Smith & Wesson M&P MP-15 semi-automatic rifle.

'One of the rounds passed through Farook causing a mist of blood on impact,' the report said. 'Farook fell to the ground but was still moving.'

This undated combination of file photos provided by the FBI, left, and the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Farook

Survivors are evacuated from the scene of the December 2, 2015 terror attack at the Inland Regional Center

Farook clutched his rifle as he lay on the ground, the sergeant said. The sergeant fired twice more at him.

After her husband was killed, Malik kept firing at officers from inside the SUV, officers said. They could see a silhouette through the shattered back window and saw Malik ducking down behind a seat for cover as she fired.

Officers said it seemed she had been 'blindly firing towards the officers rather than taking aim.'

Malik, who was 5-foot-3 (1.6-meter) and weighed 121 pounds (55 kilograms), had an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle slung around her body as she popped up and down, each time firing in spurts. She took cover behind a seat in the vehicle as the officers shot back at her.

Malik, dressed in all black, was wearing a load-bearing vest with several spare rifle and pistol magazines, along with an airsoft neck protector and black safety glasses. She also had nine loaded 30-round rifle magazines, a loaded 10-round rifle magazine and seven eight-round pistol magazines, authorities said.

Authorities search an area near where police stopped a suspected vehicle in San Bernardino. Authorities have released a detailed report that includes the accounts of more than two dozen law enforcement officers involved in a shootout

The report also details how the terror duo were located by police after the killings at a health department training event and holiday party on December 2.

Several victims told the officers that Farook, their co-worker at the county health department, had been at the party but left about a half-hour before the shooting.

One of the assailants, they said, had the same stature and body shape but his face was covered by a mask.

Investigators then learned Farook had rented a black SUV, which matched the description of the assailant's car and tracked his cellphone to his home in Redlands.

Officers began pursuing the car, but as they tried to pull it over, the couple shot at officers through the back window, the report said.

US-citizen Farook and permanent resident Malik had stockpiled a stash of weapons and ammunition.

Police found a black backpack with 14 rifle and pistol magazines, a military-style ammunition container with 870 rifle cartridges that were loaded into 10-round clips, along with three rifle sighting systems and several bags filled with hundreds of ammunition cartridges in their SUV.

The pair has traveled to Saudi Arabia for in the years before the attack. It was the deadliest terror raid in the US since September 11, 2001 until the Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016 that claimed the lives of 49.
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The crew of this US Marine Corps helicopter painted a stencil of the Twin Towers on its side after reading about the heroics of the New York City firefighters on 9/11.

The SuperCobra flew combat missions in Afghanistan in 2010 but were in awe at the sacrifice of the FDNY on September 11 2001.

They wrote the words 'Never Forget' on the side of the AH-1W SuperCobra and painted a New York Fire Department logo on it.

Now the chopper has finally made it to New York and sits on the flight deck of the USS Kearsarge - in the shadow of the World Trade Center that was built where the Twin Towers were destroyed.

Marines aboard the USS Kearsarge told DailyMail.com the helicopter's powerful history during Fleet Week, the annual celebration of the Navy in New York.

Tribute to heroes: The Marine Corps SuperCobra stenciled in tribute to the fallen heroes of the FDNY on 9/11 is stationed in the city for the first time

Semper fi: Marines stenciled the Twin Towers and the words 'never forget' on the side of the SuperCobra

Tribute to the heroes: The Cobra was deployed against the Taliban in Afghanistan when it was given the markings to pay respect to the FDNY

Link: The Cobra is stenciled with the emblem of the FDNY's Engine 60 and Ladder 17, whose firefighters are in the South Bronx. They wear green berets in the St. Patrick's Day parade in the city

Bond: The Marine Cobra was carried past the site of the 9/11 attacks on board the Kearsarge - which had returned from deployment fighting ISIS in the Middle East

Journey: On the flight deck Captain Kenneth Pierce told DailyMail.com that the helicopter, or 'bird' as he called it, had spiritually come home to New York.

Tribute: Airman Nathaniel Tavarez stands in front of the Marine Corps SuperCobra. It saw service in Afghanistan where it went into action against the Taliban, and is on board the USS Kearsarge as the assault ship is berthed in New York for Fleet Week

At the controls: The Marine Corps SuperCobra has a crew of two - a pilot and a co-pilot/gunner, who controls its awesome firepower

The Kearsarge, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, has just returned from seven months in the Middle East where it was taking part in Operation Inherent Resolve to tackle the Islamic State.

Harrier jets stationed on the ship were doing bombing runs to help clear Ramadi of Islamic State fighters.

On the flight deck Captain Kenneth Pierce told DailyMail.com that the helicopter, or 'bird' as he called it, had spiritually come home to New York.

He said: 'This bird, around 2010 it was in Afghanistan and during their deployment the crew read all the stories from the New York Fire Department on 9/11.

'They painted this bird as a tribute as they flew missions.

'When they left Afghanistan the bird stayed behind and moved around different squadrons. It was still in combat until it was sent back to America.'

Capt Pierce said that on each side the SuperCobra has four Hellfire missiles and 19 rockets. Underneath the pilots is a 20mm cannon that fires 650 rounds per minute.

The two pilots provide close air support for troops on the ground.

Capt Pierce said: 'They painted it like this to salute the bravery of the firemen on 9/11.'

The return to New York was also emotional for Judith Cho, a 23-year-old Ensign who is from the city.

She said that many sailors were looking to visit the 9/11 site and museum out of respect.

Sail past: The USS Kearsrage is marking Fleet Week in New York and its way to the city's Pier 80 meant it sailed past the Freedom Tower, and the site of the 9/11 attacks whose FDNY heroes the Cobra on board honors

Salute: Sailors of the USS Kearsarge were lined up on deck as it entered New York harbor

USA: The sailors and Marines of the Wasp class amphibious assault ship lined up on deck as the ship passed Lady Liberty on its way to dock at Pier 80

Also on board: The V-22 Osprey is now the workhorse in the air for Marines deploying from the USS Kearsarge

Swab the deck: Appalling rain in New York did not dampen spirits on the USS Kearsarge, where a Navy CH-53E Sea Stallion - the heaviest and largest helicopter in military service - and Marine Corps UH-1Y Super Huey were on deck

In command: Navy Captain Larry Getz said that arriving in New York for Fleet week was 'one of those experiences when you think you won the lottery'. Jason Knupp, the senior enlisted officer to the commanding officer, said that the crew had a 'great sense of pride and accomplishment' on their last mission.

Transport ready: Fleet Week lets civilians and members of the military get an insight into the technology and firepower at the Navy and Marine Corps' disposal

Ready for landing: Amphibious assault vehicles and hovercraft are stored in the lower deck of the Kearsarge, where they can be deployed for landings on shore

Ready for action: LAV-25 light armored vehicles are part of the Kearsarge's amphibious assault capability. The long-serving vehicles carry a crew of three and up to four Marines as passengers

She said: 'It's just an iconic location. I think it shook everybody to the bone when it happened and whether people were near to it or far from it or knew people affected by it, they were affected by it.

'Especially being in the military it strengthens that emotion. They want to pay their respects and see it for themselves. It is powerful. Going there every time it strikes a chord with everybody.'

During it last deployment the Kearsarge had a crew of around 1,000 sailors and almost 2,000 Marines.

The 40,00 tonne ship, which is named after the Kearsarge Mountain in New Hampshire, is 844ft long and can store and launch two MV-22 Osprey aircraft.

It also has capacity for up to 60 helicopters and eight Harrier jets, which were used for the bombing runs on its latest missions.

Speaking on board, Captain Larry Getz said that arriving in New York for Fleet week was 'one of those experiences when you think you won the lottery'.

Formidable: Marines can deploy on the AAVC7A1, an amphibious vehicle which can carry up to 21 Marines on shore for assaults and is heavilty armored for patrols on land or in the water.

Into battle: The AAVC7A1 is a mobile communications headquarters but also designed to carry 21 Marines in the rear, along with their combat kit. Fleet Week offers a chance for civilians to come to grips with the equipment used in battle

Fleet pride: The Kearsarge is based at Norfolk, Virginia, and picked up Marines from Camp Lejeune as it made its way to Fleet Week

USS KEARSAGE: Motto: Proud, Trustworthy, Bold Weapons: Two Sea Sparrow missiles, two rolling Airframe Missile system, three Phalanx CIWS and 850 caliber machine guns Capacity: Two MV-22 Osprey aircraft, up to 60 helicopters if necessary, for transporting Marines and sailors and attacking targets; eight Harrier jets for missile strikes. Engagements include: Evacuation of civilians from Sierra Leone in 1997, Bosnian War 1999, Libyan civil war in 2011, Operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State in the Middle East. Crew: Around 1,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines Class: Wasp class Length: 844ft Displacement: 40,500 tons Christened: May 16, 1992, by Alma Powell, wife of General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State Base: Norfolk, Virginia Advertisement

He said: 'It's such an honour to be part of the crew. We had the opportunity to thank the people of New York and to honor Fort Hamilton (military base) and the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 Memorial.

'For those young men and women who may not have been close to being born at that time was a tremendous honor and it instills a sense of pride we will never forget. It's a life experience they will never forget'.

The Kearsage had been part of Fifth Fleet in the Middle East and the six Harrier jets on board were 'doing direct combat missions, they were dropping bombs in Ramadi', Capt Getz said.

Capt Getz said: 'They were trying to get Ramadi back at the time, I think we have now mostly secured Ramadi and are moving on to Mosul. That's what they were doing.'

Capt Getz said that taking on the Islamic State was 'fantastic' for crew morale.

He said: 'It's like pulling into New York Harbor. It develops a sense of pride and professionalism that you cannot take away from them.

'They love being a part of this, they love doing what they do so they show up every single morning wanting to make it better, wanting to work hard, you can't buy that'.

Jason Knupp, the senior enlisted officer to the commanding officer, said that the crew had a 'great sense of pride and accomplishment' on their last mission.

He said: 'Every day they would wake up and knew what they were doing. Not only were their lives on the line and the lives of the pilots they were sending up but they were doing what our nation asked them to do.'
'Just another example of the nanny state we are living in now.'

That's the shocked social media reaction to a decision by police to fine a fisherman $365 for not wearing a seat belt while driving his boat up a ramp.

Nico Brand, from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, spent a night out on the ocean earlier this year before packing up just as the sun rose.

After loading his vessel onto a trailer and driving it 15 metres across a public jetty, he was approached by police - and left 'flabbergasted' at what happened next, the Sunshine Coast Daily reports.

Nico Brand was left 'dumbfounded' after being fined $365 and losing three demerit points for not wearing a seatbelt while driving his car and boat trailer across a carpark (pictured)

Approached by police, Mr Brand said he was 'dumbfounded' to be asked by an officer why he wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Mr Brand (pictured) unsuccesfully contested the fine

'I said "It's a car park" and she said "it's not a car park, it's a public road",' he said.

Handed a $365 fine, Mr Brand also lost three demerit points - and seemingly in shock at being penalised, initially just walked away.

But a few weeks later, still aggrieved at the incident, he asked for the penalty to be reviewed.

'Is it really fair to expect someone to put a seatbelt on when he's on a boat ramp and comes up and parks 15m away?' Mr Brand said.

'If I was really breaking the road rules why haven't I been fined for driving with an unsecured load?'

Told the fine would not be overturned, Mr Brand was left aggrieved - but that was nothing compared to the outpouring of anger on social media.

Taking to Reddit, hundreds voiced their anger at Mr Brand's penalty, slamming it as another sign of living in a 'nanny state'.

Taking to Reddit (pictured), hundreds voiced their anger at Mr Brand's penalty, slamming it as another sign of living in a 'nanny state'

'Just another example of the nanny state we are living in now,' one commenter said.

At the centre of social media users' anger was the decision by police to hand him the fine, with punters calling it everything from 'stupid' to 'a joke'.

'The cop in question should ask themselves what the point of their efforts are,' wrote another.

'Surely police should focus on catching actual criminals, instead of fining people unreasonably,' one person commented.
A major anti-terror power introduced by David Cameron to prevent British jihadis from returning to the country after fighting with Islamic State has never been used.

Mr Cameron announced Temporary Exclusion Orders (TEOs) two years ago amid mounting concerns about the number of UK extremists coming back from the Syrian war zone.

But the measures  dismissed at the time as a Downing Street PR stunt by experts  have not been used once.

Mr Cameron acted amid fears that battle-hardened terrorists with British passports were heading home intending to bring bloodshed to the streets.

Major anti-terror powers introduced by former prime minister David Cameron, pictured, to prevent jihadis from returning to the UK after fighting with ISIS have never been used

Initially, the then Prime Minister wanted to ban them from returning.

But the plan was watered down after being savaged by MPs and legal experts for being unlawful, as it would effectively leave British citizens stateless.

Instead, he introduced the exclusion orders, which last a maximum of two years.

A TEO, which is approved by a judge before being issued by the Home Secretary, makes it illegal for a fanatic to return to the UK without informing the authorities and agreeing to be monitored.

It is supported by cancelling their passport and adding their names to terrorist and criminal watchlists against which every person arriving in Britain is checked.

Introduced in February 2015, it addressed a gap in the powers which meant British jihadis could not be prevented from coming home under international law after fighting overseas.

There were already measures to block foreign or dual nationals from travelling to the UK after joining terror groups.

Labour candidate Yvette Cooper, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee in the last Parliament, said: The first priority right now is to back the police and Government in the immediate action to stop this evil terror network and keep people safe.

Once the urgent action to catch these dangerous extremists is complete, there will be practical questions to answer about why none of the exclusion orders that ministers said were so crucial have been used in practice.

Mr Cameron announced Temporary Exclusion Orders (TEOs) two years ago which makes it illegal for a fanatic to return to the UK without informing the authorities and agreeing to be monitored (file picture)

Shashank Joshi, senior research fellow at security think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, said: It may have been easier to rely on existing mechanisms to monitor and influence returnees.

Indeed, the threat of applying a TEO may have helped to influence potential returnees, along the lines of co-operate with us, or we will impose a TEO.

After Mr Cameron announced the policy, the then independent reviewer of terror laws, David Anderson, condemned TEOs as not well thought through, well worked out or well prepared.

Professor emeritus Clive Walker QC, an adviser to Mr Anderson when he was the laws watchdog, said in a report this year: The main policy objection to TEOs is that they represent a disincentive to return and thereby encourage the adoption of terrorism as a way of life.

A Home Office spokesman said: It is right that use of this power is considered on a case-by-case basis.

'The power continues to be one of a number of tools available to law enforcement and security agencies to manage the threat posed by individuals suspected of terrorism-related activities overseas, and we remain ready to use it.
Video has captured the moment a bodyboarder suffered a burst lung and internal bleeding after being catapulted metres into the air by a wave and slammed into the sea.

Sydney man Jack Baker said he had no escape when the backwash from a wave turned him into a human projectile at Cape Solander, in Sydney's south, on Monday morning.

Mr Baker told Daily Mail Australia he was coughing up blood when he resurfaced and was hospitalised with internal bruising and a burst lung.

Video has captured the moment a bodyboarder suffered a burst lung and internal bleeding after being catapulted metres into the air by a wave and dumped into the sea

Sydney man Jack Baker said he had no escape when the backwash from a wave turned him into a human projectile at Cape Solander in Sydney's south on Monday morning

In the video, backwash can be seen crashing into a four-foot wave that Mr Baker is paddling on.

The impact throws Mr Baker from his board and sends him flying through the air.

He then drops out of the sky, helplessly falling backwards before crashing into the sea.

Mr Baker said he thought he was going to die when he started coughing blood after resurfacing.

'I came back up and I was coughing heaps. I was feeling really dizzy,' he said.

'All this stuff was coming up, and I realised it was blood.

In the video, Mr Baker drops out of the sky, helplessly falling backwards before crashing into the sea

'So much was coming out of my mouth I couldn't believe it. I thought I was going to die.'

Mr Baker said he knew someone was going to be injured during the day after noticing the amount of backwash in the sea.

'I was getting angsty because bigger waves weren't really barrelling that good,' he said.

'I caught a couple insider waves before I said to the photographer shooting in water that the backwash was going to kill someone today.'

Mr Baker (pictured) said he thought he was going to die when he started coughing blood after resurfacing

He said the backwash lined him 'up a treat' and he couldn't escape, so he attempted to crash through it.

'The next thing I knew everything went fuzzy. I remember questioning if I was in the water yet.

'I had no recollection of being in the air. The next thing I knew I hit the deck.'

Mr Baker said up to 15 people helped him get out of his suit before he was taken to hospital.

He said he will be feeling better once he is 'back in the surf.'
A teenager is lucky to be alive after he was hit by a car while sleeping in the middle of a highway in Melbourne's south-east.

The boy, believed to be 16, was lying down in the middle of the Princes Highway, near Victor Crescent in Narre Warren, at about 2.30am on Friday morning when he was struck by a man driving a ute.

He was treated at the scene for lacerations and suspected broken bones, and taken to The Alfred Hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, 9News reported.

Scroll down for video

Police and paramedics arrive at the scene on the Princes Highway in Melbourne's south-east after a boy, 16, was struck by a car about 2.30am on Friday morning

He was struck by a man driving a ute, who did not see the boy lying in the middle of the road despite attempts by motorists to alert him

Other people had seen the teenager in the middle of the road, who they thought was unconscious.

They tried to pull over and help him off the road and divert other motorists around him.

But the ute driver became distracted by that and did not see the boy when he struck him.

Police suspect the boy was drug-affected and that's how he came to be in the middle of the road.

The ute driver stopped and assisted at the scene, Herald Sun reported.

The investigation continues.

Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Other motorists tried to pull over and help the teen off the road and divert other motorists around him
A former Olympian is behind a push to have children standing up in every second class at school in a bid to tackle Australia's burgeoning child obesity problem.

Star track athlete Jane Flemming, 52, is campaigning for schools to make radical changes to help young students build healthy lifestyle habits.

Flemming said getting kids working while standing was about 'getting people off their butts,' because 'sitting is a shocker for brain function and physical health.'

Roughly one quarter of Australians aged five to 17 are obese or overweight.

Former Australian Olympian Jane Flemming, 52, is campaigning for schools to make radical changes to help young students build healthy lifestyle habits

Flemming believes schoolkids should use stand-up desks for every second lesson

'I would love to see legislation that requires every second school lesson to be at a stand-up desk, and for safe drop off zones for schools to be further from the gate,' Flemming told the Herald Sun.

'It would be really simple legislation to do something like that and an easy fix. It is about incidental activity and getting people off their butts.'

Flemming, who won gold medals in the heptathlon and long jump in the 1990 Commonwealth Games, said the culture in school had changed over the years.

'When I was at school the fat kid was considered the stand out whereas now they are the norm,' she told the publication.

Stand-up desks have been proven to have a host of positive health benefits with no negative impacts on productivity.

Flemming said getting kids working while standing was about 'getting people off their butts,' because 'sitting is a shocker for brain function and physical health' (stock image)

Flemming, who won gold medals in the heptathlon and long jump in the 1990 Commonwealth Games, said the culture in school had changed over the years

A world-first study done by the University of Sydney last year showed that sit-stand desks minimised the risk of developing chronic diseases, including obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

'Our study found that workers who increased their standing by up to 60-90 minutes a day were more active and felt more energised than workers who used traditional desks, while not compromising their work output,' said lead researcher Dr Josephine Chau, from the university's School of Public Health.

Co-investigator Dr Lina Engelen warned about the dangers of standing up at work or school without easing into it, saying that prolonged standing also has its own risks.

'People need to be mindful to build up their standing time gradually and avoid going from no standing to standing all day at work.'
For most brides, their 'something blue' is their eye shadow, their shoes, or even their garter.

For Alison Ferrell, from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, it was her uncle.

Ninety-two year old, Bill Lee Eblen donned his Marine dress blues so he could be his niece's 'something blue' in her May 13 wedding.

Bill Lee Eblen, 92, served as his niece's 'something blue' in his Marine dress blues in her May 13 wedding in Cape Girardeau, Missouri (pictured)

Eblen first wore his dress blues when he joined the United States Marines Corps in 1943 at age 18.

He was a sergeant in combat during the battle of Naha in Okinawa during World War Two and later served as an active member in the Air Force during the Korean War.

'From the moment I got engaged I knew I wanted to include my uncle Bill in a special way,' Ferrell, 30, told ABC News.

'I come from a family where we were taught to have the utmost respect and admiration for the armed services and honoring him as the "something blue" just seemed like the natural choice.'

Ferrell asked her uncle while he was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia.

He says her request gave him the motivation to recuperate as quickly as possible.

'I immediately started doing more calisthenics, walking more instead of riding my little three-wheel bike,' Eblen said.

'Then all the people around here were talking about, "You gotta get back in shape again. You're laying around on your you-know-what too much".'

Alison Ferrell, 30 (pictured with Eblen), asked him as he was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia. He said her request gave him the motivation to recuperate as quickly as possible

Eblen (pictured with Ferrell and her husband) didn't have his original Marine Blues from his service in World War II and the Korean War, so a neighbor of Ferrell's loaned the uniform

'He's a tough, mean, Marine machine. I never doubted he would be there,' his niece said.

Pictures from the May 13 wedding showed Eblen beaming as he was rolled down the aisle.

'I felt elated and honored to be a part of it,' he said.

Ferrell said her uncle, who is married to the oldest of her mom's 13 siblings, didn't have his original uniform so they had to improvise.

'A neighbor of my parent's is a Marine. He was able to give us a loaner uniform,' she said.

'We got him all dressed and put the medals and ribbons on him. He's a sergeant, but the uniform was not a sergeant uniform. It didn't have the appropriate chevrons on it.'

But that was the furthest thing from Eblen's mind,

'Just to putting on that uniform again brought back a lot of great old memories,' he said. 'It got me choked up.'
Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed on Thursday that a threat the company received last week to leak the new Pirates of The Caribbean film was fake.

Iger sent a memo to staff after receiving the ransom demand earlier this month. The company refused to pay it and consulted the FBI.

He never disclosed which film the hackers were threatening to leak, but the new Pirates installment was the obvious choice.

They were demanding a huge sum in Bitcoin, threatening to periodically leak the film in 20 minute sections if they weren't paid.

Disney CEO Bob Iger (above with Johnny Depp at the Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales premiere on May 18) said the threat the company received earlier this month was a fake

On Thursday, Iger told Yahoo Finance of his relief after discovering that the hackers had been bluffing and never even had the film in their possession.

'To our knowledge we were not hacked. We had a threat of a hack of a movie being stolen.

'We decided to take it seriously but not react in the manner in which the person who was threatening us had required.

'We dont believe that it was real and nothing has happened,' he said.

Iger took no chances after receiving the threat. He described the issue of cyber security as a 'front burner issue in today's world' and one which Disney prioritized.

'We like to view technology more friend than foe. More opportunity than challenge.

'Technology is an enabler to run our businesses more securely, whether thats protecting our intellectual property or protecting our guests or employees around the world.

'[Technology is] a core strategic priority of mine next to creativity and growing globally.

'Going all the way back to Walt Disneys day, he appreciated the fact that he could use technology to make the stories that he told more compelling.'

Depp stars in the film which will be released in the US on Friday. The hackers were threatening to release sections of it until Disney paid them in Bitcoin

The threat against Disney came weeks after Netflix was terrorized by hackers who uploaded episodes of its hit show Orange Is The New Black to a piracy website after unsuccessfully demanding a similar ransom.

It was the most recent in a string of attacks on Hollywood by cyber terrorists.

ICM, UTA and CAA have all received threats in recent months. In some cases, the hackers have unsuccessfully attempted to access their systems without warning.

The industry is still reeling from the 2014 hack of Sony's systems which divulged the private information of tens of thousands of employees and exposed confidential exchanges between stars and senior executives.
Four men have been charged after police raids found 65kg of ephedrine concealed in housing items busting an alleged drug smuggling ring over the last month.

Ephedrine was found in belts, computer desks, dartboards and water purifiers during a police raid over an alleged meth smuggling ring in Victoria and New South Wales.

Ephedrine is a drug used to treat asthma-like symptoms, but can be manufactured to make ice.

Up to 65kg of ephedrine was uncovered across homes in New South Wales and Victoria

All four men arrested were aged in their 20s with the drug potentially making up to $60 million worth of ice.

The consignments from Korea, China and the UK were addressed to residential properties in Victoria and NSW.

It's alleged the syndicate was using associates met via online gaming and internet cafes to assist with the importations, said ABF in a statement on Friday.

'Seizing this ephedrine is an important step in helping decrease the domestic manufacture and supply of ice,' Assistant Commissioner Buchhorn said in a statement on Friday.

Four men were charged over the precursor that can be turned into ice

'Countless lives would have been affected by this precursor had it reached the streets of Australia, whether it be users, healthcare workers and families that have been torn apart by illicit drug use.'

Three Victorian men in their 20s are facing importing charges before the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

While the 26-year-old NSW man faces the most serious charge of importing commercial quantities of a border controlled precursor, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 25 years.
Britain has reopened information-sharing ties with the US again - less than 24 hours after suspending intelligence sharing over leaked evidence from the Manchester bombing.

An extraordinary row erupted between British and US authorities after highly sensitive images of the blood-smeared remnants of attacker Salman Abedi's backpack and a diagram showing precisely where his victims died were handed to the New York Times.

The halting of intelligence sharing with the US happened for what is understood to be the first time.

It applied only to intelligence related to the Manchester attack.

Prime Minister Theresa May warned the flagrant breaches were undermining the Special Relationship and 'posed a grave threat to our national security'.

Donald Trump  who was tackled over the issue by Theresa May yesterday  pledged to end the 'very troubling' leaks, after Britain had suspended intelligence sharing with its closest ally

Mr Trump (positioned next to Mrs May) said the problem had plagued the US for a 'very long time' and vowed to prosecute any culprits 'to the fullest extent of the law'

This evening, Mark Rowley, the country's most senior counter-terrorism officer, confirmed they had 'received fresh assurances' from their foreign counterparts and were now 'working closely' with them.

Mr Rowley said: 'We greatly value the crucial relationship with our trusted partners around the world so we can collaborate and share sensitive information to defeat terrorism and protect the public at home and abroad.

'While we do not usually comment on information-sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organisations, we want to emphasise that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.'

Mrs May was among the leaders gathered as Mr Trump unveiled memorials to 9/11 and the Berlin Wall at Nato's new HQ

Leaks from the investigation, including evidence photographs from the scene of the attack, were said to have caused 'distress and upset' to victims' families.

US President Donald Trump, who held talks with Mrs May in Brussels today, called the leaks 'deeply troubling' and warned the sources of the security lapse could be prosecuted.

He said the problem had plagued the US for a 'very long time' and vowed to prosecute any culprits 'to the fullest extent of the law'.

'There is no relationship we cherish more than the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom,' he added.

Lewis Lukens, acting US ambassador to the UK, yesterday apologised for the 'reprehensible' leaks, thought to have stemmed from material shared with the FBI.

It is understood American law enforcement agencies had the pictures for only a matter of hours before they were leaked to a journalist from the New York Times.

Mrs May told reporters the Special Relationship was the 'deepest defence and security partnership that we have' and it was 'built on trust'.

She added: 'The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security.

'I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'

The Prime Minister raised the issue with Mr Trump yesterday, telling him the close intelligence relationship is 'hugely valuable, but obviously the intelligence needs to be kept secure'

Donald Trump, pictured at the Nato summit in Brussels today, has vowed to 'get to the bottom of' leaks about the Manchester bombing

Whitehall sources said there was an investigation into who was behind the leaks after another US media outlet had been told the name of the killer hours before British police had raided his home.

The police had wanted to keep the name under wraps for 36 hours or more in order not to alert any of Abedi's associates.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd publicly rebuked the US authorities for passing on the information unauthorised, only for more material to surface in the New York Times hours later.

In an unprecedented move, the British Attorney General, National Security Adviser and senior security officials and police officers have all raised their fury with their US counterparts.

A spokesman for Counter Terrorism Policing, the body that includes the police, security and intelligence agencies, tweeted: 'Unauthorised disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major investigation undermines our work.'

On Wednesday, the New York Times outraged British police and Government officials when it published photos appearing to show debris from the attack

Backpack: The Karrimor rucksack in which the bomb was packed, before Salman entered the venue in Manchester

Battery: The 12-volt battery was more powerful than usually used. The leak came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd blasted American security officials for disclosing sensitive intelligence

The leak came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd, pictured in Downing Street today, blasted American security officials for disclosing sensitive intelligence

Lord Carlile, the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, described the leaks as 'very unusual and irresponsible' and called for those responsible to be 'called to account'.

'Photos of the backpack after the event could be of utility to future bomb makers, for obvious reasons,' he said.

'Also, it damages decades of confidence between the UK and US services, the cohesion of the 'Five Eyes' group, and sharing of information with French, German and other security services.

'These leaks made yesterday a very bad day for national security in several countries, and those responsible should be called to account.'

This is not the first time the US has created furore among the UK intelligence agencies by leaking sensitive information.

Within 48 hours of July 7/7 bombings in in London in 2005, the US media was leaked pictures of unused bombs, apparently recovered from the bombers' vehicle, which had been dumped at Luton station
A failed rapper who became Australia's most senior ISIS fighter has denied charges against him over his role as a recruiter for the barbaric terror group.

Melbourne-born Neil Prakash, 25, has been held behind bars in a maximum security prison since he was captured crossing the Turkish border in October.

According to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper, the notorious extremist faced court in the city of Killis on Tuesday via a video link.

Australia's most wanted terrorist Neil Prakash has denied charges against him in a court appearance in Turkey

Mugshots of Prakash after his arrest in Turkey following a tip-off from Australian security agencies

It is unclear what the Islamic militant is charged with, but the publication is reporting that he 'rejected' all accusations.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this month announced Prakash was set to be extradited back to Australia to face a raft of charges in court.

'He will be brought back to Australia and he will face court,' Mr Turnbull told the Seven Network .

A source in the investigation told the Herald Sun that they expected Prakash to front court within a year.

Investigators from Melbourne's joint counter-terrorism team are planning to travel to Turkey to work with Turkish authorities on speeding up his extradition.

An arrest warrant for Prakash, issued by the AFP, suggests he will be charged with foreign incursion offences for fighting with the terror group, membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation and recruitment for a terrorist organisation.

Prakash has been held behind bars in a maximum security jail since he was captured crossing the Turkish border in October

It is unclear what the Islamic militant is charged with, but he reportedly 'rejected' all accusations

Prakash, a once-aspiring rapper, fled Melbourne in 2013 to join the ranks of the sadistic jihadist organisation.

He converted to Islam at the notorious Al Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne after dropping out of high school.

He has been linked to a number of conspiracies to slaughter Australians, including a foiled Anzac Day plot to behead a police officer in April 2015.

Authorities are also investigating the 25-year-old's involvement in an attack by Numan Haider, who was killed after stabbing two police officers in 2014.

The evidence against Prakash, who is reportedly of Indian, Fijian and Cambodian descent, largely stems from his prolific social media activity.

Prakash, a once-aspiring rapper, fled Melbourne in 2013 to join the ranks of the sadistic terror organisation

Prakash used the internet to promote ISIS' ideology and recruit Australians to join the jihadist group

Prakash worked tirelessly with an English-speaking cell to radicalise Western people then lure them to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

He featured in slick propaganda films to promote ISIS' ideology to young Australians  many of whom died in the war-torn region.

In May last year, Prakash was reported dead by Canberra after Washington advised that he had been killed in a US airstrike in northern Iraq.

Known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, Prakash was reportedly on a list of high-value IS recruiters targeted by the US in drone attacks in Iraq.

However, it later emerged that he had only been wounded by the strike in Mosul on April 29 last year.

Australian authorities kept tabs on him and when he crossed the border into Turkey in October, he was arrested after they tipped off Turkish police.
Three teenage girls were rushed to hospital after they allegedly overdosed on prescription drugs at a Sunshine Coast high school.

A teenager at Coolum State High School said the Year 11 and 12 girls took Lyrica 'to get on a high' during a break on Tuesday and one had a severe reaction.

'She was unconscious and had seizures,' the student told the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Three teenage girls were rushed to hospital after they allegedly overdosed on prescription pain drug Lyrica 'to get on a high' at Coolum State High School

Lyrica is used to treat nerve pain and seizures, but has similar euphoric effects to ecstasy.

Principal Chris Dench sent a letter to parents about the 'serious incident allegedly involving illicit substances'.

'In each instance first aid was administered by staff at the scene and ambulances were immediately called,' he said.

'Parents were also immediately informed. The students in question were taken to hospital.'

Principal Chris Dench sent a letter to parents about the 'serious incident allegedly involving illicit substances'

Mr Dench said he would consult with police and any students involved would be 'dealt with in line with our schools responsible behaviour plan'.

The Queensland Education Department would only confirm ambulances were called for three students on Tuesday after they reported feeling unwell.

The student said many of her friends' parents were considering pulling their children form the school because of the incident, but insisted the school had no drug problem.

Parents were also angered by a now-deleted Facebook post the school put up in the hours after the alleged overdoses

The Queensland Education Department would only confirm ambulances were called for three students on Tuesday after they reported feeling unwell

'It can be a bit of a jungle there. Some parents are thinking of pulling their children out,' her mother told the newspaper.

Parents were also angered by a now-deleted Facebook post the school put up in the hours after the alleged overdoses.

'Systems worked well at Coolum State High School today. All girls are safe and with family,' it read.
A dog missing for three weeks has been reunited with his owner after he was found at the bottom of a ravine blind, confused and ten kilograms underweight.

A two-year-old pit bull called Storm was found trembling in mud by SPCA officers at a Porirua park, north of Wellington on Thursday afternoon.

Officers said Storm was severely malnourished and dehydrated when he was rescued from the ravine.

Storm was in good health when he went missing but likely lost his eyesight after a 15 metre fall down the cliff, SPCA officer Gina Kemp told The Dominion Post.

A two-year-old pit bull called Storm (pictured) has been reunited with his owner after he was found blind and malnourished at the bottom of a New Zealand ravine on Thursday

Storm was found trembling in mud by SPCA officers at a Porirua park, north of Wellington on Thursday afternoon

'He was so underweight, blind and confused that we thought he was much older,' she said.

'He was very dehydrated despite being surrounded by water. Losing his eyesight must have disorientated him so much he was that reluctant to drink.'

Storm was located when a woman walking her dog in the park heard barking coming from the ravine and called the SPCA.

Ms Kemp said they realised Storm was blind when he couldn't find where noises were coming from.

Storm was ten kilograms underweight when he was rescued, which indicated he was likely trapped in the ravine for three weeks, the SPCA said

A SPCA officer carried Storm out of the ravine because he was disorientated and frightened

'He was moving his head trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, but as we got closer I could see his pupils were completely dilated and he wasn't seeing at all,' she told the newspaper.

'We decided to carry him out just because of his eyes, and how frightened he was.'

Storm was ten kilograms underweight when he was rescued, which indicated he was likely trapped in the ravine for three weeks, the SPCA said.

His microchip was scanned and his owners - who were stunned to learn he was still alive - were located.

Storm is in 'good spirits' and will remain in the care of veterinarians while he recovers.
A New Orleans principal of a predominately black school has been fired after footage emerged of him wearing rings bearing Nazi symbols.

Nicholas Dean was sacked as the principal of Crescent Leadership Academy after he was seen wearing a German Iron Cross ring, and a skull ring.

They were awarded to key members of the SS, one of the most feared organizations in Hitler's Germany.

Both symbols are closely associated with Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, Nola reports.

Nicholas Dean has been fired as principal of the Crescent Leadership Academy after he was seen wearing Nazi symbols

Dean was filmed wearing a German Iron Cross ring, and a skull ring - which were awarded to key members of the SS.

Dean was suspended from Crescent Academy after he was seen standing among protesters demonstrating against the removal of a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue.

At the time, he claimed he had been attending the removal of the Confederate statue as a student of history and not to attend the protest.

Three days later, a video was posted online of Dean, holding an American flag and flashing the cross and skull rings, as he complained that he had spoken to journalists who didn't understand their history.

The footage was posted by Abdul Aziz with the caption, 'Nicholas Dean, Principal of Crescent Leadership Academy was in attendance during the May 7, 2017 'Battle of New Orleans' aligned with known white nationalist organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, League of the South and the Based Stick Man movement.'

Dean was already on suspension after he was seen standing with protesters at the removal of a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue, when video of him was posted online

Dean was holding an American flag and flashing the cross and skull rings, as he complained that he had spoken to journalists who didn't understand their history

The 'Battle of New Orleans' refers to the protests over removal of Confederate monuments.

During the clip, he describes how he felt it was his 'duty' to attend the event as 'foreigners with Marxist ideas come here.'

The Charter school's parent group and board confirmed in a joint statement on Thursday that Dean had been fired and 'will not return as the Principal or be associated with Crescent Leadership Academy.'

Superintendent of Recovery School District, which authorizes Crescent Leadership's charter, praised the academy's quick decision to fire Dean, saying: 'While the circumstances surrounding this decision are regrettable and damaging, I appreciate the board making a swift decision so that school can move forward and so that our community can continue to heal.'

Dean declined to speak to reporters.

The former principal was interviewed two weeks ago in a Revolutionary Conservative podcast titled The Battle of New Orleans. Both in the podcast, and during the video, he identified himself as Nick Andrews.

Crescent Leadership Academy's board confirmed that Dean would not return as principal

In it he described himself as a former liberal who changed after he went to Goddard College in Vermont with 'radical leftists.'

'If these people get their way, I don't exist,' Dean says, adding he now works in a charter school with mostly African-American students.

'I started seeing how the black community looked at each other and how race and tribe is so powerful for them, and I really respected that. Even though they fight a lot, kind of tribally, there's a sense of unity among blacks that's just understood,' Dean says. 'That was when I began my own kind of identity, if you will, quest.'

He went onto say that there was a 'civil war going on in this city' but removing 'benign' symbols of Confederacy and the past, wouldn't help, and criticized the negative focus on Lee saying that Abraham Lincoln's writings 'would be considered as vile as anything any white supremacist, that they would say, is today.'
A man armed with three handguns, a shotgun, ammunition and some knives was arrested at Phoenix Comicon, police say.

The 30-year-old man, wearing all back, was allegedly planning to hurt officers during the event filled with comic fans in Arizona

He was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon after a brief struggle with officers after a woman who knows him alerted officials to his activities.

Nobody was injured during the incident and the man's name has not been released.

A man armed with three handguns, a shotgun, ammunition and some knives was arrested (pictured) at Phoenix Comicon in Arizona on Thursday, police say

Held at the Phoenix Convention Center in the downtown area, prop weapons carried into the four-day event are supposed to be inspected by security staff.

However, Sergeant Mercedes Fortune revealed the man's weapons weren't checked.

Police also believe the man acted alone and that it was an isolated incident.

Prop weapons won't be permitted at Comicon for any of the following days because of the situation.

Held at the Phoenix Convention Center in the downtown area (pictured), prop weapons carried into the four-day event are supposed to be inspected by security staff. However, police revealed the man's weapons weren't checked

'Keep in mind, this is for everyone's safety,' Sergeant Fortune said, adding that prop weapons should be left at home or in cars.

Fortune also said extra security would be put in place over the weekend and the number of entry and exit points would be cut down, which could lead to long lines.

'Expect some delays throughout the weekend,' she said.

The convention will run through Monday, May 29.
The Manchester bomber planned his deadly attack on innocent children for up to a year, financial records suggest.

It is understood Salman Abedis suicide bomb blast that killed 22 people and injured 119 more was meticulously planned, with authorities investigating his time in Libya, Turkey and Germany in the days before the atrocity.

Abedi was in Dusseldorf just a week before the attack, with the area known as a hotbed of extremism, prompting officials to probe whether he had an accomplice in Germany.

Salman Abedi, pictured, the suicide bomber who took the lives of 22 people in Manchester, is said to have planned the attack for a year

Lounging on the beach in Libya with friends and hanging out with his mates in Manchester, this is Salman Abedi (circled) as a teenage boy before he became a suicide bomber. There is a no suggestion any of the friends he is pictured with have been involved in any wrong doing

According to The Times, Abedi, 22, opened a bank account a year ago that was unused until he used it to pay for the nuts, bolts, screws and nails he used in the explosive attack on the Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.

The paper also reported he made two separate visits to B&Q and Screwfix in Manchester to buy materials for the bomb and stockpiled them before leaving for Libya last month.

Abedis Arabic-speaking school clique accused a teacher of Islamophobia for criticising a suicide bomber, it was also reported last night.

His group of friends at Burnage Academy for boys, attended by the suicide bomber between 2009 and 2011, took issue with a teacher who asked what they thought of someone who would strap on a bomb and blow people up, the Times reported.

The killer spent his final hours in a 75-a-night flat in the city centre, since raided by police.

Officers are now investigating whether Abedi built the bomb in the apartment, after neighbours said they had noticed a strong smell of explosives.

It is believed that Abedi started building the detonator in a workshop at his familys address in Fallowfield in south Manchester.

Abedi is said to have visited a B&Q and a Screwfix shop in Manchester on more than one occasion to 'stockpile' materials for the bomb

He later mixed chemicals and primed the device in the kitchen and bathroom of the flat, which was advertised for short lets, the Sun reported.

The suicide bomber mixed hydrogen peroxide and another powder known as Mother of Satan to create the charge and used a 12-volt battery as the detonator.

The third floor flat was reportedly available through the rental agency ARC Properties, with Land Registry documents listing the owner as Ruth Bain.

Adam Price, who lives opposite the flat, told the Sun: To think that someone has been holed up inside there plotting such an atrocity as this is beyond belief.

But there was no noise, no trouble from the flat recently.

I reported to the police that recently Id seen a lot of big packages in the postal room being delivered  it was just something else that was really unusual.

Police reportedly discovered large amounts of chemicals and bomb-making components from the flat.

The quantities discovered have led to fears that at least two other bombs may have also been built.

It comes as it has been claimed the former Salford University business management student was hospitalised fighting alongside jihadis in Libya during his gap year.

The incident is believed to have taken place in 2014, shortly after the British-born son of Libyan migrants left Manchester College.

He is understood to have been taken to Turkey for medical treatment using a false passport, before returning to the UK and the university only to drop out soon after.

Left, Manchester bomber Salman Abedi and right, Ramadan, his father, who is said to have taken him to Libya in 2011 during the uprising

Abedi is also believed to have gone to Libya with his father Ramadan during the 2011 uprising, aged just 16.

While there he fell under the influence of a radical preacher named Abdul-Basit Ghwela, according to a US official.

Abedi went to Libya in April and returned on May 17 , flying home via Istanbul and Dusseldorf.

His diversion has raised fears he may have met an accomplice in Germany to receive instructions or even bomb components.

Dusseldorf gained notoriety two years ago when it emerged that the British IS executioner Mohammed Emwazi  known as Jihadi John  had travelled to Syria with a German jihadi from the city.

One theory is Abedi may have been part of a larger cell including Mohamed Abrini, the Brussels bomber nicknamed the Man in the Hat.

Pictured: The bomb's detonator. The sophistication of the device suggests it was probably not made by Abedi himself

Investigators found a destroyed 12-volt lead acid battery (pictured) after the attack in Manchester Arena, suggesting measures were taken to make sure the bomb didn't fail. It is thought the bomb was made by a professional

Meanwhile fears are mounting that Abedi may have built a second device that is now in the hands of jihadists.

Officers who raided his Manchester home earlier this week allegedly discovered a huge stash of explosive chemicals and other components.

The quantity of material has led to fears that he could have built more than one device and and distributed them to other British-based extremists.

Security officials are also examining the possibility that a bomb maker behind the device has fled overseas.

They believe Abedi probably made the sophisticated bomb he blew himself up with mostly on his own.

But intelligence officers also believe Abedi may have had an accomplice who watched him as he entered the Manchester Arena foyer.
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Families planning to get away for half term face the worst May bank holiday traffic for four years.

Millions of families are set to make the most of the sunny weather, as temperatures are expected to hit 30C (86F) in some parts of the country.

With schools also breaking up on Friday, sixteen and a half million journeys are expected  up one million on last year and the highest number since 2013.

Traffic will be 'bumper to bumper' on some of the country's most popular routes, according to motoring group the RAC, which compiled the analysis.

Christie Smith, 18, Melissa Condie, 18, and Dayna Clark, 18, from Aidrie, on Ayr beach, Ayrshire in Scotland

Cara, 7 and her brother Jackson Lowe, 5, on Ayr beach cooling down as temperatures soared in Scotland

Friday is expected to most 'hectic' as families trying to get away early for the weekend merges with commuter traffic to clog up the roads.

ANTICIPATED TRAFFIC HOTSPOTS ACROSS THE UK

M5 Almondsbury Interchange and from Bristol to Taunton A303 Andover to Ilminster A30 and A38 Exeter to Cornwall M4 between Cardiff and Swansea M25 between Gatwick and M1 A23/M23 to Brighton A34 and M3 south and south west to the south coast A47 Swaffham to Great Yarmouth A11 Thetford to Norwich M55 between Preston and Blackpool A14 between the Midlands and the east coast A590/A591 between the M6 and the Lake District A66 between M6 and the coast M53 between Liverpool and Chester Advertisement

But leisure traffic is expected to peak on Bank Holiday Monday at nearly five million journeys.

Traffic hotspots are expected to include the A303 between Andover and Ilminster, the A30 and A38 from Exeter to Cornwall, the M4 between Cardiff and Swansea, the M25 between Gatwick and the M1, the M5 between Avonmouth and Taunton and the A23/M23 to Brighton.

The RAC's traffic spokesman Rod Dennis said: 'The late Easter has meant there's been something of a bank holiday bonanza this year, with up to four days off in the space of just six weeks.

'But that's not stopping UK drivers from taking to the road for a leisure trip this coming weekend, especially as the weather at the start of the weekend at least is set to be dry, sunny and very warm for much of the country.'

He added: 'While we're expecting leisure journeys to reach a peak on bank holiday Monday  families setting off for a half term trip or taking a day trip to the coast  drivers should be warned that the roads are likely to see significant congestion on Friday 26th May as getaway traffic and everyday commuter traffic combines.

'We're expecting it to be bumper-to-bumper from Friday lunchtime onwards on some of the country's most popular routes.'

The RAC urged motorists to do some basic checks on their vehicle before heading off to reduce their chance of breaking down.

These including checking oil and coolant levels, ensuring tyres have plenty of tread and are inflated correctly, and topping-up screenwash.

The Met Office also warned motorists to pack plenty of water and urged them not to forget their sunscreen.

People enjoying a sunny morning down on Brighton beach where today it could reach the hottest day of the year so far

People sit beside the sea as they enjoy the fine weather on the beach in Lyme Regis in Dorset, where there was clear sunshine all day

A hot pooch cools off in a pond found at St James Park in London, where the Met Office regularly records the hottest temperatures of the day

Anticipated worst times to travel on the roads Friday 26 May Between 1pm and 8pm Saturday 27 May Between 11am and 4pm Sunday 28 May Between 11am and 4pm Monday 29 May Between 1pm and 6pm Advertisement

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Harris said: 'We're expecting lots of warm and sunny weather for the start of the bank holiday weekend with a chance temperatures may top 30C in places.

'If you're planning a trip then make sure you plan for the hot weather, don't forget sun cream as UV levels will be high, and plenty of water.'

He added: 'By bank holiday Monday, it looks like it will be less hot and cloudier for many with the chance of some rain which could be heavy and thundery at times.'

In a bid to ease congestion, Highways England has announced it is lifting more than 300 miles of roadworks to help people travelling this May bank holiday.

This means almost 98 per cent of motorways and strategic A roads will be roadworks-free over the bank holiday.

Police horses in London's Green Park take a break from duties to earn a well-earned drink at one of the park's many fountains

Samantha Bumford, aged 24, enjoys the sun and sea in Bournemouth, Dorset, as the UK experiences the warmest temperatures of the year

Cara, 7 and brother Jackson Lowe, 5, on Ayr beach in Ayrshire, Scotland, enjoy the sea and sand, as do Melissa Condie, 18, and pal Dayna Clark, 18

But there will still be 164 miles of road works across the country, including 26 miles on the A1 near Leeming, 20 miles on the M6 near Crewe and 16.25 miles on the M3 near Farnborough and Camberley.

Network Rail is also urging passengers to check their travel plans in advance as it prepares to carry out a major programme of engineering works over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Work at Seven Kings and between Harold Wood and Shenfield will disrupt travel in and out of Liverpool Street station. There will also be work between Bethnal Green and Forest Gate.

There will be no Southeastern trains between London Charing Cross and London Bridge. Most services will be diverted to start and terminate at London Cannon Street.

There will be reduced services to and from London Paddington and Slough stations.

Work between Carstairs and Edinburgh will see lines closed between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central.

Passengers will be delayed by work between Didcot Parkway and Swindon.

There could also be continued disruption in and around Manchester following the terror attack, with Victoria station and roads in the centre of town remaining closed until further notice.

But bosses at the Rail Maritime & Transport union have agreed to suspend train strikes planned for next week in light of the bomb at Manchester.

Staff at Northern rail, Merseyrail and Southern rail were due to walk out for 24 hours from midnight on Tuesday next week as part of a long-running dispute over 'driver only' trains, which strip guards of the responsibility for opening and closing the train doors.
It was an experienced Indonesian customs officer's sixth sense that led to Schapelle Corby, then aged 27, being caught inside Bali's airport.

I Gusti Ngurah Winata was checking for bags arriving in the x-ray at Ngura Rai International Airport, Bali, from AO7829 from Sydney, when a blue boogie board bag cover appeared orange.

Using 20 years' experience of detecting suspect items, Winata chose not to mark the bag with an 'X' as was normal procedure, but instead rather secretly track the bag himself, he told the The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Customs officer I Gusti Ngurah Winata (pictured) had a sixth sense over Shapelle Corby's boogie board bag entering Densapar Airport

Schapelle Corby (pictured centre) was arrested and charged with drug smuggling following the customs officer Winata finding 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag

Schapelle Corby's brother took the bag off the carousel and then carried the bag to the group approaching 'nothing to declare' customs line. But before they left, Winata approached them and asked to check the bag.

After Schapelle Corby said it was her bag, the officer asked her to open it, leading to one of the dividing arguments over the high-profile case.

Winata said when he went to open the big zip, Corby appeared nervous and tried to stop him. After asking why, he claims she said: 'I have some...', according to the publication.

He claims she admitted to stashing marijuana in the boogie board bag. Komang Gelgel was the second officer who claimed she admitted to owning the marijuana.

Schapelle Corby was sentenced to 20 years in prison after customs officer found 4.1kg of high quality marijuana in her boogie board bag

Schapelle Corby endured one of the highest-profile court trials in Australian history

Schapelle Corby spent nine-and-a-half years in Kerobokan prison and three years out on parole in Bali

Corby and her family disagree with his version of events and claim he never asked to view the contents, that Schapelle showed him what was inside the bag without being prompted and she was not nervous.

She also still denies ever confessing to owning the drugs.

The customs officer found 4.1kg of high quality marijuana underneath the boogie board, the largest haul Winata had dealt with and the first to come from Australia.

Schapelle Corby is set to be deported this weekend and return to Australia on Sunday

Winata has not waned from his version of events to this day claiming he had no reason to lie.

Schapelle endured one of the nation's largest media trials with her sentence televised in Australia.

She was sentenced to 20 years' in prison, but served nine-and-a-half years in Kerobokan prison with three years parole in Bali.

She is expected to arrive back in Australia on Sunday morning.
An Air New Zealand flight has been forced to emergency brake on consecutive take-off attempts after rabbits ran across its path on the runway.

The flight from Kerikeri to Auckland was delayed twice on Friday morning after three rabbits were spotted running across the tarmac.

On both occasions the pilot was forced to abruptly abort take-off which startled the 30 people on board, passenger Ian McConnachie said.

An Air New Zealand flight has been forced to emergency brake on consecutive take-off attempts after rabbits ran across its path on the runway (stock image)

The flight from Kerikeri Airport (pictured) to Auckland was delayed twice on Friday morning after three rabbits were spotted running across the tarmac

'It was full braking. It was just like: "Woah, oh my God, we've had an accident as we're leaving the runway or something",' he told the New Zealand Herald.

'Then everybody was startled. It took a couple of minutes and the flight attendant said: "That was a rejected take-off. I don't know what's happened."'

The flight was scheduled to depart at 6am when the first rabbit was spotted on the runway.

Mr McConnachie said ground crew members 'zig-zagged' on the runway to see if they could find a squashed rabbit, while the plane returned to the terminal to be inspected.

A second take-off attempt was also aborted soon after, with the captain telling passengers 'it was two rabbits this time.'

Mr McConnachie said the flight eventually departed after a 35 minute delay.

'Everybody laughed. We were all relieved,' he told the NZ Herald.
Four robbers dressed up as construction workers raided a Brooklyn jewelry store on Thursday afternoon, stealing a reported $800,000 in cash, gold and jewels.

The men arrived at Court Street Jewelers in Downtown Brooklyn shortly after 5pm dressed in reflective maintenance clothes.

Three stormed the store, assaulting its 67-year-old owner with a gun while one stood outside to stand guard. They demanded cash, gold and jewelry from the elderly owner.

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The 67-year-old owner of Brooklyn jewelry store Court Street Jewelers is pictured being taken away by ambulance after he was assaulted by four robbers on Thursday

The cabinets of Brooklyn's Court Street Jewelers were in complete disarray on Thursday after four men dressed as construction workers robbed the store

The men were all dressed in construction clothes and wore helmets. Some appeared to have been ditched outside a subway station a few yards away

The robber standing guard carried a sign which read 'men at work' and also used a large umbrella to hide the unfolding robbery from passers-by.

After the incident, all four of the men fled on foot. NYPD officials told DailyMail.com they stole at least half a million dollars worth of cash and goods.

Sources close to the investigation said the figure was closer to $800,000.

Photographs of the store owner being taken away on a stretcher later emerged. The man had blood pouring from his head and appeared to be holding an ice pack to one side of his face.

Witnesses told The Brooklyn Eagle that he bravely chased the robbers when they fled. They also claimed that one of the gang dropped a handful of cash before getting on to a subway train nearby.

An NYPD spokesman could not verify those claims.

They said: 'At 17.21 today, police responded to a 911 robbery in progress. Upon arrival, we encountered a 67-year-old male with a laceration to the head.

Witnesses said the brave store owner chased the men around the streets afterwards

The clothes were left at Borough Hall Station which is under 500ft from the store

'He was removed to hospital in a fair condition.'

It was not known whether the elderly store owner remained in hospital on Thursday night.

There was no answer at the jewelry store which sits narrowly between a bar and a women's clothing store.

The spokesmen said the men arrived at the shop in the afternoon, running inside immediately to assault the man.

'Three males entered the store, displayed a handgun and assaulted the 67-year-old male. One remained outside at the front of the store as a lookout.

'The individuals inside removed jewelry, gold and cash and all four males fled northbound on Court Street.

The narrow store remained lit as investigators worked at the scene later on Thursday. It sits between a women's clothing store and a bar

'The individuals who entered the store were dressed as construction workers with reflective vests.

'The one that remained outside had what appeared to be a white protective suit on and he displayed a sign that said there were men working.

'He also had a large umbrella to try to cover up the front of the store.'

Investigators remained at the scene on Thursday night.

They were seen examining what looked like a worker's helmet and clothes which had been discarded on the ground outside Borough Hall subway station.

NYPD flocked to the scene at 5.21 on Thursday afternoon. The elderly store owner was taken to hospital
Attorneys for a former priest who is accused of killing a beauty pageant queen in 1960 are claiming that media coverage has made the trial unfair in Hidalgo County, Texas.

John Feit, 84, was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, last February and charged with the murder of schoolteacher Irene Garza more than 57-years-ago.

'The pretrial publicity has reached that point where (Feit) cannot reasonably receive a fair and impartial jury in this case,' said representing defense attorney O. Rene Flores according to My San Antonio.

An expert witness then added that of all the prospective witnesses, approximately 76 percent had heard of the case surrounding the former priest who appeared in court with his walker

John Feit, 84 (right), was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, last February and charged with the murder of schoolteacher Irene Garza more than 57-years-ago when he was a 27-year-old priest (left)

Former beauty queen: Miss Garza was once named Miss South Texas

On Wednesday, a trial consultant spoke about how easily swayed public opinion can be swayed by media.

An expert witness then added that of all the prospective witnesses selected for the case, approximately 76 percent had heard of the case.

Garza was last seen alive when on the night before Easter in 1960, she went to then 27-year-old priest for confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas.

Her body would be found five days later in a canal where it was determined she had been beaten, raped and then asphyxiated.

'Despite the passage of time, this case is really important to this community,' said Bryan Edelman, a trial consultant with the California-based Trial Innovations.

Garza was last seen alive when on the night before Easter in 1960, she went to then 27-year-old priest for confession

Her body would be found five days later in a canal where it was determined she had been beaten, raped and then asphyxiated

'Actually it was an important factor in determining the outcome of the election for district attorney.'

After two priest came forward and offered testimony that Feit had allegedly confessed to the killing, Texas Rangers reopened the case in 2002. A grand jury probe found insufficient evidence to indict him, however, in 2004.

The then district attorney of Hidalgo County, Rene Guerra, was heavily scrutinized for his role in the investigation by the victim's family who then chose to support Ricardo Rodriguez ultimately helping him win the election in 2014.

After two priest came forward and offered testimony that Feit had allegedly confessed to the killing, Texas Rangers reopened the case in 2002. A grand jury probe found insufficient evidence to indict him, however, in 2004

Walker appears in a courtroom with his walker preparing to be placed on bail

While the defense argued about the media's role in the case, the prosecution felt like that was no excuse to move the case.

'I find it highly, I guess, insulting,' said prosecutor Michael J. Garza.

'That a person can walk into a courtroom  and tell the court its citizens cannot be fair because they have read articles concerning the case.'

State District Judge Luis Singleterry said that he expects to make a ruling on whether to grant the change of location sometime within the next week.

State District Judge Luis Singleterry expects to make a ruling on whether to grant the change of location sometime within the next week. If Singleterry rules against a change of venue, the trial would begin September 11

If Singleterry rules against a change of venue, the trial would begin September 11 with a pretrial date of July 19.

Since the 1970s, Feit has enjoyed family life. He got married, had children and grandchildren and regularly volunteered at his church.

He'll face spending the rest of his life in jail if he is convicted.

He said the last time he saw Garza was in the church's rectory after he heard her confession.

District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez told The Monitor in February that he presented his case to a grand jury and they voted to indict him.

'We had kept it quiet as much as we could - we sealed the indictment,' he said.

He would not say what, if any, new evidence he had.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas where Feit worked and the last known location of Garza

Items belonging to Miss Garza would become evident over the next few days after she was reported missing

It comes 13 years after the case was reopened, but a grand jury failed to indict in 2004.

Feit pleaded no contest to misdemeanor aggravated assault. A judge found him guilty and fined him $500 with no prison time.

He was interviewed by police after Garza's disappearance, but told them he didn't do it. However he is believed to have failed a series of lie detector tests.

At the time it was unthinkable for a priest to commit such a horrible act.
An accused pedophile with a long history of failing to show up to court to face his charges is on the run, having again skipped a court date while on bail.

Alfred John Impicciatore, an alleged member of the notorious child sex abuse group 'Evil 8', is currently be on the run across Australia with a female accomplice.

The 47-year-old was due to face the WA District Court on Monday, facing charges of sexually penetrating a child aged between 13 and 16, but he never showed up.

The trial has been abandoned and a warrant has now been issued for Impicciatore's arrest, with he and his alleged accomplice Rachel Galvin, 40, believed to be driving a stolen car towards the eastern states.

Alfred John Impicciatore (pictured) an accused pedophile with a long history of failing to show up to court to face charges is on the run, having again skipped a court date while on bail

The 47-year-old, who is an alleged member of notorious child sex abuse group 'Evil 8', is said to be travelling to the eastern states in a stolen car with Rachel Galvin (pictured), 40

In a statement released on Friday morning, WA police revealed Impicciatore and his female companion may be driving a red Nissan Pulsar across the Nullarbor.

They are urging anyone travelling along the remote roads between WA and the east of the country to be aware of the car with registration 1ASA 315.

Impicciatore is alleged to be one of the 'evil eight' men charged with sexually assaulting a young girl who had been pimped out by her father over a two-year period.

In what's been dubbed one of the most horrific child sex abuse cases in Australia's history, the girl was first abused by a stranger when she was just 11.

However the 'Evil 8' was reduced to seven, with one of the men not charged with offences related to the girl.

Three of those men charged have been jailed - including the victim's father - while two are awaiting sentencing.

The bailing of members of the 'Evil 8' has previously sparked controversy, with Daily Mail Australia last year revealing some of the men were bailed to live near schools.

Paedophile pastor David Volmer was bailed to a residence opposite a school, where he lived for four months.

In a statement released on Friday morning, WA police revealed Impicciatore and his female companion may be driving a red Nissan Pulsar 1ASA 315 (pictured) across the Nullarbor

The bailing of 'Evil 8' members including David Volmer (left) and Ryan Trevor Clegg (right) has sparked controversy, with Daily Mail Australia last year revealing some of the men lived near schools

Another self-confessed child abuser awaiting sentencing, Ryan Trevor Clegg, had his bail revoked after it emerged he breached his conditions by living close to childcare centres and a school.

Another member of the alleged ring, self-confessed abuser Nicholas Adam Beer, was bailed to a home about 500 metres from a school.

West Australian Attorney-General Michael Mischin last year announced plans to amend legislation to create a presumption against granting bail to sex offenders awaiting sentencing.
A teen accused of stabbing four students in Manhattan winked during a court appearance on Thursday.

Juan Gomez, 16, appeared at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court after being charged with attempted murder and multiple counts of assault and weapons possession.

Police say a fight between Gomez and a 15-year-old student, both of whom had been suspended, broke out near the intersection of 52nd Street near 8th Avenue outside PS 35 around 1:20pm on Wednesday.

It was their first day back at school, and they met outside to fight after dismissal.

Gomez pulled out a knife and stabbed the 15-year-old in the back and stomach. He also slashed three other students ranging between 16 and 18 years of age.

The 15-year-old was taken to Cornell Medical Center for surgery and is expected to survive.

Juan Gomez, 16 (pictured) winks at a photographer as he appears at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday

Gomez (pictured) was charged with attempted murder and multiple counts of assault and weapons possession

Gomez is accused of stabbing four schoolmates in an afterschool fight on a street near Manhattan's Theater District outside of PS 35 (scene above)

A 16-year-old boy was stabbed in the stomach, a 17-year-old boy was slashed on his ear and an 18-year-old was wounded in the arm. Authorities say they suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Gomez fled the scene, wearing a red hat, and police were searching for him, said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, before he turned himself in at the Midtown North Precinct around 8pm on Wednesday.

Sherri Hodes, who lives on the same block as the school, told The Associated Press she saw the fight as she was walking her Border Collie mix, Sophie, but she didn't realize at the time that anyone had been stabbed.

'One guy was punching another guy, and the other guy wasn't really punching back. He got him on the ground, and he was punching him and punching him,' Hodes said.

Gomez fled the scene in a red hat and police were searching for him, said Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, before he turned himself in at the Midtown North Precinct around 8pm on Wednesday (scene above)

A 15-year-old was stabbed in the back and stomach. Gomez also slashed three other students ranging between 16 and 18 years of age (scene above)

PS-35 is located around the corner from the new Broadway production of Groundhog Day, as well as the revival of Cats.

'They were screaming, and people were running. It was so fast and so much was happening. It was crazy,' Hodes said

She added that she often sees fights among students at the school.

'They fight all the time. I mean, that's what kids do. That's what teenagers do,' Hodea said.

Boyce said it's not clear what prompted the fight or the brawl last week that led to their suspension.

He said it didn't appear to be gang-related, but it was under investigation.

It was the first day back at school for Gomez and the 15-year-old boy, and they met outside to fight after dismissal, Boyce said (scene above)

Boyce said it didn't appear to be gang-related, but it was under investigation (scene above)

A knife was recovered in a backpack near the scene by NYPD investigators (scene above)

A knife was recovered in a backpack near the scene.

PS 35 has 306 students from first to 12th grades and includes special education.

A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Education said it was working closely with police.

'The safety of students and staff is our top priority,' the spokeswoman said.
Rebel Wilson's high-profile defamation case was brought to a standstill when a security scare saw the courtroom evacuated.

The Supreme Court of Victoria was about to enter its fifth day when a security scare saw the public and media ordered outside for security checks, reports 7News.

The scare on Thursday came as lawyers for gossip magazine Woman's Day prepared to begin their cross-examination of Wilson in the defamation trial .

Rebel Wilson arrives at the Supreme Court in Melbourne with her legal team on Friday

Wilson alleges Bauer Media defamed her when they ran a series of eight articles

The comic actress claims Bauer Media defamed her when they ran a series of eight articles in a number of their titles during 2015 that she says painted her as a serial liar and a fake.

Wilson, 37, denies she lied about her real name, age or childhood and has pledged to fight the publisher in a bid to stand up for herself and her family, who she says were harassed by journalists in the 'media firestorm'.

The Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids star says following the articles, she was fired from DreamWorks films Kung Fu Panda 3 and Trolls, with other movie offers drying up.

On Thursday, she cried in the witness box while she described losing two years of her limited time in the Hollywood limelight.

She said she had to beg to be let back inside studio doors to impress producers with her ideas.

The trial is expected to go for another two weeks and will hear from witnesses including Wilson's mother and siblings, her Australian and US agents, an old school friend from her childhood in Sydney and fellow Australian actor Hugh Sheridan.

A fan gets his picture with Wilson outside court as lawyers for gossip magazine Woman's Day prepared to begin their cross-examination

The high-profile trial is expected to go for another two weeks




Donald Trump proved once again that diplomacy is not his strong suit after he told European leaders that Germans are 'very bad'.

The president met with the President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, and President of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to discuss trade on Thursday in Brussels.

But Trump pulled no punches when he went on the offensive about the USA's $65 billion goods trade deficit with Germany.

'The Germans are bad, very bad,' Trump told the EU leaders, according to a German magazine which used the word bose - which can also translate as nasty or evil.

President Donald Trump, pictured with President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, heading into a meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, attacked Germany over their trade surplus

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) arrives for his meeting on Monday where he announced that 'The Germans are bad, very bad'

Trump (L) told the President of the European Council Donald Tusk (C) and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (R) he was going to stop Germans importing cars

'Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US, and we'll stop that,' he promised.

Juncker defended the Germans and highlighted the merits of free trade for the global economy, a source at the meeting told Spiegel. The world leaders were later joined by other high ranking EU members.

The United States had a $65 billion goods trade deficit with Germany in 2016, the third-largest negative balance after a $347 billion deficit with China and a $69 billion shortfall with Japan, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Data from Germany's Federal Statistics Office on Monday showed that exports to the United States jumped eight percent on the year in the first quarter, to nearly 14 billion euros, signaling that trade is flourishing despite President Trump's protectionist rhetoric.

Later in the day Trump (right, next to US Defense Secretary, James Mattis, 2nd right) met with NATO leaders and repeated calls for members of the military alliance to pay more, saying that payments must make up for 'the years lost.'

Trump spoke at the summit, where he accused members of owing 'massive amounts of money', saying it was 'not fair to the people and tax payers of the United States'

But Trump's attack on the German belies his basic ignorance about how the EU works.

The US can't negotiate a deal with a single member state, such as Germany, but as the EU as a whole.

This isn't the first time Trump has expressed his frustration over Germany's successful exports, compared to America's.

He previously threatened to impose a 35 per cent import tax on BMWs assembled in Mexico to encourage manufacturers to move to the US.

'If you want to build cars in the world, then I wish you all the best. You can build cars for the United States, but for every car that comes to the USA, you will pay 35 percent tax,' Trump told German tabloid Bild in January.

'I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that,' Trump said.

The president, pictured leaving the Europa building in Brussels with European Council President Donald Tusk, center, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker after the meeting

Tusk commented after the meeting that European leaders and Trump had agreed on some issues, such as counter terrorism, but many others 'remain open, like climate and trade.

'And I am not 100 percent sure that we can say today - we means the president and myself - that we have a common position, common opinions about Russia,' Tusk said.

Trump later spoke at his first NATO summit, where he accused members of owing 'massive amounts of money', saying it was 'not fair to the people and tax payers of the United States.'

'NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,' he told the assembled leaders who stared at him, unsmiling.
The head of Australia's top spy agency has shut down Pauline Hanson's protests there is a link between refugees and terrorism in Australia in the wake of the Manchester terror attack.

Duncan Lewis, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, was quizzed on the issue by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at a parliamentary committee on Thursday night.

'I have absolutely no evidence to suggest there is a connection between refugees and terrorism,' Mr Lewis said.

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Pauline Hanson's (pictured) attempts to link refugees to terrorism in Australia were shut down

When asked whether refugee children were being radicalised in Australia, he told Senator Hanson: 'I see no evidence of it here.'

Mr Lewis said the ASIO did not make its enquiries or assessments on the basis of anyone's religion.

'We are not interested in religion - we are interested in whether an individual is exhibiting or expressing violence,' he said.

'We are only interested in people who are exhibiting violence and to the extent of violent extremism - which is very frequently inspired by a warped version of Sunni Islam - that's when our interests are invoked.'

'I understand that. But a lot of the problems happening in Australia are because of the increased belief in Islam, and it's the only religion in Australia that we've had terrorist attacks and problems on our streets,' Senator Hanson replied.

Mr Lewis was also asked by Senator Hanson if women wearing burqas presented a security threat.

Duncan Lewis, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, (pictured) said there is no evidence of such a link

Mr Lewis spoke about the threat of terrorism in Australia in the wake of the terror attack on Manchester (pictured)

'We have no security reason to be concerned about the wearing of a burqa other than the requirement for individuals to identify themselves to authorities,' Mr Lewis said.

He said not all thwarted terrorism plots had involved Islamist extremists - one recent investigation uncovered a right-wing extremist planning an attack.

Senator Hanson campaigned at the last election on banning Muslim refugees and shutting down mosques.

But Mr Lewis also warned Australia is staring down the barrel of an impending Islamic terrorist threat and does not see it 'ending' any time soon, The Australian reported.

'This is not the end, it's not the beginning of the end, it's more like the end of the beginning. We don't see this finishing any time soon.'

Mr Lewis said in light of the recent tragic Manchester bombing, security effort in Australia has been 'redoubled'.

'Attacks such as this targeting some of society's most innocent cause my officers at all levels, both here in Australia and overseas, to redouble their focus and effort to counter this menacing threat.'
Two students aged 16 and 17 have been arrested for plotting a gun and bomb attack on their high school in Anaheim, California.

The teenagers allegedly shared detailed plans of the attack on Instagram.

Police say the pair planned to set bombs and carry out a deadly shooting at Savanna High School.

They were arrested on Thursday, the last day of school when hundreds took part in a graduation ceremony.

Two students at Savanna High School in Anaheim, California, (above) were arrested on Thursday for plotting an attack on the school on Instagram

It is not clear if the attack was intended to strike the ceremony or if either of the boys was due to graduate.

School staff contacted police early on Thursday morning before classes after allegedly discovering the threats on the photo-sharing website.

According to authorities, the teens scouted out busy locations across the school campus where the attack would have most impact.

Police searched each boy's home but so far no guns or weapons have been found.

Each boy's parents are cooperating with investigations, ABC reports.

The teenagers are expected to be booked into Orange County Juvenile Hall.

Police feared more students may be involved in the plot and are urging parents to speak to their children.

It is not clear if the pair gave any motivation for the attack in their Instagram plans.
Reusable shopping bags are only beneficial to the environment if they are used at least 104 times, a study has found.

This is because thicker plastic bags, or bags made from a plastic-type material, require more energy and resources to produce than regular bags.

In order to offset this, the bags must be used at least twice a week for a year in order for the benefits to kick in.

'Green' shopping bags must be used at least twice a week for a year before they provide any benef to the environment, a study has found

Associate Professor Karli Verghese carried out the study for RMIT University, located in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Verghese told ABC: 'If you're able to do that over a long time frame, then you're going to have an environmental advantage.'

The researcher said fashion companies were as guilty when it came to spreading false information on reusable bags.

'If you have a look at some of the plastic bags that are given out by fashion companies, they're pretty thick plastics,' Assoc Prof Verghese said.

'There's a lot of focus on the supermarket shopping bag but there's lots of plastic bags that are given out at lots of other shops.'

RMIT study says people not using reusable bags enough to realise its benefits

Assoc Prof Verghese said shoppers should look at using cotton reusable bags as it is regarded as a better alternative for the environment than green bags or plastic bags.

At present, 10 million plastic bags are used by Australians daily with 85 per cent of these bags ending up in landfills.

Hear more on what Assoc Prof Verghese has to say about reusable bags in the ABC series War on Waste which airs every Tuesdays at 8.30pm.
An Air Force employee disrespected the iconic astronaut John Glenn's remains by offering horrified Defense Department inspectors a look at the body before he was buried, according to an internal memo.

An investigation has been launched into the conduct of Dover Air Force Base mortuary chief William Zwicharowski, which was deemed 'inappropriate and personally shocking' in a memo obtained by the Military Times.

Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, died on December 8 at the age of 95 and his family trusted the Air Force to care for his remains before his burial at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on April 6, 2017.

Dover Air Force Base mortuary chief William Zwicharowski (left) offered inspectors a look at the body of John Glenn (right), according to an internal memo obtained by the Military Times

Glenn died on December 8 at the age of 95. His family trusted the Air Force to care for his remains before his burial at the Arlington National Cemetery on April 6, 2017 (pictured)

Glenn's family asked the Air Force to care for his remains to 'ensure an increased level of privacy and security for a renowned public servant, Marine Corps officer, and pioneer of space exploration,' the Military Times reported.

In a memo dated May 11, Deborah Skillman, the Defense Department's director of casualty and mortuary affairs, expressed her concerns regarding Zwicharowski's behavior.

He first offered the inspectors, along with junior personnel working at the Dover Mortuary Branch, to view Glenn's body on February 28, Skillman wrote.

Glenn's family asked the Air Force to care for his remains to 'ensure an increased level of privacy and security'. Pictured, Glenn's memorial on December 16

Skillman, who headed the inspection team to determine whether the facility was adhering to protocol, asked the deputy commander to speak to Zwicharowski, according to the memo.

Skillman (above) called Zwicharowski's conduct 'inappropriate and personally shocking'

But Zwicharowski made the same offer again on March 2, according to the memo.

Skillman said that on both occasions, the inspectors declined.

Zwicharowski has not responded to the claims made in the memo.

An investigation is ongoing, and Air Force Spokesperson Patrick Ryder said: 'If any allegations of misconduct are substantiated, those involved will be held accountable.'

Zwicharowski and two other employees at the mortuary were honored with Public Servant of the Year awards after they reported body parts were improperly disposed in land fills or deemed medical waste.

In a 2013 interview, Zwicharowski said: 'I want to guarantee the families of our fallen, in the past and in the future, that they're treated with honor, dignity and respect here at Dover. ... As long as I'm here, they'll be treated that way.'

In the memo, Skillman made it a point to emphasize the ongoing investigation was not retaliation for Zwicharowski's whistleblowing.

Glenn was heralded as a hero when he became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth

Glenn passed away in Columbus, Ohio, more than a week after he was first hospitalized for an unknown illness.

He made history on February 20, 1962 by becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. Glenn later went on to become an Ohio senator.
The outgoing CEO of Australia Post says he was 'bemused' at the controversy around his $5.6million paypacket, while also taking a veiled swipe at sex scandals involving other highly-paid bosses.

Ahmed Fahour stood down from his role at the head of the mail service earlier this year after it was revealed he was paid a $4.4m salary and $1.2m bonus in 2015.

Social media, politicians and other top bosses spoke out after Mr Fahour's earnings, were revealed with millionaire PM Malcolm Turnbull even claiming it was 'too high'.

Now, some three months after handing in his resignation, the Australia Post boss has hit out at the controversy surrounding his earnings during a speech to a university business school, Nine Finance reports.

Ahmed Fahour (pictured), the outgoing CEO of Australia Post, has admitted he was 'bemused' at the controversy around his $5.6million paypacket

Mr Fahour also took a swipe at sex scandals involving other bosses. Channel Seven's Tim Worner's (left) affair with former EA Amber Harrison (right) made headlines this year.

Talking at the University of NSW, Mr Fahour said he didn't understand why there was so much outrage around his salary compared to other 'not so nice' CEOs.

'There were some CEOs, doing some things, that were not so nice to their secretaries,' Mr Fahour said.

'And some were not running their businesses very well, and they seemed to keep their jobs, and no one seemed to care about what they were being paid.'

While the AusPost boss didn't mention names, some members of the audience have reportedly said they believe he was talking about Mr Worner, the Channel Seven CEO.

A father-of-four, Mr Worner became embroiled in a sex scandal with former executive assistant Amber Harrison towards the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017.

Channel Seven has since fought to have information about the affair suppressed, with court action taken in both Sydney and Melbourne.

'There were some CEOs, doing some things, that were not so nice to their secretaries,' Mr Fahour said. He didn't name names, but some present believed he was talking about Mr Worner's affair with Ms Harrison (pictured)

Also opening up on the response to his multi-million-dollar salary, Mr Fahour (pictured) said he felt he'd simply taken a job and the paypacket that accompanied it

Also opening up on the response to his multi-million dollar salary, Mr Fahour said he felt he'd simply taken a job and the paypacket that accompanied it.

'At the time I was sort of bemused by it all, thinking, its not as though I held a gun to the governments head or to the boards head and said if you dont pay me this Im not going to do this job,' he said.

'But somehow, some people took a great delight and interest in the fact that I did my job successfully and I got paid what I was told I was going to get paid.'

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson was among those to voice her anger at Mr Fahour's earnings, saying she was 'mad' and 'absolutely seething'.
A former Los Angeles Police Department officer was arrested for allegedly trying to rob a Northern California bank.

Police say Jennifer Rae McClary, 36, disguised herself as a man by painting on a fake beard and proceeded to hand a bank teller a note demanding money at a Danville, California Bank of the West on Tuesday.

McClary served on the Los Angeles department from 2006-2008 and then joined the force in Placentia for an 18-month stint from 2008-2010.

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Jennifer Rae McClary, 36, was arrested after she allegedly tried to disguise herself as a man and rob Bank of the West in Danville, California on Tuesday

Not so master in disguise: McClary painted on a beard to look like a man as she handed the bank teller a note demanding money

McClary soon left the building and had no weapon but was soon apprehended by authorities

Local officials are unaware of what the Danville resident had been up to since 2010 and didn't note any red flags.

Placentia Police Department Sgt Bryce Angel says McClary was fired for 'failing to meet probationary standards.'

Courtesy of KMOV

'I was surprised anytime a police officer is arrested for a crime like that. It is obviously a far departure from where they started,' he said to KCAL9.

McClary served on the Los Angeles department from 2006-2008 and then joined the force in Placentia for an 18-month stint from 2008-2010

'I was surprised anytime a police officer is arrested for a crime like that. It is obviously a far departure from where they started,' Placentia Police Department Sgt Bryce Angel said of McClary

He added: 'I think the person was in a very desperate state of mind and was going for a quick payday and committed a federal offense'

'I think the person was in a very desperate state of mind and was going for a quick payday and committed a federal offense.

On the Tuesday robbery, McClary demanded cash from the teller but had no weapon displayed to cause harm.

She was arrested by police soon after the robbery.
Schapelle Corby's family friend has revealed the convicted drug smuggler might choose to spend the rest of her life as a free woman in Bali rather than Australia.

Speaking to Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones on WSFM on Friday, family friend and journalist Tony Wilson said Schapelle Corby faced certain ridicule when she returned to Australia.

'Can you imagine her walking into a shopping centre at the Gold Coast or Brisbane, she'll be stared at, pointed at, whispered about, all of which she hates,' Wilson said.

Mother of convicted drug trafficker Australian Schapelle Corby, Rosleigh Rose (right) with journalist Tony Wilson who claims Corby might choose to stay in Bali

'Her life will be changed forever, the happy go lucky surfy chick that used to walk along the beaches of the Gold Coast will never be again.'

Wilson said Corby asked her Balinese parole officers when she would be allowed to return to Bali after she was deported on Saturday.

He said Corby was banned from returning to Bali for at least six months, but official details were still unknown.

Wilson said Corby considered spending the rest of her life in Bali should she be allowed.

Mr Wilson said he became friends with the Corby family after reporting their story when he was a journalist at the Gold Coast Bulletin (pictured Schapelle with her mother Roseleigh Rose)

'Her life will be changed forever, the happy go lucky surfy chick that used to walk along the beaches of the Gold Coast will never be again,' Mr Wilson said

'She may feel, as a free woman, that life in Bali may be more comfortable for her,' he said.

'She doesn't know herself until she gets a feel for Australia 2017, which is a very different place to Australia 2004.'

Wilson, who published a book titled 'Schapelle, The Final Chapter: Coming Home', said he believed the Gold Coast woman was innocent.

'I certainly believe she is, I know many don't, and I have since I got involved with the case in late 2004,' he said.

'Schapelle, The Final Chapter: Coming Home' by Tony Wilson was released on May 1

Australian Schapelle Corby being led to the holding cells at the Denpasar District Court for her sentencing in 2005

Regardless of her innocence, Wilson said Corby had served her punishment and deserved to live the rest of her life in peace.

'Whether you think she's innocent or not, she's certainly served a long time and she's a totally different person,' he said.

Wilson said Corby's conviction would impact her life forever.

'She's desperately keen to be a mother, she turns 40 in July so the clock's really ticking on that wish,' he said.

Corby is due to be deported back to Australia on May 27, after serving nine years in a Balinese prison and another three on parole

Media wait outside Schapelle Corby's home in Bali as she prepares to be deported back to Australia on Saturday, May 27

'Her life, whether you think she's innocent or not, she's certainly served a long time and she's a totally different person.'

Corby is due to be deported back to Australia on May 27, after serving nine years in a Balinese prison and another three on parole.

Corby was convicted of drug smuggling after she was caught with 4.2kg of marijuana in a boogie board bag in Bali in 2004.

She has maintained her innocence ever since.
One of Queensland's most notorious cold cases has finally been put to rest with Vincent O'Dempsey found guilty of the 1974 murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters.

The 78-year-old was convicted on Friday of all three killings after a four-week trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court, a little over a day after the jury hearing his case retired to consider its verdict.

Mrs McCulkin and her children Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, were taken from their Highgate Hill home on the night of January 16, 1974.

Barbara McCulkin is pictured with her two daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11,

While in bed, Vincent O'Dempsey showed his then-fiancee a picture of himself walking from court with a leather jacket slung over his shoulder and bragged about the McCulkin murders, the trial heard

Vincent O'Dempsey was found guilty on Friday for the triple murders

They were tied up and driven to bushland near Warwick where O'Dempsey is believed to have strangled the 34-year-old mother before killing the girls and burying their bodies.

O'Dempsey is the second man to be convicted over their deaths. His accomplice Garry 'Shorty' Dubois, now 70, was last year found guilty of raping and murdering the sisters as well as Mrs McCulkin's manslaughter.

Both men's downfall came from their confessions to people they thought they could trust.

O'Dempsey, an underworld figure known as the 'Angel of Death', first opened up to associate Warren McDonald, who he was working with on a large cannabis crop in Carrara.

Mr McDonald told the trial they were driving to Warwick in 1997 when O'Dempsey boasted he killed the McCulkins but would never be charged.

'They'll never catch me because they'll never find the bodies,' O'Dempsey told Mr McDonald.

Vicki Marie McCulkin, 13, is pictured before disappearing with her mother and sister in January 1974

Leanne McCulkin, 11, disappeared with her mother and sister from their Highgate Hill home

In 2011, Kerri Scully was engaged to O'Dempsey when he told her to buy the true crime book Shotgun and Standover from the local Big W.

While in bed, O'Dempsey showed her a picture in the book of himself walking from court with a leather jacket slung over his shoulder and bragged about the McCulkin murders.

'I'm good for it but they'll never get me for it,' O'Dempsey said.

Ms Scully left the relationship the next day and remained in fear of the man who she later told police was an intelligent 'serial killer' who covered his tracks.

'He takes you in the middle of the night, like an angel, and you're gone for good,' Ms Scully told a committal hearing in November 2015.

The final key witness emerged just months before O'Dempsey's trial - a remand prisoner, who cannot be identified, had noted down a confession on scrap pieces of paper and crosswords.

The family's Highgate Hill home in Brisbane is pictured

Barbara McCulkin is pictured. The triple murder of her and her two daughters was laid to rest on Friday with O'Dempsey's guilty verdict

The mother and two daughters disappeared from their family home in Brisbane's Highgate Hill

WHISKEY SUSPICION SPARKED McCULKIN MURDERS Prosecutors never had to prove why Barbara McCullkin and her two daughters were killed in 1974 but did have one theory as to why the suburban family vanished. Barbara McCulkin knew too much - but the children weren't meant to be there. That's the best guess prosecutors could make as to why Vincent O'Dempsey and Garry Dubois brutally killed the young Brisbane family on the night of January 16, 1974. The juries in separate Brisbane Supreme Court trials were told the blonde mum 'spoke knowingly' about the Torino nightclub fire - a 1973 arson attack carried out by Dubois and the Clockwork Orange Gang. Gang member Peter Hall testified Dubois told him that O'Dempsey was paying them $500 for the attack because 'apparently the nightclub wasn't doing too well'. No one was harmed in the Torino blaze but two weeks later the Whiskey Au Go Go club burned down, killing 15 people in what was, at the time, Australia's biggest mass murder case. Mr Hall said the gang feared they would be implicated in the Whiskey fire on the basis they did the Torino job. Those concerns were alleviated when James Finch and John Stuart were arrested and later convicted of arson and murder in October 1973. But Mrs McCulkin suspected Stuart, a family acquaintance, had been set up and told her neighbour as much. Prosecutor David Meredith suggested the suspected connection between the Torino and Whiskey fires and Mrs McCulkin's candour were motive for Dubois and O'Dempsey to keep her quiet, even though there's no evidence either were involved in the fatal inferno. 'It may not sound a sufficient motive or even a sensible one, but there never is for murder,' Mr Meredith said. But what the juries were not told was just how much noise Mrs McCulkin was making. The 34-year-old began drinking too much toward the end of 1973 after a bitter split with her husband Billy 'The Mouse' McCulkin, who left her for another woman. Billy, a debt collector and Clockwork member, was at one stage charged over the Torino blaze but the charges were withdrawn because of a lack of evidence. Mrs McCulkin bragged around town that she would blow the lid on the real perpetrators of the Whiskey bombing and had allegedly overheard Billy on the phone in early 1973 planning upcoming fires. Mrs McCulkin disappeared from her Highgate Hill home on the night of January 16, 1974 along with her two daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11. In Dubois's trial, the jury heard Dubois told his brother Paul in 1980 that O'Dempsey killed Mrs McCulkin because she had information that would put him in jail for 20 years - although that evidence was not admissible at O'Dempsey's trial. 'Barbara McCulkin was blackmailing O'Dempsey,' Mr Dubois told the court. 'He (Garry) said 'Vince told me the kids weren't meant to be there'.' It is believed the trio were driven to bushland near Warwick where O'Dempsey took Mrs McCulkin away from the girls and strangled her. The children were also killed and buried. The family's bodies have never been found. Advertisement

'She had to be dealt with,' O'Dempsey said.

'In those days you got paid to do a job, you did a job.

'I never laid a hand on the two kids, Shorty did.'

The informant also said O'Dempsey solicited him, once he was granted bail, to contact a person who would stop Ms Scully and Mr McDonald from giving evidence at the trial.

'He was trying to arrange to get at him (Mr McDonald),' the informant said.

'He knew what time he left for work, which road he took, which roadhouse he stopped at for breakfast ... the number of his house.'

Dubois and O'Dempsey are expected to be sentenced on Thursday and will likely spend the last years of their lives behind bars.

O'Dempsey (pictured) is the second man to be convicted over their deaths

Speaking outside court after the verdict, the family (pictured) of Barbara, Vicki and Leanne told of their joy at finally having a conclusion to their heartache

'For 43 years our families have longed for information and justice,' the statement read by the family said

Speaking outside court after the verdict, the family of Barbara, Vicki and Leanne told of their joy at finally having a conclusion to their heartache.

'For 43 years our families have longed for information and justice,' the statement read.

'Over the years members of both families have had to endure endless rumours, victim blaming, mistruths and time wasters.'

Describing the'frustration, sadness and grief' they've endured for four decades, the statement told how the guilty verdict went some of the way to repairing their losses.

'Although today's outcome has been the best we could have hoped for, we still need information as to the location of our loved ones remains.'
Republican candidate Greg Gianforte used his victory speech after winning the Montana special election on Thursday to apologize for body-slamming a Guardian journalist the day before.

Within minutes of being declared the winner, Gianforte appeared on stage at his campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife Susan.

Between chants of 'drain the swamp' from his gathered supporters, he found a moment to apologize to reporter Ben Jacobs who he 'body-slammed' the previous day.

'Last night, I made a mistake and I took an action that I can't take back and I'm not proud of what happened.

'I should not have responded in the way that I did...I should not have treated that reporter that way and for that I am sorry, Mr Ben Jacobs,' he said.

It was a marked change from the campaign statement he issued on Wednesday which blamed the scuffle on 'liberal journalist' Jacobs and came after calls from House Speaker Paul Ryan who implored him to apologize.

Gianforte won the election with 50.4 percent of the vote over his Democrat opponent Rob Quist's 43.9.

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'I'm sorry': Greg Gianforte apologized for body-slamming a Guardian journalist as he delivered his victory speech after winning the Montana special election on Thursday night in Bozeman

The 56-year-old was joined on stage to celebrate the victory with his wife Susan

As he launched in to his apology, the newest Representative-elect was forced to silence laughs from the crowd.

'Last night, I learned a lesson.

MONTANA SPECIAL ELECTION RESULTS Greg Gianforte (R) 189,473 (50.2%) Rob Quist (D) 166,483 (44.1%) Mark Wicks (Libertarian) 21,509 (5.7%) Source: AXIOS Advertisement

'No, please. I need to share something from my heart here and I ask you to bear with me. When you make a mistake you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way,' he said.

He also apologized to others who witnessed the incident with Jacobs, including a Fox News crew which contradicted his initial version of events by telling police that he grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands.

'I'm sorry to each one of you, that we had to go through this.

'That's not the person that I am and it's not the way I'll lead in this state,' he said.

Gianforte's supporters laughed as he addressed the incident and shouted: 'We forgive you!' as he made his apology.

His victory speech was his first appearance since he assaulted Jacobs at his campaign headquarters on Wednesday afternoon.

Jacobs tried to approach him to ask a question about healthcare when he was slammed to the ground.

Susan Gianforte offered a wide smile as she celebrated with her husband on Thursday night

Greg Gianforte gives his victory speech at his campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana

Gianforte's appearance at his victory party was his first outing since the incident on Wednesday

The newly named Representative-elect vowed to put 'Montana first again', borrowing lines from President Trump's campaign as he delivered his speech

Gianforte was charged with assault on Thursday night after 'body-slamming' Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. The incident gained traction when Jacobs tweeted about it

He recorded the incident on his iPhone which was primed to record the candidate's words.

In the recording, Gianforte can be heard screaming: 'Get the hell outta here!' after knocking the journalist to the ground.

Jacobs, incredulous, replied: 'You just broke my glasses!'

Jacobs was taken to hospital after the incident

The candidate's media spokesman tried to play down the incident, issuing a statement on Wednesday night to say the reporter had been 'aggressive' and claiming the pair fell to the ground together.

'Tonight, as Greg was giving a separate interview in a private office, The Guardian's Ben Jacobs entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face and began asking badgering questions,' a campaign statement read.

'Jacobs was asked to leave. After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face.

'Jacobs grabbed Greg's wrist and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground.'

'It's unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ,' the statement read.

Gianforte won 50.6 percent of the vote while Quist took 43.6 per cent

The Fox News crew discredited it. They described how Gianforte lunged at Jacobs, placing his arms around his neck and throwing him to the ground.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel welcomed the apology on Thursday.

'Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte was right to apologize for his actions in Wednesday's incident. Tonight's apology was a good first step toward redemption and I hope Gianforte continues to work toward righting his wrong,' she told ABC.

Officials say more than half of the voting in Thursday's special election had already been done by then by mail, leaving only on-the-day voters to change their minds at the last minute.

In Montana, voters who cast early absentee ballots cannot change them at the last minute unlike in other states.

CNN reported that some voters had attempted to change theirs after Gianforte's altercation.

Elsewhere in his speech, the technology millionaire borrowed campaign favorites from Donald Trump who he said he looked forward to working with.

Despite the scandal on Wednesday, there was a healthy turnout of supporter at Gianforte HQ to watch the results pour in

Republican Daron Olseon celebrates after Greg Gianforte is named the winner of the Montana special election

GREG GIANFORTE'S VICTORY SPEECH 'Thank you, thank you. Thank you Montana. Tonight is all about you. Tonight is your victory. Over the last two years, you've made tens of thousands of phone calls and knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors. Thank you. Susan and I have had the great pleasure of driving over 80,000 miles, through our 56 counties. All over this great state, we stayed in your homes and together tonight we won a victory for our treasured state. Tonight we won a victory for all Montanans. Tonight we won a victory for our coal and timber families. We won a victory for our farmers and our ranchers. And we won a victory for our men and women in uniform and for our veterans. We won a victory for our Montana seniors and we won a victory for our second amendment. We also won a victory to keep our public lands in our public hands. 'We won a victory for every hard working Montana family because their voice hasn't been heard and for Montanans who have been left behind. Tonight, Montanans are sending a wake-up call to the Washington DC establishment. 'Montanans said "Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi don't call the shots here in Montana!" Montanans said "we're gonna drain the swamp". 'We have a lot of work to do and hard work is the way we get things done. And sometimes, hard work is born out of hard lessons. 'Last night, I learned a lesson. No please, I need to share something from my heart here and I ask you to bear with me. When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way. 'Last night, I made a mistake and I took an action that I can't take back and I'm not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did and I'm sorry for that. 'I should not have treated that reporter that way and for that, I am sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs. 'I also want to apologize for the Fox News team that was there and I'm sorry to each one of you, that we had to go through this. That's not the person that I am and it's not the way I'll lead in this state. 'Rest assured, our work is just beginning but it does begin with me taking responsibility for my own actions. You deserve a congressman who stays out of the limelight and just gets the job done. 'I promise to work hard to protect our precious way of life. I promise to be open and accessible and based on your input, I'll be your strong voice back in Washington DC. 'I've always considered myself more of a work horse than a show horse and that's my promise to you. I'm going to Washington to get things done, to drain the swamp and fight for Montana families. 'I will bring accountability to Washington DC. I'll support term limits and banning members of congress from becoming lobbyists. 'I'll hold the politicians accountable. If they can't balance a budget, they shouldn't get paid. No balance budget, no pay check. 'Washington won't like it but it's time for America and Montana to come first again. It just seems when people go to DC, they drink the water and slither in to the swamp. 'That's why we're not moving to DC. I'll commute and be back here traveling to every corner of the state as much as I can. I'll be in all 56 counties so that your voice is heard. 'You've always been on my side and I pledge that I'll always be on your side. Montana sent a strong message tonight that we want a congressman that will work with President Trump to make America and Montana great again. I feel a deep sense of obligation and duty to this great state where Susan and I raised our family and built our business. 'Thank you for your support and this opportunity to serve.' Advertisement

During his concession speech, Democratic candidate Rob Quist said: 'I know that Montanans will hold Mr Gianforte accountable'

Quist, a first-time candidate and folk singer, won 43.6 percent of the vote

'Tonight is your victory. Tonight, Montanans are sending a wake up call to the Washington DC establishment.

'Montanans said we're gonna drain the swamp. We have a lot of work to do and hard work is the way we get things done.'

In Missoula, Democrat Rob Quist gave his concession speech after calling Gianforte to congratulate him.

'I know that Montanans will hold Mr. Gianforte accountable,' he said cheerfully, adding to those who were disheartened by the result: 'Don't be discouraged. Be determined.'

There was a healthy turnout at Gianforte's campaign HQ in Bozeman which had been decorated for a win.

A pair of blue cowboy boots were laid next to a podium on the stage in anticipation of his victory speech.

Supporters nervously watched the results pile in and waited for the candidate, who had been laying low since the tape emerged, to make an appearance.

In the recording of his scrap with Jacobs, Gianforte was heard screaming: 'Get the hell outta here!' after taking Jacobs to the ground.

There were jubilant scenes at Gianforte's HQ on Thursday night as the results poured in

Republicans welcomed the results at Gianforte's HQ in Bozeman, Thursday, as he emerged as the winner

Gianforte kept a low profile on Thursday as he recovered from the scandal but the stage was set at his campaign HQ

Supporters kept tabs on the election results at a party for the disgraced candidate

His camp blamed the incident on Jacobs who they said had 'aggressively shoved' his iPhone in front of the candidate's face for an unscheduled interview.

Fox News journalists who witnessed their fight told another story.

They described Gianforte grabbing Jacobs by the neck with both hands and pushing him to the ground.

He earlier tried to dismiss the incident in a statement.

Later in the night, he was cited for misdemeanor assault by Gallantin County Sheriff.

He now has until June 7 to appear before a judge and faces a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment and a $500 fine if convicted.

Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert told The Missoulian he plans to review the case to determine why he was charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

The sheriff previously explained his decision, basing it around the fact Jacobs had no visible injuries.

Democrats nervously await the election result at Rob Quist's party in Missoula

Two Quist supporters watch anxiously as the results pour in on Thursday night

The alleged body-slam dominated Thursday's news and permeated Washington DC where House Speaker Paul Ryan called on Gianforte to apologize

The reporter was taken to hospital after the incident and shared a photograph of his broken glasses from inside the ambulance.

On Thursday, he told Good Morning America he was taking 'a lot of Advil' as a result of the scuffle.

The incident on Wednesday prompted a local newspaper to withdraw its endorsement and House Speaker Paul Ryan urged him to apologize for it.

Gianforte is a millionaire hundreds of times over. He made his fortune in technology and sold his customer service software company Rightnow Technology to Oracle for $1.8billion in 2012.

He is a California native but has lived in Montana for years with his wife and family and ran unsuccessfully to become Governor of the state in 2016.

Quist, by contrast, is a first time candidate and folk singer. While Gianforte kept a low profile on Thursday, Quist used his final hours of campaigning trying to squeeze some advantage out of his opponent's embarrassment the night before.

Gianforte replaces Ryan Zinke who elevated from the house to become Secretary of the US Department of the Interior in March, leaving Montana's seat open.

The scandal didn't appear to have too drastic an effect in Montana, however, where most of the voting had already been done by mail
Heartbreaking photos have revealed the desperation of Matthew Leveson's parents to find his body after they were pictured heading into dense bushland with a shovel, pickaxe and metal detector.

Mark and Faye Leveson returned to Royal National Park in Sydney's south on Friday with digging equipment to search for their murdered son's remains.

Detectives have been at the park since Monday in a renewed bid to unearth any trace of the 20-year-old who has been missing for a decade.

Photos show Mr Leveson as he arrived at the search site on Friday with a shovel and pickaxe in one hand, and a metal detector in the other.

Heartbreaking photos have revealed the desperation of Matthew Leveson's parents to find his body. Photos show Mr Leveson (centre) as he arrived at the search site on Friday with a shovel and pickaxe in one hand, and a metal detector in the other

He was seen using the pickaxe to hack away at dense shrub at Royal National Park in Sydney's south on Friday

Mr Leveson was also seen scouring the search area with a metal detector in a desperate bid to locate his son Matthew, as his wife Faye looked on

He was seen using the pickaxe to hack away at dense shrub while his wife Faye looked on.

Mr Leveson was also seen scouring the search area with a metal detector in a desperate bid to locate his son Matthew.

The search suffered a slight delay on Thursday when a digger became bogged in the bush, but work continued when it was pulled out.

This week's search is the third in the past six months after fruitless searches in November and January.

The parents of Matthew Leveson, use a metal detector as they search bushland in the Royal National Park

This week's search is the third in the past six months, after fruitless searches in November and January

Mark and Faye Leveson held hands on Thursday as they searched the area for their son who disappeared ten years ago

Investigators were originally led to the remote roadside site by Mr Leveson's former boyfriend, Michael Atkins, who was acquitted of the younger man's murder in 2009.

He took detectives to the potential burial site after he was offered immunity from prosecution for perjury and contempt of court after admitting to lying at an inquest into the suspected murder.

An ongoing inquest into the death of Mr Leveson, who was last seen leaving Darlinghurst's ARQ nightclub with Mr Atkins in the early hours of September 23, 2007, is scheduled to resume in August.

Mr Leveson was last seen leaving Darlinghurst's ARQ nightclub with Mr Atkins in the early hours of September 23, 2007

Mark and Faye Leveson have never given up hope of finding their son's (right) body and maintain their vigil at every search effort

Mr Atkins told the inquest in November he lied to detectives about buying a mattock and tape on the day Mr Leveson went missing in 2007.

Mark and Faye Leveson have never given up hope of finding their son's body and maintain their vigil at every search effort.

'We are back in the National Park looking for Matt. We have been here since Monday,' father Mark Leveson wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, attaching two crying emojis to his message and photo of a grader in bushland.
Controversial David A. Clarke ordered his deputies to stop a passenger who spoke to him briefly on an airplane as it flew into Milwaukee earlier this year, according to reports.

Clarke, who is known for his outspoken support of President Donald Trump as well as questionable policing and incarceration methods, is being sued by passenger Dan Black.

Black, 24, was detained by about a half-dozen Milwaukee County deputies after his arrival at Mitchell International Airport following a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth on January 15.

The deputies were ordered by their boss, Clarke, to stop Black after the two men held a brief exchange on board the American Airlines flight, the Journal Sentinel reported on Thursday.

After the plane landed and was sitting on the tarmac, Clarke sent a text message to one of his captains which read: Just a field interview, no arrest unless he become an a*****e with your guys.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (left) ordered his deputies to detain Dan Black (right), 24, at an airport in Milwaukee after the two men briefly exchanged words on board a flight they were taking from Dallas on January 15

Black, 24, was detained by about a half-dozen Milwaukee County deputies after his arrival at Mitchell International Airport following a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth on January 15

Question for him is why he said anything to me. Why didnt he just keep his mouth shut?

Follow him to baggage and out the door, Clarke texted. You can escort me to carousel after I point him out.

The texts were provided by Blacks attorney.

Black, a resident of the Riverwest section of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is suing Clarke, Milwaukee County, and the deputies who detained him after the flight.

They then escorted him to baggage claim. Soon afterward, he was released.

Surveillance video from the airport shows Clarke (seen above with a Dallas Cowboys baseball cap) exiting the plane and greeting a deputy in the arrival terminal

Moments later, deputies are seen accosting Black (seen above with a black hat)

Clarkes lawyer claims that Black accosted his client as he was sitting in first class on the American Airlines flight just before takeoff.

Plaintiff stopped adjacent to Sheriff Clarke's seat as Plaintiff boarded the plane and asked him if he was Sheriff Clarke, the sheriff's attorneys wrote.

Sheriff Clarke responded in the affirmative.

Plaintiff then, while standing over Clarke and in very close proximity to Clarke given the confines of the airline cabin, and in a physically threatening manner, stared at Clarke and shook his head at him for a prolonged period of time,' the lawyers wrote.

Clarke asked plaintiff if he had a problem with him, to which plaintiff did not respond.

Blacks version of events is slightly different.

He claims that he noticed Clarke wearing Dallas Cowboys gear instead of his usual signature Stetson hat.

Black then asked Clarke if he was indeed the sheriff, who confirmed that he was.

Clarke then asked Black if he had a problem, to which Black responded that he did not.

Black denies he was standing over Clarke in a physically threatening manner.

Newly released surveillance video from the arrival terminal at the airport shows Clarke coming out of the plane and greeting a number of uniformed officers with a police dog.

Black recorded himself 'getting escorted out of the airport' on his cell phone (above)

Black is suing Clarke, Milwaukee County, and the sheriff's deputies who detained him for unlawful arrest

As Clarke greets them, he gives a salute.

A little over two minutes later, Black emerges and is met by two deputies.

After Black filed suit, Clarke hit out at him over social media.

On the Milwaukee County Sheriffs Office Facebook page, Clarke posted a meme that showed a picture of Black with the caption: Cheer up, snowflakeIf Sheriff Clarke were to really harass you, you wouldnt be around to whine about it.

In the weeks after the incident took place, the federal government launched an investigation that it eventually closed due to lack of evidence.

It is unclear, however, if the government had access to the video which will certainly play a role in the lawsuit filed by Black against Clarke.

Investigators in Milwaukee County are also looking into whether Clarke misappropriated resources in ordering the detaining of Black at the airport.

Black's lawyer obtained copies of text messages that Clarke sent to his subordinates ordering them to detain his client

So far, Clarke has refused to cooperate with the investigation.

The probe has been placed on hold given that Clarke is reportedly in line to take a job at the Department of Homeland Security.

That appointment, however, may not materialize due to a plagiarism allegation against Clarke.

Clarke has denied a report that he plagiarized content in his 2013 master's thesis, calling the story's reporter a sleaze bag.

The sheriff lifted language from multiple sources for his thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School, CNN reported on Saturday.

Clarke provided footnotes for the sources of the thesis, titled Making US security and privacy rights compatible, the story by CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski said.

But the thesis failed to use quotation marks where Clarke used passages verbatim, which breaches school guidelines, the network said.

Guy is a sleaze bag. I'm on to him folks," Clarke wrote of Kaczynski in a Twitter post late on Saturday. The post linked to a story in which Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky pushed back against a Kaczynski story for Buzzfeed News, in which he was accused of using disputed quotes.

In response to the lawsuit, Clarke posted this meme on the official Facebook account of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Clarke said in an email to the paper, "Only someone with a political agenda would say this is plagiarism."

The Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, California, did not respond to a request for comment.

On Twitter, Kaczynski wrote on Sunday, "Sheriff Clarke has yet to respond to the substance of our story."

Clark said last week that he had accepted a job as assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

In a radio interview, he said he would act as a liaison with state and local police and governments and with the private sector.

David Lapan, a department spokesman, said by email that no announcement on Clarke had been made.

Clarke spoke in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last July.

He has criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of protests over a number of police killings of unarmed black men, as subhuman creeps.

Critics have faulted Clarke for his management of a Milwaukee County jail where a mentally ill man died in 2016 of dehydration after seven days without water.

An inquest jury recommended that seven employees of the jail be criminally charged.
One of Australia's most enduring sagas will finally end on Saturday as Schapelle Corby returns home 12 years after she was arrested for drug smuggling in Bali.

It wasn't that she was a pretty white girl caught up in a foreign legal nightmare that captured the national interest and created a media circus.

She was helped along by a colourful cast of characters who tagged along for the ride and a 'bogan' family soap opera with a new drama every week.

Some of the diverse supporting cast move on from the events that made them famous, while others will be waiting at the airport for her to land.

With Corby's parole for smuggling 4.2 kilograms of marijuana into Bali in 2004 hours from ending, Daily Mail Australia checks in on some of the major players.

Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Corby when she was found guilty in 2005 (L) and on parole in 2014 (R)

The former Gold Coast beauty therapist will touch down in Australia on Sunday for the first time since her arrest on October 8, 2004.

She was sentenced to 20 years jail and spent nine years behind bars until she was released on parole in 2014.

Corby spent her parole in Bali shopping in local markets, swimming in tranquil secluded beaches and romancing her Balinese boyfriend.

Insiders are concerned about her ability to adjust to being back in Australia and say she is paranoid and will struggle with public attention.

Turning 40 in July, Corby is not longer the young woman who polarised Australia and unlikely to have the family she always wanted.

Mercedes Corby

Corby's sister Mercedes at a press conference in 2005 (L) and celebrating earlier this week (R)

Corby was on her way to celebrate her sister's 30th birthday when she was arrested and the mother-of-three has been her strongest supporter ever since.

The former lad's mag pinup girl was outspoken about her little sister's innocence throughout the trial and gave numerous fiery statements in her defence.

Mercedes and her Indonesian husband Wayan Widyartha even provided a house for Corby to stay in during her parole.

She moved back to the Gold Coast after her marriage broke down in 2015 and will be a key part of Corby's support when she gets home.

Her sister won't find work in her restaurant, however, as it closed last year.

Rosleigh Rose

Corby's mother Rosleigh Rose defending her to the media in 2005 (L) and earlier this week (R)

Corby's mother publicly and continually defended her daughter's innocence to the media alongside Mercedes through the trial.

She was frequently seen hurling abuse at journalists or anyone who questioned Corby's version of events, and even this week said 'I know she's innocent'.

Fiercely protective of her family, Rose and her family successfully sued an author whose book claimed Schapelle was a victim of her father's alleged drug-running.

Ms Rose is expected to be one of two people Corby will stay with when she comes home, along with her sister Mercedes.

Michael Corby

Corby's father Michael in 2005 before his death from prostate cancer in 2008

Corby's father didn't do his daughter any favours when his involvement with drugs emerged, as he was fined for marijuana possession in the 1970s.

He was further linked to the drug trade

Marijuana dealer Malcolm McCauley later claimed Corby was involved in the Bali drug trade and the drugs in Schapelle's boogie board bag were part of his trafficking operations.

Mr Corby died of prostate cancer in 2008, but the family successfully sued the author of a book which made those claims.

Michael Corby Jr

Corby's brother Michael in 2014 (L) and with their mother in Hawaii in 2016 (R)

Michael lived with his sister in the secluded Kuta compound she called home since Mercedes moved back to the Gold Coast and will return home with her.

The keen surfer didn't play as big a role in the saga, leaving public appearances to his sister Mercedes and mother Ros.

Unlike his sister, Michael leaves Bali frequently including recent trips to Hawaii with his mother and friends

James Kisina

Corby's half brother James Kisina in 2005 (L) and at their mother's house in 2014 (R)

Another family member with drug links, Kisina was jailed in 2006 for drug possession and assault after he and two friends invaded a drug dealer's house.

Corby's half-brother was in trouble again in 2015 when he was fined $750 for cocaine possession.

Kisina was just a teenager when he arrived in Bali alongside Corby on the day of her arrest.

Ben Panangian

Corby met her boyfriend Ben Panangian in prison in 2006 but soon after she was let out on parole he was back in against for 10 months (L) and but they resumed romance after (R)

Croby and Panangian met in Kerobokan Prison in 2006 while he was serving time for his own drug crimes and they continued their romance on her parole.

They were often spotted shopping together or enjoying a day at the beach but their life together was interrupted when he was jailed for 10 months in 2014 on more drug charges.

Corby now has to leave her lover behind as she is banished from ever returning to Indonesia after she is deported and his convictions make getting an Australian visa unlikely.

Jodie Power

Jodie Power, close friend of Corby until she lied about her to Channel 7

Corby and Ms Power were once close friends, but was seduced by the Australian media's insatiable hunger for news about her criminal mate.

After defending her for so long, Ms Power went on Seven News with the baseless claim that Mercedes previously asked her to take drugs to Bali.

Seven was hit with a lawsuit and Ms Power faded into obscurity.

Ron Bakir

Corby's self-appointed 'white knight' Ron Bakir who claimed to spend $200,000 in her defence

Corby's self-appointed 'white knight' injected himself into the saga by funding her defence with what he claimed was $200,000 of his own money.

He was steadfast in her defence and even claimed prosecutors wanted a bribe to reduce her sentence, before quickly apologising.

Mr Bakir then tried to leverage his notoriety from the case into politics, inquiring about standing for Queensland parliament with the Nationals.

He was eventually told to 'butt out' of her case and ceased helping her cause or even speaking about her in July 2005.

Mr Bakir now builds luxury apartment blocks and was named Gold Coast Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013.

Erwin Siregar

Corby's former lawyer Erwin Siregar in 2005 (L) and defending Australian woman Sara Connor in February (R)

One of several lawyers Corby retained to run her defence and appeals, Mr Siregar was the most experience man on her team.

Demanding to know if she was guilty when he was brought in, Corby looked him in the eye and said 'I am not guilty, Erwin,' to which he replied 'okay, we fight'.

The months-long legal battle ended in a guilty verdict but she was spared life in jail and only ended up spending nine years behind bars.

Mr Siregar went on to represent another prominent Australian accused when he defended Sara Connor earlier this year for the murder of a Bali policeman.

She was found guilty of assault in company causing death alongside her boyfriend Daniel Taylor and sentenced to five years jail.

Hotman Paris Hutapea

Corby's flamboyant other lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea in 2005 (L) and on another case in 2015 (R)

While Mr Siregar was a seasoned Bali professional, her Jakarta-based attorney was a flamboyant and bling-happy defender of celebrities.

The pair got her sentence cut by five years in 2006 before it was reinstated by the Indonesian Supreme Court within months, and then Mr Hutapea was out the door.

'I want to buy the new model Ferrari. So, I have to make more money now,' the self confessed playboy said at the time, saying he was bored of his old cars.

Sporting a long mane of black hair and a fondness for diamonds and designer suits, he bragged about his 'beautiful movie star' girlfriend.

In 2015 a less flashy and shorter-haired Mr Hutapea freed Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong and Canadian school administrator Neil Bantleman.

Tony Wilson

Author Tony Wilson, the only writer ever given full access to the Corby family in 2006 (L) and recently (R)

Mr Wilson was the Gold Coast Bulletin's chief police reporter when then Corby story broke and reported closely on the saga as it unfolded.

He was the only writer allowed full access to the Corby clan and got a little too close to his sources when he threatened Ron Bakir's life in 2005.

After quitting the newspaper in 2008 he wrote a series of books about her case, which has just been updated for her homecoming.

Mr Wilson last week said Corby had serious mental health issues and would struggle adjusting to life in Australia after so long away.
Luck finally ran out for an Alabama inmate dubbed the 'Houdini' of Death Row after he avoided the lethal injection seven times.

Tommy Arthur, 75, was put to death for the 1982 murder-for-hire slaying of Troy Wicker at 12.15am on Friday morning.

Arthur was set to die by lethal injection at 6pm (CT) on Thursday at the Holman Correctional Facility at Atmore.

But he was issued a last minute temporary stay of execution by the Supreme Court after lawyers argued the execution was cruel and unusual.

However, at 11pm om Thursday, the justices paved the way for his execution to proceed and at 12.15am on Friday morning, Arthur was pronounced dead.

Arthur's final words were to his children. His voice quivered as he told them: 'I'm sorry I failed you as a father. I love you more than anything on Earth.'

He gave the thumbs up to his daughter Sherrie, who was in the witness room with his attorney Suhana Han, before the execution began at 11.50pm - ten minutes before his death warrant was about to expire.

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Tommy Arthur, 75, the Alabama inmate who had seven executions postponed, has been executed

Al.com reports that Arthur went quietly, there was no tortured gasping like with the controversial execution of Ronald Bert Smith.

The inmate had said in an interview before his execution, he was 'not going to the eat the last meal, which would come at taxpayer expense.'

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said the decision whether or not to execute Arthur was 'one of the most difficult decisions I will ever have to make as governor.'

But after 'much prayer and careful and deliberate consideration' he decided to let it go ahead.

'The rule of law was upheld, and Mr. Wicker's family can finally rest knowing that his murderer has faced justice.

'Three times Tommy Arthur was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Each time his case was reviewed thoroughly at every level of both our state and federal courts, and the appellate process has ensured that the rights of the accused were protected,' he said.

Tommy Arthur's attorneys and families arrived at the jail to watch his execution on Thursday night

Arthur's execution began at the jail (pictured is the red door of the execution room) before the execution began at 11.50pm - ten minutes before his execution warrant was about to expire

'No governor covets the responsibility of weighing the merits of life or death; but it is a burden I accept as part of my pledge to uphold the laws of this state. Mr. Arthur was rightfully convicted and sentenced, and tonight, that sentence was rightfully and justly carried out.'

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he hoped the family of Wicker can finally find peace and begin the 'long-delayed process of recovery from a painful loss.'

Arthur has always maintained his innocence, telling reporters on Monday from the south Alabama prison, 'I'm terrified, but there's nothing I can do.'

He added he had 'hope in my legal team' but acknowledged his likelihood of gaining an eighth reprieve was small.

Arthur's twisting legal saga over the years has involved three trials, a jail escape and a lengthy court battle by Arthur's pro bono legal team challenging the humaneness of lethal injection.

He was convicted in the 1982 murder-for-hire slaying of Troy Wicker (pictured) but had three trials, a jail escape and a lengthy court battle

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall called Arthur's case an 'egregious example of how a convicted murderer can manipulate the legal system to avoid justice.'

But his lawyers argued there had never been any physical evidence tying them to the murder.

'Neither a fingerprint nor a weapon, nor any other physical evidence connects Thomas Arthur to the murder of Troy Wicker,' said Suhana Han, Arthur's lead lawyer.

Arthur's lawyers had made multiple last-ditch appeals, both in and out of court, seeking to halt the latest execution attempt.

They called for additional DNA testing on the wig worn by the assailant and argued that the coughs and fits of an inmate executed in December show that midazolam - the opening sedative in Alabama's execution protocol is a cruel and unusual form of death.

The legal saga began February 1, 1982, when police responded to a call about a break-in and found riverboat engineer Troy Wicker slain in his bed in the north Alabama city of Muscle Shoals. Arthur was in a prison work-release program at the time for the 1977 slaying of his sister-in-law, a crime he admits to committing.

Arthur was in a prison work-release program at the time for the 1977 slaying of his sister-in-law

Wicker's wife Judy lied to police officers, telling them she came home and was raped by a black man who shot and killed her husband. She later changed her story and confessed that she had discussed killing her husband with Arthur

Wicker's wife Judy initially told police she came home and was raped by a black man who shot and killed her husband.

She later changed her story and testified that she had discussed killing her husband with Arthur, who came to the house wearing an Afro-style wig and with his face painted with makeup, and shot her husband.

She later testified that she paid Arthur $10,000 in life insurance to kill her husband

Judy was sentenced to life but was released after serving ten years.

Arthur was convicted in 1983, but that conviction was overturned.

While awaiting retrial, he escaped jail in 1986 by shooting a guard in the neck. He remained a fugitive for more than a month. A second conviction followed and also was overturned, but a third conviction stuck.

Arthur asked jurors to give him the death penalty. The decision was strategic, he said, to open up more appellate review.

The state set seven execution dates for Arthur between 2001 and 2016. All were delayed as a pro-bono legal team fought his sentence.

The inmate has claimed the state will be 'murdering' him if they go through with the execution, according to Alabama.com.

'I'm terrified, but there's nothing I can do. I've got hope in my legal team,' Arthur said in a recent interview

When asked in an interview earlier this week, what it was like to face death so many times, he replied: 'It's the same thing every time,' he says with a sigh. 'Everyone has a fear of dyingbut the state of Alabama is going toand I don't use this word lightlymurder me for something I didn't do,' Mother Jones reports.

'He's a Houdini,' said Janette Grantham, director of the Victims of Crime and Leniency. 'He always finds a way to escape.'

The many delays have been painful for Troy Wicker's family, Grantham said.

'If he does get executed and I hope and pray so - people might not think it's very good to pray for someone to die. But he is guilty. He killed more than one person,'Grantham said.

His attorneys filed court papers Wednesday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, raising questions about the state's lethal injection procedure and the anesthetic to be given at the start of the process.

In December, inmate Ronald Bert Smith coughed for the first 13 minutes of his execution and moved slightly after two consciousness tests. Arthur's lawyers argued that Smith was awake during his execution. The state responded that there was no evidence Smith experienced pain.

In 2016, Arthur came close to the death chamber.

'We were fixing to go into the room and they were going to put the needle in my arm,' he said, when the U.S. Supreme Court gave him an unexpected reprieve shortly before the death warrant expired at midnight.
Thousands of students doing work placements and apprenticeships through Careers Australia have been told to stop work immediately after the training provider went into voluntary administration.

Staff have also been stood down without pay as administrators David McEvoy and Martin Ford of PPB Advisory go through the company's books.

'We do not currently have sufficient funds available to meet payroll and other costs which would allow us to continue trading the group on a 'business as usual' basis,' the administrators said in a letter to staff.

Careers Australia was placed into voluntary administration on Friday. Pictured here is their Melbourne campus

'You have been stood down without pay until further notice, effective immediately.'

Students have been told all work placements, apprenticeships and traineeships are now suspended.

'All the group's campuses are closed until further notice with immediate effect and all classes and work placements are suspended,' students were told.

One active Careers Australia student told News Corp that some students were just weeks away from graduating and are unsure whether that will now be possible.

'It seems unfair that we have completed 99.9 per cent of the requirements but we can't graduate,' he revealed.

Some students had approached the local TAFE in an attempt to switch courses there, yet were rebuffed as the 'course codes don't match up.'

Many students, who are burdened with a $26,000 debt, face the dreaded wait to see if they can gain their qualifications, and if not, would a refund be provided.

'If it all falls through, I know I can get back on my feet, but there are ladies in their fifties who have taken two years off to do the course. What do they do?' the concerned student added.

The company have also faced scrutiny for the way they handled the situation as students were informed of the move into voluntary administration by text message late on Thursday night.

'All activities of Careers Australia Group are suspended. No classes, no workplaces effective immediately. Further information will be provided. No not reply,' the message read.

The text has faced backlash with some students suggesting the students should have been told prior to the news being broken to the media.

Careers Australia has 13 campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.

Thousands of students have been told to stop work immediately at the training provider as all 13 campuses nationwide have been closed

The Electrical Trades Union said the collapse affected 15,000 students and 1000 staff, just six weeks after the company was stripped of its accreditation to deliver VET-funded courses.

Students and staff had been promised training would continue as usual for the remainder of 2017, the union said.

ETU national apprentice officer Mark Burgess said while the union was happy to see the end of Careers Australia's 'substandard apprentice program', it would have a huge impact on staff and apprentices.

'The union's number one priority is to help these electrical apprentices find alternate training providers as soon as possible so that they can continue their trade training with as little disruption as possible,' Mr Burgess said on Friday.

Victorian Training Minister Gayle Tierney called on the federal government to step in to help out affected students.

The administrators are expected to update staff and students next week.
A former White House photographer has taken the opportunity to troll President Donald Trump after he shoved Montenegro's Prime Minister in Brussels on Thursday.

To highlight the stark differences between Trump and his predecessor, photographer Pete Souza shared an image of President Barack Obama joking around with his fellow NATO leaders at a 2012 summit on Instagram and wrote: 'No jostling involved.'

Souza has also offered a visual commentary on the highlights and controversies of Trump's first international trip, which involved meeting the Pope and the infamous swat First Lady Melania Trump delivered when the president reached for her hand.

To highlight the stark differences between Trump and his predecessor, photographer Pete Souza shared an image of President Barack Obama joking around with his fellow NATO leaders

Souza captioned the throwback photo: Laughter at the 2012 NATO Summit. No jostling involved'

Souza, who has made it a point to use images of Obama at every step of the new administration, posted the 2012 photo on Instagram in response to Trump's behavior in Brussels.

Trump and the leaders of 27 other NATO member countries assembled for a photo at the treaty organization's gleaming new Brussels, Belgium headquarters.

As Trump made his way through the group to take his position in the front row next to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic was in his way.

So Trump put his hand on Markovic's upper arm and shoved him aside.

The moment, which was captured on film, soon went viral as social media lit up with shock and harsh words for Trump.

But Markovic, whose country will officially join NATO on June 5, told reporters that the whole situation was harmless.

'It didn't really register. I just saw reactions about it on social networks', he said. 'It is simply a harmless situation.'

Souza also roasted Trump when he met with Pope Francis on Wednesday (right), and posted the image on the left with the caption 'Mutual admiration, 2016'

Souza also responded in a similar manner after video of President Trump touching down in Tel Aviv on Monday showed the First Lady very clearly slapping her husband's hand away

Souza then shared an image of Michele and Barack Obama holding hands during the 50th anniversary of the Selma March in 2015

Souza also roasted Trump when he met with Pope Francis on Wednesday. Social media users were quick to highlight photographs in which the pope looked glum, or appeared to give the US president disapproving looks.

And so Souza posted an image of Obama locked in a handshake with Pope Francis in the Oval Office. The two men are beaming at each other, with Souza rubbing salt in the wound by writing: 'Mutual admiration, 2016'.

Souza also responded in a similar manner after video of President Trump touching down in Tel Aviv on Monday showed the First Lady very clearly slapping at her husband when he tried to hold her hand at Ben Gurion Airport.

Souza shared an image of Michele and Barack Obama holding hands during the 50th anniversary of the Selma March in 2015.
A state regulator has opted to resign as director of the Nebraska Public Service Commission rather than leave his part-time job with a telecommunications consulting firm.

Jeff Pursley drew criticism from some lawmakers this year for his private role with Washington, D.C.-based Parrish, Blessing and Associates, which represents clients, including Windstream, that are also regulated by the Public Service Commission.

Pursley announced Thursday that he will leave the PSC effective June 12.

"I am very proud of what I accomplished during my tenure as executive director," he told the Journal Star in a prepared statement, adding that he's most proud of the staff who "come to work and persevere through it all."

"I will release a more detailed statement at the appropriate time," he said.

The Public Service Commission regulates telecommunications companies along with electric transmission lines, natural gas providers, taxi cabs and major oil pipelines, including the proposed Keystone XL.

Pursley says he never worked directly with any Parrish Blessing clients who are also regulated by the PSC.

While two independent, official examinations of his private work found it doesn't violate his oath of office or Nebraska's conflict of interest laws, pressure on Pursley to choose between the two roles never faded.

Last week, the Nebraska Attorney General's Office published a legal opinion that while Pursley's second job didn't violate his oath, his employment contract with the PSC doesn't protect him from being fired without cause.

Pursley said all five of the Public Service Commission's elected commissioners told him recently that he needed to resign from Parrish Blessing by July 1, but he had already committed to remain at the firm through December.

That's when Pursley and the PSC decided to part ways.

"This is an issue of integrity, and at the end of the day, a person is defined by their integrity," Pursley said.

Pursley has been executive director at the PSC since 2015. He previously served in other leadership roles at the commission from 1999 through 2008, when he left to join Parrish Blessing.

Jeff is a man of many of talents, said Commission Chairman Tim Schram of Gretna, in a news release. A nationally recognized expert in the field of universal telecom service, Jeff has contributed greatly to the progress of telecommunication and broadband in Nebraska during his time with the commission. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.

The duties of the executive director will be absorbed by staff until a new leader can be hired, the commission said in a news release.

State Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, who sponsored several pieces of PSC-related legislation this year and had encouraged Pursley to step down, said Thursday that he made the right decision.

"I believe that it's for the best, given that there's been much discussion about Jeff and about his outside employment."
A mother is furious after her seventh grade daughter was given a certificate that named her 'Most Likely To Become A Terrorist'.

Lizeth Villanueva, 13, was given the certificate as part of a mock awards ceremony at Anthony Aguirre Junior High School in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday.

The teachers have since been disciplined, but the family says that doesn't excuse that the incident happened to begin with.

A seventh grader at Anthony Aguirre Junior High School in Houston, Texas, received an award for 'Most Likely To Become A Terrorist' on Tuesday

Lizeth Villanueva, 13 (pictured), received the certificate as part of a mock awards ceremony during her AVID class, an advanced learning program to prepare students for college

Lizeth said the incident occurred during her AVID class, which is an advanced learning program to prepare students for college.

'[The teacher] said that some people might get offended, but she doesn't really care about our feelings,' Lizeth told KHOU.

'She was laughing about it.'

However, the event had Lizeth in tears.

'It was not a joke,' she said.

'I do not feel comfortable with this...I do not feel comfortable being in the same classroom with [the teacher].'

Lizeth's mother, Ena Hernandez, was furious, and said the whole family was hurt by the teacher's actions.

'When [Lizeth] first showed me the paper, I'm like, "What is this?". I read it again, and I'm like, "What is this?"' she told KHOU.

'That's when my daughter told me it was supposed to be a joke. It doesn't look like a joke to me.'

Lizeth's mother, Ena Hernandez (pictured), was furious. She said: 'When she first showed me the paper, I'm like, "What is this?" That's when my daughter told me it was supposed to be a joke. It doesn't look like joke to me'

Anthony Aguirre Junior High School (pictured) and the Channelview Independent School District have both issued an apology, but Lizeth's mother says it doesn't excuse the action

Channelview Independent School District official Mark Kramer told KPRC it was a 'poor attempt to poke fun' and that the activity 'wasn't well thought out'.

The principal personally apologized to the family and the school announced on Thursday that the teachers involved had been disciplined.

The school district has also issued an apology, but Lizeth's mother says it doesn't excuse the action.

'We're really upset about it coming from a teacher,' Hernandez said.

'That program is supposed to be for advanced kids. It is kind of hard to believe that she's doing that. Being a teacher, giving this to a 13-year-old. How is she going to feel when she grows up later on?'

Official Statement from Building Principal in response to fake awards: pic.twitter.com/BoZGRJajx4  Aguirre Junior High (@AguirreBulldogs) May 24, 2017

Lizeth is not the only student to allegedly receive an award many feel was insensitive.

In Rockdale Country, Georgia, two middle school teachers were fired after award an eighth-grade female student with ADHD an award for 'Most Likely To Not Pay Attention' at a school assembly last week.
President Donald Trump has a four-point policy plan in place for dealing with North Korea that does not include a military option, a South Korean lawmaker is quoted as saying Thursday.

South Korean politicians Thursday met with Joseph Yun, the US State Department official responsible for policy on North Korea.

Yun briefed lawmakers on the Trump administration's approach toward Pyongyang, according to the Korean news agency Yonhap.

He told lawmakers that Trump signed a comprehensive State Department policy report that called for exerting 'every possible pressure' diplomatically on Pyongyang.

The report calls for four main strategies - not recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, imposing every possible sanction and pressure, not seeking a regime change and resolving the problem with dialogue in the end.

President Donald Trump (seen above giving a speech in Brussels on Thursday) has a four-point policy plan in place for dealing with North Korea that does not include a military option, a South Korean lawmaker is quoted as saying Thursday

The report is significant in that it appears the Trump administration has ruled out a military option against the North.

This is at odds with recent rhetoric from Trump.

Earlier this week, it was learned that Trump considered North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un 'a madman with nuclear weapons.'

Trump made the comment during a phone call late last month with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

The US president also discussed the possibility of launching a nuclear strike on the regime using the two submarines he has stationed in the region.

The report calls for four main strategies - not recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, imposing every possible sanction and pressure, not seeking a regime change and resolving the problem with dialogue in the end. North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un is seen above

Trump told his Filipino counterpart last month, Rodrigo Duterte, that he considered Kim 'a madman with nuclear weapons.' The photo above was distributed by the North Korean government on Monday. It shows a missile being launched at an undisclosed location

Trump did stress 'we don't want to do that' and suggested Duterte call Chinese leader Xi Jinping and pressure him into resolving the situation, but reiterated: 'If China doesn't do it, we will.'

At another point Trump seemed to imply that North Korea has a nuclear warhead capable of being mounted on to a missile, and its failed missile tests are all that is holding back its weapons program.

While North Korea claimed in 2016 that it had successfully tested a warhead small enough to be mounted on a missile, this has not been verified.

Mr Trump said: 'Well, he [Kim] has got the powder but he doesn't have the delivery system. All his rockets are crashing, that's the good news. But eventually when he gets that delivery system...'
A childcare director who bought a pool, luxury car and house with $3.6 million worth of fraudulently-obtained benefits has been jailed for seven years.

But lawyers for Melissa Jade Higgins, who was convicted of 81 offences in November, has already filed a motion of intention to appeal and a bail application is expected to be heard later on Friday.

NSW District Court judge Donna Woodburne sentenced the 29-year-old to a minimum four years behind bars, saying she was motivated by greed.

Childcare director Melissa Jade Higgins bought a pool, luxury car and house with $3.6 million worth of fraudulently-obtained benefits and was sentenced to seven years jail

Higgins made fraudulent claims for the Special Child Care Benefit on behalf of her Albury-based childcare centre between September 2013 and March 2015.

'Ms Higgins intentionally abused a system designed to assist children in need. 'She was motivated by greed,' Judge Woodburne said.

Higgins, who maintains her innocence, made the claims on behalf of her Aussie Giggles childcare centre in relation to 14 children.

She bought an $87,000 car, a $30,000 pool and $740,000 house with the Department of Education and Social Services' money which was put into five bank accounts.

She made fraudulent claims for the Special Child Care Benefit on behalf of her Albury-based childcare centre between September 2013 and March 2015

Judge Woodburne said she forged a statuary declaration, a letter purportedly from medical practitioners and a document from a supposed child safety worker on department letter head.

The court heard Higgins charged families approved for the SCCB $180 an hour, or around $9000 a week, per child despite knowing the fees weren't affordable.

'It was a ridiculous and exorbitant fee claimed precisely because and only because the government was footing the bill.'

The SCCB is supposed to allow children at risk of abuse or neglect, of from a household experiencing financial hardship, access to early learning and childcare.

The court heard Higgins claimed her high hourly fees would have applied regardless of whether the children were subject to the SCCB or not.

NSW District Court judge Donna Woodburne sentenced the 29-year-old to a minimum four years behind bars, saying she was motivated by greed

The court heard Higgins charged families approved for the SCCB $180 an hour, or around $9000 a week, per child despite knowing the fees weren't affordable

Judge Wooodburne said she could not find Higgins had reasonable prospects of rehabilitation or that she's unlikely to re-offend.

'She has demonstrated a complete lack of contrition and I consider it appropriate the sentence reflect an increased need for personal deterrence,' she said.

Higgins did not have a criminal record before these offences and became very interested about financial security after overspending on her credit card and becoming bankrupt at 18, the court heard.

The Crown expects the Commowealth will retrieve most of the money incorrectly paid to Higgins' company.

She will be eligible for parole May 2021.
Rebel Wilson decided to sue the publisher of Woman's Day after a journalist launched an alleged 'shakedown' against her over a tweet.

The Australian actress is suing Bauer Media for defamation, claiming a series of articles painted her as a serial liar and cost her movie roles.

Wilson, 37, says the 'orchestrated, malicious take-down' stole two years of her limited time in the Hollywood limelight and caused her 'star meter' to drop.

On the fifth day of the trial, the Pitch Perfect star revealed it was actually a lawsuit against her that convinced her to sue Bauer Media.

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Rebel Wilson arrives at the Supreme Court in Melbourne with her legal team on Friday. The actress is being cross-examined in her defamation trial against magazine publisher Bauer Media in Victoria's Supreme Court

Australian journalist Elizabeth Wilson, who has worked for House & Garden magazine, has taken legal action against the actress over a social media post.

Wilson called the journalist 'total scum' in a tweet and posted a picture of her in February 2016, accusing her of harassing her elderly grandmother for a story.

But Wilson had accused the wrong journalist.

She says it was a simple mistake because there were two Elizabeth Wilsons who had worked for ACP Magazines, now known as Bauer Media.

Wilson says she sent a letter to apologise but received a lawsuit in reply.

'It was a completely innocent mistake,' she told the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday.

Wilson, 37, says the Woman's Day publisher painted her as a serial liar and a fake in an 'orchestrated, malicious take-down' when they ran a series of eight articles during 2015. She is pictued above in film The Brothers Grimsby

Wilson was questioned by Bauer Media's lawyer Georgina Schoff QC about how she'd responded when the first article was published. Pictured is Wilson starring in Pitch Perfect

'I'm extremely sorry. I feel horrible for what I have done. I asked if she would meet me face-to-face to apologise.

'But she doesn't want a personal apology. She wants $250,000. I can only now describe that as a shakedown.'

Wilson said that in Hollywood a 'shakedown' is when someone seeks money from someone they think is 'super rich'.

She said the journalist's lawsuit against her prompted her to sue the Woman's Day publisher, who had caused her and her family deep distress.

'It was, in a sense, the final straw,' she said.

The Woman's Day articles claimed the comedy actress had told 'pork pies' about her age, which was 34 at the time rather than 29 as some believed.

But Wilson told the jury she had never lied about her age.

'Being an authentic person, I'm proud of how old I am,' she said.

Wilson (pictured) alleges Bauer Media defamed her when they ran a series of eight articles

'It's just it was in my best interest, being a Hollywood actress, to not publicly disclose my age.'

Earlier in the trial, Wilson said the Woman's Day articles, which were later picked up by American magazines, cost her movie roles.

Wilson said DreamWorks sacked her from Kung Fu Panda 3 because she'd become 'too divisive' for a family movie.

She had desperately wanted the role of the ribbon-dancing panda Mei Mei, which was later re-recorded by actress Kate Hudson.

Wilson said she was also dumped from another Dreamworks animated film, Trolls, and had to 'beg' to be let back inside studio doors to share her ideas.

A fan gets his picture taken with Wilson outside court as lawyers for gossip magazine Woman's Day prepared to begin their cross-examination

The high-profile trial is expected to go for another two weeks

On Friday, Wilson was questioned by Bauer Media's lawyer Georgina Schoff QC about how she'd responded when the first article was published.

It emerged that she emailed two of her best friends from school and asked them to find out who had 'sold the story' to Woman's Day.

Ms Schoff read from an email Wilson had sent to two close friends from her old boarding school in Sydney.

'Do you guys know who sold the story about me?' Wilson's email read.

'It's pretty poor form whoever did it.'

Wilson said she had been 'deeply hurt' by the 'outright lies' in the articles and wanted to find out who had told them.

'It was clear that it was a girl in our grade,' she told the court.

'I think it is only natural to want to know who was the girl that did it.'

Wilson shared an old picture of herself taking part in a martial arts tournament on Instagram

Later, the jury chuckled as they watched Wilson passionately kissing her Pitch Perfect 2 co-star Adam Devine at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.

It showed Wilson and Devine accepting the award for Best Kiss in a skit that ended in the two actors rolling around the stage as George Michael's Careless Whisper played.

'Do you accept you were a star of the evening?' Ms Schoff asked Wilson in her cross-examination.

'There were many stars. It was a funny bit,' Wilson replied.

'It was a sign of your popularity at the time,' the lawyer continued.

'Pitch Perfect 2 was a hugely successful movie,' Wilson said back.

'You were a successful star in 2015 and you continued to be in 2016,' Ms Schoff said.

But Wilson says her 'star meter' dropped and she lost movie roles after a series of articles were published by Baeur Media in 2015.

On Thursday, she had cried in the witness box while she described losing two years of her limited time in the Hollywood limelight.

The trial is expected to go for another two weeks and will hear from Wilson's mother and siblings, her Australian and US agents, an old school friend and fellow Australian actor Hugh Sheridan.
A pig named Polly who was violently tortured and molested by two men on a farm has recovered from her injuries and is back to her old self.

Polly was allegedly raped by two men aged in their 20s at a farm in Nimbin, on the NSW North Coast, in December last year and was left with deep cuts on her snout and rump.

But luckily Polly was found and treated for her injuries and five months after her harrowing ordeal she is giving her 'happy, loving, trusting smile again'.

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'Polly is back': Owner Robyn Francis posted to Facebook her beloved pig (pictured) had recovered well from her harrowing ordeal

'We are overjoyed to see Polly coming back to her old lovable self again over the past few weeks,' her owner, Robyn Francis, said.

'She completed the last antibiotics a month ago and has not had any further bleeding.'

Both of the men were charged with two counts of torturing, beating, causing the death of an animal and one count of bestiality.

The pair also slaughtered and beheaded several chickens while trespassing on the farm at Northern Rivers permaculture college in Nimbin.

The pair also slaughtered and beheaded several chickens while trespassing on the farm at Northern Rivers permaculture college in Nimbin

Mr Francis said she noticed something was wrong with Polly when the normally cheerful pig was found hiding in her pen all day.

After a vet visit Ms Francis was horrified to learn her beloved Polly had been assaulted with an unknown object.

'She was definitely impregnated by something, her vulva is very swollen and bleeding and she has a lot of bruising, especially on her flanks, she's been beaten badly,' Ms Francis said at the time.

Her horrific injuries also included bad bruising and swelling at her rear, a chunk of hair ripped out of her right shoulder and was beaten on her rump.

Mr Francis said she noticed something was wrong with Polly when the normally-cheerful pig was found hiding in her pen all day

Five months after the brutal attack Polly is slowly recovering and has even started adoring visitor attention again.

'Polly loves receiving visitors, she thrives on the attention and love,' Ms Francis wrote.

The farm owner also says she used some unconventional methods to help bolster Polly's healing process, including a psychic.

Both men are due to appear in person at Lismore Local Court on August 30 for a hearing.
Amber Rudd has denied that cuts in police numbers left Britain vulnerable to the Manchester bombing.

The Home Secretary defended the government's approach as she was confronted by a member of the audience on the BBC's flagship Question Time programme.

The man said Theresa May had been warned by the Police Federation that cuts in frontline officers would undermine their ability to gather low-level intelligence about possible threats.

The Home Secretary defended the government's approach as she was confronted by a member of the audience on the BBC's flagship Question Time programme

The audience member said the government should 'expect' terror attacks when the number of police has fallen

'We are 20,000 police officers down and we get atrocities like this. Does the Government not expect this?' he said.

But Ms Rudd insisted the majority of intelligence came from community leaders and through the the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, rather than from police officers on the street.

'I don't accept that. I have asked the head of counter-terrorism whether this is about resources. It is not,' she said.

'There may a conversation to have about policing, we may have that at some stage.

'But now is not that conversation. We must not imply that this terrorist activity may not have taken place if there had been more policing.'

The Home Secretary added: 'Good counter-terrorism is when you have close relationships between the policing and intelligence services.

The flagship BBC programme came from Salford last night in the wake of the bombing

'That is what we have. That is why the UK has a strong counter-terrorism network.

'It's also about making sure we get in early on radicalisation. But it's not about those pure numbers on the street.'

MINISTER SIGNALS NEW CRACKDOWN ON ONLINE TERROR Social media firms face new laws to force them to take down extremist material unless they do more to co-operate with the authorities, the Security Minister said today. Ben Wallace said the performance of the big technology companies like Facebook and Google in tackling extremism was not good enough. We have been making the case with people like Facebook and You Tube, he told BBC Radio Fours Today programme. We are determined not to let these people off the hook for broadcasting not just manuals to make bombs, but grooming material. We all think they could do more. We have worked with them, we have pressurised them. Facebook is a foreign company. We need to have the tools to make them, where we need to, remove material quicker. We think they can do it quicker. We think You Tube can do it quicker. We want them to invest more in the ability to do it. Mr Wallace also confirmed that the Government will take new powers to force technology firms to hand over encrypted data in terror cases. Some firms have been reluctant to comply with requests, citing privacy concerns, while others have said they are unable to assist as they do not have access to the encrypted material themselves. Advertisement

The audience member replied: 'I think it is about police numbers, because it is low-level intelligence that gives you the information.'

Ms Rudd insisted: 'That is not where we get the intelligence from. We get the intelligence much more form the Prevent strategy, which engages with local community groups, not through the police. It is not about policing so much as engaging with community leaders in the area.'

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said there was a need for a 'fundamental review' of Prevent, which he said had led to members of Britain's Muslim community feeling 'picked on'.

The Prevent brand is now 'toxic' in parts of the Muslim community, he said.

He added: 'I think we do have to have a debate now about whether or not the frontline police force can be cut. I don't believe it can.

'I would say this now needs to become an issue in the election campaign, once we have dealt with the immediate events of this week.'

Ms Rudd said the Prevent programme had helped stop 150 people - including 50 children - from leaving Britain to fight in Syria in the last year alone.

'There's really strong evidence of Prevent initiatives helping families, saving children's lives and stopping radicalisation,' she told Question Time.

'Prevent is saving lives, it is doing good work.'
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Britain is set for a sizzling bank holiday with blistering heat providing ideal conditions for a weekend getaway - except for hay fever sufferers who will need their tissues and tablets at the ready.

A combination of extreme heat - which is set top Athens at 86F (30C) - thunderstorms and rising pollen levels will trigger a sneezing frenzy, experts warn.

The Met Office is forecasting moderate pollen levels across the south this weekend with Sunday likely to be the worst day.

And despite temperatures rocketing towards the thirties, unstable air will trigger thunderstorms in some parts of the country as the weekend draws to a close.

Benji Waite, aged three, is pictured here cooling down with an ice-cream at Paultons Park near Southampton, Hampshire

Citizens and two armed police officers out and about in Parliament Square under clear blue skies on a hot and sunny day in the capital

Bathers enjoy the hottest day of the year at Hampton pool in Hampton, Surrey, on Friday as the country warms up for the bank holiday weekend

Sunny skies: Britain is set for a sizzling bank holiday with blistering heat providing ideal conditions for a weekend getaway - except for hay fever sufferers who will need their tissues and tablets at the ready

A yellow weather warning has been issued for storms for part of the country, but the Met Office insists these are likely to be passing, and days out ' not be a complete write-off'.

Forecaster Emma Sharples said: 'It is going to be very warm on Saturday with temperatures widely in the low 20Cs and possibly higher.

'There is a chance of thundery outbreaks and some heavy downpours due to warm, humid and unstable air.

'It looks like Saturday will be the warmest day of the weekend with things turning fresher towards the bank holiday.'

Millions will head out to Britain's parks and beaches to soak up the rays while supermarkets are braced for a shopping frenzy.

A young family enjoy the view of Canary Wharf from Greenwich Park as temperatures continue to soar towards 30 degrees across Britain

Youngster James Botan, 3, has fun building sandcastles at Cullercoats Bay in North Tyneside as the continuted spell of sunshine sees crowds flock to the beach

Three-year-old James and his one-year-old Isabella Botan have fun building sandcastles at Cullercoats Bay earlier today

Marks and Spencer is getting ready for the first 'barbecue weekend' of the year as Britons stock up on party food and drinks.

It expects sales of sausages and burgers to soar 56 per cent on last year as ice creams, frozen yoghurt and salads fly off the shelves.

A spokesman said: 'With temperatures set to hit the high 20Cs, we're predicting this to be the first official barbecue weekend of the year so far.

'We know our customers have been itching to dust off their barbecues and picnic mats, so we are stocking up our shelves with delicious burgers, sausages and picnic treats to ensure we keep up with demand.'

But many people may be caught unawares with unusual weather conditions threatening to set off 'upside-down' hay fever.

People enjoy a relaxing stroll along the sands in the sunshine at Mudeford, near Sandbanks, in Dorset

Hot weather causes pollen levels to rise but as the air warms irritant particles lift above head height and symptoms ease.

Pollen sinks when the air cools later in the day which is why sufferers often fare worse in the morning and evening.

However when hot weather coincides with storms, heavy rainfall brings pollen back down to nose-level outside these times.

Your browser does not support the <code>iframe</code> HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.

More people in Greenwich Park. Millions will head out to Britain's parks and beaches to soak up the rays over the bank holiday weekend

People enjoy the sunshine by the beach huts on Blyth Beach in Northumberland

A black Labrador cools down whilst splashing through the Ornamental Lake on Southampton Common to fetch a tennis ball

A view of Greenwich maritime basking in sunshine on a hot day today, which is expected to continue over the bank holiday weekend

Sunseekers relax in deckchairs at Cullercoats Bay. The hot weather could create issues for hayfever sufferers, however

Allergy expert Max Wiseberg of HayMax balms warned erratic weather this weekend could catch out millions of suffers.

He said: 'Although you would expect your hay fever to calm down when the sunshine disappears and is replaced by rain, for some, it's the reverse.

'Upside-down hay fever sufferers typically experience their symptoms at the wrong time.

'When the sun comes out and there's lots of pollen hay fever symptoms can actually ease, but on rainy days people end up sneezing, dribbling and itching even more than usual.

'This is because grass releases pollen in the morning and as the ground heats up and air rises clouds of pollen are lifted.

'When pollen reaches head height, people find they are hit by the worst of it.

'When it starts raining the air cools, the rain brings all that pollen back to head height and wallop here comes your hay fever again'

Mr Wiseberg added: 'The best way to deal with 'upside down' hay fever and 'normal' hay fever is to avoid the pollen whenever you can.

FA CUP FINAL COULD BE THE HOTTEST IN 145 YEARS Footballers and fans could swelter through the hottest ever FA Cup Final in 145 years tomorrow - with players set to sweat up to nine pints and lose almost a stone in weight, amid fears of heatstroke. The Met Office forecasts highs in the shade in London up to around 29C  but feeling like 32C in the 55 per cent humidity. Arsenal and Chelsea players face temperatures soaring towards 40C in the sun. Forecasters said temperatures will still be high at the 5.30pm kick-off  and warned of fainting fans. Experts warned players face problems including dehydration and heatstroke if they push themselves beyond 'critical' limits. England footballers who played Italy at Manaus, Brazil, in 30C temperatures in the 2014 World Cup, sweated up to to 5litres (8.9pints) - losing around 5kg (11.3lb) of body weight minus fluids drunk, according to Lucozade Sport. Arsenal and Chelsea are set to enjoying scorching sunshine for the FA Cup Final at Wembley on Saturday (pictured: managers Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte) Sports training analysts Peak Performance Online said: 'The body's core temperature rises with exercise and this is exacerbated in hot conditions. 'Regardless of fitness, there is a critical core temperature limit - at which point athletes are forced to reduce intensity or risk heat-related illness.' Bobby Charlton famously lost 10lb (4.6kg) weight through sweat in just an hour of England's classic encounter with Pele's Brazil at the Mexico 1970 World Cup. The FA Cup Final, first played in 1872, used to be played in April, then in early May - before the switch to late May in recent years. Met Office forecaster Emma Sharples said: 'Saturday looks close to 30C. It will be sticky and uncomfortable and warm for FA Cup Final players, and still feel humid at 5.30pm. Humidity increases how uncomfortable heat feels.' Advertisement

Roadworks are lifted to ease bank holiday traffic squeeze as Britons hit the road

With the decreased value of the pound pricing many Brits out of long weekends abroad, the nation's roads are set to be packed with people flocking to domestic 'staycations'.

With Sterling down more than 13 per cent against the dollar and nine per cent against the pound since the EU Referendum last summer, revenue of British holiday parks has increased.

That trend is set to continue after the UK currency dropped further this week due to rapidly fluctuating General Election polls.

Britain's roads are set to be packed with people flocking to domestic 'staycations' because of the decreased value of the pound has made trips abroad more expensive

In a bid to ease congestion, Highways England has announced it is lifting more than 300 miles of roadworks to help people travelling this May bank holiday.

This means almost 98 per cent of motorways and strategic A roads will be roadworks-free over the bank holiday.

But there will still be 164 miles of road works across the country, including 26 miles on the A1 near Leeming, 20 miles on the M6 near Crewe and 16.25 miles on the M3 near Farnborough and Camberley.

Motoring groups have warned to expect heavy traffic with hot weather likely to cause road surfaces to melt.

Mark Shankland, managing director of AA Tyres, said: 'With the mercury peaking at a scorching 30C in some parts of the UK drivers should be especially cautious when heading out on the roads.

'Roads start to soften around 27C and as tarmac is a darker surface, it retains the heat better.

'This can lead to the asphalt warping, causing bulges and cracks to appear in the road.

'A softer surface will affect the grip of the tyres and your braking, which will impact your stopping distances and the quality of your drive.'

ANTICIPATED TRAFFIC HOTSPOTS ACROSS THE UK

M5 Almondsbury Interchange and from Bristol to Taunton A303 Andover to Ilminster A30 and A38 Exeter to Cornwall M4 between Cardiff and Swansea M25 between Gatwick and M1 A23/M23 to Brighton A34 and M3 south and south west to the south coast A47 Swaffham to Great Yarmouth A11 Thetford to Norwich M55 between Preston and Blackpool A14 between the Midlands and the east coast A590/A591 between the M6 and the Lake District A66 between M6 and the coast M53 between Liverpool and Chester Advertisement

Train lines are slow going, however,as Network Rail halves some speeds to stop rails from buckling.

Network Rail said it imposed some speed restrictions  which usually halve train speeds  as 'direct sunshine' threatened to buckle rails.

Hot but cloudy conditions cause fewer problems as the sunshine reaching ground level is weaker.

Dozens of services are understood to have been delayed, by up to 30 minutes. More speed restrictions are expected tomorrow after Network Rail speed restrictions included Virgin Trains' west coast main line between Lancaster and Preston, and Milton Keynes and Rugby  also hitting London Midland.

Other firms suffering speed restriction delays include Great Western Railway and Arriva Trains Wales on the London-Wales main line near Cardiff, and Greater Anglia between Norwich and Lowestoft.

Speed restrictions began being imposed on Wednesday.

Stephen Ng tweeted: 'I've heard it all now. GWR say the rails between Cardiff and Newport are too hot, hence a speed restriction and 23 minutes late.'

Chris Roberts tweeted: 'GWR, what will happen when we have even hotter days?'

A Network Rail spokesman said: 'Rails in direct sunshine can be 20C hotter than air temperature. Rails expand as they get hotter and can start to buckle. 'Speed restrictions are imposed as slower trains exert lower forces on the track, reducing the chance of buckling.'

Passengers are also being asked to check their travel plans in advance as it prepares to carry out a major programme of engineering works over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Work at Seven Kings and between Harold Wood and Shenfield will disrupt travel in and out of Liverpool Street station. There will also be work between Bethnal Green and Forest Gate.

There will be no Southeastern trains between London Charing Cross and London Bridge. Most services will be diverted to start and terminate at London Cannon Street.

There will be reduced services to and from London Paddington and Slough stations.

Train lines are slow going as Network Rail halves some speeds to stop rails from buckling. Network Rail said it imposed some speed restrictions  which usually halve train speeds  as 'direct sunshine' threatened to buckle rails

Work between Carstairs and Edinburgh will see lines closed between Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central.

Passengers will be delayed by work between Didcot Parkway and Swindon.

There could also be continued disruption in and around Manchester following the terror attack, with Victoria station and roads in the centre of town remaining closed until further notice.

But bosses at the Rail Maritime & Transport union have agreed to suspend train strikes planned for next week in light of the bomb at Manchester.

Staff at Northern rail, Merseyrail and Southern rail were due to walk out for 24 hours from midnight on Tuesday next week as part of a long-running dispute over 'driver only' trains, which strip guards of the responsibility for opening and closing the train doors.
Power has been restored across Sydney's west after a major outage caused chaotic scenes, with up to 100 traffic lights and about 60,000 homes and businesses left without electricity.

The M5 was closed in both directions between Mascot and Bexley North in Sydney's south due to the power failure, but was reopened by 6pm AEST on Friday.

Canterbury Hospital was not accepting any new patients and Ashfield Mall was evacuated as a result of the outage with escalators stalled and shops plunged into darkness, according to 9 News.

Power has been restored after a major outage caused chaotic scenes on Sydney's M5 motorway, with up to 100 traffic lights and about 60,000 homes and businesses left in darkness on Friday evening

The M5 was initially closed in both directions between Mascot and Bexley North in Sydney's south due to the power failure. It has now been reopened west-bound

Sydney Airport warned passengers due to catch flights on Friday night to use public transport to get to the airport

The power was restored to businesses, homes and streets by about 6.30pm AEST.

According to a report from 9 News Ausgrid said the blackout was caused by piece of equipment inside Canterbury substation.

An Ausgrid map showed suburbs affected included Clemton Park, Earlwood, Campsie, parts of Roselands and Bexley North, Ashbury, Ashfield, Burwood Heights, Belfield, parts of Strathfield South, Strathfield, Enfield, parts of Summer Hill, Mascot, Kingsgrove, Wolli Creek, Croydon Park and Petersham.

7 News reported that of the 100 affected, 80 sets of traffic lights are still out.

According to the Transport Management Centre (TMC) light rail is also not running between Lilyfield and Dulwich Hill and replacement buses have been organised.

Canterbury Hospital was accepting any new patients and Ashfield Mall was evacuated as a result of the outage, according to 9 News. Pictured is a traffic jam in Mascot

Emergency crews were expected to work into the night as about 60,000 homes and businesses in Sydney's inner west were without power. The outage was restored about 6.30pm

Traffic was in chaos across the inner west. Sydney Trains however, said public transport was not affected by the blackouts and was running close to or on time as of 5pm AEST

In a post on Twitter on Friday evening the company said: 'Ausgrid is working to restore the power safely to homes and businesses in Sydney's Inner West.'

Just after 6pm the company posted: 'Power safely restored to all 60,000 homes & businesses in Sydney's Inner West & South West including M5 tunnel. Thanks for your patience.'

Sydney Trains posted a statement on Twitter saying the outage has not affected public transport, with services as at 17.00 on or close to time.

Sydney Airport is still urging people catching flights on Friday night to catch public transport and avoid the traffic gridlock.

A post on Twitter read: 'Due to the closure of parts of the M5 motorway, we're recommending travellers take the train to and from the airport tonight.'

The power outage caused chaotic scenes on Sydney's M5 motorway (pictured). Of the 100 traffic lights affected, 7 News reported that 80 sets are still believed to be out

The M5 was initally closed in both directions between Mascot and Bexley North in Sydney's south due to the power failure

Ausgrid said the power failure was caused by a piece of equipment in the Canterbury substation
Just hours before she's due to finally be released into freedom, Schapelle Corby has been given one final checkup by a doctor inside her Bali home.

The 39-year-old convicted drug trafficker has refused to leave her home since a pack of media formed outside, waiting for her deportation back to Australia on Sunday.

Paid a visit by the same doctor who treated her as she battled mental health issues in Kerobokan prison, Corby was seemingly given the all-clear to return to Australia for the first time since 2004.

Scroll down for video

Schapelle Corby has been given a final check-up by her doctor inside her Bali home, ahead of her deportation back to Australia

Visited by a doctor and her parole officer, Corby was seemingly given the all-clear to return to Australia for the first time since 2004

Corby was paid a visit by the same doctor who treated her when battling mental health issues inside Kerobokan prison

Arriving alongside Corby's parole officer, Dr Agung Hartawan spent less than an hour inside her beachside home.

Keen not to give too much away, he kept tight-lipped about Corby's wellbeing after leaving.

'She's well, she's healthy,' Dr Hartawan told the waiting media pack.

'Her expression was flat... only Mercedes was smiling, Corby kept a flat expression.

'When the parole officer said, you must be happy about going home tomorrow, Corby didnt give any response.'

However while Dr Hartawan described Mercedes as 'smiling' during his visit, it seems her happy mood was short lived.

Later on, the sister who has always been by Schapelle's side lashed out at media.

'Go away,' she yelled from inside the home, while her ex-husband Wayan Widyartha used a phone to film the media outside.

While Dr Hartawan described Mercedes Corby (pictured) as 'smiling' during his visit, it seems her happy mood was short lived, with the older sister yelling 'go away!' at the media pack

In addition to her house, a pack of waiting media has also assembled outside the prosecutor's office, ahead of her deportation on Sunday

Also paying a final visit to Corby ahead of her deportation, Kuta's police boss said he was hoping her flight out of Indonesia would go smoothly.

'We want to make sure that the process tomorrow would not disrupt society here,' Mr Sumara told the waiting media.

'There is no special treatment for her. Everybody gets the same treatment.

'Until now I haven't seen any threat to her, but whether there is a threat or not, the police must provide security.'

In addition to her house, a pack of waiting media has also assembled outside the prosecutor's office, ahead of her deportation on Sunday.

Having had five years cut off her sentence, she was paroled in 2014 and has been living with her brother in Bali ever since.
A national cannabis ring has been busted with the Queensland police arresting 24 people across three states supplying drugs through the mail following a year-long investigation.

The national and international crime syndicate in South Australia is alleged to have supplied cannabis through the mail to New South Wales and Queensland members who sold it to distributors.

Police arrested 10 people in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and seized a total of 8.3kg of cannabis, drug paraphernalia and $106,950 in cash.

A national cannabis ring has been busted with the Queensland police arresting 24 people across three states supplying drugs through the mail following a year-long investigation

Police arrested 10 people in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and seized a total of 8.3kg of cannabis, drug paraphernalia and $106,950 in cash (pictured)

South Australian police arrested 11 people in Adelaide with up to 16kg of dried cannabis, 46 plants, a range of other drugs and more than $176,000 in cash

South Australian police arrested 11 people in Adelaide with up to 16kg of dried cannabis, 46 plants, a range of other drugs and more than $176,000 in cash.

Three people across Sydney and the Tweed heads were also arrested with another 16kg of cannabis seized, cannabis seeds, a cannabis plant and $51,000.

ABF Investigations Superintendent Matt Stock was confident the bust was a result of how successfully all branches were working together across the nation.

'Working closely with Queensland Police and other agencies, our officers have worked tirelessly for over a year to effectively investigate and target this criminal group,' Superintendent Stock said.

'Our multidisciplinary team has provided operational, investigative and specialist trace detection leads. Looking at the many agencies involved, it really speaks volume as to how effectively we work together on both the state and federal level.'

Three people across Sydney and the Tweed heads were also arrested with another 16kg of cannabis seized, cannabis seeds, a cannabis plant and $51,000
Heres what happened in the Nebraska Legislature where the headlines were focused on the budget, corrections and tax cuts.

A stalwart group of non-partisan senators stood up to Governor Pete Ricketts ill-advised tax plan (LB461) and sidetracked it for the session saying that this wasnt the right time for tax cuts when the state is struggling with declining revenue.

As assigned, the Appropriations Committee delivered a budget just as the states Economic Forecasting Advisory Board determined that those revenues would be down an additional $56.5 million. The package of budget bills passed, but Ricketts used his line item veto power to remove $56.5 million funding for programs ranging from extra money for the probation administration to improvements to the aging HVAC system in the Capitol.

In the end, the Pete Ricketts Legislature sustained every one of the vetoes. That caused one senator to opine that the governor will have to own the budget just like he owns the Legislature. That recognizes that Ricketts contributed personal funds to last falls elections to defeat several incumbent senators (fellow Republicans, to boot) who had crossed him last session by overriding vetoes and doing other things (like supporting a repeal of the death penalty) one would expect in an independent branch of government.

The blurring of the separation of powers started in January when the Gang of 27 senators who met before the session started decided who was going to chair which committees. That coalition has hung together through the session and proven to be more puppets for the governor than representatives of the people. The slam dunk on veto overrides appears to have completed the merger of the Executive and Legislative branches and the beginning of the end of the nonpartisan system.

But thats just politics, right? And who cares that its not necessarily nice.

So, heres one of the other things they did in a flurry of final reading in the waning days of the session which seemed to drag early on with debate over rules and personalities and posturing. Consider the bill (LB584) they passed that will regulate the mowing of roadside ditches to prevent erosion and protect the bird population. Really. Its that kind of stuff that has to make you feel good about representative government, right? It prevents counties and townships from mowing ditches before July 1 each year, but does not prohibit private landowners from mowing roadside vegetation on road shoulders, intersections or entrances. Landowners will be required to mow roads and drainage ditches at least twice annually, in July and September.

Just remember, this is the same Legislature that sustained vetoes, which eliminated general funds that had been approved for Medicaid, child welfare, behavioral health and developmental disability providers. Not to mention the money that would have been spent for expansion of the probation system to keep more people out of prison and alleviate some of the overcrowding that will contribute to a lawsuit and necessitate the construction of another prison.

Appropriations Chairman Senator John Stinner of Gering argued for the override, saying that probation services provide constructive change through rehabilitation, collaboration and partnership to enhance and maintain the safety of communities. Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Senator Laura Ebke of Crete supported the override and said its important to keep our eyes on the big picture.

Lincoln Senator Matt Hansen of Lincoln supported the override motions, saying the governor had an unlimited number of choices in how to re-balance the budget with his line-item vetoes but chose cuts that impact individuals who cannot advocate for themselves. He said he hopes the governor is comfortable with those choices.

Well wait to see how those choices work out.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte 'joked' that his soldiers could rape women and he would go to prison for them as he rallied the troops against ISIS on Friday.

Duterte made the remark while visiting a military base near Marawi, where vicious fighting broke out between the government and Maute terrorists, who have pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State, on Tuesday.

The emergency led to Duterte imposing marital law, a move which has drawn heavy criticism, even from his allies.

He told troops: 'For this martial law and the consequences of martial law and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte 'joked' that his soldiers could rape women and he would go to prison for them as he defended his decision to declare martial law amidst an ISIS attack

The outspoken and hardline leader made the comments as he visited a military hospital in order to rally the troops following a fourth day of fighting on Friday

The President said he would take all of the blame for the martial law, saying that his soldiers could rape three women and he would go to prison for it

Duterte spoke to injured soldiers while pinning badges on their hospital gowns as he rallied the troops on Friday afternoon

Soldiers managed to recapture areas of the city from militants, taking down their feared flag which had been displayed on rooftops and buildings

Eleven government troops and 31 jihadis were reported to have died by Thursday, with no updates given so far for the fighting on Friday

Hundreds of US-trained special forces backed by armoured vehicles were put on to the streets of Marawi in order to clear the terrorists out

'Just do your work. I will handle the rest. I will be imprisoned for you. If you rape three (women), I will say that I did it.'

Images showed the President, who is known for his hardline views, walking among injured troops at a military hospital while saluting them and pinning badges to their uniforms.

Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao in response to militants going on a deadly rampage through a city in the south and flying the black flags of the Islamic State group.

Earlier in the day Solicitor General Jose Calida accused foreign jihadi fighters of 'invading' the country after failing to join ISIS in Syria.

Indonesian and Singaporean fighters were among those recruited by the Maute group before their attack.

Mr Calida said: 'What's happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens.

Smoke rose from buildings around Marawi on Friday after government troops launched a series of early-morning offensives against Maute jihadis in the city

Government forces launched early-morning attacks on on Maute jihadis who seized rooftops and bridges around Marawi (pictured, smoke rises from a burning building)

Duterte has imposed martial law across the Mindanado region, where Marawi is located, and has threatened to apply it across the country

US-trained special forces are fighting militants from the ISIS-affiliated Maute group after they stormed the city on Tuesday and began slaughtering Christians

President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law in the region. So far 11 government troops and 31 militants have died in the fighting, according to official figures

Almost all of Marawi's 200,000 residents have fled to neighbouring cities after Maute terrorists seized bridges and occupied rooftops there

Dozens of heavily armed troops and armoured vehicles protected civilians as they streamed out of Maraqwi on Friday amid fresh government offensives

'It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria.'

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has imposed martial law in the region, said on Friday that he is willing to talk with militants in order to resolve the crisis.

'My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue,' he said.

Duterte recently warned that ISIS fighters driven from the Middle East would end up in the southern Philippines and his country was at risk of 'contamination'.

Maute held positions on bridges and buildings around the city on Friday as the government launched early-morning offensives to recapture the positions.

The fighting has so-far killed 11 government troops and 31 ISIS militants, though ISIS propagandists claimed to have slaughtered 70 of Duterte's men.

The White House on Thursday said it backed the Philippines in its fight against 'cowardly terrorists'.

Few of Marawi's 200,000 inhabitants remained after militants ran amok, seizing and torching schools, a college and a hospital.

ISIS media channels have been distributing images of what they say is their fighters inside Marawi, including this man using a .50 calibre mounted machine gun

Militants also posted images of themselves raising ISIS's feared black flag over areas of the city as government troops battled for control

ISIS-linked militants reportedly captured nine Christians, tied their hands together and shot them dead in a city in the Philippines. The television network GMA published this photo which claims to show them lying dead face-down in the grass

An armoured tank and government troops march to begin their assault against insurgents from the Maute group

Wounded Filipino soldiers are carried onto a military helicopter amid clashes with ISIS-linked rebels

They freed more than 100 prisoners and took a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city's cathedral.

Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by heavily armed soldiers streamed into nearby Iligan City.

One Christian resident, Mark Angelou Siega, described how students fled amid fears rebels would take over their university campus.

'We were preparing for exams and we could hear the gunfire and bombs,' he said.

'We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us. These terrorists are not real Muslims.'

Solicitor general Calida said the Maute group and Islamic State had a dream to create their own 'ISIS province' in Mindanao and the government was not the only target of their aggression.

Extremists from the Maute group waved black ISIS flags as they stormed the streets of Marawi City after government troops conducted a raid on the hideout of the Filipino leader of ISIS

Filipino soldiers hold on to fleeing children following reports of fresh clashes between government troops and rebels in Marawi City

Horrified villagers look as smoke billows from a house that caught fire during the clashes

Male residents are frisked by police at a checkpoint as they leave Marawi city

Local police and soldiers screen vehicles and traffic in the streets going out of the city for escaping militants

'People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets,' he said. 'What it worrisome is that the ISIS has radicalised a number of Filipino Muslim youth.'

Ex-Philippine leader and Fidel Ramos waded into the crisis on Friday, condemning the use of martial law, particularly Duterte's threat that he could spread it to the rest of the country.

Ramos, an ally of Duterte, said: 'We are all victims of martial law. We would be much higher now in the ranking of nations, in the appreciation of other nations for the Philippines, if we did not have martial law.

'As a military man, please understand how deep my statements are. Do not tell me any of you will enjoy martial law.'

Ramos was a former security chief for Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who also ruled through martial law, before joining the rebellion against him and eventually helping to overthrow him in 1986.

Duterte had praised Marcos' use of martial law, which saw billions of dollars plundered from the economy and thousands of opponents detained or killed.

The Maute group forced nine civilians off their truck at a roadside checkpoint in Marawi City on Wednesday and murdered them after they were identified as Christian, local media reported.

Harrowing images show the group lying dead face-down in the grass, amid reports that villagers are afraid to move the bodies because terrorists are still in the area.

One policeman was similarly caught at a checkpoint set up by the militants and beheaded on Wednesday, President Rodrigo Duterte said.

Five soldiers and one policemen have died in the clashes, while 13 gunmen were killed, according to the military

Soldiers were seen crouched behind armoured vehicles and walls around lunchtime on Thursday, firing volleys of gunshots towards elevated positions occupied by Maute rebels

Government troops frisk a Muslim man at a checkpoint in Marawi City on Thursday

A soldier taking a look at enemy positions, while they try to clear the city of armed militants, one street at a time

A rosary is seen hanging from the a vest of a government soldier, who prays before their assault with insurgents

Soldiers take positions while evading sniper fire during clashes with armed militants

'One of Washington's most-wanted terrorists: Who is Isnilon Hapilon?' Isnilon Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. He was purportedly designated leader of the Islamic State group's Southeast Asia branch in 2016 but has long had ties to local extremist movements. He is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group and was wounded by a military airstrike in January. Isnilon Hapilon, the leader of Islamic State group's Southeast Asia branch, is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists and has a $5million bounty on his head Hapilon gained notoriety beyond the Philippines when he allegedly helped Abu Sayyaf kidnap 20 hostages from a Filipino resort in 2001. At least 21 people have died in fighting that erupted late Tuesday, when the army raided the Marawi hideout of Hapilon. The military had for months been conducting offensives against Islamist militants in nearby mountains, and came close to killing Hapilon during a bombing raid in January. After receiving intelligence that he had come to Marawi for medical treatment and was hiding in a house, a small group of security forces conducted what two military spokespeople described as a 'surgical operation' to get him. But the operation quickly went wrong. Rebels called in reinforcements and swept through the streets, torching buildings, taking a Catholic priest and his worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city to the outside world. The military said their intelligence revealed Hapilon was still in the area, but there was no indication he had been captured. Hapilon is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists and has a $5million bounty on his head. Advertisement

Soldiers were seen crouched behind armoured vehicles and walls around lunchtime on Thursday, firing volleys of gunshots towards elevated positions occupied by Maute rebels. Smoke could also be seen on the horizon.

'We're confronting maybe 30 to 40 remaining from the local terrorist group,' said Jo-Ar Herrera, a spokesman for the military's First Infantry Regiment.

'The military is conducting precise, surgical operations to flush them out ... The situation is very fluid and movements are dynamic because we wanted to out-step and out-manoeuvre them,' he said.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because the militants were holed up in residential buildings, had planted improvised bombs in the streets and had taken Catholic hostages.

Fleeing villagers run during a military assault following reports of fresh clashes between government troops and rebels

Panicked residents carry as much of their belongings as they can while fleeing to safety

Hundreds of civilians, including children, were sheltering in a military camp in Marawi City

Residents walk through a grassy area to the evacuation centre as they flee the conflict

'People are afraid. They do not want to open establishments. Offices are closed. We do not want people to be used as human shields,' Marawi mayor Majul Usman Gandamra said.

Two military helicopters flew above Marawi and armoured tanks churned through its streets as automatic rifle firing could be heard on Thursday, according to an AFP photographer in the city.

Hundreds of civilians, including children, were sheltering in a military camp in Marawi City on Thursday.

The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.

The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.

However the raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then went on a rampage across the city while flying black IS flags.

Philippine troops arrive at their barracks to reinforce fellow troops following the siege by Muslim militants in Marawi where 21 people were killed

Chilling photographs from Marawi City in the Philippines, where an Islamist group has taken a priest hostage, show militants planting the ISIS flag on top of buildings

Several online posts appeared to show the black and white flag used by ISIS hung from buildings in Marawi

Soldiers search vehicles of fleeing residents at a checkpoint following militants overrunning Filipino city

Filipino government troops stand guard at a government facility following President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration of martial law in Davao city, Mindanao Island

Islamist gunmen have taken hostages including a Catholic priest in Marawi, Philippines, shortly after President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law to combat extremism. Pictured: Troops evacuating people from Marawi

Members of the ISIS-inspired Maute Islamist group stormed the Cathedral of Our Lady Help, on Mindanao island (pictured)

Duterte (pictured) declared martial law across the southern region of Mindanao last night after Islamist militants rampaged through the city of Marawi

Filipino Archbishop Socrates Villegas said the extremists have threatened to kill the hostages if the government forces unleashed against them are not recalled

Archbishop Villegas went on to say the extremists took an undisclosed number of hostages to a secret location and the abductees have not been heard from since

'He was not a combatant,' said Archbishop Villegas. 'He was not bearing arms. He was a threat to none. His capture and that of his companions violates every norm of civilised conflict'

But Marawi Mayor Majul Usman Gandamra has refused to confirm reports the terror group took hostages in Marawi

The fighting in Marawi erupted yesterday when security forces raided a house they believed Isnilon Hapilon, leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang

More than 100 gunmen responded to the raid by burning buildings and conducting other diversionary tactics

President Duterte says he may extend it to other parts of the country if extremists seek sanctuary elsewhere

Islamist militancy is not new to the southern Philippines, where a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency claimed more than 120,000 lives.

Muslim rebels orchestrated a siege in the southern city of Zamboanga in 2013 that left more than 200 people dead.

But the government of then-president Benigno Aquino did not declare martial law.

Aquino also said he had considered imposing martial law just before standing down last year in Sulu, island strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf in the far south of Mindanao.

But Aquino said he decided against it partly because military rule could spark resentment among local people.
As Britain baked in more hot weather today, a school in Kent was caught up in a row after it was accused of 'sexualising young girls' by banning strappy tops which show off bare flesh.

Angry pupils at Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School in Canterbury have started a petition which has already got about 130 names.

They want the school, founded in 1881 and with 1,025 girl pupils aged 11 to 18, to drop a rule which states that students in the sixth form should not wear 'strappy' or 'sleeveless' tops which reveal their bare shoulders.

Angry pupils at Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School (pictured) in Canterbury have started a petition which has already got about 130 names

Pupils say strappy tops are more comfortable in hot weather and they say the dress code ruling is old-fashioned.

They also say there's a more disturbing aspect to the regulation because it draws attention to what sort of clothes they are allowed to wear and how much flesh is revealed.

The petition, launched by Maddi Lane, one of the pupils, reads: 'This rule encourages the disturbing sexualisation of young girls' bodies, most of which are underage.

'The argument that shoulders shouldn't be seen in a workplace is irrelevant, as our generation is the future workforce.

'It is our job to change the oppressive and demeaning standards that women are forced to abide by, or nothing will change in the future.'

As Britain baked in hot weather , a school in Kent was caught up in a row after it was accused of 'sexualising young girls' by banning strappy tops which show off bare flesh (Stock image)

Reaction from girls at the school... School leaver Yasmin Shulver, 18, from Canterbury School leaver Yasmin Shulver, 18, from Canterbury, said it's 'ridiculous' female students are restricted when male pupils - who are admitted for the sixth form - can wear what they want. She added: 'I think it's absolutely ridiculous. It's just a strappy top - you are not showing your stomach or your bum or your boobs. 'It's alright for men to wear whatever they want but women can't wear whatever they want. We should be supporting feminism. 'On days like this when it's really hot we are made to wear t-shirts and boys can wear whatever they want.' She said students caught breaking the dress code would asked to put their PE kit on or sent home. Parent Natalie Jones, 46, from Aylesham, has a daughter in the lower school but said she supported the dress code. She said: 'It is a school getting them for the workplace at the end of the day. 'As far as my daughter's concerned when the time comes I would probably discourage her from showing too much flesh at school. Whatever is reasonable. 'I know we have got to get with the times, but I'm a little bit old fashioned. Sixth form is preparing them for the workplace.' Year 12 student Fay Gilbert, 17, from Whitstable Year 12 student Fay Gilbert, 17, from Whitstable, signed the petition. She said: 'They don't like it if you wear a top that you see a potential bra strap. 'I signed the petition because I thought I might as well exercise my democratic right. I wore an off shoulder too once and I was told off. 'Not only do you feel sort of sexualised as a person but you feel quite down-hearted. They want you to express your individuality but you can't wear the clothes that you are in to. I feel quite victimised. 'This week it has been particularly hot and we want to wear clothes that will cool us down. They assume our incentive is perverse but it isn't.' Year 12 pupil Ania Franzcuk, 16, is backing the petition because it's important for pupils to be comfortable and have the freedom to express their individuality. She said: 'I don't think that any clothing changes will affect pupils work. Whatever they wear they are going to work it is not going to make any difference. 'The clothing that we wear at the girls school and the individuality it shows is really good for our school. 'But if you are not comfortable you are not going to be able to work well.' Advertisement

The petition has so far reached 133 signatures and is 71 short of its target of 200.

Pupils at the selective grammar in Canterbury, Kent, are permitted to wear their own clothes in Years 12 and 13 but must abide by a strict dress code.

Writing on a public school forum, the pupil who launched the campaign cited feminist critic Laura Mulvey and said women were only forced to cover up due to the oppressive male gaze.

She wrote: 'I understand that the rules in place are somewhat important, but I am not arguing that bikini tops or very short shorts should be allowed.

The petition (pictured) has so far reached 133 signatures and is 71 short of its target of 200

'The only reason that 'boobs and bum cheeks' are deemed inappropriate for school is because of oppression women have received from the male gaze over the years.'

She added: 'I speak for myself and many others when I say we aren't trying to 'flaunt' anything. Nudity shouldn't be sexualised, I'm not sure what I've got and I'm not trying to flaunt it to anybody, I just want to feel comfortable in a school environment.'

Janis Volckman said online: 'I am surprised there is a rule that says students can't wear sleeveless tops.

'What century are we in? It is silly rules like this that distract students from their studies.

Marie Smith posted: 'Some sixth forms have to wear uniform... I understand your argument and I think vest tops etc are ok, but at the end of the day it is school and there needs to be some rules'

'I'm not interested in what they look like (as long as they're not offending anyone), it's the work that's important.

But Marie Smith posted: 'Some sixth forms have to wear uniform... I understand your argument and I think vest tops etc are ok, but at the end of the day it is school and there needs to be some rules otherwise you'd have people in bikini tops and very short shorts... boobs and bum cheeks hanging out all over the place is not a nice look for school.'

The school's headteacher Dr Matthew Baxter is determined that the rule should stay.

He said: 'The subject was discussed with the deputy heads and it has been decided that both Langton schools will ensure that the same dress code applies to all students within their sixth form.'
A British father has died while on an inflatable sofa being pulled by a speedboat.

Simon Crewe, 57, was one of three passengers on the ride near a beach holiday resort in Greece.

Witnesses said there was a massive bang and his brother David  who was next to Mr Crewe  was hit on the head by an unidentified object.

Mr Crewes partner, Vicki Hewitt, 49, was in the speedboat and said she saw the sofa bounce heavily.

Simon Crewe, left, was on a dream holiday on the Greek island of Kefalonia with his partner of three years Vikki Hewitt when he fell from an inflatable sofa and died a short time later

An inflatable ride similar to that used by Mr Crewe

Simon Crewe was killed in the final day of a dream holiday to the Greek island of Kefalonia

Their friend was thrown into the air and landed in the sea, where he lay unconcious. He was last night still in hospital with internal injuries following the drama on Tuesday.

As David tried to help the man in the water, he turned to his brother and realised he had collapsed. Miss Hewitt, from Whetstone, Leicestershire, told her local newspaper: We were looking for the third person in the water and saw him floating face up.

Then I looked at the sofa and saw Simon lying very still and shouted the driver, who was getting the person in the water up on to the boat.

The driver then swam over to the sofa. I could see them doing CPR on Simon.

Mr Crewe, a carpenter also from Whetstone, had been on the island of Kefalonia for six days for the most fantastic holiday ever.

The tragedy unfolded off the Costa Costa beach on the south coast during the final day of their trip. Greek police are investigating, but last night there was still no indication of what caused the incident.

The 57-year-old collapsed while on an inflatable sofa which was being towed by a speed boat

The owner of the speedboat company has been questioned by officers. Mr Crewes brother said: Simon had his heart set on having a go on the inflatable yellow sofa wed seen being pulled out by speedboat  a bit like the banana boat rides.

It was the last day [of the holiday] so me and the two other men from our party of six agreed and got on the sofa.

He added: Two of our partners, including his partner Vicki, got into the speedboat with the driver. The ride had begun and there was a massive bang. Something hit my head. I thought we had hit a wave.

Our friend was thrown into the sea. I turned to Simon and I dont know what happened, but I watched him die.

Miss Hewitt, who described father-of-three Mr Crewe as the very best of men, said the three on the ride were wearing life jackets. She has now flown home, but Mr Crewes body is still in Greece while an inquest is carried out.

Tributes to Mr Crewe have described him as larger than life and full of fun.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: Our staff have offered advice to the partner of a British man who died in Greece. We remain in contact with Greek authorities.
The father of suicide bomber Salman Abedi looked after a notorious ISIS recruiter when he was shot in Libya, it has been claimed.

Abedi, who slaughtered 22in Manchester on Monday, was said to be friends with Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan refugee who returned to his homeland in 2011 to fight the regime of Colonel Gaddafi.

Abdallah, later jailed in Britain for terror offences, was shot in 2012 and was cared for in Tripoli by Abedi's father, Ramadan, it has been claimed. The injuries left him paralysed.

The father of suicide bomber Salman Abedi looked after ISIS recruiter Abdalraouf Abdallah when he was shot in Libya, it has been claimed

Salman Abedi (pictured), who slaughtered 22in Manchester on Monday, was said to be friends with Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan refugee who returned to his homeland in 2011 to fight the regime of Colonel Gaddafi

Abdallah, later jailed in Britain for terror offences, was shot in 2012 and was cared for in Tripoli by Abedi's father, Ramadan (pictured), it has been claimed. The injuries left him paralysed

Ramadan is now in custody after being arrested this week by security forces in Libya over the Manchester attack.

The links between Abedi and Abdallah were revealed to the Financial Times by associates of the two families.

Police in Tripoli said he was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in the 1990s who found refuge in Britain before returning to fight against Gaddafi in 2011. He denies he was part of the al-Qaeda-backed group.

Abdallah, 23, was jailed for five and a half years in July 2016, having been convicted of trying to help other Manchester-based extremists to join ISIS.

He lived in Moss Side in south Manchester, a short drive from the Abedi family home.

Abdallah, 23, was jailed for five and a half years in July 2016, having been convicted of trying to help other Manchester-based extremists to join ISIS

Abedi's younger brother Hashem (pictured) has been detained in Libya, with officials there saying he was aware of the planned attack

Police are exploring potential ties to Raphael Hostey (pictured), an ISIS recruiter killed in a drone strike last year who boasted of luring hundreds of Britons to Syria

Abdallah, left paralysed from his injuries, was sentenced for trying to help former RAF gunner Stephen Gray join jihadis in Syria.

During the trial, jurors heard he played a key role in setting up the journey to Syria for Gray, Abdallah's own brother Mohammed and two more men.

The court heard he also sent 2,000 to his brother for terrorist purposes and tried to arrange firearms for the three men.

Prosecutors said Abdallah, who denied links with ISIS, he was 'at the centre of a jihadist network facilitating foreign fighters'.

Meanwhile, authorities are chasing possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East.

They were exploring potential ties to Raphael Hostey, an ISIS recruiter killed in a drone strike last year who boasted of luring hundreds of Britons to Syria.

Abedi's family remained a focus, too, with his brother, Ismail arrested in England and another brother, Hashem, held in Libya.
Jeremy Corbyn previously warned against treating Britons who travel to join ISIS as terrorists - complaining that it was a 'value judgement'.

The Labour leader insisted the government should not be trying to make 'subjective' decisions about who were 'good fighters and bad fighters' in Syria.

During a Commons debate in 2014, Mr Corbyn stressed that views on groups labelled 'terrorist' had previously turned 'full circle' - pointing to the way South African anti-apartheid militants were now regarded as 'freedom fighters'.

The comments came as the veteran left-winger - at the time a lowly backbencher - railed against David Cameron's plans to deal with the threat of jihadists returning from Syria.

Although he insisted he condemned the 'barbarity' of ISIS, the remarks unearthed by MailOnline will again raise concerns about how tough his stance is on terrorism.

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured with shadow home secretary Diane Abbott (right) and shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti today, previously opposed moves to bar British jihadis from returning to the UK

Speaking in the Commons in 2014, Jeremy Corbyn (pictured giving a speech in London today) said the government should not be trying to make 'subjective' decisions about who were 'good fighters and bad fighters' in Syria

Mr Corbyn faced a backlash today for using a speech in London to blame British foreign policy for 'fuelling' terrorism.

The campaign event was branded 'crass and inappropriate' by the Tories, coming just four days after the suicide bombing in Manchester that killed 22 people.

They pointed out that terror attacks by Islamist extremists long pre-dated campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Labour politicians also openly admitted the speech was 'badly timed' and muddle-headed. They said terrorists attacked the UK for 'what we are' not 'what we do'.

Some 850 Britons are thought to have gone to fight for ISIS in Iraq and Syria - with around half estimated to have returned home with battle experience and training in the use of explosives and firearms.

It has been claimed Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi went to Syria and received training before carrying out his atrocity this week.

Under plans brought forward at the end of 2014, when Mr Cameron was PM, British jihadis can be blocked from returning to this country.

Temporary Exclusion Orders (TEOs), which last a maximum of two years, can be issued by the Home Secretary to ensure fanatics are not allowed to come back to the UK without informing the authorities.

BACKLASH AFTER CORBYN BLAMES FOREIGN POLICY FOR TERRORISM Mr Corbyn pictured delivering his speech in London today Jeremy Corbyn is facing a furious backlash over an 'appalling' bid to exploit the Manchester bombing for political gain today. The Labour leader delivered a highly controversial speech in which he claimed that Britain's foreign policy in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria had 'fuelled terrorism'. But senior Tories branded the timing - just four days after 22 people were killed in the suicide bomb and with the injured still being treated in hospital - 'monstrous' and 'appalling'. They accused the veteran left-winger of 'playing into the narrative' of ISIS extremists, pointing out that terror attacks by Islamist extremists long pre-dated the military campaigns. Dismayed Labour politicians also openly admitted the speech was 'badly timed' and muddle-headed. They said terrorists hated the UK for 'what we are' not 'what we do'. The Labour leader, a long-time member of the Stop The War Campaign and CND, used the speech in central London today to claim successive governments have put the country at risk by sending troops to fight ISIS and other extremists abroad. Mr Corbyn - who has made clear that UK forces will no longer take part in action against ISIS in Syria and Iraq if he becomes PM - said he would only deploy troops if there was a 'clear plan' to bring about peace. He has previously stated that the last UK combat operation he agreed with was the Second World War. Advertisement

It is supported by cancelling their passport and adding their names to terrorist and criminal watchlists against which every person arriving in Britain is checked.

But as the legislation was going through parliament Mr Corbyn demanded that plans for a tougher ban be watered down.

Mr Corbyn, who became Labour leader in September 2015, condemned the 'barbarity' of ISIS but said Free Syrian forces backed by the UK and EU were also committing 'despicable' acts.

He voiced concern that British ISIS fighters who were not allowed to return could be captured by other forces and then 'tortured and all kinds of terrible things could happen to them'.

'We are involved in a process of making subjective judgments about who goes where to fight for what, and for whom,' he told the Commons.

'If somebody goes to fight for ISIS in Syria  I wish they would not; I have no truck whatever with ISIS  they will be deemed to be a terrorist and a dangerous person.

'If they go to fight for the Syrian Government, I presume the same point applies, but if they fight for the free Syrian army, which is supported by the Americans and the British, and they do things as despicable as they would in any other force, are they then deemed to be all right?'

Mr Corbyn also suggested that Britons who went to join Kurdish forces would be considered terrorists by Turkey even though they were fighting ISIS and the Assad regime.

'There are an awful lot of contradictions surrounding how we decide who is a good fighter and who is a terrorist; who is struggling for liberation and who is a terrorist,' he said.

'There was a time when people involved in Umkhonto we Sizwe in South Africa were known as terrorists; they were later welcomed to this country as freedom fighters. Things can turn full circle.'

Mr Corbyn insisted he did not want to give 'succour, comfort or support to ISIS'.

But he added: 'I feel that we should think about this rather more carefully and avoid the knee-jerk reaction of saying, 'These are bad fighters and those are good fighters, so we will ban these and allow those in.''

Mr Corbyn said young people 'attracted' to ISIS had told him 'that what the west did in Iraq and Afghanistan was appalling, and was questionably legal in the case of Afghanistan and definitely illegal in the case of Iraq'.

'We are living with the consequences of the war on terror of 2001, and if we continue to try to create legal obstacles and make value judgments about people without considering the overall policy we are following, we will return to legislation such as this again and again, year after year,' he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Corbyn said today: 'Jeremy could not have been clearer in the 2014 parliamentary debate.

'He made clear that there is absolutely no comparison between ISIS and liberation movements.

'His view then and today is that ISIS is an exceptionally brutal terrorist group that must be crushed and with which there can be no dialogue.'

Mr Corbyn faced a backlash today for using a speech in London to blame British foreign policy for 'fuelling' terrorism
The little girl who died after suffering severe burns in a hot bath has been named as two-year-old Maddilyn-Rose Ava Stokes.

The toddler, from Northgate, suffered severe burns to her back, buttocks and legs for several days before she died  injuries her parents claim were the result of scalding hot bath water.

Queensland police confirmed on Friday they were treating the girl's death as suspicious and her parents were persons of interest in the case.

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The little girl who died after suffering severe burns in a hot bath has been named as two-year-old Maddilyn-Rose Ava Stokes (pictured)

Queensland police confirmed on Friday they were treating Maddilyn-Rose's (pictured) death as suspicious and her parents were persons of interest in the case

'Those injuries appear to be very severe burns to her back of her legs, her buttocks and lower back and going all the way down to her feet,' Detective Inspector Tim Tresize said.

'Their (parent's) version is that it's a terrible accident and that a moment's inattention has led to this incident.

'However due to the serious nature of the burns, and the fact that they were so serious they likely caused her death, we have an open mind in relation to other possibilities.'

Emergency services were called to the housing commission complex in Northgate at 4.30pm on Thursday when the two-year-old went into cardiac arrest.

Emergency services were called to the housing commission complex in Northgate at 4.30pm on Thursday when the two-year-old went into cardiac arrest.

Paramedics worked on the girl for 30 minutes before rushing her to Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, where she later died.

Paramedics alerted the police to the girl's critical condition when they discovered her severe injuries.

Maddilyn-Rose Ava Stokes (pictured right), from Northgate, suffered severe burns to her back, buttocks and legs for several days before she died

Police were called to the Northgate home on Thursday afternoon when paramedics found significant injuries to the toddler's body

Ambulance paramedics alerted police to the girl's critical condition when they discovered the injuries - police launched an immediate investigation

Detective Inspectore Trezise said the girl's medical care was a 'prominent part of the investigation'.

'We haven't been able to ascertain where there was any medical treatment [given to the girl], none that we're aware of.'

He said the cause of death could only be confirmed after a post mortem was done.

The parents reportedly said the girl's death was the result of 'a terrible accident'.

The girl's death sent shockwaves through the community.

Police were called to the Northgate home in Brisbane when paramedics discovered the girl's injuries

Police remain on the scene on Friday to investigate circumstances surrounding the toddler's death

Neighbour Rhonda Jones has lived in the complex for a decade and would enjoy hearing the sandy-haired little girl 'chattering up the driveway' most days.

'She was just like any other child - she was always laughing and sounded happy,' Mrs Jones told Daily Mail Australia.

'The last time I saw her was on Wednesday she was going up to look in the letterbox.'

Mrs Jones said she was shocked when she realised the Ambulances were for the 'quiet house down the back'.

'Everything was very quiet. I was quite amazing because there was no noise. All of a sudden, all these ambulances were everywhere,' a neighbour said

Police officers are working alongside child protection officers to establish what happened to the toddler

'I first thought it was for my neighbour who has a dodgy heart - then I heard about all this.

'I feel really sad because I didn't know what was going on down there, she was always so happy looking.'

The young girl's family have lived in the seven-apartment complex for 'a year or two' according to the worried neighbour.

Police arrived at the Northgate home on Thursday afternoon after paramedics found significant injuries on the young girl's body

Another neighbour told the Today Show on Friday there was no indication anything was wrong at the home until the street was inundated with emergency service workers.

'Everything was very quiet. I was quite amazed because there was no noise. All of a sudden, all these ambulances were everywhere,' she said.

'There's never any sound that comes from there, nothing that gave me any indication something was wrong yesterday.'

The Queensland Child Protection unit is working alongside police in the investigation.
Police have found Alfred John Impicciatore, one of the accused in the so-called 'Evil 8' case, nearly 4,000km away in NSW after he failed to turn up to court in Perth on Monday.

Impicciatore, 47, was found by NSW Police about 11am local time on Friday in the Merriwa area, north-west of Sydney.

Impicciatore will appear before Muswellbrook Magistrates Court in NSW on Saturday, where WA Police will seek his extradition.

He was due to face the WA District Court on Monday for allegedly sexually abused a girl who was aged between 11 and 13 when she was pimped out by her father, but never showed up.

Alfred John Impicciatore (pictured) an accused pedophile with a long history of failing to show up to court to face charges is on the run, has been found

The 47-year-old, who is an alleged member of notorious child sex abuse group 'Evil 8', was said to be travelling to the eastern states in a stolen car with Rachel Galvin (pictured), 40

The trial was abandoned and a warrant was issued for Impicciatore's arrest, with he and his alleged accomplice Rachel Galvin, 40, who was believed to be driving a stolen car towards the eastern states.

In a statement released on Friday morning, WA police revealed Impicciatore and his female companion may be driving a red Nissan Pulsar across the Nullarbor.

They are urging anyone travelling along the remote roads between WA and the east of the country to be aware of the car with registration 1ASA 315.

Impicciatore is alleged to be one of the 'evil eight' men charged with sexually assaulting a young girl who had been pimped out by her father over a two-year period.

In what's been dubbed one of the most horrific child sex abuse cases in Australia's history, the girl was first abused by a stranger when she was just 11.

However the 'Evil 8' was reduced to seven, with one of the men not charged with offences related to the girl.

Three of those men charged have been jailed - including the victim's father - while two are awaiting sentencing.

The bailing of members of the 'Evil 8' has previously sparked controversy, with Daily Mail Australia last year revealing some of the men were bailed to live near schools.

Paedophile pastor David Volmer was bailed to a residence opposite a school, where he lived for four months.

In a statement released on Friday morning, WA police revealed Impicciatore and his female companion may be driving a red Nissan Pulsar 1ASA 315 (pictured) across the Nullarbor

The bailing of 'Evil 8' members including David Volmer (left) and Ryan Trevor Clegg (right) has sparked controversy, with Daily Mail Australia last year revealing some of the men lived near schools

Another self-confessed child abuser awaiting sentencing, Ryan Trevor Clegg, had his bail revoked after it emerged he breached his conditions by living close to childcare centres and a school.

Another member of the alleged ring, self-confessed abuser Nicholas Adam Beer, was bailed to a home about 500 metres from a school.

West Australian Attorney-General Michael Mischin last year announced plans to amend legislation to create a presumption against granting bail to sex offenders awaiting sentencing.
A rally against one of City University of New Yorks commencement speakers ended in a violent altercation between demonstrators and counter-protesters on Thursday.

The scuffle broke out after a band of demonstrators led by alt-right poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos, conservative political commentator Pam Geller and Assemblyman Dov Hikind took to the CUNY campus to blast its decision to select civil-rights activist Linda Sarsour as graduation speaker for its School of Public Health.

A small group of demonstrators said to be chanting 'Make America Great Again' supposedly surrounded and attacked 19-year-old counter-protester Heather Morris who accused the group of being 'Nazis'.

Milo Yiannopoulos speaks at the protest in New York

Counter protesters and protesters clash at a demonstration

Linda Sarsour will be graduation speaker for CUNY's School of Public Health

'They tried hitting me with their fists, their sticks, whatever they found,' Morris told the New York Daily News after the scuffle.

'They're a bunch of Nazis...They probably targeted me because I'm young and I'm brown, too.'

Yiannopoulos and his small group of protesters were rallying against the University's selection of Sarsour to be its June commencement speaker.

A scuffle between protesters from either side in the rain soaked streets of New York

A demonstrator against Sarsour shouts at the rally in Manhatten

Pamela Geller speaks during a protest against the CUNY commencement speaker

Sarsour rose to prominence in January as the activist who organised the Washington Women's March soon after President Donald Trump's inauguration.

She has been accused of being an anti-semite for her support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

BDS seeks to put economic pressure on Israel until it grants Palestinian citizens full equality.

The self-proclaimed 'Palestinian Activist' also caused uproar after tweeting a photo of a young boy with rocks in each hand facing Israeli police, along with the words 'the definition of courage.'

Yiannopoulos at his rally speech said: 'Linda Sarsour is a Sharia-loving, terrorist-embracing, Jew-hating, ticking time bomb,' adding 'its now more important than ever to fight Islam in America and particularly its emissaries like Linda Sarsour.'

Geller in her address at the rally laid into Sarsour: 'Shes earned a reputation as one of this countrys most vicious anti-Israel activists, she has called Netanyahu a waste of skin.

'She tweeted a picture of a young Muslim child throwing a rock at Jews, calling him the definition of courage. Surely CUNY can do better?'

A number of CUNY professors have said opting to replace her as speaker would 'conflict with the First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom.'

A spokesman said after the rally: 'Some, who object to Ms. Sarsour's positions, have called on CUNY to rescind the invitation.

'To take such actions at a public university would violate the First Amendment as well as the principles of academic freedom.'

No arrests were made at the demonstration.

Police block the path of an anti-Sarsour protestor. No arrests were made at the demonstration

The counter demonstration accused Yiannopoulos of racism and sexism
Piers Morgan has criticised Ariana Grande for not visiting those injured by the suicide bombing at her concert.

The Queen visited victims yesterday at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital including Millie Robson, 15.

Pop star Katy Perry praised Her Majesty writing on Twitter 'God bless The Queen and her kind heart.'

But Piers replied. 'Agreed. Might have been nice if @ArianaGrande had stayed to do the same.'

Grande was pictured landing at home in Florida the day after Monday's attack which killed 22.

Piers' tweet sparked immediate outrage, with one social media user called BristolSteve telling him: 'Spectacularly ill thought out, that deserves a rethink, retraction and an apology.'

But Piers stuck to his guns, replying: 'If the Queen can visit the victims in hospital, so can the star they paid to see.'

To convince his followers that he would have done the same, he said: 'I can 100 per cent guarantee you I would stay and visit those who had been killed or wounded watching me perform.'

Pop star Katy Perry praised Her Majesty writing on Twitter 'God bless The Queen and her kind heart.'

Others criticised his judgement: 'People grieve in different ways don't be as bad as the evil that is about in this world by judging others.'

As always, Piers' comments divided opinion as many agreed with the former newspaper editor.

One user called James said: 'It's easy to run back to LA and hide behind walls. The right thing would be to stay and comfort the families and grieve with them.'
Schapelle Corby has been caught on camera for the first time in more than a week, hiding behind her brother on her final night in Bali.

It comes after her sister Mercedes screamed at reporters outside the convicted drug smuggler's home as the Kuta police chief briefed media outside.

Corby was visited by a number of Bali officials at her home on Friday as authorities raised security concerns about the media attention she is receiving.

But while Commissioner Wayan Sumara, the police chief of Kuta precinct, spoke on camera, Mercedes was heard screaming: 'Get away from our fence!'

She also shouted: 'Get away from our house, get the camera down.'

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Schapelle Corby has been seen for the first time in more than a week, hiding behind her brother on her final night in Bali

Mercedes Corby is seen at the door to her sister's home on her final night in Bali

Her 39-year-old sister remained holed up in the villa in the backstreets of the popular tourist spot, as increasing numbers of media from Australia arrived to cover her expected deportation on Saturday.

She will have a police convoy escort her to the airport when she leaves the country, 7News reports.

Kerobokan Prison doctor Anak Agung Gede Hartawan, as well as her long-time parole officer Ketut Sukiati also visited her briefly on Friday morning.

'She's healthy. No sickness,' Dr Hartawan told reporters.

Commissioner Wayan Sumara went to the home earlier, at around 11am, saying he wanted to ensure everything was running well.

'I want to (ensure) safety and security for everybody ... by increasing the police keeping guard on the street around here and increasing positive opinion for tourism situation,' he told reporters.

Corby (pictured in 2005) was visited by a number of Bali officials at her home on Friday

Corby's sister Mercedes (pictured) was heard screaming at reporters outside the Kuta villa

He denied Corby was being given special treatment, saying: 'Not for the Corby only [sic]. Everybody here, I give special security system.

As of Friday lunchtime, however, police had yet to be stationed outside the home.

Meanwhile, chief of Bali's Law and Human Rights Ministry, Ida Bagus Ketut Adnyana said they are still determining whether Corby will need to report to corrections for one final time on Saturday - as per normal procedure.

'We don't know the flight yet. We are checking on Corby's health because she is travelling abroad,' he said.

'Police are securing Corby's house because it's not normal, there are too many people.'

Commissioner Wayan Sumara (pictured) spoke to reporters after visiting Corby on Friday

Media wait outside Schapelle Corby's home in Bali as she prepares to be deported

Corby - who was thrust into the spotlight after being caught with 4.kg of marijuana in her bodyboard bag at Denpasar airport in October 2004 - has become locked in a standoff with officials this week.

They have requested that she report to the prosecutor's office one last time before her deportation on Saturday.

She refused, citing the large media presence outside her house.

Authorities, however, are anxious to ensure her departure from Indonesia is swift and seamless after almost 13 years of the drama-filled case.

How the Corby case unfolded Schapelle Corby being led to the holding cells at the Denpasar District Court in 2005 October 8, 2004 - Arrested at Bali airport with 4.1kg of cannabis in bodyboard bag. January 27, 2005 - Corby's trial begins. She accuses police of ignoring crucial evidence that could prove her innocence. April 21, 2005 - Prosecutors call for Corby to be jailed for life. May 27, 2005 - Found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to 20 years' jail. October 12, 2005 - Bali's High Court reduces her sentence to 15 years on appeal. January 19, 2006 - Indonesian Supreme Court reinstates original 20-year sentence. Corby's half-brother James Sioeli Kisina faces a Queensland court accused of stealing cash and cannabis. November 11, 2006 - Release of Corby's book My Story, co-written by former Nine Network producer Kathryn Bonella. March 27, 2007 - Queensland Court of Appeal freezes profits from Corby's book and family interviews from being spent. March 28, 2008 - Indonesian Supreme Court rejects Corby's last legal bid to have the decision overturned following a judicial review of the case. April, 2009 - The Commonwealth seizes $128,000 of profits from My Story, having sought $270,000. August 9, 2009 - Australian psychiatrist Jonathan Phillips visits Corby in prison and states she is mentally ill, recommending she be transferred to an Australian prison for treatment. March, 2010 - Lawyers for Corby apply for presidential clemency, saying she is suffering from depression that could endanger her life. October 14, 2010 - The Kerobokan prison governor completes a report which says she is faking mental illness and citing disobedient and devious behaviour. August 17, 2011 - The prison governor confirms she has been granted a total of 22 months remission over the preceding five years. May 22, 2012 - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono orders a five-year reduction in sentence. December 25, 2013 - Sentence cut by two months as part of a Christmas remission program. February 10, 2014 - Corby is released on parole. February 18, 2014 - The Australian Federal Police raid Seven Network offices following rumours of a paid exclusive interview with Corby. The investigation is later dropped. March 2, 2014 - Mercedes Corby's interview with Seven airs in which she maintains her sister's innocence, leaving Indonesian authorities unimpressed. April 7, 2014 - Bali Nine drug smuggler Renae Lawrence alleges in a paid interview with Network Ten that Corby admitted her guilt while in Kerobokan prison and faked mental illness to get her sentence shortened. April 11, 2014 - Indonesia's Directorate General of Corrections confirms it finds no legal grounds to stop Corby's parole after Mercedes' interview. May 27, 2017 - Corby set to report to correction officials for the last time in Bali before being deported to Australia. Source: AAP Advertisement




A teenager who lost the use of his hand in a freak bicycle accident is set to complete his GCSEs after his teacher used a 3D printer to create a makeshift finger.

James Wheldon, a design technology teacher at Saint John Houghton CVA, in Kirk Hallam, Derbshire, created a plastic finger - dubbed Claw 5 - for pupil Oliver Smith.

The innovative device attaches to a splint that the 15-year-old has to wear for the next 18 months.

It means he can now type with two hands and should be able to complete his exams.

Oliver severed a main artery and two nerves in his arm and lost five pints of blood after he went through a glass window when he crashed a bike near his home in Ilkeston, Derbshire.

Oliver Smith, 15 (left), suffered horrific injuries to his arm when he crashed through a window in a freak bicycle accident which caused him to lose the use of his right arm - his product design teacher, James Wheldon (right), decided to 3D print Oliver a new finger so he could complete his Product Design GCSE

The brave teen, of Kirk Hallam in Derbyshire, was rushed to Ilkeston Hospital and underwent surgery to save his arm which had torn to just past his elbow, damaged nerves in his arm and caused him to lose five pints of blood

He was told by doctors that he could have died from his horrific injuries and was twice warned he could lose his arm before two lengthy operations to reconstruct it.

The teen may only ever regain 40 to 70 per cent of the feeling in his right hand, after two years when the nerves have re-grown.

The accident happened just over six weeks ago after he tried to fix the brakes on a friend's bike and was testing them out when they failed.

He careered down a ramp towards the back of his house and in order to break his fall he put his arms out - but his right hand went through a single glazed pantry window which was several feet up.

The teenager was left dangling from the window with his arm trapped by broken glass digging into his armpit.

He pulled it out and dropped to the floor, causing his arm to tear apart to just past his elbow.

His parents Lucy and Tim, who saw the crash unfold from the kitchen window, rushed to help him, binding his arm with tea towels before rushing him to hospital.

Oliver had been left dangling from the window with his arm trapped by broken glass digging into his armpit - the teen said he 'thought he was going to die'

Oliver said that immediately after the accident he thought he was going to die.

'I was heading towards the back of the house on my bike and I just shut my eyes and put my arms out,' he said.

'My right hand went straight through the pantry window but I didn't feel it.

'I screamed and my mum and dad came running.

'We went to Ilkeston Hospital which is really close and the doctors said if we'd decided to go to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham instead I could have died because of all the blood I lost.

'When we got to Ilkeston I couldn't stand up, I was leaning against my mum and she asked for help. They put a tourniquet on my arm and then I went to QMC in an ambulance.

Oliver said he was speaking to his design technology teacher James Wheldon who came up with the idea of 3D printing a new finger for Oliver so that he could continue to type with two hands and carry on with his schoolwork

'I was going in and out of consciousness and then I passed out but when we got to the QMC I remember about 12 or 13 doctors and nurses all asking me lots of questions, trying to keep me awake.

'Before both of my operations they told me that it was very likely that I would lose my arm.

'When I came out of the second surgery and looked down I saw that my arm was still there so that was an instant relief.

'I was in intensive care and stayed in hospital for four days after that. I came home with a big cast on and now I wear a splint.

'I've been told that it could take up to two years before I regain the feeling in my right hand, because the nerves have to re-grow, and it will only ever be between 40 and 70 percent.'

Doctors managed to save his arm, but the next day he suffered a blood clot and had to undergo another five-hour operation.

He came through the surgery with his arm intact and has since had a skin graft to help with the healing process.

Oliver said he was grateful to Mr Wheldon for coming up with the idea to create a plastic finger using the school's 3D printer.

He said: 'We were just talking about what we were going to do about my GCSE coursework and Mr Wheldon said he had an idea.

'He said he could design a finger and use the 3D printer in school to make it.

'He drilled a hole into the end of my splint and it fits in there. It's pretty amazing. He's made three fingers all at different angles.

'It's made life much easier although it's taken a while to get used to. I'm really grateful to hi. He's gone above and beyond what I'd expect a teacher to do.

'My Product Design GCSE is 60 per cent coursework and I can type now so hopefully I'll be able to complete it.'

Oliver's mum Lucy, who is a pharmacy technician, helped to deal with the aftermath of the accident.

'Instant relief': Surgeons were able to save Oliver's arm although he was warned that he might lose it before undergoing surgery

She said: 'I think any sort of first aid training makes a difference.

'I remember when we went into the hospital Oliver said he needed some help because he had cut his arm when I was literally holding it together.'

Mr Wheldon added: 'I was thinking about how he was going to do his GCSEs and how I could solve that problem for him.

'I thought I could use the printer to make him a finger that could attach to the end of his splint.

'It only took about 15 minutes to design and print it out. We've made a few prototypes and we are still finalising the design. I think it's been a big help.

'We've still got to work out how he will do the practical part of his GCSE but hopefully having the finger, which we call Claw 5, will have a big impact.

'He's such a resilient young man.'
A mother has told of a suspicious 'smirking' woman at the Ariana Grande concert who disappeared moments before the bomb went off, killing 22.

Dawn Waddy twice reported the woman to security after she sat on her own looking in the direction of where the explosion later happened.

The claims emerged as police carry out a series of raids as they try to track down any accomplices of suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

Police have said Salman Abedi was part of a jihadi network who planned and carried out the Manchester Arena suicide bombing on Monday night

The scene in the Manchester Arena before the show started. A member of the audience says a woman was acting suspicious and looking towards where the explosion later happened

Ms Waddy, who was at Monday night's concert with her daughter Holly and a friend, said her friend first became concerned about the woman's behaviour.

She told Sky News: 'I got suspicious myself and my friend, who was sat next to her told me; "I don't like this".

'She was fidgeting with her zips and had her hands in her jacket and it put you on edge.

'I told security and they informed a high security. They were up and down the stairs where she sat discreetly looking at her.'

Ms Waddy said the woman became more agitated during the evening and left shortly before the bomb went off.

Investigators fear bomber Abedi may have been part of a network of extremists and police and security services are examining whether the group have another bomb.

Police have this morning raided a property in St Helens, Merseyside, in connection with Monday's terror attack in Manchester

The total number of arrests connected to the terror attack rose to 10 today when a man was detained in the Moss Side area of Manchester in the early hours of the morning.

Eight men are now in custody, while a man and a woman, held following searches in the Manchester suburbs of Withington and Blackley, have been released.

Police previously hailed the 'significant' arrests made and the 'very important' items seized in raids as they attempt to close the net on Abedi's suspected terror network.

Experts who have analysed pictures of bomb fragments leaked by US officials say it appears to have had two detonators, one hand-held and another remote controlled.

They have suggested Abedi's gang may have had control of the remote controlled detonator to set it off in case he didn't go through with it. It is thought however that he did blow himself up.

Concert-goers and witnesses described the chaos after a bomb went off at the massive arena

Bloodied concertgoers were pictured being helped by armed police outside the arena

Experts said the bomb was probably made by a team and it is thought it was put together by Abedi and his associates at a flat in the centre of the city.

Manchester's police chief said on Wednesday that it is 'very clear' that Abedi acted as part of a network.

The 22-year-old had recently returned to the UK following a trip to Libya, Home Secretary Amber Rudd confirmed this week.

He flew into Istanbul airport on May 18, and later travelled through Dusseldorf airport, according to Turkish and German officials.

He is not thought to have left the terminals on either occasion on his route back to Manchester and it has been suggested he may have picked up components for the device.
Theresa May has told Emmanuel Macron that Britain will not pay a Brexit divorce bill until talks on our future relationship with the bloc start.

The Prime Minister and the newly-elected French president smiled warmly for the cameras as they met with other world leaders at the G7 summit in Sicily.

But behind closed doors in bilateral talks Mrs May got tough with Mr Macron, telling him the UK and EU should discuss their future relationship and free trade deal at the same time as discussing the terms of the withdrawal.

Mr Macron adopted a hard-line on Brexit during his election campaign, backing EU negotiators who insist there must be progress on UK paying a divorce bill before talks on a new deal can start.

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Emmanuel Macron gives a thumbs up as he smiles with Theresa May for the cameras, but behind closed doors the PM got tough with the French president on Brexit

Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron met at the G7 for talks where they will discuss the fight against terror. Britain and France have both been targeted by murderous terrorists

Mrs May also spoke with Donald Trump as they strolled through the gardens in the grounds of the hotel where the G7 summit is being held

Speaking at a press conference in Sicily, Mrs May said their discussions were 'good, productive and constructive', but did not make clear whether she had obtained any concessions from the French president.

'The relationship that the UK has with France is an important one for us,' she said at a press conference shortly before leaving Sicily.

'We have very clear co-operation on a whole range of areas, including on our security and on defence matters.

'As regards Brexit, I'm very clear and I remain clear that under the treaty we have up to two years to negotiate withdrawal and the future relationship.

'When we leave the EU it's important that we know not just the withdrawal terms but what that future relationship will be, which of course will cover trade - we want a comprehensive free trade agreement - but also cover co-operation in other areas as well.'

Theresa May, pictured at the press conference at the G7 summit in Sicily today, said her discussions with Emmanuel Macron were 'productive and constructive'

But speaking after the two leaders met, a Downing Street spokesman said the PM made it clear she thinks the two negotiations should run side by side.

He said: 'On Brexit and the Article 50 process, the Prime Minister reaffirmed her wish for early clarity on the position of EU citizens in the UK and vice versa.

'She also made clear that Britain and the 27 EU member states should be discussing our future relationship with the EU at the same time as discussing the terms of our withdrawal.'

Mr Macron has previously said he supports a 'strict approach to Brexit' and warned that if the UK gets a good deal others might try to leave the bloc.

The clash came as world leaders met in the picturesque setting of Sicily to discuss world issues including the fight against terrorism.

Mrs May is pushing for world leaders too unite to put greater pressure in tech giants like Facebook and Twitter to remove harmful, extremist content form their websites.

The Downing Street spokesman said the PM and Mr Macron agreed on the need for collective action to tackle extremist propaganda online.

He said: 'They agreed on the need for collective action by the G7 to stop the spread of poisonous material and propaganda on the internet that is leading people down the path towards terrorism,' the spokesman said.

The French president pledged his country's full support for the UK and the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Manchester bombing which killed 22 innocent people and injured 119 more.

Theresa May joined other world leaders at the G7 summit, where the PM will focus on the fight against terrorism. The Paris climate change agreement and trade will also be discussed

Mrs May and other world leaders looked relaxed as they made their way to pose for the cameras. But behind the scenes they face tough talks on security and the environment

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US president Donald Trump, two of the most powerful leaders in the world, met at the G7. They are likely to clash over defence spending and the Paris climate agreement - which the US president is reportedly planning to pull out of

The leaders watched a colourful flypast at a hotel at the G7 summit. It is the first summit for three of the leaders - Theresa May, Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking to Mr Macron at the beginning of the meeting, the PM said: 'This incident shows us why it is so important for us to work together in defeating terrorism, and I look forward for the opportunity now to speak directly with you.

'But of course also we will have discussions here more widely at this G7 about how we can work further to defeat the terrorists.

'But of course our relationship between the UK and France  we have always had a long and deep relationship and there is much we can do together in other areas as well  on defence, on trade and on other issues.'

Mr Macron said his country had been 'shocked' by what happened in Manchester.

He said: 'We will be here to co-operate and do everything we can in order to increase this co-operation at the European level, in order to do more from a bilateral point of view against terrorism.'

Salman Abedi is believed to have plotted his attack for a year before blowing himself up at the end of a teen pop concert in Manchester on Monday night.

It is the worst terror attack in Britain since the 2005 bombings.

But there has been an upsurge in terrorist attacks across Europe in recent years, and France, Germany and Sweden have also been targeted by murderous extremists.

The French president tweeted his support for the UK in the wake of the attack

Mrs May arrives at the G7 summit, where she is shown the way by Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni

France's new First Lady, Brigitte Trogneux was also in Sicily supporting her newly-elected husband Emmanuel macron at his first G7 summit

Donald Trump with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is the US president's first G7 summit and there are fears that he will pull out of the Paris climate change agreement

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French president Emmanuel Macron talked as they waked through the picturesque gardens surrounding the G7 summit

The two leaders, whose good looks have won them many fans beyond politics, will talk about terrorism, trade and the environment with other world leaders

Mr Trump and the First Lady Melania Trump have both flown in for the G7 summit. Mr Trump has demanded that allies up their spending on defence as they confront the terror threat

The world leaders posed for photos together in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina, which dates back to the 3rd century BC, in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy,

Security officials believe that as terror group ISIS is getting pushed back in Syria and Iraq, they are more likely to strike in western cities instead.

In July last year a terrorist killed 84 people and injured hundreds more when he used a lorry to mow down spectators who had been enjoying a fireworks display in Nice to mark Bastile Day.

Just a few months earlier in March dozens were killed in the terrorist bombings in Brussels.

DONALD TRUMP BELIEVES BREXIT IS AN 'INCIDENT NOT A TREND' DONALD TUSK SAYS Donald Trump backs the view that Brexit is an 'incident not a trend', European Council President Donald Tusk today said. The US president famously dubbed himself 'Mr Brexit' and predicted that other countries would follow the UK's lead in leaving the European Union. Speaking at the summit in Sicily, Mr Tusk said Mr Trump accepts the remaining member states are more united following the historic vote. He said: 'It was very clear for both of us thought in fact the EU at 27 was more united after Brexit than before Brexit and it was also his opinion. 'I tried to convince him that Brexit is very important and dramatic but just an incident not a trend and President Trump agreed. 'It was for me a very positive moment.' Mr Tusk also took a swipe at the 'culture of leaks' following reports Mr Trump had complained during their talks that Germans were 'bad, very bad' because they sold too many cars in the US. It comes after US security services faced fierce criticism after they leaked vital information about the investigation into the atrocity to the American media. The leaks were feared to have jeopardised the probe and in a highly unusual move British police temporarily stopped sharing intelligence with their US counterparts. Donald Trump yesterday vowed to 'get to the bottom' of the leaks after a furious Theresa May raised the issue with the US president. Advertisement

Mrs May will use the summit to press for far tougher action on social media companies which are failing to take down jihadi materials known to fuel radicalisation and terror.

She will argue that as ISIS loses ground in its heartlands in Iraq and Syria, the threat from extremism is 'evolving rather than disappearing', with the fight moving from 'the battlefield to the internet'.

'This sort of material being on the internet is obviously harmful. It has in the past been linked to acts of violence and the less of this material that is on the internet, that is clearly for the better,' one government official said.

The move reflects frustration among the security services at the way the internet continues to be used by violent jihadis to radicalise young people - allowing ISIS to lure them to fight in Syria or strike in their home countries.

Detailed terror manuals and bomb recipes remain freely available online.

A recent report by the Commons Home Affairs Committee warned that there was 'a great deal of evidence' that these platforms were being used to spread 'hate, abuse and extremism'.

Donald Tusk, pictured arriving at the G7 summit, criticised the US security leaks of details of the police investigation into the Manchester terror attack

Security is tight at the G7 summit, which comes just days after the Manchester terror attack

Troops were patrolling the beach ahead of the summit amid heightened security fears

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has arrived at the G7 summit. Germany has been repeatedly targeted by terrorists and is under pressure to spend more money on defence

'That trend continues to grow at an alarming rate but it remains unchecked and, even where it is illegal, largely unpoliced. The evidence suggests that the problem is getting worse,' it said.

The Prime Minister will say the industry has a 'social responsibility' to take down harmful content and will call for the creation of an 'international industry-led forum' to work through the issues.

She will say companies should be encouraged to develop tools which automatically identify and remove harmful material based on what it contains and who posted it.

And they need to block users who post extremist content and inform the relevant authorities when they identify harmful content so appropriate action can be taken.

She will also call for industry guidelines to be revised by the tech companies to make absolutely clear what constitutes harmful material, with those that fail to do so being held to account.

But with most of the companies based in the United States, it is unclear how far she will be able to enlist the support of President Donald Trump for her agenda.

Salman Abedi, pictured taking his bins out in Manchester, murdered 22 innocent victims and injured 119 more when he blew himself up at the end of a teen pop concert

Security minister Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that encryption is one of the biggest challenges faced by the security services.

He said the secure communication networks used by the likes of messaging service WhatsApp made it 'almost impossible for us as the security services and the police to actually lift the lid on these people'.

He said work is ongoing with officials around the world and with technology giants such as Facebook and YouTube on the issue.

'That's why we've said, and we've said in our manifesto, that we are determined to not let these people off the hook with the responsibility they have in broadcasting some horrendous not only manuals about how to make bombs, but also grooming material,' said Mr Wallace.

'I think we all think they could do more.'
A teenage apprentice is fighting for his life after he was crushed by an excavator at a construction site on Sydney's north shore.

The 16-year-old boy became trapped under the excavator's tracks about 1pm Friday on his first day of work.

It is believed the teenager suffered critical injuries to his pelvis, lower chest and abdominal area, 7 News reported.

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A young man (pictured with emergency services) was crushed by an excavator on a construction site at 1pm Friday

The 16-year-old, on his first day of work when he fell under the excavator tracks

CareFlight's rapid response helicopter was dispatched to Koola Road, East Killara to awaiting police at Allan Small Oval who escorted the medical team to the man's location.

NSW Ambulance treated the man and were assisted by the specialist doctor, as well as an intensive care paramedic.

This afternoon the teenager underwent emergency surgery and is currently in a critical condition.

He was taken by ambulance to Royal North Shore Hospital.

The apprentice suffered critical injuries to his pelvis, lower chest, legs and abdominal area and is now in critical condition with his father by his bedside

His father was located in Green Acre and taken under police escort to be by his side.

Forensic examiners were on site this afternoon and the matter is now being investigated by SafeWork NSW.
Harlee Pendergast, 18, pictured, was jailed after losing control of his car and ploughing into 15 pedestrians

A boy racer who ploughed into 15 pedestrians while 'showing off' his modified Mini wept in the dock as he was been jailed for 18 months.

Aspiring show jumper Harlee Pendergast, 18, lost control of his souped-up car after making the vehicle 'fish-tail and drift' at high speeds at a gathering of motoring enthusiasts on a Kent industrial estate.

Four people were seriously hurt in the horror crash shortly after 10pm on September 30 last year.

Jurors heard some had suffered 'life-changing, permanent injuries' including a fractured spine, permanent hearing loss and a traumatic brain injury.

A victim impact statement read aloud in Woolwich Crown Court said lives had been 'changed forever' as a result of the accident.

But it invited the judge not to 'ruin another life' by sending the teenager to prison if the court was satisfied he was truly sorry.

Pendergast had been driving for just one year and it was only the second time he had taken his car to the informal event at the Medway City Estate in Strood.

But the young driver, from Eltham in south east London, lost control of the vehicle - which had been modified with nitrous oxide and LED lights - as he swerved from side to side.

The car spun and crashed into a barrier before smashing into the group of 15 bystanders leaving one man trapped underneath.

Witnesses described his driving as 'idiotic' with one person commenting 'he'll hit someone in a minute' in the moments before the collision.

It was revealed in court that Pendergast was estimated to have reached speeds of up to 69mph while travelling in the 30mph zone.

He was believed to be travelling at approximately 47mph just 13 metres before he lost control.

Prosecutor Daniel Jones said: 'He was driving to show off to others with flagrant disregard for the rules of the road, causing a great danger to spectators.'

The court heard how after the crash, devastated Pendergast helped to lift the car off those hurt and was seen to be visibly upset and shaking saying 'oh no, oh no, oh no'.

Pendergast, pictured, is a keen show jumper and hopes to one day ride for the Britishh equestrian team, his lawyer said

A victim impact statement invited the judge not to 'ruin another life' by sending the teenager, pictured, to prison if the court was satisfied he was truly sorry

At a previous hearing, the teen pleaded guilty to four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and one count of withholding information to obtain motor insurance.

The fifth offence relates to modifying his vehicle without declaring it to his insurers.

Gudrun Young, defending, said it was a one-off event which was very much out of character and he has not got behind the wheel of a car since.

She revealed the horserider, who hopes to one day ride for the British equestrian team, had shown 'profound and genuine remorse' and had been on anti-depressants since the accident.

She told the court: 'He is a serious, thoughtful, compassionate and hardworking individual who never deliberately hurt anyone.

'This has had a deep and profound effect on him. Not a day goes by that he doesn't think of his victims.'

Pendergast was jailed for 18 months at Woolwich Crown Court, pictured (stock photo)

Passing sentence, judge Christopher Kinch QC said: 'You are clearly a young man with a great potential and a lot to offer.

'I accept that you are deeply sorry and you feel shame and remorse.

'ou are in many ways the picture of an exceptionally hardworking young man with many excellent qualities.'

But, given the 'obvious risks' and the 'serious consequences', the judge said the crime could only be met with sentence of immediate custody.

The teen was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders institute for the four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving - half of which will be served on license.

He was also sentenced to six months behind bars for failing to disclose information to obtain motor insurance, to be served concurrently.

In addition, he was disqualified from driving for four years after which he must take an extended re-test.

Detective Constable David Holmes, of Kent Police who investigated the case, said: 'While we accept that Pendergast did not set out to seriously injure people, his reckless and indefensible behaviour put a large amount of people at risk of harm.

'He made a conscious decision to speed through the estate performing dangerous manoeuvres and clearly did not have any consideration for the wellbeing of those around them.

'It is extremely fortunate that those injured did not lose their lives that night.'
At least 28 people including 'many children' are dead after a bus carrying Coptic Christians was attacked in Egypt. Pictured is the interior of the bus, smeared with blood

Egyptian forces have struck bases in which militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said fighter jets struck militant bases in eastern Libya in retaliation for an attack by suspected Islamic State militants that killed 28 Christians and wounded another 22 south of Cairo.

The officials said the warplanes targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al Qaida, not the Islamic State group.

Mr el-Sissi warned that Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in the country, wherever they may be.

Up to 10 masked attackers dressed in military uniforms stopped a convoy in Egypt province, 140 miles south of Cairo, as the group was heading towards Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Maghagha to pray.

The gunmen, who arrived in three four-wheel drive vehicles, used automatic weapons to spray bullets at the convoy before fleeing. A health ministry official said a 'large number' of victims were children.

The group was travelling in a convoy of two buses and a truck from the nearby province of Bani Suief when the mass shooting happened.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Mr el-Sessi also directly appealed to US President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

Up to 10 masked attackers dressed in military uniforms stopped a bus in Minya province, 140 miles south of Cairo, as the group was heading towards Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Maghagha to pray. Pictures have emerged purporting to show the aftermath of the shooting

Shocking pictures have started to emerge showing bodies covered with black sheets near the scene of the atrocity

At least 28 people including children are dead and 25 injured after masked gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt, it has emerged. Pictures show people grieving at the scene

Relatives of those slain in the attack were pictured carrying their coffins at a funeral service at Abu Garnous Cathedral in Minya, Egypt, today

The coffins were decorated and the service was attended by thousands of Christians, pictured

As the funeral, pictured, was taking place, Egyptian forces bombed jihadi 'training camps' in Libya

In a televised address just hours after the attack, Mr el-Sissi said 'I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task.'

He also repeated calls that countries which finance, train or arm extremists be punished.

In response, Mr Trump condemned the attack blaming ''evil organisations of terror' and 'thuggish ideology'.

In a strongly worded statement, Mr Trump referred to the 'merciless slaughter of Christians' and said a 'wound is inflicted upon humanity' every time innocent blood is spilled.

He said the attack by masked militants on a bus taking the worshippers to a monastery should bring nations together to crush 'evil organisations of terror'.

It comes after ISIS claimed responsibility for three deadly church attacks in December and April that claimed the lives of dozens of people.

The jihadists threatened more attacks against the Arab country's Christians, who make up around 10 per cent of its population of about 90 million.

Pictures of the bus aired by state television showed the vehicle riddled with machine-gun fire and its windows shot out.

A relative of one of the 28 people killed by the gunmen is pictured at the funeral

Many relatives of the Coptic Christians were pictured looking distraught and anguished at the funeral following the atrocity

An injured child is taken to the Maghagha hospital by medics after being shot by masked gunmen who opened fire with automatic rifles

Harrowing: A child cries at the scene of the deadly attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt

The jihadists threatened more attacks against the Arab country's Christians. Pictured: Blood stains the outside of a bus stormed by gunmen in Minya, Egypt

The group was travelling in two buses and a truck to St Samual Monastery, south of Cairo from the nearby province of Bani Suief

Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.

'I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism,' Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said.

The United Nations Security Council condemned the attack in Egypt 'in the strongest terms'.

In a statement released Friday, the Council expressed its 'deepest sympathy' and condolences to the families of the victims and emphasized that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice.

A priest is pictured speaking to the press in Egypt at the funeral, with the country's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowing retaliation against any attack from militant groups

Families and friends rested on the coffins as they said farewell at the cathedral service, pictured

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country. Pictured: Relatives mourn during the funeral of victims killed in an attack at the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor

The United Nations Security Council condemned the attack in Egypt 'in the strongest terms'. Pictured: A soldier stands at the entrance to the attacked Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor

In a statement released Friday, the UN Security Council expressed its 'deepest sympathy' and condolences to the families of the victims. Pictured: An ambulance transporting wounded Egyptians

'Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security,' the statement said.

Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group also condemned the attack, saying 'it is a new crime added to the criminal record of a murderers' gang'.

Egypt has been fighting ISIS militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula but there have been also attacks on the mainland.

The country has seen a wave of attacks on its Christians, including twin suicide bombings in April and another attack in December on a Cairo church that left over 75 people dead and scores wounded. ISIS in Egypt claimed responsibility for them and vowed more attacks.

Late last month Pope Francis visited Egypt in part to show his support for the Christians of this Muslim majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants.

During the trip, Francis paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo's St. Peter's church, which is located in close proximity to the St. Mark's cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan

Witnesses said the gunmen arrived in four-wheel drive vehicles dressed in military uniforms before spraying the bus using automatic weapons

Images broadcast on state television show a badly damaged bus with blown-out windows and covered on the inside with blood

The bus was riddled with bullet holes in the latest attack on Egypt's Coptic Christians after a series of bombings on Palm Sunday

Hundreds of people rushed to the nearby hospital in Maghagha city, near al-Minya, as the wounded were brought in for treatment

While some waited for news of their loved ones outside the hospital, others waited to carry out the bodies of those who died

Following the pope's visit, the ISIS affiliate in Egypt vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as they are targets of their group's militants.

Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of the country's majority Muslim population.

Over the past decades, they have been the immediate targets of Islamic extremists.

They rallied behind general-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in 2013 when he ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country's south.

The Christians were on the way to Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor, in Minya Province (pictured) when they were attacked on Friday

On April 9, 45 people were killed in twin church bombings claimed by ISIS as Christians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday in the cities of Tanta (pictured) and Alexandria
Damon Smith built the device at home with a 2 clock from Tesco after finding an online al Qaida article entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom

The mother of a weapons-obsessed student fascinated by violent extremism who was today jailed for 15 years for planting a home-made bomb on a busy Tube train has leaped to the defence of her 'little boy'.

Former altar boy Damon Smith, 20, built the Manchester-style device at home with a 2 clock from Tesco after finding an online al-Qaeda article entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom before leaving it on a busy tube carriage.

A court heard Smith had been captivated by bombs since the age of 10 and began researching their construction using Islamic State propaganda magazines.

During a trial Smith claimed leaving the bomb on the Jubilee line train was 'just a hoax' but he was found guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent at the Old Bailey earlier this month.

But today, following his sentencing, his mother Antonitza Smith rushed to defend him, blaming his Asperger's syndrome for his actions and claiming her son was 'just a vulnerable little boy'.

Mrs Smith said: 'Damon's not a killer, he's a good boy. You know he's not a terrorist. He just made a smoke bomb and the prank went wrong.

'He's just a vulnerable little boy who needs a bit of help, not prison. He wouldn't even hurt a fly.'

Despite her comments, the court heard Smith was fascinated by both weaponry and the terror groups Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and created a bomb packed with explosives and deadly ball-bearing shrapnel after reading a terror manual.

But despite this, Smith avoided being charged with terror offences because the authorities were unable to prove he was radicalised.

Today, the autistic defendant smiled in the dock as Judge Richard Marks QC sentenced him to 15 years in a young offenders' institution with an extended period of five years on licence.

Chilling CCTV footage shows the moment Smith steps off the train at London Bridge, with the homemade bomb propped up against the seat by the door

The judge said that although Smith had an interest in Islam, he was not motivated by terrorism.

But he told the defendant: 'Quite what your motives were and what your true thinking was in acting as you did is difficult to discern with any degree of clarity or certainty.

THREE ON WESTMINSTER COPYCAT CHARGES Three Muslim men were accused yesterday of plotting a deadly copycat attack on Westminster. The trio were allegedly secretly recorded discussing using explosives, guns, knives and vehicles for mass murder. They are suspected of targeting key sites across London. Vast quantities of extremist material were found on some of their phones, computers and a USB storage fob, and police believe the alleged terror cell was inspired by Khalid Masood, who left four dead on Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing a police officer in March. Islamic scholar Umar Ahmed Haque, 24, Muhammad Abid, 26, and 18-year-old Abuthaher Mamun were arrested in raids across east London last week. They appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court charged with offences under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006. A fourth man, Nadeem Ilyas Patel, 25, appeared alongside them charged with attempting to supply them with a firearm. The mens lawyers did not apply for bail and Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot remanded them in custody to next appear at the Old Bailey on June 9. Advertisement

'Whatever the position, the seriousness of what you did cannot be overstated, not least against the background of the fear in which we all live from the use of bombs here and around the world, an all too timely reminder of which were the events in Manchester earlier this week.'

The court heard on the morning of October 20 last year, Smith, then aged 19, packed a rucksack with explosives and deadly ball-bearing shrapnel as he headed to college in Holloway, north London.

He was caught on CCTV as he travelled on the Jubilee Line, casually flicking through a text book before getting off and leaving the bomb on the floor, timed to go off within minutes.

At least 10 passengers were in the carriage at the time and some of them spotted the abandoned rucksack and alerted the driver.

The driver at first dismissed it as lost property and took it into his cab and carried on towards North Greenwich, jurors were told.

During the journey, he spotted wires coming out of the bag and raised the alarm as he pulled into the station.

Had Smith's bomb worked, it would have exploded just as commuters were being ordered off the platform, the jury heard.

The shrapnel bomb - which thankfully failed to detonate - was similar in design to the deadly device used by Salman Abedi at the Manchester Arena to murder 22 people.

Smith was caught on CCTV exiting London Bridge and heading for a Starbucks on Borough High Street where he took off the hoodie he was wearing and left without buying anything.

The defendant went on to college and, on returning home in the evening, checked the internet for news of what he had done.

When he was arrested the following day on his university campus by armed officers he was carrying a copy of the Quaran in his bag along with his lecture notes.

A photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of one of the components which Damon Smith used to make a home-made bomb using a 2 clock from Tesco

More of the components which Damon Smith used to make a home-made bomb

Upon his arrest by counter-terrorism officers, Smith admitted making the bomb but claimed he only meant it to spew harmless smoke as a Halloween joke.

He told police he had been inspired from watching someone on a YouTube channel called Trollstation doing a bomb prank.

A search of Smith's home in Rotherhithe, south London, revealed his fixation with guns, explosives and other weapons.

Police seized a blank-firing self-loading pistol and a BB gun, both bought legally, as well as a knuckleduster and a knife which he showed off in an online video.

He told police he had been inspired from watching someone on a YouTube channel called Trollstation doing a bomb prank

Police also uncovered torn-off scraps of shredded paper with bomb-making instructions on it and a 'shopping list' of components.

The court heard police also found an image he had made of himself posing with Abdelhamid Abaaoud - the mastermind behind the Paris attacks which killed 130 people - when the killer's picture was shown on TV following the 2015 attacks in France.

Smith told police he was interested in Islam but denied being an extremist even though he posed next to an image of the Brussels-born Islamic terrorist alleged to have masterminded the attacks in Paris in November 2015

In his defence, extracts of a psychiatric report were read out confirming an autism spectrum disorder.

From his bedroom in the Devon town of Newton Abbot, he collected an arsenal of knives and other weaponry, even downloading details of how to make a bomb

He had been interested in bomb-making since the age of 10 and said it was 'something to do when he was bored'.

Smith, who grew up living with his mother in Newton Abbot, Devon, said he had thought about putting a bomb in a park but decided it would be 'more funny' to delay train passengers.

Mitigating, Richard Carey-Hughes QC had said it was a tragic case for Smith and his mother.

He said: 'This is a difficult climate to ask for mercy for someone convicted of this type of offence.

Friends say Smith became obsessed with watching videos of beheadings (pictured posing in a mock execution)

'Nevertheless, we do so and we invite my Lord to extend mercy. This case is different. It seems unique and so is this young man.'

The lawyer refuted the suggestion by one psychiatrist that Smith was 'indulging in sadistic fantasy'.

Smith was 'sorry' for the fear and disturbance he caused and has 'learned his lesson', the barrister said.

Mr Carey-Hughes added: 'We asked him this morning 'Would you make another bomb?' and he said 'No, never, I don't want to be in jail'.'

The root cause of Smith's actions were in his autistic disability, he said.

The court heard that experts were divided over Smith's future risk to society.

But Judge Marks pointed out that the defendant, who showed a lack of empathy, had constructed other devices before planting one on the Tube, and concluded that Smith was a dangerous offender.

He told him: 'I am influenced by your history of preoccupation with weapons and bombs as well as by your condition which makes it difficult for you to empathise with others and to understand and fully appreciate the very serious potential consequences of your actions, as this incident amply demonstrates.'

Smith avoided being charged with terror offences because the authorities were unable to prove he was radicalised.

He always denied holding extremist views but said he read the Quran and was able to quote it at length.

Court artist sketch of Damon Smith, 20,in the dock at Westminster Magistrates Court

A psychologist found Smith had been 'indulging in sadistic fantasies' when he planted the bomb - something the defendant disputed.

The court heard an image of a handgun labelled '2016 Islamic State fighter' was found on his university computer, and he was found to have 'liked' various videos of explosions.

Smith had images of other IS fighters and had searched for an issue of the terror organisation's online magazine Dabiq.

The issue he downloaded featured an article about the bomb which brought down a Russian airliner on 31 October 2015.

Police found the image of him and Abaaoud on an iPad recovered from his grandparent's house.

He told officers that he had been brought up a Christian but thought Islam was 'more true' because the Quran predicted scientific facts like finger prints.

A psychologist found Smith had been 'indulging in sadistic fantasies' when he planted the bomb - something the defendant disputed

Forensic investigators pieced together pages printed from al-Qaeda magazine Inspire found in a shredder, revealing instructions for a pipe bomb called 'Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom'.

A torn up shopping list was also found with a hand-drawn diagram of an electrical circuit and a shopping list of the ingredients needed for a bomb.

In the loft of his former home in Newton Abbot police found a bag with tape around it containing a battery and protruding wires.

The bag had 'UKIM' printed on it - UK Islamic Mission - and the device was made from a clear plastic jar and contained shrapnel including ball bearings and metal bolts.

Although it looked like a bomb, it was not a viable device, but the entire street had to be evacuated while it was investigated.

But Judge Marks said: 'I don't think it [the bomb on the tube train] was terrorist related although he clearly had an interest in Islam, the evidence doesn't justify that [the offence] was terrorists in nature.'

The court heard Smith moved to London with his mother, Antonitza Smith, to study computer forensics at London Metropolitan University just a few weeks before planting the device.

Forensic investigators pieced together pages printed from al-Qaeda magazine Inspire found in a shredder, revealing instructions for a pipe bomb called 'Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom'

Smith said he made his first replica pipe bomb aged 14 after reading the Anarchist's Cook Book online

Dr Ian Cummings said in a report: 'He recalled watching the Boston Bombings and downloading the Al Qaeda magazine and visited some Islamic websites.

'He said at the time he didn't think it was an issue - he thought it was just an interest.'

Smith had few friends growing up, and when asked to give a definition of the word he said ' a friend is someone to talk to' before asking 'that's it, isn't it?'.

'He made the device two days before and he decided to put it on a train - he said he initially planned to put it in a park and then thought it would be more fun to put it on a train and 'delay them all',' said Dr Cummings.

'He said he wanted to make a smoke bomb and had no expectation that it might cause harm - he admitted he had used ball bearings but more to give an authentic look than to cause harm.'

Smith did not give evidence at trial, instead jurors were shown YouTube clips he had uploaded of him playing with his collection of aftershaves and giving a tutorial on how to draw Bart Simpson.

Smith said he made his first replica pipe bomb aged 14 after reading the Anarchist's Cook Book

Richard Carey-Hughes QC, for Smith, described him as a 'white boy from Devon' and 'tied to his mother's apron strings'.

His mother, who had been criticised by friends and family in the past for humouring her son's obsession, said it was 'a stupid prank which has ruined his life'.

She added: 'He needs help not prison.'

Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said: 'We have seen this week the horrifying impact a bomb can have. And whilst there is no connection between Manchester and Greenwich, it brings into stark reality just how devastating it could have been.

'The bomb Smith made was a viable device, but it failed to detonate, which was our good fortune.

'I would like to praise the public who informed the train driver of the abandoned bag; because of their quick intervention we were able to make it safe and identify Smith.

'At this time of heightened security, we ask everyone to remain calm but alert, to report anything that causes concern immediately; if you have suspicions about someone's behaviour, call police.'
Russian authorities on Friday warned its citizens against visiting Britain after London raised its threat level in the wake of the Manchester suicide attack.

'The Russian embassy in Great Britain recommends Russian citizens refrain from travelling to the country, especially from visiting major cities, if such trips are not absolutely necessary,' Russia's state tourism agency said in a statement.

'This is due to the fact that the government of Great Britain has raised the level of the terrorist threat in the country to the maximum possible,' it said.

The Russian Embassy has advised its citizens to avoid non-essential trips to the UK due to the terror threat level which has been set to critical - meaning an attack is believed to be imminent

Salman Abedi, pictured, detonated a bomb outside the Manchester Arena on Monday night killing 22 people and injuring 59 others including a number of children as young as eight

Abedi, pictured, was believed to be part of an ISIS terror cell operating in the UK

The agency called on Russians to 'take the warnings as seriously as possible' and ordered tour operators to inform their clients about the threat level in the UK.

British police are currently hunting for a jihadist network believed to behind the deadly bombing of in Manchester that killed 22 people.

Manchester-born Salman Abedi launched the attack on young fans attending a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande in the latest atrocity claimed by the Islamic State group in Europe.

Authorities raised the country's threat level to maximum and deployed soldiers to key sites as Prime Minister Theresa warned that another attack 'may be imminent'.

Ties between Moscow and London are currently at their lowest level since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine, but Russian leader Vladimir Putin said he was ready to boost anti-terror cooperation with the UK after the bombing.
A Muslim father has told how his eight-year-old daughter was branded a 'terrorist' by friends in the wake of the Manchester bombing.

The man revealed the crucial jibe as he made an emotional appeal for the country to come together in the wake of the atrocity.

The moving moment came during the BBC's flagship Question Time programme, which was filmed in Salford last night as a mark of respect.

The man revealed the cruel jibe as he made an emotional appeal for the country to come together in the wake of the atrocity

The impassioned intervention came on BBC's Question Time last night, which featured a panel including Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Manchester mayor Andy Burnham

Addressing a panel including Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

'My eight-year-old English daughter asked me why her friends are referring to her as being a terrorist,' the man said.

He also said the car journey taking her to school had been 'so difficult' because she was asking what a bomb was.

'The journey to work was so difficult,' he said. She was asking me what a bomb is... what does a bomb look like, what is the size of a bomb.

'It was absolutely a horrendous journey into work.'

Anti-extremism campaigners Sara Khan and Colin Parry were also on the panel, along with police chief Nazir Afzal.

Another muslim man in the audience made a passionate appeal for unity that was given rousing applause.

'I am a proud Manc and a proud Muslim. When Manchester hurts I hurt,' he said.

'I'm hurting after what happened on Monday and what happened on Monday night was an evil act, and abhorrent act and should be condemned with the strongest condemnation and to think that somebody can target small girls and anybody, but small girls in particular, to carry out evil.'

The father said the car journey taking his daughter to school yesterday morning had been 'so difficult' because she was asking what a bomb was

Mr Burnham spoke of his pride in the city's response and praised the emergency services

He continued: 'Islam is not the reason people do bad things, people do bad things because they are evil and they're bad people.'

He concluded: 'Let us please not let people who hate and who want to divide us divide us - let's be united together.'

Mr Burnham spoke of his pride in the city's response and praised the emergency services.

'This has been our darkest hour. But I would also say we've seen the best of Greater Manchester this week.

'I couldn't be more proud.'
Group Captain Clive Stanbury during his service days

The remarkable story of how an RAF officer drove 200 miles behind enemy lines to rescue a crashed bomber and its crew in the nick of time can be told after his gallantry medals were put up for sale.

Group Captain Clive Stanbury jumped into action after learning of the perilous state of the Wellington bomber which was damaged during a forced landing in the North African desert in 1942.

He loaded a captured German lorry with a spare propeller and undercarriage parts and drove through the night deep into enemy territory to reach the stricken aircraft.

Gp Capt Stanbury and the bomber crew, which had been on a raid on Benghazi in Libya, carried out emergency repairs and managed to take off just as enemy soldiers approached.

They made it back to the Allied landing ground near El Alamein in one piece.

Gp Captain Stanbury was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Flying Cross having flown on 61 sorties and added a Distinguished Service Order to his medal collection for the Libya incident.

The citation for his DSO noted that he had no regard for his own personal safety and is always first to volunteer for hazardous tasks.

He went on to take part in clandestine missions of dropping SOE agents deep into Nazi-occupied France in unmarked aircraft.

His impressive set of medals are now being sold on behalf of his family by auctioneers Charterhouse of Sherborne, Dorset

Gp Capt Stanbury and the bomber crew (pictured), which had been on a raid on Benghazi in Libya, carried out emergency repairs and managed to take off just as enemy soldiers apached

The medals are pictured here on Gp Cpt Stanbury's pilot's flying log book, which is also up for auction

The lot also includes letters of gratitude from high ranking British and American commanders in the war

At the end of Second World War he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his part in helping to liberate the country.

In 1953 he was awarded the Air Force Cross for being the first British pilot to fly a Canberra jet engine plane over the North Pole in a remarkable test flight.

His impressive set of medals are now being sold on behalf of his family by auctioneers Charterhouse of Sherborne, Dorset.

They have a pre-sale estimate of 30,000.

Richard Bromell, of Charterhouse, said: Rare do you come across such important RAF medal groups and this group is even more special as it is the first time it appeared on the open market.

Gp Capt Stanbury, from Southall, Middlesex, joined the RAF aged 24 in 1939. By 1942 he was serving in 70 Squadron in El Alamein in Egypt.

In December 1943 he was transferred to 624 Special Duties (SD) Squadron as Commanding Officer and took part in the covert missions

In 1953 he was awarded the Air Force Cross for being the first British pilot to fly a Canberra jet engine plane over the North Pole (newspaper cutting, left) in a remarkable test flight

During the war, he flew a huge variety of planes including Wellington, Halifax, Hurricane, Mosquito, Lancaster and of course the legendary Spitfire.

After the war he continued to serve in the RAF and his log books record he flew for over 3,600 hours.

A difficult decision to make it is hoped the collection will be handled, looked at, researched and enjoyed rather than sitting in a safe.

Gp Capt Stanbury, from Southall, Middlesex, joined the RAF aged 24 in 1939.

By 1942 he was serving in 70 Squadron in El Alamein in Egypt.

In December 1943 he was transferred to 624 Special Duties (SD) Squadron as Commanding Officer and took part in the covert missions.

In 1963 he was made a CBE.

Accompanying his medals at the auction are his three log books and photograph albums which include Winston Churchill visiting his station.

The lot also includes letters of gratitude from high ranking British and American commanders in the war.

The auction takes place on June 22.
A Billings man accused in a large methamphetamine conspiracy that brought pounds of the drug to Montana from California admitted on Friday to distribution.

Jason Earl Nelson, 37, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to possession of meth for distribution as part of plea agreement to dismiss other counts at sentencing. He also agreed to forfeit three firearms he was accused of possessing to further drug trafficking.

Nelson is the fifth person of nine defendants indicted in the case to plead guilty.

The investigation is the work of state and federal drug task forces that began investigating a meth ring in Yellowstone County in 2015. Agents learned that men were transporting multi-pound quantities of meth from California to Montana for redistribution.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Suek said Nelson was one of the local distributors.

Officers arrested Nelson in June 2015 on outstanding warrants and recovered 21 grams of meth and three firearms in a vehicle he was driving, Suek said.

Nelson admitted he was getting meth from co-defendant Tomi Gray and had been for about eight months. Gray, he told agents, stored her meth at the Lockwood home of Joshua Hagen, her ex-husband, Suek said.

In a later interview, Nelson also said Gray got meth from Mexican cartel members. In addition, he said cartel members lived with Hagen before moving to a Laurel residence.

Other co-defendants who have pleaded guilty include Gray, Mary Rock Big Man, Christina Kamran-Kohnjani and Sadey Kust-Myers.

Co-defendants who have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial include Hagen, Jonary David Santos-Antunez, Kevin Torres-Ochoa and Marisa Ann Lyman.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Cavan said he would recommend Nelsons plea be accepted by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters. Watters will set a sentencing date. Nelson remains in custody and faces a minimum mandatory five years to 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine.
An adorable video has been shared by a police department after an officer saved a baby deer which had become stuck in a storm drain.

The tiny, stricken fawn looked forlorn in the hole under a road in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey.

Luckily for the terrified deer, Officer Tim Majek from Woodbridge Police Department came to its rescue as a colleague filmed the cute scene.

Officer Majek bent down and lowered himself into the storm drain, which the baby deer must have fallen into as the grate had been slid open.

Despite the officer's slow and calm movements the fawn began to panic as he entered its mini prison.

It started to try to climb the sides of the drain, bouncing off the walls as it skittered around, searching desperately for a way to escape.

Fawned over: An adorable video has been shared by a police department after an officer saved a baby deer which had become stuck in a storm drain. The tiny, stricken fawn, left, looked forlorn as it was saved by Officer Tim Majek in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey

Working his Majek: Officer Majek bent down and lowered himself into the storm drain, which the baby deer must have fallen into as the grate had been slid open

When Officer Majek gently picked the baby animal up with his hands, it bleated in fear.

Officer Majek spoke soothing words to calm the fawn as he clambered out of the drain.

Stroking its head, he said: 'Come on, baby.'

Posting the video on Facebook, Woodbridge Police Department said: 'Officer Tim Majek saves his third deer.

'Way to go. This one is a cutie.'

The Deer Whisperer? When the officer gently picked the baby animal up with his hands, it bleated in fear. But he spoke soothing words to calm the fawn as he clambered out of the drain

Bambi's hero: Posting the video on Facebook, Woodbridge Police Department said: 'Officer Tim Majek saves his third deer. 'Way to go. This one is a cutie'

Many of the 789,000 viewers have praised Officer Majek's gentle actions.

Stephanie Lipford, commenting on the video, said: 'Thank God for good and caring people like that.'

Jean E. Hughes added: 'Wow! What a loving police officer.'

While Brenda Tilghman added: 'Officer Majek is a hero!'
Video footage shows the horrific moment a taxi driver is stabbed by one of his customers after he threatened to report the man for not paying for his cab ride on May 20.

The taxi driver from Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong province said the passenger had run up a fare of 172 yuan (19.48) however when they arrived at his destination he didn't have any money on him.

He drove to hospital following the stabbing where doctors said the blade missed his heart by one centimetre.

Shocking: In the footage, the driver can be seen trying to fight the taxi driver off

CCTV footage inside the taxi captured the moment the passenger stabbed the taxi driver in his side.

The taxi driver surnamed Zhang told reporters: 'The customer asked me to wait for a couple of minutes promising to bring the cash to me, but I told him this was impossible.

'I then said I should just drive him to the police station - then he stabbed me.'

Footage shows the violent struggle between the two as the man overpowers the taxi driver.

The footage shows the violent struggle between the two men resulting in the stabbing

Horrifying: The taxi driver can be seen clutching his chest as he drives to the hospital

The passenger can be heard saying: 'I didn't want to kill you, but if I don't you'll turn me in.'

The taxi driver tells the passenger 'it's fine' before the man makes an escape leaving Zhang unable to catch his breath.

He drove himself to the hospital calling police on the way.

According to doctors, Zhang is lucky to be alive, with the blade missing his heart by about one centimetre.

The passenger fled the scene and police are continuing to search for him.
A sadistic man has been convicted of waterboarding a six-year-old girl and forcing her to run barefoot on a treadmill for four hours so she would go to sleep.

Garth Gatland, 39, was found guilty of two counts of child cruelty at Cambridge Crown Court yesterday after the shocking level of his abuse was uncovered.

The court heard how Gatland, from Cambridge, abused a six-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy over a two-year period between 2014 and 2016.

Gatland waterboarded the girl and beat her repeatedly with wooden spoons - as well as tipping her out of bed while she slept.

A jury was told he took 'particular dislike' to her and an older boy who he called 'evil' and so subjected them to extreme physical and emotional abuse.

The six-year-old girl was waterboarded during a two-year period of abuse by Garth Gatland (file image)

He also forced the six-year-old to run on a treadmill for more than four hours at a time so she would 'sleep well' at night and not disturb him, as well as ordering her to stand in 'stress positions', the court heard.

Gatland was arrested in October last year after a friend reported him to the police for child cruelty.

A forensic scientist found traces of cocaine in the six-year-old girl's hair - meaning she had either ingested the class A drug or been exposed to it.

She also had bruises and burns over her back, neck, legs and feet.

The court heard how the 15-year-old boy was regularly beaten and was forced to hide drugs by Gatland.

Prosecutor Angela Rafferty told the jury: 'The plight of the children came to light when police were called to the house over a drugs dispute.

'A separate man involved in the dispute told police he heard bangs and the little girl screaming.

'He said the man put his knee in the girls back and pulled her arms back to restrain her..

'He said the girl was hit on the soles of her feet with a wooden spoon and at one point, the woman put a hand over the girl's mouth.

'He said the boy was punched in the head and the girl was locked in her room.'

The girl also showed signs of being neglected and told doctors she had frequent abdominal pain, nausea and often went to bed hungry.

The children were taken into foster care where the boy broke down and produced a rubbish bag filled with a dirty nappy, cigarette butts and a broken wooden spoon.

He said the man had tried to dispose of the bag but when he failed, he asked the boy to hide it.

The boy told police that the man abused him and the young girl and said there had been a camera in the young girl's room.

If the girl was seen to move, she was hit by the man.. He also said the girl was held under a tap with running water with a flannel on her face.

The prosecution said that the man was caught on a recording saying he hit the girl with a wooden spoon and had tied her up, saying he was "coked off his head".

Miss Rafferty added: "The Crown says that during this trial he [the male defendant] will try to blame the boy for much of his own conduct."

Further evidence proves the man had an "explosive temper", she claimed.

The court heard how the abuse was reported to police by an acquaintance of Gatland in October last year.

A spokesman for Cambridge Police said today: 'A man has been convicted of subjecting two children to prolonged abuse and neglect.

'Garth Gatland, 39, of Cambridge was found guilty of two counts of child cruelty at Cambridge Crown Court on May 25.

Gatland, 39, was found guilty of two counts of child cruelty at Cambridge Crown Court (pictured) yesterday after the shocking level of his abuse was uncovered

'The court heard how Gatland abused a girl aged six and a boy aged 15 over a period of two years between 2014 and 2016.

'The abuse of the girl included hitting her repeatedly with implements including a wooden spoon, making her stand naked in the window and making her run for up to four-and-a-half hours barefoot on a treadmill so she would sleep at bed time.

'The girl was also subjected to 'water boarding', made to stand in stress positions and tipped out of her bed while she was sleeping on regular occasions.

'The boy was the victim of regular assaults and made to dispose of and hide drugs for Gatland.

Detective Constable Chris Down said after the case today: 'Gatland subjected his victims to a catalogue of sadistic abuse. I hope his conviction will allow the victims to move on with their lives.

'I would encourage anyone who suspects offences have been, or are being committed against children to report their concerns to police, children's social services or the NSPCC.

'No matter who we are, we all have a responsibility to report child abuse.'

Gatland was remanded in custody and will be sentenced in the coming months.

A woman called Marie Maltby, 32, who lived with Gatland in Cambridge was acquitted of two counts of child cruelty.
A newly selected local council cabinet which has no white people on it has been slammed for its 'shameful' lack of diversity.

The make-up of Slough Borough Council's members 'fails to represent all the communities', according to those opposed to the announcement.

There are no white members on it for a second consecutive year, following a recent annual meeting when Labour councillors Mohammed Nazir, Madhuri Bedi and Arvind Dhaliwal were all selected.

Slough is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country, and Conservative group deputy leader Cllr Rayman Bains (pictured left with his wife Reena) says the cabinet fails to reflect this. Pictured right, council leader Sohail Munawar

Who's in the cabinet? Sohail Munawar (council leader)

Sabia Hussain (council deputy leader and cabinet member for health and social care)

Fiza Matloob (cabinet member for transport and highways)

Zaffar Ajaib (cabinet member for urban renewal)

Mohammed Sharif (cabinet member for digital transformation and customer care)

Joginder Bal (cabinet member for environment and leisure)

Madhu Bedi

Arvind Dhaliwal

Mohammed Nazir Advertisement

According to Slough Borough Council, the majority of the population living in Slough is Asian or Asian British (39.7 per cent) followed by White British (35.7 per cent).

The Berkshire town is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country, and Conservative group deputy leader Cllr Rayman Bains says the cabinet fails to reflect this.

He said: 'It's disappointing that for the second year running the council's cabinet does not reflect Slough's diverse, multicultural and inclusive community.

'Many words are spoken about Slough's diversity especially in council meetings, however it's action that really matters.

'The failure to ensure all communities are properly represented on the cabinet is shameful and should be condemned.'

There are no white members on it for a second consecutive year. Pictured, council members Madhu Bedi (left) and Arvind Dhaliwal (right)

According to Slough Borough Council, the majority of the population living in Slough is Asian or Asian British. Pictured, Sabia Hussain, council deputy leader and cabinet member for health and social care

However, Labour Council leader Sohail Munawar accused Cllr Bains of trying to score 'cheap political points'.

He said: 'We have a very simple, open and transparent way of selecting the cabinet.

'Members apply, and from those who wish to be considered, not those who do not, the cabinet is appointed.

Pictured, Fiza Matloob (left), cabinet member for transport and highways , and Zaffar Ajaib (right), cabinet member for urban renewal

Council leader Sohail Munawar said: 'We have a very simple, open and transparent way of selecting the cabinet.' Pictured, Joginder Bal, cabinet member for environment and leisure

'It's a shame Cllr Bains has used this in an attempt to score cheap political points.'

Meanwhile, a similar row has erupted after a Conservative-run council was accused of reaching a 'new low for diversity' with its all-male cabinet.

A team of seven men will be in charge at the Vale of Glamorgan, led by Tory councillor John Thomas.
A female worker at a Schick razor factory in Connecticut has been hospitalized in serious condition after her hand got caught in a machine.

The woman, whose name has not been publicly released, was doing a routine job when her right hand got caught in a machine Thursday morning and she suffered severe blood loss.

A production manager at the Milford factory did not specify the type of machine.

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A female worker at a Schick razor factory in Connecticut (above) has been hospitalized in serious condition after her hand got caught in a machine. She was doing a routine job when her right hand got caught in a machine Thursday morning and she suffered severe blood loss

Fire battalion Chief Anthony Fabrizi (above) said the woman was bleeding but remained conscious throughout the ordeal.

Authorities say the power was turned off and it took a fire department crew about 17 minutes to disentangle her arm from the machine.

Paramedics applied a tourniquet and she was rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital where she underwent surgery.

Fire battalion Chief Anthony Fabrizi said the woman was bleeding but remained conscious throughout the ordeal.

'Our fire paramedics immediately initiated advanced life support care, the patient was heavily bleeding, a tourniquet was applied, intravenous access was given,' Fabrizi told WFSB.

Paramedics applied a tourniquet and she was rushed from the factory (above) to Yale-New Haven Hospital where she underwent surgery. She was listed in serious condition as of Thursday and her name has not been publicly released

'Extrications and entrapments can be very complex, we shoot for under that hour time.

'The sooner the better. 17 minutes is by no mean unreasonable, we worked feverishly to free her.'

Officials said they have notified the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as is routine, to investigate the incident.
An elderly woman and her disabled daughter are still missing despite an extensive search in regional Victoria, including in lakes and dams.

Isabel Stephens, 89, and Judy Stephens, 53, were last seen on Sunday at a pub lunch in Tatong, near their hometown of Benalla.

The women's family reported them missing on Tuesday and a search started that afternoon.

Despite various sightings, tip-offs and extensive searches through ranges and terrain, the women haven't been found and the search has been suspended for the night.

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Isabel (right) and Judy Stephens (left) are still missing despite an extensive search in regional Victoria, including in lakes and dams

Despite various sightings, tip-offs and extensive searches, the women haven't been found

Search parties focused on water courses and water storage facilities north of Benalla, encompassing Lake Rowan and Lake Nillahcootie.

Inspector Troy Hargadon said the search would resume on Saturday but said they would focus on areas near Tatong and Whitfield.

'It was the fifth day of the search today (Friday) and obviously because of the age and fragility of the women we do have heightened concerns about their state,' he said.

He said the community had rallied behind the family with numerous tips and sightings reported.

Search parties focused on water courses and water storage facilities north of Benalla, encompassing Lake Rowan and Lake Nillahcootie

The women are believed to be travelling in a 2007 Toyota Yaris with the registration number WAB580

'We do want to encourage people to contact their local police if they see anything that may help, we do follow this information and it helps narrow down any potential search areas,' Inspector Hargadon said.

Police have concerns for the pair due to Ms Stephens' age, and because her daughter has a disability and a medical condition that requires regular medication.

The last sighting of the women was in the regional town of Tatong, just 27km from their hometown of Benalla.

Helen Stephens believes her sister and mum are nearby because they don't often drive for long

They were last seen having a pub lunch at the Tatong Tavern (pictured) on Sunday afternoon

Tatong Tavern owner Christopher McCabe said the pair had eaten a meal about 1pm on Sunday and then set off after saying they were visiting a relative for dinner that evening.

'Isabel is a very intelligent, confident lady,' he told AAP on Thursday.

'People are worried for their welfare and if they are in good health.'

The women are believed to be travelling in a 2007 Toyota Yaris with the registration number WAB580.

Anyone who sees Judy or Isabel is urged to contact Benalla Police Station on (03) 5760 0200, Triple 0 or Crime Stoppers.
Relatives of the victims slayed by a South Carolina serial killer confronted him in court as he pleaded guilty to murdering seven people.

Todd Kohlhepp admitted killing seven people over nearly 13 years while running a successful real estate business.

He admitted his crimes less than seven months after he was arrested when investigators checking on a missing couple rescued a woman chained inside a shipping container on Kohlhepp's Spartanburg County property.

Kohlhepp pleaded guilty so he would avoid the death penalty.

Emotional family members of the victims packed courtroom as Kohlhepp plead guilty.

They then read out emotional statements detailing how his sickening acts had destroyed their loved ones.

The father of victim Meagan Coxie said: 'May God have no mercy on his soul,' ABC reported.

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Serial killer in court: Todd Kohlhepp , 46, appeared in South Carolina court on Friday and pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and other counts

Plea deal: Kohlhepp will serve seven consecutive life terms plus 60 years on kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges

Kohlhepp, who was arrested last fall, admitted to killing seven people over nearly 13 years

Melissa Ponder Brackman's husband, Scott Ponder, was killed in 2003 at Superbike Motorsports along with three other people. She told the court he was killed just days after she had her first ultrasound.

'He heard the heartbeat of my son just two days before he was murdered,' Brackman told the court.

According to the terms of the plea agreement signed by the 46-year-old Kohlhepp, he will serve seven consecutive life terms plus 60 years on kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges. He will not be eligible for parole, and he also agreed not to appeal the sentence.

Kohlhepp admitted Friday that he killed four workers at Superbike Motorsports motorcycle store in Chesnee in 2003 after the manager made him angry.

The victims were the owner, Scott Ponder, 30; Beverly Guy, 52; Brian Lucas, 30; and Chris Sherbert, 26. Guy was Ponder's mother and worked as a bookkeeper. Lucas was a service manager, and Sherbert was a mechanic at the shop.

Kohlhepp also admitted guilt in the deaths of a husband and wife who disappeared in December 2015.

Kala Brown, who was not in the courtroom, had been raped and locked inside the container for more than two months after Kohlhepp shot and killed her boyfriend, authorities said. Charles David Carter, 32, was the last of the seven murder victims.

Brown's spokesperson told the court that she could not be there in person but that she 'wants to thank everyone for the support.'

Kala Brown, 30 (left), and her boyfriend, Charles Carter, 32 (right), were the last of Kohlhepp's victims. The woman survived after being rescued by police, but Carter did not make it

Police searching for the missing couple rescued Brown who was chained inside this green shipping container on Kohlhepp's Spartanburg County property

The bodies of 29-year-old Johnny Joe Coxie and 26-year-old Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie were found on Kohlhepp's 95-acre tract of land after his arrest in November 2016. The couple had been hired to do work on Kohlhepp's property.

Kohlhepp was eligible for the death penalty, but the plea deal took that off the table.

No one has been executed in South Carolina in more than six years because the state lacks the drugs needed for lethal injections.

Kohlhepp moved to South Carolina in 2001 shortly after 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping in Arizona. Authorities there said the then 15-year-old forced a 14-year-old neighbor back to his home at gunpoint, tied her up and raped her.

Scott Ponder and his mother Beverly Guy (pictured) were found dead at the bike shop in 2003

Kohlhepp led investigators to the bodies of Meagan and Johnny Joe Coxie, a married couple

The bodies of coxie and McGraw-Coxie were found on Kohlhepp's land after his arrest

Kohlhepp had to register on South Carolina's sex offender registry, but told people it was a trumped up charge after a girl's father was angry about a joyride. Kohlhepp also lied about the felony conviction so he could get his real estate license in the state.

Friends and co-workers at Kohlhepp's real estate business said he was a hard worker with some strange habits. He would watch pornographic videos during work and joked on his firm's website that he motivated workers by not feeding them.

Kohlhepp's reign of terror came to an end on November 3, 2016, when police searching his Woodruff property heard a woman's screams coming from a shipping container.

Kala Brown later told police that she came out to the property two months prior with her boyfriend, Charlie David Carver, for a cleaning job.

Kohlhepp shot Carver dead and then chained her up in the storage container where he continued to rape her on a near daily basis.

In February, Kala Brown (left) gave an emotional interview to Dr Phil, recounting her two-month captivity. She said Kohlhepp (right) would rape her twice daily

After finding Brown and arresting Kohlhepp, investigators searched the property and found Carver's body in a shallow grave, along with the remains of two other people.

Those remains were later identified as Johnny and Meagan Coxie.

Kohlhepp told investigators that he shot Johnny when he tried to rob him. He then locked up Meagan in the storage container and kept her there for six days before shooting her dead as well.

While in police custody, Kohlhepp also confessed to the 2003 quadruple murder at the motorcycle store.

In February, Kala Brown gave an emotional interview to Dr Phil, recounting her two-month captivity inside a pitch-black 30-foot container, where she was chained by the neck and raped twice daily.

Emotional: The mother and stepfather of Charles David Carver react during Todd Kohlhepp's sentencing Friday

Scott Ponder's widow, Melissa Ponder Brackman, and his 13-year-old son, Scott Jr, speak to the press after Kohlhepp's sentencing

Beverly Guy's widower, Terry, said his wife would have been the first to forgive Kohlphepp

Brown was not in court on Friday for Kohlhepp's sentencing, but dozens of family members of some of the other victims were on hand to present their impact statements, reported GreenvilleOnline.com.

Scott Ponder's widow, Melissa Ponder Brackman, described the days after the 2003 quadruple murder as 'living hell' and lamented that her son had missed out on so many special moments with his dad.

Scott Jr, who was born after Scott Sr's slaying and never got a chance to meet him, told the court: 'I have lived 13 years without a father.'

Cindy Coxie, Johnny's Coxie's mother, labelled Kohlhepp's actions as 'incomprehensible evil.'
Concerns have been raised about two Minnesota brothers with ties to the Middle East after they were allegedly found with bomb-making materials, guns and ammunition in their car.

Abdullah Alrifahe, 27, and Majid Alrifahe, 26, were arrested on May 11 outside a senior housing project in north Minneapolis.

The elder brother has been charged with a single weapons felony and is being held in the Hennepin County Jail on $200,000 bail.

Brothers Abdullah Alrifahe, 27, (left) and Majid Alrifahe, 26, (right) were arrested on May 11 outside a housing project in Minneapolis after police found bomb-making materials in their car

Majid has already been released and is facing misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct. The offense in Minnesota carries a maximum punishment of 90 days in jail or a $1000 fine.

Both Homeland Security and the FBI are involved in the investigation, WCCO-TV reports.

A man had confronted them outside the senior housing project about littering from their car when he claims they jumped out of the vehicle and aggressively moved towards him.

They were arrested outside a senior housing project in north Minneapolis after a man approached them about littering from their car

Police were called and allegedly found a loaded AK-47, a rifle, handgun, a grenade, ammunition, bomb-making materials and a drone inside the car.

The man who initially confronted them and called police is outraged the two brothers aren't facing more serious charges.

'For what they found in their car, that is way too light,' he told WCCO-TV.

The Minneapolis Police Department say they are still investigating, while the FBI had no comment about the case.
A parrot thief in Taiwan became so distressed with the birds' noise that he turned himself into police and handed the animals back.

Mr Zhang stole 18 parrots worth 26,000 from a private bird park in April, Taiwanese media reports.

He had lived with the parrots under the same roof for one month before having a breakdown caused by the birds' noise which he described 'louder than aircraft taking off'.

A parrot thief distressed at the birds' unbearable noise had to turn himself to the police in Taiwan. The 18 stolen parrots, including a pair of Catalina Macaw(pictured above) worth of 9,822, are from a private bird park

Mr Zhang, a parrot fan himself, sneaked into a private bird park in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan last month, according to ET Today.

He stole 18 parrots, including two Catalina Macaws worth 9,822, from the park.

While he searched for potential buyers, he kept the birds in his apartment.

He didn't expect the group of talkative birds to make loud noise all day.

Mr Zhang said he was irritated by the the noise which he described as 'penetrating' and 'louder than aircraft taking off.'

The thief worried that his neighbour would eventually file a noise complaint so he decided to give up the birds.

The thief said he was irritated by the the parrots' noise which he described 'penetrating' and 'louder than aircraft taking off'

The parrots have now been returned to their owner after the thief turned himself to Taoyuan police on May 24

The bird-loving man expects the parrots will have a low chance of survival if they were to be released into the wild.

Unwilling to harm these birds, he decided to turn himself in on May 24 to Taoyuan police.

He has been arrested for the theft and the parrots have now been returned to their owner.
An Australasian clothing retailer has released a new take on a vintage Gucci tee which is almost identical to its high-end predecessor.

The t-shirt, created by women's clothing outlet Glassons, drops the 'G' from the originally designed Gucci classic, and replaces it with an 'H' - re-labelling the shirt 'Hucci'.

In a caption on the Glassons website the t-shirt's description reads: 'No gucci, HUCCI.'

Hucci vs Gucci: Australasian clothing retailer Glassons released a new take on a vintage Gucci tee which is almost identical to its high-end predecessor

The retailer has been ridiculed on social media over the bizarre imitation of the classic Gucci t-shirt (pictured)

The word 'hucci' bears a likeness to the word 'hoochie' which is a new-age term described as a woman who is known to be promiscuous, according to Urban Dictionary.

Gucci released their version of the vintage-inspired logo print t-shirt early this year which is purchasable through the Gucci website.

The logo that is included across the front of the shirt was redesigned from former styles by Italian fashion designer Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci, who looked to prints from the 80's for inspiration.

The Gucci garment is made from cotton and features small holes in the fabric to complete the vintage look.

Glassons have used the same font and colouring for the words as well as the red, green and gold lining underneath.

Who wore it better? Glassons (pictured right) have used the adopted the Gucci style (pictured left) using a similar font and colouring while changing the 'G' to an 'H'

The women's clothing outlet has re-labelled their knock-off with 'Hucci' (pictured)

Gucci's print cotton t-shirt retails for $550 versus the Glassons version which retails for $24.99.

Young social influencer and photographer Loic Quedec was quick to point out the luxury brand knock-off citing 'Is this a joke? I'm calling out Glassons.com today,' on his Facebook page.

Others agreed there was a cringe-worthy resemblance, with one commenter suggesting perhaps the two t-shirts had come from the same factory.

The Instagram star who boasts over 50,000 followers for his forward-thinking fashion compilations told Daily Mail Australia the rip-off 'hurts the industry that I love and respect so much.'

New Zealand YouTube blogger Kris Fox suggested it would be better to pick up a Gucci fake.

'I don't understand why anyone would buy a bootleg version of the original Gucci top. You're honestly better off buying an exact replica from the markets,' she said.

Young social influencer and photographer Loic Quedec was one of the first to point out the luxury brand knock-off

Another woman, Rosie Carroll, used Facebook to make light of the t-shirt citing: 'Glassons is wild. Hucci is the new Gucci.'

'The Hucci top is a pretty shady move from Glassons to Gucci. Although hilarious, I will not be wearing this top,' she told DMA.

Ms Carroll said she felt sorry for girls whose parents had to fork out for the real one.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Gucci and Glassons for comment.
Unhampered by being charged with the assault of a reporter just 24 hours earlier, Republican Greg Gianforte on Thursday won the special election to fill Montana's empty seat in the U.S. House by 7 percentage points.

The Bozeman technology entrepreneur, who did not appear publicly after the assault until his victory speech late Thursday, traded leads with Democrat Rob Quist as early results came in, but by 10 p.m. he took a lead Quist could not recover from.

Addressing supporters, Gianforte apologized to the reporter he had an altercation with, as well as other journalists who witnessed the event. He also apologized to Montanans, saying "When you make a mistake you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way."

With turnout at 51 percent and 462 precincts fully reported and 199 partially, Gianforte had 51 percent of the vote, or 181,371, to Quist's 44 percent, or 156,205 votes. A total of 360,508 votes were counted by 11:40 p.m.

Notably, Libertarian Mark Wicks had 20,736 votes, more than what his party's candidate got in the fall election.

Addressing supporters late Thursday, Quist said, "Don't be discouraged. Be determined." He said Montanans would continue to hold Gianforte accountable.

"These issues and this fight does not end," Quist said.

In an unorthodox race that lasted just 85 days but broke spending and fundraising records, Gianforte faced off against Quist and Wicks, vying for the position after it was vacated when President Donald J. Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.

Gianfortes altercation with a reporter for The Guardian fixed Montanas race even more firmly in the national spotlight. Out-of-state reporters had been crisscrossing the state for months, looking to Montanas vote as a sort of barometer on the fledgling Trump presidency.

Democrats viewed the seat as one they could possibly flip, and Republicans grew more wary as the race wore on that they might not be able to find a path to victory in a state thats generally viewed as red but has a strong independent streak.

Jeremy Johnson, a professor at Carroll College in Helena, said Quist under-performed in key swing counties of Cascade and Yellowstone.

"Many of the strong Republican rural counties stayed strongly Republican, although Democrats had hoped a non-politician identified with rural Montana could make inroads," he said.

Neither Gianforte nor Quist has ever held public office, but thats where the similarities end. Gianforte, who lost his bid for the governorship last fall, is a wealthy Bozeman businessman who sold a technology company he founded in Gallatin County for $1.8 billion to Oracle in 2012. Quist is a musician and poet from Creston who for years toured the state with the Mission Mountain Wood Band.

This spring Gianforte displayed strong support for Trump that was absent in his race for governor last fall. He never failed to align himself with the president, billing himself as a business guy, calling for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He also brought Donald Trump Jr. to the state for two rounds of rapid-fire rallies across the state.

Quist played to the states Democratic base, holding campaign rallies just last week with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who won Montanas presidential primary over eventual nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump carried Montana in November by 20 percentage points over Clinton, even as Gianforte was losing to incumbent Gov. Steve Bullock by almost four points.

Quist emphasized he would work to preserve the Affordable Care Act and funding for programs like Planned Parenthood. He also created a sharp contrast between himself and Gianforte by playing up his support of preserving access to abortion and legalizing marijuana.

Montanans were inundated with election advertising as outside groups spent more than $7.1 million in attempts to sway voters. Both candidates reported raising more than $7 million, which included a $1.5 million loan Gianforte made to his campaign.

Just $9.5 million was spent last fall when Zinke faced Democrat Denise Juneau. Zinke easily won re-election with 56 percent of the vote.

[VIDEO] Watch Greg Gianforte's full victory speech and apology Republican multimillionaire Greg Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground.

More than 37 percent of registered voters had already cast absentee ballots by Wednesday night, when at a campaign event in Bozeman the Guardian journalist said Gianforte body-slammed him. Though some expected the event to cut Gianforte's chances of victory, it seemed like the news broke too late to matter much. Even some at the Gianforte watch party were unaware of the incident. A little over 2,000 registered to vote Thursday. In the 2012 election, 8,053 registered on Election Day.

There were no fewer than nine TV camera tripods set up for cable news networks, plus a couple local channels, at Gianforte's event at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman.

Gianforte remained silent about the altercation as voters went to the polls Thursday. Major Republicans in Montana stood by the candidate, while others nationally said his behavior was unacceptable.

Quists campaign was not without its own struggles. The candidate had a 16-year trail of debt that included unpaid taxes and loans. Quist said he fell behind after a botched gallbladder surgery kept him from working, though videos surfaced of him performing with his band during the period he said he was out of commission.
'Angel of Death' nurse, Genene Jones (pictured), 66, has been accused of killing 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer in 1981 with a fatal overdose of the anti-seizure drug Dilantin

One of Texas' most infamous child killers who's been serving a 99-year sentence for the fatal overdose of an infant in her care was indicted Thursday in the death of another baby.

'Angel of Death' nurse, Genene Jones, 66, has been accused of killing 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer at Bexar County Hospital - now The University Hospital of San Antonio - in 1981 with a fatal overdose of the anti-seizure drug Dilantin.

A Bexar County grand jury returned the murder indictment against Jones, who has been serving concurrent sentences in a state prison for women in Gatesville, Texas, for two 1985 convictions.

The first is the 99-year prison sentence for murder in the death of 15-month-old Chelsea McClelland, who was given a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant.

The second sentence is the 60-year term for injury to a child for giving 4-week-old Rolando Santos a large injection of the blood-thinner Heparin, which he survived.

Jones is suspected of murdering dozens of infants by injecting them with a combination of drugs at two hospitals in San Antonio and Kerrville, Texas, between 1971 and 1984, but she was only convicted of two crimes.

Some estimates say she killed as many as 60 children. She was put away in 1985, but she's scheduled to be released in 2018.

Jones is due for release next March after serving one-third of her sentence under a mandatory release law in effect at the time of her convictions, and the parents of the dozens of infants Jones is suspected of killing want to keep her in prison.

A Bexar County grand jury returned the murder indictment against Jones, who has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for murder in the death of 15-month-old Chelsea McClelland (pictured), who was given a fatal injection of a muscle relaxant

In 2014, Chelsea's mother, Petti McLellan-Wiese spoke out about her daughter, Chelsea's death. She said Chelsea almost immediately had trouble breathing after Jones gave her a shot at the San Antonio clinic in 1982

She has been consistently denied parole by the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole.

Prosecutors have spent the past three years looking for new evidence from the cases - which date back 40 years - in an effort to convict Jones of a new crime.

'She is pure evil, and justice warrants that she be held accountable for the crimes she committed,' said Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood in a statement.

He said his office 'will reserve further comment at this time regarding future charges against Jones'.

LaHood plans for Jones to return to San Antonio for the new trial before her mandatory release from prison. If convicted, she could be sentenced to 5 to 99 years or life in prison.

Jones first came under suspicion in 1985 in San Antonio, where babies at the city's charity hospital began dying of seizures and respiratory arrest.

Analysis later revealed that the children had been under Jones' care when they received injections of Heparin.

However, Jones was not investigated until after she left San Antonio to work for a pediatrician in Kerrville, where Chelsea McClelland died.

Jones' trial for the McClelland death was moved from Kerr County to Williamson County, near Austin.

In 2014, Chelsea's mother, Petti McLellan-Wiese spoke out about her daughter, Chelsea's death.

Jones (left and right in 1984) first came under suspicion in 1985 in San Antonio, where babies at the city's charity hospital began dying of seizures and respiratory arrest. It was later revealed the children had been under Jones' care when they received injections of Heparin

Jones was taken into custody by Kerr County Deputy Clay Barton (left) and Williamson County Deputy Loretta Pickett (right) in February of 1984. She was 33 years old at the time she was convicted of Chelsea's murder

'It was a real mother's terror. I was a mess, I just fell apart.'

McLellan-Wiese recalled the tragedy of her daughter's death in September of 1982 shortly after she took her son, Cameron, to the pediatric clinic because her son had the flu.

She said she brought Chelsea, who was healthy and didn't have an appointment, with them, but at the clinic Jones told her Chelsea needed immunizations and since she was in the clinic, they could give her shots.

McLellan-Wiese said while she held Chelsea in her arms the clinic's nurse, Jones, gave her daughter an injection. The child almost immediately had trouble breathing, McLellan-Wiese recalled.

Jones told her that Chelse was 'just mad because she got a shot' and then proceeded to give her another shot.

McClellan-Wiese told the news site after the second injection Chelsea stopped breathing.

The little girl was rushed to the hospital in Kerrville where doctors were able to resuscitate her.

Jones is suspected of murdering dozens of infants by injecting them with a combination of drugs at two hospitals, including the Bexar County Hospital (pictured) between 1971 and 1984. Some estimates say she killed as many as 60 children. She's scheduled to be released in 2018

McClellan-Wiese said doctors at the hospital decided to send Chelsea by ambulance to a hospital in San Antonio.

She said despite them telling Jones not to go, she somehow managed to get in the back of the ambulance and give Chelsea one last shot.

Chelsea died en route to San Antonio.

Her death was initially ruled Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. But investigators later found that Chelsea had been given muscle relaxer injections of succinylcholine.

According to Chelsea's mother, investigators determined that she had been given enough of the drug to 'sedate six men who weighed 150 pounds each'.

Rolando Santos was also among the infants who overdosed in the San Antonio charity hospital, but he survived.
An aviation enthusiast filmed three terrifying landings in severe crosswinds at the Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira International Airport.

Pilots flying in to the airport, renamed earlier this year when a statue of the Real Madrid star was placed in the atrium, often have to navigate difficult landings because of the high winds coming in from the Atlantic Ocean.

In the new video, uploaded to YouTube by Samuel Possos, crosswinds cause havoc for a Primera pilot arriving at the island off the northwest coast of Africa.

On a wing and a prayer! An aviation enthusiast filmed three terrifying landings in severe crosswinds at the Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira International Airport

Bumpy ride: For one landing the left wheel touched down on the runway almost a full second before the right wheel - demonstrating the angle at which the pilot was forced to land

The huge aircraft is seen bumping around - with passengers undoubtedly terrified inside the cabin.

As the plane's wings dip left to right, the pilot struggles to land the aircraft.

In expert fashion, the plane is brought under control - but steam spews out of the wheels as it jolts onto the tarmac of Runway 5.

Bouncing around: In expert fashion, the plane is brought under control - but steam spews out of the wheels as it jolts onto the tarmac of Runway 5

As one aircraft descends towards the same runway, it teeters from side to side as well as the nose of the plane swinging scarily up and down

The second plane filmed by Mr Possos has an even bumpier ride.

As the aircraft descends towards the same runway, it teeters from side to side as well as the nose of the plane swinging scarily up and down.

The wings wobble dangerously as the pilot nears the runway, eventually smacking down on to tarmac and seeming to bounce along it before finally slowing down.

Cabin fever: Many of the huge aircraft are seen bumping around - with passengers undoubtedly terrified inside the cabin

Pilots flying in to the airport often have to navigate difficult landings because of the high winds coming in from the Atlantic Ocean

A third plane threatened to spiral out of control too.

The left wheel touched down on the runway almost a full second before the right wheel - demonstrating the angle at which the pilot was forced to land in such difficult conditions.

All planes landed safely thanks to the skill and experience of the pilots.
Modern science is being called in to solve an intriguing royal mystery over whether one of Russia's most famous tsars faked his own death to live as a humble Siberian monk.

Rumours have persisted that Alexander I - who defeated Napoleon in 1812 during a 23 year reign - remained alive after he was declared dead at the age of just 47 from typhus on 1 December 1825.

Now a leading Orthodox churchman has signaled that genetic analysis will be carried out on the remains of a humble but high-educated monk - known as Feodor Kuzmich - who was believed by some contemporaries to be the former emperor in disguise.

Modern science is being called in to solve the mystery over whether one of Russia's most famous tsars Alexander I (left) faked his own death to live as a humble Siberian monk, nown as Feodor Kuzmich (right)

Rumours have persisted that Alexander I - who defeated Napoleon in 1812 during a 23 year reign - remained alive after he was declared dead at the age of just 47 from typhus on 1 December 1825

Now a leading Orthodox churchman has signaled that genetic analysis will be carried out on the remains of Monk Feodor (pictured), who was believed by some contemporaries to be the former emperor in disguise

'It is quite likely that such an analysis will be held soon,' said Bishop Rostislav, of Tomsk.

He indicated the tests would be conducted by the Russian Academy of Sciences with the involvement of officials of the Orthodox Patriarch, Kirill.

The DNA analysis is expected to reveal whether the tsar lived for 39 years after his official death while his brother Nicholas I took the vacant throne.

Holy man Feodor, declared a saint by the Orthodox church, lived for almost three decades in the Siberian city of Tomsk before his death in 1864.

'He told people that he had been a wanderer and was unable to recall his past,' reported The Siberian Times.

'Alexander I's empress Elizabeth - they wed when she was 14, and he a year older - officially passed away a few months after him.

'There is a separate theory that her death was also faked, and that she subsequently became a nun known as Silent Vera.'

Detailed handwriting analysis carried out two years ago by the Russian Graphological Society concluded the tsar and the monk were 'one and the same man'

The monk's handwriting (pictured) looks remarkably similar to the royal's

The most prominent proponent of the theory that the monk had royal blood was Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

But detailed handwriting analysis carried out two years ago by the Russian Graphological Society concluded the tsar and the monk were 'one and the same man'.

Professor Andrey Rachinsky, of the Paris Institute of Eastern Languages and Civilisations, said that Tsar Alexander III had a picture of the monk in pride of place alongside those of his royal predecessors in his office.

And the monk's belongings were passed to a leading churchman close to royal family after he died.

The theory that the tsar craved a holy life as a monk is based on him seeking forgiveness for coming to power after the murder of his father, Paul I.

Historians say it is doubtful that he was directly involved in killing his father but he was in the palace at the time, and became the direct beneficiary.

The inscrutable monk was quoted by Tolstoy as having said: 'If I had not confessed the truth about myself, the heavens would have been surprised; if I had confessed it, the earth would have been surprised.'

Alexander I's empress Elizabeth (pictured) - they wed when she was 14, and he a year older - officially passed away a few months after him

There is a separate theory that her death was also faked, and that she subsequently became a nun known as Silent Vera (pictured)

Tolstoy said: 'Even when monk Feodor Kuzmich was alive - he came to Siberia in 1836 and lived for 27 years in various places - there were strange rumours about him that he was hiding his real name and position and that it was Emperor Alexander I.

'After the monk's death these rumours only spread and became stronger.

'Not only common people believed them but many from the elite, including the royal family of Tsar Alexander III.

'The reasons for these rumours were the following: Alexander died unexpectedly, he did not suffer from any disease before, he died far away from home in a remote place of Taganrog, and when he was put in the coffin many who saw him, said that he changed a lot, this is why the coffin was quickly sealed.

'It was known that Alexander said and wrote that he wanted so much to leave his post and to stay away from this world.

Holy man Feodor, declared a saint by the Orthodox church, lived for almost three decades in the Siberian city of Tomsk before his death in 1864

Saint Petersburg - where the tsar was buried - and Tomsk - where the monk lived - marked on the world map

Pictured, Svetlana Semyonova the graphologist who examined Alexander I's handwriting

'And one more fact which is less known is that in the official statement where Alexander's dead body was described there was a line that his back and bottom were of dark red colour and it was hardly possible to be a true description of the body of the emperor.'

The monk's and tsar's 'height and appearance' were similar with 'the same kind of round shoulders'.

The monk had claimed to have been 'a homeless man' who did not remember his family yet he spoke foreign languages and had 'a noble way gentle with others which clearly meant that he was the person with a high position in the society'.

At his death, he is said to have left a 'coded message' signed A.P. which matched the tsars name and patronymic, Alexander Pavlovich.

The tsar was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg, according to history books, but rumours have persisted that his tomb is empty.
A nursing assistant intentionally broke his 98-year-old patient's leg before she died while undergoing surgery to fix it, police say.

Hakim Ogunkunle, 43, is facing aggravated battery charges for allegedly injuring his patient, Edna Warren, while she was under his care on Tuesday, at the Newnan Health and Rehabilitation in Georgia.

Warren was rushed to the Piedmont Newnan Hospital to have emergency surgery, but died during the procedure.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation believes Ogunkunle caused Warren's injuries because of a mismatch between the details of his testimony and the severity of her injuries.

Hakim Ogunkunle, 43, (pictured) 'intentionally broke the leg' of his patient, Edna Warren, while she was under his care at the Newnan Health and Rehabilitation in Georgia

He is facing aggravated battery charges for allegedly injuring his patient, Edna Warren, who died during surgery to fix her leg

The Georgia Bureau of Investigations has noticed more elderly victims are willing to come forward if they are experiencing abuse. Pictured is the Newnan Rehabilitation Center where Ogunkunle worked

'He gave a preliminary statement about what occurred and it did not match the severity of the injury,' GBI spokesman Bahan Rich said.

This nurse assistant has a past charge of battery against patients in personal care at a home, hospice, or long term care facility or assisted living, but wasnt prosecuted

The GBI has noticed more cases of abuse against the elderly in recent years, and Rich says this has come about because more victims have been reporting such crimes.

'Over the years, we have definitely found that there has been under reporting, but since we started training law enforcement and prosecutors, weve noticed that there has been an increase in the number of reports that are made in these cases,' GBI spokeswoman, Nelly Miles said.

'This case is just one example of if the case doesnt get reported, theres a great chance this person can continue to perpetuate these crimes. That is something that cannot be tolerated,' Miles said.
The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq says a U.S. service member has died in northern Syria.

A statement Friday says the serviceman died of injuries sustained 'during a vehicle roll-over.'

It was not immediately clear whether the incident was related to a combat situation.

'Further information will be released as appropriate,' the statement added, saying it is the coalition's 'policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.'

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq says a U.S. service member has died in northern Syria. (Pictured: a US military vehicle travels in the town of Amuda, northern Syria April 29)

The U.S. has hundreds of troops and advisers in Syria in various roles, assisting local allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Two other American service members have died in Syria since U.S. troops arrived there in 2016.

Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, 42, was killed by an improvised explosive device in northern Syria on November 24, 2016.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin L. Bieren, 25, died from suspected natural causes while deployed to northern Syria on March 28.
Salman Abedi (pictured) was linked to a group of men who went to fight in Libya with their fathers - before he switched his allegiance to ISIS

The suicide bomber who killed 22 innocent people was linked to a group of young men who went to fight in Libya before switching allegiance to ISIS, it has been revealed.

Salman Abedi, 22, who targeted children - including nine teenagers and a girl aged just eight - travelled to the North African country with his father.

Ramadan Abedi, 51, was one of the men from the North West who travelled more than 2,000 miles to Libya and there was a group who called themselves the 'Manchester Fighters'.

Greater Manchester Police reportedly received a tip-off which resulted in one of the counter-terrorism raids which was launched yesterday.

It is claimed that raid was connected to a group of Libyan extremists and that Abedi knew two members of the gang, who have ties to Manchester.

According to The Times, members of the group went to Libya when their fathers travelled to help overthrow the Gaddafi regime.

They were members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group which has been banned in Britain.

Police and investigators are now probing the links between Abedi, Islamic State, Libya and Britain.

It comes as the killer's cousin, 24-year-old Abdallah Forjani, had his barber shop in Moss Side, Manchester, raided as part of the ongoing investigation this morning.

On Wednesday, the bomber's 51-year-old father Ramadan and his younger brother Hashem, 20, were arrested in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

The newspaper reported that the Rada Force security unit claimed Hashem admitted both he and Salman supported ISIS.

Ramadan Abedi (pictured), 51, was one of the men from the North West who travelled more than 2,000 miles to Libya

A friend of Salman's father, Akram Ramadan, 49, said: 'A lot of dads went to fight Gaddafi in 2011.

'We went and fought together, we were really known, our unit fighting in the hills was called the Manchester Fighters.'

Meanwhile, by Friday morning, police had made their tenth arrest in relation to the Manchester terror attack.

Officers also carried out three separate searches in St Helens, Merseyside, and Moss Side in Manchester this morning.
Almost 100 inmates escaped from a jail in Brazil after digging a 90ft tunnel under the prison walls, it has emerged.

Guards at the Parnamirim State Penitentiary in Rio Grande do Norte found the tunnel and the empty cells in the early hours of the morning.

They also found piles of clothes by the exit to the hole after prisoners discarded their uniforms, changed into civilian clothes and sprinted off to find getaway cars.

Almost 100 inmates escaped from a jail in Brazil after digging a 90ft tunnel (pictured) under the prison walls, it has emerged

Eight inmates were later recaptured and prison guards posted pictures of them lying handcuffed and naked on the floor

Guards found piles of clothes by the exit to the hole after prisoners discarded their uniforms, changed into civilian clothes and sprinted off to getaway cars

However, eight inmates were later recaptured and prison guards posted pictures of them lying handcuffed and naked on the floor.

The escapees somehow had time to wriggle along the 90ft homemade tunnel.

As they emerged the other side of the prison wall, they left piles of abandoned prison uniforms and jail issue flip flops.

Bid for freedom: The escapees somehow had time to wriggle along the 90ft homemade tunnel

Guards at the Parnamirim State Penitentiary in Rio Grande do Norte found the tunnel and the empty cells in the early hours of the morning

Then they reportedly waited at a nearby road for getaway cars to ferry them away from the jail, according to local reports.

More escapes were only thwarted when the heavily armed Military Police surrounded the jail and sealed the tunnel.

Prison officials told local media they have no accurate figure for the number of successful escapees but it is reported to be as high as 82.
Jared Kushner emerged from behind bars on Friday - of his Washington, D.C. home, that is - taking his first steps in public since he was named a person of interest in an FBI investigation into Russian collusion and the presidential election.

President Trump's son-in-law was wearing a suit and tie and appeared to be headed to work at the White House.

Federal investigators are focusing on Kushner, a senior advisor to the president, as part of their election probe, the Washington Post reported late Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Authorities are probing meetings Kushner had with top Russian officials during the presidential transition, when Kushner became known as a top facilitator for foreign governments looking to make contacts to the new administration.

Jared Kushner emerged from behind bars on Friday - of his Washington, D.C. home, that is - taking his first steps in public since he was named a person of interest in an FBI investigation into Russian collusion and the presidential election

President Trump 's son-in-law was wearing a suit and tie and appeared to be headed to work at the White House

Federal investigators are focusing on Kushner, a senior advisor to the president, as part of their election probe, a Thursday report said

Jared and his wife Ivanka, not pictured, have just returned from Rome, where they lingered an extra day beyond the president's trip before returning home to Washington

Democrats used the revelation to call for him to be stripped of his his security clearance.

'The FBI's Russia investigation reached Trump's backyard, and now it's in his house,' the Democratic National Committee said in a statement. 'Kushner's security clearance should be suspended until the FBI's findings are complete.'

Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Kushner at that time, the Post reported.

The paper reported last week that a senior White House advisor close to the president was a focus of the probe, but declined to identify Kushner.

In looking at Kushner, investigators are now setting their sights on someone who Trump has made indispensable to his White House, entrusting him with tasks ranging from Middle East Peace to Saudi arms deals and China relations.

A fellow real estate developer like Trump, Kushner is also married to Ivanka Trump, herself a White House advisor. They returned to Washington from Rome on Thursday after lingering a night longer than the US president did to take a tour of the city and visit the Pantheon.

At a White House briefing in Italy on Friday, National Economic Advisor Gary Cohn declined to comment on the president's confidence in Kushner as his chief negotiator and envoy, as Kushner was characterized by a reporter, or provide an opinion of his own, in light of the FBI investigation revelation.

'I'll cut you off right now, because we're here at the G7 working on the G7 with the president, serving him in that capacity,' Cohn said, 'So we're not gonna, I have nothing to say there.'

Kushner was revealed to have met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December while he pulling double duty as an advisor to the president and head of his family real estate company.

He also met with the head of a top Russian bank, reportedly at Kislyak's urging, after discussing ways to set up a channel of communications to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

NBC reported that investigators believe Kushner has 'significant information' that would be relevant, which doesn't mean they suspect him with wrongdoing.

One of Kushner's attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation.

'Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry,' she said.

A fellow real estate developer like Trump, Kushner is also married to Ivanka Trump, herself a White House advisor

Trump last week at a press conference denied any collusion with the Russians, but also said he was speaking 'for myself.'

'There is no collusion between, certainly myself and my campaign  but I can always speak for myself  and the Russians  zero,' Trump said.

Previous reports have indicated a focus on campaign officials and Trump associates who are no longer there.

Investigators also focusing on fired national security aide Mike Flynn and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort.

The probe is being led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. The president has cited Comey's poor performance and his handling of the Clinton email investigation, but he also said the FBI's Russia probe was on his mind when he made the decision.

Authorities are probing meetings Kushner had with top Russian officials during the presidential transition, when Kushner became known as a top facilitator for foreign governments looking to make contacts to the new administration. He is seen taking party in a bilateral meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Wednesday

Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Kushner at that time, according to reports that surfaced late on Thursday

In looking at Kushner, investigators are now looking at someone who Trump has made indispensable to his White House, entrusting him with tasks ranging from Middle East Peace to Saudi arms deals and China relations

In Italy, after staying back with Ivanka for a night after the President departed, the couple enjoyed a romantic date to the Pantheon while crowds of onlookers were held back by police

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement in response to the Post's story last week about the focus on a senior White House official: 'As the President has stated before  a thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity.'

Following his meeting with Kislyak during the transition, Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, president of Russia's largest state-owned commercial bank, CNN reported in March.

The bank has been under U.S. sanctions for three years. Gorkov got promoted to his post as chairman of VneshEconomBank, or VEB, by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gorkov graduated from the Russian academy of Federal Security Service, which trains people to serve in the FSB, Russia's security service.

The bank said in a statement to CNN that the company met with Kushner in his business role, not in his role as a Trump advisor.

'During 2016 the bank's management repeatedly met with representatives of the world's leading financial institutions in Europe, Asia and America ... including the head of Kushner Companies, Jared Kushner,' the bank said.

President Donald Trump (L) of the United States and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Paul Manafort, advisor to Donald Trump, is seen on the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 19, 2016

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters in Moscow in March that the Kremlin was not aware of the meeting between Kushner and Sergey Gorkov, head of Russia's Vnesheconombank at the time and that it was routine.

The bank said in a statement the conversation was about the practices of 'foreign development banks and promising trends.'

VBN held meetings on the topic on three continents with the heads of financial institutions and large businesses, the statement said. Gorkov met with Kushner because he was in charge of a major real estate company, the bank claimed.

Kushner joins a handful of other top Trump figures under scrutiny for their Russia ties.

Flynn made a 2015 to Moscow where he got paid $45,000 by RT, plus hotel and other costs, and got seated next to Putin at a banquet.

Investigators remain interested in former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, whose ties to a pro-Moscow Ukrainian political party drew scrutiny even while he was helping helm Trump's campaign.

Senate Intelligence Committee investigators are seeking documents from longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone.

Former campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page has said he will testify before a House Intelligence panel.

It was reported in April that the FBI got a federal court order to monitor Page's communications as part of its investigation.

In April, it was disclosed that the FBI had obtained a federal court order last summer to monitor Page's communications as part of its investigation into possible collusion between the campaign and Russia.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores told the paper: 'I can't confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations.'

Flynn was also present during Kushner's meeting with Kislyak. Flynn ultimately got fired for failing to disclose the contents of his conversations to Vice President Mike Pence. It was reported that Flynn spoke to Kislyak about U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia.
A cheeky flock of egrets forged an unlikely friendship with some zebras by hitching a ride on their backs at a reserve in South Africa.

The birds 'love' travelling with the stripey animals at Rietvlei Nature Reserve as it allows them to scout out hidden insects on the ground to feed on.

Photographer Richard Du Toit, 54, says the zebras don't mind the birds perching on their back and sometimes let them stay there for up to 15 minutes.

A flock of egrets forged an unlikely friendship with some zebras as they hitched a ride on their backs at a reserve in South Africa

The birds 'love' riding on the back of the stripey animals at Rietvlei Nature Reserve as it allows them to scout out hidden insects on the ground to feed on

Photos show the egrets squabbling for space, while the zebra turns around to inspect its new passenger.

Mr Du Toit, of George, South Africa, said: 'The cattle egrets often feed in close proximity to large grazing mammals such as zebra.

'They follow the zebras on the ground and catch grasshoppers and other insects the zebras disturb. It's a good way for the birds to find these hidden insects.

'Quite often the egrets also land on the backs of the zebras, mainly as a useful perch.

'It is common behaviour - egrets do sit on other animals but I have never found a better place to see this behaviour. In Rietvlei the egrets just love riding on zebras.

Photographer Richard Du Toit, 54, says the zebras don't mind the birds perching on their back and sometimes let them stay there for up to 15 minutes

He added that the egrets get territorial over their zebra back space and can squabble if they have to share

'Mostly the zebras are OK with a bird on their backs but occasionally they hate it.

'Each zebra would normally have only one egret who would ride on its back for a few minutes.

'If another bird landed a fight could break out - in one photo you can see the birds contesting the perch. An egret loves to have its own private zebra perch!

'They generally perch for a few moments before dropping to the ground to feed, but sometimes they may ride for up to 15 minutes or so.'
This is the adorable moment a four-month-old baby tried bacon for the first time.

Sleepy Riley Smith was acting grumpy as she sat in her car seat, so her mother Melissa from Union City, Georgia, tried a fool proof mood-booster.

Melissa placed an enticing piece of crispy bacon in front of her daughter, and the hungry baby took a few tentative tastes before her eyes widened in glee.

She gazed at the morsel with adoration as she gently stroked Melissa's hand, perhaps as a gesture of thanks for holding the food while she ate.

A now infatuated Riley was angered when Melissa tried to take the delicious rasher away.

Four-month-old Riley Smith, pictured, was acting grumpy as she sat in her car seat, so her mother Melissa from Union City, Georgia, tried a fool proof mood-booster

She made a last-minute grab with her tiny fist to keep the precious pig close, but Melissa managed to prise it from her baby's grasp.

Melissa said: 'I knew Riley would love bacon as everyone else in the family does.

'We were on our way to her big sister's field day and she was getting sleep fussy so I thought it might help.

'She carried on until I took it away and almost ripped it out of my hand.

'She does love food in general and when we let her lick ice cream, she almost took my finger off.'
PORTLAND, Ore.  Dozens of Native American tribes in six Western states expressed outrage Thursday at President Trump's proposed budget cuts to American Indian programs, saying they would erase significant progress on child welfare and climate change and gut social services and education on reservations across the U.S.

Members from tribes in Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Idaho and Alaska called on Congress to restore funding to tribes during budget negotiations. The cuts ignore the treaty responsibilities to federally recognized tribes, they said, and put a stranglehold on programs that have been chronically underfunded.

Coalter Baker, a spokesman with the White House's Office of Management and Budget, did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

"This is the single largest attack on Indian Country that we've experienced in recent history. There is no doubt that the president has made a statement toward Indian County," said Mel Sheldon, a councilman with the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state. "It is not a good statement."

The proposed budget would slash $64 million in federal Native American funding for education, $21 million for law enforcement and safety, $27 million for natural resources management programs run by tribes plus $23 million from human services, which includes the Indian Child Welfare Act, said Carina Miller, a councilwoman with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, in Oregon.

It would also eliminate funding for tribal work on climate change and cut block grant programs that provide housing assistance for Native Americans, she added.

Eliminating $10 million for a program that helps tribes prepare for and deal with rapid environmental change would be particularly harmful, said Fawn Sharp, president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest have identified so-called "climate resiliency" as a top priority, said Sharp, who is also a member of the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington state.

"The reality is, is that's how we lived. The indigenous way of thinking is you're stewards of the land," said Miller.

Cutting the funding will negatively "affect the actions of projects and our ability to rehabilitate the environment," she added.

The leaders spoke at a three-day convention of Native American leaders in Portland, Oregon attended by representatives from 57 tribes.

The proposed budget was the topic of a session attended by 300 tribal members.
Donald Trump told European leaders that the Germans are 'very bad' on trade, but he did not call them 'evil,' as previously reported, a White House official says.

Trump's chief economic advisor confirmed Friday that Trump complained to EU leaders about about the trade surplus between the US and Germany.

His comments to EU Council head Donald Tusk and EU President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels were mischaracterized by a German publication, though, Trump's economic chief, Gary Cohn says.

Juncker has also disavowed the report that used a translation of Trump's remark that was harsher than what officials in the room say the US president had conveyed.

Trump, pictured with President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, heading into a meeting at the EU Council building in Brussels, shared frustrations about Germany's trade surplus on Thursday, the White House admits

Trump's chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, says the presient did not claim the Germans are evil, as was reported, though. Cohn, center, is pictured at the meeting where Trump made the remark

LOST IN TRANSLATION: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also tried to slap down the bad translation - but a tweet he sent was unclear and added to the confusion

Spicer made it sound like the report was false, and Trump never said Germany was 'bad' on trade. Cohn clarified later that Trump did say that - it's the translation of bad to evil that the White House is disputing

The German magazine that reported the exchange claimed that Trump said, 'The Germans are bad, very bad.' It used the word bose - which can also translate as nasty or evil.

'Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US, and we'll stop that,' Trump is said to have promised.

Juncker defended the Germans and highlighted the merits of free trade for the global economy, a source at the meeting told Der Spiegel.

The EU official told Reuters today that Der Spiegel's translation was off.

'The record has to be set straight,' he said. 'It's not true that the president took an aggressive approach when it came to the German trade surplus.'

Juncker told the wire service that Trump merely reiterated the fact that the US 'has a problem with the German surplus.'

'So he was not aggressive at all,' Juncker added.

Cohn admitted Friday that Trump had opined on the topic - but the White House official insisted the remark was related strictly to trade and the word he used was 'bad,' not 'evil.'

'He said they're very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany,' Gary Cohn, director of the national economic council, admitted. 'He said, "I don't have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade." '

Cohn says Trump also noted that his father, Fred Trump, was from Germany during the conversation that the White House official says was not a full-scale assault on the US ally that Trump' spent Friday in talks with.

Trump is seen arriving at his meeting on Monday where he said, 'The Germans are bad, very bad' on trade

Trump (L) told the President of the European Council Donald Tusk (C) and the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (R) he was going to stop Germans importing cars

The White House's initial response to the report was to say it was 'not true.'

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sent out Reuters' report Friday on Twitter in response to a reporter who'd highlighted the Der Spiegel report and the translation issue.

'Except it's not true: Juncker says Trump was not aggressive on German trade surplus,' Spicer tweeted.

His phrasing made it seem like the White House was disputing the report in its entirety. The tweet set off alarms because Spicer wasn't in the meeting, as Politico reported. He and his deputy were seen sitting in a Belgian cafe at the time of the talks.

SON-IN-LAW FACES FBI RUSSIA PROBE The US Presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is being investigated by the FBI as part of a probe into Russias alleged hand in the US election, it emerged yesterday. The inquiries into one of Donald Trumps most trusted advisers places the investigation closer than ever to the White House  and the Trump family. The Washington Post and NBC quoted US officials as saying Ivanka Trumps husband was facing FBI scrutiny. Agents are said to be focusing on his December meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and a Moscow bank boss. There is no suggestion investigators suspect Mr Kushner, 36, of any wrongdoing. Advertisement

Reporters in the room at the start of the meeting had established that Cohn was, however, and he was asked half hour after Spicer's tweet to clarify Der Spiegel's report.

At a press briefing later in the day, Cohn was asked for comment a second time.

That time he said: 'I think those comments were not from the president, and I think many of those comments have been retracted or redacted or been withdrawn. The person who made those comments says he didn't make those comments, I think it may have been withdrawn.'

The White House official appeared to be referring to the Reuters report and Juncker's walk back of the Der Spiegel reporting.

He told another reporter who asked about the incident, 'You're taking potential statements from a third party, who claimed that he didn't make the statements, out of context.

'So, I'm not gonna comment on a comment of a comment of a comment. It was withdrawn.'

Trump reportedly pulled no punches when he went on the offensive about the USA's $65 billion goods trade deficit with Germany during the Thursday conversation with Tusk and Juncker in Brussels.

The United States had a $65 billion goods trade deficit with Germany, a G7 member, in 2016, the third-largest negative balance after a $347 billion deficit with China and a $69 billion shortfall with Japan, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Data from Germany's Federal Statistics Office on Monday showed that exports to the United States jumped eight percent on the year in the first quarter, to nearly 14 billion euros, signaling that trade is flourishing despite President Trump's protectionist rhetoric.

The US can't negotiate a deal with a single member state of the EU, such as Germany, and must negotiate with the bloc as a whole. Nevertheless, Trump singled out Germany in the talks as a country that the US has a trade problem with.

Later in the day Trump (right, next to US Defense Secretary, James Mattis, 2nd right) met with NATO leaders and repeated calls for members of the military alliance to pay more, saying that payments must make up for 'the years lost.'

Trump spoke at the summit, where he accused members of owing 'massive amounts of money', saying it was 'not fair to the people and tax payers of the United States'

Cohn told reporters Friday that the president knows he can't negotiate a separate trade deal with Germany.

'That's widely, widely understood,' Cohn confirmed after a reporter suggested he maybe didn't.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his frustration over Germany's successful exports, compared to America's, and has proposed ways to even the playing field without violating the United States' trade agreement with the EU.

In January, for instance, Trump threatened to impose a 35 per cent import tax on BMWs assembled in Mexico to encourage manufacturers to move to the US.

'If you want to build cars in the world, then I wish you all the best. You can build cars for the United States, but for every car that comes to the USA, you will pay 35 percent tax,' Trump told German tabloid Bild.

'I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 percent tax, then you can forget that,' Trump said.
A South Carolina man was awarded nearly $20,000 after he was attacked by a pit bull last year.

Alfredo Cerrato-Ardon was reportedly attacked by Maria Rivera's dog outside the Simmons Cay apartments in Bluffton in February 2016.

A jury determined that Rivera failed to restrain her dog as it attacked Cerrato-Ardon, according to the Island Packet.

A jury ordered Maria Rivera to pay $19,200 for failing to restrain her pit bull (file image) as it reportedly attacked Alfredo Cerrato-Ardon last year outside an apartment complex in South Carolina

The verdict in Cerrato-Ardon's lawsuit against Rivera came May 19 in the Beaufort Court of Common Pleas.

According to the lawsuit, the attack caused serious injuries to several areas of Cerrato-Ardon's body, including his right upper extremity and right lower extremity, causing pain, medical expenses, lost wages and other damages.

The lawsuit alleged that Cerrato-Ardon arrived at the complex on the day of the attack to meet with his co-worker. He claimed the dog attacked him when he got there.

Rivera said Cerrato-Ardon was not attacked, but that her dog bit him on the wrist when Cerrato-Ardon struck him and that she restrained the pit bull.

'My dog and I were at the construction site. I was trying to get my dog restrained as Mr. Cerrato was walking too close behind me, and my dog saw him, walked up to smell him and Mr. Cerrato lifted his hand up to strike my dog, and that's when my dog bit him on the wrist,' Rivera claimed in a statement

Despite her claims, Rivera was ordered to pay $19,200.
Secret letters from a Russian duchess who escaped the royal family's mass execution in 1918 show her hatred of the British for not doing enough to save them.

Tsar Nicholas II - who was related to the British royal family - was executed along with his wife and children in 1918 following the Russian Revolution the year before.

His younger sister, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, penned 52 letters to her sister Xenia during this time - providing a chilling insight into the perilous existence of the Romanovs, the last Russian royal family.

She wrote that the Allies were 'all words no actions' and had not done enough to protect her beloved family from 'cold-blooded devils,' in a letter from January 1919.

Secret letters from Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (pictured) show her hatred of the British for not doing enough to save her family, the Romanovs, from execution

Tsar Nicholas II - who was related to the British royal family - was executed along with his wife and children (all pictured) in 1918 following the Russian Revolution the year before

At the time Olga was still in Russia under the protection of the White Army and Xenia was in exile in Crimea.

Olga wrote: 'This life of waiting, uncertainty and horrors will go on for at least a year or two.

'I nearly hate the Allies. When will they help - or won't they. All words and no actions. No tanks yet here - nothing that can help us.'

In another letter she lambasted the 'devils' who slaughtered her 'beloved' family.

She wrote: 'I try to squash the idea: If really those devils could, in cold blood, kill all those innocent people. They have done the same with the beloved family. Oh no! No! it can't be.'

She wrote that the Allies were 'all words no actions' and had not done enough to protect her beloved family from 'cold-blooded devils' in a letter from January 1919

She wrote: 'I try to squash the idea: If really those devils could, in cold blood, kill all those innocent people. They have done the same with the beloved family. Oh no! No! it can't be'

The letters were written mostly in English to get past the censors since the entire Romanov family lived in constant fear of assassination by Bolshevik forces.

After the First World War, the British and French joined the Russian Civil War in support of the anti-Bolshevik White Army, but could not save the Romanovs from execution.

Nicholas II was overthrown during the revolution and he and his family were sent to exile in Siberia.

But they were murdered by Bolshevik troops in a basement in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on July 17, 1918, bringing an end to the 300 year old Romanov dynasty.

In April 1919, with the Red Army approaching the Crimea, King George V sent the British warship HMS Marlborough to the area which brought Xenia to England.

Olga escaped Russia with her second husband and their two sons in February 1920 and settled in Denmark.

At the time Olga was still in Russia under the protection of the White Army and Xenia was in exile in Crimea. Pictured left with her husband Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky in their living room in 1941 and right, in her nurse's uniform in 1914

The first batch of letters were written from Kiev where Olga worked as a nurse (pictured) caring for wounded First World War soldiers between 1915 and 1917

The collection of letters have belonged to the grandson of Olga who has now decided to put them on the market and they are tipped to sell for 100,000.

DEATH OF A DYNASTY Nicholas II abdicated his throne in 1917 as revolution swept Russia. He and his family were placed under house arrest in Tsarskoe Selo, then evacuated to Tobolsk in the Urals in August that year. The Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917 and by March 1918 the family were forced to live on soldier's rations. The next month, the Red Army moved the Romanovs to Yekaterinburg. There were plans to put Nicholas on trial, but these were scuppered when the city became the target of the rival anti-communist White Army. The Bolsheviks decided to shoot the entire family on July 17 so they could not be rescued by the White Army. They woke them, told them to get dressed and pretended they were being moved from Yekaterinburg away from the oncoming battle. They were shot in a basement and their bodies buried in a pit near the city. Their remains were reburied in 1998 by the Russian government, who gave them a state funeral. Advertisement

Mark Falco, auctioneer at William Gerorge & Co, of Peterborough, Cambs, who is selling the letters, said: 'With the advent of the centenary of the revolution in Russia, the shooting of Tsar Nicholas and the end of the First World War, these letters are important and tell the vital story of the Romanov family in this turbulent time.

'It is fascinating to be able to offer such remarkable pieces of history like this which provide such a detailed personal account of events of such significance.

'The correspondence of 52 letters gives a real snapshot into the events happening over a number of years and the end of the story only makes these more chilling to the reader.'

The first batch of letters were written from Kiev where Olga worked as a nurse caring for wounded First World War soldiers between 1915 and 1917.

She then fled to the Crimea with her second husband, cavalry officer Nikolai Kulikovsky.

In 1948, feeling threatened by Joseph Stalin's regime which had invaded a Danish island, Olga emigrated to a farm in Ontario, Canada. She died in 1960.

Nicholas' mother, Dagmar, was the sister of Queen Alexandra who married Edward VII in 1863.

Their second son, George, Prince of Wales, was Nicholas' cousin. The auction finishes on Sunday.
Donald Trump took a moment away from diplomacy on Friday to do what he does best: troll the media about an election result.

'Great win in Montana,' he told a group of pool reporters as he strolled past them in the Sicilian town of Taormina, where this weekend's G7 summit is underway.

No one had asked the president about Thursday night's controversial election that saw Greg Gianforte win a seat in Congress despite physically assaulting a reporter 24 hours before.

Gianforte used his victory speech to apologize to the American journalist, The Guardian's famously mild-mannered Ben Jacobs, for body-slamming him to the ground and breaking his eyeglasses.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

President Donald Trump (left) trolled reporters following him around in Italy with a quick snark  'Great win in Montana'  a reference to a congressional election victory by Greg Gianforte (right), a Republican who assaulted a reporter the night before polls opened

Gianforte was charged with assault after 'body-slamming' Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. The incident quickly gained traction when Jacobs tweeted about it only a few moments later

Trump is in the Sicilian town of Taormina attending a G7 summit with heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the European Commission and the European Council

'Last night, I made a mistake and I took an action that I can't take back and I'm not proud of what happened,' Gianforte told supporters at his campaign headquarters in Bozeman, Montana.

When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it,' he said.

Jacobs had sought out Gianforte to interview him about health care policy and held his smartphone near the Republican candidate's face to record his responses.

That's when Gianforte snapped  with audio rolling. Democrats used the recording, which The Guardian published hours later, as the backdrop for a series of eleventh-hour campaign attack ads, but to no avail.

Jacobs, an American who works for the British 'Guardian' newspaper, was taken to a hospital after the attack and is declining to accept money raised to buy him new glasses

'I should not have responded the way that I did, and for that I am sorry,' Gianforte said Thursday night. 'I should not have treated the reporter that way.'

Thursday's election was a one-off exercise to replace former Rep. Ryan Zinke, who left Congress to become U.S. Secretary of the Interior.

Political wags came to view the contest as a referendum on Trump's leadership, with Democrats desperate to find a straw in the wind that might encourage their base to believe they have a shot at retaking the House from the GOP next year.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday night that Gianforte's behavior was 'outrageous' and called him a 'wannabee Trump' whose default is to 'use language like that, treat people harshly like that  that's his model. Donald Trump's his model.'

Gianforte's supporters laughed Thursday night as he addressed how he flew off the handle, and shouted: 'We forgive you!' as he made his apology.

Gianforte won 50.2 percent of the vote while folk singer Rob Quist took 44.1 per cent

Susan Gianforte offered a wide smile as she celebrated with her husband on Thursday night

In the recording, Gianforte can be heard screaming: 'Get the hell outta here!' after knocking the journalist to the ground.

Jacobs, incredulous, replies: 'You just broke my glasses!'

But in the chaotic hours following the assault, Gianforte's campaign released a statement blaming Jacobs for the entire affair.

'Jacobs was asked to leave,' the statement said about Wednesday night's incident. 'After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face.

'Jacobs grabbed Greg's wrist and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground.'

'It's unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene at our campaign volunteer BBQ,' the statement concluded.

During his concession speech, Democratic candidate Rob Quist said: 'I know that Montanans will hold Mr Gianforte accountable'

Officials say more than half of the ballots were cast by mail before Election Day. Montana law does not permit voters to change their minds.

A country sheriff charged Gianforte with misdemeanor assault late Wednesday night. He has until June 7 to appear before a judge. The charge carries a possible six months in jail and a $500 fine.

The sheriff decided not to charge him with a more serious felony based on a lack of serious visible injuries when Jacobs received medical attention.

Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert told The Missoulian that he plans to review that decision.

Jacobs told 'Good Morning America' on Thursday that he was taking 'a lot of Advil' as a result of the attack.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised $3,000 so far, officially to 'help Ben Jacobs buy new glasses.'

He is refusing to accept the money, asking the organizer to convert it into a donation to the Society to Protect Journalists instead.
A Math teacher used his cellphone to snap provocative photographs of two seventh grade girls from under their skirts, police say.

Matthew Laurence Walker, 28, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with five counts of invasion of personal privacy while working at the Brixner Junior High School in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

The incident has alarmed the school district and the Superintendent, Greg Thede, said the school is doing 'everything' to ensure students are protected.

'Were going to do everything we can to make sure this doesnt happen again,' said Thede.

'Safety is our number one priority for students and of staff and were going to do everything we can to be diligent in that regard.'

Matthew Laurence Walker, 28, (pictured) allegedly used his cellphone to take inappropriate photos of two seventh grade girls from under their skirts

He has been charged with five counts of invasion of personal privacy while working at the Brixner Junior High School in Klamath Falls, Oregon (pictured)

The girls reported the case to the school on Monday morning and police issued a search warrant for Walker the next day.

Walter, who has refused to publicly comment on the allegations, was then arrested and placed in the Klamath Falls County Jail. He was released on Wednesday after paying ten percent of his bail which was set at $25,000.

Thede says the school has put him on administrative leave, which means that he will still continue to be paid.
Arrested: Fred Urey, 39, allegedly flew an 18-25-year-old woman from Canada to the US for 'modelling work' then restrained and raped her for five days until she was saved

A man who promised to pay a young Canadian woman to model for him kidnapped and sexually assaulted her for five days before deputies tracked them down and freed her, police said.

Fred Russell Urey, 39, allegedly promised the woman $15,000 for modelling work then kidnapped her after she arrived at his South Carolina home.

She was eventually freed by deputies on Wednesday - but not before she had leaped through a plate glass window to escape Urey, who then threatened to kill himself, the Independent Mail reported.

The woman, who is not being named, had been told that Urey was a photographer and wanted to hire her for standard modeling work - with no sex or nudity, police said.

They believe he paid for her flight to Atlanta airport, where he collected her on May 18 and drove her to his home of Norris, South Carolina, 140 miles away.

For the first two days the pair scouted locations around the area while the woman stayed in a local hotel, said Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark.

But on the third day Urey took her back to his trailer, at which point he allegedly immediately restrained the woman, threatened her and her family, and repeatedly sexually assaulted her.

She was forced to engage in bondage, oral sex and sexual intercourse, WSPA reported.

Engaged: Urey's Facebook page says he got engaged in 2016. His relationship to this woman (who isn't the victim) and the kids is unclear. Urey is believed to be the sole perpetrator of the attacks, which ended when cops tracked the girl down to his home on Wednesday, police said

The abuse continued for five days, police said, with Urey allowing her to contact her family using FaceTime and cell phone only under his supervision.

Nevertheless, the woman was able to silently mouth that she was in danger and give clues about her location to her family, who could see she was scared, WYFF 4 reported.

She even took secret snapshots of her location to send them to family and friends - who passed on information to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Clark said.

The Mounties were able to track her cell phone, and that information was then passed on to local police.

Clark said that cell phone records and social media were used to track the pair across three counties for much of Wednesday, always just a few minutes behind them.

But at around 10:30pm Wednesday they tracked Urey down to his trailer - at which point, Clark said, 'she came busting out of a plate glass window.'

Deputies say they went in and found Urey in a back bedroom - where he initially threatened to cut his own throat with a knife but was taken in alive shortly after.

The victim has been discharged from hospital and is 'receiving help from us and waiting for her parents,' Clark said. Her grandparents are also flying in.

Urey has been charged with kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and possession of meth with intent to sell.

He is currently jailed in Pickens County Detention Center. He is expected to go before a judge today.

Suicidal: The girl leaped through a plate glass window to escape but has been released from hospital. Urey threatened to cut his own throat but gave himself up to police shortly after

He has a conviction for possession of methamphetamine on his record. No one else is suspected in the alleged kidnapping.

Police are now looking through web communications to see if there are any previous victims.

Photos on Urey's Facebook account show him with a woman and a pair of young children. His relationship to them is unclear.

In 2016, he posted a Facebook status saying he had become engaged.

Urey's landlord, Vernell Chappell, described him as a 'very quiet person.'

'He's been there quite a few years,' said one neighbor, Deloris Hughes. 'I've seen the law up there once before, but by looking at him you'd never know him to be that type of person. I wouldn't have dreamed that.'
Law enforcement officials in Kentucky are searching for two young sisters who went missing last week after attending the funeral of their slain father.

According to Allen County Sheriff's Office, the Department of Protection and Permanency took emergency custody of 13-year-old Jezzie Whitney and 11-year-old Cassie Whitney immediately after their father's memorial service, which was held on May 18 in Scottsville.

On the same day, the two sisters vanished. According to local authorities, it is believed Jezzie and Cassie are with their mother, 38-year-old Melissa Scott, who now has an active warrant out for her arrest.

Have you seen them? Authorities in Kentucky are searching for sisters Cassie Whitney, 11 (left), and Jezzie Whitney, 13 (right), who were last seen at their father's funeral on May 18

Person of interest: Officials believe the girls are with their mother, Melissa Scott (pictured together), who had custody of her daughters taken away from her last week

The sheriff's office says the siblings' father, 40-year-old Larry Whitney Jr, died last week after suffering what has been described as a knife wound to the chest at Melissa Scott's home.

Bowling Green Daily News reported that the incident took place shortly before 6.40am on May 16 in the 320 block of Bay Band Road.

First responders who were summoned to the scene transported Whitney to the Medical Center at Scottsville, where he was pronounced dead.

The victim's brother, Jerry Whitney, told the station WBKO that Larry and Melissa Scott had a turbulent relationship and claimed that his younger sibling, known in the family as 'lil Larry,' had suffered abuse at her hands.

Following Larry Whitneys death, Scott had her custody of her daughters revoked on an emergency order, according to the uncle.

Mystery death: Cassie and Jezzie's father, 40-year-old Larry Whitney Jr (right), was found fatally stabbed in Scott's home on May 16. The next day, the woman posted a photo of Whitney on Facebook that was inscribed with the words: 'I miss you all the time love'

Coincidence? Cassie and Jezzie disappeared on the day of their father's funeral, which was the same day Scott was stripped of their custody

I worry about their safety, Jerry Whitney said of his two nieces.

Online records indicate that he girls mother has a long history of run-ins with the law on charges that included DUI, marijuana possession and domestic assault.

Larry Whitney also had a vast criminal history spanning at least 18 years and covering charges, including domestic assault, aggravated assault, methamphetamine manufacturing, drug possession and public intoxication.

As of Friday morning, Scott has not been charged with Larry Whitney's death, or named a suspect.

Dark past: Melissa Scott (pictured in mugshots above) has a lengthy criminal record, having been arrested over the years on charges of DUI, marijuana possession and domestic assault

Her final Facebook message, dated May 17 - a day after Whitney's death - included his photo in a floral border with the inscription: 'I miss you all the time love.'

Scott and Whitneys daughter Cassie is described as 4 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 112lbs with brown hair and brown eyes. Sister Jezzie is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing 197lbs with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on the childrens whereabouts is being asked to contact the Allen County Sheriff's Office at (270) 237-3210.
A Muslim man is suing Little Caesars for $100 million claiming they served him pizza that was labeled 'halal' when it was actually pepperoni made with pork.

Mohamad Bazzi filed the lawsuit on Thursday saying he ordered the halal pizza from Little Caesars in Dearborn, Michigan but claims they served him pork on two occasions.

He claims he was 'sick to his stomach' after realizing he had accidentally eaten the pork pepperoni when he had ordered halal, which means it shouldn't contain pork and be prepared in a way that follows Islamic law.

Mohamad Bazzi is suing Little Caesars for $100 million claiming they served him pizza that was labeled 'halal' when it was actually pepperoni made with pork. Pictured above is a Little Caesars halal pepperoni pizza

The lawsuit stated the first incident happened on March 20 and that Bazzi and his wife were halfway through eating the pizza when they realized it was not halal, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Bazzi claims he knew the pepperoni was pork because he used to work in a pizza shop and knows the difference.

He also said his wife was a Catholic who converted to Islam and could taste that it was pork.

They filed a police report three days later, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday claiming he ordered the halal pizza from Little Caesars in Dearborn, Michigan but says they served him pork on two occasions

The second incident happened on Wednesday, which prompted them to file a lawsuit the following day.

Bazzi's attorney Majed Moughni said he rushed to file the lawsuit on Thursday - the eve of Ramadan - so other Muslims wouldn't mistakenly eat pork from the restaurant chain during the holiday.

He said eating pork for a Muslim was 'one of the worst sins you can do'.

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, alleges breach of contract on Little Caesars' part, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment and fraud.
A discarded Coke can left at the scene of a 2005 break-in helped authorities catch the culprit behind a $200,000 jewellery heist that happened five years later.

Alex William Laycock, 33, pleaded guilty to three break-ins in the Shepparton County Court on Thursday.

Victoria Police collected three pieces of DNA evidence over several years that led them to discover the perpetrator of the 2010 heist, Fairfax Media reports.

Laycock first broke into a Shepparton worksite in March 2005 and stole tools and money worth around $600.

A discarded Coke can left at the scene of a 2005 break-in helped authorities catch the culprit behind a $200,000 jewellery heist that happened five years later

Prosecutors said he stopped to smash open a vending machine and drink a can of Coca-Cola mid-burglary.

A month later, he left blood on a fence when he burgled a hardware store.

Five years later, in the early hours of February 27, 2010, he broke into the Thomas Jewellers store through the roof.

After using a rope to make his way down to the shop floor, Laycock made off with $192, 837 worth of jewellery, including gold bracelets.

It wasnt until 2014 that the three crimes were connected, Detective Gary Dean told the court.

There was a sample of DNA evidence left at the scene of the heist - but it didnt match any criminals in the police database.

A year later, Laycock was jailed for a different crime and ordered to submit a DNA sample.

Laycock stole almost $200,000 worth of jewellery from Thomas Jewellers (pictured) in 2010

There were delays in submitting the sample, but the DNA eventually tied him to all three burglaries.

Laycocks lawyer said his client turned to crime to feed his heroin and methamphetamine habits.

Solicitor Chris Edwards told the judge that Laycock had sold the jewellery he stole shortly after the heist, but couldnt recall how much he made.

He added that Laycock has worked full-time since last year and had kicked his drug habit after a methadone program.

He urged the judge to give Laycock a suspended sentence.

Judge Mark Gamble set a sentencing date for June 2. Laycock was remanded in custody until then.
The US government takes 'full responsibility' for the leaks about the Manchester bombing probe, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today said.

He said that 'all across America, hearts are broken' at the terror attack, which slaughtered 22 innocent victims and injured another 119 more.

America's top diplomat flew in to London for his first official visit to show solidarity in the wake of the attack and repair relations after the damaging leaks.

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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Boris Johnson in London today where he said the American government takes full responsibility for the damaging leaks

British police took the highly unusual step of temporarily breaking off intelligence sharing with the US after key details about their investigation - including killer Salman Abedi's identity and crime scene photos - were leaked to the US press.

Mr Tillerson tried to set the Special Relationship back on track meeting with Boris Johnson in London today.

At a joint press conference with the Foreign Secretary, he said: 'We take full responsibility for that and we obviously regret that that happened,' Tillerson said.

'With respect to the release of information inappropriately ... certainly we condemn that.'

Mr Tillerson said he expected the close security relationship between the United States and Britain to withstand the leaks.

He said: 'This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event.'

Mr Johnson and Mr Tillerson greeted each other warmly before holding a press conference in which the condemned the Manchester terror attack and praised the resilience of the city

The two men both signed a book of condolence to the victims of the Manchester terror attack

His comments come as Theresa May and Donald Trump met at the G7 summit in Sicily today.

Theresa May and Boris Johnson met together at the G7 summit, where they broke off from the other world leaders to hold one on one talks about the fight against terrorism

The two leaders broke away from other world leaders to hold one to one talks where they talked about the fight against terrorism and ISIS,

THE LEAKS TO THE AMERICAN PRESS Crucial details about the attack, including that 22 people were killed and that it was a suicide bombing, were leaked to the American media NBC and CBS. The name of the killer, Salman Abedis, was reported on US breakfast television at least six hours before the British authorities confirmed it. Secret British analysis revealing that the suicide bomb was a sophisticated device was leaked to NBC. The Politico website reported that the suicide bombers brother, Ismail Abedi, had been arrested as part of a series of police swoops on suspects. US security officials briefed NBC News that Abedi had ties to Al Qaeda and had received terrorist training abroad, according to a report in The same official told the new channel that the 22 year-old killer had been identified by a bank card found in his pocket at the scene after the explosion. The New York Times ran forensic photographs of the crime scene including the bombers charred backpack which carried the bomb had been carried in, and the nuts and bolts used for shrapnel which the explosive was stuffed with. ABC News reported that police discovered a bomb-making factory inside Abedis home in Manchester. Advertisement

Mr Johnson spoke of how he was 'struck by how often our international friends and supporters have mentioned not so much the crime as the response - the acts of instinctive kindness by people in Manchester'.

He said the people of Manchester had shown in 'their unity and their determination' that it is 'by coming together that we can beat this scourge'.

'I think that the people of Manchester are showing the way for the world and we've seen again today what's happened to innocent people in Egypt as a result of this challenge that we all face, this affliction that we all face together.'

He thanked Mr Tillerson for visiting the UK in an 'instinctive act of solidarity' between the states.

Mr Johnson and Mr Tillerson signed a condolence book at the Foreign Secretary's official residence in London, after holding talks on a range of foreign policy issues including the security threat posed by Syria, Iran and North Korea.

They both pledged to continue to 'stand together' and cooperate on fighting terrorism - including sharing intelligence.

British politicians , police and security officials were left horrified when crucial pieces of information about the police probe were leaked to the American press within hours.

The US media reported the death toll of 22 and that the attack had been a suicide bombing before this was confirmed to the British media.

Security officials also leaks the killer's name and the fact that his brother, Ismail Abedi, had been arrested.

But the most shocking leak was a a series of forensic photographs taken at the murder scene which were splashed across the pages of the New York Times.

This included the charred remains of the killer's rucksack, and the nuts and bolts which were stuffed inside the bomb.

Commentators said the pictures were extremely insensitive to the families of those killed, who would not have been shown them.
With construction on the $5.6 million Gateway Vista affordable apartments set to begin in two weeks, YWCA Billings gathered donors and friends Thursday to shovel some ceremonial dirt and offer thanks for contributing $4.3 million to date.

Thanks for all your moral and financial support, as well as your expertise that got us this far, said Merry Lee Olson, YWCA Billings CEO.

She said efforts to close the funding gap are ongoing.

The 24-unit apartment building and accompanying offices and classrooms, which will be built by Dick Anderson Construction with completion slated for late summer 2018, will offer the victims of domestic violence and their children safe, affordable housing and on-site services including employment counseling, job training, child care, legal advocacy and clinical and financial counseling.

A sliding scale will be used to determine appropriate rents for each family, with some rents being subsidized for a few months.

Mike and Sherril Burke of HGFA Architects, who donated their design work for Gateway Vista, said their interest in the project stems from the current time limit of 120 days at YWCA Billings current facility, Gateway Shelter.

Once Gateway Vista is opened, residents will be able to stay there up to two years.

I had heard one too many times of people maxing out their stay (at Gateway Shelter), said Sherril Burke, the former board chair of YWCA Billings. Its not enough time to get their ship righted.

For me, she said following the brief ceremony, this has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

While state and congressional officials were not present, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock was in town Saturday and told Olson the project was incredibly important for the shelter and the life-giving support it will provide to vulnerable populations. Gateway Vista will allow families to take a breath, experience normalcy and look forward to a future where they can live and work safely.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said in a statement that the new apartments will help families "turn the page" and will provide them "the stability needed during their transition."

His Republican colleague in the Senate, Steve Daines, noted that sadly, there is such a great need to address the violence and abuse that women face. I am grateful to hear about all of the services that will be available to Gateway Vista tenants."

Mayor Tom Hanel said the Billings City Council "recognizes that affordable housing issues are a top concern, and that housing for special needs populations be given priority attention."

During 2016, YWCA Billings provided 8,000 shelter nights, answered and provided counseling 1,600 times, accompanied 83 rape victims and provided legal services to 87 people.
Police and counter-terrorism officials in Las Vegas are on alert after an ISIS propaganda video calling for lone wolf knife and truck attacks on the city's famed Strip has been deemed a credible threat.

The threat emerged last week in a sick 44-minute video from the terrorist group that showed footage of Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio Hotel and other icons from the casino row on South Las Vegas Boulevard.

Though the footage has been determined to be from 2015, authorities are taking no chances in the wake of the Manchester Arena massacre, and as the coming Memorial Day holiday weekend is expected to bring big crowds to The Strip.

'I think anytime somebody goes on the internet and makes a threat that they're going to conduct a lone-wolf or any type of attack, it's our responsibility to view it as a credible threat,' Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Christopher Darcy, who heads the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Bellagio Hotel is seen in an ISIS propaganda video urging lone wolf knife and truck attacks on the famed Las Vegas Strip. Authorities have deemed the video a credible threat

The video features a man identified by the terror group as Abu Hamza al-Amriki - al-Amriki meaning 'The American'

'It would be irresponsible not to take any threat as credible, especially when made by a group such as ISIS, who has in fact carried out attacks in the past,' Darcy said.

The terror propaganda video, released by ISIS on May 17, features extremist fighters from the US, Canada, the UK, Russia and Belgium, who call on Muslims living in the West to carry attacks on civilian targets.

The chilling ISIS threat video, unusually long for propaganda from the group, also features a man who appears to be American calling on lone wolf supporters to 'liberate' themselves and kill those who reject Islam by stabbing them, throwing them off buildings and driving cars into citizens.

As images of The Strip, as well as New York's Times Square and Washington DC, flash across the screen, ISIS spokesman Abu Al-Hassan Al-Muhajir is heard urging lone wolf attacks in America, Russia and Europe, according to an analysis of the video by the Middle East Research Institute.

'Know that our war with our enemy is an all out war and the interests of the enemy can be easily targeted,' read English subtitles to the screed in Arabic.

'Make sure they are preoccupied with their own safety, thus diverting their attention away from your Caliphate,' Al-Hassan says.

The speech exhorting violence plays over a song by the German rapper Deso Dogg, whose real name is Denis Cuspert, a known ISIS militant.

A night view of the Bellagio is seen in the terror video. The footage of Las Vegas is believed to be from 2015, but police are stepping up patrols ahead of the holiday weekend

'Know that our war with our enemy is an all out war and the interests of the enemy can be easily targeted,' read English subtitles to the screed in Arabic

Las Vegas police are stepping up patrols in light of the new threat, and urge vigilance from the community.

'Las Vegas continues to be an event destination  one of the world's greatest event destinations,' Darcy told the Review-Journal.

'We have to continue to maintain safety and (create) new ways to ensure the safety of the folks that are attending these events.'

The clip also shows footage of a weapons cache, including drones.

It features a man identified by the terror group as Abu Hamza al-Amriki - al-Amriki meaning 'The American'.

In the video, believed to have been made in Mosul, he is seen stating in English: 'America today is the one carrying the banner of the cross and waging war against Muslims.

The ISIS recruit is seen boasting about the group's weapons cache and called on lone wolf attacks in the US

He branded the US 'stupid' and 'foolish' while showing off weapons accrued and produced by ISIS

'It openly declares that its goal to wipe out Islamic State. May they fail and lose.'

He describes air strikes against ISIS targets as 'savage' saying thousands of women and children had been killed by US forces.

'Does it not pain you that your brothers, their honor has been violated and their bodies torn apart?

'Are you incapable of stabbing a (non believer) with a knife or throwing him off of a building or running him over with a car?

'Liberate yourself from hellfire by killing a (non believer). A (non believer) and his killer will not be joined together in hellfire'

He was shown showing off a cache of weapons, including rocket launchers and projectile missile launchers, which he claimed were US-manufactured.

'This demonstrates the stupidity and foolishness of the (Americans),' he said.
Roughly nine years after her home was rebuilt by designers with ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, a woman in Michigan is being forced to leave the home by Monday due to foreclosure.

Arlene Nickless appeared on the popular show in 2008 with her three young sons asking for help with her residence in Holt following the tragic death of her husband Tim Nickless.

Her husband of 18 years worked as a nurse at Ingham Regional Medical Center and was the sole provider for their family.

But he contracted hepatitis C after being pricked with a patient's contaminated needle. After fighting the disease for seven years, he passed away in January 2008.

Nickless then reached out to the crew with Extreme Makeover about the deteriorating household she was living in with her boys after her husband's death.

When the crew from the show arrived on scene, more than 1,600 volunteers from their community assisted in rebuilding the home that was an 1860s farmhouse.

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Heartbreaking: Arlene Nickless (left and right) appeared on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2008 with her three young sons asking for help with her residence in Holt following the tragic death of her husband Tim Nickless (right)

Nickless then reached out to the crew with Extreme Makeover about the deteriorating household she was living in with her three boys (pictured together above) after her husband's death

The family was living in Holt, Michigan in an 1860s farmhouse (above) that was deteriorating

During the show, the decades old home was demolished and after a roughly five-day building period, the mother and her boys moved into their brand new 3,300-square-foot residence (above)

During the show, the decades old home was demolished and after a roughly five-day building period, the mother and her boys moved into their brand new 3,300-square-foot residence.

It came complete with four bedrooms that had stone columns, dark wood floors, an indoor water wall and a retractable flat-screen TV.

Plus, one of the rooms was LEGO-themed, while another had blueprints covering the walls. Her youngest son's room even had an airplane bed.

But the mother-of-three struggled to pay the mortgage on the Eifert Road home and has to turn in the keys by Monday after it was foreclosed on in September.

'When I stepped out of the house the day Extreme Makeover came, you will see me say 'I can't believe this is happening,' she told the Detroit Free Press.

'And, truthfully, that's what I feel right now: I can't believe this is happening.'

More than 1,600 volunteers from their community (above) assisted in rebuilding the home along with the crew from the reality TV show

The family (above) was elated during the show seeing the progress of how their new home was being built. Once completed, it came complete with four bedrooms that had stone columns, dark wood floors, an indoor water wall and a retractable flat-screen TV

The before and after as seen on the episode

The before and after as seen on the episode

She explained that her home's foreclosure occurred due to several reasons.

One mainly being that she struggled to manage the property's pre-makeover mortgage, which was a $30,000 balance after the 2008 makeover. But that number increased to roughly $113,000 by the end of 2016.

Karen Schroeder, vice president for East Lansing-based Mayberry Homes, the general contractor for the home, told the Detroit Free Press that the home's annual taxes more than tripled from $2,000 in 2008 to $7,500 in 2009.

For the next several years, the increased taxes and insurance costs were paid for through an escrow account in the home's mortgage, but that increased her monthly mortgage payments.

Then, in 2010 she was involved in a car accident that caused her to fall behind on payments.

But the mother-of-three (pictured together above) struggled to pay the mortgage on the Eifert Road home and has to turn in the keys by Monday after it was foreclosed on in September. The family has to be out of the home by Monday

Shock and awe: Arlene's joy was clear on her face when she glimpsed her new home

Arlene tearfully hugged show host and leader Ty Pennington when she toured the new home

The property went to a sheriff's sale by the end of 2010, but she filed paperwork to stop the foreclosure the morning of the sale. The sheriff deed was expunged.

Nickless said at the time that her mortgage lender offered to pay off the balance if she could pay $15,000. As she was working to come up with the money, her mortgage was acquired by Ocwen Financial in 2011.

She continued to struggle with the loan for the next several years and tried mortgage affordability programs. However, the home's new equity disqualified her from those payment tracks.

In an effort to speak with someone from the mortgage company, Nickless claims that she could rarely get a representative on the phone who could speak English.

She claims she withheld her mortgage payments because she was unsure of where the money would end up.

Her oldest son, Aaron, pictured left, is now married and works as a skatepark manager. Her second son, Noah is pictured right

Her youngest son, Andrew, pictured, appears to still live in Holt, Michigan

'I was trying to find answers,' she told the Detroit Free Press.

She added that the information about Ocwen she found online was not encouraging.

The State of Michigan issued a cease and desist order last month prohibiting Ocwen Loan Servicing LL from continued violations of state mortgage law, the newspaper reported.

'Ocwen had a history of improper servicing and handling of escrow accounts, trouble keeping accurate records, and problems with properly crediting payments,' according to a press release.

The company called the claims 'unfounded'.

Nickless's home is currently valued at more than $275,000.

Ocwen spokesman John Lovallo told the newspaper in an email that Nickless has made no mortgage payment since the company began servicing her loan in 2011 and that the company has paid all taxes and insurance on her home.

Lovallo said that they offered her a modification in 2014, but she claimed the monthly payments of $1,650 would be too high.

Lovallo said Ocwen 'empathizes with any homeowner facing foreclosure, and is committed to working with distressed borrowers to find the right solution to allow them to keep their homes.'

Nickless's residence went to a foreclosure sale in September 2016 and sold for about $113,000.

She was unable to pull together the needed funds during the six-month redemption period and now the house is listed on the auction website hubzu.com for $176,000.

The family has to be out of the home by Monday.

'I feel bad because so many people came together to help us,' she told the newspaper. 'I know I shouldn't feel like I let them down, but I do.'
A 95-year-old physicist has revealed Donald Trump's efforts in the 1980s to be named to a U.S. diplomatic posting in Russia by touting his own negotiating efforts.

'He already had Russia mania in 1986, 31 years ago,' renowned cardiologist Bernard Lown told the Hollywood Reporter  in a story that places Trump's interest in Moscow decades before the present day.

Lown was one of the few Americans who had met Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev when he assumed power. The physician says Trump sought him out for a meeting and soon revealed his own interest in getting over to Moscow himself  as an emissary of the U.S. Government.

'He said to me, 'I hear you met with Gorbachev, and you had a long interview with him, and you're a doctor, so you have a good assessment of who he is,'' Lown told the publication.

Donald Trump wanted to be named a 'plenipotentiary ambassador for the United States with Gorbachev,' according to physician Bernard Lown, who met with Trump in the 1980s

'So I asked, 'Why would you want to know?' And he responded, 'I intend to call my good friend Ronnie'  Reagan  'to make me a plenipotentiary ambassador for the United States with Gorbachev.'

Trump has repeatedly talked up his ties to Reagan, although a Wall Street Journal article during the campaign based on a search of the Reagan library found few substantive ties, despite some grip-and-grin photos of the two men.

Lown says Trump told him about his own plans  which characteristically displayed a good measure of confidence in his own ability to solve an intractable problem.

'Those are the words he used,' Lown continued. 'And he said he would go to Moscow and he'd sit down with Gorbachev, and then he took his thumb and he hit the desk and he said, 'And within one hour the Cold War would be over!'

The meeting itself was odd to Lown. 'I was sitting there in this glass bubble, overlooking New York, and feeling, 'What am I doing here?'' he said. 'He seemed totally disjointed.'

Dr. Bernard Lown, cardiologist, poses for a portrait, Nov. 6, 1996. He says Trump sought him out and revealed his interest in getting a Russia posting

Portrait of real estate mogul Donald John Trump (b.1946), smiling slightly and facing to his right, 1983. New York

Donald Trump and Ivana Trump attend Roy Cohn's birthday party in February 1980 in New York City

Lown was dubious at the time. 'I sat there dumbfounded. 'Who is this self-inflated individual? Is he sane or what?'

The Lithuanian-born Lown is cardiology professor at Harvard School of Public Health. As the publication notes, he invented the defibrilator, and shared a Nobel Prize in 1985.

He cofounded a group, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. His endeavors brought him to meet Gorbachev soon after he took office, making him a useful source of information for Americans who wanted to gain insights into the new leader, who would eventually bring about an end to communist Soviet rule.

Trump throughout the presidential campaign expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since taking office, his administration has been swarmed by reports about his campaign's Russia ties. On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner was coming under scrutiny by federal investigators for his meetings with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. and for his December meeting with the head of a Kremlin-backed bank.

Dr. Bernard Lown, a well-known cardiologist, photographed in his home

The FBI is investigation Russian interference in the election. Former CIA Director John Brennan has testified that there were contacts between Russian officials and members of the Trump campaign, although Brennan and others have not said there is proof yet of any collusion.

Describing how the meeting came together, Lown said: 'I get a call from New York and it was a Wall Street broker who was a friend of Trump's.

'He says, 'Trump would like to see you,' and I said, 'Who is Trump?' I had no idea.' Trump at the time was prominent in New York real estate and still becoming a focus of the New York tabloids.

'This fellow was a member of the board of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation, this Wall Street fellow, and he knew that we were short on funds for the research that I outlined and that we had to do in the following few years,' Lown continued.

'He says, 'Here's somebody who might be a source of [funding]. Why don't you meet him? He wants to talk to you  he asked me to arrange it.' So I came into New York and went to Trump Tower and met him for lunch.'

Lown said it didn't take long to realize Trump was using the meeting to promote his own agenda.

'I talked to [Trump] extensively about my experience with Gorbachev,' Lown said. 'I talked for about 20 minutes or so, about how I thought Gorbachev behaved, blah, blah, and he sat there, sort of listening. He was fidgeting and I realized he had a short attention span.'

Lown emphasizes that the whole situation felt strange. 'I thought there was another agenda, perhaps, but I didn't know what that was,' he says. 'I was not sure about his motivation for why he was doing it. But it puts together sort of a continuum that began way back in '86, with his fixation on Russia  the Soviet Union, then,' he said.

Trump reportedly gained an interest in the dangers of nuclear holocaust from his uncle, John G. Trump, an M.I.T. physicist.
An equality group is campaigning for women to receive 12 days of paid leave per year to help them manage period pain.

The Victorian Women's Trust is calling on employers to grant female employees the leave or the option to work from home one day a month, reported the Herald Sun.

The group surveyed more than 3,500 women about what was needed to help them manage severe pain, and the majority said being able to work from home or in a more comfortable position would help.

An equality group is campaigning for women to receive 12 days of paid leave per year to help them manage period pain (stock image)

The Trust's chief executive Mary Crooks told the Herald Sun the proposal wasn't about taking days off, but was more about enhancing the relationship between the employer and employee.

'It doesnt have to mean taking leave from work... women could work from home or go to a different part of the office where your body could relax a bit and take your laptop with you,' Ms Crooks said.

'You could take a days paid leave if the pain was too great.'

Ms Crooks said many women felt they had to hide the fact they were suffering from menstrual pain because of the stigma attached to it.

Japan has offered menstrual leave policies for decades. This month Italy also became the first European country to introduce menstrual workplace policies.

The proposed policy would also cover women who experienced debilitating symptoms associated with menopause.

The Victorian Women's Trust surveyed more than 3,500 women on what was needed to help manage period severe pain. The majority said working from home or in a more comfortable position would help (stock image)
A worried mum has issued a warning over a dangerous new craze spreading through schools where youngsters spray deodorant onto their skin until it burns.

Teens are reportedly filming themselves holding the spray a few inches above them before pressing and holding the aerosol to the skin for as long as possible.

The aim is to outdo each other to see who can endure it for the longest.

A worried mum has issued a warning over a dangerous new craze spreading through schools where youngsters spray deodorant onto their skin until it burns

But now a worried mother has posted about the craze, which she says has left some pupils in Cornwall with physical injuries.

It closely follows a similar one at the beginning of the year where parents were told to be vigilant on social media after the 'salt and ice challenge' left multiple children with serious burns.

This saw children put salt and ice on their skin, causing a reaction similar to frostbite and it swept the US before starting to become popular in secondary schools in the UK.

Teens are reportedly filming themselves holding the spray a few inches above them before pressing and holding the aerosol to the skin for as long as possible

Dangerous teen crazes Smoking alcohol - reports were suggesting young people were breathing in vaporized spirits Smack Cams - young people would hit each other and upload it to social media Gallon smashing - young people would go to supermarkets, pick up the biggest containers of milk they could find before dropping them on the floor in the hope people would then slip over on the mess Advertisement

But the worried mum wrote: 'Apparently the new craze... is the "deodorant challenge".

'I've warned (my daughter) not to do it again... Just want you all to be aware.'

Another parent of a pupil at the college wrote: 'Please, please be aware. There's a new craze going around... Where they spray deodorants etc onto their bodies and continue until it burns their skin.

'Please warn your children not to do it as it will cause so much pain and more than likely end up in hospital. Please share to warn others.'

The school has been contacted for a comment.
Hundreds of travellers had their flight delayed by a day after one panicked passenger spotted a Wi-Fi hotspot named 'Jihadist Cell London 1'.

The Thomson Airways flight was due to fly from the Mexican resort of Cancun to London Gatwick Airport on Tuesday afternoon.

But it had to evacuated after a flier spotted the sinister network name and reported it to the crew - leading to police coming on board to sweep the plane.

It comes amid tightened security in the UK after the Manchester suicide bombing in a crowded concert hall left 22 people dead on Monday.

Hundreds of travellers had their Thomson flight delayed this week after one panicked passenger spotted a Wi-Fi hotspot named 'Jihadi London'

The flight was due to fly from the Mexican resort of Cancun to London Gatwick Airport (pictured) on Tuesday afternoon - but had to be evacuated

The person behind the hotspot name did not come forward and the flight was eventually rescheduled.

'Everyone had boarded and it was all okay for a while but before we left the stand, the captain announced a passenger had told or shown a crew member a 'hot point' had appeared on their phone saying 'Jihadi London',' said one of the passengers, Carey Middleton.

'He said he needed to tell us this as it was only on our aircraft and obviously very concerning and he couldn't depart knowing this.

'He asked that if anyone knew anything about this they should come forward.'

She continued: 'Obviously, nobody did so and after another 30 minutes, we'd been on board about an hour by then with passengers getting more anxious, the police came on board.'

Mrs Middleton said the captain and crew kept walking back and forth and 'everyone was understandably very anxious and worried'.

It comes amid tightened security in the UK after the Manchester suicide bombing in a crowded concert hall left 22 people dead on Monday. Pictured, a bloodied concertgoer flees the blast

Mourners lay tributes in the Lancashire village of Tarleton, home to two of the victims of the horrific bombing

Mrs Middleton said the captain and crew kept walking back and forth and 'everyone was understandably very anxious and worried'.

'The captain said he understood a few passengers were very concerned and wanted to get off the plane but to bear with him,' she said.

'After about another 20 to 30 minutes, he said the company's security team had security checked all passengers and deemed there was no risk.'

By this time, babies and children were crying and they'd had to refuel the aircraft.

'Although the captain said he wouldn't fly unless he was 100 per cent sure it was safe, and he felt it was okay after the extra security checks, some passengers still wanted to leave.

'As they needed to unload their baggage, this then put the crew over their mandatory hours and we were unable to fly.'

Mrs Middleton said the captain told passengers the flight would go ahead on Wednesday and that there would be extra security in place.

They were told they would be put up overnight.

'It was pretty chaotic in the terminal,'she added. 'We had to go back through security, reclaim our baggage and then stand around for 30 minutes or so to wait for instructions, with armed police and what looked like army guys with sniffer dogs in the terminal.
This is the chilling note written in blood found next to the body of a top detective's wife in India.

Homicide officer Dyaneshwar Ganore found his wife Deepali Ganore dead at their home in Mumbai on the country's west coast.

Gruesome pictures from the scene show a knife next to a note written in her blood saying: 'Tired of her, catch me and hang me.'

Pictures have emerged of a chilling note written in blood found next to the body of a top detective's wife in India

Homicide officer Dyaneshwar Ganore found his wife Deepali Ganore (pictured) dead at their home in Mumbai on the country's west coast

Mr Ganore, who is famed for investigating high-profile killings in the city, had just finished work when he returned home to the horrific scene.

The couple's son Siddhant Ganore was missing but has since been detained in Jodphur in the north-western state of Rajasthan and is on his way back to Mumbai in police custody.

A team of three police officers were sent on a 700-mile journey to Jaipur in order to carry out the arrest.

The couple's son Siddhant Ganore was missing but has since been detained in Jodphur in the north-western state of Rajasthan and is on his way back to Mumbai in police custody

But police officer Rashmi Karandikar said: 'When our team reached Jaipur, we found that he had already left for Jodhpur.

'We shared his photo with the Jodhpur police who detained him there. He is now being brought back to Mumbai.'

Siddhant will be questioned when he arrives back in Mumbai, although he has yet to be formerly charged.
The family of a murdered Victorian mother of two say they are racked with guilt that their 'tough love' might have sent her into the arms of her killer.

In emotional victim impact statements read out on Friday, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard how the eldest son of Simone Quinlan blamed himself for his mother's death, the Herald Sun reported.

'Nothing will ease his pain,' Ms Quinlan's mother Lynda told the court. 'Some days he blames himself and thinks he could have saved his mum.

'He said he wanted to be an angel so that he could be in heaven with his mother.'

Simone Quinlan (pictured) was brutally murdered in August 2015 in country Victoria

A court on Friday heard how the son of Ms Quinlan (pictured) sometimes blames himself for his mother's death

Ms Quinlan was living under a bridge and her children had been taken off her when she met ice-user Brendan Neil in 2015.

She moved into Neil's Melton home, but he was controlling and violent, a Supreme Court plea hearing was told on Friday.

She tried to leave him but in late August 2015, Neil took her to his house and launched a prolonged assault, accusing Ms Quinlan of stealing and 'snitching' on him.

During the assault, Wayne Marmo and two friends arrived with chainsaws in exchange for ice from Neil.

The three sat around the kitchen table smoking the drug while the attack against Ms Quinlan escalated and Marmo sawed the barrel off a .22 rifle.

Neil kicked Ms Quinlan with his boots, bashed her with a hammer, duct-taped her mouth and taunted her.

Ms Quinlan's body was then put in the back of Marmo's Hilux and as he drove to Kangaroo Flat near Bendigo, he shot her in the head five times, then found a mineshaft, dumped the body and set it alight.

The Hilux was burnt immediately after and Neil sanded and revarnished his home's floorboards.

Ms Quinlan, who was last seen on CCTV cameras at a service station, was living under a bridge and her children had been taken off her when she met ice-user Brendan Neil in 2015

When Ms Quinlan's body was eventually found, it was so badly decomposed and damaged an autopsy examination could not find a definitive cause of death.

Neil eventually pleaded guilty to Ms Quinlan's murder and Marmo was found guilty at trial.

In the victim impact statements read out on Friday, Ms Quinlan's family detailed their trauma, anger and guilt.

The court heard Ms Quinlan was a selfless and well-liked woman, but the death of her grandmother sent her spiralling into drug addiction.

It got to the point where her family and friends felt tough love was the only option.

With tears falling down her face, her mother Lynda Quinlan told the court her family now feels guilty because they didn't know the extent of Simone's troubles.

When Ms Quinlan's body was eventually found, it was so badly decomposed and damaged an autopsy examination could not find a definitive cause of death

'We thought if we toughened up on her she would realise we were serious,' her brother Troy wrote. 'And then she met you.'

In mitigation, Neil's defence counsel said her client did not know Marmo was going to set Ms Quinlan's body alight and he deserved a discounted sentence for his guilty plea.

The court was also told Neil has a prior domestic violence conviction for an assault on his former partner and mother of his four sons.

Neil will be sentenced on a date to be fixed after an appearance by Marmo on July 20 for a further plea hearing.
A young couple is carrying their unborn baby with a fatal condition to full term in hopes of donating her organs.

Brandi, 25, and Michael Rogers, 29, from Effingham, South Carolina, discovered their daughter was suffering from a condition called anencephaly, a birth defect where a baby is born without significant parts of her skull or brain, when Brandi was 20 weeks pregnant.

They have decided to donate the baby's organs to help other parents with children who may need medical assistance. While she's come to terms with her decision, the mom-of-two was without words when doctors said her unborn daughter, who she has named Emersyn was not going to survive.

'I think I kind of sat there when they told me,' she told ABC. 'It's just one of those things you don't think could ever happen to you, especially when I have two healthy children.'

Brandi, 25, and Michael Rogers, 29, (pictured together) from Effingham, South Carolina are carrying their unborn baby with a fatal condition to full term in hopes of donating her organs

Even though the Rogers have two healthy children, they learned their unborn daughter was suffering from a condition called anencephaly, a birth defect where a baby is born without significant parts of a skull or brain

Doctors first discovered that Emersyn had the condition when they saw fluid in her brain during an ultrasound and initially told the Rogers their baby had a 75 percent chance of survival. During their second meeting the doctors rescinded and said their baby will not survive.

Upon hearing this news of a condition that occurs in three out of 10,000 pregnancies, the majority of parents in America typically opt to terminate the pregnancy but Brandi and Michael decided to continue with it.

'You're in a room and you're listening to your baby's heartbeat and then you go into another room and they say, "Well, you can stop it," - that's extremely hard,' Brandi said.

'We decided on the spot that it wasn't something we were going to do.

'When we got home and we were researching, I was looking for a voice of someone who went full term and didn't regret it.

'I want to be that voice. It's OK to celebrate Emersyn even though she's not going to survive. She's still our third child and she's still very much loved.'

The couple have set up a Gofundme to help with their medical expenses.

Brandi learned about her daughter's condition at 20 weeks old, and immediately decided she would not terminate her pregnancy. Pictured is the ultrasound of a 20-week fetus with anencephaly

Anencephaly, which affects three out of every 10,000 pregnancies in America, is a condition that leaves significant parts of the brain and skull undeveloped. Pictured is Brandi's unborn child, Emersyn

In March, Royce and Keri Young from Oklahoma who also had an unborn baby, Eva, with anencephaly, made the brave decision to carry her full term in order to donate organs.

Royce shared a photo of his devastated wife after she had given birth to her stillborn. Most of the baby's organs could not be donated because she had died in the womb, but doctors did find a recipient for her eyes.

Miracle baby born Jaxon Buell is one of a very small number of babies who have survived anencephaly.

He recently celebrated his second birthday, making him a part of the meager five percent of babies born with the condition who live for more than six days.

In March, Royce and Keri Young from Oklahoma (pictured with their first child) also decided to have their unborn baby, Eva, who was suffering from anencephaly

Eva died in the womb so most of her organs could not be donated. Pictured is a devastated Keri just after she had given birth to her stillborn
A public university in Washington state is hosting a workshop Friday to 'reduce the impact of white privilege'.

The seminar at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, is a part of the school's Campus Equity and Inclusion Forums, and will be led by a history professor, who is white, Randall Jimerson.

It is designed for faculty, staff and students, and will incorporate presentations, interactive exercises, and facilitated discussions in order to learn 'how to reduce expressions and effects of white privilege', according to the university's website.

Western Washington University, in Bellingham (pictured from the University's website), is hosting a workshop on Friday to reduce the impact of 'white privilege'

Jimerson told The College Fix: 'I think the harmful effects of "white privilege" are that it can reflect an insensitivity to the subtle effects of both racism and lack of awareness of the differences between how people of color and people called "white" are treated in everyday life.'

The seminar will be led by a history professor, Randall Jimerson, who is white

He continued, 'not being aware that other people face daily, often subtle, discrimination can make white people insensitive to these debilitating effects.'

Held at the public university, the seminar is open to anyone who wants to attend, but Jimerson said it's designed to be helpful for white people.

'Most people of color are aware of the existence of "white privilege," whether or not they have applied the term to the disparity between their experiences and those of white people,' he explained.

Jimerson said the main focus will 'be on helping white participants to understand, explore and accept (or reject) the concepts' of the phrase 'white privilege'.

The professor further explained he hopes the event will eventually move into conversations about how to reduce the impact of 'white privilege' 'in our daily interactions with other people, and in our consciousness of race and other socially-constructed concepts'.

He said the term has little to do with biology, but instead the 'social constructs' that privilege white people over other races in society.

When asked about whether or not there has been progress in race relations in the United States since the 1960's, Jimerson said, as a white male, he didn't think he could adequately answer the question.

The seminar is designed for faculty, staff and students, and will incorporate presentations, interactive exercises, and facilitated discussions in order to learn 'how to reduce expressions and effects of white privilege' (pictured is the University from its website)

'The nature of race relations, and how this has changed in the past 50 years, is something that I can only sense indirectly,' he explained.

He said the United States has made progress in some ways, such as 'overt legal segregation,' but there is still a long way to go.

'These forms of evidence range from the racist attacks on former President Barack Obama, to documented incidents of excessive police violence towards people of color, to the increase of white supremacist organizations and the only slightly veiled racism of many members of the Trump administration,' Jimerson added.

'These developments are seriously troubling for anyone who values concepts of fairness, equality and social justice,' he said.
A 16-year-old boy was killed in a one-vehicle rollover Saturday afternoon on a muddy Meeteetse Trail southeast of Red Lodge.

Nicholas Ethan Smith was partially ejected and died at the scene about 2 p.m., according to Carbon County Sheriff Josh McQuillan. The other vehicle occupants  an 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy from Red Lodge and a 17-year-old boy from Bridger  were not injured.

About 12 hours earlier, two Cut Bank residents were killed and another was injured when they were thrown from a rolling pickup truck near their hometown. Frosty Rae Gobert, 25, and Michael Lee Eads, 31, died at the scene, according to the Great Falls Tribune. A 21-year-old Cut Bank man was flown to the hospital in Great Falls for treatment of his injuries.

On May 11, a 27-year-old woman was thrown from her vehicle after it ran off the road near Box Elder and rolled.

These tragic stories are just four of the 25 Montana traffic deaths in 2017 that could have been prevented with seat belts. The Montana Highway Patrol had logged 56 highway fatalities as of May 23. Lack of seat belt use was suspected to be a possible factor in half of those deaths. Not counting pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle and ATV deaths, unbelted victims account for about three-fourths of passenger vehicle deaths in our state.

Failure to buckle up is cited as a fatality factor more often than alcohol or drugs. So far this year, lack of seat belt use accounts for as many fatal crashes as excessive speed does.

The most typical scenario for a fatal crash in our state is a single-vehicle rollover in which the victim was ejected or partially ejected because he or she wasnt properly restrained.

When thousands of pounds of metal motor vehicle tumbles off a roadway, the best protection for drivers and passengers is to stay belted into their seats. Cars and trucks are engineered to absorb the force of crashes; human beings are not.

If you or your loved ones are traveling this Memorial Weekend, please, please make sure everyone is buckled up before you leave. Use seat belts, child safety seats and booster seats appropriately on every trip  no matter how long or short the distance.

Our hearts go out to the families of the recent crash victims. Lets take their stories to heart and prevent future tragedies. Dont become an MHP statistic; buckle up for life.
A health and fitness manual pieced together by accused cocaine smuggler Cassie Sainsbury is available for purchase online.

Sainsbury's 'Shape yourself in 8 weeks' can be bought from various websites, including Amazon and eBay, with prices ranging from $20 up to $60.

The book was 'written and designed by Cassandra Sainsbury' in March 2015 and covers topics including 'Why go healthy?', 'Why Do Cardio?' and 'The healthy basics'.

Accused cocaine smuggler Cassie Sainsbury (pictured) published a health and wellbeing guide in March 2015

The 'Shape Yourself in 8 Weeks' guide is still available for purchase online

The guide's introduction tells readers 'You are one step closer to changing your life for the better' simply by having purchased the book.

'My name is Cassandra Sainsbury, I'm a personal trainer and nutritionist. For the past year, I've been working on an ultimate weight loss guide, it's been a long process of trial and error but I've finally put together a program that I'm 100 per cent happy with,' the guide says.

The 22-year-old Australian is currently being held in Bogota's El Buen Pastor women's prison after 5.8kg of cocaine was allegedly found in her suitcase as she was trying to leave Colombia to return home, via London.

In the 20-page guide, Sainsbury offers up advice ranging from the amount of sleep you should be getting, to what you should be eating and drinking, and how much.

The guide which was 'written and designed by Cassandra Sainsbury' offers readers a range of advice on how they can 'change your life for the better'

Sainsbury (pictured) is currently being held in Bogota's El Buen Pastor women's prison in Bogota, Colombia

There are recipes, an eight-week meal guide and a work-out program.

Sainsbury encourages readers to 'be proud' because 'every step you take in this journey is another step forward'.

'Don't let people put you down, even if you don't finish the program, don't be sad. You made that first step and you tried, if you fall off the wagon, jump back on and give it your all,' the guide says.
ISIS has released a sickening new video calling for 'all-out war' on Western 'infidels' at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

The terror group urges its 'brothers in Europe who can't reach the Islamic State lands' to attack people in 'their homes, their markets, their roads and their forums.'

Its sickening video also defends the actions of suicide bomber Salman Abedi who slaughtered 22 people in an attack on Manchester Arena on Monday night.

ISIS has released a sickening new video calling for 'all-out war' on Western 'infidels' at the start of the holy month of Ramadan. The clip also defends the actions of suicide bomber Salman Abedi (pictured) who slaughtered 22 people in an attack on Manchester Arena on Monday night

In a message called 'Where are the lions of war?' ISIS fanatics reportedly say: 'Muslim brothers in Europe who cant reach the Islamic State lands, attack them in their homes, their markets, their roads and their forums.

Jihadists then attempt to justify the horrific massacre in Manchester on Monday night which targeted parents and children as they were leaving an Ariana Grande concert.

The extremists said: 'Do not despise the work. Your targeting of the so-called innocents and civilians is beloved by us and the most effective, so go forth and may you get a great reward or martyrdom in Ramadan.'

Last year more than 400 people were killed and over 700 injured around the world in ISIS terror atrocities during Ramadan, according to the Telegraph.

The video defends the actions of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi. People are pictured laying flowers in the city today

Last year, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on an Orlando gay nightclub which left 49 dead and dozens injured

It came after their late spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urged supporters to carry out lone-wolf attacks to coincide with the holy month.

In the weeks that followed, the terror group claimed responsibility for the attack on an Orlando gay nightclub which left 49 dead and dozens injured.

France was also hit when a jihadist knifed a policeman and his wife to death in front of their son in Paris.

There was also bloodshed in Turkey when 45 were murdered in an attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport.
Rafiullah Hamidy and three other men have been found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl

A group of men who gang-raped a lost 16-year-old girl above a takeaway have been found guilty.

The girl had asked for directions when she was taken to the room and subjected to a 'frightening ordeal' by the four men.

She was on her way home from a night out in Ramsgate, Kent, when the men picked her up.

Prosecutor Simon Taylor told Canterbury Crown Court that after pushing the girl onto a mattress they carried out multiple rapes 'and laughed as they put her through the ordeal'.

The four men allegedly took her into the room with just a mattress on the floor before tuning off the lights so she would not recognise them.

Shershah Muslimyar, 20, of Canterbury, restaurant owner Tamin Rahani, 37, of Ramsgate, Rafiullah Hamidy, 24, of no fixed address and Hamid Mohamadi, 18, from Wye, all denied three charges of rape.

A jury took two days to find the four guilty on all charges, and they were remanded in custody pending reports on the danger they pose before sentencing in July.

The trial faced protests by far-right groups including Britain First and EDL founder Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.

During the trial, the judge ordered Mohamadi's name to be withheld from court reports in the press after doubts about his true age.

But now he has been assessed as being 18.

Mr Taylor told the court: 'The girl was undoubtedly drunk and was walking the streets alone late at night.

'The Crown's case is that her drunkenness, youth and vulnerability would have been recognised by the defendants.

'And it was these factors that they took advantage of in the couple of hours that followed.'

The girl was taken to the home of Rahani, a flat above the 555 Pizza and Kebab shop, where the horrific attack took place

The girl was taken to the home of Rahani, a flat above the 555 Pizza and Kebab shop, where the horrific attack took place.

Mr Taylor added: 'Once there she was raped by men on multiple occasions.

'Through drink, and most likely the trauma of what happened to her, she was unable to provide any detailed descriptions.

'The girl had found herself in a room of the second floor above a takeaway.

'In that grubby room, with an uncovered mattress on the floor, multiple males had sex with the teenager.

'She says that she did not consent.

'Indeed, you may well conclude that she was too drunk to give any true consent to any sexual intercourse in any event.

'But what is clear is that each of the men took the opportunity to have a little 'fun' at her expense.'

The victim told the jury: 'I'm not sure how many were in the room; think there were four or five of them.

'They were all like push, pushing, pushing me like to each other.

'One of them pushed me onto the bed. They were all laughing.

'They were laughing as they walked over, I think there was one or two by the door.

'I can't remember much after that to be honest, they kept swapping over, they were having sex.

'I told them to stop. I moved but they just carried on.'

After the attacks, she was 'escorted' out of the property by one of the men 'and left to roam the streets alone'.

The girl was found 'sobbing and distressed' by a woman returning home and taken into her home for safety.
Antioco Piras pictured leaving court earlier in the week

A magazine mogul was has been cleared of spiking a womans drink and raping her during a champagne-fuelled party at an exclusive private members club.

Antioco Piras, 36, co-founder and publisher of glossy food magazine Four, was accused of forcing himself on the woman after she became dizzy and unwell during the party.

She claims Piras gave her a tainted drink and then raped her when she went to sleep in one of Home Houses luxury bedrooms in Portman Square, Marylebone.

But Piras insisted the 21-year-old invented the story after drinking too much at the palatial venue, which offers a magical mix of 18th century splendour and 21st century avant-garde.

The Italian entrepreneur founded Four, an award-winning lifestyle magazine branded The Worlds Best Food Magazine.

It features writers such as Tom Parker-Bowles - a judge on ITVs Food Glorious Food and son of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall - and is distributed to Qatar and British Airways, Armani Hotels and Resorts, and Palazzo Versace in Dubai.

Piras denied one count of rape and was cleared by a jury of nine women and three men after almost six-and-a-half hours deliberation at Southwark Crown Court today.

Recorder Vanessa Francis said: Mr Piras, as a result of the finding of the jury you are discharged from the court and you can leave the dock.

Thank you very much.

Piras, who came to the UK when he was 16, told jurors spiking a drink was a disgusting and despicable act he would never be capable of.

He told jurors: She could hardly walk so I asked her to put my arm around her shoulder.

Piras was accused of giving a woman a tainted drink and then raped her when she went to sleep in one of Home Houses (pictured) luxury bedrooms in Portman Square, Marylebone

I led her upstairs and put her on the bed and told her that if she needed me I was just downstairs and I left the room.

I felt like I was protecting her.

He added: I took off my shoes and shirt and laid down on the bed next to her.

She was still fully clothed, she had her shoes on.

She looked at me and smiled.

We kissed at which point I said: I dont think this is right.

He said the woman was put out, not happy and frustrated, but after rolling a cigarette she asked to go home and he called a taxi for her.

Asked if the truth was he had spiked her drink and raped her, Piras replied: No.

It is lowly disgusting thing to do.

What kind of person would I be to do such a thing?

The woman told jurors she had just two glasses of champagne before Piras gave her another, different drink that made her throw up.

Judy Khan, defending, said: Are you absolutely sure that you only had, in what must have been several hours, those two glasses of champagne?

Piras was cleared by a jury of nine women and three men after almost six-and-a-half hours deliberation at Southwark Crown Court (pictured) today

The woman replied: Yeah, one hundred per cent.

Ms Khan continued: Im not making any criticism at all when I say this, but you were accustomed to drinking, werent you?

You said in your police interview I can handle my drink.

Jurors heard the woman told officers about a drinking session where she had half a bottle of rose, two glasses of wine, a double disaronno, and a double vodka.

And afterwards you didnt feel tipsy after that - in fact, you went on to party at a different venue after that, said Ms Khan.

Im suggesting there was never any time when you were given a drink by Mr Antioco.

The barrister added: You were mixing your drinks as well, and thats why you got into that condition and you have chosen to blame him for that.

The woman said: It was the drink he gave me that put me into that state.

Antioco denied and was cleared of one count of rape.
Homeland Security Chief John Kelly offered a dire assessment of the terror situation in America on Friday, just as many Americans were preparing for holiday travel.

Kelly said a terror attack 'can happen almost here any time' during a Fox News appearance.

Recalling a conversation he was having off-air with Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, Kelly said from the famous Fox couch, 'I was telling Steve on the way in here, if, if he knew what I know about terrorism, he'd never leave the house in the morning.'

Homeland Security Chief John Kelly offered a dire assessment of the terror situation in America on Friday, just as many Americans were preparing for holiday travel

Recalling a conversation he was having off-air with Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy (his right) Kelly said from the famous Fox couch, 'I was telling Steve on the way in here, if, if he knew what I know about terrorism, he'd never leave the house in the morning'

Kelly's terror warning came after terrorists carried out four attacks in one week across Europe, Asia and Africa

Doocy nodded as Kelly described their conversation. Brian Kilmeade was silent.

A shocked Ainsley Earhart said, 'Really?' To which Kelly said, 'Yeah.'

He quickly added, 'But the good news is, again, we have the finest men and women in uniform, out of uniform, police officers, local law enforcement, New York City cops protecting us.'

Friday marks the start of Memorial Day weekend in the US, a holiday dedicated that's formally dedicated to the nation's fallen but many Americans use for vacation.

Kelly's terror warning came after terrorists carried out four attacks in one week across Europe, Asia and Africa.

In the latest assault, a group of 28 Coptic Christians were murdered in Cairo, Egypt. As man as 10 gunmen in three SUVs stormed the victims, Fox has reported. They were on their way to a monastery to pray.

ISIS has not claimed credit for the massacre, but the terror group is believed to be the culprit. Islamic extremists have attacked the Middle Eastern religious group on two other occasions in the last six months.

Kelly said on Fox that the threat from terrorist groups is 'constant' and the crimes that have been taking place were committed 'by generally the same groups.'

'It's non stop,' he said.

The 'good news' is Americans have a plethora of agencies protecting them at home and abroad such as the National Security Agency, FBI, and the Department of Defense, he said.

'But it can happen almost here any time,' he added, offering an alarming warning at the start of the first summer holiday.

Kelly also commented on the president's desire for a border wall to keep threatening individuals from crossing into the United States through the porous southern border.

Border crossings are down 70 percent from January, with almost no unaccompanied minors coming over, which wiped out the recruitment pool of deadly gangs and drug cartels.

'We are taking care of business on the border,' he said.

Despite the success, Kelly said the United States will 'still need the wall.'

'We need a physical barrier in certain places, and certainly technology in other places,' he said.

Yesterday, at a forum in Berlin, Germany, Trump's predecessor took direct aim at the idea. 'We can't isolate ourselves. We can't hid behind a wall,' Barack Obama said. Kelly said Friday that it isn't true

President Trump has requested $2.6 billion for border security from Congress, $1.6 billion of which he's said would go toward constructing a barrier between the US and Mexico.

Yesterday, at a forum in Berlin, Germany, Trump's predecessor took direct aim at the idea. 'We can't isolate ourselves. We can't hid behind a wall,' Barack Obama said.

Asked about the former president's comments, and whether it was true that the US was hiding, Kelly said Friday on Fox, 'Not at all, we're not hiding behind a wall.

'We are constructing, a, physical barrier, backed up by technology' and border patrol agents to 'simply safeguard our southern border,' he said.

Kelly said Obama was wrong, because the wall will not impede normal commercial traffic.
A jilted lover allegedly murdered her ex-boyfriend by pouring acid down his throat after he married another woman.

Jealous ex-girlfriend Hima Bindu is accused of killing her former partner after his wedding.

She asked to meet Sheikh Mohammad Illyas, 24, one last time in Venigandla village in Guntur district of the state of Andhra Pradesh, south-eastern India.

Sheikh Mohammad Illyas with his wife on their wedding day

Sheikh Mohammad Illyas was just 24-years-old when he died from injuries caused by acid. His former lover Bindu allegedly pulled a bottle of acid from her bag and poured it into his mouth

The pair started arguing and Bindu allegedly pulled a bottle of acid from her bag and poured it into his mouth on Tuesday.

He was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries and police are now hunting Bindu who has gone on the run.

A police spokesman said: 'On Sunday, Illyas got married to another woman. Angered by this, Hima Bindu resorted to pouring acid down his throat.'

Jealous Bindu had asked that her ex-boyfriend meet her at a mutual friend's house.

Sheikh was accompanied to the property on Sunday evening by one of his relatives.

Sheikh obtained acid injuries to his throat and chest, Bindu also suffered burns on her arms and legs

His brother Halla Bakshu said: 'Hima Bindu wanted to make sure that he deleted all the photos and conversations they had had from his phone.

'She had said that she would walk away and not contact him again if he met her one last time. '

The alleged acid attack left Sheikh with acid injuries to his throat and chest, Bindu also suffered burns on her arms and legs.

The bed and part of the wall in the room where also destroyed by the corrosive liquid.

Sheikh was rushed to Guntur Government Hospital, where he later died of his injuries.

Bindu fled the scene but later asked her father to take her to hospital so she could have her injuries seen to.

Doctors told them they should file a police report at which point they ran away and have not been seen since.

Police are now hunting Bindu who is wanted for murder following Sheikh's death.

Acid attacks are relatively common in India, with around 60 percent of the victims being women.
Five petrol station workers were rewarded a total of 7,400 after risking their lives to put out a fire in southwestern China.

A motorist lit up his bike at a petrol station as the worker finished filling up the vehicle with fuel.

Station workers put out the fire in four minutes, preventing a possible explosion from happening.

The man lit up his bike using a lighter after one station worker filled up the fuel for him (left) The worker then rushed to grab a fire extinguisher to put out the fire (right)

The fire spread and soon fumed black smoke, alerting other station workers to put out the fire

The incident took place at a Sinopec petrol station in Saliban, Yibin city, China's Sichuan Province on May 4, stated The Paper.

A male motorist, surnamed Yan, can be seen taking out a lighter when a worker finished filling up his bike.

The quick-witted workers grabbed a fire extinguisher before the man pushed his bike down, leaking the oil to a nearby drinking machine.

The petrol station was soon ablaze with the flames spreading.

Other station workers rushed out to get the fire extinguisher.

They also reported the incident to the police.

The biker jumped to the fire but later got dragged out by the station staff (right corner)

Chou Chunhu, station manager, dragged the burning bike out to prevent explosion in station

The fire was put out in four minutes by all five staff members before firefighters arrived

Chou Chunhu, station manager rushed to pull the bike out from the fire to avoid an explosion.

At 39 seconds into the footage, the biker can be seen jumping into the fire before other staff members dragged him out.

He then sat on the floor and was arrested by police on suspicion of arson later.

The fire was put out in four minutes with the help of all station staff.

Sinopec posted the video on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media account, today and commented that the staff members had strictly followed an emergency response plan.

The five staff were rewarded a total of 65,000 yuan (7400) on May 23.
Christopher Cole, 41, was arrested for possessing child porn in February 2016 after Google dobbed him in for allegedly uploading thousands of graphic images online

A Michigan man was arrested for possessing child porn after Google reported him for allegedly uploading thousands of graphic images to his photo account.

Google reported Christopher Cole to authorities in February 2016 after they noticed the suspicious activity on the 41-year-old's account.

Police initially said he had uploaded thousands of child porn photos, but further investigation has since revealed he had allegedly reproduced some of those images.

Cole was charged in May 2016 with three counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and one count of using a computer to commit a crime.

He was handed an additional two charges this month after investigators found he had allegedly reproduced images.

The charges relate to his online activity between December 2014 and October 2015.

Google reported Christopher Cole to authorities after they noticed the suspicious activity on the 41-year-old's photo account

'It's alleged that he was in possession and made copies of materials involving underage males,' Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat told MLive.com.

The child pornography charges carry a potential sentence of 20 years in jail, but he is facing life in prison given he has prior convictions - including for writing a check with no bank account and for failure to return rental property.

Cole is being held at the Muskegon County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

He will next appear in court on May 30.
A 23-year-old woman has been charged with first degree murder after CCTV footage emerged of her 'torturing' an 8-month-old girl at a Baltimore day-care facility.

Leah Walden also faces charges of second-degree murder, assault and child abuse.

Emergency services were called to the Rocket Tiers Learning Center at 3.20pm on Tuesday after a report of a baby not breathing.

Leah Walden faces charges of second-degree murder, assault and child abuse

However despite the best efforts of doctors and paramedics the child, identified as Reese Bowman, died a short while later, the Washington Post reported.

Daycare worker Leah Walden said she had fed the baby and put her in a crib for a nap before coming back 45 minutes later to find the girl unresponsive.

CCTV however told a different story.

Walden was seen covering the baby with 'excessive blankets for long periods of time'.

She can also be seen covering the child's face with a pillow, violently snatching the baby and slapping her.

In a statement Baltimore Police said it appeared the baby was awake at the time of the assault.

Stanley Bradford, head of Baltimore's homicide unit, said: 'To me, and all of us who are parents, when we look at something like that, there's no explanation to give.

'It's just evil. I mean what motive is there to treat a baby that way?

'From what I saw, why would you treat an 8-month-old baby, or any child for that matter, in that manner?'

In a statement the Bowman family said: 'Our family is suffering tremendous pain and wishes to grieve in private.

'Our hearts are broken. No family should ever have to experience the loss of a child under any circumstances. We await further investigation.'

The care center is being investigated, but police said they were being cooperative.

It had been previously been cited for some minor building repair violations, but the problems were resolved, according to the state's records.
Nicola Sturgeon seemed to be feeling the heat on the election campaign trail today - as she stopped for an ice cream.

The SNP leader was pictured tucking into a cone in Granton, Edinburgh as politicians sweltered in the sunshine.

Tory leader Ruth Davidson had a similar idea while she pitching for votes in East Renfrewshire.

The pitstop came as Miss Sturgeon struggles to stem a Conservative surge north of the border.

The SNP leader was pictured tucking into a cone in Granton, Edinburgh as politicians sweltered in the sunshine

The pitstop came as Miss Sturgeon struggles to stem a Conservative surge north of the border

Miss Sturgeon also fulfilled another political campaign cliche by posing with 9-month-old Aurora Francotte in Edinburgh today

Polls have been showing the party could up their tally of Commons seats in Scotland from just one to eight or even more.

Miss Davidson is also running nearly neck and neck with Miss Sturgeon on popularity.

The Conservatives gained more than 150 seats in local elections earlier this month, including many areas where they have not had a presence for decades.

The huge turnaround follows the SNP nearly sweeping the board in the Westminster ballot in 2015.

Miss Sturgeon has been seeking to use the historic Brexit vote last June to renew her efforts to rip up the United Kingdom.

Despite pledging in 2014 that the issue was settled for a generation, she has demanded a fresh referendum be held as early as Autumn next year.

But Theresa May and Ms Davidson have flatly dismissed the prospect.

They point to public opinion being against revisiting the independence question.

As she campaigned in Edinburgh, Miss Sturgeon added her voice to criticism of Jeremy Corbyn for his speech blaming British foreign policy for the Manchester bombing.

Miss Sturgeon enthusiastically wolfed down the ice cream in blazing sunshine today

has said foreign policy 'can't be a no-go area' for debate during a General Election campaign after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn came under fire for linking terror attacks in the UK to military action overseas.

The speech - just four days after 22 people were killed and with dozens still being treated in hospital - has triggered a furious backlash.

Senior Tories and Labour figures slamming him for 'crass' timing and 'playing into the terrorists' narrative'.

Ms Sturgeon said she had agreed with Mr Corbyn over the Iraq War, which they both opposed.

But she said terrorists would find another excuse regardless of the government's policies.

'I don't think we should be looking to blame anybody for what happened in Manchester other than the terrorist that carried out that atrocity and anybody who aided and abetted him in doing that,' she said.

'Terrorists will always look for ways to justify their actions and if it's not foreign policy, no doubt it will be something else, so they are to blame and nobody else.

'More generally, we must be able to have a robust debate about foreign policy, about security, about how we keep the population safe.'

Meanwhile, Ms Davidson said a new national poll suggesting the gap between the Tories and Labour had narrowed to five points would 'focus minds on the idea that there could potentially be a Jeremy Corbyn prime ministership'.

Tory leader Ruth Davidson had a similar idea while she pitching for votes in East Renfrewshire

Miss Davidson worked up an appetite by serving customers on the campaign trail in East Renfrewshire today

Miss Davidson and local candidate Paul Masterton stopped for a cone while out and about in East Renfrewshire

'In a Scottish context, people right across Scotland are switching from Labour to the Conservatives because they know we're the only people who can take on the SNP,' she said.

She said it was 'absolutely right' political campaigning had ceased in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing - but also said it was important politicians were once again back out on the election trail.

Ms Davidson said: 'The people who are attacking our country and other countries, it's because they don't like our freedoms, they don't like our values , they don't like our democracy.

'That's why it's so important that we get back out there, because we can't let them win, we can't show people they're having an impact.'
The Wyoming Attorney Generals office has declined to consider the state Republican Partys complaints against a progressive organization that sent voters mail praising Democratic legislative candidates and criticizing their GOP opponents, according to recent letters sent to people involved in the grievances.

The Attorney Generals office will not investigate the complaints because they came from the Wyoming Republican Party, Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Robinson wrote.

State law specifies complaints must come from qualified electors. And a political party is not a qualified elector under state law, he wrote.

Robinson sent letters on May 10 to GOP attorney Mitch Edwards and May 16 to ELLA LLC attorney Margaret White.

The state GOP had complained that Wyoming Hunters and Anglers Alliance and Women Lead Wyoming were supposed to be sending mail independently of the Democratic candidates campaigns. But many of the Democrats had hired a sister organization called ELLA WY LLC to manage their campaigns or provide them data about potential voters.

The GOP maintained that those organizations werent separate enough and that there was coordination among them and the candidates.

ELLA and the candidates have argued that they did everything they could to comply with the law. They said that the law wasnt explicit on organizations such as theirs. They said they hired an attorney who told the organizations to rent separate office space to create what they described as a firewall between the groups. The attorney gave them advice based on Colorado election laws, which are clearer, they said.

In the letter, Robinson stressed that his decision to not pursue the matter wasnt a decision on the merits of the complaint. His decision was based on the GOP not following the law to complain, he wrote.

The GOPs complaints came days before the Nov. 8 general election.

Chris Bell, director of ELLA, said the grievances were likely was a political stunt.

Its really hard to get away from that, he said. I really believe they should have stuck to the substance of their complaint if they believed if it was a legitimate issue.

Bell noted that the GOP characterized ELLA and the hunters and anglers groups as Obama operatives since a founder of ELLA had worked for the Obama campaign.

Jackson philanthropist Liz Storer is involved in the groups. She said others are giving money but declined to name them.

Outside groups becoming involved in elections is known as dark money. The progressive groups are new to Wyoming. Conservative organizations have been involved in Wyoming legislative campaigns for nearly a decade.

A number of state officials have said they want the law to be clarified. The GOPs complaint bounced around the state, among the AGs office, Secretary of State and the Albany County attorney, because there was disagreement of whose purview the investigation fell under.

Bell said his organization agrees the law needs to change.

We want to be a team player in this process of suggestions for revisions of the statutes, he said.

Edwards, the Wyoming GOP attorney, said the party disagrees with the AG, believing it is twisting the law.

A political party is allowed to complain over alleged campaign finance violations to the Secretary of State  the office to which the GOP submitted the complaint, he said.

Based on the timeline and the Attorney Generals actions here, it seems that the Attorney Generals most recent position is nonsensical excuse to evade its duty to enforce Wyomings campaign finance laws, he said.

The party is considering its options on how to proceed, he said.
Michael Collins was jailed for more than five years after swindling cash from his employers

A financial director left company creditors and shareholders in debt while he wrote cheques to himself and blew millions of pounds on holidays and tailored suits.

Michael Collins, 66, ran Mediterranean Insurance & Reinsurance Ltd (MedRE) into the ground as he gifted himself 6.6 million, leaving shareholders with a debt of 7.9million.

The firm went into administration after Collins signed off payments to fund American Express cards for his now ex-wife Lisa and their two daughters Megan and Camilla.

His family believed he could afford their lavish lifestyle, including holidays to first class resorts, from the 170,000 salary he was paid plus his bonuses.

They did not realise Collins was swindling cash as he enjoyed 50,000 shopping sprees at Ozwald Boateng, a Savile Row tailor who has suited the Rolling Stones frontman, Mick Jagger.

But the Old Bailey heard had simply approved payments from MedRE's accounts because it was 'easy'.

To cover his tracks, Collins filled in false entries in a ledger and used the phrase 'other debtors' to describe the cheque deposits.

As a result of his actions, MedRe was unable to pay more than 10 million to its creditors and was put into administration in December 2015.

Prosecutor Rebekah Hummerstone said: 'This case took place between 1999-2015 when the defendant was financial director of the Mediterranean Insurance & Reinsurance Ltd - for short, MedRE.

'He benefited from his criminal conduct by 6,474,110 during that period.

'He said he had done so by simply drawing cheques on the company accounts.

'He accepted that his salary at its highest had been 170,000 a year. He had first taken money in 1999 and had continued to do so because it was so easy.

'He said he had been motivated by greed.'

The 6.6million scam was uncovered after Charles Taylor Services Ltd were appointed to handle MedRE's insolvency arrangements in April 2014.

When they asked Collins to explain why MedRE had such large unsupported debts, the fraudster left his 1.2million four-bedroom house in Kent and flew to Portugal.

The conman returned to the UK from the US in March 2016 after a worldwide freezing order was sought for his assets.

A judge at the Old Bailey, above, heard he had been motivated by greed, after realising how easy it was to pay cash into his own account

Investigators discovered he had approved more than 668,000 worth of payments to fund his family's Amex cards between 2010-2016, but there is no suggestion they realised he had committed a fraud.

He racked up a 23,015 bill at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Maldives and spent almost 50,000 at a tailor's on Savile Row.

He was jailed for five years and four months after admitting to false accounting and fraud by abuse of position on 25 April.

Jailing him for five years and four months, Judge Anne Molyneux said: 'You said that you had acted alone, that you had done it and found it was easy.

'You continued to do it, you were able to enjoy a lifestyle to which you weren't entitled.

'All of the money had been spent on holidays and paying off the American Express cards.'

Collins, of Downe, Orpington, was also disqualified from acting as a company director for five years.

He has repaid 285,771 and has no assets left.

MedRE, an insurance and reinsurance company set up in 1978 in Snow Hill, central London, went into administration in December 2015.

Detective Sergeant Richard Ward, from the Met's Fraud Squad, said: 'Collins abused his position of trust over a 16-year period to steal 6 million from his employer.

'The motive for this crime was greed and he used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle involving expensive foreign holidays and designer goods.

'Fraud is not a victimless crime. Collins' actions have resulted in a considerable financial loss to the company's 200 creditors who have been left with losses of more than 10 million. The sentence handed out today reflects the scale of his criminal activity.'
Richard Punchard, 21, from Swansea, allegedly placed a black jewellery box with wires coming out of it under a bench in the Welsh city's Quadrant Shopping Centre

A man has appeared in court accused of leaving a fake bomb in a shopping centre two days after the Manchester terrorist attack.

Richard Punchard, 21, from Swansea, allegedly placed a black jewellery box with wires coming out of it under a bench in the Welsh city's Quadrant Shopping Centre.

A cleaner found the box outside Debenhams around 2pm on Wednesday and alerted security staff.

The area was evacuated and a bomb disposal team were called to the shopping centre.

It came after the UK's terror threat level was increased to 'critical' following the bomb attack at the Manchester Arena on Monday night, which killed 22 people and injured dozens more.

Punchard, who is accused of placing a homemade device in the shopping centre with the intention that it would cause others to believe it was likely to ignite or explode, entered no plea to the allegation.

The court heard Punchard, who appeared in court wearing a blue-and-white patterned T-shirt and black-rimmed spectacles, was interested in Egyptology and had recently started volunteering in Swansea University's museum.

Prosecutor Sharon Anderson added: 'This event has taken place on the 24th, obviously it was two days after what happened in Manchester and security has obviously been heightened to critical.'

Magistrates declined jurisdiction in the case and Punchard, who was remanded in custody, was committed to Swansea Crown Court for a hearing on June 26.

A cleaner found the box outside Debenhams around 2pm on Wednesday and alerted security staff
A nurse was raped and tortured at gunpoint by an inmate because security guards had left him unshackled, a new lawsuit claims.

The suit, filed by two nurses - who have been listed as John Does - at the Northwestern Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois, alleges a prison guard ran and hid when Tywon Salters took them hostage.

Salters, 21, had been transported from a jail in Chicago because he had eaten a piece of plastic and was receiving treatment at the hospital. According to the lawsuit, he managed to con his guard into believing he didn't need his handcuffs, stole his guard's gun and took two nurses into a room, holding them at gunpoint for several hours before a SWAT team shot him dead and freed his hostages.

Attorneys representing the nurses are blaming Kane County police as well as security firm APEX3 for not properly protecting the hospital staff, according to CBS.

'We are [filing suit] so this type of thing doesnt happen to anyone else, and so that hospital staff can feel safe returning to work,' the nurses' attorneys said in a statement.

Scroll down for video

Tywon Salters, 21, allegedly held two nurses hostage for more than three hours and repeatedly raped one of them.

Salters - has previously been convicted of grand larceny and armed robbery - took control of his guard's gun by tricking him into believing he didn't need handcuffs

The incident unfolded on May 13. Salters - who was transported to the hospital just five days prior - was in the hospital bed and was being guarded by a security man, who according to the nurses filing the suit, was not closely watching him and was rather reclining on his chair while on his laptop.

In the afternoon, another guard, Shawn Loomis, took over watching Salters. After going to the bathroom, the inmate managed to convince Loomis that he didn't need to be handcuffed because he would need to go again soon.

The nurses say it was at this point that Salters managed to take the gun. Loomis immediately run to a nearby room and hid.

'The sheriff then took no action to attempt to regain control of his gun or protect hospital employees walking the floor,' the lawsuit claims.

Salters - who has previously been convicted of grand larceny and armed robbery - then entered a nurse's room naked and forced her to take her clothes off so he could wear them.

The Northwestern Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois was on lockdown and employees were evacuated

Salters' guard, Shawn Loomis (pictured) allegedly ran and hid when his gun was stolen and did nothing to protect the nurses

At this point, a second nurse entered the room. He left the first nurse behind and sent his new hostage to a decontamination room in the hospital - which at this point had been evacuated and was on lockdown - where, for three hours, he 'repeatedly beat her, forced her to remove her clothes, violently raped her, threatened her life, verbally abused her and held her at gunpoint,' the suit states.

'The entire time that she was held captive, he held her hair with one hand and had the gun to her head with the other hand,' the nurses' attorney Sean Murray said. 'She was told she was going to die, told she was going to leave in a body bag.'

After several attempts, the nurse convinced her 'rapist' to allow her to make a phone call. She used the opportunity to alert others to leave the hospital.

'The quick thinking by this nurse likely saved other hospital staff from being harmed,' attorneys said in a statement.

During this time, police were devising ways to free the nurse. They began negotiating with Salters, who was demanding a car.

At around 4pm, the Kane County SWAT team stormed into the hospital and entered a violent exchange, during which a bullet grazed over one of the officers' vests and hit one of the nurses in the arm, the Chicago Tribune reports. They shot Salters dead at the scene.

Loomis and the SWAT officer who shot Salters have been placed on administrative leave.

The Illinois Police Public Integrity Task Force is now investigating the inmate's death, following an Illinois law which requires a full report when there has been an officer-related death.

Kane County police tried to negotiate with the gunman, who was asking them for a car. After the police failed, a SWAT team barged into the hospital and shot Salters dead
Washington won't ease sanctions the U.S. slapped on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine  and is even contemplating getting 'tougher' on Moscow, a top Trump administration official said Friday.

Gary Cohn, head of the White House National Economic Council, revealed the posture to reporters after causing some confusion with his remarks on the same subject Thursday.

'Let me stop with right and left and let me just be much more blunt and clear. We're not lowering our sanctions on Russia. If anything we would probably look to get tougher on Russia,' Cohn told reporters traveling with President Trump, who is attending a G7 summit in Sicily.

'Let me be more succinct on what right and left mean when we're talking about sanctions and Russia,' he explained.

'What I was trying  someone asked me if that means we're going to lower our sanctions on Russia, and I said, "You're only looking one direction, I'm looking both directions, right and left."

Gary Cohn, director of the U.S. National Economic Council (l) says the U.S. is looking to get 'tougher' on Russia, rather than easing sanctions given Russia's current posture

The former Goldman Sachs exec also spoke specifically about President Trump's view.

'So the president wants to continue to keep the sanctions in place, and I think the president's made it clear how the Russians could have the sanctions lifted and how he could have the sanctions taken away,' he said.

He made his comments to reporters at the G7 summit of leading industrialised nations in Sicily.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with top military officials May 19, 2017 in Sochi, Russia. Vladimir Putin is spending a busy week in Sochi looking into Army Forces development and the defence-industrial sector, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

US President Donald Trump (L) speaks with President of the European Council Donald Tusk during the Heads of State and of Government G7 summit, on May 26, 2017 in Taormina, Sicily

President Donald Trump (L) of the United States and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA - MAY 10, 2017: US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak during talks with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (not inpicture) in the Oval Office at the White House

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA - MAY 10, 2017: President Donald Trump of the United States, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Russia's Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak (4th L) during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

The European Union and United States under then president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia rebels.

But it has been unclear whether Obama's successor Donald Trump, who is under fire domestically over allegations that Russia meddled to aid his election campaign last year, would maintain these sanctions.

Just Thursday evening, Cohn had said the United States did not yet "have a position" on the issue.

I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we dont have a position he told reporters traveling with the president.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, left, White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, center, and Deputy National Security adviser Dina Powell talk before a meeting between President Donald Trump and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker and European Council President Donald Tusk, at European Union headquarters, Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Brussels

That remark drew some confusion, and prompted Cohn to clear up his remarks.

The affirmation of the US stance came as US media reported that the FBI was looking into the activities of Trump's son-in-law and top aide, Jared Kushner, as part of the probe into possible Russian interference -- drawing his family into the crisis.

European Union president Donald Tusk had earlier called on G7 leaders to maintain Russia sanctions.

"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU's 28 leaders, told reporters.

"I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy," he added before the latest summit of seven leading industrialized nations kicked off in the town of Taormina, with Trump one of four leaders new to the G7 party.

Cohn's statement came as Moscow says relations with the West are hitting a new low.

Police stand guard at a local parliament in Simferopol, Crimea February 28, 2014. Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region on Friday in what Ukraine's government described as an invasion and occupation by Russian forces, raising tension between Moscow and the West

'At present, NATO-Russian relations are at their worst since the end of the Cold War,' the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement.

The early days of Trump's administration have been dominated by press reports of Russian interference in the presidential elections and revelations of ties between Trump's team and Russian officials.

On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner had come under the focus of federal investigators for December meetings he had with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. and with the head of a Russian bank.

Despite Trump's early expressions of hope for improved relations, there have been some strains. Trump launched cruise missiles at Syria after a chemical weapons attack, striking forces loyal to the government of Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Moscow.

Trump defied critics by meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov  but then got burned when Moscow released chummy-looking photos of the meeting.
Tun Lon Sein, 22, is facing a federal charge after allegedly trying to bite a flight attendant before opening a plane door and jumping onto the tarmac below

A 22-year-old is facing a federal charge after allegedly trying to bite a flight attendant before opening an aircraft door and jumping out of the plane onto the tarmac below.

Tun Lon Sein is accused of refusing to return to his seat on American Airlines Flight 5242 Thursday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, reported ABC News.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Sein got up after the fasten-seatbelt sign illuminated and attempted to bite a flight attendant's hand in his pursuit of a door on the plane.

Two other passengers got up to help, but he managed to get to a door, open it and jump out onto the tarmac below.

The flight, which was headed to New Bern, North Carolina, was holding on the tarmac after having pushed back from its gate.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Sein got up after the fasten-seatbelt sign illuminated and attempted to bite a flight attendant's hand in his pursuit of a door on the plane. The plane was leaving from Charlotte Douglas International Airport, pictured in a stock image

'Sein spoke little or no English during these events,' according to the criminal complaint.

'However, circumstances surrounding his actions show that Sein understood the directions of the F/A, as well as the safety requirements of commercial air travel,' the complaint said.

Sein was apprehended by law enforcement and could face 20 years in prison if he is convicted of charges of interfering with flight crew members.

Following the incident, the aircraft, operated by American subsidiary PSA Airlines, returned to the gate and was rescreened. Passengers waited in the terminal, American said.

The flight arrived in New Bern an hour and a half late.

Sein was scheduled to appear in court for the first time on Friday morning. It is unclear if he has representation, reported ABC.
Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly refused to say whether he backed the renewal of Trident tonight as he endured his toughest interview of the campaign so far.

The Labour leader and CND vice-chair floundered as he was pressed on how his views were compatible with his party's position.

In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil, Mr Corbyn also struggled to explain his soft stance towards the IRA in the 1980s and how he would tackle ISIS given that he has ruled out airstrikes and drone attacks against targets in Iraq and Syria.

The veteran left-winger also refused to commit to cutting immigration, and made clear he still regards Nato, the basis of Western security since the 1940s, as a 'Frankenstein' organisation.

The Labour leader and CND vice-chair floundered as he was pressed during a BBC interview tonight on how his views were compatible with his party's position

In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil, Mr Corbyn also struggled to explain his soft stance towards the IRA in the 1980s and how he would tackle ISIS

Mr Corbyn was challenged again and again to say he supported the renewal of Trident, but declined to do so. He has previously said there are no circumstances under which he would use nuclear weapons as PM.

'I voted against the renewal, everybody knows that, because I wanted to go in a different direction. That decision has been taken, I respect that decision,' said Mr Corbyn.

He added: 'It's there in the programme, it's there in the manifesto, it will be carried out... it's the position we are adopting as a party and we will take into government.'

Mr Corbyn said the 'role' of nuclear weapons would be included in a defence review if he wins power on June 8.

Asked whether that meant he could 'ditch' the nuclear deterrent, Mr Corbyn said: 'It will look at the role of nuclear weapons.'

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured with shadow home secretary Diane Abbott (right) and shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti today, previously opposed moves to bar British jihadis from returning to the UK

Mr Corbyn was torn to pieces by Neil as he tried to justify his long history of support for the IRA's cause.

The presenter said: 'You say you didn't support the IRA. But you invited convicted IRA terrorists to tea in the Commons a few weeks after the Brighton bomb which tried to destroy our elected government.

'You stood for a minute's silence to honour  your word, Mr Corbyn  honour IRA terrorists killed by the British army.

LABOUR LEADER REFUSES TO BACK ISIS DRONE STRIKES Jeremy Corbyn today refused to back the use of drones to find and kill ISIS terrorists. The Labour leader, who has consistently voted against the use of military force and extra security measures, was asked what he would do to root out the terror group. Andrew Neil said: 'You've called for  your phrase was 'smarter ways' today to deal with countries harbouring terrorists. 'But you wouldn't put boots on the ground, you wouldn't bomb the terrorists, you wouldn't use drones to take out the terrorist leaders, so what would you do? Would you talk to them?' Mr Corbyn replied: 'No, I wouldn't. Isis doesn't come from nowhere. Isis doesn't get its money from nowhere. 'Isis doesn't get its arms from nowhere. Isis does have a whole lot of connections around the world, financial and others, which I think need to be robustly chased and followed.' Advertisement

'Throughout the '80s and the '90s you spoke at scores of hard-line republican gatherings which backed the IRA and the armed struggle.

Mr Corbyn replied: 'I always wanted and always do want peace, always want a dialogue between people of vastly different backgrounds. And the minute's silence you referred to was in 1987 and it was for all who'd died in Northern Ireland.

Neil pointed out that the purpose of the meeting had in fact been to 'honour' the eight IRA terrorists that had been killed.

Mr Corbyn said: 'I said all those that have died in Northern Ireland. I made that very, very clear.'

Speaking in the Commons in 2014, Jeremy Corbyn (pictured giving a speech in London today) said the government should not be trying to make 'subjective' decisions about who were 'good fighters and bad fighters' in Syria

The presenter pushed Mr Corbyn to say whether at any point he had publicly urged the IRA to give up 'the bomb and the bullet'.

A spluttering Mr Corbyn replied: 'I always said the bombing process would never work - that there wasn't a military solution to be found in Northern Ireland.'

The Labour leader was asked how he would tackle the ISIS threat, given that he 'wouldn't put boots on the ground, you wouldn't bomb the terrorists, you wouldn't use drones to take out the terrorist leaders'.

Mr Corbyn did not dispute the premise of the question, answering: 'Isis doesn't come from nowhere. Isis doesn't get its money from nowhere.

'Isis doesn't get its arms from nowhere. Isis does have a whole lot of connections around the world, financial and others, which I think need to be robustly chased and followed.'

CORBYN HAS NOT CHANGED VIEWS ON 'FRANKENSTEIN' NATO Jeremy Corbyn today said he has not changed his views that Nato is 'a very dangerous Frankenstein of an organisation'. The Labour leader repeatedly refused to disown his previous comments that the military alliance is a 'danger to world peace' that should be 'wound up'. In the excruciating exchange, he refused to give clear backing to the military alliance - seen as the bedrock of Britain's security. Confronting the left-winger over his views on Nato, Andrew Neil said: 'But do you think it's a Frankenstein?' But Mr Corbyn tried to dodge the question, saying simply hat he believes 'all organisations need to be accountable'. Pressing the point, Mr Neil said: 'So have you changed your views on Nato?' But the Labour leader replied, 'what I've done  no, no' before trying to duck the question by talking about the history of the military alliance. He was asked directly if he 'would be a committed supporter of Nato as every previous Prime Minister of this country has been?' Mr Corbyn said: 'I will be a committed member of that alliance in order to promote peace, justice, human rights and democracy. 'And I believe that we can make a positive contribution on that.' The Labour leader has previously suggested he would not send British troops to protect a Nato ally. Advertisement

An incredulous Neil said: 'That's it, that's the smarter way?'

Mr Corbyn said: 'Well, that's a good start for doing it.'

There was also a difficult time for Mr Corbyn when Neil raised the fact that 180 of his own MPs had voted no confidence in his leadership.

The presenter quoted MPs including John Woodcock, who previously said he would 'not not countenance ever voting to make Jeremy Corbyn Britain's Prime Minister'.

He also cited former Cabinet minister Alan Johnson's description of him as 'useless, incompetent and incapable'.

'That's the people that know you,' Neil said.

Mr Corbyn said: 'Listen, this Manifesto has been agreed by everyone in our party.'

Neil persisted: 'Why should the voters trust you when so many even of your own MPs don't trust you?'

'I BELIEVE IN A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD': JEREMY CORBYN FAILS TO BACK TRIDENT Jeremy Corbyn refused to back Trident - and said he wants to live in a 'nuclear free world'. The Labour leader, a long-time critic of nuclear and vice chairman of CND, was asked nine times if he does not support Trident - but refused to answer. And he hints that he could scrap Trident if he is voted into Number 10 as the nuclear deterrent will form part of of the party's strategic defence review. His comments will put him on a collision course with his own party who have voted to keep Trident. Challenging him on his position, Andrew Neil said: 'You cannot say  you cannot say to the British people tonight that I, Jeremy Corbyn, will support the renewal of Trident, can you?' The Labour leader ducked the question, replying: 'It's there in the programme; it's there in the Manifesto. It will be carried out.' Asked if the defence review will include looking at Trident, he said: 'It will look at the role of nuclear weapons as it will look at everything.' Advertisement

The Labour leader said: 'Well, you could have quite easily got quotes from a number of people who would say positive things.'

Priti Patel, International Development Secretary, accused the Labour leader of trying to wriggle out of his past.

She said: 'Corbyn didn't answer a single question in that interview. He spent half an hour trying to escape from everything he had said and done in his 30 years in politics.

'The fact is he backed the IRA, doesn't support NATO, wouldn't renew Trident, wants to increase immigration and wants to massively increase taxes on working families.'

The exchanges came after Theresa May lashed out at Mr Corbyn for making 'excuses' for terrorists by linking UK foreign policy to the Manchester bombing.

Theresa May said while she had been working with G7 leaders at a summit in Sicily today, Mr Corbyn had shown he was 'not fit' to be in charge of the country

The Prime Minister accused the Labour leader of saying terror attacks are 'our own fault' and condemned him for delivering the controversial speech just four days after the atrocity.

Mrs May said while she had been working with G7 leaders at a summit in Sicily, Mr Corbyn had shown he was 'not fit' to be in charge of the country.

'I want to be very clear about what has been said today,' Mrs May told a press conference at the summit.

'I have been here at the G7 working with other international leaders to fight terrorism.

'At the same time Jeremy Corbyn has said that terror attacks are our own fault.

'He has chosen to do that just a few days after one of the worst terror atrocities we have seen.'

She added: 'There can be no excuse for terrorism. There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester.'
The United States will next week test a missile defense system to see if it can intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) next week.

The Pentagon announced the test at a time when North Korea is trying to develop long-range missiles of its own.

It is the first time the United States will try to intercept an ICBM.

The United States has used the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system in place to counter attacks from rogue states such as North Korea.

It is able to intercept other types of missiles, but they have never tried it out on an ICBM.

While US officials believe Pyongyang is some years away from mastering re-entry expertise for perfecting an ICBM, it is making advances.

The United States has used the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system (seen above), managed by Boeing Co. and in place to counter attacks from rogue states such as North Korea, to intercept other types of missiles but never an ICBM

This week the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency said that if left unchecked, North Korea (whose ruler, Kim Jong-Un, is seen the above May 5 file photo) is on an 'inevitable' path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States

This week the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency said that if left unchecked, North Korea is on an 'inevitable' path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States.

The remarks are the latest indication of mounting US concern about Pyongyang's advancing missile and nuclear weapons programs, which the North says are needed for self-defense.

US officials said that the test had been planned well in advance and was not in reaction to any specific event.

The Missile Defense Agency said an interceptor based out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, one of 36 in California and Alaska, will be used in the test to shoot down a target similar to an ICBM over the Pacific Ocean.

The system has carried out successful intercepts in nine out of 17 attempts dating back to 1999.

While the US remains wary of North Korea, a new report from Seoul indicates that President Donald Trump (above) may have already ruled out a military option against Pyongyang

The most recent test was in 2014.

Last year a science advocacy group said the system has no proven capability to protect the United States.

While the US remains wary of North Korea, a new report from Seoul indicates that President Donald Trump may have already ruled out a military option against Pyongyang.

South Korean politicians Thursday met with Joseph Yun, the US State Department official responsible for policy on North Korea.

Yun briefed lawmakers on the Trump administration's approach toward Pyongyang, according to the Korean news agency Yonhap.

Trump told his Filipino counterpart last month, Rodrigo Duterte, that he considered Kim 'a madman with nuclear weapons.' The photo above was distributed by the North Korean government on Monday. It shows a missile being launched at an undisclosed location

He told lawmakers that Trump signed a comprehensive State Department policy report that called for exerting 'every possible pressure' diplomatically on Pyongyang.

The report calls for four main strategies - not recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, imposing every possible sanction and pressure, not seeking a regime change and resolving the problem with dialogue in the end.

Earlier this week, it was learned that Trump considered North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un 'a madman with nuclear weapons.'

Trump made the comment during a phone call late last month with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.

The US president also discussed the possibility of launching a nuclear strike on the regime using the two submarines he has stationed in the region.
Reginald ('Reggie') Kimbro, 23, is charged in the strangulation death of Molly Matheson and the murder of Megan Leigh Getrum

A man already accused of raping and strangling a young woman to death in her apartment near Texas Christian University has been separately charged in the murder of a second woman.

Reginald Gerard Kimbro, 23, was charged with capital murder on Friday in the slaying of 36-year-old Megan Leigh Getrum, whose body was found on April 15 in Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas.

Kimbro is already being held pending $1million bail in the murder of his ex-girlfriend Molly Matheson, 22, whose mother found her lying dead in the shower of her Fort Worth apartment on April 10.

The suspected killer was also twice accused of rape, in separate 2012 and 2014 cases, but never faced trial, it emerged earlier this month.

Now police say they have DNA evidence that links Kimbro to the second murder, of Getrum, according to an arrest warrant affidavit reviewed by DailyMail.com.

Megan Getrum, a software engineer who enjoyed hiking and the outdoors, was last heard from on April 14 in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve near her Plano, Texas home

Police believe Kimbro killed both Getrum (left) and Molly Matheson (right) in the same week

The map above shows where the women's bodies were found

Getrum, a software engineer who lived in Plano, was unmarried with no children.

She was last heard from on the evening of Friday April 14, when it is believed she went for a hike on the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano near her home.

Cell phone records indicate her last text message was sent to her mother around 8.41pm from the nature preserve.

Her phone remained at the preserve from around 7.49pm to 2.52am the following morning, according to the records obtained by police.

Witnesses told police they saw a black male in his 20s near the preserve that evening, claiming to be looking for his cell phone.

They identified his vehicle as a blue 2004 Buick Park Avenue to police at the scene, who found it to be registered to Kimbro's father, the affidavit said.

Although the body was not identified until several days later, Getrum was found dead around 7am on April 15, floating in Lake Hubbard about 30 miles from the nature preserve.

Friends and family grew alarmed after not hearing from Gertrum through the rest of the weekend, and she did not show up for work the following Monday.

Friends and family grew alarmed after not hearing from Gertrum, seen in a Facebook photo, after she disappeared while hiking in a nature preserve near her home

Before the murders he is now charged with, Kimbro was accused of two rapes, in 2012 and 2014, but never faced trial in either case. He now faces the death penalty in both murders

Gertrum was reported missing on Tuesday April 18, and the following day police were able to positively ID the body earlier found floating in Lake Hubbard as her.

The medical examiner found the cause of death to be a blunt injury to the back of the neck that 'would cause immediate unconsciousness' and be fatal within minutes or hours.

Getrum also had compression marks on her neck and blood on her clothing, according to the medical examiner.

Police believe Kimbro raped Getrum, strangled her to death and then placed her body in the water in an attempt to wash away evidence.

Just hours after Kimbro is alleged to have killed Getrum, he was interviewed at a Fort Worth police station on the morning of April 14 in connection with Molly Matheson's death.

In that case as well, there were signs of attempted evidence tampering, including an attempt to wash DNA evidence from her body, police have said.

Cell phone records indicate that Kimbro texted Matheson on the night she died, investigators have said.

A message at 10.26pm on April 9 indicated that Kimbro had arrived at her apartment, police said.

A surveillance video also showed a vehicle similar to Kimbro's arriving around 10.25pm.

Molly Matheson attended the University of Arkansas, where Kimbro told police that the two dated in 2014. Kimbro has claimed he was a student too but the school has no record of him

The suspect told police he had dated Matheson in 2014, when she was a student at the University of Arkansas. Kimbro has claimed he attended that university, but the school says it has no record of his enrollment.

Matheson's parents had previously released a statement saying that Kimbro was someone their daughter 'sort of' knew from the University of Arkansas.

Kimbro admitted to police that he'd visited Matheson on the evening of April 9, claiming that the two began to kiss, but said that she declined to have sex and he left the apartment around 1.30am, according to an arrest warrant affidavit reported by the Star-Telegram.

The surveillance video showed his suspected vehicle leaving the apartment closer to 2am, police said.

A text message from Kimbro to Matheson followed about an hour later.

'Hey. Thanks again for the advice. Its nice seeing how far youve come. Im proud of you brej. Hmu when you get up,' the text message at 2.59am read, using the slang term for a close friend.

Police say Matheson never read that final text message.

Kimbro texted Matheson at 2.59am on April 10, when police believe she was already dead. 'Hey. Thanks again for the advice. Its nice seeing how far youve come. Im proud of you brej. Hmu when you get up,' the text message read

Matheson, who was not a student at TCU but lived near the campus, was found dead by her mother around 7.20pm on April 10.

Investigators say the killer likely dragged her body into the shower and turned the water on to try to wash away evidence.

Police also found a fresh load of damp laundry in Matheson's washing machine, which they suspect the murderer put in to try to cover up the crime.

The laundry included two pairs of womens underwear, a pair of running shorts, a pillowcase, a pair of mens underwear, a green fitted sheet, two wash cloths and a bath towel.

Despite having gone through the wash, the clothes contained evidence of a sexual assault, police said.

A rape kit revealed evidence that Matheson had been sexually assaulted both vaginally and anally, police said.

The arrest affidavit also revealed that Kimbro was investigated but never charged for rape in Plano, Texas in 2012, and arrested for raping a woman in South Padre Island in 2014, before the charges were dropped.

Kimbro was twice accused of rape in unrelated cases, but the charges were dropped in one, and police never arrested him in the other although his DNA was on the alleged victim

In the South Padre Island case, Kimbro met a woman at the Isla Grand Beach Resort.

They began to kiss and he took her into the women's bathroom, according to a South Padre Island Police Department report cited in the affidavit.

The woman told cops that Kimbro tried to have sex with her in the resort bathroom, and when she refused, he began choking her and raped her.

She immediately called police, who arrested Kimbro at the scene, and a rape kit found his semen inside of her.

But Kimbro claimed the sex had been consensual, and prosecutors dropped the charges against him.

Kimbro was arrested at Isla Grand Beach Resort (pictured) in 2014 after a woman accused him of raping her in the resort's bathroom. Kimbro claimed the sex was consensual and the charges were dropped

In Plano, Texas, a woman told police that Kimbro had offered her $200 for oral sex, and when she refused and left his house, he followed her out to her car and apologized.

The woman agreed to drive Kimbro to a nearby school, where she said he choked her as he forcefully stripped off her clothes.

'The victim felt that she was going to die because Kimbro was choking her and covering her mouth and nose so she couldnt breathe,' police wrote in the arrest warrant, according to NBC Dallas.

The woman tried to call 911, but Kimbro slammed her head into the ground and raped her, she later told police. Kimbro then drove her to another school, made her strip down again, and released her.

Although Kimbro's DNA was found on the woman after she called police, he was never arrested, and no charges were ever filed.

It is said that the alleged victim in the Plano incident declined to pursue charges, but Plano police spokesman officer David Tilley told the Star-Telegram that the case is still 'an open and active investigation'.

As part of that investigation, an ex-girlfriend of Kimbro's told police in 2014 that he liked to 'strangle' her during sex, but had 'gone too far' and refused to stop when she tapped out, the arrest affidavit in Getrum's death revealed.

Molly Matheson's mother Tracy found her dead in the bathroom of her apartment on April 10

Kimbro was arrested on April 27 at his father's home in Dallas in connection with Molly Matheson's murder.

According to Kimbro's Facebook page, he lives in Plano and studied marketing at the University of Arkansas, however the university has said it has no record of him being a student there.

Matheson went to the University of Arkansas until she withdrew in 2015.

'This has been an overwhelmingly trying time for our family and we are confident that justice will be served for Molly,' Matheson's family said in a statement.

Tributes have begun to pour in for the former sorority member of Alpha Delta Phi, who has been described as 'funny, kind, and wise beyond her years.'

She graduated from Keller Timber Creek High School in Winter Park, Florida.

Kaylie Kovach wrote on Facebook: 'I'm so sick over finding out that I lost another friend from high school! What is our world coming to!?'

She added: 'You were such a beautiful soul Molly Matheson. Hope you are having fun in Heaven. Prayers for the entire family and friends.'
A naked man was caught on surveillance footage stealing a $25,000 swan statue from a Florida storage center.

Ronald Thompson was identified as the suspect who is seen in the video walking up to the Lakeland Cold Storage center with a white bucket in his hands around 5am, according to police.

He walked up to one door and tried to open it before he ventured on to find a truck with the large black and white checkered swan sitting in the back of it.

A naked man (center) was caught on surveillance footage stealing a $25,000 swan statue from a Florida storage center

Ronald Thompson (pictured) was identified as the suspect who is seen in the video walking up to the center with a white bucket in his hands around 5am, police said

He walked up to one door and tried to open it before he ventured on to find a truck with the large black and white checkered swan (pictured) sitting in the back of it. Thompson apparently drove off with the truck and with the statue still in the back

In a Facebook post Thursday, Polk County Sheriff's officials said they know 'it's got to be hard to hide one of these,' adding that 'someone has seen it'.

The swan was stolen last weekend and in the video, Thompson apparently drove off with the truck and the statue still in the back.

Investigators say they've found the truck that was reported stolen in a nearby county, but they still don't know why the man was naked as he apparently tried to break into the storage center.

Authorities caught a break in the case when a woman's son found the five-foot-tall statue while fishing, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd's Twitter page.

'Guess what??? The swan has been found!!!' the sheriff wrote on Twitter, adding that a local resident named Kelly found it while fishing off Old Tampa Highway in Lakeland on Friday.

Photos of the swan showed the sheriff and Kelly's mother, Maria, standing next to it.

'Kelly was fishing in the pond yesterday & saw it. He told his mom Maria - she saw the stolen swan on the news today & called PCSO!' the sheriff tweeted.

But the alleged swan thief, Thompson, was arrested and charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle and booked into the Hillsborough County Jail.

Lost and found: Authorities caught a break in the case when local resident Maria's (right) son, Kelly, found the five-foot-tall statue while fishing, according to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd's Twitter page
A seven-year-old girl kissed the TV screen when a picture of her stepmother, who was killed in the Manchester suicide attack, appeared, her heartbroken father revealed.

Hero aunt Kelly Brewster, 32, died after shielding her niece from the blast in the foyer of the Manchester Arena, where terrorist Salman Abedi massacred 22 innocent people.

Her partner Ian Winslow said his daughter Phoebe is devastated by her stepmother's death.

Kelly Brewster, pictured with partner Ian Winslow, died shielding her niece from Monday's deadly blast

Kelly's stepdaughter Phoebe has been left heartbroken by the tragedy, said distraught partner Ian

Ian, from Sheffield in South Yorkshire, said he and Kelly were trying for a baby, and the day his partner died he had put the deposit down on a house.

Describing Phoebe's reaction after being told of Kelly's death, Ian, 36, said: 'They were so close. When I told her, Kellys picture came up on the TV and she went over and kissed the screen. Shes heartbroken.'

He stated: 'I just want to hold Kelly and kiss her again. I miss her so much.

'We had all of these amazing plans together, and now all that has gone. I cant believe it.'

Ian said the last time he heard from his sweetheart was in a text message at about 8pm on Monday, when she said love you.

Kelly had gone to the Ariana Grande concert with her sister Claire, 33, and her niece Hollie, 12, and was 'really excited'

Kelly had gone to the Ariana Grande concert with her sister Claire, 33, and her niece Hollie, 12, and was 'really excited'.

And he said his partner was 'the happiest she has ever been' about the move to her 'dream house'.

Fearing the worst following the explosion Ian, along with Kellys parents and other relatives, rushed to Manchester to try and search for the three of them.

Claire and Hollie had gone to a separate hospital from Kelly, and Ian and the rest of the family were sent to the Etihad Stadium - which had been set up as a information centre for missing persons.

Ian said: 'They said there was two adults and two children alive that were being treated and had not been identified yet so we were desperately hoping that one of the adults would be Kelly.

'But this went down to one adult and then they said it wasnt Kelly - we were then told that she had passed away.

'We were all shocked. Myself, Kellys parents Kim and Kevin, everyone is absolutely devastated.'

Mortgage broker Ian told how they met through mutual friends at Kellys 30th birthday party two-and-a-half years ago.

Ian said: 'I knew she was the one for me. She was a beautiful, kind person who loved life in general and in particular loved music and travelling.'

Tributes have been left in the heart of Manchester to the 22 killed by suicide bomber Salman Abedi

He told how they had gone to Disneyland Paris, along with Phoebe, in February and they were all set for two more holidays to Tenerife and Salou later this year.

Ian said Kelly Loved One Direction, Justin Timberlake and her favourite film was Dirty Dancing.

Ian believes the authorities should take a more hardline approach to terror suspects and added: 'These people are monsters to target innocent children and adults at a concert.

'You shouldnt feel scared going to pop concerts or anywhere. Nobody expected this to happen but the person who did it was known to the authorities and they should take more robust action.'

But he agreed that communities should 'stand together' and not let extremists divide us.

Ian also paid tribute to the emergency services for their response and members of the public for their support.

He said: 'We have been overwhelmed by the messages of support. It is really heart warming.'
CHEYENNE, Wyo.  Most of Wyoming, including the heavily forested northwest part of the state, is predicted to have a slightly below average to average large wildfire season this year, state forester Bill Crapser said.

"Their best long-term trends right now are kind of on the low end of average," Crapser said. "They are predicting quite a bit of lightning. So their prediction right now is that we're probably going to have ... a lot of starts, but probably a lower than average large fire development."

The predictions come from the Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center in Denver. The center consists of various government agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters, that provide information on wildfires in the Rocky Mountain region.

But Crapser, who briefed Gov. Matt Mead about the wildfire season predictions on Thursday, noted that fire conditions can quickly change in Wyoming with a few hot, windy days.

"The caution that I have on this is that it's almost identical to the prediction they had last year at this time, and then it dried out and quit raining and we had a pretty active fire season," he said.

In 2016, there were about 700 wildfires in Wyoming, including several large ones in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. The state averages about 600 a year.

Wyoming has 11.8 million of acres of forested land, most of it on federal land, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.

Crapser said county firefighting resources were "in good shape" heading into the fire season.

"Our state resources, both our crews and our helitack, are going to be staffed this summer and be able to deal with the normal type of stuff we have," he said.

With the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse passing directly through Wyoming, Crapser said his office has already been in touch with other states in the region about possibly bolstering Wyoming's firefighting resources. Large wildfires put up huge plumes of smoke that can obscure the view of the sky from the ground.

"So if it looks like we're going to have a lot of activity during that time then we'll start gearing up some stuff," he said.
Jacob Schwartz, 29, was allegedly keeping more than 3,000 photographs and 89 videos of child pornography, including pictures of baby girls as young as six-months-old, court papers revealed

A de Blasio administration employee and leading New York young Democrat has been arrested on felony charges of child pornography.

Jacob Schwartz, 29, was allegedly keeping more than 3,000 photographs and 89 videos of child pornography, including pictures of baby girls as young as six-months-old, court papers revealed.

The highly illegal content shows 'young nude females between the approximate ages of six months and 16 (years) engaging in sexual conduct on an adult male,' reported the New York Post.

Schwartz's father, labor lawyer Arthur Schwartz, called his son's case a 'personal tragedy'.

He expressed he understood 'these are serious charges' after watching his sons arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday night, and said he's already receiving therapy.

Schwartz surrendered to investigators in Manhattan's 13th Precinct Thursday morning, sources told the Post.

He is presently employed as a computer programmer analyst in the city Department of Design and Construction, and was hired under the de Blasio administration. Pictured is city Mayor Bill De Blasio in a file image

He had been under investigation since March 29 after handing over his laptop with written permission to search its contents.

Schwartz was the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the downstate region vice president of the state's chapter.

In a statement to DailyMail.com, the MYD said: 'The Manhattan Young Democrats are shocked by recent reports of criminal allegations against one of our members. The individual is no longer a member of the board, and an interim president is now in place.

'MYD maintains a deep and abiding respect for our judicial system, and the sacred principle that individuals are innocent until proven guilty, but the nature of these accusations required us to take immediate action.

'While the allegations are deeply upsetting, MYD is committed to continuing our work. We have a longstanding tradition of activating, educating, and empowering young progressives to take action on the issues that matter most to them, and MYD will continue to work toward that.'

He is presently employed as a computer programmer analyst in the city Department of Design and Construction, where he works on the Hurricane Sandy recovery program and makes over $66,000 a year. He was hired after interning there in 2015, under the de Blasio administration.

Schwartz has been involved in politics from a young age, and helped his father campaign for Democratic district leader in Greenwich Village, according to his online biography.

Schwartz is the president of the Manhattan Young Democrats and the downstate region vice president of the state's chapter, though both websites have removed his photo

His dad served as the New York counsel to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential bid in 2016.

Schwartz attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, and was a member of an acapella singing group.

The 29-year-old has been charged with promoting sexual performance by a child, as well as possessing sexual performance by a child under 16, according to the Post. Both charges are felonies.

He was released from jail on a $7,500 bail.
Donald Trump declared in a scathing statement Friday night that terrorists 'are engaged in a war against civilization, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil.'

The president's firm proclamation came just hours after a jihadi attack on buses carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt left 28 people dead  including children  and another 25 injured

Up to 10 masked gunmen in military uniforms opened fire on the convoy as the group was heading towards Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Maghagha to pray, about 140 miles south of Cairo.

'This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls,' Trump said while attending the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy.

'Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon humanity. But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology.'

U.S. President Donald Trump released a scathing statement following the massacre of Coptic Christians in a convoy headed toward an Egyptian monastery to pray

Trump tweeted that terrorists 'are engaged in a war against civilization'

Up to 10 masked attackers dressed in military uniforms stopped a bus in Minya province, 140 miles south of Cairo, as the group was heading towards Saint Samuel the Confessor Monastery in Maghagha

Shocking pictures have started to emerge showing bodies covered with black sheets near the scene of the atrocity

'America stands with President Al Sisi and all the Egyptian people today, and always, as we fight to defeat this common enemy,' he added.

Leaders of the G7 nations  Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States  said jointly on Friday that they would pledge 'concerted and coordinated action' to combat global terror.

'We condemn in the strongest possible terms terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,' they said.

The seven industrialized nations pledged to increase their activities to combat terror groups' use of the Internet, including an effort to 'counter propaganda supporting terrorism and violent extremism [and] online recruitment by extremists.'

At least 28 people including 'many children' are dead after the bus slaughter. Pictured is the interior of the bus, smeared with blood

They also signed onto a Trump administration-favored statement demanding new action to cut off funding to ISIS, al-Qaeda and other like-minded militant organizations.

'Because funds are the lifeblood of violent extremists and terrorists, countering the financing of violent extremists who radicalize youth around the globe and threaten our national interests,' their joint announcement read.

Trump's statement, unlike that of the larger group, painted global terrorism as a religious war being conducted, in part, on 'the treasured and historic Christian Communities of the Middle East.'

'The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished,' the president said, declaring that '[c]ivilization is at a precipice  and whether we climb or fall will be decided by our ability to join together to protect all faiths, all religions, and all innocent life.'_

No group has claimed responsibility for Friday's attack in Egypt, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

The slaughter also followed ISIS's claimed responsibility for three deadly church attacks in December and April that claimed the lives of dozens of people.

The jihadists threatened more attacks against the Arab country's Christians, who make up around 10 per cent of its population of about 90 million.

The group was travelling in two buses and a truck to St. Samuel Monastery from the nearby province of Bani Suief

An injured child is taken to the Maghagha hospital by medics after being shot by masked gunmen who opened fire with automatic rifles

The jihadists threatened more attacks against the Arab country's Christians. Pictured: Blood stains the outside of the bullet-riddled bus

Pictures of the bus aired by state television showed a vehicle riddled with machine-gun fire and its windows shot out.

Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old center of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.

Separately, the G7 leaders pledged in a joint statement to up their counter-terrorism game

'I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism,' Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said.

The United Nations Security Council condemned the attack in Egypt 'in the strongest terms'.

In a statement released Friday, the Council expressed its 'deepest sympathy' and condolences to the families of the victims and emphasized that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice.

'Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security,' the statement said.

Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group also condemned the attack, saying 'it is a new crime added to the criminal record of a murderers' gang.'

The Christians were on the way to Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor (pictured)

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan

Hundreds of people rushed to the nearby hospital in Maghagha city, near al-Minya, as the wounded were brought in for treatment

Egypt has been fighting ISIS militants who have waged an insurgency, mainly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula but there have been also attacks on the mainland.

The country has seen a wave of attacks on its Christians, including twin suicide bombings in April and another attack in December on a Cairo church that left over 75 people dead and scores wounded. ISIS in Egypt claimed responsibility for them and vowed more attacks.

Late last month Pope Francis visited Egypt in part to show his support for the Christians of this Muslim majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants.

During the trip, Francis paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo's St. Peter's church, which is located in close proximity to the St. Mark's cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Following the pope's visit, the ISIS affiliate in Egypt vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as they are targets of their group's militants.

Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at hands of the country's majority Muslim population.

Over the past decades, they have been the immediate targets of Islamic extremists.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are hot property in their roles as key advisers to the US President - and it would appear their trash is too.

An unidentified man was pictured pulling up to the couple's Washington DC home in a white SUV on Friday and carting away some of the trash left by the roadside.

He rifled through Ivanka and Jared's trash before putting what appeared to be a discarded steel clothes rack in the trunk of his Chevrolet Suburban.

The back of his SUV was already filled to the brim with a number of plants.

An unidentified man pulled up outside Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump's Washington DC home on Friday and rifled through their trash

It was not immediately clear if the man was a nearby resident just merely collecting unwanted items for himself.

Jared and Ivanka were back home for less than 24 hours when the man helped himself to their roadside trash.

The couple have just returned from whirlwind trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Italy where they had joined Trump for part of his first international tour as president.

Ivanka and Jared met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome on Wednesday before breaking away from the President's entourage and returning back to Washington.

Kushner emerged from the couple's home first thing Friday.

The man was pictured pulling up to the couple's home in a white SUV on Friday and carting away some of the trash left by the roadside

He picked up what appeared to be a discarded steel clothes rack and put it in the trunk of his Chevrolet Suburban

The back of the unidentified man's SUV was already filled to the brim with a number of plants

It was the first time he was spotted in public since he was named a person of interest in an FBI investigation into Russian collusion and the presidential election.

Federal investigators are focusing on Kushner, a senior adviser to the president, as part of their election probe, the Washington Post reported late Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Authorities are probing meetings Kushner had with top Russian officials during the presidential transition, when Kushner became known as a top facilitator for foreign governments looking to make contacts to the new administration.

While Kushner appeared to be heading to work at the White House on Friday morning, his wife Ivanka was busy sharing a heartwarming video of their one-year-old son Theodore on Instagram.

The mother-of-three filmed her son gleefully walking around their home after the little boy took his first steps just a week ago.

Jared Kushner emerged from behind bars on Friday - of his Washington DC home, that is - taking his first steps in public since he was named a person of interest in an FBI investigation into Russian collusion and the presidential election

Kushner emerged from the couple's home first thing Friday, presumably on his way to work at the White House
Saffie Roussos, eight, died in the Manchester terror attack

The seriously injured mother and sister of the Manchester bombing's youngest victim 'are going to be okay,' a family friend revealed yesterday.

Saffie Roussos, eight, died at the scene when the rucksack bomb exploded as she was leaving the concert with her mother Lisa, 48, and half-sister Ashlee Bromwich, 25.

The 'adorable' little girl is one of the UK's youngest-ever terror victims and her family is yet to reveal if Mrs Roussos knows about her death.

A massive display of floral bouquets, balloons and flowers has been left outside the fish and chip shop in Leyland, Lancashire, run by Mrs Roussos's husband Andrew, 43.

Well-wishers have been desperately hoping the girl's mother and sister survive the serious shrapnel injuries they suffered and have been waiting anxiously for news.

Yesterday a close family friend who has been in contact with Mr Roussos told the Mail both would pull through.

He said: 'They are going to be okay. They are safe. They are going to come through this physically and they will be okay.

'That's what Andrew is telling his close friends. All other details are private.'

The friend could not confirm that Mrs Roussos had been informed of Saffie's death.

However, the mother is understood to have undergone two operations.

Well-wishers have been desperately hoping Saffie's mother and sister survive the serious shrapnel injuries they suffered

Flowers have been left outside the fish and chip shop (pictured) in Leyland, Lancashire, run by Mrs Roussos's husband Andrew, 43

She is being treated in a separate hospital to Ashlee and no further details of her condition are available.

Following news of the tragedy an aunt of the girl said: 'Saffie was such a bubbly little girl. She was really pretty, absolutely adorable. I'm just numb inside. She had everything to live for, and its been taken away from her.

'And for what reason? Her parents are normal, respectable, people who have worked hard all their lives, all for some evil scum to wipe out their family.

'Why would you target innocent children? Why would you target a concert when you know young people and children are going to be there?'

On Thursday night crowds gathered in Leyland to pay tribute to Saffie and Georgina Callander, 18, who lives in a nearby village and also died in the blast.

More than 1,000 people gathered in a park to hear Georgina's mother Leslie Callander tell them: 'All your thoughts and well wishes are appreciated. Our beautiful daughter will be looking down with her usual big smile.'

The Mayor of South Ribble, Mike Titherington, said in times of tragedy like this people want to show 'support and solidarity.'

Saffie she was leaving the concert with her mother Lisa, 48, and half-sister Ashlee Bromwich, 25, when the bomb went off. Pictured: Flowers left at St Ann's Square in Manchester to remember the victims

Saffie's mother Lisa is understood to have undergone two operations. She is being treated in a separate hospital to sister Ashlee. Pictured:

'We want to do something and sometimes we don't know exactly what to do.

'If we could heal the heartache, we would. If we could turn back the clock, so that it never happened, we would, but we can't.

'What we can do - and whatever we do will seem inadequate - but what we can do is come together like this as a community and strengthen our bonds, unite in our defiance of evil and strengthen our determination in the values we hold dear: tolerance, respect, human dignity and compassion.'
Britain faces an unprecedented bank holiday terror lockdown.

Amid fears that members of the Manchester bomb cell are on the loose, hundreds of armed officers will patrol major sporting, cultural and even community occasions.

Security at more than 1,300 events this weekend  including the FA cup final, premiership rugby final and Hay literary festival  has been dramatically reviewed.

Armed police patrol Scarborough's South Bay Beach as law enforcement step up their visible armed policing

Police marksmen will also be sent to theme parks, beaches and resorts. Senior officers believe the key players behind Monday's carnage are in custody but have warned of further arrests in their sprawling inquiry.

Last night a ninth suspect was seized on a bus in Manchester in connection with the bombing of the city's concert arena. The 44-year-old was being questioned last night. As the national threat level remained at its highest level, 'critical':

Islamic State called for all-out war on the West during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins today;

Police found chemicals in properties used by 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Abedi;

Theresa May said terrorism could never be excused after Jeremy Corbyn linked the Manchester attack with Britain's foreign policy in a speech in London;

World leaders declared war on social media giants over their failure to get tough on terror;

It emerged that up to 23,000 suspects have been investigated by counter-terrorist agencies.

Hundreds of officers were working around the clock last night to piece together the network supporting Abedi. They are sifting through 'vast' amounts of evidence after raiding 12 properties in Manchester, Wigan and Nuneaton.

Officials believe they have an almost complete picture of how Abedi, a 22-year-old drop-out, staged the worst atrocity since the July 7 attacks.

Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people and left 119 injured when he detonated a bomb inside the Manchester Arena on Monday night

Police commanders expect many of the nine men now in custody to go on trial for terrorist offences.

But there is concern that another terror network or 'lone wolf' could mount an attack to capitalise on the situation. In 2005, London was saved from a second wave of attacks on July 21 when rucksack devices failed to go off.

Soldiers have already been stationed at sites including Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, as well as nuclear sites, to free up extra armed police. In Manchester, police are mounting substantial operations at the Manchester Games, the Great Manchester Run and a rock concert at Old Trafford.

Ramadan Abedi, the father of Salman Abedi, in Tripoli, Libya

There is likely to be increased security at Radio 1's Big Weekend music festival in Hull, the Mutiny Festival in Portsmouth, Luton International Carnival and at county shows in Shropshire and Northumberland.

English Heritage said there would be extra searches at some locations including Stonehenge and Dover Castle.

Next week's UEFA Champions League final between Juventus and Real Madrid in Cardiff will be played under a roof after fears were raised over a drone attack. Police also posted firearms officers to beaches amid concerns that remote spots could be vulnerable.

A risk assessment conducted after the massacre in Sousse, Tunisia, in which 30 Britons died, found armed teams could take up to five hours to arrive.

Now SAS units are on standby to fly by helicopter alongside firearms teams in the event of an attack.

Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley, the country's top counter-terrorism officer, said: 'It is our determination that over the weekend regardless of what is going on people can enjoy these events that they have always planned to enjoy.

'We have looked at 1,300 events nationally, some were already getting significant policing, although there are other events that previously required no policing at all. But at a critical level we are changing our stance dramatically.

The Echo arena in Liverpool, where a postponed Take That concert took place on Friday after the Ariana Grande gig was targeted by a suicide bomber

'I would strongly encourage people not to let terrorists win and to attend community events as they have supported events before, whatever they may be.

'They will see more police officers, they will see more security. At events where they wouldn't normally see police officers in previous years you will see them.

G7 BACKS MAY'S FACEBOOK BLAST World leaders last night backed Theresa Mays plan to force social media giants to get tough on terror. In a significant victory for the Prime Minister, the G7 group of industrialised nations supported her proposal to make firms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google accept their social responsibility to block online extremism. In a strongly worded statement, they said the brutal attack in Manchester demonstrates that we must now redouble our efforts to tackle terrorism, adding that the internet had become a powerful tool for groups such as Islamic State that are bent on attacking the West. The leaders, who include Donald Trump, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, warned the technology giants they need to act urgently to introduce automatic detection of content promoting incitement to violence. Serving notice on the firms, which have acted with impunity until now, the world leaders demanded they substantially increase their efforts to address terrorist content. Advertisement

'We are doubly determined to protect the country so people can carry on their normal business while we close down the remaining lines of inquiry in this terrorist investigation.'

Senior sources declined to say when the national threat level will be lowered from critical, meaning an attack remains imminent.

In an unusual move, the security services revealed that 23,000 potential jihadists are living in Britain. The figure laid bare the difficulties faced by agencies including MI5 and MI6. Questions have been asked over whether more could have been done to stop Abedi from claiming 22 lives at Monday's Ariana Grande concert.

More than 3,000 jihadists are being investigated as 'subjects of interest'  or potential terrorists  stretching the security services to breaking point.

And they are grappling with 500 active terror investigations.

One security insider said: 'It is difficult because becoming aware that someone is an extremist sympathiser does not make them a live and present danger.

'It is a balancing act  is the intelligence sufficient to push them up the list of priorities or should the focus be on someone else given the finite resources available?'

Islamic State has called on its followers to rise up in an 'all-out war' against 'infidels' as Muslims around the world start a 30-day period of fasting and reflection.

NHS England has warned health organisations to 'ensure care is in place should it be needed'. Twenty-three people remain in critical care across eight hospitals in the North West. They include five youngsters at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Greater Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said: 'We have seized thousands of exhibits which are now being assessed. There has been enormous progress with the investigation, but still an awful lot of work to do.'

The 44-year-old suspect detained last night was taken off a bus travelling through Rusholme. Seven plain-clothed officers stormed the bus and told everyone to leave as they arrested the man, according to passengers.

HOLD UK JIHADIS IN TURKEY, URGES PM British jihadis fleeing Syria could be detained and prosecuted in countries like Iraq and Turkey under plans set out by Theresa May yesterday. Speaking at the G7 summit in Sicily, the Prime Minister urged world leaders to provide cash and expertise to countries bordering Syria to enable them to deal with so-called foreign fighters trying to get home. At least 1,000 British citizens are thought to have travelled to the region to join Islamic State, where they have been trained in terror techniques such as bomb-making. Returning jihadis are seen as one of the biggest terror threats faced by countries such as the UK and France.Some foreign fighters are already detained in countries such as Turkey. Mrs May said: It is vital we do more to cooperate with our partners in the region to step up returns and prosecutions of foreign fighters. This means improving intelligence-sharing, evidence-gathering and bolstering countries police and legal processes. Advertisement

Corbyn savaged for 'sticking up to terrorists'

Theresa May last night declared there could never be an excuse for terrorism after Jeremy Corbyn linked the Manchester attacks with military operations by British troops.

The Prime Minister insisted the Labour leader was 'not up to the job' of running the country.

As he returned to the campaign trail yesterday, Mr Corbyn stepped up his criticism of UK foreign policy, saying he would deploy soldiers abroad only when there was a clear need and a plan to deliver lasting peace.

Mrs May said: 'There can never ever be an excuse for terrorism. There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester.'

Speaking at the G7 summit in Sicily last night, Mrs May said: 'I have been here working with other international leaders to fight terrorism, at the same time Jeremy Corbyn has said that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault and he has chosen to do that just a few days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities we have experienced.

'There can never ever be an excuse for terrorism. There can be no excuse for what happened in Manchester.

'The choice people face at the election has just become starker  it's a choice between me working constantly to protect the national interest and our security, and Jeremy Corbyn who is frankly not up to the job.'

Mr Corbyn had claimed that putting soldiers on British streets showed efforts to tackle terrorism were not working and that the Government 'must do better'.

He pledged to put more police on duty and give the security services extra resources to keep track of terror suspects.

'Protecting this country requires us to be both strong against terrorism and strong against the causes of terrorism,' he said. 'The blame is with the terrorists, but if we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security. We must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working.

'We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists.'

Boris Johnson said Mr Corbyn was using the murder of 22 people in Manchester for political gain. 'It is absolutely extraordinary and inexplicable in this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way,' said the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Corbyn had claimed that putting soldiers on British streets showed efforts to tackle terrorism were not working and that the Government 'must do better'

He later accused Mr Corbyn of spending his political career 'sticking up for terrorists, sympathising with the IRA, with Hamas, with Hezbollah'.

'Mr Corbyn should be ashamed of himself,' he added.

Sir Michael Fallon warned that the speech showed Mr Corbyn was 'weak, weak, weak'.

KILLER'S IMAM 'WAS FILMED FIGHTING WITH MILITANTS' The chief imam of the mosque where Manchester bomber Salman Abedi worshipped fought with militants in Libya, it was reported last night. Mustafa Graf, 46, appeared alongside elders at Didsbury Mosque at a press conference on Wednesday, condemning the atrocity which killed 22 people and distancing themselves from Abedi. Mr Graf admits being in Libya during the 2011 revolution and that he was captured by forces from the Gaddafi regime. Elders: Mustafa Graf, second from the left, front row, in a brown jacket, on Wednesday He claimed he was there to help his parents and brothers flee the fighting, but in a video report shot by the French AFP news agency, a British fighter named Mostafa Abdallah Graf describes preparations for battle against Gaddafis forces at Beni Walid, near Tripoli. Interviewed in front of militants loading large bombs and other munitions, he is wearing a desert combat uniform and sunglasses. In Arabic, he says: These munitions are from various cities in Libya. They are for tanks, heavy artillery and missiles. Thank God everything is ready  were just waiting for orders to attack. Father-of-four Mr Graf, who fled Libya in 1991 and was an outspoken critic of Colonel Gaddafis regime, was twice captured by the dictators forces after travelling to Libya in February 2011. He said he went to help his elderly father, who is suffering from cancer, his mother and his brothers. Mustafa Abdullah Graf, pictured here fighting against Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 But days before setting off, he praised revolutionaries bravery and his delight that Gaddafis regime could come to an end. There is no suggestion that Mr Graf was involved in jihadi groups operating as part of the revolution. Moderate rebel groups during the 2011 revolution were supported and armed by the West. Mr Graf, from Chorlton, did not respond to requests for comment about his time in Libya. On Thursday nights BBC Question Time programme, an audience member said he was given an anti-West leaflet at Didsbury Mosque, which said modesty, shame and honour have no place in Western civilisation. But another audience member who said she had attended the mosque for decades, said the handout was not official and argued that the mosque had a multi-cultural community. Advertisement

The Defence Secretary said: 'Jeremy Corbyn could be prime minister of our country in less than two weeks' time yet he has said only days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities this country has ever known that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault.

'There can be no buts when it comes to condemning the unspeakable evil carried out by these extremists. There are no justifications, and there is never an excuse for terrorism.

'Let me spell something out for Mr Corbyn: There are no excuses for what was done in Manchester.' Sir Michael said the remarks were 'not some slip of the tongue' and showed how 'very dangerous' Mr Corbyn was.

'Jeremy Corbyn is a very consistent man, he has a very long track record of siding with people who want to damage and attack Britain,' he added. 'He and his team come from an extreme and ideological world that is too quick to make excuses for the actions of our enemies and too willing to oppose the measures and people that keep us safe.'

Labour's Manchester mayor Andy Burnham joined the condemnation of Mr Corbyn from across the political spectrum.

'I have a different view to Jeremy on this,' he told Talk Radio. '9/11 happened before any interventions overseas, and the ideology was in existence before that.

'It [radical Islam] has used things to add to its cause. But it was there, we didn't create it. [There's] a tendency to blame governments for everything, and I don't think we should.'
A woman in Missouri just gave birth to a baby boy weighing 13 pounds, and she did it completely naturally.

Lauren Flaugher was shocked when a midwife told her that her baby boy, Finn, was 'too big' to fit on their scale.

'The scale only went up to 12 pounds, so our midwife looked at me and said, 'We can't use it,' ' the 29-year-old mother told People.

'I thought the scale was broken! But, turns out, Finn weighed 13 pounds at birth, so they had to bring in a bigger, digital scale.'

The mother welcomed her baby boy, who is her second child with her husband Joe on May 3.

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Whoa baby: Lauren Flaugher, a woman in Missouri, just gave birth to a baby boy named Finn (above) weighing 13 pounds, and she did it naturally

Shock: Flaugher (above) was shocked when a midwife told her that her baby boy was 'too big' to fit on their scale. She said, 'I thought the scale was broken!'

The mother welcomed her baby boy, who is her second child with her husband Joe (above holding Finn) on May 3 at the Birth and Wellness Center

She delivered the healthy baby at the Birth and Wellness Center, which is a freestanding birth center staffed by certified midwives.

'I could not believe it when they said he weighed 13 pounds,' she told People.

'I thought they had misread the scale, I kept thinking, 'This is not possible!' Joe thought the same thing.'

The second-time mother said the birth was 'intense', as she had chosen to use the hot tub and shower at the center.

'Part of the prep for natural birth was not to think of it as painful, but intense,' Flaugher, whose first child is 3-year-old Aurea, explained.

'And it was really intense  I felt very aware of what was happening to my body.'

From the moment her water broke on May 2, her husband stayed by her side the entire time holding her hand.

The second-time mother said the birth was 'intense'. She said: 'I could not believe it when they said he weighed 13 pounds. I thought they had misread the scale'. She is pictured above with her oldest child, 3-year-old Aurea and Finn

Now that he's a little over 3 weeks old, Finn (above with his big sister) is growing by the day and weighs 14 pounds two ounces.

'He got me popsicles when I wanted them!' she shared. 'And during the pushing he said, 'You're doing it! He's going to be here soon!' '

Now that he's a little over 3 weeks old, Finn is growing by the day and weighs 14 pounds two ounces.

'My sister had big babies, too, but when Finn was born she turned to me and said, 'Lauren, you win!' ' Flaugher said. 'He's a big baby with so much love.'

It took her 8.5 hours in labor, with only 30 minutes of true pushing.

Flaugher, also mom to 3-year-old Aurea, says she was in labor for 8.5 hours, with only 30 minutes of true pushing.

'When I was pushing he got a little stuck, so we did some different maneuvers,' she recalled.

At a 20-week ultrasound, the couple was notified that Finn could be 'a bit bigger than normal', but they didn't expect him to be 13 pounds. The family is pictured above before Finn's birth

'[The midwives] were never concerned about his weight after birth, his blood sugar was good and he wanted to nurse right away and frequently after birth.'

The couple made the decision to have a natural birth after reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth.

'It's a powerful book with inspiring stories and explains the power that can be witnessed in birth,' she said. 'If natural birth is at all possible, it's so great.'

At a 20-week ultrasound, the couple was notified that Finn could be 'a bit bigger than normal', but they didn't expect him to be 13 pounds.

'They said, 'He's showing a little big,' ' Flaugher, who is an English language learners teacher for elementary school children in Saint Peters, said.

'A midwife did the measurement and we thought maybe he would be at most a 10 pound baby.'
For three terrifying minutes, 23-year-old Meggan Russell was dead, lying without a pulse in the trunk of a submerged car.

But then help unexpectedly arrived in the form of California Highway Patrol officers, firefighters and paramedics who were able to pull the young mother-of-one from her watery grave.

After spending six days at Rideout Regional Medical Center recovering from her injuries, a bruised but buoyant Ms Russell reunited with the group of men who helped save her life.

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Close call: Meggan Russell, 23 (left), was riding in her friend Travis Stanton's (right) car on March 20 when it went off the road and landed upside down in a canal

Before the the silver Mercedes sedan (pictured) filled with water, police say Stanton got out and fled on foot, leaving Russell behind

Would-be watery grave: Russell tried to punched out a window but eventually blacked out, but no before a California Highway Patrol officer heard gurgling noises

According to authorities, at around 2am last Saturday, Russell was riding as a passenger in Travis Stanton's car when the sedan went off a road in Marysville and landed upside down in a canal.

Stanton, 27, was allegedly drunk and fled the scene on foot, apparently leaving his friend Russell inside the sinking vehicle, reported Sacramento Bee.

A passerby spotted a soaking-wet Stanton jogging down the road and asked if he needed help, according to the CHP.

The same Good Samaritan later drove down the road, discovered a silver Mercedes submerged upside down in the canal and called 911,

CHP officers responded to the location and detained Stanton. When asked if there were other people in the car with him at the time of the crash, the 27-year-old Yuba City man allegedly replied that he was driving alone.

Stanton (left) was allegedly driving drunk on the night of the accident. When police asked him if there was anyone in the car, he made no mention of Russell (right)

However, when CHP Officer Steven Klippel approached the waterlogged vehicle, he heard what he later described as 'a muffled gurgle.'

Believing there was someone trapped inside, Klippel jumped into the canal and found Meggan Russell struggling to free herself.

Klippel and his fellow officers working at the scene could not extricate her from the vehicle right away, so with the help of a Sutter County fire crew they improvised a plan to winch the vehicle out of the water by the axle.

Klippel then broke the windows in the Mercedes and pulled an unconscious and unresponsive Russell to safety.

If its your time, its your time. I firmly believe that and it wasnt Meggans time, Klippel told CBS13.

Happy reunion: On Thursday, Russell got a chance to thank and embrace the officers who saved her life on Saturday

Second chance: Russell says she plans to become a first responder to her second chance to give back to the community and to make her 2-year-old son proud

Sutter County Fire Battalion Chief Richard Epperson, who helped with the rescue, said the 23-year-old Marysville mom had no pulse and no heartbeat, and she was not breathing.

Russell was taken to the hospital suffering from internal injuries, as well as more minor bumps and bruises.

By Thursday, she had recovered enough to meet with and thank the men who gave her a new lease on life.

On the day of the joyous reunion, Russell recounted how she found herself in knee-deep water and desperately tried to punch out a window until the interior of the car became submerged and she blacked out.

'For a whole three minutes I was actually dead,' she told Fox40.

Driver charged: Stanton is being held in jail on charges of felony DUI and leaving the scene of an accident

Speaking of her friend Travis Stanton, who had allegedly abandoned her in the sinking car, Russell wondered: How could you just leave someone like that?

Russell said she now plans to become a first responder to show her rescuers that the life they had saved will not be wasted and to make her 2-year-old son proud of her.

I want to give back to the people who gave me a second chance because without them I wouldnt be here, she said

Meanwhile, Stanton is being held in jail on charges of felony DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.
The partner of the murdered off-duty policewoman is desperately ill and unaware the woman who brought joy back to his life is dead.

Paul Price, 49, has been sedated ever since he and Detective Constable Elaine McIver, 43, were blasted with shrapnel as they waited for his teenage daughter in the Manchester Arena foyer.

His father John Price, 79, wept yesterday as he told how his son was in a 'very dark place' after a bitter divorce before Miss McIver came into his life 'like an angel.'

Mr Price, a father-of-two, suffered a broken leg, shrapnel injuries over his body and burns to his head and face.

Paul Price, 49, has been sedated ever since he and Detective Constable Elaine McIver (both pictured), 43, were blasted with shrapnel in the Manchester Arena foyer

Mr Price's father wept yesterday as he told how his son was in a 'very dark place' after a bitter divorce before Miss McIver came into his life 'like an angel'. Pictured; Flowers left for victims outside Tottington high school in Manchester

Mr Price, a father-of-two, suffered a broken leg, shrapnel injuries over his body and burns to his head and face. Pictured: Flowers left at St Ann's Square in Manchester to remember the victims

Speaking about his condition in the critical care unit, the injured man's brother Mark said: 'Paul is still under sedation and is in critical care. They tried to bring him out of induced sedation, but he had to be re-sedated.

'Luckily he appears to have escaped brain injury and his vital organs are ok. He has been unconscious since it happened. We are dreading the moment Paul is told about what happened to Elaine.'

Doctors have been unable to repair his broken leg yet and his wounds have had to be flushed and cleaned daily to prevent infection.

Mr Price's father said Miss McIver was 'an angel [who] walked into his life'

Mr Price's elderly parents are in poor health  his father has had two heart operations  and have been kept away from Manchester Royal Infirmary to protect them.

The family are concerned the visit could be too much for him and wife Joan, 84.

Yesterday John, a retired train driver from Liverpool, wept as he recalled the inspiring love story between the friendly 'career' police officer who had never married and his lonely divorcee son.

He said: 'When Paul met Elaine an angel walked into his life. He had been in a very dark place following a very acrimonious divorce, and at one time had a breakdown. But he was trying to get on with his life, working on the production line at the Jaguar plant in Halewood.'

Mr Price went to the local gym and was among a group who went running along Otterspool Promenade.

'Paul had not shown any interest in any ladies following his divorce. But one of the runners was a policewoman who told Paul she would like to introduce him to one of her friends,' he said.

'She thought they would make a nice couple. Eventually Paul agreed to meet her friend. It was Elaine. They went to a show at the Echo Arena in Liverpool and they hit it off straight away.'

Doctors have been unable to repair Mr Price's broken leg yet and his wounds have had to be flushed and cleaned daily to prevent infection

They became an inseparable couple and Mr Price moved into Miss McIver's house in Frodsham, Cheshire.

'After the dark years Paul had spent this was like a miracle. We joked about them living together, but we laughed it off saying we were old fashioned. They told us they would get married eventually, but they could not have been happier together.'

John said his son and Miss McIver were about to buy a house together in Widnes, to be closer to his two children Miles, 20, and Gabrielle, 13.

'We have had to call an estate agent to say the house they hoped to buy had to be called off,' said the father.

Mr Price bought tickets for the Ariana Grande concert for his daughter and her friend. After dropping them off he went to dinner with Miss McIver and the couple were standing with other parents in the foyer area waiting to collect their children when the bomb was detonated.

He said: 'I can only imagine how Gabrielle feels. Her and her friend were put in a taxi and sent home to Liverpool.'

While Miles, who is studying pharmacy at Keele University, 'has to somehow get through his exams.'

John said his son and Miss McIver were about to buy a house together in Widnes, to be closer to his two children Miles, 20, and Gabrielle, 13. Pictured: A victim of the Manchester attack

John added: 'Paul is still under sedation and we dread the moment he finds out Elaine didn't survive. He doesn't know she is gone yet.

'We are devastated beyond belief. It is just like a bad dream. When Paul met Elaine it seemed too good to be true.

'Now we dread the future. We are hoping Paul will recover and he will come here to be looked after.'
Donald Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon is coming back in from the cold with his combative skills more in-demand as the White House battles investigators and the media.

Bannon took a lower profile in recent weeks after reports on his clashes with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

President Trump grew increasingly frustrated, as the conflict reportedly sparked a staff civil war in the West Wing, and at one point ask them to 'work it out,' CNN reported.

Now, White House sources are touting Bannon as a 'wartime consigliere' who can help Trump battle the media and circling investigators, Axios reported Friday.

Trump is considering a senior staff shakeup, the Wall Street Journal reported, with consideration also given to finding a way to filter the president's use of social media.

Donald Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon is being described as back in the fold as the Trump White House girds for battle amid swirling Russia investigations

A White House official said Trump was '100% focused' on the probes, and slept only two hours before his speech in Saudi Arabia on confronting extremism.

Trump's tweets could get vetted by a team of lawyers to insure ideas 'dont go from the presidents mind out to the universe,' the Journal reported.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is leading a probe into Russian campaign meddling and alleged Trump ties as a special counsel, while congressional panels are subpoenaing Trump associates.

Warring White House aides are more inclined to perceive a 'common enemy,' according to the publication.

'It is now very clear that there is a unified opponent and that's ultimately the swamp, both with regard to the deep state leakers, to the partisan opponents and the people who just don't want to give up their power. That includes the media,' according to a source.

The White House is about to set up a 'war room' to battle the emerging challenges.

'Since the firing of [FBI Director James] Comey, that really exposed the fact that the White House in its current structure ... is not prepared for really a one-front war, let alone a two-front war,' a source told Reuters. 'They need to have a structure in place that allows them to stay focused' while 'also truly fighting back on these attacks and these leaks.'

'Obviously you want it [unity] under different circumstances but it's really united this team and helped bring clarity to their focus,' the source added.

President Trump's staff has been prone to infighting and leaks

White House senior advisor Jared Kushner (R), flanked by fellow senior advisor Steve Bannon (L) and chief economic advisor Gary Cohn, attends a signing ceremony between Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and U.S. President Donald Trump at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 20, 2017

Bannon is views as having media chops from his time running Breitbart News. He has clashed with the media, and advised Trump to take on his rivals head-on.

He has also been a lightning rod, and continues to suffer for having once called Breitbart the 'platform for the alt-right.'

The White House is drawing new plans that will push back in the press, in committee rooms, and in the courts.

'We're getting street fighters ready to go,' one Trump ally told Axios Thursday.

'The White House is embracing the fight, which is going to last as long as Donald Trump is president,' said the ally.

New rapid response teams will fill an organizational structure meant to to counter the daily onslaught of bad headlines about burgeoning Russia probes.

GRIM: Pictured: (l-r) Jimmy Fallon as Jared Kushner, Grim Reaper as Steve Bannon, Alec Baldwin as President Donald Trump and Beck Bennett as Vice President Mike Pence during the 'Trump Cold Open' sketch on April 15, 2017

Authorities are probing meetings Kushner had with top Russian officials during the presidential transition, when Kushner became known as a top facilitator for foreign governments looking to make contacts to the new administration.

Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Kushner at that time, the Washington Post reported late Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The paper reported last week that a senior White House advisor close to the president was a focus of the probe, but declined to identify Kushner.
President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May had a 'warm, open, frank and productive discussion' on the sidelines of the G7 summit, the White House says.

Reporters were kept at bay for most of Trump's day Friday and were not around when the interaction that was not on the president's official schedule took place.

It was the British government that released a photo Friday of Trump and May that appeared to document their conversation.

'Obviously, it was a great discussion,' US National Security Advisor HR McMaster said.

President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May had a 'warm, open, frank and productive discussion' on the sidelines of the G7 summit, the White House says. The two leaders are seen talking at the summit in this handout photo released by the British government

Reporters were kept at bay for most of Trump's day Friday and were not around when the interaction with May that was not on the president's official schedule took place. They are seen watching a flying squadron here on Friday

The had a chance to speak Thursday at the NATO summit in Belgium, as well.

A tweet from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer about the president's meetings on Friday had served as a tip that the two leaders would be talking. Spicer said Trump and May would have a 'pull aside' at the summit before she departed.

The allies spoke briefly at the NATO summit Thursday in Belgium, where the British prime minister is said to have followed up on her public rebuke of the US government for an intelligence leak that added unnecessary drama to the Manchester bombing investigation.

US officials would not say what Trump and May discussed on Friday, only that Trump had expressed his condolences once again to the grieving country.

'They had a great discussion about the issues that are being discussed within the G7, but then also just specifically focused on the bilateral relationship, as well,' McMaster said.

McMaster went on to say the UK is 'one of our greatest allies' and the meeting 'went great.'

'Obviously, it began with condolences, what that the president already expressed to Prime Minister May about the heinous attack,' he told US media.

A UK official told The Mirror that the leaders talked about terror and the need for the G7 to 'do more collectively' to counter it.

'The two leaders also agreed the importance of free trade, while ensuring that people are not left behind by globalization,' the spokesman said.

The New York Times on Wednesday published images of blood-smeared remnants of the suicide bomber's backpack, along with shrapnel and a battery. US media also gave the terrorist a name - Salman Abedi - in another leak of sensitive information.

May had warned the US Thursday the flagrant breaches were undermining the Special Relationship.

She vowed to 'make it clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure.'

US officials would not say what Trump and May discussed on Friday, only that Trump had expressed his condolences once again to the grieving country

From left, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French newly elected President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Theresa May, president of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, back to camera, and US President Donald Trump talk to each other prior to the start of the leaders of the G7 countries summit in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, on Friday

Heads of states and of governments of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union, are meeting in Italy today and tomorrow

UK officials were furious over the leaks that Home Secretary Amber Rudd called 'irritating' and Manchester's Mayor Andy Burnham classified as 'arrogant.'

Intelligence sharing between UK authorities and US law enforcement briefly stopped as a result.

A UK official told Politico Thursday that May confronted Trump at the NATO summit, just like she said would.

'The prime minister expressed her view that the intelligence sharing relationship with the U.S. is hugely important and valuable but obviously the intelligence needs to be kept secure,' the official said.

May had vowed to 'make it clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure'

The statement came after President Trump ordered an investigation, vowing in a White House statement to 'get to the bottom' of leaks.

Calling unauthorized disclosures a 'grave threat' to national security, Trump ordered the Justice Department to conduct a probe of the matter that had caused a strain with Great Britain as U.K. authorities were trying to hunt down accomplices for the attack.

'The alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling,' Trump said.

The White House statement notably didn't confine itself to the disclosure of terror-related information from a key ally, but also mentioned leaks generally  something that have been the bane of Trump's young presidency.

'These leaks have been going on for a long time and my Administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security,' Trump continued.

Hours after Trump's strong message, British police reopened information sharing ties with the US.

Mark Rowley, the country's most senior counter-terrorism officer, confirmed they had 'received fresh assurances' from Washington and were now 'working closely' with them.

He added: 'We greatly value the crucial relationship with our trusted partners around the world so we can collaborate and share sensitive information to defeat terrorism and protect the public at home and abroad.

'While we do not usually comment on information-sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organisations, we want to emphasize that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.'

Trump has repeatedly complained about other unauthorized disclosures, which have included notes on White House meetings and transcripts of his own conversations with world leaders and top foreign officials.

Even his frank assurances to Russia's foreign minister  where he reportedly called fired FBI Director James Comey a 'nut job'  have made it into the paper.

'I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' he said.

His language about other agencies is a likely reference to intelligence agencies, who might have capabilities to track the information as it made its way through U.S. channels.

Then, pointing to the row with Britain over the subject, he said: 'There is no relationship we cherish more than the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.'

Earlier, the top U.S. diplomat in Britain issued a tough statement of his own. 'These leaks were reprehensible, deeply distressing,' said charge d'affaires Lewis Lukens, the New York Times reported. 'We unequivocally condemn them.'

Arriving for the NATO summit in Brussels where the two leaders held talks, Trump said that the leaks posed a 'grave threat' to American national security and he would ensure the culprit was found.

The Prime Minister had told reporters that the Transatlantic ties were 'built on trust' in a pointed rebuke earlier in the day.

May told reporters the Special Relationship was the 'deepest defense and security partnership that we have' and it was 'built on trust'.

'Part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently and I will be making clear to President Trump today that intelligence that is shared between law enforcement agencies must remain secure,' she added.

Statement from President Trump on leaks The alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling. These leaks have been going on for a long time and my Administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security. I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is no relationship we cherish more than the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. Advertisement

Whitehall sources said there was an investigation into who was behind the leaks after a US media outlet released the name of the killer hours before British police had raided his home.

A spokesman for Counter Terrorism Policing, the body that includes the police, security and intelligence agencies, tweeted: 'Unauthorised disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major investigation undermines our work.'

There have been concerns the leaks could do lasting damage to one of the closest intelligence-sharing relationships in the world.

In an unprecedented move, the British Attorney General, National Security Adviser and senior security officials and police officers all raised their fury with their US counterparts.

On the US side, outrage over the unauthorized disclosures was also strong.

Trump's call for prosecution of the leakers was his most pointed call to action yet.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the highest ranking Democrat on the House's Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the British government has every right to be furious.

'Controlling the flow of information early in an investigation is critical to the identification and arrest of other potential suspects before they are tipped off,' he said.

Schiff stressed the special relationship between the US and the UK that is 'critical to our security and theirs.'

'Any break or deviation from that relationship or the profound trust we have in the British and they have in us, would be a grave loss for both countries. We must take any steps necessary to remedy this problem immediately,' he stated.

A senior Whitehall source also emphasized the negative effect that leaks could have on catching culprits.

'These leaks from inside the US system are likely to deeply distress the victims, their families and the wider public. Information has also been leaked which risks compromising the investigation into this appalling crime.

'Protests have been lodged at every relevant level between the British authorities and our US counterparts. They are in no doubt about our huge strength of feeling on this issue. It is unacceptable.'

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said: 'These leaks are completely unacceptable and must stop immediately.

'This behavior is arrogant and is undermining the investigation into the horrific attack on the city of Manchester.'

A statement from the UK National Police Chiefs Council said: 'We greatly value the important relationships we have with our trusted intelligence, law enforcement and security partners around the world.

'These relationships enable us to collaborate and share privileged and sensitive information, that allows us to defeat terrorism and protect the public at home and abroad.

'When that trust is breached, it undermines these relationships, and undermines our investigations and the confidence of victims, witnesses and their families.

'This damage is even greater when it involves unauthorised disclosure of potential evidence in the middle of a major counter-terrorism investigation.

BLEAKED PHOTO: The Karrimor rucksack in which the bomb was packed leaked to US press before the British government was ready

Battery: This 12-volt battery also showed up in print - infuriating UK officials

Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham said the 'arrogant' leaks in the US were undermining the police investigation

The photographs, published in the New York Times last night, came just hours after the Government warned the US authorities not to leak details of the Manchester terror investigation.

The US newspaper said they showed a blood-stained silver detonator, said to have been held in the bomber's left hand, with wires trailing from one end lying on the floor. There were also images of torn scraps from a blue Karrimor rucksack as well as screws and nuts used as shrapnel.

The paper described them as 'law enforcement images' but did not make clear how they had been obtained.

The nature of the photographs left no doubt that they were taken as part of the forensic investigation of the scene, and were not snapshots taken by members of the public. The paper also published a map showing the location of the victims of the bombing, positioned in a circle around the presumed site of the explosion in the arena foyer, as well as what is thought to be Abedi's torso some distance away.

US congressman Mike McCaul, Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the bomb was of a 'level of sophistication' that might indicate its maker had foreign training.

He described it as 'a classic explosive device used by terrorists', using the same substance as the one used in the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels.

McCaul said evidence so far suggests 'we're not dealing with a lone wolf situation', adding: 'There's a network - a cell of Isis-inspired terrorists.'
A North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper found 59 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop Sunday morning in Morton County.

The trooper stopped a Chevrolet Avalanche going 67 mph in a 60-mph zone on Interstate 94, according to an affidavit filed in the case. There were two males in the vehicle, the driver, Hoanglong Nguyen, 30, and passenger Dao Cuong, 34.

The trooper observed loose money in the glove compartment of the vehicle, as well as two fake law enforcement badges.

Nguyen told the trooper they were driving to Boston. The trooper gave Nguyen a warning for speeding and then questioned Cuong, who is from Washington. Cuong said he is the owner of the vehicle and consented to a search of the vehicle for illegal drugs.

The trooper found 59 pounds of marijuana, much of it in individual bags, three live potted marijuana plants and $1,399 in cash.

The trooper arrested Nguyen and Cuong and transported them to the Morton County Correctional Center.

Nguyen and Cuong have been charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver and manufacture of a controlled substance.

Highway Patrol said the vehicle was impounded.
The chief imam of the mosque where Manchester bomber Salman Abedi worshipped fought with militants in Libya, it was reported last night.

Mustafa Graf, 46, appeared alongside elders at Didsbury Mosque at a press conference on Wednesday, condemning the atrocity which killed 22 people and distancing themselves from Abedi.

Mr Graf admits being in Libya during the 2011 revolution and that he was captured by forces from the Gaddafi regime.

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Elders: Mustafa Graf, second from the left, front row, in a brown jacket, on Wednesday

He claimed he was there to help his parents and brothers flee the fighting, but in a video report shot by the French AFP news agency, a British fighter named Mostafa Abdallah Graf describes preparations for battle against Gaddafis forces at Beni Walid, near Tripoli.

Interviewed in front of militants loading large bombs and other munitions, he is wearing a desert combat uniform and sunglasses.

In Arabic, he says: These munitions are from various cities in Libya. They are for tanks, heavy artillery and missiles. Thank God everything is ready  were just waiting for orders to attack.

Father-of-four Mr Graf, who fled Libya in 1991 and was an outspoken critic of Colonel Gaddafis regime, was twice captured by the dictators forces after travelling to Libya in February 2011. He said he went to help his elderly father, who is suffering from cancer, his mother and his brothers.

But days before setting off, he praised revolutionaries bravery and his delight that Gaddafis regime could come to an end.

Mustafa Abdullah Graf, pictured here on the right, fighting against Gaddafi in Libya in 2011

There is no suggestion that Mr Graf was involved in jihadi groups operating as part of the revolution. Moderate rebel groups during the 2011 revolution were supported and armed by the West.

Mr Graf, from Chorlton, did not respond to requests for comment about his time in Libya.

On Thursday nights BBC Question Time programme, an audience member said he was given an anti-West leaflet at Didsbury Mosque, which said modesty, shame and honour have no place in Western civilisation.

But another audience member who said she had attended the mosque for decades, said the handout was not official and argued that the mosque had a multi-cultural community.
A 24-year-old man posed as 'Jennifer' on Tinder and extorted a married man out of nearly $4,000 before he was arrested in a sting.

Verran Madhavan, who is originally from the UK, used a fake dating profile and arranged to meet an unidentified married man in Brooklyn, New York, on April 27, according to the New York Daily News.

The victim thought he was going on a romantic date with Jennifer, only to be directed via text messages to go to the ATM and take out as much cash as possible to avoid having his Tinder profile exposed to his spouse and kids, court documents state.

Verran Madhavan (above), who is originally from the UK, posed as a woman under a fake dating profile and arranged to meet a married man in Brooklyn, New York

The victim was directed via text messages to go to the ATM and take out as much cash as possible to avoid having his Tinder profile exposed to his spouse, court documents state

Madhavan, who lives in Bushwick with his wife, appeared at the Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, where he was charged with 3rd- and 4th-degree grand larceny.

Madhavan, posing as Jennifer, first arranged to meet with the married man in Brooklyn on April 27.

When the victim turned up, he was 'instructed via text messages to take out "as much cash as you can take out of an ATM tonight"', according to court papers.

To avoid having his extra-marital dalliances exposed, as the texts threatened, the man followed the instructions and left $800 in cash inside a newspaper box.

The demands didn't stop there. Madhavan, still posing as Jennifer, managed to pressure the man into sending another $3,115 through PayPal.

When Madhavan demanded another $2,500, the victim went to the police, who were waiting in Washington Square Park when they arranged another hand off.

Madhavan demanded the married man leave the money in an envelope inside the park, only to be busted on May 16 after he placed the envelope full of cash inside his jacket pocket.

Madhavan confessed and told police he was using some of the money to pay his rent, according to the New York Daily News.

The 24-year-old, who has described himself online as a 'professional f*** up', 'mosher' and 'vegan straight-edge', posted $3,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 10.
Jerry Lee Newman, 24, is charged with first degree murder in a car crash on Wednesday

A man who police say shut down air traffic by tearing across active runways in a stolen utility vehicle before killing a father-of-three in a fatal crash had recently been released from prison after serving two years for fleeing in a stolen vehicle.

Jerry Lee Newman, 24, is charged with first degree murder in the car crash that killed 23-year-old William Bruckman in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday. He is being held without bond.

Newman was released in February after serving about two years for a 2015 conviction for fleeing officers in a stolen truck and colliding with two other vehicles, court records show.

Police say that Newman's wild day began early on Wednesday morning.

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Killed: Father-of-three William Bruckman was killed when Newman allegedly rammed his car head-on while driving the wrong way down a highway in a stolen gas utility truck

Police say that Newman's wild day began early on Wednesday morning, when he allegedly stole an Oklahoma Natural Gas truck and led police on a pursuit through the Tulsa airport

'He's going through two active runways, advise (Air Traffic Control)!' an officer in a pursuit vehicle shouted. 'Have them divert - shut down all air traffic!'

Around 5.45am, a resident called 911 after spotting a man climbing over the chain-link fence at Rush Truck Center in Sapulpa, a suburban community southwest of Tusla.

Cops arrived and observed a male suspect prowling around the lot of the truck service center and dealership.

The suspect got in a white Oklahoma Natural Gas truck that was on the lot for service as police set up a perimeter, cops said.

As the suspect approached a gate to the lot, he apparently spotted one of the Sapulpa Police Department officers, at the scene, and hastily reversed the truck, before aiming it at another officer and ramming it through the fence, Sapulpa Police Lt. Troy Foreman later said at a televised news conference.

A police pursuit ensued. The rogue utility truck led cops on a wild chase, part of which was caught on dashboard cameras.

Cops tried to use tire spikes to disable the fleeing truck, which spun it off the road and into a fence, but did not stop the heavy-duty vehicle.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol took over the pursuit at the airport and unsuccessfully attempted a tactical vehicle intervention - a ramming maneuver designed to disable fleeing vehicles

As the suspect fled northeast through Tulsa, additional agencies joined the chase.

'Can we get a vehicle description?' one agency asked over police radio.

'Just a big giant utility vehicle, at a very high rate of speed, white. Filled with all kinds of equipment,' an officer responded.

Then, with little warning, the suspect truck came upon the Tulsa International Airport and smashed directly though a fence onto the tarmac.

'He's going through two active runways, advise (Air Traffic Control)!' an officer in a pursuit vehicle shouted. 'Have them divert - shut down all air traffic!'

Emergency personnel investigate the scene of a head-on collision on Wednesday after a pursuit of a stolen vehicle by the Sapulpa Police Department and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol

Motorist William Bruckman was killed after the driver of a stolen utility truck crashed through a fence at the Tulsa airport and into oncoming freeway traffic

Bruckman worked for a fuel storage tank company. Bruckman left behind his wife Melissa and three children, pictured with him in this family photo

Oklahoma Highway Patrol took over the pursuit at the airport and attempted a tactical vehicle intervention - a ramming maneuver designed to disable fleeing vehicles.

But the maneuver was unsuccessful against the heavy utility truck, and the suspect smashed back through another airport fence and onto the roads.

When the fleeing truck got onto the northbound lanes of Highway 75 heading the wrong way, police judged the risk to civilians to be too high to continue pursuit, and broke off the chase.

'Obviously this guy has no regard for life, the way he's driving this vehicle,' Lt. Foreman told reporters.

A short time later, Tulsa Police officers came upon a crash apparently caused by the stolen truck. A white sedan with catastrophic front-end damage appeared to have been struck head-on.

At the crash scene, police found the truck abandoned, with the suspect having fled on foot

Dead was 23-year-old William Bruckman, who worked for a fuel storage tank company.

Bruckman left behind his wife Melissa and three children. A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family pay expenses.

At the crash scene, police found the truck abandoned, with the suspect having fled on foot. Surveillance video at a nearby steel storage yard shows the suspect jogging away in a red hoodie and dark pants.

Around 2.30pm, police arrested Newman and identified him as the driver of the truck. Newman was inside a nearby home with two women, who are under further investigation.

In addition to murder, Newman faces six other criminal charges, including larceny, false impersonation, driving under a suspended license, eluding, causing a fatal crash without a license, and leaving a fatal crash scene.
Jeremy Corbyn told a gathering of communists in 1989, pictured, he wanted Britain out of Nato and nuclear weapons scrapped

The Labour leader used a gathering of communists to demand that Britain withdraw from Nato and scrap its nuclear weapons, it can be revealed.

Jeremy Corbyn delivered the call for disarmament while standing under a hammer and sickle on a banner at the Communist Party of Britains 40th annual congress.

The gathering took place in his Islington North constituency in 1989, when the Morning Star reported: He pledged his unwavering commitment to unilateral disarmament, declaring that we can make a start and set an example by removing all nuclear weapons from this country.

And he urged the pressing need for British withdrawal from Nato.

The event was aimed at forming a plan to remind workers of the role of the Marxist-Leninist party.

James Cleverly, an Army reservist seeking re-election as Tory MP for Braintree, said last night: This shows yet again that Jeremy Corbyn is simply not fit to be Prime Minister.

'He has been cosying up to communists for years, and they would be by his side to disarm our military and abandon our allies if he makes it to Downing Street.

Corbyns obsession with scrapping Trident and ditching Nato would weaken our security and encourage our enemies. But there is a real risk of this happening.

The Labour leader, pictured, has been accused of 'cosying up to communists for years' by Tory MP James Cleverly

The Government only needs to lose six seats and we will have a hung parliament with Corbyn as PM propped up the SNP and Lib Dems, cheered on by the communists.

The Communist Party last month backed Mr Corbyn by pledging not to put up election candidates.

It said a Labour victory would be an essential first step toward the dream of a Left-led government.
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Police have rounded up a large part of the suspected Libyan terror cell, it was revealed last night.

Officers said they had arrested the key players in the Middle England gang of alleged jihadis who helped Salman Abedi, 22, wreak horror in Manchester.

After a series of dramatic raids in the Midlands and the North, nine people were in custody last night, all of whom are of Libyan descent.

Incredibly, unlike fanatics returning from Syria  who are immediately flagged as major terror risks  dozens of Manchester youngsters have apparently been free to join the front-line in Libya without attracting as much attention.

Abdallah Forjani (circled, second left) has been arrested and is the cousin of 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Abedi (right)

Fade'Away barber shop is rented by 24-year-old Abdallah Forjani (pictured) who is a cousin of the evil 22-year-old bomber

Two police officers stood guard next to a barber shop in Moss Side after being raided by anti-terror police on Friday morning

The developments came as it emerged:

Abedi was one of a group of young men from Manchester who went to fight in Libya with their fathers  before switching allegiance to Islamic State;

His brother Hashem, 20, has been singing like a canary in custody in Libya;

A bomb factory was found in Abedis old flat in Merseyside;

A barber shop run by the killers cousin was searched for possible bomb-making chemicals.

Last night Britains top counter-terrorism officer, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, said detectives had made immense progress since Monday nights atrocity.

He said officers were very happy weve got our hands around some of the key suspects, adding that police had made significant arrests and finds, and had got hold of a large part of the suspected network.

Mr Rowley said it was likely further arrests would follow.

We need to understand the whole network and how they acquired and built the bomb, he said.

Clearly we havent covered all the territory we want to, but we have covered a large part of it. Our confidence has been increasing over recent days.

All those arrested were in Britain lawfully. Most were either born in the UK or Libyans with dual nationality who were able to come and go with impunity.

Abedi spent his school holidays in war-torn Libya  where he may have learnt to kill as young as 16. He and his brothers are understood to have spent the 2011 summer holiday waging war on Colonel Gaddafi during the Arab uprising with their father Ramadan Abedi, 51, part of a group calling themselves the Manchester Fighters.

Terror arrests: Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi's family tree shows his father Ramadan and two brothers Hashem and Ismail have all been arrested. The bomber's cousin Abdalla Forjani was held on Wednesday in Moss Side, Manchester

On the frontline: Salman, pictured, was linked to a group of disaffected young men who went to fight in Libya with their fathers before switching allegiance to ISIS . He fought alongside his father Ramandan during the 2011 Arab Spring

Abedis younger brother Hashem was 14 and in Year 9 when he went, according to a neighbour of the family. Mohammed Mubarak, 18, said: They wanted to get rid of Gaddafi, thats all.

But some later switched allegiance to Islamic State.

The Mail has learnt that in 2014, Salman Abedi was injured in battle. He had left Manchester College in 2013  having punched a girl for wearing a short skirt and admitting he had anger management issues  and travelled to eastern Libya to join Islamist fanatics trying to impose sharia law in Benghazi and Ajdabiya.

During fighting against moderate forces led by Gaddafi opponent Khalifa Haftar, Abedi sustained an unknown injury that was serious enough for him to be taken to hospital in Turkey, travelling under a false passport. Yet by September 2014, about four months later, he was back in Manchester starting his Salford University course.

A former schoolfriend from Burnage Academy for Boys told the Mail: A lot of young North Africans raised in Manchester were involved in these revolutionary uprisings in their home countries (Libya and Egypt).

Abedi  described by former teacher Mark Roberts as a dislikeable boy who displayed average laziness, mediocre rudeness and refused to complete his coursework on time  joined his family in Libya several times.

Held: Salman's younger brother Hashem, 20, pictured, has also been arrested in Tripoli. He has reportedly told investigators in Libya that he was 'aware of all the details' of his plans

Links to Al-Qaeda: Ramadan, pictured, 51, an airport security worker, was one of the men from the North West in Libya who called themselves the ' Manchester Fighters'. He has been arrested in Tripoli and MI6 officers are in Libya to speak to him

Hashem Abedi, 20, was arrested in Libya on Tuesday, and according to sources there, has been singing like a canary, naming names which are being passed on to MI6 and MI5. Within hours of the outrage, Abedis older brother Ismail, 23, was arrested outside a Morrisons supermarket in South Manchester and his flat in nearby Whalley Range was raided, while heavily armed police stormed the Abedi familys former home in nearby Fallowfield.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, at least one member of the Forjani family  thought to be cousins of the bomber  was held at their home in Fallowfield.

They include Abs Forjani, who runs the Fade Away barber shop in Moss Side, South Manchester, which was raided yesterday.

Pictured with Abedi on a Libyan beach about seven years ago, his real name is believed to be Abdallah Forjani, aged 24. Police were seen removing bags of evidence from the salon, where Abedi was a regular visitor. Two other men aged 21 and 18 held on Wednesday are believed to have been arrested at the same address. Abdallah lives with brothers matching these ages: Abderahman, 21, and Alharth, 18.

Yesterday police searched Lorenzo Pizza in St Helens, Merseyside, where director Mohamed El Hudarey revealed his colleague Aimen Elwafi was among those in custody. Mr El Hudarey claimed Elwafi had handed himself into police after recognising the bomber on television and realising he had rented a flat to him for two months for 700 earlier this year after he responded to his advert on Gumtree. He said that when Elwafi entered the flat in Somerton Court, after Abedi left, he found curtain fabric cut into squares, a strip of metal, and the fire alarms disabled.

Mr El Hudarey said Elwafi thought something odd had been going on but it had never occurred to him that it might have been used as a bomb factory.

We thought maybe theyd had parties in the flat, and were maybe drinking alcohol, he said.

Raids: Greater Manchester Police today confirmed that they had arrested 10 people in connection with the incident across Manchester and parts of the North West of England. A 16-year-old boy and a woman, 34, have been released without charged

He added that Abedi had left the flat in a hurry around March, saying he needed to get a flight to Libya. He left many of his belongings behind.

On Wednesday, a 33-year-old man described by witnesses as white was arrested in a street in Wigan while carrying a suspicious package. The same day, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, 22-year-old Ayub Elshetwi was arrested at gunpoint, with police later searching the nearby home where he lives with his father, Naser Elshetwi, 48, who earlier this year spoke of how he had been shot in Libya in a violent kidnap attempt.

Meanwhile a 34-year-old woman was arrested at a block of flats in Blackley, North Manchester, only to be released without charge hours later. The flat is understood to have been rented out earlier this year to Salman Abedi by another Libyan man, Aimen Elwafi, 38, who according to a friend was himself arrested at an address in Blackley.

On Thursday, a 16-year-old boy was arrested in Withington, South Manchester, only to be released without charge. Bomb disposal teams were sent to an address in Wigan and residents evacuated, while police raided properties in Moss Side and Withington.

In the latest arrest early yesterday, an unnamed 30-year-old man was held after an armed 2am raid at an address in Moss Side half a mile from the barber shop. Residents in Dorset Avenue said about eight men of Middle Eastern appearance had been crammed in to the terraced property.

Last night, plain-clothed police wearing bulletproof vests swooped to arrest an 11th suspect on a Manchester bus. The 44-year-old was detained as the bus travelled through Rusholme towards the city centre at about 7pm.

All those held were detained on suspicion of offences contrary to the Terrorism Act.

The large number of Libyan jihadis who were in Manchester when Abedi was growing up included Anas Al-Libi, a top Al Qaeda commander, who even apparently shared a house with the Abedi family.

Hisham al Hady, another Mancunian Libyan, has told of swapping watching the X Factor at home to going to Misrata in 2011 to fight from 6am until 10pm for 55 days, describing the experience as beautiful.

Another Manchester man accused of joining the conflict in Libya is Salah Mohammed Ali Aboaoba, who once attended the same Didsbury Mosque as Abedi.
Bret Weinstein, pictured, a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, said he would not participate in an event where white people were invited to leave campus for a day

Students are calling for a professor to resign after he criticized an event where white people were invited to leave campus for a day.

Bret Weinstein, a biology professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, criticized the way the college's Day of Absence event would be structured this year in an email to other faculty.

In response, a group of students confronted Weinstein outside his classroom on Tuesday morning, accusing him of racism and demanding an apology and his resignation.

As many as 200 students then demonstrated across the campus in protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, taking over classrooms and barricading the college president's office and the library.

The encounter between the students and Weinstein was posted in a Facebook video, where the professor can be seen speaking to a large group of students.

'There's a difference between debate and dialectic. Debate means you are trying to win, dialectic means you are using disagreement to discover what is true,' the professor told the students gathered outside his classroom.

'I am not interested in debate. I am only interested in dialectic, which does mean I listen to you, and you listen to me.'

One student responded: 'We dont care what terms you want to speak on. This is not about you. We are not speaking on termson terms of white privilege. This is not a discussion. You have lost that one.'

Some of the students in the video defended their professor, but others can be heard shouting at him before they walk out.

In response, a group of students confronted Weinstein, left, outside his classroom on Tuesday morning, accusing him of racism and demanding an apology and his resignation. He spoke with the students, saying: 'There's a difference between debate and dialectic'

Some of the students in the video defended their professor, but many of the students gathered, pictured, can be heard shouting at him before they walk out

In the past, Day of Absence has meant students and faculty of color leave campus to show how much they contribute to the college while white people attend anti-racism workshops, according to Heat Street.

But this year, the event organizers are asking white students and faculty to leave campus, which Weinstein, a professor at Evergreen State for 15 years, responded to in an email, saying he would not participate in Day of Absence and would remain on campus.

'There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles... and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away.

'The first is a forceful call to consciousness which is, of course, crippling to the logic of oppression. The second is a show of force, and an act of oppression in and of itself,' he wrote in the email.

He added: 'On a college campus, one's right to speak  or to be  must never be based on skin color.'

The students' outrage against Weinstein comes after he sent an email to other faculty saying he would not participate in this year's Day of Absence, which asked white students and faculty to leave campus. He said in the email: 'There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves... and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away'

After the student demonstrators took over the campus on Tuesday and Wednesday, the college tweeted Thursday evening: 'Intense and useful dialogue today on campus among students, staff faculty about equity and inclusion at Evergreen'

Weinstein tweeted about the students' demonstrations, eventually saying that police told him to stay away from campus for several days because he would not be safe. He added: 'No contact from admin. George?' in reference to college President George Bridges

After his encounter with students Tuesday, Weinstein held his Thursday class off-campus in a park in Olympia, King 5 News reported.

He told the station that police told him, 'it's not safe for me to be on campus'.

'To be clear: the police told me I am not safe on campus,' Weinstein tweeted Thursday. 'They can not protect me. Students in jeopardy. No contact from admin. George?' he added, referencing college President George Bridges.

One student protester told King 5: 'If he feels unsafe or frightened for two days, he can only imagine what black and brown bodies have feared for years.'

The college tweeted earlier Thursday evening, saying: 'Intense and useful dialogue today on campus among students, staff, faculty about equity and inclusion at Evergreen.'

Bridges said there would be no punishment for students involved in the protests, according to the Washington Times.

'First and foremost, I want to state that there will be, as far as I know, no charges filed against any students involved in actions that occurred this morning,' Bridges said, according to the outlet.

'We will be conducting a major review, an investigation of all that occurred and will be reporting back to you, the campus community, about exactly what happened, why it happened and what we intend to do about the incident  not the incident, excuse me, the actions that were taken, both students, staff and faculty involved.'

President Bridges said: 'First and foremost, I want to state that there will be, as far as I know, no charges filed against any students involved in actions that occurred this morning.' Evergreen State College is pictured
The Institute for Fiscal Studies praised the Conservatives for taking steps to deal with the crisis in social care.

Deputy director Carl Emmerson congratulated the party for attempting a nod to the increasing costs of an ageing society with measures such as means-testing the winter fuel payment and scrapping the pension triple lock.

But he said the plans to reduce benefits to the elderly would have a trivial effect on spending levels.

And voters face another decade of austerity if Theresa May is returned to Downing Street.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies praised the Conservatives for taking steps to deal with the crisis in social care, although it said Britain would face another 'decade of austerity' should Theresa May, pictured at the G7 summit in Italy today, wins the election

The think tank warned that under Tory plans the deficit will still be significant by 2022  meaning cuts would have to continue well into the subsequent parliament.

It said the Conservatives may be forced to put up taxes if, as is likely, it turns out the NHS needs more money than it has budgeted.

And the IFS warned that the pledge to cut immigration to the tens of thousands could cause considerable economic damage and reduce the amount raised in taxes.

Mr Emmerson said there could be a fourth parliament of austerity after 2022 because the deficit is not scheduled to be eliminated until the middle of the next decade.

For the Conservatives, the aim of overall budget balance remains, but not until the mid-2020s  beyond the end of the coming parliament, he explained.

On manifesto plans the deficit could still be around 1 per cent of national income by 2021/22, or around 21billion, leading potentially to a fourth parliament of austerity after that.

The Tory manifesto meant big cuts in welfare spending, he said, adding: It means another parliament of austerity for the public services, including an incredibly challenging period for the NHS and real cuts to per-pupil funding in schools.

It is not clear that this would be deliverable. Barely two months after the 2015 general election they announced spending plans that were less tight than in their manifesto.

The IFS also said Mrs May, pictured with Donald Trump in Italy at the G7 meeting, may not be spending enough on the NHS

Maybe they would do that again. I would not bet against a Conservative government finding some additional tax-raising measures.

Mr Emmerson said plans to increase NHS spending by 8billion may not be enough, adding: Given the scale of pressure the NHS is already under, there must be serious doubts as to the deliverability of such a tight spending plan.

Referring to the immigration pledge, Mr Emmerson said it could cost as much as 12billion through lower tax take.

If effective, it would cause considerable economic damage as well as creating an additional problem for the public finances, he said.

The big risk is that, after seven years of austerity, they would not be able to deliver the promised spending cuts either at all or at least without serious damage to the quality of public services.
I bumped into Jeremy Corbyn in the corridor yesterday after he had finished his debate with Andrew Neil. A female on his team gave out a little squeak of fear when I suggested a picture together. We are quite the couple I suppose.

As a good honest wife, I told him I had been cross at him all day for the things his said in his speech. He restarted his political campaign after a three-day pause seemingly blaming our foreign policy for terror in the U.K.

I was cross at his timing, angry at the content of the talk and mad as a box of frogs that he seemed to be excusing terrorism as retaliation for intervention overseas.

But the strange thing is you can't be mad at Jeremy for long.

He was genuinely nice to everyone he met outside the studio. He took time to take pictures with the crew, he was quiet when nothing needed to be said, and he joked with the studio boss when they went down in the lift together.

And I even got my picture.

I bumped into Jeremy Corbyn in the corridor yesterday after he had finished his debate with Andrew Neil

I've always said he is the type of guy you could have an affair with. You wouldn't want to be married to him - he looks a bit vegan in a vest - but on a Friday afternoon at around 6pm, he makes you feel pretty good about the world.

Which is a curious thing. Because earlier I was raging at him.

Raging because he got his timing so horribly wrong.

At a time when five children remain in a critical condition in hospital, when the nation waits under a Critical threat level and our Accident and Emergency units across the country were put on standby, words matter.

We want to hear it is going to be OK. That immediate action is being taken. That those who hate us are being rounded up and locked down. That all those on the watch list, 'known to the authorities', are soon going to be 'known to incarceration' instead.

We need someone to give us hope all is not lost.

But that was not the message Jeremy Corbyn came to give. He took to the stage and seemed to point the finger of blame at ourselves.

He said our foreign policy was part of the problem.

He said we were culpable, that interfering in countries in the Middle East has created the terrorism we currently face in our country. It felt as though he excused the terror attacks as just retaliation. Claimed that we have fuelled terrorism, not fought it.

He appeared to side with every snivelling apologist I have watched on Channel 4 and our state broadcaster over the last two nights.

As a good honest wife, I told him I had been cross at him all day for the things his said in his speech

Corbyn offered a glimpse into a future from hell. In which we continue to apologise for everything, blame everyone else for the evil of an extreme ideology, and expect British people to stand apologetic even as more hammer blows rain down.

'In the past few days we've thought about our country a bit more, the people, our family and friends.'

A bit more? A BIT MORE?

We're exhausted. Exhausted from mourning, mourning the children we've lost and the country many feel like we have lost along with them.

I cannot stop seeing the image of Saffie Rose.

I am half a stone lighter. Eating doesn't seem to matter right now. Feeling happy makes me feel wrong. I feel guilty I still have my babies to spend half-term with.

Next week I am going to take them into my nest and just stay there, holding on to them, keeping them safe. Feeling sorry for the mums and grandmas who can no longer do the same.

I have emails in my inbox from the elderly who are glad to be old. Glad it will soon be over. Preferring death as a relief to life in this cruel world. They have given up hoping.

Corbyn said terrorists will never divide us, will never prevail. His audience applauded, following the script.

And he told us we would never be defeated by terror.

He has no idea. Outside of Zones 1 and 2, away from the affluent left with their gilded lives and sanitised multiculture, polite and well behaved, we are not singing from his hymn sheet.

We are floored by the battering we have taken this week. If this is terror losing, I would hate to see what happens when it wins. We cannot understand how 3,000 terror suspects, 650 known jihadis, are allowed to be free when we feel trapped by fear.

Corbyn said terrorists will never divide us, will never prevail. His audience applauded, following the script

And we are carrying on only because that is our default. It is not defiant or brave. It is the drive to work -- but not being able to recall a second of the journey that gets us there. We are on auto-pilot, waiting for someone, anyone to guide us to safety.

Security Minister Ben Wallace condemned Mr Corbyns speech and said Islamist terror was aimed at the British way of life rather than being a response to foreign military interventions.

He said terror is based on a warped ideology: 'They don't like our values, they don't like what we stand for, they don't like equality, and anyone who has them is fair game. That has nothing to do with foreign policy. That has to do with a twisted ideology.'

Wallace is right, of course. Terrorists are fighting against our values, against our girls having fun.

Jeremy went on to define these values, as he sees them: 'When we talk about British values, including tolerance and mutual support, democracy is at the very heart of them.

But just as Wallace is right, extremist Islamic terrorists are fighting against our way of life and they would whatever we do, Jeremy is not completely wrong.

And it worries me a little that we live in a world so polarised and shouty that we can't admit when our opponents might just have a teeny point.

Because we cannot deny that we have made mistakes in the Middle East. You need to choose your monsters. If you depose one, you'd better be sure it's replacement is better, not worse. It is why I rail against the toppling of Assad.

I'm not arguing that the West should not intervene in the Middle East, I'm arguing we need to do effectively and pragmatically.

And after 16 years of war since 9/11 can anyone really say with hand on heart that our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq have been America and Britain's finest hours?

If there is one thing Corbyn cannot be knocked for - it is consistency. He is authentically himself

Is it possible years of endless bloodshed they have made it easier for ordinary Muslims to tolerate terrorism in their midst, more reluctant to condemn it?

The Manchester bomber's family came from Libya, where his brother and father were this week arrested.

When Gadaffi was in power they were his enemies, exiles in Britain. Do we really think helping depose him and turning parts of Libya into anarchic ISIS strongholds HELPED Britain's security situation?

And If there is one thing Corbyn cannot be knocked for - it is consistency. He is authentically himself.

He stood against intervention in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in Syria. And he remains true to his beliefs, unlike Tim Farron.

But his anti-interventionist stance leaves more questions than answers.

If the plan is to withdraw from overseas intervention, what will that mean for those countries? That they see the UK as impotent, willing to let others face destruction in order to save ourselves back home?

Will it be acceptable to Corbyn for our coalition partners to see we are cowards, choosing to protect the British people and leave our American allies exposed? Let the Americans play global policeman and pay for it with their tax dollars. Let their kids take the hit?

On what planet is that relationship special?

That would be an abdication of responsibility. Leaving the coalition to fight, whilst we skulk off into the shadows -- a truly dark place for patriots, so many of whom have emailed me today saying they are searching for a new country to call home, wanting to emigrate away from this place.

When the Libyan community in Manchester say this is a global problem - they mean if the West is seen to attack children in the Middle East, why are we surprised when the same happens here?

It is hard to listen to this.

In my mind, I see Corbyn standing with those in the Libyan community in Manchester who talked this week of a better understanding of sharia as a solution and said the father of the bomber was a well respected man.

So while I can follow his reasoning I have to tell my new photofriend, he's got it wrong.

I cannot help but feel that behind the authentic, human, Jeremy Corbyn, his strategic campaign team are playing to this crowd. Calculating votes to be won.

The IRA, Hamas, and now Libyan terrorists - all accepted with tolerance and humanity, welcomed into the Labour fold.

These terrorist sympathisers and those who refuse to condemn terror are becoming an important vote bank for rogue politicians. With this speech, Labour will secure more votes from the disenfranchised. But with these votes, democracy is subverted. This has got to be wrong
Researchers have released what is possibly the most complex, time-lapse video of a functioning cell.

The cell, taken from the kidney of an African green monkey, was analyzed with dyes, fluorescent proteins and a laser scanning microscope.

The video shows the movement of fat droplets throughout the cell, and is color coded to indicate which oraganelles - the subunits of cells - are which.

To make the video, the researchers tagged the cells' different organelles with proteins that glow different colors in light.

They tracked 6 different organelles, which are color coded in the video: Lysosomes (cyan), mitochondria (green), endoplasmic reticulum (yellow), peroxisomes (red), Golgi apparatus (magenta) and Lipid (fat) droplets (blue).

Each one of these organelles performs a specific function in the cell - for example, lysosomes and peroxisomes break down molecules, the endoplasmic reticulum, which manufactures proteins and other molecules, and the Golgi apparatus packages these molecules.

The researchers, who published their study in the journal Nature, used a special microscope called a laser scanning confocal microscope which can reconstruct 3-D structures from sets of images obtained at different depth sections within a thick object.

The researchers tracked 6 different organelles - the subunits of cells - which are color coded in the video: Lysosomes (cyan), mitochondria (green), endoplasmic reticulum (yellow), peroxisomes (red), Golgi apparatus (magenta) and Lipid (fat) droplets (blue)

While other types of microscopes have been used to make videos of cells functioning, Dr Sarah Cohen, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health and a co-lead author of the study, told Gizmodo: 'This is the first time were doing this many compartments in live cells.'

Dispersion analysis of each organelle in the cell. The endoplasmic reticulum (highlighted in yellow) dispersed the most within the cell, and lysosomes (highlighted in magenta) dispersed the least

The video reveals how each organelle is distributed and dispersed throughout the cell.

For example, the organelle that disperses the most within the cell is the endoplasmic reticulum, which is spread out throughout the cell like a mesh.

According to Dr Sang-Hee Shim, a chemistry professor at Korea University who wrote a commentary about the research, the researchers' 'breakthrough opens up wide-ranging opportunities for exploring the molecular mechanisms that underpin the organelle community's dance.'

However, there are some potential limitations to this 'breakthrough' method.

Images of a kidney cell from an African green monkey. Different organelles were tagged with proteins that glow a specific color under light. Lysosomes were tracked with a cyan dye, mitochondria in green, the endoplasmic reticulum in yellow, peroxisomes in red, the Golgi apparatus in magenta and Lipid (fat) droplets in blue. Pictured right is an image of all these organelles together and color coded

For example, too much time under the microscope can harm cells, and the resolution of this technique isn't as high as other more invasive methods, so it doesn't show finer details.

Despite these drawbacks, this method will help scientists understand how cells work and how molecules move around inside of it, which could be useful for designing personalized medicines.
Monkey mafia living in an Indonesian temple have learnt to steal valuables from tourists which they only give back in return for food.

These sly macaques grab glasses, cameras and even wadges of cash which they run off with until they've got what they want.

This cultural behaviour is only found at the Uluwatu Temple in Bali and researchers believe these monkeys - although extremely annoying - have developed amazing cognitive abilities similar to humans.

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Macaques have been known to grab glasses, cameras and even wadges of cash which they refuse to return until they've got what they want (stock image)

WHAT DID THEY FIND? Monkeys have been known to grab glasses, cameras and even wadges of cash which they refuse to return until they've got what they want. This behaviour is only found at the Uluwatu Temple in Bali and suggests these monkeys have developed cognitive abilities similar to humans. The paper shows that robbing and bartering could be considered a behavioural tradition among this species. Advertisement

'The monkeys were always trying to steal my hat, my pen, even my research data', said primatologist Fany Brotcorne from the University of Liege in Belgium who led the study.

Dr Brotcorne spent four months watching macaques that lived near the temple and found the group that spend the most time with tourists were the most badly-behaved and regularly stole.

Although observed by tourists for a few years, this study is the first evidence ever that this is a cultural practice passed down generations.

Dr Brotcorne also noticed that groups of monkeys who move into the area then learn this behaviour too - showing that these primates are able to learn from watching one another.

Groups with young males in were also more likely to have learnt this adaptation, writes New Scientist.

'It usually occurs in two steps: after taking inedible objects (e.g., glasses) from humans, the macaques appear to use them as tokens, returning them to humans in exchange for food', researchers said in their paper, published in Primates.

'In line with the environmental opportunity hypothesis, we found a positive qualitative relation at the group level between time spent in tourist zones and RB [robbing and bartering] frequency or prevalence', researchers said.

This behaviour is only found at the Uluwatu Temple (pictured, stock) in Bali and suggests these monkeys have developed cognitive abilities similar to humans

'For two of the four groups, RB events were significantly more frequent when humans were more present in the environment.'

Dr Brotcorne believes this study gives us insight into the psychology of primates and how much they learn from each other as well as their ability to plan for the future.

'Bartering and trading skills are not well known in animals. They are usually defined as exclusive to humans,' she said.

The paper shows that robbing and bartering could be considered a behavioural tradition among this species.

'This preliminary study showed that RB is a spontaneous, customary (in some groups), and enduring population-specific practice characterized by intergroup variation in Balinese macaques', researchers said.
With Memorial Day fast approaching, it marks the beginning of summertime traditions such as picnics, barbecues and lazy days on the river. However, the day holds so much more significance when you think about the hard work and sacrifice of this country's veterans.

Among those veterans is Mandan substitute and alternative education teacher Kurt Peterson.

Peterson enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1980 after graduating from the University of Mary with a bachelor's degree in English. At that time Peterson said he had no interest in teaching so he decided to enlist. "I said no way am I going to teach, and here I am at Mandan," said Peterson.

Initially Peterson was interested in Russian literature and thought it was a great opportunity to learn the Russian language while he was in the Army and was eventually sent to Monterey, Calif., to study the language. The Army took notice of how fast and efficiently Peterson picked up the language and he was soon assigned as an intelligence solider to various missions in the Soviet Union and Kazakhstan, Ukraine.

"I consider that the height of my career and power. I was good at Russian," said Peterson.

Peterson said an entire class of missiles was destroyed with the INF Treaty that was signed by President Ronald Reagan on Dec. 8, 1987. This treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was an elimination of their intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles.

Peterson's duties were to inspect Soviet Union missiles, interpret Russian military intelligence and to enforce the INF Treaty and the START I Treaty signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. "The Start I Treaty limited the use of nuclear weapons," said Peterson.

The Russian Peterson learned early in his military career would come in handy again when he was assigned as a courier for the U.S. State Department in Moscow. Peterson said the State Department building in Moscow was initially riddled with listening bugs, so the U.S. had to rebuild the building. In 1990, he made 10 700-mile trips inspecting missile, with his last tour in 1995, said Peterson.

On May 18, Peterson presented a detailed PowerPoint to the students in Ryne Jungling's AP history classes at Mandan High School. Peterson informed the students of his time overseas during the Cold War and Gulf War in the 1980s and 90s.

Peterson focused on four topics during his presentations: courier duty between Helsinki and Moscow, Gulf War, Berlin Wall and interpreter/inspector for the INF and START I treaties. All this includes over 20 separate missions to the Soviet Union or countries under the former Soviet Union's power.

Jungling said Peterson has substituted in his AP class for the last three years and shared his experiences as an intelligence soldier. "It's kind of been a staple to end the year with him coming to present, the kids really enjoy it. They like hearing from him firsthand," said Jungling.

Peterson retired from the Army in 1996 as a staff sergeant. After 12 years of teaching in Standing Rock he and his wife moved to Mandan and began working in the school system.
Researchers have created a 'Bot Dylan' computer that is capable of writing its own folk music.

The system uses artificial intelligence to compose new tunes after it was trained using 23,000 pieces of Irish folk music.

This allowed the machine to learn the patterns and structures that make for a catchy tune before it created its own pieces of music that we showcased at a concert in London this week.

It marks a significant step forward for the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

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The new computerised composer can compose new tunes after being trained using 23,000 pieces of Irish folk music. Pictured is the folk musician Bob Dylan taken prior to the release of the album 'Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' (stock image)

HOW DOES IT WORK? The computer system has been trained using 23,000 pieces of Irish folk music. Dr Ben-Tal and his colleagues chose to use Celtic folk music to teach their AI composer as it has a relatively well-defined structure and plenty of material to train it from. They used transcriptions of folk tunes that use a reduced form of music notation known as ABC. Their machine is able to take one ABC symbol and suggest the next by drawing on the patterns it learned from the tunes it was initially fed. Dr Ben-Tal said so far it has created more than 100,000 new machine 'folk tunes'. Advertisement

Creative and artistic expression has long thought to be beyond the capability of AI, and many have insisted it will be one of the few areas where humans will have an edge over machines.

But the new computerised composer, developed by scientists at Kingston University in London and Queen Mary University of London, suggests the line between man and machine may not be so clear.

Dr Oded Ben-Tal, a senior lecturer in music technology at Kingston University in London, said: 'We didn't expect any of the machine-generated melodies to be very good.

'But we, and several other musicians we worked with, were really surprised at the quality of the music the system created.

'People are reluctant to believe machines can be creative  it's seen as a very human trait.

'However, the fact of the matter is, technology and creativity have been interconnected for a long time and this is just another step in that direction.'

It is the latest in a number of AI technologies now capable of producing artistic work.

Google's DeepMind machine learning algorithm has been churning out psychedelic works of art while AI has also been used to write - albeit bad- movie scripts and short novels.

There have been other attempts to get computers to write music such as Google's Magenta project, Sony's Flow Machines and British start-up Jukedeck.

Researchers say so far the computer has created more than 100,000 new machine 'folk tunes' and marks a significant step forward for the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Canadian singer and poet Leonard Cohen was also part of the folk movement (stock image)

Dr Ben-Tal and his colleagues chose to use Celtic folk music to teach their AI composer as it has a relatively well-defined structure and plenty of material to train it from.

They used transcriptions of folk tunes that use a reduced form of music notation known as ABC.

Their machine is able to take one ABC symbol and suggest the next by drawing on the patterns it learned from the tunes it was initially fed.

Dr Ben-Tal said so far it has created more than 100,000 new machine 'folk tunes'.

But he adds that the machine does not appear to be able to generalise what it learned about music to other contexts.

For example, it still has no concept of how rhythm works, but replicates it from the songs it has learned.

Dr Ben-Tal believes the AI system may never be able to completely replace human composers but it could provide a tool to help amateur musicians write their own music.

He said: 'For beginners, a system like this would help get you started and avoid the intimidating aspect of composing your own tune as you could work interactively together.

'An experienced composer could work with the system to generate new ideas by using their own musical concepts as a starting point.

'This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for music making.'




New research has identified a cradle of young stars 2.4 billion light years away as the source of mysterious fast radio bursts detected on Earth.

These bursts - which each lasted just a few milliseconds - come from dense neutron stars just 20 kilometres (12 miles) across in the constellation Auriga.

Initially experts were baffled where these strange bursts of energy were coming from with some speculating it could be a sign of alien life trying to contact us.

However, researchers now believe the young stars are 6,200 light years from the centre of the small galaxy called FRB 121102.

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These bursts - which each lasted just a few milliseconds - came from dense neuron stars just 20 kilometres across in the constellation Auriga (stock image)

WHAT ARE FAST RADIO BURSTS? Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are radio emissions that appear temporarily and randomly, making them not only hard to find, but also hard to study. The mystery stems from the fact it is not known what could produce such a short and sharp burst. This has led some to speculate they could be anything from stars colliding to artificially created messages. The first FRB was spotted, or rather 'heard' by radio telescopes, back in 2007. But it was so temporary and seemingly random that it took years for astronomers to agree it wasn't a glitch in one of the telescope's instruments. Advertisement

Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in Dwingeloo have used the Hubble Space Telescope to study the small galaxy in detail never seen before.

'The Hubble observations allow us to get a very sharp image', researcher Shriharsh Tendulkar of McGill University in Montreal told New Scientist.

'There is a very bright spot of star formation, and this FRB [fast radio burst] lies bang inside it.'

Scientists believe the nursery of stars lies on the edge of the galaxy, which has a diameter of around 20,000 light years.

The giant nursery is itself 4,400 light years across, astronomers believe.

Researchers believe these FRBs are caused by flares from the dense core of a young neutron star left behind when the mother star explodes.

The waves were first detected by researchers from McGill University in Montreal, using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in December last year.

In their paper, published in The Astrophysical Journal, the researchers, led by Paul Scholz, wrote: 'We have detected six additional radio bursts from this source: five with the Green Bank Telescope at 2 GHz, and one at 1.4 GHz with the Arecibo Observatory, for a total of 17 bursts from this source.'

The waves were detected by researchers from McGill University in Montreal, using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia (pictured), and at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico

The detection follows 11 previously recorded outbursts from the same location in the small FRB 121102 galaxy.

This is the only known repeater of fast radio bursts (FRBs) - radio emissions that appear temporarily and randomly.

The researchers added: 'Whether FRB 121102 is a unique object in the currently known sample of FRBs, or all FRBs are capable of repeating, its characterisation is extremely important to understanding fast extragalactic radio transients.'

Previously when waves have been detected, astronomers have also asked Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) to take a closer look at whether they could be a message from ET.

But it is unclear if the McGill researchers will ask Seti to help this time.

If there are any intelligent alien life forms out there, Stephen Hawking thinks we're playing a dangerous game by trying to contact them.
The world's first wind farm powered by giant kites will power more than 5,000 British homes by 2020.

Twenty of the enormous kites, which will work in pairs, will fly in 100mph (160km/h) circles at heights reaching more than 300 metres (1,000 ft) - around the same height as the Shard.

Their cyclic movement will pull a tether attached to a rotating drum on the ground that is linked to a generator, which will spin to produce electricity.

Plans for the farm's location will be announced in September as power company Kite Power Systems (KPS) bids to provide wind energy to 5,500 British homes.

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The world's first wind farm powered by giant kites (pictured) will provide electricity to more than 5,000 British homes by 2020

HOW DOES IT WORK? Twenty of the enormous kites, which will work in pairs, will fly in 100mph (160km/h) circles at heights reaching more than 300 metres (1,000 ft) - around the same height as the Shard. Their cyclic movement will pull a tether attached to a rotating drum on the ground that is linked to a generator, which will spin to produce electricity. When the end of the tether is reached, the kite will move directly above the generator and is retracted so the process can begin again. The pairs of kites will take it turns to fly outwards from the generator and back, ensuring that power is constant. Advertisement

When the end of the tether is reached, the kite will move directly above the generator and is retracted so the process can begin again.

The pairs of kites will take it turns to fly outwards from the generator and back, ensuring that power is constant.

David Ainsworth, KPS's business development director, told the Times that the kite farm would preferably be in Scotland.

KPS, which is backed by Shell, has successfully tested a 40 kilowatt version of the system and plans to test a 500kW version this summer at former RAF base West Freugh in southwest Scotland.

The company will build a farm with 10 500kW systems spread 600 metres (2,000 ft) apart.

Mr Ainsworth said that the first kite farm would need a supporting grant, possibly from an EU innovation fund, but later farms could be built subsidy-free.

They are much cheaper than wind turbines, he said, as they use less steel, are more transportable and are easier to maintain.

The kite's visual impact would also be an improvement on the bulky towers of wind turbines, he added.

They would fly at almost twice the height of the blades of a typical onshore wind turbines.

KPS is also planning to fly much larger kites at sea using a 3 megawatt system designed to support kites with sails spanning 380 square metres (4,000 sqft).

This graphic shows how each generator on the new wind farm will work

Twenty of the enormous kites, which will work in pairs, will fly in 100-mile-per-hour (160 kph) circles at heights reaching more than 300 metres (1,000 ft)

Mr Ainsworth said that these kites could be installed on the pilings of decommissioned offshore wind turbines.

Hundreds of the original turbines will reach the end of their operational life in the next decade.

But no new turbines could replace them because the industry is now building larger machines, he said.

The kites' cyclic movement will pull a tether attached to a rotating drum on the ground linked to a generator (pictured), which will spin to produce electricity

GOOGLE'S AIRBORNE POWER GENERATORS In 2014 it was revealed that Google has invested in an airborne power generator built by US company Makani. The system uses a drone that carries eight small wind turbines. The turbines would be tethered 300 metres (1,000 ft) above ground and would have wings to help them stay air bound. Floating at high altitudes, they would be powered by high wind speeds and therefore could increase the amount of energy produced. But Kite Power Systems claims its system is simpler because its generators are based on the ground. Advertisement

Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has previously said there was a 10 per cent chance that kite-based wind farms are the 'magic solution' to the world's energy needs.

In 2014 it was revealed that Google has invested in an airborne power generator built by US company Makani.

The system uses a drone that carries eight small wind turbines.

The turbines would be tethered 300 metres (1,000 ft) above ground and would have wings to help them stay air bound.

The kite's visual impact would also be an improvement on the bulky towers of wind turbines, he added. They would fly at almost twice the height of the blades of a typical onshore wind turbines. Pictured is one of the tethers used by the system

Plans for the farm's location will be announced in September as KPS bids to provide wind energy to 5,500 British homes. Pictured is one of the kites used in KPS's 40 kilowatt system

The pairs of kites will take it turns to fly outwards from the generator (pictured) and back, ensuring the power supply is constant

Floating at high altitudes, they would be powered by higher wind speeds than wind turbines and therefore could increase the amount of energy produced.

But Mr Ainsworth said that the KPS system is simpler because it is ground-based.

Responding to news that Kite Power Systems (KPS) plans to build the first wind farm powered by giant kites, Dr Sam Gardner, acting director of WWF Scotland said: 'This is really exciting news as kite power technology offers the prospect of a new way to harness the power of the wind, especially in places where it might be impractical to erect wind turbines or other renewables.

'As well as contributing to reducing our dependencies on climate-damaging fossil fuels, there's the chance to create jobs and export opportunities.'
A new technique called 'nowcasting' could give people warning before the next devastating earthquake hits.

Historically earthquakes have been nearly impossible to forecast but this new method could determine the state of the fault system and which area might rumble next.

California is 77.5 per cent the way through its current cycle meaning a big one is due in the coming years, scientist warned.

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Patterns of earthquakes can be regular with a certain number usually striking between the devastation of 'big ones'. California (pictured) is 77.5 per cent the way through its current cycle meaning a big one is due in the coming years, scientist warned. Los Angeles is circled in blue

HOW DOES 'NOWCASTING' WORK? Rather like economists calculate fluctuations in the economy the technique is keeping tabs on plate patterns. Patterns of earthquakes can be regular with a certain number usually striking between the devastation of 'big ones'. By calculating the number of small earthquakes that have happened between big ones they can work out what stage of the cycle each city is in. Small earthquakes create more stress in the plates - and then a larger quake happens in order to release the energy. The size of the earthquake depends on the amount of stress that has been accumulating in the rock. Advertisement

Researchers from the University of California have used a technique that allows them to calculate the risk of cities being hit by devastating earthquakes.

'If you have a high earthquake score, and then you start seeing more small earthquakes, I'd get worried. You're accumulating hazard, so to speak,' lead author John Rundle told New Scientist.

Patterns of earthquakes can be regular with a certain number usually striking between the devastation of 'big ones'.

By calculating the number of small earthquakes that have happened between big ones they can work out what stage of the cycle each city is in.

Small earthquakes create more stress in the plates - and then a larger quake happens in order to release the energy.

The size of the earthquake depends on the amount of stress that has been accumulating in the rock.

Plates are all different and this is taken into account.

For example tectonic plates underneath California (the San Andreas fault) are not as resilient as faults under Tokyo, researchers explain in the paper published in Earth and Space science.

Unfortunately for people in Tokyo their city is 90 per cent through its current cycle meaning a big one is due soon.

CALIFORNIA'S 'BIG ONE' In order to find out the potential for earthquakes in the California-Nevada region researchers look at the earthquake potential score (EPS) of earthquakes within a 100km (62 miles) radius of the centre of Los Angeles. Since 1933 there have been 721 earthquakes in this region, 81 of which had magnitudes greater than 6. The last big earthquake in the region was the Northridge earthquake of 1994, and the one before that was the San Fernando earthquake 23 years earlier in 1971. Researchers calculated region's earthquake probability score (EPS) for an earthquake greater than magnitude 6 is 77.5 per cent The one before that was in 1971 and the previous one before that was in 1933. This suggests that the interval times between the major events around Los Angeles are between 23 and 28 years. Researchers calculated region's earthquake probability score (EPS) for an earthquake greater than magnitude 6 is 77.5 per cent. This means it is more than three quarters of the way there to another big quake - suggesting it could happen in as little as six years time. In order to find out the potential for earthquakes in the California-Nevada region researchers look at the EPS of earthquakes within a 100km (62 miles) radius of the centre of Los Angeles Advertisement

For example looking at the potential for earthquakes in the California-Nevada region researchers look at the earthquake potential score (EPS) of earthquakes within a 100km (62 miles) radius of the centre of Los Angeles.

Since 1933 there have been 721 earthquakes in this region, 81 of which had magnitudes greater than 6.

The last big earthquake in the region was the Northridge earthquake of 1994, and the one before that was the San Fernando earthquake 23 years earlier in 1971. The one before that was in 1971 and the one before that was in 1933.

A view of the San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain. Since 1933 there have been 721 earthquakes in this region, 81 of which had magnitudes greater than 6

This suggests that the interval times between the major events around Los Angeles are between 23 and 28 years.

The region's earthquake probability score for an earthquake greater than magnitude 6 is 77.5 per cent.

This means it is more than three quarters of the way there to another big quake so they could expect on in as little as six years time.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has been secretly building the largest aircraft in the world, according to inside sources.

The zeppelin-like craft will be nearly 200 metres (656ft) long and will come to a personal cost of $100 million - $150 million (77 million - 116 million), reports say.

Brin wants to use the vast airship to deliver humanitarian supplies to remote locations while also serving as luxury 'air yacht' for friends and family.

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The zeppelin-like craft will come to a personal cost of $100 million - $150 million (77 million - 116 million), to Google co-founder Sergey Brin (pictured), reports say

THE SECRET CRAFT The airship is likely to be nearly 200 meters (656ft) long It is being built in a giant hangar on a Nasa airfield away from the eyes of the public It will deliver supplies and food on humanitarian missions to remote areas It may also serve as a luxury 'air yacht' for Sergey Brin to use privately The project's price tag at $100 million (77 million) to $150 million (116 million) It will be funded entirely by Sergey Brin. Advertisement

'Sergey is pretty innovative and forward looking,' said Igor Pasternak, an airship designer who was involved in the construction of the airship which is currently hidden in a giant hangar.

'Trucks are only as good as your roads, trains can only go where you have rails, and planes need airports. Airships can deliver from point A to point Z without stopping anywhere in between', he said, writes the Guardian.

The airship will have internal gas bladders to keep it buoyant and can land in almost any terrain, sources say.

The airship is hidden inside Hangar 2 at the Nasa Ames Research Centre in Silicon Valley.

Insiders say Brin decided to build his airship around three years ago after visiting Ames regularly.

The craft takes up much of the vast hangar where it is being built.

'Sorry, I don't have anything to say about this topic right now', Brin wrote in an email when asked for comment by Bloomberg last month.

Alan Weston, who previously led Nasa's Ames programmes is leading the project and has spoken about the possibility of airships carrying freight.

'New airship technologies have the promise to reduce the cost of moving things per ton-mile by up to an order of magnitude', he said in a 2013 interview.

Sources say that Brin was inspired by old photos of the USS Macon, a lighter-than-air rigid airship that was the Navy's last flying aircraft carrier, used in the 1930s. It was operated by the US Navy and served as a 'flying aircraft carrier'

THE USS MACON The USS Macon crashed off the coast of California eighty years ago. The Macon was operated by the US Navy and served as a 'flying aircraft carrier,' designed to carry five biplanes for scouting and training. It was returning to Mountain View, California in February 1935 when it ran into a storm off Point Sur. Wind shear caused structural damage, puncturing gas cells and then a leak. The damage meant the 785-foot airship gently floated down into Monterey Bay off Point Sur in California, taking around 20 minutes to settle. Advertisement

'A larger airship can reduce costs a lot more than a smaller ship, but there's design of a class of vehicles that can lift up to 500 tons that could be actually more fuel-efficient than even a truck', he added.

With these airships the overall lift of the vehicle is equivalent to the weight of air displaced by the helium.

'And as you change that, you can control the amount of buoyancy that the vehicle has', said Mr Weston, who did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.

Sources say that Brin was inspired by old photos of the USS Macon, a lighter-than-air rigid airship that was the Navy's last flying aircraft carrier, used in the 1930s.

The airship crashed off the coast of California eighty years ago when it was caught in a storm over Port Sur, California, killing two crew members.

The Macon was operated by the US Navy and served as a 'flying aircraft carrier,' designed to carry five biplanes for scouting and training.

The dirigible had been damaged in a previous incident in the mountains above Arizona.

The airship USS Macon, moored at Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield near Mountain View, California

A view of Hangar One, which Google also controls

It was returning to Mountain View, California in February 1935 when it ran into a storm off Point Sur.

Wind shear caused structural damage, puncturing gas cells and then a leak.

The damage meant the 785-foot airship gently floated down into Monterey Bay off Point Sur in California, taking around 20 minutes to settle.
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The rings around Jupiter have held a special fascination for stargazers ever since they were discovered by Nasa's Voyager 1 probe in 1979.

Now, almost 40 years later, another craft has revealed a unique glimpse of the layers of rocks and stardust which make up the characteristic bands that surround the planet.

And the space agency has published the first ever images captured from the inside of the rings looking outward into space by its Juno probe.

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Nasa's Juno spacecraft flew through the narrow gap between Jupiter's radiation belts and the planet during its first data gathering flyby in August last year, but Nasa has only just released the images. The bright bands (pictured) in the centre of the image are the main ring of Jupiter's ring system

JUPITER'S RINGS Unlike the brilliant, icy rings of Saturn, Jupiter's rings are delicate, dusty structures. They were found in 1979 when Nasa's Voyager 1 spacecraft flew close to Jupiter. We now know all four giant planets of our solar system have rings. Jupiter's ring system has three main components: a pair of very faint outer rings called the gossamer rings; a wide, flat main ring; and a thick inner ring called the halo. The rings appear to be created by dust thrown off by impacts on small moons. The gossamer rings are bounded by the orbits of the moons Amalthea and Thebe. Adrastea and Metis skirt the outer edges of the main ring. Advertisement

Nasa's Juno spacecraft flew through the narrow gap between Jupiter's radiation belts and the planet during its first data gathering flyby, Perijove 1, on August 27, 2016

The long, slow, pass allowed the onboard Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) star camera to capture the faint ring system, which can be hard to see due to the small amounts of light they reflect.

Created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons, the rings are less well known than those of its sister planets Saturn and Uranus, partly because not many photographs of them exist, but no less intriguing.

As small meteoroid strikes hit tiny Adrastea, for example, it will bore into the moon, vaporise and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit.

Intriguingly, one of the moons of Jupiter, called S/2000 and about 2.4 miles (4km) in diameter, appears to have gone missing since it was first spotted in 2000. It is possible it crashed into a larger moon Himalia at 105 miles (170km) in diameter, and may have created its own ring.

'What you're looking at here is a ring of dust that's 40,000 miles [64,000 kilometres] away [from Juno] and stars that are hundreds of light-years away, all in the same picture,' Nasa's Heidi Becker said during a press conference today, according to reports on Space.com.

While taking the ring image, the SRU was viewing the constellation Orion.

The bright star above the main ring is Betelgeuse, and Orion's belt can be seen in the lower right corner.

Juno's Radiation Monitoring Investigation actively retrieves and analyses the noise signatures from penetrating radiation in the images of the spacecraft's star cameras and science instruments at Jupiter.

While taking the ring image, the SRU was viewing the constellation Orion (pictured). The bright star above the main ring is Betelgeuse, and Orion's belt can be seen in the lower right corner

Nasa's Juno made a close pass to Jupiter yesterday, revealing secrets about its atmosphere and interior that challenge previous assumptions about the giant gas planet.

The Juno mission, which launched in 2011 and began its first orbit last year, allows scientists to view Jupiter in new ways thanks to the probe's highly elliptical orbit, which passes over the planet's poles and dives within 5,000km (3,100 miles) of its cloud tops.

Now the Nasa probe has captured new images of the gas giant's chaotic cyclones, which are up to 1,400km (870 miles) across, roughly the length of Japan.

This image shows Jupiter's south pole, as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometres). The oval features are cyclones, up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced colour, and stereographic projection.

JUPITER'S CYCLONES Turning counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere just like on Earth, the cyclones are clearly clustered near the poles. The diameters of some of these cyclones stretch 870 miles (1,400 kilometres). Even bigger, though shapeless weather systems are present in both polar regions. At the same time, the two poles don't really resemble each other, which is puzzling experts. Jupiter's poles appear dramatically different from neighbouring Saturn's, according to the scientists, with nothing like the hexagon-shaped cloud system over Saturn's north pole. Advertisement

A Nasa statement described the planet as 'a complex, gigantic, turbulent world' that is far different than scientists previously thought.

Two papers in the journal Science and 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters describe a trove of discoveries made since Juno began orbiting Jupiter last year.

'We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves,' said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

'There is so much going on here that we didn't expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.

Juno's findings are 'really going to force us to rethink not only how Jupiter works, but how do we explore Saturn, Uranus and Neptune,' Bolton added.

With dozens of cyclones hundreds of miles across - alongside unidentifiable weather systems stretching thousands of miles - the poles look nothing like Jupiter's equatorial region, instantly recognisable by its stripes and Great Red Spot, a raging hurricane-like storm.

'That's the Jupiter we've all known and grown to love,' Bolton said.

'And when you look from the pole, it looks totally different ... I don't think anybody would have guessed this is Jupiter.'

He calls these first major findings 'Earth-shattering. Or should I say, Jupiter-shattering.'

This sequence of enhanced-color images shows how quickly the viewing geometry changes for NASA?s Juno spacecraft as it swoops by Jupiter. The images were obtained by JunoCam. Once every 53 days the Juno spacecraft swings close to Jupiter, speeding over its clouds.

A look at Jupiter's poles has shown they are covered with dozens of densely clustered storms, possibly dropping hail or snow.

'Images of Jupiter's previously-unseen poles show a chaotic scene of bright oval features,' said one of the studies in the journal Science.

These ovals, it turns out, are huge swirling storms, some of which measure up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) across.

Researchers found 'signs of ammonia welling up from the deep atmosphere and forming giant weather systems.'

Now, more study is needed to better understand the nature of Jupiter's storms, and why the planet acts this way.

A cylindrical map of the infrared emission from Jupiter as detected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), an instrument on the Juno spacecraft

Juno has also revealed data regarding Jupiter's swirling magnetic fields, which are up to ten times stronger than the magnetic forces acting on Earth.

This will help understand the structure of the planet's atmosphere and whether it has a solid core, as models have predicted.

Analysis of the gas giant's magnetic field reveals that close to the planet, the field greatly exceeded expectations - it is substantially stronger than models predicted, at 7.766 Gauss, or roughly ten times Earth's magnetic field.

'Juno is giving us a view of the magnetic field close to Jupiter that we've never had before,' said Jack Connerney, Juno deputy principal investigator and the lead for the mission's magnetic field investigation at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

'Already we see that the magnetic field looks lumpy: it is stronger in some places and weaker in others.

'This uneven distribution suggests that the field might be generated by dynamo action closer to the surface, above the layer of metallic hydrogen.

'Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter's dynamo works.'

NASA's enhanced-color image of a mysterious dark spot on Jupiter shows a Jovian 'galaxy' of swirling storms in this image captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft on February 2, 2017, at 5:13 a.m. PDT (8:13 a.m. EDT), at an altitude of 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops.

The complexity and richness of Jupiter's 'southern lights' are on display in this image of false-color maps from Nasa's Juno spacecraft

JunoCam colour composite images of the north and south polar regions of Jupiter obtained on August 27 2016. The north polar image was taken at 11:59 UT when the spacecraft was 73,009km (45,365 miles) from Jupiter's cloud deck; the south polar image was taken at 13:56 UT when the spacecraft was 95,096km (59,090 miles) from the cloud deck
A terrorist's moral judgements are driven by an obsession with outcomes, a new paper has found.

The research found that terrorists justify their acts by the logic that the ends justify the means.

While most people judge a moral action by both its intentions and its outcomes, terrorists mostly ignore a person's motives.

This means that they justify their own violent actions by focusing only on the end result, the researchers claim.

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Earlier this week 22 people were killed in a terrorist attack in Manchester, sparking a major police operation (pictured). A new study has found that terrorist moral judgements are driven by an obsession with outcomes

TERRORISM STUDY The results found that terrorists exhibit higher levels of aggression and lower levels of emotion recognition than non-criminals. Importantly, the team found that a difference in moral cognition most strongly distinguishes terrorists from the other groups. Terrorists, when judging whether the actions of others are morally permissible, primarily focus on outcomes, rather than integrating both intentions and outcomes like the controls do. This result, the authors note, suggests that a terrorists moral code prioritises ends over means. They conclude that this pattern of skewed moral judgement is an important component of the terrorist profile. Advertisement

'Extreme terrorists could be characterised by abnormal forms of moral cognition, arguably shaped by their particular cultural milieus,' study lead author Dr Augustin Ibanez, a psychologist at Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina, told MailOnline.

'Specifically, if terrorists deem it morally appropriate to do whatever it takes in the pursuit of an aim, their moral judgements may be critically rooted in the success of an action rather than the probity of its underlying intention.'

How terrorists perceive the trade-off between intentions and outcomes, and how they make moral judgements, is not fully understood.

Typical adult moral judgement depends on a persons ability to represent and integrate information about the intentions and consequences of actions.

In many cases in normal people, moral judgement is determined mostly by a person's intentions.

However, when intention and outcome are in conflict, moral judgements are normally made by considering both factors.

In the study, published this week in Nature, researchers conducted a series of cognitive and psychological tests on 66 Colombian right-wing paramilitaries who were imprisoned for committing terrorist acts.

All test subjects were convicted of murder, with an average of 33 victims per subject.

Sixty-six non-criminals (controls) and 13 incarcerated murderers (non-terrorists) were also tested.

Terrorists justify their acts by the logic that the ends justify the means. While most people judge a moral action by both its intentions and its outcomes, terrorists ignore intentions. Pictured is is a memorial in St Ann's Square, Manchester for the victims of Monday's attack

The tests included assessments of morality or 'moral cognition', IQ, aggressive behaviour, and emotion recognition.

The results found that terrorists exhibit higher levels of aggression and lower levels of emotion recognition than non-criminals.

Importantly, the team found that a difference in moral cognition most strongly distinguishes terrorists from the other groups.

'Although we expected an abnormal moral judgement in terrorists, we were in fact very surprised by the selectivity of this pattern,' Dr Ibanez told MailOnline.

'As it happens, in comparison to many other measures (multiple measures of aggression and various other cognitive and affective functions), moral judgement was the variable that best discriminated between groups.

'This unexpected result suggests that distorted moral cognition may be a hallmark of the terrorist mindset.'

Terrorists justify their own violent actions by focussing only on the end result, the researchers claim. Monday's bomber is believed to have entered a foyer area of the venue through doors opened to allow young music fans to leave

Terrorists, when judging whether the actions of others are morally permissible, primarily focus on outcomes, rather than integrating both intentions and outcomes like the controls do.

This result, the authors note, suggests that a terrorists moral code prioritises ends over means.

They conclude that this pattern of skewed moral judgement is an important component of the terrorist profile.

Asked why terrorists typically prioritise ends over means, Dr Ibanez told MailOnline: 'It is hard to tell, but it may be related to their particular cultural milieus.

'Terrorists deem it appropriate to do whatever it takes to achieve an aim, so their moral judgements may overestimate the success of an action above and beyond the morality of its underlying intention.

'That is, their outcome-based moral judgments may stem from the belief that any action can be justified as long as it is conducive to an aim (in their social niches, perhaps utopian aims in many cases).'

Dr Ibanez stressed that these comments are speculative and beyond the scope of the study, but noted they open interesting avenues for future research.
NASA is set to announce new details on its radical mission to fly directly into the suns atmosphere.

The plan, dubbed Solar Probe Plus, will see a spacecraft launched from Earth in the summer of 2018, to reach an orbit within four million miles of the suns blazing-hot surface.

Scientists involved in the program will hold an announcement at 11 a.m. on Wednesday May 31, revealing new insight on the mission that could one day answer questions on the mechanisms behind stars and major space weather events.

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The plan, dubbed Solar Probe Plus, will see a spacecraft launched from Earth in the summer of 2018, to reach an orbit within four million miles of the suns blazing-hot surface. This will be seven times closer than any spacecraft has ventured before it

WHY THIS MISSION? The corona is the sun's outer atmosphere. It is unstable and produces solar wind and flares. Millions of tons of highly magnetized material can erupt from the sun at speeds of several million miles an hour. We need to get closer to it in order to understand how it works. Click here for more information. Advertisement

Earlier this year, NASA first revealed they'd be sending a robot to the sun to help understand dangerous solar activity which could threaten humanity's existence.

The spacecraft will swoop within 4 million miles of the sun's surface next year- facing extremes in heat and radiation.

This will bring it seven times closer to the sun's surface than any spacecraft before it.

According to NASA, observations from this new vantage point will help to uncover the physics of how stars work, and could improve our ability to predict space weather.

These events have impacts on Earth, and the satellites and astronauts in space.

The announcement event will be held at the University of Chicagos William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium, and will be livestreamed on NASA TV.

The SSP will need to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius)

Scientists have long wanted to send a probe through the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, to better understand the solar wind and the material it carries into our solar system.

'This is going to be our first mission to fly to the sun,' said Eric Christian, a NASA research scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

'We can't get to the very surface of the sun,' but the mission will get close enough to answer three important questions, he said.

To survive its mission, the spacecraft will need to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius).

It will be made of a 4.5 inch-thick (11.43 cm) carbon-composite shield.

Until scientists can explain what is going on up close to the sun they will not be able to accurately predict space weather effects that can cause havoc at Earth

The SPP will be protected by the sun's heat by a 4.5 inch-thick (11.43 cm) carbon-composite shield

Until scientists can explain what is going on up close to the sun, they will not be able to accurately predict space weather effects that cause havoc at Earth.

The latest mission could help predict a 'huge solar event', NASA says.

The sun is the source of the solar wind; a flow of gases from the sun that streams past Earth at speeds of more than a million miles per hour.

Disturbances in the solar wind shake Earth's magnetic field and pump energy into the radiation belts.

One recent study by the National Academy of Sciences estimated that without advance warning a huge solar event could cause two trillion dollars in damage in the US alone.

HOW SOLAR WIND IS FORMED The sun and its atmosphere are made of plasma  a mix of positively and negatively charged particles which have separated at extremely high temperatures, that both carries and travels along magnetic field lines. Material from the corona streams out into space, filling the solar system with the solar wind. But scientists found that as the plasma travels further away from the sun, things change. Views of the solar wind from NASA's STEREO spacecraft (left) and after computer processing (right). Scientists used an algorithm to dim the appearance of bright stars and dust in images of the faint solar wind The sun begins to lose magnetic control, forming the boundary that defines the outer corona  the very edge of the sun. The breakup of the rays is similar to the way water shoots out from a squirt gun. First, the water is a smooth and unified stream, but it eventually breaks up into droplets, then smaller drops and eventually a fine, misty spray. A recent Nasa study captured the plasma at the same stage where a stream of water gradually disintegrates into droplets. If charged particles from solar winds hit Earth's magnectic field, this can cause problems for satellite and communication equipment. Advertisement

It could leave the eastern seaboard of the US could be without power for a year.

Millions of tons of highly magnetized material can erupt from the sun at speeds of several million miles an hour.

'This mission will provide insight on a critical link in the Sun-Earth connection. Data will be key to understanding and, perhaps, forecasting space weather', said NASA.

'Until we can explain what is going on up close to the sun, we will not be able to accurately predict space weather effects that can cause havoc at Earth.'

At its closest point, the SPP will be travelling at 450,000 miles per hour.'
With the temptation of social media and no professor around to scold you, it can be easy to get distracted while taking an online class.

Now, one school in Paris is making efforts to keep remote students on track with their tasks  an AI will monitor their every move.

Starting in September, two online classes from the ESG business school will be using a facial recognition program called Nestor to measure students engagement, and it will even give them warnings when they start to slack off.

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A business school in Paris is making efforts to keep remote students on track with their tasks  an AI will monitor their every move. Nestor, a software from LCA Learning, tracks eye movements and facial expressions using the computers webcam

HOW IT WORKS Nestor, a software from LCA Learning, tracks eye movements and facial expressions. It relies on the computers webcam, and analyzes these features to assess the students engagement, valence, and attention. The software will be able to adjust quizzes and exams accordingly, to address content that was covered while students attention waned. And, it can issue warnings to the student when it detects their attention dipping. Advertisement

The technology was recently demonstrated at the United Nations in New York, according to the Verge.

Its hoped that the move will help to improve both students and professors performance, as it will give them insight on how students attention varies throughout a given lecture.

Nestor, a software from LCA Learning, tracks eye movements and facial expressions using the computers webcam, and analyzes these features to assess the students engagement, valence, and attention.

It can even adjust the quizzes and exams accordingly, to address content that was covered while students attention waned, according to the Verge.

In a video explaining the technology, its billed as the first artificial intelligence class, though the class itself is not doing the teaching.

Facial detection, signs of inattention are detected, the video explains.

AI learning changes the questions of the quizzes and exams. This will oblige him to focus more.

Warnings are sent when the student becomes distracted.

The firm initially plans to use Nestor for online classes, where students are learning in a remote setting.

Starting in September, two online classes from the ESG business school will be using a facial recognition program called Nestor to measure students engagement. Eventually, they firm is hoping to release an in-class version as well. A stock image is pictured

HOW INTERRUPTIONS AFFECT YOUR SHORT-TERM MEMORY A recent study found that if you are bothered for 60 seconds while trying to focus on something then you will have to start afresh because you cant recall what you were doing. The researchers said that their findings should be a warning to anyone with a smartphone as users check the devices around 125 times a day. George Mason University researchers asked test participants to outline an answer to an exam and then write their response under three conditions. Firstly they had to write uninterrupted, secondly they were disrupted three times whilst writing the outline and thirdly they were interrupted three times whilst writing the answer. During each of the one-minute interruptions, the test subjects had to do maths problems. The findings showed that the breaks caused 95 per cent of people taking part to write poorer quality answers. They also wrote less - for those planning to write a paragraph with five points, they only managed to include three even if they did not realize. Advertisement

But, eventually, theyre hoping to release an in-class version as well, according to the Verge.

While the plan may raise privacy concerns for some, the creators say the footage will not be stored by Nestor.

According to LCA founder Marcel Saucet, the company also will not sell any of the data it gathers in the process of monitoring the students, and all data will be encrypted and anonymized, the Verge reports.

Rather than replacing the teacher, the goal is to use the software to compliment a human lecturer, for better comprehension of the information.
A stunning new animation reveals the moment the moon crosses in front of the sun during a partial solar eclipse.

The phenomenon was captured on May 25 by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), during a lunar transit that lasted nearly an hour.

During this time, scientists say the moon covered roughly 89 percent of the sun, revealing a crisp view of the lunar horizon.

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The phenomenon was captured on May 25 by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), during a lunar transit that lasted nearly an hour. The animation reveals the moon's path as it crossed in front of the sun

NASA'S SOLAR PROBE PLUS MISSION NASA has revealed a plan to send a robot to the sun in 2018 to help understand space weather. The spacecraft will swoop within 4 million miles of the sun's surface next year- facing extremes in heat and radiation. This will bring it seven times closer to the sun's surface than any spacecraft before it. To survive its mission, the spacecraft will need to withstand temperatures outside the spacecraft of 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,377 degrees Celsius). It will be made of a 4.5 inch-thick (11.43 cm) carbon-composite shield. Advertisement

The transit took place between 2:24 and 3:17 p.m. EDT, according to NASA.

It comes just months before another lunar transit will cause a rare total solar eclipse to be seen from Earth, when the moon will completely block out the face of the sun.

But, when this phenomenon is observed by SDO on August 21, its perspective will see the moon just barely hide part of the sun.

According to NASA, the rugged surface of the moon plays a role in the way the light is seen from Earth when it crosses in front of the sun.

The moons rough, craggy terrain influences what we see on Earth during a total solar eclipse, NASA explains.

Light rays stream through lunar valleys along the moons horizon and form Bailys beads, bright points of light that signal the beginning and end of totality.

According to NASA, the rugged surface of the moon plays a role in the way the light is seen from Earth when it crosses in front of the sun

The moons surface also shapes the shadow, called the umbra, that races across the path of totality: Sunlight peeks through valleys and around mountains, adding edges to the umbra.

These edges warp even more as they pass over Earths own mountain ranges.

The total solar eclipse this summer will pass from coast-to-coast through the continental United States for the first time in nearly a century.

WHERE TO SEE THIS SUMMER'S TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE The path of totality will stretch from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston South Carolina. To find out exactly when and where it will be visible, visit NASA's interactive map, and click on a city along the path. Totality will cross the US from west to east, beginning at Lincoln Beach, Oregon, where totality will occur at 10:16 a.m. (PDT). It will the US over roughly an hour and a half, passing through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. It will end near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:48 p.m. (EDT), according to NASA. Advertisement

The August 21 event will be visible to millions of people as it crosses through 14 states, with the path of totality stretching from Lincoln Beach, Oregon, to Charleston, South Carolina.

And, a partial solar eclipse will be visible all across North America, and even in parts of South America, Africa, and Europe, according to NASA.

While the totality itself will last just a few minutes, the eclipse  from start to finish  will span more than an hour as the moon moves in and out of the suns path, giving rise to a series of crescents along the way.

NASA has recently amped up its plans to study the sun, and this event will give scientists a rare chance to observe the elusive corona, the suns outer atmosphere, which is only available to the naked eye during a total solar eclipse.
A group of Horizon Middle School students raised money and support for a teacher recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Pat Gilliss was a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Horizon until mid-April, when she was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. A substitute was hired to take over for the remainder of the school year.

Gilliss received a huge banner signed by all the sixth-grade students on her last day of teaching. Her students  current and former  also hosted a fundraiser last week and made T-shirts in her name.

Its just overwhelming, Gilliss said on the last day of school Friday, peering over the large Fight Cancer banner, which will hang in her home.

Seventh-grader Aliyah Schaar said she decided to make the T-shirts and raise money for Gilliss shortly after learning of her teachers diagnosis. About a month ago, Schaar and a group of seventh-graders made light pink T-shirts with the words Hakuna Matata, with an emphasis on "tata," on the front, and, on the back, it read "#TeamGilliss.

During the fundraiser, the students hung posters, which read Give cancer the boot and had cowboy boots in the attendance office for students to put donations in. In all, they raised about $600. One student graciously gave Gilliss his birthday money.

"There arent words, I mean, what do you say? There arent words to tell those kids how much that means to you, Gilliss said.

Last year, Schaar was on Gillis sixth-grade team at Horizon.

"We really liked Mrs. Gilliss and how nice she was, Schaar said. She encouraged me to do my best all the time, and she was really respectful to everyone.

Schaar said her teacher also gave really good compliments, which meant a lot to her.

It was kind of sad (when Gilliss left), because I knew I probably would not get to see her as much, Schaar said. I was also happy for her, because I know how people are sometimes happy when they retire.

Gilliss had surgery in April to remove the cancer in her left breast.

"Im feeling optimistic, I think things look good now, said Gilliss, adding that she is now cancer-free. She started chemotherapy last week as an extra measure.

Theyre just great kids, Gilliss said. Its pretty humbling. When bad things happen, you really do see the good in people.

Gilliss has been a teacher for 28 years, including 26 years at Bismarck Public Schools. She previously taught at Northridge Elementary School before sixth grade was moved into the middle schools four years ago.

Her coworker, Angela Myerchin, who teaches sixth-grade reading, has been teaching with Gilliss since they were at Northridge.

Its sad to see her go, especially on this note," Myerchin said. "But these kids have been amazing."
Scientists have discovered a remarkable new species of glass frog whose beating heart can be seen right through its chest.

The creature, found in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador, has green spots across its back and a red heart fully visible underneath, thanks to the transparent membrane around its organs.

While it isnt the only see-through species in existence, scientists say its markings, unusual call, and reproductive behaviour set it apart from the rest  but, they warn it may be in danger, as oil extraction and other human activities threaten its habitat.

The creature, found in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador, has green spots across its back and a red heart fully visible underneath, thanks to the transparent membrane around its organs. But, scientists warn human activity is putting it at risk

WHY IT'S IN DANGER Given their habitat in the Amazonian lowlands, the researchers warn that these frogs are at risk. Aside from obvious concerns such as water pollution, extraction of natural resources increased the level of regional road development, which could threaten populations of H. yaku, the authors wrote in the study. Oil extraction and the resulting road development could destroy their habitat and create barriers between nearby populations, preventing their dispersal and interaction. Advertisement

Scientists have placed the newly discovered frog in the genus Hyalinobatrachium, which are known to share some of its extraordinary traits.

All species in this genus have a completely transparent ventral peritoneum, which means that organs are fully visible in ventral view, researchers explain in a new paper, published to ZooKeys.

The reproductive behaviour is also unusual, with males calling from the underside of leaves and providing parental care to egg clutches.

But, the new species, H. yaku, stands out with its dark green spots and atypical reproductive behaviours.

I work with frogs every day and this is one of the most beautiful species I have ever seen, Juan Guayasamin, of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, in Ecuador, told New Scientist.

And, while other frogs in the genus Hyalinobatrachium may have transparent features, not all have a bright red heart like that observed in the new species.

The new species, H. yaku, stands out with its dark green spots and atypical reproductive behaviours. A juvenile H. yaku is pictured

Not all glass frogs have hearts that are visible through the chest, Paul Hamilton, of the US non-profit the Biodiversity Group, told New Scientist.

In some, the heart itself is white, so you dont see the red blood.

Given their habitat in the Amazonian lowlands, though, the researchers warn that these frogs are at risk.

Scientists have placed the newly discovered frog in the genus Hyalinobatrachium, which are known to share some of its extraordinary traits. The frog Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum is shown above

Oil extraction and the resulting road development could destroy their habitat and create barriers between nearby populations, preventing their dispersal and interaction.

Although the Amazon basin is globally recognized by its incredible biological and cultural diversity, current and future threats to conservation are conspicuous, the authors wrote.

For example, even though a high proportion of the Ecuadorian Amazon is already concessioned to several extractive activities, the Government of Ecuador is planning to intensify oil extraction in the region.

Aside from obvious concerns such as water pollution, extraction of natural resources increased the level of regional road development, which could threaten populations of H. yaku.
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Echoing scenes from a horror movie, a haunting photo series captures New York's Central Park when it is void of people in the dead of night.

Fine art photographer Michael Massaia suffers from severe insomnia and uses his inability to sleep to his advantage, capturing places at odd hours of the day.

His project 'Deep in a Dream, Central Park' is ongoing, and he has been snapping away every year since 2007. He says he likes to take photos in the early spring as the emerging foliage adds an element of 'softness' to the images.

The New Jersey native's static black-and-white photos - shot on an 8x10 large format camera - show various areas of Manhattan's famous park looking eerily empty, with landmarks such as the Dakota Apartments and Plaza Hotel also on show.

Despite working at unnerving hours of the day, Massaia says he has only encountered minor incidents, including an attempted robbery and one fight.

Revealing what first inspired the series he writes on his website: 'The park appears to go through a period of metamorphosis during those late night / early morning hours, and I was determined to capture it.' Scroll down to see a selection of Massaia's work...

Nightmare on 59th street: Echoing scenes from a horror movie, a haunting photo series captures New York's Central Park when it is void of people in the dead of night

Sleep walking: Fine art photographer Michael Massaia suffers from severe insomnia and uses his inability to sleep to his advantage, capturing places at odd hours of the day

Long-time love: His project 'Deep in a Dream, Central Park' is ongoing, and he has been snapping away every year since 2007

Dead of night: In the image above the square in front of the iconic Plaza Hotel is empty. In the daytime, this area is usually a hive of activity

Journey by moonlight: Massaia says he likes to take photos in the early spring as the emerging foliage adds an element of 'softness' to the images

All alone: His static black-and-white photos - shot on an 8x10 large format camera - show various areas of Manhattan's famous park looking eerily empty, with landmarks such as the Dakota Apartments and Plaza Hotel also on show

After hours: A New Jersey native, Massaia was always fascinated by the ebb and flow of people in the city

Revealing what first inspired the series, Massaia writes on his website: 'The park appears to go through a period of metamorphosis during those late night / early morning hours, and I was determined to capture it'

Sense of movement: Massaia plays with the shutter speed in this shot to capture the energy of the running water

Empty street: Street lights illuminate an empty bridge (left), while the tunnel underneath looks eerily dark (right)

Haunting glow: Massaia skilfully plays with the nighttime light, with varying monochrome shades surfacing in his images

Glassy: The lakes of Central Park have a mirror-like quality in this stunning landscape shot

Talking technique: Massaia develops black-and-white film using Pyro staining developers. After the film is developed, he then hand-makes platinum prints in sizes ranging from 9 x 12 - 32 x 42 inches

When everyone has gone: The midnight blacks and heavenly whites in the perfectly printed photographs show Central Park in a different light

Branching out: Massaia has worked on numerous projects over the years. His other photo series have focused on seaside amusement parks, haulage trucks and pinball machines

Going solo: Massaia's insomnia means he isn't disturbed by tourists as he wanders through some of Manhattan's most popular spots
She celebrated 10 years as the co-host of Today this week.

And on Friday, Lisa Wilkinson's co-workers, family and friends joined her in her hometown of Campbelltown to mark the occasion.

The 57-year-old and her co-stars Karl Stefanovic, Richard Wilkins and Sylvia Jeffreys had a laugh as they looked back at her time on the show and shared rare vintage snaps of the TV presenter.

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Lisa over the years: Today show host Lisa Wilkinson celebrated 10 years on the program on Friday. The celebrated host is pictured on the left this year, and in 2008, right

Fresh-faced: The program paid tribute to Lisa as a young journalist, who would become the youngest ever editor of Dolly magazine

The Wollongong-born presenter also sat with one of her oldest school friends, giggling through a photo retrospective of her over the years.

The program paid tribute to Lisa as a young journalist, who would become the youngest ever editor of Dolly magazine at 21 years old.

She spent four years at the top of the young women's title and was then appointed editor-in-chief of CLEO magazine.

Focused: She spent four years at the top of the young women's title and was then appointed editor-in-chief of CLEO magazine

Team work: The video footage featured co-host Karl Stefanovic raving about his accomplished co-worker

Lisa, who replaced Jessica Rowe alongside Karl in 2007 in her most high-profile TV gig to date, appeared to forge an immediate chemistry with her co-host.

Video footage played on Friday's show featured Karl raving about his accomplished co-worker.

'You are quite the legend,' he enthused.

Rare: Special vintage snaps of Lisa as a child with her family were shown during the show

Model looks: With her model looks Lisa, second from left, was always destined for stardom

All grown up: Lisa is seen in the Eighties era having a night out with her girlfriends in this snap

Daddy's girl: She is pictured cuddling up to her beloved father Raymond in this sweet snap

Strong woman: Co-host Sylvia called the Australian journalist and television presenter her 'inspiration'

'Stop it,' a bashful Lisa replied.

Karl then directed her to look at herself 'in the monitor over there', gushing 'Your husband is a lucky man, that's all I can say.'

Meanwhile, a video montage showed highlights from Lisa's best interviews with A-list talent, including Kevin Hart, Ice Cube and Sacha Baron Cohen, who was in character as The Dictator.

Throwback! Radio personality Jackie O, Lisa and MamaMia founder Mia Freedman, who succeeded Lisa as CLEO magazine editor, in 2005

Monochrome: Veteran journalist Lisa arriving at the 51st Logie Awards in Melbourne in 2009

Eclectic taste: Lisa pictured attending the Pink Ribbon Ball at the Westin Hotel in 2005 in Sydney

Colourful: Lisa's dress sense has certainly changed over the years. She is pictured on the left in 2015 and on the right in 2009

She loves a frock! Lisa has always dressed to the nines when it comes to her red carpet appearances. Picture in 2010, left, and in 2006, right

Ageless: Lisa has turned heads for 57 years. She is pictured here in 2006

'By the way, you must come to my palace,' the comedic actor jokingly propositioned the former magazine editor.

'No sleazy stuff, just a bit of touching,' he added.

The package also featured Lisa sharing laughs with Amy Schumer and giving Justin Bieber his first taste of Australian confectionery, Jaffas.

Her more comical moments with Karl were also included, as they reenacted famous scenes from movies including The Sound Of Music and Pretty Woman.

Lisa's humourous fake appearance in her favourite song, Daryl Braithwaite's 1990 hit 'Horses', also made the video's cut.

During the show, Lisa was also surprised by her husband Peter FitzSimons and their three children on the Campbelltown set.

'Hello!' a shocked Lisa said to her husband Pete and her children upon her their arrival on stage, 'you didn't tell me about this!'





Loving couple: Lisa is pictured with her husband Peter Fitzsimons at the launch of his book Kokoda in 2004

Doting mother: Lisa is also the doting mother of three children Jake, Louis and Billie, pictured here in 2005

'You know, whenever it is that point where I have to make a decision on whether or not I continue on the show, these are the people that I always check in with...' the brunette beauty said of her family.

Meanwhile, hubby Pete cheekily implying that his wife of over 25 years was far too enamored with the show to ever leave it.

But it was her daughter Billi's turn in the spotlight next, quickly returning her mum's touching words.

Partners: Lisa, who replaced Jessica Rowe alongside Karl on the show in 2007, appeared to forge an immediate chemistry with her co-host

'You are quite the legend': Karl gushed about his co-star as footage of the pair over the years was played

'Your husband is a lucky man, that's all I can say,' he gushed

Comical: Meanwhile, a video montage showed highlights from Lisa's best interviews with A-list talent, including Kevin Hart, Ice Cube and Sacha Baron Cohen, who was in character as The Dictator

'Can I just say, you have been such an amazing mum, you have always been there for us, no matter what, and you drop everything for us,' she said.

With his daughter looking her mother in the eyes for the address, Peter was quick to embarrass the 19-year-old for her lack of camera technique.

'This is Billi's big moment,' he said, before reminding her to look at 'camera one.'

None the wiser to the surprise, Lisa told her daughter she was taken aback when Billi came home the night before.

Entertaining: Her more comical moments with Karl were also included, as they reenacted famous scenes from movies including The Sound Of Music and Pretty Woman

Classic: The hosts once played the characters Richard Gere and Julia Roberts made famous in the beloved movie Pretty Woman

Talented: Lisa's humourous fake appearance in her favourite song, Daryl Braithwaite's 1990 hit 'Horses', also made the video's cut

'When I came home last night, I was expecting you to be like, "why are you home?"' Billi joked.

'I'm always glad to see you guys, never anything other than thrilled!' her mother replied.

Meanwhile, middle-child Louis raised an eyebrow from his mum when he added: 'Don't think you would have heard me sneaking in the window at 2am either!'

Legacy: Lisa and fellow panelists Karl Stefanovic, Richard Wilkins, Sylvia Jeffreys and Tim Gilbert reflected on her decade with the Nine Network program

Celebration! To toast her 10-year anniversary on Today, Lisa was joined by her co-hosts, family and friends from the Campbelltown area
She's never been shy about showing off her bombshell curves.

But Ariel Winter kept things covered up Thursday as she toured homes in Sherman Oaks, California.

The 19-year-old star was dressed in sporty duds, as she explored a handful of upscale properties with boyfriend Levi Meaden.

Finding their nest: Ariel Winter and boyfriend were spotted househunting in Sherman Oaks, California on Thursday

The incoming UCLA undergrad's newly dyed locks were ties back into a bun. She contrasted her fiery tresses with a forest green sweater covering her prominent chest.

Skintight leggings covered the LA native's thin stems while she wore white sneakers on her feet.

Adding a touch of nerd-chic to her look, the incoming UCLA undergrad donned retro-styled glasses.

Hot spot! The teen talent was joined by boyfriend Levi Meaden as she toured several homes in Sherman Oaks. One of the luxe properties can be seen above

Firey new locks: While out, the 19-year-old talent tied her red tresses back and complimented her new 'do with a forest green top

After looking at one spot, the Smurfs starlet and boyfriend Levi went to check out another property.

The The Killing actor was similarly understated during their house hunt, matching grey tee shirt with slate colored jeans.

He covered up with a hip denim jacket on top.

Guy style! Ariel's other half wore a grey tee with a blue denim jacket as they explored homes

Snagging a place of her own shouldn't be a problem for the teenage star.

The actress just signed on for another two seasons playing the bookish Alex Dumphy on ABC's Modern Family.

While adult stars Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, and Sofia Vergara are reportedly set to make 'around 500k' per episode according to Deadline, younger talents Ariel, Sarah Hyland and Nolan Gould are still negotiating their final deals.

She's got the dollars! Ariel shouldn't have a problem snagging any one of the luxe properties. The teen talent just signed on for another two seasons of ABC's hit Modern Family








Another red carpet, another outfit: Nicole Kidman out and about in Cannes where she is promoting four different projects

Nicole Kidman kicked off her stilettos and announced she was going for a paddle to soothe her sore feet.

'Keith will bring me in if I fall over,' she giggled, as she stood up, adjusted her 'Swan Lake wedding dress' designer gown and sashayed from the bright lights of the Cannes party being held for Yorgos Lanthimos's stunning The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (in which Nicole stars with Colin Farrell), down to the dark shoreline.

Keith (Kidmans's husband Keith Urban) took his cue and followed close behind, as did this reporter. 'Come and join me!' the Oscar-winning star called.

'Take your shoes and socks off,' she added; too late, as I stumbled down a sandbank in my black-tie finest.

Urban helped me up. 'Welcome to my life,' he said, wryly. 'It's like this all the time. Never dull. We prune roses at midnight in Nashville.'

The home of country music is also home for the couple and their two daughters, Faith and Sunday Rose: somewhere they can let their hair down.

'We're away from red carpets,' Urban told me. 'We can just be us. You know, husband and wife; mum and dad.'

The next afternoon, when I saw Nicole again  on the rooftop of the Palais film festival venue, for an interview  she laughed about the episode ('hilarious!'). 'I wanted to feel the sand beneath my feet and feel that water!'

The Lanthimos picture is one of four projects Kidman has at this year's 70th Cannes Film Festival. Her performance as Anna  a doctor married to a heart surgeon (Farrell) and a mother of two  has won acclaim from critics. And the movie, about a young man (Dublin-born Barry Keoghan) who disrupts their seemingly perfect lives, is hypnotic.

Nicole Kidman has had to bring her fair share of red carpet outfits as she promotes so many films at the festival. Left, for Beguiled, and right, for How to Talk to Girls at Parties

She told me she read the script, and then texted the Greek-born director to say: 'I'm in!' Was she fazed by the full-on nudity? Or the intensity of some scenes?

'I knew what the script was,' she said. 'And when you're working with a strong director, who creates his own world  and you agree to enter that world  then you get on and do it.'

The result is that Lanthimos's heart-stopping film, shot mainly on locations in Cincinnati (with backing from Film4), is an exhilarating watch. And I have seen it twice.

In sharp contrast, Kidman plays a punk goddess in How To Talk To Girls At Parties, which had its premiere in Cannes just ahead of Sacred Deer, last Sunday.

The actress also popped up in the first two episodes of Jane Campion's new series of Top Of The Lake: China Girl (a See Saw Productions and BBC co-production), which was unveiled at the Festival.

And then, on Wednesday night, she was back again: playing the principal of a private girls' school in Sofia Coppola's Civil War-set film Beguiled, which again stars Colin Farrell. Marvellously done, it presents a facade of Southern beauty and genteel manners, concealing undercurrents of desire and darkness.

In Beguiled, as well as Sacred Deer, Nicole told me she drew on the experiences of watching her mother Janelle, a nursing executive, at work.

'All through my childhood I'd go to the hospital with my mum,' she said. 'In Sacred Deer they said: 'Oh, we need to teach you how to apply a tube to a patient,' and I said: 'I know how to do that!'

'I wasn't boasting. I had watched Mum do it for years.' Similarly, her first-aid experience came in handy when it came to patching up Farrell's character's broken leg in Beguiled.

'Doctor Kidman!' I joked.

'I wish!' she retorted. 'It's only pretend in the movies. Mum did it all for real.'

After a summer break, she'll indulge in something a bit lighter: playing Queen Atlanta in Aquaman

Her mother is never far from her thoughts. While filming Beguiled, she had to fly to Australia where the 77-year-old was in hospital; though she's now thankfully on the mend. 'Kicking and smiling and fighting,' Nicole joked.

It's a busy time for the family. Urban has headed back to the U.S. and tomorrow will perform at a concert to celebrate Sunday's Indianapolis 500 motor race.

After a brief pitstop in Nashville, Nicole will head back to Australia, where her mum's throwing her a 50th birthday party. 'It's a few weeks early, but Mum wanted to do something,' she told me. It'll be very special. Not me turning 50! Just the fact that my mum is there to do this.'

She said she feels more comfortable and relaxed about love, life and work now than she did at the start of her career, 30 years ago  which is about how long we've known each other.

She puts that down to being happily married and living with her girls. 'It makes you able to go out and tackle everything.'

Her recent TV success with Big Little Lies is a case in point.

In the HBO mini-series, she played Celeste, a married mother of twin boys who, on the face of it, seems to have it all.

Except she doesn't. Celeste is the victim of domestic abuse. 'People come over to me in restaurants and it's the most chilling thing to hear. The women whisper in my ear: 'I am Celeste,' she says. 'That's all they say. And I hold their hands and urge them to do something.'

She developed the programme with her co-star Reese Witherspoon and says they plan to work together again. 'You can't sit around waiting for an email or a phone call offering you work! You have to make your own opportunities.

'And if you don't want to play the same old same old, then you do something about it.'

The actress has several projects in the pipeline, but first, after a summer break, she'll indulge in something a bit lighter: playing Queen Atlanta in Aquaman, which is being made by her friend James Wan.

Maintaining friendships with those she has worked with over the years is important to her.

Nicole confirmed she will take the play Photograph 51 to Broadway as soon she and director Michael Grandage get a clear run in their diaries. She won an Evening Standard best actress honour when she starred in the show in London two years ago.

And on a recent, whirlwind trip to London, she made time to catch The Ferryman at the Royal Court. 'I was lucky to see that masterpiece,' she said, of the drama written by Jez Butterworth and directed by Sam Mendes. (Mendes directed her in David Hare's The Blue Room at the Donmar; and Butterworth wrote the film Birthday Girl, in which she starred.)

So how does it feel to be the Queen of Cannes, I asked her  reminding her that, 20 years ago, I predicted she'd be working more in her 50th year than in her 30th.

'I don't feel like the Queen of Cannes,' she said. 'I'm just a girl who got her feet wet at a party . . . I feel as if I'm only just beginning.'

Bria Vinaite was discovered on Instagram by director Sean Baker  who then cast her in his film The Florida Project, which emerged as one of the hits of the Festival, following screenings in Directors' Fortnight. Vinaite, a designer from New York, plays den mother to a group of children who, sadly, are not expected to be visited by the wizard who bestows the American Dream.

Yet they have a make-do, can-do attitude that draws you in.

Danielle the white rapper gives a Killa performance

Danielle Macdonald became an overnight sensation at the Sundance Film Festival, thanks to a movie in which she plays a white rapper from New Jersey.

But just like Patti 'Killa P' Dombrowski, the character she plays in director Geremy Jasper's sublime movie Patti Cake$, Australian-born Macdonald has worked hard to achieve that success.

Beach stars: from left, Cathy Moriarty, Danielle Macdonald and Bridget Everett at Cannes

'In the film, Patti works to make it. It's not like she's expecting it to happen. She makes her luck through preparation, hard work and timing,' Macdonald said, as she walked along the beach in a long summer dress and a pair of coral red, suede block-heel sandals.

The actress has been just as focused since she moved to Los Angeles seven years ago, from her home in the Clareville Beach district of Sydney, out in the Northern Beaches, where she was raised by her mother, an accountant, and her father, who works in shipping.

In Patti Cake$, Patti (aka Killa P) lives in reduced circumstances with her mother (Bridget Everett) and grandmother  played by Cathy Moriarty, whom I first met when she made Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull.

Patti joins forces with a pharmacist, played by Siddharth Dhananjay; a mystery DJ rapper (Mamoudou Athie); and her granny.

Director Jasper spent three years developing the script with Macdonald, Everett and 'Sid' at the Sundance lab, where film and theatre scripts are written, honed and workshopped.

The film is playing in the Cannes Film Festival sidebar Directors' Fortnight today and will close the Film4 Summer Screen festival at Somerset House on August 23, with the director and cast in attendance.

Star role Hoffman wanted to turn down

Director Noah Baumbach watched as Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson wept while an audience at the Grand Theatre Lumiere cheered them  and fellow stars Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller  following a screening of The Meyerowitz Stories at the Cannes Film Festival.

The old master: Hoffman with Emma Thompson, and Noah Baumbach

Baumbach called his latest movie 'very personal', although he insisted it was not autobiographical.

Hoffman plays Harold Meyerowitz, an artist who feels he hasn't been given his due; while others have received (unfairly, in his view) more of the limelight.

Harold is named after Baumbach's grandfather Harold, and the old master Hoffman finds a poignant wit at the centre of his core.

Harold's fourth wife is played by a delightful, but almost unrecognisable, Emma Thompson. She is stepmother to Harold's children, played by Sandler, Stiller and Elizabeth Marvel. And there is a star-making breakout performance by Grace Van Patten, as Sandler's student film-maker daughter.

'My grandfather Harold was a painter, though in the film Dustin's a sculptor,' Baumbach told me.

His grandfather painted him, but he remembers being disappointed with the result. 'He was more abstract than I was hoping for,' he said. 'I wanted something that looked like me.'

Hoffman initially turned down the role, but his son Jake persuaded him to change his mind. 'The thing about Hoffman is that he turned down every major director in the last 50 years  including Ingmar Bergman!  so it would have put me in incredible company had he said no,' Baumbach joked.

As Hoffman and his son observed, the director uses 'comedy as a weapon' in his films and The Meyerowitz Stories is no exception.

Baumbach called it a study of an artist who wants more success 'but he is embarrassed to admit it'.

The director, who got backing for the film from producer Scott Rudin and Netflix, has given us a rueful masterpiece, powered by his astute observations of our foibles  and by some top-flight, but grounded, performances.

The Meyerowitz Stories will have a limited run in cinemas and be streamed on Netflix later in the year.

Watch out for...

Robert Pattinson who is compelling as a small-time robber in Good Time

Robert Pattinson who is compelling as a small-time robber in Good Time (by sibling film-makers Ben and Joshua Safdie), which was showing in competition at Cannes.

It's Pattinson's best screen role to date, though I knew I had to start paying proper attention after seeing him in David Cronenberg's Maps To The Stars and David Michod's The Rover. It would be great to see him treading the boards in a raw new play by a homegrown playwright. He's got the chops for it now.

Isabelle Huppert, at her dangerous best in director Michael Haneke's startling film Happy End, about a family in crisis. Keep your eye on Huppert, and watch her observing everything . . . before striking like a snake. She deals with her recalcitrant son in the most vicious way  a brilliant moment that's still playing in my head. The family's behaviour reminded me at times of Lillian Hellman's play The Little Foxes.

Charlotte Cetaire, an up-and-coming young French actress with tumbling red hair who is the central force in Annarita Zambrano's political thriller After The War, about an Italian terrorist settled in France with his daughter (Cetaire).

Charlotte is also training as a ballet dancer, and might not continue acting. I hope that, after the reception she received when After The War was shown in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, she will change her mind. Or decide to do both!

An Seo Hyun, Paul Dano, Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins, Jake Gyllenhaal and Shirley Henderson, who are part of the ensemble cast of director Bong Joon-ho's film Okja about a young girl from South Korea who disrupts a greedy corporation's plans to mass produce  and then slaughter for profit  cute-looking creatures. This is a smart movie that will make eco-warriors of us all.

Clever Netflix produced it, and will stream it from June 28, though it will also be in some cinemas.
He was brutally assaulted by troubled actor Matthew Newton in 2012.

And as Ariel Bory Vargas tries to move on with his life years after the horrific attack, the former hotel clerk recently expressed concerns about his attacker's engagement to Catherine Schneider.

'I don't wish anything bad against him, but it's a pity a shame,' Ariel told photographers in Miami, Florida this week regarding the engagement.

Concern: As Ariel Bory Vargas moves on with his life years after being assaulted by Matthew Newton, the former hotel clerk (pictured in Miami, Florida last month) recently expressed concerns about the troubled actor's engagement to Catherine Schneider

The once vibrant 'people person' is now described by colleagues as a shadow of his former self, years after the devastating assault.

He is believed to have left the front-end hospitality job where Underbelly star Matthew, 40, attacked him, to work as a shuttle-bus driver for an airport hotel.

'He used to love his job as front of house at the Marriot, he was just such a lovely man... Ariel is wasted with what he's doing now, shuttling passengers back and forth to the airport,' an unnamed source explained.

'I don't wish anything bad against him, but it's a pity a shame,' Ariel told photographers in Miami, Florida this week regarding the engagement

Still affected? The once vibrant 'people person' is now described by colleagues as a shadow of his former self, years after the devastating assault

New job: He is believed to have left the front-end hospitality job where Underbelly star Matthew, 40, attacked him, to work as a shuttle-bus driver for an airport hotel

'I think he's so messed up by what happened that he prefers his new job though because there's less guest contact while still being in the industry.

The insider added: 'He must be completely traumatized by that night. He couldn't believe it when he heard that Matthew was getting married to a young girl. The thought of Matthew starting a family makes his skin crawl.'

Another source described Ariel as having 'an air of sadness about him.'

Getting serious: Despite Matthew's dark past, the Melbourne-native captured the heart of 23-year-old American socialite Catherine Schneider (pictured), with the couple reportedly getting engaged late last year

Assault: In 2012 Matthew, who is the son of veteran TV host Bert Newton, was arrested twice in Miami for trespassing and resisting arrest and battery

Outcome: Charges were later dropped although the Melbourne-native was ordered to pay $11,500 in restitution to Ariel, and to complete 50 hours of community service

Dark past: The assault against Ariel is among a long list of legal woes Matthew has had over the years, which include assault charges against former girlfriends Brooke Satchwell and Rachael Taylor

In 2012 Matthew, who is the son of veteran TV host Bert Newton, was arrested twice in Miami for trespassing and resisting arrest and battery.

Charges were later dropped although the Melbourne-native was ordered to pay $11,500 in restitution to Ariel, and to complete 50 hours of community service.

The assault against Ariel is among a long list of legal woes Matthew has had over the years, which include assault charges against former girlfriends Brooke Satchwell and Rachael Taylor.

High profile: Matthew is the son of veteran TV host Bert Newton and wife Patti

Despite his dark past, the actor captured the heart of 23-year-old American socialite Catherine Schneider, with the couple reportedly getting engaged late last year.

Catherine is the daughter of New York attorney-general Eric Schneider.

The brunette beauty stepped out with a large diamond sparkler in New York in October although the pair have not publicly revealed a wedding date.
Orlando Bloom was photographed arriving in Los Angeles on Thursday, wearing earbuds and toting along his cute-as-a-button dog.

Orlando's hair was slicked up a bit on Thursday, and he'd pulled on a largely black top with a white drawing of a furious-looking dog's face on the front.

Having accessorized with butterfly sunglasses and a colorful beaded bracelet, the dashing 40-year-old was seen apparently signing autographs for fans at the airport.

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Back in town: Orlando Bloom was photographed arriving in Los Angeles on Thursday, wearing earbuds and toting along a cute-as-a-button dog

Orlando had recently been in New York City and swung by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to tape an interview that went to air Wednesday evening.

Having shot to global fame as Legolas in Peter Jackson's films of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Orlando told Jimmy he's kept his character's pointy ears.

'I haven't got the wigs, but I've got the ears preserved in, like, Perspex and stuff,' the Canterbury-born actor explained of those prosthetics. 'And I've got that back-rig.'

Gracious: Having accessorized with butterfly sunglasses and a colorful beaded bracelet, the dashing 40-year-old was seen apparently signing autographs for fans at the airport

Recalling that he was cast as Legolas 'out of drama school,' he reflected: 'That was my first gig,' noting: 'Nobody had any idea what that was gonna do, you know?'

The Pirates Of The Caribbean actor was married from 2010 until 2013 to Australian model Miranda Kerr, with whom he's got a now six-year-old son called Flynn.

On showing Flynn the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, Orlando told Jimmy: 'I was very reluctant, because obviously, you know, you wanna keep that normalcy and that dynamic, and I didn't want him to know what dad did for a while.'

The look: Orlando's hair was slicked up a bit on Thursday, and he'd pulled on a largely black top with a white drawing of a furious-looking dog's face on the front

Ultimately, though, Flynn 'started school, and I was like: "Well, older brothers and sisters - and the movie was coming out - could talk about it, and it could be on in the background," and I wanted to have that moment of showing him me in Pirates Of The Caribbean, you know?'

As Flynn saw the movie for the first time, Orlando 'had a video camera on him as he was wa - and he was like: "Wait, that's you! What? That's you?"'

At one point, Orlando's son asked: '"So, wait a second, how long can you hold your breath underwater for?" He's like: "Can you really do that?" "Right, yeah, bro, forever. I can walk from one side of the ocean to the other." 'Cause he still believes that!'

Triumphal return: Having starred as William Turner in the first three Pirates Of The Caribbean films, but not the fourth, he'll be back for the fifth installment

Having starred as William Turner in the first three films of that franchise, but not the fourth, he'll be returning for the fifth, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which'll open this Friday in both America and Britain.

According to a source quoted by The Sun, 21-year-old Viviana Ross was allegedly fired from her waitress job at the Chiltern Firehouse in London after reputedly spending last Friday night with Orlando at his luxurious suite in the hotel.

Viviana, who happens to apparently be an aspiring actress as well, is claimed to have enjoyed 'a one-night fling' with the international sex symbol.

Out this Friday: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will open on May 26 in both American movie theaters and British cinemas

Though Viviana was 'hurt' that the hotel let her go for 'fraternizing with clients' after the general manager allegedly discovered her nude in Orlando's suite the next morning, she's not remorseful about her 'night of incredible sex,' the source held.

Per that insider, Viviana - who'd apparently finished up her shift at work by the time she went up to Orlando's suite - 'said she had an amazing time and his body was very good. He was an exceptionally good lover.'

He was also allegedly polite enough to give Viviana a call and offer his apologies about her lost job, according to a different source who's spoken to The Sun.
Rosario Dawson was inconsolable and hysterical in a newly-released 911 call recorded earlier this month when she discovered her 26-year-old cousin lifeless in a home in Venice, California.

'Oh my God!' the 38-year-old actress said repeatedly in the audio, first published by TMZ, as she cried, while an operator instructed to check and see if the woman, Vaneza Ines Vasquez, was alive.

The operator asked Rosario if she knew what had happened, instructing her to check if Vasquez was moving or breathing.

Harrowing: A 911 recording of a distressed Rosario Dawson discovering her cousin Vaneza Ines Vasquez dead has been released. The clip was recorded earlier this month when the actress found Vasquez dead in a Los Angeles-area home

Eventually, the paramedics arrived at the scene, and the famed New York City native and operator thanked one another for their help with in the crisis situation.

Vasquez was subsequently transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Coroner's officials have not released the woman's cause of death, according to the website, noting that she was dealing with migraines and hypertension in the time leading up to the tragic discovery.

Moving forward: The actress was smiling at Build Studio in NYC during an appearance Wednesday

The Kids star on Wednesday opened up about the way the death has impacted her while appearing at AOL's BUILD series in New York City.

'I've been dealing with a lot of loss lately and reconnecting with my family and my friends in a different way,' said Dawson, who was back on the East Coast to accept an award from The Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York for her philanthropic efforts with the organization.

The Unforgettable beauty said that the traumatic loss of her cousin, who was 12 years her junior, taught her to 'never take anything for granted' and to 'take advantage of every moment' in life, as it can be fleeting.

Life lessons: The stunner said her cousin's premature death has taught her 'never take anything for granted' in life

Growing pains: The entertainer said she's been 'dealing with a lot of loss lately' in reference to the death

'Tomorrow is not guaranteed, and you want to make sure the people that you love know that, and that you're doing things with your time that you're proud of, because it goes by so fast,' Dawson said.

Lisa Centeno, Vaneza's mom, left a poignant memorial for her late daughter on her Facebook page.

'Vaneza, my sweet, sweet beautiful baby - your passing has left me destroyed forever but I know you are at peace in Paradise,' Centeno said. 'I love you, my alpha child.'

Holding her head high: The Sin City stunner was in the Big Apple to talk about her work with the Lower Eastside Girls Club
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge (12A)

Verdict: Here's Johnny... unfortunately

Rating:

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today (12A)

Verdict: Flawed documentary

Rating:

Johnny Depp has extracted five movies and a great deal of booty from his performances as Captain Jack Sparrow, the louche, rum-sodden pirate famously modelled on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones.

Thats fair enough; Sparrow is one of modern popcorn cinemas finer creations. Or rather, was. While old Richards might still be able to strike the right chord, Depp no longer does.

Sparrow is one of modern popcorn cinemas finer creations, but Depp no longer strikes the right chord

He has much the same effect on this film, the fifth in the 14-year-old Disney franchise, as an anchor accidentally dropped mid-ocean. Every time the movie has the wind in its sails, up lurches Captain Jack with another unfunny wisecrack or pratfall, and you are reminded that all the swaggering on-screen charm Depp once had  and in fairness, he had oodles  has now disappeared over the yardarm.

I dont think thats entirely a consequence of unseemly revelations about his private life, or his bloated, mumbling appearances on TV chat shows. With or without a sword, he just doesnt really cut it any more as an action hero, even one as sozzled and disreputable as Captain Jack.

An arresting flashback sequence in which he is digitally de-aged (rather as Kurt Russell was in Guardians Of The Galaxy 2), has the unhelpful effect of reminding us of Sparrow in his swashbuckling pomp, when his many quirks were engaging rather than tiresome.

So Norwegian directors Joachim Ranning and Espen Sandberg are caught, you might say, between the devil and the Depp blue sea.

Hes the star, yet his presence drags the movie down. Tricorn hats off to them, therefore, for still managing to construct a watchable picture, even reminiscent here and there of when the franchise still felt fresh and original.

Having Javier Bardem as a villain certainly helps. There have been few screen baddies more charismatically unpleasant than him in recent years (No Country For Old Men, Skyfall) and he is marvellously menacing as the titular Salazar.

The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) and Pirate Captain Barbosa (Geoffery Rush, pictured) pursue Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he searches for the trident used by Poseidon

Once the Spanish navys scourge of pirates, Salazar made the mistake of crossing swords with Capn Jack, who led him into the Devils Triangle (a stretch of water even more dangerous than its Bermuda namesake) and condemned him to roam the Seven Seas as a ghost. Naturally, the Spaniard is more than a little miffed about this, and wants dashing young mariner Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) to help him find Jack so he can exact terrible revenge.

But Henry has his own agenda. His father Will (Orlando Bloom, briefly glimpsed at the beginning with a barnacle-encrusted face) has also been cursed, in his case to spend eternity at the bottom of the ocean (hence the problem with the barnacles) on the wreck of the Flying Dutchman.

So Henry needs Jack, too, to lead him to the legendary Poseidons trident, which, as we all know, can unlock any watery curse.

His partner in this mission is a fragrant young miss called Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), who, while theyre at it, wouldnt mind finding the father she never knew.

Shes not just a pretty face, but also a brilliant astronomer, and the film has fun sending up the rampant sexism of all the pompous British navy types who cant believe a woman has a brain, and assume she must perforce be a witch.

The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem). Having Javier Bardem as a villain certainly helps, says Brian Viner

With or without a sword, he just doesnt really cut it any more as an action hero, even one as sozzled and disreputable as Captain Jack

This would be an admirable show of flag-waving political correctness were it not undermined by the peculiar scarcity of black people on the Caribbean island where much of the action takes place. There is more multi-ethnicity in the Outer Hebrides.

Anyway, that just about covers the plot, or at least that of it I was able to fathom. Its nice to see Geoffrey Rush back as sly Captain Barbossa. And I should add that the special effects are, at times, dazzling.

Sometimes, a film can be CGI-ed almost to death, like last weeks release King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword. But the spectacle here is enhanced by all the digital bells and whistles, not skewered by them. Incidentally, King Arthur had a widely derided cameo by David Beckham. Salazars Revenge goes one better, with a walk-on for Paul McCartney. Im pleased to report that he does it rather well, which brings us neatly to the thing he did best.

 It Was Fifty Years Ago Today is a documentary about the making of the iconic Beatles album, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was released half a century ago next week.

It arrives in the wake of Ron Howards rightly acclaimed film Eight Days A Week, about the bands touring years, which contained great footage, wonderful music and contributions from all four Beatles, living and dead.

This film, by Alan G. Parker (the middle initial to distinguish him from his more illustrious namesake, director of Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning), has none of the above.

McCartney and Ringo Starr do not pop up with any fresh recollections and, more damaging still, he hasnt secured the rights to play any Beatles songs.

With a two-hour bombardment of talking heads of varying relevance, Parker tries gamely, but fails resoundingly, to overcome his documentarys glaring paradox  that its a film about music containing no music. Or at least, not the music that matters.

That rather elephant-sized caveat aside, Beatles enthusiasts might find some interesting material here.

For example, one of the bands biographers, Philip Norman, explodes the myth that John Lennon was the driving force behind the avant-garde experimentalism that led to Sgt Pepper. It wasnt Lennon but McCartney, who even as a schoolboy had been fascinated by modern art. Best of all, though, is the revelation that Sgt Pepper wouldnt have happened without this newspaper. Or certainly, wouldnt have been the same. It was from a succession of stories in the Mail that Lennon and McCartney got the inspiration for some of the albums most memorable lines.

The Mails report about the Guinness heir Tara Browne, who blew his mind out in a car, inspired the famous lyric in A Day In The Life. And a Mail report on potholes yielded the line about 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.

Maybe we should send someone back, to see how many there are now.

A long haul that's not for wimps

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (U)

Verdict: Hammy comedy

Rating:

Kidding around: Jason Drucker as Greg, in the green and grey striped top, and Charlie Wright, left

This is the fourth of the series of films based on Jeff Kinneys best-selling childrens books, which are close to my heart because my youngest son loved them.

But the sub-title, though it relates to an incident-strewn, 47-hour road trip across the United States, rather sums up what it felt like to sit through to the movies end. It is a long old haul.

The last film in the series was five years ago, so the cast is a new one, though the director, Dave Bowers, is a Wimpy Kid veteran.

Unfortunately, neither he nor his co-writer, Kinney himself, manage to imbue this story with either surprises or charm.

Crass, heavy-handed and predictable comedy attend every tribulation suffered by the hapless Heffley family, and above all the spectacularly accident-prone Greg (the engaging Jason Drucker).

So, on the long journey to visit the Heffley grandmother (rather annoyingly referred to as Mee-Maw), there are lavatorial and vomit jokes aplenty, many of them extracted from the inevitable stay in a ghastly motel.

Still, a young half-term audience will probably find it all a hoot, and the performances are strong. Also, as a father of three, I cant pretend that some of the running jokes didnt ring true.

And my own children would smile in recognition when, at a rather better motel, the Heffley dad (Tom Everett Scott), decrees that nobody touches the mini-bar  Im not paying $7 for a cookie.

That could have been me.

From Russia without love at Cannes

Few of the films I saw at Cannes this year sent me away reaching for superlatives. Two that did make an impression, though, were the controversial Netflix films: Okja, and The Meyerowitz Stories.

From next year, Netflix movies not due a cinema release wont be eligible for the Festivals coveted Palme DOr, but in the meantime, these two are valid contenders for prizes.

It is a poignant but funny study of an unhappy New York family, less obviously a comedy than Baumbachs other films, but still a minor masterpiece of observational wit

Okja is a satire about the food industry fused with a Disney-style story about a 13-year-old South Korean girls attachment to the gigantic pig-like creature she has raised, which a U.S. conglomerate wants to turn into pork chops.

It stars Tilda Swinton (who has said her villainous character was inspired by Ivanka Trump), Jake Gyllenhaal, Lily Collins and Paul Dano. Its smart, thought-provoking and fun. Noah Baumbachs The Meyerowitz Stories is blessed with a great cast (Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Emma Thompson, Rebecca Miller) and a terrific script.

It is a poignant but funny study of an unhappy New York family, less obviously a comedy than Baumbachs other films, but still a minor masterpiece of observational wit.

I liked the Todd Haynes film Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore, rather less than some of my colleagues. A story of two deaf children connected across a 50-year divide, it is beautifully made, but somewhat twee and corny.

Probably the best picture I saw was the Russian-language Loveless, by Andrey Zvyagintsev, who made the brilliant 2014 film Leviathan.

It is a gripping drama about a teenage boy whose parents are divorcing acrimoniously, but must team up when he goes missing.

The title refers not only to their relationship with each other, but also with him; neither of them wants custody, which is why he scarpers. It is riveting and heartrending, and probably my tip for the Palme DOr.
She's been showcasing her endless sartorial displays during her time in Cannes.

And Hailey Baldwin, 20, continued her style assault on Thursday night as she attended the amfAR Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France, wearing a show-stopping strapless berry-coloured gown.

The model's Elie Saab haute couture display exhibited her elongated honed pins as she sauntered to the venue in her peep-toe platforms.

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Berry nice: Hailey Baldwin, 20, continued her style assault on Thursday night as she attended the amfAR Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France, wearing a show-stopping strapless berry-coloured gown

Her velvet garment featured a thigh-high slit that showcased her honed golden pins to perfection while mesmerising tulle surrounded her waist to make a fashion statement.

The dreamy runway piece hugged her slender torso and accentuated her bust with tulle rushing across the bodice to up the fashion ante.

Before falling into enviable crushed velvet, her look featured a matching belt that wrapped around her toned waist and boasted eye-catching gold detail peeping out on either side of the accessory.

Letting her ensemble do the talking, the American beauty left her accessories to a minimum, showcasing her statement drop earrings through her tousled blonde locks which were styled into a low chignon.

Making a statement: The model's Elie Saab haute couture display exhibited her elongated honed pins as she sauntered to the venue in her peep-toe platforms

Pretty as a plum: Hailey Baldwin's Elie Saab garment featured a thigh-high slit that showcased her honed golden pins to perfection while mesmerising tulle surrounded her waist

The young niece of SNL and 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin's appearance comes after she's been enjoying several days of partying on the French Riviera.

Hailey been hanging with Keeping Up With The Kardashians reality stars who are attending side events at the prestigious film festival.

Although she, the Kardashians and Jenners are garnering headlines as they party o yachts, they are not part of the official festival films and screenings.

Elsewhere, Hailey has been keeping her personal life private after going through a public split with Justin Bieber following their brief romance last year.

Chic: The dreamy runway piece hugged her slender torso and accentuated her bust with tulle rushing across the bodice to up the fashion ante

Sensational: Before falling into enviable crushed velvet, her look featured a matching belt that wrapped around her toned waist and boasted eye-catching gold detail peeping out on either side of the accessory

Speaking to Marie Claire soon after the split, Hailey admitted that having a relationship in the public eye at such a young age put serious pressure on her.

She explained: 'I don't want attention out of dating somebody. Texts started coming through, crazy phone calls...it's hard to date somebody in this industry.

'You have to have really thick skin and be very strong. You have to focus on the person and nothing else.'

Blonde bombshell: Letting her ensemble do the talking, the American beauty left her accessories to a minimum, showcasing her statement drop earrings through her tousled blonde locks which were styled into a low chignon

Meanwhile Hailey has topped Maxim's Hot 100 list for 2017, with the men's magazine naming her the hottest woman of the year in the magazine's upcoming May 30 issue.

Taking to Instagram the model excitedly wrote: 'Number 1. My Hot 100 cover shot by @gilles_bensimon,' she captioned the image of the cover, before adding: 'Thank you Maxim! If only people knew how clumsy and quirky I really am lol.'

This comes in stark contrast to last year when Hailey revealed she felt she had catching up to do: 'I'm not on the same level as Gigi and Kendall,' she told PeopleStyle last June. 'We're not in the same place in our careers.'
A Carz-n-Cures Car Show is a family event aiming to raise money and awareness for the Bismarck Cancer Center Foundation while giving car enthusiasts a place to connect for a cause.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 3 at the old Bismarck Motor Companys parking lot, across from Tires Plus on east Bismarck Expressway. With a freewill donation, cars or trucks can be entered with registration starting at 8:30 a.m. the day of the show. Prizes will be given for People's Choice and Best in Show There will be a silent auction along with a freewill offering lunch.

The idea of the car show was hatched by Terry Schreiner, a Tires Plus employee, in honor of his wife, Teri, who was treated at the Bismarck Cancer Center for breast cancer. The money raised will provide support services for local cancer patients to treat the whole person  mind, body and spirit  and will provide help with housing assistance, transportation, nutrition counseling, support groups and cancer education.

For questions, call 701-989-0585 or visit to www.bismarckcancercenter.com.
The custody battle between Southern Charm stars Kathryn Dennis and Thomas Ravenel is getting even nastier.

Each is seeking sole custody of their two children aged one and three and according to RadarOnline Thursday, Dennis is now accusing her ex of dating the teen daughter of their kids' nanny.

In court documents obtained by the website, the 24-year-old alleges Ravenel, 54, 'has had a romantic relationship' with the girl and 'has encouraged the underage drinking of the nannys daughter [redacted] in front of the children!'

DailyMail.com has reached out to Ravenel seeking comment.

Legal fight: Kathryn Dennis, 24, is accusing her ex Thomas Ravenel, 54, of dating the teen daughter of their children's nanny as their bitter custody battle over their two kids get nastier

The couple's children, daughter Kenzie, three, and Saint, one, currently live with their father in South Carolina after Dennis failed a court-ordered drug test last June.

She subsequently entered a rehab treatment program in Southern California.

She has accused the politician of 'alienating' her from her children.

For his part, Ravenel claims the children are not safe in their mother's care.

Troubled: Dennis, who dated Ravenel from 2013 to 2015, is fighting the politician for sole custody of their kids after she completed rehab treatment for drug abuse

Concerned: The children - daughter Kenzie, three, and son Saint, one, - currently live with their father who has said he fears for their safety if allowed to be with their mother

Dennis's personal troubles have played out on screen during season four of the Bravo reality show set in Charleston.

She and Ravenel had a relationship from 2013 to 2015 and never married.
She recently turned heads at the Cannes Film Festival.

And Lily-Rose Depp continued to stun the public as she looked gorgeous stepping out for lunch in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The 17-year-old daughter of Johnny Depp put her model experience to good use as she sported a fashion forward ensemble.

Case of the sads: Lily-Rose Depp, 17, was spotted with a frown on her youthful face in Los Angeles on Thursday

The Chanel model rocked a pair of tight denim pants that has a stylish rip in the jeans at the knee.

She wore a navy blue military style coat over her petite frame.

The young beauty was her usual natural self, going make-up free as she headed out for the day.

Lily-Rose bounced around in white high tops and clutched a black tote.

Help from a friend: Lily-Rose's demeanor sure perked up when a friend joined her on the walk

While Lily-Rose was born in Paris, the starlet now spends most of her time in New York and Los Angeles as she pursues her blossoming fashion career.

Like her mother Vanessa, Lily-Rose models for Chanel, starring in her third campaign for the high-end brand in February to debut the Rouge Coco Gloss, before hitting the runway for its Paris Fashion Week presentation in March.

The brand ambassador, who scored her first campaign with the fashion house when she was just 16, is also the face of the Chanel No.5 L'eau fragrance.

However balancing both a successful modelling and acting career, she also starred in three films last year: Planetarium with Natalie Portman, The Dancer and Yoga Hosers, alongside her famous father.

Lily-Rose is also due to reprise her Yoga Hosers role in Kevin Smith's comedy Moose Jaws, which is expected to begin filming later this year.

It is no wonder the beauty has scored an invite to this year's glitzy Cannes festival after her flick The Dancer screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the star-studded event last year.
They constantly discuss their ups and downs on their radio show as if they're husband and wife.

And on Thursday, Kyle Sandilands was forced to help co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson with a flat tyre.

The 45-year-old's guilt trip-ridden 'rescue' was broadcast via a Facebook video, before he took the opportunity to double-down on his displeasure about the task when he took to the airwaves on Friday.

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'Happy' to help! Kyle Sandilands was forced to help co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson with a flat tyre on Thursday

Recalling the moment a producer broke the news that he wouldn't get to go home early, the shock-jock recounted: 'Bruno said to me, "ugh, Jackie's broken down!"

'[Bruno] said, "can you drop me off there? Do you want to help out?" and i said nup!

Kyle and Jackie O's segment producer shared audio from Kyle's car ride with Bruno to the petrol station where his blonde co-host had broken down.

Not happy: The 45-year-old's guilt trip-ridden 'rescue' was broadcast via a Facebook video, before he took the opportunity to double-down on his displeasure about the task when he took to the airwaves on Friday

'I'm always running to her rescue,' he relented in the audio 'and what do I ever get out of this friendship? nothing!

'She's put an intervention on me, had fights with me... what's fine today is not fine tomorrow... And I have to always deal with the periods and the husband s**t.'

Jackie, 42, sounded genuinely shocked, revealing she thought he'd seen her in strife and raced to her aide.

The reality? While a Facebook video made it look like Kyle came through in the end an image shared to the KIIS FM show's Twitter later showed what really happened

When she realised that the audio had been conveniently cut-out of Thursday's Facebook video of the rescue, Kyle was forced to insist he was just 'playing up' because he knew he was being recorded.

'When I saw you standing there by the car looking helpless, like a full damsel in distress, my heart sunk and I thought, "all jokes aside I'm pulling in to help her."'

But he then revealed what Jackie was doing while he was 'hard at work, on the floor, getting dirty.

'And what's Jackie doing?' just sitting there on her phone!' he complained.

'Do you wanna know how to do it, or are you going to just sit there going through Instagram?' Kyle barked in the Facebook video.

Sitting there, looking carefree and smiling at her phone, she replied: 'No I'm not doing that! I'm playing Tetris!'

And while the Facebook video made it look as though Kyle came through in the end for his longtime co-host, an image shared to the KIIS FM show's Twitter later added yet another question mark as to what really happened.

Distracted? The snap showed the shock jock sitting on the curbside, relaxing and chowing-down on a drumstick ice cream while someone else tolled-away on Jackie's problematic Range Rover

The snap showed the shock jock sitting on the curbside, relaxing and chowing-down on a drumstick ice cream while someone else tolled-away on Jackie's problematic Range Rover.

'Jackie gets flat tyre on way home and pulls into servo waiting for help. Kyle and Puerto Rican Pedro turn up, Kyle obviously got distracted!' the caption read.

The revelation didn't stop Kyle complaining about the fact he then had to drive his 'all-white leather interior' car home, 'covered in oil.'
She recently made history becoming the first transgender woman to appear on the cover of GQ Portugal.

And on Thursday, Andreja Pejic wowed at the 70th Annual Cannes Film festival.

Attending the amfAR's 24th Cinema Against AIDS Gala, the 25-year-old showed off her slender frame in a metallic bronze figure-hugging dress.

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Striking a pose: Attending the amfAR's 24th Cinema Against AIDS Gala, 25-year-old Andreja Pejic stunned in a metallic bronze dress

The dress that featured a tie-up corset in its top half, perfectly hugged Andreja's enviable curves.

The over-the-knee length gave Andreja added height, showcasing her lean and toned legs.

Andreja sported a scooped neckline with a hint of a black bra underneath.

Stunner: The dress that featured a tie-up corset in its top half, perfectly hugged Andreja's enviable curves

Keeping the attention on her showstopping outfit, the Australian beauty wore thin strap gold heels.

Andreja's accessories were also kept minimal, consisting of a tiny shoulder bag.

Keeping her hair straight, she sported a side part with her lob effortlessly swept to one side.

A natural beauty: Keeping her hair straight, she sported a side part with her lob effortlessly swept to one side

The model was also glowing with her luminous makeup.

Previewing a close up on her Instagram Stories, Andreja sported a rosy pink yet bronzed face with a glittery eyelid.

Allowing her makeup to pop, she wore light foundation, mascara and a bold red lip.

Glowing: Previewing a close up on her Instagram Stories, Andreja sported a rosy pink yet bronzed face with a glittery eyelid

The up-and-coming model has been gaining heightened recognition recently.

Last month, Andreja shared her GQ Portugal shoot with her 296,000 Instagram followers that featured her as the first transgender woman to appear on their cover.

'I'd say this cover represents me getting my long awaited revenge on all those boys who didn't wanna hold hands in public when I was finding out about love for the first time,' Andreja captioned the post.
Foxtel's head of television Brian Walsh has all but confirmed that The Real Housewives of Sydney will face a cast shake up for season two after the show was rejected as 'too extreme' by US networks.

Speaking with Kyle and Jackie O on their KIIS FM breakfast show on Friday, the head honcho admitted: 'As has been the history with the Real Housewives of Melbourne, we made changes after each season. The new series has some new faces.

'It wouldn't be a surprise to make changes to Sydney Housewives (but) we haven't had that discussion or made any decisions'.

Changes: Foxtel's head of television Brian Walsh has all but confirmed that The Real Housewives of Sydney will face a cast shake up for season two after the show was rejected as 'too extreme' by US networks



He went on to explain that the show's American edition has a 'magic' formula and that the Sydney installment has not nailed it.

'There's a magic formula and the US gets the balance right. A bit of warmth and humour. Sydney did go over the edge. Some of the behaviour did go over the edge.

He added, 'Some of the behaviour was unacceptable. Some of the women were being nasty just for the sake of being nasty and I don't know if that makes great television'.

No magic? 'There's a magic formula and the US gets the balance right. A bit of warmth and humour. Sydney did go over the edge. Some of the behaviour did go over the edge'

New faces: Brian said that the show had been critcised for it's lack of diversity and he may be looking to Sydney's western suburbs for new cast members

Brian also revealed that the show had been critcised for it's lack of diversity and he may be looking to Sydney's western suburbs for new faces.

Kyle Sandilands suggested casting housewives from Lakemba, a suburb south-western Sydney that is know for having a dense Muslim population.

The Foxtel boss said that the show was indeed considering providing, 'representation of other parts of Sydney' such as 'West of Sydney'.

Safe? The Foxtel boss hinted that key trouble maker Lisa Oldfield may be safe as she, 'Rated very well with audiences and was very popular, but the key is to get the balance right'

Panned: Brian went on to confirm that the show was rejected by the US network Bravo

He told the radio hosts: 'I met with the heads of the Bravo network in New York last week. They decided it was too intense, too left field... too nasty for american audiences'

Brian went on to confirm that the show was rejected by the US network Bravo as reported.

He told the radio hosts, 'I met with the heads of the Bravo network in New York last week. They decided it was too intense, too left field... too nasty for american audiences'.

The Foxtel boss hinted that key trouble maker Lisa Oldfield may be safe as she, 'Rated very well with audiences and was very popular, but the key is to get the balance right'.
Kylie Jenner was photographed on Thursday paying a visit to her Kylie Cosmetics factory in Oxnard alongside her pal Jordyn Woods.

The 19-year-old sister of Kendall Jenner cut a casual figure in torn jeans and a baggy Ford sweater, but she threw in some glamour when it came to accessorizing.

She was grasping a patterned leather Naga dragon leather shoulder bag from Gucci, which currently retails on the brand's website for $3,700.

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Buddies: Kylie Jenner was photographed on Thursday paying a visit to her Kylie Cosmetics factory in Oxnard alongside her pal Jordyn Woods

Kylie's massive black hairdo fell free, and she'd matched the purse's black background with a pair of black red sneakers for her trip out to Oxnard.

Meanwhile, Jordyn - who's also 19 years old - wore high-waisted jeans with a short-sleeved black top, adding a dash of glitz by way of a glistening cross pendant.

A man with a camera was spotted trailing close behind Kylie and aiming his lens in her direction as the reality TV star ambled across a parking lot.

The look: The 19-year-old sister of Kendall Jenner cut a casual figure in faded jeans and a baggy Ford sweater, but she threw in some glamour when it came to accessorizing

Kylie's Snapchat page has played host to a post that showed her and Jordyn lounging around a silver car, the pair of them wearing hair nets.

Kylie will star on a forthcoming Keeping Up With The Kardashians spin-off show called Life Of Kylie, which will begin airing on E! at 10/9c on July 6.

In a trailer that arrived on YouTube last month, Kylie's voiceover explained: 'When you grow up on camera, everybody feels like they know you, but they don't.'

She went on: 'I feel like a lot of people have misconceptions of who I am, recalling that 'I started filming Keeping Up With The Kardashians when I was nine years old. I don't think any of us knew what we were getting ourselves into.'

Swank: She was grasping a patterned leather Naga dragon leather shoulder bag from Gucci, which currently retails on the brand's website for $3,700

To hear her tell it, 'There's two sides of me: there's an image that I feel constantly pressured to keep up with, and who I really am around my friends.'

Calling Life Of Kylie 'a gift for my fans,' she pointed out that 'I do feel pressure to not let anybody down,' maintaining that 'Nobody has perfect life.'

The youngest child of Kris Jenner did concede that 'I am not totally innocent because I am keeping up this lifestyle,' and feels that 'I can't do it forever.'

Of her forthcoming series, she said: 'This isn't Keeping Up With The Kardashians. This is like a therapy session. Now I can find what really is gonna make me happy.'

Incoming: Kylie will star on a forthcoming Keeping Up With The Kardashians spin-off show called Life Of Kylie, which will begin airing on E! at 10/9c on July 6
It was recently revealed American television networks have snubbed The Real Housewives Of Sydney for being 'too extreme' to screen in the United States.

And cast member Athena 'X' Levendi voiced her shock at the announcement on Friday during an interview on The Morning Show.

The 40-year-old lashed out at the decision and cited various examples from Donald Trump to Jerry Springer as reasons why she was surprised the show had been rejected.

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Surprised: Real Housewives Of Sydney's Athena 'X' Levendi voiced her shock at US networks snubbing the show on Friday during an interview on The Morning Show

Hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies asked her if she agreed the show was 'too mean for the screen', as reportedly described by US networks.

A visibly angry Athena said she was 'completely shocked' at the news.

'This is the country that actually voted for Donald Trump? Are we kidding?' she asked.

Shocked: The 40-year-old lashed out at the decision and cited examples from Donald Trump to Jerry Springer as reasons why she was surprised had been rejected

'This is the country that actually voted for Donald Trump? Are we kidding?' she asked

'They have shows like Jerry Springer where the mum goes onto the show and reveals she's having an affair with the girl's boyfriend,' she continued.

She questioned if the series creators were 'trying to be more prudish all of a sudden.'

Describing the Sydney season as being 'done in a humourous way', Larry interjected and told her it was actually 'pretty mean.'

Defiant: Hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies asked her if she agreed the show was 'too mean for the screen', as reportedly described by US networks

'It could be seen as mean if you were to dissect it and see it as a whole storyline,' she responded.

'We are working on a storyline, this is what the viewers don't realise,' she added.

'I guess we can only judge what we see as viewers, that's all we have to go on,' Kylie offered.

'It could be seen as mean if you were to dissect it and see it as a whole storyline,' she responded

'We are working on a storyline, this is what the viewers don't realise,' she added

The shock decision came as local broadcaster Foxtel conceded some of the Sydney housewives have 'no redeeming features' and hinted at a major cast overhaul.

Their interstate peers, The Real Housewives Of Melbourne, have been broadcast in US prime-time but this new series is being shunned for being 'too extreme.'

'A lot of the women in this show were nasty for nastys sake and have no redeeming features,' Foxtel's head of television Brian Walsh told The Daily Telegraph.
Gal Gadot electrified the world premiere of her new film Wonder Woman in a stunning red sequined gown.

The Israeli actress, 32, was dazzling in the striped Givenchy number that had a halter neck and a plunging neckline.

She flashed her cleavage in the flesh-baring outfit as she posed for photographers at the event in Los Angeles.

Red hot! Gal Gadot dazzled crowds in a sequined Givenchy gown at the world premiere of Wonder Woman on Thursday in Los Angeles

Gadot's sleeveless gown put the super-heroine's ultra toned arms center stage.

Two strips of sequined fabric wrapped the star's chest to reveal a patch of creatively placed cleavage.

She added glittering gladiator sandals and lots of gold bracelets from Tiffany & Co including a 18k gold 'Out of Retirement' loop bracelet worth $12,500.

The brunette bombshell's tresses were styled into an elegant bun, which left her glowing skin at the forefront.

Peek-a-boo! The pretty actress, 32, flashed some cleavage in the sleeveless number that had a halter neck

Queen of the Amazon! The Israeili star was all smiles as she greeted fans as she arrived at the screening

Stunning! The gown had stripes and a full skirt creating a glamorous appeal

Revealing: Gadot put her toned physique on show in he designer number and wore her brunette locks in a sophisticated updo

Throngs of fans jockeyed for the starlet's attention as she took a minute to sign autographs and take selfies with the crowd.

She reprises the role made famous on the small screen by Lynda Carter.

And her standalone film is the latest release in the Justice League series.

Meet and greet: The star made sure to spend time with fans, signing autographs and taking several selfies

Big hit: She was the center of attention

Glamour: Gadot, who also starred in Furious 7, proved she has star power

The newly minted superhero wasn't the only Wonder Woman gracing the premiere.

Original TV star Lynda Carter, 65, thrilled fans as she showed up at the event.

The pair shared a playful moment, raising their hands and bowing towards each other before sharing a warm hug.

Carter played Wonder Woman on the hugely popular TV series from 1975 to 1979.

I'm not worthy! Gadot and original Wonder Woman Lynda Carter greeted each other with bows at the premiere

Hugs! The two shared a warm embrace on the blue carpet

Double the wonder! Gadot simpered as she posed with the veteran actress who starred in the TV series of the comic book from 1975 to 1979

Gorgeous: Carter was divine in a tailored black suit with white blouse and black slingbacks and she added diamond and sapphire pendant earrings

Girl power! Gadot and carter posed with the film's director posed Patty Jenkins

He's her man: Gadot got a sweet kiss on the arrivals line from her husband Yaron Versano

While Gal posed up a storm, husband Yaron Versano stood close by to support his wife.

The Israeli businessman looked sharp in an all-black suit, taking a second to offer his leading lady a red carpet kiss.

The Fast & Furious actress then snapped a picture with her dapper co-star Chris Pine.

Co-stars: The brunette beauty also posed with co-star Chris Pine, who was dapper in a blue suit with waistcoat and skinny tie

Fan favorite! The Star Trek star plays Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman and had a great time interacting with fans

She's a beauty: : Robin Wright who stars as General Antiope exuded elegance in a sleeveless and backless black dress with asymmetrical hem

Queen bee: Connie Nielsen, who stars as Queen Hippolyta, was pretty in a full-length sleeveless patterned gown with diamond cuff

Star Trek star Pine, who plays Steve Trevor, looked sharp in a navy suit and waistcoat he teamed with a skinny tie and well-polished shoes.

A layer of stubble across his chiseled chin gave the star's looked a laid-back edge.

After posing with his co-stars, Chris made sure to stop by the bleachers for a few selfies with the fans.

Ebony and Ivory: Alexandra Siegel was angelic in a one-shouldered white gown while stunt actress Samantha Jo oozed dark glamour in her plunging black dress

Birds of a feather! Elena Anaya went all out in a while dress adorned with feathered shoulders and metallic belts

Color pop! Arrow's Caity Lotz's purple tresses stole attention from her chic tuxedo-inspired look, which she accessorized with Alexis Bittar jewelry

Actress Robin Wright, who stars as General Antiope, looked chic in a blackless and sleeveless black gown with asymmetrical hem.

Connie Nielson, who plays the powerful Queen Hippolyta, dazzled in a gauzy navy dress made of elegant layers.

Martial artist Samantha Jo, who plays Euboea in the film, embraced glamour in a plunging black dress with sheer lace bodice that she paired with a plum colored lip and retro waves.

Leggy lady! Fitness model Brooke Ence also opted for a thigh-baring look, donning black shorts with a long-sleeve chiffon blouse

Shining star! Hostess Erin Robinson showed off her thin stems in a black and silver minidress

Flower power! Castle's Molly Quinn spiced up her simple black dress with a fuchsia colored floral duster with pale pink lining

Best date! Kellan Lutz was ever the gentleman at the event, bringing his mom as his date

Cute couple: MMA fighter Tito Ortiz and girlfriend Amber Nichole Miller couldn't keep their hands off each other on the red carpet

Ka-pow! Although she was dressed up, pro stunt woman, Jessie Graffstill showed off her stellar strength in her pretty pink premiere dress

Rising star Alexandra Siegel was angelic in an one-shouldered creme dress she teamed with flowing golden tresses.

Spanish actress Elena Anaya went all out in a while dress adorned with feathered shoulders and metallic belts. She plays Maru / Dr. Poison in the film.

Arrow's Caity Lotz's purple tresses stole attention from her chic tuxedo-inspired look, which she accessorized with Alexis Bittar jewels.

Two peas in a pod! Carter and Gadot had fun in the carpet

Walking in her footsteps: They seemed perfectly at ease in each other's company

Funny seeing you here! Gal was excited to see co-star Elena Anaya at the event

The real Wonder Woman! Jenkins is the first women to direct a major studio's big budget summer release

All together now: The cast lined up for a group shot on the red carpet

Glamorous: The red carpet was awash with ultra glamorous looks

Hostess Erin Robinson wore a black and silver minidress that showed off her thin stems while fitness model Brooke Ence also opted for a thigh-baring look, donning black shorts with a long-sleeve chiffon blouse.

The handsome Kellan Lutz was ever the gentleman at the event, bring along his mom as his date.

Castle's Molly Quinn spiced up her simple black dress with a fuchsia colored floral duster with pale pink lining.

After-party: Gal and Lynda Carter chatted at the star-studded after-party

Strike a pose: The event celebrated a successful UK premiere for the film

Cheers! Gal toasted the successful evening with a glass of bubbly

Pro stunt woman Jessie Graff was pretty in pink, still able to show off her stellar strength while performing a high kick in the dress.

MMA fighter Tito Ortiz and girlfriend Amber Nichole Miller looked besotted, sharing a smooch before heading inside to enjoy the debut screening.

Wonder Woman opens in US theaters June 2.

Joining forces: Jacqui-Lee Pryce and Mayling Ng looked the picture of elegance
It was The Bachelor engagement that made hearts melt across the nation.

Perhaps even more excited about the impending nuptials than the legions of fans who watched Anna Heinrich, 30, and Tim Robards, 34, fall in love on-screen though, are the golden couple's family members.

This week, Anna's equally as gorgeous sisters Charlotte and Andrea took to Instagram to share their excitement and offer congratulations to the soon-to-be-hitched duo.

'Congrats you two love birds': Taking to Instagram this week, Charlotte and Andrea Heinrich congratulated The Bachelor's Tim Robards (pictured left) and sister Anna (pictured right) on their engagement which they announced on Wednesday

'Just hanging with our new bro': Andrea Heinrich (pictured right) shared a picture of herself with Tim (centre) and sister Charlotte (left) to welcome The Bachelor star into their family

Posting a red carpet image of Anna and Tim dressed to the nines at the TV WEEK Logie Awards, Charlotte, who is currently in Indonesia to celebrate a friend's wedding, shared her enthusiasm.

'Excitement is an understatement,' she wrote.

'Love is truly in the air, my best friend is about to get hitched and my sister gets engaged! Congrats you two love birds.'

Engaged! Anna and Tim announced their engagement on their respective Instagram accounts

Similarly excited was Andrea, who shared a picture of herself with Charlotte and Tim as she seemingly welcomed The Bachelor star into the family.

'Just hanging with our new bro #brotherinlaw #teapot,' she wrote alongside the photo of the trio.

Fitness trainer Tim popped the question to girlfriend-of-three-years Anna with a sparkling diamond ring that is reportedly worth up to $173,000.

Loved-up: Tim popped the question with a ring reportedly worth up to $173,000

About time! The couple, who met on the first series of the Channel Ten reality series have been dating for more than three years

The couple met on the first Australian series of Channel Ten dating show in 2013.

Both Tim and Anna announced their engagement on their respective Instagram accounts on Wednesday after he proposed over the weekend.

Criminal lawyer Anna moved into Tim's swanky beachside Bondi apartment in 2014.

Tying the knot soon: The couple are already living together, with Anna moving into Tim's swanky Bondi apartment back in 2014




Robin Wright put her best foot forward for the world premiere of Wonder Woman in Los Angeles Thursday night.

The blonde actress, 51, bared plenty of skin, too, in a backless and sleeveless halter neck black dress that displayed plenty of sideboob.

She flashed her side cleavage on both sides as she posed for the cameras on the bright blue carpet.

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Revealing: Robin Wright flashed plenty of sideboob in a backless and sleeveless black dress with a halter neck and long sash at the world premiere of Wonder Woman in LA Thursday

Blonde beauty: The actress, 51, looked stunning on the blue carpet in the stylish asymmetrical number that she paired with shiny black heels

The skimpy outfit also showed off her toned arms and shoulders and super slim physique.

The hem started above the knee on one side and sloped asymmetrically across her body while a long sash fell to the floor from the back of the frock's halter neck.

The House Of Cards star added shiny black stiletto heels and carried a patterned purse.

Dared to bare: The skimpy outfit showed off Wright's toned arms and shoulders and her super slim physique as she greeted fans and signed autographs

Chic: The hem of the star's dress started above the knee on one side and sloped asymmetrically across her body. She accessorized with a square patterned purse

Wright wore her blonde bobbed hair with the fringe pulled back from her face.

Her locks were blown out for volume and she tucked one side behind her ear.

The actress added triangular statement earrings and was made-up with smokey eye shadow, a dusting of rosy blush and pink lip color.

Wright plays General Antiope opposite Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman in the latest comic book film from Warner Bros.

The movie opens in theatres on June 2.
This year's amfAR gala was the one of the raciest yet, with the likes of Bella Hadid and Nicki Minaj all flashing the flesh in revealing gowns.

But it was Australia's own Shanina Shaik who stole the show in the most daring dress of all on Thursday night.

The 26-year-old risked a major wardrobe malfunction in a risque silver gown as she walked the red carpet at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France.

Silver siren: Shanina Shaik risked a major wardrobe malfunction in a risque silver gown as she walked the red carpet at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, France

The brunette beauty flashed generous side-boob in a floor-length silver gown that featured large cut-outs and two thigh-high splits.

The sheer material showcased a hint of Shanina's black and white lace underwear, worn underneath.

She paired the revealing look with matching strappy stilettos and an elegant chain-link purse.

Daring: The brunette beauty flashed generous side-boob in a floor-length silver gown that featured large cut-outs and two thigh-high splits

Her diamond-encrusted jewellry added a hint a glamour to the overall look.

The Melbourne-born star, who's is of Eurasian descent, opted for natural makeup consisting of dewy foundation, mascara and pink lip balm.

Her luscious locks were neatly swept up in a sleek updo, which showcased her flawless visage.

Close call! Shanina appeared confident in her dazzling gown despite nearly exposing herself

Revealing: The former Victoria's Secret beauty posed up a storm at the star-studded event

The former Victoria's Secret model appeared to attend the event without her fiance with DJ Ruckus, born Gregory Andrews.

Earlier this week, she revealed that their wedding plans are all sorted although they are yet to publicly reveal a date.

'(He) opened my eyes to how women should be treated,' she told OK! magazine publication, adding that wedding plans 'are set in stone.'

Flashing: The sheer material showcased a hint of Shanina's black and white lace underwear, worn underneath

Natural beauty: The Melbourne-born star, who's is of Eurasian descent, opted for natural makeup consisting of dewy foundation, mascara and pink lip balm

'(Gregory) opened up my eyes to a whole new world about how women should be treated and respected,' Shanina said.

'We've set the date and I'm very excited. We've made a lot of the plans already.

She added: 'They're set in stone, but the most important part of the wedding was the guest list and that's pretty much out of the way.'

Wedding bells: Earlier this week, Shanina revealed that her wedding plans to DJ Ruckus are all sorted although they are yet to publicly reveal a date
They welcomed their first child Leni into the world back in 2015.

Now, actor Blair McDonough, 36, and his wife Kristi have added to the brood, with Kristi giving birth to a baby boy this week.

Taking to Instagram on Friday, the former Neighbours and Winners & Losers actor announced the birth, writing, 'Hey World.... meet Van James McDonough. #pigeonpair''.

Baby joy! Former Big Brother star Blair McDonough (pictured right) and wife Kristi (pictured left) have welcomed a son called Van James

Kristi, who wed the former Big Brother star in an intimate ceremony in 2013, also shared the news on her Instagram account.

She simply wrote, 'Van James McDonough, 24.5.17' and added a number of heart emojis.

Several well-known names were quick to congratulate the pair on their new bundle of joy.

'Van James McDonough, 24.5.17': Blair's wife Kristi also announced the birth with a cute snap

Home And Away star Orpheus Pledger wrote on Blair's page, 'Brooo! Congrat all the best,' while renowned jewellery designer Samantha Willis added her best wishes in the form of a heart emoji.

Meanwhile, model Jen Hawkins commented on Kristi's image, posting: 'Congrats !! Beautiful image'.

Former Home And Away actress Kassandra Clementi also commented, writing 'congratulations' on Kristi's photo.

Just bumping along: Kristi regularly shared photos of her pregnancy journey on social media

Too cute! In one particularly adorable image, the couple's two-year-old daughter Leni rests her hand on mummy's tummy.

The loved-up couple have shared a plethora of photos of Kristi's pregnancy journey and family life together in the lead up to the birth.

In many of the snaps, Kristi's growing baby bump is on full display.

One particularly adorable image shows the couple's two-year-old daughter Leni with her hand resting on mummy's tummy.

Family matters: Blair and Kristi are already parents to daughter Leni

Sadly, it hasn't all been good news in the past for the doting parents.

In 2013, their first pregnancy ended tragically with Kristi suffering a miscarriage at 12 weeks.

Blair is known for being the runner-up in the inaugural season of Big Brother Australia in 2001 and his later roles as Stu Paker in Neighbours and Matt O'Connor in Winners & Losers.
She is the successful academic who is married to The Project's Waleed Aly.

And Susan Carland has marked the start of Ramadan, a month-long Islamic religious observation of fasting from dawn till sunset, with an Instagram post.

The 38-year-old took to the photo sharing app to post a snap of a tea cup and pot, with a small glass of milk.

Getting ready for Ramadan: It seems Susan Carland, the wife of The Project's Waleed Aly has kicked off a month of daytime fasting for Ramadan

She captioned her post: 'Farewell, daytime caffeine!

'I will miss you more than words can explain #Ramadan2017,' the caffine enthusiast added.

Susan's legions of followers, many of who are Muslim, commented on the post and greeting her with: 'Ramadan Mubarak'.

'Farewell, daytime caffeine!' She shared a post of a tea pot, with a cup of tea and a small cup of milk along with the caption 'I will miss you more than words can explain #Ramadan2017'

Caffeine enthusiast: Susan's legions of followers, many of who are Muslim, commented on the post and empathised with the struggle of fasting

A fan wrote: 'Yes the feeling is real! My caffeine addiction is at its peak... will be feeling it tomorrow.'

Another said: 'Ramadan Mubarak. Just Think it will taste so much sweeter after.'

While someone else wrote: 'Just had my last daytime cuppa too, with a heart and sad face emoji.'

InStyle winner: Susan was recently awarded the Community & Charity award by InStyle Magazine for her research and public influence on gender equality

Susan was recently presented with the award for Community & Charity category by InStyle Magazine for her research and public influence on gender equality.

She also turned heads at the 59th TV Week Logies in a stunning custom dress by AY Couture Melbourne.

The brunette was a vision of elegance in the silver, lace and violet frock, with matching hijab, alongside her TV host husband of 15 years Waleed who looked dapper in his tuxedo.
She's been a high-profile ambassador for shopping destination Myer for a decade.

And Jennifer Hawkins is working as hard as ever for the retail chain, shooting their spring 2017 campaign in the regional NSW town of Tamworth.

The 33-year-old uploaded a snap to her Instagram on Friday morning from the historic Goonoo Goonoo cattle station set of the 'Australian-themed' photo shoot.

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Need coffee! Jennifer Hawkins uploaded a snap to her Instagram on Friday morning from the historic Goonoo Goonoo cattle station set of the 'Australian-themed' Myer campaign shoot

The photo captured the former Miss Universe sitting in a director's chair as she threw one graceful arm in the air and sipped a take-away coffee with the other.

The striking blonde was dressed for chillier temperatures in a knee-length wool coat with featured gold buttons, a beige sweater and skinny jeans.

She wore her signature long blonde hair in a straight style with a middle part and her makeup palette featured various shades of brown.

Ambassador: The 33-year-old is working as hard as ever for Myer, shooting their spring 2017 campaign in the regional NSW town of Tamworth

The model recently revealed the themes of the campaign to The Daily Telegraph.

'I love that the concept is all Australian and they've picked locations that present Australia as a whole  rural, urban and beach locations,' she described.

'It will showcase Australia as a whole, which is fitting because Myer is Australia's iconic store,' she added.

'I love that the concept is all Australian and they've picked locations that present Australia as a whole  rural, urban and beach locations,' she described

The businesswoman is a champion of local designers such as Maticevski, Yeojin Bae and Alex Perry, which all feature in the campaign.

'The pieces we've been shooting have been very floaty and romantic, which is a beautiful contrast to the rugged landscape,' she explained.

The campaign is set to make its debut in coming months across Myer locations nationwide.
She caused a stir after baring her behind in a flirty red frock in front of fans.

But Connie Nielsen ensured she would not suffer a repeat performance by wearing a stunning floor-length dress to the premiere of Wonder Woman in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The Danish beauty looked in fine figure indeed as she arrived on the pre-screening red carpet in her demure, patterned ensemble.

All covered up: Connie Nielsen wore a stunning black maxi dress to the premiere of Wonder Woman in Los Angeles on Thursday

Connie, 51, looked every inch the old pro during the pre-showing formalities, and took great delight in showing off her superior figure in her black one-shoulder gown.

She made it eminently clear It seems her recent embarrassing wardrobe malfunction had not harmed her confidence.

Indeed she looked every inch the confident showbiz beauty as she swanned around at the premiere, at one point posing up with her co-star Danny Huston.

The towering beauty is playing Queen Hippolyta in the forthcoming film, the Amazon queen of Themyscira who is the mother of star Gal Gadot's character Diana.

Hitting rock bottom: In contrast she flashed her firm fundament while wearing no panties after an unfortunate gust in New York on Tuesday

Another flash: But this time it was her million dollar smile that was grabbing the limelight

Rearly impressive: She showcased her delightful derrere in a relatively restrained fashion

Connie has been dazzling with her fashion choices during the promotional tour for the film, though it seems her most memorable moment may be behind her.

For she suffered a serious wardrobe malfunction on Wednesday, giving crowds a view of her bare bottom outside the AOL building in NYC.

She gave onlookers an eyeful in a chiffon red dress - which awkwardly whipped up in the wind as she signed autographs for delighted fans.

However it seemed to be water off a duck's back for Connie, who continued to pose confidently for cameras - showing off her look for all to see, and leaving the blunder firmly behind her.

Oh Danny boy: Her co-star Huston made sure he got to cuddle up with the beauty for a photo

Connie takes on the role of Queen Hippolyta in the big screen remake of a DC Comics superhero classic.

The film is about Diana, princess of the Amazons and trained warrior who transforms into Wonder Woman when she discovers her true powers.

Hippolyta is the Queen of the Amazons, known in some circles as Wondrous Woman's Mom.
He's a celebrated foreign correspondent, television reporter and author.

And Peter Stefanovic was the centre of attention as he stepped out in a decidedly preppy ensemble on Friday.

The 33-year-old and his wife, fellow Nine Network personality Sylvia Jeffreys, toasted their Today show colleague Lisa Wilkinson at her 10th anniversary lunch in Rose Bay.

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Preppy! Celebrated reporter Peter Stefanovic wore a preppy ensemble as he and wife Sylvia Jeffreys attended Lisa Wilkinsons 10th anniversary celebrations

The younger brother of Lisa's longtime co-host Karl donned a burgundy sweater, channelling a somewhat preppy vibe.

Underneath he wore a white business shirt and paired that with a classic pair of chinos.

The Sydney-born journalist chose to slip his feet into suede apron loafers, a menswear staple, with no socks.

Bright: The younger brother of Lisa's longtime co-host Karl donned a burgundy sweater, channelling a preppy vibe

Team work: The 33-year-old, his older brother Karl and his wife Sylvia toasted their Today show colleague Lisa Wilkinson at her 10th anniversary lunch in Rose Bay

Dapper: Underneath his burgundy sweater, Peter wore a white business shirt and paired that with a classic pair of chinos

Apron loafers are identifiable by visible edges or stitches that finish off the toe, also known as 'moc toe'.

He also wore a pair of designer sunglasses tucked into the top of his shirt and a simple timepiece to complete the look.

His glamourous wife wore an olive green dress with brown sandals and a black biker jacket.

Hugs all around: Peter and Sylvia gave Lisa a big hug upon their arrival

Radiant: Peter's glamourous wife Sylvia wore an olive green dress with brown sandals and a black biker jacket

The Today show team headed to a celebratory lunch for Lisa at popular restaurant Catalina Rose Bay from their live broadcast in Campbelltown, earlier that morning.

Peter and Sylvia, Lisa and her husband Peter FitzSimons were all present however Karl's girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough was not in attendance.

The close-knit crew toasted to Lisa's anniversary of a decade as the show's main co-host.

West to east: The Today show team headed to a celebratory lunch for Lisa at popular restaurant Catalina Rose Bay from their live broadcast in Campbelltown earlier that morning
She's known for her love of canine companions.

But it seems even Lisa Vanderpump may have a limit when it comes to working on behalf of her four legged friends.

The 56-year-old Bravo reality star posted up outside of her dog rescue center in West Hollywood on Thursday.

Sitting pretty: Lisa Vanderpump, 56, posted up outside of her dog rescue center in West Hollywood on Thursday with James Kennedy

The style maven still looked chic thanks to a pinstripe blazer, which she wore over a simple white top.

Skin tight denim revealed her shapely legs, while a pair of midnight blue high-heeled booties rounded out her stylish look.

Her brunette tresses were parted simply in the middle and fell straight down past her shoulders.

Of course her make-up was flawless, and featured pale rose lip gloss, subtle blush and a smoky eye.

Sartorially savvy: The style maven still looked chic thanks to a pinstripe blazer, which she wore over a simple white top

Nothing fancy: Her brunette tresses were parted simply in the middle and fell straight down past her shoulders

She appeared to be enjoying a tasty beverage in a large mug and she leaned back in a blue deck chair.

The sometime restaurateur was kept company by fellow reality star James Kennedy who sat with his back to the camera.

James, 25, was dressed very casually in a black t-shirt, tan trousers, white socks and olive-colored trainers.

Relaxing: She appeared to be enjoying a tasty beverage in a large mug and she leaned back in a blue deck chair

His brunette locks were styled into an impressive Pompadour.

Recently, Lisa made waves as the Grand Marshall of the Long Beach Gay Pride Parade.

'In light of the climate and what's going on in the world in the LGBT community, as a heterosexual woman and an advocate for gay rights, I was honored to be asked to be the Grand Marshall of the Long Beach Gay Pride Parade today,' she told DailyMail.com.

Two of a kind: The sometime restaurateur was kept company by fellow reality star James Kennedy who sat with his back to the camera
Kim Kardashian is still swept off her feet by husband Kanye West.

The 36-year-old reality star came home to a house full of flowers to celebrate their 3rd anniversary on Thursday.

'How cute that I get to come home and see these gorgeous floating flowers,' Kim said in the video posted showing huge bunches of white blooms lining her floors.

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Going strong: Kim Kardashian, 36, posted a throwback snap of her and Kanye West, 39, to honor their 3rd wedding anniversary

Kim then made a smacking noise indicating a kiss and added: 'Happy anniversary!'

She also posted a picture of the couple when they first started dating in honor of their anniversary and captioned it: '3 down, a lifetime to go...'

Kim and Kanye first started dating in April of 2012.

In December of that year, they announced their first pregnancy.

Floral surprise: The reality star came home to a house full of flowers to celebrate the anniversary on Thursday

Giant cauliflower: 'How cute that I get to come home and see these gorgeous floating flowers,' Kim said in the video posted showing huge bunches of white blooms lining her floor

In June 2013, the happy couple welcomed their daughter North West.

Kim and Kanye got engaged in a surprise proposal at San Francisco's AT&T park in October of 2013.

After a few days of celebrations with their family and friends in Paris, Kim and Kanye tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Florence, Italy on May 24, 2014.

Kim gave birth to their baby boy Saint on Dec. 5, 2015.

Meanwhile, the happy couple were seen with daughter North at Disneyland on Monday celebrating a friend's birthday.

And Kanye has just returned from working on new music in Wyoming for the last few weeks.
She is playing the Kurt Russell role in the gender-flipped remake of Overboard.

And Anna Faris was spotted dashing from a car as she made a late pizza delivery as the cameras rolled in Canada on Thursday.

The 40-year-old comedienne looked suitably flustered as she dashed from her vehicle before chewing her nails during the shoot in Vancouver.

Better late than never: Anna Faris was spotted filming a pizza delivery scene on the set of the Overboard remake in Canada on Thursday

Anna looked suitably downtrodden in a white pizza shop T-shirt, blue jeans and running shoes.

In the classic 1987 original Goldie Hawn played a pampered millionaire who lost her memory after, perhaps unsurprisingly, falling overboard from her yacht.

She is picked up by a single father workman she abhors, played by real-life lover Kurt Russell, who cunningly gets revenge by persuading her she is his wife, before they end up falling in love.

The re-imagined film will see Mexican star Eugenio Derbez play as a spoiled playboy - who falls from his own luxury boat.

Anna plays a single mother who convinces him that they are married, similar to the character played by Kurt Russell in the original.

A nail-biting development: She looked suitably flustered after making her late delivery

Back from the dead: She filmed a scene in a cemetery as filming on the remake began on Wednesday

Blonde moment: Anna's flustered character has a lot on her plate as a working single mother

The film is clearly a special one for Goldie, as she recently said: '"We hadn't seen it from the beginning; we don't watch our movies.

'You know how sometimes you forget why you fell in love? I remembered everything, and why I fell in love. It was really something to be able to watch that.'

MGM Motion Picture Group President Jonathan Glickman said: 'The original Overboard was beloved and the only way to bring it back is to reinvent the story in a whole new way.

'Anna and Eugenio are two of the most charismatic forces in comedy whose take on the material will modernize the story for a whole new generation of moviegoers.'

Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg co-wrote and are co-directing the comedy.

Gender flip: Mexican star Eugenio Derbez is playing the Goldie Hawn role in the remake
She once held Lisa Wilkinson's job as co-host on the Today show.

And on Friday, A Current Affair media personality Tracy Grimshaw stepped out in the swanky Sydney suburb of Rose Bay to celebrate her successor's achievements.

The 56-year-old was spotted rocking a fresh blow dry, giving her brown cropped locks a stylish edge as she attended Lisa's 10th anniversary celebrations at lavish Catalina restaurant.

Party time: A Current Affair media personality Tracy Grimshaw stepped out in the swanky Sydney suburb of Rose Bay to celebrate Lisa Wilkinson's 10 years on the Today show

Tracy with the good hair: The 56-year-old was spotted rocking a fresh blow dry, giving her brown cropped locks a stylish edge as she attended Lisa's 10th anniversary celebrations at lavish Catalina restaurant

Tracy opted for a smart all-black ensemble for the event, donning a loose-fitting top.

She matched the blouse with conservative black trousers and fashionable wedges.

Sticking to the dark theme, Tracy complemented the look by adding a large leather designer handbag.

Accessorising the outfit with classic jewellery, the media doyenne adorned her wrist with a brown leather wristwatch and a simple silver bracelet.

Stylish: Tracy opted for a smart all-black ensemble for the event, donning a loose-fitting top

She teamed it all with a silver heart-shaped necklace that dangled delicately from her neck.

Her beauty palette was subtle, with the TV star selecting a nude pink lipstick and a smoky brown eye for the occasion.

Time to celebrate! Tracy was in the leafy Sydney suburb of Rose Bay to toast her successor Lisa

Looking good! The well-known journalist looked stylish and sophisticated as she arrived

A number of Nine Network stars and colleagues joined Lisa to celebrate her Today show milestone.

As well as Lisa's breakfast TV co-host Karl Stefanovic and husband Peter Fitzsimons, TV personalities such as Peter Stefanovic, Sylvia Jeffreys and Ben Fordham were all in attendance.

The lunch followed the Today's live broadcast in Campbelltown, which aired earlier that morning.
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She rocked the red carpet earlier in the night and conquered the catwalk in a stunning gold gown.

And Bella Hadid was spotted letting her hair down following the glittering gala, cutting loose on the dancefloor at the fun-filled amfAR gala after-party held at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Thursday night.

The brunette beauty down a bottle of champagne, sipping straight from the bottle as she celebrated a successful evening, which was sponsored by Moncler.

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Party girls: Bella Hadid sipped on champagne straight from the bottle before hitting the dancefloor with Nicki Minaj at the fun-filled amfAR gala after-party held at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Thursday night

Bella transformed into not one but two more sexy outfits later in the evening - including yet another slashed ensemble which flashed her lingerie and a sexy knitted gown with gaping, flesh-flashing holes.

She certainly seemed to let her hair down within the bash as she wooped and cheered while guzzling champagne with her fellow model pals.

Bella then cosied up to fellow party girl Nicki Minaj on the dancefloor, throwing shapes together.

The No Frauds hitmaker stunned in a black lace gown with a halterneck cut, highlighting her hourglass curves.

Racy! Bella stunned in a sexy knitted gown with gaping, flesh-flashing holes as she larked around with rapper Nicki

Daring to bare: The striking dress featured bold cut-outs at the bust and at the waist, highlighting her lithe figure

Outfit change: Later in the evening, Nicki slipped into a glitter embellished number with a stripe pattern

Joining in the fun: Jessica Chastain and Will Smith, Eva Colla and Rula Jebreal let loose on the dancefloor

Making waves: While A-list actors Jessica and Will let loose, fashionable crowd Jordan Barrett , Carine Roitfeld and Lara Stone (right) were more demure

In good company: Nicki posed with Philipp Plein and 'Hot Felon' Jeremy Meeks at the dinner table

Partying the night away: Dsquared2's Dean and Dan Caten cosied up to Rita Ora (left) while Lara Lieto and Adrien Brody posed up a storm (right)

Gorgeous girls: Cindy Bruna, Winnie Harlow, Nicki and Joan Smalls looked fierce as they posed together

Hugging it out: Eva Longoria gave David Beckham a warm welcome at the star-studded event

Cheeky: Shanina flashed a liberal amount of skin in her daring metallic dress as she threw some shapes on the dancefloor

Flirty: Shanina and Lewis Hamilton appeared to be getting along famously, chatting at the dinner table

She posed alongside model of the moment Winnie Harlow at the dinner table, seated alongside a motley crew of stars including 'Hot Felon' Jeremy Meeks.

The A-list crowd, which also included Jessica Chastain and Will Smith, were in full on party mode, dancing the night away at the ball.

Bella was leading the glamour on the catwalk at the amfAR's 24th Cinema Against AIDS Gala, hosting a charity auction to raise money for the important cause.

A parade of famous model faces strutted their stuff on the catwalk before the main catwalk event, which proved a popular draw with the crowd.

Charity auction: Bella was leading the glamour on the catwalk at the amfAR's 24th Cinema Against AIDS Gala, hosting a charity auction to raise money for the important cause

Cheers: Bella and her model pals including Jessica Hart and Jordan Barrett toasted the successful auction with a bottle of champagne bought by an audience member

With thanks: The models giggled as they poured each other glasses of fizz, raising a toast to the crowd and their generosity

All that glitters: Bella opted for a neutral colour palette with a touch of metallics for the glittering event

Loving life: Bella was conducting the auction alongside former editor in chief of Vogue Paris, Carine Restoin-Roitfeld (centre)

Gorgeous gown: Russian beauty Irina was rocking a black number with silver thread detailing for added glamour

Group shot: An all-star line up of supermodels took part in the all important auction, the highlight of the function

Beaming: Bella flashed a radiant smile after the auction dinner of the Cinema Against AIDS amfAR gala

Celebrating in style: Following a star-studded catwalk show, the models took to the stage to celebrate

Cheers to us! The girls - Valery Kaufman, Hailey Baldwin, Carine Roitfeld, Bella Hadid, Irina Shayk and Elsa Hosk and Hana Jirickova - were thrilled with the results

Bella and her model pals including Jessica Hart, Irina Shayk and Jordan Barrett toasted the successful auction with a bottle of champagne bought by an audience member.

The models giggled as they poured each other glasses of fizz, raising a toast to the crowd and their generosity.

Every year, the amfAR Gala brings out the great and good of the Hollywood and fashion world - yet this year's bash had a saucy difference with the stars upping the raunchy side of things.

Earlier in the evening, Bella was leading the way with the saucy ensembles, flashing slightly too much in a perilously slashed gown while she was joined by side-boob baring Shanina Shaik and Nicki - who was at risk of baring all - as they swept the red carpet.

One for social media: Nicki, who wowed in a plunging black lace gown, pulled her best selfie face

Sealed with a kiss: Lindsay Lohan blew the camera a kiss, her pout highlighted with a slick of pink lipstick

A-list dinner companions: Nicole Kidman was seated next to Dustin Hoffman at the table

Slinky dresses: Shanina Shaik (left) and Winnie Harlow (right) were the belles of the ball at the after-party

Dinner date: Designer Georgina Chapman and her music mogul husband Harvey Weinstein were in attendance

Smoking hot: Bella and designers Dean and Dan Caten took a smoking break outside

Model of the moment: Winnie was looking sensational in a white lace gown as she posed with Rita (left) and Nicki (right)

Hotel heiress: Paris Hilton adn her boyfriend Chris Zylka chatted to Cole Whittle and JinJoo Lee

Simple sophistication: Paris and Sofia Richie (left) opted for classic looks, while Eva Cavalli and Chloe Green (right) embraced a Gothic look

Letting loose: Dan Caten, Natasha Poly, Marjan Jonkman and Dan Caten were party animals on the dancefloor

A-list hosts: Chris Tucker, Uma Thurman, auction winners, Will Smith, Jessica Chastain and Tobey Maguire linked arms

Having a ball: Petra Nemcova, Eva Cavalli, Uma Thurman and Remo Ruffini were in high spirits

Taking the plunge: Lara Stone sported an extreme plunging gown with a pink belt

Centre stage: Joe Jonas and his band DNCE kept the crowd entertained with their fun pop tunes

High profile gig: The Cake By The Ocean hitmakers delivered a confident and powerful performance

Getting into the swing of it: DNCE rocker Cole Whittle was up to his usual tricks

Hosting duties: Uma, Will and Jessica went down a storm with the crowd at the gala

Her main man: Winnie was fan-girling over the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air favourite

The 20-year-old supermodel looked phenomenal in a sheer white number adorned with intricate jewelled adornments, yet the embellishment did nothing to protect her bare bust while the slashed leg gave a glimpse of her entire frame.

Last year, Bella stole the show at the Unknown Girl premiere on 18 May 2016 as she sported the red gown which showed off her endless legs, perky cleavage and ultimately her lingerie when she unwittingly flashed the world's press. She admitted after the appearance that wearing the gown was 'a bit scary' yet she was delighted to have 'so much nice feedback which was exciting.'

It seems Bella got the bug for baring all, as her amfAR look was possibly the sauciest to date as she sizzled in the racy getup designed by Ralph and Russo - complete with a boned corset, modesty-protecting nude underwear and a perilous slash.

Red carpet parade: Leading the way with the saucy ensembles on the red carpet earlier in the evening was Bella (left) who flashed slightly too much in a perilously slashed gown while she was joined by bustier-clad Elsa Hosk, side-boob baring Shanina Shaik and struggling Nicki (second left, second right, right)

Woah mama: Last year, Bella stole the show at the Unknown Girl premiere on 18 May 2016 as she sported the red gown which showed off her endless legs, perky cleavage and ultimately her lingerie when she unwittingly flashed the world's press

Sizzling: While she is typically seen pulling brooding stares and moody pouts, Bella gave a rare glimpse at her dazzling smile

Woah there! She once again ensured she commanded full attention in the sizzling gown

Capturing the attention: The stunning star was drawing every eye onto her

Cheeky! The stunning star oozed body confidence while sashaying along the red carpet

One Bella of a look! The stunning star later transformed into not one but two more sexy outfits - including yet another slashed ensemble which flashed her lingerie and a sexy knitted gown with gaping, flesh-flashing holes

The acres of sheer material building up the train and the delicate yet stunning beadwork complete with jewels and sequins being the only detail atop the totally sheer body and waist-enhancing corset.

Her perky bust was on display for the entire red carpet, with her assets flattered and enhanced by the stiff shape of the top of the gown. One strap of the gown sat on her slender shoulder, while the other cascaded neatly off her frame to best flaunt even more skin.

Despite becoming something of a connoisseur in risque splits, she still seemed to battle with the racy slash which showed off the entirety of her leg. She added height to her already staggering stature with the addition of silver heels complete with a racy tie at the ankle.

Feathered fancy: Bella was glowing as she paraded along the red carpet into the bash

Posing up a storm: The silver sensation was a delight for the eyes as she showed off her phenomenal shape in the gown

All eyes on me: The stunning star dazzled in her slinky getup as she made her way through the party

Dazzling display: The acres of sheer material building up the train and the delicate yet stunning beadwork complete with jewels and sequins being the only detail atop the totally sheer body and waist-enhancing corset

Laughing it off: Bella laughed off the hate as she sashayed along the red carpet

Sexy stuff: The glowing model was a vision as she swept onto the stage

Legs eleven: She paraded down the stairs in her second gown complete with another sexy slash

Bella scraped her raven tresses into a tight bun pulled into a taut chignon at the top of her head to make the most of her pretty features and flawless bone structure. Her make-up was minimal - no doubt to provide full impact of the gown - as she smudged a silver eyeliner in the corner of her eyes and a pink gloss on her lip.

She is certainly becoming the queen of the racy red carpet looks, although she admitted with her first foray into her saucy Cannes vibes was a struggle.

Hot on Bella's sexy heels was Shanina, who proved herself to have very few inhibitions as she slipped into a chainmail silver gown complete with a tabbard style, which left her entire unsupported chest and endless legs on display.

Seemingly a student of the Bella Hadid school of red carpet dressing, Shanina used the winning formula of a minimal beauty regimen paired with an eye-popping gown.

Perky! Hot on Bella's sexy heels was Shanina, who proved herself to have very few inhibitions as she slipped into a silver gown complete with a tabbard style, which left her entire unsupported chest and endless legs on display

Oh my! Shanina left hardly anything to the imagination in her silver gown which featured jagged edges

Woah mama! Seemingly a student of the Bella Hadid school of red carpet dressing, Shanina used the winning formula of a minimal beauty regimen paired with an eye-popping gown

As ever, vamping up proceedings was Nicki Minaj who looked incredible in a racy black number designed by Roberto Cavalli Couture complete with a lace corset with a cleavage enhancing detail - although she spilled out of the bustier to a shock degree.

She wore her hair in her favoured style du jour - acres of long straight lengths cascading near to the floor in length - while her make-up was lavishly and heavily applied.

Elsa meanwhile went for a princess style gown - although the finishing effect failed to boast the refined nature of a royal as she grappled with the sheer skirt while cupping her bustier-clad top half.

Sizzling: As ever, vamping up proceedings was Nicki Minaj who looked incredible in a racy black number complete with a lace corset with a cleavage enhancing detail - although she spilled out of the bustier to a shock degree

Hold on tight! Nicki was forced to bend down to gather her gown and protect her modesty

Gorgeous girl: The stunning star dazzled in the black gown which enhanced all her best assets

Her perky assets were boosted by the underwired cup on her gown, which was adorned with lace, while the full-bodied skirt featured masses of volume and a racy split extending the length of her leg.

The blonde beauty went for a sex kitten style look with her plump pout dabbed with pink gloss while her hair was teased into a chic half-beehive. She matched her black shoes to her black earrings and hair grips.

The fundraiser, which raises money for AIDS research, saw celebrities make their way into a lavish dinner which is followed by a no expense spared auction, with last year's event raising a staggering $30 million.

The event, which takes place just outside of Cannes, attracts the biggest stars in showbiz in order to raise money for the worthwhile cause. Within the bash, an array of models stormed the runway as part of the show.

Eek! Elsa meanwhile went for a princess style gown - although the finishing effect failed to boast the refined nature of a royal as she grappled with the sheer skirt while cupping her bustier-clad top half

Going... going... gone: Her dress seemed to battle against staying in place on the red carpet as she dazzled in her gown

Oh wow! The exquisite dress was frothy and flirty with masses of material gathering around her slender figure

Out and a pout: The blonde beauty went for a sex kitten style look with her plump pout dabbed with pink gloss while her hair was teased into a chic half-beehive

Flashing her stuff: Doing her very best, Bella pulled apart her gown while showing off her endless legs and also her lingerie

March of the models: Hailey Baldwin, Bella and Joan Smalls (left-right) strutted their stuff for a fashion show in the event

Also living it up at the bash was Nicole Kidman, 49, has been reigning supreme all week with two of her movies up for the prestigious Palme d'Or award - yet she proved she is not partied out as she headed to amfAR looking fresher than ever.

And despite her nightly appearances on the red carpets and parties around the annual event, she was looking as fresh-faced as ever. She ditched the sweeping skirts and flowing mane of the past few nights, and went for a slightly sterner look - in stark contrast to her sizzling cohorts.

Nicole wore her blonde locks tightly pulled into a bun on top of her head, allowing a couple of wisps to trickle around her delicate features.

She wore a face of creamy make-up, defying the fact that she is about to turn 50, showcasing a flawless complexion. She dusted her lashes with a layer of mascara and painted her pout with a light pink tone. Her dress was sheer black, adorned with sequins and a feathered collar.

Flawless in France! Nicole Kidman, 49, has been reigning supreme all week with two of her movies up for the prestigious Palme d'Or award - yet she proved she is not partied out as she headed to amfAR looking fresher than ever

Maleficent-esque: And despite her nightly appearances on the red carpets and parties around the annual event, she was looking as fresh-faced as ever. She ditched the sweeping skirts and flowing mane of the past few nights, and went for a slightly sterner look - in stark contrast to her sizzling cohorts

Stern: She wore a face of creamy make-up, defying the fact that she is about to turn 50, showcasing a flawless complexion. She dusted her lashes with a layer of mascara and painted her pout with a light pink tone. Her dress was sheer black, adorned with sequins and a feathered collar

Slick: She ditched the sweeping skirts and flowing mane of the past few nights, and went for a slightly sterner look as she arrived on the red carpet

Beaming: Uma Thurman was joined by her son on the red carpet

Alongside the host of saucy gowns was new mother Irina Shayk, 31, flaunted her enviable cleavage as she stepped out in a sensational cleavage-flaunting look. The full-length skirt followed behind her as she made her way inside the party, and highlighted her statuesque figure with ease thanks to her lofty height while she looked fresh-faced to let her striking garment do the talking.

Irina's dazzling displays comes as she continues to flaunt her incredible post-baby body in the South of France after stepping out in a jaw-dropping Balmain gown for the premiere of The Beguiled at the 70th Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.

She was flying solo as she arrived in Nice and was without her actor beau Bradley Cooper, 42, earlier this week.

Irinia and the Silver Linings Playbook star have been dating since early 2015 and sparked engagement rumours in December last year, after the brunette beauty was spotted sporting an emerald-and-diamond ring on her wedding finger. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Lea de Seine, together in March earlier this year.

Head-turning: Russian Irina flaunted her ample cleavage and incredible post-baby body in a floor-length large sequin Prada number which hugged her slender torso before falling into a ombre decorated skirt in duck egg blue and bronze

Fashion fiends: The trio looked a vision of style in their clashing looks as they made their way indoors

Pink to make 'em wink: The VS Angel's attention grabbing look featured a soft pink hue as she posed in the idyllic garde

Dazzling the style watchers on the grey carpet, Izabel Goulart highlighted her slender model frame as she donned a sheer fishtail custom Zuhair Murad gown which flaunted a veritable amount of skin following her see-through display at Wednesday night's The Beguiled premiere.

She scored major fashion points once again on Thursday as she arrived at amfAR's event, stepping out in revealling sheer gown which featured intricate sequin beading across the bodice and down her figure-flaunting skirt.

The Brazilian babe's look protected her modesty with cleverly placed crystals across her cleavage while baring a nude mesh in between her bust as she posed for cameras with ease.

Making a statement: Dazzling the style watchers on the grey carpet, Izabel highlighted her slender model frame as she donned a sheer fishtail custom Zuhair Murad gown which flaunted a veritable amount of skin following her see-through display at Wednesday night's The Beguiled premiere

Oh my! The Brazilian babe's look protected her modesty with cleverly placed crystals across her cleavage while baring a nude mesh in between her bust as she posed for cameras with ease

Crystal clear: The Brazilian babe's look protected her modesty with cleverly placed crystals across her cleavage while baring a nude mesh inbetween her bust as she posed for cameras with ease

Being a generous philanthropist herself with her own charity, it came as no surprise to see Eva Longoria looking fabulous at the star-studded amfAR's 24th Cinema Against AIDS Gala.

After dazzling on every red carpet she has graced at Cannes Fillm Festival, the 42-year-old actress did not disappoint at the gala. Flaunting her hourglass curves, Eva opted for a plunging pink Elie Saab gown which offered a glimpse at her ample cleavage and accentuated her small waist.

Adorned with sequins and glamorous embellishment, the garment ensured all eyes would be on her on the night, whilst still keeping her look effortless and timeless in style.

Pretty in pink: Flaunting her hourglass curves, Eva opted for a plunging pink Elie Saab gown which offered a glimpse at her ample cleavage and accentuated her small waist

Sparkling: Adorned with sequins and glamorous embellishment, the garment ensured all eyes would be on her on the night, whilst still keeping her look effortless and timeless in style

Hey there! Eva posed with her husband and her best pal Victoria Beckham's spouse David - who looked dashing in velvet

The whole group: The happy pals posed in the party as they lived it up among the stars

Superstar pairing: David happily posed with Dustin Hoffman

Reaching out: Eva gave an impassioned speech as she appeared in front of the creme da le creme of the showbiz world

In depth: David spoke to the audience at the event, where he attended without his wife Victoria yet saw her best pal Eva

Keeping her hair and make-up simple so as not to detract from her elegant ensemble, the brunette bombshell wore her glossy locks in loose waves styled in a chignon bun, whilst her plump pout bore a slick of pale pink lipstick.

It's one of the most highly-anticipated nights in the Cannes Film Festival calendar, attracting the biggest names in showbiz. Rita, 26, appeared in a Barbie-inspired mini-dress, in a pale pink.

The intricate number featured an array of detailing; feathered layers, sequins and fringe, showing off Rita's svelte back and her toned pins.

Her hair was fashioned into a flawless beehive with bouncy lengths extending to the tops while she added to the Barbie girl feel of the ensemble with the addition of slick pink lip gloss.

1920 meets 2017: Rita, 26, appeared in a flapper-inspired mini-dress, in a pale pink

Flapping about: The intricate number featured an array of detailing; feathered layers, sequins and fringe, showing off Rita's svelte back and her toned pins

Legs eleven! Looking chic and playful, Rita's fluffy mini looked incredible on her lithe frame

Chic: Her coiffed look was the perfect addition to proceedings

The fundraiser, which raises money for AIDS research, saw celebrities make their way into a lavish dinner which is followed by a no expense spared auction, with last year's event raising a staggering $30 million.

The event, which takes place just outside of Cannes, attracts the biggest stars in showbiz in order to raise money for the worthwhile cause.

Eva is in Cannes promoting new flick Lowriders, which tells the story of a teen graffiti artist who paints murals on the hoods of cars in a bid to help his older brother win an upcoming competition.

Stunner: Supermodel Petra Nemcova dazzled in a blue frothy gown with a billowing skirt and racy slit while boasting a slinky diamante belt with a textured handbag

Glowing: Jessica Chastain looked elegant in a floor-sweeping black gown with a pearl necklace

Happier than ever: Judges Jessica and Will Smith posed together on the red carpet

Wow: As ever Diane Kruger looked stylish and edgy with her usual funky additions to the red carpet

She's no mean girl: The stunning star was a vision in her frothy gown which displayed all the best bits of her frame

Sparkling sensation: The stunning star was belting out her hits in a dazzling ensemble

Curly sensation: She belted out all the best hits during her stint on stage

Her husband businessman Jose Antonio Baston, 49, has joined her in the south of France for the duration of her stay, but was not present at the amfAR gala.

They couple recently celebrated their first anniversary of marriage together after getting hitch in Mexico last May, with the pair spotted packing on the PDA on the sandy beach. She has had two previous marriages, first tying the knot with General Hospital star Tyler Christopher, 44, in 2002.

Supermodel Petra Nemcova dazzled in a blue frothy gown with a billowing skirt and racy slit while boasting a slinky diamante belt with a textured handbag.

Never one to make a stealth entrance, Paris Hilton swept in to the event with her beau Chris Zylka, who she has been seen at every event getting close to.

Intimate! Never one to make a stealth entrance, Paris Hilton swept in to the event with her beau Chris Zylka, who she has been seen at every event getting close to

Silver sensation: She was dazzling in a flapper-inspired dress

Sizzling: Sofia Richie looked chic in a feathered gown as she headed into the event

Busty! Victoria Silvstedt was typically sexy in a huge pink ensemble

Here come the boys! Chris Tucker, Adrien Brody, Lewis Hamilton and Jeremy Meeks (left-right) looked sharp

Style stars: Lara, Doutzen Kroes, 32, and Irina Shayk looked picture perfect as they grazed the grey carpet together in their show-stopping ensembles

Pretty as a plum: Hailey Baldwin's Elie Saab garment featured a thigh-high slit that showcased her honed golden pins to perfection while mesmerising tulle surrounded her waist with eye-catching gold detail peeping out on either side of the accessory

Yowzers: Joan Smalls strutted to the event in a pair of striking gold heels as she posed up a storm in her navy Elie Saab dress

Going for gold: The stunning model wowed the crowds with her sexy arrival

Wow! Joan showed off her endless legs in a skimpy gown as she strutted her stuff

In the blue: VS model Jessica Hart, 31, sported a sweet heart neckline Alexandre Vauthier mini dress with eye-catching blue sash around her waist which trailed behind her in a chic train

Adding drama: The Aussie's striking sash was dramatic addition to her otherwise simple ensemble

Sheer bliss: Canadian model Winnie Harlow, 22, dared to bare at the event as she donned a sheer strapless gown that showcased her nude underwear

Chic: She continued to rock her pixie haircut which made a showstopping debut just days before

Out out: Kate Upton, 24, looked as striking as ever as she once again flashed her eye-popping assets

Striking: She worked a beige fitted frock that fell into a number of exquisite fringing that trailed the ground as she arrived

Hailey Baldwin joined her pal Bella at the bash, as she dazzled in an Elie Saab garment which featured a thigh-high slit that showcased her honed golden pins to perfection while mesmerising tulle surrounded her waist with eye-catching gold detail peeping out on either side of the accessory.

Joan Smalls strutted to the event in a pair of striking gold heels as she posed up a storm in her navy Elie Saab dress, while her hair was scraped into a staggering high ponytail.

VS model Jessica Hart, 31, sported a sweet heart neckline Alexandre Vauthier mini dress with eye-catching blue sash around her waist which trailed behind her in a chic train.

Bringing a taste of the UK to proceedings was Millie Mackintosh, who was no doubt delighted to be in the company of her A-list fellow guests. She dazzled in a white sheer ensemble.

All white? Bringing a taste of the UK to proceedings was Millie Mackintosh, who was no doubt delighted to be in the company of her A-list fellow guests. She dazzled in a white sheer ensemble

Oh my: Shunning the frothy looks of the evening, Anja Rubik went for an edgy blazer dress

Style maven: Italian model Bianca Balti dazzled in her velvet floor length Dolce & Gabbana dress that featured a plunging neckline

All smiles: Jean-Paul Gaultier (L) posed with Coca at the star-studded event appearing in high spirits

Getting chic done: Lily Donaldson (L) and Coco Rocha complemented each other in all black looks

Sparkle: British model Neelam Gill sported a daring cutout dress that highlighted her slender frame
The celebrations started early with a morning tribute to Lisa Wilkinson and her 10 years on Today.

But the party didn't stop there for Channel Nine's biggest presenters, with Karl and Peter Stefanovic sinking drinks during a special lunch on Friday.

The two brothers were all smiles as they rubbed shoulders with the network's top talent.

Cheers Lisa! Karl and Peter Stefanovic sink drinks at lavish lunch celebrating Wilkinson's 10th anniversary as Today host

Both the Stefanovic brothers cut dapper figures at the lavish luncheon, Karl wearing his trademark blue suit.

Meanwhile Peter went for more of a preppy look, wearing a red jumper and chino pants.

The two brothers could be seen with drinks in hand, with Karl unable to hide his smile as he chatted to colleague Ben Fordham.

Party time! The two brothers could be seen drinks in hand, with Karl chatting to colleague Ben Fordham

Stylish: Both the Stefanovic brothers cut dapper figures at the lavish luncheon, Karl wearing his trademark blue suit

Starting the weekend early: Peter looked just as jubilant as his older sibling, also chatting enthusiastically to guests inside the exclusive Sydney venue

Peter looked just as jubilant as his older sibling, also chatting enthusiastically to guests inside the exclusive Sydney venue.

Later he was seen leaving the eatery alongside wife Sylvia Jeffreys.

Newlywed Sylvia cut a chic figure in a moss green dress, pairing the look with a leather jacket and tan heels.

Fashionable exit: Later he was seen leaving the eatery alongside wife Sylvia Jeffreys, the pair appearing in high spirits after the boozy lunch

Dressing to impress: Newlywed Sylvia cut a chic figure in a moss green dress, pairing the look with a leather jacket and tan heels

Supporting her girl! Also attending the celebrations was A Current Affair host and longtime friend of Lisa, Tracy Grimshaw

Party ready: The former Today host cut a chic figure for the celebratory luncheon, wearing a khaki blouse

Arriving: The veteran Channel Nine journalist accessorised her outfit with silver jewelry and a black handbag

Also attending the celebrations was A Current Affair host and longtime friend of Lisa, Tracy Grimshaw.

The former Today host cut a chic figure for the celebratory luncheon, wearing a khaki blouse.

The veteran Channel Nine journalist accessorised her outfit with silver jewelry and a black handbag.

BFF alert! Also pictured arriving earlier was newsreader Sylvia, who continued the love fest by giving her mentor a big bear hug upon her arrival

Couldn't be closer: The two women and Today staff appeared closer than ever

Can I have a hug? Also greeting Lisa affectionately was Sylvia's husband Peter

Present time! Sylvia clutched a present for Lisa from The Daily Edited in one hand

Happy pair: The two also posed for photos, their arms around each other affectionately

Also pictured arriving earlier was newsreader Sylvia, who continued the love fest by giving her mentor a big bear hug upon her arrival.

The invitees all gathered in the park before heading into the swanky seafood restaurant.

Although they had seen each other only a few hours earlier, Sylvia and Lisa embraced one another like they were long lost friends.

Fancy seeing you! Lisa greeted Peter with a warm hug and smile

Pre-party meet: The invitees all gathered in the park before heading into the swanky seafood restaurant

Something in her eye? Lisa appeared to wipe at her eyes as she met with Lisa, hours after becoming emotional on the Today show

Red hot! Changing from her morning show attire, Lisa had slipped into a red and white number for her special lunch

Changing from her morning show attire, Lisa had slipped into a red and white number for her special lunch.

Teaming her rosy midi-length frock with a pair of metallic bronze pumps, she looked radiant and glowing.

The ageless beauty maintained her smokey eye and nude lip from earlier in the morning, and her brunette locks were still expertly coiffed.

Supportive: Lisa got affectionate with her husband, author and columnist Peter Fitzsimons

Radiant: Teaming her rosy midi-length frock with a pair of metallic bronze pumps, she looked radiant and glowing

Arriving with a smile! The married couple looked in high spirits as they arrived at the event

Happy family: Together the Nine team stood and posed for photos, with Sylvia continuing to look only at her mentor

Meanwhile, Sylvia wore a moss green dress and black biker jacket for the day celebrations.

Pairing her dress with simple brown sandals, the newlywed drew full attention to her sparkling engagement and wedding rings.

Together the Nine team stood and posed for photos, with Sylvia continuing to look only at her mentor.

Chatting to her guests: The woman of the hour kept herself busy as she greeted her lunch guests

All dressed up! Sylvia wore a moss green dress and black biker jacket for the day celebrations

Stylish! The ageless beauty maintained her smokey eye and nude lip from earlier in the morning, and her brunette locks were still expertly coiffed

Sylvia, who arrived alongside Peter, carried with her a gift from The Daily Edited for her co-host.

Heading straight towards the woman of the hour, Peter also gave the brunette a big embrace.

Breaking down on the live broadcast earlier Friday morning, Sylvia said her co-host showed 'excellence' in everything that she does.

Sparkling: Pairing her dress with simple brown sandals, the newlywed drew full attention to her diamond engagement and wedding rings

Praised: Breaking down on the live broadcast earlier Friday morning, Sylvia said her co-host showed 'excellence' in everything that she does

'You set such a wonderful example, for every woman in the industry': Sylvia gushed about Lisa's professionalism

'It's remarkable the way you continue to strive': Sylvia said that Lisa always worked hard for excellence

Friends: The Today show staff greeted each other with affection

'It's remarkable the way you continue to strive, not just every day, every interview, every segment, every single thing you do, you strive for excellence,' she gushed beginning to tear up.

'And you never stop. And you set such a wonderful example, for every woman in the industry. Which is such an incredible thing.'

Stefanovic squad: Sylvia was all smiles as she arrived with husband Peter and brother in law Karl

Here to celebrate: Also in attendance was Channel Nine and radio personality Ben Fordham
She's made a series of showstopping appearances at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

And Winnie Harlow showed no sign of letting up as she attended the amfAR Gala on Thursday night.

The 22-year-old commanded attention in a strapless embroidered gown, while flashing her nude knickers through the skirt's semi-sheer skirt.

Racy: Winnie Harlow flashed her knickers in a semi-sheer strapless gown as she attended the amfAR Gala in Cannes on Thursday night

The model displayed her slender figure in the racy number, displaying her midriff and toned pins through the delicate gauze material.

Complementing the silver dress, she added a pair of hooped earrings and an elegant vintage-inspired bracelet to finish off the glamorous look.

Continuing to show off her new pixie cut, she accentuated her eyes with lashings of mascara, before adding a pink gloss to accentuate her lips.

Beaming: Flashing a big smile at cameras, the model appeared to be in very high spirits as she posed for photographs outside the venue

Stunning: The 22-year-old displayed her slender figure in the racy number, displaying her midriff and toned pins through the delicate gauze material

Flashing a big smile at cameras, Winnie appeared to be in very high spirits as she posed for photographs outside the venue.

The model shot to fame after being discovered by Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model - but recently revealed she had never believed she would make it on the show.

She said: 'When America's Next Top Model was casting for the new season I asked all my fans online to tag Tyra Banks so she could see my photos - and they did!'

Beauty: Continuing to show off her new pixie cut, she accentuated her eyes with lashings of mascara, before adding a pink gloss to accentuate her lips

Finishing touches: Complementing the silver dress, she added a pair of hooped earrings and an elegant vintage-inspired bracelet to finish off the glamorous look

Glam: Winnie has made a series of showstopping appearances at Cannes this year

'My little sister started a Facebook page for me and one of the producers from the show sent a message showing interest.

'Initially I didn't believe it but I followed through and ended up being on the show for season 21. After Tyra gave me that opportunity it was my time.'

Having been bullied at school for her vitiligo, Winnie added that she never expected to achieve such success in the fashion industry.

Dazzler: She opted for an appropriate glitzy look for the amfAR Gala, adding a shimmering eyeshadow to match her embroidered dress

Star-studded: Winnie posed with Rita Ora at the event, which is one of the most glamorous events of the Cannes Film Festival

Bold: The pair both went for daring looks, with Rita opting for a plunging black jumpsuit

Strike a pose: Both Winnie and Rita ensured that they showed off their looks at all angles

However, the catwalk beauty also recently admitted she is not a fan of being branded a 'role model' -as people shouldn't want to emulate others.

She told Elle Canada: 'I feel like I am an inspiration. Thats the word I prefer.

'I dont believe that I have to be a role model, someone to be emulated. My mom inspires me, and I take great things from her, but there are things from my mom that I would never do.'

Sheer-ly great: Winnie also posed with Nicki Minaj, who opted for a semi-sheer black halterneck dress

Good night: The duo both looked to enjoy the evening as they sat next to each other during the star-studded event

Selfie time: Winnie and Nicki posed for a selfie with fashion designer Philipp Plein

Fashion crowd: The model, pictured with Philipp and his girlfriend Andreea Sasu (L) had walked in the designer's show earlier in the week

Model behaviour: The pair posed with models Cindy Bruna (L) and Joan Smalls (R) at the event

Ladies night: The women all looked sensational as they posed for a group shot at the gala

In good company: Will Smith was also at the event, looking dashing in a white tuxedo jacket

Pals: The actor greeted Winnie with a kiss on the cheek as they caught up at the bash
The three-part thriller Paula was basically the BBC2 version of a porn film  or at least the industrys most cliched, classic, plot.

A respectable woman who lived alone (Paula) quickly found herself being recklessly seduced by the hunky handyman who happened to be parked outside after she asked him to look at her basement which she desperately needed fixing. As it were

The fact that he looked like Tom Hughes, the smouldering pin-up from Victoria, was just one of several huge holes in the storyline that not even he could have plastered over.

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The three-part thriller Paula was basically the BBC2 version of a porn film  or at least the industrys most cliched, classic, plot.

James was the most handsome pest controller in Britain and handy with his hands in more ways than one. Bricks were not that only thing he could lay and his aim with a shovel was deadly, as one rat discovered when he splatted it.

On the down side, James also turned out to be psychotic, with a range of skills involving bricks that was nothing if not versatile: using them to re-build walls or bash someones brains in.

So it was a mixed night for the nations pest controllers. All things told, the idea that any of them might resemble Tom Hughes was probably worth it.

(Then again, any viewer expectantly planning on booking one was likely to be disappointed.)

Members of the teaching profession didnt come out of Paula much better.

Paula was a sex-mad, semi-alcoholic, secondary school maths and chemistry teacher who failed to see her life was being reduced to the fatal equation of Apple Tree Yard + The Fall x Marcella

Paula was a sex-mad, semi-alcoholic, secondary school maths and chemistry teacher who failed to see her life was being reduced to the fatal equation of Apple Tree Yard + The Fall x Marcella.

Besides the porno handyman, she spent her evenings having extra-curricular sessions of (very) physical exercise with a married colleague from the PE department, including one work out on the kitchen worktop that should have been called The PE Teacher Always Knocks Twice.

Paula was the latest example of televisions passion for enjoyably juicy, racy, ridiculous, thrillers about adultery - an appetite that is seemingly insatiable  much like Paulas, particularly if the affair ends in murder, which it invariably does.

Written by Dublin playwright Conor McPherson, and filmed in the dark, rainy, suburbs of Northern Ireland, Paula soon saw her life Spiralling Out Of Control when her affair with the PE teacher and one night stand with the (very odd) odd job man collided with tragic, bloody, consequences.

Denise Gough (excellent recently in Guerrilla) did her best to make Paula plausible but ultimately it was hard to know how far we were meant to sympathise with her.

James was the most handsome pest controller in Britain and handy with his hands in more ways than one. Bricks were not that only thing he could lay and his aim with a shovel was deadly, as one rat discovered when he splatted it

Like Emily Watsons geneticist in Apple Tree Yard, Paula was a strong, intelligent, woman seemingly acting stupidly (or possibly sinisterly?).

You sensed that her wayward behaviour was meant to be excused/explained on the grounds she was a woman being Self-Destructive and a victim of hostility/abuse by the men in her life.

The PE teacher Philip (played by the effusively charming Edward MacLiam) wouldnt take No for an answer when she tried (albeit feebly) to end their affair, turning up any time that took his fancy.

Their headmaster chastised only her morality when Philips infidelity, threatening she would be the one to lose her job.

Her father was equally critical for her drop out brother living in a garage and never visiting.

And finally James, the evidently disturbed handyman, quickly seized the chance to exploit her and steal the means to blackmail Philip.

On the other hand you thought perhaps Paula could have stopped drinking, having illicit sex, or drinking AND having illicit sex.

The fact that he looked like Tom Hughes, the smouldering pin-up from Victoria, was just one of several huge holes in the storyline that not even he could have plastered over

I thought we said that last time was the last time, she reminded Philip pointedly.

Oh it was and so will this be, Philip purred in a way that he  and presumably Paula  thought irresistibly charming.

Even when she told him I thought I said No it ended up in an uncomfortably squelchy snog.

Thankfully, they were interrupted by rats in her basement that were so big they sounded like intruders breaking in.

Cue James and his shovel.

Look I dont do this, she said when they inevitably ended up in bed  virtually exactly as Emily Watsons character had in Apple Tree Yard. I have never slept with a man I just met. This is madness. You could be a psycho.

This was probably what most of the audience were thinking long before her.

You could be a psycho, he retorted, getting out of bed to show scratches on his back that possibly proved it.

On the down side, James also turned out to be psychotic, with a range of skills involving bricks that was nothing if not versatile: using them to re-build walls or bash someones brains in

Paula had rats in her basement but James definitely had bats in the belfry.

Every time he drove his van he started hearing banging noises in the back and having terrifying visions of a young girl with her mouth sewn up.

Any man who felt his life was complicated must have felt relatively upbeat after seeing James. He lived in what looked like a Dickensian slum with two women in adjoining rooms  the mother of his young kids in one and a supermodel in another.

His landlords henchmen roughly relieved him of the 600 Euros Paula had (over) paid him and James went back to the nursing home where his catatonic mother was - to pilfer more money from her.

Besides the porno handyman, she spent her evenings having extra-curricular sessions of (very) physical exercise with a married colleague from the PE department, including one work out on the kitchen worktop that should have been called The PE Teacher Always Knocks Twice

James had violent tendencies of his own  against the women in his life and the PE teacher as we saw when his plan to blackmail him over his affair with Paula went savagely wrong.

Whether it was rage over losing the money or the effects of too much rat poison was hard to tell. But he ended up senselessly pounding Philips face with a brick and dumping his body in a quarry.

Inevitably, but improbably, Philip hadnt called the police or told anyone he was being blackmailed or meeting James.

But he had left an incriminating message on the mobile phone belonging to Paula, who of course had no alibi.

During the next two episodes, her life will undoubtedly unravel.

Although some viewers might think that sleeping with Tom Hughes was a price worth paying.
They've been linked on numerous occasions since sharing a kiss at the same bash last year.

And Lara Stone and Jordan Barrett did nothing to quash romance rumours as they appeared at the Cannes amfAR Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Thursday.

The busty blonde model, 33, and her rumoured beau, 20, posed together at the bash sparking further rumours of a tryst.

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Flames? Lara Stone and Jordan Barrett did nothing to quash romance rumours as they appeared at the Cannes' amfAR Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Thursday

Ensuring she turned heads, Lara put on an eye-popping display in a sequin-encrusted silver gown.

The piece was cinched in at the waist with a wide belt, making the most of her slender midriff.

The thigh-skimming frock featured a plush feather embellished trim bejewelled with silver adornments, and she pulled the look together with silver killer heels.

Cosy display: The busty blonde model, 33, and her rumoured beau, 20, posed together (along with Carine Roitfeld) at the bash sparking further rumours of a tryst

Dapper: Jordan looked handsome in a teal blue silk blazer with gold buttons on the sleeves

With her hair in loose waves around her face, she went for minimal make-up letting her striking look do the talking.

Meanwhile Jordan looked handsome in a teal blue silk blazer with gold buttons on the sleeves.

Wearing ankle-grazer suit trousers paired with patent lace-up shoes, he put his ankles on full display.

Model proportions: The piece was cinched in at the waist with a wide belt, making the most of her slender midriff

Blondes unite! Lara posed alongside Rita Ora who joined her in the pink sequin theme

Teamed with a crisp white shirt left open to reveal a glimpse of his toned torso, he let his blonde hair fall in handsome waves around his face.

With his piercing blue eyes, he gave the camera his best piercing stare as Lara nestled into his arms.

Lara also mingled with Rita Ora, before posing alongside Doutzen Kroes, Maria Borges, Irina Shayk, Bianca Balti, Neelam Gill, Olivier Rousteing, Alexina Graham and Lara Stone attend the Cinema Against AIDS amfAR gala 2017.

The plush event aims to raise money for research to help in the fight against AIDS.

Yummy mummies and models: (L-R) Lara Stone, Doutzen Kroes and Irina Shayk

Turning heads: Lara gained an adoring crowd as she enjoyed dinner

Lara and Jordan have been pictured together on previous occasions, most notably walking the runway together for the Cannes amfAR's disco themed fashion auction in May 2016.

The two held hands and Jordan later planted a kiss on Lara as the two strutted their stuff on the charity runway.

Soon after the pair were photographed enjoying an intimate al fresco lunch at a Cannes cafe.

The model and the designer: Lara posed alongside Olivier Rousteing

Picture perfect: Neelam Gill, Doutzen Kroes, Pierre Emmanuel Angeloglou, Lara Stone, Irina Shayk and Kristina Bazan fazzled at the event

Lara has been previously married to Little Britain comedian David Walliams, with whom she had a three-year-old son Alfred with.

The two tied the knot in 2010, however, split in 2015.

Meanwhile Jordan has been seen out and about with a string of beautiful female celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Hailey Baldwin, Megan Blake Irwin and Kate Moss.

Glam foursome: The women dazzled in silver sequins with Doutzen standing out in red
They haven't been shy to pack on the PDA since touching down in Cannes.

And continuing their jaunt in the sun-drenched Riviera Town, Kourtney Kardashian, 38, and her younger beau Younes Bendjima, 24, cemented their relationship by stepping out in his and hers sunglasses.

The duo enjoyed a date night alone on Thursday evening - without their usual entourage - as they spent some quality together amid this year's 70th annual Film Festival.

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Chic: Kourtney Kardashian, 38, stepped out looking stylish in a black shirt and frayed jeans as she enjoyed a date night with her beau Younes Bendjima, 24, on Thursday evening

Kourtney looked ultra chic for her evening with her boyfriend and was certainly dressed to impress in a stylish black shirt and frayed skinny jeans.

Showcasing her sartorial excellence, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star tucked one half of her plunging shirt into the waistband of her jeans and teamed her attire with a pair of strappy stiletto heels.

She wore her raven-hued tresses slicked back into a low ponytail and accessorised her getup with gold jewelley - including a choker necklace that was layered with a pendant baring the initial 'M'.

Sporting a subtle make-up look, Kourtney stepped out in a pair of pink tinted cat-eye shades.

Blossoming romance: The couple were seen heading out alone in Cannes - amid the 70th annual Film Festival - to spend some quality time together

His 'n hers! They appeared to be sporting matching sunglasses for their dinner date - while Kourtney opted for a pink tinted cat-eye pair, Younes donned a yellow hued square cut style

Younes, meanwhile, was sporting a very similar pair to his new flame - although his shades boasted a square cut frame and a yellow hued lens.

Like Kourtney, he donned a low-key look for their dinner date and paired together dark jeans with a crew-neck sweatshirt.

He was holding a lightweight yellow jacket in hands and appeared to receive a helping hand from his girlfriend - who is 14 years his senior - as Kourtney reached out to hold onto her beau's garment as they strolled side by side along the marina.

The couple have spent the last few days bronzing themselves on board a yacht with Kourtney's sister Kendall Jenner, 21, and a slew of their famous faced pals - including model Hailey Baldwin, 20.

Stylish display: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star tucked one half of her plunging shirt into the waistband of her jeans and teamed her attire with a pair of strappy stiletto heels

Complementing pair: Like Kourtney, he donned a low-key look for their dinner date and paired together dark jeans with a crew-neck sweatshirt

Going somewhere? Younes was seen clutching onto a yellow lightweight jacket along with a designer tote bag as he and Kourtney arrived at the marina

But clearly wanting some alone time, Kourtney and Younes headed out just the two of them as they boarded a boat to continue their evening.

The duo were first romantically linked in October - following the male model's split with his ex Jourdan Dunn.

Their romance, however, is said to have left Kourtney's ex-partner Scott Disick, 34, 'devastated'.

He and the reality star were together for nine years and share three children together; Mason, aged seven, Penelope, aged four, and Reign, aged two.

Ditching their pals for date night The couple have spent the last few days bronzing themselves on board a yacht with Kourtney's sister Kendall Jenner, 21, and a slew of their famous faced pals - including model Hailey Baldwin, 20

Date night: Clearly wanting some alone time, Kourtney and Younes headed out just the two of them as they boarded a boat to continue their evening

They officially split in 2015, but had briefly sparked romance rumours at the beginning of this year.

It's reported Scott had been left upset after seeing pictures of Kourtney and Scott together earlier this month, despite the fact that he has been spotted with numerous young women over the last year.

Most recently, Scott has been linked to former Disney star Bella Thorne, 19, and has also been spotted with celebrity stylist Chloe Bartoli.

His past fling with Chloe two years ago had sparked his split from Kourtney.

Smitten: The mum-of-three was in high spirits as she stepped out with her beau - 14 years her junior - and was clearly excited to spend some one-on-one time with her new love

Without a care: She cut a content and relaxed figure as she ventured out in the French Riviera town on Thursday - despite her ex Scott Disick arriving in Cannes just days earlier

Kourtney, meanwhile, is keen to 'move on' from her past relationship with Scott.

A source previously told TMZ that while the mum-of-three respects and cares for her ex since he's the father of her children, they are 'romantically over' and she has ruled out any chances of a reunion between the pair.

They added that Kourtney has decided not to flaunt her romance with Younes on social media because of Scott's 'jealous' nature.

The source claims: 'Kourtney just wants her ex to 'man up and move on.'

Moving on: It's reported Kourtney is keen to 'move on' from her past relationship with Scott - and her romance with Younes is said to have left her ex 'devastated'

Helping hand: Kourtney clutched onto the arm of the pair's driver as she mastered exiting the boat in her stiletto heels
She confessed on Twitter she wasn't having fun in the south of France, revealing the 'Cannes fancy life is not for me'.

And it seems Bella Thorne, 19, has been put off from Scott Disick, 34, due to his 'wild' partying and drinking, with a new report suggesting her family is concerned about her flirtation with The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star.

The claims come as Bella was snubbed by Scott for his former flame Chloe Bartoli, putting on a tactile display with the stylist around the pool - just 24 hours after cosying up to the actress.

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Can't Keep Up With Scott? Bella Thorne, 19, has allegedly been put off from Scott Disick, 34, due to his 'wild' partying and drinking in Cannes

According to TMZ, Bella was alarmed by the 'heavy drinking' while staying with Scott during the Cannes Film Festival.

The website reports that even with her older sister Dani along as a chaperone, she still felt out of her comfort zone.

Bella's parents were reportedly worried by Scott's reputation and the age gap, but had opted not to interfere.

MailOnline has contacted both Bella and Scott's representatives for comment.

Family worries: According to TMZ , Bella was alarmed by the 'heavy drinking' while staying with Scott during the Cannes Film Festival, while her parents were worried about their romance

Uh oh: Scott was seen cosying up to stylist Chloe Bartoli as they packed on the PDA at the same pool where Bella had been seen with Scott

Bella took to Twitter on Thursday evening to post that she feels 'uncomfortable'.

'I'm not talking to scott or anyone else. #dontf***withit' she wrote.

On the very same day photos emerged of Disick rekindling his romance with stylist Chloe as they packed on the PDA at the same pool where Bella was with Scott just a day prior.

Bella shared with her 6.59million fans: 'Yo this #cannes fancy life isn't for me.'

She later took to her Snapchat to share a selfie while posing with her index finger in her mouth.

Not happy: Bella took to Twitter on Thursday evening to post that she feels 'uncomfortable'

Thought provoking: The 19-year-old actress posted this tweet

'Amfar ready in bed haha': She later took to Snapchat to share this selfie

The former Disney star posted the picture with the caption: 'Amfar ready in bed haha.'

This comes after a source told People Magazine that the Famous In Love actress 'really likes the attention' that comes with being seen with Kourtney Kardashian's ex.

Disick's fling with the much-younger actress comes after his ex Kourtney Kardashian, 38, went public with 23-year-old model Younes Bendjima.

It's been rumored the father-of-three - who shares children Mason, Reign and Penelope with Kourtney - is on a mission to make Kourtney jealous.

Double duty: The previous day the 34-year-old put on an amorous display with the teenager poolside as he even appeared to touch her breast

And another insider revealed to E! News that Scott bringing Bella to Cannes 'is 100 percent to piss Kourtney off,'

'It's a very "Let's see how it makes you feel" kind of thing. It's immature, but that's Scott.' they added.

Things are definitely getting even more interesting with the emergence of Scott's make-out session with stylist Bartoli as it perhaps may even trigger some deja vu for Kourtney.

Moving on: Disick's fling with the much-younger actress comes after his ex Kourtney Kardashian, 38, went public with 23-year-old model Younes Bendjima, as they are pictured in Cannes on Wednesday

When photos of Scott and Chloe cuddling up in Monaco emerged in 2015 it triggered the end of his relationship with Kourtney.

Scott also dated Chloe years ago, before he got together with Kourtney, and it was reported at the time by UsWeekly that the KUWTK star hated Scott flirting with her.

Chloe, along with her twin sister Marie-Lou Bartoli, run a joint business as stylists to the stars.
He's famous for his portrayal of bumbling boss Michael Scott on The Office.

But Steve Carrell has no plans to return to the role that made him famous, despite teasing fans with a 'typo' tweet earlier this year.

The 54-year-old Despicable Me actor told Junkee that he would be against any reboot as 'you never get the same kind of energy' and the original US series had managed to capture 'lightning in a bottle'.

'You never get the same kind of energy': Steve Carrell doesn't want to see The Office rebooted ... after teasing fans earlier with a 'typo' tweet

After news broke in January that Will and Grace was getting rebooted, Office fans went into meltdown after Steve tweeted: 'Breaking News: "The Office" returning to NBC.'

But just as soon as he had raised the hopes of fans Steve swiftly crushed them with a follow up: 'Wait, sorry. I meant "Will and Grace" (Typo).'

Steve told Junkee this week that revivals of beloved shows were never the same as the original.

What a trick! Office fans went into meltdown after Steve tweeted: 'Breaking News: "The Office" returning to NBC'

Not as good: Steve told Junkee this week that revivals of beloved shows were never the same as the original

'You never get the same kind of energy. It would have to be exactly the same as it was to work. And it never could be,' he explained.

'So my inclination and I think the inclination of most people who had worked on it would be to just leave it the way it is, and not desecrate whatever it was.'

Despite saying no to an Office reboot, Steve said he is grateful to be reprising his role as super villain turned nice guy Gru in animated comedy Despicable Me 3.

'It would have to be exactly the same as it was to work': Steve said a reboot could never top the original

The actor attributed the chance to play his character for the third down down to the 'brilliant' minions, explaining that without them there would be no Despicable Me 3.

'I think, apart from being just a genius marketing manoeuvre, theyre legitimately like a funny comedic component of these movies. So I think theyre kind of brilliant,' he said.

Besides starring in Despicable Me 3, Steve will also be appearing in Battle Of The Sexes alongside Crazy Stupid Love co-star Emma Stone.
She's found herself caught up in an unexpected controversy this week after offending her social media followers by posting a bikini snap in the wake of the devastating Manchester terror attack.

But Louise Thompson turned a blind eye to the drama as she posed topless for her raunchiest holiday photo to date from her break on Isla de Holbox, Mexico, on Thursday evening.

The Made In Chelsea star, 27, showcased her pert posterior in a barely-there thong bikini as she worked her magic in front of the camera.

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Dare to bare! Louise Thompson posed topless in a thong bikini for her raunchiest holiday photo to date from her break on Isla de Holbox, Mexico, on Thursday evening

Going make-up free with her wet brunette locks scraped back from her face, the reality TV personality pouted into the lens as she continued her relenteless social media onslaught.

Alongside the image, she wrote: 'Outdoor showers are the best... and you make new friends #mexicoforever #freckles #backmuscles #belfie #shellbikini #wethairdontcare #hotwaterwouldhavebeennice.'

Louise displayed her golden glow in a skimpy white bikini as she posed for another swimwear snap earlier on Thursday.

The Made In Chelsea star wrote alongside the shot: 'Let's go where the stars kiss the ocean (and squint).'

Back to it: The reality star, 27, posed in a white bikini nas she uploaded another shot from her holiday earlier on Thursday

Louise's latest holiday snap comes just two days after she apologised for sharing a bikini image just hours following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack, which killed 22 people.

The Edinburgh University graduate insisted 'news hadn't travelled' when she shared the image while drinking a margarita and wearing a bikini.

Despite Louise's apology for 'ignorance' and 'being offensive', her personal trainer boyfriend Ryan Libbey, 26, continued to post images in his swimwear - with a beachside image coming just seven minutes after his girlfriend's lament-filled post.

At least 22 people, including an eight-year-old girl, were left dead and more than 119 injured after a suicide bomber targeted gig-goers at a packed Ariana Grande gig in Manchester Arena on Monday night.

Apology: The Made In Chelsea star was forced to issue a public apology for offending her social media followers by posting a bikini snap in the wake of the Manchester terror attack

Holiday: The Edinburgh University graduate insisted 'news hadn't travelled' when she shared the image while drinking a margarita and wearing a bikini

As families continue to hunt for lost relatives while others mourn the dead, celebrities have been swarming social media to extend their sympathies to all involved, with many sharing images centered around Manchester.

In the midst of the social media tributes, Louise shared one of her now-trademark bikini images - much to the chagrin of fans, with users penning: 'Couldn't think to pay tribute given the current events?

'Vile, self-absorbed narcissistic creature. Get your head out of your own a**ehole.... Do you see beauty in anything else but yourself? Just for one day could you have not posted such a shallow post.'

Not heard? Despite the news seemingly just arriving at Louise's door, Ryan continued to share images of himself on the beach

Six hours after she posted the image, Louise shared a shot posted by many - depicting a black and white line drawing of a stick-woman holding a heart-shaped balloon with the word Manchester etched across.

She added a caption on the image reading: 'I am very sad to hear of the devastating news back home ! I'm sorry to have offended anyone with my last picture...

'I didn't mean to be so ignorant - I know it doesn't mean much but the news hadn't travelled. Anyway this isn't about me, but the bigger picture...

'Sending lots of love and prayers to the victims families as they are the ones hurting. Please may this cruelty stop, nothing is being achieved. We must put an end to terrorism.'

Despite the news seemingly just arriving at Louise's door, Ryan continued to share images of himself - this time posing topless while promoting the fitness retreat they are visiting while adding a caption: 'I fit right into this island life ~ Louise I'm staying'.

Abs on display: Sitting in between her personal trainer partner's legs, the social media savvy star made sure to show off her figure in all its glory

Still going strong: Louise and Ryan began dating last summer, just months after the brunette split from long-term ex Alik Alfus in May

Prior to her apology, Louise was once again sending her followers wild with envy as she holidayed with her Ryan in Mexico, posting an array of bikini snaps on her Instagram account.

The star can be seen holding a cocktail aloft while posing in a neon trimmed two-piece, looking a deep shade of mahogany. She posted: 'When in Mexico.... drink frozen margharitas on tap also, how sick is this swimsuit with a tan @misspap'.

Another snap saw the lovebirds cosying up on the steps of their hotel, with the brunette flashing her enviable abs in a white bikini.

Sitting in between her personal trainer partner's legs, the social media savvy star made sure to show off her figure in all its glory.

She captioned the snap: 'airway to HEAVEN. aka our room at @casalastortugas this has to be one of the coolest hotels I've ever seen multicoloured buildings, beautiful tapestries, balconies, mezzanines, hammocks, shell lamps, and every room is different!'

Here we go again: The couple showed no signs of stopping their usual bikini displays on Sunday as they documented even more of their Mexico break on Instagram

Bikini babe: Proving her more playful side however, she then shared a further image which saw her fail to pull off one of her trademark sexy poses in the sea

'I also had the most beautiful bikini left on my bed to wear from the boutique shop this is a honeymooners dream.'

Louise and Ryan began dating last summer, just months after the brunette split from long-term ex Alik Alfus in May.

Speaking to OK! earlier this year, the reality star admitted she had kept her relationship with Ryan a secret at first in order to avoid judgment - with the pair staying in separate hotels while they filmed in the South of France last year.

She explained: The production team found out I had a secret boyfriend while we were over there and were pretty annoyed at me! But they said theyd forgive me if I got Ryan to join the show.

Happy: Louise then responded by paying tribute to her boyfriend in one final post - captioning a post of her smiling off camera: 'When you're with the right person it shines right through you'

Way back when: Admitting she had wanted to avoid inevitable backlash for embarking on a romance so soon after Alik, she continued: 'We actually kept our relationship to ourselves for about five months

Admitting she had wanted to avoid inevitable backlash for embarking on a romance so soon after Alik, she continued: 'We actually kept our relationship to ourselves for about five months.

I didnt want people judging me for moving on so quickly after Alik. Ryan didnt even come to my house for the first five months because I didnt know how my brother Sam would react.

The pair have put on a united front ever since, and are now known for their selection of holiday photos and fitness videos on their Instagram pages.

Yet, their activities online have not come without scrutiny - after Louise's brother Sam exposed their methods of capturing such idyllic snaps.

Taking to Snapchat in January, the blond MIC star shared a snap of the couple posing in the pool - flanked with professional photographers and a full lighting team to capture the winning shot.

Sam, who is currently dating co-star Tiffany Watson, has since embarked on a number of parodies of his sibling - slipping into several of her bikinis and mocking her sexy poses on his own page.

Getting involved: Personal trainer Ryan, 26, displayed his own impressively muscular chest in a pool snap of his own
They were linked romantically last year, despite Lewis Hamilton denying they were dating.

And Winnie Harlow and her rumoured flame were spotted getting very cosy during the amfAR Gala in Cannes on Thursday night.

The duo put on a flirty display before Lewis, 32, was seen leaning in to give the model, 22, a kiss on the cheek during the glitzy bash.

Reunited: Winnie Harlow and her rumoured flame were spotted getting very cosy during the amfAR Gala in Cannes on Thursday night

Flashing a big smile, Winnie looked delighted to be reunited with the Formula One champion during the star-studded event.

At one point, the former America's Next Top Model star was seen holding his hand as they chatted away.

Lewis also looked very pleased to see the Canadian model, who draped her arms around his neck as they enjoyed an animated conversation.

Rekindling their romance? The duo put on a flirty display before Lewis, 32, was seen leaning in to give the model, 22, a kiss on the cheek during the glitzy bash

All smiles: Flashing a big smile, Winnie looked delighted to be reunited with the Formula One champion during the star-studded event

Catching up: The duo only seemed to have eyes for each other at the star-studded bash

Close: Lewis was seen getting close to the model, who draped her arms around his neck

Lewis had denied that he was dating Winnie on The Ellen DeGeneres show last October, saying he was single and choosing to stay 'focused on my racing' instead.

He and the supermodel were first linked after they were seen leaving the GQ Men Of The Year Awards in London in carefully orchestrated way in September.

At the time The Sun reported that Winnie had struck up a bond with Lewis in July, but their relationship had recently 'stepped up a notch'.

Delighted: Winnie looked delighted to see Lewis, laughing away during their conversation

Animated: The pair enjoyed a very animated discussion during the glamorous event

Cosy display: The duo struggled to keep their hands off each other at the bash

Intimate: Lewis was seen leaning over Winnie as she sat down at her table at the bash

Beaming: She was seemingly won over by smooth talking Lewis, showing off her wide smile

A lot to catch up on: The pair looked deep in discussion during the bash

A source told the paper: 'Lewis and Winnie have known each other for a while and partied together in New York last year, but things have stepped up a notch recently.

'They didnt want to fuel any suspicion at the awards on Tuesday so agreed to stay apart from each other and avoided getting pictured together.'

Earlier last year Lewis was linked to another beauty, Barbara Palvin, 23, although the representatives for Lewis told MailOnline that the pair were just good friends.

Romantically linked: Winnie and Lewis were first linked after they were seen leaving the GQ Men Of The Year Awards in London in carefully orchestrated way in September

Denial: Lewis had denied that he was dating Winnie on The Ellen DeGeneres show last October, saying he was single and choosing to stay 'focused on my racing' instead

Tongues wagging: Winnie and Lewis will no doubt send the rumour mill into overdrive with their cosy display at the bash

Lewis was also seen chatting away to Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik, who dazzled in a silver gown at the bash.

The good friends were seen catching up at the glamorous event, with Lewis seemingly in very high spirits ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.

Meanwhile Winnie commanded attention in a strapless embroidered gown at the glamorous event on Wednesday, while flashing her nude knickers through the skirt's semi-sheer skirt.

Model behaviour: Lewis was also seen chatting away to Victoria's Secret model Shanina Shaik, who dazzled in a silver gown at the bash

Pals: The good friends were seen catching up at the glamorous event as they sat next to each other at dinner

High spirits: Lewis was seemingly in very high spirits ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend

Big night: The duo posed with agent Pietro Tavallini at the star-studded event

The model showed off her slender figure in the racy number, displaying her midriff and toned pins through the delicate gauze material.

Complementing the silver dress, she added a pair of hooped earrings and an elegant vintage-inspired bracelet to finish off the glamorous look.

Continuing to show off her new pixie cut, she accentuated her eyes with lashings of mascara, before adding a pink gloss to accentuate her lips.

Racy: Winnie flashed her knickers in a semi-sheer strapless gown as she attended the amfAR Gala in Cannes on Thursday night

Beaming: Flashing a big smile at cameras, the model appeared to be in very high spirits as she posed for photographs outside the venue

Stunning: The 22-year-old displayed her slender figure in the racy number, displaying her midriff and toned pins through the delicate gauze material

Flashing a big smile at cameras, Winnie appeared to be in very high spirits as she posed for photographs outside the venue.

The model shot to fame after being discovered by Tyra Banks on America's Next Top Model - but recently revealed she had never believed she would make it on the show.

She said: 'When America's Next Top Model was casting for the new season I asked all my fans online to tag Tyra Banks so she could see my photos - and they did!'

Beauty: Continuing to show off her new pixie cut, she accentuated her eyes with lashings of mascara, before adding a pink gloss to accentuate her lips

Finishing touches: Complementing the silver dress, she added a pair of hooped earrings and an elegant vintage-inspired bracelet to finish off the glamorous look

Glam: Winnie has made a series of showstopping appearances at Cannes this year

'My little sister started a Facebook page for me and one of the producers from the show sent a message showing interest.

'Initially I didn't believe it but I followed through and ended up being on the show for season 21. After Tyra gave me that opportunity it was my time.'

Having been bullied at school for her vitiligo, Winnie added that she never expected to achieve such success in the fashion industry.

Dazzler: She opted for an appropriate glitzy look for the amfAR Gala, adding a shimmering eyeshadow to match her embroidered dress

Star-studded: Winnie posed with Rita Ora at the event, which is one of the most glamorous events of the Cannes Film Festival

Bold: The pair both went for daring looks, with Rita opting for a plunging black jumpsuit

Strike a pose: Both Winnie and Rita ensured that they showed off their looks at all angles

However, the catwalk beauty also recently admitted she is not a fan of being branded a 'role model' -as people shouldn't want to emulate others.

She told Elle Canada: 'I feel like I am an inspiration. Thats the word I prefer.

'I dont believe that I have to be a role model, someone to be emulated. My mom inspires me, and I take great things from her, but there are things from my mom that I would never do.'

Sheer-ly great: Winnie also posed with Nicki Minaj, who opted for a semi-sheer black halterneck dress

Good night: The duo both looked to enjoy the evening as they sat next to each other during the star-studded event

Selfie time: Winnie and Nicki posed for a selfie with fashion designer Philipp Plein

Fashion crowd: The model, pictured with Philipp and his girlfriend Andreea Sasu (L) had walked in the designer's show earlier in the week

Model behaviour: The pair posed with models Cindy Bruna (L) and Joan Smalls (R) at the event

Ladies night: The women all looked sensational as they posed for a group shot at the gala

In good company: Will Smith was also at the event, looking dashing in a white tuxedo jacket

Pals: The actor greeted Winnie with a kiss on the cheek as they caught up at the bash
WILLISTON -- In Karolin Jappes first year as emergency manager in McKenzie County, she responded to five explosions at oil and gas facilities.

Most concerning to Jappe was that four of the five companies did not have emergency plans.

Its hard to work with a company when they dont have a plan, she said.

Now three years into her job in North Dakota's busiest oil county, Jappe routinely participates in training exercises with oil companies to prepare for emergencies. Shes also established a list of local contacts for most companies in the event of an incident.

Thats critical, to have that relationship with the companies, she said. Its totally turned around from my first year.

Forum News Service revisited three people featured during the Faces of the Boom series to see how much has changed in the Bakken and what they expect for northwest North Dakota as oil activity picks up again.

North Dakota State University graduate Kevin Black left a job with a global oilfield services company right before oil prices dropped to launch a new business with his cousins.

Starting a company during the downturn made them nervous, but an innovative truck design that Black says came from North Dakota ingenuity helped the business expand while other companies were downsizing.

In a way, the timing really helped our company grow because we were filling a gap and a need in the market, Black said.

Pat Bertagnolli, a human resources manager for the oil industry, has seen firsthand the ups and downs in the Bakken. Now as the region is again facing a workforce shortage, hes helping develop strategies to recruit employees.

I think its going to be competitive out there with whats going on around the country, Bertagnolli said.

Better prepared

Since Jappe started working in McKenzie County in 2014, shes seen the risks in the oilfield decrease.

Today I think theres a lot more experienced people than there were three years ago, by far, Jappe said.

Shes also seen the community become safer. During her first month on the job, a tornado hit an RV park south of Watford City where many oilfield workers and their families lived.

Since then, the community has added tornado sirens and developed an emergency alert system to contact landlines and cell phones.

I just think were better prepared, said Jappe, a native of western Montana.

She also does outreach to educate people on how to prepare for North Dakotas extreme weather, particularly if they are new to the area or live in temporary housing.

The straight line winds alone will take campers and push them right over. Ive seen that several times, Jappe said.

Highway fatalities in McKenzie County have dropped significantly since the height of the oil boom  eight deaths last year compared to 25 a few years ago  thanks to new highway bypasses and other road improvements.

Jappe continues to worry about environmental damage from brine, a waste byproduct of oil and gas production, but shes seen an increase in pipeline monitoring.

If you have a brine pipeline, you have to watch that probably more than your oil pipeline, she said.

Doctors of the oilfield

Black and his cousins, Wyatt Black and Malachi Black, founded Creedence Energy Services in late 2014 to focus on what they saw as a niche opportunity in the oil industry.

As oil wells age, mineral deposits develop and build up, potentially causing wells to fail. Black said its similar to scum building up on a shower drain, but on a much larger scale.

This is a problem that all fields face to one degree or another, but it is certainly a significant problem in the Bakken, he said.

Their business, with a shop in Williston and administrative office in Minot, helps companies prevent problems by testing wells and prescribing chemicals to reduce failures.

Were kind of like the doctors of the oilfield, Black said.

They also found a way for oil companies to cut costs and improve safety with a unique pump truck design.

Instead of sending three to five pieces of equipment to a well site, their design allows them to send a single truck. In addition, their truck is engineered so chemicals no longer need to be transferred from drums or totes out in the field.

It significantly reduces risk to spills and exposure to chemicals, Black said.

By helping oil companies become more efficient and reducing environmental hazards, Creedence Energy Services grew during the downturn, now employing 11 people.

The company recently hired its second graduate from the University of North Dakotas petroleum engineering program.

Were very excited to be bringing young talent from the universities back out to Williston, Black said.

Skeptical labor force

As human resources director for B&G Oilfield Services, Bertagnolli said his best recruiting tool was focusing on making sure workers have a good experience in North Dakota.

All we really did was turn our employees into recruiters, Bertagnolli said. If we find an experienced pipeliner, hes got 20 experienced buddies.

With oil activity picking up again in North Dakota, experienced workers are again in demand. But many are nervous after losing jobs or seeing reduced hours during the downturn.

The labor force that we need out here is skeptical, said Bertagnolli, who moved to Watford City from Helena, Mont., in 2011.

He says communication and transparency with workers is key so they feel secure about their jobs.

If employees see a situation where they feel like their hours are going to be threatened, theyre jumping, he said.

Bertagnolli recently left B&G to join the human resources department of an oil company in the Bakken. He continues to serve on the states Workforce Development Council and says the early hires that come to North Dakota will be key.

That group is critical to us right now, to make sure they have a good experience, Bertagnolli said. Because theyre the ones that will say, This is real, come out here. If we are successful as a state with that, more people will come.
She's one half of Australia's most stylish set of sisters.

And now Dannii Minogue, 45, has shared a hilarious throwback snap to Instagram of her more questionable fashion days.

Dannii posted a pic of her on the front cover of a pop culture magazine from the 1990s as she recalled what the times were like back then.

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Throwback! Dannii Minogue has posted a hilarious throwback snap from when she was on the front cover of Smash Hits magazine in 1990

Dannii posted the Smash Hits cover as a flash back Friday snap to her 260k Instagram followers.

She captioned the snap: 'May 1990... I loved the magazine Smash Hits!'

'It is such a giggle to look at these covers again and read all the names that were around back then.'

How times have changed! 'It is such a giggle to look at these covers again and read all the names that were around back then'

She continued: 'I love the picture of @PaulaAbdul... I was lucky to finally meet her in London and again in Australia - what a lovely lady. #flashbackfriday #getjammin'.

The cover shows a young Dannii wearing an over-sized denim jacket over a frilled top with a tie-up bow.

She wore a scarf around her head to show off her dangling beaded earrings and donned a dark red lipstick.

Is that you, Dannii? Since the start of her acting career, Dannii's appearance has changed drastically over the years

Since she first started on Home and Away in the 1990s, Dannii's appearance has changed drastically.

Her skin has become more tanned and her hair has gone through many different stages of reinvention.

Her remarkably taut visage has gradually become more toned and her facial features are much more defined.

Nostalgia! The post has racked up over 2,000 likes and 100 comments with one fan saying: 'I probably still have a copy of this in my attic!'

The post has racked up over 2,000 likes and 100 comments.

The flash back brought out nostalgia from the comments with one fan saying: 'I used to study Smash Hits mag when I was about 8 years old and thought I was so cool. Made me so happy!'

Another fan said: 'I probably still have a copy of this in my attic!'
She's going through a tough time at the moment after discovering she was expecting a baby with her ex Arthur Collins, who has been arrested and charged with intent to do grievous bodily harm in connection with the acid attack in London last month.

So Ferne McCann's mind was understandably elsewhere when she made her return to her presenting segment on Thursday's installment of This Morning, visiting St Julia's children's hospice in Poole in aid of raising awareness for Children's Hospice Week.

The pregnant star, 26, was left red-faced when she forgot her lines, apologising and turning to her cue cards after losing her train of thought.

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Awkward segment: Ferne McCann's mind was understandably elsewhere when she made her return to presenting on Thursday's installment of This Morning

Good cause: The former TOWIE star was visiting St Julia's children's hospice in Poole in aid of raising awareness for Children's Hospice Week

Appearing more nervous than usual, Ferne has struggled through the awkward segment, keeping her baby bump under wraps in a green floral kimono.

Keen to show off her maternal side, she enthused, 'You're a mummy to these BEAUTIFUL kids', as she chatted to a family who were regulars at the hospice.

She cooed over the youngsters, asking them questions about their favourite activities.

Ferne enthused, 'You went to Wales, cool! Oh wicked, that sounds fun. Cool, cool!', before completely running out of things to say.

Oops: The pregnant star, 26, was left red-faced when she forgot her lines, apologising and turning to her cue cards after losing her train of thought

Maternal side: She cooed over the youngsters, asking them questions about their favourite activities

Drying up: Ferne enthused, 'You went to Wales, cool! Oh wicked, that sounds fun. Cool, cool!', before completely running out of things to say

'Sooooo alsoooo', she stammered, riffling through her cue cards, before the mother-of-four helped her out with a new line of questioning.

Viewers took to Twitter in their droves to discuss the 'cringe' interview, while others took a more kind-hearted approach.

One fan wrote: 'I like Ferne McCann and I sympathise a lot with her personal circumstances but the fact of the matter is she's not a very good presenter#.

Another sarcastic social media user shared, 'Excellent presenting from Ferne as usual #thismorning', complete with eye roll emojis.

Social media reaction: Viewers took to Twitter in their droves to discuss the 'cringe' interview

Ouch: One outspoken viewer branded her a bad presenter, despite liking Ferne's personality

Eye roll: Another sarcastic social media user shared, 'Excellent presenting from Ferne as usual #thismorning', complete with eye roll emojis

Show of support: However, there were plenty of positive messages of support

Popular: Ferne's fans rallied around her in the wake of her tough time

'Feel for you': Many social media users revealed they were highly sympathetic

Covering up: Appearing more nervous than usual, Ferne has struggled through the awkward segment, keeping her baby bump under wraps in a green floral kimono

A third posted: 'Ferne forgetting what to say and the picture glitching man Friday on This Morning is just the worst'.

Others were more positive, with one fan enthusing: 'Seeing you bubbly on This Morning looking gorgeous as always has just brightened up my morning!'

Sympathetic viewers posted, 'Poor @fernemccann getting baby brain on @thismorning IT IS A THING. We've all been there mummas', and 'Ouch @fernemccann drying up is a nightmare feel for you still great job & love what you were wearing'.

Ferne took to social media to apologise after the segment, sharing a sweet photo of everyone involved on the day,.

She wrote: 'Touch of baby brain this morning but I had a lovely morning at this fantastic place with great kids @Julias_House @thismorning'.
She had a rather dramatic debut season on TOWIE, with her five-year relationship coming to an end on screen.

So it's no wonder Amber Turner decided to get away from it all and let her hair down on a sun-soaked trip to Marbella, Spain, on Thursday.

The reality star, 24, showed off her deep holiday tan as she slipped into a skimpy ensemble for a night out with pals Jordan Brook and Madison Brown at NewsCafe.

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Dressed to impress: Amber Turner showed off her deep holiday tan as she slipped into a skimpy ensemble for a night out at NewsCafe in Marbella, Spain, on Thursday

The leggy blonde wore a lingerie-inspired white lace bustier top and a barely-there ra-ra skirt as she hit the town.

Amber added further height to her frame with a pair of patent nude peep-toe heels, which put her toned and tanned pins on full display.

The TOWIE beauty accessorised with a powder blue leather shoulder bag and wore her long blonde locks tumbling around her shoulders in loose waves.

Amber completed her party look with heavy make-up as she prepared to boogie the night away.

It's party time: The TOWIE star, 24, wore a lingerie-inspired white lace bustier top and a barely-there ra-ra skirt as she hit the town with pals Madison Brown and Jordan Brook

Leggy lady: The TV star added further height to her frame with a pair of patent nude peep-toe heels, which put her toned and tanned pins on full display

The TV star proved she's got stamina as it was her second night out in the Spanish holiday destination in as many days.

On Wednesday evening, she showed off her mahogany tan in a skimpy halterneck dress.

The reality star looked ultra bronzed in the silk patterned number, which boasted a vibrant red, white and red pattern.

Amber's handkerchief style dress served to enhance her golden glow while making the most of her shapely legs.

Party girl: The TV star proved she's got stamina as it was her second night out in the Spanish holiday destination in as many days

The blonde beauty completed her holiday ensemble with silver studded wedges and carried a simple clutch bag.

Megan McKenna's best friend went hand-in-hand with her gal pal as they prepared to party the night away.

Earlier in the week, Amber showed off her slender curves in a show-stopping bright blue bikini.

The low-cut bottoms sat high on her hips making the most of her toned legs.

Showcasing her toned and tiny waist, the halterneck top showcased her natural curves perfectly.

Tan-tastic: On Wednesday evening, she showed off her mahogany tan in a skimpy halterneck dress and towering wedge heels

Gal pals: The reality star looked ultra bronzed in the silk patterned number, which boasted a vibrant red, white and red pattern

And wearing her blonde hair in long golden curls, she appeared sport a full face of make up as she captioned the snap, 'Back in a bikini!'.

This comes after Amber's ex Jamie Reed admitted he found it hard being around her following their dramatic split - and even wanted her to move to Australia.

Jamie took a five-year break from The Only Way Is Essex following an explosive final appearance in 2012.

And having returned to the structured reality series in its latest season, Jamie opened up about the state of his relationships following the finale episode two weeks ago.

Of most note was what he had to say about his now-over relationship with Amber, despite things fizzling out between the pair weeks ago.

'Its all kind of settling down now,' he told Simon Gross, speaking on The Showbiz Show.

Making waves! Earlier in the week, Amber showed off her slender curves in a show-stopping bright blue bikini

'With my ex girlfriend and what she did - the Twitter response has been so nice; the people on the streets have been so nice. I dont want to say that it has wasted four years... I just hope that she is happy.'

Jamie was referring to the fact that Amber, who he dated for five years, seemingly betrayed him to be with TOWIE hunk Dan Edgar - in what turned out to just be a casual fling.

'Its difficult to see [Amber] as much I see her. I dont think that's normal. I dont think that in the normal world you would bump into your ex as much as I have.

'I would rather not see her everyday so I can move on. I would like her to move on as well and I dont need that constant reminder.'

The reality star wasn't shy about expressing his feelings for Amber now that the dust has settled - namely that he would like to see her flee the country.

'I would like Amber to spend a couple of years in Australia,' he told Simon in the one-to-one.

'In the nicest possible way! So in a couple of years time we could meet and say what happened.'
He was the campsite intruder who quickly won the affection of his fellow campmates on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

And Kris Smith appeared as cosy as ever with his celebrity pals as they enjoyed a reunion dinner on Friday night.

The male model took to Instagram with a group photo of the jungle gang, making sure to tag Nazeem Hussain, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Steve Price, Casey Donovan and Ash Pollard.

'Reunion,' he simply wrote in the caption.

Reunion! Kris Smith took to Instagram on Friday to share a photo of his I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here pals Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Nazeem Hussain, Steve Price, Casey Donovan and Ash Pollard enjoying dinner together

The ladies looked far more glamorous than they did in the jungle, with Ash wearing a lacy black number with gold hoop earrings and Casey flaunting her cleavage in a low-cut black top and matching jacket.

Meanwhile, Natalie was a vision in white, with a spaghetti strap dress and matching white handbag.

The sextet were smiling broadly as they posed for the photo with Steve offering a cheeky expression as he held his cutlery tightly.

Chow chums: The sextet were smiling broadly as they posed for the photo with Steve offering a cheeky expression as he held his cutlery tightly

Best buddies! With Ash and Kris displaying some awkward tension on the show, the pair looked happy to be sitting together at the dinner

With Ash and Kris displaying some awkward tension on the show, the pair looked happy to be sitting together at the dinner.

Kris' fans were quick to gush over the post with many pleased that the reality stars still catch up after the cameras stopped rolling with one commenting: 'Love that you all catch up x'

One fan however seemed to be more concerned with the state of the restaurant after the celebs had finished their reunion.

Keeping it real: Kris' fans were quick to gush over the post with one commenting: 'Love that you all catch up x'

'Enjoy. God bless the restaurant you are in as think it might get a bit crazy,' the follower said.

It's not the first time cast-mates have caught up post-jungle with Ash recently posting a photo of her, Steve, Dane Swan and Nazeem Hussain for lunch at swanky Melbourne restaurant France-Soir.

That lunch was on Steve as he promised to take Ash for a meal if she made it through the show's viper room challenge.

You break it, you bought it: 'Enjoy. God bless the restaurant you are in as think it might get a bit crazy,' another follower said

'It happened! Pricey, true to his word, took me (and the boys) to lunch for successfully completing the Viper Room,' Ash captioned the post.' 'Good to have our little clique back together.'

Steve also recently signed Ash to present a weekly food segment on his 2GB radio show.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Ash said that it was a match made in Heaven as both were unapologetic foodies.

'Steve and I are both food obsessed so we will be talking non-stop about everything you can possibly think of to do with food,' Ash said.

Fast friends: It's not the first time cast-mates have caught up post-jungle with Ash recently posting a photo of her, Steve, Dane Swan and Nazeem Hussain for lunch at Melbourne restaurant France-Soir
She's making the most of the heat wave, which has coincided with her day off from her This Morning hosting duties.

And Holly Willoughby was spotted stepping out with her family on Friday, joined by a friend as she enjoyed some quality time with her three children in London.

The TV host, 36, went hand-in-hand with her son Chester as she strolled down the street, looking the picture of happiness and relaxation.

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Mummy duties: Holly Willoughby was spotted stepping out with her family on Friday, joined by a friend as she enjoyed some quality time with her three children in London

The make-up free star displayed her natural beauty, wearing her blonde bob tied up in a messy ponytail.

She was dressed for the good weather in a space print navy sundress, featuring silver beaded detailing on the bodice.

Holly - who raises children Harry, eight, Belle, six, and Chester, two, with her husband Dan Baldwin - accessorised with a pair of studded sandals and a large designer handbag.

Radiant: The make-up free star displayed her natural beauty, wearing her blonde bob tied up in a messy ponytail

Summer style: She was dressed for the good weather in a space print navy sundress, featuring silver beaded detailing on the bodice

Family fun: Holly - who raises children Harry, eight, Belle, six, and Chester, two, with her husband Dan Baldwin - accessorised with a pair of studded sandals

The bubbly blonde looked like she was having a whale of a time as Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford filled in for her and Phillip Schofield on This Morning.

She ensured she stayed hydrated, sipping from a bottle of water as she walked along.

Earlier in the morning, Holly proved she looks just as flawless without her make-up, appearing completely fresh-faced as she joked about the perils of parenthood.

Thirsty business: She ensured she stayed hydrated, sipping from a bottle of water as she walked along

Day off: The bubbly blonde looked like she was having a whale of a time as Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford filled in for her and Phillip Schofield on This Morning

Doting mum: Holly beamed as she reached out a hand to her two-year-old son

And posting a clip of herself waking up with her babies, Holly joked about her 'nice and quiet morning' with her 2.2 million followers on the photo-sharing site.

As she appeared in front of the camera completely bare-faced and make-up free, the blonde beauty was seen pulling faces as she cringed at the sound of her children shrieking in the background.

She joked alongside her post: 'Mmmm nice quiet morning...'

Fresh-faced: Holly, 36, ditched her make-up to appear bare-faced in her latest Instagram post

Natural beauty: The TV presenter's followers were amazed by Holly's flawless complexion (left, in the post and right, on the red carpet at this month's BAFTA Television Awards)

Stunning: She is usually seen all dolled up and putting on an ultra glamorous appearance - pictured above at the TRIC Awards in March

It prompted quite the response from fans, with many relating to the star as they penned: 'Sounds like my house most days.'

'Know the feeling,' one commented, while another said: 'Yep my sentiments exactly! And half term round the corner.'

A fourth added: 'Got to love the little ones energy.'

Gorgeous: She looked just stunning as she flaunted her impeccable skin while joking about the perils of parenting on the photo-sharing site

Others, however, were transfixed on Holly's flawless complexion.

One fan commented: 'A natural beauty,' as another said: 'You look good without make up.'

A third penned: 'Without a scrap of makeup you're still a beauty,' while another said: 'Clearly one of those foxy ladies who doesn't need make up. Looking fabulous.'

'My sentiments exactly': Fans were quick to relate to Holly's post about her noisy children

One more follower added: 'Beautiful even without make up.'

While another was clearly baffled by Holly's impeccable skin as they questioned: 'How does one look so fresh-faced even without make up.'

Despite joking about her mummy duties in her latest Instagram post, Holly is often seen doting over babies and is often sparking speculation she is 'pregnant' due to her broody nature.

'Clearly one of those foxy ladies...': Although many were distracted by the star's make-up free appearance and sent her a slew of compliments

Just recently, she was caught gushing over Amy Childs' month-old daughter Polly, as the former TOWIE star introduced her little girl live on air while appearing on This Morning.

Holly gushed: 'She is absolutely gorgeous and scrummy!'

Keen to add a fourth child to her family, Holly had told The Sun last year: 'I love being pregnant and I love having babies.

'I dont want that area of my life to be over because it makes me sad to think Id not be doing it again.'

Broody Holly: The blonde beauty was seen gushing over Amy Childs' month-old daughter Polly live on This Morning, calling her 'scrummy'
Ariana Grande's brother Frankie has postponed a gig in London this weekend 'out of respect' for victims of the Manchester terror attack.

Frankie, 34, was due to perform at Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush on Saturday night as part of his Livin' La Vida Grande Live Tour but will instead stay to support his family 'during this difficult time'.

The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant and Broadway star said: 'Out of respect for those affected by the disaster in Manchester and my need to be with family during this difficult time I have decided to postpone my show for a later date.'

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Decision: Ariana Grande's brother Frankie has posponed his London gig on Saturday 'out of respect' for victims of the Manchester suicide bombing

He added: 'For now, let us focus on keeping the world strong and filling it with light and love.'

Ariana, who was due to play the O2 Arena in London on Thursday and Friday, suspended her tour following the suicide bombing, which killed 22 people and injured 119 at her concert in Manchester on Monday.

It comes after Piers Morgan has criticised Ariana Grande for not visiting those injured by the suicide bombing at her concert.

Time with relatives: Frankie, 34, was due to perform at Bush Hall in London as part of his Livin' La Vida Grande Live Tour but will instead stay to support his family 'during this difficult time'

The Queen visited victims yesterday at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital including Millie Robson, 15.

Pop star Katy Perry praised Her Majesty writing on Twitter 'God bless The Queen and her kind heart.'

But Piers replied. 'Agreed. Might have been nice if @ArianaGrande had stayed to do the same.'

Grande was pictured landing at home in Florida the day after Monday's attack which killed 22.

Criticism: It comes after Piers Morgan slammed Ariana Grande for not visiting those injured by the suicide bombing at her concert

Piers' tweet sparked immediate outrage, with one social media user called BristolSteve telling him: 'Spectacularly ill thought out, that deserves a rethink, retraction and an apology.'

But Piers stuck to his guns, replying: 'If the Queen can visit the victims in hospital, so can the star they paid to see.'

To convince his followers that he would have done the same, he said: 'I can 100 per cent guarantee you I would stay and visit those who had been killed or wounded watching me perform.'

Inspiration: Pop star Katy Perry praised Her Majesty writing on Twitter 'God bless The Queen and her kind heart'

Others criticised his judgement: 'People grieve in different ways don't be as bad as the evil that is about in this world by judging others.'

As always, Piers' comments divided opinion as many agreed with the former newspaper editor.

One user, called James, said: 'It's easy to run back to LA and hide behind walls. The right thing would be to stay and comfort the families and grieve with them.'
She's jetted into Cannes to make the most of the last few days of this year's 70th annual Film Festival.

And after wowing on the red carpet, Millie Mackintosh has since slipped into a skimpy monochrome bikini to soak up the sunshine in the French Riviera town.

The former Made In Chelsea star, 27, looked sensational as she stripped off to flaunt her slender frame and peach posterior while frolicking by the beach on Friday.

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Bikini beauty: Millie Mackintosh, 27, slipped into a monochrome bikini as she hit the beach in Cannes on Friday after jetting in for the end of this year's Film Festival

Millie chose to put her gym-honed physique on display by stripping down to a scanty black and white two piece for her latest bronzing session.

It paired together a scanty scooped crop top - that boasted stylish strappy detailing across the back - and a pair of plain black bikini bottoms that left most of her derriere on show.

Their high-rise cut at either side and at the back put Millie's pert bottom on full display, along with her enviable lengthy pins.

Peachy! The reality star chose to put her gym-honed physique on display by stripping down to a scanty black and white two piece for her latest bronzing session

Revealing: It paired together a scanty scooped crop top - that boasted stylish strappy detailing across the back - and a pair of plain black bikini bottoms that left most of her derriere on show

Oozing body confidence, the reality star was happy to flaunt her incredibly taut torso and paraded her fabulous figure while taking a dip in the sea.

Millie cooled off from the no doubt soaring temperatures by swapping her sun-lounger for the cool waves and she cut an ultra chic figure while making her way into the sea, thanks to the addition of a straw fedora hat and huge mirrored shades.

Making the most of her time away, the model cut a relaxed and content figure as she topped up her tan, while reclining back on her sun-bed and keeping herself occupied with her phone.

Bottoms up! Their high-rise cut at either side and at the back put Millie's pert bottom on full display, along with her enviable lengthy pins

Cooling off: Oozing body confidence, the reality star was happy to flaunt her incredibly taut torso and paraded her fabulous figure while taking a dip in the sea

Stylish: Millie cooled off from the no doubt soaring temperatures by swapping her sun-lounger for the cool waves and she cut an ultra chic figure, thanks to the addition of a straw fedora hat and huge mirrored shades

Sun-seeker: She indulged in a spot of R&R while taking a moment to herself sat by the water

Sensational: Millie looked just incredible as she flaunted her gym-honed physique by the water

Change of scenery: Her latest trip overseas sure came as a nice break to her usual stomping ground of SW3

Millie was later seen covering up her bikini-clad frame as she took a break from the rays.

She sported a pair of frayed dark denim shorts and a loose white shirt that was tied together around the waist to accentuate her frame.

The fashion designer added some height to her ensemble with a pair of matching wedges and she appeared fresh-faced as she opted to go without her make-up for her jaunt by the sea.

Bronzed: When she wasn't cooling off in the sea, Millie made sure to top up her tan while kicking back on a sun-lounger

Chilled: The starlet was seen lying down in the sun while keeping herself occupied with her phone

Stealing attention: She made sure all eyes were on her as she frolicked by the beach with a friend

Quenching her thirst: Millie was seen sipping on a beverage as she kicked back in the sunshine

Covering up: The fashion designer then decided to cover her bikini-clad figure as she took a stroll

Chic: She sported a pair of frayed dark denim shorts and a loose white shirt that was tied together around the waist to accentuate her frame

From the red carpet to the beach: Millie's laid-back appearance comes after she put on a sartorially savvy display on the red carpet at this year's Film Festival

Millie's laid-back appearance comes after she put on a sartorially savvy display at the amFAR Gala held at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on Thursday night in Cap d'Antibes.

She put in a surprise appearance at the charity bash, but commanded attention as she arrived in a sheer fishtail gown that boasted zig zag sequin detail all over.

The reality-star-turned-fashion-entrepreneur appeared to get the see-through memo favoured by many of the A list attendees at the event as she wowed style lovers in her appealing look.

Surprise! Millie made a surprise arrival at the amfAR Gala at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France on Thursday night

Millie's boat necklined garment skimmed her slight curves while exhibiting her honed pins and pert posterior as it fell into a pointed scallop hem that grazed the party's grey carpet.

Demurely flashing the flesh, she wore a skimpy strapless bodysuit underneath while a sleek silk white belt wrapped around her narrow waist to pull the racy dress together.

Equipped with a daring low-back, the British beauty worked an old Hollywood inspired long scarf which she transformed into a chic cape later in the evening.

Stunning: The reality-star-turned-fashion-entrepreneur appeared to get the see-through memo favoured by many of the A list attendees at the event as she wowed style lovers in her appealing look

A vision: The former Made In Chelsea star commanded attention as she arrived the exclusive charity bash dressed in a sheer fishtail gown that boasted zig zag sequin detail all over

The stunner injected height into ethereal themed gown with a pair of complementing strappy white heels while she accessorised with a box clutch and silver ring.

Working her brown locks into a centre parting, she slicked back her tresses into a slick 'do to showcase her vibrant red lip.

Elsewhere, Millie seemed in high spirits as she mingled with other a-list actors and top model as she continued her seventh jet-setting trip.

Her trip to the star-studded festival comes after trips to Monaco, Dubai, South Africa, two trips to Paris and a stay in Los Angeles.

It appears she is now on track to rival her record of taking a whopping 18 trips abroad in 2016.

Cheeky: Millie's boat necklined garment skimmed her slight curves while exhibiting her honed pins and pert posterior as it fell into a pointed scallop hem that grazed the party's grey carpet

Sizzling in sequin: Demurely flashing the flesh, she wore a skimpy strapless bodysuit underneath while a sleek silk white belt wrapped around her narrow waist to pull the racy dress together

Glamour: Equipped with a daring low-back, the British beauty worked an old Hollywood inspired long scarf which she transformed into a chic cape later in the evening

Millie's appearance comes shortly after she revealed she had moved in with her boyfriend Hugo Taylor.

Millie first dated Hugo in 2011 when they first made their names on the E4 show, yet their relationship was brutally cut short when she discovered he slept with her best friend Rosie Fortescue.

After the disintegration of their romance, Millie began dating Professor Green the following year - to much shock from commentators - yet the couple defied the odds and announced their engagement in 2013.

Stepping out: The stunner injected height into ethereal themed gown with a pair of complementing strappy white heels while she accessorised with a box clutch and silver ring

Meanwhile, a whole host of other celebrities turned out to the bash including Bella Hadid, David Beckham and Eva Longoria.

The fundraiser, which raises money for AIDS research, saw celebrities make their way into a lavish dinner which is followed by a no expense spared auction, with last year's event raising a staggering $30 million.

The event, which takes place just outside of Cannes, attracts the biggest stars in showbiz in order to raise money for the worthwhile cause.
She shot to fame playing Dawn, the receptionist in The Office who finds her job at paper merchants Wernham Hogg utterly unfulfilling.

But now Lucy Davis has switched Slough for the States, cutting a confident figure in a stunning black number for the premiere of Wonder Woman in Hollywood on Thursday.

The 44-year-old rocked a long-sleeved jacket atop a black swing dress, with a pair of dark tights flaunting her shapely legs.

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Going places: Lucy Davis has gone from playing bored receptionist Dawn in The Office to glittering on the Hollywood red carpet for the Wonder Woman premiere on Thursday

Lucy accessorised with a chunky crystal choker necklace and a coating of glossy lipstick.

And the actress made the most of her luxuriant blonde locks, which tumbled down her shoulders as she posed for the cameras.

Although Lucy is now going from strength to strength she openly admits that her first few years in Hollywood were not easy.

Stunning: The 44-year-old rocked a long-sleeved jacket atop a black swing dress, with a pair of dark tights flaunting her shapely legs

Back in Slough: Lucy pictured as Dawn Tinsley in a scene from the second series of the BBC sitcom

When The Office finished in 2003, she took a variety of TV and film parts, but had a turbulent personal life.

In 2011, she split from her husband of five years, Welsh actor Owain Yeoman, and they were divorced.

But her battle with anorexia and bulimia that has taken the greatest toll, making it all but impossible to work.

Quite a pair: Lucy, pictured with co-star Gal Gadot, accessorised with a chunky crystal choker necklace and a coating of glossy lipstick

She bravely discussed her struggle in 2012 to help other sufferers.

In Wonder Woman, Lucy stars as as Etta Candy, the main character's best friend.

The film is based around the origins of the character as many aren't as familiar with her beginnings in comparison to Batman or Superman.

Key role: In Wonder Woman, Lucy - pictured with director Patty Jenkins - stars as as Etta Candy, the main character's best friend

Created in 1941, Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess gifted with a wide range of superhuman powers and battle skills.

As is typical in the comic book world, the character is a force for good and has faced a vast array of super-villains.

Fans have already had their appetites whetted by the character's appearance in the trailer for Superman vs Batman, which will be released later this year.

Created in 1941, Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess gifted with a wide range of superhuman powers and battle skills. Lucy is on the far right. Pictured, left to right: Connie Nielsen, Danny Huston, Chris Pine, Gal Gadot, Patty Jenkins, Elena Anaya, Robin Wright

Other cast members in the include Robin Wright, Harry Potter's David Thewlis and Danny Huston.

Also appearing are Trainspotting star Ewan Bremner and is indie-darling Lena Anay.

Wonder Woman is in cinemas from June 1.
Jada Pinkett Smith certainly knows how to make an exit.

The 45-year-old actress turned heads shortly after her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday.

The mother-of-two absolutely scintillated as she put on quite the leggy display in a gown featuring a thigh-high split.

Golden girl: Jada Pinkett Smith turned heads shortly after her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday

Jada oozed of old Hollywood glamour as she rocked the gold halter frock which she teamed with a pair of matching strappy heels.

The wife of Will Smith had her medium-length brunette tresses worn down in pin curls.

She accessorized with a pair of large gold hoop earrings as she let her evergreen looks shine with natural, complimentary make-up topped off with mauve lip.

Wow factor: The 45-year-old star absolutely scintillated as she put on quite the leggy display in a gown featuring a thigh-high split

Gorgeous: Jada oozed of old Hollywood glamour as she rocked the gold halter frock which she teamed with a pair of matching strappy heels

On the chat show she talked about planning family vacations with her 48-year-old husband Will.

Jada had previously talked about how hard it is to plan these trips and make everyone happy until they let the Men In Black star take the reins on a recnent one.

She said: 'We had a beautiful summer vacation. I told you I don't like boats and he took the family on the boat. And it was great, it was fantastic!

'So we as a family have decided to give Will all the power to make decisions about where the family goes on summer vacation, but he gets one strike.'

Turning heads: The wife of Will Smith had her medium-length brunette tresses worn down in pin curls

Simply stunning: She accessorized with a pair of large gold hoop earrings as she let her evergreen looks shine with natural, complimentary make-up topped off with mauve lip

Jada went on to explain that essentially if he messes up once then he loses that privilege.

As for their next trip, the Gotham star said that Will decided that they will be going to Vietnam.

Jada can soon be seen in raunchy comedy Girls Trip which is centered around four lifelong friends who travel to New Orleans for the annual Essence Festival.

Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, and Kate Walsh all star in the flick which is set to hit theaters on July 21 in the US with a UK release following the next week on 28 July.
She's in Cannes as a official member of the judging panel.

And Jessica Chastain looked ready for business as she arrived at the Mayor's Aioli during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on Friday.

The American actress, 40, looked smoking hot in a close-fitting tweed ensemble.

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Boss! Jessica Chastain looked ready for business as she arrived at the Mayor's Aioli during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on Friday

The flame-haired beauty oozed understated elegance in the checked piece, which skimmed her trim curves in all the right places.

Elongating her stature with a pair of black court shoes, she made the most of her toned pins.

Despite the heat she teamed the look with a grey cardigan, embellished with pretty beaded brooches.

Sizzling! The American actress, 40, looked smoking hot in a close-fitting tweed ensemble

Wearing her striking hair in loose waves around her face, she showed off her flawless porcelain complexion under minimal make-up.

With a pair of reflective sunglasses shading her face, she accessorised with a pretty white chain bag.

Posing against the pretty backdrop of the French Riviera, she soon headed inside for jury duties.

Leggy! Elongating her stature with a pair of black court shoes, she made the most of her toned pins

Jessica joins Will Smith, Maren Ade, Fan Bingbing, Agnes Jaoui, Park Chan-wook, Paolo Sorrentino and Gabriel Yared on this year's 70th Cannes Film Festival jury.

Every year the Festival's board of directors appoints the juries who hold sole responsibility for choosing which films will receive an award.

They are chosen from a wide range of international artists, based on their body of work and respect from their peers.

Detail: Despite the heat she teamed the look with a grey cardigan, embellished with pretty beaded brooches

Back to business: Posing against the pretty backdrop of the French Riviera, she soon headed inside for jury duties

The jury president is an internationally recognized personality of cinema - this year it's Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar.

Since 1960, there has been only one personality to get the honor of being president of the jury twice: Jeanne Moreau in 1975 and 1995.

The last non-professional film personality to be president of the jury is the American writer William Styron in 1983.

Prestige: Jessica joins Will Smith, Maren Ade, Fan Bingbing, Agnes Jaoui, Park Chan-wook, Paolo Sorentino and Gabriel Yared on this year's 70th Cannes Film Festival jury
For the Wilkinson family, a long fight for mineral rights beneath Lake Sakakawea is about their ancestors and what they had tried to leave behind for future generations.

Its the right thing to do, said Jon Patch, a Wilkinson family descendant. We wanted to do the right thing for our grandparents, who left this legacy, and not just let it be gobbled up by the state.

The Wilkinsons are in a dispute with the state over their portion of what could amount to $187 million in bonus, rent and royalty payments paid to the state but owed back to thousands of private mineral owners.

They thought the war had been won with legislation, but it turned out to be just another battle in their saga, which continues.

The Wilkinson family farmed in the Trenton area for three generations.

Jon Patchs great-grandfather, Fred James Wilkinson, came north to North Dakota as a homesteader. Patchs grandfather, JT Wilkinson, worked for the railroad before joining and adding to the family farming operation.

And Patchs mother, Lois Jean Wilkinson Patch, one of six children, still shares stories about playing in Painted Woods Creek and taking baloney sandwiches to the men as they worked in the fields.

Its this legacy they are trying to protect.

The 270 acres in question had been in the family since about the 30s, producing record wheat crops, before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed purchasing the land for the Garrison Diversion Project, which ultimately led to the construction of Garrison Dam and the formation of Lake Sakakawea. Faced with a choice to sell or face condemnation, the family sold the surface farmland but retained the mineral rights as a way to provide an inheritance and provide for descendants.

The Wilkinson clan members were excited when the oil boom hit and their spacing unit was announced to be getting a well pad in 2010. The well was drilled, it was fracked, the oil company invoked a 150-day waiver, allowing it to keep production activities to itself during that time frame.

But unbeknownst to the family, a 2010 survey had redrawn placement of historic high water marks for an upper portion of the lake and the state had laid claim to mineral rights beneath.

It wasnt until family members saw the mineral royalty payments from their tract listed in the state mineral database in 2011 that they realized what had happened.

Patch said he appeared before the state land board three times over the course of about 10 months trying to assert what family members felt was rightly theirs. When that didnt work, they turned to the courts in early 2012.

Its been frustrating, he said of the legal battle thats been ongoing for the better part of a decade.

Patch said there have been a lot of ups and downs, wins and losses, with each motion filed. There have been a lot of late night calls and texts with the family lawyer and, through it all, the clan banded together, he said.

A summary judgement, issued a week before the case was to be argued in May 2016 in district court, siding with the state was a big downer.

We were so disappointed because we had so much information ready, said Patch, adding it was difficult to have spent more than $300,000 in legal fees and never get a day in court.

We felt we were in the right and wanted to get our information out there, Patch said.

So the family appealed to the North Dakota Supreme Court. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for June 12.

This legislative session, family members also tried to address their problem legislatively through Senate Bill 2134, passed and signed by Gov. Doug Burgum.

It was a blessing to see state officials look at our problem and try to do the right thing, Patch said.

Wilkinson family attorney, Joshua Swanson, said the family has been a champion for mineral owners.

Without them, the legislation probably doesn't happen, he said.

And with the passage of SB 2134, the Wilkinsons and other mineral owners thought the battle had been won. But the state has yet to give in, with the attorney general making arguments in a brief filed earlier this week that the legislation does not apply to the case because the tract does not lie below the lake, but the river.

The Wilkinsons say they are hoping for finality soon, so Patchs mother, 93, and the two other living siblings, can see their parent's legacy protected in their lifetime rather than leaving the fight for the next generation.
They met at a Melbourne cafe in 2015.

Now Andy Lee has opened up about his humble life with his girlfriend Rebecca Harding.

Despite living his life in the spotlight with his comedic partner Hamish Blake, the 36-year-old said that his private life is much less exciting.

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Humble: Andy Lee has opened up about his relationship with girlfriend Rebecca Harding and said 'We don't really do anything that interesting'

The couple met while Rebecca was working at a cafe in Melbourne that Andy frequently went to.

Despite a brief separation last year, the pair are back together and stronger than ever.

Although aspects of their life have been made public, Andy said he doesn't know why their relationship gets attention.

In their own world: 'We are kind of oblivious to all that kind of stuff, but she gets to dress up for the Logies, which is fun and she looks beautiful'

He told The Daily Telegraph: 'We dont really do anything thats really that interesting so Im not sure that it (the relationship) is that much in the spotlight.'

'Rebecca doesnt read any of those magazines so we are kind of oblivious to all that kind of stuff.'

'But she gets to dress up for the Logies, which is fun and she looks beautiful.'

'Besides that, people would be pretty underwhelmed with regards to what our lives actually look like.'

Wedding bells? Two year after their rocky meeting, a report earlier this month claimed radio funnyman Andy is 'finally ready to walk down the aisle' with the stunning brunette

Despite their rock-solid relationship now, it wasn't exactly love at first for the couple as earlier this week Rebecca told 2DayFM that she thought Andy was a 'sleazebag' when they first met.

'[He was] Cleo Bachelor of the year I thought he was a bit of a sleazebag,' Rebecca said in a preview of the couple's upcoming 60 Minutes interview.

Andy agreed that their meeting was less than perfect when he said: 'She was the waitress [at a cafe], not a good one. I'd just witnessed two people complaining about her.'

Now two years on, a report earlier this month claimed radio funnyman Andy is 'finally ready to walk down the aisle' with the stunning brunette.
He's just enjoyed a sun-drenched getaway to celebrate his second wedding anniversary.

But any giddiness Mark Wright had felt from his loved-up break had certainly escaped him by the time he touched down in Malaga airport.

Touching down in Spain on Friday, the TV presenter, 30, appeared to lose his cool as he chatted on the phone while making his way through the arrivals terminal.

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Frustrated: Mark Wright, 30, appeared tense as he spoke on the phone on his arrival to Malaga airport in Spain on Friday

Mark seemed to be deep in thought over the conversation he was having as he made his way to the exit, before pulling up his case to focus on the call.

The former TOWIE star appeared to get frustrated at what was being said and pulled a number of faces while gesturing angrily as he spoke.

MailOnline have contacted a representative for Mark.

Angry: The TV presenter appeared to be riled up as he pulled up his case to focus on his phone call

Tense: He appeared to pull a number of faces while speaking on the phone and gestured angrily while doing so

Jet-setter: Mark has jetted into Spain after reuniting with his wife Michelle Keegan in South Africa

Well-deserved break: Taking some time off from his busy schedule, Mark had celebrated his second wedding anniversary with Michelle - they initially tied the knot on May 24 in 2015

He cut a casual figure on his arrival to Spain dressed in a dark ensemble that paired together a fitted t-shirt, distressed skinny jeans and trainers.

His appearance overseas comes after, Mark had told fans he was preparing to head back to work after spending some quality time with his wife Michelle Keegan, 29.

The Essex native revealed he would be jetting between London, Spain and Los Angeles in the coming week due to his busy schedule.

And making sure to make the most of his time off, Mark joined Michelle to celebrate their second wedding anniversary.

Busy: The Essex native recenty revealed he would be jetting between London, Spain and Los Angeles all in the coming week due to his hectic working schedule

Low-key appearance: He cut a casual figure on his arrival to Spain dressed in a dark ensemble that paired together a fitted t-shirt, distressed skinny jeans and trainers

Mark and Michelle had tied the knot two years ago on May 24 at St Mary's Church in Bury St. Edmonds, before hosting a lavish reception for family and friends at Hengrave Hall.

Marking their special day slightly early this year, they couple had embarked on a day of wine and cheese tasting and former Coronation Street star Michelle had commemorated their celebrations by sharing an idyllic snap of herself and Mark kissing in front of a sunset.

She captioned the photo: 'Happy Anniversary to my love ... 24.05.2015.'

Mark, meanwhile, had posted clips to Instagram as the duo travelled to a vineyard together and described one mountain as the Isle of Fernando's hills - the place where Take Me Out's contestants jet off to on their dates.

Kiss, kiss: The duo rang in their anniversary on Wednesday and Michelle took to Instagram to share a touching snap which saw the couple locked lips in a sweet display

He had recently visited Michelle in South Africa where she is continuing to shoot new scenes for the third series of BBC drama Our Girl.

She plays the role of army medic Lance Corporal Georgie Lane and is set to film for the series in a slew of long-haul locations - having already been to Nepal for the show.

Mark, however, will be diving his time between Essex, Spain and Los Angeles thanks to his own working commitments - meaning the couple will be forced to spend several months apart.

Making the most of the time they do have together, Mark shared a photo of himself and Michelle enjoying a South African sunset together with his 1.3million Instagram followers.

Second wedding anniversary: Michelle documented the romantic day out on her social media pages as they celebrated the milestone a few days early

He penned: 'Perfect setting with the perfect person. Can't beat a SA sunset!'

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mark previously shared an insight into how he and Michelle keep their romance alive while the pair are forced apart because of their careers.

He explained the couple 'work hard' at keeping their four year relationship 'exciting' and said: 'It doesnt matter what the job is, you make it work. You work around it. The most important thing is your personal life, especially if youre in a relationship. Your relationship comes first.

'Separate careers makes the time you spend together more special.

'We do the old Face Time, Whatsapp, talk on the phone. Were always in contact. Its easy  its 2017 theres always a way to stay in contact.'
He announced last December that he and husband Carl Hyland were set to welcome twins into the world via a surrogate.

And Kieron Richardson has revealed that he and his beau have become fathers to son Chase and daughter Phoebe Rae in a cute Twitter post on Friday.

The Hollyoaks star, 31, made the announcement by posting a snap of the babies' hospital bands, alongside the caption: 'Welcome Chase and phoebe rae x'.

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New parents: Kieron Richardson has revealed that he and his beau have become fathers to son Chase and daughter Phoebe Rae in a cute Twitter post on Friday

The sweet snap revealed that the twins were born on Monday, at 6.11pm and 6.34pm respectively.

The actor had revealed over Christmas that he and Carl were expecting twins, making the announcement in an adorable festive-themed video.

The clip showed two 'Baby on board' signs hung up on a Christmas tree, before revealing Kieron and Carl sat on the floor opening a present.

Sweet announcement: The Hollyoaks star, 31, made the announcement by posting a snap of the babies' hospital bands, alongside the caption: 'Welcome Chase and phoebe rae x

When they removed the wrapping, the gift was a large piece of card which read: 'Twins coming 2017'

The caption on the video read: 'Merry christmas to us thanks to the British surrogacy centre (sic)'

Kieron then revealed the gender of the babies - a boy and a girl - in January, gushing that he and Karl were set to welcome their 'very own Prince and Princess'.

Confirming the news to the Digital Spy, the actor explained: 'Our mums have done most of the buying [for the babies] so far.

Baby joy: The couple revealed they would become proud fathers to twins in a sweet Instagram video, which they shared last December

'We wanted to wait to see whether we needed to buy pink or blue, but now we know we can buy both colours, as we're having our very own Prince and Princess.'

Kieron's Hollyoaks alter-ego, Ste Hay, is a father to little Leah and Lucas, but admitted he does not plan to name the twins after his on-screen children.



He joked: 'I've had the best training ever with little Leah and Lucas, although we won't be calling the twins Leah and Lucas - that would be weird'.

The greatest gift: The couple shared the news in a festive-themed video, which showed two 'Baby on board' signs hung up on a Christmas tree

The couple's baby joy comes just 10 months after Kieron revealed they had been struggling to conceive a baby through IVF and were concerned they weren't going to ever have a family of their own.

Speaking at the time, he told The Mirror: 'We were hoping to have a baby this year. Unfortunately, like anyone who is trying for a baby through IVF - whether they are gay couples or not - it is a lottery.

'We have tried it four times, with the same surrogate mum, and we have fallen into that 30% bracket of it not working.

'But we have not given up the fight and are still continuing. We are going to keep trying until it is successful.'

Past, future, present: The caption on the video read: 'Merry Christmas to us thanks to the British surrogacy centre (sic)'

Relief: The happy news came after the actor revealed that the pair had been struggling to conceive a baby through IVF after four failed attempts

The couple married in April 2015 in front of Kieron's co-stars at a romantic ceremony in the the Peak District.

The loved-up pair posed for photographs in front of Devonshire Dome in Buxton Derbyshire, with as many as 12 bridesmaids, including Stephanie Davis, Jennifer Metcalfe and Gemma Merna.

The pair announced their engagement in 2014 after seven years together.

Kieron came out in 2010 when he revealed on television that he was gay like his on-screen character Ste.

Big day: The couple married in the Peak District in April 2015 alongside 12 bridesmaids, including Stephanie Davis (left)
He's the only man of the house, when it comes to the Schofield family.

And This Morning presenter Phillip was spotted treating his wife and daughters to a busy day out in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The 55-year-old British TV host stepped out with other half Stephanie and their daughters Molly and Ruby as they hit the shops on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

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Hope he remembered his credit card! Phillip Schofield treats wife Stephanie and pretty daughters Molly [L] and Ruby [R] to shopping on Rodeo Drive and lunch at The Ivy during family trip to LA

The family shopped at Jimmy Choo and Yves Saint Laurent for a bit of retail therapy before stopping for lunch.

He treated the girls to a leisurely meal at The Ivy on Robertson Blvd before visiting Griffith Park Observatory to see some sights.

It was then time for more shopping, as the family hit The Grove shopping mall.

Eldest daughter Molly, 24, wore a white and grey vertically striped mini-dress, black sandals and a matching black leather bag/coat combo.

Family man: The family shopped at Jimmy Choo and Yves Saint Laurent for a bit of retail therapy before stopping for lunch

She strolled along her parents and sister with the jacket slung over her shoulders and carrying her bag over her arm.

She, like her little sister, wore her long blonde locks loosely around her shoulders.

Rubsy, 21, wore a baggy black, off-the-shoulder top with skinny jeans.

Mum Stephanie - who has been the TV presenter's wife for 24 years - opted for a crisp white shirt and jeans.

Man of the house: The family were seen laughing and enjoying themselves on their vacation, at one point strutting along in matching shades. Their in-sync outfit colour scheme made the group look like a GAP commercial, as they stylishly went on their shopping spree.

Phil matched his wife in a white shirt but sported light grey jeans and slung a jacked over one shoulder.

The family were seen laughing and enjoying themselves on their vacation, at one point strutting along in matching shades.

Their in-sync outfit colour scheme made the group look like a GAP commercial, as they stylishly went on their shopping spree.

Family fun: Last summer, Phil and the girls enjoyed a day out together at FriendsFest, where they recreated the opening sequence to the iconic American sitcom and hung out in Monica and Chandler's apartment
Her skin is pale green when she plays Gamora in Guardians Of The Galaxy.

But actress Zoe Saldana reverted to a more normal skin tone at the opening of the Guardians Of The Galaxy Mission: Breakout! attraction at Disney California Adventure, in Anaheim, California, on Thursday.

The 38-year-old actress looked stunning in a white T-shirt, white high-rise cropped pants and taupe suede high heels as she posed on the red carpet.

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No green skin here: Zoe Saldanar reverted to a more normal skin tone at the opening of the Guardians Of The Galaxy Mission: Breakout! attraction at Disney California Adventure, in Anaheim, California, on Thursday

Her dark hair was styled in soft waves that cascaded down her back and framed her perfectly made-up face, with bright red lipstick adding a pop of color.

Zoe was joined by several of her Guardians co-stars - including a couple of baddies - at the glitzy event.

They included Benicio del Toro, who plays the evil Collector, Taneleer Tivan; Michael Rooker as the pirate Yondy who raised Peter Quill aka Star-Lord; Pom Klementieff who co-starred as Mantis and director James Gunn.

There was no sign of the Star-Lord himself, Chris Pratt, or Dave Bautista, who plays Drax, or Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper who voice Groot and Rocket respectively.

Pink pals: The 38-year-old actress looked stunning in a white T-shirt, white high-rise cropped pants and taupe suede high heels as she posed on the red carpet with two Krylorians

Impressive set: From left, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, Zoe, Michael Rooker, Pom Klementieff and director James Gunn at the ceremony

Doing it right: From left, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada, Disney Parks and Resorts chairman Bob Chapek, Zoe, Benicio del Toro, Michael, Pom, James and Kevin posed together

But they all appear in the new scenes shot by James for the ride experience.

Mission Breakout! is an accelerated drop tower dark ride that replaces The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror.

The attraction will be based in the Collector's fortress-esque museum, called the Tivan Collection, as seen in the first Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Hanging out: James and Michael, who plays Yondy, the pirate who raised Star-Lord

So brave: James posted this Instagram snap, captioned, 'About to go on the first ever OFFICIAL ride of #GuardiansoftheGalaxyMissionBreakout with a few of my closest friends - @zoesaldana, @pomin8r, @jenniferlholland, @michael_rooker, @kevfeige

Alien presence: In this shot Pom, in costume as Mantis the Krylorian, smiled as her fellow passengers screamed. Mission: Breakout! is an accelerated drop tower dark ride

Visitors will see the Collector showing off his latest acquisitions, the Guardians, in customized display cases.

However, Rocket secretly escapes his case and asks the guests to help him free his friends. They then board a gantry lift and the adventure begins.

The ride opens to the public on Saturday. Guardians OF The Galaxy Vol. 2 bowed on May 5 and has earned a stunning $742.3 million globally

Terrifying sight: Guardians Of The Galaxy Mission: Breakout! replaced The Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror at the park
He recently broke up with Danish supermodel girlfriend Nina Agdal.

And Leonardo DiCaprio, 39, appeared to be partying his troubles away with pal Naomi Campbell, 47, in Cannes of Friday.

The notorious party animals were seen leaving a glamorous event together looking in high spirits, after Leo spent the evening partying with a bevy of models .

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Party pals: Leonardo DiCaprio and Naomi Campbell were in very high spirits as they were spotted leaving a Cannes after party together on Friday

Leo, donning his trademark tweed-style flat cap with a blue merino wool v-neck sweater hopped into his waiting car ahead of fashion icon Naomi, who scooted in after.

With his fashionable facial hair on full display and a gold pendant hanging from his neck, Leo looked every bit the Hollywood heartthrob fans have come to expect.

Naomi looked her supermodel best in a flowing black sequined gown with statement silver plate necklace.

Loving life: The outing came hours after Leonardo appeared to be back to his Lothario self as he attended the star-studded amfAR Gala in Cannes where he chatted with Bella Hadid

The outing came hours after Leonardo appeared to be back to his Lothario self as he attended the star-studded amfAR Gala in Cannes.

The Titanic star was seen putting on a rather friendly display with a gaggle of models, as well as mingling with Bella Hadid and Rita Ora.

Enjoying a vape as he sat at one of the charity gala's prime tables, the actor and activist could be seen enjoying a chat with stunning model Bella, 20, who stopped by his table.

Striking: Naomi looked her supermodel best in a flowing black sequined gown with statement silver plate necklace

Leonardo was no doubt one of the most eligible bachelors on the night following hus recent break up.

The news of split between Leo and Nina came as a shock as they were spotted with friends in Malibu on Sunday.

That same day Agdal was forced to cancel her trip to Australia, where she was scheduled to appear at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.

The model was supposed to attend the Misha X Myer party in Sydney on Monday night, but stayed in the US due to visa issues.

Cannes: The pair had been partying hard into the night at exclusive Gotha nightclub together

Surprise breakup: The news of split between Leo and Nina came as a shock as they were spotted with friends in Malibu on Sunday

The cover girl was 'considering' flying to Sydney on a tourist visa but the idea was supposedly abandoned due to legal issues.

Nina and Leo were seen twice together in March: at Crustacean in Beverly Hills and at her 25th birthday party in St Barts.

It looked as if they were going strong with sources saying they were 'having a lot of fun together.'

The two were never very public with their relationship and were not once photographed on a red carpet together.

Dapper: Leo, donning his trademark tweed-style flat cap with a blue merino wool v-neck sweater hopped into his waiting car ahead of fashion icon Naomi, who scooted in after

Vintage: With his usual fashionable facial hair on full display and a gold pendant hanging from his neck, Leo looked every bit the Hollywood heartthrob fans have come to expect

Before the breakup: Nina and Leo were seen twice together in March: at Crustacean in Beverly Hills and at her 25th birthday party in St Barts

Nina and Leo were seen twice together in March: at Crustacean in Beverly Hills and at her 25th birthday party in St Barts.

DiCaprio and Agdal were first spotted together in May 2016 at Up & Down club in New York City.

The actor arrived at the nightclub with Agdal and a group of friends before partying the night away in the VIP section.

Solo: The two were never very public with their relationship and were not once photographed on a red carpet together

Ex: Leonardo's longest relationship has been with Gisele Bundchen who is now married to NFL footballer Tom Brady

They were then seen together in the Hamptons where they were photographed embracing after a minor car crash.

Leonardo's longest relationship has been with Gisele Bundchen who is now married to Tom Brady.

He has also dated Bar Refaeli, Erin Heatherton, Blake Lively and Toni Garrn, among others.
She's known for empowering women with her body confidence campaigns.

And Ashley James proved her confidence is well founded in a scintillating Instagram holiday snap shared on Friday from Dorgali in Italy.

The stunning blonde left little to the imagination in a black lace bodysuit with oblique detailing.

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Stunning: Ashley James sizzled in a scintillating Instagram holiday snap shared on Friday from Dorgali in Italy. The stunning blonde left little to the imagination in a black lace bodysuit

Holidaying in the picturesque Dorgali commune in Sardinia, Ashley posed seductively with her ample assets on display.

The radio host completed her look with subtle gold jewellery and shades of dark eye shadow.

Continuing to promote body confidence she wrote: '"Even the models we see in magazines wish they could look like their own images." Cheri K. Erdman Trust me. Wearing @bluebellaofficial #noretouchig [sic].'

Ashley James gave Pamela Anderson her run for her money in a modern take on that red one-piece

The seductive pics come a day after Ashley channeled Pamela Anderson in Baywatch with her very own red bikini snap.

The buxom blonde came close to popping out of the extremely plunging swimsuit as she walked sexily out of the sea.

Sharing the seductive footage online, she told fans: 'BAE WATCH! Found a red swimsuit so naturally I had to be really basic and give my best Pamela Anderson impression, especially as we're DJ'ing in Marbella this weekend at a beach party she's attending!'

Back home in London last week, the star was much more covered up than usual as she parted ways with her normal bikini-clad looks.

The former Made In Chelsea beauty, 30, has given the Baywatch slow-motion run her best go in a new video

The buxom blonde came close to popping out of the extremely plunging swimsuit as she walked sexily out of the sea

Sharing the seductive footage online, she told fans: 'BAE WATCH! Found a red swimsuit so naturally I had to be really basic and give my best Pamela Anderson impression

She looked super funky for her outing in the figure-hugging black top which was clad in the logo 'Goal Digger' in large green lettering.

The DJ teamed the look with a pair of high-waisted slim-leg blue denims, which were slightly rolled up underneath.

Strolling along in a pair of comfortable black trainers, Ashley looked very much trendy as she also sported a pair of rose gold headphones around her neck.

Taking into consideration the low-key aspect to the day, Ashley wore her blonde locks in a messy bun - complementing her bronzed make-up look.

Statement style: Back home in London last week, the star was much more covered up than usual as she parted ways with her normal bikini-clad looks

Trendy: The former Made In Chelsea star donned a figure-hugging black top which was clad in the logo 'Goal Digger' in large green lettering

Fashionista: The DJ teamed the look with a pair of high-waisted slim-leg blue denims, which were slightly rolled up underneath

Ashley regularly puts out unretouched images of her slim bikini body out on her social media as part of a fight against unrealistic body image.

But even she was shocked at her immediate reaction to the now-famous unairbrushed Kim Kardashian bikini photos which were taken during her recent trip to Mexico.

Posting a lengthy caption with a sexy shot of her in a revealing red swimming costume, Ashley admitted that she had to scold herself over judging Kim's 'cellulite'.

Wistfully penning a memory of her time on holiday in Holbox Island, Ashley turned her commentary to the subject of Kim's derriere.

Style star: Strolling along in a pair of comfortable black trainers, Ashley looked very much trendy as she also sported a pair of rose gold headphones around her neck

'To be honest, when I first saw the photos I thought two things. Firstly, I loved seeing cellulite because I thought it was great that she could of edited images and she didn't,' the model began.

'Secondly, my immediate subconscious reaction was to be judgmental of her body, and I had to stop myself because I realise - why do we do this or care about how another woman's body looks?'

Ashley's post then became philosophical in nature, and she proffered some advice for her fans that she follows herself.

'Does judging Kim Kardashian make me feel better about myself? I think judgement is natural, but I always to train myself not to think it and I never say it out loud to others.'

Having her say: Ashley regularly puts out unretouched images of her slim bikini body out on her social media as part of a fight against unrealistic body image

'I train myself to not think about it': Even she was shocked at her immediate reaction to the now-famous unairbrushed Kim Kardashian bikini photos which were taken during her recent trip to Mexico

Ashley is herself a victim of body shaming, claiming last month that a taxi driver 'slut-shamed' her for wearing a plunging black crop top.

Penning another commentary on an Instagram post about the incident, she revealed that she 'broke down in tears' and 'was made to feel like a cheap whore'.

Luckily, she decided to ignore the taxi driver, and bravely went on with her evening in the revealing top after deciding she shouldn't feel ashamed about her 'natural, God-given body'.
Katie Price's husband Kieran Hayler has broken his silence on the cheating scandal that rocked their marriage three years ago.

The 30-year-old former stripper was caught having affairs with two of Katie's best friends, Jane Pountney, 52, and Chrissy Thomas, 44, leading to a very public outburst from Katie, although the forgiving model, 39, later revealed Kieran is a sex addict.

Speaking on Loose Women's Bank Holiday Monday special, Kieran announced that having sought therapy for his compulsions he now 'does not crave it', with Katie admitting it is now her 'on him' - although he admits he will never be cured.

Scroll down for video

Troubled: Katie Price's husband Kieran Hayler has broken his silence on the cheating scandal that rocked their marriage three years ago

Katie wed Kieran met online in in 2012 and married just two months later in the Bahamas before heading to Weston-Super-Mare in March to bless their wedding after which they welcomed son Jett, three and daughter Bunny, two.

The couple's seemingly sturdy marriage was rocked to its core in 2014 when Katie discovered Kieran and Jane becoming intimate on a sun-lounger during a group holiday to Cape Verde - after which she knocked out her rival's tooth.

Katie and Jane had known each other for 20 years when the affair came to light, and the latter was even maid of honour at Katie's weddings to Alex Reid and Kieran.

After vowing to stay with 'sex addict' Kieran following his 10 month affair, she has always been candid about the dalliances, admitting she sends her husband pictures of Jane 'constantly', yet Monday's Loose Women will see Kieran speak out.

Fun, fun, fun: The 30-year-old former stripper was caught having affairs with two of Katie's best friends, Jane Pountney, 52, (pictured) and Chrissy Thomas, 44, leading to a very public outburst from Katie, although the forgiving model, 39, later revealed Kieran is a sex addict

Kiss, kiss: The couple have come up on top following their struggles

Loved-up: Appearing stronger than ever, the duo appeared at Capital's Celebrity Soccer match at Southampton Football Club on Friday

Snuggling up: In clips obtained by The Sun, Kieran spoke of his addictions and the group therapy he sought with Katie: '(The addiction) never be gone, its just how you deal with it'

Supportive wife: Katie has moved passed the cheating with time

In clips obtained by The Sun, Kieran spoke of his addictions and the group therapy he sought with Katie: '(The addiction) never be gone, its just how you deal with it.

'I broke down completely but the only way you can ever help yourself is that you have to want to help yourself. We had a guy come to the house for four days. By the end of the weekend he said, "Youre untreatable. I dont want to work with you".'

After finding another therapist the couple were banned from touching for two months, although he was sceptical as he said: ' I didnt believe what they were doing was working. We werent allowed to touch each other, only a kiss on the cheek.'

Despite his addiction, Kieran insists his desires have been truly quashed - with Katie desiring him more now that he has sought help.

Here come the girls! She cheered on her man with old pal Kerry Katone on the desk

Moving on: He said: 'I havent had a therapist session for just over a year. I dont crave for it at all. Its more the other way around, before Katie added: 'Im on him now'

Moving on: Katie and Kieran are on the up since their brief woes

Cheeky! Katie posed up a storm at the football match days before the big interview is set to air

He said: 'I havent had a therapist session for just over a year. I dont crave for it at all. Its more the other way around', before Katie added: 'Im on him now.'

Katie, who is also mother to Harvey, 14, with Dwight Yorke and Junior, 11 and Princess, nine, Peter Andre, emotionally revealed the addiction was so bad that he would cheat while she was bathing their kids.

Reflecting on the bad times, Kieran said: 'I think it was a cry for help and being caught was my way out. It took Kate to save me. Shes my guardian angel and the only person I am grateful for for the rest of my life.'

Referring to the candid interview, he said: 'If Id done this at the time, I would have been in pieces. So now being able to talk about it is a lot easier.'

Loose Women & Loved Ones bank holiday special airs Monday on ITV.
US steel producers have been cheered in recent weeks by the Trump administration's new stance, hoping it could bring more relief to struggling industries than scores of scattershot anti-dumping cases

Foreign steel producers on Wednesday called for prudence from the Trump administration as it considers possible actions to shield domestic companies from unfair imports on national security grounds.

The remarks came at a public hearing that is part of a Commerce Department investigation into the effects of steel imports on US national security. The administration is also scrutinizing aluminum imports.

The Trump administration's new stance has cheered US producers, who hope it will bring more relief to struggling industries than scores of scattershot anti-dumping cases.

Domestic producers on Wednesday said unfair competition is undermining the US industrial base in ways that could jeopardize energy production and the manufacture of weapons, armor and vehicles.

Still, some analysts say technological advances and increased productivity, more than trade, have accounted for much of the industry's job losses.

John Ferriola, president of Nucor Corp, said his company's steel helped produce US Humvee light military trucks, Abrams battle tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, the Patriot surface-to-air missile system and the plating used for armored vehicles, Navy aircraft carriers and destroyers.

That required "continual investment" in expertise, research, development and testing to meet exacting US Navy standards, he told the hearing.

"Unfortunately, global overcapacity and unfairly traded imports threaten our ability to invest," he said. "Production overcapacity in the steel industry has reached crisis levels."

- Trade barriers questioned -

However, foreign producers told the hearing that new trade barriers could be both unnecessary and counter-productive.

Karl Tachelet, head of international affairs at Eurofer -- an association of European Union steel producers -- said his organization had also been fighting unfair practices and global oversupply.

"We do not believe that restrictive, unilateral action based on national security will allow for lasting solutions we all need," he said, calling for the investigation to focus on "specific uses" directly tied to national security.

"What do tin mill products used to make cans for food and beverages have to do with national security?" he said.

"How real is the risk that one day the US will not be able to produce enough rebar or sections for construction and infrastructure given its massive scrap availability?"

- China, Russia, Ukraine -

Yu Gu, a representative of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, said the US Defense Department had found that US defense needs for steel were low, citing research that concluded that just three percent of domestic shipments served national defense purposes.

"Clearly, current and projected US national defense demand for steel can be readily satisfied by domestic production," he said.

The deputy head of Russia's US trade mission, Alexander Zhmykhov, said his country's steel exports were already subject to heavy anti-dumping restrictions and duties in the United States, where certain imports have tumbled.

"Russian imports have already been so drastically limited by the measures enforced that further limitations would be excessive," he said.

Ukraine's representative said his country's steel industry is under attack -- suffering seizure and expropriation by foreign-backed separatists in industrial eastern Ukraine -- but that security cooperation with the United States is also crucial to his country's stability.

A 2001 investigation showed that the America was not vulnerable to imports of iron ore and semi-finished steel, said Vitalii Tarasiuk, minister-counsellor at the Ukrainian embassy.

"We are confident that evidence in this case will likewise show that steel imports do not threaten US national security," he said.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday during a visit to Washington -- where she met with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer -- German Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries said she is worried the US steel investigation could result in higher tariffs on German exports of the metal and hopes to address the issue with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
White House special advisor Jared Kushner has accompanied President Donald Trump, his father-in-law, on his first trip abroad to the Middle East and Europe

The activities of President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner have come under FBI scrutiny as part of the probe of Russian interference in last year's presidential election, US media reported Thursday.

Although it is unclear whether Kushner is a main focus of the probe, he is under investigation for the "extent and nature" of his interaction with Russian officials, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

NBC News, citing unnamed US officials, also reported that the FBI is looking at Kushner but emphasized that although investigators believe he has "significant information relevant to their inquiry," it does not mean they suspect him of a crime.

The news is sure to rankle Trump, who was in Italy for a Group of Seven summit, accompanied by his top aides including Kushner.

Kushner held meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and a banker from Moscow in December, the Post said.

The banker, Sergei Gorkov, is chairman of VneshEconomBank, a state bank under US sanctions since July 2014.

Kushner initially failed to declare the meetings on forms to obtain a security clearance to serve in the White House. His lawyer later said it was a mistake, telling the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he would amend the forms.

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is the only current White House official known to be considered a key figure in the probe, which is targeting other members of Trump's campaign team.

"Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys, said in a statement.

"He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry."

- 'Witch hunt'? -

The Post reported last week that the Russia investigation had been extended to a top White House official as a "significant person of interest."

But NBC noted that Kushner was not considered to be in the same category as either former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or sacked national security advisor Michael Flynn, who are considered "subjects" of the probe.

Investigators are looking into possible financial crimes in addition to possible collusion between the campaign and Russian officials, the paper reported on Thursday.

The probe is headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller, appointed special counsel with broad powers to investigate Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign after the president sacked FBI director James Comey, who was heading the investigation, earlier this month.

Comey's firing, together with Trump's reported repeated efforts to persuade senior politicians, justice and intelligence officials to help push back against the probe, have brought accusations that he is obstructing the investigation.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin, amid accusations from US intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated a sweeping campaign to tilt the vote in the Republican's favor.

The president last week declared himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history.

This week, former CIA director John Brennan revealed that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.
FARGO  A 23-year-old woman described in court on Friday how she witnessed Ashley Hunter murder another man two years ago.

I woke up to Clay begging me for his life, said Megan Wartman, testifying in Cass County District Court, where Hunter is on trial for allegedly murdering two men in north Fargo in 2015.

Wartman said she had been sleeping on a couch in the home of Clarence Flowers, also known as Clay, when she heard him shouting for help, and she ran to Flowers bedroom just in time to see him fall to the floor.

She said she saw Hunter holding a long knife, which she said he made her hold.

He wanted me to touch the murder weapon so I was a part of it, said Wartman, who described herself as a recovering drug addict.

Wartman said she did not know either Flowers or Hunter very well on June 22, 2015, the day Flowers was killed, adding she had slept at Flowerss home at his invitation because she had been awake for days and was in desperate need of sleep.

My eyes were bleeding, I begged him to let me sleep, she said.

Wartman testified that after Hunter killed Flowers he made her write down a statement saying she had seen a Mexican guy before finding Flowers body on the floor. She said Hunter then took her as a hostage as he looked for a place to lay low.

Hunter is on trial for Flowers death, as well as for the murder of Samuel Traut, who authorities believe was killed by Hunter several hours after Flowers was fatally stabbed 77 times.

Wartman said after Flowers was killed she and Hunter eventually made it to the home of a man she knew as Apache, a person identified in court Friday as Christopher Doss, who in June 2015 lived at 1119 N. University Drive in Fargo in a house that was separated by a fence from the home where Traut lived.

Wartman said she and Hunter along with Doss and Dosss girlfriend were in Dosss home and high on drugs when a 10 p.m. TV newscast aired a story about Hunter being wanted for Flowers murder earlier in the day.

She said at that point Doss and his girlfriend left the house.

Wartman said she and Hunter stayed in the house until later the next morning, when despite fearing for her life she said she chastised Hunter, telling him the best decision for him was to turn himself in.

My whole life was going down the tubes over something so stupid and petty, Wartman said.

Wartman said she realized at some point Hunter was gone and she walked out of the house to see a neighborhood filled with police officers.

None of them stopped her, she said, so she went to the only person I could trust in this world, her recovery caseworker.

Wartman said her caseworker then notified police.

In a statement Hunter gave to police after surrendering the morning of June 23, 2015, Hunter said he stabbed Flowers with a knife and later bludgeoned Traut with a hammer after going to Trauts back door to ask for a glass of water.

In the statement, a video of which was played in court on Thursday, May 25, Hunter initially indicated Doss was to blame for Trauts death, referring to Doss as The Original.

Testifying Friday, Doss said he had never gone by that nickname and he had never killed anyone in his life.

Doss said when Hunter, who he had only recently met once before, showed up at his house at around 8 or 9 p.m. on June 22, 2015, Doss got the impression Hunter was in trouble and needed to leave town. Doss said he realized what that trouble was when he saw the news story about Hunter being wanted for murder.

I didnt want no part of it, Doss said, adding he told Hunter to leave and Hunter said he would.

Doss said he and his girlfriend left their home early on the morning of June 23, at which time he said he saw no activity around Trauts home.

Testimony provided by a neighbor earlier in the trial indicated that a tall African-American knocked on Trauts door around midnight on June 22 and a fire was seen in the home about an hour and a half later.

Doss said that at some point on the night of June 22, Hunter left the house for a time.

Hunters attorney, Samuel Gereszek, asked Doss if Hunter was covered with blood or smoke when he came back to the house.

No, Doss answered.
Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

Senior Trump administration officials fear a nuclear arms race in Asia-Pacific if an increasingly belligerent North Korea is not reined in, Australia's foreign minister said Friday after talks in New York.

Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

It has carried out two atomic tests since the beginning of last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.

The US is worried that if North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told The Australian newspaper this was conveyed to her in New York, where she held meetings with the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

"In my discussions with senior officials in both South Korea and the US, the view was that should North Korea ever be recognised as a nuclear weapons state, then Japan and (South) Korea would have little option than to develop their own nuclear weapons capability," she said.

"That is why there is such a strong view that North Korea must be denied this capability."

On the campaign trail last year, Trump raised the possibility of Japan and South Korea arming themselves with nuclear weapons, particularly sensitive in Japan -- the only country to ever be attacked by atomic bombs -- but later drew back from the remarks.

The United States says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

Bishop said the "loud and clear" message from Haley was that "when the United States said all options are on the table, they mean it, they are not kidding", pointing to the US sending a nuclear submarine to the region.

More encouragingly, the North's main trade partner and ally China appeared to be getting onside with the global community, she added in a separate interview with radio station 2GB.

"North Korea currently is rebuffing overtures from China, which is frustrating China," she said.

"In the past, it was seen as very much in the sphere of influence and a branch of their communist party. But now North Korea is being far more belligerent... offensive and making snubs to China."

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with China. But Haley said last week that no final draft had been clinched.

Bishop urged Beijing to adhere to a new sanctions regime, saying it would "change the economic scenario in North Korea and essentially bring it to the negotiating table".

"We have a window of opportunity in relation to economic sanctions and this is where we need China's support," she said.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons to try to disperse hundreds of secular demonstrators who came out to protest the statue's removal, which they see as a sign of creeping Islamisation in the officially secular country

Violent protests broke out Friday in Bangladesh over the removal of a controversial justice statue deemed "un-Islamic" by religious hardliners from outside the Supreme Court, a move its creator said marked a victory for Islamists.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons to try to disperse hundreds of secular demonstrators who came out to protest the statue's removal, which they see as a sign of creeping Islamisation in the officially secular country.

The sculpture of a blindfolded, sari-clad woman holding scales had been in place for less than six months when authorities removed it early Friday under pressure from hardliners who said it was based on the Greek goddess of justice.

Its creator Mrinal Haque choked back tears as he oversaw the removal, saying it felt like "clearing a dead body".

"Even my mother's death did not make me so grief-stricken," Haque told AFP.

Bangladeshi workers take down a controversial statue on the premises of the country's highest court after Islamist radicals protested for months against what they called an "un-Islamic" Greek deity

He said the authorities had "bowed to the Hefazat (-e-Islam)," referring to the hardline Islamist group that held months of mass protests demanding the statue be destroyed and replaced with a Koran.

After its removal, protests broke out on the court premises and at the Dhaka University campus, a traditional secular bastion.

"Four people were detained for questioning as they broke a barricade. The protesters have also vandalised several cars," deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Maruf Hossain Sorder told AFP.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw police fire rubber bullets as well as tear gas and water cannon.

"It is a betrayal of the people. The depressing thing is that the government is using it as a political tool," secular activist Imran Sarkar told AFP.

There was no official comment from the court or the government, but the attorney general said the removal had been discussed in the court on Thursday.

"It was a decision of the court," he told AFP.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, initially remained at a distance from the row.

But she broke her silence last month to describe the statue as "ridiculous" after inviting top Islamist leaders to her residence.

"I dont like it myself. Its being called a Greek statue, but how did a Greek statue get here?" she said.

Sculptor Haque rejected that claim.

"It is a a piece of sculpture of a Bengali woman wearing a traditional sari, blouse, petticoat and bangles," he said.

Hardliners have staged massive protests in Dhaka in recent months against what they say is a Greek goddess unbefitting of Bangladesh.

Analysts said Hasina's stand on the statue was part of her efforts to woo the Islamists and the country's conservative rural electorate ahead of the general election, expected to be held some time next year.

Conservative Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners.

Hefazat held a thanks-giving march after Friday prayers outside the country's largest mosque on Friday.

"We thanked the prime minister for removal of the statue of a Greek goddess from the Supreme Court premises," one of its spokesmen Fazlul Karim Kashemi told AFP.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who is fighting extradition to the US over alleged copyright crimes, will not stand in New Zealand's September general election, his Internet Party says

Kim Dotcom's Internet Party in New Zealand unveiled plans Friday to contest the September general election, but the mogul, who is fighting extradition to the United States, will not be involved.

In a statement on its website, the Internet Party said Dotcom had resigned from its executive committee and was no longer involved in operational decision-making.

"As such, Kim Dotcom has no advance knowledge that we are issuing this statement," it said in confirming "we are currently preparing our campaign for the 2017 New Zealand general election".

The flamboyant German-born Dotcom, who founded the file-sharing website Megaupload, established the Internet Party to contest the 2014 New Zealand election in an attempt to change the government, believing that could help his fight against extradition.

However, the party received just 1.42 percent of the vote.

Just before the poll, the Internet Party held a public meeting -- featuring video appearances by former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange -- to accuse the government of mass surveillance on its people.

In its statement on Friday, the Internet Party said further information "will continue to come to light about the extent to which New Zealand and the world have been actively deceived by their politicians and the state".

The FBI alleges Megaupload netted more than US$175 million in criminal proceeds and cost copyright owners more than US$500 million by offering pirated content.

A New Zealand court ruled in February that Dotcom was eligible to be extradited to the United States on fraud charges. He denies any wrongdoing and is planning to appeal.
Contacts between North and South Korea are extremely limited, and their tense shared border is one of the few places it is possible to see people from both sides, but Seoul has now authorised an NGO to make contact to discuss humanitarian aid

South Korea on Friday authorised a civilian NGO to contact the North to discuss resuming humanitarian aid and projects, the first example of new liberal president Moon Jae-In's pursuit of dialogue with Pyongyang.

The centre-left president favours engagement with the North to bring it to the negotiating table, rather than the hardline stance taken by the conservative government of his ousted precedessor Park Geun-Hye.

Unauthorised contacts with North Koreans or visits to the North are punishable by jail terms in the South.

But the Unification Ministry gave the green light to a request by the Korean Sharing Movement.

"The government's stance is that it should remain flexible in handling civilian exchanges such as humanitarian aid as long as they don't compromise the international sanctions regime against the North," ministry spokeswoman Lee Eugene told reporters.

The decision comes even as tensions remain high after North Korea test-fired this month its longest-range ballistic missile yet.

The two Koreas are technically still at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended only with a ceasefire instead of a peace treaty.

The North has staged two atomic tests and dozens of missile tests since the beginning of last year in its quest to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States.

The ministry's Lee stressed that Seoul will remain firm in addressing the North's nuclear and missile threats.

The Korean Sharing Movement seeks to supply malaria tablets for North Koreans living near their shared border, which would also help prevent the mosquito-borne disease spreading to the South, she added.

Moon, who advocates dialogue with Pyongyang unlike his two conservative predecessors, said in his inauguration speech this month that he was willing to visit Pyongyang "in the right circumstances" to defuse tension.

But he slammed a subsequent missile launch as a "reckless provocation".
The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three policemen.

Indonesian authorities have arrested three men in connection with a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three police officers, an official said Friday, as the Islamic State (IS) group claimed the attack.

The elite anti-terror squad working with regular police Thursday detained the suspects around Bandung in the west of Java island and searched their homes, authorities said.

The arrests came as President Joko Widodo called for a plan to strengthen anti-terror laws to be pushed through, to give security forces in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country greater powers to combat a surge in militant plots.

The two bombers attacked the busy terminal in the capital late Wednesday in a dramatic assault that sparked panic and left human body parts and shattered glass strewn across the street.

Three policemen were killed, while several other officers and civilians were injured in the assault at the Kampung Melayu terminal.

IS claimed responsibility through its propaganda agency Amaq late Thursday. Analysts have pointed the finger at local IS-linked group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has been blamed for recent attacks and was recently listed as a terrorist organisation by the US.

The bus station bombing was the deadliest attack in Indonesia since January 2016, when a suicide blast and gun assault claimed by IS in Jakarta left four attackers and four civilians dead.

Authorities on Thursday raided the homes of the two suspected bombers and found Islamic teaching materials and bladed weapons. Later the same day, they detained the three men allegedly linked to the attack.

The alleged bombers and other suspects were all based in and around Bandung in West Java province.

"We arrested three people in connection with the bombing, in three different locations yesterday afternoon," West Java province police spokesman Yusri Yunus told AFP, without saying what role the men are suspected of playing.

- Focus on terror laws -

Widodo meanwhile said plans to bolster counter-terror laws, which were first proposed last year but have stalled in parliament, needed to be accelerated.

The changes would see authorities handed powers to hold terror suspects without trial for longer and make it illegal for Indonesians to pledge loyalty to militant groups such as IS.

"I have ordered the chief security minister to immediately complete the revision of this anti-terror law, so that law enforcers have a solid basis to act and especially to prevent (terrorist acts)," Widodo said.

Hundreds of radicals from Indonesia have flocked abroad to fight with IS, and the country has seen a surge in plots and attacks linked to the jihadists over the past year, with many blamed on JAD.

Police have said they believe that IS is linked to the latest attack but have not said which specific group may have been responsible.

Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones, who heads think-tank the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, described the IS claim of responsibility as "very credible" and said she believes JAD's Bandung branch was behind the assault.

There are similarities between Wednesday's bombing and previous attacks involving JAD militants.

Police believe pressure cookers packed with explosives and shrapnel were used in the Jakarta attack, and a similar device was used in an assault by a JAD militant in Bandung in February.

In that assault, police shot dead the attacker after he allegedly set off a small bomb in a park and then stormed a local government office. No one else was hurt.

JAD was designated a terrorist organisation in January by the United States, which said the network was an umbrella group for about two dozen extremist outfits.

Some have pointed the finger at the group for carrying out last year's Jakarta attack.
Women's shelters are among the few places that provide female sanctuary in times of need in Afghanistan, a country where rape, abuse and forced marriages are commonplace.

Heavily pregnant at 16 after being raped by an insurgent commander, Malala was on the brink of committing suicide when she found refuge and hope in a women's shelter in Kabul.

The non-descript building, tucked away in a residential neighbourhood in the Afghan capital, is one of the few hidden sanctuaries where battered women can seek support.

Managed by the charity Women for Afghan Women (WAW), the shelter has given hope to those such as Malala in a country where rape, abuse and forced marriages are commonplace.

Heavily pregnant at 16 after being raped by an insurgent commander, Malala was on the brink of committing suicide when she found refuge and hope in a women's shelter in Kabul.

Malala is still tormented by her past, but now wants to channel her energy to build a better future for herself, her child, and others -- declaring that she wants to become a police officer in order to "defend women".

But shelters are hugely controversial, often dismissed as "whore houses" in the conservative country, still one of the worst places in the world to be a woman.

Cameras monitor the entrances discreetly and curious onlookers are viewed with suspicion.

"Nobody comes here," said Najia Nasim, the WAW director in Afghanistan.

Women's shelters in Afghanistan offer classes such as life-skills in the hope of providing a fresh start to those who have lost everything.

"Even our (male) employees do not know where the centre is. This place must remain confidential."

Such extreme caution is well founded. Most of the women here are in danger of being killed by violent husbands or vengeful relatives.

- Runaway women -

Thirty shelters have been established across 13 Afghan provinces since the end of the Taliban regime in 2001, mostly by WAW with financial support from the United Nations and some European powers.

Thirty shelters have been established across 13 Afghan provinces since the end of the Taliban regime in 2001, mostly by charity Women for Afghan Women, with financial support from the United Nations and some European powers.

It is a rare but real achievement for women in a country that ranks a dismal 152 out of 155 nations in the global Gender Inequality Index.

"Before the shelters, there was nothing for these runaway women," said Benafsha Efaf, the WAW director for Kabul.

"Many families have disowned the girls for shaming their (tribes), which makes them vulnerable to violence. We are their last chance and their ultimate hope."

According to UN Women, a specialised agency of the world body, 87 percent of Afghan women experience violence in one form or another during their lives, 62 percent of them multiple times.

The traditional system sanctifies male domination, and nearly four decades of conflict have exacerbated violence within Afghan households, UN Women says.

According to UN Women, a specialised agency of the world body, 87 percent of Afghan women experience violence in one form or another during their lives, 62 percent of them multiple times.

Cultural attitudes often make women, some very young, a bargaining chip to settle a debt or acquire a new wife, notes Efaf.

That was the painful fate of 15-year-old Aisha, picked up by the police in a brothel at the age of six. She was sold after her mother's death by her father, who wanted to remarry.

"I was too young to face so many problems in my life," she says, swaddled in a pink shawl.

"But here everyone has a terrible past and I often say to myself: 'Aisha, you are not alone, these women are like your mother and your sisters'."

- 'Women in distress' -

When AFP visited the shelter, it was hosting 45 women and 18 children, most referred by other Afghan institutions.

The traditional system sanctifies male domination, and nearly four decades of conflict have exacerbated violence within Afghan households, UN Women says.

"For ten years, we have tried to sensitise the police, prosecutors, ministries and even the mullahs," said Efaf. "It is the police who most often send us these women in distress."

The shelter is legally required to resettle the women, often through mediation with their families.

"We try to find a solution, but if we fail we pass on the case to our lawyers, and the women stay here until the case is resolved. That can sometimes take up to four years."

Often at stake is the custody of children, who are often automatically entrusted to the fathers.

Some emerge from their time in shelters to get a job and share an apartment with other former residents, though some are too broken to make any progress, experts say

Humira, who has been at the centre for six months with her three daughters aged between two and eight, fled her heroin addict husband who beat her badly.

"With all this violence, I still have a headache," Humaira said.

She waits for the judge's decision over the custody of her children. "He (the father) vowed to sell our three daughters to remarry," she said.

While the cases are being settled, family ties are usually broken, and the women end up staying in the shelters for between six months and five years, a time spent on regaining confidence and healing old wounds.

Many pursue an education or a vocational training, learning to value autonomy and freedom.

Some emerge from there to get a job and share an apartment with other former residents of the shelter, though some are too broken to make any progress, says director and psychologist Wira Farawal.

Malala has already regained her lost confidence. Though traumatised by her past, she learned to read and bonded more with her baby, a product of rape.

She has named her son Nazif, which in Persian means "pure".
Syrian girls act in an English-language adaptation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at a school in the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of Damascus

To escape the nightmare of life in their besieged hometown near Syria's capital, 13 young girls sought refuge in a fairytale performance of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

The all-girl cast spent months memorising lines from the classic Brothers Grimm fable before performing in front of a packed audience this week in the elementary school in Douma.

"It was really hard, but I memorised all my lines in English," said proud 10-year-old Afnan, who played the story's lead antagonist, the Queen.

"When I act, I forget the war that we're living through in Douma and I feel happy and hopeful," she said.

Afnan's hometown is the de facto capital of the Eastern Ghouta region, the last remaining rebel enclave near Damascus and besieged by government troops since 2012.

Until this month, Eastern Ghouta had been regularly targeted by air strikes and artillery as part of a government offensive chipping away at rebel territory.

The bombardment would often wound or kill children as they headed to street markets, played outside, or walked to school.

But the skies have been quiet since a landmark deal earlier this month to create four "de-escalation zones" in Syria, where more than 320,000 people have been killed since conflict broke out in 2011.

- 'Bombing is their normal' -

On-stage, her character is consumed by a search for youthful beauty, but Afnan said her own ambitions in life lie elsewhere.

"The lesson from the play is that beauty is in your heart and your soul, not in your looks! I want to be a doctor -- I want to be brave and treat sick people," Afnan said.

With the glittering stage decorations and nervous murmurs of young students, the evening could have almost taken place in any school around the world.

As an escape from the nightmare of life in their besieged hometown near Syria's capital, a group of schoolgirls stage a fairytale performance of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

But halfway through the performance, two distant booms shook the room -- rockets that hit the edge of the town, residents later said.

"These children don't know what it's like not to have shelling. For them, bombing is their normal," a female stagehand told AFP.

Earlier this year, international aid group Save the Children warned that a whole generation of war-scarred Syrian children may be "lost to trauma and extreme stress".

For the school's director of extracurricular activities, Yasser al-Assaad, theatre is one of the most effective ways to offset years of traumatic experiences -- for the young students and their mentors alike.

"I get my rehab from a student's smile, and that student draws her psychotherapy from the teacher that came to her school to motivate her," Assaad told AFP.

It is his third fairytale performance: in 2015, he helped put on "Little Red Riding Hood", and last year his students performed "Beauty and the Beast".

"We want to send a message to all of humanity that Syrian children can create, that we are open to all civilisations," he said.

- 'Flowers can grow' -

Despite efforts to leave Douma's devastation behind, death seemed to touch the cast of Snow White.

Just days before the final performance, the director's husband was killed by a stray bullet from intra-rebel clashes in the town.

And the play's rosy-cheeked narrator, Dania, recalled how her own school had been bombed just a year and a half ago.

"It was all blood and (the bodies of) girls in front of me," the 11-year-old told AFP.

Syrian girls pose for a group photo after performing in an English-language adaptation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" at their school in the rebel-held town of Douma

Even lead actress Rayhana Noaman, who played Snow White, said her favourite part of the story was escaping a tragic fate.

"The witch wanted to kill me, but the charming prince saved me from death!" she said with a shy smile.

Slender Amal al-Kurdi burst onto the stage with an explosive introduction: "A-a-achoo! I'm Sneezy!"

The eight-year-old actress donned a white felt beard and brown shirt like her fellow dwarfs.

"I really liked acting because we learned how to be brave and how not to be afraid to speak in front of an audience," she said.

As his students prepared to raise the curtain, Assaad said the performance was a sign that "flowers can grow amid rocks of pain."

"Every household in Douma has lost someone and tasted the anguish of pain, war, and siege. Despite this, we can build Syria anew," he said.
Trafficking is a widespread problem in impoverished Cambodia and police routinely investigate cases linked to the sex trade, forced marriage or slavery.

Two Cambodians have been arrested for allegedly trafficking at least ten organ donors to India for illegal kidney transplants worth tens of thousands of dollars, police said Friday.

The two Phnom Penh residents -- a man and a woman -- were arrested on Wednesday for at least ten cases of "kidney trafficking" over the past year, said Keo Thea, the city's chief of anti-human trafficking police.

The suspects paid Cambodian donors $5,800 for their kidneys and then charged patients more than $40,000 for the transplants, he said.

"The kidney transplants were performed in India," said Keo Thea, adding that the patients were also Cambodian.

He said the suspects confessed to the crime and would be sent to court later on Friday.

Trafficking is a widespread problem in impoverished Cambodia and police routinely investigate cases linked to the sex trade, forced marriage or slavery.

But organ trafficking -- a trade more common in places like India and Nepal -- is rarer.

The complicity of donors, who are often compelled by poverty, makes the under-reported crime difficult to expose.

In 2015 three Cambodians were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years jail in the country's first kidney trafficking case.

They had persuaded poor Cambodians to sell their organs to wealthy compatriots undergoing dialysis in Thailand.

Globally, the billion-dollar organ black market is fuelled by a shortage of organs and a soaring number of sick patients waiting for transplants, especially kidneys.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) some 10,000 black market transplants are carried out every year, a problem that frequently involves international crime.
Many fallen Chinese officials have been found to have mistresses, and corruption investigations have often been triggered by allegations from spurned or angry women.

A former regional police chief in China was executed for murder, state media said Friday, after reports described his victim as a lover more than three decades his junior.

Zhao Liping, 65, was found guilty of murder, bribery and possession of firearms and explosives by a court in Taiyuan, the capital of the northern province of Shanxi, in November.

China's supreme court announced Friday that Zhao had been executed after it approved the sentence, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

China carries out executions by lethal injection or shooting, but the method used this time was not specified.

Zhao was detained in 2015 in Chifeng on suspicion of killing a 28-year-old woman with whom he "had an intimate relationship" because she wanted to expose his wrongdoings, Chinese media reported earlier.

Zhao opened fire on the woman, who reportedly survived the first two rounds, but after she fled he chased her down in a car and shot her in the head.

Zhao headed the police in Inner Mongolia for seven years until he retired in 2012, and was also a deputy head of the regional People's Political Consultative Conference, a Communist-controlled debating chamber.

Many fallen Chinese officials have been found to have mistresses, and corruption investigations have often been triggered by allegations from spurned or angry women.
Urban planner Christoph Wessling talks about reconstruction of the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo, at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany

With its battered facades, pulverised houses and skeletons of buildings, one of the world's oldest cities, Aleppo, has been utterly devastated by the war in Syria.

Now, in Germany, scholars are preparing for its reconstruction one day by creating a super-detailed map of the old city and its treasures, long listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In a bright office of a university campus in Cottbus in the former East Germany, urban planner Christoph Wessling runs his index finger through the labyrinth of alleys and streets of Aleppo.

Spread across his large desk lies a huge map, measuring two by 2.5 metres (more than six by eight feet), drawn to a scale of 1:500.

It is an exceptional document that replicates the walled ancient city with its souks, hammams, mosques, churches and residential dwellings, with infinite precision and loving detail.

In total, some 16,000 plots have been traced, as well as 400 floor plans of the main buildings of this city, which has been inhabited continuously for over 6,000 years.

As the academic traces the ancient web of streets and alleys of the Silk Road city, his minds drifts back to a place that a 12th century poem described as being as old as eternity.

- Hidden gems -

Aleppo became the scene of a major humanitarian tragedy in late 2016, before it was captured by the army of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran

Aleppo was a city of hidden gems, recalled Wessling, who was a frequent visitor to the northern Syrian metropolis before the start of the war in 2011.

"In Aleppo, we would enter a house whose austere facade was absolutely nothing special," he said.

"And then suddenly we came upon a chain of three enchanting inner courtyards with richly decorated pillars."

That was life before the country's commercial centre was divided between the rebel-held east and the loyalist-controlled west and became a main battleground of the civil war.

Aleppo became the scene of a major humanitarian tragedy in late 2016, before it was captured by the army of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran.

In coming weeks the map, created by six experts with a budget of 60,000 euros ($67,000), will be put online and made available to anyone wishing to participate in the eventual reconstruction of Aleppo.

The online map will feature "all the site plans, photos and descriptions of a given place", according to the university, which is handling the project with the German foreign ministry and German Archaeological Institute.

"We are not politicians," said Wessling. "But as urbanists, we wanted to lay a foundation" so that the city can one day recover some of its peculiar splendour.

The hope is, he added, that construction companies don't simply bulldoze the ruins and build hotels and shopping malls atop the ancient rubble.

- Rest of Aleppo? -

Urban planner Christoph Wessling was a frequent visitor to Aleppo before the start of the war in 2011

Syrian Cottbus student Zeido Zeido, 29, who is preparing a doctoral thesis on his hometown Aleppo, warns against excessive attention to the old city.

He said "there are other districts with more recent architectural styles that need to be protected, such as late 19th-century buildings" from the era when Aleppo was one of the main cities of the Ottoman Empire.

"There is no national heritage protection plan for the districts which are not classified by UNESCO," he added.

The challenge of reconstruction will be immense, according to researchers at the Cottbus faculty of architecture.

According to UNESCO, about 60 percent of the old city was badly damaged and, of this area, 30 percent was totally destroyed.

In the souk, once one of the largest covered markets in the world, the stalls and wooden doors have been reduced to ashes.

The minaret of the famed Umayyad mosque collapsed four years ago, and the monumental Citadel has suffered "considerable damage" as have the caravan stops once used by Silk Road traders.

The Technical University of Brandenburg, Cottbus campus, was chosen to create the map because its architecture faculty has a long tradition of exchanges with that of Aleppo.

And Germany, given its World War II bombing, has a wealth of experience in rebuilding its cities, having also restored many urban centres after its 1990 national reunification.

At Cottbus, Zeido Zeido's thoughts wander off again to the city 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) away, recalling the days when he would "hang out in the streets with my friends".

But what he misses most is the sandy hue of Aleppo, "a city built with a peculiar stone that gave it a unique colour" -- and a feeling that the map before him, however precise, cannot bring back to life.
FARGO  Sometime over the next three months, those visiting Hector International Airport may see an unmanned aircraft taxiing down one of the runways, its tails displaying the well-known red tail flash of the Happy Hooligans.

That would be the MQ-9 Reaper, the North Dakota Air National Guard units newest aircraft and the first assigned here since 2013.

Col. Britt Hatley, who commands the Hooligans, formally known as the 119th Wing, told reporters in a Thursday briefing that he doesnt have a fixed timeframe, but hopes the aircraft will be operational by late summer.

The wings pilots have been flying two Reapers in overseas combat missions from control rooms in Fargo since October when they ceased flying MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft. But they havent had locally based aircraft to train with.

Hatley said local aircraft are important both because maintenance crew wont have to travel all over the country to train as before and because theyre a tangible sign that the wing is still here. That helps with recruitment, he said.

For years, the Hooligans flew highly visible F-16 Fighting Falcons, sleek grey aircraft with thunderous engines. The last Falcons left in 2006. They were replaced here by C-21s, fairly low-profile business jets, and they left in 2013 leaving the Hooligans with no local aircraft.

The Predators that the wing flew right after the Falcons left were based at Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Reapers are bigger, more capable cousins of the Predators, spindly aircraft with bulbous noses well known for hunting and killing al-Qaeda members overseas. Both are made by General Atomics.

According to the Air Force, while the Predator can haul a maximum of 450 pounds the Reaper can haul 3,750 pounds. The Predator cruises at 84 mph with a range of 770 miles. The Reaper cruises at 230 mph with a range of 1,150 miles. That translates to bigger weapons and longer time loitering over the battlefield.

When the Hooligans two Reapers arrive here, theyll come disassembled and packed in containers straight from the factory. He joked that theyll still have that new car smell.

Maintenance crews here will assemble the aircraft and run tests before pilots begin operating them. Following a cautious crawl walk run philosophy, Hatley said pilots here will practice taxiing them first before flying them.

Because the pilots of unmanned aircraft cant look out the window, they are less aware of their surroundings. The Federal Aviation Administration generally does not allow them to mix with manned aircraft, such as the many passenger jets that fly in and out of Hector airport.

Hartley said new radars allowing unmanned aircraft to automatically avoid manned aircraft if there is a risk of collision are still being tested and arent available. For the time being, the Civil Air Patrol has volunteered to fly chase planes to act as lookouts for Reaper pilots, he said, escorting to and from the military airspace over Camp Grafton, the National Guard training area near Devils Lake.

The Hooligans are also requesting the FAA set aside a special corridor for unmanned aircraft from Hector airport to Camp Grafton similar to the one between Grand Forks Air Force Base and the camp, according to Hatley. The Reapers wouldnt need escorts if that happened.

Besides Reapers, the 119th Wings mission includes analyzing images from various kinds of unmanned aircraft and providing support services for the Air Force, including guarding nuclear missiles at Minot Air Force Base. Its authorized to have 1,195 personnel and now has a little less than 1,100.

Hatley said the Hooligans are hiring more intelligence analysts and aircraft technicians, among others, to reach full staff.
Montanans vote Thursday in a special election to replace a Republican who resigned to join President Donald Trump's cabinet

A US Republican candidate accused of assaulting a reporter was declared the projected winner of Thursday's Montana special congressional election, which had been considered a bellwether in the opening months of Donald Trump's crisis-ridden presidency.

Greg Gianforte -- a wealthy businessman who had been expected to comfortably win the contest until recent weeks -- emerged the projected victor despite Wednesday's clash, taking 50.4 percent of the votes against his Democratic opponent's 43.8 percent, according to CNN, with 84 percent of the votes tallied.

He faces up to six months in county jail and a $500 fine if convicted of misdemeanor assault against a journalist from the British newspaper The Guardian.

In his victory speech Gianforte apologized to the reporter, telling a cheering crowd of supporters he had "learned a lesson."

"Last night I made a mistake. And I took an action that I can't take back," he said. "I should not have treated that reporter that way. And for that I am sorry."

"Rest assured our work is just beginning. But it does begin with me taking responsibility for my own actions."

The Wednesday clash, caught on an audio recording, had mushroomed into a major headache for Trump's party as Montanans trooped to the polls to replace a Republican who vacated the seat to join the president's cabinet.

In accepting his projected win over his rival -- 69-year-old cowboy-poet Rob Quist -- Gianforte vowed to be his state's "strong voice back in Washington DC."

"Montana sent a strong message tonight that we want a congressman who will work with President Trump to make America and Montana great again."

Republicans now find themselves with an incoming member of Congress forced to appear in county court in coming weeks -- a predicament Democrats will no doubt exploit as an example of the GOP's decay.

Following Wednesday's incident the state's three main newspapers had rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte, but a majority of voters had already cast absentee ballots before the altercation, local media reported.

During the vote Democrats on the streets of Missoula expressed outrage.

"It is a little shocking to learn that someone who is trying to be our leader behaves in that way," Montana voter Rachel Pauli, 27, said as she waved anti-Gianforte signs on a bridge over the Clark Fork river.

- 'Wake up call' -

Police were called to the scene of Wednesday's incident, at a Gianforte campaign event in the city of Bozeman, and Jacobs was taken to hospital for X-rays.

The altercation took place after Jacobs asked Gianforte about the Republican health care bill intended to replace Barack Obama's signature health reforms.

The issue has become a focal point for American voters, and Gianforte, 56, had remained non-committal about the legislation, even though he has embraced many aspects of the Trump presidency.

"Greg Gianforte just body-slammed me and broke my glasses," Jacobs tweeted before news of the incident went viral on social media.

The reporter posted an audio clip in which a loud crash is heard, and Gianforte then appears to say: "The last time you came in here you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here!"

Gianforte's campaign issued a statement offering a starkly contrasting account.

Jacobs entered the office uninvited, and "aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face, and began asking badgering questions," the campaign said, as it blamed the incident on "aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist."

Other witnesses corroborated Jacobs's version of events -- including a crew from Fox News, the most-viewed US cable news channel and a favorite of conservatives.

The state's Democratic governor, Steve Bullock, described the incident as "a wake-up call to all Montanans and Americans."

"It is unsettling on many levels that Greg Gianforte physically assaulted a journalist and then lied, refusing to take responsibility for his actions," he said in a statement.

With the race Republicans, facing a struggle to hold the House in 2018 mid-term elections, managed to avoid their first casualty in a revolt against an unpopular president.

Another special election will be held next month in Georgia, another traditional Republican stronghold, where a Democrat holds a slim lead in polls.
Foreigners are among Islamist gunmen battling security forces in a southern Philippine city, the government said Friday as the reported death toll from four days of clashes climbed to 46

Foreigners are among Islamist gunmen battling security forces in a southern Philippine city, the government said Friday as the reported death toll from four days of clashes climbed to 46.

President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday, hours after gunmen loyal to the Islamic State group rampaged through Marawi city in response to a raid on one of their safe houses.

"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens. It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign fighters," Solicitor General Jose Calida, the government's chief lawyer, told reporters in the southern city of Davao.

He said Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans and "other foreign jihadists" were fighting in Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines with about 200,000 residents.

Philippine military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said six foreign fighters are believed to have been killed in the Marawi fighting, including Malaysians, Indonesians and another nationality which he did not specify.

Calida said these foreign fighters had heeded a "clarion call" of IS to travel to Mindanao to put up a "wilayat" or IS province, if they could not go to fight in Iraq or Syria.

Padilla said 11 soldiers, two policemen and 31 militants had been confirmed killed in the fighting, which has involved the military bombing buildings where the militants have been hiding.

Two civilians were also killed inside a hospital that the gunmen had occupied on Tuesday, and the military was investigating reports that nine people had been murdered at a checkpoint the militants had set up, authorities said.

The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.

The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.

The raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then went on a rampage across the city while flying black IS flags.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because the militants were moving nimbly through homes, had planted bombs in the streets, and were holding hostages.

They said militants had also occupied higher ground in the city, enabling them to slow down or stop assaults from the security forces.
Visitors pray in front of portraits of victims of the 2014 South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster, at a memorial altar in Seoul, on May 25, 2017

The last messages to a victim of South Korea's Sewol ferry disaster were revealed Friday after their mobile phone was recovered from the salvaged wreck, officials said.

The vessel took hours to sink off the country's southwest coast in April 2014, killing more than 300 people in one of the country's worst maritime disasters.

As it unfolded passengers frantically exchanged messages with friends and relatives.

"Please make sure you keep in touch with me," read one message on the recovered device, according to investigators. "Coast guards just sent a patrol boat. Don't die. Stay alive."

Another asked: "Helicopter rescued you?"

The last message on the phone asked whether the person had been rescued, urging them to "use someone else's phone and contact me" if theirs was not working.

The user last checked the phone at 9:29 am on April 16, 2014, a committee enquiring into the disaster said in a statement. It ceased to operate 32 minutes later.

It gave no details of the owner but confirmed they had died.

The KT Tech device was among 83 mobile phones retrieved from the wreck since it was salvaged in March and taken to the port of Mokpo for investigations and to search for the remains of nine unaccounted-for victims.

Three of them have since then been identified through DNA tests of remains found in the ship or on the sea bed near the wreck site.

Among the phones, 15 have been handed to digital forensic experts to try to restore their data, with two successful so far.

Most of the victims were Danwon High School students on an excursion, and the sinking and botched rescue efforts dealt a crushing blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.

Investigations concluded the disaster was the result of numerous human factors, including an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay and inexperienced crew.
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One of Australia's biggest draw cards, the Sydney Vivid light show, got underway Friday with police vowing to take to the skies, streets and waterways in the wake of the terror attack in Britain this week.

Some 2.5 million people are expected to take in more than 90 light and sound installations scattered across the city during the 23-night annual festival, the world's largest of its kind.

While there has been no direct threat to Vivid, authorities are eager to reassure visitors, many of them tourists, following the bombing at a pop concert in Manchester on Monday that left 22 dead and dozens injured, many of them children.

Artists from around the world will be in Sydney for the festival, with more than 400 music events scheduled alongside the light installations and projections

A "high-visibility policing strategy" will see extra officers patrolling with "firearm explosive dogs" carrying out searches.

"We have police in the air, we have police on water and we have police on the ground," New South Wales state Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Fitzgerald told reporters.

"We are very very confident we have sufficient resources in place."

Artists from around the world will be in Sydney for the festival, with more than 400 music events scheduled alongside the light installations and projections, including giant sea creatures beamed onto the Sydney Opera House's iconic sails.

"Tourists can be incredibly confident, as can locals, in visiting Vivid to enjoy themselves and to do so knowing that every resource possible has been deployed to look after their safety and welfare," said New South Wales major events minister Adam Marshall.

Australian officials say they have prevented 12 terror attacks on home soil since 2014 with 61 people charged.
Yau Wai-ching (left) and Baggio Leung (centre) walk with supporters as they leave a courthouse in Hong Kong, on May 26, 2017

Two Hong Kong independence activists who were stripped of their status as lawmakers last year pleaded not guilty Friday to charges over chaos at the city's parliament.

Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching were arrested last month and charged with unlawful assembly and attempted forcible entry into the legislative chamber.

They belong to a new movement calling for a complete split from China for semi-autonomous Hong Kong, as fears about Beijing's tightening grip on the city grow.

The pair's appearance came a day after nine activists were in court over their roles in massive 2014 pro-democracy protests in a case slammed by rights groups.

The crackdown on anti-Beijing campaigners comes ahead of an expected visit by China's President Xi Jinping to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover of the city by Britain back to China in 1997 on July 1.

Yau, Leung and three others entered not guilty pleas to charges related to them trying to barge in to a legislative council meeting in November after they had been barred pending a court decision over their disqualification.

A court charge sheet said said they behaved in a "disorderly, intimidating, insulting or provocative manner".

Prosecutors said they expect to have 20 witnesses and 70 minutes of video evidence. A pre-trial review was set for July 14 and all five defendants were bailed.

In November, Yau and Leung ran into the main legislative chamber before security tried to bundle them out.

Once removed, they and their supporters tried to push their way into a committee room to which the disrupted session had been moved.

In the ensuing chaos, they clashed with security with at least three staff taken to hospital and police called in.

Despite being elected by the public, the pair were never allowed to take up their seats after protesting at their swearing-in ceremony last October.

They deliberately misread their oaths of office, inserted expletives and draped themselves with "Hong Kong is not China" flags.

Beijing intervened to ensure they were not given the chance to retake their oaths by making a special "interpretation" of Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

The ruling said that any oath taker who does not follow the prescribed wording of the pledge, "or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn", should be disqualified.

After the interpretation, Hong Kong's High Court ruled to bar them both.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting before the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, on May 26, 2017

US President Donald Trump said Friday the "problem" of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be "solved", as he met with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, adding the issue would be raised in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries.

"It will be solved," he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details.

Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

It has carried out two atomic tests since the beginning of last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.

The US is worried that if North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.
Fidel Ramos, a Marcos security chief who turned to become a leading figure in the "People Power" revolution that overthrew the dictator in 1986, held a press conference to speak out at length against martial law

Ex-Philippine leader and democracy hero Fidel Ramos on Friday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte's threats to impose martial law, warning against inevitable abuses under military rule.

Duterte declared martial law for the southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday to combat what he said was the rising threat posed by the Islamic State group, after militants rampaged through a city triggering deadly battles that are yet to end.

Duterte said he would impose it on the rest of the country if he felt the terrorism threat had spread, and praised martial law under dictator Ferdinand Marcos a generation ago.

Ramos, a Marcos security chief who turned to become a leading figure in the "People Power" revolution that overthrew the dictator in 1986, held a press conference on Friday to speak out at length against martial law.

"Let us not talk about spreading it to the... rest of the Philippines. Let's talk about confining it to the part of Mindanao and making it smaller and smaller," said Ramos, who has been one of Duterte's most important political allies.

Ramos also criticised Duterte's decision to impose martial law across all of Mindanao, which covers about a third of the country and is home to 20 million people, saying it should have been in just "limited areas".

Ramos acknowledged his own role enforcing military rule as a paramilitary police commander when Marcos declared martial law in 1972, and the problems that created.

"We are all victims of martial law. We would be much higher now in the ranking of nations, in the appreciation of other nations for the Philippines, if we did not have martial law," he said.

"As a military man, please understand how deep my statements are. Do not tell me any of you will enjoy martial law."

After declaring martial law, Marcos plundered state coffers of billions of dollars and oversaw massive rights abuses in which thousands of critics were jailed, tortured or killed.

Duterte, who has overseen a controversial war on drugs as president in which thousands of people have died, on Wednesday praised Marcos.

"Martial law of Mr Marcos was very good," said Duterte, who vowed his version would be "harsh".

About 1,000 people gathered in Manila on Friday to protest against martial law, and there have been some vocal critics including from powerful media outlets.

But there has been minimal public outcry over his martial law declaration. Surveys have consistently shown that Duterte and his drug war enjoy wide popular support.

Under the constitution, Congress has the power to revoke a martial law declaration. But Duterte's allies hold an overwhelming majority in the legislature and many leading lawmakers have expressed support for his move.
Abe is expected to push for a G7 deal on North Korea

US President Donald Trump promised Friday that North Korea "will be solved", as G7 powers opened a summit that will confront a series of missile tests by the nuclear-armed nation.

Trump's tough talk came in a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, which along with South Korea is most immediately threatened by North Korean belligerence.

But the isolated regime has also threatened to target places further afield such as the US West Coast, and Trump has called North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un a "madman with nuclear weapons".

"We will be discussing many things including of course North Korea which is very much on our minds," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina as he held bilateral talks with Abe at the start of the two-day G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem.

"It will be solved, you can bet on that," he added, without giving further details.

North Korea carried out two atomic tests last year, and has accelerated its missile launch programme, despite tough UN sanctions aimed at denying Kim the hard currency needed to fund his weapons ambitions.

So far Washington has opted for sanctions and diplomatic pressure, while looking to China, the North's closest ally, to help rein in Pyongyang.

Earlier this month naval exercises were conducted in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, with South Korean and Japanese aircraft also taking part.

Abe said he intended to use the G7 summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea.

"The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act "resolutely".

Pyongyang's launches this year have included a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

- 'A lot of firepower' -

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention is an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said "we can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that".

"We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 -- but we don't want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable". The controversial Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart's "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment".

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with China.

But Beijing, the North's main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority.

North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computers.

Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.
A British family, who witnessed the beach massacre by a jihadist gunman in Tunisia, lay flowers at the site of the attack on the outskirts of Sousse on June 30, 2015

A Tunisian court held its first public hearing Friday in the trial of 26 people in connection with a 2015 jihadist beach massacre that killed dozens of foreign tourists.

A student armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades went on a rampage in the Port el-Kantaoui resort near Sousse killing 38 holidaymakers, 30 of them Britons, before being shot dead by police.

It was the second of two deadly attacks on foreigners claimed by the Islamic State group that year, which devastated Tunisia's once-lucrative tourism sector.

Security was unusually tight at the Tunis courthouse for Friday's hearing, which lasted around an hour and a half and was attended by British diplomatic officials.

The next hearing in the case was set for October 3, judiciary spokesman Sofiene Sliti told AFP.

Six of the defendants in the case are policemen accused of failing to assist a person in danger.

The remainder, all Tunisians, are accused of terrorist offences, murder and "conspiracy against the security of the state", the prosecution said.

The prosecution told AFP that 26 people were being tried, revising the number down from its earlier statement that 33 accused were going on trial.

If convicted, they could face the death penalty under a 2015 anti-terror law, despite a moratorium on capital punishment since 1991.

The examining magistrate finished his investigation in July last year.

Lawyers for both the prosecution and the defence had said before the trial that they would ask for an adjournment to give them more time to study the case.

Several defence lawyers applied for bail, telling the judge their clients had "no link" to the attacker.

Tunisian authorities say gunman Seifeddine Rezgui had "mainly" been radicalised on the internet before receiving weapons training in neighbouring Libya.

Ines Harrath said her client, Achraf Sandi, was not a "terrorist" but had been arrested "because his brother, who is on the run, is accused of involvement in the case".

Another defence lawyer, Salha Ben Farah, said her two clients had been tortured during interrogation and in prison.

There has been widespread criticism of the Tunisian police force's actions during the June 26, 2015 massacre.

British judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, who held an inquest into the deaths of the Britons among the holidaymakers, said in February that the police response had been "at best shambolic, at worst cowardly".

"Their response could and should have been more effective," he said.

A Tunisian soldier sounds the trumpet for a minute's silence in the coastal city of Sousse on July 3, 2015, in memory of the 38 victims of the previous month's beach massacre

Andrew Ritchie, a lawyer representing 20 victims' families, read out a January 2015 report by a British diplomat, saying there had been "little in the way of effective security to prevent or respond to an attack" at the beach.

Nearly two years after the massacre, London still advises against non-essential travel to Tunisia, a restriction Tunis would like to see lifted.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said in November that the security situation was "stable" and Tunisia was under no more threat than other countries.
A Sri Lankan military rescue worker looks on during the search for survivors at the site of a mudslide in Bellana village in Kalutara

Flooding and landslides killed at least 92 people and left another 110 missing in Sri Lanka as the monsoon set in Friday, dumping record rainfall in many parts of the island, authorities said.

The official Disaster Management Centre (DMC) reported that over 60,000 people were driven out of their homes in the south and western parts of the country.

"There are some areas where we are unable to reach, but relief operations are under way," deputy minister for disaster management Dunesh Gankanda told reporters in Colombo.

Officials said the toll rose to 92 dead, including a soldier who fell to his death from a helicopter while trying to pull a marooned villager to safety. Another 110 people remain missing.

Sri Lanka issued an international appeal for help as reports came in from areas which had been inaccessible earlier in the day, with neighbouring India sending two shiploads of emergency relief supplies as well as medical teams.

A Sri Lankan resident carries belongings through floodwaters in the suburb of Kaduwela in the capital Colombo

"The first Indian ship will dock at Colombo on Saturday," the Sri Lankan government said in a statement.

The highest number of monsoon-related fatalities were from Ratnapura, the island's gem hub, where the Kalu river burst its banks and inundated the main town which is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Colombo.

Nearly 500 homes were either damaged or destroyed due to flooding as well as landslides, DMC director of operations Rear Admiral A. A. P. Liyanage told AFP.

Most of the deaths were due to mountainsides collapsing on homes after heavy overnight rain, he said.

- Evacuation orders -

A Sri Lankan man walks at the site site of a mudslide in Bellana village in Kalutara

The met department said the worst of the rains may be over, but there could be downstream flooding in the next few days and the authorities issued evacuation orders for thousands of people.

"The monsoon has firmly established and we could have evening showers at a lesser intensity", met department chief S. R. Jayasekera told reporters in Colombo.

The government arranged temporary shelters in schools and other public buildings for people in low-lying areas to move in, the DMC said.

The military has deployed thousands of troops to reach marooned villagers and the airforce carried out several rescue operations to pluck people from rooftops of flooded homes.

The latest flooding was the worst since May 2003 when 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed after a similarly powerful Southwest monsoon, officials said.

In the early hours of the day a mountainside collapsed on a women's hostel at a tea plantation at Neluwa in the island's south, killing at least seven women, police said.

DMC officials said the monsoon had been expected on Thursday night and ended a prolonged drought that had threatened agriculture as well as hydropower generation.

The rains filled the reservoirs used for hydroelectric projects after low supplies had raised fears of power shortages in June.

But officials said most reservoirs were now so full they were in danger of spilling over and flooding communities living downstream.
There is a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq

At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Friday, in the second such assault this week.

The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

"The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province," ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP.

"Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded."

A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20.

The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

It highlights a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq.

Raziq had lashed out at the central government in Kabul on Thursday, accusing them of a plot to destabalise his province.

"Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering.

"Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help."

The attack marks another setback for NATO-backed Afghan forces. It comes just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001.

And in another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.
A woman accused of witchcraft in northern Tanzania. Such accusations are common in parts of Africa

Being accused of witchcraft is no laughing matter in Africa -- but movie director Rungano Nyoni decided a dose of humour was just what was needed to tackle a problem rampant in parts of the continent.

Set in Zambia, the sharp satire "I Am Not A Witch" has premiered to strong reviews at the Cannes film festival, taking aim at the blatant sexism behind accusations that overwhelmingly target women.

White tourists are seen gawping at women detained in a "witch camp" in the movie, taking pictures of them as if they're animals at a zoo.

The supposed witches have to move around attached to giant spools of ribbon, something Nyoni invented to help the farcical nature of the accusations hit home.

"It's to stop them from flying," an official tells the tourists. "They can even fly to the UK."

For Nyoni, who was born in Zambia and raised in Wales, satire was the only way of dealing with an issue this absurd.

"What I really wanted was a way to bring the audience into something that's serious," she added.

"Humour is a great way to get people engaged and feeling for the characters."

For her first feature film the 35-year-old drew inspiration from a trip back to Zambia to visit family a few years ago, when a neighbour accused a relative of being able to turn into a snake.

- Misogyny, African style -

"I started noticing lots and lots of witch accusations," Nyoni said, despite an official ban on such practices in Zambia.

For research she headed west to Ghana, where for decades women accused of sorcery have been sent to live in segregated camps. Grandchildren can visit, and they can go to church, but they are forced to work in the fields for local chiefs. It is, Nyoni says, "blatant" exploitation.

Nyoni spent a month at a camp, listening to women's stories.

It was a "bittersweet" experience. Most were elderly women who said they'd been banished over personal feuds -- by neighbours jealous that they were running successful businesses, for example.

There are similar stories from Tanzania to the Central African Republic. Nor is the problem unique to Africa: in India, hundreds of women are attacked every year over similar accusations and some of them murdered.

Often the real goal is financial gain -- taking over the woman's home or farm.

Nyoni recalls meeting one tribal chief explaining that witches were almost always female because "women are evil".

"This is an African version of misogyny that exists everywhere," she said.

"Wherever human beings have the ability to exploit, they do."

- WhatsApp search for child star -

Hailed as "winningly original" by The Hollywood Reporter, "I Am Not A Witch" stars nine-year-old Maggie Mulubwa as Shula, an orphan who is sent to a witch camp and then turns out to have a talent for using her supposed powers for solving crimes.

Nyoni auditioned more than 900 girls for the part, but couldn't stop thinking of a little girl her husband had photographed near Samfya in the north of Zambia.

Thus began an epic hunt to find Maggie that involved the film crew sending her picture to a local tribal chief -- who then passed it on by WhatsApp until the search spanned tens of thousands of kilometres.

Eventually they tracked her down -- Nyoni wracked with nerves over whether the child could actually act.

"She was perfect," says Nyoni. "It was meant to be."

Maggie had never been to school, and the film team has since set up a crowdsourcing campaign for her education. The British Film Institute and FilmFour, which backed the production, have committed to supporting her until she turns 18.

"She's super smart," Nyoni says with a smile.

"She couldn't speak English before but now she's fluent, you can't get her to shut up."
Church bombings in December and April claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed dozens of Egypt's Coptic Christians

Masked gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of the Egyptian capital on Friday, killing at least 26 people, officials said.

The assailants sprayed the bus headed for Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province with gunfire before fleeing, provincial governor Essam el-Bedawi told state television.

"They used automatic weapons," he said.

Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed told state television that 26 people were killed and another 25 wounded.

Bedawi said police were fanning out along the road where the attack took place and had set up checkpoints.

The shooting followed church bombings in December and April claimed by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group that killed dozens of Copts.

Egypt attack

The jihadists threatened more attacks against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population.

Suicide bombers with the jihadist group struck a Cairo church on December 11, next to the seat of the Coptic pope, killing 29 people.

On April 11, bombers attacked two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, killing 45 people, in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

The Copts' Pope Tawadros II had been leading a service in one of the two churches attacked that day.

The bombings prompted President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.

The Egyptian affiliate of IS has also killed several Copts in North Sinai, forcing dozens of families to flee the province in January.

Friday's shooting came after a historic visit to Egypt by Roman Catholic Pope Francis to show solidarity with the country's Christians.

In his late April trip, Francis visited one of the bombed Coptic churches and condemned violence carried out in the name of God.

Egypt says it has identified those behind the church bombings, saying they were part of an extremist cell based in southern provinces, offering a reward for their capture.

Sisi has defended the performance of his security forces and accused jihadists of trying to divide Egyptian society by attacking vulnerable minorities.

However, rights groups accuse the former army chief of crushing even peaceful opposition to his rule.

A pro-state daily, Al-Bawaba, said on its website that an edition critical of security provisions after the church bombings had been banned from publication.
Ryan Sean Davy, 43, was found hiding in a cave near Everest base camp nearly two weeks ago after being spotted on the world's highest mountain without a $11,000 climbing permit

Nepal said Friday a South African who tried to climb Mount Everest without a permit can go home without paying a $22,000 fine, but banned him from mountaineering there for 10 years.

Ryan Sean Davy, 43, was found hiding in a cave near Everest base camp nearly two weeks ago after being spotted on the world's highest mountain without a $11,000 climbing permit.

The South African, who has no prior mountaineering experience, said he could not afford the hefty permit fee but wanted to scale Everest and document his experience in a book and film.

"The tourism department has excused me and given me permission to go home," Davy told AFP on Friday.

The head of the tourism department confirmed that Davy had been let off the heavy fine and just given a 10-year ban on climbing mountains in Nepal.

"We have imposed a 10 year ban on him against mountaineering in Nepal. No fine has been imposed," said Dinesh Bhattarai, head of the tourism department.

The department had previously said they were looking at converting the fine to a jail sentence of up to four years if the South African could not pay.

"I've not yet quite processed it but, yeah, I'm ecstatic. I thought they would give me at least two months to a year (in jail). So this is a big surprise. I better leave before they change their mind," Davy said, adding that he was made to hand over the memory cards from his camera.

When caught two weeks ago, the South African told officials he had climbed as far as Camp One -- at 6,000 metres (nearly 20,000 feet) -- crossing the treacherous Khumbu icefall, despite not having all the proper equipment.

His passport was confiscated by government officials, who ordered he return to Kathmandu to collect it and pay a fine -- a journey he made by foot because he could not afford a plane ticket.

During questioning in Kathmandu he was arrested under Nepal's strict public order laws for swearing at officials and spent a week in detention.

He was released on a $10 bail on Monday but had to report to the tourism department every day.

Johannesburg-born but US-based, Davy moved to Aspen in Colorado six months ago to prepare for his Everest bid, living out of a van as he was short on cash.

He taught himself to climb by reading mountaineering books and watching YouTube videos.

Davy told AFP that his Everest mission is not yet over and he intended to try to summit from the Tibet side -- this time with a permit.

"I'm going to start raising money for a permit on the Tibet side and finish my climb," he said.
As hundreds of delegates gathered in Myanmar's capital this week for round two of peace negotiations, all eyes were on the Wa

Branded as Asia's most heavily-armed drug dealers, the China-backed ethnic Wa rebels have emerged as key players in Myanmar's peace process, a development seen as strengthening Beijing's influence over its violence-wracked neighbour.

When Myanmar's new civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi convened the first round of peace talks with the country's myriad ethnic groups last year, the United Wa State Army's (UWSA) attendance was a side-show to the main action.

But as hundreds of delegates gathered in the capital this week for round two of the peace negotiations, all eyes were on the militia.

A scrum of media surrounded their five grinning representatives as they strode into the vast conference hall in Naypyidaw sporting traditional studded red blazers emblazoned with their symbol of a horned buffalo head.

With them were members of several ethnic groups who have rallied behind Myanmar's most heavily-armed militia after an explosion of violence in the country's northeast.

For years the group has kept a low profile in Myanmar's politics after a 1989 ceasefire deal granted them their own independent territory the size of Belgium on the Chinese border.

The secretive 'statelet' is like a little piece of China -- signs are written in Mandarin, people trade in the Chinese currency the yuan, and the casinos are filled with Chinese gamblers.

From there the Wa are accused of running one of the world's largest drug-trafficking operations, pumping out millions of meth pills across Southeast Asia and increasingly into Bangladesh and India.

- Beijing's bargaining chip -

For years the Wa have kept a low profile in Myanmar's politics after a 1989 ceasefire deal granted them their own independent territory the size of Belgium on the Chinese border

Analysts say the UWSA's growing muscle in the peace talks is strengthening Beijing's hand as it looks to tap Myanmar's vast natural resources and secure new energy projects.

Publically Beijing has declared its support for Myanmar's peace process, sending a delegate to the talks and mediating with armed rebels, which have fought against the country's military for decades in a horseshoe of conflict-wracked border regions.

In March, China held military drills in a show of strength after thousands of refugees poured across the border to escape the worst fighting in decades between one insurgent group and Myanmar's army.

At a meeting in Beijing this month, President Xi Jinping pledged to Suu Kyi that China would "continue to provide necessary assistance for Myanmar's internal peace process".

But analysts say Myanmar's giant neighbour is also fuelling the conflict by arming the UWSA with heavy artillery, surface-to-air missiles and light armoured vehicles, and helping them arm their allies.

China's support for the rebels "provides a lever by means of which to apply pressure, actual or potential, on (the government)," said IHS Jane security analyst Tony Davis.

Beijing is also keen to "secure the stability in the border regions" to drive through its One Belt One Road initiative, he said, referring to a huge infrastructure project intended to link Asia to Europe and Africa that would run through northern Myanmar.

- 'The big boys' -

Experts warn the formation of the new UWSA-led bloc of powerful rebel groups now threatens to scupper Suu Kyi's Western-backed peace process.

"The UWSA are the big boys in town," one political consultant to the armed groups told AFP. "Even if you don't agree with everything they say you want them on your side."

On Friday the militia and its allies held private talks with the Nobel laureate over changes to a controversial ceasefire agreement.

First touted in 2015 by the former military-backed government, the deal has been a cornerstone of her push to end the civil wars raging in Myanmar's border regions.

But the UWSA has rejected it, saying it is "no solution" to the conflict.

At a gathering of ethnic groups in the Wa's secretive capital in February, UWSA chairman Bao Youxiang told delegates they must forge a "new path to peace" of their own.

Angshuman Choudhury from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies said the new grouping "will complicate the dialogue process".

"The UWSA is a highly influential and powerful group... (and likely to) be far more assertive and forthright in its demands."
There is a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq

At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their base in Kandahar, officials said Friday, in the third major insurgent assault this week on the military in the southern province.

The assault in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday comes after hundreds of insurgents stormed other bases in the same area and Maiwand district earlier this week, bringing the death toll among Western-backed troops to around 60.

The attacks highlight a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, a Taliban hotbed where security has relatively improved in recent years under the iron grip of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq.

"The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot," defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP.

"Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded... but the base remains under the control of our forces."

A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20, adding that some soldiers were missing after the attack and the Taliban had seized four military humvees.

At least 30 soldiers were killed in a similar attack in Shah Wali Kot late Monday and two days later, 13 others died in another insurgent raid in Kandahar's Maiwand district, a provincial official told AFP.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks as their annual spring offensive intensifies and the insurgency expands more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

Raziq, arguably the most powerful security commander in southern Afghanistan, has lashed out at the central government in Kabul over the growing insecurity in Kandahar, accusing them of a plot to destabilise his province.

"Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering on Thursday.

"Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help."

His scathing remarks did not immediately provoke a response from Kabul.

- Stinging blow -

The attacks mark another stinging blow for NATO-backed Afghan forces. They come just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001.

The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

During another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The pleas for attention, a major embarrassment for the Western-backed government, highlighted the disarray in security ranks.

As of February only about 60 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts were reported to be under government control, with the authorities in Kabul struggling to counter the ascendant Taliban, according to the US watchdog agency SIGAR.

The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.
Smoke rises in the centre of the Libyan capital of Tripoli after the clashes on May 26, 2017

At least 28 people were killed and nearly 130 wounded in fierce clashes in the Libyan capital Friday between forces loyal to the UN-backed unity government and rival militiamen, the health ministry said.

Tripoli has been gripped by a power struggle between dozens of militias since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Health ministry spokesman Anwar Frajallah gave a provisional toll of 28 dead and 128 wounded but could not say if they included any civilians.

Hashem Bishr, a security official for the Government of National Accord (GNA), separately gave a toll of 23 loyalist forces killed and more than 29 wounded.

Medical sources were not immediately available to confirm the figures.

In the south of Tripoli, an armed group loyal to the GNA seized a prison holding senior officials of the Kadhafi regime, a judicial source said.

A rally by supporters of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli in 2016

Guards at Al-Hadhba jail were forced to withdraw after the attack, said the source who requested anonymity, adding that two guards were killed.

By late Friday the GNA interior and justice ministries said in a joint statement that all the prisoners had been handed over to them and were "in good health".

More than 30 senior figures of the toppled regime were held in the prison, including Kadhafi's last prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi and his former intelligence chief, Abdullah Senussi. Both were condemned to death in 2015.

- 'Civilians must be protected' -

Friday's fighting broke out in residential neighbourhoods. AFP journalists heard explosions and artillery fire rock the Abu Slim, Al-Hadhba and Salaheddin districts in the south of the city.

UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler appealed for a halt to the fighting.

Khalifa Ghweil was ousted from power when the Government of National Accord took office in Libya in March 2016, and has refused to recognise the new administration

"Voices of reason should prevail for the benefit of the country," he said. "Political aims must not be pursued through violence. Civilians must be protected."

Witnesses said tanks had been deployed in the fighting.

British ambassador Peter Millett tweeted that he could hear explosions and artillery in south Tripoli.

He condemned "action by these militias who threaten security" ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Saturday in Libya.

Groups hostile to the GNA said they had attacked loyalist forces.

By late afternoon the fighting had subsided, but intermittent gunfire could still be heard in several areas of the capital.

- 'Nothing stops them' -

The fighting started around a complex of luxury villas that until March had served as the headquarters of militias loyal to former prime minister Khalifa Ghweil.

Ghweil was ousted from power when the GNA took office in March 2016, and has refused to recognise the new administration.

Loyalist forces seized the villas in four days of intense fighting in March that saw them expand their control over the capital.

Tripoli had been relatively calm since, but dozens of armed groups still operate there -- including several that support Ghweil.

The GNA has won the support of various militias since it took office in March last year, but several parts of Tripoli remain beyond its control.

Relying on militia support and pitted against a rival administration in the east, the GNA has struggled to assert its authority.

In a statement on Friday, the GNA blamed Ghweil and Salah Badi, both leaders of the Fajr Libya coalition of militias which took power in Tripoli in 2014, and vowed to "retaliate mercilessly".

They "have exceeded all limits... Nothing stops them, not faith, not law, not custom and not morals," it said.

"This is their gift to the people for the month of Ramadan", the statement said.
Palmyra attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011

The Syrian army is in full control of the highway from Damascus to ancient Palmyra for the first time since 2014 after driving out jihadists, a monitor said on Friday.

Since troops recaptured Palmyra from the Islamic State group in March, the UNESCO World Heritage site had been accessible via Syria's third city Homs, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) to the west.

But after major advances on Thursday night, the army now controls the direct road from the capital to Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

With the support of Russian air strikes, regime fighters "pushed IS fighters out of desert territory amounting to more than 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles)," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The jihadists were withdrawing because of how intense the Russian air strikes were," Abdel Rahman said.

Palmyra's temples, colonnaded alleys and elaborately decorated tombs -- some of the best preserved classical monuments in the Middle East -- attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.

IS fighters first overran Palmyra in May 2015, and government troops recaptured it 10 months later.

The jihadist group retook it in late 2016, but Russian-backed Syrian forces wrested back control in March.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow has been carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's troops since September 2015.

The Syrian army appears to be conducting a multi-pronged drive towards the oil-rich territory near the country's eastern borders with Iraq and Jordan.

But parts of the frontier are controlled by rebel groups backed by the US-led coalition fighting IS.

Earlier this month, coalition warplanes struck a convoy of pro-government forces headed towards a remote coalition garrison near the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The desert, known as the "Badiya", extends over some 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 square miles) and makes up about half of Syria's territory.

Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests demanding Assad's ouster.

But the popular demonstrations have since given way to a full-blown war that has killed 320,000 people and fragmented the country.

According to geography expert Fabrice Balanche, Syria's government is steadily chipping away at IS territory and now controls 46 percent of the country, compared with 36 percent in March.

Kurdish forces and IS each control 21 percent of Syrian territory, with rebels left with just 12 percent, according to Balanche.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the whole southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday, hours after gunmen loyal to the IS group rampaged through the city

Foreigners are among Islamist gunmen battling security forces in a southern Philippine city, the government said Friday as soldiers tore down black IS flags in retaken districts and the reported death toll climbed to 46.

Tens of thousands of people have fled clashes raging through residential neighbourhoods in Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines, with cars choking roads out of the area.

President Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday, hours after gunmen loyal to the Islamic State group rampaged through the city in response to a raid on one of their safe houses.

"You can see that ISIS is here already," Duterte said in a speech Friday at a military camp near Marawi, referring to the militant group by another acronym, as officials said the insurgents were from multiple countries.

Six foreign fighters were believed to have died in the bloodshed, according to Philippine military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, including Malaysians, Indonesians and another nationality which he did not specify. Another government official listed Singaporeans as also among the militants.

Padilla said 11 soldiers, two policemen and 31 militants had been confirmed killed in the fighting, which has involved the military bombing buildings where the militants have been hiding.

Two civilians were also killed inside a hospital that the gunmen had occupied on Tuesday, and the military was investigating reports that nine people had been murdered at a checkpoint the militants had set up, authorities said.

The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.

Thousands of people have fled clashes that raging through residential neighbourhoods in Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the mainly Catholic Philippines, with cars choking roads out of the area

The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.

- Militants rampage -

The raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then tore across the city while flying black IS flags.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because the militants, even though they were believed to number only in the dozens, had planted bombs in the streets and were holding hostages.

They said militants had also occupied higher ground in the city, enabling them to slow down or stop assaults from the security forces.

Snipers fired on Friday afternoon at about 100 troops who were marching single-file uphill through one district of Marawi that the militants had previously controlled, according to journalists accompanying the soldiers.

The troops pulled down a black IS flag that had been raised on top of one house, then set up position as the gunfire from uphill intensified.

Duterte said the militants belonged to the Maute group that has emerged only in recent years in Mindanao and gained strength on the proceeds of drug money.

The group had 263 armed followers at the end of last year, according to Duterte's report to Congress to justify martial law, which was released to the media on Friday.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because the militants, even though they were believed to number only in the dozens, had planted bombs in the streets and were holding hostages

Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an independent or autonomous homeland in Mindanao, with the conflict claiming more than 120,000 lives.

The main Muslim rebel groups are now involved in peace talks with the government.

But the Abu Sayyaf, Maute and other hardline groups want to set up an Islamic caliphate in the south for IS, according to Duterte.

Security analysts have also warned that the threat and influence of the hardline groups has been rising in recent years as they have banded together behind the IS flag.

But some critics of Duterte say he might be exaggerating the IS threat to justify a form of authoritarian rule that will give him greater powers to prosecute his controversial crackdown on drugs, which has claimed thousands of lives.

One of his most important political allies, ex-president Fidel Ramos, said Friday that martial law across Mindanao was not justified, and called for it to be quickly revoked.
The urban sprawl of Lagos

It's only when the thick smog of humidity and pollution lifts that the size of Lagos becomes clear: from above, the megacity of some 20 million people seems to stretch out to infinity.

Not even the Atlantic Ocean appears to be able to stop its exponential growth, a tide of multi-storey apartments and shacks stretching into the sea.

The state of Lagos was created just 50 years ago, on May 27, 1967. At that time, the quiet city on the edge of a large green lagoon was Nigeria's capital and home to about one million people.

But Nigeria's population then exploded. The biggest boom happened in Lagos, seen as a place of possibilities where people came from all over the country and west Africa to make their fortune.

Fifty years on, Lagos is the world's 10th largest city with between 17 and 22 million people, although no-one seems to be counting.

Lagos seems to go on forever

With an average of 900 new arrivals a day during the last half-century, the provision of housing, transport, water and electricity has been stretched beyond breaking point.

Yet Lagos drives Nigeria's economy, and with the country set to become the world's third largest by 2050, it is destined to drive African growth.

- Mission impossible -

"All African cities are facing the same problems: rapid urbanisation, land management, pollution," said Guillaume Josse, from French research firm Groupe Huit.

"But Lagos is a caricature. Its challenges are so huge that they seem insurmountable," added Josse, who specialises in developing cities.

Ayo Assaf, however, has decided to try the impossible and rethink the historic heart of Lagos.

Traffic is a particular problem in Lagos

For nearly seven years, the urban planner who earned his stripes in New York has surveyed the streets of Lagos Island at the request of the state government.

The population density on Lagos Island is up to 1,200 people per hectare (2.47 acres) -- more than 20 times the density in London.

Wearing jeans and a white collared shirt, Assaf calmly picks his way through the crowded alleyways of the former business district, now converted into a giant market.

No space is wasted: a jewellery vendor uses the railings outside a mosque as a display stand for her necklaces; an old library has been transformed into a wedding dress shop.

The pavements are overrun with photocopiers and mechanics, or converted into kitchens selling take-away Nigerian food.

"There is such energy, the trading generates millions of naira. You cannot wipe this out, you have to use what's there and enhance it due to safety and hygiene concerns," said Assaf.

Urban planner Ayo Assaf dreams of a more sophisticated Lagos

Assaf dreams of a more sophisticated Lagos, where better infrastructure makes it easier to do business, and more people have access to housing and basic services.

"There, I imagine a large street with small shops, it will be our Champs Elysees," he says with a grin.

Assaf also wants to introduce a public transportation hub, as there is no bus station on Lagos Island.

Instead, hundreds of danfos -- the city's battered yellow minibuses -- clog the streets, spilling out their passengers in the middle of the road in a constant stream.

Assaf delivered his report to then-Lagos governor Babatunde Fashola in 2015.

But since then the administration has changed and few of his ideas have been implemented.

- Ingenuity of necessity -

Administrators have always promised big things for Lagos over the years.

But political rivalries between successive governments and spats with the federal government -- now based in Abuja -- often annihilate the ambitious plans.

As a result, Lagosians have shown ingenuity in overcoming hardship despite the failures of the state, which was totally absent during decades of military rule to 1999.

To address a housing crisis, both rich and poor have started reclaiming land.

The richest are constructing Eko Atlantic, a new coastal city described as the "Dubai of Africa" being built from the coastline of Victoria Island, an affluent Lagos suburb.

The poorest fill in the surrounding lagoons with garbage and sand to create plots of their own.

The entire neighbourhood of Ilaje-Bariga, which can be seen off the Third Mainland bridge that snakes its way over the lagoon, was built this way over the last 50 years.

New streets are thrown up at random to cater for new arrivals.

- Eviction notice -

The tens of thousands of inhabitants of Ilaje-Bariga face a battle for survival.

Recently, they were told they had eight days to leave on the order of the Lagos state government.

Nigeria is home to around 20 million people

The police have already come to destroy fishing boats and sand mining operations, which provide the main source of income in the neighbourhood, worsening already high crime rates.

The aim, clearly, is to get them to leave.

"But where do they want us to go?" said one resident, Oladipupo Aiveomiye, as an old man tried to recover scrap metal from the rubble and a woman struggled to remove planks from a destroyed boat.

Josse, who has studied the area, said he was surprised by the "basic" demands of the Lagosians, who "ultimately complain little," he said.

"All they wanted was to get out of the water. But the day they lose their incredible resilience, there will be a real risk of riots."
Copts make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 90 million

Egypt's Copts, targeted by gunmen Friday as they travelled in a bus to a monastery south of Cairo, are the Middle East's largest Christian minority and one of the oldest.

Making up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 90 million, the Coptic Orthodox form the largest Christian denomination in the Muslim-majority country.

Here is a recap of their history, their status today and recent attacks against them.

The Copts trace their history to the dawn of Christianity, when Egypt was integrated into the Roman and later the Byzantine empire.

The word "Copt" comes from the same root as the word for "Egyptian" in ancient Greek.

The community's decline started with the Arab invasions of the 7th century and the progressive Islamisation of the country, which today is largely Sunni Muslim.

Copts, represented in all social classes, are present across the whole country, with the strongest concentration in central and southern Egypt.

Poorly represented in government, Copts complain that they are sidelined from many posts in the justice system, universities and the police.

Egypt's Copts have been the target of several deadly attacks since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

On January 1, 2011, more than 20 people died in the unclaimed bombing of a Coptic church in Egypt's second city, Alexandria.

In May 2011, clashes between Muslims and Copts left 15 dead in the Cairo neighbourhood of Imbaba, where two churches were attacked.

That October, almost 30 people -- mostly Copts -- were killed after the army charged at a protest in Cairo to denounce the torching of a church in southern Egypt.

The July 2013 ouster of Mubarak's elected Islamist successor Mohamed Morsi after just one year in power sparked further attacks against Christians.

Pro-Morsi Islamists accused the Copts of supporting his overthrow. The following weeks saw attacks against more than 40 churches across Egypt, according to Human Rights Watch.

In December last year, a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group killed 29 worshippers during a Sunday mass in Cairo.

A spate of deadly jihadist-linked attacks in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula in February prompted some Coptic families to flee their homes.

About 250 Christians took refuge in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya after IS released a video calling for attacks against the minority.

Suicide bombers on April 11 attacked two churches north of Cairo, killing 45 people, in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

On Friday, masked gunmen attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 26 people, officials.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday, home to about 20 million people, in response to deadly clashes between Islamist militants and security forces in a city there

The Philippine military said Friday it would censor the press and social media to protect "national security" across the southern third of the country that is under martial law, and warned violators would be arrested.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the southern region of Mindanao on Tuesday to combat what he says is the rising threat of Islamic militancy.

"We'll exercise the right to censure," military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told reporters. In a text message to AFP afterwards, Padilla clarified he meant "censor".

Padilla said at the press conference the censorship would be based on three conditions.

"One, to ensure the safety of lives, second to ensure operational security and ensure the safety of our men in uniform who are fighting, and for other national security considerations," he said.

Padilla specified that social media would be subject to censorship, warning people against posting material that breached the conditions.

"That's why we are appealing to you now while there's still time, to exercise your common sense, he said.

"If you know that this will harm the public and will not be helpful, better not post it because police might come to your door later on and arrest you."

The martial law declaration in Mindanao, home to about 20 million people, is in response to deadly clashes between militants loyal to the Islamic State group and security forces in a city there.

Duterte has warned he may expand martial law throughout the entire country if he believed the terrorism threat had spread.

Martial law is extremely sensitive in the Philippines because dictator Ferdinand Marcos used it as a tool to remain in power for part of his two-decade rule, which ended with a "People Power" revolution in 1986.

Marcos shut down Congress and heavily censored the media during martial law, while plundering billions of dollars from state coffers and allowing security forces to kill or torture thousand of critics.

Since 1986, the Philippines has endured a chaotic and corrupt brand of democracy, but one with a vibrant press.

Since becoming president last year, Duterte has waged a controversial war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives.

He has repeatedly threatened critics of the drugs crackdown, while saying he does not care about human rights.

Duterte this month said he would behead opponents of the drug war.

"Don't trust those human rights (critics), if you do I will cut off both your heads," Duterte said.

He also attracted controversy shortly after winning last year's presidential election when he said corrupt journalists deserved to die.

"Just because you are a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch," Duterte said then.
The US-led air campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria began in September 2014

A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told AFP.

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

Coalition bombing of families of IS fighters in Syria

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.
Egyptian policemen guard the road to Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province after the attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians on May 26, 2017

Egypt launched six air strikes on jihadist camps in Libya Friday after masked gunmen attacked a bus of Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 people.

Assailants in three pick-up trucks attacked the bus as it was heading for the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province, more than 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Cairo, before fleeing, the interior ministry said.

It was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a televised address, said Egyptian forces had hit a jihadist training camp in retaliation.

State television reported six air strikes against "terror camps in Libya", specifying that jihadist training camps were hit in the eastern Libyan city of Derna. Witnesses there reported four strikes by a single aircraft.

"Egypt will not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere, either inside (the country) or outside it," Sisi said.

A spokesman for the pro-Al-Qaeda Majlis Mujahedeen Derna, which controls the city, said the Egyptian air force carried out eight raids on the city without causing casualties.

Addressing US President Donald Trump, Sisi said: "You have said that your priority is to confront terrorism, and I trust you are capable of doing that."

Egypt attack

In a statement released in Washington, Trump said: "The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished."

"Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilisation, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil."

No group has yet claimed responsibility for attacking the bus.

Footage on state television showed the bus riddled with bullet holes, while cellphone footage and pictures on media sites showed victims lying in the desert sand.

- International condemnation -

State television quoted a health ministry official as saying a "large number" of the victims were children.

"They used automatic weapons," Minya governor Essam el-Bedawi told state television of the attackers.

State television cited the health minister as saying the attack, which prompted widespread international condemnation, killed 28 people.

It came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population.

Egyptians wait outside a hospital to retreive some of the bodies of the victims of the May 26, 2017 bus attack that killed 28 Coptic Christian pilgrims

The north Minya town of Maghagha saw scenes of anger and despair on Friday.

A group of around 50 men gathered near a church where the funeral of two victims was held, calling for the interior minister to quit.

Nearby, a dozen women in dusty black robes cried and moaned.

In a statement on its spokesman's Facebook page, the Coptic Church called for "measures to be taken to prevent the dangers of those incidents that tarnish Egypt's image".

IS suicide bombers struck a Cairo church on December 11, killing 29 people.

On April 11, bombers attacked two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, killing 45 in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

Egyptian medics unload a wounded woman from the back on an ambulance outside a hospital in Cairo's northern suburb of Shubra on May 26, 2017, following an attack in which 28 Coptic pilgirms were gunned down south of the capital

The bombings prompted Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.

The Egyptian affiliate of IS has also killed several Copts in North Sinai, forcing dozens of families to flee in January.

Friday's shooting came after a historic visit to Egypt by Roman Catholic Pope Francis to show solidarity.

- 'Senseless act of hatred' -

In late April, Francis visited one of the bombed Coptic churches and condemned violence carried out in the name of God.

After Friday's attack, he sent a message to Sisi saying he was "deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric attack, calling it a "senseless act of hatred".

Relatives of murdered Coptic Christians mourn their deaths at a funeral in Abu Garnous Cathedral in Egypt's north Minya town of Maghagha on May 26, 2017

Al-Azhar, Egypt's top religious authority, condemned the shooting on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The Minya incident is unacceptable to Muslims and Christians and it targets Egypt's stability," Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb said in a statement.

Condemnation also poured in from Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Russia and France.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the Eiffel Tower lights would go dark after midnight in solidarity, as also happened on Tuesday after the Manchester Arena attack.

A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli premier "sends the condolences of the Israeli people to President al-Sisi and the Egyptian people".

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the "barbarism and cruelty of terrorism", and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian tweeted that no one "should fear for their life by practising their faith".

Copts have suffered sectarian attacks for years.

A suicide bomber attacked a church in 2011, and there have been deadly clashes with Muslims, especially in the rural south, following disputes over church construction.

Egypt says it has identified those behind the April church bombings, saying they were part of an extremist cell based in southern provinces, offering a reward for their capture.

Sisi has defended the performance of his security forces and accused jihadists of trying to divide Egyptian society by attacking vulnerable minorities.
An exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of the Magnum photo agency at New York's International Center of Photography runs through early September 2017

An exhibition spanning the second half of the 20th century and celebrating the last 70 years of the oldest photographic cooperative in the world opened in New York Friday.

James Dean striding through Times Square, Pablo Picasso holding a parasol for French painter Francoise Gilot and Marilyn Monroe on "The Misfits" set -- just three of the iconic Magnum photographs that capture the spirit of the 20th century.

More than 240 prints and 300 projected photographs are on display in "Magnum Manifesto" exhibition at Manhattan's International Center of Photography until September 3.

Magnum Photos was created by Robert Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and two other photographers on February 6, 1947 after popping open a bottle of champagne at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Cartier-Bresson intended it as a "photographic utopia" or "construction of observers."

The New York exhibition has been divided into three chronological and thematic categories.

Photographs from 1949-68 focus on post-war ideals of commonality and utopianism; the 1970s and 1980s on a fragmenting world, subcultures and minorities; and 1990-2017 a world under threat, such as Thomas Dworzak's images of the Taliban and Alessandra Sanguinetti's from the aftermath of the 2016 Nice bombing that killed 86 people.

Other topics are mental illness or drugs, says Clement Cheroux, one of the exhibition's two curators.

Celebrating 70 years in the business, Magnum's 49 photographers continue to chronicle the world.

Along the way there have been sources of tension, such moving into the realm of commercial commissions -- something disliked by traditionalists but seen as a way of bringing in revenue at a time when the media industry is increasingly starved of resources.

Magnum has survived as others have fallen by the wayside: Gamma, for example, filed for bankruptcy in 2009 before being bought by photographer Francois Lochon, while Sygma and Sipa went into liquidation in 2010 and 2012 respectively.

Neither was commercial photography the only savior -- Magnum has diversified further with exhibitions, book publishing and art photography.

"It remains precarious," says exhibition co-curator Clara Bouveresse. "It's a huge challenge to find a viable economic model for photographers today," she says.

After closing on September 3, the exhibition will travel on to Rome and Berlin.
Burundi's government believes that getting married is both a patriotic duty as well as one of the ways to tackle a population explosion

Unmarried couples have until the end of the year to legalise their relationships, the Burundi government said Friday, as part of an effort to reform morals in the country.

The order follows the launch of a campaign this month by President Pierre Nkurunziza "to moralise society" in the tiny nation which for two years has been in the grip of sometimes violent political upheaval.

Interior ministry spokesman Terence Ntahiraja told AFP the country was facing a population explosion which he blamed on "illegal marriages", polygamy, bigamy and "hundreds of schoolgirls getting pregnant".

He said church and state-sanctioned weddings were the solution and were a patriotic duty.

Nkurunziza said Burundians should show their love for each other -- and their country -- by getting married.

The government has since been pressuring unwed couples across the country to tie the knot.

The governor of the southeastern province of Rutana has ordered that "persons living in common-law unions" should be put on a special list by 22 June, while the governor of the northwestern Bubanza province has demanded unspecified "sanctions" against aisle-dodgers.

- Costly nuptials -

Pierre, a 27-year-old farmer living with his partner in Ngozi, in the north, said local officials had threatened him with a 50,000 Burundian franc ($25/22 euro) fine and said any child born out of wedlock would not be eligible for free education and medical costs.

Pierre said he had not married because he could not afford the bride price demanded by his girlfriend's family.

"She told me she was pregnant. As I am poor, we decided to come together to raise our child," he said. "We thought we would legalise our union as soon as we could afford it."

That was five years ago and the couple is now onto their third child.

To enact the president's orders, officials have begun organising mass weddings, something one civil society activist opposed as "a violation of human rights because the state has no right to attack two adults who have decided to live together without being married."

The activist said the forced marriages were part of a "religious crusade" led by Nkurunziza and his wife, both fervent, born-again evangelical Christians.

Spokesman Ntahiraja dismissed such arguments saying the government's campaign was within the law.

"We want Burundians to understand that everyone is responsible for his life, we want order in this country," he said.

"All this is done within the framework of the patriotic training programme," he added, referring to an initiative launched by Nkurunziza in August 2013 to reinforce "positive traditional values."

Since 2015, when Nkurunziza ran for a controversial third term, at least 500 people have been killed in political violence while around 400,000 have fled Burundi for refugee camps in neighbouring countries.
The explosive device used in the Manchester bombing appears to have been made with "forethought and care"

Manchester suicide bomber Salem Abedi used a powerful explosive device that was painstakingly assembled -- likely with assistance -- for his deadly attack on a pop concert, according to officials and experts.

The British-born 22-year-old of Libyan descent detonated the blast on Monday evening, killing 22 people outside a packed Manchester Arena after a show by US pop star Ariana Grande.

British interior minister Amber Rudd on Wednesday described the bombing as "more sophisticated than some of the attacks we've seen before", adding that "it seems likely -- possible -- that he wasn't doing this on his own".

Ten men are now in custody in connection with the attack, including Abedi's brother and father in Libya.

Abedi reportedly returned from Libya only a few days before the bombing and police are still trying to pin down his movements and determine whether he was part of a wider network.

Investigators found shreds of a backpack at the scene of the Manchester bombing, which they believe was used to carry the device

Police have revealed little about the explosive. But photographs from the bomb scene leaked to The New York Times -- to the fury of British officials -- suggest Abedi carried "an improvised device made with forethought and care", the newspaper wrote.

The images showed shreds of a blue Karrimor backpack, metal screws and nuts, the remains of a powerful battery, and an apparent hand-held detonator.

While some parts of the device would be easy to acquire, "the detonator itself is not something that's easy to get your hands on without raising suspicions," British security expert Will Geddes told AFP.

"Putting together devices of this nature is not an easy job," said Geddes, who heads the corporate security ICP Group.

"Rarely is there going to be a lone actor with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) -- there are lots of individuals, lots of moving parts."

- 'Taught at a camp' -

Britain's The Times newspaper on Friday said Abedi was believed to have planned the attack for at least a year, buying nails and screws for the device from hardware stores in the northwestern English city before his Libya trip.

Security sources fear he may have also made a second device which is now in the hands of other jihadists, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.

"This is not a lone-wolf case involving a knife," said Republican lawmaker Michael McCaul, who chairs the US House committee on homeland security.

McCaul told Fox News television that Monday's bombing was "a very soft target, a very premeditated sophisticated attack using a very sophisticated explosive device".

After his return from Libya, Abedi was seen on security cameras last Friday buying the Karrimor rucksack at a Manchester shopping centre, after which he is thought to have assembled the device at two different addresses, the Telegraph said.

"He will have spent time at a camp somewhere, possibly in Libya, being shown how to do it," former Metropolitan police officer David Videcette, who helped investigate the 2005 London bombings, told the broadsheet.

The New York Times said there were no initial details of the type and strength of the explosive used in the attack.

But details including the location of the bodies of those struck by the bomb, and the remains of the bomber himself, "are indicators of a powerful, high-velocity charge, and of a bomb in which its shrapnel was carefully and evenly packed," the daily said.
Duterte imposed martial law on Tuesday across the southern region of Mindanao in response to militants going on a deadly rampage through a city in the south and flying the black flags of the Islamic State group

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte joked Friday that soldiers could rape up to three women, as he reassured them of his full support under his newly imposed regional martial law.

Duterte, who often peppers his language with man-on-the-street curses, made the comments in jest during a speech at a military base to lift the spirits of troops tasked with quelling what he says is a fast-growing threat of Islamist terrorism.

"For this martial law and the consequences of martial law and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible. Just do your work. I will handle the rest," he said.

"I will be imprisoned for you. If you rape three (women), I will say that I did it."

Duterte imposed martial law on Tuesday across the southern region of Mindanao in response to militants going on a deadly rampage through a city in the south and flying the black flags of the Islamic State group.

Duterte said the militants were planning to establish a caliphate for IS across all of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, and that martial law was the only way to crush the rebellion.

Duterte, 72, easily won presidential elections last year by presenting himself as in touch with ordinary Filipinos, often using street language full of profanities.

On the election campaign Duterte said he had two mistresses but jokingly reassured taxpayers that he would not cost them much if he was president because he took them to cheap, short-time hotels for sex.

Duterte also attracted controversy when he said he wanted to rape an Australian missionary who had been caught up in a 1989 prison riot in the Philippines and murdered by the inmates.

"There was this Australian lay minister. When they took them out, I saw her face and I thought, 'Son of a whore. What a pity. They raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first'," Duterte said in April last year.

The Australian and American ambassadors to Manila voiced their disapproval at the comments, but Duterte reacted furiously and insisted he had been taken out of context.

On the campaign trail Duterte also jokingly told voters to open funeral parlour businesses because as president he would fill them with corpses from a war on drugs.

Duterte did launch his drug war, and it has claimed thousands of lives.
Goldstar father Khizr Khan, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign, is to publish a non-fiction children's book about the US Constitution in November

The Pakistani American father of a soldier killed in Iraq who eviscerated Donald Trump during last year's election campaign will publish a children's book about the Constitution in November, his publishers announced.

Harvard-educated lawyer Khizr Khan shot to fame in the United States for delivering a damning indictment of Trump at the Democratic National Convention, accusing him of sacrificing nothing for the country and stressing the importance of an inclusive America.

Trump hit back hard, saying Khan had "viciously attacked" him and refused to apologize for suggesting that Khan's wife Ghazala had stood silently at his side because she was not allowed to speak, triggering uproar within his party.

"This Is Our Constitution" will be a non-fiction hardcover suitable for children aged 10 and over and be released simultaneously with Khan's adult memoir, "An American Family," on November 14, Random House Children's Books said Thursday.

Khan grew up in Pakistan, before immigrating with his wife to the United States in 1980. Their son, Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in 2004 and posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

He delivered one of the most memorable speeches of the Democratic convention, in which he honored his son's sacrifice, accused Trump of smearing the character of Muslims and questioned whether the Republican candidate had even read the Constitution.

His publishers said the book would introduce young readers to the history and contents of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and why they are important.

"This book is my humble effort to pay tribute to our future leaders, the true custodians of our Constitution, and to all of the human dignities enshrined in our Bill of Rights, as the making of our republic continues," Khan said.

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers acquired world rights for the book, said Barbara Marcus, President and Publisher of Random House Children's Books.
The US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria since 2014

Dozens of relatives of Islamic State group fighters were killed Friday in Syria in US-led strikes, regime or Russian raids, after the UN urged nations striking the jihadists to protect civilians.

Raids by the US-led coalition have pounded IS positions across Iraq and Syria since the jihadist group claimed responsibility for the devastating bombing of a concert in Manchester on Monday.

Scores of civilians, many of them families of IS members, have been killed in bombing raids in recent days on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, held by IS since 2014.

Early Friday, at least 80 relatives of IS fighters were killed in US-led coalition bombardment, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Coalition bombing in Syria

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," he told AFP.

Coalition strikes on the town killed 37 civilians on Thursday night after 15 had been killed on Wednesday, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The US military on Friday confirmed that it had struck "near Mayadeen" on May 25 and 26, but said it was "still assessing the results of those strikes", according to Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon.

The US military insists that it takes every precaution to avoid hitting civilians, but the United Nations on Friday urged parties bombing IS to do more.

- Army seizes strategic route -

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has warned over civilian casualties of air strikes

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians".

The Observatory also reported a strike by Russian or Syrian regime aircraft Friday that killed "16 civilian" members of jihadist families in the central province of Hama.

It said the raid struck the IS-held village of Ouqayribat, northwest of UNESCO World Heritage city of Palmyra.

Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been waging a multi-pronged offensive in the east to reach the strategic border territory.

They scored a key victory this week by linking the capital Damascus to the Palmyra.

It was the first time the government has been in full control of the Damascus-Palmyra highway since 2014, according to Abdel Rahman.

With backing from Russian air strikes, regime fighters "pushed IS fighters out of desert territory amounting to more than 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles)", he said on Friday.

According to geography expert Fabrice Balanche, the government now controls 46 percent of Syria, compared with 36 percent in March.

Kurdish forces and IS each control 21 percent, and rebels just 12 percent.

Mayadeen town has seen an influx of displaced families from IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria, including its bastion Raqa.

It is in Syria's oil-rich east near the border with Iraq -- a region considered a prize by many of IS's enemies including the Syrian army.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow has been carrying out air strikes in support of Assad's troops since September 2015 -- a year after the American-led coalition began targeting IS in Syria.

The coalition is now backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities -- Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

- 'Annihilate' IS -

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded operations to Syria on September 23 that year.

Palmyra attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Before the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed 352 civilians since 2014.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria, claims a minimum of 3,681 people have died in coalition strikes -- between 283 and 366 in April alone.

Reports of civilian casualties in the air campaign have swelled in recent days.

On May 20, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said US President Donald Trump had instructed the Pentagon to "annihilate" IS in Syria in a bid to prevent escaped foreign fighters from returning home.

The president has "directed a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS", Mattis said, using an acronym for IS.

But the Pentagon has denied that its rules of engagement have changed and insists that the coalition continues to strike only "military-appropriate targets".
French-Lebanese trumpet player, teacher, composer and arranger Ibrahim Maalouf speaking with AFP in Beirut on May 25, 2017

For star trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, famed for his award-winning film soundtracks and jazz-inspired mixing of eastern and western sounds, improvisation is "a way of life".

"Improvisation is a discipline that people don't understand well," the Franco-Lebanese musician, who has played with Sting and Elvis Costello among others, told AFP.

"For me it symbolises and sums up perfectly the best way to live, alongside each other," he said during a trip to Lebanon to prepare for a July concert at a festival in Baalbek.

"To succeed in communicating with each other we must listen to each other and have empathy with others, despite the differences."

The 36-year-old, born in Lebanon, fled with his parents -- both musicians -- during the country's 15-year-civil war and settled in France.

He plays a four-pistoned instrument invented by his trumpeter father in the 1960s, as well playing the piano, composing and teaching.

He won French cinema's highest award, a Cesar, in February for the music to "In the Forests of Siberia".

He also wrote the score for Japanese director Naomi Kawase's "Radiance" which was nominated for a Palme d'Or at this month's Cannes film festival.

Composition aside, Maalouf has a passion for the spontaneous.

He is the artistic director of m'IMPROvise, a June festival in Etampes near Paris, with Quincy Jones' protege, pianist Alfredo Rodriguez, topping the line-up.

He has gathered hundreds of people for joint improvisations, including at the 2015 Fete de la Musique in Paris.

"To improvise with others is to share a unique moment that will never happen twice," he said.

Nephew of leading Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, a member of the Academie Francaise, the trumpeter says he does not try to make his music popular.

"I write music that awakens a feeling in me that makes me happy. I have the impression that people appreciate that," he said.

"From the moment I'm on stage my priority is not to party with my musicians, the most important thing for me is that the public understands my musical language."

"Before playing my music I address the audience and explain it to them. I want to be understood by people."

Despite his film music success, he doubts he could work in Hollywood.

"In my way of working, there is a permanent search for creation and authenticity," he said.

"Hollywood is an industry that operates according to codes. It is very rare that a film goes outside the usual framework of the Hollywood film industry."

"If Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino for example asked me to compose music for their films and told me what they want... I would be obliged to refuse," he said.

"I don't know how to do that."
UPS is fined $247 million for cigarette shipments that illegally evaded taxes

A US judge ordered the American shipping giant UPS to pay $247 million to New York state and city governments, for shipments of cigarettes that illegally evaded taxes.

Federal district court judge Katherine Forrest found UPS "liable in each claim" and therefore the city and state "are entitled to compensatory damages and penalties," according to court documents.

Noting that UPS repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, the judge ordered the company to pay $166 million to New York state and $81 million to the city of New York. The two plaintiffs claimed approximately $872 million in damages.

UPS said it was "extremely disappointed in the courts ruling and imposed penalties and we will vigorously appeal the decision."

The company said the penalties were "excessive and far out of the bounds of constitutional limits, particularly given that the shipments at issue generated around $1 million in revenue," UPS said in a statement.

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed the lawsuit against UPS in February 2015, accusing the company of delivering 683,000 cases of undeclared cigarettes to private individuals and resellers without a license between 2010 and 2014.

That represented a total loss of $34.4 million in taxes not paid to the city and the state of New York.

But the company said the authorities "sought to force UPS to serve in a quasi-law enforcement role which involved monitoring, inspecting and reporting package contents, which is not appropriate for a common carrier."
Egypt's state-run Nile News TV channel shows the remains of a bus that was attacked while carrying Egyptian Christians in Minya province killing dozens of people on May 26, 2017

Friday's attack on a bus carrying Egyptian Copts, which killed at least 28 people, was the latest in a wave of massacres of Christians and attacks on churches in the Middle East.

- Egypt -

- January 1, 2011: blast kills 23 and wounds 79, mostly Christians, as they leave a Christian Coptic church after New Year's mass in the port city of Alexandria. The authorities say the attack, which is not claimed, was carried out by a suicide bomber.

- October 20, 2013: an attack at Cairo's Church of the Virgin during a Coptic wedding kills four.

The attack is the first targeting the capital's Coptic community since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

Dozens of churches, homes and businesses belonging to Copts are attacked, especially in central Egypt, in the weeks after the bloody breaking up of two pro-Morsi gatherings in Cairo in August.

- December 11, 2016: A suicide attack in central Cairo on the Saint Peter and Saint Paul church, adjacent to the headquarters of Coptic Pope Tawadros II, kills 29. It is claimed by the Islamic State group.

- April 9, 2017: 45 people killed in twin Palm Sunday church bombings claimed by IS in Tanta and Alexandria.

- Iraq -

Forensic experts collect evidence at the site of a bomb blast which struck worshippers gathering to celebrate Palm Sunday at the Mar Girgis Coptic Church in the Nile Delta City of Tanta on April 9, 2017

- October 31, 2010: an attack on the Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad kills 46 Christians during an Al-Qaeda hostage drama.

It is the deadliest attack on Iraq's Christians since the US-led invasion in 2003 and leads to an exodus of Iraqi Christians.

- December 25, 2013: a car bomb targets a Baghdad church after Christmas Day mass, killing at least 14 people.

- Syria -

Since the conflict began in 2011, several numerous Christian churches have been damaged or destroyed.

- June 27, 2013: a suicide bomb in a Christian area of Damascus kills at least four people.

The same neighbourhood had already been attacked in October 2012, leaving at least 10 dead.

- September 2013: jihadists attack the Greek Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation in the northern city of Raqa. A Syrian NGO says the jihadists have also torched statues and crucifixes in two churches in the north.

- During fighting in 2016 in the northern city of Aleppo the maronite cathedral is devastated, its roof caving in under a hail of shellfire.

- In Palmyra IS, as well as destroying the city's famous cultural heritage, turns a church into a recruiting centre.
A man works at the Rafah water waste treatment plant in the southern Gaza Strip on April 30, 2017

The United Nations warned Friday that an energy crisis in the Gaza Strip was severely affecting water supplies and health services, and could trigger an outbreak of violence.

UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council that Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas movement, which runs the Gaza Strip, "all have obligations for the welfare of Gaza's residents."

A power plant which supplies 30 percent of Gaza's electricity stopped functioning on April 16 after a dispute broke out between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas over taxation on fuel.

The Palestinians have also decided to cap purchases of electricity from Israel, a decision that would further reduce the power supply to Gaza by some 30 percent.

Currently, the majority of Palestinians in Gaza are receiving about four hours of electricity per day.

"How long do you think they can survive if this is further reduced to two hours of electricity per day?" Mladenov told the council, speaking via video uplink from Jerusalem.

"Who will pay the price of the ensuing violence and escalation?"

Hospitals have been forced to postpone surgeries, and desalination plants are functioning at 15 percent of capacity, providing drinking water for a few hours every two to four days, Mladenov said.

The envoy said that 100,000 cubic meters of raw sewage was being discharged into the Mediterranean every day because treatment plants are unable to fully operate.

This is "an environmental disaster for Israel, Egypt and Gaza in the making," said Mladenov.

The United Nations has set up an emergency fuel operation to help maintain essential services for water, health and sanitation, but "our reserves will run out in the coming weeks," he warned.

The envoy told the Security Council that "unless urgent measures are taken to de-escalate, the crisis risks spiraling out of control with devastating consequences for Palestinians and Israelis alike."

The Islamist Hamas movement seized power in Gaza in 2007 from the Ramallah-based Fatah organization of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

A mooted power-sharing agreement in the Strip has failed to materialize, and Gaza residents have been subjected to a decade-long Israeli blockade, severely limiting supplies.

The Gaza Strip has been torn by three wars since 2008 -- the latest one in 2014 that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians.
White House special advisor Jared Kushner has accompanied President Donald Trump, his father-in-law, on his first trip abroad to the Middle East and Europe

President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, made a pre-inauguration proposal to the Russian ambassador to set up a secret, bug-proof communications line with the Kremlin, The Washington Post reported Friday evening.

Kushner, a close adviser to Trump, went so far as to suggest using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States to protect such a channel from being monitored, The Post said, quoting US officials briefed on intelligence reports.

The revelation is yet another sensational element in the deluge of allegations raising questions about the Trump team's relationship with the Russians, who US intelligence agencies say tried to sway the November election in Trump's favor and thus deny Hillary Clinton the presidency.

And it ensures that Trump will be thrust back into the din of the Russia scandal upon his return to Washington this weekend following his first foreign trip, a tour of the Middle East and Europe.

The Washington Post said the secret communications proposal was made December 1 or 2 at Trump Tower in New York, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by US officials.

Michael Flynn, who would become Trump's national security adviser before being fired 24 days into the job for not telling the truth about meetings he held with the Russian ambassador, was also at the meeting, The Post reported.

The Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak, was surprised by Kushner's idea of the secret channel and passed it on to the Kremlin, the Post said. It did not specify what came of Kushner's alleged pitch, if anything.

The White House did not immediately comment on the report.

Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC, that not disclosing such contacts "raises a lot of questions."

"If it's true that somebody did ask for some kind of private line, some kind of mode of communication that was secure, that was unusual, boy does that raise a whole bunch of questions."

Besides the Kushner developments, which strikes at Trump's core by drawing his family into the crisis, the White House also faces a cascade of other worries in the coming week.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has "asked President Trumps political organization to gather and produce all Russia-related documents, emails and phone records going back to his campaigns launch in June 2015," The Post reported. There was no immediate White House reaction.

Fired former FBI director James Comey has promised to testify at an open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee, sometime after Monday's Memorial Day holiday.

The White House staff itself could be facing upheaval. CBS News reported that Trump is expected to consider plans for a shakeup of his communications operation upon his return.

And Oleg Deripaska, a Russian once close to Trump's former campaign manager, has offered to cooperate with congressional bodies probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, The New York Times reported Friday.

- Kushner at center stage -

But Kushner, a 36-year-old real estate developer who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is likely to take center stage in the coming days.

Reserved in public, he was on prominent view during Trump's first presidential trip, as befits a trusted behind-the-scenes adviser involved in everything from Middle East peace to an initiative to streamline the US bureaucracy.

The Post reported earlier that investigators are focusing on meetings he held in December with Moscow's ambassador and the head of a Russian bank that has been under US sanctions since 2014.

Kushner has offered to talk to Congress about these meetings, according to his lawyer Jamie Gorelick.

The Post and other media have been careful to note that their sources did not say Kushner was a "target" of the investigation, nor that he was accused of any wrongdoing.

If he were a "target," it would suggest Kushner was a main suspect of the investigation.

The Post reported last week that the Russia investigation had been extended to a top White House official as a "significant person of interest."

Kushner is the only person currently in the White House known to be under investigation.

- Russia contacts -

Former US national security advisory Michael Flynn is a key figure of interest in several probes into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election

At least four other former campaign aides or advisers have been reported to be under FBI scrutiny as well -- Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, sometime Trump adviser Roger Stone, and ex-campaign adviser Carter Page.

The FBI investigation is now being overseen by Robert Mueller, a respected former FBI director who was given broad powers to pursue the case as a special counsel after Trump abruptly fired Comey on May 9.

The key question before the FBI is whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in its effort to tilt the 2016 US election in the Republican's favor, which included a damaging hack of Democratic campaign emails.

Trump has denied any collusion, calling the probe "the greatest witch hunt" in American political history.

Former CIA director John Brennan revealed this week that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.

The Senate and House Intelligence Committees also are investigating, but not with an eye to bringing criminal charges.

In early December, after Trump had won the elections, Kushner and Flynn met in New York with Kislyak.

Kushner also met that month with Sergei Gorkov, chairman of VneshEconomBank, the state bank under US sanctions since July 2014.

Both those meetings have since been publicly acknowledged by the White House, but Kushner initially failed to declare them on forms submitted to obtain a security clearance.

His lawyer later said it was a mistake, telling the FBI that he would amend the forms. Not making a full and honest statement can be a federal crime punishable of up to five years in prison.
A bullet hole in a window after fighting, in Kasese, Uganda in December 2016

Rights groups on Friday accused the Ugandan government of inaction over the deadly assault by security forces on a tribal king's palace six months ago, renewing their call for an independent probe.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Africa Director, Maria Burnett told reporters in Kampala that although the government had dedicated significant resources to investigating alleged crimes by civilians during the incident in November 2016, there was still no probe into killings by the security forces.

During three days of clashes Ugandan security forces attacked an administrative building belonging to the local tribal king and then laid siege to the royal palace compound in the southwestern town of Kasese

HRW say they have documented the deaths of 155 people in the days of fierce fighting.

"It is a massive event that happened in Kasese, the largest number of people who have been killed in a single event in Uganda since the height of the LRA war," said Burnett, referring to the near 30-year insurgency that devastated northern Uganda until 2006.

"The victims of November's violence have a right to justice and they have a right under Ugandan and international law to demand accountability," he added.

In March the Ugandan government revised up their previous estimate of the number killed at Kasese to 103, but witnesses have said that they fear the true number to be far higher.

- 'Unwilling to investigate' -

Nicholas Opiyo, director of Chapter 4 -- one of almost 40 Ugandan human rights organisations who joined the call for an investigation -- said that as well as an independent investigation the ongoing abuses of civilians must stop.

"I was a front-row witness to the events in Kasese," said Opiyo.

"There was absolutely no attempt to avoid civilian deaths. Families who have been denied information about the deaths of their loved ones deserve justice."

The government has accused Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere of stoking a secessionist rebellion and stormed his palace on November 27, a day after his palace guards attacked local officers, according to police.

Calling the killings "revenge" for the deaths of "a few security agents in the region" in the weeks leading up the attack on the palace, Opiyo called for intimidation of human rights workers to stop.

"Two of our researchers have been arrested on two occasions simply because they were recording statements of victims," he said.

"Six months down the road Ugandan authorities' unwillingness to investigate is very clear and I think that we're at the point where we need to ask for international support," he added.

On Thursday the Ugandan governments own human rights commission presented its annual report to the press.

The 250-page report neglects to mention the Kasese killings with officials claiming that they are waiting for permission from President Museveni, who has ruled the East African nation for 31 years, to release a separate report on the events in Kasese.
Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, pictured in April 2017, will be detained until at least June 12, 2017

Hundreds of supporters of Zambian opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema protested outside court on Friday when a judge again adjourned a hearing on treason charges brought against him.

Hichilema, who has been held in custody for more than six weeks, will be detained until at least June 12, when the case will return to court.

Amnesty International said Hichilema and five others from the United Party for National Development (UPND) were victims of a "cynical ploy to silence all political opposition in Zambia".

Hichilema was arrested for allegedly endangering President Edgar Lungu's life when Hichilema's convoy failed to make way for the presidential motorcade on a main road.

"I hold the view that this is a proper matter for judicial review," magistrate David Simusamba said after Hichilema's lawyers lobbied to have the treason charges immediately thrown out.

Treason suspects are not eligible for bail in Zambia and could theoretically face the death penalty if found guilty.

"The Zambian authorities must stop misusing the criminal justice system to target and harass the political opposition," Amnesty said.

South Africa's main opposition party leader Mmusi Maimane led a demonstration in Pretoria on Friday to support Hichilema.

Maimane, head of the Democratic Alliance, was barred from entering Zambia after he landed in Lusaka airport on Thursday to attend the hearing.

Hichilema made a fifth unsuccessful bid for the presidency at last year's election.

He has since refused to recognise Lungu as president and has challenged the narrow poll defeat in court.

Outside the court on Friday, Hichilema's supporters called for him to be released.

"He should have been president, but we have a dictator persecuting him," protester Stephen Katuta told AFP.

The election campaign was marked by clashes between supporters of Lungu's Patriotic Front party and Hichilema's UPND.
US President Donald Trump wished Muslims 'a joyful Ramadan,' on Friday, urging them to use the holy month to reject violence by Islamist extremists.

'On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan,' said Trump, who is winding up a first overseas trip as president that included a stop in Saudi Arabia.

'This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan,' said the US leader, who campaigned last year on a pledge to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Tough message: Trump, who was in Taormina in Sicily on Friday with First Lady Melania Trump for a G7 meeting, used his Ramadan greeting to hammer home a tough anti-terror message

'Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology,' he said in his message to the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims.

Trump said that when he met dozens of leaders of Muslim countries in the Saudi capital Riyadh, he had vowed to stand with them to counter 'terrorism and the ideology that fuels it.'

'During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace,' said Trump, whose revised travel ban on half a dozen Muslim-majority countries was once again rejected by a US court this week on grounds of religious discrimination.

'At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict,' he said.

Sacred month: During Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk. Tarawih prayers mark its start and were performed around the world, including in Singapore, on Friday

During Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk. The month is sacred to Muslims because tradition says it marks the period when the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

The presidential statement concluded by saying, 'I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramadan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families.'
The only woman in US history to win a major party nomination for president, graduated from Wellesley College in 1969

Hillary Clinton launched a stinging attack on Donald Trump Friday, obliquely comparing him to former president Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 to escape impeachment, and savaging the Republican assault on fact-based politics.

The defeated Democratic presidential nominee made her remarks in a commencement address at her alma mater Wellesley College, a women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts, 48 years after her own graduation.

Never once uttering Trump's name, she urged the class of 2017 to get politically and socially involved, saying that the future of America depends on "brave, thoughtful people like you insisting on truth and integrity."

Coughing at one point before being passed a bottle of water and continuing briefly in a hoarse voice, the former secretary of state who made history as the first US woman to win a major party nomination for president was frequently interrupted by applause.

"Now, you may have heard that things didn't exactly go the way I planned, but you know what? I'm doing ok," she said of her electoral defeat. "I won't lie, Chardonnay helped a little too," she added to roars of delight.

Clinton implicitly compared Trump to Nixon, the Republican president brought down by the Watergate scandal. He sacked his attorney general in a move some have compared to Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey, who was investigating Russian interference in last year's election and possible collusion by Trump's campaign.

The former first lady said her class of 1969 was "furious" about the then-recent election of Nixon, "a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice."

- 'Assault on truth' -

"You are graduating at a time when there is a full-fledged assault on truth and reason. Just log on to social media for 10 seconds it will hit you right in the face," she said.

"People denying science, concocting elaborate hurtful conspiracy theories... Drumming up rampant fear about undocumented immigrants, Muslims, minorities, the poor," she added.

"Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds," she said, again alluding to but not naming Trump, who falsely accused the news media last January of misrepresenting the size of his inauguration crowds. "Then defending themselves by talking about quote unquote alternative facts."

Clinton called Trump's proposed federal budget "an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable" that "grossly underfunds" public education, mental health care, efforts to combat America's opioid epidemic and threatens to worsen climate change.

"It matters because if our leaders lie about the problems we face, we'll never solve them. It matters because it undermines confidence in government as a whole."

Much of her speech was a rallying cry for graduates to get politically involved and engaged with their communities.

"In the years to come, there will trolls galore, online and in-person, eager to tell you that you don't have anything worthwhile to say or anything meaningful to contribute, they may even call you a nasty woman," she said.

"You don't have to do everything, but don't sit on the sidelines."
Smoke rises from buildings in the rebel-held Syrian city of Daraa following a reported May 2017 air strike

Reports of civilian deaths from US-led air strikes in Iraq and Syria have soared in recent months, raising questions about whether President Donald Trump's order to "annihilate" the Islamic State group is fueling the increase.

The Pentagon vehemently denies this, and insists its targeting procedures and protocols to avoid civilian casualties have not changed.

Here is a look at what is going on.

- How many are dying? -

Since the campaign to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria began in August 2014, the coalition has conducted 21,663 strikes -- 12,740 Iraq in and 8,923 Syria.

According to an official tally at the end of April, the Pentagon confirmed at least 352 civilians had been killed.

That toll came before Thursday's announcement that at least 105 people were killed in an anti-IS strike in the Iraqi city of Mosul in March. The official numbers are also dwarfed by claims from monitoring groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria.

It said between April 23 and May 23, coalition strikes killed 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria, claims a minimum of 3,681 people have died in coalition strikes -- between 283 and 366 of them in April alone.

- What has changed? -

Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to quickly defeat IS, ordered his generals to come up with a revised plan to defeat the jihadist group.

The review resulted in an "annihilation campaign" to kill all IS fighters, and saw commanders gain greater autonomy to make battlefield decisions.

Observers worry this is translating to a greater willingness to risk civilian life.

Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project, voiced concerns the White House can't be trusted to provide accurate information about civilian deaths, and whether guidance has changed.

"Even in war, there are rules and those rules are aimed at protecting civilian life," she told AFP.

"It's not at all clear that all feasible precautions are being taken to protect civilian life."

- What does the Pentagon say? -

The Pentagon strongly disputes such assertions, and says that protecting civilians is a top priority in assessing targets.

"Throughout this fight, every target goes through our refined process to ensure it's not only a legitimate target under the law of armed conflict, but that it meets a threshold of proportionality and necessity," said Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

Only 0.24 percent of engagements have resulted in a "credible" report of civilian casualties, according to the Pentagon.

- So what is happening? -

The battlefield is changing, and in some places very quickly.

Whereas at the start of the campaign, the coalition was primarily striking IS fighters as they moved across large areas of open terrain, the fight is now focused on predominantly urban areas.

In Iraq's second city Mosul, for instance, IS jihadists are operating from tightly populated areas. The March 17 strike that resulted in the death of at least 105 civilians came when IS snipers were spotted in a building.

The air strike on the snipers inadvertently caused a stash of IS munitions to blow up, triggering the building's collapse, according to the Pentagon.

Brian McKeon, a senior Pentagon policy official at the end of the Obama administration, said the increasing civilian toll is due to fighting in a city, rather than any policy change under Trump.

"They are trying very hard to avoid civilian casualties," he said.

"It's what the law tells them, and they want to avoid handing ISIS propaganda victories. But the risk of making mistakes is going to go up when you are operating in an urban environment."
North Korea's missile program is aimed at developing an intercontinental missile capable of reaching the United States

The US military will try to intercept an intercontinental ballistic missile in a landmark test of a defense system that comes amid broad tensions over North Korea's weapons program, the Pentagon said Friday.

Scheduled for Tuesday, the test is the first time the military will attempt to intercept an ICBM. Previous trials have been against intermediate-range missiles, which are slower.

Experts will launch a ground-based interceptor from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California at a mock-up of an ICBM fired from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the Missile Defense Agency said in a statement.

The exercise will check the performance of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, which has had a checkered record in previous tests.

Though it succeeded in the last test in 2014, it failed during the three prior attempts.

The technology behind the GMD is extremely complex, and the system uses globally deployed sensors to detect and track ballistic missile threats.

In a move that the Pentagon says is akin to hitting a bullet with another bullet -- though at far higher speeds -- the missile launches into space, then deploys an "Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle" that uses kinetic energy to destroy the incoming target.

If the test is successful, it will prove that America has an effective ground-based defense against ICBMs, albeit on a limited scale.

The system will comprise 44 interceptors by the end of the year, so it could thwart an attack from a rogue state or a volley of rockets.

But the interceptors, based in California and Alaska, would be overwhelmed by a full-scale attack from countries like Russia or China, which could fire dozens of missiles at a time.

North Korea this year has conducted a series of missile tests as it strives to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States.

Pyongyang carried out two atomic tests last year, and has accelerated its missile launch program, despite tough UN sanctions aimed at denying Kim the hard currency needed to fund his weapons ambitions.

President Donald Trump has called Kim a "madman with nuclear weapons."
Masked gunmen attacked a bus of Coptic Christians south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 people

Mourners sang, women sobbed and men cried out in anger in a packed Egyptian church at the funeral of some of the 28 Coptic Christians killed in Friday's bus attack.

Eight wooden coffins were lined up in front of the altar, each bearing a golden cross and a white piece of paper printed with the name of the victim inside.

Relatives of the dead -- men in long flowing robes and women dressed in black -- pressed their faces to the coffins in a final farewell.

They had been among 28 people gunned down by masked gunmen as they travelled in a bus to the Saint Samuel monastery in Minya province south of the Egyptian capital.

Outside the church, a man brandishing a big wooden cross was carried on the shoulders of a friend.

"With our soul, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the Cross," people around him shouted.

Friday's was the latest attack on Copts after Islamic State (IS) group jihadists bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.

Relatives of killed Coptic Christians carry a coffin as they gather outside the Abu Garnous Cathedral in the north Minya town of Maghagha, on May 26, 2017, during the funeral of the victims

It came after jihadists had threatened more strikes against the Copts, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's 90-million population.

No claim of responsibility has yet been made.

For some among the Coptic community, authorities are not doing enough to protect them.

"I tell (Abdel Fattah al-)Sisi, you will have to account for your action in heaven," said Reda Makary of the president and former army chief.

His nephew Nassef, a 28-year-old labourer, was killed in Friday's attack.

"Of course there is no security. If there were, they wouldn't have been killed," said Makary, adding that his nephew had become a father for a third time just two months earlier.

- 'Always the same' -

Samuel Chalabi, 49, lost his older brother Ishak in the attack.

"As long as security forces don't do their work properly, this will continue until all of us are eliminated," he said.

"It is always the same -- we will be a little bit sad, they will pity us, but it will start again," he added, saying he feared further attacks on his minority community.

Mourners passed around cellphones to share video footage of bloodied bodies lying on the ground, some with their heads smashed.

"There is no security for Christians," said Hakim Hana, a 25-year-old carpenter mourning his cousin.

The May 26 attack was the latest to target Copts after Islamic State group jihadists bombed three churches in December 2016 and April 2017, killing dozens of Christians

On April 11, bombers attacked two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, killing 45 in the deadliest strike in living memory against the Copts.

The bombings prompted Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency.

On Friday, state televisions aid Egypt's air force launched six air strikes against "terror camps in Libya" in retaliation for the attack on Coptic pilgrims.

It came after Sisi vowed in a televised speech that "Egypt will not hesitate in striking terror camps anywhere, either inside (the country) or outside it".

When the funeral service ended, the coffins were brought out of the small church of Deir El Jernous and carried in procession down a dusty street.

Women sobbed as the crowd tried to touch the coffins for one last time as church bells rang out into the night.
Relatives of killed Coptic Christians grieve during their funeral at Abu Garnous Cathedral in the north Minya town of Maghagha on May 26, 2017

President Donald Trump on Friday decried an attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt that left at least 28 dead, calling on allies to band together to defeat terrorism.

"The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished," he said in a statement issued by his press office as he attends the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy.

"Terrorists are engaged in a war against civilization, and it is up to all who value life to confront and defeat this evil."

Hours earlier, masked men in three pick-up trucks had attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of Cairo.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack on Copts after the Islamic State jihadist group bombed three churches in December and April, killing dozens of Christians.

"This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls," said Trump, who met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at a summit in Riyadh last week.

"Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon humanity. But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted and thuggish ideology.

Sisi said Egyptian forces had hit a jihadist training camp in an undisclosed location in retaliation for the attack on the Christians' bus. Egyptian state television reported that the air force struck training camps in neighboring Libya.

Christians have been targeted by Islamist militants across the Middle East in recent years, forcing thousands to flee a region which has been home to some of the oldest Christian communities in the world.

Trump said the United States "makes clear to its friends, allies and partners that the treasured and historic Christian Communities of the Middle East must be defended and protected.

"Civilization is at a precipice -- and whether we climb or fall will be decided by our ability to join together to protect all faiths, all religions, and all innocent life. No matter what, America will do what it must to protect its people."
Genene Jones, 66, is suspected of killing as many as 60 babies

A Texas nurse jailed for killing a baby more than 30 years ago has been charged with the murder of another infant, and could be behind the deaths of as many as 60 babies, officials said Friday.

Genene Jones, 66, "is pure evil and justice warrants that she be held accountable for the crimes she committed," said Nico LaHood, district attorney for Bexar County in Texas.

"Our Office will attempt to account for every child whose life was stolen by the actions of Jones. Our only focus is justice," said LaHood.

Jones is currently serving two sentences for crimes committed in 1984. She was sentenced to 99 years for killing 15-month-old Chelsea McClellan with a lethal dose of a muscle relaxant, and for administering a potentially fatal dose of an anti-coagulant drug to a four-week-old boy, Roland Santos, who survived.

Jones, a nurse in a pediatric intensive care unit, was also accused by a grand jury on Thursday of killing 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer by injecting a lethal dose of an anti-epileptic drug three years earlier, in 1981.

"Jones is suspected of killing up to 60 infants," said a statement issued by the district attorneys office, based in San Antonio.

Jones is serving her concurrent sentences in a prison in the town of Gatesville, Texas, located between San Antonio and Dallas.

Due to a law in place at the time of her trial, she is due to be released in March 2018. The Bexar attorney's office said her bail would be set at $1 million and that she would be transferred to a jail in Bexar County for trial on the new charges prior to her mandatory release next year.

If convicted, she faces up to 99 years behind bars.
Last year, 71 people were shot and six killed over Memorial Day weekend in Chicago

Chicago on Friday was bracing for the Memorial Day weekend by deploying an extra 1,300 police officers, hoping to prevent a repeat of last year's deadly street violence.

The three-day weekend in the murder-plagued Midwestern city ended with 71 people shot and six killed last year.

It came in a year in which Chicago experienced the highest number of shootings in nearly 20 years, with approximately 4,300 shooting victims and more than 760 people killed, according to statistics compiled by the Chicago Tribune.

This weekend, the Chicago Police Department will deploy additional officers in parks and other outdoor areas where large gatherings are common, Chief Eddie Johnson told a news conference.

"Repeat offenders willing to use illegal guns continue to wreak havoc on some of our communities," he said.

The city's police often go on heightened alert during the summer months, when violence escalates as more people spend time outside in the warm weather.

But, the 1,300 additional officers represents an increase from previous years, "enough to get that visibility that we want out there," Johnson said.

Chicago has appeared to step back from the precipice so far this year. Murders are down six percent and shootings 13 percent compared to the same period last year.

Police are increasingly using technology, including surveillance cameras, predictive analytics tools and gunfire detection equipment.

The federal authorities are also targeting local gang members involved in guns and drugs.

The Justice Department announced Friday that more than 45 members of one gang were arrested in a sweep in Chicago's troubled South Side and surrounding suburbs.

Law enforcers recovered 118 firearms and stores of cocaine, crystal methamphetamine and the powerful narcotic fentanyl, one of the drugs responsible for America's heroin epidemic, officials said.
NEW YORK (AP) - Fox News Channel asked a federal court on Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit by former host Andrea Tantaros, saying her claims that "sock puppet" Twitter accounts were set up to harass her were false.

Fox said in court papers filed Wednesday that a Twitter feed allegedly set up under a false identity is instead operated by a retired man from Gainesville, Florida. Tantaros charged that the account posted items meant to let her know her conversations were under surveillance, but Fox said the posts weren't directed by the network and had innocent purposes.

The claims by Tantaros' lawyer Judd Burstein are "at best, a paranoid fantasy and at worst, a deliberate hoax," Fox argued in court papers filed with the U.S. District Court. The network said Burstein's intention is to pressure Fox "to accede to Tantaros' extortionate settlement demands."

FILE - In this April 25, 2015 file photo, Andrea Tantaros attends the 2015 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington. Fox News Channel has asked a federal court to throw out a lawsuit by former anchor Tantaros, saying her claims that "sock puppet" Twitter accounts were set up to harass her were false. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

Burstein, however, said Fox has handed him a "smoking gun" of evidence that it had been spying on her conversations.

The lawyer said Fox had made reference to a deleted tweet that the Florida man had sent to Tantaros seeking an autograph. Burstein said the tweet had been deleted shortly after he had discussed it over the phone with Tantaros for use in her lawsuit - and that the man himself had testified that he personally did not delete it.

Fox also said it wants its lawyer fees paid, Burstein referred for disciplinary action and a ruling prohibiting Tantaros and Burstein from filing any additional lawsuits against Fox.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on a report on the U.S. drug enforcement strategy in Honduras (all times local):

2:45 p.m.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy says a watchdog report about a series of deadly encounters during an aggressive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operation in Honduras raises questions about whether the incidents are isolated.

Leahy says he is disturbed by the report's finding that the DEA and State Department misled Congress, the public and Justice Department officials about the 2012 program known as Operation Anvil. The Justice and State department inspectors general issued a report Wednesday detailing sweeping problems with the effort.

Democrat Leahy calls the report a "wholesale indictment" of DEA and Honduran police for botched operations that in one case caused civilian deaths.

Leahy says the review "unmasks egregious events and conduct, as well as the subsequent efforts to hide the truth about what happened."

__

1:37 p.m.

Government watchdogs say the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration misled Congress about an aggressive drug enforcement strategy that led to a series of deadly confrontations involving agents in Honduras.

In a report released Wednesday, inspectors general for the Justice and State Departments found sweeping problems with the 2012 operation. They say the agency failed to fully investigate it and gave inaccurate information to Congress.

The effort involved State Department helicopters and DEA agents working with Honduran police to intercept cocaine flights.

The watchdogs looked at three incidents between May and July of 2012. Those included a raid that killed four people and wounded four others, whom locals said were innocent civilians traveling the river at night.

The DEA says it has made changes, and the team no longer operates overseas.
NEW YORK (AP) - While Americans have doubts about how much they should trust the "news media" in general, a poll by the Media Insight Project released Wednesday suggests they have a higher opinion of the sources they personally rely upon to follow the world.

The survey by the project, a partnership between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and American Press Institute, echoed the phenomenon where people express distaste for politicians yet support their local representatives.

Only 17 percent of people judged the "news media" as very accurate but twice as many said the same thing about the news sources they visit most often, the poll found. Ask about other attributes and it's the same pattern: 24 percent judged the media as a whole as moral, while 53 percent said that about their favorites. Twenty-seven percent said the media was willing to admit mistakes, and 47 percent said that about their sources.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2017, file photo, reporters raise their hands as White House press secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. While Americans have doubts about how much they should trust the "news media" in general, a poll by the Media Insight Project released Wednesday, May 24, 2017, suggests they have a higher opinion of the sources they personally rely upon to follow the world. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

"The whole question of trust in the media is more complicated than we think," said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute.

Mistrust in the media has soared since the post-Watergate days when many journalists were seen as heroes. The fragmentation of media, the increase in partisan media outlets and an aggressive anti-media stance by some commentators and politicians have all contributed, he said.

Personal devices put news at the fingertips of most Americans today. Four out of five people say they check the news at least once a day, and 58 percent said they follow news several times daily, the poll found.

Fragmentation means many different sources to follow. The most-used outlet by both Democrats and independents is CNN, although it was able to get first place among independents with only 20 percent of citations. Forty percent of Republicans said that Fox News is their most frequently relied-upon source. The second most-used outlet for Democrats is The New York Times, for Republicans it's CNN and for independents it's Fox News.

Seventy percent of Republicans say the "news media" is too liberal, while 63 percent said their favorite source is "just about right."

News executives will likely be disheartened to learn that young people polled are much more suspicious of the media than their elders. Eleven percent of people under age 40 said they have a lot of trust about information they get from the media, while 22 percent of people 40 and over say that, according to the survey.

"These are folks that grew up entirely in this fragmented landscape," Rosenstiel said. "They're suspicious of any media that says, 'We're just telling the story as we see it, without any bias.'"

The survey also uncovered a significant number of people - one-third of those who responded - who said they have difficulty distinguishing between news and opinion. The percentage is higher among Republicans.

"It's very hard to distinguish what is a news show and what's not a news show when Rachel Maddow is co-anchoring news coverage with Brian Williams," Rosenstiel said.

The poll of 2,036 adults was conducted March 8-27, with funding from the American Press Institute. Half were asked about "the news media" and half were asked about "the news media you use most often." The poll used a sample drawn from NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for each set of respondents is plus or minus about 4 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.

___

Follow David Bauder on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/dbauder

___

Online:

Media Insight Project: http://mediainsight.org/
WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald Trump's longtime attorney is joining a still-forming legal team that will guide the president through intensifying investigations into Russian interference in the U.S. election and his associates' possible involvement.

New York-based attorney Mark Kasowitz has a history of working on Trump's most nettlesome legal issues and is viewed as a trusted adviser, according to two people familiar with the decision. The team is expected to be filled out with lawyers with deeper experience in Washington investigations, as well as crisis communication experts, said the people, who demanded anonymity because they're not authorized to disclose personnel moves publicly.

The appointment last week of a special counsel to lead the federal probe ensures that the Russia investigation will consume increasing amounts of attention from the president and his aides. While the White House counsel represents the president in his official capacity, it is not unusual for the president to hire private attorneys in matters that could lead to personal liability.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has a broad mandate, allowing him to investigate both Russian influence and whether Trump sought to impede the investigation by firing FBI Director James Comey earlier this month.

Trump has dismissed the Russia inquiries as a "witch hunt" and declared his campaign did not collude with Moscow to sway the 2016 campaign.

Neither Kasowitz nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

Trump's legal team faces considerable challenges - not the least of which will be trying to rein in a difficult client. Legal experts note that Trump's penchant for brash public statements, misstatements and frequent tweeting may come back to haunt him. In particular, his public descriptions of his conversations with Comey may have jeopardized any later attempt to keep such discussions confidential by claiming executive privilege.

Trump's public statements have contributed to questions about the effectiveness of White House counsel Don McGahn.

The former campaign lawyer is at the center of criticism of the White House's handling of the hiring and firing of Mike Flynn. Shortly after Trump took office, acting Attorney General Sally Yates alerted McGahn that the then-national security adviser was vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians because he appeared to have lied to the vice president. Flynn wasn't fired for another two weeks.

McGahn's defenders say he is giving good advice, but the president isn't necessarily always taking it.

That's why a key goal for the outside counsel will be to convince the president to act in his own interests, said Jack Quinn, who served as White House counsel for President Bill Clinton. Clinton also turned to outside advisers during the Whitewater investigation led by Kenneth Starr, which expanded over the years and ultimately led to his impeachment.

Another objective is to keep the investigation from consuming the president's policy agenda.

"They must find a way to take this entire basket of matters concerning the investigation and assemble people to deal with it from a legal and communications standpoint," Quinn said.

As an outside counselor, Kasowitz's strength could lie in his personal relationship with the president.

The New York attorney has been a lawyer for Trump since the early 2000s. Trump heaped praise on him and his firm in an August 2004 article in American Lawyer, calling them "phenomenal lawyers."

At the time, Kasowitz and David Friedman, the firm's bankruptcy head, had been advising Trump on his Atlantic City casinos. "They're highly talented with great insight into the future," Trump said. As president, Trump chose Friedman as the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Kasowitz's work with Trump also has included threatening and filing lawsuits after unflattering media coverage of the businessman-turned-president.

He was involved in cases against Trump's now-defunct Trump University. The Trump Organization ultimately agreed to a $25 million settlement with customers who claimed they were misled by failed promises to teach success in real estate.

Kasowitz - who also represents ousted Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly - is the founding and managing partner of Kasowitz Benson Torres. The large legal firm also employs former Sen. Joe Lieberman, whom Trump interviewed as a potential head of the FBI.

__

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
In response to increasing economic disruption and drastic social shifts in American life, Sen. Mike Lee recently launched the Social Capital Project, a multi-year research project dedicated to investigating the evolving nature, quality, and importance of our associational life.

As I recently noted, the projects first report highlights the connections between associational life and the nations economic success, stopping short of specific policy solutions. In an era where many of our conversations seem to revolve around the individual and large institutions, an emphasis on the space between them could bring many benefits, the report concludes.

In a statement made before the Joint Economic Committee  as part of the launch Lees report  AEIs Charles Murray added a bit more detail, explaining what, exactly, that newfound emphasis should like, and where the long-term solutions might reside.

Noting the genuine, systemic struggles that exist across economic and social institutions, Murray argues that the underlying problems ultimately have to do with specific individuals making poor choices. If I had to pick one theme threaded throughout all of these superbly told stories, it is the many ways in which people behaved impulsivelythrowing away real opportunitiesand unrealistically, possessing great ambitions but oblivious to the steps required to get from point A to point B to point C to point D in life.

Thus, the most basic solution will involve helping those same people understand how to (re-)order those priorities, pointing us back to the institutions most central to personal development and formation. As to which those might be, Murray looks to the data and sees it pointing to two particular institutions: the traditional family and the church.

For Murray, the solutions are cultural, and in many ways, spiritual. We need a cultural Great Awakening akin to past religious Great Awakenings, he says:

The most common way that the fortunate among us manage to get our priorities straightor at least not irretrievably screw them upis by being cocooned in the institutions that are the primary resources for generating social capital: a family consisting of married parents and active membership in a faith tradition. With regard to religion, I am making an assertion about a resource that can lead people, adolescents and adults alike, to do the right thing even when the enticements to do the wrong thing are strong: a belief that God commands them to do the right thing. I am also invoking religion as a community of faitha phrase that I borrow from, guess who, Robert Putnam. For its active members, a church is far more than a place that they to worship once a week. It is a form of community that socializes the children growing up in it in all sorts of informal ways, just as a family socializes children. This is not a preface to a set of policy recommendations. I have none. Rather, I would argue that it is not a matter of ideology but empiricism to conclude that unless the traditional family and traditional communities of faith make a comeback, the declines in social capital that are already causing so much deterioration in our civic culture will continue and the problems will worsen. The solutions are unlikely to be political but cultural. We need a cultural Great Awakening akin to past religious Great Awakenings. How to bring about that needed cultural Great Awakening is a task above my pay grade.

Murray touches on those same themes in his book, Coming Apart (which is routinely cited in Lees report), but given his self-proclaimed status as an agnostic, his advocacy of active membership in a faith tradition is striking, and seems to be increasing in volume and boldness over the years.

Yet while Murray bases his emphasis on faith and family not in ideology or religion, but in empiricism, Christian theology affirms the connection as well, noting the formative, transformative power of the Gospel across all of life.

As Jessica Driesenga puts it in The Churchs Social Responsibility: Reflections on Evangelicalism and Social Justice, the gospel is not just a pearl of great price  a heavenly treasure and promise of eternal life in the future. The gospel is also cultural leaven, holding promises for culture and society in the here and now:

The people of God are given a promise of eternal life in the future, but are also given promises for life in our world today. Godliness, that is, keeping the commandments of God, does not only have eternal rewards. It bears fruit in society, exerting the influence of the gospel as a leavening agent throughout the world. The gospel has a tangible and important impact in our world today, bearing great fruit in society. The gospel, as a leaven, has culture-making, culture-swaying, and culture-transforming power. This leavening, the influencing power of the gospel throughout the world, does not operate on its own. It comes from the core of the gospel, the pearl of great price. As [Herman] Bavinck notes, so from this center it influences all earthly relationships in a reforming and renewing way. The leavening power of the gospel does not exist without the regeneration, faith, and conversion of humanity, the heavenly treasure, or pearl, gifted to humanity in Christ. But, in the restoring of ones relationship with God through the work of Christ, the gospel can go on to have a leavening effect in the world.

Murray is on to something in pointing to the powerful role of the religion in public life. As we join him in pursuing a cultural Great Awakening, wed do well to remember that the underlying restoration begins not with institutions of religion themselves, but with the Gospel from which they spring.

The pearl has priority over the leaven, but this does not lead Bavinck away from stressing the importance of the gospel as both pearl and leaven, Driesenga concludes. The gospel both creates a new community, restoring the relationship between God and his people, and has a robust influence on the present society.
BENTON, Ill. (AP) - A southern Illinois man has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing two bank workers and critically wounding a third during a botched robbery.

James Nathaniel Watts received the punishment from a federal judge Thursday. The 32-year-old Watts pleaded guilty in March to attempted armed bank robbery resulting in death and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The botched holdup occurred in May 2014 at the First National Bank branch in Cairo, Illinois. Authorities say Watts was armed with a gun when he confronted three female employees as they emerged from the bank after closing.

Fifty-two-year-old Anita Grace and 52-year-old Nita Jo Smith were killed. A 23-year-old woman survived.

The full sentence for Watts is life in prison without parole, plus 10 years.
BRUSSELS (AP) - Melania Trump joined the spouses of other NATO leaders visiting a children's hospital and touring a Brussels museum on Thursday.

Mrs. Trump worked through moments of awkwardness and language barriers to help ailing children make flowers out of crepe paper. "So beautiful," she told them. They shared opinions on books, movies and favorite flowers - she said hers include orchids and peonies.

Children have been a theme of Mrs. Trump's trip, her first to Europe as the president's wife. She visited a pediatric hospital in the Vatican and participated in a forum with Belgium's Queen Mathilde on protecting children from online exploitation.

First lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump arrive to greet French President Emmanuel Macron at the U.S. Embassy, Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Brussels. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The outing of NATO spouses, which took place away from a summit of member nations, included a museum dedicated to Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte, best known for his "This Is Not a Pipe" painting - of a pipe. Magritte made a career of juxtaposing contradictory images - showers of bourgeois clerks in bowlers raining down on drab Belgian streets, or huge apples suffocating in claustrophobic living rooms.

Viewing the paintings, Mrs. Trump chatted with Brigitte Macron, whose husband won the French presidency this month. Both women share a large age gap with their husbands - Mrs. Trump is 24 years younger than President Donald Trump, while Brigitte Macron is 24 years older than French President Emmanuel Macron.

At a royal palace visit, Mrs. Trump exchanged views with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife, Emine, Mrs. Trump's off-the-shoulder black dress contrasting with her Turkish counterpart's pale blue headscarf.

Mrs. Trump's modeling experience came in handy in her Belgium stops, as she struck carefully angled poses and peeked over her shoulder at photographers.

Melania Trump, right, wife of US President Donald Trump, arrives at the Magritte Museum in Brussels on Thursday, May 25, 2017. US President Donald Trump is in Belgium for a two day visit which will include a meeting with EU officials and a NATO summit. (AP Photo/Thierry Monasse)

Melania Trump, the wife of US President Donald Trump, right, and Emine Erdogan, the wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose together during a group photo during the spouse and partner program at the Royal Palace of Laeken, near Brussels, on Thursday, May 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Melania Trump, the wife of US President Donald Trump, center, poses with Belgium's Queen Mathilde, right, and Gauthier Desteney, the husband of Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel during a group photo for the spouses and partner program at the Royal Palace of Laeken, near Brussels, on Thursday, May 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Melania Trump, right, wife of US President Donald Trump speaks with Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron as they visit the Magritte Museum in Brussels on Thursday, May 25, 2017. US President Donald Trump is in Belgium for a two day visit which will include a meeting with EU officials and a NATO summit. (AP Photo/Thierry Monasse)

Melania Trump, the wife of US President Donald Trump, left, walks with Queen Mathilde, the wife of Belgian King Philippe, center, and Ingrid Schulerud, wife of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg prior to a group photo at the Royal Palace of Laeken, near Brussels, on Thursday, May 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A deadly botulism outbreak linked to nacho-cheese sauce confiscated from a California gas station appears to be limited to an opened bag of the sauce, state health officials said Thursday.

The state Department of Public Health said tests on the opened bag sold last month in Walnut Grove, a suburb of Sacramento, have already confirmed the presence of the botulism toxin. In addition, investigators found no traces of the toxin when they tested another unopened bag seized from Valley Oak Food and Fuel station, the department said Thursday.

The outbreak left one man dead and sent nine people the hospital.

A 33-year-old woman has sued the gas station and the maker of the sauce, alleging negligence in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of the product.

According to the suit filed Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court, Lavinia Kelly ate tortilla chips with nacho-cheese sauce bought from the station on April 21 and began to feel ill the next day. She was later admitted to a Sacramento hospital where she remains in intensive care. Her sister said she hasn't been able to move much, speak or breathe on her own and is facing a long recovery.

"She called me and told she was having double vision ... by the time she was admitted to the ER, she couldn't breathe and was struggling for air. She passed out a few times. It was scary for her," Theresa Kelly said.

"She was hungry and she stopped for a snack to hold her off until she got home, she never expected a hold-off to potentially kill her," the sister said.

A spokeswoman for Wisconsin-based Gehl Foods said she hasn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment on the allegations. A call to the gas station went unanswered.

Gehl has said it's working with federal, state and local health officials to determine what caused the contamination. The company says it retested samples from the lot of cheese linked to the outbreak and that it's clear of contamination.

Botulism, a comparatively rare kind of food poisoning, can lead to paralysis, breathing difficulty and sometimes death. Survivors often are forced to spend weeks or months on ventilators to help them breathe.

The family of the man who died in the outbreak, Martin Galindo-Larios Jr., 37, said on an online fundraising page that he suffered respiratory complications and became unresponsive.

A 16-year-old boy from Walnut Grove has been hospitalized since April 25 after eating nacho-cheese sauce from the gas station, said Laura Uslan, the principal of his high school. An online fundraising page for Johnny Villasenor said he is in critical condition and faces many weeks of recovery.

Kelly's attorney, Bill Marler, said he knows of two other people who fell ill after eating the nacho-cheese sauce but their cases have not been confirmed.

The health department said symptoms usually appear within a few days after ingestion. Since the sauce was removed from the gas station on May 5, it is unlikely there will be any new cases associated with the weeks-old outbreak, the department said.

___

This story has been corrected to show that a spokeswoman, not an attorney, for Gehl Foods said she hasn't seen the lawsuit.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - As "bathroom bills" targeting transgender individuals falter across the U.S., fizzling even in conservative bastions like Kansas and Arkansas following the upheaval over a North Carolina law last year, Texas Republicans are doubling down in their determination.

The resolve to make Texas only the second state to restrict bathroom access for transgender persons before Monday - when lawmakers adjourn until 2019 - is raising the possibility of a special session and exasperating business groups and LGBT rights organizations that have united in opposition for months.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday enough time remains for lawmakers to strike a deal. He said Texas must address student "privacy, safety and security" but didn't say how far a bill must go - including whether it must require transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate.

Gov. Greg Abbott, center, offers a pen to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, right, after he signed SB7, a bill to address inappropriate teacher-student relationships, after he signed it during a ceremony at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Austin. Standing behind Abbott, from left, Marc Salvato, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, Rep. Gary VanDeaver, Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Rep. Tony Dale. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Hours later, the state Senate rejected a version of LGBT restroom restrictions meant to apply only to public schools that the House passed last weekend, and asked for a conference committee. The Senate previously approved broader rules requiring all transgender Texans to use public restrooms corresponding to the genders on their birth certificates, and those differences will have to be reconciled.

But any version that emerges would make Texas the first state to pass a bill reminiscent of North Carolina's controversial 2016 law that was partially repealed in March following intense political and economic backlash.

More than a dozen states this year considered bills restricting bathroom access for transgender people, including Kansas, where the GOP-controlled House this week refused to debate a "bathroom bill" amendment proposed by a freshman legislator.

It was emblematic of what LGBT rights groups say has doomed most efforts outside Texas: a lack of buy-in from Republicans in charge.

"They tended to be introduced by folks who were more extreme members of the party, were less likely to get committee hearings, less likely to move. They were much less likely to be taken seriously," said Cathryn Oakley, senior legislative counsel for the Human Rights Campaign. "The big difference in Texas is, they have been taken seriously."

Abbott, a social conservative presiding over his last legislative session before he faces re-election in 2018, has gone against his Republican peers by calling for such a law. Governors in Arkansas and Kentucky have rebuffed the efforts as unnecessary, and South Dakota's Republican governor vetoed a proposal in March.

They watched as Republican Pat McCrory, who signed and defended the North Carolina bill as governor, became the only incumbent governor in the U.S. to lose in the general election last year.

But Abbott has become vocal in the final weeks of Texas' legislative session.

"We want to do all we can to help women have privacy, safety and security to the fullest extent possible," Abbott said Thursday.

Opponents have challenged Republicans on such assertions, calling them baseless and noting laws are already on the books when it comes to safety in bathrooms.

The determination for a Texas bill began with Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who controls the Senate and led Donald Trump's presidential campaign in Texas.

Patrick is popular with conservative activists who drive Texas politics but has denied eyeing higher office in 2018, including speculation of challenging Abbott. Patrick has signaled willingness for a special session over a bathroom bill, although only Abbott can make that call.

The Senate's original bill was similar to North Carolina's and Patrick has rejected the House's weakened version, though compromise is still possible in conference committee.

"Frankly some of the other threats in other states rang pretty hollow in a state like Texas," Republican Sen. Larry Taylor said. "They make more off of us than we make off of them."

___

Associated Press Writer Jim Vertuno contributed to this report.

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Gov. Greg Abbott, center, shakes hands with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick after he signed SB7, a bill to address inappropriate teacher-student relationships, after he signed it during a ceremony at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Austin. Standing behind Abbott, from left, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, Rep. Gary VanDeaver, Sen. Paul Bettencourt and Rep. Tony Dale. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The city of Oakland, California, is proposing to pay nearly $1 million to the teen daughter of a police dispatcher who says she was sexually abused by officers.

The teen, now 19, said Oakland Police officers exploited and victimized her while she was working as an underage prostitute. Her allegations led to the abrupt resignation of former Police Chief Sean Whent last year and caused turmoil in several Bay Area police departments. The teen says she had sex with two dozen police officers, some of whom when she was younger than 18. Most of the officers worked in Oakland.

The Associated Press generally doesn't identify victims of sexual crimes.

In a settlement to be considered by the Oakland city council next week, the Oakland city attorney is recommending a payment of $989,000 to settle the woman's claims before she files a lawsuit.

Calls seeking comment from the Police Department and city attorney's office were not immediately returned.

The teen's initial claim sought $66 million from the city. Her attorney John Burris says the proposed settlement is "fair and equitable" and he hopes the City Council approves it at its meeting Tuesday.

"She has been through a lot," he said.

Burris said she still has claims pending against the cities of Livermore and Richmond and Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Six former and current officers have been charged with crimes in Alameda County. A retired Oakland police captain pleaded no contest in Contra Costa County to soliciting prostitution.

The teen testified last week against former Oakland Officer Brian Bunton, who was ordered to stand trial on prostitution and obstruction charges.

The woman's allegation has roiled the Oakland Police Department, which cycled through three police chiefs in under two weeks before the city administrator took over the department when the scandal became public in June 2016.

The scandal surfaced after a federal judge who monitors the long-troubled department ordered internal affairs to look deeper into an officer's suicide note in which he discussed his and colleagues' relationship with the woman. The officer killed himself in September 2015.

The woman has said she is no longer a prostitute. She also said she traded sexual favors for tip-offs of prostitution stings and protection from arrest.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge said Thursday he will consider holding the leader of an anti-abortion group in contempt after links to videos that the judge had barred from release appeared on the website of the man's attorneys.

U.S. District Judge William Orrick ordered David Daleiden and his attorneys, Steve Cooley and Brentford J. Ferreira, to appear at a June 14 hearing to consider contempt sanctions.

A phone message at Cooley and Ferreira's law firm number was not immediately returned. Matille Thebolt, a representative for Daleiden, said she expected to have a statement later.

Daleiden is a leader of the Center for Medical Progress, which has released several secretly recorded videos that it says show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal tissue for profit, which is illegal. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited to support false claims.

The videos stoked the American abortion debate when they were released in 2015 and increased Congressional heat against Planned Parenthood that has yet to subside.

Daleiden is facing felony charges in California accusing him of recording people without their permission in violation of state law.

Orrick issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the release of videos made by the Center for Medical Progress at meetings of the National Abortion Federation, an association of abortion providers. He also blocked the release of any names of NAF members.

The National Abortion Federation argued releasing the videos and names would endanger their members.

A federal appeals court in March upheld Orrick's ruling. Daleiden has criticized the injunction as an attack on the First Amendment.

Orrick said another attorney for Daleiden, Catherine Short, confirmed during a conference call with him on Thursday that links to barred videos and the names of at least 11 NAF members had appeared on Cooley and Ferreira's website. Neither Daleiden nor Cooley or Ferreira participated in the call, Orrick said.

Orrick ordered any video links and references to the identities of any NAF members taken down.
ECATEPEC, Mexico (AP) - At a recent political rally in this crime-ridden Mexico City suburb, next year's presidential election was discussed as much as the upcoming June 4 vote for governor in the country's most populous state.

The banner stretched across the stage carried the face of Delfina Gomez, a teacher-turned-politician with the leftist Morena party seeking the Mexico state governorship, and that of her party's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a charismatic early favorite for a third run for Mexico's presidency.

One year before Mexicans pick their new top leader, the impending gubernatorial election in Mexico state is seen as a referendum on the government of Enrique Pena Nieto, who was governor here before becoming president five years ago as the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI.

In this May 19, 2017 photo, a performer dressed as presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador shakes hands with supporters after a campaign rally for Delfina Gomez, who's running for governor of Mexico state with Obrador's party, the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Ecatepec, Mexico state, Mexico. Obrador is a charismatic populist who is an early favorite in his third run for president of Mexico. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

A PRI win here could stanch the bleeding after the party's loss last year of four governorships it had always held. Mexico state has long been a key source of the PRI's so-called "voto duro," or hard vote - voters it can count on year after year, most of them from a lower socio-economic status, less educated and many older than 50, said Ivonne Acuna, a professor in Iberoamerican University's social and political sciences department.

A Morena victory in the state would give Lopez Obrador "an immense advance in his quest for the presidency in 2018," Acuna said. But the opposition vote will be shared among several candidates, which will make it difficult to overcome the PRI's deeply rooted organization.

A poll released Wednesday by the newspaper El Financiero put PRI candidate Alfredo del Mazo ahead of Gomez by five percentage points in the gubernatorial contest. Juan Zepeda of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, which Lopez Obrador left to form Morena, was a distant third and Josefina Vazquez Mota of the National Action Party came in fourth. The poll surveyed 1,200 eligible Mexico state voters from May 20-23 and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

With more than 11 million voters, the state of Mexico has been governed by the PRI for 88 years and is the largest potential prize of three PRI-controlled states holding gubernatorial races June 4. The others are Coahuila and Nayarit.

"For the PRI, winning Mexico state is indispensable to be able to have something to do in 2018" during the presidential election, said researcher Marcela Bravo Ahuja at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Center for Political Studies. "That's not to say that if it wins Mexico state it's guaranteed, far from it, but if it doesn't win Mexico state there won't be anything to do."

Pena Nieto won the presidency for the PRI in 2012 after two consecutive terms held by the more conservative National Action Party. Before National Action took the presidency with Vicente Fox's election victory in 2000 and then retained it with Felipe Calderon's 2006 win, the PRI had ruled Mexico uninterrupted for 71 years.

Pena Nieto himself used the Mexico state governorship as a stepstool to the presidency. And as the president's approval ratings dip close to single digits, the PRI has chosen his cousin - eighth degree, del Mazo says - as its gubernatorial candidate. Politics have long been all in the family, with del Mazo's father and grandfather both serving as past governors of Mexico state.

A few blocks away from the recent Morena rally, Carmen Morales chatted at her food stall with neighbor Maria Aviles.

Morales said she was selling sliced fruit for the first time that day because her evening taco business two blocks off the main thoroughfare had dried up amid fear over street crime.

The pair said they knew at least three girls and young women who were raped in the area in the past year or so, including one of their relatives, and no one was arrested in the cases.

Both said they planned to vote for "Lopez Obrador" in the June 4 contest even though his name will not be on the ballot.

"Morena, it's the same," said Morales. "Hopefully, really this time, there will be a governor who focuses on the people, not just on what he can take."

At a more polished event earlier in the day in the denim-producing city of Jaltenco, the PRI's del Mazo told a boisterous crowd he wants to be governor for the state's women.

He rattled off a list of promises - potable water, jobs, security, pensions, improved health services. But he focused on something he called the "pink salary," a proposed monthly payment for homemakers. Many women in the crowd wore PRI hats that read: "Pink Salary Support for Housewives."

There have been opposition party complaints that the PRI is giving women plastic cards they supposedly can use to draw salaries if del Mazo wins. Rumors swirl that residents will lose social services if the PRI is defeated.

Acuna, of Iberoamerican University, said women vote in greater numbers than men, making del Mazo's strategy a good one, but questioned how such a program would be funded.

Jesus Antonio Cruz Martinez, a 20-year-old student from the community of San Miguel Xaltocan, attended del Mazo's rally because his sister likes the candidate, but he left unimpressed.

"I feel like there has to be a change," he said. "We've already been governed (by PRI) for almost 90 years."

In this May 18, 2017 photo, a woman with a baby stands on the other side of a screen featuring the face of Delfina Gomez, who's running for Mexico state governor with the the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, at a campaign event in Naucalpan, Mexico state, Mexico. Gomez is a school teacher-turned-politician. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 18, 2017 photo, a man holds his dog at a campaign rally for Delfina Gomez, who's running for Mexico state governor for the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Tlalnepantla, Mexico state, Mexico. One year before Mexicans pick their new president, voters will cast ballots for governors in the states of Mexico, Coahuila and Nayarit, all currently controlled by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party known as the PRI. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 19, 2017 photo, presidential hopeful and two-time candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, right, campaigns with Delfina Gomez who's running for Mexico state governor with his National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Ecatepec, Mexico state, Mexico. A consensus of experts interviewed said if the PRI wins the state, Morena is likely to contest the result on grounds of fraud, not only because that's Lopez Obrador's modus operandi, but because fraud does occur. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 18, 2017 photo, a construction worker reads a campaign publication ahead of a rally for Delfina Gomez who's running for Mexico state governor for the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Naucalpan, Mexico state, Mexico. Mexico will hold governor elections on June 4 in the states of Mexico, Nayarit and Coahuila. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 19, 2017 photo, Delfina Gomez, who's running for Mexico state governor with the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, greets supporters at a campaign rally in Ecatepec, Mexico state, Mexico. There are more than 11 million voters in Mexico state, which has been ruled by the PRI for 88 years. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 19, 2017 photo, children on a rooftop watch people arrive to a campaign rally for Delfina Gomez, who's running for Mexico state governor with the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Ecatepec, Mexico state, Mexico. Mexico state has long been a key source of the PRI's so-called "voto duro" or hard vote, voters it can count on year after year, most of them from a lower socio-economic status, less educated and many older than 50, said Ivonne Acuna, a professor in Iberoamerican University's social and political sciences department. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this April 30, 2017 photo, presidential hopeful and two-time candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reads a paragraph from his book during a rally for Delfina Gomez who's running for Mexico state governor with his National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Atizapan, Mexico state, Mexico. The opposition vote, for parties like Morena, is shared among several candidates, making it difficult to overcome the PRI's deeply-rooted organization. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

In this May 12, 2017 photo, supporters arrive for a rally with Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in Chalco, Mexico state, Mexico. Del Mazo is promising potable water, jobs, security, pensions for seniors and improved health services. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

In this May 18, 2017 photo, presidential hopeful and two-time candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador campaigns for Delfina Gomez, who's running for Mexico state governor with his National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Tlalnepantla, Mexico state, Mexico. A Morena party victory would give Obrador "an immense advance in his quest for the presidency in 2018," said Ivonne Acuna, professor in Iberoamerican University's social and political sciences department. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 19, 2017, people walk past a row of abandoned cars and a sign in Spanish that says "Radiators" after a campaign rally for Delfina Gomez who's running for Mexico state governor with the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Ecatepec, Mexico state, Mexico. One year before Mexicans pick their new president, voters will caste ballots for governors in the states of Mexico, Coahuila and Nayarit, all currently controlled by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party known as the PRI. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 18, 2017 photo, people wait for Delfina Gomez, who's running for Mexico state governor with the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, before a campaign rally in Naucalpan, Mexico state, Mexico. One year before Mexicans pick their new president, voters will cast ballots for governors in the states of Mexico, Coahuila and Nayarit, all currently controlled by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party known as the PRI. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 18, 2017 photo, people pose in masks depicting former Mexican presidents; Vicente Fox, top left, Felipe Calderon, center, and Carlos Salinas, bottom right, framed by the Spanish words: "Looking for a rat!", at a campaign rally for Mexico state gubernatorial candidate Delfina Gomez, of the National Regeneration Movement, or Morena, in Naucalpan, Mexico. Edgardo Buscaglia of Columbia Law School said that in Mexico state, politicians of all parties have told him that the origins of the money they receive from their parties is uncertain. "As long as a candidate to any elected post doesn't 'knowingly' accept illicit money, he's not committing a crime," Buscaglia said. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 19, 2017 photo, supporters cheer for Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), at a campaign rally in Jaltenco, Mexico State, Mexico. Del Mazo focused on something he calls the "pink salary," a monthly payment proposed for women who work at home. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this April 29, 2017 photo, Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor of Mexico state with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), campaigns in Chalco, Mexico state, Mexico. Del Mazo told a boisterous crowd he wants to be governor for the state's women. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

In this May 12, 2017 photo, a vendor sells sorbet to people waiting for a rally with Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor of Mexico state with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in Amecameca, Mexico state, Mexico. Rumors are swirling that residents will lose social services if the PRI loses. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

In this May 19, 2017 photo, Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor for Mexico state with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), campaigns in Jaltenco, Mexico state, Mexico. The PRI has chosen Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's eighth cousin as its gubernatorial candidate, even though the president's approval ratings are dipping close to single digits. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

In this May 12, 2017 photo, a woman at a campaign rally for Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor of Mexico state with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), presents a copy of her sick husband's ID to a campaign worker so the campaign can make sure his ballot is cast, in Chalco, Mexico state, Mexico. If the PRI has to relinquish the levers that steer resources through social programs to maintain its vote, the party will suffer. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

In this May 19, 2017 photo, Alfredo del Mazo, who's running for governor of Mexico state with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), sits with his wife Fernanda Castillo at a campaign rally in Jaltenco, Mexico state, Mexico. Politics have long been all in the family, with del Mazo's father and grandfather both serving as past Mexico state governors. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
BEIJING (AP) - China on Friday executed a former top police official convicted of murder and other crimes in a case that attracted broad public interest, along with accusations of torture and abuse of justice from the man's family.

State media reported that Zhao Liping was executed after his death sentence was upheld by the Supreme People's Court. Zhao was also convicted of bribe taking and illegal possession of firearms.

Zhao, who'd wielded enormous power over his fellow citizens as police chief of the vast Inner Mongolia region, had denied the charges against him.

FILE - In this March 17, 2017 file photo, Zhao Yifeng displays photos of his brother Zhao Liping, former head of head of public security in the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, with injuries to his arms during an interview at a hotel in Beijing, China. China executed a former top police official on Friday, May 26, 2017, who was convicted of murder and other crimes in a case that attracted broad public interest, along with accusations of torture and abuse of justice from the man's family. (AP Photo/Gillian Wong, File)

While state media hailed his conviction as a milestone in the country's crackdown on officials who abuse their powers, his brother alleged he'd been sentenced in a show trial, raising issues of justice that are rarely aired in politically sensitive, often tightly scripted cases.

Zhao was the first ministerial-level official to be sentenced to death in President Xi Jinping's signature crackdown on corruption that began in late 2012, and his execution was a top item on state broadcaster CCTV's main national noon news report.

Zhao, 66, had been found guilty of murder after shooting to death a 27-year-old woman in 2015 who was said to have had an "intimate relationship" with him. Chinese media reports said Zhao also had burned and buried the woman's body. The murder raised speculation that Zhao feared she would expose him for some unspecified form of corruption.

Zhao's brother, Zhao Yifeng, said earlier this year in an interview with The Associated Press that interrogators used torture to obtain a confession used to reach the conviction. Zhao Yifeng said that in one session, his brother was put through 22 hours of questioning with his chest, arms and legs strapped and cuffed to a chair in order to immobilize him, kept awake throughout and denied medication for a heart condition. He also detailed his accusations in a letter to the court.

Executions in China are traditionally carried out by gunshot, although lethal injection has also been introduced in recent years. China is believed to execute more prisoners each year than the rest of the world combined, although the precise total is classified as a state secret.
TAORMINA, Sicily (AP) - Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Friday put pressure on internet companies and social media sites to do more to stop the spread of "hateful ideology," appealing to their sense of social responsibility to more swiftly identify and remove terror propaganda.

The measure signed by the seven nations' leaders was a show of solidarity with Britain following Monday's suicide bombing in Manchester, England that killed 22 outside a pop music concert. The Islamic State group claimed the attack, although authorities are working to establish the bombing suspect's ties to extremist organizations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the leaders agreed that the threat posed by the Islamic State group "is evolving rather than disappearing."

From left, President Donald Trump, European Council President Donald Tusk, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni watch an Italian flying squadron as part of activities at the G7 Summit in Taormina, Sicily, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP)

"As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning, and the group's hateful ideology is spreading online," May said. "Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet."

She said terror propaganda is "warping young minds" and that she thinks technology companies both could do more and have the responsibility to act.

In their declaration, the leaders said they were targeting "propaganda supporting terrorism and violent extremism, online recruitment by extremists, radicalization and incitement to violence." They said they would work also with youth and religious leaders, prisons and educational institutions toward that end.

They also agreed in the declaration to strengthen the process for returning foreign fighters operating in Europe to their countries of origin, to better share intelligence on individuals who have trained in Islamic State territory, and to do more to cut off funding streams they called "the lifeblood of violent extremists and terrorists."

The G-7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on Friday also discussed climate and trade.

At the close of the day's talks, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said six of the G-7 nations - Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan - confirmed "our commitment and our determination" to the Paris Agreement establishing goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

The United States, meanwhile, confirmed "a period of reflection" on the issue, he said.

Trump's pending review of U.S. climate policies and decision not to make up his mind before the Taormina summit has braced environmentalists for the possibility of bland language that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and emissions under the Paris Agreement.

"What we do not want to see is a false compromise on nothing," Tobias Muenchmeyer, a political expert for Greenpeace, said. "We want to see determination and commitment over unity," with the other partners going ahead without the United States.

From left, Britain's PM Theresa May, President of the EU Council Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni, France President Emmanuel Macron, and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau walk to their first meeting after the welcome ceremony of the leaders of the G7 countries summit in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni -- forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

Activists wearing the masks of the seven leaders of G7, from left, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni, British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, sit at a table eating mock pasta during an initiative by Oxfam, an international confederation of NGOS aimed at fighting poverty, ahead of the G7 summit scheduled for May 26 and 27 in Taormina, Italy, Thursday, May 25, 2017. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP)

Italian army soldiers patrol a beach at Giardini Naxos near by the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Thursday, May 25, 2017 ahead of a G7 summit scheduled for May 26 and 27. Four leaders are making their G7 premier, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Italian army officers patrol a beach at Giardini Naxos near by the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, ahead of a G7 summit scheduled for May 26 and 27, in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Thursday, May 25, 2017. Four leaders are making their G7 premier, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

FILE - In this May 22, 2017 file photo German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles behind a battery case during the groundbreaking ceremony for a new battery factory for German ACCUMOTIVE owned subsidiary of the Daimler AG in Kamenz, eastern Germany. Four leaders are making their G7 premier in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, on May 26 and 27, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, file)

FILE - In this May 21, 2017 file photo President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Kuwait's Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, in Riyadh. Four leaders are making their G7 premier in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, on May 26 and 27, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, files)

An Italian army officer patrols a beach at Giardini Naxos near by the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, ahead of a G7 summit scheduled for May 26 and 27, in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Thursday, May 25, 2017. Four leaders are making their G7 premier, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

FILE - In this April 29, 2017 file photo, Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Belgium. Four leaders are making their G7 premier in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, on May 26 and 27, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, file)

FILE - In this May 18, 2017 file photo Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives a wave as he departs a hotel following a meeting with Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, in Seattle, WA, United States. Four leaders are making their G7 premier in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, on May 26 and 27, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, files)

FILE - In this May 16, 2017 file photo newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron waves to the media after a meeting with the International Olympic Committee at the Elysee palace in Paris. Four leaders are making their G7 premier, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, files)

FILE - In this May 1, 2017 file photo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a speech during the annual rally on revising Japan's constitution organized by ruling party lawmakers in Tokyo, Monday, May 1, 2017. Four leaders are making their G7 premier in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, on May 26 and 27, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, file)

FILE - In this May 23, 2017 file photo British Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the media outside 10 Downing Street. Four leaders are making their G7 premier in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, on May 26 and 27, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron, Britain's Theresa May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, files)

Leaders of the G7, from left, European Council President Donald Tusk, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pose during a group photo for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

From left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister Theresa May, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (unseen) sit around a table during the G7 Summit in Taormina, Sicily, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool Photo via AP)

US President Donal Trump waves to reporters as he arrives to the Belvedere (sightseeing point) prior to the start of the leaders of the G7 countries summit in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni -- forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
MOSCOW (AP) - Rights activists from Human Rights Watch say in a new report that high-level officials in Russia's Chechnya have visited detention facilities where gay people allegedly were illegally held and tortured.

In April, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that gay men in Chechnya had been tortured and killed by police. The Associated Press last month spoke to two victims of the crackdown who supported these claims. Although Chechen officials have denied the reports, federal investigators have been dispatched there to conduct a probe.

Human Rights Watch on Friday released a report detailing the anti-gay purge that it said lasted through the first week of April. The group said it had spoken to six former detainees who said Chechen officials, including two high-level ones, visited the unofficial prisons and humiliated the inmates.
The mind boggles as it tries to comprehend what could drive someone to bomb a crowd of concert-goers, many of them children, in the name of his or her religion. Some, however, believe they have the answer: economic inequality.

In a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic, Fr. Peter Farrington  a Coptic priest in the UK  notes that this facile explanation for the darkness that lies within the human heart enjoys the patronage of some of the Wests most respected intellectuals and public figures.

Thomas Piketty, the foremost proponent of wealth redistribution today, has said that terrorism feeds on the powder keg of Middle Eastern inequality, that we [the West] have largely contributed to creating,' he writes.

He could have as easily cited former U.S. Secretary of State (and near-president) John Kerry, who once said, We have a huge common interest in dealing with this issue of poverty, which in many cases is the root cause of terrorism or even the root cause of the disenfranchisement of millions of people on this planet.

Yet by meticulously examining one terrorist biography after another, he finds the perpetrators comfortably ensconced in the Wests middle class. After noting their personal backgrounds, he reveals that the disconnect between poverty and jihad holds true for a multitude of terrorists across varying societies, both analytically and anecdotally. For instance:

Christine Fair and Bryan Shepherd, after analysing the data of the Pew Global Attitudes data, found that, The very poor are less, not more, likely to support such [terrorist] attacks. Evidence is increasingly demonstrating that poverty and economic inequality, though certainly drivers of social unrest, are not the causes of terrorism.

The studies he cites can be multiplied across the world. Time magazine reported:

In 2002, Alan Krueger, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton, and Jitka Maleckova, an associate professor at the Institute for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Charles University, made the argument in The New Republic against povertys role in terrorism with a wide-ranging presentation of evidence including evidence gathered from Hezbollah and Hamas suggesting that upper class and more educated individuals are slightly over-represented in among terrorists because terror groups actively select for those individuals from large populations of potential recruits.

The simple, terrifying fact is, there lies within the heart of the West a terrorist presence, radicalized and implacable, ready to strike and heedless of the consequences its members may pay for lashing out. A disturbingly high proportion of Muslims in the UK had views which were not compatible with British democratic and liberal ideals, he writes.

The more unsettling darkness, though, is the darkening of the human heart and intentions, whereby the prince of darkness turns those God created to be children of the light and the day against one another.

You can read the full essay here.

(Photo credit: Shutterstock.)
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Deborah Crosby touched her father's flag-draped casket as her three brothers hugged her in a tearful embrace on the tarmac at the San Diego airport Friday - ending a more than half century search to find and bring home the remains of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick P. Crosby, shot down as a Navy pilot in the Vietnam War.

Deborah Crosby, now 58, was only six when she was sent home from the first grade to learn her father was presumed dead, though his body had not been found.

Her mother could never talk about that day, but she gave Crosby and her brothers a binder with articles about her father's plane zooming low through the clouds on a bomb damage assessment mission before it was gunned down by North Vietnamese ground forces in 1965. The 31-year-old pilot was armed only with cameras, his daughter said.

Deborah Crosby, right, walks away from her father's casket after its arrival to the airport Friday, May 26, 2017, in San Diego. Her brothers, Douglas Crosby, left, John Crosby, second from left, and Steven Crosby look on. After spending more than half a century on getting her father's remains recovered from Vietnam after his Navy plane was shot down there in 1965, Crosby watched Friday as his casket was removed from a Delta Air Lines jet at San Diego's airport and six sailors transferred it to a hearse. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Crosby and her grandmother made a pact to someday bring home her father's remains and bury him in his hometown of San Diego.

A year ago, military investigators found his remains in a fish pond in north Vietnam. On Friday, Deborah Crosby fulfilled her promise to her late grandmother.

Passengers watched through the windows of a Delta Air Lines jet as the flag-draped casket was removed from the hold by six sailors.

Deborah Crosby walked forward, touched the casket and embraced her three brothers. The aviator's elderly sister, Sharon, and brother, David, also hugged, and he wiped an eye.

"I'm just overwhelmed with seeing the plane drive up and all of the uniforms and all of the respect and the honors that he's receiving," Deborah Crosby said.

The sailors saluted before the casket left in a hearse.

On Sunday, Frederick Crosby will be buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery with full military honors and a Navy flyover.

Deborah Crosby never doubted the fact that her father was killed. But her grief seemed to linger in a deep space inside her until she received news that his remains had been recovered, finally giving her closure.

"It just changed my life in so many ways," the energy consultant who lives in New York said earlier in an interview. "It relieved a lot of sadness that I've been carrying around in my heart very quietly."

The U.S. military actively searches for missing service members from conflicts worldwide. According to the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, 969 missing service members have been accounted for since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, while the whereabouts of 1,611 remain a mystery.

Deborah Crosby called to inquire regularly about the military's progress on her father's case.

Decades passed and her mother and grandmother both died before investigators got a breakthrough on their third trip to the area when they met Pham Van Truong, a lifelong resident of Nam Ngan ward in Thanh Hoa City.

According to a 50-page report given to Deborah Crosby, the 89-year-old man told investigators he couldn't recall the month or year, but he remembered during the war that he was cooking limestone to reinforce his house when he heard gunfire and ran to the nearby levee to investigate. He saw two planes headed toward his house, and one was on fire as it glided toward the levee. He said he could see its wing and tail surfaces were missing. The aircraft rolled as it hit the fish pond in front of his house, splashing Van Truong with water and mud. The other aircraft kept flying toward the sea.

Based on the new information, U.S. military investigators decided to comb the bottom of the pond in 2015. When they emptied it bucket by bucket, they found bones, pieces of fabric from the pilot's uniform, his chrome lighter and wedding band.

Deborah Crosby felt she could finally shed the tears stored up inside of her.

"It's nice to be able to let out the tears and to have some relief in our hearts," Crosby said. "And now we're able to talk about it. Before we didn't talk much about this and now we can talk proudly and we have you know a happier ending and we can visit my dad's gravesite."

Crosby said her brothers want to keep the fabric, lighter and wedding band.

She said she wants the flag draped over his coffin to be able to "hold it close to my heart."

Navy sailors carry the casket of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby after its arrival to the airport Friday, May 26, 2017, in San Diego. After spending more than half a century on getting her father's remains recovered from Vietnam after his Navy plane was shot down there in 1965, Deborah Crosby watched Friday as his casket was removed from a Delta Air Lines jet at San Diego's airport and six sailors transferred it to a hearse. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Deborah Crosby, center right, touches her father's casket after its arrival to the airport Friday, May 26, 2017, in San Diego. Brothers John Crosby, left, and Steven Crosby, right, look on. After spending more than half a century on getting her father's remains recovered from Vietnam after his Navy plane was shot down there in 1965, Crosby watched Friday as his casket was removed from a Delta Air Lines jet at San Diego's airport and six sailors transferred it to a hearse. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Deborah Crosby, center right, hugs her brother John Crosby, right, in front of her father's casket after its arrival to the airport Friday, May 26, 2017, in San Diego. Brothers Douglas Crosby, left, and Steven, second from left, look on. After spending more than half a century on getting her father's remains recovered from Vietnam after his Navy plane was shot down there in 1965, Crosby watched Friday as his casket was removed from a Delta Air Lines jet at San Diego's airport and six sailors transferred it to a hearse. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans trying to dismantle former President Barack Obama's health care law have run into the same problem that bedeviled him: Quality health insurance doesn't come cheap, especially if it protects people in poor health, older adults not yet eligible for Medicare, and the poor.

Something has to give.

Now, the GOP's laser focus on lowering premiums could undermine comprehensive coverage that consumers also value, such as the current guarantees that people with medical problems can get health insurance, or that plans will cover costly conditions such as substance abuse.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"Premiums do not tell the whole story," said Trish Riley, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, a nonpartisan organization that advises states.

"The questions that need to be addressed are what do those premiums buy, and what other costs besides premiums do consumers pay?" said Riley. "If you buy a bike it will cost you less than a car."

With "Obamacare," Democrats set out to get more people insured, but they also wanted to bolster the underlying coverage by making it illegal for insurers to turn away those with medical problems, requiring a broad range of standard benefits, and establishing a baseline of financial protection. Previously, for example, people with a history of cancer could be charged a higher premium, or be turned down altogether.

That led to 20 million more insured, but also higher premiums for people buying their own policies, along with tax increases and considerable federal regulation.

Republicans trying to roll back the 2010 health care law are making their case all about premiums, trying to find ways to give states and insurers flexibility to design plans that cost less. About half the people who buy individual health insurance policies are subsidized under Obama's health law, but the rest are not, and many have faced stiff premium increases.

The old saying about getting what you pay for still applies.

Although many healthy customers would welcome plans with lower monthly premiums, the high cost of medical care isn't going down. The risk is that the GOP's premiums-focused approach will undermine comprehensive coverage that consumers also want, since no one is beyond the reach of sickness, or immune from the consequences of age.

A nonpartisan analysis of the House-passed Republican bill put the stakes in sobering terms. The Congressional Budget Office said that in states that take full advantage of the House plan's waivers to insurance requirements, healthy people might flock to skinnier, lower-premium plans. Those in poor health left in comprehensive plans could face premiums that keep rising until they become unaffordable, because there would be fewer healthy people in those plans to share the cost.

"People who are less healthy (including those with pre-existing or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive ... health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at all," said the CBO report.

Some Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, said they don't want to see that happen. But many GOP lawmakers still want to talk just about premiums. The CBO report did find that over time premiums would come down under the House bill, even if more people become uninsured.

"We want to focus on premiums, which is what I hear about every weekend," said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who can recite personal stories of constituents slammed with big increases.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., used a Trump administration report on premiums as the centerpiece for a news conference.

"We see a law that's collapsing," said Ryan. "People can't afford this."

The administration report found that premiums more than doubled since "Obamacare" took effect, but independent experts say it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, because prior to the Obama law, insurers were able to turn away people in poor health and offer plans that limited or left out benefits like maternity care and prescription drugs.

"The premium might be lower but there will be benefits missing," said Gary Claxton, a vice president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, a clearinghouse for information about the health care system.

Covering those in poor health also raises costs for everybody else. The House Republican plan provides several ways to try to do that, including so-called "high-risk pools" - insurance of last resort that has not worked well in the past.

"The more you can separate people out into another pool or out of the market, the more you can lower premiums," said Claxton. "But you still cannot get back to where" premiums were before the Obama law took effect.

With polls showing that only about 1 in 5 five Americans support the House bill, Republicans still have many issues to resolve.

Even Ryan, one of the bill's biggest cheerleaders, acknowledges that. "We got two problems we got to solve here," he said later in his news conference. "We got to get premiums down and we got to make sure that people with pre-existing conditions can get affordable coverage."

___

Associated Press reporter Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) - When President Donald Trump met Pope Francis this week, the U.S. leader renewed a commitment to fighting global famine and proudly announced a new multimillion-dollar American aid contribution to four African nations in crisis. Left unsaid by the president or the White House: His proposal to slash such funds by more than 40 percent in the next fiscal year.

While the Trump administration's 2018 spending plan does not eliminate money for emergency food aid, it ends a critical program by consolidating it into a broader account that covers all international disaster assistance. Doing so reduces the amount of money the U.S. dedicates to fighting famine to $1.5 billion next year, from $2.6 billion in 2016. The reduction is likely even steeper compared to 2017, but the administration hasn't calculated figures for this fiscal year because it doesn't end until Sept. 30 and more money may be allocated for famine relief before then.

Trump officials say the proposed changes will streamline U.S. aid programs, eliminate redundancies and increase efficiency. Relief organizations fear less U.S. money will mean an increase in famine and hunger-related deaths, particularly in Africa, if Congress approves the budget. Trump's overall proposal, however, is already prompting significant opposition from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

In this May 24, 2017, photo, Pope Francis meets with President Donald Trump at the Vatican. When Trump met Pope Francis, the U.S. leader renewed a commitment to fighting global famine and proudly announced a new multimillion-dollar American aid contribution to four African nations in crisis. Left unsaid by the president or the White House: His proposal to slash such funds by more than 40 percent in the next fiscal year. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, Pool)

Trump's aid announcement at the Vatican on Wednesday went largely unnoticed, tucked into the last paragraph of a brief White House readout of the meeting. And coverage of the president's papal audience was dominated by atmospherics between two men with widely divergent views on many issues.

Officials familiar with planning for the new assistance said the White House was seeking "a deliverable" to announce after Trump's discussions with the pope and settled on the additional famine relief for millions in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the issue publicly.

In the meeting, Trump "renewed the commitment of the United States to fighting global famine," the White House said. "As he relayed at the Vatican, the United States is proud to announce more than $300 million in anti-famine spending, focused on the crises in Yemen, (South) Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria."

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which along with the State Department could face a 31 percent budget cut, said the additional money brought total U.S. humanitarian assistance for those four countries to almost $1.2 billion since last October. "The United States is one of the largest donors of humanitarian assistance in all four crises," it said, extolling the value of U.S. aid.

In what may have been a subtle reminder to the rest of Trump's administration, the agency's statement said: "The assistance we provide represents the best of America's generosity and goodwill, while improving our national security by strengthening relationships with nations and people around the world. We will continue to work with our international and local partners to provide the life-saving aid needed to avert famine and to support surrounding countries that have been impacted by these crises."

Yet, that support and broader disaster relief assistance would face drastic cuts if the administration gets its way.

The proposed 2018 budget seeks $2.5 billion for international disaster assistance. Of that total, $1.5 billion would be for food aid.

In 2016, the United States provided $2.6 billion in food aid through a combination of money from the disaster assistance fund and Title II of the "Food for Peace" program, which requires most of its money be spent on American food that is then shipped to areas in need. Trump's budget would eliminate that program, which accounted for $1.7 billion worth of emergency food aid last year, calling it inefficient.

In its statement supporting the change, USAID said moving all famine aid to the disaster assistance account "allows USAID to both support the purchase of commodities in the U.S. and in markets overseas." The U.S. would end up providing food assistance "more efficiently and in a manner that uses the most appropriate tool for crises."
Sri Lanka's participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations began while the country was embroiled in a brutal, generation-long civil war. Yet, even as Sri Lanka refused to investigate alleged war crimes by its troops during that conflict, the U.N. continued to deploy thousands of Sri Lankan peacekeepers to guard some of the world's most vulnerable populations.

Key dates in Sri Lanka's recent history of conflict and contributions to U.N. peacekeeping:

1948 - The United Nations deploys its first-ever peacekeeping mission to the Middle East.

FILE - In this 1986 file photo, Sri Lankan government troops perform a drill practice at a camp in Trincomalee, Sir Lanka. In 1983, civil war broke out, with rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (or LTTE, known as Tamil Tigers) fighting government forces for an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils in northern and eastern regions of the island nation. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)

1960 - Sri Lanka makes its first U.N. peacekeeping contribution, sending six soldiers to the U.N. mission in Congo.

1983 - Civil war breaks out in Sri Lanka, with rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam fighting government forces for an ethnic Tamil homeland in the island's north and east.

1987 - Indian peacekeepers begin a three-year deployment in Sri Lanka.

2004 - Sri Lanka opens a U.N. peacekeeper training camp in the hillside resort town of Kukuleganga.

2004 - Sri Lanka sends an infantry battalion of 950 troops to serve in the U.N. mission in Haiti. Over the next four years, it will join seven other missions - in South Sudan, Congo, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Liberia, Timor and Western Sahara.

2005 - The U.N. acknowledges sexual abuse and exploitation are a problem within some of its peacekeeping missions, and pledges to improve transparency, accountability and justice on the matter.

2005 - Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected Sri Lanka's president, and leads the military campaign against the Tamil rebels.

2007 - A U.N. investigation details evidence of a sex ring involving at least 134 Sri Lankan military troops and at least nine Haitian children. Sri Lanka responds by repatriating 114 peacekeepers still on deployment. Years later, it acknowledges it forced one officer to retire and dismissed one soldier from service, while imposing unspecified punishments on up to 21 others. It refuses to give the AP any details on how it investigated the case, or to explain why so few were punished or what exactly those punishments entailed.

2009 - Sri Lankan troops declare victory in the civil war after defeating the Tamil rebels. The government has since refused all demands for an independent investigation into widespread allegations of war crimes and abuses by Sri Lankan soldiers during the conflict.

2013 - An 18-year-old woman in Haiti alleges she was raped and sodomized by a Sri Lankan peacekeeper. Sri Lanka sends a general to investigate. He does not interview the woman or medical staff before dismissing the case, allowing the soldier to remain in the military.

2015 - Sri Lanka formally ends its mission contribution to Haiti, but still has peacekeepers elsewhere, including Lebanon and South Sudan.

2015 - Sri Lankan voters oust Rajapaksa and elect his former ally Maithripala Sirisena, who campaigned on a platform of transparency and openness, acknowledging that the country's failure to ensure post-war justice and reconciliation had hurt its global standing.

2016 - The U.N. invites Sri Lanka to join its mission in Mali, one of the world's most dangerous peacekeeping missions. Initially, officials say up to 1,000 soldiers will be deployed, but that number is later revised to around 200.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Moldovan anti-corruption prosecutors say the mayor of Chisinau has been detained on suspicion of influence trafficking in a city parking contract.

The National Anti-Corruption Center alleges that Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca told his deputy to sign a contract with Austrian company EME Parkleitsystem GmbH. Chirtoaca was detained Friday and will be held for 72 hours. He has not commented.

Chirtoaca suspended the contract with the company this month. The company has not commented.

FILE - In this June 28, 2015, file photo, Dorin Chirtoaca, a pro-European candidate for mayor of the Moldovan capital, gives a thumbs-up after seeing exit polls in a runoff for local elections in Chisinau, Moldova. The National Anti-Corruption Center alleges that Chirtoaca told his deputy to sign a contract with Austrian company EME Parkleitsystem GmbH. (AP Photo/Dan Morar, File)

The anti-corruption center said the company won contracts due to "concerted actions" from city hall officials.

It said a public transport official set up an offshore contract in Cyprus and then became a shareholder in EME Parkleitsystem, owning a 26 percent stake which was split between the official and the mayor.

Seven other officials recently were detained in the case, including the city's two deputy mayors.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll on long-term care was conducted March 2-29 by NORC at the University of Chicago, with funding from the SCAN Foundation. It is based on online and telephone interviews of 1,341 adults age 40 and over who are members of NORC's nationally representative AmeriSpeak panel.

Interviews included 1,106 AmeriSpeak panel members who completed the survey online and 235 who completed it over the phone.

The AmeriSpeak panel includes respondents originally selected randomly from NORC's National Frame based on address-based sampling and recruited by mail, email, telephone and face-to-face interviews.

NORC interviews participants over the phone if they don't have internet access. With a probability basis and coverage of people who can't access the internet, surveys using AmeriSpeak are nationally representative.

Interviews with AmeriSpeak panelists were conducted in English and Spanish.

As is done routinely in surveys, results were weighted, or adjusted, to ensure that responses accurately reflect the population's makeup by factors such as age, sex, education, census region and race. In addition, the weighting took into account patterns of nonresponse among panel members selected for the survey.

No more than 1 time in 20 should chance variations in the sample cause the results to vary by more than plus or minus 2.19 percentage points from the answers that would be obtained if all adults 40 years old and older in the U.S. were polled.

There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions.

The questions and results are available at http://www.longtermcarepoll.org/.
BRUSSELS (AP) - It sounds strange to characterize the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a huge gun club, but the comparison can be useful in understanding the world's biggest military alliance.

Like many gun clubs, NATO actually has no weapons of its own. The battleships, war planes, missiles and potential pool of more than 3 million personnel are owned and brought to the range by the 28 member states, mostly at their own cost. The only military equipment NATO has is a fleet of early warning radar planes and, from next year, five surveillance drones.

Here's a look at how NATO works and why it matters:

FILE - In this Tuesday July 28, 2015 file photo NATO country flags wave outside NATO headquarters in Brussels. It sounds strange to characterize the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a huge gun club, but the comparison can be useful in understanding the world's biggest military alliance. Like many gun clubs, NATO _ where President Donald Trump is meeting other alliance leaders for the first time Thursday _ actually has no weapons of its own. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

___

AN ALLIANCE BORN FROM THE ASHES OF WAR

This club, with its main headquarters in Brussels and military HQ in Mons, Belgium, is open to any European nation that wants to join and can meet the requirements and obligations. Montenegro is set to join soon. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia and Macedonia are waiting in line. The Soviet Union, during the Cold War, and Russia now have been major preoccupations since the organization was founded in 1949, and in many ways remain NATO's reason for existing.

The United States is without doubt the biggest and most influential member. It spends more on its own military budget than all the others combined. It also pays just over 22 percent of NATO common funding for infrastructure and collectively owned equipment. So Washington has a big say in how things are run. Smaller allies long to train and work with U.S. forces because it gives them access to equipment and expertise they can't afford alone. But NATO's decisions are made by consensus and there is no majority voting of any kind. This means that Albania, for example, has a veto just as final as Washington's.

___

WHO'S IN CHARGE

The alliance's meetings - the North Atlantic Council, held at ambassadorial level almost weekly in Brussels, less often at the level of ministers or heads of state and government - are chaired by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. In essence, Stoltenberg runs the headquarters located near the Brussels airport, which is shifting just over the road this year to new premises being inaugurated by NATO leaders Thursday and estimated to have cost more than 1 billion euros. He doesn't order the allies around. His job is to encourage consensus and speak on their behalf publicly as a single voice representing all 28 members.

___

WHY AMERICANS SHOULD CARE

With the United States clearly able to take care of itself most of the time in military terms, many wonder why Americans should even care about NATO. But the alliance is the one international forum where Washington agrees to put its military might up for negotiation and can be persuaded to act differently by its allies. It's also an organization that uses plenty of U.S. taxpayer dollars. That money, in part, drives military spending and defense research and so provides plenty of jobs.

___

WHAT IT DOES

On the ground, NATO has notably helped to keep peace in the Balkans and combat the Taliban-led insurgency in war-torn Afghanistan - the alliance's biggest ever operation, launched after the United States triggered its "all for one and one for all" common defense clause in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. It is the only time the clause, known as Article 5, has been activated.

While the Soviet Union is long gone, NATO continues to see Russia as a security threat and to offer protection to concerned member states near Russia's borders. NATO is now joining the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group and setting up a counter-terrorism intelligence cell to improve information-sharing. It will notably focus on so-called foreign fighters who travel from Europe to train or fight with extremists in Iraq and Syria.

___

HOW MUCH SHOULD NATO DEFENSE COST?

President Donald Trump said Thursday that member states should be bound to spend at least pay 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. Only five members currently meet the target: Britain, Estonia, debt-laden Greece, Poland and the United States, which spends more than all the other allies combined.

In the wake of years of defense cuts, budgets are getting slowly back on the rise. The 28 member nations, plus soon-to-join Montenegro, are committed to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense by 2024. Still, many are skeptical about this arbitrary bottom line that takes no account of effective military spending where it's needed most. Germany would have to virtually double its military budget and spend more than Russia. In the European Union, the member nations now spend an average of 1.34 percent on defense, compared to 3.6 percent in the United States. Beyond an increase in spending, the EU is now making active efforts to cooperate more between nations to eliminate what it sees as up to $100 billion a year in wasteful overlap.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, May 25, 2017. US President Donald Trump arrived in Belgium Wednesday evening and will attend a NATO summit as well as meet EU and Belgian officials. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
BERLIN (AP) - Police in western Germany have arrested a suspected Islamic extremist who they believe may have been planning an attack.

The 32-year-old man, a German who was believed to have converted to Islam and become radicalized, was arrested Thursday evening in Essen. Hs name wasn't released in line with German privacy rules.

Police said that there was "no evidence of a concrete danger of an attack." They gave no details on a possible target.

They said Friday that he was already known to authorities for petty crime and because of his suspected radicalization.
TAORMINA, Sicily (AP) - The Latest on the G-7 summit in Taormina, Sicily (all times local):

7:00 p.m.

Group of Seven leaders are appealing to internet providers and social media companies to join the fight against terrorism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with President Donald Trump during a family photo with G7 leaders at the Ancient Greek Theater of Taormina, during the G7 Summit, Friday, May 26, 2017, in Taormina, Italy. From left, European Council President Donald Tusk, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Merkel, and Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The leaders meeting in Taormina, Sicily signed a declaration pledging to intensify the fight against terror in the wake of "the brutal attack in Manchester" that killed 22 people outside a pop music concert.

The declaration urges internet providers to "act urgently in developing and sharing new technology and tools to improve the automatic detection of content promoting incitement to violence."

The leaders say they are targeting "propaganda supporting terrorism and violent extremism, online recruitment by extremists, radicalization and incitement to violence," and that they would work with youth and religious leaders, prisons and educational institutions toward that end.

___

6 p.m.

The leaders of the Group of Seven nations have agreed to do more to fight terrorism.

Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, host of the G-7 summit, signed a declaration in the presence of the other leaders. He called it a strong message of friendship and solidarity with Britain after the deadly terror attack in Manchester.

British Prime Minister Theresa May held up the declaration on fighting terror during a group photo with the other leaders after the document was signed. The others embraced her as she prepared to return to London a day before the summit ends.

The G-7 group of wealthy democracies includes the United States, Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and Canada.

___

4 p.m.

Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump are both cutting elegant figures at events for spouses on the sidelines of the G-7 summit.

The two greeted each other warmly when they met Friday at Catania's City Hall.

Brigitte Macron dressed casually in white jeans, a red sweater and wedged Espadrilles, while Melania Trump wore a floral applique designer jacket over a smart white dress with a matching floral clutch.

The spouses were invited for an Italian aperitivo and lunch at the historic Elephants Palace, greeted by the mayor and his companion. The guests included also German Chancellor Angela Merkel's husband, Joachim Sauer, who rarely joins his wife abroad, Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie Abe, and Italian host Paolo Gentiloni's wife, Emanuela Mauro.

Some of the spouses got a helicopter's eye view of Mount Etna, an active volcano near Catania, but not Mrs. Trump, who arrived separately in her own minivan. She also skipped a tour of a Baroque Benedictine Monastery.

___

3 p.m.

Residents of the hilltop Sicilian town of Taormina are cheering and waving as the leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies pass by - a rarity for global summits, where ordinary people are usually kept far away for security reasons.

Crowds lined the route as Donald Trump and the other six G-7 leaders made their way from Taormina's famed ancient Greek theater, where they took the traditional G-7 photo, to the five-star San Domenico Palace, where meetings were taking place The leaders made a brief stop along the way to take in a breathtaking view of the sea.

While most people were kept far from the summit site, residents of Taormina, a town of 11,000, were given accreditation passes to wear around their necks, allowing them to stay at home during the two-day summit.

One man toted his groceries through the crowd, and two little girls in white T-shirts were waving at the leaders.

___

2:35 p.m.

Germany is rejecting U.S. suggestions that bilateral deals might be possible between the U.S. and European Union members.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters in Berlin on Friday that the EU "has a common trade policy that is implemented by the European Commission."

He says in the last 50 years the EU has "done very well as an increasingly big and powerful economic bloc by agreeing trade deals for the (entire) union and for individual member states."

He also says it could be a "thorn in the side" of the U.S. government that the EU is "probably a stronger and more powerful trade bloc than the United States of America or NAFTA." Schaefer says the EU has no reason for "be sad about this, it's what makes us strong."

___

2:15 p.m.

Germany is rejecting a U.S. official's assertion that efforts to combat climate change will harm economic growth.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn was reported to have said that economic considerations would prevail if they collide with measures to curtail global warming under the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Asked about the comments Friday, a spokesman for Germany's environment ministry says "we expressly don't share the view that protecting the climate harms economic growth."

Nikolai Fichtner says Germany sees protecting the climate as "a modernization program for national economies. And the key question is whether one is part of this early on or not."

As G-7 leaders gathered in Sicily, Fichtner says Germany is "lobbying at all levels right now for the U.S. to remain in the Paris Agreement" on fighting climate change.

___

1:40 p.m.

A German government spokesman says trade surpluses like the one that's provoking President Donald Trump's ire are the result of market factors and are "neither good nor bad."

Spokesman Georg Streiter didn't comment directly on a report that Trump called Germany "bad, very bad" on trade because of the success of German companies in selling autos and other goods to U.S. customers.

But, speaking in Berlin, Streiter said Germany's current account surplus - the broadest measure of trade and investment flows - reflects economic factors that the German government can't directly do anything about.

He said it was "also caused by factors that cannot, or at least cannot directly, be influenced by economic or financial policy measures in Germany, for example the oil price, the euro exchange rate, but also structural factors such as demographic developments."

___

1:20 p.m.

The Italian air force's Frecce Tricolori acrobatics team is putting on a show for the G-7 summit, streaming the colors of the Italian flag over the sea as the leaders watch from garden in Sicily.

U.S. President Donald Trump, and the leaders of six other wealthy democracies - France, Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada - are in Taormina, Sicily for this year's G-7 summit at the 5-star San Domenico Palace hotel.

The top issues of the two-day meeting Friday and Saturday are climate change, security, trade and immigration - and the differences between the leaders are substantial.

Endorsing measures to combat terror is expected to find easy agreement, however, especially after the attack on a pop concert killed 22 people Monday night in Manchester.

___

12:55 p.m.

Environmental activists have staged protests on a beach and at sea near the Sicilian hilltop town of Taormina, where leaders of the world's seven wealthiest democracies were meeting.

Greenpeace and Oxfam members carried out stunts on the seafront of Giardini Naxo on Friday to urge the Group of Seven leaders to fight climate change, one of the most problematic issues on the agenda of the two-day meeting.

Greenpeace activists on eight kayaks unfurled banners at sea with messages including "Planet Earth first." On shore they unveiled a 4-meter (13-foot) Statue of Liberty in a life jacket that symbolized the plight of migrants and the threat of rising seas, one effect of climate change.

Oxfam activists wore masks representing the seven leaders and had a banner with the words "Paris Agreement," the deal to fight global warming which U.S. President Trump has threatened to abandon.

___

12:15 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has detailed his top priorities at the G-7, which include climate change and trade.

At a bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, Macron insisted on the need for "reciprocity" on trade and said Europeans sometimes had a "too naive" approach on trade deals.

The two leaders also found common ground on terrorism, following the attack on a pop concert in Manchester that killed 22 people. Macron offered his condolences for the Manchester attack, calling for increased European cooperation against terror "because they attack our young."

That comment also referred to the Nice truck attack last summer that killed children and young families at a fireworks display, as well as the attack on a concert at the Bataclan theater in Paris.

Macron spoke fluent English, which is very unusual for a French president.

___

11:55 p.m.

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's views, Italy's leader is pushing for the G-7 summit to issue a strong statement on both fighting climate change and on handling the vast flow of migrants and refugees in need of help around the world.

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni, the host of this year's G-7 summit in Taormina, Sicily, spoke Friday as the two-day summit of the world's wealthy democracies began.

Gentiloni says "We will make an important declaration today here in Taormina on climate change, on great migrant flows, on free trade in the world on which so many jobs depend and the future prospects for our economy."

The Italian leader says the talks won't be easy but "the spirit of Taormina will help push us in the right direction."

___

11:20 a.m.

The chairman of the European Union's council says he agrees with President Donald Trump that the international community should be "tough, even brutal" on terrorism and Islamic State.

European Council President Donald Tusk said terrorism was one of the main topics between EU officials and Trump during his visit to Brussels, especially in the wake of the Manchester pop concert bombing.

Tusk said that "I totally agreed with him when he said the international community, the G7, the United States, Europe - should be tough, even brutal, with terrorism and ISIS" an acronym for the extremist group fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Tusk spoke at the start of a meeting of the Group of Seven democracies in Taormina, Sicily.

___

7 a.m.

The hot-button issues of climate change, trade and migration threaten to throw a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies off its consensus game, with U.S. President Donald Trump cast as the spoiler-in-chief.

While Trump has met all of the leaders one on one, this will be the first time all seven are around the same table, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni.

Climate policy promises to be the real buzzkill at the G-7 party. Endorsing measures to combat terror is expected to find easy agreement, especially after the attack in Manchester on a pop music concert that left 22 people dead.

Trump also going against the grain on trade, taking a more protectionist stand.

His pending review of U.S. climate policies has left environmentalists bracing for the possibility of bland G-7 promises that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

President Donald Trump waves as he takes a walking tour during the G7 Summit, Friday, May 26, 2017, in Taormina, Italy. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

From left, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President Donald Trump, President of the EU Council Donald Tusk, President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau look at the Frecce Tricolori Italian Air Force acrobatic squadron performing, in Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

US President Donald Trump arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni, forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron arrives at San Domenico Palace Hotel, the venue of the annual G7 summit, in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. The G7 Summit will be held from May 26 to 27, 2017. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Greenpeace activists stage a demonstration against the climate change in Giardini Naxos, near the venue of the G7 summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Climate change promises to be the most problematic issue for this summit after Trump's decision to review U.S. policies related to the Paris Agreement on fighting global warming. (Angelo Carconi/ANSA via AP)

Activists wearing the masks of the seven leaders of G7, from left, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni, British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, sit at a table eating mock pasta during an initiative by Oxfam, an international confederation of NGOS aimed at fighting poverty, ahead of the G7 summit scheduled for May 26 and 27 in Taormina, Italy, Thursday, May 25, 2017. (Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at San Domenico Palace Hotel, the venue of the annual G7 summit, in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. The G7 Summit will be held from May 26 to 27, 2017. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Greenpeace activists stage a demonstration in Giardini Naxos, near the venue of the G7 summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Climate change promises to be the most problematic issue for this summit after Trump's decision to review U.S. policies related to the Paris Agreement on fighting global warming. (Angelo Carconi/ANSA via AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives with her husband Joachim Sauer at San Domenico Palace Hotel, the venue of the annual G7 summit, in Taormina, Sicily, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. The G7 Summit will be held from May 26 to 27, 2017. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Oxfam activists wearing masks of the leaders of the G7 summit; from left, Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni, US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and British Prime Minister Theresa May stage a demonstration in Giardini Naxos, near the venue of the G7 summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Climate change promises to be the most problematic issue for this summit after Trump's decision to review U.S. policies related to the Paris Agreement on fighting global warming. (Angelo Carconi/ANSA via AP)

Soldiers of the Italian honor guard stand in front of the podium as they await the arrival of G7 leaders prior to a group photo during a G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Oxfam activists wearing masks of the leaders of the G7 summit; from left, Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni, US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, French President Emmanuel Macron, stage a demonstration in Giardini Naxos, near the venue of the G7 summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina, southern Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Climate change promises to be the most problematic issue for this summit after Trump's decision to review U.S. policies related to the Paris Agreement on fighting global warming. (Angelo Carconi/ANSA via AP)

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni, forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

RECROP - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni, forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, walks onto the podium with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni prior to a group photo during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives prior to a group photo during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Leaders of the G7, from left, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and French President Emmanuel Macron stand for a group photo during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

US President Donald Trump arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni, forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

US President Donald Trump, right, walks behind security guards as he arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni, forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

European Council President Donald Tusk, left, speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau prior to a group photo during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

U.S. President Donald Trump, center, stands with other G7 leaders as they prepare for a group photo during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. From left, British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni , Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, speaks with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, adjusts his suit, as he stands with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, center, and French President Emmanuel Macron prior to a group photo during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speaks with U.S. President Donald Trump during a group photo at the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

U.S. President Donald Trump, second left, speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and European Council President Donald Tusk, second right, during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

European Council President Donald Tusk, left, speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a group photo at the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

G7 leaders from left, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leave the podium after a group photo at the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

G7 leaders from left, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni , Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and British Prime Minister Theresa May leave the podium after a group photo at the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center, talks with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, and President Donald Trump during a family photo with G7 leaders at the Ancient Greek Theater of Taormina during the G7 Summit, Friday, May 26, 2017, in Taormina, Italy. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni, forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

US President Donald Trump arrives for a welcome ceremony for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina (3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni , forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, speaks with British Prime Minister Theresa May, right, as French President Emmanuel Macron stands left during a group photo at the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, speaks with British Prime Minister Theresa May, center, as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stands right, during a group photo at the G7 Summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron arrives at San Domenico Palace Hotel, the venue of the annual G7 summit, in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. The G7 Summit will be held from May 26 to 27, 2017. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, leaves the San Domenico Palace Hotel, the venue of the annual G7 summit, in the Sicilian town of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. The G7 Summit will be held from May 26 to 27, 2017. (Ciro Fusco/ANSA via AP)

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Council President Donald Tusk, right, watch the Frecce Tricolori Italian Air Force acrobatic squadron performing, in Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Leaders of the G7, from left, European Council President Donald Tusk, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pose during a group photo for the G7 summit in the Ancient Theatre of Taormina ( 3rd century BC) in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

President Donald Trump talks with G7 leaders during a walking tour, Friday, May 26, 2017, in Taormina, Italy. From left are, European Council President Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and British Prime Minister Theresa May. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
CHEROKEE, N.C. (AP) - A tribal council has voted to remove its chief from office, only the second time that's happened since the early 1800s.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reports (http://avlne.ws/2qh7556 ) that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council found Principal Chief Patrick Lambert guilty on eight of 12 articles of impeachment Thursday. The articles of impeachment included allegations that Lambert had used his office for personal gain by entering into a contract with Harrah's Cherokee Casino to rent rooms from his hotel.

Lambert was elected principal chief of the 14,000-member tribe in 2015 with more than 70 percent of the vote. He called the impeachment effort a "witch hunt" and retribution for his ordered audit of tribal programs, which prompted an FBI investigation.

Vice Chief Richard Sneed takes over as principal chief.

___

Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, http://www.citizen-times.com
 More Missing Peace from The Washington Post | Main | ABC TV Popular Series Quantico Stops Demonizing Israel 

May 26, 2017

USA Today Omits Israeli Peace Offers While Covering Peace Push



A May 24, 2017 USA Today article on President Trumps visit to Israel discussed his hopes to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace (Trumps peace push a difficult path?). However, Today reporter Gregory Korte failed to inform readers about previous U.S. and Israeli offers that could have led to a Palestinian state.

The paper claimed that deep divisions? existed between Israelis and Palestinians and noted Every president since Richard Nixon has tried to bring about a permanent peace agreement?

Yet, USA Today omitted U.S. and Israeli offers for a two state solution? in exchange for peace with, and recognition of, the Jewish state. In recent years, such offers were extended to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2000 at Camp David, 2001 at Taba and 2008 after the Annapolis Conference. The PA rejectedwithout so much as a counteroffereach of these opportunities.

The 2008 offer by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert included 93% of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and a Palestinian state with its capital in eastern Jerusalem. Additionally, as The Jerusalem Post noted:

Olmert essentially agreed to forgo sovereignty of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaisms holiest site, and proposed that in the framework of a peace agreement, the area containing the religious sites in Jerusalem would be managed by a special committee consisting of representatives from five nations: Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, the United States and Israel.?

PA President Mahmoud Abbas rejected this plan out of hand,? and literally failed to call Israeli negotiators back.

Not only did USA Today omit this relevant information, but the paper also failed to note recent U.S. and Israeli attempts to restart negotiations. As CAMERA noted in The Times of Israel, Abbas rejected a peace initiative, presented in person, by then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in March 2016. Abbas similarly refused a 2014 attempt by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to restart negotiations.

In its report on Trumps visit to Israel, USA Today wrote that the president sidestepped the question of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, something that he and President Obama have both said do not help the peace process.? Although this could mislead readers to think that Jewish communities in the West Bank have been expanding externally, in fact, they have not; most of the expansion has been internal, the result of natural population growth and not from new arrivals.

Nor are settlements the obstacle to peace that USA Today implies; as a December 2016 Washington Post editorial pointed out, 80 percent of that growth has was in areas that Israel would likely annex in any future settlement.? Further, in November 2009, Israelin an attempt to restart negotiations with the PAdeclared a 10-month settlement freeze. This too was met with Palestinian rejectionism. And this too was omitted in Todays dispatch.

To its credit, USA Todays report did note the issue of PA-payments to terrorists, reporting on the so-called Martyrs Fund that provides payments to families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned for attacking Israelis.? However, the omission of the numerous opportunities spurned by Palestinian leadersin a report on why a peace push? has a difficult path?is striking.

Posted by SD at May 26, 2017 02:37 PM

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LONDON (AP) - For Chelsea, it's a chance for a double. Arsenal is just looking for some redemption.

The London teams will meet Saturday in the FA Cup final, with Chelsea hoping to win its second league-cup double since 2010 and Arsenal wanting to make up for missing out on the Champions League with a season-ending trophy at Wembley Stadium.

"It has been a great season," Chelsea manager Antonio Conte said. "To be a fantastic season we have to win the FA Cup."

FILE - In this Sunday, May 21, 2017 file photo, Chelsea captain John Terry celebrates with manager Antonio Conte after they won the league, following the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Sunderland at Stamford Bridge stadium in London. Antonio Conte acknowledges it's been a great first season with Chelsea, the new English Premier League champion. It could have a sweeter ending on Saturday, May 27 if they can take the FA Cup, too. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, file)

Chelsea, which will be making its seventh FA Cup final appearance since 2000, is favored to win the trophy for the eighth time. But a win for Arsenal would set a record for the club and manager Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal has won the title 12 times, the same as Manchester United. Wenger has been at the helm for six of those triumphs and one more would see the Frenchman on his own with seven wins, surpassing the six won by Aston Villa manager George Ramsay between 1887 and 1920.

It could also be Wenger's farewell. He is expected to announce soon whether he will stay on for next season.

Wenger has faced criticism after a season in which the team finished outside the top four of the Premier League for the first time in 20 years.

In keeping with brushing off questions about his future, Wenger said his only focus was Saturday's final.

"What I want is to win the next game," Wenger said. "I love to win and I want to do well for my club. I want to win the cup for my club and that's all I care about. It's not about me, it's about us winning the trophy and giving absolutely everything to achieve it."

___

HOLDING THE FORT

Arsenal's defensive crisis has given Wenger a major selection headache.

The absence of suspended central defender Laurent Koscielny is a huge blow. Gabriel is injured and Shkodran Mustafi is a doubt.

"It's absolutely unbelievable and unpredictable, and we have been hit hard in a position where we will need to be strong on Saturday," Wenger said. "We'll have to find solutions and hopefully I will find the good solutions."

Wenger is likely to use 21-year-old Rob Holding, who has made a good impression in his first season since signing from Bolton last year.

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THIS SEASON

Everything looked rosy for Arsenal when it routed Chelsea 3-0 at the Emirates back in September, during a run of nine wins from 11 matches in all competitions.

Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil scored first-half goals. The way Arsenal tormented Chelsea's backline that day prompted Conte to make a season-defining tactical defensive switch, adjusting to three at the back in a move that proved to be the catalyst for its title challenge.

When the sides met again at Stamford Bridge in early February, Chelsea outplayed Arsenal to win 3-1, getting goals from Marcus Alonso, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas before the visitors netted a late consolation.

___

ANOTHER TERRY FAREWELL?

Long-serving Chelsea captain John Terry enjoyed an emotional farewell in his final home game last weekend, playing 26 minutes before being substituted in a contrived exit - 26 is his shirt number.

Conte must decide whether to give his 36-year-old center back another moment in the spotlight at Wembley after making more than 700 appearances in 19 years at the club.

Terry experienced his first FA Cup final as an unused substitute in Chelsea's win over Aston Villa in 2000. He has since won the trophy four times - 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012.

He is the only member of the 2012 team that beat Liverpool in the final still at the club.
LONDON (AP) - Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta has joined West Ham from Premier League rival Manchester City, signing a two-year deal.

The 32-year-old fullback says "sometimes a new challenge is all you need as a person and as a player. I thought my time at City was done. It's been a fantastic nine years, absolutely brilliant."

Zabaleta won two Premier League titles at City. He said he had chosen to join West Ham, which finished in 11th place this season, ahead of other clubs in England, Italy and Spain.

Zabaleta says "for me, after being in this country for so long, this is a new challenge for me in the Premier League and I'm ready for it and looking forward to it."
BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina woman has been ordered to pay nearly $20,000 to a man who was attacked by her pit bull.

The Island Packet reports (http://bit.ly/2rEBomc ) a jury determined Maria Rivera failed to restrain the dog as it attacked Alfredo Cerrato-Ardon outside a complex in Bluffton in February 2016. The verdict in Cerrato-Ardon's lawsuit against Rivera came May 19 in the Beaufort Court of Common Pleas.

The lawsuit says the attack caused serious injuries to several areas of Cerrato-Ardon's body, including his right upper extremity and right lower extremity, causing pain, medical expenses, lost wages and other damages.

Rivera said Cerrato-Ardon was not attacked, but that her dog bit him on the wrist when Cerrato-Ardon struck him and that she restrained the pit bull.

She was ordered to pay $19,200.

___

Information from: The Island Packet, http://www.islandpacket.com
DETROIT (AP) - A man who claims Detroit police framed him for a 1992 slaying walked out of prison for the first time in 25 years after new tests showed bullets taken from the victim's body didn't come from a gun that was presented at trial as the murder weapon.

"Justice prevailed," Desmond Ricks, 51, told The Associated Press after enjoying a grilled turkey-and-cheese sandwich with his legal team at a restaurant in Marshall, Michigan.

His freedom was the climax of an extraordinary effort to clear himself in a fatal shooting outside a Detroit burger joint in 1992.

This photo provided by the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan shows Desmond Ricks sitting in a vehicle after his release from prison in Ionia, Mich., on Friday, May 26, 2017. Ricks, who had been in prison for 25 years for a slaying outside a Detroit burger joint in 1992, was released Friday after new tests on bullets still in police storage supported his extraordinary claim that he was convicted with bogus evidence. (David Moran/Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan via AP)

The Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school asked Judge Richard Skutt to reopen the case after prosecutors in 2015 turned over photos of two bullets removed from the victim, Gerry Bennett.

Prosecutors at trial said a gun belonging to Ricks' mother was used to kill Bennett. But new tests on bullets still in police storage ruled out any connection, Innocence Clinic director David Moran said.

One of the bullets doesn't match the gun and the other was too mutilated for a thorough analysis, he said.

"I'm not bitter. I'm not angry. I'm just relieved," Ricks said. "I want to get a job. I want to pay taxes. I just want to be a normal citizen."

Skutt threw out Ricks' second-degree murder conviction on Friday after the Wayne County prosecutor's office agreed it should be erased. A second trial seems highly unlikely. Spokeswoman Maria Miller said a decision about whether to completely dismiss the case will be discussed in court on June 1.

Moran said Ricks was a great advocate for his own cause.

"What he was saying seemed to be outlandish: The Detroit police crime lab would not only make mistakes but switch bullets. It wasn't outlandish - it was true. This outlandish conduct cost Desmond Ricks 25 years," he said.

The crime lab was shut down after a 2008 audit revealed that it had performed sloppy work, including the botched analysis of gun evidence.

Miller said it's too early to say whether there should be an investigation to determine whether the bullet dispute in Ricks' case was accidental or deliberate. It's possible the statute of limitations has lapsed.

In 1992, Ricks was with Bennett when Bennett was shot in the head outside a restaurant. Ricks said he ran away, dodging gunfire. But a few days later, police pinned the slaying on him and took his mother's gun.

Ricks had a key ally in his bid to reopen the case: an independent firearms expert who was involved in the 1992 trial. Ricks found David Townshend's name in a law journal in 2009 and wrote to him from prison.

Townshend agreed to help. He recalled that the bullets originally presented to him by police for examination appeared to be in excellent shape with no trace of blood, bone or hair that would suggest they were removed from the victim's brain and spine.

Townshend said they didn't resemble the actual bullets that were pulled out of police storage and produced just two years ago.

"Townshend's a hero," Moran said. "He was willing to put his reputation on the line."

The Innocence Clinic has exonerated or helped free 14 people in Michigan since 2009 by exposing bad police work, finding new witnesses and tapping specialists.

___

Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwhiteap
SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's foreign ministry has summoned Serbia's ambassador to explain the presence of a Serbian diplomat and intelligence officer in the country's parliament during the building's storming by protesters last month. The incident left more than 100 people injured.

The ministry on Friday expressed "dissatisfaction and concern about the unauthorized presence of a diplomat" during the violent events of April 27 and requested detailed explanations.

It says such activity "does not contribute to enhancing mutual trust and promoting good neighborly relations and cooperation that both countries advocate."

Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has defended the presence of the diplomat, Goran Zivaljevic, saying he did not violate diplomatic protocols or rules.

"It is his job to inform about what is going on in the Republic of Macedonia," Dacic said Thursday.
BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - The Latest on 4 p.m. (all times local):

The U.S. military says it killed three Islamic State group fighters in attacks this month and last.

In a brief statement, the U.S. Central Command described the three as "senior ISIS military officials and planners."

It said one was a Syria-based "facilitator" from Turkey, who was killed in an airstrike in Syria on April 27. He was described as an IS recruiter in the central Turkish city of Konya.

Another was described as a French-Algerian IS fighter based in Syria. He was killed by an airstrike in Syria on May 11.

The third was killed near the Iraqi city of al-Qaim on May 18. Central Command said he was an IS military official who operated in Iraq's Anbar province.

___

12:55 p.m.

The U.N. human rights chief says Syrian civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein in a dramatic appeal on Friday urged all parties conducting strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria to take greater care differentiating between military and civilian targets.

He cited a May 14 strike that reportedly killed 23 farm workers in a rural area of Raqqa province and an airstrike the following day that is said to have killed at least 59 civilians and wounded dozens in the IS-controlled eastern city of al-Bukamal in Deir el-Zour province.

Zeid, who is a member of the Jordanian royal family, also says the rising toll of civilian casualties suggests "insufficient precautions" is being taken in the attacks.
PARIS (AP) - Petra Kvitova says she will make her comeback at the French Open, less than six months after being attacked by a knife-wielding intruder.

The two-time Wimbledon champion says she is able to play, although she still lacks power and strength.

Kvitova has missed all season while recovering from surgery on her racket-holding left hand in December. She was injured during an attack at her home in the Czech Republic.

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic smiles during a press conference at the Roland Garros stadium, Friday, May 26, 2017 in Paris. Kvitova has confirmed she is making her comeback at the French Open, less than six months after being attacked by a knife-wielding intruder. Kvitova has missed all season so far while recovering from surgery on her left, racket-holding hand in December. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

She said last month that she was signing up for the French Open, which begins Sunday, in hopes of being able to compete.

Kvitova won the Wimbledon title in 2011 and 2014. She climbed as high as No. 2 in the WTA rankings.

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic adjusts her hair during a press conference at the Roland Garros stadium, Friday, May 26, 2017 in Paris. Kvitova has confirmed she is making her comeback at the French Open, less than six months after being attacked by a knife-wielding intruder. Kvitova has missed all season so far while recovering from surgery on her left, racket-holding hand in December. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
BOSTON (AP) - John F. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated next week - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by members of his family.

The nation's 35th president was born on May 29, 1917, in the leafy Boston suburb of Brookline. Before he was felled at age 46 by an assassin's bullets in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, the charismatic Kennedy cast a broad vision of America as a global force for peace - and challenged citizens to play active roles in making it the kind of democracy they wanted it to be.

That rallying cry from his inaugural address - "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" - is etched both in stone and in the minds of generations of Americans.

FILE - In this April 20, 2017 file photo, Maria Shriver, niece of former President John F. Kennedy and former first lady of California, speaks during the John F. Kennedy Centennial Symposium at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. John F. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated May 29, 2017 - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by his descendants. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

Like the Kennedys no longer with us - U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr. - many members of the political dynasty living today say their public service is inspired by JFK.

In their own words, culled from public appearances and interviews with The Associated Press, they explain how:

___

JOE KENNEDY III

Age: 36

Relation: JFK's great-nephew

Occupation: Democratic U.S. representative from Massachusetts

Inspiration: "I hear every day from people who stop me in the street - my colleagues in Washington: Democrats and Republicans alike - who say they were inspired into public service because of President Kennedy and how he challenged America. And I think you've seen particularly with the generation coming of age now, folks who are ready to be challenged, ready to answer a call." - to AP on May 7

___

CAROLINE KENNEDY

Age: 59

Relation: JFK's daughter

Occupation: Attorney; author; former U.S. ambassador to Japan

Inspiration: "My father put the full force of the federal government on the side of those seeking the rights to which they were entitled. That willingness to face history - to include everyone in the American Dream regardless of race, religion, gender or disability - is a legacy that I'm proud of. ... As his family, we are proud of what he stood for, and its continuing power." - at May 7 Profile in Courage Award ceremony

___

PATRICK KENNEDY

Age: 49

Relation: JFK's nephew

Occupation: Mental health advocate; former U.S. representative from Rhode Island

Inspiration: "I would say the thing that inspired me the most about President Kennedy's sense of public service is what I've seen it inspire in other people. ... Everyone that I meet over the course of my life all told me stories of how their lives were transformed because they decide to go into the Peace Corps, because they decided to be involved in civic action, civil rights, social justice causes." - to AP on May 15

___

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY II

Age: 64

Relation: JFK's nephew

Occupation: President and CEO, Citizens Energy Corp.; ex-U.S. congressman

Inspiration: "In my younger years, when I thought of President Kennedy, I thought of him as my Uncle Jack. He was looked up to by everyone - all our family and all who surrounded him. The only person he would be different around was my father. Somehow my father changed the atmosphere when he entered the room. I remember the two of them going through this unbelievable campaign, and then President Kennedy giving that extraordinary inaugural address, which my father made me memorize. He made everyone feel so good about our country. He created a spirit that allowed us to launch a war on poverty, to believe that we could get to the moon, that we could eliminate the scourge of hunger in America. So many wonderful things were going to happen - and did happen - because he showed us what we could stand for as a people. It was a time when everything seemed possible in this great country." - to AP on May 23

___

CHRIS KENNEDY

Age: 53

Relation: JFK's nephew

Occupation: Businessman; candidate for governor of Illinois

Inspiration: "People will know what is in my heart. They will know what my family taught me - they will know my values and my goals." - on Feb. 8, announcing bid for governor

___

MARIA SHRIVER

Age: 61

Relation: JFK's niece

Occupation: NBC journalist, author

Inspiration: "As a young girl growing up in our family, I think we were all raised with the idea that you'd better do something. ... I'm also a big believer that government isn't the only place to ask yourself what you can do. ... I still believe that politics is a really great place to make an impact, but I also believe that that message is bigger than just elected office. I think you can make an impact in business, in nonprofits, as journalists, as filmmakers." - at Harvard symposium on April 21

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JACK SCHLOSSBERG

Age: 24

Relation: JFK's grandson

Occupation: Student

Inspiration: "My grandfather believed that at its best, politics and public service can be a noble profession. ... As a young person living in the world today, wondering what I can and should do to build a future that I can be proud of, I often feel overwhelmed or dismayed or angry or some combination of the three. It's helpful, I find in these moments, to remember that the world of the 1960s was challenging and complicated, as well." - at May 7 Profile in Courage Award ceremony

___

Associated Press writers Bob Salsberg in Boston and Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

FILE - In this file photo dated Jan. 20, 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivers his inaugural address at Capitol Hill in Washington, after taking the oath of office. That rallying cry from his inaugural address - "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" - is etched both in stone and in the minds of generations of Americans. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated May 29, 2017 - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by his descendants. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this April 20, 2017 file photo, U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, D-Mass., great-nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, smiles while he speaks during the John F. Kennedy Centennial Symposium at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. John F. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated May 29, 2017 - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by his descendants. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

FILE - In this April 20, 2017 file photo, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, speaks about her father as she kicks off the John F. Kennedy Centennial Symposium at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. John F. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated May 29, 2017 - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by his descendants. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia, File)

FILE - This June 3, 2013 file photo shows former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, at the National Conference on Mental Health in Washington. John F. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated May 29, 2017 - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by his descendants. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2017 file photo, Chris Kennedy, Democratic candidate for Illinois Governor and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, poses for a portrait in his office in Chicago. John F. Kennedy didn't make it even halfway to 100 - a milestone he might have celebrated May 29, 2017 - but the slain U.S. president's legacy is being lived out by his descendants. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A former Salvadoran colonel fighting extradition to Spain will remain in jail after receiving new medicine Friday amid a federal judge's demands that authorities address his health care.

Federal Judge Terrence Boyle ordered that Inocente Orlando Montano Morales will stay in the Piedmont Regional Jail in Virginia after jail medical staff examined him and filed an update with the court. Earlier in the week, Montano's lawyer alleged that the 75-year-old bladder cancer survivor's health was declining as the jail provided inadequate care.

That set off a series of legal filings, with Boyle threatening to release Montano pending the outcome of the case if authorities didn't give a satisfactory update on his care. On Friday morning, a jail doctor and nurse examined Montano, prescribing him an antibiotic for a urinary tract infection, along with medicine to treat diabetic nerve pain.

FILE - In this Aug. 22, 2013 file photo, former El Salvadoran military Col. Inocente Orlando Montano departs federal court, in Boston. Defense attorneys say medical care for Montano accused of helping to plot five killings is declining since his transfer to a new facility to await a final decision on his extradition. A lawyer for Morales said in a filing Tuesday, May 23, 2017, that routine blood sugar checks were missed and he has had a fever and other symptoms indicating that he could have a new infection. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Montano was recently moved to the Virginia jail from North Carolina while he awaits a decision on whether he will be extradited to face charges he helped plot the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests during El Salvador's civil war.

Prosecutors have disputed Montano's inadequate care accusations, but the judge said he wanted another update on Montano's condition Friday. That prompted a filing by the head nurse at the jail describing the new prescriptions and the examination.

Prosecutors argued that he's received proper treatment since he arrived at the jail in Farmville, Virginia earlier this month.

To explain why Montano's blood sugar wasn't tested for several days, prosecutors wrote that Montano's oral diabetes medicine doesn't require daily measurements. They also said Montano wasn't correctly using a device to collect waste after bladder cancer surgery, which is why he has soiled himself.

Defense attorneys wrote on Tuesday that Montano, who's susceptible to infection because of his cancer surgery, was having symptoms of a fever and that jailers ignored repeated requests for assistance in using the bathroom.

Montano oversaw the National Police as El Salvador's vice minister for public security in the 1980s when a 12-year civil war killed 75,000 people.

Spain is seeking to try Montano on murder charges in the killings of the priests, most of whom were from Spain.

Outrage over the priests' massacre led to a U.S. congressional investigation, which found that members of the Salvadoran counter-insurgency force that carried out the murders received training from the U.S military.

Montano's extradition was approved last year by a federal magistrate judge, but Boyle is reviewing a challenge by Montano's lawyers.

Montano's health concerns raise questions of whether he will live long enough to face trial. At a May court hearing, a hunched-over and pale Montano had to be wheeled into the courtroom.

Boyle previously tried to send Montano to a prison hospital, but the U.S. Marshals Service instead moved him to the Virginia jail. Authorities said the prison hospital had a waiting list for beds, among other obstacles.

Piedmont Regional Jail's website boasts of low daily costs for housing prisoners. But it has also come under scrutiny, including a 2013 settlement agreement with the Justice Department requiring it to improve medical care.

___

Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/jonldrew
TAORMINA, Italy (AP) - President Donald Trump's views on climate change are "evolving" following discussions with European leaders who are pushing for him to stay in the Paris climate accord, a top White House official said Friday.

"He feels much more knowledgeable on the topic today," said Gary Cohn, Trump's top White House economic adviser. "He came here to learn, he came here to get smarter."

European leaders have used Trump's stops on the continent this week, including at the Group of 7 meeting in Sicily, to launch a last-ditch campaign for Trump to stay in the climate accord. Nearly 200 nations agreed to the 2015 pact aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

U.S. President Donald Trump, right, speaks to other G7 Leaders including British Prime Minister Theresa May, center, and French President Emmanuel Macron, third from left, in Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. Leaders of the G7 meet Friday and Saturday, including newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France and Theresa May of Britain in an effort to forge a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Trump at length about the climate deal during a meeting Thursday in Brussels. At the Vatican earlier in the week, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin made his own pro-Paris pitch to Trump and his advisers. The matter was also a central focus of Trump's two days of talks at the Group of 7 summit, which kicked off Friday on the picturesque Sicilian coast.

At the close of Friday's talks, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said six of the G-7 nations - Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan - confirmed "our commitment and our determination" to the Paris agreement. The United States, meanwhile, confirmed "a period of reflection" on the issue, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "we put forward very many arguments" for the U.S. sticking with the agreement.

The White House's slow decision-making on the future of the landmark 2015 climate change agreement created the opening for the European leaders' persuasion campaign. Multiple White House meetings on the matter were delayed in recent weeks, and Trump advisers ultimately said he would not make a decision until after he returns to Washington from a nine-day, five-stop international trip.

As a candidate, Trump vowed to withdraw the U.S. from the accord, which was negotiated during the Obama administration. But as the opening months of his presidency have shown, Trump can be moved to change his positions and can be heavily influenced by other world leaders. He backed away from his tough campaign talk about trade with China after a summit with President Xi Jinping and abandoned his criticism of Saudi Arabia's human rights record following his warm welcome in the desert kingdom earlier this week.

Cohn said Trump was struck during his discussions Friday by "how important it is for the United States to show leadership." He said many of the European leaders noted that even if a hundred countries are parties to an agreement, there's "a big gap when you take the biggest economy out."

In Washington, discussions over the climate deal have sown divisions within the White House, splitting the nationalists and the globalists competing for influence within Trump's administration. One potential compromise that's emerged in the White House discussions involves staying in the climate accord, but adjusting the U.S. emissions targets.

Cohn hinted at that prospect as he briefed reporters Thursday night as Air Force One flew from Brussels to Sicily, the final stop on Trump's trip.

"The last levels we put out in the Paris agreement were levels that would be constraining to our economic growth," Cohn said. "But then you get into the whole discussion on Paris, is it non-binding, is it not non-binding, can you change your levels, how easy is it to change your levels."

In a striking comment given Trump's support during the campaign for American coal miners, Cohn also said "coal doesn't even really make that much sense anymore as a feedstock." He singled out natural gas as "such a cleaner fuel" and also noted that the U.S. could become a "manufacturing powerhouse" by investing in wind and solar energy.

Nearly 200 countries are part of the Paris accord and each set their own emissions targets, which are not legally binding. The U.S. pledged to reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels, which would be a reduction of about 1.6 billion tons of annual emissions.

A senior French official said Macron and Trump spoke at length about the Paris agreement - at Macron's behest - when they met for lunch Thursday. There was no "disagreement" over the accord itself, the official said, but there were "differences" about how to apply it.

Macron, the newly elected French president, was critical of Trump's threats to pull out of the Paris deal during his own campaign. In a dig at Trump, he invited American climate scientists who felt alienated by the Republican administration to come to France to work.

Even Pope Francis, who has framed climate change as an urgent moral crisis and blamed global warming on an unfair, fossil fuel-based industrial model that harms the poor the most, appeared to be sending a message to Trump. Among the three documents the pope presented Trump as a gift was his 2015 encyclical on the need to protect the environment.

It's unclear if the pope pressed Trump specifically on the Paris accord in their private meeting. But Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, did make a direct appeal in a broader meeting with the president and his top aides.

"They were encouraging continued participation in the Paris accord," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. "We had a good exchange on the difficulty of balancing climate change, responses to climate change and ensuring that you still have a thriving economy, you still offer people jobs so they can feed their families and have a prosperous economy. That's a difficult balancing act."

___

Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Taormina, Italy; Angela Charlton in Brussels; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://www.twitter.com/jpaceDC and Colleen Barry at http://www.twitter.com/collbarry

If you haven't sent yet, can you add this from Merkel: Merkel on urging the US to stick with the Paris climate agreement: "We put forward very many arguments."
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio woman and her boyfriend have been indicted for the cocaine overdose death of the woman's 9-year-old son.

A Mahoning County grand jury on Thursday indicted 39-year-old Raenell Allen and 40-year-old Kevin Gamble.

Police say Allen's son, Marcus Lee, died at a hospital after ingesting a large amount of cocaine at her Youngstown home on Dec. 26.

Police didn't find any cocaine in the home. An assistant Mahoning County prosecutor told WFMJ-TV that Marcus swallowed the equivalent of 27 doses of cocaine.

Court records don't indicate whether Allen or Gamble have attorneys. They're charged with involuntary manslaughter, corrupting another with drugs and child endangering.
DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A former pastor accused of killing three people at a Kentucky pawn shop nearly four years ago has pleaded guilty.

Media report Kenneth Allen Keith entered the plea Friday in Boyle Circuit Court. Keith was charged in the deaths of 35-year-old Michael Hockensmith, his 38-year-old wife, Angela, and 60-year-old gold broker Daniel Smith. They were fatally shot in 2013 at ABC Gold, Games and More in Danville.

Prosecutors recommended the 51-year-old Keith serve a life sentence without parole. If he had been convicted, he would have faced the death penalty. His trial was set to start in August.

The plea comes after the judge denied a defense motion earlier this year that sought to suppress evidence gathered as a result of search warrants.
BASEL, Switzerland (AP) - Switzerland is transferring 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million) to Tunisia that had been frozen in connection with a close relative of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland ordered the transfer Friday in response to a request from Tunisia.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs says the assets were being sent back with the relative's consent.

Tunisian authorities will determine what to do with the assets.

Switzerland in 2011 froze the assets held there by the toppled Tunisian president and his entourage to prevent the flight of illicit capital.

Switzerland made a first restitution payment to Tunisia in May 2016 of approximately 250,000 Swiss francs.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Estonia has informed Russia that two of its diplomats in the country will be expelled, the Baltic country's foreign ministry said Friday.

Estonian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sandra Kamilova told The Associated Press that the Russian Embassy in Tallinn had been informed of the decision, but the ministry declined to provide further details. It wasn't clear when the diplomats would be deported.

A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry called the move "provocative and baseless" and "of course, it will not remain without appropriate response," suggesting that Russian would expel two Estonians.

News agency Baltic News Service reported that the diplomats were Russian Consul General Dmitry Kazennov and consul Andrey Surgaev, both in Narva, Estonia's third-largest city, which sits on the border with Russia.

Estonia's relations with Russia have remained uneasy since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991. Estonia has caught several spies working for Moscow, mostly Estonian citizens but also Russians.

"The openly hostile action taken by the Estonian authorities (Friday) will certainly further complicate bilateral relations already basically deadlocked by Tallinn," the Russian Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.

The Estonian Internal Security Service, or security police, told local media outlets that it was aware of Friday's case, but wouldn't comment further. It has repeatedly said Russia's intelligence services have strong interest in the Baltic NATO member - a former Soviet republic.

Ties also have been uneasy because of Moscow's support for separatist rebels fighting in Ukraine, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A man wanted in connection with two fatal shootings in the St. Louis area was arrested after being found walking naked along a small-town street in Tennessee, police said Friday.

Casey Lowery, 36, of St. Louis, was charged with murder after being arrested Thursday night in Selmer, a town about 300 miles south of St. Louis. The arrest ended a manhunt that began after the three Missouri shootings were reported earlier in the day.

Investigators were responding to a shooting in St. Louis when they found a 29-year-old woman dead in an alley near where a 52-year-old man had been shot and critically wounded. About 15 minutes later, a 28-year-old man was fatally shot at a gas station about 4 miles away in St. Louis County.

This undated photo provided by the St. Louis County Police Department shows Casey Lowery, of St. Louis, who is a suspect in two fatal shootings in the St. Louis area on Thursday, May 25, 2017. Police in Selmer, Tenn., arrested Lowery Thursday night after he was allegedly found walking naked along a street. Lowery has been charged with first-degree murder in St. Louis County. (St. Louis County Police Department via AP)

Police have not said if the victims knew the shooter. Investigators connected the crime scenes because the same vehicle description - a mid-1990s blue pickup truck with a camper shell - was reported at both locations.

Then shortly before 8 p.m., officers in Tennessee were called about a naked man and found Lowery under a highway overpass.

A local police report said Lowery refused to cooperate, and that it took three officers to subdue him. The report said one officer used a stun gun on Lowery, who was combative and making "statements that didn't make rational sense." He was charged with resisting arrest and indecent exposure in Tennessee.

Lowery has been charged with first-degree murder in the St. Louis County death. Charges have not yet been filed in the city shootings.

Lowery does not yet have an attorney who could comment on his behalf. He also does not have a publicly listed phone number.

It's unclear how and why Lowery ended up Tennessee. A local police dispatcher told The Associated Press that Selmer's police chief was out of the office Friday and no one else was available to comment on the case.

Court records show Lowery has pending charges of domestic assault in St. Louis: one felony and one misdemeanor, for charges filed in 2016. He was released from jail in February on those charges, after posting $15,000 bond.

He also has a pending charge of drug distribution, drug paraphernalia and speeding in Scott County, Missouri, following an arrest in 2015. And he has three marijuana possession convictions in St. Louis, in 2001, 2004 and 2007.

He received probation for the most recent conviction, spent 30 days in jail for the 2001 crime and 60 days in jail for the 2004 crime.
A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. AP checked these out; here are the real facts:

NOT REAL: Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Allowing The Hunting Of Bald Eagles

THE FACTS: The story was shared by the St. George Gazette and attributed to The Associated Press. But the AP never ran such a story because the president gave no such order. A list of executive orders issued by Trump mentions nothing about bald eagles. Congress first outlawed the killing of the national bird in 1918. The St. George Gazette is an outlet of admitted hoax artist Paul Horner.

FILE - In this April 28, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump holds up a signed Executive Order in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington directing the Interior Department to begin review of restrictive drilling policies for the outer-continental shelf. The AP reported on May 26, 2017, that a story shared by the St. George Gazette website claiming Trump signed an executive order allowing the hunting of bald eagles is a hoax. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez, File)

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NOT REAL: George Soros Indicted For Voter Machine Fraud And More

THE FACTS: A search of the federal court system shows no criminal cases pending against the Hungarian-American billionaire known to back liberal causes, despite a story posted by The People's Resistance that claimed Soros was federally indicted. The post included a photo that appeared to show Soros in a courtroom. The picture is actually a doctored image of a hacker being sentenced in June for stealing from a Soros foundation.

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NOT REAL: NASA Will Pay You $18,000 To Stay In Bed And Smoke Weed For 70 Straight Days

THE FACTS: NASA has been willing to pay people willing to stay in bed, but there was no marijuana involved in the offer. The space agency's website says bed rest studies give scientists information on how the body adapts to weightlessness. NASA spokesman William Jeffs tells the AP that the story is "absolutely untrue" and the agency hasn't conducted bed rest studies for some time.

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NOT REAL: Donald Trump Praises Colonel Sanders for His Service in the Civil War

THE FACTS: The post from admitted satire site The Red Schtick said the president praised the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder as a "tremendous Civil War hero" who once saved an army at Valley Forge from starvation. Sanders was born 25 years after the war's end and died in 1980. The story circulated following Trump's May 1 assertion in an interview that President Andrew Jackson could have prevented the war, which began 16 years after Jackson's death.

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NOT REAL: Bill Murray Reveals Why He's Moving to Buffalo, New York

THE FACTS: Fans of Murray, Jennifer Aniston, Matt Damon or scores of other celebrities may be upset to know that the stars aren't likely moving to a city near them. A series of stories posted on admitted hoax sites made up to look like local news outlets has celebrities moving to towns across North America, including Buffalo, New York; Janesville, Wisconsin; and Dothan, Alabama. Each story quotes the star mentioning that he or she is getting "a little tired of the L.A. lifestyle" and wants a big change in life.

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This new weekly fixture is part of The Associated Press' ongoing efforts to fact-check claims in suspected false news stories.

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Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apne.ws/APFactCheck

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2011, file photo, George Soros speaks during a forum at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington. The AP reported on May 26, 2017, that a story shared online that claims Soros was federally indicted for voter machine fraud is a hoax. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
DETROIT (AP) - The Latest on a decision to throw out a Detroit man's murder conviction after 25 years (all times local):

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12:25 p.m.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Michigan Department of Corrections shows Desmond Ricks. A judge on Friday, May 26, 2017, threw out the second-degree murder conviction of Ricks, who accused police of framing him with phony evidence and his mother's gun more than two decades ago. Tests show one of the two bullets removed from the victim doesn't match the gun that was presented to jurors back in 1992. The other bullet was too mangled for analysis. Ricks' case was reopened at the request of the University of Michigan law school's Innocence Clinic. (Michigan Department of Corrections via AP, File)

A Detroit man has walked out of prison after 25 years, after tests showed he was convicted of murder with sham evidence.

Desmond Ricks met his legal team Friday at a prison in western Michigan, a few hours after a judge threw out his conviction. New tests showed the bullets removed from a victim in 1992 don't match the gun that was described at trial as the murder weapon.

Ricks' case was reopened at the request of the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan law school. He claimed he was framed by police in 1992. His suspicions grew in 2008 when the Detroit police crime lab was shut down because of bad work.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office agreed that Ricks' conviction should be set aside.

___

8:48 a.m.

A judge has thrown out the second-degree murder conviction of a Detroit man who accused police of framing him with phony evidence and his mother's gun more than two decades ago.

Tests show one of the two bullets removed from the victim doesn't match the gun that was presented to jurors back in 1992. The other bullet was too mangled for analysis.

Desmond Ricks' case was reopened at the request of the University of Michigan law school's Innocence Clinic.

Director David Moran tells The Associated Press that prosecutors agreed that the conviction should be overturned, and Judge Richard Skutt signed the order Friday.

Ricks, now 51 years old, was charged with shooting an acquaintance outside a Detroit fast-food restaurant. Police later arrested him and seized his mother's gun.
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The artist of a painting depicting the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice has withdrawn the piece from a Pittsburgh arts festival after an outcry that the white artist was exploiting black pain.

Tom Megalis' painting "Within 2 Seconds, the Shooting of Tamir Rice" was among 54 works accepted into this year's Three Rivers Arts Festival, according to the Post-Gazette (http://bit.ly/2rYaza8).

Before he delivered the work to the June 2-11 festival, Megalis posted an image of it on Facebook. That's when the intense reactions started pouring in.

Megalis, a Cleveland resident and a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, said he was shocked by the response. He said his intention was to document his outrage about the police killing of the 12-year-old black Ohio boy.

"That's the last thing I wanted to do," he said of the accusations of cultural appropriation. "That's when I decided to pull the painting" from the exhibition.

The arts festival's website describes many of the works in the juried show as dealing with "issues of race, gender, immigration and other social concerns."

The posting has since been removed from the artist's Facebook page.

In March, an abstract painting of lynching victim Emmett Till on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York was the subject of a protest by a black artist who decried the canvas as "an injustice to the black community" because it was painted by a white woman.

Parker Bright spent March 17 and 18 standing in front of the painting by Dana Schutz, who used historic photographs as inspiration for her depiction of Till, a 14-year-old black Chicago boy killed by white men in Mississippi in 1955.

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Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com
TIRANA, Albania (AP) - Food authorities in Albania say they are returning a poultry shipment to Brazil after tests found high levels of salmonella.

The National Food Authority statement said Friday that the 26 metric tons (28.6 tons) of frozen poultry imported by a local Albanian company was blocked at the western port of Durres earlier this month.

The statement added that the "poultry will leave for Brazil" after the proper documentation was completed by customs and the local company.

Brazil is a main source of poultry and pork for Albanian companies. In March, Brazil's meat exports temporarily collapsed after investigators said that Brazilian health inspectors were bribed to overlook expired meats. Since the scandal, Albanian authorities have been vigorously testing meat coming from the South American country.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Drug violence may be behind the killing of four taxi drivers in the picturesque central Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende, a popular tourism destination that is home to thousands of American retirees, authorities say.

Mayor Ricardo Villarreal said that while the investigation into the slayings was continuing, the bloodshed appeared to be a "score settling" within the world of street-level drug sales.

Villarreal said in an interview with Radio Formula on Thursday that because San Miguel is a tourist destination, it is prone to small-scale drug sales.

Saying the city remains a safe place, he said the four slain taxi drivers were targeted, not the victims of random attacks. He said the drivers apparently were all called to the location on the town's outskirts where they were killed in their cabs Wednesday night.

A statement from the city said two other men were wounded.

Mexico has struggled with increased drug gang violence in some of its most popular tourism spots. Killings and attacks have occurred recently in Cancun, Zihuatanejo and Los Cabos, though the attacks have not targeted tourists.

In an incident Friday, prosecutors in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz said the bodies of five men had been found in a field. The prosecutors' statement did not specify how they were killed, but local media reported the men had been decapitated.

Veracruz has been the scene of drug gang violence in recent years.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans and Democrats found cause for optimism Friday even as the GOP candidate, facing last-minute assault charges, held onto Montana's sole House seat.

The final unofficial tally in Thursday's election showed wealthy Republican businessman Greg Gianforte with 50.2 percent of the vote, compared to Democratic musician Rob Quist with 44.1 percent.

"Great win in Montana," President Donald Trump said Friday as he attended the G-7 summit in Italy.

Greg Gianforte celebrates his win over Rob Quist for the open congressional seat at the Hilton Garden Inn, Thursday night, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont. The Republican multimillionaire Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground. After being declared the winner, Gianforte apologized both to Jacobs and to the Fox News crew for having to witness the attack. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Democrats, who hope to harness the energy of liberal voters outraged at Trump to take control of the House in next year's midterms, said that forcing Republicans to spend millions to get a narrow win in conservative Montana amounted to a victory itself. Party strategists argued that Gianforte's margin in a state where Trump swamped Hillary Clinton by 20 points bodes well for dozens of other districts where the parties are more evenly matched.

"From the beginning this race was going to be very difficult, particularly for an oddly timed special election still in Trump's 'honeymoon,'" said Meredith Kelly, communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Kelly said there are 114 other Republican-held districts with more favorable partisan makeups for Democrats than the Montana seat. Democrats would have to pick up 24 seats in next year's elections to retake the House majority.

Republicans disputed that analysis, arguing they employed a successful strategy in defining the Democratic candidate early and staying focused through Election Day.

And instead of Trump, who was embraced by Gianforte and rarely mentioned by Quist in a state where the president remains popular, Republicans said the key national figure in the race was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Polls show the California Democrat is strongly disliked by GOP base voters and she was mentioned in much of the advertising seen by voters ahead of the election.

"Greg Gianforte will be the next congressman from Montana, and Nancy Pelosi and liberals in Washington were rejected again," Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, said after the GOP win.

Republicans said the outcome lifts their hopes approaching two other special elections next month in Georgia and South Carolina. The Georgia election was another race where Democrats hoped to pull off a surprise victory, but their candidate fell short of 50 percent in the April primary, forcing a runoff in June.

For Democrats, there is frustration that despite the energy and activism from their base voters, they have yet to score a special election upset this cycle. Both candidates in the Montana contest were seen as flawed, but Quist in particular was a weak recruit for Democrats. The cowboy-hat-wearing musician making his first run for Congress had some financial problems in his past that Republicans jumped on.

That raises the question of whether Democrats are going to be able find convincing candidates to put up against GOP incumbents, who in some cases will be defending districts Trump won. The Democratic political bench is thin, due in part to the loss of more than 1,030 seats in state legislatures, governor's mansions and Congress during Barack Obama's presidency.

Pelosi herself, in a recent interview with The Associated Press, insisted that regardless of the outcome of any individual special election, Democrats would be well-positioned for the midterms because the opposition party historically picks up seats during the president's first term.

"We like to win, don't get me wrong. But I'm just saying, history is on our side," Pelosi said. "We'll keep up the enthusiasm, no question about that. We have one of the greatest organizers ever - Donald Trump."

Republicans were also reluctant to put too much meaning into the Montana outcome, given the particular circumstances of that race.

"These are always little stress tests," said Matt Gorman, communications director for the House GOP campaign committee.

Since around two-thirds of votes were cast before Election Day, the effect of the assault charge against Gianforte was unclear. The incident took place Wednesday, the day before the election, when witnesses said Gianforte slammed to the ground a reporter who was asking him questions about the Republican health care bill. Gianforte could be heard on an audio tape yelling at the reporter, Ben Jacobs of The Guardian.

Gianforte was later charged with misdemeanor assault, which will not prevent him from being seated in the House even if he is convicted.

After the altercation, Gianforte's campaign issued a statement blaming the reporter and the candidate stayed out of sight.

But after he was declared the winner, Gianforte apologized for the attack.

"When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way," he said. "Last night, I made a mistake. I took an action I can't take back and I am not proud of what happened."

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the apology "a good first step toward redemption and I hope Gianforte continues to work toward righting his wrong."

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor in Washington, Bobby Caina Calvan in Bozeman, Montana, and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

Greg Gianforte, right, and wife Susan, center, celebrate his win over Rob Quist for the open congressional seat at the Hilton Garden Inn Thursday night, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Republican Greg Gianforte addresses supporters at a hotel ballroom after winning Montana's sole congressional seat, in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, May 25, 2017. In his speech, Gianforte apologized for a altercation at his campaign headquarters with a reporter on the eve of the special election. The altercation led to a misdemeanor assault citation. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan)

Republican Greg Gianforte greets supporters at a hotel ballroom after winning Montana's sole congressional seat, Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont. In his speech, Gianforte apologized for a altercation at his campaign headquarters with a reporter on the eve of the special election. The altercation led to a misdemeanor assault citation. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan)

Republican Greg Gianforte prepares to go onstage at a hotel ballroom to thank supporters after winning Montana's sole congressional seat Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont. In his speech, Gianforte apologized for a altercation at his campaign headquarters with a reporter on the eve of the special election. The altercation led to a misdemeanor assault citation. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan)

Supporters gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn and watch as Republican candidate Greg Gianforte won the special election for the open Montana House of Representatives seat left vacant by Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, May 25, 2017. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Rob Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Supporters watch as Republican candidate Greg Gianforte won the special election for the open Montana House of Representatives seat left vacant by Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, May 25, 2017. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Rob Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Supporters watch as Republican candidate Greg Gianforte won the special election for the open Montana House of Representatives seat left vacant by Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday night, May 15, 2017. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Rob Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Supporters watch as Republican candidate Greg Gianforte won the special election for the open Montana House of Representatives seat left vacant by Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday night, May 25, 2017. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Rob Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. (Rachel Leathe/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Democratic candidate Rob Quist holds the microphone as he begins his concession speech after losing to Republican candidate Greg Gianforte at the DoubleTree Hotel Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Missoula, Mont. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. Democrats had hoped Quist, a musician and first-time candidate, could have capitalized on a wave of activism following President Donald Trump's election. (Tommy Martino/The Missoulian via AP)

Democratic candidate Rob Quist is consoled by a supporter after his concession speech after losing Montana's only U.S. House seat to Republican candidate Greg Gianforte at the DoubleTree Hotel, Thursday night, May 25, 2017, in Missoula, Mont. Democrats had hoped Quist, a musician and first-time candidate, could have capitalized on a wave of activism following President Donald Trump's election. (Tommy Martino/The Missoulian via AP)

Rebecca Schoenkopf reacts to the election results at Democratic candidate Rob Quist's election party at the DoubleTree Hotel Thursday night, May 25, 2017, in Missoula, Mont. Republican Greg Gianforte has won the special election for Montana's sole U.S. House seat a day after being charged with assaulting a reporter. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Quist to continue the GOP's two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. (Tommy Martino/The Missoulian via AP)

The stage is prepared for the arrival of Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte, who was seeking to become Montana's sole member in the U.S. House, at a hotel in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, May 25, 2017. Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan).

Supporters of Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte await returns on election night in a ballroom of a hotel in Bozeman, Mont., Thursday, May 25, 2017. Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan)

FILE - In this March 6, 2017 file photo technology entrepreneur Greg Gianforte speaks to Republican delegates before a candidate forum in Helena, Mont. Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday, May 25, despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground. (AP Photo/Matt Volz, File)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin answers questions Thursday, May 25, 2017, at a Bozeman, Mont., press conference about Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte's misdemeanor assault charge for attacking a reporter on Wednesday. (Rachel Leathe /Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin answers questions Thursday, May 25, 2017, at a Bozeman, Mont., press conference about Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte's misdemeanor assault charge for attacking a reporter on Wednesday. (Rachel Leathe /Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

FILE - In this May 11, 2017, file photo Republican Greg Gianforte, right, welcomes Donald Trump Jr., the U.S. president's son, onto the stage at a rally in East Helena, Mont. Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday, May 25, despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground. (AP Photo/Bobby Caina Calvan, File)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin answers questions Thursday, May 25, 2017, at a Bozeman, Mont., press conference about Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte's misdemeanor assault charge for attacking a reporter on Wednesday. (Rachel Leathe /Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin answers questions Thursday, May 25, 2017, at a Bozeman, Mont., press conference about Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte's misdemeanor assault charge for attacking a reporter on Wednesday. (Rachel Leathe /Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin answers questions Thursday, May 25, 2017, at a Bozeman, Mont., press conference about Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte's misdemeanor assault charge for attacking a reporter on Wednesday. (Rachel Leathe /Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin answers questions during a press conference on Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont. The sheriff, who cited Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte for shoving a reporter to the ground, said the Republican was charged with misdemeanor assault because there was no serious bodily injury. Gootkin said he never considered pursuing a felony charge against Gianforte based on evidence collected after the Wednesday incident.(Rachel Leathe /Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP)

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin addresses media on Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Bozeman, Mont. The sheriff, who cited Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte for shoving a reporter to the ground, says the Republican was charged with misdemeanor assault because there was no serious bodily injury. Gootkin said he never considered pursuing a felony charge against Gianforte based on evidence collected after the Wednesday incident. (AP Photo/Bobby Calvan)
RENO, Nev. (AP) - A northern Nevada school district has tentatively reversed a long-standing policy that would have prohibited Native American students from wearing eagle feathers on their graduation caps.

Washoe County Deputy School Superintendent Kristen McNeill's office said in a memo this week that the right to wear eagle feathers is guaranteed under the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.

Quecholli Nordwall, an 18-year-old senior at Reed High School in Sparks, started organizing fellow students in a protest after he was told at a pre-graduation assembly earlier this month that wearing a feather would be a violation of district guidelines.

The rules were put in place to prevent students from inappropriately decorating graduation caps with things such as offensive language or gang symbols, school officials said.

Nordwall said he wanted to take a stand because his older sister was not allowed to wear her eagle feather on her cap when she graduated from Reed in 2014.

"When we are given an eagle feather, it represents something very significant in our lives," Nordwall told the Reno Gazette Journal (http://tinyurl.com/yb74q5ax).

"The eagle feather represents not only our religious aspect but mostly our cultural perseverance," Nordwall said. "It shows that we are still alive today."

The district announced at least a temporary exception to the policy after a number of people spoke out against the guidelines during a school board meeting on Tuesday. The school board intends to consider a permanent change in the rules at a future board meeting.

"This has been an ongoing issue every school year," said Christina Thomas, a former Paiute language and cultural instructor for the school district. "A lot of time students graduate and they get a car or a computer or they get something worth a lot of money. For our people they get a feather."

Thomas said she understood the district wanting to be fair by not allowing anything on graduation caps for all students.

"But this is not glitter. It is not Mickey Mouse ears. It's not saying, 'Hi Mom,' " she said. "It is part of who we are as Native people."

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Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana governor's office faces a backlog of public records requests largely stemming from Vice President Mike Pence's tenure, and the delay has been exacerbated by Pence's refusal to give his successor digital access to his emails, including those sent from a private AOL account he sometimes used to conduct state business.

More than 50 records requests are pending before the office of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who was Pence's hand-picked replacement on the ballot after Trump selected him to be the GOP vice presidential nominee last July.

The vast majority of the requests seek correspondence Pence had with staffers and political groups, including emails routed through his private AOL.com email account, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

The pending requests are from private citizens, law firms, political parties and news organizations, including the AP.

Pence has touted himself as a champion of a free press and the First Amendment, though he repeatedly stonewalled public records requests as governor, often delaying their release - if not denying them outright.

Thirteen boxes of paper copies of Pence's emails were delivered to the Indiana governor's office in March, after his use of a private AOL email account was first revealed. But public records experts say the vice president's reluctance since then to provide digital access to his correspondence appears to be a deliberate stalling tactic.

Indiana University journalism professor Gerry Lanosga, a former investigative reporter, said that state law requires Pence to provide digital records, like emails, in their original form.

"The fact that they were providing boxes of paper printouts of digital records is disappointing and clearly is meant to make it difficult to review and release the records," Lanosga said.

Pence spokesman Marc Lotter declined to answer detailed questions from AP, and instead emailed a one sentence statement.

"Documents relating to Governor Pence's official service to Indiana are being preserved by the state in full compliance with the law," Lotter wrote.

Holcomb spokeswoman Stephanie Wilson said the governor's office requested digital access to emails. But Pence has yet to follow through on a commitment to do so. Digital access would make the process of combing through the documents considerably easier for Holcomb's four-person legal team, which is also tasked with handling the administration's day-to-day legal needs.

Daniel Byron, a media law and First Amendment attorney, said the delay by Pence is hypocritical given he repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail for refusing to release emails from her time as secretary of state.

"He was after Hillary about emails and access," said Byron, a partner with the Indianapolis-based firm Bingham, Greenebaum, Doll. "Do people let him get away with that?"

Earlier this year, lawyers for Pence argued unsuccessfully in a civil case that Indiana courts had no authority to force him to comply with public records law.

Pence's AOL account was subjected to a phishing scheme last spring, before Trump chose him to join the GOP presidential ticket. Pence's contacts were sent an email falsely claiming that the governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and needed money.

The governor moved to a different AOL account with additional security measures, but has since stopped using the new personal account since he was sworn-in as vice president, Lotter previously said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump vowed Friday to crush "evil organizations of terror" following an attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt that killed more than two dozen people near Cairo and prompted the country's leader to appeal to Trump to lead the fight against global terrorism.

In a sharply worded statement, Trump condemned terrorists who were "engaged in a war against civilization" and decried the "merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt." He said the attack on a bus carrying Christians, many of them children, would steel the nation's resolve to destroy terrorist organizations and expose "their depraved, twisted and thuggish ideology."

Trump, attending the G-7 meeting in Sicily, said the U.S. would stand with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who vowed to strike back at the training bases of Islamic State militants suspected of waging the attacks. Egyptian fighter jets struck militant bases in eastern Libya.

From left, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, French newly elected President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Theresa May, and US President Donal Trump talk to each other prior to the start of the leaders of the G7 countries summit in the Sicilian citadel of Taormina, Italy, Friday, May 26, 2017. On Friday and Saturday, for the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Macron, May and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni -- forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid a rise in nationalism. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

El-Sissi, in his televised address, said of the U.S. president: "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

Trump said in his statement that the U.S. "makes clear to its friends, allies and partners that the treasured and historic Christian communities of the Middle East must be defended and protected. The bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must be punished."

It was the latest sign of the burgeoning friendship between Trump and el-Sissi, the former general who toppled democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. It marks a change from former President Barack Obama, who often kept el-Sissi at a distance and criticized Egypt's human rights record and suspended some U.S. military aid.

Trump and el-Sissi held talks in Saudi Arabia last week ahead of the Arab-Islamic-U.S. summit, a gathering that followed an April meeting at the White House.

Trump has made fighting terrorism a focal point of his first overseas trip as president, which ends this weekend. During a stop in Saudi Arabia, Trump and King Salman inaugurated a state-of-the-art center in Riyadh aimed at monitoring and countering extremism.

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On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The Texas Legislature approved a sweeping package of new abortion limits Friday, despite the legal challenges they're likely to provoke and nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled a 2013 law that prompted more than half the state's abortion clinics to close.

The bill sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott includes a measure that federal courts have already blocked in several states - a ban on a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation.

Abbott is still expected to sign what amounts to Texas Republicans' counterpunch to last year's Supreme Court ruling, which struck down tough rules on abortion clinics and doctors and changed the landscape of abortion access in the nation's second-largest state.

"That's why the courts are there," Republican state Sen. Charles Schwertner said moments before the state Senate gave its final approval. "We shouldn't be afraid to pass laws that we think are necessary, proper and right."

The bill would also require the burial or creation of fetal remains - a requirement that a federal judge has already blocked in Texas after the state health rules were changed at Abbott's behest last year. The measure also would ban the sale or donation of fetal tissue, even though federal law already prohibits the sale of fetal tissue.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped challenge the 2013 Texas law, called the new package of anti-abortion limits "reminiscent" of the law struck down last year and signaled that another court challenge is ahead.

"It's just going to have the state embroiled in litigation," Democratic state Sen. Jose Rodriguez said before the 22-9 vote.

Texas had 41 abortion clinics in 2012 and now has about 20. In April, Planned Parenthood re-opened its first abortion clinic in Texas since the Supreme Court ruling, resuming operations in Waco.

The legislative session ends Monday.

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Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pauljweber
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - A California brain surgeon pleaded not guilty Friday to 10 felony charges accusing him of sexually assaulting two boys and a girl under 14 years old as part of a child sex ring with seven victims.

James Kohut entered the plea in a Santa Cruz County court, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported (http://bit.ly/2rpKWSF ). His attorney, Jay Rorty, declined to comment, the newspaper said.

Kohut remains in custody, but the state medical board has asked a judge to block him from practicing medicine.

FILE - This undated photo provided by the Watsonville Police Department shows Dr. James Kohut. On Friday, May 26, 2017, Kohut, a California brain surgeon pleaded not guilty to 10 felony charges accusing him of sexually assaulting two boys and a girl under 14 years old.(Watsonville Police Department via AP)

Kohut was arrested as part of an investigation into child sex that also led to charges against two nurses, Emily Stephens and Rashel Brandon.

Watsonville police say a resident in May gave them a video shot in March of the two nurses having sex with children as young as 3 years old at a motel.

Court documents say Kohut had sex with two boys in the presence of the nurses. The children have been placed in protective custody, Watsonville police Capt. Jorge Zamora has said.

It was not clear whether Stephens had an attorney. She remains in custody in Tucson, Arizona, following her arrest there on May 12 on six felony child sex abuse charges involving three children under the age of 10 and three children under 14, the Sentinel reported.

Police arrested Brandon on May 9 in Watsonville.

A call to her attorney, public defender Anthony Robinson, was not immediately returned. Brandon's brother, Isaac Lynn of San Jose, told the Sentinel his family is supporting Brandon.

"The family is coping," Lynn said. "All the family members love her for who she is."

___

Information from: Santa Cruz Sentinel, http://www.santacruzsentinel.com
CRESCENT CITY, Calif. (AP) - A California prosecutor says a man convicted of raping a relative received a sentence that is too lenient, comparing the monthslong jail term to the case of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner.

A judge sentenced 20-year-old Nolan Bruder last week to 240 days in jail and three years' probation for drugging and raping a family member on July 11 in Crescent City, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday (https://tinyurl.com/ycbmvf4x ). Bruder will likely serve half his term because of California sentencing laws.

Bruder admitted to smoking potent marijuana concentrate with the victim, who said no when he asked to have sex with her. She testified that she became so impaired that she didn't recognize Bruder when she ultimately relented to having sex.

This undated photo released by the Del Norte County Sheriff's Office shows Nolan Bruder. A Northern California prosecutor says a judge went too easy on Bruder, convicted of raping a relative, comparing the short jail term to the light sentence former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner received for sexual assault. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday, May 26, 2017 that a judge sentenced Bruder to 240 days in jail for drugging and raping the victim. (Del Norte County Sheriff's Office via AP)

"Eventually it got to the point where I couldn't say no anymore, like, I didn't know how to, so I ended up having sex with him," the victim told investigators.

Del Norte County probation officials recommended a six-year prison sentence because Bruder "showed no real remorse and seemed smug," they wrote in a report to the judge.

Bruder wrote a one-page letter to the judge saying, "I am still struggling with the everlasting shame of the events of that night."

Judge William Follet said the "stigma" of the crime and having to register for life as a sex offender persuaded him to sentence Bruder to jail time instead of a lengthy prison sentence.

"I could not disagree more," said Del Norte District Attorney Dale Trigg, adding that the case was "more egregious than Brock Turner."

Bruder appears to have benefited from committing his crime before a new law took effect that mandates prison for sexual assault convictions, Trigg said.

Lawmakers passed the measure after Turner was sentenced to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside an on-campus fraternity house. He served half that time.

In declining to send Turner to prison, Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky cited the "severe impact" the conviction would have on the Olympic-caliber swimmer.

Persky's sentence sparked nationwide outage and prompted a recall campaign. Recall organizers say they will begin collecting signatures next month to put the effort on the November ballot.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - Some 10 athletes, including 2015 world champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov, encountered issues with obtaining visas to compete in the Prefontaine Classic track meet.

The meet that started Friday night is the only U.S. stop for the international Diamond League series.

Organizer Tom Jordan said it was the first time in nearly a decade that athletes had problems securing visas for the meet. Visas were denied or delayed for athletes from various countries, including Russia and Ethiopia, Jordan said.

Asked for comment on the matter via email, the U.S. Department of State replied: "Section 222 (f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) prohibits us from disclosing details from individual visa cases."

Shubenkov's visa was finally approved Thursday, too late for him to travel to Eugene, according to the athlete's Instagram post. No reason was given for the delay.

The Russian was supposed to be part of a start-studded for the 110-meter hurdles at the Prefontaine, which includes Rio Olympics gold medalist Omar McLeod of Jamaica and U.S. star Devon Allen.

Russian long jumper Darya Klishina was in Eugene and competed Friday night in the women's long jump.

Jordan said meet officials would consult with U.S. officials to avoid similar issues in the future.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A U.S. indictment alleges a former Mexican official stashed $50 million in illicit funds in U.S. properties and bank accounts.

The indictment unsealed this week includes a notice of seizure on seven properties in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Houston linked to Jose Manuel Saiz.

It charges Saiz, his wife and an associate conspired to launder money and commit bank fraud.

Saiz was secretary of finance for Mexico's Tabasco state from 2007 to 2012 under then Gov. Andres Granier Melo.

Granier Melo is in jail in Mexico, charged with offenses related to the alleged embezzlement of millions of dollars from state coffers. He has denied the charges.

Saiz is in custody facing illegal enrichment charges in Mexico.

U.S. authorities arrested Saiz's wife at her residence in Houston on Wednesday.
MOSS POINT, Miss. -- Antron McWilliams, 27, of Moss Point pled guilty to the charge of first-degree murder and was sentenced to serve life in prison on Friday for the January 2016 killing of 43-year-old Dornelle Brown.

McWilliams had an ongoing dispute with Brown, which led to him killing Brown and leaving his body between two apartment buildings in Pascagoula.

Per the Mississippi Department of Corrections, McWilliams has been identified as a member of the street gang, the Gangster Disciples and has prior drug convictions in Jackson County.

"This is yet another example of the violent mentality illegal street gangs are bringing to our communities," District Attorney Tony Lawrence said. "The Brown family lost their family member, and now the defendant's family must deal with the consequences of his actions as he spends the rest of his life in jail. Resorting to violence in this manner not only took the victim's life but placed other members of the community in danger."

"In addition to the thorough investigation of the Pascagoula Police Department, I commend the cooperation of the witnesses in this case. Together, law enforcement and the community helped to bring justice to the victim's family.," Assistant District Attorney George Huffman said.

Miguel Miller, who is indicted for Accessory After the Fact to the Murder, is still awaiting trial.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Jordan Spieth normally doesn't concern himself with the cut line in the middle of a round.

Unless the Dallas native is in danger of staying home on consecutive weekends in what amount to his hometown events.

Spieth recovered from a bad start by going 5 under over his final 13 holes at the Colonial on Friday, and his 2-under 68 put the defending champion at 2-under 138, four shots behind second-round leaders Webb Simpson, Kevin Kisner, Danny Lee and Scott Piercy.

Sergio Garcia tees off from the first tee box to start the second round at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational golf tournament Friday, May 26, 2017. (Richard W. Rodriguez/Star-Telegram via AP)

"When your back's against the wall and you feel the nerves kick up because you've got to do something, and you're not going to be able to play both weekends in town," said Spieth , coming off missed cuts in The Players Championship and AT&T Byron Nelson. "That would have been really, really tough for me to swallow if I missed the cut. And it was in my head."

Lee birdied the last hole for a 64, the low round of the tournament on a hot and windy day. Kisner also had a birdie on his final hole, the ninth, for a second straight 67. Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, and Piercy each shot 66 to join the group at 6-under 134.

Masters champion Sergio Garcia (66) and fellow Spaniard Jon Rahm (69), who played in the same group, were at 5 under along with England's Paul Casey (66) and Sean O'Hair (68).

Phil Mickelson didn't have a birdie while shooting a 75 that left him at 2 over, three shots clear of the cut in his first Colonial since the two-time champ missed the cut in 2010.

Spieth said the key to the recovery was a short bogey putt at 14, his fifth hole, that dropped him to 3 over after he opened with a par 70. The 23-year-old broke from his recent routine by seeking caddy Michael Greller's input on the 4-footer.

"He said, 'Hit this one with confidence and walk it in,'" Spieth said about his third bogey in the first five holes. "I stepped and walked it in. I think it was kind of shocking because it was a bogey putt to go 3 over. No one really walks those in. But it was exactly what I needed."

Spieth immediately followed with a 35-foot birdie putt at No. 15, then had four birdies in the first five holes of Colonial's front nine. That included two birdies on the "Horrible Horseshoe" of holes 3-5.

The 2015 Masters and U.S. Open champion had no bogeys over the final 13 holes after seven bogeys and a double bogey among his first 23, which offset six birdies in his opening round.

"I played one through five in 4 under. I don't think I've ever done 2 under on those holes," Spieth said. "I felt really good about the way that we played those last 14 holes, about as solid as the entire year."

Simpson made a 7-footer at the par-3 16th, then put his approach at 17 just inside 3 feet for a birdie that tied Casey. Third at Colonial last year, Simpson had missed the cut at Colonial his only two other times in 2009-10.

A four-time PGA Tour winner with his most recent victory in 2014, Simpson skipped last week's Nelson and hasn't played both Dallas-Fort Worth events since 2010.

"I didn't play well at Byron my first couple of years, so I just decided to stay out of Texas," Simpson joked.

Kisner made a 14-foot birdie on his final hole, the ninth, to join Simpson. Moments later, Lee rolled one in from 27 feet at the 18th. Piercy had a shot at the outright lead at the ninth, missing from 24 feet.

Casey's best Colonial finish was fifth in his debut in 2009, the same year of his only PGA Tour win in Houston. The 14-time international winner had three birdies and a bogey over his first four holes before settling in with two birdies over the final 14 while generally staying out of trouble.

The highlight for Casey was a 25-foot par save at the par-4 fifth, his 14th hole.

"It's been tricky with the wind," Casey said. "I've handled it so far, so I would actually like it to stay tricky if it can. And I handle the heat well. So I am saying probably the more difficult it is, the better it is for me."

Garcia had six birdies, while Rahm didn't get his first until 17 while finishing with two straight.

Si Woo Kim, playing for the first time since winning The Players Championship two weeks ago, had an 8 on the par-4 ninth after his pitch from greenside bunker went dead right off his club and rolled into the water.

Kim had to go across the pond for his drop and hit another ball in the water, then tossed his club in as well after finally reaching the green on the next shot. He made a 15-footer for quadruple bogey, and finished with a 73 to miss the cut at 5 over.

___

More AP golf: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Golf

Webb Simpson reads his putt on the 11th green during the second round of the Dean & DeLuca Invitational golf tournament at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, May 26, 2017. (Ray Carlin/Star-Telegram via AP)

Kevin Kisner, right, celebrates with his caddie after his putt on the ninth green at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational golf tournament Friday, May 26, 2017, in Fort Worth, Texas. (Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP)

Scott Piercy tees off the No. 3 tee at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational golf tournament Friday, May 26, 2017. (Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A former San Francisco Bay Area community college philosophy teacher and "anti-fascist" activist was charged Friday with hitting several people in the head with a bicycle lock during a violent clash between supporters and detractors of President Donald Trump last month.

Berkeley police officers arrested Eric Clanton, 28, Wednesday at his Oakland, California, home.

Police seized "flags, patches, pamphlets" and labels associated with "anti-fascist and anarchist political groups," according to the complaint filed by prosecutors charging Clanton with four felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and a misdemeanor charge of wearing a mask while committing a crime.

FILE - In this April 15, 2017 file photo, anti President Donald Trump protesters clash with Trump supporters during competing demonstrations at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, Calif. Authorities say a former San Francisco Bay Area junior college professor has been arrested for allegedly beating three people during violent clashes between supporters and detractors of President Donald Trump last month. (Anda Chu /San Jose Mercury News via AP, File)

Clanton has tattoo on the inside of his left bicep associated with the anti-fascist "Iron Front" movement, police said.

One of the victims required five staples for a head injury, police said.

Police arrested 20 people during the chaotic April 15 protests in downtown Berkeley.

Videos of a masked man wearing a dark hoodie hitting a pro-Trump protester in the head circulated widely on social media and led to Clanton's arrest, Berkeley Police Lt. Dan Montgomery said.

"People in the community were upset by what they saw, and we received tips about the incident," Montgomery said.

Investigators seized a so-called U-lock from Clanton's apartment, court records said.

Clanton's attorney, Dan Siegel, did not return a telephone message left Friday seeking comment.

Clanton was jailed for lack of $200,000 bail, according online jail records.

The clashes occurred after Trump supporters held a "Patriot Day" rally that featured inflammatory "alt-right" speeches.

Dozens of black-clad, masked counter-demonstrators clashed with the president's supporters, prompting police to spray the crowd with tear gas.

Clanton taught philosophy part-time at Diablo Valley College in San Francisco's eastern suburbs for three semesters ending in the fall of 2016.

He was not employed at the college during the time of the rally, college spokeswoman Chrisanne Knox said.

Employee records for 2015 and 2016 show Clanton was a lecturer with the California State University system and taught philosophy with the Contra Costa Community College District, according to Transparent California, a database of public employees.

___

Associated Press writer Paul Elias in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Detectives have made immense progress in the investigation into the Manchester bombing and are confident they have arrested some key players, Britains top counter-terror officer has said.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said police have made significant arrests and finds and have got hold of a large part of the suspected network being sought over the atrocity.

He said: We are very happy weve got our hands around some of the key players that we are concerned about but theres still a little bit more to do.

A ninth suspect, aged 44, was detained in the Rusholme area of Manchester on Friday night, bringing the total number arrested to 11  although two have since been released without charge.

The other eight suspects detained are all aged between 18 and 38.

Mr Rowley also issued a defiant message as he urged people to go about their business as normal over the bank holiday weekend.

Enjoy yourselves and be reassured by the greater policing presence you will see, he said. We cant let the terrorists win by dissuading us from going about our normal business.

Manchester attack, arrests and key locations

A huge security operation is planned with 1,100 armed officers on hand to protect major spectacles around the country, including the FA Cup Final at Wembley and the Great Manchester Run.

It was revealed that specialist teams have carried out a review of security for more than 1,300 events with Britain remaining at the highest threat level of critical while the investigation into the bombing continues.

Tributes to the victims (Peter Byrne/PA)

Twenty-two victims including children were killed when Salman Abedi, 22, launched a suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday night.

It was the worst terrorist atrocity to hit Britain since the July 7 attacks in London in 2005 and sparked a huge counter-terror probe.

Providing an update on the probe, Mr Rowley said it is likely further arrests will follow.

He said: Having made enormous progress and made some significant arrests and had some significant finds, there still remain important lines of inquiry for us to pursue.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley (Lauren Hurley/PA)

Weve got to try to understand everything we can about the dead terrorist, his associates.

We need to understand the whole network and how they acquired and built the bomb that exploded on Monday night.

Its going to take a little more time to close down those gaps in our understanding.

We are working as fast as we can do because everyone wants answers to this.

Latest update pic.twitter.com/Blka4Cu90o  Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) May 26, 2017

He said police now have a much better understanding of what happened.

Mr Rowley went on: Weve got a lot of the risk contained but we still have some uncertainty.

As we chase down those lines of inquiry we will keep this strong policing presence.

We need to grow our confidence that we have got every component of the network and we have got as full an understanding as possible about how the device was constructed and whether theres any remaining risk.

Police cordon in Moss Side (Kim Pilling/PA)

Mr Rowley outlined a number of strands of the investigation into the attack.

These include finance, communications and international inquiries looking at links to Libya and elsewhere.

Also under scrutiny are materials seized during searches, CCTV images to establish movements and patterns of activity in the lead up to the attack, and witness statements from those caught up in it.

Commenting on the progress of the investigation, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said 12 locations had been searched and thousands of items examined.

Speaking outside force HQ, he said: I think it is fair to say it has been an extremely challenging week, and we are still in the middle of a live investigation.
The FBI is investigating meetings Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner had with Russian officials in December, according to reports.

Mr Kushner, a key White House adviser, had meetings with Moscows ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov.

The Washington Post cited people familiar with the investigation who said the FBI investigation does not mean Mr Kushner is suspected of a crime. His lawyer Jamie Gorelick released a statement saying: Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.

Ivanka Trump with her husband, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner (Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP)

Meanwhile, the chairman of the House oversight committee asked the FBI to turn over more documents about former director James Comeys interactions with the White House and Justice Department, including material dating back nearly four years to the Obama administration.

The FBI and the oversight committee - as well as several other congressional panels - are looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign. Mr Trump fired Mr Comey on May 9 amid questions about the FBIs investigation, which is now being led by special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director.

House oversight committee chairman Jason Chaffetz told acting FBI director Andrew McCabe that he wants records of Mr Comeys contacts with the White House and Justice Department dating to September 2013, when Mr Comey was sworn in as FBI director under president Barack Obama.

Former FBI director James Comey (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

In a letter to Mr McCabe, Mr Chaffetz said he is seeking to review Mr Comeys memos and other written materials so he can better understand his communications with the White House and attorney generals office.

Mr Chaffetz previously requested Mr Comeys recent memos about his private contacts with Mr Trump, but the bureau told him on Thursday it could not yet turn them over because of Mr Muellers probe.

Mr Chaffetz, who said last week he had his subpoena pen ready to force Mr Comey or the FBI to turn over the documents, told Mr McCabe that Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the special counsels investigation.

He added: I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decision - to produce these documents to the committee immediately and on a voluntary basis.

Jason Chaffetz said he wants records of James Comey's contacts with the White House and Justice Department (Rick Bowmer/AP)

The letter comes a month before he is scheduled to leave office after abruptly announcing his resignation earlier this year.

Assistant FBI director Gregory Brower told Mr Chaffetz on Thursday that the agency is evaluating his request and will update him as soon as possible.

Some Republican members of Congress have pressured Mr Chaffetz to step down from the Comey probe, saying it should be led by someone who will remain in Congress.
Jordan Spieth continued to struggle for top form as he finished five shots off the lead in the first round of the Dean & Deluca Invitational.

It could have been worse for the defending champion as he closed his round with back-to-back birdies to finish level par, after a double bogey on the 15th had been followed by another dropped shot on the 16th.

Spieth has missed the cut at his last two events but had hoped a return to form was on the cards in his home state of Texas.

Jordan Spieth

 Monster putts

 Wicked winds

 Spieth's old friend#TheTakeaway pic.twitter.com/ucvC92LcUD  PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2017

The 23-year-old bogeyed the second and fourth but returned to level par by gaining shots on the fifth and seventh.

A 38-foot putt saved par on the ninth before a dropped shot on the 10th was followed by birdies on the 11th and 13th to take him under par for the first time.

But he struggled on the par-four 15th, finding the bunker from his drive before his next shot ended up in a water hazard.

When he followed that up with a bogey on the next, the two-time major winner was seven shots off the pace, but an impressive end to his round will give him confidence for day two.

.@Graeme_McDowell is making his @DeanDeLucaInv debut.



His decision is paying off after a bogey-free Thursday.https://t.co/gMa7CgGMW0 pic.twitter.com/Jd9cytQfRY  PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 26, 2017

Northern Irelands Graeme McDowell made a strong start to the tournament, with his four-under 66 leaving him a shot behind joint leaders Derek Fathauer, JT Poston and Kelly Kraft.

McDowell, who is without a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour this year, started on the back nine and birdied the 11th, 18th, fourth and seventh.

He goes into the second round in a tie for fourth with American Scott Brown and Spains Jon Rahm.

Five-time major winner Phil Mickelson is one of six Americans lying a further shot adrift after he birdied the last three holes, while Masters champion Sergio Garcia is five shots back after an opening 69.

Englands Paul Casey joins Garcia on one under after he double bogeyed the 17th.
Domestic issues gained a bigger share of the Twitter conversation last week, almost nudging Brexit off the top spot as the most talked-about topic in General Election tweets.

Analysis of Twitter data by the Press Association found that between May 15 and 22, of the 13 most talked about issues, 22% of tweets were about Brexit, down from 27% the week before.

The figures cover the period that saw each of the three main parties launch their manifestos and face criticism over how they would afford some of their key proposals.

Party leaders on Twitter

Health was the second biggest topic of conversation (17% of tweets), after Theresa May came under fire for her so-called dementia tax.

Education overtook the economy to come third, in the week the PM proposed funding a 4 billion injection into English schools by scrapping free school lunches for infants.

In terms of mentions, Jeremy Corbyn beat Theresa May for the second week running, with their shares staying largely the same at 44% and 35% respectively.

Party leaders on Facebook

And Labour was the most mentioned political party for the third week running with a 47% share of tweets, with the Conservatives second with 34%.

Labour officially launched their manifesto last week, pledging to nationalise railways, energy and the Royal Mail, and ban zero hours contracts.

Despite the Lib Dem manifesto launching that week too, they were overtaken by the SNP for third place, who sat far behind the two main parties with just 9%.

Top issues

1 Brexit 22%

2 Health 17%

3 Education 17%

4 The economy 16%

5 Tax 8%

6 Pensions 6%

7 Immigration & asylum 5%

8 Family Life and Childcare 2%

9 Housing 2%

10 The Environment 1%

11 Transport 1%

12 Crime 1%

13 Welfare benefits 1%

Top politicians

1 Jeremy Corbyn 44%

2 Theresa May 35%

3 Nicola Sturgeon 5%

4 Nigel Farage 4%

5 Tim Farron 3%

6 John McDonnell 3%

7 Angela Rayner 2%

8 Diane Abbott 1%

9 Philip Hammond 1%

10 Jeremy Hunt 1%

Top political parties

1 Labour Party 47%

2 Conservative Party 34%

3 Scottish National Party 9%

4 Liberal Democrats 7%

5 UK Independence Party 3%
Saracens Scotland international Sean Maitland has signed a contract extension with the reigning European champions.

Saracens said the 28-year-old, who joined them from London Irish last summer on a two-year deal, has agreed a two-year extension that will keep him at Allianz Park until 2020.

Maitland, who is currently injured, has won 28 caps for Scotland.

Saracens' Sean Maitland and Glasgow's Stuart Hogg, right, in European Champions Cup action

Take a look at all of Sean Maitland's tries in his first season in a Sarries shirt! pic.twitter.com/4l95nvgEFY  Saracens Rugby Club (@Saracens) May 26, 2017

Saracens rugby director Mark McCall said: We are all delighted to have extended Seans deal.

He has fitted in to our environment seamlessly, and his performances on the field have been a testament to his hard work and professionalism off the pitch.

Hes in the prime of his career, and we are very happy to keep Sean at Allianz Park until 2020.
Former St Helens utility player Jordan Turner is to cut short his stay in the NRL, with Huddersfield emerging as his destination.

The 28-year-old centre or loose forward, who was in the Saints team that won the Super League Grand Final in 2014, joined Canberra Raiders at the end of last season on a two-year deal but failed to break into their NRL team.

Turner, who played in the NRL All Stars game at Newcastle in February, had been linked with Warrington, Salford and Wakefield but Press Association Sport understands the Giants have secured his services on a four-and-a-half-year deal.

Jordan Turner after St Helens' game at Leeds in 2014

Tough introduction to the NRL, lot to learn and improve on. Feel better for the experience and https://t.co/K0amP5bGUp  Jordan Turner (@JordanTurner89) February 10, 2017

Huddersfield, struggling in the bottom four of the Betfred Super League, recently freed up space on their salary cap with the sale of half-back Ryan Brierley to Toronto.

The Oldham-born Turner began his career at Salford, establishing himself in the team for two years before joining Hull at the start of the 2010 season.

Turner made two appearances for England Knights in 2012 before moving to St Helens, for whom he scored 61 tries in 119 appearances, including their Old Trafford triumph over Wigan.
Wasps star Kurtley Beale will miss Saturdays Aviva Premiership final against Exeter at Twickenham.

The Australia international full-back, who returns to play Down Under this summer, was not part of the 23-man team announced by Wasps on Friday after being sidelined by a hamstring injury.

Beale, who has delivered a number of brilliant displays for Wasps this season, was hurt during last weekends play-off victory over Leicester.

Kurtley Beale during Wasps' European Champions Cup clash with Connacht

TEAM NEWS: Dai Young names his side for the @premrugby Final v @ExeterChiefs at Twickenham this Saturday, KO 2.30pm https://t.co/PZyyS2uxUh pic.twitter.com/zLjBzGZRAg  Wasps Rugby (@WaspsRugby) May 26, 2017

Wasps rugby director Dai Young has handed the number 15 shirt to South Africa international Willie Le Roux, who switches from the wing, with Josh Bassett, scorer of the winning try two minutes from time against Leicester, gaining a start.

Wasps, in their first Premiership final since 2008 and seeking a fifth title, also field British and Irish Lions squad members Elliot Daly and James Haskell.

Exeter, meanwhile, show one change following their semi-final victory over Saracens, with fit-again wing Olly Woodburn replacing James Short.
West Ham have made former Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta their first major summer signing.

The Argentina full-back will join the Irons on a two-year deal from July 1, when his contract with Manchester City expires having been released at the Etihad Stadium.

This is an absolute pleasure to be part of West Ham, Zabaleta told West Ham TV. I hope I can give you good moments.

Pablo Zabaleta after the final whistle against West Brom

Of course, I come to the club to enjoy myself and hopefully we can have a very successful time.

Zabaleta made more than 200 appearances for City following a move from Espanyol in 2008. During his time at the Etihad Stadium, the full-back won the Premier League twice as well as the 2011 FA Cup and two League Cups.

The 32-year-old, who revealed he turned down offers from Italy, Spain and also elsewhere in England to sign up with the Hammers, is confident he can continue to deliver following his move to the London Stadium.

Time to say goodbye...@pablo_zabaleta will leave City at the end of the season. Story: https://t.co/Z230gRxXaP



Thank you #ourzab  pic.twitter.com/f1yS6AYXaH  Manchester City (@ManCity) May 13, 2017

Sometimes a new challenge is all you need as a person and as a player. I thought my time at City was done. It has been a fantastic nine years, absolutely brilliant, he said.

Manchester City gave me the opportunity to come to this wonderful league, the Premier League, something Ive been enjoying a lot as a player. And, of course, for me it was probably the right time to move on.

Also, as a player, I thought I wanted to keep playing in the Premier League. For me, after being in this country for so long, this is a new challenge for me in the Premier League and Im ready for it and looking forward to it.
Some things are in our control and others are not  the latter should be nothing to you. This wise statement begins the Enchiridion of Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher. Epictetus had some experience of hardships being out of his control: he spent part of his life as a slave.



Detail of the opening lines of Epictetus's Enchiridion, copied in the 2nd half of the 16th century, Add MS 11887, f. 1r

Much of what is known about Epictetuss life comes from a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopaedia, the Suda. The British Library has a rare complete copy of this text, now Add MS 11892/3. According to the Suda, Epictetus was born in Hierapolis, Phrygia, in the first century CE and became a slave to a cruel master in Rome. On top of that, his mobility was impaired, perhaps from an illness or from mistreatment. The early Christian theologian Origen (d. 253/4) claimed that Epictetuss owner broke his leg, a situation Epictetus reportedly handled with logic and wit: [W]hen [Epictetus's] master was twisting his leg, Epictetus said, smiling and unmoved, You will break my leg. When it was broken, he added, I told you so.



Opening page from the Suda, copied 15 June 1402, Add MS 11892, f. 2r

Despite Epictetuss challenges, he was later liberated and started teaching philosophy in Rome. There were still more twists and turns to his career, however. Around AD 93, Domitian chased out all philosophers from Rome, so Epictetus fled to Greece, where he started a school.



Opening page of Simplicius's Commentary on Epictetus's Enchiridion, copied 15 November 1469, Add MS 10064, f. 1r

Given Epictetuss pithy sayings and his dramatic life, stories about him continued to be told and retold. St John Chrysostom (d. 407) wrote about him, claiming that when Epictetus was asked by his master, Do you want me to let you loose?, Epictetus answered: Why? Am I in any way bound? Manuscripts of his works and commentaries on his works continued to be copied into the 16th century. Epictetus continues to influence a wide variety of figures to this day, from philosophers to playwrights to the psychotherapist Albert Ellis, whose school of therapy claims to owe more to Epictetuss ideas than Sigmund Freuds. Epictetuss teachings still resonate today. It is difficulties that show what men are, according to his Discourses. In the Enchiridion, he noted that These reasonings are unconnected: I am richer than you; therefore I am better. I am more eloquent than you; therefore I am better. The connection is rather this: I am richer than you; therefore my property is greater than yours. I am more eloquent than you; therefore my style is better than yours. But you, after all, are neither property nor style.

You can find out more about this subject by consulting the British Library's Greek Manuscripts webspace. Available online are articles such as Greek manuscripts in the 16th century, descriptions of our collection items and videos. We hope you have fun exploring the site!

Peter Toth

Follow us on Twitter @BLMedieval
By Adela Suliman

LONDON, May 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Taking out insurance to protect against climate risks is the "wrong model" for improving countries' ability to cope and may even be worsening inequality and vulnerability, a leading development charity said on Wednesday.

A policy taken out by Malawi cost the drought-ridden southern African country $5 million but failed to deliver timely assistance to more than 6.5 million people affected in 2016 and shows that insurance is "poor value for money", ActionAid said.

Insurance is viewed by some as a solution for developing countries to cushion farmers against extreme weather that can worsen poverty and threatens to roll back development gains.

ActionAid said in a report there had been major defects in the model, data and process used by insurers African Risk Capacity Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd) to determine a payout to Malawi.

"Insurance is not a quick fix for broken development, adaptation and humanitarian finance systems," Jonathan Reeves, the report's author, said in a statement.

ARC Ltd did not automatically trigger a payout on the policy, citing "the model indicated a low number of people affected by drought," the insurer said in an email to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

ARC Ltd rejected the findings in the report and said it had worked closely with technical experts in Malawi to customise the insurance model.

Malawi took out insurance based on a crop - long-cycle maize - that, as it turned out, most farmers did not grow in the 2015/2016 season. Long-cycle maize survived the drought, while the short-cycle maize most farmers grew did not.

After investigating the discrepancy, ARC Ltd made a payment of $8.1 million to Malawi in January 2017, which ActionAid deemed "too little, too late".

The total cost of responding to the drought cost Malawi, where more than 80 percent of the population are smallholder farmers, an estimated $395 million, according to the report.

NO QUICK FIX

Last year, southern African states appealed for $2.9 billion in aid when the region was hit with its worst drought in 35 years, affecting 39 million people. Now, drought in the continent's east is pushing millions into hunger.

Insurance can be triggered more quickly than international aid, which can take months to fund.

ARC Ltd's cover is based on a pre-agreed plan for how the government will use the payout.

The index-based insurance offers maximum coverage of $30 million per country per season for drought events that occur with a frequency of one in five years or less.

Twenty-five percent of land-locked Malawi has experienced drought more than seven times in the last decade, according to the United Nations' World Food Programme.

As of November 2016 around 6.7 million people, about a third of the population, were in need of urgent food or cash support.

Recent droughts have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon and an infestation of armyworms, an invasive Latin American pest that has decimated maize fields, a staple crop in the country. (Reporting by Adela Suliman; Editing by Astrid Zweynert @azweynert. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
After successful missile launches which have angered world leaders, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un often celebrates, hugs and shares a celebratory smoke with the same three men.

The trio, often seen with Kim in photographs and on TV, are of great interest to Western security and intelligence agencies since they are the top people in the secretive country's rapidly accelerating missile programme.

These men are former air force general Ri Pyong Chol, veteran rocket scientist Kim Jong Sik, and head of weapons development Jang Chang Ha.

The three men often seen celebrating with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre) are (from left to right) veteran rocket scientist Kim Jong Sik, former air force general Ri Pyong Chol and head of weapons development Jang Chang Ha

The trio, often seen with Kim in photographs and on TV, are of great interest to Western security and intelligence agencies. Pictured: Kim, centre, with Ri Pyong Chol, left

The trio are often seen rejoicing with the North Korean dictator after the country's controversial missile launches. Pictured: Undated photo of a missile launch in the North

Unlike most North Korean officials, two of these men have flown with Kim in his private plane Goshawk-1, named after North Korea's national bird, state TV has shown.

The trio is said to be indispensable to North Korea's rapidly developing weapons programme.

The isolated nation has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year, all in violation of UN resolutions and angering the United States and their rivals South Korea.

'Rather than going through bureaucrats, Kim Jong Un is keeping these technocrats right by his side, so that he can contact them directly and urge them to move fast,' said An Chan-il, a former North Korean military officer and defector.

Mr An added: 'It reflects his urgency about missile development.'

Kim Jong Sik and Jang are not from elite families, unlike many other senior figures in North Korea's ruling class, North Korean leadership experts say.

They claim Ri, a former air force commander, has been to one of the better-regarded schools in North Korea, but he and the other two were hand-picked by Kim Jong Un.

The trio is said to be indispensable to North Korea's rapidly developing weapons programme. Pictured from left to right behind dictator Kim: Ri Pyong Chol, Kim Jong Sik and Jang Chang Ha

The isolated nation has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year, all in violation of UN resolutions

North Korean military experts claim Ri (right, celebrating a missile launch with Kim), a former air force commander, has been to one of the better-regarded schools in North Korea

'Kim Jong Un is raising a new generation of people separate from his father's key aides,' said a South Korean official with knowledge of the matter, referring to Kim Jong Il, who died in late 2011 leaving the younger Kim in charge.

The most prominent of the three is Ri, according to leadership experts.

Always shown smiling in photographs, he is now deputy director of the Workers Party Munitions Industry Department which oversees the development of its ballistic missile programme, according to the South Korean government and US Treasury.

The department was blacklisted by the US Treasury in 2010 and Ri was named by the South Korean government last year for activities related to the country's weapons programmes.

'The big potato in that trio of people is Ri Pyong Chol,' said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership. 'He's been around since before Kim Jong Un was even talked about with any seriousness'.

Born in 1948, Ri was partly educated in Russia and promoted when Kim Jong Un started to rise through the ranks in the late 2000s, Madden and the South Korean government official said.

Ri has visited China once and Russia twice. He met China's defence minister in 2008 as the air force commander and accompanied Kim Jong Il on a visit to a Russian fighter jet factory in 2011, according to state media.

Always shown smiling in photographs, Ri Pyong-chol is considered the most prominent of Kim's so-called Rocket Stars

Ri is now deputy director of the Workers Party Munitions Industry Department which oversees the development of its ballistic missile programme. Pictured: Kim Jong-un supervising a missile launch

'Ri looks like the party's guy in the missile programme,' said Kim Jin-moo, an expert on North Korea's elite and former government think tank analyst in Seoul.

The rocket scientist in the trio is Kim Jong Sik, who started his career as a civilian aeronautics technician.

He now wears the uniform of a military general at the Munitions Industry Department, according to experts and the South Korean government.

But it was his role in the North Korea's first successful launch of a rocket in 2012 which really helped him earn recognition, Madden said.

'When that thing went off and entered into a lower earth orbit, he got credit for that,' said Madden. 'The nuclear and missile guys under Kim Jong Un are getting their jobs based on merit'.

Last year, Kim Jong Sik was at the National Aerospace Development Administration or 'NADA', North Korea's official space agency, where he escorted Kim Jong Un through the mission control room ahead of a successful long-range rocket launch in February.

State TV footage showed him riding to a launch site in Kim Jong Un's private plane. Upon arrival, he accompanied the young leader down the red carpet and received flowers from other senior officials.

Kim Jong Sik and Jang are not from elite families, unlike many other senior figures in North Korea's ruling class. Pictured: Kim Jong-un with Ri

Of the three men, the least is known about Jang Chang Ha, president of the Academy of the National Defence Science

Most other details, including his age, are not known.

Of the three men, the least is known about Jang Chang Ha, president of the Academy of the National Defence Science, previously called the Second Academy of Natural Sciences.

The body is in charge of the secretive country's research and development of its advanced weapons systems, 'including missiles and probably nuclear weapons', the US Treasury said in 2010 in its decision to blacklist the group.

The organisation obtains technology, equipment, and information from overseas for use in weapons programmes, the Treasury said. Jang was added to the Treasury blacklist in December 2016.

Under Jang's leadership, the academy has around 15,000 staff, including some 3,000 missile engineers, according to South Korean media reports, citing unnamed sources.

North Korea's banned weapons programme began in the early 2000s with a similar trio of men close to the leadership who specialised in procurement, science and military affairs.

Academy of the National Defence Science has around 15,000 staff, including some 3,000 missile engineers, according to South Korean media reports

Of them, logistician Jon Pyong Ho has died. The others - scientist So Sang Guk and military coordinator O Kuk Ryol - are elderly and no longer in the public eye.

Their place, Madden said, has been taken by Kim Jong Un's hand-picked men.

'These are the men bringing North Korea's missile programme into the 21st Century.' he said.
By Matthew Tostevin

HANOI, May 26 (Reuters) - Vietnam could hardly have asked for more: a U.S. warship challenging Chinese claims in the South China Sea, a meeting at the White House and six new coastal patrol boats.

All are signs of a U.S. commitment which Vietnam had feared was waning under President Donald Trump just as the Southeast Asian country has emerged as the most forceful opponent of China's claim to one of the world's most important seaways.

But uncertain over how enduring U.S. support will be and wary of relying on any ally, Vietnam is just as carefully cultivating ties with ancient foe China.

"Vietnam doesn't want an imbalance of power in the region that could lead to war," said Tran Cong Truc, a former head of the National Boundary Commission who spent decades defending Vietnam's maritime claims.

The meeting with Trump next Wednesday is a coup for Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who will be the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House under the new administration.

It reflected calls, letters, diplomatic contacts and lower level visits that started long before Trump took office in Washington, where Vietnam retains a lobbyist at $30,000 a month.

Just as important symbolically for Vietnam this week was having a U.S. warship sail close to an artificial island being built by China in the South China Sea, where Beijing's extensive claims are disputed by Vietnam and four other countries.

Vietnamese officials and foreign envoys familiar with Hanoi's position said it had been lobbying hard for what former enemy the United States calls a "freedom of navigation" mission.

Further underlining U.S. support, the United States delivered six coastal patrol vessels to Vietnam this week.

"Vietnam's future prosperity depends upon a stable and peaceful maritime environment," U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius said.

LONELY VOICE

Such words help to ease concerns in Vietnam at being a lonely voice in challenging Beijing in the South China Sea, particularly since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has grown closer to China.

Military ties between the United States and Vietnam were forged under the Obama administration, but even more important was the strategic Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact.

Vietnam was disappointed when Trump ditched that deal and focused trade policy on reducing deficits - Vietnam's $32 billion surplus with the United States was the sixth biggest last year.

Vietnamese nerves were jangled further by Trump's recent cosiness with Chinese President Xi Jinping in trying to tackle North Korea's nuclear programme.

"The total fixation on North Korea had Vietnam quite worried that the South China Sea would be left wide open," said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert at Australias University of New South Wales.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Katrina Adams said "the U.S.-Vietnam partnership is a critical component of U.S. foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region".

But a former senior U.S. official said Trump could be expected to complain to Vietnam's prime minister about the size of its trade surplus. Under Trump budget plans, Vietnam could also find U.S. military donations becoming loans instead.

In the face of the uncertainty since Trump took office, Hanoi has been paying as much attention to Beijing as to Washington.

President Tran Dai Quang combined a state visit with his attendance at China's Belt and Road summit. Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, arguably the most powerful man in Vietnam, was in Beijing days before Trump's inauguration.

After both those visits, the countries emphasised their readiness to keep the peace in the South China Sea, through which some $5 trillion in trade flows each year.

Just as telling, the Vietnamese coast guard sent a vessel on a visit to China for the first time early this month.

"'Simultaneously cooperate and fight' is a very practical policy," said Truc. "Vietnam never kneels or surrenders before China's open violation of its legitimate rights, but it does not give China any excuse to use its power to create conflict."

(Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Hanoi, Greg Torode in Hong Kong, David Brunnstrom and Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Nick Macfie)
BEIRUT, May 26 (Reuters) - An air strike on Thursday evening killed at least 35 civilians, including family members of Islamic State fighters, in al-Mayadin, a town held by the jihadists near Deir al-Zor in Syria, a war monitor reported.

Most air raids against Islamic State strongholds along the Euphrates basin in Syria have been conducted by a U.S.-led coalition and by Syrian and Russian jets. Iraqi warplanes have also carried out at least one air raid in east Syria.

The deaths bring the total number of people killed in two days of aerial bombardment in al-Mayadin to 50 said the monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Residents saw reconnaissance aircraft and warplanes circling the city at 7.25 p.m. (1625 GMT) before they fired missiles which struck two buildings, one of which was a four-storey block housing Syrian and Moroccan families of Islamic State fighters.

Islamic State is losing ground in both Syria and Iraq under assault from an array of sometimes rival forces in both countries. Many of its fighters who have retreated from other fronts are amassing in Syria's Euphrates basin area.

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes and investigates any that are reported to have taken place. Russia and Syria's government both deny targeting civilians.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Nellie Peyton

SAINT-LOUIS, Senegal, May 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - C heikh Badiane, a weathered fisherman, looks out to sea from the edge of his neighbourhood in the north Senegalese city of Saint-Louis.

Behind him is a densely populated fishing quarter, where buildings rise haphazardly, and children and animals fill narrow sandy streets.

Before him, the land ends abruptly and waves lap against the ruins of a concrete wall. Each year, a bit more of his hometown crumbles into the Atlantic Ocean.

"A French man told us once that there will be a time when this land won't exist," said Badiane, who lives in the working-class district of Guet Ndar. "Maybe in 30 years, maybe in 50. I don't know."

What he knows is that the land he grew up on - a thin strip between the Senegal River and the ocean - is disappearing fast.

Senegal's coastline is receding at an estimated average rate of 1 to 2 metres per year, driven by rising sea levels, rapid urbanisation and illegal sand mining for construction. Other countries in West Africa face similar problems.

In vulnerable communities like Badiane's, some experts say the trend is irreversible, and the best option is for families to move before they lose their houses and belongings.

"(The people) are trying to fight, but in reality the phenomenon has become very serious," said Abdou Sane, a former parliamentarian based in Dakar who has spearheaded efforts to reduce the threat of disasters.

"It exceeds the means of the government, the means of communities," he added.

DISAPPEARING DUNES

Ten miles south of Saint-Louis, two villages have already been submerged.

They are the casualties of a disastrous attempt to reduce flood risks by re-routing the river, which accelerated erosion.

"We left the day the water came into our house," said Mba Thio Ndiaye, sitting outside with her children in the village of Mbambara, which houses a small community of the displaced.

When floodwaters swelled around Saint-Louis in 2003, the government dug an emergency channel from the river to the ocean, breaching the long peninsula and allowing the water to recede.

But the peninsula's fragile sand dunes have continued to give way. Initially 4 metres (13 ft) across, the channel is now 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) wide and growing.

Ndiaye's home village of Doun Baba Dieye, abandoned five years ago, was the first in its path.

The breach has exposed new parts of the mainland to waves, and is progressively poisoning arable farmland with saltwater.

Experts say it gives a glimpse of what will eventually happen elsewhere, due to a combination of natural processes, human intervention and climate change.

"No one helped us. We lost everything and started over with zero," Ndiaye said.

EARLY ACTION

Experts have urged the government to relocate other communities before they face a similar fate.

A UN-Habitat program in 2011 helped move about 60 families out of Guet Ndar to a settlement a short distance inland.

"That's a way of being resilient," said Mateugue Diack, a professor of agronomy and disaster risk reduction at the nearby Gaston Berger University.

But communication was lacking and people were reluctant to move, he said. The relocation effort fizzled out before it was completed.

Guet Ndar is populated primarily by fishermen whose families have lived there for generations. Most of those who have lost their homes have remained in the overcrowded area, squeezing in with relatives and neighbours.

President Macky Sall has said the state will build a 3.5 km seawall in front of Saint-Louis, a prospect some residents welcome, although they are sceptical it will materialise.

"Between political speech and action, the gap is huge," said Diack. He thinks the wall is a good idea, but others say it will not fix the problem.

Sea walls in other parts of Senegal have collapsed, and the barrier could leave coastal communities on both sides more exposed, Sane said.

Earlier this month, villagers in Guet Ndar woke up to find water had entered a new row of houses and a mosque.

The city sent in soldiers and firefighters to pile up sandbags in front of the buildings - a temporary fix until they too are washed away.

'UNTIL THE WATER COMES'

"Unfortunately my country is one of those that has this huge problem. We always record that something may happen, that something has happened... but still do nothing," said Diack.

It is not only Saint-Louis that is at immediate risk. In the river deltas of southern Senegal, thousands of people living on islands have watched water rise around their homes.

Mangrove restoration in some areas has helped stabilise the fragile ecosystem, and breakwaters in the beach town of Saly have successfully slowed erosion.

But lack of funds has limited prevention efforts.

"If we had good urban planning, we could from today figure out how many people are affected and start to find some areas where we can relocate them," said Sane.

But it would be a costly and complex effort, and there are no obvious places they could move to.

As droughts and erratic rains disrupt farming in Senegal's inland regions, people are increasingly migrating to cities on the coast in search of jobs.

Sane anticipates a reverse land rush in the long term, once the coastal threats become more pronounced.

Fary Tew Mbaye lives in Pilote Barre, a small cluster of homes south of Saint-Louis that is expected to be the next to wash away.

Watching her grandchildren play on the beach, Mbaye said she knows what will happen but has neither the money to move, nor a place to go.

"We will stay here until the water comes," she said. (Reporting by Nellie Peyton, editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Friday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 2 hours):

PGNiG

The state-run gas firm PGNiG plans to launch extraction of oil and natural gas from the Norwegian deposit Gina Krog in August, daily Parkiet reported citing the company's Chief Executive Piotr Wozniak.

MEDICOVER

Medical firm Medicover will likely invest in Poland and in Germany two-thirds of the money it raised in its initial public offering, the company's Chief Executive Fredrik Ragmark said.

INFORMAL ECONOMY

Poland's informal economy, also called the grey economy, may be worth 22.2 percent of the country's official gross domestic product, Rzeczpospolita daily reported citing experts.

BOSCH UNIT

The Polish unit of Bosch has ended last year with a revenue exceeding 5 billion zlotys ($1.34 billion), nearly 8 percent more than in the previous year, Puls Biznesu daily reported.

****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****

For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ($1 = 3.7285 zlotys) (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau)
May 26 (Reuters) - Everton will celebrate their new partnership with Kenyan gaming firm SportPesa by playing a friendly in Tanzania during pre-season in July, becoming the first Premier League side to play in the Eastern African nation.

Everton, who signed a five-year sponsorship deal with SportPesa earlier this month, will face the winners of the inaugural SportPesa Super Cup.

The knockout tournament will see four teams each from Kenya's top tier, SportPesa Premier League, and Tanzania's top tier, Ligu Kuu Bara, competing against each other.

The friendly will be played on July 13 in the Tanzania National Main Stadium. (Reporting by Aditi Prakash in Bengaluru)
By Lidia Kelly, Justyna Pawlak and Pawel Sobczak (For other news from Reuters Central & Eastern Europe Investment Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/CentralEasternEuropeInvestment17)

By Lidia Kelly, Justyna Pawlak and Pawel Sobczak

WARSAW, May 25 (Reuters) - Efforts by some western governments to foster closer ties within the European Union could undermine the unity of central Europe, weakening the region's clout within the bloc, a senior adviser to the Polish president has said.

Krzysztof Szczerski's comments add to a chorus of concerns in the EU's east over the idea of "multi-speed" Europe, which is earning growing support in Germany, France and other EU countries since Britain voted to leave the bloc.

"We cannot allow for a scenario where the evolution of the European Union towards a multi-speed Europe hits the unity of central and eastern Europe," Szczerski, President Andrzej Duda's adviser, told the Reuters Central & Eastern Europe Investment Summit.

Since coming into power in 2015, Poland's ruling conservatives, together with Hungary's nationalist-minded Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have hoped to rally support among neighbours for a push to erode the power of Brussels institutions.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia are considerably less enthusiastic in their overall euro-scepticism than either Warsaw or Budapest. Still, Prague has said there should be no splitting of Europe into two groups of countries with different integration levels.

Szczerski said that if being in Europe's top speed group were to require simultaneous membership of the Schengen area, the euro zone and participation in talks on the bloc's new security policy, only Slovakia and Slovenia would fulfil all the criteria.

Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as the Baltic States, for various reasons, would be left out, Szczerski said.

"Therefore, we are working to strengthen our regional community to build a too big to fail force here, so that the region's potential is so great that it cannot just be shredded in the shredder of a multi-speed Europe," he said.

EURO ZONE REFORM

Poland is in no hurry to adopt the euro, with Szczerski saying that the flexibility of national exchange rates allows for a greater control of economic development. According to different polls, more than two-thirds of Poles oppose joining the euro area.

While Poland wants the euro zone, its largest exports market, to be stable, reforms in the currency union should not lead to higher entry costs for future members, Szczerski said.

"Secondly, the reforms cannot lead to political pressure to make decisions that are not in line with economic interests, for example, by creating a separate budget for the euro area at the expense of non-member states," he added.

Newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron's enthusiasm for a common euro zone budget and finance ministry - although, crucially, viewed with scepticism in Berlin - has also raised fears among eastern countries that they could lose out on EU funds.

Poland is the largest beneficiary of EU funds and is due to receive 77.6 billion euros ($84.4 billion) in the current 2014-20 budgetary period for infrastructure projects, its poorer regions and improving the competitiveness of its economy.

"We will keep a careful track of developments (in the euro zone)," Szczerski said. "I think a meeting at the highest level (between Poland, Germany and France) would be a good opportunity to talk about it openly."

Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits (Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Toby Chopra)
By Anna Koper and Agnieszka Barteczko

WARSAW, May 26 (Reuters) - CVC Capital Partners, one of the world's biggest buyout groups, is looking for more acquisition targets in Poland, despite some concerns over regulatory risks, CVC's Polish head said at the Reuters Central & Eastern Europe Investment Summit.

CVC entered Poland in 2015 when it bought PKP Energetyka utility from the state-owned railway firm for 1.97 billion zlotys ($529 million), including debt.

The conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which won the parliamentary election later that year, has tried to annul the transaction, saying selling assets such as PKP Energetyka contravened Poland's national security interests.

CVC's Krzysztof Krawczyk said however investor concerns over government policy had subsided to some degree since 2015.

"I wouldn't call what is happening in Poland 'political risk'," he said.

"It's more a concern about regulation... (But) in the last year and a half this uncertainty has diminished substantially."

Since coming to power, the PiS has called a halt to privatisations, changed management in almost all state-run companies and questioned the rationale and pricing of the previous government's stake sales.

Despite that backdrop, CVC agreed in February to buy one of Poland's biggest retail chains Zabka from Mid Europa Partners, another private equity firm, and plans more investment in central and eastern Europe's biggest economy.

"The purchase of Zabka does not satisfy our appetite for further investment in Poland. We are actively looking for investment ideas and perhaps this is why I am so optimistic on further merger and acquisitions," Krawczyk said.

Poland saw a number of sizeable M&A deals in the past few months, including the sale of e-commerce business Allegro. In October, telecommunications company Liberty Global Plc said its Polish unit would buy the cable business of Multimedia Polska SA for $764 million.

"Poland has already become a mid-size economy. More global investors coming to the Polish market result from the fact that Polish companies have become bigger. The economic growth has translated into the scale of Polish firms, which is interesting for big, foreign investors," Krawczyk said.

Since 2012 the average company market value of firms from the mWIG40 index, which comprises 40 mid-sized companies listed on the Warsaw bourse, has doubled.

"For example now all the companies in mWIG40 meet CVC criteria regarding the market capitalisation. In 2009 they were too small for us to become interested in them," Krawczyk said.

He added that a number of potential transactions worth over 100 million euros could be completed in the next five years in Poland, which he said is the leader among the CEE economies. *Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits **For more summit stories, see ($1 = 3.7262 zlotys) (Editing by Justyna Pawlak/Keith Weir)
By Jan Harvey

LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Copper pulled back from the previous session's three-week high on Friday as momentum sparked by a strike at one of the world's biggest copper mines, Indonesia's Grasberg, eased ahead of the long weekend break in China, the U.S. and Britain.

Freeport McMoRan Inc said on Thursday that mining and milling rates at Grasberg had been affected by an extended strike and that a "large number" of about 4,000 absentee workers were deemed to have resigned.

"The Grasberg news yesterday ... has now been factored in, so there's a bit of profit-taking, but copper should find good dip-buying support for the rest of today, given that it's a long holiday weekend," said Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar.

Dutch bank ING said in a note that Freeport has about 100,000 tonnes of copper stocks that could be used to meet demand in the near term.

The metal remains rangebound, Bhar said. "Although people are prepared to buy the dips, they're also prepared to sell the rallies," he said. "We need to get through overhead resistance and move above some of the longer term moving averages."

* LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper closed at $5,657.50 a tonne, down 1.1 percent. Prices hit their highest since May 3 on Thursday at $5,768.50.

* HOLIDAYS: Traders in China, the United States and Britain will be absent for national holidays on Monday.

* FINANCIAL MARKETS: Oil prices see-sawed on Friday after OPEC extended cuts in oil production but disappointed investors by not going further, while sterling slid after a poll showed the ruling Conservatives' lead shrinking two weeks before an election.

* NICKEL: LME nickel posted a 3 percent weekly loss after trade data this week showed that the Philippines is ramping up ore exports to China, fuelling oversupply concerns. Nickel closed up 0.4 percent at $9,075 a tonne.

* INVENTORIES: Shanghai zinc inventories <ZN-STX-SGH> fell to their lowest in more than two years at 91,749 tonnes. Copper stocks in LME warehouses <MCU-STOCKS> have edged lower over the past three weeks but remain 27 percent above levels a month ago.

* TECHNICALS: LME copper looks neutral in a range of $5,683 to $5,736 a tonne, formed by the 61.8 percent and the 76.4 percent Fibonacci retracements of the May downtrend, and an escape could suggest a direction, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.

* OTHER METALS: LME aluminium ended the day down 0.4 percent at $1,952 a tonne, while tin was up 0.1 percent at $20,425. Zinc closed up 0.2 percent at $2,639 a tonne, while lead finished up 1.8 percent at $2,122.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne; Editing by David Goodman and David Evans)
The 2015-16 school year saw a marked increase in state investment in preschool education, according to the most recent State of Preschool  report developed by the National Institute for Early Education Research, based at Rutgers University.

Preschool enrollment is also on the rise. But the report also found that the quality of state preschool programs, as measured by a set of 10 benchmarks recently revised by NIEER, is uneven.

Nationally, spending on state preschool was $7.4 billion for the 2015-16 school year an increase of $564 million over the previous school year. Much of that increase came from California, which increased its preschool spending by $200 million, and Texas, which added $100 million to its preschool program.

The nationwide spending equates to nearly $5,000 per child enrolled. In comparison, three years ago. state preschool spending was at its lowest point in a decade, at about $4,000 per child. The 2015-16 school year also saw 18 states receive $210 million in federal money through the preschool development grants that were in place at the time.

Nearly 1.5 million children were enrolled in state-funded preschool, most of whom are 4-year-olds. Their enrollment grew by about 40,000 children over the previous year, while 3-year-old enrollment grew by about 2,700. Overall, about 32 percent of eligible 4-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded prekindergarten, but that varies dramatically from state to state, as the map below shows. Six statesFlorida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsinplus the District of Columbia enroll more than 60 percent of their 4-year-olds in state preschool. Seven statesIdaho, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyominghave no state-funded preschool program.

This report also marks the first year that NIEER rolled out revised standards that are more closely connected to up-to-date research on what makes a high-quality early-childhood program. Those old benchmarks were always meant to be seen as minimums to support quality, said Steve Barnett, NIEERs director.

NIEERs change comes as there has been a crisis of confidence in the early-childhood community, prompted by studies of Tennessees state-funded preschool program and Head Start . Both of those studies found that the early boost provided by the programs faded by the time those children were in 3rd grade.

Advocates are seeing that if a program is not considered to be of high quality, You cannot expect the same kind of results that people have been promised, Barnett said.

As a part of the benchmark reorganization, NIEER dropped a standard that required programs to serve at least one meal, and added a standard that looks at whether programs offered training and professional development for curriculum implementation.

Another change is to the benchmark for professional development. The old standard required lead teachers to get 15 hours of professional development each year. The new standard extends that requirement to assistant directors, and also requires classroom-embedded support.

Most state programs met fewer of the new, more robust benchmarks. Only two programs, Nebraska and Ohio, met more quality standards on new benchmarks compared to the old ones. And only two states, Alabama and Rhode Island, met all 10.
BERLIN, May 26 (Reuters) - Germany's trade surplus is "neither good nor evil", a German government spokesman said on Friday when asked about reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had criticised Berlin for running a high trade surplus.

"A trade surplus is neither good nor evil," government spokesman Georg Streiter told a government news conference. "It is the result of the interplay of supply and demand on global markets."

According to German media reports, Trump condemned Germany for "very bad" trade policies during a meeting on Thursday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, signalling he might take steps to limit sales of German cars in the United States. (Reporting By Thomas Escritt; Editing by Gareth Jones)
TAORMINA, Italy, May 26 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May stuck to her demands for talks on leaving the European Union on Friday, telling French President Emmanuel Macron she wanted to discuss future arrangements with the bloc at the same time as setting the departure terms.

At her first meeting with Macron since he became president, May reiterated her desire for "early clarity on the position of EU citizens in the UK and vice versa" in the Brexit talks, a spokesperson said.

"She also made clear that Britain and the 27 EU member states should be discussing our future relationship with the EU at the same time as discussing the terms of our withdrawal."

A British government source said May would also meet President Donald Trump at the G7 meeting in Italy, a day after she raised the intelligence leaks in the United States into a suicide bombing in the northern English city of Manchester. (Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Alistair Smout)
By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA, May 26 (Reuters) - Uganda and Tanzania signed a framework agreement on their proposed $3.55 billion crude export pipeline on Friday, a key milestone for the project, which is expected to start pumping Ugandan oil to international markets in three years.

An official at Uganda's Ministry of Energy told Reuters the agreement covered terms on tax incentives for the project, implementation timelines, the size of the pipeline and local content levels, keeping it on track to complete in 2020.

Adewale Fayemi, the manager for Uganda at Total, said the project will become "the longest electrically heated crude oil pipeline in the world".

"It's a record," he told Reuters, adding it will increase the flow of foreign direct investment and open a new phase of economic development in the region when completed.

The 1,445 km-long, 24-inch diameter pipeline will be heated so it can keep highly viscous crude oil liquid enough to flow.

It will begin in landlocked Uganda's western region, where crude reserves were discovered in 2006, and terminate at Tanzania's Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.

Total is one of the owners of Ugandan oilfields, alongside China's CNOOC and Britain's Tullow Oil.

Total has said it is willing to fund the pipeline's construction but has not what stake it will own in the project.

Uganda estimates overall crude reserves at 6.5 billion barrels, while recoverable reserves are seen at between 1.4 billion and 1.7 billion barrels.

Irene Muloni, Uganda's energy minister, said construction of pipeline would "facilitate and boost trade in the region" and create over 10,000 jobs.

The agreement stipulated that Uganda would pay an estimated transit tariff of $12.20 per barrel for pumping its oil through the pipeline, she said.

In January, both countries awarded the Front-End Engineering Design contract for the pipeline to Houston-based Gulf Interstate Engineering.

Tanzania had offered a "fiscal incentives package" that led Uganda to choose it over Kenya as the favoured host for the pipeline, Muloni said. She did not describe the incentives.

Kenya had bid to host the same pipeline, which would have allowed it to earn transit fees and also transport its own crude in the Lokichar basin in the northwest. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by David Evans)
MOSCOW, May 26 (Reuters) - The following are some stories in Russia's newspapers on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

VEDOMOSTI

www.vedomosti.ru

- Japanese tyre manufacturer Bridgestone has opened its first plant in Russia. The project costs 12.5 billion roubles ($222.9 million). The plant will produce 2 million tires per year by 2019, the newspaper said.

- State-owned Vnesheconombank will present its basic design of a flying motorcycle at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June, the daily reports, citing bank chairman Sergei Gorkov as saying.

- Russian diamond miner Alrosa plans to increase its stake in Angola's Catoca diamond mining company within two to three months, the daily reports, citing Alrosa President Sergei Ivanov.

- Miratorg, Russia's largest meat producing holding, plans to increase meat output by 23 percent this year to 700,000 tonnes, the newspaper said, citing the company's President Viktor Linnik.

KOMMERSANT

www.kommersant.ru

- The Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested four natives of post-Soviet Central Asia, saying they are members of Islamc State who lived in a rented apartment in Moscow. The FSB said they had been preparing to carry out attacks on public transport, using selfmade explosive devices, the daily reports.

- Russian agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor has detected antibiotics in chicken nuggets produced by company Cargill for McDonald's restaurants.

IZVESTIA

www.izvestia.ru

- The price for a minimum "food basket" consumed monthly in Russia has risen by 5 percent since the start of 2017, the daily reports, citing federal state statistics service Rosstat.

($1 = 56.0701 rub) (Reporting by Margarita Popova)
By Orhan Coskun and Nevzat Devranoglu

ANKARA, May 26 (Reuters) - In a bid to resolve a trade row with Russia, Turkey has proposed Moscow lifts its ban on imported Turkish tomatoes during periods when Russian growers are unable to produce their own.

"We understand Russia would like to develop its domestic (tomato) production but they are in a position to continue trading with Turkey while doing that," a senior Turkish official with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.

Ankara and Moscow have been working to normalise ties after relations soured following the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey in November 2015. However, some Russian restrictions on Turkish goods remain in place, including tomatoes.

Under the Turkish proposal, Moscow's ban would remain at times when Russia was producing its own tomatoes, with its main harvest season during summer months.

"It would be sufficient for Turkey for Russia to close borders for exports during when they produce and then reopen when they can't," the official said.

It was not immediately clear how Moscow viewed the Turkish proposal, but Russian officials earlier this month said restrictions on tomato imports from Turkey would remain in place 'in some form' for the next three to five years.

"A solution on this issue still won't be easy despite Turkey's proposal," another Turkish economy official said.

Russia was a key market for Turkish tomatoes, worth several hundred million dollars each year and Moscow has been losing up to $1.5 billion from the effective suspension of agricultural exports to Turkey, Russian agriculture minister Alexander Tkachev said last month.

The stop-start agricultural trade dispute is not limited to tomatoes. Ankara imposed prohibitively high import tariffs on Russian wheat from mid-March, but resumed purchases after a meeting of the countries' presidents on May 3.

But earlier this week, analysts and traders told Reuters that Turkey had introduced new curbs on Russian wheat, limiting purchases to 20-25 percent of all import licences issued.

Turkey's economy ministry denied any curbs, but traders said the move was likely a reaction to Russia's tomato ban.

Russian sunflower oil supplies to Turkey have also been affected by the latest limits, Russia's Oil Union said.

Turkey is the largest buyer of Russian sunflower oil and second biggest importer of Russian wheat after Egypt. (Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Ece Toksabay and Alexander Smith)
TALLINN, May 26 (Reuters) - The Estonian foreign ministry said on Friday it had expelled two Russian diplomats and a local news portal reported they were posted at Moscow's consulate in the northeastern town of Narva on the Estonian-Russian border.

"This is one more unfriendly and groundless action that will not go unanswered," TASS agency cited a Russian foreign ministry official as saying in an initial reaction from Moscow.

The Estonian foreign ministry gave no other details. "We can only confirm that two diplomats have been expelled," said spokesperson Mariann Sudakov.

Delfi, the local Estonian news portal, cited unidentified sources for its report on the two diplomats.

Estonia, a former Soviet republic that is now a member of NATO and the European Union, has a tense relationship with its large neighbour Russia.

Earlier in May, an Estonian court handed out a five-year prison sentence to a Russian national for spying for Russia's main intelligence directorate, the foreign intelligence unit of the Russian armed forces.

(Reporting by David Mardiste; Editing by Niklas Pollard and Tom Heneghan)
By Alexis Akwagyiram

LAGOS, May 26 (Reuters) - The long-awaited oil governance bill passed by Nigeria's upper chamber of parliament proposes breaking up the state oil company into three commercial entities supported by a regulatory body and a fund to oversee the distribution of money.

The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, passed on Thursday by the Senate, is part of planned reforms that make up the sprawling Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), discussed for over a decade following several redrafts, aimed at revamping the OPEC member's energy sector.

The PIB is a central plank of President Muhammadu Buhari's reform plans because oil sales provide 70 percent of government revenue in Africa's biggest economy but the energy sector has been hobbled by mismanagement and endemic for decade.

The governance bill - which must be passed by the lower chamber of parliament and receive the president's approval before becoming law - deals with management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the powerful state oil company which critics say is opaque and retains too much power.

It is one of a number of expected bills under the overarching PIB and does not deal with aspects of most interest to oil companies, such as fiscal terms for upstream projects.

The 191-page document states that the objective is to "create efficient and effective governing institutions with clear and separate roles for the petroleum industry" while improving transparency and accountability.

The governance bill proposes the creation of three commercial entities - the Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Company, National Petroleum Company and the Nigeria Petroleum Liability Management Company.

Assets and liabilities of NNPC would be split between the three companies.

And the bill opens up opportunities for private investment. It says not less than 10 percent of shares of the National Petroleum Company will be divested within five years or its creation, rising to 30 percent within a decade.

The Petroleum Equalisation Fund would be created to "ensure efficient distribution of petroleum products throughout the federation" and also "collect and provide funding for infrastructural development throughout the federation".

And the Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission would oversee compliance with the laws related to the petroleum industry, including the maintenance of environmental standards, and carry out evaluations of national reserves.

The regulatory body would also have the power to grant, amend, renew, extend or revoke any licence or lease required for petroleum exploration.

That power, in a previous version of the bill, lay with the petroleum minister but the governance bill passed by the Senate states that it transferred this to the Commission "to ensure separation of duties and provide for checks and balances".

If the governance bill is passed by parliament's lower chamber, the House of Representatives, it would require presidential approval to become law.

"The bill could still get hung up by political wrangling in the House," said Josh Holland, an analyst from IHS Markit.

Buhari has been on medical leave in Britain since 7 May and has handed over power to his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo. (Additional reporting by Camillus Eboh and Libby George in London; editing by David Evans)
ROME, May 26 (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, and Italian industrial group Marcegaglia have won a bid to buy the troubled Ilva steel plant in southern Italy, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

The special commissioners in charge of Europe's biggest steel plant by output capacity have accepted the bid of just under 2 billion euros ($2.23 billion), the source said.

A representative for ArcelorMittal in Italy declined to comment until after Italy's industry ministry ratifies the decision. A spokesman for Marcegaglia declined to comment.

ArcelorMittal and the Italian family-owned company were bidding against a rival group including India's JSW Steel , the source said.

Italy has been trying to sell Ilva, based near the southern port city of Taranto, since 2015, when the state took full control in a bid to clean up the polluted site and save thousands of jobs in an economically depressed area.

The commissioners must now pass their decision on to Italy's industry ministry, which must issue a decree authorising it, the source said.

Once the decision is official, the environment ministry will examine the consortium's plans for cleaning up the site, which was sequestered by magistrates in 2012 amid allegations that its toxic emissions were causing abnormally high rates of cancer.

The environment ministry will issue its own decree around autumn this year, at which point the deal will need to be signed off by the European Union. (Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio; Writing by Isla Binnie; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
ZURICH, May 26 (Reuters) - Switzerland returned around 3.5 million euros ($3.91 million) held by a close relative of former Tunisian president Ben Ali to Tunisian authorities as part of the country's stolen assets recovery process, Swiss authorities said on Friday.

The Swiss government froze assets held in Switzerland by the deposed Tunisian president and his entourage in early 2011, the foreign ministry said, part of an effort to prevent the flight of capital suspected of having been illicitly acquired.

Criminal investigations have since been opened in both countries.

"Acting on a request for mutual legal assistance from Tunisia, on 26 May 2017 the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland ordered the transfer of an additional amount of approximately 3.5 million euros," Switzerland's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The assets had been frozen in Switzerland in connection with a close relative of the former president of Tunisia, and are being transferred to the current Tunisian authorities with that person's agreement."

The transfer follows a smaller restitution of 250,000 Swiss francs ($256,383.96) made to Tunisia in May 2016. ($1 = 0.9751 Swiss francs) ($1 = 0.8955 euros) (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Chris Mfula

LUSAKA, May 26 (Reuters) - A Zambian court on Friday allowed opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema to challenge the prosecution over moving his treason case to the high court for trial in a case that has stoked political tension months after contested elections.

Hichilema, an economist and businessman known as "HH", was defeated by President Edgar Lungu in an election last August, which he described as fraudulent. His attempts to mount a legal challenge have so far been unsuccessful.

The United Party for National Development (UPND) leader was arrested in a police raid on his home in April and charged with trying to overthrow the government.

Hichilema's lawyers however said the case should not proceed to the High Court because the officer who issued the trial papers had no authority to do so.

But Magistrate David Simusamba told a hearing in his court that Hichilema's defence could seek a judicial review of the charges before the case goes to the High Court for trial.

Hichilema sat in court looking composed in a red shirt.

"I hold the view that this is a proper matter for judicial review," Simusamba said, adding that the matter should go for trial if Hichilema's lawyers fail to launch their legal challenge in the High Court within 14 days.

The magistrate adjourned the case to June 12.

Zambia was seen as one of Southern Africa's most stable countries until relations soured between the government and opposition over the elections, which were marred by violence.

On Thursday, South African opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said Zambian immigration officials barred him from entering their country late on Thursday, stopping his visit to attend the case of the detained Hichilema.

Maimane held a rally on Friday in the South African capital Pretoria to demand that the case against Hichilema be dropped, saying the Zambian politician was facing trumped up charges.

Zambia's High Commissioner to South Africa, Emmanuel Mwamba, said in a statement on Friday that Maimane was kept away to allow the due process of the law to take its course. (Writing by by James Macharia)
Some 1.3 million American students dont have a safe, stable place to sleep at night, according to the latest federal Condition of Education report .

The Condition of Education provides data on public and private school students, teachers, and schools, from trends in enrollment to achievement. This year it provided a detailed picture of K-12 public school students who were homelessincluding students living on the street, in shelters, hotels, or doubled up with family or friendsin the 2014-15 school year.

Two and a half percent of students were homeless that year, a slight decline from 2013 but still significantly higher than before the 2008 recession. Some 578,000 urban students were homeless in 2014, representing 3.7 percent of all students in city districts. While only 2 percent of suburban students were homeless, that still represented 422,000 students. Some of the nations largest school districts had enough homeless students to make up large school districts all on their own: In New York CIty, for example, 100,000 students were homeless, while Chicago had nearly 20,000.

As a prior federal study shows, living in a shelter can hinder young childrens academic progress even two years after gaining a stable home. As the chart below shows, early elementary-age children are often particularly likely to lack a stable home:

While an influx of unaccompanied immigrant children have garnered significant attention in recent years, the data show that overall, homeless children who are not in the care of a parent or guardian make up only 8 percent of all homeless students, and migrant children make up only 1 percent.

The Every Student Succeeds Act creates significantly more accountability for schools in supporting their homeless students. All states will have to report not just the number of homeless students, but their academic achievement and graduation rates as a separate student group.

For a homeless students perspective on navigating school and life, see Education Weeks recent video with PBS NewsHour:

Preschool Povertys Effects Linger Through 3rd Grade

In a separate highlight report for the 2017 Condition of Education, federal data show children whose parents did not graduate from high school and who are poor enter kindergarten less prepared than pupils without those risk factors, and they trail other students academically through 3rd grade, according to the report.

The data show students with both family-income and education-risk factors performed consistently worse in reading and math than those with fewer or no risk factors. Of students with one risk factor, those whose parents had less education performed slightly worse than those who were poor.

Related:


MOSCOW, May 26 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest bank Sberbank will provide no new financing for indebted food and retail company Agrokor until the lender has reached an understanding with the Croatian government, Sberbank's chief executive said on Friday.

Sberbank is a major creditor to Agrokor, the biggest employer in the Balkans, which is battling to avoid collapse after running up multibillion-dollar debts.

In a move to avert the bankruptcy of country's largest private company, the Croatian government in April appointed a crisis manager at Agrokor to oversee a debt restructuring, adopting emergency legislation to contain the fallout.

Sberbank CEO German Gref said cooperation with the Croatian government had so far been "not simple".

"You shouldn't adopt a law which deprives creditors of their rights post factum," Gref told reporters in Moscow.

He said Sberbank planned to hold talks with the Croatian government next week.

In response to a question about the possibility of legal proceedings against the Croatian government, Gref said: "I would not like such an inquiry. Lord save us from such a thing. But today we held talks with the main creditors. All of them are baffled."

Sberbank previously said it was ready to go to court if necessary to recover more than 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) it had given to Agrokor in loans.

"If they (the Croatian government) took on responsibility for the running of the company, then they should also take on responsibility for its debts. Let them give a sovereign guarantee for those debts," Gref added.

"If they aren't ready to do that, then that means they should return to normal market practice." ($1 = 0.8947 euros) (Reporting by Kira Zavyalova; Writing by Alexander Winning; editing by Susan Thomas)
An airman and two individuals, who were being rescued, were injured when they fell from a Mi17 helicopter in Neluwa, Galle this morning.

Airforce spokesperson Wing Commander Gihan Seneviratne said the injured were admitted to the Karapitiya hospital.

Seneviratne also said a SLAF Bell 212 and Mi17 helicopters were on standby by in Koggala and Ratmalan to assist rescue operations and a Bell 412 helicopter was also enroute to Koggala.
A 37-year- old SLAF airman, YMS Yaparathna, who had fallen off a helicopter while conducting a rescue operation at the Neluwa area in Galle yesterday morning, passed away due to the abdominal injuries he sustained in the fall at around 8.30pm yesterday, hospital sources confirmed.

The airman and two individuals, who were being rescued, who were injured when they fell from a Mi17 helicopter in Neluwa, Galle yesterday morning, were admitted to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
Careers@Hilton Week Showcases the Diverse and Rewarding Career Opportunities in Hospitality for Job Seekers Around the World

Hilton Colombohas taken part in Careers@Hilton Week, Hiltons annual global career event showcasing the many opportunities available in the hospitality industry for youth and other job seekers. From May 15 to May 21, Hilton hotels and corporate offices around the globe are hosting hundreds of events to inform young people about the exciting and diverse career opportunities in the hospitality industry.

This initiative is a part of Hiltons Open Doors commitment, which aims to positively impact at least one million young people by 2019 by connecting them to opportunities in the hospitality industry, preparing them to reach their full potential or directly employing them.

In addition to hosting a Job Shadowing program in collaboration with Room to Read as well as familiarization tours and career workshops for local students during the week, Hilton Colombo also organized the Challenge, Conquer and Succeed Youth Forum on May 25, 2017.

The series of Careers@Hilton Week events including the Youth Forum points to our commitment to create meaningful opportunities for the young people in our community. Through this initiative, we want to ensure that all job seekers, including youth, have access to the best available information and opportunities the industry provides, remarked Manesh Fernando,general manager of Hilton Colombo.

The Youth Forum saw over 350young people from schools and institutes in Colombo and the suburbs, learning and exploring the myriad of career opportunities within the hospitality industry. During the event, the students discussed about the future of hospitality industry in Sri Lanka in 2020 and beyond. Through various group activities and Q&A sessions,the participants also explored topics on the importance of continuous personal and professional learning and development in the fast changing world of evolving technology.

Careers@Hilton Week events are a unique opportunity for Hilton to inspire job seekers about careers in the hospitality industry, and to support them by providing guidance on the skills that are vital to succeed in the workplace and beyond. Participants join Hilton for events ranging from resume clinics to networking, as well as presentations from current employees about their career paths in hospitality.

For more information about Careers@Hilton Week, please visit www.hiltonwordwide.com/youth. For information on job opportunities with Hilton, visit http://jobs.hiltonworldwide.com/.
India had volunteered to send a ship which will be bringing relief materials to be used by the victims of the floods that effected the country, a spokesman said.

This is in response to a request to it by the government of Sri Lanka today.

The spokesman said another ship with relief items would reach Sri Lanka tomorrow.

He said India would coordinate with the Sri Lankan authorities to gauge further requirements as they occur. (Kelum Bandara)
DPA, 26th MAY, 2017- Former Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos was injured on Thursday when a letter bomb exploded in his car in central Athens, according to state radio.



He is not severely injured. His driver was injured, too, a spokesman for the emergency medical service told the broadcaster.



Papademos, 69, was apparently injured in the hands and abdomen when an envelope or a small package exploded as he opened it during a drive.



He underwent emergency surgery, Greek media reported.



Greek police sources speculated that the method of the crime pointed to an underground leftist terrorist organization called the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.



In March the group claimed responsibility for a packet bomb sent to the German Finance Ministry. The device was stopped by the German postal service.



Papademos was a European Central Bank vice president before being tasked to lead a technocratic government from November 2011 to May 2012, as Greeces debt crisis roiled.



Greece went into a financial meltdown in 2010 and was kept afloat with a massive international bailout.



In return, Athens committed to a series of austerity reforms, most recently last week, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cabinet pushed through pension cuts and tax hikes.
The number of deaths reported in floods and landslides was increased to 193 while 94 people had gone missing, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said today.

In its latest situation report, the DMC said the adverse weather condition had left 112 people injured. In total, 575,816 people of 149,678 families had been affected by the weather calamity.

The South-West monsoon unleashed torrential rains, which ravaged fourteen districts in the western and southern parts of the country on Friday and Thursday.

The disaster is described as one of the worst-ever calamities since the 2003 floods

The Disaster Management Center issued an urgent evacuation warning last evening instructing residents living along the Kelani River and within the Divisional Secretariats of Kollonnawa, Kaduwela, Wellampitiya, Kelaniya, Biyagama, Sedawatte, Dompe, Hanwella, Padukka and Avissawella to move to safer areas.

The DMC said the residents of Meethotamulla were already evacuated.

It said water levels in the Kelani River were rising rapidly as indicted by the water gauges at Nagalagam Street, Hanwella and Glencourse and warned residents to move away from the vulnerable area as it was under an imminent flood threat.

Those living along the banks of Nilwala Ganga, The Gin Ganga and Kalu Ganga were also asked to move to safer areas because of the rising water levels.

Meanwhile, the DMC requested the people to be vigilant on rising water levels and requested the public to call 011-2136136, 011-2670002 and 117 for emergencies.

Meanwhile, the Meteorology Department said that rain and windy condition is expected to continue over the South-Western part of the country due to South-Western monsoon.

Showers or thundershowers will occur at times in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Central and North-western provinces. Heavy falls (about 150 mm) can be expected at some places, it said.

Video by Lanka Nanyakkara, Lal S Kumara, Susantha, Buddhi, RM
REUTERS: The Sri Lankan rupee ended slightly higher yesterday as dollar selling by banks surpassed importer demand for the U.S. currency, traders said.

Rupee forwards were active, with spot-next forwards ending at 152.85/95 per dollar, compared with Thursdays close of 152.90/95.

One-week forwards ended at 153.00/10, compared with the previous close of 153.10/20.

There was a demand for dollars from a few local banks, said a currency dealer, adding that foreign banks were also selling the U.S. currency, maybe due to inflows into the stock market and unwinding of some of their dollar positions. Dealers said the rupee is also under pressure after the central bank governor said last week that the bank will allow gradual depreciation of the currency.

Sri Lankas Central Bank has purchased around US$400 million directly from the market so far this year, Governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy said last week, adding it was targeting US$1.2 billion in direct market purchases of dollars to boost the island nations reserves this year.

Dealers said the Central Banks plan will keep the rupee under pressure, with the market expecting about 4-6 percent depreciation in the currency this year.

The spot rupee did not trade yesterday.

The Central Bank fixed the spot rupee reference rate at 152.50 on May 5.

The Central Bank has allowed the currency to gradually depreciate since mid-December, revising its spot reference rate multiple times.
US President Donald Trump (L) walks alonf with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Belvedere of Taormina during the Summit of the Heads of State and of Government of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union

AFP: US President Donald Trump has launched a salvo against German car exports to the United States, officials confirmed yesterday, in the latest sign of simmering transatlantic trade tensions.

Speaking after German media reported the US President as having described the Germans as bad, very bad, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker tried to play down the latest spat to erupt since Trump came to power pursuing a protectionist agenda.

Suggesting the comment attributed to Trump had been mistranslated, Juncker confirmed that Trump had raised Germanys large trade surplus with the US in the automobile sector during trade talks in Brussels on Thursday.

I dont want to comment but I have to, said the head of the EU executive, who is in overall charge of the giant economic blocs trading relationship with the rest of the world.

It is not true the president was aggressive in his approach. This a translation problem, he said in Italy at a G7 summit attended by Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders.

He did not say the Germans were behaving bad. He said we have a problem. It was not aggressive.

Trumps economic advisor Gary Cohn also insisted the exchanges had been amicable but that an important issue for the new administration had been put on the table.

He said theyre very bad on trade but he doesnt have a problem with Germany, Cohn told reporters, saying Trump had highlighted his fathers German heritage.

He (Trump) said: I dont have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade, Cohn insisted.

According to the German media reports Trump had complained bitterly about the likes of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes selling millions of vehicles to the US and vowed to stop it.

Whatever the exact truth, the issue did not prevent Trump and Merkel enjoying a light-hearted moment together at the start of the G7 summit, when they were seen laughing in the company of Britains Theresa May and EU President Donald Tusk.

Juncker aides were accused last month of feeding details of a dinner meeting he had with May about Britain leaving the EU.

That leak also went to German media and prompted Tusk to warn a lack of privacy would make the Brexit talks impossible.

He issued a similar warning yesterday.

I dont want to be part of this new political culture of permanent leaks, Tusk said.

Todays diplomacy needs professional plumbers rather than indiscreet diplomats.

The issue of German cars blew up against a backdrop of concern among US partners in the G7 club that Trumps America First agenda could lead to protectionist measures which could roll back decades of trade liberalisation between the worlds most advanced economies.

During his election campaign, Trump accused China, Germany and other countries running trade surpluses with the United States of destroying the jobs and prosperity of ordinary Americans with the help of manipulated currencies. Since his election he has yet to implement any significant protectionist measures and the EU has interpreted a liberalising deal struck between Washington and China as a sign that flexibility and pragmatism are more likely to guide US trade policy.
Arvind Kejriwal and his nascent party have created a lot of euphoria in the minds of the people of Delhi who look for governance or clean administration. Arvind Kenjriwal is a true politician who has passion for serving the poor and for providing a clean administration. But our high hopes are being dashed as his party workers go berserk taking law into their hands and his ministers do not behave propertly as the custodians of law and constitution for which they had taken oath on the day they were sworn in as ministers.





Though there is corruption in the Delhi Police and though the Delhi Police is not under his control, yet as the responsible Chief Miniater, he can act within his powers to work out a system for coordinating with the Delhi Police Commissioner. As the Chief Minister, he should not publicly condemn the entire police force as corrupt. It is not power but better coordination and patience he should bring about governance.
Watawala Plantations PLC group, which owns and runs tea, rubber and palm oil estates, reported earnings of 89 cents a share or Rs.211.8 million in after-tax profits for its fourth and final quarter ended in March 31, 2017, recording an increase of 168 percent year-on-year (YoY), the interim results released to the Colombo bourse showed.

The Watawala share ended 50 cents higher at Rs.34.10 at yesterdays close.

The performance was possible due to the groups tea segment returning to the green territory with profit of Rs.81.3 million amid better prices and increased production during the second half of the financial year.

During the corresponding quarter of the previous year, this segment incurred a loss of Rs.101.2 million due to mostly hostile supply and demand conditions that prevailed.

Watawala recently shifted its tea strategy towards more quality over quantity, which appears to have started to reap benefits.

Producing high value tea over higher volume appears to be the ideal strategy that must be adopted by the industry given its challenges, where Sri Lanka should produce the worlds best tea which can be sold at the highest price, Sri Lankas Tea Board Chairman, Rohan Pethiyagoda told earlier this month.

According to the latest data, Sri Lankas tea exports during the first four months were down by 8.1 million kilos to 88.5 million kilos over the same period in 2016, but the earnings were at Rs.69.2 billion, about Rs.10.8 billion higher from the same period in 2016 due to higher prices.

Meanwhile, the groups palm oil segment, the largest segment in terms of revenue and profits, saw its net profit coming down to Rs.46.5 million from Rs.124 million YoY as the government reduced the duty on palm oil by Rs.40.00 in 4Q17, which had an adverse impact on the selling price.

However, for the 12 months ended in March 31, 2017, this segment made a net profit of little over a billion rupees compared to Rs.682.1 million net profit recorded for the previous year.

The increased profitability is primarily attributable to the increased crop and higher net sale average achieved during the year, said Watawala Group Managing Director V. Govindasamy.

For the full year, the group reported Rs.5.18 a share or Rs.1.23 billion after-tax profit, which is an increase of 137 percent YoY.

Watawalas annual profit is also the highest profit earned by any regional plantation company since privatization.

For the full year, the tea segment returned to a net profit of Rs.6.3 million from a loss of Rs.314.2 million in 2016.

As of March 31, 2017, Estate Management Services (Pvt) Ltd held 75.65 percent in the company followed by8.73 percent stake held by the high net worth investor, Dr. T. Senthilverl.
The majestic building, in red brick and slate grey metal, takes ones breath away. The Peace Palace, in The Hague, built in neo-Renaissance style, with one big bell-tower at one end, and a smaller one at the other, houses the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - a United Nations organ. The stately grounds are tastefully landscaped. Besides the ICJ, the Permanent Court of Arbitration - PCA (UN observer), The Hague Academy of International Law and the Peace Palace Library are situated in the same complex. The Palace was constructed from 1907 till 1913.

The Peace Palace houses busts, statues and portraits of prominent pacifists, including Gandhi and Nehru. There is also a seven-feet statue of a cat named Ramskells, which had been adopted by the justices of the Permanent Court of International Justice (the earlier avatar of the ICJ).

In 1924, a fire broke out at the Peace Palace, trapping the justices inside. Ramskells led the justices to safety through the fire. However, Ramskells died of smoke inhalation. The justices had a memorial to Ramskells erected on the Peace Palace grounds.

The Hague Academy of International Law was founded in 1923. Every summer, professors from all over the world teach courses in public and private international law. I undertook a course in international law in the summer of 1988.

The ICJ had, a little earlier, given its opinion that the US was under an obligation, in accordance with the United Nations Headquarters Agreement, to enter arbitration for the settlement of a dispute between itself and the United Nations.

Just as my course was getting over, Denmark brought a case against Norway about the delimitation of Denmark's and Norway's fishing zones and continental shelf areas in the waters between the East Coast of Greenland and the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen.

To be taught theory of international law and, concurrently, its practice in the building next door, was an enriching experience. A matter of pride was that an Indian, Nagendra Singh, was the president of the ICJ. He was to die in December later that year.

Kulbhushan Jadhavs case, which is currently before the ICJ, is not the only case pertaining to an individual from India that the ICJ (or its earlier incarnation, the Permanent Court of International Justice) or the PCA have been seized with. One such case was that of Veer Savarkar, who was brought before the Arbitration Tribunal, comprising five arbitrators chosen from members of the PCA.

In March 1910, the British Police arrested Savarkar for anti-British activities in London as soon as his train reached there from Paris. They sent him back to India by a merchant vessel, SS Morea, to prosecute him. Morea reached the French port of Marseilles on July 7, 1910. Early next morning, Savarkar escaped through a porthole and swam ashore. A French marine brigadier arrested him and handed him over to the vessel. Some people from the vessel also helped him in the recapture.

France and Britain agreed to submit to arbitration the questions of fact and law raised by the arrest and restoration to the vessel of Savarkar. The tribunal decided that while an irregularity was committed by the arrest of Savarkar and by his being handed over to the British Police, there was no rule of international law imposing, in such circumstances, any obligation on Britain to restore Savarkar back to France because of a mistake committed by the French official who delivered him up to Britain.

The ICJ has also dealt with some cases pertaining to India - one involving Portugal, three involving Pakistan; Jadhav is the fourth case which is pending, and one involving the Marshall Islands. The case concerning the Right of Passage over Indian Territory was referred to the ICJ by Portugal on December 22, 1955. Portugal stated that its territory in India included two enclaves - Dadra and Nagar Haveli - surrounded by India.

It was in respect of the passage between those enclaves and the Portuguese district of Daman that the question arose of the right of passage in favour of Portugal through Indian territory. It was claimed that India prevented Portugal from exercising that right and that Portugal was thus placed in a position in which it became impossible for it to exercise its rights of sovereignty over the enclaves.The ICJ was of the view that a right of passage in respect of private persons, civil officials and goods existed in favour of Portugal. However, no such right existed in respect of armed forces, armed police and arms and ammunition.

The ICJ found that the events which had occurred in Dadra on July 21-22, 1954, which had resulted in the overthrow of the Portuguese authority in that enclave had created tension in the surrounding Indian district; having regard to that tension, the ICJ was of the view that India's refusal of passage was covered by its power of regulation and control of the right of passage of Portugal. The case was thus won by India.

Pakistan complained against India in 1971 before the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) because it claimed that India had violated provisions of the relevant treaties by unilaterally suspending flights of Pakistan aircraft over Indian territory due to Pakistans involvement with the hijacking of an Indian plane.

India appealed to the ICJ, arguing that only ICJ, not ICAO, had jurisdiction. Pakistan contended that the ICJ had no jurisdiction because India had claimed that the treaties, from which the jurisdiction arose, were no longer in force. The ICJ held that it had jurisdiction.

However, the ICJ also held that the ICAO was competent to entertain the complaint made to it by Pakistan. The ICJ decision, issued on August 18, 1972, cleared the way for consideration of the merits of the case by the ICAO Council. The case was essentially rendered moot when Bangladesh emerged as a new nation, replacing East Pakistan. In July 1976, India and Pakistan issued a joint statement discontinuing the proceedings before the ICAO Council.

In conclusion, even though India and Pakistan won a round each, the decision was rendered infructuous by subsequent events.

Pakistan filed a case in the ICJ in May 1973 against India, relating to the continued detention of over 92,000 prisoners of war and civilian internees and the threatened transfer of 195 of such persons to Bangladesh for trial for alleged acts of genocide. Pakistan claimed it had an exclusive right to exercise jurisdiction over these 195 people.

However, in December 1973, Pakistan informed the ICJ that both India and Pakistan governments held discussions and came to an agreement on the issue. Pakistan also informed the ICJ that they were not going ahead with the case. Thus, the case became infructuous.

On September 21, 1999, Pakistan lodged a compensation claim at the ICJ accusing India of shooting down an unarmed Atlantique aircraft. The patrol plane of the Pakistan Navy's naval air arm, with 16 people on board, was shot down by the Indian Air Force for violating Indian airspace. The episode took place in the Rann of Kutch on August 10, 1999. Pakistan sought $60million in reparations from India and compensation for the victims' families.

India argued that the ICJ did not have jurisdiction, citing an exemption it filed in 1974 to exclude disputes between India and other Commonwealth states, and disputes covered by multilateral treaties. India also contended that Pakistan had violated the 1991 bilateral agreement between Pakistan and India on air violations. The ICJ ruled in favour of India.

In April 2014, the Marshall Islands sued all the P-5 countries, as well as India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea for failing to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion, negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament. However, the ICJ only accepted cases against India, Pakistan and the UK as the other six countries had never acceded to its compulsory jurisdiction.

Ruling in Indias favour, the ICJ accepted the Indian argument that the ICJ had no jurisdiction to deliberate on the suit. The ICJ ruled that there being no legal dispute between the Marshall Islands and India on the issue of nuclear disarmament, it had no locus standi to proceed. Ruling in parallel cases, the ICJ also declined to proceed with the Marshall Islands case against Pakistan and the UK. One more victory for India.
The ongoing war on media between the pro- and anti-human-shield operation in Kashmir has once again put a question mark on our ability to deal with sensitive issues in todays superfast world, where everything  from enjoying gratification to establishing truth, or even, acquiring wisdom  is expected to be instantaneous.

In this binary world knowledge and wisdom are often acquired through monosyllables; yes or no, pro or anti is quite adequate for describing an individuals philosophy, value system, level of patriotism and so forth.

Hence, no one needs to go beyond 140 characters for experimenting with truth. Mahatma would have been a terribly disturbed soul today.

On this quick road to wisdom, a celebrity micro-blogger with a huge fan-base can now immediately acquire the status of a thinker. Naturally, few can resist such a temptation, when it doesnt involve more than posting a few tweets.

Unfortunately, there are more things in heaven and earth than 140 characters, which need to be understood for explaining a complex reality to millions of followers. It is more so, when we talk about Kashmir,where the complexity of the reality has truly acquired Himalayan proportion, probably keeping in tune with the regions geographical location.

Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi

Whatever we know so far (mainly, from media reports), it seems the troops under major Nitin Leetul Gogois command were in a difficult situation and the major had to take a quick on-the-spot decision to avert a calamity of much higher magnitude. Whether the particular decision at that moment was right is a matter of actual investigation.

To all fairness to the Army, it must be acknowledged that they have already initiated a formal inquiry. Such an enquiry is extremely critical for a highly professional Army, like the Indian Army, for demonstrating its true commitment in fixing accountability.

Every action of its personnel, irrespective of the rank, has to be justified in accordance to the law of the land and also, in conformity with international conventions regarding the dos and dont s of any army operation.

Liberals who are criticising the Army for using a person as shield are wrong to pronounce their judgment before even completion of the Armys own inquiry. It is also important to acknowledge that even if the inquiry finds it wrong on major Gogois part to use a civilian as shield, nevertheless, we must be sensitive to what he had actually accomplished by applying quick thinking on the spot to save lives of civilians as well as military personnel involved in that operation.

In the court of law, it is quite possible that Gogoi will be held responsible for committing a crime and violating conventions for which he has to face repercussions. This is normal in any justice system and in all professions, which is often accepted as necessary professional hazard.

But, the citizenry still need not look at major Gogoi as a criminal. On the contrary, we should feel sorry for him for having to end up in a situation where he had only Hobsons choice available.

Having said that, it must be also recognised that if major Gogoi was just doing his duty to the best of his ability to assess and avert a calamity (even if he transgressed convention to achieve that), the ministers and celebrities must not score brownie points and derive political mileage riding on the poor officer's shoulder.

If Gogoi has to answer to his bosses in the Army for what he did and why, the ministers and other ruling party leaders must let the citizens of the country know what they have done so far to make the political situation better, so that the Gogois of the Army are not put into similar situation again and again.

There is no point in denying the fact that the situation in Kashmir today is much worse than what it was even a few years ago when peace was limping back to the region.

By politicising the whole issue involving major Gogoi, our leaders, who are making public statements (often through their celebrity admirers) either in favour or against Gogois actions, are only making a professional force, which is operating in a complex and mentally tiring situation, more vulnerable to political attacks.

This is going to have serious repercussions on the morale of our security forces and their professionalism.

It is disgusting to see how ministers are avoiding their own responsibility by simply leaving everything to the Army. Arun Jaitley is certainly right when he says that in a war-like zone let our Army officers, as professionals, decide what needs to be done.

By telling the public this commonsensical truth, he, however, cannot expect people to give him a pat on his back. As one of the most senior ministers of the government he must tell us what initiatives he or his government have taken so far to transform the war-like zone to a normal zone. The general perception is: none.

It is now obvious to many that the Modi governments handling of the Kashmir situation is leading us to a total disaster. Its opportunistic alliance is only adding fuel to the fire. The government it seems naively believes that only Army action can lead to a permanent solution.

It is a no-brainer to see what one can achieve through such an approach. Just look at Israel to understand the futility and social costs of pursuing a military-only solution. With all its aggressions backed by hugely superior military power what has it achieved so far in terms of solving the Palestinian problem?

It is heartening to see that some senior BJP leaders are now realising how Modi is allowing the Kashmir situation to go out of control. Much to the chagrin of the government, these leaders are now taking their own initiatives for starting a dialogue with other parties for developing a political consensus and bringing Kashmir back from the brink.

But, the government is still doggedly sticking to its singularly focused confrontationist policy. As the situation gets grimmer by the day, to hide its failure the ruling party will resort to more jingoism accompanied by the bogey of patriotism.

Army could be a very potent instrument in this strategy. It can be very effectively used to foment patriotic feelings. Hopefully, the leadership of the ruling party will finally realise that to gain public sympathy for itself by exploiting the sacrifices and bravery of our jawans is simply despicable.

By sharing super patriotic wisdom encapsulated in 140 characters, celebrities, many of whom these days are wearing patriotism on their sleeve, can only give their political leaders a false sense of righteousness.
Recent events indicate that the Indian Army is changing its strategy of operating in Kashmir and conveying the message that it means business.

The events indicating this change in recent times include recommencing cordon and search operations (CASO), thus seeking to dominate large areas, announcing aggressive counter infiltration actions, including destruction of Pakistani posts to the press, and permitting an interaction with major Gogoi on the jeep-tying incident, in addition to awarding him for his intuitive thinking.

The last time when the Army conveyed its strong intent was post the surgical strike last year, when the Director General of Military Operations made a press statement on the issue.

The prevailing scenario in Kashmir, internal criticism and Pakistani behaviour does warrant this change. Politically the government is being repeatedly questioned on its policies on handling the Kashmir agitation and countering an aggressive Pakistan. This questioning leads to adverse publicity.

Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi courted controversy recently for using a Kashmiri man as human shield.

The Army has also been accused on its hard actions in countering agitators. The jeep tying incident continues being blown out of proportion, compelling the Army to react and announce facts to the public.

Most Army actions are normally kept away from the public domain, basically because the Army never seeks kudos for a task well done, but considers the same to be a part of its duty.

Realistically, the LoC has always been active and every act by Pakistan has been countered with. Firing has always been considered routine business. Retaliation to Pakistani firing is rarely announced, except when it concerns civil areas.

In an active LoC, each nation blames the other for violating the ceasefire, as it can never be proved as to who violated it first and why. The major losers are the locals, who reside close to the border. Diplomatic representatives are regularly called by each nation and protests on violations lodged.

The announcement of destruction of the Pakistani post in Nowshera and releasing a video of the same is an indicator of change in approach, from retaliation to escalation as also a changed policy from restraint to active engagement.

India would henceforth be willing to violate the ceasefire, if it felt that such action could stem the flow of militants. The recent escalation in Nowshera sector has greater significance, as the region South of Pir Panjal has generally been militancy free. With infiltration attempts in this region, Pakistan seeks to enlarge areas under active militancy, which the Indian Army does not desire.

By releasing details of the destruction in public domain, the Army intends to embarrass its Pakistani counterpart. Hence it waited ten days, watching for Pakistani reaction to its strong measures.

It was known that Pakistan would deny the same, as it can never accept loss of face. Further, it would place pressure on the Pakistani army, which would be compelled to seek an enhancement in its defence budget in a financially troubled nation. This would impact nation building and strain the economy, struggling at the ends.

Unless the Pakistani army is embarrassed in the eyes of its own people, the polity in the country would never gain the upper hand, giving peace and talks a chance. To further expound this statement, offer for talks have only flowed from their government, never the army chief, who remains the power behind the throne.

Destruction of posts is one part of the game, denying reconstruction is the next.

However, every action has a counter action. Pakistan too would seek to escalate, for which its own troops would need to be on high alert. The country released a video of its own actions, the contents of which have been proved fake.

The second major change has been recommencing CASO, employing large force levels. These had been discontinued after there was semblance of near normalcy in the state. These operations, conducted in the early part of the morning, were always disliked by the public due to the inconvenience they caused.

An increase in the number of militants, their harbouring in built-up areas and increased local support has necessitated a change in approach.

Its recommencement indicates that the army is willing to adopt harsher measures to flush out militants from built up areas to jungles, where they can be handled without local interference.

The third and most debated issue indicating a change in approach has been awarding young Major Gogoi, as also permitting him to make his comments live on television, on the jeep-tying incident. The Army has by this action indicated its decision that it would accept ingenuity in operations and support its own personnel, irrespective of criticism by any human right advocates, veterans or politicians.

Further, as far as its actions in the valley are concerned, the decision to award the officer sends the message that the Army is only responsible to the government of India and the common Indian, who supports it. It has and would ignore those sitting in comfort and passing judgement on its actions, unaware of ground realities. It would do what it feels is essential and correct for the uplift of morale of its soldiers, critics be damned.

The Army for a long time had adopted a soft approach on the directions of the government in power, which was always seeking solutions when none were in sight. Talks with Pakistan have no relevance unless the power behind the throne, the countrys deep state, feels it essential. Failure to correctly read the scenario would lead to another stab in the back, like Mumbai, Kargil and Pathankot.

For talks with stakeholders in the Valley there were umpteen opportunities, when the situation was near normal. Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar, along with previous central governments wasted them. Presently, when the situation is being brought back to normal by employing force, they are most vocal, solely for political reasons.

The Army has made clear its intentions to no longer be a silent spectator, but to undertake a lead role in tandem with government plans, by creating the right environment, both within the state and along the border, enabling the government to move forward.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just completed three years of his five-year tenure  or 60 per cent of his incumbency. As of now, he looks good to win another five-year tenure whether the General Elections are held when they are due in May 2019, or before that.

The reasons for the up-vote for Modi are just the same what they were in the April-May 2014 General Elections  the down-vote for the opposition, particularly the Congress party. The two waves that coincided in the last General Elections  in favour of Modi and against the opposition  are still continuing unabated. In fact, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party are going from strength to strength while the opposition continues its downside.

This is amazing and unprecedented. Never before in the past seven decades, independent India has seen a government that continues to soar high on public perception charts even after completing 60 per cent of its tenure. Normally, the governments battle mid-term blues around this time, and the public euphoria subsides, if not vanishes.

Only one man is responsible for this magic  and yes, its nothing short of magic. That man is PM Modi himself and no one in either the BJP or the opposition is in any doubt on this score.

Modi has been winning because the opposition has been in absentia and unable to force issues.

Actually such is the level of the Modi euphoria, despite his very many glaring mistakes, failures and under-achievements, and despite Congress-led opposition parties hauling him over coals, that nothing matters to the man in the drivers seat. He is the man of the moment and this moment, already an eternity for the rudderless opposition, is going to last for years.

It doesnt really matter if the Modi government has grossly under-delivered on the most important yardstick of judging whether "achhe din" or good days are here or not  employment generation. Modi and the BJP had boasted of generating 100 million jobs in five years or 20 million per year. But the fact is that not even half a million jobs have been created in past three years. And yet the Modi government has been beating its 56-inch chest to say that India has achieved far more in past three years than what it did in all previous governments since independence.

It doesnt really matter that the electoral promises of Modi, as the PM candidate  bullet trains, Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat, turning India into a manufacturing hub (Make in India) and an inclusive government (Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas or government with all, development for all)  have remained a pipe dream even after three years.

It doesnt really matter that Pakistan and China are not behaving. Modi, as the PM candidate, had ridiculed the foreign policy of the humble and reticent Manmohan Singh by questioning his tactics and advised a two-pronged tactic: deal with China by looking at the dragon with red eyes and deal with Pakistan by killing its 10 soldiers if it kills one Indian soldier.

Everyone knows what the ground situation is today. India's relations with the two neighbours, the only ones with whom it has fought wars, are at the lowest ebb and both the neighbours continue to poke India in the eye every now and then. China is determined to carry on with its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which passes through Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and pour $62 billion into Pakistans economy or 25 per cent of Pakistan's GDP.

Pakistan, for its part, has remained as defiant, intransigent and provocative as ever. Indian surgical strikes and punitive strikes on Pakistan have not really left the western neighbour with its tail between its legs!

But forget China and Pakistan, which are nuclear-armed. Even Nepal has been cocking a snook at India. No, its not just China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) alone. In any case other neighbours such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives too have embarked on the BRI bandwagon, apart from, of course, Pakistan. Nepal hasnt stopped playing the China card with India despite PM Modi visiting the country twice.

But all this doesnt matter really. Nor does it matter that cows appear to be more safe in todays India than the common man.

But stop here for a moment. Why bother about the scorecard of the Modi governments three years in office when it has been winning elections from state assemblies to municipalities to village panchayats and looks set to continue its winning streak in the foreseeable future also?

Modi has been winning because the opposition has been in absentia and unable to force issues.

Therein hangs the real tale. Normal parameters like economic progress, infrastructure achievements, creation of jobs, foreign policy performance or defence capability are not applicable to the Modi government for the simple reason that this government has ruled successfully where it matters the most  the minds and hearts of the people. No other Indian politician did it so well apart from India Gandhi who was so popular that it led to coinage of the slogan Indira is India and India is Indira.

But now it looks like that Modi has surpassed even Indira Gandhi. The deflated opposition will do well to decode how Modi has done this if it wants to get back to winning elections.
Undoubtedly, Kashmir is more anti-India today than ever before. India is fast losing whatever limited public support it had in the Valley. With the declining violence since early 2000s, there was a hope for a peaceful settlement to the 70-year-old Kashmir issue.

However, the situation in the Valley has gone out of Indias control in the recent years and with that the hope for a negotiated settlement too has faded away. At present, India seems to have gone inside a dark tunnel and more worryingly not even looking for light at the end of it.

While Kashmir is slipping out of Indias control in an alarming speed, the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi does not seem to be in a hurry to salvage the situation. The central government has been consistently pursuing a strong-arm policy to crush dissent in Kashmir. It continues to bypass the authority of the state government and regularly uses brute force to quash protests.

It is for anyone to see that this high-handed strategy is not working and rather becoming counter-productive. That has led some to wonder if the government has any policy on Kashmir or not. There is no doubt it has one, but it's uncertain if that policy has been designed to bring peace and to find a political settlement through negotiation.

Kashmir has been the crux of the bilateral dispute between India and Pakistan since the two nations gained their independence. India's endeavour to "stage-manage" elections in Kashmir and stifle dissent have marked Kashmir's history since 1948, but it was not until 1989, that discontent turned to violent militancy. Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1995, ruling out the demand for independence, had assured that as far as autonomy for Kashmir was concerned, the sky would be the limit.

The United Front governments continued Raos policy of promising maximum autonomy. Vajpayees famous, but mystifying Kashmir Doctrine of "Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat" also extended that approach. However, it was Manmohan Singh, who brought a semblance of normalcy to the Valley, improved the relationship between India and Pakistan in spite of several spoilers trying to derail the process and had almost reached a final settlement to the Kashmir issue with Pakistan while taking most of the critical Kashmiri stakeholders along.

The Kashmir Valley became nervous when India elected "Hindu hriday samrat" to the Prime Ministers Office in May 2014, and the BJP swept the elections in Jammu in December 2014. Modis desire to capture the rein of the state of Jammu and Kashmir led him to make an opportunistic alliance with the PDP. This took away the political capital of the PDP, which was of some hope for a majority of Kashmiris to find a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue.

The only thing that PM Modi seems to have done for Kashmir is to make it "self-sufficient with militants". In the past three years, Kashmir valley has become a fertile breeding ground for new militants and the home-grown militants have outnumbered the foreign fighters.

As the militants are now local boys, they enjoy huge local support. Any security operation against them now witnesses villagers coming out in the open in their support.

A working relationship with Pakistan is a must to hope bring law and order in Kashmir, but the relations between two countries have been on the edge since the Pathankot airbase attack. Instead of trying to normalise the ties, the government does not miss any chance to display brinkmanship by regularly warning Pakistan of a "befitting reply". So much so that even ordinary cross-border operations are being turned into media blitzkrieg.

In spite of the failure in restoring normalcy in Kashmir, the Modi government seems to be adamant to continue the senseless policy in the Valley, which is bereft of legality, morality and basic human values.

Political expediency of the regime has forced the security forces to carry out an extremely difficult and thankless task of maintaining law and order in a very hostile environment. Last year, it was forced to use pellet guns and this year the human shield.

It is difficult to imagine that a leader like Modi, who is so careful about his own image, cannot see how the security situation in Kashmir and the Army brutality is gravely damaging Indias image abroad.

The use of pellet guns last year to quell protests had caused large-scale visual impairment among civilians in the Valley and brought severe condemnation from human rights activists from all over the world. This year, besides the pictures/video of a civilian tied to the bonnet of a jeep, the other image which has brought the Kashmir issue to global attention is that of schoolgirls in headscarves leading the protests in the Valley.

The political leadership in Delhi, instead of taking care to help the security forces improve their image, seems to be encouraging them to take more and more atrocious and counter-productive crowd-control measures, which will only incite the Kashmiris more.

It's not only the Army chief who gave a "commendation card" to major Nitin Leetul Gogoi, but even attorney general MokulRohatgi came out in support of Gogoi's act of tying the man to a jeep.

It is true that the Kashmir situation has almost gone out of control and Modis hard-headed policy is primarily responsible for it. However, Modi is unwilling to change the course because this present policy enhances his carefully cultivated image as a strong leader in mainland India.

An unsettled and violent Kashmir is bad for India and Indias image abroad, but surely beneficial for Modi and his Hindutva politics. Continued unrest in the Valley helps Modi and his men mobilise their support base in the name of Hindu nationalism. Territorial integrity of the country has the potential to be a very powerful electoral slogan in 2019, which can come handy to hide failures of the government on socio-economic fronts.
UNDP is helping to assess the water quality around Kanbe Lake, where a methylated spirits factory owned by a military-linked company was dumping wastewater.

Weve asked UNDP for help determining whether there is excessive lead in the area, and whether it came from the factory or other sources, said Mon State Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, Dr. Min Kyi Win.

He said that there had been inconsistencies in reports produced by his ministry and the department of agriculture, and welcomed the outside help.

The Mon State health department laboratory and the agricultural laboratory in Bago use different equipment and found different levels of lead and acid in water samples.

Residents of the area near Kanbe lake have complained about vomiting and dizziness from exposure to water and fumes near the plant. Wastewater that has seeped into nearby fields has also rendered them infertile, cutting off many from their primary source of income.

The Kanbe lake is now totally destroyed. Neither households nor businesses can use water from the lake or even from their own wells, said a resident of the nearby Kanthayar Quarter.

The Mon State government held a meeting on May 4 to discuss the crisis and discuss solutions. The factory, which is owned by the military-linked Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Limited (UMEHL), had not submitted any of the required environmental impact assessments and was told to shut down the next day. For now, the government is distributing drinking water to residents in affected areas.

By Min Tway Tit/ Mon News Agency


Remember the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, the one that says that presidents aren't supposed to get gifts or payments from foreign governments without Congressional approval?



Rep Elijah Cummings [D-MD] is the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which asked the Trump Organization to produce a detailed account of the representatives from foreign governments who've given money to Trump by booking hotel rooms and the like. In response, the Trump Organization sent a "glossy, eight-page pamphlet that contains a total of 40 sentences," none of which answered Congress's questions.





Instead, the pamphlet explained that the Trump Organization wasn't willing to track the origin of the payments it receives because it would be "impractical" to ask people paying it money to state whether they were acting on behalf of a government, and doing so would "diminish the guest experience of our brand."





Also: because it's not the year of end, the Trump Organization apparently has not done its record-keeping.

The pamphlet does not appear to capture indirect payments by foreign governments

through third parties. According to the pamphlet, "foreign governments can be organized in very

different ways. Some may operate through state-owned and state-controlled entities in industries

such as aerospace and defense, banking, finance, healthcare, energy and others." However,

Trump Organization businesses will expend no effort to identify payments from these

government entities, according to the pamphlet. The deficiencies in this approach are obvious. Under the policy outlined in this

pamphlet, foreign governments could provide prohibited emoluments to President Trump, for

example, through organizations such as RT, the propaganda arm of the Russian government, or a

host of other entities that are funded and controlled by foreign governments. Those payments

would not be tracked in any way and would be hidden from the American public. For the reasons set forth above, we reiterate our request for a briefing with Committee

staff to discuss these issues in greater detail, and we request that you schedule this briefing on or

before June 2, 2017. We also request that by June 2, 2017, you comply fully with the request for

documents the Committee made in its bipartisan letter on April 21, 2017.

Dear Mr. Sorial [Rep Elijah Cummings/House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform]





(via JWZ)
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RICHMOND  Critical evidence has yet to be examined in the Virginia State Police investigation into the death of Hampton Roads Regional Jail inmate Jamycheal Mitchell, according to Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney Stephanie N. Morales.

Virginia State Police have been unable to interview medical personnel who worked with Mitchell or obtain certain documents from NaphCare, the jail's former health care contractor, Morales said.

On Wednesday, Morales requested that the Portsmouth Circuit Court convene a special grand jury to look into Mitchells death, but three Portsmouth Circuit Court judges rejected her request on Friday.

A special grand jury would have had the power to subpoena the records from NaphCare.

On Friday afternoon, Morales filed a motion appealing their decision and released a 5-page statement challenging the judges.

She argued that the special grand jury is "essential to enable the commonwealth to obtain yet-unseen documents and yet-unexamined witnesses."

Corinne Geller, spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has reached out to an attorney for NaphCare for comment.

Mitchell, a mentally ill 24-year-old, died of extreme weight loss and heart problems after a 101-day stay at the jail in 2015. He was arrested after allegedly stealing $5 in snack food from a convenience store.

In denying the request for a special grand jury, the judges note that Mitchell's death "has been investigated by several professionally staffed independent entities and appears to be the subject of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The court is of the opinion that the citizens of Portsmouth would not have any additional expertise, special competence or proficiency that would further contribute to the investigation surrounding the death of Jamycheal Mitchell."

The three Circuit Court judges signed the order.

In her statement, Morales countered the judges' contention that other entities had sufficiently examined Mitchell's death. She noted that an investigation by the Office of the State Inspector General "was deemed to be so incomplete that the inspector general herself was removed by a nearly unanimous vote of the General Assembly."

Morales also noted that the DOJ investigation is meant to look broadly at whether the jail violates civil rights.

"This Department of Justice investigation is not designed to investigate Mr. Mitchell's death or generate any information that can be used by this office in making a prosecutorial determination," she wrote.

None of the other investigations involving Mitchell, Morales said, were designed to determine whether a crime had been committed.

She also said the judges' assertion that Portsmouth residents would not bring any expertise to the investigation is "misguided."

"There is no legal requirement for such a demand in the Code of Virginia," she wrote. "Special grand jurors only must inquire diligently into the matters presented to them."

Morales has been studying the results of a Virginia State Police investigation into Mitchells death, but her office has not released further details about the state police inquiry.

State law allows a commonwealths attorney to request a special grand jury, which can investigate criminal activity and consider whether anyone should be indicted.

If a judge had granted Morales request, she would have been allowed to be present during the special grand jurys investigative stage and to question witnesses.

After numerous state agencies failed to get full answers about how Mitchell died, Morales last year asked for a Virginia State Police investigation. She asked for additional investigation in August after police turned over their preliminary findings.

Then in March she asked police to investigate new allegations surrounding Mitchells death.
RICHMOND  Saying Virginia's environmental regulators have "seemingly backtracked" on earlier statements, Virginia House Minority Leader David J. Toscano has asked state officials to recommit to a more rigorous review process for the pending Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Toscano, a Charlottesville Democrat facing an anti-pipeline primary challenger, voiced his disapproval Thursday in a letter to Department of Environmental Quality Director David K. Paylor.

"I write to express my concern about reports that the agency has seemingly backtracked on its earlier decision to require certifications for each individual segment of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) that crosses or affects a Virginia waterway, and to urge your reconsideration," Toscano wrote. "Relying instead on a so-called 'blanket permit' issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is an unnecessary and unwise delegation of authority to the federal government to protect Virginia streams and rivers in the face of a major project that will be disruptive and potentially damaging to our environment."

Toscano's letter is the latest example of how the DEQ's misstatements have exacerbated the election-year politics surrounding the pipeline, an issue that's particularly sensitive in the Charlottesville region due to the pipeline's route through nearby Nelson County.

Toscano's challenger, University of Virginia political researcher Ross Mittiga, is running an anti-corporate campaign focusing largely on opposing the pipeline and rejecting the influence of Dominion Energy, the politically powerful utility behind the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

In April, the DEQ announced it would require individual water-quality certifications for both the Atlantic Cost and Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline projects. At the time, DEQ spokesman Bill Hayden specified that the agency would require separate certifications for each individual pipeline segment that crossed or affected streams or wetlands. Under questioning from the media and pipeline opponents, the DEQ acknowledged this week that the earlier information was inaccurate, saying the state would rely on a federal permit for the hundreds of spots where the pipelines would cross water. The state's review will focus instead on "upland areas," such as ridges and hilltops, that are not covered by the federal review process.

The misinformation about the scope of the state reviews came as Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, McAuliffe's would-be successor, face anti-pipeline pressure from environmental activists who believe state leaders can take a more assertive role even though the final pipeline decisions are made at the federal level. McAuliffe and the state's business community have backed the pipeline, saying it will help the economy and create jobs.

Northam, running in a tight gubernatorial primary against former congressman and pipeline opponent Tom Perriello, has repeatedly touted a letter he sent to DEQ officials in mid-February asking for individual reviews and a "thorough evaluation" of the pipelines' water impacts. Northam has said his letter contributed to the DEQ's earlier decision, but has not pushed back against the agency's reversal. In a statement Wednesday, Northam's campaign said he maintains his position "that these projects must be held to the highest environmental standards."

The response didn't satisfy some pipeline opponents.

"The Lt. Governor must reject DEQ's improper approach and its failure to be straight with the public," the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition said in a statement Thursday. "There is no excuse for leaving false information in the public record for 7 weeks without correcting it - and DEQ would still not have made that correction unless officials had been explicitly asked about the department's intentions. Will Mr. Northam demand transparent processes, as he has repeatedly stated, or not?"

On Friday, Northam spokesman David Turner said the DEQ's clarified process "goes beyond the scope" of the federal process and allows the state to "intervene with water certification at specific sites."

"This increase in standards on top or beyond the national blanket is what Ralph called for, and in order for either of these projects to move forward, these certifications will have to be approved or denied by the citizen members of our State Water Control Board," Turner said.

Asked about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline at a candidate forum in Richmond Thursday night, Perriello called the DEQ's newly stated position "real disturbing news."

"This just needs to be a clear issue. Virginians deserve a full, independent review of the environmental effects of these pipelines," Perriello said. "And I think anything less is not what Virginia citizens want."

In an interview, Mittiga, a likely Perriello supporter, called Toscano's letter "fiercely mild" and noted Toscano, a Northam backer, did not say he's flatly opposed to the pipeline.

"My sense is that it's a cynical attempt to project an environmentalist image at a time that Toscano and Northam and the like are quickly realizing that that's what voters are demanding and they're on the wrong side of the issue," Mittiga said. "But at the same time, they're not willing to piss off their corporate donors."
260517 NEW DAWN STARTS AFTER BLACKOUTS

By Aloysius Laukai



New Dawn FM 89.9 started broadcasting from its Buka studios after power problems in Buka town was fixed late last night.

One of its Generators was fixed and Broadcast as resumed.



New Dawn FM apologizes to its Buka listeners as this was beyond our control and lets hope the power problem is sorted out once and for all.



Ends
260517CANDIDATE COMPLIMENTS MASIU'S WORK

By Aloysius Laukai



The former ABG Vice President and now candidate for the Bougainville Regional seat challenging the sitting member JOE LEFRA, PATRICK NISIRA this week commended on the leadership style TIMOTHY MASIU has shown in the last five or so months in Office.



MR. NISIRA was speaking at the Opening of the Teachers house at IUMORE Primary School initiated by the former member for South Bougainville the late STEVEN PIRIKA.



He said the new member by continuing the project of the former member showed that he was truly a leader who wants to develop South Bougainville.



MR. NISIRA said that if TIMOTHY MASIU was somebody else he could have started a different project altogether for fame only.



He thanked him for showing Bougainville what a true leader can do for Bougainville.



Ends



Caption of PATRICK NISRA at IUMORE this week. Picture by Aloysius Laukai






Mumbai: Cipla Ltd,India's fifth-largest drugmaker by sales, plans to reduce investment in biosimilars to sharpen its focus on building a portfolio of high-margin respiratory products, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

It has put plans to build a biotech plant in South Africa, its third-largest market, on hold, and will soon start looking for partners for its existing biosimilars programme, CEO Umang Vohra said at a press conference.

"We may play a smaller portion of the overall development and let a partner take on a larger portion," he said. "We believe that the profile of the biosimilars market today has become fairly competitive."

He did not say by how much the company would trim investment in biosimilars. It had planned to invest 1.3 billion rupees ($20.14 million) in the South African plant.

The move signals a shift in Cipla's strategy from just three years ago, when Chairman and founder Yusuf Hamied said the company aimed to replicate its success at launching cut-price AIDS drugs in Africa in 2001 with cheap biosimilars.

Copies of biotechnology drugs, however, are harder to make, command much higher research and development investments, and have a much tougher regulatory process. They account for a growing share of new drugs, and the future sales of copycat products are set to switch to these from simple small-molecule pills like aspirin.

Indian drugmakers have been relatively slow compared with European, American and South Korean companies in the U.S. biosimilars market, the most lucrative for such drugs.

Some Indian firms such as Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd and Biocon Ltd have been working on biosimilars for U.S. and Europe, but with larger Western partners.

Cipla has been on its own so far, and said on Thursday that the programme was "squeezing" its investments in respiratory and other niche, so-called specialty programmes.

"We are not moving away from biosimilars. However, we are not in the aim to make them at $1 a day," Vohra said. Cipla's focus on niche products comes as it tries to improve its footprint in the United States at an increasingly challenging time.

Drugmakers are spending more than ever on factory upkeep after a string of U.S. bans on Indian sites due to poor quality control standards, and a consolidation between drug distributors has caused price erosion.

Vohra said he expected pricing pressure to continue, but not impact the company much yet as its U.S. business is small relative to peers. It expects to start filing for U.S. approval of inhalers in a year, he added.

In its largest market, India, Cipla has been among the hardest hit in the past year from government-imposed price caps, and expects further disruptions from a nationwide tax reform plan in the coming months, Vohra said.

Citing increasing volatility across markets, the company declined to give a financial forecast.

It reported a fourth-quarter loss of 617.9 million rupees ($9.56 million), way below analysts' expectations of a profit of 3.45 billion rupees, due to one-off charges and a provision related to its biotech programme.
New Delhi: The government has selected five merchant bankers, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, to manage the government's 3 per cent stake sale in IOC which could fetch about Rs 6,000 crore to the exchequer.

The other bankers who have been selected by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) for managing the stake sale are Deutsche Equities, SBI Capital Markets and ICICI Securities, sources said.

As many as 10 merchant bankers had made presentations before the DIPAM yesterday, out of which five were selected. Other merchant bankers who were vying for the job include Axis Capital, Kotak Investment, Nomura Financial, Edelweiss Financial and IDFC Bank.

Government currently holds 58.28 per cent stake in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). It plans to sell 3 per cent stake in the nation's largest oil retailer through an offer for sale. Shares of IOC were trading at Rs 419.05, down 4.65 per cent in morning trade on the BSE.

At the current market price, a 3 per cent share sale would fetch the exchequer about Rs 6,000 crore. The timing of the IOC share sale has not been decided as yet and a final call will be taken after taking into account market conditions, sources said.

The government had last sold 10 per cent stake in IOC at Rs 387 per share in August 2015 and raised Rs 9,369 crore. IOC reported an 85 per cent jump in January-March quarter net profit at Rs 3,720.62 crore on higher refining margin and inventory gains.

The company is a major player in the field of petroleum refining, pipeline transportation of crude and petroleum products, marketing of petroleum products, research and development, blending and production of lubricants.

It has nine refineries at Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Digboi (Assam), Barauni (Bihar), Koyali, Vadodara (Gujarat), Haldia (West Bengal), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Paradip (Odisha) and Panipat (Haryana) with a combined capacity of 69.20 mmtpa as on March 31, 2016.

So far in the current fiscal, the government has raised Rs 1,200 crore through sale of 9.2 per cent stake in NALCO and another Rs 1,200 crore through initial public offering of HUDCO.

The government has set a target of raising Rs 46,500 crore through minority stake sale and Rs 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment. In 2016-17, the government had raised over Rs 46,247 crore from disinvestment.
New Delhi: Hindustan Power is targeting to raise around Rs 6,000 crore over the next two years to add 5 -6 GW of solar power capacity.

"I think our goal to build out 5-6 GW of solar over the next five years both in India and outside India and that would be somewhere in the range of around a billion dollars (around Rs 6,000 crore) of equity," Hindustan Power Chairman Ratul Puri said on the sidelines of a function here.

"So, that would be raised over the next couple of years through internal cash generations and from external investors or potentially divesting some assets potentially a combination of all these three," Puri said.

Asserting that there was nothing imminent in any area at present, Puri said that the company was just exploring opportunities at this juncture.

Replying to a question, he said, "I think we are always looking at different opportunities to raise capital to finance growth and there are always multiple opportunities that are available. And... selling part of our assets is one of those opportunities".

"So, I think there is something which is ongoing. Not just sale but we are looking at capital to fund growth," he added. The company's current capacity is 2,000 MW, of which 800 MW solar.
Business / Companies

by Staff reporter

Fly Africa Zimbabwe (Fly Africa) will resume operations next month after an 18-month hiatus following its acquisition by a local company, Mugwagwa Resources, the businessdaily reported.The airline's executive chairperson Cassidy Mugwagwa said his company had so far invested $6,6 million into the carrier's operations."We are taking to the skies next week The issue has been Reserve Bank remitting payments, fuels coming in, we are not going to have a launch but we are going to take to the skies first," he said in an interview.Mugwagwa said Fly Africa currently has got access to seven aeroplanes and is locked in negotiations to purchase two more."The first two that we are buying are second-hand currently undergoing pre-delivery maintenance at Lufthansa in Germany, they are two Boeing 737 700 aircrafts," he said.The latest development comes as Fly Africa  which was previously 49 percent owned by Mauritius-based Fly Africa Limited  was grounded in 2015 after shareholder squabbles escalated resulting in former majority shareholder, Chakanyuka Karase, voluntarily submitting the carrier's Airline operator Certificate (AOC) to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (Caaz).Mugwagwa, however, said the airline had now secured all relevant documentation and regulatory approvals to commence flights."There is not a single certificate or flight licence that we do not have We were granted our AOC two weeks ago Before that we were given our government's thumbs up to fly, via what they call an Air Service Permit from the ministry of Transport," he said.The revamped airline is set to resume its old routes starting with local then venturing into regional flights around August."We are renewing the old routes, when we start to fly we are going to be doing domestic flights in what is called the Zimbabwe Triangle, that is Harare - Victoria Falls - Bulawayo and back the same way daily for a month or so, while our technical people get back into the business of things."A month later, we will then start with the regional flights to Johannesburg and then looking onwards to Gaborone and Lusaka ," he said.The new airline is, however, expected to face stiff competition from other local and international airlines such as Fastjet, South African Airways, Kenyan Airways, Ethiopian Airlines and Rwandair among others.
The number can also be generated by logging into the e-filing website of the department.

New Delhi: The Income Tax department today said banks, mutual funds and financial institutions should obtain an identification number and file the statement of financial transaction (SFT) by May 31.

The entities which are required to furnish SFT under 114E of Income Tax Rules can register with the I-T department and generate Income Tax Reporting Entity Identification Number (ITDREIN), a finance ministry statement said.

The number can also be generated by logging into the e-filing website of the department. Banking company, cooperative banks, trustee of a mutual fund and post offices need to file SFT for payments and receipts beyond a certain threshold.
Beijing: An Indian IT delegation led by industry body NASSCOM discussed business opportunities and cooperation with China's top planning body and IT ministry. This comes as India has been pressing China to open up its huge IT market. Such a step would help reduce the bilateral trade imbalance, which touched USD 52 billion last year in favour of China.

The Indian delegation members held two round-table meetings and discussed cooperation in IT sector with officials from China's National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

They met officials of Chinese industry bodies such as China Software Industry Association and Beijing Association of Sourcing Service, according to a statement by the Indian embassy in Beijing. The members also visited a Beijing Automotive Group Company unit to understand China's manufacturing capabilities.

The Indian embassy had tied up with China's Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council for the first round-table meeting on Tuesday. Around 20 state-owned companies based in Beijing participated in the event.

Among them were Sinopec, State Grid, China Unicom, Dongfeng Motors, and China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the statement said. A second round-table for new technology firms and start- ups was organised on Wednesday in collaboration with China Chamber of International Commerce.

More than 20 Chinese firms, including Mobike and Didi Chuxing, attended this event. During the two events, Chinese companies shared their plans for expansion and outlined the scope for cooperation.
Hyderabad: Gearing up for the third and innovation led industrial revolution, the South Korea government aims to attract smart brains from across the world to strengthen its startup ecosystem. The first and second industrial revolution was focused on manufacturing. We believe that the third industrial revolution will led by technology. So we want attract the best technology startups to Korea through a contest called K-Startup Challenge, said Caleb Kyung Hwan Lee, executive director of National IT Industry Promotion Agency, Korea-India SW Cooperation Center here on Friday.

The four winners, who get grants from the government, would have to set up their companies in Korea. They can also enter into partnership with Korea majors, which are strong in electronics and manufacturing. "In recent years, a great number of large Korean conglomerates have expressed their interest in collaborating with foreign start-ups," he said.

Last year, 2,400 startups across the world participated in the Challenge. Out of which, over 10 per cent or 281 startups were from India - this is second largest number after the United States. An Indian startup in the augmented reality space came in as a runner-up and has partnered with one of Korea's retail majors. "The challenge will open gates for the Indian technology startups - catering to different categories to enter the Korean market and further expand its reach to global customers."
Mumbai: Stocks defied gravity for the second straight session today, propelling the Sensex past the 31,000- mark for the first time ever on the third anniversary of the Modi government.

The broader Nifty too breached the 9,600-level, also in a first, before settling at a record high of 9,595.10.

Sustained buying, both by domestic and foreign investors, propped up the market at elevated levels amid optimism for more reforms by the government.

The BSE Sensex has risen 25.53 per cent, while the NSE Nifty has gained 30.38 per cent since the BJP-led NDA government came to power in May 2014.

Creation of new positions by participants following the beginning of the June futures and options (F&O) series added to the momentum, brokers said.

Extending the previous session's record-setting spree, the BSE Sensex crossed the landmark 31,000-level to hit a lifetime high of 31,074.07.

After paring some gains, the 30-share index settled at 31,028.21, up 278.18 points, or 0.90 per cent. It surpassed the earlier record closing of 30,750.03 hit yesterday.

It was the third straight week of gains for the key indices. The Sensex rose by 563.29 points, or 1.84 per cent, while the Nifty finished the week 167.20 points, or 1.77 per cent higher.

"Market touched another milestone supported by continued buying interest on index heavyweights post expiry. Expectation on good monsoon and a slow pace in interest rate hike by US Fed continue to weigh on the sentiment.

"Mid and small caps outperformed as recent correction scaled down the valuation gap with large caps, which gave an entry point for those who missed the opportunity," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 589.11 crore on Thursday, which added to the upbeat sentiment.

Tata Steel soared 5.46 per cent to emerge as the biggest Sensex gainer, followed by ITC Ltd at 2.99 per cent on encouraging fourth quarterly earnings.

Other big gainers were Power Grid (2.57 per cent), Reliance Industries (2.53 per cent), Adani Ports (1.82 per cent), Asian Paints (1.76 per cent), Infosys (1.46 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.30 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.28 per cent), Bharti Airtel (1.12 per cent), Tata Motors (1.11 per cent), M&M (1.11 per cent), L&T (1.05 per cent), Axis Bank (1 per cent), ONGC (0.95 per cent) and Coal India (0.90 per cent).

However, pharma counters continued their slide on persistent selling pressure largely on muted earnings. Sun Pharma fell 3.93 per cent, Cipla lost 2.48 per cent, Lupin shed 2.29 per cent and Dr Reddy's 0.64 per cent.

Sectorwise, BSE metal index gained the most by rising 3.40 per cent, followed by oil&gas 2.08 per cent, FMCG 1.77 per cent, power 1.61 per cent, consumer durables 1.56 per cent, capital goods 1.47 per cent, auto 1.34 per cent, PSU 1.13 per cent and banking 0.78 per cent.

Buying activity in the broader markets also gathered momentum, with the mid-cap index surging 2.06 per cent and small-cap index gaining 1.60 per cent.

Globally, in rest of Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.03 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.07 per cent. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.64 per cent.

European markets were in the red in their early deals.

Paris CAC 30 fell 0.70 per cent and Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.41 per cent. London's FTSE, however, was marginally up by 0.10 per cent.
Mumbai: Badlapur, which proved to be the turning point in lead actor Varun Dhawans acting career, will have a second instalment coming out soon. Producer Dinesh Vijan confirms that the script of the sequel is being worked on.

Badlapur, released in 2015, went on to earn huge moolah at the BO and declared a hit. Since then, there has been news of making the sequel of the film.

Speaking exclusively to Deccan Chronicle, producer Dinesh Vijan said, I am working on the sequel to Badlapur with director Sriram Raghavan. This is the film which I am really looking forward to start. Sriram is still in the writing process but this time there will be a female protagonist.

Rumours are rife that Deepika Padukone is being considered for the part in 'Badlapur 2' but nothing has been finalised yet.

On a related note, producer-turned-director Dinesh Vijan's directorial debut 'Raabta' is set to release on June 9. Deepika, who shares a good relationship with Vijan, has done a special item number for this film.
Mumbai: Saif Ali Khan-Kunal Khemu-Vir Das starrer Go Goa Gone became a huge rage among youngsters in 2013 and the makers cannot wait to make a sequel of this zom-com. In November 2016, Saif had also confirmed that he would like to make a sequel of the film and that the director duo Raj and DK have approached him with a nice concept.

Now the producer of the film, Dinesh Vijan, confirms that the script for the films second instalment is in the writing stage. He informed, We might do a sequel to Go Goa Gone. It is in the writing stage and most important thing is to a film with intention from all the parties. Till the script doesnt come in place, I cant talk about it. I think the idea is very nice but it is certainly not on the zombies.

There was a lot of noise around the casting of the film and gossip mills were abuzz with news of Soha Ali Khan, who had a brief appearance in Go Goa Gone, joining the cast as a ghost. The producer, however, chose to stay mum about this topic. He said, Till the time script wont come in place, it is difficult to say anything since it is a proper sequel so there has to be the primary cast in it.

If the rumour proves to be true, then it will be the third film in recent times that a leading lady will be seen playing a ghost. Urvashi Rautela played a lustful ghost in Indra Kumars sex comedy Great Grand Masti and Anushka Sharma played a personable, romantic ghost in Phillauri.
Salman Khan with Sohail Khan at the balcony of their house in Bandra, Mumbai on Thursday. (Photo: Viral Bhayani)

Mumbai: Superstar Salman Khan said he considers himself to be a limited performer and credited his 'Tubelight' co-star and brother, Sohail Khan, for helping him perform well in the upcoming film.

'Tubelight' brings Salman and brother Sohail back together on screen and the 'Dabangg' star said it was because of his younger brother that he could bring out the emotions in the right way.

"The film was an emotional journey and I felt emotionally drained after shooting some of the scenes. I am a limited performer and everybody knows that, but because Sohail was playing my brother, maybe that's why I was felt so emotional," Salman told reporters here at the trailer launch of 'Tubelight.'

However, Kabir quickly added, "After 'Tubelight' people will not say that you are a limited performer."

'Tubelight' marks the third collaboration between Salman and Kabir after 'Ek Tha Tiger' and 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan'.

Talking further about his character Salman said it is difficult for him to do films like 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun', 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and 'Tubelight'.

"To play a pure character is the most difficult thing as we are not purest people in our life. So, you portray a character like that in Prem of 'Hum Aapke Hai Kaun', the role in 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and 'Tubelight' is the most difficult. It's a challenge to maintain simplicity, purity and honesty of a character."
Mumbai: Saqib Saleem says he has to be cautious while choosing the his films as he is not an industry insider and will not get a second chance to prove himself. Saqibs father Saleem Qureshi is a restaurateur, and runs a chain of restaurants called Saleems in Delhi. His sister Huma Qureshi is a Bollywood actress.

The actor says he is not bothered by people questioning him for doing less number of films as his focus is on choosing the right movies.To find a good script is very important, because the chances and opportunities I would be getting will be very far and few. I am not from here (film industry), I come from Delhi, Ive nothing to do with this. To make inroads here, Ive to find the right films. If my films dont do well, nobody is going to give me films, Saqib told PTI.

The 29-year-old actor says instead of doing 10 mediocre films, its better to do one good project. It becomes important to do the right films, than do 10 films in a year. You may do it once, but itll never happen again. If you screw up five films straight, then youre done. Its a business, the producer invests money and you need to make sure his money is recovered and in the process you give out the best film, he says.

Saqib made his debut in 2011 with Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge and then starred in films like Mere Dad Ki Maruti, Bombay Talkies, Hawaa Hawaai and Dishoom.He is awaiting the release of his next film Dobaara which also stars his sister Huma. Saqib is aware that new actors constantly keep coming in the film industry, but he isnt interested in trying to catch up to them.

I cant fight that (newcomers coming in). They do their job, I do mine. What my work is, nobody can take from me. All I can do is work hard. I dont look at things like what is he getting?, its better to focus on what can I do, he says. This year the actor has two releases. Dobaara, a supernatural-horror film, and a love story with Taapsee Pannu.The film with Taapsee that I have almost completed is Makhna, its tentatively called that. Just a couple of songs are left which Ill shoot. I think it should release sometime towards the end of the year, by November, he says.
Mumbai: When it comes to displaying flamboyance on the celluloid, one can barely beat Karan Johar. One can say it with an ease that flamboyance is the synonym for Karan Johar. His films give an unique identity to relationships, with the heavy-weighted dialogues and melancholic music.

He is one such filmmaker who is the apple of everyones eye in the film industry.

From working as an assistant, costume designer, director, producer, reality show judge, acting, we doubt if theres anything that has remained untouched by him.

He turned 45 on Thursday, and as usual, he hosted a lavish affair for the entire industry.

Well, there was a time when the Kapoors were known for hosting the lavish parties in B-town, and now it's Karan Johar who has taken the throne. Every alternate day, there is a party hosted at his residence.

Coming back to his birthday bash, the whos who of the industry marked their gracious presence at the bash to make KJos birthday a memorable one.

From his protege Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan, to his thick friends Shah Rukh Khan, Manish Malhotra, Niranjan Iyengar, everyone was present there.

While rumoured couple Sidharth and Alia arrived together at the bash, Varun was accompanied by his childhood friend Natasha Dalal, who is also said to be allegedly romancing the actor.

Tiger Shroff, who just returned from Cannes Film Festival, dropped in at Karan's bash with Disha Patani.

On the other hand, the close-knit Kapoor's, Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur made a dashing entry with the trio arriving in style. Katrina Kaif too was present at the party.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Hrithik Roshan, Sushant Singh Rajput, Akshay Kumar with wife Twinkle Khanna, Sanjay Dutt and Maanyata Dutt were also present.

Birthday boy Karan was seen setting Deepika's hair at the bash before she posed for the shutterbugs.

The new bandwagon of Bollywood comprising of SRKs son Aryan Khan, Saif Ali Khans daughter Sara Ali Khan also had a gala time at Karans beautiful palatial abode in the suburbs.

Shockingly, Shah Rukh and wife Gauri Khan arrived separately and refused to get clicked together by the paparazzi.

Here is a sneak-peak of how the entire clan of Bollywood set the party high at Karans house:

Shah Rukh Khan with son Aryan Khan and Saif Ali Khan's daughter Sara Ali Khan.

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Karan's favourite and a regular at his parties, Kareena Kapoor Khan was also present at the bash.

Apparently, Aamir Khan left the venue early as he had to catch a flight with his 'Thugs of Hindostan' co-star Fatima Sana Shaikh.
Mumbai: Those who know Priyanka Chopra, they know how bold and fearlessly blunt she is. The actress is not only good at handling criticism but also at handling tricky questions.

The star, who is being applauded for her role in her Hollywood debut film Baywatch, appeared on The Wendy Williams Show on Tuesday to talk about her movie. Its no secret that Priyanka and Suits star Meghan Markle are pretty close and share a great bonding, and the shows host, Wendy was well aware about the fact as well.

As it happens, Meghan is currently dating Prince Harry and in hope to get some scoop out of Priyanka, the shows host Wendy steered the conversation in that direction while referring to the American actor as Prince Harrys girlfriend, which not-so-surprisingly didnt go down well with Priyanka.

Wendy started the topic by saying, Youre friends with Meghan Markle, Prince Harrys girlfriend! The actress was quick to add, Also, Meghan Markle, actress, Suits, her achievements.

Internet absolutely loved the way Priyanka sweetly pointed out that Meghan is more than Prince Harrys girlfriend and has many achievements of her own to not be overshadowed by her dating life.

Here are few top comments that the show's clip received on YouTube:

Watch the video here:
News / National

by Staff reporter

A Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officer has been fined $50 for stealing four chickens.Rushmore Nyamutata, 25, was convicted on his own plea of guilty by magistrate Innocent Bepura.He was charged for stock theft as defined in section 114 (2) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act chapter 9:23.Prosecuting, Fletcher Karombe informed the court how on May 23, at around 0339am, Nyamutata raided Tsitsi Fenyere's fowl run.He seized four chickens and hid them outside Fenyere's house's security wall before returning to steal more.Fenyere was, however, awoken by the noise from the chickens. Upon noticing that there was a thief in her fowl run, she screamed for help.Nyamutata tried to flee by scaling the security wall, only to land into the neighbour's backyard from where he was apprehended by Trust Nyarota and Chamunirwa Maringe.All four chickens were recovered and were valued at $20.Nyamutata stunned the court during mitigation when he pleaded for clemency saying he could not recall why he even needed to steal the chickens. He claimed he was dogged by evil spirits.
Mumbai: Aanand L Rais upcoming film, starring Shah Rukh Khan has been in the news for various reasons. The novel fact that SRK would be playing a dwarf for the very first time in his life was one of them.

There were rumours doing the rounds, way back in 2015, that the film had been christened Katrina Meri Jaan, and it was about a small town man who wishes to meet his Bollywood idol. However, aanand had refuted all rumours and laughed them off, even hdenying the involvement of Shah Rukh in the film.

But now, its been confirmed that the film has indeed been titled Katrina Meri Jaan, and will also star Katrina as herself as one of the two leading ladies.

Apart from that, the second female lead, which was initially to be played by Deepika Padukone, will now be essayed by Anushka Sharma. Anushka will be seen playing a mentally challenged girl. The three had earlier starred together in Yash Chopras swansong Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

After Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt were unable to commit to the film, Aanand approached Anushka. The actress found the role challenging and agreed to do it. She also shares a great rapport with SRK and Katrina, and decided to come on board. Its an exciting film for all the three actors, DNA quoted a source as saying.

Confirms director Aanand L Rai, " I'm thrilled that Anushka Sharma joins Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif for my next. From our very first meeting, she had an instant connect with the character. She seemed very excited about the challenges that this role entails. Shes at a more than ready stage in her career to essay a complex role like this. We have been working on her look and prepping for the film. It was only once things fell into place that we wanted to announce Anushkas casting."

The film is slated for a Christmas 2018 release.
Mumbai: The movie has hit the screens and the verdict is out. Touted to be Priyanka Chopras big-ticket to Hollywood release, Baywatch has turned out to be a damp squib.

Review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes sees Baywatch score a mere 14 per cent, putting the movie in the league of some that have the worst ratings of all times. Other international reviewers have called the movie sloppy, perfunctory, and even grossed-out. However, many of the same reviewers are in consensus of the fact that Priyanka herself was underused and underutilised in the movie, despite having her acting chops in the right place.

Same was the story with Deepika Padukones big Hollywood release, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, where the actress part was reduced to a disappointing side role, taking the hype out of the movie.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh, however, believes that the Bollywood A-listers need to be cut some slack, since theyre paired against heavyweights. No role is big or small, explains Taran. But when youre cast opposite Vin Diesel and The Rock, its kind of difficult to establish yourself. Outside of India, a lot of people are not aware of Priyanka and Deepika, but by working with these huge stars, they can end up making a name for themselves.

Reminiscing on an old exchange with Shah Rukh Khan, film critic and trade analyst talks about how the superstar chose not to work abroad. I had asked him if he would do a Bond movie. He replied No, Im way bigger in my country, he says. Priyanka has also gone on to sign a movie with Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory. She is slowly moving into a space where roles are being specifically tailored for her. After Quantico, and Baywatch, this is a huge step, as she will play a significant role in this movie.

Having acted in an Indian-Australian production, Unindian opposite Brett Lee, actress Tannishtha Chatterjee says that it all boils down to what the role brings for the actor.

When I first went to acting school, I was taught that there are no roles that are small. Its only in India, where we have divide between the lead protagonist and the supporting character. I have myself rejected so many larger roles for smaller roles as I have felt those roles to be more challenging. I dont think that the length of the roles really matter, its their personal choice where the actors need to realise if the role they are about to enact will improve their acting skills, she asserts. More than the size of the role, its the experience and growth it brings while playing it that actually impacts my personal decision on whether I choose to play a particular character or not, she adds.

Priyanka in Baywatch

However, with Hollywood, a rather painfully obvious problem with Indian characters has been to typecast them as scions from the East, arm candy, or merely off-screen marketing tools. In Hollywood, they have always looked at darker skinned individual as token characters, even though this is changing now, sighs Omar.

If you look at Irrfan Khans and the character that he played in Jurassic Park, its that of an antagonist. Not many Bollywood actors are given prominent roles, so Bollywood actors will be forced to play token characters for a while. Hollywood would want to promote their stars in India, but they require Bollywood stars to do so. Im sure that other actors will get meatier roles eventually, but they have to build up really well. Look at Baahubali and how stars who werent well known in Bollywood created a huge ripple.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, however, chooses to look at things from Hindi cinemas point of view. I think one of the main reasons why Bollywood stars even look to the West is because we under use their talent here, he muses. We slot them into specific tropes and there is not much scope for exploration. So, they try to experiment with different types of characters and through foreign shows and films.

Taran adds that B-town A listers wanting to make a mark in the West must be patient, building ground up once again. I think because of their roles in their respective movies, both Priyanka and Deepika have managed to gather exposure, which is extremely important to attract larger roles. To get meatier roles, the stars need to take baby steps. If you see, Priyanka Chopa has done exactly that by firstly, working on Quantico and then a slightly bigger project like Baywatch. These roles have laid the foundation after which she can now move ahead and get larger projects, he signs off, sagely.

 With inputs from Dyuti Basu and Meeketan Jha
Mumbai: A few months ago, we reported that Tollywood actor Ram Charan met ace director Mani Ratnam at Chennai for a possible collaboration.

Now, it seems like things are moving in a positive direction. The latest development, we hear, is that talks are on with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, for the same project, which could be trilingual in Tamil-Telugu-Hindi.

Recently, while at Cannes, during a FaceTime interview, Ash said that she took a break for five months because of personal reasons. She also disclosed that she has begun listening to scripts and sources revealed that she has almost finalised two of them.

One of them, which she liked the most, was Mani Ratnams!

Though Mani and Ash were in talks to team up for a movie earlier, looks like it has taken its shape now.

When Deccan Chronicle spoke to one of Mani Ratnams close aides, the source did confirm that there have been discussions with Aishwarya and Ram Charan, and things are progressing fast.
Chennai: Kamal Haasan is all set to enter the television by hosting the Big Boss on a Tamil TV channel. Speaking on the sides of the meet, Kamal took questions on politics and answered them in his own stride. When asked about people objecting actors entering politics, he said Given the current political scenario in Tamil Nadu, I would say no one should enter politics. Why singling actors? Any rational person will not do that.

So, when do you want to enter to the real competitive politics? Pat he replies, I feel the word competitive itself is wrong. When I think that politics is a place to serve society, one should not consider it as a money spinning proposition.

Do you think the present politicians' are in that mindset? They are not! But I think everyone is aware of it

When asked his opinion on his friend Rajinikanth entering politics, he said, I will tell you when the elections are around the corner.

On a query on Rajini's comment on the present system, which is corrupt, Kamal said, Everyone feels the same way. He has just echoed it. There's nothing wrong in what he had remarked.

How do you see the idea of 'only' Tamilians should rule the state? One's feeling as a Tamil is more important rather than being born as a Tamil. Gandhi. Nehru, Subash Chandra Bose are not Tamils by birth, but many Tamil people keep the names of those leaders for their children. Many Malayalees consider me a Keralite. If you ask whether I would try to become the CM of Kerala, I would say I am not interested in that.

There are allegations that filmy people who ruled the state have spoiled the system. What do you have to say about MGR and Jayalalithaa's regime? I have spoken enough about it. I don't want to talk about it now.
The third-generation weavers have made the eco-friendly jeans with cotton and banana fibre and helps absorb more water in the summer. (Photo: Facebook)

Wearing denim jeans in the summers is quite uncomfortable because the heat can be quite a buzz-kill for people looking to dress casual. While wearing other fabrics can be quite expensive, a village in Chennai is changing the way we look at jeans to make them affordable and wearable in the summers while being eco-friendly at the same time.

According to a media report, Anakaputhur, a weavers village in Chennai preserving their tradition by introducing new products and their latest are jeans made from banana fibre. The third-generation weavers have made the eco-friendly jeans with cotton and banana fibre and helps absorb more water (sweat) in the summers. The weavers are part of the Jute Weavers Association that has currently made jeans and skirts using the fibre.

Interestingly, the buttons on the jeans are made from coconut shells rather than using metal or plastic. The attempt is to make the jeans completely eco-friendly while benefiting people wearing it.
Muzaffarpur (Bihar): A court in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district accepted the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) plea for questioning Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin in connection with journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case.

Shahabuddin is alleged to have had Ranjan - the bureau chief of a Hindi daily in Bihar - murdered on May 13 last year.

Five persons were arrested in connection with the case within a few days of the murder.

Shahabuddin has several other cases pending against him.

The CBI counsel submitted that it would soon file charge-sheet against Shahabuddin, who is currently lodged in high-security Tihar jail in New Delhi.

The premier investigating agency has already filed charge-sheet against seven accused persons in the case while two accused, Mohammad Javed and Mohammad Kaif, are on bail.

Shahabuddin has been asked to appear before the court on June 9.
Bengaluru: City police investigating what they believed was a car theft have stumbled on a love story that not only blew the Pakistani woman's cover, but also homed in on how Pakistanis  even without proper papers  can walk through India's porous borders and make their home here.

In this case, neither Sameera, nor her cousin and his paramour, who were all smuggled into the country by the besotted Gulf-based Indian from Kerala, were spies or terrorists. Just illegals. Just three Pakistanis, who landed in the police net - the fallout of a love story that blossomed between Mohammed Shihab, 26, who hails from Kerala, and a Pakistani woman Sameera alias Nazma, 25, who met in Doha, the Qatar capital - when the desperate Shihab brought them to Bengaluru illegally.

The CCB police, who picked up Shihab, under the mistaken impression that he was a car thief, based on a tip off, were shocked when they raided his home and found three Pakistanis, including Shihab's Pakistani wife 's cousin Khasif Shamshuddin, 31, and his wife Kiron Ghulam Ali, 25.

Police said Shihab, working as an office boy in Qatar since 2012 fell in love with Karachi-born Nazma, who was a domestic help. Her parents were against their relationship but they got married, police said.

Nazmas elder brothers, who worked as cab drivers there, learnt about the wedding and immediately sent her back to Karachi. The family members reportedly constantly harassed and ill-treated her. She was pregnant by then and they also allegedly forced her to undergo an abortion.

Unable to bear the harassment, Nazma, with the help of her cousin, Shamshuddin, managed to contact Shihab over the phone. She narrated her ordeal to him and he asked her to come to Qatar and he would take her to India. She explained to him that she could not come alone and reveals that her cousin Shamshuddin and relative Kiron were in love and their relationship was also being opposed by members of the family. Shihab then suggested to her that she should bring them also and he would manage somehow to get them to India. Nazma convinced her cousin and relative and the trio left for Qatar. Later, the four travelled to Kathmandu in Nepal. The three Pakistanis used Pakistan passport to reach there. From there, they literally walked across the Nepal-Indian border and reached Bihar and from there, came to Bengaluru by train, an official said.

They had come to the city about nine months ago and as Shihab was working in Bengaluru in 2008 and was staying in Kumaraswamy Layout, he decided to hunt for a house in the same

locality. As he knew Kannada, he approached a broker and told him that he was earlier working as an electrician in Dubai and was running his own business now. They found a house in Kumaraswamy Layout 91st cross for Rs. 10,500 rent. As the owner insisted that they have to provide Aadhar card, Shihab paid Rs. 100 and got fake Aadhar cards on fake names. We are investigating, the official added.

How did they get caught?

For the last few days, Shihab was using a car bearing Tamil Nadu registration number. A police informant took note of it and found that the residents were behaving suspiciously by not coming out of house for days together and not talking to neighbours. As Shihab used a car bearing a number plate of another state, the informant thought it could be a stolen vehicle and alerted the CCB police. Based on suspicion that he could be a car thief, Shihab was picked up for questioning when he spilled the beans. He said he was not a thief and the car belonged to a friend, the official said.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to take a decision on its candidate for the upcoming Presidential poll, even as the party virtually rejected Shiv Sena's proposal for RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to be the ruling combine's nominee.

Replying to a question on the BJP-led NDA's candidate for the Presidential polls in July as the opposition was already working on putting up a joint candidate, said BJP President

Amit Shah told a news channel in an interview that a decision is yet to be taken.

"Even if I have a name on my mind, it has to be discussed within the party first," he said.

He also rejected Shiv Sena's proposal regarding Bhagwat, saying that the party has itself ruled it out.

To questions on Kashmir, Shah said there was no need for even an "iota of concern" over the situation in the state which has witnessed months of unrest, and asserted that the Narendra Modi-led government will control it soon.

"There is a big gap between the reality and the projection" of the Kashmir situation and the trouble was confined to "three and half districts", he said.

The government was keeping a sharp vigil over the situation and the Valley has witnessed many spells of such unrest in the past, before the situation has normalised, he said.

Shah also attacked the Congress for criticising the government, claiming that it had no right to do so as the Kashmir problem was an outcome of the policies of its governments since independence.

Terming the lynching of seven persons in Jharkhand by a mob over abduction rumours as an "isolated and stray incident" which happens in a country of 125 crore people, the BJP chief said it would not be appropriate to link such cases of violence to his party.

People should look up the crime data to find out if cases of violence have increased under the BJP governments, he said.

To a question if Tamil superstar Rajinikanth will join the BJP, Shah said the decision has to be taken by the actor himself and his party welcomed all good people to its fold.

Ahead of the Modi government's third anniversary, he said it has won the people's trust and added that the poor have the belief that it was working for their welfare.

In a democracy the "biggest certificate is the people's verdict" and the masses have time and again underscored their support for the BJP-led NDA government, he said in a reference to the BJP's win in several state polls.

The Modi government has been able to rid the country of the politics of casteism, family rule and appeasement, and turned the focus on the politics of performance, he claimed.

While the UPA government was accused of scams running into Rs 12 lakh crore, even rivals of the NDA government have not levelled a single charge of corruption against it, Shah claimed.
Huballi/Bengaluru: Stung by the Congress accusation that he had refused to eat food cooked by Dalits on his visit to Dalit colonies in Tumakuru and Chitradurga districts, State BJP president B.S.Yeddyurappa clarified on Monday that the Dalit family had prepared limited food for his partymen and was forced to buy more from a hotel to serve the others who arrived later.

The Congress is not able to tolerate the fact that we Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are listening to the troubles of Dalits and eating with them in their homes, he said while breakfasting in a slum in Bagalkot on Monday.

Also, claiming that attacks on Dalits had increased in the native villages of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and senior Congress leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, he alleged that more of them were being killed in the state after the Congress came to power.

The Congress has no moral right to talk about Dalits when it had humiliated Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and refused to cremate him in Delhi after his death. His body had to be taken to Mumbai as a result. The BJP will expose the double standards of the Congress and its history of humiliating Dalits, he warned.

Meanwhile, calling the Congress allegation  cheap and nasty, and part of its strategy to malign the BJP, party spokesman, Suresh Kumar too insisted that Mr. Yeddyurappa and other BJP leaders had breakfast prepared by Dalit families in Tumakuru and Chitradurga during their recent visit to the Dalit colonies. The Congress has no moral right to speak about Dalits after having used them as a votebank for over seven decades, he said disparagingly.

Backing the Bharatiya Janata Partys claims, Mr Hanumantharayappa, who hosted the breakfast for Mr Yeddyurappa and other BJP leaders in Tumakuru, explained they had prepared enough to feed 30 people, but had to buy breakfast from outside to serve the 300 more who arrived.

But the 30 Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were served the food we made, he said, adding, It is not necessary for me to defend BJP leaders, but this is what happened.

Recounted another Dalit man from Chitradurga, When we heard that Mr. Yeddyurappa had come to our house, we were thrilled and prepared breakfast for him. But after more people arrived, we brought breakfast from outside to serve them.

Maintaining that he was not affiliated to any party or interested in getting involved in these silly issues, he said it was quite unnecessary to blow such incidents out of proportion.
New Delhi: Fifty-four members of Rajya Sabha have petitioned its chairman for removal of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court judge CV Nagarjuna Reddy for alleged interference in the judicial process and hurling casteist abuses against a junior Dalit judge.

The MPs have given a notice of a motion for removal of Justice Reddy, claiming there was enough prima facie material to start the process of inquiry under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 against him.

In December last year, a large group of members of the Upper House had made an attempt to get Justice Reddy removed, but it failed as some MPs withdrew.

The fresh notice, signed by 54 MPs belonging to the Telugu Desam Party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Congress, Samajwadi Party, CPI(M) and other parties, has alleged that the High Court judge interfered in the judicial process which included physical assault and abusing a junior Dalit judge S Rama Krishna of Rayachoty on caste lines.

The MPs have claimed that Justice Reddy victimised Krishna for not submitting to his illegal demands.

He misused his position as a High Court judge of undivided Andhra Pradesh to use the subordinate judiciary to victimise Krishna, they said.

Justice Reddy has also been accused by the MPs of possessing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income and non-declaration of assets to the HC chief justice and the public, in violation of the full court resolution of 1997.

According to one of the MPs, Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Hamid Ansari has sought the advice of Chief Justice of India J S Khehar on the notice.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe's controversial programme to redistribute land taken from white farmers cost 1,5 million jobs, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has said."Right now our economy is highly informalised. I always give the statistics that in 1999 or thereabout, there were two million workers in the formal sector, by the time we reached 2005, because of the revolution in the land reform programme, the formal sector collapsed and the two million formal workers dwindled to half a million and could be just about less," Chinamasa told the Senate last week."It is our responsibility to now move that economy from the informal and back to the formal again. That is the transition which we are now travelling. I am very happy with the progress that we are making so far. It is a process and not an event, it cannot happen overnight."Critics say the country's once strong agricultural base has been damaged by the chaotic land redistribution programme.President Robert Mugabe introduced land reforms in 1999 aimed at addressing colonial imbalances whereby a few white farmers own most of the best agricultural land in Zimbabwe.More than 4 000 farmers were forcibly evicted from their land in often violent struggles. The violence  and allegations of rigged elections and rights abuses  led western donors to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe."... in the agricultural sector...we were talking about 4 000 (white) farmers. There is no way an economy can grow and expand when a vital productive asset like land is held by one or two people."So, it is important that we realise that because we moved from that ownership of land and now we have the A1 farmers. We distributed that land to about 350 000 households, you can also multiply the number of people who are dependent on that piece of land. Now, that change caused disruption in our productive system. So, initially there was a fall of production, everyone was laughing at us.""I cannot see how we could have gone from that skilled land ownership to the current one where it is now owned by the majority of our people, without a transition."There has to be a transition and what we are talking about here Madam president is how to manage that transition from yesterday to today and tomorrow," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at an earlier meeting (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to attend a lunch to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is scheduled to be to held on Saturday in the national capital, in the honour of Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Interestingly, Nitish on Friday missed the lunch organised by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which was attended by JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav.

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth will pay a two-day visit to India beginning today.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Mauritius Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

This would be Jugnauth's first abroad visit after taking over as the Prime Minister from his father, Anerood Jugnauth in January.

Shortly after landing, the Mauritius Prime Minister would visit Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Among his officials engagement, Jugnauth would call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari.

Besides this, the Mauritius Prime Minister will also hold delegation-level talks with his counterpart, which would also be attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Prime Minister Jugnauth will also address a business event in New Delhi, jointly organised by Charmers and Commerce of Industry (CII), FICCI and ASSOCHAM.
BJP national president Amit Shah flags off an advanced emergency ambulance at Vijayawada airport on Thursday. Health minister Kamineni Srinivas and MP Gokaraju Gangaraju are also seen. (Photo: DC)

Vijayawada: BJP national president Amit Shah received a grand welcome from state party leaders at Gannavaram Airport. Mr Shah, along with AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, arrived at Vijayawada on Thursday morning. Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Suresh Prabhu, Y. Satyanarayana Chowdary (Sujana Chowdary) and ministers of Andhra Pradesh state welcomed them.

Amit Shah and Chandrababu inaugurated 13 advanced life support ambulances worth around `4.3 crores from the MPLADS of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. Prabhu spoke to media personnel at the airport and said that he was happy to support the state in getting advanced healthcare ambulances with ventilator and other facilities. He said that he will focus on lifesaving trauma centres across state.

Later Amit Shah along with Venkaiah Naidu visited Swarna Bharath Trust at Atkuru and then to Narasapuram MP Gokaraju Ganga-rajus guest house at Undavalli. The Chief Minister offered traditional Andhra dishes to the BJP national president during lunch diplomacy at his residence on the Krishna river Karakatta in Undavalli of Amaravati Capital Region.

Panasakaya (jackfruit) biryani, Guntur gongura biryani, Andhra chicken, Nellore fish curry, Ulavacharu biryani, muddha pappu and several other native Andhra dishes were offered during lunch diplomacy. Union minister for science and technology Y Sujana Chowdary came to the guest house of BJP MP G Ganga Raju and took Mr Amit Shah, Union minister Suresh Prabhu and other leaders to the house of Mr Chandrababu for lunch.

According to the sources Mr Chandrababu himself served the dishes to the leaders while explaining their specialty. Curry leaves chicken fry, masala prawns fry, gummadikaya iguru, guttivankaya curry, Andhra famous garay, Andhra-style mutton and other soups were offered to the guests. Mr Shah reportedly tasted all items and thanked Mr Chandrababu Naidu for hosting a tasty and memorable lunch.

Protests continue against BJP top leaders arrival:

Protests continued in the city on Thursday opposing BJP national president Amit Shahs tour. Various organisations and political parties opposed staged protests shouting slogan Go back Amit Shah. Tension prevailed at Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) office, Andhra Ratna Bhavan, where police tried to stop women wing leaders of APCC as they tried to set fire to an effigy of Amit Shah. Congress leaders burnt effigy in office premises and staged protest there.

APCC Womens Wing state president Sunkara Padmasri, addressing the gathering, demanded Amit Shah to fulfill the election promise on Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh. She said that BJP leaders who deceived Andhra Pradesh for their political benefits should be punished. Pratyeka Hodha Sadhana Samiti and Communist Party of India (CPI) wore black ribbons at Lenin Centre demanding Amit Shah to make a statement on SCS. CPI leader Donepudi Sankar said that BJP which betrayed Andhra people with false promises had started playing game. He said that people of AP were wise and BJP will pay for their false promises soon.
The operation is still underway, reports said. (Photo: File)

Srinagar: The Indian Army on Friday said it had stopped an infiltration attempt backed by the Pakistan Army along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to reports, an attack was carried out by Pakistans Border Action Team (BAT) to enable infiltration, but the Indian Army retaliated and killed 2 terrorists.

"Alert troops foiled a BAT attack on our patrol party in Uri sector today, an Army official was quoted as saying by PTI. He added that 2 attackers were killed and that the infiltration attempt was effectively repulsed.

Massive exchange of gunfire is underway as counter operations continue.

On May 1, Pakistan's BAT mutilated the bodies of two Indian soldiers in Krishna Ghati sector along the LoC, where they had beheaded Lance Naik Hemraj in 2013.

But this is not the first time the BAT has mutilated bodies of Indian soldiers. In February 2000, seven months after the Kargil War, a Pakistani BAT killed seven Indian soldiers in Nowshera in Rajouri district. The army was shocked to discover the headless body of a soldier, Sepoy Bhausaheb Talekar.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday hit out at Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kerala secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan for his derogatory remark on Indian Army and demanded a 'disciplinary action' against him for maligning the image of the reputed force.

"It is an unfortunate statement which has come from the Kerala leader. The Indian Army is a very disciplined force. It is recognized world over. This kind of accusation of maligning Indian army is unfortunate. The person who has made this statement, the political party must take note and should take disciplinary action," BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh told ANI.

Balakrishnan courted a controversy by saying that the Indian Army could rape and abduct women if given additional powers.

"They (army) can do anything to anybody. If they see more than four people standing together, they can shoot them...They can take any woman and rape her, nobody has the right to question them. This is the state wherever the army is," Balakrishnan said on Thursday in Kannaur.

He further said that if the army is deployed in Kannur , clashes are bound to take place between the people and the army.

The remarks by the Kerala leader came a day after Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said that armed forces have been given a free-hand to take decision in war-like situations.

He added that during the tense situation, the armed forces are not bound to wait to consult the members of Parliament and can do as they deem fit to counter terrorist forces.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrives at circuit house for a meeting in Moradabad on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): Unperturbed by the Opposition's criticism over Saharanpur clashes, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said that maintenance of law and order has been the priority of his government and assured that they would work for the same in the coming days.

Adityanath also blamed the erstwhile Samajwadi Party government, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) government had inherited a "jungle raj" in Uttar Pradesh when their government took over the administration.

"Uttar Pradesh is a big state. Around 22 crore people live here. When we took over, we inherited a jungle raj, lawlessness, a situation where criminals were nurtured by politicians," Adityanath told ANI.

"The incident came to light very soon and we swiftly put an end to that. I can, with confidence, say that the vision of development and law and order in Uttar Pradesh, as promised by our prime minister, will be fulfilled," he added.

Meanwhile, the Centre has sought a report from the state government over the Saharanpur violence.

The Home Ministry has asked the state government to send details of the incidents leading to death of a person and injuries to several others.

The Centre has deployed 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the state restore peace in the region.

The state government has already suspended District Magistrate and Senior Superintendent of Police over failure to control the situation.

The Divisional Commissioner and the Deputy Inspector General were also transferred out.

The state government also announced to give compensation of Rs. 15 lakh to the victim's family.
New Delhi: Hitting out at the government over the Saharanpur incident, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that pitched for Diwali and Ramzaan; Shamshan and Kabristaan during the recent concluded state Assembly polls, is solely responsible for the violence in the state.

"What else can you expect from BJP? What can we expect from the ones who had divided the Indian festival (Diwali and Ramzaan), electricity, Shamshan and Kabristaan during the Uttar Pradesh election campaign. They are the root cause of this communal conflict. Our party committee visits every affected area. During our government we gave all sort of facilities," Akhilesh said in New Delhi.

In the wake of clashes between two communities in Saharanpur, the Yogi Adityanath Government on Thursday transferred 174 Sub-Divisional Magistrates.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also asked the Uttar Pradesh Government to submit the report on the recent worrisome clashes in Saharanpur.

Earlier, Saharanpur District Magistrate Nagendra Parsad Singh was sacked after he was unable to control the clashes between two communities in the area.

Clashes occurred on Tuesday after Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati's visit to Saharanpur, where one person was killed and several others were injured.

The state government also announced to give a compensation of Rs 15 lakh to relatives of the person, who were killed during the incident.

In another incident, one person was killed and 16 people, including a head constable, were injured on May 5, in clashes between the Dalits and the Rajputs in Shabbirpur and Simlana villages.
New Delhi: In a move that might deprive meat suppliers of stock and also will hurt farmers across the country, the Central government has banned the sale of cows for slaughter at animal markets across India.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the new regulations permit trade only between farmland owners. The first central regulation for cattle, it will cover cows, bulls, bullocks, buffalos, steers, heifers and camels.

The report suggests that Muslim cow traders will be the hardest hit group, amid growing violence by cow vigilantes.

The rules direct committees controlling animal markets to take an undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter.

While regulating cow trade falls under the governance of the state, animal welfare is regulated by the Centre (under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act of 1960), which recently promulgated an ordinance permitting Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu. Currently, cow slaughter is banned by most states excluding Kerala and parts of Northeast India.

Uttar Pradesh leads the meat business in India, which amounted to around Rs 1 crore with exports valuing around Rs 26,303 in 2016-17.

The state is followed by Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana in meat business, according to the report. It also stated that several states hold weekly animal markets near borders to bring traders from adjacent states.

However, the report also observed that the rule will increase the paperwork to be done by traders, who are predominantly poor and illiterate. The trader will have to make five copies of the proof of sale, to be given to the local revenue office, the local veterinary doctor in the district of the purchaser, animal market committee and the buyer apart from a copy for himself.

Furthermore, the eight-page rule enforced by the environment ministry limits parties to set animal markets within 50 kilometres of an international border and 25 kilometres of a state border. It also mandates special approval of the state to transport the animal outside.

It also prescribes about 30 requisites in markets for animal welfare such as water, fans, bedding, ramps, non-slippery flooring, veterinary facility and separate enclosure for sick animals. Also, cattle can be sold only to a person who can prove to be an agriculturist. Moreover, young and unfit animals can not be traded.

In addition, no animal market will be able to function without the go-ahead from a district animal market committee, headed by a magistrate and two representatives of government-approved animal welfare groups.

The new regulations also make it necessary for the veterinary inspector to check proper loading and unloading of animals to ensure they are not cramped in transit. It also gives the inspector the authority to deem any animal unfit for sale.

The new rules will also make the cost of the animals upkeep at a shelter the owners responsibility.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday adjourned till Monday the hearing of ousted All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader TTV Dhinakaran's bail plea in the Election Commission bribery case.

The Tis Hazari court adjourned the hearing as the Investigating Office in the case was not available on Friday.

The Delhi Police had earlier opposed alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrashekhar's bail plea, following which the court had reserved its order in the same.

The Delhi Police claimed that Sukesh had many cases pending against him.

The police also asserted that more arrests are likely to be made in the case soon.

Earlier on April 25, a Delhi court extended the alleged middleman's police custody till April 28, hours after Dhinakaran accepted that he met Chandrashekhar in his bribery dealing with the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Dhinakaran initially refused to have known Sukesh. He later accepted meeting him when Sukesh himself gave the details of his meeting with the former.

Dhinakaran, who is accused of trying to bribe an Election Commission official in a bid to retain the 'Two Leaves' symbol of the AIADMK, however, maintained that he did not pay any money to Sukesh.

Searches were also conducted at Sukesh's Kochi residence to trace the amount paid to him.

Details of calls made and received and messages sent and received were also being sought.

Earlier on April 23, Dhinakaran was cross examined along with his 'friend' Mallikarjuna and PA Janardhanan.

They were quizzed about the money trail of the alleged bribe. Also, the matter of Dhinakaran staying over with Mallikarjuna for around 10 days after an FIR was filed against him was also brought up during the interrogation.

On April 22, Dhinakaran was given a set of questions by the Delhi Police in connection with the case.

The questionnaire included queries about the money trail, his association with Chandrashekhar, the middleman alleged to have struck deal for Rs. 50 crore to help Dhinakaran's AIADMK faction keep the 'two leaves' poll symbol, how many times he met Sukesh and whether any meeting with the Election Commission officials took place or not etc.
The Pakistani national was living in Bahadurgarh since 2013 and also had a PAN card, Aadhar card and a voter ID. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Bahadurgarh: The Police on Thursday arrested a Pakistani national camouflaging himself as an Indian from Bahadurgarh area of Haryana's Jhajjar district.

The foreigner who was residing in India since 2013 by the name of Rasraj, is a resident of Larkana Hindu Colony in Pakistan.

A Pakistan passport has also been seized from him, where his name is reported as Raja.

His passport has a visa stamp of republic of India, holding validity of 33 days.

Rasraj or Raja who's birth date as per his passport is January 1, 1978 was living in here with an Indian Adhaar card and pan card, where he had reported his birth date as 13 march 1987.

The Pakistani national even holds a voter ID of Delhi's Chhalwa town.

The Pakistani national is under arrest and is being interrogated by the police and the intelligence.
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said today that he supported the decision of an Army major to tie a man to a jeep as a "shield" against stone-pelters in Kashmir.

Responding to a question on the action of Major Leetul Gogoi, he said the Army officer's action had helped polling officials and policemen escape unhurt.

The major allegedly tied the man to the bonnet of a jeep on the day of bypolls to the Srinagar parliamentary constituency on April 9, apparently in a bid to deter stone-pelters.

"I appreciate it and also support it," Shah told a press conference here on the completion of three years of the Modi government.

Asked whether he would want the Major to be awarded for his action, the BJP chief said there is a process involved in honouring people. "He has already been awarded by the Army chief," Shah said.

Major Gogoi was awarded the Chief of Army Staff Commendation Card.

Commenting on the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been monitoring the situation minutely and the government would find a solution.
News / National

by Staff reporter

As the unrelenting pressure being exerted on under-fire Zanu-PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere (pictured) continues to mount, angry war veterans say it is time he is "cut loose" to save the ruling party from imploding.Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, war veterans leader and former Cabinet minister, Christopher Mutsvangwa, said it was high time that Zanu-PF acted "decisively" against Kasukuwere before "irreparable damage" was done to the deeply-divided ruling party.Mutsvangwa's call came following Kasukuwere's announcement earlier this week of the hotly-debated decision to bar an ex-intelligence operative, Pearson Mbalekwa, from participating in the impending Chiwundura by-election - and as the former liberation movement's ugly tribal, factional and succession wars continue to escalate.Mutsvangwa said the Mbalekwa decision had been taken in an unprocedural manner, adding that Kasukuwere was "now behaving like the owner of Zanu-PF"."That is (Mbalekwa decision) an abuse of power and personalisation of Zanu-PF by a clueless and disorderly G40 (Generation 40)," Mutsvangwa said, referring to the Zanu-PF faction which is rabidly opposed to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeding Mugabe."Why does Tyson (Kasukuwere's nickname) also issue a statement from a foreign country (he is in Mexico with Mugabe)? There ought to be an acting PC (political commissar)."Kufa kwemujoni company haivharwi (Work does not stop because the boss is not there or has died)."Even the president does not do that. He leaves behind an acting president when he travels. For security and protocol, pronouncements of State have to be issued from the seat of power. What if Kasukuwere is kidnapped in a foreign land and is under duress?"Crass ignorance and compulsive dictatorial proclivity to the abuse of State power is the hallmark of G40," added the garrulous Mutsvangwa.Mutsvangwa also attacked Kasukuwere earlier this week  claiming that the G40 was nearing its end, following the ongoing and relentless assault on its leaders by Mnangagwa's backers, Team Lacoste."The end is definitely nigh for the G40 cabal and its diabolic power grab pretences. The inescapable reality is that the G40 is facing its waterloo. Its organisational paucity has been exposed glaringly."And the people of Zimbabwe are poised to mete out terrible punishment to these would-be power grabbers for their crimes that delivered an economic meltdown unprecedented for a peacetime nation," he said then.Mutsvangwa also said the current onslaught on Kasukuwere  who insiders claim is one of the G40 kingpins  was "a sign" that the faction was nearing its end."The drowning Kasukuwere  has long been the bete noire of the war veterans association ... This political charade has finally run out of its course."It has been a torrid season (for the G40), with the (Jacob) Mudenda inquiry, the vote of no confidence by 10 party provinces and the thorough drubbing of the G40 pretender by chairman (Ezra) Chadzamira in the Masvingo party provincial elections," he said.Kasukuwere has been fighting to save his political career over the past few weeks, with his Zanu-PF enemies pushing for his ouster from both his party and government positions, over a raft of charges which include allegedly plotting to topple Mugabe from power.Also under fire has been his brother Dickson Mafios, who is the acting Zanu-PF chairperson for Mashonaland Central.Kasukuwere's fate was set to be decided at last week's postponed politburo meeting, after a probe team appointed by Mugabe to investigate allegations against him had completed its work.Insiders have also previously told the Daily News that Kasukuwere's party rivals are "systematically working for his demise"  in the same manner former Vice President Joice Mujuru was chased out of the warring former liberation movement in 2014.Nicknamed Tyson for his combative style of politics, Kasukuwere on Tuesday ordered Zanu-PF's Midlands Province to overlook Mbalekwa for the forthcoming Chiwundura by-election  which became vacant last month following the death of Kizito Chivamba."The party received names from the contestants who were prepared to stand in the Midlands Province. Out of the 21 candidates, 20 were approved by the party and  Mbalekwa's application was turned down for various reasons."That is the position of the party. So, whoever emerged at the top, outside the candidature of Mbalekwa will stand for the party," Kasukuwere, who is attending the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction Conference with Mugabe in Mexico, said.Mbalekwa who was sacked from Zanu-PF after the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration in 2004, in which Mnangagwa was then accused of organising a palace coup against Mugabe, had triumphed in the party's primaries.A former intelligence operative, Mbalekwa joined opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC, before being elected MP for Zvishavane in 2008.His closest rival, Brown Ndlovu, has now been chosen to represent Zanu-PF in the impending mini-poll, following the withdrawal of Mbalekwa.Mbalekwa told the Daily News yesterday that he had withdrawn after the "sudden illness" of his daughter, which allegedly happened after he had won the party's primary elections."I only received the news of my child's illness at midday on Tuesday, well after the election. So, I had no choice but to withdraw because I realised I could not cope under the circumstances," he said.Midlands is one of the nine provinces that have passed a vote of no confidence in Kasukuwere, and is said to be a Team Lacoste stronghold.Meanwhile, Midlands Province has accused Kasukuwere of trying to settle political scores, as Mbalekwa had been cleared and re-admitted into the party in 2013."Mbalekwa re-joined the party and was rehabilitated. Charges from Tsholotsho do not stick because if we were to use that as a yard stick then Jonathan Moyo should not be a minister and member of the politburo."Similarly, Daniel Shumba would not be an MP and chairman of a parliamentary portfolio committee, and July Moyo would not be deputy secretary for administration, and Mark Madiro would not have been a member of the central committee."All these people were once expelled for their alleged involvement in the Tsholotsho meeting. But after serving their suspensions, they were re-admitted into the party and were rehabilitated," a senior official told the Daily News in the aftermath of Kasukuwere's directive.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Dhola-Sadia Bridge, the country's longest river bridge, over the Lohit in the eastern most tip of Assam connecting Arunachal Pradesh. (Photo: Twitter)

Sadia: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday inaugurated the Dhola-Sadia Bridge, the country's longest river bridge, over the Lohit in the eastern most tip of Assam connecting Arunachal Pradesh.

After inaugurating the Rs 2,056 crore strategic bridge at Sadia in Assam's Tinsukia district, Modi walked a short distance over it.

A vehicle carrying the prime minister, union minister Nitin Gadkari, Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal and other senior government officials then passed over it.

The 9.15 km long bridge is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai. It has a three lane carriage way and connects Sadia town in Assam's Tinsukia district with Dhola village in Arunachal Pradesh across the river.

The bridge will reduce travel time between strategically located Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by four hours as the earlier means of transport was only by river.

Bearing in mind the necessity for quick movement of troops and artillery to the bordering state of Arunachal, the bridge has been designed to accommodate the movement of tanks, according to official sources.

Addressing a public gathering, Modi said the bridge was delayed because of the UPA government.

This bridge will now be known by the name of Bhupen Hazarika, the son of Brahmaputra who enchanted the world with his voice, said Modi.

Congratulating Sarbananda Sonowal and his team, the prime minister said it is remarkable that he has taken on so many difficult problems in one year.

Also taunting the previous government, Modi asserted that the bridge would have completed earlier if it wasnt for the UPA government.

"Our lawmaker at that time had requested for the bridge and Atal ji's government had ordered a feasibility study. If Atal ji's government had been re-elected in 2004, you would have got this bridge 10 years ago," Modi said.

He urged people to take out their mobile phones and celebrate this achievement.

The BJP government in Assam completed a year and are solving Assam's problems one-by-one, he added.

He described the bridge as not just Assams pride, but the country's pride. Stressing on physical and social infrastructure, he added that the BJP's intent is to make development sustainable and fulfil the dreams of the country.

This bridge will bring Assam and Arunachal closer and open doors of economic prosperity as it shortens a distance of 165 km and saves hours of transit time. It will also provide a new market to ginger farmers of Sadiya. At the same time, it will further save Rs 10 lakh of fuel every day for the common man.

The PM also said that the east and the northeast have the highest scope to contribute to India's unprecedented development. "We have endavoured to take development to new heights," he claimed.

The government is now working to give a thrust to waterways in the region, so that it can play a huge role in connecting India to South East Asia and become a hub of economic activity.

He also alleged that Railways in the sect needed more attention. "Railways in the northeast hasn't received as much attention as it should have," Modi said.

"Due to connectivity problems, many Indians are unaware of how beautiful this place is. If we can make this a tourist hub, the economy of this region will benefit a lot," he added.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi talks with JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav at a meeting of the opposition leaders to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Presidential elections, in New Delhi on on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: A united Opposition on Friday threatened to launch a mass political agitation against the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government if a consensus on Presidential candidate is not reached.

Shortly after concluding a meeting headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in which at least 17 parties took part, Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav said, "A consensus can only be built if the NDA government initiates talk and invite us for a discussion. Otherwise we would a launch a massive political agitation."

Echoing similar sentiments, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "Normal practice has been that the ruling party takes initiative to build consensus on names of candidates (President and Vice President)."

"This hasn't happen so far, if acceptable consensual candidates don't emerge then we (opposition parties) shall decide our future course of action," he added.

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja said that no name for the Presidential candidate has been discussed, adding that the Opposition is waiting for the Centre to initiate talks on the same.

"It is for the party in power to reach out to the Opposition. We want a person who is known for his commitment to the Constitution and who can uphold secular, democratic values of our society in the country," Raja told ANI.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun consultations with his allies on the nominee for President.

So far, YSR Congress and AIADMK have shown support to the government.
The court said Sainaba and her husband, who had given the woman away in marriage, had no authority to act as her guardian. (Representational Image)

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has declared as null and void, the marriage of a 24-year-old woman who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam after being abducted and wrongfully confined in Kerala's Malappuraman district.

A division bench of Justices K Surendra Mohan and K Abraham Mathew passed the order on a petition by Asokan, a retired armyman and father of the woman. He had alleged that she was forced to convert at an illegal Islamic conversion centre.

"The marriage which is alleged to have been performed is a sham and is of no consequence in the eye of law," the court said.

It said Sainaba and her husband, who had given the woman away in marriage, had no authority to act as her guardian.

The petitioner alleged that his daughter was abducted and wrongfully confined in an illegal Islamic conversion centre in Malappuram district, and was forced to convert before her marriage on December 19 last year.

Allowing the writ plea of the father, the bench granted the custody of the woman to her parents and directed the police to provide protection to them.

The bench ordered a probe into activities of organisations allegedly involved conversions.

"Such investigation shall be completed as expeditiously as possible and persons who are found to be guilty shall be brought to book," it said.

Last year, the High Court had ordered a police probe into the antecedents of a Muslim educational and charitable organisation in Malappuram district on the petitioner's charge that it was an illegal Islamic conversion centre and his

daughter was wrongfully confined there. He had claimed they had plans to take the woman to strife-torn Syria.

The police was also directed to probe the antecedents of Sathya Sarani girls hostel in Manjeri in Malappuram district and also about the girl's local guardian AS Sainaba.

The petitioner had alleged that Sathya Sarani was an illegal Islamic conversion centre run by Popular Front of India, an organisation founded by the leaders of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India.

Taking newly converted people to Syria, making them join the terror group ISIS and involving them in terrorist activities was a well-known tactic of Islamic extremist organisations in Kerala, he had claimed.
Kannur: Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kerala secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has courted a controversy saying that the Indian Army could rape and abduct women if given additional powers.

"They (army) can do anything to anybody. If they see more than four people standing together, they can shoot them...They can take any woman and rape her, nobody has the right to question them. This is the state wherever the army is," Balakrishnan said on Thursday.

He further said that if the army is deployed in Kannur, clashes are bound to take place between the people and the army.

The remarks by the Kerala leader came a day after Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said that armed forces have been given a free-hand to take decision in war-like situations.

He added that during the tense situation, the armed forces are not bound to wait to consult the members of Parliament and can do as they deem fit to counter terrorist forces.
Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar (L) with senior leader of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference Abdul Majid Banday(C) during the discussion on J&K-The Road Ahead, in Srinagar on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI)

Srinagar: Taking a dig at Bollywood actor Anupam Kher for criticising his recent meeting with Hurriyat leaders, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday welcomed his disapproval saying that the former lives in a mansion in Bombay and had not visited Kashmir to take stock of the situation for decades.

"You think I didn't expect it! This is a democratic country. He lives in a mansion in Bombay and I don't think he has been to Kashmir for decades. If in his illiteracy he wishes to criticize me then I welcome his criticism and I will give a response to the people of Kashmir, Aiyar said.

Condemning Aiyar's meeting with Separatist leaders, Anupam Kher had said, "Representatives of some political parties insult us by meeting certain Hurriyat leaders."

In an effort to resume dialogue with the stakeholders in Kashmir, five-member delegation led by Aiyar on Thursday called on moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and discussed ways to calm down the protestors.

The delegation reached at the Nigeen residence of Mirwaiz to discuss the prevailing situation in the Valley and the necessary steps to be initiated for bringing peace in Kashmir, which has been marred by violent protests since July 2016.

Considering the situation very critical where students and youth have joined the protests, Aiyar insisted that the Central government should hold dialogue with all the stakeholders in Kashmir as it would bring enduring solutions by bringing peace in the Valley as well as reduce tensions between India and Pakistan.

The meetings with Hurriyat leaders assume significance after the group insisted that the Central government should hold talks with Pakistan including separatists for resolution of the Kashmir issue.

The delegation participated in a seminar organised by an NGO, Peace and Progress, where they proposed that government of India should talk to Kashmiri people including gunmen, protesters, stone-pelters and should take the support from academics, clerics to calm down the unrest.

It is pertinent to mention that a five-member delegation led by former external affairs minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha met Kashmiri hardliner Geelani in 2016 to break the ice between the centre and the Hurriyat leadership. But Geelani demanded release of all youth and separatist leaders as a pre-condition for talks.

The delegation stressed that Central government must interact with Kashmiri people and assuage the feelings of the protesters to find a solution for the progress and development of the state.
BJP President Amit Shah addressing a press confrence after completing 3 years of NDA government during the press preview in New Delhi on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Friday said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government will very soon control the unrest prevailing in the Kashmir Valley.

Shah was addressing a press conference in New Delhi to mark the first day of the M.O.D.I. (Making of Developed India) fest to celebrate the three years of Narendra Modi government.

Replying a question why did the Modi government and Jammu and Kashmir government fail to contain the Kashmir violence, the BJP president said that success or failure of a government should not be evaluated on the developments of two-three months.

"Since the outbreak of terrorism in the Kashmir Valley in 1989, a trend has been witnessed that there have been spells of violence for three to six months. I want to assure the countrymen that the Modi government is taking the Kashmir violence very sincerely," said Shah.

When asked about his reaction on Indian Army's reward to Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi who saved the lives of security forces, election duty officials by tying a man in front of his jeep as a "shield" to avoid stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP leader appreciated and supported the latter's action.

He further urged everyone to support and respect the army as "jawans guard the borders and enable us to speak and live freely".

Earlier, the BJP president asserted that the Modi government's political will was behind the Indian Army's surgical strike against Pakistan.

He said around 40 lakh retired defence personnel had been demanding One Rank One Pension (OROP) since long but it was Modi government that implemented OROP and earmarked Rs 8000 crore in this regard.
Relatives and family friend mourn Shakil, 38, killed by a gang on early Thursday night, at the family house near Jewar. (Photo: AP)

Ghaziabad: Uttar Pradesh minister Suresh Kumar Khanna on Thursday said police cannot be deployed everywhere and no government can ensure a crime-free society, remarks that could trigger a political controversy.

Khanna, the Urban Development minister in Yogi Adityanath government, made the statement hours after four women were allegedly gangraped and a man was shot dead by a group of armed criminals on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway.

"It is such a big state, we never promised zero crime. But we will take strictest possible action in the incident that occurred on the highway.

"There cannot be a completely crime-free society... But the BJP government does not patronize criminals, like the previous governments did," he told media persons here.

The incident, which is a horrific reminder of last year's Bulandshahr gangrape, took place near Sabota village in Jewar around 1.40 am when the eight people were going to visit a relative undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh.

SSP, Gautam Budh Nagar, Love Kumar said a gang of five robbers targeted the vehicle after the driver stopped it near a roadside hut to fix a flat tyre.

The occupants were attacked and, along with an old man who was in the hut, taken to a nearby field. The women were misbehaved with and a man was shot dead when he resisted, he said.

The Yogi Adityanath government is facing flak over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.
New Delhi: Condemning the horrific incident in Noida, where four women were raped while another family member was killed, the Congress on Friday asserted that only officials have been changed in the recent massive administrative reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh, but the change that was truly needed has not come yet.

"Rapes, murders and crimes have not been curbed. Only officials have been changed, but the change that was needed has not come yet. This gangrape incident is a shame for all," Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar said in New Delhi.

Asserting that the law and order situation is deteriorating in Uttar Pradesh, Babbar stated that centre's promises remain unfulfilled as made in its election manifesto.

"Innocents are being killed, houses are being burnt, no compensation has been given, gaurakshaks are doing atrocities and I feel pained," he added.

Six criminals looted a family at the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida region on Wednesday night.

According to primary information, the criminals held the family (four men and four women) hostage and allegedly molested and raped the women.

The confirmation on the rape, however, is yet to be ascertained.

The criminals also shot a person dead after he raised an objection against the crime.

The police have lodged an FIR against the accused.
President Mukherjee also said that some of the decisions taken by the Prime Minister during his three years in office have been epoch making ones. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee received the first copy of two books 'Mann Ki Baat-A Social Revolution on Radio' and 'Marching with a Billion-Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Mid term' at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.

The books were formally released by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in the presence of Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari and Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, besides other dignitaries.

Speaking after the release of the two books, President Mukherjee described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a very good communicator who has given a new direction to the country and the economy.

PM has given new direction to the economy. Some decisions have been epoch making ones: President Pranab Mukherjee

PM has given new direction to the economy. Some decisions have been epoch making ones: President Pranab Mukherjee  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

PM @narendramodi is a very effective communicator: President Pranab Mukherjee

PM @narendramodi is a very effective communicator: President Pranab Mukherjee  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

He also said that some of the decisions taken by the Prime Minister during his three years in office have been epoch making ones.

Mukherjee said that the subjects chosen by the Prime Minister for his Mann ki Baat addresses to the nation have left a significant and relevant impact on the minds of a over a billion Indians.

"One thing common about all good presidents and prime ministers is that they are very good communicators," Mukherjee said, adding, "On the merit of the content of both the books, I wish they have a wide readership."

One thing common about all good Presidents and Prime Ministers is that they are very good communicators: President Pranab Mukherjee

One thing common about all good Presidents and Prime Ministers is that they are very good communicators: President Pranab Mukherjee  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

The book Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio by Rajesh Jain is a compilation of Prime Minister Modi's addresses to the nation on All India Radio every month under the programme Mann Ki Baat.

It contains a comprehensive, qualitative and academic analysis of programme - the themes, the choice of topics, the salient features.

It illustrates how this programme has connected with the New India - the youth in particular. It also presents a coherent narrative about the manner in which 'Mann Ki Baat' has created mass movements, including cleanliness, safer roads, and drugs free India.

The book Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Mid-term written by eminent journalist Uday Mahurkar, analyses the monumental changes that Mr. Modi has brought on multiple fronts as Prime Minister on India's governance landscape by ushering in an unprecedented culture of transparency to create a level playing field.
New Delhi: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi will visit Saharanpur on Saturday to take stock of the prevailing situation, where a caste conflict had erupted in April and many Dalits were allegedly targeted.

In the wake of clashes between two communities in Saharanpur, the Yogi Adityanath government on Thursday transferred 174 Sub-Divisional Magistrates.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit report on the recent worrisome clashes in Saharanpur.

Earlier, Saharanpur District Magistrate Nagendra Prasad Singh was sacked after he was unable to control the clashes between two communities in the area.

Clashes occurred on Tuesday after Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati's visit to Saharanpur, where one person was killed and several others were injured.

The State Government also announced to give compensation of Rs 15 lakh to relatives of the person, who was killed during this incident.

On May 5, one person was killed and 16 people, including a head constable, were injured in clashes between the Dalits and the Rajputs in Shabbirpur and Simlana villages.

Reports said that the police stopped the Maharana Pratap procession after some Dalits informed the police. This angered Rajputs, who allegedly resorted to violence.
Opinion / Columnist

umuntu ngumuntu

ngabantu

25th May is the heroic day in African continent and to all the Africans as they celebrate being AfricansAfrica is made up of diverse, languages, cultures, norms, traditions and customs.African philosophy called "Humanity/ buntuism or spirit of u Ubuntu" briefly says "" .This encourages all Africans to be tolerant to one another, people must learn to respect each other, treat each other in a good way, be able to solve disputes in a good way without violence. Africans must also learn to forgive and forget.Most Africans have abolished and abandoned their cultures and in doing that, they lost their identities. Other Africans have adopted western and Asian cultures.Caving, cuisines, traditional dancing and solving disputes through the guidance of senior members of the clan, elders or the Chiefs are some of the African cultural activities.If we study history of the earliest inhabitants of central and Southern Africa, history of the stateless states where nomadic pastoralism was practiced up to now, any one can determine how things have changed. African culture is deteriorating.The ministers of culture must make sure that in the curriculum in school's , they implement and recognize African culture and its customs and traditions.There are many factors which brought challenges to AfricaColonization " The white settlers came to Africa in search of raw materials to boost their industries in Europe, then they took the precious materials such minerals, skin hides, ivory and beads "Slavery- Africans where taken from African countries to work for free In the Atlantic and Caribbean sugar plantationsChristianity-although it was OK, some of the missionaries saw it as an advantage to spread it and achieve their political goals while they traded with African Chiefs and also to change Africans to Christianity abandoning their culture.Apartheid which led to hatred, insegregation, settler brutality, and Group Areas Act in countries such as Zimbabwe and South AfricaDecolonization- This process left Africa leaking wounds, it led to the death of many Africans who were defending their lands, identity and cultures. The influx of many Europeans to boost their countrymen in war and to start businesses also made the Africans to suffer due to mixed marriage problems because there were intermarriages of different cultures and this also disturbed African continents.The newly independent African states Presidents adopted dictatorship, petty jealous, embezzlement of the states funds, some of them went back to colonial laws and just twisted the words and continued with apartheid laws. There were holocausts such as Gukurahundi genocide in Zimbabwe, Marikana killings, and xenophobia in South Africa.Ethnic and boundary conflicts for example in Burundi and Rwanda.Such conflicts in Africa are caused by push and pull factors, socially, politically and economically.ZAPU youth front says " Africa must unite economically, socially and politically. If Africa was united, Zimbabwe won't be in serious economic crisis. Mugabe was going to be shown the exit door long back, SADC was going to be a strong regional block which does not favour African dictators who clintopower. The induction, intimidation and killings happening in Africa caused by ruling elites were going to stop.--------Sikhumbuzo Moyo ZAPU National Youth Front Secretary for Information and Publicity
On May 5, one person was killed and 16 people, including a head constable, were injured in clashes between the Dalits and the Rajputs in Shabbirpur and Simlana villages. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to give an urgent hearing on the plea filed seeking an inquiry into the Saharanpur violence incident.

A vacation bench of the Apex Court headed by Justice L Nageswar Rao and also comprising Justice Navin Sinha refused to entertain the plea.

Meanwhile, the situation remains tense in the district, especially around Shabbirpur village, which is at the heart of the current crisis.

In response, the state government imposed Section 144 in the region to clamp down on stray incidents of violence and to disrupt local leaders' attempts to mobilise crowds On May 5, one person was killed and 16 people, including a head constable, were injured in clashes between the Dalits and the Rajputs in Shabbirpur and Simlana villages.

Reports said that the police stopped the Maharana Pratap procession after some Dalits informed the police. This angered Rajputs, who allegedly resorted to violence.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is set to visit Saharanpur on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a public rally organized to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of NDA Government in the Centre in Guwahati on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

Guwahati (Assam): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday exhorted his countrymen to work towards making a New India.

"Let us all commit ourselves for the next five years to take the country to new heights. Let us build a New India," said Prime Minister Modi.

He was addressing a rally after laying the foundation stone of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Guwahati.

The Prime Minister apprised the people of Assam about the various pro-people steps taken by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during the last three years and pointed out his government's efforts to uplift the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

"For the first time, we have taken a step to uplift the OBCs by granting Constitutional status to the OBC Commission," Prime Minister Modi added.

Talking about the Centre's resolve to take on the black money hoarders, the PM gave example of the Benami Property Act.

'The Benami Property Act came into force in 1988, but it was not notified for last 28 years. We notified it," said Prime Minister Modi.

The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015 was introduced in Lok Sabha on May 13, 2015. The Bill seeks to amend the Benami Transactions Act, 1988. The Act prohibits benami transactions and provides for confiscating benami properties.

The Prime Minister also expressed his heartfelt gratitude towards the people of the country who gave him an opportunity to serve as a 'Pradhan Sevak'.

"I want to express my heartfelt gratitude towards the people of the country, that they let us form a government and gave me an opportunity to serve them as a 'pradhan sevak'," Prime Minister Modi said.

He praised citizens of the nation for making the 'Swachh Bharat' Abhiyaan a successful mass movement and for making Swachhta a mass movement.

He also appreciated the role of the media in furthering the message of cleanliness.

Prime Minister on Friday kickstarted M.O.D.I. (Making of Developed India) fest in Guwahati by inaugurating country's longest Bhupen Hazarika Setu (bridge), which connects Assam with Arunachal Pradesh.

M.O.D.I., a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign, will be highlighting the achievements of the Narendra Modi -led NDA's three year rule.
A view of the open space near Bharathnagar Metro station and the MMTS station. Officials plan to convert the open space into a parking lot at a later stage. (Photo:DC)

Hyderabad: With no official communication from the state government to Hyderabad Metro Rail, it is not clear whether the service from Miyapur to SR Nagar will start on June 2, the State Formation Day.

While the rail infrastructure is ready, much work needs to be done on parking areas, cycle and scooter stations and other facilities.

At various forums in February and March, Hyderabad Metro Rail managing director N.V.S. Reddy had stated that the service would start mid-2017.

However, on May 19, minister K.T. Rama Rao said in a tweet: Metro will run actively on 59 km by year-end. It will start in phases.

A senior HMR officer on condition of anonymity said the stretch from Miyapur to SR Nagar was ready in terms of station and concourse area. The safety clearance certificate had been obtained and trial runs had been carried out, he said. Land for parking of vehicles had been handed over to L&T Metro Rail and work was being carried out for multi-level parking.

A senior officer said, We will have to study the travel pattern and the number of places where there are large exits and entries to determine parking zones. Work on bus bays has started. The tie-ups with companies for bike and scooter stations have been initiated and will fall into place once the service starts.

Street-scaping was undertaken at Metro Rail stations in April. Encroachments over 2 km of roads were removed between Miyapur and Hydernagar to make way for bus bays and bike stations. A childrens play area and exercise zone has been demarcated and are being developed. When contacted about the timeline, Mr Reddy said it was not possible to comment on the start of the Metro Rail and it was for the government to decide. Officials of L&T Metro Rail refused comment.

Stations from Miyapur to SR Nagar

Miyapur; JNTU; KPHB; Kukatpally; Balanagar; Moosapet; Bharatnagar; Erragadda; ESI Hospital; SR Nagar

Land for parking handed over to L&T Facilities need to be created:

Miyapur: Open land  5 acres

Balanagar: Huda truck terminal: 2 acres

Kukatpally: Acquired school land of 1 acre

Yousufguda: Gallery. 0.80 acres

Parking facilities to be set up by Hyderabad Metro Rail limited. Work is yet to start at: Yousufguda Madhuranagar
Tezpur (Assam): A Court of Inquiry will investigate the cause of the accident of a Indian Air Force (IAF) Sukhoi-30 MKI jet that went missing with two pilots onboard four days ago.

The wreckage of IAF Sukhoi-30 MKI jet has been found in thick forests around 60 kilometers from Assam's Tezpur, where it lost radar contact with the base.

The wreckage was found today and ground parties are standing by to be airlifted to the crash site as the area is totally inaccessible.

"Wreckage found. Close to the last known position of aircraft. As of now, the weather is bad and the place has dense foliage. A further update follows," said the IAF in an official statement.

The search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be perused by ground parties after they reach the crash site.

Search parties of the Army are also attempting to reach the crash site by trekking cross country. However, their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of terrain.

The jet lost contact on May 23 following which a massive search operation was launched to track the jet. However, bad weather acted as an impediment.

The aircraft was on a routine training mission as part of a two aircraft formation.

The aircraft was declared overdue. Search and rescue operations were launched to locate the aircraft and the pilots.

The help from civil administration and military authorities was also sought to locate the aircraft.

Aerial search was commenced based on the last known position of the Su-30 MKI.

Incessant rain and dense clouds hampered the search operation in air and on the ground.

The search parties of the IAF and the Army set out to the area where the aircraft was declared missing.
Hyderabad: After spending crores on the Hyderabad and Vijayawada residences of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the AP government is now spending lakhs on his house at Naravaripalli in Chittoor district.

The government is installing a CCTV system and solar power fence with network communication at the house of the CM. Chief Engineer of Roads & Building, (Electrical), has sent a report to the government that for installing a CCTV system, solar power fence with network communication and outside security lighting at the residence of Naidu at Naravaripalli will cost Rs 36 lakh. He requested the government to sanction the amount. Accordingly the government sanctioned Rs 36 lakh and issued orders on Friday. The government sanctioned the amount under the heads of government residential buildings and rental housing scheme. The government directed Chief Engineer (R&B) (Electrical) to take action accordingly.
Lucknow: Dalits in Kushinagar, from where Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched an immunisation drive against Encephalitis on Thursday, were apparently made to bathe with soap and shampoo their hair before meeting the CM. They were also made to spray perfume before the event.

The Chief Minister on Thursday had met members of the Musahar community that are known as rat catchers and consider untouchable among Hindus.

We got new roads, toilets and electricity before the Chief Minister came here. The officials gave us soaps and shampoos and some were even given new clothes. We do not know whether all this will be taken back now, local residents told reporters on Friday. The incident reflects the casteist mentality of the bureaucracy in the state.

This, incidentally, is not the first time that officials in the state have tried to present a perfect picture before the Chief Minister. Earlier this month, when Yogi Adityanath visited Deoria to meet the family of the martyred BSF jawan Prem Sagar, the local officials installed air-conditioners, carpets, sofas and even towels in the martyrs home.

All the luxuries installed by the officials were removed after the CM left which angered the jawans family.

They could have waited for a day or two before taking everything away. We were not going to keep the sofas and carpets with us in any case, said Daya Shankar, brother of the martyred jawan.
HYDERABAD: While the results for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Neet) are expected on June 8, a delay is likely. This, after the Madras High Court granted an interim stay on Wednesday on publication of the results. This has come as a major disappointment to the students, keeping them anxious and worried that they may have to re-appear for the test.

Problem arose after some Neet aspirants in Tamil Nadu filed a batch of petitions in the court and demanded that a fresh test be held with uniform question papers that they said were not given during the first test. They also complained that there was a vast difference between the English and Tamil question papers.

While no such petition was filed by any aspirant as also the teachers of Telangana, some aspirants did raise the same issue with Telugu question papers and alleged that the aspirants who opted to write the Neet in Telugu found the question paper very difficult as compared to the paper in English.

Hearing a batch of petitions filed by some students, Justice M.V. Muralidharan of the Madras high courts Madurai bench directed officials of the Medical Council of India (MCI), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) director and the Union health ministry to file their counter-affidavits on June 7.

Now, its only an apprehension that the results will be delayed, and there is no official word yet, but the students are worried. Anu Sruthi from Chaitanya Junior College Hyderabad said, It will be really stressful to study the entire syllabus again in very little time and it will be painful to write the exam all over again. We had to prepare for the Eamcet in the first year. Suddenly we were told to write Neet in the second year. This is stressful. Till now, we were relaxed that all entrance exams are over. Then came the news from Tamil Nadu. I am worried.

Kumar Veeramallu, dean at Chaitanya College, agreed that students are getting stressed over this. There is no point in conducting the re-examination as 11 lakh students will be affected. Even in 2016, this kind of incident happened. If there is a paper leak in any state, then they may conduct the test again. But if a few students think the regional paper was difficult, then it is a different issue. If such situations repeat, students will lose their faith in the examination system. Such situations have increased these days and this may have a negative impact on the performance of the students.
One of his verses says Bury me in a slum as I am a poor mans poet and plant a jasmine tree (Paneer Poo Maram) to shed its flowers over my grave.

CHENNAI: Poet Na Kamarasan (75), who passed away on Wednesday, was hailed as king of metaphor and he was a rare Tamil poet who received international acclaim with Unesco's best poem award in 1972. His masterpiece 'Karuppu malargal' (Black blossoms) was translated into many languages and was part of the curriculum for Oxford University students. The 75-year-old poet, who died of multiple organ failure, is survived by his wife Logamani, a son and daughter.

One of the poets, who was part of the Vanambadi literary movement, considered as a trendsetter in modern Tamil poetry, Kamarasan turned the focus towards new subjects and neglected sections of society. With the innovative techniques, he brought a new style, a Renaissance in the field. His first collection 'Suryagandhi' (Sunflower) followed the traditional verse, but he switched to free verse in his following collections-Karuppu malargal (Black blossoms), Saharavai thaandaadha ottagangal (Camels, which did not cross Sahara) and Taj Mahalum rotti thundum (Taj Mahal and bread piece).

Kamarasan's Kagidha pookkal (Paper flowers) is the first known depiction of transgender life and he dealt with the problems of spinsters in 'Mudhirkanniyar'. His verses on rickshaw puller, Keezhavenmani victims and vagabonds are departures from the traditional approach and he himself describes himself as 'one who paints colours even to summer flowers and a traveller who has broken from all bondages'.

His compositions depicting prostitutes with a sympathetic outlook and the lines "We sell nudity to buy clothes' is often quoted. The much hailed 'Karuppu malargal' is a metaphoric poem about the plight of blacks. His 'Oomai Sathangai' (Silent anklets) speaks of a folk artist whose artistic abilities had no takers after the advent of glamorous cinema.

Most of his poems are set in the background of his native Cumbum valley surrounded by hills and streams. The moonlit streams with sparkling fishes, the drizzles of south-west monsoon and even the red soil of the region find portrayal in his lines. The death of the village postman, a lunatic woman in the village and even the curd seller (Enga ooru thayirkari) gets vivid depiction.

Aware of his poetic abilities, matinee idol MGR introduced him as a film lyricist. When poets of his time were using moon, clouds and breeze as messengers of love, Kamarasan's film song 'Kanavugaley aayiram kanavugalaey' used dreams, closely associated with love, as a messenger of love.

He wrote songs with the literary quality for cinema, but later regretted his decision to pen film songs. "I was making garlands of flowers, but went to cut grass", he lamented later.

He was also associated with politics in his college days and was jailed in the anti-Hindi agitation.

But, he never reaped the benefits of his sacrifice and chose poetry as a career.

CM, Stalin condole poets death

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami condoled the death of poet Na. Kamarasan, while Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin paid homage to the poet of the Vanambadi movement.

Describing the poet as a pioneer of free verse movement, Palanisami recalled the poets Karuppu malargal and Apple kanavu and said Kamarasan had been honoured with Kalaimamani and Bharathidasan awards. He said it was AIADMK founder MGR, who introduced him to Tamil cinema.

Stalin recalled Kamarasans participation in the 1965 anti-Hindi stir and how he was kept chained in prison. He said Kamarasan had a special place in DMK president M. Karunanidhis mind due to the poets love for Tamil.

TNCC leader S. Thirunavukkarasar said the former poet laureate had penned 600 songs for films and won the hearts of people through his free verse poetry.
Bengaluru: There's a change of menu for the carnivores in all zoos across the state. Come Saturday and the big cats like the tigers, lions and leopards will be fed sheep and goat meat as the Union government has banned cattle slaughter

The move is expected to dig a deep hole in the zoos' pockets as mutton is much costlier. The worst hit could be the century-old Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Park or the Mysuru Zoo, the Bannerghatta National Park and Shivamogga Zoo which have fed their carnivores, beef for years.

With the ban in place, they will have to give up buying cow and buffalo meat for their animals as cattle covers all bovine animals, including bulls, cows, buffalo, steers, heifers, calves and even camels.

"As the government of India has come out with this new rule, we will implement it in letter and spirit no matter what the cost to the zoos. In the past too cow meat has been supplemented with buffalo meat or chicken,"

Mr Abhiyu Singh, member-secretary, Zoo Authority of Karnataka told DC. In his estimate there are 10 tigers and four lions in the Mysuru Zoo, eight tigers and 18 lions in the Bannerghatta National Park, around 19 lions in the Bannerghatta Rescue Center and eight tigers and eight lions in the safari. Other zoos too have their share of leopards and tigers.

While an adult male lion/tiger at the Mysuru Zoo is currently fed 15 kgs of beef, an adult lioness is fed 12 kgs of it and a cub , 6 or 7 kgs, going by zoo sources. On an average, the zoo bought around 250 kgs of beef daily after calling for tenders every year from local meat suppliers.

While beef usually cost it around Rs 180 to Rs 200 a kg, it will now have to buy goat meat for as much as Rs 480 to 500 a kg.

As the zoo will have to float a new tender for supply of the goat and sheep meat, it will have to buy it from the open market in the meanwhile, shelling out around Rs 1.25 lakh for 250 kgs of meat every day.
Thiruvananthapuram: Political parties cutting across ideological differences came out strongly against Centres ban on sale of cattle for slaughtering with SFI deciding to organise beef festivals on Saturday to protest against the decision. However, BJP sought to justify the decision saying that the ban was only on sale of cattle used for agriculture purposes. CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the Centre's decision to ban sale of cattle for slaughter is part of its proclamation to implement Manu Smrithi across the country.

Kodiyeri said at a time when the nation was preparing to observe Ramzan the prime minister who is an RSS pracharak and his cohorts had come out with this order. The decision hinted at communally destructive activities which are in store, he said. CPM leader alleged that the government controlled by RSS was coming out with decisions to polarise people on religious lines. The democratic and secular forces across the country should come out strongly against the divisive decision. Local bodies minister K. T. Jaleel said the Centre's decison to ban cattle sale for slaughter is totally unacceptable.

Forest Minister K. Raju said he would examine the Centre's directive. Oppositon leader Ramesh Chennithala said the Centre Decisoin was an attempt to curb the rights of the citizens. This is the latest example of Modi Governemnt's fascist agenda of curbing the democratic rights of people. He called upon the people to come together to oppose the divisive decision. Veteran CPM leader V. S. Achuthanandan said the Centre's decision was an attack on federal structure of the country. He called upon the people to fight against the fascist forces. BJP state president Kumanam Rajashekharan said that the centre's notification had only restricted slaughter of cattle used for agriculture purposes. There is no ban on slaughtering cattle for consumption.

Keralites shocked

The Union Government decision to impose a ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter has sent shockwaves across the supply chain of meat industry in Kerala, where 70 percent of the 3.5 crore population are meat eaters. The consumption of meat and fish in the state is one of the highest in the country and it has an average daily turnover Rs 16 crore in beef trade alone, sources said. According to government sources, the annual consumption of beef and buffalo meat in the state is around 2.5 lakh tonnes with beef accounting for 1.5 lakh tonnes and buffalo meat constituting the rest. Nearly 70 percent of the cattle needed for meat is brought from outside and the new restrictions may disrupt the supply chain.

Ajmal Ahammed of Edavanna in Kozhikode district told this newspaper that the move will push hundreds of cattle traders into financial crisis as most of them have huge stocks in connection with the beginning of Ramadan. It is a regular practice for traders to source as many cattle as possible before Ramadan as they can take rest during the month, he said. Meat vendor Zachariya Mannil of Sulthan Bathery told DC that the move would hit thousands of people eking out a living with the trade. We are upset with the decision, he said and added that deliberations were on to how to tackle the crisis. The workers of IUML organized protest marches in Kozhikode, Malappuram and Wayanad districts.

Johnny, a city-based meat vendor in Thiruvananthapuram said about 50 percent of his customers belong to Hindu community. Saying that there was no justification on the restrictions imposed on the sale of cattle for slaughter, he asked whether the government would ban export of pork too. "Beef and buffalo meat is the most selling non-vegetarian item in the market. The high cost of fish and chicken makes beef a preferred dish of the common man," Johnny said. The government decision has also triggered strong criticism among city residents. "How can the government prescribe what one should eat? It is nothing but curbing the freedom of citizens," said K. Renjith, a city based-businessman. In Kochi, Youth Congress workers held a protest march before the BSNL office near Boat Jetty against the decision of the union government.
Opinion / Columnist

On Thursday afternoon 25 May 2017, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane flew to Lusaka. Maimane was going to Zambia to attend the treason trial of Hakainde Hichilema, Zambia's main opposition leader. The DA leader arrived in Zambia, on Africa Day, to attend and observe the treason trial of Zambian Opposition Leader Hakainde Hichilema on Friday at the Lusaka Magistrate's Court.According to local media, Maimane was told that his presence at that trial would, somehow, undermine the integrity of the court  and then he was put on the first plane home, minus his cellphone, which was confiscated by police. The United Party for National Development leader has been under house arrests for several weeks after he was accused of obstructing President Edgar Lungu's motorcade. Upon his arrival in Lusaka, Zambian Police boarded the aircraft, aggressively confronted Maimane, and took his private cell phone from his possession.The DA released a statement: "In stark contrast to the spirit of Africa Day today, an act akin to the tactics of the Apartheid government has occurred at Lusaka Airport this eveningIt is a deeply shameful day for the Republic of Zambia, when a Leader of the Opposition from South Africa cannot pass freely into the country." What is without doubt is that UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema is not a political prisoner but a criminal suspect. Zambia is a sovereign country, with sovereign laws which must be respected by all in the continent of Africa and the world at large. The deportation of Mmusi Maimane is a crisis that must not go to waste because it forces Africans to have an uncomfortable conversation. The government of Botswane had applied visa requirements on Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters. According to a 2014 EFF statement '' The Economic Freedom Fighters condemns the refusal by the autocratic military government of Botswana to grant the CIC Julius Malema a visa First the CIC Julius Malema has been subjected to a process where he is the only citizen of the 50 million plus South Africans who needs a VISA to visit what is a SADC country. Secondly, Botswana treats the CIC as the only leader of a party represented in the Parliament of South Africa who cannot be permitted to visit Botswana. Essentially, Botswana has rejected a representative of the people of South Africa in parliament a right to visit the people of Botswana, treating him as if he is a terrorist''. The experience of Malema has not captured national discourse like the experience of Mmusi Maimane.The majority of Africans that seek to visit South Africa legally are faced by two challenges, a visa system that is unfriendly and the worst service at Beitbridge. African countries where there is a visa requirement to visit South Africa experience a military like operation, which has meant it's easier to attain a visa to visit the USA than to visit South Africa. Africans that seek to attain legal entry to South Africa are treated with suspicion and visa applications without balancing the benefit South Africa accrues when people visit our country. There is an abuse of the asylum seeker system which has been one of the contributing factors in xenophobic violence in South Africa. However, the abuse of the asylum seeker system has hardened attitudes amongst those that issue visa, which should not be case. The White Paper on Migration which is currently out for comment, seeks to ensure that South Africa benefits from skilled migration for a country with a skills mismatch, where the unskilled do not have the skills required by the economy, practically locking millions of South Africans from formal employment. The visa system must be used to drive economic growth.The second conversation from this crisis is that Beitbridge Border post is the busiest border post in the Southern Hemisphere, which is known for its historical abysmal service and rampant corruption. The Border Post serves about 10 000 travellers each day and approximately 4000 cars pass through the border each day with the figures soaring to 30 000 travellers and 10 000 cars per day during public holidays. There seems to be no political will to resolve this issues which has meant that millions of Africans that make use Beitbridge, are subjected to congestion, long queues and the poor state of facilities. Corruption has become so rampant that for almost everything someone has to dip into their pockets to get things done. The deportation of Mmusi Maimane from Zambia should lead to a greater conversation that places the conduct of South African officials at the centre of the discussion. This crisis must not go to waste.Unathi Sonwabile Henama teaches tourism at the Tshwane University of Technology and writes in his personal capacity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi being presented a memento at the ceremony to dedicate to nation the Dhola Sadia Bridge, across River Brahmaputra in Assam. (Photo: Twitter | PIB)

New Delhi: With the completion of three years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government in power at the Centre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday took to micro-blogging site twitter and on behalf of Uttar Pradesh, heartily congratulated the former for fulfilling his commitment to the public.

Adityanath in his tweet said, "I on behalf of the people of Uttar Pradesh congratulate Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi for three years of good governance and development."

Echoing similar sentiments, in a series of tweets, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar wrote; last three years of the NDA Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi have seen dawn of a new era of Governance that is Corruption Free, Transparent and Accountable.

He further tweeted, "Last three years have seen phenomenal progress in almost every spectrum of governance- including finance, education, defense etc ,"

Asserting that Indian borders are more secure than ever under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Khattar said we are replying to provocations with firmness and our jawans have been empowered.

"Haryana is playing its role in realising @narendramodi ji's vision of a #NewIndia," he added.

Prime Minister has received congratulatory messages from other prominent personalities also:-

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra S Rawat: "I congratulate PM @narendramodi , his entire team and millions of countrymen & supporters on successful #3yearsofModiGovt."

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister tweeted, Dr. Rama Singh: "DhanyawadPMModi for transforming India in these 3 years! #MODIfiedChhattisgarh salutes your visionary leadership."

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje: "My congratulations & best wishes to PM @narendramodi ji & #TeamIndia ?on ?an outstanding tenure of 3 years#3yearsofModiGovt #3SaalBemisal."

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan: "New India emerging under the leadership of PM @narendramodi', My Thoughts (Blog) on #3yearsofModiGovt #3SaalBemisal."

On the occasion of completion of three years of the National Democratic Alliance's ( NDA) government at the Center, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said these years have seen concrete steps that have transformed people's lives.

Earlier on Friday, the Prime Minister arrived in Assam and began the celebrations by inaugurating the Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya.

The Prime Minister took to the social media to ask the people their views on completing three years as Government at the Center.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be organising a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign to highlight the achievements of the Narendra Modi-led NDA three year rule.

The campaign's name has been linked with the surname of the Prime Minister- ' Making of Developed India (MODI).

Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the festival from Guwahati in Assam on Friday. A central Control Room will be established at the party headquarters in Delhi to coordinate and monitor the mega event that will continue till June 15.

Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani on Monday addressed a press conference here to unveil the official schedule of the MODI fest.

All union ministers, BJP's Members of Parliament, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the BJP ruled states will take part in the massive exercise to ensure that Prime Minister's message of growth and development reaches every district in the country.

Party president Amit Shah will take part in the MODI fest in Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will attend the events in Jaipur and Mumbai, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be in Delhi and Lucknow.

Union Ministers Arun Jaitley will participate in the MODI fest in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad; M. Venkaiah Naidu in Bhuwaneshwar and Chhattisgarh, Nitin Gadkari in Chennai and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

The Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states will not only take part in the MODI fest in their states but also in other states.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will attend functions in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh; Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh; Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis in Kochi, Kerala; Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Hubli, Karnataka; and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Jammu and Kashmir.

Intellectual meets will also be organised across the country wherein the achievements of the Modi government will be presented.

All the union ministers, MPs will attend two functions in the assigned state, one programme each in home state and constituency.
Lucknow (UP): The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday cancelled the bail given by Lucknow's session court to alleged rape accused Uttar Pradesh Minister Gayatri Prajapati and others.

The High Court bench said in its order that the session court took the decision in a "hurry".

Earlier on May 12, the Lucknow bench upheld its earlier decision not to grant bail to Prajapati.

Pintu Singh and Vikas Verma, both absconding, were also not relieved in the matter.

The arrest warrants were issued against Prajapati's aides Pintu Singh and Vikas Verma, in connection with the rape case.

Giving no relief to co-accused in the Prajapati rape case, the Supreme Court earlier on May 4 asked Vikas Verma to surrender before the court within two days.

Prajapati and the two accused were granted bail by the trial court earlier.

However, the Allahabad High Court dismissed their bail order, which was then challenged by the accused in the apex court.

Prajapati was arrested on March 15 from the Aashiyana area in Lucknow by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF).

The Samajwadi Party leader, who was also accused of allegedly raping the girl's mother, evaded his arrest for nearly a month before he was arrested.

Earlier in February, a police complaint was filed against the former minister and six others in the case following the apex court's order.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had also filed a non-bailable warrant against the former minister and six others for the same.
New Delhi: Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation of a mahaan bharat (great India), BJP president Amit Shah on Friday said the BJP-led NDA government has crossed new milestones and accomplished exceptional achievements in various fields. Listing Modi governments achievements, including notebandi and surgical strike across border, Mr Shah appreciated and supported the action of Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi for saving the lives of people.

Army and the government had to face flak over Major Gogois action of tying a man in front of his jeep as a shield to avoid stone pelting in Jammu and Kashmir. On Modi governments third anniversary, Opposition parties have alleged that the country was on the verge of strife and had a dark future under Modi dispensation.

Addressing media to highlight Modi governments achievements, Mr Shah also took a dig at the opposition parties. He said while the opposition is busy strategising how to corner the Modi government, the ruling BJP is busy planning how to take the country forward. On the Presidential issue, over which the opposition parties have decided to come together and field a candidate in case the government does not try to evolve a consensus, Mr Shah said the BJP will hold consultation with the opposition at an appropriate time.

We have succeeded in bringing several changes in the national politics. The UP polls have underlined it. We have virtually finished casteism, family rule and appeasement, he said.
New Delhi: Cracks surfaced in the Oppositions attempt at unity as Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Friday skipped the lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, but is expected to fly in to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

Citing prior engagements for his inability to attend, Mr Yadav sent senior party leader Sharad Yadav to represent the party.

Conspicuous by their absence were also the Aam Aadmi Party and Naveen Patnaiks BJD. Sources said that the two parties had not been invited by the Congress as they were its rivals in their respective states of Delhi and Odisha.

A total of 17 parties met for the luncheon meet hosted by Mrs Gandhi, which was apparently a show of strength on the third anniversary of the Modi government. Altogether, these 17 parties add up to 120 Lok Sabha MPs, as opposed to the BJP's 282.

Mr Kumars decision to skip Mrs Gandhis lunch, but attend the lunch being hosted by Mr Modi in honour of the Prime Minister of Mauritius has given rise to speculation that he could possibly be looking at the option of dumping RJD and returning to his old ally  BJP.

Mr Kumar dismissed these misinterpretations and said that he could not attend the Mrs Gandhis lunch due to prior official engagements, while adding that Bihar had an old connection with Mauritius.
If the performance of the past three years of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government is to be judged by peoples perception, this government certainly scores high. In India, though the work done by governments does matter, fact is that elections are largely won by peoples perception. Given the current mood in the country, there is no doubt that if Lok Sabha elections were held now, not only will the BJP retain power at the Centre, but it would register a far more convincing victory compared to the previous Lok Sabha elections. The general perception is that the government is working diligently for the development of people at large, thus the BJPs popularity graph has gone higher in the past three years compared to what it was in 2014. The BJPs series of wins in Assembly elections held in various states since 2014 is a testimony to that. The two defeats  in Delhi and Bihar  had raised questions about the BJPs popularity and there was talk of a decline in Amit Shahs and Narendra Modis popularity. But the resounding victory of the BJP in the recently-held Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh has put a full stop on this debate. In a short span of three years, the BJP has not only become more popular among mainstream Hindus, but also among people belonging to minority communities.

The BJPs growing popularity is not only due to the good work done by the government at the Centre, but also due to the immense popularity of Prime Minister Narendar Modi among the masses. Mr Modi has cemented his position as the tallest leader in the country. From being a relatively low-profile leader in national politics less than a decade ago, to being Indias most popular leader today, Mr Modis career graph has been phenomenal. A study conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) indicates that Mr Modi, from being the spontaneous choice of a mere two per cent of the voters in 2009, is now the preferred prime ministerial choice of a whopping 44 per cent of Indians. This is eight points higher than the proportion of those who wanted to see him as Indias Prime Minister during the 2014 election. What adds to Mr Modis popularity is a big leadership deficit  none of his opponents is anywhere close to him in popularity ratings.

Among the various things that have contributed to Mr Modis popularity, like the surgical strikes, welfare schemes, one important issue that has earned him the highest brownie points is the policy of demonetisation. Although many people, including experts, have reservations about demonetisation, it has received tremendous support from the common man. Even though the poor are yet to gain from this policy the perception is that this will help in flushing out the menace of black money from the country. True, the government has done reasonably well on various fronts, but not on all. There are some questions marks on how it has performed on some important fronts, but people are unwilling to ask the difficult question as they do not see an alternative and even a small improvement in any area by this government seems to be a great achievement compared to how the previous government had generally performed.

Mr Modis rise to power occurred against the backdrop of a bleak economy and one of his principal challenges upon becoming Indias Prime Minister was to revive Indias sluggish economy and create jobs for millions of unemployed youth. There doesnt seem to be any improvement on this front. The unemployment rate has increased during the past three years. The various highly-publicised bilateral talks with foreign countries have definitely generated hopes of huge foreign investments, but we are yet to witness any great change at the ground level. There are still big concerns with regard to farmers, who seem to be unhappy, as they do not see noticeable improvement in their economic condition. What seems to be the saddest part in the story of the past three years is the disturbed social fabric of this country. The religious divide seems to have widened, which is not conducive for the development of a multicultural and multireligious society like India. A fairly strong religious divide has been created on the issue of cow protection, a matter that the Modi government and the BJP have been raising repeatedly and a matter that has led to lynching of Muslims in various parts of the country.

In spite of these odds what seems to be working in favour of the government is the strong sense of nationalism that it has been able to generate among Indians, which has been absent in the past few decades. One should also give due credit to the government for creating an aspirational India. People of India have very high hopes from the present government, and they have even higher expectations from its leader  Narendra Modi. Surprisingly, these high hopes have been generated even though the governments performance on important issues  includes job creation and economic development  has been dismal. This is no mean achievement, but it is more challenging to fulfill those hopes. The big question is, can the governments delivery be anywhere close to the high hopes of the people? Under normal circumstances, a newly-elected government enjoys a honeymoon period of two years. Public puts the performance of the government to critical scrutiny soon after that. This government has already enjoyed an extended honeymoon of three years. The question is, will the people be willing to extend it further?
Recent developments in Uttar Pradesh are disturbing. Routine law and order crimes have intensified. The state authorities under the Yogi Adityanath dispensation appear helpless, in part because social schisms are being sought to be exploited by the dominant sections of the community, and this is giving rise to an unprecedented dalit backlash. While the recent ambushing of a car on the Greater Noida-Bulandshahr stretch by criminals, and the murder of a passenger along with the criminal sexual assaults on his women relatives, brought back horror memories of a similar incident when Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister. It is evident that the demon of attacks and atrocities on dalits is showing up during the tenure of his saffron-clad successor even as the present CM goes about fine-tuning the so-called anti-Romeo squads.

Regressive politics has brought out organised anger among the former untouchable communities in the state as communal and casteist instincts are coalescing to gain socio-political ascendance in Yogi raj. In response to the torching of dalit huts in western UPs Saharanpur by dominant sections of an upper caste group who were out to celebrate Rana Pratap, a regional Rajput warrior who had fought the Mughal emperor Akbar five centuries ago, the Bhim Army organised a mammoth protest demonstration in the national capital in an effort to arouse the nations conscience. This outfit had not been heard of before. Therefore, its ability to mobilise young dalits in such numbers cannot but be a wake-up call to society and political leaders of every hue.

The rise of the Bhim Army  apparently at such short notice  appears to signify the rise in rebellion of the young dalits of UP, much as the dalits of Gujarat stormed the barn under the leadership of young Jignesh Mevani, a graduate of English literature and lawyer, after last years reprehensible Una episode. The icon of the Bhim Army, Chandrashekhar, is also a young lawyer who was, ironically enough, aligned to the BJPs student wing ABVP as a student. The Bhim Army is not preaching an armed uprising and is perfectly within the law. Its aims are less spectacular and therefore more difficult to attain  a secession from caste prejudice, using the mantras afforded under Indias Constitution. But the anger of youth, unless harnessed to higher goals, can take unpredictable turns if society fails to apply the needed salve, if political leaders cannot summon wisdom.
The commencement of the sacred Islamic month  Ramzan  is a glad tiding for us. But it brings us both bliss and cautiousness. While we rejoice Gods grace throughout the month-long feast, we are put in a tough spiritual test, not only in our fasts but also in the entire practical life. In the true sense, one becomes a Saim or Rozadar (the one who keep fasts) only when s/he eschews all spiritual vices  hate, anger, jealousy, lying, cheating, backbiting and other evils. Merely engaging in a physical exercise of hunger and thirst without achieving this spiritual state is not the end. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) categorically stated it: Whoever leaves the food and drink, but does not give up falsehood, evil deeds and badmouthing to others, Allah is not in need of his/her fasts.

Ramzan requires a complete spiritual inclination towards the achievement of the ultimate purpose of fasting  taqwa (spiritual consciousness and righteousness)  as articulated in the Quran: O you who have believed, fasting is decreed upon you as it was decreed upon those before you, so that you may become righteous. Taqwa is the core essence of fasting in Islam. Muslims are ordained in the month of Ramzan to get well-trained to lead the entire life with full cognisance of the divinity, righteousness and spiritual consciousness. Enjoining good and forbidding evil (amr bil maruf and nahy anil munkar) is the means to achieve this noble end. As the Quran states in the above verse, fasting was prescribed for the earlier prophets and their people with the same purpose, which is, attaining taqwa and warding off the evil.

For instance, fasting is prescribed in Judaism as an inner-directed and outer-directed act of virtue. Jews traditionally observed two types of fasts  collective and individual. The former were meant to seek the mercy of the almighty for the whole community, while the latter were kept as atonement for sins. There are regular fasts in the Jewish jurisprudence such as the day of Sabbath, which has the greatest significance as enunciated in the Mosaic Law. Similarly, Jesus Christ exhorted to observe fasts with an aim to achieve a higher spiritual culmination. Just as Muslims are ordained, Christians are also required to abstain from food and drink for the same purpose in a way which ensures sincerity and selflessness.

Jesus Christ instructed his close disciples to fast in this manner: And when you fast, dont make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and dishevelled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Lord, who knows what you do in private. And your Lord, who sees everything, will reward you. Notably, the ultimate spiritual purpose of fasting is also prescribed in the Vedic scriptures. Fasts in Hinduism are aimed at eschewing the mundane desires of the body for the nourishment of the soul. According to Vedas, fasts should be observed every once, twice or thrice a week to build a closer personal relationship with the Lord. For instance, on the day of Ekadashi, a fast is observed by the followers of Sanatan Dharma.
El Graeco lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens basin. This view is from El Graecos place of discovery, Pyrgos Vasilissis (painting by Chicago-based artist Veliza Simeonovski)

Humans and chimpanzees split from their last common ancestor several hundred thousand years earlier than believed  and this occurred in Europe, not Africa  according to an international team of scientists.

University of Torontos David Begun, a paleoanthropologist in the Faculty of Arts & Science, is a co-author of one of two controversial studies reported today on the pre-human remains in PLOS ONE.

Our discovery outlines a new scenario for the beginning of human history  the findings allow us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area, Begun said. These research findings call into question one of the most dogmatic assertions in paleoanthropology since Charles Darwin, which is that the human lineage originated in Africa.

It is not a matter of continental bragging rights. It is critical to know where the human lineage arose so that we can reconstruct the circumstances leading to our divergence from the common ancestor we share with chimpanzees. Not having this information is like having a crime without the crime scene.

Researchers analyzed two known fossil specimens of Graecopithecus freybergi using state-of-the-art methods  a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar from Bulgaria  and came to the conclusion that they belong to pre-humans. Furthermore, Graecopithecus is several hundred thousand years older than the oldest potential pre-human from Africa, the six to seven-million-year-old Sahelanthropus from Chad.

Using computer tomography, they visualized the internal structures of the Graecopithecus fossils and demonstrated that the roots of premolars are widely fused. The lower jaw, nicknamed El Graeco by the scientists, has additional dental root features, suggesting that the species Graecopithecus freybergi might belong to the pre-human lineage.

While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused  a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, said Madelaine Bohme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tubingen, who co-led the investigations with Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

A 7.24-million-year-old upper premolar of Graecopithecus from Azmaka, Bulgaria (photo courtesy of Wolfgang Gerber, University of Tubingen)

The research team, which also included scientists from Greece, France and Australia, dated the sedimentary sequence of the Graecopithecus fossil sites in Greece and Bulgaria with physical methods and got a nearly synchronous age for both fossils  7.24 and 7.175 million years before present.

It is at the beginning of the Messinian, an age that ends with the complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea, Bohme said.

Present-day chimpanzees are the nearest living relatives for humans. Where the last chimp-human common ancestor lived, however, is a central and highly debated issue in palaeoanthropology.

Researchers have assumed up until now that the lineages diverged five to seven million years ago and that the first pre-humans developed in Eastern Africa. According to the 1994 theory of French palaeoanthropologist Yves Coppens, climate change in the region could have played a crucial role.

As with many animals, the evolution of pre-humans was driven by dramatic environmental changes.

The team led by Bohme demonstrated that the North African Sahara desert originated more than seven million years ago. They concluded this based on geological analyses of the sediments in which the two fossils of Graecopithecus were found.

Although geographically distant from the Sahara, the red-coloured silts are very fine-grained and could be classified as desert dust. An analysis of uranium, thorium, and lead isotopes in individual dust particles yields an age between 0.6 and 3 billion years and infers an origin in Northern Africa.

Lower jaw of the 7.175 million year old Graecopithecus freybergi (El Graeco) from Pyrgos Vassilissis, Greece (photo courtesy of Wolfgang Gerber, University of Tubingen)

The dusty sediment also has a high content of different salts. The data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago, whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north coast of what was then the Mediterranean Sea.

This process is also observable today. However, the researchers modelling shows that the dust in the past was more than 10 times the amount of recent dust loadings in Southern Europe  comparable to the present-day Sahel zone in Africa that marks the transition between the Sahara and the Sudan region.

The researchers further showed that while the Sahara was developing in North Africa, a savannah biome was formed in Europe. Using a combination of new methodologies, they studied microscopic fragments of charcoal and plant silicate particles, called phytoliths.

Many of these phytoliths derive from grasses and particularly from those that use the metabolic pathway of C4-photosynthesis, which is common in todays tropical grasslands and savannahs. The global spread of C4-grasses began eight million years ago on the Indian subcontinent  their presence in Europe was previously unknown.

The record provided by the phytoliths gives evidence of severe droughts, and the charcoal analysis indicates recurring vegetation fires.

In summary, we reconstruct a savannah, which fits with the giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and rhinoceroses that were found together with Graecopithecus, said Spassov.

Bohme calls this hypothesis the North Side Story, in contrast to Yves Coppens' theory known as the East Side Story.

The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages, said Bohme.

Begun said researchers need to be more open minded in the quest to uncover the origins of the human lineage.

This fossil shows that Europe is just as likely to hold the key to the answer to this eternal question as Africa, he said.

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An unmanned NASA spaceship circling Jupiter has spotted massive cyclones at the gas giant's poles, revealing stunning new details about our solar system's largest planet, researchers said Thursday.

A NASA statement described the planet as "a complex, gigantic, turbulent world" that is far different than scientists previously thought.

Two papers in the journal Science and 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters describe a trove of discoveries made since Juno began orbiting Jupiter last year.

"We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

"There is so much going on here that we didn't expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter."

A look at Jupiter's poles has shown they are covered with dozens of densely clustered storms, possibly dropping hail or snow.

"Images of Jupiter's previously-unseen poles show a chaotic scene of bright oval features," said one of the studies in the journal Science.

These ovals, it turns out, are huge swirling storms, some of which measure up to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) across.

Researchers found "signs of ammonia welling up from the deep atmosphere and forming giant weather systems."

Now, more study is needed to better understand the nature of Jupiter's storms, and why the planet acts this way.

- Juno mission -

The solar-powered Juno spacecraft launched in 2011, and made its first tour around Jupiter on August 27, 2016.

Juno moves in an elliptical orbit, skimming within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's cloud tops and passing over the poles.

Juno's mission is scheduled to end in February 2018, when the probe will self-destruct by diving into the planet's atmosphere.

The $1.1 billion project aims to peer beneath the clouds around Jupiter for the first time to learn more about the planet's atmosphere and how much water the planet contains.

"On our next flyby on July 11, we will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system -- one that every school kid knows -- Jupiter's Great Red Spot," said Bolton.

"If anybody is going to get to the bottom of what is going on below those mammoth swirling crimson cloud tops, it's Juno and her cloud-piercing science instruments."

- 10x Earth's magnetic field -

Juno has also taken measurements of Jupiter's gravitational field, to see if it has a solid core, as some models have predicted, or no core at all.

Instead, researchers found that the core is "fuzzy," -- neither a small compact core nor a non-existent core.

Bolton said the core may be partially dissolved, and is certainly much larger than anybody had anticipated.

Even before Juno launched, researchers knew Jupiter had the most intense magnetic field in the solar system.

But now, astronomers see that it is "substantially stronger than models predicted, at 7.766 Gauss, or roughly ten times Earth's magnetic field," said the study.

According to Jack Connerney, Juno deputy principal investigator and the lead for the mission's magnetic field investigation at NASA, the "magnetic field looks lumpy.

"It is stronger in some places and weaker in others," he said.

"Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter's dynamo works."

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Samsungs statement comes after a German hacking group called Chaos Computer Club posted a video on YouTube showing that it could easily break the Galaxy S8s iris recognition lock with a printer.

In view of the recent news that has been going around with Samsung Galaxy S8s iris scanner being hacked, Samsung Electronics released a statement stating it is not easy to crack the Galaxy S8s iris recognition. The statement comes after a claim made by a group of German hackers who said they had cracked the phones iris scanner.

Although the one-minute video (that shows the sensor being fooled with a dummy eye) appears simple, it is hard to see that happening in real life, a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Herald.

You need a camera that can capture infrared light (used in the video), which is no longer available in the market. Also, you need to take a photo of the owners iris and steal his smartphone. It is difficult for the whole scenario to happen in reality.

Samsungs statement comes after a German hacking group called Chaos Computer Club posted a video on YouTube showing that it could easily break the Galaxy S8s iris recognition lock with a printer, a picture of an iris photo taken with a camera and contact lenses.

As shown in the video, members of the collective take a photo of the owners eye with the camera that can capture infrared light and print it out with a Samsung leisure printer. They then placed contact lenses on top of the picture to copy the curvature of the eye.

CCC spokesman Dirk Engling said, Under some circumstances, a high-resolution picture from the internet is sufficient to capture an iris.

If you value the data on your phone -- and possibly want to even use it for payment -- using the traditional pin protection is a safer approach than using body features for authentication, he said.

Samsung has been utilizing its iris scanner for mobile payment service Samsung Pay, stating the biometric technology is one of the safest ways to keep your phone locked and also a persons iris patterns are virtually impossible to replicate.

Do you have a Samsung Galaxy S8/+, If yes then do let us now in the comments about what do you think about how secure the iris scanner is.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
He was detained for almost an hour due to the misguided accusation, and made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers, Henrys partner Joel Amador-Batten wrote on Facebook. (Representational Image)

United Airlines is courting controversy once again. This time for mistreating customers after cabin crew accused a man of touching his son inappropriately. Henry Amador-Batten was travelling with his 5-year-old son Ben from Puerto Rico on May 19. When they were getting off the flight, they were stopped by authorities following a complaint by a crew member about the way Mr Amador-Batten had laid his arm across the boys lap, according to the Daily Telegraph.

He was detained for almost an hour due to the misguided accusation, and made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers, Henrys partner Joel Amador-Batten wrote on Facebook. The airline has apologised for the incident.
Kim Jong Nam, the brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, met with an American spy four days before he was murdered in Malaysia, news reports said.

On February 9, the 45-year-old, who was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur airport, met with a middle-aged Korean-American man in a hotel lift at the resort island of Langkawi in northern Malaysia, CCTV footage showed.

The Asahi Shimbun report said that Kim stayed in a hotel suite with the man for two hours. He had allegedly met the contact several times before, it said.

The report said that Kim's computer showed a record of a USB memory stick being inserted into it, which may have been used to pass on crucial information to the suspected US agent. Kim was poisoned with a lethal nerve agent just four days after the meeting.
New Jersey residents were watching the TV on Tuesday when a frightening nuclear power plant warning popped up on their screens. The warning flashed on their screens when the Emergency Alert System was accidentally activated, media reports said. This led to thousands of 911 calls. Some people went on social media or contacted authorities after seeing a message on their TVs that stated, A civil authority has issued a nuclear power plant warning for several counties, CBS reported.

New Jerseys emergency management office sent out a tweet later reading, You may have seen this message on your TV tonight. There is no emergency. This message went out in error.
A school in US will not allow a pregnant teen to attend her graduation next week. (Representational Image)

A school in US will not allow a pregnant teen to attend her graduation next week. After a public outcry and pressure from anti-abortion groups, the school administrator David R. Hobbs in a statement said she was being disciplined, not because shes pregnant, but because she was immoral.

The best way to love her right now is to hold her accountable for her morality that began this situation, he told the girls family. Maddi Runkles, 18, found out she was pregnant in January, USA Today reported.
Brandford said Walden told them she fed the baby, wrapped her in a blanket and put her down for a nap. (Representational Image)

Baltimore: A day care worker in Maryland was captured on video "torturing" an 8-month-old girl who later died, authorities said Thursday. She has been charged with murder.

Leah Walden, 23, is charged with murder, assault, child abuse and reckless endangerment in the death of Reese Bowman at Rocket Tiers Learning Center on Tuesday, Baltimore Police said in a statement.

"Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured," said Col. Stanley Brandford, the chief of the police department's criminal investigations division.

Brandford said the video shows Walden using "excessive blankets, which fully covered the child's head, violently snatching the child out of the crib with one arm, swinging at the baby as if she was slapping her, and placing pillows over the baby's face." Walden also walked out camera range several times while holding the baby.

Police took Walden into custody early Thursday. Court records for her case were not yet available online to show whether she had obtained an attorney.

Police said officers were called to the day care Tuesday afternoon for a report of a baby not breathing. Medics performed CPR on the infant, who was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center and pronounced dead a short time later. Brandford said there were no obvious signs of trauma, but detectives started a routine investigation.

Brandford said Walden told them she fed the baby, wrapped her in a blanket and put her down for a nap. The management of Rocket Tiers alerted police to the video, which told a different story, Brandford said.

Reese was awake at the time; another baby in the same room with Walden and Reese was not hurt.

Reese's family released a statement saying they were suffering "tremendous pain" and asking for privacy, news outlets reported.

"Our hearts are broken. No family should ever have to experience the loss of a child under any circumstances," the statement said.
Multiple test missile launches, including one last Sunday, have increased calls for more sanctions pressure on North Korea. (Photo: AP/File)

Washington: US lawmakers submitted a bill on Thursday to tightly restrict travel and ban tourism to North Korea, citing the risk that Pyongyang will arrest Americans for use as diplomatic "bargaining chips."

The "North Korea Travel Control Act" proposed by Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff and Republican Joe Wilson would block all US tourist visits to the country and force other visitors to obtain permission via a US Treasury licensing system.

The move comes as tensions between the two countries continue to rise over Pyongyang's push to build a nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program capable of threatening the United States.

Multiple test missile launches, including one last Sunday, have increased calls for more sanctions pressure on the country. "Tourist travel to North Korea does nothing but provide funds to a tyrannical regime -- that will, in turn, be used to develop weapons to threaten the United States and our allies," Wilson said in a statement.

"Worse, the regime has routinely imprisoned innocent foreign civilians and used them as bargaining chips to gain credibility with the West. We should not enable them any longer," he said.

They said at least 17 Americans have been detained in North Korea in the past decade, and that four are still imprisoned.

Pyongyang has been able to use some of those cases to get former top officials, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, to travel to the country to negotiate their releases.

According to media reports, several hundred Americans have visited North Korea as tourists each year in recent years, in addition to relief workers, religious groups, and others.

There are currently no restrictions on visits. By comparison, despite a warming of relations, the United States continues to ban outright tourism to Cuba and keeps in place a licensing regime for other travel, albeit one loosely enforced, under laws set by Congress.
The child protection services had previously investigated him for abusing the girl and her sister. (Representational Image)

Texas: A man in the United States has been arrested for sexually abusing his nine-year-old daughter.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, Anthony Garays crime was discovered after the child was caught looking up pornography in school to know what her father did to her.

An Elk Elementary School staff member saw the child looking up pornography on an iPad at school, and learnt that the girl was being sexually abused by her father, said a report in Daily Mail.

Child services were called, who then complained to the police. Following this, 31-year-old Anthony Garay was arrested on Wednesday.

The staff member said that the child couldnt sleep at night due to the abuse, which had been going on for about a year.

Garay is being held at Bexar County Jail for the repeated sex abuse of a child and his bond has been set at USD 75,000. The child protection services had previously investigated him for abusing the girl and her sister.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4539376/Girl-9-looks-porn-dad-does-her.html?ito=social-facebook

https://pixabay.com/en/ipad-learning-tablet-computer-907577/
Amul Thapar, an Indian-American legal luminary and US President Donald Trumps first nominee to a powerful appeals court, has been confirmed by the US Senate to the key judicial position.

Mr Thapar, the first Indian-American to be nominated by Mr Trump for the 6th US circuit court of appeals, was confirmed by the Senate 52-44 in a vote on party lines.

With this, 48-year-old Mr Thapar becomes the second South Asian judge on the US circuit court of appeals, which hears appeals from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan.

Judge Thapar will make an outstanding addition to the US appeals court for the sixth circuit, said senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.

Mr Thapar, currently a US district court judge, was nominated by Mr Trump on March 21. Mr Thapar was also among the 20 judges whose names Mr Trump had released during his presidential campaign as shortlisted candidates for his Supreme Court nominees.
Earlier this month, reports surfaced that hackers had stolen Disneys Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, threatening to release the film online if a demand for ransom was not met.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that a threat by hackers to release one of their latest films was probably a hoax. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that hackers had stolen Disneys Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, threatening to release the film online if a demand for ransom was not met.

We dont believe that it was real and nothing has happened, he said. The hackers had demanded Disney pay a ransom in bitcoins or else they would release the movie in five-minute chunks. Disney refused to pay anything.
Beijing: The kidnapping of a Chinese couple from the restive Balochistan province two days ago highlights the risks faced by Beijing in building the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an article in a state-run daily said on Friday.

"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the other projects under the grand (Belt and Road) initiative are like every investment where opportunities and risks co-exist," an op-ed article in the Global Times said.

"Terrorism, unstable domestic politics, and disagreement among various parties within Pakistan about how CPEC transportation routes should be mapped out are prominent challenges to the implementation of the CPEC," it said, acknowledging differences within Pakistan over the project.

Besides Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province apprehend that the Chinese investments would be garnered by the people from the powerful Punjab province.

"No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping yet. But it is worth noting that Islamic militants have often carried out abductions of foreigners on Pakistani soil, either for ransom or to get publicity for their cause," the article said.

Reports from Pakistan also pointed fingers at Baloch nationalists, who are opposed to the Chinese projects over apprehensions of marginalisation in their native province. "Chinese people have also been targeted occasionally, despite the friendly relations between the two countries," the article said.

"But the restive region has seen frequent violence committed by Islamic terrorists and separatists and the Belt and Road programme is often been exposed to potential threats," it said.

Last year, a Chinese engineer was injured in a bomb attack in southern Pakistan and a separatist group, the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting the CPEC, it said.

The Chinese presence in Pakistan has increased in the past few years thanks to the thriving CPEC involving roads, ports, power plants and other crucial infrastructure. "CPEC is also the flagship project of the China-led Belt and Road initiative," the article said.

Balochistan is in the centre of the CPEC which is expected to link China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the southern coast, it said.

India has objected to the 3000 km-long corridor as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). "Pakistan is betting big on the economic corridor which will be a major boost to its future development," it said.

The logic behind this project is that it would improve Pakistan's economy and help eliminate the challenges posed by political extremists, radicals and jihadists in the country. But these challenges have posed risks to this ongoing project that require attention and solutions from both sides, the article said.

The Pakistani government has deployed 15,000 military personnel to protect projects under the economic corridor. China has also urged Pakistan to intensify its efforts in protecting the safety of Chinese personnel in the nation, it said. "If implemented well, the Belt and Road initiative would become a milestone during the process of China's rise," it said.
After visiting the site of Wednesday's attacks, President Joko Widodo said Indonesia needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws to prevent new attacks. (Photo: AP)

Jakarta: Indonesian police arrested three people on Friday suspected of being linked to suicide bombings in Jakarta, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed three police officers at a bus station and wounded 12 others.

The attack was the deadliest in Indonesia since January 2016, when eight people were killed, four of them attackers, after bombers and gunmen attacked the capital Jakarta.

After visiting the site of Wednesday's attacks, President Joko Widodo said Indonesia needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws to prevent new attacks.

"If we make a comparison with other countries, they already have regulations to allow authorities to prevent (attacks) before they happen," Widodo told a news conference.

The president said he had ordered the chief security minister to get the revisions done as soon as possible.

Long-standing plans to reform Indonesia's 2003 anti-terrorism laws have been held up by opposition from some parties in parliament and concerns about individual rights.

The revisions would broaden the definition of terrorism and give police the power to detain suspects without trial for longer. The changes would allow police to arrest people for hate speech or for spreading radical content, as well as those taking part in paramilitary training or joining proscribed groups.

Muhammad Syafi'i of the opposition Gerindra party, who chairs a committee deliberating the bill, said discussions should be completed this year but there were still outstanding issues such as ensuring checks and balances on the counter-terrorism agency.

"This bill needs to be discussed in a cautious and comprehensive way because the purpose of all regulations in this country is to ensure they do not result in the slaughter of Indonesian people,... but protect them," Syafi'i said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for this week's attacks. "The executor of the attack on the Indonesian police gathering in Jakarta was an Islamic State fighter," the group's news agency Amaq said.

Indonesia has suffered a series of mostly low-level attacks by Islamic State sympathisers in the past 17 months, but there are concerns that the sophistication is improving.

Police said Wednesday's attack had targeted officers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives.

"The explosions were described by police on 24 May as 'pretty big', and the number of wounded and dead would suggest a still-crude but developing bomb-making capability for militants in Indonesia," said Otso Iho, an analyst at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center (JTIC).

Police have identified the suspected suicide bombers as two 30-year-old men from the West Java city of Bandung.

Indonesian police made three arrests on Friday in Bandung related to the attacks and said they had seized Islamic teachings, phones and other items during the raids, Yusri Yunus, head of public relations at West Java Police, said.
Government soldiers on military vehicles patrol after a continued assault on fighters from the Maute group who have taken over large parts of Marawi city, southern Philippines. (Photo: AP)

Marawi City/Davao (Philippines): Indonesians and Malaysians were among foreign Jihadists battling the military after laying siege to a southern Philippine city, the government said on Friday, in a rare admission of what it said was an Islamic State "invasion".

The army has deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive rebels of the Islamic State-linked Maute group out of Marawi City and Malaysians and Indonesians and other foreigners were among six guerrillas killed on Thursday.

The announcement elevates the threat of what experts and the military say are moves by Islamic State to exploit the poverty and lawlessness of predominantly Muslim Mindanao island to establish a base for extremists from Southeast Asia and beyond.

"What's happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Solicitor General Jose Calida told a news conference.

"It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria," he said, using the acronym for Islamic State.

President Rodrigo Duterte has delivered on his threat to impose martial law on Mindanao, the country's second-largest island, to stop the spread of radical Islam. He has been pleading with Mindanao governors and religious leaders to work with the government to keep extremists at bay.

Duterte recently warned that Islamic State fighters driven from Iraq and Syria would end up in the southern Philippines and his country was at risk of "contamination".

The Maute, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, held its positions on bridges and buildings on Friday as ground troops launched early morning offensives to flush out the remaining gunmen after unrest that has killed 11 soldiers and 31 militants.

The White House on Thursday said it backed the Philippines in its fight against "cowardly terrorists".

Few of Marawi's 200,000 inhabitants remained after militants ran amok, seizing and torching schools, a college and a hospital. They freed more than 100 prisoners and took a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city's cathedral.

Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by heavily armed soldiers streamed into nearby Iligan City. One Christian resident, Mark Angelou Siega, described how students fled amid fears rebels would take over their university campus.

"We were preparing for exams and we could hear the gunfire and bombs," he told Reuters. "We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us. "These terrorists are not real Muslims."

Solicitor general Calida said the Maute group and Islamic State had a dream to create their own "ISIS province" in Mindanao and the government was not the only target of their aggression.

"People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets," he said. "What it worrisome is that the ISIS has radicalized a number of Filipino Muslim youth."

Duterte has dealt with separatist unrest during his 22 years as mayor of Davao, Mindanao's biggest city, but the rise of the Maute and signs that it has ties to another network, the Abu Sayyaf, present one of the biggest challenges of a presidency won on promises to restore law and order.

Philippine intelligence indicates the two groups from different parts of Mindanao are connected, through Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a radical faction of Abu Sayyaf.

He was the target of Tuesday's failed raid by troops on Maute hideout in Marawi and Calida said Islamic State had declared Hapilon its "emir" in the Philippines.

Abu Sayyaf is notorious for piracy and kidnappings and beheading captives, among them Westerners. Though less known, the Maute group has proven itself a fierce battlefield opponent for the military with its ability to sustain days of air and artillery bombardments and regroup after incurring heavy losses.

Duterte started warning of a spread of radicalism last year after a bombing in Davao City in September killed 14 people and wounded dozens. The Maute was also blamed for a failed bombing near the US embassy in Manila in November.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday berated Nato allies for not doing enough on terrorism and spending, while stopping short of the public commitment to collective defence they had hoped for.

Mr Trumps broadside at fellow leaders during his first Nato summit came as he unveiled a 9/11 memorial at the alliances new $1.2 billion headquarters in Brussels which is meant to highlight allied unity and purpose.

Mr Trump said the bombing in the British city of Manchester on Monday, claimed by the Islamic State group, showed that terrorism must be stopped in its tracks. The Nato of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration as well as threats from Russia and Natos eastern and southern borders, he said.

He denounced allies for not paying their fair share, saying that even if they met a commitment to allocate two percent of GDP to defence, it would still not be enough to meet the challenges. Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying, he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, struck an entirely different note. Germany will not forget the contribution Nato made in order to reunify our country. This is why we will indeed make our contribution to security, she said.
Former US President Barack Obama received a rock-star welcome in Berlin as he appeared at a public debate on Thursday with Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he praised as one of his favorite partners during his presidency.

Security was tight in front of the German capitals iconic Brandenburg Gate, where Mr Obama and Ms Merkel appeared on a podium before thousands attending a gathering marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

After lauding Ms Merkel as someone who had done outstanding work, Mr Obama, citing the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in parts of the world, told the crowd that we have to push back against those trends that would violate human rights.

In a veiled reference to Donald Trump, he spoke of the need to see development aid and diplomacy as essential aspects of national security policy. We can't hide behind a wall, he said.
The figure for Indian students coming to study in the UK stood at 11,642, marginally up from the 2015 figure of 11,160. (Photo: PTI)

London: Indian nationals were issued the maximum number of skilled work visas to live and work in the UK last year, according to statistics released on Thursday. Indians accounted for 58 per cent of the total skilled work visas granted last year -- 53,863 of a total of 93,566.

Americans were the second largest community with 9,255 visas. "The information technology sector sponsored 42 per cent of skilled work visa applications, followed by professional, scientific and technical activities (18 per cent) and financial and insurance activities (12 per cent)," the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said.

The figure for Indian students coming to study in the UK stood at 11,642, marginally up from the 2015 figure of 11,160. The latest figures reflect an overall drop in net migration figures for the UK -- estimated to be 248,000 in 2016 which registers a fall of 84,000 from 2015.

This drop indicates a Brexit effect as 117,000 European Union (EU) citizens emigrated out of the UK in 2016, up 31,000 from 2015.

This gives the fullest picture yet of the impact on immigration around the EU referendum votes in June last year. Immigration from EU8 states -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia -- was down by 25,000 to 48,000, while those leaving the country increased by 16,000 in 2015, to 43,000 in 2016.

The figures will come as some relief to the ruling Conservative party, which has made cutting net migration an election pledge for the June 8 snap general election. The Conservatives' aim since 2010 has been to reduce net migration to "the tens of thousands".

"It's good that the overall figure has come down now by nearly a quarter in a year. We're determined to make sure that we do continue to reduce the overall net migration number," said UK home secretary Amber Rudd.

Work remains the most common reason for international migration, with 275,000 people coming to the UK for work in 2016 -- down 33,000 from 2015. A total of 9,634 people were granted asylum or an alternative form of protection in the year ending March 2017.

In addition, 5,453 people were granted humanitarian protection under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme over the same period.
British investigators are hunting for potential conspirators linked to the bombing that killed 22 people in a search that is exploring the possibility that the same cell linked to the Paris and Brussels terror attacks was also to blame for the Manchester Arena attack, two officials familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.

Investigators were also assessing whether Salman Abedi, the suspected bomber in the attack Monday on a pop concert in Manchester, may have been connected to known militants in the northern English city.

Abedis father, Ramadan Abedi, was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, according to a former Libyan security official, Abdel-Basit Haroun.

The elder Abedi denied that he was part of the militant group and said his son was not involved in the concert bombing and had no connection to militants.

Attacker was in Germany

A German magazine reported that Manchester concert bomber had passed through Duesseldorf airport four days before the attack. Citing unnamed federal security sources, Focus reported that British-born Salman Abedi twice flew from a German airport in recent years and wasnt on any international watch list. A German security official told The Associated Press the report was accurate. Meanwhile, it was also reported that Abedi had transited through Istanbul airport ahead of carrying out the attack. I can confirm that he transited through Istanbul Ataturk airport, the official said asking not to be named.

Abedi wanted revenge

Salman Abedi had expressed a desire to avenge the killing of a friend in the British city last year, a source close to his family said on Thursday. His friend, also of Libyan descent, died after being stabbed by British youths in Manchester in May 2016, the source said on condition of anonymity. That incident stirred up a sense of anger among young Libyans in Manchester and especially Salman, who clearly expressed his desire for revenge, he said. Meanwhile, his sister believes that Abedi carried out the attack because he wanted revenge for US air strikes on Syria. Jomana Abedi said in an interview that her brother was kind and loving and that she was surprised by what he did on Monday. She said she thought he was driven by Americas military attacks in the Middle East. I think he saw children  Muslim children  dying everywhere, and wanted revenge, she told the Wall Street Journal.
The terror attack in Manchester has thrown a spotlight on hardline Islamist exiles among opponents of former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi who live in the northwestern English city. (Photo: AFP)

London: A total of 10 people are in detention in Britain and Libya over Monday's suicide bombing on a pop concert in the northwestern English city of Manchester by a British-born man of Libyan origin.

A teenage boy and a woman arrested by British police this week have since been released without charge, leaving eight in custody on UK soil who were arrested "on suspicion of offences contrary to the terrorism act". In Libya, killer Salman Abedi's father and brother are in detention.

Abedi reportedly returned from Libya only a few days before the attack which killed 22 people, including several children, but police are still trying to pin down his movements as well as determine whether he was part of a wider network.

Here are the details of the arrests so far:

Tuesday, May 23: Masked police arrest a 24-year-old man in the Chorlton area of south Manchester near where Abedi is believed to have lived. Police had earlier given the man's age as 23. An eyewitness told that police shouted at the man to lie on the ground before taking him away.

British media indicated that this man is highly likely to be Abedi's older brother Ismael. The brother was described in media reports as "outgoing" compared to Salman, who was "very quiet."

Wednesday, May 24: Police arrest three more men in south Manchester aged 18, 21 and 24, a short walk from the house where Abedi lived. Omar Alfaqhuri, a neighbour who lives just in front of a house that was raided, said he saw "a massive deployment of police forces" during the arrest in the night and a man he named as "Adel" taken away. "They blocked the whole street," he said, adding that he saw the man handcuffed and taken away in a car. He said his neighbours were a "nice quiet family".

An 18-year-old man, who police said was carrying a suspect package, is arrested in Wigan, a town near Manchester. No further details were given about him.

Another man, 22, is arrested in the town of Nuneaton in central England, widening the British police probe beyond areas in and around Manchester.

Libya's Deterrence Force, which acts as the police of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, arrests Abedi's father Ramadan, saying it had already arrested his brother Hashem on Tuesday.

A spokesman said the brother was aware of Abedi's attack plan and both belonged to the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abedi's father reportedly protested his son's innocence in the hours before his arrest. In Manchester, a 34-year-old woman is arrested in an apartment block in Blackley, an area north of the city centre by armed police. She is later released without charge.

Thursday, May 25: A 16-year-old boy is arrested in Withington, a suburb of south Manchester. The boy is later released without charge. A 38-year-old man is arrested in Blackley.

Friday, May 26: A 30-year-old man is arrested in Moss Side, an area of Manchester which has been associated with social deprivation and gangs.
US President Donald Trump, left, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel walk through NATO headquarters at the NATO summit in Brussels. (Photo: AP)

Brussels: US President Donald Trump on Thursday intensified his accusations that NATO allies were not spending enough on defence and warned of more attacks like this week's Manchester bombing unless the alliance did more to stop militants.

In unexpectedly abrupt remarks as NATO leaders stood alongside him, Trump said certain member countries owed "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO -- even though allied contributions are voluntary, with multiple budgets.

His scripted comments contrasted with NATO's choreographed efforts to play up the West's unity by inviting Trump to unveil a memorial to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States at the new NATO headquarters building in Brussels.

"Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever," Trump said, referring to Monday's suicide bombing in the English city that killed 22 people, including children.

"These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very direct ... in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share," Trump said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg defended Trump, saying that although he was "blunt" he had "a very plain and clear message on the expectations" of allies.

But one senior diplomat said Trump, who left the leaders' dinner before it ended to fly to Italy for Friday's Group of Seven summit, said the remarks did not go down well at all.

"This was not the right place or time," the diplomat said of the very public harangue. "We are left with nothing else but trying to put a brave face on it."

In another unexpected twist, Trump called on NATO, an organisation founded on collective defence against the Soviet threat, to include limiting immigration in its tasks.

And Trump did say that the United States "will never forsake the friends who stood by our side" but NATO leaders had hoped he would more explicitly support the mutual defence rules of a military alliance's he called "obsolete" during his campaign.

Instead, he returned to a grievance about Europe's drop in defence spending since the end of the Cold War and failed to publicly commit to NATO's founding Article V rule which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all.

"Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying for their defence," Trump said, standing by a piece of the wreckage of the Twin Towers.

"This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years," Trump said as the other leaders watched.

Nicholas Burns, a former long-time diplomat and ambassador to NATO from 2001-2005, now a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said every US president since Harry Truman had pledged support for Article V and that the United States would defend Europe.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump was "100 percent" committed to collective defence. "We are not playing cutesie with this. He is fully committed," Spicer said.

Praise was always going to be in short supply after Trump's sharp election campaign criticism of the alliance, which he blamed for not doing more to combat terrorism.

Last year, Trump threatened to abandon US allies in Europe if they did not spend enough on defense, comments that were particularly unnerving for the ex-Soviet Baltic states on Russia's border which fear Moscow might try a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

Although he has since softened his tone in phone calls and meetings with Western leaders, Trump's sharp words on Thursday recalled his awkward meeting with Angela Merkel in March, when he pressed the German chancellor for Germany to meet NATO's military spending target.

NATO diplomats planned to placate Trump with a pledge on Thursday to agree to national plans by the end of this year showing how NATO allies will meet a promise to spend 2 percent of economic output every year on defense by 2024.

But Trump increased the pressure, calling that agreement made at a summit in Wales in 2014 "the bare minimum".

"Even 2 percent of GDP is insufficient ... 2 percent is the bare minimum for confronting today's very real and very vicious threats," Trump said.

He also made his presence felt at his first NATO summit, literally, pushing his way past Montenegro's prime minister, Dusko Markovic, whose country joins the organisation next month, in footage that went viral.

Spicer said he had not seen the video but assumed the U.S. president was moving to his designated spot.

NATO nonetheless strived to impress Trump with allied jets flying overhead and a walk through the new glass headquarters, which replaces a 1960s prefab structure.

Trump, a real estate magnate, called the building "beautiful" and joked that he did not dare ask how much it cost.
Taormina (Sicily): The differences are well-known: climate change, trade and migration threaten to throw a summit of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies off its consensus game, with US President Donald Trump cast as the spoiler-in-chief. But it may not play out exactly that way, according to long-time G7 observers.

It is a forum made for Donald Trumps particular style. It is highly informal, highly interactive and they speak in very colloquial language to each other, said John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto. It is the ultimate lonely hearts club. No one understands how tough it is to have the top job except the peers with the top job in other countries.

While Trump has met all of the leaders one on one, this will be the first time all seven are around the same table, including also newcomers Emmanuel Macron of France, Theresa May of Britain and the Italian host, Paolo Gentiloni  forging a new dynamic after a year of global political turmoil amid rising nationalism.

Climate policy promises to be the real buzzkill at the G7 party. Endorsing measures to combat terror is expected to find easy agreement, especially after the attack on an English pop music concert killed 22 people Monday night. But some of the trust that fuels such meetings was undermined by a leak of British intelligence in the Manchester attack blamed on a U.S. official, prompting the Britain to decide not to share further intelligence in the case. Trump is also going against the grain on trade with more protectionist stand.

His pending review of US climate policies and decision not to make up his mind before Taormina has braced environmentalists for the possibility of bland language that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and emissions of in greenhouse gases under the Paris Agreement.

What we do not want to see is a false compromise on nothing, said Tobias Muenchmeyer, a political expert for Greenpeace. We want to see determination and commitment over unity, with the other partners going ahead without the United States.

Trumps attempts to impose a US travel ban on some Muslim countries contrast with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus position that immigration is a source of strong, sustainable inclusive growth. Sicily is on the front lines in Europes migration crisis, the first landfall for most of the more than 180,000 migrants who arrived in Italy last year  and the reason the Italian government chose Sicily as the backdrop for this summit.

Kirton said Trump has demonstrated the ability to come to bilateral agreements, and it is possible that Taormina will yield deals for which he can claim credit at home. But his volatile style could upend even summit decisions.

It is always possible the president will change his mind even before he lands in Washington and fire off some more tweets, Kirton said.
Home searches across Manchester have uncovered important items for the investigation into the concert bombing that left 22 people dead, Manchesters police chief announced on Thursday. A British official said Manchester police have decided not to share further information on the probe with the United States due to leaks blamed on US officials.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she plans to discuss the leaks with President Donald Trump at the Nato summit in Brussels. She said she plans to make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure.

British officials are particularly angry that photos detailing evidence about the bomb used in the Manchester attack were published in The New York Times, although it is not clear that the paper obtained the photos from US officials.

British police and security services were also upset that Abedis name was apparently leaked by US officials and published while police in Britain were withholding his name  and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya, where the bombers father lives.

A British official said that police in Manchester have decided to stop sharing information about their bombing investigation with the US until they get a guarantee that there will be no more leaks to the media. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

Ms May also said that progress is being made in the Manchester bombing investigation and said the national threat level remains critical meaning another attack may be imminent.

President Donald Trump vowed to crack down on leaks into the bombing. He slammed the leaks as deeply troubling and warned warning those responsible could face prosecution.

The alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling, Mr Trump said. If appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

There is no relationship we cherish more than the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, Mr Trump said, adding The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security.
Nine students, along with James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership Robert M. Franklin, departed for Haiti on May 23 for a travel seminar on "Moral Leadership in International Context" through Candler's Laney Legacy in Moral Leadership. The group will spend eight days in Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien, where they will meet with local leaders in ministry, government, NGOs, education and the arts.

During the trip, students will explore "issues of leadership, morality, corruption, gender, class, race, color, economic development, toxic charity, love, power, and justice in a most unique context," Franklin says. "Haiti is at once the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and the richest in culture, spiritual depth, collective resilience and natural beauty."

The seminar will culminate with an August-term course, where students will turn in final papers exploring how Americans can support efforts to change the narratives about Haiti in the global community, and policies and programs that empower Haitians in sustainable ways.

This is the second international seminar sponsored by the Laney Legacy program since its founding in 2014. In 2015, Franklin traveled with students to the Korean Peninsula.

"I like to say that we are drawn to 'leadership in liminal zones,' or morally ambiguous communities where one courageous and imaginative person and a small community of conscience can make an enormous historical difference," he says.

Follow along with the trip on social media with the hashtag #CandlerinHaiti.
Greenpeace activists stage a demonstration near the venue of the G7 summit in Taormina. (Photo: AP)

The G7 nations on Friday demanded action from internet providers and social media firms against extremist content online, vowing to step up their fight against terrorism after the Manchester attack.

The meeting comes days after several children were among 22 people killed in a concert bomb attack in Manchester, northwest England. G7 leaders failed to make progress on narrowing major differences between the US and its partners on climate change, hosts Italy said.

With President Donald Trump still reviewing the US position, the question of the Paris climate accord is still hanging, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni told a news conference.

The stalemate on climate change was mirrored by divisions between the US and the other six G7 countries over trade and migration at the annual summit, described by officials as the toughest in years.

The meeting is to conclude on Saturday with a final statement which Italian officials have indicated will be a fifth of the originally planned length  if it can be agreed at all.
Residents walk through damaged streets at the mountain resort town of Zabadani in the Damascus countryside, Syria. (Photo: Representational/ AP)

Beirut: US-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed at least 35 civilians in an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State group, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Syrias oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children, Abdel Rahman told.

Thursdays toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the Observatory said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday.

The Britain-based monitor this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on September 23, 2014.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, the Observatory said.

The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on ISs remaining bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks non-combatant deaths in Iraq and Syria, estimated earlier this week that as many as 366 civilians were killed in Iraq and Syria in April alone.

It said it had seen civilian fatalities surge since US President Donald Trump came to power and gave greater leeway to battlefield commanders.

Airwars figure and its claim that fatalities had risen under Trump were denied by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

The US military insists that its precision targeting abilities are the best in the world and that it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone.

More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syrias conflict broke out in March 2011.
The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets. (Photo: Representational/AP)

Beirut: A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told .

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," Abdel Rahman told.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria. Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March. Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.
Both the Indian Climbers bodies were found above 8,000 metres an altitude that marks the beginning of the "death zone" notorious for its difficult terrain and thin air as low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness. (Photo: Representational/File)

Kathmandu: Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of two Indian climbers who died on Mount Everest last year but whose remains could not be moved due to bad weather, an official said today.

A team of Nepali climbers retrieved the bodies of Goutam Ghosh and Paresh Nath from the balcony, an area just below the summit of the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain.

"Both the bodies are now in camp two in a place from where they can be airlifted. We are working out the logistics to bring them to Kathmandu," Sayeed Ahmeed Baba, an Indian official coordinating the operation, told.

Nath's body was found last year but bad weather forced rescuers to abandon attempts to retrieve it. Ghosh's remains were only located this year by other climbers on the mountain. "His body (Ghosh) was covered in snow and ice, so the team had to cut the ice to reach the body," Baba said.

Both bodies were found above 8,000 metres an altitude that marks the beginning of the "death zone" notorious for its difficult terrain and thin air as low oxygen levels heighten the risk of altitude sickness.

The retrieval of corpses from such a high altitude is a controversial topic within the climbing community. Some rescue companies refuse to retrieve bodies at that altitude, saying it puts too many other lives in danger.

"We do not risk the lives of the living to recover the dead," Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, one of the largest rescue firms in the Himalayas, told.

"When it comes to recovering the dead there is an acceptable level of risk above which we do not go." A separate team will ascend Everest on Thursday to

retrieve the body of another Indian climber who died over the weekend.

Ravi Kumar, 27, died after summiting Everest and becoming separated from his guide. His body was spotted on Monday a few hundred metres from the main route climbers follow to the summit.

"It is a very tough operation, risky as well. The body fell about 200 metres from the route into a very difficult area at about 8,400 metres. It is not easy to pull out the body," said Thupden Sherpa of Arun Treks, the company coordinating the mission.

Six people have perished on Everest this season, including feted Swiss climber Ueli Steck who died during an acclimatisation climb in late April.

The bodies of four more climbers were found on Tuesday, though their identities remain unknown and authorities suspect they could be fatalities from a previous year. At least 382 climbers have successfully reached the summit from the south side so far this season, with another 120 doing so from the Tibet side.

Many are still waiting to make their final push to the summit before the monsoon arrives in early June, marking the end of the short spring climbing season.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday condemned the honouring of an Indian Army officer who tied a civilian in Kashmir to a vehicle and used him as a human shield.

"Awarding Major Leetul Gogoi, who brazenly used a Kashmiri youth as a human shield, is condemnable. It is a crime and an insult to humanity," Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria told reporters during the weekly briefing here.

The international community, particularly the UN should take cognizance of the act, he added. Gogoi, a Major in the 53 Rashtriya Rifles, has been honoured with the Army Chief's commendation card for his "sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations".

Zakaria said Kashmir should be demilitarised to implement UNSC resolutions so that the Kashmiri people could exercise their right to self determination. He accused India of perpetrating and financing terrorism in Pakistan, saying the confessional statement of Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav confirms it.

Talking about the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in the Jadhav case, he said, "we are preparing for the case ahead of us, and don't have any specific details to share in this regard".

Zakaria said India has been trying to show that Pakistan has lost the first part of its battle at the ICJ. "This is the line Indian media is towing which is incorrect and misplaced. Why should you take this as a loss? Even those who were associated with it have not called it a loss," he said, adding that the order is a provisional measure that stayed execution of Jadhav pending the final verdict.

"The court has only stayed the execution, without ruling on the merits of the jurisdiction and maintainability of the case. In similar cases of the death penalty, the court has normally stayed the eminent executions as the court favours the right to life.

The court had been led to understand that the execution was imminent. Commander Jadhav can still avail the venues for appeal and clemency," Zakaria said. The stay order in no way prejudges the jurisdiction and merits of the case which are yet to be considered by the court, he said, adding that "hence, Indian claims of a victory in the case of commander Jadhav are incorrect and misleading".

Meanwhile, Zakaria said that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad has not formally sought consular access to an Indian man reportedly arrested in Islamabad. "We have requested Ministry of Interior, which is the line ministry, for details. Indian High Commission has not requested for the consular access," he said.

Zakaria said that Pakistan has approached the Indian High Commissioner regarding retired army officer Colonel Habib Zahir who went missing in Nepal. "We are in touch with the Nepali government and we have also approached the Indian High Commissioner in this regard for assistance," he said.

On China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said it would bring benefits for the entire region and not just for Pakistan and China. He said several countries have expressed desire to join the project.

Zakaria supported Chinese Foreign Ministry's remarks that the admission of non-NPT states into the Nuclear Suppliers Group should be dealt with in accordance with the principle of consensus and through an open and transparent inter-governmental process while following the two-step approach.

"We believe that any criteria governing the membership of non-NPT states must be applied equitably while taking into account the non-proliferation goals and the imperative of maintaining strategic stability in South Asia," he added.
The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three policemen, the latest attack to hit Indonesia as it faces a surge in terror plots. Analysts described the claim as credible and said they believed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local network of IS- linked militants, carried out the bombing.



Two suicide bombers attacked the busy terminal in the capital late Wednesday in a dramatic assault that sparked panic and left human body parts and shattered glass strewn across the street. Three policemen were killed, and five other officers and five civilians injured in the bombing at the Kampung Melayu terminal. Authorities Thursday raided the houses of the suspected bombers, and found Islamic teaching materials and bladed weapons.



IS propaganda agency Amaq said late Thursday that the "attack on the Indonesian police gathering in the city of Jakarta was carried out by one of the fighters of the Islamic State", in a statement carried by the SITE Intelligence Group.



Hundreds of radicals from Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, have flocked abroad to fight with IS, and the country has seen a surge in plots and attacks linked to the jihadists over the past year.



Police have said they believe that IS is linked to the attack, but have given no further details. They would not comment directly on the IS claim of responsibility.



Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones, who heads think-tank the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, described the claim as "very credible".



She said she believed that the branch of JAD based in Bandung, a city on the main island of Java, had carried out the bombing.



Al Chaidar, a terrorism expert from the University of Malikussaleh in Indonesia's Aceh province, said he also thought the claim credible.



JAD was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in January, which said the network was an umbrella group for about two dozen extremist outfits.



Some have pointed the finger at the group for carrying out a suicide and gun attack in Jakarta in January last year that left four assailants and four civilians dead, and was also claimed by IS.
The CBI today named former RJD MP and strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin as an accused in the journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case.



As per the CBI Special court's order, Shahabuddin was produced in the court of Special Judge Anupam Kumari here through video-conferencing facility.



Shahabuddin is the 10th accused in the murder case.



The CBI Special court had on May 22 issued the production warrant against Shahabuddin on the plea of CBI to produce him through video-conferencing for trial.



The CBI had also filed the application the same day for making Shahabuddin as an accused in the case.



The CBI counsel submitted that it would soon file charge-sheet against Shahabuddin, who is currently lodged in high-security Tihar jail in the national capital.



The premier investigating agency has already filed charge-sheet against seven accused persons in the case while two accused persons- Mohammad Javed and Mohammad Kaif- are on bail. Javed and Kaif are active members of Shahabuddin gang.



The four-time RJD MP from Siwan is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Rajdeo Ranjan, a journalist of a prominent Hindi daily in Siwan last year.



Shahabuddin is facing trial in more than 45 criminal cases and was moved to Tihar Jail in February this year on a Supreme Court order on a plea by Siwan native Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons were killed in two separate incidents.



Rajdeo Ranjan, district bureau chief of a Hindi daily was gunned down on May 13 last year and his wife has accused Shahabuddin of having a role in the killing.



The Special court fixed June 9 as the next date for production of Shahabuddin in the case.
In a sudden twist in the tale, the rape victim in the much-publicised sex-scandal in Patna has prayed before the court that she be allowed to marry her tormentor.



The victim, a Dalit, who is the daughter of a former Congress minister, had charged a young businessman Nikhil Priyadarshi, son of retired IAS officer Krishna Bihari Prasad, with rape and running a sex racket in Patna.



After the victim lodged a FIR (No. 26/16) at the SC/ST police station charging Nikhil, his brother Subhash, his father Krishna Bihari, and friends Sanjit, Brajesh Pandey and Mrinal with sexually abusing her, the police arrested Nikhil and his father from Uttarakhand.



They were charged under Sections 354 and 376 of the IPC, and other Sections of the SC/ST Act besides POCSO (Protection of children from sexual offences) Act, since the girl was a minor when the crime was committed. The medical examination later confirmed that the girl was raped multiple times by the accused.



The father-son duo was on the run for about two months before being apprehended from Laxmanpur in Garhwal in Uttarakhand during a vehicle checking drive in March 2017. Their Audi car was also seized. They were brought to Patna and produced before the court which remanded them to jail.



Now, in a sudden twist, the girl has moved an application (also called compromise petition) before the special judge hearing the case, Justice Akhilanand Dubey, praying that she was ready to marry the accused Nikhil. The petition, which has the signature of the victim, says that since the family elders from both sides have suggested that a compromise should be reached between the two families, she was making a fresh appeal to start life afresh.



However, law experts argue that since the girl had slapped the case under SC/ST Act and recorded her statement under 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), that too when she was a minor (she now claims to be a major), it could be difficult for the court to allow a compromise. In a rape case, that too under SC/ST Act, the various sections are non-compoundable, which essentially means there is no scope for compromise. Lets see what the court decides, said a senior lawyer.






Train services on the Gomoh-Barkakana section of East Central Railway were disrupted after Maoists set ablaze Dumri Bihar Railway station, an engine and valuable railway equipment, the police today said.



The incident happened within East Central Railway's Dhanbad division in Bokaro district last night, the police said.



Around 100 Maoists laced with firearms arrived at the station, forced the employees to leave and then they burnt the station, an engine of a goods train and valuable railway equipment kept at the station, railway sources said.



They also took the engine driver's walkie-talkie before they fled the scene, sources said.



Therefore rail services between Gomoh-Barkakana section were disrupted. Trains such as Gomo-Barkakana Passenger, Ahmedabad-Howrah Express, Jabalpur-Howrah Shaktipunj Express were stranded for several hours, sources said.



The DIG (Bokaro) Saket Kumar Singh along with Superintendent of Police Y S Ramesh and Divisional Railway Manager (Dhanbad) rushed to the spot to investigate the incident.



YS Ramesh said all the possible routes used by Maoists to move around were sealed. In addition, a massive search operation was launched to track down them.



Ramesh said the ultras had plan to trigger a blast and had planted 40 can bombs in a series to cause damage to the security personnel.



But the security personnel defused the bomb after getting a confidential information in this regard, he said.

An encounter between the Maoists and security personnel also took place in a jungle near Dumri Bihar, he added.



Train services on the Gomoh-Barkakana section were restored today.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators and has given new direction to India's economy, President Pranab Mukherjee said today.



Addressing a book release event on the third anniversary of NDA government, he said Modi has taken various initiatives and some of his decisions have been epoch making ones.



"No doubt in the contemporary period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators and perhaps can be compared with other illustrious prime ministers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who communicated on their principle, on their ideas accepting the Parliamentary form of government and particularly to have a secular Constitution," Mukherjee said.



He said without having the capacity to be a good communicator one cannot expect to lead the millions of people.



Talking about the government, the president said there has been many major developmental initiatives in India in different directions.



"It (initiatives) has been possible for India because of its strong foundations in economy to overcome the financial crises and subsequently the international financial problems including the Euro zone crises.



"Indian economy is moving steadfast. The prime minister has given a new direction, no doubt. Various initiatives which he has taken clearly indicates the onward movement of India," Mukherjee said.



Some of the decisions are no doubt epoch making decisions, he said.



The president was speaking after accepting the first copies of two books, including one on Modi's radio broadcast 'Mann Ki Baat'.



The books-- 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio' and 'Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Midterm'-- were released by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan at a function held in Rashtrapati Bhavan.



Mukherjee said the subjects chosen by the prime minister in 'Mann Ki Baat' affect the lives of a billion people.



Vice President Hamid Ansari, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Lok Sabha Speaker and other dignitaries were present during the programme.
Army on Friday foiled an attack by a Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of north Kashmirs Baramulla district, killing two militants.







Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said the BAT action was aimed against an Indian Army patrol along the LoC. "Two BAT terrorists have been killed; and the operation is still on, he said.



According to police sources, the bodies of the two slain militants were lying in no man's land along the LoC. They said the BAT action was foiled between Gwaltan and Uroosa in Uri sector.



On May 1, n a provocative attack, Pakistani BAT had crossed into the Indian territory near the LoC in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in Jammu killing two Indian soldiers and mutilating their bodies. The mutilation of bodies triggered fresh tension along the LoC and days later the Army carried out an assault on Pakistani posts which were aiding cross-border infiltration.



The primary task of the BAT, which usually consists of Pak Army commandos and dreaded terrorists from Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad outfits, is to dominate the LoC by carrying out disruptive actions in the form of surreptitious raids.



A senior Army official said short and swift raids by BAT are not a new phenomenon and have been carried at regular intervals along the LoC in the last several years. "The BAT teams usually have four to 10 people as Pakistan army encourages such action along the LoC," he said.



"The rogue BAT teams have hit India hard on many occasions. However,now the Indian army is alert to foil the BAT team actions along the LoC and give them a befitting reply. Today's response in Uri sector is the proof how alert Indian army is along the LoC," the officer revealed.


After a dismal showing at the hustings and a rebellion in the rank and file of the BSP, the emergence of the Dalit outfit Bheem Army at the national level has compounded problems for party chief Mayawati.



Even before the BSP could have come to terms with being relegated to a poor third, managing merely 19 seats (in the 403-member UP Assembly), 61 down from 2012, it is faced with a new challenge in the form of the Bheem Army which has taken the winds out of its sails following Saharanpur caste clashes.



The organisation of Dalit youths across seven states in northern India, was founded by a young lawyer Chandrashekhar two years ago in Saharanpur, and shot into prominence during the clashes. He belongs to Chhutmalpur village adjoining Shabbirpur, the epicentre of recent troubles.



Though the mission of the Bheem Army was to educate the community's children free of cost, with their first school coming up two years ago at Saharanpur's Bhado village, it came into limelight in April when an Ambedkar Jayanti procession was stopped by Rajputs.



The rise of the Bheem Army made BSP chief all the more worried as it succeeded in mobilising Dalits in western UP, the stronghold of BSP.



Bheem Army, with its show of strength by organising an impressive protest in the national capital last Sunday over Saharanpur incidents, literally knocked at the doors of national politics.



Chandrashekhar, despite being wanted for his alleged involvement in the clashes between the police and the protesters on May 9, made an appearance with his supporters in New Delhi.



The BSP supremo, who has stated time and again that members of her samaj consider her as their "goddess", could ill afford any political outfit or person to unseat her from this position of strength which is so essential for her to spring back to power in Uttar Pradesh, political observers feel.



By visiting Saharanpur, Mayawati also plans to counter the Bheem Army by mobilising party cadre in the region.



Though Mayawati had always been vocal whenever there had been any incident of atrocity on Dalits, be it in the state or at the national level while being in power or outside, it is for the first time in years barring 2014 when she moved out this Tuesday to meet the victims herself, driving down to trouble-ridden Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur.



While she claims that she has always discouraged politicians visiting troubled area, she chose to visit Saharanpur quite late when the fight of the Dalits have been taken up by Bheem Army.



Clashes had started in Shabbirpur on May 5 after Dalits refused to allow a procession by Thakurs to mark the birth anniversary of Rajput king Maharana Pratap and it is alleged that to avenge the death of a youth of their community, Thakurs had set the houses of Dalits on fire.



Even when in power (2007-12), Mayawati did not move out to meet Dalit victims in cases of atrocities on them and had instead sent senior leaders to give her report.



She visited Shabbirpur and blamed the BJP and RSS for the trouble but her visit triggered a fresh round of violence leaving a man dead after he received gunshot injuries and 20 others injured.



Political observers feel that the coming days will see a more active Mayawati asserting herself for regaining lost ground, first for the upcoming urban body elections and later for the battle of the ballots in 2019 for Lok Sabha.



Besides raising the issue of atrocities on Dalits in Parliament, the BSP could also hold rallies, dharnas and demonstrations over such issues.



She will not let go any opportunity of making her constituency realise that she had been leading their fight at every level.



In 2014, Mayawati went to Badaun after two cousin sisters were found hanging dead from a tree in Katra Shahadatganj during the Akhilesh Yadav government, to find out only later that the victims were not Dalits and their family members were prime suspects in what is being investigated as a case of honour killing.

Though she had been busy adjusting caste and communal equations in ticket allocation for the polls she had little realised that BJP, which has been all out wooing her Dalit votebank would be able to pull the rug from under her feet, making a clean sweep in areas considered BSP stronghold.



Ever since her party's near rout in the recent Assembly elections, Mayawati has been trying hard to blame it on "faulty" EVMs.
Gunmen today opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt, killing at least 23 people.



The bus was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo.



Twenty-three Christians were killed and twenty five others injured, according to the Ministry of Health.



Security forces were searching for the attackers. The ambulances rushed to the place of the incident to transfer injured to hospitals.



There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.



Two suicide bombings targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria on April 9 left at least 46 people dead.
The Indian Air Force today ordered a court of inquiry into the accident involving a Sukhoi jet, whose wreckage was found today 60 km from Tezpur in Assam.



The Su-30 MKI jet, with two pilots on board, had gone missing on Tuesday shortly after taking off from the Tezpur Salonibari air force station on a routine training sortie.



"A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident," IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said here.



The wreckage of jet has been found in the thick forest around 60 km from Tezpur where it lost radar contact with the base.



"The wreckage was located today and ground parties are standing by to be airlifted to the crash site as the area is totally inaccessible. Search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be perused by the ground parties after they reach the crash site," Banerjee said.



He said search teams from the Army are attempting to reach the crash site by trekking cross country, adding their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of the terrain.



The Su-30 jet had gone off the radar and lost radio contact around 1110 hours on Tuesday when aircraft was around 60 km from Tezpur.



The aircraft was on a routine training mission as part of a two-aircraft formation. A massive search operation was launched hours after the jet went missing.



However, incessant rain and dense clouds had hampered the search operations in air and on the ground.
The Defence ministry today said that a Colonel-rank officer arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old woman here was in no way connected with the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO).



The concerned army officer Col.Rishi Sharma is not working at the DRDO centre in Shamirpet, near Hyderabad, and is also in no way connected with the DRDO, the ministry said in a statement issued in Delhi.



Sharma was arrested by the Hyderabad police on May 15. The police while giving details of the arrest the next day said the officer was on deputation with the DRDO.



Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shamshabad Division) P V Padmaja maintained today that Col.Rishi Sharma is working on deputation as Administrative Officer at DRDO, Shamirpet.



Padmaja also said that following the arrest of the officer he was produced before a court here which rejected the army's request for trial in army court and send him in judicial remand.
The Supreme Court on Friday declined to consider urgently a PIL for a probe under supervision of a High Court judge into the violence in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.



A vacation bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha said that there was no urgency and the petition, filed by advocate Gaurav Yadava, could be heard after the summer vacations.



Yadava mentioned the matter before the bench, contending that there was complete failure of law and order as the local administration failed to control the violence involving upper caste 'Thakur' and Dalit in the Western UP district, situated less than 200 kms from Delhi.



The petitioner sought direction to set up a special investigation team headed by a sitting HC judge to conduct fair, impartial and independent investigation to unearth the truth and ensure perpetrators were brought to book. He also sought compensation to all those who died and suffered injuries or loss to their properties.



The people of Dalit communities are forced and compelled to leave their houses and shift to safer places which is gross violation of fundamental rights of innocent people, Yadava contended.



On May 5, 2017, riots took place at Shabbirpur Village, Saharanpur and the people of upper caste community torched several houses of the people belonging to Dalits, 20 vehicles were burnt and the valuable from their houses were stolen. Around 30 to 40 peoples were still missing and around 150 have left their villages to the safer places due to insecurity to their life and property as the violence still continued to erupt, the petitioner claimed.


Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa will be the BJP's chief ministerial face in the Assembly polls scheduled early next year, party president Amit Shah said today.



During an interaction with PTI, Shah also indicated that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani would be the party's choice for the top post in the state, asserting that it would win more than 150 seats in the Assembly polls slated later this year. The Assembly has 182 seats.



He, however, said the party has not yet decided on its chief ministerial face in Himachal Pradesh, which goes to polls along with Gujarat.



"It (Karnataka election) will be fought under Yeddyurappa," Shah said.



Asked if it meant that Yeddyurappa, who is the BJP's Karnataka unit chief, will be the chief ministerial face, he said, "He will be."



The Karnataka unit has been facing factional fight with a group headed by former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa targeting Yeddyurappa's leadership.



To a question on the party's state of affairs in Karnataka, Shah said he would visit the state soon. The party had recently taken action against some leaders, suspected to be behind the internal wrangling.





Asked whether Rupani will be the party's CM face in Gujarat, Shah said, "He is already the chief minister."

"What does it mean that he will be the chief ministerial face...," he said in a lighter vein.



Yeddyurappa (74), an influential Lingayat leader, had led the saffron party to its maiden victory in the southern state in 2008, but was forced to resign following charges of corruption against him.



He floated his own outfit in 2011. Though his party performed poorly in the 2013 Assembly polls, it managed to wean away a substantial chunk of the BJP votes, leading to a rout of the saffron party.



He returned to the BJP fold ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. Food Market Merchandising, Inc., a Minnesota corporation Plaintiff - Appellant v. Scottsdale Indemnity Company Defendant - Appellee No. 16-3427 Decided: May 25, 2017

Before LOKEN, MURPHY, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

Food Market Merchandising, Inc. sued Scottsdale Indemnity Company for coverage under a Business and Management Indemnity Policy. Both parties moved for summary judgment. The district court granted Scottsdale's motion. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291, this court affirms.

I.

The policy covers only claims first made against the insured during the policy period  and reported to the insurer pursuant to the terms of the relevant coverage section. The Notification provision of the coverage section at issue states:

The Insureds shall, as a condition precedent to their rights to payment under this Coverage Section only, give Insurer written notice of any Claim as soon as practicable, but in no event later than sixty (60) days after the end of the Policy Period.

Section E.1. (bolded words in original, defined in policy).

In January 2014, former employee Robert Spinner sued Food Market, seeking unpaid commissions. In June, a court granted partial summary judgment for Spinner, awarding twice the unpaid commissions and attorney's fees. It did not reduce the award to judgment. (The parties settled two years later).

In August 2014during the policy periodFood Market notified Scottsdale of the Spinner lawsuit. It sought defense and indemnification under the Employee Insuring provision of the Employment Practices coverage:

Insurer shall pay the Loss of the Insureds which the Insureds have become legally obligated to pay by reason of an Employment Practices Claim first made against the Insureds during the Policy Period or, if elected, the Extended Period, and reported to the Insurer pursuant to Section E.1. herein, for an Employment Practices Wrongful Act taking place prior to the end of the Policy Period.

In September, Scottsdale tentatively denied coverage.

In June 2015, Food Market sued Scottsdale for coverage, asserting claims for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and declaratory judgment. A week later, Scottsdale formally denied coverage, stating Food Market's notice was untimely and its claim outside the policy's scope.

Both parties moved for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment to Scottsdale, finding no genuine issue that [Food Market] failed to notify Scottsdale of the Spinner Litigation as soon as practicable. Because timely notice is a condition precedent to payment under the Policy, Scottsdale's duty to defend/indemnify was never triggered, and Scottsdale is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

This court review[s] de novo the district court's interpretation of state law and its grant of summary judgment. Babinski v. American Family Ins. Group, 569 F.3d 349, 351 (8th Cir. 2009). Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and [ ] the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.  Id. (alteration in original), quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). Because this case is in federal court based on diversity jurisdiction, Minnesota's substantive law controls [the court's] analysis of the insurance policy. Id. at 351-52. This court may affirm summary judgment on any grounds supported by the record. Moyle v. Anderson, 571 F.3d 814, 817 (8th Cir. 2009).

II.

Food Market argues the district court erred in finding it did not provide timely notice under the policy.

A.

Food Market believes its notice was timely because it had a claims-made policy and gave notice within the claims period. Under Minnesota law, [a] claims-made policy requires the insured to give notice of the claim during the policy period. Cargill, Inc. v. Evanston Ins. Co., 642 N.W.2d 80, 86 n.3 (Minn. Ct. App. 2002), review denied (Minn. June 26, 2002). Here, the policy did not require notice to be given during the policy period, but instead only required that notice be given as soon as practicable, id., but in no event later than sixty (60) days after the end of the Policy Period. As such, it does not precisely fit the definition of a claims-made policy in Minnesota. Id. Ultimately, classification of the [ ] policy is irrelevant to an analysis of the issue needing decision: did [Food Market] give notice as soon as practicable? Id.

B.

Food Market contends the district court erred in finding no genuine issue of material fact about the timeliness of notice. The policy required Food Market give Scottsdale written notice of any claim as soon as practicable, but in no event later than sixty (60) days after the end of the Policy Period. Generally, whether the notice was given as soon as practicable is a fact-dependent question for a jury to determine. Id. at 86, citing St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Wabash Fire & Cas. Ins. Co., 264 F. Supp. 637, 642-43 (D. Minn. 1967). A court may grant summary judgment, however, when there is no genuine issue of material fact. Id. at 87, citing DLH, Inc. v. Russ, 566 N.W.2d 60, 71 (Minn. 1997). There is no genuine issue of material fact when the nonmoving party presents evidence creating only a metaphysical doubt as to a factual issue or the evidence is not sufficiently probative to permit reasonable persons to draw different conclusions. Id., citing DLH, 566 N.W.2d at 71.

Food Market presented no evidence that providing notice over seven months after Spinner sued was as soon as practicable. As the district court found:

Here, Spinner sued [Food Market] on January 13, 2014, and [Food Market] did not tender the matter to Scottsdale until August 22, 2014some seven months later. During that time, [Food Market] hired counsel, litigated the case, and negotiated with Spinner, all without seeking Scottsdale's involvement. [Food Market] has failed to explain its delay, averring only that it did not deliberately refrain from making an insurance claim at an earlier date. It retained representation to defend it in the Spinner litigation, and in the course of that representation, [Food Market]'s attorneys provided notice to Scottsdale. Nowhere does it identify facts from which a reasonable factfinder could conclude it provided notice to Scottsdale as soon as practicable.

(citations omitted).

Food Market says the court failed to consider whether: (1) the insurer's ability to investigate the claim was inhibited; (2) the underlying claim had yet been reduced to judgment; or (3) any facts in the underlying claim changed from when the insured knew of the claim until the insurer received notice. But these address whether the delay prejudiced Scottsdale, a showing both parties admit is not required where, as here, notice is a condition precedent to coverage. See id. (Evanston should not be required to make a showing of prejudice. If the notice of loss is a condition precedent of liability under the insurance contract, noncompliance with that provision is fatal to recovery. ), quoting Sterling State Bank v. Virginia Sur. Co., 173 N.W.2d 342, 346 (Minn. 1969). The policies in Food Market's cases do not have the condition precedent notice language here, and thus do not control. See Cary v. National Sur. Co., 251 N.W. 123, 126 (Minn. 1933); Hooper v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co., 552 N.W.2d 31, 36-37 (Minn. Ct. App. 1996). See also North Star Mut. Ins. Co. v. Midwest Family Mut. Ins. Co., 634 N.W.2d 216, 220 n.1 (Minn. Ct. App. 2001) (noting that the language as soon as reasonably possible alone does not create a condition precedent).

In Cargill, Inc. v. Evanston Insurance Co., the court of appeals addressed notice as soon as practicable as a condition precedent. That court reversed summary judgment for the insurer on the issue of timely notice, finding a question of fact:

In this case, Cargill claims it waited as long as it did to notify Evanston due to the presence of a $1 million deductible provision in the Evanston policy. Cargill argues that it would have been pointless to notify Evanston at an earlier time because Cargill's costs in relation to the cleanup had not exceeded the $1 million limit. This court makes no assessment regarding the ultimate success of this argument. We conclude, however, that it would not be wholly unreasonable for a fact-finder to determine that, under the circumstances, it was practical for Cargill to wait until the $1 million deductible was exceeded. Cargill should have been permitted to make its argument to a fact-finder.

Cargill, 642 N.W.2d at 87.

The district court here cited Cargill, stating that [a] fact issue may be present, for example, where an insured offers some plausible reason for its delay. Unlike Cargill, the court found Food Market offered no reasons for delay.

The district court properly found no genuine issue of material fact about the timeliness of notice.

C.

Food Market asserts the policy's notification provision is ambiguous. Whether a contract is ambiguous is a question of law. Babinski, 569 F.3d at 352. Deciding whether an ambiguity exists, the court must read the policy as a whole. Mutual Serv. Cas. Ins. Co. v. Wilson Twp., 603 N.W.2d 151, 153 (Minn. Ct. App. 1999). Language in a policy is ambiguous if it is susceptible to two or more reasonable interpretations. Carlson v. Allstate Ins. Co., 749 N.W.2d 41, 45 (Minn. 2008). While any ambiguity in the insurance contract must be construed in favor of the insured, a court has no right to read an ambiguity into the plain language of an insurance policy. State Farm Ins. Cos. v. Seefeld, 481 N.W.2d 62, 64 (Minn. 1992).

Citing Cargill, Food Market claims the phrase as soon as practicable is ambiguous. But, in Cargill, the court found the phrase unambiguous: the policy unambiguously states that [a]s a condition precedent to his right to the protection afforded by this policy, the Insured shall, as soon as practicable, give the Company written notice of any claim made against him. Cargill, 642 N.W.2d at 87. Applying the unambiguous condition precedent to the facts of that case, the court concluded that it would not be wholly unreasonable for a fact-finder to determine that, under the circumstances, it was practical for Cargill to wait until the $1 million deductible was exceeded [before giving notice]. Id. Cargill refutes Food Market's proposition that the phrase as soon as practicable is inherently susceptible to more than one reasonable meaning. Rather, it shows how an unambiguous provision creates a question of fact if the insured offers reasons for delay.

Food Market also relies on George K. Baum & Co. v. Twin City Fire Ins. Co., 760 F.3d 795 (8th Cir. 2014). Although Baum has similar languageas soon as practicable, but in no event later than sixty (60) days after the POLICY EXPIRATION DATEit is distinguishable. Id. at 801. First, it is based on New York law. Id. at 797. Second, this court held the policy was ambiguous regarding any timely notice requirement applicable to later liabilities arising from a timely original claim. Id. at 801 (emphasis added). This court did not address the issue here: whether the phrase as soon as practicable is ambiguous regarding timely notice for an original claim. In fact, Baum found the insurer's interpretation of the policy unreasonable because it ignored in no event later than sixty (60) days after [the policy's expiration], a phrase the court found textually applies to, and limits, the preceding as soon as practicable.  Id. at 802. Similarly, Food Market's interpretation ignores the phrase as soon as practicable. As the district court concluded, Food Market's interpretation of the condition precedentrequiring notice only within 60 days of the policy's expirationrender[s] the phrase as soon as practicable meaningless.

The district court properly found the policy unambiguous.

D.

Food Market thinks Scottsdale waived its timeliness argument by failing to assert notice as a reason for denying coverage. See Minnesota Farm Bureau Serv. Co. v. American Cas. Co. of Reading, Pa., 167 F. Supp. 315, 319 (D. Minn. 1958), reversed on other grounds, 270 F.2d 686 (8th Cir. 1959) (It is the law in Minnesota and many other jurisdictions that a refusal by an insurer to pay a claim or to defend an action on the grounds that the loss occurred in consequence of risk not covered by the policy is in itself a waiver of the policy provisions requiring notice.). This argument is not supported by the record. Although Food Market says Scottsdale tentatively denied coverage based on scope, not notice, the district court found, and Food Market does not dispute, that Scottsdale's denial letter explicitly cited untimely notice as one of the reasons Scottsdale had denied coverage. No precedent requires waiver based on tentative coverage conversations. The district court properly concluded Scottsdale expressly relied upon the notice provision when denying coverage. There is no waiver.

III.

For the first time in the reply brief , Food Market argues the Policy's condition precedent affects [its] rights to payment only and not its duty to defend. It also argues, for the first time, that the district court erred in granting summary judgment to Scottsdale on Food Market's good faith and fair dealing claim. As a general rule, [this court] will not consider arguments raised for the first time in a reply brief, and declines to do so here. Barham v. Reliance Standard Life Ins. Co., 441 F.3d 581, 584 (8th Cir. 2006).

* * * * * * *

The judgment is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable Richard H. Kyle, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota.

BENTON, Circuit Judge.
The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, C.R. Chaudhary that the soil health card scheme will enable the farmers to know the nutrient status of the land which he owns. This will facilitate him to use the right kind of fertilizers and optimal use of water. Over 6 crore soil health cards have already been issued in the country.



Speaking at the valedictory session of the Global Rajasthan Agritech Meet (GRAM) in Kota he said, that the time has come for farmers to anticipate the market for their produce. Knowing the forthcoming agri-trends in the market will not only get them the right price but also will prove to be a deterrent for the losses they suffer. He also cautioned the farmers against the sheep mentality of following the same crop trend which has done well in a particular period.



Earlier, Rajasthan Agriculture Minister, Prabhu Lal Saini informed that over a period of 3 days a whopping over 40,000 farmers participated in GRAM Kota. Throwing light on the initiatives of the State Government, the Agriculture Minister said that till now as many as 45 lakh Soil Health Cards have been issued to the farmers.



A book relating to Agriculture  Rajasthan Krishi Vikas Drishti compiled by Rajasthan Agriculture Minister, Mr. Prabhu Lal Saini was also released on the occasion. The Member of Parliament, Kota-Bundi, Om Birla said that the Hadoti region will stand to benefit from the 3-day GRAM which has seen huge footfalls.



The Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Government of Rajasthan, Neelkamal Darbari in her Vote of Thanks address sated that the Kota GRAM has become a landmark in terms of huge participation and has met its objective of providing information and knowledge to farmers for adopting new methods in agriculture and allied sectors.
On a day the Narendra Modi-led NDA government completed three years, the BJP suffered a jolt in the Muslim-dominated powerloom town of Malegaon on Friday where it failed to capture in the corporation elections despite making all efforts including campaign for ban on triple talaq.



The results of the polls to Malegaon Municipal Corporation (MMC), Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) and Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) were declared on Friday which in totality threw up a mixed political scenario.



While Malegaon is located in Nashik district, the other two - Bhiwandi and Panvel are part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).



The Panvel victory gives a major thumbs up to the development agenda of Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.



In the newly constituted 78-seat PMC, the BJP won absolute majority by winning 51 seats, followed by Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), Congress 2 and NCP 2. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the Raj Thackeray-led MNS could not open their account. The PWP has a strong presence in the Raigad district, however, it appeared the Left-dominance is eroding from this costal district. Panvel is very important because it is next to Navi Mumbai satellite township and the entire region would see an investment of nearly Rs 60,000 crore as the new international airport and Naina, a mega township bigger than size of Mumbai is coming up. The proposed trans-harbour link would also ensure direct connectivity with Mumbai.



Reports reaching here from Malegaon, that has 84 seats, said that BJP managed to win nine seats. Here the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 28 followed by NCP 20. The Shiv Sena got 13, Owaisi-brothers led AIMIM bagged 7 and Janata Dal 6. The BJP had fielded 55 candidates including 27 Muslims. There were 16 women candidates. However, none of the women candidates could win despite the triple talaq issue.



In the Muslim-dominated powerloom town Bhiwandi in Thane district, Congress put up a tally of 47 in the 90 member house. The BJP bagged 19 seats, Shiv Sena 12, Samajwadi Party 2 followed by smaller parties and others.




A united opposition on Friday decided to put up a joint candidate for presidential elections if they do not reach a consensus on the nominee proposed by the Modi government.



The decision on the conditional contest for the presidential election was taken at a luncheon meeting hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi that brought arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and BSP's Mayawati, and the Left parties and Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the same table.



The unity of opposition forces, which the leaders said would continue for the next Lok Sabha elections, came on a day when the Modi government marked its third year in office. Leaders of 17 political parties joined the high table with Gandhi.



A prominent absentee at Gandhi's luncheon was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday and join him for a banquet hosted in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.



A JD(U) spokesperson scotched suggestions of a break in opposition unity pointing out that the party was represented at the Gandhi luncheon by veteran member Sharad Yadav and the Kumar had conveyed to the Congress President his inability to attend the meeting.



Among those who attended the meeting include Rahul Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, NC leader Omar Abdullah, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury, Sudhakar Reddy and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.



Over lunch at the dining hall in the Parliament Library building, the opposition leaders decided to put the onus on the Modi government to make the first move by suggesting a presidential nominee that would be acceptable to all.



The normal practice has been, that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus, on the names of the candidates for these important offices. This has not happened so far, said the joint statement read out by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav.



If acceptable, consensual candidates do not emerge, then we (Opposition parties) shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our Republic, they said.



Banerjee said there was no harm in discussing a candidate with the government if it comes out with a name and referred to the 2002 Presidential election when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had floated A P J Abdul Kalam's name and a consensus was evolved around it.



She said all the parties were united in criticism of the government over Kashmir, the violence in Saharanpur and demonetisation.



The joint statement said the opposition parties resolved to strengthen floor coordination in Parliament and unitedly oppose the government's policies that are imposing unprecedented further burden on all sections of our people - farmers, working people, youth, SCs, STs minorities, women and other weaker sections of the society in various parts of the country.
A group of eminent citizens today said the strapping of a civilian to an army jeep has brought the human rights record in Jammu and Kashmir to a new low and the efforts to legitimise the act was condemnable.



The group of 22, comprising former high court judge Shabir Hasnain Masoodi and former chairman of Public Service Commission Mohammad Shafi Pandit, lashed out at the silence of state government and in particular Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on the issue.



In a statement here, they said that they had petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking an end to the human rights violations in the state, particularly tying of an "innocent" man to an army jeep as a "human shield" by the army officer.



"With the strapping of an innocent Kashmiri young man by an officer of Indian Army to the bonnet of an army vehicle and parading him for hours through a dozen villages, the abysmal Indian human rights record in Jammu and Kashmir has come down to a new low," the statement said.



Describing it as a "dastardly act" which was "totally unjustifiable", the statement said, "It is against human dignity, offends core constitutional values and violates International Covenants, to which India is a signatory."They said, "the effort to legitimise the act by cooking up and concocting facts is bizarre and deserves to be equally condemned."



They said it was "painful and shocking that instead of expediting the Court of Inquiry proceedings ordered against the officer and the investigation in FIR registered by the local police against him, the officer has been decorated and favoured with an award and is applauded by a person no less than the Defence Minister of India for an otherwise cowardly act."



The statement said that "awarding the officer before conclusion of the Court of Inquiry and police investigation is unfair and grossly inappropriate. Those who have decided to confer the award have done no good to Indian Army or people of India but widened the gulf between them and the people of Jammu and Kashmir."



Lashing out at Mehbooba, they said, "Having condemned the incident, directed investigation by a senior officer and sought an immediate report, the Chief Minister should have been the first person to strongly protest grant of award to the army officer, an accused before the state police and demanded its withdrawal pending investigation."



Chief Minister, by her silence, has condoned the grant of award, the statement said.
MySugar factory in Mandya has been abuzz with activity for the past one month. This has raised the hopes of farmers and the people in the region that the factory will resume operations soon.



The factory, which is the lifeline of the people of Mandya district, has stopped crushing for the past three years. The renewed activities have raised hopes that the factory would resume operations from July 15, the date set by District in-charge Minster M Krishnappa.



According to sources, the Boiler Inspector is expected to visit the factory on May 27 and issue a certificate. Around 4,000 tonnes of bagasse (sugarcane husk) and 2,000 tonnes of firewood have already been collected for beginning the power generation unit. With 2.5 lakh tonnes of sugarcane grown in the region, discussions are being held with farmers for procurement.



Puttaswamy Gowda, the new Sugarcane Development Officer of the factory, has approached cane growers and issued permission for a supply of cane grown on one lakh hectares.



Salaries disbursed



Speaking to DH, an employee of MySugar said that the management recently released one months salary and they hope that the factory would begin functioning by July 15.



The boiler was started on April 14 on Ambedkar Jayanti. District in-charge Minister Krishnappa, MLA Ambareesh and others participated in the puja and promised to provide all financial help to revive the MySugar factory.



MySugar Managing Director Prakash said that both the factory and the power generation unit will be started at the same time and all preparations are being made to ensure that the factory becomes functional. Raw materials have been procured and salaries have been disbursed to the employees to instil confidence among them, he said.



Interviews have been held at the factorys Bengaluru office for filling the posts of engineers. The appointments will be made on a contract basis, he said.



Challenges ahead



He said the biggest challenge before the factory is fixing the price for sugarcane. The jaggery-making units are ready to pay Rs 3,200 per tonne. As per the Centres directive they should pay Rs 2,550 per tonne. The excess price is decided by the state government. Discussions are on to fix a scientific price so that farmers are not disappointed, Prakash said.



Emotional bond



Raitha Sangha district unit president Shambunahalli Suresh said that farmers will supply sugarcane even if the factory pays Rs 100 less as they share an emotional bonding with the factory.



The Sugar minister has failed to take any step to begin the factory. The ministers are succumbing to the lobby of private factories. Stopping of MySugar is the reason behind the rise in suicide of farmers in the district. The situation is sure to improve once the factory becomes operational, he said.
In an attempt to increase green cover through seed ball culture for sustainable forest growth, city-based Clean Mysuru Foundation, has been working towards promoting cleanliness by preventing environmental degradation through task oriented activities.



The foundation has planned Green Chamundi Abhiyana at Sri Shivananada Ashram at the footsteps of Chamundi Hill on May 28 to initiate its efforts for a green canopy here.



In its pursuit towards a greener environment, the foundation has planned to create a green canopy in and around Chamundi Hill for a period of five years.



Under this initiative, medicinal plants, shrubs, fruit-bearing and environmentally sustainable seed varieties will be planted though seed ball culturing. As part of the Green Chamundi Abhiyana, a volunteering approach for seed ball culture has been formulated.



With the support and association of several organisations, we can increase the momentum, awareness and fight against global, local climate change due to bad practices. With this green initiative, bird population would be increased to create a natural green canopy. The uniqueness of the Abhiyana is to bring awareness on mixed tree culture and use of urban compost in seed ball culture, Clean Mysuru Foundation secretary S Madhukesh said.



Seed ball culture is an innovative method and is adopted by many communities to create sustainable forest. Clean Mysuru Foundation hopes that the method will promote home composting and also enable more green environs in the days to come.



The foundation is adopting the method for seed ball culture by utilising red soil, cow dung and urban compost mixture produced by Mysuru City Corporation by using home-generated wet waste. The foundation has procured seeds from Karnataka Forest Department, Seed Division at Nagavala, and has also purchased medicinal variety seeds for seed ball culture programme.



It is an interesting fact to note that a natural way of growing trees using seed ball culture along with plantation would be able to enhance forest cover in future. Clean Mysuru Foundation would like participation of citizens and organisations for creating a green canopy in all open places to attract birds and animals for sustainable forest growth, Madhukesh said.



Organisations and institutions such as Infosys, Aruna Green Ventures Greenaria, H V Rajeev Sneha Balaga, Namma Mysuru Foundation, Akhanda Bharata Seva Sene and others have extended their support for the Abhiyana.
Realising the diminishing fortune from the North American region, Indian IT industry has decided to take proactive steps to forge alliances in countries like China, Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries to tap growing opportunities there.



Besides the pro-protectionist measure initiated by US administration, the $150-billion IT sector is facing heats from aggressive pricing pressures and technological changes taking place across the globe and growing job cuts in its home turf.



According to analysts, Indian IT companies can tap opportunities worth $250 billion in Apac region, primarily China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia.



Indian IT industry association Nasscom organised a strategic meeting early this week with China Software Industry Association (CSIA) in Zhongguancun Software Park. Besides India software industry cooperation and exchange forum and the National Development and Reform Commission High-tech Industry Division officals, CSIA Director of International Cooperation Fu Xiaoyu and India Embassy Trade and Business Counselor Banda Lu participated in the meeting.



Rapid development of the Internet of Things, large data analysis, artificial intelligence and industrial 4.0 are areas of cooperation. China's choice as a large data centre in Guiyang is strategic significance. Indian software and Information services companies can focus on the possibility of provincial or municipal level tie up, states CSIA release.



China is developing Guiyang as a symbol of the countrys determination to transition from a manufacturing based economy to an intelligent big data economy. In January, NIIT unveiled its biggest Big Data talent training base at Guiyang.



Companies such as TCS and Infosys and IT-training have started operation in China and others like Tech Mahindra, Wipro and HCL are on their way to form units there.



Talking to DH, Japanese External Trade Organisation Bengaluru representative Deepak Anand said Indian IT companies are finding huge opportunity in Japan as more than 100 of them are present there.



There is a growing opportunity in engineering, IoT, Industry 4.0 and data analysis. Indian companies can leverage on the trust developed over a period of time. Nasscoms Japan desk is helping Indian companies to expand their presence there, said Anand.
A comic booklet 'Street Vending: Pakka Legal ' was brought out to spread the word on the rights of street vendors, Street Vendors Bill and the responsibilities of government bodies towards protection of vendors.



A collaborative effort of Bengaluru Jilla Beedhi Vyapaari Sanghatanegala Okkuta, a federation of about 40 street vendor unions, and Alternative Law Forum, a legal research organisation, the 24-page book highlights the problems faced by street vendors, existing laws that ensure their protection, importance of street vendor unions and more, through graphics and caricatures.



Available in English and Kannada, the booklets artwork was done by city-based visual artist Vinayak Varma while Sruthi Krishnan, Vinay K Sreenivasa and Lekha Adavi contributed the script.



Vinay Sreenivasa said: It took us seven months to bring out the comic whose sole intention is to act as a resource for all street vendors and street vendor support groups. We plan to hand over the books to street union members in the coming days at a nominal cost of Rs 25 to make them aware of their rights and help them understand the laws in a simple manner.



Later, the Okkuta members visited Mayor G Padmavathi demanding survey of all the existing street vendors and to distribute ID cards to them. The members rued that though they had invited the mayor to the event, she gave it a miss.
Three Pakistanis caught staying illegally in Bengaluru along with an Indian citizen were remanded in 15-day police custody by the 44th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court on Friday.



The four were then taken to the special investigation block on the premises of the forensic science laboratory in Madiwala, south Bengaluru. Officials of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Internal Security Division (ISD) interrogated the four separately as well as collectively throughout the day.



The investigation so far shows that the Pakistanis were only looking to settle in India since their respective parents were against their marriage. The investigating agencies, however, will continue to interrogate them to ascertain whether they are associated with any banned outfit or not, a source said.



Sameera Abdul Rehman, her Indian husband Mohammad Shihab, a native of Kerala, Kiran Ghulam Ali and her husband Kashif Shamsuddin, both Sameeras cousins, were arrested from a two-bedroom house in Kumaraswamy Layout on Wednesday night for staying without any travel documents.



The trios Pakistani citizenship was confirmed when police seized their passports. The four have been living in Bengaluru for the past nine months. They had managed to make Aadhaar cards for themselves under false identities, according to police.
To find an amicable solution to the ongoing Mahadayi River water dispute, Karnataka has invited neighbouring Goa for talks.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in a letter to his Goa counterpart Manohar Parrikar, stated that a meeting of chief ministers of the three riparian states - Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa - could be held in Bengaluru on any convenient date in June.

In September last, members of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal had suggested to the counsel appearing for the states to explore the possibility of settling the water dispute outside the Tribunal.

Siddaramaiah in his letter stated that he will soon be sending the proposal to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his concurrence.

A meeting of the three chief ministers had been scheduled in Mumbai in October last. However, the meeting could not be held as the then Goa Chief Minister Lakshmikanth Parsekar conveyed his inability to attend.
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Lazaro Soliz Defendant - Appellant No. 16-2161 Decided: May 25, 2017

Before COLLOTON, BEAM, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

Lazaro Soliz pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A). He moved for a downward variance. The district court sentenced him to 235 months' imprisonment, the guidelines minimum. Having jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C.  1291, this court affirms.

Soliz has been heavily involved with drugs since his difficult childhood. In July 2015, police learned he was selling meth. With help of confidential informants, they arranged a traffic stop. Soliz gave permission to search the car. Police found 453 grams of meth. Soliz admitted he intended to resell it. The district court granted a downward departure, lowering the criminal history by one category. Soliz claims the district court abused its discretion by not considering his history and characteristics, just punishment for his specific offense, and the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities.

This court reviews sentences for abuse of discretion. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 49 (2007). This court reviews first, for significant procedural error and second, for substantive reasonableness. United States v. O'Connor, 567 F.3d 395, 397 (8th Cir. 2009). Because Soliz did not object about any procedural errors, they are reviewed for plain error. United States v. Cottrell, 853 F.3d 459, 462 (8th Cir. 2017).

Soliz argues that the district court failed to consider his history and characteristics and the need for just punishment. See 18 U.S.C.  3553(a). A district court commits procedural error if it fails to consider the  3553(a) factors. United States v. Barron, 557 F.3d 866, 868 (8th Cir. 2009). The district court here specifically addressed the  3553(a) factors raised by Soliz. It committed no procedural error. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc).

As for the substantive reasonableness, this court gives due deference to the district court's sentence. Gall, 522 U.S. at 51. A district court abuses its discretion if it 1) fails to consider a significant factor it should have, 2) gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor, or 3) considers the appropriate factors but commits a clear error of judgment in weighing them. Feemster, 572 F.3d at 461. The sentence here is within the guideline range, supported by the record, and is presumptively reasonable on appeal. Cottrell, 853 F.3d at 463.

Citing sentences by other judges, Soliz argues that his sentence creates sentencing disparities. He emphasizes the Supreme Court's requirement that district courts must take account of sentencing practices in other courts. See Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85, 108 (2007). Soliz ignores that the Court immediately adds that reaching an appropriate sentence requires weighing any unwarranted disparities against the other  3553(a) factors. Id.

Soliz also relies on United States v. Lazenby, 439 F.3d 928, 934 (8th Cir. 2006). It addressed the unusual circumstances of extreme disparities between the sentences of co-conspirators, reviewed in a consolidated appeal. See United States v. Fry, 792 F.3d 884, 892-93 (8th Cir. 2015); United States v. McDowell, 676 F.3d 730, 733 (8th Cir. 2012). Soliz acted alone.

The sentencing practices of one district court are not a reference point for other courts. Barron, 557 F.3d at 869. An argument that non-conspirator defendants received shorter sentences for comparable offenses is at base a disagreement with the weighing of the  3553(a) factors. United States v. Merrell, 842 F.3d 577, 585 (8th Cir. 2016). This disagreement does not demonstrate an abuse of discretion. Id. The district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing Soliz.

*******

The judgment is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable David S. Doty, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota.

BENTON, Circuit Judge.
Double-decker buses with improved features will hit the tourist circuits of the city.



Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy has cleared a proposal by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to buy four air-conditioned double-decker buses. BMTC plans to deploy them to tourist places within Bengaluru. The new buses may hit the city roads by the end of the year.



Double-decker buses are not new to the city. Till 1998, they plied the citys streets on routes like Shivajinagar, KR Market, Majestic, Jayanagar, Gandhi Bazaar and Indiranagar. At present, however, BMTC has only one such bus which is meant for display.



Back in 2009, BMTC started Bengalore Rounds services which had single-deck buses connecting around 10 tourist places in the city. The initiative, however, did not bring in the expected revenue.



BMTC upgraded the service and renamed it Hop on, Hop off in 2014 with seven Volvo buses plying to 22 tourist places in Bengaluru. But the continued losses in revenue forced BMTC to reduce the number of buses from seven to four, which recently came down to three. These will be deployed on the airport route to boost 'Vayu Vajra' services.



The double-decker buses will help take tourists and students to tourist places. I have already cleared the proposal. Officials will decide whether the first floor of the bus should be open or have a glass roof, Reddy added.



The number of visitors to Bengaluru has increased. At the same time, an increasing number of students come to the city on educational tours. The double-decker buses will give a new push to our Bengaluru Rounds service, a BMTC official said.



We realise that many roads are not suited for double-decker buses. Many roads have tree canopies while others are too narrow. We will keep all these factors in mind while buying buses. We have not yet decided on the routes," the official added.
Escoms in Karnataka will provide new power connections to pumpsets only if the device is energy efficient with a four to five star rating, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar announced in Bengaluru on Friday.





Addressing a press conference, Shivakumar said the new rule will be applicable to all types of pumpsets including irrigation, domestic and industrial. Energy efficient pumpsets with four to five star grading cost between Rs 30,000 and Rs 45,000 per unit depending on the horse power. They cost around Rs 10,000 more compared to regular pumpsets.



Shivakumar said the state government spends around Rs 9,000 crore for providing free power to farmers. Installing energy efficient pumpsets will result in savings to the tune of 30% to 39% of power. However, for achieving that, all the 22 lakh pumpsets in the state will have to be replaced with energy efficient ones.

Shivakumar said no deadline has been set for replacement of existing pumpsets.

To start with, the rule will apply only to new connections. In the long run, there is a proposal to replace all pumpsets with energy efficient ones. We will launch an awareness drive soon, Shivakumar noted.



In another initiative to save power, the minister said a circular has been issued to all urban local bodies to replace existing street lights with LED bulbs.



Pumpsets in forests With waterholes in forests drying up and animals straying in search of water, the energy department will take steps to draw water from nearby sources using solar pumpsets to fill water bodies.





Recently, I stayed in a guest house in Bandipur and was shocked to see that most of the water bodies in the forest had dried up. The Karnataka Renewable Energy Department Ltd has been entrusted with the task of installing solar pumpsets, the minister added.



As many as 20 solar pumpsets will be installed in Bandipur at locations identified by the forest department. He said the energy department is willing to install solar pumpsets in other forests and will also bear the cost.



More power He said the government will soon come out with orders for increasing free electricity supply under the Bhagya Jyothi scheme from 18 to 40 units per month. It will cost the exchequer an additional Rs 388 crore per annum.





Shivakumar said that as announced in the state budget, five villages (population between 1,000 and 2,000) in each Assembly constituency will be converted into Model Electricity Villages by ensuring efficient use of electricity.




Bengaluru Development Minister K J George on Friday expressed his displeasure over the rampant dumping of waste and debris in the citys lakes.



The minister visited Nellurahalli, Siddapura and Sheelavantha lakes near Mahadevapura with MLC Rizwan Arshad, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) commissioner Rakesh Singh, revenue officers and senior engineers of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).



Seeing the pathetic condition of these lakes, George directed officials to take strict action against the offenders including builders who pollute the lakes.



Residents living around these lakes complained that sewage and waste had made their lives miserable due to the stink and mosquito menace. They requested him to improve the condition of these water bodies.



George instructed the tahsildar of Bengaluru East taluk to conduct a survey of the lakes and fence them by June-end. He told the Palike and BDA officials to file police complaints against those polluting lakes.



Rakesh Singh apprised the minister about the progress in weeding in Bellandur lake and a similar action at Varthur lake. Singh informed him that the sewage treatment plant at Bellandur would start functioning from July.



He said he would ensure dumping at Varthur and Bellandur lake would be stopped with the help of BBMP joint commissioner Sarfaraz Khan and residents associations active in the area.



The residents of Palm Meadows in Whitefield complained to the minister that the delay in improving Borewell Road, Vibgyor Road and Narayanapura Road was causing them inconvenience. The executive engineer told the minister that the work on Borewell Road has already started with improvements to drains and laying footpaths.



However, land acquisition issues have hindered the developing of Vibgyor and Narayanapura roads. The signal-free corridor near Hope Farm too has hit a road block due to land acquisition.



The minister directed the BBMP special commissioner to issue a TDR notification soon and pave way for taking up work. Residents requested the minister to deploy the new mechanical sweepers in Mahadevapura, to which the minister agreed.
Reviving the citys largest water body, Bellandur lake, and its downstream Varthur lake is a mammoth task. There are challenges aplenty.



To discuss these and more comprehensively in a multilateral forum, DH has organised the third edition of its Deccan Herald Spotlight at the East Cultural Association, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, on Saturday, 5 pm onwards.



Deliberating on the theme Bringing Bellandur and Varthur lakes back to life, the event has its focus riveted on the citys endangered water bodies and the sustainability of the revival efforts. Citizens, lake activists, environmentalists, scientists and all stakeholders will share their thoughts and debate the solutions suggested.



Bengaluru Development Minister K J George is also expected to take part. On the agenda will be questions related to the short-term, mid-term and long-term solutions proposed to get the two lakes back to life.



Among the questions that are sure to trigger the debates, here are a few: How do we stop the entry of sewage water into Bellandur and Varthur lakes? Why single out residential complexes around Bellandur and Varthur lakes for mandatory sewage treatment? Will shutting down 97 industries completely stop the inflow of industrial pollutants in these lakes?



Having actively researched the lakes problems for years, Dr T V Ramachandra, Co-ordinator, Energy and Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science will be among the speakers.



Also high on the agenda will be the insights of Environment Support Group (ESG) coordinator, Leo Saldanha; Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) Member Engineer P N Nayak and Usha Rajagopalan, trustee, Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust.



In the wake of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruling, the key question of the lakes vicinity will find a place. The poser will be this: Shouldn't Bellandur and Varthur be seen as part of a larger lake chain and their revival planned accordingly?



Also on the agenda will be alternative views on the weeding exercise.



How to register



Participants could register online at http://www.deccanherald.com/spotlight. Spot registrations will begin at the venue at 4.30 pm.



Over 300 citizens and lake activists are expected to take part in the event. They can pose questions to the panellists on lake revival efforts and trigger engaging discussions.
The Union government on Friday banned the sale of cattle for slaughter, a move that could have a huge impact on the countrys meat industry.



The new rules, approved by the then environment minister Anil Dave before his untimely death, permits cattle purchase only for agricultural purposes.



The Ministry of Environment issued a gazette notification finalising the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017, which explicitly bans the sale of cattle for slaughtering.



The member secretary of the animal market committee will have to ensure that cattle has not been brought into the market for slaughter, read the notification dated May 23. According to the rules, cattle means a bovine animal such as a bull, bullock, cow, buffalo, steer, heifer, calf and camel.



The Indian meat industry earned more than Rs 30,000 crore from exports in 2015-16, out of which Rs 26,681 crore came from the export of buffalo meat, said the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. Sheep, goat and poultry contributed less than Rs 1,000 crore.



Since the meat industry sources part of its raw materials from the animal markets, the new rule has the potential to adversely affect the business.



Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said, The aim of the rule is to regulate the animal market for the welfare of cattle and prevention of cruelty. The seller and buyer will have to give an undertaking that the cattle is not bought or sold for slaughter.



However, sources in the meat business said since the definition of animal market includes any lairage (a place where cattle or sheep are rested before slaughter) adjoining a market or a slaughterhouse, these rules could be exploited to curb the standard practice of cattle selling by farmers to meat export companies.
Legislative Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad had to face the wrath of a section of MLAs and MLCs on Friday over the delay in implementation of a land reforms related bill.





The Karnataka legislature in March this year had passed Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which makes landless home dwellers the owners of land in new revenue villages. The bill is before the Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Legislation. The procedure is that once the bill is passed by the legislature, it goes to the governor for his assent.





The legislatures SC/ST Committee chairman K Shivamurthy Naik, members - B B Ningaiah, Shivaraj Tangadagi, D S Veeraiah, Pradeep Shettar among others staged a protest in front of the Speaker in his chambers in the Vidhana Soudha.





While some MLAs expressed their ire by hitting chairs, others raised their voice to find out why the bill has not been forwarded to the governor. The Speaker was a mute witness to the sudden development, eyewitnesses said.





After the legislators calmed down, Koliwad told them that his responsibility is to send a bill passed by the legislature to the department concerned. It is left to the department to forward it to the governor.





The legislators, dissatisfied with the reply, demanded that the officer concerned should give an explanation. They refused to leave Koliwadas chambers. The Speaker summoned Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Legislation secretary Dwarkanath Babu.





The officer explained that the governor cannot give his assent to the bill. Before giving ownership of houses to the occupants, land owners should be given compensation. Hence, the bill needs the assent of the President of India. The Advocate Generals (AG) opinion has been sought, he pointed out.





This was not acceptable to the enraged MLAs and MLCs. They charged that the officer was misleading them. Land reforms comes under the state list. The governor himself would decide if the bill has to be forwarded to the President. The AGs opinion should be sought before a bill is presented in the Assembly. The AG cannot be above the legislature, they argued.





It is said that they also claimed it was a ploy to ensure people do not get benefit under the law. Stringent action should be taken against the officer, they insisted. Later, Koliwad said the legislature session would resume from June 5. Prior to that, opinion regarding the bill should be available. Otherwise, action would taken against the officer, he cautioned.




K P S Gill, the controversial former IPS officer who is credited with tackling the Khalistani militancy, is no more.



The 82-year-old super cop, a former director general of police of Punjab, breathed his last at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here at 2.55 pm, following cardiac arrest.



He was admitted to the hospital on May 18 under the care of Dr D S Rana, head of the department of nephrology.



Gill was suffering from end-stage kidney failure and ischemic heart disease. He had been recovering from peritonitis, but died of a sudden cardiac arrest caused by cardiac arrhythmia, Rana said.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Gills demise and said he will be remembered for his service to the nation in the fields of policing and security.Pained by his demise. My condolences, Modi tweeted.



Gill was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his services. He was the Punjab police chief from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1991 until his retirement in 1995, and is known for eliminating Khalistani terrorism from Punjab.



In May 1988, he also commanded the successful Operation Black Thunder to flush out militants hiding in the Golden Temple. No damage was caused to the holy shrine.



Sixty-seven Sikh militants had surrendered and 43 were killed in the operation. He had spent 28 years in the northeast and was regarded an expert on the region.
In an unexpected twist, the victim in the much-publicised Patna sex scandal case has sought the courts permission to marry the rapist.



The Dalit girl, daughter of a former Congress minister, had accused Nikhil Priyadarshi, a young businessman, of rape and running a sex racket in Patna. Priyadarshi is the son of retired IAS officer Krishna Bihari Prasad.



The girl lodged an FIR (No. 26/16) at the SC/ST police station alleging that Nikhil, his brother Subash, his father Krishna Bihari and friends Sanjit, Brajesh Pandey and Mrinal had sexually abused her.



Following the complaint, police arrested Nikhil and his father in Uttarakhand. The duo was charged under Sections 354 and 376 of the IPC, and other Sections of the SC/ST Act besides POCSO (Protection of children from sexual offences) Act, since the girl was a minor when the crime was committed.



The father-son duo was on the run for nearly two months and was captured in March in Laxmanpur in Garhwal in Uttarakhand during vehicle checking. Their Audi was also seized.



Nikhil and Krishna Bihari were brought to Patna and produced in the court that remanded them in custody.



However, the girl had moved a compromise petition before the special judge Justice Akhilanand Dubey, who is hearing the case, saying she was ready to marry Nikhil. The petition bearing her signature said she was making a fresh appeal to start life afresh since family elders of the two sides have suggested that they reach a compromise.



Legal experts say that a compromise is difficult since the girl had filed the case under the SC/ST act and had recorded her statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), when she was a minor. In a rape case, that too under SC/ST Act, the various sections are non-compoundable, which essentially means there is no scope for compromise, a senior lawyer said.
The wreckage of Su-30 MKI fighter jet was found in a thickly forested area in Assam, 48 hours after it had gone missing.



The IAF has also ordered a court of inquiry to probe the cause of the accident.The debris was located 60 km north-west of Tezpur of the state from where the airfract went missing.



The search parties are yet to reach the location as the area near Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border is inaccessible by foot. Men could not be heli-dropped near the crash site on Friday due to bad weather.



The wreckage was located in the area where the jet lost contact with the base. The ground parties are on a standby to be airlifted to the site. The search for the two missing crew and the flight data recorder will be pursued once they reach the site, said an Indian Air Force (IAF) spokesperson here.



The attempts to trek cross-country by the Indian Armys search parties have also been hampered due to poor weather, coupled with thick vegetation and steeper terrain.



On Tuesday, the Su-30 MKI aircraft was airborne from Tezpur on a training mission. At 11.10 am, it lost the radar and radio contact with the ground station. It was flying in formation with another aircraft that returned to the base.



While the search and rescue operation for the aircraft and the missing crew was initiated within hours, it was hampered by incessant rain and dense clouds. Ground searches by the IAF, army and state administration also failed to make progress in the last two days.



A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident, said the IAF spokesperson. The Tezpur incident is the eighth crash of the Su-30 MKI fighters in the last eight years. Since 2009, there has been an accident involving the aircraft every alternate year.
The government and the BJP gave themselves a thumbs up as Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed three years in office.



A detailed progress report of the performance of the government was released, which said that its popularity rating is at 81%.



According to narendramodi.in, only 29% of people were happy with the way things were going in the country in 2013. By 2016, the figure went up to 65%, the report said.



It also said 80% of people are happy with the governments handling of the economy. A confident BJP president Amit Shah said the popularity ratings of Modi and BJP cannot be segregated.



BJP is not separate from Modi and Modi is not separate from BJP, he said, dismissing critics who have said the party is piggy-riding on Modis leadership.



Shah said his party will score a bigger victory in the next Lok Sabha polls than it had in the 2014 elections, asserting that India will emerge as a great nation in various fields under Modis leadership.



He said the BJP will surpass its previous records, with a better performance in states like West Bengal, Kerala, Telangana and Odisha, where it had won fewer seats in 2014.
Refusing to hear a PIL on the Saharanpur violence on an urgent basis, the Supreme Court on Friday said the petition would be heard after the summer vacation.



The PIL, filed by advocate Gaurav Yadava, has asked the apex court to urgently consider directing a probe under the supervision of a high court judge on the violence in the western UP district.



Yadava brought up the matter before the vacation bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha, contending that there was complete failure of law and order and inability of the local administration to contain violent clashes between the upper caste Thakurs and Dalits in the district, 200 km from Delhi.



He asked the courts direction to set up a Special Investigation Team headed by a high court judge to conduct a fair, impartial and independent investigation to unearth the truth, and ensure the perpetrators are brought to book.



The advocate has also asked for compensation to those who had lost their lives and properties in the violence. People from the Dalit community are compelled to leave their houses and are shifted to safer places, which is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of innocent people, Yadava contended.



He said riots broke out on May 5 in Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur, when people from the upper caste torched homes of the Dalits. As many as 20 vehicles were burnt and valuables from the houses were stolen.



The petition also said about 30 people are still missing and 150 others have left for safer locations due to lack of security to their lives and property owing to the violence that continues to flare up.




The Centre has spent Rs 12,000 crores on toilet construction as part of Swachh Bharat. But all the toilets that were said to have been constructed have vanished. An enquiry should be ordered into this issue...We (Congress) are ready to produce all evidence in this regard, he told reporters who sought to know why there is no mention of any scam related to the Centre in a video clip released by the Congress to highlight failure of the Modi government.





The party screened a seven-minute video clip titled 3 saal, 30 Thikaddam (3 years, 30 gimmicks) at a media conference. The video showed how the Modi-led BJP failed to fulfil the promises it had made during the 2014 parliamentary polls.





Venugopal said youth have been disappointed by the Centre for its failure to create employment opportunities. Modi had promised to create two crore new jobs every year. But data from the Labour Ministry show that only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015. It is the lowest in the past seven years. Unemployment is at a five-year high. Even in the IT sector, most of the rating agencies predicted 40% job losses. The government has not taken any measure in this regard.





Demonitisation of high-value notes is being projected as a surgical strike on black money. But, the government is not ready to disclose how much black money has been seized. The truth is that it was a surgical strike on the poor. The big black money holders are safe, and they easily managed to get their black money converted into white, he said.





The AICC general secretary said the saffron party has been trying to appease Dalits though incidents of atrocities against them are on the rise in all the BJP-ruled states. The government and the BJP are directly responsible for the growing intolerance in the country. The RSS is interfering in the administration and trying to spread its agenda of communal hatred, he charged.





AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal on Friday accused the Narendra Modi government of failing on all fronts and charged that the Swachh Bharat programme is a big scam.



Video on Modi govts gimmicks

The Congress on Friday came up with a video clip 3 saal, 30 Thikaddam (3 years, 30 gimmicks) in its effort to project the three years of Narendra Modi government as a bundle of gimmicks. The seven-minute video in Hindi highlights unkept promises of the Modi government such as creation of two crore jobs every year, bringing back black money, digital India initiative and the Ganga cleaning project. The party has made the clip by piecing together video and audio clippings of various Hindi news channels. The video clipping was screened at a media conference at the KPCC office on Queens Road here.






In what is perceived as a huge blow to the so-called Opposition unity, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will have lunch with his arch-rival Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday.



Though the JD(U) termed the meeting with Modi official, the timing assumes enormous significance as it comes a day after Kumar refused to attend Congress president Sonia Gandhis luncheon meeting in New Delhi.



Eyebrows are bound to be raised in political circles as the JD(U) national president, who runs his government with the support of the Congress and the RJD, has of late been cosying up to his erstwhile ally  the BJP-led NDA.



The decision to skip Sonias meet has already set the rumours mills working overtime, with reports emerging that he is unhappy with the land scams related to RJD chief Lalu Prasad.



According to sources, the prime minister is hosting the lunch in honour of Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.



Sources in the ruling camp here said that Sonias close aide Ahmed Patel had called up Kumar requesting him to attend the crucial meeting convened for talks on a likely Opposition candidate for the presidential poll. However, Kumar politely turned down the request, citing prior engagements, and said a representative from the JD(U) would attend the luncheon.



Interestingly, it was Kumar who had met Sonia in New Delhi last month and mooted the idea that the Congress, being the largest political outfit, should lead the non-BJP front in its fight against the NDA.
State BJP workers on Friday celebrated the completion of three years of the Narendra Modi government in office by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets in front of the party headquarters here.



Former minister Aravind Limbavali led the low-key celebrations. BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa is away in Gadag. The celebrations will continue till June 15, with the party organising conventions in 40 places across the state.



Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be attending the first such convention in Bengaluru on Sunday evening.



While their arrival dates are yet to be finalised, the party central leadership had deputed the following leaders to visit the state in the coming days: Union Power Minister Piyush Goel, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Union Minister of State for Law P P Chaudhary, party sources said.
BJP chief Amit Shah on Friday said the government will consult the Opposition at an appropriate time for the presidential poll, after non-NDA parties left it to the ruling dispensation to select a consensus candidate.



Shahs response came while replying to a query on 17 Opposition parties coming together to show their strength ahead of the presidential election.



The Opposition wants the Narendra Modi government to name its candidate first, but the BJP is likely to make an announcement after the Election Commission sets the ball rolling.



I would not like to comment... they are free to attempt to build a coalition unity, said Shah.



A source in the party said the BJP has not initiated formal interactions on the presidential poll. But Shah reportedly broached the topic at a meeting with TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu during a recent tour of the state for increasing the BJPs footprints in the south.



Talks with the RSS, the BJPs ideological mentor, would be held soon, another source said.



To avoid any leaks, the BJP is likely to have a panel of three names on which consultations will be held with NDA allies and later with the Opposition. If consensus does not emerge, then the BJP would not hesitate to go for elections.



The BJP managers claim they are confident of bridging the gap of less than 20,000-value votes required to instal their nominee in the Rashtrapati Bhavan ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The army foiled an attack by a Pakistani Border Action Team (BAT) along the Line of Control in Uri sector of north Kashmirs Baramulla district, killing two militants on Friday.



Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said the BAT action was aimed at an Indian Army patrol along the LoC.



Two BAT terrorists have been killed, and the operation is still on, he said.Sources said the attempt was thwarted between Gwaltan and Uroosa in Uri sector when armed militants infiltrated from a Pakistani post, which is 200 metres from the LoC in the area.



They were spotted on the Indian side around 8.40 am and in the exchange of fire, both were neutralised at a distance of 500 m from the LoC on the Indian side, a source said.



One AK-47 rifle, a pistol and other war-like stores have been recovered from the encounter site. In September, militants attacked an Indian Armys base in Uri, in which 19 soldiers lost their lives.



On May 1, BAT personnel crossed into Indian territory near the LoC in Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in Jammu, killing two Indian soldiers and mutilating their bodies. Days later, the Indian Army carried out an assault on Pakistani posts aiding cross-border infiltration.



The primary task of the BAT, which usually consists of Pakistan army commandos and terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad outfits, is to dominate the LoC by carrying out disruptive actions in the form of surreptitious raids.



The team usually has four to 10 people as the Pakistan army encourages such action along the LoC, Kalia said.
A united Opposition on Friday decided to field a joint candidate for the presidential election if it does not reach a consensus on the nominee proposed by the government.



The decision was taken at a luncheon meeting hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, which brought arch-rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to the same table.



The unity among the Opposition forces, which its leaders claimed will continue for the next Lok Sabha elections, came on a day when the government marked its third year in office.



Leaders from 17 political parties joined the high table with Sonia. A prominent absentee was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday at the banquet hosted in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.



A JD(U) spokesperson scotched suggestions of a break in the Opposition unity, pointing out that the party was represented by veteran leader Sharad Yadav, and that Nitish Kumar had conveyed to the Congress president his inability to attend the meeting.



Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and Sudhakar Reddy, and NCP chief Sharad Pawar were among those who attended the luncheon.



The joint statement read out by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sharad Yadav stated, The normal practice has been that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus on the names of the candidates... This has not happened so far. If acceptable, consensual candidates do not emerge, then we (Opposition) shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our Republic.



West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said there was no harm in discussing a candidate with the government if it comes out with a name.



Mamata referred to the 2002 presidential election when the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee floated A P J Abdul Kalams name and a consensus was evolved.



She said all the parties were united in its criticism of the government over the Kashmir crisis, Saharanpur violence and demonetisation issue.



The joint statement also said that the Opposition parties resolved to strengthen floor coordination in Parliament and unitedly oppose the governments policies that are imposing unprecedented burden on all sections of our people  farmers, labourers, youth, SCs, STs, minorities, women and other weaker sections of society.
Here is the weekly road construction report for Hamilton County:

U.S. 27 (I-124) widening from I-24/U.S. 27 interchange to north of the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River, including widening the Olgiati Bridge: Work on this project continues. The speed limit on U.S. 27 in the construction zone is 45 MPH. The contractor may have temporary lane or shoulder closures on U.S. 27 between 7 p.m.-6 a.m. On weekdays during this report period between the hours of 9 a.m.-3 p.m., the contractor will have a temporary right lane closure on eastbound MLK Blvd. between the U.S. 27 North exit ramp and Carter Street and on westbound MLK Boulevard between Chestnut Street and the U.S. 27 North entrance ramp to work on new signals. Ramp traffic will not be affected. This work is weather permitting. As the project progresses, there may be short term temporary lane closures for the safety of the traveling public on city streets within the project area. Flaggers will assist with these closures and they will be properly signed in accordance with the Federal Highway Administrations Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. During Phase 1 of the U.S. 27 project, the contractor will be working on the northbound side of U.S. 27 on the bridges. Work will consist of demolishing and reconstructing the outside sections of the bridges along U.S. 27 North. Also on U.S. 27 South, they will be constructing a large retaining wall between the Olgiati Bridge and 6th Street. At least one lane will remain open in each direction on U.S. 27. THP will assist with traffic control on the project as necessary. Estimated project completion date is July 2019. For more info, visit the project website http://www.tn.gov/tdot/topic/US27-reconstruction-chattanooga. [Dement Construction Co., LLC/JM/CNP230]

SR 317 (Apison Pike) the grading, drainage and paving on from Old Lee Highway (LM 5.58) to SR-321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) (LM 7.84): Work on this project continues. During this report period the contractor may have intermittent lane closures throughout the project from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Estimated project completion date is May. [Wright Brothers Const. Co. /Pruett/CNN279]

SR-320 (East Brainerd Road) grading, drainage, installation of signals, construction of seven retaining walls and paving from east of Graysville Road to east of Bel-Air Road: Work on this project continues. During this report period, the contractor will have intermittent lane closures between 9 a.m.-2 p.m. This work may affect either direction of East Brainerd Road or side streets from Graysville Road to Hamlett Drive as the contractor installs road crossings and borings. Traffic has been switched onto the newly-constructed section from the west end of the project to the Hurricane Creek Road/East Brainerd Road intersection, allowing the contractor to work on the other side of the roadway. The contractor may have short-term lane closures to perform various operations on an as-needed basis. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Original completion date is June. Estimated project completion date is December. [Jones Brothers Contractors, LLC /Pruett/CNN383]

SR-153/SR-319 (Hixson Pike) bridge repair on Hixson Pike over SR-153: Work on this project continues. The outside lanes in both directions on the bridge on Hixson Pike over SR-153 are now closed. This lane closure will be in place until late November. During this report period the contractor may have intermittent lane closures on SR-153 from 9 p.m.-6 a.m. to do work under the bridge. If there are any temporary closures needed on SR-153 as part of this project, they will take place at nighttime on Sundays through Thursdays between 9 p.m.-6 a.m. and on weekdays on SR-153 South between 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and on SR-153 North between 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as necessary during these temporary closures. Estimated project completion date is May 2018. [Mid-State Construction Co. /Micka/CNQ941]

U.S. 27 (SR-29) resurfacing from north of Signal Mountain Road (LM. 3.02) to north of SR-29 (MM. 6.0/LM 6.07): Work on this project has begun. The contractor will have temporary intermittent lane closures on Sundays through Thursdays between the hours of 8 p.m.-6 a.m. to mill and pave the roadway. THP and flaggers will assist with traffic control as necessary during these temporary closures. Estimated project completion date is June. [Wright Brothers Construction Co, Inc./Micka/CNQ189]

The tunnel cleaning of the McCallie Tunnel on U.S. 11 (US 64, SR-2), the Stringers Ridge Tunnel on U.S. 127 (SR-8), and the Bachman Tubes on U.S. 41 (U.S. 76, SR-8): The nighttime cleaning operation of McCallie Tunnels, Stringers Ridge Tunnel, and Bachman Tubes occurs normally on Wednesday and Thursday nights during the week with the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Work hours are between 8 p.m.-6 a.m.. Tunnels will be closed during cleaning, and detours will be marked accordingly as each tunnel is cleaned. Contract completion date is June. [Diamond Specialized, Inc./Micka/CNQ174]




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Tennessee Wildlife Federation, one of the largest and oldest nonprofits dedicated to the conservation of Tennessees wildlife and natural resources, recently hosted the 52nd annual Conservation Achievement Awards.

The ceremony was held in Nashville and presented 17 awards to recipients from all corners of the state, including Tish Gailmard of Signal Mountain, Tenn., George Lindemann of Grandview, and Sen. Mike Bell of District 9. Tennessee Naturalist Program was also recognized, which has operations in Hamilton County.



We started these awards more than a half-century ago because we recognized that conserving our wildlife and natural places is the work over every Tennessean, said Michael Butler, CEO of Tennessee Wildlife Federation. No one organization or person, no matter how big or influential, can do it own their own.



Conservation Educator of the Year



Tish Gailmard of Signal Mountain, Tenn.

Tish Gailmard is the Director of Wildlife at Chattanoogas Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center, which boasts nearly 40 animals and more than 300 acres of conserved natural space. She helped build these resources and uses them to teach conservation. Gailmard has developed programs that span public outreach events to hosting school-age children at the center.

Conservationist of the Year



George Lindemann of Grandview

Upon moving to Tennessee, avid paddler and conservationist George Lindemann, learned that Soak Creek, along the edge of his new property, was listed as a favorite backcountry paddling route. Lindemann organized, funded, and led a coalition of landowners, conservation groups, and state program leaders to secure unanimous, bipartisan approval designating Soak Creek as a Tennessee State Scenic Riverthe first new designation in 15 years. He then donated land to permanently conserve the creek and its banks for wildlife, paddlers, and hikers. His work also made it possible for the state to leverage federal funds to add five miles of trail, connecting two State Natural Areas.

Conservation Legislator of the Year



Senator Mike Bell (District 9) of Riceville

During his public service, Senator Bell has championed numerous issues important to sportsmen and women, including the creation of apprentice hunter permits and sponsoring the Constitutional Amendment that ensured Tennesseans the right to hunt and fish. This legislative session, Senator Bell was a leading advocate in the Senate for the measure that re-allocates $2.3 million annually to fund water access, law enforcement on the water, and other water-related needs such as addressing Asian carp.

Conservation Organization of the Year



Tennessee Naturalist Program, with chapters in the counties of Cumberland, Franklin, Hamilton, Knox, Shelby, Sullivan, Williamson and Wilson

The Tennessee Naturalist Program was created as a non-profit in 2011 with the goals of creating a sustainable Tennessee through a more educated adult populace and building a volunteer pool to support the work of state conservation entities. Since its formation, 520 Tennesseans have become certified Tennessee Naturalists who have completed thousands of hours of volunteer service.

Tennessee Wildlife Federation is proud to hold up the meaningful work of our award winners as examples for others to follow, said Butler.



The ceremony was emceed by WSM and Grand Ole Opry personality, Bill Cody. Awards span from Youth Conservationist and Conservation Educator to Land Conservationist and the lifetime achievement Z. Cartter Patten Award.



The event was sponsored by Bridgestone, PCA (Packaging Corporation of America) and First Tennessee. The honorees of the 52nd Annual Conservation Achievement Awards are as follows.



 J. Clark Akers Award  Dr. Jack Gayden of Memphis, Tenn.



 Z. Cartter Patten Award  Jack Muncy of Norris, Tenn.

 Conservationist of the Year  George Lindemann of Grandview, Tenn.

 Chairmans Award  Chris Koch of Germantown, Tenn.

 Conservation Legislator of the Year  Senator Mike Bell of Riceville, Tenn.

 Land Conservationist of the Year  Dr. David Sloas of Cordova, Tenn.

 Water Conservationists of the Year  Wayne and Adrian Bomar of Shelbyville, Tenn.

 Forest Conservationist of the Year  Clarence Coffey of Crossville, Tenn.

 Wildlife Conservationist of the Year  Conservation Fisheries based in Knoxville, Tenn.

 Conservation Organization of the Year  Tennessee Naturalist Program

 Conservation Educator of the Year  Tish Gailmard of Signal Mountain, Tenn.

 Conservation Communicator of the Year  Margie Hunter of Nashville, Tenn.

 Youth Conservationist of the Year  Bobby Wade, Jr. of Memphis, Tenn.

 Gedeon D. Petit Memorial Award  Pandy English of Franklin, Tenn.

 Hunter Education Instructor of the Year  Darrell Bernd of Shelbyville, Tenn.

 On Target Award  Boyd Wade of Memphis, Tenn.

 Dan & Cherie Hammond Sharing the Harvest Award  Fred Heitman of Knoxville, Tenn.




5310 to 5400 Cassandra Smith Road will be closed from May 31 to June 28, for utility construction. Detours will be posted.

Chestnut Street will be closed from W.

June 2

19th St. to W. 20th St. until. Detours will be posted.

The 400 block of Valleybrook Road will be closed for utility construction from May 30 to June 6. Detours will be posted.
completion of corporate rebranding initiatives designed to elevate the companys brand message in eastern Tennessee and northwest Georgia. As part of the rebranding, Atlantic Capital updated operational systems with innovative technology, redesigned the corporate website and launched new signage at 14 Branch locations in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Dalton.

Atlantic Capital Bank announced the

A key component of the rebranding initiative is an upgraded corporate website.

We are proud to be a premier southeast financial services firm.

The bank recently moved its corporate headquarters from Broad Street to Warehouse Row.
Contrary to its forum post, OnePlus will continue to sell both 64GB and 128GB models of the OnePlus 3T in India, till later this year.

In a recent forum post, OnePlus announced that it is running out of OnePlus 3T devices and that only a few units of the smartphone are left in its warehouse. This led to multiple reports that the Chinese smartphone-maker is ending supply for the OnePlus 3T, discontinuing the model altogether; naturally, since OnePlus forum post read, This is the last call to buy the OnePlus 3T before stock runs out. Only a few devices are left in our warehouse, so purchase yours before time runs out.

However, we just received an official statement from the company, saying that the OnePlus 3T will continue to sell in India, at least till later this year. In an official email, OnePlus noted, The OnePlus 3T (both 64GB and 128GB variants) will continue to be available for purchase in India until later this year. OnePlus products and accessories are available through all three official sales channels, including oneplusstore.in, Amazon.in and the OnePlus Experience Store in Bangalore.

The OnePlus 3T, which was launched last November, is slated to be replaced by the OnePlus 5, which will be launching this summer. In our review of the OnePlus 3T, we noted that it is one of the best devices to buy if your budget is around 30-35k. It is also one of the most value for money smartphones available in the market today. The device features Qualcomms Snapdragon 821 platform, a 16MP front facing camera for selfies, and a large 3400mAh battery.

The upcoming OnePlus 5, on the other hand, will be powered by a Qualcomm's newest Snapdragon 835 flagship platform. Rumours suggest that the phone will offer 8GB of RAM alongside 128GB storage on the higher variant, and 6GB RAM with 64GB storage on the base variant. The phone is also tipped to feature an upgraded 3600mAh battery. The biggest change however could be in the imaging department. OnePlus is expected to keep with trends and the OnePlus5 is rumored to sport a dual camera setup.
Digitimes Research: AMOLED to become mainstream smartphone panels

AMOLED panels, due to superiority in color saturation, thinness and power consumption over TFT-LCD panels, have seen increasing adopted for smartphones and will eventually become mainstream smartphone, as well as a dominate solution for VR head-mounted devices (HMD), according to Digitimes Resaerch.

Global AMOLED shipments are forecast to increase from 370 million units in 2016 to 452 million in 2017 and 1.127 billion in 2021, with the corresponding penetration of smartphones to rise from 24.3% to 27.6% and 53.0%, Digitimes Research indicated.

It has so far been difficult for AMOLED panels to replace TFT-LCD units for use in smartphones because smartphone vendors except Samsung Electronics are worried about Samsung Display dominating global supply of AMOLED panels. However, China-based makers have begun producing AMOLED panels and poised to break Samsung Display's dominance, making smartphone vendors more willing to adopt AMOLED panels for even mid-range and entry-level models. AMOLED panels based on plastic substrates also enable more flexible design for smartphones.

AMOLED panels also have big potential for use in VR HMDs due to shorter response time and higher contrast than TFT-LCD panels. If resolution is hiked, AMOLED panels will be the dominate solution for such devices.

While PMOLED panels are used in most of smartwatches, AMOLED panels stand a good chance of being used in high-end smartwatches.

But AMOLED panels face difficulties in being widely adopted for tablets and notebooks due to high costs arising from low yield rates. However, AMOLED panels are likely to be adopted for high-end tablets and professional notebooks in niche markets.
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General contractor: Safety

Under 100,000 hours

Photo courtesy of Washington Patriot Construction Washington Patriot doesnt begin its work until safety plans have been approved.







Washington Patriot Construction

Washington Patriot continues to grow in the industry with diverse and challenging projects. Washington Patriots senior managers and general superintendent have set out and implemented a culture of safety where employees talk daily, share safety memos, safety reports, safety talks and safety lessons learned.

The companys safety culture now includes daily safety pre-task planning. No work takes place until safety plans are approved and unless hazard assessments are posted and received for each project.

The team discusses what technology they have researched and what training that has been recently given to personnel. Washington Patriot promotes the use of safety experts and asks them to all its project sites.

Employees train on any hazard they have not been previously been trained on that applies to company job sites (such as recent ammonia-hazard and lead-awareness training). Employees attend safety meetings held by the companys clients to learn and share best practices.













Other Stories:
Senator Bob Corker joined 11 of his Senate colleagues to introduce legislation that he said would reverse a 2011 National Labor Relations Board decision that allows unions to form individual bargaining units within the same company consisting of as few as two or three workers, called micro-unions.

This decision by the National Labor Relations Board is a perfect example of tremendous overreach at the federal level, said Senator Corker.

The Representation Fairness Restoration Act is sponsored by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and cosponsored by U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Brian Salsgiver Safety Professional of the Year

Kubiszewski

Scott Kubiszewski

Swinerton Builders

Scott Kubiszewski displayed his safety excellence in many ways over the past year, including his development of a company-wide safety manager monthly conference call.

He also developed a company-wide safety store for ease of getting uniform safety supplies across multiple divisions and sites. And he started an RFP to get a learning management system for all of Swinerton.

Kubiszewski continues to lead stretch and flex and huddle at all sites visited, and when an issue is found he works to find the true cause of the issue and get the needed supplies, equipment and/or training for the workers. He is active in the AGC safety forum, American Society of Safety Engineers and the Central Washington University safety program.

Kubiszewski helps to improve workforce development by hiring a minimum of one safety intern each year. The intern is introduced to all aspects of safety on multiple job sites in multiple states.

Kubiszewski also assists corporate marketing with editing all social media and publication photos for safety compliance. And on top of this, he has a Construction Health and Safety Technician credential from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, and credentials to teach OSHA 30, OSHA 10, CPR, first aid and defibrillator use.

Kubiszewski actively participates in the companys philanthropic activities, including Beat the Bridge walk, Rebuilding Together Seattle Rebuilding Day and the American Heart Association Heart Walk.













Other Stories:
US states offer big sops to Indian IT firms for local hiring

American states are offering big incentives to Indian IT services companies to set up offices, as the crackdown on H-1B visas forces them to increase local hiring. Indiana for example is offering as much as $31 million in incentives to Infosys Ltd as it looks to drum up jobs in the sector.

The incentives, mostly in the form of tax abatements and one-time grants, are financed by development funds created by most US states, The Economic Times reports.

Indiana is offering Infosys one of the largest incentive packages it has ever handed out, more than covering the company's cost of setting up a centre. Infosys said it will spend about $8.7 million to lease and equip office space in the state. Indiana's incentives are in the form of conditional tax grants and training grants.

''States, cities and counties can all offer incentives. The idea is to pick places that offer incentives and have a local college network that can provide talent that is cost-effective and can be trained. We aren't going to be hiring from Stanford or MIT,'' an IT executive told ET.

The Infosys deal took a few months to hammer out, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb said in a statement. Holcomb is also planning a trip to India to sell his state to other IT companies, he said.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation plans to offer up to $15,250 in conditional tax credits for each job the company creates and up to $500,000 in training grants.

If the company hires all planned 2,000 workers, the maximum total incentives from the state would be $31million.

''Midwest states are generally more aggressive in holding out incentives because they haven't seen the kind of job creation that states like New York and California have,'' said Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of skill development platform 5F World.

Raman Roy, chairman of industry body Nasscom, said the incentives had nothing to do with the H-1B visas and were related to the jobs that the IT industry creates.

''There was a study that shows that for every one job that is directly created, there are five or six indirect jobs,'' he said. ''States understand that this has a catalytic effect. But companies won't set up in states just for incentives, there has to be a business case.''

Receiving incentives to set up centres in the US is not new. Cognizant also got these in 2014 when it expanded its centre in Tampa, Florida. But incentives will become increasingly important, the ET report says.

''One of the key reasons we were not able to attract many local hires is location certainty. For example, we expect our employees who come on visas to move from one location to another as and when projects get completed, which does not give location certainty to a local hire,'' MD Ranganath, chief financial officer at Infosys, told analysts in April. ''So there is a local reluctance on their part to join us because they want to be at a particular location.''

Cognizant president Rajeev Mehta told ET that the company would count on its roots in local communities like Tampa to attract an increasing number of American workers.
Zuckerberg wants Harvard grads to build a world of purpose

Mark Zuckerberg who was at Harvard yesterday, from where he launched Facebook, told graduates that it was up to them to bring purpose to the world, fight inequality and strengthen the global community.

''Change starts local. Even global changes start small - with people like us,'' the Facebook CEO said. Zuckerberg went on to share stories about graduates such as David Razu Aznar, a former city leader who led the effort to legalise gay marriage in Mexico City, and Agnes Igoye, who grew up in Uganda's conflict zones and now trained law enforcement officers.

Zuckerber started Facebook in his dorm room in 2004 which started off as a closed networking site for Harvard students but was now a global communications force with nearly two billion members.

According to commentators, Facebook has had a profound effect, connecting people who would have never met otherwise, letting them form supportive networks online and offline. It had also allowed people to communicate in developing countries even if they did not have a phone number or a smartphone.

On a negative note, however, Facebook had also served to spread misinformation bordering on propaganda, hateful views and bullying, reflecting the worst in humanity.

But, according to commentators, technology also had a disruptive effect leading to loss of purpose among people, who failed to embrace the change. Reflecting on the unsettling effects of loss of purpose from technological change, Zuckerberg said.

"When our parents graduated, that sense of purpose reliably came from your job, your church, your community," Zuckerberg said. "But today, technology and automation are eliminating jobs. Membership in a lot of communities has been declining, and a lot of people are feeling disconnected and depressed, and are trying to fill a void in their lives."

According to commentators, Zuckerberg's remarks echoed those of many government and business leaders who were grappling with the prospect of robots taking over people's jobs.

The EU was even considering a form of social security tax on automated factories to make up for an anticipated decline in wages being paid to humans. Others, including US secretary of labor Steve Mnuchin were not as worried about a robot revolution.
11/3/2022

As realtors, we tend to think locally. So whether were urging the public to get involved in the election process or even recommending a new restaurant to clients, realtors think about our own ... more
RTE Radio 1s Ryan Tubridy Show will be in Donegal next week.

The show will be broadcast from Arranmore on Monday. The programme has teamed up with Failte Ireland, as part of its Embrace the Wild Atlantic Way of Life and will be broadcasting each day live along various locations along the Wild Atlantic Way from Monday, 29th May until Friday, June 2nd.

This year the tour will focus on a number of islands and seaside towns. Monday's broadcast from Arranmore Holiday Village. The show will continue to Achill Island to see the stunning Keem Strand on Tuesday.

This year sees Tubs on the Wild Atlantic Way travel further south to the vibrant seaside towns of Ballybunnion in Co. Kerry on Wednesday 31st May and Baltimore in West Cork on Thursday 1st June, and finally finishing up in The Moorings of Portmagee in Co. Kerry on Friday 2nd June which is the starting point for many trips to the spectacular, otherworldly island of Skellig Michael.

Ryan Tubridy said: There's no hiding my love of the west so one of my favourite weeks of my working year is our magical mystery tour along the Wild Atlantic Way. We look forward to bringing our listeners with us on a radio adventure, come rain or come shine.

Looking forward to the arrival of the popular RTE Radio 1 show, Fiona Monaghan, Head of Wild Atlantic Way, Failte Ireland, said: Ryan Tubridy is a fantastic ambassador for the Wild Atlantic Way and he can really get across to his listeners what it is about the Wild Atlantic Way that captures peoples imagination. This is the fourth consecutive year the show has chosen to experience the Wild Atlantic Way. This year spectators coming down to watch the broadcast in Arranmore, Achill Island, Ballybunnion, Baltimore and Portmagee can expect to see plenty of festivities, interviews, live music as well as hear about local tourism highlights. We are encouraging everyone to come on down and join in the fun and discover ways to Embrace the Wild Atlantic Way of Life through the airwaves.
A Ballybofey-based butchers has launched a new innovative website which will facilitate the delivery of all its produce across the county and the country to customers overnight.

McConnell's butchers in Ballybofey has won a string of accolades and awards over the years and with this new initiative is proving to be a cut above the rest when it comes to innovation and business expansion.

This is the first time a butcher has undertaken this business venture in Donegal.

McConnells butchers was established in Ballybofey by John McConnell in 1966.

John McConnell still enjoys working in the business alongside his family.

The new website www.moo.ie was launched last week and is already proving to be a huge success with customers from across the county and country.

The idea was prompted by parents coming into the shop to buy meat for their students before they left for their third level education in Dublin, Galway and further afield.

They wanted to ensure that their students had quality meats from a reliable source during their time away from home.

Shane McConnell said: We can deliver to anywhere in the country overnight.

The boxes of meat are temperature controlled and stay below 5 degrees for 48 hours.

The business hopes to serv people who cannot leave their homes, those who live in rural areas or busy professionals who do not have time to shop in their local or nearby towns.

The butchers can deliver anywhere in the county, from Inish Eoghain to Pettigo, from Glen Cholm Cille to Fanad.

The butchers have a wide range of products that can be delivered from steak boxes, family boxes, breakfast boxes, gluten free boxes and many more.

All the products are priced and can be viewed on their website.

The website is exceptionally simple and easy to use and also facilitates those who wish to be regular customers.

Customers can tick a box and go through a seamless process to ensure that the box they desire is on their doorstep in time for their meals.

Customers from across the county and country can have their weekly shop delivered to their door and they can also ensure that elderly relatives, students, people in rural areas and people who are unable to leave their homes, can have their weekly shop delivered to their doorstep with ease and professionalism.

The service promises to be one that many people will come to recognise and rely on in the near future.

We can deliver to anywhere in the country overnight and the product will be delivered in the temperature controlled box. We could deliver as far as England if we wanted but we are not doing that, just yet, Shane said.

For further information, please visit, www.moo.ie or call the butcher at 074 91 31114.
Two Donegal mothers were in Dublin this week to speak for children with life-limiting conditions or high medical/physical needs.

This was not the first time members of the group, Our Childrens Voice, had travelled to Dublin to make their case for respite services and the need for end-of-life care for children in Donegal.

But the parents said there has not been progress on their demands in the three years since a group of Donegal mothers formed Our Childrens Voice.

Gina Grant of Our Childrens Voice said the elected representatives she and Ashling Nibbs met in Dublin on Wednesday offered some good suggestions, but said she feels sad this is still going on and sad were fighting the same fight.

Were not asking for the world to change, Gina said. Were just asking for communication, for proper procedures and proper support for children with life-limiting conditions or high medical/physical needs.

In a series of meetings on Wednesday, Gina and Ashling met with party leaders Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein TD, and Micheal Martin, Fianna Fail TD, and members of their parties; and with Finian McGrath, TD, minister of state with special responsibility for disability.

From left, Sinn Fein Sen. Padraig MacLochlainn; Edward Grant; Gina Grant of Our Children's Voice; Gerry Adams, TD, Sinn Fein president; Ashling Nibbs of Our Children's Voice; Louise O'Reilly, TD and Sinn Fein health spokesperson; and Pearse Doherty, Sinn Fein TD.

Our Childrens Voice had also brought their campaign to the national media in recent years. In print and broadcast interviews, Ashling had spoken of having to treat her son, Oran, on the side of the road when she and her husband would bring him to Dublin hospitals for appointments and treatments that were not available closer to home. Oran, who had mitochondrial disease, passed away in January of this year. He was 7 years old.

Members of Our Childrens Voice have met with ministers before as well - Gina had spoken briefly with James Reilly, TD, when he was minister of health, before the group formed; Our Childrens Voice met in Dublin and in Donegal with then-Health Minister Leo Varadkar, TD; and they met with Simon Harris, TD, minister for health, during the ministers visit to Donegal in December.

It was Minister Harris who had requested this weeks follow-up meeting, but the minister sent apologies and Minister McGrath met the delegation in his absence.

Ginas son, Edward Grant, also spoke at the meetings of the difficulties siblings and parents of children with life-limiting conditions or high medical/physical needs face in the absence of reliable supports.

This affects the whole family, Gina said.

From left, Billy Kelleher, TD and Fianna Fail spokesperson on health; Edward Grant; Pat "the Cope" Gallagher, Fianna Fail TD; Gina Grant and Ashling Nibbs of Our Children's Voice; Micheal Martin, TD, Fianna Fail leader; and Charlie McConalogue, Fianna Fail TD.

The women also brought with them submissions from parents in Donegal who addressed the mental and physical toll that comes from feeling unsupported when caring for a child with high complex needs.

In a statement issued after the meetings, Ashling and Gina said, We feel we have to give a voice to the voiceless; children with high medical/physical complex needs and their families are too often ignored.
Virginia College in Chattanooga will host a Bring a Friend Event and Culture Day on Tuesday and Wednesday, from 10 a.m.

The event is free and open to the public, as the community is invited to experience a day in the life of a Virginia College student. The event will feature refreshments, campus tours, program demonstrations, career planning sessions, an admissions presentation, goodie bags and a meet-and-greet reception.

Attendees will be entered to win prizes such as T-shirts and Amazon gift cards. Members of the community planning to attend must call 423-893-2000 to register with the campus prior to the event.

The event is part of Virginia College parent company Education Corporation of Americas national Bring a Friend Events being held at 65 other Virginia College, Brightwood College, Brightwood Career Institute and Ecotech Institute locations throughout 18 states.

It can often be intimidating to consider going back to school, said Campus President Dominick DeLorenzo. This event gives people a chance to test it out and see what its like to be a Virginia College student for the day. Our campus offers a variety of programs, day and night classes, personalized instruction, hands-on learning and so much more. We hope everyone will consider joining us for this event, whether youre thinking about returning to school or youre just curious about what we have to offer.

The event will also allow attendees to explore the programs offered through Virginia College, including: Business Administration, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Medical Assistant, Medical Billing and Coding, Pastry Arts and Pharmacy Technician programs.

For more information about Virginia College in Chattanooga, visit https://vc.edu/chattanooga.
Marketer and award-winning entrepreneur Lauren Fried certainly knows how to keep busy. She heads up Pulse Collective, a marketing and communications agency she founded in late 2003. She also sits on the boards of several businesses, including reward points consultancy iFLYflat and the female entrepreneur community Inspiring Rare Birds. Of course, you might know Fried from her regular appearances on Gruen, the popular ABC show that critiques advertising.

Last year was particularly eventful for Fried. In April, she and fellow Gruen panelist Toby Ralph co-founded the Advisory Board Institute, determined to make expert independent advisory boards available to SMEs. Four months later, she switched gears with Pulse Collective, which had been known as Pulse Marketing up until that point. In addition to rebranding the agency and introducing a series of business roundtable and guest speakers, she made the bold move of declaring that she and her team would solely serve entrepreneurs and privately-owned businesses.

Asked how she is able to juggle all of her business commitments, Fried rejects the question: I dont see it as juggling, its just my normal. I love talking about business, I love helping businesses grow, and really do enjoy working. In saying that, this is made possible due to three people helping me. I have a husband who is equally busy but picks up the slack when needed, I have a very talented General Manager, and I also have a brilliant EA.

Next week, Fried will participate in Championing the Entrepreneurs Journey, a panel being held by the Sydney chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) as part of Vivid Ideas 2017. Ahead of the event, the 2010 NSW Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year spoke to Dynamic Business about the evolution of Pulse, highlights from  and lessons learned during her career  plus the marketing trend entrepreneurs shouldnt ignore and the need for businesses to change or die.

DB: After thirteen years with Pulse, what keeps you motivated?

Fried: Well, I love talking business. Its something I never find draining or repetitive because each client is absolutely unique in their DNA. Im interested in gastronomy, wine, tourism, technology, education, energy and online retail  and these just happens to be the spaces in which our clients operate and where the staff who approach us have knowledge. As a result, the business never stagnates. It evolves as I do, based on my passions and interests, and everyone (including my staff and clients) has come along with me on the journey. Plus, Im in marketing and advertising, which is an industry in constant motion. Theres plenty to keep me engaged and motivated.

DB: What fuelled the decision to rebrand your agency last year?

Fried: It was an organic evolution for the agency. Over the past few years, wed naturally shifted away from large national and international clients and gravitated towards privately-owned, entrepreneurial businesses. There were a lot of reasons for this. For one, we face the same challenges and pressure points but also the same joys so theres that instant connection. Also, my staff and I have found entrepreneurial businesses to be braver, more courageous: when weve asked them to trust us on this, generally theyve replied okay, lets do it.

DB: Has it been easier to work with entrepreneurial businesses?

Fried: Its definitely not easier. In fact, a lot of my advisors advised me against pinning Pulse to entrepreneurs due the challenges they face during the start-up phase, including the pressure around paying bills on time and the need to juggle many balls at once, which can create distraction. However, Ive found that when we work with entrepreneurs and privately-owned businesses, we get approvals and we get work done because we trust each other, were on the same page and its a true partnership. Whereas large companies have an in-built marketing team, were the outsourced marketing team for 80 to 90% of our clients. Were a dynamic brains trust and it doesnt take long for our clients to realise were in it for their success. Theyre spending between $300,000 and $2 million each year on their marketing and advertising, which we manage for them. Marketing and advertising is an industry with some real trust issues, so we aim to establish trust as soon as possible by going above and beyond for our clients and thats the level we stay at for the duration of our partnerships.

DB: Considering the Pulse relaunch, is evolution a must in business?

Fried: It depends where the entrepreneur is in their lifecycle. When they arent 100% in their business  for example, theyre looking to exit the business or have a break to start a family  thats not an ideal time to evolve their offering. It also depends on their teams appetite for change. With my team, Ive attracted like-minded people with a huge appetite for change. Some teams arent comfortable with change, so in those instances you wouldnt consider huge pivots or evolutions; instead, change would have to be carried out over smaller stages. That said, every business has to consider change or theyll die because markets are evolving and so are needs and there are new technologies. Entrepreneurs cant afford to be satisfied with their current rate of growth, they need to look into the future and ask themselves If I dont change, what will that look like?

Its important to realise not all change needs to be outward or relate to your offering. Sometimes, it can relate to your companys internal workings. In the case of Pulse, we reviewed our payment terms. This involved iFLYflat founder and reward points expert Steve Hui, who I know from EO, carrying out an audit where he talked to our clients. He asked them how they pay for stuff and where they travel. He was then able to recommend what credit card they should pay us with in order to get the most points. Its such a simple exercise but now that every one of our clients is paying us on credit card, cashflow is not a concern because we get paid on time every time. Getting paid on time, which is critical for cash flow, is pain point for every entrepreneur. By taking steps to reduce that pain point, weve achieved a great result for Pulse.

DB: What is a marketing trend entrepreneurs cant afford to ignore?

Fried: Online influencers. There is crossover between influencers and PR in terms of the role they can play in getting businesses air time. Influencers are a lot cheaper and theyre based on results. Of course, when seeking to engage an influencer, you need to get it right  that means figuring out how to best utilise them and whether they are genuine. That said the same goes for PR when they do blogger outreach or invite the media to experience, then talk about, their product or service. People might still be at the stage where theyre not sure about influencers but its a landslide thats about to happen.

DB: How have Gruen and your Telstra award win benefitted Pulse?

Fried: Theyre two of the most amazing growth triggers Ive had in business and theyre highlights of my career so far. In the two to three weeks following my Telstra award win, we picked up a whole years worth of business and our growth has been exponential since then. I was thirty at the time of the win and while I was confident in business, it helped extinguish some lingering doubts because other businesses realised she knows what shes talking about. In addition, it made my clients and staff feel very proud to be part of my journey. Gruen has also been a wonderful source of brand currency for both Pulse and me personally. I love being part of such an amazing production. Theres a great culture on set and I learn a lot from the team behind the show because theyre brilliant thinkers. Importantly, I always feel very stretched on Gruen. It challenges me and makes me nervous  I love that.

DB: What key lesson have you learned at the helm of Pulse?

Fried: I dont know where to start! I had a great conversation, recently, with a client who was in C-Level roles for decades before starting her own business, last year. Id spoken to her in the past about feeling shitty when I had to let someone go because it meant my team didnt like me. Anyway, she said, I get it now. When I asked what she meant, she replied, I get you have to be this perfect mix as a leader even when that doesnt make you feel great. You have to be motivational and energetic but also ruthless and, with some things, have zero tolerance. I guess the key lesson I learned was that its okay that everyone doesnt like you every single day of the year. As a leader, you will have to make difficult decisions and have difficult conversations, so get it done quickly.

DB: How valuable has EO been for you as an entrepreneur?

Fried: Ive been a member for eight years, and I can honestly say that it been a critical part of my survival in business. For me, its a safe place where Ive been able to link in with forums of around six to 12 like-minded individuals who are dealing with (or have dealt with) the same challenges. Its like having an advisory board. Theres a lot of experience sharing and we get to the 5% of the really amazing celebration stuff that sometimes we cant talk to our friends about.

DB: Lastly, how would you quantify your success with Pulse?

Fried: Weve been able to grow in a crowded industry, where many agencies have come and gone or been bought out and some of the bigger ones have been acquired by Deloitte, PwC and KPMG. I can talk numbers but for me success has been all the wonderful moments my staff and I have shared, the fact that our work gives us purpose and that Im happy when I walk into work each day.

DYNAMIC BUSINESS READER EXCLUSIVE

For a complimentary ticket to Championing the Entrepreneurs Journey (Monday, 29 May), click on the banner image below and enter the following promo code: DYNAMICBUSINESS
Innovation and startups are set to be the future of the Australian, and possibly even global, employment landscape. However, educational institutions place a greater emphasis on students and graduates obtaining employment in established companies in favour of startups.

With reports stating that the concept of automation will see five million Aussie jobs gone in the next 10 to 15 year, Australians should be thinking about their current skill set and the changing nature of the industry they are in to ensure ongoing employment..

The alliance between industry, including startups and educators, has never been more important. Australia needs to maintain and advance upon our global ranking of 7th in the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Index. Despite this seemingly high ranking, Australia still has a relatively low rate of startup formation for a developed nation. Education providers need to be taking this into account in not only the types of courses they offer, but also the components taught in existing courses, including more emphasis on startups.

Greater emphasis on startups in courses

Universities usually encourage their graduates to find employment at large, multi-national companies, as these are traditionally seen as employers of choice

However, there should be a push for graduates to think about joining startups and/or starting their own business from early on, ideally when they are still students and generally dont bare financial and family responsibilities.

While financial limitations will hamper young students ability to start their own businesses, it should be ingrained into them that the goal is attainable, even if at a time in the future.

This can be taught in courses and experienced by partnering with the Universitys local startup ecosystem; making students feel that they are equipped to commence a business of their own.

Teaching a diverse skill set of entrepreneurial skills, as well as promoting an entrepreneurial mindset, will provide immense benefits for those looking at launching their own startup and putting their ideas into action.

The right working spaces

There is a growing number of co-working spaces for entrepreneurs and small businesses, but not many are aligned with universities, nor designed with students in mind.

Co-working spaces are becoming more niche. For instance, our Outcome-Hub in Melbourne is a co-working space designed specifically for international graduates to start their own businesses in Australia, rather than in their home country.

Universities are places where this type of co-working should commence. Regular libraries are suited to study and research but a greater emphasis needs to be placed on the concept of co-working and the development of business at educational institutions.

Universities should create and promote dedicated spaces open to students at all levels and from all faculties to foster an entrepreneurial environment. This could have dedicated mentors available to allow for greater discussion and implementation of ideas between students.

Interns at startups

Internship opportunities at startups should be pushed so that students can see first-hand how new startup businesses operate.

Instead, Universities generally encourage their students to take intern roles, as part of courses, at established, long-standing companies where they become a small cog in a very large machine

While this type of experience is also important, students should be given the chance to apply their skills and knowledge in startups where, typically, they are given a greater range of roles and responsibilities.

Interns at startups can also make a greater impact on the business, especially in its infancy. Being resource poor, student interns are encouraged to do more, and think outside the box, something the Universities say they teach, but rarely implement outside the classroom. The experience in startups for interns is real, rather than observational as it often is at major firms.

If we agree that innovation and startups are set to be the future of the Australian employment, Universities need to incorporate entrepreneurial thinking and experience into their courses. After all, grass level learnings are always a better way to ingrain important concepts in peoples minds.

About the author:

Gerard Holland is the co-founder of Outcome.Life and Outcome-Hub and specialises in empowering international graduates through independent advice and help. He and his co-founder Domenic Saporito recently spoke with Dynamic Business. See: Stemming the brain drain: meet the duo behind the new start-up hub for international talent.
Elderly Couple Beaten, Robbed In Home Invasion On Northwest Side

By Stephen Gossett in News on May 26, 2017 2:33PM

A man, 81, and woman, 77, were beaten during a home-invasion robbery in Belmont Cragin on Thursday night, police said.

One or more men dressed in black hoodies broke into a home in the 5400 block of West Henderson Street at around 11:47 p.m., according to police. The attackers struck the victims in the face, causing lacerations, before taking off south with a purse, police said.

Both victims were taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and were listed in good condition.

Police do not have any suspects in custody as of Friday morning.

Updated 1:15 p.m: Police released a community alert Friday afternoon warning that these burglaries and home invasions were part of a pattern. In at least two other recent incidents this month, police said, burglars entered homes and threatened or battered the homes' residents while stealing their property.

The other two home invasions took place in the following locations and times:

4100 block of N. Avers on May 19, 2017 at 1:08 p.m.

4800 block of W. Nelson on May 23, 2017 at 9:35 p.m.
Logan Square Cocktail Face Off Will Bring Together Chicago's Best Bars

By Anthony Todd in Food on May 26, 2017 2:22PM



A cocktail from Yusho, one of the participants and the host of the event. Photo via Facebook.

If you're a cocktail nerd, this is definitely the event for you. On June 6, bartenders from some of Chicago's best bars will gather in Logan Square at Yusho for a cocktail face-off, and you can help pick the winner.

For $30, guests get to watch the action, sample the cocktails and enjoy snacks. The judges (who include Abe Conlon of Fat Rice and Paul McGee of Lost Lake) will make the final call, but there's a people's choice award, which means it is your obligation to taste all the cocktails you can get your hands on. For science.

Participating bars include:

Billy Sunday

Deadbolt

Fat Rice

Longman & Eagle

Lula

Scofflaw

Yusho

Best Intentions

Tickets are available now.
Google earlier this week unveiled Google Attribution, a tool that uses machine learning to measure the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns across a variety of devices and channels.

Part of a series of new measurement tools introduced at Google Marketing Next, Google Attribution aims to help marketers determine what is driving consumers to make their online purchasing decisions.

Google is at an inflection point, noted Sridhar Ramaswamy, senior vice president of ads and commerce, when it comes to the use of technology to measure online marketing effectiveness.

Whats exciting is that things that were really hard were going to be able to make easy, because technology is doing the heavy lifting, he told conference attendees.

Seconds Matter

Page-loading time is an important factor in terms of how long advertisers have to hook a consumer online, Ramaswamy said.

As load time increased from one to seven seconds, the probability of a consumer bouncing more than doubled, found a recent study that analyzed 900,000 mobile landing pages in more than 100 countries. That translates to conversions falling by up to 20 percent for every one second delay in page-load time.

Most existing attribution measurement tools have three main shortcomings, according to Ramaswamy. First, they lose track of the customer journey when they move between tools; second, they are hard to set up; and third, they are not integrated with ad tools.

Because of those shortcomings, marketers typically are stuck with using last-click attribution, which misses the impact of most marketing touchpoints.

The new Google Attribution tool incorporates data from AdWords, Google Analytics and DoubleClick Search, which provides a more comprehensive picture of data from all marketing channels, according to Google.

Google Attribution also makes it easy to switch over to data-driven attribution, which uses ads, keywords and campaigns that have the greatest impact on a companys goals, Google said. Using the data-driven attribution model typically requires a minimum set of data, which is 15,000 clicks, and at least 600 conversions within a 30-day period.

Google will offer an enterprise version, Google Attribution 360, to meet the needs of larger advertisers, noted Bill Kee, group product manager at the company.

Google Attribution currently is in beta and will roll out to additional customers over the next few months.

Not Quite Ready

Google Attribution is an aspirational sell for advertisers, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses, suggested Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research.

Google intends to make it free, so it will see a lot of uptake, but many users will have zero comparative experience to judge how much better they are doing with Attribution, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The major benefit will be providing more-accessible feedback for designing online user experiences, Teich said, noting that its not clear how artificial intelligence can make a contribution  at least until Attribution has been able to analyze millions of Web pages.

Google is ahead of the curve compared to other Internet companies, which are only average at measuring the efficacy of online marketing, observed Michael Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

Machine learning does give it an edge in making sense of the relationship between key clicks and online purchases, he told the E-Commerce Times.

While simple algorithms can provide some insight, especially as applied to last click models, machine learning can understand such things as click back, where the last key click is not the purchase, but rather an artifact of comparison shopping, Jude explained.

Data Points

Google made several other announcements related to providing additional marketing data.

It launched a new AdWords beta to let advertisers use fast-loading AMP pages as landing pages for search ads and to speed up ads across the Google Display Network. This follows Googles introduction about 18 months ago of the Accelerated Mobile Pages project to speed up the Web with faster browsing.

Google also announced a new tool to bring in-market audiences to Search, in order to help advertisers reach users who are ready to buy their products. Using machine learning, the tool analyzes trillions of search queries and millions of websites to determine when searchers are close to making a buying decision on a product.

The company unveiled plans to roll out store-sales measurement at the device and campaign levels, which will allow advertisers to measure in-store revenue and store visits delivered by search and shopping ads.

If advertisers collect email information at the point of sale through loyalty programs, Google said, store transactions can be imported directly into Adwords by the advertiser or through a third-party data partner.
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(REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)Relatives of victims react to coffins arriving to the Coptic church that was bombed on Sunday in Tanta, Egypt, April 9, 2017.

The World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, has condemned an attack on a bus in southern Egypt carrying Coptic Christians.

Militants in military-style uniforms opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, killing at least 28 people in the latest bloodshed targeting the country's Christian minority, officials said, The Washington Post reported.

The attack took place on as the group was traveling to a monastery on May 26, the Moslem day of prayer, wounding at least 25 people, the Health Ministry said, Reuters news agency reported.

"It is shocking that this attack was directed against people who were on a pilgrimage of peace, and that this attack comes on the heels of ongoing violence and persecution," Tveit said.

He noted, "In the face of this brutality, the human family, all people of faith and of good will, must stand together to recommit to respecting and caring for one another, to protecting one another, and to preventing such violence."

Eyewitnesses described masked men opening fire after stopping the Christians, who were travelling in a bus and other vehicles.

Egyptian television channels showed a smoke-blackened bus evidently raked by gunfire.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which also was on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The latest attack folows two separate suicide bombings in April on Egyptian churches in the Nile Delta town of Tanta and the country's second city of Alexandria on Palm Sunday, Newsweek reported. Those blasts killed 45 people.

The extremist group callings itself Islamic State, ISIS, or Daesh, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Following the attacks, ISIS released a statement from a person claiming to be its leader in Egypt, who remains unidentified, in its weekly Al Naba magazine, calling for Muslims to avoid Christian gatherings. The warning suggested that the group planned to target Christians in further attacks.

"We are warning you to stay away from Christian gatherings, as well as the gatherings of the army and the police, and the areas that have political government facilities," the leader said.

Coptic Christians, whose presence in Egypt dates back nearly 2,000 years, to around the time that Jesus lived, account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.

The World Council of Churches said it is appealing to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to religious leaders and to governments across the region "to act swiftly and boldly to safeguard the fundamental religious rights of all faiths, to ensure security in the face of violence and to guarantee justice for all people."

Tveit called for prayers, urging the WCC fellowship and others across the world to remain steadfast in their quest for peace and justice for Copts and all who are persecuted.


The latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report into financial literacy shows declining results for Australias Year 9 students.

The study compares the performance of students from 15 OECD countries. Australian 15-year-olds are equal fifth in the world, with the Netherlands, scoring an average of 504 in the PISA test.

While Australian students scored above the OECD average of 489, the average score of Australian students in 2015 compared to when they were last tested three years ago fell by 22 points.

The results follow a significant push by education bodies and private companies to boost the financial literacy skills of students across Australia.

In February, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) announced a new resource  developed in partnership with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Tax Office (ATO)  to support the teaching of consumer and financial literacy in schools.

Weeks later, the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA) announced its involvement in Global Money Week (27 March  2 April). The sessions were aimed at building the skills of parents and trusted advisers to educate children on the basics of financial literacy.

MFAAs head of marketing and communications, Stephen Hale, told The Educator that principals can review the ability of their school to deliver basic financial literacy education in so that healthy habits children need can be embedded.

There are many resources ranging from regulators like ASIC with the MoneySmart program to associations such as the MFAA who are committed to community activities, he said.

Principals who engage with the teachers and parents groups tend to get real traction with progressive initiatives, especially when they can be tailored to suit the demographics of each school.

Hale said the MFAA sees the need to build basic financial literacy so that students are better prepared to begin their lives when they join the broader community.

Our finance members deal with these issues daily and see the need for improved education on fundamental life skills such as saving, understanding the difference between needs and wants, and budgeting, he said.

Developing a solid base of understanding can guide them towards a happier life after they leave school.


Australia has boosted its status as a world class education destination, according to new data from the Federal Department of Education and Training.

The new data showed that international student numbers were up 15% in the first three months of the year compared to 2016.

According to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today, international student enrolments added $22.4bn to the Australian economy in 2016.

Federal Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, said the positive contributions were shared across all States and Territories.

In 2017 Australia hosted a record number of international students as more than 550,000 students from over 190 different nations flocked to our shores, Birmingham said in a statement today.

Our international education system is critical in Australias economic prosperity as we continue to transition from an economy built on the success of the mining and construction boom to an economy based on knowledge, services and innovation.

Birmingham pointed out that the first three months of data captured students commencing higher education in the first semester of 2017, as well as students commencing full year courses in vocational education and training and in schools.

We are on track to see another record year for Australian international education, he said.

Building on Australias reputation as a world-class international education offering, various geopolitical factors create new possibilities for Australia to maximise our share of the growing number of students who are travelling from all over the world to study.

Former Federal Minister for Tourism and International Education, Richard Colbeck, told The Educator that the growth means schools with capacity to accommodate more international students may find it easier to do so.



Our high quality qualifications are the top reason why international students continued to choose Australia as their study destination, he said.



This is followed by the reputation of our institutions, the overall quality of the Australian education system, the safety of our country and the quality of research and training at our institutions.

And the education sector is showing every sign of continued growth, said Colbeck.

The latest data on Australia student visa applications shows ongoing growth of 8% in the September-December 2015 quarter for all student visa subclasses and 11% growth in the school visa sub-class.

Schools in NSW and Victoria have been the most popular destination for international students, with 2,920 enrolments in NSW state schools in 2016 and 2,815 in Victorian schools.



This trend is driving revenue for many cash-strapped schools, with students paying fees of up to $14,000 to study in public schools.



Queenslands state schools are receiving up to $30m in annual tuition fees from foreign students, with 2,500 of them enrolled in 75 government schools around the state.



With the number of international students attending state schools doubling over the last decade, the Queensland Government has invested $8m in attracting more international students.
CeaseFire Violence Interrupter Among Nearly 50 Arrested In Major Gang Probe

By Stephen Gossett in News on May 26, 2017 6:53PM



Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images

Officials on Friday announced announced the arrest of nearly 50 members and associates of the South Side gang Two-Sixand one of those charged had apparently worked as a violence interrupter for the CeaseFire program.

The chargesagainst 45 people in totalwere the result of a two-year sting, which acting US Attorney Joel Levin described as a "significant" joint investigation between federal and state law enforcement.

Called "Operation Bunny Trap"in reference to the gang's symbolthe investigation confiscated 118 guns, including 20 rifles15 of which were "assault-style" rifles, according to Levin and a U.S. Attorneys Office

press release. Assault-style rifles were used in multiple high-profile shootings on the South Side in recent months. Several hundred grams of cocaine, fentanyl and crystal meth were also seized.

One of those arrested was 50-year-old Francisco Sanchez, a onetime violence interrupter for the CeaseFire, an anti-violence organization that engages people with criminal pasts to help de-escalate gang tensions. Sanchez, as the Sun-Times points out, was profiled by The Trace in February. The article outlines the extreme difficulty faced by the organization amid completely gutted state funding and the loss of a Chicago Police grant. Sanchez was charged with felony possession of a firearm, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

CeaseFire was the subject of the great Steve James/Alex Kotlowitz documentary The Interrupters, from 2011. A 2008 study by Northwestern University found that CeaseFire had significantly decreased shootings in several Chicago neighborhoodseven as tensions have been known to exist between interrupters and law enforcement.

Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson on Friday framed the arrests as a warning ahead of the long holiday weekend. "As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, we are sending a clear message to those driving violence. We will come at you with everything that we have to make our communities safe." said Johnson. Police are expected to outline details of beefed-up deployment for Memorial Day weekend on Friday afternoon.

Update:

Cure Violence, which now operates CeaseFire, said in a statement sent to Chicagoist:



"Violence interrupters make the most dangerous communities safer - with studies showing reductions in shootings and killings of up to 50%. To stop violence, we must engage with individuals most likely to commit violence by hiring people who have access and credibility with the populationa standard practice in health outreach programs including AIDS/HIV and substance abuse. Hundreds of interrupters in dozens of health departments and communities are helping to make our communities safer. Although relapses may occur, we need to see the bigger picture of the amazing work and great successes and contributions of interrupters in Chicago and around the country."
Can a drone port on a strip-mined mountaintop in Kentucky keep an ambitious student like Seth Hatfield from leaving his economically distressed hometown for good?

A co-op of rural school districts in the regionhome to a long-declining coal industryis betting on it.

The districts and other backers of constructing a $50 million complex where companies would design, build, and test drones and train people to operate them, say the regions high schools would provide a strong pipeline of students to learn high-tech skills.

They hope to accomplish two feats in a region where, at 12.8 percent, the January unemployment rate was more than twice the national average: create jobs in the burgeoning high-tech field and entice the regions brightest students back home after college with the promise of good jobs.

For Hatfield, a sophomore at Belfry High School in Pike County whose passions are video games and robots, its a thrilling prospect.

I feel like this is a great opportunity for me, and I feel really lucky that all of this is happening in my area, close to my hometown, said Hatfield, 16, whose grandfather was a coal miner.

The project, known as USA Drone Port, is still in its conceptual phase and is expected to be built near Hazard, in southeastern Kentucky. It would include a 3,500-foot runway for drones and other small autonomous aircrafts, as well as an indoor-testing facility for year-round work. There would be space for engineers to build, test, and perfect their inventions. Classroom space would be available for K-12 and college students to learn drone design and manufacturing and have job-shadowing and mentoring opportunities. The facility would have aquatic ponds to test small underwater vehiclesthe kinds that might be used in search and rescue missions.

We know [drone technology] is a growing area of employment opportunities, and the uses are only now being discovered, said Jeff Hawkins, the executive director of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative , or KVECa collective of 21 rural districts with 50,000 students that covers an area roughly the size of Connecticut.

Its also a way for us to engage student-learners in a pathway thats focused on drone design, testing, and use, that exposes them to high levels of mathematics, engineering, and physics, etcetera.

Hawkins believes the education system is inextricably linked to the regions economic future.

Where the two intersect is the edu-economy, he said. Thats the sweet spot for us.

The project grew out of discussions about postsecondary opportunities and regional economic development between educators at KVEC and officials from the states aerospace industry, said Paul Green, the director of KVECs Appalachian Technology Institute. The need for a facility for research and development of drone technology emerged over and over, Green said. The state has a growing aerospace industry and is second in the country in the export of aerospace products and parts, he said.

Right Conditions

The southeastern Kentucky region has many features that make it a prime location for such a project, including thousands of acres of land and open space far enough away from population centers without being too remote, Green said.

While districts in the region have large numbers of students living in poverty81 percent qualify for free- or reduced-price mealsthey post average four-year graduation rates that are higher than the states average, Hawkins said. In 2016, KVECs graduation rate was 94.9 percent, while Kentuckys statewide rate was 88.6 percent, Hawkins said. Steady growth in the graduation rate has been the result of expanding personalized learning, personalized professional development for educators, and expanding curricular options, particularly career tech-ed courses. The KVEC districts have also been building a stronger foundation for high-tech education, deploying more than $30 million in federal grants to expand courses in computer programming, computer science, coding, aeronautics, and aviation. Prior to the recent expansion, only two of KVECs 29 high schools offered computer science classes with coding, and only two had offerings related to aerospace engineering and aviation, Green said.

Our programming is trying to expose kids to these new things, Green said. We are working to create potential economic opportunities with something like the drone port, where industry may say, This is a great training facility. This is a great testing facility. It may behoove us to move our research and development center to this location. 

The drone port dovetails with KVECs efforts to prepare students for jobs of the future and build multiple career pathways. This fall, KVEC plans to offer a new pathway in drone design and development. It will also emphasize entrepreneurship and creativity.

The unique thing for me is how do we create an ecosystem that fuels both the K-12 education system and diversifies the economy, so that people can stay here and find gainful employment and create a vibrancy of life, Hawkins said.

Odds for Success?

Revitalizing economically depressed regions is a tall order in any setting where manufacturing and industry jobs have disappeared, said Harry J. Holzer, a public policy professor at Georgetown University in Washington. In many of those regions, residents who had the opportunity left permanently. Many who stayed behind have been out of the workforce for extended periods, often on long-term disability, Holzer said. And some of those areas are in the throes of the opioid epidemic. The eastern Kentucky region is home to several counties with some of the largest declines in life expectancy between 1980 and 2014, according to a recent report in JAMA Internal Medicine, a drop driven in part by poverty and lack of healthcare access. The opioid and prescription drug epidemic and an exodus of younger people have also played a role, Hawkins said.

But there are features in the region that companies may find attractive, such as cheaper land and lower taxes. Building a skilled workforce might also draw interest, and KVECs partnership with a local community college and the regions relative proximity to Lexington, Ky., also raise the odds of success, he said. University of Kentucky economist Christopher Bollinger expressed caution.

There are major challenges to luring tech firms to areas where the labor force needed to support the industry does not yet exist, Bollinger said. And a lack of big-city amenities to attract a start-up labor force is also a barrier.

The new training for high-tech jobs in coding, engineering and aviation and entrepreneurship should continue whether the drone port gets built, he said. That kind of training and education can spur entrepreneurial activity and lead to economic revitalization.

Fundamentally, I am always skeptical of if you build it they will come  he said. But I am not skeptical that education is the key to economic growth. We see this all the time.

The project is not intended to be exclusive to drone development, said Bart Massey, who works at Hazard Community and Technical College and will serve as the manager for the project. Robotics will also be central, and the complexs final form will be driven by industry needs, he said.

So far, the board that would manage the drone port has received support from local county governments. A landowner has agreed to donate the property for the airstrip. Other property owners have also expressed their intention to donate more land if needed, Massey said. The organizers will need to raise private money, but they also hope to get financial assistance from the Appalachian Regional Commission and grants through the federal Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, Massey said. The first phase is estimated to cost $15 million.

The entire project would take between 24 and 36 months to complete, but educators hope that students and businesses would be able to use portions of the facility as soon as fall 2018, Massey said.

Student Passion

Belfry High School students like Hatfield and his classmate Autumn Gibson see real promise to pursue a career close to home. Gibson, 15, whose early exposure to air shows fostered a love for airplanes, signed up for an early-morning aeronautic class when it was first offered. This semester, she and some classmates built a wind tunnel from scratch.

I thought it was a great opportunity to get a head start on a possible career, said Gibson, who plans to be an aviation technician and return to work at the regional airport.

Hatfield has already demonstrated a talent with drones. He recently won KVECs first-ever drone contest in which contestants had to pilot a drone in an enclosed space without crashing it.

The planned drone port gives him hope that his familys Appalachian rootswhich run deep in southeastern Kentuckycan remain.

By the time I complete college, he said, there is bound to be something for me back home.
Assessments may change in many ways, but for most students, the stress of having to prove what they know and can do doesnt go away.

Thats why an increasing number of districts nationwide are looking for ways to help change not so much the tests but the way students respond to them, and to do so in a way that helps improve students achievement and well-being.

People who are anxious in general often get test anxiety, yes, but a lot of people who are not particularly anxious can still develop stress around tests in different subjects like mathematics, said Mark Greenberg, the chairman of prevention research at Pennsylvania State University and a developer of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies, or PATHS, curriculum, a social and emotional development and anti-anxiety program for elementary students.

Whats actually going on when a student stresses out over a test? While its a common occurrence, researchers are starting to get new perspective on exactly how fear interferes with performance.

In the moment an anxious student begins a test, the mind becomes flooded with concerns about the possibility of failure. And these worries essentially create a competition for attention between the worries and [the] need to solve the problems on the test, said Gerardo Ramirez, an assistant professor in developmental and cognitive psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. That divided attention leads to a stalematecalled choking, in the parlance of Ramirez and his colleague Sian Beilock at the University of Chicago.

Young Students Shut Down

This choking can be particularly visible in younger students. High schoolers may respond more like adults, with irritability or sleep problems, but in elementary, kids just kind of shut down sometimes, said James Butler, who trains teachers in anti-stress techniques at the Austin, Texas, school district. Last week, there was a 4th grader who just started crying and wouldnt write much on the test at all, he said. They just get overwhelmed and dont know how to deal with it.

Interestingly, that fear response looks the same in both low- and high-performing students, Ramirez said. It doesnt matter how much the student actually knows, but rather how well he or she feels they have the resources to meet the demands of the test and how tightly performance is tied to the childs sense of identity.

For example, in a study out last month, Ramirez and colleagues found that students who saw themselves as math people but performed poorly on a math test actually repressed their memories of the content of the class, similar to the motivated forgetting seen around traumatic events like death. The effort to block out a source of anxiety can actually make it harder to remember events and content around the event.

So maybe you feel, Hey, Im supposed to be a math person, but Im really stressed out, so maybe Im not as big a math person as I thought I was. That stress becomes a very big threat to you, Ramirez said.

The point of forgetting is to cope with the experience, but if the experience is tied up with a lot of the content of the class, its not what you want.

See Also Join us for a discussion of what the research shows about test stress, and how the Austin, Texas, district is using mindfulness and other techniques to help students maintain a healthy approach to assessment.

Webinar: Taking the Stress From Students Tests

Take the American Psychological Associations 2013 report, Stress in America. It

Studies have found its difficult to remove anxiety around tests completely, but there are ways to stop the mental choking that hurts students performance.

Ramirez and Beilock, for instance, found in a 2013 study that students who wrote about their fears about an upcoming test the day before taking it performed better during the actual test, perhaps because it allowed them to focus on the fear and then put it aside. A 2011 University of Colorado at Boulder study similarly found that asking students to write about their values before a test improved performance; authors of that study noted that it could help students reinforce their sense of self outside the academic arena.

And a new study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of British Columbia found that changing a students mindset about the anxiety itself could also boost test performance . Students in the treatment group were trained to reinterpret physical symptomsa racing pulse or sweaty palms, sayas signs of excitement, not fear. Those students had better test performance and lower stress than students who interpreted their symptoms as fear.

Experiencing a sense of threat and a sense of challenge actually arent all that different from each other, Ramirez said. Ultimately, by changing your interpretation, you are not going from high anxiety to low anxiety but from high anxiety to optimal anxiety.

Mindful of Testing

One of the most rapidly growing methods for shifting a students focus is mindfulness, a form of attention training in which studentsand sometimes teachersengage in breathing exercises and visualizations to improve focus and relieve stress. The method has shown evidence of promise in reducing anxiety and behavior problems in children and adolescents in both the United States and other countries. But most of the studies to date have involved relatively small groups of children who have not been randomly assigned to the interventions.

An analysis of more than 60 evaluations of school-based mindfulness programs released in March by the nonprofit Campbell Collaboration found small but statistically significant improvements in students cognitive and emotional outcomes but no significant improvements for academics. The Norway-based authors cautioned that schools should evaluate the programs if they use them in class.

Mindfulness is in; its expanding a lot, but ... sometimes, the excitement about these things gets way ahead of the evidence of its effectiveness, Penn States Greenberg said. Yet, he said most anti-stress programs, including his own, involve at least some aspects of mindfulness, such as breathing exercises and students learning to identify their emotions.

If [students] learn to just watch your own anxiety and see that it gets stronger and weakernot to push the emotion away but just to notice ityou can surf the waves of anxiety, Greenberg said.

James Butler is one of those trying to help students ride those waves. A former teacher of the year in the Austin district, he has become the school systems first mindfulness director.

Butler and others in the districts social-emotional-learning department train both teachers and students to recognize their physical and emotional symptoms of stress and understand how they could affect their thoughts in the lead-up to a test.

The way I approach mindfulness is from a very educational perspective; were very explicit about the neuroscience of the brain, he said.

I like to focus on very simple, easy techniques, like just taking three deep breaths before a test, he said. With young children, he has them time their inhalations and exhalations by tracing the fingers of one hand with the other, both to help them count and to give tactile feedback. The exercises are designed so that teachers can lead their class through them in just a few minutes a day during class transitions.

If a teacher is practicing mindfulness with their class consistently, its more of a seamless transition ... something that they will naturally do during a test.

Two summers ago, Butler wrote Mindful Classrooms, a 36-week curriculum covering research on how stress affects the brain and detailing the exercises he had done with his own kindergarten class for several years. Austin Superintendent Paul Cruz gave Butler the green light to pilot the curriculum in 2015-16 with 20 teachers, and it has since expanded to 400 teachers in 130 schools districtwide.

On an annual survey of classroom climate, average scores of district teachers in the pilot more than doubled after participating in the program. The results were only self-reported but positive enough that the district plans to conduct a quantitative evaluation of the program next year.
US cattlemen: New Ambassador to China in best position to help us

US cattlemen said the new ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, was the right person to facilitate the re-entry of US beef to the Chinese market.

Branstad, a former governor of Iowa state, was recently confirmed by the US Senate.

"As the six-term governor of a state with more than $10 billion in annual agricultural exports, Terry Branstad is an ideal person to help facilitate the US beef industry's return to the Chinese market for the first time in 13-plus years", said Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Ambassador Branstad has said that he intends to promote American-produced beef in Beijing. Uden said America's cattle producers look forward to working with him to make this "a reality as soon as possible."

Mike Cline, president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association, also said: "Ambassador Branstad has been a great friend to Iowa cattlemen and the agriculture industry as governor of Iowa. He has shown a great commitment to the growth of beef and other agricultural exports, and we look forward to the work he will do on behalf of all Americans in his new capacity as Ambassador to China."

Recently the US and China reached an agreement that will allow US beef to re-enter the Chinese market after more than 13 years.

China will allow imports of US beef on conditions consistent with international food safety and animal health standards and consistent with the 1999 Agricultural Cooperation Agreement not later than July 16, 2017.
Pas Reform commissioned for new hatchery in Russia's Kaliningrad region





Produkty Pitania Group, Russia's largest manufacturer of semi-finished, ready-to-eat and frozen poultry and poultry meat products, has commissioned Pas Reform Russia to install SmartPro hatchery technologies in a new state-of-the-art, 41 million eggs per year hatchery.



The group, which comprises LLC Produkty Pitania Plant, LLC Gusevsky canned foods and LLC TPK Baltptitseprom, has commissioned the new hatchery on its 86 hectare site in Kaliningrad. TPK Baltptitseprom is the region's sole producer of broiler chicken meat products, including semi-finished products and sausages.

SmartPro incubation, climate control and hatchery automation systems are included in the new installation, says Pas Reform Russia's general director Wim Schaafsma. "This level of technology and innovation will not only increase production efficiencies and production quality but it signals a new and enhanced level of development for poultry production in this region," he adds.

While developing the project, great attention was paid to achieving the highest standards of hygiene and bio-security throughout the hatchery, which is regarded as the heart of the production complex, Anna Kolygina, Pas Reform Russia's commercial director, explains.

"The most advanced ergonomic solutions and high-quality materials are used in all hatchery equipment, which will enable Produkty Pitania Group to reduce both its maintenance and operational expenses," she says.

Pas Reform Academy will also provide ongoing support, by monitoring equipment, operations and incubation parameters and providing a full hatchery management training programme at Pas Reform's dedicated training centre in the Netherlands.

Aside from the hatcheries, the integration's onsite facilities include a feed mill, poultry farms and a new, fully automated slaughterhouse, as well as sausage production and an infrastructure to maintain such a large, modern facility.

In November 2016, expansion of the poultry complex started with the construction of a new farm incorporating 20 chicken houses, to bring total production capacity up to 26,000 tonnes of chicken meat per year.

When the expansion project is completed, that figure will rise to 36,000 tonnes annually, increasing meat production in Kaliningrad region by 38%. The project is being implemented with the support of Rosselkhozbank and construction is due for completion in November this year.

Produkty Pitania Group's business development strategy is one of continual investment in product quality, technology and production, with new projects to expand product ranges.

With the company's own network of 80 'Fresh Market' retail outlets, the Group sells product under a number of brand names, including Zolotoy Petushok, Rossiyskaya Corona, Domashnyaya Skazka, Baltptitseprom, Fresh Product, Hot Team and Perfetto.

"Millions of Russians choose our products and that demand continues to grow," says Group CEO Stefano Vlahovich."Further investment in our poultry complex is wholly based on such positive business results.

"Equipped with the latest hatchery technologies, our poultry farm will be one of the most advanced in Europe, enabling us to increase both the range and volume of high-quality poultry products that we can supply," Vlahovich adds.

- Pas Reform
Photo: The Cubs Are On A Gloriously Overdressed 'Anchorman'-Themed West Coast Trip

By Rachel Cromidas in Arts & Entertainment on May 26, 2017 2:22PM



Cubs manager Joe Maddon never misses an opportunity to boost team spirit through group costumes. So this spring, he's got the team dressing up in suits and cowboy hats as characters from Anchorman for their ongoing Southern California trip.

As you can see, the team is staying classy for their trip to Los Angeles, and plan to carry on the theme next week in San Diegothe city named after marine animal anatomy (of course)where the iconic movie Anchorman takes place:

In the past, Maddon has gotten the team to dress up in wacky suits and onesie pajamas for team flights around the country. Maddon is apparently calling this one the "Ron Burgundy/Brick Tamland/Tommy La Stella Tribute Road Trip" because he thinks Steve Carell's character looks like La Stella.

Where 60 percent of the time it works every time, sponsored by 'Sex Panther' cologne, Maddon explained to reporters.

Let's hope the Cubs' record for the year is better than that, at least.




Police Warn Of Armed Robberies Near University Village

By Rachel Cromidas in News on May 26, 2017 5:18PM



1300 block of South Morgan Street via Google Street View

Police are warning about a series of robberies in the 12th District, near University Village.

In at least three recent armed robberies, a man, described as black and between 16 and 30 years old, approached people on the street, either showed them a handgun or implied that he had one, then took their belongings and ran away.

The robberies all took place in the past week on South Morgan Street at the following locations and times:



1300 Block of South Morgan Street on May 20, 2017 between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m.

1300 Block of South Morgan Street on May 22, 2017 at 9:50 p.m.

1400 Block of South Morgan Street on May 24, 2017 at 7:25 p.m.





The robber had short black hair and was wearing a red or black hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans, police said in an alert. Police recommend that people concerned about being robbed should report suspicious activity to the police, remain calm if confronted by a robber, never chase after a robber, and remember their assailant's unique physical characteristics, i.e. a scar or limp.
Gov. Candidate JB Pritzker Trolls Rauner With Giant Clock Mascot

By aaroncynic in News on May 26, 2017 7:41PM



Billionaire and Illinois gubernatorial challenger JB Pritzker speaks with reporters at a labor rally outside a nursing home in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. Photo by Aaron Cynic.

Gubernatorial Democratic hopeful and local billionaire JB Pritzker began trolling Gov. Bruce Rauner with an anthropomorphic clock Friday, part of a larger multimedia effort by the campaign to explicitly lay the states budget crisis at the feet of the governor.



"Time is running out for Bruce Rauner to take responsibility for the crisis he has created and even though he runs away from reporters, Bruce Rauner won't be able to hide from Tick Tock the Budget Clock, Pritzker campaign spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh said in a press release.



Illinois is creeping closer to 700 days without a budget, and its likely the legislature will adjourn next week without reaching an agreement. Since the inception of the impasse, Rauner has sought to blame arch-nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan and other legislative Democrats for not signing off on pieces of his ham-fisted Turnaround agenda, a pro-business package of legislation and other austerity measures.





@BruceRauner And of course, Tick Tock was on hand to remind Rauner about the crisis he created. #Day695 #twill pic.twitter.com/dTWIBNwOdA  CrisisCreatin'Rauner (@RaunersCrisis) May 26, 2017





Tick Tock, a character reminiscent of Quinnochio, a costumed character commissioned by the Rauner campaign to follow around former governor Pat Quinn, or Quinns own Squeezy the Pension Python, turned up at a Rauner event in south suburban Orland Park today. The character is a part of a larger effort by Pritzker called Crisis Creatin Rauner, which the campaign says is to hold Rauner accountable for this crisis of his own making and the families, schools, and social service agencies that continue to pay the price.Meanwhile Rauner, who has totally not been campaigning while touring the state, released another digital ad Friday thats also definitely not a campaign video . Called How We Got Here, the video features more sweeping theatrical music and quick clips from news stories, all but making it a trailer for a sequel no one wants to watch.For the past two and a half years, Gov. Rauner has taken on the Madigan Machine and stood up to its tax-and-spend agenda, said the Illinois GOP in a statement.
With today marking the 40th anniversary of the legendary movie Star Wars: A New Hope, visual effects producer Dennis Muren, who was the effects cameraman on the original film, talked about the franchise's success which came as a bit of a surprise.

"Really, going all the way through the show, I had no idea it was going to be a success," Muren explained in an interview with starwars.com, about the film released in 1977. "It was too weird. The script, you know, you've got these guys running through these corridors in some sort of space planet and a guy's dressed in a dog costume running along with them, and there's this robot like the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz."

Muren, who helped create some of the most iconic scenes in the movie such as the Death Star trench run, further explains why he thought the film would struggle with reception.

"To me, even in seeing the work in Star Wars while we were doing it, most of the shots looked very crude," Muren elaborated. "The ships were doing funny maneuvers, they don't seem to be responding the way inertia would actually move something, and there's just huge matte lines in some shots. We didn't have the time. It's amazing that some of those shots are even in the show because it was such a rush."

Currently, Star Wars is at the peek of its popularity. The upcoming movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi is coming to theaters on Dec. 15, 2017. There are also additional plans for more films to come in the future. Most notably is the Han Solo standalone film, which has been slowly leaking information in anticipation of its May 25, 2018 release.
Seetha and Yasodha1 are sisters in their mid- to late-50s. They are of the Vel . l . al . ar2 caste. They reside in an upper-middle-class ward of ur (village) in Valikamam, Jaffna in Sri Lanka with Seethas teenage son, Mayuran. Their parents, now deceased, had built the house. Seetha is a divorcee and Yasodha never married. By Jaffna standards, Seetha has a reasonably well-paying clerical job and is the primary breadwinner for the family. Yasodha takes care of most of the household duties and does not work outside the home. She earns extra income for the family by selling packed tea leaves, gingelly oil, and fruit cake out of her kitchen. Mayuran attends a prominent Jaffna school and was preparing for his A-level exams when this article was written. The family is not wealthy, but enjoys a comfortable standard of living.

Thousands fled the Jaffna peninsula when the civil war began in Sri Lanka. This family, however, stayed there throughout. They did not have the financial means to emigrate, neither did they have a close kin abroad who could sponsor them. Seethas place of employment was in operation for most of the war period, so the choice to remain in Jaffna was one between living in a rent-free home with a stable income as against moving to Colombo(as many other Jaffna Tamils did)and facing additional costs of living with no guarantee of employment.
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You may have visited Essex's sandy beaches in Clacton, Frinton and Walton, as well as our pebbled beaches at Southend and Dovercourt.

However, very few know about the 'secret' beaches of Essex. Boasting 350 miles of glorious coastline, the second-longest in the UK, it is also one of the most diverse, a place of surprising beauty and rich in wildlife.

Nestled in between our well-known beaches are mudflats, saltmarshes and lonely creeks - today home to thousands of wintering seabirds.

From old seafaring towns to seals and Thames barges, our shores are full of unexpected delights. Here are the best beaches in Essex which you have probably never visited.

Earlham's Beach

If you head towards the east of the county, you'll find the port of Harwich and Dovercourt Bay.

It's a little known secret, but walk along the path from Dovercourt west- end, past the caravan park and you'll find Earlhams beach.

Not good for swimming, but where marshland reaches the sea and perfect for mud-larking and wildlife. Just be mindful of the tides.

The Naze





Unique because it's surrounded on three sides by the sea  the mostly sandy beaches and steadfast sea defence, make the Naze beach perfect for walking and discovering - wait for it - fossils and shark's teeth dating back to the Ice Age! (It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)).

Also great for lovers of marine activities such as sailing, kayaking and kite-surfing, and you couldn't possibly leave without visiting the Essex Wildlife Trust Centre, walking to the top of The Naze Tower, or taking a wildlife trip to see the seals in the Walton backwaters.

Brightlingsea





Brightlingsea is a small Cinque port, seven miles from Colchester at the mouth of the River Colne.

Well-known by residents, it is still little known by visitors, and when 'out of season' a trip here will definitely be good for the soul.

Perfect for families, it has a tidal 'paddling' pool for the little ones and is a popular spot for crabbing.

Ideal conditions make it suitable for sailing as well  keeping everyone happy!

The beautiful sunsets found here and many brightly coloured beach huts, make it an ideal location for photography too.

East Mersea

Mersea Island (approached by a causeway from the mainland, and cut-off at high tide) has an East and West  both worthy of a visit.

East Mersea is also the home of Cudmore Grove Nature Reserve, and as well as wildlife and beautiful walks along the sea wall, a regular ferry during the Summer time carries passengers to and from Brightlingsea.

The beach is sand and pebble, but go there during the week, or out of season and you're likely to be the only one there - bliss!

Monkey Beach  West Mersea

(Image: www.londonfamily.co.uk)





The curiously named 'Monkey Beach' is a small area of beach in West Mersea.

On one side, moored on the mudflats, are the beautiful, weather-beaten house boats.

Whilst on the other, small causeways amongst marshland, with which to access it by.

Once on the beach (there are also stairs down to it), it is the essence of tranquillity, with amazing views (on a clear day) over to Bradwell-on-Sea, and the perfect paradise for photography lovers and sunbathers alike.

A short walk away will take you to the Company Shed and Oyster Bar where you can indulge in native Mersea oysters and fresh fish caught that morning. Visit on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon and you can buy the 'fresh catch' direct from the Fishermen!

Bradwell-on-Sea





Although Bradwell can be seen from Mersea Island, it is in fact nearly an hour's drive away.

Known as the Dengie Peninsula, this area of the coast where the River Blackwater meets the North Sea, is a delightful, unspoilt place to visit.

Bathed in part by cockle shells, it is a very lonely shoreline and saltmarsh.

In 653 AD, Saint Cedd was sent by Pope Gregory to found a monastery, and bring Christianity to Essex.

The building has survived as the old chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, and is one of the oldest and most atmospheric churches in England, warranting a 'must see' whilst in this area.

You can also walk along the sea wall to Burnham-on-Crouch, once a centre for cockle, whelk and oyster trade, now famed for sailing activities.

Shoeburyness





Within walking distance of Southend, this beach is sand and shingle, with a promenade backdrop and lovely beach huts.

It's a world apart from Southend beach though, and you'll find a relaxing haven here.

It was an important location during the the Second World War, and there are still some remains of sea defences left which prevented enemy ships entering the Thames.

Just along the prom, Uncle Tom's Cafe provides the ice cream and as many bucket and spades as you need!

It's a popular spot for kite-surfing and sailing, but the best thing about Shoeburyness this summer, is the installation of the 'Poppies Wave' (part of the exhibition that was at the Tower), on Barge Pier until June 24.

Thorpe Bay





A pebble and sand, quiet beach, and because of the tide, perfect for sunbathing, bathing, sailing and paddle boarding. It's popular with families, but not at all crowded, even in in the summer season.

Also beautiful for sunset 'spotting'  so don't forget your camera.

You can cycle over-looking the sea 5 kilometres one way, and 2 kilometres the other, or just walk! It's only a 50 minute drive from the City of London.

Canvey Island  Thorney Bay





We couldn't possibly include all these wonderful beaches without popping in one that caters for your dog!

A dog walking paradise, Thorney Bay is a small sheltered beach on Canvey Island, and is a wonderful place to sit and watch the World go by, and all the ships going up and down the Thames.

On a clear, sunny day there are also great views across to the Kent coast.

For further information about beaches on the Essex coast, go to www.visitessex.com/discoverycoast
Amid Seismic Tronc Merger, The Reader Is At Risk. Here's How To Help

By Stephen Gossett in News on May 26, 2017 4:30PM



Flickr / Photo: Bryan Hayes

Even though it has long been speculated that tronc, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, could purchase Wrapports LLC, the publisher of the Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader, the news last Monday that a merger was already in the works hit us like a bombshell. The Tribune Editorial board tried to grit out a smile, casting the deal as a preservation lifeline for news competition, but it was hard to see such a framing as anything but Pollyannaish-ness: media consolidation is bad news for the Chicago news consumer. Writ large, it's bad for democracy.

If the deal goes through, tronc would own the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Reader, eight suburban newspapers and magazines, Hoy, Chicago Now, RedEye Chicago and Chicago Magazineand that's just the local landscape. The deal still has to be approved by the Department of Justice, but as we noted during what was then the most recent media mega-merger, Trump-cozy Sinclair's purchase of the separate Tribune Media's dozens of broadcast stations, the current administration hasn't been exactly quick to thrust up regulatory roadblocks. As of Friday, the 15-day window in which another potential buyer has been allowed to emerge has now narrowed to five daysand people are justly concerned.

Now, a new petition from the Chicago Newspaper Guild addressing these concerns is making the rounds. Addressed to the DOJ's Antitrust Division, it asks the department for close scrutiny and a guarantee of autonomy.

The letter reads in part:



"We also urge the department to ensure that any deal will preserve journalistic independence for the Reader and the Sun-Times and position these vitally important community institutions for long-term survival. Each publication serves unique audiences within the city's diverse communities, and sustaining multiple, independent voices in Chicago journalism should be a greater priority than maximizing returns for investors in Tronc, Wrapports or any other potential owner."

There's obviously never a good time for such upheaval, but the timing seems particularly worrying for the folks at the Reader. Just three days prior to the tronc announcement, unionized staff unanimously voted to authorize a strike. (Workers have not yet gone on strike and consider it "an absolute last resort," Philip Montoro, the paper's longtime music editor, told Chicagoist at the time.) They're looking to make sure management doesn't have unrestricted authority to lay off unionized staff and are looking to increase salarieswhich, as the Save the Reader campaign publicized early this month, showed some gobsmacking disparities between experience and pay.

For 844 straight days, we've asked for a fair wage. As you can seeit still hasn't happened. #SavetheReader pic.twitter.com/kpEoUyTqmD  SavetheChicagoReader (@SaveTheReader) May 9, 2017

As South Side Weekly noted earlier this week, tronc hasn't exactly welcomed unions with open arms in the past, which could spell trouble for negotiations if not recognition of the union itself. And as Reader columnist Michael Miner mentioned the day of the sale announcement, some players seemed to treat the venerable alt-weeklywhose too-numerous-to-list notable stories include everything from exposing Jon Burge's torture ring to last year's seismic Profiles Theater revealas something of an afterthought.

Miner wrote, "The Sun-Times is "seeking new ownership that will commit to preserving the Sun-Times as an independent news source," says the paper. No similar commitment to preserve the Reader was mentioned, and Reader staffers were unable to get intramural assurances their paper would go on."

A follow-up a few days later was no more reassuring.

With that as prologue, Reader staff writer Maya Dukmasova on Thursday delivered a "Hail Mary" plea on social media. The thread is worth reading in full. See it below, and find the petition here.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during her official visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia that the economic relations between the European Union and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries should be strengthened. Mrs. Merkel also added that the GCC countries could finally complete a free trade agreement with the EU  something that she discussed with Abu Dhabis crown prince.

Berlin fears that the new protectionism promoted by US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May would harm the German economy, which relies heavily on foreign trade for its gross domestic product. Chancellor Merkel made it clear during her visit to both countries that the economic ties between both regions need a boost. I made it clear that a free trade agreement with the Gulf states would be of great interest from a European point of view, she stressed during her visit to Jeddah on Sunday (30 April). She also said that the EU had made another offer for a free trade deal with the Gulf countries but the GCC has yet to respond.

Trade between both regions amounted to 138 billion euro in 2016. European exports to the GCC were worth 100 billion euros and imports to the EU were worth 38 billion euros. Mutual trade flows have been growing steadily over past ten years in both ways. Although the EU-GCC ties have been in the making for about 20 years, not much progress had been made recently. The EU is pushing for more openness in trade relations, specifically by speeding up free trade agreements with the GCC, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand.
US President Donald Trump yesterday met his European counterparts during his first visit to Europe since he took office. European Council President Donald Tusk said that both sides did not agree on climate, trade and Russia in their first meeting but found common ground on security and fighting extremism and terrorism. President Trump met with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a meeting that lasted 75 minutes.

Im not 100% sure that we can say today, we, meaning Mr. President Trump and myself, that we have a common opinion about Russia. Although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine it seems that we were on the same line, Mr. Tusk commented following the meeting and added that my main message to President Trump is that what gives our cooperation and friendship its deepest meaning are fundamental western values like freedom, human rights, respect for human dignity. The greatest task today is the consolidation of the whole free world around those values and not just interests. Mr. Tusk concluded that the United States and the European Union should be jointly saying values and principles first, thus intentionally or unintentionally calling out President Trumps presidential campaign motto America first.

European leaders did not have high expectations for their meeting with President Trump. Some called it a success that the meeting took place at all. Both sides have been in disagreement over a few policies in recent months, for example the US restrictions on visa-free travel for Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian and Cyprian nationals. US Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly argued that a visa-waiver program should be revised, saying that EU citizens who have travelled to Syria and Iraq and become radicalized pose a security threat to the United States.
Experts from home and abroad take part in a round-table discussion in Beijing on May 24, 2017. [Photo / China.org.cn]

China will continue to meet promises made at the Paris Climate Change Conference and take effective measures to tackle climate change, no matter what kind of choices the U.S. new administration makes on the issue, a top Chinese climatologist said.

He Jiankun, an expert from the Specialist Committee on National Climate Change, made the remarks during a seminar on "China-U.S. Action and Cooperation in the New Age of Global Climate Governance" held in Beijing on May 24 by the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, Tsinghua-Berkeley Joint Research Center on Energy and Climate Change, and World Resources Institute.

The seminar provided an opportunity for experts from home and abroad to discuss the new age and trends of global climate governance, and also share progress made in China-U.S. cooperation on controlling global climate change.

He Jiankun, also director of the Institute of Low Carbon Economy at Tsinghua University, devoted much of his speech to China's policy on climate change.

He said that, in order to keep China's promises in signing the Paris Agreement, a series of plans and strategies on energy development had been formulated. According to the 13th Five-Year Plan, the aim is to put in place measures that can ensure, by the end of 2030, that carbon emissions per unit of GDP will decrease by 60 percent to 65 percent from the 2005 level, and non-fossil energy will account for 20 percent of primary energy consumption.

"China will, as always, seek to ensure progress to be made regarding the Paris Agreement whether the Trump administration withdraws from the agreement or not. Under the international climate governance mechanism, China will strengthen its cooperation with other countries and speed up energy production and consumption reform, greatly reducing carbon emissions," He said.

Collaboration on climate change between China and the U.S. has always been a focus of the bilateral relationship. As the leading carbon emitters in the world, the two countries have to fulfill their responsibilities and make their own contributions to reducing the intensity of such emissions.

Manish Bapna, executive vice president and managing director of the WRI, spoke about America's recent climate action development, and stressed the importance of China-U.S. cooperation on climate change.

"China and the United States should continue to join hands on climate change, cooperation at the state and local level, or within the private sector should be strengthened. Only in this way can the momentum of reducing greenhouse gases in these two countries be maintained," he said.

In his speech, he introduced data showing carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S had fallen while economic growth had been maintained. When talking about the new changes in America's climate actions, he said that policies adopted by the previous Obama administration was capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the new administration led by President Trump has already started to roll back climate and clean energy progress.

He also mentioned that, after signing the Paris Agreement, actions on creating job, investing in infrastructure and trading should be carried out together with climate change governance.

The attending experts then took part in a round-table discussion. Sam Adams, chief representative of U.S. office, WRI, shared his experiences on dealing with the carbon emission-reducing activities in Portland, Maine of the U.S.

Manish Bapna and He Jiankun also discussed climate change governance from the perspective of education, technology, job and infrastructure building.
The Pound Sterling (currency : GBP) struggled to assert itself during yesterdays session in the global currency markets following the release of official Q1 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data from the Office of National Statistics.

The market had been anticipating a year-on-year result of 2.1%, so the print of 2.0% proved a disappointment to investors. Erstwhile British Premier Margaret Thatchers economic advisor Sir Alan Walters famously defined a technical recession as two or more consecutive quarters of non-positive growth in an economy, so yesterdays statistics showing domestic quarterly growth of only 0.2% during the first three months of 2017, leave the UK teetering on the verge of an economic slowdown.

Meanwhile, Japanese investment bank Nomura was downbeat on the UK growth numbers, observing that,

This is the first time in a year that UK growth failed to outpace that of the euro area (on average over the past 3-4 years the UK has grown a couple of tenths per quarter more strongly than the euro area).

While UK real GDP is broadly the same as that of Germany relative to where it was at the start of 2008, Germany has produced its 8.5% increase in aggregate output over that period with no change in its population, compared a 6% rise in UK headcount (though the UK has experienced a more sizable rise in its dependency ratio). On a per capita basis, UK GDP did not expand at all in the first quarter of this year (in separate figures also published today official net migration fell to its lowest in three years  248k in 2016).

Elsewhere, in a clear example of buy on the rumour, sell on the news, the OPEC organisation of oil-producing nations announced late yesterday that its members would be curtailing their oil output for a further nine months, but the price of Black Gold sank in the markets. The snap reaction of investors suggests that the Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar exchange rate could re-visit its near-term highs in the short-to-medium term.
Hi all,



My spouse is a non-EU national living in Northern Ireland and will be applying for SET(M) in 2019 and then hopefully UK citizenship soon after that.



She has been living in N.Ireland with me for over 3 years and we have been married for over 3 as well - as she is married to an Irish citizen (I am duel British and Irish), she is actually able to apply for Irish citizenship via naturalisation anytime now, as they only require 3 years of residence & marriage for someone married to an Irish national living on the island of Ireland (including N.Ireland).



I have checked with Irish citizenship department and she is definately eligible now for Irish citizenship, despite not even being allowed in 'Republic of Ireland' because she has a UK visa and not an Irish one.



I am wondering that if she applies for Irish citizenship and obtains it, will this affect her SET(M) or British citizenship applying in a couple of years? I know that UK allows dual (or more) citizenship, but I just want to be sure it won't cause problems down the line if she obtains Irish citizenship before British. Any pitfalls?



Many thanks
Hello everyone. I am new to the forum and this is my first post. I have been here a few times and have found it very helpful on a number of occasions.

My wife and I are seriously interested in retiring to France. We have been in contact with a few realtors and have been searching for homes online. Our main house in on the market and as soon as it sells we will head to France and spend a few weeks looking for the right home. We are interested in the Dordogne region or South west and seem to gravitate toward the renovated barns with some extensive gardens.

My question today is, I have a moderate wine cellar that I would like to take with me, around 300 - 400 bottles, most of which is home made with around 100 bottles of California wines.

I have searched and cannot find what the import duty would be on this. if it is too high I guess I'll spend some time drinking myself into a coma or give it away to family and friends.

can anyone give me a direction where I could find this information?

Thank you all
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The Brexit settlement that the UK reaches with the European Union over the next two years should be one that continues to welcome overseas students, according to the universities sector.There is concern that the number of EU students applying to study in the UK is falling as they are concerned about what their status will be when the split happens in 2019. But there has also been a fall in interest from students from outside the EU concerned at reports that there will be fewer visas available post Brexit as part of a pledge to reduce immigration overall.The most up to date figures from the university applications body UCAS published earlier this year show that the number of students applying for places from the EU are down by 7%, the first decrease in almost a decade.It has also been revealed that applications from across the EU have already dropped by 14% at Cambridge University, one of the top universities in the world, for undergraduate courses alone.Last October, home secretary Amber Rudd announced several consultations on student visas, in the context of a series of strategies to reduce overall immigration numbers. She outlined a possible two tier system, in which tougher rules would apply to students enrolling in lower quality courses.Much of course will depend on the Brexit negotiations. EU officials want immigration to be sorted out first and not discussed alongside other issues like trade but the UK has indicated that they should be negotiated together.Universities UK, which represents the sector, is urging politicians to take into consideration a number of priorities when forming their policies on higher education and post Brexit immigration is one of the top ones.There are a number of key election issues that will have a direct impact on universities. In particular, Brexit and immigration policy. It is important that the voice of universities is heard in this debate, said Dame Julia Goodfellow, president of Universities UK and vice-chancellor of the University of Kent.The vote to leave the European Union and the general election present an unparalleled opportunity to re-think the UK's immigration system. If we are to keep up with competitor countries, we need a new system that welcomes international students and staff and promotes the UK as one of the best places in the world for higher education and research, she added.
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China's top legislature will hold a symposium Saturday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

The symposium will be held at the Great Hall of the People, the general office of the National People's Congress Standing Committee said Friday.

Communist Party of China and state leaders, central government officials, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, among others, will attend the event.

The symposium is held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.
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HUMESTON, Iowa  In a vast farrowing room of Iowa Select Farms newest, state-of-the-art, hog farm, 82 sows lie on warm rubberized mats as litters as large as 22 piglets emerge into the world to suckle and grow.

The squealing piglets are part of the first litter at the $18 million farm where more than 6,000 swines are part of one of the largest expansions in production the U.S. pork industry has ever seen. But its an expansion thats banked on foreign market demand and access, and as the Trump administration rejects and prepares to rejigger key trade agreements, its no wonder producers here in the heart of pig country are nervous.

Over the past decade, the U.S. has been a world leader in pork exports, shipping the meat to more than 100 countries and adding $50 to the value of each of the nations approximately 71 million hogs.

Mexico became the largest customer for U.S. pork in 2017, surpassing Japan in terms of value. But with the North American Free Trade Agreement on shaky ground, top trade officials in Mexico have told pork industry emissaries straight out that they have been looking elsewhere for their supplies.

The U.S. is not the only partner at the dance, said Nick Giordano of the National Pork Producers Council. (Mexico is) doing what they have to do because theres been talk up here about NAFTA not working.

During his campaign, Trump called NAFTA the worst trade deal ever signed by the U.S., maintaining that it encouraged corporations to move manufacturing plants south of the border to take advantage of Mexicos cheaper labor. He within his first few days of office withdrew from the Trans Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation pact that would have opened key Asian markets to duty-free U.S. pork, citing his administrations intention to negotiate future trade deals one-on-one with other countries.

Hillary Clinton, who had been a strong proponent of multilateral free trade agreements, changed her tune during the election, pitching a make it in America slogan and saying the U.S. should be willing to walk away from any outcome that fails to protect American jobs.

Agustin Barrios Gomez, a former Mexican congressman who now heads the Mexico City-based Mexico Image Foundation, said that cost Clinton the election.

She gave him a solid policy that people could focus on and that made him credible, Barrios said in a January interview. You can dance around the issue, but the fact is he rode Mexico to the White House and conceding the point on NAFTA was perhaps (her) biggest mistake because it allowed him to present himself as somebody who knew what he was talking about.

But what was bad for laid off American manufacturing workers was a boon for American farmers and ranchers.

As far as the 60,000 U.S. pork producers are concerned, Giordano said, NAFTA has been a grand slam for the industry. The U.S. in 2015 exported $799 million worth of the protein to Canada and nearly $1.4 billion to Mexico. According to the National Pork Board, 9,000 U.S. jobs depend on pork exports to Mexico. Agricultural exports to NAFTA partners have almost quadrupled since the agreement was signed, from $8.9 billion in 1993 to $38.6 billion in 2015.

One of every 10 acres of U.S. farmland are now growing products for Canada or Mexico.

As far as the pork industry is concerned, these things are working for us, Giordano said. We dont want to go backwards. Its not 1950, and we cant crawl back into that era

Iowa Select, which is privately owned by Iowa Falls natives Jeff and Deb Hansen, is the nations eighth-largest pork producer, with some 700 swine farms and 345 contract farmers employing more than 1,000 people. The farm sells to JBS USA Holdings, a subsidiary of a Brazilian meat packing giant and one of the seven main pork processors in the U.S. The packers too have been in expansion mode, with five new plants  three of them large  under construction.

Pork is the most consumed meat in the world, and those packers are betting on selling more, not just to Mexico, but also to increasingly affluent shoppers in Asia.

Weve seen our exports creep up from 20 percent to 22 percent, now up to 25 percent, said National Pork Board Chief Operating Officer John Johnson, explaining how once the new plants are online exports are expected to rise to between 30 and 35 percent of production. The new capacity will allow for as much as a 15 percent increase in capacity over the next three years. At best, he said, domestic pork consumption could increase by 1 percent to 2 percent.

That 15 percent cannot be consumed all by Americans, he said. Were going to have to find international markets.

U.S. producers were also betting on increased demand with new Asian trade agreements from the 1.4 billion people living in China, the worlds largest producer and consumer of pork.

Johnson said its cheaper for China to buy pork from the U.S. than it is for them to produce it. We just hope they realize that more and more over time, he said.

Mexican officials, in the meantime, have made it clear Mexico is not going to be a patsy on this. They will be looking for other countries to supply them with their needs, Johnson said.

The Trump administrations May 18 letter on NAFTA to Congress, signed by newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, launches the 90-day consultation period required before renegotiation with Mexico and Canada can begin.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

We cant forget this next 90 days, as NAFTA gets renegotiated, that the cattle-hog spread may become a very popular trade, Mike Zuzolo of Global Commodity Analytics & Consulting wrote in a May 20 newsletter to clients. Increasing trade concerns with Mexico and Canada  if they would occur  would trim exports of pork while simultaneously trimming imports of cattle.

The cattle-hog spread in this case refers to the difference between the amount of U.S. corn and pork Mexico is stockpiling versus U.S. stockpiles of Mexican cattle in case NAFTA talks go badly and supplies are interrupted.

For the first quarter of 2017, U.S. pork exports to Mexico were up 33 percent over the same period for 2016, accounting for nearly a third of all exports. As of last week, year-to-date imports of Mexican feeder cattle were up 18 percent over the same time a year ago.

Theyre trying to buy ahead to cover that time period, I think, so that if in 90 days if things dont go well theyve at least bought ahead, Zuzolo said in an interview.

The futures markets in hogs and corn are obviously nervous because of the numbers that we ship to Mexico, he said. In cattle, its the exact opposite because we buy so much feeder cattle from Mexico and we buy so much fat cattle (slaughter ready) from Canada.

The NAFTA uncertainty, meanwhile, is already taking a toll as Mexico looks to other markets. The European Union, Brazil and Chile are significant pork producers and Russia recently started exporting the meat. Just last week, Mexico purchased some 300,000 tons of corn from Brazil for August through October shipment, Zuzolo said.

Mexican trade officials have also been looking to other grain producers.

In March, Giordano accompanied members of the National Pork Board to Mexico City for a series of meetings with top Mexican agriculture and trade officials.

Just this exercise in Mexico has strengthened commercial ties between Mexico and other nations, Giordano said. They are making connections and contacts and facilitating business in a way that hasnt happened before.

lbrezosky@express-news.net
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One of the Alamos oldest markers is a 103-year-old Japanese Monument, paying tribute to the fallen Alamo defenders and comparing the 1836 siege and battle with a conflict in Japan in 1575.

The monument was the object of scorn during World War II. But the marker, single-handedly conceived, produced and delivered by a Japanese scholar to honor the defenders and values of loyalty and self-sacrifice, has often gone unnoticed.

The Alamo had been in custodianship of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas for nine years and was in its infancy as a Texas shrine when Shigetaka Shiga, a world traveler and geography professor, brought the monument from Japan in 1914. He underwrote the costs of the granite marker, which stands about 4 feet tall in the Convento Courtyard.

The marker bears a poem, originally written by Shiga in classical Chinese, as was customary for scholars in Japan, comparing the siege and battle of the Alamo with the 16th century Siege of Nagashino Castle, fought under similar circumstances: young military leaders, makeshift fortifications and a badly outnumbered force of hundreds against thousands. The poem also alludes to the 8th century Battle of Suiyang, in China, in which a small loyalist force of the Tang Dynasty fought bravely but was defeated.

The 1836 battle for Texas independence, ending in the deaths of at least 189 defenders, has been compared with other ancient battles. Newspapers once heralded it as the Thermopylae of the West, referencing an ancient conflict between 300 Spartans and a massive Persian army.

Shigas poem, translated into English, makes reference early on to the men from Gonzales who entered the Alamo five days before the battle:

Thirty-two men hear the news and hurry to the scene.

It mentions the dauntless South Carolinian  Alamo courier James Butler Bonham, a figure compared to Torii Suneemon, a samurai at Nagashino who escaped to get help and faced death in returning. More than halfway through, Shigas poem shifts to first-person narrative:

Now I am on a journey, far away from my home across the ocean.

I have come to San Antonio, where there are bushes of the graceful oleander.

And, as in a dream, I wonder if this is the very spot where that dreadful bloodshed took place in years gone by.

The poem concludes in words of friendship:

In spirit there is not a distinction between East and West.

You need not wonder, then, if I drink a toast to your memory!

I have brought a well-polished stone from Japan,

And commemorate your heroic deeds with this humble inscription.

The marker was dedicated Nov. 6, 1914. In addition to Chinese and Japanese script, its inscriptions include To the Memory of the Heroes of the Alamo in English. Etched on back are these words: Stone from the native province of Suneemon Torii, The Bonham of Japan, in the province of Nagashino, The Alamo of Japan.

Sister Margit Nagy, history professor at Our Lady of the Lake University, has researched the monument. Interviewed by Edward Tabor Linenthal for his 1991 book, Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields, Nagy said Shiga was disturbed by anti-Japanese sentiments he encountered on the West Coast in 1912. Determined to strengthen bonds between the two countries and aware of similarities between the Alamo and Nagashino, he decided to visit San Antonio for the purpose of erecting a monument to the heroes of both battles, Linenthal wrote.

According to Nagy, Shiga was greeted by about 100 prominent San Antonians at the dedication and given live oak acorns to plant in Japan.

I shall tell the people of Japan these acorns came from the citizens of San Antonio and of the great state of Texas, and I shall strive to make my people better understand the friendliness, generosity and hospitality of the inhabitants of far-off America, Shiga told the crowd, according to a release Nagy wrote for the markers centennial.

But after Shigas death in 1927, World War II generated negative views about his goodwill gesture. The San Antonio Lights front page on April 22, 1943, announced, S.A. Commissioners Ask Removal of Jap Monument.

The Light reported that the marker stood in the glaring spotlight of national fury after captive American fliers who participated in Doolittles Raid over Tokyo, the first big moral victory for the United States after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, were executed by the Japanese. A city commission headed by San Antonio Mayor Gus B. Mauermann passed a resolution asking the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to remove the monument.

Lita Small, the shrines custodian, told the Light the DRT had fielded numerous complaints about the marker and considered covering it but would take up the issue at its convention.

Nagy, in a 1989 paper, Remembering the Alamo Japanese-Style: Shigetaka Shigas Monument as Tribute to the Alamo Heroes, said the marker reportedly was defaced a day after the Pearl Harbor attack and placed under guard.

Ironically, what seems to have saved the monument was misinformation about it as much as any conviction of the importance of maintaining this clear witness of Japanese goodwill toward Americans, Nagy wrote. Thus one press report cites a representative of the (DRT) explaining that the donor, unable to express his sentiments in his own language of Japanese, had resorted to Chinese. Since the monument was in no way connected with the Japanese government and was not even in Japanese, no American should find it offensive.

Nagy, a former Fulbright scholar to Japan, began working on a brochure on the Alamo monument in the 1980s. She also led efforts to coordinate ceremonies for its 75th anniversary and centennial.

Without her, we wouldnt be celebrating here today, Nozomu Takaoka, consul-general to Japan, said at the 2014 centennial, crediting Nagy for keeping track of this monument for so many years.

Takaoka said the monument embodies a striking similarity between the spirit of the Japanese samurai and of the Texan cowboy, who hate to surrender and choose to go for broke. It reflects bonds that now manifest through a sister-city relationship between San Antonio and Kumamoto, Japan; the 2003 arrival of Toyota, which produces pickups here; and other business ties and ambassador programs, he added.

Today, Nagys biggest unanswered question about the marker is how Shiga persuaded the DRT to accept it at the Alamo, before the Daughters had established a maintenance fund for the shrine or started raising funds for a new roof for its mission-era church.

He truly, I think, was committed to that cause, she said. I just admired the initiative he took.

shuddleston@

express-news.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA

COMING SATURDAY: Jesus F. de la Teja writes about San Antonios early history as a military post.
China has developed a new type of ultrafast anti-missile interceptor capable of knocking down an incoming projectile that is flying 10 times faster than a bullet, according to the nation's largest missile maker.

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, one of the major defense contractors for the People's Liberation Army, recently revealed that its Second Academy in Beijing has made a "new-generation aerospace defense missile" that incorporates top space technologies, and which it describes as one of the cornerstones of a world power's strategic prowess.

The weapon is so difficult to design that only a handful of nations in the world are able to develop it, the State-owned company said, adding that its product is capable of bringing down targets tens of kilometers above the ground that fly 10 times faster than a bullet.

The CASIC Second Academy is the country's major developer of air defense systems.

The information of such a missile defense system, a cutting-edge weapon that only the United States and Russia were previously reported to have, was disclosed in an article released by CASIC earlier this month.

The article was about the contribution by control system researchers from the Zhang Yiqun Studio, a group named after a prominent scientist, at the academy.

Although the introduction did not specify the anti-missile interceptor's capabilities, experts said the descriptions "tens of kilometers" and "10 times faster than a bullet" indicate its range should be from 10 km to 100 km and its minimum velocity around 12,000 km/h  a typical bullet used by a handgun, the slowest of all bullets, normally travels about 1,200 km/h.

The average age of the weapon's designers is 32, according to the article. They overcame numerous problems during research and development, including an explosion of one of the weapon's prototypes during a flight test, it said.

Lyu Xiaoge, spokesman for CASIC, declined to comment on the anti-missile interceptor on Friday, saying his company has developed many world-class missiles in recent years and will continue to contribute to the nation's missile arsenal.

Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge, said an advanced anti-missile interceptor requires cutting-edge technologies, superb manufacturing techniques and top materials and will only be successful after a great number of tests.

China successfully completed three land-based, midcourse missile interception tests in 2010, 2013 and 2014, according to the Defense Ministry. Whether the weapon mentioned by the CASIC Second Academy was the same used in these tests was not clear.
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In perhaps the largest local send-off in years, thousands converged from the heart of downtown to the outskirts of the city to pay tribute to Scott Deem, the first San Antonio firefighter killed in the line of duty in 20 years.

The public commemorations  which began at 9 a.m. and ended before 4 p.m.  culminated in a traditional Catholic Mass officiated by Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and the ringing of the bell and the sounding of the final alarm, a time-honored firefighting tradition. The call was broadcast over the radio system for Deems brothers and sisters to hear.

This is the final alarm for Scott Patrick Deem, the dispatcher said. He faithfully served the city of San Antonio for six years.  Although you are gone, you will never be forgotten. Rest in power, Scott.

After the service ended, a man playing bagpipes, slowly walked out a door illuminated by the afternoon light. A vintage firetruck bearing Deems casket, which was draped with an American flag, departed the church, traveling to the cemetery where he was buried in a private ceremony.

Scott Patrick Deem was dedicated to this department and the citizens he protected, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said during the funeral. Scott will leave behind a legacy of bravery, commitment and service.

Deem, 31, joined the San Antonio Fire Department six years ago. He was killed in a Northwest Side fire on May 18 while searching for potential victims. Two other firefighters, Brad Phipps and Robert Vasquez, were also injured in the blaze.

The funeral began with a rendition of Amazing Grace as rows upon rows of first responders, forming a sea of navy blue, flooded into the church. Officials said the church, which holds 3,600 people, filled completely.

During the service, family and friends remembered Deem as a dedicated first responder, a devoted Dallas Cowboys fan, and most of all, a family man.

Scott was, is, the heart and soul of our crew, said firefighter Robert Arenaga, who worked alongside Deem at Station 35. I remember him coming in as a rookie, ready to learn, ready to work. Six years later, he was still our hardest worker. Scott exemplified character, courage  all the things this department strives to stand for.

Later, a video of Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten flashed on the screen. He gave a short tribute to Deem and other public servants, saying, As football players we are often called heroes, but we know who the real heroes are.

Robert Emmitt, pastor emeritus at Community Bible Church and San Antonio Fire Department chaplain, thanked Deems widow, Jennifer, who met her high school sweetheart when they were teenagers working at Arbys.

Emmitt also addressed the couples two children, 13-year-old Dakota and 7-year-old Tyler, and their unborn daughter.

You all have made the ultimate sacrifice, Emmitt told them. I thank you, on behalf of the church, on behalf of the whole city, for the price you have paid.

Tyler wore a navy blue uniform, complete with an SAFD patch and his fathers name tag. Tyler. Man, you look sharp in that uniform, said Christopher Steele, president of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association.

Steele, known for his at times antagonistic and brash remarks, later declared that the community needs to demand answers regarding the questions that remain about the fire. Steele did not elaborate on what those questions were.

Earlier in the afternoon, Mayor Ivy Taylor and State Sen. Donna Campbell addressed the family, thanking them for their sacrifice. Campbell took the place of Gov. Greg Abbott, who initially planned to attend.

(Scott) went to work every day knowing that part of his job description meant he might not come home to his family, Campbell said. Now Scott is in his final home, leaving us heartbroken and forever indebted.

A community unites

The days commemorations brought together mourners who knew Deem and those who didnt. They came from near and far. Some were young, others old.

The day began with an apparatus procession that departed from the Alamodome at 9 a.m.  comprised of 120 firetrucks and fire vehicles, 100 motorcycles and 500 firefighters from various jurisdictions, a reminder of the brotherhood that abides in the first responder community.

As the vehicles turned onto the roadway, Manuel and Esther Estrada stood on the edge of the sidewalk lining Cherry Street watching the motorcade. The vehicles red and blue lights gleamed, a stark contrast to the cloudy, overcast sky.

The couple held an American flag, solemnly waving as each vehicle passed.

Its our way of paying our respects, said Esther Estrada, who lives with her husband near Fire Station 35, where Deem worked. Not only do they serve our community, theyre our family, too.

Manuel Estrada experienced health problems last year, forcing the couple to call 911 on two or three occasions. Fire Station 35, where Deem worked, responded to the calls.

They dont know if Deem helped them in their time of crisis  but he could have.

The first thing I told my husband is We have to go do something, said Esther Estrada, who wore a blue t-shirt and red, white and blue scarf. Its the least we can do.

From the Alamodome, the procession made its way north on U.S. 281. A firetruck and the public witnessed the procession at every overpass on the way to the church.

At the Nakoma Street overpass, Jamie Vaquera and Roxanne Rooks watched the firetrucks travel on the freeway below.

The two, who are married to San Antonio police officers, came out to watch the procession in support of their firefighter family.

Their husbands have each served the department for more than 15 years. They say the fear of losing them never goes away. Its something that never leaves you, Vaquera said.

Two hours later, a second motorcade that included the firetruck carrying Deems casket departed the Porter Loring Funeral Home.

Ernest Garza, 66, caught a bus from Leon Valley to join the small crowd that lined the sidewalk outside the mortuary. With a stoic stance, Garza held a folded American flag on his chest, watching as mourners departed the funeral home.

Im just an American trying to show my patriotism, said Garza, a retired service technician. And honor our fallen the way that I know how.

The procession made its way down McCullough Avenue before turning onto Alamo Street. As the motorcade entered downtown, it passed through two fire engines with ladders extended in the air, holding a large Texas flag that flapped in the wind.

At the Alamo, the silver limousine carrying Deems family stopped, lingering briefly to take in the historic shrine.

Dozens of firefighters, each with a black band over their badge, lined the street to watch the commemorations. Hundreds of onlookers gathered too, one with a sign reading God Bless You.

Nine-year-old Maddie Resendez stood at attention nearly the whole time with her small hand positioned to her forehead. After the procession passed, Maddie ran up to several firefighters, giving each of them a hug. Her friend, 10-year-old Trinity Vasquez, did the same.

They do so much for us, Trinity said. And we should do something in return.

Staff writers Jacob Beltran, Vincent Davis and Brittney Martin contributed to this story.

eeaton@express-news.net

Twitter: @emilieeaton
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A 31-year-old woman from Afghanistan being held in a family detention center in Karnes City was hospitalized earlier this month after trying to kill herself.

Samira Hakimi, 31, said she and her sons, ages 4 and 8, have been held in the detention center since December when they requested asylum at the border in Brownsville.

The family fled Afghanistan after the school where Hakimi worked as a finance manager was attacked by the Taliban, she said in a phone interview Friday.

The school offered education to boys and girls from kindergarten through college, Hakimi said.

The Taliban has rules and regulations against education, and especially when its co-eduction, its boy and girl, they study together, she said. They dont want women to work outside, or do any kind of work outside; they want the woman to be sitting at home. They dont believe that a woman has rights.

After two attacks on the schools campuses, Hakimi said, she fled with her children, husband, brother and sister-in-law. They made their way to the U.S. and requested asylum at the international bridge in Brownsville, but were put into detention. Hakimi said she suffers from depression. Her oldest son watched as other children in his classroom were released, and both her sons asked about their father, whos in an adult-only detention center.

The 850-bed family detention center in Karnes City and a 1,400-bed family detention center in Dilley, the only of their kind in the country, have been controversial since they opened in 2014. A judge in 2015 ruled that ICE cannot hold families for extended periods of time, and most leave the centers after about 20 days. On Friday, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services released a statement calling for the release of Hakimi and her sister, whos in the Karnes City facility with her infant child.

An immigration judge heard Hakimis case May 4, but shes waiting on a decision. Two weeks later, Hakimi tried to hang herself, thinking immigration officials might release her children.

I told them before that I have thoughts from depression, but please leave us to be free, she said. I dont have any answers for my children; theyre asking me a lot of questions and I dont have answers for them. The depression, it takes me really hard and I decided to finish my life.

She was taken to the hospital and treated, but eventually returned to the detention center.

Im not feeling good that Im here in the detention center, Hakimi said. I hate this place when I see all the same people, all the same food. I really dont want to be here.

In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didnt address the suicide attempt, but said it determines when and how long to hold families in custody on a case-by-case basis.

ICE ensures that these residential centers operate in an open environment, which includes medical care, mental health care, play rooms, social workers, educational services, and access to legal counsel, the agency said in a statement.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch
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King Philippe of Belgium, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Theresa May (from L to R, front) and other NATO member states leaders watch air show at the handover ceremony of the new NATO headquarters during a one-day NATO Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

U.S President Donald Trump on Thursday used the occasion of his maiden summit with NATO leaders to, once again, remind his fellow NATO alliance leaders for not being "fair" to U.S. taxpayers.

"23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying," Trump said, adding that they owe "massive amounts".

NATO says a rising number of European members have increased defense spending "significantly" in the last 12 months, although only a handful meet the 2-percent spending target agreed at a previous summit in 2014.

Trump's comments will disappoint alliance leaders who had hoped for a public commitment from the U.S. president to NATO's security guarantees, which he called into question during his presidential campaign last year.

It was also notable that Trump refused to publicly reiterate U.S. commitment to NATO's mutual defense provision, Article 5, which had been invoked just once before: after the terror attack of September 11, 2001.

However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO leaders had agreed to step up NATO's role in the fight against terrorism and "fairer burden sharing".

The meeting, he said, had adopted an action plan to enhance NATO's contributions and had also decided to expand to support to the U.S.-led "Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS".

Stoltenberg said, "This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism and improve coordination within the Coalition."

However, he stressed, "It does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations."

On burden sharing, he said, "In 2015, defense cuts came to a stop. And in 2016, total spending across Europe and Canada increased by billions of dollars. This is not just about cash, but also modern capabilities."

The summit had taken steps "to keep up the momentum" and agreed to develop national plans every year.

"These will set out how NATO Allies intend to meet their pledge. So that we continue to match words with action," said the NATO's chief.

Trump has previously supported Britain's shock Brexit vote, claimed the EU was a doomed would-be super-state and dubbed NATO "obsolete".

Even so, hopes were relatively high that the visit, Trump's first overseas trip as U.S. President, could help heal EU/U.S. relations and ongoing rows about European defense spending.

But the severe ticking off he gave alliance members risks souring relations even more.

In a sign of growing frustration felt by EU leaders, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, speaking after meeting Trump in Brussels, defended European defense spending, insisting: "Europe is taking on greater responsibility on defense."

Greens co-leader, Philippe Lamberts commented, "Trump's demands on the NATO countries for military rearmament is no answer to the threats and instability we face."

"In marked contrast to the U.S. president, Europe must defend the importance of conflict prevention, diplomacy and human rights, instead of spending ever more on upgrading military capacity. We need to find better ways of cooperating to ensure our security," Lamberts said.

Stoltenberg sought to seek a more conciliatory tone, hailing Trump's plan to expand, with 4.8 billion U.S. dollars, the European Reassurance Initiative, a military fund to counter "Russian aggression".

Stoltenberg said the "barbaric" attack in Manchester on Monday underlines the importance of his organization's role in combating terrorism and "the importance of standing together in defense of our open societies".

Reaction to the summit and Trump's visit was swift, with Charles Michel, the Prime Minister of Belgium whose country has hosted NATO for over 50 years, warning, "Security today requires much more than the traditional military tools. Civilian and military operations go hand in hand. So we will need both soft and hard power."

UK Conservative Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Tannock said, "Hopefully both sides took the chance to set aside the rhetoric, sound each other out and lay the foundations of a strong political and security relationship. It is much easier to reach an understanding when you are in the same room, not hailing each other across the Atlantic."

Giovanni Grevi, of the European Policy Centre,a leading think tank, said: "Trump's nationalist political instincts are at odds with what the EU stands for. However, given the breadth and depth of transatlantic ties, both Washington and Brussels have an interest in taking a pragmatic approach to mutual relations."
SALEM, Ohio  President Donald Trumps first budget vows to put taxpayers first through a series of spending cuts that would eliminate the federal deficit in 10 years, invest more heavily in defense and border security, and cut more than $400 billion in what he calls welfare reform and improper payments.

Included in his budget is a $29 billion cut to crop insurance, a $193 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a $6 billion reduction in conservation funding that includes cutting the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and eliminating the market access and foreign market development programs.

Congress will ultimately write its own version of the budget, but the presidential budget is considered a good outline of the administrations priorities.

Nearly all of the major agriculture organizations responded negatively to the cuts, warning that they jeopardize existing farm bill programs, and the future of the next five-year farm bill, which Congress is currently forming.

Difficult timing

The National Corn Growers Association said reducing crop insurance is shortsighted, especially during an extended period of low commodity prices.

Crop insurance was the primary risk management tool approved during the 2014 farm bill, and requires farmers to pay about 40 percent of their own insurance premiums.

The American Farm Bureau Federation said the presidents budget also fails to recognize agricultures contribution to budget deficit reduction, both currently and historically, which includes a voluntary $23 billion reduction in the 2014 farm bill.

In a released statement, American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said AFBF members are concerned about the federal budget deficit, too, however, we also know that agriculture has done its fair share to help reduce the deficit.

Out of touch

Duvall said the budget fails to recognize the current financial challenges farmers face, while gutting federal crop insurance, reshaping conservation efforts, and negatively impacting consumer confidence in meat and poultry inspections.

Clearly, this budget fails agriculture and rural America, he said.

Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, called Trumps budget an assault on the programs and personnel that provide vital services, research, and a safety net to Americas family farmers, rural residents and consumers.

Trumps budget plan was a major talking point during the Senate ag committees hearing May 25, where members kicked off the discussion of what should be in the next farm bill.

Risk management

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and committee chairman, reminded the committee a half-dozen times of the importance of crop insurance as the most important risk management tool that farmers have.

Now is not the time for additional cuts, he said, suggesting committee members should instead look at what is working and not working in the farm community.

Roberts said in the past year, farmers have faced historic wildfires, blizzards, floods, diseases and poor planting conditions  things that can be devastating to a farming operation.

The occupation of farming can be a very challenging profession, he said. These weather events, layered on top of the economic conditions, are exactly why it is important that we have a strong risk management tools available to help producers manage during the times of loss.

Tools needed

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, and ranking member of the Senate ag committee, said new and experienced farmers alike need risk management tools to survive, including a comprehensive five-year farm bill.

Farming is the riskiest business there is, she said.

In a call with reporters after the hearing, committee member and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, said Trumps budget would surely hurt American agriculture and surely devastate rural communities.

Brown said it also doesnt make sense to eliminate funding for conservation  especially with all the work underway in Ohio to protect and improve Lake Erie.

Its just plain stupid to eliminate them (conservation programs) now, he said.

As he has done for past farm bills, Brown is planning a series of roundtable events across the state, to hear from farmers and rural Ohioans about what they want in the next farm bill.
In the future, when a Chinese woollen mill is producing a nice white cloth and suddenly they start getting a black thread through it, they will be able to trace that wool from an individual bale back through the system to the shipment, back to the point of sale, back to the broker who sold it, back to the grower and back to whoever classed it.
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Counter-terrorism experts check the site of the attack against former Greek Prime Minister Loukas Papademos in Athens,Greece on May 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

Former Greek Prime Minister Loukas Papademos was recovering in an Athens hospital on Thursday after an attack against him which was unequivocally condemned by political parties as an attack on democracy.

The 69-year-old president of the Athens Academy, who served as interim prime minister from November 2011 to May 2012, was slightly injured from the blast of a booby-trapped envelope while riding his car in the center of the Greek capital.

"The patient's condition is stable and there is no reason for concern," a statement issued by Evangelismos hospital read.

Papademos sustained superficial injuries to the chest, abdomen and legs and he underwent a surgery to clean the wound on his thigh, according to the press release.

The two men who escorted him, the driver of the armored car provided to the former prime minister by the central Bank of Greece and a security officer who was also inside the vehicle, were also admitted to hospital for precautionary reasons with minor injuries, the statement concluded.

Greek police was on alert in case similar letter-bombs have been sent to other recipients, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack so far, but suspicions fall on domestic terrorist groups who for several years have been attacking political, financial and police targets.

In recent years "Conspiracy of the Nuclei of Fire" has claimed responsibility for a series of such attacks with booby-trapped envelopes which have been sent also to European leaders.

In March this year the group claimed responsibility for a package with explosives found at the German Finance Ministry. Another booby-trapped envelope attributed to the group slightly injured an employee at the International Monetary Fund's premises in Paris a few hours later.

According to police sources, investigators were looking into possible links with the March attacks. Initial findings indicate that the explosive device contained gunpowder used in fireworks, AMNA reported.

The counter-terrorism squad has launched a full-scale investigation to determine how the letter bomb reached Papademos passing security screenings.

The attack against Papademos is the first targeting a serving or former prime minister since the restoration of democracy in 1974 after a seven-year military dictatorship, SKAI television channel noted.

"I unequivocally condemn the attack on Loukas Papademos. I wish a speedy recovery to him and the people accompanying him," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tweeted from Brussels, where he was attending the NATO summit.

Opposition parties issued similar statements, while several political leaders and public figures rushed to the hospital to be briefed on the condition of Papademos.

Among them was main opposition New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis who described the attack as a "cowardly terrorist attack carried out by enemies of Greece and of democracy."

Former prime minister Costas Simitis and George Papandreou also visited the hospital along government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos and the Governor of the central Bank of Greece Yannis Stournaras.

Thursday's attack was a "cowardly attack against a man who kept Greece on its feet at a difficult time," Stournaras said.

Papademos has also served as Governor of the central Bank of Greece (1994-2002) and vice-president of the European Central Bank (2002-2010).
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Song Tao (L), head of IDCPC, and Jiang Chaoliang (R), Party chief of Hubei Province, respond to questions from international delegates at a thematic briefing held in Beijing on the practice of the supply-side reform in Hubei on May 25, 2017. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

More than 400 people representing several foreign political parties, senior diplomats, international organizations and multinationals attended a thematic briefing on May 25 on how the supply-side structural reform were being carried out in central China's Hubei Province.

The briefing, organized by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), was intended to promote the successful development experience to other countries.

IDCPC's head Song Tao said in his welcome speech that solving economic problems and achieving growth have been hot topics in inter-party exchanges especially at a time when the world economic recovery lacks momentum.

"In times of difficulty, all political parties agree that reform and innovation are the way out, but to decide what to reform and what to innovate is never an easy task," said Song. "A pressing matter is to find a way to ensure sustainable development."

Supply-side structural reform put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping is a major innovation on economic theory and practice, he said. It seeks to solve the new challenges after China enters a "new normal" where economy is characterized by moderate growth. The reform is aiming at ensuring continuous growth through industrial upgrading.

Song stressed that the supply-side structural reform never eyes "temporary high growth rates through simple stimulus packages," but seeks to optimize the economic structure. Bringing international delegates to the briefing is intended to show them how the supply-side structural reform - hailed as "Chinese solution" - will benefit other countries. Hubei was once replete with excessive and outdated capacity mainly in the steel industry. This amounts to a burden on the provincial economy even more so given Hubei is a landlocked province.

Its provincial Party chief Jiang Chaoliang admitted he once faced "many problems but an inappropriate economic structure was his biggest headache." Jiang briefed how his province underwent a campaign to implement the top-down call for supply-side structural reform from the country's central authorities. "It's the province's inherent urge, too," he said.

He stressed the notion of "less is more" in reducing excessive capacity. "It may seem a 'subtraction' but in fact it is an 'addition' to the economy as well as to people's livelihood because it is about vitality," said Jiang.
Over the past fifteen years, Phil Weiser and I have worked together to make Colorado a stronger, more collaborative, and more innovative entrepreneurial community. Together, we co-chaired Governor Bill Ritters Innovation Council, worked to launch the Startup America Partnership (when Phil worked for Obama in the White House), started Startup Colorado, brought the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network to Colorado, and helped CU become a first-class entrepreneurial university (which I discussed in a chapter in my book Startup Communities). Phil is a rare entrepreneur who can bring innovation to the government, which is just the sort of leadership we need now. I strongly encourage everyone to do what they can to help elect him as Colorados next Attorney General, including donating your time and money to his campaign.

Phil and I both share a background as Jews whose families came from Eastern Europe. That background, which involved a history of religious persecution, imprinted in each of us a deep appreciation for the constitutional rights and civil liberties that many Americans take for grantedthe freedom of religion, the freedom of press, and a commitment to the due process of law (that is, people cannot just arbitrarily be rounded up). In Phils case, his mom was born in a concentration camp and came to the US when she was six. So protecting those freedoms at a time when we cannot take them for granted is a job that Phil will take seriously as Colorados next Attorney General, just like other State Attorneys General, who are already standing up to the Trump Administration to protect our constitutional rights.

Through hard work, his parents set up Phil for amazing opportunities, including the chance to serve as a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and work for President Obama in the White House. In the spirit of paying it forward, Phils concern and caring for others is powerful and plain to see for all of those who worked with Phil during his time as the Dean of the CU Law School. During his time as Dean, he set up a range of innovative partnerships around the State, including a program that placed recent law grads as assistant district attorneys in rural areas. As our Attorney General, I know that he will be a leader for all Coloradans. I am personally excited to work with him in how to support entrepreneurial opportunities across our State, including in more rural parts of Colorado. While that might not sound like a traditional role of a state Attorney General, when it comes to fighting for access to broadband Internet technology and building partnerships that support economic success, Phil is unique. Consider, for example, his leadership as the founding Board Secretary of the CareerWise Colorado Initiative that supports apprenticeship-based learning across the State to create opportunities for skilled jobs for those without a college degree.

To have an Attorney General with an innovative mindset will mean that the Colorado AGs office will become an engine of policy development and new thinking on a range of issues. Take, for example, criminal justice policy where some states around the countryoften with leadership from the AGs officeare taking a hard look at whether they are getting a good return on the social investment in our criminal justice system. Today, we put more people in jail than any nation in the world. Nonetheless, we are not aggressively enough addressing alternatives to incarceration that cut down on prison sentences. We are not investing enough yet in programs that make it less likely that inmates end up back in prison after they are released, such as Defy Ventures. We continue to make bail decisions in a way that keeps people in jail who are not flight risks just because they cannot afford to pay a bail bond. To ensure Colorado a leader in moving towards a criminal justice system that keeps us safe and is smarter, we need an AG like Phil.

Finally, when Phil talks about protecting our quality of life and our environment, he is someone we can count on. The whiplash from President Obamas commitment to fighting climate change issues to todays situation where we have Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier as the head of the EPA, is hard to take. Closer to home, our current Attorney General joined Scott Pruitt in challenging President Obamas leadership in this area. As our next Attorney General, Phil will be a leader on environmental protectionlike Governor Hickenlooper, who created a national model for rules restricting methane emissions by working collaboratively with the oil and gas industry and environmentalists. If we fail to elect officials like Phil who will stand up for our environment, future generations will ask us how we stood by and failed to act.

A core lesson I took from Trumps election last fall is that we must be active in supporting candidates who we believe in. Its not often that I have an opportunity to support a leader like Phil. So when I do have that opportunity, I feel the need to make the most of it. As a consequence of a SEC rule under Dodd-Frank, I am not allowed to donate to Phils campaign, but I am free to use my voice to encourage others to do so.

From my long relationship working with Phil, I can assure you that it will be a great investment in Colorados future and will help Colorado continue to be a model for the nation. So I strongly encourage you to donate your time and money to his campaign.
Miranda Kerr and Evan Spiegel are set to marry this weekend.

Miranda Kerr

The 34-year-old model and her billionaire 26-year-old fiance, who founded social media app Snapchat will reportedly tie the knot at their Los Angeles home in front of close friends and family.

A source told the New York Post's Page Six: "The wedding will be beautiful, super small and private, with only around 30 guests - just very close friends and family. Both Miranda and Evan wanted the ceremony to be very private."

Miranda was previously married to Orlando Bloom, the father of her son Flynn, six, from 2010 to 2013 and she admitted Evan's proposal last year was a complete surprise.

She said: ""[Was I expecting it?] Absolutely not. He said to me, 'Miranda, I'm telling you now, this is the first and last time I'm going to kneel down in front of you'.

"I was terribly nervous and emotional, trembling with happiness."

And she often gushes over her love in interviews, previously saying: "Evan is real homebody like me. We have little dinner parties for our friends -- he loves my cooking. Both of us are quite conservative even though we come from different worlds.

"But we have common values, a sense of loyalty, family and honesty. I tend to trust other people more easily. Evan is more guarded and reserved. It's a good balance.

"We spend hours talking about everything. He listens to me and he understands me.

"He works very hard and he's proud that I've started my own business. He gives me tons of advice. He's my soulmate."

Meanwhile, although they are still close, Orlando recently admitted he hadn't received an invitation to the wedding.

He said: "I haven't received an invite yet but I would be [going if I did get an invite] - it's all harmonious so I am blessed."

And if his invite doesn't come through, the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star has a back-up plan to keep updated with the nuptials.

He added: "I'll just look at the Snapchat feed".
LS&Co. will fund to the tune of more than $350,000 the solutions which have come out of Levi Strauss & Co.s Collaboratory fellowship on water challenges in the apparel industry. The fellowship brought together entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs committed to the issue. The grant will enable Collaboratory fellows to implement water-saving projects.The projects range from making wastewater treatment solutions more affordable for small artisan workshops to expanding an indigo dyeing facility that uses less water.

LS&Co. will fund to the tune of more than $350,000 the solutions which have come out of Levi Strauss & Co.'s Collaboratory fellowship on water challenges in the apparel industry. The fellowship brought together entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs committed to the issue. The grant will enable Collaboratory fellows to implement water-saving projects.#

To have the support of the entire team at an iconic brand like LS&Co. - an industry stalwart - makes me believe that we can truly make a difference in the apparel industry. Water is the biggest challenge we face globally in the coming decades and our industry is one of the biggest users. To work together and take a shot at changing the course of our future is exciting and fills me with optimism, said Collaboratory fellow Kavita Parmar, founder and creative director at the IOU project.The Collaboratory is a fellowship programme for entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs who are working to create a more sustainable apparel industry, giving them a chance to pursue big and bold ideas with the support of mentors, sustainability experts and their peers.Working with LS&Co. changed how we look at innovation by educating and challenging our team to think in a more holistic way about our impact. With access to funding and mentorship from the most innovative team in the apparel industry, we have an opportunity to make a real difference in what we do and how we produce products, said Collaboratory fellow Kevin McCracken, co-founder of Social Imprints.Each year the programme will take on a different social or environmental sustainability challenge facing the industry. The focus for this years inaugural class of fellows is water, an issue LS&Co. has been tackling for some time.We were honoured to bring together the next generation of global leaders to share ideas, aspirations and innovations for achieving a common goal. We look forward to seeing the Collaboratory fellows water impact solutions come to life and inspire a future of empowered sustainable apparel makers, said Paul Dillinger, vice president and head of global product innovation, LS&Co. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Jesper Brodin will become the new president and CEO of home furnishing retailer IKEA Group. Brodin is currently the managing director of IKEA of Sweden, responsible for the development of the product range and supply chain. He will succeed Peter Agnefjall who was introduced to the role in 2012. Brodin will take his new position from September 1, 2017.

Jesper Brodin will become the new president and CEO of home furnishing retailer IKEA Group. Brodin is currently the managing director of IKEA of Sweden, responsible for the development of the product range and supply chain. He will succeed Peter Agnefjall who was introduced to the role in 2012. Brodin will take his new position from September 1, 2017.#

"I am pleased to welcome Brodin to his new role. I am convinced that his extensive experience, and passion for life at home and retailing, will enable him to successfully continue the remarkable work conducted by Peter Agnefjall. While I am sad to see Agnefjall leave after many years of service, I respect his decision. Under Agnefjall's leadership, IKEA Group has expanded into new and crucial markets, accelerated our retail transformation in order to meet the changing needs of customers, and taken our sustainability commitments further. I look forward to working with Brodin as we take our next steps in becoming the world's leading multichannel home furnishing retailer for the many people," said Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, chairman of INGKA Holding BV.

Jesper Brodin will become the new president and CEO of home furnishing retailer IKEA Group. Brodin is currently the managing director of IKEA of Sweden, responsible for the development of the product range and supply chain. He will succeed Peter Agnefjall who was introduced to the role in 2012. Brodin will take his new position from September 1, 2017.#

"After 22 extraordinary years at IKEA, and 5 years after I was brought into this role, I believe it is a natural time for me to take a change of path. These years have meant a lot to me, both personally and professionally, and it's been a big part of my life. I will now take some time off with my family, before I embark on my next journey. I look forward to continuing to follow the success of this fantastic company with its many talented co-workers. I will continue to be one of the greatest fans of IKEA and stay close to the many friends I've made during the years," said Agnefjall.

Jesper Brodin will become the new president and CEO of home furnishing retailer IKEA Group. Brodin is currently the managing director of IKEA of Sweden, responsible for the development of the product range and supply chain. He will succeed Peter Agnefjall who was introduced to the role in 2012. Brodin will take his new position from September 1, 2017.#

"Agnefjall and I have had the opportunity to work side by side over many years and I am the first in the long line of colleagues who would like to thank him for his great contribution and leadership which has helped grow IKEA in many ways during the last period. I believe we have many exciting years ahead and I am excited to be part of the rapid transformation of retail. I am very honoured and excited about my new assignment," said Jesper Brodin. r and I have had the opportunity to work side by side over many years and I am the first in the long line of colleagues who would like to thank him for his great contribution and leadership which has helped grow IKEA in many ways during the last period. I believe we have many exciting years ahead and I am excited to be part of the rapid transformation of retail. I am very honoured and excited about my new assignment," said Brodin. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Kamal Haasan Takes A Jibe At Aamir Khan

Kamal was quoted saying, "I have been more socially responsible for long than the person who hosted Satyamev Jayate." Ouch, that's kinda hurts!

Meanwhile He Was All Praises For Salman Khan

Earlier in an interview with Quint, Kamal had said, "Salman genuinely bonds with the contestants on Bigg Boss. There is no pretension or patronising in his attitude. Being friendly comes naturally to him. And he gives advice as a friend, not as a mentor.

There is none of the I-know-better superiority in his attitude. I'd also like to bond genuinely with the contestants, though how it goes will depend entirely on how they perceive me, as a friend or as a mentor."

When Aamir Khan Had Publicly Apologized To Kamal

Way back in 2013, at the FCCI Frames event, Aamir Khan had said that he felt ashamed when he didn't support the Tamil stalwart during the Vishwaropooram controversy.

Aamir's Apology

The actor had said, "I take this opportunity to apologise to you, Mr Kamal Haasan, for not standing by you when your film was banned in 2013.

I was so lost in work and I didn't realise it at that time. But I think we all filmmakers should stand by each other in such cases and I should have supported you during those trying times."

Kamal's Reaction

To this, Kamal had humbly accepted the apology and said, "Aamir is my favourite actor'.

When Kamal Advised Aamir To Stop Taking The Tag Of Mr Perfectionalist Seriously

In a 2005 interview with Rediff, Kamal had said, "Aamir should speed up and stop taking this thing seriously endowed upon him- that he is a perfectionist, so he'll take his time. The press has made him believe it. Nobody can be perfect.

I would love for these guys to be positive in competition and make more films quickly. Gone are the days of Yusufsaab (Dilip Kumar) when they could do one and a half films in three years! You must do more and leave a mark.
Our television actors have a huge fan base all over the country, especially in Indonesia. A few popular television shows are being telecast in Indonesia. The actors recently also visited the place for an event.

Recently, twin blasts broke out in Jakarta. Apparently, Kumkum Bhagya's ex-actor Arjit Taneja, who is shooting for the Indonesian show 'Naadin', stays close to the site of explosions. As soon as the news spread, the actor's family and friends started calling him!



Arjit is grateful that he is safe. He was quoted by a leading daily as saying, "You become more thankful towards life, wondering at the same time about the world we are living in."

He further added, "It's sad and scary, no place is safe. Just two days ago, there was an attack in Manchester; even before the world could recover from that shock, this has happened."

Arjit got popular with his role Purab from the show Kumkum Bhagya. His pairing with Mrunal Jain (Bulbul) was popular among the viewers. Both Arjit and Mrunal had quit the show.

Arjit had also hosted Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya Season 8.

Currently, he is seen in Nadin, in which he plays the role of Ishan. Mrunal was also seen on the show.
NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said that the United States Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee recommended to approve Company's proposed epoetin alfa biosimilar across all indications. This marks the first time a biosimilar erythropoiesis-stimulating agent has been recommended for approval by a U.S. FDA Advisory Committee. The Committee's favorable recommendation was based on its review of the totality of evidence, including demonstration of comparable efficacy and safety of biosimilar epoetin alfa to its reference product, Epogen and Procrit (epoetin alfa). The company is seeking FDA approval of the certain indications: Treatment of anemia due to Chronic Kidney Disease in patients on dialysis and not on dialysis; Zidovudine in HIV-infected patients; The effects of concomitant myelosuppressive chemotherapy, and upon initiation, there is a minimum of two additional months of planned chemotherapy; Reduction of allogeneic red blood cell transfusions in patients undergoing elective, noncardiac, nonvascular surgery. Pfizer has entered into an agreement with Vifor Pharma Inc. for the commercialization of its proposed epoetin alfa biosimilar in certain channels. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
At GIL Japan 2017, business leaders will explore the roadmap to visionary innovation to transform businesses for future growth

TOKYO, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan will be hosting its annual flagship event, Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL) Japan 2017, on June 8th, 2017 at the Tokyo American Club, Tokyo, to discuss the impact and implication of digital transformation on business innovation across industries in Japan.

Global markets are being disrupted by an accelerating pace of innovation in the digital world. Digital transformation impacts every person in every industry and has entered an era of unprecedented change for enterprises. Today, more than ever before, it has become imperative for companies to implement concrete strategies around digital transformation.

The GIL Japan 2017 summit will provide the insights needed to seize potential opportunities for growth through visionary perspectives on the digital transformation maturity model. The summit will also provide a well-defined roadmap that will help companies to effectively benchmark and reinforce strategies enterprises can use to reach new levels of success.

The GIL journey will kick off with a keynote presentation by Robin Joffe, Partner & President of Frost & Sullivan Japan, followed by his session on Digital Transformation - Business and Social impact. His session highlights the changing business landscape in Japan, its evolution and adaptation in the wake of digitization. The GIL summit will also discuss and provide insights on the future of technology and business in Japan through the panel discussion with industry leaders in Japan.

The afternoon session will showcase innovative Think Tanks along with thought-provoking breakout sessions. Frost & Sullivan's industry experts will provide insights based on the latest market trends in Healthcare, Energy, and Mobility, discussing various pilots and commercial implementations. They will also discuss key challenges, creating sustainable business models for various industries, as well as explore the role and impact of Artificial Intelligence on businesses in the future.

The GIL Japan summit promises to be a remarkable journey to visionary innovation and will pave the roadmap for Japan's economic evolution. To learn more about this conference, please visit: https://ww2.frost.com/event/calendar/digital-transformation-maturity-model-and-well-defined-roadmap-japan/

http://www.frostjapan.com/event/gil2017/

Asia Research News is the media partner for this event.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Media Contact:

Anna Tsuji

Corporate Communications

Frost & Sullivan Japan K.K.

Phone: +81-3-4550-2215

Email:anna.tsuji@frost.com

www.frostjapan.com

http://ww2.frost.com

Twitter: @Frost_Sullivan

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/frostandsullivan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/4506/
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Editor's note: There is one image associated with this press release.

Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE: PSE)(CSE: PSE.CN)(CNSX: PSE)(FRANKFURT: PNX) (The "Company" or "Pasinex") is pleased to report a net income of $863,030 for the 1st Quarter 2017 as a result of a strong profit from its 50% owned Horzum AS Joint Venture company ("JV company"), in Turkey. All dollar amounts are Canadian unless otherwise indicated.

The Q1 2017 unaudited financial results and the corresponding Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) are available on SEDAR.com and the Pasinex website. The financial results for both Pasinex and the JV company are provided. The positive financial result of Pasinex is wholly contributable to the strong financial result from the JV company. Below is a review of the JV company financial results followed by a review of the Pasinex financial results.

Highlights of the First Quarter 2017 Financial Results

(1) Horzum AS 50% owned JV company Financial Results

-- In Q1 2017, the JV company zinc mine in Turkey (Pinargozu) produced and sold 12,378 tonnes (wet weight) of direct shipping ore (DSO) with an average grade of about 32.3% Zn and about 140 tonnes / day of mine production. -- Sales revenue totaled $5,846,959 or approximately $472 / tonne of ore mined. -- Figure 1 below shows the production chronology over the past five (5) quarters. Production from the Pinargozu has steadily increased through each of these five quarters due in large part to the addition of a new third adit at the mine in August 2016. -- The total cost for the JV company in first quarter 2017 was $2,925,309 or about $236 / tonne mined. These costs included all mining, administration and exploration costs for the quarter. -- The net profit (before tax) for Q1 2017 was $2,921,650, which represented at 50% pre-tax margin.

(2) Pasinex Financial Results

-- As a result of the profit realized in the JV company, Pasinex recognized a $1,168,289 equity gain on their income statement for Q1 2017. -- The equity gain led to a net income for Q1 2017 of $863,030 ($0.01 per share) after deducting operating expenses of $314,879. -- Total assets for Q1 2017 were $5,275,763 up from $4,065,789 at the end of 2016. Total liabilities were $224,958 down from $282,818 at the end of 2016. -- Shareholder's equity was $5,050,805, up from $3,782,971 at the end of 2016.

Steve Williams, CEO commented, "Pasinex's quarterly results continue to be very gratifying because they show increased profitability as a result of the strong contribution from Horzum AS JV company in Turkey. We continue to see a step up in production at the Pinargozu Mine which led to lower cost per tonne mined and greater profitability. We expect this strong performance to continue throughout 2017. We anticipate continued solid earnings throughout 2017 and a great year for Pasinex and our shareholders. We invite you to have a more detailed look at the financial results and the MD&A."

About Pasinex

Pasinex Resources Limited (CSE: PSE)(CSE: PSE.CN)(CNSX: PSE)(FRANKFURT: PNX), a metals company, is a 50% owner of the high grade Pinargozu Zinc Mine which is in production. Under its DSO Program, Horzum AS is shipping directly to zinc smelter / refiners from its mine site in Turkey. The Company has a strong technical management team with many years of experience in mineral exploration and mining project development. The mission of Pasinex is to build a mid-tier zinc company based on building a large land position within a productive CRD district in Turkey.

The Pinargozu Mine is included in the 50-50 company, Horzum Arama Isletme AS (Horzum AS), which is a corporate joint venture between Pasinex and Turkish mining house, Akmetal Madencilik San ve Tic. AS (Akmetal AS). Akmetal AS is one of Turkey's largest family-owned conglomerates with the nearby past-producing Horzum Zinc Mine.

Visit our web site at: www.pasinex.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

PASINEX RESOURCES LTD.

Steve Williams, President/CEO

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although Pasinex Resources Ltd. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, exploration results, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

To view the image accompanying this press release, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20170525-1095790.png

Contacts:

Pasinex Resources Limited

Steve Williams

President/CEO

416.861.9659

info@pasinex.com

www.pasinex.com



CHF Investor Relations

Cathy Hume

416.868.1079 ext. 231

cathy@chfir.com




HONG KONG (dpa-AFX) - Changzhou Xinbei District Commission of CCP announced late Thursday that AAC Technologies Holdings (AACAY.PK, AACAF.PK) agreed to invest $500 million in setting up an optical lens factory in Changzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone. The company formally inked an agreement on May 16 that calls for an investment of $500 million in establishing a facility for the production of high-performance optical lenses. Government officials from the city of Changzhou, as well as members of Changzhou National Hi-Tech District's top management attended the signing ceremony. The high-performance optical lens production facility, established by AAC Technologies with a registered capital of $168 million, will focus on the production, research and development of new electronic components and ultra-precision molds, including high-performance optical lens. The facility is expected to increase revenue by more than 10 billion yuan or about $1.45 billion over the next five years. AAC Technologies is a provider of integrated micro component solutions for the communications and consumer electronics markets, providing customers with innovative technology solutions in acoustics, haptics, wireless R&F and optics. The company has 20 R&D centers, over 800 senior R&D engineers and more than 1,726 patents. It generated sales of nearly $2.0 billion for 2016. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
ASKER, Norway, 2017-05-26 07:50 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TGS and Petroleum Geo-Services ("PGS") announce the fourth 3D seismic project offshore Eastern Canada for 2017. Long Range 3D will comprise approximately 9,100 km2 of 3D GeoStreamer data in the Eastern Newfoundland region. The survey covers open acreage which will be included in the November 2018 licensing round under Newfoundland and Labrador's Scheduled Land Tenure system.



Following completion of these surveys, the jointly-owned library will have more than 175,000 km of 2D GeoStreamer data and 28,500 km2 of 3D GeoStreamer data. An expansive well log library is also available in the region, along with advanced multi-client interpretation products that will improve play, trend and prospect delineation.



"With four 3D projects now committed for 2017 this will be our most active year ever in Newfoundland and Labrador. E&P companies are continuing to prioritize this region in their exploration strategies and we are well placed to support them as they prepare for future licensing rounds," commented Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS.



"Our increased data library coverage in the Newfoundland Labrador region will be of benefit for oil companies exploring this high potential area. We will operate three 3D vessels and one 2D vessel offshore East Canada this year, which is more than ever before and reflects high customer interest," says Jon Erik Reinhardsen, President & CEO of PGS.



This project is supported by industry funding.



A PDF accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/78badda3-e25c-4785-afa4-b2cd4 0b0d9bc



Company summary TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS) provides multi-client geoscience data to oil and gas Exploration and Production companies worldwide. In addition to extensive global geophysical and geological data libraries that include multi-client seismic data, magnetic and gravity data, digital well logs, production data and directional surveys, TGS also offers advanced processing and imaging services, interpretation products, and data integration solutions.



For more information visit TGS online at www.tgs.com.



Forward-looking statements and contact information All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove accurate. These factors include TGS' reliance on a cyclical industry and principle customers, TGS' ability to continue to expand markets for licensing of data, and TGS' ability to acquire and process data products at costs commensurate with profitability. Actual results may differ materially from those expected or projected in the forward-looking statements. TGS undertakes no responsibility or obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements for any reason.



TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSLO:TGS).



TGS sponsored American Depositary Shares trade on the U.S. over-the-counter market under the symbol "TGSGY".



For additional information about this press release please contact: Sven Brre Larsen Chief Financial Officer Tel: +47 90 94 36 73 Email: sven.larsen@tgs.com Will Ashby VP HR & Communication Tel: +1 713 860 2184 Email: will.ashby@tgs.com

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Regulatory News:

NOXXON Pharma N.V. (Paris: ALNOX) (Alternext Paris: ALNOX), a biotechnology company whose core focus is on improving cancer treatment by targeting the tumor microenvironment, announced today that it will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders ("AGM") on June 27, 2017 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The 2016 annual accounts including the annual report, a formal notice convening the AGM, the agenda of the AGM, the explanatory notes to the agenda, the instructions to participate and vote at the AGM, and other AGM documents will be available on the company's website (www.noxxon.com) as soon as possible and no later than 15 days prior to the date of the AGM. These documents will also be available at the company's offices at Max-Dohrn-Strasse 8-10, 10589 Berlin, Germany, for shareholders and persons entitled to attend the meeting who, upon request, will receive a copy free of charge.

The board of directors has decided that it will apply a registration date for the determination of the persons entitled to attend and to vote at the AGM, which date is the 28th day prior to the AGM pursuant to Dutch law. To be eligible to attend and to vote at the AGM, persons must be registered as shareholder in one of the administration records of the intermediaries that are (indirectly) participants in Euroclear France on May 30, 2017 (the "Registration Date") after all debit and credit entries have been handled as per the Registration Date.

About NOXXON

NOXXON Pharma N.V. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on cancer treatment. NOXXON's goal is to significantly enhance the effectiveness of cancer treatments including immuno-oncology approaches (such as immune checkpoint inhibitors) and current standards of care (such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy). NOXXON's Spiegelmer platform has generated a proprietary pipeline of clinical-stage product candidates including its lead cancer drug candidate NOX-A12, which is the subject of a clinical immuno-oncology collaboration agreement with Merck Co. MSD (NYSE: MRK) to study NOX-A12 combined with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in pancreatic and colorectal cancer. NOXXON is supported by a strong group of leading international investors, including TVM Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, DEWB, NGN and Seventure. NOXXON has its statutory seat in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and its office in Berlin, Germany. Further information can be found at: www.noxxon.com

Disclaimer

Certain statements in this communication contain formulations or terms referring to the future or future developments, as well as negations of such formulations or terms, or similar terminology. These are described as forward-looking statements. In addition, all information in this communication regarding planned or future results of business segments, financial indicators, developments of the financial situation or other financial or statistical data contains such forward-looking statements. The company cautions prospective investors not to rely on such forward-looking statements as certain prognoses of actual future events and developments. The company is neither responsible nor liable for updating such information, which only represents the state of affairs on the day of publication.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170525005076/en/

Contacts:

For more information, please contact:

NOXXON Pharma N.V.

Aram Mangasarian, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer

+49 (0) 30 726 2470

amangasarian@noxxon.com

or

NewCap

Florent Alba, +33 (0) 1 44 71 98 55

falba@newcap.fr
26 May 2017

PowerHouse Energy Group Plc

("PowerHouse", or the "Company")

Roudi Baroudi joins Advisory Panel

PowerHouse Energy Group Plc (AIM: PHE), the company focused on ultra high temperature gasification waste to energy systems, and the creation of Distributed Modular Gasification ("DMG"), are delighted to announce the appointment of Roudi Baroudi to its recently established Advisory Panel.

Roudi is a global energy expert with over 37 years experience of international public and private companies across oil & gas, petrochemicals, power, energy-sector reform, energy security, carbon trading mechanisms and infrastructure. In addition, he is currently a member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Group of Experts of Gas - this is a body established to facilitate dialogue on promoting safe, clean and sustainable solutions for natural gas production.

With a wealth of international experience he has worked on project and program development with the World Bank, the IMF, the European Commission USAID and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. Mr Baroudi is a regular lecturer on global energy affairs and is also the author and co-author of a number of books, article studies and research reports on political, economic and climate change as well as other energy associated matters.

It should be noted that none of the Advisory Panelists are Directors of the Company, and while management, and the Board, will seek their counsel on particular matters pertaining to their individual expertise, the governance and decision making authority for the Company rests solely with the Board of Directors.

Keith Allaun, Executive Chairman of PowerHouse, said: "I believe it is a very strong validation of PowerHouse's potential that we are able to attract someone of the calibre of Roudi to assist the Company.

"The tremendous advantages afforded the Company by such an experienced Advisory Panel cannot be overstated and we are very pleased to welcome Roudi to the team. The members of this panel, investing their time and commitment to our success, will help the Company achieve its commercial goals in segments of the market, and geographies, in which we are well suited to operate.

"I am honoured that each of these industry luminaries has agreed to serve our objective of ubiquitous DMG. With their assistance, we believe PowerHouse and DMG have a very bright future."

Further information on Roudi Baroudi

Roudi Baroudi has more than 37 years of international public- and private-sector experience in the fields of oil and gas, petrochemicals, power, energy-sector reform, energy security, environment, carbon-trading mechanisms, privatization and infrastructure.

Mr. Baroudi's transactional practice began when he joined an energy firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1978. His practice relates principally to the energy, high technology, renewable and green electricity, and life sciences sectors of the economy, and involves contract and legal negotiations and investment vehicles, business combinations, divestitures and operations, as well as various forms of corporate and government finance.

His international experience includes project and program development with the World Bank, the IMF, the European Commission, state-to-state protocols, USAID, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and Italian Bilateral Protocols, as well as multilateral agency financing in the United States, the Middle East, Central Asia, Japan and Europe, many of which have involved negotiations between and among private and publicly owned concerns and national governments or state enterprises.

Mr. Baroudi has helped to formulate energy and environment policies in the Euro Mediterranean and North Africa region and for the Middle East area. He participated in the preparations of the Euro-Med Energy Free Trade Zone, and in the Euro-Med Regional and Euro-Med Government negotiations. He also has had a role in energy and transportation policies, advising both the European Commission and its Mediterranean partners between the Barcelona and Trieste Declarations of 1995-1996 and 2004. In addition, Mr. Baroudi was a founding member of the Rome Euro-Mediterranean Energy Platform (REMEP).

In particular, his work and research on integration have focused on energy and transportation networks and related projects, including natural gas and electricity rings affecting both EU and non-EU member states bordering the Mediterranean. His expertise is regularly sought by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which invites him to participate in the expert working party on topics such as gas savings, underground gas storage, and sustainable energy development.

Mr. Baroudi has done extensive work in energy, security and economic development, industrial programs which have help bring about energy and economic advances related to private sector power development, electricity market unbundling, gas market reform, political reform and deregulation. He also has done extensive work on international oil and gas ventures, including petroleum development and exploration, as well as government legislation.

Mr. Baroudi has held a variety of influential positions. In 1999, he was elected secretary general of the World Energy Council - Lebanon Member Committee, a position he held until January 2013. He is also a member of the Association Francaise des Techniciens et Professionnels du Petrole (French Association of Petroleum Professionals and Technical Experts). Mr. Baroudi is a former senior adviser to the Arab Electricity Regulatory Forum (AREF), a member of the Energy Institute, (UK), and a member of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) in the U.S.A. Mr. Baroudi also serves on several boards of directors of different companies and international joint ventures.

Mr. Baroudi is the author or co-author of numerous books, articles studies, and research reports on political, economic, climate change and other matters associated with energy. His insights on these and related issues are frequently sought by local and international companies, governments, media and television outlets. He is also a regular lecturer on global energy and transportation affairs.

In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Baroudi is currently a member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Group of Experts of Gas, a body established to facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue on promoting safe, clean, and sustainable solutions for the production, distribution and consumption of natural gas in the world's single-largest energy market.

For more information, contact:

PowerHouse Energy Group plc

Keith Allaun, Executive Chairman Tel: +44 (0) 203 368 6399 WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser)

James Joyce / James Bavister Tel: +44 (0) 207 220 1666 Turner Pope Investments Ltd (Joint Broker)

Ben Turner / James Pope Tel: +44 (0) 203 621 4120 Smaller Company Capital Limited (Joint Broker)

Jeremy Woodgate Tel: +44 (0) 203 651 2910 IFC Advisory (Financial PR & IR)

Tim Metcalfe / Graham Herring / Miles Nolan Tel: +44 (0) 203 053 8671

About PowerHouse Energy

PowerHouse is the holding company of the G3-UHt Ultra High Temperature Gasification Waste-to-Energy system, and the creator of Distributed Modular Gasification ("DMG")

The Company is focused on technologies to enable energy recovery from municipal waste streams that would otherwise be directed to landfills and incinerators; or from renewable and alternative fuels such as biomass, tyres, and plastics to create syngas for power generation, high-quality hydrogen, or potentially reformed into liquid fuels for transportation. DMG allows for easy, economical, deployment and scaling of an environmentally sound solution to the growing challenges of waste elimination, electricity demand, and distributed hydrogen production.

PowerHouse is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's AIM Market. The Company is incorporated in the United Kingdom.

For more information see www.powerhouseenenergy.net
LONDON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Partnership enables SafeCharge customers to accept card payments in the US at domestic rates and with maximised acceptance rates

SafeCharge (LON:SCH), a leading payments technology company, today announced a partnership to process payments in the United States through Chase, a global leader in card processing.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160526/372493LOGO )



Through the partnership, SafeCharge customers will benefit from card processing under domestic conditions. For the consumer, this means a smoother payment experience and a greater likelihood of a transaction being accepted.

Chase serves more than 250,000 merchants and 560,000 locations across the United States. The company processed 16.88bn transactions in 2016 and this, according to Nilson, makes them the third largest acquirer in the US, representing around 20% of the market.

SafeCharge's proprietary payments platform includes a gateway, a card issuer and acquirer itself meaning it connects directly to all the major card brands including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and China Union Pay. SafeCharge's global payments platform is available in 4 continents providing cross border businesses diversified acquiring options to choose from in order to optimise their payment acceptance rate.

"The US is one of the biggest markets in the world. The Federal Reserve estimates that US credit and debit card payments were worth almost $6 trillion in 2016.There's a growing requirement from both consumers and merchants to accommodate cross-border payment acceptance, boosting conversion and enhancing the customer experience," said David Avgi, CEO, SafeCharge.

About SafeCharge

SafeCharge International Group Limited (LSE: SCH) is the payment service partner for the world's most demanding businesses. SafeCharge provides global omni-channel payments services from card acquiring and issuance to payment processing and checkout, all underpinned by advanced risk management solutions. This fully featured proprietary payment platform connects directly to all major payment card schemes including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Union Pay as well as over 150 local payment methods. With offices around the world, SafeCharge serves a diversified, blue chip client base and is a trusted payment partner for customers across a range of vertical markets. The company has been listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market since 2014.

Contacts



Press Contacts:

CCgroup for SafeCharge

Alan Miller / Abbie Godward

+44(0)203-824-9200



SafeCharge International Group Limited

David Avgi

Tim Mickley

+44(0)20-3051-3031


LONDON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A delegation from the Liverpool city government in UK visited Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University to explore possibilities for building business and industry links with Suzhou.

Last weekend, Liverpool hosted the biggest ever delegations from Chinese state-owned enterprises that came to discuss academic partnerships, investment in Liverpool's ports, and investment in cultural enterprises.

Vice Mayor of Liverpool Gary Millar met with members of XJTLU's senior management team, deans, and academic directors to discuss how XJTLU can help to further strengthen cooperation between the two cities.

Professor Eng Gee Lim introduced the International Technology Transfer Centre at XJTLU, and explained its role in the commercialisation of new technologies developed at the University.

Dr Chee Seong Chin and Professor Andre Brown told the delegation about the investment by construction firm Innostrux into a new Research Centre for Advanced Fibre-Reinforced Concrete at XJTLU.

Roberto Dona from International Business School Suzhou commented on positive outcomes from 'Yi Tech', an event that sought to help strengthen the position of Italian technology companies in China, as an example of the initiatives XJTLU is taking to build links between academia and business.

Vice Mayor Millar commented that he was 'very impressed' with the 'world class facilities' at XJTLU, and encouraged deeper communication between the University and the City of Liverpool.

Vice Mayor Millar was accompanied by Ellen Cutler, investment director, and Mi Tang, head of China affairs for Liverpool Vision, the city's economic development company.

The delegation had also visited Shanghai the day before where Vice Mayor Millar spoke at the 2017 World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment, an event that will be hosted in Liverpool next year as part of the 2018 International Business Festival.

Founded in 2006, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is the largest international joint venture university in China, a partnership between Xi'an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool. An independent, Sino-British joint venture, the University is based in Suzhou in China's Jiangsu province, a high-tech, high-growth corridor just 25 minutes from Shanghai. As one of the most international universities in Asia, XJTLU is seeking to further increase its international student enrolment, research and industry partnerships and academic staff recruitment. Our vision is to become a research-led international university in China and a Chinese university recognised internationally for its unique features.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Vierema, Finland, 2017-05-26 10:08 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Distinguished forestry experts were rewarded in Vierema, Finland. Maintaining the life's work of Einari Vidgren, the Einari Vidgren Foundation gave out EUR 157,700 in recognitions. Einari Awards, the main recognitions given out from the Foundation, were granted to veteran harvesting professionals Ahti Annala of the company Kone Annala Ky, and Jan-Erik Oldenburg of the company Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy.



Industrial Counsellor Einari Vidgren, the founder of Ponsse Plc, established the Einari Vidgren Foundation in 2005 with the aim of increasing appreciation for the work performed within the field of mechanised wood harvesting. The purpose of the Foundation is to heighten awareness of the entrepreneurship related to wood harvesting and to make the mechanised harvesting sector more interesting as a potential workplace, especially among young people.



Einari Awards



The Einari Award is granted for meritorious hard work as a forest machine entrepreneur. The criteria for the award emphasise a long-term approach to entrepreneurship and professionalism in this highly challenging industry. The EUR 20 000 main Einari Awards were granted today to Kone Annala Ky owner Ahti Annala and Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy owner Jan-Erik Oldenburg.



Ahti Annala, the founder of Kone Annala Ky and recipient of the Einari Award went into the forest machine business in 1980 together with this brother. After 38 years at the helm of his business, Mr. Annala is ready to hand over the business to the next generation. The company's ownership is about to be transferred to Mr. Annala's sons who will continue his work. Located in Sodankyla, the company employs 14 people who work in four different machine units. Employee turnover at the company has been remarkably low throughout its history. This is due to Ahti Annala's introducing of human resources policies that place a high value on employee skills and expertise. He looks into the future by offering on-the-job training to young people, and seeks to keep everyone employed in spite of seasonal changes in demand for forestry services. A number of machines guarantees there is always a tool available that is suitable for the task ahead, and the machines are kept in good working condition. This also ensures workplace well-being for the employees. Throughout his years as an entrepreneur, Mr .Annala has relied on honest work and has focused on long-term goals to keep his business steady.



Jan-Erik Oldenburg, founder of Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy and recipient of the Einari Award started his business in 1994, felling trees with a chainsaw. He bought his first harvester, a used model, in 2005 after a storm in Sweden blew down entire forests. Located in the Helsinki Capital Region, Puistometsapalvelu serves private landowners, construction companies and the government-owned company Altia Plc whose forests the company manages with a holistic vision towards sustainability. The company's business model clearly differs from those of traditional machine businesses working for forest companies. Instead of relying on long-term forestry contracts, the company keeps looking for opportunities in various countries. Individual jobs-even small ones-are welcome, and customers can expect to receive all services they need from the same business, such as when clearing a site for a single new house when the company not only fells the trees but transports them for further processing. Puistometsapalvelu Oldenburg Oy represents a new and different type of forest felling entrepreneurship with a focus on expertise and excellent service.



Einari Recognitions



The Foundation gave Einari Recognitions to research and development organisations active in the field of mechanised wood harvesting, developers of training in the sector and parties that promote awareness of the sector and increase its appreciation.



Education in the field of forestry is of utmost importance for the prosperity and continued success of the industry, and will ensure availability of a future workforce. The following awards were granted an Einari Award of EUR 3,000 based on a long-term focus on development and high quality education: Jouko Karjalainen, Director, Oulu Vocational College/Taivalkoski unit Juha Heikkinen, Supervisor, Oulu Vocational College/Muhos unit Markku Kekkonen, Lecturer, Savo Consortium for Education, Toivala unit



The Rural Professions Association has been granted an Einari Award of EUR 3,000. The association's aim is to promote the availability of jobs in forestry and agriculture to young people as well as to increase the awareness and networking of the field.



The Natural Resources Institute Finland has been awarded an Einari Recognition of EUR 6,000 for advancing cut-to-length felling techniques and related education and training in Canada, especially in the province of Ontario.



The City of Jyvaskyla has been awarded an Einari Recognition of EUR 2,000 for its Kunnontyot 2 Project designed to bring jobs to unemployed long-term job seekers, immigrants and marginalized youth. The project offers apprenticeships to nine students who are expected to graduate with a degree in forestry this spring.



An Einari Recognition of EUR 5,000 was granted to German Forestry Ladies Forwarder Cup, for developing forest machine operator training for women in Germany and promoting the forestry especially among women.



Two Einari Recognitions of EUR 6,000 each were granted to the following educational institutions for promoting the cut-to-length method: Polo Educativo Technologico Paysandu, Uruguay Reshetnev Siberian State Aerospace University, Russia



Two Einari Recognitions of EUR 3,000 were granted to people and organisations in the United States: CTL Manager/Forester Matthew Mattioda of Oregon was recognised for his continued efforts to promote the cut-to-length method, and Finlandia University was given a student grant of EUR 3,000 to facilitate a course on the cut-to-length method and promoting such techniques.



Einari Driver Awards



The Einari Vidgren Foundation also gave Einari Operator's Awards of EUR 1,500 each, to a record number of 39 distinguished forest machine operators. The award criteria included the high quality of work and customer-centric attitude as well as cooperation and communication with forest owners and other stakeholders.



Einari Student Scholarships



The Einari Vidgren Foundation also granted student scholarships of EUR 600 to 27 students studying programmes related to the forest machine sector. The scholarships were decided on by the teaching staff of each college. In addition to success in studies, the criteria included the fact that the student has a job as a forest machine operator or serviceman when leaving school.



Photos from the award ceremony: http://www.ponsse.com/media-archive/images/events/20172



The material is freely available to the press.



Vierema, 24 May 2017



EINARI VIDGREN FOUNDATION



Juha Vidgren Chairman of the Einari Vidgren Foundation



FURTHER INFORMATION: Juha Vidgren, tel. +358 40 518 6286 www.evsaatio.fi



Attachment:

https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=633054

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison" or the "Company") (TSX: DML)(NYSE MKT: DNN) is pleased to report a significant increase in uranium grades from previously released preliminary radiometric probe results, following the receipt of uranium assays from the Company's winter 2017 drilling program on the 60% owned Wheeler River project. The winter 2017 exploration program involved a combination of infill drilling at the Gryphon deposit and resource expansion exploration drilling to the northwest of the Gryphon deposit. The Wheeler River project is host to the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix uranium deposits, and is the largest undeveloped high-grade uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region in northern Saskatchewan.

The Company currently reports preliminary radiometric equivalent grades ("eU3O8"), derived from a calibrated downhole total gamma probe, during its exploration programs and subsequently reports definitive assay grades following sampling and geochemical analysis of the mineralized drill core.

Highlights

-- As has been the case in past years, assays returned higher grades of U3O8 than the preliminary eU3O8 reported during the drilling program. For the winter 2017 results, assay grades greater than 0.5% U3O8 were on average 45% higher than their corresponding radiometric equivalent grades; -- Drill hole WR-633D3 returned assay results of 3.3% U3O8 over 13.5 metres, 6.2% U3O8 over 2.5 metres and 1.3% U3O8 over 3.0 metres within the D series lenses. This result represents the best hole drilled to date, in terms of combined grades and thicknesses of mineralization, from the mineralized zone identified to the northwest of the current resources estimated for the Gryphon deposit.

In November 2015, the Company estimated the Gryphon deposit to contain inferred resources of 43.0 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.2% U3O8) based on 834,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 2.3% U3O8, occurring as a series of stacked lenses on various stratigraphic, fault-controlled planes within the basement rocks - termed the A, B, and C series lenses. Since then, a significant zone of new mineralization has been discovered and partially delineated to the northwest, termed the D series of lenses, in combination with the discovery of additional mineralization on the A and B planes. Taken together, results from exploration drilling since the beginning of 2016, has defined a mineralized zone that comprises multiple lenses spanning over 300 metres in strike length and remains open.

Dale Verran, Denison's Vice President of Exploration, commented, "This set of Gryphon assay results have exceeded expectations - particularly for drill hole WR-633D3, which now ranks as the best hole to date in the D series of lenses. These results re-emphasize the potential of the D series lenses to add meaningful resources to the Gryphon deposit, ahead of a planned update to the resource estimate for the project. This summer, in addition to the ongoing infill drilling at Gryphon, we are planning to continue to explore the D lenses with the objective of defining high-grade zones and maximizing the indicated resources that will be included in the upcoming PFS."

The Company is also pleased to report the assay results from its infill drilling program at the Gryphon deposit, including the results of a further 17 drill holes, totaling 8,402 metres. The results confirm the continuity and high-grades of Gryphon's A, B and C series inferred resources and indicate potential for resource growth with higher than expected assay grades compared to the inferred grade model in certain portions of the deposit. A further 18 drill holes are planned to be completed during the summer 2017 program to complete the infill program at Gryphon.

Technical Highlights From Assay Results

Winter 2017 assay results for exploration drilling are provided in Table 1. Nine holes totalling 6,330 metres were completed outside of the current inferred resources estimated for the Gryphon deposit, including four holes targeting the Gryphon D series lenses, and five holes down-dip of the A and B series lenses. The highlights from these results illustrate the potential for meaningful resource expansion at Gryphon:

-- 3.3% U3O8 over 13.5 m (including 11.8% U3O8 over 3.5 m) D series mineralization in WR-633D3 -- 6.2% U3O8 over 2.5 m D series mineralization in WR-633D3 -- 1.3% U3O8 over 3.0 m (including 3.8% U3O8 over 1.0 m) D series mineralization in WR-633D3 -- 2.9% U3O8 over 3.0 m (including 8.5% U3O8 over 1.0 m) B series mineralization in WR-689 -- 8.6% U3O8 over 1.0 m D series mineralization in WR-689 -- 15.1% U3O8 over 1.0 m D series mineralization in WR-689

In addition to exploration drilling to expand mineralization outside of the current Gryphon resource, the 2017 winter drilling program continued with infill and delineation drilling with the objective of increasing the level of confidence of the current inferred resources to an indicated level. Winter 2017 assay results from infill and delineation drilling are provided in Table 2, and represent an overall increase in grade and thicknesses of mineralization in comparison to the previously reported radiometric equivalent grade results (see Denison's press releases dated March 29, 2017 and April 20, 2017). Highlights from the infill results include the following results:

-- 7.3% U3O8 over 6.0 m (including 10.9% U3O8 over 4.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-567D2 -- 1.9% U3O8 over 6.6 m (including 3.4% U3O8 over 3.0 m) B series mineralization in WR-567D2 -- 5.1% U3O8 over 7.0 m (including 7.6% U3O8 over 4.5 m) A series mineralization in WR-567D1 -- 5.5% U3O8 over 3.5 m B series mineralization in WR-567D1 -- 4.0% U3O8 over 9.0 m A series mineralization in WR-687D2 -- 4.3% U3O8 over 6.0 m (including 8.2% U3O8 over 3.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-582D2 -- 3.1% U3O8 over 5.5 m (including 8.0% U3O8 over 2.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-606D2 -- 2.8% U3O8 over 5.5 m (including 14.2% U3O8 over 1.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-688D3 -- 1.6% U3O8 over 8.0 m (including 11.6% U3O8 over 1.0 m) A series mineralization in WR-688D2

Illustrative Figures & Further Details

A plan map of the Gryphon A, B, C and D series lenses is provided in Figure 1. The inset on Figure 1 shows a schematic cross section of the A, B, C and D series lenses and their respective inclined longitudinal section windows (as shaded rectangles). Figures 2 to 5 provide inclined longitudinal sections of the Gryphon A, B, C and D series lenses respectively. The modelled mineralized lenses shown in Figures 1 to 5 are defined using a 0.05% U3O8 or eU3O8 grade shell and minimum thickness of two metres. There is no certainty that the modelled mineralized lenses shown will constitute future mineral resources and they may be subject to modifications as further drilling data becomes available.

To view Figures 1-5, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/denifigs0526.pdf

Further details regarding the Gryphon deposit and the current mineral resource estimates are provided in the NI 43-101 Technical Report for the Wheeler River project titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Wheeler River Uranium Project, Saskatchewan, Canada" dated April 8, 2016 with an effective date of March 31, 2016. A copy of this report is available on Denison's website and under its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

Sampling and Assay Procedures

Drill core with anomalous total gamma radioactivity (greater than 500 counts per second) was sampled over 0.5 metre intervals. Sampling is undertaken on site by splitting the core in half, with one half submitted for analysis and the other half retained in the core box for future reference. Uranium assays are performed by the Saskatchewan Research Council ("SRC") Geoanalytical Laboratories using an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited method for the determination of U3O8 weight %. Sample preparation involves crushing and pulverizing core samples to 90% passing -106 microns. The resultant pulp is digested using aqua-regia and the solution analyzed for U3O8 weight % using ICP-OES. Core recovery at Gryphon is typically 100% and therefore radiometric equivalent U3O8 grades ("eU3O8") are not required as a substitute for chemical U3O8 assays. In addition to internal checks by SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories, the Company has rigorous quality assurance and quality control ("QAQC") procedures including the insertion of standard reference materials, blanks and field duplicates. The assay data is subject to verification procedures by qualified persons employed by Denison prior to disclosure. For further details on the assay, QAQC and data verification procedures please see Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 23, 2017 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Detailed Assay Results

The following tables provide the detailed assay results from the drill holes completed during the winter 2017 exploration program at Wheeler River. The assay results are shown next to the previously reported radiometric equivalent results, and have been assigned a lens designation based on the stratigraphic position of the mineralized interval.

Table 1: Winter 2017 assay results for exploration drilling outside of the Gryphon resource

Previously reported Downhole Total Gamma Probe(4,8) Section Hole Number From (m) To (m) Length(9)(m) eU3O8(%)(2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-689D1 560.5 561.5 1.0 0.22 and 566.3 567.3 1.0 0.11 and 570.4 571.4 1.0 0.18 and 668.4 669.4 1.0 0.13 5175GP and 675.7 676.7 1.0 0.13 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 679.7 680.7 1.0 1.6 and 692.3 693.7 1.4 0.23 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-689 557.2 558.6 1.4 0.54 and 561.0 562.0 1.0 0.13 and 564.9 566.8 1.9 2.74 including(6,7) 565.6 566.6 1.0 5.08 and 573.2 574.2 1.0 0.60 and 584.1 585.1 1.0 0.32 5200GP and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 679.6 680.6 1.0 0.50 and 684.6 685.6 1.0 0.15 and 711.1 712.8 1.7 2.86 and 718.4 719.6 1.2 7.5 WR-633D3 674.6 675.6 1.0 0.12 and 742.8 743.8 1.0 0.11 and 753.3 756.4 3.1 0.75 including(6,7) 755.3 756.3 1.0 2.0 and 758.6 771.8 13.2 2.5 including(6,7) 764.3 768.1 3.8 7.8 including(1,6,7) Below cut-off grade of 1.0% eU3O8 and 774.6 777.4 2.8 3.7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-690 585.9 587.0 1.1 0.18 and 593.0 594.0 1.0 0.74 5225GP and 654.5 655.5 1.0 0.70 and 722.3 723.3 1.0 0.23 and 726.1 727.1 1.0 0.18 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Final Assay(5,8) Lens Section From (m) To (m) Length(9)(m) U3O8(wt%)(3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 560.8 562.8 2.0 0.07 B Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 B 571.2 572.2 1.0 0.23 B 668.8 669.8 1.0 0.09 D 5175GP 673.7 674.7 1.0 0.12 D 676.2 677.2 1.0 0.15 D 680.2 681.2 1.0 1.5 D 692.9 694.4 1.5 0.16 D ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Navigational drilling - no core recovery A Navigational drilling - no core recovery B 564.0 567.0 3.0 2.9 B 566.0 567.0 1.0 8.5 B 573.0 574.0 1.0 0.95 B 584.0 585.0 1.0 0.19 B 5200GP 666.6 667.6 1.0 0.05 D 680.4 681.4 1.0 0.20 D 685.2 686.2 1.0 0.23 D 712.0 713.0 1.0 8.6 D 719.7 720.7 1.0 15.1 D 675.3 676.3 1.0 0.09 B 743.5 744.5 1.0 0.09 D 753.9 756.9 3.0 1.3 D 755.9 756.9 1.0 3.8 D 759.2 772.7 13.5 3.3 D 765.2 768.7 3.5 11.8 D 771.7 772.7 1.0 1.0 D 775.4 777.9 2.5 6.2 D ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 586.9 587.9 1.0 0.21 B 594.0 595.0 1.0 0.62 B 5225GP 655.6 656.6 1.0 0.66 C 723.4 724.4 1.0 0.16 D 727.4 728.4 1.0 0.16 D ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

1. Result not reported previously 2. eU3O8 is the radiometric equivalent U3O8 derived from a calibrated total gamma downhole probe 3. U3O8 is the chemical assay of mineralized split core samples 4. Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 unless otherwise indicated 5. Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 unless otherwise indicated 6. Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% eU3O8 7. Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% U3O8 8. Composites compiled using 1.0 metre minimum mineralization thickness and 2.0 metres maximum waste 9. As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths

Table 2: Winter 2017 assay results for Gryphon resource infill and delineation holes

Downhole Total Gamma Probe(4,8) Section Hole Number From (m) To (m) Length(9)(m) eU3O8(%)(2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-584BD1 624.8 627.8 3.0 2.0 4775GP including(6,7) 626.0 627.6 1.6 3.7 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 637.6 638.6 1.0 0.11 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-683 No significant mineralization WR-683D1 635.8 638.9 3.1 1.8 including(6,7) 636.2 638.2 2.0 3.5 and 645.2 646.2 1.0 0.31 and 657.5 658.5 1.0 0.46 WR-687D1(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 4825GP and 672.0 673.0 1.0 0.40 and 673.4 674.4 1.0 0.10 and 676.6 678.0 1.4 1.6 including(6,7) 676.8 677.8 1.0 2.2 and 682.7 683.7 1.0 0.55 WR-575D1 626.2 625.9 1.5 0.36 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-687(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 681.4 682.4 1.0 0.14 and 685.0 686.5 1.5 0.88 and 690.8 691.8 1.0 0.12 4900GP WR-687D2(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 648.9 649.9 1.0 1.8 and 652.8 661.9 9.1 2.5 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 676.3 677.3 1.0 0.10 and 686.2 687.4 1.2 0.15 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-567D1 674.3 675.9 1.6 0.33 and 689.8 690.8 1.0 0.66 4950GP and 694.9 696.9 2.0 1.3 and 700.0 707.1 7.1 3.9 including(6,7) 701.1 705.5 4.4 6.1 and 723.1 727.1 4.0 3.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-567D2(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 664.5 665.6 1.1 0.42 and 670.1 671.1 1.0 0.89 and 691.2 692.2 1.0 1.2 and 694.3 695.7 1.4 0.71 and 698.4 704.6 6.2 5.9 4975GP including(6,7) 700.2 704.3 4.1 8.7 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 713.5 714.9 1.4 0.22 and 732.8 736.4 3.6 2.1 including(6,7) 733.0 735.8 2.8 2.6 including(1,6,7) Below cut-off grade of 1.0% eU3O8 and 739.0 740.0 1.0 0.40 and 744.8 747.4 2.6 0.28 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-606D2(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 764.3 765.3 1.0 0.11 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 785.4 786.4 1.0 0.15 and 792.4 793.4 1.0 0.11 and 794.2 798.8 4.6 2.0 including(6,7) 795.9 797.8 1.9 4.1 and 803.5 808.1 4.6 0.45 5100GP including(6,7) 804.6 805.6 1.0 1.5 WR-688D3 758.1 759.1 1.0 0.24 and 762.4 767.7 5.3 2.7 including(6,7) 764.4 765.7 1.3 9.4 and(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 775.2 776.2 1.0 0.12 and 779.1 780.1 1.0 0.11 and 780.4 781.4 1.0 0.10 and 782.2 785.1 2.9 0.71 including(6,7) 783.5 784.5 1.0 1.6 and 793.1 794.2 1.1 5.4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-688(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 774.1 778.9 4.8 0.51 5125GP WR-688D2 756.5 757.5 1.0 0.33 and 761.2 762.7 1.5 3.0 including(6,7) 761.3 762.3 1.0 4.3 and 767.5 769.2 1.7 0.47 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-582D2 741.6 742.6 1.0 0.72 and 746.2 752.0 5.8 4.1 including(1,6,7) Below cut-off grade of 1.0 % eU3O8 including(6,7) 748.8 751.6 2.8 8.1 WR-684 796.1 797.1 1.0 0.11 5150GP and 813.7 827.9 14.2 0.39 including(6,7) 813.7 814.7 1.0 1.2 including(1,6,7) Below cut-off grade of 1.0 % eU3O8 and 830.5 835.1 4.6 2.5 including(6,7) 831.0 832.2 1.2 8.3 WR-688D1 766.5 768.9 2.4 0.72 and 775.5 776.5 1.0 0.16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WR-684D1(1) Below cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 and 803.6 805.2 1.6 0.18 5175GP and 806.4 807.4 1.0 0.13 and 808.3 810.2 1.9 0.18 and 813.6 815.5 1.9 0.18 and 831.5 832.5 1.0 0.12 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assay(5,8) Section From (m) To (m) Length(9)(m) U3O8(wt%)(3) Lens ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 626.3 628.3 2.0 4.0 A 4775GP 626.3 627.8 1.5 5.0 A 631.8 632.8 1.0 0.05 B 638.2 639.2 1.0 0.08 B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No significant mineralization 635.5 639.0 3.5 1.3 A 637.0 639.0 2.0 2.1 A 645.5 646.5 1.0 0.73 B 658.0 659.0 1.0 0.12 B 664.5 665.5 1.0 0.09 A 4825GP 667.0 674.0 7.0 0.06 A Merged with interval above A 677.0 678.5 1.5 2.9 B 677.5 678.5 1.0 4.1 B 683.0 684.0 1.0 0.64 B 624.0 627.0 3.0 0.28 A 648.0 650.5 2.5 0.15 B 652.5 653.5 1.0 0.05 B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 666.0 667.0 1.0 0.07 A Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 A 685.2 686.7 1.5 0.47 A Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 B 4900GP 537.0 538.0 1.0 0.05 A 649.8 650.8 1.0 2.8 A 653.4 662.4 9.0 4.0 A 670.0 672.0 2.0 0.09 B Below cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 B 687.2 688.2 1.0 0.24 B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 675.0 676.5 1.5 0.51 A 691.0 693.0 2.0 0.49 A 4950GP 695.5 696.5 1.0 3.1 A 701.0 708.0 7.0 5.1 A 702.0 706.5 4.5 7.6 A 724.0 727.5 3.5 5.5 B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 585.8 586.8 1.0 0.06 A 663.1 664.1 1.0 0.05 A 664.6 665.6 1.0 0.09 A 670.1 671.1 1.0 1.2 A 691.7 692.7 1.0 0.66 A 695.0 696.0 1.0 0.61 A 698.8 704.8 6.0 7.3 A 4975GP 700.8 704.8 4.0 10.9 A 711.5 712.5 1.0 0.07 B 714.0 716.0 2.0 0.15 B 733.4 740.0 6.6 1.9 B 733.4 736.4 3.0 3.4 B 739.0 740.0 1.0 2.1 B Merged with interval above B 745.5 748.0 2.5 0.29 B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 747.5 748.5 1.0 0.09 A 765.0 766.0 1.0 0.05 A 770.5 771.5 1.0 0.06 A 777.7 778.7 1.0 0.09 A 785.9 786.9 1.0 0.13 A Merged with interval below A 793.6 799.1 5.5 3.1 A 796.6 798.6 2.0 8.0 A 805.1 808.6 3.5 0.34 B 5100GP 805.1 806.1 1.0 1.0 B 758.5 759.5 1.0 0.38 A 763.0 768.5 5.5 2.8 A 765.0 766.0 1.0 14.2 A 770.5 772.5 2.0 0.07 B Merged with interval below B Merged with interval below B Merged with interval below B 775.5 785.5 10.0 0.26 B 784.0 785.0 1.0 1.6 B 793.7 794.7 1.0 9.2 C ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 520.6 521.6 1.0 0.09 A 774.5 783.5 9.0 0.30 A 5125GP 757.5 758.5 1.0 0.95 A 762.3 770.3 8.0 1.6 A/B 762.3 763.3 1.0 11.6 A Merged with interval above B ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 741.5 743.0 1.5 0.34 A 746.5 752.5 6.0 4.3 A 747.5 748.5 1.0 1.0 A 749.0 752.0 3.0 8.2 A 797.6 798.6 1.0 0.14 A 5150GP 815.1 829.6 14.5 0.46 A 815.1 816.1 1.0 2.1 A 817.1 818.1 1.0 1.2 A 832.2 836.2 4.0 1.9 B 832.7 833.7 1.0 6.8 B 767.5 770.0 2.5 0.32 A 776.5 778.0 1.5 0.15 A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 794.4 795.4 1.0 0.06 A 805.5 812.5 7.0 0.15 A 5175GP Merged with interval above A Merged with interval above A 815.5 817.5 2.0 0.19 A 833.5 834.5 1.0 0.17 B ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

1. Result not reported previously 2. eU3O8 is the radiometric equivalent U3O8 derived from a calibrated total gamma downhole probe 3. U3O8 is the chemical assay of mineralized split core samples 4. Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.1% eU3O8 unless otherwise indicated 5. Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 0.05% U3O8 unless otherwise indicated 6. Downhole probe result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% eU3O8 7. Assay result composited above a cut-off grade of 1.0% U3O8 8. Composites compiled using 1.0 metre minimum mineralization thickness and 2.0 metres maximum waste 9. As the drill holes are oriented steeply toward the northwest and the basement mineralization is interpreted to dip moderately to the southeast, the true thickness of the mineralization is expected to be approximately 75% of the intersection lengths

Qualified Persons

Dale Verran, MSc, Pr.Sci.Nat., Denison's Vice President, Exploration, who is a Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release.

About Wheeler River

Wheeler River is the largest undeveloped high-grade uranium project in the infrastructure rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region, in northern Saskatchewan. The project is a joint venture between Denison (60% and operator), Cameco Corp. ("Cameco") (30%), and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company Limited ("JCU") (10%), and is host to the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix uranium deposits discovered by Denison in 2014 and 2008, respectively. The Gryphon deposit is hosted in basement rock and is currently estimated to contain inferred resources of 43.0 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.2% U3O8) based on 834,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 2.3% U3O8. The Phoenix unconformity deposit is located approximately 3 kilometres to the southeast of Gryphon and is estimated to include indicated resources of 70.2 million pounds U3O8 (above a cut-off grade of 0.8% U3O8) based on 166,000 tonnes of mineralization at an average grade of 19.1% U3O8, and is the highest grade undeveloped known uranium deposit in the world.

On April 4th, 2016, Denison announced the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") for the Wheeler River Project, which considers the potential economic merit of co-developing the high-grade Gryphon and Phoenix deposits as a single underground mining operation. The PEA returned a base case pre-tax Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of 20.4% based on the current long term contract price of uranium (US$44.00 per pound U3O8), and Denison's share of estimated initial capital expenditures ("CAPEX") of CAD$336M (CAD$560M on 100% ownership basis). Exploration results from the subsequent drilling programs have not been incorporated into the resource estimate or the PEA. The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. On July 19th, 2016 Denison announced the initiation of a Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") for the Wheeler River property and the complimentary commencement of an infill drilling program at the Gryphon deposit to bring the inferred resources to an indicated level of confidence.

As previously announced on January 10, 2017, Denison has entered into an agreement with its Wheeler River Joint Venture partners, Cameco and JCU, to fund 75% of Joint Venture expenses in 2017 and 2018 (ordinarily 60%) in exchange for an increase in Denison's interest in the project to up to approximately 66%. Under the terms of the agreement, Cameco will fund 50% of its ordinary 30% share in 2017 and 2018, and JCU is expected to continue to fund its 10% interest in the project.

About Denison

Denison is a uranium exploration and development company with interests focused in the Athabasca Basin region of northern Saskatchewan. Including its 60% owned Wheeler River project, which hosts the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, Denison's exploration portfolio consists of numerous projects covering over 330,000 hectares in the infrastructure rich eastern Athabasca Basin. Denison's interests in Saskatchewan also include a 22.5% ownership interest in the McClean Lake joint venture, which includes several uranium deposits and the McClean Lake uranium mill, which is currently processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine under a toll milling agreement, plus a 25.17% interest in the Midwest deposit and a 63.01% interest in the J Zone deposit on the Waterbury Lake property. Both the Midwest and J Zone deposits are located within 20 kilometres of the McClean Lake mill.

Denison is also engaged in mine decommissioning and environmental services through its Denison Environmental Services division and is the manager of Uranium Participation Corp., a publicly traded company which invests in uranium oxide and uranium hexafluoride.

Follow Denison on Twitter @DenisonMinesCo

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information", within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar Canadian legislation concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Denison.

Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or the negatives and/or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur", "be achieved" or "has the potential to". In particular, this press release contains forward-looking information pertaining to the following: the likelihood of completing and benefits to be derived from corporate transactions; use of proceeds from financing activities; expectations regarding further studies on material properties, including the PFS; expectations regarding the toll milling of Cigar Lake ores; expectations regarding revenues and expenditure from operations at DES; expectations regarding Denison's ownership interests and continuity of agreements with its partners; expectations regarding the provision of management services to UPC; capital expenditure programs, estimated exploration and development expenditures and reclamation costs and Denison's share of same; and exploration, development and expansion plans and objectives and statements regarding anticipated budgets. Statements relating to "mineral reserves" or "mineral resources" are deemed to be forward-looking information, as they involve the implied assessment, based on certain estimates and assumptions that the mineral reserves and mineral resources described can be profitably produced in the future.

Forward looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made, and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Denison to be materially different from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Denison believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be accurate and may differ materially from those anticipated in this forward looking information. For a discussion in respect of risks and other factors that could influence forward-looking events, please refer to the factors discussed in Denison's Annual Information Form dated March 23, 2017 under the heading "Risk Factors". These factors are not, and should not be construed as being exhaustive. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking information contained in this press release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Any forward-looking information and the assumptions made with respect thereto speaks only as of the date of this press release. Denison does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information after the date of this press release to conform such information to actual results or to changes in Denison's expectations except as otherwise required by applicable legislation.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources: This press release may use the terms "measured", "indicated" and "inferred" mineral resources. United States investors are advised that while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize them. "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists, or is economically or legally mineable.

Contacts:

Denison Mines Corp.

David Cates

President and Chief Executive Officer

(416) 979-1991 ext. 362



Denison Mines Corp.

Sophia Shane

Investor Relations

(604) 689-7842








Mitsubishi Motors Public Relations Department http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com +81-3-6852-4275

TOKYO, May 26, 2017 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) today announced that it delivered 635 Outlander PHEV vehicles to the National Police of Ukraine on May 25 through its local importer and distributor MMC Ukraine(1). The delivery ceremony held in Kiev was attended by the Prime Minister of Ukraine and Osamu Masuko, MMC president and chief executive.The vehicle order stems from an emissions trading agreement signed by a number of Japanese companies with the Government of Ukraine. As part of its policy to reduce CO2 and greenhouse warming gases using the Kyoto Protocol Green Investment Scheme(2), the Ukrainian government will use the Outlander PHEVs as police vehicles.This marks the second time MMC has supplied vehicles under the Green Investment Scheme, the first being to deliver 507 units of the i-MiEV all-electric model to the Government of Estonia that began in October 2011.At the delivery ceremony, MMC President and chief executive Osamu Masuko said: "I would like to thank the Ukrainian government for evaluating our Outlander PHEV highly and deciding that it is the right option for the country's police force. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV is not only environmental-friendly but also contains our latest technologies such as our advanced 4 wheel drive system "Super All-Wheel Control", which makes it highly suitable for police use."Since its launch in 2013, the Outlander PHEV has recorded cumulative sales of 80,768 units (as at the end of 2016), and has ranked the best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle in Europe for four years in a row.1. MMCU Outline- Start of business: June 2016- Main business lines: Import and sales of MMC vehicles- Shareholdings: Mitsubishi Corporation, 60%; local partner NIKO Group, 40%2. Green Investment Scheme- An international emissions trading plan which provides for funds deriving from the transfer of Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) in emission trading conducted under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol to be used for the purpose of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental measures.- AAU: Under Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol, the allowable level of emissions assigned to a developed country party with a specific emissions target inscribed in Annex B.About Mitsubishi MotorsMitsubishi Motors Corporation is the fifth largest automaker in Japan and the fifteenth largest in the world by global unit sales. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.Throughout its history it has courted alliances with foreign partners, a strategy pioneered by their first president Tomio Kubo to encourage expansion, and continued by his successors. A significant stake was sold to Chrysler Corporation in 1971 which it held for 22 years, while DaimlerChrysler was a controlling shareholder between 2000 and 2005. Long term joint manufacturing and technology licencing deals with the Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea and Proton in Malaysia were also forged, while in Europe the company co-owned the largest automobile manufacturing plant in the Netherlands with Volvo for ten years in the 1990s, before taking sole ownership in 2001.Source: Mitsubishi MotorsContact:Copyright 2017 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
STOCKHOLM, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Elekta (EKTA-B.ST) will profile its radiosurgery solutions, including Leksell Gamma Knife Icon' and high definition dynamic radiosurgery (HDRS), a single oncology platform combining Versa HD' linear accelerator and Monaco treatment planning system, at the 13th biennial Congress and Exhibition of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society(ISRS). Elekta is a Platinum Sponsor of the congress, which is taking place May 28 - June 1 in Montreux, Switzerland.

Leksell Gamma Knifeis the leading platform optimized and dedicated for intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and has been used to treat brain cancer, neurological disease and other brain disorders in more than one million patients. Icon, Elekta's most advanced Gamma Knife system, is designed to enable unprecedented precision and accuracy through the unique integration of stereotactic Cone Beam CT imaging, real-time motion management and online Adaptive Dose Control'. Icon has the highest accuracy of any SRS system on the market[1], with a documented average of 0.15 mm in real clinical settings.

HDRS allows clinicians to deliver high-volume advanced SRS and SBRT therapies in standard treatment time slots. Equipped with full-field, high definition beam-shaping technology and High Dose Rate modes, Versa HD offers end-to-end precision to deliver stereotactic treatments throughout the body. Monaco, powered by the Monte Carlo optimization engine, enables gold-standard accuracy and efficient high definition planning, ensuring lowest possible dose to critical structures while maintaining tight dose coverage to the target. The unique combination of Versa HD and Monaco allows the delivery of highly modulated beams packed in shorter arcs for conformal and efficient stereotactic treatments.

"Stereotactic treatments are increasingly viewed as the therapy of choice for a growing number of cancers and brain disorders, and the use of SRS and SBRT is expected to increase 150 percent and 250 percent, respectively, over the next 10 years[2]," said Dr. Richard Hausmann, Elekta's President and CEO. "Elekta has led the SRS category for more than 40 years, and Gamma Knife Icon, Versa HD and Monaco HDRS platform are the latest demonstrations of our ability to innovate new technologies that address the needs of physicians and patients. We remain committed to advancing patient care and improving clinical outcomes by continually advancing the precision and accuracy of radiation therapy."

In addition, Elekta will host a symposium, titled "Elekta Radiosurgery Solutions - Focus where it matters," from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on May 29. Topics include:

Long-term data on the biological effect and clinical outcomes of performing a staged treatment protocol for large tumor volumes

The use of Gamma Knife Icon across the spectrum from macro to micro radiosurgery

Implementing HDRS for the treatment of multiple brain metastases with Versa HD and Monaco

To learn more, visit the Elekta booth at ISRS.

[1] McDonald D, Schuler J, Takacs I, Peng J, Jenrette J, Vanek K. Comparison of radiation dose spillage from the Gamma Knife Perfexion with that from volumetric modulated arc radiosurgery during treatment of multiple brain metastases in a single fraction. J Neurosurg 2014; 121(Suppl): 51-9. doi: 10.3171/2014.7.GKS141358.

[2]Sg2 Intelligence, Technology Guide, SRS/SBRT, 2013

For further information, please contact:

Gert van Santen,

Group Vice President Corporate Communications,

Elekta AB

Tel: +31-653-561-242,

E-mail: gert.vansanten@elekta.com

Time zone: CET: Central European Time

Raven Canzeri,

Global Public Relations Manager,

Elekta

Tel: +1 770-670-2524,

E-mail: raven.canzeri@elekta.com

Time zone: ET: Eastern Time

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

The following files are available for download:
LONDON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Leading global communications consultancy Ketchum today announced the appointment of Mark Walsh as consumer director in its London office.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/516603/Mark_Walsh.jpg )

In this newly created role, Walsh will provide strategic counsel to Ketchum's consumer brands in London and assume responsibility for growing Ketchum's consumer client roster. He will report into Jo-ann Robertson, partner and deputy CEO of Ketchum London.

"Mark has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, in both the U.K. and globally. Ketchum's consumer practice in London is growing, and we are excited to offer Mark's deep and unique consumer brand expertise to our clients," said Denise Kaufmann, partner and CEO of Ketchum London.

Walsh joins Ketchum from Citizen Relations, where he spent five years working across a variety of roles. Most recently, he served as regional director, Asia Pacific, where he was responsible for establishing a business presence in the region and securing new business across lifestyle and technology brands. His experience includes award-winning campaigns for blue-chip brands such as BT, Hewlett Packard, Casio and Sony Mobile.

"It is a privilege to join Ketchum's London team," said Walsh. "I look forward to working with this team to further Ketchum's reputation in brand marketing by delivering inspiring and relevant work for today's top lifestyle and tech brands in the consumer sector."

About Ketchum

Ketchum is a leading global communications firm with operations in more than 70 countries across six continents. The winner of 19 Cannes Lions and an unprecedented fivePRWeekCampaign of the Year Awards, Ketchum partners with clients to deliver strategic programming, game-changing creative and measurable results that build brands and reputations. For more information on Ketchum, a part of Omnicom Public Relations Group, visit http://www.ketchum.com.

About Omnicom Public Relations Group

Omnicom Public Relations Groupis a global collective of three of the top global public relations agencies worldwide and specialist agencies in areas including public affairs, marketing to women, fashion, global health strategy and corporate social responsibility. It encompasses more than 6,000 public relations professionals in more than 330 offices worldwide who provide their expertise to companies, government agencies, NGOs and non-profits across a wide range of industries. Omnicom Public Relations Group is part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. that includes more than 200 companies in a wide range of marketing disciplines including advertising, public relations, healthcare, customer relationship management, events, promotional marketing, branding and research.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - PPG (PPG) said that it agreed to sell its remaining fiberglass operations to Nippon Electric Glass Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of fiberglass. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. Pre-tax proceeds from the sale are approximately $545 million, and are subject to customary closing adjustments. PPG's remaining fiberglass operations include manufacturing facilities in Chester, South Carolina, and Lexington and Shelby, North Carolina; and administrative and research-and-development operations in Shelby and in Harmar, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. The business, which employs more than 1,000 people and had net sales of approximately $350 million in 2016, supplies the transportation, energy, infrastructure and consumer markets. In 2016, PPG completed the sale of its European fiberglass operations to NEG and divested its ownership interests in two Asian fiberglass joint ventures. PPG also completed the sale of its North American flat glass business in 2016. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SAN DIEGO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/17 -- GreatCall, the leader in connected health for active aging, today announced that its Healthsense Remote Health Monitoring Solution has been recognized as a MedTech Breakthrough award winner. The inaugural awards recognize best-in-class companies, people, platforms and products in the health, fitness and medical technology industries.

Healthsense uses passive sensors to monitor activities of daily living (ADLs) such as eating, sleeping and movement. It gathers information to identify individual baseline patterns, then uses predictive analytics to identify significant changes in those patterns that may indicate a change in health status. This enables caregivers to proactively intervene when they are notified of changes indicative of early onset of a negative health event. Using this preventative approach, they are able to replace a high cost episode of care with a low-cost intervention, thus improving outcomes at a lower cost.

"The Healthsense remote monitoring and predictive analytics solutions solve real problems for the aging population," said David Inns, CEO of GreatCall. "This recognition further underscores GreatCall's mission of providing the best outcome for both managed care organizations and their senior members by reducing the total cost of care for seniors while increasing their independence and ensuring safety."

The offering includes 10 sensors typically installed in a home to passively gather data, as well as a cellular hub to provide connectivity to GreatCall's infrastructure. The legacy Healthsense solution is being expanded to include the GreatCall mPERS device and service, the Lively Mobile. Lively Mobile offers all the benefits of a mobile personal emergency response service for seniors, including fall detection.

The technology has been used successfully in partnerships with senior living and managed care organizations across the U.S. An independent 12-month study with a Massachusetts managed care organization found that using remote monitoring in conjunction with the model of care for seniors reduced total medical expenses by $687 per member per month -- a nearly 16 percent reduction for pilot members as compared to a control group. The population using Healthsense demonstrated a 32.2 percent reduction in fees for inpatient hospital visits, a 29.4 percent reduction in emergency department costs and a 67.7 percent reduction in expenses for long term care vs. the control during the year-long study.

GreatCall's Healthsense Remote Health Monitoring Solution was selected out of over 2,000 nominations.

About GreatCall

GreatCall is the leader in connected health for active aging. Through its delivery of remote monitoring and mobile urgent response solutions, GreatCall's commercial business supports managed care and senior living organizations in achieving the triple aim: improved health outcomes, reduced healthcare costs, and improved patient experience. Solutions include Lively Mobile with 5Star Services and Healthsense remote monitoring of activities of daily living with predictive analytics that deliver actionable insights.

GreatCall is headquartered in San Diego, CA. To learn more, please visit www.GreatCall.com and www.Healthsense.com. This news release and other corporate assets are available at www.greatcall.com/newsroom or follow our news on Twitter @GreatCallinc and on Facebook at Facebook.com/greatcall.

About MedTech Breakthrough Awards

Telehealth, electronic health records, mHealth, fitness and nutrition technology, patient privacy and beyond, HealthTech and MedTech are featured as the hottest topics in the technology industry today, disrupting and innovating one of the largest industries in the world at a rapid pace. The mission of the MedTech Breakthrough Awards is simple -- to honor excellence and recognize the creativity, hard work and success of MedTech companies, technologies and products.

Media Contact



Contact: Lauren Winer

Company: PAN Communications

Tel: 617-502-4396

Email: Email Contact




NEW DELHI, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Reinforces position as a key strategic partner for the country and its commitment to the North East

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, India's leading cement manufacturer, reiterated its commitment to nation building by playing a vital role in construction of the strategic Dhola-Sadiya bridge connecting Arunachal Pradesh to Assam, which has been inaugurated today by the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi.

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd. supplied 17,000 tonnes of the highest grade cement for this milestone project realized through a consortium of companies. This demonstrates the excellence of its manufacturing prowess, exceptional quality, strong delivery mechanisms and the high degree of trust the company enjoys with multiple stakeholders.

Mr. Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director, Dalmia Bharat Group said, "It is a very salient moment as a key partner in achieving the landmark Dhola-Sadiya bridge which will cut down travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by as much as four hours. It is the latest expression of our association with several key projects of national importance since the commissioning of the Hirakud Dam in 1952. From ports, to metro rail projects, to military and civilian use airports, to highways, thermal and nuclear power plants, we have nurtured a 78-year-old enduring legacy of national trust and excellence."

"This is a very proud moment for us and is a watershed because it transcends business. Our role in fulfilling this longest bridge in India, illustrates the spirit of partnership between various organizations, strategic relevance and a very significant socio-economic value proposition for the North East. I see the impact of this bridge as a literal example of our campaign: 'Dil Jode, Desh Jode'," added Mr. Mahendra Singhi, Group CEO (Cement), Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.

Dhola-Sadiya is India's longest bridge, spanning a distance of 9.15 kms across the mighty Brahmaputra. A marvel of engineering, it is capable of withstanding the weight of a 60 tonne battle tank. It is located 540 km from Guwahati in Assam and 300 km from Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. The aerial distance to the Chinese border is less than 100 km. Construction of the bridge began in 2011 at a project cost of 950 crore. The bridge's salience is underlined by the fact, that at present all transport between the two banks of the river is water borne. As there is no civilian airport in Arunachal Pradesh, this bridge will help people of the state to reach the nearest rail head in Assam's Tinsukia and the airport at Dibrugarh easily. It is built on the public-private partnership model.

About Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited (DCBL), a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Limited (BSE Code: 533309|NSE Symbol: DALMIABHA and listed in MSE), is a leading player in cement manufacturing since 1939. It is one of the largest and most diverse cement companies in India and is the world's greenest cement company. With a growing capacity, currently pegged at 25 MnT, Dalmia Bharat Cement is also the fourth largest manufacturing capacity in the country. Spread across eight states and 11 manufacturing units, the company is also the category leader in super-specialty cements used for oil wells, railway sleepers and air strips and is the country's largest producer of slag cement. Visit us at http://www.dalmiacement.com

About Dalmia Bharat Group

Dalmia Bharat Group (http://www.dalmiabharat.com) is a leading national player in India's core manufacturing sector since 1939. With a turnover of over 10,000 crore it has a leadership position in cement, sugar, refractories. A leader in specialty cements and the country's largest producer of slag cement, Dalmia Bharat is the world's greenest cement company and a leader in Sustainability best practices set to global benchmarks. In generic sugar, the group caters to several marquee brands. It has an enduring and growing customer base in refractories.

Media Contact:

Dalmia Bharat Group:

Pooja Bharadwaj

E: Bharadwaj.pooja@dalmiabharat.com

T: +91-95-601-66999


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Montana GOP House Candidate Greg Gianforte, who was charged with assaulting a British reporter covering his campaign, has won a high-profile special election Thursday. Gianforte, who is accused of 'body slamming' the Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs at a campaign event in Bozeman, was cited for misdemeanor assault late Wednesday, just hours before voters went to polls. It invites a punishment of up to $500 fine and 6 months imprisonment. Gianforte, a multimillionaire technology executive, reportedly grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground. Addressing his supporters after the election late Thursday in Bozeman, Gianforte apologized for the incident, and said that he had 'learned a lesson.' He held the long time GOP seat in a tight race against Democratic rival Rob Quist. With just 4 percent of votes pending, Gianforte won 51 percent, and Quist received 43 percent, reports say. The election was held after Ryan Zinke vacated the seat to become Secretary of the Interior. The win helped the Republican party maintain its 24-seat lead in the House of Representatives. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Canada House Wellness Group Inc. ("Canada House" or the "Company") (CSE: CHV)(CSE: CHV.CN)(CNSX: CHV), which provides guidance towards an improved quality of life through restorative alternatives to conventional treatments, is pleased to announce the launch of its new investor website (https://www.canadahouse.ca).

The new website provides current and potential investors with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals behind the concept of Canada House which are the core of Canada House's mission, values and beliefs. Within the investor section of the website, there is a collection of SEDAR filings, press releases, corporate governance information, stock information, future projections, presentations and the company's goals pertaining to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Canada House Wellness Group Inc. will update the website on a regular basis with current filings and media releases, acquisitions, corporate milestones and stock information about the company's performance on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

Visitors are encouraged to explore the website and sign up for direct emails from the company at https://www.canadahouse.ca/contact/.

Simultaneously with the launch of the website, Canada House also announces the launch of three social media platforms below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadaHouseWellness

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CanadaHouseCHV

LinkedIn: http://www.lnked.in/canadahouse

Canada House Wellness Group Inc.

Canada House is the parent company of Marijuana for Trauma, Knalysis Technologies, Abba Medix Corp and other entities. The Company's goal is to become a marketplace leader through strategic partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions to create a fully integrated medical cannabis marketplace. For more information please visit www.abbamedix.com, www.mftgroup.ca and www.knalysis.com.

Notice: Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information. Certain statements within this website and related documents pertaining to the Company constitute "forward-looking statements", within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, business plans and/or objectives, sales programs, forecasts and projections, assumptions, expectations, and/or beliefs of future performance, are "forward-looking statements". Such "forward- looking statements" involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual and future events to differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the anticipated effects of the Acquisition, regulatory changes, timeliness of government approvals for the granting of permits and licenses, including the final approval to resume trading on the CSE, changes in medical marijuana prices, actual operating performance of facilities, competition and other risks affecting the Company in particular and the medical marijuana industry generally, including those set out in the Listing Statement. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Boom Capital Markets

Steve Low

647-620-5101

steve@boomcapitalmarkets.com



Gerry Goldberg

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Canada House Wellness Group Inc.

1-844-696-3349




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Great Lakes Graphite Inc. ("GLK" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GLK)(OTC PINK: GLKIF)(FRANKFURT: 8GL) is pleased to announce the Company has received two purchase orders from an overseas manufacturer of stationary battery systems. One of the purchase orders is for fifty (50) kilograms of high purity micronized flake graphite. The material is being purchased for pre-production test manufacturing of a system designed for use in industrial applications. The other purchase order is for five (5) kilograms each of five high purity micronized synthetic and natural flake graphite products.

Highlights

-- Repeat purchase orders from customer that is a manufacturer of stationary battery systems -- High purity micronized synthetic and natural flake graphite products are being evaluated -- Market acceptance validates pricing and supports business model

Senior Vice President of Sales, Michael Coscia said, "The purchase orders are from a customer who previously purchased a smaller quantity of material for initial qualification testing. Based on positive results from the first round of testing, this customer has now placed an order for a larger sample of the same material required to prepare for manufacturing these battery systems. We also received from the same customer an additional purchase order for five different high purity micronized synthetic and natural flake graphite products."

Multiple Battery Qualifications In Progress with Prospective Customers

Great Lakes Graphite is currently engaged in product qualifications with customers who represent a range of battery chemistries. These include lead-acid batteries that are predominant in traditional markets, lithium-ion batteries that are used in a broad range of applications, and flow batteries for stationary energy storage applications. Each of the different chemistries represent distinct markets, each with significant near-term and long-term potential.

Great Lakes Graphite CEO Paul Gorman said, "We are pleased to be working with eight battery and energy storage customer prospects including recognized industry leaders that represent a variety of battery chemistries and applications. We are well on the way to qualifying our material for multiple markets, on parallel paths. Customer acceptance of our pricing to date confirms certain assumptions in our business model and is providing increasing confidence in regard to our market penetration and internal revenue forecasts. Finally, our partnership with Ashland Advanced Materials provides the right manufacturing base for us to jointly pursue what is becoming a significant market opportunity."

About Great Lakes Graphite: Great Lakes Graphite is an industrial minerals processing company supplying customers with innovative, high quality value-added carbon products.

There is no significant graphite production in North America now. As pricing and demand continue to rise, Great Lakes Graphite is one of the first new domestic suppliers to a growing regional customer base. We continually work to deliver products of the best quality with outstanding customer service.

The Company is party to an agreement for long-term supply of high quality natural graphite concentrate from Brazil (see news release dated 03/23/15). Great Lakes Graphite is presently working with an established US-based processor for toll micronization services. The Company has partnered with Ashland Advanced Materials for commercial-scale purification operations at Ashland's 110,000 square foot purification facility located in Niagara, New York.

Through our partner relationships, Great Lakes Graphite began selling micronized synthetic graphite beginning in 2016 and now supplies micronized and high purity micronized natural flake graphite products to a growing customer base.

Further information regarding Great Lakes can be found on the Company's website at: www.GreatLakesGraphite.com.

Great Lakes Graphite trades with symbol GLK on the TSX Venture Exchange and currently has 125,656,830 shares outstanding.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information: Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward looking information" which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking information. When used in this press release, such forward looking information may use such words as "may', "will', "expect', "believe', "plan' and other similar terminology. Forward looking information is provided for the purpose of presenting information about management's current expectations relating to the future events and the operating performance of the Company, and readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to fulfill the orders and future orders, regulatory requirements, general economic, market or business conditions and future developments in the sectors of the economy in which the business of Great Lakes operates. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Please see the Company's financial statements, MD&A and other documents available on www.sedar.com, for a more detailed description of the risk factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward looking information, whether a result of new information, future results or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contacts:

Paul Ferguson

Chief Marketing Officer

1-800-754-4510 x106

PFerguson@GreatLakesGraphite.com



Paul Gorman

Chief Executive Officer

1-800-754-4510 x109

PGorman@GreatLakesGraphite.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- The Ontario Health Coalition is taking a giant teddy bear with the slogan "We Can't Bear to Lose Medicare" to 20 towns from late May to mid June to raise awareness about the threat of health care privatization.

Private for-profit clinics are pushing to privatize services from our local public hospitals. Although the Ontario government has held out against wholesale privatization of diagnostics and surgeries, still, privatization has crept in around the edges. Patients, often elderly, are shocked to find out that private clinics are charging user fees amounting to hundreds or even thousands of dollars for medically-needed care such as cataract surgeries. In provinces such as B.C. and Quebec, private clinics and extra user fees for patients have become a major problem, threatening single-tier public health care. In B.C. private clinics have even launched a court challenge to bring down the laws that protect patients from user fees. They want to maximize their profits by billing the public health system and billing patients on top. The Ontario Health Coalition will raise funds along the way to help the B.C. Health Coalition intervene in the legal challenge brought by the private for-profit clinics, which threatens public health care all across Canada.

"Canada's public health care system is under threat by private profits-seeking clinics that want to be able to bill OHIP for tests and surgeries and bill patients hundreds or even thousands of dollars as well," said Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. "User fees for medically-needed hospital and physician care are unlawful under the Canada Health Act. We are drawing attention to this, explaining to patients their rights, and pushing back against the takeover of non-profit and public hospitals by private for-profit corporations."

Hamilton May 30, 12 p.m. Corner of King & James downtown.Ottawa June 5, 10:30 a.m. Byward Market, S/W corner of George & William Sts.Cornwall June 5, 2:30 p.m. N/E corner of Pitt and Second Sts. Brockville June 6, 9:30 a.m. Outside City Hall King & Market Sts.Kingston June 6, 12:00 p.m. Outside LaSalle Mews, Princess St. (Outside MP Sophie Kiwala's office).Cobourg June 6, 7:00 p.m. Northumberland Mall at the N. end of parking lot on the grass (public land 1111 Elgin St.)Peterborough June 7, 10:00 a.m. Downtown farmer's market, Charlotte St. between George and Aylmer St. N. Oshawa June 7, 3 p.m. Park across from hospital, 1 Hospital Ct.Brampton June 8, 12 p.m. In front of Town Hall, 2 Wellington St.Kitchener June 8, 3:30 p.m. In front of City Hall, 200 King St.Windsor June 9, 10:30 a.m. outside City Hall, 400 City Hall Sq. Chatham June 9, 2:30 p.m. King St and the 5th St Bridge.Wallaceburg June 10, 10:00 a.m. Fountain Park at intersection of Dufferin Ave., James St and McNaughton Bridge.Sarnia June 10, 1:00 p.m. Waterfront Park, by the bridge.St. Marys June 11, 10:30 a.m. Outside Town Hall, 184 Queen St. E.Stratford June 11, 1:30 p.m. Upper Queen's Park by the Festival Theatre.Woodstock June 11, 4:30 p.m. Outside City Hall Dundas & Reeve Sts.St. Catharines June 12, 10:30 a.m. Old Court House Parkette at 101 King St (corner of James & King Sts).Fort Erie June 12, 2:00 p.m. Douglas Park across Douglas Memorial Hospital -230 Bertie St.Thunder Bay June 14, 1:00 p.m .- City Hall - 500 Donald St E.

Contacts:

Edgar Godoy

Campaign Director

(416) 441-2502




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Editors Note: There are images associated with this press release.

The CJMT - Communaute Juive Marocaine de Toronto (Jewish Moroccan Community of Toronto) has announced that it will celebrate Canada 150 with a festival featuring a week of events from June 4 to June 12, 2017 at a few different locations throughout the city of Toronto and the GTA.

David Zimmer, the MPP for Willowdale, shared the following statement, "The CJMT has been instrumental in supporting and strengthening the Moroccan Jewish community in Toronto. The CJMT recently received a grant from the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund to help support the Judeo Moroccan Festival for Canada's 150th celebration. I would like to give my best wishes to the CJMT and all attendees to enjoy this marvelous festival."

The Hon. Michael Levitt, MP for York Centre also added, "As the member of parliament for York Centre, I am pleased to extend my warmest greetings on the occasion of the Communaute Juive Marocaine de Toronto's Judeo-Moroccan Festival to Celebrate Canada 150."

The CJMT is a not-for-profit organization and was created in 2011 to celebrate 2,000 years of Jewish Life in Morocco and 50 Years of diplomatic relations between Canada and Morocco.

Simon Keslassy, president of the CJMT maintains that the togetherness promoted by the events created by the CJMT extends beyond the Moroccan and Sephardic Jewish community. Mr Keslassy states, "This year's festival celebrating Canada 150 will bring various communities together; not only to learn more about our culture, traditions and customs but also to celebrate our great country, Canada that has welcomed us with open arms and warmth."

Many notable individuals will be attending the 2017 Judeo Moroccan Festival. Marcelle Lean, the founder and artistic director of the Cinefranco Francophone Film Festival provided the following statement after learning of the CJMT Canada 150 Festival:

"I am very impressed by the Judeo Moroccan Festival high-quality selection. No stone is left unturned with its visual and culinary arts events, social gatherings and relevant debates. Congrats for what promises to be a memorable Festival."

Gerard G. Poupee-Hill, president of the French & Citizens of the World in Toronto, also provided the following statement upon being advised that the CJMT was screening the Midnight Orchestra on June 5, 2017 at 7:30pm at the Sephardic Kehila Centre in Thornhill, Ontario and the Women's Balcony on Wednesday June 7, at Memorial Hall in North York at 7:00pm:

"My enthusiastic compliments to the Judeo Moroccan Festival! Their selection of films is truly outstanding. I urge you not to miss this uniquely rich cultural event."

The Consul General of Morocco in Montreal, Mrs. Habiba Zemmouri, also provided the following statement:

"My congratulations to the whole team at the CJMT and its president Mr. Simon Keslassy for organizing this event. It reflects the richness of the Moroccan culture in Canada along with its support of diversity and multiculturalism."

To view Canada 150 logo please click on the following link:

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20170525-Canada150logo.jpg

To view OCAF logo please click on the following link:

http://www.marketwire.com/library/20170525-OCAF.jpg

Contacts:

For more information on exact locations, times and dates

for the Festival's events please contact:

Claire Benezra - Media and Public Relations

647 350-0366

jnc@rogers.com




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Editor's Note: There are two photos associated with this press release.

As the sun sets on Ringling, the Royal Canadian family Circus Spectac! 2017 is smashing attendance records in British Columbia with its new Acrobatics and Thrill Show - headlined by the Famous Guerrero Duo.

The Royal Canadian Circus has moved toward thrill acts and acrobatic feature performances and no longer has exotic animals as part of their show. While this makes some happy and others somewhat sad the response to this year's show has been overwhelmingly positive.

One of the circus feature acts this year that has everyone talking and gasping is the Guerrero Duo High Wire act. This is the only act of its kind in the world. Originally from Spain, wife Aura and Werner Cardinali execute unique acrobatic manoeuvres, stunts and footwork across a high wire while singing. They wowed the judges in Americas Got Talent in 2016. Judge Howie Mandel said, "This was the most amazing death defying thing I have ever seen". Over the past 30 years this incredible husband-wife duo has won every prestigious Gold Medal award throughout Europe, been featured at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, headlined Television Specials, and travelled the world performing.

The Circus's ringmaster Joseph 'Zep' Bauer, himself a 9th generation daredevil, said the following: "Just because the mighty have fallen, it doesn't diminish the public's appetite for circus. Nor does it diminish the fervour with which we pursue our craft." He added, "While the circus may evolve, as it has done over hundreds of years, the family circus legacy will continue, especially the European Big Top show."

A year ago, the show was en route to Fort McMurray for the first Big Top Circus there in ages, when it was forced back by the wildfires which devastated the community. Circus producer Tarzan Zerbini feels strongly about performing in Fort McMurray. "We're going to give it a re-try, and are scheduled to set up the Big Top in Fort McMurray after we close Calgary on June 4th. My family has been in this business since the mid 1700's, and we aren't about to be rendered extinct by activists or changing times." He adds, "The show will go on, because a day at the circus is a day with family, and a day away from the daily life. A day we get to share with our fans and supporters."

The Royal Canadian Circus continues through early August as it makes its way across Western Canada and ultimately to Ontario. Featuring an inspiring opening, "Celebrating 150 Years, Canada", this exotic animal-free show is in fact demonstrating the tenacity of its performing families, and their ability to adapt to changing times and attitudes.

If there was ever any doubt that the circus is alive and well in Canada, the following is one of the thousands of positive messages they received from someone who attended their show this year: "My daughters and I enjoyed the Saturday show so much we attended a second show on Sunday with my husband and friends as well! Having seen it all before we were still thoroughly entertained the second night! My daughter loved Alicia the Hulahoopster and is now attempting hula hooping! My other daughter wants to do the tightrope, she has never been so frightened and excited at the same time!!! Thank you for coming to Abbotsford, BC and inspiring my 6 year old daughters to 'run away and join the circus!' Can't wait to see it again next year!"

For more information on dates and times for the Royal Canadian Circus and this year's Spectac! 2017 cities and shows, please visit their website at www.royalcanadiancircus.ca.

To view the photos associated with this press release, please visit the following links:

http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/guer0525.jpg

http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/bigt0525.jpg

Contacts:

Cathy Sproule

Director Public Relations

(403) 815-7499

cathy@festivalxpress.com




Approval of resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors

Regulatory News:

The Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) was held on May 26, 2017, under the chairmanship of Patrick Pouyanne. The Shareholders adopted all resolutions recommended by the Board of Directors, including:

Approval of the 2016 financial statements and payment of a 2016 dividend of 2.45 per share, an increase compared to 2015;

The option for shareholders to receive the final 2016 dividend and any 2017 interim dividends in cash or in new shares of the Company;

Renewal of the terms as Directors of Mrs. Patricia Barbizet and Mrs. Marie-Christine Coisne-Roquette for a three-year period;

Election of Mr. Mark Cutifani and Mr. Carlos Tavares to three-year terms as Directors;

Opinion on the elements of compensantion due or granted to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for year 2016;

The principles and criteria for the determination of the compensation granted to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for year 2017.

The full results of the votes will be available on Total's corporate website total.com in the coming days.

The Shareholders' Meeting was also an opportunity for Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne, Lead Independent Director Patricia Barbizet, and Chief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere, to show how the Group has emerged stronger from the difficult economic environment of the past two years and is today well positioned to take advantage of the low cost environment.

Patrick de La Chevardiere presented the results of year 2016 and first quarter 2017, underpinned by strong discipline in investments and operating costs, Upstream production growth and a strong Downstream contribution.

Patricia Barbizet described the functioning of Total's Board of Directors, which shows exemplary diversity in terms gender, nationality and independence. Due to their key roles in international companies active in various economic sectors, the Directors bring to Total complementary expertise enabling an effective contribution to the Group's major decisions. On behalf of the board, she thanked Barbara Kux, Paul Desmarais Jr, and Marc Blanc, whose terms expired at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, for their contributions. The Annual Meeting was also the occasion to present the Directors newly appointed to the Board, Mark Cutifani and Carlos Tavares, as well as Christine Renaud, the new Director representing employees.

Finally, Patrick Pouyanne restated Total's ambition to become the responsible energy major by leveraging the Group's values which are Safety, Respect for Each Other, Pioneer Spirit, Stand Together and Performance-minded. In line with this ambition, and after having reduced its breakeven and strengthened its balance sheet, Total is taking advantage of the current oil cycle to prepare post-2020 growth. The Group therefore aims to launch about ten Upstream projects in a favorable cost environment and acquire resources under attractive terms, such as recent deals in Brazil and Uganda. The Downstream is also pursuing its growth strategy, with two major petrochemical investments announced in the United States and South Korea. Meanwhile the new Gas, Renewables and Power segment is developing the Group's low-carbon businesses. In 2017, Total launched several projects to become a leader in new energies for the transport sector, whether in road transport (European network for natural gas vehicle fuel and electric vehicle charging points), aviation (European leader in biojet fuel) or martime transport (development of a multi-energy offer for shipping). Total will pursue its strong growth through 2020 due to the ramp up of projects recently put on stream, the start up of a dozen major projects as well as the stakes acquired in giant low-cost producing fields in Qatar and the United States. The Moho Nord project, which was started up in Congo earlier this year, was showcased at the meeting.

Finally, productive discussions were held with the 2,800 participants at the meeting, with Patrick Pouyanne, Patricia Barbizet and Patrick de La Chevardiere replying to the many questions asked by shareholders.

About Total

Total is a global integrated energy producer and provider, a leading international oil and gas company, and a major player in solar energy with SunPower and Total Solar. Our 98,000 employees are committed to better energy that is safer, cleaner, more efficient, more innovative and accessible to as many people as possible. As a responsible corporate citizen, we focus on ensuring that our operations in more than 130 countries worldwide consistently deliver economic, social and environmental benefits. total.com

TOTAL S.A.

Capital: 6 207 262 032,50 

542 051 180 R.C.S. Nanterre

total.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005263/en/

Contacts:

Total

Mike SANGSTER

Nicolas FUMEX

Kim HOUSEGO

Romain RICHEMONT

Tel.: 44 (0)207 719 7962

Fax: 44 (0)207 719 7959

or

Robert HAMMOND (U.S.)

Tel.: +1 713-483-5070

Fax : +1 713-483-5629
Media Still Hyping Pope-Trump Photo

Contact: The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue (photo) comments on the way the media are playing a photo of President Trump and Pope Francis:

In a classic example of Groupthink, the media and late night talk-show hosts are fixated on one photo of the pope and the president; the former looks dour and the latter is smiling. So what?

Here is a photo they are not flagging.

And just in case you missed it, here a photo of Pope Francis standing with President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

What do these photos mean? Nothing--nothing at all--unless you work for the mainstream media or need script for a monologue.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures rose to a monthly high Friday morning, boosted by safe haven demand ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend.



Traders continued to assess the minutes of the May Federal Reserve meeting. Policy makers said they expect to raise rates soon, perhaps in June, but hinted the pace of further rate hikes will be quite gradual.



Geopolitical tensions and lingering doubts about the Trump administration's pro-growth agenda have also generated risk aversion.



Gold for July was up $10 at $1270 an ounce, the highest since mid-April.



Looking ahead today, the Commerce Department's Durable Goods Orders for April will be released at 8.30 am ET. Economists are looking for a decline of 1.0 percent. In the prior month, durable goods were up 0.7 percent.



Gross Domestic Product update for the first quarter will also be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 0.8 percent, slightly up from 0.7 percent in the previous estimate.



University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment survey report for May will be published at 10.00 am ET. The forecasters are looking for consensus of 97.6, while it was 97.7 last month.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
1. Reports of Management Board, Supervisory Board, Audit Committee and statement of Sworn auditor, approval of Annual report for the year 2016.



1) To take notice of the Reports of Management Board, Supervisory Board, Audit Committee and statement of Sworn auditor for the year 2016 of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA". 2) To approve the Annual Report of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" for the year 2016 prepared by the Management Board of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" and revised by the Supervisory Board of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA".



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



2. Distribution of the profit for the year 2016.



1) To approve the net profit of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" for the year 2016 in the amount of 2.439.974 EUR. 2) To leave undistributed and use 2.439.974 EUR for the development of joint stock company "Valmieras stikla skiedra" with the aim to increase joint stock company "Valmieras stikla skiedra" competitiveness.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



3. Election of the auditor for the audit of Annual Report for the year 2017 and determination of the remuneration for the auditor.



1) To elect audit company "Deloitte Audits Latvia" SIA (commercial company license No. 43) as auditor of the Annual Report of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" for the year 2017. 2) To determine that the remuneration of the auditor for the audit of Annual report for the year 2017 shall be set according to the agreement signed between the auditor and joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" on the audit of the Annual Report 2017.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



4. Determination of the remuneration for Supervisory Board for the results of the year 2016.



1) For the results of the year 2016 of the joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" to pay additional remuneration in the amount of 1% of the net profit for the year 2016 to each member of the Supervisory Board. 2) To determine that for the duties during the year 2017, each member of the Supervisory Board of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" shall receive a remuneration in the amount of 3000,- EUR (three thousand euro) for each attended Supervisory Board meeting.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



5. Election of the Audit committee and determination of the remuneration for the Audit committee.



1) To elect for the office of the member of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" Audit Committee for the term three years, starting on 26 May 2017: 1. Aivars Losmanis; 2. Philipp Kogel; 3. Andris Oskars Brutans.



Voting results: decision is taken by dividing of votes.



2) To establish that the meetings of the Audit Committee shall be held in line with necessity of the company; however not less than 3 (three) times a year, but not more frequent than 4 (four) times a year. 3) To determine that for the duties each member of the Audit Committee of joint stock company "VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA" shall receive a remuneration in the amount of 1850,- EUR (one thousand eight hundred fifty euros) for each attended Audit Committee meeting.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



Valmiera, May 26, 2017



Chairman of the Management Board A.H.Schwiontek Member of the Management Board D.Senbergs







Contacts: Marika Nimante JSC "Valmieras stikla skiedra" marketing project manager Phone: +371 64202276, +371 26635509 Fax: +371 64281216 E-mail: Marika.Nimante@valmiera-glass.com More information about company: www.valmiera-glass.com

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2017) - Bearing Lithium Corp. (TSXV: BRZ) ("Bearing" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, on May 24th, 2017, it filed a response to the United Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") in regards to their comments on the original draft of the Form F-4 Registration Statement. The Registration Statement has been filed with the SEC for the purpose of registering the 16 million common shares of Bearing issuable to the Li3 Energy Inc. ("Li3") shareholders on closing of the merger Agreement, and is a critical stage in the steps towards closing.

Jeremy Poirier, President and CEO, commented "the filing of Bearing's response to the SEC's initial comments on the F-4 registration is an important step towards completing the merger with Li3 Energy. We trust we have addressed the SEC's concerns adequately and look forward to working constructively with the SEC throughout the review period. We anticipate the next round of comments, if any, within the next ten business days. Once the SEC has approved the document, we look to announce a shareholder vote and finalize the merger in a timely fashion."

Bearing's Agreement with Li3 Energy Inc. will enable it to acquire an interest in the advanced-stage Maricunga project located in Chile (the "Maricunga Project"), which represents one of the highest-grade development opportunities in the Americas. Assuming completion of the transaction, Bearing will have an undivided 17.7% interest in the project with all expenditures through to the delivery of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) fully-funded by its joint-venture partners. In excess of US$30 million has been invested in the Maricunga Project to date.

The transactions are subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and of the shareholders of Li3 and, if required, of Bearing, and the SEC declaring the Registration Statement effective.

In addition, as previously announced on December 7, 2016 and May 15, 2017, Bearing has entered into settlement agreements with the holders of outstanding convertible notes (the "Noteholders") of Li3. The Company announces that it has now entered into amended and restated settlement agreements (the "Amended and Restated Settlement Agreements") with the Noteholders. Subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, in accordance with the Amended and Restated Settlement Agreements, the Noteholders have agreed to accept units of Bearing (on the terms previously announced) prior to the closing of the transactions with Li3 in settlement of the outstanding debt owed under the convertible notes. As part of the settlement, the debt owed by Li3 under the convertible notes has been assigned to the Company. All units of Bearing issued on settlement of the convertible notes will be subject to a four month statutory hold period in Canada.

About Bearing Lithium Corp.



Bearing is an exploration and development company. The Li3 Definitive Agreement will enable it to acquire an interest in the advanced-stage Maricunga project located in Chile, which represents one of the highest-grade development opportunities in the Americas. Assuming completion of the transactions contemplated by the Li3 Definitive Agreement, Bearing will have an undivided 17.7% interest in the project with all expenditures through to the delivery of a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) fully-funded by its joint-venture partners. The Maricunga Project has had in excess of US$25 million of exploration to date.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD



Signed "Jeremy Poirier"

Jeremy Poirier, President and CEO



FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Jeremy Poirier-- President and CEO Bearing Lithium - Telephone: 1-604-262-8835



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.



Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

This press release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements"(collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this press release relate to, among other things: completion of the proposed transaction with Li3 and the settlement of the outstanding debt owed to the Li3 Noteholders. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: the absence of a material adverse change in the Maricunga Property and receipt of all necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, Bearing does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures continued to fall Friday morning after significant losses in the previous session. Markets were disappointed by OPEC's 9-month supply quota extension, as key producers Libya and Nigeria will be exempted. Analysts say the global supply glut may linger into next year due to robust U.S. shale production. Baker-Hughes Rig Count, that tracks weekly changes in the number of active operating U.S. oil & gas rigs, will be released at 1.00 pm ET. Domestic drillers have added new rigs 17 weeks in a row. WTI light sweet crude oil was down 34 cents at $48.57 a barrel. The Commerce Department's Durable Goods Orders for April will be released at 8.30 am ET. Economists are looking for a decline of 1.0 percent. In the prior month, durable goods were up 0.7 percent. Gross Domestic Product update for the first quarter will also be published at 8.30 am ET. The consensus is for growth of 0.8 percent, slightly up from 0.7 percent in the previous estimate. University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment survey report for May will be published at 10.00 am ET. The forecasters are looking for consensus of 97.6, while it was 97.7 last month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Zoompass Holdings Inc. ("Zoompass" or the "Company") (OTC: ZPAS) announces that it has been made aware of certain literature and social media content in the market place which contains negative and incorrect information, which the Company has not been asked to clarify nor confirm, promoted by third parties unrelated to the Company. These promoters include contributors to websites such as www.seekingalpha.com and others who are paid by such websites or other third parties and whom, we believe, profit from such misinformation.

We previously advised in our May 11, 2017 press release to not rely on certain third party positive promotional activities of which we became aware. We now similarly advise to not rely on negative promotional activities. This misinformation includes representations about the continuing nature of the promotional activities we referenced in our May 11, 2017, press release, which representations could only be known by those promoters, as well as mistakes about the management team. We reiterate that the Company's Chief Executive Officer is Jack Robert Lee ("Rob Lee"), and has filed a 10-K/A to that effect with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Lee has used no other name, and Mr. Lee has been disclosed in the Company's OTC certification dated December 7, 2016, and whose biographical information is disclosed in the Company's 10-K, in previous 8-K filings and on the Company's website.

"We urge our investors and future investors to review our filings and seek independent financial, tax and legal advice before investing, and to not rely on promotional materials, whether positive or negative," advised our CEO Rob Lee, "and we believe in the gains the Company has made and we share our investors' enthusiasm about our future."

The Company continues to encourage anyone considering an investment in our securities to review our public filings, website and press releases, and their own personal financial advisors, and to not rely on third party newsletters/recommendations, websites or general stock symbols/classifications or other identifiers regarding our securities, whether positive or negative, as these items are simply opinions/policies of a third party. These third parties are, in many instances, paid by the publisher or other third parties and the Company believes that they profit from the publication of this literature and the results on the market. These materials should not be a substitute for investors' research and independent decision making process.

About Zoompass Zoompass is a leading financial services technology company with a unique place in the Fintech space as both a financial platform provider with divisions in physical prepaid cards, financing enablement, and mobility products. Zoompass provides businesses and government tailored solutions to help digitize their financial transactions. In the card sector, Zoompass offers complete program management services for a wide range of open loop Visa and MasterCard prepaid and virtual card accounts. Zoompass enables businesses to provide their customers with a number of open loop card choices including, gift card, incentive cards, check replacement cards and online virtual card accounts. The company also provides advanced mobile technology, enabling businesses to provide their customers with a white label mobile wallet solution, like Zoompass, with the ability to manage their card balances, bill pay, transfer funds and perform card to card money transfers in real time using their mobile devices. Zoompass's mobile device division helps carriers and mobile device manufacturers integrate the financial platform technology into their offerings. For more information about Zoompass, visit www.zoompass.com.

Safe Harbor:

From time to time, the Company may issue news releases that contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual financial or operating results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements not to occur or be realized. Forward-looking statements made in this press release generally are based on our best estimates of future results, performances or achievements, predicated upon current conditions and the most recent results of the companies involved and their respective industries. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "could", "should", "project", "expect", "believe", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "continue", "potential", "opportunity" or similar terms, variations of those terms or the negative of those terms or other variations of those terms or comparable words or expressions. Potential risks and uncertainties include, among other things, such factors a general economic conditions, the fulfillment of sales orders, delivery of product, the impact of legislation and the competition within our industry.

Contacts:

Zoompass

Rob Lee, Steve Roberts, Brian Morales

1-888-966-6246

www.zoompass.com




Historic Bricker-Price Building in Earlham will house innovative restaurant, community space just miles from heart of Greater Des Moines

GREATER DES MOINES, Iowa, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --A soon-to-be restored historic building is providing a cornerstone of development in the town of Earlham, Iowa, just 30 miles west of Downtown Des Moines. The Bricker-Price Block in Earlham is undergoing a $2.1 million historic restoration. The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, will host a restaurant on the first floor and a social club and teen center on the second floor. The Bricker-Price Block boasts 4,000 square feet with high, majestic ceilings, and it is full of historic character and main street energy. Over the last century, it has housed a general store, a telephone exchange, retail shops, apartments and more.

The restoration project has been locally recognized as a boon for economic development in Earlham, a town of just under 1,500 residents. The project is being led by Sharon Krause, a local farmer in the area whose husband, Kyle, is the CEO of convenience store chain Kum & Go. Sharon saw an opportunity to lend her time and resources to Earlham to help it experience the same type of momentum that surrounding Greater Des Moines (DSM) is experiencing.

"Greater Des Moines is nationally recognized as a great place to live and work, and Earlham, just a few miles from the heart of the city, is feeling the same energy and civic pride that led to Des Moines' growth," said Krause. "The Bricker-Price Block project complements others that are being done to revitalize Earlham. I believe it will also spur future economic development."

Krause is searching for an innovative restaurant tenant to fill the first-floor space of the Bricker-Price Block. She envisions the restaurant to have a small-town ambiance that draws business from throughout the region. It would offer weekend breakfast and brunch options, a food menu that includes locally-sourced ingredients and a drink menu that includes cocktails and craft beer. The surrounding area is rich in livestock and agriculture, providing the opportunity for the restaurant to offer farm-to-table options. Restaurateurs interested in opening a restaurant in the Bricker-Price Block should contact Krause. A Request for Proposals has been sent out with responses due on June 30.

To learn more about the Bricker-Price Block, click here to watch a short video. Read a story in The Des Moines Register to learn more about the importance of the Bricker-Price Block to local revitalization efforts.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES (INCLUDING ITS TERRITORIES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA) OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL

LONDON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc. (the "Company") (N-OTC: CHEMS), an international shipping company focused on the transportation of chemicals, today announced that it has taken delivery of the Navig8 Spica, a 25,000 DWT stainless steel chemical tanker, from Fukuoka Shipbuilding Co., Ltd ("Fukuoka").

The Navig8 Spica is the first of two vessels contracted at Fukuoka to be delivered to the Company and is the first of two vessels to be delivered under the sale and leaseback arrangements entered into with subsidiaries of SBI Holdings, Inc ("SBI") announced on May 19, 2017. Following delivery from Fukuoka, the Navig8 Spica was delivered to SBI under the terms of the sale MOA and then delivered back to the Company under bareboat charter.

The Navig8 Spica will be entered into and operated in Navig8 Group's Stainless8 commercial pool.

About Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc.

Navig8 Chemical Tankers Inc. was established in 2013 as a joint venture between the Navig8 Group and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management L.P. to capitalize on significant structural changes in the petrochemical industry and the continuing development of long-haul chemical trades. Its best- in-class newbuilding fleet is comprised exclusively of large, fuel-efficient vessels with modern eco- designs to take greatest advantage of these shifts. The fully delivered fleet will feature a complementary mix of primarily Interline-coated and stainless steel vessels that are capable of servicing the full range of conventional and specialized chemicals cargoes.

The Company has taken delivery of 31 chemical carriers to date and anticipates delivery of its full 32- vessel fleet by mid-2017. The Company's fleet is contracted to operate in various chemical tanker pools managed by the Navig8 Group, the world's largest independent pool and commercial management company.

Navig8 Chemical Tankers is listed on the Norwegian OTC market under the symbol CHEMS.

Visit our website at www.navig8chemicaltankers.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Distribution

This press release contains forward looking statements. These statements are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including Navig8 Chemical Tankers management's examination of historical operating trends. Although the Company believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond its control, Navig8 Chemical Tankers cannot give assurance that it will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or intentions.

Important factors that, in the Company's view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in this press release include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions including fluctuations in charter hire rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the chemicals market as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and worldwide oil consumption and storage, changes in the Company's operating expenses including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company on the Norwegian OTC trading support system.

This communication is not for publication or distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into any state or jurisdiction into which doing so would be unlawful. The distribution of this communication may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes, should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdictions. The Company assumes no responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Galane Gold Ltd. ("Galane Gold" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GG) is pleased to announce the release of its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2017. All amounts are in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated.

A copy of the unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2017 prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards and the corresponding Management's Discussion and Analysis will be available under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com.

First Quarter 2017 Highlights

-- Sold 5,531 ounces of gold. -- Positive cash flows from operating activities of $821,253. -- Cash balance of $1,241,089 at the end of the quarter.

Subsequent Events

-- Announced letter of intent to acquire Vantage Goldfields Limited ("Vantage"), an Australian gold mining company with two mines and processing plant proximate to Galane Gold's Galaxy operation.

Galane Gold CEO, Nick Brodie commented: "The first quarter of 2017 was challenging for Galane Gold as unseasonably high rainfall at the Mupane property resulted in flooding at our underground mine and operational issues related to feeding wet ore to our plant. While we managed to continue production throughout this period, albeit at a reduced rate, we did not reach our own internal targets. The second quarter to-date has seen us move past these challenges and we have resumed a normal rate of production.

The announcement of the potential acquisition of Vantage is a significant opportunity for Galane. We expect to integrate Galaxy and Vantage with a view to deriving substantial operational and cost synergies and take a major step forward in our goal to reshape the Company into a long-life and low-cost operation that can produce positive returns for investors across commodity cycles."(1)

Options and deferred share units

The Company also announces that it has authorized the grant of options to the Chief Financial Officer of the Company. Options to purchase up to 500,000 common shares were authorized for grant with a five year term and an exercise price equal to the closing price of the common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on May 26, 2017. Such options shall vest according to the following schedule: 10% vest on the award date; 10% vest on the first anniversary of the award date; 15% vest on the second anniversary of the award date; and 32.5% vest on each of the fourth and fifth anniversary of the award date.

The Company also announces that it has authorized the grant of deferred share units ("DSUs") to the Chief Executive Officer of the Company equal to 25% of his salary (approximately GBP 62,500) and to the Chief Operating Officer of the Company equal to 25% of his salary (approximately $68,000), each determined based on the closing price of the common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on May 26, 2017. Such DSUs shall vest in three equal instalments on the first, second and third anniversaries of the award date. The DSUs have been awarded based on the achievement of certain key performance indicators for the 2016 financial year as previously approved by the Compensation Committee of the Company in May 2016.

About Galane Gold

Galane Gold is an un-hedged gold producer and explorer with mining operations and exploration tenements in Botswana and South Africa. Galane Gold is a public company and its shares are quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange and the Botswana Stock Exchange under the symbol "GG". Galane Gold's management team is comprised of senior mining professionals with extensive experience in managing mining and processing operations and large-scale exploration programmes. Galane Gold is committed to operating at world-class standards and is focused on the safety of its employees, respecting the environment, and contributing to the communities in which it operates.

Note:

(1) This is forward-looking information and is based on a number of assumptions. See "Cautionary Notes".

Cautionary Notes

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's future financial position and results of operations, strategy, proposed acquisitions, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements.

Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially include, but are not limited to: the Company's dependence on two mineral projects; gold price volatility; risks associated with the conduct of the Company's mining activities in Botswana and South Africa; regulatory, consent or permitting delays; risks relating to the Company's exploration, development and mining activities being situated in Botswana and South Africa; risks relating to reliance on the Company's management team and outside contractors; risks regarding mineral resources and reserves; the Company's inability to obtain insurance to cover all risks, on a commercially reasonable basis or at all; currency fluctuations; risks regarding the failure to generate sufficient cash flow from operations; risks relating to project financing and equity issuances; risks arising from the Company's fair value estimates with respect to the carrying amount of mineral interests; mining tax regimes; risks arising from holding derivative instruments; the Company's need to replace reserves depleted by production; risks and unknowns inherent in all mining projects, including the inaccuracy of reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries and capital and operating costs of such projects; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; laws and regulations governing the environment, health and safety; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; lack of infrastructure; employee relations, labour unrest or unavailability; health risks in Africa; the Company's interactions with surrounding communities and artisanal miners; the Company's ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; risks related to restarting production; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of diminishing quantities or grades of reserves; development of the Company's exploration properties into commercially viable mines; stock market volatility; conflicts of interest among certain directors and officers; lack of liquidity for shareholders of the Company; risks related to the market perception of junior gold companies; and litigation risk.

Management provides forward-looking statements because it believes they provide useful information to investors when considering their investment objectives and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law.

Information of a technical and scientific nature that forms the basis of the disclosure in the press release has been approved by Charles Byron Pr. Sci. Nat., MAusIMM., MGSSA and Chief Geologist for Galane Gold, and a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Galane Gold Ltd.

Nick Brodie

CEO

+ 44 7905089878

Nick.Brodie@GalaneGold.com

www.GalaneGold.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd. ("Metalla" or the "Company") (CSE: MTA)(CSE: MTA.CN)(CNSX: MTA)(OTCQB: EXCFF)(FRANKFURT: X9CP) is pleased to announce that Mr. Bill Tsang has joined the Company as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") and Ms. Kim Casswell as Corporate Secretary.

Mr. Tsang is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and more than 10 years of financial accounting and auditing experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry. Prior to joining Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd., he worked in public practice providing professional services and advice to publicly traded companies on the NYSE, TSX-V, and OTC markets on various public reporting services, such as Qualifying Transactions for Reverse Take-Over, mergers and acquisitions, and financing transactions. Since then, he has served as the CFO of Atico Mining Corporation.

Ms. Casswell has been the Corporate Secretary of several public companies listed on TSX-V and the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1994, and has been providing independent corporate secretary services since 1995. Ms. Casswell has played an important role in the growth of these companies and is familiar with regulations governing public companies in several jurisdictions. Ms. Casswell has been and currently still is Corporate Secretary of a number of TSX Venture Exchange listed junior exploration companies.

Mr. Tsang will be replacing Ms. Donna McLean who has served as Metalla's CFO since July 2012. Ms. McLean has been instrumental to the Company's success and transition into the metal royalty and streaming business last year. She will continue to work with the Company, on a part time basis, as a financial consultant. The Board of Directors wishes to sincerely thank Ms. McLean for her devoted efforts in stewarding the financial reporting of Metalla during its foundational year and years past.

"I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new team members, and to thank Donna for her many years of commitment and leadership on behalf of all of us at Metalla," commented Brett Heath, President of Metalla Royalty & Streaming.

Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd. is a precious metals royalty and streaming company engaged in the acquisition and management of precious metal royalties, streams, and similar production based interests.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Brett Heath, President and Director

Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd.

Contacts:

Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd.

416-925-0090

info@metallaroyalty.com

www.metallaroyalty.com




DENVER, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Blue Diamond Ventures Inc. (OTC PINK: BLDV) today announces a strategic partnership with Eltron Research & Development of Boulder Colorado, the creators of the ImPAAct Peracetic Acid Generator. Eltron R&D specializes in Material Sciences and adds considerable strength to BLDV on multiple levels.

Cannabis-Clean, a wholly owned subsidiary of BLDV, will work closely with Eltron R&D to roll out the PAA. "This is an exciting new offering; Peracetic Acid is widely used in Cannabis and other industries," said Josh Alper, CEO of BLDV. "The generator is a Patented Device, the only one of its kind, that makes the PAA product on site, on demand."

Steve McMorrow, President of Cannabis-Clean, said, "We are getting up to speed quickly; this agreement gives us the exclusive for the Cannabis Industry in Colorado with a commitment to define expansion to include a partnership for the entire USA." On June 1st, 2017 Cannabis-Clean will be relocating its operations to the Eltron R&D facility in Boulder. "The ImPAAct product has really defined our expansion strategy," continued McMorrow. "We have been working with Eltron for 6 months to put this together, and it gives us a sustainable competitive advantage." The new Peracetic Acid Generator has already been approved by the Colorado Department of Agriculture for use in Cannabis Facilities.

BLDV has been named the Representative of Eltron for Israel and Canada and will be facilitating the licensing of the PAA technology in those countries. Blue Diamond Ventures will also use the expertise of Eltron to help achieve the goal of bringing Targeted Cannabis Therapies from Israel to the USA and to Canada as part of the previously announced venture with AMS of Hanover, Canada.

"Eltron R&D provides the laboratory space, the chemists and the material scientists that complete the needs of our partners in Israel," says Josh Alper. "I will be back in Israel next week to finalize our first technology sharing agreements." BLDV will be moving their corporate headquarters into the Eltron space in Boulder in July 2017, joining Cannabis-Clean as part of the agreement.

About BLDV:

Blue Diamond Ventures, Inc. seeks to partner with individuals and companies that share a common synergy, mission and vision to enable products/services that are produced, delivered and consumed utilizing fewer natural resources, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional products on the market today. As a diversified customer, Centric Management / Holding Company, Blue Diamond Ventures, Inc. seeks opportunities in various markets and is driven by critical thinking and the scientific method.

About Eltron:

Eltron Research & Development was founded in 1982 and is a leading R&D organization with over 3 decades of experience providing technology solutions to industry. Our excellent track record of creating commercial-ready technologies has produced 3 spin-off companies and 77 patents, of which 29 have been licensed to industry. Eltron's staff consists of scientists and engineers (Ph.D., MS and BS level) who work in our state-of-the-art research facility in Boulder, Colorado. Eltron's core strengths are applied chemistry and engineering in the following technology areas:

Energy and Fuels: Clean and sustainable energy, novel biofuels synthesis, fuel reforming, gasification and sequestration

Catalysts: Design, synthesis, evaluation and scale-up of heterogeneous and homogeneous, supported and unsupported materials

Advanced Materials: Polymers, membranes, multifunctional composites, ceramics, novel paints and coatings, chemical energy storage systems, materials molding and nanotubes

Chemicals & Chemical Processing: Ambient and high temperature chemical processes as well as electrochemical methodologies

Environmental: Green electrolytic water treatment technology, contaminant remediation, and sensor technology platforms

Eltron's clients come from both private and public sectors. Eltron has completed more than 200 projects over 3 decades for many government agencies including the DOE, DOD, NASA, EPA, NIH and NSF.

Safe Harbor:

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to several risks, assumptions, and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made and are not guarantees of future performance. We undertake no obligation to publicly revise any forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Blue Diamond Ventures Inc.

Joshua B. Alper

CEO

(844) 637-6377

info@bldvinc.com

www.bldvinc.com



Contact:

Eltron Research & Development Inc.

4600 Nautilus Court South

Boulder, CO 80301-3241

Telephone: (303) 530-0263

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World Congress of Families XI, The Budapest Family Summit Opens; Viktor Orban Delivers Keynote Speech Stressing the Importance of Children

Contact: Larry Jacobs, World Congress of Families, 815-997-7106 mobile, ljacobs@profam.org

BUDAPEST, May 26, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- World Congress of Families XI, The Budapest Family Summit has opened with a Demographic Forum in Hungary's historic capital with a keynote address by Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary. Mr. Orban stressed the importance of Hungary being a family-friendly nation and stressed the importance of children, "We Hungarians believe that children magnify the strength of their parents, they magnify the strength of the family, and a generation of children magnify the strength of a nation, of a whole country, and finally our entire civilization. Mr. Orban delivered the speech before joining world leaders in Brussels for the NATO Summit.

The theme of WCF XI Budapest Family Summit is "building family-friendly nations, making families great again." The World Congress of Families ( www.worldcongress.org ), is a project of the International Organization for the Family ( www.profam.org ) and unites and equips leaders worldwide to promote the natural family as the fundamental and only sustainable unit of society and to defend the sanctity and dignity of every human life from conception to natural death. As the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights observes, "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state."

Other sessions at the Congress which lasts through Sunday, May 28 include: "Family and Education," "The Sanctity and Dignity of All Human Life from Conception to Natural Death," "The Importance of Motherhood and Fatherhood," "National Movements on Marriage" and "Family, Population and Demographics."

Previous Congresses have been held in Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw (2007), Amsterdam (2009), Madrid (2012), Sydney (2013), Salt Lake City (2015) and Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia (2016).

WCF XI is taking place in the Congress Center in Budapest. More than 2,000 delegates have registered  among them leaders, activists, scholars and legislators, from more than 65 countries.
DUBLIN, June 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Middle East Diesel Genset Market By Type, Medium Power, High Power, By End User Segment, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2012-2026" report to their offering.

Diesel gensets market in Middle East is forecast to cross $ 1.54 billion by 2026

Growing infrastructure development and increasing focus on diversification of the industrial sector are the major factors leading to an incline in the Middle East diesel genset market through the forecast period. Infrastructure development projects require continuous electricity supply during execution of projects and post development of the same. Diesel gensets are, thereby, increasingly being deployed at construction sites to address growing electricity demand and for use as standby source of power at consumption centers. As the demand for electricity grows across the Middle East, deployment of backup power sources such as diesel gensets is set to increase as well.



Middle East Diesel Genset Market, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2012-2026 report discusses:



Middle East Diesel Genset Market Size, Share & Forecast Segmental Analysis - By Type (Low Power, Medium Power, High Power, Very High Power, By End User Segment (Commercial, Commercial, Residential), By Country ( Saudi Arabia , UAE, Qatar , Iran , Kuwait , Oman , Bahrain , Rest of Middle East )

, UAE, , , , , , Rest of ) Policy & Regulatory Landscape

Changing Market Trends and Emerging Opportunities

Competitive Landscape and Strategic Recommendations

Market Trends & Developments



Growing Need for Diesel Generator Monitoring System

Booming Diesel Genset Rental Market

Increasing Use of Low Sulphur Diesel

Rising Focus on Efficiency Improvement

Diesel Particulate Filter Regeneration

Increasing Need for Exhaust Gas Recirculation

Key Topics Covered:



1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Analyst View



4. Global Diesel Gensets Market Overview



5. Middle East Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



6. Middle East Gensets Market Country Analysis



7. Saudi Arabia Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



8. UAE Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



9. Qatar Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



10. Iran Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



11. Kuwait Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



12. Bahrain Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



13. Oman Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



14. Rest of Middle East Diesel Gensets Market Outlook



15. Market Dynamics



16. Market Trends & Developments



17. Trade Dynamics



18. Voice of Customers



19. List of Distributors



20. Competitive Landscape



21. Strategic Recommendations



Companies Mentioned



Aksa Power Generation

Atlas Copco

Caterpillar Inc.

Cummins Inc

Doosan Infracore Co., Ltd.

Jubaili Bros

Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited

Kohler SDMO

MTU Onsite Energy

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Weifang Huatian Diesel Engine Co., Ltd.

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9gj47z/middle_east





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/13/17 -- Zaff LLC (Zaff) announced today that it has redeemed certain membership units from its members in exchange for delivery by Zaff of an aggregate of 15,986,493 Shares (the Disposed Shares) to such members (the Disposition).

Prior to the Disposition, Zaff had direct or indirect ownership of or control over 65,868,991 shares of Itafos, representing approximately 83.04% of the issued and outstanding shares (on an undiluted basis) of Itafos (the Shares).

Following the completion of the Disposition, Zaff has direct or indirect ownership of or control over 49,882,498 shares of Itafos, representing approximately 62.89% of the issued and outstanding shares (on an undiluted basis) of Itafos.

Zaff holds Shares for investment purposes. However, Zaff may take actions in the future in respect of its holdings in Itafos based on the then existing facts and circumstances, which actions could include, without limitation, acquisitions or dispositions of Shares, whether in the open market, by privately negotiated agreement or otherwise, or in connection with a strategic transaction with Itafos.

The registered office of Itafos is located at P.O. Box 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, KY1-1104.

For further information, including a copy of the corresponding report filed with Canadian securities regulators, please contact:

Zaff LLC 109 N. Post Oak Lane Suite 435 Houston, Texas 77024 Attention: Brent de Jong Telephone: 1-713-239-2701

Contacts:

Zaff LLC

Brent de Jong

1-713-239-2701




DUBLIN, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Europe Naphtha Demand Supply Analysis, By End Use (Gasoline Blending, Reforming, Steam Cracking and Others), Forecast & Opportunities, 2011-2026" report to their offering.

Europe naphtha consumption market is projected to register negative CAGR by 2026

The reason behind the negative CAGR can be attributed to the closure of naphtha based crackers as they have become uneconomical owing to price volatility associated with naphtha and easy availability of cheaper alternative feedstock i.e. natural gas.

New cracker capacities are being added that use natural gas as feedstock and are very price competitive in comparison to petrochemicals derived from naphtha cracking. The shale gas boom in the United States has altered economics of global petrochemical business making them competitive to prices offered by Middle East and Africa. Prominent European players in petrochemical business are adding gas based cracker capacities with the US supplying ethane for feeding their expanding capacities.

The study is useful in providing answers to past, current and future trends of naphtha consumption in Europe market. This study helps in analysing specific country naphtha consumption trend which are useful for industry stakeholders such as naphtha producers (refiners), Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) plants, crude oil suppliers, naphtha traders, shipping companies, regulatory bodies.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Analyst View



4. Global Naphtha Market Outlook



5. Europe Naphtha Market Outlook



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rc8ksz/europe_naphtha





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
DUBLIN, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Tobacco Packaging Market 2017-2021" report to their offering.

The global tobacco packaging market to grow at a CAGR of 2.58% during the period 2017-2021.

Global Tobacco Packaging Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

One trend in market is technological innovations. Though tobacco consumption is decreasing because of stringent government regulations and increasing health awareness, there is a section of people who still consume tobacco because of addiction or habit. The tobacco product manufacturers need to concentrate on such segments to retain those buyers. The main attribute that easily grasps the attention of consumers is packaging. There is a huge scope for innovation in the packaging industry.

One of the packaging companies, MeadWestvaco, designed light-up cartons for Kent brand of cigarettes. Kent comes under the top tobacco product manufacturer, the British American Tobacco. MeadWestvaco placed a setup box with a magnetic lid that includes electronics to expose a line of text when the consumer uses the 10-pack cartons. The purpose of this packaging is to create brand awareness among the consumers and grasp the market of affluent and early adopting consumers.

According to the report, one driver in market is innovation in tobacco packaging. Innovation is the key for both tobacco manufacturers and tobacco packaging companies to remain competitive in the market faced with stringent legislative changes across countries. Innovation centers at tobacco packaging companies are working with technologies and printing. The sales of tobacco products have been showing a downward trend due to government initiatives for tobacco control.

One of the major attributes that may promote the sales is that packaging companies are coming up with various innovations in technologies by offering complex graphics design and unique structural designs. One of the notable innovations in packaging was the introduction of Skruf Moist Snuff tobacco packaging designed by Neumeister.

Further, the report states that one challenge in market is introduction of plain packaging. Plain cigarette packaging has been implemented to deter smokers from smoking. The plain packaging obliges the tobacco companies to remove logos, colors, trademarks, and any other visual aid that may promote their brands.

Key vendors



Amcor

International Paper

ITC

Phillip Morris International

Other prominent vendors



Bemis

British American Tobacco

Mondi

Novelis

Packaging Corporation of America

Reynolds Group

Siegwerk

Sonoco

WestRock

Key Topics Covered:





Part 01: Executive summary



Part 02: Scope of the report



Part 03: Research Methodology



Part 04: Introduction



Part 05: Market landscape



Part 06: Market segmentation by material used



Part 07: Geographical segmentation



Part 08: Decision framework



Part 09: Drivers and challenges



Part 10: Market trends



Part 11: Vendor landscape



Part 12: Key vendor analysis



Part 13: Appendix



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vhfn9g/global_tobacco





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
Marijuana Stock NewsThe marijuana stock market is a constantly updating, evolving beast. There's so much going on day to day in terms of marijuana stock news that it feels like you can't even keep up sometimes. Because unlike other industries, marijuana stock news is only half about pot stocks, with the other half firmly focused on the political side of one of the most controversial drug movements around: U.S. weed legalization.So when it comes to pot stocks, they can be some of the more taxing investment opportunities around, even if their potential payoff may warrant that extra legwork on the investor's part. It's one of the reasons I like writing about weed stocks so.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 5, 2017 / Laguna Blends Inc. (CSE: LAG) (OTC PINK: LAGBF) (FRA: LB6A.F) (the "Company" or "Laguna"), a global cannabis innovator specializing in the development of pharmaceutical and consumer products, today released its unaudited consolidated sales figures for the month of May 2017. The Company recorded sales of $1,615,694 CAD for the 30-day period ended May 31, 2017. The sales were generated primarily from its wholly owned subsidiaries, including Isodiol International, acquired in the middle of the month. With the inclusion of Isodiol's internationally recognized market brand names, as well as recently developed direct sales channel, the Company is well poised to expand its market share.

"We believe we are at the beginning of some significant global operational highlights that will give us a solid foundation for customer engagement and retention, while accelerating Laguna's pace of innovation and competitive differentiation, for a foundation of strong profitability and revenue growth in 2017," said Laguna Blends' CEO, Marcos Agramont. "I am extremely optimistic about our Company's worldwide growth opportunities and long-term vision as a leader in the distribution of healthy cannabis based products."

Laguna will be attending the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in New York City June 14 - 16, 2017 and looks forward to substantive dialogue with distributors and institutional investors as it continues to develop its various sales channels and brand awareness. Additional information on this will be provided in the coming week.

The Company also announces the appointment of Aman Parmar to its Board of Directors. His corporate experience includes 12 years working with both public and private companies in the Health Care, Resource, Manufacturing and Real Estate sectors. Aman has extensive experience in the capital markets and has been involved in corporate restructurings and financings for both public and private companies. He obtained a Chartered Accountant designation in 2012 and holds a Bachelor of Technology in Accounting from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Mr. Parmar stated, "As we move forward and develop as an organization, I'm very excited to be a part of this immense opportunity. Laguna is positioned in becoming a global leader in the Cannabis industry in the very near future."

Laguna will be providing additional operational updates in the coming week.

About Laguna Blends Inc.

Laguna Blends is a market leader in the distribution of cannabis based products. Laguna's growth strategy includes acquiring and incubating companies that formulate and/or manufacture cannabis products. Laguna provides the highest quality products and experience for consumers, utilizing a proprietary nanotechnology in its consumable and topical skin care products. Laguna is currently seeking joint ventures and acquisitions to expand its portfolio and will aggressively continue its international expansion into Latin America, Asia and Europe throughout 2017.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Marcos Agramont"

CEO & Director

CORPORATE MEDIA:

ir@lagunablends.com

www.lagunablends.com

https://cbdskincream.com/

Join Us On Face Book:

https://www.facebook.com/LagunaBlends/

Twitter: @LagunaBlends

Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to statements regarding the Company's business, products and future the Company's business, its product offerings and plans for sales and marketing. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance and developments to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks that the Company's products and plan will vary from those stated in this news release and the Company may not be able to carry out its business plans as expected. Except as required by law, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, and does not intend, to update any forward looking statements or forward-looking information in this news release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and makes no reference to profitability based on sales reported. The statements in this news release are made as of the date of this release.

The CSE has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this press release.

SOURCE: Laguna Blends Inc.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Is there a low public trust in mainstream news and has that put the industry at risk? Is the journalistic profession in danger of becoming irrelevant? A critical issue that has kept newsroom managers up at night has been the digital disruption of the broadcast and publishing industry, and its impact on revenues and audience fragmentation. But if there is one thing the U.S. election of 2016 did show us, it's not just about strategizing on how to engage and monetize a mobile-first news consumer, but how to retain that all-important trust with a highly skeptical audience in a so-called post-truth era.

A poll conducted by Ipsos, on Behalf of RTDNA Canada, found that despite the proliferation of social media, fake news, and alternative facts, seven in ten (69%) Canadians continue to trust traditional news media - unchanged since 2008.

In cases where government denies a story reported in the news media, Canadians are much more likely to believe the media over the government.

"Canadians continue to turn to traditional news sources - TV, print and radio - as their most-trusted sources of factual news," said Darrell Bricker, CEO, Ipsos Global Public Affairs. "The proliferation of social media and fake news has created a digital discount, meaning that online sources of information are less trusted. Canadians have a tremendously-difficult time discerning between what news is real and what is fake."

This year's theme for the annual Radio Television Digital News Directors Association's national conference, "Connecting with Audiences in the Age of Mistrust", being held at the Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto on May 26 - 27, 2017, will discuss solutions for news organizations tackling these issues. You can watch a live stream of the poll results and discussion from Canada's top broadcast and digital news leaders on the RTDNA's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RTDNA.CAN/ beginning at 8:30 AM, Friday May 26.

Other findings:

-- Traditional news sources are trusted more often than online or social media sources, led by broadcast TV news and print newspapers. Compared to Americans, Canadians are more trusting of broadcast TV news, news radio and talk radio, but less trusting of newspapers' websites, online- only news publications and Facebook. -- Broadcast TV news leads as the most common source for news. Facebook, however, is the #2 source, ahead of print newspapers and news radio. Canadians are more likely than Americans to have sourced their news from broadcast TV news, print newspapers, and, especially, news radio. For Millennials, Facebook and social media (generally) are ahead of broadcast TV news and papers. -- Despite the closure of many local news sources and existing local news platforms using more national/international content for their stories, Canadians say that nearly half (45%) of all their news is consumed from local sources, while less news is obtained from national or international sources individually. -- A majority - eight in ten (81%) Canadians - are at least somewhat confident in their ability to distinguish between legitimate and 'fake' news. Men are more confident than women, as are university grads compared to the less educated. While a majority in all regions are confident, Quebecers (67%) are less likely to be so than anyone else. -- However, when English-speaking Canadians were shown a series of six images from news websites, and asked to indicate which ones were 'fake news', a majority (63%) failed the quiz by only getting 0-3 out of 6 right. The pass/fail rate was broadly similar across gender, age, education and regional lines, and showed no correlation with people's confidence in their ability to detect fake news.

For the full poll results please click here: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=7646

For more information please contact:

About RTDNA

RTDNA Canada is the voice of broadcast and digital journalists and news managers in Canada. We believe an informed public is vital to a democratic society. Canadian Journalisms purpose is to serve the public interest. It is our responsibility to act independently, to be fair and respectful, and to report the facts. The RTDNA Canada Code of Journalistic Ethics, adopted by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, is used to measure fairness and accuracy in our profession. We welcome its adoption by all practicing journalists.

www.rtdnacanada.com

Contacts:

Darrell J. Bricker, PhD

CEO, Ipsos Global Public Affairs

416-324-2001

Darrell.Bricker@Ipsos.com



RTDNA President:

Ian Koenigsfest

President@rtdnacanada.com



Conference Chairs:

Fiona Conway, fiona@initialf.ca

George Browne, George.browne@globalnews.ca




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Petrofac Limited ("Petrofac" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: POFCF). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Petrofac and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On May 12, 2017, the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office announced that it has launched an investigation into the Company's activities, on suspicion of "bribery, corruption and money laundering." The investigation is linked to an ongoing probe of the activities of the Monaco oil contractor Unaoil SAM.

On this news, the Company's share price fell $1.99, or 18.34%, to close at $8.86 on May 12, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After the FBI declined to turn over memos detailing communications between former Director James Comey and President Donald Trump, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is demanding the agency produce the documents within the next two weeks.



FBI Assistant Director for Congressional Affairs Gregory Brower sent a letter to Chaffetz on Thursday claiming the memos could not be handed over due to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel in the investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election.



'In light of this development and other considerations, we are undertaking appropriate consultation to ensure all relevant interests implicated by your request are properly evaluated,' Brower wrote. 'We will update this response as soon as possible.'



Chaffetz responded with a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe arguing that the oversight committee's investigation will complement the work of the special counsel.



'Whereas the Special Counsel is conducting a criminal or counterintelligence investigation that will occur largely behind closed doors, the Committee's work will shed light on matters of high public interest, regardless of whether there is evidence of criminal conduct,' Chaffetz wrote.



Chaffetz claimed the records being withheld are central to the committee's investigation of the independence of the FBI, particularly in light of Comey's decision not to testify before the committee.



The oversight committee chairman told the FBI to provide all documents that are outside the scope of the special counsel's investigation no later than June 8th.



'Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the Special Counsel's investigation,' Chaffetz wrote.



The initial request for the documents came after the New York Times reported that a Comey memo said Trump asked him to shut down a federal investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump has denied the accusation.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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CLEVELAND, May26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE: SHW) today announced it has received regulatory approval from the United States Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and the Canadian Competition Bureau ("CCB") to complete its acquisition of The Valspar Corporation (NYSE: VAL). The FTC and CCB were the only remaining regulatory approvals required to close the acquisition. Sherwin-Williams expects to close the acquisition on June 1, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions.

About Sherwin-Williams

Founded in 1866, The Sherwin-Williams Company is a global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. The company manufactures products under well-known brands such as Sherwin-Williams, HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams, Dutch Boy, Krylon, Minwax, Thompson's Water Seal, and many more. With global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin-Williams branded products are sold exclusively through a chain of more than 4,100 company-operated stores and facilities, while the company's other brands are sold through leading mass merchandisers, home centers, independent paint dealers, hardware stores, automotive retailers, and industrial distributors. The Sherwin-Williams Global Finishes Group distributes a wide range of products in more than 115 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.sherwin.com.

About Valspar

Valspar is a global leader in the coatings industry providing customers with innovative, high-quality products and value-added services. Our 11,000 employees worldwide deliver advanced coatings solutions with best-in-class appearance, performance, protection and sustainability to customers in more than 100 countries. Valspar offers a broad range of superior coatings products for the consumer market, and highly-engineered solutions for the construction, industrial, packaging and transportation markets. Founded in 1806, Valspar is headquartered in Minneapolis. Valspar's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: VAL). For more information, visit www.valspar.com and follow @valspar on Twitter.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This communication contains forward-looking information about Valspar, Sherwin-Williams and the proposed transaction. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "project," "could," "plan," "goal," "potential," "pro forma," "seek," "intend" or "anticipate" or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, and include discussions of strategy, financial projections, guidance and estimates (including their underlying assumptions), statements regarding plans, objectives, expectations or consequences of announced transactions, and statements about the future performance, operations, products and services of Sherwin-Williams, Valspar and their respective subsidiaries. Valspar and Sherwin-Williams caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, actual results and experience may materially differ from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the following: the possibility that the remaining closing conditions to the contemplated transactions may not be satisfied or waived; the occurrence of any event that could give rise to termination of the merger agreement; risks inherent in the achievement of cost synergies and the timing thereof, including whether the transaction will be accretive and within the expected timeframe; fluctuations in the availability and prices of raw materials; difficult global economic and capital markets conditions; risks associated with revenues from foreign markets; interruption, failure or compromise of Sherwin-Williams' or Valspar's information systems; and changes in the legal and regulatory environment. Valspar and Sherwin-Williams make no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances occurring or existing after the date any forward-looking statement is made.

CONTACTS

For The Sherwin-Williams Company:





Investor Relations Contact: Bob Wells Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Sherwin-Williams (216) 566-2244 rjwells@sherwin.com Media Contacts: Mike Conway Director, Corporate Communications Sherwin-Williams (216) 515-4393 mike.conway@sherwin.com Or Sard Verbinnen & Co Jim Barron / Jared Levy / Patrick Scanlan (212) 687-8080



For The Valspar Corporation:





Investor and Media Contact: Bill Seymour Vice President, Investor Relations, Communications and Finance (612) 656-1328 william.seymour@valspar.com Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher Matthew Sherman / Tim Lynch / Joseph Sala (212) 355-4449

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/346043/The_Sherwin_Williams_Company_Logo.jpg

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/346042/valspar_Logo.jpg
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gold futures rose Friday, extending weekly gains on worries the North Korea conflict will intensify. President Donald Trump's visit with European dignitaries also turned a few heads due to some behavior that was seen as contentious. With gold's safe haven demand picking up, June gold settled at $1,268.10/oz, up $11.70, or 0.9%, for the session. Prices were up 1.2% for the week, the third consecutive weekly gain. Traders ignored some positive economic data that cements expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product climbed by 1.2 percent in the first quarter compared to the previously reported 0.7 percent increase. Economists had been expecting a more modest upward revision to the pace of GDP growth to approximately 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, new orders for manufactured durable goods pulled back by less than expected in the month of April. The report said durable goods orders slid by 0.7 percent in April after jumping by an upwardly revised 2.3 percent in March. Economists had expected orders to slump by 1.4 percent. Later, the University of Michigan released revised data showing that consumer sentiment in May was virtually unchanged from the previous month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Regulatory News:

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (NA:PSH) today announces that it has purchased, through PSH's agent, Jefferies International Limited ("Jefferies"), the following number of PSH's ordinary shares of no par value (ISIN Code: GG00BPFJTF46) (the "Shares"):

Date of purchase: 26 May 2017 Number of Shares purchased: 10,881 Shares Highest price paid per Share: 1,214 pence 15.52 USD Lowest price paid per Share: 1,208 pence 15.45 USD Average price paid per Share: 1,213.02 pence 15.51 USD

PSH intends to cancel these Shares. The net asset value per Share related to this Share buyback is USD 18.66 GBP 14.40 which was calculated as of 23 May 2017. After giving effect to the above Share buyback, PSH has 239,670,004 outstanding Shares. The prices per share in USD were calculated by Jefferies.

The number of PSH Management Shares and the 1 special voting share (held by PS Holdings Independent Voting Company Limited) has not been affected.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.:

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005669/en/

Contacts:

Maitland

James Devas, +44 20 7379 5151

Media-pershingsquareholdings@maitland.co.uk
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 05/26/17 -- Garda World Security Corporation (the "Company" or "GardaWorld") announced today that as of 8:00 a.m., New York City time on May 26, 2017, which was the "Expiration Time" for the previously announced cash tender offer and consent solicitation (the "Offer") for any and all of its outstanding U.S. dollar denominated 7.25% Senior Notes due 2021 (CUSIP Nos./ISINs 36485M AG4/US36485MAG42, C36025 AC5/USC36025AC51, 36485M AJ8/US36485MAJ80 and C36025 AD3/USC36025AD35) (the "Notes"), as reported by the tender agent, U.S. $83,137,000 principal amount of the Notes had been tendered in the Offer and not validly withdrawn, representing approximately 18.89% of the aggregate outstanding principal amount of the Notes. The Company also announced that on May 26, 2017, it had accepted for purchase and purchased all Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn pursuant to the terms of the Offer.

Holders who validly tendered their Notes at or before 5:00 p.m. (New York City time) on April 21, 2017 (the "Early Tender Deadline") received the total consideration equal to US$1,015 per US$1,000 principal amount of Notes purchased pursuant to the Offer, plus accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date up to but not including the payment date. Holders who tendered their Notes and whose Notes were accepted for purchase at or prior to the Expiration Time but after the Early Tender Deadline received the tender offer consideration equal to US$960 per US$1,000 principal amount of Notes purchased pursuant to the Offer, plus accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date up to but not including the payment date.

The Offer is a separate offer from the Company's offer to purchase the Notes (the "Change of Control Offer") made pursuant to the Company's Offer to Purchase, dated April 17, 2017, as amended by press releases issued on May 8, 2017 and May 18, 2017. The Change of Control Offer was made pursuant to the indenture dated as of November 8, 2013, under which the Notes were issued in order to satisfy the requirement to make an offer to repurchase the Notes upon the occurrence of a Change of Control (as defined in the indenture).

The information agent for the Offer and consent solicitation is D.F. King & Co., Inc. Holders with questions may call the information agent, D.F. King & Co., Inc., toll-free at (800) 864-1460 or (212) 269-5550 (collect) or email garda@dfking.com. Questions regarding the terms of the Offer and consent solicitation can be directed to the dealer manager for the Offer and solicitation agent for the consent solicitation, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (800) 558-3745 (toll-free) and (212) 723-6106 (collect).

About The Company

GardaWorld is one of the world's largest privately owned security services providers, offering a range of highly focused business solutions including cash services, protective services and aviation services. GardaWorld's more than 62,000 highly trained, dedicated professionals serve clients throughout North America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. GardaWorld works across a broad range of sectors, including financial services, infrastructure, natural resources and retail, and services Fortune 500 companies, governments and humanitarian relief organizations. For more information, visit www.garda.com.

Cautionary Statement on Forward Looking Statements

Information provided and statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the applicable securities laws. Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to GardaWorld's future outlook and anticipated events, business, operations, financial performance, financial condition or results and, in some cases, can be identified by terminology such as "may"; "will"; "should"; "expect"; "plan"; "anticipate"; "believe"; "intend"; "estimate"; "predict"; "potential"; "continue"; "foresee", "ensure" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In particular, statements regarding the Company's future operating results and economic performance and its objectives and strategies are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on certain factors and assumptions including expected growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects and opportunities, which GardaWorld believes are reasonable as of the current date. While management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to the Company, they may prove to be incorrect. The Company cautions the reader that the current economic conditions make forward-looking information and the underlying assumptions subject to greater uncertainty and that, consequently, they may not materialize, or the results may significantly differ from the Company's expectations. It is impossible for GardaWorld to predict with certainty the impact that the current economic may have on future results. Forward-looking information is also subject to certain factors, including risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what GardaWorld currently expects. These factors include growth management, market competition, cost of financing, key personnel, government regulations, standard customer service contracts, insurance, strikes and other labor protests, information technology systems, operations outside Canada and the United States, currency fluctuations, credit risk, reputational risk, and financial covenants risk. Therefore, future events and results may vary significantly from what management currently foresees. The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. The Company will not update these statements unless applicable securities laws require the Company to do so. The reader should also take knowledge of GardaWorld's Annual MD&A and audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017.

Contacts:

Garda World Security Corporation

Media Relations

media@garda.com




UltraSoC, a Cambridge, UK-based semiconductor company, completed a 5m ($6.4m) funding round.

The round was led by Atlante Tech with participation from new investors Enso Ventures, Oxford Capital, and CEO and serial entrepreneur Guillaume dEyssautier and existing investors Octopus Ventures and South East Seed Fund (FSE Group). As part of the funding, Miles Kirby of Oxford, Kirill Mudryy of Enso and Alvise Bonivento of Atlante will join the UltraSoC board, alongside existing investor representative Luke Hakes (Octopus), board Chair Chris Gilbert and non-executive director Chris Wade.

The company intends to use the funds for continued deployment of its technology and realize its vision of embedding intelligent analytics capabilities into every chip.

Led by Rupert Baines, CEO, UltraSoC provides a suite of semiconductor IP that allows chip designers to integrate an intelligent analytics infrastructure into the core hardware of their devices. By monitoring and analyzing the real-world behavior of entire systems via UltraSoCs intelligent analytics embedded in the silicon, engineers can take action to reduce system power consumption, increase performance, protect against malicious intrusions, and ensure product safety. These capabilities address applications in a broad range of market sectors, from automotive and IoT products, to at-scale computing and communications.

Amongst others, HiSilicon (Huawei), Imagination Technologies, Movidius (now Intel), and Microsemi all use UltraSoC technology in their designs.

FinSMEs

26/05/2017
The Narendra Modi government has made a lot of promises for entrepreneurs in India, but how many of them have really helped the startup sector is a question that begs an answer. Whatever the answer, which is detailed below, a general consensus is that it is the first government that has paid more than a nodding acknowledgment to entrepreneurship.

After he took over as the prime minister, Narendra Modi announced a slew of programmes to promote entrepreneurship in the country. Among them were Skill India so that the large number of youth in the country could be skilled and become a productive youth force, Make in India to promote manufacturing in the country, Digital India to make the country a digitally connected and, indeed, the Startup India, Stand Up India programme.

Earlier, in the NDA governments interim budget in 2014, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the creation of a Rs 10,000 crore dedicated startup fund, which promised a lifeline to cash-starved small firms.

The Modi government has given a lot of impetus to entrepreneurship through these schemes, says Paula Mariwala, Partner, Seedfund and Co-Founder, Stanford Angels.

Sunil Goyal, CEO and Founder, YourNest Angel Fund, says the biggest positive is that the government has put in place a policy that helps foreign capital to flow into the startups. NRIs and foreign nationals can raise capital and the government has given us clarity that the money invested in these funds and the multiplied capital and returns can be repatriated to the funder. That is a huge high, he says.

Internationally, people are gung-ho about India and the governments push to entrepreneurship. Indian startups have raised $3.5 billion in funding in the first half of 2015, and the number of active investors in India increased from 220 in 2014 to 390 in 2015, according to Economic Survey 2015-16.

All these aside, ironically, the sector continues to be troubled with issues thrown up mostly by the same programmes that were meant to make entrepreneur's life easier. A product startup entrepreneur, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the little issues that he is plagued with when he goes to a government department seeking help. Startups are being heard at government departments, which is a big change from being not welcomed at all. Bureaucracy kicks in as the officers are more inclined to go for safer options like traditional business than risk their necks with startups, he said.

The Stayzilla case, in which the company's CEO Yogendra Vasupal was arrested and put in jail in a payment default case about 2 months back, underscore the hardships of being an entrepreneur in India. An open letter written by 345 prominent entrepreneurs to home minister Rajnath Singh posted on the website www.help-yogi.com had raised this point. The site was launched in support of Vasupal. Among the signatories were Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, Paytm; Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO, OlaCabs; Mohandas Pai, former chief financial officer, Infosys; Shashank ND, co-founder and CEO, Practo.

"If ever there's a right to be an entrepreneur, that's clearly been violated. Period, the letter says pointing out the way in which the case has been handled has already sullied India's image in the Silicon Valley. According to them, India now looks like the worst place to start up.

No govt orders

The ecosystem is largely teeming with youngsters who are fresh tech graduates and people who have had a few years in the corporate world before they decided to venture on their own ideas and startup a business. Many startups are bound to fail as that is the nature of the ecosystem with youngsters enthusiastically trying out new ideas. But the government is loathe to give them orders, for instance in procurement.

Innovation as a rule is not understood by the government. Its officers prefer to take tenders from traditional businesses or products and services that have been used over a period of time, says a startup entrepreneur, adding that it is because of the fear of failure of something new and untried.

A startup which is into defence application and security finds no takers in the government as it is innovative but has bagged orders in the US and also Israel among many countries.

Ease of doing business

The new Companies Act is draconian, says Mariwala. To deal with various compliances for that it stipulates is very difficult for a startup. There has to be more ease of doing business which has not happened, she says.

The Modi governments Rs 10,000 crore startup is a difficult door to get past as getting funds from this programme is next to impossible, says an analyst. So far, only SIDBI has been disbursing money through its India Aspiration Fund and Fund of Funds operations for startups.

The startup community needs government intervention, says a startup analyst. Not all enterprises have the ability to raise money from venture capitalists, angels, etc. The startup entrepreneurs are making an impact with regard to elimination of poverty, disease and boosting education, among other innovative ideas that has translated into businesses. The government now has private enterprise solving the countrys issue, she says.

Though the Indian government has made a start with the announcement of various programmes for the startup community, it has not been able to provide a thriving ecosystem with ease of funding, tax breaks, laws that promote the sector like Singapore, for instance. Venture capitalists cannot fund early-stage scientific ideas, for instance. The government needs to step in and promote them and also help encourage academic-business initiatives for startups, the analyst pointed out.

The governments recently announced bankruptcy code is another source for worry. The new law enables banks to push for resolution/ recovery of the money from a troubled company within a period of 180 days, with a grace period of another 90 days if majority (75 percent) of creditors agrees. If the recovery doesnt happen, then the company will be liquidated automatically.

This will make it difficult for startup community, says Harish HV, partner - India leadership team, Grant Thornton. Startups should be able to close down when their ideas fail to take off. It is pertinent that the government explains on who the Bankruptcy code can be applied to.

World over, governments use pension funds to invest in private equity. For instance, the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board invests in India. Around 10 percent of the estimated 300 billion Canadian dollars of this fund is invested in emerging markets, with a plan to boost it to 15 percent over the next three to five years, a Mint report said.

The irony is domestic pension funds are not allowed to invest in domestic venture funds. India has a number of endowment funds which are with charitable institution, the largest being with the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam. But they are not allowed to invest in venture capital funds. This is one area the government must do a rethink about, say analysts.
New Delhi: The central government on Thursday said the Indian automobile sector is projected to contribute 12 percent to the country's GDP (gross domestic product) over the next decade.

This was stated by Girish Shankar, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, at the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) 'International Automotive Supply Chain Conclave 2017'.

According to Shankar, under the "Automotive Mission Plan 2016-2026", it is projected that India will become the third largest automobile manufacturers with the sector contributing 12 percent of the GDP and creating 65 million direct and indirect jobs in the country.

He pointed out that the automobile market has "rebounded strongly after a short blip" seen in sales in the immediate aftermath of the demonetization drive which commenced in November 2016.
Modi government's new rules on sale of cattle for slaughter in market places is illogical and can push the farmers into distress. The government has banned sale of cattle for slaughter at market places. Not just cows, the regulation will cover bulls, bullocks, buffaloes, steers, heifers and camels, first reported by Hindustan Times (read here). Cattle can be sold only to a person with documents to prove he is an agriculturist, the rule says. unfit animals cannot be sold, the report said.

The definition of cattle now involves buffaloes too, which wasnt there so far. It will hurt the sector badly, told DB Sabharwal, secretary of All India Meat & Livestock Exporters' Association to Firstpost.

Secondly, slaughter houses gets only 10 percent of the cattle directly from farmers. The rest 90 percent is from mandis, which is banned now. This is going to put the whole industry at risk, said Sabharwal.

According to the notification notified under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act of 1960 that gives the Centre powers over animal welfare, the committees overseeing animal markets will have to take an undertaking from traders that animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter.

The rules prohibit the sale of animals for slaughter through the livestock markets. The trade of cattle is allowed only between farmland owners. The trade now involves lot of paper work between the seller and buyer with respect to identity and ownership documents.

(read the full notification here)

Ban on cattle trade in market - Gazzette Notification - 23 May 2017 by Firstpost on Scribd

In all, about 30 norms are stipulated for animal markets, including water, fans, bedding, ramps, non-slippery flooring, veterinary facility and separate enclosure for sick animals. The rule says cattle can be sold only to a person having documents to prove he is an agriculturist, adding that unfit animals cannot be sold. Steps taken to ensure that only healthy animals are sold in market places are welcome. But, completely banning sales of cattle at market places can impact the poor farmer and hurt the industry badly for few reasons:

According to Sabharwal, farmers will find it hard to get rid of their old cattle unfit for either milk or breeding. The farmer bears a cost to maintain these unproductive animalsabout Rs 60-80 per day.

Secondly, the notification can further embolden the self-appointed cow protection groups to interpret it in their own way and hurt even genuine traders. Already, after the Modi government has taken over, self-proclaimed gaurakshaks have popped up across the country taking the law into own hands. These groups may derive more strength from the government rule.

Third, shortage of cattle can impact the meat trade industry that employs millions. According to the Hindustan Times report, the annual meat business in India is estimated to be around Rs one lakh crore with exports worth Rs 26,303 crore in 2016-17, with Uttar Pradesh being the market leader followed by Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana. Already, the clampdown on illegal slaughter houses in UP has impacted legal slaughter houses as well. This rule will hurt slaughter houses even more, Sabharwal said.

The Modi government, which wants to double the farmer income by 2022, could have tightened rules to clamp down on illegal sale instead of banning cattle sale outright in the open markets. A blanket ban will only hurt the poor farmers and cripple the meat industry since it is not always practical for slaughter houses to procure cattle directly from the farmers.
Mumbai: The finance ministry has initiated the process to appoint a new Reserve Bank deputy governor replacing S S Mundra whose term is coming to an end in July.

The applicant should have an experience of 15 years in banking and financial market operations, said a public notice indicating that candidates from the private sector will also be considered for appointment.

Traditionally, one of the four deputy governors is from the public sector banking industry. If the government decides

to appoint someone from the private sector, it would be a first for RBI.

Mundra, a seasoned public sector banker, was appointed deputy governor for three years in July, 2014.

The central bank has four deputy governors  two from within the ranks and one commercial banker and an economist to head the monetary policy department.

According to the notice put up on RBI's website, applicants should have extensive experience as a full-time director or board member and possess understanding, at a very senior level, of supervision and compliance in the financial sector.

Strong competencies working with financial performance data, including interpreting, summarising and communicating high-level output and strong and clear communication skills on matters of public policy are also listed as criteria for sending application.

Duly filled in applications should be submitted before 21 June and those applying for the post should not exceed 60 years of age as on 31 July 2017, it said.

The appointment will be made for a period of three years and the person will be eligible for re-appointment. The post

will have a fixed salary of Rs 2.25 lakh per month plus allowances.
New Delhi: India retained its numero uno position as as the world's top most greenfield FDI destination for the second consecutive year, attracting US$ 62.3 billion in 2016, says a report.

India has remained ahead of China and the US as far as FDI inflows were concerned in the last year, said the fDi Report 2017 compiled by fDi Intelligence, a division of The Financial Times Ltd.

FDI by capital investment saw an increase of 2 percent to US$ 62.3 billion in 809 projects during 2016 in India. "India managed to keep the crown as the world's number one location for greenfield capital investment for the second year running ahead of China and the US," the report said.

The global investment landscape, the report said, has changed considerably in 2016 as FDI gravitated to locations experiencing the strongest economic growth, while locations in recession or facing high levels of uncertainty saw major declines.

In 2016, greenfield FDI continued to rise worldwide, with capital investment increasing by more than 6 percent to US $ 776.2 billion, its highest since 2011, alongside an increase in job creation by 5 percent to 2.02 million. However, the number of FDI projects declined 3 percent to 12,644.

China has overtaken the US to become the second biggest country for FDI by capital investment, recording US $59 billion of announced FDI, compared with US $48 billion-worth in the US.

Globally, the real estate sector has claimed the top spot for capital investment, with US $157.5 billion of announced FDI recorded in 2016, following an increase of 58 percent. In value terms, coal and natural gas witnessed an inflow of US $121 billion, followed by alternate and renewable energy at US $77 billion.
German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz is slashing prices of its vehicles produced in India by up to Rs 7 lakh to pass on benefits of new tax rate under GST due in July.

The new prices will be effective from Friday through the whole of June, but in case GST is deferred, the company said it would revert to the old prices till its roll out.

Mercedes Benz India locally produces nine models  CLA sedan, SUVs GLA, GLC, GLE and GLS, luxury sedans C-Class, E- Class, S -Class and Maybach S 500  which are priced between Rs 32 lakh and Rs 1.87 crore (ex-showroom Delhi).

The price reduction will range from Rs 1.4 lakh on the CLA sedan to Rs 7 lakh on Maybach S 500.

Commenting on the decision, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO Roland Folger said, "It looks really reasonable now that the government will stick to its decision to implement GST from 1 July."

He further said, "We now know more in details what taxations are going to be in various states. We have a clear picture of the road ahead. So we have decided to compensate the difference between the current and post GST prices for our entire Made in India range."

On an average, there will be a reduction of 4 percent in the transaction prices for customers of all models produced in India, Folger added.

Price reduction varies by state between 2 percent to 9 percent and is dependent on current tax structure and local body taxes of states, the company said.

Folger, however, hastened to add that if for "any reason GST is not implemented by 1 July, then we will revert to the old pricing till the time it is implemented".

"Our decision to go ahead and reduce the price is also a reflection of our confidence in this government," Folger added.

For the other models which are fully imported, Mercedes-Benz India is currently discussing its pricing strategy under the GST regime.

"The impact on the prices on CBU vehicles is yet to be evaluated. We think the implementation of the GST structure is a landmark achievement for the Indian economy, which will support the ease of doing business in India," Folger said.

Under the GST rates announced last week, large luxury cars and SUVs with engine capacity of over 1,500 cc have been slated to attract a 15 percent cess over and above peak rate of 28 percent thereby bringing down the overall tax incidence compared to the present of around 50 percent.
India's plan to bring in a law to ensure doctors prescribe medicines only by their generic names risks proliferating the sale of substandard drugs in a country where regulation is already lax, doctors and pharmaceutical executives say.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last month that the government was looking at such a law to improve affordability of medicines in the country of 1.2 billion people, where the majority live on less than $2 a day.

The government has not given any details or time frame for the planned legislation but some in the industry fear that hasty execution could harm, not help, public health.

Large drugmakers in India such as Cipla and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries that mostly sell generic drugs under their own brand name, or 'branded generics', compete with much smaller garage manufacturers, many of which operate with scant quality checks.

It is a fiercely competitive, high-volume market, dominated by the big players like Cipla, who employ armies of salesmen to sell their drugs. Some doctors say they tend to prescribe branded generics to patients because they are confident of their quality.

While the government wants to make cheaper non-branded drugs available to consumers, pharmaceutical executives said any law would have to stipulate that the drugs consumers get from pharmacists meet certain quality standards.

"I think the quality aspect is very important for the government to address ... to make sure that all companies in India are on the same quality footing," said Cipla's CEO Umang Vohra.

There is no national data comparing the quality of branded generics, versus unbranded ones. But small studies have shown that unbranded drugs, typically procured by the government for the public health system, have quality issues.

A report by the country's federal auditor in 2012 showed that 31 percent of drugs procured by the government for the Armed Forces Medical Stores were substandard in 2010-11, up from about 15 percent in 2006-07.

Results of the government's largest-ever national survey to test drug quality showed this year that roughly 10 percent of the drugs in the government supply chain were not of standard quality, versus 3 percent of drugs available at pharmacies, which are usually branded generics.

"Generics are fine, but there has to be a proper rigorous mechanism to enforce quality, like the U.S., and unless India evolves on that it will be disastrous," said Nilesh Gupta, managing director of Lupin, India's No. 3 drugmaker by sales.

Substandard medicines range from drugs that don't work at all to those that don't work as expected, thereby contributing to antimicrobial resistance - a major global health problem.

"The idea is very good, but the government needs to ensure the availability of good quality generics," said Vijay Panikar, a Mumbai-based diabetologist.

Indian drug makers' manufacturing standards, including those of big companies such as Sun Pharma, have been found to have fallen short of international standards in recent years. An industry official said last week that it will be at least five years before Indian manufacturing and data reliability meet the standards of the United States, India's biggest drugs export market.

"It's a work in progress ... I think the bigger companies understand the problem and are working to fix it," said Gupta of Lupin.

Health experts warn of a series of problems with the implementation of a generics-only rule. For example, half the Indian market is made up of combination drugs, and it would be impractical to ask doctors to prescribe a series of chemical names, said S. Srinivasan, a doctor and member of the People's Health Movement, a New Delhi-based NGO.

Doctors opposed to the planned new rule warn it would put too much power in the hands of the chemists.

"Today if I write a generic, the chemist will decide which drug to give, and he will obviously give the one in which he has the biggest margin, without caring about quality," Panikar said.
The jeep has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent days so it is a relief when Rajinikanth decides to perch himself on it. That's good enough for his fans to go into a collective frenzy, swooning over the swag in his body language.

It is an interesting fish eye panaroma first look of Rajinikanth's 164th production, Kaala Karikaalan that was released on Thursday evening. Rajini's son-in-law actor Dhanush whose Wunderbar Films is producing `Kaala' tweeted with the hashtag #makewayfortheking.

Kaala is easily one of the more classy Rajinikanth posters one has seen in recent years, though it has a Kabali deja vu about it.

The movie set in Mumbai will see Rajini in the role of an ageing Tamilian don and that explains the jeep's Maharashtra number plate. An indie mongrel gives him company atop the bonnet while the Superstar's sartorial style is un-Kabali like. He has discarded the sharp suits for a black kurta, brown veshti, black sunglasses with slippers. The rugged bearded look holds promise of seeing the Superstar in an intense role.

The movie that is being helmed by Kabali director Pa. Ranjith, will shoot 40 per cent of its portion in Mumbai while the rest will be shot at a Mumbai-like set that is being erected at EVP Film city in Poonamallee in Chennai.

In fact, it will be like shooting Kabali part 2 for Rajini because barring the editor and producer of the film, the entire crew is borrowed from his 2016 superhit. Santhosh Narayanan will compose for Kaala as well, amidst expectations that his music's 'Neruppa da' temperament will continue to bring much magizhchi (happiness).

Those in the know say Kaala despite the similarity in the basic texture of Rajini's character, will not be a Kabali. The theatre of Kaala is set in the slums of Dharavi in Mumbai.

It is interesting that Rajini in the twilight of his career has decided to embrace Dharavi. And it is inevitable that comparisons will be drawn to the performance of his friend Kamal Haasan who played Tamilian don Varadarajan Mudaliar in the 1987 critically acclaimed superhit Nayakan. Kamal won the National award for best actor for the Mani Ratnam-directed movie.

With Kabali, Ranjith showed himself to be a director who believed in realistic portrayals, instead of completely succumbing to the over-the-top heroism that characters played by Rajini usually exhibited.

Will Kaala then be Rajini's "Naan late aa vandalum latest aa varuven'' (even if I am late to arrive, I will be the latest) answer to Nayakan, where the actor in him will showcase his craft? It is interesting that the two Dharavi movies are separated by three decades.

K Hariharan, Author and Professor of Film Studies however thinks Kaala will be more Baasha than Nayakan. Baasha that released in 1995, was based on Amitabh Bachchan's Hum and is one of the biggest hits in Rajinikanth's career.

"It will be a case of Kabali marries Baasha,'' says Hariharan. "Baasha was not a high-budget film so here you will need special effects to enhance the Rajini viewing experience. But it seems to me that the theme will be that of a modern-day reluctant fighter like Baasha.''

Unlike Nayakan, Kaala is not based on a real life character. Though there were reports that Rajinikanth will reprise the character of Haji Mastan, it was denied after Mastan's adopted son raised objections to his father being portrayed as a smuggler and an underworld don. Incidentally Mastan, like Mudaliar, was also a Tamilian. He was born in Ramanathapuram and in fact, was good friends with Mudaliar.

In the opening scene of Kabali, Rajinikanth's character is seen reading the book 'My father Balaiah', the story of discrimination against Dalits in south India.

The film was also set in the milieu of social discrimination. Knowing Ranjith's proclivity to make a social comment through his movies, attention has been drawn on social media to the number plate of Rajini's jeep - MH 01 BR 1956, with one Facebook user wondering if this is a reference to the year of BR Ambedkar's death.

With speculation that Rajinikanth is eyeing a political entry, the question that arises is whether a 2.0 that will release next January. and Kaala, will be the right vehicles for a political launch.

MGR always played roles that cast him in a do-gooder image and that impression stuck in the public mind even when he turned a politician.

Another actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth starred as an anti-corruption crusader in Ramana emphasising an intolerance towards corruption. Rajini on the other hand, is experimenting with shades of grey, perhaps aware that the knowledgeable Tamil audience can distinguish between real and reel personas.
It was earlier reported how Deepika Padukone got emotional for not being able to star in good friend and longtime collaborator Dinesh Vijan's directorial debut, the upcoming romantic thriller Raabta.

Padukone managed to do the title song of the film when contacted in the eleventh hour. She has earlier collaborated with film producer Vijan in Imtiaz Ali's 2009 romantic comedy Love Aaj Kal, Homi Adajania's 2012 romantic comedy Cocktail and Adajania's 2014 slice of life drama Finding Fanny.

Now, DNA reports that Vijan is planning to cast Padukone in his next production yet again. The film is the sequel to Sriram Raghavan's 2015 revenge saga Badlapur. While the first part starred Varun Dhawan in the lead, Vijan is planning to make the sequel revolve around a female protagonist, along with an entirely new star cast.

India.com reports that the script has not been finalised yet. Once that is done, Vijan will officially approach Padukone for the film. However, the same report states that the actor has shown keen interest in the film after Vijan's basic plot narration.

Padukone, who is currently shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama Padmavati, will start working on Honey Trehan's directorial debut, the biopic of notorious mafia don Sapna didi. Thus, Badlapur 2 is expected to go on floors only in the latter half of 2018.

The first part starred Yami Gautam, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Divya Dutta, Huma Qureshi, Radhika Apte, Vinay Pathak and Kumud Mishra besides Dhawan. It not only managed to cross the coveted Rs 100 crore mark but also brought laurels to Dhawan who had been branded as the new poster boy of commercial cinema. There is no word of confirmation on whether Raghavan has been approached to direct the sequel as well.

Vijan is currently busy promoting his next, Raabta, which is slated to release on 9 June.
It looks like the big bad world of the internet is already taking over the world.

In 2016, when the top editors of Vogue sat down to discuss and publish their thoughts on Milan Fashion Week, one article they churned out was an their utter disdain for fashion bloggers and 'influencers', whom one went so far as to call 'pathetic'.

Since the article went live on Vogue.com, several big names like Susie Bubble and Bryanboy have taken to social media to fire back at the fashion bible and accuse them of being a bit hypocritical.

Fast forward to the Cannes red carpet of 2017, the same social media influences are being flown down to attend red carpet events and brands are also paying them to wear their clothes. One of them is 16-year-old Amanda Steele, who attended the premiere of Netflix Okja, and was there for Dior makeup.

CANNES 2017  cheers to my first festival and to many more!! Thank you sooooo much @diormakeup for treating me like a princess!! Thank you lovely ladies!!! @christymccuaig @fannybourdettedonon @mimberly  A post shared by Amanda Steele (@amandasteele) on May 19, 2017 at 2:12pm PDT

"Be it at the festival, an event or just being part of the overall experience, influencers can help build buzz for a film, establish trends for a brand and share an insiders look at the latest in culture," said Dave Giglio, director of talent partnership for social media agency Digital Media Management, based in Los Angeles told The Hollywood Reporter.

Influencers typically charge 2,000 to 5,000 for a post on their Instagram feeds, with the high scorers (those with multiple millions of followers) regularly demanding upwards of 30,000.

Could they be the new age celebrities?
When Dhanush announced the first look of the much-awaited film of his father-in-law and Superstar Rajinikanth, Kaara Kalikaalan on Twitter, the superstar also issued a statement addressing his fans. He said if anyone is found doing any act of misconduct or indiscipline they will be discharged from the fan association.

"I am authorising VM Sudhakar to remove functionaries and members of our club from its primary membership if they are found maligning its discipline and reputation," said Rajinikanth in a statement, as reported by DNA.

Last week, the superstar had met his fans at Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam for the first time in ten years where he also hinted upon his intention of entering politics.

According to a report in The Hindu, he said, "Go home and do your work. The day we have to fight the war, we will take care of it." He also commented upon the political situation of Tamil Nadu and said that the state has good leaders but the "system is rotten".

According to DNA, this disciplinary message from the actor followed close on the heels of his fans crazily celebrating over his supposed entry into politics and pasting posters in various corners of Chennai.

Some of his fans had also vehemently protested against fringe outfits opposing his political entry and tried to burn an effigy as a "symbolic protest" against those who opposed to the actor's entry into politics, says a report on news18.com.

In another recent report by The Hindu, J. Srinivasan, member of the Thalaivar Foundation, a fan club that is involved in charitable causes, said, He has always been clear with two things to his fans  that we should look after our families well and we should not do anything which will make us a nuisance to the public or indulge in misconduct.
Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla's documentary An Insignificant Man, based on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's rise to political power, has run into an altercation with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

DNA reports that CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani has instructed the two young filmmakers, along with the producer Anand Gandhi, to furnish Non Objection Certificates (NOCs) from a few politicians, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The same report quotes Nihalani as saying, "This is standard procedure. Prior to this, when a film on the Prime Minister entitled Modi Ka Gaon was brought to us, we asked for an NOC from the PMs office." His argument is that the makers have used actual footage of Modi addressing rallies and thus, an NOC from the prime minister is mandatory.

Other politicians, from whom the CBFC has asked to obtain NOCs from, are former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit and Kejriwal. It claims that the documentary might damage Kejriwal's political reputation and that it does not show the Delhi chief minister in very authoritative light.

Mumbai Mirror reports Ranka and Shukla claim that Nihalani asked the security to escort them out of the office once they tried to reason it out with the CBFC chief. The report quotes Ranka as saying, "The footage we have used of politicians are of their public appearances, are already documented and broadcast by several TV channels and newspapers. If journalists do not require NoCs for revealing information that is already there in the public domain, why should different rules apply to filmmakers? Its like asking a journalist covering the Coalgate scam to get a NoC from a political party."

While the makers also alleged that the CBFC ordered six cuts in the documentary, the report by Mumbai Mirror states that Nihalani denied the news.
Actor-turned-politician BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha openly supported Rajinikanth's supposed intent to join politics.

Sinha (also known as ShotGun), in an array of posts on Twitter, spoke about his huge admiration towards the Tamil superstar. He in fact suggested Rajinikanth to not join any political party, instead, let others join him.

Following are Sinha's tweets that he had posted on 25 May:

Titanic Hero of Tamil Nadu & son of India - dearest @superstarrajini #Rajinikanth ! Rise, Rise, Rise!! It's high time & the right time! 1>2  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) May 25, 2017

The people are with you and ready to join @superstarrajini and instead of joining anyone, it is best when others join you...3>4  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) May 25, 2017

Hope, wish & pray that after consulting with your family, dear ones & experts, you take the right decision soon - sooner the better...4>5  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) May 25, 2017

I have always stood by @superstarrajini as a friend, supporter, well wisher & even guide. Even today, if I can be of any help or support 5>6  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) May 25, 2017

..you can bank on me. I'm bankable, dependable & available to you - anytime & everytime. Regards to your family & long live @superstarrajini  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) May 25, 2017

However, earlier in an interview with The Quint, Sinha had said that the Tamil superstar doesn't have any intentions as such and that if at all any thing surfaces he would be the first to know.

He said, "As far as I know, and I should know because I am his political ally, my dear friend Rajinikanth has no plans of getting into active politics. I know he is being pressurised from many quarters to do so. But he should not, must not give in."

With numerous speculations hanging around the superstar's entry into politics, let's hope Rajinikanth does a good job as a people's person and changes the system which according to him is "rotten", if at all he decides to take the plunge.
Samuthirakanis Thondan is an old fashioned, loud and preachy film laced with comedy. It is a typical Samuthirakani spoon-feeding exercise meant for mass, tier 2 and tier 3 markets in rural Tamil Nadu (does the market still exist?).

The writer, director and actor who started his career doing steamy soaps, know how to extract the viewers sympathy using minimal sets. His last release as director and hero, Appa, which was made on a shoe string budget, was a super hit that recovered three times its investment.

Thondan follows the Appa format where messages are nailed into the narration in an over preachy manner, which allows Samuthirakani to get maximum claps.

Mahavishnu (Samuthirakani) is an upright and honest person who believes in non-violence and follows the philosophy of Gandhi and Abdul Kalam. He lives in a small town after leaving the military and taking up the job of an ambulance driver, as he lost his mother when the emergency service could not reach her on time. Vishnu gets a kick out of saving people in distress and has reputation for saving every life his ambulance has picked up.

He is able to influence people and change an alcoholic (Vikranth) who was having a one-sided affair with his sister. Another woman (Sunayana) is madly in love with him and walks around like a ghost in his colony, till he marries her. But the dogooder soon earns the wrath of the local ministers son (Namo Narayanan), for being too righteous.

This leads to the flash point as the Gandhian takes on scum politicians and their support system, in his own way.

Samuthirakani says that the people themselves are to be blamed for the corrupt system and politicians. He liberally helps himself to all social issues and political happenings in Tamil Nadu like women safety, farmers issue, caste wars and even IT raids on the corrupt politicians.

In a particular scene our hero gives a 10 minute sermon to a politician who tries to take advantage. He points out the importance and significance of Jallikattu, and lists out the hundreds of breeds of cows that have disappeared in the state.

The writer, director, actor wants to milk sympathy out of every scene, and conduct a moral science class. Technically there is nothing much to 'review'  camera and music is just functional. The only silver lining is the comedy of Soori and Thambi Ramaiah; both the characters look real and dont preach.
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!
Amid the scorching heat and oppressive humidity on 25 May  the 50th anniversary of the Naxalbari movement, the successors of Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal gathered in the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal and pledged to initiate a new beginning for the movement and connect with the younger generation. Only this time, the enemy has changed.

From the rich landlords of the 1960s, the enemy now is the RSS-BJP combine.

"More than 5,000 people who came from across West Bengal and other places took a pledge to start a new beginning in the Naxalbari movement. From yesteryear's class struggle of the poor and landless peasants against rich landlords, now the focus is the RSS-BJP combine, which is the new enemy. The need is to connect with the young generation and popularise the ideals of Naxalbari and comrade Majumdar," Professor Abhijit Majumdar, central committee member, Communist Party of India (MarxistLeninist) Liberation, and son of Charu Majumdar told Firstpost.

The peasants uprising called 'Naxal Andolan' (Naxal Movement) began in the village of Naxalbari in north Bengals Darjeeling district in 1967, with slogans like 'Langor jaar, Jamin taar (Land belongs to him, who tills it)'. The killing of 11 villagers, including eight women and two children by the police sparked the movement into a widespread mass revolution on 25 May, 1967 led by Majumdar Sr, Sanyal and Santhal. It was in retaliation to an incident that had occurred a day earlier, when thousands of villagers had gheraoed a police station protesting against the states oppression leading to the killing of a police inspector.

Half a century later, thousands, including members of the CPI(ML) Liberation  the largest faction of the 1970s CPI(ML)  under the banner of which the Naxalbari movement had begun, gathered on Thursday morning at Naxalbari  23 kilometres from Siliguri in north Bengal to pay homage to the "martyrs of the red revolution". It was followed by a procession from Siliguri station that culminated in a mass rally at Bagha Jatin Park in Siliguri, where the members pledged for a new beginning  to rekindle the spirit that the architects of the revolution had initiated.

"The only alternative to combat the extreme Right politics is the Left. The need of the hour is to have a wider and bigger combined Left force for a class and mass struggle," added Majumdar, who is also secretary of the partys Darjeeling unit.

Agreed Swadesh Bhattacharya, polit bureau member, CPI(ML) Liberation, "The nationalism of RSS-BJP is not that of our country. BJPs aggressive nationalism is based on divisive and non-secular policy, which is rather anti-national and dangerous. Its not just the Communists, others are saying that too."

In one of his recent articles, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya wrote, "Most crucially, Naxalbari was a great moment of radicalisation of the Indian communist movement. It gave rise to a new paradigm of class struggle that is not confined to the economic realm or the parameters of parliamentary politics, but committed to fight out oppression and injustice in every sphere of social existence. Issues of caste and gender, race and nationality, language and culture found their rightful place in this new praxis of class struggle. Today when the Sangh brigade in power with their Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan agenda is desperate to bulldoze India under the twin wheels of corporate plunder and communal polarisation, the radical energy and resilience of Naxalbari could perhaps never be more needed."

However, CPI (ML) Liberation strongly disagrees with the 'concept of revolution' as espoused by the CPI (Maoist). In popular imagination, the term Naxal and the dread that it inspires in the heart of the establishment has been hijacked by the members of the CPI (Maoist). They are better known for regular bloodshed in the infamous Red Corridor that runs through the states of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand.

CPI(ML) Liberation has nothing to do with the CPI (Maoist) and asserts that the architect of the revolution  Charu Majumdar  would have never approved of what the latter do. For him, the armed struggle meant the agricultural tools and not guns.

For the layman, there's a very thin line separating the two but both for the CPI(ML) Liberation and the Maoists, its a world of difference that they are very sensitive about.

"There is a fundamental difference between present day Maoists and us. The Naxalbari revolution was built on the politics of class struggle  of the landless and poor peasants. Whereas, the present day Maoists despite having ideals, failed to create a revolutionary class, unlike Naxalbari that received large support from educated middle-class, farmers and labourers in West Bengal and elsewhere. Maoists have given priority to arms (AK 47, Insas rifles, landmines) rather than the people for whom the original revolution had begun. The need is to challenge the State through political means and not guns or mass killing," added Majumdar.

"Although both CPI(ML) Liberation and CPI (Maoist) were born out of Communist ideology, the latter harbours a different view from ours. We dont approve of their ways," added Bhattacharya.

Fifty years on, the revolution is hoping to find its feet again
New Delhi: In a significant development, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lt Governor Anil Baijal have initiated a dialogue to avert any power tussle in the future.

Informed sources in the government said Kejriwal and Baijal have already had a discussion on the issue. The chief minister had "reached out" to the LG through a letter, which has not been made public.

The AAP, which had stormed to power in 2015, has repeatedly clashed with Raj Niwas over governance jurisdiction, especially during former LG Najeeb Jung's tenure.

"The dialogue will be centred around the division of power in light of the court orders. It will also be an opportunity to get a sense of how the two parties interpret the constitutional provisions," the sources said.

Under the constitutional arrangement, Delhi is not a full state, but it enjoys the status of the National Capital Territory with a legislative assembly. However, the LG has primacy in terms of authority.

When contacted, the LG office did not comment on the issue.

Sources said Kejriwal took the lead on the matter following a few recent instances wherein Baijal was perceived to have snubbed the government and "encroached" on its domain.

The elected government in Delhi does not have any say in matters pertaining to police, land and services.

The Delhi High Court had last year pronounced the LG to be the city's administrative head. The city government had challenged the order and the Supreme Court is ceased of the matter.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Dhola-Sadiya bridge over the Lohit river  a tributary of Brahmaputra  on Friday. The bridge is considered the longest in India and will improve road connectivity between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Incidentally, Friday will also mark the third anniversary of the Modi government and comes two days after the Assam government of Sarbananda Sonowal completed a year in office. Sonowal on Wednesday invited Modi to inaugurate India's longest bridge.

The bridge will be the fourth over Brahmaputra river after Saraighat, Kolia Bhomora and Bogibeel (nearing completion).

Here are the key details about the bridge and its significance in the context of improving connectivity in the North East. "The bridge will fill a huge connectivity gap that has existed in the region," IANS quoted a statement from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Built at a cost of Rs 2,096 crores, construction of the bridge began in 2010, when there was a Congress government at the Centre as well as in Assam. However, the groundwork for the project had begun in 2002, under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. (Watch the video below).

The project was constructed as part of a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and a Vishakapatnam-based private construction company, Navayuga Engineering Company.

The 9.15 kilometre-long bridge is expected to be a boon to the residents of Sadiya, situated on the northern bank of Lohit, which has been isolated from the rest of the state, The Indian Express reported.

The bridge, which is 3.55 kilometre longer than Mumbai's Bandra-Worli Sea Link, is considered strategically located for two reasons.

Firstly, the bridge is close to Arunachal Pradesh  a frontier state bordering China.

The Indian Express report added that in the absence of the bridge, it would take eight to 10 hours for anyone to travel from Anjaw in eastern Arunachal Pradesh to Assam's Tinsukia or Dibrugarh. With the new bridge, Arunachal residents can reach Tinsukia and Dibrugarh faster.

The people of Sadiya too are happy about the development as they have to generally depend on ferries to travel to Dhola, which is situated on the southern bank of the river, from where they travel to Dibrugarh and Tinsukia.

I am happy that we will have an architectural marvel in Sadiya that will be of some advantage to the army, but I am happier that it will solve a longstanding problem of the people of the sub-division. While the ferry ride between Dhola and Sadiya takes over two hours, by road it will now be a 30-minute ride. It will change our life, we will save a lot of time and energy every day, Noren Sutia, a Sadiya resident told The Wire.

Besides improving the life of the people of Sadiya, this bridge will change the economy of many remote parts of Arunachal," Prasanta Sagar Sangmai, Sadiya superintendent of police, told the publication.

The Ministry said the new bridge promises to usher in prosperity in the northeastern region and would provide efficient road connectivity to the remote and backward areas which have poor road infrastructure.

"This bridge will also give a major boost to overall economic development of the areas north of Brahmaputra in upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

"It will also cater to the strategic requirements of the country in the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, besides facilitating numerous hydro power projects coming up in the state," the statement added.

Secondly, the bridge will help the army convoys to cut their travel time by three to four hours.

The North East is militarily important in lieu of its long border with arch-rival China. With an Air Force base in Tezpur and important army units like the 181 Brigade and the 2 Mountain Division, which are placed in Assam, the bridge will be military significant at times of war.

This will help improve the operational mobility of men and materiel at the time of any war with China.

Notably, the bridge can withstand a military tank of at least 60 kilo-tonnes. Since northeast is in a high-seismic region, the bridge has been provided seismic buffers in all its 182 piers.

The benefit of the soon-to-be-inaugurated bridge can be gauged by the fact that in the absence of it, the army has to undertake over 10 hours of tedious journey on boat to reach eastern Arunachal Pradesh.

Notwithstanding the benefits that the common man will enjoy from the bridge, the Congress has criticised the BJP for appropriating the project.

Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi alleged on Wednesday that he is not being allowed to go to the site.

"They did not allow me to go to the bridge saying that it is because of security concerns and law and order issues. Am I a terrorist? Will I break the laws? Why are they not allowing me to visit the bridge?" questioned Gogoi, who himself enjoys 'Z Plus' security cover, reported PTI.

The Congress government had laid the foundation, carried out the construction and completed the bridge on Brahmaputra river but now the BJP was trying to take all the credit by inaugurating it with much fanfare, he said.

"It is like we planted a tree, nurtured it, but now they are eating the fruits. Let them. But can't I even come and see my tree?" asked the veteran Congress leader.

With inputs from agencies
Kolkata: Five senior BJP leaders, including its national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, were on Friday discharged by courts in connection with the protest march to the city police headquarters.

Of the 14 other BJP activists arrested for allegedly indulging in violence during Thursday's protest, seven were remanded to police custody by a city court, while the other seven were granted bail by another court.

Vijayvargiya, who is BJP's in-charge of Bengal, was discharged by metropolitan magistrate Mohammed Rafique in connection with a case registered by Bowbazar police station against him to prevent commission of cognisable offences.

Party state president Dilip Ghosh, Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly, state secretary Locket Chatterjee and former state president Rahul Sinha were discharged by acting chief metropolitan magistrate Satya Arnab Ghosal in connection with cases registered against them by Hare Street police station on similar charge.

All five leaders had on Thursday refused to take bail on personal bond, which is granted from police stations in case of preventive arrest, and preferred to be produced before the courts today which discharged them.

Acting chief metropolitan magistrate Ghosal refused the bail prayers of seven BJP activists, who were charged under several sections of IPC, Explosives Act and the newly- instituted West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order Amendment Act 2017 and remanded them to police custody till 29 May.

These seven persons were accused of being involved in the hurling of a bomb and indulging in violence during the protest.

The bail prayers of seven other accused, who were produced before metropolitan magistrate Mohammed Rafique were granted as they were charged under bailable sections of IPC read with West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order Amendment Act 2017.

Rejecting the prosecution's prayer for police remand of the seven accused, the judge granted their bail prayer on a bond of Rs 2,000 each, along with a surety of similar amount.

All these people were arrested on Thursday during a protest by BJP activists against alleged violence by the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Unruly scenes were witnessed during the protest at different places near Lalbazar, the city police headquarters, as the BJP held protest march from different directions towards it.
Latur: When a chopper carrying Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and five others came crashing down in Latur on Thursday afternoon, the first person to rush to his rescue was small time scrap dealer Irfan Shaikh, who shouted "Our king (CM) is trapped in the chopper".

While Shaikh ran towards the chopper to rescue those inside, some others nearby ran away from the aircraft, fearing it might explode.

The chopper came hurtling down from a height of nearly 80 feet in a thick cloud of dust, accompanied by some flashes of light and a loud booming sound.

While others bolted from the chopper, the 28-year-old Shaikh, unmindful of the risk, ran towards the craft to see how he could help the people stuck inside.

"The copter door was jammed and could not be opened... I pushed it, but it didn't budge... The chief minister then responded by pushing it from inside... Then I managed to (use) force to open it from outside... I offered my hand to the chief minister and helped him step down," Shaikh told a local media person, Govind Ingle of Lokmat Group.

A shaken Fadnavis told Shaikh that he was "fit and ok", and asked him to help the pilots and others on board the chopper even as he walked a few steps away.

The chief minister's office in Mumbai confirmed the developments on Friday, but declined to say whether Fadnavis would felicitate or honour the scrap dealer for rushing to assist them at a critical time, as the chopper could have exploded.

Later, Fadnavis told people that it was "blessings of the 12-crore people of Maharashtra and Jai Bhavani" which helped him and five others survive the crash.
For decades, live animal markets, or pashu haat/mela or shandy have been openly selling both milch animals and animals for slaughter without any regulations. These markets do not have any facilities for veterinary inspections or even basic facilities such as water troughs, ramps for loading and unloading. Insurmountable cruelties such as over-crowding in markets, over-loading during transportation, failure to provide food, water or shelter to the animals brought to these markets was routine.

In India, some of the largest cattle markets are hosted by Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh every year. Estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of animals including cows, bulls, buffaloes, horses, goats, sheep, donkeys, camels and birds are transported in deplorable conditions with no access to food, water or rest to be traded at live markets. Despite the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 describing these as cruelty, there was no improvement made to the process by the stakeholders.

During HSI/Indias campaign to prevent illegal transport of animals to Nepal for the Gadhimai festival sacrifice, it was discovered that 70-80 percent of the animals for sacrifice were being taken from India. Animals confiscated from illegal transport were auctioned in such live markets, often making them the go-to place for buying seized/confiscated animals and from there, recycled into illegal trafficking. This led the HSI/India Government Affairs Liaison Gauri Maulekhi to seek the Supreme Court's intervention. The court then directed the Government of India to regulate live animal markets. Pursuant to the directions of the Supreme Court, the Animal Welfare Board of India framed the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, and recommended it to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

These rules were notified on 25 May, 2017, three years since directions of the Supreme Court. The provision restricting sale of cattle for slaughter through the live animal market aims to ensure that only healthy animals are traded for agricultural purposes. Thereby, to ensure traceability, animals for slaughter would have to be sourced directly from farms. This restriction, however, is being misinterpreted as a blanket ban on cow slaughter.

Far from it, the rules intend to promote the concept of farm to fork, which revolves around the traceability of food products as they move through the supply chain. For 16 years now, as per the Slaughter House Rules, 2001, and for more than six years now, through the Food Safety and Standards Regulations 2011, ante-mortem (pre-slaughter) and post-mortem inspections have been mandatory. The livestock market rules only reiterate what already has been in existence for more than a decade. If during such an inspection the animal is found to have an infectious disease or on antibiotics for treatment, the Animal Husbandry Department should be able to trace the infected animal to the farm. Identifying the farm will help prevent the spread of such diseases through necessary quarantine and disease control protocols.

Furthermore, there is a lack of traceability of the animals in the live animal markets. It has been seen that animals that are being sold for slaughter at these markets are generally unfit, despite which they are traded, making the markets a major hub for the spread of infectious diseases. Before these rules, there were no records or liability on cattle traders and the animals sold could be suffering from contagious diseases. The animal could also be on antibiotic treatment, which, as per the law, requires being withdrawn with enough phase  out time before slaughter. Ultimately, the meat that was reaching the consumers had the possibility of being contaminated by disease or being laced with antibiotics.

Due to the present system of open markets that allow trade of both milch and slaughter animals, and multiple buyers and sellers, it becomes impossible to trace an animal back to its farm of origin. Hence, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 has been notified by the Government of India. The rules prohibit the sale of animals for slaughter only through the livestock markets so that animals for slaughter could be sought directly from farms, thus ensuring traceability which leads to food safety. These rules, thereby, are not only beneficial for the animals while they are alive but also for the countrys food safety.

(The author is the managing director of HSI/India and former member, legal sub-committee of the Animal Welfare Board of India. He tweets @ngjayasimha.)
Raipur: On the fourth anniversary of the Jiram valley Naxal attack on Thursday, the Chhattisgarh Congress reiterated its demand for a CBI probe into the incident, saying that the conspirators were still roaming freely.

The opposition party on Thursday observed the fourth anniversary of the deadly attack, in which 31 people, including top Congress leaders, were assassinated by Naxals on 25 May, 2013.

"Even after four years, the attack victims have been denied justice and the conspirators of the incident are roaming freely," state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel told reporters.

"All of us are sad and disappointed that the state government has failed to arrest the murderers and conspirators of the incident. Jiram valley attack was a political and criminal conspiracy. Therefore, we had demanded in the state Assembly to get it investigated by the CBI, but due to the defiant approach of both the Centre as well as the state government, it could not be done," Baghel said.

While nothing came out in the report of the NIA (National Investigation Agency) over the attack, the judicial commission investigating it is still silent, he alleged.

"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe will unravel the conspiracy behind the incident and expose the Raman Singh government and conspirators," Baghel said reiterating his party's demand for enquiry by the country's premiere probe agency.

A total of 31 people, including Chattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) chief Nandkumar Patel, his son Dinesh, former leader of opposition Mahendra Karma and former union minister Vidyacharan Shukla were killed, while several others injured in the attack that took place in Darbha police station area of Bastar district on 25 May, 2013.

A statue of Nandkumar Patel and his son Dinesh, who were killed in the Jiram attack, will be unveiled tomorrow at his native village Kharsia in Raigarh district, Baghel said.

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, Baghel and others will be present on the occasion there.
The Delhi High Court has issued notices to journalists Arnab Goswami (managing director of Republic TV), reporter Prema Sridevi and ARG Outlier (owner of Republic TV) in the case of alleged infringement of copyright and property theft filed by Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), reported The Times of India.

"It is well settled law that an employee has to maintain confidentiality and utmost fidelity towards his employer. Accordingly, the defendants can be restrained from breaching the contract  reproducing or misusing the confidential information of the plaintiff and using or telecasting the same as that would amount to infringement of the plaintiff 's rights," the report quoted the court as saying.

BCCL, also known as the Times Group, runs the news channel Times Now and had alleged commission of offences of theft, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of property and infringement of the company's intellectual properties by Republic TV.

Two 'exposes' by Republic TV allegedly displayed material, in the form of audio tapes of phone conversations, that was procured and accessed while Goswami and Prema were in the employment of Times Now.

Audio tapes played during two stories aired on Republic TV  on the Sunanda Pushkar case and Lalu Prasad Yadav  are the ones which have caused all the trouble for Goswami's channel.

BCCL had alleged that Goswami and Prema Sridevi have acknowledged that the audio conversation in the 'expose' relating to Sunanda Pushkar case was in their possession for the last two years while they were employed with Times Now.

On the other hand, Goswami had responded to the allegations and called the case a "David versus Goliath fight."

"Goliaths can sit in the police station and David will sit in the news room," Goswami had said. "Goliath is down to his knees," he had also said.

With inputs from PTI
Indian Army officer Leetul Gogoi, who used a Kashmiri citizen as a human shield against stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir last month has been given an award by the army for his 'sustained efforts' in counter-insurgency operations.

The award for Major Gogoi is seen as a backing of the action of the officer belonging to the 53 Rashtriya Rifles even as the army maintained that a court of inquiry (CoI) into the incident is "under finalisation".

"Major Gogoi has been awarded the Chief of Army Staff's Commendation Card for his sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations", army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said on Monday.

Major Gagoi and his team found themselves surrounded by a mob of over 1,000 people hurling stones and petrol bombs. When his repeated announcements failed to deter the crowd he caught hold alleged stone-pelter Farooq Ahmed Dar, who was standing 30 metres from his vehicle and tied him to his jeep thus ensuring safe path to the security personal and polling officers. A video, showing the man tied to the Army vehicle during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election on 9 April, had triggered a public outcry, prompting the force to institute a probe.

There has been mixed reactions all across the country over this report. While the ruling BJP, both in the state and centre has appreciated armys move, other parties particularly the National Conference and the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed it, stating the incident is a gross violation of human rights. There has been mixed reactions from Congress.

Even the army generals are divided over the incident. Although Gogoi has found support from majority of army veterans, many of them has criticised the move stating that this is not the right procedure to tackle insurgency.

Here is how the politicians and army veterans has reacted to the incident;

1) Attorney-General Mukul Rotagi said to The Hindustan Times: "I salute Major Gogoi, Major Gogoi risked his life for the nation. His critics are speaking rubbish and they have no respect for valiant soldiers who are laying down their lives every day so that we can sleep and work in peaceful conditions"

2) Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah in a series of tweets said:

In future pls don't bother with the farce of a military court of inquiry. Clearly the only court that matters is the court of public opinion  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) May 23, 2017

And international conventions like the Geneva/Vienna ones only count when India can accuse others of violations. Do as we say not as we do.  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) May 23, 2017

I'm not a terrorist sympathiser, I don't support stone pelting or secessionists. I do however support values enshrined in the constitution.  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) May 24, 2017

The rule of law is one such value & if supporting it makes me an anti-national person in the eyes of some then that's just my cross to bear.  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) May 24, 2017

3) The Indian Express quoted the father of Gagoi, Dharmeshwar Gagoi as saying, "My son has not done any great work. This is expected of all soldiers."

4) Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh said, "Major Leetul Gogoi's act of tying a man to a jeep as a human shield against stone-pelters should not been seen as human rights violation and there should be no politics over it. Gogoi had saved many lives by showing presence of mind in a particular situation."

5) PDP general secretary Nizamuddin Bhatt said: "Honouring the officer was not proper as the act was a human rights violation."

6) Cabinet minister Jitendra Singh and Member of Parliament from Udhampur said, "It is a huge vindication for every patriotic Indian and also redemption for all of us at a time when it was being believed that certain perverted apologists were dominating the discourse. Those criticising Major Gogoi are compromised."

7) BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said, "Everything is fair in love and war. I appreciate and applaude the security forces for saving the lives of innocent people and not falling into the trap of militants, whose only agenda is to celebrate the death of every Kashmiri every day."

8) Industries and Commerce Minister Chander Prakash Ganga said, "Salute to the Army for this. After all, latoon kay boot baton say nahi mantey".

9) Defense Minister Arun Jaitley said, "Let us not forget the army is a responsible institution and the army was also interested in saving lives of various people who were involved in the election process and also the large crowd of people gathered there to protest. Though situations warrant tough reactions, and dangerous situations often, if not always merit daring actions."

10) The Indian Express quoted JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav saying, "Such an act, even before the probe is complete, can aggravate the situation."

11) Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh tweeted:

Happy to hear of possible bravery award for 'human shield' officer Major Nitin Gogoi, hope it's true, the officer deserves it @adgpi.  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) May 22, 2017

12) Lieutenant-General HS Panag (retired) tweeted:

IA traditions, ethos, rules & regs swept away by the "mood of the nation"! I stand by my views even if I am the last man standing!  Lt Gen H S Panag(R) (@rwac48) May 22, 2017

13) Retired Colonel Anil Kaul said, "He saved lives of people without even firing a bullet despite being attacked by stone-pelters. His act should be applauded and he should be given a Shaurya Chakra."

14) Former Chief of Army Staff NC Vij said, "I must compliment the army chief for the award, to make sure that young officers do not feel discouraged to do their duty."

15) General GD Bakshi (retired) said, "They are screaming for the scalp of that young Major Gogoi who tied a stone-pelter on his jeep. I think in retrospect that the boy did some out-of-the-box thinking and saved lives on both sides. The standard military solution would have been to shoot the pelters dead."

16) Former army chief VP Malik said, "We have to first understand the exceptional circumstances which are prevailing in the Valley today... Exceptional in the sense of the kind of agitations, stone pelting, abusing and pushing of armed services people..."

17) Former army chief Bikram Singh said, ""This is an aberration, a one off incident, I am sure the Army will take corrective action.The Indian Army is a very big organisation."
An attack by Pakistan's Border Action Team on the Indian Army was foiled along the Line of Control in the Uri sector of Kashmir, reports PTI.

Two members of the Border Action Team (BAT) were killed in the attack on Friday, the Indian Army said.

"Alert troops foiled a BAT attack on our patrol party in Uri sector. Two BAT terrorists were killed in the operation," an army official said in Srinagar. The BAT attack was effectively repulsed, the official added.

According to police sources, the bodies of the two terrorists were lying in "no man's land" along the LoC. The chief task of this special services group is to dominate the LoC by carrying out disruptive actions in the form of surreptitious raids the report adds.

The BAT is specifically employed for trans-LoC action, The Indian Express reports.

The situation at the borders in Jammu and Kashmir seems to worsen with every passing day.

On 1 May, in a cross-LoC attack by suspected Pakistani terrorists in the Krishna Ghati sector in Jammu and Kashmir, three Indian soldiers were killed, with the body of one of them being mutilated in second such incident in less than a month, triggering outrage across the nation.

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat had said that the security forces will retaliate to attacks like the Krishna Ghati beheadings.

Times Now reports that the remains of the Pakistani personnel have not been retrieved by the Pakistani Army. Operations are being conducted in the Uri sector since Friday morning, the report adds. The encounter is still underway at the LoC.

More details are awaited on the infiltration attempt.

With inputs from agencies.
Jakarta: The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three policemen, the latest attack to hit Indonesia as it faces a surge in terror plots.

Analysts described the claim as credible and said they believed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local network of IS-linked militants, carried out the bombing.

Two suicide bombers attacked the busy terminal in the capital late Wednesday in a dramatic assault that sparked panic and left human body parts and shattered glass strewn across the street.

Three policemen were killed, and five other officers and five civilians injured in the bombing at the Kampung Melayu terminal. Authorities on Thursday raided the houses of the suspected bombers, and found Islamic teaching materials and bladed weapons.

IS propaganda agency Amaq said late Thursday that the "attack on the Indonesian police gathering in the city of Jakarta was carried out by one of the fighters of the Islamic State", in a statement carried by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Hundreds of radicals from Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, have flocked abroad to fight with IS, and the country has seen a surge in plots and attacks linked to the jihadists in 2017.

Police have said they believe that IS is linked to the attack, but have given no further details. They would not comment directly on the IS claim of responsibility.

Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones, who heads think-tank the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, described the claim as "very credible".

She said she believed that the branch of JAD based in Bandung, a city on the main island of Java, had carried out the bombing.

Al Chaidar, a terrorism expert from the University of Malikussaleh in Indonesia's Aceh province, said he also thought the claim was credible.

JAD was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in January, which said the network was an umbrella group for about two dozen extremist outfits.

Some have accused the group for carrying out a suicide and gun attack in Jakarta in January 2016 that left four assailants and four civilians dead, and was also claimed by IS.
Patna: Junior doctors of the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) on Thursday evening ended their two-day strike following government assurance, but during the strike eight more patients died since Wednesday night, taking the toll to 15, officials said.

PMCH Junior Doctors Association President Vinay Kumar told the media that more than 500 protesting doctors will return to work from Thursday midnight, following a meeting with Principal Secretary Health R.K. Mahajan, who assured them on their demands.

Four junior doctors arrested earlier this week too were released on bail on Thursday.

The strike from Wednesday had left hundreds of patients, many of them in a serious condition, in the lurch. Their attendants and family members did not know where to turn to for medical attention. Seven patients had died on Wednesday.

The strikers were demanding action against police officials who canecharged them during a counselling session for admissions to post-graduate courses on Monday and left some of them injured, officials earlier said.

Junior doctors of Patna-based Nalanda Medical College and Hospital too had joined the protest on Thursday to express solidarity with PMCH doctors.

Earlier, Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) doctors also extended support to the strikers.
Srinagar: With the Hurriyat Conference asking people in the Valley to protest the COAS award conferred on Major Leetul Gogoi  who tied a Kashmiri youth to the bonnet of his vehicle, using him as a human shield during a law and order situation  the police have stepped up the investigation into the case.

Jammu & Kashmir Police on Friday questioned the victim, 26-year-old Farooq Ahmad Dar, and his relative in the case and is likely to summon Major Gogoi, after charging the army with wrongful confinement and endangering the life of a civilian.

The victim had stated to his doctors that he was facing nightmares ever since the assault. Farooq has been diagnosed with acute stress disorder. As per a recent medical report, procured by Firstpost from the department of surgery, Government Medical College in Srinagar, Farooq had undergone physical assault and was suffering from "joint pain and was unable to move his left arm and has stiffness in the back."

"Psychiatric consultation was done for features of anxiety... it diagnosed him with acute stress disorder. The patient also presented with a history of loss of consciousness, for about 20 to 25 minutes after the assault. The patient also gives a history of two episodes of vomiting. There is also a history of bleeding from the mouth and patient also presented a history of nightmares,'' the medical report said.

The hospital records show that Farooq had complained of an assault by the security forces. He had claimed that his two-wheeler was stopped by the forces and that he was beaten with a stick and the butt of an assault rifle for about 20 minutes before he was tied to the bonnet of a vehicle and used as a human shield.

"It is an alleged case of physical assault, with impact on the head, left shoulder, chest, back, left forearm, left hand with wrist and left lower limb,'' the report read.

Both Farooq and his relative were summoned by the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Magam, Fayaz Ahmad Shah, on Friday as part of the investigation. Shah said that they had "recorded statements of witnesses'', which is part of the investigation after a case was registered into the incident.

The police summon came after Farooq had filed a complaint with the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), terming Major Gogoi's award as illegal. Superintendent of Police, Budgam, Tejinder Singh, said that they could summon Major Gogoi, to carry forward the investigation.

Major Gogi has admitted that he had tied Farooq to his vehicle but argued that this was done to avoid loss of civilian lives. The recording of statements is a part of the SHRC complaint, which has been filed in the case by Farooq seeking punitive action against the concerned army personnel.

The complaint has been filed through human rights activist, Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, chairman of International Forum for Justice Human Rights Jammu & Kashmir, who said that he was present while the statements of witnesses were recorded in the case.

Untoo said that strict action should be taken against the army major, as Farooq had simply gone to attend the mourning of one his relatives after casting the vote and had not indulged in stone-pelting. Farooq's relative, Habibullah Ganie, whose statement was recorded by the police on Friday, said that his mother had died on 5 April and Farooq had come to attend her mourning  on polling day of the Srinagar parliamentary seat byelection on 9 April.

"I told the police that my mother had died and, on the fourth day of her mourning, we learnt that the Farooq was tied to an army jeep and later paraded through the area,'' he said.

Untoo said that Farooq had cast his vote at polling station number 90 and had even retained his voter slip, bearing number 612. The victim told the police that he was near Utligam when he was picked up and was later tied to the army vehicle.

"What kind of democracy is it that even a person who cast his vote was not spared. Farooq was paraded through 19 villages... the army chose to indulge in a disgraceful act,'' he said. "Even the village level officer had marked the voter slip, confirming that Farooq had cast his vote."

Farooq's brother, Ghulam Qadir Dar, said that he had left at around 9 am from his house to cast his vote and later attend the mourning of one of their relatives. "But he was thrashed and detained at the army camp and he was handed over to us by around 7 pm,'' he said.
The bloodied civilian unrest in Kashmir Valley last year, apart from paralysing life and wounding the economy of the state, snapped the connection between mainstream political parties and the people.

However, with protests slowly ebbing and a semblance of normalcy returning to the Valley, politicians across ideological spectrums are slowly going back to basics, by visiting volatile places where engagement was mostly missing.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, in a surprising turn of events, left her party leaders and cabinet ministers visibly shocked when she visited one of the most volatile areas of South Kashmir -Kulgam.

The chief minister toured six villages in the area  Devsar, Kellam, Qazigund, Mir Bazaar, Khushipora and Kund  though a heavy security blanket was thrown around these places to thwart any untoward incident.

Mehbooba's visit is expected to set the tone for leaders of other political parties in the state, who have all but abandoned four of the most volatile South Kashmir districts  Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam and Anantnag  out of fear of facing public wrath due to the excesses committed by security forces last year or because of the prospects of militant attacks. Though a sense of fear is palpable and wounds from last year's unrest are still fresh, it is imperative that the political parties reach out to people in these areas.

On 7 May, at least five persons, including three civilians and one policeman, were killed when suspected militants carried out an attack at the main market in Devsar area of Kulgam, targeting a police party which was dealing with a road accident. The militants opened fire on the police party, which had arrived on the scene to clear a traffic jam caused by the accident.

Visiting the same village on Thursday, Mehbooba stepped out of her car and interacted with people, patiently listing to their grievances.

"I was surprised when a long convoy of cars stopped in the main market and Mehbooba got out. Within minutes, scores of people surrounded her. They were talking for a long time and she was patiently listening to them," said Fayaz Ahmad Rigoo, a shopkeeper in Mir Bazar area.

Mehboobas whirlwind tour, the first of its kind since last year's uprising, might not solve the problems on the ground in South Kashmir but could fill the void left by missing political engagement in the Valley. It could, even if partially, pave the way for development and redressal of problems faced by people living in these troubled areas.

In the lead-up to the Anantnag parliamentary seat bypoll, which was later cancelled indefinitely by the Election Commission, political activity was almost missing on the ground. For the first time in the last two decades, no election rallies were held. A fragile peace prevailed in these South Kashmir areas and most of the political parties were unable to campaign freely.

"There used to be a sense of security, which has been missing for some time. It is not that we don't talk to our (party) workers but it is not like we used to... such activities have been missing for some time now," Ghulam Ahmad Mir, state Congress chief, who is from South Kashmir, told Firstpost.

One major reason behind this political disconnect has been the continuous harassment of political activists by suspected militants, which has forced many ground workers of parties like Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference to apologise publicly for being a part of mainstream politics  forcing them to part ways with the political outfits in many cases.

"We have been organising rallies in Kupwara for the last three months, even though the situation was not that stable. One has to understand that until and unless there is a connect between grassroots political workers and a leader, how can the space be reclaimed," Fayaz Ahmad Mir, PDP Member of Parliament from Kupwara, told Firstpost.
Predictably, even the Congress party has distanced itself from its leader Mani Shankar Aiyar who, as a part of a so-called civil society group, met on Thursday almost all the leading separatist Hurriyat leaders in Srinagar. All the prominent news channels carried out special programmes on Thursday, displaying pictures of Aiyar with Shabir Shah, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

The timing of such a meeting, when these leaders are openly encouraging violence and promoting the cause of Pakistan in the Kashmir Valley  that too in the wake of disclosures on how all of them are being financed heavily by the Pakistani establishment  has raised questions about the nature and double-standards of the so-called peaceniks like Aiyar.

However, this analysis is not about Aiyar individually; it deals with peaceniks in general. After all, Aiyar was accompanied by prominent faces in the seminar circuits of Delhi, Lahore and Islamabad  a gentleman who runs an NGO, a retired Air Force official and a leading journalist working in a national newspaper.

It may also be added that Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader, who happens to be the former finance and external affairs minister, is also active in meeting the so-called stakeholders of Kashmir in Srinagar, with his group of retired officials and journalists.

And, above all, whether it is Aiyar or Singh, their activities are broadly supported by all the mainstream Opposition parties in Delhi and Sri Nagar. The Congress may have distanced itself from Aiyar, but that is only for public consumption; the party is very much a part of the movement, which is aimed at the Narendra Modi government in Delhi and the Mehbooba Mufti government in Sri Nagar.

Therefore, the first characteristic of the peaceniks, whether in India or elsewhere, is that an overwhelming majority of them are not comfortable with the government of the day. Most of them are political adversaries of the ruling party and its associates.

It will not be wrong to say that Aiyar has been suffering from Modi-phobia for long (even before Modi became the prime minister) and Sinha is a known disgruntled BJP leader, even though his son is a junior minister in Modis Council of Ministers.

Understandably, therefore, these peaceniks question everything that the Modi government does  strong actions against terrorists and agents of Pakistan, contemplating hard measures against the Maoists in central India, setting up nuclear plants for clean energy and attracting foreign investments to set up industries in various parts of the country, to cite a few examples.

The habitual plea of these peaceniks, or opponents of war, is that the government is violating human rights, depriving the poor of their livelihood and compromising on environmental laws.

The second characteristic of the peaceniks is that their important leaders may be leading politicians, but they do include prominent non-governmental personalities, with or without links to the policy-makers, at their own initiative. Under this category fall retired civil servants, former military officials, academicians, businessmen, media personalities, professionals who organise and attend seminars, and NGOs or civil rights activists.

Invariably, they also attract high-profile celebrities to their cause. We have Bollywood celebrities like Mahesh Bhatt and Gulzar, who have supported the peaceniks for whom Pakistan is a paragon of virtues and Kashmiri-separatists are first-rate Gandhians. Likewise, in the United States, we have seen Hollywood actor Sean Penn and soap opera stars such as Alison Whyte and Kerry Armstrong criticising American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These celebrities are solicited to be with the peaceniks, not necessarily because they really understand the intricacies of the involved issues but because their support attracts media coverage, which, in reality, is the guiding principle.

The third characteristic of these peaceniks is that invariably their source of funding is dubious. After all, it costs money to attract high-profile academicians, retired officials and media personalities who love "free" travels to foreign countries for seminars in five or seven-star hotels, let alone other hospitalities. And, in most of the cases, the money is provided by the foreign NGOs and foreign intelligence agencies (the two happen to be interlinked in most of the cases).

We know how the ISI-funded Pakistani-American Syed Ghulam Nabi Fais Kashmiri 'azaadi' conferences and luxury retreats attract leading Left academics, editors from India. We also know from American scholar Christine Fairs recent book, Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Armys Way of War, how Pakistan's ISI supports and funds peaceniks from India to further Pakistani interests in India, all in the name of peace, of course. Similarly, we also know how some international NGOs are virtually funding the anti-nuclear, anti-development and pro-Maoist peaceniks in India.

The fourth, and the most important, characteristic of the peaceniks, whether in India or abroad, is their inconsistencies or double standards. Invariably, they use the truth selectively.

It may be emphasised here that peaceniks often describe themselves to be the Left and liberals. But it is not perhaps fully realised that almost all the major wars in the last 100 years have been fought and caused by liberals in power.

American global interventionism during the Cold War began under a Democrat (liberal) president, Harry Truman. The most savage phase of Americas war in Vietnam (the mid-1960s) coincided with the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat. In fact, the Vietnam War was ended not by the peaceniks but by the conservatives, under the Presidency of Republican Richard Nixon.

It may be noted that in America, the idea of compulsory military training had emerged from the progressive movement  the spirit of nationalism and of service to the central government was fundamental to American progressivism. As Raymond Robins, the famous American economist and writer who advocated organised labour and diplomatic relations with Russia under the Bolsheviks, wrote, "compulsory universal military training will do more in one generation to break down class and section prejudice, develop disciplined, vigorous and efficient citizenship, and to unify the diverse groups of our national life in a vital Americanism than all other forces combined."

The same has been the case with the Left peaceniks. Did you ever see them criticising the Soviet invasions of Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan? Have you ever noticed them (including their Indian brethren) condemning "Islamic jihad" (that manifested during the recent attack in Manchester), ethnic cleansing by the Pakistanis in Sind, Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir? Have their leaders, like Aiyar, ever supported publicly the rights of the Muslim women? Have they ever denounced fatwahs against "the wrong kind of Muslims", and utter hysterical diatribes against Jews and Hindus?

The biggest problem with the peaceniks, notwithstanding their "libertarian" claptrap, is that hard facts do not match their ideological predispositions. They may criticise todays "Brand Nationalism", but they are doing exactly the same thing by promoting their "Brand Peacenik". In the process, they are becoming really dishonest.
The Central Board for Secondary Education, India's biggest educational board, has indicated it will announce results of the Class XII examinations within 48 hours and abide by the Delhi High Court decision that stopped the board from scrapping its marks moderation policy from this year.

The New Delhi-based board took the decision to do away with the policy in April. The move was catastrophic for students seeking higher level exams to professional courses, both in India and abroad.

Thanks to a Delhi High Court order that allowed continuation of the boards moderation policy, which it adopted in 1992, students from 10,678 schools under CBSE will get extra marks.

But then the board realised that some of the boards used the policy to increase marks, thereby raising the overall pass percentage. As a result, the scores pushed astronomically high cut-offs marks  sometimes touching 100%  for subjects ranging from history to mathematics during admission to sought-after colleges.

The CBSE was unanimous that the process of moderation was grossly unfair. But the decision to scrap it happened after the board examinations were held, a move considered unjust by many affected parties.

The board results are considered the largest stepping stone to higher education because students secure admission to universities based on their CBSE scores.

Prakash Javadekar, who is in charge of the ministry responsible for handling the crisis, said results will not be delayed. We will not put the students at a disadvantage, the CBSE is on top of it, says Javedkar. However, he did not explain why the CBSE did not take the decision a year in advance.

The delay  the results were meant to be out on 24 May  had caused tremendous distress to thousands of students appearing for admissions in engineering and medical colleges. Among them were those who had opted to study abroad on the basis of tentative marks issued by their respective schools.

Now, students next year will be mentally ready because there would be no such additional marks. We are greatly relieved, but this ping pong game could have been avoided, says Sukanta Chakravarty, whose son appeared for the CBSE Class XII examinations. "I am happy that this uncertainty over marks is going to end."

CBSE rushed their decision

The Delhi High Court on 23 May said that doing away of the marks moderation policy was unfair to this year's students who had registered for the exam when the policy was still in place.

The bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Pratibha M Singh asked the CBSE why it could not implement the policy change from next year, as the results of the 2016-2017 exams were expected in a few days.

The court made it clear that the CBSE did not handle the case sensitively and rushed to their decision in April.

Breaking down the arguments

Grace marks help students who are falling short by a few marks clear their papers. Different sets have different difficulty levels. In the garb of 'moderation' marks are inflated.

Until Wednesday, the chances were high that the CBSE would contest the definition of 'moderation'. But it is the delay and uncertainty that caused problems for millions of students, ostensibly because as many as eight states  including Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh  have already declared their results.

Sadly, these students are likely to suffer in the undergraduate admissions because their boards didnt follow their boards didn't follow the CBSE policy.

How did this trouble begin?

A PIL contended that the policy should not be done away with this year, as decided by some states, since it would affect the students of Class XII who have applied for admissions abroad.

The petition, moved by parent Rakesh Kumar, and advocate Ashish Verma, argued that the policy was changed by way of a notification after the exams were held and that it would have a drastic impact on the students. The CBSE did not even care to put the notification on its website for a long time. How can someone take things so lightly? argued Balbir Singh, their advocate.

Singh said the CBSE decision to scrap marks had triggered chaos. If the decision to scrap marks was followed, the Class XII students may not meet the cut-off of the Delhi University as there could be a decrease in marks by at least 12 to 15 percent.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have decided to implement the policy change from next year, which should have been the ideal approach, said Singh. During the hearing, the court was told by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain that CBSE sought some relief for its Delhi University students, but that plea was declined.

Swati Bhattacharya, whose son appeared for the Class XII examination, says the board took the decision without ensuring a national-level consensus between various state boards which conducted Class X and XII exams.

I am relieved. The CBSE decision denied a level-playing field to CBSE students, as compared to those of other state boards. I am all for reduction of moderation marks policy but the colleges need to lower their cut off marks as well, says Bhattacharya.

CBSE's woes aren't over yet

The CBSE is also in the dock over the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), 2017, following an order from the Madras High Court asking the board not to publish NEET results until 7 June, 2017.

The order from the Madurai bench of the high court followed after Sankalp, an NGO, alleged the test was not conducted in an uniform manner across the country and that question papers were leaked. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Rajasthan police earlier arrested a Delhi-based gang involved in leaking the NEET question papers.

Sankalp said different question papers were given to students in different parts of the country. One question came with two correct options, while another came with all four multiple choice answers wrong. Worse, the West Bengal government claimed the Bengali question paper was tougher than the English version.

West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee told Firstpost that those who appeared for NEET suffered badly. We have written to the HRD ministry and CBSE because the promise of identical question papers was not followed and tough questions were framed for the Bengali board students.

The matter is now being heard in the Supreme Court.

Stuck in the middle is the fate of a little over 11 lakh students in 103 cities who appeared for the examination in 10 languages at 1,921 centres.

That's a large number. And another huge uncertainty.
New Delhi: Mauritius prime minister Pravind Jugnauth arrived in New Delhi on Friday for a three-day state visit to India.

He was received at the airport by Minister of State for Human Resource Development Upendra Kushwaha.

This is Jugnauth's first visit abroad since he assumed office in January 2017.

On Saturday, Jugnauth will call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari, and hold delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan will also call on the visiting dignitary, who is a person of Indian origin.

Jugnauth will also address a business event organised by industry lobbies CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM later on Friday.

His visit comes after the visit of then Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam in May 2014 for the swearing in of the NDA government at the Centre. Modi visited the Indian Ocean island nation in March 2015.

Jugnauth is being accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Collendavelloo, and the cabinet and finance secretaries of the country.

Mauritius is home to a large number of people of Indian origin who are descendants of indentured Indian workers brought in the 19th century to work in sugarcane plantations.
Raipur: Terming naxalism a 50-year-old problem in the country, Union minister Venkaiah Naidu on Friday proposed a two-pronged approach to tackle the red "challenge".

"Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is the fifty-year problem of this country and naxals don't want the development of tribal-dominated areas. The two-pronged approach of rapid development and strong steps under the law and order framework in the region can eliminate this menace," the information and broadcasting minister told reporters in Raipur.

He was replying to a query on coordination between Central and state forces fighting naxals in Chhattisgarh.

"Naxals believe that bullet is more powerful than ballot, but we believe that ballot is more powerful than bullet. They are engaged in disrupting development works including setting up of schools and construction of roads in tribal areas," the BJP leader said.

Admitting that naxalism is a challenge, he said the Centre and state governments are working together to tackle the issue.

Recently, the union Home minister had convened a meeting with the states to devise strategy in this direction.

Citing example of Greyhounds force in Andhra Pradesh, he said that concerned state governments are fighting the LWE with a better strategy and naxals are losing their ground gradually.

The minister underlined the need to train police and CRPF personnel in jungle warfare tactics.

"Besides, there is also the need to make people (living in naxal affected area) aware," he said while stressing that security forces involved in anti-Maoist operations should be given a special training.

Naidu said he has directed officials of his departments to make people living in the insurgency-hit areas aware about the government schemes.

Hitting out at rights activists, the minister said it is unfortunate that they remain silent over deadly Maoist attacks but raise a hue and cry when ultras are killed or arrested by security forces.

"Those who talk about human rights, raise their voice and shout if a naxal is killed or arrested by police, saying it is violation of their human rights. However, they remain silent when a large number of jawans get killed by ultras..Do Maoists have rights to kill innocent jawans?" he asked.

A total of 25 CRPF personnel were massacred by underground guerrillas in Chhattisgarh's Sukma in April.

Altogether 37 CRPF personnel have been killed by Naxalites in the state in less than two months.
New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said it was not aware of any request from Pakistan for a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the SCO multilateral summit in Kazakhstan next month.

Both Modi and Sharif are expected to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet to be held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on 8-9 June.

"I am not aware of any such request we have received so far," MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said when asked whether Pakistan has asked for a meeting during Modi's visit to Astana.
Kanwar Pal Singh Gill will be best remembered in Indias post-Independent history as the supercop who successfully eliminated militancy in Punjab with an iron fist and saved the state from becoming a Khalistan.

Gill, an 1958-batch IPS officer from Assam and Meghalaya cadre passed away on Friday. He was 82 years old.

Police and Border Security Force (BSF) officials who had the opportunity to work closely with Gill in Punjab in the 1980s describe him as a towering personality and an iron man.

Unconventional style of functioning

Gill, who earned the sobriquet of supercop, was known for his unconventional functioning style, which also made him unpopular and a controversial figure among influential sections in Assam and Punjab.

While many consider him a hero who eliminated militancy from Punjab, allegations were made that Gill and his men, in the name of stamping out terrorism, violated human rights.

But Gill's unconventional style is what was needed," says former BSF director general Prakash Singh.

When Gill was Director General of Police, Punjab, Singh was tasked with securing the state's borders as Inspector General, Border Security Force (Punjab Frontier).

"Militancy was at its peak in Punjab and at one point of time, it was being debated if India would be able to retain Punjab or lose it. It was his unconventional style of functioning and his iron fist that saved Punjab. Those who criticised Gills methods of dealing with terrorism were nowhere in sight during that turbulent period. His contribution in curbing terrorism in Punjab will go down in history as one of the greatest feats."

For Gill, counter-insurgency was his top priority. This didnt go down well with many in the corridors of power. But his uncompromising attitude and bold decisions helped rid Punjab of militancy, adds Singh.

Former Assam director general of police GM Srivastava, who worked with Gill for 17 years, said: "He faced constant criticism for his unconventional style of functioning: From people who neither knew him nor the gravity of the situations he worked in. As a person who worked with him and knew him, I cannot have such an impression about him. In my view, he was a policeman for whom national interest was of supreme importance. In the history of counter-insurgency operations by the police, he will always remain a figure without equal."

Early days in Assam

Gill began his career as an Assam-Meghalaya cadre police officer and shared a love-hate relationship with Assam. Even as he was feared as an "iron-fisted policeman" by the common man during the Assam Agitation, he was said to have cherished memories of his days in the northeastern state.

Though Gill began his career in Assam in 1958, he emerged as a figure to be feared in 1979, following the death of Khargeswar Talukdar. The 22-year-old leader died following a lathi charge by a group of policemen led by Gill and was hailed as the first martyr of Assam Agitation.

Those were the days when the furore against Bangladeshi infiltrators had gained momentum.

Priyankan Goswami, editor, Assam Times wrote of the day Talukdar died: In spite of curfew, common people not affiliated to any political party or organisation joined in to protest in the wee hours. The police, led in those days by KPS Gill was snagged and rendered helpless and unleashed a ferocious assault with their lathis to break the blockade.

Even after Talukdar's death, Assam saw a number of confrontations between police and movement groups, until the end of Gill's tenure in 1984.

But despite these untoward incidents, Gill had cherished memories of his days in Assam, said Srivastava.

He loved Assam and remembered its people as sweet. He would ask about the state whenever we met. Gill was an excellent leader and a legendary figure in counter-insurgency operations in India. He taught us how to fight terrorism and control mobs, Srivastava added.

His Sikh identity, an advantage

In May 1988, Gill commanded Operation Black Thunder, to flush out militants hiding in the Golden Temple. Compared to Operation Blue Star, little damage was inflicted on the Golden Temple. According to reports, Gill stated that he did not want to repeat the mistakes made by Indian Army during Operation Blue Star.

The fact that Gill was a Sikh and belonged to Punjab helped him deal with Khalistanis more effectively than any other officer.

Being a Sikh, he knew the psychology of Sikh militants. Where others failed, Gill succeeded because he was well-versed with every aspect of Punjab," says counter-terrorism analyst Anil Kamboj, who had the opportunity to work in Punjab during Gills tenure.

Gill gave a free hand to his men and protected them. He raised Punjab commandos in Punjab Police: Young, bold and tough guys who were ready to deal with any kind of insurgency in the state. I had the opportunity to train them at Hazaribagh. Militancy in Punjab was crushed only because of Gill. He got a free hand from the Centre, added Kamboj.

There were certain hard decisions which only he could take, Singh reflected.

Gill, Julio Ribeiro and Prakash Singh

During the Punjab militancy Gill, former Punjab Police DGP Julio Ribeiro and Prakash Singh played vital roles in combating the Khalistan movement.

While Ribeiro was known for nursing the Punjab Police back to good health, Gill was the man who took the militants by horns and led from the front. Meanwhile, Singh choked the militants' supply of oxygen from across the border, a retired Punjab police official said.

My job was to check the entry of militants into Punjab. While Gill eliminated terrorists in the hinterland, we ensured that there shouldnt be any fresh entry of militants and supply of arms in the state. Mand, due to its difficult terrain, was a favourite hideout of militants. It was quite difficult to track them. Gill discussed this with me and we set up a BSF unit at Mand to flush out terrorists, says Singh.

Were his contributions downplayed?

Gill had been an outspoken critic of the governments handling of national security issues. At many seminars and conferences, he blamed the soft nature and under-preparedness of the State. He was vocal in saying that the country lacked a national security policy.

In 1989, Gill received a Padma Shri award, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, but many feel that his contributions were downplayed and he deserved the Padma Vibhushan.

He deserved higher honours for his contributions. Gill risked his life every day, but it was downplayed. There are many officials in bureaucracy: Paper tigers and paper pushers who received higher awards because of their proximity to those in power, says Singh, a Padma Shri awardee himself.

A blot on his career

Despite all his achievements, a blot on his glittering career haunted him to the very end. In 1996, he was convicted for sexual harassment after IAS officer Rupan Deol Bajaj alleged that Gill had patted her posterior at a party. Gill was strongly criticised by womens' rights organisations, who demanded stringent punishment.

It was a dark spot in his career and an unfortunate incident," says a retired official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The IAS lobby went at him with hammer and tongs. During his service, Gill never cared for the IAS and the cadre officials. This incident provided them an opportunity to pin him down."
Jhajjar (Haryana): A Pakistani national has been detained for staying in a temple at Haryana under a fake identity. An Aadhaar card and a PAN card issued in his name, and a Pakistani passport have been seized from him.

As per the passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistan's Sindh province, the police said.

"Raja, a Hindu, came to India in 2013 and his visa expired in 2016. He had been living in ISKCON temple in Bahadurgarh for the last nine months," Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, B Satheesh Balan said.

The date of birth on his passport is different from what is mentioned on Aadhaar and PAN cards, the police said.

A team of the Intelligence Bureau and the police was questioning him.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one the most effective communicators and has given new direction to India's economy, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday.

Addressing a book release event on the third anniversary of NDA government, he said Modi has taken various initiatives and some of his decisions have been epoch making ones.

"No doubt in the contemporary period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators and perhaps can be compared with other illustrious prime ministers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who communicated on their principle, on their ideas accepting the Parliamentary form of government and particularly to have a secular Constitution", Mukherjee said.

He said without having the capacity to be a good communicator one cannot expect to lead the millions of people.

Talking about the government, the president said there has been many major developmental initiatives in India in different directions.

"It (initiatives) has been possible for India because of its strong foundations in economy to overcome the financial crises and subsequently the international financial problems including the Euro zone crises.

"Indian economy is moving steadfast. The prime minister has given a new direction, no doubt. Various initiatives which he has taken clearly indicates the onward movement of India", Mukherjee said.

Some of the decisions are no doubt epoch making decisions, he said. The president was speaking after accepting the first copies of two books, including one on Modi's radio broadcast 'Mann Ki Baat'.

The books 'Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio' and 'Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi's Government at Midterm' were released by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan at a function held in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Mukherjee said the subjects chosen by the prime minister in 'Mann Ki Baat' affect the lives of a billion people.

Vice President Hamid Ansari, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Lok Sabha Speaker and other dignitaries were present during the programme.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday emphasised on discussion and dissension as crucial for decision-making in the country as he delivered the first Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture.

He said India's pluralism and its social, cultural, linguistic and racial diversity have been the bedrock of Indian civilisation, adding that the Indian civilisation has always celebrated plurality and promoted tolerance.

Here is the full text of the president's speech:

It is indeed a privilege as well as a pleasure for me to be invited to deliver the Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture.

When I think of The Indian Express, I think of Shri Ramnath Goenka.

Ramnath ji embodied the finest virtues of journalism: fierce independence, fearlessness and a determination to always stand up to the powerful and fight against the abuse or misuse of power. In fact, there was nothing he enjoyed more than a fight to protect the right of The Indian Express to publish what he thought was proper and just.

He was a fighter. In the face of attempts to control the press, exemplified his willingness to stake all for his principles and to set the highest standards for press freedom in India.

The blank editorial published by The Indian Express during Emergency, under the leadership of Ramnath ji, was perhaps one of the strongest protests ever published against censorship in India.

It spoke more loudly than any words could have.

As Ramnath ji wrote in an editorial in August 1942 when he announced suspension of the paper rather than give in to censorship by the British authorities. He said and I quote: "The hard fact of the situation is that if we went on publishing, The Indian Express maybe called a paper, but cannot be a newspaper. (unquote)

It is also worth remembering today that Ramnath ji was a true patriot. When he founded The Indian Express in 1936 it was in response to a need articulated by Mahatma Gandhi for a national newspaper. He fought for the freedom of the country and for freedom of the press. He took on the Establishment  in colonial times and after Independence  to make democracy more secure and zealously guard the right to free speech as is enshrined in our Constitution.

Better than most, he realized that democracy without a free press was like a blank piece of paper.

The ideals he personified need to be reiterated time and again, cast in stone and followed by all journalists who love democracy and freedom.

I am happy to say that The Indian Express has maintained the standards under the leadership of Ramnathjis son, Shri Viveck Goenka. It has not wavered in its commitment to fairness and accuracy, to independence and a pursuit of the truth. These are not old-fashioned values.

In fact, the values espoused by Ramnath ji were relevant then, are relevant now and will remain relevant in times to come.

In a way, everyone with a phone can be a publisher and a broadcaster, a schoolteacher, a mother, a student and a political activist.

Technology has led to a phenomenal growth in the means of communication, bombarding the public with unprecedented volumes of data, information and, not least, opinion.

This has had many positive outcomes: foremost, it has broken the shackles of silence imposed on the powerless. The sense of liberation that the Internet and social media especially, allows, has ensured that everyone has a voice and that even small voices in the remotest areas can be heard.

The average citizen has been truly empowered in her ability to speak out and to find out.

All of this growth has resulted in a plurality and diversity in the access to information. There is a whole new information world out there to be tapped by our people across the length and breadth of the country.

However, the downside is that the sheer scale and volume of data and information means that much of what is available today remains unfiltered and unmediated. In many cases, even unchecked.

Take the case of recent developments in the United States of America and France, where personal communications of political leaders during an election were leaked and made available freely to anyone roaming the Internet.

Such information, in order to make sense needs to be carefully vetted  checked and rechecked  contextualized and made sense of for it to have value or equally importantly, not be misused.

When so many people speak in so many voices across mediums, many voices are drowned out in the cacophony that is created: and in that noise it is difficult to hear or make sense of what is being said.

This is where good journalism plays a vital and irreplaceable role: it intervenes.

It sifts through all the data, separates facts from what is now described as "fake news, ensures accuracy and provides context, analysis and opinion so that the public can be better informed and form informed opinions.

Aggregation and algorithms, the multiplicity of choices, have meant that while our access to the news is unfettered and vast, it has become increasingly, personalized. People now have the choice to read only what they want to and more importantly, only what they agree with.

Inherent in this process of selective sourcing of news, is the danger of people turning a deaf ear to one another, and a refusal to listen to points of view that may differ from our own. This in turn diminishes the room for agreement and can increase intolerance.

As I have said on many occasions earlier, discussion, dissension are crucial to public debate for decision-making in a vibrant, healthy democracy such as Indias.

There should always be room for the Argumentative Indian but not for the Intolerant Indian.

That would be contrary to the spirit of the Constitution of India, to the very idea of India itself.

I believe that the bedrock of Indian civilization has been its pluralism and its social, cultural, linguistic and racial diversity. It mesmerises me when I shut my eyes and think that in our country 1.3 billion people who are using more than 200 languages, practicing 7 major religions, belonging to 3 major ethnic groups are residing under one system, one flag and one identity of being Indian. That is the celebration of our diversity.

Thats why we need to be sensitive to dominant narratives, of those who make the loudest noise, drowning out those who disagree. Thats why social media and broadcast news have seen angry, aggressive posturing by state and non-state players literally hounding out contrarian opinions.

People in power, across the spectrum of politics, business or civil society, by virtue of the position they enjoy, tend to dominate the discussions and influence its direction.

Due to technological advancement, they can now reach out directly to their audience, completely bypassing this crucial process of filtration and mediation.

This often becomes a one-way only communication from the powerful to the less privileged, and an effort to push the narrative in one direction. Indian civilization has always celebrated plurality and promoted tolerance. These have been at the core of our very existence as a people, binding us together for centuries despite our many differences. We must continue to "throw open the windows for fresh breezes as Mahatma Gandhi observed, without being blown away.

Thus the need to ask questions of those in power is fundamental for the preservation of our nation and of a truly democratic society.

This is a role that the media has traditionally played and must carry on playing.

All stakeholders in the democratic system, from parties to business leaders, citizens to institutions, have to realize that asking questions is good, asking questions is healthy and, in fact, is fundamental to the health of our democracy.

As its role of the primary source of information has diminished due to the variety of mediums now available, the medias other responsibilities have increased: it must be the watchdog, the gatekeeper and the mediator between the leaders and the public.

It must raise and create awareness about issues concerning public welfare, hold public or private institutions and their representatives accountable for all their actions or indeed, their inactions.

In particular, the media has a duty to give space to the millions who still face the injustices of deprivation, gender discrimination, caste and social bias.

I believe the media must safeguard the public interest, and provide a voice to the marginalized in our society. Our people face enormous inequalities which need to be articulated and highlighted continuously  by the media  in order to ensure they are addressed by those who govern.

The media can help the one-way communication become a multi-faceted, multi-layered conversation between those who exercise any form of power and the average citizen. It can build a thoroughfare where ideas can travel up and down, to and fro, as it strives continually for accountability and transparency in public life.

I have said before that the media plays a crucial role in educating Indians and providing space for the expression of diverse views. This role of giving a voice to all has become more important than ever before in an atmosphere where there is too much noise out there jostling for our attention.

At the same time, more than ever before, the media needs to play its role with greater responsibility and the utmost respect for facts. I believe fact-checking is one of the most significant roles the media can play in the contemporary space where extreme opinions to the left and to the right, present what is now called `alternative facts.

When opinion is deeply divided on issues of public importance, be they related to governance, the law, social change or personal beliefs and conduct, objectivity is at a premium. Facts must never be sacrificed to elevated opinions as truth.

In such a situation, journalists must strive  as I know many of you do  to obtain the facts and restore their sanctity.

For it to be able to aim for the highest standards of professionalism, journalists and media organizations must turn the spotlight inwards, on themselves. They must hold themselves to the standards they demand of others.

There is the ever present danger of paid news. Ownership of media, concentration of ownership and distribution platforms in a few hands, and the personal beliefs of individual journalists can and do create conflicts of interest. They also reduce the plurality and diversity of the media. Objectivity has to be restored to regain public trust.

As Ramnathji showed us, the moral courage of the owner or the publisher is fundamental to the level of freedom in the newsroom.

The sheer scale and diversity of growth in media has been breath-taking and had its own consequences. India already has 400 million Internet users, 300 million smartpthone users; Facebook and Whatsapp have close to 200 million users in India while Twitter has become the most immediate source of information and opinion.

The media too, has witnessed continuous growth, although not on the same scale. Print media continues to grow at a healthy 5 per cent  the regional language press has been at the vanguard of this growth. There are over 400 TV channels which carry news and over 150 dedicated news channels in all regions and languages.

This abundance of media outlets has led to a highly competitive media environment which often results in the survival of the shrillest voices rising above the others to be heard. Dumbing down the news to attract an audience is another consequence of the phenomenal growth of the media.

Together, these compulsions have led to complex issues being reduced to binary opposites which, in turn, create a polarity of views and distort the facts.

Media houses need to ask themselves how they can find sustainable economic models that will allow them to resist all kinds of pressures and let them perform their role with honesty and transparency.

We are living in challenging times, globally and nationally. In India, as awareness has grown and spread through literacy and technology, the peoples aspirations have increased. A young and vibrant populationover 65 per cent of Indians are below the age of 35  is eagerly looking towards a future which will offer it sufficient opportunities to fulfil its ambitions.

Even as the youth look to the future, there has been considerable questioning of the past in the public discourse over the last few years. Each generation has the right to look back and reassess the strengths and weaknesses of the past. Let the brave new India draw its own conclusions.

However, such inquiry should not be blinkered by biases or resisted with a closed mind. Indian history and centuries old civilization is replete with examples of a willingness of the people to, as I have said, `doubt, disagree and dispute intellectually. This is the bedrock of our nation; our Constitution is a testament to the accommodation of our differences within the framework of an overarching idea of India. What makes us Indians is our spirit of tolerance and accommodation towards each other and those who differ from us. That has been the survival mantra of our civilization over generations.

Dear Friends,

The Press and the media are considered to be the fourth pillar of the democracy. It wields extra ordinary powers of not only holding the other three pillars accountable, but also influencing and shaping public opinion like no other institution of democracy can. While this enormous power, to sustain itself requires the basic dictum of freedom of expression, at the same time it puts an equally enormous responsibility of accountability and credibility on the media itself. To my mind, while the press will be failing in its duty if it does not pose questions to the powers that be, it will have to simultaneously judge the frivolous from the factual and publicity from reportage.

This is a tremendous challenge for the media and one that it must stand up to. It must resist the temptation to take the path of least resistance which is to allow a dominant viewpoint to prevail without questioning it or allowing others the opportunity to question it.

Media must learn the art of withstanding pulls and pressures without sacrificing its commitment to free and fair reportage and always remain on guard against conformity. Because any tendency towards conformity to be enforced, often requires disguising or dissembling the truth and the facts. This is completely alien to the ideals which inform professional journalism which lives and even dies by chasing the facts and the truth.

The question that faces all of us including the media is whether we will choose to define ourselves as a nation enriched by the diversity of views or allow partisan views to dominate our national narrative?

We ought to remember that democracy will be the loser when and if we cease to hear voices other than our own.

For centuries, India has witnessed a clash of civilizations and philosophies  and survived it all to grow into the worlds largest functioning democracy.

As we go forward as a nation we face contradictory forces: on the one hand is a country with immense potential for growth and prosperity; on the other is a growing sense of unequal distribution of resources and opportunities. The media should reflect both in equal measure but it can only do so if it truthfully reflects the reality on the ground.

Such a reality is a contested space where different points of view jostle to be heard. Will the media give a hearing to the voices from Ground Zero? Will it continue to be a forum where people debate, disagree, dissent?

If the media believes in the freedom of expression, a free and a fearless independent media as Ramnath Goenka did, it must choose to reflect a plurality of opinions for that is what breathes life into our democracy and has defined us as Indians. It must always remember that its fundamental task is to stand up and ask questions with honesty and fairness. Thats the sacred compact it has with citizens in a democracy.

Thank you.

Jai Hind!
Leaders of 17 opposition parties on Friday attended a lunch meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House as part of efforts to come to a consensus on a candidate for the presidential election. Reports said that they would explore the possibility of fielding a joint candidate for the presidential election.

The lunch was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav along with his party leaders Naresh Aggarwal and Ramgopal Yadav.

Other leaders who attended included Kanimozhi (DMK), D Raja (CPI), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), and Omar Abdullah (National Conference).

Representatives of JD(S), Kerala Congress, AIUDF, IUML, RSP, and JMM were also present.

Senior Congress leaders, including party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad attended the meet as well.

The main opposition Congress is seeking a larger unity among non-NDA parties ahead of the presidential election which could be taken forward to the upcoming assembly polls in states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, besides the Lok Sabha elections in 2019," News 18 reported further.

Apart from the presidential election ahead, the meeting also discussed forming a grand alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha election besides focussing on present issues like the Kashmir conclave and the Saharanpur riots, the India Today reported.

Although no name has cropped up officially from the Opposition camp on a consensus candidate, the name of former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has been doing the rounds.

Besides Gandhi, The Times of India reported that "Speaker Meira Kumar's name has also been discussed in the Opposition camp as a possible candidate. However, the 'secular' camp will wait for the BJP to take the first step. JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently asked the government to start the process of building a consensus on the presidential election, arguing that the Opposition will be left with no choice but to field its candidate in the absence of an initiative from the ruling camp."

Efforts are on to bring arch political rivals in Uttar Pradesh  the SP and the BSP  together on a common opposition platform ahead of the presidential poll.

Former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav who was an invitee to the lunch is also seen as one of the probable apart from NCP chief Sharad Pawar. However, although the NCP leader has ruled himself out of the race, it won't be an easy decision for Yadav to take given the conditions to contest for the country's highest constitutional post demands.

"If he contests presidential election then can't remain an MP. He will have to quit from membership of Rajya Sabha before he files nomination. The question which the JD(U) leader in conversation with Firstpost raised is interesting -- Will Sharad Yadav like to lose both, his position as an MP and the presidential election?" wrote Firstpost senior editor Sanjay Singh.

Bihar Chief Minister Kumar has also mooted a second term for incumbent Mukherjee and had even suggested that the ruling BJP try and build consensus on him.

What however surprised everyone was the decision of the Bihar chief minister to stay put in Patna. He in fact deputed Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar and senior JD(U) leader Yadav to attend the lunch on his behalf. His absence from the lunch even raised questions on the unity of the Opposition parties that they unequivocally flaunt before the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular.

"Nitish's absence from Sonia's lunch table becomes significant for the simple fact that he is only credible face in the opposition ranks. His decision to stay put in Patna on Friday on a day when Sonia is poised to discuss opposition unity and deliberate over names of the possible combined opposition candidate for presidential election takes the steam out of the whole exercise," Singh said in his piece.

With inputs from agencies
With communal clashes continuing unabated in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur, the state police has denied permission to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to visit Saharanpur on Saturday, reports have said. Media on Thursday had reported that Rahul would visit the violence-ravaged region to take stalk of the situation. Saharanpur caste clashes, which are being seen as the Yogi Adityanath government's first major law and order challenge, had political undercurrents, claim leaders of the Dalit and Thakur communities that were locked in a bloody conflict which also sucked Muslims into it.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati was denied permission to visit Saharanpur, as well, a Zee News report said. Speaking to ANI, Aditya Mishra, ADG Law and Order, said, "no permission to Rahul Gandhi to visit Saharanpur".

On Thursday, several reports had questioned the Congress scion's silence over the issue. The Indian Express reported that multiple Congress leaders were of the opinion that the party should have taken up the incidents of violence in Saharanpur more aggressively. We lost the (UP) election, and lost it very badly, but we cannot disengage with such issues, the report quoted a senior Congress leader as saying. The leader went on to say that Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar's visit to the area "did not have much effect".

Violence first broke out in the western Uttar Pradesh district about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April. A person was killed and about 15 others were injured on 5 May in another bout of violence, PTI reported. On 9 May, about a dozen police vehicles were burnt and several policemen were injured, following which nine FIRs were registered and 17 people were arrested by the state police.

Home ministry spokesperson Ashok Prasad told reporters on Thursday that one person was shot dead and two people were injured in clashes between two communities on 23 May, following which three FIRs were registered and 24 people arrested.

The state government on Wednesday suspended Saharanpur's district magistrate and senior superintendent of police in view of the continuing violence. The divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general were transferred out of the region, PTI reported.

Mobile messaging services, internet services and social networking sites have been suspended in the district to prevent the spread of rumours which the administration feared could spark further trouble.

With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: The human rights watchdog on Thursday said that the Uttar Pradesh government must urgently bring to justice those responsible for the recent caste-based violence in Saharanpur, in which two men were killed and several others injured.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On 5 May, a person was killed and 15 people were injured in clashes between two communities.

About a dozen police vehicles on 9 May were set ablaze and 12 policemen. On 23 May, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded.

Asmita Basu, Programmes Director, Amnesty International India said, "The Uttar Pradesh government must make every effort to bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice. All suspected hate crimes against Dalits must be impartially and thoroughly investigated,"

She also said, "Impunity for these attacks is likely to spur more violence."

"The Uttar Pradesh government has failed in the past to provide full and effective reparation, including compensation and rehabilitation, to people affected by caste-based or communal violence," Basu alleged, adding, "This needs to change."

Caste-based discrimination and violence against Dalits is widespread in Uttar Pradesh, but is believed to be officially under-reported due to fear of reprisal. Over 8,300 crimes against members of Scheduled Castes were reported in the state in 2015, according to Amnesty International.
Lucknow: Politicians have never shied away from using crime, riots or caste and communal clashes for furthering their interests. The latest round of caste clashes in Saharanpur district of western Uttar Pradesh seems to have yet again provided political parties with the grist to drum up support among their respective constituencies and take cynical advantage of a tragedy that has left two dead and scores injured.

And so as villages like Chandrapura, neighbouring Shabbirpur  Ground Zero in the current spell of violence  and some more in the vicinity are witness to sword fights, stone-pelting and firing between rival groups, local politicians have added fuel to the fire.

The first to jump into the ring was the Samajwadi Party (SP), which after its rout in the state assembly elections, saw its chance to fish in troubled waters as clashes erupted between Dalits and Rajputs.

Though both the stakeholders  the Dalits and the Thakurs  in the bitter feud are not traditionally the support base of the SP, it did not stop the latter from accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing miserably on the law and order front.

Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav targeted the state government in the Vidhan Parishad, accusing it of "abject failure" in maintaining communal harmony, peace, and law and order in the state. "They accused us of doing nothing, now look what they are doing... it's both sad and disappointing," the 44-year-old opposition leader fumed.

Decimated in two back-to-back polls  the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 assembly elections  the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is now using the clashes at Saharanpur to regain lost ground, especially among its core vote bank, the Dalits.

And it is for this reason that BSP supremo Mayawati, who has not taken a road trip anywhere since 2003, finally hit the road in the sweltering May heat to drive from her New Delhi house to Saharanpur to show sympathy for the Dalit victims and support for their cause.

Used to heli-hopping on such occasions, the Dalit leader made no bones about her political game plan either. She stopped at various places en route, invited the media (also a departure from her traditional style of keeping the press at bay) and mingled with the victims and their families.

No sooner had she started from Delhi on Tuesday than violence erupted in Shabbirpur village, already singed by the conflicts since 20 April. District officials say the Dalits suddenly felt emboldened and attacked the houses of upper caste Rajputs, set them on fire and went on a rampage.

The four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister urged the "Dalit Samaj" not to be scared and be with the BSP to safeguard their interests. Clearly rattled by the quiet but steady growth of a regional outfit, Bheem Sena, Mayawati appealed to such splinter groups to come under the "big, solid umbrella of the BSP".

Saharanpur has been a bastion of the BSP support and even in the 2012 elections, when the party was ousted from power, the BSP managed to have three legislators elected from this district. Mayawati has contested from Saharanpur twice and the BSP under Kanshiram, its founder, started its political journey from here as well.

Soon after she left the village, violence re-ignited and escalated, leading to the killing of two persons, damage to property and attacks on Rajputs. Lalji Prasad Nirmal, the president of Dr Ambedkar Sabha, a Dalit outfit, blames the new government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the violence and says the decision to allow Mayawati in the strife-torn village was a grave mistake.

With fires being stoked by politicians, the state government went into damage-control mode and sent four senior officials to the violence-hit regions. Their political bosses, however, took little time to resort to the blame game.

State Power Minister and government spokesman Srikant Sharma alleged that the BSP had incited violence in Saharanpur and that the visit of Mayawati, rather than pacifying the Dalits, had triggered the fresh round of violence.

Chief Minister Aditynath, who had so far used his spokesmen and other crisis managers to "sort out the first major challenge" to his two-month-old government, finally spoke on Wednesday night.

In a statement released by his office, Adityanath, himself a Thakur, appealed to people of the state not to pay heed to rumours and inflammatory speeches and statements but to help the state government to bring the matter under control.

Clarifying that his government did not represent any caste, community or religion and that it was guided by the principle of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" (government for all, development for all), Yogi also accused "some forces of not being able to digest the welfare schemes rolled out by my government".

The BSP has not taken kindly to this insinuation by the Chief Minister and is planning to hit back.

Whatever be the case, people seem to be both sceptical and scared of whatever is unfolding in the state as politicians get ready to play with caste and communal fire at the cost of the state's harmony and development.
New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday filed a civil defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and newly-launched news channel Republic TV in the Delhi High Court claiming damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him while airing news relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram has also sought a direction from the High Court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi police.

The Congress leader, in his lawsuit, has made Goswami and Arg Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited, the company which owns Republic TV, as parties.

He has referred to the broadcasting of news items from 8 to 13 May when the TV channel claimed to air an expose connected to the death of his wife.

The lawsuit filed through advocates Muhammad Ali Khan and Gaurav Gupta denounced the news, claiming that the recordings were released in a sensational manner so as to appease the viewers and created a non-existing controversy by maligning his public life and public image.

"It is not out of place to say that defendants (Goswami and TV channel) broadcasted news reports and alleged expose' which were intended to lead the viewers to believe that the deceased was murdered either by the plaintiff (Tharoor) or at the instance of the plaintiff...Such a broadcast clearly has the potential of adversely impacting the ongoing investigation into the death of the deceased," the plea said while seeking to restrain from "maligning and defaming him in any manner" by reporting or broadcasting the news relating to the death of Pushkar.

Responding to the suit, Goswami alleged Tharoor wants to stop his channel from finding out the truth in the Sunanda Pushkar case.

"My response is that it is a matter of great concern that Tharoor wants to block a TV channel from finding out the truth about who killed his wife," Goswami told PTI in Mumbai.

"In fact, he should be more concerned about finding the truth. And it is he who should be asking questions about why the investigations have been so shoddy, rather than block the channels trying to finding out the truth," he said.

According to Tharoor, Goswami earlier as the editor-in-chief with another TV news channel had aired such news, which was restrained by the National Broadcasting Standards Authority.

In the lawsuit, he was entitled to Rs 2 crore damage and compensation "for having suffered humiliation and having suffered severe loss of reputation in the eyes of the public and he has baselessly been declared by the defendants as the alleged murderer of his late wife".

He stated that the police is probing into the matter and has also lodged an FIR.

"It is pertinent to mention that the Delhi Police took statements from a number of people, including him," the suit said, adding that during the probe not a single allegation has been made by the investigating authorities against the MP.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of 17 January, 2014.
Beijing:China said it is ready to help India if it asks for assistance in the search for the missing Sukhoi-30 fighter jet and two pilots, even as the wreckage was found on Friday.

There was however no trace of the two Indian Air Force pilots who went down with the aircraft on Tuesday.

"So far, we have not received any request from the Indian government for assistance. If a request comes, China will offer assistance from a humanitarian perspective," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

"However, whatever we do, it does not change our position in the relevant sections of the India-China border," Lu added.

On Wednesday, China had reacted curtly when asked if it would provide help in searching for the aircraft, that went missing on Tuesday near the India-China border.

China had warned India not to disturb peace on the border area.

The wreckage was found on Friday found close to the last known position of the aircraft, officials in India said.

The aircraft had gone missing near Arunachal Pradesh's Doulasang area, adjoining China, 60 km north of Tezpur.

The Su-30 had taken off from the IAF Tezpur air base, located about 172 km from the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh around 9.30 am on a routine training mission on 23 May.

It lost radar and radio contact with the controlling station around 11.10 am.
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On the third anniversary of his taking over as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will be in Assam on Friday to inaugurate a number of projects, including the country's longest bridge. He will also address a public meeting in which he is expected to speak about the three years of his government.

In a series of tweets, the prime minister on Thursday said:

I will be in Assam tomorrow to take part in various programmes. I am eagerly awaiting this opportunity to interact with people of Assam.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 25, 2017

I shall lay the foundation stone for two key projects- AIIMS & IARI. Both projects will quicken the development of Assam & the Northeast.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 25, 2017

The Dhola-Sadiya Bridge will be inaugurated tomorrow. This is one of the most important infrastructure projects in our nation.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 25, 2017

In the evening, I will address a public meeting at Khanapara. You can watch it on your mobiles. https://t.co/TYuxNO0R6P  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 25, 2017

Referring to the Dhola-Sadiya bridge which he will inaugurate, the prime minister said, "This is one of the most important infrastructure projects in our nation." Modi also congratulated Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonwal and his government for completing one year in office.

According to reports, the prime minister is expected to arrive at 10 am at the Mohanbari Airport in Assam's Dibrugarh. Modi will then proceed to inaugurate the Dhola-Sadiya bridge. Dhola-Sadiya is slated to be the longest road bridge in the country constructed across the Brahmaputra connecting Dhola with Sadiya in upper Assam's Tinsukia district. The highly strategic Dhola-Sadia bridge, longer than Mumbai's Bandra-Worli Sealink by 3.55 km, has been created to carry T-72 tanks. Once commissioned, it will take 30 minutes to cross over to Sadia near the Lohit border in Arunachal, reducing the travel time by four hours. It will also ease access for the Army cantonment at Walong and the vital Kibithu town in Anjaw district bordering China and Myanmar, changing the contours of any war doctrine on the Chinese front.

The inauguration is scheduled to be at 10.30 pm. After the inauguration, Modi is expected to proceed to Gogamukh in Northern Assam's Dhemaji district to lay the foundation stone for Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). The prime minister is expected to leave for Guwahati at around 1.50 pm where he will lay the foundation ceremony of an All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the first to come up in Northeast. The proposed medical college will come up at Changsari in Kamrup (rural) district, 28.5 km from Guwahati across the Brahmaputra.

Modi is expected to arrive at Khanpara from where the prime minister will conclude his trip with a political rally. Modi is scheduled to deliver a speech to the nation on three-year anniversary of NDA government, which also marks a year of BJP government in Assam. It is for the first time that BJP is in power in Assam on its own. The prime minister may also use this platform to make some sort of big political and economic announcement. The party is expecting turnout of over one lakh in Khanapara.

Modi, who led the BJP to a massive victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, was sworn-in as the prime minister on 26 May, 2014.

With inputs from agencies
New York: It was supposed to calm nerves, relieve stress and improve concentration but a new anti-fidget toy spreading fast through US and European schools is whipping up anger among teachers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Just months after the "fidget spinner" first whirled its way into the hands of antsy youngsters, some schools have already banned it  prompting a debate about difficulties children experience concentrating.

"The fidget spinners came out of nowhere, and then it seemed every other kid had them," said Meredith Daly, a sixth-grade teacher at a public school outside Phoenix, Arizona. "The kids would say, 'Oh it helps me calm down.' I did not really know what to think at first."

Sold for just a few dollars, the spinning top-like gadget divided into two or three branches, has proved a surprise hit this spring, first in the United States and then across Europe after its release on the continent last month.

The spinners have the advantage of being silent, Daly says  a relief to many grown-ups after months of "bottle flip," a popular game that involves spinning a bottle of water until it lands upright.

But it quickly became clear that with "the fidget spinner, you need to keep it going, they want to look at it spinning around... it is too distracting if you are trying to learn something new," she said.

"So we all decided 'No fidget spinners  keep them in your backpacks!'"

Like many American teachers who have recently vented their irritation on Twitter, Daly tolerates them only at parents' express request. Or when the need arises, as is sometimes the case for children with attention problems, hyperactivity or certain forms of autism.

Other schools in the United States, France and England have banned them, even during recess, much to the annoyance of children like Tom Wuesteberg.

"It would help (to have them in school)... if I don't want to do my work anymore, I take my fidget, do a little spin and then get back to work," the eight-year-old New Yorker originally from Belgium says.

Noelle Cullimore, who lives in Long Island with her two children, says spinning helps her 10-year-old son, who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), to relax.

"He spins it at the bus stop or in the car, it really does keep him occupied, and for the most part it has been good for him."

Burning out stress

It's not just for kids. Adults also like to use spinners as a way "to burn out stress," says Richard Gottlieb, CEO of Global Toy Expert.

"People do want to fidget," he says. "There is so much to worry about the world right now that people need a way to work out stress."

As annoying as it may be, many teachers recognise that a growing number of children need to play with something in their hands to concentrate better and are now more tolerant of students clicking pens or tapping their feet.

Stress balls and wiggle seats have become common in schools, Daly says.

"We could probably make a lot of money if we could come up with that quiet, effective toy that kids could do while they are writing an essay."

One of the contenders to fill that void is the Fidget Cube, a small plastic box whose every side offers a new possibility to keep fidgety fingers occupied.

A runaway success on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, it has spawned multiple imitations.

"This behaviour (fidgeting) isn't one that should continue to be stigmatised and mocked as unbecoming or inappropriate," the inventors of the Fidget Cube said in a press release.

"We are passionate about the idea that fidgeting is a process that, with the right tools and outlet, can have positive and real-life applications."

Infographic by Fidget Circle
Editor's Note: A nations legal system is integral to how its citizens look upon issues that concern the country in general and their individual lives in particular. Despite having the worlds longest Constitution  not to mention, one that has gone through numerous amendments and the many directives by the Supreme Court that have secured the stature of de facto law, the Indian law books have struggled to evolve at a pace commensurate with the rapid changes society has undergone. As the load of being archaic becomes heavier on our law system, Firstpost introduces a 10-part series titled 'Letter of the Law' to push forward the debate on legal practices and the law itself. The series will explore a variety of aspects pertaining to Indian law through opinion and analyses.

***

The judiciary is a co-equal branch of the government within Indias democratic and constitutional framework, along with the legislature and the executive. The role of courts in society is not merely to adjudicate disputes between parties, but also to protect the rights and liberty of individuals. This is especially important in criminal matters, where an individual is pitted against the might of the State.

The rule of law cannot exist without an effective judicial system, which is capable of enforcing rights in a timely and proportionate manner in a way that inspires public confidence in the administration of justice. For the law to govern, the system through which it is administered must measure up adequately when mapped against the three dimensions of justice substantive justice on merits, timeliness in the disposal of cases, and proportionate use of the States resources. Access to justice thus, assesses the fulfilment of an individuals entitlement to justice on these parameters to ensure that legal redress does not become the preserve of a few. It represents the ability of every person to enforce the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by law.

Unfortunately, apathy and ineffective governance have created barriers in accessing justice, which has resulted in granting certain sections of society only limited access to the full range of socio-economic and civil-political rights available. There are three immediately obvious barriers to access. First, there are external factors such as monetary, cultural or geographical barriers, which exclude or fence out certain sections of society by preventing their access to courts. Geographical barriers or distances from courts can cause great difficulty to litigants, accused, witnesses, if they have to undertake day long trips to reach the courts, only for the matter to be adjourned. Distance also determines the probability of appealing the decision of a lower Court to a State High Court or to the Supreme Court. Nick Robinson, in an excellent analysis of the Supreme Courts docket found that while nationally, there was a 2.5 percent chance of a High Court decision being appealed to the Supreme Court, there was great disparity in the appeal rates based on the proximity of the State High Court to the Supreme Court in Delhi. Thus, while the appeal rate in Delhi in 2008 was 10 percent (around 4 times the national average), in Tamil Nadu it was 1.1 percent.

Second, are internal factors, such as delays or convoluted procedures and technicalities, which affect everyone in the system, but disproportionately impact those with fewer resources. This raises the question of whether every individual, who approaches the legal system or is made to participate in it  as a Defendant in a civil suit or an accused in a criminal trial  can expect an expeditious hearing, as well as a fair outcome?

Third, there are quality factors, which are caused by the uncertain and inconsistent application of law and arbitrary sentencing and affect the substantive judgment of the case on merits. This tends to have a disproportionate impact on the poor, whether in cases related to bail, or the death penalty. Reforms in each of these areas will significantly improve the lives of our citizens by creating equal opportunities to enforce the law and more generally, improve social cohesion.

This piece focuses on delays in the legal system, looking at both, the scope of the problem, and its implication on the criminal justice system.

Understanding the magnitude of the problem of delays

For the law to govern, the system through which it is administered must measure up adequately when mapped against the speed of disposing cases. Unfortunately, delays illustrate the impediments to accessing justice in India.

Currently, there are more 2.8 crore cases pending in various courts across India, with more than 60,000 matters before the Supreme Court. The problem however, is not of too many cases coming into the system; it is of too few coming out.

This is best demonstrated by the Supreme Courts own data on the national picture of the pendency of the cases in the subordinate courts:

These undue delays, often occasioned by judicial vacancies and improper case management, are burdening the system and frustrating the average citizens hopes for effective redressal.As is evident from the aforesaid table, although subordinate courts are usually adept at handling the flow of fresh cases, they fail when it comes to reducing the pendency or backlog of cases.

It is a matter of great worry that even in 2015, more than 22.8 percent of all cases before subordinate courts are more than five years old; and of this, 15.8 percent are criminal cases, where the life and liberty of individuals is at stake. Such delay in criminal matters adversely affects the rights of the victim (and creates future disincentives from filing or pursuing cases) and the accused (who might be in prison, or have his liberty and free movement constrained, or at the very least, be living under the fear of an eventual conviction).
Was demonetisation  the recalling of Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes overnight  the biggest blunder or the biggest reform step taken in Narendra Modis three years? There is no straight, easy answer to this question. Nevertheless, a question worth asking again and again given the extent of impact it had in peoples livesboth positive and negative.

What one can say, for sure, is demonetisation was the biggest political gamble seen in the history of modern India. It showed the inimitable political resolve of a national leader to take a high-risk decision, knowing its full impact or otherwise, thatll have large political ramifications in the rest of his political career. No other leader would have dared for such gamble.

Modi would have certainly expected some brownie points by positioning himself as an anti-corruption, anti-black money crusader. But for sure, he wouldnt have known that despite demonetisation, the political rewards would be of this scale, that he would still enjoy peoples support in the same way.

All this despite a faulty implementation of the programme and prolonged miseries common man was put through. Whether the BJP admitted or not, the Uttar Pradesh poll result was a referendum on note ban too. Modi won the political gamble, in style. Period.

But, what did the country gain out of this political decision?

Before probing an answer to this question, lets briefly revisit the events that led to demonetisation. Raghuram Rajan, the news maker governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said goodbye to the Mint Road on 4 September 2016, leaving the space for his deputy Urjit Patel.

Except economists and academic enthusiasts, nobody would have paid any great attention to the word demonetisation, until then. No mention of this word was there in any panel discussions or economic discourses.

Or was it there? Go back to 2014, and there was a skeptical Rajan talking about the demerits of demonetisation. It (demonetisation) ) is often cited as a solution. Unfortunately, my sense is the clever find ways around it. They find ways to divide up their hoard into many smaller pieces. You do find that people who haven't thought of a way to convert black to white, throw it into the Hundi in some temples, Rajan said responding to a question at the 20th Lalit Doshi Memorial Lecture on 11 August 2014 at Mumbai (read a Business Standard report here).

I think there are ways around demonetisation. It is not that easy to flush out the black money. Of course, a fair amount may be in the form of gold, therefore even harder to catch, Rajan said.

So, what we know is that the RBI wasnt a big fan of note ban back then.

But then, just yesterday (Thursday), economic affairs secretary, Shaktikanta Das told members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee that Rajan was on board on the demonetisation decision (read here). So what really happened? Did the Modi government wait for an unsupportive Rajan to pack his bags and go and the new incumbent, Patel, to take over for the grand launch the demonetisation plan?

No matter what really happened behind the screen, Modi walked on to the stage on 8 November and went on with his televised announcement.

To break the grip of corruption and black money, we have decided that the 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight, that is 8th November 2016, Modi said in his speech (read full text here) that lasted about 45 minutes, thus unveiling his biggest and boldest decision of his political career after taking over the PMs office in May 2014.

The RBI and its new governor, Urjit Patel, were on the sidelines throughout the mega show. Their job was limited to issuing circulars of the already hinted and announced decisions by the governments ministers and bureaucrats and count old notes that returned to bank counters post demonetisation  a work still continuing after the move six long months back.

An RBI, seemingly caught off-guard by the government decision, issued and reissued circulars, changed the rules on cash deposits and withdrawals  which the government/ RBI termed as responding to ground level situations/ developments and the critics dubbed as making rules on the go with no clear plan. Former RBI officials like Usha Thorat openly criticised the central banks approach to the whole episode.

Lets come back to the original question? Beyond the political gains for the incumbents, what did the country gain or what did it lose from Modis biggest move in three years?

Modi's demonetisation move gave economy Rs 5 lakh crore advantage, said a report in the India Today, citing a high-level internal government report.

Here is the rationale.

At the time of demonetisation, currency worth Rs 17.77 lakh crores was in circulation in the economy. Out of this, Rs 15.44 lakh crores was in high denomination notes, which were phased out. Rs 2.33 lakh crores was in small denomination notes with a value of Rs 100 or less. The government's internal calculation is that if currency in circulation had continued to be printed at the same rate as before demonetisation, then by May 2017, currency in circulation would have been of the value of Rs 19.25 lakh crores. According to RBI figures,at the end of April this year, the total amount of currency in circulation was Rs 14.2 lakh crores.

This means a difference of about Rs 5 lakh crore. But, this calculation lacks logic. For one, even assuming the projections are true, a decline in currency in circulation is no way any tangible gain of note ban for the government. Had a large portion of cash got extinguished outside the banking system and in turn reduced the currency liability of the RBI, the government could have found way to claim the money and exhibit it as the demonetisation gain. This never happened.

Instead, almost all currency demonetised returned to the banks. We dont know how much yet, since the central bank hasnt released the figures. There is a likelihood that significant portion of the black money in cash would have found way to the formal system through benamies.

Until the taxman proves this and reclaims the money, the process has actually created more black money. So, how can one explain the decline in currency in circulation?

There are only two possibilities. One, there is just not enough cash being printed to meet the demand. Two, people have shifted to digital transactions hence not necessitating the need for cash. But, terming it as demonetisation gain is illogical and misleading.

According to Sushil Chandra, Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes, the income tax department has identified 1 lakh suspected cases of tax avoidance and undisclosed income of Rs 23,144 crore. About 91 lakh new taxpayers have also been added post the demonetisation. If the demonetisation has caused addition of new taxpayers, it is a good thing but as far the recovery of black money goes, the achievements so far is disappointing.

Of course, any achievement in the battle against black money, however small it is, and any measure that helps widen the tax base, is laudable. But, gloating over it is premature and a major blunder. Why? This is pittance compared with the black money estimates of economists like Columbia university professor, Jagdish Bhagwati, who put the figure around Rs 5 lakh crore. Even the Prime Minister's Garib Kalyan Yojana, the scheme that the government introduced after the demonetisation period ended to encourage tax evaders to come clean, managed to garner just about Rs 2,300 crore.

This means, there is a long road to tread in the black money battle. As far as corruption and terror funding are concerned, even the hardcore supporters of note ban cant claim victory.

There are some positives too. Note ban has indeed helped to formalise the economy with more number of depositors now traceable. Also, the Modi governments push for cashless economy post demonetisation has helped to improve the use of non-cash methods for regular transactions. Launch of BHIM app and incentives for use of cashless transactions have encouraged more number of people to take the digital shift.

But, one cant be blind to the fact that it has done considerable damage to certain sectors in the economy  mainly the informal sector. Lakhs of jobs have been lost and small businesses have faced a tough time, inviting wrath from even the right wing workers unions. The recovery in these sectors will take a long time.

Some well-known economists have warned about the ill-effects of note ban saying it will shake investor confidence. "Demonetisation, fiery political speeches, symbolic gestures (who needs giant and costly Shivaji monuments?) disrupt the confidence of potential investors, domestic or foreigners. They wonder what will happen next and get cold feet," French economist Guy Sorman told PTI in an interview.

Demonetisation was a successful political coup which was heavily applauded by a majority of the Indian people... Simultaneously, it has disrupted commercial transaction and slowed down the economy at large. Did it stop corruption? Of course not, said Sorman. But, there are economists, like Jagdish Bhagwati and Bibek Debroy who have praised the government on the move.

So back to the original question -- was demonetisation the biggest blunder or the biggest reform step taken in Narendra Modis three years?

The answer depends on whom you ask.
BJP has begun discussions to finalise its pick for the post of President and Vice-President of India.

According to The Times of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has discussed the issue informally with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

A formal discussion was not held because party president Amit Shah was in Telangana. The report also said that there are indications that the BJP leaders favoured fielding party nominees for the two posts.

On the other hand, the Opposition hopes to put up a grand and united show at Congress president Sonia Gandhi's lunch on Friday, where deliberations on a consensus presidential candidate will also take place.

Top opposition leaders are likely to attend the lunch meet hosted by Gandhi in the Parliament House library on a day that also marks the third anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, however, will not be there because of a prior engagement, sources said, adding that his party, the JD(U), would be represented by Sharad Yadav.

The sources also said the Congress had not invited Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.

"You wait and see tomorrow. Most opposition leaders will attend the meeting," a senior leader said, when asked if BSP leader Mayawati and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik would be present.

The leaders would explore the possibility of fielding a joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election.

Sources said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, CPM's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and JD(U) veteran Yadav, who is himself a possible contender for the top constitutional post, would attend the lunch.

Invitations had been sent to JD(U), CPI, CPM, SP, DMK, NCP, RJD and TMC, besides some other big and small regional parties.

The main opposition Congress is seeking greater unity among non-NDA parties ahead of the presidential election which could be taken forward to the upcoming assembly polls in states such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, besides the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Efforts are on to bring arch political rivals in Uttar Pradesh  the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party  together on a common opposition platform ahead of the presidential poll.

Several names have been doing the rounds as probable candidates. Among them are former West Bengal governor and Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Gopal Krishna Gandhi, former JD(U) president Yadav, Former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar and NCP chief Sharad Pawar. The NCP leader has, however, ruled himself out of the race.

Bihar chief minister Kumar has also mooted a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee and suggested that the ruling BJP try and build consensus on him.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Politics should not be left to politicians only and the BJP is open to all "good people", party chief Amit Shah said on Friday, days after Tamil cine superstar Rajinikanth hinted at taking the political plunge.

Shah, however, did not specify whether Rajinikanth would be given an invitation to join the BJP.

"We believe that any good person joining politics must be welcomed," Shah said while responding to a question on speculation about Rajinikanth entering politics.

He, however, said it is for the actor to decide whether he wants to join politics or not.

"Politics should not be left to politicians alone," he told PTI during an interaction.

Speculation is rife that the BJP is trying to rope in the actor, who has a large fan following, to make inroads in Tamil Nadu.

BJP national secretary H Raja had earlier said Rajnikanth is a "popular" personality and is welcome to join the saffron party.

Raja, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said the actor has to first make up his mind about joining politics, when asked if the BJP will approach him.

"He has every right to form a political party or join politics. But so far he has not taken a firm stand. So we have to wait and see," he had said.

Rajinikanth had spilled the beans about his political entry during an interaction with his fans a few days ago and told them to be ready for a "war".
Mumbai: The Congress will hold a protest in Mumbai on Friday against the "inefficient" NDA government at the Centre, which completes three years in power.

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam told reporters on Thursday that the BJP has completely failed to fulfil its poll promises.

"Soldiers are dying on the border due to constant attacks by the enemy. Terror activities and intolerance are rising. Youths, farmers, women, small industries and salaried people have nowhere to go today," he said.

Congress will hold a protest at Azad Maidan on Friday against the "inefficient" government, deteriorating law and order situation and the financial hardships being faced by the people, he added.

Nirupam said that senior Congress leader and former union minister RPN Singh, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, MPs, MLAs and corporators will take part in the protest.
The Bard of Avon would call it much ado about nothing. After making a song dance about doctored electronic voting machines, parties have developed cold feet when it mattered the most. Going by their response 'The Great EVM Challenge' is likely to end up a damp squib.

It was expected to be the event of the decade, nay many decades. After all, its not every day that a constitutional authority like the Election Commission throws a public challenge of this nature. It is not often that supposedly fool-proof technology comes under such intense questioning. And imagine the political earthquake if any party taking it up managed to rig the voting machine in its favour! It would render all elections post the introduction of EVMs in 1998 a massive fraud on the Indian voter.

Less than 24 hours to go for parties to apply for the tampering challenge, there are no takers, said the Election Commission on Thursday. The hacking exercise was scheduled to begin from 3 June. Seven national parties and 46 parties from states were invited to participate. All have chickened out of the hackfest and the commission seems to have won its case without even having to make an effort. According to reports in the media, it might call off the event as the deadline ends on Friday without a response.

Only a few weeks ago, the Aam Aadmi Party made a hue and cry over the tamperability of the voting machines being used in India. It had demonstrated in the Delhi Assembly, for the benefit of all legislators and some guests invited specially for the occasion that the voting machines indeed were not as inviolable as made out by the commission. If you press the code of a party immediately after casting your vote then all subsequent votes would get directed towards one particular party.

Saurav Bharadwaj, AAP legislator and a former software engineer, displayed helpfully that all votes went to the BJP after the entering of the code word. Soon after the massive victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, some parties, including BSP, Congress and AAP had claimed that the machines were rigged to help the party win elections. The AAP was particularly irked by the fact that it lost in Punjab where it was considered the favourite by many.

The commission responded by inviting parties to the hackathon. The AAP now says that the challenge is pointless since the poll authority wont allow it to tinker with the motherboard. Congress and the BSP, parties which made a hue and cry earlier, have gone silent now. What was all the noise about then? The parties, particularly that of Arvind Kejriwals, end up looking silly. It appears they were only being bad losers after getting squarely defeated. They cannot just accept that they lost to BJP and its leader Narendra Modi.

The charge against voting machines, in a way, reflects the lack of ideas in these parties. They had raised an important question. All machines are manipulable, the Supreme Court itself had observed while hearing the case. In several countries voting machines have been abandoned for this specific reason. While in India the security features are much advanced, it is possible that hackers could be trying hard to circumvent these to rig results. Criminals find a way to beat technology, so it is always better to put it under test from time to time.

The hackathon was a perfect opportunity to do that. Now that the parties have backed out, they have also lost the right to blame voting machines in future. But they have created doubts in the minds of many Indians on the fairness of our elections. It would be nice if the commission showed them that nothing is wrong. The BJP, which was the obvious target of the other parties via the tampering allegation, now gets the right to mock them some more.

Meanwhile, the Bard of Avon, wherever he is, can go back to sleep. Much ado about nothing is no big deal in India.
New Delhi: With less than 24 hours left for the interested political parties to apply to participate in the Election Commission's challenge to try and tamper with the electronic voting machines, none have applied.

On Saturday last, the Commission had announced that the challenge to hack and tamper with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) would take place on 3 June and the seven recognised national and 49 state parties can apply by 26 May, 5 pm, to participate in the challenge.

But till tonight, nobody has applied, Commission sources said.

After the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the BSP and the AAP had questioned the reliability of the machines.

Later, several opposition parties, except the AAP, had urged the EC to revert to paper ballot, saying the faith of the people in EVMs has eroded.

A demand of the AAP to tamper with the motherboard of the machine was rejected by the Commission on Thursday.

It said change in circuits would mean the EVM is no longer the one used by the Commission.
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday said the terms and conditions attached by the Election Commission (EC) to an EVM hackathon from 3 June were a "barrier to a thorough test" of the voting machines and called for relaxations in three such rules for the challenge.

In a letter to the Election Commission, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said the challengers should be allowed access to all the components of an Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), including the motherboard.

"The extensive terms and conditions that this challenge imposes prevent challengers to conduct a thorough test on the EVMs. We urge you to reconsider relaxing the three rules, as their inclusion undermines the very credibility of this initiative," said Surjewala.

The Congress sought relaxation of the conditions that challengers would get access only to the control unit (CU) and ballot unit (BU) of an EVM, that challengers would be allowed only to press buttons; and tampering would be demonstrated only when EVMs are in strong rooms/counting booths.

"The EVM is composed of more components, apart from the CU and BU. If challengers don't have access to all the components, such as motherboard, how will they demonstrate their concerns?" asked the Congress leader.

"The EC must factor in the possibility that those who try to or tamper with EVMs in real life can do so without pressing the buttons on the CU or BU or do it before/after the EVMs are in the control room," he said.

Surjewala said it was imperative that a challenge of this magnitude simulated real life conditions as much as possible and the design of the challenge must not prevent those who he said can demonstrate hacking.

Observing that a "fair challenge" will send a strong signal to the people about the credibility of EVMs, Surjewala urged the commission to revise the conditions.

The Election Commission on Thursday turned down the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) similar demand to reconsider the terms and conditions of the challenge, prompting the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit to announce it will not participate in the challenge.

The Election Commission in May announced the challenge from 3 June to prove that its EVMs cannot be tampered with or hacked and came out with conditions under which this will be done.

The challenge follows allegations by the AAP and other opposition parties of EVM-hacking during the February-March Assembly elections and the Delhi civic election to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party.
It is difficult to understand what the Congress thinks, what its strategy is to return to relevance in electoral politics. Return to power can wait. At the national level, Sonia Gandhi is trying to engineer a grand coalition of Opposition parties ahead of the presidential election. That project, too, has run into the Nitish Kumar headwind. At the state level, the party has been obliterated in most, in some, it has been rendered irrelevant. Siddaramaiah's Karnataka remains an exception. No guarantees though whether that will remain in the bag next year.

Such an existential crisis would drive any party to take urgent corrective measures. Accounting for the grand old party's laissez-faire politics, all we are getting to see are vacuous protests, symbolic luncheon meetings or worse still, unmitigated blunders. Mani Shankar Aiyar's schmoozing with the Hurriyat leaders fall into the second category. Tough to think of a better way to commit political suicide.

The current set of Gandhis has turned a rich legacy into a millstone around Congress' neck. We deserve a better opposition. Indian democracy deserves a better set of Opposition leaders. What on earth was the Congress leader  a living, breathing example of Lutyen's elitism  thinking while leading a delegation of 'civil society' members to interact with Pakistani puppets and terrorist sympathisers?

It is perhaps not unexpected of Aiyar, given his hatred for a certain "tea-seller" which led him to seek Pakistan's help in "removing" India's elected prime minister for "talks to resume".

Congress must learn to choose its political debates. It appeared on the wrong side during the JNU row. The Aiyar blunder may push it further into somnambulism. It has so far appeared intent on damage control with spokespersons hemming and hawing to clarify that Aiyar went to meet Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his gang of rent-seeking opportunists "in his personal capacity" but unless there is clear denouncement from the party  which has not been forthcoming  it is difficult to sell the narrative that the party's highest leadership had nothing to do with Aiyar's adventurism.

If indeed Aiyar had kept the Gandhis in the dark, that doesnt speak very highly of the 'High Command's' command.

Questioned during a media conference, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma first claimed that BJP did it in the past, blamed Narendra Modi for mishandling Kashmir, and finally added in a huff that the party cannot be held responsible for what "an individual" has done. His squeamishness is easily explained. Of late, the Congress has been taking a starkly anti-Hurriyat stand.

Just a few days back Randeep Surjewala had slammed the BJP-PDP government for 'tacitly colluding' with the corrupted Hurriyat and had said: "Those funding terrorism in the Valley must be prosecuted and punished. There is no question of talking to them."

No wonder Sharma was unable to give a clear answer. The optics have been terrible. A video clip shows Geelani accusing India of "occupying Kashmir through its army" and the delegation  which included Air Vice Marshal (retired) Kapil Kak, OP Sharma, chairman of the Centre for Peace and Progress and a journalist  breaking into laughter at the 'joke'. A Zee News report says the meeting took place the Hurriyat leader's Hyderpora residence in Srinagar on Thursday.

The larger question is what message Congress is conveying to the electorate through such parleys and more importantly, what message are we conveying as a nation when on the one hand the Central government tells Supreme Court that there shall be no talks with separatists on Kashmir and on the other, a prominent leader of India's chief Opposition party is seen embracing leaders, many of whom are reportedly on Pakistan's payrolls.

We have seen enough of these Track-2, Track-3 nonsense that yield little else beyond political grandstanding. Yashwant Sinha had led a similar delegation to Kashmir and came out with a report filled with inanities and Pakistani propaganda. The simple truth is Hurriyat is part of the problem, not the solution. It is a trap in which earlier Indian governments had happily walked into, under the mistaken notion that arsonists will help douse the fire in Kashmir.

It is hard to disagree with Rahul Pandita's assessment of the Hurriyat in Open magazine, that its "foremost agenda is to keep Kashmir burning so that its leaders remain relevant and fatten themselves on money pouring in from both Indian and Pakistani agencies. It is this bad call over Kashmir that has got the likes of Syed Salahuddin and his Pakistani handlers laughing at us."

There is no need to go into details of Hurriyat's links with ISI and how its leaders have allegedly been receiving hawala money. Readers may follow the India Today report here.

Times Now had reported that Shabir Shah, whom Aiyar met during his visit, "has been serving as a conduit to channel ISI funds to various bodies of the Hurriyat. It has also been revealed that an ISI man named Ahmad Sagar was constantly in touch with Shah, who belongs to the Hurriyat in Srinagar."

In further reports, India Today described how Hurriyat's Provincial President (Geelani faction) Naeem Khan who admitted to receiving funds from Pakistan in a sting operation by the channel, came to the channel's office in Srinagar and threatened reporters, asking them to "take down the story and drop the expose." Naeem has since been 'temporarily suspended'.

There's a reason behind this goondaism, of course. If the veins of this funding are cut, it will be a telling blow to the Kashmir unrest which remains at its core a law and order problem.

Various reports also say that Kashmiri youths are even getting stipends to pelt stones on security forces.

The government has been hard at work trying to shut down social media groups which are being used by these paid stone-pelters to hamper counter-insurgency operations. A recent Times of India report says "each of these 300 WhatsApp groups had around 250 members" and these were used to "disrupt the operations of the security forces by mobilising stone-pelting mobs at the encounter sites."

What we need is strict enforcement of law and order in Kashmir and total isolation of the Hurriyat Conference whose leaders have been allowed to milk the unrest far too long. In its ham-handed approach, the Congress is not only bungling its own chances but also harming national security by engaging with secessionists who have no stake in Kashmir.
Counting for elections takes place in three municipal corporations in Maharashtra  Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon  on Friday, two days after the three witnessed a single-phase polling on Wednesday. The voter turnout for Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon was 55, 53 and 60 percent respectively.

This is the first time municipal elections are taking place in Panvel, after its civic body was upgraded to a municipal corporation in October last year.

In the 78-seat Panvel Municipal Corporation, the contest is between Shiv Sena, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Peasants and Workers Party (PWP), which has allied with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). BJP fielded 60 candidates for the civic body polls, which took place in Panvel town and 29 nearby villages, but is up against Shiv Sena, its ally in the state government, which has tied up with Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) for the municipal polls.

The Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation is ruled by a Congress-Shiv Sena partnership, while NCP in alliance with Teesra Mahaj rules Malegaon Municipal Corporation.

Approximately 12.96 lakh people were eligible voters in these elections, as informed by the state election commission officials.

According to the officials, a total of 1,251 candidates contested the civic elections on 252 seats across the three civic bodies, including 189 candidates from BJP, 152 from Congress, 144 from Shiv Sena, 90 from NCP, 32 from MNS, and 46 from All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (United) and Janata Dal (Secular) fielded 22, four and 10 candidates respectively, and 355 independents candidates were also in the fray.

Chief Election Commissioner of India Naseem Zaidi had announced on 12 May that all future elections will be held with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) equipped with VVPAT (Voter-verifiable paper audit trail) machines amid concerns over tampering of EVMs. However, state election commissioner JS Saharia had said that use of VVPAT machines will not be possible in these civic elections.
The results of three municipal polls  Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon  have been declared and they have a mixed bag for all parties. While BJP has bagged the newly formed Panvel municipality, Congress has retained Bhiwandi. Malegaon has given a hung verdict with Congress emerging as the single largest party. Essentially BJP will be able to have its mayor in one and non-BJP parties in two municipalities which have high minority population.

Panvel Municipal Corporation polls took place for the first time. Earlier, Panvel came under the jurisdiction of Raigad gram panchayat. Panvel is 55 kilometres away from Mumbai and is a fairly urban centre. The BJP swept the municipality bagging 51/78 wards. PWP-INC-NCP alliance managed to win 27 seats. The PWP contested a maximum of 48 seats from the alliance and managed to win half of it (23). Partners NCP and INC fared poorly bagging two seats each out of 30 contested. Shiv Sena received a big jolt as it could not even open its account. In Assembly elections, on two seats which fall under the jurisdiction of corporation, BJP and PWP had won one seat each.

In Bhiwandi-Nizampur corporation, Congress won majority bagging 47/90 seats. This is a significant jump from 2012, when it won 26 seats and had to tie up with Shiv Sena for mayor position. The BJP managed to double its councilors with 19 seats versus eight in 2012. Shiv Sena lost four seats compared to its 2012 tally of 16. The NCP which had formed an alliance with SP couldnt even open its account while the Hindi heartland party bagged two seats. Bhiwandi is the logistical hub of Mumbai and Bhiwandi city (a section of the corporation) has a majority Muslim population. Devendra Fadnavis led a spirited campaign promising 4-5 lakh jobs which seems to have benefitted the BJP.

Malegaon municipality has thrown a hung House in line with 2012 with Congress bagging 28 and NCP-JDS alliance 27 seats. Congress gained three while NCP has lost two seats compared to 2012. Shiv Sena has bagged 13 while BJP has made a strong opening with nine seats. NCP-AIMIM alliance was ruling the corporation but contested separately this time. Many possibilities can still take shape Congress + Shiv Sena or Congress + NCP + JDS or NCP + Shiv Sena + JDS. Malegaon like Bhiwandi is a Muslim majority area where BJP has traditionally performed poorly.

The results have significant impact on Maharashtra politics and a clear trend is emerging.

National parties  BJP and Congress  have emerged as the principal parties in Maharashtra. This is a departure from the dominance of regional parties NCP and Shiv Sena for most of the past two decades.

The results will likely increase the tension between BJP and Shiv Sena. With Panvel, Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad BJPs dominance around Mumbai-Pune belt is complete. It has emerged as main party ahead of Shiv Sena. The Hindi heartland party has dislodged Shiv Sena as the first preference voter of the Marathi manoos. You will see more rumblings within the alliance government in the state.

Shiv Sena will try to play spoilsport for the presidential elections and will bargain hard with BJP. Shiv Sena has more than 25,000 votes and its support is crucial in getting a BJP nominee elected. It has already announced its support for Sharad Pawar if he contests. Sena has also performed better than BJP in Malegaon, its only saving grace from the poll results.

In Muslim dominated areas, BJP is slowly creating a strong footing among Hindu voters. This is visible in Bhiwandi results where BJP displaced Sena as the number two party. Its differentiated messaging for different segments  polarisation as well as development  is doing the trick.

Fadnavis graph will rise after these results. He led party to win Panvel and also made good progress in Bhiwandi and Malegaon (traditional weak areas for BJP). However, the plan of BJP to dissolve House to get rid of irritant Shiv Sena and win simple majority in re-elections will be put on hold.

The BJP is clearly emerging as the first choice of urban voters. Its win in Panvel is reminiscent of this fact. The BJP had received 42 percent support in urban areas, 32 percent in semi-urban and 30 percent in rural areas in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

To conclude, BJP and Congress have a lot to cheer about in these results. The BJP graph is rising in Maharashtra since Lok Sabha elections. It has managed to reduce Shiv Sena as junior partner of alliance. Congress has emerged as the big daddy ahead of NCP. The results will also resonate in the presidential polls with Shiv Sena likely to thwart BJP attempts to get its man elected after another drubbing by BJP.

(The author is a corporate and investment banker turned political commentator, strategist and consultant. Views are personal. He can be reached @politicalbaaba).
Amaravati BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday called upon the party's rank and file to strive to make Andhra Pradesh the "BJP's gateway to the south" by strengthening it at all levels in the state.

The BJP and the ruling Telugu Desam are allies in Andhra Pradesh and Shah's comment is being seen as an indication that the saffron outfit may chart its own course in the southern state.

"In the south, the BJP will emerge the strongest in AP. This will happen after the BJP is strengthened at all levels in the state", Shah told over 25,000 polling booth-level workers of the party at a `Maha Sammelan' in Vijayawada this evening.

Calling the Maha Sammelan (mega gathering) a "milestone" and the beginning of a new chapter for the party, Shah said efforts were on to strengthen the BJP in AP for the last three years.

"The Narendra Modi government sanctioned projects worth Rs 1.75 lakh crore for AP in the last three years, which never happened since Independence.

"So, when Narendra bhai comes to Visakhapatnam in July (for the BJP's national executive meeting), light up your houses, decorate them with rangoli, burst crackers and make it a festival. I will also tour AP for three days in August," Shah said.

The BJP chief said the issue of special category status (SCS) to AP is no longer relevant as the Centre last year announced a development package for the state.

"Many people still keep questioning about special category status to AP. Let them open their ears wide and listen. We have opened many national educational institutions, sanctioned Rs 1 lakh crore for roads.

"The Centre is bearing the full cost of Polavaram project. Under the special economic package announced by the Centre, AP will not get even a single rupee less than what it would have got under SCS," the BJP chief asserted.

He, however, evaded any reference to the future ties with the TDP and merely said, "We are coalition partners and our two ministers in the AP government are doing a very good job".

Talking about the three-year rule of the Modi government, Shah said it has launched as many as 106 new schemes for people's welfare since 2014.

"There is a scheme for everyone the youths, farmers, women, the poor. Seven crore youths availed of loans under Mudra Yojana for self-employment and job provision. The Modi government works for the welfare of people."

He noted that the BJP was the largest political party in the world with a membership of 11 crore.

"We have over 330 members in Parliament and 1,387 in state legislatures. We have our own governments in 13 states and are coalition partners in four other states. We can proudly say that the world famous leader Narendra Modi belongs to the BJP," Shah observed.

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said a "Modi Fest" would be organised across the country from tomorrow till 15 June where the BJP members would go door-to-door and propagate the Modi government's programmes.

"This programme is not against anyone but only to expand our base in all parts of the country," he added.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, BJP state president Kambhampati Hari Babu, state ministers Kamineni Srinivas, P Manikyala Rao and other senior leaders attended the meet.
Lucknow: After a dismal showing at the hustings and a rebellion in the rank and file of the BSP, the emergence of the Dalit outfit Bheem Army at the national level has compounded problems for party chief Mayawati.

Even before the BSP could have come to terms with being relegated to a poor third, managing merely 19 seats (in the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly), 61 down from 2012, it is faced with a new challenge in the form of the Bheem Army which has taken the winds out of its sails following Saharanpur caste clashes.

The organisation of Dalit youths across seven states in northern India, was founded by a young lawyer Chandrashekhar two years ago in Saharanpur, and shot into prominence during the clashes. He belongs to Chhutmalpur village adjoining Shabbirpur, the epicentre of recent troubles.

Though the mission of the Bheem Army was to educate the community's children free of cost, with their first school coming up two years ago at Saharanpur's Bhado village, it came into limelight in April when an Ambedkar Jayanti procession was stopped by Rajputs.

The rise of the Bheem Army made BSP chief all the more worried as it succeeded in mobilising Dalits in western Uttar Pradesh, the stronghold of BSP.

Bheem Army, with its show of strength by organising an impressive protest in the national capital last Sunday over Saharanpur incidents, literally knocked at the doors of national politics.

Chandrashekhar, despite being wanted for his alleged involvement in the clashes between the police and the protesters on 9 May, made an appearance with his supporters in New Delhi.

The BSP supremo, who has stated time and again that members of her samaj consider her as their "goddess", could ill-afford any political outfit or person to unseat her from this position of strength which is so essential for her to spring back to power in Uttar Pradesh, political observers feel.

By visiting Saharanpur, Mayawati also plans to counter the Bheem Army by mobilising party cadre in the region.

Though Mayawati had always been vocal whenever there had been any incident of atrocity on Dalits, be it in the state or at the national level while being in power or outside, it is for the first time in years barring 2014 when she moved out this Tuesday to meet the victims herself, driving down to trouble-ridden Shabbirpur village in Saharanpur.

While she claims that she has always discouraged politicians visiting troubled area, she chose to visit Saharanpur quite late when the fight of the Dalits have been taken up by Bheem Army.

Clashes had started in Shabbirpur on 5 May after Dalits refused to allow a procession by Thakurs to mark the birth anniversary of Rajput king Maharana Pratap and it is alleged that to avenge the death of a youth of their community, Thakurs had set the houses of Dalits on fire.

Even when in power (2007-12), Mayawati did not move out to meet Dalit victims in cases of atrocities on them and had instead sent senior leaders to give her reports.

She visited Shabbirpur and blamed the BJP and RSS for the trouble but her visit triggered a fresh round of violence leaving a man dead after he received gunshot injuries and 20 others injured.

Political observers feel that the coming days will see a more active Mayawati asserting herself for regaining lost ground, first for the upcoming urban body elections and later for the battle of the ballots in 2019 for Lok Sabha.

Besides raising the issue of atrocities on Dalits in Parliament, the BSP could also hold rallies, dharnas and demonstrations over such issues.

She will not let go any opportunity of making her constituency realise that she had been leading their fight at every level.

In 2014, Mayawati went to Badaun after two cousin sisters were found hanging dead from a tree in Katra Shahadatganj during the Akhilesh Yadav government, to find out only later that the victims were not Dalits and their family members were prime suspects in what is being investigated as a case of honour killing.

Though she had been busy adjusting caste and communal equations in ticket allocation for the polls she had little realised that BJP, which has been all out wooing her Dalit votebank would be able to pull the rug from under her feet, making a clean sweep in areas considered BSP stronghold.

Ever since her party's near rout in the recent Assembly elections, Mayawati has been trying hard to blame it on "faulty" EVMs.
Patna: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped an opposition meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Friday, is likely to attend a lunch being hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in honour of visiting Mauritius prime minister Pravind Jugnauth, setting political tongues wagging.

"Nitish Kumar has been invited by Modi for the lunch on Saturday in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister P Jugnauth," a JD-U leader said.

JD-U leaders, while reluctant to say much on Saturday's meeting, remarked that it will be purely an "official meeting" and nothing to do with politics.

"Nitish Kumar will submit a list of unfulfilled promises made to Bihar, including a special financial package and his old demand of special category status for the state. It is not going to be a meeting to discuss politics," a senior JD-U leader said.

Sonia Gandhi had recently called Nitish Kumar over phone and discussed with him the possibility of a consensus Opposition candidate in the Presidential election. The Bihar Chief Minister is reported to have favoured a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee.

However, his absence on Friday at the luncheon meeting convened by Gandhi to discuss the issue set off speculation that something could be amiss in the opposition camp, more so after the recent Income Tax raids on the properties of RJD chief Lalu Prasad's kin.
The Opposition in Maharashtra has lashed out against the BJP government after minister Girish Mahajan and 10 Nashik policemen were spotted at the wedding of a relative of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

Congress and NCP have demanded Mahajan's resignation.

"The presence of a senior minister and three other BJP MLAs at the wedding of a close relative of the countrys most-wanted gangster is shocking. There are reports that several criminal elements and bookies from across India were present at the wedding. We are demanding an Intelligence Bureau probe into the episode. It must be probed if the minister and the three BJP MLAs are connected with Dawoods family and his activities," The Indian Express quoted Congress leader Sachin Sawant as saying.

Sawant had earlier also demanded a high-level probe into this issue. "The BJP minister and some party legislators attending the wedding of an international don is a very serious matter and a shocking issue. A high-level probe needs to be conducted into this," PTI had quoted Sawant as saying.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar also said that while BJP had "defamed" Sharad Pawar when he was not connected to Dawood, their own minister was found at a wedding of Dawood's relative.

Mahajan, who is considered a key aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was seen at the wedding of Dawood's niece along with several other BJP leaders and several policemen attached to Bhadrakali police station.

A well-known resident of Old Nashik, Jaggi Konkani's daughter got married to the son of spiritual guru Khatib, at an extravagant event on 19 May. The bride's aunt is married to Dawood's brother Ibrahim Kaskar.

Dawood is the main accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts case in Mumbai in which around 260 people were killed, and more than 700 suffered injuries. He fled the country post the bombings and is understood to be hiding in Pakistan at present.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: The Opposition parties will field a candidate in the presidential election if the nominee suggested by the government is not acceptable to them, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday.

She said a small committee would be formed by the Opposition leaders, who met over lunch, in case they have to choose a nominee.

Banerjee said the Opposition would accept a candidate of government choice if he or she is secular and one who would uphold the Constitution.

"For the Presidential election, the decision (of the meeting) is 'Let us wait' for the name of the candidate that may be given by the government, and if it satisfies all of us, then we can take a look at it. He should be secular and uphold the Constitution. If there is no consensus, then a committee (of Opposition leaders) will be formed that will decide (on the Opposition candidate)," she told reporters coming out of the luncheon meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Parliament House.

She said there was no harm in discussing a candidate with the government if it comes out with it.

She referred to the 2002 presidential election when the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had floated APJ Abdul Kalam's name and a consensus was evolved around it.

Asked about another term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee, she said no names were discussed in the meeting.

Banerjee said all the parties were united in criticism of the government over Kashmir, violence in Saharanpur and demonetisation.

She said a joint statement to be issued after the meeting would reflect the opposition view on all the issues.
Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it, said the famous German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, more than 200 years ago.

Hegels observation looks all the more relevant even now if you care to look rather closely at the Saharanpur caste-conflict thats beginning to upset the existing social equilibrium in Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh. You may also recall that it was this newly discovered balance of unity in the otherwise caste-ridden Hindu society that had catapulted the saffron brigade to power spectacularly in Lucknow hardly two-and-half-months ago.

Saharanpur continues to be on the boil with both muscle-flexing Rajputs and equally assertive Dalits locked in a no-holds-barred struggle for one-upmanship at the social level. It all began with Rajputs preventing Dalits from installing a statue of BR Ambedkar on the premises of the Ravidas temple at Shabbirpur village. A few days later, the Dalits raised objections to a procession of Rajputs who were bent upon commemorating the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap.

What followed was violence between the two caste-groups in which one person was killed and 15 others injured.

To understand the socio-political implications of the recent caste-war better, you do need to look back at history rather deeply: In the heydays of the Congress, during 1950s, 60s and early 70s, both the government and the society were almost always led by upper caste men. It was an entirely different thing that the Congress of yesteryears represented almost all sections of the society. In fact, upper castes, Dalits, EBCs (Extremely Backward Communities) and Muslims were the four pillars on which the entire edifice of the Congress stood.

With passage of time, the Congress became a somewhat weaker force, especially after the unprecedentedly successful Jayaprakash Narayan-led Bihar movement of mid-1970s. Two forces  BJP and Socialists  grew by leaps and bounds thereafter, except during 1980s, when Indira Gandhi rode back to power triumphantly. After Indiras assassination, Rajiv Gandhi swept the national election, winning 411 of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats. The fortunes of the Congress went on a decline almost irreparably thereafter.

Whats more relevant here is that the BJP and the Socialists took full advantage of the fall of the Congress in the cow-belt. While the BJP grabbed the upper caste vote bank of the Congress, the socialists were happy to have got Backwards and Muslims in their political kitty.

At the peak of the Ram Mandir movement in 1991, an unusual socio-political development took place in battleground Uttar Pradesh: The caste-ridden Hindu society buried its hatchets like never before. And riding the wave of united Hindus, Kalyan Singh, an Otherwise Backward, swept the Assembly election.

Symbolism apart, upper caste Hindus invariably called the shots at the social level under both Congress and BJP administrations.

Little wonder then that hardly two years later, Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party and Kansi Ram of Bahujan Samaj Party joined hands. Fighting the Assembly elections together, they did beat the BJP. No surprises here. For, you just cant beat a Backward-Dalit alliance in elections. And if Muslims also join this axis, the results of the next elections would be out even before it is held. Thats it.

And thats what is staring at BJPs face in Saharanpur ahead of 2019. Thats why all those who matter in the Sangh parivar are a worried lot. If they do justice to the cause of the Dalits, they will have to punish the errant Rajputs, a key constituent of their upper caste vote-bank. If they dont, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav might emerge stronger. Either way, they stand to lose politically.

No doubt, the saffron camp finds itself enmeshed in a catch-22 situation.

Already, both Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati have hinted more than once that they might join hands to beat the BJP. In an interview to CNN-News18, Akhilesh made it clear that he would, on his part, like to continue his alliance with the Congress too.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that peace stands shattered in the area. According to a report published on Firstpost, tension escalated further in the region.  Fresh violence was witnessed in Saharanpur in which three persons were injured on Wednesday, prompting the government to suspend the district magistrate and the senior superintendent of police (SSP)... Mobile internet and messaging services were also suspended in the district to prevent rumour mongering.

Later on Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who called on the state governor, said strong action was being taken against all those responsible for the violence. He appealed for calm.

But calm remains elusive. With politicians trying to fish in troubled waters with a purpose, this delicate balance of unity among Hindus looks gone for good. Peace stands shattered.

What is next from here on? Chances are that the law and order scene might improve on the surface with the administration getting more active in the region under pressure from the top, but the deep-rooted bad blood between upper castes and Dalits are unlikely to go away all that soon.

For, the upper castes want to keep basking under the Sun in the BJP rule even as the Dalits are struggling to catch hold of the political power that they have lost.
On the third anniversary of the Narendra Modi government coming to power, the Congress on Friday attacked the NDA government on various issues like farmer suicides, unemployment, effects of demonetisation, corruption and party slogans.

"This sad situation is being reflected in farmer suicides," said Congress leader Kamal Nath during a press conference in New Delhi.

"How many farmers have taken advantage of the Fasal Beema Yojana? Rules made in this scheme are so complicated that the selected insurance companies have been the biggest beneficiaries," Nath said, adding that around 35 farmers are committing suicide everyday.

"We have subsistence farmers. They are farmers who are farming not for profession but for subsistence. A strategy of subsistence farming is very important," he said.

"The government did not come out with any schemes on this apart from slogans. No government in history has given more slogans. No government has spent so much on publicity since coming to power," said the Congress leader.

"Employment is the lowest in seven years. Today, the youth are lost because unemployment is high," he said. "Modi had said that new employment opportunities worth Rs 2 crore will be created," Nath said, adding that because of the failure of the government to meet this target, India now needed to create jobs worth Rs four crore. The Congress then hit out at the Modi government over demonetisation, saying that the government still had not come out with data about how much black money was unearthed after the ban on old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

"The country still has to know how much black money was unearthed. Almost eight months after demonetisation, the government has still not given any information. People went through difficulties in the hope that black money will be eradicated," Nath said. "All the slogans have been a failure. We've heard so much of talk about corruption. Where is the investigation on Vyapam? Who went to jail? Those who paid money went to jail. Those who took money never went to jail. This is one of the biggest scams in the country," he added.

"We are seing today talks of economic figures like 7.2 percent GDP growth. What does this translate into? Does it translate into jobs or wealth creation? We are seeing in rural India disposable incomes going down," he said. "Unfortunately, the country is becoming a victim to hyperboles and sloganeering," Nath said.

"The future of this country is dark from an economic and social point view. The country is on the verge of seeing strife in the future." Nath added that only the BJP and NDA are celebrating three years of the Modi government. Congress has planned a series of protests and pressers to highlight what they call the failure of the Modi government. In fact, another Congress leader Randeep Surjewala posted a list of planned party press conferences across the country for today.

Congress Leaders will expose #3FailedYears of BJP Govt. List of Press Conferences across India. pic.twitter.com/RfPsToLyTY  Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) May 25, 2017

The party will also hold a day-long protest in Mumbai on Friday against the NDA government.
On the completion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three years in office, the pre-poll catch phrase "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas" gave way to a new slogan, "Saath hai, Vishwas hai, ho raha Vikas hai".

To make sure that on the occasion of the third anniversary of the BJP government, the development pitch remains in focus, Modi travelled to Assam to inaugurate the 9.15 km long bridge between Dhola and Sadiya Ghat over Lohit river, the longest in India. The bridge will shorten the distance between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by 165 km and reduce travel time between the two states by five hours. Besides providing easy connectivity to common people of the two regions, it is of huge strategic importance to security forces in regions bordering China.

Modi's landing in Assam on this occasion also signified that his government was not Delhi-centric and its regional centres are given due prominence be it hosting foreign dignitaries in Goa and Gandhinagar or holding his government's anniversary celebrations in Guwahati by either inaugurating or laying foundation stones for a variety of projects in the North East.

While Modi completes three years in government today, the Sarbananda Sonowal government, the first ever BJP government in Assam, completes one year. Modi's presence in Assam on such a day is a political message of significance to the region.

Modi driving through the just opened Bhupen Hazarika bridge, taking a walk over the bridge and enjoying the cool breeze will for long be discussed there. The contrast between Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh could not be starker. Singh, prime minister for 10 years represented Assam in Rajya Sabha but did little for the development of the state and rest of the northeastern region. In contrast to that Modi displays high energy level and keenness to develop the region which for long has suffered neglect. The new catch phrase "Saath hai, Vishwas hai, ho raha Vikas hai", thus acquires a meaning.

It's important that BJP leaders internalise this new slogan for the party now rules 14 Indian states on its own and the number goes up to 17 states which it rules along with its allies.

Interestingly Modi began speaking at a public rally in Assam in the evening, around the time three years ago when he had taken oath of office as prime minister and he reminded people of that. Modi went at length talking about his full majority government and achievements of his government.

While Modi was busy connecting directly with people and announcing new developmental projects for the North East, his political rivals had gathered in Delhi over a lunch sponsored by Sonia Gandhi. The hype around that luncheon opposition unity meet had been punctured by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's refusal to be there. Since Nitish is the only credible face in the opposition ranks, his absence made bigger news headline than the meet itself. The photo frame of leaders gathered at Sonia's luncheon was interesting -- Congress, RJD, BSP, SP, TMC, DMK, NCP. Either the leaders present there or other senior leaders of their respective parties are tainted and are on the radar of various investigative and taxation authorities on corruption charges and dubious shell companies deals.

Though Nitish had sent his nominee, Sharad Yadav to attend that luncheon meet but any student of politics knows that Yadav does not have any influence in the party. Yadav is a leader whose area of authority is limited only to making speeches in Parliament not in guiding policy and strategy of his party JD(U).

The so-called united opposition meet was held for twin purposes -- to stitch grand opposition alliance, a UPA 3 to take on Modi-led BJP in 2019 parliamentary polls. Secondly, to reach to an understanding to field a combined opposition candidate for presidential election, hoping against hope that they would be able to defeat candidate of ruling BJP-led NDA.

On completion of three years in office, Modi seems to have become more popular than when he took office. Today there is no leader in the opposition who could stand up to him in terms of popularity and potential outreach. Rahul Gandhi though is 47 years old, young by political standards but he already seems to be a retired leader. He has been consistent in his failures. Even his party workers don't see any worthwhile potential in him. Consider the top echelon of opposition ranks  those who gathered at Sonia's luncheon to decide whether they had the ability to pose any real political challenge to Modi -- Sonia, Rahul, Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Yadav, Kanimozhi among others.

But the newsbreak which would have soured Sonia and other opposition leaders' taste came later in the day with the newsbreak that while Nitish chose not to break bread with them but he will be in Delhi to meet Modi on Saturday and will later attend the banquet hosted by him in honour of Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.
London: British security forces have foiled at least five terror plots since a knife-wielding man in a speeding car mowed down four pedestrians to death and fatally stabbed a policeman near the UK Parliament in March, according to a media report on Friday.

Heightened anti-terror operations in the country since 52-year-old Khalid Masood attacked the Parliament on 22 March had prevented loss of lives at five other British targets, the report quoted security sources as saying.

Three of the plots involved the use of knives  two in London and one in Birmingham  and another plot in London using an unspecified means of attack. A fifth terrorist cell was disrupted by arrests linked to other offences that have removed suspects from the streets, The Times reported.

The figure for just two months of this year is much higher than the total of 13 foiled terror plots in the three years between 2013 and March 2017.

It also emerged that MI5 spies are currently juggling around 500 active investigations relating to 3,000 people of interest, which had included Salman Abedi  the 22-year-old Libyan-origin man behind Monday night's suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

"MI5 is managing about 500 active investigations, involving some 3,000 subjects of interest at any one time. Abedi was one of a larger pool of former subjects of interest whose risk remained subject to review by MI5 and its partners," the newspaper quoted a government source as saying.

"Where former subjects of interest show sufficient risk of re-engaging in terrorism, MI5 can consider reopening the investigation, but this inevitably relies on difficult professional judgments based on partial information," he said.

The scale of the anti-terrorism challenge has been highlighted as Britain's security services were criticised for allegedly missing chances to stop Salman Abedi, who had been the subject of radicalisation reports from his community and family members.
BRATISLAVA Central European governments expressed optimism on Friday that the United States remained committed to NATO even though President Donald Trump did not mention the military alliance's defence commitment set out in its founding treaty this week.NATO's founding treaty states under Article V that an attack on one ally is an attack on all, but Trump questioned the principle during the U.S. election campaign and has not publicly backed the commitment.Speaking on a panel at the GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum in the Slovak capital, the foreign ministers of Slovakia, Hungary and Poland said they had no concerns about the United States' commitment to NATO.However, Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said he would have liked to hear Article V mentioned.

"An optimistic interpretation of his words is that the commitment under Article V is so obvious there was no need to mention it but I still would have preferred if it was mentioned," Lajcak said.White House officials said this week Trump stands united with other NATO countries in defending all alliance members.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who attended meetings of NATO member leaders on Thursday when Trump spoke, said he was confident having heard the U.S. leader speak that the United States would fulfil its obligations and wanted Europeans to do the same."What I heard from him yesterday in the meeting made me relaxed," he said.

The deployment of U.S. troops to Poland and the Baltics have been central to an expansion of NATO's presence in eastern Europe to levels unprecedented since the Cold War. The build-up was prompted by Russia's annexation of Crimea and accusations - denied by Moscow - that it is supporting a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.Poland's foreign minister, Witold Waszczykowski, said the troop presence was proof of Washington's commitment."It is much better than just a declaratory mention of Article V. I prefer to have 5,000 troops from the United States in Poland. This is a commitment," he said. (Reporting by Jason Hovet and Tatiana Jancarikova; editing by Richard Lough)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Taormina (Italy): US compliance with its commitments under the Paris Agreement on climate change would be "crippling" to growth, the White House said on Thursday.

During his election campaign, avowed climate sceptic Donald Trump promised to exit the 2015 UN pact on limiting global warming.

But Trump has now said he will make a decision after returning to Washington following the G7 summit in Sicily which starts Friday, at the end of his international tour.

"We know that the levels that were agreed to by the prior administration would be highly crippling to the US economic growth," Trump's economic advisor Gary Cohn said.

"The president has told you that he's going to ultimately make a decision on Paris and climate when he gets back. He's interested to hear what the G7 leaders have to say about climate," said Cohn, speaking aboard the presidential Air Force One.

"It will be a fairly robust discussion on that. We know that because we had it today with the French president, we had it with the Belgians, we had it with all the bilaterals we've had," he added.

Trump "wants to do the right thing for the environment. He cares about the environment. But he also cares very much about creating jobs for American workers," said the advisor to a Republican president who has declared the end to a "war on coal".

Under President Barack Obama, the US, with world's second biggest carbon emitter, pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

A solution discussed in Washington could be to remain in the Paris Agreement but launch a re-examination of US objectives.

That would allow it to keep a seat at the negotiating table while sending a signal domestically of a form of break with the previous Democratic administration.

US withdrawal from the 196-nation Paris Agreement would be a real blow to "climate diplomacy" which, less than 18 months ago, celebrated the historic pact made possible by a hard-fought agreement negotiated between Washington and Beijing.
By Tim Ahmann

| WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON Former U.S. Senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has withdrawn from consideration to be the next director of the FBI, citing the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest given President Donald Trump's decision to retain an attorney who works at the same firm.Lieberman works at a New York firm headed by Marc Kasowitz, who has been hired by Trump to represent him amid probes by the Justice Department and Congress into possible ties between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia."With your selection of Marc Kasowitz to represent you in the various investigations that have begun, I do believe it would be best to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest," Lieberman wrote to Trump in a letter dated Wednesday.A copy of the letter, which was first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, was provided to Reuters on Thursday.The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Lieberman's withdrawal.

Trump told reporters a week ago that he was "very close" to selecting a nominee to replace James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump fired Comey on May 9, a decision that set off a political firestorm given Comey's central role in the FBI's probe of Russian meddling in the election and potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials seeking to swing the vote in Trump's favour.

The Department of Justice appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to lead an independent investigation into the Russia matter.While Lieberman is respected on Capitol Hill, many Democrats had made clear they would prefer someone with law enforcement experience to take the reins at the FBI. Given Kasowitz's role, Lieberman might not have been able to participate in the Russia investigation for a period of two years without White House and Justice Department waivers, Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University School of Law told Reuters on Wednesday.

A federal regulation restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm's clients for one year, a period that was extended to two years under an executive order signed by Trump in January.CNN, citing a unnamed senior administration official, reported on Wednesday that Trump wanted to renew the search for an FBI director after having interviewed a number of candidates, including Lieberman. (Corrects paragraph 10 to add reference to White House waiver.) (Reporting by Tim Ahmann; additional reporting by Jan Wolfe, Ayesha Rascoe, Doina Chiacu; editing by G Crosse and Grant McCool)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Beijing: China said the Dalai Lama cannot change the religious rituals and processes to appoint his successor as the title of Dalai Lama was conferred on him by the Chinese government.

As per the Tibetan Buddhism, the competent departments of the government have talked about it and the government has issued a white paper, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

"The 14th Dalai Lama is also clear about this. The title of Dalai Lama is given by the central government," he said. "The 14th Dalai Lama was also enthroned under the representatives of the Republic of China at that time," he said, referring to the presence of Chinese officials when he took over the post of Tibetan Buddhism in 1950.

"So there are fixed set of religious rituals and processes and this cannot be changed by any individual," Lu said.

The 81-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader was enthroned in 1940 as the 14th Dalai Lama and he took full responsibilities of the post 1950 when he turned 15.

He fled to India in 1959 to escape from the Chinese oppression in Tibet and has been living in Dharamsala since then.

Lu was responding to questions to the Dalai Lama's recent remarks that "my incarnation cannot be born in a place where there is no freedom".

"The Chinese communists should first accept the concept of rebirth. Then communists should accept reincarnation. And then they have the moral connection to the Dalai Lama's reincarnation," he had said.
Donald Trump met Pope Francis on Wednesday and photos of the Pope looking, well, less than pleased with the meeting have taken the internet by storm.

Therefore, it's not surprising to see Twitter voraciously reacting with memes highlighting the Pope's 'plight' after finally meeting the new President of the United States.

Here are a few examples:

The Pope's warm smile for Melania crumples into a look of disdain the moment he looks at Trump's face. Looks like Donald Trump's sins are catching up to him, finally!

The Pope has met Donald Trump... Think this AP picture just about sums it up pic.twitter.com/0E96npzQJa  Louise Burke (@Louiseontwitr) May 24, 2017

This face-swap gives us a look at a dangerous parallel universe situation, and it does not help that the two faces fit almost perfectly on each other's bodies.

You would be lying to yourself if you did not imagine the Nun from Conjuring 2 the moment you saw the Trump family and the Pope posing for a picture. Thankfully someone has turned our imagination to reality...

When Pope met Donald Trump When Pope met Barack Obama pic.twitter.com/AEbOzS6SUH  The Instigator (@AmBlujay) May 24, 2017

That's not just the Pope. That's all of us.

That look the Pope gives when Trump says "Love the wall around the city" pic.twitter.com/wm83sAiAR8  Educating Liberals (@Education4Libs) May 24, 2017

If only the walls could talk..

If we still doubt Trump's influence on the world, these pictures remind us that even the most peaceful and non-violent celebrities have anger management issues after meeting him!
Taormina: G7 leaders held annual summit talks Friday with divisions on trade and climate change, and fresh friction surrounding Donald Trump, threatening to undermine a show of unity against jihadist terrorism.

"There is no doubt that this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years," European Union president Donald Tusk predicted, setting the tone for the two-day meet in Sicily's ancient hilltop resort of Taormina.

The meeting comes days after several children were among 22 people killed in a concert bomb attack in Manchester, north-west England.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was to lead a discussion on terrorism and issue a call for G7 countries to put more pressure on internet companies to ensure extremist content is quickly taken offline and notified to authorities.

With the Islamic State group on the retreat in Iraq and Syria, "the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet", May would tell her colleagues, aides said, before flying home early to oversee the ongoing "critical" security situation in Britain.

US officials acknowledged they were expecting a difficult discussion on trade after reports that Trump had described the Germans as "bad, very bad" and vowed to stop them selling millions of cars in the United States, during a meeting with senior EU officials in Brussels on Thursday.

Both US and EU officials confirmed the outspoken president had raised the auto trade issue but sought to play down the language used, as Trump shared friendly words with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders heading into the G7 gathering.

White House economic advisor Gary Cohn said that trade would be a "big topic" overall after Trump rode to power on an "America First" platform of protectionism.

"We are going to continue to fight for what we believe is right, which is free, open and fair trade, which the president has been very clear on what that means," Cohn said. "We will have a very robust discussion on trade."

With May and Trump among four new faces in the club of the world's major democracies, the gathering in Italy was billed as a key test of how serious the new US administration is about implementing its radical policy agenda, particularly on climate change.

Senior officials are preparing to work overtime in a bid to bridge what appear to be irreconcilable differences over Trump's declared intention of ditching the US commitment to the landmark Paris Accord on curbing carbon emissions.

Leaks row

Officials acknowledge the summit is effectively about damage limitation against a backdrop of fears among US partners that the Trump presidency could undermine the international order in place since World War II.

For Trump, the talks will be the final leg of his first presidential foray overseas.

The gruelling week-long trip briefly diverted attention from domestic concerns focused on alleged campaign collusion with Russia.

But that issue reared up again overnight as it emerged the FBI is examining his son-in-law Jared Kushner's contacts with the Russian ambassador in connection with the probe of alleged interference in the election campaign by Moscow.

US officials had hoped the globe-trotting trip would enable Trump to position himself as a more statesmanlike figure and he enjoyed the largely positive coverage on his stops in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, and at the Vatican.

But some of that has been undone by now-viral images of the billionaire tycoon shoving his way past other leaders at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, and by his reported comments on Germany.

Abe pushes Korea issue

The other new face is France's youthful president, Emmanuel Macron, who has vowed to defend the Paris climate change deal agreed in 2015.

Macron met May just before the summit and promised France would do "everything we can" to help Britain in the fight against terrorism.

On climate change, the effort to keep Trump on board will focus on convincing his team that developing renewable energy forms and technology to facilitate cleaner fossil fuels can be drivers of the job-creating growth that he says is his priority.

"If we do it right, climate protection and growth go hand in hand  and then it is not really important if it is a man-made problem or not," said a German source.

Cohn said US compliance with its Paris commitments would be "crippling" to economic growth, but added the president was "leaning to understand the European position".

Japan was using the summit to air its concerns about North Korea with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set to warn that Pyongyang "is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world".

Shinzo Abe met Trump in Sicily and the US leader bullishly promised the problem posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes "will be solved".
Washington: President Donald Trump's revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination," a federal appeals court has in ruling against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries.

Trump's administration vowed to take the fight to the US Supreme Court.

In a 10-3 vote on Thursday, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the ban likely violates the Constitution. And it upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March. Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems that the first version from January encountered.

A second appeals court, the 9th US Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

The Supreme Court almost certainly would step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe. If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.

A central question in the case before the 4th Circuit was whether courts should consider Trump's public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

Trump's administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which doesn't mention religion. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

But Chief Judge Roger L Gregory wrote that the government's "asserted national security interest ... appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the court's ruling blocks Trump's "efforts to strengthen this country's national security."

Trump is not required to admit people from "countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism until he determines that they can be properly vetted" and don't pose a security threat, Sessions said.

The three dissenting judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, said the majority was wrong to look beyond the text of the order. Calling the executive order a "modest action," Judge Paul V Niemeyer wrote that Supreme Court precedent required the court to consider the order "on its face." Looked at that way, the executive order "is entirely without constitutional fault," he wrote.

Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, said if the Supreme Court follows a partisan divide, the Trump administration may fare better since five of the nine are Republican nominees. Still, he said, it's difficult to make a confident prediction because "Supreme Court justices don't always vote in ideological lockstep."

The first travel ban issued 27 January was aimed at seven countries and triggered chaos and protests across the country as travellers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the ban.

The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesn't apply to those who already have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.

Critics said the changes don't erase the legal problems with the ban.

The case ruled on by the 4th Circuit was originally brought in Maryland by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Centre on behalf of organisations as well as people who live in the US and fear the executive order will prevent them from being reunited with family members from the banned countries.

"President Trump's Muslim ban violates the Constitution, as this decision strongly reaffirms," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, who argued the case. "The Constitution's prohibition on actions disfavouring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the government's request to set that principle aside."
Cairo: Gunmen on Friday opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in southern Egypt, killing at least 23 people.

The bus was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250 kilometres south of Cairo. Twenty-three Christians were killed and twenty five

others injured, according to the Ministry of Health.

Security forces were searching for the attackers. The ambulances rushed to the place of the incident to transfer injured to hospitals.

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State militants.

Two suicide bombings targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria on 9 April left at least 46 people dead.
By Ju-min Park and James Pearson

| SEOUL

SEOUL After successful missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un often exchanges smiles and hugs with the same three men and shares a celebratory smoke with them.The three, shown with Kim in photographs and TV footage in North Korean media, are of great interest to Western security and intelligence agencies since they are the top people in the secretive country's rapidly accelerating missile programme.They include Ri Pyong Chol, a former top air force general; Kim Jong Sik, a veteran rocket scientist; and Jang Chang Ha, the head of a weapons development and procurement centre.The photographs and TV footage show that the three are clearly Kim's favourites. Their behaviour with him is sharply at variance with the obsequiousness of other senior aides, most of whom bow and hold their hands over their mouths when speaking to the young leader.Unlike most other officials, two of them have flown with Kim in his private plane Goshawk-1, named after North Korea's national bird, state TV has shown.With their ruling Workers Party, military and scientific credentials, the trio is indispensable to North Korea's rapidly developing weapons programmes - the isolated nation has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile launches since the beginning of last year, all in violation of U.N. resolutions."Rather than going through bureaucrats, Kim Jong Un is keeping these technocrats right by his side, so that he can contact them directly and urge them to move fast. It reflects his urgency about missile development," said An Chan-il, a former North Korean military officer who has defected to the South and runs a think tank in Seoul.Kim Jong Sik and Jang are not from elite families, unlike many other senior figures in North Korea's ruling class, North Korean leadership experts say. They said Ri, the former air force commander, has been to one of the better-regarded schools in North Korea, but he and the other two were hand-picked by Kim Jong Un."Kim Jong Un is raising a new generation of people separate from his father's key aides," said a South Korean official with knowledge of the matter, referring to Kim Jong Il, who died in late 2011 leaving the younger Kim in charge.The official requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.THE 'BIG POTATO'

The most prominent of the three is Ri, according to leadership experts.

Always shown smiling in photographs, he is now deputy director of the Workers' Party Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the development of North Korea's ballistic missile programme, according to the South Korean government and U.S. Treasury. The department was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury in 2010 and Ri was named by the South Korean government last year for activities related to the country's weapons programmes."The big potato in that trio of people is Ri Pyong Chol," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership. "He's been around since before Kim Jong Un was even talked about with any seriousness".Born in 1948, Ri was partly educated in Russia and promoted when Kim Jong Un started to rise through the ranks in the late 2000s, Madden and the South Korean government official said. Ri has visited China once and Russia twice. He met China's defence minister in 2008 as the air force commander and accompanied Kim Jong Il on a visit to a Russian fighter jet factory in 2011, according to state media."Ri looks like the party's guy in the missile programme," said Kim Jin-moo, an expert on North Korea's elite and former government think tank analyst in Seoul.THE ROCKET SCIENTIST

The rocket scientist in the trio is Kim Jong Sik.He started his career as a civilian aeronautics technician, but now wears the uniform of a military general at the Munitions Industry Department, according to experts and the South Korean government.But it was his role in the North Korea's first successful launch of a rocket in 2012 which really helped him earn recognition, Madden said."When that thing went off and entered into a lower earth orbit, he got credit for that," said Madden. "The nuclear and missile guys under Kim Jong Un are getting their jobs based on merit".Last year, Kim Jong Sik was at the National Aerospace Development Administration or "NADA", North Korea's official space agency, where he escorted Kim Jong Un through the mission control room ahead of a successful long-range rocket launch in February.State TV footage showed him riding to a launch site in Kim Jong Un's private plane. Upon arrival, he accompanied the young leader down the red carpet and received flowers from other senior officials.

Most other details, including his age, are not known. THE MYSTERY MAN

Of the three men, the least is known about Jang Chang Ha, president of the Academy of the National Defence Science, previously called the Second Academy of Natural Sciences. The body is in charge of the secretive country's research and development of its advanced weapons systems, "including missiles and probably nuclear weapons", the U.S. Treasury said in 2010 in its decision to blacklist the group.The organisation obtains technology, equipment, and information from overseas for use in weapons programmes, the Treasury said. Jang was added to the Treasury blacklist in December 2016.Under Jang's leadership, the academy has around 15,000 staff, including some 3,000 missile engineers, according to South Korean media reports, citing unnamed sources. North Korea's banned weapons programme began in the early 2000s with a similar trio of men close to the leadership who specialised in procurement, science and military affairs.Of them, logistician Jon Pyong Ho has died. The others - scientist So Sang Guk and military coordinator O Kuk Ryol - are elderly and no longer in the public eye.Their place, Madden said, has been taken by Kim Jong Un's hand-picked men."These are the men bringing North Korea's missile programme into the 21st Century." he said.(For a graphic on North Korea's nuclear programme click - tmsnrt.rs/2n0gd92.) (Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in WASHINGTON; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Abdirahman Hussein and Katharine Houreld

| MOGADISHU/NAIROBI

MOGADISHU/NAIROBI A former U.S. intelligence specialist has donated surveillance drones to police in Somalia, aiming to help combat a jump in deadly bombings by al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgents.The gift comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is increasing military engagement in the region. A member of the U.S. Navy SEAL special forces was killed in Somalia earlier this month on a raid, the first U.S. combat casualty in Somalia since 1993.The Somalis received five drones, some of which have infra-red or night vision capabilities, from Brett Velicovich, whose service with the U.S. military features in a "Drone Warrior", a book to be published next month. His life story is also being developed as a movie by Paramount Pictures."There's been a real increase in complex attacks," the 33-year-old told Reuters on a rooftop overlooking the capital of Mogadishu, as drones swooped and whirred nearby during a four-day police training course. "Some of the things that these drones will be able to do will be to conduct surveillance ... to look out for other potential Shabaab members who may be on rooftops or may be there to look at hitting the first responders."The al Shabaab insurgents have been steadily losing control of cities and towns in the Horn of Africa nation since withdrawing from the capital in 2011. But they are hitting back with increasingly large and complex bombings. Bombs killed at least 723 people and wounded 1,116 in Somalia last year, according to Nairobi-based think-tank Sahan Research, up from 193 dead and 442 wounded in 2015.

Increasingly, al Shabaab is using several bombs or a combination of bombs and gunmen to attack security forces who respond. So Bancroft, a Washington-based organisation contracted by the U.S. State Department to train the Somali police, brought Velicovich to Mogadishu to show officers how to use drones in examining potential threats or blast sites. "I used to work with a lot of different drones in the U.S. military and now we see the same type of technology readily available on the open market," said Velicovich, who has worked on similar programmes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is planning a programme against wildlife poachers in Kenya. "The question is how can we use this (technology) to protect the people of Somalia?"

BUILDING THE POLICE

The drones are made by China's DJI company and are a combination of the commercially-available Mavic and Inspire models. The biggest has a range of up to 7 km (four miles). "We shall use the drones when we are in serious operations or when the enemy attack some places or innocent people," said Somali police commissioner Abdihakin Dahir Sa'eed. One example that police cited was when gunmen ambushed officers responding to a car bomb on Mogadishu's Lido beachfront last year. Police were unable to find the last attacker, holed up in a restaurant, for several hours. A drone might have found him in minutes, Velicovich said.

The gift follows a deal in London earlier this month between the Somali government and its Western allies to beef up the security forces and try to integrate regional militias.But huge problems face new President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, elected by parliamentarians in February. The Somali security forces have been crippled by years of corruption. High-ranking officers stuffed the payrolls with names of their relatives and sold weapons and food intended for the rank-and-file. Both the police and military have often gone for months without pay, encouraging them to extort money from angry civilians.In an interview published on Friday, the president said his United Nations-backed government was so broke that he had not drawn a salary since taking office and had been unable to pay the military. "We inherited a financial situation in which the government was unable to pay army salaries on a regular basis," he told the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat. "The army needs organisation, to restructure and to be supplied with arms ... I am not saying we are starting from scratch but the challenges ahead are many when compared with the possibilities." (additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Dubai; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by David Stamp)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Italy: President Emmanuel Macron on Friday vowed France's total support for Britain's fight against terrorism after the Manchester attack as he met Prime Minister Theresa May at the G7 summit.

"We will be here to cooperate and do everything we can in order to increase this cooperation at the European level, in order to do more from a bilateral point of view against terrorism," Macron told May in front of reporters, noting that "very young people" had been targeted.

May said Monday's suicide bombing at a Manchester pop concert, which killed 22 people including children, was "one of our worst terrorist incidents that we've ever experienced".

"Thank you for the solidarity you have shown to us since that event. But of course France itself knows what it is like to suffer from terrorist attacks.

"And these incidents show us why it is so important for us to work together in defeating terrorism," said May, who is expected to issue a call for the G7 economies to put more pressure on internet companies to remove extremist content.

May was due to lead a discussion on counter-terrorism with fellow G7 leaders on Friday  including US president Donald Trump  and call for them to put more pressure on internet companies to remove extremist content.

After Britain raised its national threat level to maximum after the attack, May announced she would no longer attend the second day of the summit in the Sicilian town of Taormina on Saturday, and instead fly home late Friday.

Macron and May first met in February in London. He was still only a presidential candidate, but was invited to Downing Street for talks, including on Britain's withdrawal from the EU.

Both leaders said Friday they would discuss defence, trade and economic issues, while Macron also made reference to the millions of Europeans living in Britain, whose fate after Brexit has yet to be decided.

There are "hundreds of thousands of people living in your country, in our country, and sharing our lives", he said.
Taormina (Italy): European Union (EU) president Donald Tusk called on Friday on G7 leaders to maintain sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, but the White House said it did not yet "have a position" on the issue.

The EU and United States under then president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia rebels.

But it is as yet unclear whether Obama's successor Donald Trump, who is under fire domestically over allegations that Russia meddled to aid his election campaign last year, will maintain these sanctions.

"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU's 28 leaders, told reporters in Sicily.

"I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy," he added before the latest summit of seven leading industrialised nations kicked off in the town of Taormina, with Trump one of four leaders new to the G7 party.

Tusk already met with Trump on Thursday in Brussels, and said that while both sides did not have a "common position about Russia", they appeared to be on the same line with regards to the Ukrainian conflict.

In March, the US State Department said Washington's "Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine".

But Trump's chief economic advisor Gary Kohn appeared to cast doubt on this on Thursday.

"Right now, we don't have a position," he told reporters on board Air Force One as Trump headed to Sicily, his final stop on his first foreign trip.

"He's got many options," Kohn added, without giving further details.
Berlin: Police in western Germany have arrested a suspected Islamic extremist who they believe may have been planning an attack.

The 32-year-old man, a German who was believed to have converted to Islam and become radicalised, was arrested on Thursday evening in Essen. Hs name wasn't released in line with German privacy rules.

Police said that there was "no evidence of a concrete danger of an attack." They gave no details on a possible target.

They said on Friday that he was already known to authorities for petty crime and because of his suspected radicalisation.
When US president Donald Trump met Pope Francis at the Vatican this week, it marked the culmination of an often stormy relationship. The two have often aimed barbs and jibes at each other and have made their positions clear. From the US president's controversial plan of building a wall on the US-Mexico border to climate change and even terrorism, the two have sparred over a variety of topics.

It started with the Pope's criticism of the Mexico border wall, and over the proposed deportation of undocumented immigrants. "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel," the Pope said in February, a month after Trump took the oath as the President of the United States, while responding to questions about Trump's plans.

Trump wasted no time in hitting back at the Pope, and calling the religious leader's comments "disgraceful".

"For a religious leader to question a persons faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian and as president, I will not allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another mans religion or faith," he said.

Trump further lamented the Pope's disapproval of illegal immigration arising from Mexico, saying the Mexicans are using the pontiff as a "pawn". "They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant," he said.

"The Mexican government and its leadership has made many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope, because they want to continue to rip off the US, both on trade and at the border, and they understand I am totally wise to them. The Pope only heard one side of the story  he didn't see the crime, the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the policies have on the US," he added.

But Trump's sparring with the Pope notwithstanding, the US president has a deeply Christian following, and even has an "evangelical advisory board" in place. According to Politico, the board will "convene on a regular basis," with some of them responsible for organising Trump's meeting with Christian leaders in New York City.

Over 81 percent of Trump's voters in the November presidential election were said to be white evangelicals, and many were said to be gleeful, with some even saying "God had handed Trump the presidency".

A report on Alternet has written how Trump nominated ultra-conservative Christians for key posts, and even followed through on several campaign promises tailored to appeal to the Far Right evangelicals. Trump had already picked Mike Pence for vice-president; he nominated Betsy DeVos, who was raised in a Calvinist community in Michigan, for secretary of education; and Seventh-Day Adventist Ben Carson for housing and urban development secretary. He also appointed several other conservative Christians to additional top positions in the administration.

And it has by and large got them what they want. A report in The Washington Post said Colorado federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch's appointment to the Supreme Court would be a huge win among his support base, since the Supreme Court, after all, was responsible for issuing cases such as Roe vs Wade on abortion and Obergefell vs Hodges upholding gay marriage.

Russell Moore, who heads the advocacy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, was quoted in the report as saying he expects Trump to work with Congress on more abortion legislation, including extending protections to people who don't want to provide abortions or contraception based on their conscience. Many evangelicals, Moore said, are divided over Trump's executive order related to refugees. But so far, they are generally happy with the administration, especially Trump's reinstatement of a policy prohibiting funds for abortions overseas. "Most people are just waiting to see what the first 100 days will look like. People are wanting to assume the best and to pray for success," he said.

Given how the evangelical support base is solidly behind him, it's not hard to see why Donald Trump is readily taking the Pope on, even in matters of Christianity and religion.
Indonesian police on Friday arrested three people suspected of being connected to attacks that killed three police at a Jakarta bus station this week, a spokesman said.

Yusri Yunus, head of public relations at West Java Police, confirmed by text message that the arrests had taken place in the West Java city of Bandung, but did not provide details.

Before this, AFP reported that Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three policemen, the latest attack to hit Indonesia as it faces a surge in terror plots. Analysts described the claim as credible and said they believed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local network of IS-linked militants, carried out the bombing.

Two suicide bombers attacked the busy terminal in the capital on Wednesday in a dramatic assault that sparked panic and left human body parts and shattered glass strewn across the street.

Three policemen were killed, and five other officers and five civilians injured in the bombing at the Kampung Melayu terminal.

Authorities on Thursday raided the houses of the suspected bombers, and found Islamic teaching materials and bladed weapons, AFP reported.

Indonesia has suffered a series of mostly low-level attacks by IS sympathisers in the past 17 months.

While most recent attacks in Indonesia have been poorly organised, authorities believe about 400 Indonesians have joined Islamic State in Syria and could pose a more lethal threat if they come home.

Police said Wednesday's attack had targeted officers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives.

Police have now become the "primary target" of militants in Indonesia, said Stanis Riyanta, a Jakarta-based security analyst.

Police found books of Islamic teachings and bayonets in a raid on the Bandung city home of a 30-year-old seller of herbal medicines who is suspected of carrying out Wednesday's attack.

They also took a DNA sample from the mother of a second suspect, another 30-year-old Bandung man.

Investigators at the blast site found a receipt for a pressure cooker bought on Monday in the capital of the West Java province.

"We wanted to look for instructions at that location, or evidence ... linked to the Kampung Melayu incident," said National Police spokesman Martinus Sitompul.

A similar type of bomb was used in Bandung in February by a lone attacker, killed by police, who was suspected of links to a radical network sympathetic to Islamic State.

"There were similarities," Setyono said, "only yesterday's (attack) had been more perfected."
Washington: Former US senator and Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has withdrawn from consideration to be the next FBI director, citing the potential for an appearance of a conflict of interest given President Donald Trump's decision to retain an attorney who works at the same firm.

Lieberman works at a New York firm headed by Marc Kasowitz, who has been hired by Trump to represent him amid probes by the Justice Department and Congress into possible ties between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.

"With your selection of Marc Kasowitz to represent you in the various investigations that have begun, I do believe it would be best to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest," Lieberman wrote to Trump in a letter dated Wednesday.

A copy of the letter, which was first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, was provided to Reuters on Thursday. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Lieberman's withdrawal.

Trump told reporters a week ago that he was "very close" to selecting a nominee to replace James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he said Lieberman was a leading candidate.

Trump fired Comey on 9 May, a decision that set off a political firestorm given Comey's central role in the FBI's probe of Russian meddling in the election and potential collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials seeking to swing the vote in Trump's favour.

The Department of Justice appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to lead an independent investigation into the Russia matter.

Given Kasowitz's role, Lieberman might not have been able to participate in the Russia investigation for a period of two years without White House and Justice Department waivers, Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University School of Law told Reuters on Wednesday.

A federal regulation restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm's clients for one year, a period that was extended to two years under an executive order signed by Trump in January.

CNN, citing a unnamed senior administration official, reported on Wednesday that Trump wanted to renew the search for an FBI director after having interviewed a number of candidates, including Lieberman.

On Thursday, citing unnamed sources, CNN said John Pistole, a former deputy director at the FBI and a former head of the Transportation Security Administration, was under consideration.
Manchester: The alleged culprit in a deadly concert bombing was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain, a relative has said, confirming he made a final phone call in which he pleaded: "Forgive me."

Salman Abedi was particularly upset by the killing in 2016 of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by "infidels" in the UK, said the relative on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity over concerns for her own security.

"Why was there no outrage for the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way?" she asked. "Rage was the main reason," for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.

The new insight into Abedi's motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber's family lived.

The number of arrests in the UK ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism. Greater Manchester Police chief constable Ian Hopkins said, without elaborating, that searches of suspects' homes brought "very important" clues in the probe of the bombing. But leaks from the investigation were creating a trans-Atlantic diplomatic mess.

Manchester police halted their sharing of investigative information with the US through most of the day until receiving fresh assurance there would be an end to leaks to the media.

British prime minister Theresa May, who spoke about the matter with US president Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels, said the countries' partnership on defence and security was built on trust. But "part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently," she said.

Trump pledged to "get to the bottom" of the leaks, calling them "deeply troubling" and asking the Justice Department and other agencies to "launch a complete review of this matter."

British officials were particularly angry over photos published by The New York Times showing remnants of a blue backpack which may have held the explosive. But it wasn't clear if US officials were the source of the images, which the Times defended as "neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims" and consistent with basic reporting "on weapons used in horrific crimes."

British security services were also upset that 22-year-old Abedi's name was apparently leaked by US officials while police in the UK continued withholding it and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya. Hopkins said the leaks "caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss."

Meanwhile, the investigation into the blast widened. Authorities chased possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East. They were exploring potential ties to Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan jailed in the UK for terror offences, and to Raphael Hostey, an Islamic State recruiter killed in Syria.

Abedi's family remained a focus, too, with a brother in England, his father and another brother in Libya among those detained. Abedi's father was allegedly a member of the Al-Qaeda-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, a claim he denies.
Two days after a horrendous suicide bombing rocked an Ariana Grande pop concert in Manchester, killing 22 and injuring over 59, the city remains on high alert. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Britain since the 2005 London bombings that killed 52. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, although this claim could be fake, given the time gap after the attack and the fact that no details or photographs were flaunted of Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old bomber of Libyan descent.

However, Abedi was obviously part of a wider terror network, possibly inspired by Dabiq (IS' e-magazine), if not linked to the outfit directly. US intelligence even hinted at Abedi's Al-Qaeda links, while he was also said to have been on the British watchlist on five occasions. That Abedi could undertake such a bombing despite being on the watchlist has left many in Britain red-faced.

Since the attack, Britain's terror threat level was raised to "critical", and the army is out on the streets to boost security for key sites under 'Operation Temperer', a plan devised in 2015 but being put in use for the first time now. This is only the third time that Britain has raised terror threat to critical, and the current status may last upto a week or more, given the country will have elections coming up in June.

On 23 May, the day after the attack, a man carrying an axe was arrested in Birmingham during a vigil being held for the victims. Threat levels have also been raised throughout Europe. The state of emergency, that was declared by France after the 2015 Paris terror attacks, which was to expire in November 2017 after five extensions, is likely to be extended further.

Addressing a congregation of 50 Arab and Muslim nations at Riyadh during his visit to Saudi Arabia, US president Donald Trump called on them to "take the lead in combating radicalisation" and to "take on the burden" of battling terrorism, adding, "Drive them out. Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land. And drive them out of this earth."

Trump made oblique reference to Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim countries, saying they have in the past turned a blind eye to radical clerics who raised money or recruited for extremist groups. The "in the past" bit can hardly hide common knowledge about which countries are continuing to fund global jihad.

Trump's speech conspicuously emphasised Iran as major perpetrator of global terror, obviously linked to the $110 billion arms deal he signed with Saudi Arabia. Post the Manchester attack, British Prime Minister Theresa May went on record to say, "We must redouble our resolve to meet threats to our shared security, whether terrorism or from Russia." This is despite Russian president Vladimir Putin's offer to step up counter-terror cooperation after the Manchester tragedy.

In March this year, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had promised NATO that US will stand by their side, but expected them to spend more on defence and do more to fight terrorism. NATO has agreed to Trump's request to join the US-led coalition against the Islamic State. However, differences are expected on the approach to be adopted against Russia. Theresa May has called for NATO to intensify the fight against IS during the NATO Summit at Brussels that began on 24 May, and work closer to combat online extremism jointly.

The same would also be emphasised by Trump, even as he presses for NATO to pay more. Interestingly, the total US national debt in May 2017 is in excess of $18 trillion. US owed the UN $1.82 billion in 2010, which shot up to $3 billion by September 2015, and may have ballooned further.

That there will be many more terrorist attacks beyond Manchester and many more NATO summits is without doubt. That radicalisation and strife have increased is also certain, as is the speculation that future terror-attacks will be more lethal. But it's the reasons for these that get glossed over.

At Riyadh, Trump called counter-terrorism a "battle between good and evil", but what remains unaddressed is "my terrorist is good and your terrorist is bad". He called India a victim of terror, but would not say that it is Pakistan who is the hatchery.

Proxy forces are being used by all major powers in their own national interests, including by the US, Russia and China. The fight against terrorism is linked with adversaries/perceived adversaries  an example being the specific mention of Iran and Russia. To top this, economies thriving on weapon exports crave for conflict and instability. So what counter-terrorism are we talking about?

Every year the American historian William Blum publishes his "updated summary of the record of US foreign policy", which shows that, since 1945, the US has tried to overthrow more than 50 governments, many of them democratically elected; grossly interfered in elections in 30 countries; bombed the civilian populations of 30 countries; used chemical and biological weapons; and attempted to assassinate foreign leaders. In many cases, Britain has been a collaborator.

We certainly can't counter terrorism effectively if we continue to use proxy forces, and don't get rid of the "good terrorist bad terrorist" syndrome.

The author is a retired lieutenant-general of the Indian Army
London: British police arrested another man on Friday in connection with the suicide attack at a pop concert in Manchester city as they hunted for a second device built by the 22-year-old bomber and other members of his wider terror network.

With the new arrest on Friday morning from an inner-city area in Manchester, the number of people arrested reached 10, of which two have been released without charge, police said.

"Eight men remain in custody for questioning," they said.

A 16-year-old boy and a 34-year-old woman were the two person released. The other eight men, aged between 18 and 38, were being questioned over their involvement in the attack on Monday that killed 22 people, the police said in a statement.

Investigators believe 22-year-old British-born bomber Salman Abedi, from a family of Libyan origin, acted as part of a terrorist network. Some news reports indicated that security forces were on the hunt for a second device made by Abedi, which may now be with a member of this network.

Abedi was known to UK security services, but his risk to the public remained "subject to review", according to reports.

In the Libyan capital Tripoli, Abedi's younger brother 20-year-old Hashem and their father, Ramadan, were being held by special forces linked to the country's interior ministry.

Meanwhile, the manager of a pizza shop raided by police in north England claimed that his friend Aimen Elwafi was one of the eight men in custody as he had inadvertently rented a property to Abedi.

Elwafi is believed to have handed himself in to police after news reports revealed Abedi as the suicide bomber.

"He made the connection straight away. He was shocked and panicked when he saw the news," said Mohammed El-Haduri, the manager of St Helens Pizza.

The suicide attack at American pop star Ariana Grande's concert had sent shockwaves across the UK, prompting back-to-back meetings of the emergency response Cobra committee.

After the meeting, Prime Minister Theresa May announced the threat level has been raised to the highest "critical", meaning another attack could be imminent. Army and armed police officers patrolled major sites across the country.

Britain's home secretary Amber Rudd chaired another Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (Cobra) meeting on Friday.

"[Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre] have assessed that the level of threat should remain at critical while the operation continues. The military are continuing to support the police under Operation Temperer - 1,000 members of the military are assisting in that," she said.

Sixty six people injured in the attack were still in hospital, she added.

British police have now resumed intelligence-sharing with their US counterparts after a brief suspension over a series of leaks by American officials to journalists providing details of the Manchester bomb investigation.

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson met UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson in London today and said the US took "full responsibility" for the leaks.

"This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event," he said.

US President Donald Trump earlier said the leaks were "deeply troubling".

Meanwhile, national level campaigning for the 8 June general election resumed today after local level campaigns were resumed on Thursday following suspension in the wake of the attacks on Monday night.

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn began with a major speech in London attacking the "war on terror".

He said: "Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.

"We must be brave enough to admit that the 'war on terror' is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism."

The ruling Conservatives, who criticised his speech as "crassly timed", have had a relatively low-key campaign on Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Sicily to attend a G7 Summit meeting.

She used her speech there to urge world leaders to do more to combat online extremism.

"The fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet," she said.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated outgoing prime minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' for successfully conducting local elections in Nepal.

Modi conveyed his felicitations to Prachanda in a phone call on Thursday evening, the Prime Minister's Office said on Friday in a tweet.

PM @narendramodi called Shri Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' last evening to felicitate him on successful conduct of recent local elections.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

PM @narendramodi also felicitated Shri Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' for his strong commitment to strengthen democracy in Nepal.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

Millions of Nepalese on 14 May voted in the country's first local-level polls in two decades as the Himalayan nation took a crucial step towards cementing democracy amid political turmoil.

Before the elections, Prachanda had called up Modi who had assured all possible help from India in conducting the polls successfully.

Prachanda, who became the prime minister in August 2016, resigned two days ago under an agreement with Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba at that time that they would share power on rotational basis till next year's elections.

Under that understanding, Prachanda had to resign after nine months of taking office.
Geneva: The UN on Friday urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets, following reports that US-led coalition strikes killed dozens of non-combatants.

Air raids on Islamic State group targets in Syria have left hundreds of civilians dead since 2014.

The latest strikes that hit a series of residential buildings yesterday in Mayadeen, a town in Syria's eastern province of Deir Ezzor, killed at least 35 civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

The rights office had no specific information about yesterday's bombings.

Zeid's spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that identifying the air force responsible for civilian deaths is often difficult given the number of countries in the anti-IS coalition and the lack of credible information.

The Pentagon released findings on Thursday of an investigation that concluded at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to that, the US military had said coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

Zeid underscored that civilians were now being hit by both sides in the conflict.

"The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by (IS), are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes", he said in a statement.

The rights office has also received credible information that IS fighters slit the throats of eight people earlier this month who were accused of providing the coalition coordinates to guide strikes, Colville said.

"Scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in (IS-held) areas," Zeid said.
US president Donald Trump's push to get in front of the pack at a NATO summit generated indignation in the Balkans and garnered attention on social media  but the man he shoved aside took it in his stride.

At Thursday's gathering in Brussels, Trump put his right hand on the Montenegro prime minister Dusko Markovic's arm, and pushed himself ahead as NATO leaders walked inside the alliance's new headquarters and prepared for a group photo.

Trump then stood near Markovic and spoke to Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite.

Video of the incident spread on social networks in multiple languages.

And in case you haven't seen it yet, here you go:

While Montenegrin newspapers and Balkan websites were up in arms, Markovic himself shrugged off the slight. "It didn't really register. I just saw reactions about it on social networks. It is simply a harmless situation," he told reporters after the summit.

That it "didn't really register" comes as little surprise, especially considering how horrified he already seemed while looking at something off-camera.

Let's take a look at that again in slow motion:

Look closely. Doesn't it look like the prime minister said, "Oh sh-..."?

But still, instead of being insulted, he took the opportunity to thank Trump for supporting Montenegro's membership to NATO. The small former Yugoslav republic is slated to become NATO's 29th member next month. Markovic added, "(It) is natural that the President of the United States is in the front row."

With inputs from AP
Italy: US President Donald Trump said Friday the "problem" of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be "solved", as he met with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, adding the issue would be raised in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries.

"It will be solved," he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details.

Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

It has carried out two atomic tests since the beginning of last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.

The US is worried that if North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

A lot of firepower

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said "we can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that".

"We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20  but we don't want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable." The Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart's "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment."

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with North Korea's ally China.

But Beijing, the North's main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks  not imposing more sanctions  is the priority.

North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computer and demanding payment in Bitcoin to return control to users.

Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.
Britain's politicians resume campaigning in earnest on Friday with national security thrust into the spotlight as police scramble to bust a Libya-linked jihadist network thought to be behind the Manchester terror attack.

Prime minister Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had suspended campaigning after Monday's suicide bombing at a Manchester pop concert, which killed 22 people, including many teenagers, and wounded dozens more.

Eight suspects are currently in detention on UK in connection with the blast, for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility, while police in Libya have detained the father and brother of 22-year-old suicide bomber Salman Abedi.

Police said a man was arrested in the Moss Side area of Manchester in the early hours of Friday and another man held earlier was released without charge.

Washington's top diplomat Rex Tillerson is due to visit London later on Friday in an expression of solidarity, after Britain reacted furiously to leaks of sensitive details about the investigation to US media.

US president Donald Trump threatened to prosecute those responsible for the "deeply troubling" security breach, which has strained the close relationship between Washington and London.

At a summit of NATO allies in Brussels on Thursday, May confronted Trump over the issue, saying shared intelligence "should be kept secure".

Monday's bombing at a pop concert was the latest in a series of IS-claimed attacks in Europe that have coincided with an offensive on the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq by US, British and other Western forces.

Britain's terror threat assessment has been hiked to "critical", the highest level, meaning an attack is considered imminent.

Troops have also been sent to guard sensitive sites, an unusual sight in mainland Britain, while armed police are now patrolling the country's trains for the first time.

The issue of security, which was not widely discussed in the election campaign before the attack, is now expected to feature highly.

At the launch of the UK Independence Party's manifesto on Thursday, deputy leader Suzanne Evans said that May, a former interior minister, "must bear some responsibility" for the terror attack in Manchester this week due to policing budget cuts.

Opposition leader Corbyn in a speech in London later on Friday is also expected to say it is the "responsibility" of governments to minimise the risk of terror by giving police the funding they need.

Corbyn, a veteran peace campaigner, is also set to link British foreign policy to domestic terrorism, saying that Labour would "change the way we do things abroad" if it wins power.

"Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home," Corbyn will say.

A YouGov poll published in Friday's edition of The Times put the Conservatives on 43 percent compared to Labour on 38 percent, far better for Labour than the double-digit margin that had previously separated it from the ruling party.

However, the poll also suggested that 41 percent of respondents believe the Conservatives would handle defence and security best, compared to 18 percent who said the same of Labour. YouGov polled 2,052 people on Wednesday and Thursday.
By Tom Allard

| ILIGAN CITY, Philippines

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to Islamist militants on Friday to abandon hostilities and start dialogue in an effort to end their bloody occupation of a southern city that experts called a major blow to regional security.Duterte said the presence of foreign fighters in street battles that have raged since Tuesday in Marawi City was proof that Islamic State had gained a foothold on the restive island of Mindanao, but there was still a chance for peace."You can say that the ISIS is here already," Duterte told soldiers in nearby Iligan City, referring to Islamic State."My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue. And if you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let's just fight."Special forces commandoes were deployed to drive out the remaining 20 to 30 Maute group rebels holed-up in Marawi but encountered heavy resistance on Friday. The army said 11 soldiers and 31 militants have been killed.Fighting erupted on Tuesday after a bungled raid by security forces on a Maute hideout, which spiralled into chaos, with gunmen seizing bridges, roads and buildings and taking Christians hostage. Duterte responded by declaring martial law throughout his native island of Mindanao.Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based security expert, said the siege was a wake-up call for the Philippines."Islamic State capturing a major city in the Philippines is a very significant blow to the security and stability of this region," he said."The Filipinos need to get their act together ... They must understand the truth that IS ideology took hold in their country. The local groups have transformed."

Malaysians, Indonesians and other foreigners were among the guerrillas killed on Thursday, which the government said demonstrated how the Philippines could become a haven for overseas militants.The White House on Thursday said it backed the Philippine fight against "cowardly terrorists".Duterte has warned of "contamination" by Islamic State, exploiting the poverty, lawlessness and porous borders of predominantly Muslim Mindanao island to establish a base for radicals from Southeast Asia and beyond.He has pleaded with political and Islamic leaders to keep foreign and local militants at bay. Months of air and ground offensives in Mindanao have not dented their resolve.FOREIGN INVASION

"What's happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Solicitor General Jose Calida told reporters in explaining why martial law was imposed."It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria."Most of Marawi's 200,000 inhabitants fled after the gunmen ran amok on Tuesday, seizing and torching buildings, freeing militants from jails and taking a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city's cathedral.Duterte has dealt with separatist unrest during his 22 years as mayor in Mindanao but the Maute's rise and signs that it has ties to another group, the Abu Sayyaf, present one of the biggest challenges of a presidency won on promises to fight drugs and lawlessness.Philippine intelligence indicates the two groups from different parts of Mindanao are connected, through Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a radical faction of Abu Sayyaf.Abu Sayyaf has a track record of banditry, piracy and violence, while the lesser-known Maute group has proven itself a fierce battlefield opponent for the military, able to sustain air and artillery bombardments and regroup after heavy losses.

Hapilon was the target of Tuesday's botched raid and Duterte said Islamic State in the Middle East had anointed him as its man in the Philippines, and Hapilon was revered as its leader.Military chief General Eduardo Ano said the fierce resistance by the Maute in Marawi was to protect Hapilon, who was in poor condition after being wounded in a January air strike."If we capture him, all the better. But if he fights back we have to do what is necessary," he told reporters. Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by soldiers streamed into Iligan. Mark Angelou Siega, a Christian, described how students fled their campus."We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us," he said."These terrorists are not real Muslims."Calida said the Maute group and Islamic State were radicalising young Muslims and the government was not the only target of their aggression."People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets," he said. (Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in DAVAO CITY, Kanupriya Kapoor in SINGAPORE, Romeo Ranoco in MARAWI CITY and Enrico dela Cruz and Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA; Writing by Martin Petty)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Iligan (Philippines): Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte ordered his troops to crush militants who are fighting street battles with government forces in the south, warning on Friday that the country is at a grave risk of "contamination" by the Islamic State group.

The city of Marawi, home to some 200,000 people, has been under siege by IS-linked militants since a government raid on Tuesday night on a suspected hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists.

The raid went awry and gunmen swept through the streets, fending off government forces and taking over large parts of the city. Duterte imposed martial law on the southern third of the nation earlier this week as the battles continued.

At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials say. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead. The violence has forced thousands of people to flee and raised fears of growing extremism.

Duterte told soldiers in Iligan, a city near Marawi, that he had long feared that "contamination by ISIS" loomed in the country's future, using the acronym for the Islamic State group. "You can say that ISIS is here already," he said.

He gave his troops a free hand to wrest control of Marawi.

"You can arrest any person, search any house without warrant," said Duterte, who has allowed extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.

Still, he also offered dialogue to militants who are not on the streets fighting.

"We can still talk about it," Duterte said. "But those who are out-and-out terrorists, and you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let us fight."

Hapilon is still hiding out in the city under the protection of gunmen who are desperately trying to find a way to "extricate" him, the country's military chief said.

"Right now, he is still inside (the city)," Gen Eduardo Ano told The Associated Press. "We cannot just pinpoint the particular spot."

He said Hapilon suffered a stroke after a government airstrike wounded him in January.

Ano predicted that the military operation will take about a week as soldiers go house to house to clear the city of militants.

"We will make this their cemetery," he said. "We have to finish this."

In a sign that the long-standing problem of militancy in the south could be expanding, solicitor general Jose Calida said foreigners were fighting alongside the gunmen in Marawi, including Indonesians and Malaysians.

Ano also said foreign fighters were believed to be inside, but he was more cautious. "We suspect that but we're still validating," he said.

With much of Marawi a no-go zone, confusion reigned. One local police chief told the AP on Friday that he was fine - two days after Duterte announced he had been beheaded by militants.

Police chief Romeo Enriquez said there may have been confusion because his predecessor in Malabang, a town near Marawi, was killed in the fighting on Tuesday, although he was not beheaded. Enriquez has been in the job for about two months.
US President Donald Trump wished Muslims "a joyful Ramadan," on Friday, urging them to use the holy month to reject violence by Islamist extremists.

"On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan," said Trump, who is winding up a first overseas trip as president that included a stop in Saudi Arabia.

"This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan," said the US leader, who campaigned last year on a pledge to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology," he said in his message to the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims.

Trump said that when he met dozens of leaders of Muslim countries in the Saudi capital Riyadh, he had vowed to stand with them to counter "terrorism and the ideology that fuels it."

"During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace," said Trump, whose revised travel ban on half a dozen Muslim-majority countries was once again rejected by a US court this week on grounds of religious discrimination.

"At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict," he said.

The presidential statement concluded by saying, "I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramadan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families."
Beijing: Chinese officials have told the US that they've tightened inspections and policing along the border with North Korea as part of UN sanctions aimed at halting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile activities, the top US diplomat for East Asia said Friday.

That comes as part of a growing awareness on China's part about the urgent need to pressure North Korea into halting its testing of missiles and nuclear bombs, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton told reporters in Beijing. President Donald Trump's administration has made a renewed push to enlist Beijing's help in those efforts following a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.

Touching on other areas of the relationship, Thornton said the new administration has not changed its commitment to greater engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region or its approach to Naval operations in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

On North Korea, the US has seen a "shift in emphasis" in China's approach to its fellow communist neighbor, Thornton said.

"They've said that they have stepped up border inspections, beefed up sort of the policing function on the border, stepped up customs inspections," she said. Beijing has also done "a number of other things on companies" that have dealings with North Korea, Thornton said, without giving details.

The US has been talking to Beijing about taking action against specific firms and is waiting to see what sort of action China will take, she said.

China has signed on to UN sanctions and suspended coal imports from North Korea through the rest of the year, but has been generally reticent about what other steps it may be taking to use its leverage as Pyongyang's most important trading and diplomatic partner.

Thornton said the US, China and others were also in talks on a future UN resolution on North Korea in order to cut the time needed to take action following another nuclear or missile test.

"So we're looking at trying to get going on the next set of major measures that would be taken in the wake of another provocation," Thornton said. Such measures could include ratcheting up economic pressure on the North by targeting trade in consumer goods, possibly including textiles, she said.

While China has repeatedly called for direct dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, Thornton said Beijing officials now realize more pressure is needed before that can happen.

"And so they know now that they don't have, I think, as much time to try to bring the North Koreans to the table, get their calculus changed and get them to the negotiating table as they may have previously thought," she said.

Adding to that, Beijing also seems to have recognized that North Korea's actions were "undermining China's own security in pretty major ways," Thornton said.

"They do recognize that it's going to be pretty hard to have a dialogue while the North Koreans are shooting off missiles," she said.

North Korea exploded two nuclear devices last year, one of which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb.

Satellite imagery suggests it could be ready to conduct its next test  its sixth  at virtually any time.

On Monday, Pyongyang said it is ready to start mass-producing a new medium-range missile after a weekend test-launch confirmed its combat readiness. The regime's oft-stated goal is to perfect a nuclear warhead that it can put on a missile capable of hitting Washington or other US cities.

While there have been reports that the Trump administration was reconsidering policy toward Asia in the wake of former president Barack Obama's "pivot" to the region, Thornton said there had been no substantial changes.

That followed the Navy's sailing a destroyer near to Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea on Thursday in a "freedom of navigation" operation aimed at challenging what the US considers excessive territorial claims in the strategic waterway that Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

Washington's approach is "engagement with Asia to show that we're still present in the region, that we're going to keep our security commitments in the region, certainly support for our allies and with North Korea as a focal point on the security front," Thornton said.
Rome: Around 2,300 migrants were rescued off the coast in Libya on Thursday and two others were found dead in operations carried out by NGO Vessels, the Italian coastguard and commercial ships in the area.

The rescue efforts came as the bodies of 35 migrants, including at least 10 children, were being brought to Italy after they fell off an overloaded vessel that was hit by a huge wave while being rescued by an aid boat.

The operation that was carried on Thursday brings the total number of people rescued to more than 5,900 since Tuesday.

"We've completed our 12th and final rescue for today and there are now 1449 people safely on board," Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Twitter, with pictures of migrants packed aboard its vessel Prudence.

"This rubber boat with 100 people was almost sinking," the group had tweeted earlier, posting images a nearly deflated vessel. "Few hours and it would have been too late. Where are the EU boats?"

Also, the Maltese charity MOAS said its Phoenix aid boat was heading for the Italian port of Crotone with 598 survivors and dozens of bodies from Wednesday's disaster.

The boat's crew had been distributing life jackets on a wooden boat with about 700 people on board when a powerful wave struck, throwing some 400 people into the sea.

As they scrambled to pull them from the water, others were trying to break open a locked hold where hundreds were trapped.

"There are no words for what is happening in the central Mediterranean right now. It is a horrifying tragedy that continues to unfold on Europe's doorstep," said Christopher Catrambone, founder of MOAS, who was at the scene.

"MOAS is doing everything it can but alternative solutions must be found by Europe's leaders if this continuing loss of life is to be mitigated," he said.

More than 50,000 migrants have landed on Italian coasts since the beginning of this year, not counting those rescued in recent days, while more than 1,400 have drowned or are missing, according to the United Nations.
Washington: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has refused Congress' request to turn over the memos that sacked Director James Comey wrote in which he detailed his interactions with President Donald Trump.

Both the House Oversight Committee and the Intelligence Committee requested the memos in early May after The New York Times reported that Comey noted in one of them that Trump had asked him to end the investigation into the links his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had had with Russia.

In a letter to Republican committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, the FBI's assistant director for congressional affairs, Gregory Brower, on Thursday said the agency cannot turn over the memo until it consults with Robert Mueller, the newly appointed special counsel heading the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, Efe news reported.

After Mueller's appointment "and other considerations" the FBI is conducting "appropriate consultations" to ensure that "all relevant interests implicated by your request are properly evaluated", Brower said.

The FBI official added that the bureau will update the committee "as soon as possible".

In response to the letter, Chaffetz on Thursday repeated the committee's demand to be provided with the memos by 8 June.

"Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the special counsel's investigation," Chaffetz said.

"I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decision - to produce these documents to the committee immediately and on a voluntary basis," he added.

Congress, simultaneously with different federal agencies, is conducting several investigations to determine possible coordination between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin to interfere in the presidential election to hurt the chances of Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this week, former Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan told Congress that Russia "brazenly" interfered in the US election process.

He confirmed that Russian officials made contact with Trump's team, although he said he was unable to confirm if - in the final analysis - there had been collusion between them with an eye toward ensuring Clinton's defeat.
Moscow: Russian officials are actively investigating claims of a purge of gay men in Chechnya, the media reported on Friday.

Dozens of men in the southern republic are reported to have been held in extrajudicial detention and tortured as part of a campaign against gay males in Chechnya that began several months ago, reports The Guardian.

Many have fled and are in hiding in other regions of Russia or have gone abroad.

The story was initially reported by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was confirmed by The Guardian, which reported about four gay men who had been caught up in the campaign.

One of the men gave details of beatings and electric shock torture in a secret prison where he was held for more than a week.

Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to conduct a full investigation into the reports.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Friday that provided further evidence of the anti-gay campaign.

The organisation said three men it had spoken to had reported the presence of high-level Chechen officials when they had been tortured.

Homosexuality is a huge taboo in Chechnya and many fear reprisals from their own families if they come out publicly, reports The Guardian.

They also fear their families will be made to suffer a "stain on their honour" for having a gay relative, according to the HRW.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied all allegations so far and in an interview in April said there were "no gay men in Chechnya".

"These are not traditional things, psychiatrically abnormal things. We don't understand them. Our people do not understand."
Seoul: South Korea has approved a civic group to contact North Korea over aid programs, the first such approval since North Korea's nuclear test in January 2016.

Friday's announcement is a sign that the government led by new President Moon Jae-in is trying to find ways to improve strained ties with North Korea.

The Unification Ministry says the Seoul-based Korean Sharing Movement would be allowed to communicate with North Korea to discuss how to deal with malaria in North Korea.

The civic group says it will contact North Korea via fax or email to provide North Korea with mosquito nets and repellent.

Moon's government supports expanding inter-Korean civilian exchanges. Analysts say Moon won't likely push for any major rapprochement projects because North Korea has gone too far on its nuclear program.
Colombo: Flooding and landslides killed at least 91 people and left another 110 missing in Sri Lanka as the monsoon set in Friday, dumping record rainfalls in many parts of the island, authorities said.

About 20,000 people were also driven out of their homes in the south and western parts of the country, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said.

"There are some areas where we are unable to reach, but relief operations are underway," deputy minister for disaster management Dunesh Gankanda told reporters in Colombo.

The DMC said the toll rose to 91 dead and another 110 missing as reports came in from areas which had been inaccessible earlier in the day.

The highest number of fatalities were from Ratnapura, the country's gem hub, where the Kalu river burst its banks and inundated the main town which is about 100 kilometres east of Colombo.

Nearly 500 homes were either damaged or destroyed due to flooding as well as landslides, DMC director of operations, Rear Admiral AAP Liyanage told AFP.

Most of the deaths were due to mountain sides collapsing on homes, he said.

The met department said the worst of the rains may be over, but there could be downstream flooding in the next few days and the authorities issued evacuation orders for thousands of people.

The government arranged temporary shelters in schools and other public buildings for people in low-lying areas to move in, the DMC said.

The military has deployed thousands of troops to reach marooned villagers and the airforce carried out several rescue operations to pluck people from rooftops of flooded homes.

International appeal

Sri Lanka appealed to the international community, including the United Nations and neighbouring countries, for help as the numbers of dead and missing climbed.

"The (foreign) ministry will continue to monitor the flood situation and seek assistance as required in consultation with the Ministry of Disaster Management," the government said in a statement.

The latest flooding was the worst since May 2003 when 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed after a similarly powerful Southwest monsoon, officials said.

In the early hours of the day a mountainside collapsed on a women's hostel at a tea plantation at Neluwa in the island's south, killing at least seven women, police said.

DMC officials said the monsoon had been expected on Thursday night and ended a prolonged drought that had threatened agriculture as well as hydro power generation.

The rains filled the reservoirs used for hydro power, which had hit rock bottom, raising concerns of power shortage in June.

But officials said most reservoirs were now so full they were in danger of spilling over and causing dangers of flooding to people living downstream.
Kabul: At least 18 Afghan soldiers were killed in an attack by the Taliban on a military base in Kandahar province, a local media report said on Friday.

Sixteen persons were wounded and four others were taken away by Taliban militants after the attack on the base in Shah Wali Kot district on Thursday night, Tolo News reported.

According to the report, the Taliban insurgents also suffered casualties.

This is the second attack in Shah Wali Kot this week. Eleven Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and nine others wounded in another Taliban attack on an army base in Achakzai village of the district on Monday.

Despite the attacks, Defence Ministry spokesperson Dawlat Waziri said "the security situation of the district is good and it is under control of our security forces".

Also, last week, 20 policemen were killed and a dozen more wounded in Taliban attacks on several checkposts in the neighbouring Zabul province.

The attacks were part of the "spring offensive" launched by the Taliban in late April.
Washington: President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in. The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 percent.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from commenting on the proposal, saying they are still reading the budget papers.

At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move. "Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

In its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning 1 October, the State Department has removed the decades old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. In 2017 and 2016, both -- Tibet Fund and Ngwang Choephel Fellows -- categories had accounted for more than a million dollars.

However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than $14.7 million in 2017 to just $7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.

"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause.

"We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development. "As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI.

"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question.

The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush.

Enacted into law on 30 September, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity."

The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."

The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.

It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.

The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office.

According to the CRS, retaining this earmark has become a major priority for the Central Tibetan Administration in India.

With a major drop in the budget of USAID, it is not clear what impact it would have on funding for the Tibetan Government in exile.

Congress required the establishment of "programmes of educational and cultural exchange between the US and the people of Tibet," including opportunities for training, in the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 and again in the Human Rights, Refugee, and Other Foreign Relations Provisions Act of 1996.

In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2000, Congress renamed the program the ANgawang Choephel Exchange Program, in honour of an India-based Tibetan ethnomusicologist and former Middlebury College Fulbright Scholar who in 1996 was sentenced to an 18-year prison term in China on espionage charges.

According to a 2015 CRS report, in 2014, the total financial assistance to the Tibetan cause was more than $24 million. This included $1 million for the Office of the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, $10 million for the support to ethnic Tibetans in China through Economic Support Fund, $575,000 for the Ngawang Choephel Exchange Program, $3.8 million for Radio Free Asia Tibetan Service, $3.2 million for the Voice of America Tibetan Service, $2.8 million for NGO Programmes Benefiting Tibetan Refugees in South Asia (Migration and Refugee Assistance), $710,000 towards Tibetan Scholarship Program for Tibetans outside Tibet and $621,000 to the NED's Tibetan programmes.

Since 2014, there has been a gradual decline in Tibetan funding. Slashing down of the Tibetan funding has come as a surprise to the supporters of the Tibetan cause in the US.

During his confirmation hearing, the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had assured lawmakers about the Administration's support for Tibetans: "Should I be confirmed, while recognising Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China, I will continue to encourage dialogue between Beijing and representatives of Tibet's "government in exile" and/or the Dalai Lama. I will also encourage Beijing and the governments of all nations to respect and preserve the distinct religious, linguistic, and cultural identity of the Tibetan people worldwide," Tillerson said during his confirmation hearing in February.

Powerful lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate have introduced identical legislations, which if passed, would deny access to the United States by Chinese officials who are responsible for creating or administering policies on travel to Tibetan areas until China eliminates discriminatory restrictions on access by Americans to Tibet.

Ahead of the US-China Summit, held on 6-7 April, a group of influential lawmakers had urged Trump to raise the issue of Tibet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
By Steve Holland

| TAORMINA, Italy

TAORMINA, Italy U.S. President Donald Trump expects a tough debate over trade and climate change with other Group of Seven leaders at their forthcoming summit, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Thursday.Trump and the leaders of Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy are due to hold two days of talks in Sicily, with the U.S. president expected to put a firm emphasis on the importance of domestic economic growth.His G7 counterparts are particularly concerned that he might follow through on a campaign pledge to promote a protectionist agenda, and might also walk away from U.S. commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.Speaking to reporters on a flight bringing Trump to Sicily, Cohn said both issues would feature at the meeting."We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means," he said.

"What the president means by free and open is, we will treat you the way you treat us, meaning if you dont have barriers to trade or you dont have tariffs, we wont have tariffs."He also predicted a "fairly robust discussion" on climate change, saying the president, who once dismissed global warming as a hoax, would only make his mind up about the Paris Agreement once he returned to Washington.Cohn said Europeans had made more progress in curbing emissions than the United States and suggested that if U.S. industries tried to catch up too quickly, it might prove costly.

"Look, we believe in the environment, too. We believe in clean air. We believe in clean water," he said. "But we also believe in economic growth. We believe in bringing manufacturing back to the United States, so we have to balance that. ... If those things collide, growing our economy is going to win." During his election campaign, Trump promised to revive the ailing U.S. coal industry and scrap environmental regulations introduced by the Obama administration. However, Cohn acknowledged that the energy mix was changing.

"Coal doesnt even make that much sense anymore as a feedstock," he said. "Natural gas, which we have become an abundant producer, which we're going to become a major exporter of, is such a cleaner fuel."Turning to other likely discussions at the G7, Cohn said: "Terrorism is going to be a very big topic." He added that the leaders would also discuss cyber security, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Russia.He said NATO leaders on Thursday in Brussels had raised the issue of sanctions imposed by the West on Russia after it annexed Crimea in 2014. Asked whether Washington wanted to extend the financial curbs, Cohn said: "I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we dont have a position." (Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
By Michelle Nichols

| UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS The United Nations Middle East envoy warned the Security Council on Friday that a power struggle between the rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements had worsened a humanitarian crisis in Gaza that now risked exploding into another conflict. "In Gaza we are walking into another crisis with our eyes wide open," the envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, told the 15-member Council. "Unless urgent measures are taken to de-escalate, the crisis risks spiraling out of control with devastating consequences for Palestinians and Israelis alike."Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement controls the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the Israeli occupied West Bank. The Islamist Hamas movements runs the Gaza Strip after seizing control from Fatah a decade ago."The Palestinian Authority, Hamas ... and Israel, all have obligations for the welfare of Gaza's residents and must live up to their responsibilities to address the crisis and overcome this political impasse," Mladenov said.

Mladenov said that in April the PA cut salary allowances to nearly 60,000 public sector employees in Gaza and the Gaza power plant, which supplies a third of electricity, stopped working due to a dispute between the PA and Hamas over fuel tax.He said power lines between Egypt and Gaza are down for technical reasons, leaving only Israeli electricity lines, which provide 60 percent of Gaza's power. However, in April the PA said it would no longer pay Israel to supply Gaza.Mladenov said that if that happened, electricity supply to Gaza would be further reduced by 30 percent, creating more hardship for the population.

He said the majority of Palestinians in Gaza were already only receiving about four hours of electricity a day and this could be halved. Mladenov added that desalination plants were only functioning at 15 percent of capacity and drinking water is supplied for a few hours every 2-4 days.The envoy said that 100,000 cubic meters of raw sewage was being discharged daily into the Mediterranean Sea, equivalent of 40 Olympic-size swimming pools.

"An environmental disaster for Israel, for Egypt and Gaza is in the making," Mladenov said. U.S. President Donald Trump visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem earlier this week and reaffirmed his commitment to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but he offered no new details on how to achieve a goal that has eluded U.S. leaders for decades.Mladenov welcomed Trump's personal engagement. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Grant McCool)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Nicosia: UN's drive for a crunch Cyprus peace conference in Geneva has failed, leaving the future of talks on reunifying the island in limbo, a UN envoy acknowledged today.

"Unfortunately, despite serious efforts to overcome their differences regarding the modalities for meeting in Geneva, the leaders were unable to find common ground," envoy Espen Barth Eide said.

"Without a prospect for common ground, there is no basis for continuing this shuttle diplomacy," he added.

Eide had been engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci in a bid to secure their agreement on the proposed conference.

It was agreed that talks on Cyprus could go no further and only an international conference involving the three guarantors of the island's sovereignty  Britain, Greece and Turkey -- could achieve real progress.

"As both leaders have publicly expressed their desire to reconvene the conference on Cyprus and to finalise all outstanding issues in Geneva, our sole focus has been to agree the modalities by which this can be achieved," Eide said.

Although he had hoped to get agreement on the conference by the end of the week, he conceded the differences between the two leaders were insurmountable.

"I briefed the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council in a joint meeting. I will now inform the secretary general (Antonio Guterres) and seek his advice on the way forward," Eide said.

The envoy had previously said there was a "desire to go the final mile and go to Geneva" but "there are real differences we still have to work on".

A previous conference involving the guarantor powers in Geneva in January failed to agree on a post-peace security strategy.

UN-backed peace talks seek to reunite Cyprus under a federal roof.

Anastasiades and Akinci remain at loggerheads over core issues such as power sharing, territorial adjustments, security arrangements and property rights.

The Greek Cypriot leader wanted Geneva to focus on post-solution security arrangements while Akinci wanted issues of power sharing at the fore.

Anastasiades, who heads the island's internationally recognised government, faces re-election in February, a factor complicating the talks process.

The government's drive to explore for offshore oil and gas has also clouded the negotiations, with Ankara calling for it to be halted until a settlement has been reached.

The two sides have been engaged in fragile peace talks since May 2015 that observers see as the best chance in years to reunify the island.

This process now looks in jeopardy, although a UN spokesperson put a brave face on the setback.

"The talks have not collapsed. The process remains leader-led and we now have to hear from the leaders how they see a way forward," the spokesperson told AFP.

Much of the progress until now has been based on the strong personal rapport between Anastasiades and Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

But in recent months there has been a negative climate of blame and mistrust.
Washington: US President Donald Trump's administration will ask the Supreme Court to review an appellate decision upholding a stay blocking enforcement of an executive order barring visas to residents of six Muslim-majority countries.

"This Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the power and duty of the executive branch to protect the people of this country from danger, and will seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement on Thursday.

The Attorney General made the announcement hours after the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, voted 10 to 3 to sustain a 16 March decision by a federal district judge in Maryland that stayed enforcement of the executive order, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute. It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation," 4th Circuit Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory said.

Sessions, however, insisted that Trump's order was lawful. "President Trump's executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe."

Though Trump cited national security concerns as the reason for the travel restrictions, the district judge who issued the stay against the second executive order found that the directive offered no solid evidence of a terrorist threat and was unconstitutional because it discriminated against people on the basis of religion.

In Thursday's decision, the appellate court explicitly referred to Trump's advocacy of a Muslim ban during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"The evidence in the record, viewed from the standpoint of the reasonable observer, creates a compelling case that (the executive order's) primary purpose is religious," the 4th Circuit said.

"Then-candidate Trump's campaign statements reveal that on numerous occasions, he expressed anti-Muslim sentiment, as well as his intent, if elected, to ban Muslims from the United States," it added.

Trump's 6 March order sought to ban people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and to bar all refugees for 120 days.

The administration formulated that measure after courts blocked Trump's original ban, imposed 27 January.
Beirut: US-led coalition air strikes killed at least 35 civilians in an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State (IS) group, a monitor said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

"Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Thursday toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the Observatory said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday.

The Britain-based monitor this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on 23 September, 2014.

Between 23 April and 23 May of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, the Observatory said.

The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on IS's remaining bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Wednesday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new relevation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011.
Washington: The United States issued about 50 percent fewer visitor visas in April to citizens of seven countries covered by President Donald Trump's temporary travel bans than it did in an average month last year, according to a Reuters analysis of preliminary government data released on Thursday.

The total number of US non-immigrant visas issued to people from all countries was about 15 percent lower in April compared with the 2016 monthly average.

The April data shows the continuation of a trend identified in data for the month of March, which the State Department released last month. That data showed that citizens of the seven Muslim-majority countries under the bans  Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen  received about 40 percent fewer visitor visas in March than in an average month last year.

Trump's travel bans have been blocked by the courts.

Citizens of the seven countries received about 2,800 non-immigrant visas in April 2017, compared with about 5,700 on average per month during the 2016 fiscal year and more than 6,000 on average per month in 2015 and 2014. Data from previous years is only available in aggregate by fiscal year, rather than month-by-month.

The State Department released the data to comply with a directive from Trump asking it to publish monthly breakdowns of the number of visas issued around the world.

The agency did not release data on the number of visa applications, so it is unclear whether the lower number of visas is because of a higher rate of rejections or other factors, such as fewer applicants or slower processing times.

"Visa demand is cyclical, not uniform throughout the year, and affected by various factors at the local and international level," said William Cocks, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Executive orders

Trump, who has said the travel bans were intended to make Americans safer from attacks, signed an executive order on Jan. 27 barring people from the seven countries from entering the United States for 90 days.

After the order was blocked by federal courts, the Trump administration replaced it with a revised, narrower ban which dropped Iraq from the list. Courts have also halted parts of the second order.

On Thursday, a US appeals court refused to reinstate the travel ban, calling it discriminatory and setting the stage for a showdown in the Supreme Court.

Although visitor visas were down across the board for the seven targeted countries compared with last years' averages, Iraqis in April received 349 immigrant visas, which are typically given to those with jobs or family members in the United States, compared with 305 in an average month in 2016.

Syrians also received more immigrant visas in April  268 versus an average of 219 per month last year. All other countries targeted by one of Trump's bans received fewer immigrant visas in April than in an average month last year.
By Nguyen Huy Kham

| HANOI

HANOI Dressed in the bright silk garments of a woman and dancing with candles between his fingers, Nguyen Duy Nam leads a temple of worshippers in a ceremony honouring mystical goddesses of forest, water and heaven.Nam, 24, is one of a growing number of spirit mediums who perform the Hau Dong ritual of blaring noise and vibrant colours, now enjoying a resurgence after once being frowned on by the ruling Communist Party."It's like an illusion, like a soul has taken over my body," said Nam, who works in a garage in Hanoi, the capital, when he is not performing Hau Dong.Dating to the 16th century, Hau Dong centres on a belief in the Mother Goddesses of three realms - forest, water and heaven. It draws from elements of Taoism, Buddhism and other religions.During rituals, spirit mediums dance to loud folk music while appearing to transform themselves into different characters from legend and history. They display changing personalities as if different spirits have entered their bodies.Sometimes they say it feels real.

"One time I couldn't even move my body and just cried for no reason, but then I returned to normal when the next character came," Nam recalled.Believers kneel behind mediums and cheerfully grab money thrown by the spirits. Spread on the floor are offerings for the goddesses and the spirits - which can be anything from money to instant noodles to life-sized paper horses."It's for every class of society, from rich to poor, from officials to citizens and from the mountain to the plain," said architect and researcher Doan Ky Thanh.

Thanh said the appeal of the ritual had broadened as it could attract participants of either gender.Hau Dong's status was reaffirmed last year when it was recognised as part of the Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the U.N. cultural organisation UNESCO.In 2005, the Communist Party lifted a ban on Hau Dong, which until then it had regarded as superstitious. Interest in the ritual has since grown, as economic liberalisation has brought greater wealth and social openness.

Hau Dong is not predominantly about money, but offerings to the spirits and temples can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single ceremony.Although the state frowns on wasting money, sponsoring a ceremony can be a status symbol.Nam said after being called by the saints to become a medium he had given up the reckless lifestyle of his youth. That spurred him to work hard in his daily occupation, paying off in the ownership of two garages.He is dedicated to continuing as a medium, whatever anyone thinks of him dressing as a woman and summoning the spirits. For now, only his close family know it's part of his life."It's my lifetime duty," he said. (Reporting by Nguyen Huy Kham and Hanoi Bureau; Writing by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The Hillary Step  a rocky outcrop near the top of Mount Everest  is still intact, Nepali climbers said on Wednesday, rejecting a widely reported claim by a British mountaineer that it had collapsed.

The condition of the rock face has been the source of intense speculation among the climbing community since six-time Everest summiteer Tim Mosedale declared it had crumbled.

"The Hillary Step is no more," Mosedale wrote on Facebook the day after he made it to the top on 17 May.

"Not sure what's going to happen when the snow ridge doesn't form because there are some huge blocks randomly perched hither and thither which will be quite tricky to negotiate."

But experienced Nepali climbers said the rock feature  named after the first climber to summit the world's highest peak, Sir Edmund Hillary  was unchanged.

"The Hillary Step is as it was before, but a large stone above it has fallen," said Pemba Dorje Sherpa, who reached the peak on 20 May and has summited on 15 other occasions.

"It was easier to reach the summit because of that, but perhaps that confused people into thinking that the step is no more."

Nine-time Everest summiteer Mingma Tsiri Sherpa, who runs a climbing company and is currently at the base camp, said an alternative route being used by climbers could be leading to the confusion.

"The fixed lines are more to the right of the step (than before). We're now walking on the snow whereas before we had to walk on the rocky side. That is the reason for the confusion."

Mingma has not climbed Everest this year but nine of his Nepali guides and eight clients have made it to the top.

Questions surrounding the condition of the step  the last major obstacle before the summit  emerged in 2016, with some suggesting that it had been damaged in the earthquake that hit Nepal in April 2015.

The 7.8-magnitude quake triggered an avalanche that flattened base camp, killing 18, and brought the climbing season to a premature close.

Geologist Amod Mani Dixit, who heads the Kathmandu-based National Society for Earthquake Technology, said it was unlikely the earthquake would have shifted rocks on Everest, which stands 450 kilometres (280 miles) east of the epicentre.

Dixit said relatively minor tremors could cause an avalanche but a much more powerful force would be needed to alter a rock formation like the Hillary Step.

"We looked at the map of how the earthquake shook that part. The level of shaking in that area is not great enough to cause that kind of rock slide," he said.

The Nepal Mountaineering Association said Wednesday it was investigating the conflicting claims about the condition of the Hillary Step.
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Consumer sentiment has plateaued six months after President Donald Trumps surprise election in November.

A final read on the University of Michigans closely-watched consumer sentiment gauge on Friday showed a slight decline to 97.1 from a preliminary reading of 97.7. Wall Street had expected a smaller slip to 97.5 as the gauge averaged a 97.3 level in the December to May period.

The partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans  which had been wide in the months after the election season  has narrowed but remains mostly unchanged, according to Surveys of Consumers chief economist Richard Curtin.

Since no major policies, such as health care, taxes or infrastructure spending have yet been adopted, the partisan divide may reflect differences in policy preferences expressed as expected economic outcomes, he noted.

The extreme partisan divide, then, is likely to continue until the presidents policy proposals either gain traction on Capitol Hill or fall by the wayside. Until then, Curtain said its unlikely the impact of partisanship on economic expectations will dissipate.

Despite the expected bounce back in spending in the current quarter, personal consumption is expected to advance by 2.3% in 2017, although this is based on averages across the political divide, which has never been as extreme as it is currently, he said.

During his campaign for the White House, Trump said through a series of fiscal-policy proposals, he aimed to help boost economic growth into the 4% range, but so far his efforts havent materialized. The second reading on first-quarter GDP, also released on Friday, showed the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.2%, a faster pace than the first reading of 0.7%, but far below the fourth quarters 2.1% pace as rates of consumer spending and business investment slowed from the last three months of 2016.

But the consumer sentiments steady hand is a good sign for economic growth, economists at Barclays said.

Overall, the continued improvement in the headline index suggests that consumer sentiment remains of a strong footing and is supportive of GDP growth in the near term, they explained.

Indeed, consumers have been a bright spot for the economy over the last year as their spending rates mostly kept pace with their optimism. To that point, the University of Michigan survey results showed more consumers reported improved financial situations than at any time in the last 12 years. Strength was helped by a pickup in wages in recent months as well as a rise in household wealth, boosted by record-highs in the stock market and rising home values.
Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily on Friday:

GameStop Corp., down $1.40 to $22.22

Investors were concerned about the video game retailer's mobile device sales and its annual forecasts.

Costco Wholesale Corp., up $3.13 to $177.86

The warehouse club operator reported strong third-quarter results.

Ulta Beauty Inc., up $9.36 to $302.40

The beauty products company's profit and sales topped analysts' expectations.

Deckers Outdoor Corp., up $10.64 to $67.21

The maker of Uggs boots had a larger profit and better sales than Wall Street had forecast.

Zoe's Kitchen Inc., down $2.02 to $14.18

The restaurant chain cut its revenue estimate for the year as customer traffic remained weak.

Caleres Inc., up $2.26 to $27.08

The shoe company's first-quarter sales were better than Wall Street expected.

GGP Inc., down $1.04 to $22.65

Shares in real estate investment trusts fell Friday, continuing their pattern of lagging the market this year.

Coty Inc., up 46 cents to $19.06

Household goods makers made some of the largest gains Friday in an overall lackluster trading day.
Sir Andrew Witty's last quarter as CEO of GlaxoSmithKline plc(NYSE: GSK) produced positive results, and incoming leader Emma Walmsley gave some clues as to how things will be changing...or not.

Q1 2017 marked the eighth reporting period since the closure of a $20 billion asset swap with Novartis, and was the latest in a series of encouraging quarters. The post-Brexit devaluation of the British pound continues to be a powerful tailwind for Glaxo's business, with sales up 19% and adjusted earnings per share up 31% year over year. Subtracting the effect of currency, sales were up 5% and EPS was up 9%. Free cash flow was $813 million as compared to negative $343 million the year earlier.

Emma Walmsley. Image source: GlaxoSmithKline plc

After two years of restructuring, Glaxo has achieved some balance and consistency across its three operating units. Pharmaceutical sales, comprising 57% of the total, were up 4% in constant currency, and consumer products were up 2%, both matching growth rates from last quarter. The vaccine business was a standout, up 31% in pounds sterling and 16% in constant currency.

Vaccines should get a further boost in 2018 when Glaxo's potential blockbuster shingles vaccine Shingrix gets the go-ahead from the FDA. The company shared still more good news about Shingrix when it announced positive results from an in-house study of patients who had already been vaccinated with Merck'sZostavax, which is only 51% effective compared with Shingrix's efficacy of over 90%.

Glaxo is continuing to do well with HIV drugs, which delivered sales of $1.23 billion, a 19% boost in constant currency thanks to the highly successful Trivicay and Triumeq. The HIV market is very competitive, but the company could get another boost from a new two-drug combination treatment that will be submitted for regulatory approval later this year.

Good news on Advair

The biggest worry for Glaxo investors has been the expected arrival of generic competition for blockbuster respiratory drug Advair. But newer drugs in the company's pipeline have been doing very well, and recent events have brought good news for Glaxo investors.

Advair sales declined 12% in constant currency as pricing pressures have presaged the introduction of a generic. But growth in newer products more than made up for the losses, resulting in overall respiratory drug growth of 5% in constant currency.

Even better for GlaxoSmithKline investors has been news that approval of a generic Advair is going to be tougher than the competition expected. In April, Mylanreceived the dreaded Complete Response Letterfrom the FDA, stating that the application for its generic Advair had been rejected in its current form. Then, earlier this month, Jordanian drug company Hikma Pharmaceuticals received an even worse notification from the FDA about its Advair knockoff, a rejection categorized as "major," leading Hikma to conclude there will be a low likelihood of approval this year.

Steady as she goes

Walmsley's first appearance as leader of the quarterly conference call gave analysts a chance to probe for clues as to where she will steer the company as she takes the helm. Some themes were clear from her comments.

Significantly, Walmsley affirmed the strategy of maintaining the three distinct operating units combined into a diversified healthcare company. She cited the role of the vaccine and consumer businesses in providing more certain and reliable cash flows compared with the higher-margin but more volatile pharmaceutical business. Those words are music to the ears of dividend investors, who like Glaxo's stock for its generous yield, currently 4.8%.

The other priorities the new CEO highlighted were a stronger focus on execution and on improving the value of the pipeline and a desire to shift the culture of the company to be more disciplined and performance oriented.

None of these pronouncements is particularly shocking, to say the least. What incoming CEO wouldn't want to improve a company's execution, culture, and the value of its assets? But simply the fact that Walmsley is signaling that the company will be staying the course with a strategy that has yielded several quarters of success was reassuring to the market, with the stock rising 6% since the announcement.

Some investors may have wondered whether an executive whose experience has been in consumer businesses -- Walmsley came from L'Oreal to Glaxo's consumer unit -- would have the chops to lead a company that is over half pharmaceuticals. But Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez had previously worked for H.J. Heinz Company before moving to the Swiss drug giant a decade agoand taking over in 2010, so there is a evidence that it could work.

GlaxoSmithKline continues to produce consistent results and improving profits and cash flow. Walmsley is taking over a healthcare company that is itself quite healthy, and she intends to build on the success of Witty. Investors looking for income and modest but steady growth should find the stock worthy of consideration.

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The Warthog is sitting pretty.

Once on the brink of forced retirement, the A-10 attack plane with the ungainly shape and odd nickname has been given new life, spared by Air Force leaders who have reversed the Obama administration's view of the plane as an unaffordable extra in what had been a time of tight budgets.

In the 2018 Pentagon budget plan sent to Congress this week, the Air Force proposed to keep all 283 A-10s flying for the foreseeable future.

Three years ago, the Pentagon proposed scrapping the fleet for what it estimated would be $3.5 billion in savings over five years. Congress said no.

The following year, the military tried again but said the retirement would not be final until 2019. Congress again said no.

Last year, officials backed away a bit further, indicating retirement was still the best option but that it could be put off until 2022.

Now the retirement push is over, and the Warthog's future appears secure.

"The world has changed," said Maj. Gen. James F. Martin Jr., the Air Force budget deputy, in explaining decisions to keep aircraft once deemed expendable.

The Air Force has similarly dropped plans to retire the iconic U-2 spy plane amid prospects for bigger budgets under President Donald Trump. It also reflects the relentless pace of operations for combat aircraft and surveillance and reconnaissance planes that feed intelligence data to war commanders.

The service had complained for years that its inventory of aircraft was getting dangerously small and old. Gen. Mark Welsh, who retired as the top Air Force officer last year, was fond of describing the service as having 12 fleets of aircraft that qualify for antique license plates in the state of Virginia.

The A-10 is a special case. Rep. Martha McSally, a Republican from Arizona who flew the A-10 in combat and commanded a squadron in Afghanistan, speaks of it with obvious affection.

"The A-10 is this badass airplane with a big gun on it," she said she told Trump in a recent conversation, explaining why the Warthog is unlike any other attack aircraft.

The "big gun" to which she refers is a seven-barrel Gatling gun that is nine feet long and fires 30mm armor-piercing shells at a rate of 3,900 rounds per minute. Also armed with Maverick missiles, the A-10 is effective not only in a conventional battle against tanks and other armored vehicles. It also provides close-air support for Iraqi and other U.S. partner forces taking on Islamic State fighters in the deserts of Iraq and Syria.

A number of A-10s fly missions in Syria from Incirlik air base in Turkey.

McSally is among members of Congress for whom elimination of the Warthog carried political risks back home. Sen. John McCain, a fellow Arizona Republican, joined her in strenuously arguing against the plane's early retirement.

Arizona's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is home to an A-10 unit; retirement of the aircraft might have made Davis-Monthan more vulnerable to closure.

A veteran of combat in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and beyond, the plane entered service in 1976. It is among Cold War-era icons like the venerable B-52 bomber that have exceeded expected lifespans and are likely to remain central to U.S. air campaigns for years to come.

Specially designed for the Cold War mission of attacking armor on the front lines of a potential European war with the Soviet Union, the A-10's air crews considered it so ugly they called it the Warthog. Its official nickname is Thunderbolt II. The plane has been out of production since 1984 but has received many upgrades over the years, most recently with new electronics.
Social Security is, for millions of Americans, a financial foundation during retirement. The March 2017 snapshot from the Social Security Administration (SSA) shows that 61.26 million people were receiving a check each month two-thirds of which were retired workers. Of these retired workers, a tad over 60% count on their monthly check to provide at least half of their monthly income.

Long story short, without Social Security income, millions of seniors would probably be struggling to make ends meet during retirement, and the senior poverty rate would likely soar.

Image source: President Donald J. Trump's official Facebook page. Photo by Shealea Craighead.

Donald Trump just reneged on his Social Security pledge

Understanding the correlation between Social Security income and a comfortable retirement, Donald Trump made numerous pledges during his presidential campaign and after his election that Social Security would be off-limits in his budget discussions. However, according to Trump's recently released 2018 federal budget proposal, which looks to cut $3.6 trillion worth of spending over the next decade, Social Security wasn't spared.

Some of the cuts in Trump's budget were widely expected. A steep 2018 haircut to the State Department and Environmental Protection Agency, and the expectation of an $800 billion haircut over the next decade from Medicaid (which is derived from the expected passage of the American Health Care Act), were considered givens. But few expected Trump to renege on his campaign pledge to leave Social Security alone.

According to the proposal, the federal government would look to cut $72 billion out of Social Security disability payments over the next decade, or around $7 billion a year. This works out to about 4% of Social Security Disability's expected payouts between 2018 and 2027. As a whole, U.S. disability spending has grown by 160% since 2000, to $142.7 billion as of 2016.

In the words of Mick Mulvaney, Trump's right-hand man when it comes to the budget proposal:

Image source: Getty Images.

News flash: Social Security disability is part of Social Security

There's just one major problem with this statement, other than the ridiculous statistic being floated by Mulvaney: Social Security disability is a part of Social Security -- and it's actually a pretty notable component.

As of March, 10.58 million people were being paid an average of $1,171.52 per month, which works out to about $14,058 per year. That may not sound like a lot, but it's enough to push the average disabled individual above the poverty level. These 10.58 million disabled beneficiaries account for more than 17% of all Social Security beneficiaries as of March, and the $10.92 billion paid during the month accounted for 14.3% of Social Security benefits distributed (not counting Supplemental Security Income).

But it's also worth noting that Social Security disability payments aren't solely intended for qualified disabled workers. There are about 132,000 spouses of disabled workers who receive an average of $324.46 each month, and another 1.67 million children of disabled workers who are receiving a monthly check averaging $357.30 as of March. A benefits cut to disability means a potential long-term payout reduction for the spouses and children of these folks as well.

Social Security disability coverage also extends to roughly 96% of employed adult workers in the United States. To qualify (fully) for disability benefits, a worker needs to have collected 40 lifetime work credits. A worker can earn a maximum of four credits per year, with each credit equating to $1,300 in earned income as of 2017. In short, it's pretty easy to qualify as long as you work at least part-time for 10 years.

Lastly, even though you probably don't realize it, the average disabled worker is nearing retirement age. According to data from the SSA, the average age of disabled workers as of 2015 was 53.9 years old, up from 49.8 years in 1995. Though we've seen a rise in the number of disabled workers this century, we're also seeing the age of these workers increase, too. Chances are that these older disabled workers are going to be reliant on their disability income to make ends meet.

Image source: Getty Images.

Not set in stone

Generally, budget proposals from the president are a starting point for Congress to begin debate. I can't recall a time in recent history where an initial budget proposal looked anything like the final product, meaning there's plenty of room for compromise from both parties at this point.

The question is, will Social Security disability cuts be a sticking point? I'm inclined to think so, given Democrats' adamant opposition to Social Security cuts of any form. Furthermore, public pressure from constituents could coerce select members of Congress to remove any possible cuts to Social Security's Disability Insurance Trust.

If Trump's budget has done some good for Social Security, it's that it's raising awareness of the need to find a bipartisan long-term fix to the program for future generations. After all, according to the Social Security Board of Trustees' 2016 report, we're just 17 years away from exhausting the program's spare cash and staring down what could be across-the-board benefit cuts of up to 21%. That does retirees, the disabled, and survivors of deceased workers, absolutely no good.

Perhaps Trump's budget proposal will light a fire under Congress to begin taking Social Security reform seriously -- but don't hold your breath.

The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

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Leaders from the world's major industrialized nations began talks on Friday at a G7 summit in Sicily which is expected to expose deep divisions with U.S. President Donald Trump over trade and climate change.

The two-day summit, at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, began a day after Trump blasted NATO allies for spending too little on defense and described Germany's trade surplus as "very bad" in a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

After receiving warm receptions in Saudia Arabia and Israel, Trump's confrontational stance with long-standing partners in Europe cast a cloud over the meeting in Taormina, where leaders are due to discuss terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

"No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years," Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted "robust" discussions on trade and climate.

Trump was elected in November after a campaign in which he rejected many of the tenets that the Group of Seven has stood for, including free trade, multilateralism and the liberal democratic values.

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to use the summit to convince Trump to soften some of his stances.

But diplomats conceded as the talks began that the United States was unlikely to budge, meaning the final communique could be watered down significantly compared to the one the G7 unveiled at its last summit in Japan.

TRADE AND CLIMATE

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theater overlooking the sea, where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters. Nine fighter jets soared into the sky above Taormina, leaving a trail of smoke in the red-white-green colors of the Italian flag.

The leaders then adjourned to the San Domenico Palace, a one-time Dominican monastery that is now a luxury 5-star hotel. During World War Two, it housed Nazi air force chiefs.

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 140 miles (225 km) from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

But trade and climate, to be discussed on Friday afternoon, are the most contentious issues.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a "hoax" during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in. Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

"This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy," said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, Trump accused members of the military alliance of owing "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO - even though allied contributions are voluntary.

The remarks went down badly with European leaders, who had hoped Trump would use the opportunity to confirm his commitment to Article 5, the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

"When an American president cannot commit clearly to Article 5 at a time when everyone is expecting him to do this then there is the risk that Moscow interprets this as meaning it is no longer valid," said Jan Techau of the American Academy in Berlin.

"VERY BAD"

In a private meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Trump also denounced the German trade surplus as "very bad" and complained about the large number of German cars being sold in the United States, officials said.

Juncker tried to play down the comments ahead of the summit. But they underscored ongoing policy divisions between Trump and his partners four months after he took office.

Trump is attending his first major international summit but is not the only G7 newcomer. Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

May is expected to leave a day early, following Monday's suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people carried out by a suspected Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

G7 leaders were expected to issue a separate statement on terrorism on Friday, before issuing their formal communique on Saturday. Italian officials have suggested the final communique will be shorter than 10 pages. At the last G7 summit in Japan it totalled 32 pages.

One country that will not be present is Russia. It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

But accusations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaign's contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office. One of Kushner's attorneys said her client would cooperate with the investigation.

Kushner and his wife, Trump's daughter Ivanka, have returned to Washington after accompanying the president for the first part of his first foreign tour.

(By Steve Holland and Elizabeth Piper; Writing by Noah Barkin; Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer, John Irish, Andreas Rinke, Giselda Vagnoni, Steve Scherer; Editing by Alison Williams)
Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Friday put pressure on internet companies and social media sites to do more to stop the spread of "hateful ideology," appealing to their sense of social responsibility to more swiftly identify and remove terror propaganda.

The measure signed by the seven nations' leaders was a show of solidarity with Britain following Monday's suicide bombing in Manchester, England that killed 22 outside a pop music concert. The Islamic State group claimed the attack, although authorities are working to establish the bombing suspect's ties to extremist organizations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the leaders agreed that the threat posed by the Islamic State group "is evolving rather than disappearing."

"As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning, and the group's hateful ideology is spreading online," May said. "Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet."

She said terror propaganda is "warping young minds" and that she thinks technology companies both could do more and have the responsibility to act.

In their declaration, the leaders said they were targeting "propaganda supporting terrorism and violent extremism, online recruitment by extremists, radicalization and incitement to violence." They said they would work also with youth and religious leaders, prisons and educational institutions toward that end.

They also agreed in the declaration to strengthen the process for returning foreign fighters operating in Europe to their countries of origin, to better share intelligence on individuals who have trained in Islamic State territory, and to do more to cut off funding streams they called "the lifeblood of violent extremists and terrorists."

The G-7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on Friday also discussed climate and trade.

At the close of the day's talks, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said six of the G-7 nations  Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan  confirmed "our commitment and our determination" to the Paris Agreement establishing goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

The United States, meanwhile, confirmed "a period of reflection" on the issue, he said.

Trump's pending review of U.S. climate policies and decision not to make up his mind before the Taormina summit has braced environmentalists for the possibility of bland language that says little after years of increasingly stronger commitments to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and emissions under the Paris Agreement.

"What we do not want to see is a false compromise on nothing," Tobias Muenchmeyer, a political expert for Greenpeace, said. "We want to see determination and commitment over unity," with the other partners going ahead without the United States.
The White House may be looking to strengthen, not ease, sanctions on Russia, National Economic Director Gary Cohn said Friday.

We're not lowering our sanctions on Russia. If anything, we'd probably look to get tougher on Russia. The president wants to continue to keep sanctions in place  The president has made it clear how Russians can have sanctions lifted, Cohn said to reporters at the G7 summit in Italy Friday.

Cohn was clarifying remarks he made earlier this week, when he said the president was looking at changes to the sanctions program against Russia.

The Obama administration implemented some of the restrictions in 2014 in response to Russias annexation of Crimea. The former president imposed new sanctions on Moscow in December amid claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential race.

In April, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said sanctions would not be softened until Russia returned control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine.

Russia has remained a prominent source of conflict for the administration due to its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election and complications with the ensuing investigation. Critics have also accused Trump and members of his cabinet of having ties to the Kremlin.

While Russia was reportedly discussed at both the NATO summit Thursday and the G7 meeting, another hot topic Friday was the Paris Climate Agreement. The president said he has not yet taken a position on the accord, despite the insistence of other leaders present to support it. The administration is committed to creating jobs in the United States, Cohn said, and Trump is concerned environmental restrictions could hinder his ability to carry out his campaign promises.

[Trump] reiterated that China and India are countries that [the U.S. has] fallen behind in some ways ... in the world of manufacturing and job creation. And he didnt want to be in second place when it came to job creation, Cohn said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and U.S. President Donald Trump renewed their commitment to increase trade between the two countries during a meeting at the G7 summit in Italy, May's spokesman said.

"The president and the prime minister reaffirmed their commitment to increasing trade between the UK and the U.S., including a post-Brexit trade deal," the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by William James, editing by William Schomberg)
As President Donald Trump arrived in Italy Friday to meet with the worldas most powerful leaders during a two-day G7 summit, he said on Twitter that his nine-day trip throughout Europe and the Middle East had, so far, been economically rewarding for the United States.

Just arrived in Italy for the G7. Trip has been very successful. We made and saved the USA many billions of dollars and millions of jobs.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2017

While it was unclear what specific savings and jobs the president was referencing, his first foreign trip has taken him to Rome, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Brussels. The president struck a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis on Saturday, which propelled defense stocks Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) higher on increased growth prospects. As Saudi Arabia looks to diversify its economy away from a heavy reliance on oil production, the Kingdom was also expected to commit to investments worth hundreds of billions in private U.S. companies, according to The Wall Street Journal.

On Thursday, during a NATO summit, the president urged member nations to increase their defense spending in order to ease an unfair burden being placed on U.S. taxpayers. The U.S. far outspends every other country in the alliance on national security and while no deals have been publicly announced, any defense spending pledges made in private would be considered an economic victory for the U.S. president.

In addition to requesting higher paymentsa G7 countries Germany, France and Canada do not currently meet the 2 percent-of-GDP spending thresholda President Trump rallied support in the global fight against terror, which he said will be a hot topic again during the meeting Friday.

The G7 summit is taking place in Sicily and includes leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Trump said Friday on Twitter that he intended to discuss economic growth, terrorism and global security, among other issues. Russia is also likely to be another big topic of conversation, as global tensions continue to flare following situations like the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
It may not come as a shock that the daughter of Jim and Jane Henson is now a contemporary puppet artist. But Heather Henson didnt always think she would follow in her famous familys footsteps.

Because I grew up around the puppets, I guess there was a part of me that wanted to rebel, admitted the 46-year-old to Fox News. I wanted to do something a little different.

Henson explained that while she studied animation, she was often intrigued by animals, especially one particular species.

RITA MORENO SHARES HER FUNNY MUPPETS STORY

I became very involved with cranes because they have a whole language involving their bodies and dancing, she explained. When I started to learn more about them, I worked at a zoo  one of my intern jobs was to walk the cranes back and forth as their legs grew. And then I learned about how their population was declining and how hard biologists worked to get them re-populated.

Hensons interest in cranes didnt take her completely by surprise. Her father was the mastermind behind Kermit the Frog and other Muppet creatures that became the friends and teachers of millions of children. She said that Jim took inspiration from nature throughout his career.

I think the more that Ive been working on this topic, the more Ive seen the works that he did and how I can relate to it more, said Henson. He definitely loved nature, and as a dad he would bring me outside so I can experience it for myself. It was a regular thing to go out walking with him in nature. And in his work I see the details of nature in his creatures."

The patriarch of the Henson family also found joy in sharing that same love with his children.

JOHN HENSON DIES AT AGE 48

"We lived in England at one time, and I just remember as a kid being brought to these interesting landscapes and places where my dad found inspiration," said Heather Henson. "I remember going to his laboratory  I saw a lot of things that were happening in nature. Those were formative years for me, watching his research and development.

Jim died in 1990 from a bacterial infection, at just 53 years old. But his youngest child understands why his work is still adored by many.

When it comes to the Henson brand, it really comes down to how well the puppets are made, she said. The puppets are really, really beautiful and theyre coming from the Henson shop  My father knew very well the power of puppetry to tell a story and how people could engage and connect to those characters. And he did a beautiful job on that  My dad really had so many ideas and different directions he was moving in  When I look at his portfolio, I really resonate with that.

Still, Henson wanted to carve out her own identity with an art form that her family has nearly perfected in a completely different way. In 2000, she founded IBEX Puppetry, which produces her original works, including sing-alongs, education initiatives and performances relating to the environment.

In high school, I thought that I would never be a puppeteer, she said. Even in college I didnt think I was going to do it. But as soon as I finished college, it was just the way to go. Its been really, really wonderful. I got the bug to work with puppets.

Earlier this year, Henson co-created a new show called Crane: On Earth, In Sky that was performed at the Lied Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska, where the great crane migration was taking place. For a live audience, Henson relied on indoor kite flying, video projection and puppetry to show the potential dangers of a cranes life and how Native Americans have honored the majestic birds.

Live theater is super exciting because you get to create a magical moment, she said. Its one thing to be rehearsing without the audience, but then you get this group of people. You could then bring these characters to life. Its such a delightful experience  Youre asking the audience to come on this journey with you, and they have to believe this object is alive  I really like the connection to the community, the crowd.

Henson is determined to continue raising awareness on cranes and the environment through puppets.

I hope to show through puppetry that the world is interconnected with plants, animals and people, she said. All of our relations are rooted. [My message] is about this bird thats journeying through these landscapes and learning from the community. The cranes are on this dance of life, where they move seasonally, finding their rhythm in the world.
Joe Mantegna returns for his 15th time as host of the National Memorial Day Concert, a night of remembrance dedicated to our men and women in uniform, their families at home and all those who have given their lives for our country.

The 69-year-old "Criminal Minds" star initially served as host of the event at the first concert post 9/11 and the experience made such a profound impact on him, the holiday took on a different meaning.

"You see the veterans there, the wounded, and you hear the stories," he told Fox News. "Now I think its the most important holiday because its the one that lets us have the other holidays. In other words, had it not been for what our militarys done since the Revolutionary War, we wouldnt have the ability to celebrate anything any time like we do."

JOE MANTEGNA TALKS GUN HISTORY

Mantegna has several family members that have served in the military.

"I have one uncle that I brought [to the event for] many years," he said. "He passed away a couple of years ago at age 92. He was a World War II vet, as were his three brothers. Bringing them to this personalized it. They would start opening up and tell me stories."

This year's all-star line-up includes General Colin L. Powell USA (Ret.), Renee Fleming, Vanessa Williams, Scotty McCreery, John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, John Ortiz, Christopher Jackson, Ana Ortiz, Ronan Tynan, and Russell Watson, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of top pops conductor Jack Everly.

JOE MANTEGNA URGES THE IMPORTANCE OF MEMORIAL DAY

Plus, "Moana" star Aulii Cravalho will open the show with a special performance of the National Anthem.

"You dont know exactly what its going to be until you get to the rehearsal on Saturday, which is the day before, and then Im always amazed and pleased by how it all comes together," said Mantegna. "Each years different."

Joining Mantegna as co-host is "Black-ish" star Laurence Fishburne. The 55-year-old actor is filling in for Gary Sinise, who has co-hosted the concert for the past 11 years. This year, the 62-year-old actor is staying home to await the birth of his first grandchild.

And even though Sinise won't be live in D.C., he will be presenting a filmed tribute to WWIIs legendary Doolittle Raid, the daring bombing mission over Tokyo that changed the course of the war in the Pacific, which marks its 75th anniversary this year.

Mantegna's connection to the military, especially the friends he's made as host of the concert for 15 years  he's also the national spokesman for the Army Museum, which has broken ground and should be completed by 2019 at which time it will become the largest military museum in the world  is the reason that his character David Rossi on "Criminal Minds" is a former Marine.

"Since I personally was involved with the Marine Corps at the time I was cast  I was friends with Lt. General Willie Williams, Lt. General Ronald Coleman, and a few others  I had acquired a very close connection, a respect, and also the fact that my Uncle Jack and my Uncle Sam were Marines, it was very important to me to have some military connection," he said.

In fact, Mantegna's bond to some of the men he's met over the years is so strong, when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one of the two people who spoke on his behalf was General Williams, who has also appeared in a couple of episodes of "Criminal Minds."

In addition to its PBS airing, the concert will be live-streamed online on Facebook Live and available as Video on Demand for a limited time only, May 28 to June 10.
A Chipotle Mexican Grill in Texas is being accused of covering up the actions of a manager who reportedly hid a camera in the restaurants bathroom.

According to a lawsuit filed this week in the District Court of Brazaria County, Texas, the plantiffs allege that store manager Joanny Castillo, 18, repeatedly installed a video-recording spy camera in the women's bathroom area and, when informed of the Castillo's actions, the restaurants corporate office tried to cover up the incidents. According to the suit, an unnamed woman and her 5-year-old daughter were filmed taking off their clothes and going to the restroom.

The camera was first discovered on Feb. 24, when an employee at the restaurant claims she discovered the camera pointing directly at her while she used the toilet. She suspected a Chipotle male manager of hiding the camera, but the manager claimed a customer left it by accident and he would return it to the owner, Click 2 Houston reports.

WOMAN SUES CHIPOTLE FOR $2 BILLION OVER USE OF PHOTO IN PROMO MATERIALS

However, three days later, the same employee found the camera hiding in the bathroom again, discreetly placed under the restroom sink in exposed polybutylene piping, as stated in the lawsuit.

This time, the employee removed the camera and gave it to the general manager. When other employees learned of the incident, they demanded the camera be turned over to the police, but claim the general manager was reluctant and attempted to persuade them not to call the authorities.

But one of the employees disregarded the general managers mandate and called the police anyway.

The manager accused of hiding the camera was eventually fired and arrested.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

After the incident, however, Chipotle told the Houston Chronicle differing information, maintaining that the chain was not involved in any type of cover up and immediately called the authorities upon being notified of the incident.

This isnt the first time a hidden camera has been discovered in a public restroom. In July 2015, a mother and her 5-year-old son found a hidden cell phone in the womens restroom of a Starbucks in California. The phone, which faced the toilet area, was set to record.
Germany is set to pass a law next week that will require kindergartens to inform authorities if parents have failed to consult a doctor about vaccinating their children, with those who refuse advice subject to fines worth up to $2,800.

The law, expected to take effect on June 1, comes as leaders across Europe move to tighten vaccination laws amid a spike in measles, chicken pox and mumps. By mid-April, German health officials had counted 410 measles cases compared with 325 total in 2016, BBC reported.

16-YEAR-OLD IDENTIFIED AS VICTIM IN BOTULISM OUTBREAK

Nobody can be indifferent to the fact that people are still dying of measles, German Health Minister Hermann Groehe told Bild newspaper, according to Reuters. Thats why we are tightening up regulations on vaccination.

Lack of public trust in vaccines has caused a spike in many preventable diseases, Reuters reported. Experts said negative attitudes may be due to fears over suspected side-effects and hesitancy among some doctors.

Last week, Italy ruled that children must be vaccinated against common illnesses in order to be eligible for enrollment in kindergarten. In doing so, officials criticized wide-spread anti-scientific theories and accused the 5-Star movement of creating fear about vaccine safety.

The lack of appropriate measures over the years and the spread of anti-scientific theories, especially in recent months, has brough about a reduction in protection, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni had said at a news conference, according to Reuters.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Editor's note: The following oped originally appeared in Fox News Opinion in 2012 and is being republished for Memorial Day.

Memorial Day, what does it mean? As your long weekend unfolds look around. Take in your world and listen.

What do you see? What do you hear?

Will you hear this long weekend referred to as the unofficial start of summer? Will you hear people talk about parties, barbecues, trips to the lake and the beach, probably.

As you feel the warm rays of the sun, smell the inviting flavors of fresh food sizzling on the grill and watch your children run around the yard or splash in the surf there is something you should remember.

It is another beach, from a time long since past. You can see that beach in the photo accompanying this article. It is the beach at Buna, Papua New Guinea, and it depicts just three of the young lives this weekend memorializes.

The photo is of three dead American GIs. They lie half buried in the sand of an island far from their homes, far from their loved ones.

Photographer George Strock's memorable image, taken in February 1943, wasnt published until September of that year. When it appeared in Life magazine it became the first photo published, during World War II, which depicted dead Americans.

Censors released this and other graphic photos for a number of reasons. Given the year and the war one of those reasons still shocks me every time I read it. President Franklin Roosevelt was concerned that the public had grown detached from the astronomical price being paid by some so that we could live free.

Their faces are hidden, their names were not included.

The photograph was accompanied by an editorial explaining the decision to publish such a horrifying image. It asked the question many readers might have Why print this picture. One explanation offered, Words are never enough.

Words are never enough. As I read and then write that line, I am reminded of the tradition of the moment of silence. It's a time when each one of us is left to our thoughts, when we go to our most private place. When you observe a moment of silence your mind may be filled with prayer or thoughts of those lost and their families.

Or, perhaps, you are filled with that impossible to describe sadness brought on by the memory of someone you loved and can no longer see or hold in your arms.

Australian journalist Edward George Honey is believed to be the person who first suggested observing a moment of silence for fallen soldiers. He did so in a letter to a London newspaper just after the end of World War I. In that letter he proposed, "Five little minutes onlyFive silent minutes of national remembrance."

Five minutes would seem an eternity for many in this age of instant everything. And, I dont mean to judge the time we live in. Rather, I hope that on this Memorial Day you will share a thought or prayer for those lost.

As the sounds of a long holiday weekend fill the air, I encourage you to locate your moment and in that moment to remember.

Perhaps you will attend a parade or ceremony and pay your respects there.

But if you dont make it to a formal event you can still take a moment to stop and honor the people for which Memorial Day exits.

If you find yourself at the beach, take a moment to look out over the sand, to the sea and the horizon. As the waves crash remember for a moment the three men on the beach at Buna.

Keep in mind that they are but three of thousands upon thousands who we must always remember.

In some small way I cant help but think that as we remember them these brave men and women are found again.

And then, when you've finished, if you are lucky enough to be in the company of people you love, break the silence and tell them so.

If your gesture surprises them, or catches them off guard, tell them about the boys on the beach at Buna and how, in some small way, they made the moment possible.
The leaking of evidence about the Manchester bombing should be the final straw.

These leaks came from the professional intelligence community  not the Trump White House.

The leaks are proof that the deep state of professional bureaucrats is so out of control it believes it can break the law at will.

This destructive lawlessness is reinforced, fed, and strengthened by the elite medias hunger for sensational stories at the expense of the safety and security of our country and of our allies.

The number of unnamed sources who now populate front page sensational "scoops" is a sickening commentary on the decline of patriotism, professionalism, and belief in the rule of law.

The number of unnamed sources who now populate front page sensational "scoops" is a sickening commentary on the decline of patriotism, professionalism, and belief in the rule of law.

One destructive result of this kind of illegal behavior is that the number of allies willing to share secrets and intelligence with America will decline. If you think your classified information is going to end up on the front page of the Washington Post or the New York Times, why would you risk sharing it with the irresponsible and unprofessional Americans? Your investigation, your sources, and the very lives of your agents could be endangered by American arrogance and law breaking.

The enabler in this destructive lawlessness is the news media. Fred Friendly, who was Edward R. Murrows producer, used to say just because you have the right to say or write something doesn't mean it is the right thing to do.

The elite media has completely forgotten Friendlys standard and is using the First Amendments freedom of the press as an excuse for publishing unending destructive leaks and smears.

Part of the problem is the elite medias desperation to undermine and attack President Trump and his team. The growing number of stories based on unnamed or anonymous sources is just further proof of the medias mania.

President Trump was right to challenge the news media to only print stories they could source by name. He knew that 90 percent of the attack stories would disappear because no one would take responsibility for the smears, lies, and innuendos.

The political attack stories are disgusting, but national security leaks are downright dangerous.

The solution is to start arresting and trying people who violate their oath of secrecy.

Historically, the American government took classified information seriously. Americans who fought in World War II and who defended freedom throughout the Cold War (including in Korea and Vietnam) guarded classified information with their lives. They understood that loose lips do in fact sink ships.

President Trump is exactly right to ask Attorney General Sessions and the Justice Department to begin investigating every leak that contains classified information.

It is time to once again get serious about protecting America's secrets as a key step toward protecting American lives.
Mondays bomb explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England is a stark reminder that radical Islam is real despite leftists delusional view that if we could be a bit more inclusive and sensitive, everyone will just get along. Nowhere is this deranged outlook more outrageous than on our nations college campuses.

The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policys decision to host Linda Sarsour as its commencement speaker on June 1st is just the latest example of the naivete on our college campuses when it comes to recognizing the reality of radical Islam.

Linda Sarsour is a supporter of Sharia lawnot exactly known for its gender equality or its public health benefitswhich she has described as reasonable and misunderstood. She has praised an illegal immigrant who killed two people in a supermarket bombing in Israel in 1969, baselessly asserted that Muslim kids are being executed in America, and speculated that the infamous 2009 underwear bomber was a CIA plant.

Considering the wave of terror attacks in Europe (Bataclan, Brussels, Nice, Berlin, and now Manchester) and the United States (Pulse Nightclub, San Bernardino) over the last few years, its shocking that CUNY would overlook Sarsours retrograde attitudes, which are incompatible with American values.

No doubt her credentials as a newly-minted celebrity figureshe helped lead the Womens March on Washington and was named one of TIME Magazines 100 Most Influential Peopleendeared her to the left and their open-mindedness. Never mind the contradictions inherent in trying to be a progressive feminist and a supporter of Sharia.

If American academics werent such dyed-in-the-wool leftists, Sarsour would never stand behind a commencement lectern in the first place. The inability to perceive radical Islam, even in its lesser forms, as incompatible with Western society is not only a major failing of our intellectual class, it is dangerous. CampusReform.org has reported other examples of this recklessness including a dean at Cornell University so blinded by political correctness he did not realize that he agreed to allow a student group on campus in support of freedom fighters such as Hamas or ISIS.

Defenders have rallied around Sarsour, including CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken, who wrote that, the fact that Ms. Sarsour might hold views that are controversial cannot be the basis for withdrawing an invitation to speak.

Of course, conservative speakers dont get the same sort of defense or respect when they appear before graduates.

Students at Bethune-Cookman University turned their backs on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Students at Notre Dame walked out on Vice President Mike Pence, who had been selected to speak instead of President Trump (inviting the sitting president to speak at commencement during his first year in office was an honor that had been previously extended to Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama). The students couldnt even bring themselves to honor the office of the vice presidency.

Agitators even succeeded in getting Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) disinvited from speaking at Texas Southern Universitys commencement for the heinous crime of being a typical Republican. Imagine that: the senior sitting U.S. Senator of the second largest state in the union, defenestrated for the service he has given to his home for the past fifteen years!

Commencement speakers are traditionally figures we, as a society, admire. They are expected to offer sage wisdom and advice to ambitious new graduates. Its hard to find any evidence Linda Sarsour can fulfill that role. All CUNY will succeed in doing is furthering the delusion that all values are equal, and that any espousal of leftist views, no matter how out of touch with reality and American values, is credible.
Former Presidents Bush and Obama owe a personal apology to the family of a California boy gravely injured by an illegal alien. They should also pay for the childs medical bills.

Ill explain why in just a few minutes. But first, heres the back story:

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On May 6, the Lake family was returning to their home in San Ysidro after a day trip to Disneyland.

They were just about a block from home when a truck driven by an illegal alien broadsided their car. Benjamin Lake and his wife suffered minor injuries. Their six-year-old son was severely injured.

Lennox spent 18 days in the hospital  recovering from deep skull fractures, a broken nose and other injuries. The little boy faces a long and arduous recovery.

Constantino Banda-Acosta, the driver of the truck, has been charged with violating federal immigration laws. Hes also facing a number of charges in connection with the crash.

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But heres the kick the pants: The San Diego Union Tribune reports that Banda-Acosta had either been deported or allowed to voluntarily return to Mexico 17 times over the past 14 years.

And not once was he charged with violating federal immigration law.

So lets get right to the point:

An American child was nearly killed on American soil by an illegal alien  and I blame the Bush and the Obama administrations.

Banda-Acosta was able to come and go as he pleased because Republicans and Democrats turned a blind eye to our immigration laws. They refused to secure the border and that decision nearly cost Lennox his life.

How many more Americans have to suffer at the hands of the foreign invaders?

Immigration attorney Andrew Nietor told the newspaper it was unfair to politicize the Lake familys accident.

I think this is the sort of case the Trump administration tries to politicize and tries to portray as typical, but its not typical, Nietor said. One of the reasons this case is noteworthy is because of the extreme circumstances.

Unfortunately, its become quite typical for American blood to be shed on American soil at the hands of illegals. Remember Kate Steinle? What about Joshua Wilkerson, Jamiel Shaw Jr. and David Kriehn?

Every study shows that the non-citizen population, including the undocumented, is more law-abiding than the U.S. citizen population, Nietor said.

First of all, there is no such thing as a non-citizen population. They are called illegal immigrants. Second of all, that argument is a load of bull.

Every single person living in our nation illegally is a criminal. Theyre called illegal immigrants because they are breaking the law.

And that brings me back to Presidents Bush and Obama.

Had they only done their job and secured the border, Lennox would not have spent 18 days in the hospital.

But their administrations failed the Lake family of San Ysidro, California. They failed to defend American sovereignty. They failed to secure the border. And as a result foreign enemies were allowed to set foot on American soil.

Fortunately, President Trump is in the process of making sure that never happens again.

As for Bush and Obama  they need to make things right with the Lake family. I suspect they are facing a mountain of medical bills  not to mention a long road to recovery.

So I am calling on both former presidents to pay for Lennox Lakes medical bills. Its the only good and honorable thing to do.

After all, their political expedience and capitulation nearly got an American boy killed.
Blue skies welcomed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to Couser Cattle Company in central Iowa recently where he held a town hall meeting with farmers and others whose livelihoods depend on a strong farm economy. The newly minted head of the USDA explained that his chief job is selling ag products across the world.

Thats good news for rural America. Last year, across the Plains and Rust Belt, Middle America threw its support behind the candidate who brazenly thumbed his nose at the deplorable disregard political elites displayed toward those who earn a living with sweat equity. Those who work on the factory floor in Ohio, the assembly lines in Michigan, the coal mines of Kentucky and the farm fields of Iowa delivered the votes.

Locking the barn door on NAFTA and other trade agreements would deal a devastating blow to the presidents base of support and cast a dark cloud over the entire farm economy.

This year, by traveling to Americas Heartland just days after being sworn into office, the nations 31st USDA Secretary shows hes putting a high priority on the issues affecting American agriculture. Secretary Perdue voiced unconditional support for renewable fuels, opening markets and advancing regulatory and tax reforms that will allow farmers and ranchers to better manage their operations and increase productivity to feed and fuel the world.

His candid remarks reflect a genuine passion for agriculture and foretell his role in the Trump administration. Hands down, Secretary Perdue will be a hands-on advocate for American agriculture. His advocacy can go a long way to advance President Trumps promise of prosperity and opportunity for those left behind in the 21st century economy.

As Iowas senior U.S. senator and a lifelong family farmer, I have led the chorus for years at the nations policymaking tables to advance fair and free trade agreements that are vital to American agriculture. Im glad Secretary Perdue is singing from the same song sheet and can influence the tune President Trump adopts when it comes to strengthening our trade agreements and opening new markets for our goods and services.

World trade brings a rising tide of prosperity, lifting more people than ever into the middle class. America has the best natural resources and the best human resources to forge the best century weve seen yet. It will depend on good economic policy that stands strong for free and fair flow of trade, implementing regulatory, tax and health care reforms, and paying down the debt.

Thats a tall order. The president can start with our neighbors. Modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to improve fairness for U.S. producers makes sense.

Iowa is the leading producer of corn, soybeans, pork and eggs. In the previous two decades since passage of NAFTA, U.S. producers have benefited tremendously from an integrated system between Mexico, Canada and the United States.

U.S. farm exports to Mexico and Canada have risen exponentially since 1994, showering tens of billions of dollars into local economies that boost the financial health and prosperity of Americans working all along the food and fuel chain, from raw commodities to processed grains, meats and renewable fuels. Closing access to these vital trade routes would lead to swift economic harm that would echo across the entire rural economy, from farming to manufacturing, processing, trucking and retailing.

The president has made no secret about his central commitment to the American worker and creating an environment for good-paying jobs here in the United States. And thats a good thing. But it would be short-sighted to undermine trade agreements that benefit U.S. producers and manufacturers who employ American workers and depend on these markets and supply chains to stay in business.

We need to keep in mind that protectionist moves by our government on Mexican sugar may harm the U.S. corn market, and actions on Canadian soft lumber to resolve dairy disputes could trigger a tit for tat trade spat. Trade agreements must ensure fairness for our exports. Creating jobs and growing the economy here at home will require savvy diplomacy and the enforcement of existing trade agreements to achieve consensus on market access and resolve anti-dumping disputes.

Why is it a big deal to strengthen trade agreements and open new markets?

Every third row planted in Iowa is export-dependent. Farmers need exports to make ends meet. Anything left after paying the bills and putting money into savings gets invested into next years production costs, livestock and machinery upgrades.

Americas heritage is rooted in agriculture. For more than two centuries, innovation and good stewardship have helped food producers to anchor our economy and improve our balance of trade. Agriculture not only provides a way of life for millions of Americans. Food security is national security. For these reasons and more, the White House has every reason to treat American agriculture with fairness and finesse.

Thats why I joined a letter along with 17 senators to newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer urging the Administration not to abandon NAFTA and the tremendous economic benefits fair trade brings to the economy.

Making improvements to NAFTA would unlock even more potential for productivity and prosperity in Americas heartland. Locking the barn door on NAFTA and other trade agreements would deal a devastating blow to the presidents base of support and cast a dark cloud over the entire farm economy.
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law and one of the senior advisers in the Trump administration, is under FBI scrutiny as part of the investigation into possible Russian collusion, numerous U.S. officials have told NBC News.

Investigators think that Kushner, who is married to Trumps daughter Ivanka, has substantial information relevant to the investigation, officials told NBC.

Kushner, who held meetings in December 2016 with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being probed due to the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, people familiar with the investigation told The Washington Post.

The information Kushner may possess, however, doesnt mean that officials necessarily suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him.

COMEY INFLUENCED BY BOGUS RUSSIAN DOCUMENT, REPORT SAYS

Kushner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, said he would be willing to share information if contacted.

Kushner, 36, is considered to be in a different category than former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Both Manafort and Flynn are formally considered subjects of the probe and, according to NBC, records from both men have been demanded by grand jury subpoenas.

Its not known whether Kushner has received any records requests from investigators.

The FBIs reported scrutiny of Kushner follows a Washington Post report last week in which a senior White House official close to the president was described as a person of interest. That report didnt name the person and the term person of interest has no legal meaning.

It wasnt immediately clear what part of Kushners activities sparked the reported interest of the FBI as they continue to investigate whether Trump associates coordinated with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller is now leading the investigation as a special counsel following the firing of James Comey earlier this month.

The FBI had no comment on the reports.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Once President Trump wraps up an initial foreign trip that aides believe has gone very well, the Commander-in-Chief plans to strike quickly next week to beef up the White House staff with a "war room" aimed at taking the fight to the administration's critics more aggressively, according to two advisers to the president.

The names of David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, two trusted hands from the Trump campaign, are being bantied about as possible additions to the White House staff.

But the advisers to the president stress both men are currently focused on continuing to help the president from outside, and no final decisions have been made on whether the president will ask them to officially join the administration or simply defend the president more aggressively from the outside.

The advisers to the president describe a hands-on Trump who is prepared to go on offense after realizing -- perhaps belatedly -- that he has to get far more serious about two critical matters, pushing back against leakers in the federal government and dealing with the political damage from the various Russia investigations led by Congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

"It's all hands on deck," said one of the advisers to the president who is involved in the planning.

The second adviser added bluntly, "there are going to be some changes" to the president's existing staff.

However, both advisers were adamant about stressing that the continued speculation about a massive staff "shakeup" is overblown, and that there is nothing imminent in terms of potential changes for Press Secretary Sean Spicer and other top aides.

Instead, the president's moves next week are more likely to be about addition than subtraction. "It is about bolstering and adding on to the staff," noted one of the advisers.

The website Axios quoted one Trump ally as saying, "The White House is embracing the fight, which is going to last as long as Donald Trump is president. We're getting street fighters ready to go."

The president has already selected Mark Kasowitz, a tough New York lawyer, to lead his outside legal team to focus on the investigations. One adviser to the President noted Kasowitz is "ready to rumble" with the President's critics from outside the White House, so now the focus is who will be added to the West Wing to help Trump.

In the spotlight now are Bossie and Lewandowski, two people who have the trust of the president but did not join the administration in the early months. Advisers now describe Bossie and Lewandowski as still wanting to help Trump from the outside, but both men would be honored and hard-pressed to say no if the President asks them for more direct help when he returns from the foreign trip.

Lewandowski said on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday night that he has no plans to join the administration and only goes to the White House as a visitor. But he still left the door open by saying he would be honored if the president wants him to work in the White House.

"My loyalty is to the president and the agenda he ran on," Lewandowski said, adding "if I can help the president do that, of course."
Planned Parenthood recently announced the shuttering of four of its 12 Iowas clinics in Iowa after the Hawkeye states Republican-led legislature voted earlier this year to cut funding to clinics that performed abortions. Also last week, the health care nonprofit announced it was closing its only clinic in Wyoming and three of its clinics in New Mexico in what it called a realignment of resources.

The news of the closures is the latest in a series of setbacks for abortion-rights supporters, who have seen their movement recently come under fire by Republican-controlled legislatures on both the state and federal level.

What is happening in Iowa is what we could see across the country if Congress passes this dangerous law to defund Planned Parenthood, Raegan McDonald-Mosley, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement shortly after the announcement of the Iowa closures. This is hardest on people who already face barriers to accessing health care  especially people of color, young people, people with low to moderate incomes and people who live in rural areas.

The move to cut state funding to abortion clinics began in Texas in 2011 when 82 family-planning centers closed -- a third of which were Planned Parenthood affiliates  after lawmakers in Austin voted to cut state funding.

Since then, antiabortion activists have seen a number of victories in the wake of Republicans taking control of Congress in 2012 as well as the release of undercover videos apparently showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the sale of baby parts. Those videos, which were publicly released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), stirred antiabortion sentiment around the country. They also resulted in two of CMP's leaders being charged in California with numerous felony offenses.

In Arizona, GOP lawmakers included a provision in the state budget to divert about $2 million in federal funding away from Planned Parenthood. The GOP-backed health care bill that cleared the House earlier this month would block people who rely on Medicaid from getting subsidized preventive care at Planned Parenthood health centers -- including birth control, cancer screenings and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

Estimates by the Congressional Budget Office indicate that defunding Planned Parenthood would save roughly $200 million in federal spending while reducing health care for as many as 390,000 people.

President Trump also issued recently an executive order on religious liberty that will likely make it easier for employers to drop coverage of contraceptives from their health care plans.

In Iowa, antiabortion groups praised the move last week by their state lawmakers in Des Moines, saying that the defunding of abortion providers would free up more money for other health clinics in the state, especially in less wealthy, rural regions.

There are hundreds of clinics that provide great health care in the state that dont harm human life, Maggie DeWitte, the executive for Iowans for Life, told Fox News. There are only so many dollars allocated for family clinics, so when you take out the aid to abortion clinics it gives a lot more benefit to other clinics.

DeWitte added that there are many other family health clinics in Iowa that provide all the services that Planned Parenthood does -- emergency contraceptives, STD testing, birth control  without performing abortions.

The big myth is that Planned Parenthood is the only gig in town that provides these services, she said. That is just not true.

Some pro-life activists also noted that despite claims that these cutbacks in funding are forcing some abortion providers to close their doors, the reason may have to do with fewer women getting abortions today than in the past.

There isnt as much business to go around, Randall OBannon, director of education and research at the National Right to Life Committee, told Fox News. Theres a drop in demand. Abortion is not something women really want. They want something better for themselves and their babies.

While OBannon is correct that the U.S. has seen a drop in the number of abortions in recent years, the reason appears to be due more to an increased use of contraception and an increase in abortion restrictions in many states than it does personal choice.

In a study released earlier this year, the Guttmacher Institute  a reproductive rights research organization once affiliated with Planned Parenthood  found that the number of U.S. abortions fell from 958,700 in 2013 to 926,000 in 2014. A research letter published in JAMA in January found that in Texas 14 percent fewer abortions were performed in 2014 than 2013 and in counties where the distance to the nearest abortion facility increased by at least 100 miles, there was 50 percent decline in abortions.

A few states where Democrats have at least a share of power have taken steps to ensure continued funding of Planned Parenthood and to protect access to abortion and contraception. In Montana, Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed a bill last week that would have outlawed most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, while Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto a similar bill if it reaches his desk, as well as a proposal to ban dismemberment abortion.

These moves aside, the antiabortion camp sees momentum on its side. As evidence, they cite Trump's appointment of federal judges who are widely viewed as receptive to further restrictions on abortion.

"Folks are excited that we've got a different administration, so there's a sense of optimism," said Melanie Israel of the Heritage Foundation. "Everyone is curious to see what's going to happen."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly met with Transportation Security Administration personnel at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday to observe passenger screening ahead of Memorial Day weekend this, as the TSA is testing new security procedures for carry-on baggage.

The TSA Wednesday introduced new screening protocols for carry-on bags at about a dozen U.S. airports, and they could potentially expand to other airports nationwide.

The program will require travelers to place any electronics larger than a cell phone in a separate bin for X-ray screening. According to the TSA, officials at the security checkpoints may also advise travelers to place other carry-on items in separate bins.

TSAs top priority is to protect the traveling public, and every policy and security procedure in place is designed to mitigate threats to passengers and the aviation sectorwhich we know our adversaries continue to target, a TSA official told Fox News.

U.S. transportation, specifically the aviation system, has been a top terrorist target since 9/11, and as part of the TSAs counterterrorism efforts, the agency adjusts security screening procedures to stay ahead of evolving threats.

"I am very confident we're doing a very effective job in protecting, that said it's a constant threat and we have to be vigilante," Kelly said on Friday. "We're looking at raising the bar on aviation security."

Kelly said DHS is working with partners, airlines, and counterparts worldwide as they contemplate expanding the electronics ban.

Kellys meeting with TSA officials Friday comes as the Department of Homeland Security continues to consider whether to expand the electronics ban implemented in March.

The initial ban of certain electronic devices on U.S.-bound flights from 13 international airports was due to reports of increased terror threats that suggested Al Qaeda and other groups were looking to smuggle explosive materials onboard planes. The ban also renewed post-9/11 regulations on liquids on planes.

Implementing additional security measures enhances our ability to mitigate further attempts against the overseas aviation industry, DHS said on its website.

According to DHS, the airports affected by the initial ban are: Jordans Queen Alia International Airport, Cairo International Airport, Ataturk International Airport, Saudi Arabias Kin Abdul-Aziz International Airport, Moroccos Mohammad V Airport, Qatars Hamad International Airport, Dubai International Airport, and Abu Dhabi International airport.

U.S. officials have told airlines to be prepared for an expanded ban on carry-on electronic devices allowed on airplanes, but an official policy change has yet to be announced.

"We'll make a decision when the time is right," Kelly said.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Republican Greg Gianforte won Montanas special House election Thursday  just one day after he was charged with assaulting a journalist.

Gianforte beat his opponent by more than 24,000 votes out of nearly 270,000 ballots.

His win came on the heels of controversy after Gianforte was accused of physically assaulting a reporter who attempted to ask him about the House GOPs health care legislation. Gianforte grabbed The Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by the neck and slammed him to the ground at a campaign event on May 24, according to Fox News eyewitness account.

The Gallatin County Sheriffs Office cited Gianforte with a misdemeanor assault. He must appear in court by June 7, a county clerk told Fox News.

Personal life

Gianforte, 56, raised his four children in Bozeman, Mont., along with his wife, Susan, according to his campaign website.

Gianforte cofounded software firm RightNow Technologies 20. It was sold to Oracle in 2012 for $1.8 billion, raising questions about just who got the money, the Billings Gazette reported in 2014.

GIANFORTE WINS MONTANA HOUSE SEAT DESPITE FACING ASSAULT CHARGES

At the time, Gianforte said he and his wife controlled about 20 to 25 percent of the stock, worth up to $400 million when Oracle bought the company.

His net worth is thought to be anywhere between hundreds of millions to more than $1 billion, according to the National Journal.

Gianforte's reported 2016 income ranged between $2.3 million to $15.7 million with assets ranging between $65 million and $315 million, Montana's KXLH-TV reported.

Gianforte ran as a Republican for Montanas 2016 gubernatorial race but lost to the Democratic incumbent, Steve Bullock, in November.

Special election

Running as a Republican, Gianforte won Montanas special House election May 25 to replace Ryan Zinke, the new Interior Department secretary. He ran against Democrat Rob Quist, a progressive cowboy musician with the backing of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

GREG GIANFORTE CITED FOR MISDEAMOR ASSAULT

Although he had the backing of the White House, Gianforte himself admitted in the final week before the vote that this race is closer than it should be. And after his altercation with The Guardian reporter, it was unclear if Gianfortes assault charge could sway voters at the last moment.

But about a third of eligible voters had voted early with absentee ballots  prior to the incident  and still others said it did not change their mind.

Following his victory, Gianforte took the opportunity to own up to the altercation and apologize.

When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. Thats the Montana way, he said. Last night I made a mistake, and I took an action that I cant take back, and Im not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that I am sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I am sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs.

Body-slamming incident

On May 24, as a Fox News crew was setting up for an interview with Gianforte at a campaign barbecue, Jacobs came into the room with his recorder and began to ask Gianforte for a comment on the Congressional Budget Offices cost estimate of the House health care legislation. Gianforte declined to comment and directed Jacobs to his spokesman.

But Jacobs persisted and thats when the situation turned violent, according to witness accounts.

REPORTER SAYS GIANFORTE BODY-SLAMMED HIM

The Fox News crew in the room said Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Gianforte also punched the reporter, according to witnesses.

In a statement, Gianfortes campaign alleged that Jacobs aggressively shoved a recorder in the Republican candidates face and asked badgering questions. The statement also said Jacobs was asked to lower his recorder.

In the audio recording released of the incident, Gianforte cannot be heard asking Jacobs to remove a recorder.

To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriffs deputies, Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna, who witnessed the altercation, said in her account.

FOX NEWS TEAM WITNESSES ALTERCATION BETWEEN GIANFORTE AND REPORTER

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that Jacobs was evaluated in an ambulance at the scene and then transported to a local hospital. When he left the hospital, his arm was in a sling, according to the newspaper. Jacobs also said on the tape and in subsequent interviews that Gianforte broke his glasses.

In a statement, Gallatin Sheriff Brian Gootkin said the nature of Jacobs injuries was not enough to charge Gianforte with a felony assault. Gootkin also admitted that he contributed $250 to Gianforte in March.

This contribution has nothing to do with our investigation which is now complete, he said.

Several lawmakers, including House Republicans, called on Gianforte to apologize following the altercation, but many GOP congressmen stopped short of asking the Montanan to suspend his campaign altogether.

"There's never a call for physical altercations," Ryan told reporters during his weekly press conference. "That is wrong and it should not have happened."

I think he should apologize, he added.

If convicted, Gianforte can face up to six months in jail or pay a $500 fine.

SANDERS ALLY SEEKS UPSET IN RACE SHAPED BY GUNS, MONEY PROBLEMS AND NUDIST GIGS

In what the Billings Gazette called without precedent, it and other Montana newspapers pulled their endorsements following the altercation.

Gianforte canceled a previously scheduled interview with Fox News slated for the day of the election.

Russian ties

The Guardian reported in April that Gianforte has financial ties to multiple Russian companies  a controversial topic as the F.B.I. investigates the Trump administrations own ties to Russia.

Gianforte, according to the Guardian, has nearly $250,000 shares in two index funds with substantial holdings in U.S.-sanctioned Russian firms.

The Obama administration put in place sanctions which covered the firms three years ago, the Associated Press reported.
Republican Greg Gianforte, who won Montanas special election Thursday just one day after being charged with assault, used part of his victory speech to apologize to the reporter he confronted.

When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it. Thats the Montana way, Gianforte told a crowd who came out to celebrate his victory over Democratic rival Rob Quist.

Last night I made a mistake, and I took an action that I cant take back, and Im not proud of what happened. I should not have responded in the way that I did, and for that Im sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I am sorry Mr. Ben Jacobs."

It had been unclear if Gianforte's assault charge would impact the race. About a third of eligible voters in Montana had already cast their ballots in early voting, and others said it didn't influence their vote.

Shaun Scott, a computer science professor at Carroll College in Helena, said the assault charge was barely a factor in his decision.

"If you have somebody sticking a phone in your face, a mic in your face, over and over, and you don't know how to deal with the situation, you haven't really done that, you haven't dealt with that, I can see where it can ... make you a little angry," Scott said Thursday.

Gianforte was a strong favorite to defeat Democrat Rob Quist, and that continued even after his incident with Jacobs. Witnesses, including a Fox News crew, said Gianforte grabbed Jacobs and slammed him to the ground, while yelling Get the hell out of here! Jacobs, a reporter from The Guardian, was grilling Gianforte about the Republican health care bill.

The Republican was cited for misdemeanor assault hours before the polls opened in Montana. He ignored calls by national Republicans to apologize to the reporter before his victory speech.

The win reaffirms Montanas voters support for Trump. The Democrats are now 0-for-3 in special elections, having lost in Kansas and Georgia districts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Its a familiar sight: employees of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the staff at The Port Inn palling around on a first-name basis in the lobby of the hotel. They catch up, crack jokes and discuss the days events.

Located about four miles from the sprawling PNSY in Kittery, Maine, the Port Inn has become a surrogate home and family for contractors and employees of the nearby shipyard.

This year, inn owner Mark Bouzianis says up to 30 percent of his business will come from the PNSY. Currently, about 20 of the 56 rooms at the boutique hotel are rented by government employees.

Over the years, the shipyard been a very big component of our business, he told Fox News  but added that this year the demand is higher than normal. Its not like this every year.

Part of this years success can be attributed to a wave of new hires at the PNSY.

Virtually every town and city within a 50-mile radius of the naval base has benefitted from the success of the naval yard. When PNSY does well, business owners like Bouzianis do well.

New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen told Fox News that the shipyard is not only critical to our national security, but is also a vital economic engine for New Hampshires Seacoast.

The caliber of people they hire is really high, Bouzianis said.

Valerie Rochon, president of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News, the impact of the shipyard has had a wonderfully positive effect on the community.

In 2016, the shipyard made 650 new hires and accounted for $756.1 million in total economic activity, according to an annual report from Seacoast Shipyard Association.

There were 6,914 civilian jobs with a payroll of about $496.2 million - an increase of more than $14 million from 2015.

In New Hampshire, 2,535 civilian workers from 58 communities were paid $177.7 million.
President Trump on Thursday called for an investigation into how key information that the British shared with allies about the Manchester attack leaked to reporters.

The Wall Street Journal reported that British officials  including Prime Minister Theresa May -- were concerned that the leak was from the U.S. One U.K. official told The Journal that May talked to Trump about the leak at the NATO meeting in Brussels.

The official said that the prime minister, expressed the view that the intelligence-sharing relationship we have with the U.S. is hugely important and valuable, but that the information that we share should be kept secure.

The New York Times on Thursday defended publishing crime scene photos from the Manchester terror attack, even as Trump was blasting leaks about the investigation to the Times and other media outlets that emanated from American sources.

Trump blasted U.S. officials for the leaks on Thursday, calling them "deeply troubling," although it was unclear whether the Times received the photos from U.S. officials.

The name of the bomber, Salman Abedi, was disclosed to U.S. media just as raids were underway both in Manchester and in Libya, where the bomber's father lives.

"These leaks have been going on for a long time and my administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security," Trump said in a statement the White House released.

Trump ordered the Justice Department to launch a full investigation into leaks from the Manchester bomb probe. Following the release of crime scene photos from the bombing, President Trump has asked for "a complete review" of leaks from U.S. government agencies.
A Republican candidate facing a misdemeanor assault charge had built a comfortable lead Thursday night in a special election to fill Montana's lone seat in the House of Representatives.

With 57 percent of precincts reporting, Greg Gianforte led Democrat Rob Quist by more than 22,000 votes out of nearly 270,000 ballots cast.

Approximately a third of Montana's eligible voters had cast absentee ballots before Gianforte was cited Wednesday by the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office following a confrontation with Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. Witnesses, including a Fox News crew, said Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck and slammed him to the ground while yelling "Get the hell out of here!"

FOX NEWS TEAM WITNESSES GOP CANDIDATE 'BODY SLAM' REPORTER

Gianforte, a wealthy technology executive, has until June 7 to answer the charge in court. If convicted, he could face up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said Gianforte was charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony because no weapon was used and Jacobs was not seriously injured. The county prosecutor is reviewing the case.

Gianforte kept a low profile Thursday, canceling television interviews and not appearing in public even as his supporters readied his victory party.

His campaign has blamed Jacobs, contending he aggressively shoved his phone in the candidate's face and grabbed Gianforte's wrist as the Republican tried to move it away.

Shaun Scott, a computer science professor at Carroll College in Helena, voted for Gianforte despite the assault charge, saying it was barely a factor in his decision.



"If you have somebody sticking a phone in your face, a mic in your face, over and over, and you don't know how to deal with the situation, you haven't really done that, you haven't dealt with that, I can see where it can ... make you a little angry," he said.



Advertising executive Cailley Tonn of Bozeman had already mailed in her absentee ballot when the melee occurred at Gianforte's campaign headquarters.



Still, she said, the incident would not have changed her vote for Gianforte.



"I was disappointed to see he flew off the handle like that," she said.



But in the end, she added, her choice was about affirming the Republican platform.

Montana backed Donald Trump by 20 percentage points over Hillary Clinton but also re-elected its Democratic governor, who defeated Gianforte in November by 5 percentage points.



Voters lean Republican and prefer iconoclasts along with limited government and their right to bear arms.



Gianforte hit upon these themes in the race to replace Montana's previous congressman, Ryan Zinke, who became Trump's Interior secretary in March.



The Republican candidate focused on protecting the 2nd Amendment and tried to tie Quist, a first-time candidate, to liberal Democrats such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

But the theme of the election shifted Wednesday night when Jacobs walked into Gianforte's office as he was preparing for an interview with Fox News.

Three of Montana's biggest newspapers pulled their endorsements of Gianforte -- without endorsing his opponent -- while leaders of both major parties called on him to apologize.



House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said what occurred was "wrong and should not happen." Pelosi called Gianforte "a wannabe Trump."



Republican Tina Stark of Townsend said she doesn't know Gianforte or whether has a temper.



"But I can understand how somebody could push somebody's buttons," she said. "I don't advocate violence, but when you're told to back off, you need to back off."



Some voters didn't see the attack altering the dynamics of the contest, which has dominated state politics for weeks.



"I don't think it probably changed very many minds or votes today, unfortunately," said Patrick Paradis of Helena, who voted for Quist. "Politics are pretty entrenched right now in terms of who people are going to follow and who people are going to vote for."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Vice President Mike Pence on Friday told the graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy that the era of budget cuts is over and that President Trump is the best friend the armed forces of the United States will ever have.

Well make you a promise, Pence said. No matter where youre called to serve, no matter the mission, this commander in chief will always have your back.

Pences 21-minute speech breaks with recent tradition of the president addressing the Naval Academy graduates during their first year in office. Trump is currently overseas at the G7 summit.

Pence told the graduating class of 1,053 midshipmen that no matter what path you take, know that the commander in chief is proud of you and so am I.

Pence also recognized the three students from the class of 2017 who died while at the academy.

America will never forget them, he said.

In a light-hearted moment, Pence asked the graduates to stand up, find their friends and family in the stands, and applaud them for their support.

Pence received a standing ovation before and after his speech and his comments drew frequent applause.

The vice president, whose son is an officer in the U.S. Marines, faired much better with Fridays crowd than he had the week before at the University of Notre Dame. At that event, several dozen students in caps and gowns walked out of the ceremony in protest.
This is a rush transcript from "Your World," May 26, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, "YOUR WORLD" HOST: Well, it looks like Republican candidate Greg Gianforte will be going to Washington, winning that Montana special election, and apologizing in the process for an assault on a reporter.

What is ahead for Republicans after all of this?

On the phone with us right now is Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

Ronna, very good to have you. Thanks for coming.

RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL, CHAIR, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thanks for having me, Neil.

CAVUTO: You also were saying that a first step was this apology on behalf of the congressional candidate-elect.

But, you know, he still faces some hurdles, as you know, Ronna, not the least of which is an assault charge and, if they took it to the max, maybe up to six months in jail. How does -- how do you deal with that?

ROMNEY MCDANIEL: Well, we're going to let the legal process play out.

He has been charged with a misdemeanor assault. That's going to have to be something that he reconciles. And I think the first step was that he had to apologize, which he did. And we will move forward.

CAVUTO: Separately, with so much we don't know about this, it would seem unlikely about the jail time anyway, to your misdemeanor point.

But this Atlanta race is turning out to be interesting, where the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, is now up, depending on the poll, by as much as seven points. Were you surprised at that in this heavily Republican district, you know, HHS Secretary Price's former district, Newt Gingrich's district, that a Democrat leads by that much?

ROMNEY MCDANIEL: Well, these are called special elections for a reason. And there are special circumstances. They're happening in an unusual time. It's the only thing on the ballot.

It gets inordinate attention. And it does come down to the two specific candidates that are going head to head. Jon Ossoff did have a big lead in the primary. We were able to whittle that down.

I think this is a neck-and-neck race, which is what we're seeing internally. And I think it be neck-and-neck until June 20.

CAVUTO: All right, so the fact that he had been polling even, if not up two points behind, and suddenly at a seven-point, is that an outlier, that poll, or what?

ROMNEY MCDANIEL: We're seeing Karen Handel doing well in the absentee returns.

I think that it's still even. It's going to be neck-and-neck until Election Day. And this is a district the president won by 1 percent. This is a truly swing district. But we're putting all of our resources there. We want to send a congressperson to Washington that is going to help the president, instead of impede his agenda and stop doing good things for the American people.

CAVUTO: Are you worried, though, Ronna, that the president's low poll numbers -- and that could change -- but that it is proving to be a drag or a potential drag for Republicans?

You're quite right to point out, as you have in prior visits, that Republicans have survived these, you know, finish-to-the-death races here time and time again, but that that is going to be a problem weighing on him, particularly as, whether people think it's justified or not, this Russian thing heats up.

ROMNEY MCDANIEL: Well, these special elections are special.

And you just saw in Montana Gianforte, who was down four points when he ran for governor last November, just wrapped himself around President Trump. He talked about President Trump and draining the swamp his entire race. And he ended up winning that congressional special, which is also -- also a statewide election.

So, it depends on each district. Listen, the president is going to Washington to get things done. He's restored our place, our national standing in the world as a global leader. We have seen that with this foreign trip. He's tackling the repeal and replace of Obamacare, tax reform, all these things we need to do to get our economy humming again.

I think he is going to be a win for any Republican running in these special elections.

CAVUTO: Ronna, I'm curious what do you think of former Speaker John Boehner's comments to an Associated Press reporter that, besides foreign policy -- and I'm quoting here -- "Everything else the president has done has been a complete disaster," went on to say that he's still, referring to the president, learning to be president, and that, furthermore, the president should not be allowed to tweet.

What did you make of that?

ROMNEY MCDANIEL: Well, I respectfully disagree with former Speaker Boehner.

We have seen a deregulation. You have seen him already investing in bringing jobs and wages back to our country. We have seen it here in Michigan with Ford investing $1.2 billion. This is a president who hit the ground running.

I know that's not something that, you know, Washington establishment always likes is a change agent coming. But he's a change agent. And people across this country want him to get those things done.

CAVUTO: Were you offended, just as an RNC chairwoman, by the treatment of the Europeans, some of whom seemed to be snickering at the president yesterday when he was bemoaning the fact that so many NATO nations, 23 of the 28, don't cough up the minimum amount of dough they are to fund NATO?

ROMNEY MCDANIEL: I was proud of President Trump for sticking up for the American taxpayer and saying it's time for you to shoulder your burden. You are not fulfilling your promise that you made to NATO. And you need to step up to the plate.

And I think the leaders of the world know that they're dealing with someone who means business.

CAVUTO: Ronna McDaniel, thank you very, very much, RNC chairwoman, joining us on the phone.

END

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A flight attendants job isn't always a walk in the park but they're usually not subjected to physical harm from the passengers they serve.

That wasn't the case for one unlucky American Airlines attendant flying to New Bern, N.C. Thursday afternoon.

According to WSOC, flight 5242 was waiting on the tarmac at Chatlotte Douglas International Airport when 22-year-old passenger Tun Lon Sein allegedly tried to bite a flight attendant before jumping off the plane and onto the tarmac.

PLANES COLLIDE AT AUSTIN AIRPORT AFTER UNITED AIRCRAFT CLIPS AMERICAN

Before take-off, Sein got up from his seat and reportedly tried to open the aircraft door.

When a flight attendant and two other passengers attempted to get Sein to return to his seat, he then attempted to bite the crew member before jumping out the galley service door and onto the tarmac, where he was intercepted by two airport employees.

Attempting to assault a flight attendant and interfere with runway traffic is no minor offense. Sein has since been charged with one count of interfering with flight crew members and could face up to 20 years in prison plus additional fines. He appeared in federal court Friday morning, WSOC reports.

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The other passengers were forced to endure a significant delay as the flight had to return to the gate to be rescreened before leaving for its destination.
In 2009, director James Cameron brought the otherworldly adventure film "Avatar" to the big screen after 15 in production. Eight years later, Cameron along with Disney Imagineers are bringing the film to life at Walt Disney World.

"Pandora - The World of Avatar" officially opens as an expansion of Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park Saturday, May 27. The park, which was first announced in 2012, blends elements from the fictional Na'vi world in an immersive new land with unique food, interactive scenery and attractions that are out-of-this world.

So what can "Avatar" fans expect? Nothing short of a truly magical experience says one of the film's creators.

"We found with Disney a partner that was not afraid to dream big," Jon Landau, a co-producer of the original film, told Fox News. "When guests first step into the new land of Pandora for the first time, they'll no doubt be overwhelmed with what Disney's designers have dreamed up."

Beneath the Floating Mountains

As a link between Disney's Animal Kingdom and Pandora - a planet 4.4 lightyears away - the Valley of Mo'ara allows visitors to make the transition across a bridge. During the journey, guests are instantly encounter a story of peace, nature and more than a few alien inhabitants along the way.

DISNEY ON A DIME? HOW TO DO ORLANDO THEME PARKS ON A BUDGET

At Pandora's heart lie the impressive floating mountains avid film fans will recognize. Surrounded by colorful flora and sounds of otherworldly fauna, along with gorgeous cascading waterfalls, Pandora does not feel like your average theme park attraction. The Disney Imagineers weren't just aiming to appeal to the ears and eyes, but also connect with guests on an emotional level.

We built this land for awe, wonder and joy, explained Imagineer Joe Rohde, Executive Creative Director for Pandora. There are very distinct emotions I would like to see people experience. Awe is a real emotion. Wonder is a real emotion. Joy  not just fun  joy is a real emotion. Thats a high bar, but thats what weve set for ourselves.

A High Tech Connection

When "Avatar" first hit theaters, it was lauded for its hyperreal 3-D visuals that helped audiences connect with the world of Pandora and its characters. Disney has followed suit by filling its newest land with two groundbreaking rides, each with its own technological advancements aimed at linking theme park guests to Pandora's story.

We want you to feel like youve gone to an alien world that is so realistic that it has to be a real place, Imagineer Mark LaVine, Lead Writer for Pandora, told Fox News. The whole parks about that. Avatar is very directly about this connection to the natural world. We want you to have that connection here as well.

DISNEY WORLD'S NEW LIGHT SHOW GOES HIGH-TECH

Ready for that connection? Imagine locking eyes with one incredibly lifelike character aboard the new Na'vi River Journey ride.

The "Shaman of Songs" is one of the Na'vi - the tall, blue, humanoid inhabitants of Pandora. She is also Disney's most advanced Audio-Animatronics figure to date. Her wild movements are so smooth you'll think there's a real person behind them. But the real connection is made when she looks you in the eye as you sail by. Her minute facial expressions as she sings words in native Na'vi tongue are designed to draw guests further into the alien world.

On "Avatar Flight of Passage," Pandora's other signature attraction, guests will experience the splendor of the planet's natural bioluminescent plants, just before stumbling into a modern-day lab in which, as the story goes, scientists prepare to link visitors to their very own banshees by way of the "avatar" program.

Once the story has been established through the elaborately-themed queue, guests will feel the marvelous sensation of flight along with a real sense of the banshee's breath while soaring over Pandora's lush scenery on Disney's high-tech new ride mechanism.

Opening Your Eyes

Beyond its rides and glowing scenery, Pandora is packed with interactive moments designed to keep its visitors feeling like they're no longer on planet Earth.

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The area's new restaurant, Satu'li Canteen, serves up foods with an "alien" twist. There's cheeseburger "pods" and shockingly blue Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse. The store, Windtraders, allows guests to take home their own shoulder-sitting banshee (only after taking the Na'vi oath to take care of it, of course). Those with extra energy can take part in an interactive drum circle that changes the entire soundtrack of the land with every hit. After dark, Pandora takes on a new personality as its many plants, and even the floating mountains, glow vibrantly from within-- a feature fans of Disney fireworks show will love.

With several "Avatar" movie sequels in the works, the team behind the films expects the park will only elevate guests' connection to Pandora and its inhabitants.

I hope when people come here, and come to Pandora, that their eyes will be open," said Landau. "That they will look at our world a little bit differently when they go back across the bridge.
More than a century ago, the tradition on Memorial Day was to place flowers on the graves of the war dead. Over the years, that tradition has been replaced by putting hamburgers on the grill and enjoying a three-day weekend with friends and family. But the traditions and meaning of the holiday are being revived thanks to the efforts of two groups of veterans.

For many in my generation, Memorial Day was the three-day weekend that kicks off the summer. There is nothing wrong with barbequing or going to the beach. But people in my generation seem to have forgotten why we have the holiday in the first place, which is to pay due respect to those who served and died. We want to change that, says Stephen Holley, a former Navy SEAL and co-founder of the non-profit Carry the Load.

Having both experienced the recent loss of friends in combat, Holley and fellow Navy SEAL Clint Bruce decided six years ago to set off on a new mission  to actively honor those who never made it home and to care for veterans and their families.

The first march, held on Memorial Day 2011 in Dallas, was primarily attended by veterans and their family members, but Holley says the group has experienced substantial growth since then.

This year, Carry the Load will hold 35 rallies across the country with as many as 50,000 expected to participate. The celebration of Memorial Day actually began on April 28 with two relay marches on the East Coast and the West Coast.

The West Coast relay started its 4,100-mile trip from Seattle, while the other sets out on a 2,100-mile journey from West Point Cemetery in New York. Both end on Memorial Day in Dallas.

The mission of Carry the Load today includes providing direct service and assistance to veterans, firefighters, police and other first responders. Since 2011, they have raised $13.7 million with 93 percent of those funds going to programs that provide care, raise awareness and educate the next generation about the meaning of Memorial Day. http://www.carrytheload.org/site/DocServer/2016_ImpactReport_Final.pdf?docID=881

The first Memorial Day observance took place on May 30, 1868, when former Union Gen. and then-Ohio Congressman James Garfield honored veterans of the Civil War in a speech at Arlington National Cemetery.

Then known as Decoration Day, the participants proceeded to place flowers on the graves  a tradition, which lasted for many years. More than a century later, Congress passed legislation in 1971 to set aside the last Monday of May as a national day to remember the fallen.

In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance resolution, which called on Americans to pause at 3 p.m. to reflect on its meaning.

Three years after Carry the Load was founded, another band of Navy SEALS channeled their own frustration and sense of loss into reclaiming the 150-year old holiday.

"We want to bring back the real meaning of Memorial Day, which is not about mattress sales, barbeques and just another three-day weekend like Labor Day. Somewhere we lost sight of who we are to be honoring and remembering, Josh Jespersen, a former Navy SEAL and co-founder of Mission Memorial Day, says.

Co-founder Margaux Mange says she and her fellow veterans were inspired after taking part in the taping of a Memorial Day episode of the talk show The View. At the end of their taping, a group of bathing-suit-clad models were ushered in to the studio for a segment featuring spring fashions show.

It just struck me that Memorial Day should not be about fashion shows or the latest bathing suits. It is intended to be a solemn day to remember those who never came home, she tells Fox News.

While the Carry the Load and Mission Memorial Day share a purpose, they take different approaches.

Jespersen tells Fox News that after spending one too many Memorial Days getting drunk and climbing atop the bar, it was time to find a better outlet.

We wanted to do something that crushed us physically and mentally, so we decided that climbing mountains and carrying the American flag with the manes of those who died in war written on it was a fitting tribute, he says.

The first expedition took them to Alaska's Denali National Park and facing a climb of 20,237 feet to the summit of Mt. McKinley, the tallest peak in North America.

In 2016, they had ambassadors ascend five separate peaks in America on Memorial Day. This year, they plan to travel to the Philippines to reenact the Bataan Memorial Death March.

The group is carrying two American flags covered with names of military members who have been lost in war. One flag has nearly 80 names on it, while the other is covered in the names of every Navy SEAL killed since 9/11.

Jespersen admits the organization has not grown as much as he would like because their focus remains on the Memorial Day treks, rather than year-round events.

What matters to us is that we have gained enormous support from the families who submit their names to be carried on the flag. It means so much to them that their loved ones are not forgotten, that they are not alone, he says.
California detectives investigating the disappearance of a five-year-old boy served a search warrant Thursday to the home of his paternal grandmother and "seized various items of evidence."

Aramazd Andressian Jr. went missing April 22 and was last seen leaving Disneyland with his father Aramazd Andressian Sr., who was found unconscious in a park and was unable to account for his sons whereabouts.

Andressian was later arrested on suspicion of child endangerment but released on April 25, with the sheriff's department saying it had decided "not to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office for filing consideration at this time. The matter remains under investigation."

Investigators arrived at the Montebello, California home of Andressian Sr.s mother early Thursday morning where they seized various items of evidence. Deputies did not reveal what evidence was found during the search.

Detectives also brought the childs grandmother and paternal aunt in for further questioning although neither have been arrested or detained.

The search for the 5-year-old has spanned several Southern California counties, including Santa Barbara, where authorities searched last Tuesday in the Lake Cachuma Recreation Area where the boy may have been with his father on April 21, FOX 11 reported.

A $20,000 reward has been offered by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for information that helps authorities locate the child, who is white, 4-foot-1 and 55 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a plaid shirt and plaid shorts and has a small mole on the bottom of his right shoulder.

READ MORE FROM FOX 11 LOS ANGELES.
Soldiers will place U.S. flags in front of more than 280,000 headstones on Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia as part of a Memorial Day tradition to honor Americas fallen heroes.

'Flags in' is a time-honored tradition that is reserved for soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), the Arlington National Cemetery said in a statement.

TEXAS ARTIST MAKING SCULPTURE HONORING VETS ON MEMORIAL DAY

The event marks the start of Memorial Day weekend activities at the cemetery. The tradition began in 1948, according to the cemetery.

During the ceremony, more than 1,000 Old Guard Soldiers will place a U.S. flag in front of more than 280,000 headstones as well as in front of the columbariums "to account for more than 400,000 interred, the statement said.

NAVY DAD SURPRISES DAUGHTER AT GEORGIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GRADUATION

The event will also feature a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The public is encouraged to watch but cannot participate in the placing of the flags.

After Memorial Day, the flags are removed before the cemeteries open to the public.


A 51-year-old man has convinced a judge against all odds that Detroit cops framed him in a fatal shooting 25 years ago with bogus bullet evidence.

Desmond Ricks was found guilty of killing Gerry Bennet on March 3, 1992. He was sentenced to 32 years in prison. His conviction was overturned Friday with seven years left on his sentence.

The trial evidence against Ricks included two pristine bullets prosecutors said had been recovered from the victim.

Photographs obtained by his lawyers in 2015 showed those wrong bullets. The bullets that killed Bennet were in poor shape.

New tests showed one of those bullets didnt come from the gun police said was the murder weapon. The other bullet wasnt tested because of its mutilated condition.

"Ricks was a great advocate for his own cause," defense lawyer David Moran said. "What he was saying seemed to be outlandish: The Detroit police crime lab would not only make mistakes but switch bullets. It wasn't outlandish  it was true. This outlandish conduct cost Desmond Ricks 25 years."

Ricks told the The Associated Press that he wants to get a job, pay taxes, and just be a "normal citizen." He said he wants to reunite with two daughters and six grandchildren whom he has never seen.

In 1992, Ricks was with Bennett when Bennett was shot in the head outside a restaurant. Ricks said he ran away, dodging gunfire. But a few days later, police pinned the slaying on him and seized his mother's gun.

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had nothing to do with this," Ricks told The Associated Press earlier this year. "They switched the bullets on me."

Ricks had a key ally in his bid to reopen the case: an independent firearms expert who was involved in the '92 trial. He found David Townshend's name in a law journal in 2009 and wrote to him from prison.

Judge Richard Skutt threw out Ricks' second-degree murder conviction Friday after the Wayne County prosecutor's office agreed it should be erased. It's possible that he could face a second trial but that seems highly unlikely. Spokeswoman Maria Miller said the next move will be discussed in court on June 1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A masked man crashed his tractor trailer into the Bunny Ranch brothel in Nevada on Thursday.

Brian Brandt, 40, from Reno, was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, destruction of property and possession of stolen property.

Owner Dennis Hof described the terror scene on brothels website. A disgruntled former trucking company employee wearing full body armor backed a stolen 18-wheeler truck into the front entrance of the Bunny Ranch brothel in an apparent sadistic attempt to gain notoriety. Thankfully, no one was injured as a result of this maniacal terror attack the perpetrator was apprehended by police.

Hof says there were about 45 people in the building at the time of the early-morning crash, but no injuries were reported. Pictures of the scene posted on Hof's website showed heavy damage to the front of the building.

THE WEEK IN PICTURES

Brandt was arrested on the scene and is currently being held at the Lynn County Detention Facility. The Reno Gazette Journal reports that Brandt was arrested on May 17th and charged with battery and conspiracy to destroy property as well and was released.

Damage sustained to the brothel is nearing $400,000, but the establishment will remain open for business says Hof.

Fox News talked to Hof about the experience. After 61 years, weve been through it all, but we havent seen something like this. Asked if he got a description of the suspect, Hof says he saw his ID. I was on the property and the police called me said someone backed a semi into the building with full body armor and mask. He looked all prepared to take care of business. They were just putting him into the car as I saw him. That looks like a terrorist to me.

VIDEO: POPPY PLANT BUST IN NORTH CAROLINA

Hof also noted what could potentially be the motive of Brandt, the suspect. No one gives a damn if you run it in to a 7-11 or Dairy Queen, but when you run it into the bunny ranch its a worldwide story.

Misty Matrix, an employee of the ranch said she heard a loud bang and people were running everywhere. It was crazy. It was so scary.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A clown waving a bloody machete over his head on the side of a California highway spooked passing drivers on Wednesday.

Larry Tovey, 61, of Gilroy, wore a clown suit and red and white makeup on his face while holding a machete caked in fake blood, according to KSBW.

CALIFORNIA PARK RANGERS SEARCH FOR PROMPOSAL VANDAL

He stood on the side of Highway 101 between Prunedale and Aromas, with his thumb drawn out, a gesture commonly associated with hitchhiking.

Two deputies contacted Larry, with their guns drawn, and eventually figured out what he was up to, the Monterey County Sheriffs Office said in a Facebook post.

CALIFORNIA INVESTIGATORS SEARCH HOME OF MISSING 5-YEAR-OLD BOYS GRANDMOTHER

After handcuffing and questioning Tovey, the deputies determined he was not threatening anyone although the machete was real.

He didnt actually threaten anybody. He just had a sick sense of humor, said Cmdr. John Thornburg of the Monterey County Sheriffs Office.
Chinese officials understand the urgency of pressuring North Korea and said they have taken measures to tighten security at its border as part of the U.N. sanctions aimed at halting Pyongyang's nuclear and missile activities, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton told reporters in Beijing on Friday that Chinese officials said they've tightened border inspections, beefed up policing on the border and stepped up customs inspections.

China has announced a suspension of coal imports from North Korea through the rest of the year, but has been generally reticent about what other steps it's taking to use its leverage as Pyongyang's most important trading and diplomatic partner.

"Their calculus about how much pressure to impose on North Korea is related to their tolerance for potential instability, which is low, I would say," she said, according to Reuters.

The relationship between the Chinese and Pyongyang is seen as one the most watched in the region. There have been recent reports that speculated that North Korea is looking to work on its relationship with Russia due to concerns that Beijing is growing tired of the regime.

Thorntons comments come after a U.S. Navy destroyer in the vicinity of a man-made island in the South China Sea was told to leave the area by Chinese warships, according to a Chinese defense official.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to comment to the newspaper on the operation.

We operate in the Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea, he said in a statement to The Wall Journal Street. We operate in accordance with international law. He added that the patrols are not about any one country, or any one body of water.
Some people on Floridas Gulf Coast who went for a stroll along the beach early Wednesday morning were met by an eerie sight: a ghost ship run aground on the shores of St. Andrews State Park.

No, the undead crew of the legendary Flying Dutchman did not decide to make a trip to the bars at the nearby Spring Break hotspot of Panama City. Instead, an empty hopper barge that was being towed by another boat broke loose of its cables and was carried on the waves before being grounded near a rock jetty along the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

The barge, which was used to transport scrap metal, was empty and did not contain any hazardous materials.

"We know the vessel. It's a normal traffic route for them. They go from New Orleans or Mobile, Alabama, and transfer it to Tampa for scrap metal," Coast Guard spokesman Brian Hanson told MyPanhandle.com.

NAVY SHIPYARD INVESTMENTS DRIVE ECONOMIC TURNAROUND

While the captain of the tugboat who lost the barge wanted to pull the empty boat off the beach on Wednesday, six to seven foot seas from a storm offshore delayed the process until Thursday morning.

"We want to make sure everyone is safe," Hanson said. "That's our main concern, so right now, we're just devising a plan to get the line on and vessel towed out of here as quickly as possible."
Attacking a cop or judge in Texas is about to become a hate crime, after state lawmakers sent Gov. Greg Abbott a bill is all but sure to sign  since he was the first to propose it.

The soon-to-be law, inspired by the July 2016 murders of five police officers in Dallas, increases the punishment for crimes against peace officers. It cleared the state Senate this week by a 30-1 vote and already passed the House.

The men and women in uniform risk their lives every day to protect the public, and it is time we show them the State of Texas has their back, Abbott said nearly a year ago, after the assassination of five cops working to protect protesters at an anti-police brutality march.

It was the deadliest day for American law enforcement officers since 9/11.

KENTUCKY BECOMES 2ND STATE TO PASS A BLUE LIVES MATTER BILL

The bill now headed for Abbotts desk says that penalties for threatening peace officers or judges will be raised from a misdemeanor to a felony, punishable by 180 days to two years in prison. This likens the punishment to offenses based on crimes against groups identified by race, disability, religion, ancestry, age, gender or sexual preference.

Unlawfully restraining or assaulting a police officer or judge would be a second-degree felony, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Any crime against either group that results in serious bodily injury would be a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison.

Judges were added to the bill as an answer to help protect people like Texas District Judge Julie Kocurek, who was shot four times outside her home in Austin in 2015. She survived the attack.

KENTUCKY BECOMES 2ND STATE TO PASS A BLUE LIVES MATTER BILL

If signed by Abbott, as expected, the bill will go into effect on Sept. 1. The governor did not respond to requests for comment by Fox News, but recently tweeted an article about the bills passing, adding #backtheblue.

I think this legislation is a long time coming in a time when we have basically a war on cops. These bills are needed, Jim Fotis, president of The National Center for Police Defense, a non-profit dedicated to helping law enforcement officers during difficult times, told Fox News. Certainly police officers are out there to do their job and they shouldnt have to worry every single day about somebody targeting them.

Fotis, however, said he wasnt sure whether the legislation will be a deterrent.

Words certainly arent going to stop some people, but if you are a sane person, hopefully this will make you think twice before you go after law enforcement, Fotis said, adding that he thinks this is a good first step but he would like to see broader, federal legislation someday.

FOUR MEN ARRESTED IN ATTACK ON ALABAMA TEEN WHO SAID 'BLUE LIVES MATTER'

The bill, known as the Blue Lives Matter Act of 2016" and is similar to the Texas legislation, was proposed in Congress last year but no action has been taken on it.

Critics say that the proposal goes against the intent of a hate came because police officers were not born being cops. And, they say, there are already tough laws in place to prosecute crimes against cops.

Police are provided many protections already. We arm them and grant them great leeway in use of deadly force. We protect them with body armor and other gear, said an editorial in the Denver Post published last year. Rarely do juries or review panels charge officers who kill alleged offenders, but the justice system comes down extra hard when one of its own meets with harm.

Similar bills are being passed, or at least proposed, in other areas of the country. At least two states, Kentucky and Louisiana, have passed the Blue Lives Matter law, which makes attacking a police officer a hate crime.

On May 9, the New York State Senate passed the Community Heroes Protection Act to designate offenses against law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical services personnel as hate crimes. And, in Alabama this week, State Rep. John Rogers, a Democrat, asked the Alabama House to do the same.

It is a hate crime, Rogers said to WBRC Fox6 in Birmingham, because it attacks a certain class of individuals: police officers.
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran recovered from an illness to fulfill his goal of being the "something blue" at his niece's wedding in Missouri.

Bill Lee Eblen, 92, was a sergeant in the Marine Corps during WWII and a sergeant in the Air Force Korean War, according to Alison Ferrell, Eblen's niece.

"When I first I got engaged I knew I wanted to include Uncle Bill in a special way," Ferrell told Fox News. "My family always taught us to have a lot of respect for people in the armed forces. It just seemed like the perfect fit."

74-YEAR-OLD AQUATIC TRAILBLAZER TEACHING VETERANS HOW TO SWIM

Eblen was recovering from pneumonia and was not certain he would make it to Alison and Matthew Ferrells wedding in Cape Girardeau.

Eblen, who lives at a veterans' home in Illinois, told the nurses he was determined to get well enough to be her (Alison Ferrell) something blue on her wedding day.

I said 'Im 92-years-old this is a miracle happening to me!' Eblen told KFVS.

On the wedding day, Eblen dressed in his Marine Corps uniform, complete with blue slacks, and was wheeled down the aisle. He held a sign stating, "I'm her something blue."

RED OXX: AMERICAN-MADE LUGGAGE HANDCRAFTED BY VETERANS

"During the ceremony I felt a lot of pride and joy to see him so happy and see him get the recognition he deserves," Ferrell told Fox News.

You dont ever forget your military experience, Eblen told People. I just respect Alisons decision to include me in her wedding, plus it was a lot of fun!"
Kentucky detectives said Friday they are searching for a missing 13-year-old girl and her young sister who were taken by their mother after their fathers funeral.

Law enforcement has reason to believe they could be in danger, Detective Michael Wilson of the Allen County Sheriffs Office told FoxNews.com.

Detectives said the 13-year-old, Jazzie Whitney, and her 11-year-old sister Cassie were last seen May 18 at a funeral for their father. Larry Whitney, 40, died of a stab wound to the chest two days earlier.

An arrest warrant accuses Melissa Scott, 38, of taking her daughters. She has been charged with custodial inference.

Investigators believe Scott ran off with the girls after child welfare workers took custody of the girls, Wilson said.

Investigators arent sure how the father died, Wilson said.

The detective said the death could have been accidental but an exact cause is pending an autopsy.

He said investigators want to talk to the mother and the girls about the stabbing, Wilson said.

Jerry Whitney told WBKO-TV his brother and Scott had a rocky relationship. He said he is worried about his nieces.

I worry about their safety, he said.

Wilson said anyone with information can call the Allen County Sheriff's Office at 1-270-237-3210.
Five people were hurt during a fight between several students at Webster Middle School near 53rd and Green Tree, officials with the Milwaukee Fire Department said.

An adult and two students who were injured were treated at the scene. Two others were taken to the hospital for treatment of "very minor injuries," according to MFD.

Police said it happened around 12:30. According to police, during the fight, additional students became involved and struck several staff members.

A student was cut during the fight with an unknown object and was transported to a hospital for treatment of injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Three students were arrested for disorderly conduct, police said.

The investigation is ongoing.

A Milwaukee Public Schools spokesman issued this statement to FOX6 News:

"MPS is working with the Milwaukee Police Department to investigate a situation that occurred at Webster. Students who were involved face both district disciplinary and potential legal consequences.

This type of behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

Click for more from Fox 6 Milwaukee.
A Minnesota inmate stole a van transporting prisoners from St. Cloud prison to other facilities around the state on Friday morning, police said.

The incident occurred outside the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Lino Lakes.

The inmate took control of the vehicle, which was transporting nine people, around 11 a.m. Police later arrested five of those from the van in the Mounds View area and three others in north Minneapolis, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman told the Star Tribune.

One inmate, James Douglas Mitchell, 26, was initially unaccounted for but was later discovered after being spotted in a local park. He was arrested and transported to Hennepin County Medical Center for unknown injuries, according to CBS.

Mitchell was imprisoned on a felony assault charge.

MINNESOTA ATHLETIC OFFICIAL SUSPENDED IN SEX HARASSMENT CASE

He had been charged in October 2016 with slamming a U.S. Marshall with a stolen vehicle.

He was hit with a first-degree assault charge for using deadly force against a peace officer. He was also charged for fleeing a police officer. Officers from multiple agencies were trying to execute a warrant for Mitchells arrest at the time, according to the complaint. Authorities were trying to arrest him for burglary and assault and three other cases, according to FOX 9.

Lino Lakes is the home of around 1,800 minimum and medium-security male prisoners.
A registered nurse who works at a Jackson, Mississippi metro area hospital has been arrested and charged with drug embezzlement.

Jeremy David Duke, 32, surrendered his nursing license as a result of the charge, according to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.

This is one of many cases that probably will be resulting in arrests based on our efforts to crack down on the diversion of pharmaceuticals in the state of Mississippi, MBN Director John Dowdy told Fox News. He says this arrest is part of an effort to tackle the growing opioid problem in the Magnolia State.

According to Dowdy, Duke is suspected of diverting morphine and Dilaudid, which is a brand name for hydromorphine. The case is still under investigation and Duke may face additional charges.

DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Daniel Comeaux said his agency will not tolerate medical professionals who break the law.

THE WEEK IN PICTURES

The arrest of Mr. Duke by DEA and MBN speaks to the seriousness of the growing opioid crisis in this country, Comeaux said in a news release. No longer will drug dealers, cloaked in lab coats, be able to hide behind the title of claiming to be a medical professional, while pushing this poison into our communities.

In a separate case, MBN and DEA officials announced the arrest of two nurses for alleged crimes involving prescription drug diversion in Mississippi last week. Officials also say that two doctors forfeited their DEA licenses and a pharmacy faces civil action for alleged abuse surrounding the prescribing of prescription drugs.
A controversial North Carolina billboard has drawn criticism for referring to the 9/11 terror attack in promoting President Trumps travel ban.

The billboard on I-40 in Catawba County says why support President Trumps immigration ban? 19 Muslim immigrants killed 2977 Americans. September 11, 2001.

Some find the billboard hateful, WSOC-TV reported on Friday.

"I believe in the Christian way and that's to embrace everybody, a man named Oliver Reitzell told the station. Kind of the hate message behind it. I'm not for that."

An associate pastor Paul Cummings said the billboard contradicts teachings from the Bible.

"My opinion is that I think these people need the saving gospel of Jesus more than I need to be protected, Cummings told the station. I'm perfectly willing for people who are hostile to us, to be in our country, because that's what loving your enemy is all about."

A group called the North Carolina Pastors Network paid for the billboard and has refused to remove it.

"This has nothing whatsoever to do with hatred or hostility toward anyone that comes from a background," Dave Kistler, the groups president, told WCNC-TV. "I have dear friends that are Muslim."

The station points out that the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. Those countries are not part of the president's travel ban.

The U.S. appeals court in Virginia ruled Thursday that the Trump revised ban violated constitutional rights.
The FBI has launched a digital billboard campaign to draw attention to Oregons biggest missing persons case  the tragic 2010 disappearance of a 7-year-old boy.

The FBI said Thursday it began running billboards in the Kyron Horman case in five Oregon cities, including Portland.

Kyron disappeared June 4, 2010 in northwest Portland and his heartbroken mom still prays for his return, KPTV reported Thursday.

The other day, I was listening to one of his favorite songs and I could just picture us dancing around the living room again, said Desiree Young, according to the station. And I just want to have those moments and those memories back.

Young spoke about her son at a National Missing Childrens Day event in Salem.

She believes Kyrons stepmother is responsible for the boys disappearance, according to the station.

Terri Horman was the last person known to have seen him, police have said. Police never have charged her or labeled her a suspect. She has denied harming the boy.

Time is running out and Terris going to be held accountable, said Young, according to KPTV. Im confident in that. And she cant help but be herself and thats what Im relying on.

Kyron was living with his stepmother at the time of his disappearance.

She divorced Kyrons father and left Oregon, The Oregonian reported Thursday.

California cops charged her late last year with driving a stolen car near San Francisco, according to the paper. She also faced a restraining order from a man in an alleged domestic violence case.
Jerry JDog Flanagan always wanted to go to college. But, growing up poor outside of Philadelphia with an alcoholic father and a working mother, he knew it wasnt financially possible.

I was not a good school student, Flanagan told Fox News. I really didnt have any direction, my work ethic was not that great I found myself having to go into the military to really set my life straight.

He enlisted in the Army for two years and was discharged in 1989. Flanagan tried college thanks to the GI Bill but dropped out when he ran out of money. Jumping job to job, from dishwasher to gas station cashier, Flanagan learned the ropes in retail, eventually opening up his own string of businesses. When the recession hit, Flanagan threw in the towel. Scrambling to start the next chapter, he did some research.

I was definitely interested in doing something that didn't require inventory, it did not rely on the economy to be strong. And when I researched junk removal it was a recession-proof business, says Flanagan.

In 2011, Flanagan and his wife bought a jeep, took to the streets and tried to drum up business for JDog Junk Removal and Hauling. Embracing his military ethos of hard work, respect and integrity, the customers kept calling.

Our military values show the customers we care about their property and their projects. People want to support the military, its an American, veteran-owned concept and the customers are getting behind it, says Flanagan.

ARMY VETERAN, 71, GRADUATES HIGH SCHOOL 52 YEARS LATER

As business took off, Flanagans mission changed. Seeing an opportunity to give back to his fellow brothers in arms, Flanagan teamed up with the Veterans Association to hire vets.

You have to be a military family member exclusively or you have to be a military veteran in order to qualify to be awarded a territory, says Flanagan.

I cant say enough about how much it means to us as a family and how much its impacted our life, says Kyle Gagnon, whose father is a military vet. The family purchased a JDog franchise last year in upstate New York. If it wasn't for JDog, I really dont know what I would be doing with my life. I am thankful for the opportunity they offered us and his ongoing support and making our business successful.

AIR FORCE MASTER SERGEANT FINDS PEACE THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY

Now in 2017, Flanagan has more than 200 military vets and their families working under the JDog brand. This year alone, he hopes to bust into more than 75 new territories, which would take him past 200 in all.

Providing successful opportunities to veterans is my missionwe will be able to put five to ten thousand veterans into small business ownership or a great career, he said.

Be sure to watch Flanagans full story above.
An employee at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware allegedly offered inspectors a chance to take a look at John Glenns dead body while awaiting burial, according to a memo obtained by The Military Times.

The paper reported that William Zwicharowski, the mortuarys branch chief, allegedly offered to allow the inspectors to view the deceased.

The memo reportedly said that the offer was made in the presence of, and observed by, junior personnel on the Dover Mortuary Branch staff.

The Military Times reported that it reached out to Zwicharowski, but he did not respond.

Glenn, the all-American astronaut and senator who rocketed into history on flights 36 years apart as the first American to orbit the Earth and the oldest person in space, died in December at age 95. Glenn died at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he was hospitalized for more than a week.

His family reportedly asked the Air Force to care for his remains.

He was eventually buried at Arlington National Cemetery in April with full military honors.

The Military Times reported that the inspectors never viewed the astronauts remains. The memo reportedly said that Zwicharowski made the offer on two separate occasions: Feb. 28 and March 2.

The leader of the inspection team reportedly alerted the mortuarys deputy commander. An Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon said the services inspector general is investigating the issue.

The Air Force takes extremely seriously its responsibility to fulfill the nations sacred commitment of ensuring dignity, honor and respect to the fallen and care, service and support to their families," Col. Patrick S. Ryder, an Air Force spokesman, said. "At the conclusion of the investigation, the Air Force will determine what further corrective actions, if any, may be necessary and appropriate. If any allegations of misconduct are substantiated, those involved will be held accountable."

The report pointed out that the memo stated that Zwicharowski indicated that he thought the inspection was payback for his exposing how the mortuary mishandled the remains of some of the fallen service members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan six years earlier.

The memos author reportedly denied the allegation, saying, it is important to note that this inspection was pursuant to a new DoD inspection policy, and three other sites had been inspected prior to the teams inspection of Dover."

The report cited an interview Zwicharowski had with a local paper back in 2013.

"I want to guarantee the families of our fallen, in the past and in the future, that they're treated with honor, dignity and respect here at Dover. ... As long as I'm here, they'll be treated that way, he said.

Click for more from The Military Times
SCHUYLER  The legal heat is on a Richland business to get moving on plans to do something about some rusting hulks of equipment parked illegally for years along an asphalt road on the northwest edge of the village.

Colfax County commissioners on Tuesday instructed County Attorney Denise Kracl and Sheriff Paul Kruse to begin issuing citations for violations of a state law that prohibits anyone from depositing wood, stone or any other material on any part of any lawful public road in the state.

The obsolete grain-drying equipment and other farm relics have been parked for years along the short strip of pavement that was an old stretch of U.S. Highway 30 before its expansion to four lanes from Columbus to Schuyler.

Vollbracht Inc. is the business responsible for the farm equipment along the road, where two businesses are now operating.

You have to weave your way when driving down the road, Kracl said.

The county attorney said violators, according to the law, are guilty of a Class III misdemeanor for a first offense, Class II misdemeanor for a second offense and Class I misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail, for a third offense.

Kracl told the three-member board an initial citation is the first offense and, every day the material is not removed, a subsequent offense will be treated as a new violation.

Fines and court costs for not dealing with the removal of the aging farm equipment will add up quickly, Kracl said. The county attorney said she has notified the business owner, who has a mailing address in Wayne, of the countys actions.

County Highway Superintendent Mark Arps issued multiple warnings to Vollbracht Inc., including one with a four-week deadline that has expired, seeking removal of the equipment.

The roads department needs some off-road space for the county to use as a staging area for a summer repaving project on the Richard spur, a 1/3-mile stretch of asphalt that connects the village to the four-lane highway.

Arps is hopeful that project, with a price tag of about $300,000, will get underway in June. He said the heavily traveled road would pose a hardship on local farmers if the repaving work continues into the harvest season in September.
The husband and wife terrorists in San Bernardino were shot by police more than 40 times combined after their 2015 shooting rampage, according to a new report issued by the county's district attorney's office on Thursday.

The 55-page report detailed accounts of nearly two dozen law enforcement officers who were able to take down Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik. The report explains how police located the attackers and the evidence collected after they were killed.

Police identifed Farook after interviewing a co-worker who said the masked man that entered the Inland Regional Center had his same stature and body shape. Officers learned that Farook had rented a black SUV, which matched the description as the assailants car, according to the report.

Officers pursuing the couple in their getaway SUV were shot at while attempting to pull them over. Farook eventually stopped the car on a residential street, police said. Farook exited the vehicle and fired at police with a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semi-automatic rifle.

One San Bernardino officer recalled shooting Farook five or six times during the firefight. "One of the rounds passed through Farook causing a mist of blood on impact," the report said. "Farook fell to the ground but was still moving." Farook was still clutching his rifle when he was shot two more times.

As Farook lay dying, his wife was ducked behind a backseat in the SUV. Officers said it seemed like she had been blindly firing towards the officers rather than taking aim. She was dressed in all black, carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and was wearing a load-bearing vest with several spare rifle and pistol magazines, along with an airsoft neck protector and black safety glasses.

Autopsies found that Farook was shot 27 times and Malik was shot at least 15 times.

In total, the couple fired about 80 rounds from rifles and one bullet from a handgun. Officers fired 440 rounds from rifles, shotguns and handguns. Several nearby homes and cars were struck by bullets, but no civilians were hit during the shootout.

Police scouring the SUV found a black backpack with 14 rifle and pistol magazines, a military-style ammunition container with 870 rifle cartridges that were loaded into 10-round clips, along with three rifle sighting systems and several bags filled with hundreds of ammunition cartridges.

According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the attorneys office said the officers killing of the terrorists was justified. District Attorney Mike Ramos called the officers actions courageous.

I call them heroes, Ramos said. You talk about being brave  Ill tell you, I couldnt do it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A South Dakota man accused of stabbing a man to death using a bayonet has pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Twenty-seven-year-old Joseph Rich is accused of killing 21-year-old Juan Legarda Jr. on New Year's Day in Rapid City. He's also accused of using the bayonet  a blade attached to the muzzle end of a gun  to attack two other men.

The Rapid City Journal reports that Rich pleaded guilty on Thursday. He faces up to 10 years in prison when he's sentenced July 10.

Rich originally was charged with first-degree manslaughter, punishable by up to life in prison, as well as two counts of aggravated assault for injuring the two other men. Those charges will be dismissed as part of Rich's plea agreement with prosecutors.

___

Information from: Rapid City Journal, http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
A teacher at a Texas school was suspended after she presented a student with "Most likely to become a terrorist" award on Tuesday, the girl's family said.

Lizeth Villanueva, 13, said her seventh-grade teacher at Lance Corporal Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview handed the award to her during class, a day after the deadly attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.

"When she said my name I turned around like what, what did she just say? I was very upset. I was mad but didn't show it," Villanueva told Fox 26 Houston.



Villanueva, who is part of an academic honors program, said a group of teachers were giving the certificates out as a joke, part of a mock awards ceremony before summer vacation, according to The Washington Post. The 13-year-old found nothing about it funny.

"It is kind of hard to believe somebody would do that," Ena Hernandez, Villanueva's mom, said after her daughter came home with the offensive award.

Other awards students received included "most likely to cry for every little thing" and "most likely to become homeless."

LAWSUIT ALLEGES PROFESSOR FAILED STUDENT FOR BEING MUSLIM

Representatives from the Channelview Independent School District released a statement to Fox 26 apologizing for the incident.

"The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom. Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district's vision, mission and educational goals for our students."

The district said the teachers involved in the incident were disciplined.

Hernandez said the school should have fired the teacher.

MIDDLE SCHOOL BRAWL: 5 HURT, 3 ARRESTED

"So far I also know, the principal also mentioned to us that there were other parents complaining about a similar situation, the same thing," Hernandez said.

Channelview Independent School District did not return Fox News' request for a statement.

Click here for more from Fox 26 Houston.
South Korea will allow a civic group to contact North Korea over help in fighting malaria, the first government approval on cross-border civilian exchanges since North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January 2016, officials said Friday.

The announcement is a sign that the liberal government led by new President Moon Jae-in is trying to restart stalled civilian aid and exchange programs as a way to improve strained ties with the rival North. Moon's conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye, hadn't endorsed any civilian contacts since the North's fourth nuclear test.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said the Seoul-based Korean Sharing Movement would be allowed to communicate with North Korea to discuss how to deal with malaria in North Korea.

"While the new government maintains a stance of firmly responding to North Korean provocations like missile launches, it's also clear that the current severance in ties between the South and North isn't ideal for stabilizing the situation in the Korean Peninsula," ministry spokeswoman Lee Eugene said.

The civic group said it will contact North Korea via email to try to provide North Korea with insecticides, diagnostic reagent kits and mosquito repellants and nets. Group officials said they last sent anti-malaria supplies to North Korea in 2011.

Despite the lack of South Korean assistance, North Korea has in recent years reported declining cases of malaria largely thanks to anti-malaria aid programs by international organizations. According to World Health Organization records, North Korea had 21,850 malaria cases in 2012, but 7,010 cases in 2015.

The presence of malaria in North Korea's southern regions also poses a health problem for South Koreans as malaria-carrying mosquitoes fly southward across the countries' heavily fortified border.

Since taking office earlier in May, Moon's government has said it will flexibly evaluate expanding civilian exchange with North Korea. But many analysts say Moon won't likely push for any major rapprochement projects because North Korea has gone too far on its nuclear program.

North Korea conducted two ballistic missile test-launches since Moon's May 10 inauguration. It's pushing to build a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the continental U.S., and as part of the goal the North carried out two nuclear tests last year  in January and September.

___

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
The Pentagon announced plans for a test in just a few days that would involve shooting down an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)  similar to what North Korea has launched.

U.S. military personnel plan to launch a custom-made missile from the Marshall Islands and aim to shoot it down in space by firing an interceptor missile from a base in California.

The missile is meant to simulate an ICBM, meaning it will fly faster than missiles used in previous intercept tests, according to Christopher Johnson, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency. The target is not a mock-up of an actual North Korean ICBM.

NORTH KOREA: ROCKET STARS BEHIND KIM JONG UN'S MISSILE PROGRAM REVEALED

This is the first time the U.S. military has attempted to test a ground-based interceptor against an "intercontinental class target," The Missile Defense Agency confirmed to Fox News.

The interceptor test, scheduled for Tuesday, comes after two recent successful North Korean ballistic missile launches. One of the medium-range ballistic missiles flew more than 1,200 miles into space, before successfully reentering the Earths atmosphere and splashing down just 60 miles from Russia.

North Koren leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to field a nuclear-armed missile capable of reaching American territory. He has yet to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, but Pentagon officials believe he is speeding in that direction. North Korea's deputy U.N. envoy said the country will continue to strengthen its nuclear program to counter U.S. aggression.

NORTH KOREA THREAT: US OFFICIAL WARNS 'INEVITABLE' REGIME DEVELOPS ICBM

Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that if left unchecked, North Korea will develop a nuclear device that has intercontinental capabilities.

"If left on its current trajectory, the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland," Stewart said.

The American interceptor has a spotty track record, succeeding in nine of 17 attempts since 1999. The most recent test, in June 2014, was a success, but that followed three straight failures. The system has evolved from the multibillion-dollar effort triggered by President Ronald Reagan's 1983 push for a "Star Wars" solution to ballistic missile threats during the Cold War  when the Soviet Union was the only major worry.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson, Dan Gallo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Taliban fighters attacked an army camp in the southern Kandahar province Friday, killing at least 15 soldiers, said an Afghan official.

Daulat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, says the attack happened early Friday and five others were wounded.

Waziri says more than 20 Taliban militants were killed in Friday's fighting.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement and said 35 soldiers were killed and eight others were apprehended by the group.

It was the third assault by insurgents on soldiers in Afghanistan this week, including a Taliban attack Wednesday in the Maiwand district that killed 13.

Elsewhere, a roadside mine struck a bus in the western Hirat Province, killing 10 civilians and wounded six others.

Jelani Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor, provided the casualty figures and added that women and children were among those killed. He blamed the Taliban for planting the mine.
Two Chinese J-10 fighter jets with air-to-air missiles under its wings flew within 200 yards of a U.S. Navy P-3 surveillance plane approximately 150 miles southeast of Hong Kong this week, a U.S. defense official told Fox News on Friday.

The official said the Chinese fighter jets were unsafe in their actions toward the U.S. reconnaissance plane in international airspace Wednesday. One of the Chinese jets flew out in front of the Navy plane before conducting a series of slow turns which the American crew considered unsafe, the official added.

Describing why cutting off another plane at high speeds in the air is dangerous, the official said: You dont know what the other person is doing.

The close call unfolded before a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed near a contested island in the South China Sea early Thursday, according to the official.

ROCKET STARS BEHIND KIM JONG UN'S MISSILE PROGRAM REVEALED

The USS Dewey sailed within six nautical miles of Mischief Reef, one of Chinas manmade islands in the South China Sea.

One week earlier, two Chinese fighter jets intercepted an American radiation-sniffing surveillance plane over the East China Sea in what the U.S. Air Force called an unprofessional maneuver. One of the Chinese jets conducted a barrel roll around the American plane, a U.S. official told Fox News this week.

CHINA TIGHTENED BORDER CONTROLS WITH NORTH KOREA, AMERICAN DIPLOMAT SAYS

Back in February, a Chinese early warning aircraft and U.S. Navy patrol plane had what the U.S. called an "unsafe" encounter over the South China Sea. Each of these close calls unfolded in international airspace.

Such incidents have occurred occasionally over and within the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety.
Gunmen opened fire on a bus in Egypt carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery on Friday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 22, officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack - but it had all the hallmarks of Egypt's Islamic State affiliate.

Egyptian authorities have been fighting ISIS-linked militants, who have waged an insurgency that's mostly focused in the volatile north of the Sinai Peninsula.

The country's Coptic Christians - who are the Middle East's largest Christian community - have emerged as a top target for ISIS.

History of issues

Egypt's Copts, who make up around 10 percent of the country's 92 million population, have repeatedly complained of suffering discrimination and outright attacks at hands of its majority Muslim population. Over the past decades, they have also become targets of Islamic extremists.

Coptic Christians rallied behind the country's general-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, in 2013 when he ousted Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group.

Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country's south, traditionally Egypt's Christian heartland.

EGYPT ATTACK: GUNFIRE ON BUS CARRYING COPTIC CHRISTIANS KILLS AT LEAST 28

Why are Coptic Christians being persecuted by ISIS?

ISIS is trying to stoke conflict between various groups in an attempt to undermine stability in Egypt, The Atlantic reported in April.

"ISIS is strategically shifting to attacking Copts as a means of propaganda, as it shows the Egyptian state is unable to protect minorities," journalist Mohannad Sabry told TIME last month.

Timothy E. Kaldas with the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Police, in the same interview with TIME, said, "Many Islamists in Egypt see the Coptic Church as partly responsible for the coup against former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and have regularly engaged in sectarian incitement against Christians since."

A TIMELINE OF RECENT ATTACKS ON EGYPT'S CHRISTIANS

Recent attacks

Friday's attack is the third against Christians in Egypt in six months.

In April, twin suicide bombings struck two churches on Palm Sunday. In December 2016, a suicide bombing targeted a Cairo church. The attacks left over 75 dead and scores wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility and vowed more attacks.

Sectarian killings did happen as early as the 1970s, but were mostly sporadic, with the exception of the 1990s. That's when the state fought an Islamic insurgency and Copts faced some retaliation.

On New Years' Eve 2010, a bomb in an Alexandria church killed over 20 people - making it the first major assault with a high death toll in living memory.

Attacks picked up in the aftermath of the army's overthrow of Morsi in 2013.

WHO ARE EGYPT'S COPTIC CHRISTIANS?

Pope's call for peace

Pope Francis visited Egypt in late April and paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo's St. Peter's church.

After the pope's visit, ISIS vowed to escalate the attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group's followers.

ISIS views the Christian minority as an ally of the West in a war against Islam.

Pope Francis reiterated his call for peace during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Vatican. The pair discussed the promotion of peace through "political negotiation and interreligious dialogue, with particular reference to the situation in the Middle East and the protection of Christian communities," according to the Holy See.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Latest on Syria developments (all times local):

4 p.m.

The U.S. military says it killed three Islamic State group fighters in attacks this month and last.

In a brief statement, the U.S. Central Command described the three as "senior ISIS military officials and planners."

It said one was a Syria-based "facilitator" from Turkey, who was killed in an airstrike in Syria on April 27. He was described as an IS recruiter in the central Turkish city of Konya.

Another was described as a French-Algerian IS fighter based in Syria. He was killed by an airstrike in Syria on May 11.

The third was killed near the Iraqi city of al-Qaim on May 18. Central Command said he was an IS military official who operated in Iraq's Anbar province.

___

12:55 p.m.

The U.N. human rights chief says Syrian civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein in a dramatic appeal on Friday urged all parties conducting strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria to take greater care differentiating between military and civilian targets.

He cited a May 14 strike that reportedly killed 23 farm workers in a rural area of Raqqa province and an airstrike the following day that is said to have killed at least 59 civilians and wounded dozens in the IS-controlled eastern city of al-Bukamal in Deir el-Zour province.

Zeid, who is a member of the Jordanian royal family, also says the rising toll of civilian casualties suggests "insufficient precautions" is being taken in the attacks.
Macedonia's foreign ministry has summoned Serbia's ambassador to explain the presence of a Serbian diplomat and intelligence officer in the country's parliament during the building's storming by protesters last month. The incident left more than 100 people injured.

The ministry on Friday expressed "dissatisfaction and concern about the unauthorized presence of a diplomat" during the violent events of April 27 and requested detailed explanations.

It says such activity "does not contribute to enhancing mutual trust and promoting good neighborly relations and cooperation that both countries advocate."

Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has defended the presence of the diplomat, Goran Zivaljevic, saying he did not violate diplomatic protocols or rules.

"It is his job to inform about what is going on in the Republic of Macedonia," Dacic said Thursday.
Investigators have uncovered signs the suicide bomber at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester may have made a second explosive device that's still missing, local media reported Friday.

The suspicion of a second bomb came after crews on Thursday uncovered a bomb-making workshop at Salman Abedi's home, where they found used and unused containers of chemicals, according to local media. Abedi, 22, blew himself up at Manchester Arena as the concert was ending Monday night, killing 22 people and injuring 119 others.

MANCHESTER BOMBER CALLED MOM TO SAY 'FORGIVE ME' HOURS BEFORE ATTACK, OFFICIAL SAYS

Greater Manchester police continued raids and searches throughout the city on Friday, arresting another 30-year-old man in connection with the attack. In total, 10 people were arrested, but a man and a woman were later released. Eight people remain in custody.

Investigators feel they are reaching the "outer edge" of the circle of helpers, the "network," that supported Abedi, a British law enforcement official told Fox News.

Still, it was unclear whether a second person might have helped Abedi make the bomb. Materials gathered from the scene illustrated an explosive device that was carefully constructed to cause a deadly impact, according to photos first obtained by The New York Times. The complexity led officials to believe there was a second bomb-maker.

However, a source told Reuters that Abedi still could have made the bomb himself.

Abedi was believed to be living in England and visiting his parents in Libya before the attack  but when he left them, he claimed he was headed to Mecca.

Abedi was visiting his parents in Libya and left four days before the bombing, returning to England while telling his family he was going on a pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, The Wall Street Journal reported. A relative, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the 22-year-old was driven to extremism after his friend was fatally stabbed last year. Abedi often complained that the British were "unjust to the Arabs."

Other terror links involving Abedi's relatives also have emerged earlier this week. Abedi's father, Ramadan, was a member of the Al Qaeda-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, according to former security official Abdel-Basit Haroun  but the father denied the claim. The killer's brother Hashim had links to the Islamic State and may have been planning a separate attack in Tripoli, a Libyan government spokesman told Reuters. Both family members, including brother Ismail, have been arrested.

MANCHESTER BOMBING: NY TIMES DEFENDS COVERAGE AS TRUMP CALLS LEAKS 'DEEPLY TROUBLING'

British police said late Thursday that it will continue sharing intelligence on the Manchester bombing probe to U.S. officials after temporarily halting the flow of information because of leaks to the media  including The New York Times' publication of the crime-scene photos.

The disclosure infuriated British officials, including Prime Minister Theresa May, who brought up the leaks with President Donald Trump at the NATO summit.

Trump called the leaks "deeply troubling" and demanded the Justice Department launch a full investigation. Shortly after the statement, British officials seemed more at ease about the situation.

"Having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance," said Mark Rowley, Britain's top counterterrorism officer, about the alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Fox News' Greg Palkot and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Salman Abedi, the bomber in the Manchester terror attack, wasn't part of a large network, but other people involved may still be at large, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.

Police may make more arrests in the investigation into the attack, Russ Jackson, head of counterterrorism policing for northwest England, said July 6.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the May 22 concert bombing that killed 22 people, plus Abedi, and wounded more than 200 others. Here's what we know.

The bomber, Salman Abedi

British officials said Abedi had been on the radar of the country's intelligence services but was considered a peripheral figure.

"We are still working to understand the manner by which he became radicalized," Jackson said.

Jackson said police have reconstructed Abedi's movements in the weeks before the attack, as he obtained components and built his deadly device.

On the day of the bombing, Abedi spent several hours carrying the bomb though central Manchester before he detonated it in the foyer of Manchester Arena as an Ariana Grande concert was wrapping up.

Abedi's parents came to Britain early in the 1990s, and he reportedly was in contact with family members just before the attack.

Abedi was born in Britain to a Libyan family, grew up in Manchester's southern suburbs and once attended Salford University there. He was a business management student but dropped out, according to The Telegraph.

Neighbors recalled Abedi as a tall, thin young man who often wore traditional Islamic dress and did not talk much.

"He was such a quiet boy, always very respectful towards me," a member of the Libyan community in Manchester recalled to The Guardian. "His brother Ismail is outgoing, but Salman was very quiet. He is such an unlikely person to have done this."

UK POLICE: OTHERS MAY BE AT LARGE IN MANCHESTER ATTACK

That perspective clashed with others. Mohammed Saeed, with the Didsbury Mosque and Islamic Centre told the newspaper he had once delivered an anti-terrorism sermon. Abedi did not like what he heard, Saeed said.

"Salman showed me a face of hate after that sermon," he recalled. "He was showing me hatred."

Abedi was driven to extremism after seeing a friend fatally stabbed last year, a female relative said. He complained of being treated badly in Britain and was troubled why there seemed to be no outrage over his friend's death, she said.

Abedi believed it was because the friend was Muslim, according to the relative.

She said that Abedi also referred to Britons as "infidels" who "are unjust to the Arabs." She defended him as "a great kid" and said he had no links to ISIS or other militant groups.

However, Abedi is believed to have traveled to Syria and had "proven" links with ISIS, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb has said.

Abedi's father, Ramadan Abedi, denied in May that his son was linked to militants or to the deadly attack. He said that when he spoke to his son in recent days, he sounded "normal.

"We don't believe in killing innocents. This is not us," the elder Abedi told the AP by telephone. "We aren't the ones who blow up ourselves among innocents. We go to mosques. We recite Quran, but not that."

He said his son had visited Libya and never visited Syria.

Abedi spent three weeks in Libya prior to the Manchester bombing, returning to England just days before the attack, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to Fox News.

ARIANA GRANDE CONCERT BLAST: PHOTOS SHOW PANIC AT MANCHESTER ARENA

What do we know about his father, Ramadan Abedi?

Ramadan Abedi fled Tripoli in 1993 after Moammar Gadhafi's security authorities issued an arrest warrant for him. He eventually sought political asylum in Britain. Now, he is a manager for the Central Security force in Tripoli, Libya's capital.

He has denied having ties to any of Libya's militant groups, including the Libya Islamic Fighting Group, which was linked to Al Qaeda.

However, former Libyan security official Abdel-Basit Haroun told the AP that the elder Abedi was a member of the group in the 1990s. Although it disbanded, Haroun said the father now belongs to the Salafi Jihadi movement, the most extreme sect of Salafism from which Al Qaeda and ISIS both hail.

Ramadan Abedi was arrested in Libya after the attack and is still being held, The Guardian reported.

What about Abedi's brothers?

Ramadan Abedi confirmed that another son, 23-year-old Ismail, was arrested in Manchester.

And Salman's younger brother, 18-year-old Hashem, was taken into custody in Libya. Hashem was in contact with Salman, Ahmed bin Salem, the spokesman for a counter-terrorism force told Reuters.

"We have evidence that he is involved in Daesh (ISIS) with his brother," bin Salem said. "We have been following him for more than one month and a half. He was in contact with his brother and he knew about the attack."

Hashem was allegedly plotting an attack in Tripoli, Reuters reported.

MANCHESTER ATTACK: FATHER'S OPEN LETTER TO ARIANA GRANDE GOES VIRAL

Back in Britain

All 22 people arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses have now been released without charge, Greater Manchester police said last month. Salman's brother Ismail was released, the Financial Times reported.

Jackson said last month that some of those arrested had offered "accounts which explain innocent contact with Abedi." He said at the time that risk to the public had been considered before the suspects were released.

Suspects arrested under terrorism laws can be held for up to 14 days before they must be charged or released.

"We don't have evidence of a large network," Jackson told reporters July 6. "We do, however, suspect others were either aware or complicit in the knowledge of this attack."

Detectives want to question Abedi's younger brother Hashem, who has been detained in Libya, and are "engaging with" British prosecutors and Libyan authorities, Jackson said.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Following the detention of the entire municipal police force in the Mexican city of Zihuatanejo, a pleasant U.S. expat hotspot on the Pacific coast, 20 alleged drug traffickers were found to have been masquerading as cops.

Last Tuesdays bust was conducted by state and federal police, along with the Marine Corps. Acting on mounting evidence of corruption in that precinct, they detained all 246 officers and officials until they could provide official credentials.

At the end of the operation, 51 arrests were made, including three high-ranking officers, but 31 were later released on charges of operating without full accreditation. The remaining 20 were charged with ties to organized crime and impersonation of public officials.

TWO INDIGENOUS BROTHERS WHO DEFENDED TRIBAL LANDS FROM CARTELS KILLED IN MEXICO

Many of them are real police officers, but who we believe have strong ties to organized crime in the region, Zihuatanejos Public Security Chief Carlos Cruz told Fox News. The cartels are very powerful in the state of Guerrero, and we are working to purge our public bodies of links to drug trafficking.

Since last weeks operation, the Pacific resorts municipal force has been taken off duty, leaving the state police and Mexican military to patrol the streets.

It was a shock, said David Claassen, originally from Ohio, but who has lived in Mexico for the past three years. We had no idea this was going on, as Zihuatanejo is such a peaceful and friendly place.

Both the towns mayor Gustavo Garcia and the Municipal Police Chief David Nogueda refused to comment, yet sources close to the government said it is only a matter of time before the Municipal Police force is disbanded and control of Zihuatanejo is handed over to state authorities.

The municipal police will cease to exist once this scandal dies down, said one magistrate who declined to be identified. They are extremely corrupt and have only made organized crime worse in Zihua.

The magistrate, who works in the police station and was a daily witness to organized crimes infiltration into the force, said he needs to change his phone number once a month to avoid threatening calls from local gangsters.

MEXICAN JOURNALISTS CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE OF RIVAL CARTELS

Whenever a narco was brought to me after being arrested, I would receive a call from the street boss demanding his immediate release. I had to comply because they know where my family lives and would threaten me terribly, he said.

I would fine the gangster $25 for his arrest, but the money would be collected by my bosses here in the precinct and never arrive where it should have, he told Fox News. Theres nothing anyone can do, because if you speak out against the corruption, your life is in danger.

One narco masquerading as a police officer, known as El Cadete (The Cadet), had been recruited into the municipal police force just 20 days before the bust, but was already well-known to the long-serving officers  he has been arrested numerous times in possession of illegal firearms in the past, a felony which usually carries a minimum 10-year prison sentence in Mexico.

Suspicions over local narcos masquerading as cops were first aroused in early April, when three municipal police officers disappeared from the precinct after protesting about their colleagues activities.

Weeks later, on April 25, those three men were killed when police officers who later turned out to be fake attacked a security outpost in neighboring Ixtapa.

The killers were the same men who I saw every day in the precinct, the magistrate told Fox News. They killed the young men in broad daylight and later laughed about it.

Guerrero state, which is the worlds third most prolific producer of opium gum, all of which is sent north to fuel the U.S. heroin epidemic, is currently Mexicos most murderous region.

The state is home to more than half of the 62 drug cartels known to be operating in Mexico today, and while the majority of the crime is centered on Acapulco, Zihuatanejo is going through a spate of violence that has seen nine murders in the seven days since the raid on the towns municipal police.

There are two gangs operating here: the Sangre Nueva Generacion (New Generation Blood, a group aligned to Joaquin El Chapo Guzmans Sinaloa Cartel), which controls the beachfront and touristic areas, and the Fulana group controls the villages and wider region around the town, one local newspaper reporter told Fox News.

MEXICAN REPORTER AND NARCO-EXPERT KILLED IN SINALOA  5TH JOURNALIST THIS YEAR

While the locals in Zihuatanejo were taken by surprise at the sudden operation, few were shocked by the arrests made.

You cant trust the cops here, the only people they take care of are the tourists, said Miguel Angel Romero. They dont care about the terror the locals live with in the neighborhoods away from the beach.

A street level municipal police officer in Zihuatanejo earns $360 a month, a wage few are likely to risk taking a bullet for by defying local gangsters, who offer additional compensation for the authorities silence.

Now we have the state police on patrol, things can improve, the magistrate said. They are not afraid to shoot when they come across the narcos, but things will only get better if they are up for the fight, otherwise it will be business as usual.
At a recent political rally in this crime-ridden Mexico City suburb, next year's presidential election was discussed as much as the upcoming June 4 vote for governor in the country's most populous state.

The banner stretched across the stage carried the face of Delfina Gomez, a teacher-turned-politician with the leftist Morena party seeking the Mexico state governorship, and that of her party's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a charismatic early favorite for a third run for Mexico's presidency.

One year before Mexicans pick their new top leader, the impending gubernatorial election in Mexico state is seen as a referendum on the government of Enrique Pena Nieto, who was governor here before becoming president five years ago as the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI.

A PRI win here could stanch the bleeding after the party's loss last year of four governorships it had always held. Mexico state has long been a key source of the PRI's so-called "voto duro," or hard vote  voters it can count on year after year, most of them from a lower socio-economic status, less educated and many older than 50, said Ivonne Acuna, a professor in Iberoamerican University's social and political sciences department.

A Morena victory in the state would give Lopez Obrador "an immense advance in his quest for the presidency in 2018," Acuna said. But the opposition vote will be shared among several candidates, which will make it difficult to overcome the PRI's deeply rooted organization.

A poll released Wednesday by the newspaper El Financiero put PRI candidate Alfredo del Mazo ahead of Gomez by five percentage points in the gubernatorial contest. Juan Zepeda of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, which Lopez Obrador left to form Morena, was a distant third and Josefina Vazquez Mota of the National Action Party came in fourth. The poll surveyed 1,200 eligible Mexico state voters from May 20-23 and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

With more than 11 million voters, the state of Mexico has been governed by the PRI for 88 years and is the largest potential prize of three PRI-controlled states holding gubernatorial races June 4. The others are Coahuila and Nayarit.

"For the PRI, winning Mexico state is indispensable to be able to have something to do in 2018" during the presidential election, said researcher Marcela Bravo Ahuja at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Center for Political Studies. "That's not to say that if it wins Mexico state it's guaranteed, far from it, but if it doesn't win Mexico state there won't be anything to do."

Pena Nieto won the presidency for the PRI in 2012 after two consecutive terms held by the more conservative National Action Party. Before National Action took the presidency with Vicente Fox's election victory in 2000 and then retained it with Felipe Calderon's 2006 win, the PRI had ruled Mexico uninterrupted for 71 years.

Pena Nieto himself used the Mexico state governorship as a stepstool to the presidency. And as the president's approval ratings dip close to single digits, the PRI has chosen his cousin  eighth degree, del Mazo says  as its gubernatorial candidate. Politics have long been all in the family, with del Mazo's father and grandfather both serving as past governors of Mexico state.

A few blocks away from the recent Morena rally, Carmen Morales chatted at her food stall with neighbor Maria Aviles.

Morales said she was selling sliced fruit for the first time that day because her evening taco business two blocks off the main thoroughfare had dried up amid fear over street crime.

The pair said they knew at least three girls and young women who were raped in the area in the past year or so, including one of their relatives, and no one was arrested in the cases.

Both said they planned to vote for "Lopez Obrador" in the June 4 contest even though his name will not be on the ballot.

"Morena, it's the same," said Morales. "Hopefully, really this time, there will be a governor who focuses on the people, not just on what he can take."

At a more polished event earlier in the day in the denim-producing city of Jaltenco, the PRI's del Mazo told a boisterous crowd he wants to be governor for the state's women.

He rattled off a list of promises  potable water, jobs, security, pensions, improved health services. But he focused on something he called the "pink salary," a proposed monthly payment for homemakers. Many women in the crowd wore PRI hats that read: "Pink Salary Support for Housewives."

There have been opposition party complaints that the PRI is giving women plastic cards they supposedly can use to draw salaries if del Mazo wins. Rumors swirl that residents will lose social services if the PRI is defeated.

Acuna, of Iberoamerican University, said women vote in greater numbers than men, making del Mazo's strategy a good one, but questioned how such a program would be funded.

Jesus Antonio Cruz Martinez, a 20-year-old student from the community of San Miguel Xaltocan, attended del Mazo's rally because his sister likes the candidate, but he left unimpressed.

"I feel like there has to be a change," he said. "We've already been governed (by PRI) for almost 90 years."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un celebrates successful missile launches with the same three top aides and now the West knows their names.

They are Ri Pyong Chol, a former top air force general; Kim Jong Sik, a veteran rocket scientist; and Jang Chang Ha, the head of a weapons development and procurement center, Reuters reported Friday in an exclusive dispatch.

"Rather than going through bureaucrats, Kim Jong Un is keeping these technocrats right by his side, so that he can contact them directly and urge them to move fast. It reflects his urgency about missile development," Chan-il Ahn, a former North Korean military officer who has defected to the South and runs a think tank in Seoul, told Reuters.

Kim favors these three men over other senior aides, Reuters reports. Photographs and TV footage have captured Kim and the men exchanging smiles and hugs and puffing on cigarettes together after missile launches that dont fail.

The three are of great interest to Western security and intelligence agencies since they are the top people in the secretive countrys rapidly accelerating missile program, according to Reuters.

"Kim Jong Un is raising a new generation of people separate from his father's key aides," a South Korean official with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Kim Jong Il died in late 2011 leaving the younger Kim in charge.

Ri is the most prominent.

CHINA TIGHTENED BORDER CONTROLS WITH NORTH KOREA, AMERICAN DIPLOMAT SAYS

He is now deputy director of the Workers' Party Munitions Industry Department, which oversees the development of North Korea's ballistic missile program, according to the South Korean government and U.S. Treasury, the news agency reported.

Kim Jong Sik, the rocket scientist, started his career as a civilian aeronautics technician, but now wears the uniform of a military general at the Munitions Industry Department, Reuters reported, citing experts and the South Korean government.

Jang Chang Ha is the mystery man of the three, according to the news service.

CHINA PROTESTS U.S. NAVY PATROL THROUGH SOUTH CHINA SEA

He is president of the Academy of the National Defence Science, previously called the Second Academy of Natural Sciences, according to the report.

The academy runs North Korea's advanced weapons systems research and development, "including missiles and probably nuclear weapons", the U.S. Treasury said in 2010 in its decision to blacklist the group.

"These are the men bringing North Korea's missile program into the 21st Century," said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership, told Reuters.
Estonia has informed Russia that two of its diplomats in the country will be expelled, the Baltic country's foreign ministry said Friday.

Estonian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sandra Kamilova told The Associated Press that the Russian Embassy in Tallinn had been informed of the decision, but the ministry declined to provide further details. It wasn't clear when the diplomats would be deported.

A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry called the move "provocative and baseless" and "of course, it will not remain without appropriate response," suggesting that Russian would expel two Estonians.

News agency Baltic News Service reported that the diplomats were Russian Consul General Dmitry Kazennov and consul Andrey Surgaev, both in Narva, Estonia's third-largest city, which sits on the border with Russia.

Estonia's relations with Russia have remained uneasy since the former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991. Estonia has caught several spies working for Moscow, mostly Estonian citizens but also Russians.

"The openly hostile action taken by the Estonian authorities (Friday) will certainly further complicate bilateral relations already basically deadlocked by Tallinn," the Russian Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.

The Estonian Internal Security Service, or security police, told local media outlets that it was aware of Friday's case, but wouldn't comment further. It has repeatedly said Russia's intelligence services have strong interest in the Baltic NATO member - a former Soviet republic.

Ties also have been uneasy because of Moscow's support for separatist rebels fighting in Ukraine, and Russia's annexation of Crimea.
GNC Live Well Foundation Donates to Pittsburgh's Midtown Towers Fire Victims

PITTSBURGH - May 25, 2017 // PRNewswire // - GNC's Live Well Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation dedicated to improving lives in our communities, today announced a $5,000 donation to the American Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania for the victims of the fire last week in downtown Pittsburgh's Midtown Towers.

The American Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania serves nearly 1.5 million people in Allegheny, Greene and Washington counties.

"The Live Well Foundation is dedicated to helping those in the communities where we live and work," said Bob Moran, interim CEO of GNC. "We are proud to contribute assistance to the local Red Cross, furthering the impactful work that they do every day."

GNC's Live Well Foundation, established in 2004, is committed to providing nutrition education and assistance to the communities in which its employees and customers live and work. Through the charitable efforts of the Foundation, GNC employees, customers and vendors are committed to improving the health of others by funding programs for education, research and access to nutrition.

"The American Red Cross is fortunate to have many generous community partners, like GNC, who enable us to assist individuals who have been impacted by emergency situations such as what occurred last week at Midtown Towers," commented Patricia Waldinger, American Red Cross Western Pennsylvania Region CEO. "We are extremely grateful for their support."

About GNC's Live Well Foundation

GNC's Live Well Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation dedicated to making access to nutrition, supplementation and wellness education available to all, with a focus on women and children throughout the U.S. The Live Well Foundation partners with programs that support these causes. The Foundation also supports relief efforts in response to natural disasters or emergencies.

About the American Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania

The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. All American Red Cross disaster assistance is provided free of charge and is made possible by the voluntary donations of time and money from caring individuals and, in part, by contributions given through the United Way.

About GNC

GNC Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GNC) - Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA - is a leading global specialty health, wellness and performance retailer.

GNC connects customers to their best selves by offering a premium assortment of heath, wellness and performance products, including protein, performance supplements, weight management supplements, vitamins, herbs and greens, wellness supplements, health and beauty, food and drink and other general merchandise. This assortment features proprietary GNC and nationally recognized third-party brands.

GNC's diversified, multi-channel business model generates revenue from product sales through company-owned retail stores, domestic and international franchise activities, third-party contract manufacturing, e-commerce and corporate partnerships. As of March 31, 2017, GNC had approximately 9,000 locations, of which more than 6,800 retail locations are in the United States (including 2,371 Rite Aid franchise store-within-a-store locations) and franchise operations in approximately 50 countries.

Media Contact:

Laura Brophy

Direct: 212-537-5177, Ext 2

Cell: 203-331-7618

lbrophy@marketcompr.com

SOURCE GNC Holdings, Inc

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1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES (PG-13)

2 STARS

While the most dedicated fans of this series may find closure and things to like in this last outing, less invested moviegoers will wonder why they bothered.

Johnny Depps Captain Jack Sparrow has become a sad caricature of the character he originally created, and the other main characters in this final episode are either newly introduced or worn thin around the edges.

The action scenes are occasionally fun, but most of what happens seems more just to fill up time on screen than integral to the convoluted storyline.

Its as if the screenwriters just grabbed a handful of pirate- or sea-related objectsa trident, a compass, an island and a handful of mealy looking ghostsand made a plot that jumps from one to the next.

Early on, its all running and chasing from Depp and two new charactersHenry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario).

The actors playing the good-looking pair acquit themselves well enough, but this son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and this well-educated young woman seeking a special treasure feel like the last-minute add-ons they actually are. Theyre less invested in the series so moviegoers are less invested in them.

Back are Javier Bardem as the ghostly, half-disintegrated Captain Salazar and Geoffrey Rush as Captain Hector Barbossa, the two seamen both with Sparrow in their crosshairs.

The pair of captains played by Oscar winning actors are too trapped by their silly characters to really shine here. Bardem cant really escape his bizarre, half-decayed look on screen and Rush never really gets much to say other than cryptic phrases about saving his skin and chasing Sparrow.

The on-again, off-again chase they give Sparrow and his two young friends gets old fairly quickly, but takes the entire movie to complete.

Yes, there are action scenes that feel inspired, like the one where a ship straddles the edge of a magically appearing trough in the sea.

But there are also moments that are just silly, like the opening scene where Sparrows crew drags a whole building through the streets of a tropical island to steal a massive safe.

And while the ever-drunk-sounding Sparrow gets off a few good one-liners, humor is in relatively short supply, with only Scodelario showing some comic flair with quips now and then.

The trotting out of Bloom and Keira Knightley for what are essentially cameos at the films end may draw cheers from Pirates-lovers in the audience, but it feels like the cheap sentimental stab that it is.

All in all, the film isnt terrible, but its not especially good nor does it really add anything to the series.

It truly does feel like one big, excessive last money grab to wring every last cent possible out of what was once a much-loved film series.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure violence, and some suggestive content. 129 min. Playing locally at Marquee Southpoint 9 and Paragon Village 12.
The engaged Orange County couple charged in the death of a 4-year-old who shot himself at a home daycare was released from jail Friday after posting bail.

Circuit Judge Daniel Bouton set a secured bond oft $5,000 each for defendants Nicholas Joseph Stoia, 25, and his fiancee, Heather Christine Massey, 27, at a morning hearing. They were released from the Central Virginia Regional Jail later in the day.

Massey was babysitting Cole James Clark at the home she shares with Stoia in the Mine Run area on May 15 when the child fatally shot himself with a loaded gun owned by Stoia, according to court records. An investigation led to felony child neglect charges against both Stoia and Massey.

Arraignment in the case for both defendants was set for July 7. Neither has a previous criminal record, according to court records.

Stoia is a Stafford County sheriffs recruit in training at the Rappahannock Criminal Justice Academy, but the gun involved in the shooting was not his service weapon and he was not at home at the time, authorities said. He was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, the Sheriffs Office said.

He and his fiancee were also charged with four misdemeanor counts of reckless handling/leaving a loaded firearm endangering a child related to other children in the home daycare at the time, according to the Orange Sheriffs Office.

Stoia, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, appeared first in court Friday with his attorney, Ghislaine M. Storr Burks of Spotsylvania County. Under the terms of his bail, Stoia can have no contact with the 4-year-olds family and must comply with a safety plan put in place by the Orange County Department of Social Services. DSS representatives were in court Friday to administer the plan.

Stoia was granted permission to travel to New York, where his family lives, but he must give advance notice to authorities. He can also go to North Carolina to visit the two children of his fiancee, who were living with them at the time of the shooting death, according to testimony.

Masseys two children were placed with a family member in North Carolina following the incident. She will be permitted to go and live with them.

Massey appeared in court Friday with her attorney Amy Harper. The terms of her bond also prohibit her from any contact with the boys family.

Shes also required to follow the safety plan of DSS because thats where her children are, said Orange County Commonwealths Attorney Diana OConnell.

The prosecutor also ordered that Massey receive a mental health evaluation and comply with any recommendations, including taking prescribed medication and/or receiving counseling.

Massey indicated in court Friday that she was previously in therapy. She faces additional felony child neglect charges related to other children in her custody on May 15.

Stoia and Massey have no local family ties, according to testimony, and had moved in November to the home on Cecilia Lane. Before that, Stoia lived in Spotsylvania County and Massey in North Carolina, according to court records.

Earlier this week, the commonwealths attorney filed a motion seeking access to all records related to Stoias training and instruction in the handling, storage and use of firearms. The record are necessary, OConnell wrote, to show Stoias understanding and training with regard to the danger loaded firearms pose when improperly stored in an area accessible to minor children.

His attorney declined comment after Fridays hearing.

The commonwealth has also filed a motion seeking access to all records pertaining to the 911 call made by Massey on May 15 from her home. The subpoena requests records showing the physical condition, location and surroundings of the child upon first response by EMS as well as the locality, handling and condition of the firearm used in the fatal shooting, according to court records.

Cole James Clark died five days after his fourth birthday. He is survived by his parents, Joshua and Kyrin Falcetti, and siblings, Caydance Clark and Adaline Falcetti, according to his obituary.

His smile would light up any darkened room. Everyone who met Cole fell in love and they could never get enough of his love. He showered everyone with hugs and kisses and would tell everyone all about his toys, movies and his favorite monkey he slept with every night, his obituary read.

Four children younger than 12 died in Virginia between 2014 and 2016 after accidentally shooting themselves or being mistakenly shot and killed by another child, according to an investigation published this week by USA Today Network and The Associated Press. Virginia law prohibits anyone from recklessly leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm in a manner that endangers the safety of any child younger than 14, the report said.
RICHMONDOutgoing Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, poked fun at his colleagues and himself Thursday during the annual fundraising luncheon for the Virginia Public Access Project.

VPAP is marking its 20th year as a nonpartisan tracker of money in state politics. The luncheon, which drew 430 people to the Richmond Marriott, raised $207,000a quarter of the organization's annual budget.

"I'm excited to say VPAP will not be hounding me much longer," Howell said, an apparent reference to his much-lampooned failed bill to help landowners keep hunting dogs from straying onto their property.

Howell, a member of the House since 1988 and speaker since 2003, said he was happy to be at an event where "everybody eats, a few people talk too much, nothing really gets done." Turning to Susan Clarke Schaar, clerk of the Virginia Senate, Howell said: "In the House, we call that the Senate floor session."

Howell, who will leave the General Assembly in January, joked that he recently spoke to someone who "kept going on and on" about how Howell is "old news" and that Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, the speaker-designate, is the future of the state GOP.

"After listening to that for about 20 minutes, I finally said, 'Kirk, just give it a rest,' " Howell said.

Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton and Del. S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, preceded Howell, offering their own share of one-liners.

Locke said many in the audience might have been surprised that she was to be one of the speakers, thinking that she doesn't have a sense of humor.
Twenty-three Caroline County residents were killed in action during World War I and 28 were killed in World War II.

In a community with less than 12,000 residents at that time, Caroline County ranks high in percentages of those lost, said Kathy Beard, tourism manager for the county.

For the next two years, Virginia will commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I and the 75th anniversary of World War II with events and exhibits throughout the state.

The General Assembly created the Virginia World War I and World War II Commission, calling on communities throughout the state to plan programs and activities observing those anniversaries.

Caroline is answering that call by creating an exhibit, titled Caroline County Remembers, in honor of the service members the county lost in the conflicts.

Were committed to this program and many Caroline County families have brought to the local museums actual artifacts of their World War I and II veterans, Beard said.

The free exhibit will debut on Saturday at four locations in the countythe American History Museum in Port Royal, the Caroline Museum, the Sidney E. King Arts Center and the Kilwinning Masonic Lodge in Bowling Green.

The objects will be on display all weekend through Memorial Day and then on Saturdays through the summer.

Beard said there have been hundreds of donations to the exhibit. They range from the comic to the shocking to the heart-wrenching.

Weve got a whole coconut that was mailed home to Caroline in World War II, she said. There are stamps and an address and the post office actually delivered it.

Theres a World War II shaving kit complete with brush and razors, a World War I uniform and gas mask and a World War I German helmet all shot to hell, Beard said.

Among the many stories of those lost is that of Lilbon Satterwhite, who was killed at the age of 19 on Nov. 10, 1918one day before the armistice ending the hostilities of World War I was signed.

At a ceremony in April, Satterwhites great-great-great niece and nephew received a medal for their ancestor from the state and U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R1st District.

Let me tell you, there was not a dry eye in the place, Beard said.

Visitors can see photos of all of the countys World War I and II veterans at the Caroline Historical Societys exhibit in the Sidney E. King Arts Center.

The county will continue to accept World War I and II memorabilia from Caroline residents, Beard said.

As these folks came back, people packed these things away and this is the first time the county has put out a call for people to bring it them in, she said. Weve been overwhelmed and continue to receive things.

On Memorial Day Monday, the county will host a Tribute to Carolines Fighting Men and Women, at 10 a.m., with an appearance by state Del. Bobby Orrock, RCaroline.
Memorial Day weekend is usually a busy time for the Virginia Outdoor Center, a Fredericksburg business providing canoe, kayak, tube and stand-up paddleboard trips down the Rappahannock River.

But this year the river level is so high that co-owner Bill Micks called the leaders of about 25 scheduled trips on Thursday to say that the center would be closed, possibly through Monday.

Its been so long since this watershed had so much water on it, he said. All the gauges on the upper Rappahannock have black dots, which is near flood stage. When you have that much water in the watershed, you know its going to be high for a while.

Micks said that the three telltale signs that the Rappahannock isnt safe for recreational use were clearly visible when he rechecked it Friday. The rivers banks were full, the water was muddy and debris including large trees was swiftly heading downstream.

Im just worried that if we have a sunny day, there will be some people that wont look at gauges and will get on the river and get in trouble, he said. I hope that wont happen.

Micks said that what scares him the most is that people who enjoy riding down the river on an inner tube might look at the fast-flowing waters and think theyd get a thrilling ride.

It can be deadly at these levels, he said.

In Stafford County, River Road, which parallels the Rappahannock, was closed Thursday and during rush hour Friday morning due to high water. Aquia Landing, one of the countys waterfront parks, also was closed Friday.

County spokeswoman Shannon Howell said that staff will monitor the river and send out alerts through its voice and text notification system when Aquia Landing reopens or if there are more closures.

The Rappahannock was forecast to crest Friday at 10.7 feet, which is about two feet shy of flood level. But thats also nearly a foot past the level at which City Dock in downtown Fredericksburg is closed, according to information on the National Weather Service website.

Theyre still the feeder streams, which are still very, very high, Micks said. That can make the river go up even higher than it is now.

And then theres the threat of more rain this weekend. Showers and thunderstorms are in Saturdays forecast, Sunday looks to be cloudy with showers, and theres a chance of more showers on Monday.

With additional rain, you do risk water levels rising unexpectedly or more debris in the river, said Kelsey Bracewell, who manages the American Canoe Associations Department of Safety, Education, Instruction & Outreach.

The Rappahannock and its tributary, the Rapidan River, can be deceptively dangerous to the unwary in even the best of times. Nearly 90 people have drowned in the Rappahannock alone since 1972.

Accidents typically happen because someone didnt know how to swim, was intoxicated and wasnt wearing a life jacket. Even equipment designed for recreational use can cause an injury if it isnt handled property, and fishermen can get trapped if water fills their waders, said Bracewell.

When water levels are as high as they are now, anyone who ventured out in a canoe or kayak and fell off might be swept miles downstream before they were able to reach shore, she said. They could also be injured by any debris collecting around bridge piers.

With additional rain, you do risk water levels rising unexpectedly and more debris in the river, said Bracewell. Thunderstorms and other weather events could send you into a misadventure of sorts if youre not prepared.

People can check how high a river is and how fast its running by searching the United States Geological Surveys National Water Information System website, waterdata.usgs.gov, or the VOCs website, playva.com. Locally, people can also check color-coded gauges at Remington, Eleys Ford, Hunters Island and Motts Landing.

The gauges act like stoplights. When the green section of the gauge is visible, its safe to be on the river. Its illegal to enter it without a life jacket when the gauge at the Falmouth Bridge is in the yellow zone, and illegal to enter it at all when its in the red zonemeaning rescue is especially difficult, if not impossible.

Violators pay all rescue costs, according to River Safety on the Rappahannock, a Friends of the Rappahannock brochure.

Bracewell said that people need to use good judgment on what level of water theyre able to handle, and should always wear a life jacket.

You never know when youre going to end up in a tough spot and are out of your craft unexpectedly, she said.
The scale of the opioid epidemic is such that you could stop at a store to get gas and find someone suffering an overdose in the bathroom.

Thats where its happening in this area, said Michelle Wagaman, prevention services coordinator for the Rappahannock Area Community Service Board. Wawa, Sheetz and Walmart bathrooms.

RACSB would like to equip all citizens with the knowledge and tools to save lives in that situation. It is now offering training on the administration of naloxone, a medication that can reverse an overdose from heroin or prescription painkillers.

The first training session, known as REVIVE!, was offered May 17. A second session will be held Wednesday on the Mary Washington Hospital campus.

In November 2016, Virginia Health Commissioner Marissa Levine declared opioid addiction a public health emergency, due to the growing number of deaths from prescription opioid overdoses, which now kill more Virginians than car crashes. As a response, Levine issued a standing order for naloxone.

Anyone can go to the pharmacy and request it, Wagaman said. You dont need a prescription written out to you by your doctor.

An opioid overdose occurs when the drug overwhelms certain receptors in the brain, which eventually causes the user to stop breathing. Naloxone works by binding to these same receptors and knocking the opioid off, allowing the person to breathe again.

Our brains like it better than the opioid, Wagaman said.

Other than this specific action, naloxone has no effect on the body and no potential for abuse. It can even be administered accidentally with no danger.

The same dose is given to anyone, regardless of age or weight.

So it can be given to a child who accidentally ingests something at home, Wagaman said.

She also recommended that those using opioids or heroin have naloxone on hand.

The Virginia Department of Health is providing free naloxone to those who attend the May training sessions.

At Wegmans pharmacy, a 2 milliliter syringe of naloxonewhich is administered as a nasal sprayis $32 with the stores discount card. The nasal atomizer is purchased separately and costs $15.20 for a pack of two.

The pharmacy also carries Narcana brand name for naloxoneas a nasal spray for $130.80 with the discount card.

Naloxone comes in a third form, as an auto-injection called EVZIO. It is the easiest way to give the medicine, but the most expensive, costing from $2,000 to $4,000, Wagaman said.

Wagaman and Sherry NortonWilliams, Rappahannock Area Kids on the Block coordinator, led last weeks training session.

They started by dispelling some of the myths surrounding naloxone, such as that its a safety net that allows individuals with opioid use disorder to continue using without the danger.

Naloxone will put the person into immediate withdrawal, which is very unpleasant, Wagaman said. When we were trained on it, we were told to get out of the way when the person wakes up. Theyre not going to thank you for saving their lives right away.

Attendees learned about Virginia state laws governing the REVIVE! program and allowing for the safe reporting of overdoses.

If youre in a group using and you administer naloxone to someone in an overdose emergency, you can still be charged, but you can use this in your defense, Wagaman said. You have to seek medical help, remain on the scene and identify yourself to law enforcement when they arrive.

Participants learned what happens in an opioid overdose emergency and how to determine whether someone is high or has overdosed. The main difference is that someone who has overdosed will be unresponsive to any stimuli.

The severity of the opioid epidemic is such that the day before the training, RACSB received notice from the state health department that the order of steps for responding to an overdose had changed. Previously, lay rescuers were told to call 911 before administering naloxone. That order has now been reversed.

The drugs people are using now are so strong that you might have to give two, four or six doses of naloxone before it works, Wagaman said.

A mix of concerned community members and medical or social services professionals attended Wednesdays training.

Brandie Williams, coordinator of the RACSB Parent EducationInfant Development program, said she wanted to come to support her work, but also to get a conversation about naloxone and lay rescuer training started in rural Caroline County, where she lives.

I think that in a rural community, residents are more apt to trust something if someone they know has tried it, she said. I wanted to go through the training so I could talk it up and get more people involved.

Carolyn Hill, a student in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy and intern in the Wegmans pharmacy, said she came to learn about the products shell be dispensing.

Others were just looking for a way to help.

Substance use is such a big problem, said Vicki Packwood of Stafford County. This way I can help, do my little bit.

Sheila Winslow, also of Stafford, agreed.

I dont want to miss an opportunity to save someones life, she said.
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Scotland and Northern Ireland (NI) have both achieved the safest status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) as recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

The new negligible risk status secures the reputation of the beef as being of the highest standards, and will be key to accessing important new markets for Scottish and NI exports in the wake of Brexit.

See also: Northern Ireland applies for BSE risk to be downgraded

Scotland has had no cases of BSE since 2009, and NI since 2012. England and Wales continue to have controlled risk BSE status.

Trade potential

Both Scottish and NI officials said the achievement is testament to the tireless efforts of beef producers and finishers, red meat businesses, vets and government officials in maintaining safeguards to protect public and animal health.

The NI government said the low-risk status will help improve the global image of the country.

Ulster Farmers Union deputy president Victor Chestnutt said: It should help us gain access to key target markets, such as China, the US, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

Beef exporters believe securing access to these markets could put an extra 12m/year into the supply chain.

In countries we already trade in, it opens up the possibility of amending access agreements. This could boost trade in offal, again adding value to the local supply chain, he said.

Processing costs

Farmers will also now have the opportunity to reduce processing charges, as less specified risk material (SRM) will need to be disposed of, leading to savings of up to 1.2m/year.

Mr Chestnutt added that the reduction in the amount of carcasses that must be sent for destruction will also help reduce the carbon footprint of the beef sector.

Scottish rural secretary Fergus Ewing said: With Scotland already recognised as officially TB free, this decision further vindicates our reputation for supplying beef products of the highest quality, produced to the highest standards in the world. It also demonstrates the OIEs acceptance that both our surveillance for, and measures against, BSE are stringent.

Frank Clark, president of the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers (SAMW), said: Todays decision frees our industry to make full commercial use of Scotlands high health status on behalf of producers, processors and wholesalers, opening the door to fresh marketing opportunities around the world.
Story Highlights More than three in four view each branch favorably

For each branch, a majority have a strongly favorable opinion

Republicans, whites, older adults have most favorable opinions

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Heading into Memorial Day, the five branches of the U.S. military earn high marks from the public they defend and protect. Strong majorities of Americans who are familiar with the branches give them similar, high favorable ratings.

Americans Like the Military -- All Five Branches On a scale from one to five, where five means you have a very favorable opinion and one means you have a very unfavorable opinion, how would you rate your opinion of the [Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard]? Army Navy Air Force Marines Coast Guard % % % % % Very favorable 53 55 57 59 54 Somewhat favorable 24 23 24 19 22 Neither favorable nor unfavorable 17 15 14 16 16 Somewhat unfavorable 4 4 3 3 4 Very unfavorable 3 2 2 2 2 Answers based on those who say they know "a lot," "some" or "a little" about the branch GALLUP, April 24-May 2

Whether expressing their opinions about the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard, more than three in four of those Americans who know something about the branches have overall favorable views, and more than half have a strongly favorable opinion. Those views are consistent with Americans' high ratings of the military in general. In Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions poll, the military has topped the list every year since 1998, with at least 72% expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the military in the past eight years.

Republicans, Whites, Older Americans View Branches More Favorably

Differences emerge, however, by political party, race and age. Republicans, non-Hispanic whites and those aged 55 and older who are aware of each branch are much more likely to have strongly favorable views of each of the five branches than are Democrats, nonwhites or those younger than 35.

Very Favorable Opinions Vary Among Subgroups Percentage who have a very favorable opinion of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard Army Navy Air Force Marines Coast Guard % % % % % All adults 53 55 57 59 54 Democrats + leaners 38 39 42 45 46 Republicans + leaners 70 74 74 76 65 Non-Hispanic whites 56 60 57 62 58 Nonwhites, including Hispanics 45 43 55 52 43 18 to 34 37 41 43 44 38 35 to 54 54 53 57 61 62 55 and older 63 66 65 69 58 Answers based on those who say they know "a lot," "some" or "a little" about the branch GALLUP, April 24-May 2

The biggest gaps in favorable opinion are between Republicans and Democrats (including those who lean to either party). The largest is a 35-percentage-point difference in views toward the Navy, with 74% of Republicans versus 39% of Democrats having strongly favorable views.

Air Force Now Seen as Most Important Branch

Americans familiar with the individual branches of the military are about as likely to think favorably of one branch as another, but in a separate question, Americans in general distinguish among the branches when considering their importance to national defense. The largest percentage (27%) say the Air Force is the most important branch, while about one in five name the Army (21%), Navy and Marines (20% each). Just 4% consider the Coast Guard the most important branch to national defense.

An earlier version of the question showed the largest share of Americans naming the Air Force as most important in May 2001, four months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and in April 2002, after the onset of the Afghanistan War. But once the Iraq War began in 2003, with the large-scale invasion by Army ground troops, the largest percentage of Americans picked the Army in 2004, 2011 and 2014.

Bottom Line

This Memorial Day, Americans will once again have the opportunity to honor those who fought and died in service of their country. It comes at a time when the percentage of Americans who are military veterans continues to shrink, even as the nation moves through the 15th year of the Afghanistan War -- the longest war in U.S. history.

But neither the dwindling percentage of Americans having served in the military nor shrinking support for the Afghanistan War has caused the public to lose confidence in the military. Nor have they caused Americans to turn against any of the five branches that provide for the nation's defense.

Among some population subgroups -- Democrats, those under 35, nonwhites -- less than a majority have strongly favorable views of the different branches. Even among those groups, however, clear majorities have either a somewhat favorable or a strongly favorable view of every branch.

The lack of major differences in favorable opinions from one branch to another does not necessarily mean that the public makes no distinctions among them. Americans have no problem drawing those distinctions when considering which branch is most important or which is most prestigious. But, at least for now, they find little reason in most cases to differentiate in their favorable -- or unfavorable -- opinions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.
April 24, 1931  May 18, 2017

The Lord took Beverly (Bev) home to be with Him, peacefully on May 18, 2017, at the age of 86, following a brief battle with cancer.

She was born on April 24, 1931 in Lebanon, the third child of Vern & Opal Strickler. Her siblings are Laverne Steagall (deceased), Dallas Strickler (deceased) & Shirley Girod.

Bev lived in Oregon her entire life. As a girl, she attended Lebanon First Assembly of God with her family and enjoyed singing and playing musical instruments with her siblings, both in and out of the church.

She married Henry (Hank) Gerig Jr. on Dec. 16, 1950, and they had three boys in their first four years of marriage. Beverly and her family moved to Florence in 1955 so Hank could go to work for Western Lane Furniture, as assistant manager. Bev gave birth to a daughter and son while in Florence, and was a devoted mother and homemaker over the 17 years she lived there. She loved the ocean, the sand dunes and the outdoors - and lived on three different lakes. Bev enjoyed singing, playing the piano, telling stories to her kids and having her family visit.

Bev, Hank and their three youngest kids moved back to Lebanon in 1972 to be closer to their extended family. After raising her kids, she served as a caretaker at the Willamette Manor Assisted Living facility, where Hank was the Maintenance Foreman. Many of Bev's children and grandchildren lived close by and she enjoyed their visits, camping & hunting together, videography and providing daycare services for her two youngest grandkids. Bev also liked music, reading, watching TV (she was a "night owl"), making jewelry and collecting glassware. She especially loved being a grandma, it brought her much joy and laughter.

Bev occasionally attended church at First Assembly of God in Lebanon and Albany, along with her family. Three of her sons, and her son-in-law, either serve or served as ministers, following in the footsteps of her father-in-law. She recommitted her life to Christ later in life and was very proud and supportive of her family serving in vocational ministry.

She was diagnosed with stage-one dementia one year ago and lived in the Clare Bridge Memory Care facility in Albany for the last year. Prior to that, her son, Shawn, lived with and provided practical assistance and care for her and Hank in Lebanon for nearly 15 years.

Beverly is survived by her five children, Carey (Beverly) of Albany, David (Diane) of Pasco, Washington, Robie (Corrine) of Albany, Lindy Hodges (Chris) of Portland, Shawn (Jennifer) of Lebanon; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandkids.

She is predeceased by her husband, Hank, in March of 2012.

Bev will be greatly missed by her kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, the rest of her family, and friends.

A celebration of life memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 4, at 2 p.m. at Teen Challenge Center in Shedd.

Huston-Jost Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Oregon State Credit Union has scheduled its 2017 Benton County free document shred day for Saturday, June 10, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of the credit unions Operations Center at 4800 SW Research Way in Corvallis.

The event will include support and presence from the Corvallis Police Department and its community education effort toward combating identity theft as well as an option to donate canned or other nonperishable food items to Linn Benton Food Share.

Anyone can bring documents such as old checks or outdated materials with personal information. Documents will be securely shredded onsite for free through 1 p.m. or until the shred trucks are full.

This credit union event is the second of three community shred events. The April 22 event in Albany drew a record 566 vehicles to the Linn County Fairgrounds where more than 19,940 pounds of materials were shredded. The 2017 schedule will conclude July 29 in Keizer with the event also benefiting Marion-Polk Food Share.

The success of these events is not only personal security, but also a sustainable practice. The results of the record-setting Albany event saved more than 170 trees, 70,000 gallons of water, 790 gallons of oil, and 33 cubic yards of landfill. It also prevented more than 1,200 pounds of pollutants from entering the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
On Oct. 25, 2007, Joshua Brennan, an Army sergeant from Eastern Oregon, was badly wounded during a firefight in Afghanistan.

His good friend, Specialist Salvatore Giunta, led a heroic recovery effort that brought Brennan to safety, but Brennan died the next day while in surgery.

In 2010 Giunta was awarded the Medal of Honor, the militarys highest decoration for valor. Giunta became the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.

Brennan was honored as well. Memorabilia of his service is displayed at Joshua Bennan Memorial Hall, which opened in November, 2010 in Nyssa. In addition, a police dog was named in his honor by the force in McFarland, Wisconsin, where his father serves as an officer.

Joshua Brennans mother, Janice Page, now lives in Philomath after retiring from the Malheur County Sheriffs Office, and is holding an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday to exhibit her memorabilia from Brennans military career.

Between his dad and me, our homes have quite the collections, Page said, and Joshuas legacy is unknown by many on this side of the state as I lived in Eastern Oregon when he was killed.

Brennans memorabilia will be on display at 401 N. 12th St, and Page said refreshments will be served.
This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise.

Corvallis Police Department

TUESDAY, MAY 23

DUII: 12 p.m., 300 block of Southwest Second Street. A police officer responded to the U.S. Post Office for a report of a possibly intoxicated delivery driver. The officer arrested Gary Wines, 61, for driving under the influence of intoxicants and took him to the Law Enforcement Center, where a Breathalyzer test indicated he had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10 percent. Wines was booked into the Benton County Jail and later released.

WARRANT ARREST: 8:26 p.m., 600 block of Northwest Walnut Boulevard. A police officer went to the residence of Jamie Gee, 36, and arrested her on a Benton County warrant for fraudulent use of a credit card and identity theft. The officer took Gee to the Benton County Jail, where she was booked and later released.

TELEPHONIC HARASSMENT: 9:55 p.m., 400 block of Southeast Alexander Avenue. A 12-year-old boy reported he was receiving harassing and threatening text messages from classmates. The police officer said he would have the school resource officer contact the kids allegedly sending the messages.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24

HARASSMENT: 12 p.m., 2000 block of Southeast Bethel Street. A police officer spoke on the phone with a woman who reported that on May 19 she was walking her dog on Southeast Bethel Street toward Lily Avenue when a man approached her to pet her dog. The man, whom she did not know, started asking her personal questions. When the woman said she was leaving, the man hugged her and tried to kiss her. The woman left the area. The suspect has not been identified or apprehended.
Time for a survey

To the Editor: Its time for a St. Paul survey One of the mistakes of the past with respect to deciding on the future of St. Pauls is that previous...

Election for St. Pauls

To the Editor: Perhaps someday there will be an election where some folks decide about St.Pauls. If the election is conducted in the most popular way, the outcome might not...

Proposal on the ballot

To the Editor: On the bottom of your ballot you will be asked to vote yes or no on creating a state bond which will amount to $4.2 billion. Subject coverage should be...

Botched RFP process

To the Editor: During the last several weeks, village officials sent out RFPs (requests for proposals) seeking candidate firms to provide them with comparative analysis and cost estimates -- ...
By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman

This Saturday, Santa Anita will host a fantastic nine-race card that includes four graded stakes races and a couple of very competitive maiden special weights. The day's feature is the $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita (gr. I), a ten-furlong race that has drawn a strong field of nine evenly-matched horses.

The morning line favorite at 5-2 is Midnight Storm, a Grade 1-winning turf miler that has proven to be just as effective racing on dirt this winter. The son of Pioneerof the Nile won the Native Diver Stakes (gr. III) and San Pasqual Stakes (gr. II) in gate-to-wire fashion over wet tracks, then stretched out to ten furlongs and was beaten just three-quarters of a length by the talented Shaman Ghost in the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I).

Midnight Storm figures to be dangerous on the lead, though his most recent run in the nine-furlong Oaklawn Handicap (gr. II) yielded a more disappointing result as he tired to finish third, beaten 2  lengths. Now he stretches back out in distance to ten furlongs and faces a few other horses with early speed; considering that ten furlongs is probably a bit beyond Midnight Storm's best distance, I'll lean against him here and try to beat him with a horse offering better odds.

In my opinion, the horse to beat might be American Freedom. Trained by Bob Baffert, American Freedom won the Iowa Derby (gr. III) last year during a campaign that also saw him finish second in the Haskell Invitational (gr. I) and Travers Stakes (gr. I). The latter race was held at ten furlongs, and while American Freedom's 13 -length margin of defeat might suggest that the distance is a little far for him, it's important to remember that the winner was Arrogate, who shattered a 37-year-old track record while earning a 122 Beyer speed figure. American Freedom-even in defeat-earned a 104 Beyer while finishing ahead of future Grade 1 winners Gun Runner and Connect.

American Freedom went to the sidelines after the Travers, but trained impressively for his return in the May 5th Alysheba Stakes (gr. II) at Churchill Downs, where he was sent off as the favorite at 3-2. At first glance, his fourth-place finish looks disappointing, but American Freedom raced wide on a day when the track was clearly favoring horses that raced on the rail, including the three horses that beat him in the Alysheba. According to data from Trakus, the ground loss alone was enough to account for American Freedom's defeat, even if you overlook how the track was playing.

The fact that Baffert is running American Freedom back in a Grade 1 race just three weeks after the Alysheba is a sign of confidence, as is the fact that American Freedom was supplemented to the race at a cost of $10,000. He'll also be adding blinkers, which he wore for the first five starts of his career (including the Iowa Derby and Haskell); according to statistics from DRF Formulator, Baffert is 7-for-17 when adding blinkers in graded stakes races over the last five years, a 41% win rate with a $5.00 ROI.

The only concern is that drawing the rail doesn't offer American Freedom many options for working out an ideal trip, but he's got a couple of closers drawn to his outside, which will hopefully allow jockey Martin Garcia to guide American Freedom to the outside if Midnight Storm is intent on getting the early lead. In any case, I believe American Freedom is poised to show significant improvement in his second start off the layoff, and I'll be surprised if he doesn't give a good account of himself. At 4-1 on the morning line, I think he's the best play.

I also respect the chances of Follow Me Crev, who could be a major threat from behind if the pace gets hot. The son of Quality Road won an allowance race in February (his first start in six months), then ran third in the Santa Anita Handicap and second in the Californian Stakes (gr. II) while attempting to rally into modest early fractions each time; in addition, he suffered a wide trip in the Californian and reportedly missed some training time after the Santa Anita Handicap, so there are reasons to think he can step up with a bigger effort in the Gold Cup.

Hard Aces won this race in 2015 and is another that could challenge from off the pace, but at this stage in his career, he seems to be at his best going twelve furlongs and longer-in fact, his two wins since the 2015 Gold Cup were at twelve furlongs. The same goes for Big John B, whose form on dirt is excellent, albeit at twelve furlongs. Accelerate would be a major player off his recent efforts, including a third-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I) and a second in the San Pasqual (beaten just 1  lengths by Midnight Storm), but he may scratch from the Gold Cup to await a different race. Cupid showed flashes of talent last year while winning three graded stakes races against three-year-olds, but he hasn't run since September and missed the Californian Stakes after suffering a slight injury before the race. Rounding out the field are Texas Ryano and Prime Attraction, and while each has their merits, their biggest wins have come on turf and the Gold Cup will likely prove a big challenge.

Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita?

*****

J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, blogger, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. He is the founder of the horse racing website www.theturfboard.com.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
Article

Protecting the worlds oceans  an important goal of Germanys climate diplomacy

The worlds oceans are vital to our survival. They regulate the global climate and are a source of food and income for billions of people. Only a very small part of the seas enjoys legal protection, however. Our diplomats are working in New York right now to change this state of affairs.
State Rep. Greg Rothman (R-87) says he is not sure how any reform bills making the rounds in Harrisburg could completely remove the politics of gerrymandering from the drawing of future legislative and congressional districts.

Rothman was responding to questions Thursday from constituents gathered at a town hall meeting at the Good Hope Fire Company in Hampden Township.

Township resident Ron Skubecz asked Rothman what his thoughts were on two proposed bills that would amend the state constitution to allow for an independent citizens commission of 11 members to draw the redistricting lines.

The states last redistricting process took place after the 2010 Census. The next process will take place after the 2020 Census.

Local municipalities have passed resolutions in support of reform that Skubecz and others believe would shift the process from the hands of politicians to a balanced panel while upholding the constitutional standard that the lines drawn should be compact, contiguous and properly reflect the community interests.

Skubecz specifically mentioned the 11th Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta as an example of a gerrymandered district that does not properly represent the interests of all its constituents. He pointed out how this district spans an area from Shippensburg northeast to Factoryville, Wyoming County.

Supporters of reform claim gerrymandering allows politicians to choose voters instead of voters choosing politicians just so that incumbents can stay in office and the majority party can retain control.

Hampden Township resident Tonya Wagner said the proposed reform would create a commission of citizens whose eligibility would be vetted by the Pennsylvania secretary of state.

But Rothman said the secretary of state would be a political appointee. I dont see how you cant make it political, he told supporters of reform. One woman said she disagrees, saying drawing district lines need not be partisan and that there were plenty of intelligent people living in Pennsylvania who can make that distinction.

The woman said she and her husband disagree totally on certain issues and are of different political parties, yet they have been married for 20-plus years. Trust has been broken with your constituents, she told Rothman. There is an atmosphere of mistrust and tension.

Given this climate, she questioned why any politician would be opposed to letting citizens draw the lines. Rothman said he didnt have a problem with citizens drawing the lines  he just cant see how politicking can be avoided.

Barbara Geistwhite asked Rothman what his thoughts were on proposed legislation that would eliminate the property tax for school districts, replacing it with revenue from higher sales and income taxes.

She said the bills under review would ease businesses from paying their fair share while shifting much of the burden on the poor and the elderly. You are not going to make this better, she said. You are going to make this worse.

Instead of property tax elimination, Rothman said the focus should be reform of the current pension system that is significantly driving up costs for school districts. He believes one solution may be to move newly hired teachers to a more sustainable pension model similar to what is in the private sector and federal government.

Rothman said the public should question whether the political culture in Harrisburg would enable lawmakers to make good decisions on the equitable distribution to school districts of sales and income tax revenue that would flow to state government if the property tax is eliminated.
Lenovo to continue selling phones with own branding News oi -Chandrika Good news for Lenovo fans

If you remember, at the end of last year, a Chinese report suggested that Lenovo will only sell Moto branded smartphones in future. So basically, the company will discontinue selling handsets with Lenovo branding.

This report emerged after the Lenovo published its annual financial results, which were quite disappointing. At that time we heard no responses from the Chinese electronics giant. Now, after six months later, Yang Yuanqing, the Lenovo Group chairman and chief executive has dismissed those rumors in a statement to Reuters. He has assured that the Lenovo brand for smartphones will never be phased out.

Nokia 9 with 8GB RAM spotted on Geekbench

Despite Lenovo's unstable financial condition, as per Yang, its mobile business will stay as before in China. The company has suffered from huge loss after it started launching phones with Lenovo and Moto branding.

As we all know, Moto branded handsets are much more popular than the Lenovo ones. So this had made people believe that the company will not deal with Lenovo branded smartphones anymore.

However, the company apparently has no plans to do so and it will go on with its dual-brand strategy. According to reports, Lenovo generates about 18 percent of their total revenues from its mobile business.

Huawei Honor 9 spotted on TENAA: Complete specs revealed

Last year's financial results showed us that the company had encountered a whopping loss of $566 million. Well, truth to be told, the number looks pretty scary.

However, Lenovo fans don't need to panic just yet. Yang has said in a Weibo post that the Chinese manufacturer will soon reconstruct its Chinese business. Lenovo is even planning to launch more products in near future, he further added.

Best Mobiles in India

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Moto G5S Plus hands-on images leaked News oi -Samden Sherpa Motorola is gearing up to launch new smartphones in the market soon.

Lenovo-owned company Motorola looks set to launch some new smartphones in the market soon. While the rumor mill has been filled with numerous smartphones like the Moto G5s and G5s Plus, or the Moto Z2 Force and Moto Z2 Play it shouldn't be long before the company announces these smartphones.

Having said that, one of the smartphones Moto G5S Plus images have just leaked online on Weibo. The leaked images show more or less the final version of the upcoming smartphone and at the same time it also reveals some key features of the smartphone.

The Moto Z2 Play with SD 626 SoC again spotted on Geekbench

Well, the device shown in the image comes in a gray matte color. The overall design of the smartphone shown in the new leak is very similar to the renders of the handset that appeared online earlier this week.

Another key thing that we can make out from the leaked images is that the smartphone is running on the latest version of Android that is Nougat 7.1.1.

While the subject of the latest leak may also be the Moto G5S, one differentiating factor between the two models is their primary camera setup as the Moto G5S Plus is said to be the first Motorola Mobility-made handset with a dual-lens rear camera with a dual-LED flash unit, while its smaller and somewhat cheaper counterpart should sport a conventional single-lens main camera setup.

That is all we can make out from today's leak. However, more information should be revealed in the coming days. Several key industry experts have suggested that Motorola could announce the Moto G5S Plus in early June.

Meanwhile, Motorola has just posted a video or more likely a teaser on it official YouTube channel also.

While the video doesn't clearly reveal which smartphone the company is talking about we are guessing it could be the rumored Moto G5s which has been doing rounds in the rumor mill lately. However, it could be an entirely a new smartphone altogether.

SEE ALSO: Lenovo's Moto C, Moto C Plus are official; prices start from Rs. 6,000



Coming back to the teaser, Motorola has cleverly shot the film and the company has managed to keep things a secret. On the other hand, the 12 second video does talk about the screen and speaker of a smartphone. And from this we are guessing that the new smartphone will probably feature a better display as well as have improved speakers.

And there's more, the company has given the tagline 'Hello #Smarterphone'. This could also mean that the new smartphone will come with enhanced features or it could also be that the smartphone could feature some AI technology.

Apart from that at the end of the video, the company says 'goodbye struggles.' Basically, Motorola is being sarcastic in this case saying that some smartphones either fail to provide good displays or speakers. So the company might be saying that the new phone will solve this issue and provide a one stop solution with the new smartphone.

However it is too early to say anything firmly with such little information and the video just doesn't reveal much. So we are just making assumptions right now.

Best Mobiles in India

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Nokia 9 with 8GB RAM spotted on Geekbench News oi -Samden Sherpa Nokia 9 will reportedly feature an 8GB variant as well.

Nokia's upcoming flagship Nokia 9 has been in a lot of leaks and rumors lately. While we have already reported that Nokia 9 is expected to feature 4 GB of RAM based on the previous Geekbench listing, now a new benchmark result has surfaced and it reveals some interesting thing about the smartphone.

Well, according to a report from androidheadlines the new Geekbench result has been leaked and this time it shows that Nokia 9 will be coming with 8GB of RAM. This is an unexpected move from the company. And considering this result to be true, we can only assume that Nokia 9 will come in different variants.

Nokia 3310 (2017) online sale debuts in India at Rs. 3,310

But again, we are speculating the matter. That being said, the Geekbench result also shows that the device is labeled as "Unknown Heart". This we are very curious about. However, the listing also shows that the device is powered by an octa-core processor clocked at 1.90GHz. It has been said that Nokia 9 will feature the latest Snapdragon 835 processor. Further, the device seems to be running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat.

Other details include the single and multi-core scores of the handset for the benchmark. This again is confusing case as the scores appear tp be lower than previous Nokia 9 Geekbench listings which showed the device with 4GB of RAM instead of 8GB.

SEE ALSO: Nokia 9 visits GeekBench with Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB and Android 7.1.1 Nougat



As such, the listing shows the 8GB RAM device has got a single-core score of 769, and a multi-core score of 1630. In the previous listing of the alleged device, it shows the device with 4GB of RAM and a single-core score of 1815 and a multi-core score of 6278. And this difference in score seems quite unusual as the device with higher RAM should have gotten better scores. As of now, it is still a mystery.

Anyway, Nokia 9 is yet to be officially announced by the company and while that may take some time there will be more information pouring in about the device. More rumors and leaks will continue to appear and by the time Nokia 9 is announced we should have some an idea and details about the hardware and specifications of the handset. Besides today's Geekbench listing is yet another piece of information that we have got our hands on.

Best Mobiles in India
Government will look into TRAI's proposal to penalize incumbent telcos: Manoj Sinha News oi -Priyanka The penalty was recommended by the TRAI on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular for not providing the adequate point of interconnection to new - entrant Mukesh Ambani Reliance Jio.

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has said that the government will look into penalizing incumbents telecom players i.e Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea for not providing points of interconnections (POI) to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio.

He said, "Let the proposal come; we will look into it. We will decide in proper time."

He commented after Telecom Regulator Authority of India (TRAI) has rejected to reconsider its recommendation of penalizing to incumbent players.

To recall, the Telecom Commission has also asked the department of telecom (DOT) to seek clarity from the Telecom Regulator TRAI on whether the regulator can impose the penalty on the operators for violation of interconnecting norms.

Idea completes pan-India 4G rollout with launch of 4G services in Mumbai

The penalty was recommended by the TRAI on Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular for not providing the adequate point of interconnection to new - entrant Mukesh Ambani Reliance Jio.

The Telecom Commission has asked DOT that the regulator can recommend penalty under the mandate of the TRAI Act, 1997 in a relation of the interconnect violations and was if the telecom operators were given the 90-day period for providing these Point of Interconnections.

According to the regulator's recommendation, the penalty for Airtel and Vodafone would be around Rs. 1,050 crores each, while in a case of Idea Cellular it comes to about Rs. 950 crores. But the regulator stopped short of recommending cancellation of their telecom licenses saying it may lead to "significant consumer inconvenience".

TRAI also mentioned that denial of interconnection by these operators to Reliance Jio "appears to be with the ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti-consumer."

Best Mobiles in India
Russian Officials Discussed Influencing Trump Campaign Advisers: Report

RFE/RL May 25, 2017

U.S. spies learned last summer that Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing ways to exert influence over Donald Trump through his presidential campaign advisers, the New York Times reported on May 24, citing anonymous U.S. officials.

The Russian discussions focused on Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman at the time, and Michael Flynn, a retired Marine general who was advising Trump on foreign policy and later became Trump's national security adviser, the Times reported.

Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials who appeared confident that their contacts could be used to help shape Trump's views on Russia, the Times said.

Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Flynn, while others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine who lives in exile in Russia and who at one time worked closely with Manafort.

CNN has also previously reported about intercepted phone calls during which Russian officials bragged about their ties to Flynn and discussed ways of wielding influence over him.

The Times said the information collected by U.S. intelligence agencies last summer was considered credible enough to pass on to the FBI, which had just opened an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the election.

It is unclear, however, whether the Russian officials whose communications were intercepted actually tried to directly influence Manafort and Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government.

The Times' report comes one day after the former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, testified that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to steer the outcome of the election and he personally warned Russian spy agencies against doing so.

Brennan said he saw intelligence suggesting that Russia wanted to use Trump campaign officials, wittingly or not, to help in that effort. He said it "raised questions in my mind about whether Russia was able to gain the cooperation of those individuals," who Brennan did not identify in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.

"I was convinced in the summer that the Russians were trying to interfere in the election. And they were very aggressive," Brennan said.

Still, by the time he left the CIA at the end of last year, Brennan said he had "unresolved questions in my mind as to whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons, involved in the campaign or not, to work on their behalf, again either in a witting or unwitting fashion."

Whether the Russians worked directly with any Trump advisers is one of the central questions before U.S. investigators in Congress and the Justice Department.

Russia has repeatedly denied any interference in the election and Trump, for his part, has dismissed the allegations and investigations as "fake news."

"If there ever was any effort by Russians to influence me, I was unaware, and they would have failed," Manafort told the Times. "I did not collude with the Russians to influence the elections."

Before taking the helm of the Trump campaign last May, Manafort worked for more than a decade for Russian-leaning political organizations and people in Ukraine, including Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president and close ally of Putin.

Manafort's links to Yanukovych led to his departure from the Trump campaign in August, after his name surfaced in secret ledgers showing millions of dollars in undisclosed payments he received from Yanukovych's political party.

Flynn's ties to Russia go back to his time at the Defense Intelligence Agency, which he led from 2012 to 2014.

While there, Flynn began pressing for the United States to cultivate Russia as an ally in the fight against Islamist militants. He even spent a day in Moscow at the headquarters of the Russian military intelligence service in 2013.

Even after Moscow illegally seized control over Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, Flynn continued to insist that Russia could be an ally in the war against terrorists. Flynn was eventually forced out of his job by the Obama White House.

In private life, Flynn developed even closer ties to Russia, including giving a speech at an RT television dinner in Moscow in 2015 for which he was paid $45,000. He was photographed sitting next to Putin at the dinner.

Flynn declined to comment on the Times story, and so far has refused to talk to or supply documents to committees in Congress that are investigating the Russian influence matter.

Flynn's refusal to cooperate with the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has led the committee to consider subpoenaing him, Representative Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat, said on May 24.

Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser on foreign policy who is also the subject of investigation, has agreed to testify before the committee next month. Page has denied any involvement in Russian attempts to influence the election.

With reporting by New York Times, CNN, AP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-officials- discussed-influencing-trump-campaign-advisers-new- york-times-cnn-report/28507804.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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Tillerson Tells British Counterpart U.S. Takes 'Full Responsibility' For Intelligence Leaks

RFE/RL May 26, 2017

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told his British counterpart that the United States took "full responsibility" for a leak of intelligence information related to a deadly May 22 terror attack in Manchester.

Speaking in London on May 26, Tillerson also assured British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson that the United States would not allow any terrorist organization to spread violence and hatred "without a fight" and will block their "efforts to recruit new followers, whether on the ground or online."

The top U.S. diplomat's comments came in the wake of the attack by a suicide bomber after a concert at the Manchester Arena in the northern English city that killed 22 people and injured about 60, many of them children.

As part of the investigation into the bombing, American officials have come under heavy criticism from British officials after reports of U.S. leaks of classified intelligence related to the attack.

On May 25, Prime Minister Theresa May told U.S. President Donald Trump that intelligence shared between their two countries had to remain secure.

Tillerson, speaking at a news conference with Johnson, condemned the release of "vital" information, and said the United States took "full responsibly" for the leaks.

"With respect to the release of information inappropriately, information that was released by someone, information that's vital to an ongoing investigation, information that's vital to capturing those who were involved in this heinous event, certainly, we condemn that," he said.

Tillerson added that Trump also condemned the leaks and called for an "immediate investigation and prosecution of those responsible."

The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack -- the deadliest in Britain since 56 people were killed in an attack on the London transport system in 2005.

Tillerson said the extremists' "decision to target a concert full of children shows their intentions are not authored by God."

"ISIS worships death," he said, using an alternate acronym for the militant group. "In our mission to defeat ISIS, we are grateful for the help of people of all faiths and especially the many Muslim-majority countries who have joined us to win this fight."

Immigration Issues

During a gathering of NATO leaders in Brussels on May 25, Trump urged fellow alliance leaders to put immigration issues at the top of their agenda as part of the war against terrorism.

Tillerson told Johnson that immigration and the movement of people across borders is "a significant challenge in how we confront acts of terrorism, and it is a challenge given our free society."

Johnson said NATO "certainly" has a role to play in addressing the movements of people "coming up from the south, the southern Mediterranean area."

"I certainly think NATO has a role there, and I think the president is right in that  in that respect," Johnson said.

He added, though, that the United States and Britain are "countries that in many ways are built on immigration, and America is a fantastic country and economy that has thrived and prospered by the Statue of Liberty holding out its beacon to the world."

"And in our own country, we've had very successful integration over many decades, and we can achieve that," Johnson added.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tillerson-johnson- intelligence-leaks-immigration/28511054.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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We just got back from the Middle East, President Trump said to the president of Israel after his flight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Tel Aviv, which is also in the Middle East.

As Trumpisms go, this one is easy to forgive, particularly given how exhausted the president must have been after a weekend of jet-lagged diplomacy, (non-alcoholic) bacchanalia and sword dancing. But it does speak to a larger truth. The president was a stranger in a strange land, a region of ancient conflicts and complex political intrigues.

We have seen the president struggle with the swamp in Washington. Well, if Washington is a swamp, then the Middle East is the Everglades, and the alligators rolled out the red carpet.

The king of Saudi Arabia greeted Trump at the airport, a gesture ostentatiously denied President Obama. On the drive from the airport the streets were lined with American flags and Trumps face was beamed onto the side of a building.

At the Riyadh summit, Abdel Sisi, the authoritarian leader of Egypt, invited the president to visit his country, adding, You are a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible.

Trump replied, I agree, to diversely interpretable laughter. He also returned the compliment. Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man!

In short, the Arab leaders, hardly inexperienced in lavishing praise on men who crave it, have the presidents number. Of course, they were given some guidance in this regard. According to New York Times reporter Peter Baker, Washington officials offered some tips on how to deal with the American president.

Keep it short  no 30-minute monologue for a 30-second attention span, Baker summarized. Do not assume he knows the history of the country or its major points of contention. Compliment him on his Electoral College victory. Contrast him favorably with President Barack Obama. Do not get hung up on whatever was said during the campaign.

These last two points are key. The success  so far  of the presidents Middle East trip stands on the ashes of Obamas failures. Its easy to forget that for all Obamas alleged expertise, his foray into the Middle East foundered on his arrogance and naivete. In his 2009 Cairo speech, he unspooled cliches as wisdom, thinking that his name alone would put points on the board. He bought into the idea that the road to stability and peace in the Middle East went through Jerusalem.

As Obama learned on the job, he came to believe that the road to peace went through Tehran, crafting an Iranian deal that alienated both our democratic ally Israel and our strategic Sunni allies, chief among them Saudi Arabia. In pursuit of his fantasy, he turned a blind eye to Irans crushing of the Green Revolution and dithered to the point of complicity in the Syrian abattoir. Meanwhile, Iran remains as implacably hostile and as determined to be a regional hegemon as ever.

That is the context of Trumps fawning reception. Welcome, President Not Obama!

Equally relevant, the Saudis welcomed Not Candidate Trump.

During the campaign, Trump railed against Muslims, indicted the Saudis as the architects of the 9/11 attacks and said (with more than a little accuracy) that the Saudis want to keep women as slaves and to kill gays.

In his speech on Sunday, Trump flip-flopped to a somewhat more elevated realism. He said America wants partners, not perfection and that he didnt come to lecture anybody, hence the refusal to mention anything that rhymed with human rights or democracy.

Which brings me back to Trumps naivete when it comes to the Middle East.

He manfully called for the destruction of terrorists, but he talked of them as if they were foreign invaders to be driven out of the swamp, not products of it. Like the man who only has a hammer and therefore thinks every problem is a nail, Trump believes that the Middle Easts problems can be solved with terrific deals. The Saudis, eager to buy weapons and counter Iran, are all too eager to encourage this view. What alligator doesnt want sharper teeth?
Tillerson: US Takes 'Full Responsibility' for Manchester Intel Leaks

By VOA News May 26, 2017

The United States takes "full responsibility" for the leaking of sensitive information in the aftermath of the suicide bombing in Manchester Monday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

On his first official trip to London Friday, Tillerson said the U.S. "regrets" that information was leaked after British officials complained about it appearing in various U.S. publications.

"The president has been very strong in his condemnation and has called for an immediate investigation and prosecution of those who are found to have been responsible for leaking any of this information to the public," Tillerson said.

The leaks led Britain to briefly stop sharing intelligence with the U.S. about the bombing. But the information sharing resumed quickly after U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke and Trump promised future information would be protected.

Trump, in a statement released Thursday, vowed to "get to the bottom" of the information leaks and asked the Department of Justice to launch a complete review of the matter.

Tillerson said Friday the "special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event."

The secretary of state also paid tribute to the 22 victims of the suicide bombing during an appearance with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

"Even as our ally and friend mourns, the fires for justice burn very hot in all of our hearts," Tillerson said. "We will drive out the terrorists and the extremists."

He said the decision by the Islamic State group to "target a concert full of children" would only serve to intensify efforts to defeat the jihadists on the battlefield.

"We will not allow them or any terrorist organization to spread violence and hatred without a fight, and we will block their efforts to recruit new followers, whether on the ground or online," said Tillerson.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, Commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command; Captain Jeff Davis, Director, Defense Press Office May 24, 2017

Department of Defense Press Briefing by General Harrigian via Teleconference

CAPTAIN JEFF DAVIS: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

We're pleased to be joined today by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian. He's the CFAC commander, the Combined Forces Air Component commander, coming to us live from the region today.

And General, we want to make sure we can hear you and you can hear us.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL JEFFREY HARRIGIAN: I've got you loud and clear. Thanks.

CAPT. DAVIS: Yes, sir. We will turn it over to you for your opening remarks, and we'll take questions from here.

GEN. HARRIGIAN: All right, thanks, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you this morning.

I'm pleased to have the opportunity to update you today about what the coalition is doing across United States Central Command's area of responsibility. Every day, over 24,000 professionals from 20 nations operating in 18 countries at 74 locations, spanning a little over 3,700 miles, deliver air power, develop relationships, and defend the region.

In the past month alone, throughout the U.S. Central Command AOR, their teamwork, expertise and professionalism are responsible for the following: flying over 580 kinetic sorties; employing 4,800 weapons; flying 1,800 airlift sorties to move over 13,000 tons of cargo and nearly 18,000 passengers; and conducting 1,300 refueling sorties delivering 68 million pounds of fuel to keep strike and ISR aircraft over our partners on the ground.

Before I take your questions, I have a few comments I'd like to make.

Operation Inherent Resolve is a complex, dynamic environment for air operations, with multiple groups fighting in close proximity in the congested airspace over Syria. As we focus on destroying ISIS, I'm ever-cognizant of the need to avoid an action that could result in a strategic miscalculation by any of the actors operating in this battle space.

My team here at the Combined Air Operations Center continues to leverage our de-confliction mechanisms with the Russians to prevent such a misunderstanding. We saw such an incident unfold last week where pro-regime forces were seen advancing on a garrison at At-Tanf, at which we train partner ground forces. These forces were given multiple opportunities to retreat before we struck them, including using our de-confliction line to get them to withdraw.

Following repeated requests, coalition aircraft conducted a show of force and fired warning shots prior to executing the strike that destroyed a military threat consisting of a tank, armored vehicles, artillery and technical vehicles. This strike should make it clear to all that coalition air power will be used when our ground forces are threatened.

Coalition air power has been a decisive factor in our ongoing efforts to defeat and destroy ISIS. When the Syrian Democratic Forces launched their offensive to liberate the Tabqa Dam in Syria from ISIS, coalition air power was there to support them. Our SDF partners rolled back ISIS's territorial gain to the east, north and west of Tabqa, capturing territory about twice the size of Long Island along the way.

Coalition air power supported them around the clock in this effort as they pressed forward to successfully seize Tabqa and the nearby dam earlier this month.

Supporting the Iraqis in the fight to liberate Mosul, though, remains our priority and we have maintained an around-the-clock presence of aircraft to protect and support our partner forces on the ground. These aircraft provide a myriad of missions, including close-air support, situational awareness, command and control, refueling and kinetic strikes.

Our persistent ISR capabilities provide the coalition a keen edge on enemy activity and allow us to identify, vet and validate legitimate targets through a refined process. This process ensures we hit the desired target with the intended effects and minimal collateral damage.

Complementing the coalition has been an increasing, capable and lethal Iraqi air force that has made tremendous progress in its growth and development. This continuous presence of Iraqi and coalition aircraft continues to severely restrict ISIS's freedom of movement and their fighting capacity.

The offensive to recapture west Mosul is progressing well, with the vast majority of the city back in the hands of the Iraqi people. In support of this effort, the coalition employed over 6,000 weapons on targets including ISIS fighting positions, VBIED factories, weapon caches, and boats. And I can't remember a time when we didn't use a precision weapon to support them there.

As we target the remaining ISIS holdouts in the old city, I'll echo what Secretary Mattis said last week. Our strategy going forward is not to allow the remaining ISIS force to escape to fight another day, but to annihilate them with precision.

The precision of our strikes is imperative in this dense urban -- urban terrain of places like Mosul and Raqqa.

As you may know, we have two categories of targets and target development. That would be deliberate and dynamic.

Deliberate targeting involves an extensive development process to ensure each one is legitimate and meets established strike criteria. This process can take from days to weeks to develop, depending on the target and the time needed to observe daily patterns of life and behavior.

Dynamic targeting is much more responsive to emerging threats, taking anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on the type of target and environment. These are frequently discovered by ground forces or overhead aircraft.

As with deliberate targets, we still carefully validate them and secure approval from the appropriate authority as we do with deliberate strikes.

Bottom line, whether it's a deliberate or dynamic strike, the coalition strives to mitigate impacts to civilians throughout the targeting process, from identification, to validation, to the moment we release the weapon.

While many of our strikes are dynamic, we remain focused on the deep fight -- deliberate targets because of the tremendous impact they have had on the enemies' fighting capacity.

A force without money can't fight, and ISIS key revenue source, the illicit sale of oil, remains a top priority. To date, coalition airstrikes and ground operations have struck approximately 2,600 ISIS-held gas and oil targets, including over 1,500 tanker trucks.

Our deliberate targeting process allows us to focus on high-impact targets while keeping a wary eye on any enemy capabilities that may emerge.

For instance, in early May, coalition aircraft put 26 weapons into ISIS' most productive natural gas facility in Syria. Estimating it, denying them approximately $1.2 million per month in revenue. Strikes like these have resulted in ISIS' lowest revenue income and inflow at any point since 2014.

Our refined targeting process has also been instrumental in avoiding civilian casualties like those ISIS intentionally inflicts. On a daily basis, we go to extraordinary lengths to mitigate collateral damage and civilian casualties.

In the 10 months I've served as the CFACC, I've seen ISIS grow increasingly brutal against the people in the -- in a -- in the areas it controls. ISIS has become so desperate that they have baited us to strike targets that will purposefully cause civilian casualties. Our eyes and ears in the sky and on the ground keep the coalition abreast of ISIS' increasingly desperate tactics, allowing us to refine our targeting process so we avoid hurting those we're trying to liberate.

Throughout this fight, every target goes through our refined process to ensure it's not only a legitimate target under the law of armed conflict, but that it meets a threshold of proportionality and necessity.

Even when we strike a legitimate target, we're always watching for civilians walking in the field of view to avoid hitting unknown people in the area. When this happens, our first response is to abort the strike if possible.

In the event this occurs after a weapon is released, we can redirect it toward an unpopulated area. In the past year alone, the coalition has aborted many strikes when an unknown person has appeared in the target area.

One example I'd like to share with you on the disparity between ISIS and the coalition when it comes to avoiding human suffering was a dynamic strike we conducted in Syria to stop a public execution.

An unmanned aircraft flying overhead observed a group of ISIS fighters rounding up locals to witness a public execution on a street. Knowing we might hurt some of the bystanders if we attempted to target the ISIS fighters in the street, we quickly decided to target an ISIS sentry on a rooftop for crowd control and intimidation. Needless to say, the execution was averted. The sentry was the only known casualty. And ISIS's image of invincibility was squashed.

As we look to the east, we remain committed to the ongoing missions in Afghanistan. As part of Operation Resolute Support, we have coalition air advisers working side by side with the Afghans from certifying aircraft maintainers to providing training on various air crew duties. In the past, the Afghan army relied on the coalition for air support. Now, they are increasingly relying on their own countrymen overhead.

A great example of this is the A-29, which recently celebrated its first full year of combat ops at the hands of the Afghan air force. The A-29, in concert with their MD-530 helicopters, have become game-changers because now Afghan pilots can provide air attack capability across their country. The Taliban and other insurgents know that as well.

Afghan forces have been doing this with just 12 A-29s in country, four of which just arrived in Afghanistan in April, and they're planning to acquire 12 more. The Afghans have clearly gained the confidence of their ground forces and continue to expand their operations. My assessment is that their contributions are having a positive effect on the outcome of the mission. The Afghan air force improvement is a testament to our partnership and advising efforts, but more prominently to the Afghans' hard work, dedication and professionalism.

Looking to Operation Freedom Sentinel, our focus to provide air support to counterterrorism continues. In the last nine months alone, Afghan and U.S. counterterrorism forces have killed the ISIS-K commander, his replacement, and more than a dozen of their top leaders. Since early March, we have removed more than two-thirds of their fighting strength from the battlefield, and territory under their control has been reduced by two-thirds.

Our counterterrorism and train, advise and assist missions are concurrent and complementary. While we continue to attack the remnants of Al Qaida, we are building the Afghan national defense and security force so that they can instill peace and contribute to stability throughout the region.

Finally, I'd like to leave you with these three assurances. The first being we're aggressively continuing to prosecute the fight, leveraging the coalition's air power to work by, with and through our partner forces on the ground to annihilate ISIS.

Two, our detailed, disciplined targeting process has enabled us to effectively deliver air power superiority against ISIS, while mitigating civilian casualties.

And three, I can't think of a more complex, congested battle space that we're sending our coalition airmen to face every day. I'm honored to work with these professionals as they pummel our enemies every day.

With that, Jeff, I'm ready to take questions from the audience. Thanks for this opportunity.

CAPT. DAVIS: We'll start with Lita Baldor from the Associated Press.

Q: Hi, General. It's Lolita Baldor with A.P.

You talked a bit about the de-confliction with the Russians. I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about these de-confliction zones, about how many there are in and around Syria. And has the de-confliction with Russia increased in recent weeks as you get ready to do more in Raqqa and -- and that surrounding area?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Okay, thanks for that.

Well, first, I think it's important to delineate between the de-confliction that we execute with the Russians and the de-escalation zones that may have been talked at during the Astana talks. Those are separate from the operations that we're executing.

And what I would offer to you to help clarify the situation is that we do not have specific zones that we are de-conflicting with them. Rather, it's a operation that we discuss with the Russians to ensure that as we prosecute different portions of the different areas that we are working across Syria, that we have appropriately de-conflicted with the Russians.

So, we continue to communicate with them to ensure they are clear on our intentions. And we don't recognize any specific zone in itself that we preclude ourselves from operating in.

In other words, if we know where we've got to operate to prosecute the fight against the enemy, we're going to let the Russians know we're operating there and then work to ensure that we can execute that.

Wherever the enemy's at, wherever they present themselves, we're going to get after them.

Q: But has this de-confliction with the Russians increased as there's greater fight around Raqqa? And are you saying that these -- there's no limits on U.S. air power around these de-escalation zones?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: So, again, the -- the de-escalation zones are a -- a -- a separate topic.

But to answer the first part of your question, yes, we -- we have to -- have had to increase the amount of de-confliction work we're doing with the Russians given the tighter airspace that we're now working ourselves through.

So, as you look at the geography of the airspace up -- particularly up near Raqqa, we ensure that as we prosecute the fight against the enemy, the Russians -- while we don't give them specifics, we make sure we note where we're going to operate so that we can portray that to them in a manner that allows us to -- to continue our attack on the enemy, and gives us the freedom of movement we need to ensure that where the enemy presents itself we're able to get after them.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Michael Gordon of the New York Times.

Q: General, due to the nature of its terrain, Old Mosul presents a -- a challenge for Iraqi forces on the ground and also for the air power that needs to support them with respect to avoiding civilian casualties. And obviously, there's great sensitivity to that issue following the March 17th episode.

Can you use airpower in Old Mosul? Have you used airpower in the older parts of Mosul? And what specific things are you doing in this environment to reduce the risk of civilian causalities while you try to destroy ISIS?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Hey, thanks, Michael. I appreciate that question.

And clearly, Old Mosul provides a -- a significant challenge.

What I would tell you is that, first off, we have had the opportunity to characterize and study that area for a significant period of time. And as you alluded to, we are doing everything possible to, number one, understand the area.

And then number two, as we work with our team on the ground, have ourselves situated in a manner that allows us to, one understand that we've got the right weapons available to us; number two, understand that as we select those specific weapons, we select the appropriate types of fusing to ensure that we minimize any collateral damage; and then three, what I would offer to you as we operate in this area, we have found, without talking to specific tactics, that we have some capabilities, in particular with our -- our RPAs that provide us several opportunities when the enemy presents themselves to target them.

You know, I would offer that we learned a lot from operations in Sirte in Libya that we've been able to carry into this environment. That's been very effective as we've tried to understand how to best employ airpower in -- in Old Mosul.

Q: Just quickly to clarify, so you have been able to use air power and ordinance of some kind in Old Mosul? You've already done that?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We have used air power there.

And as I highlighted there, it's been a combination of specific platforms we put over the top, combined with the tactics, techniques and procedures, leveraging, quite frankly, some of the experience we gained in Libya along with the use of our precision weapons in that area.

CAPT. DAVIS: Paul Shinkman, U.S. News and World Report.

Q: General, thanks for doing this.

A couple more questions to follow up on Lita's.

And again, just to be clear, these are about the de-escalation zones that the Russians announced out of the Astana talks.

Has the Russian government or the Syrian government communicated to U.S. anything about those zones, particularly what it expects about U.S. behavior around them?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Okay. Jeff, I might need a little help on hearing what he said.

As I understood it, it was about the de-escalation zones from Astana. Can -- can you restate the question for me? I just had trouble hearing him in this connection.

Q: General, can you hear me better now?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yes, I got you loud and clear now.

Q: Okay.

So my question was about specifically the de-escalation zones that the Russian government announced out of the Astana talks.

Has any element -- have -- has the Russian government or any of their partners communicated to the U.S. and the coalition about how it expects coalition aircraft to -- to behave, to operate around these zones?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, hey, thanks for that.

So given we were not -- we, the U.S. government were not a party to that agreement, we have not had any discussions at -- at my level about those the de-escalation zones.

What I would tell you, though, is as we've been working with the Russians, there is a -- a constant drive to ensure that we understand where each other are operating, so that we preclude that strategic miscalculation I highlighted earlier.

So, that's why I was trying to delineate that the de-escalation zones are different from what we do every day with the Russians to ensure we have our freedom of maneuver.

Q: Just to be clear, have you decided now on how you plan to abide by these zones, or whether you plan to ignore them as de facto no-fly zones?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: So, we have not done anything specifically to plan for those or to accept those as areas that we would de-conflict in. So, at this point, it remains something that, as we continue to go forward, we do not talk about those de-escalation zones with the Russians. We continue to just work our de-confliction to get after the enemy.

Q: And then just a couple of questions about these areas themselves. The Russian government has indicated that they plan to start actually enforcing the zones within a matter of days. I've seen some reports that they've already begun rotating in new aircraft, rotating out older aircraft, setting up more advanced anti-aircraft weaponry.

And also that they've shifted their air campaign more toward the east of Syria. I wonder if any of those things are things that you've also observed, sir.

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, thanks for that.

So, just to be clear, going back to those de-escalation zones, again those are different. And at our level, when we've talked to the Russians, we do not talk about those de-escalation zones. We just talk de-confliction in our operations.

Now, relative to Russian activity in Syria, yes, we are closely watching their rotation of aircraft. We have very high situational awareness on when they rotate their airplanes. Additionally, we watch very closely their integration and rotation, if any occurs, of their integrated air defense systems, primarily their surface-to-air missiles.

So that is something that we consistently review, keep an eye on, because again for airmen in particular, I need to be able to make my assessment on how they're responding to our activities such that I'm able to mitigate risk for our airmen so that as we continue to prosecute the attack against ISIS, we understand where the Russians are, what they have for capabilities, and how they're integrating those with the Syrians.

CAPT. DAVIS: All right. Next to Thomas Watkins with Agence France-Press.

Q: General, thank you for doing this.

A couple of reports out this week, one from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, one from Airwars. The -- the Syrian Observatory said that there were 225 civilians killed in Syria in U.S.-led strikes. And the Airwars one, I'm sure you saw that, that -- they said a higher number of 300 and something in Iraq and Syria.

Given -- given the remarks you've already made on this issue -- actually, sorry, Airwars also said that this -- this appears to indicate that you guys are scaling back your protections for civilians. And they say that these data show that the Trump presidency has a much higher tolerance for CIVCAS.

So, let me ask you this question: Are you -- are you, the coalition, killing more civilians under President Trump?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: My direct answer to that is no.

The rules of engagement and the targeting process that we continue and have used is very deliberate, very thorough and. I would offer to you, quite effective.

I will also highlight to you that our process to review and determine credibility is a very robust process, one that any time there's an accusation, whether it be from someone that sees it on the ground, it may be in fact an -- a -- an aircrew member sees it, we're going to go back, determine the credibility, determine if there needs to be an investigation, and -- and we will go to extraordinary lengths to make sure we understand what happened on the back side of it.

On the front side, from a targeting perspective, as I highlighted to you earlier, our execution, in terms of validating, vetting and understanding the necessity of a specific target, is -- is very robust. And that could be for a target that we plan for several weeks or, as I said, could be in a -- a dynamic situation where we're protecting our forces on the ground.

With respect to the administration's guidance to us, the rules of engagement have not changed. So, we are executing those in accordance with the -- the training that we've had and -- and the -- the deliberate process that we use to target military-appropriate targets.

Having said that, you probably have read a bit about what we've done to be more responsive to support our forces on the ground. And we've ensured that authorities are at the appropriate level to support our forces on the ground. And that has facilitated what I would offer to you has been opportunities to get after the enemy when they presented themselves, particularly in support of our forces on the ground.

So, a combination of those factors has allowed us to be effective in supporting our forces in the ground while adhering to the same exact ROE that we had previous and has maintained itself under President Trump's administration.

Q: Thank you.

But I mean, you do see the -- you do see the discrepancy or the disconnect between what you just said. You're saying, "Well, on the one hand, there's a lot more of -- you know, the people on the ground have more authority to -- to strike." And then we're seeing this massive increase in numbers.

Like what's the -- what do you attribute -- how do you reconcile those two things? What do you attribute it to?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Well, first, I would say those numbers that Airwars and the -- the Observatory -- they -- I'm not going to agree to those numbers. I think you've read that we have different numbers that we had garnered through our assessments and our analysis of it. And clearly, there's going to be some discrepancies based on how people gather that information, who they're talking to.

And from our perspective, we are doing everything that we can to investigate it, take any lessons from those and -- and improve on how we do our business. And -- and I would offer to you, that's something that we're consistently and -- and constantly working to get after.

But the -- the numbers that come out of these other organizations are garnered from areas that I would argue may not have a full picture of what we're seeing as well either. So, hence you're going to find these discrepancies that I would say are unrelated to the way that we do business.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Tony Capaccio from Bloomberg.

Q: (Off mic) along those lines, the munitions that the Air Force has dropped since January has been exponentially more than the first three years of the war. March you dropped 3,800 munitions; that was an all-time high.

Do I -- what do you attribute the increased munitions drops to? Along with Tom's question, I mean, is this part of the Trump administration allowing the military more latitude to fire at will, so to speak, when they know they have an appropriate target?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, hey, thanks, Tony, for that question.

So, a couple things.

First off, what I would offer to you in -- particularly over the last couple months here, we've had simultaneity in our action with respect to what's been happening in Mosul and Raqqa.

And as our ground forces maneuver, we're finding that's when the enemy is going to present themselves. And with the assets that we've had overhead, we've been able to be very effective any time the enemy shows themselves, that we've been able to target them and leverage our -- our precision munitions.

Having said that, I also would offer to you that we have refined our targeting process and -- and become more efficient in layering our ISR to uncover targets that have made themselves available to us, which also has facilitated the number of weapons we've been able to deliver.

So I think it's a combination of those two specific points that have facilitated and allowed us to be more aggressive with getting after the enemy, and at the same time, remain true to the precision targeting and target development that we've used over time.

Q: So equating more -- reports of more civilian casualties with more munitions being dropped would be a false comparison in your world, in your eyes.

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, sorry. Okay. I got to beg forgiveness. That -- it was -- it was hard to hear you. Can you say that one more time?

Q: Correlating the increase in munitions since January by month with reports of increased civilian casualties would be a false comparison in your estimation?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Okay. I'm having trouble copying that.

So, increased munitions -- and I'm just reading back to you now what you said -- would be -- if we -- given that we've delivered more munitions, that has resulted in increased civilian casualties. If that's the correlation people are attempting to draw, yes, I would agree with you: That's a false analysis of the situation.

Q: That wasn't my assessment but I was positing to you as a question.

One other issue: The F-22 stealth fighter, the pricey airplane you have over there, the Air Force wants a billion dollars in the F.Y. '18 budget to upgrade that plane. What kind of missions is it doing over there? And is it justifying its existence with -- over in your theater anyway?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Right. Thanks, Tony.

I think you know I'm -- I'm -- I'm flying that over here, and I got a little bit of experience. So I've been able to leverage -- and, quite frankly, I've been very fortunate to have it over here, because it's given me a capability that's been incredibly important to my ability to get back into the airspace, particularly in Syria, as we've needed to gain a better understanding of what the Syrian and Russian IADS were doing.

Perfect example is, after the TLAM strikes, we had to work our way back into the air -- airspace. And I used the F-22 to help take the initial steps to get me in a position that would allow other assets then to come into the airspace.

So, while I was doing that, the airplane was -- was flying in a defensive counter-air role. But simultaneously, given that the airplane can carry small-diameter bombs, using the partnered force we had on the ground, I could fly defensive counter-air while simultaneously providing the capability to support our -- our -- our partners on the ground.

The other capability that has been very helpful for me is, while we'd like to leverage our AWACS and our ground radars for air domain awareness, the F-22 gives me a capability in real time to support those efforts in ensuring I have the ability to de-conflict in real time, should the Russians or the -- the Syrian air force decide to present themselves in a manner that's a conflict for us in the air.

And so, in those -- in that environment, the F-22's ability to fuse information, understand where our friendly forces are, what the Syrian air force or the Russian air force are executing, and then provide that information to the joint force -- it's frankly been unmatched.

And, having flown in the airplane in both of those roles, I'm going to tell you there's no better platform to do that. And it's done an -- an incredible job at providing me, as the CFACC, that capability for not only air domain awareness, but also supporting our folks on the ground.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Dan Lamothe from the Washington Post.

Q: General, thanks for your time today. Dan -- Dan Lamothe, Washington Post.

When we visited Iraq in February and -- and sat with you then, you talked about your desire and the desire of others to increase de-confliction with a possible higher level -- probably a senior officer of some kind -- two -- two-star, three-star. It's been called a couple different things.

Has that happened? And if not, is that something you still want? And if so, how is it working so far?

Thanks.

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, hey, thanks, Dan. And great to talk with you.

I do remember that conversation. And so, as you've probably read, there have been three-star conversations at the -- the joint -- joint staff level. I would also highlight to you that we've had other conversations, not at my level, but my -- my two-star deputy exchanged some conversations with the Russians as we were working through the myriad of issues that have occurred over here.

So, we have had the ability to increase the dialogue at the appropriate level. My expectation is that will be helpful as we move forward, in particular, as -- as the airspace continues to become more congested and with the -- I think one of the questions earlier had to do with the Russians and -- and the regime continuing to move farther to the east.

I think it'll be important that we decrease ambiguity. And that decrease in ambiguity allows us to understand where they're -- they're going, where possible areas of conflict could occur.

And this gives us a mechanism, both at the colonel level and -- and at a slightly higher level, to make sure that we're able to continue, at least from my perspective, the attack on ISIS, and -- and hunt them down wherever they're maneuvering inside the battlespace.

Q: As far as your own deputy, the -- the two stars in theater, how recent have those conversations occurred, and when did they begin?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: So it was -- it was -- it was pretty close to after you and I had talked. We -- we work through -- I'm trying to think back to the specific situation, and -- and it's not coming to my -- my head right now, and when that occurred.

But as we've worked through some of the -- and it's been in -- in the Syrian -- Raqqa area -- as we try to ensure that we understood their intentions and, at the same time, could convey to them where we needed to maneuver, and, like I highlighted, decrement that ambiguity to the max extent possible, recognizing that in -- in many of these situations, what I would share with you is I'm putting coalition airmen in what can be very complex and dynamic situations, that my job is to provide them as clear and unambiguous intent as possible.

So, as we've worked through these situations, I think that the colonel-to-colonel communication has -- has worked quite well. But in those situations where we've needed to be a little bit more clear, we've leveraged it -- and -- and I'll -- I'll offer it up to you.

It's only been a couple of times. This has not been a regular discussion at the -- the two to three-star level. Over.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Courtney Kube, from NBC News.

Q: Thanks, General.

One -- one follow up to one of your answers from -- to Lita's question earlier. You said that there's been an increase in the amount of deconfliction with the Russians. Are you able to quantify that at all? And -- and what exactly do you mean?

Are you -- are you talking about, like, physical number of calls have increased every day? Or is more about these sort of newer lines of communication that you were just talking about?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: So it -- it largely ebbs and flows based on the situation in the battlespace. I know many of you are tracking what has occurred over the last couple of days in At-Tanf and the situation there.

And you can be sure that, in the pure quantity of phone calls, it increased because, again, what we're trying to do is drive down the ambiguity and make sure we're clear on our intent and portray it in -- in a manner that says, "hey, here's where we're at. If we feel threatened, we're going to take action."

So, to answer your question specifically, I would say it would be pure numbers of phone calls in -- in the -- in a manner that allows us to be more clear, or get clarity from them if we're not clear on their intentions.

Q: You mentioned a couple of months ago -- you talked about how there were semi-regular, frequent interactions with the Russians in the air, whether it would be sort of a -- a close encounter, even if it wasn't unsafe, and that they happened every week or 10 days or so.

Are you still seeing that? And can you give us any recent examples? Are you seeing with this -- as you're operating sort of in closer proximity with the Russians in the air, have those increased?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: In short, no. I will share with you we had one incident where there was intercept they ran that I would categorize as unprofessional. And we called them on it, and expressed our concern. And they came back, quite frankly, and apologized for that particular intercept.

But beyond that, I would tell you that they have adhered to what we've asked them to do. And in general, have been responsive to our requests where we've worked through the specific nuances of what they were trying to do, versus what we needed to do. And so, largely, and I'll come back to kind of the situation we've been working through over the last couple of days, they've been responsive and been receptive to what we've wanted them to do in a manner that has allowed us to continue to prosecute our fight.

So, in general, I'd say there have been -- like I said, I can only think of one instance since you and I last talked that we've had any issues with them.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next to Lucas Tomlinson with Fox News.

Q: Hi, General. Can you tell us when that incident occurred? And what type of aircraft both on the Russian and coalition sides?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Let's see. It was -- I know there was a fighter aircraft involved with one of our tankers. If you recall, I think when I saw Dan and Courtney out here back in the fall, we had had an incident at night with our AWACS. This particular one had to do with -- I can't remember if it was a SU-35 or a SU-30 involved with one of our KC-10s.

And, you know, basically there was again another intercept that I would put in the not-professional category. And we discussed it with them, and they came back and acknowledged it.

Q: And General, how concerned are you about these Iranian-backed fighters operating in Syria? How much of a threat are they to U.S. coalition forces on the ground, particularly down south?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Hey, thanks for that.

So, first thing I would say is I'm concerned about any threat to our forces on the ground. And, you know, I'm just going to reiterate the fact that we will protect our force. We'll do what it takes to ensure that our ground forces, if they're threatened, we're going to take the necessary action.

This is clearly an area with the Iranians that we're going to watch -- watch it closely. As indicated, we're -- we continue to communicate with the Russians and provide them our intent. That is directly aligned with that declaration that we're going to protect our force. And there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that if we're threatened, we're going to defend our folks.

CAPT. DAVIS: (inaudible) -- CNN.

Q: Hello, General. Thank you for doing this.

I just had one quick follow up on At-Tanf, and then another question just generally about de-confliction. So, these -- these forces were considered a threat and they were struck as they approached At-Tanf. But they've also kind of settled in the area. And I know you said they were -- the de-confliction zones are kind of not necessarily as concrete as some reporting has been made. But are these forces -- you've continued to do shows of force. I believe there was one over the weekend.

Are they headed in the right direction generally? Or are they kind of just sitting in place? And are they kind of being constantly observed?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: We're watching them closely. And as I highlighted earlier, we're continuing to ensure that via the Russians, they understand our intent is for them not to threaten us. And clearly, we're watching them 24/7. And maintain a -- the ability from our side to position our forces such that we can defend them.

So we'll continue to do that. We'll clearly keep a close eye on them. And hopefully, over time, they'll recognize that it's not in their best interest to move towards us and move a different direction.

Q: And -- and just generally on de-confliction, so has there ever been an instance where the U.S. or the Russians have communicated via the channel in advance of a strike, and that the U.S. has said to Russia "no, you cannot strike in that area," or vice versa? I mean, has there ever been a proposed air operation by either Russia or the coalition and either side kind of being able to in effect exercise a veto on that operation?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Generally, no. In most situations, we have in essence a common enemy, ISIS. And so we have found ways to appropriately de-conflict to allow us to continue our mission, which has been my focus, while trying to ensure that I'm able to mitigate situations that would put my airmen, my coalition airmen in a precarious situation.

So, to use the word "veto" would be inappropriate. There have been times we've had to work through mitigation strategies to ensure we could continue our mission and vice versa. And I think that's important to highlight in that the Russians are -- are understanding of what we're trying to do.

I'm not going to say that it's always easy and it often takes several phone calls to work our way through it. But I would say that we have found ways to ensure that we have our freedom of maneuver to get after ISIS and kill them when they present themselves.

Q: Thank you, General.

CAPT. DAVIS: Luis Martinez from ABC News.

General, I want to make sure you're doing okay on time. We had promised to cut you off right about now. We still have several people in the queue, if you -- are you -- do you have more time for a few more?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yes, I have time for a couple more.

CAPT. DAVIS: Luis?

Q: General, thank you again for doing this briefing.

Earlier, you mentioned the higher level of air drops for Mosul and elsewhere. How would you categorize the ordnance amounts that you drop in terms of your supply levels? Have they dipped significantly? Do you have a shortfall that's approaching a critical level? Have you had to replenish from other commands? And how -- do you think you're going to have to maintain this level of OPTEMPO as you go through Raqqa and into the Euphrates River Valley?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Hey, thanks, Lou.

So, every day we're -- we're tracking our weapons and monitoring where we're at.

What I would tell you what -- the way we manage this was, as we prepared for Mosul, we took a look at what would be the appropriate standard configuration loads -- or standard -- standard combat loads on our airplanes, to make sure that as -- as we loaded weapons on our particular aircraft, we had what we needed to support that particular point of the fight.

So, as we're beginning to go into Mosul, we didn't need to use maybe as many of our small-diameter bombs. Maybe we could use 500 to 1,000 pounders. Bottom line is we were managing it on a daily basis to ensure that we had the right weapons available, and when required, i.e. we got into the -- the really urban and dense portions of the -- of the fight, we had the low-collateral weapons that I think like Michael had -- had asked me earlier.

At the end of the day, as we have managed this, I've worked with the leadership at the Air Force to ensure that as we moved weapons around, we had the appropriate supplies to support our force here.

I want to be clear, though, and tell you that we have managed it through our tactics, our techniques, procedures. But at the same time, if anyone has needed a specific weapon to support the fight, I have told them, "Use the appropriate weapon for where you're at in the fight."

In other words, I've not slowed anybody down. I have not metered them. I've said, "Use what you need to use to destroy the enemy."

And as we have worked through that, I have been resupplied by the Air Force. Sometimes we've had to go to the Joint Staff and -- and had to ask for support. But that's been a Joint Staff-level decision on where they went and got those weapons.

But we have not been in a position where I've had to slow anything down to support our partners as they moved forward.

Q: And just a quick follow-up: Do you anticipate maintaining this op tempo as you go on further into those other campaigns that I mentioned, Raqqa and the -- the river valley?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: So, I think time will tell.

As we get through Mosul, the Iraqis will drive our timeline, in terms of how quickly they want to move on to other portions of -- of the fight in their country.

My sense is as we work our way through the -- the -- the back side of Mosul, Raqqa will pick up. And it -- it will be kinetic there. But -- but it will depend on where the Iraqis go on, if there's simultaneity involved with that.

So, I'm not going to comment on the specific timeline there, other than to say we've been able to maintain a high intensity of -- of weapons delivery inside of Mosul and Raqqa at the same time and sustain it over time.

So, I think as we look to the future, the Iraqis will drive their timing and tempo, and we'll be there prepared to support them.

CAPT. DAVIS: We have David Martin from CBS News. And then Joe Tabet from Al Hurra after that.

Q: General, I hate to admit I'm still confused about the de-confliction zones.

I thought I heard you say that there are no specific de-confliction zones. But the way this incident or series of incidents -- outside at-Tanf has been described to us here at the Pentagon, it is that those militias were inside the exclusion zone, inside I think it was 55 kilometers from at-Tanf. So, that sounds like a specific exclusion zone.

Is it that you set them up temporarily depending on the operational situation? How does it work?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, so -- thanks, David.

So, I've been trying to make it clear, but I guess I haven't said it good enough. So the de-escalation zones that someone previously asked me about, those de-escalation zones that were decided at Astana, we are not a party to that. That's a separate agreement.

The de-confliction that we've been working through, yes, there has occasionally been, as you alluded to, de-confliction areas that we work with the Russians to ensure if they're going to come in there, that they talk to us about what they're going to do. And you appropriately identified that 55-kilometer one that we're working right now. Whereas if the Russians are going to come in there, they're going to call us to give us information about what they would like to do, and we're going to have a discussion about it.

And that's the way that is specifically working right now. Does that clear that up?

Q: That does. Can you tell us where else there are de-confliction zones?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: I think all the -- you know, to go into those specifics really is kind of outside of how we're operating right now. And like I said kind of up front, they're largely temporary and there's no other specific ones that I'd want to get into at this particular point.

CAPT. DAVIS: Okay. And next to Joe Tabet with Al Hurra.

Q: Thank you very much, sir.

My question is on Afghanistan. Would you be able to give us an update about your operations against I.S. Khorasan province? And also, we have seen a sharp increase in the use of air power in the last two months. Have you seen also any evidence that Daesh -- I mean ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq have joined the Khorasan Province in Afghanistan lately?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: Yeah, thanks for that.

So first off, I agree with you. You have seen an increase in the number of strikes in Afghanistan. And I would attribute that first to the fact that we've gotten into the fighting season. And yes, ISIS-K has presented themselves as a target that we've been effectively targeting over the course of the last several months.

As I kind of mentioned up front, we took out a couple of their leaders. Two-thirds of their forces have now been decimated and two-thirds of the territory taken back. I think, as you've probably read about, this brutal entity has dragged out elders from their homes, beheaded people in front of their families. And hence, we have put ourselves in a position to be able to aggressively target them and we will continue to do that.

At this point, we will continue to -- to work closely with our Afghan partners on the ground to -- to characterize and understand where they're at, and then, as quickly as possible, work with that -- with them and in coordination with the Afghan air force to -- to target them and take them off the battlefield.

Q: Quick follow-up. Have you -- have you seen any evidence that Daesh fighters in Syria and Iraq have left and joined the group in Afghanistan? If yes, how many?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: I -- I do not know the specific numbers and -- and -- and how they have come. But what I can tell you is that one of the primary reasons that we're trying to target them in -- in Afghanistan is to preclude the flow of -- of those particular fighters from Afghanistan into Iraq and Syria.

So we will continue to work to eliminate that sanctuary from -- take that sanctuary away -- away from them and deny them the ability to -- to train and operate in Afghanistan, therefore -- looking to better stabilize Afghanistan into the future.

CAPT. DAVIS: Okay, thanks. Laurent Barthelemy is the next on the list. He promises it's a very quick, short, one-part follow-up.

Q: Hi, General. Thank you -- thank you for your patience.

I want to be sure that I understand well your assessment on civilian casualties in the last month. Are -- are you denying that there's been a rise of civilian casualties in the last month? Or do you admit that such an increase may have occurred?

GEN. HARRIGIAN: So, I'm not going to get into the specifics of numbers. What I will tell you is that we continue to investigate every accusation, determine its credibility, and then determine if we need a follow-on investigation to understand what happened in those specific instances where a civilian casualty appears to have occurred.

I will tell you, though, there's a human dimension to this. We're not perfect. And we are making every effort to understand, as we develop the target and then prosecute it, how we can improve the way we execute and -- and deliver ordnance.

And, as I mentioned, from my level all the way on down to the individual that's delivering the weapon, they have ability to abort it -- in other words, turn off that strike if it doesn't look right.

And I would -- I would tell you that that is occurring in a manner that would ensure to me, at my level, that we're doing everything we can to preclude harming those that we would want to liberate on the ground.

CAPT. DAVIS: Well, we thank you for your time today and talking to us, and look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you, everybody.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1193060/

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All in a night's work: MQ-9s maximize airpower downrange

By Tech. Sgt. Nadine Barclay, 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs / Published May 25, 2017

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFNS) -- As many Americans sleep soundly in their beds, Airmen in attack squadrons across the 432nd Wing flying the MQ-1B Predator and MQ-9 Reaper from cockpits in the continental U.S. are having decisive effects in the fight against violent extremism. In combat operations last week, one MQ-9 squadron stood above the rest when aircrews employed 13 Hellfire missiles and 500-pound bombs during one eight-hour overnight shift.

These employments occurred in two different combat arenas separated by thousands of miles, while the aircrew piloting the aircraft sat just feet away from one another in separate cockpits in the squadron.

Over the course of the night, the MQ-9 aircrew employed four different variants of Hellfire missiles and two variants of the 500-pound bombs in close-air support while simultaneously executing over 30 hours of armed reconnaissance and producing critical intelligence for our national defense.

"While this was one night in one squadron, this kind of impact is happening daily in the attack squadrons flying in combat across the enterprise," said Col. Case Cunningham, the 432nd WG commander.

In 2016 alone, this particular squadron flew nearly 25,000 combat hours and 1,300 combat sorties, culminating in 520 weapon strikes in support of combatant commanders. The squadron continues the pace today with nearly 300 strikes in 2017 alone.

"This was amazing work by one of several highly professional and combat seasoned MQ-9 squadrons we have in the 432nd Operations Group," said Col. Joe, the 432nd OG commander. "These crews are providing combatant commanders the entire 'find, fix, track, target, engage, and assess' target cycle in a single platform."

Providing the persistent attack and reconnaissance capability 24/7 year-round is no easy task.

"We are absolutely evolving the aspect of modern warfare and proving the capability of MQ-9s in every mission we fly, and it's amazing to watch the work of these professional aviators up close," Joe said.

In addition to skilled aircrew, the MQ-9 enterprise takes hard work and dedication from multiple squadron, maintenance, intelligence and communications personnel to operate as the well-oiled machine it is today.

"Achieving this level of execution is not solely on the pilots and sensor operators; they are backed by a highly capable and professional team of intelligence analysts, support personnel and contractors, all dedicated to executing the squadron mission," said Lt. Col. Albert, a 432nd WG squadron commander. "We would not be able to fly airplanes if it were not for their collective hard work and selfless attitudes."

Despite the contributions of these Airmen, providing this capability doesn't come without its own challenges. The squadron is only able to achieve these effects by focusing on balancing work and personal life.

"Being deployed in place makes this a particular challenge," Albert said. "We deliberately set our culture around excellence in combat as well as taking care of our families and having fun while we do it."

The commander elaborated on how important it was to find the middle ground for the greater good of the Airmen and the missions assigned to the unit. "This balance will enable us to not only excel in our current mission, but also helps us to create the next generation of well-balanced leaders for the MQ-9 community and the Air Force."

The wing focuses on winning today's fight while also deliberately developing its Airmen with the leadership and expertise they'll need to continue being combat leaders in tomorrow's fight.

"It's truly humbling to work with Airmen who make such an impressive impact in the fight every single day," Cunningham said.

(Editor's note: Last names and squadron title withheld for operational security.)

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U.S., Coalition Strikes Target ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, May 25, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 34 strikes consisting of 78 engagements, 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 21 strikes consisting of 29 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Albu Kamal, four strikes destroyed three ISIS oil tanker trucks, two ISIS wellheads, two ISIS fuel tanks, a front-end loader, a crane and a bulldozer.

-- Near Hawl, a strike destroyed a vehicle bomb.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIS barge.

-- Near Raqqa, 15 strikes engaged 12 ISIS tactical units; and destroyed five fighting positions, four ISIS dump trucks, four vehicles, two artillery systems, a front-end loader and a weapons cache.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 13 strikes consisting of 49 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, seven strikes destroyed 22 trenches, six bunkers, a tactical vehicle, a supply cache, an ISIS staging area, a front-end loader and a vehicle bomb.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed five vehicles, four fighting positions, four medium machine guns, three heavy machine guns, three weapons caches, an improvised explosive device, a mortar system, an ISIS staging area, a rocket-propelled grenade system; damaged two ISIS supply routes; and suppressed two mortar teams.

-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed an ISIS fuel point.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Tikrit, a strike destroyed an ISIS fuel tank.

Additionally, three strikes were conducted in Syria May 23 that closed within the last 24 hours:

-- Near Raqqa, three strikes destroyed eight command-and-control nodes and destroyed a vehicle bomb-making facility.

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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ISIS-Planted Explosives Caused Civilian Deaths in Mosul Strike

By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2017  Secondary explosions of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-placed munitions were responsible for the deaths of 105 civilians in Mosul, Iraq, in March, according to the results of a DoD investigation into the tragedy.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Matthew Isler told Pentagon reporters that there is no way the munition a U.S. plane dropped March 17 in the Jadidah neighborhood could have caused the extensive damage that killed 101 people in a house and four in a neighboring house. Isler noted that an Iraqi investigation of the incident concurred with his findings.

Isler was the officer appointed to investigate the incident and is now based at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. He submitted his report to Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin, the commander of Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. Martin stressed the United States takes great care to avoid civilian casualties.

Minimizing Risk of Collateral Damage

"Our objective is always to minimize the risk of collateral damage and any potential harm to noncombatants," Martin said from his headquarters in Baghdad.

Isler led a team well-versed in weapons, engineering, explosives and law. The team visited the site of the incident in Jadidah and spoke with Iraqi civilians, news agencies and non-governmental agencies to gain information on the incident.

On March 17, Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service forces were engaging ISIS in the Jadidah district of West Mosul. The Iraqi forces were close enough to have the structure under visual surveillance, Isler said.

The structure was a well-built house used by a local leader. Neighbors used the building to shelter from the fighting as it had 30-inch thick concrete walls. "CTS visual observers had been in direct visual observation of the area for over two days, and had not observed civilians enter or use the structure," Isler said. "Neither coalition nor CTS forces knew that civilians were sheltered within the structure."

But ISIS knew, as they had a fighting position built into the house and two snipers were engaging CTS forces from the house. CTS commanders asked for a strike on the structure and went through the rigorous checklist to launch a strike, Isler said.

Officials authorized a GBU-38 joint direct attack munition with a delayed fuse.

"At [8:24 a.m.] on 17 March 2017, in accordance with the applicable rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict, a coalition U.S. aircraft delivered a single GBU-38 precision-guided munition against two ISIS snipers engaging the Iraqi CTS," Isler said. "Neither coalition nor CTS forces knew civilians were sheltered in the bottom floors of the structure."

Terrorists Purposely Brought Explosives Into the Building

The bomb went where it was supposed to and detonated on the second floor of the structure. "The detonation ignited a large amount of explosive material which ISIS fighters had previously placed in the rear of the house," Isler said. "This secondary explosion triggered a rapid failure of the structure which killed the two ISIS snipers, 101 civilians sheltered in the bottom floors of the structure and four civilians in the neighboring structure to the west," the general said.

The bottom line from Isler's investigation is that ISIS knew there were civilians sheltering in the structure. The terrorists purposely brought explosives into the building and placed them in areas that would ensure a catastrophic collapse if the structure was bombed. Then the terrorists set up a fighting position that would draw an airstrike.

Isler's investigation has been briefed up the chain of command and all concur with his conclusions.

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Marine Advisors Train Afghan Soldiers, Police

By Marine Corps Sgt. Justin Updegraff, Resolute Support Headquarters

BOST AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, May 25, 2017  Marine advisors with Task Force Southwest are advising, assisting and training their Afghan 505th Zone National Police counterparts during the first month of their deployment here in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

With the transfer of authority between Task Force Forge and Task Force Southwest, the advisors set their sights on meeting their Afghan counterparts, building rapport, understanding their challenges, seeking out Afghan solutions and advising them in the right direction.

Building Rapport

"Rapport building is critical, because you have to show your Afghan counterpart that you care, that you understand what their situation is and that you're here to help," said Marine Corps Col. David Gibbs, the commanding officer of team police, Task Force Southwest.

"The advisors have been doing outstanding," Gibbs said. "They've met with their counterparts on a daily basis, and have sought to understand their problems and develop good solutions."

The advisors have grown to appreciate the challenges their counterparts face, and through experience and a different perspective, they have been able to suggest new methods and solutions to the various daily issues the Afghan National Police encounter.

Exchanging Ideas

"Anytime you get an outside perspective looking on inside processes, you get other ideas," said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Scott Welch, the executive officer of team police, Task Force Southwest. "It makes [our counterparts] think and step outside of their bubble. So I think that's happened on numerous occasions and probably across all sections."

Task Force Southwest is comprised of approximately 300 Marines and sailors from II Marine Expeditionary Force, whose mission is to train, advise and assist the Afghan National Army 215th Corps and the 505th Zone National Police to enhance security and stability throughout Helmand province.

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National Guard Contributes to U.S.-Egypt Strategic Partnership

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jim Greenhill National Guard Bureau

SINAI PENINSULA, Egypt, May 25, 2017  A recent ceremony in which a Minnesota National Guard infantry battalion handed over responsibility for the Multinational Force and Observers mission here to an incoming Massachusetts National Guard infantry battalion might have been a newsworthy event 16 years ago -- today, the extraordinary has become routine.

In the 16 years since the 9/11 attacks -- through innumerable missions fighting America's wars, securing the homeland and strengthening domestic and international partnerships essential to national security -- the National Guard transformed from a strategic reserve to an operational force.

An Operational Force

The Minnesota National Guard unit, the 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment was the multinational force's lead military contingent. The Massachusetts National Guard unit, the 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment assumed the same role.

As more than 200 Minnesota Guard members prepared to rejoin families, reintegrate into communities, return to civilian employers and ready themselves to answer the next call to duty, more than 200 Massachusetts Guard members hung up firefighter, state trooper or paramedic uniforms, set down the tools of a trade or stepped away from computer keyboards to take their place.

They bade farewell to families and friends, put college on hold, took leaves of absence from work and headed to a country almost none had visited before to help keep a historic peace that has held more than 38 years, a challenging assignment in a dynamic security environment.

That the Sept. 11 attacks happened in 2001 and -- among many other domestic and overseas missions -- the National Guard started supporting the MFO mission in 2002 isn't unrelated. Demands on U.S. military forces grew in the wake of the attacks, and the National Guard stepped up not only to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also to ensure continuity of other longstanding overseas operations, such as peacekeeping in the Balkans and the Horn of Africa or supporting the 1979 treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Multinational Force, Observers Mission in Egypt

"More than 15,000 Guard members have served with the Multinational Force and Observers since 2002," said Air Force Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Lengyel visited with the Minnesota and Massachusetts units here as part of a trip to Egypt which also included meetings with Egyptian leaders, during which the MFO was only one of multiple topics in conversations about the longstanding, wide-ranging security cooperation between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the United States -- and about possible innovations in how the National Guard might contribute to the relationship in the future.

Lengyel returned to the country where he once served as the United States' senior military representative, an assignment the general views as a career highlight, in part because it enriched his understanding of the complexity of geopolitical issues and the interdependence of America's relationships with allies and partners, further preparing him for his current position as the Guard Bureau's chief.

The role Lengyel filled during his visit is another example of the extraordinary becoming routine: In the early years of the National Guard's support to the MFO, visiting NGB chiefs wore three stars and primarily represented the Guard.

The contributions of National Guard soldiers and airmen at home and around the world after 9/11 changed that: In 2008, the Bureau's chief added a fourth star, and in 2012 the position was elevated to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Lengyel returned to Egypt both in his capacity as the National Guard's most-senior general and as a military advisor to the secretary of defense and the president.

Strong U.S.-Egypt Defense Relationship

"The primary purpose of my visit is to convey the Department of Defense's and the National Guard's support for the strong defense relationship with Egypt as an important strategic partner in helping advance security and stability in the Middle East, and to visit National Guard soldiers serving on the Sinai Peninsula," he said.

Among those accompanying Lengyel was Army Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Kepner, the command sergeant major of the Army National Guard, acting as Lengyel's senior enlisted advisor. Kepner represented the enlisted force in Lengyel's meetings with Egyptian leaders and during the Sinai visit, his presence demonstrating to the host nation the advantages of a professional noncommissioned officer corps.

"Our Egyptian counterparts got to see our command team philosophy firsthand -- the value that our leadership at the highest levels places on the advice and counsel of the NCO corps, which is a significant part of the secret to our military success," Kepner said. "Engaging our citizen-soldiers in the Sinai demonstrates that we support them and gives them a chance to provide their insights on their mobilization experience. Their concerns are invaluable: They help us shape our future."

Lengyel's itinerary included meetings with U.S. Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft and with senior Egyptian leaders, including Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Sedky Subhi; Lt. Gen. Mahmoud al-Hijazi, Egyptian armed forces chief of staff; Air Marshal Younes Hamed al Masri, Egyptian air force commander; Maj. Gen. Abdel Mordy, chief, Egypt Armed Forces Logistics Authority; Brig. Gen. Mohammed Keshkesh, commander, Egypt Air Force Search and Rescue Center; and Brig. Gen. Mohammed El-Desouky, commander, Egypt Armed Forces Quick Response and Rescue Unit.

Possible Future Cooperation Engagements

Discussions included possible future National Guard cooperation engagements centered on quick response and search and rescue capabilities -- engagements that could further the interoperability of U.S. and Egyptian forces and develop both Guard members' skills and those of their Egyptian hosts. Other topics included the security situation in Egypt and terrorist threats, such as that posed by ISIS on the Sinai Peninsula.

"The National Guard is engaged worldwide in supporting the Joint Force and the USA's national security priorities," Lengyel said. "Missions such as our support to the MFO keep our soldiers and airmen ready, effective and operational."

Army Sgt. Kathryn Moonen put her environmental engineering studies on hold to take up the duties of a MFO medic in a Middle Eastern desert.

"I knew this was a well-established deployment," she said. "We came in here with the mindset to make it that much better."

The Minnesotan citizen-warriors knew their unfamiliarity with the mission and the environment held a potentially innovative advantage -- fresh eyes.

Continuous Improvement

"People get in a mindset, 'Oh, it's been this way for 30 years,'" Moonen said. "The Minnesotans sought ways to enhance the mission. The Massachusetts troops replacing them say they're bringing the same attitude: How can we contribute to continuous improvement?"

Moonen returns to Minnesota changed by her first overseas deployment.

During her time in the Sinai Desert, Moonen rotated through remote sites where small units of soldiers observe and report activity in support of Egypt and Israel's treaty.

She spent a full 28-day rotation sharing quarters in the austere environment of Tiran Island, where soldiers are the only residents on a windblown, sandy rock, periodically resupplied by the MFO's UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

Moonen helped teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation to about 100 of the Fijian troops also supporting the MFO. With MFO firefighters, she helped troops become certified as combat lifesavers. She contributed to significantly upgrading the MFO's medical capabilities, ordering mannequins and other equipment for training and medical care. She took part in evacuation exercises and air assault school tryouts.

National Guard Service

She also took a one-month break to attend the Basic Leadership Course required of Army noncommissioned officers. The course was offered by Army National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait; Moonen graduated on the commandant's list.

Moonen is 24 years old. She knows her National Guard service makes her different from many of the students she's rejoining in school, and she returns seeing opportunity in that difference -- the chance to share her experience and perspective with her contemporaries.

She said her military service is possible because of her family and friends.

"My support system is great," Moonen said. Like many Guard members, she's continuing a family tradition: her father served in the Army, a brother is a Marine, and a second brother is training to become an Army officer in ROTC.

The 9/11 attacks accelerated a transformation already underway in the Guard. While it's convenient to assign credit for change to one event, reality is more complex. Other seismic events had already set in motion dramatic change across the force. Two examples: The Air National Guard has continuously flown sorties ever since the 1991 Gulf War.

Guard Security Cooperation Contributions

And the National Guard was honing its contributions to the United States' foreign security cooperation relationships long before 9/11, at least since the 1993 establishment of its State Partnership Program following the collapse of the Soviet bloc -- and even before that, with wide-ranging engagements while building roads and other infrastructure in Central America in the 1980s.

"I hope these citizen warriors recognize what they're accomplishing and take pride in their service," Lengyel said as he departed the Sinai Peninsula to return to Washington. "They are taking the foundation built by hundreds of thousands of Guard members who served before them to a whole new level. It's absolutely extraordinary what Guard members do every day at home and around the world.

"We are force providers to the Army and the Air Force," he continued, "and we are also a unique force that, through the civilian-acquired skills we bring to our military service, and through our unique role in the states and territories, among other things, contribute to the joint force in ways that should make every individual Guard member walk just a little taller and be justifiably proud of contributing to this exceptional organization and our national security."

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: U.S. Army Major General Joseph Martin; U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler; Captain Jeff Davis, Director, Defense Press Office May 25, 2017

Department of Defense News Briefing on the Findings of an Investigation into a March 17 Coalition Air Strike in West Mosul

CAPTAIN JEFF DAVIS: Hi, this is Captain Davis here at the Pentagon. Just want to confirm you can hear us.

(UNKNOWN): Loud and clear.

CAPT. DAVIS: OK, great. So get folks to gather round. Hey, guys. All right, so today we're joined by U.S. Army Major General Joseph Martin. He is the commander of the Combined Joint Force Land Component Command for Operation Inherent Resolve as well as U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler. He recently served as the CJFLCC-OIR air officer.

Generals Martin and Isler will brief us today on the findings of a command investigation into a coalition airstrike that took place March 17th in West Mosul. General Martin, the CJFLCC commander who is in Baghdad will have a few words for us and then pass the mike to General Isler. He joins us from Randolph Air Force Base and served as the investigating officer for this incident.

After that -- after that we will proceed to questions, we'll take some questions initially from here. We do have a couple of callers on from out of town as well so we will offer them the opportunity for questions as well. We will feed the audio from this briefing to the DOD pool line at 12:15. And with that, we will get started. General Martin, sir, we'll turn it over to you.

MAJOR GENERAL JOSEPH MARTIN: Good evening, everybody. This is Major General Joe Martin from Baghdad, Iraq. I'm the commanding general of the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command in Operation Inherent Resolve. Today I'll address the coalition's investigation into the events of March 17, 2017 in the al-Jadidah district of Mosul, Iraq. I would like to express my condolences to everyone affected by this incident.

Let me be clear that our objective is always to minimize the risk of collateral damage and any potential harm to noncombatants. It is important to us that we take the time to look closely at this incident and see what lessons we can learn for the future. We owe that to the victims and the families. Following an alleged civilian casualty incident that occurred on 17 March in the al-Jadidah district of Mosul, Iraq, the coalition opened an Army Regulation 15-6 investigation.

The coalition was conduct -- the coalition conducted a total of 81 engagements in West Mosul on the 17th of March. 12 of those occurred in the vicinity of the al-Jadidah district. Of those 81 engagements, one corresponded to an allegation of civilian casualties. I subsequently appointed Brigadier General Matthew Isler as the investigating officer.

He assembled a team of 12 subject matter experts who invested over 1,600 combined hours of work assembling significant amounts -- amounts of evidence and they leveraged some of the Department of Defense's most specialized capabilities in producing the investigative report. In the interest of providing an honest and transparent and reliable account, the team made every effort to be thorough and accurate.

I will now introduce Brigadier General Matthew Isler, the investigating officer for the incident. He will cover the details and answer all of your questions. Matt, over to you.

BRIGADIER GENERAL MATTHEW ISLER: Thank you, General Martin. Thank you, everyone, for sharing this time together today. I'm going to provide you an overview of our investigation including the process, the events of 17 March, and my assessments. I started after receiving authority by General Martin to conduct the investigation. I assembled my team of subject matter experts in weapons, engineering, explosives, and law.

The team gathered evidence from multiple sources and conducted two inspections of the incident site. We reached out to regional and Western news agencies and numerous nongovernmental organizations to gain information on the incident. I'd like to express my personal thanks to the news agencies and NGOs who responded to our requests. Included in the evidence are the testimony of eye witnesses including those of local residents, Iraqi civil defense personnel, and journalists on the scene.

We also reached out to numerous outside agencies including some of the best engineering, weapons, and explosives analysts in the Department of Defense. These agencies completed comprehensive modeling and provided in-depth analysis to aid the investigation team. In addition, we received great support from the government of Iraq and met with multiple ministries in the conduct of the investigation, including an Iraqi counter -- an Iraqi Counterterrorism Service, which I'll refer to as CTS, the Ministries of Interior and Defense, and the Combined Joint Operations Command Baghdad.

On the day and at the time of the engagement, Iraqi CTS forces were engaged in offensive maneuver to seize the al-Jadida district of western Mosul. CTS soldiers had a continuous over watch of the district with visual observation of the structure.

Coalition intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets had previously confirmed ISIS control of the district and observed ISIS employed tactics, techniques and procedures, such as in placing defensive fighting positions in residences, seizing and employing vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and improvised explosive devices, engaging CTS with direct and indirect fire.

Coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets observed ISIS fighters forcibly evict families from their homes in the district and local residents described evictions by ISIS during their interviews. Multiple residents also described how ISIS fighters knocked holes in the walls of the buildings to move unobserved within the structures of the district, including the structure in question.

The structure was a two story reinforced cement building that was used at least in part as a residence. The structure was well built and in some places, the walls were 30 inches thick. The structure had an additional walled room on the roof and a partial basement in the rear of this structure.

CTS visual observers had been in direct observation of the area for over two days and had not observed civilians enter or use the structure. Due to poor weather, coalition intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance of the area had been limited.

Neither coalition, nor CTS forces knew that civilians were sheltered within the structure. According to witness testimony, ISIS fighters knew the presence of the large number of civilians within the structure and had interacted with those civilians.

While CTS was seizing the district, CTS visual observers within 100 meters of the structure identified two ISIS snipers, effectively engaging CTS soldiers from the defensive fighting position built into the second story of the structure. Iraqi CTS commanders received reports of CTS casualties, approved the request for a coalition strike to neutralize the snipers and coordinated with an Iraqi forward air controller to prepare the strike request.

After a consultation with coalition advisors, the request was sent to the coalition strike cell, a joint fires and control center under the command of a target -- of a coalition target engagement authority. The strike cell evaluated intelligence on enemy activities, historical civilian population reporting and the activities of friendly forces.

Weaponeering experts analyzed available weapons and recommended a weapon and a fusing option to achieve the required effect of neutralizing the ISIS snipers, while protecting friendly forces and minimizing collateral damage. The target engagement authority positively identified the snipers, selected a GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition with a delayed fuse and authorized the engagement.

The target engagement authority approved the engagement in accordance with the applicable rules of engagement, including specific provisions related to collective self defense and the law of armed conflict. The engagement satisfied the criteria of distinction, proportionality and military necessity required by the law of armed conflict.

At 0824 on 17 March, 2017 in accordance with the applicable rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict, a coalition U.S. aircraft delivered a single GBU-38 precision guided munition against two ISIS snipers, engaging the Iraqi CTS. Neither coalition nor CTS forces knew that civilians were sheltered in the bottom floors of the structure.

The GBU-38 detonated on the second floor of the front of the structure. The detonation ignited a large amount of explosive material, which ISIS fighters had previously placed in the rear of the house. The secondary explosion triggered a rapid failure of the structure, which killed the two ISIS snipers, 101 civilians sheltered in the bottom floors of this structure and four civilians in the neighboring structure to the west.

An additional 36 civilians who are believed to be connected to the structure remain unaccounted for. Iraqi civil defense excavated the structure and found 101 casualties in the bottom floors of the structure. This investigation analyzed this structure and post blast effects using three methods; post blast analysis by explosive ordinance disposal experts, which included chemical analysis of samples taken from the site, structural analysis and weaponeering analysis.

Each of these three analytical methods indicated a single mode of causation and effects. First, post-blast analysis conducted by coalition explosive ordinance disposal teams detected explosive residues that are common to ISIS explosives, but are not consistent with the explosive contents of a GBU-38.

The senior U.S. explosive ordinance disposal officer concluded based on the chemical signatures of the explosives and the modalities of crater and observed damage to the structure that the residues were linked with multiple explosive components in place by ISIS. Explosive ordinance disposal analysis also determined that the quantity of explosives would have been significantly greater in the explosive material contained in a single GBU-38.

Second, structural engineering analysis concluded that the overall structural damage and the crater at the rear of the building were not caused by the low explosive weight of a single GBU-38. Instead, structural engineering analysis determined that the ISIS emplaced explosive material conservatively contained more than four times the net explosive weight of the GBU-38, which contains 192 pounds of explosive material.

This analysis is consistent with Iraqi findings, which determine that a coalition munition was not responsible for the structural failure of the building and the deaths of the civilians inside. Third, comprehensive analysis by a weaponeering expert teams determined how and where the GBU-38 entered the structure; where the weapon detonated; and predicted weapons results.

The GBU-38 entered the roof at the -- near the front of the structure, and detonated while breaching the roof of the structure. Observed damage throughout the site confirmed the locations -- the location of the weapon's impact, the results on the roof, and at the front of the structure.

To summarize, these three methods of analysis, including post-blast analysis with chemical testing, structural analysis, and weaponeering analysis all confirmed that the GBU-38 entered the roof at the front of the structure, detonated while breached in the roof, and would have resulted in localized damage to the front and second-floor areas of the structure.

The overall structure would have remained intact and not collapsed. The GBU-38 detonated a large amount of explosives emplaced by ISIS. Conservatively, more than four times the net-explosive weight of the GBU-38, which resulted in the collapse of the structure, the death of 101 civilians within the structure, and the death of four civilians in the neighboring structure to the west.

In conclusion, I will emphasize several key points. The coalition takes responsibility for the airstrike conducted on 17 March. The coalition conducted an open, transparent investigation to establish full accountability. One recommendation of the investigation currently being pursued by Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve is to create a full-time, dedicated civilian casualty assessment team to work with Iraqi civil defense to help assess allegations of civilian casualties.

This team's creation will help speed the assessment process and provide increased accountability for strikes that may result in civilian casualties.

The coalition has already adapted techniques -- tactics, techniques and procedures involving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to aid in the identification of civilians held by ISIS as human shields or trapped while ISIS fights from their homes. However, this engagement was conducted using all available intelligence, entirely according to stringent coalition rules of engagement and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.

The coalition employed a weapon that achieved the necessary military effect and would have limited collateral effects had ISIS not emplaced a large amount of explosive material within the structure. This investigation determined that ISIS deliberately staged explosives and snipers to harm civilians. ISIS knew of the large number of civilians sheltered in the structure; had interacted with the civilians.

ISIS emplaced a large amount of explosive material in the rear of the residence for the purpose of killing civilians. ISIS emplaced a sniper position in the rear of the building next to the explosives and attacked CTS to draw fire onto a structure they knew contained a large number of civilians.

The coalition remains committed to taking all feasible measures to protect civilians as we support our Iraqi partners in the liberation of Mosul and the defeat of ISIS.

I'm grateful for our time today, and remain available to take your questions.

CAPT. DAVIS: All right. Thanks.

Operator, over to you. I know we had some people that are dialed in. We'll give you an opportunity to give them a chance to queue up and then take questions here.

OPERATOR: Thank you.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star-one and you will be prompted to record your first and last name. Please unmute your phone when recording your name. To withdraw your question, press star-two.

CAPT. DAVIS: We'll start with a few questions here.

Courtney Kube from NBC News.

Q: Hi. Thank you, General Isler; a couple of things.

So, the CTS, when you say that they had been watching the building for two days, is it fair to say that they had 24-hour surveillance on it for those two days? And that because of the bad weather, there was no overhead ISR of the building? Is that -- is that fair?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Courtney, thank you. I appreciate the question.

And I think it leads to the bigger question of positive identification. And let me just talk through that, and those two aspects you brought up -- coalition ISR and direct observation in particular.

First, the coalition abides by the law of armed conflict and considers all persons and structures to be civilian in nature and protected from attack. There are a number of methods that coalition forces use to positively identify combatants. I'm not going to go into detail on those as they relate to coalition ROE, which is classified, but I'll address your particular question on visual observation and the use of full-motion video used to positively identify.

First, the visual observation piece. In this case, CTS soldiers were in direct visual observation of two ISIS snipers who were conducting a hostile act of attacking CTS soldiers from a defensive fighting position in the structure. On 14 March, CTS soldiers had seized the area, including the area within 100 meters south of the structure and established observation positions over the district, which -- including over the structure.

From these positions, CTS visually observed the sector, including the structure in question. They used their eyes and optical augmentation like scopes and binoculars. And in this case, the observation position was within 100 meters directly to the south.

CTS could directly see the structure and the defensive fighting position. However, as you noted, visual observation does not mean that they were omnipotent. It doesn't mean that they could see all angles of the structure. CTS could see the rear of the house where the snipers and the defensive fighting position were. But they could not see parts of the north-facing front of the house. So there were blind zones, and that's the nature of the urban environment.

Second, we'll discuss the full-motion video in this case used by the coalition. Coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance have been observing and characterizing the area ahead of ISF maneuver since even before operations in west Mosul began on the 19th of February.

Coalition advisers helped the ISF plan its break-in and maneuver to factor in known areas occupied by civilians. In this district, coalition ISR observed, and witness statements corroborate that ISIS had forcibly evicted families from their homes in the area and prepared defensive fighting positions. At least one of the families in the structure was a family forcibly evicted by ISIS.

However, due to weather, coalition ISR was degraded on 15 March and 16 March. And coalition ISR could not observe the district with full-motion video ahead of this engagement.

So when considering the strike the coalition target engagement authority took all these factors into consideration. He considered the operational intelligence that CTS was proceeding into the district in a planned attack in an area that CTS had visually observed for over two full days. And CTS had observed no civilian activity.

The target engagement authority considered the structure was in an area that coalition force ISR had observed ISIS evict families and prepare engagement areas. The TEA also considered operational intelligence that CTS visual observers reported ISIS snipers engaged in a hostile act and that CTS leadership reported CTS soldiers taking casualties and requested assistance.

The TEA also considered the overall characterization of the area based on multiple sources of intelligence. And the TEA determined the ISIS fighters were conducting a hostile act and used proportionate force to defend CTS. I understand that answered the question.

Q: Yeah, it does, it just - ask one more. So because they - it was visual surveillance as opposed to some kind of an overhead ISR, is it your assessment or the investigation's assessment that the civilians in the building were being held hostage? Or you just couldn't see a side of the building where they may have been coming and going during those two days?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: So, in this incident, and - and I'll be very narrow, it applies to this incident. In this incident, I assessed that the civilians went there and remained there up until the day prior voluntarily. The - the home was owned by a very well-known elder in the community, very well-regarded. And he invited people to shelter within the home and that's from multiple witness testimony.

The home was well-known by neighbors as a very strong place to seek shelter. They described it as extremely well-built with very thick walls. And in this case, they sought shelter in the basement because it was the most safe and in the first floor because there was a restroom and a little bit of overflow in that area. And the - we - I personally spoke with someone who'd been in the structure days prior.

And that person was evicted with his family from his home, went to a follow-on structure, and eventually came to this structure seeking shelter. However, the night prior, so at 4:00 p.m. the night prior to the attack, ISIS fighters went to the next-door neighbor and told the next-door neighbor to leave the area. That neighbor said "I built this home, I'm going to die in this home, I'm not leaving and I'm not taking my family out."

And ISIS said "well, that is on you. What happens to you is on you and not the result of ISIS." And ISIS fighters said "do not leave your house or we will consider you an enemy. When you leave your house, we will kill you." So he understood that night, so the night prior to the engagement, that he was not to leave his home. And we don't know whether those in the structure that - the engagement, so in the structure in question were given the same warning.

It was likely that they were given the same warning but we don't know that. But the original reason that they went there was they sought shelter and they were invited and so that was the purpose of their entry. However, ISIS fighters did know that they were in the structure and interacted with those civilians. I want to make sure that answers your follow-up question.

Q: It does, thank you.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next, we'll go to Michael Gordon from the New York Times.

Q: I think you just answered my main question which is that you have no - no proof that these people were herded in there or forcibly held there. But - but you still think ISIS put the explosives there to take advantage of the situation. But just a quick follow-up question, at what level was the strike approved? Was this done by a general officer?

Have you ever seen this sort of tactic employed anywhere else in Mosul, putting explosives in a building where civilians were known to be in the hope that the coalition would strike it? And I just think if you could provide a little better explanation as to how you're going to avoid a repeat of this situation, I understand the extenuating circumstances but how do you stop this from happening again?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Michael, I'm glad we've got as much time as we need. You gave a lot of battle space there. Thank you. Let me first address with, it doesn't - to me looking at this, it doesn't matter how the civilians got there. There were civilians in the structure and as of the night before, ISIS knew that they were there. Whether they put them there or they existed prior, at that point there's over 100 civilians within that structure.

And - and I think that that's the germane point on this. So let me go into that TTP in just a moment. Your other question is, under what authorities did - was this engagement conducted? And so there is - this engagement was approved by the target engagement authority. Because of the numbers of target engagement authorities, I'm not going to be specific as to the rank.

However, there has been no change in - in coalition force ROE prior to this. And so the coalition force ROE that was in effect last Fall remains the coalition force ROE that was used in this case. The rules of engagement that the coalition's operating under is the same as they were previously. As far as the tactics, techniques, and procedures, in this case, ISIS knew that there was a large number of civilians within the structure.

That is according to multiple witness testimonies. ISIS also, by multiple witness testimony, interacted with civilians and ISIS had fighters staged out in front of the structure as just a matter of practice. They had fighters that were staged out in front - in front of there. ISIS emplaced explosives on top of those civilians in the second floor at the rear of the house.

We know that by modalities of the cratering and the chemical signatures of the cratering. And at least 1,000 pounds of TNT equivalent which is more than four times the weight of explosives in a GBU-38. Additionally, the distribution and location of that were significantly different than could be - have been created by a GBU-38. They put accelerants in it, they set det cord, they enhanced the explosives with an accelerant to make it more sensitive for sympathetic detonation.

And then ISIS staged an attack within full view of CTS visual observers. Now, ISIS could have conducted sniper attacks from anywhere. This building was tall but it wasn't the tallest. This building was an effective location, but it wasn't the most effective. And so if you went in the area, it's probably not where, if you were the best sniper in the world, that you would have set up your position.

There were other areas that were more advantageous for an unobserved attack, and that were empty of inhabitants. This was not a cache. ISIS took explosive material and staged it on the second floor. Within line of sight of CTS, you could put a cache anywhere. You wouldn't put it within direct line of sight of your enemy forces. And then they engaged CTS from the explosive location. They put a lot of work into this set up.

You asked about other TTPs. We've seen this -- this exact TTP or similar TTPs on multiple occasions to include them locking civilians within structures. And I'll go into that in just a moment.

On one particular occasion, 28 March, we saw the same TTPs -- it was 11 days after the 17 March incident. We recorded with full-motion video. We saw ISIS fighters forcibly move civilians through wormholes in the walls between structures. They even used deadly force on civilians who resisted that moving.

ISIS fighters placed accelerants on the roof of that structure, including industrial-size propane bottles like one observed within the rubble of the structure in question on 17 March. ISIS fighters then conducted attacks from the structure on ISF and attempted to draw coalition attacks. Those civilians were not harmed by a follow-on coalition attack, and it illustrates how we've adjusted out TTPs.

You asked about our TTPs, and so going forward we discussed -- hey, we -- ISIS has this TTP, and the coalition recognized this. We know this ISIS TTP. ISIS uses civilians. They lock them. They hold them. They weld them even in structures. We've seen them herd them into structures, and then conducts attacks from those structures.

And as a result, coalition and Iraqi forces anticipate this tactic. We look for ISIS moving civilians and creating entrapment of civilians. I won't go into any more detail on the tactics, techniques and procedures the coalition forces uses in order to protect their methods and effectiveness. But the coalition takes every feasible measure to protect civilians from harm.

Michael, does that answer your question completely?

Q: It answers it partly.

CAPT. DAVIS: Next, we'll go to Tara Kopp from Stars and Stripes.

Q: Hi. Thanks for doing this.

In previous briefings, we've been told that, you know, once CTS asks for air support -- (inaudible) -- upcoming contact, it can be a matter of minutes before -- (inaudible) -- reinforces -- U.S. or coalition air resources respond.

Can you give us a ballpark of the timeframe between CTS contacting for support and the actual airstrikes?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Tara, I don't want to go into response times. But look, I think General Martin's introductory remarks say a lot about coalition support on that day. This was a day in which CTS was advancing into an ISIS-held area. On that day, coalition supported with 81 engagements. And the speed of that is a function of the intensity of ISIS resistance and the speed of the Iraqi maneuver.

In terms of the speed of response, we effectively meet our coalition partners need for timely fires response and make a great effort to make sure that we're being timely, as well as precise and fully in consideration of all the factors that need to go into that engagement.

Q: Okay. And also earlier this year, after reports of the -- (inaudible) -- had a briefing where -- (inaudible) -- that maybe ISIS -- (inaudible) -- and that there was -- (inaudible) -- video of ISIS -- (inaudible). But given the weather and the lack of the video feeds, I guess there wasn't video of ISIS -- (inaudible) -- on this one?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Ma'am, on that day -- on that day, and in this engagement. there is no coalition force video available. We have -- the aircraft that were supporting this engagement, we have their weapons system video, which is in cockpit recordings of the weapons displays at the time. And that allows us to validate the exact weapon, the coordinates, the method of employment.

But the -- if you would say -- a targeting pod video of that, it's just a display of weather. And so it's not useful for the purposes that we're talking about.

So, in this particular engagement, we don't have video of -- of that area. However, regarding the -- the tactics, techniques and procedures used by ISIS regarding hurting civilians, we do have video that we've shared previously. And I will ask the CJTF public affairs to follow up with you on giving you access to that previously released video.

CAPT. DAVIS: Okay. For the operator, we'll take one from the phone here.

OPERATOR: I'm showing no phone questions at this time.

CAPT. DAVIS: Okay. Great. We'll just continue on here.

David Martin of CBS News.

Q: Were you able to determine when the explosives were moved into the building? Or do you assume that they were moved in during the period when you didn't have overheads?

And just -- (inaudible) -- point of fact, is a GBU-38 what we call a 250-pound bomb?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: So, Dave, thank you. It was a GBU-38 joint direct attack munition, which is a 500-pound weapon. It's a 500-pound class weapon. The entire weapon, including its casing and guidance, weighs 500 pounds. If you rip that all apart and emptied out the explosives in it, that total net explosive weight contained within the GBU-38 is 192 pounds of explosive.

When you adjust and compare that with what would be required, that explosive is in military-grade explosives, so it's a little bit more concentrated, but not substantially more concentrated. And if you compare an apples-to-apples comparison of how much net explosive weight would be required, much more than the 192 pounds of explosive would have been required to achieve the effects observed.

So let me just describe what that -- those effects are. So if you go to that structure in the al-Jadida district, and you stand at the back wall of the basement, and you face south toward where the CTS was, and you're directly underneath where the ISIS sniper position was. It was on the second floor.

In front of you is a wall that's 30 inches of mortar and rocks. And another wall of the neighboring structure which is 15 inches of concrete. That wall you can then stand in where that wall was, in the middle it's completely pulverized, meaning its little bitty bits of rock and it's shoved into the neighboring structure.

If you go outside of arms width, that entire wall is moved back into the neighboring structure, not pulverized but broken apart and moved deep into that, so that 30 inches of concrete. If you look to your left and your right where there were 30 inches of concrete walls and -- and we're standing in an area that's 10 meters, 30 feet wide, both of those walls are completely gone.

Each of those 30 inch walls are completely gone and if you would, liberated. The reinforced concrete rebar that was held -- held the floor above it, that 30 inch of reinforced concrete rebar is liberated, as well. And that's what brought down the structure.

If you try to take that GBU-38 and put it right there, it wouldn't even dent any of those -- if you put it right there in the center of it, it wouldn't even dent any of those surrounding walls. They would be intact, they'd have a little bit of facial damage on it but that's the most you could get.

If you put four times the net explosive weight of that and centered it in the room where that's centered, you couldn't even generate the same thing, it wouldn't produce enough net explosive weight to produce that that far away from those -- those areas. So you would also have to take that thousand pounds and ideally distribute it along each of those walls to result in that damage.

So it's not just the weight, it's not just the location, it's also the distribution of that. So in each of those cases, the most conservative estimate of that would be -- it would be 1,000 pounds of explosive to do that but it would have to be optimally positioned to be able to do that.

So it was likely even more than that. To go back to your question about the 250 pound munition, there are additional munitions that are 250 pounds that were not used in this engagement. I hope that answers your question.

Q: The other part of it was did you determine -- were you able to determine when the explosives were moved into the building?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: So we talked to people that had been in the building, the -- prior to the engagement. In general, they were not allowed on the second floor, so the -- if you would, the guests were in the basement and on the first floor. It was possible to get to the second floor, but the second floor was pretty much closed off from the rest of the house.

There was a separate entrance from the street directly at the staircase and into the second floor that -- so the ISIS fighters that were on the street level could go directly up and get in the second floor where the sniper position was and were based on the modalities of the crater ring we assess that the additional ISIS-emplaced explosive was.

We don't know when they moved that into the residence. It could have been moved in there prior to the night prior. But we know that the night prior that they had delivered specific threats to the neighbor to not come out of his residence under threat of death and had asked him to leave and issued a warning indicating that something was going to happen.

And I recognize that as an opportunity, but I think what was -- what -- what -- it wasn't as important as when it was there as the importance for -- for me to be able to show that there was additional explosive material there and that the chemical characteristics of those explosive materials were unique and identifiable and toward ISIS type explosive materials. I want to make sure that answers your question.

Q: (off mic) did you -- did you review video from (inaudible) the weather closed in? Because moving 1,000 pounds or more with accelerants of explosives if you had -- if you had eyes on the business, it would seem to be something you could check.

GEN. ISLER: So the 15th and 16th were the two days prior to the -- to the attack. In neither of those days did coalition forces have effective full motion video observation of this area. ISIS, just by being in that area and seeing the weather, ISIS probably has had a -- and we know they have a good sense of when coalition force ISR is effective.

And they would have had the opportunity to move a significant amount of explosive material. To -- to use a similar event, on the 28th of March, when we observed ISIS fighters move families -- or move civilians into the structure in a similar tactic and emplace a sniper position on it. There they moved a large propane bottle.

Depending on how much propane was in it, it could've been a hundred or 200 pounds, it took a multi person lift. That took them about five minutes to get that thing up there and to prepare that for its intended purpose.

CAPT. DAVIS: OK.

Next, to Lolita Baldor from the Associated Press.

Q: I just wanted to follow-up quickly on -- on David's question. So none of the people that you interviewed general and no eyewitnesses said that they saw ISIS planting explosives in that building? You have no other third party either suggestions or evidence other than explosives ended up there? But no one you were able to get to saw it happen or said that was happening?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: So, Lita, we know that that explosive was there based on how the damage went into that structure and how that energy was distributed. We recognize that that is -- is unique in nature and laterally displaced in a different nature than the coalition force munition.

Additionally, its chemical signature is different. In particular, chemicals that are not associated with a GBU-38 that were chemically tested and -- and so -- so in fact, let me just back up a little bit and -- and talk about some of the -- the additional capabilities that came into this assessment.

Q: So...

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: So in the -- in the...

Q: ...can I just -- can I just -- can I just talk to you for a second? I'm not questioning whether the explosives were there, I'm just -- I'm just curious that no one you interviewed was able to say they saw anything (off-mic)...

(CROSSTALK)

Q: ...but no one you interviewed either...

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Yes.

Q: ...was able to say.

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Yes. So, Lita, we -- we did ask that question and no one saw ISIS move explosives into that -- into that area. And however, there were multiple opportunities for that to happen and so we did not rule that out.

Q: Great, thanks so much.

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: OK.

CAPT. DAVIS: OK.

Nancy Youssef from BuzzFeed.

Q: In the initial hours and days after this strike, the U.S. military says that there did not believe there were any civilian casualties by the strike? I'm curious how your report addressed why the U.S. was unable to see -- (inaudible) -- if there were 700 videos and what not. You made reference to U.S. officials will be designated to deal with civilian casualties. Can you talk a little bit about why even as witnesses are kind of coming forward and body bags are piling up and all this that the U.S. did not know until local reporting came in. What -- what did your investigation show about that?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: You bet. What -- I'll -- I'll -- I think you're getting at a more broad question on accountability for numbers. And so let me -- let me drill into that a little bit. So to get accountability of numbers, we got a lot of outside help. We reached out to six media outlets and one freelance journalist, elected officials, NGOs, Iraqi government agencies, individual citizens.

We did over 20 interviews in key leader engagements. We've followed up on every feasible lead. We started by estimating a number of personnel that were in the structure. So two days prior on the 15th of March, a guest of the house moved his family into another house. At the...

(CROSSTALK)

Q: ...that accountability, I'm just getting at how -- what does it say about the U.S.'s ability to make post strike assessment, when it wasn't aware of -- (inaudible) -- and did the report address that question?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Good and I think I'll get to your question in just a moment. I'll -- I'll -- let me talk about -- I'll get to it because its -- its germane on how we found out how many people were there, which involves when Mosul civil defense was able to get there and attempt excavate -- to excavate the people.

So when those people -- when that family left, we estimated there were 140 people in the house so in the first floor and in the basement that included women and children. And there was a consensus of -- of NGOs and media that between 137 and 140 people were in this structure in the days preceding the attack.

The attack -- the engagement happened on the 17th of March, in between the 17th and the 25th of March, Mosul civil defense which is part of Iraqi civil defense conducted a full excavation of the structure. Mosul civil defense conducted the initial excavation while under fire and they took casualties.

And so they left the scene on the 17th of March, they paused from the 17th of March to the 22nd of March because CTS at this point had only moved up to the street on which that structure was and it was not safe enough to excavate.

During that time, there were discussions -- there -- there -- there had been speculation that something had happened and that Mosul civil defense had been identified that there -- that there were people within the structure, but they had suspended their excavation on the 17th. They went back to it on the 22nd and they completed their -- their excavation by the 25th and excavated 101 casualties from the structure.

They identified them by name, age and where the family was from and they used on person identification and also the identification made by relatives. So that's at the structure in -- in question. Does that answer kind of why -- there was -- there was a delay because it was too dangerous an area for Mosul civil defense to continue their excavation.

Q: And then the other question I had was have condolence payments been made and if not, what process has been placed for them if at all?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: OK. So no condolence payments have -- have been made and under -- under appropriate circumstances, commands may consider providing solatia payments. These are expressions of sympathy to those injured for the families of the deceased. The payments are not intended to serve as compensation for loss or injury, but out of respect for the privacy of the families, we do not discuss the details of individual cases.

DAVIS: All right, last call, any others -- oh I'm sorry, Courtney had a follow-up.

Q: Hi there, just based on I think it was David's question, based on the way that you were explaining the -- the way that the structure is filled, it sounds like you believe that it was rigged to blow, not that there was just a -- it was like maybe a storage place where there was a lot of explosives but that they -- that ISIS may have actually rigged the building in a way that it -- so it would collapse. Is that your assessment?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Ma'am, I -- I -- absolutely. So I have stood in that rear wall and it wasn't -- I had seen a lot of munitions effectively used and what was witnessed there was not just that a large amount of explosive went off, but it -- that it was positioned in a way that would liberate the walls of the structure.

And -- and so it would've taken -- when we initially did an estimation on the amount of explosive material required, we made an assumption that it was centrally positioned. But when we do the modeling on how much explosive it would take to do that, you rapidly realize it would take a lot.

And so in -- in this case, the easiest way to achieve the effect that was observed in that structure, which was the liberation of very thick walls and the collapse of the structure, would be to distribute that explosive in a way that provided for those effects that were observed in the structure.

And so we attempted to show that in modeling and that's exactly what the model showed, was that with that explosive material positioned in a certain way, you could achieve the -- the effects and then confirm that hypothesis.

Q: And then just one more and I appreciate you taking so much time to explain all this. When -- in the initial -- your initial opening statement, you said 101 civilians were since killed and 36 remain unaccounted for. If you have any sense of those 36 -- is it just a belief that they were killed in the actual explosion as opposed to the building being -- as opposed to the building being -- as opposed to the building collapse and being buried in rubble?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: So, the exact number of civilians that were in there -- in general, there's a consensus that two days prior there were between 137 and 140 and there -- we -- we discussed in detail our assessments. And so let me -- let me also add in that we discussed our lineup with those of a major NGO who's heavily invested in this type of work and those numbers aligned up well.

Those lined up exactly with that -- with that major NGO. So what happened to the others? Very -- my -- I don't know. But my assessment is that in the day -- in the days prior to the attack, either they left as other families were leaving the area as that attack began -- on the day of the attack that they escaped from -- from that area. Or following the attack, they escaped as survivors from the attack.

And so we were not able to close the gap but I'm very confident in the 101 number identified by Mosul civil defense. I'm very confident in the number of four in the neighboring structure immediately to the west. Those were -- those were recovered by the owner of the home, neighbors, and relatives. And I am not aware of any additional -- any additional casualties associated with this event.

We followed up on every lead from every one of the interviews that we did and every lead we were given from a media and nongovernmental organizations.

CAPT. DAVIS: All right. And with that, you have one more real quick one from Thomas Watkins from Agence France-Presse.

Q: I know you've been talking about this a long time and I was away for a little bit so if you've addressed this before, I apologize. Could you just say what amount of damage should the GBU-38 have caused?

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Good, so -- OK. So we modeled this a number of ways. We first reached out to Army Corps of Engineers. They have an engineering research and development center. They modeled the structure and they did that based on witness testimony and the testing of materials that we actually brought back from the site on our two visits. They modeled it as a multistory structure with masonry infill walls.

The ERDC, Engineering Research and Development Center produced a formal written report that represented the technical opinions of a panel of ERDC subject matter experts on penetrating weapons' effects and specifically whether a single GBU-38 with a delayed fuse would cause the complete collapse of the structure. The ERDC determined that the damage to the structure was not consistent with a GBU-38, that the GBU-38 functioned properly at the top of the front of the structure and would have not resulted in a collapse of the structure.

However, there was at least one other detonation at the rear of the building as shown by the signature in the 'rubblized' material. The ERDC conducted three types of weapon simulations including multiple probability-based Monte Carlo simulations with varying material properties. All the weapons simulations result in a conclusion that the GBU-38 functioned at the top of the structure at the front.

They also concluded that the GBU-28 did not account for the significant crater and the 'rubblized' material at the rear of the structure. Instead they determined that there was a second detonation at the rear of the building that caused the collapse of the structure. Separately, we reached out to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's target and weaponeering and assistance Cell.

These are folks that have some of the most capable analysts in the Department of Defense. We also reached out to the Naval Surface Worker Collateral Damage Methodology Group. These groups ran a series of simulations and assessments including probability based Monte Carlo simulations run over 1,000 times. They predicted no more than 16 to 20 percent damage to the structure and the total expected damage would be restricted to the second floor.

They determined that the damage to the structure was due to a much higher-level explosion than a GBU-38 with 192 pounds of explosive. So to summarize, all of the analysis indicated that the GBU-38 entered the roof of the front of the structure. It detonated while breaching the roof and was not responsible for bringing down the structure or affecting the basement.

Instead, a significant secondary explosive event at the rear of the structure brought down the structure. I hope that -- does that answer your question?

Q: Yes, thank you.

CAPT. DAVIS: OK, and with that, General, thank you for your time. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you. J.T., did you have anything else for us while you're here? OK. Signing off from OSD public affairs. Thank you, everybody.

BRIG. GEN. ISLER: Thank you very much.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1194694/

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Doorstep statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meeting of NATO Heads of State and/or Government

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

25 May. 2017

(As delivered)

Good morning.

In a few hours, NATO leaders will gather here in Brussels for an important meeting at our new Headquarters.

We have two major items on our agenda: Stepping up NATO's role in the fight against terrorism and fairer burden sharing in our Alliance. We are making progress on both. NATO has been actively engaged in the fight against terrorism for many years. Today, we will adopt an action plan to enhance NATO's contributions. Our largest military operation ever was launched in Afghanistan in a direct response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. 13,000 NATO troops continue to train Afghan forces. We will assess our level of support and the future of the mission. Training local forces is one of the best weapons in the fight against terrorism. We are already training Iraqi forces. And our AWACS surveillance planes provide information to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. Today, we will decide to expand our support to the Coalition. With more AWACS flight-time, more information sharing and air-to-air refuelling. All 28 Allies are members of the Global Coalition and today, we will agree on NATO's membership in the Coalition. This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism. And improve coordination within the Coalition. But it does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations.

At the same time, we will agree to establish a new terrorism intelligence cell here at NATO headquarters. Improving how we share intelligence, including on foreign fighters. And we will decide to appoint a coordinator to oversee NATO's efforts in the fight against terrorism.

The other major topic we will discuss is fairer burden sharing. In 2014, all Allies agreed to spend more and better on defence. Including moving towards investing 2 percent of GDP on defence within a decade. In 2015, cuts came to a stop. And in 2016, total spending across Europe and Canada increased by billions of dollars. This is not just about cash. But also modern capabilities. And meaningful contributions to NATO's missions, operations and engagements. Today, we will take steps to keep up the momentum. We will agree to develop national plans every year. These will set out how NATO Allies intend to meet their pledge. So that we continue to match words with action.

The stakes are high. This is about our security in a more uncertain world. So I look forward to welcoming all NATO leaders, as well as the Prime Minister of Montenegro, soon to be our 29th Ally.

With that, I'm ready to take your questions.

Julian Barnes, Wall Street Journal: In the wake of the Manchester attack, how do the changes you are making improve the fight against terrorism, improve security in Europe and what is the real benefit?

Secretary General: We will agree an Action Plan today on how to step up NATO's efforts fighting terrorism. And in that Action Plan, there are many elements. One of the elements is to join the Global Coalition fighting ISIS. This will send a strong political signal, a strong signal and message of unity in the fight against terrorism, but also provide a better practical platform for coordination on NATO efforts and the efforts of the rest of the Coalition. We are going to step up our practical support with more AWACS support, more flying time and more information sharing and air-to-air refuelling. We will also do more when it comes to other issues. I announced that we will now establish a new intelligence fusion cell at the headquarters addressing terrorism, including foreign fighters. And we will also appoint a special coordinator for NATO's efforts fighting terrorism. So this is both a strong political message of unity in the fight against terrorism, but also a part of an Action Plan where we are providing more practical support to the efforts fighting global terrorism, including addressing our mission in Afghanistan.

CNBC News: You mentioned intelligence sharing. How concerned are you by what we're seeing in the United States? Not just in identifying the Manchester bomber, there's also of course Israeli intelligence. Are you concerned by that? And also when we talk about what's happening in terms of Russia. Russia isn't directly on this agenda. Why is that?

Secretary General: Russia is on NATO's agenda always and Russia will be discussed during the meeting later on today. Also as part of our discussions related to the transatlantic bond and burden sharing. Because one of the reasons why we are investing more in our collective defence, why we are increasing our military presence in the eastern part of the Alliance is of course as a response to the aggressive actions of Russia we have seen in Ukraine. So Russia is on NATO's agenda. We have a strong and clear message. And that is that we need both credible deterrence, defence and dialogue. And NATO has a long-standing policy and that is that we need both dialogue and credible deterrence and defence in our approach to Russia. That will be addressed during the meeting later on today. On intelligence, I will say that issue raised on the Manchester attack, it's a bilateral issue between the UK and the US. It's not for me to comment on that. What I can say in general is that intelligence is of great importance for NATO. We are stepping up our efforts and our work when it comes to sharing intelligence. We are just establishing a new intelligence division here at the headquarters so we can better analyse, better understand and better share intelligence. And we are also today announcing that we will establish a new fusion cell related to fighting terrorism, especially addressing also issues such as foreign fighters. So this is an area where NATO really plays a key role, enabling Allies to share intelligence, also related to fighting terrorism.

Al-Arabiya: If we see what NATO provided to Afghanistan for more than a decade and still the country is not stable yet. How long NATO will be committed to assist Iraqi forces? Is there any progress in your discussion with [inaudible]?

Secretary General: There are many challenges in Afghanistan and no one said that the situation in Afghanistan was going to be easy when NATO ended its combat operation back at the end of 2014. But we have achieved a lot. We have been able to train and build Afghan forces which are now able to take responsibility for security in their own countries themselves. That's a great and important achievement. And the Afghans show professionalism and bravery in the way that they handle the security situation in Afghanistan. We don't have any end date for our activities in Iraq. We are focused on how we can build local capacity, how we can build local institutions, train local forces. Because in the long-run, it's much better that local forces, local institutions are able to take care of the security, stability in their own country instead of NATO or NATO Allies deploying forces in the country. The last question was on Libya. We are in dialogue with Libya. I recently met with Prime Minister al-Sarraj, where we discussed how NATO can provide support for institution building, really building a modem Ministry of Defence, Joint Chief of Staff and establishing better intelligence systems. All of this is of great importance because they need the structures to be able to gradually stabilise Libya. It's not about any sort of combat presence or military training. This is about institution building and our expert teams met recently and they continue to discuss how NATO can provide that kind of support.

Pahjwok: NATO joining the IS Coalition. Will NATO join US in Afghanistan against IS and if yes, then NATO once again start combat mission?

Secretary General: NATO will continue its train, assist, and advise mission in Afghanistan. And we will address that during the meeting today. We will also later on this year decide on the exact troop levels. We will not return back to a combat operation. Our aim is to train the Afghan forces to enable them to step up their efforts in stabilising their own country, countering the Taliban, but also fighting different terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including ISIS. And again we have seen that Afghan forces, the special operations forces have been very effective in targeting and attacking ISIS and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan. NATO troops are not doing that, but we help and we train and advise Afghans in their fight against ISIS.

BFBS: Secretary General, I'm aware that you see this largely as a bilateral issue, but with the US apparently leaking details of an ongoing British terrorist investigation, is it not going to be extremely difficult to put forward a convincing plan for intelligence sharing throughout NATO?

Secretary General: It's not possible for me to go into an issue when I'm don't know more about what actually happened and in details. And it's a bilateral issue between the US and the UK. What I can say is that sharing intelligence is of great importance. Sharing intelligence is based on trust. And we have seen in NATO over many, many years that we have been able to share intelligence in a good way. And that has been of great importance for the Alliance and for all Allies. And we are doing more of that with the new division and now also with the establishment of the new cell, addressing specifically countering terrorism. So that's the important thing for the Alliance. And then I will not go into the specific issue related to the Manchester attack.

Petra news agency: You say that NATO leaders are going to agree that NATO will join the Counter-ISIL Coalition. Can you tell us what this decision will entail in practical terms?

Secretary General: NATO joining the Coalition to Defeat ISIS is a strong political message of unity in the fight against terrorism. It additionally provides a better platform for coordinating the efforts of NATO and other Coalition members in the fight against ISIS. And NATO is also stepping up our practical support by more AWACS support, our surveillance planes improving the air picture for Coalition planes, with more flying hours, with more information sharing and also with air-to-air refuelling. And then we will also do more directed to intelligence. We are establishing a new intelligence cell here at the NATO headquarters, which also enables us to get more information about foreign fighters, and I will appoint a special coordinator for overseeing NATO's efforts in the fight against terrorism. So joining the Coalition is both a strong political message and a practical tool to improve the way we coordinate our efforts to defeat ISIS.

Question: Mr. Stoltenberg, you said that you are going to travel to Washington on the 5th of June. You are going to be there when Montenegro's protocol will be archived at the State Department. So what is your message of being present there, to Montenegro and NATO as well?

Secretary General: My message is that we welcome Montenegro as the 29th member of the Alliance. This is important for Montenegro, it's important for the Western Balkans and it's important for the whole of NATO. It also shows that NATO's door is open, because Montenegro has reformed, has really implemented important reforms in Montenegro, which enables Montenegro to become a new member of the Alliance. And I'm looking forward to both welcoming the Prime Minister here today, but also then to be present when the documents related to joining the Alliance will be deposited in Washington.

Question: Yesterday, you talked about NATO support for Western sanctions against Russia. If the EU and the US adopted stronger sanctions, would you also support that as well? And do you think the time has come to have that dialogue until Russia gets the message to get out of Ukraine?

Secretary General: It's for the EU and the US to decide on economic sanctions, but I have expressed support to this actions. And of course, 22 of the EU members and the US are members of NATO. [Inaudible] So I support the sanctions. I think the sanctions are extremely important as a reaction to the illegal annexation of Crimea and the lack of implementation of the Minsk agreements. And then I leave it to the EU and the US to make the specific decisions on sanctions.

Question: Your feelings on the deployment of the task force in eastern Europe. Next month, Canada will send its troops in Latvia. I just wonder about your feelings how it goes?

Secretary General: The deployment of the four battlegroups shows that NATO is able to adapt and change when the world is changing. The four battlegroups were decided in Warsaw, in July, at our last Summit. And we are now implementing and they will be in place, all of them, within weeks. It sends a strong signal of unity. It sends a strong signal of credible deterrence and defence. Because this is a multinational presence in the three Baltic countries and in Poland. Canada being the lead nation in Latvia. And other NATO Allies being the lead nations and contributing in the other Baltic countries and Poland. This is a defensive deployment. It's proportionate, measured and it's a direct reaction to the aggressive actions of Russia in Ukraine.

Question: Is there a message for the people in the Middle East that this Summit is not only about bringing fighting and military action, but also about being peace and justice?

Secretary General: NATO is an Alliance which exists to preserve peace and to create stability. And also to help create stability beyond our borders, because when our neighbours are more stable, we are more secure. Therefore, NATO supports efforts to find political solutions, peaceful solutions, negotiated solutions to the different conflicts we see around in the Middle East and the Arab world. Sometimes it's also necessary to use military means. And then NATO and NATO Allies have also shown that they're willing to do that, as NATO Allies do now in Syria and Iraq fighting ISIS, and also supported by NATO. But in the long-run the aim is of course to find peaceful, negotiated solutions. [inaudible] We believe strongly that we have to be able to move forward to avoid the turmoil and violence we see in many parts of the Middle East.

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China's defense ministry: US navy patrol not conducive to peace in S.China Sea

People's Daily Online

(CNTV) 21:12, May 25, 2017

China's Ministry of National Defense spokesman Ren Guoqiang said on Thursday that two Chinese warships warned a US Navy warship to leave after it sailed within 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef of China's Nansha Islands in the South China Sea.

Speaking at a monthly news briefing in Beijing, Ren Guoqiang said that China had lodged stern representations to the US over the patrol and that such moves were not conducive to peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Reuters reported earlier, quoting unnamed US officials, that the operation was led by the USS Dewey under the "Freedom of Navigation" principle and is the first of its kind since US President Donald Trump took office.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Thursday that China urged the US to correct its mistake and refrain from further patrols. He added that China and ASEAN countries have recently cooperated to ease tensions over the South China Sea, but such actions by the US were very likely to cause unexpected air and sea accidents.

Beijing has condemned similar moves by the US in the past, as they encroach on China's sovereignty and could risk flaring up tensions in the maritime body.

According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, territorial waters are defined as extending at most 12 nautical miles from a state's coastline.

The last similar US patrol was in October 2016, when a US guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur traveled near Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, a move described by the Chinese Defense Ministry as "illegal" and "provocative." At the time, two Chinese warships warned the US navy to leave.

The US began to conduct what it calls "Freedom of Navigation" operations in the South China Sea in October 2015, with US navy ships sailing within 12 nautical miles of China's Nansha Islands.

China's Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian said in April of last year that the operations were "very dangerous," noting that they were "political and military provocations against China and would easily lead to unexpected incidents."

Last month, top US commander in the Asia-Pacific region, Admiral Harry Harris, said the United States would likely carry out "Freedom of Navigation" operations in the South China Sea soon, without offering any details.

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Government bans Sale of Cattle for Slaughter

Published: May 26, 2017

The Ministry of Environment and Forests have come up with new regulations that bans the sale of cattle for slaughter. The central regulation for cow protection has been notified at the backdrop of rising cases of violence against cow traders by Hindu vigilante groups. The rules have been notified under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. Slaughter of cows are banned in most parts of the country except parts of the north-east India and Kerala. The new rules will be implemented in the next three months.

Salient Highlights

Across India, the cattle trade is permitted only among farm land owners. Cattle can be only sold to a person possessing documents that he is an agriculturist.

As per the new regulations, cattle bought cannot be resold within six months.

Young and unfit animals cannot be traded.

Animal markets cannot be set up within 50 km of an international border and 25 km of a state border. Transporting cattle outside of the country will require special approval of the state government nominee.

All animal markets has to run with the approval of district animal market committee to be headed by a magistrate. The committee will also have two representatives from government-approved animal welfare groups.

The new regulations prescribes around 30 norms for animal welfare in markets like that of water, fans, bedding, ramps, non-slippery flooring, veterinary facility and separate enclosure for sick animals etc.

The owner of the animal has to bear the cost of its upkeep in a shelter. In case, the owner is unable to pay, the cost would be recovered as land arrears. The state government will specify the costs every year on April 1.

Criticisms

The new regulations says that cattle bought cannot be resold for six months. This provision will hurt the business of cattle traders.

The new rules have introduced a lot of paperwork for cattle traders who are predominantly illiterate and poor. For example, a trader has to submit five copies of proof of sale at the local revenue office, the local veterinary doctor in the district of the purchaser, animal market committee, apart from one each for seller and buyer.

It is feared that the new rules will introduce inspector raj as it mandates veterinary inspector to certify proper loading and unloading of animals. He can also mark any animal unfit for sale.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2017

Topics: Ministry of Environment and Forests  National

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Hamas executes three over assassination of top commander

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 5:56PM

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has executed three men convicted of assassinating one of its high-ranking military commanders in the Gaza Strip earlier this year.

Two men were hanged in Gaza City on Thursday for killing 38-year-old military commander Mazen Fuqahaa in March, while a third was executed by a firing squad.

The executions came after a tribunal on Sunday found Ashraf Abu Leila, the prime suspect in the assassination of Fuqahaa, guilty of premeditated murder, treason and conspiracy with hostile foreign parties, and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The others were identified as Hisham al-Aloul, 44, who was also sentenced to death by hanging, and Abdallah al-Nashar, who was to face the firing squad. They were all convicted of collaborating with the Israeli regime.

Aloul was convicted of conspiracy and treason as well as involvement in the killing of the senior Hamas commander.

Nashar was found guilty of treason and conspiracy, and leaking information about Fuqahaa's movements and his hangouts.

Judicial sources had earlier said that Sunday's verdicts were final and could not be appealed according to the rules of the Military Field Tribunal.

Fuqahaa was shot in the head four times at the entrance to a residence in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on March 24. The assassination was carried out with a gun equipped with a silencer.

Palestinian security forces in the besieged enclave had detained Fuqahaa's assassin in early May.

Speaking at a press conference in Gaza City on May 11, the new chief of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh stated that a fair and appropriate punishment would be handed out on the basis of the movement's judicial principles, and in honor of Fuqahaa, all Palestinian martyrs as well as all prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas chief stressed that the Israeli regime was behind the criminal act.

"The Israeli occupation is the entity that gave orders regarding Fuqahaa's assassination. The killer has confessed to the crime and spelled the assassination out in details," Haniyeh pointed out.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Israel has also launched several wars on the enclave, the last of which began in early July 2014. The Israeli military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.

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OPEC agrees to extend key oil output cut deal

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 4:41PM

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has agreed to extend until March 2018 an oil output cut deal that was sealed last year to help shore up prices.

The cuts would lower the collective production of producers by 1.8 million barrels per day (mb/d).

A dozen non-members led by top oil producer Russia, which reduced output in tandem with OPEC, would also join the scheme.

OPEC members Nigeria and Libya would still be excluded from cuts as their output remained curbed by unrest.

Iran would also be allowed to keep its oil production by 3.8 mb/d over the next nine months. The country has been exempted from the existing six-month oil output cut deal that would expire in June.

Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told reporters on the sidelines of the OPEC meeting that Iran's oil production would not change as it stood around the same level that the Organization announced in its meeting in Vienna today.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih praised what he described as OPEC's consensus over the move.

"We do have consensus. My job has been very easy. There is great solidarity among members," Falih said.

"I think everybody sees the benefits and everybody appreciates this collective action."

Iraq's Oil Minister Jabbar Ali Hussein Al-Luiebi said his country strongly supported extending the oil output cut deal.

"We fully support nine months...it will have more impact on the market..stability and the prices, it will have more benefit in 9 months and we think it is a period that will have more stability in the market," he said.

OPEC cuts have helped to push oil back above $50 a barrel this year, giving a fiscal boost to producers, many of which rely heavily on energy revenues and have had to burn through foreign-currency reserves to plug holes in their budgets, Reuters reported.

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5 Kenyan police officers killed in fresh attack by al-Shabab

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 3:17PM

Five Kenyan police officers have been killed in a fresh attack by the al-Shabab Takfiri militant group near the border with Somalia.

Mohamud Ali Saleh, a military official coordinating an operation against the Somalia-based militants in northeast Kenya, said Thursday that the officers were targeted while they were traveling in a town on the border with Somalia as part of a larger deployment in the restive region.

"The five police officers killed in the attack were headed to boost the ongoing operation in Liboi," said Saleh.

Other sources said the vehicle of the officers was targeted by an improvised explosive device (IED).

The Kenya Red Cross said the blast flipped over the green police pickup and tore its rear end off, adding that the incident occurred between Malelei and Kulan in Garissa county.

The attack comes just a day after eight police officers lost their lives in two similar blasts. Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the three attacks.

The Somali-based group has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya over the past years, allegedly in retaliation against Kenya's involvement in a regional push to purge Somalia from militants.

The Kenyan police issued a statement on Tuesday, saying militants had increased their activities along the border with Somalia and that they specifically use IEDs to target security forces. Police chief George Kinoti said that al-Shabab had decided to split into various groups as a result of increased pressure in Somalia, adding that some of those small groups "are heading towards our border with the intention of staging attacks."

He said the militants used a tactic to lay IEDs along the "routes used by our security patrols."

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China blasts 'trespassing' by US warship

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 1:37PM

China has accused the US of trespassing after an American warship sailed near a reef in the South China Sea amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Thursday that the US warship trespassed in its waters "without permission".

The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey entered the area "without permission from the Chinese government", Lu said, adding that the ship had "trespassed in the waters near the relevant islands and reefs".

"The relevant action taken by the US vessel undermines China's sovereignty and security interests, and is very likely to cause unexpected sea and air accidents," the spokesman noted

The Chinese official also demanded Washington to stop "provocative actions".

A US official confirmed earlier that the USS Dewey sailed less than 12 nautical miles from Mischief Reef on Thursday morning local time.

Territorial waters are generally defined by a United Nations convention as extending 12 nautical miles from a country's coastline.

Speaking earlier in the day, Pentagon spokesman Major Jamie Davis said US forces will fly and sail "wherever international law" allows.

"We have a comprehensive Freedom of Navigation Operations program that seeks to challenge excessive maritime claims in order to preserve the rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law," Davis said in a statement

The exercises are "not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements," he added.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation, which is sure to anger China, is the first such challenge to Beijing in the strategic waterway since US President Donald Trump took office.

China has repeatedly warned the United States against any military activities in the South China Sea.

Trump accused Beijing during the 2016 presidential campaign of militarizing parts of the South China Sea, stealing American jobs with unfair trade policies and manipulating its currency in its favor.

The South China Sea is the subject of a territorial dispute between China and Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. But those countries seem to have been managing their disputes with China smoothly.

The latest developments also come a week after the United States said that two Chinese jets intercepted a US spy plane flying over the East China Sea.

The Chinese fighter jets outmaneuvered the US jet, forcing it to descend hundreds of feet from its position. China denied US allegations, saying that its aircraft were acting "in accordance with the law."

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Philippine army fighting to retake southern city

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 10:5AM

Military forces in the Philippines have launched a heavy offensive to retake a southern city from Daesh terrorists.

On Thursday, the Philippine army dispatched about 100 soldiers, backed by attack helicopters, to seize control of the mainly Muslim city of Marawi in Lanao del Sur Province from a group called Maute, which has pledged allegiance to Daesh.

The group is holding a number of hostages and has reportedly murdered at least 11 civilians in Marawi.

Reports said that the sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard, and plumes of black smoke rose from the direction of the city center.

"We're confronting maybe 30 to 40 remaining from the local terrorist group," said Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera, a local military spokesman.

"The military is conducting precise, surgical operations to flush them out... The situation is very fluid and movements are dynamic because we wanted to out-step and out-maneuver them," he added.

The military spokesman also called on people in the besieged city to stay indoors or take shelter at safe places.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern third of the county to prevent collateral damage. The Daesh militants have forced 200,000 Marawi residents to flee.

The Maute group is one of the less than a dozen new armed groups that have pledged allegiance to Daesh and formed a loose alliance in the southern Philippines in recent years.

It has been blamed for a bomb attack that killed 15 people in the southern Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, last September and a number of attacks on government forces in Lanao, although it has faced setbacks from a series of military offensives.

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US warship challenges China's claims in South China Sea

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 5:29AM

For the first time under new US President Donald Trump, a US Navy warship has sailed close to a disputed South China Sea island controlled by China, a move that will likely exacerbate US-China tensions.

The USS Dewey traveled within 12 nautical miles of the Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, several US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said on Wednesday.

The so-called freedom of navigation operation, which is sure to anger China, is the first such challenge to Beijing in the strategic waterway since Trump took office.

Territorial waters are generally defined by a United Nations convention as extending 12 nautical miles from a country's coastline.

China said on Thursday that the US warship trespassed in its waters 'without permission' and Chinese warships warned it to leave.

Speaking at a monthly news briefing in Beijing, Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said China had submitted a complaint to the US over the patrol and said that such moves undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea.

China has repeatedly warned the United States against any military activities in the South China Sea.

Trump blasted Beijing during the 2016 presidential campaign for militarizing parts of the South China Sea, stealing American jobs with unfair trade policies and manipulating its currency in its favor.

The US operation was the first of its kind since October, which was approved by then-President Barack Obama. Under the previous administration, the US Navy conducted several such voyages through the South China Sea.

Washington says Beijing seeks to limit freedom of navigation in the disputed waters.

The operation comes as Washington has called on Beijing to cooperate in curbing North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a summit at his Florida resort last month. During the meeting, Trump praised the Chinese president for efforts to restrain North Korea.

The US Defense Department gave no details of the latest mission but said in a statement it was continuing regular freedom of navigation operations and would do more in the future.

"We operate in the Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. We operate in accordance with international law," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said in the statement.

China says the United States is meddling in regional disputes and is deliberately escalating the situation in the waters.

The South China Sea is the subject of a territorial dispute between China and Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. But those countries seem to have been managing their disputes with China smoothly.

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Trump Presses NATO On Spending, Terrorism, Immigration, Russia Threat

Rikard Jozwiak May 25, 2017

BRUSSELS -- U.S. President Donald Trump has urged leaders from the 27 other NATO member states to do more to fight terrorism and to put immigration and threats from Russia at the top of their agenda.

"The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration as well as threats from Russia and NATO's eastern and southern borders," Trump told fellow leaders at NATO headquarters on May 25.

Trump, who once characterized the security alliance as "obsolete," also reiterated his demand that member nations make "their full and complete contributions" to the Western alliance by increasing their defense spending.

"This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States," Trump said. "If NATO countries made their full and complete contributions, then NATO would be even stronger than it is today, especially from the threat of terrorism."

NATO member nations in the past have vowed to increase their defense spending to 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) by 2024. Currently, only Britain, Estonia, Greece, Poland, and the United States have reached that level.

The president did not make any mention of Article 5, the NATO alliance's mutual-defense pact that states an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all members.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer, when asked about U.S. commitment to Article 5, said, "It goes without saying. [Trump's] presence at this event underscores our commitments and treaty obligations."

At NATO headquarters, Trump attended the unveiling of two new memorials -- one dedicated to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States and the other to the Berlin Wall that divided the city for nearly three decades during the Cold War.

"Each one marks a pivotal event in the history of this alliance and in the eternal battle between good and evil," Trump said.

"On one side, a testament of the triumph of our ideals over a totalitarian communist ideology bent on the oppression of millions and millions of people," he added. "On the other, a painful reminder of the barbaric evil that still exists in the world and that we must confront and defeat together as group, as a world."

The alliance's leaders are hoping to prove to Trump as he visits their new billion-dollar, state-of-the-art headquarters that the alliance is more relevant than ever and ready to combat terrorism against the backdrop of the May 22 bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier on May 25 that alliance members will agree to NATO's participation in the international coalition against the extremist group Islamic State (IS), one of the main themes the U.S. president is expected to stress during the summit.

Trump, on his first foreign trip since taking office in January, also was met by thousands of protesters in Brussels saying he was not welcome in a city he once referred to as a "hellhole" despite the red-carpet treatment NATO and EU officials are rolling out.

"I am happy that all NATO member states will underline that NATO is the central pillar of our common security, that we feel united in solidarity for our common security," German Chancellor Andrea Merkel said as she arrived for the meeting.

Trump slammed NATO as being "obsolete" during the U.S. presidential campaign, saying it was failing to focus on the threat from Islamist terrorism and meet its defense spending commitments.

But he said in April that it was "no longer obsolete" after many allies -- following repeated exhortations by senior U.S. officials earlier this year -- started making plans to increase their military spending and incorporate counterterrorism into NATO's mission.

The agreement for NATO to join the Global Coalition "will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism," Stoltenberg said ahead of the meeting, the first such gathering to be attended by Trump.

However, Stoltenberg stressed the plan did not provide for NATO taking on a combat role in the fight against IS and other extremist groups in Syria and Iraq.

All 28 NATO members are already individually members of the 68-nation U.S.-led Global Coalition, whose goal is to defeat IS, but NATO as an organization has not followed suit until now despite pressure from the United States.

Member states such as France, Germany, and Italy had reportedly opposed such a move to avoid dragging the alliance into a ground war and risk harming relations with Arab powers.

"I am confident that under constructive leadership of President Trump, NATO will continue to play a key role in transatlantic security and defense," Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said.

The carefully choreographed visit, however, hit a bump in Trump's first meeting with European Union officials where they failed to find common ground on several issues.

European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters in that while there was agreement on issues such as counterterrorism, there are differences on other key areas such as climate change, trade, and Russia.

"I am not 100 percent sure we can say today -- we means [Trump] and myself -- that we have a common position, common opinion about Russia," Tusk said after the meeting. "Although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, it seems that we were on the same line."

The former Polish prime minister also called for the promotion of "Western values."

"My main message to President Trump was that what gives our cooperation and friendship its deepest meaning are fundamental Western values like freedom, human rights and respect for human dignity," Tusk said. "The greatest task today is the consolidation of the whole free world around those values -- not just interests. Values and principles first. This is what we, Europe and America, should be saying."

Stoltenberg said NATO would expand the role of its AWACS surveillance planes in supporting anti-IS operations and step up training programs in Iraq.

NATO, which announced it will officially accept Montenegro as its 29th member on June 5, will agree on an action plan to better fight terrorism in Europe, create a specialized cell at the alliance's headquarters, and appoint a coordinator of antiterrorism operations.

He said the allies would also meet Trump's demands to share more of the security burden and reaffirm a commitment to spend 2 percent of annual GDP on defense. Washington funds about 70 percent of NATO spending, and all members share the costs of running the alliance's day-to-day administration and building costs.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-joins-anti-is- coalition-stoltenberg/28508133.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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Montenegro: Key NATO Ally Or Adriatic Afterthought?

Alan Crosby May 25, 2017

Nestled in the Adriatic coastline between Croatia and Albania, tiny Montenegro may appear to have little military value. Just don't tell that to NATO or its sworn rival, Russia.

Montenegro, which gained independence from Serbia in 2006, will be welcomed into the security alliance this week in Brussels -- and formally join on June 5 -- despite a bitter campaign by the Kremlin to derail NATO's first expansion in almost a decade.

So why has a country that spent a paltry $69 million on its military last year become the front line in a diplomatic battle that some fear could edge Europe closer to a military conflict?

The government in Podgorica has faced a steady stream of rhetoric against NATO expansion from opponents both domestic and foreign, and an alleged coup attempt in October 2016 was seen by some as yet another attempt to change the political landscape and keep Montenegro away from integrating into the Euro-Atlantic alliance.

"With Montenegro's accession, NATO is telling aspiring members to hang tough, for their time may yet come. By stamping its feet in frustration, Moscow is telling the same NATO aspirants and NATO itself that that's a pipe dream," Leonid Bershidsky, founder of the opinion website Slon.ru and a Bloomberg View contributor, argues.

Why Montenegro?

With a population of just 620,000, Montenegro may seem like an afterthought for an alliance that has about six times that number in active military personnel alone.

Indeed, Montenegro's armed forces, with about 2,000 soldiers, is about one-third of what is needed to run a single aircraft carrier, while its eight armed personnel carriers, half a dozen ships, and dozen or so helicopters hardly add anything to the alliance in terms of hardware.

Meanwhile, it borders NATO members Croatia and Albania, neither of which poses a threat to Montenegro or the alliance, so it won't fundamentally change the country's security situation or markedly fortify NATO operations.

Still, its 293-kilometer coastline does give Montenegro some importance as a strategic parcel of real estate, since it's the penultimate piece in the Adriatic puzzle.

With Montenegro as a member, NATO will control the entire coast of the Adriatic, from the heel of Italy's boot to the rugged shores of Greece, save for a 20-kilometer stretch of land held by Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Moreover, Montenegro hosts the Bar and Kotor naval bases, once key facilities for the defunct Yugoslav armed forces that analysts say may be part of the alliance's future plans.

"It is difficult to say now whether any NATO combat facilities will be deployed in Montenegro. But militarily, I can say that the base in Kotor was one the chief ones among the former Yugoslav armed forces. It was well-equipped and there were ships which controlled major part of the Adriatic," Colonel Boris Podoprigora, president of the St. Petersburg Conflict Resolution Club says.

"As far as I know, there are no serious bases on the opposite side, in Italy. They are all on the opposite side of Italy, mainly near Naples. However, I can confirm that Montenegro is an important strategic point of the region. It is quite an important geographical unit in the NATO conglomerate."

Russian Opposition

The rewards of joining NATO may be tempered by the price Montenegro could pay at the hands of Russia.

A longtime ally that shares historic, linguistic, and cultural ties, Russia has not sat idly by as NATO wooed Montenegro.

Moscow is said to have asked Montenegro several years ago to use Bar as a naval logistics base for ships heading toward Syria. Amid reported pressure from NATO, the government declined, ruffling Kremlin feathers.

Since then, Russia has used the stick more than the carrot to try and edge its way into the Balkan conversation.

The Kremlin imposed sanctions against Montenegro's largest winery and one of the country's best-known exports. Officials claimed products from the Plantaze winery near the coastline do not meet proper standards, even though the company says it has had several independent tests performed on its wine to refute that accusation.

Mindful that Russian investors have poured millions of dollars into the country, mainly through real-estate deals to accommodate the thousands of Russians who flock annually to Montenegro's sun-splashed coastline, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned in April of a "surge of anti-Russian hysteria" in Montenegro.

And then there's the matter of last year's purported coup plot.

Officials in Podgorica have accused Russia of involvement, allegedly aimed at impeding Montenegro's further Western integration.

Moscow rejects the allegation, but a Montenegrin court began indictment proceedings on May 24 against 14 people, including two Russians and two pro-Russia opposition leaders, who are charged with plotting to overthrow the government last year.

"If the Kremlin has influence in the American political process, you can imagine how much greater ambitions it has to exert influence on the countries of the Balkans, which is seen as a 'soft belly of Europe,'" Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, says.

Step Toward EU

Ultimately, accepting Montenegro as a NATO member may be as much, or more, about the European Union than the alliance itself.

Montenegro applied to join the 28-nation EU in 2009 and has been in membership talks since 2012.

It has already opened 26 chapters in its EU accession negotiations out of a total 35, and in its last progress report, in late 2016, the European Commission said Montenegro continued to make progress on political and economic criteria and had improved its ability to take on the obligations of EU membership.

Former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic once even hailed NATO accession as "one more important step toward Montenegro's full membership in the European Union."

"The Balkans for centuries has been the scene of a struggle between the West and the East," current Prime Minister Dusko Markovic said recently.

"NATO and the EU have always been and remain a guarantee of stability and security and cooperation and the main basis for peace in Europe. It is about what kind of future we choose for us and generations to come."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-nato-key-ally- or-adriatic-afterthought/28508845.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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Tusk Says Europe Fails To Find Common Ground With Trump On Several Issues

Rikard Jozwiak May 25, 2017

BRUSSELS -- European Council President Donald Tusk has said U.S. President Donald Trump and senior European Union officials failed to find common ground on several issues at a meeting in Brussels on May 25.

Tusk told reporters in the Belgian capital that while there was agreement on issues such as counterterrorism, "I am sure that I don't have to explain why, but some issues remain open, like climate and trade."

Trump, on his first foreign trip since taking office in January, met with Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's top diplomat Federica Mogherini, and European Parliament President Antonio Tajani.

The meeting came three days after a bomber in Manchester killed 22 people, some of them children, and injured about 60 more when he detonated an explosive device following a concert in the English city.

EU leaders were eager to hear how Trump intends to handle Europe after a presidential campaign in which he voiced support for Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation bloc.

"My main message to President Trump was that what gives our cooperation and friendship its deepest meaning are fundamental Western values like freedom, human rights and respect for human dignity," Tusk said after the meeting.

"The greatest task today is the consolidation of the whole free world around those values -- not just interests. Values and principles first -- this is what we Europe and America should be saying."

Trump, who was accompanied by U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, "expressed concern that jobs in the U.S. would be lost because of Brexit," an EU source with knowledge of the meeting said.

Tusk said that while it appeared he and the president were "on the same line" with regard to the situation in Ukraine, he was not sure that "we have a common position, common opinion about Russia."

Trump "expressed concern that jobs in the U.S. would be lost because of Brexit," an EU source with knowledge of the meeting said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Trump was accompanied by U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

Trump was to meet newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron for a working lunch before heading to a NATO summit in Brussels later in the day.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-tusk- eu-vommon-ground/28508474.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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African Union Commission Head Calls for End to 'Massive Crimes' in South Sudan

Sputnik News

23:39 25.05.2017

The head of the African Union Commission called on the parties to the protracted conflict in South Sudan to stop "massive crimes" and establish an "inclusive dialogue" that would pave the way for stable peace in the country.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat on Thursday called on all parties to military conflict in South Sudan to stop their hostilities and engage in a peaceful dialogue.

"I urge the parties to stop these massive crimes and, without delay, to establish an inclusive dialogue, to re-determine a peaceful destiny for their people," Moussa Faki said as quoted by Anadolu Agency.

According to the outlet, this was Moussa Faki's first statement condemning the military crisis in the country since his election as the African Union commission head in January.

The official characterized the ongoing civil war in South Sudan as "most unbearable" and added that the violence in the country has forced 3 million people to flee from their homes.

The military conflict in South Sudan erupted in 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused the opposition leader Riek Machar of preparing a military coup. The warring parties formed the Transitional Government of National Unity in April 2016, nevertheless the fighting renewed in July. According to the United Nations, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.

 Sputnik

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Two years after its purchase of Mineral Area Regional Medical Center left St. Francois County without a morgue, BJC HealthCare announced Thursday it is donating a number of properties surrounding the former hospital that will not only provide the county with a morgue, but also benefit the city of Farmington and entire Parkland region as well.

A building previously used as a medical office building was donated to St. Francois County to house  among other things  a morgue to serve the surrounding 20 counties. BJC's Parkland Health Center, the only remaining hospital in St. Francois County, has also donated equipment for the morgue.

The county lost its morgue space at MARMC in 2015 when the hospital was purchased by BJC and the facility was shuttered. For around a year after the morgue was closed, only autopsies continued to be performed there. Since January 2016, County Coroner Jim Coplin has been transporting bodies from county calls to a temporary morgue he built on his Park Hills funeral home property.

Along with building a cooler large enough to store four bodies, Coplin put in an office and viewing area, along with an examination room to accommodate the county's needs until the St. Francois County Commission decided what to do.

Now BJC HealthCare's donation has solved that potentially expensive problem for the commissioners.

We are thrilled and excited about the donation BJC HealthCare and Parkland Health Center have made to St. Francois County, said Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher. This building will be known as SFC Weber Road Facility and will serve many purposes for our county citizens  and at a significant cost savings.

The former medical office building is in excellent condition and move-in ready. Our thanks to the many people at BJC and Parkland Health Center who have helped make this dream come true.

The public has been aware for several months that the donation of land by BJC was in the works after Robert Sullivan, development coordinator for the city of Farmington, announced at February's city council meeting that an application for a boundary adjustment had been submitted by St. Francois County on behalf of Parkland Health Center at the Mineral Area Park located on Weber Road.

Less than two weeks later, the county further confirmed that the donation of a morgue was in the works when commissioners hired Dana Shuh as morgue director for St. Francois County.

Gallaher announced there will be a special announcement and presentation concerning BJC's donation at the next county commission meeting taking place at 10 a.m. Tuesday on the third floor of the courthouse annex in Farmington.

In addition to the morgue, BJC is donating another building on the property  the Family Resource Center  to the city of Farmington. The Farmington OAKS Senior Center currently uses half of the building and plans to expand and occupy the entire building. Half of the building was previously used for hospital departments.

According to Farmington City Administrator Greg Beavers, Parkland Health Center has been a good partner in the community.

The generous donation of property to the city for the new library in 2014 and the donation of the senior center building this year demonstrate the commitment of the board of directors and administration to strengthen our city and improve the quality of life for its citizens, he said. The mayor, city council and administration sincerely appreciate the support shown by the hospital and BJC.

In addition, Habitat for Humanity St. Francois County will benefit from approximately one acre of land at the corner of Weber and Wallace Roads. Two houses that have been empty for over a decade and the land they sit on, have been donated to the organization.

According to Linda Dickerson-Bell, executive director of Habitat for Humanity St. Francois County, the organization plans to tear down the houses to build as many as two new houses on the property.

"Habitat for Humanity is so thrilled to be selected for this donation of property, she said. We depend on having lots/land available to build new homes in each community of the County, so this will give us some potential lots in the Farmington area. We are grateful for the gift, and look forward to passing along a new home to a family in need in the future.
Brazil, Mexico Considering Purchase of Russian Mil Helicopters - Manufacturer

Sputnik News

19:06 25.05.2017

Brazil and Mexico are considering deliveries of Russian Mil helicopters, a spokesman of the Russian Helicopters company told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Brazil and Mexico are considering deliveries of Russian Mil Mi-8/17 and Mi-26T helicopters and a number of other types of aircraft for their national air forces, a spokesman of the Russian Helicopters company told Sputnik on Thursday.

"There is quite a large park of Mi-17 helicopters in Mexico, we are considering to increase it by supplies of Russian Mi-8/17 and Mi-26 The Brazilian side is interested in Mi-171Sh, Mi-28NE, Mi-262 and Ansat helicopters," the spokesman said.

Argentina is also considering deliveries of Russian helicopters Mi-35M, Mi-28NE, Ka-62, according to the company's Thursday article in a corporate magazine.

"As of today, Argentina plans to increase the amount of the vehicles of this type and consider the deliveries of Mi-35M, Mi-28NE, Ka-52 after having ascertained the quality, reliability and functionality of Russian helicopters," the article read.

In 2011, Argentina bought several Russian i-171 helicopters for South Pole explorations.

Russia has supplied or discussed the contracts of the delivery of helicopters to Latin American countries for years. According to the Russian Helicopters company, over 400 Russian-made helicopters are currently in operation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 Sputnik

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NATO Members Contributing 2% of GDP 'Insufficient' for Proper Defense - Trump

Sputnik News

18:21 25.05.2017(updated 20:09 25.05.2017)

Two percents of NATO GDP is dedicated for the alliance's defense, but is not enough amid the growing threats, US President Donald Trump stated on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The contribution by NATO member countries of 2% of their GDP for the alliance's defense is not enough amid the growing threats and underpayments by some nations, US President Donald Trump stated on Thursday.

"Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense And many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years," Trump said. "We should recognize that with these chronic underpayments and growing threats even two percent of GDP is insufficient to close gaps in modernizing, readiness and the size of forces."

He said 23 of the 28 NATO member nations fail to pay what they should for their own defense, and many have not spent the suggested two percent of GDP in past years.

"We should recognize that with these chronic underpayments and growing threats even 2 percent of GDP is insufficient to close gaps in modernizing, readiness and the size of forces," Trump stated.

Trump has softened previous criticism of the alliance, but continues to press member states to meet the NATO defense spending goals.

NATO guidelines recommend member nations spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense, but their contributions are ultimately assessed on their own capabilities. Neither the alliance nor member nations pay the United States.

 Sputnik

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Three Latin American States Send Russia Requests for Helicopters Delivery

Sputnik News

15:53 25.05.2017(updated 15:54 25.05.2017)

Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay sent official appeals to Russia for the delivery of Russian helicopters, the Russian Helicopters holding company said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia has supplied or discussed the contracts on the delivery of helicopters to Latin American countries for years. According to the Russian Helicopters company, over 400 Russian-made helicopters are currently in operation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Ministries of defense and law enforcement agencies of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay show considerable interest in Russian helicopters. The official appeals for the supply of Russian helicopters have been received from the mentioned countries, and consultations are being held," the holding said in a press release.

The manufacturer noted that in today's difficult economic conditions, many developing countries did not have the necessary resources for direct purchases of modern weapons.

"To solve this problem, Russian exporters form proposals with preferential terms of financing and attracting resources from domestic institutions supporting the export of high-tech products," the press release read.

 Sputnik

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Attacks on hospitals and medical staff 'symptoms of grave disregard' for international law - UN chief

25 May 2017  Parties to conflict are treating hospitals and clinics as targets, rather than respecting them as sanctuaries, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned today during a Security Council debate on the protection of civilians in armed violence.

"Despite our efforts, civilians continue to bear the brunt of conflict around the world," Mr. Guterres told the 15-member body, stressing that attacks on medical staff and facilities continue in conflict zones. Alongside him were Christine Beerli, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Bruno Stagno Ugarte, Deputy Executive Director for Advocacy of Human Rights Watch.

The UN chief recalled that last year, the Council took specific action to improve the protection of medical care during conflict, by adopting Resolution 2286, which, among others, urged 'States and all parties to armed conflict to develop effective measures to prevent and address acts of violence, attacks and threats against medical personnel and humanitarian personnel exclusively engaged in medical duties.

In August, his predecessor submitted recommendations for the swift implementation of this resolution.

"But on the ground, little has changed," Mr. Guterres warned, citing statistics from the World Health Organization showing that attacks on medical care took place in at least 20 countries affected by conflict in 2016.

In Syria, Physicians for Human Rights has documented more than 400 attacks on medical facilities since the conflict began. More than 800 medical staff have been killed, and more than half of all medical facilities are closed or are only partially functioning, with two-thirds of specialized medical personnel having fled the country.

In Yemen, just a few months after the adoption of resolution 2286, 15 people including three medical staff were reported killed when a hospital was hit in an airstrike.

In Afghanistan, the number of reported attacks against health facilities and personnel almost doubled in 2016 compared with 2015.

In South Sudan, after years of attacks, less than 50 per cent of medical facilities are functional in areas affected by conflict.

"These attacks are evidence of a broader trend: parties to conflict are treating hospitals and health clinics as targets, rather than respecting them as sanctuaries," Mr. Guterres said.

He went on to highlight the three main protection priorities; ensure greater respect for international humanitarian and human rights law; stepping up the protection of humanitarian and medical missions, by implementing his predecessor's recommendations on Security Council resolution 2286 (2016); and preventing forced displacement and finding durable solutions for refugees and internally displaced people.

On the third point, he stressed the need to address the root causes of conflicts that are driving displacement, by investing in inclusive and sustainable development, promoting all human rights and the rule of law, strengthening governance and institutions, and enhancing mediation capacity, from communities to national governments.

"Preventing and ending conflict is my first priority," he declared. "I call on you all to make it yours, for the sake of the millions of civilians who are suffering around the world."

According to a concept note circulated by Uruguay, which holds the Council presidency for May, Member States are invited to place the issue of the protection of healthcare in a broader context, connecting it to overarching 'protection of civilian' issues.

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US Concludes Islamic State Explosives Led to 100+ Civilian Deaths in March Airstrike

By Carla Babb May 25, 2017

A U.S. military investigation into a deadly March airstrike has found that a secondary explosion caused the deaths of more than 100 civilians in Mosul, Iraq.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said Thursday the investigation determined that Islamic State fighters had placed "large amounts" of explosives in a building that housed civilians and then began attacking Iraqi forces from that building.

When the coalition targeted snipers on the roof, the explosives detonated, killing at least 101 civilians sheltering in the bottom floors and four civilians in a neighboring structure.

U.S. Central Command said Thursday "weapons and structural experts concluded, based on extensive modeling, (that) the structural damage to the building was in a different location" than where the airstrike hit and was "in excess" of what could have been caused by the single GBU-38 munition used in the March 17 strike.

Neither the U.S.-led coalition nor Iraqi forces who called in the strike knew that civilians were sheltered in the building, Central Command said.

"Our condolences go out to all those that were affected," said Maj. Gen. Joe Martin, Commanding General of the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command in Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. military looked at more than 700 separate video feeds covering 10 days of airstrikes in Mosul to determine the credibility of the civilian casualty reports.

The Pentagon has called the death of civilians in Iraq's northern city of Mosul a terrible tragedy.

"There is no military force in the world that has proven more sensitive to civilian casualties," U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said shortly after the strike. "We go out of our way to always do everything humanly possible to reduce the loss of life or injury among innocent people. The same cannot be said for our adversaries."

At the time of the strike, the Iraqi military cited evidence it said showed that Islamic State fighters placed explosives at the site.

"All of [the building's] walls were rigged with bombs, and there is no hole or signs that it was an airstrike target," the Iraqi military's Joint Command said.

U.S. officials have stressed to VOA that the U.S. military is fully capable of striking one building while leaving its surroundings unscathed.

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Trump Lectures NATO Leaders on Insufficient Defense Spending

By Steve Herman May 25, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump publicly lectured his fellow NATO leaders Thursday for not paying their fair share for defense, and he urged them to be more focused on terrorism.

"The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATO's eastern and southern border," he told NATO leaders at alliance headquarters in Brussels.

Trump was speaking at a ceremony to unveil a memorial symbolizing the commitment of NATO members to the principle of collective defense, as outlined in Article Five of the alliance treaty. The memorial is a twisted piece of metal from remains of the World Trade Center, a reminder that the only time Article Five was invoked was after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

A conspicuous omission from Trump's speech, however, was any clear affirmation of the U.S. commitment to Article Five. Trump's refusal to endorse that principle on the campaign trail raised fears in Europe about whether the United States is fully committed to its defense.

The president made only passing reference to Article Five, saying "we will never forsake the friends that stood by our side." But White House spokesman Sean Spicer clarified afterward that the United States will not waver on collective defense."We're not playing cutesy with this," Spicer said. "He's fully committed."

Trump was quite clear, however, in scolding alliance members on the defense spending issues. "I have been very, very direct with Secretary (Jens) Stoltenberg and members of the alliance in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations," Trump said.

The president noted that 23 of 28 member nations are not paying what they should, something that is "not fair'' to the people of the United States.

Spicer told reporters afterward that the other leaders responded positively to Trump's call for them to work toward meeting NATO spending goals. "It was a very positive reaction and affirmation of the president's priorities today," Spicer said.

In his speech, Trump also said this week's Manchester bombing "demonstrates the depths of the evil we face with terrorism."

Manchester intel leaks

British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman told reporters the prime minister used the occasion to express her concern to Trump about leaks in the U.S. media revealing details of the Manchester bombing investigation.

Manchester police were reported to have been furious that the New York Times published unreleased forensic photographs from the crime scene, and U.S. media outlets announced the name of the suicide bomber before it was released by British officials.

Media reports said British police stopped sharing information with their American counterparts after the leaks.

Terrorism fight to top talks

Before meetings this week with NATO leaders, Trump called terrorism the "number one" problem facing the world.

In a meeting Wednesday with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel in Brussels, Trump pointed to the Manchester attack as an example of the pressing terror threat.

"When you see something like that happened a few days ago, you realize how important it is to win this fight, and we will win this fight," Trump said.

"We have to be able to increase defense spending when tensions are going up. And tensions are going up," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters Thursday.

A senior U.S. official told reporters Stoltenberg expressed surprise in his meeting with Trump that anyone would question Washington's commitment to the NATO collective defense principle.

"Stoltenberg seemed bemused that it would ever be asked," the official said. "He [Stoltenberg] said deeds are what show the [U.S.] commitment to Article Five, and he came to the Article Five ceremony."

From Brussels, the U.S. president returns to the Italian island of Sicily for a summit of the Group

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Fresh Taliban Attacks Kill 25 Members of Afghan Forces

By Ayaz Gul May 25, 2017

A suicide car bombing and clashes with Taliban insurgents across Afghanistan have killed at least 25 security personnel.

The violence comes as the United Nations urges parties to the Afghan conflict to cease hostilities during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, beginning this week.

Local television stations quoted security officials in the embattled Helmand province as saying that a suicide bomber Thursday afternoon rammed his explosives-laden car into an office of the Afghan intelligence agency.

Initial reports said at least six people were killed and several more wounded. The district chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Tor Jan, was said to be among the dead.

The Taliban claimed credit for the violence, with a spokesman saying the massive explosion destroyed the facility in the Washir district and killed at least 20 people, including Jan.

The Islamist insurgency often releases inflated tolls for such attacks. Helmand is the largest Afghan province and is mostly controlled by, or under the influence of, the Taliban.

Meanwhile, officials in neighboring Kandahar province have confirmed that a Taliban ambush Wednesday night left at least 13 Afghan soldiers dead and eight others wounded.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said in Kabul that dozens of insurgents participated in the deadly assault that targeted an Afghan military base in the Maiwand district. He added that Afghan forces drove the assailants back, killing about 20 of them.

This was the second insurgent attack on a military installation this week in Kandahar.

Taliban fighters on Monday night staged a surprise assault on several security outposts in the Shahwali Kot district, killing at least 20 Afghan soldiers and wounding 15 others.

On Wednesday, the Taliban also assaulted security outposts in western Badghis province, killing at least six Afghan forces and wounding several others.

The increase in the number of casualties among Afghan security forces has been a cause of serious concern for the government and its international partners.

The head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, has appealed for a cessation in hostilities during Ramadan.

"In the same spirit, I would like to call parties to the conflict to respect this religious obligation and halt the fighting," said Tadamichi Yamamoto.

Also Thursday, officials in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz reported that a Taliban rocket attack in the early morning hit a school in the provincial capital, killing at least one student and wounding nine others.

The deaths come as Afghan civilian casualties already have risen to record levels in the first four months of 2017, according to UNAMA.

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US Naval Vessel Sails Near Chinese-held Reef in South China Sea

By VOA News May 25, 2017

A U.S. Navy warship on Thursday sailed within 22 kilometers (12 nautical miles) of a Chinese-controlled reef in the South China Sea, in the first mission under President Donald Trump to challenge Beijing's territorial claims in the disputed waterway.

U.S. military officials said the guided missile destroyer USS Dewey passed near Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands.

U.S. military spokesman Major Jamie Davis said the United States was continuing its operations aimed at upholding freedom of navigation in international waters.

American forces operate daily in the South China Sea and will continue to "fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Davis said.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry told reporters Thursday that the U.S. patrol undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea.

A U.S. defense official told VOA on Thursday that a Chinese military frigate "shadowed" the Dewey throughout the entire freedom-of-navigation operation. Another Chinese frigate and a Chinese coast guard vessel also were nearby when the American warship passed near the reef, the official added.

The United States and other nations have criticized Beijing for its island-building in the region, which is home to one of the world's busiest shipping routes. Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam and other Asian nations also have competing claims to region.

VOA's Carla Babb contributed to this report from the Pentagon.

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NATO Nations assert capabilities

US Marine Corps News

By Devan Barnett | May 26, 2017

Saber Strike 17 kicks off this year with troops and vehicles coming ashore with tactical landing crafts from Maritime Prepositioning Ships in the Baltic Sea to Ventspils, Latvia, May 23-24, 2017.

Exercise Saber Strike 17 is an annual combined-joint exercise conducted at various locations throughout the Baltic region and Poland. The combined training prepares allies and partners to respond more to regional crises and meet their own security needs by improving the security of borders and countering threats.

"We are interacting with our partners to reassure them that we will be here in a crisis or if something happens, because the United States is a strong ally of NATO," said Maj. Jerry Aymond, the operations officer for Combat Logistics Regiment 45, 4th Marine Logistics Group, Marine Forces Reserve.

During the instream offloads, U.S. Marines and sailors came together with other partner nations to face the challenges of the complicated process of offloading equipment and vehicles such as tanks and bulldozers. All of this is made possible by the Maritime Prepositioning Force, a strategic power-projection capability that combines the lift capacity, flexibility, and responsiveness of surface ships with the speed of strategic airlift.

"The MPF program is a phenomenal capability for the Marine Corps and we're showcasing it here," said Aymond. "The ability to do an instream offload means we can offload a significant amount of equipment anywhere around the world, without a port. Now we don't have to wait for equipment to come from the continental United States to respond to a crisis."

In Latvia, the U.S. troops are developing their skills in a real life situation, instead of simulated training exercises in CONUS, to familiarize themselves with the equipment and prepare for any unexpected situations that can come up. The partner nations of Saber Strike 17 have overcome many things, including language barriers, to make sure this mission can be accomplished on the beaches of Ventspils.

"Working with other nations, and understanding their capabilities has gone very well," said Aymond. "We don't always know their capabilities; coming out here and realizing we can work with them and communicate with them effectively helps us build our confidence in NATO."

Working together has promoted the strength of NATO and has demonstrated its capabilities, not only to themselves, but other nations. Establishing and maintaining credibility with our partner nations through confirmation that the advertised equipment will work efficiently is a vital part of the exercise.

U.S. Marines and sailors, active and reserve, all came together with 26 other nations, including the host nation Latvia, and over 11,000 service members and have successfully kicked off Saber Strike 17 with the success of offloading essential pieces of equipment and vehicles needed to complete the overseas mission.

"Aside from the great training, we have efficiently provided equipment to this exercise, tactfully, rather than having it commercially sent over here. We are training the way we fight," said Aymond.

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Taliban militants kill 15 Afghan soldiers in Kandahar

Iran Press TV

Fri May 26, 2017 11:58AM

Taliban militants have killed at least 15 Afghan soldiers during an attack on an army base in Afghanistan's southern province of Kandahar.

Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said on Friday that the militants "launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province."

"Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded," he added.

However, a provincial official, who asked not to be named, put the death toll at 20.

The assault is the second of its kind in less than a week.

At least 10 Afghan soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack on the Achakzai camp of army corps 205 in the same district on May 22.

The number of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan climbs every spring, when the militants increasingly target government officials and US-led foreign forces in the country. Many ordinary people often fall victim to such attacks as well.

Over 1,000 members of Afghan security forces as well as over 700 civilians have been killed so far this year, according to Afghan authorities and figures cited by the US-based Congressional watchdog Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The US military is considering whether to deploy 3,000 to 5,000 more military advisers to help train and assist Afghan security forces battling a 16-year militancy by the Taliban.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001. The invasion did remove the Taliban from power, but has failed to stop its terror campaign to this day.

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Three people were arrested after police were called to a burglary in the 900 block of Westwind Dr. in Park Hills.

Timothy Wimpee, 27, of Park Hills, has been charged with a class C felony of receiving stolen property and a class D felony of unlawful possession of a firearm. Chelsie Yost, 27, of Park Hills, was charged with a class C felony of receiving stolen property.

Levi Sampson Yost, 24, of Park Hills, was charged in St. Francois County with a class C felony of receiving stolen property, a class D felony of unlawful possession of a firearm, and in Washington County with a class B felony of burglary in the first degree, a class D felony of receiving stolen property a class D felony of stealing, a class E felony of property damage and a class E felony of tampering with physical evidence.

According to a probable cause statement, on March 22 a Park Hills officer responded to a call off Westwind Drive where the home owner said he had arrived home at 5:30 p.m. to find his basement window had been broken and three guns had been stolen.

A 20 gauge shotgun, a 9 mm pistol and a .22/410 youth model shotgun had all been taken. He also told the officer a Fred Bear compound bow and an iPad Mini were missing.

The homeowner said it appeared they entered through the window and exited by the basement door after flipping a treadmill over that was used to block the door.

The following day the officer was contacted by central dispatch to confirm a warrant on Wimpee, who was the boyfriend of Chelsie.

Chelsie previously lived at the Westwind Drive address but had not lived there for more than a year. She had reportedly burglarized the house on previous occasions.

The Park Hills officer contacted the Washington County deputy who was on the traffic stop with Wimpee, Chelsie and Levi. The officer informed the deputy he had information that they may be possible suspects in the Park Hills burglary case.

The deputy reported Wimpee stated he believed Levi broke into the house and was aware of the stolen items and believed they were in the car. The deputies on the scene asked for permission to search but the driver refused.

The Park Hills police officer contacted one of his departments detectives and told him the situation and asked if he could have Washington County impound the car because he was going to apply for a search warrant. The vehicle was towed and locked in an impound facility.

Wimpee was transported to the Park Hills Police Department for questioning. He would tell officers he never actually saw any of the guns and he denied breaking into the Westwind Drive house. He stated Levi did it by himself.

Chelsie stated Levi was the one who broke into the house and stole her brothers guns.

Several days later the detective was contacted by a sergeant in his department letting him know Levi was in custody and one of the stolen firearms had been recovered.

A detective spoke with Levi and he denied any involvement in the burglary, stating Chelsie and Wimpee did the burglary and then placed the guns in his car without his knowledge.

While the vehicle was in impound the building it was being housed in was burglarized. But when the car had been impounded an employee with the tow company had looked in the trunk to make sure there wasnt a meth lab inside that could cause a fire. The employee later said he saw what appeared to be long guns wrapped in blankets.

According to a probable cause statement from Washington County, during a recorded interview Levi confessed the stolen guns and bow were in his vehicle at the time of the stop and when it was towed.

During a recorded interview with Chelsie and Wimpee, they both stated the stolen firearms and bow were in the vehicle at the time it was impounded, and that Levi had contacted them asking for their assistance in breaking into impound lot to retrieve the stolen firearms and bow.

The Washington County Sheriffs Department received anonymous information that Levi had hidden the stolen firearms and bow in an area of Route P and Old Highway 21.

Levi was booked into the Washington County Jail on a $50,000 bond and a $20,000 bond out of St. Francois County. Chelsie was jailed on a $10,000 bond, and Wimpee was jailed on a $20,000 bond in the St. Francois County Jail.
Trump's son-in-law under FBI scrutiny over alleged Russia ties

Iran Press TV

Fri May 26, 2017 8:26AM

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and his senior adviser Jared Kushner is under scrutiny as part of the FBI's investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the US presidential election.

Kushner is being probed for his interactions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and a banker from Moscow, US media reported Friday.

Federal investigators believe Kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry into alleged links between Trump's campaign team and the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential elections.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia and has described the investigation as the "greatest witch hunt" in the US history.

Despite Russia's alleged cyber attacks of Democratic officials during last year's presidential race to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, American intelligence officials have acknowledged there is no evidence that hackers altered the election result.

The White House is currently engulfed in crisis over allegations that Trump asked the sacked FBI chief James Comey to drop the inquiry into links between his ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn and Moscow.

Trump has admitted that Comey's firing had to do with "the Russian thing," raising the possibility that his son-in-law might have pushed him to dismiss the FBI chief.

"I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," the Times quoted Trump.

Kushner had also reportedly persuaded Trump to remove Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon from the National Security Council's principals committee in early April.

Trump has seemingly assigned Kushner with taking care of Washington's affairs in the Middle East.

Trump has also tasked Kushner, who lacks political experience, with brokering a peace deal between Palestine and Israel.

Kushner also traveled to Iraq in April, reportedly trying to get a better picture of the overall situation in that country and show his support for the Iraqi government.

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Multiple Deaths In Taliban Attack On Army Base

May 26, 2017

Afghan officials say at least 15 soldiers have been killed in the latest in a series of attacks by Taliban militants in Kandahar Province.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Wazeri said on May 26 that the Taliban "launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night in the Shahwali Kot district."

Waziri said five other soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which he said began when the militants attacked at about 1:30 a.m. local time and continued until morning.

A provincial official said the death toll was 20, the AFP news agency reported.

Officials said on May 25 that 13 soldiers were killed and eight wounded in fighting that took place after Taliban militants stormed several security checkpoints in Kandahar Province overnight.

Also, Wazeri said on May 23 that at least 10 soldiers and 12 attackers were killed in fighting that began the previous night when militants attacked a different base in Shawali Kot.

Afghan security forces are battling a 16-year-long insurgency led by the Taliban, an extremist group that was driven from power after a U.S.-led invasion following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

The United States is considering whether to send 3,000 to 5,000 more military advisers to help train and assist Afghan security forces.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-kandahar- taliban-attack-army-base/28510700.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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Interview: NATO Chief Says Trump's Message On Spending Echoes Past Administrations

Rikard Jozwiak May 26, 2017

BRUSSELS -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the message in U.S. President Donald Trump's "blunt" speech urging alliance members to boost defense spending echoed that of previous administrations.

Stoltenberg spoke to RFE/RL in an interview on May 26, a day after Trump met with the other leaders of the 28-member military alliance at its new headquarters in Brussels.

Trump used a large part of his speech before unveiling a 9/11 memorial to admonish allies he said are not shouldering their share of the financial burden.

It is "not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States" that only five NATO countries currently meet a target of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, he said.

Trump "has a blunt and direct style," Stoltenberg told RFE/RL. "This plain speaking is something we have seen before and he expressed clearly an expectation that European allies and Canada should invest more in defense."

However, he added that "the language may be different and the words may be different but the core message is the same as we have heard before, also during the previous administration: that we need fairer burden-sharing in the alliance."

NATO countries pledged in 2014 to try to reach the 2 percent target within a decade, but so far only Britain, Estonia, Greece, Poland, and the United States are doing so.

Many NATO countries, especially on the organization's eastern edges, have expressed concerns about the perceived threats from an aggressive Russian foreign policy and about Trump's commitment to the Western alliance and to sanctions placed on Moscow for its interference in Ukraine.

'Strong, United Approach'

A U.S. official on May 26 caused concern when asked whether Trump plans to extend Ukraine-related U.S. sanctions against Moscow.

"I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don't have a position," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters en route to a Group of Seven meeting in Sicily.

However, later on May 26 at the G7 summit, Cohn came out strongly in favor of sanctions.

"We are not lowering our sanctions on Russia," Cohn told reporters. "If anything, we would probably look to get tougher on Russia."

Stoltenberg insisted to RFE/RL that the alliance has a "strong, united approach" to Moscow.

"I know that NATO is united in our common approach to Russia, which is about credible deterrence and defense combined with political dialogue, and that is exactly what we are delivering on," he said.

The NATO chief said the alliance has "implemented the strongest reinforcement of collective defense since the end of the Cold War" but has also engaged in talks with Moscow "because Russia is our biggest neighbor."

"We have to avoid a new Cold War," he added. "We don't seek confrontation with Russia and, therefore, also our deployment of forces in the eastern part of the alliance is defensive. It's proportionate and it is done in a way which sends a clear signal of multinational presence."

Ukraine Crisis

He said NATO leaders discussed the Ukraine crisis during their Brussels gathering.

"Of course, we also addressed issues like Ukraine, where we see that Russia continues to destabilize Ukraine, continues to provide support for the separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and continues to illegally annex Crimea."

He said it was important that all NATO members express "strong political support" for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to seek a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the crisis.

"On top of that, we also provide practical support, helping Ukraine to build more modern security institutions, implement reforms fighting corruption, developing command and control, strengthening their cybercapabilities, and many other areas, logistics," he said.

Afghan Mission

However, he added that NATO is facing many other important issues.

"NATO is about addressing many different security challenges, including the terrorist threat, the instability we see to the south, [the extremist group Islamic State], Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and also, of course, cyberthreats where, of course, we have threats coming from many different state and non-state actors."

Stoltenberg said the alliance is studying the need to send additional troops to Afghanistan to aid the battle against the Taliban, the Islamic State group, and other militants.

"What is clear is that NATO allies will continue to sustain our mission in Afghanistan," he said. "It's currently at 13,000 troops," adding that alliance leaders are assessing the request from their military chiefs to increase troop levels "with a few thousand."

"That has not yet been decided. But it's clear that will continue. The exact troop levels [will be known] in the coming weeks."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/stoltenberg-trump-nato- message-spending/28511001.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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Trump, Other Leaders Hold 'Most Challenging G7 Summit In Years'

RFE/RL May 26, 2017

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized countries met on the Italian island of Sicily for what European Council President Donald Tusk said would "no doubt" be "the most challenging G7 summit in years."

Some of the participants hold "very different positions on topics such as climate change and trade," Tusk said before the two-day summit opened on May 26 in the resort town of Taormina.

"Most importantly, unity needs to be maintained when it comes to defending the rules-based international order," he said, warning that "if our group is not determined and united enough, the situation in the world can really get out of hand."

The G7 summit in Taormina is the first such meeting for U.S. President Donald Trump, who took office in January. Trump is expected to face questions from other leaders about his positions on issues such as trade, climate change, and the conflict in Ukraine.

The leaders are also due to discuss security cooperation following the May 22 bombing at a concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people and was allegedly carried out by a 22-year-old Briton of Libyan descent.

Tusk said that he "totally agreed" with Trump "when he said the international community, the G7, the United States, Europe should be tough, even brutal, with terrorism" and the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

Tusk also called on G7 leaders to maintain sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.

"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk, who coordinates policy for the EU's 28 leaders, told reporters.

"I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy," he added.

Since 2014, the EU and the United States have maintained sanctions on Russia over its seizure of Crimea and its actions in eastern Ukraine, where a war between Russia-backed separatists and government forces has killed more than 9,900 people.

Tusk spoke a day after a U.S. official, asked whether Trump plans to extend the U.S. sanctions, indicated that the president had not decided.

"I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don't have a position," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters on Air Force One en route to Sicily for the summit. He added that Trump has "many options."

Cohn's comments differed sharply from those of senior U.S. officials who have said clearly that sanctions would remain in place unless Russia takes steps that would prompt the United States to consider easing them.

The G7 summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek amphitheater overlooking the sea, where the leaders stood together for a family photo against the backdrop of the Mediterranean.

"Getting ready to engage G7 leaders on many issues including economic growth, terrorism, and security," Trump tweeted before the summit."

Western news agencies quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Trump and the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada had similar views on many issues, but that Washington remained isolated on commerce and the environment.

Ahead of the summit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker rejected reports that Trump had aggressively condemned German trade policies during a meeting in Brussels on May 25.

German media reports said Trump had denounced Berlin's policies as "very bad" and had signaled that he wanted to limit sales of German cars in the United States.

"He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly," Juncker said in Sicily ahead of the G7.

Juncker called the media reports exaggerated, saying it was "not true" that Trump had been aggressive toward Germany in the talks.

An unnamed senior Italian diplomat said Trump and the heads of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada had similar views on many issues ahead of the two-day summit, but Washington remained isolated on commerce and the environment.

European Union states want a clear U.S. pledge "to fight all forms of protectionism," the diplomat said. But they were struggling to convince the U.S. president of the merits of free trade.

"We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters late May 26.

He also predicted "fairly robust" talks on whether Trump should honor a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

He said the president, who has dismissed global warming as a "hoax," would make a final decision when he returned home, but stressed that he would put economic development first.

European diplomats expect their leaders to put pressure on Trump about the Paris emissions deal, which has comprehensive support across the continent.

After visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories, Trump met Pope Francis in Rome on May 24 and held talks May 25 with the heads of the European Union and the NATO military alliance in Brussels.

In a tweet on May 26, Trump said his first trip abroad had been "very successful."

"Just arrived in Italy for the G7. Trip has been very successful. We made and saved the USA many billions of dollars and millions of jobs."

With reporting by Reuters,AP, and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-eu-g7-sicily- summit/28510009.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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EU's Tusk Calls On G7 To Maintain Russia Sanctions

RFE/RL May 26, 2017

Amid new uncertainty over the U.S. position, European Council President Donald Tusk has called on the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries to maintain sanctions on Russia over its aggression in Ukraine.

"Since our last G7 summit in Japan, we haven't seen anything that would justify a change in our sanctions policy towards Russia," Tusk told reporters in Sicily on May 26 ahead of the group's summit in the resort of Taormina.

"I will appeal to the other G7 leaders to reconfirm this policy," Tusk said, adding that he expects that "the G7 will demonstrate unity regarding the conflict in Ukraine."

Since 2014, the EU and United States have maintained sanctions on Russia over its seizure of Crimea and its actions in eastern Ukraine, where a war between Russia-backed separatists and government forces has killed more than 9,900 people.

Tusk spoke a day after a U.S. official, asked whether Trump plans to extend the U.S. sanctions, indicated that he had not decided.

"I think the president is looking at it. Right now, we don't have a position," White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters on Air Force One en route to the G7 summit. He added that Trump had "many options."

Cohn's comments differed sharply from those of senior U.S. officials who have said clearly that sanctions would remain in place unless Russia takes steps that would prompt the United States to consider easing them.

The U.S. State Department said in March that "Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine."

Also, the State Department said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a meeting on May 10 that "sanctions on Russia will remain in place until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered them."

After talks with Trump on May 25 in Brussels, Tusk said he was "not 100 percent sure...that we have a common position, common opinion about Russia. Although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine it seems that we were on the same line."

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/white-house -reviewing-sanctions-russia-over-aggression-in- ukraine-crimea-gary-cohn-trump/28509832.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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Fresh violence empties city in Central African Republic; senior UN official urges more aid

26 May 2017  A senior United Nations official is calling for additional humanitarian aid in the Central African Republic, where nearly the entire population of the city Bria was forcibly displaced last week.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that more than 41,000 people were forced out of their homes in "unprecedented violence between rival armed groups" between 15 and 18 May.

In those days, people searching for protection flooded seven sites for internally displaced camps, among them one near a base for the UN peacekeeping force in the country (MINUSCA).

"With the emergence of an ethnic dimension to the conflict, hundreds of houses were burned, property looted and ransacked," said OCHA.

The resurgence of the last outbreaks of tension in the past two weeks has caused the displacement of about 100,000 people, 200 wounded and 300 dead, according to the Ministry of Social Health in the country.

Echoing the Government's concerns, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country, Najat Rochdi, expressed concern at "this new outbreak of violence where civilian people are paying the highest cost."

A lack of sufficient shelters is the main concern, as CAR is now in a rainy season, following by the need for food and clean water.

OCHA said that shelters and food rations have been convoyed from Bangui and Bambari to Bria, but insecurity and the poor conditions of roads have delayed their arrival. The humanitarian community is also working to meet the needs in terms of supply of drinking water and sanitation.

Diseases are also increasing, spread by "promiscuity and poor hygiene," OCHA said.

The senior UN official has called for additional resources. Halfway through the year, funding for the 399.5 million dollars Humanitarian Response Plan is only at 64.8 million.

CAR is emerging from civil conflict which began in 2013, with clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian.

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US: Coalition Airstrikes Kill 3 Senior Islamic State Leaders

By Carla Babb May 26, 2017

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have killed three senior Islamic State military officials in Syria and Iraq during the past month, the U.S. military said Friday.

Mustafa Gunes, an external operations facilitator from Turkey, was killed by a coalition airstrike near Mayadin, Syria, on April 27. Gunes was linked to facilitating financial support for attacks against Western countries, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.

French-Algerian Abu Asim al-Jazaeri was killed by a coalition airstrike near Mayadin on May 11. U.S. military officials say al-Jazaeri was involved in training an Islamic State youth group called the Cubs of the Caliphate.

And senior Islamic State official Abu-Khattab al-Rawi was killed along with three other IS fighters during an operation near Al-Qaim, Iraq, on May 18. The Central Command statement called al-Rawi an Anbar province operator who "provided direct support to ISIS leadership" and coordinated aerial drone operations. ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.

Meanwhile, a U.S. service member has died of injuries sustained Friday when his vehicle rolled over in northern Syria, the U.S. military said.

A statement from U.S. Central Command did not provide further details.

A U.S. official told VOA the death was "non-combat related." It is unclear what caused the vehicle to roll over.

U.S. forces have been helping Syrian local fighters push back Islamic State militants across Iraq and Syria.

Local Syrian fighters are currently in the process of surrounding Islamic State's de-facto capital of Raqqa, Syria.

Iraqi forces have pushed the terror group out of about 90 percent of Mosul, Iraq, the most populated city held by the group.

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Philippines: 'Foreign Fighters' Invade Marawi

By VOA News May 26, 2017

The Philippines says foreigners are among the Islamist militants who took control of the southern island of Mindanao earlier this week.

"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Solicitor General Jose Calida said Friday. "It has transmogrified into an invasion of foreign fighters."

He said Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans and "other foreign fighters" were in Marawi.

Calida said the jihadists had answered a "clarion call" to establish an ISIS province in Mindanao.

Philippine troops entered Mindanao Thursday to begin clearing out the Islamist militants.

Military helicopters flew above the Marawi rooftops as armored tanks rolled through its neighborhoods amid sporadic gunfire and explosions. Many of Marawi's 200,000 citizens are fleeing to safety.

The crisis began late Tuesday when Philippine security forces launched a mission to arrest militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, who was believed to be in Marawi recovering from wounds sustained in a previous clash. The raid collapsed after a wave of militants stormed the city and went on a rampage, burning houses, a university and Catholic churches and taking hostages, including a priest and more than a dozen others at a cathedral.

The military says at least 11 government troops and 31 militants have been killed in the fighting.

President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern Philippines, and has vowed to take harsh measures against the militants. He also warned he might expand martial law nationwide.

Duterte's use of martial law has raised concerns among human rights groups, who have accused him of ordering security forces to kill thousands of people as part of his crackdown on illicit drugs.

The southern Philippines, particularly the resource-rich but poverty-wracked Mindanao region, has long been a hotbed of activity by the Abu Sayyaf and other fundamentalist groups.

Hapilon has sworn allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

His time as leader of the brutal Abu Sayyaf terror group, which has been blamed for numerous bombings, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings in the Philippines, includes the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives.

The United States has placed a $5 million bounty on his head for alleged terrorist acts against American citizens.

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Bangladesh court jails top militant leader to over 7 years

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 4:25PM

A Bangladeshi court has sentenced a top militant leader to over seven years for leading an extremist group blamed for a series of high-profile deadly attacks across the South Asian country.

Prosecutor Jahangir Hossain confirmed that a special court handed down a seven-year sentence against Maolana Saidur Rahman amid heavy security in the capital Dhaka on Thursday.

"He was sentenced to seven years in jail for abusing the Muslim's holy book of Qur'an, and misinterpreting its text to incite them (followers) against the country," media outlets quoted the prosecutor as saying.

Rahman, described by police as the ringleader of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), was also handed an additional six-month term for a related offence.

Two of Rahman's comrades were given seven years in absentia on the same charges, the prosecutor added.

In Dhaka in 2010, Rahman was detained in possession of bomb-making materials, firearms and militant literature.

Bangladeshi security sources say Rahman took over leadership of JMB after its previous leader, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, was executed in 2007.

Police had accused Rahhman of spearheading a number of deadly attacks against religious minorities, activists and foreigners in recent years. He was also accused of recruiting young men to commit the atrocities.

Last month, Bangladesh executed Mufti Abdul Hannan, the head of the extremist banned Harkat-ul Jihad group.

The group, formed in 1992 by Bangladeshis returning from fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan, has been blamed for many attacks across the country.

Bangladesh has suffered a wave of attacks in recent years. Militants have targeted atheist bloggers, writers, publishers and members of religious minorities.

In a deadly siege in July 2016, a band of militants killed more than 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, in a cafe in the capital Dhaka.

Although many of the terrorist attacks conducted by local extremist groups in Bangladesh in the past year have been claimed by the Daesh terrorist group and al-Qaeda, the government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says local radical outfits, particularly the JMB, have also been responsible.

Authorities reject the notion that global terrorist groups maintain a foothold in the Muslim-majority country of over 160 million people.

Since the bloody July attack in Dhaka, Bangladeshi security forces have stepped up a hunt for militants behind the spate of recent attacks across the country. An estimated 70 militants have been killed in a police crackdown since the cafe attack.

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Trump Calls Manchester Attack 'Barbaric, Vicious,' Condemns Media Leaks

RFE/RL May 25, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump has called the bombing at a concert in the British city of Manchester "a barbaric and vicious attack upon our civilization" and told NATO allies he has new hope that nations can unite to defeat terrorism.

Trump was speaking at NATO headquarters on May 25, shortly after arriving in Brussels for his first meeting with NATO leaders since he took office in January.

He told British Prime Minister Theresa May that "all of the nations here today grieve with you and stand with you," calling for a moment's silence for the victims and families hit by the "savage attack."

"All people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing, and removing these killers and extremists," said Trump, who has repeatedly called on NATO to do more to combat terrorism.

In a statement issued by the White House, Trump said that leaks to the U.S. media of information from the investigation into the May 22 Manchester bombing are "deeply troubling" and a "grave threat to our national security."

The president said he was asking the Justice Department to lead an investigation into the matter, and "if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted."

British officials believe suspected suicide bomber Salman Abedi was part of a network and are hunting for accomplices who might have helped him build the bomb that killed 22 people, some of them children, and injured about 60.

Abedi's name was leaked to U.S. media just hours after the attack and pictures of the debris from the blast appearing to show bloodstained bomb fragments and the backpack used to transport the device appeared in The New York Times.

The leaks sparked an angry reaction from British officials, who said they undermined the inquiry and distressed families of the victims.

Upon arrival in Brussels, May, the British prime minister, said she would "make clear" to Trump that intelligence shared between the two countries must remain secure.

"These leaks were reprehensible, deeply distressing," Lewis Lukens, U.S. charge d'affaires in London and acting ambassador to Britain, said on BBC radio on May 25. "We unequivocally condemn them."

"The United States government is launching an investigation into these leaks and will take appropriate action once we identify the source of the leaks," he added. "We are determined to identify these leaks and to stop them."

Earlier, the BBC reported, without citing a source, that police investigating the attack have stopped sharing information with the United States following the leaks.

Separately, the Associated Press quoted an unnamed British official as saying that the Manchester police will stop sharing bombing investigation information with the United States amid anger over the leaks.

There was no official confirmation of the reports from British authorities.

The extremist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest in Britain since 56 people were killed in an attack on the London transport system in 2005.

Meanwhile, Manchester city police chief Ian Hopkins described the eight arrests made since the bombing as "significant" and items seized in raids as "very important."

Referring to the leaking of evidence from the investigation that appeared in The New York Times, Hopkins said it was "absolutely understandable" that this caused "much distress" to families of victims already suffering with their loss.

Queen Elizabeth visited victims at a children's hospital in Manchester, and a minute of silence was held in Britain on May 25 to remember the victims.

The minute of silence was held amid reports that a bomb disposal team was sent at a college in the Manchester suburbs after police responded to a call there. Police later indicated it was a false alarm, saying a suspicious package had been "deemed safe."

With reporting by BBC, Reuters, AFP, AP, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/manchester-attack- two-further-arrests/28508023.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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DEAR HARRIETTE: I have a neighbor who doesn't understand boundaries. She is lonely and constantly wants to engage with me and my family, as well as other neighbors. It has gotten to be too much. She will stop by unannounced and uninvited and bang on the door or ring the bell. The time of day is of no matter to her. And if I answer and tell her it's not a good time or that I have company, she barges in anyway and inserts herself into the experience. I haven't figured out a way to get her to understand that mine is not an open door for her. I don't want to be rude, but she has gone way overboard in wearing out her welcome. SOS! -- Overboard, Brooklyn, New York

DEAR OVERBOARD: I know this may seem harsh, but what you are going to have to do is stop responding to her. If she rings your bell and you don't want her to come over, do not answer the door. If she calls repeatedly when you are unavailable, do not respond. If you see her out and about and she approaches you about why you are avoiding her, explain that you are not always available. If she says that she could hear people in your house when she came knocking on your door, tell her that you may have had company and didn't hear the door. Ultimately, if she keeps pushing, you will have to tell her that it bothers you that she attempts to come to your home whenever she pleases without asking first. Tell her that you do not appreciate her overstepping your personal boundaries. Ask her to stop.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My mother is getting older, and she is beginning to show signs of aging. She is frail and doesn't get around as easily as she once did. My siblings live all over the country, and I'm the only one who sees her on a regular basis. I have told my brothers and sisters that I think they should visit more often because Mom is not doing well, but I don't think they believe me. Her voice sounds strong on the phone, and most of them speak to her relatively frequently, so they think I'm exaggerating.

As the child who watches out for her, I can tell you that we have had a few scares -- everything from a bad cold (which can be tough for an 85-year-old) to a sinus infection, the flu and fainting. My mother's doctor calls her condition "the normal signs of aging," but the way I see it, whatever is going on, her children need to see her more frequently. How can I impress this upon them? -- Older Mom, Boston

DEAR OLDER MOM: Use technology to support your cause to let them see how your mother is doing and also help to connect them more immediately. Engage FaceTime, Skype or another service to set up video calling with your mother so that they can see for themselves what her state is.

Additionally, call them separately and ask them to come visit. Consider hosting a family get-together this summer where you invite all family members to attend and pitch in with food and beverages. You will have fun and celebrate your mother.

Harriette Cole is a lifestylist 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
Concerns Grow About Libya Connection to Manchester Bombing

By Jamie Dettmer May 25, 2017

British counter-terror officers have been conducting raids and making arrests in the wake of the concert bombing earlier this week that killed 22 people, including children. The raids are reassuring on the one hand, showing the police are moving fast. But they are adding also to a sense of alarm among Manchester residents.

That alarm is slowly morphing into anger as it has emerged British security services missed several opportunities to identify the Manchester suicide bomber, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, as a high-risk militant. Several people have stepped forward  from neighbors to mosque leaders and community workers  to complain about the lack of action by authorities after they reported their worries about him to counter-terror officials.

One community worker says he contacted authorities after Abedi said "being a suicide bomber was OK."

Another community leader, Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "People in the community expressed concerns about the way this man was behaving and reported it in the right way using the right channels. They did not hear anything since."

Neither Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 nor the Manchester police have responded to the claims, but they are likely to be taken up by lawmakers demanding to know why Abedi was seen just as a peripheral figure rather than a threat requiring surveillance and investigation.

British authorities are focusing also on the international connections of the Manchester suicide bomber, who was born in Britain to Libyan parents after they fled to Britain in 1980 to escape the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

Libya trip

Abedi travelled back to Manchester last week from Libya after visiting his mother, father, younger brother and a sister, who moved full-time to Libya after Gadhafi's overthrow. His father, Ramadan, was at one time a member of the anti-Gadhafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, a militant Islamist band that was invited to join al Qaida by Osama bin Laden when its leaders were based in Afghanistan. Western media have taken to describing LIFG as an "al Qaida subsidiary"  a description rejected by former senior leaders, who say they declined bin Laden's invitation. LIFG subsequently split with some members joining al Qaida.

The whereabouts of Ramadan are currently unknown. On Wednesday night masked gunmen detained him while he was responding to media phone calls. Salman's younger brother, 20-year-old Hashem was also detained Wednesday night, by an Islamist militia in Tripoli known as the Rada Special Deterrence Force.

A spokesman for the 700-strong militia, a self-appointed vigilante force that has a fearsome reputation for harshness, said Rada had been monitoring Hashem for more than a month on suspicion he had ties with the Islamic State terror group, which has a powerful affiliate in Libya.

In a statement Wednesday, the militia said Hashem had confessed to IS membership, saying his brother, Salman, was a member, too. The militia claimed Hashem admitted he knew in advance about the plans for the Manchester bombing.

But a spokesman for Libyan authorities in Tripoli had a different version, telling British news media Hashem "felt there was something going on there in Manchester and he thought his brother would do something like bombing or attack. So after that, he told us, 'Having internet, I see the attack in Manchester and I knew that's my brother.'"

Link to Manchester

A strong Libyan connection to the Manchester bombing is a troubling prospect  not only for the British security services but for their counterparts elsewhere in Europe. If the Manchester bombing was directed by Islamic State's Libyan affiliate, it would be the first time the group had managed to pull off a terrorist act in Europe using the North African state.

And it raises the possibility of more jihadists with Libyan connections and British passports bringing their fight to Britain and Europe, complicating the challenge European intelligence services already face with hundreds of European-born jihadist returnees from Syria.

But an Italian security official who's been working on Libyan issues told VOA the government in Rome remains wary of some post-bombing claims being made by the warring parties in Libya, seeing them as agenda-pushing. Midweek the prime minister of one of the rival governments in the country, Abdullah Thinni, who heads a government based in Beida, eastern Libya, said he'd warned the British government it was harboring Libyan terrorists and sought to link the bombing to the Muslim Brotherhood.

No connection so far has been found to the Muslim Brotherhood, say British intelligence officials.

The Libyan connection to the bombing will likely have a major impact on European Union policy-making when it comes to the migrant flow into Europe from Libya. The interior ministers of German and Italy have been urging the EU to set up a mission along Libya's border with Niger in a bid to stop mainly African migrants from reaching Europe. Italian as well as other European authorities have long worried about jihadists infiltrating southern Europe as migrants, seeding themselves among thousands of sub-Saharan Africans making the Mediterranean crossing from Libya.But there is resistance from some EU member countries to the Italian-German recommendation.

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Appeals Court Upholds Stay on Trump Travel Order

By Molly McKitterick May 25, 2017

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday declined to reinstate President Donald Trump's executive order limiting travel from six predominantly Muslim countries for three months.

The ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the order did amount to a Muslim ban. "Laid bare, this executive order is no more than what the president promised before and after his election: naked invidious discrimination against Muslims," the judges said in their 205-page ruling.

A majority of the panel of 13 judges ruling in the case cited Trump's tweets, television interviews and statements posted on his campaign website as evidence of his intent.

Three judges dissented on the ground that the executive order did not mention religion.

"Far from containing the sort of religious advocacy or disparagement that can violate the Establishment Clause, the order contains no reference to religion whatsoever. Nor is there any trace of discriminatory animus," the dissenting judges wrote.

They also criticized the use of campaign material as evidence: "If a court, dredging through the myriad remarks of a campaign, fails to find material to produce the desired outcome, what stops it from probing deeper to find statements from a previous campaign, or from a previous business conference, or from college?"

On to the Supreme Court

In March, a federal judge in Maryland blocked the travel ban, which itself was a revised version of one issued in January that was tweaked after encountering legal roadblocks.

The appeals court majority did not think the second version was an improvement.

"Significantly, in revising the order, the executive branch did not attempt to walk away from its previous discriminatory order. Instead, it simply attempted to effectuate the same discrimination through a slightly different vehicle  the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing."

The Trump administration's next recourse is to take the case to the Supreme Court. Appeals court documents say the administration has 90 days to file an appeal.

One of the plaintiffs in the suit, the International Refugee Assistance Project, vowed to fight "as long as it takes." IRAP's director, Becca Heller, said: "Once again, the courts have confirmed that the Muslim ban is discriminatory and harmful. The president cannot simply slap the words 'national security' on an unconstitutional policy and get away with it."

A part of the executive order banning refugees for 120 days was not included in Thursday's ruling, which was confined to travel restrictions on the six predominantly Muslim countries. But a second appeals court, the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, is reviewing the travel order on a wider basis, including the ban on refugees.

The original stay in the 9th Circuit case was issued by a judge in Hawaii.

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Masked Terrorists Kill Coptic Christians on Bus in Egypt

By Edward Yeranian May 26, 2017

More than two dozen Coptic Christian pilgrims traveling to a monastery in the south of Egypt were killed Friday when suspected Islamic militants opened fire on a stopped passenger bus.

Women wailed as family members of the victims gathered outside the Magaga hospital in the southern Egyptian town of Minya, close to where the terror attack took place Friday morning.

Egyptian media said the victims were pilgrims who were on a journey to the Monastery of the Prophet Samuel, revered and visited by Coptic Christians across Egypt.

A female survivor told Egyptian TV from her hospital bed that the bus, carrying approximately 40 people, was ambushed by armed men.

Video on Egyptian media showed a passenger bus which appeared to have its windows blown out by gunfire.

Coptic sources said the masked gunmen opened fire at the bus at close range after forcing it to come to a stop. Other sources claimed that the gunmen entered the bus, seeking to kill survivors.

Emergency meeting called

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi called an emergency meeting of his security cabinet immediately after reports of the attack. Sissi recently denounced Islamic terror groups and those that support them during a summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh attended by U.S. President Donald Trump and leaders of close to 50 other Arab and Islamic states.

Coptic Christians have been targeted in a number of recent terror attacks across Egypt, including two suicide attacks on Coptic churches in the Nile Delta town of Tanta and the port city of Alexandria. Nearly 50 people were killed in those attacks.

A suicide bomber also blew himself up in the main Coptic Christian cathedral of Saint Mark's in Cairo last December.

Beit al-Maqdis group suspected

Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula have systematically targeted Christians in the port town of Arishe, killing them with gunshots and in some cases burning their bodies. Many Copts have fled the Sinai for towns on the other side of the Suez Canal.

Terror researcher Maher Feghali told Egyptian TV that the attackers were probably from the group calling itself Beit al-Maqdis  now describing itself an affiliate of the Islamic State group  which he says has supporters in the Sinai, as well as the region of Minya, where the Friday attack took place.

Feghali says that terrorists with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood usually attack only Egyptian police and security forces, while terrorists belonging to the so-called Beit al-Maqdis group have frequently attacked Coptic Christians. He adds that these terrorists have bases both in the Sinai and in the south of Libya. He says they use little-traveled desert roads to go back and forth between the area around Minya.

Terrorists in the same region also targeted Coptic Christians during an Islamic insurgency in the 1990s. Islamic terror groups have been trying to foment a sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians, so far without success.

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New Zealand Joins Space Nations With First Successful Rocket Launch - Rocket Lab

Sputnik News

09:55 25.05.2017(updated 10:06 25.05.2017)

The first-ever successful launch of an orbital rocket took place in New Zealand, aerospace company Rocket Lab said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The US-New Zealand aerospace company launched its Electron rocket from the facility on Mahia Peninsula, located on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.

The launch was expected to take place earlier this month, though it was postponed several times due to weather conditions.

The company plans to conduct two more test launches soon.

 Sputnik

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Xi calls for "strong, modern" navy

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 07:57, May 25, 2017

BEIJING, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called for efforts to build the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy into a strong and modern force to lend support for the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and the dream of a strong army.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), made the remarks during an inspection of the PLA Navy headquarters.

Xi expressed congratulations on the 12th Party congress of the PLA Navy,met delegates to the congress and conveyed greetings to all navy members.

Noting that the navy is a strategic military service concerning national security and overall development, Xi asked naval authorities to build a world-class force by promoting political awareness, reforms and rule of law.

Xi visited the navy's operational command center, where he greeted via video navy officers who were performing duties at sea.

He first talked with members of flotilla 150, which was in an overseas journey of good-will visit. The members told Xi that they had visited five countries in more than one month and were warmly welcomed by the host countries. Xi asked them to pass on friendship and contribute to world peace.

Xi also talked with staff who were carrying out a patrol mission aboard ship 538.

"You continuously fight wind and waves. Thanks for your hard work!" Xi said. "I hope all you comrades perform duties loyally and merit the trust of the Party and the people."

After hearing a report on naval work, Xi said a strong navy is a symbol of a world-class army and is a pivot for building the nation into a great maritime power.

He asked navy authorities to advance the transformation of the PLA Navy and focus on combat capabilities.

He said the navy should improve overall fighting capacity by combining the "mechanization and informationization," promoting both offshore and high sea forces and balancing operations on the water surface, below the sea and in the air.

Innovation is key to improving and transforming the navy, according to Xi. He noted the transformation must be carried out in accordance with the law.

The navy must resolutely safeguard the CPC Central Committee's authority and unwaveringly stick to the Party's absolute leadership, Xi stressed.

He called for efforts to thoroughly purge the pernicious influence of Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, former corrupt senior CMC officials, and promote the anti-corruption drive.

He asked naval authorities to improve their own abilities while training a large number of capable military staff.

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North Korea Most 'Dangerous, Close' Threat US Faces - Army Chief of Staff

Sputnik News

20:18 25.05.2017(updated 20:19 25.05.2017)

North Korea is the most dangerous and immediate threat facing the United States, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Asked how close in terms of time the North Korean threat might be, Milley said he would only disclose more information in a classified session.

"North Korea is probably the most dangerous, close in terms of time threat, in my view, that the United States faces, and they are rapidly developing an intercontinental with a nuclear weapon attached that can range the continental United States, and I don't think we should allow that," Milley stated.

The general noted that thousands of troops stationed in South Korea are within striking distance of Pyongyang's conventional weapons.

"The United States has  publicly  28,500 troops of all branches in Korea. Roughly speaking about 20,000 of those are Army, and North Korean tube, conventional tube and rocket artillery has extensive range, it can range all of Seoul, it can range most of the military compounds, so our troops are at risk in Korea," Milley said.

The US Army has requested $137 billion for its 2018 budget. The administration of President Donald Trump unveiled their 2018 budget requests on Tuesday.

The situation on the Korean peninsula has become increasingly tense in recent months due to the series of missile launches and nuclear tests conducted by Pyongyang. These tests are claimed to be in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Last Sunday, North Korea launched a ballistic missile, which reportedly flew some 500 kilometers (310 miles) before falling into the Sea of Japan short of reaching Japan's exclusive economic zone. This is the eighth missile launch carried out by North Korea in 2017.

 Sputnik

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Trump, Tusk Agree to Work Together to Further Isolate N Korea - White House

Sputnik News

19:23 25.05.2017

US President, European Council President and European Commission President agreed in a meeting to work together to isolate N Korea from the rest of the world, the White House said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US President Donald Trump, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed in a meeting on Thursday to work together to isolate North Korea from the rest of the world, the White House said in a press release

"They also discussed the threat from North Korea and agreed to work together to further isolate the North Korean regime politically and economically," the release stated on Thursday.

When it comes to North Korea, the international community, including the United States, has criticized a number of missile launches and nuclear tests that the Asian nation has carried out since the beginning of 2016, and tightened the sanctions regime against Pyongyang.

In regards to Syria, the US House of Representatives has recently passed the law on imposing additional sanctions against foreign backers providing support, including military, to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his alleged human rights abuses.

 Sputnik

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Trump to Japanese PM: North Korean question 'will be solved'

Iran Press TV

Fri May 26, 2017 12:56PM

US President Donald Trump has assured Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the question of North Korea "will be solved," ahead of a G7 summit that will discuss a series of missile tests carried out by Pyongyang.

"We will be discussing many things including of course North Korea which is very much on our minds," Trump said on Friday in the Italian town of Taormina where he held a meeting with Abe at the start of the two-day G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem," the US president said.

"It will be solved, you can bet on that," he added, without offering further details.

Japanese PM Abe said he would highlight the danger posed by North Korea at the G7 summit.

"The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, calling on the group of industrialized economies to act "resolutely".

Trump has warned that a "major conflict" with North Korea is "absolutely" possible in the ongoing standoff over its nuclear and missile programs.

And, according to reports, the trump administration is considering a range of military actions against the country. But US Democrats have warned Trump not to launch an attack against the North.

A group of 64 Democrats concerned with breakout of war with the nuclear power said in a letter on Tuesday that any preemptive attack should be approved by the US Congress ahead of being operationalized, The New York Times reported.

"Few decisions are more needing of debate than a move to launch attacks, or declare war, on a nuclear-armed state such as North Korea," read the letter. "In such a volatile region, an inconsistent or unpredictable policy runs the risk of unimaginable conflict."

They also asked the Trump administration to present evidence of a policy aimed at boosting prospects of negotiations with Pyongyang.

Tensions have been running high on the Korean Peninsula over the North's nuclear and missile programs, which Pyongyang sees as a deterrent against a potential invasion by its adversaries.

The Trump administration has sent an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine to the region in a show of force.

Pyongyang has threatened the US with a nuclear attack in case of a direct military action, and has indicated that weapons tests would continue more frequently.

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Trump Calls North Korea A 'Big Problem,' Says It Will Be Solved

RFE/RL May 26, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump said on May 26 that North Korea, which has conducted a series of recent missile tests, was a "big problem" on the U.S. foreign policy agenda.

Trump spoke after a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ahead of the start of a Group of Seven (G7) summit on the Italian island of Sicily.

"It is very much on our minds....It's a big problem, it's a world problem and it will be solved. At some point it will be solved. You can bet on that," Trump said.

Meanwhile, the White House said Trump and Abe agreed to expand sanctions against North Korea for its continued development of ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

"They also agreed to further strengthen the alliance between the United States and Japan, to further each country's capability to deter and defend against threats from North Korea," a statement said.

North Korea's nuclear and missile programs are seen as a major security challenge for the Trump administration.

The U.S. president has vowed to prevent the country from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile, a capability experts say Pyongyang could acquire sometime after 2020.

Trump's administration has been seeking to convince China and Russia to put more pressure on North Korea.

But at a joint press conference after a meeting in Moscow, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had words of warning for South Korea and the United States.

Wang said that that Beijing and Moscow are calling on North Korea to respect UN resolutions on its nuclear program, but that China also expects South Korea to make efforts to resume talks with Pyongyang.

Lavrov said Russia and China agree that the development of North Korea's nuclear program should not be used as an excuse for deploying elements of a U.S. global antimissile system on the Korean Peninsula.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-north-korea -big-problem/28510797.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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Trump: North Korea 'A Particular Focus' for G-7 Leaders at Summit

By Steve Herman May 26, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump says terrorism and North Korea are top items on the agenda for the leaders' summit of the Group of Seven nations, which began Friday on Sicily, the largest Mediterranean island.

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the U.S. president said the meeting would have a "particular focus on the North Korea problem."

While terrorism would also be a primary concern for the leaders during their two days of talks on the Italian island, North Korea's nuclear weapons testing and ballistic missile development comprise "a big problem, it's a world problem," said Trump. "It will be solved at some point. It will be solved, you can bet on that."

Trade is another major topic on the minds of Trump's counterparts who have gathered in the resort town of Taormina.

They are hoping to soften Trump's stance on trade and climate change.

"We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means," the director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, told reporters on Air Force One on the flight to Sicily from Belgium.

In Brussels, at the opening of a new headquarters for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S. president bluntly confronted other leaders of the alliance, asserting that their failure to meet financial pledges on defense spending is not fair "to the people and taxpayers of the United States."

Trump is also at odds with other leaders on climate change.

During the G-7 there will be "fairly robust" talks on whether Trump should honor Washington's commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement signed two years ago, said Cohn, who is the president's chief economic advisor.

During his presidential campaign, in which he took numerous controversial stances, Trump referred to man-made global warming as a "hoax."

The G-7, going back more than a decade, has repeatedly recognized the threat of climate change, but U.S. officials may be pushing to weaken language in the Taormina communique.

"It would be extremely rare for this major set of developed countries to not send a clear signal regarding climate change," according to Jake Schmidt, the international program director of the National Resources Defense Council.

Along with the United States, the other members of the G-7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain. The European Union is also represented.

The group of wealthy nations also included Russia between 1997 and 2014 and was known as the G-8. But after Moscow's invasion of Crimea, Russian participation was suspended.

For Russia to return it would have to adhere to the "Minsk accords, and implementing those, restoring Ukrainian sovereignty," U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Wednesday.

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Merkel Delivers Ultimatum to Erdogan Over Incirlik Airbase in Turkey

Sputnik News

17:02 25.05.2017(updated 17:14 25.05.2017)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters Thursday after arriving at the NATO summit in Brussels that she is going to "clearly indicate" in talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Germany will leave the Incirlik airbase if German lawmakers are now allowed to visit it.

BERLIN (Sputnik)  Merkel told reporters Thursday after arriving at the NATO summit in Brussels that she is set to discuss the dispute over Bundestag members' visit to the airbase in Turkey where German military is stationed.

"I will clearly indicate in the conversation with the Turkish president that, since we have a parliamentary army, members of the German Bundestag should be able to visit our soldiers. Otherwise we will have to leave Incirlik," Merkel said.

On Wednesday, when commenting on the issue, Erdogan wished Germany a "happy journey" if Berlin decides to withdraw its forces from Incirlik.

Turkey blocked a group of German lawmakers from visiting the servicemen earlier in May prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel to suggest that Berlin may consider moving some 250 troops stationed at Incirlik to one of the neighboring countries.

In 2016, Berlin prolonged until the end of 2017 the deployment of six Tornado jets and hundreds of German personnel at the airbase despite strained relations between the two countries. German-Turkish relations deteriorated after the German parliament's decision in June to label the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. Following this decision, Ankara restricted a delegation of German lawmakers from accessing the air base in June 2016. Nonetheless, in October, Turkey allowed the delegation to visit the base.

In November 2016, German media reported that military officials have traveled to Jordan's capital Amman to investigate a possible relocation of Tornado spy jets from southern Turkey.

The Turkish Incirlik airbase stations hundreds of German personnel and several Tornado jets to carry out airstrikes against Daesh in Iraq and Syria alongside the United States and several other NATO member states.

 Sputnik

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US Senate committee approves new Iran sanctions bill

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 4:33PM

The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has passed a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program that Tehran has repeatedly said is solely for defensive purposes.

The committee voted 18-3 in favor of the measure on Thursday, but the bill still requires the full Senate consideration and support by the House of Representatives and US President Donald Trump to become law.

The measure is said to be punishing Iran over its ballistic missile program and alleged support for militant groups, weapons transfers and human rights violations.

The bill had been initially introduced by a bipartisan group of US senators in Congress to impose tighter sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile tests and other non-nuclear activities.

The bill was introduced on Thursday, March 23, by 14 Democratic and Republican senators, including senior members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The bill would require the US president to block the property of any person or entity involved in specific activities that violate the United Nations arms embargo on Iran.

It is also expected to impose sanctions on any entity involved in Iran's missile program and those who trade with them.

US lawmakers, who backed the bill, said they believed that the bill would not violate terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US.

However, critics are concerned that the new measure can undermine the nuclear agreement.

The JCPOA was inked between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the US, France, Britain, Russia and China - plus Germany in July 2015. The accord took effect in January 2016.

The resolution calls on Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."

The Islamic Republic says its missile program is not banned under the JCPOA as its missiles are defensive and not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

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Iran has built third underground missile factory: Senior IRGC commander

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 10:46AM

A senior Iranian commander vows the Islamic Republic will continue to strengthen its defensive missile might in the face of security threats facing the nation, saying the country has built its third underground missile production facility in recent years.

Speaking at a Thursday ceremony in the southwestern city of Dezfoul, Commander of the Aerospace Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh praised Iran's achievements in the defense sector, including missiles, drones, radars and electronic warfare.

He said the "effective power" of Iran's missile industry has prompted the country's enemies to oppose Tehran's possession of the know-how.

"All the basic material for manufacturing [missile] shells and producing fuel, etc for missiles are fully designed and manufactured at home by Iranian experts," the commander pointed out.

He underlined the Islamic Republic's determination to continue to develop its missile might and noted, "It is natural for the US and Israel to be concerned and nervous over our missile production, missile tests and the display of our missile cities as they always want the Iranian nation to be in the position of weakness."

"I hereby announce that in recent years the third underground missile production factory has been inaugurated by the IRGC," added the commander.

In January 2016, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) aired exclusive footage of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' (IRGC) deep underground tunnel filled with numerous Emad ballistic missiles.

IRGC's first underground missile facility was unveiled on October 14, 2015.

On Friday, the United States Department of Treasury to impose sanctions on two Iranian defense officials, an Iranian company, and members of a China-based network for supporting Iran's ballistic missile program.

The move marked the second one of its kind under US President Donald Trump, who was inaugurated in January.

The US claims Iran's missile work is in breach of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed Tehran's nuclear deal with the P5+1 states in 2015.

Tehran has repeatedly said its missiles are not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Iran responded to the new sanctions on Thursday by slapping bans on nine American individuals and firms over their blatant human rights violations.

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U.S. Treasury Eyes More Sanctions On Iran, Reviews Aircraft Sales

RFE/RL May 25, 2017

The U.S. Treasury chief told Congress on May 24 that he is looking for ways to increase sanctions on Iran, including by reviewing licenses the Treasury previously granted to Boeing and Airbus to sell aircraft to Iran.

"We will use everything within our power to put additional sanctions on Iran, Syria, and North Korea to protect American lives," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee.

"I can assure you that's a big focus of mine and I discuss it with the president," he said, adding that the Trump administration is convinced that sanctions "really work."

Mnuchin did not elaborate on the department's review of the aircraft sale licenses, which were issued by the Treasury last year under a 2015 agreement between Tehran and world powers to lift economic sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities.

His statements followed President Donald Trump's call on Iran to stop funding "terrorists and militias" during a trip this week to the Middle East.

The Boeing aircraft sale was the biggest deal for a U.S. business contemplated in the landmark nuclear accord, while the Airbus sales were also among the largest business deals to come out of the agreement.

IranAir has agreed to buy 200 U.S. and European passenger aircraft worth up to $37 billion at list prices, though such deals typically include big discounts.

They include 80 jets from Boeing and 100 from Airbus. All the aircraft need U.S. licenses because of their reliance on U.S. parts.

Most of Iran's aging fleet of 250 commercial planes were purchased before 1979, and only 162 were operational last year, with the rest grounded because of a lack of spare parts.

Iran has said that halting the aircraft sales would breach the nuclear agreement, though some legal experts say the Treasury has the authority to withdraw the licenses.

For Boeing, losing the IranAir deal could force it to cut back production of its 777 passenger jetliners.

"Boeing continues to follow the lead of the U.S. government with regards to working with Iran's airlines, and any and all contracts with Iran's airlines are contingent upon U.S. government approval," a spokeswoman told Reuters by e-mail.

With reporting by Reuters, Times of Israel, and Press TV

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-treasury-eyes-more- sanctions-iran-reviews-boeing-airbus-sales-mnuchin/28507907.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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Senate Panel Backs New Sanctions on Iran

By Michael Bowman May 25, 2017

A Senate panel has overwhelmingly approved new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's support for international terrorism and its ballistic missile program, the first move to punish Tehran since a landmark nuclear accord went into effect.

Thursday's 18-3 vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee came days after President Donald Trump pledged common cause with Israel and Sunni Arab states to counter Iranian influence in the region.

"The bill passed overwhelmingly today [in committee] and I believe will pass overwhelmingly on the Senate floor," said the committee's chairman, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee.

"If you think about what just happened with the [president's] trip to Saudi Arabia, this begins to coordinate a Middle Eastern strategy that counters Iran's aggression in the region. There is a move to push back against the many nefarious activities that Iran has been engaged in," Corker added.

Eight of the committee's 10 Democrats backed the bill, including Chris Coons of Delaware, who, in 2015, supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal.

"This bill shows a continuing determination by the American Congress to stand up to Iran's continued, even expanded malign activities around the world: their ongoing ballistic missile launches, their support for terrorism, their human rights violations," Coons said. "All of these are areas that are specifically called out in the JCPOA as areas where it is appropriate and possible for the United States, if necessary, to impose additional sanctions."

Ahead of the vote, a central figure in nuclear negotiations with Iran, former secretary of state John Kerry, took to Twitter to warn against new sanctions, writing: "There are many tools to up the pressure already in place and at our disposal. We need to weigh/consider risk to JCPOA."

That concern was shared by the bill's opponents in the Senate, including Democrat Tom Udall of New Mexico.

"Let's remember, the Iranians have just had an election, re-elected [President Hassan] Rouhani, who was a supporter of this agreement and he was re-elected by a big margin," Udall said. "So the first move of our government with this legislation is going to be to threaten the [nuclear] agreement. I think that's a very bad posture for us."

Such concerns are unwarranted, according to backers of the sanctions.

"We know that this in no way touches the nuclear deal," Corker said.

"Tehran can argue all they want that these areas for additional sanctions are not permitted under the JCPOA," Coons said. "The plain text of the agreement allows additional sanctions in these three areas [support for terrorism, missile development, and human rights]."

The committee's lone Republican to oppose bill, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, argued that punishing Iranian missile development makes no sense after President Trump inked a major arms deal with Iran's arch-rival, Saudi Arabia.

"If we want Iran to stop or lessen their development of ballistic weapons, we need to address the cause: the arms race in the Middle East," Paul said.

Between Trump's actions and the sanctions bill, no one is disputing that a shift has occurred away from the former Obama administration's handling of Iran.

"Some chose to believe that the regime in Tehran would respond to the JCPOA and the opportunity it gave the Iranian government to change their behavior, to engage with the West, to demonstrate that it wants to become part of the community of nations," Coons said. "In the last year their [Iran's] actions have proven the opposite, and I think it's now appropriate for us to take these steps [impose sanctions]."

Many will be watching Iran's reaction if the sanctions become law. Asked by VOA if he is concerned about how the bill will be viewed in Tehran, Corker shrugged.

"Are you talking about the people, [or] are you talking about this revolutionary leadership that is carrying out terrorism throughout the Middle East?" Corker responded. "I can't answer for both."

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Iran Claims It Built Third Underground Missile Factory

By VOA News May 25, 2017

Iran claims to have built a third underground ballistic missile production facility and says it will continue developing its missile program, a move that will surely increase tensions between the country and the United States.

Speaking with the semi-official Fars news agency Thursday, General Amir-Ali Hadjizadeh, the head of Iran's aerospace program, said the facility had been completed in "recent years."

"We are going to develop our ballistic power. It's normal that our enemies, that is to say the United States and Israel, are angry when we show off our underground missile bases because they want the Iranian people to be in a position of weakness," he said.

The announcement came as U.S. President Donald Trump wrapped up his first foreign trip to the Middle East, where he met with Israeli and Saudi leaders and called Iran a threat to countries across the region.

"From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region," Trump said during a speech Sunday in Riyadh.

Trump has spoken strongly against the Iranian missile program and imposed new sanctions on the country earlier this year, following a missile test in January.

Iran has developed several ballistic missile designs with the capability of travelling 2,000 kilometers, far enough to reach Israel and U.S. bases in the region.

The United States has said Iran's ballistic missile program is in violation of an international law regarding missiles with the capability of carrying nuclear warheads.

Iran, though, denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and claims the missiles are designed only to carry conventional warheads.

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'Beautiful military equipment' can't buy Middle East peace

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, May 26, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an article published in American daily New York Times criticized US-Saudi recent $110 arms deal, saying it will neither reduce the burden on the American military nor support the long-term security of Saudi Arabia.

The following is the full text of Zarif's article:

As President Trump was being feted in the palaces of the Saudi royal family after concluding a historic arms deal, Iranians were celebrating the outcome of a hard-fought election.The vote manifested the determination of Iran's electorate to continue on the path of moderation and constructive engagement based on mutual respect that brought the world the nuclear deal in 2015.

If past performance is an indicator of future success, another $110 billion worth of weapons will neither reduce "the burden" on the American military nor support "the long-term security of Saudi Arabia," as the State Department argues. The last time the Saudis spent that kind of money was when they provided billions to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s to arm his war of aggression against Iran. Look what that bought them and the world.

At best, Mr. Trump is extorting our Saudi neighbors, milking them for money they do not have. At worst, he could be turning the United States into Saudi Arabia's mercenary in the Middle East, a rather ignominious position for America considering where 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers came from. A security crackdown in Saudi Arabia before Mr. Trump's visit  as well as the Bahraini regime's deadly attack on a sit-in immediately afterward  suggest that the region's despots feel that they've been given carte blanche to stamp out peaceful dissent.

In other words, something deeply rotten is unfolding in our part of the world.

To avoid the spread of terrorism and militant extremism, responsible leaders in regional and world capitals alike must step up and tackle the momentous challenges at hand. Sword dances and lavish banquets aside, fundamental contradictions must be addressed.

In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is attacking the Ansar Allah group, the one force that has proved adept at beating back Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the most lethal of the global terrorist network's franchises. The Saudi-led coalition's Western backers explain their motive as support for "democracy," even though the concept finds little favor either in Riyadh or among other Arab allies of the United States.

The absurdities of the tragedy in Yemen are sadly echoed in Syria. There, the forces fighting Wahhabi extremists on the front lines also face perils from Western counterterrorism policy, which is often arbitrary in its distinctions between allies and enemies.

Let me be clear: What President Trump called "lots of beautiful military equipment" won't drain the swamps in which terrorism and extremist militancy fester. Neither will golden chains or glowing orbs provide a magical solution to the socioeconomic and political challenges that drive radicalization. What will work is a genuine effort to forge inclusive engagement among the regional powers based on a policy of coexistence and acceptance that military solutions are futile.

While Saudi Arabia spends countless millions promoting fear of Iran to distract from its global export of Wahhabism  which inspires the extremist ideology of Al Qaeda, the so-called Islamic State and many other terrorist groups wreaking havoc from Karachi to Manchester  Iran has been aiding the victims of extremism in Iraq and Syria. By helping to prevent the Islamic State from seizing Baghdad and Damascus, Iran is actively promoting a political solution to the conflicts in both countries.

In 2013, Iran proposed an immediate cease-fire and a plan to end the war in Syria. For over two years, Saudi Arabia categorically rejected the premise that the Syrian conflict had no military solution, clinging to the illusion that its extremist proxies would achieve victory on the battlefield by dragging the United States into the war. Innumerable lives later, in 2015, our Syria plan became the basis for United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254.

More recently, the dialogue initiative led by Iran, Turkey and Russia, while far from perfect, has also proved effective as a de-escalation mechanism. The twin-track diplomacy on Syria, where fighting has abated and counterterrorist efforts have made progress, provides a credible formula for conflict resolution elsewhere in the region.

In Yemen, since the first days of hostilities over two years ago, Iran has proposed a four-point plan to end the war, which Saudi Arabia boasted would be over in two weeks. The proposal entails securing an immediate cease-fire, dispatching emergency humanitarian aid, promoting dialogue among Yemeni groups and helping them to establish an inclusive government of national unity with the support of neighbors.

With seven million Yemenis on the brink of a man-made famine and virtually half of Syria's population displaced, the crises are too urgent to waste time pointing the finger of blame at the parties responsible. Rather, to find a long-overdue end to these calamities, the regional powers must recognize and address the underlying issues that fan violent extremism.

In this vein, the United States and its allies face two choices. They can continue to lend moral and material support, and encourage the perpetrators to intensify their war efforts, though this has proved futile and only brings more death and destruction and further complicates the path to a lasting solution. Or, as Iran has stated from the start, these governments can focus on helping to forge inclusive political solutions with the participation of all the political groups involved.

Back in 1990, when I was a young diplomat, I witnessed how, in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's decision to turn against his Arab financiers and invade Kuwait, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies failed to respond to their Iranian counterpart's offer to explore an inclusive arrangement for regional security. With billions of dollars wasted on arms, and after years of bloodshed, we are back to square one.

If we don't break this cycle, we will leave only the same momentous task to our children and grandchildren. We must be the generation that learns from history rather than be condemned to repeat it.

*Mohammad Javad Zarif is the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

9191**1771

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Iran Vows to Develop Missile Program Despite Washington's Discontent

Sputnik News

18:23 26.05.2017

Tehran will not give up on its missile program and will continue to develop it further, despite objections raised by the United States, because of omnipresent threats in the region, Bahram Qassemi, the spokesman of Iranian Foreign Ministry, said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The development of missiles in Iran has been repeatedly criticized by Washington. In February, the United States imposed a round of sanctions against Iran after the country carried out a medium-range ballistic missile test in late January.

"In line with our national policies, we will continue our defense program, which is deterrent and contributes to stability and security in the region and the campaign against terrorism, with full power and will not allow others to talk about the issue," Qassemi was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.

The administration of US President Donald Trump even promised to review the deal of the Iranian nuclear program signed in 2015, which eventually led to lifting of international economic sanctions.

Earlier this month, Washington imposed another round of sanctions against Iranian defense officials and an entity over the continued development of ballistic missiles. Following the re-election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on May 20, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on the Iranian Leader to end ballistic missile tests.

 Sputnik

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Libya: UN envoy calls on rival groups to immediately halt violence in Tripoli

26 May 2017  Condemning the surging violence in Tripoli, the top United Nations official in Libya called today for an immediate end to fighting in and around the capital and for rival groups to "put Libyan national interests" ahead of their own.

According to a news statement, Martin Kobler, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the North African country, is following reports of the violence with grave concern and has called for the fighting to stop and for civilians to be protected.

"Voices of reason should prevail for the benefit of the country," he said. "Political aims must not be pursued through violence. Civilians must be protected. I remind all parties of their duty to respect the provisions of international humanitarian and international human rights law", said Mr. Kobler, who also heads up the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

He went on to express full support to the Presidency Council as the "sole legitimate executive authority in Libya," as stipulated in UN Security Council resolution 2259 (2015) and 2278 (2016). He urged all parties in Libya to engage seriously in the political process and towards national reconciliation.

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Russia Supplies Advanced President-S Onboard Defense Systems to Three Countries

Sputnik News

21:01 26.05.2017

Russia has supplied its advanced President-S onboard defense systems to three countries and is negotiating further supplies with other customers, a representative of Concern Radio-electronic Technology (KRET), Vladimir Mikheev, told Sputnik.

Earlier, is was reported that a number of countries in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin America are interested in acquiring Russian President-S onboard defense systems (ODS) and Rychag-AV helicopter electronic warfare systems.

"Supplies to a number of countries are now underway: we have fulfilled our obligations to equip the systems with our Mi-17 and Mi-8 helicopters of various modifications, and in some cases the works were carried out on the territory of a foreign customer. Without specifying the countries, I can say that we are talking about it with three countries," Mikheev told Sputnik.

Mikheev also added that pre-contract negotiations on President-S deliveries are now taking place with a number of countries in North Africa, the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.

The ODS is designed to protect planes and helicopters from being hit by missiles, air defense and anti-aircraft artillery. It detects and tracks incoming rockets, as well as repels them by directing laser rays at their multispectral optical seekers or jamming their radios.

 Sputnik

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Russia to Supply China, India With Helicopters by 2020  Manufacturer

Sputnik News

19:41 26.05.2017

Russia is to supply several countries with the Mi-8, Ka-32 and Ansat helicopters, Deputy CEO of the Russian Helicopters company.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia is to supply China, India, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand and Equatorial Guinea with the Mi-8, Ka-32 and Ansat helicopters, Deputy CEO for marketing and business development of the Russian Helicopters company Alexander Shcherbinin told the Helicopter Industry magazine in an interview issued on Friday.

"In the near two  three years we are going to supply China, India, Thailand, Equatorial Guinea, Turkey and Vietnam with Mi-8, Mi-171, Ka-32A11BC and Ansat helicopters," Shcherbinin said.

The Mi-8 helicopter along with the Mi-17 aircraft are the most successful models in the history of the Russian helicopter industry, according to the company. They are manufactured in a variety of forms, including cargo, passenger, VIP, search and rescue, flying hospital and firefighting versions.

The Mi-171A2 is an advanced helicopter, which combines technologies used in the construction of the Mi-8/17 series and the new ones, such as upgraded engines and avionics. According to the website of the company, the first prototype of the helicopter was launched in November 2014.

The -32A11BC is a multirole coax helicopter successfully employed in fire-fighting and search-and-rescue missions. It is in service in Austria, Brazil, Spain, Canada, China, Portugal, Switzerland, and South Korea.

The Ansat, a multipurpose light twin-engine turbine helicopter, can be used to carry goods and passengers, as well as to be used for surveillance, search and rescue missions, as well as medical evacuation.

 Sputnik

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US-backed SDF asks militants in Raqqah to lay down arms by May-end

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 2:50PM

The so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has called on members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the northeastern Syrian city of Raqqah to lay down their arms by the end of the current month.

The US-backed SDF, made up of an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, announced in a statement on Thursday that a May 15 appeal for militants to turn themselves in within 10 days had achieved "positive results", and that the deadline would now be extended until May 31 based on "requests from the noble people of Raqqah."

The statement noted that the SDF would ensure the lives of militants, who would turn themselves in regardless of their position. The safety of their families is also guaranteed, according to the statement.

The SDF statement, issued by spokeswoman Jihane Sheikh Ahmad, pointed out that the extension would "allow the greatest number possible of those who were deceived or forced to join to benefit from this opportunity."

The US administration is set to use the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a major component of the SDF, in a planned US-led offensive to retake Raqqah, which has served as the main stronghold of Daesh in Syria since 2014.

Ankara views the YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group, which has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

Turkey has stepped up its attacks against PKK positions in northern Iraq and YPG outposts in Syria over the past few months.

Speaking to reporters while on a visit to Montenegro on May 10, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that Washington knows Ankara's position on the YPG very well and should not take wrong steps in Syria.

The top Turkish diplomat added that the United States needed to distinguish between the YPG and their Arab allies in the SDF, and that the Arabs should be the ones to enter Raqqah.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also made it clear that he expects a turnaround from Washington on such a move.

Aid deliveries stepped up across Syrian front lines

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says that aid deliveries have markedly increased across front lines in Syria.

ICRC President Peter Maurer said in a statement on Thursday that there was an eightfold growth in aid deliveries last year, expressing hope that the trend would continue this year.

Maurer, however, stressed that needs remain grave as people who have returned to their homes in liberated areas as well as internally-displaced families need more sustainable and long-term assistance.

ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek noted that the rise in the number of aid deliveries across conflict lines came in the light of continued and improved dialogue between representatives of the Damascus government and armed opposition groups last year.

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then.

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US sends truckloads of arms to Kurds in northern Syria: Reports

Iran Press TV

Thu May 25, 2017 9:16AM

The US has dispatched over 100 trucks loaded with armaments and ammunition to the Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian city of Hasakah over the past weeks, Turkish and Kurdish media say.

The US arms shipment was sent to the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the reports said.

The SDF is currently getting prepared to launch an offensive against Daesh in Raqqah, the terror group's main stronghold in Syria.

According to Turkey's Daily Sabah, the US arms shipment crossed into Syria from northern Iraq through the Simelka border on May 15 and May 20.

The convoys reportedly moved to Hasakah and later headed to the Raqqah region where the SDF forces are fighting against Daesh.

Based on Turkish media reports, the consignment consisted of US-made multiple rocket launchers, 80mm and 120mm heavy mortars as well as MK19 grenade launchers, M4 carbines and M16 infantry rifles alongside FGM-148 anti-tank missiles.

The convoys also included fuel tankers, Humvee armored vehicles and Cougar armored personnel carriers.

However, neither the US-led coalition nor the SDF has confirmed the delivery so far.

On May 9, the Pentagon confirmed a delivery of heavier weapons to the Kurdish militants after US President Donald Trump "authorized the Department of Defense to equip Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces as necessary to ensure a clear victory over ISIS (Daesh) in Raqqa."

The first shipment also included 120mm mortars, machines guns, ammunition and light armored vehicles.

The US decision to arm the Kurdish forces in Syria has sparked concern in Turkey.

Ankara perceives the YPG a terror organization and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been engaged in a three-decade-long militancy against Ankara in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

On Friday, Anadolu cited security sources as saying that the Turkish military had stepped up presence along its southern border and dispatched armored military vehicles and munitions to the area to respond to potential attacks by the YPG and PKK.

Since July 2015, Turkish air force has been carrying out operations against the PKK positions in the country's troubled southeastern border region as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

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US-backed Syrian Forces Step Up Training Ahead of Raqqa Offensive

By Rikar Hussein, Al Hendi May 25, 2017

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are speeding up training in preparation for a looming battle on Islamic State's capital, Raqqa, commanders told VOA.

Without giving a timetable, they said about 50,000 fighters would be participating in the battle for the IS stronghold, with aerial support from the U.S.-led coalition.

"Special experts from coalition countries are supporting the training with clothes, weapons and other equipment," Muhammad Fathi, an SDF commander, told VOA.

The SDF is a loosely knit alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that the U.S. sees as the most effective and reliable Syrian group fighting IS. The SDF has been closing in on Raqqa since November in a multiphased operation aimed at first isolating the city and then invading it. It recently claimed a major victory by seizing Syria's largest dam and Tabqa town, 50 kilometers west of Raqqa.

Driving IS from Raqqa is a major priority for the U.S.-led coalition. The U.S. announced this month that it would provide Kurdish forces around Raqqa with small arms, machine guns, ammunition and armored vehicles to counter improvised explosive devices and construction equipment. Washington sees arming the Kurdish fighters as the easiest way to bring about Raqqa's downfall.

U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered an "accelerated operation" against Islamic State jihadists in Syria, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said last week. Mattis called it a "tactical shift," saying the military would move away from operations designed to shove IS fighters out of seized locations, and instead focus on "surrounding the enemy in its stronghold."

Law and order

Kurdish commanders told VOA that hundreds of fighters were enrolled in seven-day training courses that would prepare them not only for the invasion but also to maintain law and order in Raqqa after IS. The training sites are in several locations in northern Syria, they said.

"Our goal has not been only to train fighters on how to take on the enemy, but also how to maintain stability in Raqqa," Fathi said.

A VOA Kurdish service reporter visited one of the training sites this week in a schoolyard in the town of Ain Issa, 50 kilometers north of Raqqa, where 50 young men and women finished a training program that Kurdish commanders said was supervised by the U.S.-led coalition. The graduates were dressed in green uniforms and wore light blue arm patches bearing the image of an eagle with its wings spread and emblazoned with the words "Raqqa Internal Security Force."

American military supervisors in the camp declined to comment.

But analysts and Kurdish activists in northern Syria say Syrian forces need training on how to use the U.S.-supplied weapons.

"The weapons are loaded on trucks and enter Rojava via the Iraqi Kurdistan's border on a daily basis," Jack Shahine, a Kurdish activist from northern Syria who monitors forces in the area, told VOA.

Shahine said the weapons are taken to military bases in Minbaj, Kobani and the Hasakah region, where U.S. special forces are present as trainers.

Turkish media reported that approximately 100 trucks have crossed into Syria from northern Iraq since May 15 with U.S. weapons.

Ankara opposes Washington's alliance with Syrian Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State. Turkey contends the SDF's Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, is a terrorist group affiliated with the outlawed PKK  the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a separatist group that has been battling the Turkish state for many years.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told VOA that the U.S. government had yet to provide weapons to the YPG. He said the weapons would be delivered to the YPG as necessary to accomplish specific military objectives in Raqqa.

"We're not going to comment on every delivery, the contents of those deliveries or the locations of the equipment we're providing," Pahon said. To "the extent possible, we want to keep IS in the dark to increase our partners' chances of a swift military defeat."

Stepped-up roles

A senior Kurdish official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity said coalition countries  mainly the U.S., France and Britain  had stepped up their advisory roles to the group.

"The forces are equipped with newly provided advanced anti-tank missiles to destroy armored suicide vehicles," the official said. "The advanced anti-tank missiles are very new to our forces, and therefore more training is needed in that area."

Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official and an analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington public policy research group, told VOA that IS would most likely pose stiff resistance in Raqqa.

"Anti-tank missiles and anti-armor missiles are the top of the wish list since Daesh [an IS acronym] was able to acquire tanks, Humvees and perhaps MRAPs when the Iraqi army collapsed," he told VOA, referring to a type of mine-resistant military vehicle.

VOA'S Mahmoud Bali contributed to this report from Syria; Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed from Washington.

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UN Rights Chief Concerned Over Civilian Toll Of Syria Air Strikes

May 26, 2017

The UN human rights chief is calling on countries carrying out air strikes in Syria to take greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians.

In a statement on May 26, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein specifically mentioned operations targeting Islamic State (IS) militants in northeastern Syria.

"The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by air strikes" in Deir al-Zor and Raqqa "suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks," he said.

Zeid stressed that civilians are being hit by IS and its opponents.

"The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by [IS] are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes," his statement said.

Zeid's spokesman Rupert Colville told a briefing on Geneva that there are "multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria including the [U.S.-led] coalition, mainly the coalition. We also understand that there are Iraqi airplanes as well."

Colville said the UN rights office has also received credible information that, earlier this month, IS fighters slit the throats of eight people who were accused of providing the coalition coordinates to guide strikes.

"Scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in [IS-held] areas," Zeid said.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/syria-un-zeid-air- strikes-civilian-toll/28510858.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 Sends Syrian Kurds New Batch of Weapons, Armored Vehicles

Sputnik News

21:19 26.05.2017

The day before yesterday Washington sent another batch of weapons to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This is the third batch of weapons sent to Syrian Kurds since Donald Trump made the decision to assist the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

A representative of the forces, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sputnik Turkey that he had received US weapons and armored vehicles last night. "As part of the fight against Daesh, the US sent us weapons and armored vehicles."

"Among the weapons received, there are missiles with thermal guidance, which can be used against enemy tanks. In this batch there were no tanks because the US had already sent them earlier," the source said.

He further said that armaments and armored vehicles were brought to Rojava from northern Iraq through the Semelka frontier post. From there the weapons were delivered to Kobani and to the south of Tell-Abyad on 70 vehicles.

"It will be used during the operation in Raqqa. We intend to enter the city in June, so our forces are in great need of heavy weapons. The US has already sent us weapons but it is not enough. It is necessary for us to have them in large quantities," the source added.

The United States have been providing support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which include the YPG, in the fight against Daesh in Syria. In November 2016, the SDF launched the operation Wrath of Euphrates aimed at capturing Raqqa, the de facto Daesh capital.

 Sputnik

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Kurds Expect Coalition Forces to Help Stop Turkish Op in Syria's Tell Abyad

Sputnik News

18:49 26.05.2017(updated 21:20 26.05.2017)

According to information received from sources in the Free Syrian Army, Turkey is preparing for an air and ground operation in the Syrian city of Tell Abyad, which is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

There is also a large Turkish military presence present along the border strip.

It has been reported that, at the moment, there is only one significant obstacle for the operation of the Turkish Armed Forces in Tell Abyad and that is the presence of the US soldiers in the area.

A spokeswoman for the self-defense units of the Kurdish YPG and women's defense forces (YPJ) division, Nesrin Abdullah, in an interview with Sputnik commented on the situation saying, "Turkey wants to carry out the operation together with some jihadist organizations. However, we represent a serious force on land, and we are training against this Turkish interference. If Turkey carries out an operation against us, we will defend our people," Nesrin said.

She further said that the YPG and the YPJ will also defend their lands. The Democratic forces of Syria, which include YPG and YPJ, will also defend Tell Abyad.

"Together with the coalition forces, we have already managed to liberate significant territories. We also believe that the US and the coalition forces will participate in the defense of Tell Abyad, against which Turkey intends to conduct an operation," Nesrin said.

According to one of the leaders of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), Ewwas Eli, if a ground operation is carried out against Tell Abyad, the coalition forces will defend the city.

He also said that when, four months ago, Turkey was preparing to conduct a ground operation in Tell Abyad, the coalition forces entered the city and put up their flag.

Talking about whether the Syrian Democratic Forces have the resources to conduct such an operation, Eli said that the forces who are winning in the fight against Daesh will be able to protect Tell Abyad.

According to Eli, "Turkey attaches great importance to Tell Abyad because it is located between the cantons of Kobani and Jazir. Turkey seeks to prevent the unification of the Kurdish cantons," Eli said.

Earlier, it was reported that Turkey has ostensibly spent three months training a large rebel force planning to deploy them against the YPG, a commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) told Sputnik Turkey on condition of anonymity.

"Turkey is in the process of creating an army manned by FSA fighters to carry out an operation against the YPG. This force will also be tasked with patrolling the security zone between Jarabulus and Idlib. This training has been ongoing for three months. Turkish Special Forces have led a training program lasting 45 days in Gaziantep and Kilis. Syrians from Idlib, Aleppo, Damascus and Hama have enrolled in this program. They have freely joined the FSA. These are mostly ethnic Turkmen or Arabs. There are some Kurds as well," the source said.

The Ankara-trained FSA force is said to consist of 10,000 fighters.

The FSA commander named the cities of Manbij, Afrin and Tell Abyad as the primary targets of Turkey's upcoming operation.

 Sputnik

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Defense autonomy shows Taiwan's resolve to defend itself: president

ROC Central News Agency

2017/05/25 16:14:21

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () said Thursday that building advanced jet trainers and submarines domestically are part of Taiwan's efforts toward defense autonomy that demonstrate the country's determination to defend itself.

Since her government was inaugurated last year, it has listed military reform as well as enhancement of military morale and dignity as a top priority, Tsai said after observing a live-fire drill held on the outlying islands of Penghu as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercises.

So far, the Ministry of National Defense has established projects to replace ageing weapons and refurbish old military buildings to improve the work environment and dignity of military personnel, and to pave the way for Taiwan's defense autonomy, Tsai said.

In particular, the government is making an all-out effort to increase Taiwan's ability to develop and manufacture weapons on its own, as in the case of building advanced jet trainers and submarines domestically, she said.

By securing such ability, Taiwan can develop weapons that best serve its needs, thus strengthening its combat capabilities, the president said.

Investing in the defense industry can also create domestic demand, spur Taiwan's technological development, and increase job opportunities, she said.

Most importantly, by demonstrating its determination to move toward defense autonomy, Taiwan is showing the world its resolve to defense its own territory, according to the president.

The live-fire drills of the 33rd Han Kuang exercises are being held from May 22-26 and involve all three branches of the military -- Army, Navy and Air Force -- to test their coordinated response to simulated assaults by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Thursday's drill simulated a scenario in which the PLA launches an amphibious landing on Penghu.

More than 3,900 troops took part in the drill, which featured 17 kinds of weaponry, including AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopters, the Thunderbolt-2000 multiple launch rocket system, M60A3 Patton main battle tanks and F-16 fighters.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/J

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Taiwan Military Drills Project Power in Face of Chinese Threat

Sputnik News

22:02 25.05.2017(updated 00:14 26.05.2017)

Taiwan's renewed military drills in the Taiwan Strait are preparations for a possible invasion from one of the world's largest powers, which considers the island nation a breakaway territory.

Taiwan engaged in defensive postures on the Penghu Islands, an archipelago of 90 islets off the country's west coast and a zone where China's army could be expected to marshal some of its massive and growing naval fleet if an invasion were to occur.

China intends to grow its fleet to 500 warships, analysts say. This vision includes more aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, amphibious ships, and a "burgeoning" contingent of frigates and destroyers, according to the Royal United Services Institute, a UK think tank.

While Taiwan has had a long and stable relationship with Washington, a key security partner, the US Navy's ability to address the concerns of allies and to keep at bay potential enemies in the South China Sea is an "open question," military analysts suggest, particularly in light of China's large-scale buildup of missiles and warships.

In response, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is enhancing her island's defense sector to match the looming threat of force from Beijing. By moving toward autonomy in its security operations, Taiwan "is putting on a display our determination to protect our home and land," Tsai said when the drills concluded May 25.

Still, Taiwan relies on Lockheed-made Patriot systems for missile defense against potential adversaries. In March, Taiwanese military officials said that China had medium-range ballistic missiles pointed at the island of 23 million residents.

 Sputnik

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NATO to Continue Strengthening Partnership With Ukraine, Secretary General Says

Sputnik News

00:04 26.05.2017

NATO will keep providing practical support, political support and support for implementing the Minsk agreements to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a press briefing Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  NATO member nations have agreed to continue to enhance the alliance's partnership with Ukraine, Stoltenberg said.

"We are going to continue to strengthen our close partnership with Ukraine, to provide practical support, political support and also strong support, of course, for all efforts to try to make sure that we are really able to implement the Minsk agreements, and especially allowing the international monitors to be able to do their job," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

In April, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a cooperation agreement with NATO for 2017 that provides for the development of political dialogue and comprehensive practical cooperation.

NATO's support for Kiev is expected to be further enhanced with the implementation of the Comprehensive Assistance Package endorsed during the July 2016 NATO Summit.

In January, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said the year's program would be focused on defense and security issues, and Ukraine would be able to use resources provided by NATO member countries.

Ukraine cancelled its non-aligned status in December 2014 and confirmed its intention to join NATO. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said a referendum on NATO membership would be held by 2020.

Despite Kiev's aspirations to become part of the alliance, NATO officials have stressed that the country needs to implement a wide range of reforms before pursuing membership.

 Sputnik

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Modernization, Replacement Programs Constitute Nuclear Deterrence Priority

By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2017  Modernization and replacement programs for elements of the U.S. nuclear triad are the first priority for the Defense and Energy departments, the Air Force and the Navy in fiscal year 2018, officials and military officers told a House panel this morning.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Strategic Force Subcommittee on the president's budget request for fiscal year 2018 were Frank Klotz, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Dr. Rob Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy.

Joining them to offer testimony on 2018 priorities for nuclear forces were Air Force Gen. Robin Rand, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, and Navy Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of Navy Strategic Systems Programs.

The NNSA, which Congress established in 2000, maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, helps reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction, provides the U.S. Navy with nuclear propulsion and responds internationally to nuclear and radiological emergencies.

Recapitalizing Nuclear Infrastructure

Klotz said the NNSA budget request, which is about half of the Energy Department budget, is $13.9 billion, nearly $1 billion over the fiscal 2017 omnibus level. "We're very grateful for the level of spending that has been proposed in the president's [fiscal 2018] budget. It will allow us to tackle some of our very important infrastructure recapitalization projects, such as the uranium processing facility at Y-12 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee," Klotz said.

"We expect to complete design this year and actually start construction next year, he said, adding, "We didn't get into the situation we face with aging and in some cases crumbling infrastructure overnight, and we're not going to get out of it in a day."

Klotz told the panel that the 2018 budget request is vital to ensuring that the U.S. nuclear force remains modern, robust and tailored to 21st century threats and to reassure U.S. allies. Elements of the request are as follows:

-- Weapons activity appropriation: $10.2 billion, a 10.8 percent increase over 2017.

-- Defense nuclear nonproliferation: $1.8 billion, consistent with 2017.

-- Naval reactors program: Nearly $1.5 billion, a 4.2 percent increase over 2017, and

-- Federal salaries and expenses: $418 million, an 8.1 percent over 2017.

"Our [fiscal] 2018 budget request  accounts for the significant tempo of operations at NNSA that in many ways has reached a level unseen since the Cold War," Klotz said.

The request includes long-overdue investments to repair and replace infrastructure at national laboratories and production plants, he added, and improves workspace for the scientific, engineering and professional workforce.

Ultimate Deterrent

In his remarks to the panel, Soofer said that for decades U.S. nuclear forces have provided the ultimate deterrent against nuclear attacks on the United States and its allies.

Effective deterrence requires a deliberate strategy and forces that are structured and postured to support that strategy, he said, noting that "strategy, forces and posture also must be flexible enough to maintain stability while adjusting to gradual and rapid technological and geopolitical changes."

Russia has taken aggressive actions against its neighbors, threatened the United States and is modernizing a diverse nonstrategic nuclear weapons force, for example. China's increased assertiveness suggests a desire to dominate the Asia-Pacific region, and North Korea's leaders have been willing to accept economic countermeasures and international isolation to advance its nuclear capability, he said, among other threats.

Against this backdrop, Soofer said, the president directed DoD to conduct a comprehensive Nuclear Posture Review that is expected to be completed by the end of this calendar year.

"As we conduct the NPR, [Defense Secretary Jim Mattis] has directed that we continue with the existing program of record for recapitalizing our aging nuclear forces," he said.

DoD expects nuclear recapitalization costs to total $230 billion to $290 billion over more than two decades, Soofer said.

"The president's budget request for [fiscal] 2018 fully funds DoD nuclear recapitalization programs and provides for nuclear force sustainment operations. It also adds more than $3 billion across the Future Years Defense Plan relative to the previous years' request to continue improving the health of the DoD nuclear enterprise," he said.

Long-Range Strategic Forces

In his remarks, Air Force Gen. Robin Rand, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, highlighted the need for modernization efforts across Air Force Global Strike Command.

"Fiscal constraints, while posing planning challenges, do not alter the national security landscape or the intent of competitors and adversaries," the general said. "Nor do they diminish the enduring value of long-range strategic forces to our nation."

Navy Vice Adm. Terry Benedict, director of Navy Strategic Systems Programs, addressed long-term sustainment of the triad's sea-based leg.

"While our current life-extension efforts will sustain the D-5 [Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile] system until the 2040s, the Navy is already beginning to evaluate options to maintain a credible and effective strategic weapon system to the end of the Columbia class service life in the 2080s," the Benedict said.

"At SSP we are looking long term and across the spectrum, from our workforce and infrastructure to our industry partners and geographic footprint," he added.

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To the editor:

James Clapper, President Obamas former Director of National Intelligence, recently testified under oath to the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that after months and months of one investigation after another, there is not one scrap of evidence that President Trump conspired with Russian foreign nationals to impact the election. No evidence of collaboration has only fueled the unceasing contemptuous conjecture of hysterical journalism and a Democratic Party that has the appearance of regressing back to its lynch-mob mentality. Disingenuously, it is these same two factions who remained graveyard mute after the U.S. Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations indictment of the Obama State Departments contributing $349,276 in U.S. taxpayer-funded grants to a political group in Israel to build a campaign operation utilized to try to influence Israelis to vote against conservative Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2015 election for prime minister. Its obvious that facts and ethics have become an immaterial vulgarity to these factions.

Evidence or no, when one suggests a crime, one looks for a motive. If the collusion charge were true, what rational motive would ever inspire Russia to desire a Republican for president over a Democrat? To assert collusion, given Russias history and political philosophy, suggest the foolish probability that Vladimir Putin may be imbecilic when considering the impact of such allegations on the communist state if the unproven conspiracy proved successful.

One could never get a member of these two hysterical factions to admit that a Republican would want to penalize the rich. Russias political philosophy was founded on the principle of striping the wealthy of their wealth. Correspondingly, the Democratic Party embraces this same philosophy except it employs the devious politically correct term of income redistribution.

Russias and the Democrats preferred economic theories remain debatably anti-capitalistic. In their wildest hallucinations, they will never expose the Republican Party or Trump as being anti-capitalistic.

Russias infrastructure demands and is dependent on a strong central authority. Respectively, the Democratic Party sustains its nourishment through a large and ever-increasing government arguably believing its necessity for human existence. On the opposite side of the coin is the Republican Party, openly announcing the desire to diminish the size of government arguably making it less burdensome and less oppressive.

From the beginning, Trump ran a campaign promising a major military buildup with Hillary Clinton promising to spend this money on social programs and not amend Obamas depleted military status quo. Trump promised an augmentation of Americas nuclear arsenal, while Clinton called such talk dangerous and scary. Trump supports an armed citizenry, the Second Amendment and its original intent, while Clinton has not exactly proven a disciple of the Constitutions Second Amendment. Trump emphasized the enhancement of cyber warfare whereas Clinton, well, respectfully, she hasnt exactly proven herself a whiz when it comes to directing technology.

Trump promised an energy independent America while creating thousands of good-paying jobs which is in no way in Russias best interest. Clinton vowed to resist all carbon fuel exploration and development, thus keeping America dependent on overpriced imports from the other side of the globe.

Democratic and Russian political philosophies lean considerable more towards the socialism or fascism philosophies which are in extreme conflict with the conservative philosophies and principles of the Republican Partys base.

With these facts being self-evident, what rational motive would Putin have in mind for conspiring for a Republican for president over Hillary? Logic suggests such accusations are asinine and baseless.

With the absence of both a motive and no evidence one has to ask: Are we dealing with shameful hypocrisy or just plain sincere stupidity? Theres also the possibility that the left is employing the same tactic employed to destroy Sarah Palin as confessed on CNN by Van Jones, a liberal activist, and the Obama White House green jobs czar. Like Palins convention speech, Trumps agenda may have the progressive movement shaking in their boots.

Theres unquestionably collusion to thwart the integrity of this election. Not collusion between Trump and Putin, but between the media and Democrats. Such undemocratic doctrine and practices confirm why the current Democratic Party is the greatest threat to American democracy.

LARRY BARTON

Danville
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Majestic Silver Corp. (NYSE:AG) (TSX:FR) (First Majestic or the Company) is pleased to announce the voting results for the election of its Board of Directors at its annual general meeting held on May 25, 2017.



A total of 81,472,101 shares were represented at the meeting, being 49.36% of the Companys issued and outstanding common shares. Shareholders voted in favour of all matters brought before the meeting and the election of directors was approved by a majority vote of shareholders present in person or represented by proxy as follows:

Election of Directors

Director Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Keith Neumeyer 38,793,105 98.55 569,376 1.45 Douglas Penrose 38,625,703 98.13 736,777 1.87 Robert McCallum 38,490,678 97.79 871,802 2.21 Marjorie Co 38,915,163 98.86 447,318 1.14 David Shaw 38,584,414 98.02 778,066 1.98

Executive Compensation Advisory Vote

The advisory resolution on the Companys approach to executive compensation as outlined in the Circular was approved by a majority vote of shareholders present in person or represented by proxy as follows:

Votes For % For Votes Against % Against 36,539,752 92.83 2,822,729 7.17

In addition, the Company reports the re-appointment of Deloitte LLP as auditors for the Company and the amended and restated stock option plan were both approved by the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes represented at the Meeting.

The Company also announced that Tony Pezzotti is retiring from the Board of Directors. Mr. Pezzotti, a director of the Company since 2001, decided to retire to devote more time to his family and other personal responsibilities. Having been a director of First Majestic since its infancy, I take tremendous pride in what the Company has achieved over the past 16 years and in having worked with such a talented and dynamic group of individuals towards building a world-class silver mining company, said Mr. Pezzotti. Id like to thank the board, senior management and the entire First Majestic team for their dedication over the years and wish them every success in all their future endeavors.

We thank Tony for his long-term contribution to First Majestic and wish him all the best, said Keith Neumeyer, CEO and President of First Majestic.

About the Company

First Majestic is a mining company focused on silver production in Mexico and is aggressively pursuing the development of its existing mineral property assets. The Company presently owns and operates six producing silver mines; the La Parrilla Silver Mine, the San Martin Silver Mine, the La Encantada Silver Mine, the La Guitarra Silver Mine, Del Toro Silver Mine and the Santa Elena Silver/Gold Mine. Production from these six mines is projected to be between 11.1 to 12.4 million ounces of pure silver or 16.6 to 18.5 million ounces of silver equivalents in 2017.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION contact info@firstmajestic.com, visit our website at www.firstmajestic.com or call our toll free number 1.866.529.2807.

First Majestic Silver Corp.

signed

Keith Neumeyer, President & CEO

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARDLOOKING INFORMATION

This news release includes certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, target, plan, forecast, may, schedule and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information relate to, among other things: the price of silver and other metals; the accuracy of mineral reserve and resource estimates and estimates of future production and costs of production at our properties; estimated production rates for silver and other payable metals produced by us, the estimated cost of development of our development projects; the effects of laws, regulations and government policies on our operations, including, without limitation, the laws in Mexico which currently have significant restrictions related to mining; obtaining or maintaining necessary permits, licences and approvals from government authorities; and continued access to necessary infrastructure, including, without limitation, access to power, land, water and roads to carry on activities as planned.

These statements reflect the Companys current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information and the Company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in the spot and forward price of silver, gold, base metals or certain other commodities (such as natural gas, fuel oil and electricity); fluctuations in the currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso versus the U.S. dollar); changes in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada, Mexico; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins and flooding); risks relating to the credit worthiness or financial condition of suppliers, refiners and other parties with whom the Company does business; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining, including those currently enacted in Mexico; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities; diminishing quantities or grades of mineral reserves as properties are mined; the Companys title to properties; and the factors identified under the caption Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Information Form, under the caption Risks Relating to First Majestic's Business.

Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements or information. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.
CALGARY, May 26, 2017 /CNW/ - Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. ("Connacher" or the "Company") announces its financial and operating results for the quarter-ended March 31, 2017 (all amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted).

Q1 2017 Highlights

Financial

Q1 2017 revenue, net of royalties, increased to $46.9 million (Q1 2016 - $11.8 million) due to higher sales volumes and higher crude oil benchmark pricing

Q1 2017 adjusted EBITDA increased to $1.9 million (Q1 2016  deficit of $26.7 million), primarily due to higher revenue, net of royalties, partially offset by higher input costs associated with increased production

Q1 2017 funds used decreased to $9.5 million (Q1 2016 - funds used of $34.4 million), primarily due to an improved adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by higher interest costs

In Q1 2017, the Company generated a net loss of $24.6 million (Q1 2016 - net loss of $43.0 million). The decrease is primarily due to an improved adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by lower foreign exchange gains and higher depletion, depreciation, and amortization

In Q1 2017, capital expenditures totaled $1.7 million (Q1 2016 - $1.4 million) and were focused primarily on well servicing. At March 31, 2017, 39 of 41 wells were on production

Connacher closed Q1 2017 with a cash balance of $16.8 million (including restricted cash of $7.1 million) (Q4 2016 - $17.8 million)

Operational

Q1 2017 production increased 104% to 12,052 bbl/d (Q1 2016  5,904 bbl/d) due to the Company's strategic decision to increase production as the crude oil pricing environment improved. The higher volumes increased revenue, net of royalties, to $46.9 million

Q1 2017 blending costs increased 137% to $14.1 million (Q1 2016 - $5.9 million), primarily due to higher total diluent volumes associated with increased bitumen production and higher diluent pricing

Q1 2017 transportation and handling costs decreased 35% to $7.3 million (Q1 2016 - $11.2 million). In Q1 2016, the Company incurred penalties for non-delivery and various costs associated with its rail car lease

Q1 2017 production and operating expense increased 14% to $19.9 million (Q1 2016 - $17.4 million), primarily due to increased bitumen production, partially offset by the realization of operating cost reduction initiatives. In Q1 2017, on a per barrel basis, operating costs decreased to $18.32/bbl (Q1 2016 - $28.73/bbl), primarily due to improved economics associated with increased bitumen production as the Company's operating costs are predominately fixed in nature

Q1 2017 Financial Highlights







FINANCIAL (1) Q1 2017 Q1 2016 Revenue, net of royalties $46,900 $11,824 Adjusted EBITDA (2) 1,901 (26,683) Net earnings (loss) (24,608) (43,015)

Basic per share (0.87) (1.52)

Diluted per share (0.87) (1.52) Funds used (3) (9,500) (34,424) Capital expenditures 1,708 1,381 Cash on hand (4) 16,834 30,503 Working capital surplus (deficiency) (299,967) (227,317) Long-term debt - - Shareholders' equity 453,576 481,179





(1) ($ 000) except per share amounts (2) Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure and is defined in the "Advisory Section" of the Q1 2017 MD&A and is reconciled to net earnings (loss) under "Reconciliations of Net Earnings (Loss) to EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Bitumen Netback" (3) Funds used is a non-GAAP measure and is defined in the "Advisory Section" of the Q1 2017 MD&A and is reconciled to cash flow from operating activities under "Reconciliations of Cash Flow Used in Operating Activities to Funds Used" (4) Balance includes restricted cash of $7.1 million, pursuant to the terms of the Initial Order granted in the Company's CCAA proceeding before the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, Judicial Centre of Calgary

Q1 2017 Operational Highlights







OPERATIONAL Q1 2017 Q1 2016 Average benchmark prices



WTI (US$/bbl) $51.91 $33.45 WTI ($/bbl) 68.53 45.24 Heavy oil differential (US$/bbl) (14.58) (14.24) WCS ($/bbl) 49.28 25.99 $/US$ exchange rate 1.32 1.35 Production and sales volumes (1)



Daily bitumen production (bbl/d) 12,052 5,904 Daily bitumen sales (bbl/d) 12,054 6,651 Bitumen netback ($/bbl) (2)(3)



Dilbit sales $37.43 $16.45 Blending of products sold (6.52) (6.73) Realized bitumen sales price 30.91 9.72 Transportation and handling costs (6.73) (18.50) Net realized bitumen sales price 24.18 (8.78) Royalties (0.68) (0.01) Net bitumen revenue price 23.50 (8.79) Production and operating expenses (18.32) (28.73) Bitumen netback $5.18 $(37.52)





(1) The Company's bitumen sales and production volumes differ due to changes in inventory and product losses (2) A non-GAAP measure which is defined in the "Advisory Section" of the Q1 2017 MD&A. Bitumen netback is reconciled to net loss under "Reconciliations of Net Earnings (Loss) to EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, and Bitumen Netback". Bitumen netbacks per barrel amounts are calculated by dividing the total amounts presented in the "Bitumen Netback" table on page 8 by bitumen sold volumes as presented in the "Production and Sales Volumes" table on page 7, with the exception of dilbit sales (presented as dilbit sales divided by dilbit sales volume) and diluent costs (presented as the cost of diluent in excess of the dilbit selling price) (3) Before risk management contract gains or losses

Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") Proceeding and Status

On March 31, 2016, the Company entered into a forbearance agreement (the "Forbearance Agreement") with Credit Suisse AG, Cayman Islands Branch, as administrative agent, and certain lenders constituting the "Required Lenders" in respect of US$153.8 million of loans made by the lenders (the "Lenders") under the credit agreement dated as of May 23, 2014 (as amended, restated, supplemented, or otherwise modified from time to time, including as amended pursuant to the Amendment No. 1 dated May 8, 2015) (the "Amended Term Loan Facility"). Under the terms of the Forbearance Agreement, the Lenders agreed to, among other things, forbear from exercising enforcement rights and remedies arising from the Company's failure to pay the cash interest and principal payments due on March 31, 2016 until the earlier of April 30, 2016; the occurrence of an event of default under the Amended Term Loan Facility, unrelated to the failure to pay principal and interest due on March 31, 2016; or the occurrence of a default or breach of representation by the Company under the Forbearance Agreement.

On April 30, 2016, the Company entered into a second forbearance agreement (the "Second Forbearance Agreement") which extended the forbearance period until May 16, 2016.

On May 17, 2016, the Company sought and obtained creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") pursuant to an order (the "Initial Order") granted by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, Judicial Centre of Calgary (the "Court"). The Court granted CCAA protection for an initial period expiring on June 16, 2016. Since the Initial Order, five Court-ordered extensions have been obtained, with the most recent extending the stay of proceedings until and including June 30, 2017 (the "CCAA Stay Period").

Under the Initial Order, Ernst & Young Inc. was appointed by the Court as the monitor (the "Monitor").

The CCAA is a federal insolvency statute that allows an insolvent company which owes creditors in excess of $5 million to restructure its business and financial affairs and stays creditors and others from enforcing rights against the insolvent company.

The Initial Order also approved and authorized the Company and the Monitor to conduct a sale and investment solicitation process (the "SISP"), as set out in Schedule "A" to the Initial Order, to identify one or more purchasers and/or investors in the Company's business and/or property.

As authorized and approved by the Initial Order, the Company secured interim financing in the form of a senior secured debtor-in-possession credit facility ("DIP") from certain existing lenders (the "Interim Lenders") for up to US$20 million (collectively, the "Total DIP Commitments"), with initial commitments of up to US$11.5 million (the "Initial Commitments").

On October 26, 2016, the Company entered into a Waiver, Approval, and Modification Agreement (the "First DIP Amendment Agreement") with its Interim Lenders related to the DIP. Pursuant to the First DIP Amendment Agreement, the Interim Lenders agreed to waive certain limited defaults under the DIP related to the CCAA SISP timelines and advanced to the Company an additional amount of approximately US$5.0 million of the US$20 million DIP initially authorized by the Court to support the Company's continuing operations. At March 31, 2017, the Company had drawn approximately US$16.5 million of the DIP.

On December 16, 2016, the Company entered into a further Approval and Modification Agreement (the "Second DIP Amendment Agreement") with the Interim Lenders related to the DIP. The Second DIP Amendment Agreement extended the maturity date under the DIP from May 17, 2017 to December 31, 2017 and amended certain provisions of the DIP in order to provide the Company with greater flexibility to enter into hedging agreements and other long-term contracts.

As at March 31, 2017, in connection with the CCAA proceeding, the Company identified the following obligations subject to potential compromise:





(Canadian dollars in thousands)

Current and long-term portions of Amended Term Loan Facility $209,862 Interest payable on Amended Term Loan Facility 28,406 Convertible Notes 44,000 Interest payable on Convertible Notes 12,691 Trade and accrued liabilities 17,444 Total liabilities subject to compromise $312,403

The aforementioned obligations, subject to potential compromise, represent the amounts expected to be resolved through the CCAA proceeding and remain subject to future, potentially material, adjustments. The liabilities that are not subject to the CCAA proceeding are excluded from the liabilities subject to potential compromise and include certain non-restructuring liabilities incurred subsequent to May 17, 2016.

The Company continues to investigate, evaluate, and consider possible sale and restructuring alternatives.

Operations

In April 2017, due to the turnaround completed at Algar, production averaged 10,800 bbl/d, as the facility was offline for four days.

About Connacher

Connacher is a Calgary-based in situ oil sands developer, producer, and marketer of bitumen. The Company holds a 100 per cent interest in approximately 447 million barrels of proved and probable bitumen reserves and operates two steam-assisted gravity drainage facilities located on the Company's Great Divide oil sands leases near Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Forward Looking Information

This press release contains forward looking information including but not limited to the implementation and status of the CCAA proceeding and the SISP, the Company's ability to manage its liquidity position and deploy the capital required to maintain existing reserve and production bases, fund maintenance capital, fund working capital requirements and meet contractual and other commitments; expectations regarding future commodity prices, foreign exchange rates, diluent blend ratio, transportation costs, rail costs, rail usage, and production and operating costs in future periods; expectations regarding sales and production, bitumen netback, general and administrative expenses, and capital expenditures in future periods; the Company's reserves; and general operational and financial performance in future periods.

Forward looking information is based on management's expectations regarding the Company's future financial position; the Company's future growth, results of operations and production, future commodity prices and foreign exchange rates; future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature, and sources of funding thereof), plans for and results of drilling activity; environmental matters; business prospects and opportunities; and future economic conditions. Forward looking information involves significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to: the risk that the SISP process may not result in a sale of the Company or its assets or a restructuring of the Company's debt obligations, the risk that the CCAA Stay Period will not be extended past June 30, 2017 and that as a result creditors will be entitled to exercise their various rights and remedies against the Company, the level of indebtedness of the Company, the implementation and impact of any reorganization or restructuring on the assets, business and financial affairs of the Company, future co-operation of the creditors of the Company, the Company's ability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations or to obtain adequate financing to fund capital expenditures and working capital needs and to maintain the Company's ongoing obligations during the CCAA process and thereafter, the ability to maintain relationships with suppliers, customers, employees, shareholders and other third parties in light of the Company's current liquidity situation and the CCAA proceeding, as well as the risks associated with the oil and gas industry (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve and resource estimates; the uncertainty of geological interpretations; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses; and health, safety and environmental risks), risk of commodity price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations, risks associated with the impact of general economic conditions, risks and uncertainties associated with maintaining the necessary regulatory approvals and securing the financing to continue operations and increase production to levels previously achieved.

Reported average production levels may not be reflective of sustainable production rates and future production rates may differ materially from the production rates reflected in this press release due to, among other factors, difficulties or interruptions encountered during the production of bitumen.

Although Connacher believes that the expectations in such forward looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations shall prove to be correct. Any forward looking information included in this press release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Any forward looking information included herein is made as of the date of this press release and Connacher assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

SOURCE Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd.
Gov. Kay Ivey this week signed a bill preventing cities from removing most monuments 20 years and older.Eileen Jones, a spokeswoman for Ivey, confirmed that she had signed the legislation Wednesday. Ivey's move comes amid an ongoing national debate over the purpose of Confederate monuments, and puts a period on a lengthy debate in the state Legislature where critics said the bill preserved monuments that celebrated Alabama's shameful history of slavery and segregation.The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa, forbids the removal or alternation of any monument, memorial street, school named for a historic figure or event or "architecturally significant building" on public property that is 40 years old or older.It requires an newly created state commission, called the Committee on Alabama Monument Preservation, to approve changes to monuments, and buildings that are 20 to 40 years old. Schools that are 20 years or older may apply to the commission to be renamed.A government that renamed, altered or removed a monument or historic building without prior approval from the committee would be fined $25,000 for each violation.Allen first filed his bill in early 2016, months after a national debate erupted over the display of Confederate emblems and memorials following the murder of nine people, all black, at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The shooter was a white supremacist who displayed the Confederate flag in photos.Gov. Robert Bentley and state officials removed Confederate flags from around the state Capitol following the shooting. Birmingham officials made moves to remove a monument to Confederate sailors in Linn Park, but the effort bogged down following lawsuits from a Confederate heritage group. Officials in New Orleans in the last few weeks have removed statutes of Confederate officials and generals in that city.Allen said his bill did not specifically attempt to protect Confederate monuments but all monuments, whether they reflected well or poorly on the state."The Memorial Preservation Act is intended to preserve all of Alabama's history -- the good and the bad -- so our children and grandchildren can learn from the past to create a better future," the senator said in a statement Wednesday.Critics said the bill aimed to protect Confederate monuments, which were raised in the late 19th and early 20th century to celebrate white supremacy. Rhonda Brownstein, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement that Ivey was signaling "that lauding white supremacy is more important than demonstrating equality for all Alabamians.""Other states and municipalities are removing these monuments from public property and placing them in museums, where people can learn the full history of slavery, the Civil War and the Confederacy," the statement said. "That's where they belong."Black Democrats in the House of Representatives slowed business in the chamber to protest the bill and what they said was an unacceptable redistricting map. Allen's legislation got final passage on the last day of the 2017 legislative session on Friday.The bill does not provide an explicit option to remove a monument 40 years or older. Supporters said in a House debate said there was an implied power from cities to go to court to remove or alter a statue, but that language is not in the bill.Officials in Mobile expressed concerns that the broad definition of "architecturally significant building" -- which the law calls a building on public property that by its "very nature, inherent design, or structure constitutes a monument" -- would make it difficult to restore, repair or rehabilitate buildings for economic development.
Uber and Lyft will relaunch services in Austin on Monday, now that Texas lawmakers have passed a bill overriding local regulations on ride-hailing companies.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign House Bill 100 into law the same day. That measure establishes a statewide framework to regulate ride-hailing companies and undoes local rules that the two companies have argued are overly burdensome for their business models."Austin is an incubator for technology and entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be back in the mix," Uber spokesman Travis Considine said. "... We know that we have a lot of work to do in the city, but we couldnt be more excited for the road ahead.""We're excited to return to Austin on Monday. As we've said for months, we will relaunch in the city as soon as Gov. Abbott signs HB 100 into law," Lyft spokeswoman Chelsea Harrison said.Uber and Lyft left Austin after the Austin City Council passed an ordinance in December 2015 requiring ride-hailing companies to perform fingerprint background checks on drivers, a stipulation that already applies to Austin taxi companies.Uber and Lyft fiercely opposed the rules, gathering petition signatures to force a public vote and spending nearly $9 million on an unsuccessful campaign asking voters to overturn the regulations. Following the vote, both companies halted services in Austin, and the resulting ride-hailing vacuum attracted several start-up ride-hailing apps that agreed to comply with the city's rules.If HB 100 gets the governor's stamp of approval as expected, it would standardize ride-hailing regulations statewide, requiring companies to have a permit from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, pay an annual fee to operate, and perform local, state and national criminal background checks on drivers annually. It doesn't require companies to fingerprint their drivers.At a public bill signing for a different bill Thursday, Abbott declined to comment on when he would sign HB 100 into law."Now, you know Ill tell you about that when I get ready to sign it," Abbott said.Following the passage of the bill in both chambers, Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a statement saying he was "disappointed" the Legislature voted to nullify regulations the city had implemented."Our city should be proud of how we filled the gap created when Uber and Lyft left, and we now must hope that they return ready to compete in a way that reflects Austins values," Adler wrote.It's unclear what Uber and Lyft's plans will be in other Texas cities once the bill is law. Uber previously reached an agreement with Houston to stay in the city, which also required fingerprint background checks, through Super Bowl LI, which was held on Feb. 5, 2017.
On Wednesday, in the morning, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a morning tea in support of 65 Roses Awareness Month for Cysitc Fibrosis Queensland where the Governor addressed guests.

In the afternoon, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted an afternoon tea for Clontarf Foundation participants and their Grandparents.
Description

GIS - 26 May, 2017: The Steering Committee on the Metro Express Project, chaired by the Prime Minister, Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, met on 10 May 2017 to take stock of development in the implementation of the project, and initiate appropriate action to address certain important issues. In this context, a communication cell has been set up for the purpose of branding the project and mounting a sensitisation campaign on the Metro Express Concept as a rapid mode of transit and the creation of a new model of urban planning with urban terminals linking major towns.

The Metro Express as one of the major components together with the implementation of the recommendations of the ongoing public transport study will bring major transformation to the public transport system, involving reengineering of bus routes and schedules.

The project aims to reduce traffic congestion, encourage public transport use, upgrade quality of public transport and ease mobility within urban areas. Furthermore, the objectives of this project are to stimulate inward investment, support economic development and job creation, as well as create opportunities for future expansion.

The Metro Express project which spans over 26 km, will start from Ian Palach in Curepipe and end at Immigration Square in Port Louis. It will comprise 19 stations, including 5 interchanges at Urban Terminals.

This project is being financed partly by a grant of USD 275 million from the Government of India and the remaining financing will be raised either from local financing institutions and/or line of credit from India and/or from Development Partners, on the basis of terms and conditions which are most favourable for the project.
Description

GIS - 26 May, 2017: A one-day workshop focusing on the study on High Penetration Renewable energy roadmap, wave resource assessment and wave-integrated micro grid design in Mauritius was held yesterday at the Voila Hotel, Bagatelle. The Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, Mr Ivan Collendavelloo , the Minister of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries and Shipping, Mr Premdut Koonjoo and the Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden were present at the event.

A joint initiative of the Mauritius Research Council and the Australian Wave Energy Developer Carnegie Wave Energy, t he study launched in November 2015, aimed at exploring the prospects of developing wave energy and harnessing the potentials of ocean energy in Mauritius and Rodrigues.

A roadmap for Mauritius, a detailed design of a microgrid for Rodrigues and a wave resource assessment were presented during the workshop. P articipants from various organisations made several recommendations to the government with regard to the way forward in implementing the project. The developed roadmap spreading over to 2025 and sets a target of generating 35% of renewable energy from the ocean.

In his address, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Ivan Collendavelloo underlined that Mauritius has steadily progressed in its mission of developing wave energy and is poised to gain considerably for its future by securing its sustainable, replicable and economically viable sources of energy.

He reiterated the willingness of Government to m eet the environmental sustainability targets of the 2030 Millennium Development Goals. Government is perennially focused on reducing the ecological footprint, he pointed out. I n this regard several green projects banking on wave, solar and wind energy sources, have already been endorsed, he added.

For his part, Minister Koonjoo highlighted that Mauritius having a total area of 2.3 million square kilometres of Exclusive Economic Zone, is geographically well positioned to harness ocean energy, in the form of offshore wind, ocean wave, ocean current, ocean thermal and ocean saline energy.

This project, he underlined, will enable the country to achieve its energy security and in the long run help to exceed the expected target of generating 35 % of electricity production from renewable energies. The Clean energy project aiming at creating a sustainable energy system will also ensure the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, he added.

The Minister of Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Yogida Sawmynaden, underlined that in the increasingly urgent pursuit of alternatives to fossil fuels, ocean energy is a clean option and ocean power should be optimised and harnessed. Improving the technological landscape and innovation eco system of the country is a turning point in creating a new sustainable and innovation culture, he added.

He highlighted that Government is advancing research and technology to allow the doers of innovation to operate and unleash their potential to embark on a number of research and innovation ventures. This project, he emphasised, has twin benefits, that of increasing the scope for marine ICT and increasing the high development potential of Mauritius to shape a sustainable future.
Description

GIS  26 May 2017 : A workshop focusing on Strengthening Judicial Response to Domestic Violence intended for magistrates was held today at Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebene. It was organised by the Australian High Commission and the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare in collaboration with the Institute for Judicial and Legal Studies and the Mauritius Magistrates Association.

The Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo; the Attorney General, Mr Ravi Yerrigadoo; the Australian High Commissioner, Ms Susan Coles; Justice Aruna Narain, and other eminent guests were present at the opening ceremony.

In her address, the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare expressed her concern that despite stringent legislative provisions and improved institutional support, domestic violence is still widespread in society. On that score she underlined the key role of Magistrates to ensure that victims of domestic violence are well protected. Effective application of sanctions is an essential component to combat domestic violence, she said.

The Minister called for the support of the Judiciary to break the vicious cycle of domestic violence, adding that the assistance of Magistrates is required to make perpetrators understand the consequences of abusive conduct and refrain from such abominable behaviour. Mrs Jeewa-Daureeawoo also highlighted the responsibilities of Magistrates to ensure that victims are aptly attended to. Cases of domestic violence should be dealt with in an expeditious manner so that victims are spared the trauma of having to wait for long to obtain a remedy, she said.

The Australian High Commissioner listed out several projects implemented by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare with the collaboration of Australia. Ms Coles spoke of the series of workshops and training sessions conducted by a Senior Sergeant from the Northern Territory Police for stakeholders on gender-based violence; the establishment of the local Women in Uniform network with a view to raising the profile of women in uniform and getting them to network amongst themselves; and the working session on domestic violence and on the protection from domestic violence for key stakeholders, among others.

For her part, Justice Narain acknowledged the proactivity of the Australian Government in collaborating with local institutions on gender issues, in particular in the enhancement of local capacity to effectively address the scourge of domestic violence. Given that every single domestic violence application is emotionally highly charged and represents in effect a mini family drama, Justice Narain welcomed the practical nature of the training where Magistrates would compare notes, brainstorm and get a hands-on approach to acquire the relevant knowledge and skills to better deal with the sensitive issue of domestic violence.

Themes discussed during the Magistrates Workshop

Some 50 Members of the Judiciary attended the workshop to share and exchange processes, ideas and experiences on the topic of domestic violence at Court with the South Australian Magistrate and Judicial Officer at the Family Violence Court, Mrs Jayanti McGrath.

Discussions focused on the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Legislation on Domestic Violence from a Mauritian Perspective, Domestic Violence in Australia, and practical tips for judicial response to domestic violence. A video entitled 'Stop the Violence was screened and participants were provided the opportunity to work together through scenarios and highlight risk factors.
(TNS) -- Apps are one of the main ways that Apple attracts people to the iPhone, and in the interest of training more people to make them, the tech behemoth is launching a new curriculum for community colleges  starting in Houston.Houston Community College will be among the first educational institutions to teach the Apple-designed course in developing applications for the iOS operating system, the company announced in Houston on Wednesday. It's part of a new iOS Coding and Design School that will offer both short-term boot camps and programs for degree credits starting in June."We have been excited about the links they have to the community, to businesses, to government, to everyone there," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, about HCC. "Because that means that lots of students will wind up in good jobs."The course builds on Apple's educational programs for K-12 classrooms , as well as a network of iOS app development centers that the company launched in Italy last year . HCC Chancellor Cesar Maldonado says he noticed the iOS development center in Milan about nine months ago, and thought that Houston should have something similar. Upon reaching out to Apple, he learned that the company was already planning a curriculum for community colleges."There was some magic in the timing," Maldonado says. Although the new Coding and Design School will focus on Apple's Swift programming language, he says that won't preclude students from learning to create programs for Android phones as well. "The skills are transferable across devices and platforms."Google doesn't have anything similar, but hinted that a program is under development."While we don't have an analogous program we're offering to college students at the moment," wrote Google spokeswoman Charlotte Smith in an email, "be sure to keep an eye out for updates as we get closer to the next school year :)"Approximately 1.7 million mobile app developers in the United States, according to a study by the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left think tank in Washington. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts about 800,000 software developers for apps  which can be either web or mobile based  who make a median salary of $100,000 per year.Although consumer-oriented smartphone apps are the most well-known variety, Houston might have a greater demand for developers who can create them for industrial uses, says Greater Houston Partnership CEO Bob Harvey.There are a number of ways to land a job as a mobile developer: You can either teach yourself, using various free online tools, or take a course through non-accredited schools like General Assembly or Hack Reactor. Those can be expensive, though, and often require taking time off from regular jobs.Those intensive programs aren't available in Houston, which only has a couple coding schools. Kevin Colten is the chief technology officer for Austin Coding Academy, which has a Houston office at Station Houston, a co-working space downtown. He says that demand for courses has been low so far, but that it makes sense for HCC to teach Apple's program."If you look at the numbers, iOS developers get paid more because it's more of a luxury phone," Colten says. In addition, he says many university app development courses have a hard time keeping up with changes in technology, which an Apple-directed course might be able to avoid.Apple won't provide financial support for the courses, but the curriculum will be free to use for community colleges, beginning this year at institutions in Alabama, Pennsylvania, California and Ohio. It will also be available for free online to anyone who wants to teach themselves.It's a welcome bit of momentum for Houston's nascent tech scene, which got a push last week with the launch of an "Innovation Strategy Office" within the Greater Houston Partnership aimed at boosting the city's startup ecosystem. One of the recommendations in a report from the consulting firm Accenture was for Houston to attract an office of a big Silicon Valley tech firm, such as Apple.Apple employs about 8,400 in Texas. Six thousand of those jobs are in Austin, including the Maps team as well as other research and development functions. When asked if the company would start an office in Houston, Apple's Cook  who spent a few months in Houston in the 1990s while working for Compaq  said the city should instead focus on having people build on top of Apple's platform."Any city that's looking to expand, whether it's startups or just their tech workforce, my recommendation would be to focus on app development," Cook said.
Think big. And this starts with getting comfortable with uncertainty. We have to commit to doing something that we quite frankly dont know if we can do, Cox said. People will give numerous reasons for why something cant be done, but she said to believe in the power of the goal and dont give obstacles more power than your ability to overcome them. Embrace the constraint. Cox classifies government into eight categories like distribution and marketing, and said they all have the same type of problems, just different variations. So when she hears someone say, Im different, it raises a red flag for her. Put constraints on your goal and use them as opportunities to innovate. Focus on the right problem to solve. Essentially, dont treat the symptoms; find the root problem. If we dont know the problem, we cant focus our time and energy on the right place, she said. Dont compromise. Make real change. When real change is made for the front-line workers, thats when a problem is solved, said Cox. Stop doing whats not working. She added that 20 to 30 percent of capacity is lost because we do things we shouldnt. Be passionate and patient  sustainable change takes time.

We were honored to present @leigh_tami18 & @omestrejr with #GTtop25 awards! See all of the 2017 honorees: https://t.co/Ok2Pd4pUov #govtech pic.twitter.com/9MrTQD2SQu  Govtech.com (@govtechnews) May 25, 2017

PHOENIX  Process improvement was a key theme at the Summit on Government Performance and Innovation. The event, hosted by* in collaboration with Living Cities May 24 and 25 in Phoenix, brought together state and local government leaders to hear from their peers and discuss ways to create meaningful change in communities across the U.S.While not all the of the topics were tech-driven, the messages presented resonate across all areas of public-sector work. Phoenix City Manager Ed Zuercher opened day two of the summit with a brief overview of the citys three principles for success and an example of each. First, work smart: A crew received a work order about a crumbling manhole; it was fixed and the job could have been complete. But Zuercher said one of the workers asked, If this one is crumbling, what about the others? In response, a series of failed manholes were found and fixed before it became a potentially catastrophic issue. Second, save money: Phoenix has put into practice $126 million of ideas that have created efficiency while cutting back costs. Zuerchers example was the cost of painting garbage trucks, which added up to about $60,000 a year. Stopping that practice was one money-saving initiative that when combined with other efforts creates real change. And third, be kind to the customer: We can have the best dashboards in the world and we need to have them, but if we treat people badly thats what theyre going to remember, he said. As part of this principle, every city employee will go through customer service training. Kristen Cox has experience in making meaningful change. As executive director of Utahs Office of Management and Budget, she has been recognized for her Success Framework for process improvement. Innovation is possible, we just have to have a structured way to go about it, Cox said. And during her keynote speech May 25, Cox discussed seven areas that help people and organizations to have breakthrough results:Every dollar we spend in government is a dollar not being spent somewhere else, said Cox. If I dont change or get better, what is that costing the organization? An energy-efficient take on performance management was mentioned by Mahesh Ramanujam, president of the U.S. Green Building Council, which conducts LEED certification of resource-efficient buildings. Green Business Certification Inc., of which Ramanujam is also president, launched a digital platform last year that allows LEED projects to measure improvements and compare themselves to others. Ramanujam said that 2.2 million square feet is LEED certified every day, so it was important to have one place where all this data could be tracked and meaningfully reported. The platform, called Arc , can be a useful tool for the more than 800 state government and 2,700 local government projects that have been LEED certified. Data is more than just a utility, its something thats a part of our lifeblood, said Daro Mott, chief of performance improvement in the Louisville, Ky., Mayors Office. Like-minded data practitioners gathered at a session titled Planning Next Generation Cities to talk about the next frontier in the government transparency journey. In Palo Alto, Calif., Development Services Director Peter Pirnejad touted the Silicon Valley citys success with increased visibility into its data on permitting and licensing. Residents seeking a permit for rooftop solar panels used to be faced with a 120-day delay. Streamlined processes enabled by data dashboards trimmed that turnaround time to one day  even same day in some cases, Pirnejad said. Panelists agreed that every data effort needs an up-front focus on improving service or solving a problem for residents. I dont lead with data even though I have the most data, said Mott. I lead with the question I want to answer. Two of Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers of 2017 were honored at the event. Oswaldo Mestre Jr., director of citizen services and chief service officer for Buffalo, N.Y., and Leigh Tami, chief performance officer of Cincinnati, were named to the 2017 cohort for their work in creating responsive, customer-focused governments. Mestre helped stand up Buffalos 311 system, an effort that fostered a more responsive relationship between constituents and City Hall. And Tami spearheaded the December 2016 launch of CincyInsights, a new portal with 15 dashboards that allow residents to track everything from emergency medical responses to trash collection. St. Louis County, Mo., is made up of 69 cities that include more than 80 courts, so when a resident gets a traffic ticket, he or she may be unsure which police department issued it or which court system to follow up with. To simplify the process and provide the public with an easy way to get information about traffic tickets or warrants, civic tech nonprofit CivTech St. Louis launched YourSTLCourts.com , a mobile-friendly Web portal that connects data from the municipal court systems to provide users with information about a citation regardless of where it was issued in the county. In addition, a text message component provides the option of receiving information and reminders about upcoming court dates. Prototypes of both the website and text-based system were developed during a Global Hack competition, and its now run by Rise Community Development. The first rollout launched May 1 and includes data from only St. Louis County, but the hope is to compile information from all the municipal courts into the system. One issue is that the courts use different software vendors, so they are having to figure out ways to tie into each system, said John Cruz, Rises data management coordination. Weve had to be flexible, and weve also had to ask the vendors to be flexible, he said. This is a tool that allows everybody  to have one portal. And its available to organizations as an open source tool, with the exception of nondisclosure agreements that have been signed with vendors.GoverningGovernment Technology
(TNS) - Gov. Eric Greitens and the Missouri congressional delegation sent letters to President Donald Trump this week, urging him to declare 45 Missouri counties as federal disaster zones after flooding that started April 28."Communities are coming together to rebuild," Greitens said in a statement this week. "Support from the administration is essential to that effort."In order for the governor to a request a federal disaster declaration, the state would need to have at least $8.9 million in damages, said Charla Geller, Newton County emergency management director. According to the letter sent Wednesday by the Missouri congressional delegation, the preliminary damage assessment for the state rested at about $57.5 million.A damage assessment looks at two things: public assistance for damaged roads and bridges, and individual assistance for ruined homes and businesses. Forty-five counties reached the threshold to qualify for damages for public assistance; 37 counties in Missouri qualify for individual assistance.Both Newton and McDonald counties would be able to access both kinds of assistance if the president approves the governor's request.In Newton County, eight transportation districts reported about $508,000 in damages to roads and bridges, Geller said. She added that all of the reported numbers were preliminary estimates and that she expected all of them to go up."We more than doubled what was necessary for Newton County to be considered for the declaration," Geller said.To be counted as "destroyed," more than 4 feet of water must have entered the home, Geller said. Homes with 2 to 4 feet of water were designated as "major damage"; 6 inches to 2 feet is considered "minor damage." "Affected" homes had less than 6 inches of water in them.In Newton County, Geller reported 12 homes and four mobile homes were destroyed, 151 homes had major damage, 92 homes had minor damage, and 93 homes were affected. Three businesses were destroyed, nine businesses had major damage, and 20 businesses had minor damage.In McDonald County, about 135 different locations, including homes and churches, were reported to be damaged, Greg Sweeten, its emergency management director, said. About 12 of those locations were destroyed, and 45 had major damage. Sweeten said five businesses still needed to be added to the assessment."The road foreman said there was not a road in McDonald County that did not get damaged," Sweeten said. "We have 600 miles of road."He said about $400,000 to $500,000 in damage was what the county reported, but he expected the number to rise.The governor asked for public assistance for Barry and Barton counties but not for help with damage to homes.David Compton, Barry County emergency management director, said the preliminary estimate for roads and bridges was between $500,000 and $600,000."It won't shock me if that number ends up closer to a million," Compton said.Tom Ryan, Barton County emergency management director, said that in order to qualify for assistance, the county had to have about $49,000 in damage. Though he didn't have exact figures available, Ryan said damage estimates in the county far exceeded the necessary threshold."We had one or two townships that had more than that alone," he added.Jasper County qualified for individual assistance for homes and businesses but not public assistance.Keith Stammer, its emergency management director, said 12 to 18 homes sustained moderate to heavy damage. No businesses were destroyed, he added, though some were designated as affected.Keith Stammer, emergency management director for Joplin and Jasper County, said as soon as the federal government declares the counties a disaster zone, emergency management agencies will advertise contacts to whom those affected may submit claims.2017 The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.)Visit The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.) at www.joplinglobe.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) -- The head of New Jerseys largest utility called Wednesday for the state to move away from a century-old system that encourages utilities to sell as much energy as possible, and toward a new system that provides incentives for energy utilities to promote greater efficiency and conservation.Ralph Izzo, president and chief executive of Public Service Enterprise Group, told a state energy forum that New Jersey should create financial incentives for utilities to help customers reduce at-home energy use, as well as expand access to renewable energy and new energy-saving technologies. PSEG owns Public Service Electric & Gas Co., which has 2.1 million electric customers.Customers demands are changing, Izzo said at the forum in Mount Laurel, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey. They want more reliability, they want more resilient power, they want cleaner energy, and they want access to smart technology to better understand their energy usage  all while keeping bills affordable.Izzo joined a chorus of utility executives across the nation who are pushing for increased decoupling of rates, to allow their companies to offset flattening or declining sales volumes as more customers conserve power or generate their own electricity with home solar systems. Decoupled rates allow utilities to pay for maintaining the power grid through fees that are disconnected from electricity usage.In an interview, Izzo was unspecific about a suggested shape for a new rate model, and said he was hesitant to use the term decoupling because it provokes a knee-jerk reaction from some consumer groups that associate it with higher monthly customer fees.Izzo said that although New Jersey had set aggressive goals for renewable energy, it has taken only baby steps to encourage energy efficiency, which is frequently the least expensive way to reduce consumption.Energy efficiency is the critical component that will drive the utility of the future, he said. The cheapest kilowatt remains the one that is not needed.In March, PSE&G filed a request with the state Board of Public Utilities to boost rates to raise $74 million for energy-efficiency programs, including extending previous programs for hospitals, multifamily dwellings, and government agencies, nonprofits, and small businesses in urban enterprise zones. It was the utilitys fourth energy-efficiency filing in a decade, and Izzo expressed frustration at the prolonged regulatory reviews they require.I marvel at the fact it did not just sail right through. he said in the interview, calling the proposal a no-brainer.Theres billions of dollars of energy efficiency we should be doing, and were squabbling over tens of millions, Izzo said.We have to tackle decoupling if we want to turn these programs from $70 million and $90 million into hundred of millions, or billions. And thats where we continue to be frustrated, he said.Izzo encouraged regulators to consider longer-term approval of energy-infrastructure projects. The BPU typically approves such projects in three-year increments, but Izzo argued that a longer-term approval would allow utilities to plan their purchasing and hiring more efficiently and create more jobs.He also used the occasion to repeat his calls for greater support for the states nuclear plants, which he said were struggling to earn a competitive return in the face of a low-cost energy market driven by cheap natural gas prices. PSEG operates the giant Artificial Island nuclear generating site in Salem County, so the company has a strong incentive to maintain existing nuclear plants.
(The Texas Tribune)  Uber and Lyft will relaunch services in Austin on Monday, now that Texas lawmakers have passed a bill overriding local regulations on ride-hailing companies.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign House Bill 100 into law the same day. That measure establishes a statewide framework to regulate ride-hailing companies and undoes local rules that the two companies have argued are overly burdensome for their business models."Austin is an incubator for technology and entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be back in the mix," Uber spokesman Travis Considine said. "... We know that we have a lot of work to do in the city, but we couldnt be more excited for the road ahead.""We're excited to return to Austin on Monday. As we've said for months, we will relaunch in the city as soon as Gov. Abbott signs HB 100 into law," Lyft spokeswoman Chelsea Harrison said.Uber and Lyft left Austin after the Austin City Council passed an ordinance in December 2015 requiring ride-hailing companies to perform fingerprint background checks on drivers, a stipulation that already applies to Austin taxi companies.Uber and Lyft fiercely opposed the rules, gathering petition signatures to force a public vote and spending nearly $9 million on an unsuccessful campaign asking voters to overturn the regulations. Following the vote, both companies halted services in Austin, and the resulting ride-hailing vacuum attracted several start-up ride-hailing apps that agreed to comply with the city's rules.If HB 100 gets the governor's stamp of approval as expected, it would standardize ride-hailing regulations statewide, requiring companies to have a permit from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, pay an annual fee to operate, and perform local, state and national criminal background checks on drivers annually. It doesn't require companies to fingerprint their drivers.At a public bill signing for a different bill Thursday, Abbott declined to comment on when he would sign HB 100 into law."Now, you know Ill tell you about that when I get ready to sign it," Abbott said.Following the passage of the bill in both chambers, Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a statement saying he was "disappointed" the Legislature voted to nullify regulations the city had implemented."Our city should be proud of how we filled the gap created when Uber and Lyft left, and we now must hope that they return ready to compete in a way that reflects Austins values," Adler wrote.It's unclear what Uber and Lyft's plans will be in other Texas cities once the bill is law. Uber previously reached an agreement with Houston to stay in the city, which also required fingerprint background checks, through Super Bowl LI, which was held on Feb. 5, 2017.
(TNS)  Texans may soon be able to go to the doctor by turning on their smartphones or computers.After years of contentious debate, the Legislature has approved a telemedicine bill that now makes it legal in Texas for doctors to see patients via video, without having another health care professional with the patient or having seen the patient in the past.Last week, the House and Senate agreed on all the terms of the legislation, and it's expected to be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.It's a victory for telemedicine, or telehealth, providers, who for years had fought the Texas Medical Board on the cutting-edge service.Texas would be the last state to allow telemedicine, though it's home to a company called Teladoc, a leading provider of the health service."It's been a challenge in the past to get the stakeholders to pull in the same direction and get to a place of agreement," said Rep. Four Price, R-Amarillo. "A lot of effort has taken place to advance this measure, and I feel good about where we are and what the bill does."Telemedicine providers have fought over what services can be offered since 2011, when the medical board accused Teladoc of violating state laws on prescribing controlled substances. They threatened disciplinary action against physicians who offered the service. An appeals court ruled in favor of Teladoc in 2014.In 2015, the medical board proposed a rule that would require face-to-face visits before doctors could issue a telemedicine prescription, and again Teladoc sued the board.Now, everybody appears happy."Texans can now count on the right to access all virtual health care options to get quality care when and where they need it," said Jason Gorevic, CEO of Lewisville-based Teladoc.Gorevic praised the authors of the bill, Dr. Charles Schwertner in the Senate and Price in the House, along with industry officials who fought to allow the practice in Texas.Under the bill, doctors can now treat patients without physically seeing them, as long as the treatment considers relevant medical records and tests.The Texas Medical Board still has oversight on telemedicine, as it does traditional health services.Price said the bill mandates that telemedicine services be paid for like regular doctor visits, meaning it's covered by insurance."It very clearly defines that a covered service could not be impacted negatively by health plans, so we're going to protect the arrangement that folks expect under their health insurance," he said. "It really advances the idea that telemedicine advances a service that is already covered."Potential telemedicine patients could come from all parts of Texas, lawmakers say."It will help folks all across the state, especially in rural areas where access to health care can be a challenge," he said. "But it will help even in congested urban or suburban areas. It will open some doors and make it more convenient."Supporters of telemedicine hope its convenience will promote follow-up visits to the doctor through audiovisual techniques.The technology is not mandated for patients nor designed to replace primary care doctors."There's so much need for telemedicine in Texas," said W. Stephen Love, CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council. "This is clearly a step in the right direction."
(TNS) -- North Carolina officials want to know whether your Internet is up to speed, and theyve created a tool to help you report it.The state will be better able to identify and address places that lack reliable Internet service using a tool launched Wednesday by the N.C. Department of Information Technologys Broadband Infrastructure Office.People can use this interactive mapping tool to report whether they have Internet access at home or work and determine the speeds received at their address, according to a news release from the department.To use the map, go to ncbroadband.gov/map Reliable Internet access is crucial for helping businesses grow, students learn, and communities connect to the wider world, Gov. Roy Cooper said in the release. This new tool will identify areas that need better access to broadband.Im extremely proud of this initiative, said Eric Boyette, secretary and state chief information officer. Access to high-speed internet is crucial these days, and Im encouraged by the fact that this technology will bring us one step closer to making sure that North Carolinians receive the services they need, regardless of their geographic location throughout the state.The data that people provide will be used for a map that will show the speed of Internet service that households and businesses receive across the state.That information will be used to report Internet coverage data to the Federal Communications Commission and will allow the N.C. Department of Information Technology to find parts of the state that need better Internet access and help prioritize future projects to expand broadband in communities that need it most.The data reported to the FCC by Internet service providers gives us only general information about what is available across the state, said Jeff Sural, director of the Broadband Infrastructure Office. We repeatedly hear from citizens that their homes or businesses do not have Internet access even though the map shows they do. This new platform will help to provide information that can be extremely important for project planning and funding purposes.
Companies Have Been Seeking to Use The System

Congressional Response

U.S. Far Behind Other Nations

How the Early Warnings Work

Tsunami Sensing Stations Could Lose All Funding

Slowing Program to Improve Weather Forecasts

(TNS)  President Donald Trumps budget would eliminate federal funding for an earthquake early warning system being developed for California and the rest of the West Coast, which if enacted would likely kill the long-planned effort.The budget proposal for the year ending in September 2018 also seeks to eliminate U.S. funding for critical tsunami-monitoring stations in oceans and reduce funds for a next-generation weather forecasting system.Scientists said the loss of federal funding would derail the early warning system, which officials hope would one day send public earthquake alerts to smartphones seconds or even minutes before a temblor.It probably would kill the early warning system if we thought there were no more funding coming from the U.S. Geological Survey, said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and a seismology professor at the University of Washington.The money weve received is essential, he said.In a statement announcing the USGS budget, the Department of the Interior said the budget focuses on core USGS science and efficiency, and asserted that the budget would be able to fund monitoring of the nations earthquakes. But the budget document posted on the U.S. Department of Interiors website did not elaborate on the reason for cutting the alert system, saying only: This elimination would end USGS efforts to implement the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system.The earthquake early warning system, being built by the USGS in conjunction with several major universities, still needs more seismic sensors installed across Washington, Oregon and Northern California, and it needs a staff of 40 to 50 people to install and maintain equipment as well as monitor the computer systems.Already, hiring has proved difficult. Since Trump was inaugurated, new hires for the network have not been approved. There are people weve identified and interviewed and wed like to hire them as soon as we have permission, Vidale said. These are the people who would keep the computer doing what we need to to get the early warning system up and operating.Without ongoing funding, the ShakeAlert system would need to lay off employees, said Tom Heaton, a California Institute of Technology professor of engineering seismology.If that funding went away, we would have to lay off a number of the developers and the development would basically cease, Heaton said. Im not sure how we could possibly recover from that.Such a blow would likely cause Heaton, who said he is nearing retirement, to work on other issues.Ive been kind of excited at the possibility well have a system up and running by the time my career was done. That hope would be dashed in that case, Heaton said.Companies have started to notice the potential benefits of an earthquake early warning system. Intel, for example, is very eager to use early warning to make their manufacturing safer, Vidale said. Computer companies can use seconds of warning before shaking comes to halt sensitive manufacturing processes  preventing equipment from clanging together and being damaged in the shaking. That would enable factories to resume operations much faster after the earthquake.And factories using toxic chemicals can prevent problems by securing operations before shaking arrives, too, Vidale said. And just telling people that shaking is coming so that they can drop, cover and hold on could save lives and reduce injuries.This is a simple technology. We know how to do it, Vidale said. Even Mongolia is doing it.The budget proposal would also reduce $800,000 in funding for earthquake monitoring in Alaska and the central and eastern United States, where earthquakes are a risk on the East Coast, in the South and in the Midwest. The reduction may slow the rate of updates to seismic provisions in building codes and provide less science to support risk mitigation actions. The USGS would also suspend its annual forecast of hazard related to both natural and induced seismicity.An additional $561,000 would be cut under the proposal from earthquake hazards operations, diminishing the governments ability to monitor and report on earthquakes, assess earthquake hazards, and send earthquake results to emergency responders, the budget document said.A champion of the earthquake early warning system, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said it would be foolish to end it.After years of educating the public and Congress to the benefits of the earthquake early warning system, we have been able to deliver $23.4 million in federal funding to help build out an early warning system across the West Coast, Schiff said in a statement.But we cannot stop now, just as monitoring stations are being built out and the system is expanding its reach. Support for the early warning system in Congress is sustained, growing and bipartisan, and we will not accept this attempt by the president to cut a vital funding stream for a program that will protect life, property and critical infrastructure, Schiff said.A spokesman for Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., who serves on the House appropriations committee, said late Thursday that the congressman was on a plane and could not be immediately reached to comment on the proposal to end funding for the earthquake early warning system.He referred to an earlier statement on the overall budget, which said: The budget also proposes some reductions for agencies that fall within the Interior Subcommittees jurisdiction. Those agencies perform important work, so the members of our committee will be faced with making some difficult decisions.The United States is far behind other nations in developing an earthquake early warning system. In Japan, for instance, national TV broadcasts and cellphones are interrupted with warnings about incoming shaking, and for significant quakes high-speed trains automatically slow down, as slower speeds reduce the threat of a deadly derailment.All of Japanese society is very happy for their early warning system. Nobody in Japan really wants to turn it off. They view it as a great step ahead for them. Californians will, too, Heaton said.In the last few years, lawmakers in Washington and in Sacramento have started to devote significant dollars to developing the system.In fact, the budget deal reached in Congress for the current budget year that ends in September penciled in $10.2 million for the system, which represented an increase from the previous years $8.2 million for the system. The system needs about $16.1 million a year in yearly operating and maintenance costs, and $38.2 million to build it.The earthquake early warning system works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at about the speed of sound through rock  slower than the speed of todays communications systems. That means it would take more than a minute for, say, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea to shake up Los Angeles, 150 miles away, traveling on the states longest fault, the San Andreas.The prototype system has had some early successes. When a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Napa in 2014, the system gave researchers in San Francisco about eight seconds of warning before shaking began. Last year, 30 seconds of warning reached downtown L.A. before the ground shook from a magnitude 4.4 quake centered near Banning.As the system gets built, officials have talked about allowing places such as classrooms, offices, shopping malls, amusement parks and police and fire stations to have ready access to alerts. Eventually, bigger benefits are expected: technology to open elevators at the next floor, sparing occupants from being trapped, and warnings that could halt the flow of natural gas through major pipelines, preventing catastrophic fires.The proposed budget also affects other agencies monitoring natural disasters. The U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, faces eliminating funding  $12 million  that pays for a critical network of buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The network can sense an incoming tsunami, enabling officials to send watches and warnings for the United States.This is known as the Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis, or DART. A budget document said that the termination of the program is anticipated to have a 20 percent or greater impact on the accuracy, certainty, and timeliness of NOAAs tsunami watches and warnings.The DART buoys are essential for telling local authorities whether the public needs to be evacuated from the coast, Vidale said. Those DART buoys are our eyes out in the sea for incoming tsunamis from distant earthquakes.The zeroing out of the DART buoys is just startling, said University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass.The agency is also facing a proposed reduction of funding for a network of automated weather stations that can indicate rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, called Mesonet. That means NOAA wont be able to monitor these conditions in all 50 states, but will have to prioritize states most susceptible to tornadoes and severe weather.The budget also proposes reducing funding for an array of sensors in the ocean designed to detect El Nino, which officials said may delay the recognition of the onset of phenomenon, and hamper the ability to deal with its effects, such as heavy rain or drought.The budget proposal also would slow down the development of the National Weather Services next-generation weather forecasting system. Scientists and officials have been pushing for a major upgrade to the weather services forecasting system, which is well behind European modeling systems, Mass said. That flaw was seen in Hurricane Sandy as it struck New York, in which U.S. forecasting was far inferior to European forecast models, he said.What theyre proposing to do is cutting a large amount of money out, which would delay it at best and kill it at worst, Mass said. If you look at the statistics for virtually any place in the country, youll see the American model is well behind.
This story has been circulating for several months but was featured tonight on PBS.Sweden has not fought a war since 1814. It has nurtured its neutrality for over 200 years. During the Cold War, it was neutral because it was suspicious of both the superpowers. But now Russian muscle-flexing is jangling Swedish nerves.The government is promising to increase defense spending by 11 percent over the next five years and it is to reintroduce conscription. Gotland is a popular Nordic tourist destination. Its main town, Visby, the best-preserved fortified commercial city in Northern Europe, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The island, a three-hour ferry ride from the Swedish mainland, is vulnerable because of its strategic location, close to Latvia and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, where a quarter of a million military personnel are based.AND....Sweden isn't the only nation concerned. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Finland are extremely concerned at Russia's aggressive show of force AND the combination of world leaders like Putin and Trump, who seem to emulate a hawkish nature. Swedish citizens have been quoted as saying: Im not at all positive about the future, because, I mean, how can you be positive with Trump as president?Today, Trump refused to mention or endorse Article 5 in his NATO speech, the enduring principle that binds its members together, committing them to protect each other and setting a spirit of solidarity within the Alliance.Mother Jones says to "drop the hysterics" about Article 5. Really??
Toto Wolff has hinted Mercedes will not make any changes to its driver lineup for 2018.

While the German team's boss said it is too early for decisions, he also hailed the atmosphere and dynamics inside Mercedes so far this year.

"Nico Rosberg played a fundamental role with car development," Wolff told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"His head worked like an engineer. But with Valtteri Bottas, we have found the best possible substitute. The dynamics in the team have changed completely.

"With Lewis and Nico, we went through different phases, from friendship to rivalry to hostility and arrogance. But with Valtteri and Lewis, there is zero controversy.

"They respect each other and look forward to a good result from each other. I think Lewis changed over the winter. He went from a loner to a true team player," Wolff added.

Looking further into the future, Wolff said he recognises the need for a new engine formula beyond the expiry of the current regulations.

"We neglected the sound with the current engine generation," he said. "When we are discussing the engines from 2020 onwards, a great engine noise will be one of the key points for us."

(GMM)
Dr Helmut Marko is not ruling out a front row qualifying for Red Bull in Monaco.

That is despite the fact technical boss Adrian Newey earlier played down the former champions' chances of a repeat of 2016, when victory was a real possibility.

However, so far in the two Thursday practice sessions, it was Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel topping the times.

"Hamilton and Vettel were ahead because of their impressive ability around the corners," Marko told the Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

"But we are with the music," he added.

"The gap is tight and we are definitely closer. Our direction is right," Marko said.

So especially with Mercedes struggling for pace in Thursday's later session, Marko is now looking ahead to a good qualifying for Red Bull.

And the possibility of a trip to the podium on Sunday?: "Nothing is impossible," he said, "but I think Mercedes has a very different power unit.

"I do think that everything from the first to the third row is possible," Marko added.

(GMM)
If you watched the video of Trump's speech, you probably also noticed he looks on the faces of the European leaders. Stunned. Disbelief. I find this situation devastating. For decades we have worked to build strong relationships with our allies---sharing intelligence, fighting side by side, sending aid to each other--the medical research and development---the common goals of peace and disarmament. But there's a new sheriff in town and I'm not sure if Trump even understands the implications of his speech or his behavior.

I get what Trump is saying and OKAY--encourage other countries to pay their fair share. Can we MAKE them pay more? No. AND is this all about their fair share? No.

The issue is broader than just how much nations spend on defense. The issue is burden sharing, namely, is the burden of a common defense equally shared among the allies? Also, it is not only how much a nation spends on defense that matters, but what that nation spends it on and its willingness to use it. Will NATO members protect each other equally?

Will the U.S. turn away from Sweden if Putin decides to continue his aggression?

Wasn't this organization started to stop the spread of communism? To encourage nuclear disarmament? Or have I completely misunderstood WHY we have NATO?



Putin must be patting himself on the back. Every day our president gives him another gift--praise, kudos, compliments, classified intel.......and now Trump has refused to envoke Article 5. If this is the new normal I want nothing to do with it.

This nation cannot live in isolation. We simply can't.
SWEET HOME  Linn County campgrounds are mowed, Foster and Green Peter reservoirs are full of water, and the mid-valley forecast calls for temperatures in the low- to mid-80s through the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

So dig out your tent, shine up your RV, fire up your boat or jet ski, and let the outdoor recreation season begin.

Linn County Parks Director Brian Carroll said only a few camping spaces remain out of more than 500 county-wide.

We encourage people to check our Facebook page, where we will post a daily update about any camping openings, he said.

He added that the long, wet winter made parks maintenance tough.

The ground was so wet, we couldnt put the mowers on them without sinking, Carroll recalled. Were getting there, but we encourage folks to be extra cautious this weekend.

To ease crowding, several new camping spaces will be open in the new addition at Whitcomb Creek Park on Green Peter Reservoir. The county has been adding 53 new camping spurs to the original 39.

The 328-acre Whitcomb Creek Campground is about nine miles from the intersection of Highway 20 and Quartzville Road east of Sweet Home.

We have tables and fire pits set up, but were still not completely done, Carroll said. We will mark off the sites that we dont want people to use.

He also said guests will be able to rent kayaks and stand-up paddle boards at Lewis Creek Day Use Area.

We had them last year and they are very popular, Carroll said. We have kayaks at Clear Lake, but not the paddle boards. The water is way too cold for that.

The rental fee is $30 for the day or $15 per hour.

Moorage at Edgewater Marina on Foster Reservoir remains at 40 slips, but thanks to grant from the Oregon Marine Board, water and electricity are being installed this week.

We are allowed to expand to 140 slips, Carroll said. That will be in the future, as we get the money.

Only four full-season slips remained as of mid-week. Carroll said parks staff were in the process of calling a waiting list of 20 people. He expected the slips would be taken quickly.

Linn County continues to manage the rustic U.S. Forest Service campgrounds near Cascadia.

Carroll said the county is in the process of drilling new drinking water wells at several of the campgrounds.

We have been pleased with how the public has responded to the campgrounds, he said. When we took them over, they were generating about $65,000 per year. Last year, they brought in more than $100,000.

The county turned Fern View and Lost Prairie campgrounds into group sites, which has proven very popular.

They are full every weekend, Carroll said.

Carroll said the County Road Department has wrapped up new parking areas and restrooms at Sunnyside, Green Peter Dam and Thistle Creek as part of a long-term plan to ease congestion along the Quartzville corridor. Above-average rainfall this spring has nearly filled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reservoirs in the Willamette Valley. Reservoirs are about 99 percent full as the region begins plans for summer recreation.

Most reservoirs will follow the normal management schedule. However, some will experience early draw-downs: Hills Creek, Cougar and Blue River reservoirs.

Green Peter Reservoir is at full pool  1,010 feet  and Foster Reservoir's at 635 feet.

Carroll cautions boaters to be extremely careful as neither reservoir has been swept of debris.

We all know it takes time for the woody materials to make their way to the shorelines, he explained. Even after they have been swept, they never get 100 percent of the debris.

Carroll said information kiosks remain to be completed along the corridor, but are in the plans.

Carroll, who's starting his 21st year as head of the parks department, said the total budget his first year was about $235,000. Last year it was about $2 million, which includes grants and the countys portion of the states RV license fees.

Keeping safe

The Oregon Department of Forestry reminds campers to keep campfires small and to stay with them at all times.

Other fire safety tips include:

 Call your local forest or fire district to learn if there are any campfire restrictions in place.

 Kick the campfire habit and use a portable camp stove.

 Select the right spot for a campfire that is not near tents, structures, vehicles, shrubs or trees. Be aware of low-hanging branches.

 Keep the campfire small. Smaller fires are less likely to escape and cast fewer burning embers.

 Tend to campfires at all times.

 Never use gasoline or other accelerants on fires.

 Keep a bucket of water and a shovel handy at all times.

Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley reminds campers there is no dispersed camping allowed along the Quartzville corridor near Green Peter Reservoir.

Those illegally camping will be contacted and could be charged with trespass, he said.

Riley added that deputies will be ramping up extra patrols, including on waterways, especially along the Quartzville corridor and Detroit Lake area campgrounds.
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WorldAutoSteel, the automotive group of the World Steel Association, has published a major update to Advanced High-Strength Steels Application Guidelines (AHSS Guidelines), Version 6.0. AHSS Guidelines Version 6.0 is a leading resource of technical best practices on the market today for the forming and joining of the newest steels.

WorldAutoSteel offers the AHSS Guidelines 6.0 free-of-charge to the global automotive community.

The steel industry is already experiencing a 10 percent higher growth in AHSS automotive applications than predicted. Consequently, WorldAutoSteel technical experts have spent the past two years interacting with our membership in the US, Europe, Japan, and China to tap their expertise on our previous Guidelines version 5.0, released in 2014, which contained over 400 pages of AHSS metallurgy and best practices. Cees ten Broek, Director of WorldAutoSteel

The WorldAutoSteel membership includes steel industry professionals who collaborate in strategy sessions with global automakers. These interactions have led to significant feedback and the capturing of more information in the forming and joining of newer Advanced High-Strength Steels, which is documented in the AHSS Guidelines Version 6.0.

Previous AHSS Guidelines versions covered metallurgy, forming and joining. Version 5.0 included new content highlighting the broader materials portfolio, advanced fabrication technologies and optimized joining processes. Version 6.0 adds significant updates to this growing knowledge database and captures AHSS Metallurgy, including stress-strain curves.
The Fresno County Rural Transit Agency (FCRTA), San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the California Energy Commission (CEC) and CALSTART unveiled a program providing the Envision Solar EV ARC solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations in 13 rural incorporated cities throughout Fresno County. This is the largest single deployment of solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations in the County and the first to link all the rural cities in one single county.

FCRTA selected Envision Solars EV ARC product, which is the only rapidly deployable, transportable solar powered EV charger available while simultaneously being the only renewably energized EV charging solution which provides both EV charging and emergency power during a grid failure.

State of California contract #1-15-61-16 was awarded to Envision Solar to supply EV ARC products to State of California Departments and other local governmental agencies or entities. Both the SJVAPCD and FCRTA provided funding for the purchase and deployment of the EV ARC products, which include back-up energy storage for emergency services.

The CALSTART San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Center is funded, in part, by a grant from the CEC. The FCRTA funding was provided, in part, by Caltrans.

The EV ARC products will provide no-cost charging for San Joaquin Valley EV drivers, helping to make electric cars more affordable for Fresno County residents. 12 of the 13 units are located in disadvantaged communities.

The EV ARC fits inside a parking space and generates enough clean, solar electricity to power up to 225 miles of EV driving in a day. The systems solar electrical generation is enhanced by EnvisionTrak which causes the array to follow the sun, generating up to 25% more electricity than a fixed array.

The energy is stored in the EV ARC products energy storage for charging day or night and to provide emergency power during a grid failure. Because the EV ARC product requires no trenching, foundations or installation work of any kind, it is deployed in minutes and can be moved to a new location with ease.
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) delivered 635 Outlander PHEV vehicles to the National Police of Ukraine on 25 May through its local importer and distributor MMC Ukraine. The vehicle order stems from an emissions trading agreement signed by a number of Japanese companies with the Government of Ukraine.

As part of its policy to reduce CO 2 and greenhouse warming gases using the Kyoto Protocol Green Investment Scheme, the Ukrainian government will use the Outlander PHEVs as police vehicles.

This marks the second time MMC has supplied vehicles under the Green Investment Scheme, the first being to deliver 507 units of the iMiEV all-electric model to the Government of Estonia that began in October 2011.

The Green Investment Scheme is an international emissions trading plan which provides for funds deriving from the transfer of Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) in emission trading conducted under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol to be used for the purpose of cutting greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental measures.

Since its launch in 2013, the Outlander PHEV has recorded cumulative sales of 80,768 units (as at the end of 2016), and has ranked the best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle in Europe for four years in a row.
Albany police are searching for a man wanted in connection to a shots-fired call earlier this month at an apartment complex in the 2200 block of Marion Street SE.

Israel Fausto Anaya, 22, of Albany, allegedly fired rounds from a .25-caliber handgun at around 1 a.m. on May 8, according to residents at the complex.

"A neighbor called to say she heard two gun shots and then people screaming," said Albany Police Lieutenant Alan Lynn.

Officers responding to the incident found several spent shell casings.

Anaya also has three arrest warrants stemming from failures to check in with his probation officer. His prior convictions are for possession of methamphetamine. Lynn said officers would like to apprehend Anaya because the new charge has moved beyond drug convictions and failure to check in.

"He's escalated into the violence category after firing off rounds," said Lynn.

Anyone with information regarding Anaya's whereabouts is asked to call the Albany Police Department at 541-917-7680
CORVALLIS  The Community Independent Business Alliance was formed 15 years ago, when local shop owners worried about the impact of a Borders bookstore that would soon open in Corvallis.

Borders is gone, but CIBA is still here, said Jack Wolcott, owner of Grass Roots Books & Music, during a forum at the Odd Fellows Hall on Wednesday night.

Big box stores still area a threat, but another concern to local businesspeople has emerged in massive online retailers.

About 30 people attended Helping Our Local Independent Businesses Thrive and talked about fending off online sales and other issues.

Independents can still compete successfully and win, said Jeff Milchen, co-director and co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance. Milchen was the featured speaker at the event, which was sponsored by CIBA and the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition.

AMIBA sprang out of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance in Boulder, Colorado in 2001, and now is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. The organization helps 90 community groups, including CIBA.

Milchen talked about how public education and communication with the media was vital to build a brand and a culture of support for local businesses.

He stressed that studies show customer satisfaction is higher at independent businesses, including restaurants.

Hopefully its going to be a more fun, personal experience shopping locally, Milchen said.

Independent businesses contribute far more to communities than chain retailers, as their money is essentially recycled locally, he added.

Milchen recommended that local retailers band together and tally their donations to charity, backing the figures up with specific examples, to show their value.

Collective branding and marketing can be successful, Milchen said.

Milchen also suggested that CIBA start up a monthly newsletter and that the all-volunteer organization hire at least a part-time staff member to help coordinate efforts of the local business community.

A number of other issues were raised by local businesspeople.

Bob Baird, owner of the Book Bin, talked about a national trend of declining foot traffic, saying that several Corvallis businesses had noticed a lack of customers.

Baird estimated that there had been a 10 percent decline in foot traffic annually in recent years.

This is not just downtown, Baird said, adding that it was impacting established restaurants, as well.

Kevin Ferguson of Willamette Valley Christian Supply said that retailers needed to market to Oregon State Universitys growing international population.

April Hall Cutting of Wild Yeast Bakery wondered how market booths like hers could cooperate with brick and mortar stores. We see ourselves as an independent business, but we dont have a store, she said.

Kate Lindburg, owner of Animal Crackers, said that studies show cities could start seeing lower property tax revenues if local businesses continue to shut down at a higher pace than in previous decades.
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GREENSBORO  The Guilford County Board of Education approved principals for five schools at Thursday's meeting, according to a Guilford County Schools news release.

Christopher Scott was named principal at Monticello-Brown Summit Elementary School. He has served GCS for the past seven years, and is currently serving as assistant principal at Dudley High School.

Angela Draper will head Falkener Elementary. She comes to GCS from the Syracuse City School District in Syracuse, N.Y., where she has served as a principal since 2013.

Michael Hettenbach will be the principal at Southwest Guilford High. He has been serving as interim principal for several months and has been an assistant principal there since 2009.

Two principals were approved for transfers.

Marshall Matson will head Page High. He was previously at Mendenhall Middle where he was principal for six years.

Ashley Triplett will be the principal at Peck Elementary. She completed her second year this past school year as principal at Northern Middle.

These changes will become effective July 1, according to the release.
The Community Independent Business Alliance was formed 15 years ago, when local shop owners worried about the impact of a Borders bookstore that would soon open in Corvallis.

Borders is gone, but CIBA is still here, said Jack Wolcott, owner of Grass Roots Books & Music, during a forum at the Odd Fellows Hall in downtown Corvallis on Wednesday night.

Big box stores still are a threat, but another concern to local business people has emerged in the form of massive online retailers.

About 30 people attended Helping Our Local Independent Businesses Thrive and talked about fending off online sales and other issues.

Independents can still compete successfully and win, said Jeff Milchen, co-director and co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance. Milchen was the featured speaker at the event, which was sponsored by CIBA and the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition.

AMIBA sprang out of the Boulder Independent Business Alliance in Colorado in 2001 and now is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. The organization helps 90 community groups, including CIBA.

Milchen talked about how public education and communication with the media are vital to building a brand and a culture of support for local businesses.

He stressed that studies show customer satisfaction is higher at independent businesses, including restaurants.

Hopefully, its going to be a more fun, personal experience shopping locally, Milchen said.

Independent businesses contribute far more to communities than chain retailers, as their money is essentially recycled locally, he added.

Milchen recommended that local retailers band together and tally their donations to charity, backing the figures up with specific examples, to show their value.

Collective branding and marketing can be successful, Milchen said.

Milchen also suggested that CIBA start up a monthly newsletter and that the all-volunteer organization hire at least a part-time staff member to help coordinate efforts of the local business community.

A number of other issues were raised by local business people.

Bob Baird, owner of the Book Bin, talked about a national trend of declining foot traffic, saying that several Corvallis businesses had noticed a lack of customers.

Baird estimated that there had been a 10 percent decline in foot traffic annually in recent years.

This is not just downtown, Baird said, adding that it was affecting established restaurants, as well.

Kevin Ferguson of Willamette Valley Christian Supply said that retailers needed to market to Oregon State Universitys growing international population.

April Hall Cutting of Wild Yeast Bakery wondered how market booths like hers could cooperate with brick-and-mortar stores. We see ourselves as an independent business, but we dont have a store, she said.

Kate Lindburg, owner of Animal Crackers, said that studies show cities could start seeing lower property tax revenues if local businesses continue to shut down at a higher pace than in previous decades.
MAY 26

Mount Sinai Womens Convocation, also May 27-28, Mount Sinai Full Gospel Deliverance Center, 2721 Manchester St., Winston-Salem. 336-722-2624 or msfgdc@bellsouth.net.

Free Community Supper, 4-6 p.m., The Fellowship, 1601 Barnes St., Reidsville. fellowshipreidsville.org.

MAY 27

Sticking Together As Women Of God Womens Conference, 9 a.m. May 27, Solomons Temple, 5608 U.S. 29 Business, Reidsville. $10. Hot Continental breakfast, door prizes, workshops, praise and worship, testimonials, lunch. Speakers: Mother Beverlie Grizzle of Grace United Holiness Church in Kernersville and Lady Frances Carter of United ln Christ of Eden. Free facials.

MAY 28

Homecoming, 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 111 Regents Trail, Reidsville.

Memorial Day Service, 5:30 p.m., Trinity Church, 5200 W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro. Honor service men and women who died for the country. Speaker: Harry Thetford will discuss his interviews with local veterans.

Men and Womens Day Service, 3 p.m., Eternal Life Christian Church, 160 Shady Grove Road, Eden. With elders from Burning Bush Independent Holiness Church. 336-623-9900.

Pastor Appreciation Service, 3:30 p.m., St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 1205 W. Market St., Greensboro. The Rev. Bennie Crisp and mens choir of White Cross A.M.E. Church, in Efland, honor M. Ruth Smith, pastor of First A.M.E. Church.

Special Observance, Memorial Day at the Columbarium, 9 a.m., First Baptist Church, 1000 W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro.

MAY 29

Music Mondays, 5:30-8 p.m., Morehead United Methodist Church, 3214 Horse Pen Creek Road, GB. Live music, food trucks. Porter House Burger Truck, Bandito Burrito and Doug Jones (music). 336-288-9399.

MAY 30

Revival, 7:30 p.m., also May 31-June 1, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, 111 Regents Trail, Reidsville.

JUNE 1

Hymns for Him Conference, 5 p.m. June 1-2, 9 a.m. June 3, Greater First United Baptist Church, 1409 Deep River Road, High Point. Reintroduces great hymns of faith to congregations, encourages youth to integrate hymns in youth services including praise and worship. Register. www.hymnsforhim.org.

JUNE 3

Family Fun Day, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1900 W. Market St., Greensboro. Free games, music, inflatables, food. Part of churchs 100th anniversary celebration.

JUNE 4

Pentecost Sunday Worship Experience, 4 p.m., St. John United Methodist Church, 1112 Center Church Road, Eden. Speaker: Rev. Tammy Ingram, pastor of St. Stephens United Methodist Church of Madison. Musical guests. Ladies are asked to wear red dress or red shirt/blouse.

Pentecost Organ Recital, 3 p.m., Sanctuary at Christ United Methodist Church, 410 N. Holden Road, Greensboro. Organist Andre Lash presents hymns and organ music written for the Christian festival of Pentecost. Free, open to the public. Childcare provided.

100th Anniversary Celebration and Luncheon, 10 a.m., First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 1900 W. Market St., Greensboro. Speaker: Rev. Vy Nguyen, executive director of Week of Compassion.

JUNE 10

Hot Dog Sales, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Moriah United Methodist Church, 3611 Liberty Road, Greensboro. Proceeds support missions. Homemade slaw, chili, desserts. 336-273-1006.

JUNE 11

Baptism Celebration, 10:30 a.m., The Fellowship, 1601 Barnes St., Reidsville. fellowshipreidsville.org.

JUNE 12

Presbyterian Church in Americas 45th General Assembly, also June 13-16, Koury Convention Center, Greensboro. www.pcaac.org.

JUNE 30

Genesis Faith Academy, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, July 10-21, Genesis Baptist Church, 2812 E. Bessemer Ave., Greensboro. For rising second through sixth-graders. $125. Registration deadline: June 30. 336-587-7318.

JULY 2

God Bless America Day, 9 a.m., Woodbine Baptist Church, 7547 N.C. 135, Mayodan. Hall of Honor feature pictures of local military personnel  past and present, military memorabilia and more. Ceremony begins, 10 a.m. Morehead High Schools JROTC drill team provides military protocol. Guest speaker: Terry Snyder, founder and CEO of Operation North State, which offers seven unique support services for North Carolinas deployed troops and veterans in need.

ONGOING

Addiction Recovery Meetings, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Pentecostal Church of Jesus, 752 Davis St. (off Park Road near traffic circle), Eden. Refreshments. For transportation: 336-970-3482.

Beth David Knitters, 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. Free and fun lessons provided.

Bible Study, noon Wednesdays, True Vine Baptist Church, 1404 Summit Ave., Greensboro. 336-273-1800.

Bible Study, 1:30 p.m. Mondays, Christ Lutheran Church, 3600 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro 336-288-4482.

Bible Study, 5:30 p.m., zumba class ($2, $1 for child under 18) 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Shalom Community Christian Church, 2227 Pinecroft Road, Greensboro. 336-272-4463.

Bible Study, 7 p.m. Wednesdays, New Beginnings Community Outreach Church, 201 Lawrence St., Greensboro. 336-271-2044.

Bible Study, 8 p.m. Wednesdays, New Jerusalem Tabernacle, 5419 Davis Mill Road, Greensboro. 336-897-0068

Bible Study, 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Rescue Temple #1 Church of God in Christ, 601 Franklin Blvd., Greensboro. 336-273-7615.

Bible Study, 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Metropolitan United Methodist Church, 1701 E. Market St., Greensboro. 336-275-4658.

Cancer Care, Westover Church, 505 Muirs Chapel Road, Greensboro. A group for those journeying with cancer and/or their caregivers. Experience genuine understanding, meaningful prayer, and an applicable Biblical study and discussion. choosinghope@westoverchurch.com

Celebrate Recovery, 7-9 p.m. Tuesdays, Grace Church, 1141 Enterprise Drive, High Point. Rick Warrens faith-based recovery program for those wanting to address their hurts, hang-ups and habits. Deb, 610-762-0754; or Doug, 336-253-4148.

Chair Yoga Classes, 11 a.m. Wednesdays, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 1100 Curtis St., Greensboro. A free Lunch and Learn meal and class will follow the yoga class on the third Wednesday of each month. Sharon Muckenfuss, 336-802-6819.

Christian Twelve Step Meeting, 11 a.m.-noon Saturdays, Friendly Avenue Baptist Church, 4800 W. Friendly Avenue (enter through the rear parking lot off Westridge), Greensboro. The Group, a weekly meeting that combines the powerful resources of the wisdom contained in the Twelve Steps with the spiritual truths of the Holy Bible and using Christ Jesus as our higher power. 336-708-1518.

Community Prayer Group, 9:30 a.m. second Wednesday of every month, Mount Tabor United Methodist Church fellowship hall, 2431 U.S. Highway 220, four miles south of Madison. Coffee, donuts, light breakfast snacks, solos and gospel singing. There is also a short devotion. Noreen or Don, 336-427-5851

Divorce Care, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, or 9:30 a.m. Sundays, Westover Church, 505 Muirs Chapel Road, Greensboro. westoverchurch.com/careandsupport

Free Community Breakfast, 8-10 a.m., last Saturday of each month, Fellowship Hall (Boren Building), Muirs Chapel United Methodist Church, 314 Muirs Chapel Road, Greensboro. 336-299-1913.

Free Community Breakfast, 8-10 a.m., first Saturday of the month, St. Andrews Methodist Church, 1900 W. Vandalia Road, Greensboro.

Free Hot Breakfast, 9 a.m., The Fellowship, 1601 Barnes St., Reidsville. Free continental breakfast served every third Sunday. 336-932-1494.

Free Hot Meal and Healthcare Message, 3 p.m. Sundays, St. James Presbyterian Church, 820 Ross Ave., Greensboro. 336-273-6658.

Free Lunch, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. every second Wednesday, St. Stephen United Church of Christ, 1000 Gorrell St., Greensboro.

Free suppers and addiction recovery meetings, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Pentecostal Church of Jesus, 752 Davis St., Eden (off Park St., near traffic circle). For anyone with an addiction, or have a friend or loved one dealing with an addiction. Information and transportation: 336-970-3492, or 336-280-9925.

Free Math Tutoring, 5-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, Manasseh Baptist Church, 804 Franklin Blvd., Greensboro.

Genealogy Research, 12:30-4 p.m. Tuesdays, 12:30-8 p.m. Wednesdays, and 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays, Family History Center, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4751 N.C. 14, Eden. Consultants/genealogist available to assist in researching family histories. Free. Copies 10 cents per page. Appointments available other times. Information: 336-623-7154.

Greensboro Israeli Folkdance Group, 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. Both beginners and experienced dancers are welcome, $2 per session. Janis Fields 336-855-1878, or jfields855@aol.com

GriefShare, 10:30 a.m.-noon Wednesdays, Friendly Avenue Baptist Church, 4800 W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro. A Christ-centered and Bible-based support group for anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one to help them cope with the feelings and loneliness of that loss. A free lunch is provided. To register: Doris Henderson, 336-292-3567, Ext. 312.

GriefShare, 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays, First Baptist Church, 110 S. Franklin St., Madison. 336-548-6112.

Holy Infant Catholic Church Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, RCIA, 9:30 a.m. (following 9 a.m. Mass) Saturdays, Holy Infant Catholic Church, 1042 Freeway Drive, Reidsville. Classes are designed for people who would like to know more about the Catholic faith. To register: 336-342-1448.

Jewish Meditation Circle, 7 p.m. Thursdays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. April 20, 27: Spring cleaning of the spirit. Rabbi Ross, 336-235-7731.

Monday Night Live, free meal at 5:30 p.m. followed by a casual worship service at 6:30 p.m. Mission First, 1520 S. Scales St., Reidsville. 336-349-6017.

Monday Night Live, 6-8 p.m., Lees Chapel United Methodist Church, 2303 Lees Chapel Road, Greensboro. Free dinner and music for families, and free tutoring for children grades K-middle school. Volunteer teacher needed for fifth grade. Pastor Joseph Kim, (404) 543-7624.

Moriah United Methodist Church (Helping Hands Circle) Hot Dog Sale, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., second Saturday of every month, 3611 Liberty Road, Greensboro. Homemade chili and slaw and great desserts. Proceeds for missions in and around our community.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors, 9-11 a.m. every Thursday, Family Life Center, 1804 East Market St., Greensboro. The food distribution program is sponsored by East Market St. Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Open Prayer, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesdays, Metropolitan United Methodist Church, 1701 E. Market St., Greensboro. The sanctuary will be open. 336-275-4658.

Pastor Dines Free on Sundays, Kabuto Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar, with group of 10 or more. Pastor dines free on Wednesdays with group of four or more. Call for reservations. 336-852-5550.

Read Hebrew America, 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Lee Bretan teaches a basic Hebrew reading course for adults interested in reading Siddur/Prayerbook Hebrew. Cost per class: $7/members or $10/non-members. Rabbi Ross, 336-235-7731, or mross@bdgso.org.

Seekers Together, 6 p.m. Saturdays, Community Lutheran Church, 4960 U.S. 220 North, Summerfield. A contemporary worship service for people who want to ask the hard questions. Open-ended question and answer discussions, shared table of communion, uplifting contemporary music, and a welcoming community.

Shabbat Afternoon Services, 5:45 p.m. Saturdays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. Learn Torah and Share Yahrzeit Memories.

S.H.E. Share. Heal. Engage. Young Womens Ministry, 7-8 p.m. every Thursday. Prince of Peace, 1100 Curtis St., Greensboro. For women 18-35. Bridget Hall, bridget.hall@greensboro.edu or 336-525-5025.

InSpire Meditation, noon on Tuesdays, Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, 501 W. Mendenhall St., Greensboro.

Summer Camps, First Presbyterian Church, 617 N. Elm St., Greensboro. Music Camp, Kids Disciple Club, Maker Fun Factory Vacation Bible School. fpcgreensboro.org/summercamps.

Sunday Seminar, 10 a.m. Sundays, First Baptist Church, 110 S. Franklin, Madison. A revolving topic class with sessions lasting six-eight weeks. No previous Bible experience required. 336-548-6112.

Telephone Prayer Conference, 6-6:30 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, New Beginnings Community Outreach Church, Powerhouse of Deliverance Cathedral, 201 Lawrence St., Greensboro. Start your day off with prayer. Call 605-475-6700, access code 405-2210.

Thursday Night Fellowship, The Salvation Army, 704 Barnes St., Reidsville. Family devotions at 5:30 p.m., followed by a free community meal at 5:45 p.m. Men and womens fellowship activities follow the meal. 336-349-4923.

Torah Study with Rabbi Ross, 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro.

Torah Study with Lee Bretan, 10 a.m. Tuesdays, Beth David Synogague, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. Explore King David stories and other prophets. discussion of texts, its meanings and subtexts. Class meets in the board room. Free.

VATIKIM 60+ Programming, 11:45 a.m. Tuesdays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro. Includes a weekly lunch-and-learn, a kosher buffet, $3 a person.

Weekly Study of Pirkay Avot, 6-6:20 p.m., Saturdays, Beth David Synagogue, 804 Winview Drive, Greensboro.
The quixotic American pursuit of Middle East peace is a perennial. It invariably fails, yet every administration feels compelled to try. The Trump administration is no different.

It will fail as well. To be sure, no great harm has, as yet, come from President Trumps enthusiasm for what would be the ultimate deal. It will, however, distract and detract from remarkable progress being made elsewhere in the Middle East.

That progress began with Trumps trip to Saudi Arabia, the first of his presidency  an unmistakable declaration of a radical reorientation of U.S. policy in the region. Message: The appeasement of Iran is over.

Barack Obamas tilt toward Iran in the great Muslim civil war between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arabs led by Saudi Arabia was his reach for Nixon-to-China glory. It ended ignominiously.

The idea that the nuclear deal would make Iran more moderate has proved spectacularly wrong, as demonstrated by its defiant ballistic missile launches, its indispensable support for the genocidal Assad regime in Syria, its backing of the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, its worldwide support for terrorism, its anti-Americanism and commitment to the annihilation of Israel.

These aggressions were supposed to abate. They didnt. On the contrary, the cash payments and the lifting of economic sanctions  Tehrans reward for the nuclear deal  have only given its geopolitical thrusts more power and reach.

The reversal has begun. The first act was Trumps Riyadh address to 50 Muslim states (the overwhelming majority of them Sunni) signaling a wide Islamic alliance committed to resisting Iran and willing to cast its lot with the American side.

That was objective No. 1. The other was to turn the Sunni powers against Sunni terrorism. The Islamic State is Sunni. Al-Qaida is Sunni. Fifteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. And the spread of Saudi-funded madrassas around the world inculcates a poisonous Wahhabism that fuels Islamist terrorism.

Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states declaring war on their terrorist child is significant. As is their pledge not to tolerate any semi-official support or private donations. And their opening during the summit of an anti-terrorism center in Riyadh.

After eight years of U.S. policy hovering between neglect and betrayal, Sunni Arabs are relieved to have America back.

A salutary side effect is the possibility of a detente with Israel. That would suggest an outside-in approach to Arab-Israeli peace: a rapprochement between the Sunni state and Israel (the outside) would put pressure on the Palestinians to come to terms (the inside). Its a long-shot strategy, but its better than all the others. Unfortunately, Trump muddied the waters a bit in Israel by reverting to the opposite strategy  the inside-out  by saying that an Israeli-Palestinian deal would begin a process of peace all throughout the Middle East.

That is well-worn nonsense. Imagine if Israel disappeared tomorrow in an earthquake. Does that end the civil war in Syria? Instability in Iraq? Fighting in Yemen? Does it change anything of consequence amid the intra-Arab chaos? No.

And apart from being delusional, the inside-out strategy is at present impossible. Palestinian leadership is hopelessly weak and irredeemably rejectionist. Until it accepts the legitimacy of the Jewish state  which it has never done  there will be no peace.

It may come one day. But not now. Which is why making the Israel-Palestinian issue central, rather than peripheral, to the epic Sunni-Shiite war shaking the Middle East today is a serious tactical mistake. It subjects any now-possible reconciliation between Israel and the Arab states to a Palestinian veto.

Ironically, the Iranian threat that grew under Obama offers a unique opportunity for U.S.-Arab and even Israeli-Arab cooperation. Such cooperation could gradually acclimate Arab peoples to a nonbelligerent stance toward Israel. Which might help persuade the Palestinians to make concessions before their fellow Arabs finally tire of the Palestinians rejectionism.

Perhaps that will require a peace process of sorts. No great harm, as long as we remember that Israeli-Palestinian talks are for show until conditions are ripe for peace.

In the meantime, the real action is on the anti-Iranian and anti-terror fronts.
By the time Georgias 6th District votes in the June 20 special congressional election, $40 million will have been spent to pick one-435th of one-half of one of the three branches of one of Americas governments. This is an expensive funeral for Tip ONeills incessantly quoted axiom that All politics is local.

If the slender shoulders of the Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, occasionally sag, this is not just from understandable fatigue  on a recent morning he had just deplaned from an 18-hour fundraising sprint to New York. They bear the weight of his partys hopes of recapturing a portion of national power  control of the House of Representatives  almost 18 months from now.

Democrats shoulders should slump if they cannot win at this moment and in this place. Republicans are tethered to the serial pratfalls of a president who preens as Zarathustra but emulates Buster Keaton. Last November, while Hillary Clinton was losing Georgia by 5.1 points, she lost this district by just 1.5 points. Ten times this district made Newt Gingrich its gift to the nation, and seven times it elected Tom Price. (His departure to be health and human services secretary occasioned this election.)

It is, however, the sort of place Democrats must win  affluent, more than 70 percent white  if they are to achieve the net gain of 24 seats needed to take the House. Republicans represent 23 districts that Clinton won. Nationally, the generic congressional poll  Would you prefer Congress controlled by Democrats or Republicans?  favors Democrats, 46 to 39 percent.

Ossoff began his campaign with a vinegary slogan  Make Trump Furious  but has become militantly vanilla, standing foursquare against government waste and for being calm, dignified, level-headed and not just another rock thrower, and advancing core values, fiscal responsibility and unity. Apparently, Democrats learning curve is not quite flat: They have learned from Clintons debacle that the cohort of people who are undecided about Trump is vanishingly small, so talk about something else.

Ossoff, who someday will look his current age (30) and is proud that he owns only two suits, moved four miles from undergraduate life at Georgetown University to a congressional staff job. His Republican opponent, Karen Handel, 55, is what a pro-Ossoff ad stigmatizes her as, a career politician. She has lost more elections than she has won but has been elected statewide as secretary of state.

The average voter turnout in the last six presidential elections was 58.6 percent, and it was 39.1 percent in the last five midterm elections. But because dissatisfaction is a more powerful motivator than contentment, the party not holding the presidency usually sees improved turnout. Trump might resemble Barack Obama in one way: Many of his voters might not show up when his name is not on the ballot.

Last month, in the 18-candidate jungle primary, Ossoff received 48.1 percent, just 1.9 percent short of the 50 percent that would have given him the seat. Handel endorsed the House bill to replace Obamacare, a bill that helped to make Obamacare more popular than Obamas campaigning for it did. Neither candidate dwells on health care, probably because, as a certain savant said, Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.

Handel finished second with 19.8 percent. Ossoff captured 64 percent of early and absentee voters  those who could not wait to express their dismay about things. What Clinton largely failed to do last year, her 2016 opponent has done this year  energize Democrats.

And Democrats, who are situational ethicists regarding money in politics, provided Ossoff enough to enable him to provide free Lyft rides for some primary voters. If he wins on June 20, Democrats probably will benefit in fundraising and candidate recruitment, giving them high hopes for big gains in 2018.
A warrant was served early Wednesday morning at San Blas Mexican Restaurant in Albany.

According to local police officials, the 7 a.m. service, while dramatic in appearance, was the culmination of a criminal investigation with ties to federal law enforcement agents. It did not involve Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents, they added.

There were no employees or owners at the business when police entered, and no arrests were made. For reasons unrelated to the warrant, the business has been shut down, and city officials have posted signs warning against anyone entering the building. Albany Police Captain Eric Carter confirmed the building was closed for multiple code violations.

Officials will not yet comment on the nature of the investigation. We will have more information as details emerge.
As I write, I have just returned from the Fifth Annual Spring Benefit Breakfast for Building One Community (formerly Neighbors Link Stamford), the center for immigrant opportunity in Stamford.

It was an inspiring gathering with more than 500 guests. The organizations purpose is simple: to help immigrants join and enhance the wider community.

Their work is passionate, ambitious and creative. They are currently serving 2,575 clients from 56 different countries. They have 1,318 people from 48 countries actively learning English as a second language and 450 volunteers committed to 10,111 hours of voluntary service who are working hard to meet the increasing demand.

The mission of Building One Community (B1C) is to educate, employ and empower. In 2016, 515 clients were placed in employment, the number of clients who participated in job training and employment programs increased by 74 percent over the prior year, and 75 percent of those B1C is serving earned certificates that demonstrate proficiency in specific types of training.

The Skills Development Program offers tracks for home health aide, culinary services, construction and landscaping, along with classes in vocational English. Each training track reflects areas in which there is significant local demand for skilled labor and is accompanied by apprenticeships with local business partners.

Another program places clients in short-term assignments that can range from one day to a couple of weeks or longer. Through these placements, clients can gain income as well as experience.

The personal stories behind these numbers, from both volunteers and clients, were powerful. A vivacious English lady, an attorney by training, voluntarily teaches English as a second language. She told me how she takes her class to local coffee shops and supermarkets to practice conversational skills outside the classroom. She recently challenged her class to purchase goods at a local store and make the cashier smile. They all rose to the challenge. It was a simple but profound exercise that built confidence and bridges.

A fellow volunteer (an American) joked that sometimes she needs to translate her friends British English into American English for the sake of the clients!

Graduates of the various programs gave testimony to the satisfaction of being able to provide for their families. Many are working hard to pursue their dream of a higher education.

Dan-el Padilla Peralta was the keynote speaker. He has a Ph.D. in Classics (Ancient History) from Stanford University, a master of philosophy from University of Oxford, did postdoctoral work at Columbia University and is currently an assistant professor at Princeton.

His humble beginnings would not have predicted this kind of meteoric academic success. When he was 4 years old, his family entered the United States on tourist visas so that his mother could obtain emergency medical care arising from diabetes-related pregnancy complications. They briefly lived in homeless shelters in New York City when he was in grade school, where, in a disused library, young Dan-el found a book on ancient Greece and a mentor, Jeff Cowen, who recognized his potential.

With Cowen's tutelage and encouragement, Padilla won a scholarship to Cowen's alma mater high school, Collegiate School in Manhattan. There he learned Greek, Latin and French, participated in debate tournaments, and was described by an administrator as "one of the most powerful intellects" to ever attend the school. He was accepted through early admission to Princeton and graduated summa cum laude.

In his remarks, Padilla spoke movingly about his journey and quoted Exodus 22:21: Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. He shared, Within this verse is a negative injunction not to harm or mistreat but there is also an implied positive injunction to support and champion the plight of the immigrant. He added, We are all immigrants. We need to internalize what that means.

By chance, the night before this extraordinary breakfast, I had watched a documentary on urban slums in Victorian England. Paradoxical arguments were pitched against immigrants in the 1870s (predominantly Irish families fleeing the famine in Ireland). That is, immigrants were both taking all our jobs and yet at the same time were too lazy to work. Sound familiar? What I observed at the B1C breakfast were volunteers, local businesses partners and immigrant families from all over the world committed to building one community.

Padilla spoke of the place that luck plays in an immigrants life. For him, it was a man named Jeff Cowen who saw and championed his potential. If we are to be one community (and what are the alternatives?), then it will take the whole community to lean in and be that luck.

As a Brit who feels very much like an adopted American, I would humbly suggest that this is both a truly life-giving and inspiring way to live, and deeply American.
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The former lighting store in Grimsby Road is due to open to customers in mid-June, and will exclusively stock a large range of refurbished bicycles for all ages.

It will be managed by Shane Briggs, who has been at the helm of the hospices shops in Freeman Street and Immingham up to now, and has worked at the hospice for seven years.

He said: I love knowing all the sales we make in our shops ultimately contribute to helping the adults and children who use our services.

I have always been a people person, and thats why I chose to work in retail.

Customers at the hospice shops are very loyal. In fact, some come every day and a selected few visit more than once a day. We get to meet great people. I recall once meeting a gentleman who wanted to donate his late fathers mobility scooter  that was a big gesture.

Volunteers tell me that sort of thing is one of the aspects they enjoy too, it really does have the feel-good factor, he added.

It is the hospices fourth shop to open this year, and its sixteenth in the charitys patient catchment area of Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire. It also operates two tea bars, one in Immingham and the other in Hull.

To stock the range of bicycles, St Andrews has gone into partnership with Recycle Your Cycle, a social enterprise which works with the Prison Service. Workshops have been established at six prisons in the UK, where prisoners are trained to refurbish them. Recycle Your Cycle has recently begun collaborating with Hospice UK, a national organisation of which St Andrews Hospice is a member.

Its a return to the area for Shane who, 25 years ago, managed Motorworld in the neighbouring property. His first day working at the hospice was his 40th birthday.

We will be selling bicycles for adults and children, so Im particularly keen to hear from anyone with a passion in that area who may be able to volunteer.

Volunteering for the hospice is very flexible in terms of how little or how much you can commit and is, of course, very rewarding. We are looking forward to welcoming new volunteers, and also new customers, he added.

To find out more about the roles available, contact Shane on 01649 571115 or email shanebriggs@nhs.net

*As with all the hospices shops, the store in St Peters Avenue, Cleethorpes, needs your help. St Andrews doesnt waste money producing its own carrier bags and relies on the generosity of shoppers to donate their unwanted bags. If you have spare bags, please drop them into the store during opening hours (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm, Sunday, 10am-4pm). It also needs volunteers to help keep the shop running. Shifts include Monday to Sunday in the mornings, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Tel Dawn on 01472 291810 for more information.
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While Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have their battle buses  Ukip today revealed their battle van in Grimsby  and it looks a LOT like something Del Boy Trotter would be happy with.

The 16-year-old, off yellow Ukip van appeared as party leader Paul Nuttall made a visit to Freshney Place shopping centre with local Great Grimsby candidate Mike Hookem.

And it bears a striking resemblance to one of TV's most famous vehicles, the Trotter family's iconic yellow Reliant Robin from BBC hit comedy Only Fools and Horses.

While Del and Rodney's van carried the slogan "Trotters Independent Trading Co  New York, Paris, Peckham", the Ukip battle van was covered in slogans for the party's election campaign including "Follow the People's Army" and "Patriots Working for Britain".

The Trotter's van was also very British, made by Reliant in Tamworth, unlike the Ukip van made by French car maker Renault.

Grimsby store lands top award at glitzy awards bash in London

Mr Nuttall used his visit to Grimsby to tour the fish market and meet Ukip supporters in the town centre. He was accompanied by local Great Grimsby candidate Mike Hookem, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

Mr Nuttall spoke about supporting the UK fishing industry and, in the wake of the Manchester bombing, also criticised a "minority of Muslims" who he said "hated" British society.
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THE leader of Ukip Paul Nuttall today described radical Islam as a "cancer" that needs to be "cut out of society", as he visited Grimsby.

During an early morning visit to Grimsby Fish Market, Mr Nuttall said no other politician had the "courage" to name what was behind the Manchester bombing, which he said was "an appalling act of Islamist terror".

He continued: "It's extremism. You will never solve the problem if you don't have the courage to name it."

And he said a minority of Muslims "hated" the UK.

He said: "The majority of Muslims are peace loving assets to our economy but there is a minority who hate who we are. That's the reality.

"Radical Islam is a cancer in society and needs to be cut out."

He said the UK would be safer under a Ukip government, adding: "We would reverse police cuts, recruit 20,000 more armed forces workers, bolster security services and recruit 7,000 more prison office"

Mr Nuttall was visiting the town to support Ukip Great Grimsby candidate Mike Hookem.

Ukip were criticised yesterday for breaking with a pact not to campaign for the general election in the immediate wake of the Manchester bombing - which killed 22 people including children leaving a pop concert - by launching their manifesto.

But Mr Nuttall said it was "important" to resume campaigning as an "act of defiance" to show that the threat of terror will not "destroy democracy".

Speaking passionately about the potential strength of Grimsby's fishing industry, Mr Nuttall vowed to "win back" British waters to allow port's like Grimsby to thrive.

He said: "We used to see 20,000 boxes of fish coming in here some days. There were 100 tops there today.

"The industry has been decimated in places like Grimsby because of the EU. We need to take control of our waters and allow fisherman to take advantage of British waters.

"Grimsby could boom."

The latest Westminster voting intention polls, released last night, show Ukip on just 4 per cent. And when asked how disappointing it is to see support for the party so low compared to 2015, when four million people voted for the party in the last general election, Mr Nuttall made a bold claim that by the end of 2018, the party's membership will be higher than it was before June's Brexit referendum.

Speaking about Brexit, the Ukip leader says the party would provide "great representation" for the people of Grimsby in Westminster if voters back them, and says he would give people the "Brexit they voted for".

He said: "On June 23 we won the war. Now we've got to win the peace. We must take control of our borders and ensure we pay no divorce bill to the EU.

"We have got a great candidate here in Grimsby in Mike, who has worked hard and if elected would be a great representation for people in Grimsby.

"Ukip has got a bright future."

Mr Hookem, who has been frantically canvassing for support in Grimsby since being selected as the local Ukip candidate, says support for him has been "positive" and says he's not here to "waste time", despite a drastic slip in support for the party, according to the polls.

(Image: Jon Corken)

He said: "I will give a voice for the nice people of Grimsby in Westminster. I have always fought for our waters.

"I want any fish caught in our waters top be processed in our port. Fishing is very important to this town. It has a rich heritage in Grimsby."

Speaking about the tragedy in Manchester, he added: "If we do have proper border controls we can stop this from happening.

"We have got in Paul Nuttall a leader who can take us forward to being the most successful political party in the country.

"We achieved our goal in making David Cameron carry out a referendum he did not want. As a party Ukip gained Brexit.

"Our job now is to ensure we get the Brexit that people voted for."

Mr Nuttall is spending most of the day in Grimsby today, as politicians from all parties resume campaigning ahead of the general election in three weeks time. Canvassing was postponed for three days as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives in Monday's atrocities.

As well being treated to a behind the scenes look at Grimsby's fishing industry, which he says has been "decimated" by EU regulations like the Common Fisheries Policy, Mr Nuttall was given a guided tour of the port of Grimsby with the town's Ukip election candidate, Mike Hookem.

(Image: Jon Corken)

Only yesterday, Mr Nuttall launched the party's election manifesto, in which he outlined measures to tackle "radical Islam", and bolster the country's police and armed forces.
Expect lots of cheese. Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Important notice to chefs who make a mean beef Wellington and have the rest of Friday to burn: The British monarchy is looking for somebody to help cook for Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. The sous-chef job is listed on the official Royal Vacancies website, saying that the Master of the Household seeks a talented culinary professional who will be responsible for the supervision, preparation, and service of food to the highest standards for the royal family. Move quick: The deadline is  midnight. (Updating a resume only takes a few minutes, right?)

The listing notes the new hire will get access to royal residencies all around the U.K., and theyll need to have a working knowledge of organic food  apparently a deal-breaker for the prince, whos big on protecting the environment and not into GMOs.

The contract type is also listed as permanent, which makes this job sound grave. A flexible and adaptable approach is essential, the listing notes, possibly because you never know when the prince will demand a replacement for one of the six honeys he supposedly keeps on the breakfast table. Another warning: Prince Charles has some restaurateur experience (he actually owns his own place), so the Oh, I had some bad Chinese last night phone call to get out of work may not work on him.
One of its Chicago-style pies. Photo: Pi Pizzeria/Twitter

If you use the internet, you probably heard that a reporter for The Guardian was body-slammed this week by Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte, who last night won a race to fill a seat vacated by one of Trumps cabinet members. Gianforte broke Ben Jacobss glasses, and has understandably since been charged with assault, the latest in a troubling string of attacks on journalists. But in an act of surprising generosity (and, lets be honest, a fair amount of PR savvy), the owner of deep-dish-pizza chain Pi Pizzeria yesterday offered the best type of moral support: the edible kind.

Chris Sommers declared it was Love a Journalist Day at Pis eight St. Louis, D.C., and Cincinnati locations:

LOVE A JOURNALIST DAY AT PI.

(aka FREE PIZZA for those hardworking folks who bring us real news) pic.twitter.com/OSwQY6bdCN  Chris Sommers (@sommerscm) May 25, 2017

Pi promised to hook up anyone with press credentials, a business card, or some other form of identification. Sommers included a statement of support in his tweet that read: In light of the physical and figurative assaults on our journalists and real news, we at Pi want to thank the hardworking reporters, producers, editors, photographers, videographers and all those who deliver us critical and round-the-clock news.

Alas, even this seemingly straightforward story doesnt have the happiest of endings. While it was a nice gesture, in theory, some members of the media pointed out that they arent allowed to accept gifts.



Thank you, but legit reporters shouldn't accept work-related gifts.  Kevin Horrigan (@OldSport) May 25, 2017

What a nice gesture by @sommerscm, even though we cannot take part. https://t.co/1BycDBzkH3  Robert Cohen (@kodacohen) May 25, 2017
Nov. 28, 1930  May 2, 2017

Patty Joyce (Kennelly) McClintock died peacefully on May 2, 2017, at her apartment near Portland, after a brief illness. She was 86.

Patty was a loving sister, wife, mother and grandmother; a teacher, librarian, and lifelong lover of books; and a dedicated community volunteer who enriched the lives of many in Corvallis and the Oregon State University community.

Patty was born to John and Clara (Weber) Kennelly in Delta, Utah, on November 28, 1930, joining older brother Jack and older sister Jean. After the family lost their farm in the Great Depression, they moved to Oregon and started an egg farm that Clara and John ran until they retired.

Patty graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1949 and began her college career at what was then Oregon State College, joining the Alpha Phi sorority. After two years in Corvallis, she transferred to the University of Washington, where she could major in her chosen field of elementary education. In an English literature course at UW, she met Tom McClintock, a fellow Oregonian who was auditing the class as a graduate student in American history. Tom and Patty married in 1954 and shared more than 60 happy years together, until Toms death in February 2016.

Patty graduated from UW in 1953 and began teaching in the Seattle Public Schools, supporting Tom while he worked on his PhD. After the births of Mary Louise in 1956 and Megan in 1958, the young family moved to Corvallis, where Tom joined the history department at OSU. Another daughter, Anne, was born in 1960.

Family life revolved around the OSU campus, Corvallis schools, and the First Methodist Church. Patty was active at home and in the community, cooking, canning, making most of her girls clothes and teaching them to sew.

She was also a tireless and enthusiastic volunteer  in the schools, as a Girl Scout troop leader, with the Methodist Church, where she helped out in the office, organized potlucks and was a co-founder of the Congregational Care Committee, with FISH and the Vina Moses Center, and many other Corvallis area organizations. She was particularly fond of her volunteer activity at the Corvallis Public Library, of which she and Tom were constant supporters.

Patty and Tom were ardent Democrats, active in local politics, and Patty was a stalwart supporter and committee member of the League of Women Voters.

She was a passionate member of the OSU Folk Club book group for many years. She swam for exercise and took water aerobics classes until age 85 at Osborn Aquatic Center in Corvallis. Even during the last months of her life, she was able, with a caregiver, to swim at the pool in her retirement complex. Each of her six grandchildren swam with her when they visited.

Patty and Tom nurtured in their children an interest in learning, music, and theater, travel, and engagement in politics and the community. The family spent the 1970-71 academic year in Britain, where Tom taught at universities in Manchester, England and Stirling, Scotland. While living abroad they took two months to travel across Europe by car.

In 1974-75, a high school foreign exchange student from Turkey, Oktay Cini, joined the family for a year  and forever after thought of Patty as Mom, occasionally bringing his wife and son to vacation with the extended McClintock family.

As her girls grew Patty took classes that were necessary to obtain an Oregon teaching license and returned to work, first as a substitute teacher and then as a librarian in the English resource center at Corvallis High School. During these years, the McClintock home was a favorite gathering place for the girls and their friends.

Later, Tom and Patty spent several semesters in London where Tom was a visiting scholar at University College. They loved the cosmopolitan bustle of the city, the museums and music, the history and tradition.

In retirement, they traveled widely, including visits to China, Egypt, Turkey, Ireland, Scandinavia and Kenya. They often journeyed to France to visit Anne, her husband, Vincent Corbiere, and their children.

Patty and Tom continued to visit Ashland twice each season, where they particularly enjoyed Shakespeare performed in period costumes.

The death of their daughter, Megan, from colon cancer, in 2000 was very difficult, but they took solace in their close relationship with Megan's partner, Julie Shapiro, Megan and Julie's children and, later, Julie's wife, Shelly Cohen.

Patty was warm, lively, and interested in everyone. She loved Jane Austen, conversation, and hosting friends and family at her home for meals and overnight stays. Tom and Patty's annual Christmas cookie open house was a favorite event for their Corvallis friends and work colleagues.

She was a favorite of many of her nieces and nephews and their spouses, friends, and significant others. For decades, Patty and Tom welcomed foreign students into their home through the American Field Service and OSU's Crossroads program, easing the homesickness of many and developing lifelong friendships.

Patty is survived by her sister, Jean; daughter, Mary Louise (Tom Balmer) and their children, Rebecca and Paul; daughter Anne Corbiere (Vincent) and their children, Thomas and Julien; and Megan's partner Julie Shapiro (Shelly Cohen) and their children, Eli and Leah.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to the Corvallis-Benton County Library Foundation, the Thomas and Patty McClintock Symphony Scholarship Fund at the OSU Foundation or the First United Methodist Church of Corvallis.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on September 16, 2017, at the First United Methodist Church of Corvallis.
Last November an intriguing report surfaced claiming that Lenovo would give up on using its own brand for smartphones. Instead, it would only sell Moto-branded devices starting at some point in the future. This move was said to coincide with the company's reorganization of its activities in China.

Today however this has been denied by none other than Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing. He told reporters that the reorganization will not affect its mobile business on the mainland. Despite a widening loss for its mobile division, the company is intent on moving forward with the same dual-brand strategy as before - selling handsets under both Lenovo and Motorola names. In some markets you can buy both Lenovo and Moto phones, but in most places it's one or the other.

"We will never phase out Lenovo", Yang is quoted as saying, thus putting to rest any rumors saying otherwise, at least for now.

Source
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OnePlus 3T will be available in India until later this year

Yesterday, OnePlus announced the last call for prospective OnePlus 3T buyers to pickup the phone stating that the company has limited units left in its warehouse.

Today, the company sent a clarification specific to the Indian market. In this update, OnePlus has clarified that the OnePlus 3T will continue to be available in India until "later this year". Both the 64GB and 128GB variants of the phone will be available through all three official channels, Amazon India, OnePlus online store as well as the OnePlus Experience Store in Bengaluru.

We wish the company was more precise than "later this year" but it's still better than asking people to run out and buy now before the warehouses go empty.
By Lisa Espinosa | Published on 2017/05/25

"Man to Man" may have a dark side, but it's really just a story about three people who are growing up. In between all of that are corrupt officials doing dirty deeds to acquire lofty positions, burgeoning love triangles, and bouts of situational humor. It is the last that surprises me most, especially with the dark subject matter that surrounds Seol-woo's life as a ghost agent.

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The events that tied the episode together were the romantic happenings between Seol-woo and Do-ha. Placed once again with Woon-gwang and his gang for a top secret mission, Seol-woo uses romance as his guise. What he doesn't realize -- at least not fully -- is that romance is going to get the better of him. He thoroughly enjoys winning over Do-ha who is absolutely smitten with him. Her displays of adorable confusion over his feelings for her and over which decision she should make regarding him are worthy television moments. It is the tension of the push and pull that makes for entertaining romance and we get plenty of it here.

Perhaps more lovable than the main couple is the Seol-woo/Woon-gwang pairing. Woon-gwang is such a likable character with his combination of ego, charm, and vulnerableness. The last of those is shown most when Mi-eun is around, especially because she selfishly inserts herself in his life. Their story is quite tragic and, I'm sure, will prove moreso as Seung-jae becomes more and more jealous of Mi-eun's feelings for her ex.

Some of my favorite moments of the show are when humor emerges. Often this is in the form of Seol-woo's facial expressions that are accompanied by cutesy sound effects. Although this doesn't sound quite as fun in writing, it is very entertaining in action. also, the juxtaposition of Seol-woo's missions with the romantic phone calls he makes with Do-ha are a great way to get two things done at once while making us laugh.

As for the resident evils, Congressman Baek is again outsmarted by Seung-jae who lords overhim. Although allies, they are not friends. I anticipate a time when they will do battle. Another ghost agent searches for the wooden statues for these two ambitious men and will fight Seol-woo again - they are, after all, after the same thing. The newest villain is not really a villain, but a misguided character: Do-ha's father. He is the source of the second wooden statue that Seol-woo's employers and Congressman Baek are searching for. This bodes badly for his relationship with Do-ha, but that is what creates some delicious romantic drama.

If "Man to Man" continues to be this zippy, I do think I'll enjoy it very much.

Written by: Lisa Espinosa AKA Raine from 'Raine's Dichotomy'

"Man to Man" is directed by Kim Sang-ho-I and Lee Chang-min-I, written by Kim Won-seok-II, and features Park Hae-jin, Kim Min-jung, Park Sung-woon, and Yeon Jung-hoon.

Watch Episode 5 on Netflix!
Published on 2017/05/25 | Source

Korean movies opening today 2017/05/25 in Korea "Just for You", "Biting Fly" and documentaries "Our President" and "Sound of Nomad: Koryo Arirang"

Advertisement

"Just for You" (2017)

Directed by Park Byoung-hwan

With Tim, Son Ha-jung, Cha Soo-bin, Choi Jong-nam, Park Seon-woong, Han Hyeon-ah,...

Synopsis

A road movie about young people who heal their wounds from love through busking in the streets of Vietnam.

"Biting Fly" (2017)

Directed by Ahn Cheol-ho

With Kim Jin-woo, Jung In-gi, Lee Yeon-doo, Kim Hee-jung-II, Lee Kyung-young-I, Min Sung-wook,...

Synopsis

The movie is about victims of a systemized fraud tracking down the scammers.

"Our President" (2017)

Directed by Lee Chang-jae

Also known as "Project N"

Synopsis

In 2002, the Millennium Democratic Party elects the first presidential candidate by introducing a popular election system. While politicians like Ki Ra-seong have joined the election, Roh Moo-hyun the very last candidate with only 2% approval, throws in his hat. This is the story of a nation and the nation he led.

"Sound of Nomad: Koryo Arirang" (2016)

Directed by Kim So-young-I

Synopsis

"We've never been embarassed of our performance here and there".

Kazahstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Moscow...

The day 'Koryo Theater' came around was a party for those spread out all over the world. They cried for joy as if reuniting with their long lost families.

Bang Tarama, born between a Russian mother and a Koryo father, had a beautiful voice. Lee Ham-deok is the queen of the stage as she managed to play 100 characters.

The two divas live a life that's like a stage in the middle of Siberia!
Published on 2017/05/26 | Source

Added episodes 9 and 10 captures for the Korean drama "Suspicious Partner" (2017)

Advertisement

Directed by Park Seon-ho-I

Written by Kwon Ki-yeong

Network : SBS

With Ji Chang-wook, Nam Ji-hyun, Choi Tae-joon, Kwon Nara, Lee Deok-hwa, Nam Gi-ae,...

Formerly known as "Watch out for this Woman" (  , i yeo-ja-leul jo-sim-ha-se-yo)

40 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

"Suspicious Partner" will be a romantic comedy in a judicial setting with a killer thrown into the mix. A Taekwondo practitioner turned judicial trainee turned murder suspect.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2017/05/10

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We're heading into the Memorial Day weekend, which this year in the mid-valley actually will feel like the unofficial start of summer, with sunny skies and temperatures into the 80s.

This also is the weekend when some of us throw caution to the wind and engage in behavior that is unsafe and possibly illegal  and considering the rainy season we've endured, the combination of a three-day weekend and warm temperatures might make that prospect unusually tempting this Memorial Day.

But remember to stay safe this weekend. And that starts with safe driving: If you're traveling, let someone know your destination and expected time of arrival. Buckle up. Don't drive under the influence. Turn off the cellphone.

You'll want to bring along a little extra cash for the gas: After weeks of decline, gasoline prices across the United States again are rising, just in time for the holiday weekend. On the West Coast, we traditionally pay some of the highest prices in the nation for gas, and this year is no exception: The average price for a gallon of gas in Oregon is $2.73, the fifth-highest price in the nation.

While it's fun to pack a picnic and head out to the coast or some of the region's rivers or lakes, the combination of hot weather and cold water can be dangerous: Be careful. Wear a life jacket. Keep a close eye on the kids. Swim with a friend.

If you're camping, remember to be careful with fire: Even though we're still weeks away from the heart of wildfire season, it won't take many 80-degree days to dry out the underbrush  and this year's rains guarantee a bumper crop of fire fuel. Most wildfires are started by humans; receiving a big bill for firefighting costs would sting, especially considering how much you shelled out for gas at the start of your trip.

Remember as well to set aside some time this weekend to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day. Many Americans paid dearly so that we can enjoy this weekend. Don't forget about them. (mm)

An excellent musical legacy

In a better world, maybe there wouldn't need to be the Grant Johnson Memorial Jazz Concerts, which this week marked their 50th anniversary, with crowds jamming into the Lebanon High School auditorium. In that world, the musically gifted Johnson would have had the chance to fulfill his promise and would have launched a successful and long-running career.

In this world, Johnson died in a car wreck in December 1967, driving back from a gig at Camp Adair he had played with his band, Grant and the Blueboys. He was a senior at Lebanon High.

But his legacy lives on, in a way he would have appreciated: On May 21, friends, family and the Lebanon community celebrated the 50th annual Johnson Memorial Jazz concert, five decades worth of music and memories, to honor the musician and the generations of musicians who have followed his lead: Proceeds from the memorial concerts help pay for summer band camp scholarships for Lebanon students. This year's event raised enough cash to pay for three scholarships. Over the 50 years the concerts have been held, the money raised has paid for more than 100 music camp scholarships. That's impressive.

As far as anyone knows, the Grant Johnson concerts are Lebanon High School's longest-running fundraiser, and efforts are underway to start an endowment fund to keep that support going.

It takes considerable dedication to keep anything going for 50 years, so here's a word of thanks to everyone in the mid-valley and beyond who's helped keep these concerts going over the years. And here's a reminder to all those music students, past and present, who have benefited from the money raised at the concerts: Grant Johnson was known for his rigorous practice habits, because he knew that talent by itself only gets you so far. (mm)
Champagne Jayne victorious against Champagne authority

By Jo Gilbert

Wine writer and educator Jayne Powell has won a protracted five-year legal battle to use the moniker Champagne Jayne as her official trademark.

The divisive legal dispute between Powell and the Comite Champagne came to a head last month when Australias national trademark registration authority approved the use of Champagne Jayne as Powells personal trademark.

The decision follows a lengthy battle in the Australian courts as the Comite attempted to block Powells use of the trademark on the grounds that she does not represent the official trade association or the regions producers.

In October 2015, Powell won approval from the Australian Federal Court, but was pursued to the trademark authority, IP Australia, by the Comite Champagne (formerly the CIVC).

Having been given official permission by the IP Australia on April 3, the appeal period has since expired, meaning that Powell is now free to use the trademark as part of her personal brand.

The contentious issue has spawned widespread debate after the Comite began legal proceedings to stop Powell from using the name.

Some have criticised the Comites actions for being heavy-handed, particularly in response to the difference in size, influence and resources between the two opponents.

Powell herself has referred to the saga as a David and Goliath style battle and said IP Australias decision was a victory for the little guy.

This is a significant legal win which restores my professional reputation and means I am finally free to continue my lifes work of educating and entertaining people about the worlds most enigmatic fine wines - champagne and other world class sparkling wines - using my life long nickname and registered trade mark, Champagne Jayne, she said.

The Comite Champagne has been approached for comment.
Mallorca's Wine Boom

By Barnaby Eales

A boom in wine in Mallorca has led the islands producers to seek new export destinations including Britain. A new wave of multi-million euro investments in new vineyards and spectacular contemporary wineries, largely from outside investors, means there is a whole new generation of wine coming onto the market on the Mediterranean Island.

Less than twenty years ago, wine from Mallorca was barely known, but now, with more than 70 wine producers and growers, the island has been transformed into the latest wine powerhouse of Spain.

One big newcomer is producer Can Axartell. Its newly released wines, including the Tinto Dos 2013, a blend of Callet, a local grape variety and Pinot Noir, Syrah and Merlot, were on show for the first time in the UK at this weeks London Wine Fair (LWF).

We are producing 100,000 bottles, but in four or five years we will have 400,000 bottles to sell, so we are looking for new export markets, said Agusti Mascaro, commercial director at Can Axartell.

Can Axartells German Owner, Hans Peter Schwarzkopf, a former shampoo and cosmetics entrepreneur, has invested 6 million (5.2m) in the vineyards new winery where the gravity method is used to make wine. The winery has been built with glass and steel on four floors carved out of a mountain in Pollensa, in the north of Mallorca.

Schwarzkopf has planted 60 hectares of organically grown grapes with 35 hectares of Petit Verdot, Syrah, Pinot Noir and Merlot planted around the winery and a further 25 hectares of local grape variety in Felanitx in the centre of the island. Petit Verdot is now authorised for generic table wines and Schwarzkopf is pushing for the variety to be authorised in Mallorcas in the PDO appellation, Pla i Levant.

The wine boom in Mallorca, has attracted French oenologist Patrick Leon, the former winemaker at Mouton Rothschild, to make Bordeaux blends at Sol Mayol, whose production is expanding from 7,000 bottles to 350,000 bottles much of which will go to exports. Son Mayols new underground state-of the-art winery north of Palma, funded by Swiss investors, which also uses the gravity method for its wine production, was opened last Autumn. Further exports are expected to come from German producer, Peter Eisenmann, who has invested heavily at the Es Fangar vineyard near Felanitx in the South Eastern reaches of the island to make blends from local and international varieties with production expected to reach beyond 300,000 bottles annually.

Tens of millions of wine investment in Mallorca was made prior to the EU deregulation of vine plantings rights that came into force last January. Under the rules new vine plantings cannot exceed 1% of each EU member states existing vineyard area.

However the new rules have not deterred further investment plans from outside investors in Mallorca. One producer in Beaujolais, who wished not to be named, told Harpers that it was investing in eight new hectares on the island.

Meanwhile, Araceli Servera Oliver, oenologist and owner at Mallorcas oldest producer Bodegues Ribas, says she is planning to present wines from Ribas in London next year. Ribas already exports to Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.

It is madness here: over the past three months ahead of the summer season, our white wines have already sold out. There is a tremendous demand for Mallorcan wines; where as before local and tourists drank both wine from mainland Spain and local wine, wine from Mallorca has taken over in the restaurants and bars, Servera Oliver told Harpers.

Whilst outside investors have planted international grape varieties and local varieties, Ribas, who has rescued the almost extinct Gorgollassa grape variety, is now immersed in grubbing up some of its international varieties to increase production of local grape varieties.

Francesc Grimalt, owner of producer 4 Kilos, whose wines are distributed in the UK by Indigo Wines, says the new wave of investment and growth in producers on the island has come about because wine from Mallorca is in vogue with a surge in demand coming from both local islanders and international tourists. The growth in production and wineries in Mallorca has led to a new diversity in styles and production methods.

As well as the artisanal wines of producer 4 Kilos, local winemaker Eloi Cedo is making natural wines at Chateau Paquita.
The week that was: LWF edition

By Jo Gilbert

In case you missed some of the headlines this week on harpers.co.uk, we have put together a review of the top online news, Q&As, and opinion stories.

London Wine Fair: What a week weve all had. Debates, meetings, wineand even a bit of sunshine.

The Harpers team was fully immersed in the fair this week, focused on bringing you coverage from briefings, tastings and meetings with top producers and suppliers.

Here are some of our top picks.

 LWF Day One: The big Brexit debate

 LWF: Santa Rita winemaker talks 120 ambitions

 LWF: Chasing the Premium - Harpers Briefing

 LWF: English wine producers reveal export focus

 LWFs Ross Carter: The exit interview

Analysis and Insights: Vinho Verde is far and away Portugal's leading white wine region, argues Justin Keay in this analysis piece on one of Europe's largest demarcated wine regions.

 Vinho Verde quality focus delivering Portuguese success story

People and Opinion: The issue of tariffs and the impact on the wine trade was something that was discussed in some detail at the London Wine Fairs Brexit Debate.

However, penetrating the fortress of legislation and EU/UK trade laws isnt all that easy.

Daniel Lambert of Daniel Lambert Wines is calling for more clarity on what the impact will be on trade tariffs after 1 April 2019.

 Daniel Lambert: Outing Brexit's looming costs
Pasha Hawaii selects a foreign-owned yard to build Jones Act containerships

by Michael Hansen, Hawaii Shippers Council, May 22, 2017

On May 10, 2017, Pasha Hawaii Transport Line LLC (Pasha Hawaii) posted to their website a press release announcing they had selected a U.S. shipyard to construct two Jones Act containerships for their domestic California-Hawaii trade. The arrangement would involve a design for the cellular containerships with a capacity of 2,525 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU)s, an option for Pasha Hawaii to order two additional sister ships, but did not constitute a firm order.

About six months ago in a previous press release dated November 16, 2017, Pasha Hawaii stated they were considering two different U.S. shipyards for the construction of two plus two 3,400 TEU containerships. The reduction in container capacity from 3,400 to 2,525 or 875 TEU is 26%. Presumably Pasha Hawaii made a decision that they would not capture the share of the California-Hawaii cargo volume they originally projected. The capacity reduction may also indicate a need to lessen their capital expenditures by ordering smaller ships.

PASHA JONES ACT FLEET

Pasha Hawaii currently operates lift-on/Lift-off (Lo/Lo) container and roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) vehicle ocean transportation services between California and Hawaii ports with five (5) self-propelled seagoing ships. They presently employ: three (3) cellular containerships -- the ENTERPRISE, RELIANCE and SPIRIT  built in 1980 and acquired from the now defunct Horizon Lines Inc. in 2015; a single combination container Ro/Ro ship (Con/Ro)-- the MAJORIE C  built 2015; and, a single Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) -- the JEAN ANNE  built 2005. Paha Hawaii owns a sixth ship  the containership PACIFIC built 1979  also acquired from Horizon Line in 2015 and said to be in reserve. It may currently be at a foreign shipyard in China for refit. (See Tables 1 & 2)

Table 1: Pasha Hawaii Transport Line LLC  Jones Act Self-Propelled Seagoing Fleet Ship Name Ship Type TEU \1 Autos \2 Class \3 Year Built Age Enterprise \4 Containership 2,300 NA C8 1980 37 Pacific \4 Containership 2,303 NA C8 1979 38 Reliance \4 Containership 2,437 NA C9 1980 37 Spirit \4 Containership 2,437 NA C9 1980 37 Jean Ann PCTC \5 N/A 2,500 2005 12 Marjorie C Con/Ro \6 1,400 1,200 2015 2

1/ Ships profile container capacity in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) from Pasha Hawaii website

2/ Ships Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro/Ro) vehicle capacity for automobiles from Pasha Hawaii website

3/ Containership classification originally assigned by first owner Sea Land Service Inc. (SLS) from U.S. military transport C series for cargo

4/ Ships acquired by Pasha Hawaii from Horizon Lines Inc. on May 31, 2015 and retained the same names without the Horizon prefix  all fully cellular gearless containerships

5/ Ship type: Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC)

6/ Ship type: combination container Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro/Ro) known as a Con/Ro

The four ex-Horizon Lines containerships are steam-powered and now over 37 years of age. They need to be replaced generally due to age and in particular before an emissions regulation with new fuel standards for very low sulfur content will come into effect on January 1, 2020. In comparison to the age of Pasha Hawaiis containerships, the average age of containerships in the international fleet is approximately 12 years and recently scrapings of containerships as young as 8 years have been reported. The emissions regulations are critical for Pasha Hawaii because steamships cannot burn the kinds of marine fuels that will be necessary to comply with the new regulations.

Table 2: Pasha Hawaii Transport Line LLC  Common Carrier Coastwise Route Structure Route Designation Code Ships Port Rotation Frequency California-Hawaii Express CHX Enterprise / Spirit Oakland / Los Angeles / Honolulu Weekly Los Angeles-Hawaii Express LHX Marjorie C / Reliance Los Angeles / Honolulu Weekly Ro/Ro Direct N/A Jean Ann San Diego / Honolulu / Kahului / Hilo Fortnightly Reserve (i.e., not in service) N/A Pacific N/A N/A

EMMISSIONS

The emissions regulations are part of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) international Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78) Annex VI Prevention of air pollution from ships which came into force on May 19, 2005 to regulate among other things nitrous oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (Sox), green house gases (GHG) and particulate matter. A revised Annex VI came into force on July 1, 2010, and its Regulation #14 established global caps for the content of SOx in marine fuels of 3.50% mass by mass (m/m) method by January 1, 2012 and 0.50% m/m by January 1, 2020. Steamships were exempted from the 2012 but not 2020 requirement.

In addition, vessels with keels laid after January 1, 2016, and engine power rated at 130 kilowatts (KW) (174 mechanical horsepower) or greater must comply with IMO MARPOL Annex VI NOx and GHG emissions standards known as the Tier III requirements for operation in Emissions Control Area (ECA). For domestic operators in the Pacific, that will be the North American Emissions Control Area (NA ECA), which extends 200 nautical miles from the U.S. and Canadian West Coasts and main Hawaiian Islands base lines. Approximately 25% of a typical voyage between the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii will be transiting the NA ECA. Tier III compliance can be achieved with LNG fueled diesel engines or certain NOx reduction technologies, none of which have been adopted by industry.

The U.S. agencies charged with enforcing MARPOL Annex VI  the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  will accept LNG ready as compliance with Tier III for U.S. flag ships with keels laid after January 1, 2016 and engine power rated at 130 KW or greater.

Pasha Hawaii in their press release states their first newbuild containership would be delivered in the first quarter of 2020 and the second in the third quarter 2020. This would not replace their steamships before the IMO MARPOL Annex VI deadline of January 1, 2020 for SOx and particulates, and would certainly not provide any allowance for slippage in the delivery schedule, especially as no firm shipbuilding contract is currently in place.

SHIPYARD

Pasha Hawaii reports that they have selected the Keppel AmFELS LLC in Brownsville, Texas, to build the 2 plus 2 by 2,525 TEU Jones Act containerships. However, there is no building contract, as Pasha Hawaii noted in their press release, they are in the process of finalizing contract specifications, meaning that for all practical purposes there is no binding agreement.

Keppel AmFELS primarily services the offshore oil and gas industry in Gulf of Mexico. It is a subsidiary of the publically-traded Keppel Corporation Limited of Singapore and part of the Keppel Offshore and Marine (Keppel O & M) business segment, which operates 20 shipyards in 9 countries specializing in the design and construction of equipment for the offshore industry.

We understand Keppel O & M will not supply the design for the Pasha Hawaii newbuild containerships. Rather Keppel AmFELS would construct the Pasha Hawaii containerships under license to another foreign shipyard (other than Keppel) that can offer a proven design for containerships in the intended TEU size range. The foreign provider of ship design is typically referred to by the U.S. shipbuilding industry as a foreign technical partner. As the Pasha Hawaii statement said they have not finalized the proposed containership specifications, it calls into question whether or not a foreign technical partner and a specific ship design have been chosen.

This is the second time Pasha Hawaii sought-out what would previously be considered a second-tier domestic shipyard, which is foreign-owned and primarily engaged in the offshore industry. Pasha Hawaii did this obtain lower cost domestic ship construction while remaining in compliance with the Jones Act U.S. build requirement.

Previously Pasha Hawaii constructed their JEAN ANNE (delivered 2005) and MARJORIE C (delivered 2015) at the VT Halter Marine Inc. shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Halter Marine built the two ships under license to other foreign shipyards. Both Halter Marine and Keppel AmFELS have experienced a slowdown in new construction work as a result of the downturn in the oil and gas business due to low energy prices and are seeking new kinds of work to keep their yard and employees busy.

VT Halter Marine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vision Technologies Systems Inc. (VTS), a U.S. company based in Alexandria, Virginia. VTS is in turn, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd., a publically-traded Singapore corporation.

VT Halter Marine ran into significant problems constructing the Con/Ro MAJORIE C and delivery was delayed by about 24 months, which probably induced Pasha Hawaii to seek out another yard. The cost of the MARJORIE C has been variously reported as U.S. $178 million and $200 million. In addition, the yard losses have been reported as possibly being over $200 million for late delivery and correction of defects.

LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS (LNG)

Pasha Hawaii stated categorically in their press release that they would fuel their newbuild containerships with liquefied natural gas (LNG) saying, [t]he new vessels will operate fully on LNG from day one in service . . . . .

The purpose would be to comply with IMO MARPOL Annex VI for SOx, NOx, GHG and particulate emissions standards for operation in the NA ECA.

This assertion ignores the problems TOTE Maritime operating Jones Act common carrier services in the Alaska and Puerto Rico trades encountered attempting to transition to LNG, and calls into question whether or not this is a realistic goal.

TOTE had planned to convert during 2016 their two existing Orca Class Jones Act Ro/Ro trailerships MIDNIGHT SUN and NORTH STAR (built 2003) employed in the Alaska trade from fuel oil to LNG at the Keppel O & M yard in Singapore. However, this plan was derailed when TOTEs EL FARO was lost on October 1, 2015, off the Bahamas in Hurricane Joaquin; the EL FARO was to be repositioned to the Alaska trade to cover the route while the Orca Class ships were away at shipyard in Singapore. The LNG was to be supplied by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) from a $275 million peak shaving liquefaction plant to be built on the Tacoma waterfront  a project known as Tacoma LNG  which has been stalled if not permanently suspended by environmentalists lawsuits.

TOTE built two Marlin Class Jones Act containerships PERLA DEL CARIBE and ISLA BELLA (both delivered 2016) for their Puerto Rico trade lane that were to operate on LNG from day one. However, the ships are still largely operating on petroleum distillate fuels due to problems with supplying LNG to the ships including delays to the first LNG bunker barge to be built in the U.S. The barge was begun in 2015 at Conrad Industries, Morgan City, Louisiana, for delivery in 2016. The barge has not yet been delivered and the yard has already booked losses of $16.5 million on the project.

Originally TOTEs LNG bunker barge was to operate from the Tacoma LNG project, but is now slated to operate at Jacksonville, Florida, where TOTEs Puerto Rico service originates to fuel their two Marlin Class containership. In addition to the LNG bunker barge, a pier side liquefaction plant needs to be built at Jacksonville, which is reportedly under construction.

There is no LNG bunkering facility at any California port. Any proposal to construct a pier-side liquefaction plant would probably incur environmental objections, and a LNG bunker barge would likely be required. Alternatively, a LNG storage facility could be constructed on a waterfront site  probably in Los Angeles / Long Beach harbors  and supplied with LNG by road tank truck from existing liquefaction plants in the larger Los Angeles region.

In comparison to TOTE, Matson Navigation Company Inc. has chosen to continue burning fuel oil for their Alaska, China and Hawaii service by installing scrubbers on their existing motor ships (keels laid before January 1, 2016) to comply with IMO MARPOL Annex VI limits for SOx and particulate emissions. Matson plans to scrap their seven (7) steamships before the January 1, 2020 deadline.

For their current four containerships currently under construction or on order (which will have keels laid after January 1, 2016 and engine power greater than 130 KW), Matson will also have to comply with Tier III NOx and GHG requirements for operation in the NA ECA. Matson has chosen to build their ships LNG ready and operate on petroleum fuel (with scrubbers to comply with MARPOL Annex VI SOx and particulates).

FINANCING

A major hurdle for Pasha Hawaii will be to arrange financing for the newbuild containerships whether or not they construct 2 or 4 ships.

Based upon recent domestic construction costs for containerships and Con/Ro ships it seems reasonable to assume the cost for Pasha Hawaii newbuild containerships would be approximately $190 million each (2,525 TEU x $75,000 / TEU). As such, the total capital expenditure will be approximately U.S. $380 or $760 million depending on whether they build 2 or 4 ships. These are significant amounts. (See Table 3)

Table 3: Jones Act Container and Con/Ro Ships for the Noncontiguous Trades Delivered Since 2015 or Currently Under Construction or on Order Line Class Type Ship Name Delivery Cost US $ Mil TEU Autos Yard Trade Cost / TEU Pasha Hawaii N/A Con/Ro MARJORIE C 05/14/2015 178 1,400 1,200 Halter Marine Hawaii 127,142 TOTE Maritime Marlin Containership ISLA BELLA 10/16/2015 185 3,100 N/A NASSCO Puerto Rico 59,680 PERLE DEL CARIBE 01/22/2016 185 3,100 N/A Crowley Maritime Commitment Con/Ro EL COQUI Q4 2017 181 2,400 400 Halter Marine Puerto Rico 75,563 TAINO Q1 2018 181 2,400 400 Matson Navigation Aloha Containership DANIEL K INOUYE Q3 2018 209 3,220 N/A Philly Shipyard Hawaii 64,906 KAIMANA HILA Q1 2019 209 3,220 N/A Matson Navigation Kanaloa Con/Ro LURLINE Q4 2019 255 2,750 500 NASSCO Hawaii 92,909 MATSONIA Q2 2020 255 2,750 500

To finance their proposed newbuildings, Pasha Hawaii should be able to apply for the federal ship finance program  commonly known as Title XI  which is a loan guarantee program managed by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) for vessels built in the U.S. The program provides a long term loan guarantee of 30 years for up to 75% of the project cost and results in low interest rates.

Pasha Hawaii would have to provide minimum of 25% in cash typically from corporate resources.

The private lenders of the Title XI commitment amount (up to 75% of the project cost) and MARAD will want to see that Pasha Hawaii will be able to repay the loan.

As an analyst with a private investment firm said recently in respect of Pasha Hawaii obtaining debt financing for the newbuild containerships, potential lenders may look skeptically at the project because the investment is intended to support an existing business and not leveraged by an expansion of an existing business or entering a new business that would mean increased revenues to offset the debt service.

Although Pasha Hawaiis Con/Ro MAJORIE C would have been eligible for Title XI financing, the MARAD records indicate the ship was not Title XI financed.

CONTAINERSHIP PACIFIC

It appears Pasha Hawaiis Containership PACIFIC is currently at a shipyard in China. The ship reporting website Marine Traffic shows the HORIZON PACIFIC (the ships prior name) stopped at Nantong Port, a deepwater seaport on the Yangtze River Delta near Shanghai, on the East China Sea. As Pasha doesnt operate any Transpacific services, there would be no other reason for the PACIFIC to be stopped in China other than to be in shipyard.

There are several shipyards in Nantong Port including COSCO (Nantong) Shipyard Co. Ltd. and Keppel Nantong Shipyard.

Matson Navigation Company Inc. has used the COSCO (Nantong) shipyard Co. Ltd. in the past to refit their older ships including most recently their three Alaska service ships for installation of scrubbers.

It would seem reasonable to assume that since Pasha is negotiating a newbuild contract for containerships with Keppel at their Brownsville, Texas, yard, that they may have decided to use Keppels Nantong yard to refit the PACIFIC.

The apparent purpose of sending the PACIFIC to shipyard in China would be to re-power the ship by removing the steam plant and installing a large diesel engine and scrubbers to comply with IMO MARPOL Annex VI SOx and particulate emissions standards which become effective on January 1, 2020. Because the PACIFIC is 38 years old there will not be an issue with Tier III compliance.

This is the program Horizon Line had announced in May 2012 to re-power and upgrade their ships in China, as they could not afford to build new Jones Act ships. Horizon Lines was forced to sell off its assets in 2015 prior to undertaking this program.

Pasha Hawaii may find re-powering and upgrading their four containerships in China the more attractive solution in comparison to building new ships in the U.S.

Key excerpts:

Honolulu-based Pasha Hawaii today announced that the company has selected Keppel AmFELS in Brownsville, TX, a subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) for the construction of two new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) fueled containerships, with the option to order two additional vessels. Pasha Hawaii is in the process of finalizing contract specifications.



The new U.S. Jones Act vessels will carry 2,525 TEUs, including a fully laden capacity of 500 45-foot containers, 400 refrigerated containers, and 300 40-foot dry containers, with a sailing speed of 23.0 knots. Delivery of the first vessel is expected 1Q 2020, with delivery of the second vessel in 3Q 2020.



The new vessels will operate fully on LNG from day one in service, dramatically reducing environmental impact and increasing fuel efficiency. Energy savings will also be achieved with a state-of-the-art engine, an optimized hull form, and an underwater propulsion system with a high-efficiency rudder and propeller.



As with the construction of our Jean Anne and Marjorie C, we look forward to working with an extremely qualified shipyard, based in the United States, added Pasha, IV. Pasha Hawaii is a firm believer in the Jones Act, and is proud to support our shipyards and the highly skilled workers who make valuable contributions to this important industry on a daily basis.



Pasha Hawaii is a wholly owned subsidiary of the family-owned global logistics and transportation company, The Pasha Group, one of the nations leading Jones Act shipping and integrated logistics companies.
The Lorna Jane area manager accused of bullying an erstwhile store manager has denied ever making hurtful remarks about her in the Brisbane District Court.



Amy Robinson is claiming $548,000 in damages after she was allegedly bullied about her weight by her area manager at Lorna Jane.



Robinson claims Megan McCarthy told her she looked cheap, needed to lose weight and to skip lunch, get coffee and eat (at) home later.



The accusations were vehemently denied by McCarthy who told the court she has never made any comments about her weight or food.



"Amy loved her role and we got along really well, she was always happy. We had a laugh," she said.



However, she went on to say that Robinson changed over time.



"I was quite intimidated by her. Once she actually swore at me ... she called me a bitch."



Moreover, much of the discussion at the court focused on social media posts which Robinson argued had constituted bullying.



One post read: "I have discovered a new name for the people I despise  I call them 'generators' purely because they fill their days generating more problems for me to deal with".



Robinson had previously stated those posts were about her, and claims McCarthy also called her a "generator" to her face.



However, McCarthy denies the posts were about anyone, telling the court she "doesn't despise anybody" and was just venting a frustrating day in the office.



Earlier in the week, the court heard that Robinson had borderline personality disorder and it is possible she overstated or lied about the extent of her suffering to a psychologist.



She is extremely sensitive in interactions with others and is quick to feel that she is being treated inequitably and tends to hold grudges against others even if the perceived affront is unintentional, Dr Oertel wrote in her report which was read to the Court.



Robinson also had a history of depression and anxiety, for which she had been taking medication.



Dr Oertel said the medical history made it "hard to tease out to what percentage or what degree" the experience at Lorna Jane impacted Robinson.



Robinson also stated that McCarthy bullied her via social media and assigned inappropriate work hours in addition to her childcare responsibilities.




On the other side of the pond, the Financial Times used Finlands Olkiluoto power plant as an example in demonstrating how nuclear energy developments have been facing difficulties since the Fukushima disaster of 2011.

Following the news that Finland was ranked as the country that does most to protect freedom of information, The Washington Post discussed how the Nordic country still lags behind the United States in some key areas.

Elsewhere, Finns Party leadership candidate Jussi Halla-aho and Finnish Finance Minister Petteri Orpo both had words to say about the European Union, while American magazine The Advocate published a detailed feature on Tom of Finlands relevance in the 2010s.

Finland leads the way in freedom of information, but still has room to improve

The Washington Post

Every year, Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization, ranks every country in the world based on the degree to which it protects and defends freedom of information and freedom of the press. In 2016, the nation ranked as the most protective of these values was Finland. The decision came as no surprise. It was the sixth year in a row that Finland had been so honored.

Precisely because Finland is worthy of kudos for its protection of free expression over the years, it is all the more interesting what it does not protect.

In a 2012 case, right-wing Finnish political leader Jussi Kristian Halla-aho was convicted of the crime of inciting hatred against an ethnic group for allegedly defamatory statements he made about Islam. One was said to have mocked immigrants from Somalia for living off welfare and stealing; another compared Islam to pedophilia. In a ruling of the Supreme Court of Finland, Halla-aho was fined and ordered to remove the offending statements from his blog.

Original article was published by on 22/05/2017 and can be found here.

Finnish nuclear power plant illustrates post-Fukushima difficulties

Financial Times

Olkiluoto island on the west coast of Finland is a showcase for the best and the worst of nuclear power.

Perched on a shoreline with the Baltic Sea on one side and miles of pine forest on the other, two nuclear reactors have been churning out reliable and low-carbon electricity here for almost four decades.

Olkiluoto is one of the worlds most efficient power stations, operating at an average 93 per cent of its generating capacity in 2016, compared with 73 per cent for nuclear reactors globally and about 40 per cent for offshore wind farms.

Yet next door to Olkiluotos two working reactors is a reminder of why, for all the appeal of splitting atoms to produce electricity, the nuclear industry remains so deeply controversial.

Original article was published by on 23/05/2017 and can be found here.

Finns Party should play bigger role in government, Halla-aho says

Reuters

Finland's euroskeptic Finns party must push for stronger controls on immigration and not just play a supporting role in the ruling coalition, the frontrunner in the party's leadership race said.

Jussi Halla-aho, a member of the European Parliament and an anti-immigration hardliner, has become the favorite to replace the more moderate Timo Soini, the country's foreign minister, who will step down as party chief next month.

Halla-aho said he wants Finland to leave the European Union but that he would not call for a quick referendum on EU membership as most Finns were likely to vote to stay in the union. Leaving the EU should be a long-term goal, he said.

Original article was published by on 24/05/2017 and can be found here.

Finnish Finance Minister cautions against deeper EU integration

Bloomberg

The euro area should focus on implementing its banking union and consigning bailouts to the history books, rather than exploring ambitious ideas such as a common budget or shared liabilities, according to Finlands finance minister.

Were willing to engage in a discussion on different scenarios on the future of European Monetary Union, Petteri Orpo said in an emailed response to questions Wednesday. I would be cautious about proposals that arent consistent with the current stage of political union in Europe, such as eurobonds.

Finnish reticence toward the more profligate members of the bloc is understandable. On top of being a traditionally strict enforcer of the rules, the government recently pushed through unpopular measures designed to drive down labor costs and boost exports, now that devaluing the old markka is no longer an option.

Original article was published by on 26/05/2017 and can be found here.

Why Tom of Finland matters today

The Advocate

When Touko Valio Laaksonen  known by his artist's name, Tom of Finland  began drawing erotic images of men in 1940s Europe, such an act was illegal. Yet for decades, Laaksonen labored for his art, surviving shady dealers on the black market as well as threats from law enforcement, which considered not only his art but his very being as a gay man a threat to society.

A sweeping new biopic, Tom of Finland, shows Laaksonen's journey as well as the evolving acceptance of gay people throughout the latter half of the 20th century. From World War II to the AIDS crisis, Laaksonen subverts each era's agents of oppression through his art's embrace of sexuality without shame.

At the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Tom of Finland, The Advocate spoke with the film's director, Dome Karukoski, and star, Pekka Strang, about the significance of telling Laaksonen's story and illustrating his acts of resistance today.

Original article was published by on 24/05/2017 and can be found here.

Dan Anderson  HT

Photo: Lehtikuva / Helsinki-filmi / Josef Persson
Whether it is war in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea or war in Syria and political upheaval following the Arab Spring, Finland and the international community are navigating complex international events.

MP Talk gives members of parliament the opportunity to share their views on Finnish society with an international audience. The opinions expressed in this column are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Helsinki Times.

These events are not limited to far-off conflict zones or the countries in question. They have contributed to heightened irregular migration to Europe and Finland, presenting us with new challenges.

Closer to home, the situation in the Baltic Sea region is not only a reflection of other conflicts. The real elements of tension are there  Russia and NATOs increased military presence in the Baltic Sea, the lack of dialogue between east and west, Finlands geographical location between the western states and Russia, and the Baltic Sea as a strategic transportation route.

Despite this, there is much we can do to strengthen Finlands position in such a world and to enhance both our national security and resilience. In this I invoke the four pillars.

The first two pillars are a wise foreign policy and a credible defence. I strongly believe in the importance of a consensual foreign policy underpinned by effective diplomacy as the best means for creating stability and predictability.

For a small country, multilateral organisations such as the European Union and United Nations are without doubt a better option than a world dominated by great powers. Though they are both beset with issues concerning their abilities to operate and mediate, I am certain that the best antidote to the dealings of great powers and their spheres of influence is to contribute to better functioning multilateral organisations, thereby encouraging and fostering greater respect for international rules.

The remaining two pillars are very much in our own hands. These concern the integrity of Finnish society and a self-sustaining economy.

Increased integrity of Finnish society can be built through communality, equality and justice, culture, education and a deep internalisation of democracy. In a globalised world, it is important that citizens are proud of their state, but also equally proud to come together with different states in Europe and beyond to tackle issues that affect us all, such as climate change and terrorism.

Similarly, by a self-sustaining Finnish economy I do not speak in favour of or advocate protectionism. Rather, it is the responsibility of the government to reform society and to improve the economy in order to provide employment and to restore the economic foundation of our countrys independence.

As is the case with Sweden and Switzerland, internal integrity and a self-sustaining economy can make even a small country strong, whilst Ukraine is an example of a larger country that has become unbalanced because these two features were missing.

Using these four pillars, we can strengthen the position of Finland in the world and safeguard our national security, and ensure resilience in testing times.

Matti Vanhanen, representing the Centre Party, is a Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the International Affairs Committee. He is a presidential candidate in the 2018 election. Vanhanen was Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He has also served as President of the European Council. Vanhanen is a Master of Social Sciences and in his earlier career worked as a journalist.
Both Terho and Halla-aho voiced their support for detaining asylum seekers for the duration of the asylum procedure  a policy adopted, to the dismay of human rights groups, in Hungary in March  in a leadership debate on YLE TV1 on Wednesday .

Two of the four candidates vying for the leadership of the Finns Party, Sampo Terho and Jussi Halla-aho, have announced their willingness to place asylum seekers under tighter surveillance.

We have to be well aware of where the applicants are. You cant hang around here after receiving a negative asylum decision, because that's really whats creating the security risk, explained Terho.

Halla-aho similarly expressed his support for the controversial approach.

I think detaining all asylum seekers is justified first for the duration of the asylum procedure and especially once the asylum application has been processed and rejected, he stated.

Finland should also be prepared to violate international treaties in the event of an influx of asylum seekers similar to the one witnessed in the second half of 2015, according to both of the candidates.

Halla-aho, for example, stated that the country should categorically refuse to accept asylum applications from safe countries, namely from Sweden.

The right to seek asylum does not mean that everyone has the right to choose the country they seek asylum in, he argued.

The Finns Party will convene to select a successor to its long-standing chairperson, Timo Soini, on 10 June. In addition to Terho and Halla-aho, Leena Meri, a first-term Member of the Parliament from Hyvinkaa, and Veera Ruoho, a first-term Member of the Parliament from Espoo, have thrown their hats into the leadership ring.

The election, however, is widely expected to be a two-horse race between Terho and Halla-aho, with the former enjoying the support of the current party leadership and the latter that of the rank and file of the party.

Soini announced his decision not to seek re-election in March.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Kalle Parkkinen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Koivisto, born in Turku in 1923, served two terms as the President of Finland in 19821994, guiding the country out from under the shadow of the Cold War into the European Union. He passed away at the age of 93 at Meilahti Hospital in Helsinki on 12 May, 2017.

Over 30,000 people lined the streets of Helsinki to watch the funeral procession of President Mauno Koivisto on Thursday, according to the Helsinki Police Department.

He is widely credited for ushering in a new era of parliamentarianism in Finland by actively reducing his own powers and enhancing those of the Finnish Parliament.

A great Finn has departed from our midst, President Sauli Niinisto summarised in his eulogy at the Helsinki Cathedral on Thursday. He has left us, but remains close to us. In terms of his ideas, ways, values and principles, he is still with us.

President Koivistos uniqueness did not lie in the fact that he knew the people, but that the people knew him, said Niinisto.

His thoughtful, deliberative way of approaching issued brought the ordinary citizen close to the statesman, perhaps closer than to any other in Finlands history. Mauno Koivistos pithy, sharply analytical and often humorous remarks remain embedded in the essence of what it is to be Finnish. They reflect a way of thinking, principles and values that still affect our actions and deeds.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre) lauded the late statesman as a key contributor and visionary in the success story of Finland. Koivisto, he said, left an indelible imprint on the Finnish society and its members.

As foreign policy leader, he piloted Finland with a sure hand from the Cold War into the European Union. In domestic policy, he promoted stability and development towards genuine parliamentarianism, he highlighted.

Koivistos final journey took him from the Helsinki Cathedral to the Hietaniemi Cemetery, where he was laid to rest close to predecessors Risto Ryti and Urho Kekkonen.

Koivisto also served twice as the Prime Minister of Finland in 19681970 and 19791982, as the Minister of Finance, and as the Governor of the Bank of Finland. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Tellervo Koivisto, and daughter Assi Koivisto-Allonen.

His funeral was the first presidential funeral to be held in the country since that of President Kekkonen in 1986.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The District Court of Pirkanmaa on Wednesday ruled that the evidence presented to corroborate the heavy charges brought against the two men was inconclusive. The prosecution was demanding that the men be sentenced to life in prison for, for instance, several war crimes and murders committed with terrorist intent.

A Finnish court has acquitted Iraqi twins of all charges arising from their alleged roles in a massacre that occurred in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2014.

Related posts: Iraqi brothers arrested by KRP on suspicion of multiple killings (11 December, 2015)

Both of the defendants were released from custody immediately, after having denied the charges throughout the proceedings.

The twins, now in their mid-20s, sought asylum in Finland in September, 2015. They were brought into custody on suspicion of involvement in the notorious massacre a few months later by the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP).

So-called Islamic State militants killed more than 1,500 unarmed members of the Iraqi Armed Forces at Camp Speicher, an air base outside Tikrit, in June, 2014. Most of the victims were Shia Muslims.

Finnish police detained two Iraqis suspected of featuring in Islamic State massacre video. The twin brothers were imprisoned at the Tampere District Court in Tampere, Finland on Friday, 11th December, 2015, in picture the first of the 23-year-old suspects (C) is brought to the court room. On left suspect's lawyer Mika Miesmaki.

A key piece of evidence in the trial were images captured from footage of the incident shot and published by the terrorist organisation. The images purportedly showed one of the twins executing a number of cadets.

The District Court of Pirkanmaa, however, ruled that it was impossible to positively identify either of the twins from the images as the militant performing the killings on the propaganda video. Identifying the men from the images retrospectively does not constitute conclusive evidence, the court added according to Helsingin Sanomat.

The prosecution has until next week to announce its dissatisfaction with the ruling.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Handout / District Court of Pirkanmaa
Gardai have raided the home of a 24-year-old criminal suspected of being one of the disguised gunmen in the Regency Hotel attack.

The north inner city thug has been on the run from officers for more than a year in relation to separate burglary charges.

Armed officers from Mountjoy Garda Station received information that he was back in his home but when they stormed it late on Saturday night, the criminal was not there.

No arrests were made in the operation and the suspect still remains at large.

He was released from custody last year but he failed to reside at a named address as part of his post-release conditions and then fled.

The suspect was quickly blamed by the Kinahan mob for being involved in the attack.

Revenge

He was also nominated for the attempted murders of cartel figures Liam Roe and Liam Byrne at the Red Cow Hotel on November 6, 2015.

This was viewed as a revenge attack in relation to the murder of the thug's very close associate Gary Hutch who had been killed in a double-cross by the cartel in Spain only weeks earlier.

The violent hood is also a suspect in the cartel-sanctioned murder of their former associate Paul Kavanagh in Drumcondra, Dublin in March, 2015.

Despite his young age the wanted man is considered to be a leading member of the Hutch organised crime gang.

A five-man hit team was involved in the Regency Hotel attack on February 5, 2016 during which gangland criminal David Byrne (33) was shot dead and two other men were injured.
Gardai are investigating a major smuggling operation at a west Dublin prison after a criminal described as a "bungling fool" tried to sneak drugs and a mobile phone into the facility.

A member of the Cornelius Price crime operation was detained when he went to Wheatfield Prison - but forgot who he was there to visit.

Sources say the 54-year-old, who is from England but living in Price's compound in Co Meath, was due to hand over the contraband to a jailed associate of the dangerous thug.

Price was jailed in February for three years after being convicted of reckless endangerment of a garda at Balbriggan Garda Station more than three years ago following a trial at Dublin Circuit Court.

His mob is suspected of involvement in three gangland murders.

Price's gang is suspected of using junior criminals on the outside to meet their associates in the jail, where drugs and phones are handed over.

However, on this occasion the spaced-out prison visitor, who some sources have described as a "slave to the gang", made a major mistake.

Ironically, the incident happened on the morning of Saturday, May 13 - the same day the Herald revealed that Price been caught with an illegal mobile phone only days earlier.

This is an offence he has not yet been disciplined for, but he could potentially face more jail time.

In the latest development, Price's associate arrived at the jail apparently "out of his head" on drugs.

Suspiciously

"He came into the jail as a visitor and was allowed in. However, he was acting suspiciously when he was in the visiting area and prison officers noticed this," a source said.

"He was asked who he was in to visit but he couldn't give a name to officers. It seems the bungling fool was completely off his nut. Prison staff decided to search him and the phone and tablets were found in his underwear."

Gardai were then called and the low-level criminal was arrested and taken to Ronanstown Garda Station, where he was questioned for a number of hours before being released without charge.

A file will now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in a move that increases the pressure on the mob.

While not a suspect himself, Price's associates are the chief suspects in the murder of Benny Whitehouse, a 36-year-old who was shot dead in September 2014.

In May 2015, Price was arrested and later released without charge by gardai investigating the killing.

The gang is also in the frame for the suspected murders of Tallaght man Willie Maughan (34) and his partner Anna Varslavane (21), who were last seen near Price's house in the Gormanston area of Co Meath on April 14, 2015.

One theory being investigated is that the couple were murdered because they were trying to break their links with the gang.
A man who had sex with a woman filmed it and uploaded the video to a porn site without her knowing the recording had been made.

Judge Dermot Dempsey said what Karl Bailey (26) had done was "despicable" and caused his victim untold damage.

He was ordered to pay the woman 2,000 in compensation.

Bailey had "no excuse" for uploading the video and was "ashamed, disgusted and embarrassed" for his actions, Balbriggan District Court was told.

The victim had no know-ledge that the 10-minute video - which clearly identified her having sex - was being made.

She said Bailey's actions have had a profound effect on her.

Damage

When contacted by the woman, gardai told the website to remove the video.

Within three weeks, however, the defendant uploaded it again. Bailey removed it only after the victim and her family contacted him.

When questioned by gardai, he admitted uploading the video on two occasions.

The victim, who did not appear in court, wrote a letter to Judge Dermot Dempsey to explain the untold damage and significant profound effect the incidents had on her.

Bailey, of Balbriggan Road, Skerries, Co Dublin, admitted harassing the woman on dates last year.

Defence counsel said the PoundWorld shop assistant offered no excuse for his actions.

"He has been suffering from depression for some time and has been prescribed medication," said the solicitor.

Counsel said the defendant has been attending counselling to deal with his issues and conveyed his apologies to the victim.

"He is ashamed and embarrassed," said the solicitor. "It was completely out of character. He is most apologetic to the victim and her family."

The court was told that Bailey was willing to pay compensation to the victim.

"He is taking the matter extremely seriously," said counsel. "He was using the website as a means of escape as he has difficulties dealing with his emotions."

When Judge Dempsey asked why Bailey had put up the video for a second time, his counsel said he was not aware that it was gardai who requested it to be taken down.

A probation report handed into court stated that the defendant did not realise the seriousness of what he had done and did not realise it was deemed as revenge porn.

The Probation Service deemed the defendant's risk of re-offending low and considered him suitable for 240 hours of community service work in lieu of four months in prison.

Mature

Judge Dempsey placed Bailey on a probation bond for one year and ordered him to continue with weekly counselling sessions.

"Personally, I find it hard to believe the defendant didn't realise the seriousness of what he did," said the judge.

"It's a very serious matter with serious consequences. He needs to grow up and mature a bit. This is a despicable act that has caused untold damage to the victim."
Police after the blast in Manchester. Photo: Reuters

The sister of Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi believes he carried out the attack because he wanted revenge for American air strikes on Syria.

Jomana Abedi said in an interview that her brother was kind and loving and she was surprised by what he did on Monday.

At least 22 people were killed when 22-year-old Abedi detonated a device as fans left an Ariana Grande gig at Manchester Arena.

Ms Abedi said she thought he was driven by America's military attacks in the Middle East.

"I think he saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere, and wanted revenge," she said.

"He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge.

"Whether he got that is between him and God."

In the most recent high-profile attack in Syria last month, the US military fired 59 Tomahawk missiles from the USS Porter and USS Ross warships in the Mediterranean at the al-Shayran air base near the western city of Homs, which the Pentagon said was used to store chemical weapons.

Heartbreaking

Six Syrian soldiers were reported to have been killed in the missile strike, which destroyed as much as 90pc of the base.

Syrian officials said nine civilians, including four children, were also killed.

Ms Abedi's attempt to justify the attack was branded "abhorrent".

"There is no justification for the taking of a child's lives," said Mark Session (52), from Manchester.

"Any kid losing their life is heartbreaking, but no children in the allied air strikes have been targeted purposely unlike in Manchester.

"It is sick to justify the arena bombing in such a way. It is abhorrent in fact.

"There is no place for her comments."

Abedi's family has come under much scrutiny in the wake of the bombing.

His father, Ramadan, was arrested in the Libyan capital Tripoli and was allegedly a member of the al-Qaeda-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group during the 1990s, according to a former Libyan security official, Abdel-Basit Haroun.

Arrested

The elder Abedi denied that he was part of the militant group.

Abedi's younger brother Hashim was also arrested in Tripoli and allegedly knew his brother was planning an attack in Manchester.
BRISTOL, Va.Clean-up efforts after Wednesdays powerful storm in Bristol, Virginia included electricity restoration, tree cutting and bee removal when a nest was found in a fallen tree.

A beehive was discovered late Wednesday in a tree that fell at a residence along Woodland Drive, one of the hardest hit streets.

David Maples, with the Bristol Virginia Sheriffs Office, who described himself as a beginner beekeeper, learned about the incident via social media and responded.

The bees were in a hollow section of a large white oak tree.

Maples said he set up a swarm trap, which is a box with five frames, and added some lemongrass oil to attract the bees. He returned later to find that some of the bees went to the trap, but many remained, including the likely Queen bee.

Thursday evening, he planned to use a bee vacuum to remove the remaining bees.

Maples said he hopes to take the bees to his hives.

The homeowner was anxious to have the tree removed, but allowed Maples to work with the bees.

City personnel, utilities and residents spent Thursday cleaning up after a powerful storm with straight-line winds knocked down trees and power lines in Bristol, Virginia and other areas Wednesday afternoon.

The storm pummeled the section of the city between Pinecrest Lane and Lee Highway, knocking out power to about 4,700 customers, according to Chris Hall of the BVU Authority. Crews spent much of Wednesday after the storm working to restore electricity.

BVU employees stopped at 1 a.m. Thursday so they could go home to rest, Hall said.

The utilitys employees restored power to a majority of the customers within five hours of the storms passing, which hit Bristol between 2-3 p.m.

Later Thursday morning, Hall said BVU had about 200 customers without power when they began working again.

The number of outages fluctuated throughout the day, including a brief outage around 8 p.m. that affected 800 customers in the Euclid Avenue area.

Hall could not estimate when all customers would have power. The utility had many challenges, but the number of fallen trees caused the most trouble, he said.

Trees of all sizes fell Wednesday, knocking down power lines, snapping utility poles, damaging breakers and striking structures and vehicles. Some trees were uprooted.

Crews focused on outages that affected the most customers in an area, and sites employees could safely reach.

Power can be restored, lives cannot, Hall said.

He compared the storms effects on the system to outages during the winter of 2014-15, when snow and ice knocked down power lines.

To prepare for such storms, Hall said BVU has a tree cutting crew.

We work very hard to make sure that vegetation stays out of the right of way, he said.

Fire, police and rescue personnel began receiving calls in the Lee Highway area after 2 p.m. Wednesday. Fire Chief Mike Armstrong said a woman traveling on Lee Highway near Valley Drive became trapped when power lines fell around her vehicle.

As emergency and utility personnel worked to remove the lines, 911 began to receive additional calls.

We started getting inundated with calls, Armstrong said. We had several incidents where trees were falling on power lines.

Many streets were blocked by lines and trees, Armstrong said. Many of the power lines were still live, Armstrong said, requiring personnel to use hotsticks to determine which were safe to move.

All of the departments on-duty staff was working calls, Armstrong said, and two additional off-duty firefighters were asked to answer calls, too. Firefighters worked throughout the evening, he added.

Animals in the city were also affected by Wednesdays storm.

Armstrong recalled that a dog was trapped when a tree fell along Vermont Avenue. Firefighters were able to rescue the dog. Baby raccoons were also rescued Wednesday during the storm.

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management was in Bristol Thursday morning to survey the damage. Armstrong said the agency will file a report on the storm.

Armstrong said he plans to meet with BVU officials in the coming weeks to discuss the storm and ways to improve the citys response.

City departments and BVU worked closely together during the storm response, he said, but there could be improvements, especially with communications.

Were anxious to improve our relationship, Armstrong said. It was all hands on deck.

The fire chief said that all responding agencies did a fantastic job.

It boils down to a community effort, said Hall, who added that BVU employees worked alongside emergency and public works personnel.

BRISTOL, Va.After powerful storms roared through Bristol and surrounding areas on Wednesday, 150 people were still without power Thursday afternoon.

BVU's Chris Hall said power was still out to 150 locations in areas between Virginia High School and Lee Highway. He could not estimate when power would be returned as crews were continuing to work in the neighborhood. Isolated locations in Washington County, Virginia, were also still without power, he said.
ELKO  Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital celebrated National Emergency Medical Services Week by inviting all first responders in Elko County to enjoy breakfast and lunch last Thursday.

A number of firefighters, law enforcement officers and paramedics stopped by the hospital throughout the day to enjoy food and fun. NNRH employees showed their appreciation for first responders by wearing blue and black to the festivities.

Jennifer Koopman, NNRH director of physician relations and industry, said that hospital staff were thrilled to visit with first responders from several different agencies.

One of the highlights of the day was when Sergeant Fisher of the Elko Sherriffs Department arrived with his patrol dog, Tyr, Koopman said. Along with Deputy Reitz, they gave us an impromptu demonstration of K9 unit techniques on the hospital lawn. It was really fun to watch.

We are blessed to live in a community with such amazing first responders, Koopman concluded. They work so hard and give so much to keep us all safe. Today, and every day, we honor them.
Maryland election 2022: Dan Cox concedes governor race to Wes Moore

Republican Dan Cox conceded the election, calling Governor-elect Wes Moore. But throws jabs at Hogan, more.
On May 25, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed Assembly Bill 101. The veto leaves in place a requirement that the Nevada Department of Wildlife spend 80 percent of a $3 fee imposed on hunters  now $500,000 each year  to kill mountain lions, bears, coyotes and ravens. The vetoed legislation would have given NDOW scientists and the Board of Wildlife Commissioners greater discretion about how best to manage wildlife populations and achieve game conservation goals.

This is a sad day for Nevadas wildlife, said Lynn Cullens, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation. The evidence that predator control hasnt worked in Nevada is right before our eyes, in the failure of the programs to achieve their stated goals.

After 5 million dollars and 14 years of predator control programs funded by the $3 predator fee, not to mention the thousands of mountain lions and coyotes killed by hunters and Wildlife Services, hunters still point to diminished herds and ranchers still experience livestock losses.

In debate over the bill, rural legislators argued for continued expenditure of the full 80 percent to kill more mountain lions and coyotes. However, NDOW reports indicate that even as the number of predators killed approaches 20,000 animals the projects funded by the $3 fee showed no benefit to the species they were intended to help.

The wait and see decision just throws good money after bad, says Cullens. Wildlife is expected to recover after the very wet winter this year, and NDOW scientists will be unable to demonstrate whether game population increases are due to the cessation of the drought or increasingly heavy predator control. Advocates of heavy predator control may argue that the programs have suddenly worked.

The Nevada Wildlife Alliance, which supported the legislation, based its position on scientific research which demonstrates that predator killing in complex ecosystems can actually increase conflicts with humans and domestic animals, and is counterproductive to game herds over the long term. The science, although well-established, is counter-intuitive and often difficult to convey to the general public.

In the 1990s it was widely believed that killing mountain lions and coyotes was the best way to improve big game herds and protect livestock. But in the past 15 years, scientific understanding of predator behavior has improved dramatically because of new research tools such as satellite tracking, long-lasting battery collars, remote photography, and better methods to collect and analyze DNA.

Scientists have learned that the social structures and behavior of animals at the top of the food chain are far more complicated than previously believed. Research in Nevada and throughout the West demonstrates that heavy culling of mammalian predators like mountain lions and coyotes may cause more problems than it solves.

Killing a high percentage of mountain lions in a population can result in more conflicts when established social structures are repeatedly disrupted and young males vie for empty territories, leaving more young lions opportunistically seeking prey. Coyote breeding increases under heavy culling because when packs are destroyed the remaining individuals scatter, and breeding is no longer restricted to alpha animals. In addition, when coyote populations are culled, the number of pups per litter can increase dramatically.

As surprising as it may seem, heavy killing of predators may actually lead to an increase of predators on the landscape, scrambling to survive in disrupted social structures, says Cullens. Ranchers may experience additional losses, towns and cities may see more conflicts in neighborhoods, and game herds may suffer needlessly. Continuing predator persecution will only compound the errors.

Driving the predator control effort is the fact that deer numbers have declined from a mid-twentieth century high all across the West  despite decades of predator killing  due a number of factors, primarily decreased habitat, changing forest practices, invasive species and nutrition. Hunters testify to their memory of the peak, and blame the change on predators. Killing high numbers of mountain lions and coyotes will produce a temporary bump in deer populations, but that increase will reverse because the land is unable to support the forage needs of so many deer, and the predator populations themselves will suffer. Predator control is but a footnote in NDOWs mule deer management plan, but is the focus of $3 fee expenditures.

Livestock losses can be costly to ranchers, but research indicates that deterrence and management should be targeted on particular animals that have actually preyed on livestock rather than using a scattered and widespread predator culling program that can make problems worse. The funds for Nevadas agricultural and ranching predator actions are not dependent upon monies from the $3 fee, and are widely utilized. Elko, Humboldt, and White Pine Counties all fall within the top 12 counties in terms of predator control across the entire American West.

Donald Molde, board member with the Nevada Wildlife Alliance, argues that To focus on just one way to improve deer numbers and reduce livestock losses is folly, especially when science shows the activity to be costly and ineffective.

We are incredibly disappointed in the decision to let politics decide the future of our wildlife, said Cullens. Assembly Bill 101 would have recognized two decades of expanded scientific knowledge to allow a broader use of funds to restore game habitat, reduce invasive species, enhance ecosystems for sensitive species and take other more cost-effective measures to increase game populations, relying on the expert skills and vision of our public servants in the Nevada Department of Wildlife.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has defended Spains commitment to NATO in response to US President Donald Trumps criticism in Brussels at a summit on Thursday, when he claimed that most members were not pulling their weight. Without referring specifically to Spain, Trump said: Twenty-three of its 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense.

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy at Thursday's NATO meeting. STEPHANIE LECOCQ (EFE)

More information Rajoy replica a Trump destacando la aportacion espanola a misiones internacionales

Speaking at a dinner attended by NATOs members, including its newly joined 29th state, Montenegro, Rajoy pointed out that Spains commitment to global security is not related solely to percentages of investment in defense, and listed the missions that Spain is part of, adding: Our country has always responded in time and in practice to every crisis scenario, which puts us in an exceptional position among our allies.

A photo tweeted from Rajoys official account of his handshake with Trump at the NATO summit. With @realDonaldTrump on the fringes of the #NATOmeeting. The US and Spain are working together to guarantee security and wellbeing.

Spain spends 0.91% of its GDP on defense, compared to the 2% Trump said was the minimum required. In 2014, at the NATO summit in Wales, Spain committed itself to reaching 2% within a decade and is expected to outline in detail its proposals to reach that objective later this year. Compliance will be periodically evaluated, but NATO has also accepted other factors in its assessment of members contributions, such as participation in international missions or providing other services.

Spain is among NATOs most active members of international missions. Other allies, such as Greece, which spends more than 2% on defense, rarely send troops abroad. At present, Spain has more than 2,900 members of its armed forces taking part in around 20 international missions led by the EU, the UN and NATO, and is sending 300 armed personnel to Latvia.

Spain is among NATOs most active members of international missions

Rajoy took the opportunity to condemn the terrorist attack earlier this week in Manchester, and backed NATOs formal inclusion in the international coalition against so-called Islamic State (ISIS), noting: Spain is a country that sadly has long experience in the fight against terrorism, a reference to armed Basque separatist group ETA, which waged a four-decade terror campaign that killed more than 850 people.

Rajoy spoke briefly with Trump on the sidelines of the informal summit; until now he has only spoken to him by telephone. The Prime Ministers office tweeted a photograph of Rajoy with Trump, saying: The United States and Spain collaborate to guarantee security and well-being.

English version by Nick Lyne.
More information Tiran huevos a Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador durante un mitin en Veracruz

Two-time Mexican presidential candidate Andres Lopez Obrador, the leader of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), was attacked on Thursday at a rally in the town of Huatusco, in the eastern coastal state of Veracruz.

At the end of an event in support of Isabel Carrasco, his partys mayoral candidate there, a woman threw an egg at Lopez Obrador. His supporters immediately surrounded him, hurrying him away, later criticizing poor security at the event.

Rival organizations the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Alliance Party (PAN) also condemned the incident.

Lopez Obrador will be running for president for a third time in next years general elections in Mexico.

English version by Nick Lyne.
NEW YORK (JTA)Shavuot is the Rodney Dangerfield of Jewish holidays, says Rabbi Shira Stutman of Washington, D.C.s Sixth and I synagogue.

Meaning: It gets no respect.

Considered by Jewish tradition to be on par with the fall and spring festivals of Sukkot and Passover, Shavuot is sometimes ignored because it is six days shorterthe holiday celebrating the biblical giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai is one day in Israel and two outside of it.

Shavuot, which this year starts on the evening of May 30, also lacks iconic, family-centric rituals. One of its only unique traditions is to stay up until dawn studying Torah on the first night. Because the holiday demands knowledge and stamina (or lots of coffee), its no surprise that pulling an all-nighter poring over the Talmud hasnt become as widespread as, say, lighting a menorah.

But in recent years, synagogues and Jewish organizations across the country are trying to make the practice more accessible. Here are five ways American groups are reinterpreting the Shavuot all-nighter.

The Biblical Shavuot

What if we celebrated Shavuot the way it is described in the Bible? Thats what a group at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Connecticut is attempting to do.

At its Shavuot retreat, while theres an option to study Torah on the holidays first night, there is also a group that will embark on a midnight hike meant to simulate Moses trek up Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. Hikers will proceed silently, sans flashlights, to an overlook. Because it will be very dark, the three-quarters-of-a-mile trek will take approximately 2 1/2 hours.

In the morning, participants will gather for a parade of animals, fruits and grains meant to reflect the ancient Shavuot procession up to the Temple in Jerusalem, when farmers were commanded to give their first fruits as a tribute. At the retreat center, a herd of goats will be decorated with ribbons and shirts. Marchers, singing and dancing to a drumbeat, carry two large basketsone with a challah, to represent wheat, and another with seasonal fruits.

Its exciting because were reviving what Deuteronomy says, said one of the parades facilitators, Sarah Chandler, who also goes by the name Kohenet Shamira. Were going to decorate our animals. Were going to bring the first fruits, and were going to make an offering.

The Mountain Shavuot

The Living Tree Alliance, a Jewish agricultural community that lives together on a 93-acre property in Vermont, will spend Memorial Day celebrating the lead-up to Shavuot by preparing for it like the Israelites did in the desert.

The group will hike on Mount Mansfield, the states highest mountain, stopping along the way for seven readings of poetry and other texts to reflect the seven divine attributes referenced in Jewish mysticism. Halfway up, theyll stop for a Torah service at an interfaith chapel. Ambitious hikers will spend the afternoon scaling the mountains peak, 4,300 feet high, to engage in a worship service.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai, so we wanted to get to a high mountain peak in Vermont, said Living Tree program coordinator Stacey Oshkeloo. Vermonters like hiking and connecting to nature, so it seemed like a great way to make the holiday accessible.

The Jewish-Muslim Shavuot

If some people are taking Shavuot back 3,000 years, others want to make it relevant to the present, politically fraught moment. Sixth and I, a historic synagogue that has become a center for progressive Jewish activism, will be doing its Shavuot night learning program a week earlyand it will be focused on Jews and Muslims in America.

The program, on May 22, brought together Jeffrey Goldberg, the Jewish editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, and Duke Universitys Imam Abdullah Antepli to discuss similarities and tensions between American Jews and Muslims. Antepli is also part of the Muslim Leadership Initiative, a Shalom Hartman Institute program that brings together young Muslim leaders to learn about Judaism and Israel.

The program started with a buffet featuring Palestinian, Tunisian, Ashkenazi and Mizrachior Middle Eastern Jewishcuisines. It will also include Muslim and Jewish evening prayer services, back to back, and a joint text study of Jewish and Muslim perspectives on revelation.

If one of the things Shavuot is about is learning sacred texts together, struggling with difficult ideas together, sitting together for long periods of timenot just 140 characters of Twitter periods of timewe are taking all of that to this conversation, Rabbi Stutman said Its a certain type of revelation that we are hoping for.

The Feminist Shavuot

Another contemporary take on Shavuot is Feminism All Night, in Oakland, California, which shifts the all-night Shavuot learning to the following Friday, June 2. Creator Hadar Cohen, who runs Pivot to Bloom, an organization advancing gender inclusivity in the tech world, organized the event because she felt there was a dearth of spaces focused on studying and discussing feminism. With this program, she is making that happen in a Jewish context.

At Feminism All Night, participants of all genders will have a Shabbat dinner and prayers, followed by feminist classes and studying from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. Topics will include Jewish texts related to womens rights, like how a Talmudic chapter on reparations can be applied to gender equality, as well as lessons on political activism and the intersection of gender and spirituality.

Theres a lot of political urgency around how we decide to live our lives, and I think patriarchy has really kept us down in terms of that and has gotten us into some really bad habits, Cohen said. Being an intersectional feminist has shown me the way to heal out of that.

The New York City Mega-Shavuots

What do you do if you have a lot of Jews living in the same neighborhood? In the Big Apple, two groups are doing big Shavuot all-nighters, with a range of Torah classes and plenty more.

The JCC Manhattan, which has had an all-night program each Shavuot since 2004, has a schedule so full its dizzying. Offerings include text study, dance workshops, yoga, film screening and meditation. On the roof, an installation by artist Tobi Kahn will reinterpret the mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath. And owing to the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot, cheesecake and cookies will be offered.

A deep value of our community is understanding and celebrating its diversity, said Rabbi Joy Levitt, JCC Manhattans executive director. We wanted to make sure that we were able to attract the widest number of people with a very expansive view of Torah.

A similar program will happen across the East River, where Shavuot Across Brooklyn will bring together participants from the boroughs range of synagogues and independent prayer groups. Similar to the JCC array, sessions span from a Free Minds Prison Poetry Workshop to one on Hebrew slang

The top-billed event is a book reading and discussion by the author couple Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman focused on their thoughts on a recent trip to Israel and the West Bank. The event is sponsored by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli veterans group that opposes Israels occupation.

Its a reflection of the reality of peoples interests, said Matt Green, a rabbinic intern at Congregation Beth Elohim, the Reform synagogue in the Park Slope neighborhood that is hosting the program. Many of the participants are familiar and conversant in Jewish texts, but a much greater number of people are not.
How great are those who invented the Internet and Facebook!

I was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) and lived there until moving to the U.S. in 1990. Before World War II, the family home was in the small town Zapadnaia Dvina where my grandfather, Josef Gessel (born 1898), lived with his wife and two sons: Isaak (my father, born 1926) and his brother, Michael (born 1928). The town is located in the middle between the Latvian border and the big city Tver. During World War II, my grandfather was drafted into the Navy as a private and was killed on May 13, 1942. My grandmother and her two sons (my father and his brother) were evacuated. They were sent 1,000 miles East to a village in Udmurtia, a Russian republic. A year later, my father joined the Navy at the age of 17 and served in the Far East. In 1945, at the age of 19 and near the end of the war, he was badly wounded. After treatment in a famous military hospital in Moscow, he was considered disabled and discharged from the Navy. It was impossible for the family to return to Zapadnaya Dvina-the town had been completely destroyed, according to relatives who returned there after evacuation and had to live in dugouts. Instead, my widowed grandmother with her two sons moved to Leningrad where they had relatives.

My father married my mother in 1953. When I was 11 or 12 years old he told me that our last name is extremely rare, and I accepted that he didn't have any relatives other than his younger brother. On my mother's side, though, I had many relatives. By this time, I had read novels by Sholem Aleichem with depictions of huge Jewish families, and I had some knowledge about the Holocaust, but stupidly didn't connect the dots. My mother and father told me that the family lost only three members during World War II, and I took them at their word.

In 2012, my daughter asked me to put in writing what I remember about our family history. By this time, my parents were deceased and I had nobody to ask. I set to work. On a memorable day for me-July 5, 2013-I decided to look on Yandex (a Russian search engine similar to Google) for a Russian Ministry of Defense website. I was hoping to just find the date when my grandfather, Josef Gessel, was killed in a World War II battle. I typed "Gessel" in the search line and my life then turned upside down for several years.

What I found was a deluge of information. Of course I began to read all links about "Gessel." I quickly found a Russian webpage, similar to JewishGen.org's FamilyFinder, for people looking for family members. A lady with the last name Gessel wrote me that she knew the name of the town where the Gessel family lived before World War II-Opochka-and that about 30 family members were killed by the Nazis. For the whole day I could not stop shaking like a leaf. At night I was screaming: I saw a kind of cloud of black despair of family members dying in Opochka.

Since that day, I have spent an enormous quantity of time in front of my computer. I registered on many Russian websites for genealogy research (not much success). I looked into Facebook and Russian social networks for the last name Gessel. I found about 2000 profiles (not necessarily 2000 people, as some people have more than one account). I sent messages to most of them, but only received about 20 answers. I discovered that there are three groups of Gessel in Russia: Jewish, German and Russian. Almost all Jewish Gessel whom I found came from Opochka. However, according to the Opochka 'census' and archives of Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, only 64 Jewish men, women and children lived in Opochka in 1863, and 13 of them had the last name Gessel!

In the YadVashem.org archives, I discovered one extremely important opportunity. Yad Vashem has collected information on millions of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Four and a half of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices are commemorated there. When you read a record from Yad Vashem, with one additional click of the mouse you can see the scan of the original application, signed by the applicant. The applications for 25 members of the Gessel family from Opochka were filled out by one person: Minna Efros, a Gessel granddaughter. I tracked Minna down in St. Petersburg, Russia. She and several of her living cousins provided priceless information about their Opochka Gessel Family Tree.

Opochka, which is situated about 15 miles from the Latvian border, was taken by the Nazis just two weeks after the beginning of the war with USSR. According to the Yad Vashem archives, only 89 Jewish citizens of Opochka (including four people who belonged to the extended Gessel family) were evacuated from the town by Soviet authorities. The rest of the Jewish population, a total of about 200 people, were left helplessly and hopelessly behind and were killed by the Nazis.

I was to discover that I didn't belong to the clan who lived in Opochka. I belonged to the branch of Gessel who lived in Zapadnaia Dvina, the town situated 140 miles to the East of Opochka. Zapadnaia Dvina was taken by Nazis two and half months after the beginning of war with the USSR. But, the local government had come to its senses after the initial shock of the unexpected beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR and evacuated almost all the Jewish population of Zapadnaia Dvina (about 400, according to Yad Vashem archives). Only three Jews were murdered there by Nazis.

Minna Efros recommended a local historian from Opochka who in 2011 published an article about Jewish life in Opochka. He found lots of documents for me in the Russian archives, including many relevant to my mother's family history. Most important, he found a document, proving that my great-grandfather, Mordukh Gessel, had originally lived in Opochka before moving his immediate family to Zapadnaia Dvina. The document also named Michael Gessel, my grandfather's brother. I found him and his family in the Yad Vashem archives. According to Yad Vashem, Michael Gessel had settled in a town close to Opochka. With some difficulty, I eventually found the phone directory of the town. I was sure that Gessel family had left this town ages ago, as survivors moved away from Opochka and Zapadnaia Dvina either during or after the war. But there was a phone number in the directory for the last name Gessel. I called, hoping to reach descendants of Michael Gessel, but to my great surprise, I discovered it is the family of Ilia Gessel, the third son of my great-grandfather Mordukh Gessel from Opochka. Both Michael and Ilia, brothers of my grandfather Josef, had extended families, and I was able to locate several members of those families.

Searching the Russian Ministry of Defense archives for Gessels, I found about 50 who fought for the USSR during World War II, eight died in battles (including my grandfather). Of the 50, 16 were Jewish, most belonging to the large family from Opochka.

Putting together all of the information I found in various archives, I now have a list of 80 Jewish Gessels, of whom about 70 had lived in or had roots in Opochka. Of the 70, at least 37 were killed in Opochka. At least one Gessel died during the siege of Leningrad; one joined a partisan group and was executed by the Nazis; and eight Gessel were killed in battles of World War II. Of this list, I now know the names of 30 Jewish Gessel who were born before World War II and survived the war.

I spend almost all my time after work continuing my search-adding branches to the Gessel Family Tree which I previously didn't know existed. I'm getting more and more information, the draft of my family history is growing. I'm planning to begin to talk to my Gessel correspondents about a DNA test, hoping to find DNA connections between different branches of Jewish Gessels.

Do you have unanswered questions about family lost during the Holocaust?

Attend the free upcoming JGSGO Workshop "Holocaust Research," presented by Marlis Humphrey, president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Thursday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Rosen JCC on Apopka Vineland. Mavens will be available to help you get started. Pre-register for the Workshop at http://www.jgsgo.org/MyJewishRoots.
He has only been out of prison for a couple of days but Jose Manuel Mireles, who spent three years in jail for his role in leading a self-defense militia in the fight against Mexicos Knights Templar drugs cartel, cant go more than a couple of steps without receiving messages of popular support.

Jose Manuel Mireles, founder of the Michoacan paramilitary self-defense militia. Angel Plascencia

Thanks for standing up for us, one woman tells the former convict, while a young man says to him: Youve got the balls politicians dont have.

From 2013 to 2014, Mireles, a surgeon by trade, headed a paramilitary movement made up of some 25,000 farm hands, ranchers and other residents of Mexicos Michoacan state, who were fed up with the blackmail, kidnappings, beheadings and torture carried out by the Knights Templar cartel. The movement gained international attention when it took up arms against the drug lords but eventually dissolved after President Enrique Pena Nieto paid, co-opted or imprisoned its leaders.

Mireles belonged to that last group and ended up behind bars for unlawful arms possession.

We decided we didnt want to end up with our decapitated heads decorating a town square

They chose not to live on their knees, says Mireles of the people involved in the militia during a lengthy interview looking at the movement that wiped 36 Michoacan villages off the drug traffickers map.

Now that he is a free man again, Mireles says Mexico is in a much worse state than it was and that he will take up the battle against the cartels again, although this time weapons wont be in the equation. He blames president Enrique Pena for his imprisonment and says Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the head of the Mexican opposition party, National Regeneration Movement (Morena), has written to him to offer support on his release.

Question. Looking back, what was your chief error during your time as leader of the self-defense group movement?

Answer. The biggest mistake was trusting the federal government. It is the same thing that has happened before in Mexican history with [Mexican revolutionaries Zapata and Pancho Villa] and with [the politician] Benito Juarez, all of whom were betrayed by the government. I was warned a thousand times: Dont trust them because they are going to fuck you over. But if you are tired of war, you will ignore all sorts of things.

Q. And your biggest success?

A. We chose how we wanted to die. We decided we didnt want to end up with our decapitated heads decorating a town square or with our body parts in plastic bags. Our biggest success was letting go of the fear of making our own decisions and realizing that, if we were organized we could get rid of the Knights Templar.

Mireles says he has no plans to go into politics. Angel Plascencia

For 12 years, we filed lawsuits, asked for help and demonstrated against crime in Michoacan. We have filed thousands of legal actions relating to rapes, kidnappings and beheadings but no one has ever responded. To give you an example, just a few days before the uprising [in 2013, when the militia began to take control of Knight Templar strongholds] I went with my cousin to file a complaint regarding the rape of his daughter but the prosecutor we spoke to told us the case would never be solved. A few minutes later when my cousin returned home he found the complaint ripped up in his doorway, along with a note saying that he had until seven in the evening to leave the town or he and his family would have their heads chopped off.

Q. How does Michoacan strike you now that you are out of prison?

A. The whole country is worse than when they locked me up. I told Pena Nieto back then that if he could restore peace to Mexican society by sacrificing me, I would congratulate him myself. But it has been a wasted three years and the country is 10 times worse off. The self-defense movement had three chief demands that have not yet been met: efficient public security, justice, and the existence of the rule of law. I was making these claims for Michoacan state but now the whole country is calling for the same thing. If we mobilized now, there would be millions of us and not thousands.

I will now start a fight based on reason, justice and the truth

Q. Do you see yourself as being a political prisoner? Who put in you in jail?

A. The whole country knows who locked me away: the only person in the country who can take away your freedom and make your life a living hell. But there is an explanation: I stepped on two sets of toes, those of organized crime and of the federal government. And in both cases, the same person was involved.

Q. Wasnt it a mistake to not realize that the movement had been infiltrated [by other cartels]? Was there any offer of support from other drug cartels?

A. We saw what was going on, we looked into the issue and discussed it.

During those months there were offers of support in the form of men and weapons and even armed helicopters from other parts of the country.

Mireles blames Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for his three-year imprisonment. Angel Plascencia

But that was precisely the mistake back in 2000. Back then, there was one cartel [the Zetas] controlling everything and the business community joined together to get rid of them. But they made the mistake of asking for help from other cartels [The Michoacan Family and the Knights Templar]. And they [those two cartels] got rid of the Zetas but they also took control of everything and were doing even worse things. So we told the cartels: First we are going to try and organize ourselves and solve our own problems.

Q. Will you leave the self-defense movement?

A. The only people who are ex-anything are those who spend their whole lives lying in order to become mayors, congress deputies or president. They day they leave office and stop getting their fortnightly pay check, they become a former so-and-so. But not us. We dont get anything.

But I wont go back to the trenches. Arms arent for me. I will start a fight based on reason, justice and the truth, which are the only weapons I have used my whole life.

Q. And the dream of entering politics?

A. I am not interested in politics. I dont want to be just another puppet. If I had wanted to become a politician, I would have done it when the option was presented to me before I went to prison.

English version by George Mills.
Described as one of the most significant archaeological finds in modern Israel, the Magdala Stone, unearthed in 2009 near the shores of the Sea of Galilee, has been unveiled to the public for first time as part of a joint exhibition on the history of the menorah May 15-July 23 between the Vatican Museums and the Jewish Museum of Rome.

"This is a dream that finally comes to fulfillment," Father Juan Solana, general director of the Magdala Center, whose work focuses on the stone dubbed a "crossroads of Jewish and Christian history," told JNS.org. "As a Catholic priest, I feel so proud that the first time it will be displayed at such an exposition with amazing collaboration between Jewish and Catholics in Rome, which is the capital of Catholicism and one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world."

The discovery of the Magdala Stone in Migdal, Israel, has already reshaped scholarly understanding of 1st century (A.D.) Judaism and early Christianity. The stone was unearthed as part of a routine archaeological examination ahead of the construction of a Catholic retreat center.

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a well-preserved 1st-century synagogue and a larger town presumed to be the hometown of Mary Magdalene, whom the New Testament describes as one of Jesus Christ's most faithful followers. Some have even speculated Jesus-who grew up in the Galilee region, according to the Christian Gospels-may have even visited or worshipped in the synagogue.

"It was a true miracle when we found the site," said Solana, a Mexican priest who now runs the Catholic retreat center and the archaeological park at Magdala. "Most of the ancient towns have been destroyed and rebuilt several times. It is a really extraordinary thing to have survive."

"We found a lot of parallels between the Herodian (Jewish) Quarter in Jerusalem and Magdala, which drove many people to speculate that one of the priestly families at the time was from Magdala," he added.

The Magdala Stone, which was found inside the synagogue, offers scholars and archaeologists significant insight into 1st-century Jewish life and the Second Temple era in Jerusalem.

The stone is believed to be one of the earliest artistic depictions of the Second Temple, according to the Magdala Center. It is believed the artist who made the stone likely saw the Second Temple.

"The stone has the highest number of symbols of the Temple ever found together in one object," Solana said.

The long side of the stone depicts the side of a building with pillared archways, with a three-dimensional design to create the illusion that it appeared in the Temple. The back of the stone also depicts a pillared structure, with two wheels above a geometric shape, illustrating fire.

"Presumably, the front and sides of the stone carvings represent the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and the back side depicting wheels and fire represents the Holy of Holies," according to the Magdala Center.

Among all its features, the stone's menorah depiction has arguably produced the most intense excitement among archaeologists. Scholars and archaeologists contend it is the oldest carved image of the Second Temple's seven-branched menorah ever found, and the first menorah image to be discovered in a Jewish religious context.

Fittingly, the Magdala Stone and its menorah depiction will take center stage at the exhibition from May-July at the two Rome museums, titled "The Menorah: Worship, History, and Legend."

According to the exhibition's organizers, the roughly 130 pieces on display will tell the story of the menorah from antiquity until today as well as its significance in Judaism and to a lesser extent, in Christianity.

"Intertwining history and myth, the story of the menorah is depicted in the exhibition through major works of art from antiquity to the present, including archaeological objects, sculptures and paintings, architectural and decorative artifacts, manuscripts and illuminated books," exhibition organizers said. "It was in Rome, at the height of the Imperial era, that the menorah became the symbol that most powerfully encapsulates the culture and religion of Judaism."

The exhibition will also examine theories on the location of the solid gold menorah taken from the Second Temple by the Roman general Titus during his siege on Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

More than 20 museums around the world have loaned their pieces to the exhibit, such as Paris's Louvre, London's National Gallery and Vienna's Albertina Museum.

"It is a great opportunity to bring Catholic and Jewish communities together in the Holy See for an encounter and dialogue about our common history and faith," said Father Solana, adding, "The message we are trying to deliver from Magdala is this respect of the commonality between our faiths. We have much more things in common than the differences we have."
JNS.orgAhead of President Donald Trumps visit to Israel, the head of a leading Christian Zionist organization called on the president to fulfill his election campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Pastor John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel,noted in a letter published in the Washington Times that Trump will soon need to decide whether to postpone the embassys transfer to Jerusalem by at least half a year.

In 1995, Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which calls on the U.S. to move the embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israels capital. But every sitting president since then has opted to sign successive six-month waivers delaying the move. Most recently, former President Barack Obama signed the waiver in December. Trump has a June 1 deadline to choose between another waiver or an embassy move.

Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump promised to move the embassy. This promise was vital to securing the support of millions of Christian Zionists around the country, Hagee wrote.

Like [former President Harry] Truman, Mr. Trump must contend with well-entrenched anti-Israel bureaucrats at the State Department who will try to use their positions to make moving the embassy difficult. But the buck does not stop with bureaucrats, he wrote.

Hagee added, The Jewish state has the right to determine where it would place its capital, and it has chosen Jerusalem. The international communitys decision to cower before Israels enemies by keeping embassies in Tel Aviv is disgraceful.

CUFI describes itself as Americas largest pro-Israel organization with more than 3.3 million members, defining members as email list subscribers whose addresses do not produce bounce-backs when messaged.

In recent days, U.S. officials have emphasized to their Israeli counterparts that Trump remains committed to relocating the embassy by the end of his first term, even if he decides next month to extend the presidential order freezing the implementation of the move.
Gloria Green, a former Jewish Pavilion program director, stopped by to see her friend Sylvia last week at Plantation Oaks assisted-living facility. Green reported that Sylvia is still getting The Heritage that was a donated subscription and was delighted to see a recent article about Keith Dvorchick, an old acquaintance! Sylvia will turn 97 on July 1.

The Jewish Pavilion does a wonderful job of bringing Jewish heritage and tradition to seniors residing in assisted-living facilities, but there can still be that need for a connection to their Jewish community and the Jewish world.

If you would like to give the gift of a Heritage subscription to someone living in any of the assisted living facilities who would like to keep up with the news in the Jewish community, please contact the Heritage at 407-834-8787. You can give a subscription to someone you know, or donate a subscription to a facility (the Heritage will definitely be shared and passed around!)
President Donald Trump, the first sitting U.S. President to pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017.

JERUSALEM (JTA)-President Donald Trump visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to go to the holy site.

Trump arrived there under heavy security Monday afternoon with his wife, Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. No Israeli politicians or officials accompanied the family. U.S. officials reportedly had rejected a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the site with Trump.

Trump was presented with a Book of Psalms with his name printed on it by the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz. The inscription printed inside read: "This ancient book will safeguard you so you can safeguard the entire world. With appreciation and admiration for being the first United States president to visit the Western Wall."

Following a brief description of the history of the wall, Trump went to the men's side, with his daughter and wife heading to the women's section. Trump, who wore a black kippah, stood in front of the wall with his hand resting on it for several moments before placing a note in its cracks and backing away.

In the guest book, Trump wrote "This was a great honor-Peace!"

The entire Western Wall plaza was closed off, with the area in front of the wall covered by cloths to allow the First Family to enjoy a private visit, except for the pool television cameras. The Trump family walked to the wall from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites in Christianity, which they visited first.

Most of the major streets in the Old City of Jerusalem were shut down for the visit, preventing storeowners from opening their businesses and tourists from visiting the sites.
It is that time of year once again when Heritage Florida Jewish News is putting out feelers for one outstanding person in the Jewish community who has given his or her time or talent or monetary gifts to better the Orlando Jewish community. Nominations for the 2017 Heritage Human Service Award are now being accepted and the award will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, which will be held Aug. 27.

For more than 27 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award, said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last years recipient was Susie Bierman. Former recipients have included Loren London (2014) Bob Yarmuth (2004), and Claire Mercer (2003).

According Gaeser, Each recipient chose their own path, but made considerable and long-lasting contributions to the Jewish community. Nominees for the 2017 award are individuals who do not look for recognition, but perform tikun olanrepairing the worldout of internal motivation.

Nominations should be emailed to news@orlandoheritage.com with the subject Human Service Award, or typed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper and sent by mail to Heritage Florida Jewish News, Human Service Award, 207 OBrien Road, Suite 101, Fern Park, FL 32730. Included should be the name and phone number of the nominee, a documented list of his or her accomplishments, and the name and phone number of the nominator(s).

The Heritage is accepting nominations until Friday, June 9.
By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA)Bill Clinton consulted with folks who came up with him in Arkansas, George W. Bush preferred Texan veterans of his familys hard-fought political battles and Barack Obama had his Chicago peeps.

Who does the first billionaire president go to when he wants real-deal advice? Other billionaires, naturally.

Much has been made of how President Donald Trump has stacked his Cabinet with billionaires, and how he takes off-campus advice from investor Carl Icahn, fellow real estate developer Tom Barrack and media moguls Christopher Ruddy and Rupert Murdoch.

The same goes for his Israel advice: Trump, according to reports, takes calls on the issue from Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate, and Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics heir and the president of the World Jewish Congress. Both are major supporters of Jewish and pro-Israel causes.

The wrinkle is that Adelson and Lauder seem to be at odds on what theyre telling the president. Lauder, reportedly, is pressing Trump to court Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Adelson, reportedly, wants him to focus on moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and discounts the Palestinians as reliable peace partners.

Trump, who this month gave Abbas the White House treatment and has carved out buddy time for him during his scheduled Middle East tour next week, appears to be tilting toward Lauder. And thats confounding the right-wing pro-Israel community, which tends to line up with Adelson.

Heres a breakdown of the actors and their agendas. Spokespeople for Adelson, Lauder and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment, and the White House did not return a request for comment.

The relationship with Trump

Lauder, a fellow New Yorker, has been friendly with Trump for decades, dating at least to Lauders run for mayor of the city in 1989a period when local politicos avidly courted the glitzy developer. (Lauder lost the Republican primary to Rudolph Giuliani, who went on to lose in the general election that year but won in 1993.) Both Lauder and Trump are graduates of the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton business school.

Adelson and Trump have known each other since at least the mid-2000s, when the latter opened an eponymous resort and casino on the formers Las Vegas turf. They drew closer last year after Adelsonburned in the 2012 election after he backed a losing Republican primary contender, Newt Gingrichwaited until much of the primaries blood was spilled and endorsed Trump in May.

Trump has teased Adelson about waiting so long to come around, but also appreciated the boost. Adelson is believed to be the first campaign donor to secure a seat on the dais during an inauguration.

What are they like in the Trump clinch?

Adelson plowed tens of millions of dollars into the general election, both for Trump and other Republicans, and then at least another $5 million, a record, into the inaugural festivities.

Lauders contributions to the bid to elect Trump and Republicans generally topped out at under $1 million, but he did something Trump cherishes in his loyalists: supporting him when no one else does.

In January, when Trump released a statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day that omitted any mention of Jews, Lauder was the only Jewish leader to give him a passand, indeed, to praise the statement.

Two organizations that Adelson funds and that otherwise had been supportive of Trump, the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Zionist Organization of America, were critical.

The relationship with Netanyahu

Lauder and Netanyahu enjoyed friendly relations for yearsboth Lauder and Adelson have been asked by Israeli investigators about gifts they have given the prime minister over the years. In the 1990s, when Netanyahus career took off, Lauder was a key U.S. conduit. Netanyahu asked Lauder to try to help broker a peace deal with Syria during his first term as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999. In a highly unusual move in 99, when Lauder chaired the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the billionaire came to Israel during campaign season and effectively endorsed Netanyahu in a speech.

The two reportedly fell out six years ago, when Lauder refused to use his ownership stake in Israels Channel 10 to censor reporting there into allegations of corruption by Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.

Adelson shifted from the politically neutral support for Israel typical of much of the pro-Israel community to outright support for a political partyNetanyahus Likudin 2007. The trigger was then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts embrace of an aggressive peace plan known as the Annapolis process. Adelson believed (and believes) that Palestinian statehood, at least under the current Palestinian leadership, would be catastrophic for Israel.

His best-known expression of support is his ownership of the pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom, a free publication that has come to play a dominant role in the Israeli media. The relationship between Netanyahu and Adelson remains strong; the newspaper, which leads in circulation in Israel, recently changed editors in part, reportedly, because the longtime incumbent was not sufficiently pro-Bibi.

The relationship with Abbas

Rumors that Lauder and Abbas were close were confirmed during Abbas visit at the beginning of May when, the night before meeting Trump, the Palestinian leader dined at Lauders home in this citys Georgetown neighborhood. Notably present at the dinner: representatives of the Trump administration. Notably absent: anyone from the Israeli Embassy.

Lauder and Netanyahu, who have dodged on-the-record comment over their disagreements, were ready to dish to another wealthy philanthropist: Isi Leibler, the Australian travel agency magnate who retired to Israel and has become a prominent activist on its right wing. In his column for The Jerusalem Post on their conversations, Leibler related a lengthy harangue he delivered to Lauder in which Leibler described Abbas as an inveterate anti-Semite who speaks with a forked tongue, portraying himself as a man of peace and moderation to the outside world while continuing to encourage religious hatred and anti-Semitism among his own people.

Leibler quoted Lauder as saying that he believes Abbas is ready to make major concessions toward peace, although he did not outline what concessions. Leibler also wrote that Netanyahu told him that Lauder was his biggest challenge to overcome because of Lauders friendship with Trump.

Adelson has no relationship with Abbas; Olmerts overtures to Abbas are what drove Adelson into the arms of the Likud. He may be key to helping Netanyahu overcome his challenge, however: The news site Axios this week quoted sources close to Adelson as saying he is furious with the Trump administration for not yet fulfilling the Republicans campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and that the Palestinians are impossible to negotiate with.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has welcomed a clarification from President Donald Trump's Administration that it does not regard the Western Wall in Jerusalem as a "part of the West Bank," contrary to earlier media reports.

"We were dismayed by press accounts earlier today reporting that, in response to a request that Prime Minister Netanyahu accompany President Trump when he visits the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, unidentified U.S. officials said the Kotel was not in Israel and is 'part of the West Bank,'" said Stephen Greenberg, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman/CEO, of the Conference of Presidents, in a statement.

The statement from Greenberg and Hoenlein included a separate clarification from the Trump Administration. "The comments about the Western Wall were not authorized communication and they do not represent the position of the United States and certainly not of the president," the White House was reported as saying.

Earlier, Israeli media outlets reported that an unidentified senior member of the president's advance team had snapped at an Israeli official that the Western Wall, or Kotel, is "not your territory. It's part of the West Bank." The exchange allegedly took place as the U.S. official rejected a request that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompany Trump when he visits the Western Wall during his visit to Israel next week.

Israeli officials were reported to be "shocked" by the comment, which came as David Friedman, the new U.S. ambassador to Israel, visited the Western Wall on May 15-his "first stop," as a tweet from the U.S. Embassy pointed out.

Greenberg and Hoenlein concluded: "This incident underscores the terrible damage caused by serial UN resolutions, including UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (of December 2016), denying the more than three thousand years of the Jewish connection to Israel and the holiest sites in the Jewish religion, which the Trump Administration has said it will work to reverse."
Trump tells Netanyahu he never mentioned Israel in meeting with Russians

WASHINGTON (JTA)President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he never mentioned Israel in a meeting with Russian government officials in which he was alleged to have revealed highly classified information.

Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel, Trump said Monday at a photo op with Netanyahu at Jerusalems King David Hotel on the second leg of his first overseas trip as president. Never mentioned it during the conversation, theyre all saying I did, so you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word Israel.

By saying you, the president seemed to be addressing the media, collectively.

No one had alleged that Trump mentioned Israel in the meeting two weeks ago with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in the Oval Office.

Reports last week said that Trump revealed details of intelligence on Islamic State that could compromise an ally that had shared the intelligence with the United States. The ally was later reported to have been Israel.

There was no reporting that Trump had revealed the source of the intelligence with the Russians. Instead, the concern was that the level of detail in Trumps account could be used to deduce sources and methods.

It was not clear from what during the photo op prompted Trumps statement. Just before he brought up the information, Netanyahu saidapparently responding to a reporterThe intelligence cooperation is terrific.

There were concerns after last weeks revelations that Israel could limit its intelligence cooperation with the United States because of Trumps alleged carelessness.

Trump, landing in Israel, heralds rare opportunity to bring peace and stability

JERUSALEM (JTA)President Donald Trump arrived in Israel for a whirlwind 28-hour visit, saying his trip to the region has given him new reasons for hope.

Air Force One touched down on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport shortly after 12:30 p.m. Monday. The landing represented the first direct flight ever between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the first stop of Trumps first international trip as president.

I have come to this sacred and ancient land to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between the United States and the State of Israel, Trump said in remarks at the welcome ceremony after he reviewed the honor guard and was welcomed by Israels leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.

Trump called Israel a strong, resilient, determined and prosperous nation and alluded to the Holocaust, saying the United States will not allow the horror and atrocities of the last century to be repeated.

He called his visit to the region a rare opportunity to bring peace and stability. But we can only get there working together. There is no other way, he said.

Netanyahu called the visit historic in that it is the first time that a U.S. presidents first trip abroad includes Israel.

Thank you for this powerful expression of your friendship to Israel, the prime minister said.

Netanyahu alluded to Trumps speech to Muslim and Arab leaders in Riyadh the previous day.

Mr. President, yesterday in Saudi Arabia you delivered a forceful speech on terrorism and extremism, called on forces of civilization to confront the forces of barbarism, he said. For 69 years, Israel has been doing just that. Weve manned the front lines of civilization.

Netanyahu reiterated his commitment to peace, pointing out that Israel has already made peace with Egypt and Jordan, adding that Israels hand is extended in peace to all our neighbors, including the Palestinians. The peace we seek is a genuine one in which the Jewish state is recognized, security remains in Israels hands and the conflict ends once and for all.

Speaking before Netanyahu, Rivlin said the Middle East and Israel need a strong United States, and the United States needs a strong Israel. He reminded Trump that Israel this week marks the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

It makes us very happy to know that Israels most important ally recognizes the significance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people all around the world, Rivlin said. Jerusalem is the beating heart of the Jewish people, as it has been for 3,000 years.

Trumps daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner landed in a second plane and sat with the American diplomatic delegation during the welcome ceremony.

Jewish groups praise Trump call for Muslim nations to confront Islamist extremism

(JTA)Jewish groups praised President Donald Trump for calling on Muslim nations to confront Islamist extremism during a speech to Muslim and Arab leaders at a summit in Saudi Arabia.

Drive them out of your places of worship, drive them out of your communities, drive them out of your holy land and drive them out of this earth, Trump said Sunday afternoon during a major speech to the Arabic Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Honestly confronting the crisis of Islamist extremism and the Islamist terror groups it inspires means standing together against the murder of innocent Muslims, the oppression of women, the persecution of Jews and the slaughter of Christians, the president also said in what was billed as a major address to the Arab world.

David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said that President Trumps refreshing honesty is welcome and needed in describing the Islamist extremist threat that developed in the Middle East years ago, and spread across the region and around the world. We agree that the fight against Islamist extremism is a battle between the forces of good and decency, on the one hand, and evil and a death cult, on the other, and that victory depends, above all, on what Arab and Muslim nations do to counter and defeat this violent, deadly scourge.

And he could not have been clearer in his description of Hezbollah and Hamas as the terrorist groups they most assuredly are, Harris also said.

Trump in his speech called Hamas a terror group, leading to this response from the group that controls Gaza: The depiction of Hamas as a terror organization by Trump makes clear the American bias on behalf of the occupation, and is aligned with the enemys policies.

Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein in a statement issued late Sunday called the speech historic, important, courageous.

Klein said his organization was pleased that Trump strongly condemned Iran, that he condemned ISIS, Hezbollah and Hamas and Iran in the same sentencefor they are all part of the same scourge of Islamist terror.

However, the president should have demanded that Muslim leaders and religious leaders should likewise condemn and delegitimize these terrorist groups by name. The president should have insisted that Muslim leaders end the use of the problematic textbooks throughout the Muslim world promoting Islamist extremism and violence and urge that they examine why terrorism emanates from some Muslim societies, he said.

It was also disappointing that the president did not mention the refusal of much of the Muslim world to negotiate with and accept Israel as a Jewish state.

Bnai Brith in a statement issued Sunday evening praised Trump for calling on Arab nations to join in the fight against Islamic terrorism and for challenging the Arab world to unite in confronting Iranthe largest state sponsor of global terror.

Nikos Stavroulakis, activist promoting Jewish life and heritage in Greece, dies

(JTA)Nikos Stavroulakis, an artist, scholar and prominent activist promoting Jewish life and heritage in Greece, has died.

Stavroulakis died last Friday in Chania, on the island of Crete. He was in his mid-80s.

The world of Greek Jewry owes Nikos so much, Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, museum director of the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum in New York, wrote in a post on Facebook. He will be dearly missed.

Born to a Jewish mother and a Greek Orthodox father from Crete, Stavroulakis was educated in England, the United States and Israel. He co-founded the Jewish Museum in Athens in 1977 and served as its director until 1993. He then moved to Chania and became the driving force behind the restoration of the Etz Hayyim synagogue there.

Built as a church in the 15th century and converted into a synagogue in the 1600s, the synagogue stood ruined after World War II following the destruction of the local Jewish community. The World Monuments Fund placed Etz Hayyim on its watch list of most endangered heritage sites in 1996, and Stavroulakis spearheaded the efforts to revive it.

After the synagogue was rededicated in 1999, it reopened as a place of prayer, recollection and reconciliation, with an eclectic and pluralistic congregation that as Stavroulakis put it, accommodates Jews of every variety of self identity as well as non-Jews.

Stavroulakis books included a guidebook to Jewish Greece, a history of Jews in Salonika and a Greek Jewish cookbook.

He was a philosopher, museumologist, artist, writer, storytellerand the finest chef in the Mediterranean region, said Krzysztof Czyzewski, director of the Borderland Foundation in Poland.

Romanias Parliament passes law providing more money for Holocaust survivors

(JTA)Romanias Parliament passed legislation that would provide increased direct financial support for Holocaust survivors.

The funds, a monthly payment of up to $97.98 per month for each year of deportation or detention, will be available beginning in July to those who were persecuted in Romania between 1940 and 1945, including deportees to ghettos and concentrations camps, survivors of the death trains and forced labor detachments, refugees and those who were imprisoned for ethnic reasons or forcefully removed from their homes in that period.

Survivors who no longer have Romanian citizenship or reside in the country, as well as the spouse of a deceased Holocaust survivor if they did not remarry, also are eligible.

The law was initiated by Silviu Vexler, a Parliament member representing the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania, the vice chairman of the Romania-Israel Parliamentary Group of Friendship and the vice chairman of the Labor and Social Protection Committee in the Chamber of Deputies.

This law is a symbolic gesture to further recognize the terrifying suffering of people who have been through the darkest of moments, Vexler said in a statement before the Chamber of Deputies following the final vote on the law. Even though nothing can change what happened in the past, through this act, the Parliament of Romania does a true gesture of humanity and dignity.

Before World War II, Romania had a Jewish population of over 700,000. Between 280,000 and 380,000 Jews were murdered or died during the Holocaust in Romania and the territories under its control, according to the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania published in 2004.

Rex Tillerson says Western Wall is part of Jerusalem, avoids mention of Israeli sovereignty

(JTA)U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would not say that the Western Wall is part of Israel when asked about by a reporter during the presidential flight from Saudi Arabia to Israel.

Tillerson met with reporters in the back of Air Force One on Monday morning during the flight to the second stop on President Donald Trumps first international trip since taking office.

Asked if he agrees with the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, who last week asserted during an interview that Weve always thought the Western Wall was part of Israel, Tillerson responded: The wall is part of Jerusalem. He did not expand on the statement.

The Western Wall is located in Jerusalems Old City and was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. This week, Israel is marking 50 years since the reunification of the city.

Tillerson said the second leg of the journey was to Tel Aviv, home of Judaism, though Trump is not scheduled to visit Tel Aviv, confining his 28-hour visit to Jerusalem. Ben Gurion International Airport, where Trump landed, is sometimes called Tel Aviv, though it is about 15 miles away from the city.

The secretary of state told reporters that the time is right to resurrect the Middle East peace process because of the common threat of the rise of the Islamic State, other terror groups and extremism.

Theres a unifying element in and of itself, and I think it does allow countries that have had deep differences to look at the situation and realize that in many respects our threats are common to all of us, Tillerson said. Providing a certain perspective thats not been there in the past, a perspective that is between us. That theres something larger going on thats affecting all of us. We need to try and come together to address that. I think that creates a different dynamic.

Asked if he would pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on settlements, Tillerson responded that settlements are part of the overall peace discussion. Its just there are a number of elements that have presented challenges to the peace process in the past; settlements is clearly one of those.

Tillerson said that arranging a three-way visit among Trump, Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who Trump will meet on Tuesday morning, would be too ambitious for such a short trip.

I think there will certainly be opportunities for that in the future, he said.

Asked if Trump would apologize to Israeli officials for sharing Israeli intelligence with Russian officials earlier this month, Tillerson responded, I dont know that theres anything to apologize for.

Drake breaks record with 13 honors at Billboard Music Awards

(JTA)Drake continued his record-breaking ways, taking home 13 honors at the Billboard Music Awards, including as top artist.

The Jewish rapper also won as top male artist, top Billboard 200 artist and top rap artist on Sunday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the way to snapping the Billboard awards mark of 12 held by Adele.

Since releasing the album Views last year, which broke Billboard chart records, Drake has become one of the most popular artists in the world. His latest album, More Life, broke online streaming records when it was released in March.

Billboard is a publication that covers the top-selling artists and songs in the country each week.

Knife-wielding Palestinian teen shot and killed in Jerusalem as Trump tours nearby

JERUSALEM (JTA)Israel Police officers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager who attempted to stab them just outside the Old City of Jerusalem as President Donald Trump was visiting holy sites in the city.

The teen, who was identified by the Palestinian Maan news agency as a 16-year-old from Bethlehem, approached the Border Police officers at a guard post in eastern Jerusalem on Monday afternoon with the knife drawn and disputed with the officers before being shot, according to the police.

No Israeli security forces were injured in the attempted attack in the town of Abu Dis.

The visit by Trump raised security in the area significantly. He is scheduled to visit Bethlehem, in the Palestinian Authority, and meet with P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.

The incident also took place amid the backdrop of Palestinian protests throughout the West Bank on Monday in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners seeking better prison conditions. Nearly 30 Palestinians have been injured in the protests, at least three seriously

Alan Mintz, Hebrew literature scholar and one-time student activist, is dead at 69
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's Jewish Community Relations Council is organizing and hosting a community briefing with Eric Ross, associate regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), titled Anti-Semitism Today: A Local and Global Issue, on Monday, June 5th from 7 p.m.-8:30pm in the Roth Family JCC Auditorium-851 N. Maitland Avenue, Maitland, FL 32751.

In addition to addressing the unprecedented rash of bomb threats to JCCs and other Jewish institutions during the first three months of 2017, Eric Ross will also be speaking about the increasing rates of anti-Semitic incidents in America and globally, and the important work that the Anti-Defamation League undertakes each and every day to "stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure the rights and fair treatment of all individuals alike."

This event is open to the community and there is no cost to attend. For more information, please contact the Jewish Federation's Marli Porth at mporth@jfgo.org or 407-645-5933.
U.S. President Donald Trumps optimism about Middle East peace might be justified.

Perhaps Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas pledge that he will be a true partner to Trump in the search for peace is genuine. Or maybe Trumps negotiating skillsand his lack of interest in the details or his loyalty to formulas like the two-state solutionwill provide what is needed to achieve progress.

But a statement issued only a few days before Trumps meeting with Abbas shows that theres more at stake here than the real estate deal of the century.

Just prior to the red carpet reception that Abbas got in Washington, his Hamas rivals sought to make some news of their own.

The Islamist terror group, which runs Gaza as an independent Palestinian state in all but name, remains focused on its longtime campaign to unseat Abbas and his Fatah party. The relationship between the two factions has been complicated, and at times deadly. But as much as Abbas fears Hamas (and depends on Israeli security cooperation to ensure his survival), he knows that he cant make any deals without Hamas approval. At the same time, Hamas terrorists worry that increased assistance from the U.S. and the Arab world will enable Abbas to maintain his stranglehold on the West Bank.

Thats why Hamas recently produced what it touted as a new statement of principles. The document eschewed some of the usual anti-Semitic rhetoric that Hamas generally uses, and states the groups willingness to accept a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders.

Optimists hailed Hamas shift as an indication that even Palestinian extremists are moving closer to peace. But what they missed is that the document also explicitly states that any independent Palestinian state would be merely a stepping-stone toward the ultimate goal of destroying Israel.

Hamas still refuses to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state, no matter where its borders are drawn. This is a position that the terror group actually shares with Abbas Fatah. Hamas also refused to disavow terrorism.

Realists, therefore, understand that the objectives of both Abbas and Hamas are very different from the hopes of Israelis and President Trump. Thats why Trump will need to give more than lip service to Israeli concerns about Palestinian behavior if he wants the product of his diplomatic offensive to amount to more than a piece of paper.

Trump deserves credit for pointing out, even in the midst of a feel-good appearance with Abbas, that the Palestinians must cease paying terrorist prisoners and their families. Trump also asked Abbas to stop using official television and other media, as well as PA-run schools, to incite violence against Israel and Jews. A senior adviser to Abbas dismissed that request as mad. Previous U.S. administrations have made similar requests to no avail, but such efforts were never considered priorities. And, as a result, the PA has continued to receive subsidies from both Americans and Europeans for 23 yearsdespite the fact that the Palestinians have been using that money to foment and subsidize terror.

Given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus political and legal troubles at home, Abbas may think that he can win a game of chicken with the prime minister. In this scenario, the Israelis would pull out of talks before the Palestinians, thus enabling the Palestinians to look good without actually making peace. But the US objective here needs to be laying the groundwork for a genuine change in Palestinian behavior, rather than a symbolic handshake that would give Trump a political boost or support his assertion that Middle East peace is frankly maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years.

One of the prerequisites for peace is for the Palestinians to reject Hamas vision of endless war against the Jews. But both Fatah and Hamas are merely seeking to position themselves to take advantage of an American president whose hubris about a diplomatic coup may impel him to ignore a Palestinian political culture rooted in the rejection of Zionism.

There is no new Hamas, any more than Abbas is prepared to reform the PA or to reject terrorism and his hatred of Jews. Unless Trump holds both the PA and Hamas accountable for their behavior, then what he is asking Israelis to do is to trade away their only negotiating chips for a deal that will give them neither security nor genuine peace. Thats the sort of bad deal that Trump would never accept, and its not one that he should expect the Israelis to swallow either.

Jonathan S. Tobin is opinion editor of JNS.org and a contributing writer for National Review. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.
The leader of Spains third political force, anti-austerity party Podemos, says he supports the Catalan regional governments intention to unilaterally hold an independence vote later this year, describing it as legitimate, adding the proviso that the poll would not be binding.

Pablo Iglesias attends a speech on Wednesday given by Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont. Samuel Sanchez

Speaking on Friday at the end of a week during which EL PAIS published details from a secret document prepared by the Catalan regional government outlining its plans to trigger independence if its plans to hold a plebiscite on sovereignty in late September for the northeastern region are blocked by the government, Podemoss leader, Pablo Iglesias told reporters he supported a legal referendum, one backed by Spains political parties and that would be recognized internationally, but that he was not opposed to the Catalan regional government, the Generalitat, holding its announced referendum.

Iglesias also issued a warning to the Socialist (PSOE) leader Pedro Sanchez that any deal to unseat the ruling Popular Party (PP) would have to include the right of Catalonia to hold an independence referendum.

Podemos supports a pluri-national Spain with different solutions for regions with strong nationalist identities

Unlike the Socialists, who back Spains Constitutional Court ruling that as things stand any referendum in Catalonia is illegal, Podemos is taking a halfway approach: the planned plebiscite would not be binding, and instead a way of mobilizing the Catalan electorate.

Political mobilization is always legitimate, said Iglesias, adding that he supported calls for the Catalan regional premier, Carles Puigdemont, to appear before the Spanish Congress to debate Catalonias place within Spain.

Podemoss rank and file is currently debating the partys position on a referendum in Catalonia and will vote on June 9 for one of three options: to reject any such vote outright, which would leave it on the margins; recognize a referendum as mobilization of the Catalan electorate, the position favored by Podemoss leadership; or to see the vote as binding, in line with the Catalan regional government.

Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido has warned that the Spanish government will take all steps necessary to stop a planned independence vote in Catalonia. RAUL CARO CADENAS (EFE)

Iglesias warned that the PP was prepared to use force to prevent a unilateral referendum: They are capable of anything and this wouldnt be the first time. Podemoss leader supports a legal referendum asking Catalans about their legal status with the rest of Spain, with every option on the table, including whether Catalonia should be an independent state. That said, the partys leadership prefers the inclusion in any referendum on sovereignty to include the option of a different constitutional position that recognizes Catalonia as a nation. Podemos says it supports a pluri-national model for Spain with different solutions for Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia, regions with the strongest nationalist identity.

English version by Nick Lyne.
(JTA)The festival of Shavuot, which begins at sundown May 30, focuses on Moses receiving the tablets of the law. But an even more fascinating part of the story is when he shatters them. In an astounding midrash, or rabbinic commentary, Moses act is portrayed as the epitome of loyalty to the people, but also teaches God about community and continuity.

Descending Mount Sinai, Moses sees the golden calf that the Israelites made while he was gone, a mortal sin according to the Torah hes carrying, so he decides not to give it to them. The midrash explains:

Moses started to turn back, but the Elders saw him and ran after him. Moses held on to one side of the tablets, they held on to the other, but Moses was stronger... He looked at the tablets and noticed that the writing had disappeared from them. How can I give the Israelites blank tablets? he thought, and decided it would be better to break them instead. (Avot DRabbi Natan, Ch. 2)

Moses realized there could be no Torah without a community to follow its teachings. Better the Torah be withdrawn than its recipients destroyed. God agreed and erased the laws from the tablets.

Blank tablets arent simply tablets lacking inscriptions. They are also tablets written in a language people no longer speak or understand. This midrash teaches that there is no value in Torah for Torahs sake; its value derives from those who live its traditions. Even God embraced the primacy of the people, however imperfect we may be, over a perfect, but unachievable, Torah.

Were not the first generation to manage the tension between the Torah and those who chafe against its demands. Were also not the firstor the lastto disassemble and reassemble Torah to preserve Judaism and the Jewish people. When teaching this midrash to rabbis in New Jersey, Rabbi Donniel Hartman challenged us by saying that every generation must ask what part of the Torah they are willing to break to stand beside their people.

The tablets of our time are straining in a world where identity and affiliation are voluntary expressions shaped by choice rather than heritage. Communal boundaries are increasingly porous in our flat, networked society defined by access and collaboration, and in which religious hierarchies make less and less sense. Individuals personally curate their own Jewish lives, drawing from an array of cultural, intellectual, social, political, ethnic, spiritual, sexual and gender affiliations within and beyond the Jewish community. Diverse sources of authority and inspiration abound, shaping multifaceted, multivocal Jewish expressions in the global conversation about meaning, connection and faith.

In this setting, what are we prepared to dismantle and reconfigure to help more Jews feel at home in Judaism and the Jewish community, and motivate them to stay and contribute to a shared vision of the future? Opening God-optional synagogues, leading kirtan-inflected prayer, creating intermarriage rituals, revolutionizing bnei mitzvah ceremonies, recognizing patrilineal descent, hosting Ramadan Iftar dinnerssome communities are fracturing todays tablets, illuminating our post-ethnic, spiritual-but-not-religious Jewish sensibilities.

Many shudder at the thought of shattering any part of the Torah, but we must remember where the shards of the tablets Moses broke were kept: in the Holy Ark, right beside the new ones. Among those shards lie such historic decisions as embracing matrilineality, banning polygamy and requiring a wifes consent to divorce, as well as more recent fractures of tradition initiated for the sake of Jewish peoplehood like allowing converts to marry Kohanim, seminaries to ordain women, communities to enfranchise LGBTQ Jews and Jewish cemeteries to bury non-Jewish spouses.

The disassembling and reassembling of Torah in every generation is part of the sacred narrative and destiny of the Jewish people. Its the source of our continuity, not our dissolution.

Will our tablets survive their collision with todays culture and emerge recast into an authentic Torah for the future? Will the pieces from our dismantling take their place in the ark as part of the ongoing, sacred narrative of the Jewish people?

Whats at stake is more than our own Jewish fate. Judaism, like humanity itself, is at a crossroads. As economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin suggests, along with our potential to deepen spiritual and moral consciousness in a world of increasing connectivity comes the possibility of extending our empathic embrace to all forms of life and to the planet itself. If Judaism fails to reimagine itself, the consequences will be devastating; to some they already are. The consequences of humanitys unwillingness to do the same could be more catastrophic. Creating a sustainable, open-sourced, non-hierarchical, collaborative Judaism is part of todays global urgency to create a similarly sustainable planet.

This powerful narrative is awaiting inscription upon our generations tablets. It comes with considerable risk, some loss and the potential for great reward. Like the midrashic tug of war between the Elders and Moses over the ancient tablets, our Torah is wrenched between the weight of the past and the call of the future. Which will ensure its salvation and that of the people to whom its continually given: a tighter grip or a more encompassing embrace?

Rabbi Adina Lewittes is the founder of Shaar Communities, a network that promotes an innovative, pluralistic approach to building Jewish identity by creating multiple portals into Jewish life and community.
By any standards, it was an extraordinary week for U.S.-Israel relationsand that was before President Donald Trump even arrived in Israel for his official visit.

It began with what sounded like a brawl between American and Israeli officials laying the groundwork for Trumps May 22-23 visit. Irritated by an Israeli request that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompany Trump on his visit to the Western Wall in Jerusaleman image that would send the unmistakable signal that the new U.S. administration regards a united Jerusalem as Israels eternal capitalDavid Berns, a political counselor at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, reportedly responded that the Jewish holy site is in fact part of the West Bank. The Israelis were stunned and said as much to the White House; by the end of the day, the White House had clarified Bernss comment did not reflect the position of the administration on Jerusalems status.

But what is the position of the administration? More confusion on this point came the following day. At a press briefing on Trumps itinerary in Israel, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was askedtwicewhether he regarded the Western Wall as part of Israel. McMaster declined to answer the question by describing it as a policy decision.

In the same briefing, McMaster confirmed that no Israeli leaders would accompany Trump at the Western Wall, encouraging speculation that the U.S. doesnt recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. McMaster revealed Trump would visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance centerbut only, it was reported later, for 15 minutesand made no mention of Trumps much-anticipated speech at the ancient Jewish fortress of Masada, which was ultimately scrapped by the Trump team, reportedly due to logistical and weather challenges.

How, then, did this high-profile spat between longtime allies not dominate this weeks headlines around the world? Its because this week was also, by any standard, an extraordinary one for U.S. politics in general.

With all the flair of a political thriller, and just hours after McMasters comment, Israel suddenly found itself inserted into a story that was tearing its way across the networks, as The New York Times revealed that the deeply sensitive intelligence Trump is said to have shared with Russian officials had originally been supplied by the Israelis. Then came the revelation that James Comey, the FBI chief fired by Trump, had written up the notes of a meeting in which Trump reportedly asked him to drop the investigation into the contacts between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the Russian governmentthe very issue behind Flynns rapid departure from the White House.

The cumulative effect of all this for the Trump administration is terrible, on fronts both foreign and domestic. It suggests, especially to Europeanseven those who tend to give Trump the benefit of the doubtthat all their worst fears about his presidency are coming true, and that the man who roasted Hillary Clinton over her email server is even more careless and indiscreet now that hes in office. This is not the message Trump should be sending to a continent where public distaste for military action is already widespread and entrenched, particularly when he is simultaneously asking NATO member states to increase their budgetary contributions.

Much the same argument could be made in the context of Japan and South Korea, both stalwart allies currently living under the shadow of the North Korean threat, who are nevertheless deeply nervous about Trumps ability to handle Kim Jong-un. It might even extend to Israel, whose government seems unable to grasp what Trumps policy agenda actually is, and whose intelligence services are likely thinking about how to present important intelligence to the Americans in the futurein a sufficiently Trump-proof manner.

But this shouldnt lead us to conclude the U.S.-Israel relationship will end up as one more casualty of Trumps unprecedented presidency. There is a natural tendency among political journalists to concentrate on the policy flips and hyperbolic statements that make politics so compelling, rather than upon the duller consistencies that make our democratic system more or less reliable. From the latter vantage point, there are some key points worth emphasizing about current American-Israeli ties.

First, Trump isnt the first president to have waded into a disagreement with Israel. One can think of numerous clashes during the last 50 years, from Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton to Barack Obama, which the relationship has readily survived.

Second, its clear there are a variety of voices within the administration speaking on this issue, with U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Ambassador to Israel David Friedman following up McMasters remarks with assurances that, in their view, the Western Wall belongs to Israel. This heightens the insecurity that only Trump knows what he is really thinking (and rethinking), and we should not expect this to change while hes in office.

Third, it should be remembered that many on the political right in Israel made the mistake of taking Trumps campaign rhetoric at face value. They might not have been as shocked by this weeks events had they not suffered from these delusions in the first place.

Fourth, does anyone doubt that Trump, once in Israel, will use his showmanship to publicly soothe the rattled bilateral relationship? That his immediate goal is to leave the Israelis asking themselves what they were worried about?

For as long as Trump is consumed by his domestic crisis, it is unlikely a final deal between the Palestinians and Israel will remain anything more than a lofty ambition. But Trumps crisis doesnt change the fact that there is a realignment in the region between Israel and the Arab statesand potentially the Palestiniansbased on shared interests, from economic development to confronting the Iranian threat. These opportunities really do form the basis for a meaningful peace processone, moreover, that wont depend on the fate of a single president.

Ben Cohen writes a weekly column for JNS.org on Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics. His writings have been published in Commentary, the New York Post, Haaretz, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.
There is no reason to suspect that President Trump harbors anything but the warmest feelings for Israel. And many of his closest advisershis son-in-law Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, and Ambassador to Israel David Friedmanhave long records of support for Israel. Yet it is possible to do harm without intending to do so, and Trumps meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas suggests that he may fall into that category.

A less egotistical man might have been given pause by the abject failure of so many of his predecessors to bring about peace between Israel and her neighbors, despite large investments of time, energy, and prestige. Not President Trump, who proclaimed the achievement of Middle East peace to be not as difficult as everybody thinks, and professed his eagerness to secure the deal of all deals.

And a more intellectually curious mind might have spent some time pondering why all the previous efforts have failed before assuming that he had the answers. Among the questions he might have asked is whether Americas active involvement in securing a peace deal at this point brings that peace closer or makes it even more unlikely.

Let us be clear, even a peace treaty, not to mention actual peace, between the Palestinian Authority and Israel is not in the cardsnot now and not in the foreseeable future. Israelis have witnessed both southern Lebanon and Gaza become missile launching pads against Israel after the Israeli withdrawal from those territories. They have predictably little taste for the same thing happening to Judea and Samaria.

The limitations on Palestinian sovereignty that would be required for Israeli security are not ones to which any Palestinian leader could ever agree.

When presented a binary choice between a bi-national single state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River or a two-state solution, Palestinians generally give something close to 50 percent support to the two-state solution. But when that twostate solution is fleshed out in specific terms, along the lines of the Clinton parameters at Camp David in 2000, large Palestinian majorities reject each of the crucial components. In two 2016 polls by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), 78 percent rejected a demilitarized Palestinian state; 65 percent rejected Israel retaining two early warning stations on the Jordan Valley Rift for 15 years; and 57 percent opposed the provisions on mutual recognition.

Two-thirds of Palestinians were against Israel annexing any settlement blocks beyond the 1949 armistice linesabout 3 percent of the West Bankeven if compensated with equal amounts of land elsewhere. But there is no way that Israel could possibly abandon those settlement blocks and uproot the hundreds of thousands of citizens living there without triggering a civil war.

And it should be remembered that the terms of the two-state deal the Palestinians were invited to consider in 2000 went beyond what any Israeli government has offered and to which a large majority of Israels citizens is prepared to agree.

But an even more fundamental reason peace is not possible at present is the congeries of beliefs that form what Daniel Pipes terms Palestinian rejectionism: Jews have no historical connection to the Land of Israel; Israel has no right to exist; and time is on the side of the Palestinians. Close to three-quarters of Palestinians deny that Jews have a long history in what they term historic Palestine. Large majorities of those polled consistently say that Israel has no right to exist, and that is so even if Israel would return all territory captured in 1967.

Mahmoud Abbass PhD. thesis on the alleged collaboration between Zionists and the Nazis in order to strengthen Jewish post-war claims to Palestine represents a classic statement of Palestinian rejectionism. Jewish settlement in Palestine, in that telling, has nothing to do with historic ties to the Land, but only with European guilt over the Holocaust. Moreover, Zionism is a totally illegitimate movement allied to the Nazis. Abbas continues to affirm the validity of his thesis to this day.

The Palestinians are also educating their children for peace, Abbas averred with a straight face to President Trump. One cannot help be impressed by his ability to lie so brazenly. On a daily basis, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch, demonization of Jews pours forth in a torrent. Young children cry out their determination to kill the Jews, that there is no such thing as Israel, that Jews are the sons of the pigs, and the TV hosts, paid by the PA, clap and chant Bravo.

Investigative journalist David Bedein started following Yasir Arafat around with a tape recorder to document what he was telling Arab audiences from the early days of Oslo and in recent years has focused on the curriculum taught in the refugee camps run by UNRWA (to which the United States contributes 30 percent of the budget.) In those schools, a daily drama of redemption and return to all the land owned by Arabs prior to 1948 is reenacted.

The effectiveness of the ceaseless incitement and active encouragement of terror is reflected in Palestinian public opinion. When a Palestinian state in the entire area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean and the Jordanfrom the river to the seais added to the mix of choices for a solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict, it is consistently found to be the most popular by far. Colin Irwin employed the same type of peace polls he had developed in Northern Ireland in polling Palestinians. Eighty-two percent of those polled described a return to historic Palestine as essential or desirable. Over 70 percent described an Islamic Waqf in the same area as essential or desirable. Bottom line: A large majority of Palestinians aspire to a day when Israel no longer exists.

And even were the Palestinian leadership to negotiate a two-state settlement, 64 percent of Palestinians would still favor continuing the resistance, according to a 2014 poll by David Pollack of the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy. And in 16 different polls, an average of 88 percent of the Palestinians polled rejected, as part of a peace deal, agreement to remove from the Palestinian school curriculum all demands for a return to Palestinian rule over all of historic Palestine.

Fueling Palestinian revanchism, at least in part, is the conviction that time is on the Palestinians side and that Israel will not be around forever. In a 2015 poll, David Pollack found that only 23 percent of Palestinians think Israel will still exist in 30 or 40 years. And in a poll after the complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a large majority of Palestinians expressed their belief that resistance played a great role in securing the Israeli withdrawal, and is an effective tool in wearing down Jewish morale.

If Palestinian public opinion is to change, the key will be convincing the Palestinians that time is not on their side, and that rejectionism comes with a price. Passage and implementation of the Taylor Force Act before Congress, which conditions U.S. aid to the West Bank and Gaza on the cessation of payments for acts of terrorism against Israeli and U.S. citizens, would be an important first step. (Taylor Force, a West Point graduate, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was knifed to death by a Palestinian terrorist while visiting Israel last year. The terrorists funeral was broadcast on PA TV, and Abbas hailed him as a heroic martyr.)

No longer falling for every rusee.g., Palestinian peace educationas a fig leaf for proclaiming Palestinian moderation and commitment to peace so as to keep the cash spigots open would be another important step. Hamass issuance last week of a new covenant was just such a ruse. The new covenant drops the Koranic quotations calling for the murder of Jews wherever they are found and appears to express a willingness to accept something less than the maximal Palestinian state. But on closer examination, it continues to advocate the old Arafat strategy of destroying Israel by salami tactics, one slice at a time and explicitly denies any legitimacy to Israel.

Instead of rushing to invite Abbas to the White House and assuring him of continued American support, as President Trump did, based on the premise that peace is attainable at present, Trump should have made it clear to the Palestinians that a long period of benign neglect lies ahead, if they do not go to work building their own civic society rather than fostering dreams of destroying Israels. The failure to do so made peace more distant than ever.

Jonathan Rosenblum is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and Israeli director of Am Echad.
CLAREMONT  Catawba County Animal Services removed 358 animals Wednesday from a Claremont residence where the Catawba County Sheriffs Office had seized more than a half a billion dollars worth of opium poppies the day before, according to a press release.

Law enforcement discovered the animals during Tuesdays search. These animals include chickens, dogs and a cat.

An investigation is underway to determine if the chickens were used for cockfights. Signs of neglect, such as open sores or missing feathers, appeared on many of the animals.

Authorities also found 40 animals dead in cages on the property, according to the release.

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Animal Control assure the living animals will be treated humanely and examined by veterinarians. If possible, these animals will be available for new homes, according to the release.

Until then, authorities have the animals in a secure location.

On Tuesday, the narcotics office of the Catawba County Sheriffs Office seized a field of opium poppies.

Authorities weighed the plants after the seizure, and the Department of Revenue totaled them at $559.5 million, Sheriff Coy Reid said Thursday. This new total is more than Reids Tuesday estimate of $500 million.

There is one poppy that is illegal, and that is the one we got, Reid said about the plants.

The papaver somniferum, the opium poppys scientific name, is the only member of the poppy family to produce opium.

North Carolina General Statute 90-90 (1) (c) establishes the opium poppy as a schedule II controlled substance, making possession illegal.

Prior to the warranted seizure, investigators reached out to horticulture experts for assistance. Afterward, samples were tested to confirm the poppies were opium poppies.

If the plant is being used to produce opium, this will make a dent on distribution somewhere, Jason Reid said on Tuesday. Its obvious that not a lot of people know how to grow the plant, or have attempted to grow the plant. If they are, they just have not been caught yet.

Tuesday, Coy Reid indicated a shelter next to the home with multiple propane burners and fire pits as a site where plants may have been processed.

During the seizure, deputies charged a resident of the home in connection to the field.

Cody Xiong, 37, of Hickory, was charged with one felony count of manufacturing a schedule II controlled substance and two felony counts of trafficking opium or heroin.

Deputies said other individuals lived at the residence, but it is unknown if other charges have been filed against them.
HICKORY  More than 500,000 North Carolinians are insured through the Affordable Care Act with Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.C.  these residents could see a rate increase of 22.9 percent, according to a press release from the company Thursday.

The North Carolina Department of Insurance cannot release significant information regarding the rate increase as information can be considered trade secrets, Assistant Director of Public Information Colin Day said.

There are three factors driving the rate increase, according to the press release. They are cost-sharing reduction funding (CSR), increase in medical costs, including physician services and prescription drugs, and Federal Health Insurance Tax.

The lack of funding for cost-sharing reduction payments drove the majority of the requested increase. The Blue Cross N.C. requested increase would have been 8.8 percent if CSR subsidies had been fully funded for 2018, according to the release.

The lack of funding for CSR equals 14 percent of the rate increase, while cost of care and federal health insurance tax equal 5.8 percent and 3 percent of the increase, respectively.

In a presentation provided by Blue Cross N.C., without CSR, a deductible is $800 and out-of-pocket maximum is $7,150 compared to a $500 deductible and $5,000 out-of-pocket with CSR.

The North Carolina Department of Insurance will take the next steps in reviewing the rate request before the company can finalize them this summer, according to the presentation.

Blue Cross N.C. intends to sell health insurance plans on and off the exchange in all 100 counties. However, the undecided future of the ACA makes it hard for insurance companies to prepare for 2018 and could impact whether or not Blue Cross N.C. can offer plans, according to the press release.

The fate of Blue Cross N.C. plans is not certain and if the company changes its plans for the future of the ACA, Brian Tajlili said, who is the director of actuarial and pricing services for Blue Cross N.C.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.C. as well as Coventry are the two companies providing insurance coverage through federal exchanges in the state, according to the Catawba County Social Services website.

In 2016, an estimated 41,000 residents in the states 10th District received insurance through federal marketplaces, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
NASA has a hard time keeping up with its moon dirt.

In July, on the 48 th anniversary of Neil Armstrongs walk on the moon, Sothebys will auction off a bag full of the first lunar material he scooped up and brought back to Earth. It is expected to fetch between $2 million and $4 million.

How did this historically significant sack of sand come to be at an auction house? According to a Newsweek article, it is a well traveled artifact of early space exploration. After Armstrong brought it back, it was stolen and later seized as part of a criminal case against Max Ary, the former director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center who was convicted of stealing and selling space artifacts from the museum, sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

Once safely back where it belonged, NASA apparently forgot it was important and Nancy Lee Carlson, a corporate attorney and space collector, purchased it for $995 at an auction held on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service in February 2015. When she sent it to NASA to have it tested to confirm there was moon dust inside, the space agency reportedly decided not to return it, and a legal battle ensued. This past December, a judge ruled that Carlson is entitled to possession of the bag. In February, a federal judge ordered the Johnson Space Center to return it to Carlson, Newsweek reported.

Yes, we can put a man on the moon but we cant keep up with our valuable space dirt.

To mitigate any further damage to our nations storied space exploration history, I intend to offer my services to NASA in the role of senior inventory control consultant for the low price of $1 million, which is a at least $1 million less than it would cost them to buy the moon dirt back. Here is the cover letter to accompany my resume.

Dear NASA:

Hows it going? First, let say I am a big fan. Even though I was a few months shy of 5 years old, I can still recall watching our black-and-white TV in awe as man set foot on the moon for the first time and hearing my uncle yell, Aw, that $#1& is fake. Turn it back to wrestling.

Im joking of course. We never turned it away from wrestling.

In all seriousness, or semi-seriousness, it has come to my attention that your agency may need some help in inventory control, inventory that has great historical significance (such as bags of moon dirt worth upward of $4 million.)

I believe as senior inventory control consultant, I can help safeguard these items. Lets look at a typical scenario in which I would play a role. This one involves a fictional NASA employee well call Larry.

Larry: I cleaned out the back like you told me to. Lots moldy papers and trash and such. And then theres an old helmet belonged to a fellow by the name of Neil Armstrong. It dont look like hes coming back to get it so Ill put it on the curb with the rest of the stuff.

Me: No, Larry. We are keeping Neil Armstrongs helmet. He was the first person to walk on the moon and that item is historically significant.

Larry: Well, Ill be. I guess Ill just put it back yonder where I got it. Theres a lot more room now that I got rid of those dried up critters in the boxes marked Roswell.

Me: Larry, those are the aliens from the UFO crash in New Mexico in 1947. We cant get rid of those.

Larry: Aw, shucks. I sure am glad NASA hired you to be senior inventory control consultant or else I might be getting written up again like when I gave the Marshals Service the bag of moon dirt.

So, NASA, what do you say? Can we work together to preserve our nations space exploration history? I think this relationship is written in the stars.

Scott Hollifield is editor/GM of The McDowell News in Marion and a humor columnist.
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Erdogan could be barred from entering to the United States (video)

The United States should give a tough response to last weeks violence that took place in front of Turkish ambassadors residence in Washington, D.C., during President Recep Tayip Erdogans visit to the nations capital, say U.S. Congressmen. During US Congress Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats Subcommittee meeting headed by Dana Tyrone Rohrabacher, the members suggested President Erdogan not to be invited to the US again. Rohrabacher and the Committee gathered to discuss the violent May 16th brawl in front of Turkish Embassy residence in Washington. Some protesters who were attacked that day testified as witnesses at the meeting. Rohrabacher said a president from another country who watched his bullyboys beat Americans to the ground and bloodied them, and for him to protest our people, that is a supreme insult. I hope all Americans understand the message that he is giving us. But we have a message for him; we dont need people like you visiting the United States anymore. If we need to talk, we talk to the Turks. Not with a repressor like you. Calling the Turkish President an Islamofascist, Mr. Rohrabacher said that Erdogan was against all the fundamental values that the US represented. Rohrabacher is known to be close to President Trump. David Cicilline, a senior Democrat member of the Committee, took the floor and he continued his heavy criticism. Cicilline noted that Turkish leader attacked USs fundamental freedoms and rights. Democratic Partys Brad Sherman noted that Turkey must indeed apologize and emphasized that they would not retreat against Erdogan. Congressman Ted Poe called both Erdogan and his guards Gestapo and that the leader of another country breaking the US the Constitutional Laws was unheard of. House Majority leader Paul Ryan also tweeted that he joins the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee in condemning the violent intervention of the Turkish authorities and demanded a complete apology. Mr. Meeks, known to be sympathetic to the Turkish Government also had harsh words for the Turkish government; Individual freedoms are being attacked in Turkey. Now the Turkish Government is trying to move that offense to Washington, the ninth of world democracy. Peaceful protesters were attacked by the bullies. The emerging images show that Erdogan is watching the events and going back inside without intervening, thus giving a passive approval. The House has already passed a resolution condemning the violence and asking for a formal apology.
It seems strange/That the pyramids were built by aliens/Because a wonder of the world couldnt have been wondered by Africans/Only when chained could we have built your civilizations/Only when raped could we have mothered your nations.

The lines above are from a searing piece of poetry, My Skin Crawls, one of the first results you get when you google Xabiso Vilis name. A poet from South Africa, Vili will soon perform in the city as part of an ongoing tour for his spoken word series  Black Boi Be  organised by Qissa Kothi. The poet has already performed in Delhi. Speaking about the series and the reception in Delhi, the 26-year-old says, Black Boi Be is a combination of poems that come from personal stories. Ive been working on it for the past couple of months and performing in South Africa and now here in India. I was wondering how a story about a black boy would resonate across continents, but the audience here got the concept. They seemed touched by the poetry and the techniques that I used.

Vili says his inspirations for poetry include personal stories and everyday life. (Jagjeet Singh)

Vili started writing poetry when he was 12, and his powerful words have garnered him several accolades: he has been crowned champion of the Pretoria Spoken Sessions Slam League as well as the Speak Out Loud Youth Poetry Competition, and was named the Word N Sound Poet of the Year in 2014 and 2015. But Vili remembers being an awkward child. He says, I didnt know how to speak to my peers. So, through poetry, I was able to externalise my internal conversations, which then allowed me to communicate with people around me. I started performing at 16, and the rest, as they say, is a story best heard over whiskey (laughs).

Many of Vilis poems, such as Fat Boi, Boy of Fire and Kingdom of Scars, revolve around issues of skin colour, race and body image. When asked about his inspirations, Vili says, Ive written about run-over dogs in the street and compared them to governments. I think my inspiration comes from everyday living. I think there is a poetry in life and my job is to see it, to notice it, to take it in me and internalise it and put it on paper.

Vilis poetry often deals with issues such as racism, skin colour, and body image. (Jagjeet Singh)

Even though his performance comes in the wake of the recent attacks on Nigerians and South Africans by lynch mobs in New Delhi, an undeterred Vili says, If I didnt come here [to India], I dont think I would be doing my job an artiste, which is to interrogate this dark side of humanity. I think it is necessary for me to be here and to speak of it. Not only as an artiste, but also a South African, because there are similarities in the xenophobic attacks in South Africa as well, says the poet.

Note: Vili will perform at Barking Deer, Lower Parel on May 27, from 4pm to 7pm, and at Studio Tamaasha, Andheri (W) on May 28, from 12pm.

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In the mid-60s, Girish Karnad was a 22 year-old playwright in search of a subject. He had just completed writing about the whim of a king (Yayati) when he came upon the statement of a fellow Kannada litterateurs dissing existing Kannada plays as costume drama. Karnad decided to rise to the challenge. His Tughlaq is a theatrical representation strong in rhetoric of the 14th-century king who destabilised his own kingdom; marched his people from the north (Delhi) to the west (Daulatabad) to set up a new capital and marched them back; went on a killing spree; struck coins in one metal and then another  all in the name of good governance. Watching a powerful man crack up, whenever it occurs, is a bad time in history. Its great for art though.

Tughlaq was first staged in Urdu in 1966 as part of a National School of Drama student production directed by actor Om Shivpuri, then a student. Its more famous outing was Ebrahim Alkazis grand set-piece at the Purana Qila, Delhi, in 1972; veteran actor Manohar Singh played the lead. A revival of the play in Delhi this weekend comes at an interesting point when books are questioning older books about dead rulers with bad press -- such as Aurangzeb  and the appropriate way to look at figures of history.

Tughlaq is not just about Nehru, says Girish Karnad. (Hemant Mishra / Mint)

Home truths

So, was Muhummad bin Tughlaq mad or brilliant? Should one laugh at him or listen to him? Was he a visionary or an insecure politician? Were his projects an expression of madness or driven by political calculation? The answers to these questions, says Karnad, may perhaps be set aside for the most important question -- is the play still contemporary or not.

Written in the 60s, everyone latched on to UR Ananthamurthys comment of it being a critique of Nehruvian socialism, says the actor-playwright. The point about a play is that it cannot simply be about its own time. Tughlaq is not just about Nehru. There are lines in the play when two guards talk to each other and one of them says Oh, this is such a strong fort! The other guard doesnt agree. He says This fort will crumble due its inner weaknesses. An 80s audience watching it, interpreted it as the aftermath to Indira Gandhis assassination Every audience interprets a play according to his own sense of reality. The question is whether it will connect it to Modi.

When curtains go up

K Madavane, the director of Tughlaq that will be staged this weekend, seems to have taken forward Karnads aesthetics in the way he has developed the play visually. K Madavane is a meticulous planner. The throne is not a static piece of furniture, its movement to indicate a shift of capital, says Veena Soorma of Shri Ram Centre of Performing Arts.

The stage is bare except for a huge wooden throne atop a pyramid whose base is made up of stairs. Tughlaq climbs these stairs to issue his orders; his minions positioned at various levels on the staircase fight it out for his attention. The courtier (Najeeb), who is all hot air, grand postures and bad advice, is the one who has the kings ears. Those who are temperate dont stand a chance. Tughlaqs subjects also make hay feeding into his fickle impulses to be seen as inclusive.

A scene from the play between a dhobi and a thief. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

One of his Muslim subjects, for example, takes on the identity of a Brahmin to benefit from the kings generosity to his Hindu subjects. The Daulatabad move, says Sandeep Singh, the Shri Ram Centre repertory chief, was, in fact guided by the motive that Daulatabad [in Maharashtra] was a centre for his Hindu subjects. And the coming of his Muslim majority population from Delhi would make it a place of religious harmonyBut it was also to secure his capital from Mongol invasion, he adds. Tughlaq got the people packing and everyone hated the idea.

There were three things that were fighting for Tughlaqs soul, says Singh. He quotes from the play to make his point: Khuda ki azmaat (Allahs greatness), riyaya ki bhalayi ka khwaab(the dream for the good of the people), aur zaati khwaishey (my personal desires)  jab teeno main kashmakash ho rahi ho toh mujhey soney ka waqt kanhan hai

Veteran actor Ayaz Khan who is playing Tughlaq for the sixth time in his career, says the character is open to various readings. Tughlaqs mistakes, he says, unlike todays leaders, was not for power. He thought he was building a new world. He was rash and driven by idealism. Even if he did badly, he was a brilliant failure. To me, he is a positive character.

What: Tughlaq (Hindi/Urdu)

When: May 27, 28, 7 pm

Where: Shri Ram Centre, 4 Safdar Hashmi Marg. For tickets go to bookmyshow.com

Nearest metro station: Mandi House

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A debt ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide in Panna district, 386 kms from Bhopal, on Friday. His family members say he electrocuted himself by holding a live wire, while local police says that prima facie the farmer died due to electrocution but the exact cause of his death will be known after investigation.

The incident occurred in the village Batthaer Megha in Devendernagar tehsil of Panna.

Ramakant Tiwari, the nephew of the deceased- 55-year-old farmer Rama Shankar Tiwari- told HT on phone that his uncle had to pay a loan of Rs 5.3 lakh to the bank. Due to illness of family members and marriage of a daughter, my uncle (Rama Shankar Tiwari ) couldnt pay the installments during last one year. The bank officials seized my uncles tractor on May 18 and handed over a notice to us on May 19 that Rs 5.3 lakh be paid with in 16 days failing which they will auction the tractor and release the remaining amount from my uncle, he said.

Ramakant Tiwari said his uncle requested the bank officials to give him three months time during which we had planned to sell a part of our land to repay the loan. But no time was given. My uncle was depressed and anxious. He lost interest in food and was not eating much. Then on Thursday evening, he committed suicide by holding a live wire, he said.

Devendernagar police station officer Reeta Tripathi said that Tiwari had died during Thursday night due to electrocution. She said that whether the farmer committed suicide was being investigated.

Last month a 45-year old debt ridden farmer allegedly committed suicide in Dhar district by hanging himself from the branch of a tree in his field. He had also taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh from a cooperative bank.

In last 16 years, over 21000 farmers and farm labourers have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh due to varied reasons. However over last one year, maximum number of farmers have committed suicide since 2001.

From February 2016 to mid-February 2017, 1982 farmers and farm labourers have committed suicide in MP. During last nearly one year, of 9187 people committed who suicide in MP, over 21 % (1982 ) were from agriculture sector-farmers and farm labourers. This translates into one farmer or farm labourer committing suicide every five hours in the state over last one year. If 2016 was bad for farmers and farm labourers in MP, 2015 wasnt pretty either. MP featured among the top five states which reported maximum suicides by farmers in 2015. In 2015, MP reported 1290 suicides by farmers and agricultural labourers due to varied reasons, according to the NCRB data on accidental deaths and suicides in India (ADSI) released in December last year. The reasons for the farmer suicides, according to the NCRB data, were attributed to farming related issues, crop failure, inability to sell their agricultural produce, inability to repay loans and other factors like poverty, property disputes, marriage related issues, family problems and illness.
Bhopal/Jabalpur: High court Jabalpur bench ordered a CBI inquiry on Friday into theft of a machine from Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Department of Atomic Energy, government of India at Indore that took place in 2004. The machine was worth Rs 5 lakh.

The HC bench of Sanjay Yadav passed the order on a petition filed by Krishna Kumar Mishra, who was employed with the Centre as a scientific assistant/D. Mishra alleged in the petition he had to resign from his job in July 2004 as a result of victimisation.

The court observed, In view of the correspondence entered into between the concerned authorities and the affidavit sworn in by Gopalkrishnan Venkatesan, administrative officer-III, RRCAT, gravity and seriousness of the crime which is subject matter of investigation cannot be ruled out and since the local Police is unable to investigate the crime effectively, this court is of the considered opinion that the same deserves to be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Levelling various irregularities in the institute in his petition the petitioner demanded a CBI inquiry into the matters raised by him especially in case of mysterious theft/ disappearance of petitioners lock-in-amplifier, interception of telephones/e-mails/postal letters/ bugging of domestic conversation of the petitioner, suicide of Lt Thirumal, suicide of Lt Attar Singh, suicide of Rajesh Topno and other financial irregularities prevailing in the RRCAT, Indore.

The court, however, didnt entertain the petitioners prayer to remove the head of the institute and order a CBI inquiry into all the issues raised by him. The court ordered the CBI inquiry in context of the FIR lodged with Rajendra Nagar police station in Indore vide crime no. 36/2005. The FIR was lodged against unknown persons in respect with the theft of lock-in-amplifier that had taken place in the year 2004.

Police had filed a closure report before additional chief judicial magistrate, Indore on April 28, 2005 in connection with the FIR but the court didnt accept the closure report as the statements of the petitioner and one Shailja had not been recorded.
Bollywood star Salman Khan, who plays a special character in the upcoming highly-anticipated Kabir Khan-directorial, has said it is the most difficult thing to maintain the simplicity, honesty and purity of the character in films like Tubelight.

Actors Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Music director Pritam Chakraborty, filmmaker Kabir Khan and Amar Butala during the trailer launch of film Tubelight in Mumbai, on May 25. (IANS)

At the trailer launch of Tubelight, the Dabangg star was asked if it is hard to portray a character like the one in this film, to which the actor replied, If youre able to visualize the character after reading the screenplay and the story, you will be able to do the character perfectly. Out here its not only walking, its also the way he talks is very different. He is pure. And to do a pure character is like the most difficult thing there is.

In our lives, we are not like the purest of people. So, to portray someone like, maybe a character from Hum Apke Hain Kaun or to portray someone from Bajrangi Bhaijan or Tubelight, its the most difficult thing because to maintain the simplicity, the honesty and the purity of the character is like the most difficult thing that one has to do in films like this one, said the 51-year-old.

It is your own personality that goes against you in films like Tubelight, Salman added.

At the trailer launch, Salman also spoke of his experiences of shooting the movie. He said he got genuinely emotional at times and actually cried. He also said that he misses the late Om Puri, who plays a vital role in the film.

Tubelight is slated to release on June 23.



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Actor Kriti Sanon loves to explore and try her hand at things, which she has never tried before. The 26-year-old feels blessed to be an actor, as every role that she plays, gives her a chance to learn something new. I have learnt a lot of new things from the time I became an actor. Its exciting to learn new things and crafts, and with every film of mine, I have picked up something that I didnt know before, says Kriti.

For her upcoming film, Raabta, starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti got to learn a variety of things including swimming and horse-riding.

I knew how to swim but I was never confident underwater. For this film, we had to shoot underwater, which meant that we had to be really good swimmers. It helped me get my confidence back, shares Kriti, adding that learning horse-riding was a brand new experience for her.

It (horse-riding) was something that I never thought I will ever do in my life. Im glad I got an opportunity to learn this as well. As an actor, I feel blessed to be experiencing all these new things, says the actor.

However, Kritis most enjoyable experience was learning the art of making chocolates. I learnt in just four classes, since my profession in the film is that of a chocolate maker. I took the classes in Mumbai, and after that I tried it with different types of chocolates, and made sweets out of them. I bought them to the set as well and Sushant had them all, adds the actor, who has worked in films such as Heropanti (2014), Dilwale (2015).

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In February 2006, Florence Ezekiel Nadira died in a Mumbai hospital. That same week, thousands of miles away in Melbourne, Danny Ben-Moshe chanced upon her obituary. The interest it sparked would drive an 11-year search and culminate in a documentary on Hindi cinemas once-lauded  and since forgotten  Jewish celebrities.

Ben-Moshe, an adjunct professor at Melbournes Deakin University, is also a documentary filmmaker and recipient of the Walkley Award, Australias top prize for documentaries. For his current baby, Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema, hes seeking $20,000 through an crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo.com.

Given the times we live in today, Shalom Bollywood needs all the help it can get, says Ben-Moshe. As opposed to Hollywood, where Jews mostly worked behind the camera or as producers and played down their heritage in a then-increasingly anti-Semitic world, Indian Jews had no such compulsions. The name changes were more to induce familiarity with Indian audiences rather than religious anxiety.

So Florence Ezekiel was popularly known as Nadira. She was a staple in most Raj Kapoor productions and is one of many Jewish actresses who feature in Shalom Bollywood.

Danny Ben-Moshe (right) with actress Ayesha Dharker, who has narrated Shalom Bollywood.

Others include silent film doyenne Sulochana (real name Ruby Myers), Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham, also the first Miss India), Arati Devi (Rachel Sofaer) and Rose (who went by only one name). Theres also David Abraham Cheulkar, one of Indian cinemas most popular character actors ever, best known for Boot Polish (1954) and Gol Maal (1979), and Raj Kapoors publicist, Bunny Reuben.

David was also a prominent presenter at the Filmfare awards, says film columnist and historian Deepak Mahaan. While Ameen Sayani would be the main compere, David was the raconteur, interviewing celebrities as they milled into Shanmukhananda Hall for the ceremony.

Florence Ezekiel, also known as Nadira, was one of the most prominent Jewish actresses in India. She made her mark as a leading lady before going on to become one of the most recognisable vamps in Hindi cinema.

And while Pramila went on to co-produce films in the 1930s and 40s with actor-husband Kumar (who was Muslim by birth), no Indian Jewish celebrity reached the heights that Sulochana did, says film historian SMM Ausaja.

The hysteria for her was unmatched by any Indian actress of the 20s. There was even a film made in her name in the 30s. Many of her silent films were remade in that era as talkies too, Ausaja adds.

Actress Rose, says Ben-Moshe, was famous for throwing some of the most lavish parties in Bombay.

Historian Rafique Baghdadi points out that Alam Ara, Indias first talkie, was scripted by Joseph David, an Indian Jew who had also penned the original play.

While the contribution of Indian Jews to the film industry has been written about, Shalom Bollywood offers little-known tidbits too.

Sulochana (foreground) in the silent film Anarkali (1928). Her real name was Ruby Myers. Unlike Hollywood, where Jews worked behind the camera and played down their heritage, in India there were no such compulsions, Ben-Moshe says. The name changes here were meant to induce familiarity with Indian audiences.

For instance, Rose was famous for throwing some of the most lavish parties in Bombay. And years ago, before he died, Bunny Reuben told me that Raj Kapoor would request him, David, and Nadira to drape the Jewish shawl on him and include him in their prayer recitals during breaks or between takes, Ben-Moshe says. Not many know this about RK.

The biggest hurdle for Ben-Moshe while making his documentary was the poor state of film archives in India. There was also confusion over the heritage of actresses like Patience Cooper and Azurie, one of Indian cinemas first dancing stars.

David Abraham Cheulkar, popularly known as David, was also a staple in Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee films.

It was a minefield to work out who was who, Ben-Moshe says. I was told that Patience Cooper  who, along with Sulochana, was a silent film star  was Jewish. But when I contacted her descendants, they told me Cooper was an Armenian Christian. Azurie was also Christian.

In the absence of accessible records, Ben-Moshe was forced to track down the families of those he featured. This involved making five trips to India over the years, all of which, he says, were more than productive, since it were these relatives who proved crucial for Shalom Bollywood.

Actor-scriptwriter Haidar Ali, who is Pramilas son, and Rachel Reuben, a former model and editor-director whos the granddaughter of Rose, became important sources. As did Dianne and Victor Abraham, the niece and nephew of David Abraham.

Pramila, or Esther Victoria Abraham, was also the first Miss India, winning the title in 1947. Seen here is a still from her film, Jungle King (1959).

Since Haider and Rachel still work in the industry, their inputs doubled as a way to maintain storytelling continuity about the relationship between Indian Jews and Indian cinema, Ben-Moshe says.

Shooting is done, and the funding being sought for Shalom Bollywood will be needed for post-production, licensing fees for archival footage and audio, and for distribution.

What if he doesnt meet his target? Ill complete [it] come what may, he says.

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Thanks to you new glorious pages will be written in Yerevans chronology - Yerevan Mayor

Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan has congratulated school-leavers on the occasion of the Last School Bell event. Below is the message of the Yerevan mayor; "Dear school-leavers, I cordially congratulate you on finishing school which was one of the most important stages of your life. Here you gained significant knowledge and the aspiration for being useful to the society, which will lead you throughout your life. Our country has great expectations of the new generation, believes in its big potential. From now on you will participate in the responsible work of strengthening the independent statehood of Armenia assuming the responsibility and simultaneously the right to be the master of the country. I wish you success in this mission. On the event of the Last School Bell I also congratulate your parents and teachers who took any efforts to ensure your carefree childhood and provide you with proper knowledge. And today you are taking the responsibility to make their dreams and hopes regarding you come true. Dear friends, as the Mayor of Yerevan I hope that thanks to you new glorious pages will be written in Yerevans chronology. I wish you a happy trip to your adult life feeling certain that you will realize all your dreams for the benefit of our country and the welfare of our capital city Yerevan.
A final investment decision by Indias Adani Enterprises to develop its Carmichael coal mine project in Australia could be back on track as early as next week, pending sign-off of a government royalty arrangement.

Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, a proponent of the project, said on Friday that how much Adani will pay in royalties will be discussed at a cabinet meeting of the centre-left government on Monday.

Im not going into those details, theyll be matters before cabinet on Monday, Palaszczuk told reporters.

Adani said this week its board had deferred a final investment decision that had been expected by the end of May because the government had yet to sign off on a royalty regime.

Both Adani and the premiers office declined to comment on a report in The Australian newspaper that Adani will be offered a discounted royalty rate during the early years of coal production.

The newspaper said a compromise on the project - which has run into opposition from within government ranks - was struck following a meeting of the states senior cabinet ministers.

Palazsczuk has said previously that any change to the states royalty regime would not just be for Adani, but would be for a range of new mines and natural gas projects.

The $4 billion project is located in the remote Galilee Basin, a 247,000 square-kilometre (95,000 square mile) expanse that some believe has the potential to become Australias largest coal-producing region.

Adani has battled green groups who want to block what would be Australias biggest coal mine, arguing that it will stoke global warming, while the Indian company says the project would pay billions of dollars in royalties and taxes and create jobs.
The government is contemplating incentivising manufacturers to set up facilities for making lithium-ion batteries in India to lower the cost of electric vehicles, a move likely to discourage Chinese car makers seeking to enter the market.

Elaborating on the plans to develop low-cost lithium-ion batteries in India, Union heavy industry minister Anant Geete said efforts are being made to remodel the battery made by Indian Space Research Organisation so that it can be used in electric vehicles.

We are trying to establish a manufacturing facility with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited entailing an investment of Rs 100 crore. Maruti also wants to invest Rs 2 lakh crore for manufacturing lithium batteries, Geete told PTI.

He said the government is also mulling over incentives for domestic car makers, who invest in setting up facilities to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in India.

The government is aggressively trying to push the sales and production of electric vehicles in the country through schemes such as FAME India, which may have caught the fancy of Chinese automobile manufacturers such as BYD and SAIC who are already investing heavily in electric technology.

Today the only country manufacturing lithium batteries is China, so business will increase for them as we push electric mobility in India. This is a matter of happiness for them. However, their happiness will be short-lived. We do not want to give this happiness to China for a long time therefore we are making efforts for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries in India, Geete said.

A 12 per cent levy on pure electric vehicles (EVs) has been proposed under the Goods and Services Tax regime, a move that reflects the governments intention to push its adoption.

Secretary in the department of heavy industry Girish Shankar said since the lithium-ion battery is not manufactured in India and the automobile industry has to depend on imports.

We need to develop indigenous production capabilities for lithium-ion batteries so that electric vehicles can become affordable, Shankar said while addressing a conclave here.

With an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the government had launched the FAME India scheme in 2015 offering incentives on electric and hybrid vehicles of up to Rs 29,000 for bikes and Rs 1.38 lakh for cars.
German industrial gases group Lindes supervisory board is due to vote on a merger agreement with U.S. peer Praxair on June 1, two people close to the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The companies said on Wednesday that they had reached a deal in principle on a Business Combination Agreement for the proposed $70 billion merger, but some unanswered questions will be addressed at Thursdays meeting, one of the sources said without elaborating.

Linde declined to comment on the matter.

The all-share merger of equals, intended to create a market leader that will overtake Frances Air Liquide, had fallen behind schedule because of the complexity of talks to forge a formal agreement.

Labour representatives at Linde fiercely oppose the merger, mainly because plans to move the headquarters outside Germany would dilute their influence, which currently gives them an effective veto over strategic decisions.

The first source told Reuters that the supervisory board members positions had not changed but that a final decision is expected nonetheless.

For the deal to go through it must gain approval from the supervisory board, on which investors and workers are equally represented.

Linde Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle told Reuters this month that he would be reluctant but prepared to use his casting vote as in the event of a stalemate with labour representatives.
A large number of property brokers in the country may shut shop while bigger brokerages would be forced to consolidate under the new realty law that aims to bring transparency and accountability to the real estate market, according to property advisers and brokers associations.

According to real estate agent body National Association of Realtors-India (NRA), around 75% of total brokers may close down business in the next three years as regulatory reform sweeps over the real estate market. Similarly, the Confederation of Real Estate Brokers Association of India (CREBAI) also predicted that almost 50% of local property agents may not exist as the sector becomes more competitive and compliances evolve.

The new system will sieve out non-serious players (brokers). It will go down to just about half a million by 2020. There will also be a series of consolidation among brokerage firms. You have to either step up or step out because the market is becoming competitive, said Sam Chopra, president, NRA-India. According to estimates by real estate brokerage firm RE/MAX India, around two million real estate agents currently operate across India.

Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 (RERA), which came into force on 1 May, all property brokers must register with regulators in their states. The law has also made them liable for any misinformation about the projects they sell or in case of default by developers they represent. They will have to pay a fine of up to 5% of the total property cost if they fail to comply with rules.

Only serious brokers would register as there is a fee that needs to be paid. Secondly, maximum consolidation would happen once they discover that this is an onerous, responsible profession now, said Anuj Puri, former chairman and country head of property consultant JLL India, who recently bought out the companys residential business to start his own brokerage firm.

Puri, who is in the midst of recruiting staff for the venture, said many local brokers across the country have shown interest to be part of a larger platform.

It has been tough for brokers to sustain themselves for the past two years because of the slowdown. Now, with RERA coming in, it will become more difficult because of the penal factor. Besides, RERA does not have any answer to problems faced by brokers. There is a good chance many people will exit the industry, said Prakkash Rohira, a Mumbai-based real estate broker.

Vikram Mehta, president of CREBAI, agreed that while brokers have not been left out of the purview of RERA, the government has not taken care to safeguard their interest. He said stringent provisions under RERA may force around 50% of brokers to shut their real estate broking business.

Faith in builders has decreased considerably in the past one-two years. Now, with RERA coming in, brokers will also be responsible for failure of not delivering on time. Why will I want to stick my neck out when we will be penalized for mischief of builders, said Avinash Mordani, a real estate agent.

Brokerages, too, have been consolidating in the recent past. Apart from JLL India, which sold its housing business to focus on other new growth areas, Mumbai-based online realty portal firm Housing.com merged with News Corp.-backed PropTiger earlier this year. Last week, Faridabad-based Franchise Indias real estate unit BusinessEx.com announced the acquisition of a majority stake in RE/MAX India for around Rs100 crore.

Mint reported on 27 April Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (HDFC) is in talks with online classifieds firm Quikr India Pvt. Ltd to sell its brokerage business HDFC Realty and digital business HDFC Red in an-all stock deal.

Vikram Goel, chief executive officer of HDFC Realty Ltd, declined to comment on the deal but said the brokers community is headed for a major consolidation as they explore ways to work together. Recently, the firm also adopted a partnership model where it is looking to collaborate with local brokers to sell properties as part of its expansion plan. So far, around 7,000 real estate agents have registered. It plans to take it to 15,000 by year end. We started this drive in anticipation that local brokers would want to align with someone who would educate and train them post the implementation of RERA. We have received a massive response so far, he said.

PropTiger, meanwhile, is planning to cut down the number of developers it works with to about 75-100 from around 500 as part of its larger effort to stay compliant with new regulations. We want to reduce the footprint. We want to be more meaningful to fewer developers who are compliant with new laws, said Sunil Mishra, chief business officer, PropTiger.
Founder Chairman of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy today expressed sadness over the IT companies laying off their employees as part of their cost cutting strategy.

...It is sad..., Murthy told in an email reply to a PTI query about recent IT layoffs.

Murthy, however, did not elaborate on the matter.

Infosys had announced that it could hand out pink slips to hundreds of mid and senior-level employees as it carries out bi-annual performance review amid a challenging business environment.

The development comes at a time when its peers Wipro and Cognizant are taking similar measures to control costs.

The US-based Cognizant had rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPs and senior VPs, offering them 6-9 months of salary.

Wipro, too, is learnt to have asked about 600 employees to leave as part of its annual performance appraisal even as speculations were that the number could go as high as 2,000.

According to executive search firm Head Hunters India, the job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

A report submitted by McKinsey & Company at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum said, nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be irrelevant over the next 3-4 years.

IT companies have been one of the largest recruiters in the country. However, they have warned that increasing automation of processes would lead to reduction in hiring in coming years.

While the outsourcing model has placed India on the global map, increasing scrutiny and rising protectionist sentiment are also posing challenges for the USD 140 billion Indian IT industry.

Companies are now working towards reducing their dependence on work visas and instead hiring more locals to ensure continuity of work for clients, even though it impacts their margins.
Lets face it: We are turning into, literally, a species of killjoys. The prime examples of this evolutionary trait are those that comprise the Islamic State or Al Qaeda and their adherents outside the West, or even India for that matter. Their latest outrage, in a repetitively numbing pattern, was obviously in Manchester, targeting children at a concert. In the IS joyless vision of the world, you cant have that. Thats why their foot soldiers have attacked the Friday the 13th gig in Bataclan in Paris or a nightclub in Orlando. Nowadays it appears that if you want to stop to smell the roses, it could be they are part of a bouquet left at a makeshift memorial after another jihadi strike.

That brings us to the American Presidents maiden grand tour; a leap of faith. Donald Trump has often blustered about obliterating the Islamic State. That he would place Saudi Arabia at the centre of that objective points to a kink that may well jinx his Administration (beyond the drip, drip, drip of leaks thats this White Houses version of the Chinese water torture). In the worldview where MAGA (make America great again) is magic, Trump is given to operating less like a political executive and more the CEO; which brings forth its own set of problems. Main among them is an approach where crafting the deal garners more interest than any principle.

So, $110 billion can buy Riyadh a free pass on attitudes that have been adopted with great brutality by the terrorist hordes: Like the place of women in society (locked away like family possessions), gays (stoned to death), free speech bloggers (flogged), tolerance for other faiths (non-existent). The new facet of this unholy alliance is branding Iran the biggest terrorist threat to the world. The bereaved in Manchester, Nice, Brussels or Boston arent exactly wailing over suicide bombers inspired by Tehran. To be fair, Trumps predecessors didnt exactly take a righteous message to the House of Saud, but Trump has inflated its importance with his worship of the bottomline.

After curtsying before the Saudi King, Trump royally namechecked him as a wise man in a churlish speech at the headquarters of NATO in Brussels. The courtesy of before gave way to hectoring leaders of the Alliance nations: NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations, he said, to side-eyed glances and grimaces, not necessarily caused by the bright sun. Once again the ledger led the way, as he lectured about 23 of 28 NATO nations not meeting their financial obligations. This is foreign policy conducted as commerce, putting a new spin on that phrase, checkbook diplomacy.

This is a presidency where snark (and snarls) take the place of good humour, but Trump may not find much joy in this path dictated more by balance sheets than a code of ethics. The last laugh, unfortunately, may just go to the humourless hordes.

Anirudh Bhattacharyya is a Toronto-based commentator on American affairs

The views expressed are personal

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A good lawyer doesnt allow personal convictions to get in the way of a challenging brief is one of the valuable lessons we were taught in law school. It is possible that a similar learning drew Congress lawyer-MP Kapil Sibal to argue for the All India Muslim Personal Law Board in the historic triple talaq case in the Supreme Court and declare that triple talaq is a matter of faith for 1,400 years for Muslims which could not be subject to principles of constitutional morality and equity. But by placing his argument in such stark terms Mr Sibal, who prides himself as a true Nehruvian secularist, may well have revived a festering sore that has hobbled secularists and the Congress party in particular for over three decades now.

Sibals words echo the troubling narrative that was pushed in 1985 during the infamous Shahbano case, one that first led to the Congress party being charged with the tag of minority appeasement. Then the plight of a Muslim woman seeking maintenance after divorce saw the Supreme Court step in to protect her, only for the Rajiv Gandhi government to overturn the apex court order under pressure from Muslim fundamentalist forces. That abject capitulation gave the BJP the opening it was so desperately seeking to build a secular versus pseudo-secular counter-narrative and create a momentum for a resurgent Hindutva politics that would ultimately result in the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the eventual political rise of the sangh parivar.

2017 though is not 1985. The BJP is now the party in power, led by an all-powerful prime minister whose government is determinedly objecting to all forms of triple talaq. If for Rajiv Gandhi, the Shahbano case exposed his political naivete, for the Modi government the triple talaq issue has become another weapon in its justice for all, appeasement to none war cry. On the other hand, reduced to a rump in parliament, the Congress cannot afford any ambivalence on the issue. In the 24 x 7 news age and with an endless social media whirl, any Congress attempt to run with the secular hare and hunt with the communal hound will be immediately exposed.

Moreover, it is reassuring to find that the protests against triple talaq have been primarily led by Muslims groups, especially women. That many Muslim women have come out openly on television to reveal their anguish suggests a remarkable courage that stems from a growing sense of empowerment. Which is why, unlike in the Shahbano case, where there werent enough protests from within Muslim civil society to challenge the orthodox elements, this time there is a noticeable difference. The Muslim Personal Law Board in particular is no longer seen as the sole spokesperson for a community; in fact, it has been exposed as a cabal of mostly male obscurantists and almost forced by sustained public pressure to dilute its opposition to abolishing triple talaq.

In a sense, this is then the appropriate moment for every right thinking secular liberal to reclaim the space that was vacated in the aftermath of the Shahbano controversy and strengthen the brave voices within the Muslim community who are speaking out against triple talaq. The BJP may well claim that it is standing by Muslim progressives but their stand is misleading. After all, isnt this the same party which has been insisting that faith be placed above the law in the contentious Ram Janmabhoomi case? Truth is, for the brotherhood in saffron, triple talaq is another convenient stick to beat the Muslim community with and push the stereotype of a religion that is steeped in archaic practices (why dont I see the sangh leadership denounce public figures who still attend mass child marriages?).

Which is why the real challenge for unapologetic secularists , as the Supreme Court verdict is awaited, is to pull the triple talaq debate out of the political slugfest and place it squarely in the domain of gender equality. Muslim women need freedom from personal law practices that are inherently arbitrary and unequal. That freedom must come from the constitution that gives primacy to equal citizenship, not from a political order which has only used religious issues to divide and rule.

Post-script: A number of people on social media have been questioning the silence of prominent Indian Muslims on the triple talaq issue. Yes, they should speak up, but may I also ask: how many eminent Hindus have spoken out when murderous gau rakshak gangs threaten and kill in the name of religion? The crime of silence cannot be one-sided.

Rajdeep Sardesai is senior journalist and author. The views expressed are personal
With the time for cutoffs fast approaching, one of the vexed questions on most Delhi University aspirants minds is that of how to calculate the best of four score.

DU asks its students to calculate the aggregate of the best of four subjects, to see if they qualify for admission based on the cut-off. This may sound simple enough, but with different courses having different requirements for calculating the best four, this process can get daunting.

How to calculate the best of four score and what will the cutoff be is one of the most common questions we get, said Akansha Gupta, an ex DU student who has been volunteering to help applicants.

HT spoke to experts to simplify this process for aspirants.

Science courses

For most Bachelor of Science courses, Physics and Chemistry are mandatory. If the course has a Biology component, such as Zoology or Botany (Hons) courses, then you would need to have done Biology too. For some courses Mathematics is mandatory.

A few courses such as Biotechnology, etc, will require both Biology and Mathematics.

These courses will be used to calculate your best of four score and the scores for these subjects should have been on a 70/30 basis, where 70% of the marks is for theory and 30% is for practical. If it does not follow this division, then the scores will be adjusted to fit this ratio.

Mathematical Science courses

There are four Mathematical Science courses, such as Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences. Mathematics is mandatory to apply for these.

The best of four for these courses is calculated as the aggregate of your scores in one language subject, Mathematics and the scores of any two subjects from List A.

List A is a compilation of academic courses, published by the DU. If any of the elective courses do not fall in list A, then 2.5% will be deducted from your aggregate.

Arts Courses

There are many BA (Hons) and BA programmes that applicants can choose from. The best of four for BA (Hons) programme is calculated as aggregate of the scores in a language subject, the subject in which you would like to do your honours program in and any two subjects from List A.

If you do not include the subject in which you want to do the honours programme in, or if your electives are not from List A, then 2.5% each will be deducted for these.

Commerce courses

Delhi University is well known for its B Com (Hons) and B Com programmes. Students should have studied Mathematics to apply for BCom (Hons).

Students need to use their scores in one language subject (either English or Hindi) and select three subjects from lists C1 or C2 to get their best four score. Like List A, these are compilations of subjects that are prepared by the DU.

However, here there is a small catch. If all three elective courses are from List C1, then the student would not face ant deduction. But for each subject taken from List C2, there will be a deduction of 1%.

The calculation

BA (Hons) courses:

Best of four for Bachelor of Arts (Hons) programmes is calculated as: one language + the subject in which one wants to do the honours programme + two more subjects from List A to calculate the best four.

In case if the student does not include the subject they want to do the honours programme in, 2.5% will be deducted from the aggregate.

For Example:

If you have 96 in Physics, 92 in Chemistry, 90 in English, 94 in Mathematics and 83 in Economics; then the best four would be the aggregate of the first four subjects.

This gives a total of 372, which is 93%.

If this student were to try and do BA (Hons) in History, 2.5% would be deducted and the effective percentage would be 90.5%

BCom (Hons) and BCom courses:

Best four is calculated as: language + three subjects from lists C1 or C2.

If the student selects all three subjects from List C1, then there would be no deduction.

However, if the student uses courses form List C2, then 1% will be deducted for each subject taken from List C2.

For example:

If you have scored 96 in Physics, 92 in Chemistry, 90 in English, 94 in Mathematics and 83 in Economics, your best four will be calculated based on the first four subjects.

The total will be 372, which gives a 93%.

However, as Physics and Chemistry are not in C1, but fall in List C2, your effective percentage will be 91%. 1% each will be deducted for the two subjects outside of List C1.

List A subjects Arabic Bengali Botany Biology/Biotechnology Chemistry Commerce/ Business Studies Computer Science/ Informatics Practices Economics English French Geography Geology German Hindi History Home Science Italian Legal Studies Mathematics Music Persian Philosophy Physics Political Science Punjabi Psychology Sanskrit Sociology Spanish Statistics Urdu Zoology

List C1 subjects: Mathematics Accountancy Business Studies/ Commerce Economics

List C2 subjects: Botany Business Mathematics Biology/Biotechnology Chemistry Computer Science/ Informatics Practices Geography Geology History Home Science Legal Studies Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Sociology Statistics Zoology

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A member of BJPs youth wing has filed criminal defamation complaint against chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson Sanjay Singh for allegedly sharing his pictures in media and falsely declaring him as the one who slapped former water minister Kapil Mishra when the latter was on hunger strike on May 10.

Ankit Bhardwaj, the state executive member of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM), a youth wing of BJP, had sent a notice to Kejriwal and Singh, seeking a public apology, on May 13.

None of them replied after which Bhardwaj filed the defamation case on Friday in a Delhi court.

Bhardwaj claimed the AAP leaders had wrongly accused him in media of assaulting Mishra while the person apprehended at the spot for the alleged offence belonged to their own party.

In the complaint, Bhardwaj claimed Singh showed his Facebook profile picture on different news channels and declared him as the accused. He claimed Kejriwal re-tweeted a tweet, quoting him as the accused.

It was revealed to the complainant (Bhardwaj) that the name of the person who attacked Kapil Mishra was also Ankit Bhardwaj. It is pertinent (to note) that the person who attacked was apprehended at the spot and the incident as well as his arrest has been captured and broadcasted. The person apprehended at the spot was clearly saying that he was an Aam Aadmi Party volunteer. He came on his own and slapped Kapil Mishra for betraying the party, reads the complaint.
Commuters going from Vasant Kunj to Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport will soon get to travel signal-free.

The Delhi government has finalised the proposal of an underpass between Vasant Kunj and the airport. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has also given its go ahead for the project, which the Public Works Department (PWD) hopes to complete before the end of 2019.

Apart from an underpass at National Highway 8, a flyover at the Vasant Kunj side and a flyover at the airport side has also been proposed, which will also cut travel time by 30 minutes.

Commuters coming from Vasant Kunj road almost always get stuck in the traffic jam near Mahipalpur. We have now built a new road so that commuters can avoid the Mahipalpur intersection. But, they still have to cross NH-8 to come to the airport side. Therefore, an underpass has been proposed so that commuters can directly come to the northern access road, popularly known as airport approach road, said a PWD official.

Officials said the flyovers at the Vasant Kunj side and airport side will be around 1km long each while the length of the underpass would be 1.2km. Cost of the project was estimated to be around Rs 188 crore, with around 80% of the money coming from the from Union ministry of urban development, which is funding some projects to decongest Delhi.

On the northern Mahipalpur bypass road, a one-way flyover will be constructed for commuters going to Vasant Kunj. Similarly, the flyover on airport road will cater to traffic coming from the airport. The underpass, however, will cater to the traffic from both sides, the official added.

The PWD has got the approval from AAI and DDA for the project and is in discussion with NHAI as the underpass has to be constructed below the highway. If required, NHAI will construct the underpass.

In November last year, the Delhi government was directed by the high court to finalise plan to build an underpass at Mahipalpur crossing.

For better connectivity to airport from south Delhi, PWD is also making the Rao Tula Ram flyover two-way.

The new Rao Tula Ram flyover will be longer than the existing flyover and will make the ride easy to the airport.

The new 2.7km long flyover will start from the existing Palam flyover and will take commuters till the Army base, where the flyover connecting NH-8 will start. According to the plan, the PWD has to construct a three-lane elevated loop or a wing from Munirka flyover, which will run parallel to RTR flyover and land just before NH8.

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Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

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Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

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The elderly woman suddenly stops, looks up at a balcony and seems lost in thoughts. She then shakes her head and walks on.

We meet Asha Sood one scorching afternoon in Paharganjs Main Bazaar. Im searching for 3631, Ramnath Patwa, she says. It was her childhood home.

Entering a shaded lane, Ms Sood says, Nothing has changed, nothing Main Bazaar still looks the same I have come here after sixty years less bakeries though.

Carrying two handbags, she is sweating profusely.

I could not wait any longer for the weather to cool down, she says. I have to go back to Albany.

Ms Sood is an American citizen on a visit to Delhi. Her parents were from Punjab. Her father worked with the railways in Quetta (in modern-day Pakistan) and had to move to Delhi after partition. She spent the first few years of her life in Paharganj.

These are the streets of my childhood, says Ms Sood. Mother used to dress me in salwar kurtas but sometimes she allowed me to wear long skirts. Once she bought me an orange lehenga. I wore it to watch the dusshera procession.

On reaching Chhe Tooti chowk, Ms Sood says, There was a vegetable market here I also remember Ram Prasad halwai who made sweets in desi ghee I must show you the street that goes straight to Bangla Sahib (Gurudwara).

Ms Sood stops at several places to ask shopkeepers the way to the street where she once lived.

Our home consisted of just one room on the first floor of a building it was originally a factory to make silver toe-rings. When we arrived in Delhi, we were allotted a camp outside New Delhi railway station. The first priority for the refugees was to find a house. The resourceful amongst us would hunt for houses abandoned by Muslims who had gone to Pakistan. But father said that the government would arrange for our housing. It was mother who would go out. Those were dangerous times. People sometimes killed each other over these houses. Mother ultimately found a room in Ramnath Patwa.

On emerging out of yet another lane, Ms Sood comes across a ruined building; it has a sloping roof. My God, it is still standing!

This was her first school. The door is locked. The windows are cobwebbed.

Walking from one serpentine lane into another, Ms Sood stops briefly to catch her breath. Everyone suffered during partition. Mother told me about a Muslim woman who climbed a tree outside the (New Delhi) railway station to save herself from a mob. She was wearing a burqa she had a rifle. The story goes that she killed quite a few of her attackers before she was killed herself.

Finally, we reach Ramnath Patwa. The house must be somewhere here. Ms Sood stops outside a doorway. There is a small courtyard inside. Yes, this is it! The toilets were just beside the main door. The entrance used to stink. I covered my nose each time I would enter. The stairs to our house were on the left, just after the latrines oh, the toilets are still there!

Hesitating for a moment, she says, Im going inside.

The courtyard is empty but gradually fills up with men, women and children who emerge out from the surrounding single-room homes. Ms Sood tells them, I lived here many, many years ago.

One of the women walks towards her and says, All the old families have gone. Ms Sood looks around with a searching eye, her head raised upwards: That is mothers home!

The house is bolted. The current owners live somewhere else. Ms Sood sits down on the stairs. My parents had to struggle a lot. We had no running water. Every day mother had to go outside to collect water from a public tap. Sometimes she even washed clothes outside there are so many memories I had an elder brother. He died in this house. He had measles. To this day I remember the sight of his body laid out on the floor of this house.

Ms Sood has three siblings. She has two children, and a grandchild. All of them are in America. Her mother, in New Jersey, is in her nineties now. Ms Sood will fly home soon.
The Delhi University may consider increasing the number of seats with the Non-Collegiate Womens Education Board (NCWEB) if they receive a lot of applications.

Currently, there are 12,200 NCWEB seats at 26 of its centres. Manoj Khanna, the convener of the admission committee of the Delhi University, said, If we see that there are a lot of applicants interested in these courses with the NCWEB, policy may be reviewed to accommodate more students.

The NCWEB is one of the non-formal education centres at the Delhi University, where female students who are residents of NCT Delhi region can get admission to either BA or BCom programmes. The students attend classes just once a week at the centres, assigned as per the cutoffs.

Despite being a non formal centre, NCWEB seats at many centres are sought after. Especially with the DUs cutoffs skyrocketing last year, they had many students who had scored above 90%.

Last year, NCWEB had set the cutoff at 88% and 92% for BA (Programme) and B.Com at Miranda House, while at the Hansraj College centre it had set it at 87% and 91% for BA (Programme) and B.Com.

In fact in 2014, the gold medallist for the BA (programme) was from NCWEB. Even though we a non-formal education centre, the students get to enjoy all the benefits of a regular DU student. They are taught by the same faculty. At the end of the day, they get the same degree as others, said Anju Gupta, director of NCWEB.

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A 24-year-old MBA student risked his safety and played along with illegal kidney donation agents for several weeks to expose a well-organised racket operating in Delhi, top police officials said.

The racket was busted on Thursday when a Delhi Police team conducted multiple raids at the citys Batra Hospital.

Four alleged middlemen were arrested in raids at other places and sent to six-day police custody.

Praveer Ranjan, joint commissioner of police (crime branch), said the arrests were a result of 40 days of trailing the racketeers.

The youth who helped bust the racket is Jaideep Sharma, an MBA student at Punes Symbiosis Institute.

His quest for the racketeers began last September when one of his friends suddenly went missing. Since the friend had spoken about selling his kidney for a handsome price, Jaideep believed that his disappearance had something to do with a racket. He, therefore, made a conscious effort to contact the kidney racketeers and offer himself as a donor.

Read more | Villager says doctors stole his kidney during surgery, Lucknow hospital denies charges

The racketeers fell into the trap and offered him Rs 4 lakh for donating his kidney.

Our investigation has suggested that certain things could not have been possible without help from the hospitals insiders. We are calling some doctors and their assistants for questioning

Sharma, meanwhile, contacted a reporter from News 24 channel. Prepared to conduct a sting operation, the news team informed the crime branch and sought backup.

Thereafter, Sharma played along with the racketeers for several weeks, allowing the police to gather evidence.

In the meantime, the racketeers made Sharma assume the identity of an Andhra Pradesh man by arranging fake documents and working on his looks.

This was necessary as the law allows only close family members to donate kidneys to the patients. The man who was to receive Sharmas kidney is a native of Andhra Pradesh.

On Thursday, just an hour before Sharma was to be operated upon, the police swooped down on the hospital and rescued him from the operation theatre.

We were tipped off by a team of News 24 channel who were conducting a sting on the illegal kidney racketeers. We have a total of 200 hours of video recordings which will help nail the culprits in court, said Ranjan.

Investigators said this was an interstate racket that had been operating for a long time. The racketeers used to charge Rs 30-40 lakh from each kidney recipient.

The police claimed to have seized several incriminating documents from the hospital premises. While the arrests so far have been limited to the middlemen, Ranjan said the role of Batra Hospitals doctors and staffers and a city-based diagnostic centre is also under the scanner.

Our investigation has suggested that certain things could not have been possible without help from the hospitals insiders. We are calling some doctors and their assistants for questioning, said Ranjan.

Madhur Verma, DCP (crime branch), said the documents seized so far show a strong possibility of the involvement of hospital staff, including that of doctors.

When contacted, Batra Hospital denied any role in the racket, saying, Batra Hospital conducts all renal transplants fairly and under strict supervision. All related and unrelated transplants are vetted by a committee. All the transplant act guidelines are followed. All documents are checked and the proceedings of the committee are recorded. There is no involvement of the hospital in any wrongdoing. The hospital has and will fully cooperate with the police and earnestly assist in finding out the culprit.
A 22-year-old American woman of Indian origin was allegedly intoxicated and raped by a merchant navy official in central Delhis Paharganj area on May 16.

The woman came to the country in December for a family wedding and stayed back to tour north India. She reached Delhi on May 13 and checked into a hotel in Paharganj, where she met three men who befriended her.

According to police, the accused, Jaswant Singh, who was arrested from Paharganj on May 24, was an aide of the three.

The woman stated that she went around Delhi with the men who also introduced her to their other friends, while her American friends left for home. On May 16, when she was to leave for Patiala to meet a relative, the men insisted that she stay back. She alleged that the men got snacks and drinks and insisted that they have a party at her room in the hotel. She said that the men made her consume a lot of liquor till she was completely intoxicated, a police officer said.

She further told police that after getting her drunk, three of her friends left the room leaving the door open and a fourth person entered. She said she could not recognise him. She said she had not met that person before. She alleged that the man forced himself on her and sexually abused her. She stated that she tried to push him away but was too weak and not in her senses. After assaulting her, the man left the room and the three of her friends returned, a police officer said.

When the woman asked her friends about the man, they told her that it was Jaswant and they were sorry for what he did to her. They dissuaded me from filing a complaint and told me a court case would take too long in India. They said it was not worth going to the police, her complaint read.

The womans friends reportedly convinced her to accompany them to Jind to take her mind off what had happened. On May 19, the woman then went to Patiala to meet her relative who then convinced her to file a rape complaint.

A case of rape was registered immediately after we received a complaint from the woman. Jaswant Singh has been arrested and the woman has also recorded her statement before the magistrate, DCP central Mandeep Singh Randhawa said.

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As Arvind Kejriwal takes charge of governance in the city, most of the departments the chief minister has reviewed till now are headed by his cabinet colleague Satyendar Jain who is under the scanner for controversies involving him.

Soon after a review of loss in the municipal elections, the chief minister has conducted a series of administrative reviews.

Some of the major ones being preparedness over dengue and chikungunya outbreak, review of availability of medicines in Delhi government hospitals, surprise inspection of Sanjay Gandhi hospital and stock taking of PWD roads ahead of monsoon to check waterlogging.

All of these departments are headed by health minister Satyendar Jain, who is considered number three in the Delhi government after Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia since he holds several key portfolios such as health, power, PWD, home and urban development among others.

Another key department, transport was recently taken away from the minister and allotted to newly inducted member in the cabinet, Kailash Gahlot.

One of the most vocal and seen members of the Kejriwal cabinet, of late, Jain has been relatively lying low as he has been under the scanner following corruption allegations by former colleague and sacked water minister, Kapil Mishra. The Shakur Basti legislator is also facing probe from the income tax department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in different cases.

Be it the issues related to health department, or the PWD, the chief minister has been involved directly in the decision making. He also supervised the preparation of the action plan to check waterlogging on PWD roads, a senior official said.

Health minister Satyendar Jain and the Delhi government spokesperson were unavailable for comment.

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We discard several pairs of shoes every month without an iota of awareness that your old pair can save someones life. According to a report by World Health Organisation, 1.5 billion people get infected by diseases that could be prevented by wearing proper footwear.

And that realisation pushed two Mumbai-based athletes to change that statistic, one pair at a time. Shriyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dham, three years back, started an initiative, called Green Sole, under which they collect discarded footwears, refurbish them and gift them to those who cant afford to buy even a pair for their feet. The duo has helped more than 50,000 people, mostly in rural areas.

As athletes, we ran hundreds of kilometers every year, and would dump three to four pairs of shoes every year. Their soles would be in good condition, however, the sides were in bad shape. We discovered that they can be refurbished into trendy slippers and used again, says Bhandari.

It takes one hour to make one pair of shoes reusable. The shoes are then distributed in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, says Bhandari.

That brainwave lead to an eco-friendly enterprise, they have now given themselves an ambitious target: no one should be barefoot by 2023. Bhandari informs that every year more than 35,00,00,000 pairs of shoes are discarded and if they are reused, millions of people wouldnt be barefoot.

The two have been getting praise from many, including the former President of USA Barak Obama. I sent a letter to Obama about our initiative, along with a copy of my book (Birds of Aravalli). He replied appreciating the initiative, says Bhandari.

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Theres no country for the internally displaced, it appears, particularly if the country is India. A report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) ranks us third behind China and The Philippines among countries most affected by displacement related to natural disasters in 2016. In this period, India saw 448,000 new displacements owing to conflict and violence. Also, close to 2,400,000 people were displaced due to natural disasters. In recent years, displacement has mainly been associated with flood and storm events, although approximately 68% of India is prone to drought, 60% is vulnerable to earthquakes and 75 % of the countrys coastline is prone to cyclones and tsunamis, the report said.

One in three of Indias population stay in poverty and substandard housing with less resources to cope, particularly in disaster-prone areas. Combined with poorly planned urbanisation, environmental degradation, climate change and geological hazards, Indias overall exposure to hazards makes the country most at risk of displacement related to disasters in South Asia.

Projects implemented as part of Indias development and industrialisation since independence have been made possible by the acquisition of land and the eviction and displacement of tens of millions, to build dams, mines and industrial plants.

For a long time, the issue of compensation and rehabilitation of persons displaced by development projects has generated a lot of sound and fury in India. Those affected are told about where theyll be relocated without taking them into confidence. The displaced are offered land and monetary compensation. But the land is often arid and most times the compensation packages are inadequate. Many of those uprooted by the controversial Sardar Sarovar Dam built over the Narmada, for instance, which displaced an estimated 350,000 people in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra since its inception in 1984, are still waiting for reasonable rehabilitation.

Another big reason for displacement in the country is violence emanating from secessionist and identity-based movements and riots sparked by caste and religious tensions. But those displaced due to political strife within India, what the UN calls Internally Displaced People (IDPs), are not even on the States radar. Forced physical dislocation leads to several problems for IDPs: Harassment by police and officials of states where they have migrated to; exploitation by local contractors who force them to accept lower wages; no access to schools for their children and no health services for the family. Migration leads to disruption of cultural and community ties. Women and children  the most vulnerable of the population  fight the challenges of violence and threats of trafficking. Unfortunately, we still dont have a legal framework to deal with IDPs. India has neither signed the 1951 UN refugee convention nor does its 1967 protocol allow the UN high commissioner for refugees  which works with IDPs  access to camps. Without a central law, the IDPs end up being a nowhere people seeking shelter and succour. Its time the country listened to their voices.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is expected to declare its Class 12 results on Saturday - kick starting the rush for Delhi University (DU) admissions.

The universitys cutoffs this year, too, are unlikely to dip with the CBSE deciding to not challenge a Delhi High Court order to continue with the moderation policy. Marks moderation refers evaluators doing upward or downward revision of marks of students based on how difficult their examination paper was. This is said to be the reason for inflated scores in Class 12 board exams  which in turn lead to impossibly high cut-offs.

Almost 80% of applications, DU receives, are from CBSE and rest are from other boards.

Take a look at DUs first cut-offs of 2016 to find out if you have a chance of getting admission in DU.

Teachers say these cutoffs can give a fair idea to students of their chances of getting admission to DU as the variation every year is not significant.

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Actor Gal Gadot was on the verge of quitting acting before auditioning for her role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

The 32-year-old actor opened up about her past struggle in Hollywood at host Jimmy Fallons show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, reports aceshowbiz.com.

This profession, the rejection is tough. I was telling my husband, Im not sure how long I can take it. Dragging my family to Los Angeles doing this, Gadot said.

Gadot said she did not even know what role she would play when Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder asked her to do an audition.

I got a phone call from Zack Snyder who wanted to audition me for this secret role, said Gadot.

I did the audition. It went great. I went back to Israel to shoot a movie and I didnt know if I wanted to continue acting afterwards. Im in Israel, they tell me they wanted to do a camera test-again, a camera test, again-another.

I asked What am I being tested for? Whats the part? My agent goes, They didnt tell you? Zack calls me and tells me, I dunno if you have this character in Israel, if shes big or not, but did you ever hear about Wonder Woman? I said Wonder Woman, Ill be there yeah, Gadot said.

Wonder Woman will see Gadot as the protagonist Wonder Woman in an origin story. The film will also feature Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Robin Wright, Lucy Davis, Danny Huston, Ewan Bremner, Elena Anaya and Lisa Loven Kongsli. It is scheduled to release in India on June 2.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
THE LOST CITY OF Z Direction: James Gray Actors: Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller Rating: 4.5 / 5

The Lost City of Z is a stimulating reconstruction of one mans quest, over decades, for a vanished South American civilisation.

It is inspired by the true story of British soldier / explorer Percy Fawcett, a visionary who forged his way into the Amazonian wilderness time and again, more than 100 years ago.

Initially tasked by the Royal Geographical Society with surveying the unmapped border between Bolivia and Brazil, the cartographer (Charlie Hunnam, riveting) discovers evidence of a previously unknown agrarian society deep within the uncharted jungle. His findings are ridiculed by his snobbish compatriots, who regard the indigenous population as savages.

Fawcett and his son disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1925, while still searching for the titular city.

Nonetheless, he takes a couple of helpmates, including a seasoned aide-de-camp (Robert Pattinson, barely recognizable beneath a bushy beard), and ventures ever deeper into the treacherous terrain, where death lurks around every bend in the river.

After a brief interlude during which he enlists in the Great War, he returns for a third expedition, this time with his eldest son (Tom Holland). Both men disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1925. For all his lifelong obsession and personal sacrifices, the titular city proves to be unattainable.

Evocative of place and period, the wide-screen 35-mm cinematography by Iranian-born Darius Khondji (Woody Allens regular latter-day collaborator) contributes immensely to the films success. The Lost City of Z is an illuminating odyssey into the heart of darkness.

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Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum

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Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

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The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex
The Narendra Modi government kicked off on Friday its nationwide celebration to mark three years in power, a mega show comprising hundreds of leaders with an eye on the next general elections.

The government has planned a signature event  the Making of Developed India Festival or MODI Fest between May 26 and June 15, where people would be invited to interact with top leaders and ministers.

The BJP has also drawn up a separate schedule, asking more than 450 leaders to travel to 900 places in India for meetings and public rallies. The saffron party wants to woo new groups and the youth in a bid to return to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Below are the highlights of the day:

7:00 pm: We want to create a Hindustan where there is respect for workers, where women are at par with men, a country that reaches new economic glory. For that we took new initiatives every day.

Let us all commit ourselves for the next five years to take the country to new heights. Let us build a New India: PM Modi.

6:56: Modi says under his government the poor got affordable medicines, 104 satellites were launched in a single flight.

6:50 pm: British never trusted the people of the country. Despite Independence, this behaviour was carried on by Indian governments . But our government always trusted the people: PM Modi

In the last three years, we have given foremost priority to trusting the citizens: PM Narendra Modi in Guwahati,Assam pic.twitter.com/x8tl7dd7LT  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

6:46 pm: This is a government where there is no black money but only the phrase of jan-dhan is heard. In the future, we will hear about digi-dhan. We will extract all black money and give it to the poor: PM Modi.

6:45 pm: First time in India, there is a chance for honesty to thrive: PM Modi

6:35: Note-bandi was a tough decision. It was the blessings of the 125 crore people that allowed for the success of such a decision.

6:33 pm: PM says the cleanliness drive- about which he spoke from the Red Fort- the public made it their own, the media also helped.

6:30 pm: PM says the voters havent slept after electing us to form government. In three years, I can proudly claim that 125 crores voters have always walked along with us, gave strength to our belief, said Modi.

For the first time, we have taken a step to uplift the OBCs. The OBC Commission has been passed: PM Narendra Modi in Guwahati pic.twitter.com/neuwFMmPqp  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

6:26 pm: By 2022, we want to double our farmers income. Through Sampada Yojana we want to ensure value addition of agri-products. This will give new direction to the lives of farmers: PM Modi.

6: 20 pm: PM Modi addresses BJPs pan-India festival in Guwahati,Assam. He says Rs 3,500 crore came into the state within one day. The inauguration of agriculture research institute and AIIMS show the vision of the government for the state.

4:12pm: BJP has worked for the development of Naxal affected areas, says Shah

4:00pm: If Rajinikanth wishes to enter politics, he is welcome; Im using the word politics, not BJP, decision is up to him:Amit Shah

Where are job losses? It's only in newspaper. People don't take newspaper seriously: @AmitShah on #Joblessgrowth  kumar uttam (@meetuttam) May 26, 2017

Difficult to provide jobs to everyone in a country of 125 crore people. We have promoted self employment: @AmitShah on #3YearsOfModiGovt.  kumar uttam (@meetuttam) May 26, 2017

3:56pm: I want to assure people of India that the Kashmir situation will soon be brought under control, says Amit Shah

3:53pm: Modi govt has met peoples aspirations, says Amit Shah

3:51pm: Ease of doing business improved, FDI inflow grew, says Amit Shah

3:50pm: India has grown as an economic leader, says Shah

3:48pm: BJP president Amit Shah speaks to media on 3 years of Modi govt

2:37pm: NE of Northeast would mean New Economy, New Energy, New Empowerment, New Engine, says PM Modi

2:32pm: PM Narendra Modi launches SAMPADA Yojana- Scheme for Agro Marine Processing and Development of Agro Processing Clusters

2:29pm: In New India, we have to move towards ever green revolution, says PM Modi

2:27pm: If northeast starts working in this (organic farming) direction, India can become one of the biggest centres of organic farming, says PM Modi

2:26pm: In northeast, the likelihood of organic farming is very high: PM

2:24pm: We laid emphasis on Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, says PM Modi

2:19pm: We cant bring change in the country through tokenism, says PM Modi at his Dhemaji rally

2:17pm: Our dream is to double farmers income by 2022, the year when India completes 75 years of Independence: PM Modi

2:15pm: We want to bring modernisation in agriculture, says PM Modi

2:12pm: PM Narendra Modi is addressing another rally in Assams Dhemaji

12:19pm: PM renames Dhola Sadiya Bridge as Bhupen Hazarika Bridge

12:18pm: Within the first year of BJP rule in Assam, the state is getting rid of many of its problems, says PM Modi

12:14pm: The bridge will save time, says PM

12:12pm: The bridge will be a link in the development of two states- Arunachal Pradesh and Assam: PM

12:10pm: Prime Minister Miodi says the bridge will bring an economic revolution

12:08pm: This bridge will open new avenues for the farmers, says PM Modi in Assam

12:04pm: It is a proud moment for the country that Indias longest bridge has been constructed in Assam, says PM Modi

12:00pm: PM Modi is addressing a rally in Dhola, Assam

11:50am: Congress leader Kamal Nath said BJP spending Rs 2000 cr on celebration,3 years of Modi govt can be summed up as Bhashan aur aashwaasan, yeh hai mera shaasan

Futuristic infrastructure that will power India's growth....PM at the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge during his Assam visit. pic.twitter.com/w8T14p4dNc  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 26, 2017

11:00am: PM Modi inaugurates the 9.15 km Dhola-Sadiya bridge. (ANI Photo)

PM Modi inaugurates Dhola - Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya, Assam pic.twitter.com/RMjRPilvAJ  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

10:30am: The bridge, designed to facilitate the movement of battle tanks, is expected to help movement of troops to the border with China in the Wallong-Kibithu sector in southern Arunachal Pradesh. The sector had fallen along with Tawang in the northwest to the Chinese in the 1962 war.

10:20am: The bridge is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai. Lohit is one of three rivers  the others are Dibang and Siang  that meet to form the Brahmaputra downstream of the site of the bridge that connects Dhola village and Sadiya town, 540 km east of Assams principal city Guwahati.

10:10am: PM Modi arrives in Dibrugarh to inaugurate Dhola-Sadiya bridge and other projects (ANI Photo)

9:00 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said these years have seen concrete steps that have transformed the lives of the people. He put out the statistics related to various sectors to show comparisons between 2014 and now.

Last 3 years have seen concrete steps that have transformed peoples lives. These graphics tell you how. https://t.co/8smEezyFds  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2017

What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App. https://t.co/TYuxNNJfIf  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2017

He also invited the public to participate in a survey on his NarendraModi App about the performance of his government.
The Allahabad High Court on Friday cancelled the bail granted to former UP minister Gayatri Prajapati and two others in a case of alleged rape of a woman and molestation of a minor, saying the lower court had acted in haste.

The HC had earlier stayed the April 25 order of the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) granting bail to Samajwadi Party leader Prajapati and his associates Vikas Verma and Amrendra Singh alias Pintu.

Allowing the petition of the state government seeking cancellation of their bail, Justice AP Sahi today questioned the manner in which the ASJ handled the matter saying the entire process was concluded as if the grant of bail had been preordained.

In the circumstances, there cannot be a presumption of the impugned order having been passed in good faith, the judge said.

Read more | Rape accused ex-UP minister Gayatri Prajapati spends sleepless night in jail

Rather, the entire episode indicates that the manner in which the bail was granted almost on the eve of the retirement of the officer concerned, that too even without any opportunity being afforded to the prosecution in the real sense, the grant of bail was clearly vitiated, JUstice Sahi said.

The ASJ did not discuss the ingredients of the provisions of the POCSO Act and its implications, said the HC, adding a court while dealing with such serious matters having the potential of wide ramifications has to act with gravity and patience.

It, however, said that the accused could move fresh pleas for bail to be decided on merit after affording adequate opportunity to the prosecution to present its case.

A woman had lodged an FIR with Gautam Palli police station here that Prajapati and his accomplice had raped her for years after promising her a mining license and they were trying to target her daughter.

Read more | Yogi Adityanath refuses to meet Gayatri Prajapatis family

The FIR was registered after the Supreme Court had pulled up the state government.

The three accused were later granted bail.

HC Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosle had on the petition of the state government stayed the bail order. Prajapati was not released from jail while the two other accused had surrendered after the HC direction.
Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa will be the BJPs chief ministerial face in the assembly polls scheduled early next year, party president Amit Shah said on Friday.

During an interaction with PTI, Shah also indicated that Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani would be the partys choice for the top post in the state, asserting that it would win more than 150 seats in the assembly polls slated later this year. The assembly has 182 seats.

He, however, said the party has not yet decided on its chief ministerial face in Himachal Pradesh, which goes to polls along with Gujarat.

It (Karnataka election) will be fought under Yeddyurappa, Shah said.

Asked if it meant that Yeddyurappa, who is the BJPs Karnataka unit chief, will be the chief ministerial face, he said, He will be.

The Karnataka unit has been facing factional fight with a group headed by former deputy chief minister KS Eshwarappa targeting Yeddyurappas leadership.

To a question on the partys state of affairs in Karnataka, Shah said he would visit the state soon. The party had recently taken action against some leaders, suspected to be behind the internal wrangling.

Asked whether Rupani will be the partys CM face in Gujarat, Shah said, He is already the chief minister.

What does it mean that he will be the chief ministerial face..., he said in a lighter vein.

Yeddyurappa (74), an influential Lingayat leader, had led the saffron party to its maiden victory in the southern state in 2008, but was forced to resign following charges of corruption against him.

He floated his own outfit in 2011. Though his party performed poorly in the 2013 Assembly polls, it managed to wean away a substantial chunk of the BJP votes, leading to a rout of the saffron party.

He returned to the BJP fold ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Telangana BJP on Friday hailed the Centres move to ban sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter through animal markets saying the decision would help agriculture sector and farmers as distress sale of the animals will be prevented.

It will directly impact to reduce farmers suicides as distress sale is prevented. If farmers sell off their cattle, they are disconnected from agriculture, Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said in Hyderabad.

The government banned the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter, a move that is expected to hit export and trade of meat and leather.

It also prohibited practices that are cruel to animals including painting of horns and putting ornaments or decorative materials on them.

The environment ministry has notified the stringent Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan said the new rules are very specific and aim to regulate animal markets and sale of cattle.
The Bihar government, on Friday, admitted that it had violated reservation rules in filling up post-graduate medical seats, and announced its decision to scrap the entire ongoing counselling process.

Announcing the government decision, principal secretary, health, R K Mahajan said, fresh counselling would be conducted on May 28 and 29, so as to complete the admission process by May 31, which was the Supreme Court prescribed deadline for PG admissions.

The Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (BCECEB) will now re-convene counselling for 449 PG seats on offer in six government-run medical colleges of the state, affecting nearly 850 students vying for these seats.

The seats are at the Patna Medical College Hospital, Nalanda Medical College Hospital (both in Patna), Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (Darbhanga), Anugraha Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital (Gaya), Jawaharal Nehru Medical College and the Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (Muzaffarpur).

Of the 449 PG seats on offer, 350 are degree and 99 diploma seats, said Mahajan. He said these also included 136 degree and 32 diploma seats, which were vacant under the central government quota and reverted to the state.

Asked if the government would take action against officials responsible for the lapse, he said, We will initiate an inquiry before taking any action.

Asked if there was a hint of a scam in the matter at hand, Mahajan said, The problem arose because of wrong interpretation of rules. There is no scam as such.

He said combined counselling would be done for medicos this time, as against the previous practice of holding it separately in a phase-wise manner for general and reserved category students.

He said students of the reserved category, who compete on merit, would be given the option to exercise their choice of opting for merit or reserved seat only once. Having exercised their choice once, students of the reserved category will not be able to change it, he added.

Earlier, students of reserved category, who qualified on merit, used to take up general seats and then re-appear in counselling for reserved category medicos. Having got admission in an institution of choice, the general seat, which they subsequently vacated, was then filled up by a candidate under reserved category, thus whittling down the number of seats available to medicos under general category.

It was this arrangement, which the medicos were opposing when they were caned during counselling in front of the BCECEB office here last Tuesday.

Mahajan said the government would transfer the admission fee in case there was any change of college in fresh counselling.

Additional secretary, health, Pradeep Kumar Jha, was also present during the media interface.

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The government has banned the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter through animal markets, rules that will hurt millions of poor farmers and squeeze supplies to the countrys meat industry.

The new rules do not amount to a blanket ban on cattle trade or their slaughter, and license breeding remains legal. But the move will crimp supplies to the countrys Rs 1-lakh crore meat and allied industries that source about 90% of their requirements from animal markets.

The worst hit, however, will be the mostly Muslim meat and leather traders who face mounting violence by increasingly assertive cow vigilante groups. Farmers will also be hit because they will be deprived of a traditional source of income from selling non-milch and ageing cattle.

Read: Centres notification banning cow sale for slaughter a fascist move: Kerala

The central regulation for cattle business notified this week allows only farmland owners to trade at animal markets. The notification covers bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves, as well as the camel trade.

To be implemented in the next three months, the move introduces lots of paperwork for cow traders who are mostly poor and illiterate. For instance, before the trade, both seller and buyer will have to produce identity and farmland ownership documents.

After buying a cow, a trader must make five copies of proof of sale and submit them at the local revenue office, the local veterinary doctor in the district of the purchaser, animal market committee, apart from one each for seller and buyer.

Take an undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter, reads a directive to committees overseeing animal markets in the rule notified under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act of 1960 that gives the Centre powers over animal welfare.

The new rules were approved by former environment minister Anil Madhav Dave before his death last week, ministry sources told HT. The ministry drafted the rules on Supreme Court directions aimed at improving condition of animals in these markets.

Considered holy by many Hindus, cows are a sensitive political topic and have gained in importance since Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed to power in 2014 as several BJP-ruled states enacted strict laws to punish cow slaughter.

But many say the expanding protection for bovines is a proxy war against Dalits and Muslims  as exemplified by the lynching of dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan in April or the flogging of Dalit men in Gujarats Una last year. Slaughter of milch cows is banned in all states except in Kerala and in parts of north-east India.

The annual meat business in India is estimated to be around Rs one lakh crore with exports worth Rs 26,303 crore in 2016-17. Uttar Pradesh is the market leader followed by Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana. Most states in India hold weekly animal markets and many states operate them near borders to attract traders from neighbouring states.

The meat industry worries it will come to a standstill.

We are shocked, SN Sabbarwal director general of All India Meat Exporters Association told Hindustan Times. Only a few slaughter houses get animals from breeders.

Regulating cattle trade is a state subject but animal welfare is overseen by the Centre. So the environment ministry notified the rules under the animal welfare law but gave district administrations the power to enforce them.

The environment ministrys eight-page rule also bans setting of animal markets within 50 km of an international border and 25 km of a state border. Taking animal outside the state will require special approval of the state government nominee.

The rule also prescribes about 30 norms for animal welfare in markets, including water, fans, bedding, ramps, non-slippery flooring, veterinary facility and separate enclosure for sick animals. The rule says young and unfit animals cannot be sold.

No animal market will now be able to run without approval of district animal market committee to be headed by a magistrate and having two representatives of government-approved animal welfare groups.

The regulation makes it mandatory for veterinary inspector to certify proper loading and unloading of animals to ensure they are not cramped inside trucks. The inspector can mark any animal unfit for sale.

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The Union governments new notification banning the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter is a fascist and anti-federal move and the Centre cant prepare a menu for the people of the country, Keralas Left government said on Friday.

We will not allow the (central) government to enforce fascist policies of the RSS and other fringe outfits. Let it issue many such notifications, we will not follow them, said Keralas agriculture minister VS Sunil Kumar.

The Kerala Chief Ministers Office also criticised the slaughter ban, saying Cattle slaughter becomes illegal at a time when manslaughter happens in the name of cow.

Central Govt. has proved who runs them. Cattle slaughter becomes illegal at a time when manslaughter happens in the name of cow. #BeefBan  CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) May 26, 2017

In a series of tweets, it said, the new regulation will rob lakhs of jobs, cripple leather industry.

It called the notification an attack on our poor, dalits & farmers.

New livestock regulation law will rob lakhs of jobs, cripple leather industry. Primarily an attack on our poor, dalits & farmers. #BeefBan  CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) May 26, 2017

The CMO said food consumption of millions of people will be affected by the clear attack on our plurality, the essence of India.

With effective ban on cattle slaughter, food consumption of millions affected. Clear attack on our plurality, the essence of India. #BeefBan  CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) May 26, 2017

The Congress also criticised the Union governments latest notification.

It is against the Constitution of the country and infringes upon the right of citizens, said MM Hassan, acting president of the state Congress.

He said the timing of the notification makes it more intriguing, as the Muslim holy month of Ramzan was scheduled to begin on Friday.

In Kerala, around 60% of the total meat consumed is beef. Not just Muslims and Christians, many Hindus are also fond of dishes made of the red meat.

A raid by Delhi Police at the Kerala House kitchen in the national capital a couple of years ago had triggered outrage in the state. Many student organisations had conducted beef festivals in protest against the police action.

People in many states in the north-east also eat beef.

It is a very bad decision. We dont agree to it and wont implement it, said Mizorams animal husbandry minister C Ngunlianchunga.

Mhao, the owner of Taochi Enterprise, one of the biggest meat suppliers in the north-east, said: I dont think the rule will be applicable to the north-east. It will be chaotic and a body blow to business. Why are they digging into our plates?

The environment ministry this week notified a regulation under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 prohibiting sale of cattle through animal markets across the country. Regulating animal trade is a state business but animal welfare is a central subject, thereby providing the window for the ministry to notify the rule.

(With inputs from Utpal Parashar in Guwahati)

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Two persons suffered pellet injuries on Friday in clashes between stone-pelters and security forces in the vicinity of the historic Jamia Masjid in old Srinagar after the Friday prayers, police said.

The clashes broke out soon after the congregational prayers ended at the Jamia Masjid and other nearby mosques and shrines, a police official said.

He said two persons suffered pellet injuries during the clashes and they have been admitted to a hospital here for treatment.

The condition of both injured is stated to be stable.

The official said intermittent clashes were going on in the area.

Earlier, moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq led a protest march inside the mosque precincts against Army chiefs commendation card to Major Leetul Gogoi, who had tied a Kashmiri man to his jeep as a human shield against stone-pelting on April 9.

Holding placards, the protestors raised slogans against the government and the Army and demanded action against the Major.

Separatists had called for peaceful protests today after the Friday prayers against the honouring of the Army officer.
ARARIA In a continuing series of such incidents in Bihar, two dalit minor girls were allegedly gang-raped by three persons, at a village under Fulkaha police station of Araria district in in north-eastern Bihar, about 300 km east of state capital, Patna.

The girls, both aged 14 years and cousins, were allegedly raped by their co-villagers, all in their 20s. The incident took place on Tuesday but came to light only on Thursday after the matter was reported to the police by the victims family members.

Confirming the incident, station house officer (SHO) of Fulkaha police station Shyam Nandan Yadav said two of the accused had been arrested on Thursday and the girls had been sent for their medical examination, to the district headquarters town, also known as Araria.

The two accused were arrested on Thursday after the brother of the victims lodged an FIR at the Furkaha police station. Search was on for the third accused till the time last reports came in.

This was the third incident of gang rape of minors in Bihar this year.

Earlier, in January this year, a 12-year-old student of a government school was allegedly gang-raped by the principal and three teachers, in Jehanabad district of southern Bihar.,

Again, in February, angry protesters blocked roads in a Supaul (north Bihar) village, after a minor was raped and murdered in a grocery store. The protestors pelted stones at the police station and set several cars ablaze, while expressing their anger over the incident.

In the FIR lodged on Thursday, the victims brother said the three accused persons came to their house on two motorbikes and told the girls to accompany them to watch a folk drama performance in the village, where their parents had gone earlier.

They took the girls to a lonely spot where all three raped them. After the incident they left the girls at their house with a warning not to reveal the matter to anybody, the victims brother stated in the FIR.
Patna Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has accepted an invite to a luncheon planned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in honour of Mauritian premier Pravind Jugnauth on Saturday, setting off speculation that the Janata Dal United (JD-U) is on the verge of breaking away from the Grand Alliance.

Reports of Kumars planned visit to New Delhi come on the heels of his decision to skip an Opposition meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday to settle on a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. While party national president Sharad Yadav attended in his place, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said he was also representing the Bihar chief minister in his capacity as the big brother in the Bihar alliance.

Even as television footage showed Prasad sitting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, JD-U spokespersons Ajay Alok and Pawan Varma insisted that Kumars acceptance of Modis invite was mostly out of respect for representatives of the island nation. Theres nothing surprising or abnormal about Bihars emotional and historical bond with Mauritius, considering that 50% of the island nations people have their roots in the state, said Varma, dismissing speculation that Kumar was on the verge of leaving the alliance.

JD-U sources said Kumar has already participated in two meetings with Gandhi, during which he insisted on wider Opposition unity ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He had also discussed the matter with Left leaders in Kolkata in February, party leader KC Tyagi further pointed out.

Kumar himself was unfazed, saying, I would be discussing desiltation of the Ganga with the PM. In any case, I have met the Congress president twice and Sharad Yadav is already attending the meet. The invitation was to parties, not individuals

While JD-U spokesperson Neeraj Kumar claimed Kumar could not attend Gandhis meeting in Delhi due to prior engagements in Patna, including a vital cabinet meet, senior state BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has said, It is obvious that Kumar cannot continue with a scam-tainted ally such as Lalu Prasad. It is an alliance of contradictions, and thereby untenable, he said.

However, even though many JD-U and BJP leaders said Kumar did not want to be seen with Prasad in view of recent land-grab allegations levelled against the RJD leaders relatives, there is a strong view that he might not rejoin the NDA just yet.

The Grand alliance narrative in Bihar has been derailed, with Kumar facing difficulties in shuffling bureaucrats and top police officers, and insiders alleging pressure from the Lalu camp to nominate RJD-friendly officers to crucial positions. This has bogged down governance with orders and counter-orders galore from influential wings, as officers put it.

The JD-U officially stated that Kumar was the force behind the meeting of Opposition parties in Delhi  although he, unfortunately, could not attend it. When asked why the JD-U is yet to take a stand on the recent RJD-related controversies, Varma said: The chief minister has already said that inquiries into the allegations are in the realm of central agencies, and the law will take its own course. As for the governmental tie-up, there have been no extraordinary developments that merit speculation.

BJP leaders, however, point at various incidents that indicate a warming of relations between Kumar and the NDA. While Kumar stood by the Prime Minister on demonetisation despite the RJDs rebuff and even called for a war against illegal transactions, Modi termed Kumars prohibition initiative as a brave move that few politicians would have risked. Moreover, the Prime Minister had praised Kumar for the grand arrangements made for the 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh at Patna Saheb on January 5.

While the JD-U continues to blast the Centre for not keeping its word on providing central allocations to ease Bihars financial woes, Kumars emphasis on political principles (which, incidentally, was the cause for his split with the BJP after Modi was nominated as its prime ministerial candidate) may just bring about yet another tie-up with the NDA.

Such a possibility would become even more imminent if the RJD scam gets murkier, or if his emergence as the possible candidate of a united Opposition against Modi comes into question.

.

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Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has filed a civil defamation case in the Delhi high court against Republic TV and journalist Arnab Goswami.

Pleased to confirm this story. We filed (the defamation case) today. Had enough of his campaign of calumny, Tharoor tweeted.

Pleased to confirm this story. We filed today in Delhi High Court. Had enough of his campaign of calumny. https://t.co/ThcI7AHGiu  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 26, 2017

Goswamis Republic TV had recently aired what it called an expose with regard to the death of the Congress leaders wife Sunanda Pushkar.

It played tapes of a conversation between a reporter and Tharoors assistant Narayan on the night of Pushkars death.

Pushkar was found dead in a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.

The Thiruvananthapuram MP has said he had nothing to hide and had been fully cooperative with the police.

He had rubbished the Republic TV report, saying the news channel was indulging in a publicity stunt to get attention.

Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations & outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalist, he had earlier tweeted about the news report.

Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations&outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalst  Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 8, 2017
A ground investigation from central Kashmir where villagers refuted the armys narrative of the human shield incident on April 9 garnered a lot of chatter on social media on Friday.

Army Major Leetul Gogoi tied Kashmiri shawl weaver Farooq Dar, a resident of Chill village in Budgam district, to the bonnet of a jeep as a human shield and drove him around for five hours across 17 villages over 28km on April 9, the day of Srinagar parliamentary by-polls.

Dar says he had just voted and was on the way to a relatives house, where a death had taken place.

Journalist Omair Ahmad tweeted: Good, basic journalism, and why it pays to have people go to the ground rather than opinionate from TV studios. Argue with data.

Major Gogoi had told media that Dar was the instigator and could have been a ring leader of the stone-pelters and added he had managed to save lives by his act.

Somak Ghoshal, a senior editor with Huffington Post India, wrote on HT report: HTs report on the human shield episode is just heartbreaking. It also picks all the holes in Major Gogois story.

The HT story detailed what villagers experienced when they saw the jeep with Dar tied on it.

Important read. Locals recount the day when Farooq Dar was tied to the bonnet of military jeep. Thank you @saha_abhi1990 @htTweets team. https://t.co/YK607Dh0mz  Kaiser Majeed (@iKaicer) May 26, 2017

Solid ground-reporting, Twitter user Binu Paul wrote.

Good to see that a section of mainstream media still practices ground reporting, wrote user Chirag toshniwal.

But not everyone was convinced.

@htTweets @BhadraSinha Let hundreds of Gogoi bloom for upholding India's sovrenity. It must be a clear message to anti nationalists.  Dr(LtCol)ArdhenduPal (@lt_pal) May 25, 2017

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After coming under fire for having a dialogue with Hurriyat leaders, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday asserted that it was conveyed to him that Prime Minister Narendra Modis message that terror and tourism cannot go together has ruined tourism industries in Jammu and Kashmir this year.

Speaking to ANI here, Aiyar said, The tour operators of the Valley were present in the meeting with the Hurriyat leaders and they told me that Modis message that terror and tourism cannot go together has ruined tourism industries in this valley this year. He has inflicted untold harm by going around proclaiming that the valley has nothing to offer but terror.

Talking about his meeting, the senior Congress leader further said that now he was more convinced that the situation in the Valley is extremely grave and that corrective actions need to be taken sooner than later, otherwise much bigger problems will surface.

In an effort to resume dialogue with the stakeholders in Kashmir, five-member delegation led by Aiyar on Thursday called on moderate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and discussed ways to calm down the protestors.

The delegation discussed the prevailing situation in the Valley and the necessary steps to be initiated for bringing peace in Kashmir, which has been marred by violent protests since July 2016.

Considering the situation very critical where students and youth have joined the protests, Aiyar insisted that the Central Government should hold dialogue with all the stakeholders in Kashmir as it would bring enduring solutions by bringing peace in the Valley as well as reduce tensions between India and Pakistan.

Aiyar also showed his willingness to meet the pro-independence JKLF chief Yasin Malik, but he refused to meet the delegation.

The meetings with Hurriyat leaders assume significance after the group insisted that the Central Government should hold talks with Pakistan including separatists for resolution of the Kashmir issue.

However, Reacting on the Supreme Court orders, wherein it asked the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association (JKHCBA) to take to various stakeholders and consider their opinion in connection with the plea against the use of pellet guns in the state, the Centre on April 28th categorically said that it would not talk to people who were separatist leaders and those who talk of Azaadi and freedom.
The Narendra Modi government decidedly moved away from certain conventional approaches in countrys foreign policy in past three years which brought some dividends, helped by factors such as India remaining the fastest growing largest economy.

But for a government, which swears by neighbourhood first, the biggest foreign policy challenge remains in its immediate periphery, especially the ties with China, Pakistan and Nepal.

The Modi government was pragmatic in its foreign policy objectives, placing flagship schemes such as Make in India at its heart to get investments, and make India a manufacturing hub for things ranging from nuclear reactors to aircraft. A domestic perception that the government would change things, chase away the despondency in the last years of UPA government aided Modi to woo investors.

The Prime Minister led from the front, meeting a large number of business leaders and women in trips abroad. The message was business-like: His government has the mandate and parliamentary majority to change unhelpful rules and regulations, and India would remain an attractive business destination. Though certain processes  such as delays in signing the Bilateral Investment Treaties  are a niggle, India continues to be on the radar of many global companies.

It de-hyphenated ties between Israel-Palestine, ventured for crucial tie-ups with Pacific islands countries, and reworked its foreign aid policy to include defence purchases.

The Modi government continued to build on ties with Japan, made huge strides in the relationship with the UAE, improved ties with Saudi Arabia. It settled the long-running marine issue with Italy, which was also an irritant in its ties with European Union.

Ties with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh too are on the upswing.

But Pakistan and China continue to be the key spots of bother.

A great deal of flip-flop marked these two relationship. A Pakistan military court sentencing Kulbushan Yadav, a former naval officer convicted on charges of spying, continuing cross-border terrorism, Pakistan military taking a more aggressive position on India, and Pakistan going for elections early next year ensure the relationship between the two remain frayed.

Only extraordinary political will is likely to set things right.

Sovereignty issues, however, were kept in check on its frontier with China, allowing both countries to have greater economic ties.

But the China-Pakistan economic corridor and the Dalai Lama issue came hit the relationship. India stayed away from President Xi Jingpings signature One Road, One Belt summit -- attended by Japan, Vietnam and the US  over the project running through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Chinas position on India becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Mazood Azhar were more sour points.

Not on this scale, but India continues to be inconsistent in its Nepal policy. The way it has stood for the rights of minorities had angered the majority, and then the efforts to rectify the minority.

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The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered a probe into the alleged harassment of suspected members of the banned outfit  Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)  lodged in Bhopal Central Jail.

The rights panel directed its DIG to probe into the charges levelled by the kin of 21 inmates before the commission.

The matter has been considered by the commission and it is of the view that true facts need to be ascertained. The DIG (I) of the commission is requested to constitute a team, headed by a SSP to conduct an on-the-spot investigation and submit their report at the earliest, said directions issued by the commission on Friday.

The families had complained to the commission on Wednesday that the inmates were being humiliated, physically assaulted and denied medical treatment  charges which the jail authorities rubbished. Out of a total of 29 suspected SIMI men lodged in Bhopal jail since 2013, eight were killed in October 2016, allegedly in an encounter after escaping from the prison.

The kin of four inmates Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Javed, Mohammad Adil and Mohammad Zubair  all from Ujjain, claimed that the harassment for these prisoners started after the encounter.

As stated, on April 26, 2017, one of the under trial prisoner, Mohd Iqrar during video conferencing stated before the Sessions Court that he is being beaten up by the jail officials, daily after the incident of jail break occurred. He is forced to shout anti-religion slogans and his beard has also been forcefully trimmed, the directive explained..

Central Jail SP Dinesh Nargawe, however, denied the claims. I am not aware of any complaint to NHRC or any inquiry instituted by it. They (inmates) want to spend more time outside their barracks, meet their relatives and want food from outside... , he said.

(Inputs from Ranjan in Bhopal)

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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped a luncheon meet of opposition parties on Friday, is likely to be present at the lunch which will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday for visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

The Janata Dal United chief was conspicuous by his absence at the lunch organized by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which was attended by his party leaders Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi .

There has been speculation about a tie-up between JD(U) and the BJP, something Kumar has repeatedly refuted. JD(U) had broken its 17-year alliance with BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi was declared the saffron partys prime ministerial candidate.

Such conjecture has grown following the Supreme Courts decision to try RJD chief Lalu Prasad in four fodder scam cases and fresh allegations of corruption against him and his family members.

Kumar heads the JD(U)-RJD-Congress coalition government in Bihar. The chief minister has maintained a silence on the allegations against the RJD supremo and his kin, merely saying it was for the central government to look into them.

During a recent visit to Delhi he had reportedly stressed on a larger opposition unity against the BJP-led NDA. He had also met Gandhi.

Sources close to Kumar have often rubbished reports about any bonhomie between him and the BJP
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was at the receiving end on Friday for not attending an Opposition meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi but accepting Prime Minister Narendra Modis invite for lunch on Friday, blamed the political speculation on misinterpretation.

No meeting was slated for the day. Neither was a discussion on the Presidents election on the agenda, Kumar told the media.

She (Sonia Gandhi) had already invited me in April and I had a talk with her on the issue then, he said, clarifying why he was absent from the meeting ahead of the Presidential election.

All this speculation is nothing but misinterpretation, Kumar said, adding dont read too much into it.

I had made it clear a couple of days back that our (Janata Dal-United) former national president Sharad Yadav will be representing the party at the luncheon meeting of Opposition leaders.

Reports of Kumars planned visit to New Delhi came on the heels of his decision to skip an Opposition meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday to settle on a consensus candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. Party national president Sharad Yadav attended in his place.

Kumar has already said he supports the re-election of President Pranab Mukherjee as a consensus candidate, which, he believes would send out a positive signal in the country.

As for accepting PM Modis invite, Kumar said it is being hosted in the honour of the Mauritian Prime Minister (Pravind Jugnauth). We share a sentimental and close association with the people of Mauritius, 52% of them have roots in Bihar. I accepted the invite as the chief minister of that state.

While it is part of tradition to invite chief ministers having interest in the country of visiting heads of nations, I will be using the opportunity to draw the attention of PM Narendra Modi on the pressing need for the formulation of national silt policy, he said.

Kumar said he sent a formal letter to the PMs Office for holding talks after the lunch so that Bihars concerns ahead of monsoon could be brought to Modis attention once again.

Chief secretary Anajani Kumar Singh will accompany me, he said, adding I will press for sending an expert team, before June 10, for a proper evaluation of the need for silt management policy, he said.

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The Congress-led Opposition parties decided on Friday to form a panel to pick their presidential candidate but insisted that they will first wait for the government to propose the name of a suitable and consensus candidate.

At a luncheon hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, leaders of 17 parties including some traditional arch-rivals  Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh and Trinamool Congress and Left in West Bengal  broke bread while attacking the NDA governments policies.

While Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar skipped the meeting, his Janata Dal (United) was represented by Sharad Yadav and KC Tyagi.

In a joint statement, the parties later said, If acceptable, consensual candidates do not emerge, then we shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our Republic.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and former Jammu and Kashmir CM and National Conference president Omar Abdullah after a meeting to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Presidential election. (PTI)

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee described the ideal candidate as someone with secular and democratic values who knows the Constitution.

The meeting also discussed Kashmir and Saharanpur. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was present. The panel, suggested first by NCP chief Sharad Pawar at the meeting, will consist of at least seven members.

The Opposition, with 4.02 lakh votes, has geared up for a fight though it is all set to lose as the NDA is way ahead with 5.37 lakh votes. Some Opposition parties are looking at the possibility of a grand alliance against PM Narendra Modi in the next Lok Sabha elections. RJD chief Lalu Prasad said Opposition could defeat the BJP in 2019 if there is a grand alliance at the national level.

Questions were, however, raised why Arvind Kejriwals AAP and Naveen Patnaiks BJD were not invited. Kejriwal had assured Banerjee that he will support an Opposition candidate.

At the meeting, the Congress president opened the floor for discussions but insisted that no name will be discussed. She sought opinion on how to take things forward. BSP chief Mayawati assured the meeting that she will be a part of any broad-based grouping to take on the BJP.
Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has indicated he wont attend the opposition meeting on the presidential election on Friday.

The meeting has been called to reach a consensus on the opposition candidate for the presidential election, expected to be held before July 25.

The AAPs presence in a meeting organised by the Congress will surely be a new chapter in its short political history. So far, the AAP had been a bitter rival with the Congress and stayed away from any such opposition combination.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury have been in touch with Kejriwal to rope him in the larger oppositions scheme of things. Last week, Kejriwal had a long meeting with Banerjee and appeared to have decided to support the Opposition candidate.

We have requested him to send two leaders from his party for the opposition meeting. We are hopeful that he will agree, Banerjee told the Hindustan Times on Thursday evening.

Earlier, Kejriwal had personally stayed away but allowed his parliamentarians to march alongside Shiv Sena to protest against demonetisation in Delhi. Banerjee organised the march to Rashtrapati Bhavan with AAP, National Conference, Sena and some other parties.

This time, opposition parties are hopeful Kejriwal will follow the same model.

The Congress favours Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar as the opposition candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, hoping that the veteran politician will be able to garner support from a cross-section of political parties, including some BJP-led NDA constituents.

However, the main opposition party will support incumbent Pranab Mukherjee if the ruling side re-nominates him.

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A Pakistani national living as a Sadhu in Iskcon temple in the Delhi-Haryana border town of Bahadurgarh was taken in police custody on Thursday evening.

Sources said the police have recovered a Pakistani passport from him in which his name has been mentioned as Raja, a resident of Hindu Colony in Larkana, Pakistan. He had come to Indian in 2013, and his visa has expired. He has allegedly been living in the temple from past few months.

The police said they have recovered an Aadhar card and a PAN (permanent account number) card from him in which he has a different date of birth from his passport, and his name is changed to Raasraj Das Rajput. Jhajjar SP Satheesh Balan said the Indian documents proofs are original, but they are probing how he managed to get them.

While being taken away, the man told the local media that hes a Hindu who wants to continue living in India.

The SP said further investigation was being conducted by the Inelligence Bureau. No case has been registered. The investigation is going on, he said.
Postanjyan tries to present Serzh Sargsyan's biography n court /updated/ (video)

17:50 Hearing of an appeal by the Yerkir Tsirani party continues in a Yerevan court. Zaruhi Postanjyan, the founding leader of the party was presenting Serzh Sargsyans biography some time ago, when the judge interrupted her saying that the biography of the countrys president has nothing to do with the trial. In reply, Postanjyan sad that she was trying to expose the connection between courts and Baghramyan 26 (Presidential Palace) which will make it clear that the court cannot make a fair decision and should therefore resign. 16.30 After a short recess, the judge decided to continue the sitting though the opposition representative was still in the courtroom. The court bailiffs had been unable to remove Stella Aghajanyan from the courtroom which resulted in jostle and bustle. Zaruhi Postanjyans representative filed a petition to oust the judge for his biased attitude. 15.50 The Administrative Court is studying on Friday an appeal by Zaruhi Postanjyans party demanding to annul the results of the May 14 municipal elections in Yerevan. The party filed an appeal with the Court, claiming large-scale fraud and violations, including vote buying, by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). Hardly had the sitting started when it was interrupted by the judge. While Zaruhi Postanjyan was making a speech, the judge reprimanded Stella Aghajanyan, a representative of the Yerkir Tsirani party. The bailiffs tried to execute the judges order and take the woman out of the court, but the latter disobeyed them The judge announced that he would not resume the sitting unless the woman was removed from the courtroom. Police officers were grouped outside the court building. During the May 14 elections, Postanjyan's Yerkir Tsirani party polled nearly 8 percent of the vote in the 65-seat Council of Elders.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented on Friday his governments three-year report card, listing several achievements on the social and economic fronts, including transformation of the countrys agriculture sector, which he said will double farmers income by 2022.

Modi inaugurated the countrys longest bridge over the Lohit, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, at the eastern end of Assam, besides laying the foundation stone of an agriculture research institute and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Northeast was known as NE, but from now on it will be known as new economy, new energy, new empowerment...in a way, it will become a new engine for Indias growth, Modi said in Gogamukh, more than 500 km from Guwahati.

Modis choice of Assam to mark three years of the NDA government is being seen as the BJPs push to control the region where it is in power in four states. The party is hoping to oust the Congress in Meghalaya and the Left Front in Tripura, when the two states go to polls this year.

He announced naming the Dhola-Sadiya bridge -- spanning 9.15 km -- after balladeer Bhupen Hazarika, known as the Bard of Brahmaputra, and loved across the region for his songs promoting unity among communities.

The bridge reduces travel time from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh by nearly 5 hours, which will speed up movement of troops and battle tanks closer to the border with China.

Northeast has the potential to fulfill our dream of taking India to newer heights of development. Thats the reason why the region is in focus of our development initiatives, Modi said after inaugurating the bridge at Dhola.

Addressing a public rally in Guwahati, Modi said farmers were crucial to his vision of a new India where no area will remain undeveloped.

The focus on farmers follows criticism from the opposition as well as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)  the ideological mentor of the BJP  which had questioned the governments economic policies after a string of farmer suicides.

We need the cooperation for farmers for ensuring maximum yield through optimum utilisation of water and technological assistance, he said. We need a new, modern India in 2022, when we will be observing 75 years of the countrys freedom.

The Prime Minister also vowed to intensify the battle against black money even if I have to pay a heavy price for it.

He said demonetisation was a tough decision but the trust of voters made it possible.

This could have caused trouble for us, but the people stood by us because they believed in our honesty. Demonetisation saw 90 lakh Indians coming forward to disclose their income and pay tax, he said.

Several measures taken by the government, Modi said, have helped the right people get the benefits of pro-poor schemes.

We have shown we can work on a big scale, as was evident by the launching of 104 satellites on a single day. I assure you, from the land of Kamakhya, that we will do justice to the faith you have kept on us, he said.

The Congress, however, criticised the governments three-year tenure, saying its last highlight was media management, propaganda, platitudes and acronyms.

The future of this country is dark from the economic point of view and from the social point of view. The country had never been so undivided. The country is on the verge of seeing strife in the future, senior party leader Kamal Nath said in Delhi.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated on Friday Indias longest span, the 9.15 km Dhola-Sadiya bridge across river Lohit at the easternmost tip of Assam, on May 26.

The bridge is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai. The opening of the bridge is among the highlights of Modis programme during his visit to Assam to attend the first anniversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government.

Lohit is one of three rivers  the others are Dibang and Siang  that meet to form the Brahmaputra downstream of the site of the bridge that connects Dhola village and Sadiya town, 540 km east of Assams principal city Guwahati.

Sadiya is the birthplace of balladeer Bhupen Hazarika.

The bridge, designed to facilitate the movement of battle tanks, is expected to help movement of troops to the border with China in the Wallong-Kibithu sector in southern Arunachal Pradesh. The sector had fallen along with Tawang in the northwest to the Chinese in the 1962 war.

The project, worth Rs 950 crore, was started in 2011. It will reduce the travel time for people on either bank of river Lohit by at least eight hours.

But Dhola-Sadiya is not the only bridge in the Northeast that will go into the record books.

Longest rail-road bridge

Also expected to be inaugurated by 2018 is Bogibeel, the fourth and easternmost bridge across the Brahmaputra. This bridge near Dibrugarh town, 4.94 km in length, will be Indias longest road-rail bridge.

Like Dhola-Sadiya, Bogibeel will also be of immense strategic importance as it will enable faster troop movements across the Brahmaputra besides providing a direct link between people on opposite banks who have to take a 500km detour via the existing Kalia-Bhomora bridge downstream.

9.15 km Dhola-Sadiya bridge is longer than the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai. (HT Photo/Pronib Das )

Bogibeel connects Dibrugarh town on the southern bank of Brahmaputra and Silapathar on the northern bank.

The construction of the bridge, approved in 1996, was initiated by the first BJP-led NDA government in 2002. The Congress-led UPA government acknowledged the strategic importance of the bridge and declared it as a national project in 2007.

But the progress of the project, undertaken by the firm that build Bandra-Worli Sea Link, has been slow. The cost has thus spiralled from the initial Rs 1,767 crore in 2002 to Rs 6,000 crore now.

Longest tunnel, tallest rail bridge

Arguably Indian Railways toughest project, this line will boast of two Indian records once completed by 2020. These are the longest railway tunnel and the tallest railway bridge.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) started construction of this line  originally part of the ambitious Trans-Asian Railway  in 2008 after it was declared as a national project. Railway officials said work was progressing at speed despite challenges of weather, terrain and militants.

The project is in two sections  the 84km Jiribam-Tupul and the 27km Tupul-Imphal  spanning 111km. The track will pass through 45 tunnels, 25 of which were completed by April 2016.

The total length of the tunnels would be 60.2 km, which is more than half the total track length, and the longest one (Tunnel 12) would be 11.55 km long to displace the current record-holder Banihal in in Kashmir from the top spot by 100 metres.

The two sections have 22 major and 142 minor bridges. These include what will be the worlds tallest rail bridge with a pier height of 141 metres  almost equal to two Qutab Minars stacked over each other, NFR spokesperson Pranav Jyoti Sharma told HT.

The bridge, designed to facilitate the movement of battle tanks, is expected to help movement of troops to the border with China in the Wallong-Kibithu sector in southern Arunachal Pradesh. (HT Photo/Pronib Das )

Because of terrain and scanty population, the entire stretch of this project will have nine stations, Tupul on the outskirts of Manipur capital Imphal being the easternmost.

The anticipated cost of the project is Rs 9,657 crore, which compares favourably with the similarly treacherous 210 km Lumding-Silchar hill section in Assam that was sanctioned in 1996-97 at an initial cost of Rs 648 crore but ended up costing Rs 6,000 crore upon completion in 2015.

The railway line is expected to give Manipurs landlocked Imphal Valley  often troubled by highway blockades in the surrounding Naga hills  a cheaper route to the India beyond. Also, the movement of goods by train is expected to bring down prices from India, though Manipur sustains mainly through imports from Myanmar.

The railway line from Manipur is expected to be extended to Moreh on the border with Myanmar where border trade averages Rs 350 million annually.

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President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing him as one of the most effective communicators who gave new direction to Indias economy.

Addressing a book release event on the third anniversary of NDA government, he said Modi has taken various initiatives some of which were epoch-making decisions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators and perhaps can be compared with other illustrious prime ministers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi ...

No doubt in the contemporary period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators and perhaps can be compared with other illustrious prime ministers like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi who communicated on their principle, on their ideas accepting the Parliamentary form of government and particularly to have a secular Constitution, Mukherjee said.

He said without having the capacity to be a good communicator one cannot expect to lead the millions of people.

Talking about the government, the president said there has been many major developmental initiatives in India in different directions.

It (initiatives) has been possible for India because of its strong foundations in economy to overcome the financial crises and subsequently the international financial problems including the Euro zone crises.

Indian economy is moving steadfast. The prime minister has given a new direction, no doubt. Various initiatives which he has taken clearly indicates the onward movement of India, Mukherjee said.

Some of the decisions are no doubt epoch making decisions, he said.

The president was speaking after accepting the first copies of two books, including one on Modis radio broadcast Mann Ki Baat.

The books-- Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio and Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modis Government at Midterm-- were released by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan at a function held in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Mukherjee said the subjects chosen by the prime minister in Mann Ki Baat affect the lives of a billion people.

Vice president Hamid Ansari, defence and finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Lok Sabha speaker and other dignitaries were present during the programme.
New Delhi Pranab Mukherjee moved into the Rastrapati Bhavan as the 13th President of Indias in the summer of 2012.

Along with him were a battery of bureaucrats who made up the Presidents Office, handling tasks such as planning the Presidents foreign engagements and liaisoning with the government.

This week, the President  whose term ends soon  said that most of his original team in Rashtrapati Bhavan has moved on.

Almost all officers who came with me to Rashtrapati Bhavan have left. Two of them are back to foreign service. One is now posted in World Bank. I wish them all the best, Mukherjee, a former Union minister in the Congress government, said at the farewell function of Venu Rajamony on Thursday.

Rajamony had been one of the Presidents most trusted lieutenants.

Another key aide, Pradip Gupta, was first to leave Rashtrapati Bhavan last year. Gupta was with Mukherjee from his days as defence minister and had been handling all the GoM-related matters till Mukherjee resigned as finance minister.

After Gupta, Suresh Yadav who joined Mukherjee during his finance ministry days  left. Yadav is now in Washington DC as a special envoy for India.

Gayatri, also a Indian Foreign Services officer, went back to her parent cadre after handling Mukherjees foreign engagements and related issues in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

And just a few months ago, Mukherjees private secretary Rajneesh, got promoted and joined the Union commerce ministry. my private secretary is now in commerce ministry, Mukherjee said at Venus farewell.

The Presidents oldest lieutenant, Omita Paul, however is still with Mukherjee. Paul, a former information service officer, had been Mukherjees eyes and ears for more than 20 years, since Mukherjee was the deputy chairman Planning Commission during Narsimha Rao government.

After July 25, Mukherjee is set to shift to a spacious bungalow in the capitals Rajaji Marg. The bungalow, which was also the home of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, is being refurbished to welcome the new former President.

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Opposition parties said they will prefer a consensus candidate for the presidential polls if the government fields a good, secular candidate, familiar with the Constitution said West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday after a meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

CPIs D Raja said the opposition had decided that there will be no compromise on the credentials of secularism, democratic values and understanding of Constitution.

The opposition, said the Trinamool Congress chief, has decided to wait for the Narendra Modi government to announce its candidate. If the governments candidate doesnt meet the requirements, the parties will form a panel to select their own.

Gandhi is chairing a meeting of opposition leaders to discuss strategy for the upcoming Presidential elections.

The meeting, being held at Parliament, is still on. Sources said the governments demonetisation move, caste clashes in Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur and Kashmir were also discussed.

BSP chief Mayawati said the governments performance in three years was also on the agenda. Under the Modi rule, the poor, dalit, tribal, minorities and farmers are suffering, she said.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad said the governments only achievement is that for the first time, the Pakistan flag is fluttering in Kashmir.

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Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has been denied permission to visit caste conflict-hit Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

No permission has been given for Rahul Gandhis visit to the district, said ADG (law and order) Aditya Mishra, adding that the district administration has banned the visits of all political leaders.

Congresss Rajya Sabha MP PL Punia, who was denied permission to visit the affected areas on Thursday, said they had applied for permission to Rahuls visit on Thursday. We have sent a reminder to the district administration on Friday.

The Congress vice president was planning to visit Shabbirpur village in the district on Saturday and meet Dalit families whose houses had been burnt, besides a hospital where some injured are undergoing treatment.

Violence broke out in Shabbirpur village between after a Thakur youth was killed in brick batting between Thakurs and Dalits over a Maharana Pratap birth anniversary parade on May 5 following which Rajputs allegedly torched over 50 hutments of Dalits.

Another person died in fresh violence that broke out there after BSP chief Mayawatis visit earlier this week.

However, sources said late at night that Sarsava airbase authorities have given permission to land Gandhis aircraft there. Congress MP PL Punia too confirmed the development.

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Senior Congress leader Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh on Friday said Rahul Gandhi will soon take up the role of party president and that 2019 Lok Sabha polls will be fought under his leadership.

A lot of revamping is going on and further changes are expected in the AICC. All this is being done to strengthen the organisation and make it ready for the 2019 polls, Singh told reporters here.

Rahul ji is the party vice president now and he will soon assume the role of party president. Congress will go to the 2019 (general) elections under his leadership, he said.

The former union minister was in the city to take part in a protest organised by the Maharashtra unit of Congress against the failures of the BJP-led government.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Singh said the unemployment level has remained the same, farmers are in distress and internal security is in shambles.

They are playing with the future of the country. And, if a word is spoken against them, they are termed as anti-nationals, he said.

Singh added that while the Congress took concrete steps towards getting fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim back, BJP ministers and legislators were busy attending marriage ceremonies of his relatives.

The Congress leader was referring to a controversy in which Maharashtra BJP minister Girish Mahajan allegedly attended a function of Dawoods relative in Nashik.

Is this their definition of nationalism?, he asked.

Singh alleged that the BJP government has looted Rs 4.5 lakh crore through the sale of petroleum products after their market prices went down by around 50 per cent. This money could have been used to write off the debts of farmers across the nation, Singh said.

They tried to assassinate the characters of Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. But the impeccable credentials of these leaders was proven. Did they ever call MP Chief Minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan) to give his statement on the Vyapam scam? Chhatisgarh CMs son also has serious charges against him. Nobody was called for questioning, he alleged.

While replying to a query, Singh said that Congress never said that EVMs were tampered with. The party had only asked the Election Commission to check the functioning of some select ATMs, which were claimed to have been rigged, he said.
Driving from Utligam to Hardpanzoo is not easy even at the best of times. The dirt track meandering through the mountains of central Kashmir is narrow, forcing vehicles to squeeze by the side of the road to let traffic from the other direction pass.

Bad weather, when dirt mixes with slush and visibility plummets, makes the journey worse.

The same stretch of road is in the eye of the storm ever since Major Leetul Gogoi tied a Kashmiri man to the bonnet of a jeep as a human shield and drove him around for five hours across 17 villages over 28km on April 9.

Details of the episode have been sketchy with the army divulging precious little, except that the major did what he did to save lives in the face of heavy stone pelting by an angry mob. I decided at a fraction of a moment, Gogoi, commended by the army chief earlier this week, told TV channels.

He did not touch upon the necessity of driving the human shield around for five hours, if escaping stone pelting was the objective.

HT retraced the journey of his jeep that day, stopping at several villages on the way. Eyewitness accounts ran contrary to the official version:

April 9, 10.45am, Utligam: Residents of the tiny village in Budgam district say Farooq Dar was picked up by the army, hours after he had voted in the Srinagar bypoll that was under way. Some youngsters had been pelting stones at the local school housing the polling centre and the soldiers opened fire to chase them away. Two youth received bullet injuries, villagers say.

It was around this time that Farooq Dar was seized by Gogois men. After having voted around 8.30am (his serial number on the voter roll was 612) at a polling booth (number 90) in his own village of Chil some 17km away, he and a friend were passing through Utligam on a motorcycle to a relatives house to condole a death. A village woman said she had asked Dar to flee since the army was in the village, but Dar refused. I had asked the bikers to run away but Dar said no one will harm him because he had just cast his vote. He, in fact, showed his finger to the army personnel as well, but they were in no mood to listen, the woman said.

Villagers in Utligam point towards the spot where Farooq Dar was tied up on the army jeep. (Waseem Andrabi / HT Photo)

Local residents say Dar was beaten up before being tied to the bonnet of the jeep. After tying him up, they told us to pelt stones at him, Meema, another woman said. A placard saying he was a stone pelter was hung around his neck and the jeep drove away around 11am.

11.30am, Najan: Panic was beginning to sweep the village with reports reaching that an army jeep was on the move with a man tied on it.

The jeep shortly arrived, having snaked its way past the villages of Ganipora, Hayatpora and Sonpa. Najan was itself quiet with no reports of stone pelting. But the villagers were in ferment at the sight of a tied Dar.

Minutes after the jeep reached Najan, Dars brother Fayaz received a call from a local. Save your brother. He might just die. He is on an army jeep tied up and the vehicle has now reached Najan, recounted Fayaz.

Here's the video as well. A warning can be heard saying stone pelters will meet this fate. This requires an urgent inquiry & follow up NOW!! pic.twitter.com/qj1rnCVazn  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 14, 2017

1.30pm, Khospora: This village was quiet till the jeep arrived. But after the jeep with Dar tied to it left following a brief stopover, protests broke out with angry residents taking to the streets.

Polling for the by-poll under way in the village was discontinued. Thirty-seven votes had been cast till then.

Villagers say they pleaded with the soldiers to let Dar go. One of the old men begged the soldiers to let the man off. When they did not listen, he requested them to at least loosen the ropes and let him drink water, a resident said. The soldiers did not heed the old mans plea.

2.30pm, Rakhayee: Qurant Ul Ain, a seven-year-old class 3 student, ran home scared on seeing the jeep with Dar.

I thought they were taking him to be killed. I ran immediately inside my house and didnt step out for next two days, he said. Because of elections, schools were closed and most children were in their courtyards when the jeep made its appearance.

3pm, Arizhal: This village too was quiet that day till the jeep arrived. I had seen Dar on the jeep with my own eyes. Anyone with a weak heart would have died seeing what we saw, a local tailor said.

3.15pm, Mandi: Here too, residents were mortified seeing Dar tied to the jeep. I thought they had tied a dead man, recounted a woman who was grazing cattle. A class eight student said he ran on seeing the jeep. I thought that I will be next, he said.

4pm, Hardpanzoo: The jeep finally drove into a Central Reserve Police Force camp. According to Dar, it was here he was untied from the jeep. He, however, was still bound by ropes.

Dars brother accompanied by the sarpanch and deputy-sarpanch of his Chil village reached the camp. Dar, they say, was kept tied to a tree inside the camp.

Finally, at about 7pm, he was let off, bringing to end an ordeal that caused international outrage and left the nation deeply divided.
In Malda, a Muslim-majority district in West Bengal, a rally of swords and trishuls, saffron bandanas and shouts of Jai Shri Ram marked Ram Navami. There hadnt been anything like it in living memory.

Our organisation has got a boost in the Hindu-dominated parts of Malda over the past couple of years, though were still facing difficulty getting started in the Muslim-dominated areas, says Tarun Kumar Pandit, spokesperson for the north Bengal chapter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Hes standing in a school ground run by the RSS-affiliated Vidya Bharati where 115 RSS workers from across north Bengal have gathered for a 20-day camp, complete with discussions on nation-building and field exercise in khaki shorts, with lathis in hand.

The 20-day-camp for south Bengal, held in Howrah district, had a record number of 325 attendees.

Among the participants in Malda was a local Class 11 student who said he joined because he was alarmed by increasing Muslim aggression.

He was referring to an incident where a mob set the Kaliachak police station on fire in January 2016.

Investigations later revealed that the riot had been a backlash by a group of criminal poppy cultivators. But the truth came too late for some. The Kaliachak incident got portrayed, even beyond the borders of Malda, as a communal riot.

Where did that version of events come from? Primarily the small but highly effective social media cells of the saffron brigade.

The tone of their posts is dictated from further up in the power pyramid.

The RSSs general secretary for south Bengal led the way in this case, Jishnu Basu, with an open letter to journalists that questioned the mainstream medias silence on the incident and claimed a neighbouring Hindu village was attacked.

One incident after another, in the districts of Malda, Murshidabad, Burdwan, Nadia, North and South 24-Parganas, over the past few years, are indicating impending peril. Isnt West Bengal turning into West Bangladesh? the letter went on to state.

These campaigns have turned into polarising points beyond Malda. But why start with Malda to begin with?

The saffron camps focus on Malda (51.27% Muslims) and Uttar Dinajpur (49.92% Muslims)  the only two Muslim-majority districts in north Bengal  is part of a carefully thought-out strategy.

Not only are Hindus slightly fewer in number than Muslims, and hence feel insecure, these two districts are also among worst-affected by infiltration from Bangladesh. They offer us the best chances for creating a breakthrough in north Bengal, an RSS pracharak said, requesting anonymity.

Cause and effect

Capitalising on what they call chief minister Mamata Banerjees overt Muslim appeasement (monthly government stipends for imams and muezzin, for instance), the Hindutva brigade is running an aggressive campaign on communal lines. It seems to be working.

The threat from Muslim aggression is real. Mamata Banerjee has turned West Bengal into a breeding ground of Muslim fundamentalists and has made the Hindus second-class citizens, says Sayantan Dutta, a first year student of Visva Bharati University in Birbhum, who recently joined Bajrang Dal and participated in a massive Ram Navami rally in Suri town.

There are hundreds like Dutta who have joined Hindutva outfits over the past couple of years, responding to social media campaigns highlighting the plight of Hindus in West Bengal.

The media keeps mum when riots take place. We would not have known anything about riots in Kaliachak, Deganga, Dhulagori and Kanchrapara had there not been the social media, Bibek Goswami, 28, a primary school teacher hailing from Baruipur in South 24-Parganas district, told HT. He joined the RSS a year ago.

SANGHS EXPANSION IN WEST BENGAL The Sangh Parivar (literally, family of organisations) is the term for the group of parties and associations that are either part of or draw upon the founding ideology of the right-wing Hindu body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)

In West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party has gone from being a marginal force in 2011 to a strong challenger to current chief minister Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress

Erosion in the Left and Congress support bases are helping the BJP get non-Trinamool Congress voters into their fold

One of the means of expanding their base is organising large religious processions. The Ganesh festival, not traditionally celebrated in the state, is now a big deal too, says political analyst Subroto Moitra.

Muslims are being given majority share from the reservation quota for the OBCs. It will be too late if Hindus do not unite now, says Swarajit Guha, 31, who joined the Bajrang Dal four years ago and now heads its Malda chapter.

Be it Malda, Hooghly, Howrah or Birbhum, it is mostly young boys in their teens and twenties joining the saffron camp.

For a long time, the destructive Naxalite ideology and Left ideology in general drew the students and youths of Bengal in their hundreds and thousands. But now they are coming to us, after realising that only the Sangh can lead meaningful and constructive social changes, says Biplab Roy, spokesperson for the RSS in south Bengal.

The Sangh Parivar or family of orgnisations is the term used for the group of parties and associations that are either part of the RSS or draw upon the founding ideology of the right-wing Hindu body.

According to Roy, about a thousand are joining the RSS in south Bengal every month. A majority of them are students and engineers, doctors, IT employees and management teachers, he says.

Political analyst Amal Mukhopadhyay, however, feels Hindutva is not the sole appeal for the people joining sangh. Many are coming to them thinking it is only BJP, by virtue of being in power at the Centre, which can take on the Trinamool head-on, he says.

Hindus must unite now. A RSS camp in Malda trains members in self-defence. (Snigdhendu Bhattacharya/ HT Photo)

Inside the web

In 2013, the RSSs south Bengal chapter introduced weekly sessions called IT milan, exclusively for swayamsevaks in the IT sector.

These sessions, complete with surya namashkar, yoga for back pain, and discussions on current affairs, helped them strengthen their base and begin to broad-base their social media initiatives.

Donald Trumps victory, despite the US medias unethically biased campaign against him, has marked the fall of the mainstream media. We dominate the discourse on social media, says Tapan Ghosh, who was a senior RSS pracharak until breaking away to form his own outfit, the far-right Hindu Samhati, accusing the RSS of lacking aggression. Formed in 2008, the outfit has spread to 12 of the states 20 districts.

We have dedicated teams that create contents for social media but every volunteer diligently circulates those using social media, said Sourish Mukherjee, VHPs media in-charge for Bengal.

Hindu Samhati, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Manch have social media teams comprising 10-15 people at the state level for generating content. RSS has such teams at the district level as well, but credit volunteers with their online success.

The onus of circulating content through Facebook, WhatsApp and Tweeter lies on every volunteer, said Sourish Mukherjee, VHPs media in-charge for Bengal.

We are ahead of the Left in social media campaign because of our dedication. We follow what we preach, while the Left practices hypocrisy, Amanish Iyer, RSSs joint secretary for Hooghly district, told HT.

Their opponents agree that saffron camp has managed to change the discourse. The Hindutva brigade is using Twitter to troll seculars and liberals, WhatsApp to spread fake news and Facebook to organise people and dominate social discourse, says Kasturi Basu, cultural activist and co-founder of Peoples Media, an initiative to counter fake news online.

According to blogger Ipsita Pal Bhowmik, We have entered the post-truth era. There is a flood of fake social media profiles and news. Photos of broken Hindu idols passed off as scene from West Bengal turns out to be of Bangladesh. Photo showing Pakistani flag in Kolkata was morphed. Photos from old riots in other parts of the country were circulated as a riot taking place in Bengal right that moment.

How it unfolded

The BJP in Bengal began making early gains in 2013-14, mostly in areas dominated by Hindi-speaking people and infiltration-prone areas bordering Bangladesh.

Trends of the 2016 Assembly polls and the by-elections and civic polls held since, however, reveals the saffron camps growing influence in refugee colonies dominated by Hindus who migrated from Bangladesh over the past few decades.

I grew up hearing from my grandfather how Muslims in Bangladesh forced Hindus to sell off property at throwaway prices and migrate to India. We cannot afford to allow Muslims that space here as well, said Chiranjit Das, a college student who lives in the refugee colony belt of Kapasdanga in Hooghly town. He joined the RSS six months ago.

Meanwhile, the state unit of the BJP has also undergone a transformation. As long as Rahul Sinha was the state BJP president, BJP and RSS were operating almost independent of each other. Senior RSS pracharak Dilip Ghoshs elevation to BJP state unit chief in 2015 has helped change that. He has helped ensure that every district unit of the BJP is guided by RSS leaders.

Corruption and bad governance are fleeting issues. The only permanent issue (in Bengal) is the security of the Hindus and we have our focus set on our core agenda, says Dilip Ghosh, BJP president , West Bengal

In Hooghly, for instance, RSS district chief Dipanjan Guha stepped aside to take charge of the district BJP unit.

Speaking to HT, Dilip Ghosh made their agenda clear. Corruption and bad governance are fleeting issues. The only permanent issue is the security of the Hindus and we have our focus set on our core agenda, he said.

The tactic seems to have paid rich dividends. While the RSS had 580 shakhas in West Bengal in 2011, they now have more than 1,500. Most of this growth has been in the districts of Kolkata, the North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum and West and East Midnapore.

In Hooghly, for instance, the number of daily shakhas has doubled, going from 25 in 2014 to 50 in 2017.

Politically, the activities of every Hindutva outfit will benefit BJP. The party hopes to consolidate majority Hindu votes by sharpening the polarisation. They would continue slamming Trinamool leaders over their alleged involvement in Saradha and Narada scams ahead of the panchayat elections due next year, but without losing the focus on Hindutva.

BJP has evidently sensed a kill. During a visit to its state office in north Kolkata on in the evening on May 4, this correspondent found only a couple of people who look after the office. The scene was quite in contrast to the pre-2015 picture when one would always find some of the leaders or workers.

Leaders are spending more time of the field and less in the office, said a middle-aged man who looks after the office.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair the first meeting of the opposition leaders on Friday to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Presidential elections.

The meeting  that will bring together arch rivals Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Bannerjee and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury  is expected to discuss the names of probable opposition candidates.

However, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will give the lunch meeting a miss.

Nitish Kumarji will not attend the meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhiji due to prior engagements. Our senior leader, Sharad Yadav, will represent the party instead, JD(U) national spokesperson KC Tyagi said.

Kejriwal has also indicated he wont attend the meeting. The opposition leaders are hopeful he will send senior Aam Admi Party leaders for the meeting.

Apart from Mayawati, Yadav, Bannerjee and Yechury, those who are likely to attend the luncheon meeting include Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad, Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United), former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal (Secular), Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy of the CPI, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and DMKs Kanimozhi.

The AAPs presence in a meeting organised by the Congress will surely be a new chapter in its short political history. So far, the AAP had been a bitter rival with the Congress and stayed away from any such opposition combination.

Mamata Banerjee and Sitaram Yechury have been in touch with Kejriwal to rope him in the larger oppositions scheme of things.

Last week, Kejriwal had a long meeting with Banerjee and appeared to have decided to support the Opposition candidate.

We have requested him to send two leaders from his party for the opposition meeting. We are hopeful that he will agree, Banerjee told the Hindustan Times on Thursday evening.

Earlier, Kejriwal has stayed away but allowed his parliamentarians to march alongside Shiv Sena to protest against demonetisation in Delhi. Banerjee organised the march to Rashtrapati Bhavan with AAP, National Conference, Sena and some other parties.

This time, opposition parties are hopeful Kejriwal will follow the same model.

The Congress favours Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar as the opposition candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, hoping that the veteran politician will be able to garner support from a cross-section of political parties, including some BJP-led NDA constituents.

However, the main opposition party will support incumbent Pranab Mukherjee if the ruling side re-nominates him.
The annual Char Dham yatra was briefly disrupted on Friday after landslides triggered by incessant rains blocked a key road to the Hindu pilgrimage of Yamunotri in Uttarakhand, officials said.

It was the second time in as many weeks the Char Dham Yatra  an annual pilgrimage to four holy sites  was disrupted by landslides in the Himalayan state.

According to police, the landslide occurred at a stretch of the National Highway 123, between Damta and Saarigarh in Uttarkashi district.

Police said the route was reopened after Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel cleared the road within a couple of hours .

Meanwhile, the Dehradun Meteorological Centre predicted heavy rainfall between May 29-31 in parts of Uttarakhand, especially in the districts where the four pilgrimages are located.

On May 19, heavy rains triggered a landslide in Chamoli district, on a national highwy to the Badrinath shrine.

Landslides and flashfloods are common in the Himalayan state where an estimated 5,000 people  most of them pilgrims  were killed in 2013 when heavy rains triggered a deluge in the Kedarnath valley. The unofficial death toll, however, was pegged around 10,000 as many bodies were never found.

The Chardham Yatra draws lakhs of people from India and Nepal to the holy sites at Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Gangotri and Yamunotri are glaciers from where the Ganga and Yamuna rivers originate.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Friday suggested the governments decision to ban the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter would partially address the issue.

It also reiterated its demand for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter.

The issue is cow slaughter and not only sale of cow. The government must immediately pass a national law to completely ban slaughter of cow and its progeny, VHP international working president Pravin Togadia said on Friday.

He also advocated bringing in a legislation to ensure life imprisonment to those involved in cow slaughter.

The CPI, meanwhile, termed the decision as most unwise and claimed that the move would push peasants into financial crisis and insisted on its rollback.

In a statement, party general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy alleged the move marked the beginning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwats attempts to convert the country into a Hindu Rashtra.

This will be totally unacceptable to the people in the country, he said, adding that forcing vegetarianism will do no good to the nation.

The environment ministry has earlier notified the stringent Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

According to the notification, the member secretary of an animal market committee will have to ensure that no person brings a young animal to the animal market.

No person shall bring a cattle to an animal market unless upon arrival he has furnished a written declaration signed by the owner of the cattle - stating the name and address of the owner of the cattle, with a copy of the photo identification proof.

Giving details of the identification of the cattle and stating that the cattle has not been brought to market for sale for slaughter, the notification said.

A senior environment ministry official told PTI that the notification is in the direction of animal welfare.
Police have identified the woman on whose body her son was trying to breastfeed in Madhya Pradeshs Damoh district, but are clueless about her death.

Ganesh Ahirwar, a resident of Hardol village in neighbouring Sagar district, identified the body as that of his wife Phullos (45), but said he did not know how she ended up beside the railway tracks in Damoh on Wednesday.

He said as earlier, Phullo had left their village on Tuesday in a bus for Garhakota town in Sagar district for treatment of epileptic fits. He, however, claimed ignorance on how she reached Damoh, nearly 25 km away, or why she would have taken a train.

The body of Phullo Ahirwar was found lying beside railway tracks in Damoh on Wednesday with her toddler-son Devi Singh sucking his mothers breasts. (HT PHOTO)

Residents found Phullos body around 6 am, with the toddler sucking his mothers breasts and nibbling on a biscuit alternately.

They informed railway police and some onlookers shot pictures and videos and posted them on social media.

The wounds suggest she fell on the back of her head, and the concussion and bleeding killed her, though not immediately.

Police said it had recorded the statements of her family and was waiting for post mortem results to throw some light on how she died.

The body, which was kept in Damoh district hospital mortuary, was handed over to Ganesh.

Damoh district child welfare committee, which had taken custody of the child, Deiv Singh, handed him over to the family members on Thursday evening in the presence of state finance minister Jayant Malaiya, who gave the family Rs 11,000.

Devi Singh with his aunt and sisters at Damoh on Thursday evening. (HT PHOTO)

There has been an overwhelming response from readers since HT published the report on Wednesday.

Many people wrote on social media that they wanted to help the child and contribute in his upbringing.

Please let us know if someone comes forward to help the child. I am a mother of a 16-month-old and cannot stop thinking about the trauma this baby must be going through..., Pooja Tyagi wrote on Facebook.
Soon after coming to power, the BJP-led state government had promised to open a senior secondary school in every gram panchayat. However, the ground reality is that students, especially girls, are being forced to quit studies in 89 gram panchayats in Barmer and Jaisalmer districts as there is no education facility after middle level.

Education department official data reveals while 33 gram panchayats in Barmer and eight in Jaisalmer dont have secondary schools, 48 gram panchayats in Barmer dont have senior secondary schools.

The only option for students is to travel to nearby gram panchayats to attend school. However, distance and extreme weather make it an arduous task.

Our panchayat doesnt have educational facility after the middle school. We have informed the authorities about it but our pleas have been ignored, said Prithvi Singh, sarpanch of Dharvi Khurd gram panchayat in Sheo constituency in Barmer. In the absence of educational facility, students are forced to quit studies, especially girls. In rural areas, people dont like sending their daughters to travel five or 10 kilometres every day to study, he added.

Similarly, Bhom Singh Ballai, a resident of Ballai gram panchayat in

Barmer said that there is no secondary and senior secondary school in his panchayat.

An educational department official, on the condition of anonymity, said that government schools are facing staff crunch. To sort this, the state government had scrutinised schools with low enrollment rates and had later closed them or merged them with the nearest school.

According to information, this year the state government has

scrutinised 3,779 schools and has plans to close them. Of the 3,779 schools, 3,095 are primary schools (with less than 15 students) and 526 are upper primary and 158 government girls upper primary schools.

The previous Congress government had sanctioned schools in one-kilometre radius to ensure that not a single child remains deprived of an education. After failing to sort out staff crunch, the BJP government decided to close schools with low enrollments.

Congress district vice-president YD Joshi alleged that contrary to its claim of ensuring education for every child, the BJP government is closing schools. Due to the governments failure, students are being forced to quit studies, said Joshi. He said that the government had promised a senior secondary school in every gram panchayat, but even after three and half years it had failed to deliver. 33 gram panchayats in Barmer dont have senior secondary schools, one can imagine the situation in

the rest of the state, he said.

Recently, BJP MP from Barmer Col. Sonaram Choudhary had raised the issue in the Parliament and demanded that senior secondary schools be opened in these deprived gram panchayats.

Countering Joshis claim, BJP leader Ramesh Singh Inda said that the education system is suffering due to poor planning by the previous Congress government. Without ensuring resources, the previous Congress government had opened schools. The schools

were running without teachers, he added.

Singh said that since coming to power, the BJP government has made efforts to improve the educational system. He said that according to its promise, the government has opened senior secondary schools in most panchayats and will soon open schools in those panchayats where there are none.
A day after a video showing four Sikh men purportedly abused and thrashed by a mob circulated on social media, victims said they were beaten up in the presence of two constables, who told the people where to hit them, a charge police denied.

The constables told the mob not to hit us on our heads and neck, Harpal Singh, one of the victims, told HT on the telephone from Alwar on Friday.

The four Sikh men, sewadars of a gurudwara in Khairthal in Alwar, are Niramal Singh, Malkeet Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Harpal Singh.

The 51-second video circulated on social media on Thursday.

The Sikh men had gone to Chainpura village in Ajmer on April 24 to collect donations when the mob beat them up alleging that they molested their women. Police found the allegations to be false.

We were beaten up mercilessly by the crowd in presence of two police constables, Harpal Singh alleged. I can never forget the attack.

Kuldeep Singh, another victim, said he heard the constables telling the mob that they were in no hurry to take them to the police station.

The constables after talking to some locals handed us over to the crowd and asked them to teach us a lesson for life, Kuldeep said.

The crowd, the victims said, beat them with sticks for half an hour before they were taken to the police station.

Laxman Ram, station house officer of Nasirabad Sadar police station, denied the victims charges. Maybe, people thrashed them before we reached them, he said, denying the victims allegation that policemen were present during the attack.

I asked them to file an FIR but they refused. We can still take action against the guilty if they come forward and register a case, he added.

The Rajasthan State Commission for Minorities sought on Thursday a factual report on the attack shown in the video.
Chastened by the bitter experience with former imam Syed Noor- ur Rehman Barkati, the trustees of Kolkatas Tipu Sultan mosque trustees have become extremely cautious in selecting a new imam. Arif Ahmed, chairman of Prince Gulam Mohammed Waqf Estate, the custodian body of Tipua Sultan Masjid told HT that they are not in a hurry to appoint an imam.

A muezzin is administering namaz temporarily in the mosque that was built in 1842 in the heart of downtown Kolkata.

Read: Kolkata imam Barkati who warned of jihad against India sacked by mosque board

Barkati was sacked on May 17 for his anti-national remarks and his continuous refusal to remove the red beacon from his car.

We will issue a formal advertisement in newspapers for the appointment for an appointment. A search committee headed by the caretaker of the religious affairs of the mosque, will examine the applications as well as recommendations from different bodies such as association of imams and mosque committees. After vetting all the applications, the search committee will make its final recommendation to the board of trustees of the estate, who finally give the appointment, Ahmed said.

Arif Ahmed, the chairman of Prince Gulam Mohammed Wakq Estate that is the custodian of the Tipu Sultan mosque, is a chartered accountant and a cyber crime expert. (HT Photo)

The position carries a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 apart from cost of running the imams office and statutory provident fund, seniority allowance and medical allowances.

The new candidate needs to be a hafiz. In other words, he has to memorize the sermons of Quran. He should also be a keerat, which means someone who has a melodious an attractive style of administering namaz. Unless there is melody in presentation, it is difficult to attract the attention of not only those who are offering prayers but also that of the passers by irrespective of their religion, added Ahmed.

Read: Police complaint against Kolkatas fatwa imam Barkati for not giving up red beacon

The trustees will give preference to someone with genial temperament. Barkati sahab was extremely hot headed and, therefore, his temperament caused embarrassment for the mosque committee several times, he said.

The new imam should also have not have any political bias like Barkati, who frequently campaigned for Trinamool Congress.

Echoing Ahmed, Maulana Sharafat Abrar Qasmi Dinajpuri, the convener of Tahaffuz-E-Masjid Committee, an association of 494 mosque committees in Bengal, said that an imam needs to be a totally apolitical person. People with diverse political views come to offer prayers at mosques. So an imam publicly canvassing for a particular political party is an insult for the namazis, Maulana Dinajpuri told HT.

The trustees will also not allow the new imam to use the mosque premises for personal businesses, a charge that Barkati has frequently faced.

The final condition is that the new imam should be fluent in at least three languages Urdu, Hindi and Bengali. Considering the location of the Tipu Sultan mosque, people with diverse linguistic background comes to the mosque everyday, and hence it is preferable that the imam has knowledge of at least these three languages, Ahmed remarked.

Prince Gulam Mohammed Waqf Estate was founded in 1872, Besides being custodian of the Tipu Sultan mosque, the estate authorities are engaged in different social activities like arranging for education of students coming of financially weaker backgrounds, among others.

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The Uttar Pradesh government is executing a two-pronged strategy involving crackdown and peace efforts to restore normalcy in strife-torn areas of Saharanpur district which have been on the boil for nearly a month due to casteist clashes.

The police have been asked to crack down on those trying to flare up caste rows in the region, besides organising a meeting of influential members of Thakur and Dalit communities.

In a bid to restore peace, district officials have urged a daily wage labourer Faqirchand, a Dalit, to solemnise his daughters wedding.

The Dalit family had expressed apprehension that fresh clashes might break out at the time of the marriage. Not only have we encouraged Faqirchand to go ahead with the function, but we have also deployed adequate police force to keep trouble-mongers at bay, said Saharanpur district magistrate Pramod Kumar.

Violence broke out in Shabbirpur village of Saharanpur district after a Thakur youth was killed in brick batting with Dalits after a Maharana Pratap birth anniversary parade was opposed by the latter on May 5 following which Rajputs allegedly torched over 50 hutments of Dalits.

In ensuing protests, Dalit groups torched several police vehicles and attacked policemen, injuring several of them. Another person died in fresh violence that broke out there after BSP chief Mayawatis visit earlier this week.

ADG (law and order), Aditya Mishra told HT there were no reports of any untoward incidents on Friday, and the police have started a probe into the clashes and killings.

FIR has been lodged and efforts are being made to nab the culprits. About two dozen people have been taken into custody, he said.

Local intelligence units have been directed to crack down on sympathisers of Bhim Army  a regional outfit accused of stoking the fires between the Dalits and the Rajputs  and report on those funding the outfit, a state home department official said.

Though the direct involvement of any political party has not come to light as yet, people involved in illegal sand mining and running slaughterhouses are on the radar of security agencies.

The officers are also collecting details of the people who provided funds and transported supporters to the Bhim Army rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on May 21.

Fringe groups active in New Delhi and west UP mobilised the people to attend the rally, an intelligence department officer said.

Action against Officials

A senior state government official said after taking action against senior officials in Saharanpur, the government would now take to task lower rank officials for lapses in duty during the BSP chief Mayawatis visit on Tuesday.

Divisional commissioner NP Agarwal, DIG JK Shahi, DM NP Singh and SP Subhash Chandra Dubey were suspended earlier by the Yogi Adityanath government.

Principal secretary (home) Arvind Kumar said a four-member team comprising home secretary Mani Prasad Mishra, ADG (law and order) Aditya Mishra, STF IG Amitabh Yash, and DIG (security) Vijay Bhusan have been directed to submit a detailed report on security lapses, fixing responsibility on top and lower rank officers.

Recalling Mayawatis visit to the region during which clashes erupted again, a senior government officer, on condition of anonymity, said approval for the visit was given after preparing a foolproof security plan and deploying adequate forces.

The officials were directed to ensure the safe return of BSP supporters after the meeting. However, the DM and the SSP failed to implement the directives.

They were not present on the spot when the BSP chief was meeting the victims. Adequate force was not deployed on the route which the BSP supporters were to take while returning, he said.

When the senior officers in Lucknow came to know about fresh violence, they changed the return route of the BSP chief.

Had the cavalcade of the BSP chief been attacked, the area would have been engulfed in violence, the officer said.

When chief minister Yogi Adityanath was informed about the fresh violence and death of a person, he ordered the suspension of senior officials, he said.

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Police have registered an FIR against a dairy farm owner, Pradeep Mahra, and his brother, Prabhat, for allegedly raping a woman in Suryabheet on Thursday afternoon.

Police said Prabhat had taken the 23-year-old victim to the dairy farm on the pretext of providing her a job. Once there, he and Pradeep allegedly locked her in a room and raped her repeatedly. They threatened to kill her if she revealed the matter to anybody.

The woman and her father lodged a complaint with Naini police soon afterwards. The two absconded soon after the crime. We are conducting raids to arrest them, said inspector Ramkumar Malik.

Pradeep is a local Samajwadi Party member.

Meanwhile, miscreants abducted and gang-raped a seven-year-old girl at nearby Ghoorpur in a separate incident the same night. Police have detained four suspects for questioning.

According to police, the girl was asleep at her residence when miscreants abducted her without anybody noticing. They gang-raped her in the fields, and then left her for dead. Fortunately, a woman passerby noticed the girl and informed her parents.

Senior superintendent of police Anand Kulkarni and circle officer Alka Bhatnagar rushed to the spot, and a forensic team and dog squad were employed in the investigation. Kulkarni said an FIR was registered against unidentified people under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as well as other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday launched a campaign to eradicate Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a disease that claims the lives of hundreds of children every year in the state.

Under the drive, which will continue till June 10, the government has set a target to vaccinate 88 lakh children in 38 UP districts, including Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Maharajganj and Basti.

Assuring the people that his government wont let any children die of such ailments, Yogi said We have successfully eradicated vector-borne diseases like polio and filaria and now the target is diseases like JE and AES (Acute Encephalitis Syndrome). The chief minister was talking to reporters after the launch of vaccination campaign in Kushinagar.

He arrived here to attend a programme organised to mark the completion of three years of BJP government in the centre. Five kids, including three girls, were vaccinated and given the vaccination card by the chief minister on the occasion.

The CM also urged people to become a part of Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan. He also launched a website and released a toll free number 1800- 180-5544 for encephalitis patients.

Addressing a public meet, the CM said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very serious about deaths caused by JE and AES and it was due to his support that a vaccination drive had been launched successfully.

He assured people that government would ensure the availability of potable drinking water even in rural areas and health officials would be regularly visiting them to ensure the success of the drive.

Besides awareness (about the disease), peoples participation is essential (to overcome the challenge) and we will make an appeal to common people to pay importance to hygiene and consume only clean drinking water.

We are trying to provide piped water supply but it may take some time, but in areas which have handpumps, people should consume boiled water, the chief minister said, adding that the disease can be checked through clean potable water, effective cleanliness programmes and through such immunisation schemes.

There is another effort to provide proper treatment to those affected by the disease at the community health centres and district hospitals and see that only the serious patients reach BRD medical college hospital in Gorakhpur, he said.

Read more: True to pre-poll promise, UP govt led by Yogi Adityanath focuses on encephalitis
If Goldie were to update her resume, it would read Can handle interns at their worst. With Pearl, Myshka and Milo running around, racing in corridors and eating her snacks, she certainly has her hands oops, paws full.

Goldie is a 12-year-old golden retriever and certified therapy dog working with the NGO Animal Angels Foundation. With 11 years of experience, she is the most experienced and most decorated therapist on a team of 20, with a bravery medal from the Bombay Veterinary College.

From being volunteer dogs for 7/11 blast victims to being reading buddies for children with development disorders and comforting stressed travellers at the Mumbai airport, our 20 therapy dogs have been carefully selected and are a busy lot, says Minal Kavishwar, a clinical psychologist and founder of AAF, which has outfits in Mumbai and Pune.

So what does it take to be a canine therapist? Belonging to a typically friendly breed (like the Labrador or golden retriever) helps. Temperament and personality are key, as is emotional stability.

You dont have to be a dog, though. Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) may feature a purring cat, a fluffy rabbit, a pony, brightly coloured fish or even a donkey.

These animals act as catalysts to help patients focus, open up, communicate.

Vishal Kavishwar, one of the co-founders of Animal Angels, with therapy cat Cookie in Pune. Cats are ideal for adolescents facing relationship and behavioural issues, because they can help you learn to earn trust, and figure out how to deal with rejection.

MEET THE ANIMAL THERAPISTS Dogs are the most common therapy animals, because of their social temperament. Cats are ideal for adolescents facing relationship and behavioural issues, because they can help you figure out how to earn trust, deal with rejection. Rabbits are ideal for the visually handicapped and for elderly patients. They are small enough to fit into your lap, so theyre not overwhelming. Ponies are best suited for differently abled children, children with autism. Their size makes them less threatening than a horse. Donkey-assisted therapy is used in Europe to stimulate confidence and improve motor skills in special children. In India, The Donkey Sanctuary (TDS) in Ahmedabad offered similar assistance but is currently in the midst of a revamp.

A child with celebral palsy who is wheelchair-bound will typically not be interested in physical exercise. But a game of fetch with a therapy dog can motivate her to try and move her limbs, says Dr Rajesh Sagar, a psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

As with humans, not every dog, fish, cat or pony can be a therapist. There is, in fact, a five-step test to determine if a particular dog will be good at the job. How does a dog respond to people, noise, pushing or lifting? A calm, good-natured canine can be trained in animal-assisted therapy; a snappy or overly boisterous one cannot.

I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL

Interestingly, rescue dogs across a wide range of breeds seem to make better canine therapists. Such dogs are extra intuitive and receptive to love because they were denied it in their growing years. Given the right training, they can be very good therapy dogs, says Dr K Umesh, a Bangalore-based veterinary consultant.

In Bangalore, a three-legged stray named Lucy and a tailless fellow named Stumpy are the face of NGO CARE (Charlies Animal Rescue Centre).

When we found Lucy shed been being bitten by another dog and her left leg was badly injured. We had to amputate, says Sudha Narayanan, founder of CARE. Stumpy, another stray, lost his tail to a tumour on his back. Both have the perfect temperament for AAT. Kids with special needs and disabilities take to them and connect with them.

Animal Angels Foundation conducts sessions with Scooby, a 2-year-old therapy rabbit in Pune. Since rabbits are not predators, they are much lower on aggression and more non-threatening.

CARE, founded in 2004, works with special schools and has helped over 300 differently abled children through the years.

While dogs are the face of AAT  and what a cute face it is  cats also make for great therapy animals.

Cookie, 7, an Indian cat, works with our Pune team and Cherry, a Persian cat is associated with the Mumbai team as co-therapists in the AAT sessions with adolescents facing relationship and behavioural issues, says Aakash Lonkar, Mumbai head of the AAF.

All in days work: Watch how therapy dogs are trained

WOULD YOUR PET MAKE A GOOD THERAPY DOG? Therapy dogs are tested for temperament and trained using the Campbell method, designed by American animal psychologist William E Campbell in the late 1960s. A dog has to be above the age of two, so that it is physically and mentally mature, and must pass the 5 steps of the test to be declared a canine therapist. The five steps measure social attraction (how it responds when someone at a distance is trying to get its attention); attention (will it follow the human readily, unbidden); restraint (how does it respond to being held down gently); social dominance (being held around the neck gently while stroked); elevation dominance (how it responds to being picked up, held around the chest). Source: CV Franklin, canine behaviourist, Bangalore)

Unlike therapy dogs who readily come to greet you, therapy cats are not pleasers. The client learns to win the cats trust, respect boundaries and address rejection issues as a result, says Lonkar.

At Intact Special School in Trichy, ponies Koko and Jerry aid students with cerebral palsy, ADHD, Downs syndrome and autism in what is technically called hippotherapy.

These sessions consist of several different elements, involving a physiotherapist and a special educator overseeing the students interactions with the ponies.

The children love to brush the ponys mane and tail, sing songs to them, share secrets. Riding the ponies very slowly also teaches postural control, improves balance and concentration, coordination and even social interaction, says A Bharatidhasan, a physiotherapist at the school.

PAWS AND EFFECT

A year ago, when a 10-year-old child from Mumbai with hearing and speech impairment was suggested AAT, his parents did not really expect a major change, considering that the child was very silent and had barely responded to other forms of therapy.

A child rides the pony, Koko, at Intact Special School in Trichy. Ponies are best suited for differently abled children. Their size makes them less threatening than a horse.

ANIMAL-ASSISTED THERAPY... Lowers blood pressure Releases endorphins, which have a calming effect Act of petting prompts a relaxation response Decreases feelings of isolation and alienation Encourages communication by creating a non-stressful, non-judgmental environment Reduces self-consciousness Decreases anxiety



(Source: Dr Rajesh Sagar, psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi)

Therapy dog Pepe, a six-year-old golden retriever, started attending weekly sessions with the boy. In six months, to his parents surprise, he began greeting the dog by calling out to him by his name, says clinical psychologist Kavishwar.

Its not all fun and games, though. Animals, particularly canines, can find assisting in therapy so exhausting that they must have a break every 45 minutes  at least 5 minutes to step outside, clear their heads.

I can see the dog wilting before my eyes once we cross the 30 minute mark, says Narayanan of CARE. No session should extend beyond 45 minutes as it becomes counterproductive if the dog gets restless and impatient.

Animal therapy can have a downside as well. Dependency can become an issue, especially if animal therapy is used for longer than a year, says Dr Sagar of AIIMS. The patient, especially if it is a child, may get too attached, and could even affect their ability to interact with humans.

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70 Thousand Voters voted with some interference

One of the most essential concerns recorded by Independent Observer Public Alliance during the Apil 2, 2017 Parliamentary Elections in Armenia was violations of secrecy of voting. To Assess this, in April 2017 Independent Observer Public Alliance requested the CEC to provide precinct-by-precinct data on assisted voting. The information was received recently. Quantitative Data Thus, 70 488 or 4.5% of those who voted did so with assistance. Moreover, this is just a fraction of the full picture as in 67% of the observed polling stations observers recorded cases when the person entering the voting booth with the voter did not register as an assistant. (You can several videos of such cases here). In 227 of the 2000 polling stations over 10 percent of voters voted with assistance. In 23 polling stations over 20% voted with assistance (i.e. more than every 5th). And in 4 polling stations over 30% voted with assistance. The absolute record belongs to 14/49 polling station in Armavir, where according to the CEC response, 89% of the voters voted with assistance. To make it clear that the majority of voters that voted with assistance did not actually require assistance, it should be noted that there were large magnifying glasses at the polling stations for voters with low vision. Hence, voters with some degrees of visual impairment could vote without assistance. Who the assistance was for Notably, there is a correlation between the number of assisted voting and the number of votes received by the Republican Party at a given precinct. Thus, the RPA that received around 49% of votes in general, received above average votes in those polling stations were there was a larger number of assisted voting. For instance, at polling stations where over 5% of voters were assisted, the RPA received 5% higher votes (54.4%). In polling stations, where the assisted voting was for over 10% of voters, the RPA received 61.3% of votes in favor. And in polling stations where there was over 20% assisted voting, the RPA received 66.2%. The correlation between assisted voting and RPA votes at polling stations is presented in the graph below. It should be indicated that there was no similar correlation between the number of assisted voting and the votes received by the other three parties and alliances that were elected: Tsarukyan bloc, Yelq bloc, and Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Exactly the opposite, their percentage of votes in favor decreases with the increase of the number of assisted voting. The explanation to the phenomenon is that on April 2, 2017, Parliamentary election day, thousands of were controlled by the so-called assistants in favor of the Republican Party of Armenia. This is yet another proof of our initial assessment that the elections were not free. Independent Observer Public Alliance On behalf of Helsinki Citizens Assembly  Vanadzor and the Union of Informed Citizens.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazars Revenge

Directors - Joachim Rnning and Espen Sandberg

Cast - Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario

Rating - 1/5

The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, now five films deep into what can only be described as a flood of diminishing returns, is a lot like breakfast cereal. As far as metaphors go, there is perhaps another out there more suited to the themes of this series, something along the lines of thievery, or greed, but breakfast cereal, as colourful and worthless as the cardboard box it comes packed in, is the most efficient one I could find.

Every new film in this series  which was once (just once though) quite the breath of fresh air  has shown a substantial dip in quality from the one before. Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazars Revenge (also known as Dead Men Tell No Tales) achieves what I always felt was impossible  its denser than At Worlds End, has more spinning wheels and moving parts than Dead Mans Chest, and is  unbelievably  a step down from the already quite unwatchable On Stranger Tides.

Honestly, there has only ever been one film in the Pirates franchise that has been worth the two hours plus it takes to watch one of them  and that was the first one, The Curse of the Black Pearl. It offered a fresh take on the swashbuckler genre, gave star Johnny Depp another excuse to dress up, and also  and I bet youd forgotten this  earned him an Oscar nomination.

This time, theyve made his character sort of like Han Solo from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He has become somewhat of a legend  a tale, if you will  passed down from generation to generation, from father to son. And speaking of fathers and their children, two new characters are introduced in this movie. Both have notable parentage. Theyve got a bit of a theme going on, you see.

Like Rey and Finn from The Force Awakens, they set out on an adventure to seek Jack Sparrow, but unlike Han Solo (who turned out exactly as the kids had hoped), Captain Jack is still the same dirty drunk who runs around flapping his arms, slurs his speech, and demands money whenever the opportunity presents itself  and also when it doesnt. In one scene, when he is rescued by his crew moments before being guillotined (he chose it over hanging or a firing squad because it sounds French), he talks them into paying him a fee.

But all things considered, there is still an unmistakable thrill in watching Depp play Jack Sparrow, at least in the few moments in which he is given something worthwhile to do  which dont come nearly as often as youd like. What it does have however, is a remarkable villain. Granted, when you hire Javier Bardem to play the bad guy in your film, youre placing a winning bet, and, if recent history is any indication, perhaps an even stronger one than having Johnny Depp play the lead.

But Captain Salazar is, like his No Country for Old Men character Anton Chigurh, or his Bond villain Silva, a worthy entry into the Bardem rogues gallery. He is slimy, menacing, grotesque, and leaves a creepy looming presence in the film. He also has the more sinister modus operandi of any Pirates villain yet: He always leaves one man alive after shredding an entire ships crew  so that the man can live to tell his tale. Also because, Dead Men Tell No Tales, get it?

But sadly  although I wonder if anyone will be disappointed in this film (the emotion youre looking for is a potent mix of anger and apathy)  Pirates 5 is sort of like a greatest hits compilation of the series worst trends. For one, its utterly unfathomable. At any given point in the film, there are not one, not two, not even three, but four McGuffins our characters are chasing after. A McGuffin, for those of you who dont know, is defined as an object or device that serves only as a trigger for the plot. In Pirates 5, it takes the form of Poseidons trident, a compass, an island that mirrors the map of the sky, a real map, and a diary that cannot be read by men.

And under the direction of franchise newcomers Joachim Rnning and Espen Sandberg, the film cant juggle its overblown, messy plotlines. It loses that sense of unhinged fun original director Gore Verbinski brought to the series. In fact, Rnning and Sandbergs being chosen to direct this solidifies one of the most irritatingly narrow-minded Hollywood trends ever. They pick the most superficial aspect of an up-and-coming directors breakout movie, and chuck around $200 million at their face and command them to make a blockbuster. Jose Padilha made a cop movie in Brazil, and was subsequently chosen to direct the RoboCop reboot. Gareth Edwards made a micro-budget movie called Monsters, and his follow up was Godzilla. In 2012, Rnning and Sandberg made Kon-Tiki, a movie about a sea expedition which featured prominently, a ship. Boom.

Thus, Pirates of the Caribben: Salazars Revenge, a film that feels twice as long as it really is, and roughly five times as boring. Its the sort of film that, when confronted with the challenge to be creative, chooses to have its characters topple over for laughs instead. In the end, it drowns in a typhoon of CGI action, which, as far as death by drowning goes, is perhaps the most painful way for this series to have floated away. But there you have it.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaahar

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After spending two years in jail, a man booked for raping a minor girl was acquitted by the court, observing that two had consensual sex. The girl had admitted during the investigation that she was in love with him, and accused him of raping her after she was caught by her parents.

It was alleged that the girl, a resident of Bhandup, was raped by a 23-year-old man, who was her friend. The rape case was registered after the man was caught at the girls house in absence of her family members.

As per the records, on April 29, 2014 the girls family had gone to the hospital for treatment of her mother, a patient of Thyroid. When parents returned, they noticed the girl was very scared, and when they questioned her, she pointed towards curtains and said a man tried to rape her. On checking, the parents found the accused hiding behind the curtains. The accused was later taken to police station and case of rape was registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The girl later also alleged that accused had raped her twice on April 23, 2014 and April 24, 2014, when she was alone in the house. The girl also said that on both the occasions, she resisted and shouted, but he shut her mouth and threatened her that he would kill her if she reveals anything to anyone. She also alleged that the accused had slapped and assaulted her.

When the girl was taken for a medical examination, she admitted to the doctor that had been in love with the accused since last two years.

In her statement before the magistrate court, the girl made no mention of rape by the accused. In fact, the court observed that her statement before the magistrate court was different from her testimony recorded before the court.

The man, in his defence, claimed that two were in love and it was the girl who had called him over to her house when she was alone.

He claimed that on the day of incident, when they found boy in the house, the family tried to sort out the issue and asked the accused to stay away from the girl. However, as he did not agree, the family registered a case against him.

Referring to the medical report the court observed that, No fresh injury mark was noticed on the private parts of the victim. If the accused had raped her and the victim continuously retaliated the act, its very strange that no fresh injury marks were found on her private parts.

In the medical report history, the victim stated that she was in a relationship with the accused. After close scrutiny of the testimony, it was revealed that she is was in a relationship with the accused and it was consensual act, reads the judgement.

While acquitting the accused, the court observed from evidence and conduct of the victim, it observed that the victim voluntarily kept physical relations with the accused.

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With the counting of votes in three civic bodies in Maharashtra soon to end, it is clear that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won a majority in Panvel, while the Congress emerged victorious in Bhiwandi. A fractured mandate was observed in Malegaon, where not a single party emerged with a clear majority.

Last Sunday, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis urged the voters of Panvel to not only propel the BJP to victory, but to also help the party reach a thumping majority. It seems as though the voters were impressed by the partys promise of development as the BJP won 51 of 78 seats and emerged as the clear majority. It can now appoint the mayor of the Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC).

The Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) bagged the second-most number of seats in the PCMC  27. A large section of the population who voted for them are from Panvels rural areas. The Shiv Sena, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)  which formed an alliance with the PWP to contest  all fared poorly.

The Congress won the Bhiwandi civic polls on Friday. It crossed the magic figure of 45, winning 47 seats to form the majority.

The BJP emerged as the second-largest winner, bagging 19 seats. The party surpassed its previous tally of eight seats. The partys ally, the Konark Vikas Aghadi (KVA), secured four seats. The NCP, which formed an alliance with the Congress, failed to win a single seat. The Shiv Sena contested 57 seats, of which it won 12.

The Malegaon Municipal Corporation polls saw a hung verdict as none of the parties emerged as the majority. The Congress bagged 28 of 84 seats, followed by the NCP-Janata Dal alliance, which bagged 26 seats. The Shiv Sena secured 13 seats, while the BJP was reduced to the fourth spot with nine seats.
The Bombay high court on Friday refused to restrain the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) from cutting trees across south Mumbai to make way for the Metro-3 line.

Around 5,000 trees are to be felled for the Metro-3 project.

A vacation bench of justice PD Naik and MS Karnik observed as long as the authorities were complying with the previous orders of the HC on felling/replanting the trees, there was no scope to grant a stay.

The bench took note of the submissions made by both the MMRCL and the BMC, which said they were following all norms and that only trees for which permission had been granted by the tree authority were being felled.

The court was hearing a bunch of pleas filed by residents claiming the authorities were illegally hacking trees.

During the previous hearing on Wednesday, the petitioners had submitted photos before the court, alleging several trees in Worli that were numbered for transplant had been chopped.

On Friday, MMRCL counsel advocate Mustafa Doctor denied the allegations and said the petitioners apprehensions were misconceived.

He said all trees along the Metro-3 site had been marked differently by the BMC to identify those that are to be felled or transplanted. Such markings, he said, wouldnt be apparent to laymen, including the petitioners.

BMC counsel advocate Anil Sakhre submitted a plan detailing the marks or the numbers given to such trees. Sakhre submitted earlier this week BMC officials as well as officials from the HC and the Maharashtra Legal Services Authority had inspected all sites in south Mumbai, where trees were being cut to ensure compliance with the norms.

MMRCL also argued that just as the petitioners, it too cared for the 100-year-old trees that it was felling, but it wasnt flouting any norms or conditions while doing so for the Metro project and was instead following a well devised plan.

At this, the bench said, We are also concerned for the trees, but when development projects are concerned, a middle ground has to be arrived at.

The bench said there is no scope for a stay based on the current pleas.

The court also accepted the BMCs submission that henceforth a junior tree officer of the ward concerned will remain present every time trees are felled for the project.

The HC is likely to take up the matter for further hearing on June 5 this year.

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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday began an inquiry into the crash-landing of the Maharashtra governments helicopter at Latur on Thursday.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and four others emerged unhurt, while a sixth person suffered minor bruises.

The DGCA grounded the helicopters two pilots until the inquiry is completed.

As the Sikorsky S-76C++ sustained substantial damages in Thursdays incident, the state government, which is now left with one operational aircraft, is looking to buy a new helicopter.

It will probably buy from the same make  Sikorsky  a US company, a source said.

To investigate the accident, a team comprising four officials  two from Delhi and two from western region  reached Latur on Thursday. They have also taken down the statements of the pilots and will submit a report soon.

After the accident, the state government is currently left with one pilot and will have to completely depend upon two private agencies recently appointed to provide fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters on hire.

The state government has only three pilots and according to DGCA rules, both the pilots  Captain Sanjay Karve and Captain Mohit Sharma who flew the chopper on Thursday are not allowed to fly until the probe is completed. The state has a Cessna Citation 560XLS high-end aircraft purchased in 2013.

And according to the rules, two pilots are needed to fly an aircraft having space for only two pilots.

It means it is not in a position to use its only aircraft.

Valsa Nair Singh, principal secretary, general administration department, said they have started the procedure for buying a new helicopter. A high-power committee (HPC) on March 14 this year had already decided to dispose of the second helicopter  Dauphin AS 365 N-3  and buy a new one.

The government will probably prefer the same Sikorsky model helicopter considering the crashworthy wheels and a fire-resistant tank fuel, causing it to be considered the best aircraft for VVIP movement, Singh said.

Meanwhile, the government is in a process of approaching the appointed agencies for hiring aircraft for the CMs Nashik visit to attend an education societys centenary event on Sunday, said an official.

The Sikorsky helicopter, purchased in 2011, is insured with the New India Assurance Company and the state has started the process to claim the insurance amount  Rs56 crore, said a source.

The state government owns two helicopters and two aircraft, of which only one helicopter and an aircraft are in service.

The Superking AB 300 aircraft was purchased in July 1998 for Rs17.24crore. It was used for 11 years.

The Dauphin AS 365 N-3 helicopter purchased in 2001 for Rs23 crore was used till 2011 and has been grounded for want of repairs.

All the VIP aircrafts are meant for the governor, chief minister and ministers who have got permission from the CM.

The state government has made numerous unsuccessful attempts to gain the desired selling prices for both the Dauphin AS 365 N-3 and Superking AB 300.

Read

Maharashtra chief minister Fadnavis chopper that crashed in Latur was not old, had flown only 1,300 hours

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A law college in Kalamboli barred eight first-year LLB students from appearing for one of their second semester examination papers last week, after they failed to meet the institutes attendance criteria.

One of the students from KLE Societys College of Law said that when the group went to college on May 15, the principal refused to attest their exam hall tickets citing low attendance. He told them they could not appear for their first paper, which was based on the Indian Penal Code.

This led to an altercation between the principal, students and their parents, who insisted that the college allow the group to appear for the paper, said the student.

When the college refused to budge, the students asked the Kalamboli police station to file a complaint. The college finally attested the students hall tickets that afternoon, after the paper had ended. They permitted the students to appear for the rest of the examination, which ended on Tuesday.

This is not the first instance of students being barred from appearing for examinations owing to low attendance. In March last year, 97 TYBCom and 20 TYBA students of Mithibai College in Vile Parle were not allowed to appear for their final examination. Similarly, more than 100 students from Shroff College in Kandivli were also prohibited from taking the tests. These students had taken the matter to court, seeking relief. However, their petition was rejected.

Students from KLE Law College were upset about missing their first paper. If the college was going to attest the hall tickets anyway, they should have done so in the morning. This would have enabled us to appear for the paper, said the student.

The students alleged that the college discriminated against them by allowing some of the other attendance defaulters to appear for the test. The college set an arbitrary benchmark of 60% attendance and anyone who fell short of it was barred from the examination, said the student.

The rules set by the University of Mumbai require students to attend at least 75% of the lectures and practicals, with a minimum of 50% attendance in each subject. The college can condone an additional 25% absence of a student, if deemed fit.

The college defended its decision, saying the students were routinely informed about their low attendance and were made aware of its consequences. We put up the defaulters list every month and sent letters to these students. They didnt even have 50% attendance. We decided to let them appear for rest of the papers owing their persistent pleas, said Mohammed Saleem Khan, the principal.

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The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) of Maharashtra has sent notices to a major pharmaceutical company for using imported food sweeteners in medicines, after it seized chemical stock worth Rs42 lakh from another company in Bhiwandi.

FDA officials said that in 3016-17, the illegal drug import scam ran into Rs10 crore. It has sent notices to several other firms too.

After receiving a tip off about illegal imports, FDA officials recently raided the premises of the Bhiwandi company and found that it was importing the chemical as an ingredient for food products, but selling it to pharmaceutical companies for use in medicines.

This is illegal under provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, FDA said. During the raid 12,730kg of Lactitol Monohydrate USP / EP (sugar alcohol used as a low calorie sweetener in food) worth Rs42 lakh was seized.

Primary investigation has revealed that the company had given an undertaking to the central government saying that they would import the drugs but not for medicinal use. Although this material can be used as a sweetener for the manufacture of low calorie food, it is also used as an active ingredient in drugs, said Dr Harshdeep Kamble, FDA commissioner.

Officials revealed that the company had also given an undertaking to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) saying that the material would not be used or sold for medicinal purposes. The company imported the chemical from a Chinese company and sold it to different pharmaceutical companies to be used in medicines.

We have issued notices to the pharmaceutical companies and asked them to submit details about the batches of products made from the particular chemical. A sample of the said drug has been sent for analysis, said Dr Kamble.

When HT contacted the pharmaceutical company, its spokesperson did not want to comment on the issue immediately and asked for some time
Will Mumbai be vulnerable with scrapping of octroi?

With the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will scrap octroi.

Octroi is BMCs largest source of revenue generating almost Rs7,000 crore every year. Each goods vehicle entering the city had to stop at check posts, declare what goods were being carried and pay octroi accordingly. At times, the octroi staff used to check the vehicle if they suspected the driver was misleading them.

Although the business community complaint the check-post system delayed movement of goods into the city, it provided a screening of sorts of goods being brought into the city.

With no octroi, doubts are being raised about the security of the city.

During the special session of the Assembly to pass the GST bill, senior Shiv Sena legislator and former city mayor Sunil Prabhu said allowing goods to enter the city without checks would make it vulnerable.

The Mumbai police now plan to step-up the security at the nakas.

There are five octroi nakas in the city  three in Mulund (T ward), two in Dahisar (R North ward) and one in Mankhurd (M/East ward)  which serve as entry points to thousands of trucks.

Speaking to HT, Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police (law and order), said, Constables are posted at the nakas. We will augment the security. We are working on a scheme with the state government, which is under consideration.

With the government passing the GST bill last week, it is all set to roll-out starting July 1.

Senior civic officials from the BMC said vehicles entering the city will not be checked post the roll-out. A senior civic official said, GST also means seamless movement of goods and services. It has been implemented all over the world. Security is a law and order issue, he pointed out.

While the BMC plans to turn these octroi nakas into central business districts (CBD), as marked in the Development Plan (DP) 2034, it is yet to make any progress in the front.

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In the battle for supremacy in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, early trends show the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leading in Panvel and Bhiwandi.

The BJP is surging ahead in the battle to secure the Panvel City Municipal Corporation, with a lead in 23 seats.

As per the latest trends, the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) has maintained a lead in 11 seats in Panvel.

The BJP is leading in the urban areas of Panvel, while the PWP is holding strong in rural areas, where they have galvanised the farmers.

This is the first election for the PCMC, which was formed last October.

Meanwhile, the Congress and BJP are neck-and-neck in Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation election. The Congress is leading in eight seats, while BJP is leading in seven seats of 90 seats. Shiv Sena is maintaining a leading in eight seats.

The Sena, meanwhile, is leading in seven seats for the race to secure Malegaon Municipal Corporation. As per the latest reports of the counting of votes for the 84 seats spread across 21 wards of the Malegaon Municipal Corporation, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party are leading in five seats each, and BJP is leading in two seats. The AIMIM is leading in six seats.

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Its a day of reckoning for the states three major political parties  the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Congress  as the results are set to be announced today for three municipal corporations in Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon. Voting was held in all three places on Wednesday.

And it may just be a case of in with the new and out with the old  especially in Panvel, which got a brand new municipal corporation last year, making this the first election for its residents. Up for grabs: 78 seats in 20 wards, which include Kharghar, Kalamboli and Kamothe. Panvel last went in for civic elections in 2011, when it only had a municipal council. The Congress had won with a clear majority. It won 21 seats from the 10 wards that went to polls. The Mahayuti bagged 17 seats  this included the PWP which won 11 seats, the Shiv Sena (3) and the NCP (3). But this year, the BJP has also jumped in the fray.

The primary contest is between the BJP and the PWP alliance, which includes the Congress and the NCP.

But the contest to watch is between allies the BJP and the Sena, which decided not to go in for an alliance at the last minute. The Sena had campaigned hard against its ally in the state government and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was the face of the party in the elections.

The Sena is going solo hoping to become the decisive factor in case of a hung house.

The story is completely different in Bhiwandi. Its more than 40% Muslim voters have traditionally voted for the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP). In the 2012 civic polls, the Congress bagged 26 seats, while the Sena and SP were tied in second place with 16 seats a piece. This year, the parties battle for 90 seats in the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC). The magic number to reach: 40. The Congress is contesting 64 seats, the Sena is contesting 57 and the SP 34. While the Sena has always succeeded in polarising non-Muslim voters, the Congress is hoping that Muslim voters choose it over the SP and the AIMIM. The BJP, which has traditionally won just 8-10 seats in Bhiwandi, is hoping to make a mark by contesting 62 seats this time. The party has got support from the Konark Vikas Aghadi, which is contesting 20 seats. It had won six seats in the previous election.

Like Bhiwandi, a majority of voters in Malegaon, in Nashik district, are from the Muslim community. More than 60 of 84 wards are dominated by Muslim voters. The BJP has fielded 29 candidates from the community, of which 16 are women, with the hope of winning a few seats from these pockets, which have never voted for the party in the past. It is also eyeing most of the 20 seats in the Hindu-dominated areas of the city.

But with its majority Muslim voterbase, there are better chances of the Congress or the NCP  which has formed an alliance local unit of the Janata Dal  emerging with the highest number of seats.
Karen Karapetyan is unlikely to suceed Serzh Sargsyan (video)

Opposition lawmaker Aram Sargsyan is displeased with the activity of the government led by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and says Karapetyan is not free in his decisions. The problems encountered in our economy are solved in Moscow. The lawmaker says the new government will not change anything in the country. Moreover, the situation will continue to worsen, especially in view of corruption. What changes can we expect if the acting authorities but power by bribing voters, judges buy justice and tax authorities changed articles after taking money? said the former PM. In its Thursday sitting, the executive body of the ruling Republican party of Armenia (HHK), decided give Karen Karapetyans cabinet an opportunity to continue its work without significant changes. Only the minister of justice will be changed. All other ministers will be re-appointed, HHK Spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov said after the meeting. Anyway, Aram Sargsyan says Karen Karapetyan is an alien for the HHK. The people whom he brings to his team are unknown to the HHK and the Armenian people in general. We have never heard them express their opinions or shown their attitudes towards this or that process, he said. Mr Sargsyan cannot say whether there is any disagreement between Karen Karapetyan and Serzh Sargsyan whose term of office [as the countrys president] expires in 2018. Even if Serzh Sargsyan decides to have a successor a year later, I do not think that Karen Karapetyan will be the person to succeed Sargsyan, he said. Listening to Serzh Sargsyans speech at the inaugural meeting of the new parliament, Aram Sargsyan understood that he [Serzh Sargsyan] is going to stay in power for a long time: a person leaving power in a year will not speak about his plans for 2040.
Two men, one of them a corporators spouse, were arrested for allegedly manhandling policemen at Shivaji Nagar police station on Thursday night.

Shahfahad Shafiq Ahmed Khan, 35, is the husband of Samajwadi Party corporator Shahira Khan from ward no. 134. The other arrested accused is Jameer Khan, 28, who is a party worker.

There was a meeting of party workers, which escalated to a dispute. The two came to the police station to register complaints. The cops at Shivaji Nagar police station asked the two sides to maintain peace because they were fighting. The police also asked the crowd of party workers that had gathered at the police station to wait outside. The officers were trying to make the, disperse but the two got angry and resisted,said Shahji Umap, deputy commissioner of police, zone 6.

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

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The first leg of FYJC admissions will begin in Mumbai from Monday, and the state education department will for the first time use a new online system for it that is meant to make the process a whole lot easier for students.

Following last years goof-ups, the Bombay high court asked the state to overhaul the admission process for first year junior colleges (FYJC) and make it more transparent.

A new software was created by Nysa Asia, which has taken over from government firm Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) as the education departments technical partner.

From Thursday,the software was being tested for FYJC admissions in Pune. We started the process in Pune on Thursday, as the city has fewer students than Mumbai. This will give us time to iron out issues by the time Mumbai registrations start and we will have a fair idea of how the new system is working, said BB Chavan, the deputy director of education.

READ: Mumbai FYJC online admission process to start on Monday: Forms to quota, all you need to know

From Monday, information booklets with log in IDs and passwords that students must use to fill online applications will be distributed to schools in the Mumbai region, (includes Navi Mumbai, Thane, and Raigad).

By Wednesday, students can sign into the new admissions portal  http://mumbai.11thadmission.net/, Chavan said after meeting education minister Vinod Tawde and director of secondary education N Jarag on Thursday.

It might take two or three days to distribute the information booklets, and soon after that, students should be able to register on the website, said Chavan.

READ: Most Mumbai students prefer arts, but colleges have more seats for science, commerce

Last year, the admissions portal was open for registrations by May 2. With the process being delayed by nearly a month this time, education officials have proposed shelving till next year its plan to also conduct Class 12 admissions online. Officials have asked the education minister to allow colleges to admit Class 12 students offline.

Chavan said the department didnt expect to take such a long time to start the FYJC admission process this year. Moving the Class 12 admissions online seems difficult because of this delay, and it should be attempted next year, he said. Chavan added: With an entirely new agency and a revamped admission procedure, we will be unable to concentrate on both Class 11 and Class 12 at the same time.

If the proposal gets Tawdes nod, it will come as relief for hundreds of Class 12 students who want to change colleges. These students were left hanging for months, as colleges were forced to put their Class 12 admissions on hold after the department said all students can change colleges only through the centralised process.

We have been waiting for instructions from the government for at least two months. Several students approached us for admissions, but we are unable to admit them, said Kavita Rege, the principal, Sathaye College, Vile Parle.

Students demanded a decision on Class 12 admissions be taken before SSC results are announced. Once SSC results are out, colleges will get busy with FYJC admissions, and Class 12 admissions will get stuck, said a parent, who had approached the education department on Thursday to meet officials over this issue.

The parent said her daughter was waiting to switch colleges, and with colleges reopening in the next few weeks, she will end up missing classes if the issue is not sorted out soon.

READ: A 5-step guide to FYJC admissions in Mumbai

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A Dahisar school has expelled 70 students from the primary and secondary sections for not paying the disputed hiked fees for the upcoming academic session. The Universal High School in Dahisar wrote to the students parents informing them that their children had beende-enrolled over unpaid fees. It asked them to collect their school leaving certificates on Monday.

For the past four months, the school management and parents have been locked in a dispute over a 14% hike in school fees  from Rs 96,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh. The parents had also complained about this to education minister Vinod Tawde.

In one of the letters, the school has said it took this step as the parent blatantly refused to pay the fees even when 95% of parents have already paid. We are left with no other alternative. With a heavy heart we inform you that your child has been de-enrolled from the school roll/record for non-compliance of schools requirements for completion of admission process to the next grade and also non-payment of fees, read the letter.

The school also informed parents that it would fill up the vacant seats immediately by granting admission to wait listed students. We would be happy to issue recommendation letters to assist the children in securing admissions in other institutions, the letter read.

However, Tawde said on Friday that the school could not force parents to pay the higher fees. We have called the school management for a meeting next week to discuss the issue. They cannot cancel admissions if parents do not pay the fees, said Tawde.

Parents said many students have dropped out owing to the callous attitude of the school. The fees were increased without a discussion in the PTA meetings, said Tejasvini Purandare, whose daughter, Harshada, studies in class 2. But the schoolis firm on its decision. Around 95% parents have paid the fees, but a few have been misled and are refusing to pay even after being given reasonable opportunities. They are behaving in a crude way with the school, said Jesus Lall, chairman of the group, while adding, We are a private unaided minority institution and cannot function without fees.

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The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) has declared nine buildings in the city as extremely dangerous structures in its annual pre-monsoon survey and have asked its residents to vacate immediately.

These structures are over 50 years old and house 500 units of which 247 are residential and the rest are commercial.

Maharashtra housing minister Ravindra Waikar who released the list said that the tenants residing in these dangerous buildings need to vacate the place within a week. We will first request them to shift out but if they remain adamant, we will have to force them out. We cannot allow them to die there, said Waikar.

Of the nine structures named this year, six buildings like Esplanade Mansion at Fort, Building No 46-60 at Lucky Mansion (Clare Road), 44-46Kazi Street, 208-220 Kazi Street, 39-Chowpatty Sea Face and 55-57 Nagdevi Cross Road have been repeated from last years list.

Mhada officials claimed that these buildings have outlived their utility and are being supported by iron bars propped to support them. While the authority makes provisions for these residents to shift to transit camps, they are usually reluctant to move out because they are not sure whether they can return to their own homes or offices once it is redeveloped.

According to social worker Irfan Shaikh, past experience has not been encouraging for the residents. Many people in our area who vacated their house on Mhadas instructions now continue to languish in transit camps in inhuman conditions. Hence, people prefer these dangerous structures to the camps, said Shaikh, a resident of Dongri.

The residents fears are not unfounded as, according to sources, there are people who have been living in transit accommodations since 1970s. Their buildings were not allowed to be redeveloped because of various reasons. They fell prey to either road widening projects, were reserved as recreation grounds or were stuck in litigation.

There are currently 14,375 structures in Mumbai that were constructed before 1969 and are in bad shape, said an official from Mhada.

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On Thursday, a news website sent students and teachers in a tizzy when it said the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam results would be announced at 1pm.

The same site had earlier wrongly reported that the Class 12 CBSE results would be out on May 24.

Several such unconfirmed reports and messages posted by online news sites are declaring result dates for the Class 10 and Class 12 board exams  a different date every day  and adding to the students stress.

This year, the results of the CBSE, ICSE and Maharashtra state board exams are off-schedule, as the exams were delayed on account of polls in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

After reading a report on an online site that results will be declared today (Thursday), I put everything aside and waited for them. I even informed my friends about it, but even after 1pm there was no sign of it, said Chintan Makwana, who studied at the Nirmala Memorial Foundation College of Commerce and Science.

He said there are many sites claiming different result dates and this was confusing and misleading students.

As a result, we are all confused about the accurate date, he added.

READ: Forms to quota, all you need to know

School principals are now advising students not to fall prey to such rumours, or panic about the delay.

We were expecting the results to be late this year as the exams ended a week late. There is no reason to panic, said Deepshikha Srivastava, the principal at Rajhans Vidyalaya, Andheri, a CBSE school.

Last year, CBSE Class 12 results were announced on May 21. Srivastava said: As the exams ended late, we completed corrections only by May 7 or 8, instead of May 1. So it is natural for the board to take time to compile the results.

Suresh Nair, the principal at Vivek Vidyalaya (SSC), also asked students to breathe easy.

The board will announce result dates at least a day in advance on its official website, said Nair.

I appeal to websites to stop predicting result dates, and wait for the official announcement.
Maratha community outfits have announced a fresh programme to resume their agitation for reservation in government jobs and education, along with some other demands. The organisers of the Maratha Kranti Morcha (Maratha Revolution March) have also announced a massive rally in Mumbai on August 9, which happens to be the anniversary of the Quit India Movement.

In a bid to revive the agitation, leaders of the outfits will meet at Raigad fort (it was the capital of Maratha warrior king Shivaji) on June 6.

Later, they will hold a meeting at Kopardi village in Ahmednagar on July 13  the day when a minor girl from the community was found raped and murdered in the village last year.

The brutal crime led to unprecedented anger in the community and sparked off protests at various places.

Initially, the protests were staged to demand death sentence for the accused, who were from the Dalit community, and scrapping of the Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Castes and Tribes Act, which had led to friction between the Maratha and socially backward communities.

As the protests spread across the state, the demand for reservation for Marathas took centrestage, as the community felt it was no more in position of power in society.

The protests in the second half of 2016 unnerved the ruling BJP which suspected a hand of the Opposition Congress and NCP in it. The agitation fizzled out later due to various reasons.

Now with the Maratha outfits planning to revive their agitation, the moot question is: Will they be able to get the same momentum again?

The success of such agitations is normally measured by the political impact they have. In this case, the ruling BJP was clearly rattled when the agitations received enormous response from the community across the state.

Maratha is the largest community in Maharashtra and has dominated politics since the state was formed in 1960. As the agitations were being staged ahead of the crucial civic and district council polls, which were being touted as mini-assembly elections, the ruling party was worried of its impact. However, as the elections were held and results were out, it became clear the agitations did not have a negative impact on the BJPs political fortunes.

The ruling party dominated both the rural and civic polls, even defeating the Congress-NCP in their traditional bastions. Demonetisation, which was announced just ahead of the elections, shifted focus from the Maratha agitations. The Fadnavis government held the previous Congress-NCP government responsible for the delay in the decision and the matter is now pending before the Bombay high court.

Further, the agitation polarised non-Marathas such as the other backward classes (who account for more than one-third of the states population) and backward caste voters, who apparently preferred the BJP. In fact, the pattern of BJPs victory in local polls suggests even Maratha voters did not vote entirely against the party.

Little wonder, the agitation lost its sheen.

Now, the community outfits are trying to revive the agitation, but there are doubts whether the intensity of the protests would be the same.

June to August is also a crucial sowing season for farmers in Maharashtra. A large section of Marathas are into farming, and they may prefer completing their farming activities first. As the Maratha protests have evoked strong reactions from other communities, the opposition parties will not openly support the former.

Reviving the agitation is clearly an uphill task for the organisers, who are themselves divided over the way to take it forward.

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Relatives of the family waylaid by highway robbers in Greater Noidas Jewar said the victims were travelling to a private hospital in Bulandshahr with Rs 47,500 in cash to help a pregnant relative when the alleged gang rapes and murder happened.

The robbers allegedly dragged and raped four women in a field for hours and shot dead a 38-year-old male relative trying to save them at an isolated spot off the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradeshs Gautam Budh Nagar district early on Thursday, police said.

There were eight people in the car. The alleged crime took place nearly a kilometre from the victims village, Sowata in Jewar. The robbers snatched the cash with the jewellery the women were wearing.

Read: Noida woman, daughter raped near Bulandshahr highway, 15 detained

The family received information on Wednesday night that the sister of the man was shot was admitted in Garg Hospital and needed an emergency operation for her delivery. Since her family was not able to arrange money for the delivery, the deceased man, his wife, son, elder sister, sister-in-law, nephew, the man driving the car and the drivers wife decided to travel to Bulandshahr. The driver was a close friend of the family and thats why he was travelling with them, said the niece of the victim. She lives in Noida.

The deceaseds younger brother said the group left their house around 1 am in a Maruti Eeco car and were heading towards Bulandshahr when the robbers struck.

They had hardly covered a kilometre when there was noise from the tyres. When the driver stepped out of the car to check, he found that two tyres had burst. He called the owner of the car and asked for spare tyres when suddenly they were attacked by a group of six men with country-made pistols, knives and iron rods. They fired shots in the air and attacked them with rods, he said.

The relatives said the perpetrators ignored repeated pleas and requests of the cars occupants and continued to assault them.

They forced us to walk in the fields and beat us with rods. Then they began raping the women. When my uncle tried to resist, he was shot dead. They raped all four women repeatedly and took away their jewels. The mens phones were looted, said the nephew of the man who shot.

The victims were taken to the district hospital at 11 am for medical examination. Multiple eye-witnesses said they noticed bruise marks on the necks and hands of the women.

However, Dr Renu Agarwal, officiating chief medical superintendent of District Hospital in Noida Sector 30, didnt share the medical report with the media.

Based on preliminary reports, we can say there were injuries marks on the hands of two ladies after the alleged miscreants tied their hands, said Dr Agarwal.

Ram Kumar, IG Meerut said, We have registered a case of murder, gang rape, abduction and robbery against un identified persons. Several teams have been formed to nab the criminals. We are seeking the help of Uttar Pradesh special task force. The case has been registered on the basis of complaint. The incident took between 1:30am and 2am. The victims told us they were tied with dupattas and the women were taken to fields. Its a gruesome crime and we are working to solve it.

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A major fire engulfed a tri-cycle manufacturing unit at Sahibabad Site IV Industrial Area in Ghaziabad on Friday morning. According to fire department officials, nearly a dozen fire tenders from various fire stations in Ghaziabad and Noida were roped in to bring the fire under control.

The officials who rushed to the spot said that the fire started at the basement where highly flammable such as tyres and plastic were stored. The fire broke out at 8am. Firefighters had to bring in earthmoving machines to break the two sides of the unit in order to reach the source of the blaze and douse the flames.

The area was encroached on and there was no space for fire trucks and firefighters to move in. The cause of the fire hasnt been ascertained as yet. The fire safety equipment installed at the manufacturing unit couldnt douse the flames. Plastic and rubber stored in large quantities at the unit only resulted in the fire going out of control. We had a tough time dousing the flames, Som Dutt Sonkar, fire safety officer who rushed to the scene from Vaishali with his team, said.

Read I Swift action by fire officials saves 80 specially-abled children at Ghaziabad rehabilitation centre

Officials said a similar fire incident had taken place at the same unit when incense sticks were made there. Four tenders from Noida and rest from other stations at Sahibabad, Vaishali and Ghaziabad were roped in to douse the leaping flames on Friday morning.

There were no casualties as the fire broke out in the morning while the workers werent around. The exact cause of fire would be known once an inspection of the unit is conducted, Sonkar added.

According to officials, the fire broke out at the basement and engulfed the ground floor before spreading to the first and second floor of the building. The unit manufactures tri-cycles for children.

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The three-kilometre stretch from Sabota village to Kishanpur, where four women were allegedly gang-raped by highway robbers, has been crime-prone for long.

Seven robberies were reported in the area in the past three years.

In April 2016, a trader on his way to Jewar with his wife from Bulandshahr after attending a wedding was targeted in a similar manner.

His car tyre burst and when he got down to check, the robbers threatened him with a pistol. The traders wife was robbed of her gold ornaments and cash and sexually assaulted in front of her husband.

This incident happened around 11pm, when the Jewar-Bulandshahr Link Road was deserted.

Police said the road passes through fields on both sides and is near the Yamuna Expressway, giving criminals enough leeway to quickly escape.

During elections, there was regular patrolling by police control room vans and security personnel would remain vigilant, because of which no such accident took place for the first few months of the year.

In 2015, criminals opened fire on a 28-year-old man. He was travelling in Swift Dzire but did not stop and sped away. The windows of the car were damaged but he survived, said a senior police officer.

Locals said police know very well that the areas is crime-prone but take little action to deter criminals.

An investigation officer suspected the Bawaria gang could be behind Thursdays crime. The gang fixes nails on layers of discarded tyres to puncture tyres of coming vehicles.

They place these along the bumpy stretch, because of which it becomes difficult for drivers to judge them.

Bawarias are said to be nomads from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Recalling a previous incident, Brahm Dev Sharma, a Sabota resident, said, On May 31, 2016, the results of panchayat elections were declared. In the evening I went to my sugarcane field and saw three people sitting on a cot. They told me to stop and raise my hands. They said they were police officers searching criminals in the area.

When I lifted my hands, one of them came and robbed me of cash and mobile phone and escaped, he said. Locals say incidents like these are quite common.

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One of the four women allegedly gang raped on the Jewar-Bulandshahr Road in Greater Noida, off the Yamuna Expressway, early on Thursday have denied the involvement of her neighbours in the crime.

The woman had earlier given a statement to media persons, saying three of the six suspects could be her neighbours. But on Friday morning, she allegedly retracted from her statement.

Read | Women gang-raped, man killed: Police launch hunt for suspects in highway robbery near UPs Bulandshahr

Through reports, we came to know that they were suspecting their neighbours and based on it, we raided a house late night. Five men were taken for questioning by the special task force and later released, said Rajpal Tomar, station house officer, Jewar police station.

Tomar said the women had not named any neighbour in the complaint. We asked her about her apprehensions but she apologised for the statement and denied the involvement of neighbours. She said whatever she said was out of anger, added Tomar.

The neighbours in question live near the victims house and the police have figured out a property dispute between the two families.

Read | Four women gang-raped: Victims were going to Bulandshahr hospital with Rs 47,500 for pregnant relative

After the womans statement and police raid, there was tension in the tiny village in Jewar. Local clerics interacted with the victims and told them that they should not bring in personal enmity in this case else those involved will go scot-free.

We live in one area and cannot think of committing such crime. It is true arguments take place but it does not mean any of us will be falsely implicated. The loss in the family is loss for us also and when police came to raid our house, we were ready to go through any investigation, said 42-year-old Sageer Ahmad, a neighbour of the victims. His brother Mohammad Salam was detained by police for questioning late last night.

On Saturday, a final statement would be recorded before the magistrate. There we will be clear about everything, said Tomar, who is supervising the investigations.

He said surveillance had been mounted on the Bawaria and axle gangs.

Read | Greater Noida gang rape, murder: Death has haunted family for last 5 years

As many as 50 personnel from different security agencies - special operation group (SOG), special task force (STF), anti-extortion cell, crime branch and district police - have been roped in to solve the case.

Top officials have set a deadline of two weeks to work out the case - the alleged gang rape of four women and murder of a 38-year-old man.

The personnel will work in collaboration with Rajpal Tomar, station house officer, Jewar Police station.

Read | Greater Noida gang rape: Criminals have free run on 3km stretch, cops do little

The investigators are probing all the angles and studying similar cases to analyse the modus operandi of such gangs.

In previous cases, we had identified many persons involved in such robbery cases. We will check all details and investigate accordingly, said an investigation officer.

Police suspect the culprits may be based in Bulandshahr and committed the crime with their Jewar-based accomplices. Late Thursday night, 18 men were detained for questioning, of which five were neighbours of the victims. They were released after an hour, said police sources.

The operations are being monitored by the inspector general of Meerut range, Ram Kumar, and supervised by Love Kumar, senior superintendent of police, Gautam Budh Nagar.

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A preliminary medical examination has ruled out rape of four women who were allegedly dragged out of a car and assaulted by highway robbers in Greater Noidas Jewar, a senior medical officer said on Friday.

A male relative of the women was allegedly shot dead by the gang when he resisted during the incident early on Thursday off the Yamuna Expressway. Eight members of the family were travelling to Bulandshahr.

Gautam Budh Nagars chief medical officer Anurag Bhargav, however, said the final opinion will depend on a Lucknow laboratorys forensic tests on the clothes and tissue samples of the women. The results will take three to four weeks.

The incident has put the Yogi Adityanath government on the back foot, coming weeks after the BJP swept to power in Uttar Pradesh, promising to improve the states law and order.

Bhargav told reporters that doctors found no vaginal injury or semen on the four women.

There was no sexual assault on the women..., Bhargav said. Noida district magistrate BN Singh and senior superintendent of police Love Kumar were present at press briefing.

Family members of the victims, however, objected to the administration going public with the intitial findings.

They should have waited for the confirmative report from a forensic lab, one relative said. Its not necessary the initial report will confirm rape. When I went to the spot the victims cried and said they have been raped.

A doctor at the district hospital also said examination did not show any sign of rape.

There was no sign of struggle that would suggest even an attempt to rape. There were some bruises on the arms of the women, which could be a result of (the robbers) tying their arms with rope, said one of the doctors who examined the alleged victims.

SSP Love Kumar said the gang rape charge in the FIR will remain till the final forensic results are out. We have roped in cops from neighbouring states and are hopeful of cracking the case soon, he said.

A team of artists drew sketches of the accused on the basis of description given by the victims. The victims said the language and accent of the six robbers was not local.

In a related development, one of the four women on Friday retracted a statement saying three of the six suspects could be her neighbours.

She said her Thursdays statement was out of anger and family enmity. Police released the three people detained for questioning.

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From rewriting history, the Sangh Parivar could graduate to rewriting ancient texts. A key official of one of its affiliate bodies recently underscored the need to redo Manusmirti to rid it of anti-women, anti-Dalit passages cited in liberal critiques of Hindu scriptures.

The Sanskar Bharti functionary, Amir Chand, was quoted at length by a contemporary daily under the caption: RSS outfit wants Manusmriti reworked. He has since gone incommunicado. But those privy to his thinking maintain the idea plausibly could be promoted through ideologically friendly scholars and litterateurs--- to avoid controversy attendant to any direct involvement of the Sangh or its sister organization.

Little surprise then that Sanskar Bharti president Vasudeo Kamath flatly denied the proposal attributed to Chand, not to talk of prospects of escalating it to the culture ministry. For his part, Chands inspiration comes from a 2015 book authored by Dr Suryakant Bali, a pro-RSS journalist elevated, amid controversy, as national research professor during Smriti Iranis tenure as HRD minister.

Read more | Students, ABVP members burn Manusmriti despite JNU denying nod

His book, Bharat Gaatha, spans from Manu to Mahabharata. But the research-based work lacks the mandatory footnotes or catalogue of sources he relied upon. Even the title of the chapter on Manu isnt scholarly by any standard: Manu ko jano gey to dewaney ho jaogey.

Dr Bali theorises that Manusmirti isnt the work of Manu but a work in his memory. He accepts as much the possibility of changes being incorporated over time in the original text. Regardless of that, he disagrees with the idea to alter, redo or edit the ancient text. His averments against such alterations were broadly--- not exactly--- similar to those proffered by scholars with unaligned view on the subject: poet-writer Ashok Vajpeyi; writer-academic Purushottam Agrawal; Dalit scholar Chandrabhan Prasad.

Prasad saw in the effort a proximate RSS bid to reaffirm faith in the text BR Ambedkar cremated on a pyre way back in 1927. Writing later for his newspaper, Bahishkrit Bharat, Babasaheb justified his action. He found Manusmriti antithetical to social equality. In his view, no person who revered the text could be genuinely interested in the welfare of untouchables.

For Dr Agrawal the very thought of redoing texts reflective of their times was anti-history: Human consciousness has evolved over centuries, to measure which we need to know the starting point. Any convenient or politically expedient rewriting of scriptures would violate the narrative of societys evolution to modernity.

The debate over Manusmriti prescriptions, original or interpolated, isnt new. The 19th century Vedic scholar and founder of Arya Samaj, Swami Dayanand too had rejected interpolations advocating discrimination based on alleged inferior status of people. Identifying such passages as being out of synch with the Vedas, he surmised: the text as it exited in our times wasnt the way it was originally scripted.

Read more | What is wrong in burning Manusmriti: JNU students ask university

Theres also a school of thought that believes the social hierarchy Manu envisaged was merit based, not birth related. Be that as it may, Vajpeyis advice to protagonists of text-alteration was simple: urge the government and the society at large to reject unacceptable passages believed to be interpolated. He wondered whether those talking of altering the ancient text had the locus or the scholarship to attempt an afterword.

Vajpeyi and Agrawal pointed out that critical editions of Mahabharata and Balmiki Ramayana carried the stamp of reputed entities such as Punes Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and the Oriental Institute of Barodas Maharaja Sayajirao University. The Mahabharata epilogue that discusses the epics message, entailed five decades of work. Likewise, the Ramayana project lasted twenty-five years.

The Mahabharata initiatives first general editor was V S Sukhtankar, eminent Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. After his death, Dr S K Belvalkar led the team that studied over 1200 manuscripts.

The message then is obvious for the likes of Chand and his peers in the Sangh. Only an autonomous authority with credible scholarship can, if at all, attempt a postlude to Manusmriti. And thats pretty different from rewriting or editing the text.
I was shocked to see how unwell you looked when I saw you on the TV a couple of weeks ago. But you sounded almost the same when I phoned you and you called me over. Spending about an hour with you and remembering those days of senseless violence and reliving a few deadly experiences was great. So were your comments on the present situation in Kashmir, the Naxal movement and other issues plaguing the nation.

Under your leadership, we fought the biggest armed uprising in independent India. We not only escaped death, but succeeded in controlling the senseless violence of militancy in Punjab and restored peace.

I first interacted with you when you took charge as inspector general (IG) of Punjab armed police (PAP) and operations at Jalandhar in 1984. I was a senior superintendent of police there. When I met you on your arrival, I told you about nabbing a militant on that day. I was surprised when you wanted to see him right away. You questioned him for hours and were surprised to know that he was a Hindu who became a Sikh militant under the influence of Sant Bhindranwale. You talked to him at length to assess how such a change was possible in our socio-religious system. I could make out that a professional cop had arrived on the scene.

Later we dispersed but were reunited in 1986. You returned as IG, Centre Reserve Police Force (CRPF), while I was deputy inspector general (DIG), CRPF, in Amristar. Violence was at its peak in Majha area with shoot-outs taking place daily. It was then we, under your leadership, revised our operational strategies, formed sectors, sub-sectors, with joint deployment of Punjab police and the para-military forces, including Border Security Force (BSF). We also planned patrolling, joint operations, sharing information, generating field intelligence which were introduced in a big way and yielded good results.

And then you were again called back to take over PAP operations in 1987. The fight continued with successes and failures. Your greatest role as operations leader was to make the force dominate the strongholds of militants and get senior officers in field operations. I distinctly remember the chilly December nights when we laid siege in Mand or other areas where terrorists writ ran large. I have seen you yourself leading ambushes in most difficult areas. You also held training camps in Mand to explain the militancy and reasons behind it to the force, which included personnel from outside Punjab.

And then came Operation Black Thunder-II in May 1988. I received a bullet in my jaw outside the Golden Temple. By now, you were director general of Punjab and that is when we saw your leadership at its best. No police entry, all exit points blocked, all devotees called out and only the militants inside, who were given the option to surrender. Only a few were killed in an exchange of fire. After a few days, the militants surrendered as they came out with raised hands. You succeeded without much firing, damage or even without entry. This was indeed the greatest professional success which was internationally acknowledged.

You continued to lead the Punjab police till 1995 when normalcy returned, except a few incidents. By the 1990s, you have turned the Punjab police into an effective anti-terrorist force. You also mentored young officers how to lead during crisis. With a cool head and a large heart, you were always unruffled, focused and at peace during operations. You encouraged young officers to understand, analyse, research and prepare operational strategy.

When I met you last, I knew you looked tired, weak and just a pale shadow of yourself. You also mentioned that those who gained maximum from the peace ushered in by you remained your greatest critics all along  a fact that pained you. I could make out the stress and strain of ill-health but could not imagine that the end would come so soon.

Rest in peace, my general. I and many more like me have learnt a lot from you. We will miss you.

(SS Virk, former DGP of Punjab and Maharashtra, had served under KPS Gill in 1984, 1987 and 1988 during Operation Black Thunder-II)
I first met Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, the strapping Sikh police officer, as a young reporter, when I was posted in Punjab in the mid-eighties. The state was seething after army tanks had rolled into Golden Temple and damaged the Akal Takht--the seat of temporal power. Many Sikhs in the police and army tendered their resignations and Gill, an Assam-cadre officer, stepped forward to reclaim the state from terrorists.

Gill was a practising Sikh but his uniform was a part of his religion. He led from the front. He often shared his views of the intricate problem--the Jat support to the Khalistan torch-bearers, the polarisation between Sikhs and Hindus (in the 80s, the demography was divided 52:48), the toll violence had taken on security forces and the judiciary. Then, Punjab police officers were singled out and killed. Hindus were forced out of buses and massacred; and judges would take their seats in court only when arrested terrorists were brought in blindfolded.

Read: KPS Gill, Indian hockeys long serving administrator, dies at 82

We have to take the battle straight into the terrorist camp, he would often tell me. Gill always made time for journalists, even when he was caught in the midst of unsavoury controversies that included him pinching the bottom of a fellow woman bureaucrat. I spent several evenings chatting with him over large mugs of beer. He had great capacity--not just for beer--but for deep conversations, devious strategies that included blatant disregard for human rights, he believed firmly that terrorists deserved none whatsoever. Punjab then was flush with stories of how terrorists were hunted down and killed so their cases never came to court. Officials would privately tell us about how their bodies were tied to boulders and drowned.

Gill, who finally got done in by kidneys that failed him (he was on dialysis and spent the last six days in an intensive care unit), was loved by his subordinates. He promoted people from the ranks and bought loyalty in return.

He earned his spurs during Operation Black Thunder in 1988 when he allowed the media to witness the entire operation that involved flushing out terrorists who had once again--after the 1984 Op Bluestar in which Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was killed --fortified the Golden Temple and taken shelter. He ordered water and electricity to be cut off and finally forced the terrorists to surrender in the full glare of television cameras. The sight of khadkus walking out with their arms up broke the proverbial back of the Punjab militancy. I was one of the journalists watching the unbelievable spectacle and though there was a danger that the militants wouldve mined the precincts before surrendering, we convinced Gill to allow us inside before any sarkari bomb squad could inspect the place.

An IPS officer, Gill was the chief of Punjab Police from 1988 to 1990 and then again from 1991 until his retirement from service in 1995. (HT File Photo)

Gill walked ahead of us and as we went in tentatively--stepping on glass shards and ammunition empties. He made most of us crouch as we approached the Harmandar Sahab--the sanctum sanctorum--for fear that some terrorists may still be in hiding. We walked in to mounds of shit and liquor pouches, to find the holiest of Sikh shrines, totally defiled. Gill walked straight, without once crouching and a few evenings later, when I met him again, for a one-on-one chat, he said, The turban must always be held high.

Gill was fearless and that drove him and his chosen group of officers to commit large-scale human rights violations. The top cop often found himself on the wrong side of the law he was supposed to uphold, but one of his greatest failings was that he paid scant respect to it. In an earlier posting in Assam, he was dragged to court for kicking a demonstrator to death but acquitted. In Punjab, by the early 90s, the population feared the police more than terrorists.

By then, Gill had moved from being top cop to super cop. Few knew that he was an ardent reader and could recite Shakespeare with the same ease as he could wield torture implements. His controversial but successful Punjab years saw him make his way to Gujarat as an advisor to Narendra Modi after the 2002 riots and in 2007, he flew to Chhattisgarh to join chief minister Raman Singh, to root out Maoist rebels.

He spoke to me often about his time in the red corridor state and not one to mince words, he said: After three or four days into my stint, Raman Singh told me to relax and enjoy my stay. I had drawn up an elaborate plan on how to deal with the threat from Naxals but it was never implemented. I remember calling for a meeting  not in the capital city of Raipur but in the interiors  and many officers came in civvies and in unmarked vehicles. They were trying to pass off as civilians. This is not a response that is going to raise the confidence of the people. Policemen can only die in such a situation. The paramilitary forces are stuck in a terrain they dont know, just like the Americans are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On his return from Chhattisgarh, Gill started the Institute for Conflict Management. We continued to meet after he retired and he remained an expert voice on issues relating to national security.

The man who never liked to crouch will finally be laid to rest but his legacy and his controversies will live on. He is not one who can be put down easily. Rest in peace, Mr Gill.

(Harinder Baweja is editor, special projects, at Hindustan Times. She tweets @shammybaweja)

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More than a year after installation of solar power panels on rooftops was made mandatory for houses of 1 kanal area and above, the Chandigarh administration has failed to ensure implementation.

Less than 1% (70) of 7,600 houses have installed the equipment for 1 KWH that costs Rs 60,000. However, the owner of the house pays Rs 42,000 with the UT administration providing a subsidy of 30% on installation.

A 1KWH hour power source means that 100-watt light bulb can be operated for 10 hours (equal to four units for traditional power). A kanal house consumes 30 units a day.

The consumer can recover the Rs 42,000 investment, if he uses the panel for six years. The life of the panel is 25 years with cleaning required every 15 days.

HOW IT AFFECTS YOU? Alternative to traditional power: In its initial stage yet, solar power could become a saving grace in case of outages as it has its utility, but limited at best. It also needs to get more cost-effective Maximum savings Rs 500 a month: A 1KWH (four units of traditional power a day) costs the owner of a kanal house Rs 42,000 .On an average, a kanal house with four members consumers 30 units a day. So, can result in savings of 120 units a month or around Rs 500 a month; with a unit of power priced at Rs 4/unit. 30% subsidy given: Against a cost of Rs 60,000, the installer pays Rs 42,000 with the UT admn offering a subsidy of 30%. Apply online, permissions come in a month: Information to apply for the plant is available on crestchd.org.in. One has to fill an online form and all clearances come in a month; installation process is 3 days.

There is a misconception among residents that a solar panel is not viable for the long term. Cheap availability of traditional power means people are non-serious, said Santosh Kumar, CEO, Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology (CREST).

Interestingly, Chandigarh was declared a model solar city in 2012. Over the past five years, the administration has failed to create awareness and residents have been a uninterested in offering rooftop of their houses for solar energy panels.

Akhil Kaushal, owner of Inter-Solar Systems, a company in the business of installation of these panels, Chandigarh says, People are not aware and feel that this project is not viable.

The UT electricity department does not give its permission, which harasses residents, claimed Chander Mukhi Sharma, manufacturer of a solar power plant in city.

The UT must create awareness and introduce a penal clause for not implementing the decision, said Baljinder Singh Bittu, chairman, FOSWA.

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In the latest incident of lawlessness in the tricity, three unidentified men fired two shots at advocate, Harkishan Singh, 36, in broad daylight in Sector 76. Singh, who had a miraculous escape, stays in Phase-5 and practices at the district courts in SAS Nagar.

He was on his way to the court, on his scooter, at about 10am on Friday when the three accused, on a Swift Dzire, waylaid him on the road near the court complex.

Sources said after intercepting Singhs two-wheeler, one of the accused got down from the car and tried to hit him with an iron rod. However, Singh ducked and the rod hit the scooter. Then they fired two shots that also missed him.

Police have recovered shells of the 32-bore pistol from the spot and registered a case of attempt to murder against the three people, who are absconding.

In his statement, Singh had told the police that he suspected the role of some of his relatives behind the attack as they had issued threats to him over a divorce case in the family.

We are investigating the matter and confirming whether the shots were fired from a licensed or an unlicensed weapon. We are checking CCTVs installed around private offices for clues. A case has been registered under Section 307 (attempt to murder and Arms Act against unidentified people, said Sohana station house officer (SHO) Rajan Parminder Singh.

The victim has given us the names of people he suspects and we will zero in on them soon. So far, no arrest has been made yet, he added.

The incident in Sector 76 came less than 12 hours after a Sector127 Kharar residential societys top office-bearer and his accomplices fired in the air after a drinking session in the middle of the night on Thursday around midnight.

In this case, society residents had been complaining about several illegal activities by these goons for weeks, but no action was taken.

SECOND FIRING IN TWO DAYS

The incident in Sector 76 came less than 12 hours after a Sector-127 Kharar residential societys top office-bearer and his accomplices fired in the air after a drinking session in the middle of the night on Thursday around midnight.
A high-powered panel of officials from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and scientists from central government ministries will meet on Saturday to discuss the issue of drying up of the Sukhna Lake.

The lake has shrunk to a depth of around 1.75ft against the required depth of 10 ft.

The Punjab and Haryana high court bench of justices justices AK Mittal and HS Sidhu had given the directions for the meeting, during the resumed hearing of a suo motu petition on the rising pollution of the lake in 2009.

Anurag Aggarwal, secretary engineering department UT, Rahul Tiwari, secretary, irrigation department, Punjab and RS Verma, secretary, irrigation and water resources, Haryana are on the panel. The panel meets on Saturday at the UT Guest House and if required, could visit the lake as well.

TO DISCUSS USE OF JCBS

The HC has asked the committee members to discuss suggestions which came up during hearing including pressing in JCBs from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to remove silt and other suggestions on long term and short term measures received from expert groups as well as tricity residents.

The water level at the lake has gone down drastically and the officials fear that the lake may dry up by June 30, if there are no rains. During Thursdays hearing, justice AK Mittal, senior judge on the division bench, who had undertaken a visit on one of these days to lake, himself said that chances are that JCBs/ bulldozers might not be the solution for now as there were wet patches which may make it difficult to remove the silt.

Senior Standing counsel, UT, Suvir Sehgal, who had also visited lake earlier this week along with officials informed the court that fresh surveys indicated that removing silt through JCBs would not be possible at this stage due to wetness.
Dhanush on Thursday evening revealed two more posters from Rajinikanth starrer Kaala Karikaalan, which will be produced by his production company Wunderbar Films. Earlier in the day he had revealed the films name and its first look.

The posters give us the feel that the world of Kabali is set to return. However, one of them also takes us back to Rajinikanth of Baasha days. One poster has a fierce-looking Rajinikanth glaring at the camera. Appearing in a salt and pepper look, Rajinikanth seems to have embraced his senior look with gay abandon. Wounded and angry, the picture reflects the angst of a gangster on the verge of revenge.

Does this remind you of Rajinikanths cult classic Baasha?

The second picture is actually far more interesting -- a lungi and shirt clad Rajinikanth is seated on the bonnet of a jeep with a mocking smile on his face. Behind him, is a 360 panoramic view of a slum. From the nameplate of the jeep we know it is Mumbai.

Kaala Karikaalan is tipped to be another gangster saga. The film will start rolling from May 28. Originally planned to be shot in Mumbai, the makers have decided to shoot predominant portion in Chennai and shoot some general scenes in Mumbai.

It is also believed that the team has been recreating the popular Dharavi slum in Chennai on a budget of nearly Rs 5 crore. The set work has already begun and it should be completed in the next two weeks. The principal shooting will commence in Chennai from the last week of May. The makers are targeting next year April for release, a source said told HT.

Huma Qureshi is rumoured to be playing Rajinikanths pair in the film. Although the makers have remained tight-lipped about the news, Huma recently said it would be an honour to work with the 67-year-old star, without confirming if she has been signed on for the project. She didnt even deny the news.

It is believed the film will revolve around south Indians, especially Tamilians in Mumbai and their fight for equality. Kaala is a colloquial word used to insult south Indians, especially used to target their race. The film will have music by Santhosh Narayanan and National award-winning editor Sreekar Prasad is part of the project.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Baahubali star Prabhas is currently vacationing in the US. After he resumes work, he will start shooting for filmmaker Sujeeths Telugu film, Saaho. Speculations are rife that some parts of the film might be shot in Mumbai. Interestingly, the story of the film, as per reports, also begins in Mumbai.

The plot unfolds in Mumbai. Director Sujeeth wants to shoot action scenes with Prabhas on Mumbai roads during the rains, DNA quoted a source as saying. As per the report, while a major portion of the film will be shot in Abu Dhabi, few songs and stunts will be canned in Europe. The film is supposed to go on floors in June, and the shooting in Mumbai is expected to begin in July.

Prabhas, who had invested about five years to the Baahubali series, now wants to concentrate completely on Saaho after he is back from his holiday. This high-tech action film will be made in three languages  Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have composed the music for the film.

Several female Bollywood actors were reportedly considered to play the lead alongside Prabhas, but he is keen on working with someone from the Telugu industry. Prabhas feels he owes it to the Telugu movie industry to work with the local talent. Although several A-list heroines from Bollywood were considered, he has finally decided to work with a Telugu actresss in Saaho, added the source.

Meanwhile, the stunts in the film will be designed by international stuntman Kenny Bates of Transformers fame. Sujeeth had earlier said that a major chunk of the budget of the film will be used for the action sequences.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

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Violent protests broke out Friday in Bangladesh over the removal of a controversial justice statue deemed un-Islamic by religious hardliners from outside the Supreme Court, a move its creator said marked a victory for Islamists.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons to try to disperse hundreds of secular demonstrators who came out to protest the statues removal, which they see as a sign of creeping Islamisation in the officially secular country.

The sculpture of a blindfolded, sari-clad woman holding scales had been in place for less than six months when authorities removed it early Friday under pressure from hardliners who said it was based on the Greek goddess of justice.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha ordered the removal of the sculpture from its existing location to be reinstalled in front of the Supreme Court museum on a different location inside the apex court, attorney general Mahbubey Alam said.

He (Sinha) called me in the (Thursday) afternoon at his chamber where several senior lawyers were present... We suggested that the statue be removed from its existing location, he said.

Bangladesh police fire a water cannon as left wing students march in the street towards the Supreme Court to protest in Dhaka on May 26. (AFP Photo)

Sculptor Mrinal Haque, who erected the statue, said that it is being removed to maintain peace.

Haque, who along with four to five workers were overseeing the removal work said, I dont know where the statue was kept though the authorities told me it might be reinstalled near the apex courts annex building, The Daily Star reported.

This is a slap in the face of the countrys progressive people ... they (Islamists) are demanding the statue to be removed from the apex court. They will demand dismantling of all sculptures in the country, he told the protestors rally.

The statue was erected in December 2016, holding a sword and the scales of justice in her hands.

The statue, which is not of the Greek goddess but a Bengali woman, has ruffled feathers in the Muslim-majority nation, with hardliners staging massive protests in recent months.

According to the hardliners, the statue, a variation on the Greek goddess Themis, goes against Islam, the report said.

Police used tear gas and water cannons as protests mounted after authorities removed the statue from the Supreme Court premises.

Bangladeshi left wing students march in the street towards the Supreme Court to protest in Dhaka on May 26. (AFP Photo)

Witnesses said scores of slogan chanting protestors rallied near the apex court complex where police hurled tear gas canisters and coloured water from water cannons to disperse them.

In April, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, apparently backed the Islamists by expressing her dislike for the statue and approved its removal.

In reaction to criticism over her approval, Hasina said she had asked Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha why the statue of a Greek goddess had been distorted by having it clad in a saree, the report said.

Why shouldnt it be removed? Dont they see that it is no more Greek. Its half Greek, half Bengali. Its Greek- Bengali now. Dont they see it? she had inquired.

Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreign.
China has successfully installed the containment dome of a demonstration nuclear project in eastern Fujian province that uses a third generation reactor which will also power two plants in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

The project in Fujian, which uses the domestically developed Hualong One technology, serves as a prototype and proving ground facility.

The domestically developed third generation reactor, which has advanced technology and improvements developed in second generation reactors, will be used in the two plants China is building in Karachi.

The country has actively promoted Hualong One at home and abroad. There are now four projects using Hualong One design under construction, including two reactors in Karachi, Pakistan, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Reports said the two reactors China is helping to build in Pakistan will cost around $10 billion and are expected to be completed within the decade.

Xinhua reported the hemispherical dome, weighing 340 tonnes and measuring 46.8 meters in diameter, was installed by crane on the No 5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in Fuqing City on Thursday evening.

The dome will be used for protection against nuclear accidents under extreme conditions, Yu Peigen, deputy general manager of CNNC, was quoted as saying.

In December, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the Chashma-3 reactor, built with Chinese help, at a site 250 km southwest of Islamabad. The Chashma-1 and 2 were also built with Beijings assistance.

Last year, China refuted a US think tanks report that said Beijings nuclear cooperation with Islamabad contravened the principles of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

China has stated on many occasions that the cooperation between China and Pakistan in the civil nuclear energy sector is completely for peaceful purpose, the foreign ministry had said at the time.

The Hualong One brand is being positioned to attract foreign buyers. The state-owned company promoting the brand said last year it will be promoted as the Chinese nuclear power industrys flagship brand.

The brand is now being aligned with Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as one of the countrys foremost brands to be promoted internationally.

During the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation earlier this month, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) also signed a cooperation framework agreement with Argentina, a key emerging market for Chinese companies, which included using the Hualong One design for the countrys fifth nuclear unit, Xinhua reported.

Hailing the successful installation of the containment dome, Premier Li Keqiang stressed the importance of quality and safety in Chinas first demonstration nuclear power project using Hualong One technology.

Absolute safety must be guaranteed in nuclear power construction, operation and management, said Li.
The kidnapping of a young Chinese couple teaching Mandarin in Balochistan, the centre of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has set off alarm bells in the government, with the state-controlled media saying the abduction highlights risks of the project.

The couple was abducted from Quettas Jinnah Town in Pakistans southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday.

On Thursday, China condemned the kidnapping, saying it attaches high importance to the safety of Chinese citizens overseas.

A day later, the state media said the kidnapping was a worrying trend and marks the CPEC with security questions.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping yet. But it is worth noting that Islamic militants have often carried out abductions of foreigners on Pakistani soil, either for ransom or to get publicity for their cause, the tabloid Global Times said in an article.

Chinese people have also been targeted occasionally, despite the friendly relations between the two countries, it said.

The daily noted that the Balochistan province is at the centre of CPEC, which is expected to link Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the southern coast of the country.

But the restive region has seen frequent violence committed by Islamic terrorists and separatists, and the Belt and Road program is often exposed to potential threats. Last year, a Chinese engineer was injured in a bomb attack in southern Pakistan and a separatist group, the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting the CPEC, the Global Times article said.

It said Beijing has urged Islamabad to step up its efforts to protect Chinese citizens in the country, especially after the attacks and the security risks.

The Pakistani government has deployed 15,000 military personnel to protect projects under the economic corridor, the paper said.

Terrorism, political infighting and attempts by local political parties to divide the CPEC cake have already caused substantial delays, Shi Zhiqin, the executive dean of the newly opened One Belt, One Road Strategic Institute in Beijing wrote a few months ago in a widely circulated paper titled The Benefits and Risks of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Terrorism is one among multiple problems and there have been many terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Shi told HT earlier this month.

The first of these risks is terrorism, which has long affected Pakistans internal security and stability. Although Pakistan has worked hard to strike at religious extremism and terrorist activities, its problems with terrorism have not substantially improved in recent years... Indeed, there already have been numerous occasions when Chinese engineers working in Pakistan have been attacked or even lost their lives, Shi wrote.
Leaders from the worlds major industrialised nations began talks on Friday at a G7 summit in Sicily which is expected to expose deep divisions with US President Donald Trump over trade and climate change.

The two-day summit, at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, began a day after Trump blasted NATO allies for spending too little on defence and described Germanys trade surplus as very bad in a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

After receiving warm receptions in Saudia Arabia and Israel, Trumps confrontational stance with long-standing partners in Europe cast a cloud over the meeting in Taormina, where leaders are due to discuss terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years, Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting.

US President Donald Trump talks with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, while Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni, left, and his wife Emanuela Mauro look on. (AP)

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted robust discussions on trade and climate.

Trump was elected in November after a campaign in which he rejected many of the tenets that the Group of Seven has stood for, including free trade, multilateralism and the liberal democratic values.

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to use the summit to convince Trump to soften some of his stances.

But diplomats conceded as the talks began that the United States was unlikely to budge, meaning the final communique could be watered down significantly compared to the one the G7 unveiled at its last summit in Japan.

US President Donald Trump speaks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Taormina (REUTERS)

TRADE AND CLIMATE

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theatre overlooking the sea, where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters. Nine fighter jets soared into the sky above Taormina, leaving a trail of smoke in the red-white-green colours of the Italian flag.

The leaders then adjourned to the San Domenico Palace, a one-time Dominican monastery that is now a luxury 5-star hotel. During World War Two, it housed Nazi air force chiefs.

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 225 km from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks to US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump (REUTERS)

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

But trade and climate, to be discussed on Friday afternoon, are the most contentious issues.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a hoax during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in. Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy, said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, Trump accused members of the military alliance of owing massive amounts of money to the United States and NATO - even though allied contributions are voluntary.

The remarks went down badly with European leaders, who had hoped Trump would use the opportunity to confirm his commitment to Article 5, the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

When an American president cannot commit clearly to Article 5 at a time when everyone is expecting him to do this then there is the risk that Moscow interprets this as meaning it is no longer valid, said Jan Techau of the American Academy in Berlin.

VERY BAD

In a private meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Trump also denounced the German trade surplus as very bad and complained about the large number of German cars being sold in the United States, officials said.

Juncker tried to play down the comments ahead of the summit. But they underscored ongoing policy divisions between Trump and his partners four months after he took office.

Trump is attending his first major international summit but is not the only G7 newcomer. Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

May is expected to leave a day early, following Mondays suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people carried out by a suspected Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

G7 leaders were expected to issue a separate statement on terrorism on Friday, before issuing their formal communique on Saturday. Italian officials have suggested the final communique will be shorter than 10 pages. At the last G7 summit in Japan it totalled 32 pages.

One country that will not be present is Russia. It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

But accusations from US intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaigns contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office. One of Kushners attorneys said her client would cooperate with the investigation.

Kushner and his wife, Trumps daughter Ivanka, have returned to Washington after accompanying the president for the first part of his first foreign tour.
Masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 26 others as they were driving to a monastery, medical sources and eyewitnesses said.

The group was travelling in two buses and a small truck in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority, the sources said.

Provincial governor Essam al-Bedaiwy said earlier that 23 peoople had been killed and 25 wounded.

Eyewitnesses said the Copts were attacked as they were going to pray at the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the western part of the province.

They said masked men stopped the vehicles on a road leading to the monastery and opened fire.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypts population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.

About 70 have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Fridays attack.
Hundreds of Iranian worshippers have rallied in Tehran to denounce a Bahrain police raid on the hometown of a prominent Shia cleric this week that left five of his supporters dead and 286 arrested.

The Iranian demonstrators took to the streets after Friday prayers in Tehran, chanting Death to the House of Khalifa, a reference to the ruling family of Bahrain, and also, Death to the House of Saud, a reference to the Saudi royal family.

Iranian media said similar rallies took place in other cities and towns across the country.

Predominantly Shiite Iran sees itself as a protector of Shiites across the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia has backed Bahrains Sunni monarchy. Bahrain says Tuesdays operation in Diraz, Sheikh Isa Qassim hometown, to maintain security and public order.
With a little more than a fortnight to go for the second phase of Nepals local elections, an alliance of seven Madhes-based political parties decided on Friday to launch a fresh agitation and boycott the polls scheduled for June 14.

The decision by the newly formed Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN) has resulted in uncertainty about the second phase of the polls to local government bodies. The Terai and Madhes belts are among the areas going to the polls next month.

After a meeting in Kathmandu, senior RJPN leaders said several accords between the government and Madhes-based parties had not implemented and cases against Madhesi leaders had not been withdrawn. The increase in new local government units in the Terai and Madhes belts is not enough and thousands of eligible voters were left out of the electoral process, they said.

But a splinter group from Madhes, Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum led by Upendra Yadav, said it will participate in the polls.

The RJPN has been demanding that Nepals new Constitution should be amended before the second phase of elections to address the grievances of the Madhesis.

If our demands are not met prior to the elections, we are not going to take part in the elections, said a strongly worded statement from the alliance. The RJPN also announced a series of protests would begin on Saturday.

In a bid to persuade Madhes-based to participate in the polls, the government decided to increase the number of local government units in the Terai region. But the RJPN rejected the governments offer, saying the increase of 22 units was not in line with the population ratio.

The issue has been further complicated by the Supreme Courts direction to the government not to implement the decision to increase the local government units.

The first phase of the local elections for 283 units in three provinces was held on May 14. The main opposition CPN-UML was ahead of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in Parliament, in this phase.

On June 14, elections will be held for 483 units in four provinces, most of them in the Terai and Madhes belts.

The RJPN announced several steps to obstruct the elections, including an indefinite strike during June 2-3, the dates chosen by the Election Commission for filing nominations for the second phase of polls.
Melania Trumps first outing in the Sicilian sunshine was in a colorful floral applique jacket by Dolce & Gabbana that comes off the rack at $51,000.

Mrs. Trump also carried a matching clutch when she went to lunch with the other spouses of G7 leaders at the historic Elephants Palace hosted by Catanias mayor.

The colour burst comes after a steady wardrobe of mostly black during President Donald Trumps overseas tour, including a prim black lace dress with a matching mantilla headcover that she wore to meet Pope Francis and a dark jacket with golden detailing on the cuff and collar that she wore for her arrival in Italy, both also by Milan designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.

U.S. first lady Melania Trump arrives in Duomo's square in the Sicilian town of Catania, Italy, May 26, 2017. (REUTERS Photo)

Gabbana has been celebrating each appearance with Instagram posts. He shared three photos of the floral jacket, worn over a simple white shift dress, with the U.S. first lady looking model-perfect stepping out of an SUV. Gabbana tagged the photo with hearts and a Thank You to @flotus #melaniatrump.

Dolce & Gabbana have made Sicily their fashion muse, so it makes sense that she would also wear their designs in Sicily.
Pakistan on Friday hiked its spending on defence by 7% as finance minister Ishaq Dar presented a $50 billion budget that contained measures aimed at appeasing farmers who protested ahead of the announcement.

We have increased the defence budget to Pakistani Rs 920 billion (from Pakistani Rs 860 billion), Dar said as he presented the federal budget for 2017-18 fiscal in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament.

In addition to the increase in military spending, the budget also gave every soldier a 10% salary hike for contributions to defeating militants in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched three years ago.

Pakistans defence budget is not open to debate by Parliament, nor does it generally include pensions paid to military personnel. The cost of their pensions comes out of the current budget.

Of the $20 billion-plus development budget, Dar said $1.8 billion will go toward financing projects linked to its multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) scheme that includes a vast array of joint ventures including roads and power plants.

Pakistans proposed increase in the defence outlay and for its armed forces comes even as New Delhi and Islamabad are at loggerheads over a host of contentious issues.

Last year, Pakistan recorded a 5.28% GDP growth  the highest in 10 years  and the volume of its economy crossed $300 billion.
Six days after being denied entry into Canada, retired senior Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer Tejinder Singh Dhillon arrived at Torontos Lester B Pearson airport to a very different reception.

It was very smooth; I didnt have any problem, he told the Hindustan Times.

Dhillon, who retired in 2010 after serving as director of the Central Reserve Police Academy in Kadarpur, Gurgaon, had to undergo an ordeal lasting nearly 24 hours at Vancouver airport last week as immigration officials accused him of working for the paramilitary force which committed widespread and systemic human rights abuses such as torture, arbitrary detention, murder and sexual assault.

His Canadian visa, valid till 2024, was cancelled and the 67-year-old summarily sent back to India.

The incident, coming close on the heels of the Ontario assembly becoming Canadas first legislature to pass a motion that described the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as genocide, hit bilateral ties. The external affairs ministry took up the matter with Canada and Canadian envoy Nadir Patel later apologised.

Dhillons arrival on Thursday was different as he was greeted at Toronto airport by family members and he looked forward to attending his nieces wedding. He was thankful to officials at Canadas high commission in New Delhi, who not only quickly issued a fresh multi-year visa but also compensated him by providing him an air ticket for this trip.

Dhillon said a senior Canadian official told him they were keen to maintain healthy relations with India as he visited the Canadian mission prior to his departure. Canadas Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship department also expressed regret over the incident.

In an email to the Hindustan Times, a spokesperson said, Canada values our relationship with India, based on shared values of democracy, pluralism, human rights and rule of law.

Family members received Dhillon at Toronto airport and reunited with him in the suburban Greater Toronto Area residence where his brother lives. They were relieved he had finally made it in time for the wedding.

Everybody was so upset when he had to return from Vancouver. Now, we are thrilled he has returned, his brother Narinder Singh, the father of the bride, said.

That view was echoed by his sister Pawanjit Kaur: The whole family was shaken up and now the whole family is happy. I have no words to explain how we feel.

Not everyone, though, was glad Dhillon had returned to Canada. Gurpatwant Pannun, legal advisor to the hardline activist group Sikhs for Justice, said, It's unfortunate that the Trudeau government succumbed before the economic pressure by Indian regime."

He condemned Ottawa for trading Canadian values with blood money.

However, for the Dhillons, a week of stress culminated with the celebration of a wedding, with Tejinder Singh Dhillon, the eldest member of the family, taking his place as the head of the function.

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Local authorities demolished an illegal mosque on the outskirts of Belgrade after Serbian police secured the area in a pre-dawn action on Friday, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, despite protests by local Muslims and Islamic clergy.

The construction of a two-storey mosque without a minaret in the Zemun Polje neighbourhood started in 2014 even though the authorities had refused to grant it a construction permit.

On Thursday, the authorities attempted the demolition of the building but withdrew after protests by Muslims from the neighbourhood, mainly members of the Roma (Gypsy) minority. Early on Friday, they returned with the police escort and tore down much of building.

Belgrades city manager Goran Vesic said the authorities destroyed an illegally built building, in line with law, the Tanjug news agency reported.

Belgrades top Islamic cleric, Mufti Mustafa Jusufspahic, said the Islamic community would protest to the Serbian president.

We are unpleasantly surprised as this happened on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, Jusufspahic told Reuters.

In the Serbian capital of around 1.6 million, there are about 20,000 practising Muslims and only one mosque, which was built in 1575 when the Balkans were ruled by Ottoman Turks.

We have asked people to remain calm, he said. The authorities flexed muscles on the poor ... other religious communities are building their places of worship unimpeded, he said.

Jusufspahic said the Belgrade authorities have not issued a single construction permit to the Muslim community over the past five decades. His claim could not be verified.

Serbia is home to around 230,000 Muslims or 3.1 percent of the total population, mostly concentrated in the southwestern Sandzak region that borders Bosnia, Kosovo and Montenegro. A majority of the countrys population is Orthodox Christian.

The Balkan country is a candidate for European Union membership, but before it joins the bloc it must improve the rule of law and the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.
The Pakistani Sikh community has donated to the Lahore Museum a metallic palanquin with a wooden base, brought specially from Amritsar, to hold the holy Guru Granth Sahib.

The Guru Granth Sahib kept at the Lahore Museum is from the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the leader of the Sikh Empire, who ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century.

The 10 members of the Sikh sangat who donated the palanquin on Wednesday performed a ritual while placing the holy book on it (palanquin).

The Sikh community members lauded the efforts of the museum administration for properly preserving heritage of the Sikh community.

Lahore Museum additional director Naushaba Anjum said the museum contains a rare collection of artefacts which are also from the era of Ranjit Singh.

These artefacts are only housed in the Lahore Museum, she said, adding the palanquin has been placed in the ongoing exhibition of Sikh artefacts.

The exhibition featured paintings, weapons, intricate woodwork among a host of other items.

The museum features a rich collection of Sikh artefacts, including gold, silver and copper coins, as well as Ranjit Singhs gold medals, miniatures including portraits of Sikh spiritual and political figures, clothing, furniture from the royal court, royal decrees and Sikh holy books.
A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told AFP.

The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the towns municipal building, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein said all states whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians.

The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalitions operations in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against ISs last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.
US President Donald Trump said Friday the problem of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be solved, as he met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.

Its a big problem, its a world problem, he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, just weeks after he called North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un a madman with nuclear weapons.

The issue of North Korea, whose missile and nuclear tests have its neighbours and the wider world concerned, will be discussed in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries, Trump said.

It will be solved, you can bet on that, he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details.

Abe intended to use the summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea following its recent series of missile tests.

The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world, he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act resolutely.

Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a heavy nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

It carried out two atomic tests last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.

The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

A lot of firepower

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said we cant let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that.

We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 -- but we dont want to use it, the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was stable or not stable. The Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterparts mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment.

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with North Koreas ally China.

But Beijing, the Norths main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority.

North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computer and demanding payment in Bitcoin to return control to users.

Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.
The far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) has pledged in its general election manifesto to ban the burqas or the full face veils in public places, citing among others a bizarre reason that they prevent intake of essential vitamin D from sunlight.

Clothing that hides identity, puts up barriers to communication, limits employment opportunities, hides evidence of domestic abuse, and prevents intake of essential vitamin D from sunlight, is not liberating, the UKIP election manifesto says.

The Paul Nuttall-led UKIP broke ranks with the other major parties yesterday by resuming national campaigning with the launch of its manifesto just days after the Manchester concert bombing that claimed 22 lives.

The UKIP pledged that it would introduce a ban on the wearing of the dehumanising burqa and full face coverings in public places, The Telegraph reported.

Face coverings such as these are barriers to integration. We will not accept these de-humanising symbols of segregation and oppression, nor the security risks they pose, it says.

Suggestions that UKIP is undermining liberty with this policy are absurd, the manifesto argues.

There is no human right to conceal your identity. If anything prevents liberty, it is the niqab, by preventing women from being perceived as individuals in their own right, it says.

We want to open opportunities to all women, so that they can participate fully in life and in the workplace, it states.

However, the burqa ban was not the only eyebrow-raising promise in the manifesto.

The party also pledged to introduce a social attitudes test as part of a points-based immigration system which would stop people who believe women or gay people are second-class citizens from entering the country.

UKIPs points-based immigration system will therefore include one further major principle: we will test the social attitudes of migration applicants to foster community cohesion and protect core British values, the party says.

Another stark election pledge of the UKIP is that it would dramatically reduce the number of politicians in Parliament and abolish the House of Lords.

The UKIP manifesto also states that it would seek to forge closer ties with Vladimir Putins regime and sees Russia as a potential important ally.
US-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed at least 35 civilians in an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State group, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Syrias oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Read more | US military acknowledges over 100 civilians died in Mosul air strike in March

Thursdays toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the Observatory said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday.

The Britain-based monitor this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on September 23, 2014.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, the Observatory said.

The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on ISs remaining bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

Airwars, a London-based collective of journalists and researchers that tracks non-combatant deaths in Iraq and Syria, estimated earlier this week that as many as 366 civilians were killed in Iraq and Syria in April alone.

It said it had seen civilian fatalities surge since US President Donald Trump came to power and gave greater leeway to battlefield commanders.

Airwars figure and its claim that fatalities had risen under Trump were denied by Lieutenant General Jeffrey Harrigian, who heads US Air Forces Central Command.

The US military insists that its precision targeting abilities are the best in the world and that it takes every measure to avoid hitting civilians, including by aborting missile strikes at the last moment if a civilian unexpectedly wanders into the target zone.

More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syrias conflict broke out in March 2011.
W hen buying anything, we want it now and we want it perfect and technology now allows us to do just that even when we have the chance to build our dream home.

Instead of waiting months or even years for builders of traditional brick houses to do their jobs, often held up by bad weather, home owners are increasingly turning to the joys of flat-pack.

Once a necessity in post-war Britain where bombing and a rapidly expanding population required new houses fast, pre-fab houses are becoming the go-to of choice for those who want luxurious and bespoke properties.

Presenter Charlie Luxton explores the phenomenon in Channel 4's Flat Pack Mansions programme, starting with Richard and Nikki Cooper.

The couple went the flat-pack route because they not only have two young children, but are also busy running a chain of restaurants in the South-West.

Although Britain leads the world with Sweden and Germany in flat-pack home construction, the couple opted to choose a German company to build their dream.

Nikki says: "With a German company, you know you're going to get the highest standard. We had rebuilt our previous house and it had taken a lot longer and gone massively over budget, so we thought that going with a pre-fabricated house that as well as getting all the eco credentials, it would very much be a fixed price and a fixed time frame."

The so-called closed panel system of construction meant that almost everything was constructed and installed in the Bavarian factory, including doors, windows, flooring and even the external walls were rendered and clad before everything was shipped by lorry to their 52-acre plot near Lyme Regis in Dorset.

Richard says: "The great thing about building your own home is that you sit down with a piece of paper and put down what you want."

They designed a 5,000sq ft, six-bedroom house, complete with gym, sauna, cinema room and - their pride and joy - a 17,000 glass staircase that runs through all the three storeys.

After five days, the factory had made their home of 128 panels, each costing around 10,000 each, wrapped everything up and loaded it on to a lorry.

After it arrived on site, it took just four days to construct the vast jigsaw puzzle of a home that ended up costing 1.2million - somewhat more than their 750,000 original budget.

Richard says "Choosing flat-pack is not necessarily the cheapest way to go", but adds that the joy of moving into a home you've designed yourself is "you've got to learn how to live with the house - the fun bit is working that out".

Wedding day deadline

In Bursledon, Hampshire, David and Leslie Lennox decided to set themselves a deadline of hosting their daughter's wedding at their new home - within just six months.

They had found their dream plot, but "it had a terrible house on it", so decided to go flat-pack.

Designing their dream home themselves was important to David: "It's a combination of our previous houses, our previous experiences and our future aspirations."

The couple spent two years planning and designing a 3,300sq ft, five-bedroom, four-bathroom house with a vaulted ceiling hall and, most importantly, a vast entertaining area nearly 50ft long.

Leslie says: "We do like to have the odd party, and would like to have a large social area to do that."

35,000 pieces of wood - and Storm Imogen - later, the 400,000 house is built in just two and a half weeks, although the interior took a little longer, but with plenty of time to make it perfect for the wedding.

Living on the edge

Over in Jersey, Paul Cook had an even more ambitious dream - an upside-down house three feet from the edge of a cliff on the site of a former tearooms.

The sheer weight of a traditional house would have made it almost physically impossible to prevent it from sliding down into the sea.

A flat-pack, timber-framed home meant the foundations only had to be sunk six inches into the rock instead of the eight metres a far heavier house would have demanded.

Because the site faces north, Paul decided to install a glazed double-height corridor that would bring light flooding into the house, whatever the weather and the time of year.

The open-plan living, dining and kitchen area is bounded by a 20-metre wall of glass: "We wanted the best views allocated to the living rooms, that's why we've gone for the upside-down house."

After spending 18 months deciding exactly what to have built, the 50 panels - each costing 4,000 each - arrive from Devon and it takes just 15 minutes per panel for three men and a crane to install.

Although Paul went with flat-pack it took a good few months before the interiors were finished because of his perfectionism.

"The details make the building, we want it to be the best it can be," he says as he strokes a curved kitchen cabinet that was such a complex undertaking that the veneer had to be applied in situ, proving that while flat-pack homes can provide somewhere spectacular to live in within just a few days, it can still take years before you realise your interior design dreams.

Flat Pack Mansions is available to view on demand on the Channel 4 website
News, events, history, and other mid-week tidbits.

Tuesday, October 25, 4:30  7 p.m.

Orr Area EMS Open House

Brats and burgers will be served. Event includes a new ambulance tour and blood pressure screenings. For more info: 218-780-3798.

Orr Fire Hall

4540 Lake St., Orr

Tuesday, October 25, 12  6 p.m.

Essentia Health Job Fair

Talent recruiters and department managers will be on-site at Essentia Health-Virginia. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to attendnurses, nursing and clinical assistants, surgery technicians, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, human resource professionals, and those interested in environmental services or nutrition services. Essentia staff will greet candidates, conduct an initial screening and filter them to appropriate hiring managers for interviews. Select candidates will be verbally offered a position before leaving. Candidates are asked to bring a resume, but its not required. Attire is business casual. For more info: www.essentiacareers.org.

901 9th St. N., Virginia
Whether you succeed in your small business, or fail, depends upon whether or not you pay attention to every decision that you make. As long as you are able to do the bare minimum, yet not skimp on quality for your customers, you will succeed. The following is a quick overview of how you can stay profitable, yet make sure that your clients are always satisfied with your business decisions.

One of the most effective ways to get your business off the ground is to do what is called networking. Sounds simple, but often neglected.

Showing off your business, the uniqueness of you product or service to other people, you have to learn how to do it in a way that conveys integrity, yet in a laid-back confident way. You simply need to talk to people, and not push them, as you try advertise your business. With such a push on social media, networking is becoming far easier. I am amazed how little people actually use forums such as LinkedIn to network for business purposes. I personally use LinkedIn as my network connection to people for my consulting business, Savvy IQ.

In many cases, someone will be genuinely grateful to learn about your business if you can offer a product or service that they've been seeking. Once you understand that the people are interested in what you are talking about, you can tell them more about your services or products. To be a good networker, you have to learn to be sensitive about knowing when is and isn't a good time to promote your business.

Success in any business begins with following the strategies of those that have gone before us and already succeeded. If you read blogs or social media posts where business strategies similar to your own are being discussed, you can learn a great deal. Even better, find out where these people are and meet them at a conference or event. Some of these people may mentor you, but some of them will not; it is your job to take the information that you can get and apply it to your business. With the internet, it's not hard to at least develop online relationships with successful entrepreneurs. To get free advice from an online guru, the easiest way to drain their brain is to buy a product from them and then fire away with questions. It is best to be prepared to ask questions that are meaningful, opposed to ones that you should actually already know the answer to.

If you are able to be consistent and focused when running your business, you should do very well. You need to learn how to prioritize the things you need to get done everyday and stop waiting. It is typical for the average worker to waste a lot of time using social media these days for personal use, why not maximise this to network with customers. Once you start running your own business, you will see how your priorities begin to change, and how you will take responsibility for every one of your decisions and actions. If you fail to produce, or reach your daily goals, the only person you are hurting is yourself by your lack of motivation and commitment. It is important to get your priorities straight, and accomplish what needs to be done initially before moving down the list.

Whatever your small business may be, try to market it in any way possible to make it profitable. Your business will steadily grow as long as your customers are happy and you market your business both online and off-line.

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The Gorillaz will launch their 2017 tour in July to promote their upcoming album Humanz. The tour will start off in the northeast before hitting the summer festival circuit during August and September.

The band will then hit a few more major cities such as Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami where theyll headline the III Points festival. Recently the band announced that they would be boosting the star power to their tour. Gorillaz announced that rappers Danny Brown and Vince Staples will be joining the tour, as both are also featured on the album. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

danny gorrilaz
In release news, Dublins Will de Burca recently dropped his second LP, Embedded. Recorded over the past 18 months at the producers Dublin studio, expect to hear a fast-paced electronic intro, followed by a mix of ambient dance, trip-hop and high intensity psych-rock. Featuring vocalist Aoife Underwater among the guests, de Burca notably had one of the albums tracks, Thunder Gatti, featured on a HBO documentary on the life of boxer Arturo Gatti. Over the past year, Will also signed with Tremolo Music, who have placed several tracks into ad campaigns for Mac Cosmetics in South Korea.

Elsewhere, Paul Hosey also recently released a new EP, Strictly Rythme, on Lisztomania Records. Support on the release comes from DJ Caspa and Stefano Esposito, and the record and was also featured on the homepage of Traxsource. Paul has been working on music over the past four years, creating tracks on Ableton Live, a Roland TR8 and a TB3. Notably, he and Andrew Hosey released their first vinyl record on Berlin label Kase Kool.

On the label front, Id like to point the spotlight at Dublin-based Absys Records, whove been championing a progressive drum and bass sound since 2008. Initially founded to showcase the sounds of lesser-known producers, the past three years have seen Absys put out releases by pioneering figures such as Anile, Kontext, Nuage, Hatti Vatti, Naibu, ASC and Es.tereo, amongst others.
A group of teenagers in Cork have encouraged their peers to realise that life can be a paradise after they joined forces to release a single about their experiences of bullying, depression, and suicide.

Reach Out, Speak Out was written and performed by Trisha Sexton (14), Paul Woods (17) and Shane Keane (20), who met at their local Foroige, the Mayfield Local Drug & Alcohol Task Force Project. It was produced by Garry McCarthy of GMCBeats Workshops.

Sexton, Woods and Keane also filmed the accompanying video, which emphasises the importance of reaching out and speaking out about mental health. Watch below:

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The group also designed and ran a Peer Education Workshop on bullying and depression among teenagers in St. Patricks College, Cork a few weeks ago.

Foroige Youth Officer Deirdre Dennigan, who works with the group, said of the song, The group worked so hard writing the lyrics, coming up with the music, filming the video and designing the look and feel of the campaign. Im so proud of what theyve achieved. The rap and video showcases how amazingly talented these young people are whilst highlighting a crucial issue for them and their peers.
The Government is failing to meet its commitment as part of the EU response to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people who are fleeing war, or the danger of persecution, according to the latest figures.

The latest available information from government departments reveals that Ireland has received just 1,238 refugees and asylum seekers - despite pledging to accommodate 4,000. That commitment was made in September 2015, when the then Fine-Gael led Government made a firm promise to take 4,000 refugees into the State by the end of 2017.

"While international outcry may appear to have dampened, just 1,238 refugees have been resettled or relocated here, while the crisis continues to heighten," says Fianna Fail's spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Darragh OBrien TD.

"This slow pace in relocation makes it increasingly unlikely for Ireland to meet its pledge in the face of such desperate need."

He adds, The Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald also made a further commitment to take up to 200 children from the now dismantled Calais camp. The information I have received indicates that only 21 unaccompanied minors have been relocated here under this initiative.

It is clear that the Government must urgently act to increase its intake of refugees seeking safety for Ireland to meet this most basic commitment, and Minister Fitzgerald is obliged to expedite this process.

We are in the midst of a desperate humanitarian crisis, and we should not be found wanting when it comes to playing our part in a co-ordinated global response to bring these people to safety.

It is in the spirit of Ireland to act in solidarity with those most in need, and it is time for Government to match their words with tangible action.
Taking place in early July, the Earagail Arts Festival includes a residency with folk trio The Henry Girls and will feature songwriting workshops, cultural & culinary tours, traditional pub sessions and three special concerts, all in the Henry sisters' home town of Malin, Donegal.

Set against the backdrop of "the worlds coolest destination (National Geographic's words - not ours!), the festival seeks to immerse people in the world which created one of Irish folk's legendary contemporary bands.

Earagail Arts Festival will take place from July 4 - July 8. For more details go to: eaf.ie
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Twenty-four countries renewed a fragile pact to curb the world's oil glut on Thursday, but traders sighed and sent oil prices hurtling below $50 a barrel again.

At a long-anticipated summit in Vienna, a coalition of OPEC nations and other major producers agreed to keep 1.8 million barrels of oil off the market every day for another nine months, a bid to drain bloated storage tanks around the world. It's a follow-up to the group's failed attempt in the first half of the year to get rid of excess oil, push crude prices significantly higher and replenish depleted government coffers

The market reaction, however, was another sign of OPEC's waning influence over global oil supplies as U.S. shale drillers expand their role as the world's swing producer. In the wake of the oil bust, American oil companies have found ways to cut costs, improve efficiency and make profits at lower crude prices, offsetting much of the OPEC production cuts.

U.S. oil prices plunged nearly 5 percent on Thursday, settling at $48.90 a barrel after climbing above $51 a barrel in anticipation of deeper cuts by the 14-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and 10 other large oil-producing nations, which control three in five oil barrels produced around the world. The sharp drop in oil prices Thursday underscored oil investors' growing skepticism of OPEC's ability to manipulate the volatile oil market against the backdrop of a resurgent U.S. shale oil industry.

"Every oil trader in the world is now saying 'show me,'" said Michael Wittner, an oil market analyst at Societe Generale, a French bank.

The industry has struggled for almost three years to drain a worldwide glut of oil that has caused oil prices to crater from more than $100 a barrel in 2014 to as low as $26 a barrel in 2016 and that cost Texas one in three oil-industry jobs. Supplies have shrunk modestly, but far from enough to propel prices significantly higher.

OPEC, shale drillers and other producers have been locked in a battle for market share, and OPEC's cuts could open the door for the U.S. oil industry -- expected to hit record production next year -- to grab larger piece of the global market.

"OPEC has just cleared the deck for U.S. shale producers," said Jim Krane, fellow for energy studies at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. ""U.S. shale producers are going to be saying thank you by increasing supply. The question is whether OPEC and shale will be able to coexist or is shale going to steal all the gains from OPEC's maneuver?"

For days, speculators had bid up crude prices as oil ministers from the Persian Gulf floated the idea that OPEC and its counterparts might slash output even deeper than its current cuts do. Rumors swirled that Saudi Arabia, which would lose market share by cutting production, would lean hard on the other producers to further cut output, with the resulting higher prices boosting both its initial public offering of a portion of Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil company, and government coffers.

Saudi Arabia needs oil prices to hover above $80 a barrel to balance it budget.

Traders balked when the grander bargain didn't materialize. Instead, OPEC and the other countries extended the same deal they struck in December 2016, which was the first time the group had successfully formed a coalition since Saudi Arabia pushed OPEC to abandon its role as a market manager in November 2014.

Instead of quickly fixing the oversupplied oil market, OPEC's pact, analysts said, could give Houston's slate of oil companies cover for a second shale bonanza in West Texas, Oklahoma and elsewhere that could flood the market with oil again in 2018.

As of last week, the number of oil and gas drilling rigs operating across the United States has already vaulted above 900, up from a record low of 404 last May. For each rig, oil companies hire back about two dozen workers and spend millions on services and equipment manufactured in Houston.

Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm, believes even with OPEC's cuts, global oil production will increase by 200,000 barrels a day this year because of rising output in the United States, Canada and Brazil.

Next year, oil production growth in the United States alone could top 950,000 barrels a day, as drillers hire workers and spend more money on oil field services in Houston. That projected figure is nearly 20 percent higher after OPEC's agreement for a nine-month extension on Thursday.

The Energy Department has projected U.S. oil production could climb beyond 10 million barrels a day by the end of next year, eclipsing its all-time record set in 1970.

Still, the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based group advising oil-importing countries, and other analysts believe OPEC's cuts will reduce global oil inventories sharply in the second half of the year, as higher seasonal appetite for oil and gasoline kicks in across the globe. "We're heading into peak oil demand season," Wittner said.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Khalid Al-Falih, said he expects oil inventories to drop below the five-year average before the end of 2017.

In the first half of this year, analysts said, OPEC's cuts didn't work because the cartel had ramped up output just before the end of last year, keeping storage tanks well supplied in the first half of the year.

Eventually, analysts said, declines in oil storage will send prices back up - all the better for shale drillers who will continue pumping at $50 a barrel oil.

In the prolific Permian Basin in West Texas, oil companies can make money drilling new wells even if oil prices fall to $45 or even $40 a barrel. Any price increase would allow more producers to resume operations in other shale plays - like the once-booming Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas.

"That's the quandary for OPEC," said Ann-Louise Hittle, an oil market analyst at Wood Mackenzie. "Yes, they're stabilizing oil prices and helping their budgets, but they're also enabling a U.S. recovery."
Fox News may be seeing a repeat of advertiser backlash that eventually drove out its former top anchor, Bill O'Reilly.

At least seven advertisers - Cars.com, Leesa Sleep, Casper, USAA, Peloton, the Crowne Plaza hotel chain and doorbell company Ring - have reportedly asked to be pulled from Sean Hannity's prime-time program.

The defections are in response to the host's promoting a right-wing theory that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, was slain after providing party emails to WikiLeaks.

"We don't have the ability to influence content at the time we make our advertising purchase," Cars.com said. "In this case, we've been watching closely and have recently made the decision to pull our advertising from Hannity."

A representative of Fox News would not comment on the pullout by advertisers and said Hannity is off the rest of the week on a scheduled vacation.

"Like the rest of the country, Sean Hannity is taking a vacation around Memorial Day weekend and will be back on Tuesday," a spokesperson for Fox News said. "Those who suggest otherwise are going to look foolish."

In March, advertisers started dropping out of "The O'Reilly Factor" amid reports that O'Reilly and Fox News had paid $13 million in to settle claims of sexual harassment and verbal abuse by the prime-time star. By early April, every major advertiser was off the program.

O'Reilly left for vacation after his April 11 broadcast but was never seen on Fox News Channel again. He was fired April 19, with the company paying off his $25 million-a-year contract.

The departure of O'Reilly has put cracks in the ratings dominance of the top-rated cable news channel. Last week, Fox News finished behind CNN and MSNBC in the 25-to-54 age group most coveted by advertisers for the first time since 2008.

Hannity has always been the most outspoken conservative voice on Fox News and as a commentator does not have to adhere to the journalistic rigors of correspondents and news anchors on the channel. But after Fox News retracted the story, he was forced to back off of his speculation about Rich, who was killed on the streets of Washington, D.C., in what police have said was a botched robbery.

Hannity insists that it was his decision to stop discussing the theory that Rich's death was related to the leaking of DNC emails to WikiLeaks, which U.S. intelligence agencies have instead said was the work of Russia-backed hackers. He said on his program Tuesday that he had spoken to Rich's brother and would no longer discuss the matter out of respect for the family.

But the talk within Fox News is that Hannity was asked to back off the matter, which comes at a delicate time when Fox News parent 21st Century Fox is attempting to get British regulators to approve its acquisition of European pay TV giant Sky.

Advertisers asking Fox News to take their commercials out of the program in response to the controversy - the same thing that led to O'Reilly's undoing - will be a test for Fox News.

Fox News stood by O'Reilly in the early weeks of the advertiser defection. But the nature of the sexual harassment charges against O'Reilly - with the possibility of more coming - and no clear signal that advertisers would return led to a parting of ways.

If Fox News severed its ties with Hannity, it would be a statement on how much latitude it's willing to give its opinionated hosts. It could also raise questions about whether advertisers have undue influence in what political ideas can be shared on cable news.

"Moving away from a news story that may or may not be true suggests brands are now taking political positions," said Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York. "It may cost them sales in the long run as some consumers push back and drop their support for the brands that take political positions."
L.M. Sixel

Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of GE, the Boston-based company with operations in energy, health care and aviation, had some harsh words for companies that leave the United States looking for cheap foreign labor or a convenient supply chain network.

It was "okay in 1992," but not in 2017, said Immelt, who made his remarks after he received the 2017 International Citizen of the Year award from the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston. The council, which promotes global insight through education and travel, has 7,000 members in the Houston area.


Syria and Venezuela plotted in recent years to evade international sanctions on Syria through a secret deal to transport its crude oil through Russia to the Caribbean.

The previously undisclosed plan aimed to sell Syrian oil at a big discount to Venezuela through a Russian shell company, which would send it to Aruba for refining and distribution to gas stations in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to dozens of emails, documents and interviews.

The scheme, which hasn't been executed, indicates the extent to which the two pariah nations are willing to go to evade international rules and antagonize global powers. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, written off repeatedly during the past six years as hundreds of thousands of his citizens have been killed in a brutal civil war, has clung firmly to power.

For Venezuela, the plan forms part of an international agenda initiated by the late socialist President Hugo Chavez that has made the country an ally of Iran and Cuba. Now under the leadership of his embattled disciple, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela is desperate for cash after years of government mismanagement drove oil output to a three-decade low, plunged the economy into a depression and fueled weeks of deadly nationwide protests.

The Syrian initiative underscores Venezuela's international ambitions, indicating that its current crisis could have repercussions far beyond its shores.

It's unclear whether the plan is still under consideration. A key player, Wilmer Ruperti, a Venezuelan oil trader who grew enormously wealthy through his closeness to the country's leadership, acknowledged in a phone interview his participation but said he no longer has a role in it. Syrian officials approached him in early 2012 during a party at the Syrian Club of Caracas.

What followed was a chain of communication between Syrian and Venezuelan officials that included several executives of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of PDVSA, or Petroleos de Venezuela, according to two people familiar with the talks. One note from Ambassador Ghassan Abbas urged a Venezuelan official to come to Damascus to discuss volumes, terms and conditions of the deal.

In the phone interview from Caracas, Ruperti said the oil deal wasn't meant to make a political statement. "It was a logistical solution to make a lot of money," he said.

PDVSA did not respond to requests for comment. A Citgo official said the company "is not considering and will not consider Syrian crude imports to supply the Citgo Aruba Refinery."
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If it's Sunday, it's Megyn Kelly on NBC.

The former Fox News anchor told an audience of ad executives at the recent NBC upfront sales presentation at New York's Radio City Music Hall that her new news-magazine program, "Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly," will premiere at 6 p.m. June 4. It will compete directly against CBS' "60 Minutes."

Kelly, who signed with NBC in January, was introduced on stage by "Today" co-anchors Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie and "NBC Nightly News" anchor Lester Holt.

Lauer described his new colleague as "someone who shares our values and will help make us even better tomorrow." It was a public show of unity, as New York tabloid gossip pages have pushed the idea that Kelly is a "Today" co-anchor in waiting.

There are no such plans, but Kelly does have a morning program coming in the fall and airing at 8 a.m., following Lauer and Guthrie. NBC has yet to announce when Kelly will officially start her new daily morning show. The network canceled the 8 a.m. hour of "The Today" show to make room for Kelly, causing Tamron Hall to leave the network.

"I've spent enough time staring at the refrigerator, it's time to do some news," Kelly told the Hollywood Reporter last month.

More Information Megyn Kelly's confident style Megyn Kelly doesn't just say what she wants. She wears what she wants. She writes about that a lot in her book, which is called, naturally, "Settle for More," a catchphrase she also drops strategically into conversation. She in no way apologized for wearing a spaghetti-strap dress to cover the Republican National Convention. You know, the one that sent the internet into what she called a "meltdown" because it revealed a whole lot of ... shoulder. And thus, was unlike any dress that had been seen on a serious anchor ever, except maybe at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Definitely never behind a desk. "It was a lovely dress," Kelly said. "I just thought: 'Yes, I can do this. I can be smart and challenging while I wear spaghetti straps, and everyone is just going to have to get their heads around that.' " Indeed, for the past few years, ever since Kelly, 46, began making a name for herself as the person willing to call out power players on their own contradictions and contortions, she has become famous for refusing to be boxed in by anyone else's "appropriate." In her book, she writes that when she went to meet then-candidate Donald Trump for the first time after their public tussle to discuss having him do an interview with her, she wore her favorite black sheath Gucci dress. "I feel strong in it," she said. By acknowledging the role clothes play in her own life and psyche, she is contravening one of the last taboos: If women want to be taken seriously, they are not supposed to take fashion seriously. Vanessa Friedman, New York Times See More Collapse

Kelly said she wants to give viewers an uplifting experience in the morning, promising that her show will "entertain them, inspire them and empower them, we hope, to take on new challenges and help them settle for more in their lives."

Kelly's recent best-selling memoir is titled "Settle for More."

Kelly's book recounted repeated incidents of sexual harassment by the late former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes during her early years in the company's Washington bureau. Ailes died May 18.

She reported the incident to investigators who looked into Ailes' behavior after former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment and retaliation suit against the executive. Ailes, who had denied all harassment allegations made against him, was forced out of the company last July. The company has been beleaguered by harassment allegations ever since.

Though Fox News made a strong bid to keep Kelly, who emerged as a breakout star on the top-rated cable channel, her remarks to advertisers indicated that she was eager to jump networks - a risky move that has not often worked in the TV-news business.

"I'm thrilled now to be able to anchor the kind of broadcasts that I always dreamed I'd be able to do, (that) I felt in my heart I was born to do," she said.

So far, no guests have been announced, but sources confirm that Fox Sports reporter and "Dancing With the Stars" host Erin Andrews will be among Kelly's first interview subjects. Kelly was spotted chatting with Andrews on the beach in Santa Monica, Calif., the day after her appearance at the network's upfront presentation with advertisers.

Kelly also has said she is hopeful about landing a one-on-one interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. She will travel to Russia in June to moderate a session during the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Putin is among a group of panelists that includes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern.

"The conversation will cover a wide range of global political and economic topics, including international trade agreements, cyber-security and the impact of rising military tensions," according to a NBC spokesperson.

With a 7 p.m. time slot, NBC appears to be going after "60 Minutes," the unstoppable news show that's been an unbeatable news feature at CBS on Sunday nights for 50 years. Kelly will benefit from her show's June launch date, as "60 Minutes" typically airs reruns between May and September.

"Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly" will run throughout the summer, but it will go off the air in place of Sunday Night Football in the fall and winter and the Winter Olympics, which NBC will air February.

Kelly left Fox News in January after 12 years at the network, reportedly turning down a $20 million-a-year offer to remain as the network's highest-rated female star.

The move came in the aftermath of accusations she made in her book about being a victim of sexual abuse from Ailes, though Bill O'Reilly also reportedly played a large role in causing Kelly to leave the network.

Ailes' son Zachary, 17, speaking at a eulogy for his father, appeared to issue a threat to Kelly and other former Fox News personalities who spoke out about sexual harassment at the network.

"I want all the people who betrayed my father to know that I'm coming after them and hell is coming with me," Ailes said, according to New York magazine reporter and Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman.

Rob Tornoe of The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to this report.
A Houston musician is on the hunt for a stolen violin that one expert said may be worth more than $100,000.

Tony Sanville, 33, suspects his 1928 Giuseppe Fiorini violin was stolen Wednesday night from the back seat of his car.

The thief also nabbed a backpack holding a few iPads, Sanville said.

Now, Sanville is trying to track down the instrument he inherited from his mother, an amateur violinist herself.

"These are things you keep for a lifetime," Sanville said.

Thefts of instruments, while not common, do tend to come with the trade, said Peter Shaw, who owns Amati Violin Shop in Rice Village.

In his 32 years of business, Shaw has accumulated some harrowing tales of detaining thieves until police arrived after they tried to sell him a stolen violin.

In musicians' daily lives, it takes work to keep their instruments safe, Shaw said.

"If you go into Starbucks and get a cup of coffee, you bring your violin with you," he said. "If you go to a restaurant, you bring your violin with you. If you're a cellist, it's a real pain in the butt, because you have to bring your cello with you."

Famous violins have been recovered for millions of dollars. A stolen Stradivarius violin made headlines in 2015 when it was returned to its owners after 35 years of searching. Violins similar to that one had been valued near $16 million, an understandable sum given that Stradivarius is widely considered one of the finest makers of string instruments.

While Sanville's violin is no Stradivarius, its maker, Fiorini, is known in the strings community, Shaw said. So, Houston-area violin shops are on high alert in case the violin makes it through their doors.

"These are irreplaceable," said Matt Lisle, general manager of Lisle Violin Shop, which has locations in Houston, Pasadena and Katy.

Sanville estimated his violin was worth between $25,000 and $40,000.

Shaw said he has seen Fiorini violins sell for more than $100,000, depending on their condition and where and when they was made. Everyone wants one crafted in Italy, he said.

Hefty price tags for the most famous violins don't include bows. The finest can cost hundreds of thousands, Shaw said.

For Sanville, his Fiorini violin is worth more than just its price tag.

Sanville is a third-generation violinist. His grandparents played in orchestras across the United States. Sanville started playing the violin when he was 10. He has been playing his Fiorini since he started his undergraduate violin performance degree at the University of Houston.

Sanville founded a company that provides string musicians for events ranging from open houses to weddings. He left the violin and his backpack in his car after performing a Wednesday night gig.

He said he meant to retrieve it in minutes, but he fell asleep and forgot to get the valuables out of his vehicle.

"You try to be vigilant. You try to be conscientious all the time," Sanville said. "And it's hard to do."

Until he gets his instrument back, Sanville will be using one loaned from an old college professor, he said.

But it likely won't be the same.

Musicians "do make a very personal connection to their instrument," Lisle said. "Most players, once they pick an instrument, they're not going to change."
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The intersection of Blossom Street and Crestwood Drive has long been an informal way for pedestrians to enter Memorial Park.

For years, all you could see was a gap in the fence, a bridge and a scruffy footpath into a thicket on the park's eastern edge. Unless you lived on that side of the park, you might not have known it was there.

In the summer of 1917, though, this was Gate #2, the soldier's entrance to Camp Logan. A hundred years ago, some 34,000 soldiers would come in waves to Houston to train as the U.S. entered World War I.

But that's not a story the park has been good at telling about itself. "People don't always understand why it's called Memorial Park," says Shellye Arnold, the president and CEO of the park's conservancy.

What, exactly, does Memorial Park memorialize? A new master plan is designed to bring the memorial back to the park  with one extra idea that might push the limits of what we think a memorial should do.

CONSTRUCTION STARTED on Camp Logan in July 1917 and took about six weeks. The camp was one of 45 bases established by the war department to train a military of 2 million soldiers, according to Louis Aulbach, who with Linda Gorski, his partner, wrote a history of the place.

Aulbach grew up in Houston, but he says even he didn't know why it was called Memorial Park until he began his research in his 50s.

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He learned that the site, which over the years had been home to charcoal manufacturing, logging operations and orchards, was graded and trees were removed to make way for some 1,500 pier-and-beam buildings and tent encampments to house all the soldiers. Showers and latrines were built on concrete foundations, the remains of which can still be found inside the park  if you know where to look.

RELATED: Kinders pledge $70 million to fast-track Memorial Park restoration

The park's new master plan, approved by City Council in 2015 and and designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBWLA), begins with this history.

"NBWLA wanted to listen to the stories of the park," says Arnold. "What do the soils say? What does the human history say? What does the future say? The master plan is grounded in listening, grounded in research."

In a section called the Eastern Glades, which is currently under construction, NBWLA's design reimagines the soldier's entrance.

That out-of-the-way gap in the fence will be widened and formalized, supplemented with interpretive signage. And that as-you-like-it footpath will be paved in crushed granite, lined with trees and extended, inviting users into the park along the same route the soldiers took into the camp for the first time.

BUT IT'S in another section of the park where the design gestures become larger and more poetic. Still in a conceptual phase and not currently funded, the Memorial Groves would be sited near the railroad tracks that run perpendicular to Memorial Drive, between the hiking trails and the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center.

Here is where you can see the concrete remains of the camp's showers and latrines. And it's here where Thomas Woltz, principal and owner of NBWLA, imagines a complicated living memorial that both honors and evokes the park's histories.

Billy Smith II/Chronicle

First, the archeological remains of those showers and latrines would be curbed in weathering steel and filled with crushed granite.

"We live in an era where we are longing for authenticity in everything we see," Woltz says. "It was never our intention to recreate a moment in time or rebuild those buildings, but rather to reveal them."

RELATED: The ugly history of Camp Logan

Second, in this 90-acre section of the park, towering regiments of loblolly pines would be planted in precise formations reminiscent of the soldiers who left the city to fight  and, sometimes, to die  for their country.

"It could be laid out similar to the spacing of the original tents of the camp," Woltz says. "You could start to evoke it, through a poetic representation of the scale that was Camp Logan."

The "regiments" would be supplemented with interpretive signage. Aulbach gets excited about the educational opportunities Memorial Groves would provide. Outside of the San Jacinto Monument, he says, there aren't many places where students can physically inhabit sites that are important to Houston history.

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

"EVERY DIRECTION you look," Woltz says, "you'll see these long lines of trees. That itself will be impressive, and it will start to get at the scale of the camp and scale of the sacrifice."

About that sacrifice: Woltz has floated an idea for a two-part ceremony that even Arnold says has been met with "mixed reviews."

The idea isn't part of the approved master plan. It's not funded. It's purely speculative. Aulbach has heard from people who don't like it.

But it goes something like this:

The average age of a soldier to die in World War I was just 25. (And it just so happens that a loblolly pine reaches maturity around the same age.) Woltz envisions a pair of events, 25 years after the Memorial Groves have opened to the public, during which Houston comes together to ritually fell one of the "regiments" and then replant it. The cutting would happen on Memorial Day and the replanting on Armistice Day.

"Bringing gravity to Memorial Day and hope to Armistice Day could be a great way for Memorial Groves to weave itself into Houston's civic life," Woltz says.

"People love [the idea] for its poetry and its poignancy and for the service it honors," Arnold says.

In turn, the trees could be milled and turned into lumber, which could be used to build public housing. Because, for Woltz, there's an additional nod to history. This landscape was once used for logging. And pine, he points out, is used to frame houses. "This [proposal] gets at both ecological sacrifice and human sacrifice," he says. "It would evoke this idea that something in the prime of life is sacrificed for the common good."

Here, Woltz discusses the proposal at The Cultural Landscape Foundation's Leading with Landscape conference in Houston in March 2016. (Skip to 14:13 to hear him discuss the Camp Logan history in particular.)

AS THE master plan was presented to the public, Aulbach says, one of the first questions that was asked was whether it was known why it was called Memorial Park. "Only a scattering of hands went up" out of the group of 400 people, he says.

"That immediately told the conservancy and [NBWLA] that a lot of education needs to be done. We've lost the sense of why the park was established, which was to commemorate the soldiers who fought there."

RELATED: Putting the wilderness back in Houston Arboretum

Camp Logan is the only one of those 45 training camps, Woltz says, that hasn't been paved over and developed. Aulbach recalls a time when he was visited by a scholar writing a history of the camps who was moved to tears by the quality of the archaeological remnants that can be found inside the park.

"It seems we forget about World War I, because of all the major wars that occurred since," Aulbach says. "But it was the first big mobilization of the country in terms of military activity since the Civil War. We've lost that. I think this fills a gap in our story of Houston."

Get the Gray Matters newsletter. People love it for its poetry and its poignancy.
Was it a "shove?" Or more of a "brush" or "jostle." Or perhaps just a friendly slap on the arm, a casual guy-greeting.

In fact, "shove" was probably the most common word used to describe the fleeting, at best awkward interaction between Trump, the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth, and Dusko Markovic, the leader of Montenegro, a small Balkan nation of 600,000 attending its first summit as a NATO member after a nine-year accession process.

It occurred as NATO leaders strolled toward a group photo in Brussels.

According to the Merriam-Webster definition, "shove" is on target: "to push along" or to "push or put in a rough, careless, or hasty manner."

Let's break it down.

A slow-motion viewing of the video indicates no words spoken by Trump as he approaches the group from behind. No "Excuse me" or "Pardon me."

Trump reaches out his right arm, grabs Markovic's right shoulder and pushes him aside. Markovic looks surprised. Trump doesn't acknowledge his existence as he moves past him. It's as if Markovic isn't there.

Markovic abruptly looks back at Trump but gets no eye contact from Trump in return.

Then he pats Trump on the back, or perhaps the arm, displaying a slight grin as Trump, at the front of the group, stands tall and adjusts his suit coat. Trump begins conversing with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite as Markovic looks on from behind.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer later told reporters that spots for the "family photo" for which the leaders were preparing were predetermined, as is usually the case - implying that Trump was not trying to get a better position, The Washington Post reported, but rather that he was heading for the position reserved for him.

But of course, where Trump was headed was not the issue. It was the way he got there.

Markovic, afterward, responded to questions by shrugging it off.

"This was an inoffensive situation," Markovic said. "I do not see it in any other way."

He said he had the opportunity Thursday to thank Trump personally for his support of Montenegro's entry into NATO and "of course the further development of our bilateral relations."

"But, when journalists are differently commenting this scene," the prime minister said. "I want to tell you that it is natural for the president of the United States to be in the first row."

Montenegrin news websites were brimming with articles describing how this minor exchange captured the attention of many major U.S. and European news outlets.

Some Montenegrin news outlets included headlines quoting author J.K. Rowling, who tweeted the video, saying "You tiny, tiny, tiny little man" along with a retweeted video depicting Trump as a small man.

Montenegrin radio station Antena M included a photo of Trump above the story with the words "Days without being a national embarrassment: 0." (That's the numeral zero.)

"It seems Donald Trump did not want anyone overshadowing his presence at the summit," said the Montenegro newspaper Vijesti.

Other Balkan websites ran headlines such as "America First" and "Where do you think you are going?"

As expected, the Trump shove captured the late-night shows.

"The President Show" on Comedy Central depicted an exaggerated scene, replacing the Montenegro prime minister with the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.

"Excuse me, excuse me, get out of my way," the show's Trump says to the secretary general, pushing him aside as they walk into a press briefing. "America first. America first."

Seth Meyers, host of "Late Night With Seth Meyers," also riffed on the exchange, saying "Look at this guy. Wow."

"You're a world leader at a meeting of dignitaries and you act like they just called your number at KFC," Meyers said.

"Me, that's mine, the 12 piece," Meyers said, mimicking someone pushing and shoving others out of the way.

Others on social media also viewed the "shove" as an attempt by Trump to revel in the spotlight and assert his "America first" mentality.

It did not go unmentioned that Trump brushed aside the leader of a country that last month defied Russia and pro-Russian opposition by ratifying its membership in NATO - a historic turn toward the West.

The Balkan country is joining the alliance as its 29th member; Thursday was its first summit. Only 18 years ago, NATO aircraft were bombing targets in Montenegro - then part of Serbia - in a campaign that forced troops out of Kosovo, as the Guardian's Alec Luhn reported. The bombing remains a painful memory for many Montenegrins, and polls have shown the population evenly divided on NATO membership.

"Many hope NATO membership will end the tumultuous east-west struggle in Montenegrin politics," Luhn wrote.

With that tense history in mind, some on social media did not take Trump's gesture as the kindest welcome to the alliance's new member.

"Trump shoved Prime Minister of Montenegro at NATO meeting to please Putin, once again," said one Twitter user.

Others presumed Trump was simply moving to his assigned spot, and that the uproar over the "shove" or "push" was just another media dig at Trump.

As Dan Calabrese wrote in the Canada Free Press: "Look, I understand there's a frenzy out there now to alert on anything and everything Trump does and to characterize it as insane, out-of-control, evil and whatever else. But if you see this and think you see a 'shove,' I don't know what to tell you."

On the other hand, whatever it was, President Trump's treatment of Montenegro's prime minister was a sharp contrast to say, the little curtsy he performed for King Salman bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia.

---

The Washington Post's Travis Andrews contributed to this report.
BERLIN - Allegedly heated comments by President Donald Trump about a key U.S. ally - Germany - generated a fresh swirl of confusion Friday around an administration that has already had more than its fill.

During a meeting Thursday with European Union officials in Brussels, Trump allegedly said, "The Germans are bad, very bad," according to Germany's Spiegel Online, which cited unnamed sources in the room. He continued, the outlet said, by saying: "See the millions of cars they are selling in the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this."

On Friday, the report spread rapidly through the German press and social media, igniting a backlash, including one response by a German industry group saying Trump's protectionist stance would make him "a loser."

But what did Trump actually say?

European officials - and Trump's own administration - offered contradictory accounts.

Part of the backlash stemmed, perhaps, from a poor translation: In its German-language editions, Spiegel used the word "base" - which can mean "bad," but is closer to the English word "evil." In another report, another German outlet, Suddeutsche Zeitung, cited a similar quote from Trump, but translated the word he used as "schlecht" - a milder German word for "bad."

In a later tweet from Spiegel Online's main account, it clarified that Trump had indeed used the English word "bad" and not "evil."

Yet even that remained in dispute, with the administration offering no clarity - once again highlighting the communication problems that continue to plague the White House.

One of the key figures in the room during the meeting, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said the Der Spiegel report was off.

"He didn't say the Germans are behaving badly," Juncker told journalists in Sicily ahead of the start of a G-7 summit between the leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Canada and Japan. "He said we have a problem, as others do, with the German surplus. So he was not aggressive at all. Bad doesn't mean evil."

Soon afterward, White House press secretary Sean Spicer appeared to leap on Juncker's comments to debunk the story. Responding to a tweet about the Der Spiegel article by New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman, Spicer wrote: "Except it's not true: Juncker says Trump was not aggressive on German trade surplus."

And yet, when asked on the sidelines in Sicily, White House Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn seemed to confirm that the president had indeed said something about "bad" German trade practices.

"He said they're very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany," Cohn said. "He said his dad is from Germany. He said, 'I don't have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade.' "

Another official with direct knowledge of the Thursday meeting told The Washington Post on Friday that Trump had never used the word "bad."

"He did say yesterday that there's a massive deficit that he doesn't intend to put up with, but nothing about Germany being bad," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting with top leaders. Cohn was not taking formal notes during the conversation, the official said.

During an appearance with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump ignored a question from a reporter who asked if he had called the Germans "bad."

In Germany, however, the incident seemed to highlight suggestions of a growing rift between Washington and Berlin after the frosty March meeting between the president and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who candidate Trump repeatedly jabbed at on the election trail last year. In a January interview with the European press, Trump called out German corporate titans including BMW, warning that they may face fat tariffs on U.S. imports should they keep building cars in Mexico.

Asked about Trump's alleged comments, Germany's deputy government spokesman Georg Streiter said in Berlin on Friday that "a trade surplus is neither bad nor evil, it's the result of the interplay between supply and demand on world markets."

Martin Schulz, the candidate from the center-left who is challenging Merkel in this year's election, appeared to more generally condemn Trump's aggressive behavior toward Europe and Germany at the Brussels summit. In the meeting, Trump also demanded that allies pay more for their defense, and held back on offering an unconditional pledge to honor NATO's treaty commitment that an attack on a single alliance nation is an attack on all.

"Such humiliating treatment is to be rebuffed, one does not need to accept something like that," Schulz said in Berlin, according to German press reports.

Norbert Rottgen, chairman of the foreign policy committee for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, told Spiegel Online: "U.S. President Trump isn't capable to lead the Western alliance, in any case he isn't interested in it at the moment.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quipped: "It's worth having a look at other Trump quotes: Who else does the president find "bad". Suddenly the Germans find themselves in the company of North Korea...and Mexican drug gangs."

Some wore the alleged slight as a badge of honor: "#The Germans are very, very bad #Trump. Haven't been praised like that in a while," tweeted Bernd Ulrich, a journalist with Die Zeit.

Andre Schwarz, spokesman for the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade (BGA), called Trump's tough stance on Germany's trade surplus wrongheaded.

"The right way is to improve one's own competitiveness instead of trying to gain advantages by means of some kind of import tariffs" on "good" German products, he said.

He added, "We shouldn't be too concerned with rhetoric, but it's important to clarity that [his position] will make him a loser."

Some in Germany, however, gave Trump the benefit of the doubt, instead blaming the German press for stoking the fires of animosity with a bad translation.

"It's not easy, but sometimes evil German journalists should quote #Trump properly. For example when he says BAD instead of EVIL! #germansarebad," tweeted German user Andreas Wolf.

- - -

The Washington Post's Philip Rucker in Sicily, Michael Birnbaum in London and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.
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The hijab that Dalia Kasseb wears in public never seemed to disturb Woody Owens, her opponent in a June 10 runoff for a Pearland City Council position. Owens, Kasseb told me, has been perfectly cordial when their paths have crossed on the campaign trail.

Imagine Kasseb's surprise, then, when she watched a video that includes screenshots of various groups' harsh anti-Muslim messages that Owens had shared on Facebook. One particularly crude post features an image of a goat and the words: "I don't want to grow up to be abused as a Muslim sex slave. Please ban Islam. #GoatLivesMatter."

Another post recommends banning the Quran.

"Our few meetings have been very pleasant," said Kasseb, a 30-year-old pharmacist who appears to be the first openly Muslim candidate for elective office in Brazoria County. "But for him to be sharing that stuff on Facebook really shows what he believes."

The video criticizing the posts, which was produced by the Brazoria County Democratic Party, shows them interspersed with clips of longtime Mayor Tom Reid expressing his support for Owens at an event in April. "We need more guys with his background, his type of approach, and his vision," Reid says of Owens.

Reid, 91, who has spent 34 years as Pearland's mayor, also faces a runoff opponent: Quentin Wiltz, a 36-year-old executive at a pipeline coating firm. The winner will have to confront many challenges facing the fast-growing suburb on Houston's southern edge, from mobility to tax policy to noxious odors from a landfill.

Owens' Facebook posts might seem like a distraction from more serious topics, but ignoring them is not a realistic option. The leaders chosen by voters will govern a city gripped by a culture clash between longtime residents with rural sensibilities and newcomers who are likely to find the anti-Muslim messages offensive.

The video shows Reid recalling how Pearland's population has grown from 4,000 when he arrived in 1965 to 130,000 today. The growth has created a more diverse population, which may make some residents uncomfortable.

"We can't not talk about the presence of misinformed people or what seems to be bigotry in this community," said Wiltz, who is African-American.

Kasseb, who placed first among six candidates on May 6 with 41 percent of the vote to Owens' 21 percent, said she is confident most Pearland residents don't share the views expressed in her opponent's Facebook posts.

"I've knocked on over 3,000 doors, and we've met people from throughout Pearland," she said. "It has been a wonderful experience."

Owens, an engineering firm executive who previously served four terms on the Pearland City Council, did not return my calls. The Facebook posts included in the video, which remained on his personal page this week, were shared between November 2015 and last February.

The video ad is the first sponsored by the county Democratic Party in a nonpartisan race, said Sue Funkhouser, the county party chairwoman. The decision is consistent with a new strategy by state-level Democrats to support certain candidates in local campaigns - grooming them for possible runs for higher office in the future.

A version of the video was sent anonymously to the party via email, Funkhouser said, and the costs of producing the ad were minimal.

"Pearland is one of the most diverse cities in the United States," the video concludes. "We are better than this."

Reid, of course, is not responsible for messages Owens chooses to share on social media. The mayor may not have known about the posts when he sang Owens' praises during the April 6 event at a Pearland restaurant. His remarks focused on Owens' experience and knowledge of Pearland's needs.

I tried unsuccessfully to reach Reid by phone this week, and I sent questions via email to a campaign aide. He did not respond.

I haven't met the mayor, but he is by all accounts a kind, thoughtful man who cares deeply about his community.

"I don't see Mayor Reid as someone who would knowingly support this kind of bigotry," said Funkhouser, a longtime Pearland resident.

Reid, however, has made no public comments about the video since it was posted on Tuesday. His silence invites voters to wonder whether he shares Owens' views, or at least tolerates them. He would do himself and his city a favor by speaking up.
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The news was the talk of downtown Conroe.

The county seat for bustling Montgomery County is the fastest-growing city in the country among cities with more than 50,000 residents, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.

At Shepard's Barber Shop, established 1912, where a pole outside swirls in patriotic colors and Elvis Presley once got his hair cut, owner Leon Apostolo considered the implications.

New customers were trickling in daily - by his count, four or five a day. But vehicle traffic is picking up, and folks seem to be in a rush all the time. Apostolo doesn't feel quite as safe as he once did, with a nod to the .45 within arm's reach of his green chair.

"I miss the laid-backness," confessed Apostolo, who has worked at the shop 39 years now, since he was 17. "But it's still a great town. I don't plan on going anywhere."

Just around the corner, Gayle "Mimi" Burke leaned on the front counter of "Mimi's on Main," her antiques and collectibles shop, and bubbled with pride over the distinction. To her, there's no downside to the growth, which spiked 7.8 percent during the 12 months leading up to July 2016.

"We're growing by leaps and bounds," Burke boasted, reeling off a list of recent developments.

There's Grand Central Park, a 2,046-acre master-planned community being built on the city's south side, on the former Camp Strake Boy Scouts property. There's the new 5,400-home community by The Woodlands Development going up on the north side of Conroe. The 385-acre Exxon Mobil campus just across the county line.

New shops popping up

Burke paused to greet customers, "Hi, Darlin', come on in. Help yourself to coffee and cookies."

Then, as Special Olympics Torch Relay runners and police motorcade passed by the window, she continued praising Conroe's development - subdivisions, big box stores and new shops and restaurants popping up along the once-languishing town square.

"It's really awesome to see things have grown. It's really going to explode in five years," said Burke, who has lived in Conroe 17 years. "But we still have that small town feeling. It's not just an extension of Houston."

This isn't the first time Conroe, population 82,286, has recorded notable growth.

In 2015, it was one of the 13 fastest-growing cities by percentage, ranking sixth below other Texas cities like San Marcos, Georgetown and Frisco. The next year, according to Census numbers released Thursday, Conroe zoomed to the top spot and became the headline on news stories across the country.

Forty miles north of downtown Houston, Conroe is the county seat of one of the fastest growing counties in Texas. Montgomery County netted more than 19,700 residents between July 2015 and July 2016, as Houston-area suburbs continued to expand.

In fact, Texas had four of the five fastest-growing large cities in the U.S., each near a major city. Following Conroe were the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and McKinney, which grew by 6.2 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively. Georgetown, an Austin suburb, was the fifth-fastest growing city with a population increase of 5.5 percent.

Officials in the Texas cities and the state's demographer attribute the growth to various factors, including the state's robust jobs market and the cities' diversified economies, lower costs of living and skilled workforces that earn higher wages.

"A lot of times when people think of Texas, they think about cowboys and roping cows. But really we have ... cutting edge manufacturing, technology and finance, and certainly all of the oil extraction activity as well," Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said.

For Conroe Mayor Toby Powell, a self-described "ol' boy" who has lived in the city all his 76 years, the growth is no surprise.

In fact, Powell said, Conroe officials already had been planning for increased demand for city services and infrastructure. A new police station has just opened, and a new fire station is under construction. The city also has purchased 75 acres of land to build a second sewer plant.

Traffic congestion already can be seen just a few minutes away from its town square lined by old-fashioned street lamps and dotted with benches extolling the city's history. Along Highway 105, which runs east-west through Conroe, shopping centers are home to chain stores and restaurants like Target, Home Depot, Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill, and queues of cars back up at lights and turn lanes.

Country aura is a draw

Keeping Conroe's small-town sensibility, while managing growth and encouraging large-town amenities, requires a balancing act, Powell acknowledges. After all, that country aura is what first draws many residents to the city.

Conroe native Mike Canada, proprietor of Conroe Central Market, a downtown antique mall that features a record room stocked with vinyl albums, says the place where he was born and raised already feels like "a different town."

"I miss the trees and forested areas," said Canada, referring to the vast swatches of land that have been scraped clean to make way for new development. "At the same time, the growth keeps it from becoming a dead town."

And for Canada, that's good enough. He doesn't see himself leaving.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination," a federal appeals court said Thursday in ruling against the ban that targets six Muslim-majority countries.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican's administration from temporarily suspending new visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban, which the administration had hoped would avoid the legal problems the first version encountered.

In all, 10 of the 13 judges who heard the case voted against the Trump administration. The Trump administration said it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Central in the case was whether courts should consider Trump's past statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence the policy was primarily motivated by the religion. Trump's administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which doesn't mention religion. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

The government's "asserted national security interest  appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country," wrote the chief judge of the circuit, Roger L. Gregory. "Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute," Gregory wrote. "It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation."

The first travel ban in January triggered chaos and protests across the country as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the ban. The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesn't apply to those who have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries. Critics said the changes don't erase the legal problems with the ban.

The Maryland case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center on behalf of organizations as well as people who live in the U.S. and fear the executive order will prevent them from being reunited with family members from the banned countries.

"President Trump's Muslim ban violates the Constitution, as this decision strongly reaffirms," said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, who argued the case. "The Constitution's prohibition on actions disfavoring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the government's request to set that principle aside."
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AUSTIN  Gov. Greg Abbott's signing of a bill at a shooting range was hijacked Friday when he popped off with a joke about reporters, and his comment quickly went viral as word spread nationally on media websites and social media.

"I'm gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters," tweeted the Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek after hearing Abbott's comment.

GUNS IN SCHOOL: Study finds some Texas faculty 'cautious' in the classroom after campus carry

Abbott made the remark while posing with his target, after he and his daughter shot pistols at the range.

The Twittersphere quickly went wild with criticism of the governor for his remarks that came just two days after Montana Republican Greg Gianforte was charged with assault after allegedly body-slamming a reporter for The Guardian on Wednesday. He was elected to Congress the next day.

Gianforte did apologize to reporter Ben Jacobs in remarks after Thursday's election, saying, "Last night, I made a mistake. I took an action I can't take back and I am not proud of what happened."

Abbott's remark also came less than two weeks after Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly was caught on a hot microphone jokingly suggesting to President Donald Trump that he use a ceremonial saber "on the press."

POST ELECTION: Texas gun sales down since Donald Trump took office

The comment about the sword came at a commencement ceremony at the United States Coast Guard Academy. Trump's response was, "Yeah, that's right," according to multiple media reports.

After Friday's incident in Austin, "Shoot for brains!," headlined HuffPost. "Texas governor jokes about gunning down reporters."

Within hours, the controversy grew as handgun critics blasted as insensitive and tin-eared, considering recent news events about reporters who have been threatened and killed.They also criticized Texas for its strong Second Amendment support. Few paid any attention to the remark until it became an online sensation.

An Abbott spokesman had no immediate comment about all the attention the governor stirred up.

Abbott was at the shooting range to sign into law Senate Bill 16 that reduces the fee for a first-time license to carry a handgun from from $140 to $40, and the renewal fee from $70 to $40. The law takes effect Sept. 1. The National Rifle Association says Texas' fees will then be the lowest in the nation.

"The right to bear arms is something that is synonymous with the state of Texas. We are proud to expand the right to bear arms by lowering the cost of what you have to pay in order to get a license to carry," Abbott said.

"It's unbelievable [that] Texas is one of the most costly states in the United States of America to get a license to carry," Abbott said Friday. "No Texan should be priced out of their way to defend themselves."

Abbott made the remark while posing with his target, after he and his daughter shot pistols at the range. There was some laughter at his remark, but hundreds of people took to Twitter to blast it.

"This isn't funny; this is a threat, and it is dangerous," tweeted Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. "These words from a public official should disgust us all."

The Brady Campaign for more gun laws condemned the attack on social media, calling it "dangerous and out of line."
Houstonian Beth Wachira, a native of Kenya and a volunteer for RESULTS Education Fund, a global nonprofit, lost her parents too young. Both contracted HIV/AIDS, which lead to her mother's tuberculosis and her father's suicide. It could have been worse, though. Wachira's sister contracted HIV years ago. She credits her sister's life to medications received from George W. Bush's emergency program to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa.

"George W. Bush did something remarkable," Wachira told the Chronicle editorial board.

President Trump's recently released budget plan, which would slash international assistance, ignores a key lesson learned from the last GOP administration. While Bush's military intervention and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan produced, at best, mixed results, his administration's assistance in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa is universally acclaimed.

The lesson: The world is safer when the U.S. shows the world our nation's heart and not just its biceps.

Trump's new budget proposes to reduce diplomatic and humanitarian aid budgets by about 32 percent, or nearly $19 billion, according to Reuters. These cuts are designed to enable even larger increases in U.S. military spending. Few dispute the importance of national security. Yet U.S. military spending already exceeds the defense budgets of the next eight nations combined.

Trump should reconsider his ill-conceived budget cuts to diplomacy and development. Destabilized societies dealing with lack of opportunity leave desperate people ripe for recruitment by extremists. The spread of global diseases poses another threat - to Americans and the rest of the world. Global problems require global solutions.

In international affairs, our country has historically relied on soft power to lead in a way that commands the respect of the world. After World War II, in the face of economic destruction and despair, President Harry Truman launched the Marshall Plan to combat communism and foster growth, development and hope. As Truman knew then, military power is mightier when combined with the influence of moral authority. We cannot police a world of more than 7 billion people, but at least we can help point the world in the right direction.

One hundred and twenty-one retired three-and four-star generals and officers from all branches of the armed services recently wrote to Speaker of the U.S. House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with the minority leaders of both houses, to say that elevating and strengthening diplomacy and development alongside defense are critical to keeping America safe.

Like it or not, each American president shapes the image, and ultimately the influence, of the U.S. on the world. Trump beckons heads of state to his lavish Florida resort, where everyone's eyes are turned to Trump's wealth. Funding effective humanitarian assistance programs helps people throughout the world to see our nation's deepest values, rooted in respect for the dignity and importance of each person.

In 2000, when then-Gov. George W. Bush first ran for president, he noted in one national debate: "And our nation stands alone right now in the world in terms of power, and that's why we've got to be humble, and yet project strength in a way that promotes freedom."

While not all of Bush's actions exhibited humility, his personal interest in millions of Africans suffering the devastation of HIV/AIDS provides a worthy example of that kind of humble strength. The military can lead the fight against terrorism on the battlefield, but it needs strong civilian partners to combat disease and lack of opportunity that can wreak as much harm as war itself.
Trump's path

Regarding "Trump gives $110B arms deal to Saudis amid a warm embrace" (Page A1, Sunday), President Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia was notable by two major efforts: 1) the marketing of American weapons to the kingdom and 2) a speech that came squarely down on the side of the Sunnis in the physical and ideological battles with the Shia. A most important element of this bias was the continuing demonization of Iran.

Trump struck a weapons deal that could expand up to $350 billion over 10 years and praised it as a great American jobs program. This is no surprise, as Trump is nothing if not a deal maker. More puzzling is his decision to so clearly support the Saudi branch of the Sunni religion known as Wahabism.

Saudi Arabia, via Wahabism, is the nursery of Middle East terrorism. It has funded its spread through mosques and madrassas throughout the region as well as directly funded so-called "rebel" groups (ISIS, al-Qaida, al-Nusrah) battling governments in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Americans should never forget that 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia.

It is an understated story in mainstream media, but the tragedy of Yemen is so horrendous it's difficult to put into words. For almost two years Saudi Arabia has been relentlessly bombing the country in support of an ousted regime. Thousands of civilians have died and millions are at risk of famine.

Many Americans, even those who did not vote for Trump, were hopeful that he would begin to take a different path in foreign policy, beginning a process of extricating the U.S. from its many conflicts in the Middle East. Perhaps some are still hopeful, but his speech did not appear to be a precursor to peace.

S. Monroe, Houston
At City Hall, Mayor Sylvester Turner touts his "comprehensive plan" and "holistic solution" for ending homelessness. A block away, the homeless tell me the only plan is to hide them, criminalize them and discourage people from helping them.

I volunteer with Houston Food Not Bombs, a group with 25 years of experience in the streets. For the past decade, we have been sharing healthy vegetarian meals with 120-plus hungry people by the Central Library four nights a week.

Before 2012, anyone could bring leftovers to any number of people in public, but former Mayor Annise Parker criminalized that. There are also laws against most things the homeless do. They can't ask anyone for money within 8 feet of a parking meter, transit facility, fuel pump, outdoor restaurant, etc., or look food in garbage cans. Between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., it's illegal to sleep, sit or put a bag on the sidewalk (ordinances of the type that the Department of Justice has referred to as "cruel and unusual").

Turner led passage of additional laws against sleeping in a tent or box, panhandling and accumulating more personal property than would fit in a cube 3 feet on all sides. Turner seems unconcerned with constitutional protections, and accordingly, the ACLU is suing.

Turner also asked our group to move from the Central Library to a parking lot under a loud freeway overpass on a service road with no mappable address.

Next, he launched a campaign with, as he described, "50 faith leaders." Money that could have been spent on helping the homeless is instead being spent on ads and billboards to discourage donating to panhandlers. You don't have to be a "faith leader" to know that Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, etc., exhort their followers to give to the poor and needy.

Turner's argument - that giving food to the homeless only enables them - is nonsense. Many homeless people aren't dangerous, just antisocial and better left alone in a tent. If forced to interact with others, they would likely get into conflicts and end up in jail. Food insecurity is not a tool that can be wielded to help anyone; it only increases crimes of desperation, theft and fights over food.

Making the homeless more desperate won't encourage them to go to shelters. Even if Houston had enough shelter beds for all the homeless (and it doesn't even come close), the homeless are quite clear about their reasons for disliking shelters, many of which may impose religious beliefs, reject gay or unmarried couples and families, are not safe, are infested with bedbugs, provide miserable and unhealthy food, and trash people's possessions. Many homeless people criticize those running shelters for prioritizing their own financial gain and religious agenda over the needs of the homeless.

If you're wondering why the mayor and the "faith leaders" promote these cruel laws and campaigns, follow the money. Real-estate interests and campaign donors have much more access and influence than homeless people. By enforcing anti-homeless laws more strictly in wealthy areas than poorer areas, the city transfers homeless populations to jail or to less densely populated neighborhoods (where it's harder to find food, work and services).

These policies have had an immediate effect in the streets. Food Not Bombs has seen record-breaking numbers, but meanwhile, the Coalition For The Homeless of Houston / Harris County claims to have witnessed a reduction in homelessness by 57 percent. The reason that statistics like this are so distorted and useless is that homeless service nonprofits are federal HUD grant recipients; they have to show success on paper.

The mayor's so-called solutions for homelessness are nothing of the sort. As he is well aware, there's no budget to house Houston's homeless in any compassionate way. We must not allow the mayor or anyone else to use the empty promise of "ending homelessness" as an excuse to discourage or criminalize donating to the homeless, force services on the homeless against their will, or make laws against homelessness. We ask all Houstonians to join us in saying so loudly. We also welcome folks to join us - Food Not Bombs needs more volunteers to help us meet the needs of the growing number of hungry people in this manufactured crisis.

Cooper volunteers with Food Not Bombs and plays drums for Free Radicals.
Time at the lake or on the river, barbeques and kicking off summer with family and friends  Memorial Day is a time where we celebrate our freedom, but we must stop to remember the cost. It is a day for us to remember those who died fighting for our country and protecting our way of life. Before you set off to enjoy summer, I ask that you pause to remember and honor Memorial Day with me.

I visited the local VFW in Cape Girardeau recently which is named after three Missouri heroes. Lloyd Dale Clippard, Richard Gene Wilson and Robert Lee Taylor, Jr. Clippard was a member of the U.S. Navy and just 19 years old when he became Cape Girardeaus first WWII casualty. He had been on duty for three short months when he and his fellow sailors were attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. His remains were never recovered and are entombed in the hull of the USS Utah. Wilson was a combat medic for the U.S. Army in the Korean War. He died trying to rescue a wounded soldier at the Battle of Yongju. Taylor was an Army Infantryman in Vietnam. He died in combat in the Dinh Tuong Province, fighting against the threat of Communism, and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

This week, I heard stories from Forest ONeill of Rolla who recalled many of his fellow Marines that were lost in battle against North Korea. It was December of 1950, Forest and his fellow Marines were fighting their way out of the Chosin Reservoir in temperatures that were 20 and 30 degrees below zero. Sadly, not everyone made it out alive, but Forest and his fellow Marines made sure everyone, dead or alive, made it home.

During the Vietnam War, Missouri lost 1,422 brave soldiers. Earl Wayne Ellis, Dennis Edward Isgrig, Charles Wayne Buntion, Warren Paul Seawel, Frederick John Shuh and Larry Lee Thomure along with too many others are honored on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in D.C. If you arent able to pay tribute in person, I encourage you to visit VirtualWall.org and learn more about those from Missouri who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Today we fight a new war, the Global War on Terror. This war has presented new challenges but the bravery, heroism and sacrifice of Missourians has remained unchanged. Army Sergeant Robert Gene Davis from Jackson, Missouri gave his life for freedom in Afghanistan. As Davis convoy charged forward, an improvised explosive device detonated underneath his Humvee. Army Specialist James R. Burnett, Jr. from Stoddard County was killed in action by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan as well. Staff Sergeant Bradley Joe Skelton of Gordonville volunteered to come out of retirement and go on another tour of duty with the Missouri National Guard. It was during this second tour when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

As we pause to remember those weve lost, I am inspired by Korean War Veteran Forest ONeill who said Dont give up. Never quit. Its difficult to put my depth of gratitude into words. Thank you feels insufficient compared to what these families have endured. From World War II, The Korean War and Vietnam to the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Missourians have fought bravely and died valiantly. Their families have sacrificed dearly, but as we celebrate our freedoms this weekend, we know their sacrifices are not in vain.

Jason Smith represents Missouris 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Contact him at 573-335-0101 or visit https://jasonsmith.house.gov
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bal auto giant General Motors will cut jobs in its international headquarters in Singapore. This comes after the firm announced last week its plans to restructure in international markets to strengthen global business performance.Some 90 employees will leave GM International by the end of June and 40 by the end of 2017,reported.As the industry continues to change, we are transforming our business, establishing GM as a more focused and disciplined company, said GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra last week.Among other things, GM said it will streamline its regional headquarters office in Singapore, in a bid to deliver greater organizational efficiencies while leveraging global resources and in-market expertise.GM is working with employees, their union representatives and local authorities to provide transition support. The auto giant added that the Singapore office will retain responsibility for strategic oversight of the remaining regional business and markets, including Australia and New Zealand, India, Korea and Southeast Asia.Layoffs in Singapore dropped to 4,800 in the first three months this year, following an increase in the previous quarter (5,440 in total) according to preliminary figures from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). The city-state saw lower redundancies in manufacturing, and slight increases in construction and services.With some sectors continuing to experience cyclical weakness, and as businesses continue to restructure, redundancies are expected to remain elevated, said MOM.Looking ahead, the ministry said the labour market outlooks is likely to remain uneven across sectors. The outlook for the global economy has improved slightly, benefitting some outward-oriented sectors in the Singapore economy, but downside risks and uncertainties remain.Hiring in some sectors remains cautious, but opportunities will continue to be available in others such as Healthcare, Infocomm, Finance & Insurance, and certain segments of Manufacturing, said the ministry.
However, employers wont be obligated to make any accommodations unless the employee produces a domestic violence document as proof  this could include a police report, a record of a police caution, criminal proceedings, a conviction relating to domestic violence, court orders, a medical practitioner report or a report from a domestic violence support organisation.

In the context of domestic violence, privacy and consent to disclosure are very important and raise sensitive and complex questions, the society said in a statement. The disclosure of highly sensitive personal information to an employer may pose a significant barrier for victims seeking help.

The bill also puts domestic violence victims in the unique position of having to provide reasons and prove grounds to support their application for flexible working.

As currently drafted, the bill makes it more difficult for workers citing domestic violence to obtain flexible working arrangements than other workers who invoke the existing provisions of the Act, Law Society spokesperson Maria Dew told the committee.

The bill also subjects domestic violence victims to more onerous requirements in other respects, and the Law Society recommends the select committee consider whether the flexible working needs of these workers can be better met by the existing Employment Relations Act provisions.
Past winners of these awards will tell you there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing equal pay, she said. Thats why thought leadership is part of the solution, as we look to the innovative approaches others have taken to close pay gaps and create fairer workplaces for the hardworking women of New Zealand.

Even for those who are sure they wouldnt make the winners podium, Briggs says the application process presents a valuable opportunity for firms to evaluate their policies and processes around gender equality.

It is a methodology or check-list that roadmaps some of the many measures adopted to achieve a more gender inclusive and fair workplace, she explained.

We encourage employers to engage in the awards program  they may be pleasantly surprised and put themselves forward for entry, or discover policies and practices that need to be implemented if they are to address an issue that is becoming harder and harder to ignore.

According to the latest Income Survey for June 2016, there is a 14 per cent gender pay gap in New Zealand based on the average hourly earnings between male and female workers. Up to 80 per cent of that gap is thought to be caused by factors like unconscious and conscious bias that impacts negatively on womens recruitment and pay advancement.
A little girl yanked off a dock by a sea lion in Richmond B.C. last weekend is now being treated for a rare and dangerous infection.

Vancouver Aquarium spokeswoman Deana Lancaster told NBC News that the girl is taking antibiotics for "seal finger"  an infectious condition that can cause the affected area to swell up, and is most often seen in people who work with marine mammals or seal meat.

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"If any member of our animal care team receives a bite from a sea or sea lion, they take a letter from our vet with them to the hospital, which explains that the infection is resistant to some antibiotics," Lancaster said.

A video posted online earlier this week showed the adult male California sea lion grabbing the young girl's dress and pulling her backwards off the guard rail where she had been sitting. (Watch the video above.)

The girl's quick-thinking grandfather jumped in the water to save her.

Her family later denied accusations that they had been feeding the seal, but did admit they had let her get too close to the wild animal.

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"That's a lesson she took and she has taken that lesson in a hard way," her father told CBC News.

Also on HuffPost
Justin Trudeau is continuing to knock off our socks.

(Bad joke).

But seriously, Canadians. Have you ever noticed our prime minister has a thing for socks?

We guess you could saw it all started back in 2015 with these maple leaf socks:

.@JustinTrudeau was wearing our maple leaf-themed socks during the First Ministers' meeting https://t.co/14oUSixuuXpic.twitter.com/OL9YJmsYYB  Good Luck Sock (@GoodLuckSock) November 25, 2015

Patriotic and fun, right?

Then things took a weird turn last year on a trip to Switzerland when Trudeau wore these:

Justin Trudeau's skull socks show you're not trying hard enough. https://t.co/TUSmj45hbBpic.twitter.com/4Er2zSqGe4  Mashable (@mashable) April 2, 2016

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Yes, those are skull and crossbones you're looking at. And yes, we're not sure of his fashion choice here either.

After flaunting stripes and speckles throughout the year (and duly noted by GQ), the prime minister really decided to elevate his sock game when he met another world leader on a date close to his heart.

In a sit-down with Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland earlier this month (May the fourth to be exact), Trudeau wore mismatched "Star Wars" socks, one in blue and gray with R2D2 and the other in gold and black depicting C3PO.

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Sure, we all know Justin Trudeau is a "Star Wars" fan, but his love for the film really socked everyone here (bad joke, again).

So since Kenny was obviously wowed by his socks, maybe a part of Trudeau thought, "Hey, would other world leaders get a kick out of my themed socks, too?"

And he proved the theory right at the NATO summit yesterday in Brussels when the likes of German Chancellor Angela Merkel gathered around Trudeau's pant leg to admire his ... wait for it ... NATO-themed socks.

Breaking: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shows off his socks to Merkel & C.O. at the NATO summit. pic.twitter.com/YqhamrxIi6  Mark Slatem (@trentster) May 25, 2017

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With the flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (a dark blue field charged with a white compass rose emblem, with four white lines radiating from the four cardinal directions) on his one blue sock, and one pink sock, it seemed like his fashion choice for the day was spot on and impressive.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had NATO-themed socks on today at NATO HQ. I guess he *really* supports Article 5. pic.twitter.com/TKZaducN6C  Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 26, 2017

Trudeau couldn't possibly have packed another fun pair of socks with him to Brussels, could he?

Wrong:

More colourful socks. This time worn for French President Emmanuel Macron, who the Internet is counting on to be Trudeau's new BFF.

While some like to meet other world leaders with a death grip handshake, it looks like Trudeau just likes to wear a pair of nice, chipper socks.

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Keep doing you, Justin.

Also on HuffPost
Reopening any negotiated deal offers a chance to fix what was wrong in the first place.

Unifor has been a long-standing critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Like other unions and NGOs, we've consistently called for a NAFTA rethink.

It is for that reason we welcomed the reopening of the NAFTA, even if led by a U.S. President that we so vehemently disagree with on almost every point.

NAFTA has enabled the capital flight of multi-national firms, as has global free trade more broadly. That has inflicted great pain on working people and their communities. Renegotiating NAFTA gives us a chance to address concerns with two of our most important trading partners, and craft a deal that actually helps working people. And if it doesn't, then we should walk away.

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Which brings me to plans to reopen the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Canada recently signed on to a plan pushed by Japan and New Zealand to resuscitate the TPP despite the U.S. withdrawal. Under jointly negotiated TPP rules, there can no deal unless both the U.S. and Japan agree to it.

Well, the U.S. didn't agree. And yet, the TPP lives on after Canada and the other 10 remaining countries voted to discuss reviving the deal.

The reality is that the TPP is a disastrous document, offering little if any economic benefit to Canada.

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Well-documented research reports point to higher drug prices, a weakening of Canada's supply management system, extreme legal protections for investors, among a long list of other concerns.

The TPP in its current form would force Canada to take significant auto sector concessions as well, setting back an industry that has thankfully been on the rebound.

Recall that the U.S. and Japan (without Canada even at the table) agreed to let cars and parts travel tariff free through the TPP zone, even if more than half (55 per cent) was built outside of the 12-member trading bloc -- even more for some car parts.

I do find it very encouraging to hear Canadian officials say that any new TPP would first need significant alterations before they sign on. To me, this signifies that they get that meaningful change is needed in the kinds of deals this country negotiates.

Tens of thousands of Canadians voiced opposition to the TPP in the past year. The talk from federal officials that they believe they have a chance to address issues with the TPP would indicate that they were listening. This marks a major victory for social movements and concerned citizens, and marks a departure from the Harper years.

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This is Harper's deal, and there is no obligation on the Liberal government to carry it forward absent a total overhaul. Unifor and others will continue to make our voices heard about what truly progressive trade ought to look like. The government can be assured of that.

What I'm not so sure of is whether our officials have had a chance to chat with their counterparts in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. These folks have essentially said TPP changes aren't in the cards.

Canada has not only been outflanked in past rounds of negotiations (remember that the Harper government joined TPP talks at the eleventh hour, from fear of being left out) but our approach to trade talks has historically been a strange mix of export diversification strategy and political desperation: call it, strategic desperation.

Yes, it's good to explore enhanced trading relations with all countries. But do we have to reform patent laws, trade away our supply management system, undermine our ability to set national economic policy, undermine key industries such as auto and transfer extraordinary powers to private investors to do it?

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Do we have to chart a path toward more "free trade" deals for the sake of getting a deal, even if the deal doesn't deliver on promised goods to Canadians?

Harper seemed to think so.

Think about Canada's recent trade pact with South Korea. Big promises were made at ratification. A more than 30 per cent rise in Canadian exports and lots of new jobs. Korea would be Canada's beachhead in the Asia-Pacific.

The results have been beyond disappointing.

In fact, the benefits of the deal have been totally one-sided, favouring Korea. Korean merchandise import growth has far outpaced Canadian exports. In the last two years, Korean imports have grown by 47 per cent, while Canadian exports have grown by just five per cent. Our resource exports have stagnated, while Korea's have grown. And the value of Canada's agriculture exports has actually fallen.

It's hard to imagine these outcomes being much different with countries where we have similarly unbalanced trade flows such as Japan and China, both of which are in Canada's free trade sights.

Before we set out to exhume a trans-Pacific trade deal or kick-start any other major trade negotiation, the federal government needs to think long and hard about what we would be getting ourselves into.

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Harper pursued the TPP out of his own ideological belief in the power of free trade, the free market and big corporations, without a care for the working people and communities affected the most.

For him, and any politician, that's a failed political calculation. Most world leaders have come to understand this. I want to believe that Canada's have too.

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The Manchester suicide bomber was noted to drink alcohol, do drugs, and get involved in gangs. Then he became "religious."

Those who focus on his involvement with drugs and gangs, explain the Manchester attack through the lens of social alienation. Others blame Islam.

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It is easy to blame Islam given the spate of terrorist attacks by people of Muslim origins. Most recently, extremists have laid siege to the city of Marawi in the Philippines. There have also been suicide bombs in Jakarta, Indonesia.

However, blaming Islam leads to the conclusion that 1.6 billion people on this planet are potential terrorists. Likewise, blaming alienation implicates those experiencing it as potential terrorists.

Neither explanation is satisfactory. Former CSIS analyst, Phil Gurski tells us to resist simplistic explanation of blaming mental illness, poverty, sexual frustration or lack of job opportunities. Likewise, he reminds us how frequently and continuously Muslim leaders have condemned terrorism.

For Gurski, the problem is with the narrative. He uses this word thrice!

We live in a time where youth facing inner demons seek an absolution. It often results from cognitive dissonance, that is, the inability to reconcile contradictory sets of beliefs or values.

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This is true for those navigating traditional morality and modernity as in the case of youth like Islam Yaken, who have sought redemption through ISIS. Those seeking absolution and grandeur, some of whom are privileged in terms of economic opportunities and university education, buy into extremist narratives to address perceived grievances.

Gurski is not alone in blaming the narrative. Pakistani religious scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi confirms the role of narrative, which includes the ideas that disbelief and apostasy warrant the death punishment, non-Muslims are to be subjugated, having a single Muslim Caliphate and that modern states are unIslamic.

Ghamidi clearly asks, "what would you do if you were indoctrinated in this manner?" As such, his proposal is to offer a counter religious narrative lest we risk future incarnations of groups like ISIS.

In a similar vein, commenting on the attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt on Palm Sunday earlier this year, British analyst H.A. Hellyer expressed:

"Condemning the attacks, for example, in English, while propagating conspiracies and "false flag" theories about them in Arabic, only means that the mood music for sectarian incitement is left unchecked even further."

Hellyer is clear on the need to check the divisive narrative.

Likewise, former radical and current radicalization experts, emphasize the need to counter the supremacist narrative. However, such people like Usama Hasan are bitterly criticized.

It is ironic that some people have argued that we could use ISIS defectors for intelligence, but when former radicals actually do the work, they are opposed as sell-outs for taking government money.

On the other hand, very popular speakers like Zakir Naik, scores of anti-Ahmadi clerics and anti-Semitic Imams, who are invited to mosques and public venues, enjoy a cult like following. This includes some academics, who go at length to justify Islamic punishments and brand critics with charges of apostasy.

No wonder progressive Muslim scholars like Dr. Adis Duderija question if the mainstream neo-classical Sunni interpretation methodology can render ISIS scholars' interpretations as unreasonable, especially in the context of neo-classical Sunni's continued clinging to a pre-modern worldview that is based on an imperialistic political theology.

Imam Tawhidi of Australia, who is heavily criticized by fellow Muslims for his views, has similarly blamed the secondary religious texts for radicalization.

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However, everyday Muslims are not familiar with such details of scholarship. They rightfully distance groups like ISIS from Islam.

Partly, such reactions arise as Muslim communities in the West feel unsafe and threatened. The many cases of Muslim women being harassed, youth being murdered, pregnant women being physically assaulted and mosques being set on fire are a few manifestations of xenophobia and racism that festers in online spaces.

However, it is also true that critical thinking is discouraged in religious matters out of fear of chaos. Muslim scholars are concerned that lack of religious authority would lead youth to abandoning Islamic moral codes.

Yet, apologetics will not end this vicious cycle of hate where Islamism and Islamophobia feed of each other.

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Muslims should assume responsibility to challenge popular speakers and call them out on their supremacist narrative, which is even gnawing at the once tolerant countries of Malaysia and Indonesia.

British Muslims need to take a long and hard look at the organizations that festered as Hizb Tahrir, peaceful calls for Caliphates, the invitation to Ahmadi hating clerics and the fatwas on dissident Muslims including the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

Such accountability may not stop terrorism, because for that the West needs to stop interfering in other countries, but atleast we will have played our part.

Western community stakeholders need to assume responsibility to challenge the myriad manifestations of xenophobia and racism. They need a strong check on their governments, which exacerbate conditions in the Middle East creating conditions of radicalization.

Trumps' 110 billion dollar arms deal to dictatorial regimes that oppress local human rights activists and export a supremacist Islamic narrative illustrates the Western role in fanning extremism. The British policy of sending British-Libyan citizens to topple Gaddafi is another example.

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Western community stakeholders need to highlight the many Muslim activists who are doing an incredible amount of work on the frontlines, sometimes, at huge personal costs.

Ten years ago, Hind Fraihi, a brave Muslim reporter, warned Belgian authorities of radicalization. Likewise, people in the Muslim community repeatedly informed the British authorities about the danger posed by the suicide bomber. Yet, not much was done.

In the aftermath of the Manchester attack, many Muslim drivers offered free lifts through the night.

Such Muslims are often ignored.

In the end, however, our strongest allies against terrorism remain love and validation in early upbringing and strong critical thinking skills that form a shield around vulnerable youth to protect them from extremist narratives.

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Austin and Shrida are two members of Plan International Canada's Youth Advisory Council. In recognition of Menstrual Hygiene Day, they asked a few of their fellow council members about their experiences with menstrual health and stigma. When did they first become aware of menstruation? When did they realize that it is not very openly talked about?

Going Beyond "Aunt Flo"

AUSTIN: Breanne, a fellow Youth Advisory Council member for Plan International Canada, remembers one of the biggest concerns she had when she was ten years old: that she hadn't started her period yet. Would she be the very last girl in her group of friends to start menstruating? Tony, on the other hand, remembers being segregated by gender to learn about menstruation and remembers the unease and lack of dialogue around the concept. Personally, I can remember feeling anxious because I was uncomfortable when girls talked about their periods: what did they mean? What really happened when a girl was on her period? What do you mean a period can last a week and not just a day? Is this really something I should know about?

May 28th is Menstrual Hygiene Day. It may be 2017, but around the world, this day remains instrumental in the conversation about reproductive health. In a country as developed as Canada, it is shameful that we too face barriers when it comes to menstrual health. Although many women in Canada have more access to menstrual health products and fewer difficulties during their period than some of their peers around the world, stigma about menstrual health persists. This perpetuates gender inequality, makes women feel uncomfortable about managing their periods, and reinforces gender stereotypes, like the false notion that women are always moody since they menstruate. Additionally, boys have become accustomed to believing that menstrual health is not something that pertains to them, which once again, adds a barrier to positive spaces to discuss sexual and reproductive health. This Menstrual Hygiene Day, let's recognize the issues in Canada to understand their importance on a global scale.

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Girls in Uganda showcase menstrual hygiene management information boards which help to increase awareness of menstrual hygiene practices and eliminate stigma. (Photo credit: Plan International / Anne Ackermann)

The year-round impact of "that time of the month"

SHRIDA: Menstruation does not discriminate - most women and girls will have their menstrual cycle in their lifetime, myself included. However, the challenges brought about by menstruation may affect certain women more than others, even here in Canada. Many homeless women cannot afford menstrual hygiene products and often have to find other ways to manage their periods, like using Kleenex as tampons. In the Canadian North, Indigenous women face very high prices for these products and may have to choose between food and menstrual hygiene products. School-aged girls in northern Saskatchewan are faced with having to miss school because of their periods, as they are unable to afford menstrual supplies, including medication for cramps. Despite the fact that menstruation is a natural process for many women, the unacceptable reality is that there are many women and girls who are unable to practice menstrual hygiene safely. On top of that, these challenges also affect other parts of their lives, including their financial security and education.

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These challenges are magnified in many countries in other parts of the world, such as those in the Global South. In these countries, menstruation can affect all aspects of a girl's life, including education, health, dignity, participation and employment. One very common reality for girls with their periods in these countries is that they are unable to participate in school, work and other activities that their male counterparts are not excluded from. Girls may also be shamed, suffer from discomfort and face exclusion simply because they are menstruating. Some of these issues are influenced by cultural norms, but may also stem from lack of knowledge about menstruation which results in stigma.

With the support of Plan International, separate latrines for boys and girls were built at Amida's school in Ethiopia. The new latrines are especially helpful to female students, who might otherwise refrain from using the toilet or skip school altogether due to lack of privacy.

(Photo credit: Plan International/Hayelegebreal Seyoum)

Girls are often unable to access proper menstrual hygiene products and girl-friendly sanitation facilities. They are faced with having to share latrines with boys, and these facilities are rarely equipped to handle their needs. Girls may be unable to properly dispose their menstrual supplies, and often lack these supplies in the first place, which causes a risk of infection. As a result, they are often forced to manage their menstruation at home, causing disruption to their education and other activities. Ultimately, menstruation and menstrual hygiene management has a major impact on the daily lives of these women and girls, and their position in society.

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Destigmatizing periods will take all of (uter)us

AUSTIN: Clearly, we have a lot of work to do, and Canada is in a position to play an important role in improving menstrual health. In 2015, we eliminated taxes on menstrual health products, indicating that our nation recognizes that these products are necessities. Moving forward, we must persist in working to destigmatize periods. Boys and men around the world need to be engaged in the conversation and recognize their role in understanding menstruation and taking action in their personal lives to destigmatize it. Without sparking a conversation and advocating for better education about sexual and reproductive health (even in Canada), we will get nowhere. We have an important role to play in the global community as well. We need to support the most vulnerable women and girls around the world who experience incredible hardships simply because they menstruate. By 2017, we should be able to talk about and tackle this issue at home and abroad, period.

Austin Henderson raises awareness of diverse global development issues as a member of Plan International Canada's Youth Advisory Council and as a youth advocate for maternal, newborn and child health. He is from New Brunswick and is attending the University of New Brunswick's Renaissance College faculty as a Lord Beaverbrook Scholar. He is passionate about youth advocacy, international development, and being a trailblazer in terms of engaging men in discussions surrounding gender inequality around the world. Austin recently spoke at the CanWaCH Global Adolescent Health Conference to discuss how positive masculinities have a role in advancing gender equality.

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Shrida Sahadevan has been involved with Plan International Canada since 2013, as a member of the Speakers Bureau, Youth Journalist Program and as a member of the Youth Advisory Council. An avid advocate, she has immense passion for issues concerning health, education and gender inequality, at both domestic and international levels. Shrida holds an MSc in Rehabilitation Science (2016) and a BSc Honors in Neuroscience (2015) from the University of Alberta, Canada.
By Y.Y. Brandon Chen and Vanessa Gruben

Despite policy changes last April to Canada's refugee health care program, many people continue to be left without adequate access to health care.

That's the finding that comes out of a series of interviews we conducted recently with refugee service providers in Ottawa.

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Health care for refugees in Canada falls under the responsibility of the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), and it has had some tumultuous years.

Many walk-in clinics, pharmacies and specialists continue to deny services to refugees and refugee claimants based on the false assumption that they are not covered.

In June 2012, the federal government made significant cuts to the program, leaving many refugees and refugee claimants without access to publicly-funded health care while causing serious confusion among health care providers.

Health care advocates challenged the cuts in the Federal Court and in 2014, the Court found the cuts violated the Charter as they were "cruel and unusual."

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Following a change in government, the IFH was fully restored to its pre-2012 form last April. The reinstatement of IFHP was widely applauded -- but the reinstatement hasn't lived up to its promise.

The program, in theory, provides all refugee claimants with hospital and medical care coverage. It also provides all refugees and refugee claimants with supplementary coverage similar to that received by low-income Canadians.

So what's the problem?

Our interviews with refugee service providers reveal that, despite reinstatement, the IFHP remains plagued by "a legacy of confusion," as one practitioner put it. Because of the cuts in previous years, many walk-in clinics, pharmacies and specialists continue to deny services to refugees and refugee claimants based on the false assumption that they are not covered by the IFHP.

Even when service providers are aware of the IFHP's restoration, some are hesitant to see IFHP patients due to the program's perceived complexity. To be reimbursed by the program, health care practitioners must first register with the program, which many report as a cumbersome and slow process.

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Once registered, many service providers complain about having trouble figuring out which services and treatments are covered. And the time it takes for providers to be paid by the IFHP seems to be inconsistent: while some providers have received reimbursement quickly, others have had to wait up to 90 days.

Many people expected that the reinstatement of the IFHP would reverse problems related to health care access encountered by refugees and refugee claimants during the years of cutbacks. The government claimed the renewed coverage would improve refugees' health outcomes. But one year later, this promise has not translated into reality.

The federal government must do more to protect and promote refugees' health and well-being.

Certainly, the government's decision to restore the IFHP has made a positive difference. Many previously uninsured persons can now obtain medically necessary treatment. Health care providers can now focus on treating patients, rather than worrying about how patients would pay for care. But the picture is far from perfect.

The federal government must do more to protect and promote refugees' health and well-being and make the promise of the IFHP a reality for all.

So what should be done?

First, more resources must be devoted to educating health care providers about the reinstated IFHP. Public education must also target refugee service providers outside the health care field, refugee sponsors and refugees themselves. This will better allow refugees and their allies to advocate for patients whose access to services is inappropriately denied.

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Second, the IFHP registration and reimbursement procedures should be streamlined to encourage health professionals' participation in the program. Communications between IFHP administrators and refugee service providers should also be improved so that questions about the program can be answered promptly.

Third, coverage for medical interpretation services must be expanded. Currently, the program pays a modest amount of interpretation during refugees' post-arrival health assessment and when refugees access mental health care. This level of coverage is not enough. As many refugees are not yet proficient in English or French, their ability to fully access health care depends heavily on trained interpreters.

It has long been recognized by health experts that the extension of public health care is a critical first step in ensuring vulnerable people's access to health care. A year ago, the federal government took this all-important step with respect to refugees.

Now it is time for the government to go further and ensure that all refugees arriving in Canada actually receive the health care they need.

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Y.Y. Brandon Chen and Vanessa Gruben are law professors and members of the University of Ottawa's Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. They are currently co-leading a study on refugee service providers' experience with the reinstated Interim Federal Health Program."

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Is the centre ground bouncing back? One could certainly argue so. Still reeling from the tide of nationalistic populism that has swept the Western world, the middle classes have risen to the occasion tremendously. Here in the UK, attending anti - Brexit marches, draped in European flags and face paint, chanting good naturedly between sips of hot tea from Thermos flasks before dashing home to catch 'The Archers' at 7. In Europe, the defeat of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and the election of centrist Emmanuel Macron in France shows that, perhaps, the seemingly unstoppable anti - establishment, right wing, populist forces are not as dangerous as once feared.

One would be wrong to assume that, and wrong to assume that a return to centre ground politics is the solution.

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Possibly the most contentious part of this discussion is that in my title, what I refer to as 'the far right' is embodied in 'the Conservative Party'. I refer to the Conservative Party as the far right for that is what it is. To describe it thus is to give an accurate description of its policy, ideology, and rhetoric, no longer hidden by its title, one which is so instantly recognisable and acceptable.

And the Tory party is the far right. UKIP voters have flocked to it as it pledges to slash immigration, make immigrants pay more for the NHS, and promising to reduce Asylum claims to the UK. Of course, such talk is hardly new, but it has been fuelled by nastier and more vicious rhetoric than ever before - from Amber Rudd wanting to force companies to register how many foreigners they employ in a bid to stop migrants 'taking jobs', to David Davies suggesting that child refugees have dental checks to verify their age. The party does not want to raise income tax, and wants to cut cooperate tax to 17%, yet will slash public services in a bid to cut a deficit that has only risen since they came to power in 2010.

All of this undercut by 'strong and stable leadership', Theresa May's bid to jump on the bandwagon of strong leaders along with Trump, Putin, and Kim Jung Un. Strong and stable does seem like a strange way to describe a woman who lurches from being the Ice Queen of Narnia to a Runaway train, but it appears to be working. Of course, this has been helped by the few bones she proposes feeding to the masses in a bid to attract New Labour voters, such as a proposed slight raise in the living wage, although her 'Economy that works for everyone' (I still can't write that without laughing) seems like a thin veil for ultra-nationalistic hard Conservatism.

Based, almost entirely, on the fact that Jeremy Corbyn's fashion is hardly 'on point', it is inevitable that middle class professionals and a good swathe of young students who believe that their exam results are entirely due to hard work rather than accidents of birth will drift towards the Liberal Democrats, a suitable cross over between free markets and welfare, an advocate for human rights (or so they claim) and, above all, epitomising that recognisable, non-radical, comforting politics that has taken such a hit over the last year or so.

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Rather than being a vote for a return to political normality and supposed rationality, a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for Theresa May's far right agenda. It is a party which, with the Tories, introduced crippling austerity measures, raised tuition fees, and created a catastrophic humanitarian disaster in Libya. But, going deeper, it epitomises an ideology which creates the economic and social circumstances within which the far right can thrive. Its belief in unregulated free markets creating unemployment and disillusionment at home, and horrific exploitation and misery abroad (human rights, clearly, don't exist for everyone). It's belief in the utter primacy of the individual shattering community cohesion, its model of globalism one geared towards the interests of the wealthy and the powerful, a model which has led to huge disconnection and disenfranchisement, feelings that really came to the surface during the Brexit referendum.

When we survey the geo -political landscape of today, with the May's and the Trumps and the La Pen's, we must remind ourselves that they are the physical manifestations of the will of a people suffering from vast economic inequalities and deeply divided. It is surely factual to argue that politics, in its many forms, shapes our world, and it is equally factual to state that the dominant political force of the last twenty five years has been liberalism. It is a project that has failed miserably.

Your vote for the Liberal Democrats on the 8th of June is not a rejection of the divisive politics of today, but an endorsement of the politics that have created it. Your vote for the Liberal Democrats on the 8th of June is not one that can win an election, but one that will only serve to strengthen the Theresa May against the Labour Party, the only party capable of beating the right.
Darren Staples / Reuters

The spirit and beauty of a nation can best be determined by how it reacts in the face of tragedy, and after the horrific Manchester bombing, the response of all sections of society was both heartening and beautiful. Numerous reports and videos emerged of people sacrificing their own comfort for the sake of others in different ways: victims allowing others to be treated first, taxi drivers giving free rides, faith leaders raising funds for the sufferers, ordinary people giving blood, everyone helping lost children as though they were their own. The people of the city showed an indomitable strength through their compassion, and demonstrated to the world that tragedy would not divide or defeat them.

Over the coming weeks and months however, the challenges for Britain will only increase. We will all seek to find some sort of solution to the growing threat of terrorism, and someone to blame. Deep in our introspection, we will wonder whether it is Islam that is to blame, or refugees, or our Government, or foreign governments, or simply a barbaric individual influenced by a cruel terrorist group. We will ponder over whether the solution lies in bombing foreign countries, or heightening government surveillance, or simply continuing on as normal. Media coverage will address all of these possible options, and it is through our voices that we can decide what happens next. There are many routes that we can take as a nation following this tragedy, and some political decisions may have to be made to which there are no easy answers.

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However amongst the jigsaw of options, one principle must remain in the forefront of our mind - that in our response to this crisis we must not ourselves let innocent people suffer. For example, we should not, under the guise of national security, develop a thirst to bomb other nations and kill civilians, simply to satisfy our own desire for retaliation. We must not develop the delusion that stranded refugees from war-torn countries are dangerous, and stop letting them in to our country. We must not begin to create a climate of fear within our own country that Muslims are responsible for what happened, and start committing hate crimes against them.

As a Muslim, I look to the Qur'an to provide moral guidance. Islam teaches that the killing of one innocent person is equivalent to the killing of all of mankind. Why? Because if a person justifies in his mind that killing one innocent person is right, he can equally justify killing thousands more for the same 'cause.' As demonstrated by Monday's bombing, terrorists are willing to sacrifice the lives of children because they believe their cause is worth it. We should not, even to the tiniest degree, allow a climate of fear to engulf the country such that the lives of others, either domestically or abroad, are threatened.

The world came together in solidarity after Paris was attacked, on two occasions, over the past few years. However since those attacks, the rate of hate crimes against Muslims and anti-Semitic offences have soared. The popularity of the National Front, a party which has rallied against immigration and globalisation and whose leader has been accused of hate speech on numerous occasions, has increased dramatically, to the extent that Marine Le Pen almost won the Presidency last month. The question should be posed as to whether France truly won against the forces of evil and terror, or whether, to some degree, sections of their society succumbed to them. Analysing their actions, and potential mistakes, in their response to terrorism and using this as a guide to our response, should be a priority for Britain.

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Matt Cardy via Getty Images

Following the barbarous attack on Monday I was, like most, glued to the television. I listened and watched with sadness and, at times, tears. Thankfully, and proudly, the British public are never cowed by terrorism, are not and never will be willing to submit to it.

This was one of those times for politicians from all sides to come together and speak out on behalf of all of us and, for the most part they did just that. Tim Farron, Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May all eloquently described what most of us were feeling. And yet Jeremy Corbyn's words were for me questionable to say the least, the phrase he used to call what happened was "an act of violence". Monday was not a pub brawl or mugging, it was terrorism and murder.

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Now, some might say I'm being distasteful by bringing this up, I am using what happened to make a political point but I don't believe I am. The words Corbyn used highlight one of the many concerns I have with him as a possible Prime Minister. Some seem to think that these are just the type of phrases he uses, but I believe it to be something much more calculated and insidious than that. He has a long history of showing a very, shall we say, sympathetic attitude towards terrorist organisations.

I am not in any way saying he approves or supports their actions. However, when the leader of the Labour Party has defended members of the IRA during the height of the troubles and has in the past sat quite happily down and shared a forum with members of Hamas, an organisation that celebrates suicide bombers, the words he uses at a time like this must come under the spotlight.

Only a few days ago Corbyn refused point-blank to single out the IRA atrocities. Instead he said "all bombing is wrong" not "I condemn all terrorist organisations" nor "what the IRA did was horrific, I condemn outright the murderous atrocities they committed". No, Corbyn once again was very calculated in his response to a question relating to terror attacks and those that commit them. Corbyn's pacifism combined with his political beliefs lead me to believe without hesitation, that when it comes to dealing with terrorist organisations such as Islamic State, the single method he would be willing to undertake is sitting down at the negotiating table in some form or another i.e. appeasement.

Present and past heads of the armed forces and some in the intelligence agencies have over the past months, expressed deep concerns over the possibility of Corbyn as Prime Minister - not a Labour government but, specifically Corbyn. I know that many took issue with this and I can understand why but, for this to happen in a country where especially the military has rarely, if ever, openly expressed concerns about a leader of a particular party, their concerns must indeed be grave.

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Thankfully, we don't live in a country where our military dictates the outcomes of elections but that does not mean that the heads of the military etc. should not be listened to. I do not believe Corbyn as Prime Minister would have in any way the ability - nor, more importantly the convictions - needed to deal with the continued terrorist threats that the leader of this country must face on a daily basis.

I'm no fervent Lib Dem or Conservative, up until very recently I had only ever voted Labour. So those reading this who think I'm some Daily Mail- reading warmonger plant, you are, I'm afraid simply wrong. Anyone in their right mind would prefer not to have to be faced with a terrorist organisation like Islamic State, but we are: it is here, its murderous actions were seen on Monday in Manchester and one of the factors I as a voter have a responsibility to take into account when walking into a voting booth on Thursday 8th June 2017 will be, who can best deal with the consequences of their existence.
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Even Donald Trump's team is worried about Brexit. According to reports, a US delegation told European Union and Commission representatives that they feared for the fate of American jobs after Britain leaves the EU.

As the general election comes closer, it's hard to view the party manifestos as declarations of a phoney war: whether the promises made by the parties can be delivered or not hinges on the success or failure of Britain's negotiations with the European Union. On the one hand Theresa May promises to to deliver the 'savings' from EU withdrawal to the regions - on the other hand the government is cutting social care because it knows budgets will be tighter because Brexit will be a huge cost to the country. Brexit must not be an arcane debate about EU rules and regulations. It's about everyday life: whether the NHS and social care can be funded, whether education can be improved, whether jobs can be created and our rights protected with the limited options Theresa May has put on the table: extreme Brexit or no deal at all.

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We started our Best for Britain campaign on the same day Theresa May called the election, because we were worried. Worried that jingoistic tough talk would replace sensible discussion with our European partners and worried that even our MPs would be shut out of the Brexit discussions, as the Prime Minister's circle narrows ever more.

The tone and substance of the Conservatives' stance does not bode well for Brexit, especially if the they run away with a big majority in the election. Theresa May will take that as a mandate to do whatever she wants in the Brexit negotiations.

The Conservatives are also attempting to hold Brexit negotiations held in secret, away from parliamentary scrutiny. There is an unfortunate irony in this: Brexiters boasted of a democratic revolution: the Daily Mail roared that the will of the people must be obeyed, yet now the Prime Minister is hoarding executive power unto herself and her tiny unelected inner circle.

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Without urgent action, the Britain forged from this election could well be very different from what we now know, with radical changes to the NHS, education and social care.

But we still have time to act. Since the election was announced, over two million under-35s registered to vote, out of a total of just under three millions. This is the group with the most at stake in the Brexit negotiations, and we want to connect as many people as possible to the opportunity to vote against a future of uncertainty and cuts, and vote for a democratic country that respects the right of Parliament to make a free decision on the final Brexit deal.

Using the most up-to-date technology and data, Best for Britain has made calls in 573 parliamentary seats on how to vote to avoid extreme Brexit and a Conservative landslide. Voters can use the tactical voting dashboard on our website to find out the best use of their vote in their own constituency. We will be monitoring close races right up to polling day, and making sure we make the right calls right up to 8 June.

We are also nominating Best for Britain champions who we will support with our endorsement and in some cases, campaign donations.

This is not a partisan exercise: in Sussex for example, Best for Britain is endorsing the Green Party's Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion, Labour's Peter Kyle in Hove, and Liberal Democrat Kelly-Marie Blundell in Lewes.

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Meanwhile, in Vauxhall, London, the campaign has chosen to back Lib Dem George Turner against Labour's Kate Hoey, who famously climbed on board the Brexit boat with Nigel Farage.

All this work is important, but most important of all is that, having used our tools, and made up their minds about what kind of future they want for our country, people get out and vote on 8 June. As Woody Allen reportedly said, 80% of success is showing up. Let's show up on election day and make sure everyone's voice is heard.
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With just weeks to go before the country chooses its next government, in the suburbs of leafy Conservative Surrey, politics is the topic of the day. While we know that under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour would plan to scrap tuition fees, increase income tax for the highest 5% of earners and inject 6billion into the NHS, we now also know what Theresa May would do if she found her way back inside Number Ten. In a rejection of the Thatcherite ideas that helped to secure a Tory landslide in 1979, May is instead seeking to lead the Conservatives in a new direction, one that triumphs the centre ground while borrowing policies from the Left - a definitive contrast to the free market and individual freedom rhetoric that Thatcher once fought for.

The past Labour idea of introducing an energy "price cap", which came under Ed Miliband's watch during his reign as Leader of the Opposition, was rejected my David Cameron little more than two years ago. Under May's leadership, however, this has now become Conservative party policy. Similarly, back in the days of Miliband's Labour party, his plans to increase the minimum wage to 8 an hour received a negative response from Tories who claimed that such a policy would only lead to an increase in unemployment, given that skills and qualifications would take priority in terms of an individual's employability. Fast forward a couple of years and the plan to increase the national minimum wage even further is now on the Conservative agenda - May would like to see it raised to 9 an hour, which will be paid for via tax rises that will mark a 35-year high.

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However, the Conservative manifesto of 2017 contains two policies that have caused considerable concern in the constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge - historically a safe Conservative seat. Scrapping free school meals while essentially pledging for a "dementia tax" - not, one suspects, a phrase that May intended to stick - has inevitably led to controversy and conversation amongst locals. Knowing more than a few old school friends who relied on free meals during secondary school, seeing such an important right bring taken away, does not sit well with many parents in Surrey (whether their child received the benefit or not). Indeed, when I mentioned the new policy to a friend this week, they thought I'd been mistaken. "That can't be right, surely?" they respond, before Googling it on their iPhone. If free meals are integral to the daily lives of some youngsters in Surrey - a constituency usually seen as middle-class Tory stronghold - how will the policy affect children in more deprived areas that rely daily on food banks in order to survive?

The other issue that lies within the Conservative agenda is May's plans to shake up the social-care system. Her proposal to ensure that no one should have to pay for care, and her pledge to protect the last remaining 100,000 of pensioners' assets appears reasonable, until one reads the small print: rising property prices are seen as a way to funding social care, which essentially means that the elderly should not expect taxpayers to contribute to the funding of their own personal care. U-turning on the specifics of the policy this week, May announced that there would be an overall cap on all costs that any individual would have to pay and insisted, "nothing has changed" - the proposal will remain party policy. Speaking to a family member who once took a year off work in order to care for their elderly parents, they reveal: "Although many illnesses will still be covered by the NHS, this is a big issue... Though I have to say, I'm still more upset about the policy to scrap school meals. How can I justify voting Conservative?"

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Rachel, a 25-year old A&E nurse, is also skeptical of the Conservatives' new social care policy: "Most wards are full of patients that can't leave because there are no nursing home places or specialist permanent care for them, and this is what's causing the stacking at A&E with ambulances being turned away and operations being cancelled. It was the cuts that the Tories made to social care initially that put hospitals in this mess in the first place." Though she has always voted blue, she admits that she likes the rhetoric coming from the Liberal Democrats.
I'm going to be honest and admit that I'm suffering from an acute case of voter apathy. Disappointed by the result of the EU referendum, I'm less than enthused by the prospect of the snap general election and haven't paid much heed to the headlines nor the leaflets shoved through my door.

But last week I came across pledges from the Greens and Liberal Democrats that finally sparked my interest. Both have promised to end period poverty by providing schools with free sanitary products for girls from low-income families.

Period poverty has become a hot topic in the media recently, sparked by shocking reports in March that girls in Leeds were missing school and using socks and newspapers to stem monthly bleeding because they couldn't afford tampons.

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The news triggered a nationwide petition for free sanitary products for disadvantaged schoolgirls and a promise by Education Secretary Justine Greening to "look into" the matter.

This is the kind of issue at the fore of Menstrual Hygiene Day, celebrated on 28th May. Established in 2013, MH Day is a global platform that brings together groups from both the private and public sectors, with a mission to "create a world in which every woman and girl can manage her menstruation in a hygienic way - wherever she is - in privacy, safety and with dignity."

Why does this matter to me? Because, like half the world's population, I have a uterus, which means I bleed for about five days a month and will do so for some thirty years of my life.

Most women could write a mini-novella about their period dramas.

Just last week I came on my period at the gym, about three minutes before my Zumba class was about to start. With no supplies to hand, I tried my luck with the sanitary machine (the kind that looks like it hasn't delivered anything since maybe a pair of Aristoc tights in the mid-80s). After banging repeatedly on the clapped out colossus, I accepted defeat and waddled my way to ask for supplies. Luckily, the female receptionist was on duty. In my finest ventriloquist-woman-speak I muttered "do you have a tampon", before hurriedly stuffing the offending item up my sleeve and lolloping back to the changing rooms (in the end I leaked through my tampon and the cramps got so bad I had to leave the class).

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Classic menstrual mishap, right? No big deal. And it wasn't, because as a "privileged" western woman, I have daily access to aisle upon aisle of just about every female hygiene product known to man - you name it; pads, tampons, sprays, wipes and leopard-print pantyliner cases produced by an expanding multi-billion pound industry.

So imagine if tampons and pads weren't an option - imagine if getting your period meant you couldn't leave the house, much less go to work or school.

While period poverty in this country is a relatively rare phenomenon, it's widespread across large swathes of the developing world, particularly India and Africa, where a lack of access to sanitary products is coupled with a crippling culture of shame around menstruation that rockets Laura Bates' "everyday sexism" to a whole new stratosphere.

In these countries periods themselves are often considered dirty, impure, even evil, meaning menstruating women are forbidden from taking part in everyday activities or even outcast from society altogether. In many parts of India women cannot pray in temples, cook or even enter the kitchen when they're on their periods. In remote areas of Nepal they are banished to "menstrual huts" for the duration of their cycle.

The good news is there are grassroots organisations out there campaigning for women, including Binti, a UK-based charity I came across during a chat with a work colleague that led to a meeting with its CEO Manjit Gill who told me about the charity's work origins.

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"In 2014, I was working for the Cherie Blair foundation, mentoring a woman in Nairobi when, one day, she told me that women in her village had no access to sanitary items and were forced to use dirty rags, straw, sand - and sometimes even cow dung - to stem bleeding during their period."

From setting up sustainable business initiatives in India, where women make their own re-usable pads, to educating girls in the slums of Swaziland about what a period is, Binti is engaged in a global fight to smash crippling cultural stigma related to menstruation.

As well as its overseas work, Binti has joined several initiatives to provide sanitary products to homeless and vulnerable women across Britain and is campaigning to put menstrual education on the national curriculum alongside sex education.
Humphrey & Grace

I have mentioned more than once recently that I have itchy feet. Wanderlust. A desire to travel and experience new places for myself. I have always felt a kind of restlessness if I'm honest. For much of my late teens and twenties I was almost constantly moving house, every 6 months to a year I would live somewhere different. For years this satisfied my wanderlust because there was always something new to experience. Since then though I have grown to love having a more permanent base - but it doesn't satisfy the need to wander.

Up until fairly recently my holiday travel destinations have been what you may call 'local'. Often accessible by car, because I guess I've found the thought of travel with my family of 5 a little overwhelming. If we can take the car, I can pack for every eventuality. And so we chose destinations like France or Guernsey and have taken so many holidays here in the UK.

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Then last year I really began to scratch that travel itch properly after a very last minute decision to travel to the Mediterranean on my own. Well, just me and a then-four-year-old who had never even been on a plane...

Its funny how those impulsive moments can lead to something wonderful isn't it? The decision to travel seems to have awakened a desire to explore in a way I haven't felt before.

I have often wondered since whether my turning 40 last year had something to do with it. Realising with a kind of clarity that time doesn't stand still and I just don't want to waste it. There are places I would like to see and experience for myself. So when there is the opportunity, why say no? In the last 12 months I have travelled to the Mediterranean visiting several of the Greek Islands. Then Amsterdam, Venice and Scotland. Soon I will be travelling to Paris and Austria too. But ask me which memory stands out and I will always answer with this one.

Holiday moments

The holiday that started everything. Anna and I. Early April 2016. After a long journey we had just arrived in Crete to a glorious welcome. The weather was beautiful - they were experiencing a heatwave and it was mid 20s. It felt a lot like a summer day in the UK does, except for the clear, unbroken blue sky above us - a definite sign that we were not at home!

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We were on a day trip visiting the village of Kritsa which is tucked up in the Lassithi mountains. Now I don't know about you, but in my mind before I travelled, I had visions of the Greek islands being filled with white washed buildings and bright blue doors. I guess the idea comes from islands like Mykonos and Santorini of which I had seen countless images before. While Kritsa is not entirely like the stereotype I had imagined, it definitely didn't disappoint as it is full of buildings with crumbling facades and weather worn paintwork.

Being at the very end of off-peak season, it was relatively quiet in the streets before the tourist season really began. We wandered through the alleyways and lanes soaking in the warmth and quiet bustle of daily life. Taking photographs of the ordinary, because to me this other version of ordinary seems charming in it's humble way. The multi coloured accents against the simple architecture, faded shades of turquoise and blue, were everything I had hoped to see.

Anna was tired after travelling and, coming from a relatively cold England, the heat was a bit much on that first day. We found a beautiful blue door and paused for a minute beside it in the shade. Before I knew it Anna had pulled off her shoes and sat herself on the doorstep to watch the world go by. That is the moment I will always remember. The one captured in the photo at the beginning of this post. My youngest with her beautiful blonde hair looking a little bit tired. That old blue door in the warm shade and the first time we travelled so far from home together.

Memories made

It turned out to be a holiday full of new experiences and memories made. I have always wanted to visit this part of the world so for me it was a huge encouragement to travel. To visit the places I've always dreamed of visiting. To cross them off the list as it were. It wasn't all perfect, we had our moments of tired, grumpy, homesickness for the three we left at home. But it was absolutely the best thing I did last year because it opened my eyes to just what we have been missing.
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There's good news and bad news when it comes to women's representation this election.

The good news is this: analysis by the Press Association suggests a record number of women could be elected on June 8, meaning (nearly) a third of MPs will be women.

The bad news? The progress is glacial - and in some cases we're going backwards.

While any rise in women MPs is welcome, the projected result would mark just a one or two percentage point rise overall from 2015 - from 29.4% to 31.8%.

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Further digging by the BBC has revealed other worrying signs.

There are 104 constituencies in the UK where you can't vote for a woman to represent you in Parliament: there simply isn't one on the ballot (there is only one constituency in the UK where you can't vote for a man: Glasgow Central). That's 7.5 million people who don't have the option of voting for a female MP in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile research by the Constitution Unit shows that 84% of newly selected Conservative, 87% of Labour and 96% of Liberal Democrat female candidates are standing in 'unwinnable' seats this election. Parties have totally dropped the ball on diversity in their scramble to select people for June 8.

All this shows there is much more to be done to achieve gender equality in politics and public life. Parties seem to be treading water when it comes to female representation. There is a worrying complacency that is spreading.

It matters a great deal that Parliament reflects the range of backgrounds and experiences we have in this country. We all lose out if our politics is limited to one demographic rather than the diverse talents of the UK.

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And while the spotlight is on Westminster, this follows a shocking result for women's voices in politics in this month's metro-mayor elections. Not a single one of the new mayors is a woman, after parties totally failed to select female candidates - and not one of the newly appointed deputies is either. This means that well over 90% of the most powerful positions in English devolution have gone to men. Just today we found out that more than one council has picked an all-male cabinet after this month's local elections.

Whatever the result on June 8 - and it looks like there will be a tiny rise in the proportion of women elected - parties need to up their game, not just for the next Parliamentary elections but for our local councils, metro mayor roles and institutions across the UK.
Last summer, a notoriously unpleasant red-top columnist wrote of his objection to a female Muslim journalist covering the recent Nice terror attack. In an effort to redress the damaging impact of his comment, a woman in Wales tweeted out the kind of information that's often ignored amidst the clatter of online discourse:

"UK Muslims gave 100 million to charity during Ramadan this year. That's 38 a second. The media won't report it so here it is. Thank you."

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While the tweet has since been deleted, the numbers it states are no less true. According to figures received by the Charity Commission, British Muslims were, in fact, estimated to have given approximately 100 million to charity during Ramadan 2016.

The numbers represent an aspect of Ramadan that's often overshadowed. Most non-Muslims probably associate the month with fasting, yet charity is an equally important part of Ramadan. Last year, the Charity Commission spoke to the Muslim Charities Forum about the nature of the giving in 2016.

The donations were as varied as they were generous. One Muslim-led charity estimated its work over last Ramadan to have helped at least one million people. Other efforts helped those suffering drought in Somaliland and conflict in Syria. There were also local, community focused acts, including soup kitchens for the homeless and aid for those affected by last year's floods in Carlisle.

Nick Donaldson, an outreach manager at the Charity Commission, also highlighted the diversity of the projects donated to. These included honeybee farms in Palestine, hygiene kits and food for the people of Haiti, and a charity in Mali turning water from flash floods into safe drinking water. 'As with so much of the best charitable work,' Donaldson wrote, 'the focus was on sustainability: not just on helping those in need directly but providing them with the knowledge, skills and means to continue to support themselves.'

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With projects like this receiving support, the long term impact of last year's giving will resonate for years to come. Given recent history, donations made during Ramadan 2017 will be similar or in excess of those past. As in 2016, both Ramadan 2013 and 2014 saw donations estimated in the region of 100 million.

According to Third Sector, these numbers don't account for money donated to local mosques or non-Muslim charities. So even if the media do - as the above tweet disputes - report the amount Muslims give to charity during Ramadan, it is likely to be a conservative figure.
Almost from the first moment that the bomb exploded and the news spread through the city, the people of Manchester were proving a fundamental truth about humanity. It's a universal fact that often goes unreported and gets lost in the torrent of grim news.

There's a widespread belief - particularly among state security services - that disasters bring out the worst in people. Media teams search for proof that people routinely regress to selfishness, hatred, looting and savagery.

That's not what's happened in Manchester.

"Choose love, Manchester," said poet Tony Walsh to thunderous applause from the thousands who gathered in the city's central Albert Square. "This is a place where we stand strong together," he wrote in an ode - This is the place - to the city's spirit over the ages.

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"After last night's terrorist attack," said a BBC reporter on the scene, "the feeling I get here is that despite the terrible things that happened in the city last night, there is a real sign of togetherness and a real sign of hope."

David Walker, the bishop of Manchester, told the vigil that took place within hours of the bombing, "We are still grieving and we are angry, but we can direct those feelings in a positive direction . . . Love is always stronger than hate."

The Paradise Built in Hell

"The image of the selfish, panicky, or regressively savage human being in times of disaster has little truth to it," says author Rebecca Solnit in a study of major catastrophes worldwide. "In the wake of an earthquake, a bombing, or a major storm, most people are altruistic, urgently engaged in caring for themselves and those around them, strangers and neighbors as well as friends and loved ones," she says in her study, The Paradise Built in Hell.

Solnit studied both natural disasters, like the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and human catastophes like the Blitz, the Vietnam War and the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center.

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Her study of 9/11 concludes: "About 25,000 people in the towers aided each other in an orderly evacuation without which the casualty figures would have been much higher than the 2,603 that resulted . . . A spontaneously assembled armada of boats [at the southern tip of Manhattan island] conducted in a few hours an evacuation far larger than the fabled ten-day Dunkirk evacuation of the Second World War." Within the towers, she writes:

A thirty-five-year-old financier named Adam Mayblum escaped with several co-workers from the eighty-seventh floor of the north tower, just a few floors below the airplane. In an account widely circulated on the internet, he wrote about their descent down the staircases as things around them fell apart: "We could not see at all. I recommended that everyone place a hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them and call out if they hit an obstacle so others would know to avoid it. They did. It worked perfectly." Later in his email account, he added: "They failed in terrorizing us. We were calm. If you want to kill us, leave us alone because we will do it by ourselves. If you want to make us stronger, attack and we unite. This is the ultimate failure of terrorism."

We see it in Manchester

This is the same spirit, the same power of human beings coming together and helping each other in time of need, that we are seeing in Manchester over these days.

The city is a small version of the United Nations. Everyone, when asked about the city by reporters, talks about the diversity of the population. There are said to be 200 languages spoken in the city. It also offers a rich mosaic of faiths, with churches and synagogues in the same parts of town as mosques and Sikh gurudwaras.

"As a Sikh, we are meant to help the community when it's needed," said AJ Singh, a taxi driver who spent hours offering his cab freely to anyone who needed it. He placed a "Free taxi if needed" sign in his cab and helped ferry the injured to help. "We should come out and show whoever has done this that it doesn't matter because in Manchester we're glue and we stick together when it counts," he said.

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Countless others rose to the occasion, bringing supplies to the hospitals, bottled water to the police, offering their homes to anyone needing a bed for the night.

"First thing I did was get myself up and straight to the blood donor [clinic] in Manchester and donate my blood," said one. Hundreds joined her in the long line of volunteers arriving at the clinic.

We see it everywhere

In fact, if we think back over all the heartbreaking news we have watched -- whether it is the nightmare of the fighting in Syria and Yemen, the tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Japan, the refugees risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean, or the innumerable human tragedies we see unfolding - there is almost invariably a spontaneous outpouring of human solidarity. It is more than sympathy or collective panic. It is not limited solely to family, friends or neighbours.

"Within minutes following most domestic disasters, thousands of people begin to converge on the disaster area and on first-aid stations, hospitals, relief, and communications centers in the disaster environs,' wrote Charles Schultz, a former soldier who went on to lead a ground-breaking study of disasters at the University of Chicago in the late 1950s. What he identified became known as the phenomenon of convergence. "Movement toward the disaster area usually is both quantitatively and qualitatively more significant than flight or evacuation from the scene of destruction."

Among the huge number of young people at the Manchester Arena concert were the two daughters and two nieces of Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram. He praised the "spontaneous acts of ordinary people" of Manchester following the attack.

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More than 1,000,000 has been raised for a fund to help support the families in the aftermath of the attack - already exceeding the target set by the Manchester Evening News.

Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, said the efforts of the community, showed "the true spirit of our city in the face of such devastating tragedy. They responded in the best possible way with generosity, with kindness, that was I think humbling," he said. "And I think that sends a message to the whole world about what kind of people we are."

His words echo those of Martin Luther King Jr, speaking in some of the darkest days of the civil rights struggle in the United States:

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
Robert Ingelhart via Getty Images

I wish GovTech existed 25 years ago. It would have been a natural "home" for me when I first joined the government (of India) in the early 90s, after a degree in Computer Engineering.

Unfortunately, the only tech I remember from my first job at a desk in an old colonial-era building in New Delhi was an ageing PC with a floppy disk drive and a monochrome CRT monitor that seemed to flicker erratically during cold winter evenings.

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"GovTech*" was not a word back then. Today of course it is very much a "thing".

Why does it matter? It matters because GovTech has the potential to fundamentally transform government and public services and shake up the usually passive relationship between citizens and public authorities. GovTech can help public services become what they should be: agile, responsive and flexible. It could streamline them, make them measurable and accountable. Above all, GovTech can fundamentally alter the way citizens and governments interact with one another, leading to a more open, transparent and participative political system. This is the biggest promise of introducing technology in public services and in government processes.

Not surprisingly this is leading to some serious interest from policy makers (and, consequently, investors ). Singapore, for instance, has a Government Technology Agency that promotes user-friendly applications such as "OneService" - an app for accessing municipal services and "MyResponder" that helps direct emergency services to where you are through your smartphone. US has an "Open Government Plan" while the UK is committed to be "the most transparent government in the world" and then there's "Aadhaar" - India's mega-project establishing identity rights, which has become one of the most ambitious GovTech projects globally that has been successful at scale.

At its simplest and most basic level, GovTech can dramatically reduce friction and the costs of searching, locating and accessing public information and government data. The best of such technology however goes several steps beyond this - from helping citizens interact with their government/local authorities in real time to providing a range of community services that include consultations with residents on development projects, collaboration among residents to improve their local areas or community platforms to reduce waste and share things, even food.

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GovTech is also a powerful catalyst for open government. While it has been possible to access government data previously (or at least certain parts of it, via tools like FOI in UK or RTI in India, these tools do not really make for an "Open" government or "open decision-making". At best, they "open up" government or decision-making rather than making decision-making collaborative or participative.

In contrast, "Open Government" is transparent by default (excluding certain areas of national policy, of course). The transparency extends to decision-making too. More importantly, citizens and the public even have access to the same information that led to a decision by authorities. Such transparency with regards public expenditure and budgeting data can be a powerful tool ensuring oversight of public finances. Even simple measures such as publicising the cost and time spent on projects has a ripple effect throughout the system. In the end, this creates accountability and leads to better decision-making.

Such technologies and platform also create a more participative political system and better informedcitizens. They help foster trust among communities and can have significant long-term effects on public well-being and efficient government spending. This is the promise of GovTech.

All the tech in the world however cannot lead to any meaningful change unless citizens enthusiastically participate and push for such openness. This is where CivicTech comes in, specifically applications that encourage social engagement and community participation or applications designed to make it as easy to engage with authorities and collaborate in decision-making as sharing a post on any of the social media platforms.

There are of course privacy and security issues involved - including the risk of cyber-attacks, cyber-sabotage and identity theft - but these should not deter us from the enormous potential of opening up government and making it more transparent, engaging and participative.

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This is what can truly move the power equation between government and authorities and the general populace. That would be GovTech's real dawn.

--
Plan International UK

Women in the UK still feel uncomfortable and embarrassed talking about their period with friends, family and work colleagues. A sad fact, perhaps, but one that I'm sure almost every woman can relate to.

Every month, women will hide their tampons, slip them up their sleeves as they go to the bathroom, suffer in silence when the cramps start and avoid talking about how menstruation is affecting their mood and how they're feeling for fear of being judged.

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Despite hundreds of millions of women and girls around the world experiencing the completely normal biological process, the stigma surrounding periods is suffocating.

That's why this week, ahead of Menstrual Hygiene Day on Sunday, Plan International UK is addressing the need to normalise periods by calling for an emoji - the popular digital icons used on phones worldwide - which can be used by women and girls when talking about their period on social media and messaging apps.

When you can find an emoji for pretzels and pianos, why not for periods? I'm fairly sure the average British woman has more periods than she does pretzels. Meanwhile, there are four different emojis for bicycles - but not a single one for something that happens to half of us, every month, for a huge portion of our life.

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A recent poll we commissioned found that two thirds of women don't feel comfortable discussing their period with their dad or male friends, more than one in ten women don't feel comfortable talking about it with their female friends and a quarter won't talk to female colleagues at work about menstruation. In 2017, we think this is pretty shocking.

So, to help bust the taboos that still exist around periods, we've has designed five icons that will be put to the public vote on social media. The winning designs will be submitted to the California-based consortium that manages the distribution of emojis worldwide.

When we asked them, nearly half of women aged 18-34 said they would use an emoji if there was one available. We've got comedian Katherine Ryan and actor Sharon Horgan who will each back their favourite emoji too.

Whether we like it or not, emojis have become a hugely important part of the way we communicate, especially among young people. Ambrin, 14, is part of

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Plan International UK's Youth Advisory Panel, she told us: "There are already emojis that represent most parts of everyday life, so a period emoji would send the message that periods are just normal."

But globally, too many people aren't getting that message. Across the world people still view menstruation as dirty and shameful, and it has a damaging impact on the lives of girls. Many miss school because they face bullying or unfair treatment, or experience infections due to a lack of menstrual hygiene education and products.

In India, only 12 per cent of girls and women have access to sanitary products. The rest rely on materials such as old, dirty rags, newspaper, leaves, dirt, and other unhygienic materials that often lead to infection and embarrassment because of leaks and odour.

While in Uganda, nearly a third of girls don't go to school when they have their period, which accounts for a fifth of the whole school year. We're working to provide girls with private latrines, water for washing, and access to locally appropriate sanitary products to reduce school drop-out rates.

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Of course, we're not saying that an emoji will solve all of these problems. But if it helps drive conversation, then that's a start.

Changing perceptions around periods is challenging, but creating a period emoji helps women and girls to talk about menstruation more freely - surely that can only be a good thing.
Tara Povey

Have you ever heard people talk about hell on earth? It conjures up images of a dry, arid wasteland where the heat rises off the ground and scorches your skin. A place where only dangerous creatures can thrive. A place where humans weren't meant to survive. Well, what if it wasn't so bad? Trust me, I've been. Today, in partnership with British Airways, I'm going to tell you about my favourite holiday moment which began in a rather unlikely location and ended with an even more unlikely perfection of timing.

Death Valley

In 2016 I landed in LAX with my boyfriend. He had convinced me to skip my life long dream of visiting Yosemite National Park in favour of the often over-looked Death Valley National Park (in fairness, the name is a bit off-putting). If I'm being honest, I hadn't done my research. I wasn't expecting much. Google image search was really as far as I gotten. Friends informed me that Furnace Creek in Death Valley is officially the hottest place on earth. Delightful. Did I mention that I basically turn into a monster when I get too hot and sweaty? Oh and I'm Irish, so I'm nearly translucent. Just as well we were visiting in February when the average temperature is around 23 degrees C. In July temperatures can top 50 degrees C. I'm melting just thinking about it.

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We picked up our rental car and drove nearly four hours to Panamint Springs near the entrance of the park. Already the landscape was absolutely incredible and nearly completely devoid of any sign of life. We followed empty roads winding along the edges of rusty orange canyons as US fighter jets practicing manoeuvres raced us to the bottom and into Star Wars Canyon. Yep, you heard me. Scenes from the original Star Wars movies were filmed in Death Valley national park. Now that I think about it, that could be my boyfriend's REAL motive for suggesting Death Valley in the first place.

When we reached our camping site I was greeted by two buildings and a spattering of white tents. I walked towards the small, slightly scorched, diner. It was the kind of building that looked like it had seen one too many sandstorms but would probably survive to see a few more. My boots were covered in dust within minutes. I was about to grab a table when I ran into the Road Runner. You know, that giant blue bird from the Looney Toons?? Well, I met him. He's a lot less colourful in real life, and smaller. And not once did I hear him utter anything even resembling "Beep Beep". Yet, I was completely starstruck. My inner child was absolutely living the dream. I had climbed inside my childhood TV and joined the Looney Toons in real life. Quickly I checked the cloudless sky for a falling anvil. How had I not known that Death Valley was the home of the roadrunner?! Now all I needed was to find myself his coyote counterpart.

That night we sipped iced tea and watched stars shooting across the most dazzling night sky I've ever witnessed. Zero light pollution meant thousands and thousands of sparkling stars above our heads. I was starting to get why my boyfriend had been so adamant about Death Valley being the perfect holiday spot.

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The mystery

The next day we hopped in the car and headed towards Furnace Creek. Warnings along the road cautioned us to turn off our air conditioning to prevent the car from over-heating. A battered wooden sign pointed to a tiny dirt road leading to an abandoned ghost town. I felt like I was living in an old time western. The urge to explore was overwhelming. As we descended deeper into Death Valley we started to notice bright yellow flowers popping up in clumps across the desert. The further we drove the hotter it got and the more flowers appeared until it got to the point where the entire desert looked like a giant field of wildflowers. We watched as people pulled over and used large, expensive-looking cameras to snap seemingly endless streams of photos. I looked at my boyfriend and said " I like flowers as much as the next person, but once you have one photo, how many more could you possibly need?!". He shrugged and we drove on in bewilderment. What was so special about these wild flowers? Had these people never seen flowers before? Was it a particularly unusual type of flower? I didn't know. But the more I thought about it the more those dainty yellow flowers impressed me. They were not just surviving in one of the harshest environments on the face of the earth, they were THRIVING. These little plants were not as delicate as they looked. They had persevered through great adversity and now it was their time to shine. It reminded me a lot of where I was at with my blog and my life at the time. Suddenly photos didn't seem like such a silly idea.

We pulled over at the Artist's Palette, an area of bright colour on the face of the Black Mountains. My boyfriend started to explain the geology behind the different rock colours (he does that). Something to do with oxidisation and volcanos. I worked my way closer to the brilliant flowers, stepping over side-winder rattlesnake tracks cut into the sand. This was an alien world. My tshirt stuck to my chest with sweat, my skin was already starting to burn, but I was in love. Every dry breath, every bizarrely shaped joshua tree, every deserted valley; this landscape had stolen my heart. I crouched down to capture a photo of the flowers with the Artist's Palette in the background. I'm so glad to have the memory of that moment.

And guess what guys?! As we drove back to the campsite that night Mr Wile E. Coyote finally made an appearance, right in the middle of the road. He stared me in the eye as we slowly cruised by. Tumbleweeds rolled past behind him and I thought again about how otherworldly Death Valley National Park truly was. I could have spent weeks there exploring the hiking trails, watching the sunset over the dunes without a single other person around and being amazed by how much life was supported by a place where death was in the name.

Mystery solved
We are living in an increasingly globalised world. Today, money and trade is flowing freely across many borders, as is knowledge and skills. Globalised and diverse classrooms and educational spaces have now become the norm. And top universities are now expected to prepare graduates for what is a globally competitive job market.

I came to the UK due to, what I perceived, was an impeccable reputation and long and prestigious history of quality education. I expected to come to a country that was proud of this reputation, opening its doors and classrooms to eager learners from around the world. But since my first year as a student in the UK, my confidence in the UK Higher Education system has been gradually eroded. I began to see successive anti-international student policies being introduced that make life harder for students like me. I now question whether the politicians calling for these policies actually understand the scale of the damage they are creating.

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The UK amounts to 11% of the global market share in international education. This makes the UK the 2nd highest destination after the United States, which has a global market share of 22%. The latest figures estimate that international students contribute over 11billion per year and provide 170,000 jobs to the UK economy and education sector.

But despite all this, the recently published Conservative manifesto does not seem to reflect the importance of international students to the UK. Instead, we are hearing that the Conservative manifesto commits to cutting net migration figures to the tens of thousands, a target they are still far off. In addition to this, the manifesto reaffirms the inclusion of international students in the net migration figures. This, by default, would mean that a Conservative government would be looking to reduce the numbers of international students in order to meet their unrealistic target.

My question to Theresa May is: How can you expect to reduce the number of international students in a global market that is expanding and growing? It's like telling a booming industry that it must continue to grow but without benefiting from a global market of trade or imports. This doesn't sound 'strong and stable', it is absurd!

All of the changes proposed are in the context of international students already facing an uphill battle - paying significantly higher tuition fees than UK students, but then we struggle to access proper academic or pastoral support. We know that international students face an academic attainment gap and that we struggle without access to culturally competent counselling. In addition to this this there is police registration, expectation of creating a biometric identity cards, attendance monitoring and paying an in increased NHS surcharge (which the manifesto pledges to raise even further).

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The benefits international students bring to the UK are cultural and social as well as economic. The presence of international students on UK campuses enriches the student experience and offers the valuable opportunities of an international education experience and increased intercultural awareness to home students who may not otherwise be able to experience them. A recent NUS report showed that the majority of UK students said their degrees would suffer if international student numbers dropped.

The prospect of a Conservative majority in the next Parliament may present numerous fresh challenges for international students. However, if we work together we can make changes for the better, improving international students' experiences while keeping Britain firmly in a competitive position in the global higher education marketplace.
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A couple say their "dream wedding" abroad has been ruined after they were booked into the wrong hotel by travel agents.

Gail Hattersley, 38, who has used a wheelchair for almost twenty years after being hit by a car, said she would only marry her boyfriend, Dave Watson, 45, if she could walk down the aisle.

They had planned to stay at the five-star Bavaro Hotel in the tropical sun of the Dominican Republic, which boasts "unforgettable weddings".

Mr Watson said: "Gail told me she wanted to be able to walk down the aisle. She was determined to walk again but she didn't know that she would. It's taken about 15 years."

After booking the trip, Ms Hattersley began to feel strong enough to walk on her wedding day and, fifteen years after first popping the question, she finally said yes.

But when they called to book the wedding at the Bavaro, they were told they were not listed as guests but were staying at its four-star sister hotel Punta Cana, which does not have a wedding licence.

"We booked this dream holiday and then we thought, 'why not make the holiday of a lifetime into a dream wedding?'", said Mr Watson.

"We thought we were getting a bargain. Instead they weren't giving us what we wanted at all.

"Gail is heartbroken, my daughter who was going to be our bridesmaid is too. They both cried when they found out it wasn't going to happen."

Now, instead of marrying on the beach on a backdrop of breath-taking scenery, the couple have to wed at Beverley Registry Office before flying out to the Dominican Republic in August for their honeymoon.

Thomson Holidays say the details of his original hotel were "clearly explained" at the time of booking but Mr Watson disagrees.

He said: "We put the deposit down and then we decided we wanted to get married out there, so when we went back in to ask about a wedding package, they told us we were in the different hotel and didn't have access to the five-star facilities."

After complaining to Thomson Holidays head office, the firm rearranged the couple's trip so they could stay in another hotel where they could at least renew their vows. But Mr Watson says this gesture is too little too late.

"We're very upset at the whole process," he said.

"This has been more than 15 years in the making. Gail is devastated and I'm angry at how we've been treated and our dream wedding's been ruined.

"It was just going to be us and our daughter celebrating a special time. Getting married here is not what we wanted."

A spokeswoman for Thomson Holidays said: "We're sorry to hear that Mr Watson is unhappy with his booking experience.

"All details of his original hotel were clearly explained at the time of booking by our retail team, however as this is a special occasion the team have rearranged his holiday and as a gesture of goodwill, have waived the amendment fee.

"As his new holiday has a higher price, Mr Watson is required to pay the difference as per our terms and condition. Our customer service team have also arranged for a gift in resort for Mr Watson and his fiancee and would like to wish them well for their celebrations."
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A Hull police officer has been dismissed from the force after being convicted of being drunk and disorderly.

Gordon Underwood, who was a member of Humberside Police's licensing team, also admitted obstructing three fellow officers when he appeared at Hull Magistrates Court in March.

Today, he was dismissed without notice by Temporary Chief Constable Garry Forsyth after a misconducting hearing at the force headquarters in Priory Road.

Mr Forsyth said: "He fell far short of the standards that are required of a police officer."

He ruled there had been a "clear breach" of the conduct standards laid down in law for all police officers to follow.

The hearing was told PC Underwood, who had been an officer for 15 years, was off-duty at the time of the incident in February.

Force solicitor Sarah Middleton said the convictions were serious enough to justify dismissal.

She said PC Underwood had been arrested near the city centre on February 15 after officers had been called to an address.

He was fined 300 by the court for the obstruction charge and ordered to pay 85 costs. He was also ordered to pay a 30 victim surcharge. No separate penalty was issued by magistrates for the drunk and disorderly charge.

Ms Middleton said PC Underwood, who had a previously unblemished record, had accepted breaching the official standards of professional behaviour for police officers by his conduct.

She said: "The public of Humberside Police have a right to expect high standards from officers. PC Underwood's convictions for these offences undermines public confidence in the police and discredits the police service.

"The conduct of the officer amounts to gross misconduct and the public interest we say should cease to be a police officer without delay."

PC Underwood did not attend today's hearing. Instead, he was represented by the Police Federation's Ian Spain.

Mr Spain confirmed PC Underwood fully accepted breaching the standards rules and the allegation of gross misconduct.

No mitigation evidence was heard today, although Mr Spain said private written submissions had been presented as part of the disciplinary process.

PC Underwood had been a leading figure in the campaign to improve public safety in bars and clubs in the city centre through the roll-out of plastic glasses.

Aimed at reducing the number of serious eye injuries caused by traditional beer glasses, it resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of serious injuries being treated in hospital.

In 2010 he told the Mail: "We show a 52 per cent reduction in glassing injuries in the city centre since their introduction, which is falling each year with the introduction of more polycarbonates at more venues.

"The scheme has been a great success. It has prevented people being seriously injured and saved millions of pounds."

As part of the police licensing team, he also led a number of investigations into smuggled counterfeit cigarettes being secretly stashed and sold from shops in the city.
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EMBARGOED

The Humber region last year benefited from the highest number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in almost two decades.

But experts warn post-Brexit uncertainty could put the breaks on future growth - unless action is taken now.

The surge in investments throughout 2016 was led by manufacturing projects, including the expansion of Siemen Gamesas turbine plant at Green Port Hull, new warehousing for DPD in Goole, a new state-of-the-art factory for laser technology firm Rofin Sinar in Hessle, and Solar 21s biomass power plant in Tansterne.

Financial and business services and retail and hospitality also featured prominently on the list of foreign investments  the majority of which originated from the European Economic Area (EEA).

The research, which was carried out by EY, uncovered 98 FDI projects across the Yorkshire region as a whole in 2016, eight of which were in the Humber.

Suzanne Robinson, EY's regional senior partner, said: The work that has taken place to position the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside as a strong investment location in the global marketplace is starting to pay off. These figures show that the international investment community has seen the potential in the region, with its access to the right skills, infrastructure and strong supply chain networks.

Manufacturing in particular has seen strong growth in this region. This is not just from factories; the Yorkshire and Humber region attracted four HQs, four logistics facilities, three testing centres and two training centres in 2016, demonstrating the strength and diversity of skills available in this region to foreign investors.

"However looking beyond manufacturing, the number of software projects in this region fell from six to two, and research and development (R&D) projects fell from five to just one, which clearly defines a need to focus more resources in these areas in the future.

But while the figures paint a rosy picture for future growth, more than half (51 per cent) of the projects were announced before the EU Referendum vote in June, fuelling fears leaving the European Union could hamper the UKs economic prospects.

This is backed up by the number of investors with a negative view of the UKs medium-term foreign investment prospects, which has almost doubled since March last year.

Mark Gregory, EYs chief economist says: The research suggests that the EU Referendum vote and its aftermath may be having an influence on global perceptions of the UKs medium to long-term attractiveness.

"Western European investors are twice as negative as Asian and North American investors.

Decisions on the majority of investments made in 2016 would have been made up to three years ago, which helps to explain Yorkshires  and the wider UKs  solid performance last year, but signs of a slowdown are on the horizon.

Ms Robinson said while in the short-term the outlook for FDI remained strong post-Brexit, a number of indicators suggest the medium to longer-term outlook was likely to be challenging.

She said: What is clear, is that the UK has a short window to act. On a positive note, across the North of England in particular we have a solid base to build from, with globally renowned strengths. A rapid response and clear strategy can help strengthen our position for inward investment from all parts of the globe."
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From Disney inspired bags designed to look like teacups, Primark is getting familiar with frenzied customers.

And the store has once again caused excitement thanks to a low-priced item in its make-up range.

The retailer took to Instagram to launch its new 'Bronze' collection, which includes make-up, nail varnish, highlighters and body powder.

But the product that's really got people talking is the new eyeshadow and highlighter palettes.

Some social media users are even comparing the budget beauty items to those stocked by leading beauty brands, such as Urban Decay's NAKED palettes, the Liverpool Echo reports.

The good news for Primark fans, however, is that its version is priced at just 4.

After the store enjoyed huge success with the likes of its gingham dresses, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the 'Bronze' collection flying off the shelves equally as quickly at the Hull store.
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The former partner of a man who terrorised Hull during a 90-minute armed crime spree has spoken about the years of violent abuse she suffered at his hands.

The woman says she is lucky to be alive as Ioannis Bougioukas came to her home the night he went on a rampage across sections of Hull, which saw him try to sexually assault a 14-year-old girl he tried to sexually assault after jumping out of a bush and holding a gun to her head.

He also, with an unidentified accomplice, attempted two carjackings and robbed, or tried to rob, people in the street while armed with a "fearsome" handgun. He was only thwarted as police were nearby on an unrelated matter.

Much to his former partner's relief, Bougioukas, 30, has now been jailed for 14 years after a judge at Hull Crown Court ruled he was dangerous and posed a "significant" risk to the public.

She said: "I am lucky to be alive. He came to my home and was trying to force his way in. He had a gun at the time. I saw police in the area and ran out to tell them. I don't know what would have happened if they hadn't been there."

The woman, 28, who does not want to be named, admits she had no idea what she was letting herself in for when she first met him.

She said: "I met him through a mutual friends and he was quite charming at first. We got into a relationship quite quickly.

"He was fine at the start of the relationship or so it seemed but, looking back, that wasn't really the case and all the signs were there.

"He was jealous. He moved in quickly and then started to separate me from my family and friends. We moved from west Hull where I had grown up and we lived in east Hull."

The relationship began to deteriorate but Bougioukas was determined to keep his grip on the woman.

She said: "He was determined to stay with me and wanted all my attention on him. He was emotionally and financially controlling.

"He bought two dogs which was a way of keeping me occupied so I wouldn't have time to do anything else. He would hit the dogs with shoes and computer keyboards, anything he could get his hands on.

"He started to smoke cannabis and started to try and blacken my name when I tried to leave. He would claim I was doing drugs which simply wasn't true. Eventually he turned violent on me. He strangled me and then threw me on the floor."

She said: "Luckily the violence didn't escalate although he did trap my arm in the door on a couple of occasions. But the emotional and financial abuse continued.

"If I wanted to see family or friends in west Hull he would make me walk all the way back to east Hull. He continually shouted at me and made me cry.

"He controlled all the money and I had to ask him for cash just to buy bread and milk. He was never happy unless all my attention was on him."

Eventually, the brave woman found the courage to leave Bougioukas but the problems didn't end there.

She said: "I eventually left and turned to Woman's Aid. I ended up staying in B&Bs.

"He told me he was going back to Greece which was a big relief but never did and even knocked on my door. Despite what he did to me I am surprised by what he did that night. I didn't expect that.

"He only started taking spice after our relationship ended. It would have been ten times worse otherwise."

Bougioukas, of Fleet Court, Exchange Street, west Hull, admitted attempted sexual assault, seven offences of conspiracy to rob, and having an imitation firearm with intention to commit robbery.

The spree began when Bougioukas confronted the 14-year-old girl near the former Endeavour High School in Beverley Road, west Hull, at 8.30pm on July 12 last year.

Holding the gun to her head, he said: "Give me a kiss. Your lips look so soft." She was able to run home and report it to her father after Bougioukas was distracted by a noise.

He also robbed a man of his mobile phone in Victoria Avenue, west Hull and tried to rob another man of his phone in Salisbury Street, west Hull.

He later attempted a carjacking as a lone female drove down Victoria Avenue before tying to rob a man on a cycle track near Beverley Road.

A short while later on the same night, he robbed a woman of her phone, cigarettes and lighter as she walked home with her husband in an alley between Southcoates Lane and Wynburg Street in east Hull and attempted another carjacking as a lone female drove down Laburnam Avenue in east Hull.

His former partner said: "I am happy now. I have been waiting to find out what would happen. I have been thinking of moving from Hull. That may still have to happen but at least I can stay here for now.

"I feel sorry for all the victims. It is awful what he did but I have an idea what they have been through."
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EMBARGOED

A thug with history of domestic violence repeatedly punched his partner until she was "seeing stars".

Gary Smith, 24, had spent the day rowing with his then girlfriend at their home when he punched her in the head and pulled her hair.

Helen Chapman, prosecuting at Hull Crown Court, said Smith and his partner then visited the home of one of Smith's friends, where the three of them drank vodka.

Smith had been behaving well towards his partner, but his mood suddenly changed when he accused her of flirting with his friend, said Miss Chapman

"He saw a message on his friend's mobile phone," said Miss Chapman. "He believed she was flirting with his friend."

Smith and his partner then left the home on foot, said the prosecutor. Once outside, Smith violently attacked his partner.

Miss Chapman said: "There was a flurry of punches to the face and head. She ended up curled up on the floor. She recalled seeing stars.

"He then grabbed her throat and told her to get up. He pulled her by her hair."

Seeing the police, Smith told his partner to run. The pair became separated and she hid.

"She saw the defendant talking to the police," said Miss Chapman.

The victim later went to Hull Royal Infirmary having suffered for two black eyes, cuts to the left side of her face and bruising to her neck.

A witness to the attack recalled Smith telling his partner, "You are trying to flirt with my mate," the court was told.

Smith, of Homethorpe, Orchard Park, north Hull, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He had 30 previous convictions.

In 2010, he was convicted of common assault for punching another girlfriend to the back of her head. That same year he was also convicted of wounding a woman with a knife. It is not known if he was in a relationship with that vicitim.

And in 2013, CCTV captured him assaulting another partner by punching and headbutting her.

Richard Thompson, for Smith, said his client was "taking steps to address his problems."

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC, Recorder for Hull and the East Riding, said Smith, following a guilty plea, could have expected a nine-month jail sentence, half of which he would serve behind bars.

However, Judge Richardson QC noted Smith had already served four months on remand, meaning an immediate term of prison would result in his release "today or in the very near future".

Instead, he handed him nine-months in jail, suspended for two years, allowing the judge to "keep a close eye" on Smith.

Smith must also complete 50 days of rehabilitation, namely completely the Building Better Relationships programme, and attend regular "reviews" with Judge Richardson QC.

He told Smith: "Men like you who attack women, frequently their partner or former partner, must expect, when violence is inflicted, to be sent to prison and be punished. It is a serious crime. It is reprehensible conduct.

"Let there be no mistake, this case would ordinarily attract an immediate custodial sentence to mark the seriousness of the case.

"Believe you me, if you step out of line you will be in very serious trouble. You will go straight to prison for a very long time. I am giving you a real lifeline."
Jason Bean valued being able to become bowl eligible with Kansas
Superior Court Briefs: May 22 - May 25

Cases heard before Judge Edward McDonough on Monday, May 22.

Joshua Stimpson, 30, of Pittsfield pleaded guilty to single counts of possession of heroin with intent to distribute -his second offense - and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

He was ordered to serve concurrent three and a half to four years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction.

The charges stem from a motor vehicle stop in North Adams on June 27, 2016.

Cases heard before Judge Edward McDonough on Tuesday, May 23.

Francisco Reyes, 37, of Pittsfield was found guilty on three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, and two counts of rape of a child with force.

He was ordered to be held at the Berkshire County House of Correction without bail until sentencing. On Thursday, Reyes was sentenced to 10 to 12 years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction on the rape of a child charges and given concurrent nine to 10 years in state prison on the others.

Reyes sexually assaulted a girl now 15 years of age in Pittsfield between November 1, 2014, and July 1, 2015.

Cases heard before Judge Edward McDonough on Thursday, May 25.

Courtney Tatro, 22, of Clarksburg pleaded guilty to single counts of possession of heroin with intent to distribute and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Tatro was ordered to serve one year at the Hampden County House of Correction Chicopee Woman's Facility on the possession of heroin charge and given a one-year suspended sentence and placed on probation on the conspiracy charge.

The charges stem from a motor vehicle stop in North Adams on June 27, 2016.
Memorial Day Events 2022

Below is a list of Memorial Day parades and ceremonies that will be updated as the information becomes available; only starred entries are confirmed. All events are on Monday, May 30, unless otherwise noted. Holiday closings can be found here. Please note that confirmed events are marked with an asterisk; those not marked are based on past observances.



*Adams

The parade will step off at 10 a.m. from the Memorial Building and conclude with the traditional ceremony at the Maple Street Cemetery. The usual route will be followed: Columbia Street to Hoosac Street, Hoosac Street to Summer Street, Center Street to Park Street. Lineup begins at 8:30.

The American Legion Post 160 Honor Guard will participate. Music will be provided by the Hoosac Valley High School band and the Berkshire Highlanders. In the event of rain, the ceremony will be held in the Adams Fire Station.

Adams American Legion Post 160 will make its 88th pilgrimage to the Mount Greylock Veterans Memorial on Sunday May 29, 9 a.m. There will be a ceremony and firing squad and the laying of a memorial wreath in the rotunda. Following the ceremony, breakfast with be following in the lodge.



*Becket

The parade starts at 10:30 a.m. at North Becket Cemetery, ending at Ballou Park for ceremonies at 11. The Becket Praise Team will perform along with students from Becket Washington School. Lineup begins at 10.



*Cheshire

Parade steps off from the School Street at 1 p.m.; children wishing to ride their bikes in the parade should meet at Cheshire Elementary School at 12:30. Decorate the bikes with red, white and blue and wear a helmet. Bikers will join the parade as it passes on School Street. A ceremony will follow at the Cheshire Cemetery on West Mountain Road. Watch for traffic delays as the parade winds north on Main Street to West Mountain Road.



*Clarksburg

Peter A. Cook post 9144 and the town of Clarksburg will hold a service on Sunday, May 29, at 10 a.m. at Town Hall. Town Administrator Carl McKinney will be the main speaker, Clarksburg students will do readings and the Drury band and Clarksburg Volunteer Fire Company will be participating. Coffee and doughnuts will be served following the service. All veterans and the public are invited.

*Dalton

The parade steps off at 9:30 from the corner of North and Main Street to the Main Street Cemetery for a ceremony at the Mound of the Unknown Dead.

Participants include will include local and state officials, veterans groups, color guards from the VFW and American Legion, Boy and Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies, Explorers, Nessacus Middle School band, sheriff's department honor guard, cheerleaders, and Fire and Police departments.

In the event of rain, the ceremony will take place at Nessacus Regional Middle School.



*Egremont

Begins at 12:30 p.m. at the South Egremont fire station, and the parade marches to the village green, where a short ceremony will be conducted.



FloridaThe

The parade will begin at noon at the Adrian J. Poirot War Memorial gazebo. (This time is unconfirmed.)



*Great Barrington

The parade begins at 9 a.m. in Housatonic and at 11 a.m. in downtown Great Barrington. Parade participants in Housatonic should assemble at the firehouse. The parade will march to St. Bridget's Cemetery, where there will be a service. The parade in downtown Great Barrington begins at the corner of Main Street and Dresser Avenue, and proceeds to Town Hall, where concluding services will be held. Participants are urged to arrive early.

*Lanesborough

The ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 29, at Center Cemetery.

Lee

The parade is at 10 a.m.



*Lenox

The parade will begin at noon on Monday at the Church on the Hill and then proceed to the War Monument for a ceremony and conclude at St. Anne's Cemetery. Any veterans wishing to march should be at the Church on the Hill by 11:45. Veterans who may need a ride can contact Sean Ward at 413-822-4343.

*Lenox Dale

The parade sponsored by the Lenox Dale Fire Company will begin at 8 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park on Walker Street and will proceed to St. Vincent de Paul Church for a Mass conducted by the Rev. Msgr. John Bonzagni, pastor, for deceased and living veterans at 8:30. The parade will then continue through the village back to the park, where concluding services will be held.

*North Adams

Parade starts promptly at 10 at the American Legion and marches to the Veterans Memorial, where the ceremony will take place. In the event of rain, the ceremony will be moved to the American Legion.

The keynote speaker will be Navy veteran Jodie Pajak, alternate national executive committeewoman for the Massachusetts American Legion and past state commander. American Legion Post 125 Cmdr. Mitchell Keil will be master of ceremonies, Mayor Jennifer Macksey will bring greetings and the Rev. David Anderson of First Baptist Church will give the prayers. The Gettysburg Address will be given by Piper Jacobs, the recipient of the George O. Angeli Award and daughter of Ross and Tara Jacobs.

The Drury band will play selections and Noah Wilhelm and Kaylee Lescarbeau will play taps and Dennis St Pierre and Joseph Zustra will lay the wreath.

Parade participants include city officials, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 996, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 54, American Veterans Post 100, American Legion Post 125, Sons of the American Legion Post 125, U.S. Navy Armed Guard Association, Drury High School band, Boy and Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies, the VFW, American Legion and AMVETS auxiliaries, and North Adams Ambulance Service and any member of the military past or present who wishes.

Participants are asked to be at the American Legion at 9; coffee and doughnuts will be available beginning at 8:30.



*Pittsfield

The parade begins at 10, proceeding from City Hall to Fenn to North and Wahconah streets, then to Pittsfield Cemetery for the ceremony and will include veterans organizations, the Pittsfield High marching band and the Taconic High drum line, local and state officials, the Police Department honor guard, Fire Department, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and Pittsfield elementary children.

The guest speaker will be William Sturgeon; Arne Perras will be officer of the day, John Herrera master of ceremonies and the Rev. Douglas Mann of Berkshire Hills Baptist Church will give the prayer.

In case of inclement weather, the exercises will begin at 10 a.m. at Morningside Community School, 100 Burbank St.. Stay tuned to local radio stations and PCTV for information pertaining to weather-related updates.

Pittsfield Community Television (PCTV) will televise the ceremony on CityLink 1303 and PCTV Select available at PCTV.org . The ceremony will also be available on Roku and Apple devices, and the PCTV Facebook page.

*Monterey

Parade begins at 1 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park, followed by refreshments at the pavilion. A ceremony will be held at the park at 10:30 a.m.

*Otis

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, May 29, at noon at the Veterans Memorial at the town library. Prior to the ceremony, a small group of veterans will visit each cemetery in Otis and Sandisfield to pay respects.

Richmond

Marchers will assemble at the Richmond Firehouse at 7:30 a.m. and begin the march up Route 41 to the school, where a selectman will offer remarks at about 8 a.m. followed by a wreath-laying ceremony. The school's marching band will play for the parade and ceremony and the third-grade singers will perform at the school.



Sheffield

March begins from the village green in Ashley Falls at 8 a.m. with observances at the Clayton Road cemetery; refreshments to follow at Trinity United Methodist Church. In case of rain, the ceremony will be inside the church.

*Stockbridge

Benediction, taps, firearms salute for veterans at the town and St. Joseph's cemeteries begin at 11, will include a riverside ceremony for those who died at sea at 10:45; the parade steps off at 12:15 from Town Hall. Ceremonies will also conclude at old Town Hall at 12:45 with guest and student speakers and music by the Berkshire Hills Chorus.

*West Stockbridge: Parade steps off from Congregational Church at 10 a.m. and goes to Town Hall for observances. Decorate bikes at the church beginning at 9:30. Hosted by the town's Parks & Recreation Department.

*Williamstown

The parade begins at 11 a.m. at the bottom of Spring Street marches to Field Park (intersection of Routes 2 and 7), where a traditional ceremony with guest speaker Wayne Soares will take place to honor fallen veterans.



Is your town having a parade or event not listed here? Let us know at info@iberkshires.com or post on our Facebook page.
Letter: Local History Destroyed

To the Editor:



Driving to work on Tuesday, I went a different route than usual. As I approached downtown north Adams I thought I was seeing things, The Arnold Printworks Dolls and Mill Children columns in front of Mass MoCA under the Route 2 overpass were gone.

They were a depiction of the essence of this city 120 years ago. When I arrived at Greylock Elementary School, I rushed to my computer to contact fellow artist and co-facilitator on the column project, William Oberst to inquire if he knew anything about their destruction. He answered immediately that he was as surprised as I. As the two artists that planned, led and completed these columns, we remain absolutely stunned.

So many questions ran through my head, Who would do this? Why would they do this? Why weren't we notified? What was the purpose of their removal? I then turned to the larger issue which became, would this have been done if we had been compensated for our work and not simply volunteered our time for 16 months and two summers to design, instruct and complete this project?

DownStreet Art muralists are compensated a small fee for their work. Bill and I and a former MCLA grad, Stephanie VanBramer, taught Greylock School after-school students the history of their city, the process of choosing appropriate images, enlarging of the images and proper painting techniques and care to complete these columns in a professional manner.

We began on the east side with the Arnold Printworks dolls, where we were approached by a Community Service Learning course from MCLA to offer training to Berkshire County educators and an opportunity to learn about our process. The east side columns were dedicated in 2012. The following spring, we began the creation of the west side, the same elementary students signed up and new students joined to participate in this once in a life time learning activity.

Our materials were funded by Community Service Learning grants that have since been absorbed and written in the NAPS district budget with the support of service learning by the district. Parents were educated by their children about the city's history after generations of residing in North Adams. Students learned about Child Labor and how Lewis Hine helped illuminate the country's understanding of using young children as laborers, and finally that Massachusetts was the first state to outlaw child labor due to these convictions.

This is now where the flavor of this destruction sits with me, as an educator I offered my knowledge, my time and energy to get as many citizens involved in what I thought was an incredible opportunity. I shared my enthusiasm for art and technique and the hope that someone would be touched by our work. We were constantly cheered and beeped as cars drove past at each stage of completion.

The students beamed, it confirmed my role as an artist and educator and my love of both. We brought groups of people together that never would have met, students became teachers to the adults that lead them everyday, simply because they had invested their time throughout the school year. Everyone involved in this project did it for the love of it not the notoriety, but because it spread the word and understanding of a huge piece of history of this region and city.

I vacillate between angry and sad now every day, but my heart goes out to the residents of the city. It is their history that has been erased again. Our paintings were beautiful and I will forever be proud of my involvement, but I am wounded by lack of integrity related to the decision to destroy a community project such as this. This level of callousness and disrespect is what permeates our world currently and I will continue to try to share the importance of taking the high road with my students regarding this and other issues that will undoubtedly arise in their lives in the future.

Christina King

Ms. King is an art teacher in the North Adams Public Schools.
Five things to remember about the new downtown parking system:

1. Always enter your license plate number - even for the FREE first 30 minutes.

2. On-street parking is $1 per hour; lot parking is 50 cents per hour. There are also nearly 400 free parking spaces on the city's side streets.

3. You can pay by coin, credit card, or by downloading the Passport parking app.

4. You do not need to display the parking receipt on your dashboard.

5. Parking is FREE on evenings and weekends!
Mt. Greylock Extended Care Facility Administrator Honored for Leadership

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The American College of Health Care Administrators honored Maria Craft, administrator of Mt. Greylock Extended Care Facility in Pittsfield, as a 2017 recipient of the ACHCA Eli Pick Facility Leadership Award. The award, named in memory of visionary ACHCA member Eli Pick, recognizes administrators whose teams have achieved dimensions of organizational quality that few others have been able to reach.



"I'm honored to receive this recognition, but the results we have achieved at Mt. Greylock Extended Care Facility are due to the hard work and dedication of every single team member here," Craft said. "We are a five-star Medicare rated facility and hold the Silver  Achievement in Quality award from the American Health Care Association, all with the support of the caregivers at Mt. Greylock Extended Care. Im grateful to all of them."



Fewer than 9 percent of facilities nationwide qualified, and Craft was one of 206 recipients who received the Eli Pick Facility Leadership Award. This award recognizes the administrator of record who provided leadership throughout the award year. Eligibility for this award is based on three years of skilled nursing facility (SNF) survey data, including the health, fire (life safety), and complaint surveys, as well as top quartile performance on designated quality measures. The criteria also included an 80 percent or greater facility occupancy and a three-year avoidance of a Special Focus Facility status.



Mt. Greylock Extended Care Facility is a nonprofit organization that has been caring for people in the heart of the Berkshires since 1987. Located in a wooded residential area less than a quarter of a mile from Berkshire Medical Center, Mt. Greylock Extended Care Facility provides top quality, personalized short-term rehabilitation, long-term skilled nursing care and respite care in a warm, homelike setting. Hospice services are available for compassionate end-of-life care.
Berkshires Jazz Announces Student Art Contest Winners



Estefania Rivera Cadvid

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Berkshires Jazz, which operates the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival and other events throughout the year, has announced the winners to its annual student art contest. The winning entry is an abstract watercolor by Estefania Rivera Cadvid.



The first-place painting will become the graphic symbol of the 13th annual Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, in mid-October.



The contest, which normally takes place during April, was conceived as a way to spread the interest in jazz to a broader part of the community, and draw attention to Jazz Appreciation Month. After a late start because of the burst water pipes that impacted the art facilities at PHS, this years entries are being exhibited at City Hall through the month of May.



The judges were charged with the difficult task of determining three winners, and five honorable mentions, and one special "judge's choice" award, which calls attention to work that  while not taking a prize - is especially deserving of recognition.



The judges were given no identifying information of the artists or their schools. Winning paintings include:



 First place: Estefania Rivera Cadvid


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This Isnt Our Last Love Letter



Dear Don Don,

Way back in 92



I walked into the room and knew



Never felt this way before



I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes



And the feeling grew



As I took a seat I knew



A love that would have my heart



Forever



I knew



Way back in 92





They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true



We were the exception to that rule



Our love had no where to hide



A spark set fire



As if this is how the universe started





I never doubted our love or what we could do



Together we grew



Forming a bond everlasting



That became our glue



My euphoria was YOU



Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared



For how fortunate we were :



to have and to hold

through sickness and in health

Til death do us part



Until we are together again



This isnt our last love letter



I love you with all my heart and soul



Yours forever,



Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow)





Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus.









A True American Hero

I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus.



I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years.



I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years.

But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us.

In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about.



Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle.

I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life.

I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life.

No one will ever do what he did.

I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO





David Jurist

IMUS IN THE MORNING

FIRST DAY BACK!
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Robert Pattinson has thrown his name into the Oscars ring following the premiere of new film Good Time at Cannes.

The heist thriller, which debuted last night (25 May), had screened to journalists earlier in the day who unanimously praised the Twilight actor's performance as not only "a career best" but the festival's pinnacle.

Directing duo the Safdie brothers and their cast received a rapturous response both before and after the premiere, with The Hollywood Reporter stating the crowd went wild before giving a six-minute standing ovation.

Whistles, cheering and yells of 'Great job!'and 'Bravo!' could be heard, and at the tail end of the film's six-minute standing ovation, a chant carried throughout the orchestra up to the balcony.

Another underdog emerged last weekend in the form of Adam Sandler whose performance in Noah Baumbach drama The Meyerowitz Story is also tipped for honours.
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Headliners at festivals in the UK felt considerably dull this year, but around Europe theres an absolute smorgasbord of talent lined up in some stunning locations  where the weather is almost certainly guaranteed to be better than it is in a muddy Somerset field.

With festival season right around the corner, were rounded up a few of the best and biggest festivals outside of the UK that are definitely worth considering. Get your passport ready!

Oya Festival

US jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington mesmerises the crowd at Oya Festival (Johannes Granseth)

Where: Norway

When: 8-12 August

Its quite a culture shock to arrive at Oya Festival if youre used to tramping around a field somewhere in the UK.

Set in the heart of Oslo in the beautiful Middelalderparken, Oya is one of Norway's biggest music festivals and consistently attracts a wealth of talent from across the board - from heritage rock to jazz to hip hop and grime.

This year Lana Del Rey is set to headline where she will undoubtably be performing material from her forthcoming album Lust For Life.

Also performing are *(deep breath*) Ryan Adams, Pixies, Sampha, BADBADNOTGOOD, Car Seat Headrest, Cosima, Sigrid, Young Thug, Mac DeMarco, The xx and Chance the Rapper, plus a wealth of up and coming talent from around the world.

For those who want to enjoy music and drinks while also feeling like they're being good to the environment, organisers at Oya have also been going to great lengths to make the event as green as possible: Oya was the first Norwegian festival to get the gold certification for organic food, by serving 97 per cent organic food to around 2,500 volunteers, 500 artists and 70,000 visitors.

On top of that, all of the festival waste is hand-sorted and recycled, saving 40,000 tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to the annual emissions of 15,000 cars). If this isn't a feel-good festival, we don't know what is.

Rock Werchter

(Rock Werchter)

Where: Belgium

When: 29 June-2 July

Four days of some of the best music from around the world.

Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, James Blake, Linkin Park System of a Down, Foo Fighters and Alt-J are headlining, then youve also got Lorde, Prophets of Rage, Agnes Obel, Mura Masa, Savages, Cigarettes After Sex, Royal Blood, Birdy, Dua Lipa, Jain, Bonobo, Milky Chance, Charli XCX, Jimmy Eat World, Glass Animals, Soulwax, Rae Sremmurd, Noname and Cage the Elephant. And that should be enough for anyone.

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Roskilde

(Christian Hjorth)

Where: Denmark

When: 24 June-1 July

Seriously, look at this years line-up. Just look at it. This is the epitome of something for everyone. Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, The xx, Moderat, Solange, Blink-182, Bonobo, Bryson Tiller, Father John Misty, Future Islands, Gucci Mane, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lorde, Nas, Royal Blood, Slowdive... it just goes on. Then you have the added bonus of it being set in absolutely stunning surroundings.

The great Glastonbury clean-up Show all 10 1 /10 The great Glastonbury clean-up The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA The great Glastonbury clean-up PA

And Roskilde isn't just a music festival  here the camping and socialising tend to take priority. Because the festival begins a few days in advance of the artist performances, you get a chance to settle in and make some new friends. One of the favourite activities is beer bowling  a Danish game that sees participants sit in camping chairs and try to knock over their opponents beer bottles.

Flow festival

(Samuli Pentti)

Where: Helskinki

When: 11-13 August

This leading boutique arts festival takes place in Finland's exquisite southern capital and will likely feel like a world away from what US and UK festival fans are used to.

Expect music from The xx, Lana Del Rey, Moderat, Young Thug, Vince Staples, Ryan Adams and Danny Brown. There are also stages for experimental music and the festival's renewed Bright Balloon 360 stage.

Primavera Sound

(Primavera Sound/Cecilia Diaz Betz)) ((Pic: Primavera Sound/Cecilia Diaz Betz))

Where: Barcelona

When: 31 May-4 June

Primavera has a huge role in supporting new music but still, every year without fail, manages to draw some of the biggest names around as well.

This year is no different. Primavera boasts one of the summers most impressive headline acts with Frank Ocean, Bon Iver and Montreal rockers Arcade Fire hitting the Barcelona stage. Other artists set to thrill include Run the Jewels, Solange, Teenage Fanclub and Slayer.

Capping the event will be a rare festival appearance from icon Van Morrison, whose renowned track Brown Eyed Girl will undoubtedly be a sun-soaked highlight.

NOS Alive

Where: Lisbon

When: 6-8 July

Were heading out to this festival in Portugal for its beautiful setting and the equally beautiful line-up, where The Weeknd, The xx, Foo Fighters and Depeche Mode are all performing.

Considered one of the best music festivals in the world, Nos Alive takes place at Passeio Maritimo de Alges in Lisbon.

Last year an Independent critic said its 10th anniversary line-up featured "the best headliners of any festival in Europe", with rare performances from Radiohead and Arcade Fire.

You might think that'd be hard to top, but this year is just as epic. Along with the aforementioned headliners you can also see Royal Blood, Glass ANimals, Warpaint, Ryan Adams, Blossoms, Savages, Benjamin Booker and Local Natives.

The festival site is 15 minutes from the beach and the first bands don't start performing until 3pm, which gives you plenty of time to fit in some surfing, swimming, or just lounging on the sandy beaches.

Melt!

Where: Grafenhainichen

When: 14-16 July

Die Antwoord, Bonobo, M.I.A, Sampha, Soulwax, Kamasi Washington, Glass Animals, Warpaint and Sohn are all performing at this great festival in Germany that offers a huge and rather refreshing selection of electro, dance and alternative indie acts.

The festival location will make you feel like you're on the set of Mad Max  its a former open-air mining operation that was nicknamed the city of iron thanks to the 30-metre cranes towering over the site.

This one might mess up your sleeping pattern for a while, but if you're a night owl then it's absolutely ideal.
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Liam Gallagher will play a charity gig in the wake of the Manchester terror attack, he has announced.

The former Oasis frontman and now solo artist is set to play the O2 Ritz on 30 May as part of his mini tour, with all proceeds donated to the Manchester Evening News' fundraising appeal.

Gallagher said he decided to donate all of the proceeds from the gig to "help pick people up".

Speaking to the MEN he said: "I just knew I had to. I'm not in it for the money. The gig was going to happen anyway and we all have to do what we can.

"I want to try and help pick people up. People like me, doing what we do, it's our duty to give people a good time."

He continued: "It's outrageous. Just so sad. What can you do? It's just f***ing out of order. There are kids and people dying all over the world. And for what?

"I'd gone to bed early - about 10pm - then got up in the morning to a text from my other brother saying what had gone on and I put the TV on. It's just unbelievable."

 Manchester crowd sing Oasis song after minute's silence

The Manchester date will launch Gallagher's tour which will see him play shows at Electric Ballroom in Brixton, London, plus performances in Dublin and Glasgow.

The full dates are:

30 May - The Ritz, Manchester - tickets

1 June - Electric Brixton, London - tickets

10 June - Olympia Theatre, Dublin - tickets

11 June - Barrowlands - tickets

He recently announced details of his first solo single 'Wall of Glass'. His debut solo record, As You Were, is set for release in October.
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Katie Hopkins is to leave LBC with immediate effect, the radio station has confirmed.

The announcement comes shortly after Hopkins said that a "final solution" was needed following the Manchester terror attack that killed 22.

The since-deleted post appeared to call for genocide, her use of "final solution" presumably referring to the Nazi genocide of millions of Jews in the Second World War.

"22 dead - number rising," she wrote on 23 May. "Schofield. Don't you even dare. Do not be a part of the problem. We need a final solution #Machester."

LBC told The Independent it would not be "commenting further [than the tweet below]".

Complaints were made to the Metropolitan Police about Hopkins' tweet, which she later said she stood by, but claimed the use of "final" was a typo, changing it to "true" in a new tweet.

Hopkins has consistently been referring to "Islamic terror" and "Islamic extremists" on Twitter, phrasing with implications to an entire religion that even President Trump has been conscious to try and avoid.

Though he used "Islamic" while campaigning, during his recent trip to the Middle East his speeches were on the threat of "Islamist terror" (though he misspoke in Saudi Arabia on Sunday and accidentally said "Islamic").

A spokesman for the Met said on Tuesday: "We can confirm that a complaint has been received by the Metropolitan Police Service on Tuesday, 23 May in relation to a tweet published on the same day.

 Katie Hopkins' most controversial moments

"As is routine, the allegation will be reviewed and assessed by specialist officers."

Last year, MailOnline, whom Hopkins still works for, was forced to pay 150,000 to a Muslim family whom she falsely accused of extremist links.

Donald Trump thanked Hopkins in December 2015 for her "powerful writing on the UK's Muslim problems", describing her as a "respected columnist".

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Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity Show all 4 1 /4 Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity A Jewish woman named Renee Rachel Black and a Muslim man named Sadiq Patel react next to floral tributes in Albert Square REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS

Hopkins achieved fame in 2006 on BBC show The Apprentice, but it was her outspoken and often controversial opinions that furthered her career.

In 2015, she hosted a talk show on TLC called If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World which was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings. Her subsequent LBC show aired on Sunday mornings between 10am and 12pm.

Her "final solution" tweet was not the first time she has referenced the Holocaust, previously saying of the House of Lords: "Frankly, I dont really mind if we seal up the room and gas the lot of them."

Hopkins is not a member of a political party, although, according to the Spectator, she has applied to join Ukip several times but has always been denied.

MailOnline and a representative for Hopkins declined to comment.

Update: Hopkins has indirectly responded to the news on Twitter
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An episode of Doctor Who set to air on 28 May has been edited out of respect for victims of the Manchester bombing.

The excerpt was removed from upcoming story 'The Pyramid at the End of the World', which the Radio Times reports makes passing references to terrorism.

While the discussion is part of a more general conversation about threats to Earth, the BBC decided that as a matter of sensitivity it should be removed.

A spokesperson told Radio Times: "Following the tragic events in Manchester, we have made a small episode to this week's episode of Doctor Who.

The remainder of the episode will not be changed and will air on its scheduled slot at 7.45pm on 25 May on BBC1.

The Manchester attack has resulted in several changes to TV, film and music schedules for the week.

Recommended Nicki Minaj responds to questions of cancelled tour after Manchester

On TV, new drama Broken was replaced on BBC1 by an episode of Blue Planet, while Channel 4 programme Ackley Bridge was edited to remove a hoax bomb plot storyline.

London premieres for Wonder Woman, The Mummy and Orange Is The New Black were cancelled in the wake of the attack.

Performances by artists including Take That, Blondie and Ariana Grande have also been suspended.
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Solar panels have set a new record for electricity generation, providing nearly a quarter of the demand.

As much of Britain basked in warm and sunny weather, solar produced some 8.7 gigawatts at midday on Friday, representing 24.3 per cent of the electricity being used at the time, the National Grid has revealed.

The previous record was set on 10 May when 8.48GW was generated by solar, which tends to peak at about lunchtime.

Duncan Burt, who is in charge of National Grids control room operations, where they match supply and demand, said: We now have significant volumes of renewable energy on the system and as this trend continues, our ability to forecast these patterns is becoming more and more important.

We have an expert team of forecasters who monitor a range of data, to forecast just how much electricity will be needed over a set period.

We have planned for these changes to the energy landscape and have the tools available to ensure we can balance supply and demand. It really is the beginning of a new era, which we are prepared for and excited to play our part.

Paul Barwell, chief executive of the Solar Trade Association, said this was the first time that solar has generated more electricity than nuclear with only gas supplying more.

This is a colossal achievement ... and sends a very positive message to the UK that solar has a strong place in the decarbonisation of the UK energy sector, he said.

Environmentalists also welcomed the news, saying it showed how important the sector was becoming to the UK economy.

Hannah Martin, Greenpeace UKs head of energy, said: Britain has just hit another milestone in its effort to harness the increasingly cheaper energy coming from the sun.

Todays new record is a reminder of what the UK could achieve if our Government reversed its cuts to support for solar and backed the clean technologies that could provide jobs, business opportunities and plentiful clean energy for decades to come.

All around the world, solar power keeps beating new records as costs come down and power generation goes up.

In the US, more people were employed in generating electricity from solar last year than from coal, oil and gas combined.

Britain cannot afford to miss out on the economic and environmental rewards of this energy revolution.

And Gareth Redmond-King, head of energy and climate at WWF, said: As we enjoy the sun, its great to learn that the UK just hit a new high for solar power generation.

Each record set by renewable power generation is another welcome milestone towards a cleaner, greener future for the UK.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

Solar power and other renewables are getting cheaper and more efficient as we install more of it around the country. And it doesnt just power our homes, but also our economy, with almost a quarter of a million people now working in the low-carbon energy sector.

Whoever forms the next Government after the election must prioritise a plan for reducing emissions from all sectors  electrifying our transport, and working towards more efficient homes and buildings  with eight out of 10 British people in favour of clean energy, it is not only what the country needs, but is also what it wants.
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Spain and Portugal could be hit by megadroughts lasting for many years by the end of the century, according to climate models.

If the worst projections are correct, the area could see a 15-year period of rainfall at less than half the average level.

Researchers from Newcastle University selected a total of 15 different climate models used by leading scientific bodies around the world, including Nasa, the Met Office and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology.

They found that, while the models produced a range of different results, extreme future droughts were predicted by ones which could accurately simulate what had happened in the past.

Portugal has been hit by eight major droughts since the 1940s, with the most intense taking place from 2004 to 2006.

Spain has seen three major droughts  the latest of which spanned 1990 to 1995  affecting most of the country, with rainfall reduced by up to 30 per cent, but has also experienced a number of smaller ones more recently.

The researchers examined the three main river basins of the Iberian Peninsula, the Tagus, Douro and Guadiana.

Writing in the International Journal of Climatology, they said: All models project an intensification of drought conditions for the Douro, Tagus and Guadiana.

However they strongly disagree on the magnitude of these changes.

Some project small increases in drought conditions but most project multi-year droughts reaching up to ... eight years of mean annual rainfall missing [over a 15-year period] ... by the end of the century.

Despite the fact that the two models projecting the most severe future drought conditions overestimated historical drought, extreme future droughts were also projected by models that simulated historical droughts with similar conditions to the observations.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke  filled with the carbon that is driving climate change  drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

A previous study found parts of southern Europe could become a desert by 2100, as global warming changes the ecosystem in a way that is without precedent in the last 10,000 years.

In October last year, scientists reported that temperatures in southern Europe had risen by about 1.3C since the 19th century, compared to the global average of 0.85C.
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Theresa May is asking the world's biggest countries to launch a crackdown on social media in an attempt to stop terrorism.

The prime minister will ask governments to unite to regulate what tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter allow to be posted on their networks. By doing so, she will force them to remove "harmful" extremist content, she will suggest to G7 members at a meeting in Italy.

The warning comes amid increasing pressure on internet and technology companies from the government. The Conservatives have promised to impose new regulation on the internet if they win the next election, and have repeatedly stressed that they will weaken security so that they can read messages in a move they claim will help fight terrorism.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

A senior Government official said she would be coming forward with a series of proposals for members to strengthen their hand by adopting a common approach to dealing with the industry.

While Mrs May will acknowledge the industry has been taking action to remove extremist content, she will say they have not gone far enough and need to do more.

Recommended May to create new internet controlled and regulated by government

She will argue that as Islamic State loses ground in its heartlands in Iraq and Syria, the threat from extremism is "evolving rather than disappearing", with the fight moving from "the battlefield to the internet".

"This sort of material being on the internet is obviously harmful. It has in the past been linked to acts of violence and the less of this material that is on the internet, that is clearly for the better," one official said.

The move reflects frustration among the security services at the way the internet continues to be used by violent jihadis to radicalise young people - and has been used as a recruitment tool by Islamic State to enlist them to join its ranks in Syria.

There are further concerns that detailed terror manuals - including instructions on how to build a homemade bomb - remain freely available online, even after the tech companies have been alerted to them.

A recent report by the Commons Home Affairs Committee warned that there was "a great deal of evidence" that these platforms were being used to spread "hate, abuse and extremism".

"That trend continues to grow at an alarming rate but it remains unchecked and, even where it is illegal, largely unpoliced. The evidence suggests that the problem is getting worse," it said.

The Prime Minister will say the industry has a "social responsibility" to take down harmful content and will call for the creation of an "international industry-led forum" to work through the issues.

Among the specific proposals, she will say companies should be encouraged to develop tools which automatically identify and remove harmful material based on what it contains and who posted it.

Mrs May will say companies need to block users who post extremist content and inform the relevant authorities when they identify harmful content so appropriate action can be taken.

She will also call for industry guidelines to be revised by the tech companies to make absolutely clear what constitutes harmful material, with those that fail to do so being held to account.

But with most of the companies based in the United States, it is unclear how far she will be able to enlist the support of President Donald Trump for her agenda.

The meeting in Taormina follows an intensely awkward Nato summit in Brussels on Thursday, when Mr Trump publicly berated those member states which failed to meet the alliance target of spending 2% of GDP on defence.

Mrs May has already made clear she intends to curtail her visit to the G7 in the wake of the Manchester attacks.

She is now expected to leave on Friday evening, missing the final day.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of breaching a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) by using Snapchat, in a landmark case.

David King had been banned from using any device incapable of retaining and displaying its internet history.

He originally denied breaching the SOPO, with his defence arguing that Snapchat did not prevent his LG phone from saving his browsing history.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Messages sent through the ephemeral photo- and video-sharing app self-destruct after theyve been seen by the recipient.

King admitted to knowing how Snapchat works, but claimed he thought his history would be retained somewhere.

However, he pleaded guilty this week after two experts explained that the content sent by King via Snapchat could only be viewed with the aid of specialist forensic software.

Communications will be routinely destroyed automatically, leaving no, or no significant, trace, said Judge David Griffith-Jones QC.

It's precisely the kind of application which offenders such as yourself, subject to restrictions, should conscientiously avoid.

Judge Griffith-Jones sentenced King to 10 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, on the basis [he] acted naively and recklessly rather than with malevolent intent. He is still subject to the same SOPO.

Its the first time a sex offender has been prosecuted in the UK for breaching a SOPO with Snapchat.

King left Maidstone Crown Court grinning and waving his arms jubilantly, according to the Telegraph.

The 27-year-old was given a suspended sentence of 16 months in prison in September 2013, for two offences of sexual activity with a child and two offences of possessing indecent photographs of her.

He was also banned from having unsupervised contact with under-16s and placed on the sex offenders register.

However, King was imprisoned in February 2014, having breached the terms of the order by contacting his victim five times and meeting her at his bail hostel.
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Donald Trump has attacked Germans for being bad, very bad and vowed to limit US car imports from the country.

At a meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday Mr Trump reportedly said: Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. Terrible. We will stop this, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing people who attended the talks.

Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised Germany's large trade surplus with the US, which he said hurts US manufacturers. In January, he threatened to hit German car imports with a 35 per cent tax.

If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, he told Germanys Bild newspaper in January.

"I would tell BMW that if you are building a factory in Mexico and plan to sell cars to the USA, without a 35 per cent tax, then you can forget that," Mr Trump said.

How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all  its a one-way street.

BMW chief executive Harald Krueger, later pointed out that his companys biggest plant worldwide is in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Shares in German car manufacturers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW fell slightly in Frankfurt trading on Friday.

White House economic advisor Gary Cohn defended the President's remarks.

He said they're very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany. He said his dad is from Germany. He said 'I don't have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade, Mr Cohn said on Friday.

Mr Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump had "tremendous respect" for Germany and was only commenting on the country's trade policies.

European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, who was at the meeting, dismissed the claims about Mr Trump's remarks, which he said had been exaggerated.

German media translated "bad" as "boese" which can also mean evil, which made the comments sound more serious when translated back into English.

"The record has to be set straight," Mr Juncker told reporters in Sicily ahead of the G7 talks..

"He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly.

 Donald Trump says Nato member states need to 'pay up'

"He was not aggressive at all and anyway we have taken the defence of the Germans," he continued.

"I was making clear that the US cannot compare their trade situation with individual member states of the European Union. They have to compare their performances with the global performances of the European Union and I made it clear that the commission is charged with trade issues and not the member states."

The closed-door meeting was part of broader talks among world leaders over defence, trade and the environment.

 Trump appears to shove fellow NATO leader

On Thursday, Mr Trump appeared to shove Montenegro's Prime Minister, Dusko Markovic, out of the way in a bid to get to the front of a group of Nato leaders - a moment which was captured on film.

He also attacked Nato members for failing to meet the military alliance's target to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence.

In the wake of the "barbaric" Manchester bombing, Mr Trump said two per cent was a "bare minimum" and that this should be increased to allow Nato to "stop terrorism in its tracks".

Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, one of Harvards most famous dropouts, this week returned to the Ivy League school to pick up his degree  albeit only an honorary one  12 years after quitting.

Mr Zuckerberg, one of the richest people in the world, also gave a commencement address to this years graduating class, praising students for accomplishing something I never could.

If I get through this speech, itll be the first time I actually finish something at Harvard, he said.

Mr Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his dormitory room in 2004. The social network was initially limited to Harvard students only. It later expanded to other Ivy League universities, before being rolled out globally.

Earlier this week, Forbes magazine named Facebook the worlds fourth most valuable brand. Mr Zuckerberg is the worlds fifth-richest person, with an approximate fortune of $64.2bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

In 2010, Time magazine named Mr Zuckerberg Person of the Year and Vanity Fair magazine listed him among its top 100 most influential people of the information age.

Like other tech entrepreneurs before him, Mr Zuckerberg has also become known as a philanthropist, pledging to direct tens of billions of dollars to a range of causes. He was studying computer science at Harvard before he moved to Palo Alto, in California, to run Facebook.

Bill Gates, currently the worlds richest human, dropped out of Harvard in 1975, which was the same year he co-founded Microsoft. Mr Gates received his own honorary degree from Harvard back in 2007.

Dame Judi Dench and composer John Williams were among the 10 other recipients of honorary degrees from Harvard this week.
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The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries may be celebrating a historic deal to extend supply cuts, but after the party, the organisation will face a trio of questions it left unanswered.

Will the lucrative yet delicate relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia survive the life of the agreement? Will surging US shale output prove too much temptation for Opec countries to stick to their own production promises? And, perhaps most perplexing: What does Opec have planned long-term?

The deal to maintain the cuts for another nine months, hammered out this week in Vienna, could expire in March with a return to Opecs pump-at-will policy that prevailed between 2014 and 2016 and pushed prices below $30 a barrel. Or the organisation could keep adjusting production.

Recommended Oil prices fall as Donald Trump plans to sell off reserves

What concerns me is that there is no clear messaging around the exit strategy, Ebele Kemery, head of energy investing at JPMorgan Asset Management, said. The way we look at the market going forward, theres going to be oversupply in 2018. Theyre talking about price stability. To get price stability we need to know what the endgame is.

Ms Kemerys concern over a lack of strategy appeared to be widespread. Brent crude fell 5 per cent to $51.24 (40) a barrel on the decision, wiping out most of the gains since Russia and Saudi Arabia publicly backed the nine-month extension last week.

Despite an admission that Novembers landmark agreement to limit output failed to eliminate the global oil glut, the commitment of two-dozen oil-producing countries did succeed in establishing a new floor for prices thats well above the lows seen last year.

Opec is settling in for the long haul, said Roger Diwan, an Opec watcher at consultant IHS Markit. I think well remain between $50 and $60 a barrel for the time being.

The agreement, which includes countries accounting for 60 percent of the worlds oil production, has already delivered for national budgets from Moscow to Tehran, as higher prices outweighed lower production.

This is a historic deal, it already was in November and now still more, said Jan Stuart, chief energy economist at Credit Suisse Now we have more confidence of a 2017 rebalance.

The extension to March prolongs a rare period of collaboration between Opec and some of its biggest rivals.

Alexander Novak, Russias energy minister, said the relationship between Opec and non-members of the cartel was at a pivotal moment.

The calculus may shift in 2018, testing the increasingly close cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia, according to Ronald Smith, senior oil analyst at Citigroup in Moscow. It may not be in the best interest of Vladimir Putins balance sheet to keep new oilfields on the shelf. The lost revenue would be felt mostly by state-owned Rosneft on projects scheduled to ramp up production in 2018 and 2019.

Rosneft, the state-owned champion, will have invested a lot of money in these fields that will be sitting idle if they continue to extend the agreement, Mr Smith said. The math is going to be more ambiguous going forward. At some point they may decide they need to take back some market share.

Also a contender in the battle for market share  and producers who didnt sign on to the Vienna agreement  are US shale drillers, who could benefit from this weeks deal.

Resurgent US production has meant oil inventories remain well above the level targeted by Opec ministers.

Analysts at energy consultancy group Wood MacKenzie said the deal extension would help US shale oil output accelerate to its fastest growth rate in years. In 2018, global oil inventories would increase by about 600,000 barrels a day in the first quarter, followed by about 500,000 each quarter for the rest of the year, the group said.

Theres still an oversupply to wrestle with, said Simon Flowers, chief analyst at Wood MacKenzie.

Even so, after more than two years of flip-flopping from market management to pump-at-will and back again, its not clear what Opec will do next.

As recently as March, the production ceiling was envisaged as a short-term prop to rapidly bring a glut of global oil inventories back to historically typical levels.

In March, Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih told an industry conference in Houston that the kingdoms policy was to manage output for a restricted period of time, with the aim of accelerating rebalancing, and then allowing the free market to work.

That is exactly what some fear, and Mr Falih did not dispel those concerns on Thursday, saying, This is not a structural intervention.

With the deal agreed to, Mr Falih said he expected Opec to achieve its goal of returning global oil inventories to their five-year average by the end of the year.

Both Saudi Arabia and Russia said after the meeting that they could take further action if the market situation warranted it.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Mr Novak said that the cuts could be increased or reduced if the market needed. Mr Falih reiterated his promise do whatever is necessary, including potentially extending the cuts beyond March 2018. Well cross that bridge when we get to it, he said.

If Mr Falihs optimistic outlook is correct, Opec may not need a clear exit strategy.

The exit strategy for Opec is, eventually, when the market is tight enough, start to cheat on the cuts, said Gary Ross, global head of oil at Pira Energy Group, part of S&P Global.

Bloomberg
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A group of diehard RBS shareholders, determined to see Fred Goodwin stand up in court, have refused to accept the banks offer of a settlement.

In a last-ditch attempt to avoid a case that would see the former chief executive take the stand, the state-backed lender has offered about 200m, or 82p per share held by investors.

About half of the 9,000 claimants in the case, including current and former employees, are understood to be among those who have not accepted RBS offer.

A further group of shareholders has already settled at 41p per share.

The claimants allege former executives gave a misleading picture of the bank's financial health ahead of a cash call in 2008. Months after the cash call, RBS had to be rescued by the government with a 45.8bn bailout.

Shareholder Neil Mitchell told the The Guardian that a hardcore group will not settle under any circumstances.

For many people, its never been about money, its been about principle and justice, and about seeing senior board members of the bank brought to trial, he said.

There are a lot of pensioners [among the claimants], many of whom are ex-RBS employees.

When they went to presentations by Goodwin, they werent just encouraged to put their bonus in, but to put their savings in, even to go and borrow money.

Thats why some people are diehards. But there are also financial institutions that feel the same way, that this should go to trial.

The case, which threatened at one time to be the largest and costliest in British legal history, originally pitted the bank against five main claimant groups, all but one of which have settled with the bank.

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Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. 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On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. 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Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. 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RBS doubled its offer to the remaining RBoS Shareholder Action Group on Monday in a bid to avoid a potentially embarrassing trial.

Some inside the shareholder group are keen to settle, while a few are more determined to force Mr Goodwin and his colleagues to defend their actions during the bank's ugly near-demise in 2008.

RBS, which remains more than 70 per cent state-owned, denies any wrongdoing over the 2008 rights issue and says its former bosses did not act illegally.
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The first Lego Professor of Play has been hired by Cambridge University, following widespread interest in what was advertised as a dream job role.

Professor Paul Ramchandani, an expert in child mental health for Imperial College, will lead a team examining the importance of play in education globally.

The leading psychiatrist also works for an NHS mental health trust in London, has treated severely mentally ill children and written ground-breaking research in the field.

Recommended Schools told to ditch textbooks and let pupils practise in science

His new post is sponsored by The Lego Foundation  the toy companys charitable division  and comes as part of a 4m grant given to the university to help establish the foundations centre for research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (Pedal).

Its research aims to ensure that children are equipped with 21st century skills like problem-solving, team work and self-control.

Professor Paul Ramchandani (Morris Zwi)

The professor of play will be the head of the centre, and is expected to earn around 84,000 per year  the average salary for a Cambridge University professor.

Commenting on the new role, Prof Ramchandani said: Everyone has an opinion about what role play should have in early education and there is some wonderful research, but there are also big gaps in our knowledge.

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We need the best evidence possible in order to inform the vital decisions that are made about children's education and development and I look forward to taking that work forward together with colleagues at Cambridge.

Researchers at PEDAL, based at the university's Faculty of Education, will work to devise and evaluate play-based teaching methods  an approach which education experts are placing increasing emphasis on and an important part of child development.

The team are to undertake a long-term study into how children are encouraged to play at home and school and how this benefits them, and what brain processes are involved in play.

Part of Prof Ramchandani's role will involve translating research into evidence for international and national bodies as they produce policy around children's right to play.

Professor Geoff Hayward, head of the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University, said: This is an exciting area of research which we feel will throw new light on the importance of play in early education.
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This week, the Education Policy Institute publishes a detailed assessment of what the three largest parties say about education in England.

School funding, and the budget pressures being faced by schools, was an issue already being felt in schools and Westminster alike. So it is not surprising to see significant commitments from all the major parties.

All are committed to reforming the funding system so that similar pupils receive the same funding wherever they are in the country. They also promise that no school should lose out in cash terms from this change  which ought to help secure political support.

Recommended Theresa May debates grammars evidence with education researcher

But the sums of money being offered beyond this vary considerably  Labour promise the most and the Conservatives the least. Under Labours plans for schools, real per pupil funding would rise by around six per cent in this parliament.

Under the Liberal Democrats the rise would be around one per cent. Under the Conservatives per pupil funding would fall by some three per cent in real term  in spite of a commitment to increase the schools budget by 4bn.

Extra money does not, of course, automatically lead to improved results. However, the current funding squeeze, combined with a one per cent public sector pay cap, is likely to lead to fewer teaching resources and greater problems with recruitment and retention of teachers.

While the Conservatives would continue the cap, both the Liberal Democrats and Labour are proposing to scrap it  this should help with recruitment and retention, but would clearly add additional costs.

Labour is promising to deliver more money beyond its schools pledges - a boost to education resources of over 25bn by 2021-22  one of the largest spending pledges in any manifesto in recent elections. What is more questionable is whether this money is well targeted.

Almost half is ear-marked for scrapping university tuition fees  popular with many but which is likely to have little impact on outcomes, not least of the most vulnerable groups of children, very few of whom go on to university. Labour has also made expensive pledges to increase the free childcare hours, cap class sizes at 30, and raise 16-18 funding.

UK General Election 2017 Show all 47 1 /47 UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. 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Rex UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 09: DUP leader and Northern Ireland former First Minister Arlene Foster (C) holds a brief press conference with the DUP's newly elected Westminster candidates who stood in the general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A " Get May Out" demo took place opposite the gates of Downing Street, calling for May to resign, after the shock election results and Mays coalition with the DUP. 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Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron poses for a selfie taken by carer April Preston during a General Election campaign visit to the Barlow Medical Centre, in Didsbury, Manchester Yui Mok/PA UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at an election campaign event in Wrexham, Wales Reuters UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour's former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, exit the party's general election campaign 'battle' bus as they arrive at an event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walks with supporters between venues, before speaking again at another general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 An anti-fox hunting protester is taken away and arrested by police outside the venue where Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was due to launch the Welsh Conservative general election manifesto at Gresford Memorial Hall in the village of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, on May 22, 2017. 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All of these policies will be popular with some groups, but the link between expenditure and improved outcomes is far from obvious. Labours spending relies on higher rates of corporation tax and of rates of income tax on high earners. Both these revenue sources come with considerable levels of risk.

The Conservatives focus far more on structural reforms than on money. They are looking to high performing education providers, such as private schools, universities, independent schools and grammar schools to lead the way to improved outcomes.

A problem with Conservative thinking is that it fails to recognise that these high performing institutions are also selective in some way - their results are generally inflated by their ability to explicitly or implicitly select pupils from richer families or with higher existing performance. Just because many universities or private schools have generally good results does not prove that they are well qualified to turn around some of the under-performing schools in very challenging neighbourhoods.

Nor is there much evidence that the Conservative plan to expand grammar schools will raise overall attainment or improve social mobility. EPI research shows that grammar schools raise attainment by a modest one third of a GCSE grade in each of eight subjects for those who gain admission. But it also highlights penalties for those children who fail to get a place, particularly in areas where there are many selective places.

Our evidence is also very clear that poor children are massively under-represented in selective schools. This is largely because by the time entrance tests are taken at age 11, 60 per cent of the attainment gap between poor children and other pupils has already arisen. Governments committed to social mobility therefore need to be intervening much earlier  in early years and primary schools  if they want to make a big impact.

In general, EPI research would suggest that parties need to pay more attention to targeting scarce resources where big impacts can be made, and should base structural reforms of the school system on evidence and not hunch. We also need as a nation to invest more thought in how to recruit, retain and develop high quality teachers and school leaders. The party manifestos generally have much less to say in this important area.

The political commitment by all parties to improving our education system, is very welcome. But all parties have more to do if their policies are to deliver world class education in Englands schools.

Jon Andrews is the Deputy Head of Research at the Education Policy Institute
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The hearts of people who live in polluted areas are weaker than those who regularly breathe cleaner air, according to a new study which adds to the growing volume of evidence that fossil fuels are killing us.

The researchers said they found evidence of harmful effects even when levels of pollution associated with diesel vehicles were less than half the safety limit set by the European Union.

This showed the current permissible levels of air pollution were not safe and should be lowered, a cardiologist involved in the study said. When walking on the pavement, people should stay as far away from the kerb as possible to reduce expose to exhaust fumes.

According to a recent report by the World Health Organisation, the mortality rate attributed to air pollution in the UK is 25.7 per 100,000 people, compared to just 0.4 per 100,000 in Sweden and 14.7 per 100,000 in Spain.

According to a government estimate, about 40,000 people die prematurely because of the air they breathe.

In the new study, researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the hearts of 4,255 people with an average age of 62.

The size and function of parts of their hearts were then compared with the annual average level of fine particles of pollution, known as PM 2.5, at their home address.

Dr Nay Aung, a cardiologist at Queen Mary University of London, said: We found that as PM2.5 exposure rises, the larger the heart gets and the worse it performs.

Both of these measures are associated with increased morbidity and mortality from heart disease.

While there are parts of the UK where PM 2.5 can go above safety limits set by the European Union, the study found the average across the group was 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air.

This is way below the European target of less than 25 micrograms per cubic metre and yet we are still seeing these harmful effects, Dr Aung said.

This suggests that the current target level is not safe and should be lowered.

There is strong evidence that particulate matter emitted mainly from diesel road vehicles is associated with increased risk of heart attack, heart failure and death.

The study found every 5 microgram per cubic metre increase in exposure to PM2.5 was associated with a 4 to 8 per cent increase in the size of the heart's left ventricle and a 2 per cent decrease in its pumping power.

Dr Aung, who presented the research at the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging conference, advised people to avoid times and places where there were high levels of pollution.

"If you want to cycle into work and there is heavy traffic around that time then try to find a quieter route," he said.

"Walk on the part of the pavement furthest from cars to reduce the amount of pollution you breathe in.

"Those with cardio-respiratory diseases should limit the time spent outdoors during highly polluted periods such as rush hours."

The process by which air pollution harms the body has been poorly understood. Until recently it was not known if fine particles could pass through the lungs into the bloodstream.

However, a study in which volunteers inhaled gold nanoparticles showed it was possible for this to happen with gold showing up in their blood and urine 15 minutes after they had breathed it in. The particles were still there up to three months later.

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Dr Aung said the heart problems of those in the polluted areas appears to be driven by an inflammatory response  inhalation of fine particulate matter causes localised inflammation of the lungs followed by a more systemic inflammation affecting the whole body.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which helped fund the research, said it was time to clean up Britains air.

This adds to the growing evidence that air pollution, particularly from small particles in diesel fumes, is dangerous for your heart and health, he said.

In the UK, heart attack and stroke account for eight in ten of all deaths linked to air pollution.

People have legal rights to clean, healthy air and we need a range of measures in order to make this a reality.

The evidence is now absolutely clear  tackling air pollution must be a major public health priority for the next government.

 Sadiq Khan calls air pollution in London a killer

And Andrea Lee, a healthy air campaigner at ClientEarth, lawyers who use environmental legislation to help the planet, said: This report is another graphic example of the very real physical impact air pollution has on peoples lives.

In the UK, we have illegal levels of air pollution all year round, damaging not just our lungs but also our hearts. Every day, people are breathing in toxic air that is making them ill.

Whoever is in power after the election on 8 June needs to get a hold of this public health crisis as soon as possible.

As this report highlights, diesel vehicles are a major source of the problem. We need a national network of clean air zones to keep the dirtiest diesel vehicles out of the most polluted parts of our towns and cities.

ClientEarth has twice successfully won court orders forcing the Government to produce a better Air Quality Plan.

The latest version  published only after ClientEarth opposed the Governments attempts to win permission from a judge delay this until after the election  was described as much weaker than we had hoped for by ClientEarths chief executive, James Thornton.
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A student who planted a homemade nail bomb on a Tube train has been jailed for 15 years.

Damon Smith, 20, packed explosives and ball bearings into the device which was left in a backpack on a Jubilee Line train on 20 October 2016. He claimed in court that it was a Halloween prank but was found guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent following a trial at the Old Bailey.

The former altar boy built the device at home with a 2 clock from Tesco.

Smith posing with a ball-bearing gun

Smith had an interest in Islam but was not motivated by terrorism, Judge Richard Marks QC said. He told the defendant: "Quite what your motives were and what your true thinking was in acting as you did is difficult to discern with any degree of clarity or certainty.

"Whatever the position, the seriousness of what you did cannot be overstated, not least against the background of the fear in which we all live from the use of bombs here and around the world, an all too timely reminder of which were the events in Manchester earlier this week."

On the morning of incident, Smith, then aged 19, was caught on CCTV as he travelled by Tube to college in Holloway, north London. He was seen reading a text book before getting off and leaving the bomb on the floor, timed to go off minutes later.

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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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Around 10 passengers were in the carriage at the time and some of them spotted the abandoned rucksack and alerted the driver. The driver, believing it to be lost property, took it into his cab and carried on towards North Greenwich. But during the journey, he spotted wires coming out of the bag and raised the alarm as he pulled into the station.

Had the bomb worked, it would have exploded just as commuters were being ordered off the platform, the jury heard.

The defendant went on to college and, on returning home in the evening, checked the internet for news of what he had done.

Smith told police he was interested in Islam but denied being an extremist even though he posed next to an image of the Brussels-born Islamic terrorist alleged to have masterminded the attacks in Paris in November 2015.

In his defence, extracts of a psychiatric report were read out confirming an autism spectrum disorder. He had been interested in bomb-making since the age of 10 and said it was "something to do when he was bored".

Smith, who grew up living with his mother in Newton Abbot, Devon, said he had thought about putting a bomb in a park but decided it would be "more funny" to delay train passengers.

Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said: We have seen this week the horrifying impact a bomb can have. And whilst there is no connection between Manchester and Greenwich it brings into stark reality just how devastating it could have been.

"The bomb Smith made was a viable device, but it failed to detonate, which was our good fortune.

I would like to praise the public who informed the train driver of the abandoned bag; because of their quick intervention we were able to make it safe and identify Smith.

At this time of heightened security we ask everyone to remain calm but alert, to report anything that causes concern immediately; if you have suspicions about someone's behaviour call police.

Additional reporting PA
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The number of people detained under Immigration Act powers for longer than six months has increased by 10 per cent in the past year, statistics have revealed.

A total of 317 people were detained in immigration removal centres, short term holding facilities or pre departure accommodation for more than six months in the first quarter of 2017  a 10 per cent increase on the same quarter in 2016, when there were 287.

In the first quarter of 2017, 236 people were detained for between six months and a year, 69 between a year and 34 months and 12 between two and three years.

Campaigners have said that the figures show the urgent need for reform of a "bloated detention system", and accused the Government of failing to act on "scathing" findings of a government review into the system last year.

In January 2016, a government-commissioned review into the UKs immigration detention system called on ministers to reduce boldly and without delay the number of people detained each year.

The report, by former prisons and probation ombudsman Stephen Shaw, stated that there is no correlation between the number of people detained and the number of people lawfully deported, and highlighted medical research showing that immigration detention itself can seriously damage the mental health of detainees.

The then Immigration Minister James Brokenshire pledged following the publication of the review that the Government would make a number of reforms and broader changes in legislation, and that he expected these to lead to a reduction in the number of those detained and the duration of detention before removal.

However, while in the year after the review was launched the numbers of long-term detentions decreased by 47 per cent  falling from 488 and 261 between March and December 2015  they have been steadily rising since.

In light of the statistics, Jerome Phelps, director of Detention Action, urged that the figures showed the urgent need for reform of a bloated detention system that he said is massively wasteful of migrants' lives and taxpayers' money.

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Phelps said: These statistics are further evidence of the urgent need to reform the bloated detention system. Despite the scathing criticisms of the Parliamentary Inquiry and the Government's own review, more people are being detained, for longer periods.

Recommended Fivefold rise in number of EU citizens held in UK detention centres

Last year, the Government promised to reform the use of detention, reducing the numbers detained and the duration of detention, yet in practice the numbers of people who are going through this unnecessary trauma are actually increasing. It is not delivering on this promise.

Long-term detention is massively wasteful of migrants' lives and taxpayers' money, as in 2016 only 29 per cent of migrants leaving detention after a year were actually deported.

Eiri Ohtani, director of the Detention Forum, meanwhile said: The human costs of the promised but undelivered detention reform is thousands of men and women continue to be locked up in prison-like conditions not knowing when they will be released while their mental health deteriorate.

That UK has no time limit on administrative immigration detention is exceptional: a vast majority of the countries around the world have a legal detention time limit.

One former detainee, named only as Sam, who was locked in an immigration centre for seven months and is now part of the Freed Voices group, told The Independent they were the hardest months of [his] life".

Every day in detention is unknown. It breaks you. The cocktail of fear and uncertaintyit makes your mind melt. We need the changes to the current system that the government promised last year. We need an end to indefinite detention," Sam added.

Another former detainee, Mishka, who was detained four months, said: The Home Office say they dont have a policy of indefinite detention but these statistics are just more proof they do not practice what they preach.

"You get a life-sentence when you enter detention. No one knows when theyll get out. They are mental-torture chambers."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA 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 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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

Both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to end indefinite detention in their general election manifestos. The Conservative Party meanwhile makes no reference to migration detention.

Responding to the new statistics, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron told The Independent: Immigration for administrative purposes, when no crime has been committed, fundamentally goes against the democratic foundations of our society.

Seeing this been used for even longer should be utterly aberrant to anyone who believes in justice. The UK are alone in Western Europe in detaining people for immigration purposes indefinitely  this practice must end.

The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.
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Theresa May is expected to signal a new crackdown on encrypted messaging apps after the deaths of 22 people in the Manchester attack.

The Prime Minister, addressing leaders of fellow G7 countries in Sicily on Friday, is to warn that governments need to be tougher on tech companies in the face of a growing terror threat.

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, has already reinforced the UK governments commitment to make tech companies hand over encrypted messages in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing.

We need to do more, and we need to work with them to make sure they help us to do more, Ms Rudd said in an ITV interview Wednesday.

Conservative ministers plan to push through new legislation which would force tech giants such as WhatsApp and Telegram to decrypt communications, according to a report in The Sun.

The encrypted messaging app Telegram has become one of the primary means of communication for Isis, as Facebook and Twitter have increased their efforts to shut down pro-Isis accounts.

 Amber Rudd says WhatsApp's encryption of messaging may come to an end after Westminster terror attack

One government minister told The Sun: We will do this as soon as we can after the election, as long as we get back in. The level of threat clearly proves there is no more time to waste now.

Under the new orders, known as Technical Capability Notices, MI5 and the Police would reportedly be able to order messages to be decrypted if they suspected a service was being used to conduct criminal activity.

However, its not yet clear how, and if, this would work, as end-to-end encryption techniques are designed to make decryption impossible.

Last month, a draft of new legislation was leaked to digital rights campaigners, sparking alarm about the expansion of government surveillance.

The proposals in the paper included real-time email and message monitoring, and the removal of encryption by inserting a backdoor into messaging services.

The Open Rights Group is campaigning against the expansion of government powers, and warned in a statement on Thursday that proposed new surveillance methods could actually empower criminals and terrorists.

A petition started by the group says: Vulnerable groups will have their safety compromised if services like WhatsApp and Signal are forced to build backdoors.

Lawyers will lose client confidentiality, victims of police misconduct will be spied on, journalists unable to protect sources, and domestic abusers gifted new ways to exploit tech vulnerabilities to spy on partners.

The UK Home Office already has some of the most aggressive surveillance powers in the world. This is nothing more than a power grab.
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Reports of hate crime in Greater Manchester have doubled since Monday night's suicide bombing, the area's police chief has said.

Chief constable Ian Hopkins said on Friday that from 28 reports on Monday, "which is our normal average for a day", his force had seen a spike to 56 reports on Wednesday.

"Manchester has come together this week, the public has seen that. It's important that we continue to stand together.

"Particularly standing together against some of the hate-filled views that we've seen from a very small minority of the community that have no place here in Greater Manchester.

"Whilst we can't directly link these to the events of Monday night, we're continuing to monitor the situation and support our communities.

"I've sent a personal message to the faith leaders and places of worship across Greater Manchester today and thanked them for their support."

Asked how long the UK's threat level would remain at "critical", Mr Hopkins said it was a matter for the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre, but added: "Whilst we've made enormous progress with the investigation, there's still work to do."

Twelve locations across Greater Manchester had been searched and "thousands of exhibits" seized, he added.

The UK's top counter-terror cop, Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley of the Metropolitan Police, also released a statement on Friday afternoon.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

He said: "We are focusing on understanding Abedi's life; forensically examining a number of scenes, reviewing hours of CCTV from the night itself and before, financial work, communication, digital exhibits, the accounts from hundreds of witnesses and of course enquiries internationally.

"Eight men remain in police custody and we continue to make significant progress.

"There still remain important lines of enquiry that will further build our confidence and understanding of the events that led to this ghastly attack. That will enable those who set the threat level to revise their judgment.

"Whilst we remain at critical our aim is simple  we are working with event organisers to advise and support them so everyone in this country can go to the hundreds of events that are on and simply relax and enjoy their bank holiday.

"A complete review of the plans for over 1,300 events across the country has been carried out by specialist security officers and policing has been stepped up."
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Counter-terror police investigating the Manchester Arena bombing have carried out fresh raids, searching addresses in Manchester and Merseyside.

One man was arrested in the Moss Side area of Manchester in the early hours of Friday morning and detectives searched a property in St Helens.

Eight men were already in custody in connection with Monday's atrocity - with another man picked up and since released - as police and security agencies work at pace amid fears of further attacks.

Meanwhile, with the General Election campaign due to resume on Friday, Jeremy Corbyn has signalled his intention to bring the issue of terrorism into the political arena.

The Labour leader is expected to make a veiled attack on the Conservatives for underfunding the police service at a time of heightened threat, while linking Britain's overseas military campaigns with terrorism at home.

On Thursday, UK police resumed working closely with US authorities on the probe after a tense showdown between the allies over leaked intelligence.

With Britain on critical alert, a huge operation is under way to dismantle a suspected network linked to suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people, seven of them under 18.

Mark Rowley, the UK's most senior counter-terrorism officer, confirmed British chiefs had received fresh assurances from their overseas counterparts that they could be trusted with confidential material.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she expected the critical assessment of the terror threat - suggesting a fresh attack may be imminent - to remain in place in the coming days.

Ms Rudd told BBC1's Question Time: During this period of 'critical', which we hope will only last for a few days - it could be longer, it will depend on the operation - we've pulled out additional support from the Army so we can go about our normal life.

The developments followed a fraught day in which Greater Manchester Police severed intelligence-sharing ties with the US due to evidence being repeatedly passed to journalists without permission.

While we do not usually comment on information-sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organisations, we want to emphasise that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, Mr Rowley said.

Abedi, who was known to security services for his radical views, was said to have been in close contact with family members moments before slaughtering concert-goers on Monday.

A relative of the 22-year-old said he had felt increasing frustration at his treatment in the UK, heightened after a friend was fatally knifed in what he perceived to be a religious hate crime.

She added that the British-born bomber began referring to others in the country as infidels who were unjust to Arabs.

Libyan authorities, who are questioning Abedi's parents and siblings, claimed he made a final phone call to his mother on the eve of the attack, in which he said: Forgive me.

Music fans were targeted at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in the worst terrorist attack on British soil since the 7 July bombing in London in 2005.

As Abedi's route to mass murder continued to be probed:

Downing Street announced the Government's emergency Cobra committee will meet in Whitehall on Friday morning to discuss the latest developments, chaired by the Home Secretary.

Officers also carried out searches at properties in Manchester, Wigan and Nuneaton. A bomb disposal unit returned to the Wigan address on Thursday night so experts could examine potentially suspicious items.

British investigative efforts remained focused on smashing the potential terror ring which may have assisted Abedi, despite the belief of Libyan authorities that he acted alone.

Twenty-three people remained in critical care across eight hospitals. They included five children at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

British Transport Police announced that specialist firearms officers are to patrol on trains nationwide for the first time.

NHS England warned health organisations to ensure care is in place should it be needed as Britain remained on high alert in the run-up to the bank holiday weekend.

A man and a woman arrested as part of the probe were released without charge.

At the Nato summit in Brussels, Theresa May confronted Donald Trump with her concerns about security lapses that allowed crucial evidence to be handed to US journalists by his officials.

He vowed to investigate, calling the leaks deeply troubling and warning the sources of the security lapse could be prosecuted.

In the years leading up to Monday's attack, it was said Abedi was known to security services, but his risk to the public remained subject to review and MI5 considered him a former subject of interest, a Whitehall source said.

Police hunting the network behind his attack said they had made significant arrests and seized very important items in raids.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

Emergency services on the night and aftermath of the Manchester attack were criticised by the widower of one victim, who accused them of leaving families in the dark.

Steve Howe, whose wife Alison, 45, died as she was waiting to collect their daughter from the concert, told Channel 4 News: I gave them all the details, all the information from security in the arena, no-one has rang us... I was so frustrated.

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Counter-terror police are searching an address in Moss Side in Manchester in fresh raids over Monday's suicide bombing at the MEN Arena.

The move follows an arrest made in the same part of the city overnight.

Detectives have also searched a property in St Helens as they attempt to establish whether attacker Salman Abedi worked alone or was part of an underground terror network.

Eight men were already in custody in connection with Monday's atrocity - with another man picked up and since released - as police and security agencies work at pace amid fears of further attacks.

Meanwhile, with the General Election campaign due to resume on Friday, Jeremy Corbyn has signalled his intention to bring the issue of terrorism into the political arena.

Recommended Man arrested in Moss Side as police carry out fresh raids

The Labour leader is expected to make a veiled attack on the Conservatives for underfunding the police service at a time of heightened threat, while linking Britain's overseas military campaigns with terrorism at home.

On Thursday, UK police resumed working closely with US authorities on the probe after a tense showdown between the allies over leaked intelligence.

Mark Rowley, the UK's most senior counter-terrorism officer, confirmed British chiefs had received fresh assurances from their overseas counterparts that they could be trusted with confidential material.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she expected the critical assessment of the terror threat - suggesting a fresh attack may be imminent - to remain in place in the coming days.

Ms Rudd told BBC1's Question Time: During this period of 'critical', which we hope will only last for a few days - it could be longer, it will depend on the operation - we've pulled out additional support from the Army so we can go about our normal life.

The developments followed a fraught day in which Greater Manchester Police severed intelligence-sharing ties with the US due to evidence being repeatedly passed to journalists without permission.

While we do not usually comment on information-sharing arrangements with international law enforcement organisations, we want to emphasise that, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, Mr Rowley said.

Abedi, who was known to security services for his radical views, was said to have been in close contact with family members moments before slaughtering concert-goers on Monday.

A relative of the 22-year-old said he had felt increasing frustration at his treatment in the UK, heightened after a friend was fatally knifed in what he perceived to be a religious hate crime.

She added that the British-born bomber began referring to others in the country as infidels who were unjust to Arabs.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

Libyan authorities, who are questioning Abedi's parents and siblings, claimed he made a final phone call to his mother on the eve of the attack, in which he said: Forgive me.

Music fans were targeted at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in the worst terrorist attack on British soil since the 7 July bombing in London in 2005.

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Manchester bomber Salman Abedi called Britons 'infidels' and complained about a lack of outrage over a friend's death by stabbing, it has been claimed.

A relative of the man suspected in the deadly Manchester concert attack says he was driven to extremism after seeing a friend fatally stabbed last year.

The relative spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter and concerns for her own security.

Recommended Trump links mass immigration to Manchester terror attack

She said 22-year-old Abedi complained of being treated badly in Britain and was troubled why there seemed to be no outrage over his friend's slaying. She says Abedi believed it was because the friend was Muslim.

The relative says Abedi, who was born in England to parents from Libya, referred to Britons as infidels who are unjust to the Arabs.

She also defended him as a great kid and said he had no links to the Islamic State group or other militant groups.

Abedi died in the blast that killed 22 other people.

He reportedly called his mother and brother just 15 minutes before he blew himself up.

Salman Abedi asked his mother to "forgive me", a Libyan anti-terror offical said.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

His father and brother have now been arrested in Libya, with the latter confessing to know "all the details" of the terror plot.

A spokesman for the Libyan government told The Times Abedi's brother, Hashem, told interrogators the attacker had phoned his family a quarter of an hour before the attack.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The proportion of patients waiting for more than 12 hours on trolleys has increased by more than 6,000 per cent, NHS figures show, prompting warnings that hospitals in England have endured one of the worst winters on record.

Delayed transfers of care and waits at A&E were both found to be increasing, while bed occupancy on general and acute wards reached record levels, according to the latest British Medical Association (BMA) analysis of NHS performance in the country.

The findings show the number of trolley waits rose dramatically between November 2016 and March 2017, with more than 290,000 patients waiting at least four hours to be admitted  an increase of almost 70,000 on the previous year.

Despite the NHS England target that no patient should wait more than 12 hours on a trolley, the number of such incidents has dramatically increased over the past seven years, from 38 in the winter of 2010/11 to 2,608 last winter  an increase of 6,763 per cent.

Bed occupancy on general and acute wards was 91 per cent over the first three months of 2017  the highest figure on record, and there were 328 fewer available mental health beds between January and March than between October and December, according to the findings.

Between the start of December 2016 and the middle of March 2017, 94 of 152 trusts issued major alerts on at least one day to say they couldnt cope, with 6,708 patients experiencing a delayed transfer of care on any one day between November 2016 and March 2017.

Commenting on the analysis, Dr Mark Porter, BMA council chair, said: These figures show that hospitals have just endured one of the worst winters on record, with patients facing unacceptably long waits for treatment.

"These delays are having a profound impact on patients' experience of the NHS and mean frontline staff are left working under extremely difficult conditions.

Mr Porter said the new analysis was particularly stark because the weather was mild over winter and there were no widespread outbreaks of flu or norovirus, suggesting the pressure the NHS is under was purely down to bad political choices.

He added: Years of chronic underfunding and investment in services are failing to keep up with patient demand. Politicians are consistently missing their own targets across the health system and the NHS is clearly at breaking point.

Pressures previously only seen during the winter months are now becoming the norm year-round, as current trends suggest that performance will continue to deteriorate rather than improve.

In the run-up to the general election, we call on politicians of all parties not to duck this crisis any longer.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA

It comes a week after Britain's healthcare system was ranked just 30th in a new global study  lagging behind other European countries including Germany, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Italy.

In a report published in The Lancet medical journal, the UK scored a total of 84.6 out of 100, placing it on an equal footing with Cyprus, Qatar, Malta, Portugal and the Czech Republic  with an especially low score for cancer care.

Theresa May has meanwhile been accused of failing to tackle the growing crisis in the health service in the Conservative manifesto.
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Serious failings by prison staff contributed to the death of a mother who died after she was found hanging in her cell, a jury has found.

Caroline Ann Hunt, 53, was found hanging in her cell at HMP Foston Hall in September 2015, where she had been left alone despite having attempted to suffocate herself the night before, the court heard.

The jury heard that in the two weeks before her death, Ms Hunt was seen to be distressed and anxious and had said she planned to kill herself, while other prisoners had reported that she was expressing suicidal thoughts.

The night before her death, Ms Hunt had attempted to suffocate herself and her cell mate twice expressed serious concerns to prison officers that she would kill herself.

But staff decided to put her in a cell on her own and, while observations were increased from two to three times an hour, the next morning she was found dead having hanged herself.

It comes after the Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) warned in March that the rise in suicides among female prisoners was linked to inadequate mental health provision in UK prisons, stating that a lack of urgency among prison staff in responding to indications of mental illness was partly to blame.

Following Ms Hunt's death, the overnight custody manger, who was the most senior officer on duty at the prison that night, was immediately suspended for his actions surrounding the assessment and management of her risk.

The jury found serious failings in the way Ms Hunt was managed and cared for, including staff underestimating the risk she posed to herself and failure to refer her for a formal psychiatric assessment.

It concluded that she took her own life in part because the risk of her doing so was not adequately recognised and appropriate precautions were not taken to prevent her doing so.

During the course of the inquest hearing, HM Senior Coroner Dr Hunter issued a Prevention of Future Death report to the governor of HMP Foston Hall, which raised the coroners immediate concerns about another member of prison staff.

He stated that he had grave concerns about the governor's understanding of safer custody procedures and that should she remain operational she is endangering the lives of current prisoners. The Ministry of Justice has indicated that officer has been suspended from operational duties while she undertakes urgent training.

Ms Hunt had no criminal history and had not been in prison before 29 May 2015, when she was remanded in HMP Foston Hall for threatening to kill her daughter during an argument.

Her death was the fourth self-inflicted death at HMP Foston Hall in 2015, and one of a total of five deaths in womens prisons that year. In 2016, there were two further deaths in Foston Hall, both in November.

Following the hearing, Ms Hunt's daughter said: My mother was a very kind person, who cared deeply for her friends and family members. I believe she was sadly blighted with various mental health issues throughout her lifetime, which led directly to the circumstances surrounding her committing an offence, the first she ever committed.

"In prison, she felt hopeless and frightened about her future. Tragically for my mother, there were many missed opportunities to protect her from the obvious risk she posed to herself, including concerns raised by other prisoners about her risk to herself, and to provide the support she clearly needed.

"Had the opportunities been taken, my mother would probably be here with us all today.

Jane Ryan, of Bhatt Murphy solicitors, who represented the family, said: The fact that a preventing future death report was issued by HM Senior Coroner before these proceedings had even concluded is an indication of the high risk faced by women prisoners at HMP Foston Hall.

Urgent action is required, including addressing deficits in training on a wider level, to address that risk.

Deborah Coles, director of the Inquest charity, which provides advice and support around contentious deaths, said following the hearing: The familiar failings which contributed to Carolines death point to the urgent need to stop imprisoning women and invest in women centred community services.

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 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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. 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It is truly shocking that at the point of giving evidence over 18 months on, the coroner found a key member of staff had a lamentable lack of understanding of suicide prevention policies."

Female prisoner suicides have been steadily rising in recent years, with 12 reported last year, compared with seven in 2015 and between one and three each year before that since 2006.

A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: This is a tragic case and our thoughts are with Caroline Ann Hunts family and friends.

We recognise that there were failings in her care, and HMP Foston Hall has already put in place a number of measures to better support offenders following the PPO investigation.

We will now carefully consider the findings of the inquest.
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Ramadan has begun and Muslims around the world will abstain from eating and drinking during daylight for a month  and a certain British soft drink will play a major role.

While most of the food and drink traditionally consumed by Muslims when they break the fast is homemade or natural  such as spicy vegetables, paneer fritters and dates  Vimto is the slightly less conventional refreshment that is often brought to the table during Iftar.

The lurid purple drink, first manufactured in Manchester in 1908 and made from grape, blackcurrant and raspberry flavouring (and a lot of sugar), sees its sales go through the roof in Gulf states during Ramadan, with 31 million bottles sold in 2011 alone.

It is thought the large quantity of sugar and the strong flavour is key to its popularity.

Manchester imam, Asad Zaman, told Kevin Bocquet on Radio 4s Sunday programme: One of the reasons it is so popular in the Middle East is because they have quite a sweet tooth.

After a day of fasting your stomach has collapsed and your body is really low on energy. Anything sweet is a quick fix in terms of energising your body. Of course there are other things like dates which are recommended.

Mr Zaman said Vimto is a good alternative to caffeine drinks but added that water is the best liquid for Muslims observing Ramadan to consume when they break their fast.

It is important to avoid anything caffeine based as it will dehydrate your body more quickly because you will go to the loo more frequently and you need to maintain that water for as long as possible. Water is perhaps the best thing to drink, he said.

The Vimto sold in the Gulf states is thought to be even higher in sugar levels than that sold in Western countries.

In pictures: Ramadan around the world Show all 27 1 /27 In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world Russia Russian Muslims pray outside the central mosque in Moscow, during celebrations of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Turkey Turkish Muslims offer Eid al Fitr prayers as they mark the first day of the Eid al-Fitr at Fatih Sultan Mosque in Istanbul Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Syria A Syrian Dervish dances as part of a traditional event organised by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism under the title 'Music and Dervishes' in the old city of Damascus EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Bosnia and Herzegovina A Bosnian Muslim man, wearing a traditional Bosnian outfit, fires a canon from a vantage point overlooking Sarajevo to mark the end of daily fasting on the final day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan A general view of an illuminated Mosque as Muslims pray during the 27th night of Ramadan, in Peshawar EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan Muslim women offer prayer of the Jumat-ul-wida, the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at a mosque in Lahore AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Muslims offer prayers on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Dargah Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti Rex Features In pictures: Ramadan around the world Saudi Arabia The Prophet Mohammed Mosque in the holy city of Medina, during Ramadan EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Malaysia A Malaysian swings around fireworks to celebrate the last day of the Muslims' Holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur In pictures: Ramadan around the world Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz Muslims pray during the Eid al-Fitr Muslim celebration marking the end of Ramadan in Bishkek EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Ivory Coast People pray during the Laylat Al Qadr prayers on the 27th day of the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan in the front of the Aghin mosque in Abidjan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Syria Syrians shop for traditional sweets in Kafr Batna in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, ahead of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Israel A Palestinian woman prays on the third Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City REUTERS In pictures: Ramadan around the world Iran Iranian Shiite Muslims pray at the graves of soldiers who were killed during 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, just outside Tehran, Iran AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Israel A Palestinian man pours water on Muslim worshippers' heads to cool off in the heat, as others pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the last Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Afghanistan Afghan women wait to receive food ration during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Herat EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan A Pakistani Muslim reads the holy Koran as he observes Itikaf at a Mosque, in Peshawar EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Kashmiri Muslim women offer prayers as the head priest (not pictured) displays a holy relic believed to be hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammed, during special prayers to observe the Martyr Day of Hazrat Ali, cousin of Prophet Mohammed, on the 21st day of Ramadan, at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Indian Muslims sit with bowls of porridge(Nombu kanji)as they prepare to break the fast with the Iftar meal during the Islamic month of Ramadan at The Wallajah Big Mosque in Chennai AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Lebanon Spectators watch fireworks as a giant Fanous, or Ramadan lantern, is switched on four days before the start of Ramadan month in front of Mohamed al-Amine Mosque in downtown Beirut EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Lebanon Lebanese children perform during activities celebrating the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in downtown Beirut AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Palestine Palestinian men drink tea on the promenade of Gaza beach Getty In pictures: Ramadan around the world Indonesia Members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the biggest Muslim organisation in Indonesia, hold a mass prayer session to welcome in Ramadan in Jakarta AFP/Getty In pictures: Ramadan around the world Iraq Iraqis shop for food in a preparation for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Baghdad AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Indonesia Foods is seen during 'Unggah-unggahan' ceremony to welcome in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Pekuncen village Getty

Salman Farsi, Media & Communications Officer at East London Mosque, told the BBC: The recipe is probably made a bit stronger and sweeter for the Arab markets.

They do particularly like their drinks to be bursting with sugar and flavour.

For the worlds more than 1.6 billion Muslims, Ramadan marks a period of fasting from sunrise until sunet (including abstaining from both water and food), prayer and alms giving.

Fasting, alms giving and prayers are all part of the five pillars of the Islamic faith.

This article has been updated. It was originally published in June 2016.
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The Manchester suicide bomber reportedly planned his deadly attack for at least a year.

Salman Abedi opened a bank account 12 months ago that lay dormant until he used it to purchase the nails and screws used as shrapnel in Mondays assault on Manchester Arena, The Times reported.

Abedi is said to have made at least two separate trips to DIY shops to buy materials used in his homemade explosive device that killed 22 people and injured dozens more at the Manchester Arena on Monday.

Abedi visited B&Q and Screwfix stores in the city before leaving for Libya in April, Times sources claimed.

It comes as fresh fears were raised he may have made a second bomb, after raids on his home reportedly uncovered a stash of chemical explosives.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

Officers discovered evidence of a "working bomb factory" at Salman Abedis address, according to The Telegraph, raising fears he may have distributed further explosive devices to other radical extremists.

It comes after The Independent revealed on Thursday police and security services had found bomb-making materials in raids across the country, which they feared could be primed for imminent attacks.

Police are continuing to work to establish Abedis final movements after it emerged he flew back to Britain via Turkey and Germany just four days before carrying out his attack.

The number of UK arrests ticked up to eight on Thursday as police worked to uncover his network of extremist accomplices.
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Salman Abedi once accused a teacher of Islamophobia after being challenged on what he thought of suicide bombings, it has emerged.

As a teenager at the Burnage Academy for Boys, he was among an Arabic-speaking group of friends who launched a complaint after the teacher asked what they thought of someone who would strap on a bomb and blow people up, The Times reported.

A group went to complain to their RE teacher saying it was Islamophobic, a source said.

Former acquaintances of the Manchester attacker have remembered him as a cannabis-smoking, drinking, sometimes angry teenager who underwent an abrupt transformation within recent years.

After his family moved back to Libya during the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, he made frequent visits to the war-torn country but stayed living in Manchester with his brother.

As signs of Abedis radicalisation grew, seeing him appear increasingly pious while flying a black Islamist flag from his home, the alarm was repeatedly raised.

Around five years ago, two people who know the 22-year-old at college called the police anti-terror hotline after he told them being a suicide bomber was okay.

Two community leaders also reported Abedi over his extremist views in 2015, fearing he was already involved in terror networks.

He was banned from Didsbury Mosque and reported again to authorities after criticising an imam who delivered a sermon condemning Isis.

One of Abedis said he had felt increasing frustration at his treatment in the UK, which was heightened after a friend was stabbed to death in what he perceived to be a religious hate crime.

She added that the British-born bomber began referring to others in the country as infidels who were unjust to Arabs.

Abedis family had reportedly warned authorities he was dangerous, moving him and his younger brother to Libya in April to keep a closer eye, months after Abedi dropped out of his business degree at Salford University.

But he returned to Manchester, flying via Istanbul and Dusseldorf on 18 May but apparently failing to flag up on any international databases or warning systems.

Four days later, he detonated a suicide bomb in the foyer of Manchester Arena as thousands of young Ariana Grande fans streamed out of a concert, killing seven people.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

Libyan authorities, who are questioning Abedi's parents and siblings in Tripoli, claimed he made a final phone call to his brother and mother before the attack, in which he said: Forgive me.

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, has admitted Abedi was known up to a point to security services but they will be examining how so many opportunities to stop the terrorist were missed.

He is believed to be part of a far wider network including prolific Isis recruiter Raphael Hostey, also from Manchester, who was killed in a drone strike in Syria last year.

Counter-terror police made a fresh arrest in Moss Side in the early hours of Friday morning, while searches were being carried out at a separate arrest.

Eight men are currently being questioned in relation to the attack, with a man and woman who were previously arrested released without charge.

With the UK on critical alert, meaning another attack is expected imminently, thousands of soldiers have been deployed at sensitive sites to support overstretched police.

British police have resumed working closely with US authorities on the probe after a row over intelligence leaked to American media outlets.
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Police fear the Manchester suicide bomber may have made a second bomb, after raids on his home uncovered a stash of chemical explosives, it has been reported.

Officers discovered evidence of a "working bomb factory" at Salman Abedis address, according to The Telegraph, raising fears he may have distributed further explosive devices to other radical extremists.

It comes after The Independent revealed on Thursday police and security services had found bomb-making materials as they conducted raids across the country, which they feared could be primed for imminent attacks.

One suspect device was blown up in a controlled explosion and security sources said on Wednesday there was a real possibility other materials were yet to be found.

A security source told The Telegraph: "The worry is there was enough to build two or three bombs and we can't rule that out."

It comes as police worked to establish Abedis final movements after it emerged he flew back to Britain via Turkey and Germany just four days before carrying out his attack.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

German intelligence services said Abedi flew to the city via Istanbul and Dusseldorf, although questions remained over the 22-year-olds previous location.

Frances interior minister previously said Abedi had visited Libya and then most likely gone to Syria, although no concrete evidence has emerged to support the claim.

Analysts pointed out that Turkey is a frequent transit point for Isis fighters crossing the border to and from Syria by land.

Former Metropolitan Police officer, David Videcette said Abedi had likely spent months practising how to assemble the device while he was abroad.

Recommended Why terrorists like Salman Abedi have connections with British police

He told The Telegraph: "This is not something you can just put together by reading a book or watching a YouTube video. He will have spent time at a camp somewhere, possibly in Libya, being shown how to do it. But once you have the skills and the materials, assembling the device itself can be done fairly quickly."

The number of arrests in the UK ticked up to eight on Thursday as police continued to work to uncover a UK network of extremists working with Abedi.
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Those still hoping to catch some rays over the bank holiday weekend are more likely to need their brollies than their bikinis after forecasters issued three weather warnings for rain over the next four days.

The first yellow warning for wet weather will come into force at 4pm this afternoon for Northern Ireland and on Saturday the second weather warning predicts heavy rainfall for all of the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Those living in the southern half of the country will not escape the deluge as the third weather warning, in place for 24 hours from lunchtime on Sunday to 12pm on bank holiday Monday, predicts torrential thundery outbreaks are likely in places with the possibility of localised flooding.

Exeter-based Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon said: The key thing I would point out is a lot of the rainfall that's likely to come over the weekend is showers and some may get it and some may not.

It is variable but where those showers do occur they could be quite intense.

Recommended Britain swelters on hottest day of the year

Sun lovers should make the most of Friday when the mercury is expected to hit 30C (86F) in northern Scotland, he said, adding: It's an absolutely gorgeous day, there is lots of sunshine around.

There is some cloud starting to move into western Northern Ireland but otherwise it is a clear and sunny day for the rest of Great Britain.

Mr Claydon said the temperatures would remain high overnight (15/16C or 59/61F) and into Saturday, with the warmest places likely to be Aviemore, Scotland (27C or 81F) and London, which could have temperatures of up to 29C (84F).

He said the rain in Northern Ireland was expected to become more persistent and spread eastwards to western Scotland and the north of England.

Meanwhile the south can expect to see morning showers but a brighter afternoon.

Mr Clayton said of Sunday: If you were to draw a line from the Wash (East Anglia) to the Bristol Channel, anywhere south of that is likely to get fairly intense thundery showers.

Not everyone will necessarily see them but where you do see them they will be quite intense.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA 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 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty 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

In Scotland Sunday will feel much cooler than recent days as temperatures are expected to dip to highs of 18C (64F).

The inclement weather is expected to continue on Monday with cloud, scattered showers and the lowest high temperatures of the weekend are expected to be recorded in London (20/21C or 68/70F).

For anyone worried that the sun will come out on Tuesday when they have to go back to work, Mr Claydon said it was not going to happen as another front is set to move in from the west bringing more cloud and rain.

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The Home Secretary has been forced to deny that cuts to the police force contributed to Mondays terror atrocity in Manchester.

Appearing on the BBC's Question Time programme, Ms Rudd was asked by a studio audience member about warnings given to Theresa May by the Police Federation that cuts in frontline officers would undermine their ability to gather low-level intelligence about possible threats.

Ms Rudd insisted said intelligence came, in the most part, from community leaders operating within the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, rather than from police officers on the street.

Recommended Corbyn ally blames terror attacks on western military intervention

The audience member said: We are 20,000 police officers down and we get atrocities like this. Does the government not expect this? Rudd responded: I dont accept that. I have asked the head of counter-terrorism whether this is about resources. It is not.

There may a conversation to have about policing, we may have that at some stage. But now is not that conversation. We must not imply that this terrorist activity may not have taken place if there had been more policing.

On Thursday, Steve White the chair of the Police Federation said that were it not for cuts to the police numbers there would be no need for the current deployment of armed forces to the streets.

Mr White said: As always, the response of emergency workers in the face of adversity has been second to none.

The welcome support of the military to free up armed officers and offer public reassurance will no doubt be managed in the same professional, resolute way.

But, as welcome as this is, we cannot avoid the reasons it is needed at all. There is no ignoring the fact that we, the police, simply do not have the resources to manage an event like this on our own.

Speaking to BBC Radio Four's Today Programme this morning, Security Minister Ben Wallace dismissed claims the increased security threat was down to police cuts. Mr Wallace said "countering terrorism is not just about boots on the ground."
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Andy Burnham, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester, has said he disagrees with party leader Jeremy Corbyns view that British intervention in foreign wars could have fuelled the rise of terrorism.

Mr Corbyn said in a speech earlier the UKs approach to fighting terror was not working and that Britains foreign policy might have unintended consequences, such as producing extremists.

Before hearing the speech - although having an idea of its content - Mr Burnham, who lost the Labour leadership contest to Mr Corbyn in 2015, told Paul Ross on Talk Radio: I have a different view to Jeremy on this.

It (radical Islam) has used things to add to its cause. But it was there, we didnt create it. [There's] a tendency to blame ourselves for everything sometimes, and I dont think we should.

Obviously, the actions of governments can then contribute and help the terrorists to add to their cause, but lets remember that the appalling atrocity of 9/11 happened before interventions anywhere.

We've got to deal with what this is  a twisted ideology that has no connection to being representative of the Muslim religion. The Muslim faith is a peaceful religion, and we've got to deal with it on that basis.

"The people who committed this appalling act are responsible for it, 100 per cent."

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

The latest opinion poll from The Times/YouGov shows a surge towards Labour, who now trail the Conservatives by just five points after previously lagging behind by as many as 24.

But Mr Burnham, who stepped down as an MP to run for Manchesters mayorship, would not give a confident yes when asked whether Mr Corbyn could confound predictions and become Prime Minister.

He praised Mr Corbyn for being sensitive to this weeks Manchester atrocity, which killed 22 people and left dozens injured, and suggested that his policies are resonating with people.

Mr Corbyns speech drew criticism from the Conservatives, including Theresa May and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, although the Labour leader made clear his belief that terrorists are entirely to blame for the choices they make.

Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home, he said, speaking in Westminster.

No rationale based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this weeks massacre.

But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.

He pledged that a Labour government would ensure that our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country.

Mr Corbyn added that seeing army personnel deployed on the streets of London is a stark reminder that the current approach has failed.

Recommended Corbyn condemns foreign wars while RAF send Love from Manchester bomb

Mr Fallon appeared on both BBC and Sky news to claim that Mr Corbyn was implying the attack might be our fault, might be Britains fault as a result of our foreign policy.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was also critical of Mr Corbyns speech, made as parties resumed general election campaigning following a three day break because of the atrocity, saying: I dont agree with what he says, but I disagree even more that now is the time to say it. Thats not leadership, its putting politics before people at a time of tragedy.

But Mr Corbyn found support from the Green Party, with co-leader Jonathan Bartley saying it was right to point to failed Western intervention as a cause of instability. Indeed, when you look at the Libyan intervention you see failure at almost every level.

Mr Corbyn was one of just 13 MPs to oppose then Prime Minister David Cameron and vote against the UK joining in with NATO-led Libyan bombings in March 2011.

The Islamist terrorist responsible for the Manchester bombing was Salman Abedi, who was born in the UK to Libyan parents.
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The Conservatives cancelled the relaunch of their election campaign, as nervousness grew over the partys evaporating lead in the opinion polls.

Faced with the likelihood of difficult questions about the Tory campaign, David Davis suddenly pulled out of a planned event in central London earlier today.

With Theresa May abroad at the G7 summit in Sicily, it meant the effective relaunch of the Tory campaign, after the three-day pause because of the Manchester bombings, was put on hold.

Ms May would be left with a wafer-thin Commons majority of just two if the swing to Labour in a fresh poll  putting the Tories just 5 points ahead  was replicated in every constituency.

Meanwhile, the Prime Ministers lead over Jeremy Corbyn in personal approval ratings has shrunk from an astonishing 52 per cent at the start of the election campaign to just 17 per cent.

The Conservatives declined to discuss why Mr Davis had pulled out of the event, a decision taken late last night as news of the YouGov/Times poll dropped.

UK General Election 2017 Show all 47 1 /47 UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. Stormont and the political situation in Northern Ireland has been in limbo following the collapse of the power sharing executive due to the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme scandal which implicated the DUP Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Priti Patel, International Development Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Larry the Downing Street cat runs ahead of Michael Fallon Britain's Secretary of State for Defence as he arrives for a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Britain, June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth REUTERS UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Michael Gove, Environment Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Scottish National Party Leader Nicola Sturgeon (C) leaves after speaking to the media in Parliament Square. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May (C, L) holds the first Cabinet meeting of her new team. Getty UK General Election 2017 11 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May attends church in her constituency with her husband Philip May, a few days after disappointing results in a general election. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn leaves Labour Party HQ this morning, following a general election yesterday. Parliament is hung, with no individual party gaining an overall majority. Post general election reaction. Rex UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 09: DUP leader and Northern Ireland former First Minister Arlene Foster (C) holds a brief press conference with the DUP's newly elected Westminster candidates who stood in the general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A " Get May Out" demo took place opposite the gates of Downing Street, calling for May to resign, after the shock election results and Mays coalition with the DUP. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A demonstrator wears a mask depicting Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May, poses with a mock gravestone bearing the words "Hard Brexit, RIP", during a protest photocall near the entrance 10 Downing Street in central London AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters in London Reuters UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May flanked by her husband Philip delivers a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central Londo Getty UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May leaves Buckingham Palace in London the day after a general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A TV cameraman watches the door of 10 Downing Street in London Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is greeted by his Office Director Karie Murphy as he arrives at Labour Party HQ in Westminster, London, after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should 'go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country' Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters with her husband Philip in London REUTERS/Peter Nicholls UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ukip leader Paul Nuttall speaks during a press conference at Boston West Golf Club where he announced that he is standing down as party leader Joe Giddens/PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, leaves the counting centre for Britain's general election with her partner Jen Wilson in Edinburgh, Scotland REUTERS/Russell Cheyne UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale celebrates with candidate for Edinburgh South Ian Murray as he retains his seat at the Meadowbank Sports Centre counting centre in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to the media at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election Andrew Milligan/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon reacts at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, arrives at the Labour Party's Headquarters in London REUTERS/Marko Djurica UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall leaves in a car following the vote count for the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Boston, England Anthony Devlin/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May speaks at the declaration at the election count at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead, England. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A policer officer enters a polling station in London AP UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A woman leaves after casting her vote at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery near Brighton, in southern England Getty UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 A woman walks past a general election display in the window of a betting shop in Camden on June 7, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow, Getty Images UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May visits Atherley Bowling Club during an election campaign visit on June 7, 2017 in Southampton, England. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow June 8 to vote in a general election. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A supporter wears a pair of Jeremy Corbyn decorated tights at a general election campaign event in Birmingham, central England, on June 6, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another deadly terror attack in the nation's captial. AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A picture taken in London, shows election leaflets from various parties displayed ahead of the United Kingdom's general elections. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 Election workers, George Gaunt and Luca Tragid deliver the first ballot boxes, on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh AFP UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Conservative party supporters during an election campaign visit to a bakery during an election campaign visit on June 6, 2017 in Fleetwood, north-west England. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital Getty Images UK General Election 2017 5 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a general election campaign visit to a removals depot in Edinburgh AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Pro-Independence supporters hold a march through Glasgow AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn campaigns for the upcoming general election in Beeston, Nottinghamshire AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to supporters after a rally at Beeston Youth and Community Centre as he visits the East Midlands during the final weekend of the General Election campaign on June 3, 2017 in Nottingham, England. If elected in next week's general election Mr Corbyn is pledging to create a million new jobs and to scrap zero-hours contracts Getty Images UK General Election 2017 1 June 2017 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party leader Ruth Davidson joins a selection of Scottish Conservative election candidates and activists during campaigning on May 1, 2017 in South Queensferry, Scotland. With only seven days to go until the general election on June 8th, polls are showing the SNP out in front and the Conservatives set to close in on Labour. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 29 May 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May canvasses in Richmond with Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith on May 29, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. After suffering defeat in the London Mayoral election Zac Goldsmith resigned over the Government's position on Heathrow expansion. He stood as an Independent but lost in a by-election to the Liberal Democrats. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron poses for a selfie taken by carer April Preston during a General Election campaign visit to the Barlow Medical Centre, in Didsbury, Manchester Yui Mok/PA UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at an election campaign event in Wrexham, Wales Reuters UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour's former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, exit the party's general election campaign 'battle' bus as they arrive at an event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walks with supporters between venues, before speaking again at another general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 An anti-fox hunting protester is taken away and arrested by police outside the venue where Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was due to launch the Welsh Conservative general election manifesto at Gresford Memorial Hall in the village of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, on May 22, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election AFP/Getty Images

Perhaps significantly, the Prime Minister would have been in the air, en route from Brussels to the G7 summit, making the Tory strategy more difficult to discuss and decide.

The YouGov/Times poll shows the Conservative lead has shrunk from 24 points to 5 points in a month, the smallest margin since the middle of the EU referendum campaign.

Labour  at 38 per cent  is enjoying its highest level of support since October 2014, under Ed Miliband.

And Ms Mays personal approval ratings have dropped from 10 per cent to just 1 per cent  while Mr Corbyns have risen from minus 42 per cent to minus 16 per cent.

If the poll is repeated universally on June 8, Labour would take eight seats from the Conservatives, in places as far spread as Croydon, Plymouth, Derby and North Wales, while the Tories would fail to gain any from Labour.

The poll has also taken the temperature during the peak period for people returning postal ballots. Postal votes made up 21 per cent of ballots cast in 2015.

The survey was carried out after Ms Mays humiliating U-turn over her initial refusal to cap lifetime care costs and the collapse of several of her manifesto proposals.

However, following the Manchester atrocity, attention is now likely to focus on the stance of the party leaders on security issues, police funding and the threat of terrorism.

Many Labour candidates will fear that Mr Corbyns controversial attempt to partly blame Britains foreign wars for terror attacks will be unpopular on the doorstep.
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Jeremy Corbyn has said he will "do whatever it takes" in the face of terrorism, in response to widespread criticism of his speech in which he sought to link the atrocity in Manchester with British foreign policy abroad.

In fresh remarks, absent from the speech that was briefed to journalists on Thursday night, the Labour leader said: Do not doubt my determination to take whatever action is necessary to keep our country safe and to protect our people on our streets, in our towns and cities, at our borders.

Mr Corbyn had called for a new approach in the "war on terror" which he said was not working, and added that intelligence officials shared his view.

Mr Corbyn said: "An informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people, that fights rather than fuels terrorism. We must be brave enough to admit the 'war on terror' is simply not working."

Mr Corbyn has voted against anti-terror legislation seventeen times since becoming an MP in 1983. In 2011, he told a rally organised by the Stop the War Coalition: "Ive been involved in opposing anti-terror legislation ever since I first went into Parliament in 1983."

He said then that new anti-terror laws in Britain posed a greater risk to security than the interventions in Afghanistan and Libya.

He added that questioning the UKs role in foreign wars should not be cause for others to doubt his patriotism.

"We cannot carry on as though nothing happened in Manchester this week. So, let the quality of our debate, over the next fortnight, be worthy of the country we are proud to defend," he said.

"Lets have our arguments without impugning anyones patriotism and without diluting the unity with which we stand against terror."

Mr Corbyns speech marked Labour restarting its general election campaign, and began with a minutes silence for the victims of the Manchester atrocity and their families.
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once againTheresa May has accused Jeremy Corbyn of believing the Manchester bombing was our own fault, putting the terror threat at the heart of the election campaign.

The Prime Minister seized on the Labour leader pointing to a link between terror attacks and Britains foreign wars to argue the choice at the ballot box had just become starker.

Jeremy Corbyn has said that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault, Ms May claimed, at a press conference at the G7 summit in Sicily.

And has chosen to do that just few days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities we have experienced in the United Kingdom.

The Prime Minister insisted there could never be any excuse for terrorism, no excuse for what happened in Manchester.

The choice that people face at the general election has just become starker, she said.

Its a choice between me working constantly to protect the national interest and protect our security and Jeremy Corbyn who, frankly, is not up to the job.

The comments will infuriate Labour, after Mr Corbyn  in his speech today  insisted no actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain outrages like this weeks massacre.

A spokesman for the Labour leader said: "Once again, Theresa May is not telling the truth. In his speech, Jeremy said: "Protecting this country requires us to be both strong against terrorism and strong against the causes of terrorism. The blame is with the terrorists, but if we are to protect our people we must be honest about what threatens our security."

During the press conference, the Prime Minister also faced tough questions about her record as Home Secretary, both funding the police and tackling jihadists.

She has been accused of undermining the fight against terror by slashing police numbers and of failing to prevent 400 extremists returning to Britain from foreign battlefields.

But, on funding, Ms May insisted: We have protected counter terrorism police funding, we have increased funding for our security and intelligence agencies.

And, on whether she had dropped the ball on jihadists, she argued: I excluded more hate preachers from the United Kingdom than any Home Secretary has ever done.

UK General Election 2017 Show all 47 1 /47 UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. Stormont and the political situation in Northern Ireland has been in limbo following the collapse of the power sharing executive due to the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme scandal which implicated the DUP Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Priti Patel, International Development Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Larry the Downing Street cat runs ahead of Michael Fallon Britain's Secretary of State for Defence as he arrives for a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Britain, June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth REUTERS UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Michael Gove, Environment Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Scottish National Party Leader Nicola Sturgeon (C) leaves after speaking to the media in Parliament Square. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May (C, L) holds the first Cabinet meeting of her new team. Getty UK General Election 2017 11 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May attends church in her constituency with her husband Philip May, a few days after disappointing results in a general election. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn leaves Labour Party HQ this morning, following a general election yesterday. Parliament is hung, with no individual party gaining an overall majority. Post general election reaction. Rex UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 09: DUP leader and Northern Ireland former First Minister Arlene Foster (C) holds a brief press conference with the DUP's newly elected Westminster candidates who stood in the general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A " Get May Out" demo took place opposite the gates of Downing Street, calling for May to resign, after the shock election results and Mays coalition with the DUP. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A demonstrator wears a mask depicting Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May, poses with a mock gravestone bearing the words "Hard Brexit, RIP", during a protest photocall near the entrance 10 Downing Street in central London AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters in London Reuters UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May flanked by her husband Philip delivers a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central Londo Getty UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May leaves Buckingham Palace in London the day after a general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A TV cameraman watches the door of 10 Downing Street in London Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is greeted by his Office Director Karie Murphy as he arrives at Labour Party HQ in Westminster, London, after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should 'go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country' Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters with her husband Philip in London REUTERS/Peter Nicholls UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ukip leader Paul Nuttall speaks during a press conference at Boston West Golf Club where he announced that he is standing down as party leader Joe Giddens/PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, leaves the counting centre for Britain's general election with her partner Jen Wilson in Edinburgh, Scotland REUTERS/Russell Cheyne UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale celebrates with candidate for Edinburgh South Ian Murray as he retains his seat at the Meadowbank Sports Centre counting centre in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to the media at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election Andrew Milligan/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon reacts at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, arrives at the Labour Party's Headquarters in London REUTERS/Marko Djurica UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall leaves in a car following the vote count for the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Boston, England Anthony Devlin/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May speaks at the declaration at the election count at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead, England. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A policer officer enters a polling station in London AP UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A woman leaves after casting her vote at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery near Brighton, in southern England Getty UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 A woman walks past a general election display in the window of a betting shop in Camden on June 7, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow, Getty Images UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May visits Atherley Bowling Club during an election campaign visit on June 7, 2017 in Southampton, England. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow June 8 to vote in a general election. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A supporter wears a pair of Jeremy Corbyn decorated tights at a general election campaign event in Birmingham, central England, on June 6, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another deadly terror attack in the nation's captial. AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A picture taken in London, shows election leaflets from various parties displayed ahead of the United Kingdom's general elections. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 Election workers, George Gaunt and Luca Tragid deliver the first ballot boxes, on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh AFP UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Conservative party supporters during an election campaign visit to a bakery during an election campaign visit on June 6, 2017 in Fleetwood, north-west England. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital Getty Images UK General Election 2017 5 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a general election campaign visit to a removals depot in Edinburgh AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Pro-Independence supporters hold a march through Glasgow AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn campaigns for the upcoming general election in Beeston, Nottinghamshire AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to supporters after a rally at Beeston Youth and Community Centre as he visits the East Midlands during the final weekend of the General Election campaign on June 3, 2017 in Nottingham, England. If elected in next week's general election Mr Corbyn is pledging to create a million new jobs and to scrap zero-hours contracts Getty Images UK General Election 2017 1 June 2017 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party leader Ruth Davidson joins a selection of Scottish Conservative election candidates and activists during campaigning on May 1, 2017 in South Queensferry, Scotland. With only seven days to go until the general election on June 8th, polls are showing the SNP out in front and the Conservatives set to close in on Labour. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 29 May 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May canvasses in Richmond with Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith on May 29, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. After suffering defeat in the London Mayoral election Zac Goldsmith resigned over the Government's position on Heathrow expansion. He stood as an Independent but lost in a by-election to the Liberal Democrats. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron poses for a selfie taken by carer April Preston during a General Election campaign visit to the Barlow Medical Centre, in Didsbury, Manchester Yui Mok/PA UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at an election campaign event in Wrexham, Wales Reuters UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour's former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, exit the party's general election campaign 'battle' bus as they arrive at an event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walks with supporters between venues, before speaking again at another general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 An anti-fox hunting protester is taken away and arrested by police outside the venue where Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was due to launch the Welsh Conservative general election manifesto at Gresford Memorial Hall in the village of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, on May 22, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election AFP/Getty Images

But the Prime Minister ducked a question about whether the Libya mission to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi had been a success, after the Manchester bombers links to the country.

Earlier, she said that connection shines a light on that largely ungoverned space on the edge of Europe, arguing a negotiated solution to Libyas turmoil was vital.

Ms May also refused to say whether Donald Trump had apologised for what the US admitted were the terrible leaks of intelligence information about the Manchester bomb, passed by Britain.

Before leaving the summit early, the Prime Minister warned that the threat from the Islamic State terror group is moving from the battlefield to the internet.

In the wake of the suicide bomb, the leaders of the worlds leading industrial states issued a joint demand for tech giants to take down terrorist content.

And they backed Mrs Mays call for more pressure to be put on internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to target extremist messages online, including by developing technology which automatically identifies and removes messages that incite violence.

Ms May said: We agreed that the threat from Daesh [Isis] is evolving rather than disappearing. As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning and the groups hateful ideology is spreading online.

Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet.

The UK was already working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and hateful propaganda that is warping young minds, she argued.

We want companies to develop tools to identify and remove harmful materials automatically and, in particular, I want to see them report this vile content to the authorities and block the users who spread it, Ms May said.
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Jeremy Corbyn has denied he ever met or supported the IRA, as he faced accusations that he failed to condemn a single atrocity carried out by the terrorist group.

The Labour leader faced his toughest grilling yet over his past links with militant Irish Republicans, as the Manchester bombing put the current terror threat at the heart of the election campaign.

Quizzed by the BBCs Andrew Neil, Mr Corbyn was asked why the British people would wish to elect a Prime Minister with those links when we live in an age of terrorism now.

But a calm and relaxed Mr Corbyn replied: I didnt support the IRA. I dont support the IRA. What I want everywhere is a peace process.

Asked if he had ever urged the IRA to end its murderous campaign when he met its front people, he insisted: I never met the IRA.

I obviously did meet people from Sinn Fein, as indeed I met people from other organisations, and I always made the point that there had to be a dialogue and a peace process.

The Labour leader was accused of having basically supported the armed struggle for a united Ireland, but now you want to be Prime Minister you have to distance yourself from it.

But he insisted: No, what I want is peace. What I want is to learn the lessons from Northern Ireland.

Mr Corbyn may face criticism for saying he had argued the bombing process would never work  but he later insisted he also believed all deaths are wrong.

During the interview, Mr Corbyn also:

* Defended his claim of a link between terror attacks and Britains foreign wars, by arguing they had created ungoverned spaces, leaving people in a desperate situation, who themselves may become prey to that form of perversion.

* Said the Manchester bomb was caused by one person going into a music event and killing a very large number of people  when asked if it was a consequence of foreign policy.

* Said he was making no promises to cut immigration, the level of which would be based on the economic needs of our society.

* Argued terrorism should be tackled by cutting off its funding and through a stronger presence in war-torn places such as Libya.

* Accepted he had called Nato a very dangerous Frankenstein of an organisation and a danger to world peace  but insisted Labour would be a committed member of that alliance.

* Refused to say he supported the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent, but promised Labour would be going ahead with it.

* Denied Labour was planning a massive spending binge, insisting 95 per cent of people would not pay higher taxes.

On Trident, Mr Corbyn said: My views on nuclear weapons are well-known. I want to achieve a nuclear free world through multilateral disarmament through the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

And on spending, he said: This has to be the time that we stop making the poorest in our society pay the price of austerity and start investing for the future.

What were proposing is an Investment Bank which will invest in all parts of this country, particularly those areas that have seen precious little investment.

Mr Neil also asked why should the voters trust you when so many even of your own MPs dont trust you  nearly a year after 180 of them passed a vote of no confidence in him  but Mr Corbyn insisted others would say positive things.
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Britains security minister has attacked Jeremy Corbyn for helping justify terrorism with a speech linking attacks with the UKs foreign policy.

Ben Wallace said the timing for the Labour leaders speech days after the Manchester attack was incredibly disappointing and crass.

Mr Corbyn said it is the responsibility of governments to minimise the risk of further atrocities and recognise the Wests war on terror is not working.

I dont think the substance of what hes said is correct at all, Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

The person that caused these deaths this week was the individual and the terrorists who supported him. No one else is to blame for that.

Mr Wallace, who was appointed to Theresa Mays Cabinet as security minister last year, called on Mr Corbyn to be clear on terrorism.

We have to be unequivocal that no amount of excuses, no amount of twisted reasoning about foreign policy can be an excuse, he added.

 Election campaigning restarts after Manchester attack

The reality is that these people hate our values  you only have to look at their propaganda to realise that the seeds of the salafist jihadism that this lot are currently pursuing go back way before foreign wars.

They hate our rule of law, they hate our democracy, they hate equality and the way to see that off is not to feed excuses, not to allow those people who right now our police are trying to find any cause to think, well, Im slightly justified. Theyre not justified.

Boris Johnson called the speech absolutely monstrous, adding that he found it absolutely extraordinary and inexplicable in this week of all weeks that there should be any attempt to justify or to legitimate the actions of terrorists in this way.

Speaking alongside the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, Foreign Secretary said: Now now is not the time to do anything to subtract from the fundamental responsibility of those individuals, that individual in particular, who committed this atrocity and I think it is absolutely monstrous that anybody should seek to do so.

In what is likely to be seen as a reference to Britains military involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as air strikes against Isis  all of which he opposed  Mr Corbyn said Labour would change what we do abroad if it won power.

Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home, said the Labour leader.

That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and implacably held to account for their actions.

Salman Abedi killed 22 people in an attack at Manchester Arena (Handout)

But an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people, that fights rather than fuels terrorism.

We must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.

Mr Corbyn stressed the responsibility of government is to minimise the chance of attacks by giving police the resources they need and to ensure foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country.

The comments have sparked widespread condemnation from political opponents including the former Liberal Democrat leader, Lord Ashdown, who said it was not the time to start such a charged debate.

There will be a moment when we will want to look at the policy implications of what has happened, but that should not be in the shadow of these terrible events when the nation should stand together, he added.

Critics pointed out that terror threats had emerged from countries where there had been varying stages of British intervention, suggesting no direct link.

OK but which foreign policy causes terrorism? asked Jonathan Russell, coordinator of the Extremely Together counter-extremism organisation.

Getting rid of Saddam or not getting rid of Bashar? Being pro-Gaddafi or being anti-Gaddafi?

The debate comes amid international alarm over the number of civilians being killed and injured by US-led air strikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria, after American forces confirmed the deaths of more than 100 civilians in a strike in Mosul.

There are warnings that coalition bombing in the Middle East is aiding Isis recruitment (Reuters)

Deaths in the Middle East are one of the most effective recruitment strategies employed by Isis and other jihadi groups, feeding into a victimhood narrative painting the West as murderers and oppressors of Muslims.

Isis propaganda channels frequently publish graphic images claiming to show dead and injured civilians, particularly children, after alleged air strikes by the US-led coalition.

A lengthy video released last week featured Russian, French and English-speaking militants calling on followers around the world to avenge their deaths and honour with terror attacks.

Are you incapable of stabbing a kuffar [infidel] with a knife, throwing him off a building or hitting him with a car? an Isis militant says in the footage, which remains available online.

Liberate yourselves show resolve and place your trust in Allah and he will place his faith in you.

Harry Sarfo, a former Isis militant who grew up in the UK, described how the videos felt like theyre calling you but in reality its all a lie.

Speaking to The Independent after being jailed on his return to Germany, he warned that the coalition bombing campaign was helping Isis recruit civilians to its cause.

It will only give them more recruits, more men and children who will be willing to give their lives because theyve lost their families in the bombings, Sarfo said.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

The Henry Jackson Society said jihadis use several different narratives to further their central desire to implement Sharia law and pointed out that Isis itself has declared it hates the West first and foremost because you are disbelievers.

Dr Alan Mendoza, the think tanks executive director, said: Isis is quite clear in its public pronouncements that it would attack us regardless of our foreign policy.

It has used both examples of Western intervention and Western non-intervention for radicalisation purposes.

Given Isis is so open that the basis of its terrorism is a hatred of our society and belief system, why do we have such trouble believing its own words?

All political parties have outlined fresh efforts to combat online propaganda ahead of the general election, as investigators continue to probe a suspected terror network behind Manchester bomber Salman Abedi.

Despite supporting the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya by the UK, which sheltered his family after they fled his regime, he later declared British people to be infidels who were unjust to Arabs.

Abedis attack killed 22 people, including seven children, as they left an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday.

Isis claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement claiming it aimed to terrorise infidels ... in response to their transgressions against the lands of the Muslims.

Police are currently interviewing eight men arrested as part of the investigation, amid searches in the Moss Side area of Manchester.
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Children are among at least 28 people massacred in Egypt and dozens more injured after gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians.

The health ministry said the victims had been on their way to the St Samuel the Confessor monastery when they were surrounded by eight to 10 attackers wearing military uniforms and masks.

The Christians bus was blocked by three vehicles before the militants opened fire, as it travelled through the Minya region towards Maghagha.

Security guards at the site of the bus attack in Minya, Egypt, on 26 May (Reuters)

Television footage showed a bus raked with bullets and with its windows smashed, surrounded by bodies covered in black plastic sheets. Local reports said only three children survived.

In response to the attacks, the Egyptian military launched airstrikes against what it said were militant training facilities in Libya.

Muslim leaders including the Grand Mufti of Egypt and the grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypts 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, condemned the act of brutal terrorism and called on Egyptians to unite.

The Coptic church said it had received news of the killing of its martyrs with pain and sorrow.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, which followed Isis bombings that killed at least 46 people at churches in Tanta and Alexandria over Easter.

The terrorist group has targeted Christians and other religious minorities around the world and has called for fresh attacks to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Coptic Christians have been kidnapped and beheaded in Libya, while Sufi Muslims have been massacred in Pakistan, Yazidis subject to genocide in Iraq and Shia Muslims massacred across the Middle East.

 Explosion in Tanta Church in Egypt wreaks havoc and deadly destruction

Muslim leaders have united in opposition to the groups atrocities in Egypt, forcing Isis to issue a lengthy propaganda article seeking to justify the murder of women and children.

It said belligerent Christians in Egypt deserve no protection under its version of sharia law, adding: With regards to those of the non-combatant women and children from among the belligerent Christians who are killed unintentionally, their blood is waste.

The Easter attacks caused President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, who himself came to power in a military coup, to declare a new state of emergency.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is the largest Christian denomination in Egypt, making up around 10 per cent of the countrys residents, but has suffered successive rounds of persecution by Islamists.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights recorded 77 sectarian attacks on Copts in Minya province alone between 2011 and 2016, as well as many more incidents of vandalism at churches and schools.

Pope Francis showed his support during a visit to Egypt last month, paying tribute to the victims of another church attack in Cairo in December.

Isis responded by vowing to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and western embassies as potential targets.

Isis operates an affiliate in central Egypt as well as on the Sinai Peninsula, where militants brought down a Russian passenger plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh in 2015.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott may soon make dreams come true for Lone Star State hunting enthusiasts when a bill recently passed by state politicians to legalise shooting wild boars from hot air balloons lands on his desk.

As the Broadway actress Idina Menzel once said, the sky in Texas is the most amazing sky in the whole country. Apparently all that was missing then was the ability to brandish firearms in that same sky.

The Texan congress passed the legislation in order to address a multi-million dollar problem. There are about two million feral hogs in the state, and they cause an estimated $50 million worth of damages to crops, livestock, and infrastructure there. The beasts have a high breeding rate, and there are no natural predators to keep the populations in check.

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Other attempts by the Texan government have failed to yield the intended results. Shooting boars from helicopters is legal, but those noisy machines are expensive and tend to scare the beasts.

Hot air balloons, on the other hand, are much quieter and provide hunters with a stabler platform to shoot from.

Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Show all 6 1 /6 Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists march from the Texas State Capitol to the Office of Governor Greg Abbott to deliver a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Wood's sentence on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Carla Harvey adds her name to a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff Wood's sentence, during a demonstration outside of the Texas State Capitol on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists delivered the petition to the Office of the Governor after the demonstration. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas A massive explosion guts Mexico's biggest fireworks market in Mexico City, on December 20, 2016. The explosion killed at least 31 people and injured 72, authorities said. The conflagration in the Mexico City suburb of Tultepec set off a quick-fire series of multicolored blasts that sent a vast cloud of smoke billowing over the capital. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Darius Broussard adds his name to a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff Wood's sentence, during a demonstration outside of the Texas State Capitol on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists delivered the petition to the Office of the Governor after the demonstration. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists march from the Texas State Capitol to the Office of Governor Greg Abbott to deliver a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Wood's sentence on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images Activists protest the death penalty in Texas Mark Clements (L), who was imprisoned for 28 years before being released and exonerated, encourages passersby to sign a petition with over 10,000 signatures asking Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff Wood's sentence, during a demonstration outside of the Texas State Capitol on August 18, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Clements joined family and friends of Jeff Wood and anti-death penalty activists to deliver the petition to the Office of the Governor after the demonstration. Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 24, 2016 under what is referred to as the "law of parties" for a criminal act he committed on January 2, 1996. The Texas law says that if a person, " acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense;" then they are criminally responsible for the conduct of another, as well. Tamir Kalifa/AFP/Getty Images

Hot air balloon hog genocide may be a bit more humane than other ideas floated by Texan officials. The US Environmental Protection Agency approved the use of a pesticide to kill off wild boars called warfarin earlier this year, and the Texas agricultural commissioner has championed employing it there to address their boar problem. The pesticide  which killed off pig herds in Australia before it was banned there  is eaten by pigs, and then it kills them, often slowly and painfully. Their innards turn blue in the process.

That method has opposed by hunters and wildlife experts who worry that poisoning the pigs could be dangerous for Texan families who eat the spoils of their hunting trips.
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Donald Trumps latest budget proposal could allow thousands of wild horses to be sold for slaughter by reversing nearly fifty years of protections for an American icon.

Slaughtering horses is illegal in the US, but popular in countries like Canada, Mexico, and parts of Europe where horse meat is considered a delicacy. Congress has long included language in budget bills specifically outlawing the sale of horses for slaughter.

Mr Trumps budget, however, forecasts $10m in saving by allowing horses not slated for adoption to be sold without restriction.

The current program is wholly unsustainable and a new approach is needed, particularly when considering the sharp and consistent growth in resource requirements, the budget proposal reads.

The proposal highlights a longstanding debate between those who want to protect the horses and those who would like to use the funding and land for other purposes.

Americas estimated 59,000 mustangs live across about 40,000 square miles (103,600 square kilometres) of land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The wild horse program takes up approximately 12 percent of BLM lands, and $80.4m of the BLMs budget  more than double what it cost in 2008.

The majority of these costs come from rounding up excess wild horses and shipping them to private ranches. The wild horse population has experienced a boom in recent years, far exceeding the 23,622-horse limit set by the BLM.

Travel By Numbers: US national parks Show all 4 1 /4 Travel By Numbers: US national parks Travel By Numbers: US national parks 354672.bin AFP/Getty Images Travel By Numbers: US national parks 354677.bin AP Travel By Numbers: US national parks 354678.bin AP Travel By Numbers: US national parks 354679.bin RexFeatures

Former BLM Director Neil Kornze estimated it costs the bureau $50 million to capture and house every 10,000 horses. The bureau has significantly reduced the number of horses they round up in recent years because of budget constraints.

Cattlemen and other business groups argue the current protections for wild horses are costly, and keep government corrals from being used to capture other animals.

The original intent of the [protections] was to make sure those animals had a healthy presence on the range, but also that they be kept at a number that is sustainable. [Now] you have horses starving to death  and irreversible damage to Western rangelands. Ethan Lane of the National Cattlemens Beef Association told The Associated Press.

Wild horse advocates, however, say there are other methods of controlling the wild horse population, such as fertility management or federal grazing program reforms.

This budget proposal is an example of lazy government, Laura Leigh, founder of Wild Horse Education, said in a statement. This is simply one more gift to the livestock industry.
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One of Donald Trumps speech in Israel was cancelled over concerns that he would be heckled by members of Israels parliament.

Mr Trump was scheduled to speak in front of the Knesset during his two-day trip earlier in the week, but Speaker Yuli Edelstein told Army Radio that the White House decided to forgo the opportunity.

They were concerned given the Knessets history of spirited debates full of jeers and interruptions.

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Mr Edelstein said "the possibility was explored as a first option, and it was dropped from the agenda because it was clear that the president wouldn't be able to speak."

Mr Trump instead spoke at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Previous presidents who have addressed the Knesset include Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Barack Obama spoke at a university instead of the parliament, however the decision was likely precipitated by the icy relationship he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In contrast, Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu seem to have a much more collegial rapport despite Mr Trump revealing classified information from Israel to Russian officials during their Oval Office meeting.

The prime minister rolled out the red carpet - literally - for Mr Trump and First Lady Melania, even travelling to the Tel Aviv airport with wife Sara to greet them for a grand welcome ceremony.

The friendliness does not seem to extend to members of the Knesset, who reportedly had to be ordered to attend the ceremony.

Many members were reluctant to travel to Tel Aviv for the ceremony, which the White House requested be shorter than what Mr Netanyahu had planned due to warm weather.

Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Show all 12 1 /12 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The fire in my heart is beyond my ribs. You left me beloved - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Let me get enough of you, as Im still hungry for your smile my son - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict They besiege me in my homeland so I flew to heaven - Rodaina Al Agha, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict And I am still facing the pain all by myself - Lama Shakshak, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My brother, I watched you go while my heart was tearing - Helen Mo'amar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My new doll is lonely in the rubble - Ayah Sha'ath, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict When a soul hugs another soul they never split, even in death - Ismail Matar, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict Everyone is gone and I stayed alone to make the world witness the injustice done to me - Hamza Shaheen, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict The hand that carries the arms carries roses too - Madeeha Al Majayda, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict My eyes tell you about a dream that overcame the fence - Soliman Shaheen, 15 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict A childhood caught in an unjust siege - Hadeel Quidh, 16 Remembering the Israel-Gaza conflict Remembering Israel-Gaza conflict All the details are torn after you - Hamza Shaheen, 17

Mr Trumps visit also included a visit to Jerusalems Western Wall, the first by a sitting US president, as well as a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.

Throughout the 2016 campaign Mr Trump was unequivocal in his support of Israel, however his stance cooled after taking office.

He suggested that Israel should hold back on building settlements during Mr Netanyahus February visit to the White House.

Mr Trump also said he would consider moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the heart of disputed territory between Israel and Palestine.

It drew the ire of many foreign policy and security experts in Washington and the administration remained silent, at least publicly, on the issue during his visit.

The president has repeatedly said he thinks a deal can be made on peace between Israel and Palestine.

But, his commitment to that included assigning the task to son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has no discernable foreign policy experience.

Mr Kushner, a longtime family friend of Mr Netanyahu, is a controversial pick to lead the efforts given his personal background - his family has donated millions to charities and settlements in Israel, according to the New York Times.

He is also involved in the FBI investigation into alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign team.

Mr Trump is currently in Italy for the group of seven (G7) meeting and is scheduled to return to Washington at its conclusion.
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Donald Trump has said "the bloodletting of Christians must end" in a statement responding to the attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt.

In the harshly worded statement, Mr Trump described a war between civilization and terrorists, and called on people to rise up against terrorist attack and "defeat this evil."

"This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls. Wherever innocent blood is spilled, a wound is inflicted upon humanity," Mr Trump said. "But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organisations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology."

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Mr Trump is in the middle of his first foreign trip as president, and has repeatedly warned foreign allies of the dangers of terrorism. He has urged greater cooperation from Nato allies battling extremism in countries like Syria, and has called on civilised countries in the Middle East to push out radical ideologies.

At least 28 people were killed and another 23 others were injured in Egypt after gunmen wearing fatigues and face masks open-fired on a bus carrying Coptic Christians. The group was travelling to the St Samuel the Confessor monastery around 100km northwest of the city of Minya, according to Egypt's foreign ministry. It wasn't immediately clear who was responsible for the attack, which the ministry said was an act of terrorism.

That deadly shooting comes after twin attacks on Coptic churches on Palm Sunday that killed dozens of people, and put the country under a three-month state of emergency.

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

Life in Egypt has become increasingly dangerous for Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country's population and base their theology on the teachings of the apostle who introduced Christianity to Egypt, Mark. Another attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people, while Coptic churches and homes have been set on fire in the country. Individual Coptic minorities have been physically attacked and have had their property stolen, Amnesty International has said.
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Hes the man Donald Trump considers a very smart guy, a very good guy, and a quality person. So smart, so good and with such qualities, indeed, that he blessed his marriage to his eldest daughter, gave him a White House job and tasked him with bringing peace to the Middle East.

Now, it has been confirmed Jared Kushner is a focus of the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged effort to influence the 2016 election.

The Washington Post said investigators were looking at a series of meetings Kushner held last year with Russian officials, including Moscows Ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak.

 Arabella Kushner, Donald Trump's granddaughter, serenades Chinese President Xi Jinping

Right now, were at the door of the Oval Office, Juliette Kayyem, a political analyst who served in Barack Obamas Department of Homeland Security, told The Independent. Its getting wider in terms of its theory, and its getting faster. All of these things explain why the President is lawyering up.

There are few people Trump trusts more than Kushner, who is married to his daughter Ivanka , and who is himself the scion of a real estate empire. Although the 36-year-old had no political experience, Mr Trump trusted him at the helm of his election campaign, and in a perhaps unprecedented step, insisted both Kushner and his daughter take up jobs within the White House.

Just this week, it was Kushner who sat in on Trumps meeting with Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, while national security advisor HR McMaster was excluded.

But Trumps trust in Kushner, and his obvious closeness to him, may now come back to haunt the New York tycoon. If things start to get hot for his son-in-law, does he stick by him, or drop him?

I dont think it comes as a surprise that they want to speak to him. He was the man at the centre of things. They would want to speak to him even more than people like his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, says Jeanne Zaino, a professor of Political Science at Iona College in New York. Its obvious they are very close. Thats not to say Jared Kushner has done anything wrong, but if he does emerge tainted, that would be very difficult for Trump to shake. Its hard to think Jared Kushner was involved in anything that Trump didnt know about.

The Post article stressed it had not been told Kushner was the central focus of the FBI investigation and said he had not been accused of any wrongdoing. Yet he is one of the people in Trumps inner circle known to have had a number of meetings with Russians, including an official from a Russian bank, Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which is owned by the Russian government and which has been the subject of US sanctions following Russias annexation of Crimea in March 2014.

On Friday, asked for comment about the revelation that Kushner was the focus of the FBI probe, the White House forwarded a statement from his lawyer Jamie Gorelick, which suggested he was prepared to cooperate with the investigation, now being led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings, it said. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.

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

Sarah Flores, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said: I cant confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations.

NBC said the FBI has collected data on computer bots, programs that perform repetitive functions like searches, allegedly linked to Russia that helped target and push negative information on Hillary Clinton and positive information on Donald Trump through Facebook. Kusher oversaw his own data mining operation for the Trump campaign out of Trump Tower in New York.

Trump has yet to comment on the revelation that Kushner is a reported focus of the FBIs investigation. Previously, Trump said one of the reasons for his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey was the ongoing probe.

You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they shouldve won, he told an interviewer. Later, it was reported that a meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the President described Mr Comey as a nut job.

Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Ethics at Georgetown Law School in Washington DC, says Trump had breached the usual precedents to prevent conflicts of interests and which typically kept family members out of the White House. Now, the decision could come back to bite him.

For anyone with normal ethical sensibilities, the hardest thing is when someone you have a reason to be loyal to, does something to imperil you, she says. We dont know the lengths Trump will go to, to protect Kushner. Its a situation ripe to create abuses.
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Donald Trump has issued his first statement commemorating Ramadan as president, and fit mentions of terrorism into nearly half of it.

Mr Trump, who started his first foreign trip in a Muslim country, wished all Muslims a joyful Ramadan, and said that the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict." He also noted that Ramadan was starting at a time when the world "mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan."

The president has been talking about the need for counter-terrorism efforts frequently lately, and this week urged Nato allies in Moscow to commit to fighting against Isis in Syria. The recent bombings in Manchester that left 22 dead and dozens more wounded has only added urgency to Mr Trump's strong anti-terror rhetoric.

But some on the internet were quick to note that Mr Trump's Ramadan statement contrasted significantly with the statement released by former President George W Bush when Ramadan came just two months after the September 11 terror attacks in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people. Mr Bush at that time wrote of the diversity in Muslim communities, and of the teachings of Islam to be charitable, extend mercy, and search for peace.

Although the United States had sent troops to Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks a month earlier, Mr Bush still did not connect terrorism to the Islamic faith in his Ramadan statement. He instead noted that the US was "proud to play a leading role in the humanitarian relief efforts in Afghanistan, through airdrops and truck convoys of food, medicine, and other much-needed supplies."

In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour Show all 39 1 /39 In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud arriving for a reception ahead of a banquet at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud being welcomed at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a welcome ceremony with traditional sword dancers at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud with US President Donald J. Trump and wife Melania during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump adjusts the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal, after it was bestowed upon him by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud presents U.S. President Donald Trump with the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 Palestinians print posters depicting US President Donald Trump in preparations for his planned visit, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, before delivering his remarks to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump looks on as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef exchange a memorandum of understanding Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump shares a laugh with a child during a visit to the American International School in the Saudi capital Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers rest during preparations ahead of President Trump's landing in Tel Aviv, Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump makes her way to board Air Force One in Riyadh as she heads with her husband the US President to Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One for Israel, the next stop in Trump's international tour, at King Khalid International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers wait for the arrival ceremony of US President Donald Trump at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive aboard Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, Israel Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump disembark Air Force One on arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump and his wife, US First Lady Melania Trump are welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, in Lod outside Tel Aviv, Israel EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit during welcome ceremony in Tel Aviv AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump chats wife Sara Netanyahu as US President Donald Trump chats to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcoming ceremony to welcome Trump at Ben Gurion International Airport Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump delivers a speech upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference with Israel's President at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump watches as First Lady Melania Trump signs the guest book at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump walks with first lady Melania Trump in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalems Old City Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump stands next to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the plaza in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House senior advisor Jared Kushner leave notes at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Ivanka Trump, assistant and daughter of US President Donald J. Trump, touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump arrives in a vehicle to Saint Damaso's Court for a private audience with Pope Francis in Vatican City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis walks past Ivanka Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the occasion of the private audience with President Donald Trump, at the Vatican AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis exchanges gifts with US President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis meets US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania during a private audience at the Vatican Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis with US President Donald J. Trump EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis gets into is car after meeting with US President Donald Trump AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look at the frescoed ceilings during their visit to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump security vehicles are seen in front of Air Force One before take off from Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave to reporters before boarding the Air Force One to Brussels, at the end of a 2-day visit to Italy including a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, at Rome's Fiumicino international airport AP

Heres Mr Trump's whole statement.

On behalf of the American people, I would like to wish all Muslims a joyful Ramadan.

During this month of fasting from dawn to dusk, many Muslims in America and around the world will find meaning and inspiration in acts of charity and meditation that strengthen our communities. At its core, the spirit of Ramadan strengthens awareness of our shared obligation to reject violence, to pursue peace, and to give to those in need who are suffering from poverty or conflict.

This year, the holiday begins as the world mourns the innocent victims of barbaric terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom and Egypt, acts of depravity that are directly contrary to the spirit of Ramadan. Such acts only steel our resolve to defeat the terrorists and their perverted ideology.

On my recent visit to Saudi Arabia, I had the honour of meeting with the leaders of more than 50 Muslim nations. There, in the land of the two holiest sites in the Muslim world, we gathered to deliver together an emphatic message of partnership for the sake of peace, security, and prosperity for our countries and for the world.

I reiterate my message delivered in Riyadh: America will always stand with our partners against terrorism and the ideology that fuels it. During this month of Ramadan, let us be resolved to spare no measure so that we may ensure that future generations will be free of this scourge and able to worship and commune in peace.

I extend my best wishes to Muslims everywhere for a blessed month as you observe the Ramadan traditions of charity, fasting, and prayer. May God bless you and your families.
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World leaders have pushed Donald Trump to join the rest of the world in combating climate change - but the President has made no promises despite the White House insisting his views are evolving.

G7 nations had hoped the US leader, who has previously described climate change as a "hoax", would publicly back the Paris Agreement and the commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Rather, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leaders had a controversial debate on the subject.

Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Independent that the mood at the meeting was tense around climate and migration discussions in particular.

Despite that, and despite repeated criticism that Mr Trump has turned his back on science, the US insisted that the President had gone to listen and learn to the other world leaders.

The meeting in Taormina, Italy, of the heads of the worlds seven major industrialised economies, did secure widespread agreement on other issues, including Syria, Libya, and fighting terrorism.

The group ramped up pressure on internet service providers and social media to increase efforts to purge extremist content, four days after the terror attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, by toughening a final statement to fight terrorism, honing in on the role of companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, sometimes referred to generally in Europe using the acronym Gafa.

We will combat the misuse of the Internet by terrorists. While being one of the most important technological achievements in the last decades, the Internet has also proven to be a powerful tool for terrorist purposes, said the joint statement signed by the leaders meeting in Sicily.

However that co-operation did not stretch entirely to the issue of Global warming. There is one open question, which is the US position on the Paris climate accords. All others have confirmed their total agreement on the accord, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said.

We are sure that after an internal reflection, the United States will also want to commit to it, he added.

The White Houses decision to go slow on making a decision about his commitment to the 2015 climate change agreement - something Mr Trump said he would withdraw from when he was campaigning - led the other leaders to mount their campaign of persuasion.

During the opening months of this presidency, he has shown he can change his position, especially when confronted by strong and unified global opinion.

For instance, he backed away from tough campaign talk about trade with China after a summit with President Xi Jinping and abandoned his criticism of Saudi Arabia.

The White House said as much in briefings to reporters after the meeting, the final stage on the presidents nine-day foreign visit.

He feels much more knowledgeable on the topic today, said Gary Cohn, the Mr Trumps top White House economic advisor. He came here to learn, he came here to get smarter.

Lisa Murray's climate change photography Show all 12 1 /12 Lisa Murray's climate change photography Lisa Murray's climate change photography Dinka cattle herders starting their migration in South Sudan Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography A Dinka woman fetches water in South Sudan Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Veronica in South Sudan preparing tea outside her home, recently ravaged by heavy flooding Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Children playing in Vietnam. When it floods, transport to and from school is a major challenge Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Sugeng, a fish and crab farmer from Indonesia who suffers financially every time the area floods Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Tan, a vegetable farmer, learning new methods through Oxfam in Vietnam Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Maluk, a 19-year-old from Tonj South, South Sudan Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Normally this farmer in South Sudan would be harvesting sorghum, but rains are late so the hunger season continues Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Herders bringing home their cattle in Afar, Ethiopia Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Farmers harvesting chilli in Ethiopia Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography A woman in Tigray, Ethiopia, scares birds away from her crops with a slingshot Lisa Murray Lisa Murray's climate change photography Irula tribe woman in Tamil Nadu Lisa Murray

However, White House National Security Adviser HR McMaster said that Mr Trump would make his decisions based on what's best for the American people - bringing things back to 'America First' policy that energised the president's supporters during last year's presidential election campaign.

One specific issue Mr Trump has been consistent on is job creation.

He ran his 2016 campaign on a platform of job creation in rural areas of the US and EU leaders may be discussing how they have decoupled economic growth, job creation, and carbon emissions, said Mr Meyer.

According to senior White House officials, the president is particularly worried that the US will fall behind India and China in manufacturing and job creation. China has also become a leader in renewable energy investment, particular solar panels.

New investments in renewable energy outpaced new money in the oil and gas sector for the first time ever in 2015 to the tune of $350bn (273bn).

A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the worlds economies could boost economic growth by nearly three per cent by 2021 if they institute policies that would lower greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050 that growth could reach up to five per cent.

Mr Meyer said it's clear [Mr Trump] is not up on markets and trends, however there are people around him who are more knowledgeable about electricity and renewable energy markets like Mr Cohn.

Several business leaders, including the directors of multi-billion dollar pension funds in the US, have urged Mr Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement.

Ben Van Beurden of Royal Dutch Shell told NPR that he wants the US to commit so that there is predictability, consistency, and a level playing field from which companies in his sector can operate going forward.

It would be a mistake to sideline itself from trends in energy markets, said Mr Meyer because it would make the US less competitive.

Practically all of Mr Trump's first foreign trip has been spent of discussing the US stance on climate change. French President Emmanuel Macron had discussed the matter when the two had a somewhat strained meeting in Brussels ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) meeting.

Prior to that, Pope Francis presented the president with a gift during his visit to the Vatican: a 2015 papal letter of nearly 200 pages on the need for people to address climate change.

Whether these messages will resonate with Mr Trump remains to be seen.

Mr Trump is due to return to the US on Saturday.
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Addressing her alma mater for the first time after her election loss, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not hold back the barbs against her former rival.

Donald Trump has repeatedly come under fire for firing his former FBI director, James Comey, who was leading an investigation into his campaign's possible ties to Russia - and Ms Clinton was quick to invoke another president who faced a similar national scandal.



When she graduated Wellesley College in 1969, Ms Clinton told graduates, we were furious about the past presidential election, of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice, after firing the person running the investigation into him at the department of justice.

At the glaring comparison between President Donald Trump and former President Richard Nixon, the Wellesley class of 2017 erupted in cheers.

It wasnt the first time a Democrat had mentioned the i-word in reference to Mr Trump. The suggestion that the current president could be impeached has been circulating on Capitol Hill.

Republican Senator John McCain even suggested the Trump administration scandal was reaching Watergate size and scale.

It was however, Ms Clintons most stinging rebuke of her former rival since her November loss.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Besides comparing Donald Trump to a disgraced former president, she also took issue with his policies and rhetoric.

You are graduating at a time when there is a full fledged assault on truth and reason, she told graduates. ...Some are even denying things we see with our own eyes, like the size of crowds. And then defending themselves by talking about alternative facts'."

The comment was a dig at White House Press Secretary Sean Spicers disproved claim that Mr Trump had the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration  period, and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conways excuse that Mr Spicer was using alternative facts.

Later in her speech, Ms Clinton attacked Mr Trumps recently released budget proposal, which calls for deep cuts to education and Medicaid, among other things.

Ms Clinton called the budget a con and an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us. She also pointed to the budgets lack of funding for climate change, mental health initiatives, and treatment for the opioid epidemic.

But Ms Clinton ended her address of a lighter note, telling graduates that while they did not create the current political climate, they have the power to change it.

In the face of dire political circumstances, she said, theres only one answer: Keep going.

It was Ms Clintons third Wellesley commencement address in nearly 50 years. The former presidential contender spoke at her own graduation in 1969, and again in 1992.
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It's midnight in Tokyo and Takehiro Onuki has just left the office, 16 hours after his shift began.

Onuki, a 31-year-old salesman, is headed to the train station to catch the 12.24am train, the last one of the night, back to his home in Yokohama. The train will quickly fill up with other professional working men.

At about 1.30am, after having made a pit stop at a convenience store to grab a sandwich, Onuki arrives home. When he opens the bedroom door, he accidentally wakes his wife, Yoshiko, who just recently fell asleep after working an 11-hour day. She chides him for making too much noise and he apologises.

Then, with his food still digesting and his alarm set for 7am, he creeps into bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Over the past two decades, stories like the Onukis' have become commonplace in Japan. Young couples are fighting to make relationships work amid a traditional work culture that expects men to be breadwinners and women to be homemakers. It's a losing battle. Many newlyweds are forced to watch their free time disappear, surrendering everything from the occasional date night to starting a family.

The daily constraints have made for a worrisome trend. Japan has entered a vicious cycle of low fertility and low spending that has led to trillions in lost GDP and a population decline of 1 million people, all within just the past five years. If left unabated, experts forecast severe economic downturn and a breakdown in the fabric of social life.

Mary Brinton, a Harvard sociologist, tells Business Insider that the situation will get only worse until Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet get with the times. Of the ongoing crisis, she says, This is death to the family.

The demographic time bomb in action

 8 signs Japan is a demographic timebomb

Economists have a name for countries that contract because of these swirling forces: demographic time bombs. In these nations, falling spending shrinks the economy, which discourages families from having kids, which shrinks the economy further. Meanwhile, people are living longer than ever before.

An aging population will mean higher costs for the government, a shortage of pension and social security-type funds, a shortage of people to care for the very aged, slow economic growth, and a shortage of young workers, Brinton says.

Demographic time bombs are hard to defuse because they form over years, sometimes decades. In Japan's case, the story begins in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

During the early 1950s, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida made rebuilding Japan's economy his top priority. He enlisted major corporations to offer their employees lifelong job security, asking only that workers repay them with loyalty. The pact worked. Japan's economy is now the third largest in the world, and it's largely because of Yoshida's efforts 65 years ago.

But there was a clear downside to that economic growth. In the early 1950s, fertility rates hovered at a healthy 2.75 children per woman, UN data shows. By 1960, as businesses asked more and more of their employees, the fertility rate had fallen to 2.08. Japan had sunk to a critical threshold known as replacement fertility, the bare minimum to avoid losing population.

In those days, women's university enrolment rate exceeded 40%, Tokyo University economist Hiroshi Yoshida tells Business Insider. But as more women entered the workforce, fertility began to plummet. Today, more than 50 years later, Japan's fertility rate sits at 1.41, the population is falling, and brutally long work hours remain the norm.

The new world of work

(Getty Images)

In downtown Tokyo, 36-year-old Natsuko Fujimaki runs a daycare that teaches English to Japanese kids. As much as she adores the children, she says it's the people who pop in one or two Saturdays a month whom she really looks forward to seeing.

On these weekends, a group of about 15 working mothers convene in the colorful one-room building. Among construction-paper art and signs that say READ!, they swap stories of their hurried schedules, sharing tips for navigating motherhood and careerism. Fujimaki has been hosting the seminars for the past year. She says it's the ultimate passion project.

Fujimaki, who happens to be Yoshiko Onuki's older sister and herself a mother of one, was raised by a working mom. Her father left when she was young. It's an experience that has stayed with Fujimaki all her life. Where plenty of other women were happy to become housewives, Fujimaki says her mother's balancing act convinced her never to compromise on her dreams.

She tries to instil a similar mindset in the women who attend her seminar. After a long day at work and evenings spent cooking dinner and doing laundry, many have little free time left. They become lonely. Nobody helps these career-oriented working mothers, Fujimaki tells Business Insider. I want to help them.

Fujimaki's business is just one of the consequences of Yoshida's early efforts to rebuild Japan's economy  which he did. But a major reason for that growth is that men and women bought into the idea that each sex had a specific role to play. The emerging labor force doesn't see it that way, says Frances Rosenbluth, a political scientist at Yale University.

Following feminism's slow build in Japan since the 1970s, today's workers strive for equality between the sexes, something Japan's pyramid-style corporate structure just isn't built for. That's because institutional knowledge is viewed as a big deal in Japan, Rosenbluth says. Veteran accountants can't expect to leave their current job and start a new one at the same pay grade, as managers are of the opinion that skills don't transfer. As a result, both male and female workers stick around, even if conditions are miserable.

On more than one occasion, Yoshiko has texted Natsuko complaining about how tired she is after spending 11 hours at her marketing job at Nissan.

She's exhausted every day, Natsuko says. She always texts me like, 'Oh so tired.' Yoshiko admits the work is draining and hardly fulfilling. I do not see any joy in my job right now, she tells Business Insider. Her husband echoes the sentiment, saying the routine of his job at a steel supply company has become boring. They both say they want to look for new jobs, although neither could specify when that change might occur.

Yoshiko says she's considering a shake-up in a couple of years' time, when she's ready to have kids. But even here Rosenbluth says women often face a difficult dilemma. Exiting the labor force to raise kids can make it much harder to find work afterward. Social scientists call this the mommy penalty.

The mommy penalty is big in Japan, Rosenbluth tells Business Insider.

These opposing forces are something of a paradox, the unstoppable force of changing attitudes meeting the immovable object of traditional culture. What do you do about the fact that firms' incentives don't align with the social desirability of changing this problem? Rosenbluth says. That's a hard one.

Japan first, the world second

(Toru Hanai/Reuters) (REUTERS/Toru Hanai)

The International Monetary Fund recently issued a warning to other Asian countries to be wary of Japan's trajectory of getting old before becoming rich. And last year a UBS report showed changing attitudes toward work and gender roles could lead a number of industrialized nations, including the US, to face similar economic hardship.

But as Rosenbluth and Brinton agree, compared to other countries Japan's case is extreme, particularly as it pertains to aging. Adult diapers have outsold baby diapers in Japan for the last six years, and many jails are turning into de facto nursing homes, as Japanese elders account for 20% of all crime in the country. With no one else to care for them, many reoffend just to come back. Stealing a sandwich can mean two years of jail time, but it also means two years of free housing and meals.

Tokyo University's Yoshida says the most critical fact is death rates now fall well below birth rates. People just don't seem to be dying. The elderly now make up 27% of Japan's population. In the US, the rate is only 15%. Experts predict the ratio in Japan could rise to 40% by 2050. With that comes rising social-security costs, which the shrinking younger generations are expected to bear.

But as 42-year-old journalist Renge Jibu says, that means shifting priorities from the personal to the professional. And a lot of Japanese young people simply don't have an interest in committing even more of themselves to a job they hate.

We need to think about what is happiness to us, says Jibu, a 2006 Fulbright scholar at the University of Michigan's Center for the Education of Women, not think about happiness to company.

But Natsuko Fujimaki says the costs absorbed by younger people have led them to reassess their priorities between work, family, and social life anyway. She says the Japanese concept of majime helps explain why. People who are majime are a cross between perfectionists and goody two-shoes. They always play by the rules and try to do it as precisely as possible.

Everyone is really majime to do their job, Fujimaki says. But after being so majime to buy food and pay their bills, many people feel they have time only for one other thing: climbing into bed at 2 a.m. with a bellyfull of hastily consumed food.

Small-scale solutions

Companies have taken a number of steps to make work-life balance less of a struggle.

Japanese ad agency Dentsu recently began forcing people to take at least five days off every six months. The policy followed a 24-year-old employee's suicide in 2015 and a string of work-related suicides in Japan. The phenomenon is known as karoshi, or death by overwork. The company shuts the lights off every night at 10 as an incentive for people to head home.

At the Tokyo-based nursing-care business Saint-Works, employees wear purple capes that display the time they should leave the office. It's an effort to erase all doubt when the day is over. According to the South China Morning Post, people at Saint-Works are working half as many overtime hours since 2012, while profits continue to grow year over year.

But experts generally agree that equality must come from the government, not private industry. Fewer than 10% of managers in Japan are female, a disparity many say stems from a systemic bias against hiring women. Firms view female hires as bad investments, as pregnancy and maternity leave are viewed as a drain on company resources, Rosenbluth says. Neither she nor Brinton sees the government making strides in this area.

In the five years since his election, Prime Minister Abe has addressed Japan's fertility rate mainly as a matter of inconvenience, they say. His government has hosted speed-dating events to get people chitchatting and held fatherhood classes to help single guys seem themselves in a parenting role.

It's great that [the government] is worried about it, Rosenbluth says. But these things will not work.

Instead, she argues, the government has a responsibility to implement policies that favor women while also appealing to corporate interests. She imagines firms getting a tax break for hiring female managers over male candidates. But Brinton doesn't see that happening either.

No matter what you say, what you hear out of Prime Minister Abe's mouth, it's not about gender equality, she says. It's about productivity of the economy and addressing the fact that Japan is one of the most rapidly ageing societies in the world and they're going to run out of labor unless women have more babies.

Humanoids instead of humans

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Honda Robot Asimo as he visits Honda Motor Co. headquarters in Tokyo, Japan (AP)

To make up for an ageing population and aversion toward immigrant work, Japan's tech sector has stepped up its efforts in robotics and artificial intelligence. In doing so, it has essentially turned a biological problem into an engineering one.

In 2014, Telecom giant SoftBank Robotics Corp. released the prototype for its Pepper robot, a friendly white humanoid with puppy-dog eyes and a chest-mounted tablet computer. The company envisioned Pepper welcoming guests at a dinner party, greeting business partners, or comforting hospital patients. Pepper comes equipped with emotion-recognition software that analyzes voice tones and facial expressions. It's all part of Japan's effort to replicate the things that humans can do, if only there were people to do them.

On a June weekend in 2015, SoftBank began selling 1,000 Pepper robots for consumer use, at a base price of $1,600 per robot. The supply sold out in one minute.

The solutions to a lack of human labour have been small scale too.

In 2015, Tokyo's Haneda Airport partnered with technology company Cyberdyne to outfit airport employees with sleek, waist-level devices that give elderly workers the strength of a strapping young person. The device picks up electrical impulses inside the body to help the muscles contract  say, to lift heavy bags or wrangle a rogue toddler. The exoskeletons can sync with floor robots capable of carting around up to 400 pounds of luggage, potentially eliminating the needs for humans.

All hope isn't lost

(AFP/Getty Images)

For all the statistical doom and gloom, many people are still optimistic that a happy, well-balanced life is possible.

A 2016 study conducted by a Japanese research firm found that even though nearly 70% of unmarried Japanese men and 60% of unmarried Japanese women weren't in relationships, most people still say they want to get married.

Renge Jibu, the journalist, said she was so inspired by American working moms when she studied at the University of Michigan that she felt confident enough to have two kids of her own. Fujimaki told a similar story of her own mother. And though Takehiro and Yoshiko Onuki don't yet have any kids, both agree they'll probably have at least one within the next five years. They hope their jobs will be more enjoyable and come with more flexible hours.

But in the meantime, they'll continue texting during the workday and catching up from Friday to Sunday.

We have some distance on the weekdays, Yoshiko says. But we can talk a lot on the weekends, so I think that's very good to keep us ...  She trailed off, searching for the word.

Married? her husband said.

Yes! she said, and both of them fell into laughter.

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Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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Barack Obama has issued a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump, saying the US should not hide behind a wall".

While sharing a stage with Angela Merkel at an event in Berlin to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, the former president said the German Chancellor was one of his favourite partners during his presidency.

During a wide-ranging address, Mr Obama discussed the issue of foreign aid in the developing world, which Mr Trump has suggested he could heavily reduce as part of his America First stance.

Mr Obama said: "If there are disruptions in these countries, if there is bad governance, if there is war or if there is poverty, in this new world that we live in we can't isolate ourselves.

"We can't hide behind a wall."

One of Mr Trump's most prominent campaign promises was to build a wall on the US border with Mexico to keep immigrants out, although no money was included for the controversial scheme in the President's recent budget.

Ms Merkel met Mr Obama before Mr Trump, who is also in Europe for the Nato summit, despite him not being a serving politician.

The speaking invitation to Mr Obama was made long before Mr Trump was elected. Commentators have said her decision to do so reflects her preference for Mr Obama, with whom she is known to be friendly.

In contrast, when Ms Merkel met with Mr Trump at the White House earlier this year, the pair's relationship appeared frosty, with the US president apparently refusing to shake hands with the German leader for photographers.

 Barack Obama 'heartbroken' about Manchester attack

On Thursdays meeting, the Chancellor and Mr Obama spoke on a range of political and foreign policy issues.

"The world is at a crossroads," said Obama, speaking in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

The widening inequality gap within nations as well as between nations was a major concern, he said. At the same time, he said, "the world has never been wealthier, more healthy and never been better educated."

"If we can sustain that progress, then I'm very optimistic about our future. My job now is to help them take it to the next step," he added.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. 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Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Obama also paid tribute to the victims of the Manchester bombing, in which 22 people died.

At a time, when the world is a very complicated place, when we can see the terrible violence that took place just recently in Manchester," he said.

He continued: We had a moment back stage to send a message to the people of Manchester and tell them how heartbroken we are, about the loss of life and to grieve with the families."
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Victims of Chechnyas gay purge have told how they were stripped naked, beaten with pipes and electrocuted, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) said several of those targeted by police were still being held in detention.

Shocking testimony detailing abuse by officials in the Russian federal republic follows claims first made in April that men were being tortured and killed because of their sexuality.

The purge is understood to have seen more than 100 men suspected of being gay abducted, tortured and in some cases killed.

HRW has spoken to six former detainees who said Chechen officials, including two high-level figures, visited unofficial prisons and humiliated inmates suspected of being gay.

Their captors exposed them to their families as gay and encouraged their relatives to carry out honour killings, it is claimed.

They turn the knob, electric current hits you, and you start shaking, one former detainee, who remained anonymous, said. And they keep turning the hellish machine, and the pain is just insane, you scream, and scream, and you no longer know who you are.

Finally, you faint, it all goes dark, but when you come to your senses, they start all over again.

And once theyre done with you and you get your bearings, you hear other inmates screaming, and the sounds of torture are just there all day, and at some point, you start losing your mind.

The HRW report is the most comprehensive account yet of the gay purge. It said no new abductions have taken place in recent weeks, but several men remain in detention.

 Human Rights Watch report confirms 'gruesome' extent of gay persecution in Chechnya

HRW is calling on Vladimir Putin to publicly condemn the action and ensure an immediate shutdown of all unofficial detention facilities in Chechnya.

One victim, speaking to the rights group, said: The [police officials] spat in our faces, they called us disgusting, offensive names, they goaded us. When they finally released me, I was close to hanging myself.

Another told how he was verbally abused and humiliated in front of his own family.

He said fathers, brothers, uncles of the inmates were lined up and, one by one, each detainee was ordered to admit they were gay.

Then, they chastise your family members, tell them they brought shame on the family by rearing a pervert, that its a huge stain on family honour, a stain that needs to be cleansed  they wouldnt say it directly but we all knew what it meant.

The Russian programme director of HRW, Tanya Lokshina, said: Russias federal investigation into the abductions, torture, and humiliation of people presumed to be gay in Chechnya should be thorough and investigators should bring perpetrators to account.

Russian officials are now investigating claims of a state-sponsored purge backed by Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, whose spokesperson has called reports of abuse absolute lies and disinformation.

Ramzan Kadyrov has denied a gay purge is taking place (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The release of HRWs investigation coincides with the start of Ramadan, a date which Sir Alan Duncan, British foreign minister, said had been touted by the Chechen leader as a deadline for gay men to be eliminated.

A report this week by Novaya Gazeta, the Russian newspaper that first broke the story, put the total number of murdered gay men in Chechnya at 26.

Recommended LGBT activists demonstrating against Chechnya persecution arrested

LGBT activists have helped about 40 more who fled the republic to other Russian regions, with many seeking asylum abroad.

Lithuanias foreign minister said the Baltic nation had given refuge to two gay men from Chechnya.

Recent weeks have also witnessed large-scale detentions of gay men in Nigeria and Bangladesh.

In April, 53 people in northern Nigeria were arrested and charged with conspiring to celebrate a gay wedding.

Amnesty International said Bangladeshs elite security forces arrested 27 young men who had gathered an event attended by members of the LGBT community.

The group, who were detained on 19 May, have been charged with drug possession.

Amnesty said they were at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
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US President Donald Trump told Emmanuel Macron on Thursday that he had been his favourite to win the French presidential election and media reports that he was backing far-right leader Marine Le Pen were wrong, a French official said.

You were my guy, Trump told the new French president when they met for the first time in Brussels, the French presidency official said.

Trump told Macron that, contrary to media reports during the race, he had not backed Le Pen and had followed Macron's campaign with great attention, the source said, adding that the two leaders had spoken in English.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he did not know if Trump had said this to Macron but noted that the two men had good chemistry.

Centrist Macron beat National Front leader Le Pen in a 7 May run-off vote after a hard-fought campaign that pitted Macron's pro-European views against Le Pen's anti-globalisation, anti-EU and anti-immigration stance.

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

After a policeman was killed in Paris in April by a suspected Islamist militant, Trump told the Associated Press he thought the attack would probably help Le Pen because she was the candidate who is strongest on borders. However, he said he was not explicitly endorsing Le Pen.

Le Pen said she was best placed to defend France's interests in what she called the new world of Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin.

Copyright Reuters
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The Franco-Canadian friendship has a new face, declared France's Emmanuel Macron, following a meeting with Justin Trudeau at the G7 summit.

The two leaders were photographed talking as they walked through the picturesque scenery of Taormina, Sicily, where the international meet is being held, flanked by their respective bodyguards.

The congenial scene created by the two youthful politicians was a marked contrast to the forced interactions between the leaders and Donald Trump at Thursday's Nato proceedings. Donald Tusk, the EU Council president, hinted the US President's appearance would make the G7 talks challenging.

But on Friday, Mr Macron announced a message of optimism with Mr Trudeau.

Recommended Theresa May urges G7 to tackle extremist content online

We have to meet the challenges of our generation, Mr Macron said in a tweet, along with a video clip of the leaders strolling together and talking in French which was widely shared online. Nearly 20 per cent of Canadians are French speakers.

Mr Macron continued: [We are] Together around common values, to respond to issues related to terrorism, climate and economic cooperation.

It will be Mr Macrons first time attending the international meeting, as it also is for Theresa May, Mr Trump and Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian Prime Minister.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US have gathered to hold talks on terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years, said Mr Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of EU leaders.

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

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted robust discussions on trade and climate during the G7 talks.

All members of the G7 will be affected in some way by the economic fallout of Brexit  but it is of particular interest to the EU, a member of the group in its own right.

Mr Tusk said on Friday he was positively surprised by the US Presidents support for the EU as it manages Britain's departure, adding that Mr Trump had agreed Brexit was just an incident and not a threat. In his 2016 presidential campaign, Mr Trump had heralded himself as Mr Brexit.

Mr Trump, who also dismissed man-made global warming as a hoax during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the US out of a key climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

There is also concern among the leaders about President Trumps commitment to Natos Article 5, which states that an attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all. European diplomats fear any deviation from this could be interpreted by Russia as a green light to aggressive behaviour.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 group of industrialised nations after it annexed Crimea and interfered in the Ukrainian crisis.

Another key issue facing the summit is the refugee crisis. Sicily was chosen as a venue because of its proximity to Libya, which has become an epicentre of human trafficking.

More than half a million refugees, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014.

Italy is eager for rich nations to do much more to help develop Africa's economy and make it more appealing for youngsters to stay in their home countries.

The leaders of Tunisia, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria and Kenya will join the discussions on Saturday to say what should be done to encourage investment and innovation on their continent.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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Hungarian President Viktor Orban has sparked controversy after hosting a notorious anti-LGBT organisation in Budapest.

The US-based International Organisation of the Family (IOF) has consistently campaigned against gay marriage, and reportedly colluded with Vladimir Putin on anti-LGBT legislation in Russia.

On Thursday, Mr Orban spoke at the group's annual conference, entitled "Building Family-Friendly Nations: Making Families Great Again".

The Human Rights Campaign describes the group as a dangerous group of activists spreading anti-LGBT rhetoric and promoting laws and policies that criminalise LGBT people, and the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) has designated the organisation a "hate group".

Many members of the IOF espouse the white nationalist demographic winter" theory, in which the purity of European civilisation is threatened by the population expansion of non-white races.

Mr Orban seemed to endorse the theory in his speech to the conference, saying: Our homeland, our common homeland, Europe, is standing to lose in the population contest of the big civilizations."

 Shame on you Orban protest hits Budapest

He said: "It's important to say that it's a national interest to restore natural reproduction. Not one interest among others  but the only one. It's a European interest too. It is the European interest", according to a Buzzfeed report.

"Europe is old, rich and weak. The part of the world that released more and more crowds of people in the recent years is young, poor, and strong,"

The Eurosceptic Hungarian President has taken a number of draconian measures against migrants and refugees, refusing to take part in the EUs asylum redistribution scheme.

He also used the speech to announce a number of measures to incentivise Hungarian families having more children, such as debt relief for mothers who have two or more children.

Mr Orban said he hoped to increase the countrys birth rate by 2.1 per cent over the next two decades.

Donald Trumps US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, was also due to speak at the conference, but was removed from the programme without explanation last week.

The IOF is also staunchly anti-abortion, and will host a number of international pro-life groups such as the American organisation Family Watch International.
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Isis has called on its followers to wage all-out war on the West during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, sparking fears of new attacks.

The terrorist group uses the start of the 30-day period of fasting and prayer to renew calls for atrocities every year, with previous statements linked to attacks in Orlando and France.

A statement released on YouTube said supporters who were unable to make the journey to Isis territories in Iraq and Syria should attack infidelsin their homes, their markets, their roads and their forumsdouble your efforts and intensify your operations.

Isis launched a special issue of its Rumiyah propaganda magazine calling for terror attacks during Ramadan on 26 May

The message, called Where are the lions of war? continued: Do not despise the work. Your targeting of the so-called innocents and civilians is beloved by us and the most effective, so go forth and may you get a great reward or martyrdom in Ramadan.

It listed targets including the scholars of evil and sedition and politicians, following lengthy articles in propaganda magazines providing instructions on lorry, car and stabbing attacks.

The segment was featured in a longer article by spokesman Abul-Hasan al-Mujahir, which was published in a Ramadan issue of Isis' Rumiyah magazine on Friday, telling readers to use the month to "maximise the benefit you receive on the day of judgement".

The magazine made no mention of the Manchester attack, despite containing details of "military operations" in Russia, the Philippines, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Afghanistan.

It contained articles targeting Turkey, Russia, Iran and Egypt, as well as "evil scholars" who have denounced Isis' ideology.

The avalanche of propaganda came days after Isis claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack, saying it was carried out in response to transgressions against the lands of the Muslims.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

The statement, which was riddled with apparent inaccuracies, threatened: What comes next will be more severe on the worshippers of the cross and their allies.

Thousands of soldiers and police are patrolling the UK as the terror threat remains at its highest level of alert, while security has been increased throughout Europe.

Ramadan has previously seen a spike in Isis terror attacks, with the US State Department warning last year that a call to martyrdom during the month may hold a special allure to some.

Isis former spokesperson, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, issued annual calls to arms that were linked to attacks on the eve of the holy month.

His last message, delivered in May 2016 months before he was killed in a US air strike, called for a month of calamity.

A message reading 'ISIS Coward' is pictured alongside a teddy bear and flowers in Albert Square in Manchester, northwest England (Getty Images)

Adnani's message was linked to attacks including the massacre at an LGBT nightclub Orlando and murder of a police officer and his wife north of Paris.

Both terrorists said they were responding to Adnanis call in statements of responsibility delivered before they were killed police.

Isis later boasted of carnage in the month, which also included that attacks at Istanbul airport and in Nice, claiming 5,200 people had been killed or injured in what it described as military operations.

The official count from 14 terror attacks across the US, Asia, Africa and the Middle East was more than 400 dead.

British authorities have said they are doing everything possible to guard against the risk of further attacks as the investigation into the Manchester attacks continues.

Analysts have warned that as Isis continues to suffer heavy losses in its shrinking territories in Syria and Iraq, it will turn its focus elsewhere to retain momentum.

 Isis forced out of Tabqa Dam

Jeremy Corbyn was accused of justifying terrorism with a speech linking attacks with British foreign policy on Friday.

The Labour leader said it is the responsibility of governments to minimise the risk of further atrocities and recognise the Wests war on terror is not working.

Boris Johnson and Ben Wallace, the security minister, were among those condemning the speech, which said that an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response.

Deaths in the Middle East are one of the most effective recruitment strategies employed by Isis and other jihadi groups, feeding into a victimhood narrative painting the West as murderers and oppressors of Muslims.

But in its own propaganda, Isis has stated that an end to military operations against its territories would not stop terror attacks.

Even if you were to stop fighting us, your best-case scenario in a state of war would be that we would suspend our attacks against you, said an article called Why we hate you and why we fight you.

You cannot bring an indefinite halt to our war against you.
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Civilians are increasingly paying the price as air strikes on Isis escalate in Syria and terrorists seek bloody retribution, the United Nations has warned.

In one incident, militants slit the throats of eight men accused of giving coordinates to the US-led coalition at the site of bombardment in their town.

Around 60 civilians, including 16 children and 12 women, were reportedly killed in air strikes that hit residential areas of Albo Kamal the day before.

The town sits in Deir ez-Zor Governorate  one of several major front lines against Isis as its territory in Syria continues to wane.

Days later, 36 civilians died in an Isis attack on a government-held village in Hama province.

Many, including women and children, were killed by crossfire and snipers during battles, but others were found with their throats cut, the UN said.

It raised particular concern about areas that sit on the border of Isis territory, where retreating militants and their families are mixed in with thousands of displaced people.

 Theresa May refuses three times to say if she would join US in a strike against Syria

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said: We fear civilians are in an increasingly dangerous situation as the air strikes and ground conflict intensify, possibly resulting in many more casualties, as well as retaliatory assaults by Isis against densely-populated civilian areas.

He condemned the terrorist group for using civilians as human shields, brutally preventing them from leaving areas under its control.

There is little doubt that Isis continues constantly to kill and endanger civilians, committing war crimes without any compunction whatsoever, he said.

However, it is also far from clear that the fundamental principles of international law are being properly adhered to by all the various air forces engaged in the fight against Isis.

The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by Isis are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes.

In Raqqa, where US-backed forces are advancing on Isiss largest remaining stronghold, 23 farm workers, including 17 women, were reportedly killed in air strikes on 14 May.

There were reports of fresh deaths on Friday, as 35 people were reportedly killed when bombing destroyed a market and a four-storey building in the Isis-held town of Al Mayadeen.

Mr al-Hussein said the number of civilian deaths in bombardment was rising in Syria, particularly around frontlines in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, suggesting that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks.

British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Show all 10 1 /10 British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Tornado jet takes off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Pilots and ground crew prepare combat aircraft Panavia Tornados at RAF Marham at RAF Marham, UK Getty British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Eurofighter Typhoon jet takes off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A RAF Tornado arrives at RAF Akrotiri to begin operations in Akrotiri British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Tornado jet ahead of taking off from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, as RAF Tornado jets carried out the first British bombing runs over Syria, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. The air strikes were carried out within hours of a vote by MPs in the Commons to back extending operations against Isis from neighbouring Iraq British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Personnel work on a British Tornado after it returned from a mission at RAF Akrotiri in southern Cyprus British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria Two RAF Tornado GR4's, both with remaining weapons ordnance, approach RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, as they return to the base after carrying out some of the first British bombing runs over Syria British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A RAF Tornado takes off from RAF Akrotiri, on the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria A Tornado jet leaving RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland British jets prepare for air strikes in Syria AKA RAF Tornado arrives at RAF Akrotiri to begin operations in Akrotiri, Cyprus. The RAF has sent two further Tornado aircraft and six Typhoons to bolster aircraft now flying sorties to both Iraq and Syria

Just because Isis holds an area does not mean less care can be taken, he added.

Civilians should always be protected, whether they are in areas controlled by Isis or by any other party.

He urged all states operating air forces in the Syrian civil war, including the US, UK, Russia and Syria, to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians as required under international law.

The warning came a day after US Central Command confirmed the deaths of more than 100 civilians, including children, in air strikes on the al-Jadida district of Mosul in March.

They were sheltering in buildings targeted because of the presence of Isis snipers on the roof, on the instruction of Iraqi forces who were apparently unaware of the families inside.

Investigators said a single guided bomb hit the top floor but ignited a large amount of explosive material placed inside by Isis fighters, destroying the building.

Increasing rates of civilian casualties caused the Mosul offensive to be temporarily paused following the incident, which has been contested by local residents who claim there were no additional explosives inside the building.

We call upon the international community and especially the United States to compensate the victims, said Nuraddin Qablan, the deputy president of the Nineveh provincial council.

Civil protection rescue teams reported recovering more than 200 bodies from the area in the days following the strike, while a number of houses in the area were also destroyed by clashes between Isis and Iraqi government forces.

An Islamic State fighter firing his weapon during clashes with US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in the northern Syrian province of Raqqa (AP)

The bombing is the largest single instance of civilian deaths confirmed by the coalition in the nearly three-year-old campaign against Isis and brings the total number of civilians confirmed killed by the Pentagon to 457.

Independent monitoring groups put the total much higher, estimating thousands have been killed in Iraq and Syria since 2014, according to tallies kept by Iraq Body Count and Airwars.

The group has accused foreign members of the US-led coalition of seeking to conceal the deaths of civilians in their strikes by excluding them from Pentagon statistics.

Britain is among the countries claiming it has killed no civilians, despite carrying out hundreds of air strikes in Syria and Iraq as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Central Commands latest casualty briefing quietly announced 80 new deaths referenced only as attributable to coalition strikes to defeat Isis in Iraq and Syria from August 2014 to present [that] had not been previously announced as they were carried out by non-US allies.

The US-led coalitions statistics show that between August 2014 and this month, 4,011 airstrikes in Iraq and 404 in Syria have been performed by non-US forces.

Britain and France accounted for more than half of the attacks, while partners such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Australia made up the bulk of the remaining missions.

Other partners including Germany provide aerial reconnaissance but do not conduct air strikes, while Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Turkey have been responsible for less than 1 per cent of strikes.
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A pigeon has reportedly been caught by customs officials carrying illegal drugs in miniature backpack in Kuwait.

A fabric pocket attached to the back of the bird was found to contain a total of 178 pills, reports say.

Drug smugglers apparently used the animal to fly across the border from neighbouring Iraq.

It was intercepted above a building near Kuwaits customs department, according to Al Arabiya.

It is thought the drugs were a form of ketamine, although this has yet to be verified, an Al-Rai journalist claimed.

Local media in the region has widely reported the case and apparently officials have known for some time that smugglers were using pigeons to transport drugs.

This is not the first time a pigeon has been caught carrying drugs.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

In 2015 guards captured a pigeon flying cocaine and cannabis into a prison in Costa Rica.

The bird was caught as it flew 14 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of cannabis into the facility stuffed into a pouch attached to its body.
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An iconic hotel that's played host to stars including Beyonce and Jay Z, Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed, Elton John, Grace Kelly and Robbie Williams, Cala di Volpe on Sardinias exclusive Costa Smeralda is perhaps best known as one of the locations where Roger Moore was filmed as James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me.

Despite the all-star status, luxury is discreet here. Built in the style of an ancient Italian fishing village, you'd be forgiven for thinking Cala di Volpe is centuries old. With its terracotta-tiled roofs and ombre walls painted in pastel shades of pink, orange and yellow, its rustic style harkens back to a simpler time  but in fact it only opened in 1962.

It may be understated, but this is still an exclusive hotel; I relish the decadence of hopping aboard the private five-minute shuttle boat, complimentary for hotel guests, that whisks me to a secluded beach around the corner. Its nice to get the celebrity treatment once in a while, even when youre not Beyonce. For those who prefer to stay in their depth, the hotel boasts a huge saltwater pool, plus an indoor and outdoor gym.

Cala di Volpe has views over a quiet bay (Cala di Volpe)

And Im tempted to make use of the work-out facilities after being plied with cuttle-fish ink spaghetti and Sardinian roasted pork, both exceptional, at the hotels main restaurant. Breakfast is served here too - I indulged in traditional Sardinian cakes, freshly-baked bread and mozzarella, with a side of exquisite views of the private harbour. Theres another eatery on site, too  the more informal outdoor Barbecue Restaurant, offering a colourful Mediterranean buffet and a more dressed-down feel.

This is a place where people come to see and be seen, and everything is Instagram-worthy  including the signature bellinis, made with fresh white peaches and best enjoyed on the hotel terrace as the sun sets. Cala di Volpe isnt short of bars to savour a drink at, with four to choose from including the trendy Atrium bar, which serves up cocktails complemented by views across the bay.

There's a selection of designer shops on the hotels ground floor, which gives you an idea of the type of clientele Cala di Volpe attracts. About a third of the guests are well-heeled Italians, and moneyed Americans and Brits flock here too to soak up the sun.

Location

Located on the Costa Smeralda on the northern coast of Sardinia, Cala di Volpe is just a half-hour drive from Olbia airport, a two and a half hour flight from London Gatwick. The hotel provides a free deluxe minivan shuttle service to ferry guests to and from the airport.

Costa Smeralda translates as the Emerald Coast, named for the distinctive deep green colour of the sea along this 55km stretch of coastline. I can confirm it lives up to the name  the water manages to be both clear and an eye-catching shade of jade simultaneously, striking a stark contrast with the pale blue of the cloudless sky.

Cala di Volpe's restaurant serves up Sardinian pork and seafood pasta (Cala di Volpe)

Cala di Volpe  or Bay of Foxes  feels completely secluded. Its set next to a quiet bay so still it feels like a lake, with a tucked-away stretch of sand accessible by the speed boat shuttle that comes every half hour. I was happy to relax and enjoy the surroundings, but for those who fancy venturing further afield there are plenty of other beaches and coves to explore in the area.

Comfort

Rustic whimsy meets all-out luxury at Cala di Volpe  I find the simple white sheets of my king-sized bed graced with a Lindt chocolate after turn down, the colourfully tiled bathroom is stocked with premium Acqua Di Parma toiletries, and the roughly hewn white stucco walls are adorned with a large flat-screen television in addition to the more traditional Sardinian arts and crafts.

Theres high-speed wifi, a business centre and even sockets on the balconies for those whod prefer to work with a view of the turquoise bay and surrounding verdant greenery.

Cala di Volpe's bedroom are charmingly rustic (Cala di Volpe)

Ranging from singles to doubles to suites, the hotels 121 rooms are gratifyingly spacious  particularly the one three-bedroom presidential suite, complete with private rooftop and swimming pool. Not that Im staying there. After all, Im not really Queen Bey.

Essentials

Hotel Cala di Volpe, Costa Smeralda, Porto Cervo, 07020, Italy

0039 0789 976111; caladivolpe.com

Doubles from 420 (360) in June and September, 1,360 (1,160) in July and August, B&B.

Wifi: Free

Rooms: *****

Service: *****

Value: ****
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Queues, delays and confusion have marred the start of the Bank Holiday getaway for airline passengers at Gatwick airport. Dozens of flights from the North Terminal have left late, many of them without all the bags on board, following a baggage system failure.

The airport is telling passengers: "To ensure that everyone gets away on time, some flights are departing without all bags. Bags will be forwarded to passengers as soon as possible at their destination."

On Twitter, irate passengers have been expressing their anger. James Stadnyk tweeted on arrival in Spain: "Just arrived in Valencia and no bags which is no surprise with the chaos at Gatwick airport this morning. What to do?"

Felice Di Rienzo tweeted: After significant delay, forced to take off by @easyJet without luggage. Chaos.

Kirk R Green tweeted: 65 minutes for first airport information announcement, easyJet staff saying something bad has happened but no idea what. Shocking service.

Faye Warner tweeted: Absolute chaos at Gatwick with @easyJet having a failure, nearly an hour checking the bags in! Cheers for a great start to my holiday.

Passenger Jeremy Westhead, told The Independent: Passengers being told it's a belt failure. At easyJet they are queuing in the most spectacular fashion - wriggling around and out doors.

Another passenger, Chris Cox, said: "All the baggage belts have broken, and they are hand-checking in flight by flight."

Passengers on easyJet flights to Malta, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Tenerife, Paphos, Copenhagen and Bodrum were delayed by an hour or more. Thomson flights to Tenerife, Cape Verde, Venice, Naples and Corfu also left around an hour late.

A spokesperson for easyJet apologised for the disruption and said: "easyJet, like other airlines, is experiencing delays in the delivery of hold luggage to departing aircraft. A number of flights are departing without all of the luggage stowed in the hold.

"easyJet takes the wellbeing of our passengers very seriously and we are working closely with the airport team to return luggage to our passengers as soon as possible.

A Gatwick spokesperson said:

A problem with the baggage sortation system that occurred at Gatwick has been rectified and the airport is recovering from this mornings disruption.

Gatwick would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to passengers whose aircraft departed without their bag.

The airport is working closely with our airlines to forward all bags to passengers at the earliest opportunity.

Arrivals, and those travelling with carry-on baggage only, were unaffected by this issue and all bags and passengers were security screened as normal.

Gatwick is the busiest single-runway airport in the world, and disruption can quickly ripple through operations.

With the UK terror threat level raised to critical, passengers flying from British airports this weekend have been told to expect a heightened police presence.

Heathrow airport, the UKs busiest, said: We are working closely with our Aviation Police and Border Force colleagues on the plans that support this change in threat level. There will be higher visibility of police patrolling and additional checks at the airport. The airport is planning to run a normal operation.

Elsewhere in Britain, the main Bank Holiday travel issue is the amount of engineering work taking place.

Network Rail is closing the West Coast main line north from Carlisle to Carstairs, with buses laid on for passengers travelling to and from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In addition work is taking place between Crewe and Liverpool for most of the weekend. Virgin Trains to Liverpool will be routed via Manchester.

Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step Show all 7 1 /7 Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step Cynthia's laptop is carefully wrapped Cynthia Drescher Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step Cynthia's then given an form to fill in Cynthia Drescher Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step Then it's boxed and bagged individually Cynthia Drescher Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step The laptop is given a business class tag Cynthia Drescher Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step It's individually labelled and marked as fragile Cynthia Drescher Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step On arrival, the laptops are waiting at baggage claim Cynthia Drescher Travelling with the laptop ban: step by step Result: the laptop has survived Cynthia Drescher

Buses replace trains on some sections of the Great Western line between Reading, Swindon, Bath and Bristol, with other rail services diverted.

The lines between Harrogate and York, Portsmouth and Havant, and London Charing Cross and London Bridge are also closed at the weekend.

Abroad, an air-trafffic control strike is threatened in Italy on Sunday. Flights and local transport in eastern Sicily are already heavily disrupted because of the G7 Summit in Taormina.
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Culturally appropriating hairstyles, collecting questionable tattoos and acquiring a mahogany tan? Yes, these are all important components of a cliche-filled gap-year. But coming back wearing your weird food experiences like a badge of honour is perhaps the most crucial element of ones travels. Ensure you consume at least one of the interesting delicacies below.

France: Pig intestine sausage

At home, you probably thought French food consisted mainly of champagne, cheese and tiny, perfect patisserie. Then you arrive and quickly realise that you have to get involved with offal. Andouillette may be the most challenging of all the animal insides  a coarse sausage made of seasoned pork intestines stuffed inside a bigger pork intestine, with a smell and taste described as stale urine, toilet mixed with pig fat and bad bad bathroom.

Andouillette sausage is considered an acquired taste (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Peru: Guinea pig

Small, cuddly and very delicious, guinea pigs are a regional delicacy in Peru. Incas ate your childhood pet for centuries, farmers in the Andes continued the tradition and now the cute fluffballs are available in high-end Lima restaurants and food stalls alike. Traditionally, they were served with teeth and claws intact on a skewer as a street kebab, but now you can have them bone and skin free as a fancy starter. Said to taste like rabbit or pork.

Whole guinea pigs roasting in Lima, Peru (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Cambodia: Tarantulas

The deep fried arachnids, or A-Ping, as they are known locally, are a street food classic. Spider eating was born out of necessity during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime when food shortages were widespread but have remained on the menu due to the delectable combo of their crunchy legs and squishy bodies. Covered in salt, sugar, garlic and oil, it is advised to pull the legs off one by one and eat them first to avoid the sensation of the spider walking around in your mouth.

Youll find deep fried spider on stick at most food stalls in Cambodia (istock)

Singapore: Durians

Public food enemy number one in Singapore, this stinky fruit is banned on public transport and is so famous it has its own dont eat me here sign. Loved and hated in equal measure, the spiky treat tastes custardy and almondy, with a strong smell of feet, sewage and an aftertaste of onion. Truly the marmite of South East Asia, it is used to flavour cakes, ice cream, curries and soups, as well as eaten alone.

Durian is considered the 'King of fruit' in Singapore (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Philippines: Balut

Balut is an egg with a chick inside. A fertilised duck embryo is boiled at between 16 to 21 days old and served with a dash of salt. Crack open the top, slurp out the soup, or amniotic fluid, then peel back a little more of the shell to hit the rich yolk and dig down to the chicken embryo, described as comparable to well boiled chicken tendons. It promises to cure hangovers but the crunchy beak may be a little much for tender tummies.

The fertilised eggs are often used as a hangover cure (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Mexico: Escamoles

For the intrepid gap year foodie who aims to return from Mexico with a story more exciting than best guacamole I ever had, escamoles are a must. Known as insect caviar, they are the larvae of a venomous ant species that lay their eggs in the roots of agave or maguey plants. When harvested, they are light in colour with a slightly nutty taste. Often pan-fried with butter, onion and chilli, escamoles are eaten in tacos and salsa.

The ant larvae are used in tacos (Getty) (Getty Images)

Japan: Tuna eyeballs

No mythical backstory for the tuna eyeball, a niche dish which gained popularity in Japan in the early Nineties when it was revealed to have high concentrations of omega 3 fatty acids. You can now find big tuna eyes staring at you from beneath cling film at most Japanese supermarkets. It is most commonly boiled in water and seasoned to taste with soy sauce and mirin. The dark-brown eye muscles are eaten before the eyeball which is softer and fatty, with a squid like taste.
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As the fare for its first non-stop flight between the UK and Australia rises towards 2,000 return, Qantas is contemplating pushing the boundaries even further  and seriously considering connections from London to Melbourne and Sydney.

Since the Australian airline announced a non-stop link between Heathrow and Perth, demand for the 17-hour flight has proved strong.

A few seats are available for the first outbound departure from London next year on 25 March, but round-trip economy fares are approaching 2,000.

What has caught the particular attention of Qantas executives is the demand for more comfortable seats on the 9,009-mile trip. Premium Economy is selling strongly at over 3,000 return, while Business Class is currently priced at over 6,500.

Much cheaper deals are available on connecting services, which suggests that well-heeled passengers will pay a substantial premium for cutting out the en-route stop, which adds a minimum of two hours to the overall journey.

The distance from London to Sydney is 10,557 miles, with Melbourne around 60 miles closer. At present the quickest London-Sydney trip is around 22 hours and 30 minutes, on Emirates or Qantas via Dubai, or Thai via Bangkok. The non-stop service would take around 20 hours.

The most direct route from London initially heads east-north-east over Denmark, Sweden and Estonia, and spends most of the journey overflying Russia, Kazakhstan and China. It then crosses the South China Sea, the Philippines archipelago and eastern Indonesia before making landfall near Darwin.

The two big aircraft manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing, are developing competing aircraft that could operate such routes: the A350ULR [Ultra Long Range] and 777-8 respectively. The worlds longest flight at present, the 9,025 miles between Doha and Auckland, uses an earlier version of the Boeing 777.

The Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, told Reuters: These aircraft, we think, are potentially real goers on these routes. He said such a service could begin by 2022.

The most important of the three key issues for the Australian airline is the price of oil. On ultra-long-haul flights, a lot of kerosene is burned in order to carry fuel for later stages of the journey  so increases in the price of fuel disproportionately damage the profitability of extreme routes.

Secondly, how much of a premium will passengers tolerate for the privilege of cutting out the stops? Fares between the UK and Australia are currently depressed by intense competition. Even booking on the day of travel, a return flight from Heathrow via the Far East to Sydney is on sale for as little as 800 return, the same fare as prevailed 40 years ago.

Qantas has said it would consider direct London to Sydney flights (Getty)

The third factor: the weight penalty that Qantas would incur, particularly flying west into the prevailing headwind. When aircraft are close to the limit of their range, the airlines will typically reduce the number of seats sold in order to reduce the risk of making an en-route refuelling stop.

Both the A350-900URL and 777-8 can trade passengers for fuel to fly longer, said Bjorn Ferhm of the specialist aviation publisher Leeham News and Comment.

The question is not if its possible. Its about how many passengers can be carried for the two jets and if its economic at the seat count.

Victoria Moores, the European editor of Air Transport World, said: There is definitely a desire for non-stop flights, but theres also a desire for the cheapest fare possible. Its always a trade-off and what people say they want is often very different to how they behave in practice. Direct at a competitive price? Yes. Direct at a premium? There will be a market, but Im not sure how large that market will be and whether it will be enough to sustain the route.

The aviation consultant, John Strickland, echoed that sentiment: The non stop would appeal to the relatively small premium market but due to the need to still sell economy seats, would not be likely to be as profitable as other potential uses of the aircraft.

The non-stop distance from Sydney to New York is 9,940 miles, over an hour shorter than the London-Sydney route. In addition, the average fares on trans-Pacific flights from the US to Australia are significantly higher than from the UK.

But Malcolm Ginsberg, editor-in-chief of Business Travel News, said: Maybe it is Englands long connection with Down Under and Amy Johnsons historic flight but there has always been something special with London-Sydney.

There is a premium to be paid. Long-range fuel tanks, special loos with extra capacity, at least a double crew. But there are advantages. No intermediate landings which can be expensive, and not just airport fees. Aircraft are serviced every so many rotations. Cut them down by half and there has to be a saving.

A Qantas Boeing 747 flew non-stop from Heathrow to Sydney in 1989, but as a proving flight with no paying passengers. Jonny Goodall, commercial director of Travel Nation, said: Undoubtedly Sydney is the headline act when it comes to Australia.

The vast majority of our customers prefer a stopover or two to break the journey to Sydney, but I also think demand will be there for Heathrow-Sydney non-stop as it would be unique.
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A gay foster father from North Carolina was detained after a flight from New York to Raleigh-Durham airport when a flight attendant reported him for touching his son inappropriately.

Henry Amador-Batten, 52, was travelling with his five-year-old son Benjamin. They were on the last leg to their home in Durham after a journey from Puerto Rico, where his father had died.

According to a Facebook post by his husband, Joel Amador-Batten, a member of the flight crew had made a complaint about his proximity to the childs genitals.

The post reads: Tonight my husband was detained after disembarking a United flight to RDU because a member of the flight crew made an accusation that my husband's hand/arm laying across my sleeping son's lap was too close to the child's genitals.

After being made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers as they exited the plane my husband filed a report of his own mentioning that the male flight attendant that must have accused him had treated him oddly in flight, and was promptly sent on his way.

Recommended How to avoid a repeat of the United Airlines catastrophe

He later added: The treatment by both the flight attendant and the captain were absolutely mean-spirited and completely unacceptable.

The post concludes: This misguided man's assumptions about my husband and the accusations that he made are completely unfounded and we plan on getting up bright and early in the morning to make as much f*****g noise about this as I possibly can.

In an email to the Durham Sun, a United spokesperson, Jonathan Guerin, said: Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect.

We have followed up with the customer directly and we apologized for the situation.

The couple received plenty of support on Facebook about the incident, with Adam J Gillis writing: If this was a typical nuclear family the lawsuit would have started at the freaking airport.

But they were also challenged, with Stephen Smith asking: So what you're saying is that airline employees should look the other way when they see something questionable?

Joel Amador-Batten responded: I'm not saying anyone should look the other way, but you don't shoot and ask questions later. There was exploration in the part of the flight crew as to who my son and husband were to one another. There was an assumption and then an accusation.

In April United Airlines apologised after Dr David Dao was dragged brutally from a plane at Chicago airport because space was needed for airline staff.

Initially the airline simply said he had been re-accommodated, but it has now made a multi-million dollar settlement with Dr Dao.
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Jeremy Corbyn is correct in saying that there is a strong connection between the terrorist threat in Britain and the wars Britain has fought abroad, notably in Iraq and Libya. The fact that these wars motivate and strengthen terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda and Isis has long been obvious to British intelligence officers, though strenuously denied by governments.

The real views of British intelligence agencies on the likely impact of Britain taking part in wars in the Middle East are revealed in a Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) assessment dated 10 February 2003, just before the start of the invasion of Iraq led by American and British forces. It is marked top secret, but was declassified for use by the Chilcot Inquiry and, though it was referred to by several publications, attracted little attention at the time.

It says, the threat from al-Qaeda will increase at the onset of any military action against Iraq. They will target Coalition forces and other Western interests ina the Middle East. Attacks against Western interests elsewhere are also likely, especially in the US and UK, for maximum impact. The worldwide threat from other Islamist groups and individuals will increase significantly.

 Jeremy Corbyn highlights link between foreign wars and 'terrorism at home'

An earlier JIC assessment dated 10 October 2002, also declassified by Chilcot, says: Al-Qaeda and associated groups will continue to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests and that threat will be heightened by military action against Iraq.

Corbyn is saying almost exactly the same today as the JIC predicted in 2003. He cites with approval experts pointing to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home". He adds that their assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children, but that an informed understanding is essential in order to fight rather than fuel terrorism.

The JIC conviction about the benefits to al-Qaeda of the Iraq war was swiftly borne out after the invasion as it expanded from being a small group of militants, perhaps less than a 1,000-strong based mainly in the mountains of southern Afghanistan and north-west Pakistan, into a global movement. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, taking advantage of the destruction of the Iraqi state, developed into one of the most powerful and influential terrorist movements in history, and later transmuted in Iraq and Syria into Isis.

Corbyn says that we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working, adding that we need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism. Again, this is demonstrably true as vast resources have been poured into waging the war on terror since 9/11, but Isis, al-Qaeda and similar Salafi jihadi movements are far stronger now than they were then. They have powerful military forces fighting in at least seven wars  Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, North East Nigeria  as well as in insurgencies, large and small, such as in Sinai and north-west Pakistan. Individuals and cells carry out terrorist attacks everywhere from Orlando to Baghdad and Berlin to Mogadishu.

Seldom has a war been so comprehensively and visibly lost as the war on terror and it is doing a favour to Isis and al-Qaeda not to recognise this and try for something better. Yet critics of Corbyn have unconsciously been doing just such a favour to al-Qaeda by demanding he stay silent. In a crass but unintentionally revealing interview, the Conservative Security Minister Ben Wallace claimed that Corbyns timing was appalling. He said that we have to be unequivocal, that no amount of excuses, no amount of twisted reasoning about a foreign policy here, a foreign policy there, can be an excuse. The reality is, these people hate our values.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

Of course, this is the old political gambit, often deployed by politicians and journalists, of deliberately mistaking explanation for justification. More significantly, Wallace repeats the mantra usually expressed after terrorist attacks, when political leaders promote national unity and emphasise mass mourning to the exclusion of almost anything else. After the killing of journalists at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in 2015, some 40 world leaders walked through the streets in solidarity against terrorism. Such demonstrations are intended as a show of concern, but in practice they become a replacement for effective action.

Emotional outpourings, sincere or not, are politically convenient for governments because they divert attention from failed policies that may well have helped promote terrorist movements. Wallace is dismissive of a foreign policy here, a foreign policy there having any effect on terrorism, but the foreign policies most in question are those which led to Britain engaging in wars to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011. Both wars succeeded in their aims, but they also led to a collapse of the Iraqi and Libyan states and opened the door to al-Qaeda, Isis and their clones.

It should be firmly said that, if Saddam and Gaddafi had not been overthrown, it is unlikely that Salman Abedi would have been in a position to slaughter people in Manchester.

There has been much controversy over Britains decision to join the invasion of Iraq, but not enough about its role in overthrowing Gaddafi eight years later. The nature of British participation in the Libyan war and the consequence of its actions deserve to be the subject of an inquiry as thorough as Chilcots. This is because the British participation went well beyond airstrikes and training of Libyan rebels. Reports are emerging that it involved energising and facilitating the movements of known Salafi-jihadi British Libyans and Libyan exiles who wished to return to Libya to fight Gaddafi. In other words, the Islamic jihadi networks of the type to which Salman Abedi and his family belonged acted as useful proxies for the British state.

Several Libyans in Britain had been subjected to control orders, a form of house arrest introduced after the bombings in London in 2005, to stop them going to fight in Iraq according to a detailed report in the online magazine Middle East Eye. Citing interviews with Libyan Islamic militants, it says that British authorities adopted an open door policy for Libyans willing to fight Gaddafi. I was allowed to go, no questions asked, said one source.

Other Libyans, with known Salafi jihadi associations, were surprised not only to have control orders lifted, but their passports returned. Many joined the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group when back in Libya. Belal Younis, a British Libyan, who had been to Libya in 2011, is quoted as saying that he was stopped by police and immigration officials on his return and then interviewed by an MI5 officer who asked him, Are you willing to go into battle? Younis says: When I took time to find an answer he turned and told me the British government have no problem with people fighting against Gaddafi. It had no problem then, but it certainly has a problem now as it investigates Libyans in Britain and Libya whom it once aided in pursuit of a foreign policy that destroyed Libya and became a danger to Britain.
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The story of Hillary Clintons failure to defeat Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States in 2016 has a lot to teach about the nature of politics. A full account has just been published: Shattered, Inside Hillary Clintons Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. In places, you can read across to the British scene.

The Clintons as a couple, former President Bill and Hillary, it turns out, had for a long time had a policy of systematically rewarding friends and punishing those whom they saw as disloyal. Fuelling their resentment was the 2008 race between Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, which Hillary lost. The Clintons kept the score and harboured grudges. We learn from Shattered that it was a self-signed death warrant to raise a question about Hillarys competence  to her or to anyone else  in the loyalty obsessed Clintonworld.

I imagine there is also a loyalty obsessed Mayworld. That is very natural, given the extreme strains to which any prime minister is subject. Prime ministers need all the help they can get. But in the case of Hillary, it was not so much loyalty obsessed as loyalty enforced. And loyalty enforced is never going to see you through a long, tough campaign.

UK General Election 2017 Show all 47 1 /47 UK General Election 2017 UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street for the 1922 committee on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 DUP leader Arlene Foster stands alongside deputy leader Nigel Dodds as they hold a press conference at Stormont Castle as the Stormont assembly power sharing negotiations reconvene following the general election on June 12, 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Discussions between the DUP and the Conservative party are also continuing in the wake of the UK general election as Prime Minister Theresa May looks to form a government with the help of the Democratic Unionist parties ten Westminster seats. Stormont and the political situation in Northern Ireland has been in limbo following the collapse of the power sharing executive due to the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme scandal which implicated the DUP Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Priti Patel, International Development Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Larry the Downing Street cat runs ahead of Michael Fallon Britain's Secretary of State for Defence as he arrives for a cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Britain, June 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth REUTERS UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Michael Gove, Environment Secretary leaves 10 Downing Street on June 12, 2017 in London, England. British Prime Minister Theresa May held her first cabinet meeting with her re-shuffled team today Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 Scottish National Party Leader Nicola Sturgeon (C) leaves after speaking to the media in Parliament Square. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 12 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May (C, L) holds the first Cabinet meeting of her new team. Getty UK General Election 2017 11 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May attends church in her constituency with her husband Philip May, a few days after disappointing results in a general election. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn leaves Labour Party HQ this morning, following a general election yesterday. Parliament is hung, with no individual party gaining an overall majority. Post general election reaction. Rex UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND - JUNE 09: DUP leader and Northern Ireland former First Minister Arlene Foster (C) holds a brief press conference with the DUP's newly elected Westminster candidates who stood in the general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A " Get May Out" demo took place opposite the gates of Downing Street, calling for May to resign, after the shock election results and Mays coalition with the DUP. Rex Features UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A demonstrator wears a mask depicting Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May, poses with a mock gravestone bearing the words "Hard Brexit, RIP", during a protest photocall near the entrance 10 Downing Street in central London AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters in London Reuters UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May flanked by her husband Philip delivers a statement outside 10 Downing Street in central Londo Getty UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May leaves Buckingham Palace in London the day after a general election in which the Conservatives lost their majority Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 A TV cameraman watches the door of 10 Downing Street in London Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is greeted by his Office Director Karie Murphy as he arrives at Labour Party HQ in Westminster, London, after he called on the Prime Minister to resign, saying she should 'go and make way for a government that is truly representative of this country' Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the Conservative Party's headquarters with her husband Philip in London REUTERS/Peter Nicholls UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ukip leader Paul Nuttall speaks during a press conference at Boston West Golf Club where he announced that he is standing down as party leader Joe Giddens/PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, leaves the counting centre for Britain's general election with her partner Jen Wilson in Edinburgh, Scotland REUTERS/Russell Cheyne UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale celebrates with candidate for Edinburgh South Ian Murray as he retains his seat at the Meadowbank Sports Centre counting centre in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks to the media at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, as counting is under way for the General Election Andrew Milligan/PA Wire UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, as counting is under way for the General Election PA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon reacts at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland EPA UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, arrives at the Labour Party's Headquarters in London REUTERS/Marko Djurica UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall leaves in a car following the vote count for the constituency of Boston and Skegness in Boston, England Anthony Devlin/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 9 June 2017 British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Theresa May speaks at the declaration at the election count at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead, England. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A policer officer enters a polling station in London AP UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A woman leaves after casting her vote at the Hove Museum and Art Gallery near Brighton, in southern England Getty UK General Election 2017 8 June 2017 A polling station sign is seen on a telephone box outside the polling station at Rotherwick Hall, west of London Getty UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 A woman walks past a general election display in the window of a betting shop in Camden on June 7, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow, Getty Images UK General Election 2017 7 June 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May visits Atherley Bowling Club during an election campaign visit on June 7, 2017 in Southampton, England. Britain goes to the polls tomorrow June 8 to vote in a general election. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A supporter wears a pair of Jeremy Corbyn decorated tights at a general election campaign event in Birmingham, central England, on June 6, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another deadly terror attack in the nation's captial. AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 A picture taken in London, shows election leaflets from various parties displayed ahead of the United Kingdom's general elections. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 Election workers, George Gaunt and Luca Tragid deliver the first ballot boxes, on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh AFP UK General Election 2017 6 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Conservative party supporters during an election campaign visit to a bakery during an election campaign visit on June 6, 2017 in Fleetwood, north-west England. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to vote in a general election only days after another terrorist attack on the nation's capital Getty Images UK General Election 2017 5 June 2017 British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a general election campaign visit to a removals depot in Edinburgh AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Pro-Independence supporters hold a march through Glasgow AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn campaigns for the upcoming general election in Beeston, Nottinghamshire AFP/Getty Images UK General Election 2017 3 June 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts to supporters after a rally at Beeston Youth and Community Centre as he visits the East Midlands during the final weekend of the General Election campaign on June 3, 2017 in Nottingham, England. If elected in next week's general election Mr Corbyn is pledging to create a million new jobs and to scrap zero-hours contracts Getty Images UK General Election 2017 1 June 2017 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party leader Ruth Davidson joins a selection of Scottish Conservative election candidates and activists during campaigning on May 1, 2017 in South Queensferry, Scotland. With only seven days to go until the general election on June 8th, polls are showing the SNP out in front and the Conservatives set to close in on Labour. Getty Images UK General Election 2017 29 May 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May canvasses in Richmond with Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith on May 29, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. After suffering defeat in the London Mayoral election Zac Goldsmith resigned over the Government's position on Heathrow expansion. He stood as an Independent but lost in a by-election to the Liberal Democrats. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron poses for a selfie taken by carer April Preston during a General Election campaign visit to the Barlow Medical Centre, in Didsbury, Manchester Yui Mok/PA UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at an election campaign event in Wrexham, Wales Reuters UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour's former deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, exit the party's general election campaign 'battle' bus as they arrive at an event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn walks with supporters between venues, before speaking again at another general election campaign event in Kingston upon Hull, northern England Getty Images UK General Election 2017 22 May 2017 An anti-fox hunting protester is taken away and arrested by police outside the venue where Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May was due to launch the Welsh Conservative general election manifesto at Gresford Memorial Hall in the village of Gresford, near Wrexham, North Wales, on May 22, 2017. Britain goes to the polls on June 8 to elect a new parliament in a general election AFP/Getty Images

The revelation that Hillary had created her own email server and used it for official business when she was Secretary of State caused a storm. However Hillary turned her fury on her consultants and campaign aides for not getting the media to focus on her platform as a whole.

The authors comment that her policy was to cast blame on others and never admit to anything. After the Iowa primary, Hillary blamed her staff for not anticipating the rise of Bernie Sanders, for not being able to create a message to break through the email scandal and for only scraping a win in the state.

May strikes me as somebody who rarely, if ever, admits a mistake. That in itself is understandable. It is difficult for politicians to do so. When a competent manager owns up to an error, if often leaves his or her reputation intact. But in the case of politicians, it detracts from their standing with the public and is a gift for their opponents. Hillarys grievous fault was not declining to admit mistakes but being an enthusiastic player of the blame game.

Clintons major error, shared with the Remain camp in the Brexit referendum campaign, was not to understand the rise of populism. As a result, a traditional Democrat constituency, working class voters of a vaguely left-wing disposition, started to peel away. This is the fundamental reason why she lost the presidential election to Donald Trump.

This raises a question that goes beyond politics. For we can all find ourselves in a situation in which we fail to see something which is obvious to others. What is the cause of this blindness? In the case of Hillary, the authors of Shattered give an interesting explanation.

 Theresa May will make intelligence issue 'clear to President Trump'

What distracted Hillary from seeing straight was that her opponent in the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders, who, while often supporting the Democratic Party in Congress, had always described himself as a democratic socialist, represented populist discontent. This was particularly offensive to Hillary. As the authors of Shattered write, Hillary couldnt find ways to connect with portions of the primary electorate that were driven to Sanders because he represented an all-out assault on the establishment thinking at the core of her being.

At the same time, Hillary deliberately cut herself off from interaction with the public and thus from a valuable source of political information. She didnt want to expose herself to unscripted interactions with voters and she avoided chance encounters with voters who might heckle her. The book also records that for most of the campaign, Hillary assiduously avoided direct encounters with the national media, going so far as to have aides move a rope to wall then off from her while she walked in a New Hampshire parade in 2015.

May shares this dislike of random encounters with the public. Her election meetings are invitation only affairs. Her broadcast interviews are often simply the recitation of sound bites. This deprives the Prime Minister of a feel for the electorate and undermines her popularity. It may be one reason why Jeremy Corbyn is now snapping at Mays heels.
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Imagine what would happen if the EU leaked intelligence related to the Manchester attack to European newspapers.

Whats that? Youre saying the EU doesnt have an intelligence agency? Good point. OK, imagine what would happen if the French handed the name of the attacker, the death tolls, and the fact that it was a suicide bombing to France 24 hours before the Brits were ready to release that information.

And then, imagine if Le Monde published pictures of the scene, including the remains of a backpack, screws, nuts and the remnants of a device held by the bomber, all of which might be quite important to the police in their ongoing investigation.

The tabloids would be besides themselves. Itd be all over the front pages and if you thought The Suns Hop Off You Frogs was awful, it might prove to be mild by comparison.

 Manchester attacker Salman Abedi: What we know so far

Leader columns in the more respectable parts of the press would fulminate, columnists would trot on to the BBCs Newsnight to shake their fits at the unreliable ally across the channel. Forget the hunt for the jihadi family. It would dominate the narrative.

Liberals would wince at some of the hyperbole, regret the racist language (because you know it would happen), and shudder at the posturing. But secretly we might understand it.

A wounded nation, having seen its children murdered by a medievalist maniac, getting sand kicked in its face by a close so-called ally. What could be worse?

Well, its happened. But, of course, it wasnt the French that did the kicking. It was the Americans. Our best bud, and number one ally. The country we play cheerleader for in international councils. The nation we stand "shoulder to shoulder" with, come what may, and with which we are constantly being told we have a special relationship.

Thanks to leaky US intelligence sources, it was American news broadcasters that were able to offer their viewers details well before they were officially released, while the New York Times published the photo of the backpack.

And because it is American officials that did the leaking (by the way just imagine the furore Stateside if the shoe had been on the other foot) Home Secretary Amber Rudd was merely irritated as opposed to, you know, furious, outraged, apoplectic.

We are told that Theresa May will raise the issue with President Trump. "Listen, would you mind awfully getting your chaps in line? Wed really rather they stopped doing things that might prevent us from getting the bomber's friends into Belmarsh if its not too much trouble."

Police in Manchester, those at the sharp end of a major investigation, have stopped sharing intelligence, and no wonder. Its one thing to be part of the Five Eyes alliance (Australia, Canada, and New Zealand along with the UK and the US), quite another to keep the information flowing if the conjunctivitis suffered by one of them results in discharges at worst possible time.

But even that won't last.

Perhaps the most damning point to be made about all this came from Lord Blair, the former chief of the Metropolitan Police.

Manchester explosion in pictures Show all 37 1 /37 Manchester explosion in pictures Manchester explosion in pictures People running down stairs as they attempt to exit the Manchester Arena after a blast, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Twitter/@ZACH_BRUCE/ via REUTERS Manchester explosion in pictures Helpers attend to people inside the Manchester Arena after a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Armed officers guard outside a hotel near the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police and fans close to the Manchester Arena, after reports of an explosion Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England, at a concert in Manchester Arena AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police stand by a cordoned off street close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of explosion in Manchester, England AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police deploy at scene of a reported explosion during a concert in Manchester, England, on May 23, 2017. British police said early May 23 there were "a number of confirmed fatalities" after reports of at least one explosion during a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An ambulance drives away from the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures Police escort members of the public from the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman sits in the street in a blanket near the Manchester Arena as police guard the area following reports of an explosion, in Manchester, Britain EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Two women wrapped in thermal blankets stand near the Manchester Arena, where US singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester Reuters Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester. At least 19 people have been confirmed dead and others 50 were injured, authorities said. It is being treated as a terrorist incident until police know otherwise EPA Manchester explosion in pictures A Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) bomb disposal robot is unloaded outside the Manchester Arena following reports of an explosion, in Manchester EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Members of the public receive treatment from emergency service staff at Victoria Railway Station close to the Manchester Arena on May 23, 2017 in Manchester, England. There have been reports of explosions at Manchester Arena where Ariana Grande had performed this evening. Greater Manchester Police have have confirmed there are fatalities and warned people to stay away from the area Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police after a suspected terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena at the end of a concert by US star Ariana Grande left 19 dead PA wire Manchester explosion in pictures Emergency services arrive close to the Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures An amoured police vehicle patrols near Manchester Arena in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A man carries a young girl on his shoulders near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, in front of the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police block a road near to the Manchester Arena in central Manchester, England AP Manchester explosion in pictures Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester, northwest England. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured after a suspected suicide bomber targeted fans leaving a concert of US singer Ariana Grande in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Police forensic officers leave the Manchester Arena as they investigate the scene of an explosion in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A forensic officer collects evidence on a walkway between Victoria station and Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures A woman and a young girl wearing a t-shirt of US singer Ariana Grande talks to police near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, Getty Manchester explosion in pictures EPA Manchester explosion in pictures Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Dave Higgens/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures The media gather behind a police cordon in Manchester Getty Images Manchester explosion in pictures Flowers left close to the Manchester Arena, the morning after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester Danny Lawson/PA Wire Manchester explosion in pictures Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Manchester explosion in pictures Signs saying 'We love Manchester' are displayed in a window in Manchester, England Getty Images

This is what he said during the course of an appearance of Radio Fours Today programme: Im afraid it just reminds me exactly of what happened after 7/7 when the US published a complete picture of the way the bombs in 7/7 had been made up and we had the same protests.

He added: This is a very grievous breach but Im afraid its the same as before.

It isn't hard to work out why. American intelligence officials chose to think first of doing their contacts in the US media a favour with the information the UK supplied them with because they knew that they had nothing to lose by doing so. So why not?

That special relationship, has been a cornerstone of British foreign policy since the Suez crisis made it clear who was calling the shots in the world after the Second World War? It was a bit of a myth even in what might have been called its heyday, during the era of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, who enjoyed an ideological and personal relationship that was so close it sometimes looked like a romance.

But when Reagan wanted to invade Commonwealth Grenada? Mrs T was quickly jilted. She got a couple of hours notice, and her objections were ignored as American troops parachuted into the Caribbean.

As they did then, British officials will probably slink off into a corner somewhere at the UN and look all hurt in response to this latest display of contempt towards them.

To smooth their ruffled feathers, Theresa May might, if she's lucky, get an extra trip to the White House if the US can squeeze her in between the Germans and the Chinese.

Even if she doesn't, normal service will be resumed when the dust has settled? What? You want access to NHS contracts when we privatise it, and the right for your companies to buy whatever promising looking tech firm they choose as part of the trade treaty well sell to the public as a great deal for Britain? Sure thing. Before we sign, is there anything else we can do?

Lest you think this is a piece of knee jerk leftist anti-Americanism, I should say now that I love the place, and its people, who (despite its politics) are some of the worlds most welcoming. I went there regularly before having kids, avidly consume its culture, and even its sports, have friends there.

But, as the Americans say, it's really is time for Britain to wake up and smell the coffee.
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What more can a law abiding Muslim do? asked an exasperated radio host yesterday morning, after it emerged that the Manchester bombers family and friends tipped off MI5, who then missed five opportunities to stop him.

I wasnt surprised that hed been reported  Muslims are as scared of getting blown up as everyone else.

Many Muslim nations have been ruined by these people. Our communities have been torn apart. We worry about our childrens minds being attacked. You check your kids web histories for porn  we do that too, but some of us also check for jihadi twitter accounts.

 Manchester bombing victim's parents 'not giving in to hatred'

So it is completely natural for us to be the first to make the phone call when we see someone being a threat to our country and communities  even if we have sometimes felt excluded from the governments top-down approach to the Prevent strategy.

But why are the pundits so quiet today? Shouldnt they be as elated about Muslims reporting the terrorist, as they were outraged yesterday about Muslims having to do more?

Why is a bad Muslim Brit more newsworthy than a good Muslim Brit? Why hasnt Trevor Philips been hastily commissioned to host an edgy documentary exposing how British Muslims act as unpaid informants for an under-resourced security service?

And under-resourced they are  that is certain. There are 3,000 people on the UK terror watch list. MI5 has 4,000 staff. It takes 30 people to keep a terror suspect under surveillance  do the maths.

The Americans spend five times as much as us (per capita) on intelligence. So why do we think we can do it on the cheap? Why do some of our politicians think our streets will stay safe, even though Greater Manchester police have had to let go nearly a third of their officers since 2010?

Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity Show all 4 1 /4 Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity A Jewish woman named Renee Rachel Black and a Muslim man named Sadiq Patel react next to floral tributes in Albert Square REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS Muslim man comforts elderly Jewish woman in symbol of Manchester unity REUTERS

At a time when our nation is crying out for leadership, it has fallen to the opposition to demand more resources for first responders and crucially, for our security services. The opposition have also started to unpick the messy relationship between our foreign policy decisions abroad and terror at home.

Im not just talking about the Iraq War.

Im also talking about our foreign policy elite spending millions to inadvertently create British Jihadis in proxy wars in Libya, instead of letting our security services do their job properly.

Our Prime Minister was Home Secretary and in charge of MI5 when they were tipped off about Abedi  do the victims families have a right to an explanation of why the warnings were not heard?

 Manchester terror attack: What we know so far

Let it not be said that Muslims didnt cooperate with the authorities to report Abedi. Abedi flew a black Jihadi flag out of his window in Manchester. He was banned from his mosque. His Imam reported him. His family reported him. His friends reported him. He wasnt a lone wolf  he was a known wolf.

But MI5 didnt stop him. Not because they didnt want to: because they are being run on a shoestring, while Whitehall spends taxpayers money on propping up friends in Libya.

I am willing to pay more taxes if it means 8-year-old girls come home alive from pop concerts. Im sure you are too. But even if youre not, that might not be necessary: we spend twice as much on Trident as we do on security and intelligence.

Last week, my niece asked me for Ariana Grande tickets. Ive promised to take her, as soon as the tour restarts. I will do anything I can to help our security services keep her safe. What more can a law abiding Muslim do?

Muddassar Ahmed is chair of Forum for Change, a British think tank working on issues of inclusion and diversity
The cost of Ireland remaining in the EU post Brexit could be very heavy if Europe insists on a one size fits all approach to the blocs future, the head of the countrys biggest business body has warned.

IBEC boss Danny McCoy warned Ireland could be ultimately hurtling towards an Irish EU exit unless it gets flexibility on issues like the fiscal rules, a common consolidated corporate tax base and state aid.

Ibec has been calling for Europe to ease fiscal rules to allow Ireland to spend more on capital infrastructure. Its food and drink wing has also called for a series of exemptions from EU state aid rules for the Irish agri-food and drink sector.

We want to stay in the EU 27, but the costs of us staying in the EU 27 could be very heavy if the EU 26 dont allow us the capacity to stay in and compete, Mr McCoy told Independent.ie on the margins of a Brexit conference organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) and law firm McCann FitzGerald.

He warned of the potential for the EU to insist on a one size fits all approach to fiscal rules, to a common consolidated corporate tax base and state aid rules.

He earlier suggested to the IIEA/McCann FitzGerald conference that the EU immigration issues felt in Britain and which helped fuel the Brexit referendum could be replicated here unless the Government is able to spend more to deal with the states infrastructural deficit.

Mr McCoy said Britain and Ireland have disproportionately experienced EU migration, which, he noted, had been great for business.

But he added: If the infrastructure isnt building fast enough, people will feel crowded out in the playground, or from the school, and thats what led to the [UK] referendum.

If the fiscal rules are the things that stops you from taking the resources you have and building that infrastructure fast enough, were hurtling down for exactly the same kind of referendum decision here if we dont wake up. If we dont appeal to that force majeure issue and get this one size does not fit all, then I think were in a conflict with the other EU 26.

John McGrane, the head of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, said we need to now have a conversation about the future direction of the European Union.

We need to have a conversation about where is the European Union taking us, he said. We have to feel completely secure in our ability to have a conversation that appreciates absolutely what EU membership has given us, and yet be able to say ... is the EU as strong as it needs to be, and delivers in this context a competitive platform for businesses to prosper globally, but also to take care of Irelands utter connectivity to the UK.
Dublin has long been tipped as a potential contender for Brexit spoils from the City of London. Photo: iStock

UK insurance giant Legal & General has selected Dublin as the new European hub for its investment management arm, providing a boost to the campaign to lure high-profile companies in the wake of Brexit.

There are strong indications more units of the giant firm could follow.

A spokesman for Legal & General's Investment Management arm - LGIM - yesterday confirmed the decision to the Irish Independent.

The move remains subject to regulatory approval, he said, stressing that the relocation would "have no foreseeable impact on operations and staff in other LGIM locations".

The total number of new jobs may be fewer than 50, but the move represents a significant win for the Government given L&G's status as a household name within the industry.

The investment manager is Europe's largest with more than 1 trillion in assets. It is known to be seeking a full EU base for after Brexit.

Legal & General is principally known for its insurance business. The company declined to comment on whether L&G has also selected Ireland as the group's post-Brexit EU hub, but sources think that is now likely.

Legal & General's director of group finance, Garvan O'Neill, was in Dublin yesterday addressing the European Insurance Forum in Croke Park.

He notably praised the clarity of Ireland's financial supervisory environment and said that creating a new EU subsidiary "is not something we take on lightly...given the incremental regulation that sits around an entity.

"When we make a decision as to location, and effectively we have made a decision... that is the location. And that is from where we will launch all European activities."

Mr O'Neill was speaking on a panel alongside Kieran Donoghue, head of International Financial Services, IDA, who was challenged over the relative dearth of blue chip names committing to Ireland.

Dublin has long been tipped as a potential contender for Brexit spoils from the City of London.

Financial Services Minister Eoghan Murphy met with Mark Zinkula, the chief executive of LGIM, in London in March, according to the lobbying register, which tracks meetings with senior officials.

The meeting was held at LGIM's request to discuss financial services in Ireland and the impact of Brexit.

Meanwhile, John Cronin, the Brexit lead at law firm McCann FitzGerald, said the Central Bank here is among the most experienced in Europe when it comes to cross-border regulation and supervision.

In a Brexit document published by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), he wrote that the advantages of Ireland for financial services activities are well known.

"Given the level of cross-border activity originating from Ireland, it also has considerable experience in cross-border regulation and supervision - indeed, it is among the most experienced regulators in Europe in this regard.

"That experience is likely to be of vital significance for any firm looking for a home from which to exercise passporting rights post-Brexit."

In the same document, John FitzGerald, Trinity College professor and former head of the ESRI, said Brexit-related losses to Irish output could amount to as high as almost 4pc.

However, he cited ESRI research that suggested FDI wins could offset that, by potentially adding 3pc to GDP over the long term, if international investment that leaves the UK ends up here.
Revenue stresses it is not looking for sites for customs posts

Businesses in the Republic moving goods across Northern Ireland and Britain are being advised by Revenue to assume that some form of customs will apply after Brexit.

It comes as one customs expert warned that businesses shipping goods could be faced with a 100 charge per movement under a hard Brexit.

But Niall Cody, Revenue chairman, said the body was not negotiating with its counterparts in the UK on post-Brexit arrangements, or looking for sites for customs posts.

He said the agency was assessing the potential impact of Brexit for Irish traders. Planning is based on the "full range of possibilities", including the prospect that customs controls or processes will apply between Ireland and the UK, he said.

Mr Cody told the Oireachtas Finance Committee that there were 12,000 businesses in Ireland exporting to the UK, and some 60,000 importers.

"In addition, an unknown number of businesses regularly move goods and transit across Northern Ireland and across the UK. Most of these businesses are unfamiliar with customs procedures," he said.

"While it is not possible to provide detailed guidance, we are advising these traders and transport operators making long term, plans, to assume that customs procedures of some form will apply post Brexit.

"As soon as we have a reasonable sense of what's needed, we will provide clear, relevant and appropriate information to support business and trade."

He stressed no Brexit-related talks were taking place with customs officials in the UK and said it was "almost 100pc certain" that customs posts would not be required on the border.

"Revenue is not prejudging the outcome of the negotiations which is a political matter, nor are we negotiating with HMRC on post-Brexit arrangements, and we are not looking for sites for customs posts."

He also said that post-Brexit, if the UK is outside of the customs union, buying from a UK website will treated in the same way as buying from a US website. Carol Lynch, of BDO Ireland's customs and trade practice, told the committee the cost of lodging customs declarations for businesses exporting and importing to and from the UK would be 100 per movement. "That's 50 on each side of the border, per invoice.

"There will be a requirement to lodge customs declarations on all imports from, and exports to, the UK.

"It is to be assumed the same requirement will be implemented in the UK.

"There is a necessary cost for this, either in the payment of a clearance agent or the recruitment of staff in addition to logistics-related costs. A reasonable estimate would be 100 per movement."
Three people were injured when they were reportedly attacked by an animal at a mart in Co Clare yesterday.

The incident, which is being investigated by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), happened in the cattle loading and off-loading area at Ennis Mart at around 10am. The HSA confirmed it had been notified of an incident in which three people were injured.
Fertiliser traders have been called on to immediately pass through the significant drop in wholesale fertiliser prices to farmers, by IFA Inputs Project Team Leader John Coughlan.

He said International wholesale CAN prices have fallen by 30 to 35/t over recent weeks.

However, many farmers are not seeing this as importers and many of the larger merchants attempt to maintain prices at artificially inflated levels in an effort to boost profit margins.

Demand for fertiliser has increased significantly as the silage season gets into full swing. Keenest quotes for bagged CAN this week are ranging from 215/t to 218/t delivered.

Pasture Sward / 27-2.5-5 and Cut Sward / 24-2.5-10 prices have also moved lower with keenest quotes at 318/t for Pasture and 8/t - 10/t over for Cuts.

Buyer groups and individuals purchasing significant volumes are achieving further discounts on these prices, he said.

Coughlan warned that no farmer should order a load of fertiliser without first enquiring about the price.

It is evident from recent survey results that some farmers are being charged up to 30/t extra where they dont bargain for a price before placing the order, he said.

MEPs have clashed over draft EU fertiliser rules that some fear could push up costs for farmers and leave the bloc dependent on Russian imports.

During a debate in the European Parliament's agriculture committee last week, battle lines were drawn on a year-old European Commission proposal intended to boost organic fertilisers.

Only 10pc of fertilisers in the EU are organic (based on compost or manure), with 80pc produced using minerals, mainly nitrogen, but also phosphorus and potassium.

Agriculture MEPs are afraid that a rule change designed to reduce cadmium, a naturally occurring but toxic and carcinogenic heavy metal, in phosphate rock imports will benefit Russia.

The EU imports around six million tonnes of phosphate a year, mainly from Morocco, where naturally occurring cadmium residues are high.

The Commission wants to lower cadmium limits gradually from 60mg/kg of phosphate to 20mg/kg over a period of 12 years.

"The only country that can produce cadmium respecting these limits is Russia," said Romanian centre-right MEP Daniel Buda during a debate on the draft last week.
Fruit and vegetable distributor Total Produce has raised its earnings guidance and said that it is in a "strong financial position" and continues to pursue attractive acquisition opportunities.

The company said that trading in the first four months of the year had been "satisfactory" and that it was raising its full-year adjusted earnings per share target to the upper half of a previously announced range of between 12 cent and 13 cent.

Shares in the company, whose chief executive is Rory Byrne, jumped as much as 3.6pc in Dublin, giving Total Produce a market capitalisation of 649m.

Total Produce, in which the McCann family owns just over 11pc, retains very low debt levels, despite having spent 60m on acquisitions last year.

In March, it acquired an additional 30pc of the Canada-based fruit and vegetable distributor Oppenheimer Group (Oppy) for 28.4m, bringing its total stake in the business to 65pc. Oppy operates from a network of locations throughout North America.

Goodbody Stockbrokers is currently forecasting earnings per share of 12.8 cent, which would be a 6pc year-on-year rise. It said its forecast is primarily driven by the acquisition of the additional Oppy stake.

"We retain our positive stance on the stock given its consistent track record and scope to grow via acquisition," said Goodbody analyst Patrick Higgins.

Total Produce, which has operations in 26 countries, has been expanding its presence in the US, but Mr Byrne told the Irish Independent in a recent interview that opportunities to grow within Europe also exist.
Chief executive Karen Hubbard said there was a clear opportunity for the British company to expand in Ireland

UK high street retailer Card Factory has said that it plans to open a number of trial stores in Ireland later this year.

It told shareholders of the plan at its annual general meeting in London yesterday.

The stock market-listed chain has been plotting an entry into the Irish market for a number of years, but the plan gained fresh impetus under CEO Karen Hubbard, who was appointed to the role last year.

Ms Hubbard recently told investors that there is a "clear opportunity" for the business to expand in Ireland.

"Our trial entry into the market in the Republic of Ireland is progressing well, and we anticipate opening a small number of trial stores later this year in addition to our normal 50 net new stores in the UK," the company said yesterday.

At the beginning of February 2016, Card Factory had 814 outlets, a figure than had risen to 865 at the end of last January and 876 by the end of April.

Most of the stores are in Britain, but it also has a handful in the North.

Yesterday, the company said that its first quarter like-for-like sales were at the upper end of a targeted range of plus 1pc to plus 3pc.

Underlying group sales growth was 6.1pc in the quarter.

"Our store-opening programme remains on track and we are pleased with the performance of this year's openings, including strong initial sales from the increased proportion of openings in retail parks," Ms Hubbard told shareholders.

Shares in the company were up 1pc yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of 1.1bn (1.3bn).
Peter Feeney, Press Ombudsman, Denis Naughten TD Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment and Sean Donlon, Chair of the Press Council (Photo: Doug O'Connor)

Press freedom and even democracy is threatened by the rise of social media sites that proliferate fake news, the chair of the Press Council has warned.

Sean Donlon said a lack of regulation among some social media platforms was a matter of concern - and yet companies such as Facebook and Google were "hoovering up" advertising and revenue.

He cautioned that "press freedom is an essential element of democracy".

"If the public requires access to accurate information and informed analysis then there may well be a return to print and broadcasting," said Press Ombudsman Peter Feeney.

"There are far more checks and balances, where traditional values of good journalism, accuracy, impartiality, depth and context are more likely to be found."

In a clear reference to fake news, he also added that "the Facebook organisation itself is fully aware that its own credibility is at risk from its posting of inaccuracies.

"It's a threat because more and more of advertising revenue is shifting from print (and indeed broadcasting) to the Googles, Twitters and Facebooks of this world. This has undermined the business model of print and broadcast journalism and has called into question how quality journalism can be funded in the future."

They were speaking at the launch of the Press Council of Ireland annual report.

The office received 261 complaints in 2016, down from 278 in the previous year.

The Press Ombudsman made 23 decisions in total, down from 34 the previous year, and nine complaints were upheld.

Mr Donlon welcomed the review of the Defamation Act and hoped it "would result in the possibility of lesser financial court settlements" faced by the media, and "more frequent use by complainants of the machinery of the Press Ombudsman and Press Council".

He described the handling of complaints as "fair, fast and free".

Communications Minister Denis Naughten said that "the best way to deal with the issue of fake news is to try to support the local content".

"I think it's very hard to regulate and control fake news and I think the best way to deal with that is to have reliable sources that people can rely on," said Mr Naughten. The minister also signalled that bursaries for young journalists would be expanded beyond broadcast media, and into print.
Avonmore has topped the list of brands which are being bought most often by most consumers, according to the latest Brand Footprint Ireland ranking from Kantar Worldpanel.

Other Irish brands in the list of top ten fast moving consumer goods are Brennans bread, Denny, Jacobs, and Tayto.

However, across eight of the top ten names in the table, the percentage of the population buying the brands has gone down, with sales of own label brands grow by almost 6.2pc.

Brands across all sectors are finding the Irish retail landscape more challenging. Traditional retailers have responded to a more competitive marketplace by expanding and improving their own-label lines  and brands and manufacturers are feeling the impact.

While own label is growing by almost 6.2pc, the proportion of the population buying the top 10 branded products is down by an average 2.8pc, David Berry, director of Kantar Worldpanel in Ireland said.

Avonmore leads the Irish ranking for the fifth consecutive year with 73.4pc of the population picking it from supermarket shelves an average of 28.8 times a year.

Brennans and Denny remain in second and third place respectively, while Jacobs has climbed one place to fourth as consumers buy its products 3.4pc more often than the year before.

The biggest success story of this years ranking is everyday fish specialist John West, which has risen 16 places to 37 in the overall Irish ranking by achieving the highest penetration increase among any brand in the top 50.

This rise in performance been driven by a strong consumer response to new product innovation such as its John West Steam Pots range, which are meeting the growing trend for convenient food options among consumers.

Consumer behaviour is changing at a rapid pace. To keep up, brands and manufacturers will need to recognise consumer needs which arent being met or demographic group which are under-performing and come up with innovative new products and experiences that can successfully tap into these markets, Berry said.
One of the many excuses insurers have made for hiking premiums has now disappeared. The collapse of Malta-regulated Setanta Insurance in 2014 caused mayhem in the insurance industry.

Some 1,700 claims have gone unpaid, valued at 95m, ever since.

According to the liquidator of Setanta, it can only meet 30pc of the cost of the claims.

Maltese regulators have walked away from the problem.

As a result, the courts here were asked to determine which fund should pay up.

Insurers had expected the State's Insurance Compensation Fund to cover the cost of claims for those insured with Setanta who had an accident, or drivers claiming off someone who was insured with the firm.

The Insurance Compensation Fund was set up to bail out insurers that collapse.

It has been used to plug the massive deficit in Quinn Insurance, and PMPA in the past. It is funded through a 2pc levy on home, motor and commercial insurance.

But the High Court decided the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland, which is funded by the insurance industry, should pick up the tab for the Setanta claims.

Insurers complained this exposed them to the situation where they would have to make financial provision in the event of any other insurer going bust.

The High Court had effectively sided with the Law Society, and dismissed arguments from insurers that the bureau was set up only to compensate victims involved in an accident with an uninsured or unidentified driver.

The Court of Appeal then upheld the High Court judgment, so the bureau took the issue to the Supreme Court. Now the Supreme Court has come down on the side of insurers.

That eases some of the pricing pressure on premiums, and so is good for drivers.

One by one, the excuses from the industry for gouging us on the cost of cover are disappearing faster than a boy racer on an open road.
Container Coffee, measuring just over 27 square metres with an outside patio area for additional seating outside, has just opened up at the Digital Hub in Dublin 8.

The cafe, which looks like a shipping container in appearance, is the brainchild of entrepreneur Gordon Hickey and prides itself on caring for the environment and its use of eco-friendly products (only biodegradable coffee cups are used and the cafes aim is to be a plastic free venue).

I am hoping that Container Coffee will become a regular spot for local workers to get their daily caffeine fix and for the many tourists in the area to stop, refuel and gather some information on the area, Gordon Hickey, founder of Container Coffee said.

The opening was welcomed by the Digital Hub, who said that it would also be a great addition to the Local Business Forum.

The team at The Digital Hub recognise entrepreneurial spirit straight away, and Gordon has that. Given our commitment to the urban regeneration of the Liberties area, it was a no-brainer to help an entrepreneur open a new retail business that will be a great addition to the streetscape and the community, Fiach Mac Conghail, ceo of the Digital Hub said.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg features in a long line of university dropouts who became millionaires after founding technology companies - Bill Gates and Steve Jobs among them.

But 12 years after leaving Harvard to work on Facebook full time, he has returned to pick up his degree.

Zuckerberg founded what was then called "The Facebook" in his college dormitory in 2004. The service was at first limited only to Harvard students before expanding to other Ivy League universities.

He is due to deliver the university's commencement address, a speech given to graduating students, later on Thursday. After receiving the honour he posted a photo of him with his parents Edward and Karen Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg returned to the room where he built Facebook along with his co-founders, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes.

On Wednesday, he said his upcoming speech would "share what I've learned about our generation and the world we're all building together".

Even after the company moved its headquarters to California, Zuckerberg continued to be enrolled at Harvard until he dropped out in November 2005. "I'm not coming back" he told the university paper The Crimson.

His honorary degree comes 12 years later, a little quicker than it took Bill Gates, another famous Harvard dropout to get his. Gates, who left to found Microsoft in 1975, did not receive his honorary degree until 2007.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Despite the output cut, Opec kept exports fairly stable in the first half of 2017 as its members sold oil from stocks. Photo: Reuters

Oil producer nations' cartel Opec decided yesterday in Austria to extend cuts in oil output by nine months to March 2018, delegates said, as the producer group battles a global glut of crude after seeing prices halve and revenues drop sharply in the past three years.

The cuts are likely to be shared again by a dozen non-Opec members led by top oil producer Russia, which reduced output in tandem with the Opec countries from January.

Bord Gais Energy energy trader Darragh Crowley said the move will lift prices, though not as much as the Opec members want.

"Opec hasn't achieved its stated aim of a global glut of oil inventories back to normal levels - thanks mainly to a resurgent US shale oil industry which has taken up much of the slack in the reduced Opec output. Revenues have improved and money talks," he said.

Opec's cuts have helped to push oil back above $50 a barrel this year, giving a fiscal boost to producers.

Many of them rely heavily on energy revenues and have had to burn through foreign-currency reserves to plug holes in their budgets. Oil's earlier price decline, which started in 2014, forced Russia and Saudi Arabia to tighten their belts and led to unrest in some producing countries including Venezuela and Nigeria.

The price rise this year has spurred growth in the US shale industry, which is not participating in the output deal, thus slowing the market's rebalancing with global crude stocks still near record highs.

Yesterday, brent crude oil fell more than 1pc to around $53 per barrel as markets were disappointed Opec would not deepen the cuts or extend them by as long as 12 months.

Opec oil ministers were continuing their discussions in Vienna after three hours of talks.

Non-Opec producers, led by Russia, were scheduled to meet Opec later in the day.

In December, Opec agreed its first production cuts in a decade and the first joint cuts with non-Opec producers in 15 years.

The two sides decided to remove about 1.8m barrels per day from the market in the first half of 2017, equal to 2pc of global production.

Despite the output cut, Opec kept exports fairly stable in the first half of 2017 as its members sold oil from stocks. (Reuters)
An item performed at the event (Photo: voh.com.vn)

Speaking at the event, Ms. Hoang Thai Lan, Head of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Friendship Association, said that the Slavic Writing and Cultural Day was to commemorate two saints Cyril and Mephodi, who set up the first Slavonic alphabet.

Over many centuries of coexistence with the Bulgarian culture, Slavic writing has now become a widely used script.

She said, In Slavic language, we learned and absorbed the scientific knowledge and quintessence of the Slavic peoples, where we were trained to return to Vietnam to build the country and cultural spirit of Vietnam today.

Russias Consul General Aleksei Vladimirovich Popov said that the beginning of Slavic writing was a particularly important milestone in the history of each nation and in their cultural history.

Currently, there are about 60 groups of people whose writings are based on the origin of the Cyril script.

The event in Ho Chi Minh city has become a good tradition, contributing to the friendship and cooperation development between the two countries./.
Before we begin, a confession: I have never seen a single episode of Baywatch. This mortifying gap in my cultural education, which could be likened to never having attended an opera, or read Ulysses, can be partly explained by the fact that I spent most of the 1990s in France.

But surely a show that begins with formidably endowed, scantily clad women running along the sand in slow motion must have gone down a bomb in the home of the bikini? There's no excuse for it, simple as that.

Most of you will not be so ignorant, but with the help of the internet I've endeavoured to catch up. This is what I've learned so far: (1) David Hasselhoff is not a very good actor (2) Pamela Anderson is not a very good actor (3) the makers of Scooby Doo should have sued the producers of Baywatch for robbing all their plots, and (4) real Los Angeles lifeguards are possibly not as essential to the city's existential safety as Mitch Buchannon and his team were.

Baywatch was silly, almost as silly as the Hoff's other big hit, Knight Rider, and in this age of lazy winks and nudges this movie spin-off was always going to be a spoof.

Dwayne Johnson plays Mitch, the absurdly popular head lifeguard at a busy Los Angeles county beach. Every morning, people greet him ecstatically on his way to work, and mutter grateful stories of how he saved their lives. In fact Mitch saves one right off the bat, jumping to the roaring Pacific to rescue an injured abseiler.

Bluff, friendly, ever-so-slightly smug, Mitch is surrounded by a handsome, adoring team that includes Stephanie Holden (Ilfenesh Hadera) and CJ Parker (Kelly Rohrbach), and that entourage is about to be expanded by new recruits who make it through the annual try-outs. A beautiful young surfer called Summer Quinn (Alexandra Daddario) makes the grade, as does a winning computer nerd called Ronnie (Jon Bass).

But Mitch is not best pleased when, on the orders of the local police chief, he's also saddled with a cocky former Olympian, Matt Brody (Zac Efron).

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Brody won two gold medals at the Rio Olympics, but disgraced himself by getting drunk the night before the team relay, throwing the race and throwing up in the pool. Selfish and arrogant, he thinks being a lifeguard will be a breeze, but Mitch is about to teach him some harsh lessons. And the Baywatch team have bigger things to worry about when a beautiful businesswoman (everyone in this film is beautiful) called Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra) unleashes a plan to buy up the whole seafront and privatise the beach.

That's a Scooby Doo plot if ever I heard one, and Seth Gordon's film reckons it's in on the joke. Most of the rescue scenes (oddly, given the fact that this is a movie about lifeguards, there aren't all that many of them) are outlandish, absurdly melodramatic, an approach which may - who knows? - seem hilarious to fans of the original show. Johnson's incredible likeability has been remarked upon many times before, and he and a good-humoured supporting cast attack their roles with gusto.

But Baywatch wants to have its cake and eat it, taking the rise out of its premise at one moment, and asking us to take it seriously the next. Also, the jokes are heavy-handed, waterlogged: at one point we wait politely for 10 minutes while one character extricates his engorged penis from the wooden slats of a sun-lounger, an idea that might have looked better on paper. Even the inevitable cameos from David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson are mishandled, thrown away.

What fun there is to be had is supplied by Dwayne Johnson, and Zac Efron, who's reinvented himself as a surprisingly accomplished comic actor in recent years. His buffed up body looks ridiculous at times, but is perhaps intended to be, and he and Johnson exchange baroque insults with style. Slow-motion scenes are another running joke, but most of the time the cast just stand around, looking hot. They're pretty good at it.

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Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Connie Nielsen, David Thewlis); After the Storm (Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Yoko Maki, Satomi Kobayashi); My Life as a Courgette (Claude Barras, Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat).
Controversial broadcaster Katie Hopkins and LBC have agreed that she will leave the radio station "immediately", LBC has said.

They have parted company in the same week that she called for a "final solution" following the Manchester attack, which saw 22 people killed and dozens injured after a suicide bomber detonated a device as concert-goers left the Manchester Arena on Monday night.

Hopkins hosted a weekly show every Sunday on the station.

Amol Rajan, the BBC's media editor said that there were "massive cheers and applause" in the newsroom after it was confirmed she would be leaving.

An LBC spokesman said: "LBC and Katie Hopkins have agreed that Katie will leave LBC effective immediately."

Hopkins, a former Apprentice contestant and now a columnist and broadcaster, caused outrage earlier this week with a tweet that appeared to reference the term used by the Nazis for the Holocaust.

The now-deleted tweet, made in the hours after the explosion, read: "22 dead - number rising. Schofield. Don't you even dare. Do not be a part of the problem. We need a final solution #Machester (sic)."

Complaints were made to the Metropolitan Police about Hopkins' tweet.

A spokesman for the Met said on Tuesday: "We can confirm that a complaint has been received by the Metropolitan Police Service on Tuesday, 23 May in relation to a tweet published on the same day.

"As is routine, the allegation will be reviewed and assessed by specialist officers."

The police have been contacted for an update.

Hopkins is currently employed by the MailOnline as a columnist.

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The 42-year-old is known for being an outspoken commentator on far-ranging topics from terrorism and Islam, to children's names and obesity.

She has also appeared on reality TV programmes I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! and Celebrity Big Brother, as well as fronting her own programmes on TLC entitled If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World and My Fat Story.

Following LBC's announcement, Hopkins has posted on Twitter but has not referenced her departure.

Hopkins, an avid tweeter, has said she is writing a MailOnline column about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

After removing her initial tweet, Hopkins posted an amended version.

She wrote: "22 dead - number rising. Schofield. Don't you even dare. Do not be part of the problem. We need a true solution."

Hopkins added in another post: "typo / wording amended".
Jonathan Cheban, Allie Rizzo, Simon Huck and Kourtney Kardashian attends the 2016 Angel Ball hosted by Gabrielle's Angel Foundation For Cancer Research on November 21, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Gabrielle's Angel Foundation)

Kim Kardashian's best mate Jonathan Cheban was due to host TV3's Xpose on Thursday and Friday but he left the show in the lurch at the last minute.

The station had excitedly announced on Wednesday that the former CBB housemate and professional plus one would be a high profile guest presenter joining Karen Koster, Glenda Gilson and Cassie Stokes in the Ballymount studio.

However, they issued a statement at 3pm on Thursday, just five hours before the show, stating that he had to cancel for 'unforeseen circumstances'.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances Jonathan has had to return to NY, we are hoping to reschedule a visit to Ireland very soon," said his manager.

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It's unclear what those circumstances were as Jonathan (43) was on Snapchat charting his dinner in London on Wednesday evening before revealing he was leaving London and his room at the Westminister Park Hotel - to go to the Hamptons.

Wednesday's press release included a quote from Jonathan, Ive done lots of TV is the US and the UK but never in Ireland so I cant wait."

It seems he can wait after all.

In the meantime TV3 will roll out other high-profile guest presenters to fill the void left by Ruth O'Neill's departure.
Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell claims that a US politician promised to make her the First Lady of the United States of America if she married him.

Burrell, who was Diana's butler for 10 years, made the claim in an interview with Ryan Tubridy in tonight's show.

While he refused to identify the now deceased politician, he insisted it was not Donald Trump, despite the President's claim that he could have slept with Diana.

Burrell tells Tubridy that he was Dianas go-between, smuggling her lovers into Kensington Palace in the back seat of his car.

Expand Close Paul Burrell on The Late Late Show in 2017 / Facebook

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Everything in her world  I brought her food, drink, love. I was the go-between. I was invisible in those days, I was able to go out and bring in people in my car in the back seat with a coat over them, he says.

As well as her publicly known affairs with James Hewitt, Will Carling and Hasnat Kahn, Burrell tells the Late Late that she also had secret relationships with the US politician and a popstar.

He remains tight-lipped on the identities of the men, who were both unmarried, but says that the US politician was keen to make Diana his wife.

The Princess gave me a letter one day and said 'would you deliver that letter by hand?' I looked at the letter and it said 'New York City'. I said: 'By hand?', she said Yes, there is your airplane ticket. I took the letter to the 44th floor of the General Motors Building overlooking Central Park.

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It was a politician and he said to Diana: if you marry me Diana, I will make you the First Lady of the United States of America. It wasnt Trump. It wasnt him. She said to me: Isnt that exciting? Can you imagine? Id come on a State visit to Britain and have to be a guest of my mother-in-law! How does that work?' he says.

Burrell also tells the Late Late that he believes Prince Harry should marry Meghan Markle and that there is no appetite for Prince Charles to be king.

The segment was pre-recorded in front of The Late Late Shows live studio audience before last weeks Mary Black special.

Also on tonight's show, businesswoman Norah Casey will share her story of domestic violence in her first marriage.

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The former Dragons Den star will speak openly for the first time about the years of abuse she suffered at the hands of her first husband before escaping and rebuilding her life, her career and finding love with her beloved second husband, the late Richard Hannaford.

There will also be a celebration of 50 years of Community Games in Ireland with rugby star Tommy Bowe, former Republic of Ireland international Niall Quinn and world champion walker Olive Loughnane.

The Late Late Show will also feature an interview with Paula Douglas, an Irish born American woman who was adopted here almost 60 years ago, about her search for the truth surrounding her birth and adoption.

The Late Late Show, RTE One, Friday, May 26, 9.35pm.
The scene of the tragedy in Dundrum, Co Tipperary Photo: Mark Condren

A seven-month-old baby girl has died in hospital after she was left unattended in a car for a number of hours on the hottest day of the year.

The child, named locally as Chloe Fogarty, was found in an "unresponsive" state at 1.45pm in the village of Dundrum in Co Tipperary.

It is suspected she may have developed heatstroke as temperatures in the area reached 25C yesterday.

A post-mortem will be carried out today.

Gardai confirmed they attended the scene after a 999 call was made, as did other emergency service personnel and a local GP.

It is understood the girl's father, Paul Fogarty, went to work at a steelworks at about 8am in Dundrum and had been due to drop his daughter off at creche.

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It is believed Mr Fogarty was distracted by a phone call when he got out of his car and was unaware he had left the child in the vehicle.

When he returned to the car later, he found the child unresponsive.

The little girl was airlifted from the nearby Kickham's GAA field to University Hospital Limerick in a critical condition but was pronounced dead later in the afternoon.

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Chloe's distraught father and mother Louise were last night being comforted by relatives, friends and neighbours in west Tipperary.

Mr Fogarty's hometown of Golden was reeling last night. "It is an awful thing to have happened," one resident said. "There's a dark cloud hanging over the town. There is only one word to describe what has happened and that's a tragedy."

A Garda spokesman described the incident as a "personal tragedy" and a "very sensitive" case.

It is understood Chloe was the only child of the couple, who live in the Tipperary town area.

Chloe's parents are originally from the parish of Golden-Kilfeacle and Tipperary town.

It is understood the couple married last year. They are involved in local GAA and are well known throughout their home communities.

Fianna Fail county councillor, from nearby Cashel, Roger Kennedy said the whole area was numbed.

"It's just so sad. The whole area is in shock," he said.

Mr Kennedy described the child's parents as a "popular, well-known family" and he said they were very involved in the community.

"There is total sadness here," he added.

Sinn Fein councillor Martin Browne said it was "the hottest day of the year so far", which would have made conditions more difficult for the child.

Mr Browne said the local community was rallying behind the child's devastated parents.

He said that the sight of the baby being airlifted by helicopter to Limerick Regional Hospital from the grounds of the local Kickham's GAA club in Dundrum had been truly heartbreaking.

"It's not something that anyone would be used to seeing," he said. "They are a very nice, very respectable family and it's just a complete tragedy."

Mr Browne said the community was doing all it could to comfort the Fogarty family following the tragedy.

"Family and neighbours are offering their condolences and asking locals for anything they can do to help," he said.

"I'm sure the whole community will rally around the family."

Experts have warned that the temperature inside a vehicle can reach deadly levels in only 10 minutes, even with a window rolled down a few inches.

Children's bodies overheat easily, and infants and children under four years of age are particularly vulnerable.
A judge has stated that a former general election candidate engaged in "despicable behaviour" with gardai in a roadside incident where a garda suffered injuries to his hand.

Judge Patrick Durcan said that Niamh O'Brien "lied through her teeth" in the instructions she gave to her solicitor, Tara Godfrey, to defend the action.

Judge Durcan made his comments before imposing a suspended four-month jail term, fines totalling 2,100 and also banned mother-of-one Ms O'Brien (35) from driving for five years after convicting her of dangerous driving and the road traffic offences.

In the 2016 General Election in Clare, Ms O'Brien ran for Fis Nua and shared the ballot paper with Timmy Dooley and Minister for State Pat Breen.

On May 28 last year, Ms O'Brien, of Lake Isle, O'Callaghan's Mills in east Clare, was stopped by gardai at Cutteen Cross, Cutteen, Tulla, Co Clare.However, Ms O'Brien refused to provide any documentation and reversed at speed in a bid to get away.

As she was doing so, Garda Declan Condon ran along side the reversing car, smashed the driver's window with his baton resulting in the garda suffering "horrific injuries" to his hand from flying glass.

In sentencing Ms O'Brien, Judge Durcan said: "Ms O'Brien's behaviour was despicable and simply reflects the growing trend on the part of a group of people in this country who believe that they can take on the forces of law and order and the gardai."

He said: "She provided incorrect and deceitful instructions to her solicitor, Tara Godfrey, to defend the case. She lied through her teeth to Ms Godfrey saying that she didn't know who she was dealing with when stopped by the gardai."

Ms O'Brien did not turn up for the case and she was sentenced in her absence.
A man is suing Facebook claiming he was defamed in a post calling him "Dundalk's biggest drug dealer".

Paul McArdle, Medebawn, Avenue Road, Dundalk, Co Louth, has brought a High Court action over the post which appeared on November 9, 2014, but was taken down by the next day.

Facebook denies he has been defamed and pleads EU e-commerce rules provide it with immunity from defamation suits once a post is taken down expeditiously.

It says it is not a publisher but merely a facilitator of material.

It has in the past provided information on the identity of posters who have been personally sued. However Facebook itself has not so far been sued in Ireland for defamation, it says.

It also says Mr McArdle (36), an unemployed welder, has seven previous convictions, including one for possession of drugs dating back many years ago and another for assault. This was information provided by gardai following a personal data request, the court heard.

Mr McArdle's lawyers obtained orders that Facebook provide disclosure of certain information in advance of his legal proceedings, including in relation to how many people viewed the post before it was taken down.

Facebook was granted its application that Mr McArdle reply within six weeks to formal questions Facebook sent to his lawyers which he declined to answer, claiming they were not relevant. They include whether he had ever been involved in the sale of illegal drugs.

In his action, he says the post was published, or caused to be published, by Facebook on its website headed: "South Armagh South Down ADM".

It included a photo of him with the words including "biggest heroin dealer in Dundalk and beyond".

He says the page was seen by his life partner and his friends.

He says his reputation has been most grievously injured and he has suffered substantial distress and damage.

He also claims damages against Facebook for conspiracy to harass him and/or procuring the infliction of distress upon him.

In a pre-trial discovery application, his counsel Yvonne McNamara said only Facebook was in possession of the evidence needed for the case as the material was deleted.

Facebook's status as regards defamation law was analogous to that of a broadcaster which cannot control what may be said on the airwaves but is responsible for it, she said.

Facebook, as a hugely profitable corporate entity which makes money from advertising associated with its service, must have a deep and abiding interest in the content on its pages, she said.

Rossa Fanning SC, for Facebook, argued there was no need for a discovery order because the material had been within Mr McArdle's knowledge from the start of the matter.

Facebook had only received information as to the resource location, the page "URL" in the last few days and without it, Facebook was unable to locate it from more than a billion members.

Mr McArdle had brought an application for discovery in the hope that the costs incurred would force Facebook to settle, counsel said.

In the past, people who believe they were defamed obtained court order to get a poster's identity from Facebook and later sued them but there had been no defamation actions against the internet giant in this jurisdiction, he said.

Ms Justice Marie Baker said while some of the material sought by Mr McArdle was too broad, she granted discovery in relation to a number of matters. She ordered Mr McArdle provide answers to written questions asked of him by Facebook's lawyers.
A man is due to appear in court this morning charged in relation to the death of a man who died after an altercation in Limerick during the week.

Calo Carpaci (58) died following the incident in the city on Wednesday, May 24.

The alarm was raised shortly after 1.30pm yesterday after an altercation broke out between a number of men at the narrow laneway, which links Thomas Street and Roches Street.

Gardai from nearby Henry Street station and HSE paramedics arrived at the scene within minutes to discover a Romanian man with serious injuries.

The man, who is aged in his early 50s, was later taken by ambulance under garda escort to University Hospital Limerick with stab wounds, but he was pronounced dead.

Gardai have obtained CCTV footage from the area and any witnesses are asked to contact Henry Street garda station at (061) 212400.
A mum-of-three who stole rent allowance cheques sent to her landlord because she believed her house "wasn't habitable" has been jailed for three months.

Winnie Collins (37) had complained that the property she lived in had no heating or cooker and cashed the cheques because she "felt she was entitled" to the money, a court heard.

She spent the 1,500 on "trying to make her home more habitable" for herself and her children, aged nine, 10 and 12.

Judge David McHugh jailed her after hearing she could not pay compensation for the theft.

He said her actions had been "extremely high-handed".

Collins pleaded guilty to stealing two cheques worth 1,579 sent to her landlord at Palmerstown Woods, Clondalkin, on dates between February 23 and April 4 last year.

Sgt Maria Callaghan told Blanchardstown District Court that Collins was renting through the social welfare rent scheme. The cheques were delivered in the name of her landlord and she took them and cashed them in Crumlin.

complaints

She had a previous theft conviction for not paying a taxi fare.

She had experienced difficulties in living in the apartment "in that it wasn't habitable, she had no heat and no cooker", said John O'Doherty, defending.

"She had made complaints and quite wrongly she took the cheques because she felt that was the way she would deal with it," Mr O'Doherty said.

"She thought she was en- titled to the cheques, clearly she wasn't," Mr O'Doherty said.

"She wrongly took the money as a result of the conditions that she was living in. She should have dealt with it through the civil remedies she would have had. She took the easy way."

Mr O'Doherty said she used the money to try to make her home more habitable. She did this "indirectly" but did not actually fix the items.

Judge McHugh said he would adjourn the case to late Nov- ember to allow Collins to pay compensation, but when told she would not have the money he sent her to prison for her "extremely high-handed" actions.
A member of the States spending watchdog is calling for an investigation into allegations of spending malpractice at some of Irelands top universities.

Allan Farrell, a Fine Gael TD and a member of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, said a special report on RTEs Primetime Investigates programme last night raised some serious questions about use of public money by some third level institutions which he said warrants closer scrutiny.

RTE Investigates discovered significant findings related to a number of third level institutions including UCC, DIT, UL and NUIG. Over 150,000 transactions were examined revealing very serious maladministration and misdirection across the board, he said.

Procedural flaws in the treatment of whistle-blowers and mismanagement of severance deals were also uncovered, he said.

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There seems to be a feeling in some third level institutions that they are accountable to nobody and this must be urgently addressed, he added.

The programme, entitled Universities Unchallenged examined the lack of oversight at universities and colleges throughout the country.

According to RTE, the programme discovered some third level facilities are wasting public money and failing to protect the taxpayer.

Meanwhile, incoming President at the University of Limerick (UL) Dr Des Fitzgerald said programme raised issues of grave concern, especially the universitys dealings with the Public Accounts Committee.

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He said he is very concerned that UL would have been anything less than fully transparent in its dealings with the Public Accounts Committee.

And he said he intends to ensure the universitys full cooperation with the PAC as it fulfils its vital role in assuring accountability and transparency in public bodies.

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The Union of Students in Ireland said they were concerned by the claims made in the programme and stressed that we must be able to trust universities.

USI President Annie Koey said: "Students and the taxpayer fund our higher education institutions.

"It is crucial that we have trust in their governance. Students in Ireland currently pay the second highest fees in Europe and now we are concerned how these fees are being spent.

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"Before there can be any decision made on a new model to fund higher education we must have full faith that good governance and accountability procedures are being adhered to in our higher education institutions."

She said it's vital that funding isn't affected by the revalations.

Ms Hoey said: "While investigations into these allegations is being made, it would be reckless for our Government to rush into any decision about the future funding of higher education.

"Higher education institutions are here to serve the public good, and the public must have confidence in how the funding of these institutions is managed.

"It would be inconceivable for our Government to even consider introducing Income Contingent Loans and putting students into 20,000 debt while trust in how funds are managed are now shaken."
The most senior civilian employees in Garda Headquarters will, for the first time, appear in front of the Dail's spending watchdog without being accompanied by Garda management.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday stepped up its investigation into the Templemore 'slush fund' scandal. Members decided to split the probe into four modules.

On Wednesday, five of the most senior civilians in the force will give evidence about their roles in investigating the financial discrepancies.

The civilian personnel due to appear are executive director of finance and services Michael Culhane; head of legal affairs Ken Ruane; executive director of human resources and people development John Barrett; chief administrative officer Joseph Nugent; and head of audit Niall Kelly.

At a private meeting yesterday, a number of TDs including Sinn Fein's deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, her party colleague David Cullinane and Independent TD for Galway West Catherine Connolly criticised the leak of the dossier that outlined the discrepancies to media outlets including the Irish Independent.

It's understood that various other senior figures in policing circles will also be called before the PAC in the coming weeks to discuss the Templemore issue.

Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan will appear on her own, PAC sources said. Other gardai and officials who served in a management role at Templemore will also be called, as will senior figures with the Policing Authority to discuss their oversight role.
Garda chiefs are planning to expand their liaison network to combat the growing threat from international terrorism and organised crime.

Additional resources are being made available to the crime and security branch, including the liaison section, based at Garda Headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Appointments have been made to posts that had been left unfilled as a result of the moratorium on recruitment during the economic recession.

Gardai currently have officers seconded to the Irish embassies in London, Madrid, The Hague, Paris and Lisbon with others based with Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, at its headquarters at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Closer co-operation with police forces in Spain and the Netherlands was forged last year as gardai tackled the Kinahan-Hutch feud.

But a fresh focus on the jihadi threat has led to a further review of how to utilise the liaison network. The network is expected to be widened to include close contact with other relevant countries.

The planned moves form the background to the work being carried out by gardai and military intelligence to counter the threat from Isil and its sympathisers.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was given a briefing on developments at a meeting of senior government ministers yesterday.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald, as well as Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan and Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Vice Admiral Mark Mellett, attended the meeting.

Ms Fitzgerald said the security chiefs indicated their officers remained in daily contact with their counterparts in the UK, the EU and beyond.
The battle of the sexes begins at birth, with newborn girls more strongly genetically programmed than boys to withstand acute infection.

A new study shows newborn girls have an innate genetic advantage when it comes to potentially dangerous infections.

It is in keeping with previous research showing infant girls are hardier than boys, the findings from the Royal College of Surgeons revealed.

Newborn boys have higher rates of infection and sepsis compared with baby girls of the same gestational age. They have poorer survival rates, according to the study in the journal 'Pediatric Research'.

"While females have a recognised survival advantage throughout the entire human life cycle, this is particularly evident during the newborn period," it said.

The reasons for the advantage are due to the difference in chromosomal make-up between females, who carry two copies of the X chromosome (XX), and males who carry one X and one Y chromosome (XY).

The X chromosome had more of the genes involved in immunity than does the Y chromosome.

Catherine Greene, associate professor of clinical microbiology, said: "The phenomenon of female neonates being hardier than their male counterparts is well recognised.

"This research shows this is due to a fundamental genetic advantage which may also contribute to more effective responses to infection and disease throughout the human life cycle."

Chief researcher David O'Driscoll added: "Our findings in full-term newborn babies suggest that a similar phenomenon could be occurring in pre-term infants where gender differences can be even more marked."

This research measured the presence of a factor called IRAK1 (interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 1), which contributes to immunity against infection, in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies.

Higher IRAK1 gene and protein expression was detected in the female cord blood and the authors believe this may explain in part the differences in inflammatory outcomes in infants.

In Ireland women still have a higher life expectancy than men, which is due to various factors including lifestyle.

But over the years the gap has been narrowing, with men slowly catching up with women.
U.S. President Donald Trump is leaning toward maintaining sanctions against Russia that were adopted by the Obama administration in response to Moscow's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election, The Wall Street Journal has reported with reference to a senior administration official.

"Mr. Trump has said he will keep sanctions on Russia imposed by the U.S. and its allies following Moscow's intervention in Ukraine in 2014," The Wall Street Journal said.

But the president has left open the possibility of lifting Russia sanctions that were enacted by the U.S. in December by the Obama administration in response to presidential election interference.

According to the source, no final decision has been taken. However, the source predicts that the U.S. president is unlikely to decide on rolling back any of the sanctions.
A High Court challenge has been lodged to prevent the new National Maternity Hospital being built on land owned by the Order of the Sisters of Charity on the campus of St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.

The new twist comes as talks between the Department of Health and St Vincent's Healthcare Group over the future ownership of the 300m State-funded hospital enter a crucial phase today.

Challenge

The legal challenge is to be announced this morning by Dick Spicer (70), co-founder of the Campaign to Separate Church and State, and his son Norman.

He confirmed yesterday he has already lodged the High Court summons against the State, the Health Minister and the Attorney General.

They are seeking to have the proposal to give ownership of the new hospital to the order which owns the land at St Vincent's to be judged unconstitutional.

Mr Spicer achieved prominence in the 1980s when he campaigned against what he saw as the State's failure to safeguard taxpayers' funds over the sale of the order-owned Carysfort Teacher Training College in Blackrock.

His son Norman (30), served in the Irish army over a period of 12 years and is currently a full-time student at University College Dublin on a master of laws programme.

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The revelation that the order will own the new maternity hospital caused a furore in recent months amid concerns that it would mean that some procedures may not be permitted.

This was strongly denied by both the boards of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles St and St Vincent's who said they had an agreement giving the new facility full independence.

Mediator Kieran Mulvey who helped broker the agreement pointed out the land on which the new hospital will be built is part of a wider campus which is tied up in loans.

This led Health Minister Simon Harris to go back into talks with St Vincent's Healthcare in a bid to get clarity on the issue of ownership, setting a deadline of the end of May for some resolution.

Sources said "good progress" has been made.

It is understood that St Vincent's Healthcare Group is due to come back with proposals today.

The duo are holding a press conference today to discuss their legal challenge.
Hospital consultants will no longer be able to charge fees and it will mean a loss of 621m in income to public hospitals from insurance companies annually. Stock image

Queue-jumping by private patients in public hospitals should be phased out over five years, the final report of the Oireachtas committee drawing up a 10-year plan for the health service has recommended.

People with private health insurance who attend public hospitals will no longer get preferential treatment.

If they want faster access and their own room they will have to go to private hospitals.

The controversial proposal is part of a comprehensive blueprint from the all-party committee which signed off on its final report yesterday.

It will be published next week and will be a major challenge for the next taoiseach.

Hospital consultants will no longer be able to charge fees and it will mean a loss of 621m in income to public hospitals from insurance companies annually.

This will have to be replaced by additional public funding, starting in year two.

The committee is calling for the extension of free GP care to the entire population with an additional 500,000 annually over five years getting the benefit.

It acknowledges the need to increase the number of GPs in practice if this is not to create more waiting lists.

The committee wants the 80 a night for hospital care to be abolished along with a reduction of the 2.50 prescription levy to 50c.

The monthly drugs threshold payment should be cut from 120 to 100.

Nobody should wait more than 22 weeks for surgery and 10 weeks for an outpatient appointment. The maximum waiting time in a hospital emergency department should be no more than four hours.

Hospitals that breach the guarantees should be "held accountable", including sanctions on senior staff but "not to the detriment of healthcare delivery".

When it comes to funding the health service the committee, chaired by Social Democrat TD Roisin Shortall, it said a national health fund should be established.

Everyone will get a health card, or carta slainte, which will entitle them to services based on need.

The money will come from general taxation and specific earmarked funds to be decided by the government of the day.

There needs to be 380m-465m a year to deliver the expanded entitlements.

Transitional and legacy funding should be around 3bn over six years.

There should be a reduction in the amount of tax relief paid out as more abandon their private health insurance.

An early recommendation to phase out tax relief for private health insurance was abandoned.

The committee calls for 119m to be allocated between years four to 10 to hire more hospital consultants.

This is based on the mid-scale salaries of consultants who currently only treat public patients.

The committee is adamant that the proposals should not be left to gather dust, like so many other reports have been in the past.

It says that the taoiseach needs to set up an implementation office in July.

It will work closely with the HSE and will be represented on management teams, reporting directly to the Health Minister. It should recruit a "lead executive" in change management.

The implementation office should be funded with around 10m for its duration.

The first implementation plan should be published at the end of 2017.

In her forward to the report, Deputy Shortall said that the aim of the recommendations is to consider how best to ensure that in the future everyone has access to "affordable, universal, single-tier healthcare in which patients are treated promptly on the basis of need rather than ability to pay".

The committee has been sitting since June.
Members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group jog next to the hearse after the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group and Gardai form a guard of honour as the hearse arrives at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group and Gardai form a guard of honour as the hearse arrives at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Members of the'Sloggers to Joggers' group and Gardai form a guard of honour as the hearse arrives at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

The coffin is carried into St Finian's Church in Swords at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

The coffin is carried into St Finian's Church in Swords at the funeral of Sandra O'Brien. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

Gardai and members of the 'Sloggers to Joggers' group form a gaurad of honour as the hearse leaves after the funeral of Sandra O'Brien at St Finian's Church in Swords, Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 25/5/2017

HUNDREDS turned out in tribute to a Dublin mum who tragically passed away after suspected food poisoning at a First Communion party.

Fitness fanatic Sandra OBrien, in her 50s, was given a guard of honour by her jogging group along with a large number of gardai, colleagues of her sergeant husband, as her hearse turned into the churchyard of St Finians, River Valley in Swords.

The mother-of-one was a popular figure in the local community and was heavily involved in a number of fitness groups.

Members of one, Sloggers To Joggers, ran along with the hearse as it left the church.

Ms OBriens husband, Mike, who stood with the couples son Josh, paid an emotional tribute to his wife, explaining to a packed mass that all the success in his life was down her.

People buy lotto tickets hoping theyd be the lucky one. I was the lucky one every day to share my life with such a beautiful woman. I was a very fortunate person to have such a beautiful woman as a wife, a partner and best friend.

Everything I have achieved in my life was made possible by the love and caring of a great wife and I take solace knowing she loved me with all her heart, and I in turn loved her with all of mine, he said.

After a rendition by a family friend of the famous Irish ballad The Lonesome Boatman, Mr OBrien spoke of his wifes faith.

He said she would be forever lighting candles at church, particularly for Josh at exam time.

She was so proud of the two of us and of her own family, but no one made her more proud than her own son Josh.

Everyone knew Sandra, she had so many friends. Mr OBrien added that she was the life and soul of every party.

Among the gifts brought up to the alter was her precious running gear  an emotional moment for her jogging pals, who turned up in their droves, all in the same outfits.

This was followed by an emotional few words from two of her young grand-nieces, who she would regularly babysit.

Meanwhile, the Food Safety Authority has confirmed it has placed a closure order on the kitchen of ODwyers pub, in Strand Road, Portmarnock, occupied by catering company Flanreil Food Services Ltd.

The watchdog and the HSE are conducting a joint investigation into a suspected outbreak of food poisoning following the death of Ms OBrien.
A massive search off the coast of north county Dublin for a missing fisherman has been stood down for the night.

Members of the Coast Guard, Defence Forces, gardai and local fishermen and pleasure boats have been involved in the search efforts after a fishing trawler sank off the coast of Skerries in front of horrified onlookers.

One crew member from what is believed to be a small razor fishing boat from Skerries was rescued on Friday.

It is understood a doctor and an advanced paramedic were on the scene when the rescued fisherman was taken from the water.

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He was treated on the shore before being taken away in an ambulance. His condition has not been made public.

However, another younger person is still missing after the vessel sank about 300 feet from shore in an area known locally as the Perch rock around 2pm.

"Skerries Lifeboat recovered one of the casualties," RNLI lifeboat service manager Owen Medland told RTE News.

"The vessel had sunk and, since then, there's been a huge effort and multi-agency search for the missing individual."

The rescued fisherman was taken to hospital and was reported to be "doing well."

Horrified onlookers who were enjoying the fine weather in the popular seaside town watched as the boat sank just metres from the RNLI lifeboat station beside the harbour.

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However, they were able to raise the alarm immediately, which aided in the rescue efforts, an RNLI spokeswoman said.

The alarm was raised so early thanks to the fine weather, she said.

Its a big operation, a spokesman for the Defence Forces press office told independent.ie.

The Irish naval ships the Le Orla and Le Niamh has been leading the search and rescue operation.

The Air Corps Cassa 253 Maritime Surveillance Aircraft is patrolling the coastline along with the Dublin Coast Guard rescue helicopter.

A research vessel from the Geological Institute of Ireland which was conducting a sonar search for an unrelated wreck is also assisting in the search.

The gardai sub-aqua unit has also been dispatched to search the water for the missing crewman.

Volunteers from the RNLI from Skerries, Clogherhead and Howth are also assisting in the search.

The search efforts are expected to resume at 6am Saturday morning.
Richard Bruton and Brendan Howlin stressed the importance of the investigation into Anglo Irish Bank - as they struck a controversial deal for the early retirement of former director of corporate enforcement Paul Appleby.

Mr Appleby wanted to retire before the end of February 2012, thus avoiding cuts to his pension that would have kicked in after that month due to wage reductions in the public sector.

The Fine Gael-Labour government persuaded him to remain in office for six months while a replacement was found.

They agreed to allow Mr Appleby to retain the pension entitlements he would have had if he retired in February 2012.

He has enjoyed pension benefits worth a total of almost 590,000 since he retired later that year. Speaking on the day the deal was being negotiated, then-jobs minister Mr Bruton said Mr Appleby agreeing to stay on "reflects the importance that the government accords to the crucial investigation into Anglo".

Mr Howlin, the public expenditure minister at the time, said he was glad "there will be no disruption whatsoever in the investigative work".

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has now been heavily criticised for its botched investigation of criminal charges against Sean FitzPatrick, Anglo Irish Bank's former chairman.

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Mr FitzPatrick was this week cleared of misleading Anglo Irish Bank's auditors about millions of euro in loans.

Judge John Aylmer said that the ODCE had been "inappropriately biased" in its approach to the case.

Errors in how the case was handled date back to Mr Appleby's time at the helm of the ODCE.

Last night, Mr Bruton's spokesman said the then-government's view was the notice given by Mr Appleby in late January 2012 of his intention to retire in February was not sufficient to allow a public competition to replace him.

The spokesman said that "taking into account the important cases" being handled by the office, a vacancy in the role was "not something which the government wanted to see".

"Mr Appleby's position was not improved in any way as a result of his agreement to stay on for six months to facilitate the smooth transition. In effect, he retained the pension entitlements he would have had if he retired in February 2012," the spokesman said.

The spokesman said that Mr Bruton shares the view of other government members that the way the ODCE carried out the Sean FitzPatrick investigation is "very disappointing".

Mr Howlin also said Mr Appleby's proposal to resign from his role at the ODCE came at "short notice". Mr Howlin said the government was briefed on the matter by Mr Bruton and was "advised that his departure might have serious implications for the successful completion of the Anglo Irish Bank investigation".

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Mr Howlin said: "My intention, and indeed that of all of government at the time, was to ensure a thorough, comprehensive and accurate investigation.

"Our actions in relation to Mr Appleby were intended solely to achieve that purpose," he added.

He said "we now know" that the investigation of the FitzPatrick case was "seriously flawed".

Mr Howlin said the Labour party wants "an immediate independent investigation into the workings of the ODCE".

The ODCE would not say last night if Mr Appleby has been asked to contribute to a report on the case sought by current Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor.
Housing Minister Simon Coveney relentlessly attacked Leo Varadkar's vision for Fine Gael and the country as he sought to win over the grassroots at the party's' first hustings.

The minister, who is trailing heavily in the leadership race, warned that Mr Varadkar was going to take the party down a road that members might not be comfortable with.

And in a clear criticism of Mr Varadkar's carefully planned leadership campaign, he said: "I think it's better I don't say too much about the preparedness for this campaign. That preparation was going on for about 12 months from what I understand."

Mr Varadkar replied: "If you can't prepare in three months, when it comes to a general election we might get a lot less votes than that."

Over two hours the candidates went on to trade blows over their plans for health, Brexit, security and the economy.

Mr Coveney said the two contenders were offering "two very different viewpoints and two very different journeys".

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He suggested his rival was "announcing plans that are popular but may not be consistent with the overall [infrastructure] plan and wanted to increase borrowing by 25bn".

Mr Varadkar responded: "That's not true. There's no point having a plan that's not implementable. We have to put money behind it."

They also clashed over who would bring bigger electoral gains for the party.

Mr Coveney claimed the Dublin TD would "target a core support" whereas he wants "a party that represents everybody in this country, that is the choice.

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"That is where in my view, two good candidates have a different perspective," he said.

However, Mr Varadkar hit back saying he expected "a few blows" and accused Mr Coveney of trying to characterise the race as left-wing versus right-wing.

He claimed the Housing Minister was trying to be a "catch all" candidate who wanted to represent "everyone in such a way that we represent nobody".

The Social Protection Minister said that was the Fianna Fail way of doing politics.

"We should not try to be all things to all people. Do that and we end up being nothing to anyone," he said.

Mr Varadkar criticised Mr Coveney's choice to base his election pitch on the 'Just Society' put forward by Declan Costello.

Both ministers outlined why they believed they would make a better Taoiseach, with Mr Coveney saying the choice being taken by Fine Gael in the coming days was an "awesome responsibility".

The Cork TD offered himself as the candidate who was "most qualified" for the challenges ahead. He said that unlike Mr Varadkar he had a proven record as an MEP and "knows how to keep a minority government together because he put it together".

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Mr Coveney said he was somebody who made decisions like "sending a ship to the Mediterranean to fish children out of the sea".

To applause Mr Varadkar used the hustings to expand on his definition of a controversial call for Fine Gael to the party for "people who get up early in the morning".

He said these people who "work in the public and private sectors, commuters, the self-employed, carers who look after loved ones, parents who get the kids ready for school, people who volunteer in their communities".

He said it should be Fine Gael's mission "to make their lives better, whether it's by reducing personal taxation, providing access to pensions and protecting their value, or improving social benefits like parental leave".

It comes as a new opinion poll shows Mr Coveney has overtaken Mr Varadkar as the public's favourite to replace Enda Kenny.

Fine Gael parliamentary party endorsements for leader

The Fine Gael parliamentary party makes up 65pc of the total electorate.

That makes each of the 73 members' votes worth 0.9pc of the total ballot.

Of the remaining electorate, 230 party councillors account for 10pc, while the remaining 25pc is rank and file members.

Leo Varadkar Simon Coveney Total: 45 Total: 19 Ministers: 17 Ministers: 5 TDs: 16 TDs: 5 Senators: 11 Senators: 8 MEPs: 1 MEPs: 1 Richard Bruton -Minister Simon Harris - Minister Frances Fitzgerald - Minister Damien English - Minister Michael Ring - Minister Dara Murphy - Minister Eoghan Murphy - Minister David Stanton - Minister Sean Kyne - Minister Marcella Corcoran Kennedy - Minister Joe McHugh - Minister Kate O'Connell - TD Helen McEntee - Minister Maria Bailey - TD Charlie Flanagan - Minister Sean Barrett TD Paul Kehoe -Minister Hildegard Naughton - TD Patrick O'Donovan - Minister Peter Fitzpatrick - TD Regina Doherty - Minister Tim Lombard - Senator Mary Mitchell O'Connor - Minister Jerry Buttimer - Senator Paschal Donohoe - Minister Paudie Coffey - Senator Heather Humphreys - Minister James Reilly - Senator Pat Breen - Minister Colm Burke - Senator Catherine Byrne - Minister John O'Mahony - Senator Andrew Doyle - Minister Paul Coghlan - Senator John Paul Phelan - TD Gabrielle McFadden - Senator Noel Rock - TD Deirdre Clune - MEP Tony McLoughlin - TD Alan Farrell - TD Michael D'Arcy - TD Tom Neville - TD Josepha Madigan - TD Pat Deering - TD Jim Daly - TD Brendan Griffin - TD Ciaran Cannon - TD Colm Brophy - TD Peter Burke - TD Fergus O'Dowd - TD John Deasy - TD Joe Carey - TD Neale Richmond - Senator Catherine Noone - Senator Paddy Burke - Senator Martin Conway - Senator Michelle Mulherin - Senator Maura Hopkins - Senator Ray Butler - Senator Frank Feighan - Senator Maria Byrne - Senator Joe O'Reilly - Senator Kieran O'Donnell - Senator Brian Hayes - MEP

Undeclared Enda Kenny - Outgoing Party Leader * Martin Heydon - Party Chairman * Michael Noonan - Minister Michael Creed - Minister Bernard Durkan - TD Sean Kelly - MEP Mairead McGuinness MEP

* Outgoing leader Enda Kenny and party chairman Martin Heydon will not make an endorsement
Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor has set June 23 as the deadline for a report into the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement's (ODCE) botched investigation into former Anglo Irish Bank boss Sean FitzPatrick.

Ms Mitchell O'Connor told the Dail that the shortcomings in the case identified by the judge were "very serious" and "unacceptable".

"It is infuriating for the public and we need to get to the bottom of it," Ms Mitchell O'Connor said.

She said she had ordered a report into what went wrong to be delivered to her by the current ODCE director Ian Drennan next month.

Mr FitzPatrick was cleared of all charges of misleading Anglo Irish Bank's auditors about loans, as the judge in the case criticised the investigation by the ODCE.

Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins said the collapse of the trial was "shocking" and said people were "disgusted" at the State's lack of ability to bring a successful prosecution.

Mr Collins said the case was approached in a "botched manner" and the State's approach to prosecuting white-collar crime needed to be considered.

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Ms Mitchell O'Connor said that, as the minister "inheriting this long, drawn-out and difficult case", she intended to "complete a full review and examine all possible options".

"Nothing is off the table," she added.

Ms Mitchell O'Connor noted that the judge's criticisms of the ODCE's investigation pre-date Mr Drennan's appointment as director.

She said that when he took office, the file relating to Mr FitzPatrick's case had already been sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) who took the decision to prosecute.

Ms Mitchell O'Connor noted that the ODCE had accepted criticisms made by the judge and had already made improvements to how it operates.

Labour TD Joan Burton said the establishment of "a Criminal Assets Bureau for white-collar crime" that was "seriously resourced" should be considered. She said: "Nothing less will address the situation."
When I was younger, Id have to have my head hanging off before Id be allowed to miss school. Absenteeism was as rare as hens teeth in our house.

My pal would get the day off if she promised to empty the dishwasher. Being sick in our house didnt count. You had to be really sick.

If you were well enough to lie on the couch and watch TV, you were certainly well enough to go to school.

There was never a question of taking us out of school to get the jump on the cheap package holidays on the costas.

When we did do the big foreign holiday every two years, my parents just soaked up the July premium.

I had planned to do the same and did so last year, but last May, the five-year-old repeatedly asked me what days he was going to be in school. His teacher wanted to know.

All of them, I said. Hed ask again. And again.

In fairness, his teacher was merely responding to experience. She knew a sizeable chunk of her class wouldnt be in for the remaining week or two.

She had the curriculum well covered by mid-June and it was only revision for the last two weeks.

It seems the price difference is well into the hundreds by taking your holiday a week or so earlier, and many parents arent prepared to take the hit, so some teachers plan accordingly.

By the way, its not illegal for parents to take their child out of school during term time, but if they miss more than 20 days in a year, it must be reported to the National Educational Welfare Board.

However, the Irish National Teachers Organisation has warned that real damage can be done when children miss chunks of their early school life.

I see the point. Teachers think carefully about the sequence in which children should be introduced to subjects and different areas within them.

They design the lessons and homework with that in mind. If your child misses a day or a week, they may have missed out on an essential step.

If a teacher is conscientious, they might well feel obliged to get the relevant homework to the child or even give up their lunch break to go over what they missed.

In the UK a parent got a rap on the knuckles from the Supreme Court for taking his child out of school for a Walt Disney World holiday in Florida, because of a law that dictates that parents can be fined if their children do not attend school regularly.

I hope no parents here ever fall foul of the law like that, but I also think they should be honest about why theyre doing what theyre doing.

Its guff to suggest that its some sort of cultural/educational/broadening of their horizons trip. Where are these parents taking their kids  the Costa del Museum?

The rest of us go on package deals to destinations with menus with pictures of the food.

Places where the family can complain about the rest of the family and where were one dead battery away from a conversation breaking out.

Its only educational if you find sunburn edifying and happy hour illuminating.
Fifteen trucks carrying aid from the UN World Food Program have crossed into the Donbas territory uncontrolled by Kyiv through the Novotroyitske checkpoint in the Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region.

"The trucks delivered 182 tonnes of food to residents of the Donetsk region," the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service said on Friday morning.
The interiors event of the year, House 2017, kicks off in Dublin's RDS this weekend, and there's never going to be a better opportunity to gather ideas, information and inspiration.

Showcasing leading Irish and international designers, the second annual event is sure to provide an abundance of interior inspiration for those aspiring to create their dream space.

Top designers, architects, artists, craftsmen, trend professionals, furniture and home improvement geniuses will gather under one roof this weekend, but of course there were some that caught our wandering eye more than others.

Five of the most aspirational stalls at this years House 2017

Zelouf and Bell

What? Studio furniture makers

Where? Stall - C2

Studio furniture makers Zelouf and Bell have brought a heavy dose of inspiration to the RDS this year. The National Museum of Ireland has recently acquired three of their pieces for its permanent collection. The pair have been creating furniture to commission since 1992 in their Irish workshop and are currently involved in the redesign of Michelin-starred Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud.

Orla Walsh

What? Artist

Where? Stall F17

Orla was first discovered selling her 'ketchup' paintings in Dublin's St Stephen's Green, when a corporate lawyer for Heinz purchased six for the company's global headquarters in the US. Since then, the artist has become famous for her iconic pop art images of Irish brands including Tayto, Guinness and Jacobs and is also selling marvellous prints at her stand in the art loft.

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Ceadogan

What? Rugmakers

Where? Stall D19

For 25 years Denis Kenny, owner of and maker of Ceadogan, has been committed to the craft of rug-making and brings his team's stunning pieces to this year's House 2017. The business has been collaboration with leading Irish artists and textile designers and their stunning stand is certainly worth a look.

Shane Holland Designs

What: Lighting

Where: Stall A2

Based in Co. Meath, Shane Holland Designs is one of the country's most aspirational lighting creators. The pieces are inspired by nature and unusual materials are often used to create timeless but functional collections. Holland manages to effortlessly pair the traditional values of craftsmanship with contemporary design.

Smeg

What: Premium domestic appliances

Where: Stall C2

Always a favourite, the Smeg UK stall is worth a visit at this year's House 2017.

Established in 1989, the has been supplying premium domestic appliances for over 20 years.

Check out a wide range of innovative appliances includes ovens, hobs, range cookers and extractor hoods as well as an expanding range of small appliances, refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers.

For tickets, visit www.house-event.ie
For holiday peace of mind, it pays to get extra insurance - before you leave home, says Sinead Ryan

It's that time of year when, hopefully, you are looking forward to a summer holiday somewhere sunny.

One of the great pleasures of travelling is hiring a car, piling in bags, kids and a picnic and you're away. But hiring a car and the insurance to go with it can be a nightmare.

This week I'm looking at two elements: the car hire itself, and the emergence of the 'excess' insurance market.

This is the cover which pays for the first part of every claim the driver normally pays in the event of an accident, which in Europe, can be eye-wateringly excessive!

On your own ordinary motor insurance at home, by comparison, the policy excess is generally around 250 as standard; after that, the insurer coughs up. But on a foreign hire car, it can be easily 10 times that leaving you in financial distress, with your pre-swiped credit card taking the hit.

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So taking out insurance for the 'excess' makes sense. The trick is not buying it at the car hire desk - the staff are paid hefty commission to 'up sell' products and issue dire warnings about not having it.

Being able to confidently pull out a good, inexpensive policy makes all the difference. Lots of companies now offer it (see table above), and you can buy an annual policy to cover you for all trips, which works out cheaper than individual ones.

Ciaran Mulligan from Blue Insurance, which trades under the CarHireExcess.ie brand, explains how it works:

"Car hire insurance covers you for accidents (usually termed 'Collision Damage Waiver') and theft ('Loss Damage Waiver'). Unfortunately, you may also have to pay a large excess if the hired car is damaged or stolen.

"Car Hire Excess is a reimbursement policy which is designed to help you avoid these large excess costs.

"You can get ripped off at the car rental desk, routinely charged 20 - 25 a day, whereas an Irish policy in advance will only cost 3 to 5 a day, so it's best to buy before you fly."

Car Hire Tips

*Most rental firms demand a credit, not debit, card.

*Compare quotes based on the final figure, not the topline rate. There are extras for things like child seats, additional drivers, airport pick ups, etc.

* Read the contract fully. What is the fuel policy? Is there a maximum kilometre limit? Are you allowed take the car across borders? What is the breakdown procedure?

* Check the car before you drive away, with an attendant. Point out any scratches, marks or damage that you see. Have him/her mark it on the contract. Take photos front and back. Ask about the return policy if it's out of hours.

* If buying car excess insurance, there may be a car value limit (usually 80,000).

* Once purchased, firmly refuse the excess policy offered by the car rental firm. They will insist on taking a pre-authorisation on your credit card for the excess amount on their rental and then use that if the car is damaged or stolen. You can then claim it from your excess policy after you get home.

* If travelling in the United States, make sure you have "Supplemental Liability Insurance".

* Some states in the US (including California) only have a requirement for a small amount of liability on a motor policy, therefore unless Irish consumers include this Supplemental Liability cover they could be left exposed with liability costs over the minimum required by law.

* Abide by local rules of the road and avoid hefty toll charges which can be supplemental. Be sure to check this with the rental firm.

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There's a tempting invitation open to everyone from Millstreet Day Care Centre this Sunday, where they are celebrating a grand revamp with an afternoon of fun and food.

The Canon O'Donovan Centre was officially opened by the then President Mary Robinson in 1994. Now, nearly 23 years on, they are celebrating the re-opening of the newly extended and refurbished centre.

Operated by Millstreet District Housing (a voluntary housing body) in conjunction with the HSE, this magnificently upgraded building is the culmination of a great deal of detailed planning and hard work. The attention to detail was second to none and the building is now finished to the highest standards.

It is now a modern, state of the art spacious building - on a par with the best of day care centres in the Cork and Kerry region. All of the building is completely wheelchair accessible.

The upgraded kitchen is modern and the enlarged space makes working conditions more pleasant and convenient for all the staff.

The day room and dining room are large, bright and comfortable with spectacular views of Mushera and Clara Mountains.

The enhanced modern shower and toilet facilities make life more comfortable and efficient for the clients and staff.

The addition of a large office, Nurses' Room, Therapy Room (used for physiotherapy and chiropody etc), and a state of the art hairdressing salon have brought extended facilities that allow a greater level of care.

The walls are adorned with framed photographs of many local scenes and many beautiful photographs of landscapes from around Ireland. Every picture is unique and each tells its own story.

Staff at the centre believe you are never too old to enjoy yourself.

"Millstreet Day Care Centre provides a relaxed atmosphere in a comfortable modern setting where older people can gather to talk, join in activities if they wish, meet new people or renew old friendships with acquaintances they may not have met for years," said Manager Mary Feely.

"Once here our clients can take advantage of a variety of fun and educational activities designed to improve their wellbeing and physical health."

So, this Sunday, from 2-4pm there will be a barbecue and refreshments, a bouncy castle, face painting, and more - and all are welcome to view the extended and renovated centre in Millstreet.
The County of Cork is steeped in heritage, particularly with regard to the castles that dot and indeed define the landscape. Since the arrival of the Normans, right up to the 17th century, some wonderful castles have been constructed and theirs is a fascinating history that deserves to be told.

Following on from the success of Cork County Council's Heritage of County Cork Publication Series - which received a citation of excellence in the Local Government Awards - the latest installation in the series sets out to tell the story of Cork's many fascinating castles and indeed their associated families; also touching on a range of typical features that are to be found on castles. The publication will furthermore include fine examples of castles that can be visited today across the county.

One of the most important elements of this publication is the input of local heritage groups and enthusiasts. Past publications in the Heritage of County Cork Series have benefited hugely from a great number of public submissions, including photos, stories, and indeed lists of recommended sites that should be featured in the book(s). With respect to the Heritage Castles of County Cork, the Heritage Unit of Cork County Council would be delighted to see a similar response in 2017. To this effect local heritage societies, community groups and individuals are requested to get involved in the project by submitting any specific information/stories/photos of interest to Cork County Council by Friday 9th June 2017. Details can be emailed to conor.nelligan@corkcoco.ie and/or martin.millerick@corkcoco.ie and a number of the submissions will be featured in the publication.

Another closing date in June to take note of is the closing date for Cork County Council's Municipal Districts Creative Communities Scheme on Friday June 23rd 2017. Under the scheme, first established in 2016, Cork County Council invites proposals for projects that can create new opportunities for communities to develop arts and cultural activity in local areas in County Cork.

The Creative Communities Scheme underpins Cork County Council's commitment to the arts by supporting the development of partnership models of arts activity in each of Cork County's eight Municipal District areas. The scheme will provide funding to enable community bodies, creative artists, local arts groups, and others to come together as local partnerships to plan and deliver an arts project that will achieve a significant, sustainable enhancement to cultural and social life in their area. Successful projects will need to involve communities and the creative sector working together in partnership and make best use of the artistic and creative resources in the community. Successful projects will be innovative, well researched and will engage positively with people, by placing the arts and creativity at the centre of community life.

Under the scheme, funding of up to 15,000 will be awarded for any one project per Municipal District. Cork County has eight Municipal Districts, the largest in the country, and hence success in the overall scheme will be seen countywide. For more information and to download an application form, see www.corkcoco.ie and please note that the closing date for receipt of completed applications is Friday, June 23rd 2017. The funding scheme is being run with thanks to the Arts Office of Cork County Council who can be contacted by emailing arts@corkcoco.ie.

In relation to upcoming events, Baltimore will be a hive of activity over the weekend with the hosting of the Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival. Running from Friday May 26th to Sunday May 28th. The festival is a celebration of the traditional timber sailing boats of Ireland, and aims to 'celebrate the revival in traditional boat building, encourage a local interest in the traditional wooden working boats of the area and develop a regular event that would forge links with lovers of wooden boats from other areas and countries'.

As part of the weekend, Cuas, the West Cork Maritime Heritage Company, will present an exhibition and videos on Tom Moynihan, the master shipwright who built iconic vessels like The Saoirse and AK Ilen during the 1920s in the Baltimore Fisheries School. The festival runs in conjunction with Baltimore Seafood Weekend, and for more information see www.baltimorewoodenboatfestival.com.

The following weekend, on Friday 2nd June, the 'West Meets West' Exhibition will be launched in Uilinn West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, at 6pm. The exhibition features the work of three leading artists from the West of Cornwall - Philip Booth, Matthew Lanyon and Tony Lattimer - building on the historic links between Cornwall and West Cork to develop a cultural exchange between the two regions, made more possible now, due to the new air link this year between Cork Airport and Newquay in Cornwall.

The many historic links and similarities between the two seaboards include Cape Clear's Saint Ciaran travelling over to Cornwall from Ireland and, through his missionary work, becoming Cornwall's own patron saint (there known as Piran) - much celebrated on his day of 5 March. Other links involved metal mining (most of the 19th century mines in Cork worked under Cornish mine captains), fishing and fish processing (from medieval times into to the 20th Century) and, of course, through artists in both areas being attracted by the quality of light on the peninsulas and a perceived unspoilt 'idyllic' rural lifestyle.

A number of events will take place during West Meets West at Uillinn. They include a panel discussion on Saturday 3 June at 12 noon featuring the exhibiting artists; an illustrated talk by Robert Harris on Saturday 10 June at 12 noon on the historical and cultural links and artists' colonies in both regions; and a guided tour of the sites in West Cork associated with Cornwall on Sunday 18 June. For more information, visit www.westcorkartscentre.com.

Next week will touch on a number of the upcoming events scheduled for the month of June.
Large crowds are flocking to Tubrid Well, sited close to Millstreet Town, during the month of May to maintain a long time tradition of paying the rounds with its long traditional end of May Mass taking place on this Friday at 7.30pm.

Though a constant flow of young and old convene on Tubrid and its Lourdes Grotto to Our Lady throughout the year, it reaches a peak during May for patrons to gather, pray and sample holy water with confirmation of cures for the handicapped and ill.

Tubrid is the second largest well in Britain and Ireland, 40 feet in diameter as an abundance of clear spring water gushes up all seasons of the year from a source that supplies Millstreet Town and its hinterland.

Thanks to the efforts of a voluntary Tubrid Well Committee, significant improvements are hailed by visitors in the provision of a better road service, extra car parking, seating, lighting at Grotto and Access Road, toilets to the publication of a picture post card in association with Millstreet Museum.

Numbers are ever increasing to Tubrid and a traditional round consists of three visits to the well any Thursday, Friday or Saturday during the month of May.

According to tradition, a visitor catching a glimpse of a fish in the well is sure of a favour to be granted. The place of pilgrimage for hundreds over recent weeks, visits to Tubrid will climax in the staging of the annual outdoor Mass hosted on this Friday night commencing at 7.30pm.

Students graduate after Transition Year endeavours

The Transition Year Graduation took place in Millstreet Community School with Mass celebrated by Canon John Fitzgerald.

Students played an active part in much of the liturgy before Dan Joe O'Keeffe from St. Vincent de Paul presented a folder containing certificates to every student acknowledging their achievements during the year.

The recent fashion show benefited a number of worthy causes, with a cheque presented to Fiona Kelleher from Marymount Hospice by Fiona Kelleher and Jennifer Lenihan. Millstreet Community Hospital also benefited, Eilis Kelleher and Gary O'Donovan presenting a cheque to Matron Margaret Collins while Katie Crowley and Emma Kelleher had the pleasure of handing over a cheque to Finbarr Walsh representing the Donal Walsh Foundation.

St. Vincent de Paul received 1,250 from Aoife O'Riordan and Katie Hickey, the proceeds from a students' edition of 'The Clara News'.

The graduation acted as a celebration of all that was achieved during the past year, when every student held the opportunity to participate in a wide range of varied activity. Special guest Dan Joe O'Keeffe hailed the endeavours of students during Transition Year and wished all bright futures ahead.

Transition Year Co-ordinator Derry Morley commended the energy and enthusiasm of TY students during a hugely successful past year.

"This was a remarkable TY group to work with and they immersed themselves totally in different projects. I believe they benefited greatly from the experience and obtained enjoyment. They were a pleasure to be involved with and I wish them well in their future studies", he said.

Step up for anti-litter challenge

Millstreet Tidy Towns Association remind residents that support is required for the Anti- Litter Challenge 2017 over the weeks ahead.

Everyone in Millstreet is encouraged to work together to keep Millstreet Town and surrounding areas litter free over the coming months with the National Tidy Towns about to commence.
A 49 year old Mid-Cork man has been jailed for five years after he pleaded guilty to possessing over 40,000 worth of ecstasy when his car was stopped and searched by gardai over two years ago.

Mark Bourke, with an address at Kilbrafer, Berrings, pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to possession of MDMA for sale or supply at Kilmurry North, Berrings on December 5, 2014.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said that the fact that Bourke had no addiction and was doing it for profit was a serious aggravating factor even though his guilty plea was a mitigating factor in his favour.

But he said he saw no benefit in structuring a sentence in such a way as to suspend part of the term and he sentenced Bourke to five years in jail backdated to May 9 when he first went into custody.

Det Sgt Lar O'Brien had earlier told the court that armed members of the Regional Support Unit were conducting a checkpoint at Kilmurry North at around 8.20pm on the day in question.

He said that gardai decided to search Bourke's car on foot of the conversation that they had with hiim and they found a package with 5,000 MDMA tablets in the footwell of the front passenger seat.

Det Sgt O'Brien said that Bourke was arrested and taken to Gurranebraher Garda Station for questioning but said he knew nothing about the package and denied any knowledge of the drugs.

He told gardai that he had a problem with rats in the car but he provided no material assistance to gardai during the interview as to where the drugs came from or where they were destined for.

Det Sgt O'Brien said that Bourke had a previous Section 3 conviction for simple possession of drugs while he also had a conviction from the UK for a firearms offence dating back to June 1990, he said.

Defence counsel Mahon Corkery BL said his client was a married father of three who worked doing odd jobs in the local community and his wife and children were all dependent on him.

Judge O Donnabhain said that he was not going to view Bourke's commentary to gardai about rats in the car as an aggravating factor as he imposed the five year jail term on the accused.
There was a large attendance of private forest owners at the recent public information evening on 'Getting your Forest Certified' hosted by FOCS at the Riverside Park Hotel in Macroom.

Forest Certification has become a pressing issue for private forest owners. Members of FOCS (Forest Owners Cooperative Society) expect that their forests will be Certified to FSC standard within two years. They are currently engaged in a pilot project, with the support of the Forest Service and in association with, the Meath based, North Eastern Forestry Group (NEFG), that will result in member forests being certified to the highest industry standard.

At the Macroom meeting, Forest Service Inspector Eugene Curran explained the origins and development of timber certification. First introduced to counter the destruction of environmentally valuable rainforest, it is a means of assuring consumers that a wood or paper product comes from forests managed in accordance with strict environmental and social standards.

Conor McSwiney of GP Wood sawmills gave the industry view, explaining that markets for processed timber demand certification and all large processors and users of wood products in Ireland subscribe to certification. At present, up to 30% of logs can be sourced from uncertified forests, to meet the least stringent Certification requirements. However, this percentage is set to reduce while on the other hand the volumes of logs coming from private forests is set to increase significantly.

Industry needs private forests to be certified and group certification is the only viable option, he said, stressing the advantages of forest owner groups, also, as an efficient interface between the industry and the owners.

Karl Coggins, Assistant Principal in the Forest Service's Policy Section, outlined the pilot project on timber certification that was launched late last year with the intention of developing a template for efficient certification of private forests, through group certification schemes. He said a sample of member forests from both FOCS and NEFG are being used to create the nucleus for the development of two large certifiable groups. This will lead to the establishment of two Certification Groups, North and South, develop a template and delivery system for FSC certification and provide a gateway to certification for private owners throughout the country.

He also outlined another Forest Service pilot project aimed at develping and supporting forestry Knowledge Transfer Groups (KTGs), like those operating in the beef and dairy sectors. These KTGs will be a vital support to the growth of group certification and general awareness of good forest management.

FOCS member Michael Greaney from Cloyne, who is a participant in the pilot project, spoke of the fantastic achievement for FOCS and NEFG to be selected for the project, highlighting the fact that they must have met the initial standards of the Department. Any process benefiting private owners accessing the market, getting the best price possible as well as adding value to the plantation would get his utmost respect and support.

Michael said forestry is a relatively new enterprise for most private owners and an advantages of joining a co-op/ producer group is the wealth of knowledge shared with like minded people.

The fact that it was difficult to get clear answers to questions from the floor, about what exactly is required from forest owners, highlighted the need for the pilot projects to develop a clear and concise forest management template, appropriate to Certification and develop the awareness of owners for its implementation.

F.O.C.S. has experienced foresters, marketing and sales personnel and provides a full range of forestry services to its members from establishment, ten-year management plans, felling licence and supervision of felling and sales. For information see www.focs.ie
The European Union believes that the legislative structure of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NAPC) should be revised to improve the effectiveness of the agency, in particular, there should be a clear division of responsibilities, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli has said.

"For me it's not a question of person  it's a question of the NAPC's structure. It is not proper, like the collective principle of work. And we were told few weeks ago by Justice Minister Petrenko [Pavlo Petrenko] that the structure of the NAPC should be revised to make it more efficient. And this is what has to be done," the diplomat said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question on the necessity of the NAPC's head Natalia Korchak to resign.

At the same time Mingarelli agreed that the current legislation ensures the agency's independence, but specified that it is necessary to provide for a clear division of responsibility.
IMO President Dr. Ann Hogan has welcomed provisional figures showing a marginal increase in the uptake of the HPV vaccine amongst teenage girls in Cork and Kerry - rising to 50 per cent, from 40 per cent last year.

The figures were released this week at a special conference on HSE HPV Vaccinations.

Dr. Hogan said while these figures are encouraging it is not a time to become complacent about the seriousness of the situation with regard to HPV vaccination uptake.

Misinformation and fake news is causing fear among young people and parents which is contributing to the decline in vaccinations and putting the future of young women at risk of cervical cancer and other ailments," said Dr Hogan.
The Charleville Park Hotel was the venue for this year's annual CBS Secondary School Awards day last week where the guest speaker was local man and past pupil of the school, Des Fitzgerald.

The proceedings started with an address of welcome from student Jack Murphy, the chairperson of the students' council, during the course of which he welcomed their new principal, Ms Una Griffin, and deputy principal, Ms Tracey Groome.

The guest speaker, Dessie Fitzgerald, in his address to the students outlined the vicissitudes he had encountered in his life to date from his serious spinal injury sustained while playing with Charleville junior hurlers at Fr. Con Buckley Park in Buttevant in 2011. Des, who is still in recovery from that injury, related how this tragedy was compounded by the deaths of his two brothers, one to suicide and one to adult sudden death syndrome.

However, he said that initially he had bottled up his feelings and kept his thoughts to himself but then decided to let it all out and talk about what happened. He urged the boys to express their feelings no matter what was troubling them; to talk to somebody and not bottle it all up, but to go to somebody they could trust to speak about their problem and don't let it drag you down.

"You will meet many challenges in the years ahead, ask for help if you need it to deal with these challenges. Master your fear and struggle to be courageous, and not to be afraid to ask for help," he told the boys and wished them well in their examinations and in the years ahead.

School principal Una Griffin said that as the newly appointed principal of the school she was very proud of the achievements of the students and extended thanks to all the staff and the school community for their hard work, and to her deputy principal, Tracey Groome, for her contribution.

She also thanked the parents' advisory council, who, she said, had a crucial role to play as partners in the education of the students in the ethos of Edmund Ignatius Rice.

Addressing the 6th Year class, Ms Griffin said: "I have no doubt it has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows for the last five or six years, but I hope that on life's path ahead you will carry with you the valuable experiences and learnings gained here in CBS."

The chairperson of the board of management, Jacqueline Morrissey, congratulated the students and paid tribute to the school staff who helped the students to achieve their goals. "This represents a continuation of the long tradition of excellence which the school continues to enjoy year after year," she said.

The students received awards from Des Fitzgerald, Jacqueline Morrissey, Eva Barrington of AIB and Kelley Lyons of AIB.

The chairman of Charleville Credit Union, Pat Savage, presented student Jack Murphy with the 2017 Charleville Credit Union Student of the Year Award.

Ms Niamh O'Sullivan was the efficient MC for the awards ceremony.

Past year has been a great one for the 150 year old school

The past year has been one of fantastic developments for Charleville CBS Secondary School, during which they celebrated 150 years of the Christian Brothers in Charleville and the official opening of a state of the art practical suite last November.

This was stated by board of management chairperson Jacqueline Morrissey when she addressed the attendance at the annual awards day at the Charleville Park Hotel last Thursday.

Ms Morrissey continued that the woodwork facilities and construction studies were also extended to the senior cycle, as well as new parking areas with the emphasis on the safety of pupils and the introduction of new traffic management system for both the primary and secondary schools.

"The changes to the school are still ongoing and the updating of the electrical system in the older part of the school will commence very shortly, and this will be another great addition to the school," said Ms Morrissey.

"We have had big changes in the staff during the year and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Una Griffin, our new principal, and Tracey Groome, our deputy-principal, not forgetting our new caretaker, Tadgh Mortell," she said.

Ms Morrissey thanked Ms Griffin for the leadership and commitment she has shown since she assumed the position of principal, and all the teaching staff and Geraldine in administration, and all the other members of the school community for their dedication and commitment to Charleville CBS Secondary School.

She also wished all those students sitting examinations the very best and success in their endeavours.
The boil water notice issued for the Millstreet public water supply last Friday will remain in place up until at least the middle of next month.

In a statement Irish Water said the notice had been put in place "as a precautionary measure" to protect the more than 2.5000 people served by the supply following the detection of "low levels" cryptosporidium in a recent test.

"The area infected include Millstreet, Ballydaly, Laght, Drishane and Keale," read the statement.

Only last December the Health Service Executive (HSE) said it believed there was no need for a boil water notice to the supply, 90% of which is sourced from the uncovered Tubrid Spring. This despite the fact traces of cryptosporidium had been found in the supply on five separate occasions over the previous two months.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) subsequently added the Millstreet supply to their remedial action list and in their audit report issued several recommendations to Irish Water about the action they felt needed to be taken to address the issue.

These included making sure the Tubrid Spring was fenced off and secured to prevent animal access and that a small hole over the clear water sump be sealed to prevent contamination to treated water.

The EPA also ordered that an ultra violet (UV) transmittance monitor, which Irish Water had admitted had been offline periodically since it was installed last May, be "operational at all times."

One of the key recommendations was that Irish Water install a suitable barrier against cryptosporidium as soon as possible in order to ensure the Millstreet public water supply was "adequately disinfected".

Irish Water said they had identified Millstreet as a vulnerable supply due to the lack of adequate treatment and had been carrying out regular testing on the supply to ensure there was no threat to public health.

The company said that in order to address the disinfection issue they had allocated funding of 210,000 for the provision of two UV disinfection units, micro filters and ancillary works at the Millstreet Water Treatment Plant.

"Contractors were appointed last month and are currently working on site to install this system. This will ensure water from this supply has a fully validated cryptosporidium inactivation barrier that will treat water for cryptosporidium and mitigate the risk," it said.

The company said the work was expected to be completed by mid-June.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the boil notice and will continue to work closely with Cork County Council and the HSE to monitor this supply and lift the notice as soon as possible."

Irish Water said that until the notice is lifted water must be boiled for: Drinking. Drinks made with water. Preparation of salads etc. Brushing of teeth. Making of ice.

Further information and additional advice is available through the 24-hour customer care line on 1850 278 278.

Advice from Irish Water

 Use water prepared for drinking when preparing foods that will not be cooked (e.g. washing salads).

 Water can be used for personal hygiene, bathing and flushing of toilets but not for brushing teeth or gargling.

 Boil water by bringing to a vigorous, rolling boil (e.g. with an automatic kettle) and allow to cool. Cover and store in a refrigerator or cold place. Water from the hot tap is not safe to drink. Domestic water filters will not render water safe to drink.

 Caution should be taken when bathing children to ensure that they do not swallow the bathing water.

 Prepare infant feeds with water that has been brought to the boil once and cooled. Do not use water that has been re-boiled several times.

If you are using bottled water for preparing baby food, be aware that some natural mineral water may have high sodium content. Check the label on the bottled water to make sure the sodium or `Na' is not greater than 200mg per litre.

If it is, then it is advisable to use a different type of bottled water. If no other water is available, then use this water for as short a time as possible.

 Great care should be taken with boiled water to avoid burns and scalds as accidents can easily happen, especially with children.
Joe Roche behind the steering to his 1961 Massey Ferguson. All photos by John Tarrant

A large turn out marked the May hosting of the Millstreet Vintage Club Tractor Run that drew participants from many parts of Duhallow and Muskerry.

The sun shone for a great display of tractors old and new for the popular event with John Deere, Massey Ferguson, Zetor, Leyland, David Brown and Ford models on parade.

Organiser Johnny Flynn laid on a superb and scenic route tackling a 12 miles against the backdrop of Knocknakilla Stone Circle, St. John's Well and the Kerryman's Table.

From a hectic few weeks for the vibrant Millstreet Vintage Club, members supported the Blue Force 5000 mile Coastline Tractor Challenge of UK and Ireland. Millstreet members joined the entourage in Macroom and Carriganima for a reception at Colemans, Millstreet.

The event was part of Ford 100 celebration with proceeds going to Cancer and Children's charities.
Primary school pupils from Cloghroe National School and Clogagh National School have made it to the national final of the 2017 Our World Irish Aid Awards.

They, along with pupils and teachers from 10 other primary schools across Ireland, will travel to Dublin Castle on Tuesday, June 13, to showcase their projects as they compete for the overall 'Our World Irish Aid Awards' trophy.

Additionally, Cloughduv National School was presented with the award for Best Newcomer (Regional) while Newmarket Girls National School received a Special Distinction Award at this week's regional final of the annual Our World Irish Aid Awards.

All four schools attended the regional event at the Triskel Arts Centre. As well as exhibiting their work and taking part in a number of activities, pupils and teachers heard from special speaker Kinsale student Sophie Healy-Thow who has not only been named in Time Magazine as one of its Top 25 influential teens but has also been a Global Youth Leader for Mobilising Zero Hunger at the United Nations General Assembly 2015 and is now a ONE Campaign Youth Ambassador and a Young Trustee on the board of ActionAid UK.

Congratulating the teachers and pupils at all four schools, Minister of State for the Diaspora and International Development, Joe McHugh, said that this year's award entries had shown exceptional creativity and understanding of the awards' theme 'For People and Planet'.

"This year more than 1,300 primary schools across the country participated in the awards, exploring the interdependence between people and the natural world, and how the wellbeing of people, wildlife and the environment is interconnected. They have also been learning about the lives of children and their families in Irish Aid's eight partner countries through the use of online teaching and learning materials.

"The Our World Irish Aid Awards help children to develop an understanding around issues that affect us all and highlight our responsibility to help support those most vulnerable in our world," the minister added.

Now in their 12th year, the Our World Irish Aid Awards help primary school pupils learn about the lives of children and their families in developing countries and what steps can be taken to help them.
Skerries will once again host the final state of the An Post Ras this Sunday with thousands expected to line the streets of the town once again.

The fun will begin with the Ras na nOg which will give children aged six and under the chance to cycle in front of the crowds.

The event kicks off a day of celebration for Skerries on May 28 at 12.30pm at the Monument, along with the annual street party.

There will be Farmer's Market stalls with home-made goodies and crafts, buskers and street entertainers and a radio roadcaster will also be present

At 2pm you are invited along to Strand Street to share in the thrills and excitement and cheer along with the crowd as the cyclists in the An Post Ras race through the town three times to the finish line battling it out for the yellow jersey in this most prestigious of races.

At around 4pm trophy presentations to the leading riders in the around Ireland race will be made by Skerries Miss Ras 2017, Katie Jackson.
The organisers of the Darkness into Light Walk in aid of Pieta House in Skerries, which attracted about 3,000 participants, have extended their thanks to everyone who turned out.

The scouts were busy all night helping out at Red Island and all along the route before they provided a guard of honour later in the day for the visit of President Michael D. Higgins.

Local Businesses were open for refreshments including Brascos, Storm in a tea cup, Cafe Jacques and local butcher Aidan O'Brien who provided the most delicious sausage rolls for free to all participants. It was the first time in three years in Skerries that we had a beautiful sunrise to compliment the walk.

The local committee would like to thank all participants for another successful edition of Darkness into Light and to the Skerries community for welcoming them back year after year to show people some hope to those in need.

They are already looking forward to 2018 and are always on the lookout for fresh volunteers.

Pieta House CEO Brian Higgins, who took part in the Skerries event, said: 'I am overwhelmed by the support for Darkness Into Light this year all over the world.

'I took part in Skerries but from Sydney to Strabane and from Seoul to San Francisco, it's just incredible to see those images of people waking up and walking with us in this movement against suicide.

'I want to thank each and every one of the DIL committees throughout the country and abroad, as well as all the communities involved and all the local businesses for their unstinting support of Darkness into Light. The generosity of people who support Pieta House is incredible.

'We had our biggest ever year in terms of engaging people across Ireland and all over the world and it was fantastic to see our Taoiseach Enda Kenny joining Darkness Into Light in Toronto.'

Since it began in one venue - the Phoenix Park in Dublin in 2009 - Darkness Into Light has grown into a global movement against suicide. Funds raised help to keep Pieta House counselling services free to those in suicidal crisis, people who engage in self-harm and those bereaved by suicide.

In Ireland, almost 500 people die by suicide each year; that's ten deaths per week. Pieta House and Electric Ireland have asked the people of Ireland to wake up to this alarming issue.

This is the fifth year that Electric Ireland has been the major sponsor for Darkness into Light.

Well done all.
Spanish writer-director Nacho Vigalondo plays with madness in his brilliantly bonkers homage to Godzilla, which projects the monster-mashing mayhem through the lens of an offbeat indie romantic comedy.

Thematically, there are faint echoes of M. Night Shyamalan's unconventional superhero film Unbreakable, but Colossal is very much its own beast, anchored by an eye-catching performance from Anne Hathaway as a struggling alcoholic, whose recovery coincides with the emergence of a towering creature on the other side of the world.

Jason Sudeikis also plays against type to delicious effect as a bar owner, whose jealousy conjures something scarier and far more destructive than a green-eyed behemoth.

The leads enjoy simmering on-screen chemistry that lights the touchpaper on cataclysmic events on two continents, positing tantalising questions about the thin line separating unlikely heroes from villains.

Predictability has been largely eradicated from the picture's warped DNA and we take great delight from the twists and turns in Vigalondo's fantastical narrative, augmented with impressive digital effects that never threaten to overwhelm the emotional components.

New York City party girl Gloria (Hathaway) fails to get a grip on her hard-drinking ways and her straight-laced boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) throws her out of his apartment.

Gloria returns in shame to her sleepy upstate home town to crash in her parents' old house, which has been vacant since they retired to sunnier climes.

By chance, she crosses paths with childhood friend Oscar (Sudeikis) and makes insensitive small talk about the health of his mother.

'Don't you remember? You were still living here. You went to the funeral,' he responds with bemusement.

Regardless, nice guy Oscar donates unwanted furniture to help Gloria get back on her feet and offers her a job at his bar, which he inherited from his father.

'It's like a Wes Anderson movie in here,' she coos, surveying a western-themed area untouched by refurbishment.

Gloria begins to turn her life around and she forges friendships with Oscar's buddies Garth (Tim Blake Nelson) and Joel (Austin Stowell).

Breaking news about the sudden appearance of a giant creature in Seoul sends shockwaves around the world, and a dumbfounded Gloria discovers she is connected to this horned harbinger of doom.

Flashbacks to a traumatic childhood incident reveal the catalyst for this incredible meeting of human and monster minds.

Colossal is an engrossing and intimate character study with grand ambitions, realised in broad strokes by Vigalondo and his special effects team.

Hathaway welcomes us into her character's delirium, compelling us to root for her as she confronts her addiction head-on and demons closer to home.

Sudeikis is a wonderful foil and there is solid support from Stevens, Nelson and Stowell as the unsuspecting men caught in the crossfire of a truly epic battle of the sexes.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) has extended its thanks all 215 donors who attended the clinic in the Colaiste Ghlor na Mara, Balbriggan.

Despite the new location, a breakdown of the total figure shows that 22 first-time donors and 25 former donors attended the clinic.

A special thank to local voluntary organiser, Kevin Blessing. Many thanks also to members of the ICA Guild for their help and support prior to and during the holding of the clinic.

'Finally on behalf of all the patients in hospitals who benefit from your generosity a heartfelt thank you to all who attended or helped with our Balbriggan clinic in any way,' a spokesperson stated.
Chief prosecutor Lutsenko predicts he will stay in office for half a year or so

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko says he will fulfill his commitments to head the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) for about 18 months and has no ambition of running for presidency.

Answering a question if he sees himself as president of Ukraine on Channel 1+1 on Thursday evening, he answered: "No."

"I see myself as prosecutor general of Ukraine for another six months, or maybe somewhat longer," he added.

Lutsenko was appointed PGO chief a year ago.

He assured that he wants to be "an effective and successful prosecutor general of Ukraine."

Lutsenko claims he has not fulfilled all the tasks while in office, but added: "At a time when my competency, managerial abilities - despite the lack of a diploma in law - will no longer be needed, I will step aside, allowing a young, law-educated leader to take that position in a normal prosecution [system]," he said.
The waters at Portrane and Loughshinny which have have been judged to be below minimum EU standards have passed those standards in the vast majority of their tests, according to Fingal County Council who said that out of 38 tests over four years at each of the two beaches, Portrane had five 'poor' results and Lougshinny had just three.

But tough new standards on water quality mean a handful of poor results can affect a beach's status for a four-year period and that is why this summer, both beaches will remain open but the council will be obliged to advise bathers to take certain precautions.

At Portrane and Loughshinny, there will be warning sins this summer, advising beach users to avoid swallowing or splashing water, wash your hands before handling food, avoid swimming with an open cut or wound and avoid swimming if you are pregnant or have a weakened immune system.

Senior executive engineer, James Walls spoke to the Fingal Independent about the EPA results and explained that the status of any beach depended on the water quality found in tests take over four bathing seasons and that a handful of poor results could dramatically change a beach's status.

That has been certainly been the case at Portrane which proudly flew a blue flag up until a couple of years ago.

Mr Walls explained that both beaches were tested 38 times in the last four bathing seasons.

Those results were mostly 'good' or 'satisfactory' but on three occasions, Loughshinny recorded a 'poor' result and at Portrane, a 'poor' result was recorded five times.

A particularly bad bank holiday weekend in 2014 had the most dramatic impact on the results at both beaches when there were overflows from pumping stations on the Saturday and Monday of the bank holiday weekend after heavy rainfall.

Explaining the difficulty in returning a beach to a more positive status after an event like that, Mr Walls said: 'You carry bad results until you are out of that four year period.'

However he would not say the system was unfair and said: 'It would be wrong to say its an unfair system. It is a Europe-wide system and it gives everyone the same standards to work towards.'

He said that however, the results do not mean the water quality on a failed beach is consistently poor.

He said: 'It is not saying our beaches are poor all the time and they are not - most of the time they are very good. It just means there is a vulnerability there.'

That 'vulnerability' has to be identified and addressed and to that end, the council is doing a number of things, according to the senior executive engineer.

The issue is likely to be to do with a combination of human and animal waste from dog fouling on beaches to areas with a large seagull population.

In terms of dealing with human impacts on water quality, the council and Irish Water are working together to upgrade waste water treatment facilities in these areas including decommissioning a community primary treatment facility in Loughshinny in favour of linking the area to a better system in Skerries.

At both Portrane and Loughshinny, there are still homes with domestic septic tanks and those will come under increase scrutiny to make sure they are functioning properly, according to Mr Walls.

The senior executive engineer said two streams that flow to the sea at Loughshinny will also be monitored this summer to see if they are carrying waste from farmland.

The council is also working with UCD on a project at Portrane that will help identify the proportion of human and animal e-coli present in the water which will help 'identify the pressures' in the area, according to Mr Walls.

Dog owners should also be aware that litter wardens will be monitoring the beaches for dog fouling, this season.

Mr Walls said both beaches will remain open but beach users should take heed of the advice on the warnings signs at both Lougshinny and Portrane, this summer.

These bathing waters will continue to be monitored during the bathing season and current water quality results are available at the beach noticeboard and on the EPA SPLASH website http://splash.epa.ie.
A motorist who was caught drink driving twice within six months told a garda 'Take me to the police station. I am a guilty man,' a court has heard.

Sorin Rafael (29) has been sentenced to four months in prison and banned from driving for four years after he pleaded guilty to the offences before Swords District Court

The defendant, of Moylaragh Park in Balbriggan was stopped on August 30th, 2016 and gave a breath sample of 69mg/100ml. He also had no insurance.

On the second occasion on February 19th this year he gave a breath sample of 48 mg/100 ml.

The legal drink driving limit is 22mg/100ml breath.

Garda Catherine McEvoy told the court she stopped the defendant on the Harry Reynolds Road and got a strong smell of alcohol coming from him. He was arrested and replied 'Take me to the police station. I am a guilty man.'

Gda McEvoy said the defendant refused to sign the Intoxilyzer machine statement and refused to pick one of them for himself.

On the second occasion Garda David Maher said he stopped the defendant at a Mandatory Intoxicant Checkpoint on the M1 motorway at Junction 6 northbound at 2.35am.

The defendant failed a roadside breath test and was arrested. He gave a breath sample of 48 mg/100ml and as he had no insurance, his car was seized.

The defendant has five previous convictions including one previous for drink driving.

Defence solicitor Fiona D'Arcy said the father-of-two doesn't own a car now and isn't working.

'He suffers gastric problems and has medical difficulties,' said Ms D'Arcy.

She said on the occasion in August the defendant had slept for a period before he drove and didn't realise he was over the limit.

On the February occasion he attended a birthday party and 'foolishly got into the car and drove.'

'He appreciates the difficulty he is in and he is more than willing to do community service work,' she said.

'He is asking for one last chance and he will ensure it won't happen again. He seems to be genuinely remorseful and very foolish.'

Judge Dermot Dempsey remarked 'He was stopped in August 2016 and got back into the same vehicle in February. There is no evidence he is dealing with his problems.'

He imposed a four month sentence and disqualified him for four years and fined him a total of 1,050 for the offences.

He fixed recognisances in the event of an appeal.
Fingal's Oireachtas members are on opposite sides of the fence in the Fine Gael leadership contest with Deputy Alan Farrell TD publicly declaring his support for Leo Varadkar and Senator James Reilly siding with Simon Coveney to be the country's next Taoiseach.

Deputy Farrell was elected to Fingal County Council on the same day as Leo Varadkar in 2004 and as he spoke to the Fingal Independent he was on his way to Dublin city to sign nomination papers for his friend and colleague.

The Fine Gael TD said that he and Varadkar sat together on Fingal Council and 'learned a lot about the job and each other' in that time. He said that the man he got to know in those early days on the council and then in the Dail, was one of 'tremendous ability' and 'quite an exceptional politician'.

Deputy Farrell said he made his mind up a long time ago about who he would support to succeed Enda Kenny as Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach and that he had 'collegiate discussions' with Leo on the issue since Kenny had announced his decision to not to lead the party into another General Election.

The Fingal Independent asked the local TD if any promises or offers of promotion had been made by Varadkar in return for his support.

He insisted: 'Not at all, I wouldn't seek one or accept one - I just don't believe in that kind of thing. I believe in meritocracy.' 'I'm supporting Leo on his merit, his ability and his passion for Fine Gael and for the country,' he added.

The Fine Gael TD believes Varadkar's 'intimate' familiarity with Fingal from his time on the council could be 'very advantageous' for region, should he win the leadership contest but said he would be a leader for the whole country, not just the region.

The Fingal Independent asked Deputy Farrell in that context, why it was Varadkar, as Minister for Transport that presided over the shelving on the original Metro North plan, which was revived and revised into a leaner New Metro North at the tail end of the last administration.

Deputy Farrel said it would be 'unfair' to see Varadkar's tenure in Transport as 'a negative' for Fingal. He said that given the resources of the country at the time it would have been 'a dereliction of duty' for any minister to proceed with the project, which he said would have eaten up 75% of the Department of Transport's spending. However, Deputy Farrell said the 'entire cabinet' was now behind the revised and revived New Metro North plans and at the Cabinet table,

Deputy Farrell said he believes that Leo Varadkar enjoys the support of a 'significant number of members' of the local party and said he would canvass for Varadkar and was proud to be one of those signing his nominations papers for leader of the party, and ultimately for Taoiseach.
A Latvian man who pointed a realistic imitation firearm at a member of the public after driving aggressively behind him has avoided a jail sentence.

The court heard Alesandrs Rodjukovs (36) had reacted out of fatigue due to working long hours and a baby who was not sleeping, in the 'once off' incident which terrified his victim.

Rodjukovs, of Mall House, Kilbush Lane, Rush, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to producing a realistic firearm at Lower Main Street Rush on March 7, 2015.

Judge Karen O'Connor said Rodjukovs had much tragedy and sorrow in his background.

She noted he suffers from illness due to exposure to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster.

She also noted he had been injured in a 'horrendous' car accident as a four-year-old, in which his mother was killed.

His father, who had been driving, was prosecuted and jailed. Rodjukovs spent his early years in the care of his grandparents.

She said that in the months prior to this offence Rodjukovs had lost three close relatives.

Judge O'Connor said he had an impressive work background and had been in ill health.

She noted the court heard he would not re-offend.

She said it appeared to be a 'once off incident' and imposed an 18 month sentence which she suspended in full on strict conditions.

Garda Gerard Maloney told Marie Torrens BL, prosecuting, that a man driving home towards Lusk on the night noticed a car driving very close behind him and flashing its lights.

The man's girlfriend gestured to the car behind them to slow down and they put on their hazard lights but the car continued to drive aggressively.

He decided to take evasive action and pulled into a parking area.

The court heard Rodjukovs got out of his car, ran up to the man, pulled out a gun and cocked it.

The gun was pointed in the man's face and he was terrified, thinking he would be shot. Rodjukovs then returned to his car and fled.

The man's girlfriend had noted the car's registration plate. Gardai later recovered a blank firing semi automatic pistol from his car.

Analysis of the weapon showed it was not capable of firing bullets. He told gardai he had brought it back from Latvia.

Rodjukovs was very co-operative with gardai and made full admissions.

He said he had been very tired at the time, having worked two ten hour shifts with five hours sleep between them. He also had young children and a baby who had not been sleeping.
Courtown Harbour is the fastest growing town in terms of population in County Wexford, according to newly-released figures from the Central Statistics Office.

They show that the population of Courtown rose by more than 26 per cent between 2011 and 2016, compared to a county average of three per cent population growth over the same period.

Percentage population changes listed among larger towns since 2006, show that the population of Wexford town grew to 20,072, and increase of 10.5 per cent and Enniscorthy's population grew by 13.6 per cent to 10,838.

Courtown Harbour's population rose from 2,857 to 3,591.

Of a total population of 149,722 in Wexford in April 2016, 38.6 per cent (57,753 persons) lived in urban areas, with 61.4 per cent (91,969 persons) living in rural areas. The census figures date back to 1841 when the county's population stood at 202,033. In 1961, the population had shrunk to 83,308. By 1881 it had grown to 123,854. BY 1901 it had fallen again to 104,104 and by 1926, it was down again to 95,848 and by 1961 it stood at 83,308. Twenty years later, by 1981, it had grown to 99,081, to 116,596 by 2002, and to 131,749 by 2006 and 145,32O by 2011.

Nationally, 62.7 per cent of people live in urban areas and 37.3 per cent in rural areas.

Wexford, with 20,188 persons, is the largest town in the county.

Of the 7,055 usual Wexford residents who moved in the year to April 2016, most (5,497) moved elsewhere within the county.

Only 487 of the 2,872 Wexford households, who moved in the year preceding the census bought their new home with a mortgage or loan, while 1,838 rented their accommodation.

Nationally, 263,551 usual residents moved in the year to April 2016.

The population of County Wexford rose to 149,722 by 2016, compared to 145,320 in 2011, an incrase of three per cent.

Thirty four per cent of people now living in County Wexford were born outside the county, and 12.9 per cent were born out of Ireland. More than 19 per cent of people born in the county were living in another country.

The numbers of households moving in the year immediately before the census stood at 2,872 in 2016, almost identical to the 2011 figure of 2,876. The vast majority, 1,838 were renting, 487 had a mortgage or loan and 505 owned their homes outright.

Of the 7,055 usual Wexford residents who moved in the year to April 2016, most (5,497) moved elsewhere within the county.
Bella Thorne declared "Cannes isn't for me" on Twitter on Thursday, just hours after her new fling Scott Disick was pictured reconnecting with his ex.

The Duff actress had been pictured kissing and cuddling the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star in Cannes on Wednesday, with the pair doing little to conceal their affections for one another.

However, just 24 hours later, Scott, 33, was seen enjoying a similar PDA session with a different partner - his ex, stylist Chloe Bartoli.

The new couple were seen passionately making out at Scott's Cannes villa, and Bella appeared to make her feelings known about the reality star's behaviour in a post on her Twitter page.

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"Yo this #cannes fancy life isn't for me," she wrote. She made no further comment on what it was about the French resort town she disliked, but fans were quick to jump to conclusions that her message was directed at Scott.

Bella did point out one thing she liked about the Cannes though, sharing another snap of herself in a bikini, which ironically was taken in the pool at Scott's villa. "Beautiful skies you have #cannes," she captioned the picture.

Scott's womanising behaviour is part of what led to his split from ex Kourtney Kardashian, the mother of his three children. In fact, his encounter with Chloe in Monte Carlo in 2015 was ultimately what prompted Kourtney to call time on their nine-year on and off relationship.

And a source close to Scott admitted to People.com that his frequent flings in Cannes are part of him attempting to "stick it to" Kourtney, who is also in the city with her new beau Younes Bendjima.

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"Scotts trying to stick it to Kourtney because of her liaison with Younes, the insider told People.com.

"Its him acting out. Hes spinning out of control because of all the Kourtney s**t. It just sets him off because shes rubbing her new relationship in his face and posting all those bikini photos."
The incident took place south of the Egyptian capital

Egypt's government forces have struck bases in which militants who waged a deadly attack against Christians have been trained.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said fighter jets struck militant bases in eastern Libya in retaliation for an attack by suspected Islamic State militants that killed 28 Christians and wounded another 22 south of Cairo.

The officials said the warplanes targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the city of Darna, where local militias are known to be linked to al Qaida, not the Islamic State group.

Me el-Sissi warned that Egypt will strike at any bases that train militants who wage attacks in the country, wherever they may be.

He also directly appealed to US President Donald Trump to take the lead in the fight against global terror.

In a televised address just hours after the attack, Mr el-Sissi said "I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task."

He also repeated calls that countries which finance, train or arm extremists be punished.

In response, Mr Trump condemned the attack blaming "'evil organisations of terror" and "thuggish ideology".

In a strongly worded statement, Mr Trump referred to the "merciless slaughter of Christians" and said a "wound is inflicted upon humanity" every time innocent blood is spilled.

He said the attack by masked militants on a bus taking the worshippers to a monastery should bring nations together to crush "evil organisations of terror".

The assault happened while the bus was travelling on a side road in the desert leading to the remote monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Maghagha, in Minya, about 140 miles south of Cairo.

Witnesses saw between eight and 10 attackers, dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks.

The victims were en route from the nearby province of Beni Suef to visit the monastery.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of Islamic State (IS).

The attack came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Islamic militants have for years been waging an insurgency mostly centered in the restive northern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, although a growing number of attacks have recently also taken place on the mainland.

The militant Islamic group Hamas, which rules Gaza, has condemned the attack.

Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called the shooting "an ugly crime", of which "the enemies of Egypt" are the only beneficiaries.

Security and medical officials feared the death toll could rise further. According to the Copts United news portal, only three children survived the attack. It is not immediately known how many of the victims were children.

On Wednesday, Egypt blocked access to nearly two dozen websites it said were sympathetic to militants or spreading their ideology.

"The growing number of these terror attacks is not at all reassuring," Fr Rafic Greiche, the spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic church, told a local television station.

Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians in this Muslim majority Arab nation following the December and April attacks.

Following the Pope's visit, IS vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group's followers.

Egypt's Copts, the Middle East's largest Christian community, have long complained of discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at the hands of the country's majority Muslim population. They account for about 10% of Egypt's 93 million people.

AP
The Senate of the Netherlands will support the Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union next week, May 30, Radio Liberty has reported.

"My forecast is that the Senate will support it next week. Then the Dutch government can ratify the association agreement. This [the vote] should take place next week, on Tuesday. We had a good debate on the issue last Tuesday [May 23], so now we can vote and ratify it," Rutte said.

He also said that this is a very positive thing for the EU, Ukraine and Russia, because it will help stabilize the situation in the region
The US-led coalition has carried out air strikes on IS targets (AP)

Air strikes by the US-led coalition on an eastern Syrian town held by Islamic State are reported to have killed at least 35 people.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 people were killed when a four-storey building was destroyed in an air strike.

It said nine died in another strike on a nearby market in the town of Mayadeen on Thursday night.

Syria's state news agency SANA also said 35 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the air strikes.

Reports of deaths among civilians have been on the rise as the fighting against IS intensifies in northern and eastern Syria.
Twenty-three people were killed and 25 were injured in the incident

Masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 26 others as they were driving to a monastery, medical sources and eyewitnesses said.

The group was traveling in two buses and a small truck in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority, the sources said.

Provincial governor Essam al-Bedaiwy said earlier that 23 people had been killed and 25 wounded.

Eyewitnesses said the Copts were attacked as they were going to pray at the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the western part of the province.

They said masked men stopped the vehicles on a road leading to the monastery and opened fire.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.

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About 70 have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.
Militia violence in Central African Republic (CAR) has killed more than 300 people and displaced 100,000 in the last two weeks, the United Nations and the government said yesterday, in the worst displacement since a 2013 civil war.

The violence marks a sharp escalation in the long conflict that began when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition overthrew then-president Francois Bozize in 2013, prompting reprisals from Christian anti-balaka militias.

Fighting in the last two weeks has hit the towns of Bria, Bangassou and Alindao, all hundreds of kilometres east of the capital Bangui, the UN humanitarian office and the minister of social affairs said in a joint statement.

"It's a catastrophe," Social Affairs Minister Virginie Baikoua told journalists after a visit on Wednesday to Bria.

"Houses are burnt down, others pillaged... The displaced are afraid it could degenerate at any moment because armed men are roaming around the camps."

More than 41,400 of Bria's 47,500 inhabitants were displaced by fighting between May 15 and 18, the statement said.

The Red Cross said last week it had found 115 bodies in Bangassou, a diamond-mining area on the border with Democratic Republic of Congo after it was seized by hundreds of militia with heavy weaponry.

UN peacekeepers, part of a 13,000-strong force, have since secured Bangassou and reinforced their positions in other areas, the mission (Minusca) said in a statement.

Around 440,000 people were displaced throughout the country by the end of April and that number could reach 500,000 by the end of May. That would represent the most displaced since the height of the crisis in 2013, the UN said.

CAR has been unstable since its long-time president was ousted by northern rebels in March 2013. By the end of that year, sectarian violence had exploded and eventually forced most of the capital's Muslims to flee to neighbouring countries.
Twenty-two victims including children were killed when Salman Abedi, 22, launched a suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday night.

Since the atrocity the terror threat in the UK has been raised to critical and a vast police operation has been under way to find others connected with the attack.

So how is the investigation going? And how are the police going about all this?

How is the investigation going?

A ninth man is being questioned by police after being arrested in connection with the Manchester bombing.

Greater Manchester Police said the 44-year-old was detained in the Rusholme area on Friday evening, bringing the total number arrested to 11. However, two of those  a 16-year-old boy and a woman aged 34  have since been released without charge.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britains top counter-terror officer, said detectives have made immense progress in the investigation and are confident they have arrested some key players.

We are very happy weve got our hands around some of the key players that we are concerned about but theres still a little bit more to do, said Rowley. Clearly we havent covered all the territory we want to but we have covered a large part of it.

Our confidence has been increasing over recent days but theres still more to do to get to the degree of confidence we want.

Rowley said it was likely further arrests would follow.

Where are they looking?

Finances  Officers are mounting a large-scale financial investigation, with Rowley saying: We are interested in equipment people have bought bearing in mind a bomb was constructed.

Communications  Police are looking back at communications and working closely with technology firms.

Exhibits  Investigators have seized large volumes of material during searches of a number of properties and expect to amass hundreds of electronic devices.



CCTV  Police are trawling through footage on local cameras to establish movements and patterns of activity in the lead up to the attack.

Witnesses  Officers are working to triage hundreds of statements from those caught up in the bombing.

International inquiries  Detectives are probing links to Libya as well as liaising with counterparts across Europe and elsewhere.

Just how big is this investigation?

Figures indicate as many as 23,000 people have appeared on the radar of counter-terror agencies.

Meanwhile authorities are handling 500 investigations into 3,000 individuals currently, while it was disclosed on Friday that around 20,000 people are considered former subjects of interest.

Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of the Governments Cobra emergency committee in Whitehall on Saturday morning to discuss the latest developments in the Manchester investigation with senior ministers, officials and security officers.
Mr Ricks had claimed the police switched evidence during his trial

A Detroit man has walked free from prison after serving 25 years for murder after new tests on bullets supported his claim that police framed him with bogus evidence.

Desmond Ricks, now 51, was released from prison in western Michigan after a judge threw out his 1992 murder conviction.

The Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan law school had asked Judge Richard Skutt to reopen the case after prosecutors in 2015 turned over photos of two bullets removed from murder victim Gerry Bennett.

The bullets were in poor shape and did not resemble the pristine bullets that were presented as evidence by Detroit police in 1992.

Police at that time said a gun belonging to Mr Ricks' mother was the murder weapon, but new tests have ruled out any connection, Innocence Clinic director David Moran said.

One of the bullets does not match the gun, and the other bullet was too mutilated for a thorough analysis, he said.

Mr Moran said: "Ricks was a great advocate for his own cause.

"What he was saying seemed to be outlandish: the Detroit police crime lab would not only make mistakes, but switch bullets.

"It wasn't outlandish - it was true.

"This outlandish conduct cost Desmond Ricks 25 years."

The crime lab was shut down after a 2008 audit revealed sloppy work, including the botched analysis of gun evidence.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office agreed that Mr Ricks' second-degree murder conviction should be set aside. It is possible that he could face a second trial, but that seems unlikely.

Spokeswoman Maria Miller said the next move will be discussed in court on June 1.

The law school has exonerated 10 people and freed four others since 2009 by exposing bad police work in Michigan, finding new witnesses and tapping specialists.

In 1992, Mr Ricks was with Mr Bennett when the latter was shot in the head outside a burger bar.

Mr Ricks said he ran away, dodging gunfire. But a few days later, police pinned the slaying on him and seized his mother's gun.

Earlier this year, he said: "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had nothing to do with this.

"They switched the bullets on me."

Mr Ricks had a key ally in his bid to reopen the case: an independent firearms expert who was involved in the 1992 trial.

The convicted man found David Townshend's name in a law journal in 2009 and wrote to him from prison.

Mr Townshend agreed to help. He recalled that the bullets originally presented to him by police appeared to be in excellent shape with no trace of blood, bone or hair that would suggest they were removed from the victim's brain and spine.

Mr Townshend said they did not resemble the actual bullets that were locked away in police storage and produced just two years ago.

"Townshend's a hero," Mr Moran said. "He was willing to put his reputation on the line."

AP
Rodrigo Duterte addresses troops during his visit to the 2nd Mechanized Brigade (AP)

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his troops to crush militants who are fighting street battles with government forces in the south, warning that the country is at grave risk of "contamination" by Islamic State (IS).

The city of Marawi, home to some 200,000 people, has been under siege by IS-linked militants since a government raid on Tuesday night on a suspected hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washington's list of most-wanted terrorists.

After the raid failed, gunmen swept through the streets, fending off government forces and taking over large parts of the city.

Mr Duterte imposed martial law on the southern third of the nation earlier this week as the fighting continued.

At least 44 people have died, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers. It is not immediately clear whether civilians are among the dead.

The violence has forced thousands of people to flee and raised fears of growing extremism.

Mr Duterte told soldiers in Iligan, a city near Marawi, that he had long feared that "contamination by IS" loomed in the country's future. "You can say that IS is here already," he said.

He gave his troops a free hand to wrest control of Marawi, saying: "You can arrest any person, search any house without warrant."

The president has previously allowed extra-judicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.

However, he has also offered dialogue to militants who are not on the streets fighting.

"We can still talk about it," Mr Duterte said. "But those who are out-and-out terrorists, and you cannot be convinced to stop fighting - so be it. Let us fight."

Hapilon is still hiding out in the city under the protection of gunmen who are trying to find a way to extricate him, the country's military chief said.

"Right now, he is still inside (the city)," General Eduardo Ano said.

"We cannot just pinpoint the particular spot."

He said Hapilon suffered a stroke after a government air strike wounded him in January.

Gen Ano predicted that the military operation will take about a week as soldiers go house-to-house to clear the city of militants.

"We will make this their cemetery," he said. "We have to finish this."

In a sign that the long-standing problem of militancy in the south could be expanding, Solicitor General Jose Calida said foreigners are fighting alongside the gunmen in Marawi, including Indonesians and Malaysians.

Gen Ano also said foreign fighters are believed to be inside, but he was more cautious. "We suspect that, but we're still validating," he said.

With much of Marawi a no-go zone, confusion reigned. One local police chief has told reporters that he is fine - two days after Mr Duterte announced he had been beheaded by militants.

Police chief Romeo Enriquez said there may have been confusion because his predecessor in Malabang, a town near Marawi, was killed in the fighting on Tuesday, although he was not beheaded. Mr Enriquez has been in the job for about two months.

Witnesses said gunmen were flying the black flags of IS.

Authorities are working to determine the condition of a Catholic priest and worshippers who were taken hostage by gunmen earlier this week.

Hapilon, an Islamic preacher, is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014.

He also heads an alliance of at least 10 smaller militant groups, including the Maute, which have a heavy presence in Marawi and were instrumental in fighting off government forces in this week's battles.

All of the groups are inspired by the Islamic State group, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties.

Washington has offered a five million dollar reward for information leading to Hapilon's capture.

The southern Philippines has been troubled by decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings in the predominantly Catholic nation. But recent attacks and this week's siege suggest the threat of extremist ideology may be growing.
Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said some UAH 330,000 was spent on the special anti-corruption operation involving so-called 'tax centers' connected with former Ukrainian minister of taxes and income Oleksandr Klymenko. The raids [in 15 regions of Ukraine] took place on May 24.

"Some UAH 330,000 has been spent on all these helicopters used in the operation," Avakov said, noting that not all the apprehended suspects yet been arraigned. He said seven suspects are awaiting arraignment and UAH 246 million has been received in bail payments, for crimes incurring an estimated UAH 96 billion in losses," Avakov said during an interview with the Kyiv-based Left Bank program hosted by Sonia Koshkina that aired on TV Channel 24 on Thursday.

Avakov said $5.46 million, EUR 279,600, GPB 3.8 million, 3.7 kg of gold, 50 kg of silver, 30 expensive watches, 215 pieces of jewelry, 51 works of art, 25 cars and boats had been seized during the anti-corruption raids.

According to Avakov, several suspects attempted to evade arrest. He said one had been caught in Boryspil International Airport, but a second had escaped arrest because he is disabled.

The minister said the special operation and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko's report before parliament on the same day was a coincidence.
A weapons-obsessed student is facing years behind bars for planting a home-made bomb on a busy Tube train.

Former altar boy Damon Smith built the device at home with a 2 (2.30) clock from Tesco after finding an online al Qaida article entitled Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom.

Smith, 20, claimed it was a hoax but was found guilty of possession of an explosive substance with intent following a trial at the Old Bailey.

The autistic defendant, who smiled in the dock, will be sentenced by Judge Richard Marks QC later.

On the morning of October 20 last year, Smith, then aged 19, packed a rucksack with explosives and deadly ball-bearing shrapnel as he headed to college in Holloway, north London.

He was caught on CCTV as he travelled on the Jubilee Line, casually flicking through a text book before getting off and leaving the bomb on the floor, timed to go off within minutes.

At least 10 passengers were in the carriage at the time and some of them spotted the abandoned rucksack and alerted the driver.

The driver at first dismissed it as lost property and took it into his cab and carried on towards North Greenwich, jurors were told.

Expand Close Smith claimed the bomb was a hoax Stock Image: PA / Facebook

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During the journey, he spotted wires coming out of the bag and raised the alarm as he pulled into the station.

Had Smith's bomb worked, it would have exploded just as commuters were being ordered off the platform, the jury heard.

The defendant went on to college and, on returning home in the evening, checked the internet for news of what he had done.

Upon his arrest by counter-terrorism officers, Smith admitted making the bomb but claimed he only meant it to spew harmless smoke as a Halloween joke.

He told police he had been inspired from watching someone on a YouTube channel called Trollstation doing a bomb prank.

A search of Smith's home in Rotherhithe, south London, revealed his fixation with guns, explosives and other weapons.

Police seized a blank-firing self-loading pistol and a BB gun, both bought legally, as well as a knuckleduster and a knife which he showed off in an online video.

Police also uncovered torn-off scraps of shredded paper with bomb-making instructions on it and a "shopping list" of components.

Smith told police he was interested in Islam but denied being an extremist even though he posed next to an image of the Brussels-born Islamic terrorist alleged to have masterminded the attacks in Paris in November 2015

In his defence, extracts of a psychiatric report were read out confirming an autism spectrum disorder.

He had been interested in bomb-making since the age of 10 and said it was "something to do when he was bored".

Smith, who grew up living with his mother in Newton Abbot, Devon, said he had thought about putting a bomb in a park but decided it would be "more funny" to delay train passengers.
Crowds look at the floral tributes after a minute's silence in St Ann's Square, Manchester, to remember the victims of the terror attack. Picture: PA

It was the most Mancunian of moments - a flash of the old, spiky swagger for which they have long been known.

Officially, it was only a minute's silence, shared across the UK - but in reality, the people of Manchester stood there for far longer, still and unmoving as the church bell in St Ann's Square tolled for 11 o'clock.

It ended with ringing applause before one man shouted: "Rock on, Manchester."

And then the iconic sound of the Oasis 1996 hit, 'Don't Look Back in Anger' lifted, first in the brave lone voice of one woman, but soon joined in by hundreds of others.

Lydia Bernsmeier-Rullow explained later she had begun to sing because "that's what this is about".

"We can't be looking backwards to what happened, we have to look forwards to the future," she said.

"We all joined together and we're all going to get on with it because that's what Manchester does.

"It really touched my heart and gave me shivers to hear everyone joining in with me."

It was the third minute's silence held in the city since the terror attack.

Hordes of workers poured out of their offices in a body as they headed down to attend the event.

"I wonder if the police are expecting this to be this big. I certainly didn't," said one man as he marvelled at the size of the moving crowd.

But it seemed an important thing to do - to stand there in solidarity and inclusion together as they formed the beating heart of their beloved city, mourning the terrible loss of the 22 victims, whose names and photographs had by now all been released.

Each one vibrant, fun-loving, young and tragically snuffed out all too soon.

The tributes from their families were devastating in their sadness: "Precious, wonderful, beautiful, vivacious, always smiling."

Amid searing temperatures of 27C, the city seemed cloaked in an air of unreality.

The weather struck a carefree tone but heavily armed police officers in bullet proof vests stood on all the streets where people were gathered.

The terror alert was still at 'critical' level as authorities warned the public, security and health services to be prepared for the possibility of another attack.

The area around the Manchester Arena remained sealed off, while reports surfaced of houses raided, abandoned cars inspected and towed by bomb disposal teams.

Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to the young victims at the Children's Hospital, describing the attack as "very wicked". Meanwhile, people of all ages were continuing to come to lay bouquets of flowers, pot plants, teddy bears and balloons at the ever-growing shrine at St Ann's square.

One woman laid a simple peach rose tied with the red and white ribbons symbolising the Polish flag, in memory of Angelika and Marcin Klis, who died in the blast while waiting to collect their two daughters from the concert.

"I just wanted to come down again because I can't stop thinking about it," said local woman Margaret Roberts, who left a pot of purple daisies at the shrine.

"I can't get it out of my mind. I think this is the only way we will ever get over this - by looking after each other."

The shock of Monday night's bomb attack has abated, replaced by sorrow and anger. Sorrow for the victims and anger that their beloved city was the target.

But, above all, urgency, with the battle continuing apace to find those responsible before they could inflict more devastation and misery on communities.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former U.S. President Barack Obama attend a discussion at the German Protestant Kirchentag in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Barack Obama has said that the world "can't hide behind a wall" from the turmoil and poverty of other nations during a trip to Germany.

The pointed reference to Donald Trump came as both the current and former presidents find themselves in Europe, in a scheduling accident which invites direct comparison between their two radically different tenures.

He didn't mention his successor's name once, but made an apparent reference to Mr Trump's vow to build a wall on the southern US border with Mexico. "If there are disruptions in these countries, if there is bad governance, if there is war or if there is poverty, in this new world that we live in we can't isolate ourselves," he said. "We can't hide behind a wall."

The Obama Foundation says the former president accepted the invitation before the US election, so the overlap with Mr Trump's first presidential trip to Europe is purely coincidental.

Speaking in front of the Brandenburg Gate alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Obama pushed his vision of continued openness between nations, saying that globalisation and technology were shrinking the world.

Answering a question on the refugee crisis, he said: "In the eyes of God, a child on the other side of the border is just as worthy of compassion and love as my own child. We can't distinguish between them in terms of their worth.

"But we are heads of nation states, and we have finite resources. Part of the job of governments is to express solidarity while operating within legal and national constraints."

"The world is at a crossroads," Mr Obama added. The widening inequality gap inside nations as well as between nations was a major concern, he said. At the same time, "the world has never been wealthier, more healthy and never been better educated".

"If we can sustain that progress, then I'm very optimistic about our future. My job now is to help them take it to the next step," Mr Obama said.

In another speech later in the southwestern town of Baden-Baden where he accepted a German media prize, Mr Obama said he was concerned about how technology advances had made "it ironically easier for people to retreat into our own bubbles".
A protest outside the Russian Embassy in London, following reports of the torture and murder of gay men in Chechnya

Human rights activists have said senior officials in Chechnya humiliated people being held and tortured at detention centres during an anti-gay purge.

The claims came in a report released by Human Rights Watch, detailing a purge which it said took place in the first week of April in the Russian federal republic.

The group said it had spoken to six former detainees who said Chechen officials, including two high-level figures, visited the unofficial prisons and humiliated the inmates, who were allegedly held illegally.

In April, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that gay men in Chechnya had been tortured and killed by police.

The Associated Press last month spoke to two victims of the crackdown who supported these claims.

Although Chechen officials have denied the reports, federal investigators have been dispatched there to conduct a probe.

The rights group said no new detentions have been reported in recent weeks but several men remain in detention.

LGBT activists have helped about 40 gay men who fled Chechnya to other Russian regions. Many seek asylum abroad.

Lithuania's foreign minister last week said the Baltic nation had given refuge to two gay men from Chechnya.

The Chechen men "remain at great risk of being hounded by Chechen authorities or their own relatives as long as they remain in Russia", Human Rights Watch said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this month assured the country's human rights ombudswoman that he would speak with law enforcement officials about the reported torture of gay men.

Novaya Gazeta wrote earlier this week that federal investigators dispatched to Chechnya have faced sabotage by local law enforcement officials allegedly involved in the anti-gay purge.

In a sign that the government might be taking the reports seriously, Igor Sobol, the federal investigator dispatched to Chechnya, has been promoted to a top position, permanently based there.

The Russian programme director of Human Rights Watch, Tanya Lokshina, said: "Russia's federal investigation into the abductions, torture, and humiliation of people presumed to be gay in Chechnya should be thorough and investigators should bring perpetrators to account."
An Irish charity is seeking donations to help the former sex slaves of Isil militants.

Syrias Vibes is seeking to fund a psychologist to work with Yazidi women, after their psychologist's contract with an Italian NGO expired three weeks ago.

The Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority based mainly in northern Iraq, were targeted by Isil in a "convert or die" campaign in the summer of 2014.

Up to 5,000 men and boys were slaughtered and up to 7,000 women and children were taken into captivity where, it's believed, as many as 3,000 remain.

The women were sold as slaves in markets and researchers who've interviewed survivors describe their trauma as the "most distressing" they've ever encountered.

Calvin James, a Dublin-born DJ and special needs assistant, set up Syrias Vibes last year and has raised enough cash from Irish donors to buy an ambulance and life-saving equipment.

Last year Mr James volunteered for the Kurdish Red Crescent in Syria, at immense risk to himself. He is now focusing on a new project for survivors of the Yazidi genocide after visiting several camps in the region and discovering a total absence of support for former sex slaves.

"I was in Bajed Kandala [refugee] camp in Dohuk province [northern Iraq] which is home to 7,000 Yazidi survivors of the genocide by Isil of 2014," he told the Irish Independent in the Kurdistan region. "The camp sees around five people returning from captivity a week. They've been abused sexually and physically. Some survivors had been sold upwards of 15 times within Isil," he said.

"The UNHCR agency provides families with food and shelter, that's it. Services such as counselling and psychology are skeletal.

"So we at Syrias Vibes came across a psychologist who was being funded by an Italian NGO. Her contract expired two weeks ago so we took it over. She sees 25 survivors a month. This service costs 2,000 to run so we're aiming to keep this running as long as possible, hopefully beyond the end of the war too."

You can find out more about Syrias Vibes' latest funding project at https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/scoop/syriasvibes3 or go to syriasvibes.com. Mr James regularly hosts fundraising events in Dublin. A list of upcoming events is regularly published on Syrias Vibes' website and Facebook page.
A visitor uses binoculars to see North Korean territory from the unification observatory in Paju, South Korea (AP)

South Korea is to allow a civic group to contact the North over aid programmes, the first such approval since Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January last year.

The announcement is a sign that the liberal government led by new President Moon Jae-in is trying to restart stalled civilian aid and exchange programmes as a way to improve strained ties with rival North Korea.

Mr Moon's conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye, had not endorsed any civilian contacts since the North's fourth nuclear test.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said the Korean Sharing Movement would be allowed to communicate with North Korea to discuss how to deal with malaria.

"While the new government maintains a stance of firmly responding to North Korean provocations like missile launches, it's also clear that the current severance in ties between the South and North isn't ideal for stabilising the situation in the Korean peninsula," ministry spokeswoman Lee Eungene said.

The civic group said it will contact North Korea by email to try to provide insecticides, diagnostic reagent kits and mosquito repellants and nets.

Group official Kang Young-sik said his agency will try to get another government approval to visit North Korea to convey such anti-malaria items if Pyongyang accepts its overture.

The two Koreas remain divided along the world's most heavily fortified border. Their citizens are barred from exchanging phone calls, letters and emails without government permission.

Since taking office earlier this month, Mr Moon's government has said it will flexibly evaluate expanding civilian exchange with North Korea, although it will respond strongly to military threats.

Many analysts say Mr Moon will probably not push for any major rapprochement projects because the North has gone too far on its nuclear programme.

North Korea has conducted two ballistic missile test launches since Mr Moon's May 10 inauguration. It is pushing to build a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the continental US, and carried out two nuclear tests last year.

AP
Tommy Arthur was convicted for the 1982 murder of Troy Wicker (Alabama Department of Corrections/AP)

A man once called the "Houdini" of Alabama's death row for escaping seven execution dates through legal challenges has finally been put to death for a 1982 murder-for-hire shooting.

Tommy Arthur, 75, was pronounced dead at 12.15am local time on Friday at a prison in south-west Alabama after a lethal injection, authorities said.

Arthur was convicted of killing riverboat engineer Troy Wicker, who was shot as he slept in his bed in the north Alabama city of Muscle Shoals.

"Thirty-four years after he was first sentenced to death for the murder of a Colbert County man, Thomas Arthur's protracted attempt to escape justice is finally at an end," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. "Most importantly, tonight, the family of Troy Wicker can begin the long-delayed process of recovery from a painful loss."

During his final statement, Arthur appeared to cry and got choked up as he said he wanted to apologise to his four children and said each of their names.

"I'm sorry I failed you as a father. I love you more than anything on earth," Arthur said. He waved his fingers in the direction of his daughters, who watched from a witness room.

Wicker's two sons witnessed the execution but did not make a statement to the media.

Arthur's lawyers filed a flurry of last-minute appeals seeking to halt the execution, but the US Supreme Court paved the way for the execution to proceed shortly before 11pm. The state prison system began administering the lethal injection drugs around 11.50pm before the death warrant expired at midnight. Arthur was not pronounced dead until after midnight.

Expand Close People stage a candlelight vigil for convicted murderer Tommy Arthur on the steps of the Alabama capitol building in Montgomery (The Montgomery Advertiser/AP) / Facebook

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Mr Wicker's wife, Judy, initially told police she came home and was raped by a black man who shot and killed her husband.

After her conviction, she changed her story and testified that she had discussed killing her husband with Arthur, who came to the house in make-up and an Afro-style wig and shot her husband. She said she paid him 10,000 US dollars.

Arthur was in a prison work-release programme at the time for the 1977 killing of his sister-in-law, a crime he admits to committing.

His first two convictions in the Wicker case were overturned, but the third one was not. Arthur asked jurors to give him the death penalty. The decision was strategic, he said, to open up more avenues of appeal.

The state set seven execution dates for Arthur between 2001 and 2016. All were delayed as a pro bono legal team fought his sentence. In 2016, Arthur came especially close to the death chamber.

In a telephone interview on Monday Arthur maintained his innocence but acknowledged that his chance of another stay was diminishing.

"I'm terrified, but there's nothing I can do," he told the Associated Press.

Expand Close Tommy Arthur was promised $10,000 to kill husband. / Facebook

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Janette Grantham, director of the Victims of Crime and Leniency, called the years of execution delays exceedingly painful for Mr Wicker's family to bear.

Arthur's lawyers had asked the US Supreme Court to halt the execution. They argued that the opening sedative in Alabama's execution protocol - midazolam - would not properly anaesthetise him before he was injected with other drugs to stop his heart and lungs.

In December, inmate Ronald Bert Smith coughed for the first 13 minutes of his execution and moved slightly after two consciousness tests. Arthur's lawyers argued that Smith was awake during his execution. The state responded that there was no evidence Smith experienced pain.

Both the state of Alabama and Arthur's lawyers have pointed to his case as an example of what they see wrong in death penalty cases.

Arthur's lawyer said the state had sought DNA testing on hairs collected at the crime scene.

The state attorney general said Arthur used perpetual litigation to avoid his sentence for years.
The total amount of bail posted by arrested former high-ranking tax officials is UAH 350 million, according to Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, who said the relatively small amount and guarantees given by several of those detained would be appealed in court.

"We have reviewed most of the measures taken against the former fiscal service executives. We managed to collect UAH 350 million in bail payments and seven former tax officials were arrested," said Avakov, who appeared at Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on Friday.

Avakov said law-enforcement agencies would appeal pretrial rulings for "several individuals, from whom the courts extracted personal pledges and small bail amounts."

On Wednesday morning, law-enforcement agencies conducted raids in 15 of Ukraine's regions in a special anti-corruption operation targeting ex-officials of Ukraine's former ministry of taxes and income headed by Oleksandr Klymenko [who fled to Russia following the Revolution of Dignity in early 2014].
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday urged Donald Trump not to take any hasty decisions on a global climate change deal that the US president threatened during his election campaign to abandon.

Mr Macron and Mr Trump also discussed the Syrian crisis, counter-terrorism and defence spending over lunch at the US ambassador's residence in Brussels, their first meeting since Mr Macron was elected on May 7 after a turbulent campaign.

Mr Macron, a centrist, described their conversation as warm and pragmatic but also said it had been "extremely direct and very frank", acknowledging there were subjects where the two leaders did not necessarily see eye-to-eye.

French diplomats had said beforehand that Mr Macron would use the meeting to try to convince Mr Trump to stick to a global deal to combat climate change.

Mr Trump, who doubts climate change is human-made and made a campaign pledge to "cancel" the 2015 Paris Agreement, has postponed a planned decision on whether to stay or leave that had been due before the May 26-27 summit in Italy.

Mr Macron said he respected Mr Trump's decision to put the Paris agreements under review. "I reminded him of the importance these agreements have for us," Mr Macron said, adding that the pact was also important for job creation and economic development. "My wish in any case is that there should be no hasty decision on this subject by the United States because it is our collective responsibility to retain the global nature of this pledge, which was a first," Mr Macron told reporters.

On the Syrian conflict, Mr Macron said he hoped all parties to the conflict could agree to create a diplomatic roadmap to a settlement, "and I think that he [Trump] shares this view."

When the two leaders met, Mr Trump was fulsome in his congratulations on Mr Macron's election victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen, saying he had run "an incredible campaign and had a tremendous victory".

Although the two men barely know each other, they seemed to have a hard time letting go when they first met. Each man gripped each other's right hand so firmly that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench. When Nato leaders greeted Mr Macron at the new alliance headquarters later, Mr Macron pointedly headed straight for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, embracing her and shaking the hand of Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg before another muscular handshake with Mr Trump. Meanwhile, in a stinging rebuke to Mr Trump, a US Appeals Court refused yesterday to reinstate his temporary travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority nations, delivering another blow to the White House in a legal battle which is likely to head to the Supreme Court. The decision described Mr Trump's executive order in forceful terms, saying it uses "vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, (fifth left) and (front row second left to right) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit on May 25, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Getty Images

US President Donald Trump yesterday intensified his accusations that Nato allies were not spending enough on defence and said more terror attacks would take place unless the alliance did more to stop militants.

In unexpectedly abrupt remarks as Nato leaders stood alongside him, Mr Trump said certain member countries owed "massive amounts of money" to the United States and Nato, even though allied contributions are voluntary, with multiple budgets.

His scripted comments contrasted with Nato's choreographed efforts to play up the West's unity by inviting Mr Trump to unveil a memorial to the 9/11 attacks on the United States at the new Nato headquarters in Brussels.

"We will never waver in our determination to defeat terrorism and achieve lasting security, prosperity and peace," Mr Trump said in the speech before a dinner with leaders.

"Terrorism must be stopped or ... the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever," Mr Trump said, referring to Monday's suicide bombing that killed 22 people, including children.

Mr Trump called on Nato, an organisation founded on collective defence against the Soviet threat, to include limiting immigration in its tasks as well as fighting terrorism and deterring Russia.

Nato leaders wanted Mr Trump to publicly support the military alliance that he had called "obsolete" during his campaign.

But he instead returned to a grievance about Europe's drop in defence spending since the end of the Cold War and failed to publicly commit to Nato's founding Article V rule which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all.

"Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying for their defence," Mr Trump said, standing by a piece of the wreckage of the Twin Towers.

"This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years," Mr Trump said as the other leaders watched.

Nicholas Burns, a former long-time diplomat and ambassador to Nato from 2001 to 2005, now a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said every US president since Harry Truman had pledged support for Article V and that the United States would defend Europe.

"Not so Trump today at Nato. Major mistake," he said on Twitter.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Mr Trump was "100pc" committed to collective defence. "We are not playing cutesie with this. He is fully committed," Mr Spicer said.

Read more:

Praise was always going to be in short supply after Mr Trump's sharp election campaign criticism of the alliance, which he blamed for not doing more to combat terrorism.

Last year, Mr Trump threatened to abandon US allies in Europe if they did not spend enough on defence, comments that were particularly unnerving for the ex-Soviet Baltic states on Russia's border which fear Moscow might try a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.

Although he has since softened his tone in phone calls and meetings with Western leaders, Mr Trump's sharp words yesterday recalled his awkward meeting with Angela Merkel in March, when he pressed the German chancellor for Germany to meet Nato's military spending target.

Nato diplomats planned to placate Mr Trump with a pledge to agree to national plans by the end of this year showing how Nato allies will meet a promise to spend 2pc of economic output every year on defence by 2024.

But Mr Trump increased the pressure, calling that agreement made at a summit in Wales in 2014 "the bare minimum".

"Even 2pc of GDP is insufficient ... 2pc is the bare minimum for confronting today's very real and very viscous threats," Mr Trump said.

He also made his presence felt at his first Nato summit, literally, pushing his way past Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, whose country joins the organisation next month, in footage that went viral. Mr Spicer said he had not seen the video but assumed the US president was moving to his designated spot.

It was left to Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to try to hammer home the message of unity. "Nato is more than a club, more than an organisation. Nato embodies the unique bond between Europe and North America," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, (fifth left) and (front row second left to right) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit on May 25, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Getty Images

U.S. President Donald Trump muscled himself to the front of the world stage in Brussels on Thursday, firmly pushing aside the leader of soon-to-be member Montenegro at a NATO summit.

Footage showing the leaders caught Trump pushing his way past Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, then confidently adjusting his suit as he emerged in the front of the group, closer to NATO head Jens Stoltenberg.

Video of the incident went viral and came as Trump delivered a tough message to NATO allies to dramatically increase their defence spending to ease financial burden to the United States.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer, asked about Trump moving past Markovic, said he had not seen the video but assumed the U.S. president was moving to his designated spot.

The NATO mission of Montenegro, which is joining the Western military alliance against stiff opposition from Russia, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The small Balkan country will formally become NATO's 29th state in June but Markovic joined the Brussels summit, Trump's first, and a ceremonial opening of the alliance's new headquarters.

During the leaders' joint photo shoot in the new building, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged his counterparts to wave for the cameras. Some did as Trudeau requested, but Trump did not raise his arm.

Trump smiled briefly, but otherwise kept a serious expression on his face for the brief session.
The little boy was found dead by the shoreline of a lake outside the small town of Arvika in northern Sweden on August 16, 1998

A child murder case from 20 years ago is once again getting enormous attention in Sweden.

Two young brothers  aged five and seven  were believed at the time to be responsible for the death of four-year-old Kevin Hjalmarsson in 1998. But concerns over the way the investigation into the so-called Kevin case was conducted led the police to reopen the case in May. This has highlighted serious questions about the way children are treated in the countrys legal system.

The Kevin case was one of the most high-profile murder investigations of the 1990s in Sweden  and the first in modern Swedish history where such young children were accused of having murdered another child.

The little boy was found dead by the shoreline of a lake outside the small town of Arvika in northern Sweden on August 16, 1998  the last day of the school summer holidays. He had been strangled and had bruises on his body. After being killed, he was dragged 30m from the seaside to a raft, where his grandfather later found him.

Two brothers accused

Initially announced as a drowning accident, the police soon changed their minds and said they suspected it was a paedophile case. But they were then to reach another conclusion: Kevin had been murdered by two brothers, Robin and Christian, aged five and seven years old.

The younger brother had initially been interrogated by the police as a witness, along with 120 other children in the town. But the boy soon became the head suspect together with his brother.

At a press conference in November 1998, the police announced the conclusion of their investigation: the boys had killed Kevin. The police said they had confessed to the crime, but would not be prosecuted nor formally convicted because children younger than 15-years-old cannot be convicted for crimes in Sweden.

This meant that the case was never passed on to the district court. The boys were subsequently taken into institutional care for a while. Social services later tried to find a foster home for one of the boys but no family wanted to have him and he was finally allowed to return home. The boys both still live in Sweden.

Case file reopened

During the autumn of 1998, the case was in the news almost every day. It is now making national news again. In late April, the main Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter and the Swedish public television, SVT, began to reveal possibly serious flaws with the old murder investigation in a series of documentaries.

This was sparked by a neuroscientist, Rickard Sjoberg at Umea University, who contacted the media because he found the interview techniques used in this, and other cases, to be unscientific.

Since then, parts of the police investigation have been made public, including police interrogations of the youngest boy. The material reveals that there were no documented confessions or technical evidence that supported the police opinion at the time. And no one can explain how young Kevin was dragged from the scene of the crime to the place he was found.

The boys confessions came after more than 30 long interrogations, sometimes without a parent  and with methods that have been criticised as unprofessional. The new material also reveals that the boys may not have been around the crime scene at the time of the murder. Due to the new circumstances, the prosecutor decided to reopen the case on 8 May.

SVT interviewed the two boys in its documentary series. Neither of them say they have any memory of the incident today, but they think they did not do it.

Now in their late 20s, they have grown up in the eyes of society as child murderers. Robin, the younger brother, said on the documentary: There is no person in the whole world that will ever understand what we have been through, how we have felt and how terrible it has been. In a press conference on 19 May, the two men  whose full names Robin Dalen and Christian Karlsson have now been released  said the SVT investigation was a big relief and thanked the media for helping them.

The right to the truth

In a painful way, the Kevin case highlights the challenges of involving children in crime investigations. Even if a child under a certain age cannot be convicted in a legal sense, the consequences are still very drastic for the child.

There could have been a possible way to avoid this outcome. In Sweden, it is possible to raise the question of guilt in court without pursuing a formal conviction, a process known as bevistalan. But this was never used in the Kevin case. Instead, the prosecutor decided not to continue the investigation, thereby concluding the case without a trial.

Bevistalan is rarely used: to my knowledge there have only been two cases in Sweden since Kevins murder when a court has assessed a case involving children without delivering a formal sentence.

But I think the Kevin case should have been treated in this way  allowing for a trial of sorts for the minors suspected of the crime, but without the threat of conviction or punishment. This would have meant a higher burden of proof was needed from the police, which could have changed the outcome of the investigation.

Instead, the case remained at the police level and was never brought to court, meaning nobody really assessed the evidence except for the police themselves.

The Kevin case shows that there is need for a repeated discussion of how to uphold childrens rights in the legal system. The general legal principle that a person is always considered innocent until he or she is convicted of a crime must also apply to young children.

Titti Mattsson is a professor in the department of law at the Lund University. This article was originally published on The Conversation (www.conversation.com)
Donald Trump's administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order

Donald Trump's team has vowed to take the fight over his controversial travel ban to the US Supreme Court after a federal appeals court ruled against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries.

In a 10-3 vote, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination", and probably violates the constitution.

It upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March.

Mr Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems the first version from January encountered.

A second appeals court, the 9th US Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

The Supreme Court would almost certainly step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Mr Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe.

If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.

A central question in the case before the 4th Circuit was whether courts should consider Mr Trump's public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

His administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which does not mention religion.

The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

Chief Judge Roger L Gregory wrote that the government's "asserted national security interest ... appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country".

Attorney general Jeff Sessions said the court's ruling blocks Mr Trump's "efforts to strengthen this country's national security".

The president is not required to admit people from "countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism until he determines that they can be properly vetted" and do not pose a security threat, Mr Sessions said.

AP
The wreckage of the Polish presidential plane which crashed in western Russia in 2010, killing President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others (AP)

Polish prosecutors investigating the 2010 plane crash which killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others have sent samples from the plane for laboratory tests in the UK to find out if an explosion caused the disaster.

Ewa Bialik, spokeswoman for the National Prosecutor's Office, said the samples have arrived at the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

They are to be checked for traces of explosives, a process expected to take a few months.

More samples will be sent to laboratories in Italy and in Spain, after they were taken by Polish investigators who went to the crash site in western Russia.

Russia has refused to return the wreckage, saying it is needed for an ongoing investigation there.

Prosecutors are investigating whether anyone should face charges over the crash near a rudimentary military airport in Smolensk, Russia.

They plan to question Poland's prime minister of the time, Donald Tusk, who is now the president of the European Council.

Poland's ruling party is led by the late president's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who rejects findings by separate teams of Polish and Russian aviation experts who have concluded that the crash resulted from errors by the crew while attempting to land in dense fog.

The prosecutors have brought negligence charges against two officers of the now-dissolved regiment that was responsible for flying top officials.

They have also brought charges against two Russian flight controllers from Smolensk for allegedly giving the plane's crew poor guidance, although Poland has no legal power to bring them to trial.
Will President Trump's budget cut mail delivery? Plan revives contentious question.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump, with his well-crafted disrupter reputation, potentially could disrupt one self-funding service Americans directly use almost every day - mail delivery.

In the fiscal 2018 budget plan the Trump administration released this week, he reopened the divisive issue of cutting Saturday mail service. After a long and contentious effort, Republicans and Democrats, postal officials, postal unions and mass mailers managed to reach a compromise on postal reform with Saturday service intact.

But deep, very deep, in the budget's appendix is a line that says that "the budget proposes operational reforms to reduce costs and improve revenue, including . . . authority to reduce mail delivery frequency where there is a business case for doing so."

It could be easily overlooked, coming on page 1,207 of the 1,284-page document. But it has the potential to tear the scab off a wound that has been healing for more than a year.

For years, U.S. Postal Service officials insisted that moving to five-day mail delivery was a needed tonic to the chronic financial ailment that continues to afflict the agency. Unlike other parts of the government, USPS survives on the sale of goods and services, not tax dollars.

After repeated failed attempts to persuade Congress, former postmaster general Patrick R. Donahoe announced, in February 2013, unilateral action ending Saturday mail delivery, except for packages, that August.

Postal unions and many members of Congress went ballistic. Harry M. Reid, Nev., then the top Senate Democrat, said Donahoe had "damaged his reputation with congressional leaders." The National Rural Letter Carriers Association board voted unanimously for his dismissal.

Two months later, his unilateral plan was dead, but not the Postal Service's insistence that five-day delivery was crucial for financial health.

That turnaround came in January of last year, when a new postmaster general, Megan J. Brennan, made another plea to Congress for help. But this time, going to five-day delivery was not among her requests.

Dropping that was an important development in advancing reform legislation. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a bill in March with broad bipartisan support. It does not include elimination of Saturday delivery.

"Congress has made clear it would not support cutting mail delivery from six to five days, and for good reason. Eliminating a critical competitive advantage, Saturday mail delivery, would kick off a vicious cycle of increasing volume reductions, service standard degradation, and customer alienation," said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-Va., a co-sponsor of the Postal Service Reform Act of 2017. "We've finally got a postmaster general that understands that six-day delivery is an asset. It would be foolish for the Trump administration to re-litigate this debate."

The Office of Management and Budget, the Postal Service and no Republican contacted would comment on the budget's postal provisions, but Sen. Claire McCaskill, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, did.

"Cutting the frequency or reliability of delivery is terrible for my state, especially in rural Missouri," she said, "where so many families and small businesses depend on their services for everything from their medications to Internet sales for their small business."

American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said it is "widely accepted now that a reduction in delivery days would hurt the people of this country and the businesses of this country."

Meanwhile, regarding another part of the budget, OMB said Trump's plan to cut retirement programs for federal employees generally would save the government $148.9 billion over 10 years.

Uncle Sam's savings are individual employees' loss.

That comes to about $75,000 per employee, the National Federation of Federal Employees calculated. But averages like that are misleading, OMB warned, because "these proposals would impact individual employees and retirees differently."

Yet even the least affected don't want the hit under Trump's plan, despite its 1.9 percent federal pay raise and the six weeks of paid parental leave that would be available generally, not just for feds.

Referring to previous actions, including a three-year partial pay freeze and increased retirement contributions for new employees, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, Md., the second-ranking Democrat in the House, said that's "on top of the $182 billion [over 10 years] that federal employees, frankly, have had their pay and benefits reduced from what otherwise would have been current law."

During a telephone interview, he called the budget "draconian as it relates to federal employees."

"We're making federal employment less attractive, we're making retention more difficult and recruitment more difficult," he added. "I think this is a very negative proposal that we're going to fight very hard."

He warned that while Trump's overall budget proposal might be dead on arrival on Capitol Hill, that doesn't necessarily apply to everything in the budget.

Will Congress approve the retirement hits?

"I hope not," Hoyer added.

Republicans "will talk about giving everybody a tax cut, except federal employees and federal employees they'll give a tax increase essentially, effectively, by reducing their take-home pay."

federal-insider

Washington Post News Service (DC)

5/26/2017 10:30:21 AM Central Daylight Time
European Council President Donald Tusk said in Taormina on Friday before the G7 meeting that the EU and the U.S. have similar approaches to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

My impression is that when the conversation touches upon the conflict in Ukraine, we more or less stick to the same line with U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Tusk said at a joint press conference with Chairman of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.

Whatever it was, to my mind, we can work out a common position with the United States on Ukraine, Tusk said.

At the same time, he expressed a "less optimistic" attitude about Trump's views about Russia.
Image: Google Maps

Kabul, May 26 (IBNS) : The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will sustain its mission to train, assist and advise Afghan security in Afghanistan as several allies of the alliance pledged more troops contribution, the state-run Khaama Press reported.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting of the Heads of the States and Government on Thursday, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said We reviewed our training mission in Afghanistan, and we agreed that we will continue to sustain our mission.

Stoltenberg further added I welcome that several Allies came forward today with new troop contributions. And on the basis of our review, we will take further decisions in the coming weeks.

In his statement ahead of the meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Stoltenberg emphasized on the role of the alliance to train the local forces so that they can fight terrorism.

Training local forces is one of the best weapons in the fight against terrorism. We are already training Iraqi forces, he added.

The NATO Secretary General admitted that many challenges still persist in Afghanistan.

However, he said But we have achieved a lot. We have been able to train and build Afghan forces which are now able to take responsibility for security in their own countries themselves. Thats a great and important achievement. And the Afghans show professionalism and bravery in the way that they handle the security situation in Afghanistan.

The military alliance began considering a troop increase earlier this month after it received a request from army chiefs for more soldiers to help in the fight against the Taliban,

According to reports, NATO already has more than 13,000 troops in Afghanistan, including around 6,900 US and 500 British military personnel, who are training the Afghan armed forces.

The US has an additional 1,500 soldiers conducting assist missions directly under Pentagon command.
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Trump calls on NATO to focus on issues of terrorism, migration, threats from Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump has called on NATO member states to focus on the problems of terrorism, migration and threats from Russia.

"The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATO's eastern and southern borders," he said at the NATO unveiling of the Article 5 and Berlin Wall Memorials in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday, May 25.

The U.S. administration thinks that the NATO members' commitments to spend 2% of GDP on defense in keeping with the North Atlantic Treaty will strengthen Europe and will complicate Russia's existence.

"The more the NATO members spend, the worse it is for Russia... As Trump insists on greater NATO spending, this obviously complicates the life of Russia and creates a stronger and more vibrant Europe," a senior U.S. administration official who spoke on terms of anonymity told journalists in Brussels on Thursday.

According to the official, "in fact, Trump really strengthens NATO's ability to deter any kind of aggression on its borders, including aggression from Russia."
India is one of the largest car markets in the world. And with the economy growing and people willing to splurge on cars, manufacturers are happy to bring their latest international offerings to the country.

But sometimes there are issues with launching a new car, like, the cars name. This is because the name of the car may already be registered by someone else; or the brand hasnt been doing well and the company wants to replace it. Whatever the reason, there have been cars that have been given a different name in India.

Take a look:

1. Maruti Ritz aka Suzuki Splash

Suzuki

In 2009, when Maruti wanted to bring the Splash to India, the spanner in the works came courtesy Ford. The latter had already registered the name back in 2002, so Maruti went in for a new name  the Ritz. The car sold fairly well, but has now been discontinued.

2. Honda Jazz aka Honda Fit

Honda

The Japanese car maker has a different naming convention for the Japanese, European, American and Asian markets. So the same car, the Jazz in India, is sold as the Fit in Japan and Americas.

3. Skoda Laura aka Skoda Octavia

skoda

The Czech car maker had a great run with the first generation Octavia in India. The car gained a loyal following thanks to punchy engines and sporty yet comfortable ride quality. So when the next generation was launched in Europe, Skoda decided to sell it alongside the old model here and named it Laura.

4. Maruti A-star aka Suzuki Alto

Suzuki

Maruti was building the A-star (Alto-star) in India for export to Europe as the Suzuki Alto and the Nissan Pixo. But in India, the earlier generation Alto was already selling remarkably well thanks to its low price and efficient engine. So Maruti rebadged it and sold it as the A-star here.

5. Nissan Sunny aka Nissan Versa

Nissan

Nissan too has a different naming convention for its cars in the Americas and Asia. Therefore the sedan has been sold as the Versa in US, Almera in Thailand and Sunny in India.

6. Maruti Esteem aka Suzuki Cultus

Suzuki

The Maruti 1000 was the first modern sedan to be launched in the country. This was back in 1989. Five years later, the car was given a bigger, 1.3-litre, G-series petrol engine and was rebadged the Esteem. The rest is history.

7. Reva aka G-Wiz

REVA

Indias first electric car was quite rudimentary but at least it was a step in the right direction. The REVA was updated to REVAi and REVA L-ion during its life-cycle. But did you know it was also exported to 26 countries. In the UK it was sold as the G-Wiz, a modern yet youthful name.

Bonus fact: It didnt qualify as a car in UK and was classified as a Heavy Quadricycle in the country.

8. Chevrolet Tavera aka Isuzu Panther

flickr/

General Motors may have announced their exit from India, but at one time it had big plans for the country. Unfortunately the product mix never worked out. To emulate the success of the Toyota Qualis, Chevrolet chose the Panther that partner company Isuzu was selling in Indonesia. But it came when the Qualis was on the way out and Innova was being launched and it never did succeed.

9. Hyundai Verna aka Hyundai Accent

Hyundai

The second-generation Accent was Hyundais first sedan offering in India. And while it was getting long in the tooth in the international market it was still doing good business in India. So Hyundai brought the new, third-generation car to India as the Verna and priced it higher. Surprisingly 'Accent' was replaced by 'Xcent'.

10. Hyundai Santro aka Atos Prime/Amica

Hyundai

The Korean car makers Santro is probably as loved by India as the Maruti 800 and Alto thanks to its practical tall boy design and economical running costs. It was based on a modified Atos platform for India and hence when it was launched it as the global debut for the Santro name.

11. Mitsubishi Montero aka Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun

Mitsubishi

The Pajero was famous in India even before Mitsubishi launched it here. The names journey was a bit convoluted though. The fourth-generation Montero (also called Shogun) was launched in India in 2009, while the early generation car was still being assembled. Then the Pajero Sport was introduced that is called the Challenger abroad! Yup were confused too.

12. Ford Endeavour aka Ford Everest

Ford

The Endeavour name is unique only to the Indian market for the Ford SUV. It was originally called the Everest and is sold by that name in South-East Asian market. Ford had to change the name because the Everest name is registered by a company that makes masala! Everest Chana Masala anyone?

13. Ford Figo aka Ford Ka

Ford

Ford developed the Figo in India and exported it to other developing markets like South Africa and Brasil. While the first generation was a basic, the second generation is based on a newer platform. In the export market the Figo was sold as the Ka, a name that was on sale much before the Figo was introduced.

14. Maruti S-Cross  Suzuki SX4

Suzuki

The SX4 was sold in the sedan body style in India, because big hatchbacks arent really popular here. And while the SX4 was replaced by the Ciaz in India, the SX4 platform continues abroad. In fact, the next generation SX4 was brought back to India as the S-Cross.
Fire forces around the world strive to reach on time, but there's only so much they can do. Traffic, bad roads, and city's hustle-bustle often contribute to the delay and this can be dangerous.

AFP

Any disaster needs an immediate remedy and practically speaking, the wait can often land hapless people in a tight spot.

Therefore, in order to eradicate the inept waiting period, students of an engineering college in have come up with a device that can help those stranded.

Digvijay Kumar, a sophomore at Sri Sairam College of Engineering from Anekal in Bengaluru, along with four of his classmates exhibited their innovation. They've designed a drone that can douse the fire.

BHP

They call it the 'fireball,' one that explodes when dropped at the fire accident spot. It then douses it. The ball consists of sodium bicarbonate and turns into carbon dioxide upon explosion.

Their drone can travel up to 40kmph and has a camera that helps in monitoring. It also comes with a 4000 mah battery that can last for almost five hours.

dronelife

These students spent nearly Rs 40,000 on their project and more than six months time. They're now planning to get in touch with Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Department to hand over the innovation.

"Our main intention is to help both the department and the public in such fire accidents. In many cases, due to traffic or congested roads, the rescue team may not be able to reach the venue quickly. But this drone will reach much faster and work on saving lives," said Nandini B, another sophomore, as reported by Times Of India.

Let's hope more such innovations come our way.
Amid the continuing debate and rising vigilantism over cow protection, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has effectively banned cow slaughter across the country.

BCCL

The Environment Ministry through a notification titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 has banned the sale of cows for slaughter purpose.

BCCL

As per the notification, only those who furnish a written declaration that the cattle will not be sold for the purpose of slaughter will be allowed to sell them. Upon the sale of cattle, the animal market committee will take an undertaking that the animals are for agricultural purposes and not for slaughter.

Even the buyer will not be allowed to sell the animal for the purpose of slaughter nor sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose.

BCCL

The new rules are applicable for all animals defines cattle as bovine animals, including bulls, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels. The government notification prohibiting cattle slaughter across India has come even after the Supreme Court had made it clear that is a state subject.

BCCL

In January while hearing a PIL to ban nationwide cow slaughter the SC had said that it was a state subject and individual states can make laws accordingly.

The move is expected to take a toll on the meat trade in India which is estimated to have annual business of around Rs one lakh crore.

Uttar Pradesh is the market leader followed by Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana.

BCCL

Another casualty of the ban will be the leather industry, which depends on hides from slaughtered cattle.

BCCL

According to industry data leather and leather goods exports from India stood at US$ 5.92 billion in FY 2015-16.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge, the longest bridge in the country.

PIB

The 9.15 km-long bridge situated in Arunachal Pradesh is built over the river Lohit, which is a tributary of the Brahmaputra. It links Dhola in Assam to Sadiya in Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge will reduce travel time between the two states by as much as four hours. Read more

1. Government Bans Cow Slaughter Across India, Restricts Sale Of Cattle Only For Agriculture Purpose

Amid the continuing debate and rising vigilantism over cow protection, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government has effectively banned cow slaughter across the country.

BCCL

The Environment Ministry through a notification titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 has banned the sale of cows for slaughter purpose. Read more

2. Parts Of Missing IAF Aircraft Has Been Found In Assam, Four Days After It Went Missing

The wreckage of Indian Ar Force's (IAF) Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft has been spotted after four days of widespread search operation.

inkhabar

"Wreckage found. Close to the last known position of aircraft. As of now weather is bad and the place has dense foliage. Further update follows," said the IAF in an official statement. Read more

3. Manchester People Are Getting A Bee Tattooed To Raise Money For Terror Attack Victims

Theres a rush of Mancunians (people of Manchester) getting bees tattooed following the terror attack in Manchester on Monday night.

This was the brain child of a tattoo parlour in the city to raise money for the victims of the blast that happened at Ariana Grandes concert at the Manchester Arena. Read more

4. Gau Rakshaks Stop Train, Beat Up Railway Staff, Men Transporting Cows In Bhubaneswar Railway Station

In yet another case of mob justice by self-appointed 'gau rakshaks' a group of more than 20 people raided the parcel van of the Kochuveli-Guwahati Express in Bhubaneswar railway station alleging cattle smuggling.

The vigilantes attacked the loco pilot train and his assistant along with two persons who were legally transporting 20 milch cows. Read more

5. Lady Justice Statue Removed From Bangladesh's Supreme Court After Islamists Opposed It

AFP

The statue of a Lady Justice was removed from Bangladesh's Supreme Court premises after Islamist hardliners pressed for its removal for months, the sculptor said on Friday.

The statue of a woman holding a scale and sword in her hands was installed in December outside the court building. The sculpture is wrapped in a sari, a Bangladeshi revision of the usual representation, the Greek goddess Themis blindfolded and clad in a gown. Read more
An attempt to save his friend from drowning cost dearly to a teenage boy, who himself, eventually died after drowing in NCR canal near Chandu Budhera village.

afp/representational image

The incident took place around 1 pm when Ashutosh (17), a Class XII student at a government school, and Satyanarayan (18), who worked as a helper at a local flour mill, and their six other friends were bathing in the canal on the outskirts of the city.

All of them lived in the same neighbourhood of Sheetla Mata colony in old Gurgaon. None of the eight teens knew swimming. Police said Ashutosh, son of a barber, was sitting on the steps of the canal when he suddenly slipped into the water.

afp/representational image

Without sparing a thought, his friend Satyanarayan, son of a laundryman, jumped in to save Ashutosh. The six other boys immediately raised an alarm and managed to pull Satyanarayan out of the canal with the help of local villagers after a while. But, he was dead by then.

Ashutosh, on the other hand, was swept away.

As the news spread, the boys' family members rushed to the spot. Later, a police team, along with fire brigade personnel, and divers reached the spot and started a search operation. It took more than an hour for the divers to locate and fish out Ashutosh's body from the water.

afp/representational image

"We had gone to take a bath. We were sitting on the steps and bathing in shallow water as none of us knew swimming. But, Ashutosh slipped and went deep into the water. When we could not reach him, Satyanarayan jumped in for his help," said Sonu, an eyewitness and one of the friends who had accompanied Ashutosh and Satyanarayan.

Sub-inspector Jai Bhagwan at Rajendra park police station said the bodies were sent for autopsy, which confirmed death due to drowning, ruling out any foul play. "We have handed over the bodied to the families. A general report has been filed in the matter," the officer added
The militants have opened fire 57 times on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in past 24 hours, resulting in injuries of five soldiers, the press centre of the Anti-Terrorist operation (ATO) headquarters has reported.

The ATO staff said that the militants conducted 57 attacks on Ukrainian army positions over the day, inflicting injuries on five servicemen. Kyiv described the situation in southeastern Ukraine as complicated. "There have been signs of deterioration in certain sectors of the contact line," the staff said on Facebook on Friday morning.

The militants conducted 29 attacks on the Ukrainian military in the Mariupol sector. Ukrainian strongholds near Krasnohorivka came under fire of mortars of various calibers, a tank, an infantry combat vehicle, an anti-aircraft gun and infantry armaments at about 9 p.m. Several mines hit a residential area near the city hospital, yet no casualties were reported. The militants attacked the same populated locality at the end of the day, using 120mm mortars and 152mm artillery systems. Consequences of that attack are being verified, the staff said.

In addition, the militants fired mortars on Ukrainian army positions near Shyrokyne and Maryinka in the same sector, it said.

Twenty-six ceasefire breaches of the militants were observed in the Donetsk sector, the staff said.

Tensions were the highest in the suburb of Avdiyivka. Mortars and Grad rocket launchers shelled Ukrainian army positions in that area on Thursday afternoon, and the gunfire continued after dusk, the staff said. Tensions persisted near Luhanske, in the Svitlodarsk bulge area, where the militants were firing 82mm mortars and grenade launchers, while infantry combat vehicle weapons and small arms were used near Mayorske, the staff said.

There were only two shelling incidents in the Luhansk sector, the staff said.
We all know Nayak, the Indian cult movie. After watching that movie, we all thought what would happen if we became state's CM for a day or maybe if we were lucky, India's PM for a day.

But dream all you can because a 5-year-old in Canada just lived the life we all have been dreaming about.

PM Trudeau and the little girl who got to be "Prime Minister for a Day" built a fort in his office. OMG  pic.twitter.com/hnQDK0f8go  RevDaniel + (@RevDaniel) May 22, 2017

Bella Thompson, won a contest held by CBC Kids became Canada's "Prime Minister for Every Day" and spent the day with beloved Justin Trudeau.

We did some redecorating in the office last week - thanks to @CBCKids for bringing Bella & her family to the Hill for the day. https://t.co/ZDGPiIXuyu  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 22, 2017

Along with Trudeau, she built a pillow fort.

She even got her family to Trudeau's office.

But seriously, is Trudeau the coolest PM or what? Earlier this month, he took his 3-year-old son to work and the internet was absolutely 'awwwwed'.

Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau brought his son Hadrien to work today...he decided the scrum wasn't interesting enough #Cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/9AFsLqyVVz  Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) May 10, 2017

How cool!
At least 23 people belonging to the minority Coptic Christians sect were killed in southern Egypt, on Friday after gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying them.

twitter

The bus was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo. Twenty-three Christians were killed and twenty-five others injured, according to the ministry of health.

twitter

Security forces were searching for the attackers. The ambulances rushed to the place of the incident to transfer injured to hospitals.

toi

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.
Beijing has delivered a stern message to Islamabad saying it needs to improve and enhance the safety of Chinese citizens living in Pakistan.

afp

The message to Pakistan to "take more effective (safety) measures " came a day after two Chinese nationals were kidnapped in restive Balochistan, allegedly by militants. And with the presence of the Chinese in Pakistan only set to increase - by the hundreds if not the thousands - thanks to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), their safety has become a growing concern for Beijing.

reuters

As the Chinese state-run news outlet Global Times said in an article, Balochistan "is in the center of" the CPEC project. The article, unambiguously titled "Kidnapping highlights risks along China-Pakistan Economic Corridor", said that the Chinese have often been targeted in Pakistan "despite the friendly relations between" Pakistan and China.

It's no wonder then that as soon their nationals - Chinese language teachers - were abducted Wednesday, China launched what it calls its 'emergency response mechanism'.

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety of overseas Chinese citizens and condemns the abduction of personnel in any form," said China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang yesterday.

afp

In fact, jurisdictional issues aside, the spokesman made it clear that the Chinese government will also participate in efforts to rescue its two citizens. "The Chinese government will work with the Pakistani side to make the utmost efforts for the early and safe release of the kidnapped personnel," Lu said.

China also made it clear that Pakistan must "take every necessary measure" to rescue the two Chinese nationals.

reuters

"We keep close communication with Pakistan, request relevant Pakistani authorities to take every necessary measure to rescue the abducted while ensuring their safety, and take more effective measures to secure the safety of Chinese citizens and organs in Pakistan," said China's foreign ministry spokesman.

Global Times noted that last year, a Chinese engineer was injured in a bomb attack in southern Pakistan and a separatist group, the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting CPEC.

Last December, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told China that Pakistan has raised a 15,000-strong armed force specifically to safeguard Chinese nationals working in the country for the $50 billion-odd CPEC project. There are close to 8,000 Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, several reports have said.
Among the many iconic scenes from Titanic, the ending scene where artists continue to play uplifting music on the boat deck as the ship sinks, displays utmost intrepidity.

They eventually die in the sinking, but their act has left an everlasting effect on our minds and a body.

In a similar spirit, an artist amid a public protest in Venezuela played the violin to calm the public and soothe their minds during the ongoing horror, but police couldn't stand that.

@IsaacPaniza

They approached him, clashed around him and broke his violin.

They then handed the pieces back to him.

"I was playing in the middle of the protest when National Guard vehicles approached us and one of the guards grabbed my violin by the strings," Arteaga told Colombian news channel NTN 24. "I didn't let go, and was dragged from the motorcycle through the whole street."

"At some point, I let go of the violin, because I couldn't [hold on] anymore." he added.

Agradezco a todas las personas que me han expresado su solidaridad a traves de las redes sociales. Por un futuro mejor, seguimos firmes! pic.twitter.com/ch7wlxGp5p  WuillyMoisesArteaga (@WuillyArteaga) May 25, 2017

Venezuela has been in a continuous state of mass protest since March 29. The country's Supreme Court dissolved parliament and transferred all legislative powers to itself.
Militants have fired Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region using the Grad multiple rocket launchers, deputy head of the National Police of Ukraine, head of the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region Viacheslav Abroskin said.

"Militants shelled Krasnohrivka, the district of Lomonosova Street with the help of Grad multiple rocket launchers - "congratulated"children with the end of the academic year," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Information on possible victims and destruction was not reported.
Civilians Killed by US Largely Ignored as Endless Global War Continues





Borderless 'War on Terror'now operated by President Donald Trumpcontinues to claim innocent lives around the world... but pattern holds that not all victims receive equal attention



By Jon Queally

May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Contradicting a version of events presented by the U.S. military and reported widely by the corporate press, a human rights group and a journalist in Yemen are citing witnesses who said a raid by U.S. Navy SEALs on Monday night killed multiple innocent civilians and not just "Al Qaeda militants" as the Pentagon claimed.

Reprieve, a UK-based human rights group, cited witnesses from the village of Al-Jubah in Marib province, where the raid took place, and offered the names of five civilians killed as Nasser Ali Mahdi Al-Adhal; Al-Ghader Saleh Salem Al-Adhal; Saleh Al-Taffaf; Yasser Al-Taffaf Al-Adhel; and Shebreen Saeed Salem Al-Adhal.

The witnesses said that none of those five were fighting for al-Qaeda and that Nasser al-Adhal, identified as being approximately 70-years-old and partially blind, was the first one shot by the U.S. soldiers when he mistook them for arriving guests and came out to greet them. According to Reprieve:

The four other villagers were killed when they started to argue with the Navy Seals after the shooting of Nasser al-Adhal. Six villagers were seriously injured, including another elderly man who was around 69-years-old.

Al-Qaeda fighters gathering nearby, who are thought to have been the original target of the raid, were alerted by the gunshots in the village and firefight ensued in which at least two of them were killed. The Navy SEALs then left with the help of air support from a helicopter.

Independent journalist Iona Craig, who has reported from the ground in Yemen for years, helped corroborate the version of events provided to Reprieve. "Five tribesmen amongst killed in US raid last night were not AQ," Craig tweeted on Tuesday. "They were tribesmen of young activists who drove me from Mareb into Yakla."

Part of the wider "global war on terror" that the U.S. began in the wake of the September 11th attacks in 2001, Yemen has been a target of drone strikes and clandestine operations for years. But as foreign policy experts and the people of Yemen have repeatedly stated , the use of drones and clandestine raids have only hardened Al-Qaeda's position in the country and the killing of innocent civilians as provided a nearly perfect recruiting tool for the militant group .

No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter

In addition to backing the ongoing Saudi-led war against Yemen, the military under President Donald Trump has continued to target Al-Qaeda aligned forces in the country. In January, just days after his inauguration, Trump was roundly criticized for a botched raid that led to the death of one U.S. soldier and as many as thirty civilians , including children.

Kate Higham, head of the Assassinations Programme at Reprieve, said this week's killing of more innocent Yemenis proves that Trump is no better than his predecessors when it comes to protecting civilian lives.

"This new flawed raid by President Trump shows the US is not capable of distinguishing a terrorist from an innocent civilian," Higham said in a statement. "When even a 70-year-old is shot dead, it is clear these attacks are not targeted or precise. President Trump must order an immediate investigation into what went wrong and halt all raids and drone strikes before more innocent Yemenis are killed."

Yemen, of course, is not the only place where the U.S. military is claiming innocent lives. On Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks casualties amid Syria's ongoing civil war, reported the number of civilians killed by U.S. bombings over the last month has been the highest ever recorded over a 30-day time period. According to the group, 235 civilians were killed in U.S. airstrikes from April 23 to May 23. That number includes 44 children and 36 women.

"The past month of operations is the highest civilian toll since the coalition began bombing Syria," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence-France Presse in an interview. "There has been a very big escalation."

According to Rahman's group, which is also based in the U.K., the U.S.-led coalition has now killed 1,481 civilians since operations against the Islamic State (ISIS) began in 2014. Of that total number, the groups says, 319 were children.

And as people mourned the horrific loss of life in Manchester this week, where innocent children and other concert-goers were targeted by a suicide bomber, it was difficult not to notice the difference between the attention various killingsall of them horrific and none of them possible to justifyreceived in the dominant western press.

As journalist and columnist Glenn Greenwald, citing the killings of those civilians in Yemen on Monday, asked , "More reporting that US killed 5 more innocent Yemenis yesterday. Will the media tell their stories, hear from their grieving relatives, etc?"

This article was first published by Common Dreams -

See also -

Syria: U.S. Kills 'Kills 16 Civilians' Near Raqqa : At least 16 civilians have been killed in a US-led coalition air strike near so-called Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, activists say.

US kills five Yemen civilians, says rights group ; The Seals opened fire on a 70-year-old partially blind man. On hearing al-Adhal being shot, other men then emerged from their homes, and four of them were shot dead by the Seals.
UK Government Harbored Terrorists Linked to Manchester Blast for Decades



UK Proscribed terrorist organization, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), maintains large presence in Manchester area and is now being linked to recent blast.



By Tony Cartalucci May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - As suspected and as was the case in virtually all recent terror attacks carried out in Europe - including both in France and Belgium - the suspect involved in the recent Manchester blast which killed 22 and injured scores more was previously known to British security and intelligence agencies. The Telegraph in its article, " Salman Abedi named as the Manchester suicide bomber - what we know about him ," would report: Salman Abedi, 22, who was reportedly known to the security services, is thought to have returned from Libya as recently as this week. While initial reports attempted to craft a narrative focused on a a "lone wolf" attacker who organized and executed the blast himself, the nature of the improvised explosive device used and the details of the attack revealed what was certainly an operation carried out by someone who either acquired militant experience through direct contact with a terrorist organization, or was directed by a terrorist organization with extensive experience.



A Thriving Terrorist Community in the Midst of Manchester



The same Telegraph article would also admit (emphasis added): A group of Gaddafi dissidents, who were members of the outlawed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), lived within close proximity to Abedi in Whalley Range.



Among them was Abd al-Baset Azzouz, a father-of-four from Manchester, who left Britain to run a terrorist network in Libya overseen by Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Ladens successor as leader of al-Qaeda.



Azzouz, 48, an expert bomb-maker, was accused of running an al-Qaeda network in eastern Libya. The Telegraph reported in 2014 that Azzouz had 200 to 300 militants under his control and was an expert in bomb-making.



Another member of the Libyan community in Manchester, Salah Aboaoba told Channel 4 news in 2011 that he had been fund raising for LIFG while in the city. Aboaoba had claimed he had raised funds at Didsbury mosque, the same mosque attended by Abedi. Thus, the required experience for the recent Manchester attack exists in abundance within the community's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) members.



LIFG is in fact a proscribed terrorist group listed as such by the United Kingdom's government in 2005, and still appears upon its list of " Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations ," found on the government's own website.



The accompanying government list (PDF) states explicitly regarding LIFG that: The LIFG seeks to replace the current Libyan regime with a hard-line Islamic state. The group is also part of the wider global Islamist extremist movement, as inspired by Al Qaida. The group has mounted several operations inside Libya, including a 1996 attempt to assassinate Muammar Qadhafi. Thus, astoundingly, according to the Telegraph, a thriving community of listed terrorists exists knowingly in the midst of the British public, without any intervention by the UK government, security, or intelligence agencies - with members regularly traveling abroad and participating in armed conflict and terrorist activities before apparently returning home - not only without being incarcerated, but apparently also without even being closely monitored.



LIFG also appears on the US State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations . Astoundingly, it appears under a section titled, "Delisted Foreign Terrorist Organizations," and indicates that it was removed as recently as 2015.



Elsewhere on the US State Department's website , is a 2012 report where LIFG is described: On November 3, 2007, [Al Qaeda (AQ)] leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced a formal merger between AQ and LIFG. However, on July 3, 2009, LIFG members in the United Kingdom released a statement formally disavowing any association with AQ. The report also makes mention of LIFG's role in US-led NATO regime change operations in Libya in 2011 (emphasis added):

In early 2011, in the wake of the Libyan revolution and the fall of Qadhafi, LIFG members created the LIFG successor group, the Libyan Islamic Movement for Change (LIMC), and became one of many rebel groups united under the umbrella of the opposition leadership known as the Transitional National Council. Former LIFG emir and LIMC leader Abdel Hakim Bil-Hajj was appointed the Libyan Transitional Council's Tripoli military commander during the Libyan uprisings and has denied any link between his group and AQ. Indeed, a literal senior Al Qaeda-affiliate leader would head the regime put into power by US-led military operations - which included British forces.



Not only this, but prominent US politicians would even travel to Libya to personally offer support to Bil-Hajj (also spelled Belhaj). In one notorious image, US Senator John McCain is seen shaking hands with and offering a gift to the terrorist leader in the wake of the Libyan government's collapse.



The US State Department's report regarding LIFG ends with information about its "area of operation," claiming (emphasis added): Since the late 1990s, many members have fled to southwest Asia, and European countries, particularly the UK . For the residents of Manchester, the British government appears to have categorically failed to inform them of the threat living openly in their midst. While the British population is divided and distracted with a more general strategy of tension focused on Islam, Muslims, and Islamophobia, the very specific threat of US-UK sanctioned terrorists living and operating within British communities is overlooked by the public. No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media Get Our Free Daily Newsletter However - for British security and intelligence agencies - it is unlikely that such an obvious security threat was merely "overlooked." That extremists thrive within British communities without government intervention indicates complicity, not incompetence.



LIFG Terrorists Are Anglo-America's Helping Hands



The Guardian in a 2011 article titled, " The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group  from al-Qaida to the Arab spring ," would claim:

British intelligence and security service interest in Libya has focused for 20 years on the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), whether it was opposing Muammar Gaddafi and working with al-Qaida, later renouncing its old jihadi worldview  or taking part in the armed uprising that has now overthrown the regime. The article in reality is nothing more than an attempt to portray a listed terrorist organization as "reformed" ahead of increased public awareness regarding the true nature of Libya's US and British-backed "rebels."



LIFG members would not only assist the US and British governments in the 2011 overthrow of the Libyan government, they would also move on - with Western arms and cash - to NATO-member Turkey where they staged an invasion of northern Syria.



The Telegraph in a November 2011 article titled, " Leading Libyan Islamist met Free Syrian Army opposition group ," would report:

Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, "met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey," said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. "Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there." The article would continue by reporting:

The meetings came as a sign of a growing ties between Libya's fledgling government and the Syrian opposition. The Daily Telegraph on Saturday revealed that the new Libyan authorities had offered money and weapons to the growing insurgency against Bashar al-Assad.



Mr Belhaj also discussed sending Libyan fighters to train troops, the source said. Having ousted one dictator, triumphant young men, still filled with revolutionary fervour, are keen to topple the next. The commanders of armed gangs still roaming Tripoli's streets said yesterday that "hundreds" of fighters wanted to wage war against the Assad regime.

Revealed once again is a convenient intersection of terrorist and US-British interests - this time in pursuit of regime change in Syria in the wake of successful US-UK backed regime change in Libya.



Confirming that these plans to send Libyan extremists to fight in Syria were eventually executed is CNN's 2012 article, " Libya rebels move onto Syrian battlefield ," which reported:

Under the command of one of Libya's most well known rebel commanders, Al-Mahdi al-Harati, more than 30 Libyan fighters have made their way into Syria to support the Free Syrian Army rebels in their war against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Al Harati's army of Libyan terrorists would expand to hundreds, possibly thousands of fighters and later merge with other Syrian militant groups including Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise - Jabhat Al Nusra. In Libya, LIFG fighters have divided themselves among various warring factions, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates.





As these terrorists filter out of Syria and back home, those hailing from LIFG are mainly returning to the UK where they have been known by US and British security and intelligence agencies for years to exist. With them they will be bringing back the technical knowledge and experience needed to carry out devastating attacks like the recent blast that targeted Manchester.



It is terrorism that follows as a direct result of British foreign and domestic policy - supporting terrorists abroad and deliberately refusing to dismantle their networks at home - all as they feed fighters and resources into the US-UK proxy war still raging in Syria.



The British government is directly responsible for the recent Manchester blast. It had foreknowledge of LIFG's existence and likely its activities within British territory and not only failed to act, but appears to have actively harbored this community of extremists for its own geopolitical and domestic agenda.



The recent blast will only reinforce the unsophisticated "tolerance versus bigotry" narrative that has gripped British society, entirely sidestepping the reality of government sanctioned terrorism wielded both abroad and against its own people - not for ideological or religious purposes - but purely in pursuit of geopolitical hegemony.



That the US and UK are using terrorists to expedite their respective geopolitical objectives should come as no surprise - particularly in regards to LIFG - since the organization itself branched out of Washington's mercenary fighters used against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.



What is surprising is that the Western public continues to react emotionally to each terrorist attack individually rather than rationally, seeing the much larger picture and pattern. And until the Western public sees that bigger picture and pattern, fear, injustice, murder, and mayhem will continue to dominate their lives and futures. This article was first published by Land Destroyer - In case you missed it; Colonel Gaddafi warned Tony Blair of Islamist attacks on Europe : Colonel Muammar Gaddafi issued a 'prophetic' warning to Tony Blair that jihadists would attack Europe if his regime was allowed to collapse The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. "It's an awful event" - John Pilger on Manchester Attack See also - Theresa May Knew of Manchester Bombers Terrorist Family : Col. Gadaffi had expelled the Manchester bombers father from Libya! 'Sorted' by MI5: How UK government sent British-Libyans to fight Gaddafi ; Fighters say government operated 'open door' policy allowing them to join rebels, as authorities investigate background of Manchester bomber
Home Truth Has Become Un-American By Paul Craig Roberts May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Those of us who have exited The Matrix are concerned that there are no checks on Washingtons use of nuclear weapons in the interest of US hegemony over the world. Washington and Israel are the threats to peace. Washington demands world hegemony, and Israel demands hegemony in the Middle East. There are two countries that stand in the way of Washingtons world hegemonyRussia and China. Consequently, Washington has plans for preemptive nuclear strikes against both countries. It is difficult to imagine a more serious threat to mankind, and there is no awareness or acknowledgment of this threat among the Congress, the presstitute media, and the general public in the United States and Washingtons European vassal populations. Two countries and a part of a third stand in the way of Greater Israel. Israel wants the water resources of southern Lebanon, but cannot get them, despite twice sending in the Israeli Army, because of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, which is supplied by Syria and Iran. This is why Syria and Iran are on Washingtons hit list. Washington serves the military/security complex, Wall Street and the over-sized US banks, and Israel. It is unclear if the Russians and Chinese understand that Washingtons hostility toward them is not just some sort of misunderstanding that diplomacy can work out. Clearly, Russia hasnt interfered in the US presidential election or invaded Ukraine, and does not intend to invade Poland or the Baltics. Russia let go the Soviet empire and is glad to see it gone, as the empire was expensive and of little benefit. The Soviet Eastern European empire comprised Stalins buffer against another Western invasion. The Warsaw Pact had no offensive meaning. It was not the beginning, as misrepresented in Washington, of Soviet world domination. I see a lack of clarity about the threat that Russia faces in Russian media reports and articles posted on Russian English language websites. I see a lack of clarity in Russian Foreign Minister Lavrovs continued efforts to work out an accommodation with Washington. How can Lavrov work out an accommodation with Washington when Washington intends to dominate or isolate Russia? Lavrov and Russian media organizations do not always show awareness that it is not Washingtons intention to accommodate other national interests. It cannot be otherwise for these three reasons: The budget for the US military/security complex is the largest in the world. It is larger than the Gross Domestic Product of many countries. It includes not only the Pentagons budget but also the budgets of 16 US intelligence agencies and the Department of Energy, which is the location of the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant and 16 other national laboratories. When all the elements are added together, the military/security complex has annually the power and profit from $1,000 billion. An empire of this sort just doesnt give up and go away because some president or some part of the electorate want peace. The Russian Threat is essential to the power and profit of the military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned Americans 56 years ago. Just imagine how entrenched this power is now. The neoconservatives, who control both US foreign policy and the Western medias explanation of it, are mainly Jews of Zionist persuasion. Some are dual Israeli-US citizens. The neoconservatives believe that the collapse of Soviet communism means that History has chosen the United States as the socio-politico-economic system, and that the US government has the responsibility to assert the hegemony of America over the earth. Just read the neocon documents. They assert this over and over. This is what it means that America is the exceptional and indispensable nation. If you are the indispensable nation, every other nation is dispensable. If you are exceptional, everyone else is unexceptional. The claim that the neoconservatives make for the US is similar to the claim that Hitler made for Germany. As Israel controls US Middle East policy, Israel uses its control to have Washington eliminate obstacles to Israels expansion. So far Israel has achieved the overthrow of Saddam Husseins government and chaos in Iraq, Washingtons war on Syria, and Washingtons demonization of Iran in the hope that sufficient demonization will justify war. For the Russian Foreign Minister to believe that it is possible to reach an accommodation with Washington, other than a Russian surrender, is nonsense. Perhaps this is Lavrovs use of diplomacy to delay the US attack while Russia prepares. Or perhaps Lavrov is just a diplomat who sticks to his last, despite the facts. Much of the Russian media, both in Russian and foreign language broadcasts and websites, thinks that the Western misrepresentation of Russia is just a mistake and that that facts, once they are established, can rectify the mistake. These Russian journalists dont understand that Washington could not care less about facts. Washington desperately needs an enemy, and Russia is the enemy of choice. The Chinese government seems to think that Wall Street and US corporations are too dependent on the cheap Chinese manufacturing labor, which keeps the US system fueled with profits, to jeopardize these profits by going to war. By underplaying the risk of war, Russia and China fail to mobilize world opposition to Washingtons recklessness and, thereby, enable Washingtons move toward war. The presstitutes serving the National Security State continue to drive toward conflict. Consider Newsweeks May 26, 2017, cover story with Putin on the cover and the caption: The Plot Against America: Inside Putins Campaign to Destroy Democracy in the U.S. It is difficult to imagine such ignorant nonsense from a mainstream news magazine. Democracy in America has been destroyed by special interest groups, by a US Supreme Court decision that gave the reins of power to special interest groups, and by a hoax war on terror that has destroyed the US Constitution. And here we have the presstitutes saying that Putin is destroying American democracy. Clearly, there is no extant intelligence anywhere in the Western media. The Western presstitutes are either corrupt beyond belief or ignorant beyond belief. Nothing else can be said for them. Consider Time magazines cover. It depicts Trump turning the White House into the foundation for the Kremlin and St. Basils Cathedral, which rise above the White House, symbolizing Americas subservience to Russia under President Trump. This extraordinary propaganda seems to be readily accepted by the bulk of the Western populations, peoples who will die as a result of their insouciance. Even writers critical of Washington, such as Paul Streets recent article on CounterPunch and the English language Russian website, Strategic Culture Foundation, cannot bring themselves to state the truth that the US military/security complex needs a major enemy, has elected Russia for that role, and intends to defend this orchestration to the end of humanity on earth. Street writes about How Russia Became Our Adversary Again. According to Street, Russia became the enemy of choice because Russia protected part of the worlds population and resources from being exploited by global capital. Russia became the number one enemy of the US also because Putin stopped the American exploitation of Russia economically. Putin is in the way of Washingtons exploitation of the world. Much of what Street says is correct, but he is hesitant to state it in a straightforward manner. He has to dilute his message by repeating the obligatory propaganda. Street calls Trump, who originally wanted normal relations with Russia, an orange-haired brute . . . [who admires] Putins authoritarian manliness. Trumps problems originated in his goal of normalizing relations with Russia. Hillary is the brute who intended to worsen the relations. Putin is a democrat, not an authoritarian. The authoritarians are in Washington. Surely Paul Street and CounterPunch know this. But Street has to protect himself from speaking some politically incorrect truths about the US and Russia by throwing in some anti-Putin propaganda and denigrating President Trump. That peace with Russia and China would undermine the justification of the $1,000 billion military/security budget, and that the military/security complex is the American government, is too much truth for most writers to state. Truth is the most rare element in the Western world, and we will not be permitted to have much of it much longer. Increasingly, truth is difficult to find. Soak it up while it is still available. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load. What's your response? - Scroll down to add / read comments Please read our Comment Policy before posting - It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section. Click here to comment on our Facebook page
The May-Trump Guide to War and Terror

By Sequoyah De Souza Vigneswaren

May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " -

1 . Bomb, terrorize and slaughter Middle Eastern majority-Muslim countries for strategic self-interest, but call it humanitarian.

2 . Thereby destroy the state's security and infrastructure creating the perfect conditions for terror groups to operate.

3 . Arm, train & fund terror groups who are/have the same ideology as those you claim to be fighting against, but call them rebels.

4 . Create 100s of thousands of refugees

5 . Don't let many/any/ban said refugees from entering despite their situation being caused by the bombs you claimed were humanitarian.

6 . Remain silent on arms sold to the Saudis and their ideological/military proxies - ISIS and Al Qaeda

7 . Fall victim to the same kind of horrific terror attack, as committed by people of the same ideology/groups that our money, arms and training support in the Middle East.

8 . Blame Islam and all Muslims everywhere, and make sure they're all deemed responsible, answerable and contrite. Despite them being the main victims of state and insurgent terrorism.

9 . Blame and scapegoat immigrants. Especially brown ones.

10 . Then, in the same breath of arming, funding and partaking in terrorism, court our vote with the claim of fighting against it.

People, don't reward the lies with your vote. And don't let the ruling class cynically use the lives of the victims as political capital.

We owe that much to the slain of war and terrorism.

Sequoyah De Souza Vigneswaren is an independent writer and social justice campaigner based in Leeds, England. He takes daily inspiration from Paolo Frieres words: Washing ones hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless is to side with the powerful; not to be neutral. Contact: sequoyahdsv@outlook.com. - Twitter/Instagram: @sequoyahdv
Trumps Art of the Deal in the Middle East: Selling wars and terrorism

By Finian Cunningham

May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - It would be funny if it were not so sickening. US President Donald Trumps whirlwind tour through the Middle East was a triumph of make-believe rhetoric over reality. Donald the peace-maker is sowing decades of further violence in the war-torn region.

The horrific repercussions of American foreign policy are all around us, from the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories to the ongoing wars in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, to the latest terror attack in Britain where 22 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester.

With a typical inane understanding of the web of international terrorism that American foreign policy has generated over many years, Trump glibly condemned the bombing atrocity in Manchester as the work of losers.

Trump  on his first overseas tour as president  regaled Middle East leaders with florid words about peace and prosperity and a faux pretense of historical appreciation, referring to the region as the cradle of civilization, a sacred land and rich heritage.

There were minimal details in how Trump would achieve peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, or defeat terrorism in the Middle East. It was all the just feel-good rhetoric that papered over the systemic causes of conflict and terrorism.

The one tangible takeaway was the American presidents mammoth arms deal signed with Saudi Arabia  $350 billion-worth over ten years. It was hailed as the biggest ever weapons contract, with an initial payment of $110 billion. Put in perspective, Trump is selling the Saudi rulers a total three times what Obama managed to achieve over his two administrations  some $115 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia, which itself was a record high.

The proposed weapons supply is truly staggering, not least because of their destination to a regime up to its eyes in terror sponsorship .

During his next stop to Israel, Trumps entourage visited the Wailing Wall abutting East Jerusalem, thus giving Washingtons imprimatur to the creeping annexation of the entire city by the state of Israel. Moves are underway to shift the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in what would sound the death knell for Palestinian aspirations to claim East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as the capital of a future independent state.

That would also signal the abandonment of long-standing US policy avowedly advocating a two-state solution. Something which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing Likud government are lobbying for. Everything about Trumps kowtowing indicates he is a willing patron to Israeli expansionism.

From Jerusalem, Trump drove to the Israeli-occupied West Bank where he met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem. Families protesting the incarceration of hundreds of hunger-striking Palestinians by Israel were kept at bay, while Trump delivered the ultimatum: Peace can never take root where violence is tolerated.

Trump would never have the integrity or understanding to deliver the same ultimatum to Saudi and Israeli leaders. Even though the admonishment of not tolerating violence there is manifold more pertinent and meaningful.

During the past fifty years since the Six Day War, America has condoned the relentless illegal annexation of land by Israel. The last round of futile peace talks ended in failure in 2014, when then US Secretary of State John Kerry adopted the usual policy of turning a blind eye to Israeli settlements and military occupation. The Trump administration is prepared to capitulate even further.

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The Saudi and other Arab rulers are also jettisoning any pretense at pursuing a just peace accord for Palestinians. They utter not a word of protest over Israels land grabs and moves to kill off Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem  the site of Islams third holy

Trumps visit to the Middle East  ahead of his trip to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and then NATO leaders in Brussels  is yet another sign of a geopolitical realignment. It seems an antiquated notion that Saudi Arabia and allied Arab regimes are somehow in opposition to Israel. As if the former are defenders of Arab and Muslim rights.

Whats going down is a tawdry tie-up in the region between American-backed client regimes. This has nothing to do with forging peace and all about consolidating Washingtons hegemony over the oil-rich region. That hegemony is primarily underpinned by Washingtons militarization and saturated selling of weaponry.

Significantly, the $350 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia caused no concern for Netanyahus government.

How can it hurt? Amos Gilad, a former Israel defense official, told the Times of Israel. For now, theres an alliance between the US and the Arab world against Iran, said Gilad.

The Times also quoted Yaakov Amidror, the former national security adviser to Netanyahu, as saying, Israel has no reason to worry about the massive Saudi-US arms deals. He added that the latest Saudi arms deal could help pave the way for Israeli-Arab cooperation in the future.

Besides, Washingtons strategic doctrine is that Israel will always be given US priority to retain a so-called qualitative military edge over all other states in the region. That means US arms transfers to its Arab allies will be met with ever-more military aid to Israel, which currently clocks about $3.8 billion a year.

In other words, Trumps arms dealing are a win-win for the US, more than ever. Mammoth sales to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf Arab monarchies will drive up American weapons business with Israel. But a virtuous circle for Washington is a vicious cycle for the region whereby an already militarized conflict zone is being deluged with American firepower.

Given that the US-backed regimes are in various ways indelibly connected to territorial strife, sectarian conflict and in particular the sponsorship of Wahhabi terror groups it is almost certain that Trumps reckless weapons trading will fuel more violence. It is well documented that Saudi Arabia serves as a conduit for American weaponry to Al-Qaeda-affiliated terror networks in Syria and elsewhere.

Still more ominous is how Trumps military racket is pushing the region into a war with Iran. This fatuous president is giving full vent to Israeli and Saudi propaganda accusing Iran of fueling the fires of sectarian conflict and terror in the region, citing Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. This is a breath-taking inversion of reality, given the nefarious role of Saudi Arabia in those same countries.

In the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Trump called on assembled Arab regimes to stamp out terror by targeting Iran for regime change.

While in Jerusalem, Trump said: There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have a common enemy with you in the threat posed by Iran.

Israel premier Netanyahu also remarked that old enemies [sic] have become allies against a common enemy.

We can be sure that the common enemy spoken of is not terrorism, but rather Iran.
Down the Memory Hole





Living in Trumps United States of Amnesia



By Rebecca Gordon

May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The Trump administration seems intent on tossing recent history down the memory hole . Admittedly, Americans have never been known for their strong grasp of facts about their past. Still, as we struggle to keep up with the constantly shifting explanations and pronouncements of the new administration, it becomes ever harder to remember the events of yesterday, let alone last week, or last month.

The Credibility Swamp

Trump and his spokespeople routinely substitute alternative facts for what a friend of mine calls consensus reality, the world that most of us recognize. Whose inaugural crowd was bigger , Barack Obamas or Donald Trumps? It doesnt matter what you remember, or even whats in the written accounts or photographic record. What matters is what the administration now says happened then. In other words, for Trump and his people, history in any normal sense simply doesnt exist, and thats a danger for the rest of us. Think of the Trumpian past as a website that can be constantly updated to fit the needs of the present. You may believe you still remember something that used to be there, but its not there now. As it becomes increasingly harder to find, can you really trust your own memory?

In recent months, revisions of that past have sometimes come so blindingly fast that the present has simply been overrun, as was true with the firing of FBI Director James Comey. First, the president ordered up some brand new supporting documents from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. These were designed to underpin his line that Comey was fired on their recommendation -- for being unfair to Hillary Clinton. Then, even as his surrogates were out peddling that very story, Trump told NBCs Lester Holt that, regardless of [Sessions and Rosensteins] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. And he explained why:

And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they shouldve won.

Which rationale for Comeys departure is true? Both? Neither? What is truth after all?

When the need to ask such questions occurs once in a while, its anomalous enough that we notice. We have time to remark that someone or various people in this story -- Sessions, Rosenstein, the surrogates, Trump himself -- are mistaken or even lying. Fortunately, in the case of Comeys firing, journalists are still reporting the lies, but what happens if the rewrites of our recent history begin to come so fast that we stop keeping up?

During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was famously said to have a credibility gap. People, including journalists, had stopped believing everything his administration said about one very important topic: the war. Trump doesnt have a credibility gap; hes tossed us into a credibility swamp. Were all there together swimming in a mire of truth and lies, with the occasional firecracker thrown in just to see if were still paying attention.

If the age of Trump doesnt end relatively soon, the daily effort to sort out what happened from what didnt may eventually become too much for many of us. Memory fatigue may set in, and the whole project of keeping the past in focus shelved. In that case, we might very well start to give up the concept of citizenship altogether and decide instead to just get on with our own private uninsured , underpaid , and overworked lives.

Sometimes it's easier to simply adjust to an ever-changing official version of reality than to keep up a constant, unrewarding struggle to remember. This was the phenomenon George Orwell described so unforgettably in his dystopian novel 1984 . His hero, Winston Smith, becomes aware that the sole party that runs his country incessantly rewrites the past to its own liking and advantage. In fact, he realizes that the past not only changed, but changed continuously.

Like most inhabitants of the mega-state of Oceania, it wasnt that Smith couldnt accept such a reality. He could. What he couldnt shake was a nightmarish sense that he had never clearly understood why the Party needed to do it. The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious to him. That ultimate motive, he eventually realizes, is to so destroy peoples hold on memory that they come to believe that truth genuinely is whatever the Party says it is.

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable?

Does President Trump know what hes doing? Does he know that, in a more chaotic fashion than Orwells Big Brother, hes grinding away at American memories, threatening to turn them into so much rubble? Its hard to say; he appears to be incapable of either self-reflection or planning, indeed of acting in any way except on impulse. He does, however, seem to know in an intuitive way what works for him, what gets him things he wants, as he has his whole professional life. Hes called his method truthful hyperbole. And regardless of what he himself understands, there are certainly people around him who do grasp all too well the usefulness of that ultimate motive, of convincing the public that facts are not all that stubborn after all.

The Memory Hole

Supplying alternative facts is one way of destroying memory. Erasing real facts is another.

In Orwells 1984, there was a slot in the wall at the Ministry of Truth where Winston Smith worked, a memory hole, into which inconvenient documents could be fed to be consumed forever by a huge basement furnace. There are, it seems, plenty of memory holes in Washington these days.

Since January, the Trump administration has been systematically removing from federal websites inconvenient information on subjects as diverse as climate change and occupational health and safety, and replacing it with anodyne messages. Take, for instance, this one , which you get when you search the Environmental Protection Agencys website for the term climate change and click on links that search turns up:

This page is being updated.



Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect EPA's priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator [Scott] Pruitt. If you're looking for an archived version of this page, you can find it on the January 19 snapshot.

If you do click on the link for that January 19, 2017, snapshot, you can still (for now) see what the old climate change portal of the Obama era looked like. At the top of the snapshot, however, is a bright red notice announcing:

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.

The government has now entered full-scale climate change denial mode. Information of just about any sort on global warming has been or is being memory-holed in a wholesale fashion at other agency websites as well. The Guardian, for instance, reports that, in the part of the Department of Energys site addressed to children, sentences that point out the harmful health consequences of burning coal and other impacts of fossil fuels have gone. At the State Department, references to President Obamas Climate Action Plan and a recent U.N. meeting on climate change have similarly been expunged.

However, its not just government pronouncements on issues like climate change that are being sanitized. Actual data is disappearing from government websites. The federal government collects vast amounts of data, much of it the results of studies it has funded. Some agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, are required by law to retain data they collect, but they are not required to post it. This means basic information and the results of scientific research, once available online, are now only available through a Freedom of Information Act request. Of course, you have to know that the information exists in the first place in order to request it.

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One result of hiding such data is that scientists citing U.S. government webpages as sources in their own work are now finding that the references theyve pointed to have disappeared. Arctic researcher Victoria Herrmann describes watching her citations dissolve into thin air:

At first, the distress flare of lost data came as a surge of defunct links on 21 January. The U.S. National Strategy for the Arctic, the Implementation Plan for the Strategy, and the report on our progress all gone within a matter of minutes. As I watched more and more links turned red, I frantically combed the Internet for archived versions of our countrys most important polar policies.

Herrmann was able to find some of her missing articles using the Wayback Machine , an internet archiving project. But as Herrmann points out, Each defunct page is an effort by the Trump administration to deliberately undermine our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence.

Its not just environmental information thats been tossed down the memory hole. Concerned about the health and safety of workers or animals? The Washington Post reports some things you wont find anymore on federal sites:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, has dramatically scaled back on publicizing its fines against firms. And the Agriculture Department has taken offline animal-welfare enforcement records, including abuses in dog breeding operations and horse farms that alter the gait of horses through the controversial practice of soring the animals legs.

Sometimes information only hangs around for a brief moment, before sliding down the memory hole. Thats what happened to an advertisement for Trumps Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, which was masquerading as an entry on Share America, which the State Department calls its platform for sharing compelling stories and images that spark discussion and debate on important topics like democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and the role of civil society. The page appeared on the website of the U.S. embassy in London.

Someone must have realized that using the State Department to advertise the Presidents private club was not a great idea. Conflict of interest? No problem. Its down the memory hole.

Nor is it just government websites that are being reworked in a distinctly Orwellian fashion. Recently, the Trump 2020 reelection campaign (yes, it already exists) quietly removed many 2016 campaign documents from its website. The Washington Posts Avi Selk describes some of the missing press releases, among them the one that reproduced Trumps full interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos in which he so infamously insulted Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who spoke out against him at the Democratic Party convention, and his wife, Ghazala.

Similarly, links to Trumps New Deal for Black America, released a week before the 2016 election, now bring up a dreaded 404 - Page not found message on the Trump-Pence website. Whatever that deal was, its evidently no longer on offer, nor is it even to remain in the historical record.

The same memory hole has also evidently devoured a December 2015 press release announcing that Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what is going on. Fortunately, versions of that particular statement were repeated often enough in enough places that lawyers have been able to continue to use it to argue against the presidents executive orders banning the entry of people from seven (now six) majority-Muslim countries.

The Trump administrations memory holes have swallowed up more than documents and data. People have also disappeared -- if not from the world, at least from their government positions. We still remember former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey, but who remembers Ponisseril Somasundaran or Courtney Flint? They are among the scientists recently dismissed from the Environmental Protection Agencys Board of Scientific Counselors. Among their duties was to give advice on environmental regulation. They are to be replaced, according to agency spokesperson J.P. Freire, by people who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community -- that is, representatives of polluting industries.

The United States of Amnesia

Gore Vidal coined the expression the United States of Amnesia in a 2004 book about George W. Bushs America. The particular instance of amnesia Vidal highlighted with that phrase was the failure of those then waging the war on drugs to remember the disasters of the prohibition of alcohol sales in the 1930s, and the ensuing corruption, gangsters, and smuggling rings that came with it.

His larger point, however, was that, in general, American historical memory is short. Thirteen years after Vidals book appeared, and with a new Republican administration ascendant, it seems that this country is in danger of sinking ever deeper into a state of amnesia. And can there be any question that, in a distinctly Orwellian fashion, the new administration is doing everything in its power to hasten that process? As the Trump administration prepares for a new surge on the perpetual battlefield that is Afghanistan, weve conveniently forgotten how little the last one achieved. Weve forgotten how deregulation led to the Great Recession, as the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded in 2011. The greatest tragedy, that panel wrote , would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done. If we accept this notion, it will happen again. Yet the Republicans in Congress cant wait to repeal Dodd-Frank, the law that restored a semblance of regulation to the world of commercial banking.

The fifth-century African bishop St. Augustine was probably the first western thinker to pay attention to human memory. In his Confessions , Augustine observes that it is memory -- the ability to bring into present awareness past experiences and the ability to recognize the difference between past, present, and future -- that makes us self-aware beings. He described the vast hall of my memory, where I meet myself and recall what I am, what I have done, and when and where and how I was affected when I did it. It is on the basis of memory, he added, that I reason about future actions and events and hopes, and again think of all these things in the present. 'I shall do this and that,' I say to myself within that vast recess of my mind which is full of many rich images, and this act or that follows.

If Augustine was right and memory gives us our selves, allowing us to reason about future actions and events and hopes, then a political regime that seeks to destroy its peoples memory is an existential threat.

In that case, the first act of resistance is to remember who we are.

Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular , teaches in the philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes . Her previous books include Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States and Letters from Nicaragua.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook . Check out the newest Dispatch Book, John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II , as well as John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands , Nick Turses Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead , and Tom Engelhardt's Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World .
The British Establishment is Putting Our Lives at Risk





Our States Key Ally Is a Major Public Threat



By Mark Curtis

May 25, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The country is in shock after the worst terrorist attack in 12 years. The deranged extremist who detonated the bomb bears sole responsibility for the outrage and is not a soldier  for Islam or whoever  but a murderer. The Manchester suicide bombing is an act of barbarism inflicted on entirely innocent people.

This wave of terrorism driven by Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, derives from a complex infrastructure of forces, working over time. But it springs ultimately from the ideology promoted by the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, who were at least until recently funding and backing IS: they have done so to support their goal of overthrowing Assad in Syria and championing Sunni Islam in the face of rivalry with Iran. These are Britains allies. Whitehall has a deep, long-standing special relationship with the extremist Saudis: it is arming them, backing them, apologising for them, and supporting their regional policies. At the same time, the Saudis have been helping to create the monster that now threatens the British public. So, too, have the policies of the British government.

This is terrible, in the true sense of the term: the British establishment is putting our lives at risk in its obsessive obsequiousness in backing the Saudi state. We have to recognise that we are caught between two extremisms  that of IS and that of our own states priorities.

The British elite is perfectly aware of the insidious role that Saudi Arabia plays in fomenting terrorism. In October 2014, General Jonathan Shaw, a former Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff, told the Telegraph that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were primarily responsible for the rise of the extremist Islam that inspires IS terrorists. He said:

This is a time bomb that, under the guise of education, Wahhabi Salafism is igniting under the world really. And it is funded by Saudi and Qatari money and that must stop.

He noted that UK/US bombing of IS would not stop the support of people in Qatar and Saudi Arabia for this kind of activity because:

Its not addressing the fundamental problem of Wahhabi Salafism as a culture and a creed, which has got out of control and is still the ideological basis of Isil  and which will continue to exist even if we stop their advance in Iraq.

Shaw added:

My systemic worry is that were repeating the mistakes that we made in Afghanistan and Iraq: putting the military far too up front and centre in our response to the threat without addressing the fundamental political question and the causes. The danger is that yet again were taking a symptomatic treatment not a causal one. [1]

Last December Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in off-the-cuff remarks, accused Saudi Arabia of puppeteering and playing proxy wars in the Middle East by abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. [2] Johnson was correct and it was a rare public admission of British awareness of the Saudi role, in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere, which, as he and other officials must know full well, has had terrible consequences.

Saudi support for extremism

The Saudi role in exporting Wahhabism is surely well-known by now. In the past few decades, the Saudi regime has spent billions spreading its extremist interpretation of Islam worldwide, funding mosques and free madrassas  religious schools  supplying them with imams and textbooks. In 2013, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a private speech (leaked in 2016) that the Saudis have exported more extreme ideology than any other place on earth over the course of the last 30 years. [3]

This Saudi funding has included support for terrorism. EU intelligence experts estimate that 15 to 20 per cent of Saudi funding for its Wahhabist causes has been diverted to al-Qaeda and other violent jihadists. [4] A June 2013 report by the European Parliament deemed Wahhabism the main source of global terrorism. A classified 2009 cable signed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (also released by WikiLeaks) acknowledged: Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide. [5] A State Department cable of 2009 released under Clintons name in December 2009 states that Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan]. [6]

The Saudis have been funding terrorism for decades while Whitehall (and Washington) has been supporting them. In May 1974, for example, the US State Department warned Britain not to go ahead with its reported offer to sell Blowpipe surface-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia, for fear of seepage of this type of weapon into the hands of terrorists. [7] The US ambassador to Saudi Arabia told his British equivalent that the US had refused to sell similar equipment, the Redeye, for fear of their ending up in the hands of terrorists and being used against civil aircraft or similar targets. [8]

Islamic State

IS, which is believed to have been formed in 2006, has grown out of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq and the terrorist infrastructure built up with Saudi money and Western covert action seeking to oust Assad of Syria. IS is certainly not a creation of the UK, US and its allies, but the latters policies have contributed to its growth.

Donors in the Gulf, including Saudis, have funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to rebel groups in Syria in recent years, including to IS. [9] A secret memo written by Hillary Clinton in August 2014 (which appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2016) noted that the Saudi and Qatari governments are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL [IS] and other radical Sunni groups in the region. [10] Following ISs capture of Mosul in northern Iraq in June 2014, former Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told US secretary of state John Kerry that Daesh is our [Sunni] response to your support for the Dawa, the Shia Islamist party the US installed in power in Iraq. [11]

Saudi Arabias neighbour Qatar, the worlds only other predominantly Wahhabi state with whom Theresa Mays government has recently signed large commercial deals, may have been the biggest funder of the Syrian rebels, with some estimates suggesting the amount may be as much as $3bn. [12] In 2012, the New York Times reported, based on military sources, that most of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster. [13]

This was of course all well-known to officials in London and Washington as they pretended to their publics to be supporting only moderate rebel groups. In October 2014, Obamas Vice President Joe Biden harshly criticised Saudi Arabia and Turkey in a talk at Harvard University. He noted that they were so determined to take down Assad that they:

poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad  except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra, and al-Qaida, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming from other parts of the world.

He added, We could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them. [14]

As Nafeez Ahmed has argued, Western governments have deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Assad. A 2012 Defence Intelligence Agency document notes that the Salafist [sic], the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria, and that the West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition. The document stated that al-Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor to IS, supported the Syrian opposition from the beginning, both ideologically and through the media. But the document also forecast the probable declaration of an Islamic State through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria. Nevertheless, Western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey are supporting these efforts by Syrian opposition forces. Further the document noted that:

there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).

As Ahmed comments, the document provides extraordinary confirmation that the US-led coalition currently fighting IS had previously welcomed the emergence of an extremist Salafist Principality in the region as a way to undermine Assad, and block off the strategic expansion of Iran. [15]

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US journalist Rania Khalek has written [16] that it was not until 2014, when IS started beheading westerners on video, that the group became a major concern for the West. Prior to that, Western covert operations in Syria were so focused on weakening Assad, they acquiesced as Saudi Arabia and Qatar funded and armed IS, following which IS brutally swept across swathes of Syria and Iraq. [17] The US then put heavy pressure on Saudi Arabia and Qatar to stop their support to IS and other radical groups in Syria, which is believed to have happened. However, Saudi Arabia still supports anti-Assad groups in Syria, which has been reported as including the Islamist Jaysh al-Islam. [18] Now, the Saudi regime is pledging support, including military operations, for the fight against IS in Syria. But the point is: the genie has long been out of the bottle. [19]

Britains covert role in Syria has served to prolong the war and, in alliance with the US and Saudi Arabia, de facto helped strengthen the hard-line groups who are now our enemies. There is some evidence that Britain had planned covert action in Syria to oust Assad as early as 2009, even before the uprising began in 2011. [20] But Britain is reported to have begun training Syrian rebel forces from bases in Jordan in 2012. [21] Although focussed on moderate rebels, the ever-changing nature of the opposition forces and inter-operability between them has blurred any useful distinctions between moderate and hardline. In 2015, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told parliament that the vast majority of [Syrian] opposition groups are Islamist. [22] Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay said in 2017 that the situation among the opposition groups in Syria can indeed be fluid and that there can be splintering of those groups and some which appeared in the past to be moderate then change their view and join up with those with whom this country will have no truck. [23] There is some evidence that some Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels receiving elite training from British and French forces went straight into IS, with one IS commander quoted as saying: Many of the FSA people who the west has trained are actually joining us. [24]

Support for Saudi Arabia

All the while the Saudis have been exporting Wahhabism and backing Islamist groups and terrorists, they have enjoyed a special relationship with London and Washington. The history is so long and deep it is hard to summarise: basically the relationship is characterised by extreme sycophancy, total military support, constant apologias and carefully-controlled media lines that serve to keep the public in the dark about the true extent of relations and the nature of the Saudi regime. It is hard to pinpoint whether Saudi Arabia is a client of the UK or the other way round: probably both, since both set of elites have been happily joined at the hip.

The terrible bombing of Yemen by Saudi aircraft supplied by Britain, armed by Britain and conducted by British-trained pilots is but the latest episode in extreme UK support for Saudi foreign policy. The blood covers the hands of the entire British establishment. As Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has pointed out, the Royal Family, successive governments, parliamentarians, a good number of institutions and people with clout collectively suck up to the Saudi ruling clan. [25]

The result of all this is catastrophic. The war on terror is a joke when your leading ally is the worlds biggest sponsor of terrorism. Independent journalist Patrick Cockburn has written that in the 20 years between 1996 and 2016, the CIA and British security and foreign policy agencies have consistently given priority to maintaining their partnership with powerful Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies, Turkey and Pakistan over the elimination of terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, Isis and the Taliban. [26]

That is completely correct, and this is not just turning a blind eye. As I try to show in my book, Secret Affairs [27] , the backing of Saudi Arabia is part of a broader story: that British governments, both Labour and Conservative, have, in pursuing the so-called national interest abroad, colluded for decades not only with the arch-sponsor of radical Islamism in Riyadh but sometimes with radical groups themselves, including terrorist organisations. They have connived with them, and often trained and financed them, in order to promote specific foreign policy objectives. Governments have done so in often desperate attempts to maintain Britains global power in the face of increasing weakness in key regions of the world, being unable to unilaterally impose their will and lacking other local allies. Thus the story is intimately related to that of Britains imperial decline and the attempt to maintain influence in the world.

Theresa Mays government, as previous governments, have endangered the British public by the relationship they choose to have with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. In recent months, May has signed up Britain to a new generation of special relationships with these states, based on selling more arms and providing more training of their militaries and security forces to keep the ruling families in power. All this has been done on the quiet, with scant government or media reporting. We are set for another generation of domestic tyranny in Gulf and foreign Islamist adventures, all now helped by raising the enemy of Iran  a foreign policy agenda being set by Riyadh and recently helped by President Trumps preposterous invocation of Iran as the major sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East.

We are in serious trouble unless this all changes. Our leaders policies are endangering us, and are among our major threats. The terrorism that we, ordinary people, face, derives from an ideology and infrastructure to which our leaders, claiming to protect us, have contributed. We desperately need another foreign policy entirely, one based on support for those promoting democracy and human rights  rather on than those with contempt for them.

Mark Curtis is an author and consultant. He is a former Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales, Paris and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Auswartige Politik, Bonn. http://markcurtis.info

REFERENCES

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11140860/Qatar-and-Saudi-Arabia-have-ignited-time-bomb-by-funding-global-spread-of-radical-Islam.html

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/07/boris-johnson-accuses-saudi-arabia-of-twisting-and-abusing-islam

[3] http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hacked-clinton-said-saudis-responsible-for-exporting-extreme-ideology/article/2604049

[4] http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/isis-having-spent-billions-the-wahhabists-of-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-find-they-have-created-a-monster-30533853.html

[5] http://www.salon.com/2016/10/11/leaked-hillary-clinton-emails-show-u-s-allies-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-supported-isis/

[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/hillary-clinton-wikileaks-email-isis-saudi-arabia-qatar-us-allies-funding-barack-obama-knew-all-a7362071.html

[7] US State Department to US embassy, Jedda, 4 May 1974, National Archives, FCO8/2344

[8] A.Rothnie to Ministry of Defence, undated [March 1974], National Archives, FCO8/2343

[9] http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/saudi-funding-of-isis

[10] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-leak-wikileaks-saudi-arabia-qatar-isis-podesta-latest-a7355466.html

[11] https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/us-support-syrian-rebels-drove-refugee-crisis

[12] http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/isis-having-spent-billions-the-wahhabists-of-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-find-they-have-created-a-monster-30533853.html

[13] http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/how-the-west-created-the-islamic-state/

[14] http://www.salon.com/2016/10/11/leaked-hillary-clinton-emails-show-u-s-allies-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-supported-isis/

[15] https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-west-saw-isis-as-strategic-asset-b99ad7a29092

[16] https://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/us-support-syrian-rebels-drove-refugee-crisis

[17] http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/isis-having-spent-billions-the-wahhabists-of-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-find-they-have-created-a-monster-30533853.html

[18] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/saudi-arabia-isis-riyadh-terror-threat

[19] http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/isis-having-spent-billions-the-wahhabists-of-saudi-arabia-and-qatar-find-they-have-created-a-monster-30533853.html

[20] http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/how-the-west-created-the-islamic-state/

[21] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/08/west-training-syrian-rebels-jordan

[22] http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-10-19/12468/

[23] https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2017-03-20/debates/7B7DBFFE-DEC4-471E-BD2A-5709AB4B7289/Syria

[24] http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/how-the-west-created-the-islamic-state/

[25] http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-evil-empire-of-saudi-arabia-is-the-west-s-real-enemy-a6669531.html

[26] http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/confused-about-the-us-response-to-isis-in-syria-look-to-the-cias-relationship-with-saudi-arabia-a7087791.html

[27] http://markcurtis.info/2010/07/20/secret-affairs-britains-collusion-with-radical-islam/
No fewer than 165 Nigerians on Thursday voluntarily returned back to Nigeria from Libya with the help of the International Organisation for Migration, a United Nations body.

The returnees included 97 adult males, seven male children, two male infants; 54 adult females, four female children and one female infant.

They arrived at the cargo area of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 5.10pm, aboard a NOUVELAIR aircraft with registration number TS-INA.

Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Air Force and other airport officials were on ground to receive them.

The Director General of NEMA, Mr. Mustapha Maihajja, said majority of the returnees were from Edo State.

Maihajja, who was represented by NEMA Zonal Coordinator, South-West, Mr. Yakubu Suleiman, said the returnees would be assisted to get home.

He said parents should caution their children about the dangers of going outside the country to seek greener pastures.

He said, Our advice is for youths to remain in the country and work hard. With the current Federal Governments initiative towards job creation, they will be gainfully employed.

Most of them are from Edo State, they can take advantage of the state governments target towards job creation to make their lives better rather than going to where they feel the grass is greener.

Source : ( Punch Newspaper )
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has re-assured the youths of Nigeria that nothing can stop Nigeria from becoming a great nation with the support of Nigerians.

This he said in his speech read at the inauguration of the 2017 Batch A youth corps members at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Ede, in Osun State, on Thursday.

Osinbajos speech was read by the acting Chairman, Osun State Governing Board, NYSC, Dr Isaac Aluko.

The acting President urged the youths to join in the fight against corruption and other vices which had damaged the reputation of the country, especially outside.

He said, As you step into your roles as service members, I recommend to you the recently launched programme of the Federal Government, Change begins with me.

This campaign is aimed at restoring national values and upholding all that is right through each and every one of us.

You must all strive to fight the painful erosion of our social values as a result of greed and dishonesty. If change begins with each of you, there can be nothing that will impede the progress of this great nation.

The Osun State Government said at the ceremony that the current administration had commenced the process of paying the allowances of corps members, who served in the state from 2014 to 2016.

Aluko said the state government, under the leadership of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, placed priority on the welfare of the corps members, while assuring the corps members at the camp that the state would take care of them.

He said, Let me tell you gentlemen corps members that the state government is working towards ensuring quality welfare packages for corps participants deployed in the state.

You may have heard that the government has compiled the list of corps members, who served in the state from 2014 Batch C to 2016 Batch A, with the sole intention of paying their outstanding allowances. That tells you that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is indeed a father and also a man of his words.

The Coordinator of the NYSC in the state, Mr Emmanuel Attah, urged the corps members to pay attention to the orientation programmes, saying the programmes would make the corpers self-reliant and useful members of the society even after the service year.

The NYSC coordinator also warned corps members against cultism and drugs, saying anyone caught would be dealt with according to the provisions of the law.

In Kano, the Deputy Governor, Prof Abubakar Hafiz, who represented Governor Abubakar Ganduje, at the inauguration of 2017 Batch A corps members on Thursday in Karaye, urged them to regard wherever they were posted to serve as their home.

Earlier, the Kano State NYSC Coordinator, Alhaji Ladan Baba, said the orientation course started three days ago and that as of the close of registration at 12 midnight on Wednesday, a total of 2,382 corps members were registered, comprising 1,070 males and 1,312 females.

Meanwhile, the Rivers State Government says it has approved funds to resuscitate the payment of monthly allowances to the members of the National Youth Service Corps serving in the state.

The state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, disclosed this on Thursday at the Permanent Camp of the NYSC in Tai Local Government Area during the inauguration of 2,439 members of the Batch A, Stream 1 of the scheme.

Wike noted that the state government had approved the funds requested by the management of the NYSC to sustain the scheme in the state.

Represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Kenneth Kobani, the governor explained that government was interested in the welfare of the corps members serving in the state.

Kobani said, Most of the things requested have been approved by Chief Nyesom Wike, the governor of the state. What we expect from you is to remain loyal and dedicated to service to motivate the governor to quickly release the funds.

Earlier in his welcome address, the NYSC Coordinator in the state, Mr Omotayo Adewoyee, listed the areas where the corps members would need the assistance of the state government.

Also, corps members deployed in Borno State for their 2017 service year have begun their three-week orientation in Katsina, instead of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

The development followed the takeover of the Borno NYSC Camp by Internally Displaced Persons.

The 1,422 corps members would, however, return to Borno for their primary assignments after their orientation in Katsina.

The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, who spoke at the inauguration, urged the corps members to see themselves as true agents of national unity and cohesion.

The governor revealed that the state government had reviewed upward the state monthly allowances to corps members to N10,000 from N1,000, adding that medical doctors would now receive N100,000 while nurses, lab scientists and pharmacists are paid N50,000 monthly.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
It has been gathered that Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode reportedly sacked Venerable Femi Taiwo, Chaplain of the church under the Lagos State Ministry of Home Affairs, for refusing to anoint his wife first during the churchs anointing service.

According to Punch, Taiwo got the sack on Monday, May 15, without any query or official reason stated in the sack letter, and was asked to leave the official quarters where he lived with his wife and two children within 24 hours of receiving the letter.

Heres Punchs report;

There is anger at the Chapel of Christ the Light, Alausa, Lagos State, after the Presiding Chaplain, Venerable Femi Taiwo, was sacked by the Governing Council allegedly on the order of the state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Taiwo got the sack on Monday, May 15, without any query or official reason stated in the sack letter.

He was said to have been ordered out of his official quarters where he lived with his wife and two children within 24 hours of receiving the letter.

Despite pleadings from church leaders and other reputable elders in the church, the government was said to have insisted that the cleric must leave the church.

Some church members reportedly contributed money to buy gas cooker, and other household items for the family as they vacated the vicarage.

Investigations by our correspondent showed that Taiwo had angered the Governors wife, Bolanle Ambode, who had visited the chapel on Sunday, May 14, when the church held an anointing service.

The church is under the Lagos State Ministry of Home Affairs, while the Office of the Lagos State First Lady supervises church.

Church members were said to have filed out to receive anointing oil during the May 14 service without any preference given to Bolanle, who waited endlessly with her entourage.

She was said to have later moved to be anointed and moments later, stormed out of the church, as some of the women leaders ran after her.

Bolanle, who was reported to be visibly angry, allegedly shunned entreaties from the women, which included the wife of the presiding chaplain.

The cleric got the sack the following day.

The directive was issued in a letter dated, May 15, 2017, and signed by the Chairman, Governing Council of CCTL, Mr. Olugbenga Solomon. The letter also ordered the Assistant Chaplain, Very Rev. Ayo Oyadotun, to take over with immediate effect.

A church member, who witnessed the drama and begged not to be identified, said ,

The church had declared seven-day fasting after we lost two prominent members. The Sunday service, which was declared as anointing service, was supposed to end the fasting. The First Lady, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, was present with her entourage. She comes to the church once in a while. When it was time to be anointed, the cleric asked people to come forward, adding that it was optional. Three people stood at the stage to anoint people. They included the chaplain, the presiding chaplain and one other person. People started stepping out one after another. The governors wife, after some time, also stepped out and was anointed.

The source said within a few minutes of taking the oil, Bolanle, who felt disrespected, stepped out with her entourage.

Another member of the church said,

As she stepped out, it was obvious that she was angry. The president of the womens fellowship and the pastors wife ran after her. She shunned them, entered her car and zoomed off. When we came to the church on Tuesday, we heard that Venerable Taiwo had been sacked. We were told that he was sacked because the the governors wife didnt get the anointing oil first and she felt disrespected. The man that signed the letter is also a civil servant, the source said.

The governing council is said to be made up of members of the church and some appointees of the government.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Taiwo still had two years to spend as the presiding chaplain when he was fired.

The source said some church members quickly bought household items for his family as they vacated the church premises on Thursday.

He said;

The children went to school on Thursday without knowing that they would not be staying in the vicarage that evening. Church members bought bed and other household items for them because they did not have their own property. The members said their pastor did not offend them, and protested the sacking. The governing council members, however, said they should forget it because whatever came from Alausa was final. Most of the church members are civil servants who cant talk too much.

Our correspondent reached out to leaders of the church, including Oyadotun, who refused to comment.

However, one of those that confirmed the incident, begged not to be named.

He said the reason Taiwo got the sack was not stated in the letter, adding that the action was not unconnected from the visit of the wife of the governor.

He said, Let me be straight with you, in the letter there was no reason for the sack. Whatever you are hearing are what members of the church believed could have happened. And there was indeed a protest by the church and the governing council assuaged them on the sacking.

There was nothing official in that sacking. No investigation, no query, nothing. We had an anointing service on that Sunday. The following day, the venerable was served the sack letter.

When PUNCH Metro reached out to Taiwo, he said he did not want to comment.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said that Turkey may allow Ukrainians to enter their country by means of ID cards.

"There is another present for Ukrainians that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised me to do: even an internal passport will no longer be needed for our mutual travels. ID cards will be enough," the president said during the opening of the Istanbul Park in Odesa on Friday.

According to him, such steps testify to mutual trust between the Ukrainian and Turkish peoples. "And I think that this movement is in the right direction," the president of Ukraine said.
The Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Thursday said it impounded 941 bags of foreign per boiled rice valued at about N6.8 million.

According to the Controller of the command, Sarkin Kebbi at a news conference in Lagos, the impounded rice is valued at N6,830,719, a Duty valued N4, 781,503 and duty paid valued N11,612,322.

The controller, who displayed the commodity, said the feat was achieved through a renewed resolve of the officers to stamp out smuggling.

Kebbi said that on resumption of duty a month ago, he made known to the officers the mandate given to him from the customs headquarters.

According to him, the service echelon handed me a stern order to ensure that smugglers were compelled to change their nefarious act to legitimate businesses.

I will not fail in my mandate; I have never failed before and will not stay below the board.

With motivation from the headquarters, I promise to make bigger seizures.

We know that the rainy season is the time the smugglers always want to make use of the waterways as the roads are bad because of the rains.

My officers and I promise them a tougher time within the nations waterways as all avenues will be explored to ensure that they are forced out of business, Kebbi said.

He said that no arrest was made as the only man who was to be arrested in connection with the seizure jumped into the Badagry water and disappeared.

He advised the smugglers to desist from their act as a new sheriff had taken over the saddle and therefore, no hiding place for smugglers.

Kebbi said that the Federal Government had been trying to make local rice available to the masses, thereby creating jobs in the agriculture sector.

He expressed regret that the activities of the smugglers were making the effort of the government fruitless.

Source: ( Premium Times )
The police in Rivers State have arrested one Richard Inimgba, for killing his seven-year-old son over alleged stealing.

The suspect, a resident of Amadi-Ama in Port Harcourt, had accused his son, George Inimgba, of stealing N3,200 on Friday and reportedly used a cutlass to inflict cuts on the victim after beating him up with a plank.

George was found dead the following morning.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Georges stepmother, Blessing Inimgba, was also arrested by the police for failing to rescue the boy.

It was learnt that Richard had wanted to keep Georges death a secret, but for a carpenter who raised the alarm on sighting the injuries on the boy.

Richard was said to have secretly invited the carpenter into his apartment to prepare a coffin for his burial.

Some neighbours and relatives of 39-year-old Richard, popularly known as Oyinbo, told one of our correspondents that he had been maltreating the boy since he sent his mother packing six years ago.

The wife of Richards elder brother, who simply identified herself as K.K., said George requested water at the point of death, but the father continued the beating.

She said the boys attempts to explain that he used part of the money to feed himself because he was hungry fell on deaf ears.

She said,

He beat the boy for about two hours. My husband was not around. The boy was crying and saying, Daddy, give me water, I cannot walk again. The boy was saying Sorry Daddy and the man continued to ask, Where is the money? But the boy said he was hungry and used the money to buy bread. He accused the son of stealing N3,200 from him overtime. The boy was always hungry and if he came to my house to eat, the stepmother would report him to the father. He went to his church to tell the pastor that his child was dead without explaining what led to the little boys death. It was when the carpenter raised the alarm that the neighbours knew that he had killed his son. There were machete cuts on Georges body. Some angry boys came out and gave Oyinbo the beating of his life before a team of mobile policemen arrested him and his wife.

A neighbour, who did not want her name mentioned, said Richard was arrested last year after he burnt Georges hand in the stove.

She said, He was arrested, detained for three days and was made to write an undertaking. It was at that point that the boy started going to school for the first time.

A psychologist, Sri George, who first shared the story on Instagram, said he had met with George on the street on Tuesday as people rallied round him after he was caught stealing a snack on the way to school.

He wrote,

What a cruel world. Last Tuesday, between the hours of 8am to 9am, I saw a crowd of people around my vicinity gathered around this little boy. So, I stopped by and inquired what happened. They told me that this little boy on his way to school, stole a doughnut from a shop. The people whom he stole the doughnut from even gave him more of it and a bottle of drink and asked him to go. They all claimed that his father and stepmother have the habit of starving and beating him up on a daily basis. I saw so many scars on his body. I took the boy to my house, interviewed him, and he told me how he had been suffering since his mother left his father. I gave him some biscuits, asked him to come and eat at my place anytime and promised to see his father this week before he left for school, only to learn this morning (Saturday) that his father has beaten him to death.

The Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, said the matter was being investigated, adding that the man and the wife were in police custody.

Source: Yabaleftonline
Efforts to change the story of widows for good got a boost on Friday when Nollywood actor and member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Desmond Elliot, and actress Mercy Aigbe joined a campaign to call attention to the plight of widows in Nigeria with a view to ameliorating their suffering.

Both teamed up with the Felix King Foundation and spoke strongly against many cultural and behavioural practices in many communities in Nigeria that tend to limit the rights of women following the demise of their husbands.

According to a report from a briefing on the project, they vowed to continue speaking out until there is a social movement towards the direction of not just protecting widows but creating an environment of economic and social inclusion that would enable them to deal with the pains of their losses much more easily.

Speaking on the plight of widows in many communities in Nigeria, Elliot wondered why it was usually convenient for men to blame women for the deaths of their husbands. He stressed the need for government and other stakeholders to work towards a total change of attitude towards these vulnerable members of the society.

We live in a society where women are blamed each time a man dies. But no one ever thinks of the pains they have to bear in bringing up the children left behind, Desmond said and called for legislation across the states that would criminalise maltreatment and disinheritance of widows.

He also called on men to prepare for the eventualities of their death by writing their wills as a means of protecting the future of their children and the comfort of the women they very likely would leave behind.

Adding her voice to the campaign, Aigbe called for a general change of attitude towards widows, while also not leaving out the cultural practices that form the foundations of the dehumanisation of widows in Nigeria.

We need to deal with some of these cultural issues that are generally skewed against women. We need to abrogate them and ensure that the rights of these widows are protected. We live in a society where economic power still rests with the men. This is why we need to talk to community leaders, especially in the rural communities, where these victims, most of whom are poor and uneducated, are found so that the change can be effective, starting from the grassroots upwards, Aigbe said.

The founder of Felix King Charity Foundation, Mr Felix King, expressed sadness over the continued maltreatment of widows in many societies in Nigeria and spoke of the commitment of his foundation to end it in all its forms and manifestations in all parts of Africa.

He said the foundation, established in 2016, organised the International Summit for Widows in Nigeria and had since made several interventions in the quest to ease the suffering of widows.

Our interventions to make life easier for widows have been designed to create an environment of inclusion for these women, empower them to be financially independent, enable them to feel and experience the love of society one more time and create a healthy environment for their equally deprived children to be integrated into the society through education and other enabling welfare interventions, he stated.

While appreciating the support being provided by Desmond Elliot and Mercy Aigbe on the projects, King revealed that the foundation would host an International Widows Summit in Benin, capital of Edo State, during the International Widows Day on June 23, 2017, to further highlight the need to protect the rights of widows in Nigeria.

He said it was already on the quest to raise one million signatures across Nigeria in support of the need to abolish all negative widowhood practices in Nigeria and Africa.

We intend to collect at least one million signatures of Nigerians and Africans in general, in support of the abolition of these negative practices. We are also hoping to forward these signatures and a Bill to the Edo State House of Assembly for a law that will criminalise the maltreatment of widows. We are hoping that after this first step, same effort will be replicated across the other 35 states and Abuja and, by so doing, make this needed change happen, King noted.

Source: Punch
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has expressed his disappointment of the breakdown of law and order in two communities in the Lekki area of the state . He urged the warring parties to sheathe their swords.

Speaking at Oniyanrin, one of the affected communities, Ambode stated that he did not expect communities that had coexisted peacefully to resolve little differences in a very violent way, especially as Lagos was celebrating 50 years of its creation.

The PUNCH had reported that indigenes of Onirayin and Ilagbo communities in the Ibeju-Lekki area of the state clashed on Tuesday, which resulted in the destruction of property and the death of two people.

The governor, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Oluseye Oladejo, reminded the communities of governments huge investment in the area, advising them that no meaningful development could take place in any place noted for violence.

He said, I am not happy with what I have seen here in terms of destruction of property and loss of lives. We have invested a lot in these communities, but we will be scaring investors away if we choose to resolve our differences through violent means.

Ambode described the area as the future of Lagos, saying both government and private investors had invested heavily in the area.

Government has the will to bear the full weight of the law on whoever threatens the investments and peaceful coexistence among people in this area, he added.

The governor assured the residents that law enforcement agents had been directed to keep the peace, adding that troublemakers would be punished.

Source: Punch
British Nigerian Actor, David Oyelowo has expressed willingness to extend his humanitarian efforts to combat the global epidemic of human trafficking.

The actor who is set to receive the Diamonds Do Good International Vanguard Award for his achievements in the arts and in the educational empowerment of vulnerable girls in Nigeria said more needs to be done to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking.

The founder of David Oyelowo Leadership Scholarship for Girls in Nigeria, decried the spate of sex trafficking even in urban environment, pointing out that urgent action must be taken.

Going beyond the borders of Nigeria, human trafficking, modern-day slavery, sex trafficking, these are really disgusting things that are going on in society, Oyelowo told Huffington Post in an interview.

A lot of them are dealing with girls being pulled out of Africa. Its happening within the continent itself. Even here in Los Angeles  the San Fernando Valley, where I live  its one of the worst hubs for human trafficking in the country.

So its on our doorstep, and its international. And if youre a father of children, really its a thing that young people are being subjected to by those who prey upon them.

Its unthinkable to think about whats going on out there. So anything and everything I can do, and my colleagues can do, to eradicate this is what Im interested in.

The multiple award winning actor mentioned that his love for Africa also influences the type of project he is passionate about.

He noted that he prefers projects that showcase Africas overlooked history, such as United Kingdom, (where he played Botswanas first president, Sir Seretse Khama) which highlighted Botswanas role as a leading diamond-producing nation.

My passion is really behind any African story that highlights the transcendent beauty and just the amazing quality of Africa and its people, he said.

Apart from spotlighting great facets of Africa, the actor said he is passionate about changing the negative narratives too.

One of the stories that isnt a success story of course is surrounding the Chibok girls and whats going on with Boko Haram, and whats going on with the marginalization of women generally, not just in Nigeria, but on the African continent and around the world, he said. So for me, its about highlighting the great story, but also trying to change the narrative around the negative, because those are things that can and must change.

Source: Punch
Miss Illinois USA Universal, Krystal Okeke Bags World Class Beauty Queen Award As She Graduates With Flying Colour(Photos)

Miss Illinois USA Universal 2016, Krystal Okeke has finally graduated from Praire State College with first degree in Mass Communication and a major in TV/ Radio Broadcast. The lanky beauty queen had been enrolled in two University institutions with the help of Duel degree program (Governor State University /Praire State College). The citadel of learning are the two most competitive schools ranking best in the state of illinois.



Queen Krystal who already works as a journalist earned a 4.0 GPA as she graduated a honor role after years of putting in hard work. She hopes to become a Attorney in the long run. It is worthy to note also that recently, this Super Model /Beauty Queen was named and awarded the prestigious title of World Class Beauty Queen 2017. Krystal is known for her continuous humanitarian works with the less privileged in the United State of America.



Within the Summer, Her Majesty Krystal Okeke would be visiting her home of Origin

Nigeria- Contact her Publicist AlexReport or [email protected] directly for any interviews or booking!
Controversial Nollywood actor, Uche Maduagwu has taken on veteran actress, Kate Henshaw for throwing shade at the Nigerian government following the Manchester bombing.

Following the identification of those involved in the attack, barely twenty-four hours after the incident, Henshaw, via her Instagram, wrote, Manchester bomber has been identified only few hours after this dastardly act! Here though it will be committee/inquiry panel.

And in what seems like a swift reaction to his colleagues comment, Uche Maduagwu, via the same platform, gave Henshaw a two-week ultimatum to apologise to the police and other relevant security agencies in the country, adding that the country made the movie star who she was today.

Maduagwu wrote, I am giving you two weeks to apologise to the security agencies in Nigeria.

Dear Kate, I appreciate your satisfaction in the way the Manchester terrorist was identified swiftly by the police.

But this analysis and komkom comparison is laughable and disrespectful to the security experts in Nigeria.

I am, therefore, giving you two weeks to apologize to the great men and women of the Nigeria Police force and all other relevant security agencies in Nigeria, you dont insult a country that made you what you are today.

The President Buharis administration has tried in bringing terrorist activities to a zero level in Nigeria, so such careless comment from you is unacceptable.

You are a colleague, but I wont allow you ridicule the security apparatus of this great Nation.

Source: Dailypost
A supermarket sales assistant in Pontefract, West Yorks has found herself in trouble after she was caught having threesome with two underage boys.

Supermarket sales assistant, Beverley Tillyer will spend two years and a half in prison for having sex with underage boys

A divorcee who had s*x with three teenage schoolboys has been jailed for two and a half years, The Sun UK reveals. The single mum Beverley Tillyer, 40, was filmed as she had a three-some with two 14-year-old boys, a court heard.

She was accused of taking advantage of her three teenage victims before having s*x with them on repeated occasions at parties held at her home where they were allowed to drink and take drugs.

The woman who is a supermarket sales assistant Tillyer, of Pontefract, West Yorks, also visited the home of one of the teenagers where she had s*x with him. Dave Mackay, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court the offending took place during 2008 when she was in her early 30s and ran a chaotic household.

The offending took place over a period of several months at her then home near Pontefract on all but one occasion. After being arrested Tillyer initially denied carrying out any abuse and claimed she had been raped by the boys.

She later pleaded guilty to three offences of sexual activity with a child.

Kate Bissett, mitigating, said Tillyer suffered from anxiety and a personality disorder.

She said: She was seeking intimacy rather than seeking to exploit them for sexual gratification.

Jailing Tillyer, judge James Spencer, QC, said: You took advantage of those boys when you should have shown a more responsible attitude. Of course they were willing participants but you were the adult.

The adult has to take care of children even when they are 14 and think they know it all. Because of the degree of seriousness here, it does seem to me that there has to be a prison sentence.

Tillyer was also told she must go on the s*x offenders register for ten years.
Five Ukrainian servicemen have suffered injuries and traumas on the Donbas contact line in the past 24 hours, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

"Fortunately, the Ukrainian army had no combat fatalities during the day, but five servicemen suffered injuries and traumas as a result of the hostilities," Lysenko said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

Ukrainian positions were attacked 29 times in the Mariupol sector, he said, adding that strongholds near Krasnohorivka came under attack of various types of grenade launchers, a tank, an infantry combat vehicle, an anti-aircraft gun and infantry weapons.

The same populated locality was shelled by 120mm mortars and 152mm artillery in the evening, the ministry spokesman said.

Twenty-six ceasefire breaches were observed in the Donetsk sector, including those with the use of mortars and Grad launchers, he said.

There were two shooting incidents in the Luhansk sector, Lysenko said.
In what will come across as a really shocking development, a pastor has been accused of s*xually assaulting a teenager several times.

An 18-year-old South African girl who went to a pastor so he could help her with her studies has regretted the move.

According to Daily Sun SA, the teenage girl said the pastor r*ped her several times. However, he has now been busted!

The girl from Giyani in Limpopo told Daily Sun she was abused for four months, and that the pastor threatened to kill her and her family if she went to the police.

Everyone in the village loves him because they dont know that he is evil, she said. The pastor told me that for my problems to go away we must go to the mountain for all night prayers and morning prayers.

He took me to his house and demanded s*x. When I refused he told me he would kidnap me for the week.

Her 55-year-old father said: I was stupid to trust this monster. I am very angry. Now I feel like I failed to protect her. He destroyed my child and took away her dignity. He must pay for what he did.

He said they reported the alleged rape to the police after the girl complained about her injured private parts, and the pastor was arrested.

Giyani police spokesman Warrant Officer Thomas Makhubele said a 24-year-old pastor has been charged with rape.

The pastor pleaded not guilty when he appeared in the Giyani Magistrates Court on Wednesday. He was released on warning.

The case was postponed for further investigation and the suspect will appear in the same court again on 5 September.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni has blown a whistle on how Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers in the state are collecting bribe from Yahoo Yahoo boys.

While speaking during a lecture on Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officers at the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) Hall in Ikeja, the Lagos state capital on Wednesday, Lagos State Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni fired a warning to Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) in the state.

Owoseni warned the top security operatives to shun bribery or leave the state, saying that some of them are on the payroll of fraudsters, adding that the era of impunity and corruption among cops was gone, appealing to his subordinates to come for transfer if they would not want to play by the rules in the state.

He said: I am tired of hearing about shooting or killing of innocent persons. No one has the right to take another mans life. It is only God that has the right to take life.

It is your responsibility as a DPO to know those who are collecting bribe under you. If you refuse to stop them, they will stop you from being a DPO.

It is embarrassing to see policemen collecting bribes and chasing yahoo yahoo boys for a DPO. I would not cover any DPO. I will expose you. Just leave Lagos before I get to your station. I cannot share out of your misconduct. I will give your photographs and details to journalists to expose you.

He added that: I am shocked to hear that some Area Commanders and DPOs are on the pay rolls of fraudsters. I am investigating. Just pray that I dont get you. Just know that you are causing pains for taxpayers if you are intimidating them and collecting bribe from criminals.

It is a curse to build a house with the money. The building would collapse on your head. Some of you even take people to the bank to collect money. If you train your children with the money, they wont be useful to you.

If those who were in the force before us bastardized it, we would not have the opportunity to be enlisted in the police. I am tired of pleading with police victims because you are doing what you are not supposed to do. Remember, one day, you are going to die and give account to your creator.

Owoseni asked the DPOs and Area Commanders to go back to their areas of jurisdiction and warn their men against brutality, indiscriminate use of handcuffs on pregnant women, elders and persons with disability.

Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) should take note. I will not tolerate any act of indiscipline. Learn a lesson from DPO Ijeshatedo, who shot dead a fashion designer. He is in our custody and we are compiling charges against him. He would soon be arraigned in court.

All DPOs in Ikorodu should use all resources within their disposals to fish out Badoo cult group that has been causing havoc in the community. I am giving you all 48 hours to decongest your cells. Nobody should be detained more than 48 hours. I will conduct checks on the cells, he stated.
Authorities have arrested and charged with murder, a Maryland day care worker who was captured on video torturing an 8-month-old girl who later died.

Leah Walden, 23, is charged with murder, assault, child abuse and reckless endangerment in the death of Reese Bowman at Rocket Tiers Learning Center on Tuesday, Baltimore Police said in a statement.

Reese Bowman, in my opinion, was tortured, said Col. Stanley Brandford, the chief of the police departments criminal investigations division.

Brandford told Baltimore Sun that the video shows Walden using excessive blankets, which fully covered the childs head, violently snatching the child out of the crib with one arm, swinging at the baby as if she was slapping her, and placing pillows over the babys face. Walden also walked out camera range several times while holding the baby.

Police took Walden into custody early Thursday. Court records for her case were not yet available online to show whether she had obtained an attorney.

Police said officers were called to the day care Tuesday afternoon for a report of a baby not breathing. Medics performed CPR on the infant, who was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center and pronounced dead a short time later. Brandford said there were no obvious signs of trauma, but detectives started a routine investigation.

Brandford said Walden told them she fed the baby, wrapped her in a blanket and put her down for a nap. The management of Rocket Tiers alerted police to the video, which told a different story, Brandford said.

Reese was awake at the time; another baby in the same room with Walden and Reese was not hurt.

Reeses family released a statement saying they were suffering tremendous pain and asking for privacy, news outlets reported.

Our hearts are broken. No family should ever have to experience the loss of a child under any circumstances, the statement said.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
A young student who planted a bomb inside an underground train with the intention of causing grievous harm, has been punished.

Damon Smith, a 20-year-old British student, who left a homemade bomb packed with ball bearings and shrapnel on a London underground train on its way to the Canary Wharf financial district last October, was jailed for 15 years on Friday.

According to Reuters, Damon Smith set the timer and left the train but the bomb failed to explode and was later reported by passengers.

It was made safe by police at North Greenwich station on the Jubilee line, one stop away from Canary Wharf.

During a search of his home, police found a blank firing pistol, a knife and a knuckleduster while on social media he had liked a number of videos relating to explosions.

A forensic scientist was also able to reconstruct a shredded document to reveal it was pages from an al Qaeda-published magazine that gave instructions on bomb-making.

A list of materials needed for making a bomb were found on his iPad and components needed to make a device were discovered at his home.

Smith claimed the device was just a smoke bomb and that whole incident had been a prank but was convicted at Londons Old Bailey court earlier this month of planning to cause an explosion.

We have seen this week the horrifying impact a bomb can have. And whilst there is no connection between Manchester and Greenwich it brings into stark reality just how devastating it could have been, Cdr. Dean Haydon said.

The bomb Smith made was a viable device, but it failed to detonate, which was our good fortune.
The pace of innovation in the data center is relentless and has been driven by Intel and Moores Law for decades. 2017 is shaping up to be no different. This years innovation will be built on decades of continuous investment in Intel architecture, and will further propel data center capabilities into the forefront of business innovation, across every industry. With each new generation of technology, Intel and our global ecosystem partners have consistently delivered double-digit performance growth and new capabilities that catalyzed the economic shift to digitally propelled business models. The innovation driven through this rapid pace of technology advancement continues to inspire  from accelerating precision medicine to transforming communications networks to groundbreaking seismic analysis.

The growth of data, new applications fueled by advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, and scale of multi cloud architectures are fueling even more demand for data center infrastructure capability. Thats why Im excited about the latest generation of Intel Xeon processors, codenamed Skylake, which is already being embraced by a wide range of cloud providers and leading enterprises around the world. Google recently announced that Skylake is now powering the Google Cloud Platform. Skylake is specifically architected to support the tremendous performance, scale, security, agility and reliability that todays data centers and hybrid clouds will rely on for their next wave of growth, and builds on the success of the current Intel Xeon processor family, which holds more than 70 performance world records.*

Of course, the data center isnt only about Intel Xeon processors  thats why we look at data center solutions holistically. From CPU architecture to storage and connectivity to software, we work with industry leaders to drive solutions optimization that accelerates actionable insights. This year well deliver exciting new technologies resulting from our continued investment in the data center including the next-generation Intel Xeon Phi processor (codenamed to Knights Mill), revolutionary new Intel Optane SSDs, and new Intel Nervana AI solutions. Well also continue our deep collaboration with the software and security ecosystem, to maximize the performance and trust of Intel-based platforms.

Weve also heard that this year AMD is returning to servers with Naples after being out of the server market segment for years. We take all competition seriously, but based on our proven track record, broad product portfolio and strong customer focus, were confident in both our performance leadership and our roadmap for continued innovation. We believe our customers deserve processors and systems designed from the ground up for the data center and optimized for real world applications, not a desktop processor dressed up in server clothing. When AMD ships Naples, we expect our latest-generation Intel Xeon processors to compete very well where it matters the most  performance of customers real-world workloads.

In the meantime, check the Intel IT Peer Network for future blog posts where well provide more information about the breadth of data center innovation being driven by Intel and our partner ecosystem, as well as dig in a bit more on some of the competitions claims as we to continue to seek the opportunity to earn your business.

*See www.intel.com/E5v4records and www.intel.com/E7v4records for details about our world-record performance.
Recovery on Aussie looking corrective- Elliott Wave Wavetraders - Thu Nov 10, 1:36AM CST Aussie came nicely lower in the last few weeks, clearly with five waves down from 0.6900 that we see it as an impulse, but move can be part of an extended wave three, as the current recovery is also overlapping...

EURUSD Consolidating Near Key 1 Level Tradable Patterns - Wed Nov 9, 10:54PM CST The (EURUSD) is consolidating after the strong bounce from the 2022 low (in September). Although the EURUSD is vulnerable today to a bit more healthy profittaking, odds are elevated for a weekly close... ^EURUSD : 0.99661 (-0.45%) FXE : 92.37 (-0.56%)

Cryptocurrencies plunge as Binance scraps deal for rival FTX AP - Wed Nov 9, 7:56PM CST Cryptocurrency prices plunged for a second-straight day Wednesday after crypto exchange Binance announced it was pulling out of a deal to purchase failing rival FTX Trading $SPX : 3,748.57 (-2.08%) $DOWI : 32,513.94 (-1.95%) $IUXX : 10,797.55 (-2.37%)

WEAT, 9.05 target ONE44 Analytics - Wed Nov 9, 6:36PM CST Educational and Actionable! WEAT : 8.35 (-2.22%)

***Market Wrap-up Nov 9 RJO Futures - Wed Nov 9, 6:01PM CST Summary of today's events, Stocks/Bonds (Sorry no election talk)
The U.S. presidential administration in its draft budget for the 2018 fiscal year foresees providing Ukraine with $350 million in assistance to cover various programs.

The sum would fund programs in the defense and security sectors, as well as the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs.

The U.S. State Department and USAID assistance programs for 2018 account for almost $204 million. They are budgeted for health care, economic development and structural reform programs in Ukraine.

Some $150 million is earmarked for military and security programs under the U.S. Department of Defense program. The funds would be spent on military training, equipment, consulting Ukrainian military commanders, as well as strengthening the potential of Ukraine to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In addition, military supplies, including uniforms and other equipment, logistics gear and reconnaissance support for Ukraine's military would be provided. The draft budget also leaves open the possibility of supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine, an item missing from the past U.S. administration budget proposals.

The draft consolidated budget for 2018 proposes to increase Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for countries of Europe, Asia and Africa to $450 million. Ukraine would be eligible to receive some of that money.

In general, the U.S. presidential administration's budget expenditures for European and Asian countries would be cut by 60% compared to the 2017 fiscal year budget. Ukraine this year accounts for more than 45% of all countries in the region.

The U.S. fiscal years starts October 1, 2017 and runs through September 30, 2018.

Further the budget request must be studied and discussed in the U.S. Congress, where changes and supplements could be made. Thus, the real amount of aid to Ukraine will be known after the completion of the entire process of adopting the document, which is now at the initial stage.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly, commenting on the budget request, said it is important that the text of the document contains statements on providing lethal weapons to Ukraine.

"It should be emphasized the budget proposal of the presidential administration includes provisions on granting our country with lethal weapons, which compares favorably with the administration requests of the previous years," the ambassador said.
Real estate developer Barnes Independent Developers LP received zoning-change approval on May 23 for two parcels in Belton, Texas, on which the company intends to build a mixed-use development featuring self-storage and retail. The storage facility will comprise six buildings, including one dedicated to boat/RV storage. It will be constructed on 3.27 acres on the northwest corner of Southwest Parkway and West Loop 121, while an adjacent 1.51-acre tract is earmarked for retail, according to the source.

The city council unanimously approved changing the zoning on both parcels from single-family. The self-storage property is now a planned development retail zoning district, while the smaller parcel was designated a retail zoning district. Both tracts are vacant, though a cell tower stands on the storage building site. The tower is leased until 2021, which could delay construction, the source reported.

The storage and retail projects will be designed to fit in aesthetically with the adjacent neighborhood, which was also created by the developer, planning director Erin Smith told the council. The boat/RV area wont be visible to the public.

A wooden fence will be erected on the northern, southern and western boundaries of the self-storage site to serve as a visual buffer between the facility and neighboring homes. A wrought-iron fence with stone columns will be built along the eastern perimeter of the property that faces Southwest Parkway, according to the source.

Councilmember Guy OBanion praised the site design for positioning the self-storage facility between the eventual retail component and single-family homes. You cant buffer a neighborhood any better, he said during the meeting.

No one from the public formally spoke during the zoning hearing. However, when Mayor Marion Grayson asked if another self-storage facility was necessary, several audience members indicated an existing storage facility on Loop 121 is at full occupancy, the source reported.

Based in Killeen, Texas, Barnes Independent Developers is affiliated with Barnes Homebuilders, which has developed residential communities in Belton, Copperas Cove and Killeen.
Rosewood Property Co. (RPC), a Dallas-based real estate firm that owns self-storage facilities, has acquired StorAmerica Storage & Wine Cellar in Carmel, Ind. The property will be managed by self-storage real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage Inc. and branded under its name, according to a press release.

The facility at 4420 E. 146th St. comprises 89,841 rentable square feet of storage space in 846 units, of which 63 percent are climate-controlled. It features a temperature-controlled wine cellar as well as a conference center.

"This facility adds an important project to our expanding presence in the self-storage sector, said Bill Flaherty, president. The facility, which was recently expanded, was locally owned and managed, is well-located and is performing well. We continue to focus on additional acquisitions in multiple markets that would be a strategic fit within our portfolio.

The acquisition is RPCs second in the Indianapolis market. The firm purchased Brooks School Self Storage in Fishers, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis, last year. Built in 2013, the property expanded in 2015 and comprises 70,200 square feet of storage space.

The seller was represented in the transaction by Matthew E. Duda, vice president of MJ Partners Real Estate Services. RPC was represented internally.

RPC is a subsidiary of The Rosewood Corp., a private investment concern owned by the Caroline Hunt Trust Estate. Its portfolio includes 35 storage facilities in 11 states totaling more than 2.5 million square feet. The company is building multi-story storage projects in Dallas, Denver and Portland. Its also actively seeking acquisitions of existing properties.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space owns or operates 1,427 self-storage properties in 38 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. The companys properties comprise approximately 960,000 units and 107 million square feet of rentable space.

Headquartered in Chicago, MJ Partners is a full-service real estate brokerage and investment banking company specializing in commercial real estate, mortgage banking and consulting services. The company's clients include major financial institutions, private equity funds, real estate investment funds, opportunity funds, insurance companies, pension-fund advisors, corporations, private developers and entrepreneurial businesses.
Phoenix-based U-Haul International Inc., which operates more than 1,300 self-storage locations across North America, has received initial approval to convert a former Montgomery Ward store in Lower Burrell, Pa., to self-storage. The property in the Burrell Plaza near the intersection of Leechburg and Wildlife Lodge Roads has been vacant for 16 years, according to the source.

The Lower Burrell Planning Commission unanimously approved U-Hauls proposal on May 17 to build a retail store and storage facility at the site. U-Haul would keep the existing structure, but replace the roof, exterior facade and parking lot, the source reported. The building would include 3,000 square feet of retail and showroom space, a 15,000-square-foot general warehouse, and nearly 70,000 square feet of climate-controlled storage space. Once complete, the property could become the company's regional headquarters, a U-Haul official told the source.

The existing building has been sitting vacant for many years and has become an eyesore. U-Haul is thrilled to step in and revitalize the area, said Ean Livingood, marketing company president of the U-Haul Co. of Northwestern Pennsylvania. We have plans to begin construction as soon as we own the property, and will open our doors in mid-July.

The property was purchased for $5 million in 2005 by Widewaters Lower Burrell Co., a division of Widewaters Group, a real estate firm based in Syracuse, N.Y. Under the U-Haul plan, the site would be subdivided into three lots, with the empty Montgomery Ward building being sold to U-Haul. The second lot, formerly a J.C. Penney store, would remain vacant. The third parcel would be maintained by Widewaters and occupied by First National Bank, the source reported.

Because the proposed U-Haul site is zoned commercial, a special-use permit will be necessary to use the space as a warehouse, the source reported. U-Haul will present its plan to the citys zoning board next month.

City officials have sought developers to repurpose the 28-acre plaza since 2005 when J.C. Penney moved its operations to the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer, Pa. Montgomery Ward left the site in 2001 when the company went out of business.

Mayor Richard Callender hopes the U-Haul property will attract another company interested in developing the remaining property. I've already reached out to some developers who thought the whole building was just too big. With half of it sold, the Penney's side is much more attractive to buyers, he said.

Established in 1945, U-Haul owns more than 44 million square feet of storage space. The companys corporate sustainability initiatives, which support infill development to help local communities lower their carbon footprint, has led to dozens of conversion projects in recent years.
With Blackstone seeking $40 billion for a new fund, infrastructure investing is being increasingly dominated by a small number of large managers.

Blackstone Groups record-setting infrastructure investment fund may signal further concentration of such assets in the hands of just a few asset managers.

While allocations to infrastructure investments are at all-time highs, this capital is largely flowing to a small group of large fund managers, according to a new report from data provider Preqin. Blackstone, the worlds largest private-equity firm, announced May 20 that it was raising a $40 billion fund that may include a $20 billion anchor commitment from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Last year, three-quarters of the global capital raised by unlisted infrastructure funds went to pools with $1.5 billion or more in investor commitments  up from 56 percent of capital in 2015, and 48 percent in 2014, according to Preqin. Such large funds already account for 76 percent of fundraising this year.

Investors are tending to commit more capital to fewer managers, so mega funds represent a greater proportion of overall fundraising activity, said Tom Carr, Preqins head of real assets products, in a statement Friday. Investors may be attracted to the ability of the largest fund managers to procure attractive deal opportunities, as well as their proven track record in the asset class.

Morgan Stanley analysts called Blackstones new fund with its staggering fundraising target a paradigm shift for infrastructure investing. With leverage, the private-equity firm said it expects to invest more than $100 billion in primarily U.S. infrastructure projects.

Blackstone sees a pivotal moment to raise $40 billion of equity capital and invest in aging U.S. infrastructure, the Morgan Stanley analysts said in a research note.

The $40 billion target is more than twice the size of any previous infrastructure pools, according to Preqin. The $20 billion anchor commitment from Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund would be the largest single contribution by any investor to an infrastructure fund.

The scale of many modern infrastructure projects allows investors to deploy significant amounts of capital, Carr said.

Preqin currently tracks 86 infrastructure funds that have closed with more than $1.5 billion of investor commitments. As a group, these funds raised $279 billion.

Global Infrastructure Partners third eponymous pool was the largest fund closed since January 2016, with $15.8 billion in assets, the Preqin report shows. Close behind is Brookfield Infrastructure Fund III, which closed in July of last year after raising $14 billion.
Australian students may be falling in their performance in mathematics, reading, and science against global benchmarks, but they remain competitive when it comes to financial literacy.The 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study has ranked Australia fifth among 15 countries in terms of 15-year-olds financial literacy and ability to understand and apply knowledge to financial questions, according to an ASIC statement.Australia only lagged behind China, Belgium, Canada and nations grouped as the Russian Federation in the financial literacy performance ranking.ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell welcomed the results, noting that 15% of Australian students were high performers compared to the OECD average of 12%; but conceded that another 20% were low performers compared to the 22% OECD average, Financial Standard reported.Kell said financial literacy and the ability to operate conceptually around money and financial products, including insurance, will actually be more crucial as Australia increasingly becomes a cashless society.PISA defined financial literacy, not as equivalent to mathematical literacy, but the ability to deal with information about financial products and make informed choices regarding its risks and opportunities.
Last week, London-based insurer Markel revealed its plans to set up an insurance company in Munich, Germany, ahead of the impending Brexit.Following discussions with BaFin, the German federal financial supervisory authority, Markel plans to apply for regulatory approval for the hub  which it says will ensure it can meet client needs regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.Now, the firm has revealed more on the plans and why it chose Germany in an interview with Insurance Business.Weve had a business there [in Germany] since 2012, so weve got established assets on the ground, weve got management on the ground and experience  and obviously that is both appealing to us and indeed to any relevant regulators, a Markel spokesman said yesterday.As well as having an existing base, from which the insurers national markets are run, the countrys reputation as a major economy in Europe, and a serious, grown up, established place to do business, was also appealing for the insurer.The move will provide passporting access after Brexit, giving Markels syndicate business a route into Europe, though its national markets business is absolutely written on the insurance company and not on the syndicate.While concrete plans for the hub are still to be hashed out, Markel is clear that establishing the base will be more than just a formality.Its going to be a real business and an important business for us. Europe as a whole is important for our national markets business, and we think a German base for that will be a strong place to be, the spokesperson added.In a statement last week, Markel Internationals President, William Stovin, called the move an important, strategic development for us.While well continue to write international business through our Lloyds syndicate, we also want to build on the strong foundations of our national market businesses in Europe. Establishing a carrier in Germany would enable us to do this and give us flexibility to pursue other opportunities in continental Europe.
A recent study by a comparison website has revealed the most dangerous industries for 2015, reminding people of the risks that come along with their job.Finder.com.au made the ranking by calculating each sectors risk score based on the number of serious injury claims and fatalities reported to Safe Work Australia.Topping the list of Australias most dangerous industries for 2015 were agriculture, forestry, and fishing, while financial and insurance services were found to be the safest industry, news.com.au reported.The top-ranked industries posted 52 fatalities and 3,410 serious injuries  ahead of more notorious sectors such as construction and mining  while financial and insurance services only accounted for 666 compensation claims and no fatalities.Safe Work Australia identified vehicle collision as the most common cause of work-related death, with 1,258 vehicle-related workplace fatalities between 2003 and 2015, the report said.Commenting on the surprising result, Finder.com.au spokeswoman Bessie Hassan said: Although jobs in industries like mining and construction are well known for being potentially dangerous, its the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry that comes out on top.Luckily its not all bad news with the workplace fatality rate decreasing by 44% since 2007. Its important for employees to understand the risks involved with their prospective industries and be aware that workers compensation wont provide cover for incidents that occur as the result of employee negligence.Its also worth noting sole traders arent provided with cover under workers compensation, so they should consider income protection as an option.
As insurance firms seek to establish EU hubs to continue operations on the continent following Brexit, the unions insurance watchdog has said it will publish guidelines for national regulators.EIOPA (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) is closely monitoring the developments and will publish in due course its guidance for national authorities on sound principles for authorisation and supervision, said EIOPAs head of policy Manuela Zweimuller on Thursday.We will subsequently closely monitor their implementation, he added, as quoted by Reuters.Earlier this month Luxembourg denied offering special deals to undercut European rivals. Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourgs finance minister, told the media that discussions with financial firms have been in progress since the Brexit vote in June 2016.Luxembourg has not taken any special measures, and nor do we plan to, Reuters quoted Gramegna as saying. It doesnt give the right signal. There are EU regulations that everyone must comply with.Without naming specific countries, Irish financial services minister Eoghan Murphy previously said that other EU centres are being very aggressive while engaging in regulatory arbitrage.We are hearing from various sources that companies are being offered certain incentives, that they are offering a back door to the single market, without the requirement to have capital to back up their entities in the European Union, Murphy told Reuters.Insurance Business research shows that American International Group ( AIG ), FM Mutual, and Hiscox have decided to set up shop in Luxembourg. Meanwhile, Ireland will host Admiral Beazley , and Royal London; with Lloyds of London heading to Brussels and Markel to Munich.
Smith Brothers, a Glastonbury, Conn.-based insurance broker, has added Chelsea Peruccio as an employee benefits advisor.

Her responsibilities include new business development, account management and creating employee benefit strategies to help clients achieve positive results. She has experience working with clients in a range of industries, including law firms, IT, education, government and financial services.

Previously, she was with Cigna Healthcare where she managed broker and client relations in its New York City and Washington D.C. offices and was involved in its leadership and sales training programs.

Founded in 1971, Smith Brothers is an independently operated insurance, risk management and financial service organization. It provides insurance, surety, risk management, employee benefits and financial services to individuals and businesses and has offices throughout Connecticut and in Massachusetts.

Source: Smith Brothers Insurance

Topics Connecticut
Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have made Vermont the ninth state to legalize recreational marijuana but indicated that he was willing to work with the Legislature on a compromise.

Scott said he was sending the bill back with suggestions for another path forward and called for changes to be made to the proposal, such as more aggressive penalties for smoking pot while driving or in the presence of children.

We must get this right, said Scott, who is hoping the Legislature can make the fixes during a veto session in late June.

Scott has said hes not philosophically opposed to marijuana legalization but has concerns about public safety, childrens health and how to measure impaired drivers.

Under the legislation, small amounts of marijuana would have been legal to possess and grow for anyone over age 21.

Eight other states, plus the District of Columbia, have legalized recreational marijuana. Vermont would have been the first state to legalize marijuana by vote of a state legislative body. The other states and D.C. legalized marijuana after public referendums.

Legalization advocates said that although they were disappointed by the veto, they were encouraged theres a path forward.

We are all concerned about youth safety and roadside safety, said Laura Subin, director of the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana. We hope we can work with the governor and the legislature to come up with a proposal that reflects those priorities.

Studies by the Vermont Department of Health have found that Vermont has among the highest prevalence of marijuana use in the country and the second-highest use among people ages 12 to 25.

Vermonts legislature passed the measure six months after residents in Massachusetts and Maine voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Both states are now developing mechanisms to regulate and tax the sale of marijuana. The New Hampshire Legislature is considering a bill to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Besides seeking more aggressive penalties for people who smoke marijuana while driving or while in the presence of children, he is also calling for an expansion of a commission that would develop a proposal to tax and regulate marijuana. He wants it to include representatives from the Vermont departments of Public Safety, Health and Taxes as well as the substance abuse prevention and treatment community. He says the panel should have a year before making recommendations.

Nearly 20 states have bills pending that would legalize marijuana for adults, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Cannabis Vermont
QBE Insurance Group Ltd. has appointed Michael Ford as group chief financial officer.

Ford is currently the deputy CFO for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). He joined the bank in 2005 and held a number of senior finance roles before his appointment as deputy CFO in 2011. Prior to this, he held senior roles at MLC, National Australia Banks (NAB) wealth management division, and Lendlease Group.

John Neal, Group Chief Executive Officer, said of the appointment, Michael brings to QBE more than 25 years experience in finance. In his current role he is responsible for all aspects of the banks group finance function, this includes financial planning & analysis, treasury finance, capital forecasting and stress testing, investment development and taxation, and leads a team of more than 500 people at one of Australias largest corporations.

Ford will join QBE in September 2017 and will be based in the companys head office in Sydney.

At that time, Pat Regan will relinquish his group CFO responsibilities and step down from the board to focus on his permanent role as chief executive officer, Australian & New Zealand Operations.

Source: QBE

Related:

People Are Key to a CFOs Success: QBEs Group CFO Regan

Topics Australia
Zurich North America is bringing its Specialty Products business together with its North America Commercial Insurance as part of a continued streamlining of operations.

The company said the move will provide easier access and greater consistency across North America and its global network.

Paul Horgan, currently head of North America Commercial Insurance, will lead this newly-expanded unit. Horgan has more than 30 years experience in the insurance industry. He has been with Zurich since 2007. His previous roles have included head of Global Corporate in North America; head of Group Reinsurance, serving at the companys worldwide headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland; and chief underwriting officer for Global Corporate in North America.

Horgan reports to Mike Foley, CEO of Zurich North America, and James Shea, CEO of Commercial Insurance globally for Zurich.

Brian Winters has been appointed head of Specialty Products for Zurich North America, reporting to Horgan. Winters formerly led Zurichs casualty business in North America. Most recently, Winters has been responsible for managing relationships with its largest customers and brokers. Specialty Products includes errors and omissions, directors and officers, and security and privacy products.

Winters replaces Bryan Salvatore, formerly president of North America Specialties, who is joining Hanover Insurance as executive vice president and president of specialty. Salvatore will lead the companys domestic specialty business.

In January, Zurich North America announced a new North America Commercial Insurance unit and leadership team. This new unit brought together the former Commercial Markets and the former Global Corporate in North America units. Horgan was named head of North America Commercial Insurance. This Commercial Insurance team includes heads of property, casualty, construction, middle market as well as president and the chief agent for Canada and chief risk engineering officer. Now Hogan is adding responsibility for Specialty Products.

Topics Commercial Lines Excess Surplus
An awkward job interview question  how much did you make at your last job?  is getting banned in some parts of the country.

Massachusetts, New York City and Philadelphia have passed laws that bar employers from asking applicants about their salary history. And several states, including California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, have proposed similar legislation this year.

Supporters say the bans are one way to help close the wage gap between men and women. Some business advocates, however, say the bans hurt companies that use salary histories to help them set wages.

Either way, employment lawyers say the bans may spread.

I would not be surprised if we see other states and cities consider it, says Christine Hendrickson, an employment lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago.

Heres what there is to know:

WHEN DO THE LAWS TAKE EFFECT?

Massachusettss law is set to go into effect in July of 2018. New York Citys ban takes effect in November. Philadelphias ban was supposed to go into effect May 23, but a judge has temporarily halted it after the citys Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit opposing it.

WHATS BANNED?

The laws block employers from asking applicants about salary history in interviews or on applications. Job applicants can still provide their past pay on their own. And employers may ask applicants what salary range they expect in the role, says Regina E. Faul, an employment lawyer and partner at Phillips Nizer in New York.

WHY BAN IT?

Lawmakers say asking about salary history continues the cycle of pay inequality, keeping a woman from getting higher pay at a new job if she reveals her past salary.

Letitia James, who authored New Yorks law and is the citys public advocate, said the ban ensures that being underpaid once does not condemn anyone to a lifetime of inequity.

WHAT HAPPENS IF AN EMPLOYER ASKS FOR SALARY HISTORY WHERE IT IS BANNED?

Job applicants can report those employers, and they may be fined or even face jail time. In New York, the fine can be as much as $250,000. In Philadelphia, its $2,000 per violation, plus 90 days in jail for repeat offenses.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESPONSE FROM THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY?

The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, which represents about 600,000 businesses, sued the city over the ban last month arguing that it violates employers free speech rights and makes it harder for companies to set wages and attract top talent. The lawsuit says employers use wage history to identify which job applicants it can or cant afford and helps businesses figure out what the comparable salary is for a certain job.

WHICH OTHER LOCATIONS ARE CONSIDERING BANS?

This year, at least 21 states and Washington D.C. have proposed legislation that would prohibit salary history questions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The states are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Vermont and Washington.

Others may join in. Theres probably going to be a trend toward this, says Faul.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation New York Talent
The Hanover Insurance Group Inc., a Worcester, Mass.-based holding company for several property and casualty insurance companies, has appointed Bryan J. Salvatore as executive vice president and president of specialty, effective June 12.

In this role, Salvatore will lead the companys domestic specialty business.

Salvatore has 25 years of experience in the specialty business. He joins The Hanover after 20 years with Zurich North America, where he served for the past nearly five years as president of the companys $2.2 billion specialty products business, delivering a broad range of specialty capabilities and enhanced services to its distribution partners. Previously, Salvatore led the rebuilding of Zurichs presence in the accident and health insurance space, successfully repositioning the business and expanding its product offerings and distribution. Prior to joining Zurich in 1997, Salvatore was a director in the programs division of Frank Crystal & Co. Inc.

In the future, The Hanover plans to take advantage of synergies between its domestic specialty business and its international business at its Lloyds member company, Chaucer, according to Joseph M. Zubretsky, president and CEO at The Hanover, in a company press release.

Source: The Hanover Insurance Group

Topics Excess Surplus
Note: This article originally appeared in the Texas Tribune.

Gov. Greg Abbott appears to be undecided on whether he will sign a proposed statewide ban on texting while driving that is now on his desk.

Abbotts predecessor, Rick Perry, vetoed such a proposal in 2011, calling it a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.

It looks like Abbotts hangup on the latest effort, House Bill 62, is whether it does enough to pre-empt local ordinances regarding the practice.

The Governor believes texting while driving has become deadly dangerous and that something must be done about it, Abbott spokesman John Wittman said Thursday in a statement. One thing Governor Abbott wanted in a texting while driving ban was a pre-emption of the patchwork quilt of local regulations across the state, and hes looking forward to digging into the details of HB 62.

House Bill 62 includes a provision to pre-empt all local ordinances, rules or other regulations adopted by a political subdivision relating to the use of a portable wireless communication device by the operator of a motor vehicle to read, write, or send an electronic message. It is unclear whether that will satisfy Abbott, who has taken an aggressive stance against local ordinances that he says are contrary to his vision for Texas.

The proposals longtime supporters, state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, have expressed confidence the governor will sign it after a decade-long effort to get it on the books. State leaders have warmed up to the idea over the years, with Abbott opposing it in his 2014 gubernatorial campaign but saying last session he would consider it.

Asked for comment, Craddicks office pointed to the pre-emption section of the bill but declined to comment further.

Since the House and Senate passed HB 62, the bills supporters have implored Abbott to let it become law. In a letter Thursday, he heard from the family of Joshua and Robin Berry, a Houston couple killed in 2011 after a distracted driver swerved into their lane.

Please allow this important public safety measure to pass, the family wrote. You alone have the power to save lives with the enactment of House Bill 62.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/25/abbott-appears-undecided-signing-texting-while-driving-ban/.

Topics Texas Personal Auto
The Texas Senate has passed legislation that affirms the authority of Texas Division of Workers Compensation fraud unit to conduct criminal investigations.

The Senate passed HB 2053 on May 24; it was previously approved in the House.

According to the legislative analysis of the bill, the DWC fraud unit was created in 2016. HB 2053 clarifies DWCs existing authority to conduct workers compensation fraud investigations.

The bill affirms DWCs authority to investigate workers compensation fraud, assist prosecutors and have subpoena authority to compel testimony.

In its analysis, the House Research Organization said HB 2053 also would increase from less than $1,500 to less than $2,500 the value up to which fraudulently obtaining or withholding workers compensation benefits or coverage was a class A misdemeanor. Fraudulently obtaining or withholding workers compensation benefits or coverage valued at $2,500 or more would be classified as a state-jail felony (180 days to two years in a state jail and an optional fine of up to $10,000).

Source: Texas Legislature

Topics Texas Workers' Compensation Fraud
Gov. Jim Justice has directed the West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management to take steps to protect personally identifiable information collected and kept by state agencies, including health information required by law to be kept private.

In an executive order, Justice has also directed the West Virginia Office of Technology, to conduct risk management oversight to ensure cyber security of electronic records.

Under the order, the board will maintain the State Privacy Office responsible for issuing policies and conducting assessments. It was previously organized under the Department of Health and Human Resources Health Care Authority.

The order, signed last week, says its also imperative for the state to engage with its business partners to protect West Virginians privacy.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Cyber Virginia
The North Carolina Department of Insurance has reached a settlement agreement with YourPeople, Inc., dba Zenefits FTW Insurance Services (Zenefits) resulting in a $104,500 penalty, according to a statement from Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.

Department of Insurance Agent Services Division had charged Zenefits with engaging in unauthorized insurance activity in North Carolina resulting in 46 unlicensed and/or un-appointed insurance producers participating in the issuance of 186 policies to North Carolina consumers from January 2014, through November 2015.

All insurance companies, whether North Carolina based or from other states, must comply with North Carolina law, said Causey. I am glad Zenefits accepted responsibility for their actions.

Zenefits is a California-based business entity that has an active North Carolina non-resident insurance business entity license and was the subject of a multi-state inquiry into unlicensed and unauthorized insurance activity. According to NCDOI, Zenefits self-reported potential violations to the department in November 2015, followed by an investigation by PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

The proceeds of all civil penalties, civil forfeitures and civil fines that are collected by the North Carolina Department of Insurance are placed in the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund used exclusively for maintaining free public schools per state statute 115C-457.2.

NCDOI said Zenefits has provided the department with detailed information regarding personnel and system changes to address statutory violations and has taken a number of actions that address remediation and correction of the licensing issues that led to these violations. Zenefits has also agreed to ensure future compliance to North Carolina laws and regulations applicable to licensed insurance business entities.

The NCDOI Agent Services Division regulates all licensed agents, brokers, limited representatives, appraisers, adjusters, premium finance companies, collection agencies, motor clubs, bail bondsmen, surety bondsmen and bail bond runners authorized to do business in North Carolina. Oversight includes licensure qualification, pre-licensing education, continuing education, telephone inquiries, complaint investigations and agency examinations.

Source: North Carolina Department of Insurance

Topics Agencies North Carolina
The acquisition by AmWINS Group Inc. late last month of Networked Insurance Agents will achieve a number of objectives for both the Charlotte, N.C.-based distributor of specialty insurance products and the California-based aggregator.

Namely, the deal plays to each firms strengths without creating competition between the two, executives for both organizations told Insurance Journal.

In an unlikely admission, Scott Purviance, chief operating officer of AmWINS, acknowledged there are a few things the firm doesnt do so well.

One of the things we really didnt offer, certainly not in any kind of meaningful way, is access to admitted products, clearly BOPs and comp, Purviance said. The platform that Networked has built out is tremendous in that space, and it will really allow us to offer a full suite of products for that retail agent.

Wholesale specialty broker AmWINS operates through more than 100 offices globally and handles premium placements in excess of $13 billion dollars annually. According to Ben Sloop, president of AmWINS Access, a binding platform for small property/casualty business, AmWINS does business with more than 22,000 independent agents.

Networked Insurance Agents is an insurance aggregator specializing in the standard lines insurance segment. Retail agents served by Networked vary from small ($1 million to $5 million in total premium) to those reporting $15 million to $20 million in premium.

Larger agencies, those writing in excess of $20 million in premium, gravitate toward Networkeds Direct Access Insurance Service, a cluster model with about 30 firms and growing, according to George Biancardi, president and CEO of Networked.

Sloop, speaking for both firms, said that expansion doesnt mean a movement away from their mainstay wholesale business.

One thing I want to make sure we do get clear, because weve frankly have gotten a lot of questions about this over the last few days as the news of the acquisition has come out, is that we are very much committed to the wholesale model, and AmWINS model has always been wholesale, Sloop said. Networked  is a wholesale aggregator  and in both cases, our clients are retail agents, and both AmWINS and Networked are very much dedicated to that model of doing business.

Standard Lines Access

We routinely get requests to provide access on a range of standard market products, whether that be BOP, workers comp, or personal lines, Sloop said. The low-hanging fruit is simply connecting those folks with Networked, whove got those capabilities, and vice versa.

Networked and DAIS are run as two separate businesses, and beside workers comp and BOP, a large portion of what agents on both sides write is personal and business auto, Biancardi said.

In general, most of the admitted products that carriers sell, either commercial or personal lines, we have access to, he said. Now with AmWINS, we expect to have access to non-admitted as well.

E&S

Biancardis expectation going forward is that agents now using DAIS will do business with AmWINS, which many Networked agents do already.

As I see it in the future, they wont compete. You either come to us or you go to AmWINS with the big accounts, big agents, non-standard, Biancardi said. I see it as very, very complementary.

Sloop expanded on the importance of the E&S market to both firms and as part of their collective goals going forward.

To Georges point, Networked has got almost 1,000 agencies in their footprint, and many of those agencies  all those agencies in fact  go into the excess and surplus lines marketplace today, and weve gotten multiple inquiries on both sides about how we can access products on either side, Sloop said. Long term, the vision is to build a more seamless and integrated value prop across the entire spectrum of standard lines of E&S.

None of the three would discuss the terms of the deal, but all were happy to talk about possible expansion and new opportunities.

Next Step

AmWINS has been particularly active lately. AmWINS Group Inc. and Partners Specialty Group LLC in April agreed to merge, with Partners becoming part of the AmWINS Brokerage Division and bringing an expanded geographic presence to complement the existing AmWINS platform. In March, AmWINS and General Star Management Co. partnered to launch a food delivery insurance program through its General Star Programs Unit.

Last year was also a busy one for AmWINS, including the announcement nearly year ago that it had secured backing from Berkshire Hathaway International Insurance Ltd. for its London-based managing general agent, Unicorn Underwriting, to write motor fleet business.

Following the deal with Networked, things are going to be business as usual, according to Purviance.

We dont want to disrupt the relationships with the retail clients, but were going to be working very aggressively over the next four to six weeks to roll out the best initial step at providing products to both client bases, Purviance said. Then youll see us continue to build out more from a geographic and technology standpoint to support those roll outs down the road. But day one, were here not to disrupt what either operation has built, and put the retail client first.

Beyond California

For Networked, this is a chance to grow beyond California and its offices in Grass Valley and Orange.

Ill mention, we have already, even prior to announcing this acquisition, had been focused on expanding our footprint, Biancardi said. We are predominately in California and, to a lesser extent, in some other Western states. Weve been looking expand that footprint. This really gives us a lot more resources and a quicker and really more robust way to expand across the country.

Related:

Topics California Agencies Excess Surplus
A Southern California coastal community was flooded with two feet of ocean water after a seawall was damaged by a construction crew.

The Orange County Register reported workers were doing demolition work in Newport Beach and accidentally damaged the wall when high tide came in shortly before 9 p.m. on Wednesday, and water rushed through and into the neighborhood.

Fire Battalion Chief Brian McDonough says at least one resident reported flooding inside a home while up to 20 others had water in their yards.

Stephanie Snead says she and her neighbors were initially concerned. But when it was clear the damage would be limited, residents floated through the streets on rafts and paddleboards.

Sandbags have replaced the damaged wall until a permanent structure can be built.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Mutual funds invest in stocks, but certain types also invest in government and corporate bonds. Stocks are subject to the whims of the market and thus offer a higher return potential than bonds, but they also present more risk. Bonds, by contrast, provide a fixed return that is usually much lower than what an investor gets from stocks. The advantage of bonds is they are low risk. Only in an extreme situation, such as the complete failure of a corporation, does an investor not receive the return he was promised from a bond security. A mutual fund's investment profile depends on the type of fund. There are three main types: equity funds, fixed-income funds and balanced funds.

Equity Funds

Equity funds are mutual funds that invest only in common stock. They offer the biggest returns but also the highest risk. An equity fund, however, still presents a lower risk than investing in individual stocks. The reason is an equity fund is a bundle of hundreds or even thousands of stocks. It is diversified by its nature. If one company in the bundle tanks, the investor's exposure is very limited since his money is spread across hundreds of companies.

Fixed-Income Funds

Fixed-income funds invest only in government or corporate bonds that offer fixed returns. These mutual funds are much less risky since they provide the same return whether in a bull market or a bear market. However, investors who choose fixed-income funds because of lower risk must also accept, in most cases, lower returns.

Balanced Funds

Balanced funds feature a mix of equity and fixed-income investments. Their return potentials and risk levels fall between that of equity funds and fixed-income funds. Balanced funds occupy a broad gamut. Some are stock-heavy, while others are comprised of mostly bonds and feature only a smattering of equities. Plenty of balanced funds exist from which to choose; diligent investors can almost always find one whose makeup corresponds with their risk tolerance and desired return potential.
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Politician and theoretician of Khameneis faction, Amir Mohebian, claims the election results prove there is no rift amongst the ruling elite and Irans populace. He stated to Irans state-run IRIB TV station on May 21st, All the powers, all the dissidents, all the oppositions, all of them continue to present one main argument of rifts amongst the ruling elite and the general public. The more this divide, the more they will be able to make their move. And the more the ruling elite will rely on foreigners to remain in power, as I mentioned. Whats important is the fact that these elections showed there is no such rift in Iran.

An indication may be found in Khameneis first speech after the election, as he refrained from congratulating Rouhani.

Rouhani used his first remarks after the election, to IRIB TV on May 20th, to pursue his own interests. Yesterday you said no to those who invite us to the past or stopping the status quo, he said. With this very specific sentence, Rouhani moved toward deepening the rift.

Editor in chief of Kayhan Daily, Hossein Shariatmadari, also known as Khameneis mouthpiece said,One can easily reach the conclusion that the vote of Mr. Raisi was at least twice the statistics announced, meaning nearly 30 million. The reason is when he was able to obtain 16 million votes in a very limited time period of 40 days. Certainly if he had Mr. Rouhanis four-year period, there would literally not be many votes left for his rivals. He wrote this in a Keyhan editorial on May 21st.

State-run Javan daily, associated to the Revolutionary Guards paramilitary Basij, said of Rouhani, He should know nearly half of the voters voted against him.

Raisi accused the Rouhani faction of vote fraud, in an attempt to delegitimize the entire vote count. Keyhan daily, reported on May 21st, that he said, Various ill measures during the elections, and obvious violations prior and during the elections were amongst the dark moments, derailing this process from its legal path. We will follow up in this regard.

Mohammad Sadegh Kushaki, another member of Khameneis faction, inadvertently alluded to the regimes fear of a possible repeat of 2009-like uprisings. In 2009 after the election results were announced, those who claimed to be populists revolted against the republic, violated laws and took to the streets instead of resorting to legal protests. Adopting such methods, which was advanced by field elements of the enemy, including the Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK) and other dissidents to overthrow the establishments. For nine months they plunged the country into tensions and unrest, he said.

Clearly the rifts continue, and according to the May 21st Hemayat daily editorial, steps have been taken to deepen such divides.

Look to future developments to further prove this.
Spanish prosecutors are considering whether Cristiano Ronaldo should face charges over allegations by the country's tax agency that he defrauded the authorities of 15 million euro (12.9 million) between 2011 and 2014.

Prosecutors said they have until the end of June to decide whether to charge the Real Madrid star, based on evidence from an investigation by tax officials.
File photo taken on Nov. 23, 2016 shows the national flags of the United States and China during the 27th Session of the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) in Washington D.C., capital of the United States. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to work with the United States to realize balanced development of trade and investment, a research report by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

"Looking into the future, China is willing to make joint efforts with the United States to encourage Chinese enterprises to participate in U.S. infrastructure construction, further open up markets, promote two-way investment and advance bilateral investment treaty negotiations to further strengthen China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation at local levels," said the Research Report on China-U.S. Economic and Trade Relations.

China will also consider increasing imports from the United States in agricultural products, energy, high-tech products and services, to increase the total benefits while realizing a balanced development of trade and investment, according to the report.

Both China and the United States benefit from trade and economic cooperation. China has maintained a trade surplus in goods, but the United States has also gained tangible benefits.

China is the U.S. largest export market outside North America, and an important export destination for soybeans, cotton, aircraft, automobiles and integrated circuits. In 2016, the United States had a trade surplus in agricultural products of 16.4 billion U.S. dollars.

Over the past 10 years, the average growth rate of U.S. exports to China was nearly three times the growth rate of U.S. exports as a whole, and twice the growth rate of China's exports to the United States.

The United States has maintained a long-term surplus in service trade. In 2016, it exported 51 movies to China, receiving revenue of 16 billion U.S. dollars. Chinese tourists and students in the United States spent more than 51 billion U.S. dollars.

With respect to investment, U.S.-funded enterprises in China have maintained good performance and gained high profits. Sales revenue in 2015 totaled 517 billion U.S. dollars, and profit reached 36.2 billion U.S. dollars.

Investment from Chinese enterprises in the United States is growing rapidly. Chinese investment projects have taken place in 46 states and 425 congressional districts, creating over 140,000 local jobs.

According to the U.S.-China Business Council, in 2015, U.S. exports to China and China-U.S. two-way investment contributed 216 billion U.S. dollars to the U.S. GDP, and supported 2.6 million local jobs.

China has made relentless efforts in recent years to balance China-U.S. economic and trade relations, the report said.

China has frequently dispatched trade and investment delegations to participate in trade and investment promotion activities in the United States. In February 2012 and September 2015, two large Chinese delegations visited the United States and signed trade, investment and cooperation agreements across all sectors, totaling about 44 billion U.S. dollars.

China has been addressing the specific concerns of the U.S. enterprises through the China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. Since 2004, the two sides have strengthened policy communications through dialogue and consultation and great progress has been made in several areas, including antitrust law enforcement procedures, exports of agricultural products to China, software legalization, and access to China Compulsory Certification (3C) services of foreign-funded enterprises.

Moreover, China has been vigorously promoting trade and economic cooperation between Chinese and U.S. cities, and has been actively building exhibition platforms to expand imports from the United States.

The report called on the United States to give China fair treatment in export and investment issues.

The United States has exercised strict control over high-tech exports to China while criticizing China for encouraging independent innovation, an apparent paradox, according to the report.

The U.S. export control is based on a Cold War mentality, ignoring the rapid development of bilateral ties and not fitting to its future development, the report said.

China hopes that the United States will take concrete actions in easing the export control and effectively loosen the restrictions on products exported to civilian users for civil purposes, which will also help reduce the U.S. trade deficit, according to the report.

China-U.S. trade and economic cooperation has an increasingly important global impact. As important members of the WTO, China and the United States, together with other members, have pushed for the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation, and are parties to the negotiations on the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement and on the Environmental Goods Agreement.

The two sides have increased policy coordination under the framework of the G20, and maintained communication and exchange under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

The cooperation results have showed the vitality and potential for development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, as well as the responsibility of the two powers to the world.

Needless to say, the development of relations has not always been plain sailing. The two sides have had heated debates on several issues, even tensions at times, the report said.

However, the two sides have generally aimed for win-win results through constructive cooperation.

"Dialogue costs much less than confrontation, and cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States," the report said.

The backdrop for the report is a 100-day action plan for China-U.S. comprehensive economic dialogue, which has had "initial results," MOC spokesperson Sun Jiwen told a press conference Thursday.

Sun also highlighted the global impact of economic ties between the world's top two economies, whose economic aggregate accounts for nearly 40 percent of the global total.

"All economies attach great importance to the status quo and future of China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation," Sun said.
In a trading update, Origin said revenues fell 1.2%, to 548.7m in the three months to the end of April, with the bulk of that attributable to currency fluctuations. However, on an underlying basis, revenue for the period was 4.1% ahead of the same period last year, which had been impacted by poorer weather conditions.

For the first nine months of Origins financial year, revenues were up by 4.7%  and 7.1% on an underlying basis  at just over 1.11bn.
Mr Cody was speaking about the effects of Brexit on cross-Border commerce at the Oireachtas Finance Committee, admitting online shopping was going to be challenging for shoppers and Revenue alike, and that Brexit would change the nature of online shopping.

He said: If Irish shoppers are buying online from a UK-based business, it will be exactly the same as if they were buying from the US.

He concurred with the notion that, in the absence of any agreement reached between Ireland and the UK, any online purchase by someone in Ireland for a product in the UK over 22 would result in the levying of Vat at the standard rate.

The immediate focus was on trade and the impact of a hard Brexit but online shopping and cross-border shopping would have to be dealt with, he said.

Mr Cody said traders lack of familiarity of customs would also be challenging.

Our data indicates there are some 12,000 businesses in Ireland exporting to the UK, and over 60,000 importers, he said. In addition, an unknown number of businesses regularly move goods in transit across Northern Ireland and across the UK. Most of these businesses are unfamiliar with customs procedures.

Europe will watch Ireland like hawks to make sure we get Brexit right, the director of public policy and taxation at Chartered Accountants Ireland told the committee. Brian Keegan said the introduction of customs controls between Ireland and the UK is now all but inevitable, and that European partners will insist on complete and rigorous controls over goods traded between Ireland and the UK, and further afield.

Because the nature of the land border to be created for customs is virtually unique, Ireland will be under intense scrutiny from our EU partners to get our customs controls with the UK both watertight and legally valid, he said.

There are two elements to a customs union: The removal of tariffs between countries, and the creation of a common external tariff.

Many of the potential difficulties which we will encounter post-Brexit relate to the latter  to our obligations as one of the remaining 27 EU member states to police the EU Customs Union borders. I regret to say we must now speak of these difficulties with growing certainty that they will emerge.
Opec and allies extended oil production cuts for nine more months after last years landmark agreement failed to eliminate the global oversupply or achieve a sustained price recovery. The producer group, together with Russia and other non-members, agreed to prolong their accord through March, two delegates at the meeting in Vienna said.

Six months after forming an unprecedented coalition of 24 nations and delivering output reductions that exceeded expectations, some of the worlds largest oil producers have faced the fact that they have fallen short of their goal. While stockpiles are shrinking, ministers acknowledged that the surplus built up during three years of overproduction will not clear until at least the end of 2017.
Chairman Carl McCann also reiterated to shareholders at the companys AGM in Dublin that mangement is continuing to pursue attractive acquisition opportunities in order to further expand the business.

The company  which grew revenues last year by 9% to 3.76bn and profits by 17% to 67.7m  said trading for the first four months of 2017 has been satisfactory. On the back of that, management has raised its full-year earnings expectations  now saying it expects adjusted earnings per share, for 2017, to come in at the upper end of the previously-announced 12c-13c range.
The cannabidiol compound reduced convulsive seizures by almost 40% in teenagers and children with Dravet syndrome  one of the most difficult types of epilepsy to treat. In 5% of cases, the debilitating fits afflicting some patients every day stopped altogether.

The drugs manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals, based in Britain and the US, funded the trial, which was carried out by independent researchers.

The compound has been given the brand name Epidiolex, and the company expects to apply to the European Medicines Agency for approval later this year.

In the EU, a company may submit an application via the centralised procedure to the EMA for a single marketing authorisation. If approved, the authorisation is valid in all EU states.

GW chief executive Justin Gover said they want to make the medicine available as quickly as possible.

The States medicines watchdog, the Health Products Regulatory Authority, participates in assessment of applications for medicine authorisations at the EMA.

The drugs full potential could be much bigger if future research shows it can control symptoms of other forms of epilepsy in both children and adults.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a medical-grade cannabis extract containing virtually no high-inducing psychoactive chemicals.

A total of 120 children and teenagers, aged 2-18 were recruited for the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

For those given the cannabis drug over 14 weeks, the typical number of convulsive seizures suffered every month halved from around 12 to 6. Those experiencing at least a 50% reduction in the frequency of convulsive seizures was 43% for the CBD group and 27% for the placebo group.

Side-effects were said to be mild or moderate in severity, most commonly involving vomiting, fatigue, and fever. Eight patients from the CBD group and one taking the placebo dropped out of the trial because of side-effects.

Experts still do not understand precisely how the compound controls epilepsy symptoms  it is thought to work on a network of molecular receptors in the brain and nervous system.

Cork woman, Vera Twomey wants access to a different form of medicinal cannabis for her daughter, Ava, aged 7.

She explains: "We were offered a trial of Epidiolex about two and a half years ago.

We were very excited at the time about the trial. But unfortunately, or fortunately, as it turned out we lost our place on the trial to a child from England."

Ms Twomey, from Aghabullogue, County Cork, said the particular form of the drug at the centre of the study two and a half years ago would have been unsuitable for Ava because of the side-effects: We are looking for medicinal THC to complement the medicinal CBD that she is on on the moment."

Last month Ms Twomey was stopped at Dublin Airport attempting to bring medicinal cannabis into the country from Barcelona. She said of Ava: She has gone through 11 other different forms of medications to treat her seizures, all of which have been unsuccessful. She is reasonably well at the moment but has suffered a number of seizures in the last couple of days.

People Before Profit Alliance TD Gino Kenny, who has put forward the Cannabis for Medical Use Regulation Bill, said it is with the parliamentary legal office. He is not optimistic it will go further: I just want to help people like Vera and the cannabis access programme that the Government favours is quite restrictive.
Garda Paul Dromey described the assaults by Adam OKeeffe as savage, vicious, and without provocation.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain imposed a two-year jail term on the accused with the last six months suspended.

The 26-year-old is from Midleton, Co Cork, and was living at St Vincents hostel, Andersons Quay, Cork, at the time.

Paula McCarthy, defending, said: His partner recently passed away. He has a substance misuse problem. He was homeless at the time and had a history of homelessness. He was highly intoxicated, which is not an excuse.

Judge O Donnabhain said: These were two very violent assaults in the city. Two people were viciously assaulted in unprovoked separate attacks.

OKeeffe pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Lorraine Cullinane and assault causing harm to Shane Sutton at Lower Oliver Plunkett St on May 30, 2016.

Garda Dromey told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that OKeeffe was drinking on the street at 8pm and walked towards the Simon hostel.

Ms Cullinane was in a verbal argument with another woman when Mr Sutton intervened to break it up. OKeeffe arrived on the scene and became violent towards both of them.

Garda Dromey said: He put Mr Sutton up against a wall and punched him a number of times in the face, knocking him to the ground. He then kicked him and stamped on his head six or seven times knocking him unconscious.

He then walked over to Lorraine Cullinane and kicked her full force into the face  one kick. It was quite clear on CCTV that it was a very violent, unprovoked attack.
Foreign Ministry: China to try its best to rescue kidnapped citizens in Pakistan

(Photo/CGTN)

China will continue to make maximum efforts alongside Pakistan to ensure the safe return of two Chinese nationals kidnapped in Pakistan and will take further actions to protect Chinese individuals and organizations in the country, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang at a regular news briefing on Thursday.

Lu's response came a day after two Chinese language teachers were kidnapped by unknown gunmen who pretended to be policemen in Quetta, southwest Pakistan.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to the safety of its overseas citizens and condemns any forms of kidnapping, said Lu, adding that Chinese authorities and China's ambassador to Pakistan immediately launched emergency response mechanism, and called on Pakistani authorities to rescue the abductees as quickly as possible.
Following a meeting with the whistleblower, held in private, the PAC is demanding the HSE hand over the audit report, conducted by Deloitte before June 15, when health bosses are due back in before the committee.

PAC chairman Sean Fleming, speaking to the Irish Examiner, said the HSE will be told to provide the Deloitte report into claims of funding cuts to the whistle-blowers agency when she highlighted the Grace case.

HSE director general Tony OBrien said in a letter to the PAC on Wednesday that he hopes to provide it to the PAC by then but may be unable to do so.

Mr Fleming last night demanded the full report be handed over by June 15. He said: Its not might be completed by then; it is to be completed by then. While its a draft report, it was in the settlement [in court] and the time has come to look for it.

The Deloitte report was due to be released by the end of April, and was highlighted in the recent High Court case which saw the HSE agree to pay Grace 6.3m because of failures in her care.

Included in that was a figure of 600,000, which was to cover the HSEs failure to properly support her since the scandal emerged in 2009.

Mr Fleming said that, following the whistleblowers briefing to the committee yesterday, the PAC will seek to question Mr OBrien on a number of contradictions in evidence that have emerged.

Among the issues they wish to pursue is why a decision to remove Grace from the foster home in which she was abused was overturned. They will also further examine possible conflicts of interests in how tenders for two reports into the scandal were awarded.

After today we have concerns the conflict of interest is far greater than we thought, said one committee member.

The whistleblower briefed PAC members for two hours and was remarkably courageous.

The whistleblower will provide her testimony and evidence to the PAC directly to the newly established commission of investigation.

Committee members were in agreement in commending the whistleblower for her courage in speaking out.

The amount of information and the courage that the whistleblower displayed was quite extraordinary, said PAC member and Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell.

The whistleblower said she was happy with the engagement with the committee, saying the meeting was detailed and added to their [PACs] understanding of whats happened.

The whistleblower said there is no reason why the Deloitte report cannot be published as the HSE has already accepted its findings.

Grace was one of 47 children and young adults with intellectual disabilities who went through the foster home, located in the south-east, and were subjected to sexual and physical abuse.

Following reports in the Irish Examiner last year, the previous Government committed to establishing a commission of inquiry. This was only formally established this year.
The defendant pleaded not guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to 15 separate counts  eight for defilement and seven for sexual assault in the latter half of 2011.

The verdicts were delivered after the jury was told that majority verdicts of 11-1 or 10-2 would be acceptable if they could not reach unanimous verdicts.

There was no unanimous verdict. On the eight defilement charges there were two 11-1 and six 10-2 guilty verdicts. On the seven sexual assault charges, there were two 11-1 verdicts and five of 10-2.

Elizabeth OConnell, defending, said the defendant could be sentenced at any time convenient to the court.

Siobhan Lankford said time would be needed for the preparation of a victim impact report.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain remanded him in custody for sentencing at Cork Circuit Criminal Court on June 22.

He cannot be identified as it could lead to the identification of the complainant.

She is now aged 18 and told the jury during the four-day trial that her uncle had a sexual relationship with her for several months when she was 12 years old.

The teenager said that there was sexual intercourse every second day, if not every, day during that period of time.

Ms OConnell asked why she did not state the full extent of the alleged sexual intercourse when she first made a complaint.

Why? Because I was in love. I did not want this man going to jail. But now that I am grown up I know it was wrong, the complainant replied.

The accused man did not give evidence from the witness box but the jury heard of the denials he made when questioned by gardai about the allegations. His lawyer also made submissions on his behalf.

Ms OConnell said that not alone did he not do it but he could not have done so as he suffered from erectile dysfunction. His wife testified that he had been able to have sex with her in the months before the alleged incidents complained of by his niece.
It has also emerged that his brother, Hashim, who is being held in Tripoli, claimed that Abedi learned to build bombs from the internet and was hoping to seek victory for the Islamic State.

The revelations emerged as, in Ireland, Garda commissioner Noirin OSullivan urged that the force retain responsibility for both state security and policing.

Her comments were made as Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the Government would reflect on setting up a separate security and intelligence agency, amid calls from Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin for such a body.

Ms OSullivan was speaking at the bi-annual commissioners conference in west Dublin, attended by the most senior officers and senior Department of Justice civil servants.

She said gardai have a great track record in combating terrorism and subversive organisations; that a single organisation ensures intelligence flows easily and quickly and that there is no turf war between separate agencies; and that there are many examples abroad where intelligence is not shared between separate policing and security agencies.

Sources told the Irish Examiner that Ms OSullivan said she was of the view that the force has a strong track record in protecting national security. She said there is value to a joint security and policing model which avoids turf wars between separate agencies.

Mr Kenny chaired a meeting yesterday of the National Security Committee to discuss the ramifications of the Manchester bombing.

Emergency measures to cope with a terrorist attack and the surveillance of individuals potentially linked to terrorism were discussed.

Ahead of several large concerts and events in the weeks ahead, ministers were told gardai here are working closely with organisers to ensure appropriate safety and security is in place.

Ministers were told that regular scenario exercises or simulated attacks continue to be held.

Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald said: Of equal importance is the ongoing work to ensure that people do not become alienated from our society and radicalised. Terrorism is caused not by particular religions or peoples, it is caused by hatred.

Damien McCarthy, representing members of the Garda Representative Association in Dublin South Central, told the Irish Examiner the National Security Committee meeting and the statement issued was a box-ticking exercise.

He said the failure to invest in basics of policing, such as garda numbers, training, and community policing, means the force is not able to properly respond to events such as terrorist incidents, including their prevention.
Mr Ring, who wanted to be lord mayor of Dublin during the Centenary year of 2016, has arrears debts totalling more than 500,000 on their house at 63 St Lawrence Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3.

Sheila Finn, counsel for the bank, told Judge Jacqueline Linnane in the Circuit Civil Court that Mr Ring and his wife owed 514,817 in arrears alone on three loans taken out initially with the governor of the Bank of Ireland and transferred to Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank in 2005.

Ms Finn, who appeared with Kane Tuohy Solicitors, said the couple had taken out three loans in 2003 for separate amounts of 234,000; 380,000 and 486,000, a total of 1,100,000.

She said repayments on the loans amounted to 8,000 a month and following default of almost 500,000 the bank had sought repayment and, in the event of failure, had warned the Rings it would seek a possession order.

Neither Mr Ring nor his wife were in court yesterday to hear Judge Linnane hand the property back to the bank with legal costs. She granted the Rings a stay of six months to find alternative accommodation or reach an acceptable arrangement with the bank.

Counsel for the Rings asked the court for an adjournment.

She said Mr Ring had recently found a new job as a consultant to a mine drilling company in which US companies had a takeover interest.

She said Mr Ring had made a number of monthly payments of 10,000 as a result of his new employment and felt confident that he could arrange a new financing deal on the loans with another lender without any court orders being made against him.

Judge Linnane said she accepted some payments of 10,000 had been made in recent months but these were not as good as they seemed in that the normal monthly repayment on the three loans was 8,000 anyway.

It would take a long time for him to pay off the half million euro plus arrears, never mind the loans, and I accept the banks contention that the ongoing situation is unrealistic, the judge said.
Stephen Massey, aged 42, and Niamh McCarthy, aged 36, both of Connawood Lawn, Old Connaught Avenue, Bray, Co Wicklow, had sued the defendants for defamation, assault, wrongful arrest and false imprisonment at the concert in Stradbally Hall, Co Laois.

Both accepted undisclosed settlement offers from the organisers Ep Festivals Limited and Live Nation Ireland Limited, both with addresses at 3Arena, North Wall Quay, Dublin.
ANNE MADDEN returned to Dublin some years ago, after spending more than 30 years living in the south of France with her husband, the artist Louis le Brocquy. But imaginatively, at least a part of her is very much still there. Her new paintings are full of what she calls the sky, the sea and Mediterranean light. And, even their unifying theme is distinctly Mediterranean, referencing Ariadnes golden thread, which the mythic figure gave to Theseus when he went into the Minotaurs labyrinth.

Her house, on a terrace of villas on a quiet street in Portobello, Dublin, is full of her and her late husbands work. What stands out from Maddens is its scale and its use of colour, two things strongly to the fore in her show of new work, opening next month at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

Its all to do, really, with how to get that bad side of us out, she says after we sit down at a coffee table, James Joyces death mask looking down upon us from its perch on the wall. Is the light going to take away the darkness? Its all to do with light and darkness. The Minotaur who lurks in some of the paintings says a lot about us humans, she says.

Although Madden is reluctant to ascribe too much of the autobiographical to her work  it is, after all, the artists privilege to express an impulse rather than interrogate it  her life has certainly had its share of light and dark. Her father died in a car crash when she was a teenager. Later, her sister and brother-in-law died in a plane crash, leaving three young children for whom Madden became guardian. Her brother, also as a young man, died in a domestic accident, fatally injuring himself falling down a stairs. As for Madden herself, a riding accident in her late teens left her confined to bed for three years as she endured a series of spinal operations, with doctors predicting shed never walk again.

Ghastly things, she says. Its all still there, I dont know what life is like without all that, but tragedy does live with you, it goes along with you. You dont get rid of it.

Most recently, of course, has seen the death of her husband, in 2012. He was 95 and had been suffering with Alzheimers. What happened to him was agonising, she says, which made it agonising for me. But there is nothing you can do except get through it. I think time does help. It somehow sort of make you understand that it has happened and thats it. You want him back, you want to die yourself, but you go on. I suppose my work helps me really.

We turn to a series of works she did in the period after le Brocquys death  each haunted by a dark, central figure, almost as if in a coffin or grave. It looks like the definition of working through something.

I think Im lucky to have the work, she says. It makes me feel like Im trying to do something. So I tell myself I am lucky. I try to think of all the good things. Its very easy to go on crying for the rest of your life, she says, with a dry laugh.

She and le Brocquy enjoyed successful, glamorous lives in the south of France. Times she calls paradisal. They raised their children, partied with the beautiful people, made their own wine and olive oil, and worked side by side in a shared studio. Artistically, its not an arrangement that would suit every couple, but Madden puts the lack of rivalry down to their 17-year age difference.

If wed have been the same age, I think it might have been very different between us. But I had different influences. The people who were of great importance to me were different for me than him, right along up to the 20th century, when Matisse was important to me, whereas for Louis, it was Picasso. It was completely different. We were on different roads, which was probably for the better!

Madden gained repute in France, representing Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1965, and frequently showing in the city after that. Her work is in the collections of major institutions such as the Musee dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Georges Pompidou centre, and the Picasso Museum.

It was a reputation that did not extend fully to Ireland, despite a major retrospective at IMMA. Here, she has been somewhat in her husbands shadow. I did pretty well in France, she says. They didnt see me as Louiss wife. But here, I didnt exist! I accepted that though, ages before we moved back. Some times it irritated me. But on the whole it never bothered me at all.

Maddens first experience of Ireland was in 1945, when she moved here after spending her early years in Chile, where her father had a farm. She was born, though, in London, her mother undertaking the arduous ocean voyage while pregnant specifically to ensure that fact. The young Madden began exploring the Burren in those years, and its landscapes were an important early influence on her work.

It was a most extraordinary country, then, she recalls. It was like coming to a rainy Greece, especially then, when everybody was in shawls and without shoes. I fell in love immediately, I feel like Im made of the same stuff as the Burren. Its very peculiar, but I love that place.

Madden describes herself as very much an Irish European and when the conversation turns to public matters, she expresses her relief at the election of Emmanuel Macron, and her dismay over the Arts Councils recent demands on the workings of Aosdana.

One must try to keep the flag flying for civilisation. But the government is horrendous.

In France, politicians seem much more comfortable valuing the nations patrimonie culturel as more than just a marketing opportunity. Is it the education system here? Madden wonders. I think it must be. Children not being taken to the theatre like we were, doing plays at school, so we knew them by heart, learning music. Its such a pity.

And yet, there is always the work. She is still drawn back to the studio: working every day for several hours. Its exciting to try to do it, she says. You never get there, but you keep trying.
Friday, May 26th, 2017 (7:57 am) - Score 4,126

Customers of Sky Broadband, specifically those who have enabled the Shield (Parental Control) service, wont have been able to view ISPreview.co.uk since yesterday evening because the ISP has wrongfully blocked us under their Phishing and Malware category. But theres a political twist..

Upon first hearing about the unusual censorship (thanks to all those who Emailed or Tweeted) we immediately began conducting some scans in order to see if any nasty viruses or malware had crept in but came up empty. Similarly none of the popular online website security monitors (e.g. Sucuri) have reported an infection. So far as we could tell, all of ISPreview.co.uks systems and files were clean.

At this point things start to get very interesting. A quick test via Qutteras scanner claimed that two of our news articles contained a link to EXTERNAL sites (i.e. nothing to do with our own server) that had apparently been blacklisted for Malware and those articles are here:

Naturally we were intrigued, particularly given the political angle of the blacklist. Sure enough Quttera stated that the problem wasnt with ISPreview.co.uk itself but rather the fact that Amazons Cloud server, specifically the one holding the PDF formatted 2017 Conservative Party Manifesto (s3.eu-west-*.amazonaws.com), appears to have been blacklisted for Malware.

A lot of news sites used the same PDF link for their Manifesto coverage and the Conservatives own website also uses it. Ive changed the Amazon URL above to avoid this news article being blacklisted too and below is an example of the problem. The Liberal Democrat article was most likely tagged incidentally because it linked to the same news article and had a link to the same PDF on Amazons Server.

In short, ISPreview.co.uk is fine but it appears as if most or all of our entire site is being blocked by Skys Parental Controls because a single EXTERNAL link in just one of our news articles may have been compromised. NOTE: I ran a check on the Conservative PDF and it was clean, instead the issue seems to be with two .JS [Javascript] files that were hosted on the same Amazon server, which doesnt even affect the PDF itself.

Now to me that is overzealous filtering at its worst, with an odd political plot twist to boot, but others may take a different view. As a site that has existed for nearly two decades we obviously have hundreds of thousands of pages, yet to block most or all of that site just because one EXTERNAL link has briefly gone bad seems ridiculous (Amazon will hopefully have cleaned it by now). Not to mention that were a consumer information site that covers broadband ISPs like Sky, which adds another fun dynamic to the filtering debate.

I should add that we have only tested the Sky Broadband Shield block with the PG (Parental Guidance) level restriction, although the same block may apply on their other age related restrictions. In the meantime weve removed the direct link to the Conservative manifesto, although assuming Amazons server was the cause then the Malware tag might be affecting many more sites than ours.

At least were in good company because everybody from Facebook to Imgur has in the past been hit by Sky Broadbands network-level filtering systems (examples here, here and here).

We have of course attempted to contact Sky about this and are awaiting their response.

UPDATE 10:19am

Apparently Vodafone Home Broadband customers may have also faced a similar block today.

UPDATE 10:38am

The Quttera scanner should no longer report any Malware on the two news stories as it has now recognised that the Manifesto links were removed earlier this morning. Still waiting to hear from Sky.

UPDATE 11:25am

Weve run a quick test and it appears as if Sky has now removed the block. The operator has confirmed this and we are awaiting some clarity on their reasons.

UPDATE 1:18pm

Now for Skys official response, which more or less confirms what has already been said.

A Sky Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk: Our Broadband team were advised that the ISPreview website contained a threat of Malware of Phishing and for this reason it was automatically blocked. After manually investigating, we identified that there was no risk from the site itself and removed the block.

No mention of any changes being made to avoid other sites being blocked like this in the future.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 can be unlocked using a piece of paper, a piece of contact lens and some basic photography skills. Hackers have found a way to bypass the popular flagship smartphone's iris scanner, one of its security features.

Linus Neumann and his team of researchers from the Chaos Computer Club or CCC first took a photo of the subject using a digital camera. They used the camera's night mode and shot the owner of the phone from medium range. The hackers then cropped the photo to get a life-sized printout of the subject's eye. A contact lens was then placed on the eye. Motherboard reported that the contact lens was probably used to give depth to the photo. The team then used the combination of paper, photo and contact lens to successfully bypass the iris scanner and unlock the Galaxy S8.

BGR pointed out that the team didn't even need to use a high-quality photo to bypass the iris scanner. Add the fact that the photo was taken from medium range distance suggests that the security feature is not really taking minute details into consideration.

Samsung boasts that its iris scanner is "one of the safest ways to keep your phone locked and the contents private." The Korean tech giant also said on its website that the patterns in the irises are unique so it is impossible to copy them. The hackers just proved Samsung wrong.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 got some negative feedback after someone was able to unlock the device using a photograph. A photo of the Galaxy S8's owner's face was used to unlock the handset via its facial recognition feature. The video of the hack immediately drew concerns that the security feature is not that secure.

Now that it just been discovered that the Galaxy S8 can be unlocked using both facial recognition and iris scanner, some users may now be wondering how to stay safe and secure. For something so sophisticated, it is surprising to know that iris scanners and face recognition technology can easily be fooled by something as simple as a photo printed on a piece of paper.
As China's total imports are expected to reach $8 trillion in the next five years, it will bring immense business opportunities for companies in the United States to further balance bilateral trade, the Ministry of Commerce said in a major report released on Thursday.

Products and goods from the energy industry, agriculture, general manufacturing and services will boost trade between the two countries, according to the Research Report on China-US Economic and Trade Relations.

China also plans to import more US soybeans and cotton as well as advanced manufactured items such as passenger aircraft, integrated circuits and machine tools, it said.

"An increase in these imports will support China's services and also help us upgrade our industrial sectors," said Sun Jiwen, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.

Sino-US trade surged from $2.5 billion in 1979 to $524.3 billion last year. It also accounted for 14.1 percent of China's total foreign trade in 2016, according to the General Administration of Customs.

China and the US also will discuss plans to expand US film imports this year, according to the report.

"Economic globalization is a basis for further development of China-US trade relations," Sun said.

China is a manufacturing powerhouse in mid-and low-end goods. But the US is still the dominant player in high-value industries. The US also has an extremely sophisticated service industry and thrives on innovation, research and development.

"China and the US still have sensitive economic fields and their own focuses of concern," Sun said. "Factors such as national conditions and stages of development determine the status, division of labor and openness of the two countries in a globalized world."

The report also stressed that the US continues to enforce high-tech export controls to China, which prohibits the sale of a range of highly competitive products in the country. This has played a big role in slowing down the exchange of scientific and technological knowledge.

In 2001, US high-tech exports accounted for 16.7 percent of China's imports of similar goods. Last year, the figure fell to 8.2 percent.

"A historical view of their differences is important to accurately grasp the trend and development of bilateral economic and trade relations between China and the US," Sun said.

Still, closer trade ties look possible, according to Wei Jianguo, vice-president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Wei is confident the China-US Bilateral Investment Treaty can be completed under the 100-day action plan agreed on by the two countries.

This will cover a range of sectors like agriculture, financial services and energy.

"The key to the negotiations lies in the negatives," said Wei. "It's likely that the US thinks China's negative list is too long." A negative list shows areas where investment is prohibited; all other areas as presumed open.

"China ought to take action like relaxing foreign equity limits for banks, while the US should consider opening its high-tech sector to China."
Enterprises may say they are committed to Microsoft's browsers, that they continue to define the venerable Internet Explorer (IE) as their employees' standard. But reality is different, an analyst argued Thursday.

"Microsoft retains a very strong relationship with [enterprise] IT," said David Michael Smith, of Gartner, in an interview. "Most enterprises still have a 'standard' browser, and most of the time, that's something from Microsoft. These days it's IE11. But we've found that people actually use Chrome more than IE."

Smith, who was wrapping up a rewrite and update of a 2015 research report on browsers in the enterprise, was adamant that, as Gartner at the time forecast, Chrome is the kingpin. "It's the most-used browser in enterprise" he said.

IE retains a sizable share -- Smith called it "a significant presence" -- largely because it's still required in most companies. "There are a lot of [enterprise] applications that only work in IE, because [those apps] use plug-ins," Smith said, ticking off examples like Adobe Flash, Java and Microsoft's own Silverlight. "Anything that requires an ActiveX control needs IE."

Many businesses have adopted the two-prong strategy that Gartner and others began recommending years ago: Keep a "legacy" browser to handle older sites, services and web apps, but offer another for everything else. That approach lets employees access the old, but does not punish them with a creaky, sub-standard browser for general-purpose surfing.

Under such a model, Internet Explorer has played, and continues to play, the legacy role.

For the second half of the two-prong practice, enterprises offer workers a "modern" browser, one that largely if not entirely disposes with plug-ins, hews to accepted internet standards and quickly renders pages and apps, typically by calling on the machine's graphics processor as well as its CPU.

[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ] Chrome, said Smith, is now the "overwhelming choice" as the modern enterprise browser.

Microsoft hopes to change that with its Windows 10-centric Edge browser. Repeatedly dubbed "modern" by Microsoft, Edge can run alongside IE11 on the same device, a first for Microsoft. With IE11 and Edge, Microsoft contends, enterprise customers can wage the two-prong strategy of legacy and modern, all within Redmond's own ecosystem.

The problem with the plan is that Edge runs only on Windows 10, and since Windows 10 has yet to replace Windows 7, Microsoft's own modern browser is unavailable to most customers.

Smith wasn't optimistic that Edge would supplant Chrome, even when Windows 10 is widely deployed on corporate computers in the next few years. "Edge certainly will have opportunities" once Windows 10 is the enterprise-standard OS, "but I would say that Chrome has a lot of momentum, largely for the fact that it is so popular on the internet."

Smith's reference was to Chrome's surge last year into first place in the browser market, pushing aside both IE and Edge. As of April, analytics vendor Net Applications' estimated Chrome's global share at 59%, IE+Edge at 24%, or less than half. A year earlier, the rivals had been neck and neck at 41%.

And enterprises are happy with Chrome, Smith asserted. Although Microsoft's browsers retain the decades-old manageability advantage that kept so many enterprises locked into IE for so long, Chrome is no slouch. "Chrome has gotten to the point that it's manageable enough for most enterprises," said Smith.

Microsoft still relies on manageability as it beats the drum for Edge. Earlier this month, for example, Microsoft boasted of the group policies added for Edge with Windows 10's April "Creators Update" feature upgrade, aka version 1703.

But with a "good enough" set of group policies -- Smith estimated Google supports Chrome with around 300 policies, including ones that control how the browser is updated through the Google Update tool -- Microsoft's Edge, once Edge appears on most desktops, may not budge the usurper.

Not everyone is ready to write off Edge's chances, however.

"We really don't see Edge yet [used by our customers], because we really don't see Windows 10 yet," said Gary Schare, president of Browsium, a maker of enterprise browser management tools and formerly the head of product management for IE. But of the smattering of customers who have put Windows 10 on PCs, about half have assigned Edge as the modern browser. (The other half adopted Chrome.)

There will come an inflection point, Schare contended, when IE as a legacy browser will no longer be needed, and a single, modern browser will serve all needs. The true test for Edge, Schare said, will be when that inflection point is reached.

"I think the drumbeat about Edge is finally getting through to people," Schare said in an interview Wednesday. "Microsoft is clearly serious about Edge."

To Schare, Google's latest move in supporting Chrome in the enterprise -- a bundle that packaged Chrome, management templates and a legacy-capable add-on -- is evidence of the Mountain View, Calif., company's recognition that Microsoft, and Edge, remain a threat.

"Google doesn't want to see [Edge becoming the primary browser]," said Schare. "But at some point, Microsoft and Google will duke it out for the enterprise browser."
Night scene in Beijing (file photo)

How safe is China? is a question posted on a U.S. social networking site in 2015. This is also a question that most Chinese people have not seriously thought about before. Yet it has attracted hundreds of netizens attention worldwide and brought about a heated discussion online recently.

Christopher Oliva, who has been living in China since 2008, answered the question How safe is China online and said: This (China) is probably the country where I feel the safest.

27-year-old African-American Matthew Bell mentioned in his answer that comparing to other countries in the world, China is much more peaceful and has no gun violence. Lom Harshni, a female writer and published author living in China for 14 years, said that she has never been teased on the street and believed that China has to be one of the safest countries in the world today. And Lecturer Farzan Safavi highly praised Chinas work on keeping the most populous country so safe, saying its truly a work of art.

Many cities in China are pretty crowded, but you can still feel safe and composed and find Chinese people there are hospitable and kind. You do not have to worry about being robbed when walking down the street in the middle of the night or when having Chinese kebab with your friends on the street trying to enjoy the night. It is not bragging; its the reality of how people live in China. So, friends, welcome to China, and you will be surprised to find how safe the country is.

(This commentary is from the editorial board of the People's Daily)
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addresses a press conference after the one-day NATO Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be a full member of the Global Coalition against the Islamic State (IS), Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. (Xinhua/NATO)

BRUSSELS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be a full member of the Global Coalition against the Islamic State (IS), NATO chief said Thursday.

"We agreed that NATO will become a full member of the Global Coalition, in which all 28 allies already take part," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference after Thursday's NATO summit.

"Being in the coalition does not mean that NATO will engage in combat," he told reporters, adding that the decision taken by leaders of NATO's 28 allied nations aimed to send a strong signal to fight global terrorism.

NATO will also take part in political deliberations, including on the coordination of training and capacity building, he added.

NATO leaders from allied countries gathered here for their first meeting at NATO's new headquarters in Brussels, with military spending, counterterrorism on the agenda.
ZHENGZHOU, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese media should be innovators in news coverage and dissemination, the publicity chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC) said Thursday.

"The CPC stresses integrated media development and fostering a new type of mainstream media. The CPC underscores media innovation to make their products more accessible," Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, said when addressing a seminar attended by Chinese and Vietnamese Communist Party members to discuss Party leadership in publicity.

Liu said the CPC has always considered news reporting and publicity work as an important part of state governance and stability. He said since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has improved the Party's leadership in publicity to inspire the whole nation to work for a better future.

"The CPC will continue to lead the media so that it guides public opinion toward a right direction, and the CPC counts on mainstream media to unite and inspire the people to form cohesion," Liu said.

Vietnamese media organizations are also working to transform themselves to meet the reality of new media, said Vo Van Thuong, Liu's counterpart in Vietnam.

Liu and Thuong held talks Wednesday on consolidating the relationship between the two parties and countries and had exchanges on deepening cooperation between publicity departments and media outlets.
The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it has started a likely yearlong review process for three modified-risk tobacco product applications submitted by a subsidiary of Philip Morris International.

Philip Morris Products SA submitted applications for the iQOS systems with Marlboro Heatsticks, Marlboro Smooth Menthol Heatsticks and Marlboro Fresh Menthol Heatsticks.

The FDA has posted the applicants executive and research summaries at its Center for Tobacco Products website  https://www.fda.gov/Tobacco Products/. A docket for public comments will be established for the Federal Register at www.regulations.gov.

Philip Morris International entered the FDA gauntlet in December to have its electronically heated cigarette reviewed as a potential reduced-risk product.

PMI said the application for iQOS represents the next step in building a reduced-risk product portfolio that meets a broad spectrum of adult smoker preferences and rigorous regulatory requirements. It has invested more than $2 billion in reduced-risk product development.

The technology is in use with the Marlboro HeatStick device in Italy, Japan and Switzerland. PMI has expressed optimism for debuting the heat sticks in the U.S. by late 2017 or early 2018.

Analysts have projected that the cost of an FDA regulatory review would be several million dollars for each premarket tobacco product application. An application is expected to be required for each flavoring and nicotine content level.

By comparison, the FDA estimates the average cost of a premarket tobacco product application at $466,563 each.

There is no available cost projection for modified-risk tobacco product applications.

The FDA debuted Aug. 8 its latest round of heightened regulations on tobacco product innovations.

Complicating the review process is the transition from the Obama administration, which supported tighter regulations on tobacco products, to the Trump administration, which is likely to favor reducing regulations overall, as does a Republican-controlled Congress.

Scott Ballin, past chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health, said the application for the iQOS technology was estimated at more than 2 million pages.

Bonnie Herzog, a Wells Fargo Securities analyst, said in October that U.S. retailer interest was growing for a heat-not-burn product even though the only one in the market, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.s Eclipse, is in limited distribution.

While this designation could be very powerful from a global public health standpoint, (the manufacturer) will need to file a premarket tobacco product application to commercialize the product in the U.S. via an exclusive licensing agreement with Philip Morris USA, Herzog said.

The premarket application would allow PMI to market the heat sticks in the U.S. without making a health claim  similar to how it is sold in a test market in Japan.

Herzog said 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. combustible cig market could be converted to iQOS by 2025, resulting in incremental volume for Philip Morris USA as it could take up to 9 share points and reach 60 market share by 2025.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. acknowledged in August 2015 that it was discontinuing its second attempt in 12 years at marketing a heated cigarette, Revo.

Reynolds shelved Revo after launching a test market in Wisconsin in February. The product sold at retail for about $6 a pack. Susan Cameron, Reynolds chief executive and president, had expressed confidence that heat-not-burn finally finds its time.

Although Cameron stressed Reynolds is not exiting the heat-not-burn category, the repeat failure did not appear to surprise analysts, who have questioned the level of demand for heated cigarettes, particularly given the inability to match the taste that comes from a traditional cigarette.

Eclipse, the companys first national attempt at the heat-not-burn category from 2003 to 2007, also ended because the product struggled to gain traction with adult smokers.
Wells Fargo & Co. has joined the list of financial institutions taking a financial hit related to a foreign tax credit dispute with the Internal Revenue Service.

A federal judge in Minnesota ruled Wednesday that Wells Fargo is subject to a negligence penalty involving the tax credits, but allowed the bank to deduct an undisclosed amount of interest expenses on a related $1.25 billion loan.

Wells Fargo said in a statement Thursday that we are pleased that the judge ruled in our favor regarding the $1.25 billion loan that Wells Fargo received as part of the transaction.

However, we are disappointed with the other ruling. At this time we are reviewing the case to determine our next steps.

The lawsuit centers on Wells Fargos use of financial dealings known as STARS transactions, or Structured Trust Advantage Repackaged Securities.

Several large U.S. banks, including Bank of New York Mellon Corp., BB&T Corp., Santander Holdings U.S.A. and Wachovia Corp., also separately participated in the transactions.

A STARS transaction involves a company buying an asset, setting up a trust and then issuing securities to investors as a source of revenue.

U.S. tax laws allow for the use of foreign tax credits for companies that conduct global business since U.S. companies are taxed on their worldwide income.

In the case of Wells Fargo, BB&T and several of the other banks, they worked with British banking giant Barclays Bank PLC in the transactions. Barclays gained U.K. tax benefits from the transactions while making a monthly payment to the banks.

The IRS brought the case against Wells Fargo in October 2009, claiming the foreign tax credits should be disallowed because the transactions were a sham for tax purposes.

According to the judges order, a sham is a transaction characterized as not being motivated by any economic purpose outside of tax considerations.

The IRS said the Wells Fargo-Barclays transaction consisted of a trust structure and a loan, the latter consisting of a $1.25 billion Barclays contribution to the Wells Fargo trust.

The IRS assessed a $76 million tax bill on the loan, which a federal jury upheld in November.

The IRS wanted the judge to approve an additional 20 percent penalty for underpayments related to the foreign tax credits.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined in June 2014 to hear a Wells Fargo appeal of an earlier ruling.

In March 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the STARS-related appeals from BB&T, BNY Mellon and American International Group Inc.

In February 2010, BB&T received IRS notice that the bank had a tax deficiency for the tax years 2002-07 valued at $892 million. BB&T paid the disputed tax, penalties and interest to the IRS in March 2010 before filing a lawsuit seeking a refund.

A key element was Barclays issuing a $1.5 billion loan to a trust controlled by BB&T. The loan then was sold to BB&T for the original $1.5 billion, plus interest.

In September 2013, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied BB&Ts request for a $660 million refund. The court applied $112 million in penalties.

In response, BB&T took a $250 million after-tax charge in the third quarter of 2013. The bank took a $281 million charge in the first quarter of 2013 as part of setting aside reserves for disputed tax liabilities.

In May 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied BB&Ts request for a refund. The appeal judges ruling listed $74.5 million in interest deductions that the IRS denied, along with denying $498.2 million of foreign tax credits.

The appeal judges said BB&T was entitled to claim deductions on the interest it paid as well as other potential adjustments.

BB&T spokesman Brian Davis said in March 2016 with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that BB&T continues to firmly believe that this was a legitimate financing transaction and in compliance with the rules of the day.
N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein is opposing President Donald Trumps proposal to eliminate federal funding for legal assistance for poor people, Steins office said Thursday.

The Trump administrations budget proposal, released this week, has called for eliminating Legal Services Corp., which has a current appropriation of $385 million. Legal Services provides funding for 133 Legal Aid agencies throughout the country, including Legal Aid of North Carolina, which has a Winston-Salem office. The agency provides legal assistance in getting domestic-violence restraining orders or keeping people from losing their homes to foreclosure.

Jim Sandman, president of Legal Services, told the Winston-Salem Journal earlier this year that most Legal Aid agencies get an average of 38 percent of their funding from Legal Services. Legal Aid of North Carolina gets 48 percent of its funding from Legal Services, George Hausen, the agencys director, has said.

Stein, a Democrat, joined a bipartisan group of 32 attorneys general in urging Congress to oppose the Trump administrations proposal.

These resources provide critical legal support for people in dire situations, Stein said in a news release. Everyone deserves access to quality representation and fair treatment in the justice system. I urge Congress to continue to fund this important program.

Legal Aid of North Carolina has about 150 lawyers, including 130 who work full-time, across the state. Nearly 4 million people are eligible for Legal Aids services, Hausen has said.

Stein said in the news release that Legal Services helps rural and low-income communities, veterans and military families, and aids victims of natural disasters, among other things.

Legal Services has filed a request with Congress for $527.8 million for fiscal year 2018, according to a news release from the agency.

Stein signed a letter that was also signed by attorneys general from Alaska, American Samoa, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington, D.C.; Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.

The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the president was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, though it did not name Kushner.

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.

The Post has not been told that Kushner is a target  or the central focus  of the investigation, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Target is a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect of investigators attention, though prosecutors can and do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.

Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, said Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys.

In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are also looking broadly into possible financial crimes  but the people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not specify who or what was being examined.

Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said, I cant confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations. The FBI declined to comment.

At the time of the December meetings, Trump already had won the election. Contacts between people on the transition team and foreign governments can be routine, but the meetings and phone calls with the Russians were not made public at the time.

In early December, Kushner met in New York with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak. Flynn was also present at the early-December meeting, and later that month, Flynn held a call with Kislyak to discuss U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn initially mischaracterized the conversation, even to Vice President Mike Pence  ultimately prompting his ouster from the White House.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russias annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the December meetings, a former senior intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating to the spring of 2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak  along with close Trump adviser and current attorney general Jeff Sessions  were present at an April 2016 event at the Mayflower where then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia. It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.

The New York Times reported that Kushner omitted from security-clearance forms his December meetings with Kislyak and Gorkov, though his attorney said that was mere error and he told the FBI soon after that he would amend the forms. The White House said that his meetings were normal and inconsequential.

Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House.

He is arguably the presidents most trusted adviser, and he is also a close member of the presidents family. His list of policy responsibilities is vast  his foreign policy portfolio alone includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East  yet he rarely speaks publicly about any of them.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller III is now leading the probe into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and he has set up shop in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown District of Columbia. Even before he was picked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to take over the case, investigators had been stepping up their efforts  issuing subpoenas and looking to conduct interviews, people familiar with the matter said.

A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was recently notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing.

It is unclear exactly how Muellers leadership will affect the direction of the probe. This week, Justice Department ethics experts cleared him to take over the case even though lawyers at his former firm, WilmerHale, represent several people who could be caught up in the matter, including Kushner, Manafort and Trumps daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner.

Mueller resigned from the firm to take over the investigation.

Investigators are continuing to look into the dealings of Flynn, and a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., recently issued subpoenas for records related to Flynns businesses and finances, according to people familiar with the matter.

Flynns company, the Flynn Intel Group, was paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.

Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagons top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.
UNITED NATIONS, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Thursday that to better protect civilians in armed conflicts, countries should foster a sense of community of shared future.

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), made the remarks at a Security Council debate on the protection of civilians in war zones.

"Countries must foster a sense of community of shared future and promote the concept of global governance based on extensive consultations, joint contributions and shared benefits in order to build a peaceful and safe international environment," he said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been actively campaigning for initiatives on conflict prevention and durable peace, Liu said, adding that the international community should be working "with one mind implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and tackle the deep-rooted causes of conflict."

"It is necessary to advocate a culture of peace and promote national reconciliation," he said.

The ambassador called on the Security Council to effectively shoulder the responsibility of maintaining peace and security by promoting dialogues and negotiations, as well as sustaining efforts to find political solutions to hot-spot issues.

Liu noted that parties to conflicts must respect the international humanitarian law and implement relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

He also stressed the necessity of enhancing information exchange and policy alignment so as to help war-raging countries better protect their civilians.

"We must do a good job of providing humanitarian assistance in armed conflicts," he said.

"China hereby pays tribute to all medical workers and humanitarian relief agencies for their humanitarian spirit in healing the wounded and rescuing the dying in armed conflicts," said the envoy.

Guterres called for actions Thursday to ensure the protection of civilians in areas of conflict, including full respect for international humanitarian law.

The secretary general also called for safeguarding health facilities and medical and humanitarian personnel, an central issue of Thursday's session chaired by Uruguay.
WASHINGTON -- President Trump's budget demonstrates the costs of accepting lies as a normal currency in politics, broken promises as a customary way of doing business, false claims of being "populist" as the equivalent of the real thing, and sloppiness as what we should expect from government.

Trump's fiscal plan was described as dead before arrival, but approaching it this way is a mistake. Many of the steep cuts in programs for low-income Americans mimic reductions passed before by Republicans in the House of Representatives. There's more life in this document than the easy dismissals would suggest.

Particularly astounding from a president who promised better health care for Americans who can't afford it is the $1.85-trillion reduction over a decade from Medicaid and subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. But didn't Trump promise not to cut Medicaid? Never mind, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told CNBC's John Harwood. That pledge, Mulvaney explained, had been overridden by his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Right, and my commitment to losing weight was overridden by my insistence on eating anything I want. We demean ourselves if we cynically normalize the reality that every Trump promise is meaningless claptrap aimed at closing a deal -- and that the vows will be forgotten even before the ink on the agreement is dry. Many who did business with Trump learned the hard way not to trust anything he said. His supporters are being forced to earn the same dreary wisdom.

Trump lies so often that journalists tied themselves up in an extended discussion of when it was appropriate to use "lie," and when it was better to deploy such euphemisms as "misstatement" or "fabrication." We should stick to the short and simple word. Allowing Trump any slack only encourages more lying.

Although fibbing with numbers is an old trick, the etiquette of budget discussions leans toward references to "rosy scenarios" and the like. But how can you explain a budget that counts $2 trillion in claimed economic growth twice? It's used once to "pay for" massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and another time to paint Trump's budget as reaching balance in a decade.

This can't just be careless math.

Companies that make comparable errors in their prospectuses for public offerings can face legal action. No wonder former Obama administration economic adviser Seth Hanlon called this plan "the Bernie Madoff Budget."

Another sign of fiscal fraud: the budget's blithe assumption that we will hit 3 percent annual GDP growth over an extended period. That would be nice. But no respectable economic forecaster thinks this is credible. Trump is asking us to bank our country's fiscal future on his signature catchphrase, "Believe me." We should know by now that we can't.

But there are also philosophical lies, and these may be even more offensive. Trump and Mulvaney are selling this budget as good for hardworking taxpayers by leading us to believe that it would really only hurt moochers and layabouts. Thus did Mulvaney claim that a $192 billion reduction in food stamp spending over a decade was directed at "the folks who are on there who don't want to work."

Well, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported, it turns out that in food stamp households with at least one working-age, nondisabled adult, more than 80 percent work in the year before or after receiving benefits, and more than half work while getting them. This is a program aimed primarily at easing the lives of the working poor.

And it is worth noting, as Ron Brownstein did in The Atlantic, that in the five Rust Belt states that swung from Barack Obama to Trump, whites without a four-year college degree -- the heart of the Trump constituency -- "constitute most of those receiving assistance" from food stamps and the parts of Social Security that Trump would also slash. If Trump really wants people to go to work, how does he think taking money away from job training and college assistance will ease their path to self-sufficiency?

Martin Wolf, the Financial Times columnist, captured Trump's ideology with precision when he called it "pluto-populism." It involves "policies that benefit plutocrats, justified by populist rhetoric."

Trump's seriousness about the details of governing can be measured by his decision to be abroad when his budget was released. This is a man who sees his job as little more than spectacle, his word as negotiable and all numbers as fungible. The scandal of his presidency extends far beyond the Russia story.

Twitter: @EJDionne.

The Washington Post
How to arrange, and act during, a Hill visit

If you want to arrange meetings with your legislative delegations offices, simply ask for a time. Members of Congress are always looking to hear from local business leaders, advised Kate Kiley, a director with the AICPA Congressional & Political Affairs team. Especially with some of the considerable financial market and tax issues facing Congress, how proposed policy would impact CPAs is welcomed intelligence for a member of Congress.

Congressional staffers who spoke at the AICPAs spring Council meeting on Sunday offered some pointers for a successful Hill visit:



Do share your personal expertise and point of view. The lawmaker and his or her staff can read your briefing and other paperworkbut theyll benefit most from your unique story and your willingness to answer their questions.



The lawmaker and his or her staff can read your briefing and other paperworkbut theyll benefit most from your unique story and your willingness to answer their questions. Dont be late. That advice sounds obvious, but the complex of Hill offices can be confusing and slow to navigate, so delays are common. Lawmakers and their staff members are typically booked solid with meetings, so if you miss your appointed time, being squeezed in at a new time might be impossible.

That advice sounds obvious, but the complex of Hill offices can be confusing and slow to navigate, so delays are common. Lawmakers and their staff members are typically booked solid with meetings, so if you miss your appointed time, being squeezed in at a new time might be impossible. Dont talk about political fundraising, donations, or campaigns. Campaign work and legislative work must remain separate, and bringing up a donation or other campaign-related matters during a visit muddies the waters and can create conflict-of-interest headaches for the very people whose ear you are hoping to bend.

How to advocate for legislative action from back home

If theres no trip to Washington, D.C., in your immediate future, there are still many ways to advocate on the issues.

I like to remind constituents that you dont have to travel all the way to D.C. to make a point, Kiley said. Most members conduct office hours in their district offices during district work weeks. Often, a meeting in the district is best because a constituent doesnt have to compete with committee business, votes, and overlapping policy meetings.

The first step is identifying your House and Senate members and finding contact information for them. One option is the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. A switchboard operator will ask for your ZIP code and possibly your full address, using that to identify your Senate and House members. The switchboard can become inundated with calls if major legislation is being considered, making getting through more challenging. And operators can transfer calls to only one office, so callers must pick between members of the congressional delegation and then call back via the switchboard to leave messages with any other congressional office.

Another option is a web search. The Senate website, senate.gov, has a Find Your Senators button at the top left of the page that displays senators by state and allows users to click to their websites. Many of those sites have online forms you can fill out, or you can track down a phone number and call senators offices directly.

In the House, the process is similar, but you have to narrow down your representative by address first. The House website, house.gov, has a search feature at the top right of the page. Typically, a ZIP code will do. Some representatives may share ZIP codes with another member, which may require you to provide your ZIP code + four. In this instance, you can enter your address into the U.S. Postal Services Look Up a ZIP Code tool to obtain your ZIP code + four (#####-####).

While email forms are a quick way to register your views on legislation (or the need for it), the ultimate goal, Kiley said, is to form relationships. As a practitioner and expert, I think a direct phone call to introduce yourself and give an opportunity for a staffer to connect with you is the best, she said. If time constraints exist though, an email or filling out an online form will do. Be sure to offer yourself up as a resource.

Kim Nilsen (Kim.Nilsen@aicpa-cima.com) is the JofAs publisher.
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Showers this morning, becoming a steady rain during the afternoon hours. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 71F. Winds ENE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a half an inch..

Tonight

Rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low around 70F. Winds SE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
05/25/2017





Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill visited the JSU Center for Applied Forensics on June 24 to learn about its many contributions to the community.

Mark Hopwood, senior forensic scientist, delivered a presentation explaining what the center offers to students, Alabama and beyond. He strongly emphasized the cutting-edge technology and real world experience, which goes beyond the science-based classroom setting, that JSUs forensic program offers students. Following the presentation, Merrill was given a tour of the center.

It was great to have the Secretary of State visit, said Richards Davis, criminal justice department head. We are proud of the work that Mark and his team do at the Center for Applied Forensics and always happy to demonstrate the good they are doing for the community.

The Center for Applied Forensics provides rural Northeast Alabama with forensic expertise and assistance, particularly in the area of crime scene examinations.

The center also provides continuing education for law enforcement agencies while also planning for the future by educating Jacksonville State University students in relevant forensic techniques.

For more information on the JSU Criminal Justice Department, please contact 256-782-5335.

Photo: John Merrill (second from left) addresses the Center after hearing Mark Hopwood's (right) presentation (JSU courtesy).
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] filed a civil complaint [text, PDF] on Tuesday against Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles NV alleging that the company illegally used computer software to bypass emissions tests in nearly 104,000 of the companys diesel cars. The complaint alleges that vehicles contain defeat devices and that the devices were not disclosed to regulators during the certification application process. The suit goes on to claim that the undisclosed software functions cause the vehicles emission control systems to perform differently [DOJ press release] and less effectively, during certain normal driving conditions than on federal emission tests, resulting in increased emissions of harmful air pollutants.

Based upon this investigation, the complaint alleges that one or more of these undisclosed software features, alone or in combination with the others, renders inoperative, bypasses and/or defeats the vehicles emission control systems, which were installed to make the vehicles comply with Clean Air Act emission standards. In short, the complaint now alleges that the vehicles contain defeat devices.

Fiat-Chrysler responded to the complaint [press release] by saying they were disappointed and that, [t]he Company intends to defend itself vigorously, particularly against any claims that the Company engaged in any deliberate scheme to install defeat devices to cheat U.S. emissions tests.

This suit comes on the heels of the Volkswagen (VW) scandal where it was leaked that VW had intentionally circumvented emissions tests through installing technology to determine when emissions testing would take place and alter the cars emissions during inspections. It was found that the practice took place for at least six years. Earlier this month, the US District Court of Northern California gave final approval on VWs settlement. The settlement [Reuters report] requires VW to pay at least $1.22 billion to buy back or fix 80,000 3.0-liter vehicles. Owners of the vehicles will receive between $7,000 and $16,000 from Volkswagen to fix the cars if the emissions remedies are approved. VW pleaded guilty [JURIST report] earlier in March per the agreement. In December the EU decided to take action [JURIST report] against seven member states over the emissions scandal. A US judge approved [JURIST report] a $14.7 billion settlement in October between VW and the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the state of California and car owners who filed a class action lawsuit over the companys emissions scandal. In September the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued [JURIST report] VW and its local subsidiary for misleading customers.
The Maine Supreme Court [official website] ruled on Tuesday that the states newly enacted legislation providing for a ranked-choice voting system conflicted with the states constitution [opinion, PDF]. The issue came before the court when the State Senate submitted a request for guidance from the court: The crux of the Senates inquiry is whether this statutorily enacted system of ranked-choice voting violates the provisions of the Maine Constitution by which successful candidates for office are identified by a plurality of all votes returned. According to the court, the new law does conflict with the state constitution because In essence, the Act is inapplicable if there are only two candidates, and it is in direct conflict with the Constitution if there are more than two candidates.

The term ranked-choice voting is defined by the newly enacted Act as the method of casting and tabulating votes in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, tabulation proceeds in sequential rounds in which last-place candidates are defeated and the candidate with the most votes in the final round is elected.

Voting rights, on both the national and state level, have been an issue in the US for decades and voting issues have gone to court in many states in just the past year. In March seven convicted felons filed suit [JURIST report] alleging Floridas process of restoring voting rights to felons is unconstitutionally arbitrary. Earlier that month a three-judge panel of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled [JURIST report] that the boundaries of three voting districts violated the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Also in March the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that Virginias redistricting scheme must be examined for racial bias. In February the state of Georgia settled a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Secretary of State Brian Kemp over a voter registration law that would reject any application that did not exactly match personal identification information in state and federal databases.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein [official profile] voiced concern [UN press release] on Wednesday over the treatment of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The health of hundreds of prisoners has been declining, according to the commissioners statement, released on the thirty-eighth day of the strike. Israeli Prison Service has transported more than 60 prisoners to hospitals due to the strike, and 592 more prisoners are under medical supervision within the prisons. The strike began in protest of administrative detention, solitary confinement, and poor healthcare within the prisons. Zeid said, I am especially alarmed by reports of punitive measures by the Israeli authorities against the hunger strikers, including restricted access to lawyers and the denial of family visits.  The right of detainees to access a lawyer is a fundamental protection in international human rights law that should never be curtailed.

While Israel and Palestine have a troubled past, the issue of settlements in the West Bank have escalated tensions in the last decade. The indefinite hunger strikes in six Israeli prisons began [JURIST report] in April in observance of Palestinian Prisoners Day. Some Israeli officials claimed the strikes were a power play as they were started by a prisoner convicted of a terrorist attack. Earlier in April the UN said [JURIST report] it was disappointed with the Israel settlement decision. In November Israels Ministerial Committee for Legislation unanimously approved [JURIST report] the Formalization Bill to legalize the West Bank outposts. In March 2016 the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said [JURIST report] that the office is concerned about the apparent extra-judicial execution of a Palestinian man in the West Bank.
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A total of 30 food products from Russia were exhibited at the 2017 China International Food and Beverage Expo, held last week in Shanghai. The items - which came from more than 50 Russian companies and included ice cream, candy, chocolate, beverages and honey - are set to move Sino-Russian cooperation another step forward.

Statistics from the Russian Export Center show that China has become a major consumer of Russian food, with the former purchasing $1.55 billion of food products in 2016, up by 20 percent from 2015. China and Russia have already made major achievements in bilateral agricultural cooperation. According to a report issued by Milknews, a Russian analysis center, and Souzmoloko, the national union of milk producers, Russias exports of dairy products to China increased by 170 percent to total $6.7 million.

That figure may well rise further in 2017, said Artyom Belov, executive director of Souzmoloko, adding that China is a crucial strategic destination for the country to expand its exports of dairy. China and Russia agreed at the recently concluded Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation to establish an investment fund promoting regional development and cooperation, within which agriculture would be a priority.

Meanwhile, China conditionally ended its ban on Russian wheat at the end of 2015, and a long-term supply contract for agricultural products was signed by both countries in April, facilitating Russias agricultural exports to China under the framework of the Russia-China New Land Grain Corridor.

The volume of trade between China and Russia will hit $200 billion in 2020, said Sergey Lebedev, a representative of the Russian Export Center in China.
(Xinhua) 13:53, May 26, 2017

BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed the importance of quality and safety in China's first demonstration nuclear power project using Hualong One technology, a domestically-developed third-generation reactor design.

In written comments on the project's progress, Li congratulated designers and construction workers for the successful installation of the project's containment dome, calling it a move "of great significance."

A press release issued on Friday quoted Li's comments as saying that the project should be put into operation on schedule under the precondition of ensuring quality and safety.

"Absolute safety" must be guaranteed in nuclear power construction, operation and management, said the premier.

A 340-tonne hemispherical dome was installed Thursday on the No.5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation's Fuqing nuclear power plant, the first reactor featuring the Hualong One design, in coastal city of Fuqing, Fujian Province.

The dome will provide protection against nuclear accidents, and both its design and installation were very challenging processes.

The installation marks the completion of the construction stage of the pilot project and the beginning of the assembly stage.

Premier Li called it a "landmark project" under the "Made in China 2025" plan, saying resources should be pooled for innovation and continuous improvements to the country's nuclear power research and production,

He also stressed the need for active participation in the global market to develop a world-class nuclear power brand and contribute to the upgrading of China's manufacturing sector.

Unveiled in May 2015, the "Made in China 2025" plan is aimed at transforming China from a manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing power by boosting innovation.
(Photo/CGTN)

SEOUL, May 26 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Friday approved the first civilian contact with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) under the new government of President Moon Jae-in, indicating a gradual resumption of inter-Korean exchanges.

Seoul's unification ministry vice spokesperson Lee Yoo-jin told a press briefing that the government gave a green light to the request by the civic group Korean Sharing Movement for the contact with the DPRK to tackle malaria in border areas.

It was the first approval by the South Korean government of the inter-Korean contact since the DPRK conducted its fourth nuclear test in January last year.

The vice spokesperson reiterated the Moon government's position that Seoul will flexibly review civilian exchanges such as a humanitarian aid within the limits of undamaging the international community's sanctions on the DPRK while sternly dealing with any DPRK provocations.

Earlier this month, the Korean Sharing Movement requested a contact with the DPRK to discuss the humanitarian assistance to the DPRK people. If discussions go smoothly, the civic group's visit to the DPRK could be pushed in early June.

The vice spokesperson said that if any request for its visit to the DPRK and the supply of relief goods is made, the ministry would decide on it according to the inter-Korean relations and the security of the visitors.

About 20 requests for contact with or visit to the DPRK have been made by South Korean civic groups, according to local media reports.
In conjunction with the successful conclusion of The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the Accountants Institute conducted a Press Conference at the Beijing University of Science and Technology on 19th of May to announce its maiden entry into China for the provision of training of Registered Qualified Accountants to support the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

At the press conference, George Thomas, chairman of the Accountants Institute, mentioned that the current rapid development of the world economy faces great challenges. The Belt and Road Initiatives which is an economy development strategy suggested by China, enables the realization of globalization of economy, with multi development trends that will be able to promote a higher degree of market integration with a deeper dimension of cooperation. David Liu, director of the Accountants Institute China office, added that local accounting training standards can be further enhanced and more qualified global accounting professionals is required. The Belt and Road Initiative provided Chinese accounting industry and professionals the great opportunity for internationalization.

The Accountants Institute will be working closely with Chinese tertiary institutions and training providers across China to provide learners with convenient access to the Registered Qualified Accountants qualification training.

Ewan Tracy, subject leader for accounting and finance at the University of Northampton, explained that the UK has one of the most developed systems of professional qualifications. The British qualifications and credits framework allows transfer of credits from Accountants Institute professional qualifications onto academic programs such as Bachelor and Masters Degrees in various universities including the University of Northampton, thereby facilitating learners progression for further studies and achieve substantial savings in cost and time.

The Accountants Institute was established in 2004. It is a modern and progressive professional qualification examination and membership organization. The Accountants Institute supports and adheres to the standard and spirit of International Federation of Accountants. Its qualifications have been approved and recognized by the Financial Services and Skills Council, Financial Services Partnership and the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation.

The Accountants Institute and the Professional Business Accountants Society of Canada have in place a mutual recognition agreement. Learners who have successfully completed and passed the Accountants Institute qualification would be able to apply for credit exemption and join as PBA international members.

At the press conference, the Chairmen of Accountants Institute George Thomas and the President of Professional Business Accountants Society of Canada Angel Meinecke went on stage to unveil the signboard for the China Office. Membership certificates were also issued to the first batch of fellow members from China.

More than 100 guests attended the press conference including representatives from the Central University of Finance and Economics, Peoples University of China, The China National School of Administration, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Language and Culture University, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the China Minsheng Banking Corporation, Golden Concord Holdings Limited, Shanghai Jian Qiao Group, CCTV, Phoenix TV and many other global companies and partners.
China praised Germany's position over Article 15 in the protocol on China's accession to the World Trade Organization, saying it hopes to see Germany continue to play a positive role on the issue.

Sigmar Gabriel, Germany's vice-chancellor and foreign minister, called for the implementation of the article during talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Wednesday.

Gabriel said Article 15 should be implemented and that revision of the European Union's laws should not target or discriminate against any country and should comply with the WTO's rules.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that Gabriel's statements reflect "a responsible attitude of the German government".

Lu called on the EU to implement the article "comprehensively and thoroughly as soon as possible", and said China hopes to see Germany continue to play a positive role in helping accomplish this.

According to Article 15, WTO member nations should have ceased on Dec 11, 2016, from using the surrogate country approach in anti-dumping investigations on China. This date was 15 years after China became an official member of the organization.

Under the surrogate country approach, WTO members use costs of production in a third country to calculate the value of products from countries on its "non-market economy" list, which includes China.

Lu said that if it honors the agreement soon, the EU will show the world its "commitment to promises and observance of rules".

"In a time when protectionism is rearing its head in the world, the attitude major economies take over multilateral trade rules will eventually impose a fundamental influence on their own interests," the spokesman said.

China should have gained market economy status automatically at the end of 2016 according to Article 15, Gabriel said at a news converence with Wang in Beijing.

Gabriel said Germany will work in the EU so that the EU trade remedy measures will focus not only on whether a target country has market economy status, but on whether the country has dumping practices or actions that violate WTO rules.

He said, "We shouldn't discriminate against any country, including China", adding that Germany's position is clear, which is that new EU anti-dumping rules should comply with WTO rules.

Premier Li Keqiang will pay an official visit to Germany starting on Tuesday.
American clothing remains at the bottom of the list of quality imported clothing in China, a recently released white paper indicated.

During last years inspections, 13.23 percent of clothes imported from the U.S. failed to meet the standards set by China. Just above the U.S. were South Korea, Italy, Japan and Tunisia, at 12.83, 7.60, 7.23 and 6.56 percent respectively, Chinas General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine disclosed in the paper.

In 2016, Chinas product quality inspectors examined 78,823 batches of imported clothing. The defect rate in 2016 stood at 5.78 percent, down 0.09 percent year on year, the paper showed. The inspected products didnt meet requirements for fiber content, color fastness or pH value, among other standards.

China has intensified its inspections of imported clothes for six straight years, the white paper showed. Incorrectly labeled products and clothes with unsatisfactory fiber content cannot be imported until they are manufactured in a way that meets requirements. Products that fail to meet security and hygiene standards are sent back or destroyed.
Im slowly savoring a Nebraska sesquicentennial project as if its a homemade Sunday dinner laid out on a farm table, magnificent sunset decorated with sandhill cranes dropping onto Platte River sandbars, the worlds best beef cattle grazing in the Sandhills while being serenaded by meadowlarks, fields of cornstalks reaching to the sky or other Nebraska image that never fails to take my breath away.

The project, 150 A Pictorial History of Nebraska, is the spring 2017 edition of the Nebraska State Historical Societys quarterly Nebraska History.

Some pioneer-territorial era images are older than 150 years. The oldest is an early, simple sketch of Fort Kearny, which was established in 1848. An 1851 sketch of Chimney Rock is on the front cover and the back cover has an 1886 Solomon Butcher photo of four Chrisman sisters (and two horses) in front of a Custer County sod house.

So how can Nebraskas history be adequately covered in only150 photos and captions?

Nebraska History Editor David L. Bristow acknowledges in his 150 introduction that it was an attempt to do the impossible. In Lincoln alone, NSHS has an almost unfathomable amount of archived information in words, images and artifacts.

Our task was complicated by the fact that we werent merely trying to find the best or most spectacular pictures ... but that we wanted to use images to tell a complex story, Bristow wrote. He describes the result as an over-simplification and kind of a sketch in which photos reflect larger themes.

I know as a journalist how difficult it can be to select just the right words and photos to fit a limited publication space, especially when there is a lot of story to tell and many amazing images to share.

The 150 publication  with before 1867 (statehood), 1867-1916, 1917-1966 and 1967-present sections  is a keepsake.

Im not praising it just because my brother James, the NSHS senior historian and associate editor of Nebraska History at the time of his death on Aug. 6, 2016, was involved in its planning.

Each photo is worth at least 1,000 words because its paired with a caption that puts the people, place and/or event into historical perspective. I quickly scanned the photos when 150 arrived in my mailbox. Im now studying them and reading every caption.

Im sure the NSHS staff members involved hope the photos spark readers interest in learning more about our states history by reading books, visiting museums and other historical sites, and talking to Nebraskans who have first-person stories to tell.

The dozen or so 150 photos from Hub Territory include a Buffalo County steam threshing machine, 1888; electric streetcars on Kearneys Central Avenue, 1891; Populist convention in Callaway, 1892; Bethel Chapel near Gibbon, 1903; Farmers and Merchants Irrigation Companys main canal between Cozad and Lexington, 1904; April 7, 1935, dust storm at Alma; and a presidential campaign whistle stop at Lexington by Robert Kennedy on April 28, 1968.

The NSHS pictorial history illustrates how each eras news, events and day-to-day activities become threads woven into Nebraskas history. Its photos reflect another truth for those of us with pioneer roots that have been growing deep into the prairie for most of the past 150 years: There is no place like Nebraska.

Lori Potter is a Hub staff writer.
ORD  Groundwater was the focus at Thursdays Lower Loup Natural Resources District board meeting in Ord.

LLNRD Assistant General Manager Russell Callan told the Hub that Chris Hobza of the U.S. Geological Survey in Lincoln presented an overview of a South Loup Basin thermal imaging study for which a final report will be issued soon.

Callan explained that groundwater is warmer than river water in the winter, so thermal imaging data collected during flights over the basin can reveal water temperature differences that show groundwater effects on the river.

It tells us that around Pressey Park (wildlife management area north of Oconto) there is quite an influence on the river ... That would probably be the bigger impact, below Arnold and around Pressey, Callan said.

A step was taken by the LLNRD directors toward another study to be done with the Central Platte NRD to learn more about how cover crops affect groundwater.

Callan said the LLNRD board reviewed proposals for studies needed to apply for a Nebraska Water Sustainability Fund grant that would help fund the actual cover crop impacts study. The low bid of $320,000 from EA Engineering of Lincoln for a three-year study was approved by the board.

That proposal is on the agenda for next Thursdays CPNRD board meeting in Grand Island.

Callan said that if a grant is approved to proceed with the cover crop-groundwater study, each NRD would pay half of the required matching funds.

The Lower Loup board also heard a review of spring 2016-to-spring 2017 reports on groundwater quality and static water levels in the district.

Callan said the reports will be posted on the website at www.llnrd.org.

The water quality study did not show any big changes across the district, he said, but a phase three area of concern in Nance and Platte counties still has nitrate levels of 20 parts per million.

The Environmental Protection Agency has set 10 ppm as the maximum safe drinking water level for infants.

The static water levels also showed no major changes, Callan said.

In Hub Territory, areas of central and northern Buffalo County saw a spring-to-spring decline of 0.10 of a foot or less and levels remain about 4.5 feet below the 1982 baseline.

Sherman County spring-to-spring readings were up slightly and there has been an average static water level increase of 3.7 feet since 1982.

The LLNRD part of Custer County averaged an spring-to-spring increase of about a half-foot, but average groundwater levels are 1.7 feet below the baseline.
Four passengers were recently discovered wearing gold necklaces weighing a total of 9.94 kilograms, with a total value of 3 million RMB ($437,707). The passengers were leaving for Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland, according to Guangzhou customs. The case has been transferred to the province's anti-smuggling department for further investigation.

The customs department pointed out that travelers carrying more than 50 grams of gold or gold products may only leave the country with a special exit permit, which is awarded on the premise that the names and quantities of the items have been certified by the Peoples Bank of China.
A renowned Chinese company announced on May 25 that it will establish a 30-million-RMB fund to tackle online smear campaigns, in an effort to stop negative rumors from damaging Chinese brands reputations.

Yihai Kerry, the parent company of famous cooking oil brand Jin Long Yu, confirmed that the company will also offer a 10-million-RMB reward for the arrest of anyone who defames the companys products. According to the companys official announcement from May, some internet users have been spreading fake videos online, depicting the companys products as gutter oil.

The accusations in these videos were proven false three years ago, but some netizens have nevertheless re-edited them and spread them online. The company has filed a suit against the rumormonger, according to Chen Bo, chief manager of Yihai Kerry.

Yihai Kerry is not the only food company to have been burned by food safety rumors. Due to the increasing exposure of food safety issues in China, consumers are becoming more cautious when choosing food and beverage brands. Zong Qinghou, chair of beverage giant Hangzhou Wahaha Group, noted that rumors and the spread of counterfeit products cost his company 5 billion RMB in 2014, according to a report by Chinanews.com.

Liu Zhi, vice president of the China National Food Industry Association, told Beijing Youth Daily that such rumors have had a negative influence on the reputation of Chinese food brands, and have also weakened public confidence in Chinas food safety.

Around 45 percent of the online rumors target food and beverage brands. Strengthened measures are needed to tackle this vile influence, said Liu.
A lecture delivered at an elementary school in Shuozhou, Shanxi province has triggered debate after its controversial message about filial piety went viral online.

The lecturer, Ouyang Weijian, is a self-proclaimed specialist in family education. During his lecture at Shuozhou Shiyan Elementary School on May 10, Ouyang called on students to appreciate maternal love, demanding that they endure their mothers wrath even if they feel the anger is groundless.

The greatest mothers exist only in China ... They cannot vent their anger on their husbands, as they would be ignored; they cannot air their grievances on their leaders, as they would be doomed. Our poor mothers will become mentally ill if they are not allowed to let go of their pain, so they have to vent their anger on their beloved children. We should simply accept this, said Ouyang, whose audience then burst into tears, according to a video clip circulating online.

Many netizens have criticized this message as pathetic brainwashing, while commentators and education experts have challenged the sincerity of the displays. Some also question the efficacy of such lectures in fostering true filial devotion.

I attended a similar lecture when I was studying at a middle school in Heilongjiang province. Such lectures are designed to evoke students feelings of love for their parents, and are part of a series of workshops and ceremonies meant to cultivate gratitude among youth. The lecturers normally use incitatory remarks to draw tears from kids and parents. They then try to sell their books on so-called family education, a netizen wrote on Sina Weibo.

In addition to the controversial content of the lecture, the Beijing Times revealed that Ouyangs company charges 50,000 RMB for a two-hour lecture, which has inspired a movement to boycott such pricey yet meaningless events.

In response to the public accusations, Ouyang told the Beijing Times that his lecture is neither brainwashing nor seditious. He said the audience cried because they realized the pain they had caused their parents.

If what's in your brain is filth and rubbish, I see no reason why we should not wash it away. The people who question my teaching dont understand us, said Ouyang.

This is not the first time that filial piety instruction in Chinese schools has been questioned and criticized by the public. In 2015, around 750 students participated in a gratitude ceremony at Binxin School in Shanghai. The students were forced to kneel before their parents to show their piety, and many children and parents burst into tears.

The concept of filial piety is a crucial tenet of Confucian thought, which has served as the foundation of Chinese society for thousands of years. Due to the erosion of traditional values, many Chinese schools have adopted these education methods to remind students of the importance of gratitude.

Xiong Bingqi, vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, told the Beijing Times that such activities have become a mere formality, and the instruction of filial piety in schools should not be limited to such performances.
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The ACGME recently formally increased its work-hour limits for resident physicians, a change that was widely covered in the press.|

This decision has also been significantly misreported. While it may seem like all residents will now work for longer hours, in reality, only first-year interns will be allowed to work longer 24-hour shifts, where the previous maximum was 16  a limit adopted in 2011. Second year and up, the restrictions will not change: 24-hour shifts, no more often than every third day, with an 80 hour per week average which were the restrictions adopted in 2003.

Public opinion polls consistently claim that the public wants stricter limits for duty hours. Such opinions are misinformed; if they were asked, Do you want surgeons in the U.S. to have fewer cases before they are allowed to operate independently? or Do you want a doctor who has no idea who you are or what your problem is to take care of you overnight? I suspect their answer would be quite different.

As a first year resident, I personally support the ACGMEs increase in the duty hour limits. Quite simply, I would actually be more well rested had a system like this been in place. This conclusion is not true for all specialties or situations. In many cases, forcing residents to work such hours is simply a money-saver for the institution, with no learning benefit. But for many surgical specialties, the current limits made no sense.

For general surgery, my specialty, academic hospitals with sick patients demand 24-hour in-house coverage with a resident. A surgical intern has to be there to go to the bedside to see a patient whose nurse calls about a change in status and evaluate new admits from the emergency department. This is true as well for neurosurgery, critical care, and orthopedics as well to some extent. How should such coverage be arranged? There are three primary options:

1. 24-hour call every 3, 4, or 5 days depending on the staffing.

2. Six days working 12 hour nights from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., followed by a return to days.

3. A month or longer of straight night float.

Until now, the only options available to programs were the latter two, and both are awful. My program uses the second option, also known as rotating shift work for interns  and I am typing this now at 2 a.m. because I cannot sleep. I just worked a week of nights, and my body can not fall asleep  so I will go to work at 4:50 a.m. until 6 to 7 p.m. with no sleep for 36 hours by the end.

And then my body will slowly reset back to days, and I will finally get back into something approaching normalcy for a few weeks before the cycle starts again next month. Rotating shift work has also been linked to terrible health outcomes in the long-term, including increased all-cause mortality and increased cancer and heart disease. Is this an awful system? Yes, but it has advantages. I am only separated from the waking world for a week, I still attending educational conferences, and for most of the month, I get to operate and learn as normal from the services practices.

Contrast this to the other system: straight nights. This is where an intern or second year simply works nights for a month at a time, with no interruption. For that month, they barely see their fellow residents or their friends. No dinner outings, no catching up, no celebrating birthdays  nothing. Especially for surgical programs, which unlike medicine may require 2 or 3 months of nights due to their smaller number of residents able to share the call burden, this is a significant psychological strain.

More significantly, there is often little educational benefit from straight night float. Scurrying around the hospital, unable to learn the nuances of patients and services since they rarely if ever spend significant time with attendings or senior residents on the service, interns know even less about their patients than on rotating night shifts as above. This is again more acute for surgical services, who must learn a wide variety of techniques on several different services. Missing out on a month of pediatric, acute care, or colorectal surgery may mean giving up a significant educational opportunity  in contrast to a medicine program where doing five months of general medicine wards is little different than doing six months of the same.

Both of these systems had serious drawbacks. And especially for the rotating, 6-nights-in-a-row schedule, the idea that Im more well rested than had I done 24 hour straight is laughable. Ultimately, is call the best option? Maybe for some doctors, maybe not for others. But the simple reality is that removing the 16-hour restriction is not some horrific injustice that will lead to worse care and more tired doctors. Rather, allowing programs the additional flexibility to choose schedules that match their patients and their trainees needs is simply the best way forward.

Vamsi Aribindi is a surgery resident who blogs at the Medical Intellectual.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
(File photo)

The banking industry in China is undergoing a fundamental shift as traditional banks are challenged by internet and AI fin-tech firms, Chinese economists pointed out at a recent summit.

Addressing the Future Financial Innovation Summit on May 26, Yang Yanqing, director of the CBN Research Institute, said that technology, as the most important force pushing for change in the world today, is gradually wielding greater and greater influence on the countrys financial industry. The summit was held jointly by CBN Research Institute, Future Forum and Xiamen International Bank in Beijing.

Fin-tech firms are becoming shadow banks, posing an increasingly powerful force in the banking industry. They have in turn prompted a revolution among traditional banks, Yang noted.

Zhu Min, chairman of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University, said at the summit that the internet-plus era of the past few years has made it easier access for fin-tech firms to serve a vast number of clients at a rapid pace that far surpasses that of traditional banks.

According to Zhu, the cost of human labor has been cut significantly thanks to the internet, which additionally offers an astronomical database compared to ordinary banks. The rise of AI technology has worsened the situation for traditional banks, as AI can provide more information on a clients bank account, trading record and behavioral and biometric data. This information serves to control risk in a particularly effective way.

These extra services go beyond the capacity of a traditional bank, upgrading information and wreaking a fundamental change on the banking industry ecology, noted Zhu, also a deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

In fact, Chinese fin-tech companies have already made biometric analysis a common practice, as almost all financial apps use fingerprint recognition for payments, and some also use voice or facial recognition.

Chen Long, chief strategy officer of Alipay, offered as an example at the summit that his company received 8 million customer support calls during last years Double-11 shopping holiday on Nov. 11.

If all the calls had been handled by humans, it would have required tens of thousands of people, but 97.5 percent of the consultations were fielded by AI, he explained. Similarly, Alipay has offered small loans to more than 6 million small enterprises and startups in the past six years. On average, the loans are less than 30,000 RMB each.

It was done according to 3-1-0. That is, it takes three minutes to submit the application and you can get the loan in one second with zero human labor. An online banker can meet with tens of thousands of applicants in a day, which is impossible for traditional bankers, Chen added.

However, comparison between data on payment and clearing services for traditional banks and non-bank financial institutions shows a huge gap in the capital pool, where traditional banks still hold an advantage.

Data revealed at the summit showed that commercial banks dealt with over 2 quadrillion RMB in online payment in 2016, while the non-bank sector saw less than 55 trillion RMB. However, data did suggest a much higher growth rate in the non-bank sector (120 percent) than for commercial banks (less than 4 percent).

At the same time, traditional banks are actively responding to the challenge by integrating new technology into their operations, such as online banking services. Some are also trying to compete in the e-commerce market, such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, whose e-commerce platform has become Chinas third largest.

With the development of internet and AI, the future holds huge potential for all financial institutions, both fin-tech firms and traditional banks. The competition will be open, fair and transparent, Zhu said.

As the industry evolves, Professor Gao Xiqing at Tsinghua University School of Law pointed out that regulations supervise the innovation-led financial market, but it is common for innovative minds to go beyond the current policy, thereby forming a development circle.

Gao, also the former president of China Investment Corporation, emphasized that the financial market is the most active force working to integrate all resources at the core of the modern economic system. He suggested that regulators supervise the market with a negatives list instead of an overall regulatory watch of the whole industry, so as to leave more space for financial innovation.
Whether your summer travel plans involve a trip across the pond or even across the border, Customs and Border Protection want to remind travelers of the requirements they need to cross.

Traveling to and from your summer destination can be a hassle, especially if youre waiting in long lines.

In order to avoid getting caught up in the waiting game, Customs and Border Protection have some helpful tips to speed up your travels.

A new app called I-94 has been created so that tourists can apply online for traveling permits.

CBP also wants to remind you to declare your purchases and other things as well as food and medications.

Last summer CBP processed more than 108.3 million international travelers at U.S. ports of entry.
By Cecile Lefort and Charlotte Greenfield

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars nursed losses versus their U.S. counterpart on Friday following a commodities rout, but were on track for hefty weekly gains against a soggy pound.

The Australian dollar dropped to $0.7431, the weakest this week, having skidded more than a full U.S. cent in one session.

Much of the fall in the Aussie came after crude oil prices tumbled 5 percent on Thursday, along with a slide in prices of iron ore, Australia's top export earner. Chart resistance at 75 cents also undermined the Aussie.

"We don't even need a crystal ball for this view as the market had all but convinced itself that selling above $0.7500 is the trade," said Stephen Innes, a senior trader at OANDA.

Support was found at $0.7420, then $0.7329 touched earlier this month.

The New Zealand dollar was also soft at $0.7013, having shed 0.4 percent overnight, pulling away from a one-month peak of $0.7059 touched on Wednesday.

It was still up 1.2 percent for the week.

The Andipodean currencies fared better against Sterling after UK growth data added to worries the economy was beginning to struggle a year after Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union. The pound eased to A$1.7340 , away from a peak near A$1.7500. It has dropped 0.7 percent so far this week.

It lost even more ground against the Kiwi dollar to NZ$1.8359 , to be down 2.4 percent for the week. If sustained, it would be the second-largest loss this year.

The Kiwi dollar was a clear outperformer against its Aussie cousin, which slipped to a three-month trough of NZ$1.0571 . The Aussie, last at NZ$1.0589 was on track for a 1.7 percent drop this week.

"Given the resilience in milk prices and the recent wobbles in iron ore, high NZD trade balance notwithstanding, a break of NZ$1.06 should see significant buy-in which could pressure AUDUSD towards $0.7400 level," said OANDA's Innes.

New Zealand government bonds rose, sending yields five basis points lower on the long end of the curve.

Australian government bond futures climbed to six-month highs, with the three-year bond contract up 1 tick to 98.290. The 10-year contract added 1 tick to 97.5450, while the 20-year contract was steady at 96.9700.

The spread between Australian and U.S. 2-year government bonds shrank to 29 basis points, the smallest since 2001.

(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
HONG KONG, May 26 (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd said it will sell 28 real estate companies to Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart Co Ltd for 24.16 billion yuan ($3.5 billion) as part of a reorganisation to better allocate resources.

Shanghai Yuyuan will settle the deal by issuing 2.42 billion new shares at 9.98 yuan each, boosting Fosun's stake in the gold and jewellery retailer to 69.69 percent from 26.45 percent, the conglomerate said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Thursday.

Fosun, which saw its chief executive and vice president step down in a surprise reshuffle in March, said the reorganisation would also enable more focused development and better strategy planning. ($1 = 6.8510 Chinese yuan renminbi)

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ China's Fosun CEO steps down, reshuffle to impact conglomerate ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Donny Kwok)
(Photo/CGTN)

After cooperating with human weiqi (Go) players in a "Paired Go" match this morning, AlphaGo, the weiqi AI program, stood alone against a team of Chinese grandmasters in a "Team Go" showcase match.

Chen Yaoye, Zhou Ruiyang, Mi Yuting, Shi Yue and Tang Weixing, all 9-dan professionals, sat around a table to discuss every stone they were playing in the match. The oldest of the five was born in 1989.

The team was led by Zhou Ruiyang, who would try to help all five masters to reach consensus if they couldn't agree with each other.

Zhou leads the five-man team to match with AlphaGo. (Photo/CGTN)

Zhou is famous for his efforts to imitate AlphaGo's style and so is nicknamed "AlphaYang" by weiqi fans in China.

Five is less than one?

An interesting comment was made by Gu Li 9-dan, after his match with and against AlphaGo. "Five could be less than one, since the 2.5-hour total thinking time is not quite enough for the five boys to discuss."

"If they were given five hours or more, they may perform better than Ke Jie," Gu told CGTN in an exclusive interview.

During the match, five masters went excited trying to find the best way to play against AlphaGo, leaving commenters worrying for their time limit. The time they spent to think was more than five times longer than AlphaGo, which is rumored to take only ten seconds to decide its move.

(Photo/CGTN)

As the match went into the final stage, the five-member human team slowly found themselves trapped into AlphaGo's game. And as Gu predicted, the time was not enough at all for the guys to discuss.

After the thinking time depleted, Tang Weixing stood out to go against AlphaGo alone, as there's no time for the team to discuss.

Eventually, the three-hour long match concluded with AlphaGo as the winner.
SHANGHAI, May 26 (Reuters) - China's Ministry of Finance auctioned 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) of 3-month bills in the interbank market on Friday at average yields of 3.2738 percent, traders said.

The auction yield came in above Thursday's benchmark secondary market yield of 3.2671 percent for 3-month government bonds .

For stories on Chinese debt issues, click on . ($1 = 6.8574 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
TOKYO, May 26 (Reuters) - St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Friday that the Bank of Japan must communicate carefully with markets if it decides to taper its purchases of Japanese government bonds. "It's very important to get the communication right," Bullard said at lecture hosted by Keio University. "Otherwise there will be outsize reaction and cause a lot of global dislocation."

(Reporting by Minami Funakoshi; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
Screenshot from Sweden's YouTube Channel

A Swedish mining company is beginning a daunting task - moving the country's northernmost town of 18,000 people to a new location to save the buildings from collapsing into a giant sinkhole.

Located 200 km (124 miles) above the Arctic Circle, the town of Kiruna is currently sitting on largest underground iron-ore mine in Europe.

The reason for the relocation is that the state-owned mining company LKAB is worried that it dug too deep into the earth, which aggravated the risk of the whole town being consumed by a sinkhole.

LKAB is paying for the relocation, which is going to cost over $1 billion. The mining company is offering to buy properties at 125% of their market value or give the same-sized property in the new town.

The historic mining town was first founded in 1900 and its citizens would like to see a number of historical buildings preserved, which poses the biggest challenge when it comes to the move.

The new location for the town is not far  about 3 km (2 miles) away from where it is now. A few historic buildings, such as the clock tower and the church, have been selected for relocation, while others will be demolished.

Even though the relocation was being planned for about a decade, the actual move is just beginning  Kirunas first historic building was transported by a truck only on Wednesday.

LKAB is also building about 3000 dwellings in the new town, including a new city hall, hotel, residential area, business area, shopping district, restaurant, cafe and community service buildings, according to the citys website.

The timing of the move? LKAB estimates it will take 20-30 years. This is the city I was born and raised in. It is really important for me that the surroundings will be as much the same as they are today, even better, said Nina Eliasson from the Urban Transformation team at LKAB in a promotional video.
Talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders of the world's rich nations at the G7 summit on Friday were expected to be "robust" and "challenging" after he had lambasted NATO allies and condemned German trade policies a day earlier.

Trump's confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which America's partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change.

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theater perched on a cliff overlooking the sea where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters.

Later, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States will hold talks on terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

"No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years," Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting got underway.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted "robust" discussions on trade and climate.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a "hoax" during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in. Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

"This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy," said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

'VERY BAD'

The summit, being held near Europe's most active volcano, Mount Etna, is the final leg of a nine-day tour for Trump which started in the Middle East.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, he accused members of the military alliance of owing "massive amounts of money" to the United States and NATO -- even though allied contributions are voluntary.

The remarks went down badly with European leaders, who had hoped Trump would use the opportunity to confirm his commitment to Article 5, the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

"When an American president cannot commit clearly to Article 5 at a time when everyone is expecting him to do this then there is the risk that Moscow interprets this as meaning it is no longer valid," said Jan Techau of the American Academy in Berlin.

According to German media reports, Trump also condemned Germany for "very bad" trade policies in a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, signalling he might take steps to limit sales of German cars in the United States.

Juncker called the reports in Spiegel Online and Sueddeutsche Zeitung exaggerated, saying that while Trump had talked about Germany's trade surplus as a problem, he had not done so aggressively.

Trump, asked by reporters in Taormina whether he had accused Germany of being "very bad" on trade, did not respond.

Trump is attending his first major international summit but it not the only G7 newcomer. French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

May is expected to leave a day early, following Monday's suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people carried out by a suspected Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

G7 leaders were expected to issue a separate statement on terrorism on Friday, before issuing their formal communique on Saturday. Italian officials have suggested the final communique will be shorter than 10 pages. At the last G7 summit in Japan it totaled 32 pages.

RUSSIA CLOUD

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 140 miles (225 km) from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

Italy is eager for rich nations to do much more to help develop Africa's economy and make it more appealing for youngsters to stay in their home countries.

The leaders of Tunisia, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria and Kenya will join the discussions on Saturday to say what should be done to encourage investment and innovation on their continent.

One country that will not be present is Russia. It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

But accusations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaign's contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office.

Kushner and his wife, Trump's daughter Ivanka, have returned to Washington after accompanying the president for the first part of his first foreign tour.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
BEIJING, May 26 (Reuters) - Ant Financial's money market fund Yu'e Bao will cap individual investment at 250,000 yuan ($36,475) from May 27, said Tianhong Asset Management Co, which manages the fund.

Ant Financial, which confirmed the cap, is the payment affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd .

Set up in 2013, Yu'e Bao, which translates literally as "leftover treasure", had 1.14 trillion yuan ($166.27 billion) of funds under management at the end of the first quarter, making it one of the biggest money market funds in the world. ($1 = 6.8540 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Cate Cadell and Beijing Monitoring Desk; editing by David Clarke)
BRASILIA, May 26 (Reuters) - Brazil's economy is clearly growing again after a severe recession and will be shielded from a political crisis by widespread support for the government's reform agenda, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said at an event. Meirelles said the economy recovered quickly from previous episodes of political turbulence when there was no doubt about the future of economic policy.

(Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
* Papademos recovering well, doctors say

* Will stay in hospital for next two days

* No claim of responsibility for bomb yet

By George Georgiopoulos

ATHENS, May 26 (Reuters) - Former Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos was recovering well from injuries caused by a booby-trapped package exploding in his car on Thursday, with doctors saying he would stay in hospital for two more days.

Papademos, 69, who was caretaker prime minister for a few months at the peak of the debt crisis five years ago, did not have life-threatening injuries, they said.

He was being treated for superficial wounds to his abdomen and a deeper injury to his right leg from the blast, the worst act of violence against a politician in Greece for years.

"His medical condition is progressing well. He is still in the intensive care unit and will remain there for the next 48 hours, there is no cause for concern," a health official told reporters outside the Evangelismos hospital in central Athens.

Doctors treating him told reporters he was awake, breathing well with no need for an oxygen mask and had had a 15-minute chat with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

"The injury to his right upper leg was the deepest wound, it reached muscle tissue," one of the doctors said.

Police were trying to trace the trail of the envelope and the post office from where it was sent to the Academy of Athens, where Papademos is president.

There was still no immediate claim of responsibility.

Greece has a history of small-scale attacks against politicians, businesses and police. The last major incident was a booby-trapped package killing a guard for then civil protection minister Michalis Chrysohoidis in 2010. In March, police intercepted eight suspect packages at a postal sorting centre in Athens, days after letter bombs were sent to the German Finance Ministry and the International Monetary Fund in Paris. The IMF package exploded, injuring an employee, while the one sent to Germany was caught by scanners.

A Greek urban guerrilla group, Conspiracy of Fire Cells, claimed responsibility for that package.

Papademos, an economist who is more of a technocrat than a politician, was catapulted to centre stage in Greece's debt crisis when he became caretaker prime minister from late 2011 to May 2012, fusing a fragile governing coalition.

He was Greek central bank governor from 1994-2002 and vice-president of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010.

Greece remains in recession with the highest jobless rate in Europe and a stalled creditor review has interrupted payouts under its international bailout programme, its third since 2010.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)
(Kitco News) -Canadian publicly-listed mining companies and Canadian-based mining projects are fast approaching new a crucial government deadline that, if not met, can raise legal issues.

Canadian mining companies have until May 30 to list any payment to foreign governments made in 2016 as part of the new Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act. The Canadian law was passed in 2015 and came into effect into effect last year.

If companies fail to comply with the new legislation, they can face heavy fines of up to $250,000 a day and directors and other company officers could potentially be held criminally liable.

There is some talk within the extraction industry that some companies are scrambling to meet this deadline as they were unaware of the law. However, Danica Doucette-Preville, an associate at Gowling WLG in Calgary, told Kitco News that most companies have been able to successfully incorporate the new law into their compliance programs. She added that she doesnt expect to see any major issues arise after May 30.

She noted that in Calgary, the oil sector set up a working group last year to help companies include the new reporting requirements in their compliance policies. However, she didnt know if the mining sector had a similar working group.

However, being a new law, she said there are still a lot of questions as to what constitutes a payment to a foreign government.

There are a lot of questions, especially to state-run companies. If they are hired by a mine does that constitute as a reportable payment, she said.

For companies that may be scrambling to meet the May 30 deadline, Doucette-Preville did offer some advice.

Companies should be as thorough as possible, adding that before reporting, companies have to file an intent to report with the government that could buy them some time.

It might be better to be a little bit late on this report than submit something that is incomplete, she said.

Payments that companies have to report include taxes, royalties, licenses and other fees, production entitlements, bonuses  including signature, discovery and production bonuses, dividends, other than dividends paid as ordinary shareholders, infrastructure improvement payments.
MILAN, May 26 (Reuters) - Struggling Italian lender Banca Popolare di Vicenza has asked an investment fund backed by the country's healthier banks to come to its rescue by injecting funds to help cover a capital shortfall as required by the European Commission.

Popolare di Vicenza and another regional lender in need of additional capital, Veneto Banca, have requested state aid to fill a capital gap of 6.4 billion euros ($7.16 billion).

But the commission has told the two banks they must find an additional 1 billion euros in private capital before it will allow the Italian government to offer state aid.

Popolare di Vicenza's board said in a statement on Friday it had asked its chief executive "to verify the position" of bank bailout fund Atlante, which is financed by Italian financial institutions. The fund already rescued the two Veneto-based banks last year but they have since suffered further losses. ($1 = 0.8945 euros)

(Reporting by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Mark Bendeich)
* Australia selling record volumes of wheat, barley, canola

* Bumper crops have pushed down prices

* Strong demand from buyers in Asia, Middle East

* Western Australia seen selling more than it produces this year

* But rival Black Sea exports could dent Aus volumes later in year

By Naveen Thukral and Colin Packham

SINGAPORE/SYDNEY, May 26 (Reuters) - Australia's grain exports have shot to record volumes this year as bumper crops push down prices, but levels may fade towards year-end as rival shipments step up from the Black Sea region.

Wheat, canola and barley exports have been over 60 percent higher than normal over the first five months of 2017, at 17.2 million tonnes, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

That flood of grain from Australia, the world's fourth largest wheat exporter, and other suppliers is dragging on global prices that are trading close to last September's 10-year low.

"There are two key reasons for strong flows of grain shipments from Australia," said a Singapore-based trader with an international trading company, declining to be identified as he was not authorised to speak with media.

"They had massive crops and they were cheaper than any other origin."

Australian Standard White wheat has been selling for $185-$195 a tonne, free on board since January, well below the price from other origins, traders said.

The country's 2016/17 wheat production, at 35.13 million tonnes, was around 17 percent more than the previous record of 29.6 million tonnes set in 2011/12. Barley output was 25 percent above the prior record at 13 million tonnes, while canola production of 4.1 million tonnes was 1 percent shy of an all-time high, according to official data.

But industry sources estimate the country will be left with just 5-6 million tonnes of wheat by the end of Australia's grain marketing year in September, similar to last year's levels, due to the scale and pace of exports.

"India has taken more wheat, China is taking lots of barley and we have got back into the Iraqi market," said Ole Houe, an analyst with brokerage IKON Commodities in Sydney.

"Demand is strong everywhere."

India has been buying aggressively this year to fill a supply shortfall left by two years of drought, although purchases have eased in recent months.

China is taking higher quality Australian wheat and other feed grains such as barley and sorghum.

"We have been seeing some strong demand from traditional markets, but also from markets that we haven't done much business with for the past few years," said James Foulsham, wheat trading manager at Australia's largest grain exporter CBH Group.

DIPPING IN

The nation's main wheat exporting state, Western Australia, is expected to sell close to 17 million tonnes of wheat, barley and canola, this year, against total production of 16 million tonnes, industry sources said.

"Western Australia will be dipping into reserves to fulfil export commitments," said a Sydney-based trader.

But in the second half of 2017, Australian wheat will likely face stiff competition from the Black Sea region as Russia and Ukraine also look to offload bumper harvests.

Last week, a miller in Indonesian bought around 60,000 tonnes of Black Sea wheat at $190 a tonne, including cost and freight, for August arrival, traders said. A similar variety of Australian wheat was priced at $215 a tonne.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ GAPHIC: Australian crop exports hit record in early 2017 after bumper harvests ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Joseph Radford)
BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory letter to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) on the 60th anniversary of its founding.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said the academy has shouldered the responsibility of solving major scientific and technological problems in China's agricultural development over the past 60 years.

CAAS has made many important original achievements at an internationally advanced level, fostered many leading figures in agricultural sci-tech research, and contributed greatly to the development of the Chinese agricultural sector, the letter said.

"The key of modernizing agriculture lies in sci-tech progress and innovation," Xi said.

The country should step up innovation, race toward the highest level in world agricultural sci-tech competition and take the upper hand in agricultural sci-tech development to lay a solid foundation for building China into a strong agricultural nation, he said.

CAAS should accelerate the process of building itself into a world-class research institute and promote overall improvement of China's agricultural science and technology to contribute more to the realization of the nation's two centenary goals and the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, Xi said.
MOSCOW, May 26 (Reuters) - Russia's biggest bank Sberbank plans to sell 50 billion roubles ($880.75 million) of subordinated bonds to the public, Interfax news agency cited Sberbank's Chief Financial Officer Alexander Morozov as saying on Friday.

Issuing the subordinated bonds, which Morozov said could happen soon, would boost Sberbank's capital.

"We are in the process of registering the issue. We will look at the market conditions, at the demand," Morozov said, adding that Sberbank would decide the exact amount of bonds to be issued at a later date. ($1 = 56.7700 roubles)

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Jack Stubbs)
SINGAPORE, May 26 (Reuters) - Singapore's industrial production grew for the ninth consecutive month in April, thanks to a continued uptick in electronics output, data showed on Friday.

Manufacturing output in April rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier, data from the Singapore Economic Development Board showed, slightly higher than the median forecast in a Reuters survey for 6.4 percent expansion.

Singapore's trade-reliant economy is expected grow over 2 percent this year, the government said this week, closer to the top-end of its 1-3 percent target, mainly helped by improving global demand that has underpinned a bounce in the manufacturing sector.

On a month-on-month and seasonally adjusted basis, industrial production rose 0.1 percent in April, again topping the median forecast for a contraction of 0.3 percent.

(Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
HANOI, May 26 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0425 GMT.

May 26 USD/VND mid-point 22,384 USD/VND interbank 22,720/22,728 USD/VND unofficial 22,710/22,730 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.31/36.53

Interbank offered rates Overnight 2.7-3.2

1 week 2.7-3.4

1 month 3.5-3.8

3 months 4.3-4.7

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
COLOMBO, May 26 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan shares ended lower on Friday, recording their first weekly decline in nine, as investors booked profits in shares of diversified companies such as John Keells Holdings Plc and Melstacorp Plc .

The Colombo stock index ended 0.25 percent weaker at 6,697.86. On Tuesday the bourse hit its lowest close since May 15 hit on Tuesday. The bourse fell 0.47 percent during the week recording its first weekly fall in nine weeks.

The index rose 0.86 percent last week.

Turnover stood at 237.4 million rupees ($1.56 million), well below this year's daily average of 902.4 million rupees.

Foreign investors net bought shares worth 15.3 million rupees worth of shares extending the year-to-date net foreign inflow to 19.39 billion rupees wroth of equities.

"Market has came down on low volumes. Though there is no serious selling pressure, there is a bit of a wait-and-watch attitude to see whether selling will come," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research, First Capital Holdings PLC.

"Investor's are waiting to buy at bargain prices."

Shares in conglomerate John Keells Holdings Plc fell 0.65 percent while biggest listed lender Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc fell 1.16 percent and Melstacorp Plc ended 1.35 percent weaker and Colombo Cold Stores Plc fell 0.95 percent.

($1 = 152.6000 Sri Lankan rupees)

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Vyas Mohan)
ZURICH, May 26 (Reuters) - Switzerland returned around 3.5 million euros ($3.91 million) held by a close relative of former Tunisian president Ben Ali to Tunisian authorities as part of the country's stolen assets recovery process, Swiss authorities said on Friday. The transfer follows a smaller restitution of 250,000 Swiss francs ($256,383.96) made to Tunisia in May 2016. ($1 = 0.9751 Swiss francs) ($1 = 0.8955 euros)

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
KAMPALA, May 26 (Reuters) - Uganda and Tanzania signed an agreement on their proposed $3.55 billion crude export pipeline on Friday, a key milestone for the project which is expected to start pumping Ugandan oil to international markets in three years.

An official at Uganda's Ministry of Energy told Reuters the agreement covered terms on tax incentives for the project, implementation timelines, the size of the pipeline and local content levels.

The 1,445 km pipeline will start in landlocked Uganda's western region, where crude reserves were discovered in 2006, and terminate at Tanzania's Indian Ocean seaport of Tanga.

Uganda estimates overall crude reserves at 6.5 billion barrels, while recoverable reserves are seen at between 1.4 billion and 1.7 billion barrels.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Duncan Miriri and David Clarke)
LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - British five-year government bond yields dropped to their lowest since February on Friday and yields on other gilts fell to their lowest in around a month, tracking a broad rise in German and U.S. debt prices.

Five-year yields sank as low as 0.445 percent at around 1440 GMT, down about 3 basis points on the day, while 10-year yields came within a whisker of falling below 1 percent for the first time since October 2016.

Twenty-year and 30-year gilt yields dropped to their lowest since late April, as fixed income prices rallied, shrugging off a sharp fall in sterling driven by concerns that the ruling Conservatives' opinion poll lead over Labour had narrowed.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)
* Papademos recovering well, doctors say

* Will stay in hospital for next two days

* No claim of responsibility for bomb yet

(Adds central bank internal investigation)

By George Georgiopoulos

ATHENS, May 26 (Reuters) - Former Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos was recovering well from injuries caused by a booby-trapped package exploding in his car on Thursday, with doctors saying he would stay in hospital for two more days.

Papademos, 69, who was caretaker prime minister for a few months at the peak of the debt crisis five years ago, did not have life-threatening injuries, they said.

He was being treated for superficial wounds to his abdomen and a deeper injury to his right leg from the blast, the worst act of violence against a politician in Greece for years.

"His medical condition is progressing well. He is still in the intensive care unit and will remain there for the next 48 hours, there is no cause for concern," a health official told reporters outside the Evangelismos hospital in central Athens.

Doctors treating him told reporters he was awake, breathing well with no need for an oxygen mask and had had a 15-minute chat with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

"The injury to his right upper leg was the deepest wound, it reached muscle tissue," one of the doctors said.

Police were trying to trace the trail of the envelope and the post office from where it was sent to the Academy of Athens, where Papademos is president.

There was still no immediate claim of responsibility.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras ordered an internal investigation at the central bank to determine whether the envelope sent to Papademos had gone through the central bank's security checks, an official at the bank told Reuters.

Papademos still maintains an office there. Bank of Greece security scans all mail as standard practice, the official said.

Greece has a history of small-scale attacks against politicians, businesses and police. The last major incident was a booby-trapped package killing a guard for then civil protection minister Michalis Chrysohoidis in 2010. In March, police intercepted eight suspect packages at a postal sorting centre in Athens, days after letter bombs were sent to the German Finance Ministry and the International Monetary Fund in Paris. The IMF package exploded, injuring an employee, while the one sent to Germany was caught by scanners.

A Greek urban guerrilla group, Conspiracy of Fire Cells, claimed responsibility for that package.

Papademos, an economist who is more of a technocrat than a politician, was catapulted to centre stage in Greece's debt crisis when he became caretaker prime minister from late 2011 to May 2012, fusing a fragile governing coalition.

He was Greek central bank governor from 1994-2002 and vice-president of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010.

Greece remains in recession with the highest jobless rate in Europe and a stalled creditor review has interrupted payouts under its international bailout programme, its third since 2010.

(Editing by Louise Ireland and Elaine Hardcastle)
(Adds details, quotes, context)

MOSCOW/HONG KONG, May 26 (Reuters) - The state-backed Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and China's Fosun International Ltd could announce an investment in Russia's top gold producer Polyus in early June, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters.

A consortium led by Fosun, one of China's most acquisitive conglomerates, has been in talks since last year to buy a stake in Polyus, controlled by the family of Russian tycoon Suleiman Kerimov, sources with knowledge of the matter have told Reuters. The deal could be announced during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 1-3, the source said on Friday.

RDIF and Polyus declined to comment. Fosun did not immediately respond to Reuters' emailed request for comment.

RDIF Chief Executive Kirill Dmitriev told reporters on Friday that the fund planned to invest together with a Chinese investor in a large Russian natural resources company and that the deal was expected to be announced during the St Petersburg Forum next week.

Dmitriev declined to disclose the names of the Russian company and the Chinese investor.

Polyus has a market value of about $10 billion.

Russian officials might be keen for a deal announcement during the St Petersburg Forum, the country's annual event to attract investors, as Moscow has been actively seeking investments from China since the West imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014.

Fosun may buy "well below" a 25 percent stake in Polyus with a potential option to increase the stake later, said one of the sources familiar with discussions in April. Polyus is also considering launching a secondary share offering in London and Moscow in May or June, sources familiar with planning for the listing have said.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva and Polina Devitt; additional reporting by Diana Asonova and Julie Zhu; Editing by Alexander Winning and Susan Thomas)
(Xinhua) 19:08, May 26, 2017

NEW DELHI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The wreckage of missing Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet of Indian air force (IAF) was spotted after three days of continuous search, officials said Friday.

The remains have been found 60 km northwest of Tezpur city in Sonitpur district of India's northeastern state of Assam.

"The wreckage of the missing SU-30 jet was found close to the last known position of the aircraft, which was 60 km north-west of Tezpur in Assam's Sonitpur district," India's semi-official news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted defense spokesperson at Tezpur, Lt Col Sombit Ghosh as said.

Officials said the rescue teams were yet to reach the spot which is inside forest and prevailing weather conditions in the area were bad.

So far there is no information about the missing pilots who were onboard of the fighter jet.

The fighter jet with two pilots onboard went missing on Tuesday after taking off from the Tezpur Indian air force base.

According to officials, the fighter jet was on a routine training sortie and lost the radio contact with the airbase.

Following the missing of jet, apart from helicopters that were pressed into service, four groups of IAF personnel, nine parties of the Indian army and two teams from the state administration were deployed to trace it.

The Sukhoi-30 is a Russian-made, twin-engine supersonic fighter jet.

In March this year a Sukhoi crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer. Since the induction of Sukhoi-30 fighter planes into Indian airforce in 1997, so far seven have crashed.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Windy. Some showers early then partly cloudy for the afternoon. Morning high of 67F with temps falling sharply to near 40. SW winds shifting to NW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Clear skies. Low near 20F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph.
BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Reform, undoubtedly, is the major agenda of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Chinese President Xi Jinping has presided over all 35 meetings of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform over the past three years.

From those meetings, the reform methodology of Xi, who heads the leading group, can be summarized.

PILOT PROJECTS

At the 35th meeting of the leading group on Tuesday, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, reiterated the importance of pilot projects in generating experiences.

Pilot projects should be used as a tool for stress testing in revealing conflicts and problems, said Xi.

In previous meetings, pilot projects had been identified as the "scouts" for reforms, which are expected to help the authorities understand various situations.

With system innovation as the central task, dozens of pilot projects in various sectors and regions have been implemented in the past three years.

FOCUS ON PEOPLE

Xi told the 10th meeting of the leading group that concrete reforms were needed for people to have a stronger sense of benefit.

Reforms should focus on what people really care about, said Xi in the 11th meeting, in April 2015.

The leading group has urged local authorities to actively explore and carry out pilot reform programs in areas that are of vital interest to the people, such as education, employment, medical care, social management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Authorities have also been mobilized to learn about appeals of the people and to respect grassroots practices.

IMPLEMENTATION

As new reforms roll out, Xi and the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform are paying great attention to their implementation.

At the first meeting of the leading group in January 2014, Xi said the responsibility of the leading group was to implement the CPC's key reforms.

At the group's 15th meeting, in 2015, Xi called for the setting of accurate targets and concrete implementation of reforms.

During the group's 35 meetings, "implementation" has been one of the most frequently used keywords.

Xi last month stressed that all departments and localities should attach greater importance to delivering reforms and examining the reform's effects.

The group called for timely corrections to problems uncovered during supervision, saying that those found making insufficient effort should be called to account.

Leading departments and local authorities should regularly track reform implementation and report the effects, it said.

KEY ROLE OF THE "KEY FEW"

On multiple occasions, Xi and members of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform stressed the key roles of the Party and governmental leading officials, also known as the "key few," in pushing forward reform.

At the group's 32nd meeting in February, group members noted that leading officials should promptly take the lead in advancing, delivering and implementing reform decisions by the CPC Central Committee.

A month later at the next meeting, several senior officials reported on the progress made in reforms in various fields, including environmental protection, the judicial system, poverty relief, rural affairs, the Shanghai FTZ, and state-owned enterprises.

COURAGE, COMMITMENT AND RULE OF LAW

"Reform is a revolution that aims to rectify the system and challenge vested interests. There is no way to do it other than using real swords and spears," said a statement after a meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform last June.

Xi and the group members believe "reform will cause pain, but without reform the pain will be longer-lasting."

To advance the reforms, courage, commitment and perseverance are of great importance.

"Central departments responsible for policymaking and implementation, should have more confidence and composure in the face of difficulty and should unwaveringly push forward reform schemes," Xi said.

The group also required leading officials to be bold in making decisions if a reform is in line with the CPC Central Committee's requirement, the grassroots reality and the people's needs.

Moreover, Xi and the leading group have stressed the rule of law in reforms.

"Rule of law" must be followed and highlighted through the whole reform process and any major reforms must be legally grounded, Xi said at a meeting of the leading group in February 2014.

At another meeting, he said rational and logical legislation was important in the interplay between reform and rule of law.
Children invited to Kids Fish Free Day on the Clinch River





Children wade in the Clinch with a guide during Kids Fish Free Day.. Image by Frances Oates.



The Clinch River Chapter of Trout Unlimited is looking for LOTS OF CHILDREN to enjoy one of its happiest events of the year: Kids Fish Free Day on Saturday, June 10. The event is open to all and admission is free.



Children will be fishing, tying flies, riding in boats, eating hot dogs and signing up for door prizes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. As always, the event will be at the Miller Island boat access on the Clinch River in Norris.



Kids Fish Free Day coincides with the statewide Tennessee Free Fishing Day, so no fishing licenses are required. Cooperating in the event are the Tennessee Valley Authority and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.



The Miller Island boat access is on River Road just off Highway 441 in Norris. To get there from I-75, take Clinton/Norris Exit 122 and turn east; pass the Museum of Appalachia and turn left on Highway 441 toward Norris Dam; just past Island Home Baptist Church, turn left on River Road; drive about a quarter-mile and take the first right into the parking lot.



Clinch River Chapter TU works to preserve and protect the Clinch River tailwater and its watershed through conservation projects and through education of children and adults in aquatic natural resources. Meetings are held the second Thursday of the month at St. Francis Episcopal Church, Norris, except when outdoor activities are scheduled. For more information, visit crctu.org. Published March 25, 2017
TAORMINA, Italy, May 26 (Xinhua) -- With an opening ceremony held in the ancient Greek theatre in Italian city of Taormina, the 2017 summit of the Group of Seven (G7) countries kicked off here on Friday.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni welcomed the other six leaders of the world's most industrialized economies, who gather here for two days to talk about terrorism, cyber-security, migration, climate change, inclusive growth, among other issues.

Italy holds the rotating presidency of the group this year, and Gentiloni played host at what is also his first G7 summit as head of the Italian government.

Leaders attending the summit include U.S. President Donald Trump, who's also in his G7 summit debut since his election, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, and Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe.

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and President of the European Council Donald Tusk are also among the guests.

Representatives from five African nations and six African organizations are also expected to join the G7 on Saturday, the second day of work.

Migration flows and economic development in Africa are in fact among the topics of the summit, and Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Niger, and Tunisia are the countries invited.

The various delegations comprise some 2,000 people overall, according to the Italian G7 presidency.

Security and counter-terrorism cooperation are key focuses of this summit, which took place in the wake of the bombing attack that killed at least 22 people in the British city of Manchester on Monday.

After the opening ceremony, leaders posed for a group photo, and started their working sessions.

A leisure pause is scheduled in the evening, when G7 leaders enjoy a concert by Milan's renowned Scala Philharmonic Orchestra in the ancient theatre overseeing the bay of Taormina.

A formal dinner with Italian President Sergio Mattarella would follow at one of the hotels within the restricted red-zone, encompassing the whole town perched on a hill some 200 meters above the sea.

Taormina is in lockdown since Monday, and tough security measures and restrictions will remain in force until after the summit closure, with about 9,000 police and military officers deployed in the area.

Tough discussions are expected on some of the issues, especially on trade and climate change, considering President Trump's protectionist tone and his reluctance so far towards the Paris Climate deal.

"Talks will not be simples, but we know the spirit of Taormina can help us to proceed in the right direction," Gentiloni acknowledged on the eve of the summit. He confirmed the G7 would deliver "an important statement on terrorism and security."
Panelists speak at a keynote speech of the Seoul International Forum for Literature at the Kyobo Convention Hall in downtown Seoul, Tuesday. From left are Seoul National University professor Yoon Sang-in, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, poet Ko Un, critic Kim U-chang and critic Choi Won-shik. / Yonhap



By Kwon Mee-yoo

The fourth edition of the Seoul International Forum for Literature (SIFL) wrapped up a three-day discussion on the theme "Literature and Its Readership in the Changing World" from Tuesday to Thursday.

Held at the Kyobo Convention Hall in downtown Seoul, the forum featured 13 writers from abroad and 50 from Korea taking part in keynote speeches and discussions.

Svetlana Alexievich, Belarusian journalist and non-fiction writer who pioneered "novels of voices," gave a keynote speech on Tuesday.

The 2015 Nobel Literature laureate well-known for "Voices from Chernobyl," which traces oral history regarding the Chernobyl disaster, said the history of individuals is neglected and her duty is to help get them remembered. She interviewed some 4,000 people for four decades and published their voice in books.

Alexievich said the Chernobyl disaster became virtual reality as people don't fully understand what happened and what is important about the incident. "It is a new type of war, coming from the future. However, humankind is not ready for the new warfare," she said.

She advised the writers to be philosophical in writing about disasters, including the ferry Sewol sinking. "A social and literary approach to the issue prevents it being too worldly and obvious," Alexievich said.

Literature in the globalizing world and the age of multimedia was the theme of the sessions 3 and 4. French critic Antoine Compagnon gave a keynote speech on how the digitalized world influenced the language and the way of reading, writing and literature.

Korean novelist Bang Hyeon-seok introduced a literary quarterly "ASIA," of which he took part in as editorial staff, and how Asian artists relate with each other.

"In the era of globalization, literature should keep the memories of those who should be remembered," Bang said.

Murakami bashed for being light

On the final day, participants discussed the commercialization of literature and the blame fell on the Japanese mega best-selling author Haruki Murakami.

At the keynote speech, critic Yu Jong-ho said Murakami's writings have a negative influence over the readers. He also criticized the readers having an effect on the literature. In a society where the crowd of readers evaluate,

Novelist Hyun Ki-young said the literary world should resist the Murakami style, claiming the Murakami boom was created by invested capital and commercialism.

"Murakami portrays characters enjoying weariness and depression in escapism, instead of being social and realistic," Hyun said. "Murakami might think his literature is global, transcending the bounds of nationality, but in fact he is promoted elaborately by the American publishing industry."

He also criticized the Korean publishers for competing to get the publishing rights for Murakami books, raising the amount of royalties.

"The value of literature lies in making an objection to the society, not in just consumption and enjoyment. Serious literature should be reinstated," Hyun said.
Ulleung Island in 1906 / Courtesy of Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff



Lying some 120 kilometers off the east coast of the Korean peninsula is Ulleung Island  an island famed for its beauty and remoteness. But there is more to the island than its natural beauty and location  there is the mysticism and uncertainty associated with its past.

It is said that the island was inhabited nearly 2,000 years ago by a group of people who were "as wild and lawless as they were superstitious" and had formed their own country known as Usan-guk. The island was famed for its fertility for "bamboo grew to twice the size it grew on the mainland, while the peaches were so large that the pits were divided and wine cups made from the two parts."

The islanders lived peacefully, harvesting what they needed from the sea that the soil did not provide, and, apparently, did not stray far from their homes. Yet, their prosperity attracted the attention of their warlike mainland neighbor, the Kingdom of Silla.

Legend claims that in 512, General Kim Isabu  the Silla governor of what is now Gangwon Province  invaded and conquered the island, which, at this time was thought to have about 1,000 inhabitants. General Kim's invasion was quite ingenious. Knowing of the islanders' superstitions, he had a large number of sea lions carved from wood and upon his armada's arrival off the island's coast, had the wooden sea lions secretly placed into the water. He then made his way to shore and declared to the islanders that unless they surrendered to Silla, he would command the sea lions to attack. His ruse worked.

Homer Hulbert  famed for his English language books of Korean history  described this incident as one of the "most cherished traditions of the Korean people" and his account of it is quite popular, but is it accurate? He claims that the carvings were of lions "with gaping mouths and enormous fangs" and placed at the prow of the boats and the threat of their imminent release upon the island is what compelled the islanders to surrender to mighty Silla. Which is more believable  a lion (not native to Korea) or a sea lion?

For nearly a millennium and a half the island remained far from the politics of the world. At one point it was depopulated of permanent residents  the only temporary visitors being woodcutters and fishermen. But this all changed in the 1880s when Joseon Korea began to repopulate the island after it was discovered that a number of Japanese were poaching the island's valuable timber and, in a manner, challenging Korea's sovereignty.

At first, there were no more than several dozen mainlanders trying to eke out a living but by 1897 the Korean population, mainly farmers and boat builders, had grown to just over 1,100 people.

According to one member of the Korean Customs Service who visited the island in 1898, he claimed that Korean settlers from the mainland were coming in greater numbers each year because "life on the island is comparatively easy" as there were few taxes and the soil was so rich that two crops of wheat, barley, potatoes and beans could be grown each year. But there were no domesticated animals except for a few chickens. Even dogs and pigs  which are very hardy creatures  were conspicuously absent from the island. But other creatures, such as birds and rats, thrived and plagued the islanders by destroying their crops. The island was also inhabited (at least in old-wives tales) by giant centipedes that occasionally hunted people as prey. Centipedes, birds and rats were not the only pests.

Bae Chung-jun arrived on the island in 1897 and claimed to have been granted the right, by the Joseon government, to levy taxes. He also began to harvest and sell the island's timber to Japanese smugglers _ reaping a substantial profit. But this did not sit well with the islanders and they protested. Bae tried to intimidate them through fear and threats of death but his efforts were short-lived. A mob of islanders lynched Bae and then dangled him from one of the trees in front of the Government building.

While the island's natural resources may have played a key role in conquering the island in the 6th century, repopulating it in the late 19th century and having an impact in Joseon's early international politics, it is nearby Dokdo that has been a bone of contention to South Korea's international politics in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff103@gmail.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

Trend:

Australian city of Perth hosted a presentation of Azerbaijans economic and investment opportunities.

During the presentation, organized for Australian entrepreneurs by Azerbaijans Honorary Consulate in Perth, Honorary Consul of Azerbaijan Aydan Rzayeva spoke about the rapid growth of the Azerbaijani economy in recent years, the projects implemented in the country, as well as Azerbaijans investment attractiveness, a source in Azerbaijani Parliament told Trend.

In particular, information was provided on the implementation of projects to develop energy resources, the Southern Gas Corridor project, as well as transportation projects, including the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. It was noted that the development of the non-oil sector of economy, agriculture, manufacture of export-oriented products are among the main priorities of Azerbaijan.

Head of the Azerbaijan-Australia friendship group John Hammond provided information about modern Azerbaijan, its values of multiculturalism and tolerance. He noted that Azerbaijan has become a center for discussion of the problems of the modern world.

It was also announced that in October, Baku will host an Australia-Azerbaijan business forum.

The presentation was attended by more than 60 representatives of various Australian companies engaged in agriculture, dairy and livestock sectors.

Representatives of oil and gas, transportation and tourism companies also attended the event.

The presentation of Azerbaijans economic potential caused great interest among the participants, and many of them expressed desire to take part in the Australia-Azerbaijan business forum in Baku.
U.S. President Donald Trump has approved a four-point policy plan on North Korea revolving around using "every possible pressure" while looking for a diplomatic solution, a South Korean lawmaker said Thursday.

A bipartisan group of South Korean politicians met with Joseph Yun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy.

Yun briefed the lawmakers on the Trump administration's approach toward Pyongyang.

Trump signed a comprehensive policy report by the State Department about two weeks ago, Yun was quoted as saying by Rep. Kim Kwan-young of the opposition People's Party.

It includes four main strategies -- not recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, imposing every possible sanction and pressure, not seeking a regime change and resolving the problem with dialogue in the end.

It indicates that the Trump administration may have ruled out a military option for the Kim Jong-un regime, which has ratcheted up military threats with a series of ballistic missile launches and nuclear testing. (Yonhap)
North Korea was found to have used South Korean vehicles left in the closed inter-Korean industrial park in the North Korean border town of Gaesong without permission, a U.S. broadcaster reported Friday.

Radio Free Asia made the report, citing a photo taken on Dec. 9 by DigitalGlobe, an American commercial space imagery vendor, and recently made public on Google Earth.

In February last year, the South Korean government completely shut down the Gaesong Industrial Complex in response to the North's fourth nuclear and long-range missile tests. The North, in turn, responded to the punitive step with the deportation of all South Koreans there. Launched in 2004, the factory park is a combination of 124 South Korean companies and 54,000 North Korean workers.

In the photo, an 11-meter white vehicle is being operated inside the complex and another similarly sized vehicle is outside the complex, the broadcaster said.

The car in the question is similar to a 22- to 25-ton wing body truck, whose cargo box door is installed on one side, the broadcaster said.

The period when the photo was taken coincides with a period when the North attempted to pilfer and sell some of the products, including electric rice cookers, from the complex to China, the broadcaster said.

"All the vehicles inside the complex belong to South Korea, and the North's use of the vehicles without a permit is a clear-cut violation of South Korean businesses' property rights, and should be immediately stopped," the broadcaster quoted an official at South Korea's Unification Ministry, which is in charge of inter-Korean affairs, as saying. (Yonhap)
South Korea's unification ministry on Friday approved a plan by a non-governmental organization for contact with North Korea in a sign of Seoul's move to gradually resume inter-Korean exchanges.



The government gave the green light to the request by the Korean Sharing Movement to contact with North Koreans to discuss ways to resume the supply of assistance and cooperative projects, according to government officials.



It marks the first such approval since the administration of liberal President Moon Jae-in took office early this month amid expectations of engagement with North Korea.



The humanitarian assistance body filed for approval from the Ministry of Unification on the plan to discuss its assistance programs with North Korea in early May.



The ministry said Monday that it plans to resume civilian inter-Korean exchanges to the extent that the move would not compromise the international sanctions regime.



South Korea said it will sternly respond to North Korea's provocations but also does not believe that long-strained ties will help stability on the divided peninsula.



The ministry said Thursday it is reviewing 19 civic groups' requests for such approval as they are seeking to provide humanitarian assistance and pursue projects in development and exchanges in the social and cultural sectors.



Since Moon took office on May 10, expectations have been high that civilian inter-Korean exchanges would be revived.



The government under former President Park Geun-hye said it would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those vulnerable in North Korea, such as infants and pregnant women. But Seoul suspended almost all civilian exchanges when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January 2016.



Last year the government approved only the Eugene Bell Foundation Korea's delivery of medication for tuberculosis to North Korea.



Established in 1996, the Korean Sharing Movement has worked on agricultural assistance and nutrition projects for North Korean children.



Any trip to the North requires the Seoul government's approval, as well as the North's consent. The two Koreas remain technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)




By Jun Ji-hye

The U.S. State Department reaffirmed Friday that "all options are on the table" in dealing with North Korea, indicating it has not ruled out the military option.

Its comments came after a bipartisan group of South Korean lawmakers, after meeting in Washington with Joseph Yun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, told reporters they heard from Yun that the Donald Trump administration is not considering any military options against the North.





President Donald Trump

Rep. Kim Kwan-young of the opposition People's Party quoted Yun as saying U.S. President Donald Trump has approved a four-point policy plan that did not include the military option.

The four main strategies are: refusing to recognize North Korea as a nuclear state, imposing every possible sanction and pressure, not seeking regime change, and resolving the problem with dialogue in the end, according to Rep. Kim.

Yun was also quoted as saying Trump signed the policy report by the State Department about two weeks ago.

However, State Department spokeswoman Katina Adams refused to confirm whether or not Trump approved the policy.

"We are not going to discuss our private diplomatic conversations," Adams said during a telephone interview with Voice of America (VOA).

She indicated the U.S. government has not ruled out the military choice, reaffirming: "All options are on the table."

She added, "As we pursue our international pressure strategy, we will continue to be flexible and take advantage of opportunities and respond to provocations."

In the early weeks of the Trump administration, the U.S. President as well as high-ranking officials made a series of hawkish remarks against the repressive state that has continued its missile provocations in defiance of international condemnation and sanctions.

During his visit to South Korea in March, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared an end to the Barack Obama administration's policy of strategic patience in dealing with Pyongyang, vowing to explore all options including harsher sanctions and military action.

Then in April, President Trump also warned of the possibility of military action against the North, saying, "We are sending an armada, very powerful," during an interview with Fox Business.

The comment was made in reference to the dispatch of a massive aircraft carrier strike group led by USS Carl Vinson to waters off the Korean Peninsula, which was seen as an apparent warning against the North.

However, the Trump administration has recently appeared to shift to a rather soft tone, with the President saying earlier this month he was "absolutely" willing and would be "honored" to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, though such a meeting could only take place "under the right circumstances."

During his meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in's special envoy last week, Tillerson also said the United States wants the North to trust its promise of no hostility and conduct no more nuclear or missile tests before Washington can consider opening talks with Pyongyang.

Rep. Kim told reporters, "The U.S. side told us that it was not Washington that has refused to hold a dialogue but Kim Jong-un has shown no willingness to talk."

The U.S. government's recent emphasis on dialogue with the North seems to be in line with President Moon's dual-track policy to pursue Pyongyang's denuclearization and seek dialogue at the same time.

But observers said Moon and Trump may have some differences about the timing and conditions of the dialogue.

The two heads of state are scheduled to hold a summit late June in Washington.
A photo shows how customers can rent special occasion wear at Salon de Charlotte, which has locations at the Lotte Department Store in downtown Seoul and more recently in Jamsil, as people gradually start to rent rather than purchase clothes. / Courtesy of Lotte Department



By Kim Ji-soo

Brigitte Macron, the new French first lady, caught the public's attention at the May 14 inauguration of her husband, French President Emmanuel Macron, with her powder-blue Louis Vuitton suit, loaned to her by the fashion house. No one would have ever guessed she had only rented, not bought, the stunning outfit.

Renting goods  from water purifiers to other consumer goods such as clothes  is increasing in Korea, where consumers are becoming savvier at looking great and living well on a tight budget.

Last July, clothing rental shop Salon de Charlotte opened on the ground floor of Lotte Department Store in downtown Seoul. The store offers dresses for special occasions and luxury-brand handbags such as from Chanel and Miu Miu.

"We are seeing more demand since March this year. It's mostly women, mothers in their 20s and 30s seeking to rent (an outfit) for their baby's first birthday party, as they do not necessarily wear the traditional Korean attire so much anymore," said Choi Yeun-hee, a Salon de Charlotte employee at the Lotte Department store in downtown Seoul. She said there is also demand from women looking for clothes for wedding receptions and from single women in their 20s needing a fashionable look for special events.

The shop's dresses cost between 100,000 won and 300,000 won for two-night and three-day rentals. In addition to renting dresses, the store often sells dresses designed and produced by Korean designers.

Choi said Salon de Charlotte is also getting much press attention these days, as renting goods becomes a trend in Korea.

In 2016, SK Planet launched Project Anne, focusing on renting daily clothes from designer brands. Project Anne, an online-to-offline fashion platform started with 12,000 pieces from 100 brands but now has around 30,000 products from 150 brands. The service, which allows a customer to borrow a minimum of four pieces a month for 80,000 won, has also seen an increase in customers. In December 2016, it had 22,000 customers, and this figure gradually picked up to 130,000 as of May 2017.

"The trend of renting clothes has carved out niche markets in the United States, Europe and Japan," an SK Planet official said.

He cited some early services in the industry, such as Rent the Runway, which opened in 2009 first as a party-wear rental service and later added casual clothing from medium-priced to expensive brands and luxury brands: Le Tote, which opened in 2012; and Japan's Air Closet, which was founded in 2014 and recorded 70,000 registered members within the first year. The rental prices of these services range from $59 to $139.

Multitudes of such services, such as Wing Closet and The Clozet, now abound online in Korea, offering clothing rental for work and special occasions.

But the trend is not restricted to clothes. For instance, artwork rentals have also been on the rise. Word of mouth has made OPEN GALLERY, founded in late 2013, successful.

"We are seeing demand increase by the year. In particular, we are seeing significant demand from women in their 30s and 40s, who decorate their homes with original artwork, and continued demand from such spaces as offices, cafes and hospitals," said a PR official at OPEN GALLERY, a service that rents out original art.

"I think it has to do with the spreading of culture of enjoying over owning in the nation," the official said. Their art can be borrowed at 1 to 3 percent of the original price, and customers can receive new art every three months.

Online luxury goods sales website Reebonz Korea, which was founded six years ago in Seoul, started a luxury goods rental service in December 2016.

"There was a lot of demand from our customers to start a rental business," an employee told The Korea Times over the phone. They started the rental business ON: RE, where customers can register as a member and pay 79,000 won per month to rent a luxury brand bag or watch.

A 46-year-old housewife in Seoul surnamed Kim said she rents, in a package deal, water and air purifiers, because these companies manage them for her and also she does not want to crowd her home with stuff.

Citing KT Economics and Business Management Research Institute, Yonhap reported that the nation's rental market stood at 25.9 trillion won last year, representing a 32.8 percent rise over 2011.

"I used to rent in the United States, like a tuxedo for the prom or a suit to wear to people's weddings, because those items were expensive to purchase," said a 27-year-old male living in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. But here in Seoul, there are not many special occasions that require one to rent a suit, and where events that usually require dressing up are much more toned-down affairs.

"While renting electronics goods was about actually getting to use these big-priced items at the cost of monthly rental fees, which may in fact be like installment payments, except the firms manage these products for the consumers; now, consumers are willing to rent to utilize the diverse range of products they offer," said Jeon Mi-young, research professor at the Department of Consumer Science at Seoul National University.She is also a co-author of "Trend Korea 2017" along with professor Kim Ran-do.

"It's items like clothes that many consumers now prefer to rent rather than to own, and it's an especially dominant and preferred type of ownership among those in their 20s, who want to experience the diverse range of the latest products," Jeon said.

"And companies are catching up fast onto this aspect and moving aggressively and swiftly to offer such services."
Kyonggi Elementary School in Seoul allegedly skimmed the wages of its foreign teachers. / Korea Times file

By Lee Han-soo, Park Si-soo

Kyonggi Elementary School has been accused of skimming the wages of eight foreign teachers over several years with a contract clause that turned out to be illegal.

The wages that were taken from the native English teachers amounted to 45 million won ($40,240), with some losing more than 10 million won, according to labor attorney Jung Bong-soo, who represents the victims. They filed a collective complaint with the Seoul Regional Ministry of Employment and Labor in March, demanding reimbursement of their losses and replacing current contracts with "fair" ones.

The skimmed income  10 percent of their hourly wage  was transferred to an independent Korean recruiter, who searched for and hired native English teachers on behalf of the private school in Seodaemun, northwestern Seoul.

The recruiter, surnamed Joo, is known to have introduced himself as a school adviser and is said to have drafted the contracts, including the controversial clause. The victims said they had signed their contracts not knowing the clause enforcing the monthly deduction was illegal. Under Korean employment law, giving recruiters a portion of a person's first salary as an "introduction fee" is legal, but recruiters are not allowed to make regular deductions.

"He informed me that I had to sign the clause to become an employee of the school," one of the plaintiffs told The Korea Times. He wanted to remain anonymous. "I didn't know the clause was illegal." The teacher learned about the illegality in March and stopped sending money to Joo.

Another victim said the recruiter called the illegal clause "just a little unusual method" in the Korean education system, forcing her to transfer monthly 10 percent of her wage, otherwise her contract would not be extended.

School officials said they were unaware of the illegal deductions.

"We recently found that the illegal clause was written in the contract form," the school's vice principal said. "Joo is not our employee. So we didn't know what had happened."

But none of the victims took the explanation at face value. They suspect cozy ties between the recruiter and school authorities.

"If the school was paying him (Joo) a wage too, then maybe they could claim they didn't know," a teacher said. "But if they didn't (pay) him, then what did they think was going on? That he was just volunteering for 20 years? That seems unlikely."

The victims believe the school was aware of the illegal clause but overlooked it because Joo worked free of charge.

According to one teacher, Joo had weekly meetings with the foreign teaching staff every Monday and arranged their classes and other assignments. He also allegedly arranged and chaperoned an annual school trip to the U.S.

The Korea Times was unable to secure Joo's contact information.

The teachers' employment contracts are set to expire at the end of July. They hope the scandal won't affect contract renewals.

"I'm obviously being cautious since I'm a foreigner with an E-2 (English teaching) visa and need to be concerned about any backlash," a teacher said. "I don't want the case to ruin any future chance of me working anywhere in Korea."

The vice principal said the school will compensate the teachers if the labor office rules in their favor. He said the school would stop working with Joo and would search and recruit native English teachers itself.




By Lee Kyung-min







Expectation is growing over the possible legislation of an anti-discrimination law within President Moon Jae-in's term, after he ordered, Thursday, to strengthen the role of the country's human rights watchdog.



The National Human Rights Commission since 2003 has recommended the enactment of a law that bars discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, nationality, disability, political inclination, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, illness and sexual orientation. The law outlines punishment of violators and measures for those discriminated against, seeking to achieve equal protection of the law under the Constitution.



According to the NHRC, it plans to submit to the President 10 recommendations on human rights issues in setting up government policies on tackling the low birthrate and aging society, social inequality and abuse within the military. Also included are: the need to strengthen the right to live in a safe, healthy environment and measures to set up infrastructure to better protect basic human rights in general.



However, any attempt to pass the law, or engage in social discourse on the part regarding gay rights has been repeatedly derailed due to fierce opposition by Christian groups condemning homosexuality as a sin.



In 2007, under the former President Roh Moo-hyun administration, a draft of an anti-discrimination law authored by the justice ministry was submitted to the National Assembly but it was not even discussed due to a parliamentary gridlock.



In 2013, liberal lawmakers Kim Han-gil, Choi Won-sik and Kim Jae-yeon submitted to the National Assembly three draft anti-discrimination laws, only to withdraw after being openly threatened by the Christian Council of Churches head Hong Jae-chul and being bombarded by phone calls and online comments. The bill was discarded without due deliberations as the 19th National Assembly expired.



President Moon himself is no stranger to such political pressure. When he ran for presidency in 2012 he vowed to enact the anti-discrimination law, but changed his position in 2017 when he met with the country's powerful pastors group.



The issue of equal protection is a life-and-death issue that should no longer be dismissed as irrelevant, according to civic groups.



"We have raised our voices constantly only to be silenced by the society that won't recognize us, let alone guarantee our rights," an activist for sexual minority groups said.



"Many of us who have been forced to remain invisible are asking that the President, a former human rights lawyer, listen to us and help eliminate prejudice and misunderstanding about us."



Sexual minority groups have long been subject to stigmatization here, an attitude stemming from Confucianism tradition which prioritizes continuation of the family line.



Such a belief, considered ignorant and bigoted in developed countries, was and still is prevalent among lawmakers.



A group of Christian lawmakers led by Hwang Woo-yea of the then governing Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the Liberty Korea Party, demanded in 2013 an "immediate correction" of high school textbooks they believe were "encouraging" gay sex.



"Normalizing homosexual behavior and ignoring the opinions against homosexuality is wrong," Hwang said. "The content should state homosexuality is immoral and also describe why gay people live unhappy lives."




Roh Geon-ho, son of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun, speaks during a memorial ceremony for his father at Bongha Village in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. / Joint press corps



By Choi Ha-young

The latest memorial ceremony for former President Roh Moo-hyun was full of stories  many of them about President Moon Jae-in's friendship with him.

But what made the ceremony more memorable was a bald Roh Geon-ho, the son of the former president.

"Before giving my thank-you message to all here, I think I need to explain why I shaved my head," he said in an opening speech. "My new hairstyle is not a political gesture or expression of my anger against society. And of course, I don't have any religious intent."

Laughter broke the solemn atmosphere. He said he shaved his head because he hated losing his hair.

"I offer my sincere condolences to all citizens who are suffering from hair loss. Misery loves company," Roh said. "Luckily, my hair is growing again."

His joke spiced up the ceremony. Even his mother, Roh's widow Kwon Yang-sook, stopped crying and smiled for a short time. President Moon Jae-in, the late Roh's longtime friend and his political heir, and first lady Kim Jung-sook burst into laughter.

The younger Roh's humorous comment reminded some people of the deceased symbolic figure, who captured people's hearts with his easygoing attitude. "Roh Geon-ho inherited not only his eyes but also a sense of humor from his father," netizen Ha Sung-tae tweeted, Tuesday.

Later, Roh expressed his deep longing for his father, who jumped to his death under the pressure of a prosecution investigation in 2009, allegedly controlled by the then conservative administration.

"To this day, I still don't understand whether he walked the road that history had already designed, or pioneered a new phrase of history across the eras," he said. "If he was alive, he would have enjoyed a glass of rice wine."

In the memorial service in 2015, Roh drew public attention by lashing out at Rep. Kim Moo-sung, a conservative politician. "Special thanks to the one participant who virtually put the former president to death," he said.

Since September 2013, Roh has been in the doctoral program in Beijing University. Despite public attention, he has stepped away from politics.
Gwanghwamun 1st Street at Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, May 25. / Korea Times photos by Choi Won-suk



By Ko Dong-hwan

Foreigners now have an official window to deliver their complaints directly to the central government, but they must be in a written format without a personal consultation.

President Moon Jae-in opened on Thursday Gwanghwamun 1st Street, an outdoor pavilion comprising blue modular spaces, next to the Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, where visitors can leave their comments about the new administration.

Comments can also be submitted online to a website launched on Friday.





Citizens gather at the new pavilion to petition President Moon Jae-in. (From top) members of animal rights group Care hold signs saying "Ban dog meat"; a man rebukes allegedly corrupt prosecutors and calls on the Prosecutor-General to see that justice is done; two men ask President Moon to pass laws to preserve bar exams.



Foreigners can submit their comments in their own languages to staff at the pavilion or via the email indicated on the website Foreigners can submit their comments in their own languages to staff at the pavilion or via the email indicated on the website gwanghwamoon1st.go.kr

Visitors to the pavilion can also petition through a one-on-one meeting with a stationed officer. However, the communication is limited to Korean.

"We will operate Gwanghwamun 1st Street only for 50 days," said Shin Sung-yeol, from Creative Government Planning Bureau under the Ministry of Interior, who was at the pavilion's opening ceremony on Thursday.

"The idea is to build an effective communication channel between Korean citizens and the central government. To be honest, we have not thought about tending to foreigners."

The pavilion launched the service immediately following the ceremony joined by four project planning committee executives and two citizen representatives.

More than 10 sets of small desks with two chairs were lined up inside an air-conditioned space, where officers and petitioners engaged in discussion.





Petition desks were crowded with citizens and journalists on the pavilion's first day of operation.



The ceremony was joined by several civic activists who raised their voices in front of journalists and filed their petitions at the desks.

A member of animal rights group Care live-streamed a fellow member filing a petition, while two former Samsung employees loudly claimed they were unfairly fired 20 years ago.

Two men held signs addressed to President Moon saying it was not yet too late to pass the laws to preserve the bar exam. An aged man spread out a banner containing a letter to the Prosecutor General, claiming two prosecutors had covered up for certain robbers by not complying with a Supreme Prosecutors' Office's order to extend an investigation into the alleged crime.

Visitors to the pavilion can also highlight passages of their favorite books and recommend them to the President by donating the books at a collection point.
By Kim Hyo-jin



Opposition lawmakers said Friday they had received a flood of derogatory text messages from citizens, presumably supporters of President Moon Jae-in, because of their tough questioning of Prime Minister-designate Lee Nak-yon during a confirmation hearing.



On the second day of the two-day hearing, Thursday, some lawmakers complained of nonstop message alerts on their phones throughout the day. One even complained he could not sleep all night.



"Strangers have bombarded me with text messages even through mobile messenger Kakao Talk and left malicious comments on Facebook. They even made phone calls late at night. They seemed to be totally nocturnal. I received messages mainly at night," said Rep. Kim Kwang-soo of the minor opposition People's Party.



"I just couldn't sleep," Rep. Park Myung-jae of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) said, calling it a "bombing" of text messages.



Kim said about 2,500 text messages denouncing his performance at the hearing had flooded his phone in less than two days. Other opposition lawmakers also received over 1,000 messages after pounding the prime minister nominee with allegations including one concerning his son's exemption from military service.



Some messages even included swearing or threats to their family members, they said. One message Kim showed to reporters reads: "I would dig up your own private life first. Your parents or siblings are all doomed."



Phone numbers of the lawmakers remain public after anonymous internet users distributed them late last year when there was high public interest in whether the motion to impeach then-President Park Geun-hye would be passed at the Assembly.



An opposition lawmaker, who then was a ruling party member, recalled it was hard to be nonchalant at that time in the face of hundreds of profanity-laden messages.



Some claim it should be understood as public participation in politics, saying criticisms against the move could constitute freedom of expression.



"Taking issue with people's direct participation is an insult to democracy," Rep. Park Kwang-on of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) wrote on Facebook. "It's the era where you cannot do politics while being authoritative toward citizens."



"It's just because people now find it natural to engage in politics directly. They stopped alienating themselves from politics and started seeing the lawmakers as public servants," said Kim Ou-joon, founder of the Ddanzi Ilbo online newspaper.



The main opposition party, however, raised its voice, saying the mass texting undermines representative democracy. "It's more like a terrorist attack on us," said Chung Woo-taik, the LKP floor leader, blaming the President's fandom.

Lee Taek-gwang, a culture critic and professor at Kyung Hee University, noted it reflects distorted expectations of Moon supporters on the new government.



"They originated from the fandom of the late President Roh Moo-hyun. Their trauma of seeing the failure of the Roh government made them extremely defensive of journalists and opposition parties. They are expressing their wish that the government led by Moon, a carrier of Roh's legacy, ends up successful," he said.




Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Anakhanum Hidayatova  Trend:

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Diplomacy, US Department of State Robin Dunnigan will visit Azerbaijan, the US Embassy in Azerbaijan told Trend May 26.

Dunnigan will lead a US delegation during the annual international exhibition Caspian Oil & Gas 2017.

The 24th Caspian International Oil & Gas Exhibition will be held in Baku from May 31 to June 3.
By Kim Hyo-jin



The Ministry of Unification authorized a request from a non-governmental organization for its contact with North Koreans, Friday.



This marks Seoul's first approval of inter-Korean civilian contact since it suspended all exchanges following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test in January last year.



The ministry said it approved the request from the Korean Sharing Movement, a Seoul-based humanitarian aid group, to contact North Korean citizens for humanitarian aid.



Contact with North Koreans or visits to the country require government permission here.



"The current strained inter-Korean relations are not desirable considering stabilization of the Korean Peninsula," the unification ministry said.



"The approval was made based on our position that civilian exchanges including humanitarian assistance should be reviewed flexibly as long as they do not undermine the frame of international sanctions against the North."



The decision came as tensions between the two countries still remain high following the North's test firing its long-range ballistic missiles.



President Moon Jae-in has vowed to resume humanitarian assistance and pursue projects in development and exchanges with North Korea. The decision reflects the stance of the new government that the move should be separated from political considerations.



Kang Kyung-wha, the foreign minister nominee, said Thursday that "Humanitarian aid, the universal value of humanity, should be sought separately from political considerations." A presidential aide mentioned later the remark was in tune with the Moon government.



Kang Young-sik, secretary-general of the Korean Sharing Movement, said he will first discuss a quarantine project with the North in fighting malaria. The group has mainly worked on agricultural assistance and nutrition projects for North Korean children since 1996.



"After the discussion, we plan to send supplies for prevention of the disease on approval from the unification ministry," Kang said.



The humanitarian aid group also seeks to visit the country along with lawmakers including Won Hye-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Chun Jung-bae of the minor opposition People's Party. Kang said it may be realized around June 10 at the earliest.



The ministry is expected to approve other suspended requests made by multiple NGOs to communicate with the reclusive country.



Over the last year, Seoul only approved the Eugene Bell Foundation Korea's delivery of medication for tuberculosis to North Korea.



Eugene Bell is a foreign foundation but needed the government's approval as it had to send supplies procured in South Korea.



It caused controversy as it was done while domestic civilian groups were banned from contact with the North, even to discuss humanitarian assistance.




President Moon Jae-in and incumbent Cabinet ministers appointed by the ousted former President Park Geun-hye applaud during their meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, Friday. Moon, who was sworn in without a transitional period, asked for the ministers' cooperation for a smooth transfer of jobs to their successors. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye

Cheong Wa Dae apologized, Friday, for past irregularities committed by some of President Moon Jae-in's nominees for top government posts.

It, however, sought understanding from the National Assembly and the public for their offenses.

Moon's Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok said at a press briefing that the presidential office felt deeply sorry as Moon's personnel appointments failed to live up to public expectations.

"We also want to ask for the understanding of lawmakers who are conducting confirmation hearings at the National Assembly," Im said.

The apology came as Lee Nak-yon, Kim Sang-jo and Kang Kyung-wha, nominees for prime minister, Fair Trade Commission (FTC) head and foreign minister, respectively, have been embroiled in controversy over false residence registration of themselves or their family members.

False residence registration is a criminal offense in South Korea, punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine of up to 10 million won ($8,900), although the law has not been strictly enforced.

During the presidential campaign, Moon vowed not to appoint those linked to evasion of mandatory military service, real estate speculation, tax evasion, false residence registration and thesis plagiarism as high-ranking government officials.

Opposition lawmakers have already attacked Prime Minister-designate Lee during his confirmation hearings over the false residence registration of his wife, calling on Moon to express his position.

Lee's wife falsely registered her address in 1989 while working as a public school teacher, a move aimed at being assigned to a school of her choice. Lee admitted and apologized for the past wrongdoing of his wife during hearings.

The nominee to head the FTC has been also suspected of falsely registering his address twice in the past. The FTC explained that the nominee did not have bad intentions such as speculation in real estate.

Kang also faces criticism for her daughter's false resident registration. Kang explained it was an inevitable choice for her daughter to change schools from the United States to South Korea.

Im confessed that it was difficult for Cheong Wa Dae to fully keep Moon's campaign pledge related to the personnel appointment, saying the reality was different from the ideal.

"The presidential office is working to verify nominees for new ranking government officials with very high moral standards," Im said.

Regarding the issue, some Cheong Wa Dae officials are calling for preparing more detailed criteria in scrutinizing nominees as it is improper to uniformly exclude figures simply because they are involved with false residence registration. The officials say Cheong Wa Dae should look at the intention of the action, as the purposes of changing schools and real estate speculation are different in nature.
By Ted Gover





During last year's presidential campaign, President Trump's America First doctrine was described as an argument for changing America's actions at home and abroad while departing from the US postwar order that Trump argued left many U.S. workers behind. This markedly different platform created uncertainty in world affairs, giving policymakers in Washington and elsewhere plenty of heartburn as they strove to make sense of the new policy.

In his first days in office, President Trump made good on his pledge to withdraw the U.S. from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. It was a signal to free traders that the new President was following through on campaign promises to institute drastic change to trade practices that he argued were harmful to American jobs.

Yet, on matters of foreign affairs, the President's actions of late indicate a return to conventional U.S. practices as the White House encounters the realities facing the world. These policy changes have already garnered the support of internationalists, establishment Republicans and U.S. partners.

Syria is one example. The U.S. tomahawk missile strike against the Shayrat airbase in response to President Bashar al-Assad's April 4 chemical weapons attack that killed over 100 civilians is a case in point.

This recent action in Syria is a reversal of President Trump's campaign rhetoric against U.S. entanglement in the Syrian Civil War. It also reassures Gulf Arab partners of U.S. involvement against the Assad regime when certain red lines are crossed.

To the relief of many, Mr. Trump has also changed course on NATO and Russia. At an April 13 news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President Trump did a 180 on his prior hostility to NATO, stating that NATO is "no longer obsolete." During an interview later that same day, President Trump abandoned praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticizing him for his loyalty to Syrian President Assad, stating that it was "very bad" for Russia, "mankind" and "very bad for the world."

Regarding China, President Trump has softened his tone and even been praiseworthy of Beijing. He backed down on campaign commitments to label China as a currency manipulator, stating to the Wall Street Journal on April 12, "they're (China) not currency manipulators," and also expressed his openness to making trade concessions to Beijing in exchange for help with North Korea.

Trump's actions as chief diplomat  playing host to eight U.S. allies since January  can also be seen as a partial departure from the America First doctrine.

Some view the President's reversals as the signs of a leader changing his views as he obtains a deeper understanding of the issues, while others believe that it indicates the traditionalists are gaining more influence with Trump. Regardless, many are breathing sighs of relief as they see Mr. Trump adopt a more conventional U.S. foreign policy.

Ted Gover, Ph.D., is instructor of Political Science at the Central Texas College campus, Camp Pendleton, California. Write to tedgover@gmail.com.
Will Korean won continue to gain ground against US dollar?
Consultations with US, reassuring steps pivotal



In Korea's taking over of the wartime control of ROK forces from the United States, the most important factors are bilateral consultations and reassuring measures to leave no security void in the transition and aftermath.



On Friday, the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, the de facto transition team for President Moon Jae-in, asked the defense ministry to submit a detailed plan for it.



It is an effort to materialize President Moon's campaign pledge to regain command of our troops. Currently, Korea keeps command and control of its troops during peacetime, but when war breaks out it is transferred to the U.S. four-star general who commands the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC). A Korean general serves as CFC deputy commander.



Moon said it would be as easy as the switch of the CFC top structure _ having a Korean general lead it with a U.S. general serving under him, while raising the defense budget by 0.1 percent to 3 percent of the GDP by the end of his term.



But it is not as simple as he thinks. First of all, the arrangement will likely trigger the disengagement of U.S. troops from Korea. It represents Korea's will to take responsibility for its own defense but the U.S. will likely see it as an excuse to stand down. Second, the U.S. has made it a rule not to put its troops under another country's command. Third, if a Korean general is put in charge, it could create confusion in the chain of command in the current format because U.S. reinforcements play a key role in fighting the invading North Korean forces.



So the command retrieval should be planned with little haste but a reasonable and definite schedule is needed. The late former President Roh Moo-hyun planned to have it back by 2015 and his conservative successor Lee Myung-bak pushed it back to the early 2020s, citing a big extra budget required for it amid North Korea's nuclear and missile development. Former impeached President Park Geun-hye, also a conservative, had shelved it indefinitely.



Now, it is important for Korea to achieve self-defense capabilities, the wartime control of its troops being a resolute sign of it and a matter of national pride. U.S. President Donald Trump has belittled Korea for its alleged failure to defend itself on its own and his predecessors have also been able to influence Korea's domestic politics thanks to its military presence here. At a time when the North has become a virtual nuclear power and its benefactor China remains fickle and unreliable, Korea needs to maintain its alliance with the U.S. and the retaking of wartime control should be pushed in a way that will least compromise it.



That way, the people would not get worried about the possible security void, helping the plan move ahead smoothly.



For that, the importance of a strengthened and committed force improvement plan can't be overstated. Korea's trio defense system _ pre-emptive attack capability, indigenous missile defense for incoming projectiles and massive punishment and retaliation after invasion _ should be advanced in development and deployment to the early 2020s as suggested. Also budgetary allocations should be followed to make it happen.



Considering the maturity of the North's asymmetric assets and the precarious balance of power in the region, we can't afford to miss the bus this time.




By Oh Young-jin





"Thanks for having brought me up this well. But, mom, I can't help you."

This is what the 34-year-old daughter of Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha should tell her mother, if she has not already done so regarding Kang's request for her to give up her American citizenship.

Why?

Above all, it is about her life.

Sure, Kang is a respected competent diplomat. She must have provided the best for her daughter while she grew up.

But now, she is 34 years old who opted to become an American, forsaking her Korean citizenship in 2006.

She was born in the U.S. while Kang was studying, obviously having spent no great amount of time in Korea.

If she accepts her mother's request and switches her citizenship, it would only make a mockery of herself as well as her mother, and of their motherland.

It would mean that she is a switch-hitter who can go from Korean to American, and vice versa, depending on which version of her will best serve her interests. We call such a person an opportunist who can sell her soul to the highest bidder.

That kind of person can't be the daughter of Kang who worked so hard and well for the President Kim Dae-jung, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for inter-Korean reconciliation, and has now risen to top human rights advocate in the United Nations. Or can she?

It would spoil Kang's credentials, turning her into a woman with the heart of Lady Macbeth or the evilness of Mephistopheles, who will not stop at anything to fulfill her ambitions.

Could the nation trust the foreign minister who is blinded by her ego and driven by her selfish goals?












President Moon Jae-in adjusts his Lindberg glasses in this file photo. / Korea Times file



By Park Jae-hyuk

President Moon Jae-in fever among Koreans has recently created new demands in the market.

In line with his 81.6 percent approval rating, brands that the President used have consecutively been sold out by his fans just like K-pop idols' items.

The so-called "Moon Jae-in goods" include Moon's glasses, shoes, coffee, tie and outdoor jacket, as well as books, military uniform and election campaign jumper.

The most popular one among them might be his Lindberg eyewear which earlier provoked controversy in the 2012 presidential election campaign due to its high price. The same glasses cost around 800,000 won ($716) at department stores here.

More Koreans, however, began to regard the glasses as practical  not luxurious  in the latest presidential election campaign, because Moon has worn them for over five years.

An optician in Busan recently posted his picture with Moon on Instagram and wrote: "You haven't got old at all. I had hard times after selling you the glasses five years ago, but now I feel relaxed."

Unlike other eyewear brands, Lindberg directly contracts with retailers without brokers. Although the Denmark-based firm supplies its products to few stores, more than 12,000 Lindberg glasses were sold last year and the figure seems to be growing further.





President Moon Jae-in's worn-out AGIO shoes in circle are shown to the public during a state ceremony to commemorate the May 18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju. / Yonhap



While the eyewear might be the most popular of the "Moon Jae-in goods," his shoes might be the rarest among them.

Moon's AGIO footwear has recently gone viral after the worn-out shoes were shown to the public last week during a state ceremony to commemorate the May 18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju.

The shoes were made by deaf craftsmen working for a social enterprise. However, they are no longer available, as the company closed its business four years ago.





A recipe for "Moon blend" coffee is written on a board at Club Espresso in Jongno, Seoul, in this file photo. / Yonhap



Along with the glasses and the shoes, a recipe for coffee that Moon enjoys has been in the limelight as well.

Club Espresso in Jongno, Seoul, began to sell "Moon blend" coffee right after the President's inauguration, saying Moon often visited the coffee shop.

"He always wanted coffee in the ratio of four Colombian, three Brazilian, two Ethiopian and one Guatemalan," Ma Eun-sik, an owner of the store, wrote on Facebook. "Just a few in Busan know the ratio."

But other stores have begun to sell "Moon Jae-in coffee" as well.

Also, fans struggle to get orange Black Yak jackets, which Moon frequently wore, because it was released in limited edition. Orange ties with a seal print symbolizing the Dokdo islets have been also sold out in major domestic online malls.

Dokdo is Korea's easternmost territory of Korea but Japan also claims its sovereignty over the islets, which are rich fishery resources. But the volcanic outcroppings are currently under the control of Korea with the country's armed police officers stationed there.

In bookshops, his autobiography "Moon Jae-in: The Destiny" and the Time magazine issue that carried Moon's interview both topped bestseller lists.

Some supporters even purchased military uniforms and blue election campaign jumpers with Moon's name on them from online secondhand markets.

They posted pictures of those items with the hashtag "Innie Blue," which stands for the President's nickname and the symbolic color of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

While saying the fad is unprecedented, experts warn that some people may come up with fake products to lure in uninformed customers. In other countries such as the United States, goods related to politicians are often marketed to sponsor them.
Smokeless tobacco categorized as e-cigarette' here



By Park Jae-hyuk



Philip Morris will begin presales of its IQOS smokeless cigarettes Saturday at IQOS brand shops in Gwanghwamun and Garosu-gil in Seoul, according to the world's largest tobacco company's Korean branch, Friday.



"The exact amount of presold products has yet to be compiled, as it is still difficult to estimate consumer demand," a Philip Morris International (PMI) Korea spokeswoman said. "The brand shops are not pop-up stores, so they will continue to be in operation."



PMI Korea announced earlier it will sell IQOS here beginning on June 5. CEO Chong Il-woo said at a press conference last week that the product will shift the industry's paradigm once and for all. He emphasized it is a wiser choice for smokers.



CU convenience stores in Seoul will sell IQOS next month.



"BGF Retail running CU stores will likely enjoy a rise in sales, as the number of customers is expected to grow," Samsung Securities analyst Nam Ok-jin said.



In response to the release of IQOS, the Korean government decided earlier this week to categorize electronic tobacco products using solid material as e-cigarettes. The previous enforcement ordinance only mentioned products using a liquid solution.



"We've expected IQOS to be categorized as e-cigarettes," the PMI Korea spokeswoman said.



The government initially planned to import IQOS as pipe tobacco. Japan and Germany categorize IQOS as pipe tobacco, not e-cigarettes.



The current law bans people from smoking e-cigarettes in non-smoking zones just like conventional tobacco. But e-cigarettes have an outstanding advantage of low tax, which means smokers can save money.



The Ministry of Health and Welfare is reportedly mulling various measures over the new type of cigarette, after sending official documents to 19 countries that sell IQOS.



But still, the lower tax rate on e-cigarettes including IQOS has been in dispute. Although some lawmakers tried to revise the law, the bill is pending in the National Assembly.



According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, IQOS will be levied at a lower consumption tax rate than conventional tobacco, even though IQOS is similar to conventional products in terms of ingredients.



Also, health warning images and ingredient lists are not mandatory for e-cigarettes. Tobacco-makers can do outdoor advertising for their e-cigarettes as well.



Due to the advantages, KT&G and PMI Korea's other local rivals are expected to push ahead releasing their own e-cigarettes, according to industry officials.



"Because KT&G and other firms also plan to release their e-cigarettes, CU may not enjoy positive effects from its exclusive sales of IQOS," KB Securities analyst Park Shin-ae said.



Some observers said IQOS may not be popular in Korea compared to Japan that prohibits e-cigarettes using liquids. They pointed out IQOS will have to overcome barriers to the existing e-cigarette market here.




Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

Trend:

President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump has congratulated President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

On behalf of the American people, I want to congratulate you and the people of Azerbaijan as you celebrate Republic Day on May 28, said Trump in his congratulatory letter.

Azerbaijan is a valued partner of the United States. Together, we are working to enhance global security through our joint counterterrorism efforts. We stand with the people of Azerbaijan and are committed to strengthening our relationship through dialogue on security, economic cooperation, and democratic principles, noted the US president.

You are building new sources of energy for Europe, and we are grateful for our long and successful history of cooperation in this area. As you move to diversify your economy, we look forward to building new business ties to the benefit of both our countries. The United States also strongly supports the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Trump.

I congratulate you again on this important day and look forward to working with you as an active partner to ensure a greater future for our countries and the world, he added.
TVXQ's Yunho is about to make his comeback in acting with a new drama. He is reported to be the male lead in a drama "Meloholic," which is based on a webtoon.

Yunho's comeback in a drama was confirmed on May 25 and he will play the character of a man who has the power to read people's minds. In this drama, he will also fall in love with a woman with a split personality. "Meloholic" will be Yunho's first project after he finished his army duty in April 2017, Soompi reported.

The drama will be directed by PD Song Hyun Woon who previously worked in "Oh Hae Young Again" and "Introverted Boss." The drama is scheduled to start filming at the end of May, AllKpop reported.

Yunho has done great with his army duty and it is proven by his certificate from the South Korean army. Previously, on May 10, there was a picture of Yunho and a senior officer posted on Twitter, showing Yunho holding a certificate. He received a high score 90 on shooting, strength, mental strength, and combat training, Soompi reported.

Yunho is known for his muscular body but knowing him has great skills in many aspects has made fans fall for him more. Yunho started his military service two years ago and he just finished his army duty in April 2017.

Yunho finished his military service on Apr. 20 and around 800 fans welcomed him in front of Army's 26th Mechanized Infantry Division at Yangju, South Korea. In his greeting, he said that he was thankful for the fans because he felt energized by fans' letters. He also added that being in an army duty helped him to mature a lot, Hello Kpop reported.

Yunho's comeback in acting will be a great gift for his fans, especially as the first project after finishing army duty. It will be a new challenge for Yunho since he has never done this kind of role before.

Read Next: The Possibility Of Park Bo Young & Park Hyung Sik Dating
Kyuhyun finally started his military service on May 25 and he entered training camp at the Nonsan Army Training Center. It is reported that he will receive training in four weeks before starting his army duty as the social service worker.

Leaving for army duty, Kyuhyun's fans were spotted waiting at the entrance of the training center. His fans left a message for him that they ill wait until he finishes his army duty. They also added that they will be fine because they have his music, Soompi reported.

Kyuhyun has given a special gift for his fans before beginning his army duty. He released a song "Goodbye for now" on May 24 and the song is a ballad song about a man who wants to get back to his past love, AllKpop reported.

Kyuhyun is known for his sweet voice perfect for ballad song among other members. He nailed the song "Goodbye for now" really well and it felt really special for his fans as his last song right before his enlistment.

Kyuhyun will serve for army duty in two years and his fans will not be able to see him on screen. Kyuhyun made his solo debut in 2014 with an album "At Gwanghwamun" and he received a perfect all-kill in 12 hours after the release. He has released some hit songs and also held some concerts.

Besides being known for his great skill in singing, Kyuhyun is also known for his talent in hosting. He has hosted many shows and he led the show really well. He got close with other hosts really and did well on the show. It is no surprise that he often got praised by the PD of the show.

After Kyuhyun's enlistment, the show that he hosted had tried to find his replacement. He will be missed by his fans for his appearance on some shows and on stage. Kyuhyun will be discharged from military service after finishing his army duty in two years.

Read Next: Lee Min Ho & Bae Suzy Are Rumored To Tie The Knot In 2019
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

Trend:

Azerbaijan has never interfered in any countrys affairs, and has never allowed and wont allow anyone to interfere in its affairs, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev as he was addressing an official reception on the occasion of the national holiday of Azerbaijan, Republic Day, at the Buta Palace.

He emphasized the recent Arab-Islamic-American Summit held in Saudi Arabia.

Azerbaijan took part in the Summit at the highest level, said President Aliyev. I believe the Summit has a great meaning. Firstly, the Muslim world has shown solidarity and it is commendable that American President Mr. Trump made his first foreign visit to a Muslim country. In Azerbaijan, we highly appreciate this. I think this is a sign of great respect shown to the Muslim world by the American president.

In other words, the organization of this visit and the Summit is a major event itself and the statements made there by the American president, of course, should be highly appreciated. In particular, he said the United States of America will not interfere in the internal affairs of Muslim countries, will not admonish and lecture them. This is a very serious statement and I can say that almost all the participants of the Summit, including Azerbaijan, praised these statements, because we all know well that Azerbaijan is one of those countries that have come under fire a lot as a result of foreign interventions, added the president.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed hope that this strong signal will reach all relevant structures, including the European institutions, and the attempts to interfere in Azerbaijans affairs will be eliminated.

The American leadership changed this year and we see that the manifestations of these interventions are being gradually eliminated. We welcome this and hope this will continue, because this is the only correct policy. I have said before and want also to say today that if the countries dont interfere in one anothers affairs, then there will be no war, no conflict, but there will be peace and cooperation, added the Azerbaijani president.

Azerbaijan has never interfered in any countrys affairs, and has never allowed and wont allow anyone to interfere in our affairs, lecture us and look down on us. Azerbaijan is a state with dignity. We have protected and will further protect our honor, he said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

Trend:

Doris Leuthard, president of the Swiss Confederation, has sent a congratulatory letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

The celebration of the National Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan is a most welcome opportunity for me to extend to Your Excellency on behalf of the Swiss Federal Council our sincere congratulations and our best wishes for the prosperity of your country as well as the health and well-being of your people, Leuthard said in her letter.

I am convinced that the mutual trust and friendship enjoyed by our two countries will continue to deepen in the coming year.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

Trend:

Azerbaijan has condemned the May 26 terrorist attack in Egypt.

We condemn the terror attack in Egypt and extend our condolences to families of victims and Egyptian people, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry tweeted May 26.

Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in southern Egypt May 26, killing 28 people and wounding 24, with many children among the victims, Reuters reported citing Egyptian Health Ministry officials.

The attack, which Egypt's Muslim leaders condemned, happened 15 km from the monastery.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 27

Trend:

The Embassy of Azerbaijan in the United Kingdom has organized an official reception to celebrate the Republic Day and the Armed Forces Day.

The 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and the UK was also marked as part of the event.

Co-chair of the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society, Rector of the Baku branch of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, professor Nargiz Pashayeva attended the event.

The reception brought together nearly 300 participants, including the British government and state officials, representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in London, local public, and members of the Azerbaijani and Turkish communities.

Azerbaijani violinist Nazrin Rashidova first performed Azerbaijan's and UK's national anthems.

Addressing the event, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Tahir Taghizade expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims of recent terrorist attack in Manchester.

The Ambassador then highlighted the history of the establishment of the first democratic Republic in the East. Ambassador Taghizade hailed the Azerbaijan-UK bilateral relations and reciprocal official visits. He expressed his gratitude to the co-chairs of the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society Nargiz Pashayeva and Lord German for the activities of the Nizami Ganjavi Scientific Centre at the Oxford University and for the establishment of the British Foundation for the Study of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.

In her remarks, British Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy for Azerbaijan Baroness Emma Nicholson highlighted her visit to Azerbaijan. She hailed the Azerbaijani music and the hospitality of the Azerbaijani people, saying she learned a lot about the history and culture of the country during her visit.

Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Michael Tatham thanked President Ilham Aliyev and the people of Azerbaijan for the condolences and solidarity messages over the tragic events committed in Manchester. He described Britain as one of the biggest investors in Azerbaijan. Mr Tatham underlined British companies' interest in operating in Azerbaijan. Michael Tatham hailed the great potential for further development of bilateral relations, saying the British government is keen to enhance ties with Azerbaijan.

The event participants then viewed the Azerbaijani stand which demonstrated the books and magazines highlighting the socio-economic development and tourism potential of the country.
A man who the Ozark County sheriff says fired several shots into a home is in custody. He was arrested around 9:00 Thursday night.

The sheriff says the man got into an argument and fired up to nine shots into a home near Gainesville on Thursday afternoon. The sheriff says one of the bullets missed a child by two feet.

A helicopter and a blood-hound team searched for the suspect.

The sheriff's office said it would release more information Friday morning.

****Previous story*****

Law enforcement officers from departments in Missouri and Arkansas spent Thursday afternoon into Thursday evening in an intense manhunt in southern Ozark County.

The sheriff says the wanted man got into an argument at a home on County Road 615 and, according to two witnesses, fired eight to nine shots into a home and a vehicle with a 9 mm pistol. The sheriff said one shot missed a child by two feet.

The search area is right at the state line along Highway 5 between Gainesville and Mountain Home, Ark. The sheriff described him as Hispanic, wearing a yellow cap, blue shirt and blue jeans. He was spotted walking along County Road 615 before going into some woods.

Baxter County, Ark., Sheriff John Montgomery said his staff also was helping.

"We are using our helicopter and the tracking dogs from the Arkansas Department of Corrections in Calico Rock," Montgomery said in an email message.

An employee of Fred's Ranch House Restaurant on Missouri 5 just north of the state line said she'd seen officers from both states, and the Baxter County helicopter had landed across the road to refuel. She said officers were stopping and searching cars that were leaving Ozark County on their way to Arkansas. The restaurant remained open.
A former Playboy playmate pleaded no contest on Wednesday to misdemeanor invasion of privacy for secretly taking a photo of a naked woman in a gym locker room and posting it to Snapchat.

Dani Mathers, 30, was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to complete 30 hours of graffiti removal service. If the case had gone to trial, the model could have faced up to six months in jail.

The 2015 Playmate of the Year was criticized for "body shaming" the 71-year-old woman after secretly snapping the photo in the locker room of a Los Angeles area gym last July. Mathers posted it on Snapchat along with the text: "If I can't unsee this then you can't either." She also posted a selfie covering her mouth.

After social media backlash, the model apologized and said she intended to send the photo privately to a friend.

"I've chosen to do what I do for a living because I love the female body and I know that body-shaming is wrong and it's not what I am about," Mathers said in a Snapchat. "It's not the type of person I am."

Outside the downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, Mathers' attorney Thomas Mesereau said the model apologized "from the bottom of her heart for what happened."

"She never thought this would come out like this. Never intended to hurt anyone," Mesereau told CNN affiliate KABC.

'Body shaming is not tolerated'

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said Mathers' case has been an important case because it carries an extremely forceful message.

"The message today is clear: body shaming is not tolerated in the City of Los Angeles," Feuer said in a news conference. "That's crucial, because every day that picture lives online is another day of humiliation."

Feur said Mather had been clearly held accountable and hopes it can send a message to anyone "contemplating similar behavior."

California lawmakers are using Mathers' case as an example as they work to pass a bill that will increase punishment for those who take and distribute photos or videos without a person's permission.

California's SB 784 imposes an additional fine up to $1,000 for those who take and publish images of someone who is nude or partially clothed. The proposed law also will entitle victims to monetary restitution to get a picture off the internet and out of public distribution.

This week, the bill was approved by the state's Senate and is waiting to be approved by the state's Assembly. If it passes there, it could be signed into law by the governor.

"This country has a growing problem of bullying through body-shaming on social media that needs to be addressed," said State Senator Cathleen Galgiani.

CNN's Travis Sattiewhite contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire

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Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) and Romanian Petroleum & Gas University of Ploiesti (UPG) signed a Cooperation agreement and an Agreement on developing cooperation within Erasmus+ exchange program between universities of the European Union.

The agreements were signed during the first Azerbaijan-Romania University Forum held in Baku. These agreements provide for many joint initiatives and projects including student exchange programs, scientific and research activities, workshops and conferences, and cooperation within the framework of the lifelong learning program.

Prospects of the cooperation between two higher educational institutions and other issues of mutual interest were discussed at a meeting of BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov with Vice-Rector of Petroleum & Gas University of Ploiesti Prof. Mihail Minescu and Senior Advisor for International Affairs of Technical University of Cluj-Napoca Sonia Carmen Munteanu. As Elmar Gasimov emphasized, signing agreements between BHOS and UPG provides new opportunities not only for tightening ties between students and teachers, but also for developing long-term cooperation between the Higher School and Romanian University.

In his turn, Mihail Minescu spoke about the Erasmus+ and said that this European Union (EU) student exchange program combines all the EU's current schemes for education, training, youth and sport and offers exciting opportunities for the participants to study, work, volunteer, teach and train abroad in Europe. In his words, signing the agreements between BHOS and UPG will allow the Higher Schools undergraduates to study at the Petroleum & Gas University of Ploiesti.

The guest informed that UPG was founded in 1948 in response to the increasing industrialization in Romania and lack of high-level education in the petroleum and gas sector. At the moment, the UPG's academic structure includes five faculties, namely Faculty of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum Technology and Petrochemistry, Faculty of Economic Sciences, and Faculty of Letters and Sciences.

Speaking about technical and engineering disciplines taught at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Carmen Munteanu emphasized that management of this university would be also interested in developing cooperation with the Baku Higher Oil School.
Historic ties of north Meck span throughout region Though the north Mecklenburg area didnt see significant population growth until a few decades ago, its rich history dates back to the Revolutionary War. That was the basis of...

An easier-than-expected first mammogram experience HUNTERSVILLE  Scheduling a cancer screening probably ranks somewhere on your to-do list between "clean out the garage" and "donate those clothes that don't fit." Sure, you'll get to it at...
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Samir Ali  Trend:

Investigation on the criminal case of blogger Alexander Lapshin, who is under arrest in Azerbaijan, is completed, Lapshins lawyer Eduard Chernin told Trend May 26.

Alexander Lapshin is a citizen of several countries and has had a criminal conspiracy with Armenians living in the occupied Azerbaijani territories. He also illegally visited these territories.

Lapshin is accused of violating Azerbaijani laws on state border in April 2011 and October 2012. On Jan. 17, Alexei Stuk, deputy prosecutor general of Belarus, issued a ruling on Lapshins extradition to Azerbaijan. Lapshin was brought to Azerbaijan on Feb. 7.

Eduard Chernin said he will be presented with the materials of the criminal case on May 30 and then they will be sent to the court.

The lawyer today met with Lapshin in the medical center of the detention facility, where the blogger was earlier sent to undergo treatment for tachycardia.

Lapshins medical treatment continues and the blogger feels well, the lawyer noted.
PRESS RELEASE

Brennan-Obama Nailed: FISA Court Finds Violations

May 25, 2017 (EIRNS)Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Congress will not reauthorize certain surveillance programs until questions about the unmasking of Americans identities under the past Administration are answered, Breitbart News reports.

At the same time, in a court order released earlier this month by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court stated that intelligence agencies under former President Barack Obama

"routinely violated privacy rights, conducted illegal searches and gathered information on U.S. citizens. Their conduct very seriously violated the Fourth Amendment."

Gowdy in particular pinned Brennan on lack of evidence of collusion between President Trump and any Russians.

Gowdy has persisted on getting at who was responsible for outing Americans using so called FISA warrants.
PRESS RELEASE

Chinas Global Times Issues Very Calm Response to Trumps First Freedom of Navigation Provocation in the South China Sea

May 25, 2017 (EIRNS)Although Chinas Defense Ministry issued a formal complaint about the U.S. "provocation" after the guided-missile destroyer U.S.S. Dewey sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands Wednesday, the editorial from the party newspaper Global Times reflects a careful and precise reading of the so-called "freedom of navigation operation" (FONOP), the first since President Trump came to office.

The Global Times editorial notes that "several requests by the U.S. Pacific Command for such operations were rejected by the new president" previous to this incident. They note that neither the Pentagon nor the White House has issued any statement about the incident, "in comparison to the former Obama administration, which often assumed a higher profile when the U.S. Navy engaged in such operations."

They continue that how much "negative impact" will come from the incident

"will be decided by the degree of their provocative actions and the stance of the U.S. military, foreign affairs and administration sectors in releasing the news. If Washington hypes up the operation, it means it intends to cause more turmoil in the South China Sea."

Key to the situation is the calming of the tension in the South China Sea, they write, since both the Philippines and Vietnam have dropped their confrontational mode, which had been pushed on them by Obama. "There have been gradual signs of stability in the South China Sea," the editorial states,

"as Beijing and Manila have started negotiations over their prolonged territorial dispute. The U.S. Navy can hardly sustain the pretence of their FONOPs."

Their conclusion:
PRESS RELEASE

President Trump Makes ISIS the Issue at NATO Summit

May 25, 2017 (EIRNS)In what can only be described as a brawl, President Trump stood his ground on Russia both explicitly with European Union President Donald Tusk, and at the NATO summit.

According to Bloomberg News, "European Union president Donald Tusk said talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday revealed no common position on Russia."

Instead, President Trump insisted at the NATO meeting that its mission, first and foremost, is to defeat terrorism. In the wake of his interventions into the Middle East, President Trump has insisted that ISIS is the issue.

To confirm this position, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg indicated that NATO will increase it participation in the anti-terrorism war against ISIS in Syria, but will not ask to boost its military presence on Russias borders, a sharp contrast to NATOs recent policies.
PRESS RELEASE

U.S. Industry Is Ready To Join the Silk Road

May 25, 2017 (EIRNS)U.S. industry is gearing up to be part of the potential in Chinas "knowledged-based" economic growth and the Silk Road infrastructure projects. General Motors executives said on May 23 that they expect their China Science Lab to play a considerable role in the companys developments, in a period that will see more advances in the next five years than in the previous half century combined, reported thenewswheel. Since its establishment in 2009, the GM China Science Lab has applied for more than 200 patents. The Lab has two groups: Manufacturing Process Research Group, and the Advanced Material Research Group. Projects include laser welding, and third-generation steel and aluminum materials. These will be used first in GM products, and then will be applied on a broader industry scale.

Industry giant, General Electric, is partnering with Chinese companies, for building infrastructure and most notably, the power industry. "GE has already had operating teams and business network[s] in 63 of the 65 countries along the [Silk Road] route," the chief executive of GEs China business, Rachel Duan Xiaoying, told the South China Morning Post on May 19. "The partnership with Chinese companies via the Belt and Road Initiative will certainly be elevated to an international level," she said. As an example, GE is partnering with state-owned Power Construction Corporation of China, looking toward building power plants and electric grids in African nations, such as Nigeria and Kenya. "Worldwide, since 1 billion people have no access to electric power yet, the scale of business is huge," Duan said. Profits would be shared between the two companies.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

Trend:

On May 26, UNEC Rector, Professor Adalat Muradov, academic staff and students of the university visited the Museum of Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the occasion of May 28- Republic Day.

UNECs delegation was provided with the information about the historical facts and documents reflecting the period of Azerbaijans independence 99 years ago. The tricolor flag of the Peoples Republic that became the symbol of the national liberation movement was welcomed by UNEC staff. The visitors acquainted with 6 halls of the museum.

State symbols of Azerbaijan- documents reflecting a three-color flag, national emblem, anthem and the Constitution, as well as photos of history of independence and distinguished people and different materials are displayed in the first hall. A period from the second half of the XIX Century and early years of the XX Century of Azerbaijan history is exhibited in the second hall. A three- color flag of the peoples movement, photo facts dedicated to March 31 genocide, archive materials and documents are displayed in the other section of the hall. Azerbaijans new history is demonstrated in the next hall where the expositions of the national liberation movement, Garabagh war are placed. At the same time, photos and different documents about encroachment of Armenia against Azerbaijan, Armenian terrorism, January 20 tragedy, Khojali Genocide are displayed here.

The hall dedicated to the history of Independent Azerbaijan Republic and the National Leader Heydar Aliyevs activities aroused UNEC staffs interest. Historical facts and documents, books and newspaper materials about the Great Leaders internal and external policy, oil strategy have taken place here. In addition, information about the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyevs performances and achievements gained by our country and photos were demonstrated here.

UNEC is the brand of Azerbaijan State University of Economics. The brand of UNEC has been registered and patented by the State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patent on January 21 2016.
Denis Johnson, the beloved, award-winning author best known for his seminal collection Jesus Son died Wednesday at age 67. Three years ago, Johnson gave a rare interview, corresponding with The Times to mark the publication of his 10th novel. The following article originally published Oct. 30, 2014.

Denis Johnson tends to let his work speak for itself. Since the publication of his debut novel, Angels, in 1983 hes written some of the most essential books in contemporary American literature, but he doesnt often talk about them. My general policy, he tells me in an email, is to duck every such opportunity to make a fool of myself.



For the record: The article originally incorrectly gave the title of Johnsons 2000 novel as The Name at the End of the World. The title is The Name of the World.

And yet to mark the publication of his 10th novel, The Laughing Monsters (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 228 pp., $25), Johnson has agreed to what he calls an electronic back-and-forth  an email correspondence about the new novel, a political thriller set in Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Congo (a region he has covered as a journalist for Harpers, among other publications), writing in general and the breadth of his career.

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For Johnson, literature offers a way of framing, or reckoning with, the chaos of a universe we can never truly know. I cant remember very many situations, he admits, where I had even the tiniest idea what the heck was going on. Meanwhile, you humans, you Earthlings  you all seem right at home. Its a great comfort to get out a blank sheet of paper and make a world where everybodys just as lost as I am.

As a storyteller Im drawn to realistic, contemporary situations and to figures caught up in danger and chaos.  Denis Johnson

Such a tension sits at the center of The Laughing Monsters, narrated by Roland Nair, a NATO operative going off the grid. Nair is in West Africa to connect with a former colleague, a Ugandan named Michael Adriko, who may or may not have a scheme to sell uranium. Part of Nairs purpose is to report on Michael, but in many ways thats just a ruse. Instead, he is looking for something: a big score, yes, but even more, to feel alive again, to feel the charge of everything he cant control.

And while you, my superiors, may think Ive come to join him in Africa because you dispatched me here, Johnson writes early in the novel, youre mistaken. Ive come back because I love the mess. Anarchy. Madness. Things falling apart. Michael only makes my excuse for returning.

This territory of anarchy and madness  lets call it derangement  is one to which Johnson has returned throughout his career. His 1992 collection Jesus Son, which sits on a short shelf of the finest American fiction of the last quarter-century, traces in 11 spare, linked stories the experiences of a recovering drug addict trying to find a place in an incomprehensible world.

Tree of Smoke, which won a 2007 National Book Award, uses Vietnam as setting and metaphor, portraying derangement on a national scale.

Reality is an impression, a belief, Michael tells Nair in The Laughing Monsters, referring to the post-9/11 world in which the novel unfolds. In Johnsons view, however, this is less a political than a metaphysical posture, which makes The Laughing Monsters primarily a portrait of a character on the edge.

I follow world events, Johnson explains, but Im not obsessed with politics, and thats probably because  its occurred to me more than once  as a white North American I find things on this planet ordered pretty much in my favor. But as a storyteller Im drawn to realistic, contemporary situations and to figures caught up in danger and chaos.

Such a statement brings to mind his 2000 novel The Name of the World, in which a college professor, adrift after having lost his family, leaves the U.S. to become a war correspondent in the Middle East. Something similar unfolds in his nonfiction pieces The Small Boys Unit, which recounts his efforts to interview Charles Taylor in Liberia, or An Anarchists Guide to Somalia, with its sketchbook style account of living in the Bibles world  the world of cripples and monsters and desperate hope in a mad God, world of exile and impotence and the waiting, the waiting, the waiting. A world of miracles and deliverance, too.

The Africa of The Laughing Monsters is related but different: elusive, uncontrolled, if deep in thrall to the American security state. Johnson finds the former of most interest, because it is the least easily understood.

I went to Uganda less for research than for inspiration, he notes, sights and sounds, voices. All I did was hang around and make notes on a small recorder about whatever seemed interesting. For Tree of Smoke I spent only three weeks in Vietnam for a 600-page book. I visited Nicaragua briefly, and those notes went into The Stars at Noon. Since I select what appeals to me, to my soul or my ear or whatever part does the selecting, Im not surprised if different settings seem facets all reflecting one image. I dont know what the image is. Something thats always changing and always staying the same.

What Johnsons getting at is a kind of internal consistency, which marks his writing regardless of its form. The sense that wonder and bleakness often go hand in hand infuses not only his fiction but also his five books of poetry and his astonishing nonfiction collection, Seek: Reports from the Edge of America & Beyond.

I suppose if I were in school today, he acknowledges, Id be diagnosed as attention deficient and dosed with speed. I get bored quickly and try another style, another genre, another form. To me the writing is all one thing, or maybe I should say its all nothing. The truth is, I just write sentences.

And what sentences they are. In the silence, which was nevertheless quite loud, his folly bore down on us like a tremendous iceberg. Its inertia was irresistible, ) he observes in The Laughing Monsters  a passage that recalls the heart-stopping moment in Jesus Son when his narrator meets a patient at a rehab center for whom possibility has been eclipsed. No more pretending for him! he writes there. He was completely and openly a mess. Meanwhile the rest of us go on trying to fool each other.

For Johnson, it is our fate to be uncertain and yet to have to persevere.

From time to time, he avers, I seize on  some philosophy or stance or perspective that helps me hide my bewilderment for a while before it falls apart and leaves me baffled again. Just lately Im listening to the Zen Buddhists: What youre looking for is directly in front of you; begin to reason about it, and at once you fall into error. Which means, I suppose, that these days I distrust the idea of The Quest, of getting anywhere at all, except in a story. Am I satisfied? Again I refer you to the Buddhists: Unsatisfied desire is lifes bedrock experience.

As to how this adds up to a novel, Johnson insists he doesnt know.

When I write, I dont think in terms of themes  or think in any terms, really, he explains. Im making what T.S. Eliot called quasi-musical decisions. Im just improvising and adapting, and in that case I suspect the storys course reflects the process of trying to make it.  I get in a teacup and start paddling across the little pond and say, In seven weeks, Ill land on Mars. Five years later Im still going in circles. When I reach the shore in spitting distance of where I started, its a colossal triumph.

Twitter: @davidulin
I was on the phone with my uncle, a doorman in Queens, when our conversation hit an awkward pause, the kind in which one person is left waiting on the other to reveal the punchline. Id called him from my home in Atlanta, where Id recently moved via Miami to finish a book.

Well? I asked, expectant. Hed been great so far, digging up gems about our family, but suddenly he froze, mid-sentence.

Ill have to run this part by your mother, he said.

I laughed, wondering if he, like many great storytellers, was being screwy just to pile on the suspense. But his prolonged silence told me that he was serious, that he would not continue  and a familiar sense of dread swept over me.

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I reminded my dear uncle that I was a grown man, and more than equipped to handle whatever it was hed planned to share before his conscience struck.

Its not that, he insisted. I just want to be respectful. Tu sabes, he said. You know.

Delving into your family history can be horrifying. Delving into your family history for a book youre writing about the more abject details of your own life can be even more brutal. My parents divorced when I was 9; my fathers absence created a kind of enmity in me that eventually led to rebellious disinterest. But theres a responsibility you feel to be forthright with the reader, to tell a complete story and still do right by your loved ones  on top of making sense of your own life and pain.

After my father arrived one day with bullet holes in the back of our family car ... my mother had had enough.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune many years ago, the writer Annie Dillard said, If youre going to publish a book, you probably are going to make a fool of yourself. I want to stretch it further: As long as there are foolish people willing to ask hard questions, there will be books without end.

The trouble with asking too many questions, of course, is that you might get too many answers. But writers are perhaps more akin to curious children  the smart alecks who bombard their parents with endless inquiries  than say, impulse shoppers, who are satisfied with the minimal amount of information before they buy. However, possessing a level of curiosity about ones family history is not exclusive to writers and creative types. To ask questions is to be human; to obsess over the answers may be part of the neurosis that drives writers to their desks day after day.

When I was young, I often asked difficult questions, the sort my mother rarely found the words for  about my fathers whereabouts, about the strange characters who came by looking for him, why there were men with cameras and binoculars spying on our house. I seldom received any answers that satisfied me, but that didnt keep me from asking away. All I knew was that his drug habit had taken a dark turn, and he was getting mixed up with awful company.

After their split, the void my father left became the driving force in my life; his absence fostered a deep distrust and hatred of authority that fueled at least my first 25 years.

One recent afternoon, I took my mother to lunch when she came to visit me in my new city. We sat at a roadside restaurant in a quiet neighborhood lush with magnolia trees, and the soft breeze brushed against our faces as we relaxed with our drinks. I told her what my uncle had said, about needing her permission to tell me certain things. My mother has always been open about the heartache she endured while married to my father, and was part of his family. (Just an example: She recently told me the story of my cousin  someone I remember  whod been murdered in Venezuela after a drug deal gone bad. He was transporting tons of cocaine in speedboats with fake hulls until he got double-crossed by his associates.) She was open too about my fathers constant cheating, some of the details so hideous they made me regret Id ever asked. I started to wonder, how much do I really need to know? Am I emotionally prepared to go where all this questioning might lead?

Did I ever tell you about how I got the divorce? my mother asked.

After my father arrived one day with bullet holes in the back of our family car  hed gotten involved in a narcotics ring and was making enemies  my mother had had enough. She knew hed never agree to a divorce, so she went to see a lawyer, who advised her to get my father to leave Miami. The lawyer used the term uncontested divorce, which would work in my mothers favor if her husband wasnt around to dispute it. She agreed to try.

The day after my father took care of the bullet holes, my mother told him she was open to working on their issues, but under one condition: He would have to go stay with his family in Colombia for a few weeks so she could think about how they could best rebuild their marriage.

He didnt know I had no intention of working anything out, my mother told me. But he was excited. After all the pain hed caused, he thought he could keep his wife and  to top it off  take a nice vacation.

Weeks slid past, and a mutual friend saw my father with a woman on a beach in Cartagena. He called my mother back home and filled her in, confirming once again that she was doing right by putting an end to the relationship.

When the court received no response from my father, my mother got her divorce.

I called your father, said that I missed him and that he should return, my mother said. He was so happy; he went on and on about the surprises hed gotten me.

I have a surprise for you too, she told him, and left it at that.

When my father came home and got the news, he was hysterical. He trashed the living room and stormed out into the night, disappearing for a full week. But soon my mother began to fear for her life and the lives of her children; not because she saw my father as a threat, but because people he ran with were disappearing all around us.

I finished my beer and sank into my chair, struck silent by what my mother had endured all those years. The cool winter air balanced out the fire I felt in my bones.

In her memoir Lit, Mary Karr writes: For me, everythings too much and nothings enough. So much of writing, and living, Ive found, attempts to reconcile this tension  feeling the pressure to face the past while also questioning if its even worth it.

I still havent finished that conversation with my uncle. But Ive decided Id rather not know whatever it is he felt might be too much to tell. Maybe Ill change my mind down the line, as I often do, but as of now I cant seem to find good reason to pursue it. Ive got plenty to work with, much of which has already done its fair share of damage, so I dont need this. Sometimes, all we need is already in our hands.

Juan Vidal is a writer and critic for NPR, and his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, and elsewhere. His first book, a memoir, is forthcoming in 2018 from Simon & Schuster. Hes on Twitter: @itsjuanlove
Celebrated author Denis Johnson died at age 67 Wednesday, his agent Nicole Aragi confirmed.

Johnson was best known for the slender story collection Jesus Son. Published in 1992, its bold and unpretentious stories of marginalized characters struck a chord with readers, writers and professors. It became a staple of creative writing programs.

His next major work was a departure: the epic, 600-page novel Tree of Smoke. The labyrinthine, poetic and powerful book about a CIA agent and the Vietnam War won the 2007 National Book Award.

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Johnson, who was also a playwright and poet, was born in Munich, Germany, in 1949. The son of a U.S. State Department employee, he was raised in Tokyo, Manila and Washington, D.C. He attended the Iowa Writers Workshop, where he studied under Raymond Carver. He cited Walt Whitman as a significant influence.

In his younger years, he struggled with substance abuse, like some of the characters in his fiction. He stopped drinking decades ago but was able to tap into the anxieties and voices of that milieu in his work.

He taught at several creative writing programs, including the Michener Center at the University of Texas, Austin; Boise State University; and the University of Iowa. In addition to the National Book Award, he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Train Dreams and the recipient of a Lannan Fellowship and a Whiting Award.

His most recent novel was The Laughing Monsters, set in Sierra Leone and published in 2014.

Johnson had recently moved to Random House. Susan Kamil, Random House publisher, said in a statement, Random House mourns the loss of Denis Johnson, a giant in the world of letters, a writer like no other.

This post will be updated.

carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

@paperhaus
U.S. companies may be touting unlimited vacation policies and expanding paid leave benefits to attract younger workers. But just before the long weekend kickoff to summer, two new surveys show that plenty of U.S. workers still dont feel they can use all that time theyre offered  as well as an unsettling gender divide between how young women and young men take advantage of the time off theyve earned.

First the good news: According to a survey of 7,331 Americans by Project: Time Off, an initiative of the U.S. Travel Assn., people are reporting that theyre taking a little more time away. The survey, released Tuesday, showed that vacation use rose to an average of 16.8 days per worker, up from 16.2 days the year before, and that for the second year in a row, vacation use had climbed slightly since it began tumbling around the year 2000.

Yet theres still plenty of time left on the table, as that survey and one released Wednesday by the jobs site Glassdoor reveal. Project: Time Off says the 16.8 days that workers use on average is well under the 22.6 days they say they receive. Meanwhile Glassdoors survey of 2,224 U.S. adults found that U.S. workers on average have taken just 54% of their allotted time.

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Americans are really bad about taking their hard-earned vacation or paid time off.  Scott Dobroski, Glassdoors community expert

Americans are really bad about taking their hard-earned vacation or paid time off, said Scott Dobroski, Glassdoors community expert. I say it that way because there is a monetary value here. Its part of peoples total compensation package.

The report by Project: Time Off  which uses an outside firm to conduct the survey but is funded primarily by the U.S. Travel Assn., which would, of course, like to see people spend more on vacations  also shows that some workers are more likely to take time off than others.

Although there was a jump in young mens willingness to take time off  with 51% saying theyd used all their vacation days, compared with 44% last year  fewer millennial women said they were using all of the time away theyd earned. (Forty-four percent, down from 46% last year, said theyd taken full advantage of their benefit.)

Young women were also more likely to say they felt guilty, replaceable or wanted to show complete dedication. On every measure, whether it was the fear of returning to too much work or worrying that no one else can do their jobs, more young women were concerned about the effect of vacation than young men.

Millennial women tend to have more pronounced guilt and feel they dont want to burden people with their time away, said Katie Denis, the lead researcher for Project: Time Off. Theyre more likely to identify with that work martyr brand of thinking. Indeed, although the data showed a similar gender divide in other age groups, Denis said, it was most pronounced among millennial women, 46% of whom said it was a good thing for their boss to see them as a work martyr, compared with 43% of millennial men and 38% of overall respondents.

The survey also found a divide among job title. Senior executives may say they hear more at work about taking vacation and believe their company culture supports it, but theyre also less likely to actually use it. Sixty-one percent said they left some vacation time unused, compared with 52% of people who are not managers.

Why the number ticked up this year is not clear. Denis said part of it could be because workers are receiving more time off in the first place. The average amount of time away workers earned in 2016 increased 0.7 days to 22.6 vacation days. Or its possible that companies are recognizing the benefits of rested workers and encouraging them to take more  or that employees are feeling more confident in their job security and less nervous about taking time off.

The trend of Americans using less of the vacation time theyve earned coincides with the rise in paid time off banks, in which companies put vacation days, sick time and personal days into one bucket, rather than a more traditional approach of offering separate benefits. In 2002, according to a survey by the human resources association World at Work, 28% of companies offered time off this way, but that had grown to 43% by 2016. Employees concerned about needing to reserve time for a potential illness or a sick child might be more apt to leave time off unused when the years end comes.

Although Denis says that may partially explain why Americans continue to not use all their vacation benefit, she said the ability to work anywhere is an equally, if not more, blame-worthy culprit. The report showed that vacation forfeiters said their biggest reason for doing so was because of their fears about returning to a mountain of work.

As she puts it: When you can see it stacking up in real time, that can be very discouraging. Which may help explain why, according to Glassdoor, some 66% of Americans say they spend time working when they are on vacation, up from 61% three years ago.

Jena McGregor writes a column analyzing leadership in the news for the Washington Post.

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In his first swing through Europe as president, Donald Trump left little doubt that he would pursue his America First policy in economic relations, creating a stir by denouncing Germanys trade surplus with the U.S. and promising to end it.

The Germans are bad, very bad, Trump was quoted as saying during a meeting in Brussels with European Union leaders. Trumps top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, later confirmed the statement, saying it referred only to Germanys trade practices, not to its people or the country.

Trump has criticized Germanys trade practices before, right to Chancellor Angela Merkels face, and suggested that he wanted to negotiate directly with German leaders to fix Americas unbalanced trade with Europes largest economy.

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But as part of the European Union, Germany does not negotiate trade agreements. That authority rests with the EU. In other words, whatever problem Trump may have with Germany is really a multilateral one, not bilateral.

That distinction may seem esoteric, but it has taken on great significance since the start of Trumps tenure. The president has clearly indicated his desire to break from the past by negotiating trade deals one-on-one, as opposed to sitting down with a bloc of countries.

Trump argues that the U.S. has greater leverage bargaining with individual countries, reasoning that Americas large market means it has more to offer and that virtually every country is running a trade surplus with the U.S.

But the bilateral path is a nonstarter in Germanys case. And it wont be much easier elsewhere.

Since Trump formally withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fulfilling a campaign promise on his first day in office, not one of the other 11 Trans-Pacific countries has come forward to express a desire for an individual deal with the U.S.

Instead, Japan, Australia and the others are trying to push through the Pacific Rim free-trade agreement without the U.S. Their hope is that they can salvage the hard-fought pact and that America, which would be left out of tariff savings and other benefits, would feel the need to sign back on.

Theres little chance Trump will reverse course, but the reluctance of nations to negotiate with the U.S. alone points to the difficulties ahead for the presidents economic agenda and his goal to forge better trade deals, which he sees as key to expanding the economy and creating higher-paying jobs.

The reluctance was evident at last weekends gathering of Asia-Pacific economies in Hanoi, where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce met with trade officials from about half of the 21 economies represented.

I didnt see a lot of countries lining up or raising their hands to volunteer to do bilaterals with the U.S., said Tami Overby, the chambers senior vice president for Asia.

Overby said other countries will be closely watching how the Trump administration proceeds in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. Those negotiations could begin as soon as mid-August.

Trumps chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, has said he expects much of the NAFTA talks with Canada and Mexico to be two-sided, and his statement at the Hanoi meeting reaffirmed the presidents strong commitment to promoting bilateral free and fair trade.

Trumps preference for bilateral talks repudiates at least part of the post-World War II economic order established under the U.S. leadership. That order includes several multi-nation institutions, including the World Trade Organization, an adjudicating body with more than 160 countries as members.

The Trump administration has been sharply critical of the WTO as it seeks to advance the presidents America First move away from globalism.

For former President Obama, the Trans-Pacific Partnership was the linchpin of a strategy to re-assert American influence in Asia amid Chinas increasing political and economic power. Obama argued that it was critical for the U.S., not China, to set the trade rules and standards for that region. But the populist antagonism at home toward free trade, fueled not just by Trump, but also Democratic presidential candidates, doomed Obamas Pacific accord.

With the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trumps adherence to a kind of economic nationalism, China has stepped up on the international stage.

Not long ago, Chinas economic diplomacy somewhat resembled what Trump appears to advocate for the U.S. -- keeping to itself and striking bilateral trade and commercial relationships with individual countries. More recently, however, Chinese President Xi Jinping has publicly advocated economic globalism, established a regional infrastructure bank and spearheaded an alternative Asia-Pacific free-trade pact involving 16 nations.

Mickey Kantor, former U.S. trade representative in the Clinton administration, sees the emerging Beijing-led accord as a potential problem.

We tend to hold higher standards and tougher enforceable rules than China does. That means well take a step backward in trade, said Kantor, a lawyer in the Los Angeles office of Mayer Brown.

Former U.S. trade officials from both parties agree that an exclusive focus on bilateral negotiations would be a mistake. Its true that Americas market size and scope make it highly attractive to other economies, thereby giving the U.S. some clout in the bargaining room. And multinational negotiations do tend to be more complex and time-consuming.

But experienced trade negotiators say there is no inherent advantage in taking a strictly bilateral approach, and that two-way negotiations could create what Kantor calls a spaghetti bowl of agreements, a mishmash of trade relationships that dont align with each other and are difficult to manage.

Globalization and advances in commerce and shipping have made it easier for businesses to quickly divert trade even as many goods have become fungible. A U.S. deal with any single country, for instance, would not be enough to solve the vexing problem of cheaper foreign steel and steel products, which has troubled American industry. The steel problem involves many countries and reflects a global glut of supply, thanks mostly to Chinas heavy production.

To take another example, a U.S. trade deal with China could include a reduction of shipments of car tires to American shores. But that would probably just prompt U.S. buyers to shift to comparably cheap tires from Thailand and other low-cost producers. Thats exactly what happened when Washington slapped tariffs on Chinese tire imports: Neither the domestic market share nor employment in tire manufacturing went up.

Negotiating with multiple countries also creates opportunities for tradeoffs that are not possible with two-way talks.

One of the biggest sticking points in the Trans-Pacific Partnership was over dairy products. The U.S. wanted greater access to Canadas protected dairy market, but had little to offer in exchange that the Canadians considered attractive, said Matt Gold, an adjunct law professor at Fordham University and a former deputy assistant U.S. trade representative in the Obama administration.

But the Canadians did want to sell their dairy products into Japan. In the end, Canada agreed to give a little more on dairy exports to the U.S. after it got assurances of more opportunities with Japan. Now, with the TPP deal off the table, Trump is back to hectoring the Canadians about their dairy markets, with little prospect of a solution.

For Japan, which does not have a free-trade agreement with the U.S., Trumps withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership came as a big setback. Even as Americas erstwhile ally in Asia, Japan has been apprehensive about entering the negotiating room with Trumps trade officials.

The Japanese government spent a lot of political capital to persuade farmers to buy into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said Takeo Hoshi, a senior fellow in Japanese studies and business professor at Stanford University. The government does not want to start the process all over again, and is not confident that they can accept more concessions on agricultural trade if the U.S. wants to push [for] more, he said.

In fact, Japanese officials have said the U.S. should not count on getting as much in a bilateral deal.

don.lee@latimes.com

Follow me at @dleelatimes

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When Roger Moore died earlier this week at age 89, it was something of a multi-generational shock. He was the first James Bond actor to pass on. Across seven films, from 1973s Live and Let Die to 1985s A View to a Kill, Moore brought a charming sense of self-awareness to the role of international super spy, jet-set lover, master fighter and handler of elaborate gadgets. Setting him apart from the self-seriousness of other Bond actors such as Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, Moore had an ability to acknowledge the more outlandish and ridiculous aspects of the storytelling that made his take on Bond something special.

British filmmaker Edgar Wright only met Moore once, but considered himself a big fan and took delight in their occasional interactions on Twitter. (It should perhaps be noted that actors Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, who have both played Bond, have appeared in Wrights films.) Sitting down for an interview for his upcoming Baby Driver, Wright happily reflected on the something extra of Roger Moore:

Somebody said this on the Internet the other day and I totally agree with it: No matter who was your favorite Bond, Roger Moore was the person who had the most fun playing Bond. And I think thats absolutely true. Its that thing where regardless of different iterations of that character, that performance of it meant a lot to a lot of people for a long time. And it still does.

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Obviously with franchises going in the direction of dark and gritty, we shouldnt forget that light and fun and self-deprecating and with a wink and a twinkle can also be really great. And actually several of his Bond films are my favorite Bond films. When people say, Whats your favorite Bond film? part of my brain is saying Goldfinger or Skyfall, but in reality its Live and Let Die. Live and Let Die is my favorite Bond film and The Spy Who Loved Me is a close second. Both of those are genuinely memorable and great.

1977: Barbara Bach and Roger Moore, stars of the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me, leaning on the now-famous amphibious Lotus Esprit. (Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

Live and Let Die is my favorite Bond film and The Spy Who Loved Me is a close second. Both of those are genuinely memorable and great.  Edgar Wright

But the other thing about him, and I dont know him as well as some other people, but I definitely got this impression from all the stories I heard just what a nice guy he was and a humanitarian. He worked for UNICEF for years. And also good in other movies as well. Good in TV, in The Saint and The Persuaders, but also people think Roger Moore didnt do anything except Bond, and there are movies like North Sea Hijack, which I think in this country is called Ffolkes, and hes great in that. You get a glimmer of him in that movie of how fun he could be as a character actor as well. So its a tricky thing with that part. Sean Connery broke out of it in the 80s, Im not sure that Roger Moore ever escaped the shadow of Bond, but I dont know whether he was bothered about that. He seemed perfectly happy with his image, which is a very sweet thing. He didnt seem like a frustrated actor. He felt like somebody who got this great role and was having the time of his life doing it.

I think thats the thing, you can only really think of happy memories with Roger Moore because he always seemed quite at peace with himself.

I don't know if even @sirrogermoore could pull off this line. pic.twitter.com/kJv9YVaOUN  edgarwright (@edgarwright) September 16, 2016

of course I could!  Sir Roger Moore (Legacy) (@sirrogermoore) September 16, 2016

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Mark.Olsen@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus

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11:35 a.m.: This story was updated to correct a quote by Edgar Wright. He said, a wink and a twinkle can also be really great, not a wink and a tickle.
On a cavernous soundstage in an industrial park in Culver City, a rising star on the Sunset Strip comedy scene sits at a horseshoe-shaped booth. The comic is meeting with an agent in the kind of dimly lighted, anonymous space where for generations, mythology has it, showbiz careers have been bought or sold over a round of drinks.

Speaking in a conspiratorial growl, the agent promises only he can do what it takes to bring the comic to the next level. You say jump, he says, a note of wickedness curdling his voice, I say how hiiiiigh. Midway through the conversation, he says something dismissive about 70s teen idol Shaun Cassidy, and the scene is called to a halt.

Around a monitor in the next room, where rows of fake drinks of all types wait in formation on a nearby table, Michael Aguilar and David Flebotte  executive producers of the new Showtime series Im Dying Up Here  are reconsidering the line in the scene, which features Jake Lacy as the comic on the rise.

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After some research on their phones, they realize the shows 1973 Los Angeles setting predates Cassidys success by about three years. A few other names are bounced around (Leif Garrett?) but nothing sticks. Yeah, I dont like that joke, Aguilar agrees, and its scrapped.

Timing is everything in comedy, and its equally crucial for Im Dying Up Here, which chronicles how, when and where modern stand-up comedy was born, with guidance from some real-life regulars at the Comedy Store like Jim Carrey.

Nowhere else you could go where you would see Richard Pryor and Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy and everybody whos anybody showing up and baring their soul. It was phenomenal, says Carrey, who also serves as an executive producer on the series debuting June 4.

Years ago, the veteran comic and actor purchased the rights to the bestselling 2009 book of the same name by William Knoedelseder. The book framed by some of the stars Carrey mentioned as well as Andy Kaufman, David Letterman and Jay Leno  examined the real-life, sometimes tragic stories around L.A.s Comedy Store, which even today feels haunted by those ghosts.

Its the only club Ive ever been to in the country as a performer that is painted floor-to-ceiling black, says Dying star Andrew Santino, a regular at the Store, chatting between takes on the set late last summer. But theyve made a symbol that kind of represents comedy in Los Angeles, the roots of it at least.

Carrey does not appear in Im Dying Up Here but the dues he paid as a young comedian helped shape the series. While the 10 episodes were being written, the Ace Ventura and Truman Show star would occasionally visit the writers room with what he described as downloads of his experiences.

I have a head full of characters that no one could make up, you know? said Carrey, curled over a small table in a hotel bar, earlier this year. I just wanted to spew out as much stuff that I could remember.

One detail in the series  two struggling comics (Clark Duke and Michael Angarano) arrive from Boston and wind up living in a closet  was mined from Carreys move here as a rising star in Toronto but a nobody in L.A. The first time I rented my new closet I woke up the following morning and found a girl with no pants on making bacon, Carrey said.

While the true stories of the Comedy Store feature their share of comedy and tragedy, the makers of Im Dying Up Here opted to go their own way.

In playing Goldie I find Im getting an opportunity that I have begged [for] which is to play a woman that I can believe.  Melissa Leo

The series hinges upon a similarly darkened club called Goldies, run by a character played by Melissa Leo of The Fighter. Though it may be tempting to look for parallels with the Comedy Stores Mitzi Shore in Leos performance, Goldie is her own woman, and the Oscar-winning actress bristles at any effort to pigeonhole her character.

In playing Goldie I find Im getting an opportunity that I have begged [for] which is to play a woman that I can believe, Leo says, sitting on a folding chair in the shade outside her trailer. Shes a unique individual. And she gets funny.

Comics are smart alecks  vulnerable, delicate smart alecks. And Goldie knows them better than she knows herself.

Prior to this show, Leo says she had little experience with stand-up comedy apart from working with the likes of Williams, Richard Belzer and Louis CK, who cast her for an episode-stealing turn on FXs Louie.

But Im Dying Up Here gains an additional layer of authenticity with a cast that includes real life comics such as Daily Show alum Al Madrigal, Workaholics Erik Griffin and Santino, whose character Bill Hobbs seems pitched more toward the darker-tinged comics like Bill Hicks and Marc Maron.

For the comics, the challenge has been to perform material that isnt their own, but stays true to their characters and the time. The dust has settled in terms of finding out who these people are, onstage-wise, says the shaggy-haired, red-bearded Santino. (His one-hour special, Home Field Advantage, will air on Showtime on June 2.)

Im 10 years in and I feel like Im very comfortable with my voice. Offstage, Ill never know who I am.  Andrew Santino

We know what [our characters] sound like now, which takes a real stand-up years and years to perfect. Its the hardest thing in the world to do, he says. Im 10 years in and I feel like Im very comfortable with my voice. Offstage, Ill never know who I am, he adds with a grin.

I wouldnt do comedy the way [my character] Ralph does comedy even though it is still somewhat me, says Griffin, another Store regular who also has a special coming to the network July 7. I actually prefer not doing any stand-up on the show. To me the other stuff is really whats rich.

Therein lies another challenge for Im Dying Up Here: It is immersed in comedy but  with story lines that draw from addiction struggles, jealousy and suicide  far more often resembles a drama. At times, the trick was to remain faithful to the narrative despite the comic potential. Its amazing how quickly you fall into the trap of trying to make it funny, says Aguilar, who was working in the Boston scene as the bubble burst and comedy clubs began shutting down in the 80s. You get a couple of comedians and you start laughing at a bit and youre like Oh my God, its a great scene. And all of a sudden youre like, Wow, is that our show?

We look at all the different ways that comedy is used and what it services in peoples lives and, for the comics, what theyre avoiding, explains showrunner Flebotte, who worked on Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace. We kind of go deeper and deeper and we still try and keep it really funny.

Dying also carries the patina of a serious cable drama. With its cinematic look, nocturnal atmosphere and fetishistically detailed design (think lots of macrame, broad lapels and earth-tones in the costumes along with a remarkable on-set re-creation of a period-specific Canters Deli), the vibe of the show recalls that of late-period Mad Men, or HBOs canceled classic rock series Vinyl, which had the difficult task of casting actors to portray near-legendary figures. Im Dying Up Here has a few of those as well, with peripheral appearances by Richard Pryor (Brandon Ford Green) and Johnny Carson (Dylan Baker).

We cant have a comedy world that doesnt reflect the people that were impactful in that time period, says Flebotte. Theres always that thing of where they dont look alike but, Im sorry, I watched [FXs The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story]. Loved it. Cuba Gooding Jr.? Never for a second [did I think] O.J. Simpson. Didnt [care]. It was more the spirit of it.

Though the era-specific similarities between Vinyl and Im Dying Up Here are coincidental, they share a spirit of re-creating a pivotal time for popular culture.

It really felt like the comics were rock stars, Aguilar says of the fertile period. The spotlight was here, everybody was moving here. Its a moment when stand-up changed, it went from the legendary joke tellers we all love to a little more storytelling. Almost more [like] therapy.

That was something akin to the on-set experience for Ari Graynor, who plays Cassie, a young comic finding her voice at a time when the comedy world was far harsher toward women. Known for roles on Fringe and Bad Teacher, the Boston native was immediately thrust into the mind set of a comic with the first scene she filmed  an onstage confrontation with a heckler.

You think, Well its stand-up, and its a show, so its pretend, says Graynor, who had been hoarding mints to fight off the effect of the stage cigarettes she was smoking on set. But when youre standing up in front of 50 or 100 people with three cameras hidden around the room, man, it feels pretty real.

I had this experience where [the heckler] yelled something out that was really dirty, a different kind of dirty, and I wasnt expecting it, and I completely froze, she admits. And no one yelled cut, and Im just standing there, and that thing where the sweat starts coming ... it was scary in a way, but in a weird way it felt like an important experience to have on the first day.

You feel really embarrassed but you realize embarrassment wont kill you, she says.

Graynor survived, just as every neophyte comic does  and must become comfortable, to a point  in the dead silence of bombing. She says the show has taught her about the frame of mind that separates actors from comedians. Actors, our makeup, is naturally a bit more Love me, love me, what can I do to get you to love me? and I think stand-ups have a natural makeup that is a bit more  you for not loving me,  she says with a laugh.

Read more stories from our summer television preview here.

chris.barton@latimes.com

Follow me over here @chrisbarton.

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For John Singleton, relief is not being part of the YouTube generation  or rather, not having to forge a career in the thick of it.

I dont think I could ever have accomplished what I have if I started now, says Singleton, 49. How do you break through the clutter, man? What everyone wants is to get their voice heard and by as many people as possible. But how do you quantify that in this world? I dont know, I dont know. Its not for me.

Thats not to say Singleton is inflexible to the shifts hitting Hollywood. The prolific producer-director, whose work often examines social issues, is having a late evening lunch at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A. during a break from production on his latest project: a television series called Snowfall. Its his second show this year.

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After more than two decades working in film and making his mark with flicks such as Boyz N the Hood and 2 Fast 2 Furious, Singleton is taking a bolder leap into the world of television. Following a steady buildup of episodic directing for such series as Empire, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and Billions, he is strengthening his TV imprint.

Singleton launched the BET police drama Rebel  which he wrote, directed and executive produced  in March. July brings the unveiling of his more high-profile offering: FXs drug drama Snowfall, in which he serves as the co-creator and an executive producer.

I have a whole lot of stories to tell, the L.A. native says. With television, Im like making a movie every week. What filmmaker doesnt want to have the opportunity to do that?

I dont think I could ever have accomplished what I have if I started now.  John Singleton

Snowfall, set in 1983, explores the early days of the crack cocaine epidemic in the inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The 10-episode first season interweaves the stories of a number of characters, including Franklin Saint (Damson Idris), a young street entrepreneur on the quest for power; Gustavo Zapata (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), a Mexican wrestler caught up in a power struggle within a crime family; Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson), a CIA operative running from a dark past who begins an off-book operation to fund the Nicaraguan Contras; and Lucia Villanueva (Emily Rios), the self-possessed daughter of a Mexican crime lord.

Its an untold story, Singleton says. Its the story about how cocaine changed Los Angeles. Theres a whole kind of oral history, folk tale about this era. And no one has dramatized it. I wanted to do that. Its a nostalgic show. But very, very edgy.

Singleton, wearing a black sweatshirt with the word REBEL emblazoned on the back, has returned to the presidential suite of the hotel to finish the final scenes on the last day of shooting for Snowfall. He is directing the episode, and a scene involving Hudsons Teddy walking into the hotel to meet with some Colombians becomes more than just a simple walking shot to Singleton.

About halfway through the take, Hudson later analyzes, I thought that I had forgotten something, and I sort of turned but then realized I had my briefcase and kept going. I thought it was a rehearsal. John was like, I dont know what youre doing there, but keep that. Now were going to go in and do a real tight close-up.

He went into this long explanation about the ways in which Italian directors of spaghetti westerns pioneered this idea of the tension that is created when you contrast a really wide establishing shot with real tight close-up of someones face and how it makes the audience uncomfortable because they arent expecting to jump perspective that quickly, Hudson adds. I mean, its just a scene of me entering a hotel, but hes using it to make people feel really unsettled. Thats John.

John Singleton arrives at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in 2016. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Its an untold story. Its the story about how cocaine changed Los Angeles.  John Singleton

The series, which had originally been set at Showtime before making its way to FX, is a homecoming of sorts for Singleton. Filming took place in South-Central and the Valley, where he grew up and went to school. But hes quick to point out that this is not his story.

My life changed when I went to school in the Valley, when I was in eighth grade, he says. It was the first time I went on the 405 freeway. They were rich in Encino, Tarzana. You see a different life. Everyone was changed by the crack problem in my neighborhood. I remember ice cream trucks and you realize the ice cream truck isnt selling ice cream, theyre selling crack.

Theres an audience that lived through it, Singleton adds, and theres another audience that were too young or not born that dont know the repercussions of how things got the way they are.

Reached later by phone, Eric Schrier, president of original programming at FX Networks, says Singletons relative newness to the world of television helped elevate the series.

Its like when he made Boyz N the Hood  there was a freshness to it, Schrier says. His freshness to television brings a level of innovation and excitement to the piece.

Singleton, back on the set, pauses for a moment to reflect on the timing of his foray into television.

I think I came in at the right time for me, he says. Honestly speaking, I was bored with the whole industry. I was spending time on my boat in the marina, sailing up and down the coast. I became kind of an ocean vagabond  just reading and writing. I was disillusioned.

I like to be on the next level of whats new, but I was sitting in these meetings with people who dont know anything about the outside world of Hollywood, he continues. It changed because Lee Daniels asked me to direct Empire. And it was re-energizing. I was like, I could do this. I could create something. And I started writing.

But to realize that when television is overstuffed with programming  a conditionFX chief John Landgraf has termed peak TV  would seem to be fraught with obstacles. Singleton brushes that off.

For me its great, he says. I used to run track in high school. The marketplace in television is so competitive, only the strong survive. Im not going to put anything on TV thats boring. I think different from the norm. Im totally out of the box.

Read more stories from our summer television preview here.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealy

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Not surprisingly, Kimora Lee Simmons took issue with The New York Posts report Thursday that her signature fashion line is at the center of a corruption probe. Page Sixs Richard Johnson claimed that it is widely believed that her husband Tim Leissner financed the brands launch. The former senior banker in Asia officially exited Goldman Sachs earlier last year. A Goldman Sachs spokesman said Thursday night, Leissner left Goldman shortly after we discovered an unauthorized recommendation letter he wrote.

Reached in Los Angeles on Thursday, Simmons said of her entry-level designer label Kimora Lee Simmons: Ive been around for quite some time. Im an old lady so Ive always been self-sustaining, self-funded. Ive had Baby Phat and at one point Phat Farm, too. Ive had Couture by Kimora, Fabulosity, KLS so this is not my first ride at the rodeo. Ive had six or seven successful fragrances, she said. I fund my own business.Ive been in the fashion industry since [age] 12, modeling and all that. So all my money, not that I want to say it that way, this is my third marriage that Im on so, no, my husband has nothing to do with my professional life.

Her current American-made collection is sold at Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, her own site as well as a few other e-tailers, she said. International distribution is a priority, partially due to a lot of supporters in Asia, including in Singapore and Indonesia, the designer said. In talks with quite a few people for a diffusion line that would be more accessories-driven, Simmons said that could happen within the next year. Licensing is not in the cards at this point. I come from that model, so once you go back that way, its very different. Ive tried to maintain a certain level and quality by doing it myself, said Simmons, though she is looking to license shoes, swimwear or eyewear potentially.

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As for whether she consults with her husband about business, Simmons said, Hes a financial person and Im a fashion person, so I wouldnt say that really. And Ive been doing this for kind of a long time. Probably more my young girls [14 and 17] give me a little more fashion advice.

Asked for her reaction to the Posts report, she said, I think it does a disservice to the fashion business and to designers like me. Im one of the few designers who is here with their namesake label. Im one of the few women and certainly one of the few women of color. Diversity is a big conversation for me that I talk about.

When you say something to attack a brandit doesnt do a service to myself or the industry to have  for those who are following in my footsteps, or for the groundwork that I have laid for other people like myself of which there are only a small handful, Simmons said. So we struggle every day and we have our struggles every day, but I think its better to probably keep to the topic of your growth and your success than to go and create lies or false stories about brands like that. Its one thing to be successful, its another thing to be failing, its another thing for someone to write and publish things that youre failing. Thats really no good. I was just shocked at that but it happens all the time. I guess Im honored that they still want to talk about me.

Noting that she has known many media people and they have been there through her journey and her evolution, so to speak, Simmons said, Im always speaking about womens empowerment, putting your best foot forward. Ive been married and also divorced. Ive been a single mom. I really considered myself to be one of the trailblazers. Im an entrepreneur, a businesswoman, I have investments. Im working and trying very hard every day so I think it is bad, yes, for an old whoever guy to try to discredit all of that. I think it does a disservice to fashion or women of color, yeah absolutely. Im not saying that it was necessarily racially motivated but one could look at it that way, absolutely.

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Sentaler, the Toronto-based luxury outerwear company that sells in Canadian retailers such as Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew and Hudsons Bay, is coming Stateside. The company has confirmed that it has sold Neiman Marcus for the first time this fall, its first major brick-and-mortar account in the U.S.

The high-end outerwear collection, which is made of Peruvian alpaca, exploded when Kate Middleton made an appearance in a Sentaler coat during her Royal Tour in Canada. She wore the ribbed sleeve wrap coat in gray. Business was further fueled when Sophie Trudeau, the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, appeared in five Sentaler coats, including the white suri alpaca coat she wore at her husbands inauguration ceremony. Sentaler coats have also been worn by actress Meghan Markle, Prince Harrys girlfriend.

Plans call for the collection to be carried in several Neiman Marcus doors, starting in September, including in Dallas, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Short Hills, N.J. It will also be carried online at neimanmarcus.com and bergdorfgoodman.com in August. Neimans will feature one of the coats in its September catalogue.

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Their signature ribbed sleeve detail is unique, and stands out in the market. The feminine silhouettes and colors are sure to delight our loyal customers, said Mitch Johnson, division merchandise manager of womens apparel at Neimans.

Bojana Sentaler, designer and creative director of the brand, said, There is a huge demand for Sentaler in the U.S., so this partnership could not have happened at a more perfect time. Neiman Marcus is among the best in luxury retailers and precisely what Sentaler stands for. Sentaler added that while the brand ships worldwide, adding Neimans will enable shoppers to touch, feel and try on its coats.

As reported in February, Sentaler said it was targeting the U.S. market for growth.

Sentaler said she spent six months in Peru in 2009 on a media trip and heard all about the exceptional qualities of alpaca. I was looking for something niche I could do, she said, and launched the company that year. The fiber is obtained by sheering alpaca animals, which thrive in the high altitude of the Peruvian Andes. Their hair has microscopic air pockets that provide excellent thermal insulation, which makes the outerwear warm, lightweight and soft to the touch, she explained. The styling is very feminine, comfortable and lightweight. Its not a heavy coat, Sentaler said. The coats, which are manufactured in Peru and come in sizes XS to XL, retail from about $800 to $1,800. She also designs custom pieces for larger sizes.

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Minsk, Belarus, May 26

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

The Azerbaijani trading house has opened today in Minsk, Belarus.

Azerbaijani delegation led by Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev earlier arrived in Belarus to attend the opening ceremony of the trading house.

The decision to open a trading house was made at the 10th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Homeowner Susan Harbert takes in the view from the newly remodeled backyard of her home in Pacific Palisades. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A home on the mountains with a commanding view of the Pacific Ocean is a shame to waste, which is why architect Takashi Yanai took on the remaking of Susan Harberts Pacific Palisades home.

Yanai, a partner of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, said his firm doesnt normally accept renovation projects, but they dont make any more Pacific Ocean view properties.

Built in a traditional style, the Pacific Palisades home failed to take advantage of its great location. When you walk in, you wouldnt even know the ocean was there, Harbert says of her homes former configuration. French doors and segmented windows all along the ocean-facing side obscured the beauty outdoors. She bought the home in July 2014 knowing she would make major changes.

Now, the home is a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom picture of subtle modernity. Yanai dispensed with a pitched roof and trellises, replacing them with elongated boxes. Rheinzink, a 100% recyclable zinc material, defines the roofline of the home.

MORE: Before and after ocean-view renovation photos 

Inside, what started out as separate family, living, dining, kitchen, study and laundry rooms were all combined into a single 40-foot-wide space. A 40-foot wide motorized sliding glass door that pockets completely away also was installed, welcoming the outdoor views with wide-open arms, as it were.

When youre inside, you still feel like youre outdoors, says Harbert, who usually keeps the doors secreted away.

I wanted to create an open, light-filled space that maximized the connection to the outdoors and the view, Yanai says.

Rather than an old school grass lawn, the new entry sequence designed by EYRC Architects in collaboration with landscape firm Terremoto retained Harberts privacy. Board-formed concrete walls created an internal courtyard off the front door, accessed by an ipe boardwalk, echoing the beach vibe of many seaside neighborhoods. Within that internal courtyard, landscaper David Godshall of Terremoto installed an oak tree, whose striking silhouette can be viewed from inside the home.

When youre inside, you still feel like youre outdoors  Susan Harbert

Homeowner Susan Harbert takes in the view with her dog Nala, from the newly remodeled backyard of her home. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A plant palette with silvery gray and blue tones, plus flecks of seasonal color, inspired by the Santa Monica Mountains, now grace Harberts lawn. The plants have low water needs. The decomposed granite in warm tan complements the homes cool gray, giving it a dune-inspired feeling, Godshall says.

But grandeur wasnt just the goal, so was comfort. Only Harbert lives in the home full-time, but her children and their friends would often stay a few nights. So Yanai also designed the home to be comfortable in many situations  for two people, for a family when children were over, and for hundreds of people during a party.

Takashi Yanai, FAIA design director of the residential studio at the firm Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects, sits for a portrait inside his recent remodel. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

EYRC Architects kept the ceiling heights below 10 feet, creating a more intimate atmosphere for such a large open room. Rather than going for height, Yanai went horizontal, drawing the eye outward. Full-height teak frames at the sitting area, fireplace and the portal to the hallway leading to the bedrooms done by Martin and Carter Woodworking also add warmth to the space.

Yanai was so successful that Harbert says, Nobody feels left out [in the house]. Someone at the kitchen inside can easily converse with those swimming outside or those lounging in the family room.

MORE: Before and after ocean-view renovation photos 

Yanai says, Its a backdrop for Susan and the different aspects of her life and lifestyle.

Harbert is a single professional with two grown children. She volunteers her services at Center for Juvenile Law and Policy at Loyola Law School, which seeks justice for those who are wrongly incarcerated.

Climate appropriate landscape design by Terremoto and board-formed concrete walls frame the entry sequence to this Pacific Palisades home. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Before the remodel done by architect Takashi Yanai. (Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects) (Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects) Front of the house before the remodel done by architect Takashi Yanai. (Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects) (Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects) Climate appropriate landscape design by Terremoto, top, and before photos of back yard and front of the house. (Bottom photos: Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects)

The interior design by Debbie Minchenberg also reflects the homes minimalist leanings. Only four materials are repeated throughout the house: teak wood, concrete, Calcutta stone and white glass. I didnt want to fight with the scenery, says Minchenberg, I didn't want the house to look overly designed. The fabric selections for the furniture that I designed are quiet  sand tones and blue like the sea. I selected chairs, tables and bar stools as sculptural elements.

The only exception to the homes color scheme would be a decadent oversized sofa/lounge bed designed by Minchenberg, which sits in the guest room. Its super fun, says the designer. I kind of want one. (The memorable piece was inspired by a 1970s design by Terrance Conran called the Sexy Bed.)

Now far from its humble and unpromising beginnings, the home is an oasis for Harbert, who says, I feel so lucky to come home to a house this peaceful and calm every day.

home@latimes.com

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Hatchery Drive cuts through the forest about a mile east of the reservoir for which this San Bernardino Mountain resort community is named.

Its the lone remnant of a facility that produced teeming millions of trout here before mud flows closed it in 1932.

Now, with trout offered by state hatcheries getting fewer in number and smaller in size, the Big Bear Municipal Water District said Friday it plans to build a $3.5-million hatchery that will produce 150,000 pounds of rainbow trout each year and feature education programs, tours and projects devoted to rearing rare and endangered fish.

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We plan to be making fish within a year, said Mike Stephenson, the districts lake manager.

In its first phase, the hatchery will grow trout exclusively for Big Bear Lake. If successful, theres room in the facility to expand fish production and accommodate projects with partners such as state and federal wildlife agencies and universities, he said.

Big Bear Lake stocks trout hauled in a truck from a Fish and Wildlife hatchery in Northern California. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Those projects could include captive-breeding federally threatened and endangered species including the Santa Ana sucker, steelhead trout and Sacramento perch, Stephenson said.

The proposed 13,000-square-foot facility would be one of the largest in the state, and is scheduled to open early next year on four acres of district property currently used as an RV park, officials said.

The hatchery aims to boost the local economy and restore the lakes luster as an angling hot spot in Big Bear Valley, which is a two-hour drive from Los Angeles and home to about 18,000 permanent residents.

It also attracts about 7 million visitors who spend an estimated $350 million here each year, city officials said.

Eventually, the district hopes to defray operating costs of about $300,000 by selling rainbows to other recreational lakes including Lake Arrowhead, a few miles to the west; and Santa Ana Lakes in the Orange County city of Anaheim.

The proposal was developed largely because state hatcheries were no longer reliable sources of enough large, sterile trout to meet demand. State law requires that trout stocked for recreational purposes be sterile in order to keep them genetically isolated from native species.

The initiative comes at a time when annual sales of state fishing licenses have flattened over the past five years at roughly 1 million, with most sold to older anglers.

That trend initially made the hatchery proposal a hard sell to the districts directors.

Their perspective changed after board members traveled to Anchorage to visit the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery, one of the newest and largest fish hatcheries in the United States.

Logan Huefner plants trout in Big Bear Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

I was blown away by the technology and efficiency I saw there, Charlie Brewster, director of the water district, said. Were planning to use it as a model for our effort to set Big Bear Lake up as a premier fishing lake.

Michael Perry, executive director of the Big Bear Visitors Bureau, said his agency has already agreed to budget $250,000 each year to assist the educational components of the hatchery, where visitors will learn about fish life cycles and the Big Bear Valley ecology.

Its water held back by a 129-year-old dam, Big Bear Lake crawls with invasive species including massive brown carp, noxious aquatic plants and bass, which accumulate mercury, a neurotoxin that poses special risks for pregnant women and children.

But the alpine forests, creeks and meadows that surround it are home to one of the nations largest concentrations of rare plants and animals. They include one of Californias few known colonies of unarmored three-spined stickleback fish, and southern mountain buckwheat and Bear Valley sandwort, which are both listed by the federal government as threatened.

Bald eagles for centuries have migrated here each winter from frigid nesting grounds in the Pacific Northwest to roost in scraggly pine trees and hunt for fish and waterfowl in wetlands surrounding the 7-mile-long lake.

Will bald eagles feast on trout from our new hatchery? Heck yes! Stephenson said.

In the meantime, the district will continue to stock the lake two to three times a year with rainbows purchased from Mt. Lassen Trout Farm, a private hatchery roughly 600 miles to the north in Paynes Creek, Calif.

Trouts from a hatcherys truck are transferred into a submerged cage attached to plateform in Big Bear Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The latest shipment of 4,600 pounds of trout, worth $20,000, arrived at daybreak Thursday in a tank truck, in time to satisfy some of the anglers expected to cast lures, bait and artificial flies into the lake over the Memorial Day weekend.

The 11 1/2-hour drive was nearly as arduous for the truck driver, Leng Xiong, 57, as it was for the hundreds of trout in the six stainless steel tanks he had onboard.

That was quite a trip, Xiong said. One of my headlights went out; officers at a weigh station gave me a hard time, and I had to stop at a gas station to buy nine bags of ice to keep the fish tanks from overheating.

The last time I delivered trout here, he added, I got a flat tire.

A few hundred yards away, Robert and Karen Maloney sat quietly on folding chairs near their fishing rods, waiting for a strike.

For us, its not really about catching fish, Karen, 61, said, adjusting her sun hat. Its about sitting back and soaking up the scenery for five to six hours at a time: white caps on the water, bald eagles perched on tree tops, pine trees.

Her husband agreed, to a point.

When that hatchery comes in, he said, its going to be trout heaven around here.

Louis.Sahagun@latimes.com

@LouisSahagun
Every now and then, people drop by the Little Knittery in Atwater Village to catch a glimpse of where it all began.

It was here that two young women partnered with shop owner Kat Coyle in November to create the pussyhat, the iconic pink cap worn by thousands of protesters at the womens march.

And it was here that dozens of women crowded around Coyles knitting table for weeks, using her pattern  a simple cap with cat ears  to make hundreds of hats for a movement that went global and brought solace to many who were crestfallen by the outcome of the presidential election.

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The Little Knittery is a very special place, said Jayna Zweiman, co-creator of the pussyhat project. Its become a cultural fixture.

So it was not easy for Coyle to tell customers in March that she was leaving the neighborhood. Her lease was not renewed and the space, from what she knows, is being turned into a cafe or eatery.

Coyle was devastated at first. In five years, shes built a faithful clientele of knitters who buy her colorful yarn, looms and needles and take part in her knitting, crochet and macrame classes. They gather around her table to chat and commiserate about politics and art.

Coyle was still recovering from the pussyhat whirlwind when her landlord told her she would need to relocate.

Glendale Boulevard, the street where the Little Knittery is located, has transformed in the last five years as Atwater Village has become more upscale.

Coyle saw tenant after tenant in her building leave in recent years  the water store became a home decor boutique, the insurance business became a solar power dealer and the dry cleaners is now a fine dining restaurant.

I dont know why I was so shocked, Coyle said.

Because hope reigns eternal, said Edna Hart, who works at the shop.

At the end of June, Coyle plans to move the Little Knittery to Los Feliz.

The new location is going to add 15 minutes to Sophia Bliziotis drive, but like many customers, she said she will remain loyal to the yarn shop. And she will take her pussyhat memories with her.

That little spot is special, but I think the locus of the movement is Kat and her partners and their political activism, Bliziotis said. They gave me and countless others a way to address our anxiety after the election in a very concrete way.

When Coyle talks about the pussyhat project, she does so with a sense of awe.

Its crazy, she said. Its not something you plan for or imagine.

She said after the election, many of her customers were distraught. Two young women, Krista Suh and Zweiman, approached her about making a hat that celebrated femininity and cleverly pushed back on President Trumps vulgar statements about grabbing womens genitals.

They wanted something really easy to make, Coyle said.

So she came up with a cap in the shape of a rectangle that when worn, created cat ears.

The idea was that the hats would be handmade and donated to the thousands of women attending the march. By December, the project spread nationwide. Tens of thousands of hats were made. Those who couldnt knit donated yarn and materials.

The whole country ran out of pink yarn, Coyle said. You couldnt get it from any supplier.

The Little Knittery was packed for weeks with knitters, heartened by the fact that they were creating their pieces at the epicenter of the movement.

These days, things are more quiet at the shop. Only one pussyhat is on display near the register. Its knitted out of Kat Pink, a yarn a supplier named after Coyle. The piece is not for sale.

In fact, you cant buy a pussyhat at the Little Knittery. If you want one, Coyle asks for your contact information and she gives you a ring when and if a cap is donated to the shop.

Making money was never part of the movement, after all.

Thats not my style, Coyle said.

Besides an occasional pink hat, fans send the shopkeeper all sorts of gifts  tributes to the hat she designed. She gets knitted dolls wearing caps from Nebraska and framed art of the cap from Vermont.

Not a week goes that someone doesnt come by here to say thank you, Hart said.

esmeralda.bermudez@latimes.com

@LATBermudez
Guadalupe Plascencia said she was alarmed when a San Bernardino County sheriffs deputy asked her to sign papers related to her immigration status.

The 59-year-old hairdresser from San Bernardino had spent the night of March 29 in jail because of a decade-old bench warrant related to her alleged failure to appear as a witness in a court case. During her night in jail, Plascencia said a deputy asked her to sign documents acknowledging that officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had inquired about her.

Why? Plascencia asked. Im an American citizen.

Confused and scared, Plascencia did as she was asked, assuring herself that the entire ordeal was a mistake that would soon be cleared up.

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But as she tried to leave the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Plascencia said she was met by immigration enforcement agents, handcuffed and placed in the back of a van. Plascencia would spend the rest of the day in ICE custody, fearful that she would be deported despite becoming an American citizen some 20 years ago, following an amnesty program initiated by President Ronald Reagan.

I felt helpless, like I was no one, she said in a recent interview. Here, they talk about rights  in that moment, I realized, we dont have rights.

FULL COVERAGE: On edge in Trumps America 

Guadalupe Plascencia (right) is consoled by her daughter Mahria Torres as she recounts her ordeal of being arrested by Ontario Police. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Plascencia was eventually released after her daughter showed ICE agents her passport. But now she has taken the first step toward filing a lawsuit against the federal immigration agency and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department in a case that raises issues of how an American citizen wound up in the custody of immigration enforcement agents.

Its unclear how many hours Plascencia was detained by federal authorities, but she insists she repeatedly asserted her citizenship to deputies and ICE agents. She also says she presented a valid California drivers license when she was arrested.

Plascencias case comes at a time when President Trump has pledged to increase detentions of undocumented immigrants and speed up deportations  and highlights the increasing challenge of ensuring that American citizens are not caught up in such actions.

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union mailed notices of claim, the precursor to a lawsuit, to both agencies, said Adrienna Wong, the ACLU staff attorney who is representing Plascencia. The documents claim that Plascencia was discriminated against based on her ethnic origin, and seek monetary damages in excess of $25,000.

San Bernardino Sheriffs Cpl. Ruben Perez said ICE issued a detainer request for Plascencia on March 30, the same day she was to be released from jail. The detainer request is an alert ICE sends to a local law enforcement agency when police have arrested someone immigration officials want to take into custody on suspicion of being in the country illegally.

ICE would never knowingly take enforcement action against or detain an individual if there was evidence indicating the person was a U.S. citizen.  ICE statement

Perez said sheriffs officials did not contact ICE or inquire as to Plascencias immigration status, adding that to do so would be against department policy. Sheriffs department officials did submit her fingerprints to an electronic database accessible by federal and state local law enforcement agencies, which is standard law enforcement practice.

An ICE spokeswoman would not say if the agency issued a detainer request for Plascencia. In a statement, the agency said it was barred by law from discussing specifics about a case involving a U.S. citizen.

ICE would never knowingly take enforcement action against or detain an individual if there was evidence indicating the person was a U.S. citizen. Should such information come to light, the agency will take immediate action to address the matter, the statement read.

Wong contends that sheriffs deputies intentionally delayed Plascencias release in order to allow ICE agents time to arrive and detain her.

Like many other departments in the state, the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department has insisted it does not honor ICE detainer requests because of questions over the constitutionality of that practice. San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon, however, has said he wants to find ways to work more closely with immigration authorities while also adhering to laws.

To be quite honest, those that are wanted by ICE, that are detained in our facilities, are dangerous criminals, he said in an interview posted to the departments YouTube page in February. If we allow that inmate to walk out of our jail, and ICE isnt there to pick him up, that inmate returns to the community. That could pose a danger for the public that we serve and try to protect.

That level of cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement, however, can create situations like that faced by Plascencia, Wong said.

Their cooperation with ICE is voluntary. This is why we generally say its a bad idea for law enforcement agencies to interact with federal immigration enforcement because they could be held liable when illegal detentions occur, she said.

The arrest that sparked Plascencias detention by ICE is connected to a 2007 court case involving her son, Eric Mercado, that was ultimately dismissed, court records show.

It started when Plascencia visited the Ontario Police Department in March to recover a gun, which she legally owns, that had been seized after her daughter was involved in a car accident last year. As she waited in the police station, officers told her she was going to be arrested on a warrant. Court records indicate a bench warrant was issued for Plascencia after she failed to testify in the 2007 case.

Her daughter, Dulce Sepulveda, confirmed that Eric is her brother. Plascencia said she didnt know she was required to testify in the case.

Plascencia said she was then transferred to the custody of the sheriffs department, where she was repeatedly asked to sign forms relating to ICE.

Perez said the documents Plascencia signed were actually intended to notify her that ICE had inquired about her scheduled release date and issued an immigration detainer for her. Police are required to make inmates aware of such actions under California law, Perez said.

She was arrested by immigration agents as she left jail the next day. While in ICE custody, Plascencia said she feared she would be deported, and claims agents were verbally abusive to her.

Youre no one, until your situation is cleared up, Plascencia claims she was told by an ICE agent.

Sepulveda eventually arrived at the ICE office and presented Plascencias passport, prompting her release. In the notice of claim, the ACLU accused ICE of violating Plascencias rights by detaining her and ignoring clear evidence that she is a U.S. citizen.

ICE breached the duty of reasonable care it owed to Ms. Plascencia by arresting her and continuing to detain her when it had information about her citizenship, the document reads.

Plascencia and her family say the experience has shaken their ideas about the protections they are entitled to as American citizens. Sepulveda said she is now afraid to leave the U.S., the country she was born in.

I really thought they were going to try anything in their power to take her out of the country, Sepulveda said. I didnt know who to talk to I didnt know what to do.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

Times Staff Writer Joel Rubin contributed to this report.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

Twitter: @palomaesquivel

james.queally@latimes.com

Twitter: @JamesQueallyLAT

For more breaking news on crime and immigration, follow @palomaesquivel & @JamesQueallyLAT

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Two Savanna High School students were arrested Thursday on suspicion of plotting acts of violence at the Orange County campus, including placing bombs and committing shootings.

School administrators contacted Anaheim police early Thursday after learning of the threats posted online, police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

Anaheim police, working with school personnel, quickly identified and found the two students involved in the alleged plan.

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Based on the information and evidence, the students were arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats and will be booked at Orange County Juvenile Hall, Wyatt said.

The arrests should also serve as a message to all that the school district and the police department take these threats seriously, and swift enforcement action will be taken in accordance with the letter of the law, Wyatt said.

brittny.mejia@latimes.com

Twitter: @Brittny_Mejia

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An inmate firefighter died Wednesday when a 120-foot-tall tree fell on him while he was battling a wildfire in Humboldt County, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Matthew Beck, 26, was leading an inmate crew as they were removing brush in the remote community of Hoopa to stop the small fire from advancing, department spokesman Bill Sessa said.

Beck was operating a chainsaw and likely didnt hear the tree when it uprooted and landed on him, he said. He suffered major head, neck and back injuries.

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Beck, who was assigned to the Alder Conservation Camp in Del Norte County in November 2016, died before a helicopter crew was able to reach him.

We are saddened by the death of Matthew Beck, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, state corrections secretary Scott Kernan said in a statement. The inmates who year after year help protect our communities from the devastation of fires perform a valuable public service, and it is a tragic event when we lose one of them.

Beck was sentenced in May 2014 to six years in prison for burglary in Los Angeles County, the department said.

He is the fourth conservation camp inmate to be killed since the program began in 1943.

Last year, Shawna Lynn Jones was the first female inmate in state history to die while battling a wildfire in February. She was struck in the head by a falling boulder while working fire lines in Malibu.

Typically, inmate firefighters are armed with such tools as shovels and pickaxes, and focus on establishing fire containment lines in rugged terrain. Inmates operate in crews of 12 or 14 and under the direction of a fire captain, Sessa said.

Inmates who work in fire camps are carefully screened and evaluated to ensure they have the right temperament and attitude.

The department operates 43 conservations camps, which house about 3,900 inmate firefighters.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA
A youth mentor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest has been accused of lewd acts involving two teenage boys while he volunteered there, the Orange County Sheriffs Department said Friday.

Ruven Meulenberg, 32, was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and is being held on $100,000 bail, authorities said. Jail records show he is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom.

Detectives were alerted after a 14-year-old boy told his parents that Meulenberg had molested him, Lt. Lane Lagaret said. The parents told the churchs youth pastor, who called the Sheriffs Department, Lagaret said.

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Another 14-year-old boy turned up during the detectives investigation, Lagaret said.

Meulenberg is a Lake Forest resident who had been volunteering at the church for six years, and during that time, he developed relationships with the two boys, Lagaret said. Some of the conduct allegedly took place on church property, officials said.

In a statement to its conregation, Saddleback Church said it was shocked and grieved to share that this week a Saddleback member reported that a student ministry volunteer had acted inappropriately with two 14 year old boys. The church said its volunteers are fingerprinted, their backgrounds are checked and that they receive annual training on appropriate conduct.

The statement continued: We ask you to do two things: First, please pray for the Saddleback families who are involved in this sad matter. Second, please pray for the investigators as they determine the facts. As followers of Jesus, we always want the whole truth to come out because Jesus taught us that lies enslave us, but the truth sets us free.

Authorities say there could be more possible victims and are asking for the publics help in finding them.

Anyone with information is asked to call the departments special victims unit at (714) 647-7418.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.

UPDATES:

7:30 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Saddleback Church.

This article was originally published at 5:25 p.m.
President Trump s budget would eliminate federal funding for an earthquake early warning system being developed for California and the rest of the West Coast which, if enacted, probably would kill the long-planned effort.

The budget proposal for the year ending in September 2018 also seeks to eliminate U.S. funding for critical tsunami-monitoring stations in oceans and reduce funds for a next-generation weather forecasting system.

Scientists said the loss of federal funding would derail the early warning system, which officials hope would one day send public earthquake alerts to smartphones seconds or even minutes before a temblor.

It probably would kill the early warning system if we thought there were no more funding coming from the U.S. Geological Survey, said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and a seismology professor at the University of Washington.

The money weve received is essential, Vidale said.

In a statement announcing the USGS budget, the Department of the Interior said the budget focuses on core USGS science and efficiency, and asserted that the budget would be able to fund monitoring of the nations earthquakes.

Bill Leith, the USGS acting associate director for natural hazards, said a decision was made to focus on USGS service core capabilities  services that are already offered, rather than a new service such as the earthquake early warning system.

The budget document posted on the U.S. Department of the Interiors website did not elaborate on the reason for cutting the alert system, saying only: This elimination would end USGS efforts to implement the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system.

New hires havent been approved by Trump administration

The earthquake early warning system, being built by the USGS in conjunction with several major universities, still needs more seismic sensors installed across Washington, Oregon and Northern California, and it needs a staff of 40 to 50 people to install and maintain equipment as well as monitor the computer systems.

Already, hiring has proven difficult. Since Trump was inaugurated, the Department of the Interior has frozen hiring of senior scientists, including those needed to operate the early warning network.

There are people weve identified and interviewed and wed like to hire them as soon as we have permission, Vidale said. These are the people who would keep the computer doing what we need to to get the early warning system up and operating.

Without ongoing funding, the ShakeAlert system would need to lay off employees, said Tom Heaton, a Caltech professor of engineering seismology.

If that funding went away, we would have to lay off a number of the developers and the development would basically cease, Heaton said. Im not sure how we could possibly recover from that.

Such a blow probably would lead Heaton, who said he is nearing retirement, to work on other issues.

Ive been kind of excited at the possibility well have a system up and running by the time my career was done. That hope would be dashed in that case, Heaton said.

Lucy Jones in 2015 discusses Californias prototype earthquake early warning system. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Companies have been seeking to use the system

Companies have started to notice the potential benefits of an earthquake early warning system. Intel, for example, is very eager to use early warning to make their manufacturing safer, Vidale said. Computer companies can use seconds of warning before shaking comes to halt sensitive manufacturing processes  preventing equipment from clanging together and being damaged in the shaking. That would enable factories to resume operations much faster after the earthquake.

And factories using toxic chemicals can prevent problems by securing operations before shaking arrives, too, Vidale said. And just telling people that shaking is coming so that they can drop, cover and hold on could save lives and reduce injuries.

This is a simple technology. We know how to do it, Vidale said. Even Mongolia is doing it.

The budget proposal would also reduce $800,000 in funding for earthquake monitoring in Alaska and the central and eastern United States, where earthquakes are a risk on the East Coast, in the South and in the Midwest. The reduction may slow the rate of updates to seismic provisions in building codes and provide less science to support risk mitigation actions. The USGS would also suspend its annual forecast of hazard related to both natural and induced seismicity.

An additional $561,000 would be cut under the proposal from earthquake hazards operations, diminishing the governments ability to monitor and report on earthquakes, assess earthquake hazards and send earthquake results to emergency responders, the budget document said.

Video of how the earthquake early warning system operated in Japan during the great 2011 earthquake.

Congressional response

A champion of the earthquake early warning system, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), said it would be foolish to end it.

After years of educating the public and Congress to the benefits of the earthquake early warning system, we have been able to deliver $23.4 million in federal funding to help build out an early warning system across the West Coast, Schiff said in a statement.

But we cannot stop now, just as monitoring stations are being built out and the system is expanding its reach. Support for the early warning system in Congress is sustained, growing and bipartisan, and we will not accept this attempt by the president to cut a vital funding stream for a program that will protect life, property and critical infrastructure, Schiff said.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Friday that he believes the earthquake early warning system can be a lifesaving tool for the millions of Californians and other Americans who live in earthquake-prone areas.

Thats why I have been at the forefront of advocating for funding of the program, including the $10.2 million in funding that was signed into law earlier this year, Calvert said. Obviously, the presidents budget proposes some reductions for this program and other agencies that fall within the Interior Appropriations Subcommittees jurisdiction, which I oversee as Chairman. During the appropriations process, important programs like this will be given full consideration.

Watch the earthquake early warning appear on TV in Japan before the great 2011 earthquake. The alert shows up about 36 seconds into the video. At about 2 minutes into the video, shaking arrives in Tokyo, and a news anchor interrupts the programming.

U.S. far behind other nations

The United States is far behind other nations in developing an earthquake early warning system. In Japan, for instance, national TV broadcasts and cellphones are interrupted with warnings about incoming shaking, and for significant quakes, high-speed trains automatically slow down, as slower speeds reduce the threat of a deadly derailment.

All of Japanese society is very happy for their early warning system, Heaton said. Nobody in Japan really wants to turn it off. They view it as a great step ahead for them. Californians will, too.

In the last few years, lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento have started to devote significant dollars to developing the system.

In fact, the budget deal reached in Congress for the current budget year that ends in September penciled in $10.2 million for the system, which represented an increase from the previous years $8.2 million for the system. The system needs about $16.1 million in yearly operating and maintenance costs, and $38.2 million to build it.

Seismologist Lucy Jones said she was deeply disappointed to see Trumps budget proposal.

Eliminating the $10 million a year that the government has been spending would stop the program and waste the $23 million that has already been invested, Jones said in an email. The talented scientists and technicians that are working on the project now will go to other jobs, so their experience and expertise would be lost.

Many life- and money-saving measures would not be available when the next earthquake strikes, she added.

Workers begin to demolish the Northridge Meadows apartment building, whose ground floor collapsed in the 1994 earthquake. (Richard Derk / MCT) (Richard Derk / MCT)

How the early warnings work

The earthquake early warning system works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at about the speed of sound through rock  slower than the speed of today's communications systems. That means it would take more than a minute for, say, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea to shake up Los Angeles, 150 miles away, traveling on the states longest fault, the San Andreas.

The prototype system has had some early successes. When a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Napa in 2014, the system gave researchers in San Francisco about eight seconds of warning before shaking began. Last year, 30 seconds of warning reached downtown L.A. before the ground shook from a magnitude 4.4 quake centered near Banning.

As the system gets built, officials have talked about allowing places such as classrooms, offices, shopping malls, amusement parks and police and fire stations to have ready access to alerts. Eventually, bigger benefits are expected: technology to open elevators at the next floor, sparing occupants from being trapped, and warnings that could halt the flow of natural gas through major pipelines, preventing catastrophic fires.

Officials last week had said they hoped to have an early version of the system sometime next year.

The waters of the tsunami were still evident in the Japanese town of Ishinomaki days after the March 11, 2011 tsunami. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Tsunami sensing stations could lose all funding

The proposed budget also affects other agencies monitoring natural disasters. The U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , faces eliminating funding  $12 million  that pays for a crucial network of buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The network can sense an incoming tsunami, enabling officials to send watches and warnings for the United States.

This is known as the Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis, or DART. A budget document said that the termination of the program is anticipated to have a 20% or greater impact on the accuracy, certainty, and timeliness of NOAAs tsunami watches and warnings.

The DART buoys are essential for telling local authorities whether the public needs to be evacuated from the coast, Vidale said. Those DART buoys are our eyes out in the sea for incoming tsunamis from distant earthquakes.

The zeroing out of the DART buoys is just startling, said University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor Cliff Mass.

In this March 11, 2011 file photo, boats collide with one another after a tsunami swept through a boat basin in Crescent City, Calif. (Bryant Anderson / Associated Press) (Bryant Anderson / Associated Press)

The agency is also facing a proposed reduction of funding for a network of automated weather stations that can indicate rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, called Mesonet. That means NOAA wont be able to monitor these conditions in all 50 states, but will have to prioritize states most susceptible to tornadoes and severe weather.

The budget also proposes reducing funding for an array of sensors in the ocean designed to detect El Nino, which officials said may delay the recognition of the onset of phenomenon and hamper the ability to deal with its effects, such as heavy rain or drought.

Damage is viewed in the Rockaway neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City, where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Hurricane Sandy . (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Slowing or ending programs to improve weather and tornado forecasts

The budget proposal also would slow the development of the National Weather Service s next-generation weather forecasting system. Scientists and officials have been pushing for a major upgrade to the weather services forecasting system, which is well behind European modeling systems, Mass said. That shortcoming was seen in the U.S. forecasting of Hurricane Sandy as it struck New York, he said.

What theyre proposing to do is cutting a large amount of money out, which would delay it at best and kill it at worst, Mass said. If you look at the statistics for virtually any place in the country, youll see the American model is well behind.

The proposal would also end an effort to extend operational weather outlooks from 16 days to 30 days, saving $5 million, and halt a project that would improve tornado forecasts in the southeastern United States, which would also save $5 million.

In an executive summary accompanying the budget proposal, the Commerce Department said that the termination and rescaling of programs, while challenging and impactful, is necessary as we move toward a more efficient government model that refocuses on national security and core government functions.

(Los Angeles Times)

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UPDATES:

1:05 p.m.: Updated with a new statement from Rep. Ken Calvert.

7:15 a.m.: Updated with timeline for system.

May 26, 12 a.m. This article was updated with details on proposals to end efforts to extend operational weather outlooks and improve tornado forecasts.

11:10 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from seismologist Lucy Jones.

9:40 p.m.: This article has been updated to include comments from the USGS and the Commerce Department.

This article was originally published on May 25 at 8 p.m..
Just before noon on Dec. 2, 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik , entered the Inland Regional Center, killing 14 people and wounding 22.

As police scrambled in the aftermath of the attack to identify the shooters and track them, they learned that Farook had rented a black SUV with Utah license plates. Officers tracked the car to Redlands and followed it onto the freeway and, eventually, onto the streets of San Bernardino.

As the pursuit wound its way into a neighborhood of homes and warehouses, a gun battle erupted between police and the suspects, one in which 22 officers from various agencies would ultimately participate.

On Thursday, the San Bernardino County district attorneys office issued a report finding each officers use of force legally justified. While much of what happened that day has been well documented in various reports and public comments, this latest one offers new details specifically about the gun battle on the streets of San Bernardino and the perspective, gleaned from interviews, of each officer involved.

Here are a few things of note from the report:

More than 20 officers fired their weapons during the gun battle on San Bernardino Avenue.

The report describes a chaotic scene with officers from agencies around the region rushing to join the fight and bullets bouncing off the street in the middle of the residential neighborhood.

During the shootout, the suspects fired about 80 rifle rounds and 1 handgun round and law enforcement fired about 440 rounds from rifles, shotguns, and handguns, the report says.

Numerous unexpended rounds of ammunition, fired cartridge casings, fired shotgun shells, and bullets and bullet fragments were discovered inside and around vehicles, on the streets, and in residential yards. Multiple nearby homes and civilian cars were struck by bullets.

But there were no civilian injuries during the shootout.

Some officers, such as Sgt. Andy Capps of the Redlands Police Department, had been tailing Farook and Malik when, as Capps put it in an interview conducted the night of the attack, they realized that he and the other law enforcement vehicles were taking gunfire from the rear of the SUV.

Other officers joined in the pursuit when they learned from radio traffic that their colleagues were under fire. Some of them, like the suspects, were equipped with rifles; others had handguns. At times, some officers weapons malfunctioned while others ran out of ammunition, according to the report.

This account, included in the report and based on Capps interview, details how the battle started:

As the SUV stopped it erupted in gunfire from within the vehicle. Sgt. Capps retrieved his AR-15 from the rifle rack of his vehicle. He exited his vehicle and took a position behind the right rear tire, utilizing his vehicle for protection.

Sgt. Capps could hear gunfire and saw muzzle flashes coming from the suspect vehicle. Capps fired at the SUV from a kneeling position behind his unit. He then saw one of the suspects exit the vehicle with what looked like a long rifle. He saw the suspect began to engage the sheriffs deputy parked to the north in a gun battle.

Capps continued to fire back at the suspects, attempting to take precise shots at both suspects inside and outside the SUV. The gun battle lasted some time as other officers joined in.

When Capps ran out of ammunition, the officers lined up behind him began taking turns shooting at the SUV, according to the report.

Officers responding following the San Bernardino terror attack on Dec. 2, 2015. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

In the middle of the battle, officers devised and executed a plan to rescue a deputy who was coming under heavy fire.

San Bernardino County Sheriffs Deputy Shaun Wallen was among the first to engage in the gun battle with Farook and Malik.

According to Wallens account, provided to investigators just before 9 p.m. the night of the attack, after the SUV stopped, Farook got out and started running across the street, shooting at Wallen with a rifle.

Farook and Deputy Wallen were about 80 feet apart when they engaged in a gun battle in the middle of San Bernardino Avenue, the report says. As Farook appeared around the drivers side of Wallens unit, he was still firing at the deputy. Deputy Wallen continued firing back at Farook.

Eventually, Farook, apparently injured, sat on the ground but continued shooting with the rifle, according to the report.

Farook transitioned to a handgun that he pulled from a holster on his right thigh [and] continued to fire at Wallen from a seated position with the handgun, the report says. Wallen shifted his position and then saw that Farook had fallen to the ground and was no longer firing at him.

Malik, however, was still firing on officers from the SUV.

San Bernardino police Officer Nicolas Koahou saw Wallen crouched near the trunk of his vehicle and, realizing he was in a horrible position, tried to get Wallen to safety, the report says. But as Koahou ran toward Wallen, he felt pain on the outside of his left thigh and realized he had been shot. Even after he was injured, Koahou continued firing on the SUV.

When San Bernardino police Officer Brian Olvera arrived at the scene, he also began to worry about Wallen, who was still under fire and taking cover behind a car that was riddled with bullet holes and had flat tires.

Olvera and other officers and deputies hatched a plan to get Wallen to safety by driving a vehicle slowly up to him while Olvera and other officers fired in the suspects direction, giving them cover so that Wallen could run to safety behind the approaching vehicle.

When the sheriff vehicle got within about 10 yards of Deputy Wallen, he ran for cover behind the vehicle, the report says. All Officer Olveras fired rounds came in the rescue attempt of Deputy Wallen.

San Bernardino Sheriff Deputies investigate the scene where two suspects were gunned down following the Dec. 2, 2015 terror attack. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Farook was shot 27 times; Malik was shot 15 times.

Farooks body was found on San Bernardino Avenue. He was wearing a tactical vest and a thigh holster with a loaded 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol. A rifle was slung around his body, the report says.

The rifle had been modified to fire fully automatic, which it could not do because the modification was done incorrectly, the report says.

An autopsy determined that Farook had 27 discernible gunshot entry wounds to his chin and neck, chest, thighs, legs, arms, feet and buttocks.

Maliks body was inside the SUV. She was also heavily armed. The autopsy determined she had been shot at least 15 times.

For each of the officers involved in the shooting, the report determined that the use of deadly force was a proper exercise of his right of self-defense and the defense of others  and therefore legally justified.

Faced with two heavily armed suspects who had already executed 14 innocent unarmed civilians and critically injured 22 others, the officers involved put their lives at risk to prevent what may have been a second mass shooting, the report says.

Despite the suspects being heavily armed and completely reckless in shooting at law enforcement on a crowded residential street, no more civilians or law enforcement were killed.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

Twitter: @palomaesquivel
Minsk, Belarus, May 26

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Belarus discussed expansion of economic relations, increase of exports, simplification of issuing licenses for the export of alcoholic beverages to Belarus and other issues, Trends correspondent reported.

The discussions were held in Minsk city at a meeting of the Azerbaijani delegation, led by Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, with Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko.

Over 100 documents were signed between the two countries, with more than 30 of these signed in the area of economy, Mustafayev said. There are 30 companies with Belarusian share in Azerbaijan and 60 companies with Azerbaijani share in Belarus. In Baku, there are four points of sale of Belarusian food products.

He noted that the two countries have great potential for development of cooperation in ICT, tourism, establishment of joint pharmaceutics and agriculture ventures.

In turn, Semashko noted the increase in the number of mutual investment projects and stressed the importance of Azerbaijans trading house in Belarus for further expansion of bilateral cooperation.

The sides also stressed the high level of economic relations between Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Back in the 1980s, when Donald Trump was a real estate mogul trying to expand into Los Angeles, he made a startling comment to the Los Angeles Times:

"I'm really concerned with the whole earthquake situation in L.A.," Trump said. "I am a tremendous believer that someday Las Vegas may be the West Coast.

Trumps quip aside, the president has said little about publicly about seismic safety, an issue of big concern in California and the West Coast.

But Trumps budget would cut federal funding for an earthquake early warning system for the West Coast that scientists have been planning for years.

The Northridge Meadows apartment complex was destroyed by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. (Richard Derk / MCT) (Richard Derk / MCT)

I must tell you it's disconcerting

Trumps comments on earthquakes in L.A. came while he was trying to build what would be L.A.s tallest building, a massive structure on Wilshire Boulevard.

It was never built. In a Los Angeles Times Magazine article published in 1988, Trump discussed the seismic risk in the context of L.A.s real estate market. From the article:

Is this another Trump business tactic? Is he trying to talk down real estate values in Southern California so that he can buy in cheaply? Unlikely. Trump insists that he has "seen some of the damage earthquakes can cause, and I must tell you it's disconcerting.

"People in general are having lingering doubts about the value of real estate in L.A.," he adds. "It's happening too much and too often, the tremors. It's a very scary thing.

"Hey, I can't tell you I'm completely staying out of [the L.A. market] because of that. But I have to admit it's a lingering problem, and if a deal is a close call, I'll probably stick with my instincts."

Donald Trump leaves a news conference with wife Ivana on Jan. 13, 1990, after announcing that he had purchased an interest in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. (Mindy Schauer / For The Times) (Mindy Schauer / For The Times )

Quake alerts considered a new service

The ending of funding for the early warning system was proposed in a Department of the Interior budget that talked of sensible and rational reductions and making hard choices to reach a balanced budget by 2027.

In a statement announcing the U.S. Geological Survey budget, the Department of the Interior said the budget focuses on core USGS science and efficiency, and asserted that the budget would be able to fund monitoring of the nations earthquakes.

Bill Leith, the USGS acting associate director for natural hazards, said a decision was made to focus on USGS service core capabilities  services that are already offered, rather than a new service such as the earthquake early warning system.

The budget document posted on the U.S. Department of the Interiors website did not elaborate on the reason for cutting the alert system, saying only: This elimination would end USGS efforts to implement the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system.

The earthquake early warning system works on a simple principle: The shaking from an earthquake travels at about the speed of sound through rock  slower than the speed of today's communications systems. That means it would take more than a minute for, say, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that starts at the Salton Sea to shake up Los Angeles, 150 miles away, traveling on the states longest fault, the San Andreas.

The prototype system has had some early successes. When a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Napa in 2014, the system gave researchers in San Francisco about eight seconds of warning before shaking began. Last year, 30 seconds of warning reached downtown L.A. before the ground shook from a magnitude 4.4 quake centered near Banning.

As the system gets built, officials have talked about allowing places such as classrooms, offices, shopping malls, amusement parks and police and fire stations to have ready access to alerts. Eventually, bigger benefits are expected: technology to open elevators at the next floor, sparing occupants from being trapped, and warnings that could halt the flow of natural gas through major pipelines, preventing catastrophic fires.

Scientists last week had said they hoped to have an early version of the system in limited public release sometime next year.

(Paul Duginski) (Los Angeles Times)

We cannot stop now

Scientists said the loss of federal funding would derail the early warning system, which officials hope would one day send public earthquake alerts to smartphones seconds or even minutes before a temblor.

It probably would kill the early warning system if we thought there were no more funding coming from the U.S. Geological Survey, said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and a seismology professor at the University of Washington.

Seismologist Lucy Jones said she was deeply disappointed to see Trumps budget proposal.

Eliminating the $10 million a year that the government has been spending would stop the program and waste the $23 million that has already been invested, Jones said in an email. The talented scientists and technicians that are working on the project now will go to other jobs, so their experience and expertise would be lost.

Many life- and money-saving measures would not be available when the next earthquake strikes, she added.

A champion of the earthquake early warning system, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), said it would be foolish to end it.

After years of educating the public and Congress to the benefits of the earthquake early warning system, we have been able to deliver $23.4 million in federal funding to help build out an early warning system across the West Coast, Schiff said in a statement.

But we cannot stop now, just as monitoring stations are being built out and the system is expanding its reach. Support for the early warning system in Congress is sustained, growing and bipartisan, and we will not accept this attempt by the president to cut a vital funding stream for a program that will protect life, property and critical infrastructure, Schiff said.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Friday that he believes the earthquake early warning system can be a lifesaving tool for the millions of Californians and other Americans who live in earthquake-prone areas.

Thats why I have been at the forefront of advocating for funding of the program, including the $10.2 million in funding that was signed into law earlier this year, Calvert said. Obviously, the presidents budget proposes some reductions for this program and other agencies that fall within the Interior Appropriations Subcommittees jurisdiction, which I oversee as Chairman. During the appropriations process, important programs like this will be given full consideration.

Without ongoing funding, the ShakeAlert system would need to lay off employees, said Tom Heaton, a Caltech professor of engineering seismology.

If that funding went away, we would have to lay off a number of the developers and the development would basically cease, Heaton said. Im not sure how we could possibly recover from that.

UPDATES:

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with a new statement by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona).

10:45 a.m.: This article was updated with a comment by seismologist Lucy Jones and a statement from the Department of the Interior budget

This article was originally published at 10:05 a.m.
By the time President Trump sat down with the leaders of the worlds other industrialized powers at a former monastery here Friday, he already had met and spent time with each individually. The mood around the circular table was one of a family dinner, the White House said, with discussions ranging from terrorism and trade to Russia and climate change.

Trump had staked out many seemingly resolute positions on the issues during the course of his campaign, many of them at odds with those of longtime allies. But as the president has listened to his counterparts, his views were evolving, advisers conceded.



For the record: An earlier version of this story referred to the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement. It is the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He came here to learn and get smarter, Gary Cohn, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters Friday, at the end of the first of two days of meetings of the Group of Seven leaders.

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Trumps uniquely personalized style, which seems to value one-on-one relationships over policy or politics, has endured its most extensive test this during his inaugural eight-day international trip, which comes to a close Saturday. Though his first months in office have provided plenty of evidence for the power of personality in the presidents world view, the Trump touch was on full display over the past week from Riyadh to Rome, Brussels and Sicily, flavoring what Trump said to whom.

To a degree not seen in earlier presidents, Trump seems to define his progress chiefly in whether he likes foreign leaders he meets  and they him.

But in this debut trip, and in earlier encounters, personal contact only goes so far, and does not necessarily win substantial or long-term achievement.

Trump has repeatedly reversed himself on strongly stated positions after meeting personally with a foreign principal that was the target of his ire. He had dinner last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate, and suddenly China was no longer a currency manipulator, as Trump had said time and again during the campaign. He had a face-to-face session with NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg last month, and the alliance is no longer obsolete, Trump said, backtracking on an oft-stated campaign trope.

Trump ripped into Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over refugee policy in one of the first telephone calls of his presidency. But when the two met in New York earlier this month, they were suddenly bosom buddies, and Australia no longer is the subject of Trump wrath.

The refugee deal between the Obama administration and Australia, Trump said, was still ridiculous, but we have a very good relationship and Im very proud of the relationship.

Trump seems to think his assessment of world leaders is the most important thing, even of those who have an unsavory history or record. Making a fresh start, by his reckoning, will ultimately achieve more than if he followed a conventional path that might, for example, factor the other nations human rights abuses into the equation. Witness his professed bonds with Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egypts Abdel Fattah Sisi and Xi.

Well, the presidents quite a communicator, his secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said when asked to assess the Trump style. Which shouldnt surprise you.

Trump has touted his flexibility as an asset, acknowledging that his views can quickly adapt to changing circumstances. Yet thats just what some foreign policy analysts are concerned about.

What weve seen is a desire to please, and to end meetings on a positive note, said Richard Nephew, who served in the State Department during George W. Bushs administration and on the National Security Council under former President Obama.

My worry is that translates into making promises that seem like a good idea at the time, which are both expedient [and] also lead to everybody smiling when you walk out of a room, but in the end are either difficult to reconcile or directly contrary to what our interests might be.

Presidential historian Timothy Naftali described Trump as a chief executive who operates according to emotional temperament rather than experiential judgment.

He is more publicly temperamental than his predecessors, Naftali said, and less likely to give rational explanations to his policies. This is a president who is unwilling to fully explain his reasoning.

But aides say Trumps approach was successful for him in business and is already translating to the presidency. They argue that improved personal relationships between Trump and foreign counterparts  primarily those in the Middle East, for now  have shown great promise for the U.S.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had such a toxic relationship with President Obama that in 2015 he delivered an unprecedented address to Congress, at Republicans invitation, expressing opposition to Obamas top diplomatic priority, a six-nation nuclear pact with Iran. Trump this week called him Benji, and expressed hope he might take major strides in pursuit of a Mideast peace deal.

Obama had an uneven relationship with Saudi Arabia, grounded in their differences over the Iran deal, human rights and Saudi military entanglements in Yemen. But Trump over the past week lavished praise on the very wise King Salman and signed a multibillion-dollar weapon deal, which will help arm the kingdom in its punishing fight against Houthi militants in Yemen. The topic of human rights did not come up, at least publicly.

Ford M. Fraker, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia late in George W. Bushs presidency and until just before Obamas first trip there in 2009, said Obama should have invested more time to develop a personal rapport with Saudi rulers: Talk about faith, your families, whats important in your life, and not show up like the lawyer with a check-list of things that you want to achieve.

If the mutual likes made Trumps days in Saudi Arabia and Israel something of a lovefest  the Saudis welcomed Trump as if he, too, were royalty, and Netanyahu beamed almost adoringly at his side throughout  Trumps reception has been notably icier in Europe. That reflects not just the concerns of leaders there about Trumps policies and unpredictability, but also their own domestic political pressures to keep distant from the unpopular American president.

The risk for European politicians is the closer they get to the Trump administration, and to the Trump administrations agenda, the greater the risk of some out-of-left-field shift in U.S. policy, leaving them out on a limb, said Jeffrey Rathke, deputy director of the Europe program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

And if the Europeans kept a certain distance, Trump returned the favor. While he said in the Middle East that he was not there to lecture, lecture he did in Brussels to the U.S. allies who are members of NATO. He demanded they spend more on defense and do more in the fight against the Islamic State and declined to clearly pledge to abide by NATOs mutual defense tenet.

World leaders quickly are adapting to Trumps style. Many, through their embassies in Washington or with special envoys, are keen to make contact directly with Trump, or at least those very close to him  like daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner  even when that means sidestepping the usual conduits at the State Department.

Mexico, which Trump routinely maligned during the campaign, feels it got something of a reprieve by staking out a personal relationship, in this case that of Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray with Kushner.

But the trump card is getting close to Trump himself.

The president was on the verge of announcing he would pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement  until he received phone calls from Mexicos President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. By that days end, the White House announced that instead the president would be negotiating with the two nations on a new trade deal.

Memoli reported from Taormina and Wilkinson from Washington.

michael.memoli@latimes.com and tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

Twitter: @mikememolit, @TracyKWilkinson

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Everyones a winner! Or what to take away from that special congressional race in Montana
It is just past midnight, rain clouds stalking a full moon, and Julie Keene is out on a muddy riverbank in thigh-high rubber boots and a camouflage jacket, a headlamp strapped over her hair.

As she wrestles with an oversize fishing net, Keene tells how she went from rags to riches, and thats not a story many fishermen tell.

Just a few years ago, the sardine factory in her hometown of Lubec had closed, and Keene was scrounging for a living digging clams and gathering periwinkles from the beach.

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We were so damn poor we were on food stamps, Keene said.

Then came what for Maine was the equivalent of a gold rush. It was slimy, squirmy baby eels  in such demand in Asian markets that they were suddenly more profitable than even the beloved Maine lobster.

One memorable night in 2012 when the baby eel were running strong, Keene was paid $36,000  in cash  for her catch.

I almost threw up. I felt like I had robbed a bank. I couldnt grasp the concept of that much money, Keene recalled.

The eel rush allowed Keene, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, to buy a small farm, a tractor and a truck. She even started a retirement account.

Julie Keene is a longtime elver fisherman, a person who fishes for American glass eels, along the Union River, in Ellsworth, Maine. She checks her nets at 11:30 p.m., when the tide is high and the eels are swimming upstream. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Government regulators have since stepped in to slow the fishing frenzy, but with American glass eels fetching $1,200 a pound and up, federal and state authorities have launched a wide-ranging criminal investigation to halt what has become a multimillion-dollar international smuggling industry that is threatening the survival of the much-maligned species.

Eleven people have pleaded guilty in Maine and South Carolina since last year to illegally trafficking in baby eels, and two more are awaiting trial.

Skyrocketing prices for juvenile American eels in Asia have led to a surge in poaching and trafficking in this unique species, threatening to wipe it out in the rivers of the Northeast, Dan Ashe, then director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said when the case was announced in October.

Europe has had serious problems. The eel population has declined by 90% across the continent over the last 30 years, and with the fish now considered critically endangered there, exports to Asia have been banned.

In the United States, the American eel was at very high risk of extinction in the wild as of 2014, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

U.S. officials have stopped short of declaring the American eel endangered, noting in 2015 that harvest quotas adopted after the initial eel rush have reduced stressors on the species.

But conservationists say there is significant cause for concern.

Eels are in a massive crisis, said Andrew Kerr, chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group, a British-based organization dedicated to the protection of the European eel, which is closely related to the American eel.

American glass eels are highly sought for their sale to Asian countries, especially China. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

It doesnt have the pandas beauty or the tigers emotional status. The only people who care about eel are those who want to enjoy eating it, he said.

In addition to overfishing, dams are also contributing to the decline of the species, blocking eels paths both upriver to grow and downriver to spawn.

Only Maine and South Carolina now permit fishing of glass eels, or elvers, as the young ones are called. A total of 425 people in Maine have licenses, and the states total take is restricted to 9,600 pounds, less than half of what was fished in 2012. But federal authorities say there is evidence that fishermen from other states are bringing illegal catches to Maine in an attempt to skirt federal regulations.

Disputes between fishermen and environmental regulators are an eternal feature of life in Maine, as regular as the ocean tides, but the conflict over the eel is especially impassioned because the prices are so astronomical and the supply of baby eels so seemingly plentiful.

I know fishermen are always complaining that the government is trying to take a piece of everything, but in this case, with eels, it is absolutely insane how many eels there are. Maybe trillions, said Henry McVane, 25, whose family has been fishing in the Portland area for three centuries.

Henry McVane, age 25, leaves the sales point for eels in Portland, Maine. Eels are selling for about $1,200 per pound this year. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

This river is quivering with eels. So many it is like something biblical, said Keene, 57, whose speech alternates between salty expletives and great bursts of sobbing emotion. She still fishes eel, but is allowed only 44 pounds a year, which earns her about $50,000 before expenses  nothing like what she was making before.

We could lift our families out of poverty if only the government would let us, she said.

Anguilla rostrata, the American eel, has an unusual migration pattern  opposite that of trout and salmon  in that it is born in deep water, the North Atlantics Sargasso Sea, then migrates to freshwater ponds along the East Coast, where it spends as long as 20 years before it reaches sexual maturity. The adults then return to the ocean to spawn and die, and their young migrate back to fresh water.

Elvers are unimpressive creatures that look like a cross between a translucent rice noodle and a guppy with beady little black eyes. They command high prices because they can be exported cheaply to fish farms in China, where in a few months they will grow to half a pound each, large enough to market as food. From there they are resold to Japan, where they are enjoyed grilled, with a brushing of sweet soy sauce.

Nobody in Maine eats eel, said Darrell Young, co-director of the Maine Elver Fishermen Assn. I used to see them when I was out trout fishing. I was scared of them because they look like snakes.

Until the early 1990s, there were few laws restricting the catch of baby eels.

Henry McVane, 25, fishes for eels in a river near his home in Scarborough, Maine. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

It was like going out and catching mosquitoes. Nobody gave a hoot, said William Sheldon, one of the fishermen now under indictment on allegations of eel trafficking. Sheldon, 71, is revered as the father of Maines modern eel trade.

Fresh out of college in the 1970s, Sheldon was working for the Maine Department of Marine Resources when a letter arrived from Tokyo inquiring about the availability of baby eel in Maine. His boss asked him to investigate. He ended up writing a series of articles and a book about how to find and catch elvers.

Sheldon left his state job shortly afterward to go into business. At first he didnt bother with elvers  the prices werent very high back then because too many died in transit to Asia  and he instead bought a lobster boat. After that boat capsized, leaving him broke, he turned to elvers. He and a partner would catch the first run in Florida in January, moving up the coast state by state as the weather warmed.

We were gypsy eelers. We lived in motels, said Sheldon. He and his partners worked quietly, fearful of attracting competitors, but as prices rose, others caught on, including Keene.

Keene remembers finding a monograph written by Sheldon in the reading room of the Portland Public Library in the 1990s. I couldnt check it out, so I copied it and took it home. Then I studied, she said.

What was appealing about eels was you didnt need to risk your life on the open seas. You didnt even need a boat. You needed knowledge about where and when to put down your net  where the river meets the sea, on the dark spring nights when the rising tides sweep in a fresh crop of baby eel from the ocean. Eel fishing attracted aging fishermen too old to go out to sea, but too poor to retire.

Darrell Young, is a Maine fisherman. After he has reached his quota on American glass eels, he fishes for alewives in the same river where the eels are. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

As aquaculture techniques in Asia improved, fishing for elvers became more profitable. The business grew as Chinese companies took over and started importing the babies  needed because eel require the pressure of the deep sea to breed, and cannot be bred in captivity. Then in 2010, Europe banned the export of glass eels, boosting demand for American eels. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami further disrupted Japans own supply.

In 2012, prices soared to $2,600 a pound, and the rush was on. On Ellsworths Union River, one of the best locations in Maine to catch elvers, fishermen stood so close to one another on the riverbanks that they had to dip their nets in synchronization.

In one incident in 2013, state game wardens tried to seize the gear of a group of fishermen from the Passamaquoddy tribe, but were quickly surrounded by dozens of allies of the fishermen, many of them armed, and had to withdraw.

It was a bit of a Wild West scenario. Everybody was carrying guns, said Patrick Keliher, Maines state commissioner of marine resources. People who were making $20,000 a year were suddenly making $500,000.

Keliher said the strict quotas helped keep the industry viable. They are lucky they have a quota at all. By strictly regulating the market, they saved the fishery.

William Sheldon, 71, is revered as the father of Maines modern eel trade. (Barbara Demick / Los Angeles Times)

Fishermen no longer get paid in cash. When they sell, they present the dealer a swipe card, which records the size of their catch and prevents them from exceeding their quota.

Every single penny they make is recorded and taxed, said Sheldon, who despite the indictment is still running Maine Eel Trade & Aquaculture out of a warehouse a few blocks from the Union River in Ellsworth.

On a recent day, fishermen were bringing in their elvers swimming in buckets. Sheldon poured them into a net to drain the water and then carefully turned each net upside down and inside out over a metal scale, so as not to miss a single eel.

The indictment against Sheldon alleges that he bought baby eels that were illegally fished in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia and North Carolina and falsified records to make it appear they were legal. He is also charged with buying illegal eels from an undercover federal agent. If convicted, he faces up to 35 years in jail.

Sheldon finds the whole case perplexing.

I could very well end up spending the rest of my life in jail, he said. Even my wife says, Gee, Bill, its only eels.

barbara.demick@latimes.com

Twitter: @BarbaraDemick
After he was accused of physically attacking a reporter, Greg Gianforte had some very visible defenders while he went invisible for election day Thursday.

The Republican candidate for Montanas open congressional seat canceled his national TV appearances after he was charged with misdemeanor assault on suspicion of body-slamming a national reporter for the Guardian at his campaign headquarters in Bozeman.

Audio of the apparent attack went viral and Montanas largest newspapers rescinded their endorsements less than 24 hours before polls were set to close Thursday night in Gianfortes race against Democrat Rob Quist, who had not commented on the incident.

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House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) called on Gianforte to apologize, saying: Theres no time where a physical altercation should occur with the press or just between human beings.

Yet Gianforte had plenty of prominent allies who either blew off or strongly hinted justification for Gianfortes alleged assault on a journalist, Ben Jacobs, who had asked him about healthcare policy.

Its not appropriate behavior. Unless the reporter deserved it, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) said, according to a tweet by the Associated Press Mary Clare Jalonick.

Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, has been a subject of unflattering stories written by Jacobs, and was among those who turned to Twitter to share his opinion.

Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk, Bozell wrote. Im not surprised he got smacked.

What kind of a wuss files charges over broken glasses? tweeted Derek Hunter, a contributing editor at the Daily Caller. Someone who wants to influence an outcome, thats who. #JournalismIsDead

Laura Ingraham, editor in chief of LifeZette, a conservative publication, challenged Jacobs manhood for calling the police on Gianforte.

Politicians always need to keep their cool. But what would most Montana men do if body slammed for no reason by another man? Ingraham tweeted. Did anyone get his lunch money stolen today and then run to tell the recess monitor?

Popular radio host Rush Limbaugh took a similar route.

I must join the chorus of people condemning what happened out there, Limbaugh said on his show. This manly, obviously studly Republican candidate in Montana took the occasion to beat up a pajama-clad journalist, a Pajama Boy journalist out there.

In a statement Wednesday, Gianfortes campaign initially painted Jacobs as a liberal aggressor who accidentally sent himself tumbling to the ground after Gianforte grabbed Jacobs phone and Jacobs grabbed Gianfortes wrist. (Jacobs later called the campaigns account untrue.)

But it turned out the incident was witnessed by a Fox News crew, who soon provided a far more violent account of events. Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna wrote of being stunned when Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground, adding that at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte.

Yet on Thursday, some conservatives, including Ingraham, tried to poke holes in Acunas account and alleged that the Fox News journalist was changing her story. (Acuna wasnt.)

Later Thursday, some Fox News commentators offered justifications for Gianfortes behavior in on-air appearances.

Apparently this snowflake reporter invaded Gianfortes safe space, and we have a saying up there: You mess around, you mess around, you might not be around, former Navy SEAL Robert J. ONeill said on Fox News Specialists show, complaining about journalists ambush tactics.

Im not condoning the body-slam, said ONeill, who took part in the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. But he quickly added: I think its kind of funny, based on my history.... Youll get the bulls horns in Montana.

One of the shows contributors, Rachel Campos-Duffy, added of Jacobs: This guy was not a reporter looking for a fair story. He was obviously doing a takedown on him ... and he got a little bit of Montana justice.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

@mattdpearce
Plenty of reasonable people believe that the United States should put its own strategic interests above concerns about human rights when it comes to foreign policy. To them, its simply a matter of being realistic.

But even those who believe the U.S. should be less critical of other countries human-rights records wouldnt go so far as to praise a brutal strongman for behaving badly.

Yet thats exactly what Donald Trump appears to have done when he spoke on the phone in April with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. According to a copy of Trumps comments circulated by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, the president praised Duterte for doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem. Then he repeated it: A great job.

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Trumps comments are deplorable. As everyone who has been paying even the slightest attention to events in the Philippines knows, Dutertes government has sanctioned extrajudicial attacks as a solution to the nations drug problems, leading to the brutal killings of thousands of suspected dealers. Hes not doing a great job  hes a thug, and his policies ought to be condemned, as human rights groups around the world have done.

But heres another thing about Trumps comments: Theyre also weird. Our 45th president is such a strange, inarticulate, lazy speaker that his words often raise as many questions as they answer. For instance: Can we really be certain that Trump intended to praise Duterte for encouraging the killing of drug suspects? Or could the president have just been babbling, saying whatever came into his head?

Trumps platitudes and tossed-off testimonials can be reckless, sending policy signals that the president never intended to send.

If so, it would hardly be the first time for this president. Sometimes he seems to have no understanding of the topic hes discussing; at other times, he seems to be filling space in a conversation or falling back on a kind of flattering salesmans patter that doesnt require thought.

This is not meant to let him off the hook. What a president says matters very much; the world is parsing and considering his every word in a way that audiences dont do on, say, The Howard Stern Show or The Apprentice.

But the inarticulate emptiness of Trumps overused filler words sometimes suggests that theres not a lot of thought behind them. His assertion that Duterte was doing a great job and an unbelievable job was familiar in tone to his bizarre comment to leaders of several Persian Gulf countries earlier this week that he would sell them lots of beautiful military equipment. What did that mean? In what sense are tanks, helicopters and missile defense systems beautiful? Was Trump trying to express something, or was he just adding meaningless adjectives?

Or his recent comments in the guest book at Yad Vashem in Israel saying it was so amazing to visit there with all of my friends. Amazing? Is that the most fitting word he could come up with for a Holocaust museum?

Actually, amazing is a generic word for Trump (like great or beautiful); he has used it to describe Infowars Alex Jones, Frederick Douglass, the Clintons, his wife, Melania, and now, Yad Vashem, to name just a few things. But when he used it at Yad Vashem, the result was a guest book comment that doesnt communicate what he no doubt hoped to communicate.

Its hardly news that Trump speaks in vague, woolly language, and that everything to him is great or fantastic or beautiful or amazing, except when its sad because its been done by a loser. During the campaign, a research team at Carnegie Mellon University concluded that Trumps grammar in speeches was just below a sixth-grade level, and his vocabulary was in line with a seventh-graders.

He is who he is. He is neither Lincoln nor Obama. Whats more, his imprecise language, grade-school syntax and general inarticulateness have undoubtedly benefited him at times; they probably helped him get elected. But in a president, they are depressing. Dont most of us want a president who can express our fears and aspirations better than we do?

And worse yet, Trumps platitudes and tossed-off testimonials can be reckless, sending policy signals that the president never intended to send. His supporters may shrug it off because they dont take him literally, but the Dutertes and the Putins and the Kim Jong-Uns are listening closely.

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Europe, the last leg of President Trumps first foray into international diplomacy, was supposed to be both a learning experience and an exercise in fence-mending with longstanding American allies disconcerted by his campaign mantra of America First.

But Trump seems to have been little moved by his conversations with European leaders at NATO headquarters in Brussels and the G-7 summit in Taormina, Sicily  and even at the Vatican, where he had what he called a fantastic meeting with Pope Francis. And as for fence-mending, the president did little to dispel concern about his commitment to the NATO alliance  which he once called obsolete  or to demonstrate that he is on the same page as Americas European (and Canadian) allies when it comes to immigration or even terrorism. He also refused to join the rest of the G-7 leaders in committing to the Paris agreement on climate change.

The trip probably ranks as a disappointment to European leaders who had hoped that Trump would use his visit to repudiate convincingly some of the extreme positions he adopted during last years campaign. These include not only his criticism of NATO but also a seeming rejection of the European Union. (Trump praised the referendum in which voters in the United Kingdom chose to leave the EU.)

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European leaders were probably bemused by Trumps suggestion that the NATO of the future must focus on terrorism and immigration.

What NATO allies especially were hoping to hear from Trump last week was an explicit endorsement of Article 5 of the treaty that created the alliance in 1949. It says that an armed attack against one NATO state will be considered an attack against all, and that every member will assist the party or parties so attacked.

On Thursday Trump had the ideal opportunity to make such a statement when he spoke at the dedication of NATOs new headquarters in Brussels. Standing near a remnant of the World Trade Center that will serve as a memorial to the victims of 9/11, Trump noted that Americas NATO allies responded swiftly and decisively, invoking for the first time in its history the Article 5 collective defense commitments.

But that passing reference to Article 5 fell short of the explicit reaffirmation that many NATO nations  particularly newer members that used to be part of the Soviet bloc  had hoped for. They had to content themselves with a statement by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to reporters that of course we support Article 5.

Instead of emphasizing solidarity with NATO allies, Trump focused in his speech on the failure of many NATO states to spend at least 2% of their Gross Domestic Product on defense, a benchmark reaffirmed by the alliance in 2014. He complained that 23 of the 28 NATO countries are still below the 2% mark and that this is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. The hectoring tone was inappropriate to the occasion, and Trump ignored the increases many countries have made in their defense budgets.

Russia, the subject of so much controversy for Trump at home, also shadowed his European tour. The president acknowledged in his speech at NATO headquarters that the alliance must focus on threats from Russia. But Gary Cohn, his chief economic adviser, caused controversy when he seemed to suggest that Trump was reconsidering economic sanctions against the country. (Cohn later said the administration was not planning to lower sanctions and might even toughen them.) After meeting with Trump, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council and a harsh critic of Vladimir Putin, said he wasnt 100% sure that he and Trump had a common opinion about Russia.

Finally, Trump emphasized concerted action against terror, but European leaders were probably bemused by his suggestion that the NATO of the future must focus on terrorism and immigration. The link between immigration and terrorism was a staple of Trump campaign rhetoric, but in Europe horrific acts of political violence often have been committed by native-born terrorists, such as the suicide bomber in Manchester, England.

Travel is supposed to be broadening. But Trump returns to the U.S. with what still seems to be a narrow view of Americas responsibilities to its allies and to the environment.

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UPDATES:

10:35 a.m. May 27: This editorial was updated to reflect the final G-7 communique.
Could anyone have dreamed up a more complex pop icon and trans heroine than Chelsea Manning? The former Army intelligence analyst, born Bradley Manning, who turned over a trove of classified files to WikiLeaks downloaded while she was stationed in an Iraq war zone, came out as a trans woman upon being sentenced to a 35-year prison term for violating the Espionage Act. President Obama commuted 28 years of that sentence, and last week Manning emerged from Ft. Leavenworth military prison with a Twitter following of 220,000 and a here I am photo thats gone viral.

Mannings treatment as a prisoner, which a U.N. investigator pronounced cruel, inhuman, and degrading, was emblematic of the brutal conditions trans men and women face in the penal system. She was held in solitary confinement for nine months awaiting trial and endured another stint in solitary as a disciplinary measure for a suicide attempt. Contrary to the recommendations of military doctors, she was incarcerated in a mens facility and at first denied hormone therapy and reassignment surgery.

Her brave and eloquent appeals for humane treatment caught the attention of many in the trans community, and of progressives in general. She has inspired an opera, several stage plays and an upcoming documentary thats being shopped at Cannes. For years, Free Chelsea signs appeared regularly at gay pride parades. To call Manning a cause celebre would be an understatement.

To label [Manning] a heroic whistle-blower is to ignore much about her case.

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But the Free Chelsea movement has been mainly an effort to vindicate her as a whistle-blower, and this gives me pause. Had Manning hand-selected data to leak to Julian Assanges disruptive website, I could see her as a whistle-blower. But she blew something much larger than a whistle: more than 700,000 files, including 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, from which no innocent names were redacted. Before and after she carried out the data dump she was in a highly unstable emotional state: in the throes of a romantic breakup, gender dysphoria, a recent incident of self-harm, and a physical altercation with another intelligence analyst that resulted in a demotion in Mannings rank. To her credit, Manning intelligently expresses her strong feelings about the American military atrocities she wanted exposed. But to label her a heroic whistle-blower is to ignore much about this case.

It also risks adding to the widespread discrimination trans people face. At the heart of transphobia is an irrational fear that we arent to be trusted. It exposes us to violence and hurts us with employers, landlords, shopkeepers  you name it. Until recently Hollywood presented trans women exclusively as criminals, spies and figures of intrigue, always scheming and in disguise. Think of films such as Silence of the Lambs, Dressed to Kill and The Crying Game.

Manning, having committed the largest intelligence breach in American history, perfectly and unfortunately fits this script. As trans writer Katherine Cross put it, We had to prepare for the fact that the face of the ultimate civic betrayal would be a trans face.

For Manning personally, fame would seem to be the last thing she needs right now. Returning to freedom is precarious for any former inmate, let alone someone who began a gender transition and twice attempted suicide behind bars. Shes going to need food, and she has debts that she has to pay off, Chase Strangio, Mannings ACLU attorney, told Rolling Stone, as he rattled off a list of life skills shell need to learn: paying rent, cooking, finding a doctor, a community of friends and a place to do laundry. She will also need protection; who knows how many will target her  beginning with President Trump, who tweeted in January: Ungrateful TRAITOR Chelsea Manning, who should never have been released from prison.

If Manning chooses to take up the mantle of celebrity trans role model  there are already reports of a Vogue fashion spread in the works  I hope she first spends some time getting to know our community, which is now her community. This is something Caitlyn Jenner never did. Instead Jenner merely anointed herself a trans spokesperson and then conducted her life as a walking publicity stunt. Jenner has proven herself a danger to trans men and women, embracing Sen. Ted Cruz (who wants to eradicate us), Trump (who she said would be good for womens issues) and, at least for a while, advocating for traditional marriage because she didnt get marriage equality.

To a certain extent, Chelsea Manning cant control her fame. But to a certain extent, she can. Even though our media-crazed society sends the message that a life without fame isnt worth living (23 suicides of former reality TV stars since 2004 attest to this), there are some who were once front-page fodder but didnt try to parlay it into a full-time gig or monetize it. Anita Hill is one such person; Monica Lewinsky is another.

Chelsea, if youre reading this, I wish for you a long healthy life with many chapters to come. That would make you my role model.

Diana Goetsch is a poet and the author of the blog Life in Transition on the American Scholar website from 2015 to 2016.

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While President Trump was in Europe, some judges  he might call them so-called judges  on a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., refused to reinstate the second version of his executive order temporarily limiting entry to the United States from a handful of majority-Muslim countries.

The decision may be poetic justice for a president who as a candidate stupidly proposed to ban all members of the Muslim faith from entering the United States. But its less impressive as actual justice.

Lets be clear: As policy, its hard to defend the revised order. Although its less sweeping than the original version that caused chaos in airports in January by stranding travelers, its utility has been questioned by national security experts and it seems designed primarily to fulfill Trumps promise to impose extreme vetting on people his base regards as potential terrorists.

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But the question for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals wasnt whether the order was good policy but whether it raised serious enough constitutional questions that it should remain unenforced. On that question, 10 of 13 judges ruled against the administration.

Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote that the order in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination and thus likely violates the 1st Amendments ban on an establishment of religion.

Gregorys opinion is eloquent but unpersuasive. Reading it reminded me that among the many sins for which Trump will have to answer will be stupid utterances and initiatives that led judges to punish him with poorly reasoned rulings.

Gregorys ruling essentially hangs on a familiar, and superficially plausible, argument: that the order is a sanitized version of Trumps notorious proposal in December 2015 for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

In addition to the shutdown proposal, Gregory cites comments by Trump in interviews that I think Islam hates us and that America cant allow people coming into the country who have this hatred.

These and other statements, Gregory concludes, are proof of anti-Muslim sentiment on Trumps part. It was to effectuate that prejudice, not to protect national security, that the executive order was supposedly issued. That, the judge suggests, indicates bad faith, and Gregory notes that in a 2015 case Justice Anthony Kennedy indicated that courts may look beyond a facially legitimate exercise of the presidents immigration authority to detect an impermissible motive.

The courts other evidence that the order was a pretext for religious bias is that some national security experts disputed the administrations decision as to which countries whose residents it would temporarily prevent from coming to the United States. Gregory cites a friend-of-the-court brief by former national security officials that notes that no American had died as the result of a terrorist attack by a citizen of one of the six nations on the list in the last 40 years. This, Gregory said, proved that  any national security justification for [the executive order] was secondary to its primary religious purpose.

Two problems here:

First, you can always find former officials who will dispute the wisdom of a particular administrations policy when it comes to immigration or anything else. Its possible that Trumps executive order is stupid and ineffective and still within his authority  and still not a pretext for religious bias.

Second, the court is wrong, I think, in seeing Trumps call for a temporary shutdown of Muslim immigration as a manifestation of religious hatred rather than an impulsive (and idiotic) exercise in what lawyers call over-inclusiveness.

The terrorists Trump was worried about were Muslims, so he decided to err on the safe side and propose to ban all Muslims. It was as if a politician in Britain in the 1970s or 1980s, when the IRA was committing horrific terrorist attacks there, proposed a temporary shutdown on Irishmen entering the UK. Also idiotic, but evidence of anti-Irish animus?

After Trump was rightly savaged for his absurd Muslim ban, he backed down and embraced a more targeted approach. He backed down again after the courts ruled against the original version of his executive order, removing, for example, language that seemed to provide a preference for Christian refugees. But the lesson of the 4th Circuit decision is that any official action he takes in the area of immigration will be judged on the basis of his most extreme campaign rhetoric.

Thats a really troubling legal standard. In his dissenting opinion, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer pithily explains why:

Because of their nature, campaign statements are unbounded resources by which to find intent of various kinds. They are often shorthand for larger ideas; they are explained, modified, retracted and amplified as they are repeated and as new circumstances and arguments arise. And they are often ambiguous. A court applying the majoritys new rule could thus have free rein to select whichever expression of a candidates developing ideas best supports its desired conclusion.

Moreover, opening the door to the use of campaign statements to inform the text of later executive orders has no rational limit. If a court, dredging through the myriad remarks of a campaign, fails to find material to produce the desired outcome, what stops it from probing deeper to find statements from a previous campaign, or from a previous business conference, or from college?

Or, the judge might have added, from an episode of The Apprentice?

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To the editor: Freeways dont need names. We know their numbers. And just in case it were a good idea, we have heroes to emulate. (Obama Freeway in L.A. looks like its going to happen, despite the Obamajam jokes, May 16)

President Obama, his legacy likely to be dismal, may go down the same path as President Nixon: a freeway named and after a few short years, snatched away. I am not a fan of the last eight years and, regardless, will continue to know my home to be accessed from an exit on the 134 Freeway.

I wrote to state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) in opposition to his silly idea to rename part of the 134 between Glendale and Pasadena the President Barack H. Obama Freeway. I did not receive a response.

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In this polarized political environment, why not just leave well enough alone?

Jan Wader, Pasadena

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To the editor: Once again, our world is shocked by senseless acts of violence toward innocents with the sole intention of instilling fear. In identifying ways to reduce the number of terrorists and inhibit their activities, mainstream thought seems to be more arms and munitions. (The Manchester bombing and Trumps dubious Middle Eastern strategy, editorial, May 23)

Why not spend our money on a well studied method: full access to education and birth control for women and girls in countries that incubate terrorism?

Educated women and girls who have a larger view of the world and their place in it and may not fall under the domineering patriarchal forces that dictate their roles as women. Educated women and girls with access to birth control can decide when or if to have a family.

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President Trump wants to cut funding for womens education and access to healthcare in these developing nations. One only has to look to Malala Yousafzai for inspiration and validation of this method.

Suzanne Beck, Long Beach

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To the editor: Sixteen years ago, on June 1, 2001, a tragedy very similar to the attack in Manchester happened in Israel, when a Hamas suicide bomber murdered 21 young Israelis at a beachfront disco in Tel Aviv.

This barbaric event and many other similar ones in Israel were faced with a muted reaction in the world. Instead of sympathizing with the victims, various groups paid more attention to the killers motives and their presumed misery that could justify killing of innocent people. As the world kept quiet and defended the murderers, suicide bombing and terrorism by other radical Islamists became widespread in the Western world.

There is a saying that what starts with the Jews doesnt end with the Jews. The world must understand that attacks on Israelis and Jews is the barometer for measuring intolerance and hatred, and those who justify killing of innocent people anywhere are complicit in these senseless murders.

Fariba Fischel Ghodsian, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Apparently Trump, our name-caller in chief, was stymied by how he should label terrorist attackers, including the child-slaughtering Manchester bomber. He said he couldnt call them monsters because they would like that name.

But thankfully he came up with the perfect solution. He would characterize these appalling murderers by the most damning epithet he could possibly imagine in his infantile, narcissistic universe: losers.

Boy, that really nails it. Mr. President, thanks for your leadership. Our children are watching. Now we know exactly how to explain the unthinkable to them.

Mary Nabours, Los Angeles

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Minsk, Belarus, May 26

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Azerbaijans Trade House in Belarus is contributing to diversification of trade between the countries, Azerbaijani Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said.

Mustafayev made the remarks during the opening of Azerbaijans Trade House in Minsk May 26.

Opening of Azerbaijans Trade House in Minsk is an important event that caused great interest among Belarusian entrepreneurs as its main goal is to promote the Made in Azerbaijan brand, promote export, expand and develop bilateral cooperation, Mustafayev said.

He added that the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Belarus increased by 33 percent in 2016 and by more than 40 percent in the first four months of 2017.

Today, the Azerbaijan-Belarus ties are at a high level, Mustafayev said. The friendly relations between the Azerbaijani and Belarusian presidents give those ties a powerful impetus. Azerbaijani and Belarusian people have sincere and friendly relations.

The minister said that the initiative to open the Trade House was put forward at the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Belarusian presidents in November 2016.

Great job was done, several visits were made, the Azerbaijani-Belarusian business forum was organized and a place for the location of Azerbaijans Trade House was chosen for such a short period, he added. As a result, today we have gathered for the opening ceremony of this Trade House.
To the editor: By far the most important resource possessed by the United States is not gold, petroleum or any other disposable commodity. It is the health and well-being of its people. (GOP health bill would raise deductibles, lessen coverage and leave 23 million more uninsured, analysis finds, May 24)

This is true not only for America, but for any nation. In recognition of that reality most of the developed world, if not all of it, provides healthcare coverage for its population under a variety of successful programs.

A healthy populace maintains a countrys strength, supports its economy and returns to the nation the value of that investment with its creativity. A healthy populace is not an option for a nation that desires to remain strong and be an active participant on the world stage. It is a necessity.

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President Obama understood that. Why our current president and the leaders in Congress do not is not only astounding, but disheartening as well.

Bruce Littman, MD, Porter Ranch

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To the editor: President Trump promised to renegotiate, abrogate or amend any number of existing agreements he deems unfavorable to Americans. When it comes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and insurance for millions of us, its slash and burn  or as Republicans call it, repeal and replace.

Remember he also promised that his replacement healthcare plan would provide cheaper, better coverage for everyone.

Surprised to be bitten by a snake? There was lots of preexisting evidence that he was a snake when voters brought him in.

Greg Gabriel, Aliso Viejo

..

To the editor: What is Trumpcare? There is no such thing, and The Times ought to report the truth about this.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of a proposal that will never be approved by the Senate or signed into law has been presented. More taxpayer money will be wasted as yet another study must be done when the Senate presents its replacement for the failing Obamacare. Then yet another study will be done when the two houses turn out the negotiated healthcare bill.

Then and only then will Trump get a chance to veto or approve the bill.

Tom Simmerman, Fullerton

..

To the editor: Republican legislators, please dont pass the American Health Care Act and kick millions of Americans off their insurance.

Each and every one of you has access to health insurance. Each and every one of you has plenty of money. Denying healthcare to millions of of people who lack your means is just plain cruel.

Cruelty has frequently been a tool of the ruling class, but not here. Not in America  at least not until now.

Bob Warnock, Los Angeles

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Sen. Kamala Harris says she hasnt considered running for president By Phil Willon U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Despite swirling speculation, Californias U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris said shes not giving any consideration to running for president in 2020. Harris was appearing at the annual Code Conference hosted by the tech news site Recode in Rancho Palos Verdes on Wednesday night when site co-founder Kara Swisher asked if she had eyes on the White House. Im not giving that any consideration. Ive got to stay focused, said Harris, a Democrat who was elected to the Senate in November after serving as Californias attorney general. After she won the seat vacated by former Sen. Barbara Boxer, Harris quickly gained a reputation as a potential presidential candidate in 2020. Harris took questions from Swisher alongside Laurene Powell Jobs, a philanthropist and the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Though she brushed off the presidential rumors, Harris urged Democrats to try harder to make convincing arguments on issues such as climate change instead of just criticizing those who disagree with them. She told the audience at the posh Terranea Resort where the conference is being held that it would be a mistake to dismiss the concerns of Americans who supported Trump in the November election. She said the issues that concern them  good jobs and the future of their families  are the concerns of all working-class Americans. There is a healthy number of people in our country who are feeling displaced, rightly, Harris said. I think we have to deal with that. Still, Harris dished out plenty of jabs at the Trump administration. She criticized Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions for resuscitating the war on drugs and told him to leave Grandmas medical marijuana alone. Harris also criticized the Trump administrations more hard-line immigration policies, and said she was concerned about allegations of collusion between Trumps campaign and the Russian government. These are serious times. These are not issues we can just sit around with a glass of Chardonnay debating and philosophizing about, Harris said. The decisions that are being made right now are impacting real human beings. Watch the entire interview: Facebook

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Trump wouldnt release his tax returns, so lawmakers move to make it mandatory for Californias primary By John Myers (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Legislation to require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns in order to gain a spot on Californias presidential primary ballot won passage in the state Senate on Wednesday, but only after a tense debate that largely centered on President Trump. Senate Bill 149 was approved on a strict party-line vote, 27-13. The bill now moves to the state Assembly, and was one of the last bills debated during a marathon session at the state Capitol to consider bills before a Friday deadline for action. The bill would require presidential candidates to file copies of their income tax returns with state elections officials for the five most recent taxable years. Failure to do so would mean their name wouldnt appear on Californias presidential primary ballot. The legislation was introduced in December, in the wake of Trumps refusal to disclose his tax returns during the 2016 campaign. The president has continued to reject calls for the information. Hes shaping international policy which could enrich himself, and the American public has no way to know, state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) said of Trump during Wednesday nights floor debate. This legislation will help make transparency great again. Republicans denounced the bill as another in a long line of efforts by Democrats in the Legislature to lash out at the election of Trump and the defeat of Hillary Clinton. I get it that some people hate Trump, state Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine) said. Weve got to move ahead. Weve got to get over it. Tensions flared after Anderson tried to amend the bill on the floor  first, to require statewide and legislative candidates to also release their tax returns, and then to require a birth certificate from candidates who want access to the states primary ballot. Both were rejected by Democrats. A legislative analysis of SB 149 said some legal scholars believe the plan, which would be the first of its kind in the nation, would pass muster with the U.S. Constitution. Nonetheless, the analysis concluded that it would probably be challenged in court if signed into law. Facebook

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California Senate moves forward with bill that would overhaul Los Angeles County MTA By Patrick McGreevy Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) proposed to revamp the Los Angeles County MTA. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The state Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would expand and reshape the agency that oversees mass transit in Los Angeles County. Opponents of the measure include Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the city and county of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. The bill by Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) was sent to the Assembly for consideration after squeaking by with a 22-11 vote in the Senate. The measure would expand the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board from 12 to 15 members. It would also reduce the number of county supervisors on the board from five to two, remove the appointment of two public members and increase Los Angeles City Council member appointments by the mayor from two to five. This will allow for proportional and fair representation, Mendoza told his colleagues, adding that the board currently is made up of haves and have-nots fighting to get their share. Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) opposed the measure because he said he saw it as Sacramento meddling in local policymaking. But Sen. Scott Wilk (R-Palmdale) supported SB 268. Too much power is concentrated in too few people, he said of the current board. Facebook

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Single-payer healthcare is popular with Californians  unless it raises their taxes By John Myers (Rich Pedoncelli / Associated Press) Almost two of every three Californians in a new statewide poll said they like the idea of a single-payer, government healthcare system, but far fewer support the idea if it includes a tax increase. The poll released Wednesday night by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 65% of adults surveyed support the creation of a single-payer state healthcare program to cover all of the states residents, and 56% of likely voters approved of the idea. Opinion was sharply divided between Democrats (75% support) and Republicans (66% oppose) who were surveyed. The single-payer proposal under consideration in the state Capitol, Senate Bill 562, assumes at least $50 billion in new taxes to fund the healthcare system. Asked about taxes, support drops to 42% of the adults surveyed and 43% of likely voters. While a majority of Democrats in the PPIC poll continued to support the idea if it means more taxes, support drops substantially among unaffiliated independent voters. The state Senate is expected to consider the single-payer bill before the end of the week. A legislative analysis put the estimated total cost of a new healthcare system that covers all Californians at $400 billion, while an analysis released on Wednesday by supporters provided a $331-billion estimate. The pending legislation by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) does not identify what taxes would be raised but makes the enactment of the plan contingent on a full funding proposal. Facebook

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Knowingly exposing others to HIV should no longer be a felony, state Senate says By Patrick McGreevy The Senate voted to no longer make it a felony for HIV-positive people to donate blood or semen without telling the blood bank they are infected. ( (Toby Talbot / Associated Press)) The state Senate on Wednesday voted to no longer make it a felony for someone infected with HIV to knowingly expose others to the disease by having unprotected sex without telling his or her partner about the infection. The crime would be downgraded to a misdemeanor, and the bill would also apply to people who donate blood or semen without telling the blood or semen bank that they have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, or have tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the precursor to AIDS. The measure, which next goes to the Assembly for consideration, was introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who said it is unfair to make HIV/AIDS the only communicable disease given such harsh treatment by prosecutors. These laws are irrational and discriminatory, Wiener told the Senate, adding that the current felony status is creating an incentive not to be tested, because if you dont know your status you cant be guilty of a felony. The measure was widely opposed by Republican lawmakers including Sen. Joel Anderson of San Diego. If you intentionally transmit something that is fundamentally life-threatening to the victim, you should be charged and go to jail, he said. Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Murrieta) said, My friends, its not a gay issue. Its a public health issue. We shouldnt allow someone to play Russian roulette with other peoples lives. Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), a physician, voted for the bill and argued that it undermines public health to imprison those with HIV under the current law. Facebook

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Hillary Clinton: I was the victim of a very broad assumption I was going to win By Seema Mehta Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that she has no plans to run for office again, but she plans to remain involved in civic life, particularly helping the Democrats efforts to regain control of the House in 2018. Im not going anywhere, Clinton said at the annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes. I have a big stake in what happens in this country. I am very unbowed and unbroken about what happened because I dont want it to happen to anybody else. I dont want it to happen to the values and the institutions I care about in America. And I think were at a really pivotal point, she said. And therefore Im going to keep writing and keep talking and keep supporting people who are on the front lines of the resistance. The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said she woke up on election day expecting to win. Clinton told the gathering that she was responsible for every decision the campaign made, though she did not believe they caused her surprise loss. She attributed that to several things, including alleged Russian interference in the election and weaponizing stolen information and fake news. She also pointed a finger at the Democrats for falling behind the GOP in using technology and data to target voters, the media for covering her e-mail controversy like it was Pearl Harbor, misogyny and the high expectations many had for her candidacy. I was the victim of a very broad assumption I was going to win, she said, adding that she always expected the race to be close. Trump responded on Twitter, saying that Clinton still refused to accept that she lost because she was a terrible candidate. Crooked Hillary Clinton now blames everybody but herself, refuses to say she was a terrible candidate. Hits Facebook & even Dems & DNC.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2017 Clinton, who has increasingly jabbed President Trump, including at last weeks commencement address at Wellesley College, blasted his reported plan to pull out of the Paris climate accord as really stupid because of the economic implications. She described his personality as impulsive and reactive. And she joked about his peculiar overnight tweet about constant negative press covfefe, saying she thought it was a hidden message to the Russians to laughter from the audience. Going forward, Clinton said that she believes that it was realistic for Democrats to retake the House in 2018, notably by focusing on Republican congressional districts she won  including seven in California. She sounded less optimistic about the Senate. Updated at 6:06 p.m.: This post was updated to add President Trumps response to Clintons remarks. This post was first published at 5:41 p.m. Facebook

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California lawmakers take aim again at establishing statewide rules for drones By Jazmine Ulloa A state senator from Santa Barbara is taking another shot at establishing statewide regulations for the use of drones after the budding industry thwarted her efforts to pass similar legislation last year. Senate Bill 347, introduced by Democratic Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, would limit disruptive drone use near private property and prohibit the weaponization and reckless operation of the unmanned aerial vehicles. It also would require pilots to obtain insurance and to license, register and mark the aircrafts per federal regulations. The bill moved out of the Senate on Wednesday with a 26-13 vote. It heads to the Assembly for consideration. Speaking on the Senate floor, Jackson urged support for what she called comprehensive drone legislation, saying California needs common-sense rules that provide certainty for everyone and keep the public safe. Washington is not going to be acting on this issue very soon, she said, citing a federal appeals court decision that this month found the Federal Aviation Administration doesnt have the authority to regulate the use of drones by hobbyists. Debate has raged in recent years over just where federal authority begins and ends. And Jacksons attempts at drone legislation last year were blocked amid opposition from lobbyists who argued against creating a patchwork of laws that varied by state. Under Jacksons new proposal, violations would be punishable by a fine of up to $250 or a misdemeanor, and the California Department of Transportation would be tasked with developing liability insurance requirements. It has the support of the California State Assn. of Counties, the League of California Cities and the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Assn, but it once again faces tough industry opposition. Facebook

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School districts would be prohibited from shaming students whose parents havent paid for school lunches By Patrick McGreevy Students eat lunch at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Los Angeles. (Christina House / For the Los Angeles Times) Students whose parents have not kept their school lunch bills current would no longer go through shaming that includes marking their hand so they cannot be served, under legislation approved Wednesday by the state Senate. The measure by Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) would require school districts to ensure that any student whose parent has unpaid school meal fees is not treated differently, or delayed or denied a nutritiously adequate meal. Hertzberg introduced the legislation after hearing of school districts taking lunch trays from students whose accounts were not current and throwing the food in the trash, embarrassing the students in front of their friends. No more shaming, Herzberg told his colleagues. Dont visit the failures of the parents on their kids. The measure passed on a 39-0 vote and was sent to the Assembly for consideration. Facebook

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Emilio Huerta, undaunted by 2016 loss, is back to challenge Rep. David Valadao By Sarah D. Wire (Sarah D. Wire / Los Angeles Times) Bakersfield lawyer Emilio Huerta came more than 13 percentage points short of winning Californias 21st Congressional District seat in 2016, but he plans to try again in 2018. Huerta, 59, blames his loss to Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) on inexperience and a rash of negative ads at the end of the campaign. We learned a lot in the last campaign. As a first-time candidate there was certainly a lot to learn and I think we did a good job, Huerta said Wednesday. The son of labor icon Dolores Huerta, he has worked for the United Farm Workers union  which his mother co-founded  throughout the Central Valley district. Huerta said Valadaos vote for the Republican healthcare plan shows hes ignoring Valley residents needs because it would end the expansion of the MediCal program, which many of the districts residents use for healthcare. Its going to be a pretty significant issue, he said. He is the first Democrat to announce a bid for the seat. Democrats are heartened by the fact that, while Valadao won the seat with 56.74% of the vote, the district has continued to trend Democratic in voter registration and chose Hillary Clinton for president with 54.72% of the vote. That tells me that there were die-hard Democrats, committed Democrats that vote, Democrats that were not convinced that my campaign should be supported and I think a lot of that has to do with me being a first-time candidate, Huerta said. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has made the seat a target for 2018. The majority-Latino district includes parts of Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties. Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats say Trump is going backwards if he pulls out of Paris climate pact By John Myers Gov. Jerry Brown warned Wednesday that a decision by President Trump to withdraw the United States from a 2015 global climate change agreement could be tragic, and vowed to keep Californias ambitious efforts in place and on track. Here we are, in 2017, going backwards, Brown said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. It cannot stand, its not right and California will do everything it can to not only stay the course, but to build more support  in other states, in other provinces, in other countries. The governor also criticized efforts to the president to dismantle climate change initiatives launched by former President Barack Obama. Trump is going against science. Hes going against reality, the governor said. We cant stand by and give aid and comfort to that. News that the president had either made the decision to pull the country out of the Paris Accord on climate change or was on the verge of doing so drew swift condemnation from California leaders. Brown and other top lawmakers attended the talks in late 2015 that resulted in the international agreement, and insisted on Wednesday that it would not hurt the states own efforts to sharply curtail greenhouse gas emissions. As with so many other matters, from human rights to healthcare, the Trump administration has continued to surrender our nations longstanding role as a global leader, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) said. Others pointed out that a decision to remove the United States from the agreement would leave it in rare company among other nations. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that such a decision by Trump would be more than just dumb + destructive. Brown, who leaves Friday for a weeklong visit to China to encourage more climate-change cooperation, predicted any decision to step away would suggest the countrys priorities arent clear. It sends a very muddled message, the governor said during an interview in his state Capitol office. Is the message [that] we like dirty cars and gas guzzlers? And were going to have a coal future? That cant happen. And Brown again suggested that Californias experience on the issue offers a road map for others. If we want to retain and enhance manufacturing, we have to do what California is doing, in clean energy and clean technology, he said. Thats the future of jobs, the future of sustainability. And we better get on board. And California will be right there with the best of them. Facebook

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This Orange County congressmans immigration town hall turned chaotic and led to three arrests By Sarah D. Wire The majority of calls into Rep. Lou Correas Orange County congressional office are about immigration worries and what the Trump administrations enforcement policies mean for Correas many Latino constituents. Theres a lot of fear in my district, he said. So the freshman Democrat has held seven town halls, all focused on immigration and explaining immigrants rights. Theyve been peaceful, with representatives from groups such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and the Mexican Consulate invited to help Correa answer questions. But as the crowd of about 100 people gathered at Santa Anas Delhi Center on Tuesday evening, Correa knew this time would be different. We had some people there, probably a dozen of them, that immediately had signs that were not complimentary to yours truly, he said. Two women arguing about immigration issues had already gotten into an altercation outside the town hall. They were cited for assault and battery, and barred by police from going inside. Correa told the crowd inside he would give a short presentation about immigration policy coming out of Washington and then have a question-and-answer session. About a dozen people were having none of it. Some of the most tense moments came when Correa started talking about green card holders who served in the U.S. military and have since been deported. Maam, Im trying to be courteous here, he said as a woman kept speaking over him. As soon as I started speaking, it became very clear they were not going to let me speak, Correa said Wednesday. They just got louder and louder. Video of the town hall posted on social media shows people in the crowd yelling Americans first and Illegals have no rights. Correa repeatedly asks them to let him speak. Are you guys going to cooperate, or am I going to have to ask you to leave? he said. About 15 minutes in, as some in the crowd continued to shout and their attention turned to berating a group of counter-protesters, Correa declared the meeting over. A handful of people circled around Correa as he tried to leave, yelling Shame, shame and You guys all want welfare. One womans voice can be heard repeatedly yelling Coward! Police emptied the room amid chants of USA. The crowd streamed into the parking lot, where confrontations quickly started between supporters of President Trump and others who appeared to be focused on Native American rights. Videos posted on social media show men shouting at one another, their faces so close their noses are practically touching. Police officers kept trying to separate the groups. (Warning: The video below includes language that some readers might find offensive.) Santa Ana Police Department spokesman Anthony Bertagna said a man struck a Trump supporter on the head with a pole bearing an anti-fascism flag. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Bertagna said. The man was brought to police headquarters, and a group of about 10 people followed along to protest, he said. Shortly after, the town hall peacefully resumed in a different room with a much smaller crowd, Correa said. Several California members of Congress have held similar immigration-specific town halls or workshops in the last few months as questions swirl about changes to federal immigration policies and enforcement. The purpose of the town halls is to let people know how to follow the law, let them know their legal rights and responsibilities, Correa said. Protesters have characterized it as teaching people who are in the country illegally how to avoid deportation and get federal benefits. Facebook

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California plan for 100% renewable energy by 2045 clears key hurdle By Liam Dillon California will receive all of its power from renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, by 2045 under legislation that passed the state Senate on Wednesday. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) touted his bill, Senate Bill 100, as the most ambitious program in the world. Clean energy is the future, De Leon said. SB 100 ensures that California leads into the future. The measure would also speed up the states goal of reaching 50% renewable energy, changing the deadline from 2030 to 2026. SB 100 passed over objections from Republican senators. Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Temecula) criticized the measure as government getting ahead of technological capacity. What if we cant make that mandate that were putting into law today? Stone said. What its going to do is drive up electricity bills for our businesses. De Leons bill now moves to the Assembly. Facebook

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A new proposal on Californias cap-and-trade program emerges as vote is delayed By Chris Megerian Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced), left. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) A coalition of business-friendly Democrats is detailing their own ideas for cap and trade, a centerpiece of Californias fight against global warming, the latest bid in a crowded field of efforts to extend the program. Cap and trade requires polluting companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions, and lawmakers have been considering a push from Gov. Jerry Brown to extend the program beyond 2020. The new plan would force the program to sunset in 2025, earlier than previous proposals from other lawmakers. It would also direct revenue from the program toward improving air quality and helping agricultural and trucking companies lower their emissions by replacing aging equipment. The plan is also aimed at keeping costs down for industries regulated by cap and trade, allowing them to support green projects known as offsets instead of reducing their own emissions. California must continue to lead the world by implementing a strong climate policy that ensures both a healthy environment for future Californians and growth in all sectors of our economy, Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) said in a statement. The pro-business Democrats plan is the fourth such effort announced by various factions within the states ruling Democratic Party this year with two others emerging from the Assembly and one from the Senate. The plans offer varying degrees of changes to the existing program, either to prioritize pollution reductions in disadvantaged communities or eliminate offsets. Republican lawmakers also have said they want to be part of the cap-and-trade debate. Brown has pushed for a two-thirds supermajority vote of the Legislature to extend the program by the state budget deadline next month. But Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) said at a Wednesday news conference that that wasnt going to happen. Cap-and-trade is a very complex issue, De Leon said. Its very arcane. We want to make sure we get it right. De Leon said he hoped for a deal by the end of the year. Read More Facebook

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Senate fails to back bill to delay the Aliso Canyon reopening, but lawmaker will try again Facebook

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California state Senate advances bill to ban smoking and use of e-cigarettes in government housing By Patrick McGreevy Californians would no longer be able to use tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, in public housing and within 25 of those buildings under a measure approved Tuesday by the state Assembly. Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) said the measure builds on a smoking ban approved last year for federal public housing projects by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition to applying the smoking ban to state housing, expansion to include e-cigarettes makes sure the law cover new technology in tobacco use. The bill takes effect by July 30, 2018. Wood said tobacco-related diseases cost taxpayers significant funds each year. This bill will save money but will more importantly save lives, Wood told his colleagues before the vote. The measure is opposed by the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which worries it will lead to more evictions. Facebook

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Californians would not be able to buy more than one rifle a month under bill approved by state senators By Patrick McGreevy Terry McGuire, owner of Get Loaded in Grand Terrace, shows a customer a Cobalt Kinetics BAMF rifle about a week after the 2015 shooting rampage in nearby San Bernardino. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) Californians would be prohibited from buying more than one firearm in any 30-day period under a measure approved Tuesday by the Senate to reduce straw purchasing and circumvention of gun laws. California already bars people from buying more than one handgun a month. The bill by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) expands the limit to also cover long guns, including rifles and shotguns. The measure, which next goes to the Assembly for consideration, seeks to address concerns that some people buy large quantities of guns and then sell them on the underground market to criminals and others not eligible to own guns. There is no need or reason why a person would need to purchase more than one gun a month, Portantino said during the floor debate. Republicans, including Jeff Stone of Murrieta, opposed the legislation. This is yet another example of the government trying to infringe on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, Stone said. Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Chico) said he has seen no proof that past gun-control measures approved by the state have made the state safer. Its more of the same that will not decrease violent crime, Nielsen said. Facebook

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California state senators want to stop the public from smoking at California beaches and parks By Patrick McGreevy Californians would be barred from smoking or using electronic cigarettes in state parks and at beaches under a bill approved Tuesday by the state Senate. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Concord) said his bill would address the health problems caused by smoking but also the harm done to the environment by discarded cigarette butts and the fire danger posed by the practice. Cigarette butts contain more than 150 toxic chemicals and although small in size, have a huge negative impact on the environment and the animals that live in them, Glazer told his colleagues. A legislative analysis said the bill does not address the concerns raised by Gov. Jerry Brown when he vetoed a similar bill last year. The veto message read, in part, The complete prohibition in all parks and beaches is too broad. A more measured  and less punitive  approach might be warranted. Facebook

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School day wouldnt begin before 8:30 a.m. in California under bill that clears the state Senate By John Myers (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) California teenagers wouldnt be required to start their school day before 8:30 am under a bill approved Tuesday by the state Senate. The legislation by Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) would not fully take effect until 2020, and sparked a lively floor debate over the science on the sleep patterns of middle and high school students, and whether they simply need to go to bed earlier. I expect this would only dispose them to stay up later, said state Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber). Another Republican lawmaker, Sen. Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield), said students need to learn what its like in the workforce. Job preparation is what schooling is all about, Fuller said. Unless youre a musician or someone who works nights, you probably did not start in the later morning. Opponents also said the later start time could affect collective bargaining agreements with teachers and other school employees. Supporters, however, pointed to a recommendation for later start times from the American Academy of Pediatrics. A University of Minnesota study linked school start times to sleep deprivation and the rate of car crashes among teenage drivers. The morning sleep time is the most valuable for student health, said Portantino. Their test scores go up, their attendance goes up, their graduation rates go up. The bill would allow rural school districts to obtain a waiver if they couldnt make the change. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) ended the debate with a simple request of the senators on behalf of teenage students. "Lets just let them sleep in a little bit, he said with a smile. Facebook

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More transparency proposed for prescription drug price increases under bill passed by California Senate By Patrick McGreevy Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-Azusa), shown speaking in March, won Senate approval Tuesday on a bill that would require more transparency on drug prices. (Melanie Mason / Los Angeles Times) Alarmed by skyrocketing prices for some prescription drugs, the California Senate on Tuesday approved a measure aimed at increasing pressure to hold down costs to consumers by requiring more public reporting of price hikes. The lawmakers approved a bill that would require drug manufacturers to notify health plans and state purchasers such as the prison department of increases in the wholesale cost of drugs in writing at least 90 days before the new costs were to take effect. The measure also requires that health plans and insurers notify state regulators of pricing information for the most costly drugs. Were not saying that they cant raise the price. Were just saying notify us, Hernandez said during the floor debate. And if [the price] goes up a significant amount, we should be able to question why. The measure passed by a 26-10 vote with some Republicans, including Sen. Ted Gaines of El Dorado Hills, opposed. Gaines said the pharmaceutical industrys pricing of drugs helps it pay for development of new medications. It funds their research, Gaines said during the debate. The measure next goes to the Assembly, where a similar bill last year failed to win passage. Hernandez said more opponents are talking to him this year about possible compromises, although the bill is opposed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Hernandez said the bill is needed, adding that current regulations allow pharmaceutical companies to reap obscene profits at the expense of the entire healthcare system. Facebook

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California Senate advances bill to make pot use in cars an infraction By Patrick McGreevy San Bruno police officers stop cars at a DUI checkpoint. State officials are proposing to make it an infraction to use marijuana in motor vehicles. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) Just months after state voters legalized the recreational use of marijuana, the state Senate on Tuesday voted to prohibit its use in automobiles because of concerns over drugged driving. A bill by Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) makes it an infraction for drivers and passengers to use marijuana in motor vehicles. Stiffer penalties already exist for motorists found to be driving while impaired by drugs. California voters legalized recreational use of marijuana in November although the state does not plan to begin issuing licenses for its legal sale until January. In Washington state, which previously legalized pot, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that the number of drivers who had recently used marijuana before fatal accidents doubled from 2013 to 2014, Hill told his colleagues. Washington serves as an eye-opening case study for what other states may experience with road safety after legalizing the drug, Hill told his colleagues before the unanimous vote to approve the measure and send it to the Assembly for consideration. Facebook

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California lawmakers want to give parents at smaller companies 12 weeks of protected family leave By Jazmine Ulloa State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) California lawmakers are once again seeking to expand the states paid family leave program to smaller businesses after Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar measure last year. SB 63, authored by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), on Tuesday moved out of the state Senate with a 25-13 vote. It now heads to the Assembly for consideration. The legislation, a priority bill for the California Legislative Womens Caucus, would allow parents at companies with 20 to 49 employees to take 12 weeks of leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child  without fear of losing their jobs. Under the current state law, only workers at businesses with 50 or more workers can take advantage of program. On the Senate floor Tuesday, the debate on the issue echoed that of last year. Republican lawmakers argued the bill would kill jobs and hurt small businesses already struggling in California. Those in favor argued progressive family leave policies attracted a strong and healthy workforce. Jackson said her bill would impact only 6.3% of California companies, while helping 16% of its workforce, a population of 2.7 million residents across the state. With so many women in the workforce than ever before, and with so many struggling, two-income families, this is a critical moment in time, she said. Facebook

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Kimberly Ellis files formal challenge over result of state Democratic Party chairperson election By Seema Mehta (Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) The candidate who narrowly lost the race to be the next leader of the California Democratic Party on Tuesday filed a formal challenge of the election result. Kimberly Ellis campaign, which was already in the process of reviewing the ballots cast during the state partys convention two weekends ago, said they were filing the challenge to meet a requirement in the party bylaws that such an action must be taken within seven days of the contested act. Our review process is ongoing. Its critical that all formal processes outlined by the CDPs bylaws are followed at this time so that there can be no concern about raising issues in the manner prescribed by our party, said Hilary Crosby, immediate past controller for the state party and an Ellis supporter. Ellis campaign said challenges were also being filed in races for a vice chair, secretary and multiple regional directors. Chris Masami Myers, state party executive director, acknowledged receiving the challenges and said in a statement that they would be reviewed in accordance with the standard practices described in the bylaws. The partys compliance review commission, made up of six members who were appointed during former Chairman John Burtons tenure, will review the evidence and take oral or written testimony before issuing a ruling in mid- to late June. The state party chair race was the most heated and contentious. Longtime party leader Eric Bauman entered the race with advantages, but Ellis made the contest competitive. In the election, held this month at the state party convention in Sacramento, Bauman beat Ellis by just over 60 votes. But amid allegations levied by her supporters of ballot-box stuffing and ripped-up ballots, she refused to concede the race. Her campaign has been reviewing individual ballots for a week. Bauman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Updated at 4:57 p.m.: This post was updated to add additional information about how the review will be conducted. Updated at 3:35 p.m.: This post was updated to add a comment from a state party official. This post was originally published at 2:37 p.m. Facebook

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Darrell Issa gets on his office roof to take a picture of protesters. A mild hubbub ensues By Sarah D. Wire Yes, this is really @DarrellIssa on the roof of his district office building. Too afraid to come speak with assembled constituents below. pic.twitter.com/wCYRjO8Ev8  Mike Levin (@MikeLevinCA) May 30, 2017 It began when one of Rep. Darrell Issas 2018 opponents, Mike Levin, posted an image on Twitter, saying the Vista congressman was hiding on his office roof from hundreds of protesters on the street below. The photo of Issa standing on the roof ricocheted around Twitter, with many comparing it to a scene from the popular television show The Office, and left-leaning media outlets quickly publishing headlines like Darrell Issa Appears to Flee to Building Roof to Avoid Protesters. Like most things, what happened at Issas office appears to have been a bit more nuanced. Issa soon tweeted that he had spent the morning talking with constituents gathered outside the office today, then popped upstairs to take a quick pic!. Multiple images, including one from Levins account and from Issas account, show the congressman on the street with protesters. Spent the morning talking with constituents gathered outside the office today, then popped upstairs to take a quick pic! pic.twitter.com/K2CFdenOIj  Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) May 30, 2017 I just received an unprompted call from @DarrellIssa who said he tried, unsuccessfully to speak with protesters outside his district office.  Joshua Stewart (@jptstewart) May 30, 2017 .@DarrellIssa said the protesters wouldnt' speak with him, so he went up to the roof and took pictures.  Joshua Stewart (@jptstewart) May 30, 2017 The protests occur weekly outside Issas Vista district office, and the congressman has come out to speak with the group at least twice since President Trumps inauguration. Issa narrowly won reelection in 2016 over a novice opponent, and Democrats are targeting his seat in 2018. Issas staff said he tried to speak with all the protesters using their sound system, but was rebuffed. Rally organizer Ellen Montanari said she decided not to hand over the protesters microphone so Issa could take questions from the crowd because he refused to shake her hand before the protest began. He refused to do that, and he said, Step away, you are a protester. And I said I am a constituent,  Montanari said. She said he also made disparaging remarks about the protesters and the signs they carry. Issas spokesman, Calvin Moore, said Montanari cant simultaneously organize people to stand outside our office with Where is Darrell? signs and feign outrage how he wont answer her questions  and then deny him the ability to answer his constituents questions, he said. Facebook

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State Senate Democrats pass bills designed to protect against Trumps possible changes Facebook

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Rep. Adam Schiff says alleged Russian meddling in election was an effort to destroy American democracy By Seema Mehta U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, left, discusses Russias threat to liberal democracies around the world at discussion discussion hosted by Erwin Chemerinsky at UCI. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said Tuesday that the alleged Russian meddling in last years presidential election was about far more than favoring one candidate over another. He said it was an effort to undermine the foundation of American democracy in order to prop up an authoritarian regime in Moscow. Now if you look at this as just a one-off intervention, you might be inclined to dismiss the greater significance of it, or if you listen to the president, you might be inclined to dismiss this as simply efforts to relitigate a lost election, Schiff told several hundred people at UC Irvine. But the significance is really far greater. Quite separate and apart from the desire of the Russians to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton was a more fundamental objective, and that was really to tear down at our democracy. Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating allegations of Russian intervention in the presidential election, including the leaking of hacked Democratic emails and contacts between Trump associates and Russians. Trump has declared the investigation the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history on Twitter. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), the former chairman of the committee, recently told hundreds of Republicans at a fundraiser that the investigation is about nothing more than Democrats trying to justify Clintons loss. Nunes stepped down from his position after allegations arose that he mishandled classified information. Schiff said Russian President Vladimir Putin would have reasons for wanting to see Clinton fail and Trump succeed  he believed that the CIA and Clinton were secretly behind mass demonstrations in Russia in 2011, and because Trumps positions on issues such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were more favorable to Russia than Clintons. But Schiff argued the larger point was sowing discord in the U.S., so Putin could argue that American democracy is no better than his government. Talk of rigged elections and surveillance, questioning the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press  as Trump has done  boost Putins message, Schiff said. And the efforts are not limited to the United States, he added, pointing to allegations that the Russians made an effort to interfere in Frances recent election. The reality is there is new ideological struggle. Its not communism versus capitalism anymore. It is authoritarian versus democracy, he said. This is the broader challenge we are facing. Schiff also warned that there is no way to prevent Russian cyber-spying and that future attempts to interfere with American elections will only be more sophisticated, so voters must be educated. One of the most important conclusions the intelligence agencies have reached is the Russians will do this again, he said. The only real defense is to inoculate ourselves, to educate ourselves about what the Russians have done, why they are doing [it and] what they may do in the future and somehow we have to develop a consensus regardless of which party it helps and which party it hurts  that we will reject it. Facebook

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Rep. Devin Nunes: Democrats are using Russia investigation to justify Clintons loss By Sarah D. Wire (Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA) House Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told hundreds of local Republicans at a recent private fundraiser that congressional investigations into Russias interference in the 2016 election are about Democrats trying to justify Hillary Clintons loss. The Democrats dont want an investigation on Russia. They want an independent commission. Why do they want an independent commission? Because they want to continue the narrative that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are best friends, and thats the reason that he won, because Hillary Clinton would have never lost on her own; it had to be someone elses fault, Nunes told Republicans the day after he stepped away from leading the House investigation. His remarks were recorded on video and provided to The Times. Read More Facebook

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Californias embattled tax board would lose power over staff and funding under lawmakers plan By John Myers Following months of accusations about mistakes and improper use of power by its elected members, the state Board of Equalization could lose substantial power and gain an independent overseer under legislation introduced in the state Assembly. The bill by Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) would shift much of the power over staff and spending authority away from the independent tax board and create a new inspector general to watch over its actions. What were trying to do is make sure that the reform is transparent, Ridley-Thomas said. Thats what I think the moment demands. The plan, introduced as an amended bill just before the Memorial Day holiday, comes in the wake of audits alleging the tax agency made multimillion dollar miscalculations on revenue allocations and that some of its elected members improperly used staff members who were supposed to be focused on tax collection. Earlier this month, Gov. Jerry Brown called the situation a mess and in April asked for an investigation by the state Department of Justice. Four members of the Board of Equalization are directly elected by voters. The fifth, state Controller Betty Yee, serves in an ex officio capacity. The Assembly bill would transfer significant staff decisions to the agencys executive director and would require the Board of Equalizations members to have their operations funded in detailed line items included in the state budget. It would also create an inspector general office and would require the boards members to disclose all ex parte communications with those seeking action by the agency. I think that these issues can be addressed if we keep them in the sunlight, said Ridley-Thomas. Facebook

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New advertising campaign targets lawmakers over votes for climate change policies By Chris Megerian A coalition of California businesses launched a new advertising campaign on Saturday to pressure lawmakers against enacting tighter policies on climate change and air pollution. The campaign includes online videos and television advertising that warn of higher costs for business and residents. It arrives as Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers are debating whether to extend the cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gases, and how restrictive the system should be. The first lawmaker being targeted is Assemblyman Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova), accusing him of allowing unelected state employees to raise hidden taxes on gasoline and electricity because he voted last year for a tougher target to reduce emissions by 2030. Other lawmakers could face similar advertisements. Were locked, loaded and ready to go statewide, said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which is funding the campaign through an advocacy group called Californians for Affordable and Reliable Energy. The roundtable represents the states largest corporations, including oil refineries and manufacturers who have been critical of climate policies. A dollar figure was not disclosed for the advertising campaign, which will represent a balancing act for the roundtable. It supports the cap-and-trade program as an alternative to more restrictive regulations, but it opposes some of the current proposals to extend it. One measure would tie the program to air quality, targeting a wider range of pollutants than just greenhouse gases, and another would make it function more like a tax and charge higher prices for emission permits. Were at a tipping point here, Lapsley said. We need to get this information out into the public in order to try and create balanced policies. Although polls show broad support for fighting global warming in California, concerns about higher costs for constituents could be influential with some lawmakers who recently passed legislation to raise gas taxes to fund road repairs. Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) is facing a recall campaign over his vote. Nonpartisan legislative analysts have said cap and trade could boost the price of gasoline by 24 cents to 73 cents by 2030. Environmentalists have said its inaccurate to tie any single policy to fluctuations in gas prices. Facebook

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California Politics Podcast: The debate among Democrats didnt end at their convention By John Myers The official gathering of California Democrats lasted only three days, but the lingering debate and simmering tensions could keep going well into next years elections. On this weeks California Politics Podcast episode, we look back at the line in the sand drawn at last weeks California Democratic Party convention by some of the partys most passionate progressive activists -- including the blunt speech delivered by an influential labor union leader last weekend. We also discuss big new developments this week on the topic that energized those Democratic activists: a single-payer healthcare system for California. On Monday, a fiscal analysis put a large price tag on legislation to enact that sweeping healthcare change. Im joined this week by Times staff writer Melanie Mason. Facebook

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California lawmakers quietly refuse to stop unlimited cash flowing from political parties to their campaigns By John Myers (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) An ambitious effort to close a widely used loophole that allows large donations from political parties to be funneled into California races was rejected on Friday. The bill by Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) would have made political party money donated to statewide and legislative candidates subject to the same contribution limits as individuals. Under the language of a voter-approved initiative, Proposition 34, money from political parties is exempt from those existing limits. Its a money-laundering scheme that has completely duped voters, Levine said last fall when he first promised to introduce the bill. The proposal was quietly killed, without a formal vote, by the Assembly Appropriations Committee during its biannual session to act on bills placed on the so-called suspense file due to their estimated costs. Committee staff estimated that Levines AB 1234 would have six-figure costs both for enforcement and for placing the issue before voters in 2018. Facebook

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Veteran Democratic operative criticizes Kimberly Ellis for refusing to concede party chair race By Seema Mehta Supporters of Kimberly Ellis make signs, refusing to accept her loss to Eric Bauman for the California Democratic chair post. (Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Veteran Democratic operative Bob Mulholland slammed infighting among California Democrats, and urged Kimberly Ellis, who came up short in a nasty party chair election, to work to unify the party. I  and others did not understand some of your supporters  attacks on those of us who have spent decades or years building the Democrats in California as the most successful political Party in the country, he wrote in an open letter to Ellis on Thursday. He sent the email in the aftermath of the partys rancorous convention last weekend that featured a bitter leadership battle between Ellis, a favorite of newer members including the backers of Bernie Sanders failed presidential bid, and longtime party leader Eric Bauman. After Bauman was declared the winner by a razor-thin margin of just over 60 votes, Ellis refused to concede and demanded an audit of the vote as some of her backers floated rumors of ballot-box stuffing and discarded ballots. Ellis demurred when asked about Mulhollands scathing letter. While our review continues, we are refraining from making any statement that might cause further division, Ellis said. If we hope to truly unify this party, it will require patience by all. Officials with the Ellis campaign have been reviewing ballots this week. A spokesman said they had looked at about two-thirds by the end of Friday and hope to be done by the middle of next week. Joe Macaluso, Ellis strategist, declined to discuss the results and said her team needed to review additional documentation beyond the ballots. Were trying to stay true to our process and not release anything, but were in it, he said. Its an extensive process. Mulholland argued in his public letter that the convention should have showcased the partys message, not intraparty spats. Our annual Conventions should take care of internal business (Platforms, election of Officers, Resolutions, etc.), but more importantly a communication to voters, especially moderate Democrats and Independents about their concerns and issues, Mulholland wrote. If such busy people had a minute to read some news about our Convention, they saw Democrats yelling and arguing about ballots being stuffed, sounding like a Trump event. This Convention failed them. Mulholland listed the partys successes in the state, including Democrats lopsided voter registration edge, its nearly three-decade record of supporting Democratic presidential candidates, its election of female senators since 1992 and its hold of every statewide office, supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature and nearly three-quarters of the congressional delegation. Over the last 29 years, thats a [1.000] batting record, he wrote. Mulholland called on Ellis to hold a news conference with Bauman once she is satisfied with her audit of the vote. Then, he wrote, lets move on. Facebook

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California lawmakers block proposals meant to make it easier to track and report hate crimes By Jazmine Ulloa Graffiti mars the steeple on the Greater Holy Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Compton in January. Cases of vandalism make up close to one-third of reported hate crimes, according to a new report. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times) California lawmakers Friday stalled measures meant to help report and track hate crimes across the state, proposals filed amid a wave of incidents reported after the 2016 presidential election. The state Assembly Appropriations Committee shelved bills that would have created new hate-crime reporting requirements for police and a hotline under the attorney generals office for victims wishing to report an attack. Of those bills, a proposal filed by Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra (D-Pacoima) initially sought to develop a state government database with the names of felons convicted of hate crimes related to race, religion and sexual orientation. That proposal was amended to instead require every law enforcement agency to forward a summary of a reported hate crime, upon conclusion of an investigation, to the human relations commission within its jurisdiction. But a committee analysis found it could cost the state more than $150,000 to help agencies redact personal information from their records. The committee also shut down bills that would have required police to update policies to address hate crimes and include a checkbox on the front pages of reports that would prominently provide an option to indicate whether a crime was bias-related. Local law enforcement officials have reported a recent rise in reported hate crime incidents. Existing state laws require local and state law enforcement officials to compile hate crime information. California jurisdictions reported a 10.4% statewide increase in those incidents last year. Facebook

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Here were the top six moments from last nights L.A. congressional race debate By Christine Mai-Duc Robert Lee Ahn, left, and Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez sparred in a debate Thursday night ahead of the runoff for the 34th Congressional District seat. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) Attorney Robert Lee Ahn and Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez sparred Thursday night at the first and only debate in the runoff race for the 34th Congressional District seat. The candidates, both Democrats, offered little in the way of policy differences. Both agreed President Trump has racist tendencies, that keeping the Affordable Care Act is a top priority, and that they would fight to protect immigrants rights. Ahn came out swinging, repeatedly calling Gomez an insider whos sponsored by special interests, while Gomez pointed to his work supporting progressive policies in the Legislature and endorsements hes received from left-leaning groups. Here are the top six exchanges: The numbers problem: Gomez again criticized Ahn for a response he gave in an L.A. Times questionnaire that suggested he would negotiate with Republicans to protect parts of Obamacare. Gomez said Democrats need to take a hard line and that Ahn was too soft on support for Medicaid. In case you havent noticed, we have a numbers problem in Congress, Ahn shot back. Until were able to take back the House, were going to have to talk to the other side.

Gomez again criticized Ahn for a response he gave in an L.A. Times questionnaire that suggested he would negotiate with Republicans to protect parts of Obamacare. Gomez said Democrats need to take a hard line and that Ahn was too soft on support for Medicaid. In case you havent noticed, we have a numbers problem in Congress, Ahn shot back. Until were able to take back the House, were going to have to talk to the other side. Gomez fact-checks Ahns name-check: Ahn made the case that voters should send an attorney to Congress to help in the legal battles against the Trump presidency. I will join fellow attorneys and Congress members Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff in the fight, Ahn said to the crowd. Gomez, who spent much of the evening bringing up his legislative experience and vast array of endorsements, responded: I hate to mention it, but, you know, Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu have endorsed me.

Ahn made the case that voters should send an attorney to Congress to help in the legal battles against the Trump presidency. I will join fellow attorneys and Congress members Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff in the fight, Ahn said to the crowd. Gomez, who spent much of the evening bringing up his legislative experience and vast array of endorsements, responded: I hate to mention it, but, you know, Adam Schiff and Ted Lieu have endorsed me. Getting more personal: In discussions about immigration and healthcare, Gomez and Ahn delved a little deeper into their backgrounds. Gomez talked about his young nephew who feared that his mother, a permanent resident, might be deported after Trump was elected. Ahn told the story of how his parents came to the United States with $700 each and cobbled together enough money to open a hamburger stand, eventually building their piece of the American Dream.

In discussions about immigration and healthcare, Gomez and Ahn delved a little deeper into their backgrounds. Gomez talked about his young nephew who feared that his mother, a permanent resident, might be deported after Trump was elected. Ahn told the story of how his parents came to the United States with $700 each and cobbled together enough money to open a hamburger stand, eventually building their piece of the American Dream. Ahn on the attack: Ahn repeatedly criticized Gomez for taking money from corporate interests. Special interests, big pharma, big bankers. ... Its all payback time [for Gomez donors] on Day One, Ahn said. On Day One, I owe the people of the 34th District and thats it. Ahn pitched himself as an outsider who understands the district and whose small-business experience will help him relate to the problems facing everyday residents.

Ahn repeatedly criticized Gomez for taking money from corporate interests. Special interests, big pharma, big bankers. ... Its all payback time [for Gomez donors] on Day One, Ahn said. On Day One, I owe the people of the 34th District and thats it. Ahn pitched himself as an outsider who understands the district and whose small-business experience will help him relate to the problems facing everyday residents. A litmus test: Gomez fought back against the idea that hes a corporate Democrat, primarily by pointing to several endorsements hes received from left-leaning groups. If I was so establishment, I dont think Our Revolution ... would actually endorse me, Gomez said of the Bernie Sanders-affiliated group. If you want a litmus test, thats a litmus test if youre a progressive ... if youre actually able to take on the status quo.

Gomez fought back against the idea that hes a corporate Democrat, primarily by pointing to several endorsements hes received from left-leaning groups. If I was so establishment, I dont think Our Revolution ... would actually endorse me, Gomez said of the Bernie Sanders-affiliated group. If you want a litmus test, thats a litmus test if youre a progressive ... if youre actually able to take on the status quo. Gomez gets skewered on gas tax: As part of his argument that he has fought for the little guy, Ahn expressed outrage that Californias gas taxes will increase July 1, saying theres nothing progressive about the gas tax hike Gomez voted for. We already paid 38 cents per gallon. Where is that money going? Ahn said, echoing a line many legislative Republicans have used. Sacramento politicians, this is what they do, they take our money and they spend it and theres no accountability. Gomez responded by saying public safety was at stake and that fixing roads was the responsible thing to do. If you missed it, you can watch the entire thing here. The election is set for June 6. Facebook

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Rob Reiner, Hollywood bigwigs and Netflix co-founder team up to give Villaraigosas campaign a major cash boost By Seema Mehta (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) Hollywood heavyweights are set to host a major fundraiser for Antonio Villaraigosas gubernatorial campaign on June 15, ensuring an infusion of large contributions shortly before a key fundraising deadline. Donors are being asked to contribute up to $29,200 to attend a summer reception at the home of media executive Peter Chernin and his wife Megan, the site of a celebrity-studded fundraiser for President Obama in 2013. Co-hosts include Paramount Pictures chief Jim Gianopulos, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, video game honcho Robert Kotick, comedian George Lopez, Sony chief Michael Lynton, NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer, producer Rob Reiner, super-agent Rick Rosen, producer Orly Adelson, former U.S. Ambassador to Spain James Costos, former White House decorator Michael Smith and attorney Michael Tuchin. Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, entered the governors race in November. Through the end of 2016, he raised $2.7 million, a respectable haul in a short time period when Democratic donors were reeling from the presidential election and distracted by the holidays. But his fundraising lags behind that of his top rivals, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Treasurer John Chiang. So political observers will be scrutinizing his next financial disclosure report, which will cover the first six months of 2017. The fundraiser occurs 15 days before the fundraising period closes on June 30. Read More Facebook

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A delay on cap-and-trade vote would be a victory for Donald Trump, Gov. Jerry Browns office says By Chris Megerian (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Despite hesitance and resistance from state lawmakers, Gov. Jerry Brown is refusing to budge from his goal of reaching a deal next month to extend Californias cap-and-trade program. The latest tug-of-war on the issue came this week in an email exchange circulated among Capitol staff members and advocates working on climate change policies. Kip Lipper, an environmental advisor for Senate leadership, wrote in a Thursday email that there were no plans to take up a cap and trade reauthorization bill anytime soon. Echoing concerns that have percolated among lawmakers, Lipper said senators were gas tax weary about the possibility of another difficult vote after deciding to raise gas taxes to pay for road repairs earlier this year. The cap-and-trade program, which is a cornerstone of Californias fight against global warming, requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions and could boost the price of gasoline. With votes hard to come by, Lipper wrote, the issue should not be rushed. Camille Wagner, Browns legislative secretary, responded on Friday saying there was no reason to delay. Weve all been meeting for months on this issue, she wrote. We know the areas of agreement and disagreement  now is the time to work through those. She added that NOTHING is more important than getting a deal as soon as possible. This is not a time for retreat or a time to give aid and comfort to Donald Trump by undermining a pillar of Californias bold program to arrest climate change, Wagner wrote. If Californias Cap and Trade falls because we fail to act, climate denial wins. Brown had already faced resistance to his push to reach a deal on cap and trade in June, when the state budget is due. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) previously said we dont have to extend it this year. The disagreement over the timeline for reaching a deal is only one of the disputes surrounding cap and trade. Assembly leaders have raised the possibility of pushing legislation with only a majority vote, an idea the governors office rejected. Brown wants a two-thirds vote to insulate cap and trade from legal challenges. There are also varied ideas about how the program should function in the future. Assembly legislation would modify cap and trade so it also targets local pollution, rather than just greenhouse gases. Senate legislation would make the program function more like a carbon tax. Facebook

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The effort to make tampons tax free in California has been delayed until 2018 By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Legislation to eliminate California sales taxes on the purchase of tampons was delayed Friday by the Assemblys fiscal committee until 2018, a blow to advocates who say the tax is an unfair burden on low-income women and families. The delay imposed on AB 9 is the second setback this month for efforts to eliminate taxes on products for women and children. A separate bill that included a tax-free provision for diapers was killed in a legislative committee on May 8. The bill that was held back on Friday, written by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), would have excluded tampons, sanitary napkins and other menstrual products from sales taxes. A legislative committee analysis estimated the proposal would reduce state general fund revenues by $10.5 million a year. Dozens of other bills with a cost to state government were killed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee, while AB 9 was instead reclassified as a two-year bill, meaning it is eligible to be heard again in the second year of the legislative session. Gov. Jerry Brown last year rejected a similar measure that sought to make tampons tax-free, writing in his veto message that tax breaks are the same as new spending  they both cost the general fund money. Facebook

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Outside money spills into L.A. congressional race as election day nears By Christine Mai-Duc Spending by outside groups hoping to influence Los Angeles congressional race is picking up, with less than two weeks to go before the runoff for the 34th Congressional District. Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez and attorney Robert Lee Ahn, both Democrats, are competing to fill the former seat of Xavier Becerra in the June 6 election. Becerra stepped down months ago to become the states attorney general. Spending separate from the candidates campaigns is reaching into the six-figure range, with most of the outside money going to support Gomez, the heavy favorite of establishment Democrats. One group funded primarily by an Ahn donor, Citizens for a Better Government, has spent $40,264 on data, printing and postage for mailers, and $8,000 on treasury services to support Ahns bid. The Latino Victory Fund, which has endorsed Gomez, recently spent $29,640 on direct mail and $30,000 on phone banking and voter canvassing for the candidate. Billboard company Outfront Media LLC has spent $1,973 on billboards for him. Also backing Gomez is a group called Middle Class Values PAC. The group spent $19,653 on mailers supporting Gomez despite not having reported receiving any major contributions so far this year. The groups biggest donors last year were a handful of Nevada casino owners and developers, but most of that money appears to have been spent on Democrats running for Congress in Pennsylvania and Nevada. Outside spending in the 34th Congressional District race has been dwarfed by candidate spending. As of March 31, Gomez had spent $446,455 and Ahn had dropped about $767,315 on his run. New campaign finance figures from both candidates are due at midnight Friday. Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Browns budget team drops its hotly debated plans to redefine the states spending limit By John Myers (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) With questions mounting about the legal justification for omitting some $22 billion in expenses from Californias long-standing spending cap, Gov. Jerry Browns administration dropped the plan Thursday while promising to work on the issue again later this year. Browns advisors told the Assembly Budget Committee that this could include some changes in state law to clarify the rules surrounding whats known as the Gann limit, a cap on state spending growth imposed by voters in 1979. The cap has rarely come into play in state budgeting in recent years, as it was loosened by a subsequent ballot measure in 1990. The governors administration said it continues to worry about how the law interacts with other mandates related to school funding. School financing has changed significantly since the limit was first established in 1979, said H.D. Palmer, Browns budget spokesman. Because of that, we continue to believe we need statutory clarifications related to these school funding changes. Legislative analysts warned lawmakers in April that the governor may have been overestimating how much room for spending was left under the cap, a dispute that continued for weeks while lawmakers began drafting plans for formal budget negotiations next month. Earlier this week, state senators again raised concerns about the complex estimates used to determine how much spending the Gann law would allow in the budget year that begins July 1. And they provided an analysis by the Legislatures lawyers that suggested Browns proposal could be unconstitutional. The spending limit is enforced over two fiscal years, which means Brown and lawmakers have time to reconcile different estimates. But absent changes similar to those advocated by the governor, a portion of future tax revenues would have to be split between schools and rebates to taxpayers. Facebook

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California Senate, Assembly advance their own plans on how to spend tobacco tax revenue By Melanie Mason (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Perhaps the biggest budget skirmish that remains unsolved this year is how California should spend revenue from the tobacco tax voters approved last fall. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to put that money to expand overall spending on Medi-Cal, which provides subsidized healthcare for the poor. But the some of initiatives backers, namely doctor and dental groups, have cried foul, arguing that money is meant to go to increasing payments for providers. Now, the Senate and Assembly are weighing in. In plans approved in their respective budget committees this week, both houses stray from Browns proposal to put the money toward general Medi-Cal costs and lay out their own ideas on how to divvy up the revenue. But while both houses reject Browns approach, there are key differences between their proposals. Most significantly, the Assembly would allocate all $1.1 billion in projected tax revenue in the next budget year. The Senate, meanwhile, would spend just under $350 million next year, gradually ramping up spending to $1.1 billion by fiscal year 2020-21. Both houses also would increase provider payments, but in different ways. The Assembly would put around $857 million toward once-yearly incentive payments to physicians and dentists that would be tied to their Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal caseloads. The Senate proposed putting $150 million next year to physician rate increases that would be targeted for those working in high-need areas and specialties. That number would increase in successive years, topping out at $700 million by 2020. The Senate also would put $130 million toward higher rates for dentists. The California Medical Assn., which has been pushing for higher reimbursement rates, praised both houses for including the higher rates, but group spokeswoman Joanne Adams noted that the current Legislature cannot tie the hands of a future governor or Legislature, indicating a preference toward the Assembly approach. Each house would allocate $50 million for reimbursement rates for family planning providers, a priority of Planned Parenthood. And both houses put money toward expanding Medi-Cal to cover young adults up to age 26 who are in the country illegally. The proposal builds on Californias policy of making children without legal status younger than 19 eligible for Medi-Cal, which went into effect last year. Anthony Wright, of the advocacy group Health Access, noted that by expanding coverage for those up to age 26, it would align with Obamacares policy of letting children stay on their parents health insurance until that age. This is a concrete and tangible way to show we are actually taking steps forward in expanding coverage, Wright said. The Brown administration estimates that around 130,000 people would be eligible for Medi-Cal under such a proposal, and such an expansion would cost the state just under $230 million. The Senate proposal would put around $63 million toward that expansion in the upcoming budget year and around $85 million in subsequent years. The Assembly would put $54 million toward the plan. The Brown administration did not take a position on the Medi-Cal expansion proposal, but H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Browns Department of Finance, noted that the Senate was using higher revenue projections than Browns plan, which allows legislators to propose more funding. Palmer said the administration was sticking with its original proposal to use tobacco tax dollars for general Medi-Cal spending. The budgets proposal for Prop. 56 will provide increased funding for healthcare programs and services in a way thats consistent with the measure that voters approved last fall, Palmer said. ------------ FOR THE RECORD May 25, 2017, 4:58 p.m.: A previous version of this article reported that both houses were using higher revenue projections than Gov. Browns budget proposal. The Senate is using higher projections; the Assembly is using the same estimates as the Brown administration. Facebook

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California chief justice says she stands by her decision to speak out against Trumps immigration actions By Jazmine Ulloa California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye on Thursday said she stands by her position that courthouses should be areas where immigration arrests should not occur. Cantil-Sakauye, a former prosecutor who rose through the judicial ranks as an appointee of Republican governors, drew national attention in March after she blasted the federal governments expanded immigration actions, among which she said included stalking immigrants at courthouses. Speaking at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon on Thursday, she said the Supreme Court chambers fielded an outpouring of calls and letters after her comments. Some were profane and angry, from residents living outside the state. Others came from supporters. At Sac Press Club luncheon, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said she fielded lots of anger, support after courthouse enforcement remarks. pic.twitter.com/6OBrZOfI45  Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) May 25, 2017 Many said that as a judge, she should not wade into politics. U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly admonished her in a letter, spurring California state leaders to respond in defense of state policies. On Thursday, Cantil-Sakauye stood by her decision to denounce the actions, saying, If I couldnt speak out as chief justice, I dont know who could. Courthouses in California have numerous programs to encourage people to come forward and ask questions, seek services and mediate issues, Cantil-Sakauye said. If we have a segment [of the population] that is afraid to come, then we are looking at no access to justice, [and] potentially public safety issues, which is antithetical to what the justice system exists for, she said. To me, it is a safe zone, and I ask that courthouses be placed on par with school districts and hospitals and churches. Facebook

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Rep. Darrell Issa says the federal employee insurance program should be expanded to all Americans By Sarah D. Wire Though it wasnt included in the House Republicans healthcare bill, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) still believes Americans should have access to the same insurance plans federal employees pick from, and hes hoping the Senate will embrace the idea. In a letter Thursday, Issa asked the Senate Health Care Working Group to consider opening the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program to more, or all, Americans. Its a national insurance idea thats persisted since the program began in 1960, and a proposal Issa has pitched before. The program allows more than 8 million current and retired federal employees across the country to shop among hundreds of health insurance plans and then apply their employer contribution to whatever plan they choose. Private insurance companies have pulled out of several state insurance marketplaces, where people whose employers dont offer insurance can purchase insurance using a federal subsidy. That leaves people with fewer health insurance choices, a common complaint cited by Republicans as a reason to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Its choice. If the government can maximize choice to you and then subsidize where appropriate based on need, then weve met the two bases for government involvement, Issa said. Issa voted for the American Health Care Act, the GOP bill to roll back much of Obamacare that passed May 4 without Democratic support, but he stresses that he did so just to keep momentum. One of the reasons I voted for this in the House was to keep the process alive so we could do reform, Issa said. Leveraging business models that work is the goal that somebody like me wants to do. Find out what works and invest in it, find out what doesnt work and fix it or abandon it. On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office said the bill as passed by the House would cause 23 million fewer people to have health insurance by 2026. The budget office, which Congress relies on to analyze the complex legislation, projected that many additional consumers would see skimpier health coverage and higher deductibles. The Senate has essentially said it will write its own version of the bill. Issas letter to his Senate colleagues also urges members to protect people with preexisting conditions, safeguard coverage for people with mental illnesses and protect people near retirement age from a spike in their premiums. Theres still more to be done. This bill is going to be about compromise, and a down payment on change, Issa said. Facebook

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Senate President Kevin de Leon is busy raising campaign funds  but for what office? By Phil Willon Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) stirred up speculation about a possible run for governor or U.S. Senate when he released a slickly produced video just before the California Democratic Partys convention last weekend, but he has remained coy about his future political plans. That doesnt mean he isnt padding his campaign war chest, though. De Leon has two fundraisers lined up in Los Angeles in June, presumably for his 2018 campaign for California lieutenant governor. The question is whether De Leon actually will run for lieutenant governor. In the past, he has said he hasnt made a decision. He has also given his supporters the go-ahead to endorse state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-Azusa), a longtime political ally, in the race. De Leons campaign account for lieutenant governor had $1.7 million in the bank at the end of last year. He raised close to a half-million this year, according to state political financial disclosure reports. The first fundraiser in June is being hosted by veteran Hollywood executive Peter Guber and his wife, Tara, in Bel Air on June 8, with suggested contributions ranging from $500 to $2,500. The second is in late June at the Palm in Los Angeles. The fundraiser is hosted by Craig Darian, CEO of the Occidental Entertainment Group, and his wife, Kimberly, as well as Albert Sweet, the founder of the company. The suggested donations are the same as for the earlier fundraiser. De Leon made history in 2014 when he was selected by his colleagues as the first Latino to lead the California Senate. The tenure has been marked by significant action on climate change, immigration and gun control. Facebook

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Volkswagens clean car plan falls short in low-income neighborhoods, California regulators say By Chris Megerian (Markus Schreiber / Associated Press) State regulators have asked Volkswagen to revise its plan to invest in zero emission technology in California, a victory for critics who said the automaker wasnt doing enough in disadvantaged communities. The investment plan, which will total $800 million over 10 years, is part of Volkswagens obligation under a multi-billion settlement for evading pollution rules. California, which is struggling to get enough zero emission vehicles on the road to meet its goals, is eager to move forward, wrote Air Resources Board Executive Officer Richard Corey in a Wednesday letter to Electrify America, a Volkswagen subsidiary. However, Corey wrote, we need more information on how the company will meet its target of spending 35% of its investment in disadvantaged communities, a target set by state regulators in hopes of broadening the adoption of electric vehicles. Corey also asked Electrify America to consider supporting hydrogen fueling stations, rather than just electric chargers. Once the company submits an updated version of its plan, state regulators will consider whether to approve it. Electrify America said it is reviewing the letter. Dean Florez, a member of the Air Resources Board, said the original investment plan had significant holes and included no real investment in disadvantaged communities. He praised the decision to request revisions and said the board should hold VWs feet to the fire. This story has been updated with additional comments. Facebook

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Lawmakers scrap effort to make it easier to pass local transportation taxes By John Myers An effort to boost the chances of local ballot measures raising taxes for transportation needs was quietly killed Thursday in the state Capitol. The proposal, which would have ultimately required changing the California Constitution through a statewide vote, was in response to the high hurdle set decades ago for local taxes earmarked for specific projects. Those kinds of taxes in cities and counties require two-thirds of the vote. The constitutional amendment by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would have lowered the vote threshold to 55% of ballots cast for any transportation proposal. Wiener argued the long list of local transportation projects lacking funds wont completely be erased by the $52-billion transportation plan signed into law last month. And he pointed specifically to examples like a transportation tax plan in the Bay Area last year that garnered 62% of the vote  still slightly shy of the two-thirds mandate. While the effort can be brought back before lawmakers adjourn the current session in the summer of 2018, Thursdays action represented a major setback for transportation groups and labor unions that supported it. The measure was opposed by business and anti-tax advocates. Wiener said he intends to re-introduce the measure in the coming weeks. We must improve and expand transportation throughout our state, which has suffered from decades of underfunding, he said in a written statement. Update 1:29 p.m. This story was modified with additional information regarding constitutional amendments and the legislative process. Update 4:10 p.m. This story was updated with comment from Sen. Wiener. Facebook

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Sex offenders will not be banned without exception from school grounds after state bill is shelved By Jazmine Ulloa State Sen. Connie M. Leyva, right. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) The state Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday shelved a bill that would have banned all registered sex offenders from school campuses without exception. Senate Bill 26 by Sen. Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) would have made it a misdemeanor for a registered sex offender to enter any school building or grounds without lawful business. State laws keep registered sex offenders from living near schools. But those who have not been convicted of having sex with a minor under age 16 can visit or volunteer with groups or organizations that work with children if they give proper notice, and are granted permission. They cannot work directly with children. The committee advanced another bill by Leyva that would extend benefits under the Safe at Home initiative to former victims of forced prostitution or labor. Senate Bill 597, introduced with Secretary of State Alex Padilla, passed with a unanimous 7-0 vote. Read More Facebook

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Measure to help California students refinance private loans is shelved By Melanie Mason State Treasurer John Chiang, a candidate for governor, is behind a new effort to help people with student debt refinance their loans. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) A measure to help Californians saddled with student debt refinance their student loans was shelved in a key fiscal committee on Thursday. The measure by state Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica) was touted as a way for the state to coax private lenders to offer more favorable interest. The proposal would have carried a $25-million price tag. We will continue to push for sensible solutions to the student loan crisis that provide real relief to the millions of Californians saddled with too much debt, Allen said in a statement. State Treasurer John Chiang, a 2018 gubernatorial candidate, had championed the bill, SB 674, as a way to try to get [Californians] out of debt as quickly as possible. College graduation is supposed to be synonymous with opportunity and prosperity and not a detour into a modern-day debtors prison, Chiang said in a statement. Although I am disappointed SB 674 will not be moving forward, I will continue to use my position as the states banker to invest in Californias young people and its future with innovative solutions that will make it more financially feasible to obtain a higher education, he added. 3:58 p.m.: This article was updated to add comments from Sen. Benjamin Allen and Treasurer John Chiang. This article was originally published at 11:17 a.m. Read More Facebook

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Where bills go to die: Lawmakers begin clearing the suspense file with hundreds of measures in limbo By John Myers (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) From a sales tax exemption on tampons to healthcare rules and marijuana regulation, a massive stack of proposed laws faces a major deadline Friday morning at the state Capitol. To survive, they must clear whats known as the suspense file -- the place where bills that would cost taxpayers money are held in legislative limbo. By law, bills with a fiscal impact must be sent to the floor of the Assembly and Senate by the close of business on Friday. That means its decision time for more than 800 pieces of legislation. The Senates fiscal committee will decide the fate of bills on Thursday; the Assembly will do so on Friday. Bills are generally sent to the suspense file if their projected cost to the state is $150,000 or more. The procedural move was widely used during Californias deficit years as a way for lawmakers to weigh the pros and cons of proposals in light of limited resources. But government watchdog groups have long pointed out that the clearing of the suspense file ends up hiding some of the legislative sausage-making from public view. Thats because bills that dont clear Fridays hurdle are essentially killed without a recorded vote. And neither chamber offers any explanation for why those bills were killed. Decisions on the fate of the suspense file are made in private, hours or days before the public hearing. In the Assembly, the appropriations committee chairperson will simply tell the public that a decision has been made to hold the bill. In the Senate committee, killed legislation wont even be mentioned during Thursdays hearing. That means that no one will know for sure whether a bill is really killed because of its price tag or its politics. Facebook

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Formal apology sought after U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters was cut off during state convention speech By Jazmine Ulloa (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) In my 20 years as a Democratic Party leader, I have never experienced such the type of behavior as I did at the Sacramento Convention hall on Saturday evening.  Darren Parker, longtime chairman of the African American Caucus The California Democratic Party African American Caucus is asking the state party for a formal apology to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters and its members for what it called disrespect by a private subcontractor at its weekend state convention. Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat known for her comments on President Trump, had been speaking at a caucus meeting during the event Saturday night when the sound to her microphone was cut off. SEE THE VIDEO OF WATERS SPEECH> Read More Facebook

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California sees a rebound in cap-and-trade auction, bolstering key climate change program By Chris Megerian (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) State regulators announced strong results from Californias cap-and-trade program on Wednesday, spurring analysts and supporters to say the system remains solid despite questions about its political future. The program requires oil refineries, food processors, power plants and other facilities to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly all of the permits offered by the state in its latest auction were purchased, generating an estimated $500 million in revenue. Thats a shift from other recent auctions, where most of the permits went unsold, reducing revenue that state leaders have counted on for 
Republicans were celebrating Friday, and relieved, and it was easy to see why: The party hung on to Montanas sole congressional seat even though its candidate faced a freshly lodged criminal charge for physically assaulting a reporter on election eve.

Though they fell short in yet another special election  Greg Gianforte won handily, 50% to 44%  Democrats also found reason to be pleased: Their candidate, flawed as he was, continued a pattern of polling better than might be expected  over-performing, to use the political parlance, and that could hold future promise.

Its possible, as elections analyst Nathan Gonzales put it, to lose and still have momentum.

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From a practical standpoint, all that matters for now is that Gianforte is headed to Washington. (Under the rules of Congress, he faces no obstacle taking his seat despite a misdemeanor citation.)

His addition will bolster the GOP House majority and give Speaker Paul D. Ryan a bit more leeway as he seeks to crowbar legislation, like the highly fraught healthcare overhaul, through a tight space.

For the GOP, it marked the third straight election since President Trump took office in which they either held onto a vacant House seat or, in the case of Georgia, staved off defeat. A runoff in that contest is set for June 20 and right now looks to be a toss-up.

The result in Montana is a reminder, while the notion may cause a rush of blood to liberal heads, that Trump remains reasonably popular in a broad, heavily rural swath of America. For all the money and effort the left poured into the contest, Democrat Rob Quist recognized as much; he avoided personal attacks on Trump and said explicitly he was not making the contest a referendum on the president.

Gianforte, in turn, embraced Trump, campaigning alongside Vice President Mike Pence and Trumps son, Donald Jr., and echoing the presidents drain the swamp rhetoric in Thursday nights victory speech. (He also apologized to Ben Jacobs, the Guardian reporter he attacked when politely asked about the GOP healthcare bill.)

But the loss doesnt necessarily bode poorly for Democrats or their hopes of taking control of the House in 2018.

Montana was Gianfortes to lose. Republicans have held the states lone House seat since Bill Clinton was in the White House. That explains why the national Democratic Party put up only a half-hearted fight and the nominee ended up being Quist, an amiable cowboy troubadour with a diffident campaign style and checkered personal financial history.

The physical altercation that consumed the final hours of the campaign came much too late to have a meaningful effect; by the time it happened, nearly 7 in 10 Montanans had already cast their ballots.

While it is tempting, and a professional hazard, to read too much into any one special election, certain patterns can be gleaned.

As David Wasserman, a nonpartisan analyst with the Cook Political Report, recently wrote, Taken collectively, the margins in specials can tell us a good deal about the political environment  and so far, its looking really bad for Republicans.

In the three races so far to fill vacant congressional seats, in Kansas, Georgia and Montana, the Democratic candidates have run much stronger than Hillary Clinton in 2016 or the Democrat who sought those seats in 2014. In Kansas, one of the most solidly Republican states in the country, the GOP candidate won by 7% compared with the 31% margin for GOP Rep. Mike Pompeo, who stepped down to head the CIA.

In Montana, Quist lost by 6%, a 10-point improvement on the last Democrat who ran. (The seat was vacated when two-term lawmaker Ryan Zinke resigned to run the Interior Department.)

If the pattern holds until November 2018  which is by no means certain  that would very much benefit Democrats, suggesting the energy that has manifested in protest rallies and street demonstrations is translating into more participation at the polls.

The next test will come in the suburbs of Atlanta, where Republican Tom Price won reelection in 2016 by a 24-point margin. Price gave up the seat to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and Democrat John Ossoff came just shy of winning the seat in April, when he finished the first round of balloting with 48%.

But a few words of caution are in order.

In 2006 and 2010, two special elections were closely watched as barometers of what was to come. Republicans won the 2006 race and Democrats prevailed in 2010, only to lose control of the House just a few months later.

Perhaps the best advice is the least satisfying for those eager to divine the political future: Wait until November 2018.

Well look a lot smarter talking about these special elections after the midterm is over, said Gonzales, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan guide Inside Elections. Then well be able to see which of these early trends to discard and which of them really mattered.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

@markzbarabak on Twitter

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Hes a wealthy software entrepreneur, known for his brash persona and political ambitions.

And as election day neared, Greg Gianforte seemed a shoo-in to win a special election for Montanas lone congressional seat.



For the record: An earlier version of this article said RightNow Technologies was sold to Oracle for $1.5 billion. The price was $1.8 billion.

But as voters headed to the polls Thursday, questions swirled about his candidacy: Would Gianforte face backlash from those casting ballots after he was charged with assaulting a reporter? Or would voters look the other way? Might some even silently cheer the altercation captured on audiotape?

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A day earlier, Gianforte allegedly grabbed and slammed to the ground a reporter from the Guardian newspaper after he asked Gianforte about healthcare at the Republicans campaign headquarters. Late Wednesday night, Gianforte was cited for misdemeanor assault by the Gallatin County Sheriffs Office.

For those in Montana, a bastion of conservatism where Republicans have held the states lone congressional seat for 23 years, Gianforte has been a familiar figure for years, primarily as a businessman. In 1997, he founded RightNow Technologies, a software company based in Bozeman. After operating it as a private enterprise, Gianforte, who employed nearly 500 people, sold it to Oracle in 2011 for nearly $1.8 billion.

Gianforte, 56, had donated to political campaigns in the past, and decided to enter politics with a run for governor last year. From the get-go, his relationship with the news media was strained. At his campaign kickoff event, Gianforte refused to take any questions from reporters.

Even after Gianforte won the Republican nomination for governor, his disdain for answering reporters questions continued. He would avoid journalists at town halls and meet-and-greets with voters.

When President Trump tapped then-Rep. Ryan Zinke to lead the Department of Interior, Gianforte saw another political opportunity. He entered the special election this spring, and his relationship with the media remained tense as ever.

In April, Gianforte joked about ganging up on a reporter at town hall with hundreds of supporters. The move drew criticism from Rob Quist, Gianfortes Democratic rival for the open seat.

A day after the Republicans clash with the Guardian reporter, three major local newspapers  the Missoulian, the Billings Gazette and the Independent Record in Helena  withdrew their endorsements of Gianforte.

We wouldnt condone it if it happened in a home or even a late-night bar fight. And we couldnt accept it from a man who is running to become Montanas lone Congressional representative, the Billings Gazette said in an editorial.

The Missoulian wrote: There is no doubt that Gianforte committed an act of terrible judgment that, if it doesnt land him in jail, also shouldnt land him in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He showed  that he lacks the experience, brains and abilities to effectively represent Montana in any elected office, the editorial added.

Montana has been something of an anomaly among red states. Although it is Republican-leaning, there is a broad populist streak going back to the robber baron days of the states copper kings, and the right kind of Democrat  one seen as autonomous from Washington and attuned to the states gun-loving culture  can win political office. After all, the man who defeated Gianforte in the race for governor, Steve Bullock, is a Democrat.

Even so, Gianforte lost to Bullock by less than 4 percentage points, and polls have showed him as the front-runner in the special election. Would Montanans be willing to overlook the assault citation? In some quarters, the answer is yes.

This hasnt changed my view at all, said Kyle Nielsen, who has owned Grains of Montana Restaurant & Bakery in Billings for 13 years.

He had cast an absentee ballot for Gianforte and didnt regret it. Im waiting for more information. I do think news reports can be biased against Republicans, he said. We need more information.

Nielsen, 43, said that while hes not a registered Republican, he tends to vote for conservatives because he believes they understand the needs of small-business owners. Nielsen said his wife and two adult children also supported Gianforte. Last year, they all voted for Trump

Weve seen how the media likes to battle Trump and Republicans every day, and this is nothing new, Nielsen said.

Dave Hunter, a Democratic strategist who has spent decades in Montana politics, summed up Gianfortes chances.

Greg Gianforte is a damaged product and not very appealing to very many Montanans, Hunter said. But the fact that hes a Republican is probably more important than any of that to a lot of those voters.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee

Staff writer Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.

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If you asked Wendy Carrillo three months ago, the California Democratic Partys endorsement of Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez in the crowded race for Los Angeles 34th Congressional District was a coronation, the result of dirty tricks being played by establishment politicians.

What the Democratic political establishment is telling us is, We know bestIts Jimmys turn to represent this district, read a letter of protest signed by Carrillo and five other primary candidates who were angry about the partys endorsement process.

But on a recent Saturday, Carrillo stood shoulder to shoulder with Gomez at a Mexican restaurant in Boyle Heights, encouraging her supporters to back him over attorney Robert Lee Ahn.

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After a bruising primary that saw Gomez pegged as the candidate of the party establishment, he has since received support from 10 of his former opponents and some of the progressive groups they courted. That could be key in a district that supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in last years presidential race.

While none of the Sanders-affiliated candidates made it through the congressional primary, Gomezs moves to appeal to their supporters could be an indicator of the growing influence of the partys reenergized left flank. And after the weekends California Democratic Party convention, where progressive activists engaged in a show of force with repeated protests and a contested chairs race, it could be a smart move.

Gomez is one of two Democrats in the runoff to replace Xavier Becerra, who vacated the seat to become Californias attorney general. Ahn is running as an outsider who says hell combat politics as usual. Gomez has tried to paint Ahn, a former Republican, as too moderate for the deep-blue district.

Despite Sanders success there, voters who support his agenda failed to coalesce behind one candidate in the primary for the special election. Carrillo and two other hopefuls who often invoked Sanders name split the vote and received a combined total of just 20%.

Since then, Gomez has tried to turn the focus to his progressive bona fides in an attempt to attract those voters. Gomez, who has been in the Legislature since 2012 and has received endorsements from dozens of elected officials including Becerra and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, has highlighted his more left-leaning support in recent weeks.

In addition to Carrillo, hes rolled out endorsements from the Congressional Progressive Caucus, co-chaired by former Democratic National Committee chairman candidate Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota; Democracy for America, a group that previously backed Carrillo; and the California Nurses Assn./National Nurses United, a major ally of Sanders that supported Gomezs former opponent Arturo Carmona, a former Sanders campaign aide.

Earlier this month, Gomez capped off the string of announcements with a highly sought-after endorsement from Our Revolution, the political group launched by Sanders himself. And just after the state Democratic Party convention last weekend, Gomez joined a newly formed progressive legislative caucus.

The Bernie vote is becoming more and more important as time goes on, said Maclen Zilber, a strategist who helped run the short-lived campaign of former assembly speaker John A. Perez for the seat.

For Gomez, thought to be the front-runner in the race, it makes sense to fight the air of inevitability by highlighting where his views closely align with those held by progressive voters, Zilber said. Thats especially true in a special election, where turnout is expected to dip even lower than the 14% seen in the April primary.

Theres not a whole lot of milquetoast middle-of-the-road voters who turn out in a special election, Zilber said.

The Bernie vote is becoming more and more important as time goes on.  Maclen Zilber, strategist

Ahn has seized on running as an outsider, calling Gomez a professional politician  financed by Sacramento special interests. At a Thursday debate, Ahn said: Special interests, big pharma, big bankers  its all payback time for [Gomez donors] on Day One. An independent expenditure campaign launched by an Ahn donor has highlighted campaign cash Gomez received from pharmaceutical companies, Monsanto and payday lenders.

But Gomez and his allies have highlighted his record supporting progressive causes in the Legislature, including helping pass a bill to expand paid family leave, co-writing a proposal to strengthen requirements for campaign ad disclosures and supporting a single-payer healthcare bill thats become a rallying point for progressives in California.

They look at me, and yes, Im the current elected official, but Ive also advocated for almost every issue they care about, Gomez said in an interview. The money doesnt buy me and it never willPeople should hold elected officials accountable for how they vote. Period.

Carrillo said she met with Gomez shortly after the primary before deciding to endorse him.

I wanted to make sure that he was going to be outspoken, but ultimately Jimmy and I share the same values, Carrillo said. Im hoping that with my support and with the support of the people who voted for me, we can also push him to that level.

After her endorsement, Carrillo said she received criticism from some of her supporters, including one who questioned how she could go from being anti-establishment to a cheerleader for the establishment.

Rudy Montalvo, a longtime Boyle Heights activist who supported Carmona in the primary, said he struggled at first with the idea of supporting Gomez.

I lost a lot of faith in the Democratic Party because of how it had been steered, said Montalvo, a Sanders backer whos still upset about last years presidential primary.

But Montalvo didnt like the fact that Ahn was once a Republican, calling him a flip-flopper. Once he read more about Gomezs record, Montalvo said, he also appreciated the assemblymans roots as a union organizer.

With Jimmys experience, the kind of work hes done, would I put all that aside just because all of the establishment jumped on Jimmys bandwagon to support him? It wasnt a tough call.

Ahn also appears to be moving further to the left. While his earlier comments in an L.A. Times questionnaire suggested hed be open to negotiating with Republicans to preserve parts of Obamacare, the former L.A. city planning commissioner has more recently mentioned single-payer healthcare in social media posts.

In a statement, Ahns campaign called him the only real progressive in the race, citing Gomezs support of Clinton in the presidential primary. (Ahns campaign did not respond to a request asking who he voted for.) His campaign also said he has publicly advocated for universal single payer healthcare for years and has endorsed gay marriage, and accused Gomez of being largely silent on the issue.

Gomez has a perfect legislative score from prominent LGBTQ rights group Equality California and wrote a bill that expanded options for identifying same-sex parents on a childs birth certificate.

SIGN UP for our free Essential Politics newsletter >>

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

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2:55 p.m.: This article was updated with a remark by Ahn from a Thursday night debate.

This article was originally published at 12:05 a.m.
President Trumps nine-day trip to the Mideast and Europe, his first foreign excursion as president, hasnt produced any diplomatic breakthroughs so far, but has generated some memorable images.

There was Trump with his hands on a glowing orb in Saudi Arabia; First Lady Melania Trump appearing to swat away the presidents hand as he reached out to her; the president, first lady and First Daughter Ivanka Trump standing stiffly next to a sour-faced Pope Francis; and French President Emmanuel Macron and Trump seemingly trying to turn a ceremonial handshake into a death-grip contest.

Meantime, back home, none of Trumps problems went away, and the presidents standing in polls sank to the lowest point in his tenure. When the president returns to D.C.  hes scheduled to fly home Saturday  the investigation of possible Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election will be growing more intense, and the administrations legislative agenda will be as mired as ever.

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Good afternoon, Im David Lauter, Washington bureau chief. Welcome to the Friday edition of our Essential Politics newsletter, in which we look at the events of the week in Washington and elsewhere in national politics and highlight some particularly insightful stories.

A PIVOTAL POINT IN THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE

The most consequential news of the week may have come on the healthcare front, where twin dilemmas that have shaped the current debate both intensified.

On the one hand, as Noam Levey wrote, the individual healthcare insurance market is becoming increasingly unstable, in part because of long-standing problems with Obamacare, but more immediately because of actions taken by the Trump administration.

More insurers are getting out of the business of covering individuals, as opposed to large groups, especially in rural states. Those who are staying in the individual market are looking for big premium increases in many states.

And when theyre not being quoted by name, insurance executives are scathing in their assessments of how the administration is handling healthcare policy.

There is a sense that there are no hands on the wheel, and they are just letting the bus careen down the road, one senior company official told Levey.

An arcane, but important, insurance issue  payment of subsidies to insurers known as cost-sharing reductions  provides the most acute pressure.

The payments reimburse insurers for lowering out-of-pocket costs that low-income Americans would otherwise have to pay. Trump and top aides have repeatedly hinted that they might stop the payments. That would cause many insurers to quit the market entirely.

Some insurance executives have said that administration officials have tried to use that threat to strong-arm them into supporting the Republican bill, Levey reported. Administration spokespeople deny that.

Trump has said repeatedly that if Obamacare collapses, he thinks Democrats will get the blame and will beg for negotiations. Few on Capitol Hill think thats true.

The biggest problems are hitting Republican states, in part because rural areas generally cost more to insure than urban ones. And in those states, the people facing the biggest cost increases are those who are too well off to qualify for Obamacare subsidies  think small-business owners in red states.

The pressure is squeezing Republican lawmakers.

But Republicans cant agree on a replacement for Obamacare and, so far, have not been willing to negotiate with Democrats to come up with more modest proposals that would leave the law intact but fix some of its problems.

The squeeze got worse on Wednesday when the Congressional Budget Office issued its report on what the House-passed healthcare law would do.

The number of Americans without insurance would increase by 23 million, insurance markets in many states would become unstable and insurance would become unaffordable for many older, sicker Americans, the report said. It landed as a heavy blow.

In Congress, where everything is about politics, the CBO is the closest thing possible to a neutral referee. Both sides snipe at it. But few ignore it.

Even before the report came out, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who seldom says anything substantive in public, told Reuters that I dont know how we get to 50 [votes] at the moment.

GOP senators have been grappling with the healthcare issue in closed-door meetings most of the month. Now, theyre preparing to go home for a Memorial Day recess where many will face healthcare protests.

When they return, the time for decisions will be nigh. Its still possible that McConnell and his colleagues can find an agreement that would bridge the wide gap between GOP conservatives and centrists. But with only 52 votes, the Republicans have little wiggle room.

McConnell needs to get the healthcare debate finished to clear the way for a subject he cares about more passionately -- tax cuts. One possibility would be to bring a version of the House-passed bill to the floor for a vote, knowing it likely will fall short.

What would happen next?

On both sides of the political divide, some lawmakers believe they could come up with a bipartisan compromise on healthcare that would win majority support. So far, the leadership in both parties has blocked any efforts in that direction.

Might the rising pressure of market chaos be enough to force a change? This summer, we may find out.

HANDSHAKES, LEAKS AND TESTY WORDS

With all the negative things that candidate Trump said during the 2016 campaign about Muslims in general and Saudi Arabia in particular, one might not have predicted that his warmest welcome of a nine-day trip would come in Riyadh.

But as Mike Memoli reported, the Saudis went overboard to make Trumps arrival memorable. They have reason to, as Tracy Wilkinson wrote: The administration has clearly gone all in on an alliance with the Sunni Muslim Arab states, led by the Saudis, in their fight against the Shiite Muslims, led by Iran.

The pro-Saudi orientation is a traditional Republican approach, reversing the Obama administrations effort to find a more neutral path that might lead to better relations with the Iranians.

Beyond the ceremonials, the centerpiece of Trumps visit to Saudi Arabia was meant to be his speech on Islam, in which he avoided the anti-Muslim rhetoric of his campaign, but urged his listeners to drive out the supporters of terrorism from their communities.

The Saudi leg of the visit was largely stage-managed by two princes  Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner and King Salmans son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman. As Memoli and Molly Hennessey-Fiske wrote, the two have been working on the visit since even before Trumps inauguration.

Trump hopes that close ties with the Saudis will help bring about a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. But in Israel, the second stop of his trip, prospects for a peace agreement seemed no closer.

From there, Trump headed to Rome for a meeting with the pope that seemed destined to be remembered mostly for grim-faced images.

On Thursday, he scolded NATO allies for not spending enough toward their common defense, a repeated theme for him.

As Memoli reported from Brussels, Trump notably did not make a specific pledge to back NATOs Article V  the promise that an attack on one ally would be considered an attack on all. In the days leading up to the NATO meeting, allied officials had expressed hope that Trump would reassert U.S. support.

The day was a great one for readers of body language: To begin with, there was that handshake with Macron. Later, European leaders seemed to cluster around German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ignore Trump at a gathering. And, of course, there was Trumps memorable shove, pushing the prime minister of tiny Montenegro out of his way as he moved toward his designated spot for a group photo.

A CHILL OVER GLOBAL WARMING

Among the many topics of disagreement between Trump and the allies is climate change.

As Evan Halper reported, Trump was repeatedly lobbied by leaders including Macron and the pope to abandon a campaign pledge.

Trump has promised to tear up the U.S. agreement to the global climate pact reached in Paris in December 2015. Conservative Republicans dont like the Paris accord. But many business executives think its in their best interests.

Trump repeatedly has delayed making a decision about the Paris accord, highlighting divisions within his White House, Halper reported.

A DEAD ON ARRIVAL BUDGET

Trump was thousands of miles away when his administrations budget for the coming year was released. The symbolism may have been a coincidence, but was powerful nonetheless. From the White House to Capitol Hill, no one seemed to be think the budget mattered very much.

The budget, with its calls for deep spending cuts on virtually all domestic spending programs, reflects the priorities of Trumps budget director, Mick Mulvaney, a former member of Congress known for his opposition to federal spending.

Theres not much evidence that it reflects priorities that Trump will actually fight for.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers largely treated the budget release as a non-event.

Ultimately, said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican leader, we will have to come up with a budget ourselves.

LOSING AGAIN IN COURT

Trumps proposed temporary ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries has been like a bad penny that keeps bringing the administration trouble.

This week, it was a ruling from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which scathingly rejected the travel ban.

Trumps revised executive order speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination, Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote.

Eventually, however, the case is likely to get to the Supreme Court, which has a more conservative majority, as David Savage noted. There, the administrations arguments may get a more receptive hearing.

Despite the setbacks the administration has experienced in court, the number of refugees entering the U.S. has declined a lot in recent months, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, based on analysis of State Department data. In October, 9,945 refugees arrived in the U.S. That had dropped to 3,316 by April.

This decline has been felt by 46 of the 50 states, said Phillip Connor, a Pew research associate.

Elsewhere on the immigration front, the Justice Department backed away from some of its threats against so-called sanctuary cities, Joe Tanfani reported.

HIGH TIMES

Marijuana entrepreneurs arent spending too much time worrying about Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and his threats to crack down: Theres too much money to be made, and states are moving to protect the pot industry, Halper reports.

THE BODY SLAM ELECTION

Two months ago, no one would have predicted that a special election to fill Montanas at-large congressional seat would turn into one of the hottest races of the year, complete with an election-eve assault charge against the GOP candidate, Greg Gianforte.

Gianfortes alleged assault against Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian, brought a charge of misdemeanor assault. But it was not enough to keep him from winning in a heavily Republican state, as Mark Barabak wrote.

Its unclear whether many larger lessons can be drawn from such an idiosyncratic special election: Republicans have now held two of the seats vacated by people who moved into Trumps Cabinet.

Money and attention will now focus on the third such contest, on June 20, in a suburban district outside of Atlanta where the Democrat, Jon Ossoff, is trying to win the seat formerly held by Tom Price, the secretary of Health and Human Services.

PULLED TO THE LEFT

Even as the Democrats try to win congressional contests on conservative turf, the reaction against Trump has energized the partys most liberal activists.

The impact was plain as California Democrats gathered for their party convention this past weekend, where a generational shift in power could be clearly seen, Cathy Decker wrote. Figures who have dominated the state party for decades, Gov. Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, both skipped the event. A new generation was visibly struggling to rise.

The shift is pulling the party to the left. The issue for Democrats, in California as in Georgia, is whether that leftward lunge will endanger their chances of winning in more conservative areas.

ALL THE PRESIDENTS TWEETS

Twitter has long been Trumps favored means of pushing his message. Were compiling all of Trumps tweets. Its a great resource. Take a look.

LOGISTICS

That wraps up this week! Essential Politics is taking a Memorial Day break. My colleague Christina Bellantoni will be back Tuesday with the weekday edition of Essential Politics. Keep track of any breaking news and all the developments in national politics and the Trump administration with our Essential Washington blog, at our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics.

Send your comments, suggestions and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

If you like this newsletter, tell your friends to sign up.

David.lauter@latimes.com

@davidlauter
Tens of thousands of rape kits are sitting on shelves in police and sheriffs department evidence rooms nationwide. And no one has tested them to see what crimes they could help solve.

A bill by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would help determine how many of those unanalyzed exam kits exist in California, part of a national backlog that federal officials have grappled with for nearly two decades.

Assembly Bill 41 would require law enforcement agencies to report to the state how many sexual assault kits they collected and have examined, and how many they havent  along with the reason why the evidence wasnt tested. It has sailed through the legislative process so far but could face a battle in the state Senate with heavy opposition from the California State Sheriffs Assn., which says the financial burden would fall on law enforcement agencies to collect the new data.

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Chiu argues that improved reporting would help determine which law enforcement departments need more resources to test kits and provide greater transparency around a procedure that can last hours and is intrusive for victims.

Sexual assault survivors deserve answers about the rape kits they submit, Chiu said. When kits go untested, it re-victimizes victims and allows criminals to go free.

Sexual assault kits consist of swabs and materials to collect and preserve forensic evidence from a victims body in the hours after an attack. National debate over the high number of kits that remain untested  estimated by the U.S. Department of Justice to be roughly 400,000 in 2015  has spurred bipartisan legislation in Congress and more than $1 billion in federal funding over the years to help state and local law enforcement agencies track and analyze the evidence.

Federal legislation also has centered on informing survivors. One of the latest bills, signed by then-President Obama last year, guarantees that victims in federal criminal cases will have access to the results of their sexual assault exams and are alerted before the kits are destroyed.

Rebecca OConnor, vice president of public policy at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, said rape kit backlogs accumulated at police and sheriffs departments as DNA technology and understanding of sex crimes began to evolve.

Kits often went untested when a victim had already named her abuser or investigators had identified a suspect in a case through other evidence. Now there is a push to test in situations where an acquaintance of the victim is determined to be the attacker, which could help identify serial offenders who are likely to strike again, she said.

The value goes beyond identifying an individual in one case, she said. In many ways, DNA is a victim of its own success because the more agencies see it work, the more they demand it.

But analyzing DNA is expensive: A rape kit can cost about $500 to $1,500 to test, and law enforcement agencies in California and nationwide have lobbied against blanket policies that would require them to count and analyze all of their sexual assault evidence.

In Sacramento, at least half a dozen bills have died or been vetoed over the last decade that would have required law enforcement to tackle backlogs and speed up the examination process for survivors. Legislation to allocate funding for DNA testing hasnt fared well, either.

A bill by former Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Gatto that was shelved in a fiscal committee last session would have earmarked $15 million for law enforcement agencies to analyze forensic evidence, including rape kits, in cold cases.

This year, at least three bills aim to tackle a state backlog that one advocacy nonprofit partially estimates at nearly 9,000 kits.

Legislation by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) would allow people to make a donation for the testing of rape kits when filing their personal income taxes.

Another bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) would require that victims receive notice of the status of their kits and ban law enforcement agencies from destroying sexual assault evidence for at least 20 years. It moved out of the state Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday, even after its analysis found it could cost $3 million to construct a new storage facility to house evidence.

Chius legislation is substantially similar to his previous bill last year, which died in a fiscal committee and was inspired by a 2014 report from State Auditor Elaine Howle. That analysis found it was uncertain whether testing more rape kits led to more arrests and convictions but recommended that lawmakers require police to track the numbers and explain why samples were not examined to further study the issue.

Under AB 41, law enforcement agencies would use a database to report the new data to the state Department of Justice within 120 days of the collection of a sample. It would apply to all rape kits collected on or after January 2018.

Cory Salzillo, legislative director with the California State Sheriffs Assn., told an Assembly committee in February that his organization opposed the bill because of its fiscal and workload implications.

It creates another unfunded mandate, he said, while state law already requires law enforcement agencies to notify victims when their samples will not be examined.

Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy OMalley, who sponsored the bill, argued that police agencies log all of the kits in their property collection databases. The additional work the bill would require would amount only to a few extra keystrokes, she said.

State lawmaker proposes bill to help determine how many untested rape kits exist in California 

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa

ALSO:

State lawmaker proposes bill to help determine how many untested rape kits exist in California

Spurred by Brock Turner case, Gov. Jerry Brown signs laws to toughen laws against rape

Shelved DNA bill had personal meaning for Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Gatto

Lawmakers try to fix a side effect of reducing drug and theft crimes: Not enough DNA samples for cold cases

Updates on California politics

UPDATES:

1:30 p.m.: This story was updated to include the new status of Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletchers rape kit legislation. It moved out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee Friday morning.

This story was originally published at 12 a.m.
Trump promotes sons Justice with Judge Jeanine interview President Trump promoted via Twitter an interview with his son Eric Trump just before it aired Saturday night on Fox News Justice with Judge Jeanine. Eric Trump on @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews now!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 Eric Trump called into the show to defend his father from criticism prompted by the first government shutdown in more than four years, as well as a series of Womens March events that saw protesters in dozens of cities take to the streets to oppose the presidents policies. .@EricTrump joined me over the phone from Mar-a-Lago ! pic.twitter.com/Hro3TzUW52  Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2018 Speaking to host Jeannine Piro  who is reportedly an old friend of the presidents  Eric Trump offered effusive praise for his father, ticking off glowing statistics to illustrate the strength of the U.S. economy and gains against Islamic State fighters overseas. My fathers working like no ones ever worked before to bring back this country and to fulfill his promise to make America great again, said the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. He also repeated a sentiment recently expressed on Twitter by his father: That Democratic lawmakers forced a government shutdown on the anniversary of the presidents inauguration in a bid to distract from his achievements. You look at this whole government shutdown, and the only reason they want to shut down government is to distract and to stop his momentum, Eric Trump said. I mean, my father has had incredible momentum. Hes gotten more done in one year than arguably any president in history. Facebook

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Trump tweets: a perfect day for all Women to March President Trump hailed the nationwide Womens March gatherings Saturday. On Twitter, the president called it a perfect day for all Women to March, seeming to imply that those taking part were celebrating his administrations accomplishments: Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Participants in the marches across the United States were actually seeking to deliver a powerful rebuke to Trumps policies and mount a crucial mobilization for this years midterm elections. But Trump continued to tout his administrations unprecedented success in tweets sent later in the day: Unprecedented success for our Country, in so many ways, since the Election. Record Stock Market, Strong on Military, Crime, Borders, & ISIS, Judicial Strength & Numbers, Lowest Unemployment for Women & ALL, Massive Tax Cuts, end of Individual Mandate - and so much more. Big 2018!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The Trump Administration has terminated more UNNECESSARY Regulation, in just twelve months, than any other Administration has terminated during their full term in office, no matter what the length. The good news is, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO COME!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 21, 2018 In addition to the roll call of major American cities where womens marches took place  including New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta  protesters also raised their voices in suburbs and small towns, reflecting the aim of coalescing a broad-based movement on the anniversary of Trumps inauguration to oppose the presidents stance on immigration, healthcare, racial divides and an array of other issues. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Trump calls shutdown a present from Democrats By Associated Press President Trump is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown  tweeting that they wanted to give him a nice present to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration: This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 That comes after Senate Democrats late Friday killed a GOP-written House-passed measure that would have kept agencies functioning for four weeks. Democrats were seeking a stopgap bill of just a few days in hopes that would build pressure on Republicans, and they were opposing a three-week alternative offered by GOP leaders. Democrats have insisted they would back legislation reopening the government once theres a bipartisan agreement to preserve protections against deporting about 700,000 immigrants  known as Dreamers  who arrived in the United States illegally as children. Trump on Saturday accused Democrats of holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration: Democrats are holding our Military hostage over their desire to have unchecked illegal immigration. Cant let that happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Democrats are laying fault for the shutdown on Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House and have struggled with building internal consensus. In a series of tweets hours after the shutdown began, the president tried to make the case for Americans to elect more Republicans to Congress in November in order to power through this mess: Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 He noted that there are 51 Republicans in the 100-member Senate, and it often takes 60 votes to advance legislation: For those asking, the Republicans only have 51 votes in the Senate, and they need 60. That is why we need to win more Republicans in 2018 Election! We can then be even tougher on Crime (and Border), and even better to our Military & Veterans!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 #AMERICA FIRST!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 The stopgap spending measure won 50 votes in the Senate, including five from Democrats. Although the House and Senate were in session Saturday, it was unclear whether lawmakers would take any votes of consequence. Trump had been set to leave Friday afternoon for a fundraiser at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where he intended to mark the inauguration anniversary. But he remained in Washington and ended up scrapping his plans to attend the Saturday fundraiser. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet casts doubt on likelihood of averting shutdown President Trump appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown Friday night in a tweet. Trump also sought to blame Democrats for what would be the first shutdown since 2013. His message came just hours before the midnight deadline by which lawmakers must pass a measure to fund government agencies, or some operations will cease. Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018 Despite last-minute negotiations Friday between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Congress remained deadlocked over a spending bill and the federal government was headed toward a shutdown at midnight. Senate Democrats  joined by some GOP deficit hawks and immigration allies  were set to filibuster a stopgap funding bill approved by the House on Thursday. A Senate vote was planned for 10 p.m. Eastern, and even White House officials predicted it would fail. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Lisa Mascaro. Facebook

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Trump signs surveillance law after confusing tweets By Associated Press President Trump on Friday signed a bill into law to renew a foreign intelligence surveillance program, announcing his action in the latest in a series of confusing tweets about the spy program: Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018 Trumps tweet on Jan. 11 created chaos in the House just before it voted to reauthorize what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He linked the intelligence program to a dossier that alleges his presidential campaign had ties to Russia. That caused people to wonder if he didnt support the program that allows U.S. spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that happened. Shortly before the House vote, and after conferring with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump did an apparent about-face. This vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land, he tweeted. We need it! Get smart! In his tweet announcing that he had just signed the bill, Trump wrote: This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first! There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trumps oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration conducted surveillance on Trump Tower during the presidential campaign. Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests that Pennsylvania trip is a political one The White House press office was once again forced to walk back a tweet from President Trump on Thursday morning after he described a trip to Pennsylvania later in the day as a political one  a statement that would force the Republican Party, not taxpayers, to pay for the journey. The White House had said Trump was going to an industrial equipment company outside of Pittsburgh to highlight the good economy and new tax cuts, making it an official, policy-oriented event. It was widely assumed that the trip had a political cast  the area is holding a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by a Republican who resigned. Trump, by his tweet, seemed to confirm that politics was the whole purpose: Will be going to Pennsylvania today in order to give my total support to RICK SACCONE, running for Congress in a Special Election (March 13). Rick is a great guy. We need more Republicans to continue our already successful agenda!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 Trump later shared via Twitter a pair of video clips of his speech at H&K Equipment, in which he touted the tax cuts he signed into law just before Christmas and tried to turn the conversation back to his accomplishments after weeks dominated by distractions, including questions about his mental health and comments about immigration that some considered racist: Departing Pittsburgh now, where it was my great honor to stand with our incredible workers, and to show the world that AMERICA is back - and we are coming back bigger and better and stronger than ever before! pic.twitter.com/kWPgylqFzj  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 AMERICA will once again be a NATION that thinks big, dreams bigger, and always reaches for the stars. YOU are the ones who will shape Americas destiny. YOU are the ones who will restore our prosperity. And YOU are the ones who are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! #MAGA pic.twitter.com/f2abNK47II  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018 The Republican National Committee, rather than the White House, is supposed to pay for political travel so that taxpayers are not financing party activities; for trips that combine policy and politics, parties have split the cost under past presidents. Neither the RNC nor the White House responded to emails sent Thursday asking who would pay. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement later Thursday suggesting that taxpayers would foot the bill. She insisted that Trump would be conducting government business while in Pennsylvania. Read More This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump tweets praise of Bob Dole after awarding him Congressional Gold Medal By Associated Press Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole knew the art of the deal before President Trump published the 1987 book of the same name. The two shared a stage under the Capitol dome Wednesday as Dole, 94, accepted Congress highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, for his World War II service and decades of work in the House and Senate. Trump later praised Dole in a tweet, attaching to his message a video composed of clips from the ceremony: Today, we witnessed an incredible moment in history  the presentation of Congress highest civilian honor to our friend, and true AMERICAN HERO, Bob Dole. #CongressionalGoldMedal pic.twitter.com/qNQqDLRmCk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2018 At the ceremony, the president saluted Dole as a patriot and gave tribute to Doles struggle as a veteran who worked his way back from a grievous shoulder wound he suffered in Italy. He knows about grit, said Trump. But it was Doles penchant for working across the aisle that earned him his latest award, according to the legislation. Bob Dole was known for his ability to work across the aisle and embrace practical bipartisanship, reads the legislation Trump signed in September. Some of the awards 300 recipients include George Washington and Mother Teresa, according to the Congressional Research Service. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts report that seeks to link terrorism cases with immigration By Joseph Tanfani The Trump administration on Tuesday released a report attempting to link terrorism with migration, arguing that it was evidence of the need to dramatically reshape the nations immigration system. New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born. We have submitted to Congress a list of resources and reforms....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 ....we need to keep America safe, including moving away from a random chain migration and lottery system, to one that is merit-based. https://t.co/7PtoSFK1n2  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The report, ordered by President Trump in an executive order last year, said that 75% of the 549 people convicted of terrorism charges since 9/11 were born outside the U.S. Administration officials called that a sign that the U.S. needs to scrap its policy of family preferences for visas, which they call chain migration, and a diversity visa lottery program. But the report did not specify how many  if any  of the convicted terrorists entered the country through those means. It also did not detail how many of the convictions were related to attacks or plans in the U.S. versus overseas and how many involved people who went to fight overseas for the Islamic State or another terrorist group. Those details were not available, officials said. The report, due last year, is being released in a highly charged moment in the immigration debate, as Trump and some Republicans in Congress seek tough new border and immigration measures in return for a deal protecting the 690,000 people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump also fired off a pair of tweets on the topic earlier Tuesday: We must have Security at our VERY DANGEROUS SOUTHERN BORDER, and we must have a great WALL to help protect us, and to help stop the massive inflow of drugs pouring into our country!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The Democrats want to shut down the Government over Amnesty for all and Border Security. The biggest loser will be our rapidly rebuilding Military, at a time we need it more than ever. We need a merit based system of immigration, and we need it now! No more dangerous Lottery.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The focus of our immigration system should be assimilation, a senior administration official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition that his name not be used. He said the nation should give priority to potential immigrants who speak English, who have an education and those who are committed to supporting our values  not family members of people already here. The official said the timing of the report was coincidental. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets welcome to president of Kazakhstan By Associated Press President Trump said Tuesday that he and the president of Kazakhstan are united in a shared determination to prevent North Korea from threatening the world with nuclear devastation. Trump and President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed North Korea along with other issues during meetings at the White House. Today, it was my honor to welcome President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to the @WhiteHouse! pic.twitter.com/TerYFZViax  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 Trump said Kazakhstan, once part of the Soviet Union, is a valued partner in our efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. Together we are determined to prevent the North Korean regime from threatening the world with nuclear devastation, he said, as both presidents addressed journalists between meetings. Nazarbayev noted that his country once had one of the worlds largest nuclear arsenals but voluntarily gave it up after the Soviet Union collapsed. He said his country is in talks with Iran, which was the focus of a global deal that lifted some economic sanctions in exchange for Irans curbing its nuclear program. Trump has sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal and threatened last week to pull out soon unless other countries fix what he says are terrible flaws. Read More Facebook

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Trump falsely claims his approval rating among black Americans has doubled By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump lashed out at the news media Tuesday morning in a tweet denouncing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion among members of his campaign team. Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative. The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the presidents tweet, but it appeared as though he was watching Fox & Friends. A short time later, Trump tweeted a headline from a report that aired during that mornings episode: 90% of Trump 2017 news coverage was negative -and much of it contrived!@foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 The segment focused on the latest survey results from conservative watchdog Media Research Center, which purportedly analyzed the evening news broadcasts on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 and found that 90% of the statements made about Trump were negative. Study: 90% of Trump media coverage in 2017 was negative pic.twitter.com/vbrwup4Drg  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 16, 2018 But believe it or not, through all this negative coverage, they did a survey of 600,000 people about how black America views this president, co-host Brian Kilmeade said. His numbers have actually doubled in approval. Trump highlighted the statement in another tweet: Unemployment for Black Americans is the lowest ever recorded. Trump approval ratings with Black Americans has doubled. Thank you, and it will get even (much) better! @FoxNews  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2018 But its not true. The claim appears to have originated from a misreading of data from the online polling firm SurveyMonkey, according to factcheck.org. The firm polled 600,000 Americans in 2017 and found that Trumps approval rating among blacks actually dropped from 23% early in his presidency to about 17%, as of the week ending Jan. 3. Some conservative outlets, including Breitbart, produced an average from those and other SurveyMonkey figures and compared them to the scores Trump received from black voters in the 2016 exit polls. That methodology is not sound. And since the statistics measure different things, the comparison is misleading. Facebook

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Trump goes after senator who surfaced his immigration remark By Associated Press President Trump turned his Twitter torment Monday on the Democrat in the room where immigration talks with lawmakers took a famously coarse turn, saying Sen. Richard J. Durbin misrepresented what he had said about African nations and Haiti and, in the process, undermined the trust needed to make a deal. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting, Trump tweeted, using a nickname to needle the Illinois senator. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military. Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals cant get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 Trump was referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young people who came to the United States illegally as children. Members of Congress from both parties are trying to strike a deal that Trump would support to extend that protection. Trump also cast doubt on the likelihood of reaching an agreement in tweets sent earlier Monday: Statement by me last night in Florida: Honestly, I dont think the Democrats want to make a deal. They talk about DACA, but they dont want to help..We are ready, willing and able to make a deal but they dont want to. They dont want security at the border, they dont want.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 ...to stop drugs, they want to take money away from our military which we cannot do. My standard is very simple, AMERICA FIRST & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2018 On a day of remembrance for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Trump spent time at his golf course with no public events, bypassing the acts of service that his predecessors staged in honor of the civil rights leader. Instead, Trump dedicated his weekly address to Kings memory, saying Kings dream and Americas are the same: A world where people are judged by who they are, not how they look or where they come from. That message was a distinct counterpoint to words attributed to Trump by Durbin and others at a meeting last week, when the question of where immigrants come from seemed at the forefront of Trumps concerns. Some participants and others familiar with the conversation said Trump challenged immigration from shithole countries of Africa and disparaged Haiti as well. Without explicitly denying using that word, Trump lashed out at the Democratic senator, who said Trump uttered it on several occasions. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks pundit for laudatory Fox & Friends spot By Alex Wigglesworth President Trump thanked Fox News personality Stuart Varney after Varney praised Trump during an appearance on Fox & Friends. In a pair of tweets early Sunday, Trump quoted from Varneys commentary, in which he argued that Trump deserves more credit for the booming economy. The pundit, who also hosts a show on Fox Business Network, cited moves by some corporations to raise workers minimum wage or pay out one-time bonuses in response to the GOP tax cuts. President Trump is not getting the credit he deserves for the economy. Tax Cut bonuses to more than 2,000,000 workers. Most explosive Stock Market rally that weve seen in modern times. 18,000 to 26,000 from Election, and grounded in profitability and growth. All Trump, not 0...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 ...big unnecessary regulation cuts made it all possible (among many other things). President Trump reversed the policies of President Obama, and reversed our economic decline. Thank you Stuart Varney. @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018 Varney was reacting to a quote from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who on Thursday called the bonuses handed down to workers pathetic in comparison to the gains corporations are expected to see from the tax cuts. In terms of the bonus that corporate America received versus the crumbs that they are giving to workers to kind of put the schmooze on is so pathetic, Pelosi told reporters. Its pathetic. Varney shot back Sunday that the bonuses, along with explosive stock market growth, are enriching all Americans. This is a huge shot in the arm, its the result of this tax cut deal and I think President Trump should get the credit for it, he said. .@Varneyco Sets the economic record straight after Nancy Pelosi calls U.S. mass bonuses crumbs pic.twitter.com/BvjIHGm3HE  FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) January 14, 2018 The sweeping tax plan passed last month lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and cuts personal income taxes. Analysts say the benefits will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, as theyre more likely to be in positions to share in corporate profits. For instance, Wells Fargo & Co., which responded to news of the tax overhaul by announcing it will raise workers pay to at least $15 an hour, also reported that it expects to pay an effective tax rate of 19% this year, down from about 31% in previous years. That should amount to tax savings of more than $3 billion annually. On average, middle-class Americans are expected to see a very small tax cut in the near term and a tax increase after 2025, when all of the tax cuts for individuals expire. The tax cuts for corporations, however, are permanent.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer James Rufus Koren. Facebook

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Trump touts MLK proclamation in tweet, but ceremony is overshadowed by reports of racist remarks By Associated Press President Trump signed a proclamation Friday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, noting the contributions of a great American hero. Today, it was my great honor to proclaim January 15, 2018, as Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday. I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King's life and legacy. pic.twitter.com/samlJsz1Nt  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 Overshadowing the event was mounting backlash from Trumps comments during a private meeting with lawmakers the day before. A short time after the meeting, which was called to discuss a possible immigration deal, reports emerged that Trump had asked participants why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senates second-ranking Democrat, appeared to confirm those reports on Friday. Trump did not respond Friday to several questions about the incident, including whether he actually used vulgar language to describe African nations, or if he is racist. The president said at the White House that love was central to the slain civil rights leader. Trump said the nation celebrates King for standing up for the self-evident truth Americans hold so dear, that no matter what the color of our skin or place of our birth, we are all created equal by God.  This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump criticizes Democrats in tweet calling for stricter immigration rules President Trump hit out at Democrats on Thursday night in a tweet calling for stricter immigration rules. Trump wrote that members of the party seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the border with Mexico: The Democrats seem intent on having people and drugs pour into our country from the Southern Border, risking thousands of lives in the process. It is my duty to protect the lives and safety of all Americans. We must build a Great Wall, think Merit and end Lottery & Chain. USA!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2018 It wasnt immediately clear exactly what prompted the tweet. Earlier Thursday, Trump rejected a bipartisan compromise to resolve the standoff over so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children but have temporary permits to work, attend school or serve in the military. The president drew widespread condemnation after reports emerged that he had asked participants in an Oval Office meeting about the proposal why the United States should accept immigrants from shithole countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts bill aimed at improving border screening for fentanyl By Associated Press President Trump signed legislation Wednesday aimed at giving Customs and Border Protection agents additional screening devices and other tools to stop the flow of illicit drugs. Speaking at a surprise bill-signing ceremony while flanked by members of Congress from both parties in the Oval Office, Trump described the bill as a significant step forward in the fight against powerful opioids such as fentanyl, which he called our new big scourge. He echoed that language Thursday in a tweet: Yesterday, I signed the #INTERDICTAct (H.R. 2142) with bipartisan members of Congress to help end the flow of drugs into our country. Together, we are committed to doing everything we can to combat the deadly scourge of drug addiction and overdose in the United States! pic.twitter.com/ELZvFol5Lo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 The legislation will pay for new portable and fixed chemical screening devices to detect and intercept fentanyl at ports of entry and in the mail, along with other laboratory equipment and personnel, including scientists. Trump has made fighting the opioid epidemic a centerpiece of his administration, though critics say he hasnt dedicated nearly enough money or resources to make a difference. Trump suggested during his remarks on Wednesday that hed like to take a more aggressive approach to the drug crisis  but the countrys not ready for what he has in mind. So were going to sign this. And its a step. And it feels like a very giant step, but unfortunately, its not going to be a giant step, because no matter what you do, this is something that keeps pouring in, he said. And were going to find the answer. There is an answer. I think I actually know the answer, but Im not sure the countrys ready for it yet, he added. Does anybody know what I mean? I think so. Facebook

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Trump applauds news that Toyota-Mazda plant is slated for Alabama By Associated Press Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda on Wednesday announced plans to build a mammoth, $1.6-billion joint-venture plant in Alabama that will eventually employ about 4,000 people. President Trump lauded the news in a tweet: Cutting taxes and simplifying regulations makes America the place to invest! Great news as Toyota and Mazda announce they are bringing 4,000 JOBS and investing $1.6 BILLION in Alabama, helping to further grow our economy! pic.twitter.com/Kcg8IVH6iA  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUVs a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2018 Several states had competed for the project, which will be able to turn out 300,000 vehicles per year and produce the Toyota Corolla compact car for North America and a new small SUV from Mazda. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and company executives held a news conference to announce that the facility is coming to the Huntsville area not far from the Tennessee line. Production is expected to begin by 2021. The decision to pick Alabama is another example of foreign-based automakers building U.S. factories in the South. To entice manufacturers, Southern states have used a combination of lucrative incentive packages, low-cost labor and a pro-business labor environment, because the United Auto Workers union is stronger in Northern states. Read More Facebook

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Trump highlights call for border wall in tweets on visit with Norways prime minister By Associated Press President Trump praised Norways prime minister in a tweet on Wednesday after Erna Solberg became the first foreign leader to visit with the president in 2018. Today, it was my great honor to welcome Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway to the @WhiteHouse - a great friend and ally of the United States! Joint press conference: https://t.co/qWR1BhfQZI pic.twitter.com/PJvwznjRCO  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Trump also shared via Twitter a video clip of a joint news conference he held with Solberg on Wednesday afternoon. In the clip, Trump responds to a question from a reporter by saying there can be no bipartisan immigration deal absent funding for his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been seeking a solution for hundreds of thousands of so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the United States as children and are living here illegally. The United States needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval. The safety and security of our country is #1! pic.twitter.com/4CFzQXb5aS  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 We need the wall for security, we need the wall for safety, we need the wall for stopping the drugs from pouring in, Trump said Wednesday.  Any solution has to include the wall because without the wall, it all doesnt work. On Tuesday, Trump drew widespread attention when he said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. That contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill in subsequent tweets and public comments. Read More This post contains reporting from Los Angeles Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump praises Cabinet in tweet touting meeting By Associated Press President Trump promoted a meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, sharing via Twitter a link to a video of the session posted on the White House YouTube account. In his tweet, Trump thanked his Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country and wrote that the last year has been one of monumental achievement. I want to thank my @Cabinet for working tirelessly on behalf of our country. 2017 was a year of monumental achievement and we look forward to the year ahead. Together, we are delivering results and MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/ptXa1hAPwW pic.twitter.com/yv6RALkQf3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The former reality television star continued to dispense accolades at the meeting Wednesday, greeting reporters in the Cabinet Room by saying: Welcome back to the studio. Then he proceeded to relive a Cabinet Room session from the prior day, when he had allowed reporters and TV cameras to stick around for much of his meeting with a bipartisan group of legislators on the thorny issue of immigration. It was a tremendous meeting. Actually, it was reported as incredibly good. And my performance  you know, some of them called it a performance  I consider it work, Trump said. Trump went on to say he had received letters from news anchors calling it one of the greatest meetings theyve ever witnessed. He added that the media will ultimately support Trump in the end, because theyre going to say, if Trump doesnt win in three years, theyre all out of business. Asked for examples of letters received from news anchors, the White House said it had received private communications. It also offered a series of positive on-air comments and tweets from journalists about the unusual access to the meeting. During his remarks, Trump swung from praising his own meeting coverage to telling journalists that they were dependent on his presidency for ratings to threatening a strong look at libel laws. Still, Trump thanked the journalists in front of him, joking: Youve gotten very familiar with this room. I appreciate your nice comments yesterday. Facebook

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Trump blasts DACA ruling in tweet calling courts broken and unfair By Lisa Mascaro President Trump denounced the federal courts Wednesday as broken and unfair after a district judge in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction keeping protections in place for so-called Dreamers. Trump tweeted: It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 On Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco temporarily blocked the Trump administrations decision to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which has protected from deportation some 700,000 people who came to the country illegally as children. Alsup granted a request by the state of California, the University of California and other plaintiffs to stop Trump from ending DACA on March 5. The administrations decision to end DACA, which was announced in September, was based on a flawed legal analysis, Alsup wrote in his decision. Dreamers would be irreparably harmed if their DACA protections, which allow them to live and work legally in the U.S., were stripped away before the courts had a chance to fully consider their claims, he ruled. The action is the mirror image of a ruling in 2015 by a federal judge in Texas who ruled in favor of that state when it sought to block President Obama from expanding DACA to include the parents of Dreamers. Trump administration officials praised that judicial ruling. By contrast, they sharply criticized Alsups decision. Read More Facebook

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Trump thanks lawmakers for productive immigration meeting, says deal must include border wall President Trump thanked a bipartisan group of lawmakers for participating in a meeting on immigration legislation on Tuesday. Much of the discussion involved so-called Dreamers, an estimated 700,000 young people who were brought to the country illegally as children and are now facing deportation. In a tweet, Trump wrote that there was strong agreement to negotiate a bill to protect Dreamers, as well as put into place some of the reforms favored by Republicans. Thanks to all of the Republican and Democratic lawmakers for todays very productive meeting on immigration reform. There was strong agreement to negotiate a bill that deals with border security, chain migration, lottery and DACA. https://t.co/SdqAQ3aL3z pic.twitter.com/8DYHZHspAy  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 The most notable exchange of the meeting came when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco Democrat, asked Trump whether he would be agreeable to signing a stand-alone bill to protect the Dreamers, before moving on to a more comprehensive immigration bill. Yeah, I would like to do it, Trump responded. The statement drew widespread attention because it contradicted the Republican consensus that Dreamers fate needed to be part of a broader immigration bill that would include some version of Trumps promised border wall and other immigration reforms. Trump later backed away from a stand-alone Dreamer bill, tweeting that a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico must be part of any deal: As I made very clear today, our country needs the security of the Wall on the Southern Border, which must be part of any DACA approval.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 Pressure has been mounting for Congress to broker an immigration deal by Jan. 19 as part of a must-pass budget package to fund the government. This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Noah Bierman. Facebook

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Trump thanks officers and veterans in tweets President Trump doled out a slew of accolades Tuesday via Twitter. He thanked the nations law enforcement officers, including in his message a hashtag denoting a day of appreciation organized by a national support group for law enforcement families. On behalf of the American people, THANK YOU to our incredible law enforcement officers. As President of the United States - I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue! #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay pic.twitter.com/Qb4uxB4JRm  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trump later expressed gratitude for federal immigration agents, in particular: .@ICEgov HSI agents and ERO officers, on behalf of an entire Nation, THANK YOU for what you are doing 24/7/365 to keep fellow Americans SAFE. Everyone is so grateful!#LawEnforcementAppreciationDay

President @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HXCpTlruVo  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018 The president thanked veterans as he cited his administrations efforts to curb the number of veteran suicides by improving mental health treatment for the high-risk group: Today, it was my great honor to sign a new Executive Order to ensure Veterans have the resources they need as they transition back to civilian life. We must ensure that our HEROES are given the care and support they so richly deserve! https://t.co/0MdP9DDIAS pic.twitter.com/LP2a8KCBAp  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 Trumps tweet included photos of the president signing an executive order Tuesday directing the secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to develop a plan to provide seamless access to mental health and suicide prevention resources for 12 months for members leaving the armed forces. Also on Tuesday, Trump touted a law he signed the day before designating the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a national historic park: It was my great honor to sign H.R. 267, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act, which redesignates the Martin Luther King, Junior, National Historic Site in the State of Georgia as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. https://t.co/Qe0b6HBFTY pic.twitter.com/QTgaqTawPT  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2018 And he thanked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) for sharing a video compilation comprised of clips of politicians and commentators praising the GOPs tax cut bill: Thank you @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy! Couldnt agree w/you more. TOGETHER, we are #MAGA https://t.co/QaxtqpyXTR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018  This post contains reporting from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump hails tax bill in tweets recapping speech to farmers By Associated Press Connecting with rural Americans, President Trump on Monday hailed his tax overhaul as a victory for family farmers. Farm country is Gods country, Trump told the annual convention of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Trump became the first president in a quarter-century to address the federations convention. His Southern swing also included a stop in Atlanta for the national college football championship game. Cant wait to be back in the amazing state of Tennessee to address the 99th American @FarmBureau Federations Annual Convention in Nashville! #AFBF18



On my way now - join me LIVE at 4:00pmE: https://t.co/QaljAqekdD. pic.twitter.com/Wm7Io0hYT8  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Joined by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and a group of Tennessee lawmakers, Trump said most of the benefits of the tax legislation are going to working families, small businesses, and who  the family farmer. The package Trump signed into law last month provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families. In every decision we make, we are honoring Americas PROUD FARMING LEGACY. Years of crushing taxes, crippling regs, & corrupt politics left our communities hurting, our economy stagnant, & millions of hardworking Americans COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN. But they are not forgotten ANYMORE! pic.twitter.com/MdYS7xnukQ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The president vastly inflated the value of the package in his speech, citing a total of $5.5 trillion in tax cuts, with most of those benefits going to working families, small businesses and who? The family farmer. The estimated value of the tax cuts is actually $1.5 trillion for families and businesses because of cuts in deductions and the use of other steps to generate offsetting tax revenue. We have been working every day to DELIVER for Americas Farmers just as they work every day to deliver FOR US. #AFBF18 pic.twitter.com/QDH7fvFkZ7  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 From Nashville, Trump traveled to Atlanta to watch Alabamas Crimson Tide and Georgias Bulldogs face off Monday night in the College Football Playoff National Championship. We are fighting for our farmers, for our country, and for our GREAT AMERICAN FLAG. We want our flag respected - and we want our NATIONAL ANTHEM respected also! pic.twitter.com/16eOLXg6Fi  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Before departing for the game, Trump referenced his ongoing defense of the American flag and the national anthem, saying there was enough space for people to express their views. We love our flag and we love our anthem, and we want to keep it that way, he said. Facebook

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Trump tweet hails drop in unemployment rate for African Americans By Associated Press President Trump touted a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans on Monday in a tweet. African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 The rate fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Trump also hailed the development via Twitter on Saturday. His latest tweet on the topic came about an hour after it was discussed during an episode of Fox & Friends, according to Mediaite. Facebook

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Trump talks up the economy and dresses down the media in Sunday tweets With President Trump cheering from the sidelines, the White House on Sunday pressed its defense of the presidents fitness to govern, as fired former aide Stephen K. Bannon reversed course and apologized for his role in a new books explosive portrait of Trump. The presidents critics, meanwhile, said Trumps stream of taunts and insults in response to the book  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, released last week  served only to underscore the authors unsettling portrayal of Trumps year-old presidency, depicting a leader whose own aides consider him childish, ignorant and dangerously erratic. Trump provided more ammunition Sunday morning, as he continued to attack the book via Twitter while preparing to depart Camp David for the White House: Leaving Camp David for the White House. Great meetings with the Cabinet and Military on many very important subjects including Border Security & the desperately needed Wall, the ever increasing Drug and Opioid Problem, Infrastructure, Military, Budget, Trade and DACA.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Ive had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 The most vehement defense of Trump on Sunday came from senior advisor Stephen Miller, a onetime Bannon acolyte who distanced himself from his former mentor. In a combative appearance Sunday on CNNs State of the Union, Miller called the book grotesque and writer Michael Wolff the garbage author of a garbage book. Trump is known to closely monitor aides televised performances in putting forth his case, and he gleefully weighed in within moments of Millers televised clash with host Jake Tapper. CNN has long been a particular target of Trumps ire. Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed in his interview with Stephen Miller of the Trump Administration. Watch the hatred and unfairness of this CNN flunky!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trumps reaction, however, seemed to bolster Tappers on-air depiction of Miller as using his appearance on the show to play to the president rather than addressing questions put to him. I get it  theres one viewer that you care about, the host said exasperatedly after Miller turned the discussion repeatedly to negative news coverage of the president while deflecting specific queries. Later on Twitter, Trump took up two themes that have been prevalent on his social media feeds recently. The president again went after the news media, tweeting that the recipients of his self-proclaimed most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year, which he promised earlier in the week to announce on Monday, would actually be revealed the following Wednesday: The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt & biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers on Wednesday, January 17th, rather than this coming Monday. The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 Trump later lauded a New York Post opinion piece that compared him favorably with his predecessor, President Obama, as well as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In quoting the op-ed, Trump initally misspelled consequential as consensual, but he deleted those tweets and re-sent the messages. His is turning out to be an enormously consequential presidency. So much so that, despite my own frustration over his missteps, there has never been a day when I wished Hillary Clinton were president. Not one. Indeed, as Trumps accomplishments accumulate, the mere thought of...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 ...Clinton in the WH, doubling down on Barack Obamas failed policies, washes away any doubts that America made the right choice. This was truly a change election  and the changes Trump is bringing are far-reaching & necessary. Thank you Michael Goodwin! https://t.co/4fHNcx2Ydg  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018 Trump also continued talking up the economy, which has been enjoying a period of strong gains. The Stock Market has been creating tremendous benefits for our country in the form of not only Record Setting Stock Prices, but present and future Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Seven TRILLION dollars of value created since our big election win!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2018 In addition to Miller, other senior administration officials made the rounds of Sunday news talk shows to decry the claims made in Wolffs book. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Wolffs characterization of Trump as averse to digesting classified briefing material was ludicrous, and the ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted that that those around Trump love their country and respect their president. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Laura King. Facebook

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Responding to book that mocks his intelligence, Trump tweets hes like, really smart By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump declared himself a very stable genius on Twitter on Saturday and later in a televised news conference called the author of a book that questioned his mental fitness a fraud. His comments came on a bone-cold day at Camp David during a weekend retreat with top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders strategizing on the years legislative agenda, including matters such as infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and national security. Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 ....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Still, Trumps explosive rebuttal to author Michael Wolffs claims not only opened the day, but it also ensured the presidents capability to fill the highest office in the land was a topic that would not go away. In his early-morning tweets, Trump said two of his greatest assets have been mental stability, and being, like, really smart. He noted that his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, played these cards [about competence] very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). Read More Facebook

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In morning tweets, Trump touts job numbers and takes digs at news media By Associated Press President Trump used Twitter on Saturday morning to tout a drop in the unemployment rate for African Americans. He also used the tweets as an opportunity to take digs at media outlets whose past coverage he has found to be critical. The African American unemployment rate fell to 6.8%, the lowest rate in 45 years. I am so happy about this News! And, in the Washington Post (of all places), headline states, Trumps first year jobs numbers were very, very good.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The unemployment rate for African Americans fell to 6.8% in December, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data in 1972. The reasons range from a greater number of black Americans with college degrees to a growing need for employers in a tight job market to widen the pool of people they hire from. Still, the rate for black workers remains well above those for whites and some other groups, something experts attribute in large part to decades of discrimination and disadvantages. Robust job creation has lowered unemployment for all Americans. U.S. employers added nearly 2.1 million jobs in 2017  the seventh straight year that hiring has topped 2 million. In his tweet, Trump praised a report that noted the numbers, touting the fact that it appeared in the Washington Post (of all places). Minutes later, Trump renewed his attack on an ABC News reporter who was suspended last month after filing an erroneous report on Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security advisor. Brian Ross, the reporter who made a fraudulent live newscast about me that drove the Stock Market down 350 points (billions of dollars), was suspended for a month but is now back at ABC NEWS in a lower capacity. He is no longer allowed to report on Trump. Should have been fired!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 The reporter, Brian Ross, was reportedly reassigned within ABC News upon returning from his unpaid suspension. But on Saturday, Trump wrote that he should have been fired. Trumps tweets came hours before he was set to host congressional Republicans and administration officials at Camp David. The meeting scheduled to begin at midmorning Saturday was expected to touch on the budget, infrastructure, immigration, welfare reform and the shape of the midterm election this fall. Facebook

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Trump commends Sen. Rand Paul after he proposes eliminating all U.S. aid to Pakistan President Trump commended Sen. Rand Paul after the Kentucky Republican announced plans to introduce legislation that would eliminate all U.S. aid to Pakistan. Trump tweeted Friday night: Good idea Rand! https://t.co/55sqUDiC0s  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 On Thursday, the Trump administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Islamabad until the country moves aggressively against local militants who have attacked U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration at the apparent inability of Pakistani authorities to rein in militants who cross out of the countrys rugged tribal areas to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson. Facebook

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Trump continues to lash out at Sloppy Steve Bannon in tweets on tell-all book By Associated Press President Trump is praising a major Republican donor family for distancing themselves from his former advisor Steve Bannon. Trump tweeted Friday: The Mercer Family recently dumped the leaker known as Sloppy Steve Bannon. Smart!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trump has continued to lash out at Bannon over an explosive new book that quoted his former aide as questioning Trumps competence and describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower among Donald Trump Jr., Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as treasonous and unpatriotic. On Thursday, billionaire GOP donor Rebekah Mercer issued a statement distancing her family from Bannon. Mercer is a co-owner of Breitbart, the populist website Bannon helps run. I support President Trump and the platform upon which he was elected, Mercer said. My family and I have not communicated with Steve Bannon in many months and have provided no financial support to his political agenda, nor do we support his recent actions and statements. The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, quickly shot atop Amazons best-seller list, and the publisher moved up its release date by four days, to Friday. Trump took up the topic again on Twitter on Friday night, denouncing both Bannon and the books author, Michael Wolff, in starkly personal terms: Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad! https://t.co/mEeUhk5ZV9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018 Trumps message linked to a meme depicting a parody book cover titled, Liar and Phony, that featured a photo of Wolff and disparaging quotes about the author. In a tweet sent earlier Friday morning, Trump suggested the book was intended to serve as a distraction from the FBIs investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which Trump wrote is proving to be a total hoax. Well, now that collusion with Russia is proving to be a total hoax and the only collusion is with Hillary Clinton and the FBI/Russia, the Fake News Media (Mainstream) and this phony new book are hitting out at every new front imaginable. They should try winning an election. Sad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 That came amid reports that Trump directed his White House counsel to tell Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself from the Justice Departments Russia investigation. Trumps effort to keep Sessions, a vocal and loyal supporter of his election bid, in charge of an investigation into his campaign offers special counsel Robert Mueller yet another avenue to explore as his prosecutors work to untangle potential evidence of obstruction. Read More Facebook

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Trump praises the economy ahead of meetings at Camp David By Associated Press President Trump is praising the strength of the U.S. economy ahead of meetings at Camp David with congressional Republicans. Trump tweeted early Friday: Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record. Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The president also told reporters on the South Lawn that the tax cuts are really kicking in after Congress passed a package of tax cuts at the end of 2017. And the president praised the December jobs report, which found U.S. employers added 148,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000. The modest but steady pace of hiring is a reassuring sign for investors who have been buoyed by the just-passed Republican tax plan and have been sending stock market indexes roaring to uncharted heights. The president is meeting with Republican congressional leaders and members of his Cabinet on Friday and Saturday to discuss the 2018 agenda. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets as Dow crashes through 25,000 By Associated Press President Trump dispatched a congratulatory tweet as the Dow Jones industrial average rose above the 25,000-point mark Thursday, just five weeks after its first close above 24,000. Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 After the Dow closed above 25,000, Trump shared a graphic depicting the stock indexs record-setting rise. MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/iONbr1DkVk  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Later in the day, the president was back on Twitter, complaining that news outlets had barely covered the stock market milestone. He suggested that the strength of the economy would be the biggest story on earth, had it unfolded during the presidency of his predecessor. The Fake News Media barely mentions the fact that the Stock Market just hit another New Record and that business in the U.S. is booming...but the people know! Can you imagine if O was president and had these numbers - would be biggest story on earth! Dow now over 25,000.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 The Dow broke past 1,000-point barriers in 2017 on its way to a 25% gain for the year, as an eight-year rally since the Great Recession continued to confound skeptics. Strong global economic growth and good prospects for higher company earnings have analysts predicting more gains, although the market may not stay as calm as it has been recently. The Dow has made a rapid trip since it reached 24,000 points Nov. 30, partly on enthusiasm over passage of the Republican-backed tax package, which could boost company profits this year with across-the-board cuts to corporate taxes. Read More Facebook

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Trump reacts to Fire and Fury book in tweet lashing out at author and Sloppy Steve President Trump lashed out at the author of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of his presidency Thursday night. In a tweet, Trump called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a phony book and claimed that hed never spoken to its author, Michael Wolff. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! Trump wrote. He appeared to be referring to former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, whose stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle figure prominently in the title. I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that dont exist. Look at this guys past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018 Trumps tweet came hours after he had his lawyer demand that Henry Holt & Co. and Wolff stop publication the book. Instead, the publisher expedited the books release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstore shelves, in response to unprecedented demand. Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington. Bannons comments, including that it was treasonous and unpatriotic for Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former advisor, saying Bannon had lost his mind. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Brian Bennett and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump thanks senators who attended meeting on immigration President Trump tweeted thanks to Republican senators who attended a meeting about possible immigration legislation on Thursday. In his message, Trump also listed his top priorities when it comes to any type of overhaul of the nations immigration system. Thank you to the great Republican Senators who showed up to our mtg on immigration reform. We must BUILD THE WALL, stop illegal immigration, end chain migration & cancel the visa lottery. The current system is unsafe & unfair to the great people of our country - time for change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Trumps tweet echoed his remarks at the beginning of Thursdays meeting, when he insisted again that constructing a border wall and overhauling two legal immigration programs must be part of any deal with Democrats to protect the so-called Dreamers from deportation. Two-year deportation protections and work permits given under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begin to expire March 6 under an executive order. Trump announced in September that he was ending the Obama-era program, but told Congress to draft a law to continue protections for people brought to the country illegally as children  a group that has widespread public support. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writer Brian Bennett. Facebook

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Trump resumes Twitter war against kneeling NFL players President Trump has resumed his Twitter war against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to protest social injustice and racial inequality. In a tweet early Thursday, Trump replied to a supporter who shared a meme that appears to depict family members lying on the grave of a fallen soldier with the caption: This is why we stand. Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! Trump wrote. So beautiful....Show this picture to the NFL players who still kneel! https://t.co/tJLM1tvbvb  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The president has denounced players who kneel during the anthem in previous tweets. Hes also called for the firing of players who do so. His latest message came amid news that the NFL finished the regular season with TV ratings that fell nearly 10% below the previous season. Analysts attribute the drop to controversies facing the league, as well as changing viewing habits and a possible saturation point in the number of games available. Read More This post contains reporting from Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio and Alex Wigglesworth. Facebook

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Trump credits himself with facilitating talks between North and South Korea By Associated Press President Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk. Trump tweeted early Thursday: With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North. Fools, but talks are a good thing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 That assertion is in conflict with some of the presidents own statements. Last year, he ridiculed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for talking about negotiations with the North. This week, Trump seemed open to the possibility of an inter-Korean dialogue after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare overture toward South Korea in a New Years Day address. But Trumps ambassador to the United Nations insisted that talks wont be meaningful unless the North is getting rid of its nuclear weapons. The overture about talks came after Trump and Kim traded more bellicose claims about their nuclear weapons. In his New Years Day address, Kim repeated fiery nuclear threats against the United States. Kim said he has a nuclear button on his office desk and warned that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of our nuclear strike. Trump mocked that assertion Tuesday evening in a tweet. Facebook

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After disbanding his vote fraud panel, Trump still says voting system is rigged By Brian Bennett One day after disbanding his troubled voter fraud commission without any findings of fraud, President Trump continued to call the U.S. voting system rigged and said states should require that Americans have voter-identification cards. In two tweets on Thursday morning, Trump blamed the commissions failure on the lack of cooperation from mostly Democrat States that refused to hand over voter rolls because they know that many people are voting illegally. However, voting supervisors in Republican-led states refused as well, objecting on privacy and other grounds. Many mostly Democrat States refused to hand over data from the 2016 Election to the Commission On Voter Fraud. They fought hard that the Commission not see their records or methods because they know that many people are voting illegally. System is rigged, must go to Voter I.D.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 As Americans, you need identification, sometimes in a very strong and accurate form, for almost everything you do.....except when it comes to the most important thing, VOTING for the people that run your country. Push hard for Voter Identification!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Despite Trumps assertions, analysts have not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in May after alleging, without proof, that millions of illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump was elected after winning a majority in the electoral college, but the nationwide count showed Clinton received nearly 3 million more votes. The commission sought personal data on voters across the country and faced mounting lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns. Read More Facebook

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Trump touts another good day for stocks, credits tax cut By Associated Press President Trump touted another good day for the stock market Wednesday in a tweet. Stock Market had another good day but, now that the Tax Cut Bill has passed, we have tremendous upward potential. Dow just short of 25,000, a number that few thought would be possible this soon into my administration. Also, unemployment went down to 4.1%. Only getting better!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Big gains for technology and healthcare stocks helped U.S. indexes set records again Wednesday. Some analysts attributed the surge to investor enthusiasm for Trumps $1.5-trillion tax cut. All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard & Poors 500 index by roughly 8% this year. Thats much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6% that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26% in support. Still, as Trump also noted on Twitter, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees. Some 40 U.S. companies have responded to President Trumps tax cut and reform victory in Congress last year by handing out bonuses up to $2,000, increases in 401k matches and spending on charity, a much higher number than previously known. https://t.co/bmWrwWzxMR  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economys long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees. Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the United States and overseas, havent always led to higher wages. For Wall Street, its all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Facebook

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Trump reacts to death of Mormon Church president By Associated Press President Trump mourned the death of Mormon Church leader Thomas S. Monson on Wednesday evening. Trump tweeted a link to a statement in which he said that Monson demonstrated wisdom, inspired leadership, and great compassion and delivered a message of optimism, forgiveness, and faith. Melania and I are deeply saddened by the death of Thomas S. Monson, a beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...https://t.co/ETD3fWtfU3  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2018 A church bishop at the age of 22, Monson became the youngest church apostle ever in 1963 at the age of 36. He served as a counselor for three church presidents before assuming the role of the top leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 2008. After a life of church service, Monson died Tuesday at his home in Salt Lake City, according to church spokesman Eric Hawkins. He was 90. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets that Iranian protesters will see great U.S. support at the appropriate time By Associated Press President Trump continued to express support for Irans anti-government protesters on Wednesday. In a tweet, Trump commended the protesters and pledged that the United States will support them at the appropriate time. Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Trumps tweet Wednesday morning came as Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo sent a letter to United Nations officials complaining that Washington was intervening in a grotesque way in Irans internal affairs. The President and Vice-President of the United States, in their numerous absurd tweets, incited Iranians to engage in disruptive acts, the ambassador wrote to the U.N. Security Council president and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The U.S. didnt immediately respond to the letter, which maintains that Washington has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations. At least 21 people have been killed and hundreds arrested in Iran during a week of anti-government protests and unrest over economic woes and official corruption. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took part in counter-demonstrations Wednesday backing the clerically overseen government, which has said enemies of Iran are fomenting the protests. Trump has unleashed a series of tweets in recent days backing the protesters, saying Iran is failing at every level and declaring that it is time for change in the Islamic Republic. Facebook

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Trump congratulates Sen. Orrin Hatch upon news of his retirement By Associated Press President Trump congratulated Sen. Orrin Hatch for an absolutely incredible career upon news of Hatchs impending retirement. In a tweet Tuesday afternoon, Trump called Hatch a tremendous supporter and wrote that he will be greatly missed in the Senate. Congratulations to Senator Orrin Hatch on an absolutely incredible career. He has been a tremendous supporter, and I will never forget the (beyond kind) statements he has made about me as President. He is my friend and he will be greatly missed in the U.S. Senate! pic.twitter.com/0VjzLEeHTl  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Hatchs decision to retire from the Senate after four decades lets the Utah Republican walk away at the height of his power after helping to push through an overhaul of the tax code and persuading Trump to downsize two national monuments. Retirement also preserves the 83-year-olds legacy by allowing him to avoid a bruising reelection battle that would have broken his promise not to seek an eighth term. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweet exaggerates progress in improving veterans care By Associated Press President Trump played up tremendous progress in improving care for veterans in his first year on Tuesday in a tweet. His message linked to an Instagram video describing eight accomplishments that show Trump is fighting for our veterans. But it overstates the impact of these steps. We will not rest until all of Americas GREAT VETERANS can receive the care they so richly deserve. Tremendous progress has been made in a short period of time. Keep up the great work @SecShulkin @DeptVetAffairs! https://t.co/ir25vW15hx pic.twitter.com/OtuzIgxMn6  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Of the eight achievements cited, two are ceremonial proclamations recognizing National Veterans and Military Families Month and National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Two are pieces of legislation that extended the troubled Veterans Choice program on a temporary basis. This became necessary because the Trump administration repeatedly miscalculated the amount of taxpayer dollars available to pay for care from private doctors outside the Veterans Affairs system when veterans had to endure long waits for treatment at VA medical centers. The departments poor budget planning caught lawmakers off guard. A fifth claim involves telehealth, a step letting doctors practice medicine across state lines using digital technology. Announced in August, it has yet to take full effect because a proposed VA regulation hasnt been completed. The VA wants authority to practice across state lines to come from legislation, not a regulation. On Wednesday, the Senate approved a telehealth measure that now goes to the House. A sixth claim refers to legislation that streamlines the appeals process for disability compensation claims within the VA. This step has had limited effect so far because it applies to new disability claims, not the 470,000 pending claims. The last two initiatives make it easier for the VA to discipline employees. The department has pointed to more than 1,300 employees who have been fired under Trumps watch. Because their infractions are not detailed in public documents, the effect on veterans care is not fully known. Facebook

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Trump unleashes his first tweetstorm of 2018 By Noah Bierman President Trump clearly didnt resolve to change his Twitter habits this year. With nine disparate tweets over three hours on Tuesday morning, the first working day of 2018, Trump continued to exploit social media to be the most aggressive commentator in chief in American history. For any other president, his posts would have made for a monumental day of (mis-)statements. Yet for Trump, the series  attacks on political foes and media, provocations of foreign leaders and self-praise for events he had nothing to do with  was all but unremarkable. His Twitter barrage  sent between 7:09 a.m. and 10:16 a.m.  reflected a familiar gamut after nearly a year in office: Attacks on political foes: Nearly 14 months after his election, Trump called for the jailing of Huma Abedin, Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid (his misspelling, another occasional feature of Trump tweets). Crooked Hillary Clintons top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 In the same tweet, he disparaged the Deep State Justice Dept, headed of course by his appointees, calling on it to act against James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired for investigating the Russia thing. Diplomatic provocations: Trump again called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Rocket man, ridiculed the volatile nuclear-armed foe for recent military defections and openly speculated about potential talks between North and South Korea. Sanctions and other pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see! Trump wrote. Later Tuesday, Trump tweeted: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Also later Tuesday, Trump tweeted an attack on Pakistan, his second in as many days, and added a new one against Palestinians: It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They dont even want to negotiate a long overdue...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Undermining media: Trump offered Congratulations! to A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of the New York Times this week. The Failing New York Times has a new publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Congratulations! Here is a last chance for the Times to fulfill the vision of its Founder, Adolph Ochs, to give the news impartially, without fear or FAVOR, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved. Get...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 ....impartial journalists of a much higher standard, lose all of your phony and non-existent sources, and treat the President of the United States FAIRLY, so that the next time I (and the people) win, you wont have to write an apology to your readers for a job poorly done! GL  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the two-part post was really yet another slam against a perceived media foe: Trump said the paper had a last chance to fulfill its journalistic mission, and accused it of relying on phony sources and substandard reporters  just days after he granted another exclusive interview to the paper. As a bonus, the tweet contained a recycled falsehood, that the paper apologized after the election for reporting on him unfairly. It didnt. Trump later said on Twitter that he would soon announce the most dishonest & corrupt media awards of the year. Stay tuned! I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 oclock. Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media. Stay tuned!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 The president also tweeted a quote from Fox Business Networks Lou Dobbs Tonight, which aired a segment praising Trumps first-year accomplishments. Dobbs reportedly joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a gala to celebrate New Years Eve. President Trump has something now he didnt have a year ago, that is a set of accomplishments that nobody can deny. The accomplishments are there, look at his record, he has had a very significant first year. @LouDobbs Show,David Asman & Ed Rollins  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018 Taking credit: Trump congratulated himself for policing the border with Mexico, an area where his policies and anti-immigration rhetoric are believed to have had some effect on reducing illegal crossings. Thank you to Brandon Judd of the National Border Patrol Council for your kind words on how well we are doing at the Border. We will be bringing in more & more of your great folks and will build the desperately needed WALL! @foxandfriends  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 He took credit for employee bonuses by companies after he signed Republican tax cuts into law last month. Companies are giving big bonuses to their workers because of the Tax Cut Bill. Really great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 But the jaw-dropper was Trump congratulating himself for planes not crashing. Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 It was the safest year on record worldwide, but the American streak without commercial jet passenger deaths goes back to 2009. Trump, who has promoted deregulation as one of his top accomplishments, has not signed off on any new airline safety regulations. The White House pointed to new security screening of passengers, to electronic devices to prevent terrorist attacks and to Trumps support for privatizing air traffic control  a proposal that has gotten nowhere in Congress. Falsehoods: Trump said President Obama, in brokering the 2015 nuclear arms limitation deal with Iran, foolishly gave money to the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. He didnt. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 The nuclear deal, which included major U.S. allies as signators, released Irans own funds that had long been frozen. Trumps art of the deal: When Trump sees a big deal looming, he often blasts the other side  to gain leverage, as hes written. This week he resumes a showdown with Democratic lawmakers over funding the government and immigration protections for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Trump, who in September ordered a gradual end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sought to shift blame for the resulting controversy, saying Democrats are doing nothing for DACA and are just interested in politics. Trump has insisted that any help for Dreamers be paired with funding for a border wall and a crackdown on legal immigration. Democrats, and some Republicans, are opposed. Read More Facebook

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In tweet, Trump suggests U.S. will withdraw financial assistance to Pakistan By Shashank Bengali Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies & deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018 U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest and asked for clarification about Trumps comments, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. Read More Facebook

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Trump continues to tweet in support of Iranian protesters By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size  were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Trump has tweeted about the protests for three days straight as Iranians took to the streets despite a heavy police presence, tear gas and scores of arrests. The defiance gained urgency after two people were reported shot to death in the city of Dorud, about 200 miles southwest of Tehran. As the conflict escalated, Iranian authorities on Sunday slapped a temporary ban on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, which were widely used to fan protest fervor. Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Irans leaders already are casting Trumps increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent antigovernment protests. Read More Facebook

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Trump tweets condolences after Colorado deputies are shot in ambush, one fatally By Associated Press A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriffs deputies in Colorado early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured. President Trump expressed sorrow, writing on Twitter: My deepest condolences to the victims of the terrible shooting in Douglas County @DCSheriff, and their families. We love our police and law enforcement - God Bless them all! #LESM  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said deputies came under fire almost
Boy Scouts: Top leaders didnt call Trump to praise speech as the president said By Associated Press The Boy Scouts denied Wednesday that the head of the youth organization called President Donald Trump to praise his recent politically aggressive speech to its national jamboree. Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday, I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful. Politico published the transcript of the interview. We are unaware of any such call, the Boy Scouts responded in a statement. It specified that neither of the organizations two top leaders  President Randall Stephenson and Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh  had placed such a call. The White House had no immediate response to the Boy Scouts denial. Surbaugh apologized last week to members of the scouting community who were offended by the political rhetoric in Trumps July 24 speech in West Virginia. Other U.S. presidents have delivered nonpolitical speeches at past jamborees. To the dismay of many parents and former scouts, Trump promoted his political agenda and derided his rivals, inducing some of the scouts in attendance to boo at the mention of former President Obama. I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree, Surbaugh said. That was never our intent. Surbaugh noted that every sitting president since 1937 has been invited to visit the jamboree. Stephenson told the Associated Press two days after the speech that Boy Scout leaders anticipated Trump would spark controversy with politically tinged remarks, yet felt obliged to invite him out of respect for his office. Hoping to minimize friction, the Boy Scouts issued guidelines to adult staff members for how the audience should react to the speech. Any type of political chanting was specifically discouraged. Stephenson, who did not attend Trumps speech, said the guidance wasnt followed impeccably. Facebook

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Mayor of London again calls on Trump to cancel state visit By Christina Boyle (AFP/Getty Images) The mayor of London has reiterated his calls for President Trumps state visit to Britain to be canceled in the wake of the citys terrorist incident, saying his policies go against everything we stand for. The war of words between the two leaders intensified further Monday evening after Trump criticized Mayor Sadiq Khans response to the London Bridge terrorist attack in two tweets, and the mayor said Trump should not be welcomed in the capital. Since Saturday Ive been working with the police, with the emergency services, with the government and others to deal with the horrific attack on Saturday, Khan said Monday evening. I just havent got the time to deal with tweets from Donald Trump. But when pressed on whether he thinks a state visit for later this year should go ahead as planned, Khan was unequivocal. My position remains the same. I dont think we should be rolling out the carpet to the president of the United States in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for, Khan told Channel 4 news. When you have a special relationship, it is no different to when you have a close mate: You stand with them in times of adversity, but you call them out when theyre wrong. And there are many things about which Donald Trump is wrong. Trump initially criticized Khan hours after the London attack posting on Twitter: At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed! Khans office soon pointed out that the president had, in fact, misquoted Khan, who actually said that Londoners should not be alarmed by the increased armed police presence on the streets. Trump took to Twitter again on Monday to slam the London mayor once more. Pathetic excuse by London mayor Sadiq Khan, who had to think fast on his no reason to be alarmed statement. MSM [Mainstream media] is working hard to sell it! the president wrote. This is not the first time Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital city, has called for Trumps state visit to be banned. He previously branded Trumps policies on immigration and proposed travel ban on people entering the U.S. from predominantly Muslim countries cruel. An online government petition calling for the invitation to be withdrawn also gathered more than 1.8 million votes. The visit was first announced during Prime Minister Theresa Mays trip to Washington, where she became the first foreign leader to meet the newly-inaugurated president. State visits are personal invites from the British monarch and involve a significant amount of pomp and ceremony, and usually a state banquet. Facebook

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He helped bring down President Nixon. He thinks President Trump is even worse. By Mark Z. Barabak (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times) John Dean is a connoisseur of coverups, a savant of scandal, so he can more than imagine what its like inside the Trump White House right now. Its a nightmare, he said, presiding in a high-backed leather wing chair off the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel. Not just for those in the headlines  political strategist Steve Bannon, jack-of-many-duties Jared Kushner  but for their unsung assistants and secretaries as well. They dont know what their jeopardy is. They dont know what theyre looking at. They dont know if theyre a part of a conspiracy that might unfold. They dont know whether to hire lawyers or not, how theyre going to pay for them if they do, Dean said in a crisp law-counsel cadence. Its an unpleasant place. Dean was a central figure in Watergate, the 1970s political scandal against which all others are measured, serving at the tender age of 32 as President Nixons White House attorney. In that capacity Dean worked to thwart investigators after the clumsy break-in at Democratic Party headquarters, then flipped and helped sink Nixon by revealing the presidents involvement in the coverup. Read More Facebook

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Two decades ago, Washington state Republicans repealed and replaced a healthcare overhaul there. It didnt end well By Noam N. Levey Republicans in the state of Washington didnt wait long in the spring of 1995 to fulfill their pledge to roll back a sweeping law expanding health coverage in the state. Coming off historic electoral gains, the GOP legislators scrapped much of the law while pledging to make health insurance affordable and to free state residents from onerous government mandates. It didnt work out that way: The repeal left the states insurance market in shambles, sent premiums skyrocketing and drove health insurers from the state. It took nearly five years to repair the damage. Two decades later, the ill-fated experiment, largely relegated to academic journals, offers a caution to lawmakers at the national level as Republicans in the U.S. Senate race to write a bill to repeal and replace the federal Affordable Care Act. Its much easier to break something, said Pam MacEwan, who led a Washington state commission charged with implementing the law in the mid-1990s and now oversees the state insurance market there. Its more difficult to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  And thats when people get hurt. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office echoed that warning last week, when it concluded that the healthcare bill passed by the House last month would destabilize insurance markets in a sixth of the country and nearly double the number of people without health insurance over the next decade. Read More Facebook

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Companies accelerate hiring, adding a robust 253,000 net new jobs, ADP says By Jim Puzzanghera A now hiring sign is seen in Baton Rouge, La., on May 5. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) Companies accelerated their hiring last month, adding a robust 253,000 net new jobs in a sign the labor market remains healthy and the economy is strengthening after a weak winter. The private-sector job creation figures reported Thursday by payroll firm Automatic Data Processing far exceeded analyst expectations and was well above the downwardly revised 174,000 net new positions added in April. Job growth is rip-roaring, declared Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodys Analytics, which assists ADP in preparing its report. Read More Facebook

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All jokes aside, Trumps covfefe tweet sparks questions too By Brian Bennett President Trump sparked a global kerfuffle over covfefe with his bizarrely truncated tweet just minutes into Wednesday, spawning countless jokes across Twitter but also more serious questions for which the White House gave no answers. Press Secretary Sean Spicer, during an unusually short 11-minute briefing in which he insisted he not be on camera, declined to give any explanation for Trumps tweet posted just after midnight. Nor would he translate what the president was trying to say in the garbled message that broke off midsentence. But Spicer told reporters that the public should not be concerned that the president sent what the questioner called somewhat of an incoherent tweet. The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant, Spicer said. Read More Facebook

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Biden launches new PAC, keeping the 2020 door open By David Lauter (Steven Senne / Associated Press) Former Vice President Joe Biden is launching a new political action committee, a platform that will allow him to provide help to favored candidates and, inevitably, boost speculation about a possible run for the Democratic nomination in 2020. The organization, which Biden is calling American Possibilities, will be staffed by a former top political aide to the vice president, Greg Schultz, who is also a veteran of President Obamas reelection campaign. The PAC will allow Biden to raise money that he can use to travel the country, contribute to candidates in governors races this year and congressional and state races in 2018 and generally do the sorts of things that aspiring politicians do to keep their names in the headlines. All that cant help but nurture questions about whether Biden, 74, will try yet again to attain the office he first started running for in 1987. In public appearances, which have taken him to electorally important states, and interviews since the 2016 election, Biden has been sharply critical of the Trump administration, but has also pointed to flaws in his own party. In one interview, he pointed to a bit of elitism thats crept in to the partys approach to working-class voters. At the same time, he has given carefully ambiguous answers when asked about his plans. At a conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, he responded to the question about a presidential run by saying: Could I? Yes. Would I? Probably not. In the announcement for the new group, Biden said that the negativity, the pettiness, the small-mindedness of our politics drives me crazy. Its not who we are. Its time for big dreams and American possibilities, he said. Facebook

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U.S., regions foreign ministers debate Venezuela By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP / Getty Images) The United States and foreign ministers from across the hemisphere met in Washington on Wednesday to attempt to force Venezuelas leftist government and its angry opposition into talks. Hunger and violence have pushed Venezuela to the brink of humanitarian disaster, diplomats say. But Wednesdays meeting of the Organization of American States faced unlikely prospects for success: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro does not trust the organization and has said his nation will withdraw its membership. Some OAS nations, including several U.S. allies in the Caribbean, have criticized the regional bodys efforts as intervention promoted by Washington. But U.S. officials are hoping the sheer weight of the crisis will unite the region to put pressure on Venezuela. Theres more and more concern about what were seeing, and so more and more countries have gotten over their reluctance to question or go against the wishes of the Venezuelan government, a senior State Department official said in a briefing for reporters. Its really hard to stand by and do nothing in the face of the kinds of institutional steps weve seen in Venezuela, and the increasing humanitarian suffering, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with frequent administration practice. Although the OAS periodically brings its members foreign ministers together, this is the first time a meeting has been convened to deal with a single topic, U.S. officials said. At the conclusion of Wednesdays session, diplomats said they had discussed two resolutions. One, promoted by Caribbean nations, called on Venezuela to reconsider withdrawing from the OAS. A second more pointed resolution authored by the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Panama and Peru urged the Maduro administration not to go ahead with a constituent assembly that would rewrite the Venezuelan constitution. Many fear it would dissolve the few democratic institutions that remain and favor the ruling Socialist Party. Separately, the Venezuela opposition, emboldened by a string of increasingly massive street demonstrations, sharply criticized Wall Street for extending what it called a lifeline to the Maduro government. At issue is the purchase by Goldman Sachs of Venezuelan government bonds for a reported $865 million, a major discount for paper originally worth $2.8 billion. Goldman Sachs confirmed the purchase of the bonds, issued in 2014 by the state oil company PDVSA, after it was reported in the Wall Street Journal. We are invested in PDVSA bonds because, like many in the asset management industry, we believe the situation in the country must improve over time, Goldman said in a statement. The firm added that it made the purchase through a secondary dealer to avoid direct interaction with the Venezuelan government. That distinction meant nothing to the Venezuelan opposition, which accused Goldman of making a buck off the suffering of the Venezuelan people. The Trump administration previously has targeted the Maduro government, slapping economic sanctions on its vice president and pro-Maduro Supreme Court justices. Facebook

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Former FBI director spoke with new special counsel and is cleared to testify before Senate panel By Joseph Tanfani The special counsel investigating possible links between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign has cleared former FBI Director James Comey to testify before a congressional committee about his contacts with President Trump, according to an associate close to Comey. Comey met with Robert S. Mueller III, whom the Justice Department appointed on May 17 to investigate any Russian ties to the Trump campaign, and Mueller said he had no problems with Comeys testifying, the associate said. Trump abruptly fired Comey as head of the FBI on May 9. The president later said in an interview on NBC News that he was concerned about the FBI investigation into what he called the Russia thing. Comey reportedly wrote internal memos after his meetings with Trump. In one, he wrote that the president had requested he ease up on the FBI probe of Michael Flynn, who served as Trumps national security advisor until he was ousted in February for lying about his contacts with Russian officials. The Senate Intelligence Committee announced on May 19 that Comey had agreed to testify after the Memorial Day holiday. The hearing has not been scheduled. The FBI separately declined a request from the House Oversight Committee to turn over Comeys memos. The bureau said it would need to consult with Mueller before making any decisions. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the committee chairman, said in response that he would not push the matter. The focus of the committees investigation is the independence of the FBI and the events leading to Comeys firing, he wrote. In a separate development, a senior Justice Department lawyer with experience in complex financial fraud investigations has agreed to join Muellers investigation. Andrew Weissman has led the fraud section at Justice, where he oversaw probes into corporate wrongdoing at Volkswagen and Takata. Weissman also is a veteran of the FBI. Weissman is the highest-ranking Justice Department official to join the special counsel office being set up a few blocks from the main Justice building in downtown Washington. Mueller also hired two colleagues from the WilmerHale law firm, where he worked, and brought on a former Justice Department spokesman, Peter Carr, to handle media inquiries. Facebook

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Analysis: In President Trumps wake, divisions mark both Democratic and Republican parties By Cathleen Decker Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez address a crowd at the California party convention in May. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Six months after President Trump breached long-standing political boundaries to win the White House, the nations major political parties still muddle in his wake. On the sun-swept lawn of the Hotel del Coronado two weeks ago, national Republican leaders sipped cocktails and listened to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, one of the partys brightest lights in the most populous state, praise a brand of moderate Republicanism that looks nothing like the versions coming out of Washington  either the populism of the president or the more orthodox conservatism of congressional leaders. A week later, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez talked in a Sacramento interview of the remarkably constructive debate underway in his party, characterizing its divisions as largely in the past. Within hours, he and other party leaders were booed as they welcomed delegates to a state convention that would be filled with persistent internal warfare on healthcare and other issues. No political party is immune to disagreement; indeed the path to power often relies on combustible ideological diversity. But Democrats and Republicans alike seem particularly adrift and quarrelsome these days. Read More Facebook

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Trump preparing to pull U.S. from Paris climate accord, amid last-minute lobbying By Evan Halper President Trump hasnt made a final decision on whether the U.S. will quit the Paris Accord on climate change, but White House officials indicated Wednesday that he was headed in that direction, setting off a worldwide reaction. A flurry of leaks, counter-leaks and public statements thrust back into the spotlight a decision that has been agonized and untidy even by the standards of a White House known for internal drama. Wednesday morning, when officials told some news organizations that Trump had settled on pulling out of the climate agreement, seemingly everyone in the world jumped in to try to influence or spin his decision, from the Chinese government to the coal industry to the state of California. That offered a foretaste of the reaction Trump likely will receive if he does follow through on his vow to pull the United States out of the 195-nation pact, which President Obama hailed in 2015 as one of his major achievements. Other nations have swiftly moved to take over the leadership role on climate that the United States would be abandoning. Some states have followed suit, promising they would break with Washington to work with other countries in their efforts to contain global warming. During Trumps recent overseas trip, U.S. allies warned him that Americas broader diplomatic influence would be undercut if the administration gave up its seat at the climate negotiating table. All the public lobbying on Wednesday moved Trump to weigh in himself. He knocked down reports that he had decided to withdraw with a tweet announcing that he was still making up his mind. The mixed messages coming out of the White House left open the possibility that the original news reports reflected the views of officials who were aiming to steer the final outcome by presenting withdrawal as a done deal. Trumps schedule for the day includes meetings with advisors hoping to talk him into staying in the agreement, at least to some extent. If Trump does withdraw the U.S. fully from the Paris pact, scientists warn it will be a tremendous setback to the worldwide effort to contain temperatures from rising an average of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The consequences for the United States would extend beyond global warming. It will be a very big deal all over the world, said Todd Stern, the lead U.S. climate negotiator during the Obama administration. There will be consequential blowback with respect to our diplomatic position across the board. UPDATES 9:27 a.m.: This post was updated throughout with staff reporting and additional details. 6:23 a.m.: This post was updated with Trumps tweet. 6:04 a.m.: This post was updated throughout with additional details. Facebook

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U.S. Supreme Court makes it harder to sue police for barging into homes By David Savage The U.S. Supreme Court made it harder to sue police for barging into a home and provoking a shooting, setting aside a $4-million verdict against two Los Angeles County deputies on Tuesday. The money was awarded to a homeless couple who were startled and then shot when the two sheriffs deputies entered the shack where they were sleeping. The unanimous ruling rejected the so-called provocation rule that some lower courts have used. Under that rule, police can be sued for violating a victims constitutional rights against unreasonable searches if they provoked a confrontation that resulted in violence. Read More Facebook

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Trump lashes out at Germany over NATO spending and trade after Merkel questions the U.S. commitment to its allies By Brian Bennett (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images) President Trump took aim at German trade practices and defense spending Tuesday following pointed criticism from Chancellor Angela Merkel that Germany may not be able to rely on its allies. We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change, Trump wrote in a tweet. Last week, White House spokespeople had denied that Trump criticized German trade practices after the German newspaper Der Spiegel quoted him as having done so. Trump unsettled Merkel and other allies during the recent NATO summit when, during his remarks, he did not mention the central commitment members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization make to defend each other. We have a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany, plus they pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military. Very bad for U.S. This will change  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2017 Trumps policy toward climate change is another point of contention with many European countries. Trump promised during the election to tear up the landmark Paris climate accord. Merkel said the conversation with the U.S. on climate change last week during the G-7 meetings in Sicily, which followed the NATO summit, was extremely difficult. During a campaign speech in Munich on Sunday, Merkel said Germany must rethink how much it can rely on its allies. The era in which we could rely completely on others is gone, at least partially, Merkel said. I have experienced that over the last several days. In a 2014 meeting, NATO defense ministers agreed that each state would move toward a goal of raising military spending to 2% of its annual economic output by the year 2024. German defense spending is below that goal. The U.S. trade deficit with Germany shrank to $65 billion in 2016 from $75 billion the year before. Facebook

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Consumers spend at fastest pace in four months in a sign of spring economic rebound By Jim Puzzanghera (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Americans ratcheted up their spending in April at the fastest pace in four months, in a sign the economy has rebounded this spring after a lackluster winter. The new data also could help push Federal Reserve officials to hike a key interest rate again when they meet in two weeks. Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.4% in April, up from 0.3% the previous month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Americans had more money to spend, with personal incomes also rising 0.4%  twice the pace of growth in March. Read More Facebook

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White House communications director Michael Dubke resigns By Associated Press White House Communications Director Mike Dubke listens as a reporter asks a question during a press conference in the East Room of the White House on April 20. (Shawn Thew / EPA) White House communications director Michael Dubke has resigned. Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor, told The Associated Press that Dubke handed in his resignation before President Donald Trump left for his international trip earlier this month. In an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, Conway said Dubke made very clear that he would see through the presidents international trip, and come to work every day and work hard even through that trip because there was much to do here back at the White House. Dubke issued a statement Tuesday morning: It has been my great honor to serve President Trump and this administration. It has also been my distinct pleasure to work side-by-side, day-by-day with the staff of the communications and press departments. A Republican consultant, Dubke joined the White House team in February after campaign aide Jason Miller  Trumps original choice for communications director  withdrew from consideration. Dubke founded Crossroads Media, a GOP firm that specializes in political advertising. -- 6:03 a.m.: Updated with Dubkes statement Facebook

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Should Jared Kushner keep his security clearance? Adam Schiff isnt sure By Laura King The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), says hes not sure that President Trumps son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, should retain his security clearance. The California Democrat, who has been a sharp critic of Trump, also said in an interview aired Sunday that national security advisor H.R. McMaster, a highly respected military officer, had been tarnished by his association with the White House. Schiffs comments, on ABCs This Week, came amid growing questions about Kushners contacts with Russian officials before Trump took office. Trump has denounced the latest round of news reports, saying that some of them could be based on fabricated sources. Top Trump aides, including John F. Kelly, the secretary of Homeland Security, pushed back Sunday against the suggestion that there was anything untoward about establishing back channel communications with the Russians during the presidential transition. Schiff said he regretted that McMaster had done so as well, saying he believed the White House used the solid reputations of people like him to back up dubious actions. Sadly, I think this is an administration that takes in people with good credibility and chews them out and spits out their credibility at the same time, said Schiff, who acknowledged that what McMaster said about back channel communications was true in the abstract. I think anyone within the Trump orbit is at risk of being used, he said. Kelly, in separate talk-show appearances on Sunday, said there was nothing untoward about an incoming administration establishing communications with a foreign power in order to lay the groundwork for better relations. Schiff declined to discuss the substance of the allegations regarding Kushners contact with Russian officials during the transition and whether Kushner had been forthcoming about them, but said enough questions had been raised that his access to top-secret intelligence should be scrutinized. I think we need to get to the bottom of these allegations, Schiff said. But I do think there ought to be a review of his security clearance to find out whether he was truthful, whether he was candid. If not, then theres no way he can maintain that kind of a clearance. Schiff was also critical of continuing involvement in aspects of the Russia probe by fellow Californian Devin Nunes (R-Tulare), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who stepped aside from the probe earlier this year after the House Ethics Committee began investigating whether he had improperly revealed classified information. Nunes remains involved in decision-making about the issuance of subpoenas, Schiff said, adding: I dont think that he should, given that he has stepped aside or recused himself. The committee is investigating Russian entanglements by figures in Trumps circle, including fired national security advisor Michael Flynn, who has been the target of multiple subpoenas. Facebook

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Trump still wide open on climate change, Pentagon chief says By Laura King With President Trump set to make a decision this week about whether the U.S. should remain part of the landmark Paris climate accord, Defense Secretary James Mattis said Trump remains wide open on the issue. During a visit to Europe that ended Saturday, Trump dismayed European allies by refusing to commit to remaining in the 2015 accord during talks with European Union officials in Brussels and at the Group of Seven gathering in Sicily. The president said in a tweet that he will make a decision this week. Mattis, who was present at some of the Brussels talks, said that Trump is still making up his mind, and that he has been inquisitive about other leaders opinions. The president was open  he was curious about why others were in the position they were in, his counterparts in other nations, the Defense secretary said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS Face the Nation. And Im quite certain the president is wide open on this issue as he takes in the pros and cons of that accord. During his European trip, Trump met privately at the Vatican with Pope Francis, who presented him with a copy of his papal encyclical on environment and climate change. French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Trump in Brussels, also said he had pressed the issue with the U.S. president, though the White House did not mention that appeal in a summary of their meeting. Facebook

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Homeland Security secretary defends Jared Kushner, blasts Manchester intelligence leaks By Laura King There is nothing inherently wrong with an incoming presidential administration establishing back channel communications with a foreign power such as Russia, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly said Sunday. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Kelly was asked about reports by the Washington Post and other outlets that President Trumps son-in-law and close advisor, Jared Kushner, sought to set up secret lines of communication with Russian officials prior to Trump being sworn in. The retired general did not confirm the reports, but said the principle of establishing secretive contacts during a presidential transition doesnt bother me and is a legitimate means of building relationships. I think that any channel of communication, back or otherwise, with a country like Russia is a good thing, he said. Kelly did not address a central element of the reports  that Kushner discussed the possibility of using Russian communications channels from a Russia diplomatic outpost to shield from U.S. intelligence surveillance whatever discussions Trump transition officials wanted to have with Moscow. The FBI, a special counsel and multiple congressional committees are probing Russian interference in the presidential campaign and whether the Trump camp colluded in it. The U.S. intelligence community says Russian cyberattacks were meant to boost Trump and harm his opponent, Hillary Clinton. In a separate interview on NBCs Meet the Press, Kelly defended the integrity of Kushner, whose involvement in communications with Russia has brought the investigation closer to Trump personally than has previous scrutiny of others in his campaign circle or the White House. Calling Kushner a great guy, a decent guy, the Homeland Security secretary said the presidents son-in-laws No. 1 interest, really, is the nation. Also in the NBC interview, Kelly excoriated intelligence leaks in the wake of last weeks deadly bombing in Manchester, England. British officials including Prime Minister Theresa May were angered by disclosures about details of the investigation, including the release of the dead attackers name and detailed photos from the bomb scene that were published by the New York Times. Several outlets cited unnamed U.S. officials as the source of the information including the bombers identity. The Times did not say how it obtained the photos. Britain routinely shares intelligence with close allies like the United States with the expectation that it will be kept confidential. Kelly said that failing to keep such secrets could seriously damage intelligence-sharing arrangements with other nations. I believe when you leak the kind of information that seems to be routinely leaked - high, high level of classification I think its darn close to treason, Kelly said. It is not clear what level of classification, if any, the information about the British investigation would have had. Trump himself, who recently caused controversy when he passed sensitive intelligence on Islamic State to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and discussed the location of U.S. nuclear submarines with the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has denounced the Manchester leaks and vowed to track down the source or sources. Facebook

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In tweets, Trump says stories based on White House leaks are fabricated By Laura King President Trump is back  and tweeting. In a Sunday morning series of posts on Twitter, the president repeated his denunciations of the fake media, celebrated the Republican victory in a Montana special election and declared his overseas trip a success. Trump returned to the White House late Saturday after a swing through the Middle East and Europe, the first foreign trip of his presidency. During it, he tweeted only sparingly. While Trump was away, controversy continued to swirl around his White House, with media reports focusing on son-in-law Jared Kushners role in Trump campaign contacts with Russian officials. The GOP healthcare plan and Trumps budget also came under withering scrutiny during the presidents absence. In Sundays tweets, Trump said cascading leaks from within his administration were in fact fabricated lies by news organizations based on sources that did not exist. One tweet was corrected to fix the spelling of exist. It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2017 Trump also complained that the special congressional election in Montana, called to fill the seat vacated when Ryan Zinke became his Interior secretary, was such a big deal to Dems & Fake News until the Republican won. The V was poorly covered, he said, referring to the Republican victory. The victory by Republican candidate Greg Gianforte received extensive coverage. It was widely expected, given Montanas significant Republican edge, but made more suspenseful on the eve of the election when Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault for an incident in which he struck a reporter who had asked him a question. The president received mixed reviews for his inaugural overseas venture. He was praised by some for his outreach to Sunni Arab allies in the Persian Gulf, but continued his administrations practice of making no public criticism of serious human rights violations. In Europe, he rattled allies by declining to explicitly endorse the NATO alliances bedrock common defense pledge or pledge to adhere to the Paris climate accord. Whatever the commentary surrounding the trip, Trump counted it a success. Hard work but big results, he wrote. Facebook

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Trumps international trip underscored what America First looks like on the world stage By Michael Memoli Donald Trump made no secret during the presidential campaign of his disdain for Americas trading partners, his skepticism of longtime alliances and his eagerness to refocus U.S. foreign policy on the single-minded pursuit of American security. That was the largely the president the world got as Trump made his way through the Middle East and Western Europe over the last nine days, Trumps first foreign trip may have produced memorable, and at time cringe-inducing, images of the new president, whether grasping a glowing orb in Saudi Arabia or shoving the prime minister of Montenegro at a NATO meeting in Brussels. But perhaps most profoundly, the trip underscored what America First, as Trump has branded his governing philosophy, looks like on the world stage. Read More Facebook

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Trump says hell decide on Paris climate deal next week By Associated Press Seven wealthy democracies ended their summit Saturday in Italy without unanimous agreement on climate change, as the Trump administration plans to take more time to say whether the U.S. is going to remain in the Paris accord on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The other six nations in the Group of Seven agreed to stick with their commitment to implement the 2015 Paris deal that aims to slow down global warming. The final G-7 statement, issued after two days of talks in the seaside town of Taormina, said the U.S. is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics. Trump tweeted he would decide his stance on the Paris agreement next week. The announcement on the final day of the U.S. presidents first international trip comes after he declined to commit to staying in the sweeping climate deal, resisting intense international pressure from his peers at the summit. I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2017 Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who chaired the meeting, said the other six wont change our position on climate change one millimeter. The U.S. hasnt decided yet. I hope they decide in the right way. Gentiloni said climate was not a minor point and that he hoped the United States would decide soon and well because the Paris accords need the contribution of the United States. French President Emmanuel Macron also chimed in on the climate issue, praising Trumps capacity to listen. Macron said he told Trump it is indispensable for the reputation of the United States and the interest of the Americans themselves that the United States remain committed to the Paris climate agreement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was more downbeat, calling the G-7 climate talks very unsatisfactory. Facebook

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Everyones a winner! Or what to take away from that special congressional race in Montana By Mark Z. Barabak Republicans were celebrating Friday, and relieved, and it was easy to see why: The party hung on to Montanas sole congressional seat even though its candidate faced a freshly lodged criminal charge for physically assaulting a reporter on election eve. Though they fell short in yet another special election  Greg Gianforte won handily, 50% to 44%  Democrats also found reason to be pleased: Their candidate, flawed as he was, continued a pattern of polling better than might be expected  over-performing, to use the political parlance, and that could hold future promise. Its possible, as elections analyst Nathan Gonzales put it, to lose and still have momentum. Read More Facebook

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In commencement address, Hillary Clinton remembers fallout from Nixon, makes subtle jab at President Trump By Kurtis Lee Hillary Clinton delivers the commencement address at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., on Friday. (Josh Reynolds / Associated Press) Hillary Clinton delivered a subtle dig at President Trump on Friday, offering some parallels between his presidency and that of former President Nixon. While delivering a commencement address at her alma mater, Wellesley College, a private womens liberal arts school in Massachusetts, Clinton, without naming Trump, recalled how many young people in the 1970s reacted to Nixons reelection and later battles with the Justice Department. We were furious about the past presidential election of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice, she said, pausing to note she was referring to Nixon. Actually, Nixon was not impeached, though many in Congress, including members of his own party, called for it. Clinton said Nixons resignation came after he fired the person heading the investigation into him at the Department of Justice. In 1973, Nixon ordered Justice Department officials to fire a special prosecutor who was looking into taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office as part of the Watergate investigation. A year later, in August 1974, Nixon resigned. Some political observers  mostly Democrats -- have compared Trumps recent firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, who was overseeing an investigation of possible collusion between Russians and Trumps campaign, to Nixons actions. Last week, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) called for Trump to be impeached. Clinton, who has made few public appearances since Trump defeated her in last years presidential election, also assailed the Republicans new budget proposal. She called the budget, which proposes cuts to education and Medicaid, an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us  the youngest, the oldest, the poorest and hard-working people who need a little help to gain or hang on to a decent, middle-class life. In a statement, the Republican National Committee said Clinton was lashing out after her election loss. Clinton graduated from Wellesley in 1969 and last delivered a commencement address at the school in 1992. Facebook

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At G-7 Summit, a day of clarification for the White House By Michael A. Memoli (Sean Gallup / Getty Images) As President Trump met with leaders of the worlds leading economies here Friday within miles of an active volcano, the White House was working to ease a pair of diplomatic eruptions. Trump was due to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in this coastal Sicilian resort town, amid tensions between their countries, longtime allies, following leaks to U.S. media outlets involving Britains investigation of the Manchester terrorist bombing. Separately, a top White House adviser partially confirmed reports that Trump had said Germany is very bad during Thursdays NATO meetings in Brussels, but clarified that the president was referring only to German trade policies. Trump said, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel, See the millions of cars they are selling to the U.S.? Terrible. We will stop this. Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, acknowledged that Trump made the remark but added that the president doesnt have a problem with Germany. He said his dad is from Germany. He said I dont have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade, Cohn said. Press access to the G-7 meetings has been extremely limited, though the surrounding setting has produced abundant compelling visuals. Editorial press access extremely limited for G7 meetings. But man, pretty pictures & good times for Taormina Chamber of Commerce (via AP) pic.twitter.com/WT2EdKrwJ5  Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) May 26, 2017 Trump tweeted that he expected to spend the day focused on economic growth, terrorism and security. The summit, and Trumps eight-day inaugural foreign trip, ends Saturday. Other allies here were likely to press Trump on another issue: climate change, specifically whether Trump will carry out his campaign promise to pull the United States out of the landmark Paris climate deal. Trump was hoping to better understand the European position, Cohn said. White House officials have said the president will make a decision once he is back in the United States. He knows that in the U.S. theres very strong opinions on both sides but he also knows that Paris has important meaning to many of the European leaders. And he wants to clearly hear what the European leaders have to say, Cohn said. Facebook

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As Trump wavers over Paris climate accord, European leaders give him an earful By Evan Halper Mining operation near Grevenbroich, Germany. (Martin Meissner / Associated Press) With President Trump balking on his vow to shred the Obama-negotiated Paris agreement on climate change, the last place the pacts staunch opponents wanted to see the president is where he will be this weekend  meeting other world leaders unanimous in their warnings that withdrawal from the accord would seriously damage Americas economy and world stature. Trump has repeatedly delayed fulfilling his campaign pledge to move against the agreement. The longer the White House deliberates over Paris, the more Trump seems to be searching for a face-saving excuse to walk back his previous position. The White House indecision over the climate accord  which has the support of every nation except Syria and Nicaragua  reflects a deeply divided worldview in a Trump inner circle now packed with establishment Republicans. The issue also presents yet another policy reckoning for Trump. On the campaign trail, he vowed to strike blows against the existing world order. But on the Paris agreement, as on other matters, he is finding that political backup for such pledges can fade quickly when the moves lack robust support from major U.S. companies or majority voting blocs. Read More Facebook

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Overcoming assault charge, Republican Greg Gianforte wins Montana congressional seat By Mark Z. Barabak Republican Greg Gianforte overcame a last-minute assault charge to win Montanas special congressional election Thursday, keeping its lone House seat in GOP hands and dealing Democrats a setback in their bid to gain a red-state toehold ahead of the 2018 midterm election. Gianforte, 56, a wealthy businessman who ran unsuccessfully for governor in November, had long been the front-runner against Democrat Rob Quist, a professional bluegrass musician making his first run for public office. With more than 90% of the votes counted, Gianforte was holding a healthy lead with just over 50% support. Appearing at an exuberant victory rally in Bozeman, the congressman-elect hushed the crowd and apologized to the reporter with whom he tangled on election eve, reversing his campaigns initial assertion that the journalist was to blame. Read More Facebook

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FBI investigating Kushner meetings, report says; House leader seeks more Comey documents By Associated Press (Andrew Harrer / Getty Images) The chairman of the House Oversight Committee asked the FBI on Thursday to turn over more documents about former FBI Director James B. Comeys interactions with the White House and Justice Department, including materials dating back nearly four years to the Obama administration. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that the FBI is investigating meetings that President Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had in December with Russian officials. The FBI and the Oversight Committee  as well as several other congressional panels  are looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign. Trump fired Comey on May 9 amid questions about the FBIs investigation, which is now being led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, a former FBI director. Kushner, a key White House advisor, had meetings late last year with Russias ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov. The Post story cited anonymous people familiar with the investigation, who said the FBI investigation does not mean that Kushner is suspected of a crime. Kushners attorney, Jamie Gorelick, released a statement saying: Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry. Earlier Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz told acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe that he wants records of Comeys contacts with the White House and Justice Department dating to September 2013, when Comey was sworn in as FBI director under President Obama. In a letter to McCabe, Chaffetz said he is seeking to review Comeys memos and other written materials so he can better understand Comeys communications with the White House and attorney generals office. Facebook

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Banks want higher debit-card swipe fees, but an effort to allow them has crumbled By Jim Puzzanghera Banks had hoped Congress would let them charge merchants higher fees to process debit card purchases, but an effort to allow that has crumbled  a victory for retailers and, possibly, shoppers who might have had to shoulder those costs. In the latest chapter of a long-running fight, a repeal of federal limits on so-called swipe fees no longer will be part of a House financial regulation bill, said the legislations author, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas). Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he decided to strip the provision from the bill because many lawmakers are balking at removing the limits. Read More Facebook

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Appeals court rules against Trump travel ban By David Lauter A federal appeals court has ruled against President Trumps travel ban, upholding a nationwide injunction barring the administration from enforcing the executive order. The ruling is the latest legal setback for Trump on the travel issue and, like several previous court rulings, the outcome rested heavily on his own words. Trumps order restricting travel from six majority-Muslim countries speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination, Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in his ruling. Read the 4th Circuits decision to uphold the block on Trumps travel ban The 10-3 ruling included numerous citations to campaign statements in which Trump called for a ban on Muslims immigrating to the United States. The plaintiffs who have challenged the travel order have argued that it is a disguised version of the Muslim ban that he called for during the campaign. Trumps statements provide direct, specific evidence of what motivated both EO-1 and EO-2, the court said, referring to ther first and second versions of the travel order: President Trumps desire to exclude Muslims from the United States. The 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., is one of two appeals courts that have recently heard arguments on the travel ban. A similar case is pending before the 9th Circuit, based in San Francisco. Read More Facebook

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Obama, in Berlin with Merkel, says world cant hide behind a wall By Erik Kirschbaum Hours before German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Brussels to meet with President Trump and other NATO heads of state, she rekindled an old acquaintance with Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama. About 70,000 people packed an avenue by Berlins landmark Brandenburg Gate on Thursday to hear the two leaders speak, with cheers and chants of Barack, Barack! breaking out when the former president took the stage. Without mentioning Trump by name, Obama spoke of the need for universal healthcare and a nuanced approach to immigration in response to security threats. This is a new world we live in  we cant isolate ourselves, the former president declared, with Merkel looking on. We cant hide behind a wall. Obama spoke of this weeks deadly bombing at a pop concert in Manchester, England, saying leaders had to find ways to balance security fears and fundamental rights. One of the biggest challenges is how do you protect your country and your citizens from the kinds of things that we just saw in Manchester, he said. And how do you do it in a way that is consistent with your values and your ideals? Making his first European speech since his presidential term ended, Obama told the crowd he had spent the last four months trying to catch up with my sleep and devoting more time to his family. Im very proud of the work I did as president, he said to more cheers, adding that he considered healthcare reform a signature achievement. Republicans are now in the midst of trying to dismantle his Affordable Care Act. My hope was to get 100% of people healthcare, he said. We didnt quite achieve that, but we were able to get 20 million people healthcare who didnt have it before. Obamas speech was not timed to coincide with Trumps first visit to Europe as president, aides said. The invitation was extended before Trumps trip to Brussels  the fourth leg on multi-stop tour  was scheduled. Facebook

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Macron says he pressed Trump on climate accord By Catherine Stupp French President Emmanuel Macron, who met President Trump for the first time on Thursday, said he urged the U.S. leader to respect the Paris climate accord. The White House, however, did not mention the issue in its readout on Trumps working lunch in Brussels with the newly elected French president. Macron told reporters as he headed into the meeting that climate change would be one of the issues he raised, along with concerns about terrorism and the economy. Afterward, at a news conference, the French president said that in his talk with Trump, he reiterated the importance of the landmark climate accord. No hasty decision on this subject should be taken by the U.S., Macron said. Our collective responsibility is to make sure this commitment remains a global commitment. Referring to the agreement, he added: Its one of a kind. In its readout, the White House said Trump urged Macron to meet NATO commitments on French defense spending and help ensure that the alliance is focused on counter-terrorism. It also said the two leaders talked about the importance of defeating Islamic State and other vital issues. Facebook

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Trump lawyers ask Supreme Court to reject 2nd Amendment claim by men who lost gun rights over nonviolent crimes By David Savage President Trump speaks at an NRA event in Atlanta in April. ( Scott Olson / Getty Images) Trump administration lawyers are urging the Supreme Court to reject a 2nd Amendment claim that would restore the right to own a gun for two Pennsylvania men who were convicted more than 20 years ago of nonviolent crimes. The case of Sessions vs. Binderup puts the new administration in a potentially awkward spot, considering President Trumps repeated assurances during the campaign that he would protect gun ownership rights under the 2nd Amendment. But the Justice Department under Trump has embraced the same position in this case that was adopted under President Obama: to defend strict enforcement of a long-standing federal law that bars convicted criminals from ever owning a gun, even when their crimes did not involve violence. Read More Facebook

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Former Sen. Joe Lieberman withdraws from FBI director search By Associated Press (AFP/Getty Images) Former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has withdrawn his name from consideration for the role of FBI director. Lieberman interviewed last week with President Trump, who publicly identified him as a leading candidate. But in a letter sent to the White House, Lieberman says hes pulling out. He says he wants to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, given Trumps hiring of one of Liebermans law partners to represent him in the investigation of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. The White House declined to comment. Several other people interviewed for the job have also withdrawn from consideration. Trump fired former FBI Director James B. Comey earlier this month. Facebook

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At NATO celebration, Trump tells allies to spend more on defense By Michael A. Memoli (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) President Trump used his first NATO meeting to rebuke member nations who fail to meet the trans-Atlantic alliances defense spending target, saying American taxpayers unfairly are left to pick up the slack. Speaking at dedication ceremonies for NATOs new headquarters, Trump noted that the defense budgets of 23 of the 28 members dont meet a target equal to 2% of each respective nations economic output, while the United States has spent more on defense in eight years than the other 27 combined. Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, he said. We have to make up for the many years lost. By his scolding, Trump was directly delivering to NATO allies the criticism that was a staple of his nationalist campaign for president. But his lecture came at an event intended to be celebratory, showcasing unity and resolve for the nearly 70-year-old alliance: the dedication of its shining, glass-enclosed new headquarters in Belgiums capital. The ceremony also was meant to call attention to the fact that the only time NATO has invoked its collective defense agreement was on behalf of the United States, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. Trump stood beside a section of wrenched steel from the downed World Trade Center Towers, a relic NATO calls the Article V artifact, to signify that post-9/11 invocation of the NATO charters article holding that an attack on any one member would be considered an attack on all. Speaking to reporters before the president arrived, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that the alliance had a long way to go to meet its goals. But its much better than it was just two years ago, he said. The reality is that when we decrease defense spending when tensions are going down, as we did after the end of the Cold War, we have to be able to increase defense spending when tensions are going up. And now we see that tensions are going up. Facebook

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Watch: Trump lectures NATO leaders on defense spending By L.A. Times staff  As NATO leaders looked on, President Trump told NATO members that they must finally contribute their fair share of defense payments. President Trump lectured members of the NATO alliance on Thursday, urging them to pay their fair share on defense. As NATO leaders looked on during a ceremony at the alliances new headquarters, Trump said that member nations must finally contribute their fair share and meet their obligations. The president has been urging NATO leaders to live up to a 2011 decision to increase spending on defense to 2% of GDP by 2024. Trump said 23 of the 28 member nations are not paying what they should and that the situation is not fair to the people of the United States. Facebook

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President Trump promises to review Manchester investigation leaks after anger from Britain By Noah Bierman Trying to head off a diplomatic rift with Britain, President Trump on Thursday issued a statement promising a complete review of possible intelligence leaks related to this weeks deadly terrorist attack at a Manchester concert. Some British officials have suggested that U.S. officials are leaking sensitive information to American media outlets about the investigation into the attack. The New York Times posted forensic photographs collected from the scene of the Manchester concert bombing, which upset British officials. Whether the photographs were provided by U.S. officials or came from some other source is not publicly known. Trump avoided questions earlier Thursday about the possible leaks. His statement came just before he was set to address NATO at its new headquarters in a speech considered pivotal to his first trip abroad as president. British Prime Minister Theresa May was expected to confront Trump over the issue when they meet later in the day. May told reporters as she entered the NATO gathering that she would make clear to Trump that intelligence shared between law enforcement agencies must remain secure. We have a special relationship with the USA. Its our deepest defense and security partnership that we have, she said. Of course that partnership is built on trust, and part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently, and I will be making clear to President Trump today that intelligence shared between law enforcement agencies must remain secure. In his statement, Trump said that the alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling. These leaks have been going on for a long time, and my Administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security. The statement continued with a promise to request the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to

launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the

culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Trump also reiterated said there is no relationship we cherish more than the special relationship between the two countries. Separate leaks within his own administration and related to investigations of his campaign ties to Russia have also been a source of anger to Trump. Facebook

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Montanas congressional election: that assault charge, the Trump factor, and why is it on a weird day (Thursday)? By Mark Z. Barabak Its election day in Montana after a wild 24 hours, with voters deciding who will fill the House seat vacated when Republican Ryan Zinke left to head the Interior Department under President Trump. The contest Thursday has drawn nationwide attention and an extraordinary amount of money  and that was before the GOP front-runner was accused of attacking a national political reporter. The events have turned the contest into one of the strangest in memory. Read More Facebook

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Trump ignores questions about intelligence sharing ahead of NATO meeting By Michael A. Memoli (Peter Dejoing / Associated Press) President Trump refused to answer questions Thursday about concerns among key allies on intelligence sharing with the United States, just as he prepares to join many of them here to inaugurate the new NATO headquarters. During a brief photo opportunity at his first meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Frances newly elected president, Trump for a second time remained silent as a reporter asked about a potential breakdown in the U.S.-United Kingdom intelligence-sharing relationship. British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to press Trump on the issue when they meet later Thursday, after the New York Times posted forensic photographs collected from the scene of the Manchester concert bombing. The acting U.S. ambassador to Britain told the BBC that the leaks were deeply distressing. Speaking to reporters at the site of a NATO leaders meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also deflected questions about whether the incident has led him to reevaluate his nations intelligence-sharing arrangements. We will continue to work with all our allies to keep Canadians and all citizens around the world safe, he said. Ahead of a working lunch with Macron, Trump said terrorism was at the top of the agenda, while also offering his congratulations to the 39-year-old for his tremendous victory. All over the world, theyre talking about it, he said. In addition to terrorism and the economy, Macron said he planned to discuss climate change and energy. His nation hosted the climate summit that produced the agreement under which countries pledged to reduce their carbon emissions, of which the Trump administration is considering dropping out. Trump also ignored a question about whether former national security advisor Michael Flynn should cooperate with the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Trump has no news conference scheduled with reporters for the entirety of his eight-day foreign trip, which ends Saturday. Facebook

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Trump visits European Union headquarters; EU leaders cite some differences By Catherine Stupp Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said Thursday that differences remain between the Trump administration and the European Union on Russia, energy and trade. I am not 100 percent sure that we can say today that we have a common opinion about Russia, Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who is sometimes called the other Donald, said after a meeting with President Trump at EU headquarters. Tusk added that while some issues remain open, like climate and trade, the leaders agreed first and foremost on the need to combat terrorism. EU officials were skeptical in advance of Trumps visit. Their concerns were driven in part by the U.S. leaders positive stance on Britains vote last year to leave the bloc. Trump at the time called it a great idea. However, he has since spoken of the importance of European unity. European officials are also concerned that the Trump administration might withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming, and turn away from trade arrangements with the EU. Trumps visit to Brussels marked the fourth leg of his first overseas trip. Before heading into the talks with Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, he spoke enthusiastically about his earlier stops in Saudi Arabia and at the Vatican. His ceremonial welcome last week in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Trump told the European officials, was beyond anything anyones seen. The Saudis staged elaborate festivities including a traditional sword dance. And the president called his private encounter with Pope Francis on Wednesday very impressive. The president and the pontiff met privately for half an hour, and Francis presented Trump with gifts including a copy of a papal encyclical on climate change. The pope was terrific, Trump said. After the visit to the EUs sprawling new headquarters, Trump headed to a luncheon with the newly elected French president, Emmanuel Macron. The two men were meeting for the first time. During the French presidential campaign, Trump had praised Macrons far-right opponent Marine Le Pen for her tough positions on immigration and borders, but he had stopped short of endorsing her. Facebook

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Manchester attack makes terrorism the focus of Trumps NATO meeting By Michael A. Memoli (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images) The deadly suicide bombing in Britain and threats of more attacks thrust counter-terrorism to the top of President Trumps agenda for talks with NATO leaders here on Thursday, buttressing his bid to enlist the alliance he had called obsolete to join the fight against Islamic State. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, anticipating the alliance meetings, told reporters flying with the president to Brussels from Rome, where Trump met Pope Francis earlier Wednesday, that Mondays attack in Britain is going to strengthen the resolve in this fight against terrorism. Tillerson stopped short of predicting that NATO would agree to formally join the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but said it would be a really important step if the alliance did so. The attack, which killed 22 people at a pop concert and was said to be the work of a 22-year-old British man whose family is from Libya, also figured in Trumps brief meeting with the pope at the Vatican. Read More Facebook

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Analysis says 23 million more people would be uninsured by 2026 under GOP healthcare bill By Noam N. Levey (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) An analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finds that the Republican healthcare bill that passed the House earlier this month would nearly double the number of Americans without health insurance over the next decade. The report likely will complicate Republican efforts to get the controversial bill through the Senate. Read More Facebook

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By throwing Americas lot in with Sunni Arabs, does Trump miss opportunities with Iran? By Tracy Wilkinson On his first official trip to the Middle East, President Trump has resoundingly thrown Americas lot in with Sunni Arab states and cast Shiite Iran as a global pariah, even as Iranians reelected a president who has offered to work with the West. During his two days in Riyadh, Trumps full-throated support for the autocratic monarchies in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, as well as his fierce denunciation of Iran, allowed him to claim an historic new coalition of interests. In the next two days, in Jerusalem, he doubled down and argued that Israel and the Arabs should join forces against Iran and along the way, resolve Israels conflict with Palestinians in a grand bargain that has eluded diplomats for decades. But as he departed for Rome on Tuesday, Trump had little to show beyond lofty rhetoric, symbolic visits and a shower of flattery from kings, potentates and a prime minister. Read More Facebook

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Fed officials appear ready for another interest rate hike and are considering how to reduce assets By Jim Puzzanghera Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen (Michael Dwyer / Associated Press) Most Federal Reserve monetary policymakers indicated they were ready for another small interest rate hike -- perhaps as soon as next month -- if economic data strengthened as expected following a weak winter, according to an account released Wednesday of their most recent meeting. Fed officials also considered a plan to start reducing the $4.5 trillion in Treasury and mortgage securities and other assets the central bank has purchased since 2008 in an attempt to stimulate the economy. The plan, which they said likely would begin later this year, would involve slowly allowing some of the maturing securities to be cashed in instead of reinvesting the money in new securities, the meeting minutes showed. The goal would be to avoid roiling financial markets and causing interest rates to jump. Read More Facebook

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So whats with the president and Melania Trump holding, or not holding, hands? By Tom Kington First Lady Melania Trump does not say much in public, but her actions seemed to speak louder than words  or at least sent tongues wagging  when she appeared to rebuff the presidents proffered hand as the couple descended from their plane in Rome late Tuesday. As President Trump looked to take her hand on the steps of Air Force One, Melania Trump quickly moved it out of reach, raising it to her head to adjust her hair. That made for two such episodes in two days. She had appeared to brush Trumps hand away at the airport in Tel Aviv during the previous stop in the presidents foreign tour. Video of that scene, often accompanied by snarky commentary, quickly went viral. Compare that to Melania Trumps positively hands-on visit on Wednesday to a Rome childrens hospital, Bambino Gesu, following the couples visit with Pope Francis. After praying to a statue of the Madonna at the entrance to the hospital, the Catholic first lady smiled cheerfully and chatted to children, posing for selfies and providing a very happy, maternal presence, according to one onlooker. Great visiting you! Stay strong and positive! Much love, Melania Trump, she wrote in the visitors book. Staff at the hospital said Melania Trump had been buoyed by her meeting with Pope Francis, and further proof came when photos emerged of the Trumps quick visit to the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday. As the president and first lady stood together to admire Michelangelos 16th century fresco, the Last Judgment, they held hands. Facebook

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House Intelligence Committee will subpoena Michael Flynn, Schiff says By Sarah D. Wire The House Intelligence Committee is preparing to issue subpoenas to President Trumps former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, according to the committees ranking Democrat, following the lead of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said the House subpoenas will be designed to maximize our chance of getting the information we need for the committees investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. I think we need to use whatever compulsory [processes] necessary to get the information that he possesses, Schiff said. Earlier this week, Flynns lawyers said he would refuse separate Senate subpoenas for any records about his former business dealings with Russia, citing his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination. The Senate committee then issued separate subpoenas to two of Flynns businesses, which the panel said were not entitled to 5th Amendment protections. A federal grand jury in Virginia also has issued subpoenas regarding Flynns business dealings with Turkey and Russia, and the newly appointed special counsel investigating the Russia matter, Robert Mueller III, is expected to focus on Flynns role as well. Given the criminal investigations, Schiff said the House panel is highly unlikely to grant Flynns earlier request, through his lawyers, for immunity in exchange for his testimony. He said the panel would need more information about what Flynn would say and whether the testimony would be truthful. It also would need to ensure that granting immunity wouldnt affect the special counsels ongoing investigation, he said. Thats not somthinge I think we would entertain until far later, if at all, said Schiff, a former prosecutor. Certainly count me as very skeptical that we would get to that point. Trump forced Flynn to resign as national security advisor in February after news accounts revealed Flynn had misled White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about his contacts with Russian officials. Schiff spoke to reporters at a breakfast Wednesday hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. Facebook

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Watch live: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies on Trumps budget Follow live coverage from Times education reporter Joy Resmovits: Facebook

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Israel acknowledges pinpoint change needed after Trump intelligence disclosure By Joshua Mitnick After a week of silence, Israel publicly acknowledged for the first time, though in oblique terms, that it was the source of sensitive intelligence that President Trump shared with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week in a White House meeting. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israels army radio on Wednesday that Israeli officials had carried out an internal pinpoint correction after discussing and reviewing the episode. Lieberman did not elaborate, and declined to confirm or deny whether Trumps remarks had endangered an agent of Israel. But he said his government considered the matter resolved. Everything that needed to be clarified with the friends in the U.S. was done, he said. All of the conclusions we had to draw  it was all done. The Israeli defense ministers comments came the day after Trump wrapped up a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank. When word of Trumps disclosure to Lavrov emerged in U.S. news reports last week, the defense minister and other Israeli leaders confined themselves to expressing public confidence in the two countries intelligence cooperation. Israel did not comment more directly, presumably to avoid embarrassing the U.S. president just before his visit. But Trump himself mentioned the controversy anyway, in an awkward on-camera moment during the trip. With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu biting his lip alongside, Trump volunteered to reporters being hustled out of a news appearance: Just so you know, I never mentioned the word or name Israel. Never mentioned it during the conversation. News reports, however, had not said the president mentioned Israel in connection with the intelligence, only that the specificity of his remarks to Lavrov would in all likelihood have allowed the Russians to determine the source. The White House at first denied Trumps disclosure to Lavrov had occurred as reported, but then the president himself tweeted about it, saying he had the right to share information as he deemed fit. Facebook

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Trump calls meeting with Pope Francis an honor By Michael A. Memoli "A very great honor," Trump says to the pope when they began their meeting in the pope's private study pic.twitter.com/NGsbsahAyT  Carol Lee (@carolelee) May 24, 2017 President Trump held a half-hour private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday, declaring it a great honor despite their past public dissension. The unconventional Republican and the first Jesuit pontiff made for an unlikely pair in the Vaticans Apostolic Palace, where Catholic leaders have presided or centuries and American presidents have come or decades. Francis was silent as the two sat across one another at the popes wooden desk to begin the audience at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time. Exactly a half-hour later, the ringing of a bell signified the end of the private encounter. For the White House, the Vatican stop caps a tour through key sites of the worlds three major religions, following stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel, designed to promote tolerance and a united approach to terrorism. When you put it all together, youre really showing that this problem of radical extremism is one of the great problems of our time, a senior Trump aide told reporters Tuesday en route from Israel to Rome, briefing anonymously as is common White House practice. By putting everybody together you can really build a coalition and show that its not a Muslim problem, its not a Jewish problem, its not a Catholic problem, its not a Christian problem, it really is a world problem. In an exchange of gifts after their private meeting, Francis offered the president a medal by a Roman artist of an olive, a symbol of peace. We can use peace, Trump responded. Where Trumps and Francis interests may align on peace and combating terrorism, they disagree sharply on issues like immigration and poverty. Like Trump, the Argentine pope has shown a predilection for unscripted comments that have shaken the staid Vatican bureaucracy, as when he criticized candidate Trumps proposed stricter immigration policies including a border wall as not Christian. Trump fired back, calling the popes remarks disgraceful. Any animosity was not apparent Wednesday, as a meeting between Francis and a larger U.S. delegation ended. Thank you. I wont forget what you said, Trump said. Facebook

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Proposed budget would deeply cut State Department and its programs By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP / Getty Images) The State Department leadership voiced support for President Trumps proposed budget, which would impose deep cuts on spending for diplomacy and foreign aid, but critics vowed to fight to restore the funds in Congress. In a statement, the department said the presidents $37.6-billion request for it and for the U.S. Agency for International Development would support a leaner, more efficient government in line with Trumps America first mantra. If approved by Congress, that would represent a reduction of roughly 30% from the current fiscal year. Nongovernmental agencies that receive State Department support to carry out humanitarian and other work around the globe expressed deep alarm. The State Department statement said its new priorities would include efforts to counter terrorism, support Israel, promote border security and battle transnational crime and the spread of infectious diseases. The statement makes no mention of women-empowerment programs or efforts to fight climate change, issues that rose to prominence under the Obama administration. The proposed budget would allow the United States to remain engaged in the United Nations, but officials would seek a more fair distribution of the funding burden, the statement said. And it would eliminate direct funding for quasi- and non-governmental organizations that serve niche missions. The American Jewish World Service, which fights poverty all over the world through 450 local organizations, said much of its work would be jeopardized. At a time when poverty, human rights abuses, famines and conflicts are wreaking havoc globally, said the groups president, Robert Bank, the United States must not abdicate its long bipartisan tradition of providing development assistance and diplomatic support to the most vulnerable people around the world. Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based development and advocacy organization that works in 40 countries, said gutting development programs was short-sighted and absolutely shameful and could put millions of lives at risk. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, called the budget cruel and mean-spirited and said it would force the United States to abandon our global role as a champion for freedom, democracy and the rule of law. If President Trump thinks the United States can shrink into a defensive crouch without long-term repercussions, hes sorely mistaken, Engel said. Facebook

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Sessions first proposed budget: A crackdown on immigration and violent crime By Joseph Tanfani Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) In the first budget proposal under President Trump and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department is seeking hundreds of millions in new funding to pay for an immigration crackdown on the border and a surge in resources to fight violent crime. Like the Department of Homeland Security budget, which includes billions for expanded immigration detention, more border agents and technology to catch those crossing the border illegally, the Justice Department budget is a reflection of the new get-tough policies promised by Sessions. The budget asks for another 300 federal prosecutors  230 to focus on violent criminals and gangs, and another 70 to concentrate on filing criminal charges on those crossing the border illegally. The shift in the spending priorities are in line with other policy changes ordered by Sessions, including a renewed focus on seeking stiff mandatory minimum sentences for drugs and other crimes. The $27.7-billion budget seeks 450 new attorneys and support workers for the immigration courts, which are now clogged with a backlog of 560,000 cases. There would also be another $50 million for increased immigration detention, plus 40 new U.S. marshal jobs to help take care of the expected increase in immigrants heading to federal court. With Trumps immigration initiatives tied up in federal court, the budget seeks another 15 lawyers to handle that litigation, plus 12 more to help handle property acquisition needed for Trumps promised Southwestern border wall. Violent-crime enforcement would get another $198 million, with the largest amount, $70 million, going toward setting up more anti-violence and gang task forces. Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod J. Rosenstein said more resources are needed because of what he called an alarming increase in the rates of murder and other violent crimes. The department is also asking for another $40 million for more drug enforcement to combat the opioid epidemic, which he said is spreading havoc throughout the United States. Sessions new policies should lead to an increase in prison population, so the budget contains funding to fully open a new supermax prison in Thomson, Ill., with room for 1,500 to 2,000 inmates. The department also wants to put more resources behind the FBIs efforts to counter cyber attacks and to figure out ways around encryption technology, along with another 50 agents to counter foreign intelligence and threats from homegrown terrorists. Facebook

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Economists say Trumps budget proposal doesnt add up By Don Lee President Trumps inaugural budget proposal claims to eliminate the nations deficit in 10 years, thanks largely to faster economic growth that it projects will come from the presidents sweeping tax cuts. Never mind the overly optimistic projections on economic growth. Or that Trumps tax overhaul has not happened yet. Even allowing for both, economists say Trumps budget still does not add up. The administration is counting on generating $2.1 trillion in additional revenue over 10 years from better economic growth. But Trumps budget proposal leaves out the cost, or the revenue lost, from the massive tax cuts. In other words, the economic gains that the administration has said it would use to pay for tax reform is apparently also being counted on to pay for deficit reduction. Some people call that double-counting. You cant use the same money twice, said Marc Goldwein, a senior vice president for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that advocates keeping government budgets under control. Lawrence Summers, former Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration and top economic advisor to President Obama, called it an elementary but egregious accounting error. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the right-leaning American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, said the proposal did not necessarily mean there was an outright omission or a double-counting. Its possible that the administration is looking for such strong economic growth to drive significantly extra revenue from payroll taxes, he said, or it could be that Trump officials were using different base lines from which they were drawing their results. But on the face of it, he said, the budget and tax-plan numbers dont seem to match. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated that Trumps plan to cut corporate and individual taxes would cost the federal government about $5.5 trillion over 10 years, adding more than $6 trillion to the national debt. Details of Trumps tax overhaul, however, are still being developed, and its possible that the administration is assuming a revenue-neutral tax plan  although experts say big tax cuts never pay for themselves. On Tuesday, Mick Mulvaney, Trumps budget chief, did not provide a direct answer or explanation to questions about double-counting. Instead, he told reporters that you have to make assumptions about a budget. He went on to say that one of the assumptions that was not made was to take into account the uncollected taxes every year, which he said amounted to $486 billion last year. And we dont assume an additional penny of that being closed as part of our tax reform, said Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget. Of the 3% annual economic growth assumption, Mulvaney responded that the Obama administration in its first couple of years had based its budget on growth of 4.5%. In fact, Obamas first budget proposal as president, in May 2009, assumed economic growth of between 4% and 4.6% for the budget years 2011 to 2013. Since the Great Recession ended in mid-2009, the U.S. economy has been growing on average about 2% a year, and the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Reserve and most private economists see the economy advancing at about 2% annually over the next 10 years. Alice Rivlin, a former Fed vice chair and director of the Office of Management and Budget under Clinton, said its true that the Obama administrations growth assumptions proved too optimistic. But she noted that those projections were not unreasonable for that time and period in the economic cycle. Then, there was greater potential for growth with unemployment high and many more people than today available for work. Today, the economy is nearing its eighth year of expansion, and the jobless rate is 4.4%, at or near full employment. With the aging of baby boomers, labor force growth slowing, and lackluster productivity gains, economists see the current moderate growth persisting for the foreseeable future. This has been a very long period of growth and were at the high end already, Rivlin said. If we are so lucky to have continuous, steady growth, its not likely to be at 3% or 4% or 5%. Facebook

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Who wins and who loses in Trumps budget The White House Office of Management and Budget sent Congress the presidents inaugural budget today, projecting spending and revenues over the next 10 years. The fiscal package, which include a partial skinny budget from March, reflects President Trumps priorities for the nation, but lawmakers are sure to reject many of the deep cuts in domestic and foreign affairs programs. The departments of State, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Education and Housing, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, are the biggest losers. The winners are the Pentagon and Homeland Security programs. Even with the increases in defense spending and large tax cuts, the administration projects that economic growth spurred by tax cuts will erase annual deficits by 2027. Take a look at some of the numbers released today. Read More Facebook

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What that Montana special congressional race will  and wont  tell us about Trump and his political problems By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Rob Quist is a quintessential cowboy who doesnt seem to relish campaigning in Montanas special congressional election. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images) On Thursday, the political world will eagerly look to Montana and a closely fought congressional race for the latest test of Democratic strength and Republican resilience in the turbulent age of Trump. The major candidates and outside groups have sunk more than $8 million into the contest, a huge sum in a state where $250,000 pays for a robust week of television advertising. But for all that money and all the outside interest, the election will turn less on national trends than circumstances close to home: on the personalities and histories of the main contestants, their different campaign styles and, perhaps most of all, on who is regarded as the more authentic Montanan. Read More Facebook

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Terrorist attack in England has conservative media focused on safety of allies By Kurtis Lee (Dave Thompson/Getty images ) Its a sight witnessed all too often: an explosion, screams, people sprinting to safety. Late Monday night, this was the scene at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, after a man with possible ties to Islamic State militants set off a suicide bomb, killing 22 people and, once again, setting in motion a global discourse on how to fight terrorism. President Trump, while visiting Bethlehem, said the attack was committed by evil losers in life. Throughout the campaign and early in his presidency, Trump has said defeating the Islamic State is a top priority. (He reiterated that point in a speech Sunday in Saudi Arabia, urging Muslim leaders to plot their own course in combating terrorism.) In recent months, with attacks in Berlin, Paris and London, conservative media have questioned the safety of Europe and warned that the United States could face similar attacks. With the latest attack, some on the right are again homing in on the safety of our allies. Here are some of todays headlines: 2017 has seen a terror attack attempted in Europe every nine days (Breitbart) The attack in Manchester blankets the home page of the right-wing website. Europe has indeed been the location of high-profile attacks this year. In Paris last month, Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the Champs-Elysees in which a man fired an automatic weapon, killing a police officer. And in March, a man plowed his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, near the British Parliament in London, and then fatally stabbed a police officer. In all, four people were killed and dozens injured in what police called a terrorist attack. The Breitbart piece is an analysis of different terrorist attacks attempted and carried out in Europe since January. Attacks and attempted attacks have taken place in Austria, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Germany, on average every nine days, the piece says. Pences message of civility and open debate lost on those who most needed to hear it (Weekly Standard) The debate over free speech on colleges campuses continues. In recent months, conservative speakers have canceled speeches on college campuses in the face of anticipated protests. And others, who have opted to speak, have faced vocal backlash. On Sunday, as Vice President Mike Pence began to address students at the University of Notre Dame commencement, several dozen stood and walked out of the ceremony. In his speech, Pence talked about civility and open debate, and this piece argues that the m
Dylan Fryer is stretching his entrepreneurial chops and testing his design skills by making and selling colorful beads under his own company, Creations 4 Wildlife.

The name comes from a desire to help the worlds most threatened species.

The 12-year-old Newport Beach resident wont reveal any costs related to his venture, though he hinted in a recent interview at a decent profit margin. But he is quick to emphasize that he has raised more than $3,500 for wildlife conservation.

I love all animals, Dylan said. After visits to the San Diego Zoo and learning that these species are going extinct, I wanted to help.

Since founding the company last fall, Dylan and his mother, Michelle, have come up with 11 bracelet styles that support conservation of lemurs, red pandas, giraffes, tigers, rhinos, elephants and, most recently, pangolins, often referred to as scaly anteaters.

Michelle Fryer and her son Dylan, a 7th grader at Corona del Mar Middle School founded Creations 4 Wildlife, a Newport Beach-based company supporting wildlife protection. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

The latest installment, the Pangolin Passion bracelet, supports WildAid, an environmental organization whose mission is to end the illegal wildlife trade.

Each bead is selected to evoke in some way the animal and its habitat. The beads are then attached to a bracelet thread or waxed string. Dylan said no leather or animal products are used.

With the Pangolin Passion bracelet, the Chinese rainbow jasper is supposed to symbolize the large, hardened plate-like scales of the mammal.

The green unakite stone is intended to represent the pangolins tree habitat, and the silver-plated lentil bead represents the animals armor. The pangolin curls up in a ball when threatened by predators.

Dylan Fryer, a 7th grader at Corona del Mar Middle School founded Creations 4 Wildlife, a Newport Beach-based company supporting wildlife protection. He raises money by selling bracelets. (Scott Smeltzer / Daily Pilot)

Pangolins species live in Africa and Asia. They are threatened by hunting, particularly for the animals meat and armor, and heavy deforestation.

The Crash of Rhinos bracelets, which benefit the International Rhino Foundation, started after Dylan learned about the slaughter of rhinos in South Africa for their horns.

The bracelet features multi-colored stones representing the five remaining species of rhino.

The recently formed for-profit company sold more than 120 bracelets around the holidays. They start at $20.

Dylan is the founder of the company. Michelle functions as the director, overseeing daily operations including social media, financial aspects and shipping. They join together on the marketing.

Many of the bracelets have been sold to Dylans classmates at Corona del Mar Middle School, where he is a student. He and his mother have also received orders from around the nation and have a repeat customer in Canada, they say.

Learning about animals has been Dylans interest since he was 6.

Instead of having a birthday party or receiving presents when he turned 9, Dylan chose to raise $1,000 to help build the Tiger Trail exhibit at San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

For his donation, Dylans name is on a plaque at the Safari Park.

Having my name there, its like an aha moment when I see it, Dylan said.

Rick Schwartz, an ambassador for San Diego Zoo Global, the not-for-profit organization that operates the zoo and Safari Park, became a mentor to Dylan when Schwartz shared information about the animals and plants of the two locations. The two met at the zoo in 2012.

His philanthropy is a model for all youth and families, Schwartz said. Dylan has these great ideas, but it wouldnt be without the support of his mom, Michelle. Hats off to his passion and to his mom for encouraging him. The two of them have quite the power when they put their minds together.

Dylan, whose favorite subject is science, said that when he goes to college, his mother can take over the business. He said he would become a zookeeper at San Diego Zoo, working his way up as a curator of mammals or possibly a global ambassador like Schwartz.

His short-term goal is making it to the Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco this October. The expo, sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Network, will include guest speakers on wildlife conservationist.

His long-term goal is to travel to Africa and Asia to see the animals that he and his mother are trying to save in the wild, particularly the mountain gorilla.

As of September last year, the estimated number of gorillas remaining is less than 900, experts say.

Its a good feeling that the product has been received well, Michelle said. Realizing that a 12-year-old is making an impact  thats amazing.

For more information, visit creations4wildlife.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

World oil prices are going down on May 26 amid the surprise decision made by OPEC on extension of the oil output cut deal.

The price for July futures of Brent crude oil has decreased by 0.66 percent to $51.12 per barrel as of 05:53 (GMT +4).

Meanwhile, the price for July futures of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has dropped by 0.82 percent and stood at $48.50 per barrel.

OPEC held its 172nd meeting on May 25, followed by the 2nd OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting in Vienna, Austria.

OPEC member countries and non-OPEC parties, Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and the Republic of South Sudan have agreed to extend the production adjustments for a further period of nine months, with effect from July 1, 2017.

OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said that Libya, Iran and Nigeria got the same exemption in the extended deal to cut the oil production.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
Long a refuge for tall people tired of standing out in public, the Tall Club of Orange County is now short on enrollment, members say, because of technologys ability to connect those with like characteristics and a decrease in discrimination.

It wasnt always this way.

The Fountain Valley-based club once attracted members from all over the county and, in the 1980s and 90s, was the second-largest tall club in the country with 300 to 400 members, said longtime member Kathleen Johnson of Huntington Beach.

Fountain Valley resident Shirleen Murphy, who currently leads the group, said there are only about 15 active members.

The local club is a piece of a large international network of tall clubs that have provided members with years of memories and lasting relationships.

The history

Tall clubs owe their existence to Kae Sumner Einfeldt, who at 6 feet 3 founded the first club in 1938 after publishing an article in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine detailing the trials of being tall.

At the time, shed been working as a cartoonist for Walt Disney Studios and was ironically drawing dwarfs for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Several people contacted Einfeldt after reading the piece. They all gathered at her home for what would be the first tall club meeting.

That single Los Angeles group swelled into the formation of multiple groups worldwide and Tall Club International, the parent organization that collects dues from each club. (Einfeldt died in 1996 at the age of 80).

There are about 50 tall club chapters in the United States and Canada, according to the TCI website.

Tall clubs require women to be at least 5 feet 10 and men to be at least 6 feet 2.

In the past, there was a stigma associated with height, especially for women, so the clubs acted as refuges, Murphy said.

For the first time, I could be with a group of people where I wasnt the tallest woman in the room, said Murphy, who is just over 6 feet.

For many, the clubs are also seen as a way for singles to meet potential partners, said former member Lee Love, who lives in Huntington Beach.

The group organized a variety of events like dances, parties and beach volleyball, Love said.

Love said her grandparents met at a dance. Members talk of multiple marriages among the ranks.

Clubs hold beauty pageants, and the winners represent their local chapters annually at an international convention. Love and Murphy were both crowned Miss Tall OC.

Today there are no pageants or dances in Orange County because the club has dramatically scaled back.

The only vestigial remnant of the group is its seldom-active Facebook page.

The decline of a local chapter

When Murphy joined in 2006, there were about 70 members. Even then, the club was considered to be much smaller than in its heyday.

Its dwindled to 15 members, and the group hasnt met in over a year, Murphy said.

Since Murphy became the leader of the club a few years after joining , shes been fighting to keep the club alive.

Murphy and Johnson said a lack of interest from younger adults explains the decline in membership.

Technology, and its filters for everything, easily connects people with certain characteristics. Murphy and Johnson believe Match.com and eHarmony provide an easier avenue for singles to meet.

Murphy met her husband on an online dating site.

And society has moved away from height-induced prejudices, they both said.

It was very odd to be tall, especially for a woman, Johnson said.

Murphy said other tall clubs have been able to maintain solid memberships. She hasnt had any luck trying to attract younger members.

On the groups Facebook page, former members commiserate over their inability to get their kids involved.

Neither of our adult children are interested in tall clubs, one post reads. I urged them to look into it but neither did. So many wonderful times, relationships and marriages. I hope it does not die off.

But the club isnt finished yet, and its leader isnt about to give up.

I am not going to let the club die, Murphy said. It was so important to me, I just cant do that. I will keep trying.

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot
The Newport Beach-based Coast Guard cutter Narwhal and its crew of 11 are prepared to respond to any kind of emergency this busy Memorial Day weekend, according to its commanding officer.

Home-ported at the Coast Guard facility on Bayside Drive, the Narwhal also works closely with other water-borne first-responders during incidents of danger, said Lt. Jamie Kim, 27, an Irvine native who graduated from Canyon View Elementary School, Northwood High School and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

In partnership with the Orange County Sheriffs Department, Baywatch, the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the crew of the 87-foot Narwhal is unanimous in advising Orange Coast recreational boaters about the perils that might await them on Memorial Day as well as Labor Day, the prime summertime three-day holiday weekends.

Common sense must be the watchword for boaters who take to the bay and ocean on federal holidays. This week is National Safe Boating Week, and passengers and crew on the crowded waters should make sure that lifejackets are readily available for everyone on board, ship-to-shore radios are installed on each boat, boaters have notified family members or friends of their float plans or intended destinations, excessive drinking while operating a vessel is a violation of state law and lookouts must be posted on all craft to warn of possible collisions with other boats, warns Steve Batchelor, a Narwhal boatswain mate.

The Narwhal, which can reach a top speed of 25 knots or 29 miles per hour and is named for a whale that has a large, sword-like tusk protruding from its lip, has responded to a wide range of emergencies since its 2001 commissioning in Newport Beach.

On one occasion, for example, the Narwhal received a distress call from a sailboat that was sinking or capsizing off Catalina Island. When the cutter arrived at the scene, its crew saw that the three passengers aboard, a married couple and their 1-year-old child, were in immediate danger of being tossed into the sea.

Narwhal crew members jumped into the cutters eight-foot, rigid-hull boat, brought it aside the stricken sailboat, rescued the people aboard, pumped water out of the sailboats hull, repaired the leak and brought the passengers and their sailboat back to Newport Beach.

Several days later, the Narwhal received another distress call, this time from boaters who radioed that an ocean kayaker had become overcome by heat exhaustion and was in danger of drowning. The Narwhals crew brought the unconscious man aboard and transported him to their base on Bayside Drive, where an ambulance took him to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. The kayaker survived, and his rescue was covered by several Los Angeles television stations.

The Narwhal also participated in the rescue of a deep-sea diver who had contracted the bends, or decompression sickness caused by the formation of gas bubbles that can enter the body because of rapid changes in pressure under water. Paralysis or death may result if the patient is not immediately placed in a decompression chamber. The victim, who was diving off Catalina Island, was taken by the Narwhal to Avalon and airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter to a Los Angeles hospital, where he was treated successfully.

Ocean rescues arent the only responsibility of the Narwhal and the Coast Guards other Southern California cutters, which are based at Santa Barbara, Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, Marina del Rey, Los Angeles/Long Beach and San Diego.

Drug smuggling, which in earlier years was mostly carried out on land through the U.S. border with Mexico, has also taken to the high seas, and the Coast Guard, using its cutters and helicopters, has been pressed into action to interdict the flow of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs declared illegal by the federal government.

In one night-time instance, the Narwhal, on routine patrol off the coast of northern Mexico, received a radio report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection about a suspicious-looking, 25-foot boat that was racing north without lights. When the Narwhal located the boat, which carried three passengers, the suspected smugglers quickly turned around and began throwing plastic-wrapped bales of marijuana into the sea.

In the fog and mist, the smugglers evaded the Narwhal and escaped. But assisted by Coast Guard helicopters, which dropped buoys where the bales were jettisoned, the Narwhal located and picked up most of the floating bundles which weighed a total of about 10,000 pounds.

It was the largest marijuana haul in 15 years, according to a Coast Guard spokesperson, who was quoted in news reports after the incident.

On another day, the Narwhal was standing by when federal agents interrupted a drug smuggling operation in waters off Catalina Island that involved a new twist: The use of sailboats to bring drugs into Southern California ports

The agents discovered the suspected smuggling attempt after stopping a sailboat flashing its lights. Once aboard, the officers found a three-man crew along with a loaded shotgun, a pistol and night vision equipment.

Suspecting the smugglers were preparing to rendezvous with another, larger boat to perform a drug swap, the federal agents called in a helicopter to scan the water for other nearby vessels. The choppers pilots soon spotted a Mexican fishing boat about five miles away, and during a high-speed chase someone on the fishing boat was seen throwing large bales into the ocean.

When the U.S. agents reached the floating bundles, they hauled them aboard and recovered 130 bales of marijuana, which had an estimated street value of $1 million. The chase also ended successfully. The Mexican fishing boat was stopped as was the sailboat, and the three U.S. nationals aboard the sailboat and four Mexican nationals on the fishing boat were arrested.

The smugglers think that when their recreational boats such as sailboats move the drugs to shore, they will blend in with other recreational traffic off the Southern California coastline and make it much more difficult for us to detect illegal drug activity, reported a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official following the arrests of the crew members of both boats and the retrieval of the marijuana bales.

Although the Narwhal has participated primarily in ocean emergencies and other situations where weapons are not required, the cutter is armed with two .50 caliber machine guns and, when necessary, crew members are issued .40 caliber pistols, metal helmets and Kevlar vests for their personal protection.

At their home port in Newport Beach, the cutters crew is ready for anything and everything during the Memorial Day weekend.

David C. Henley is a contributor to Times Community News.
Local opponents of a proposed 710 Freeway tunnel scored a victory Thursday when Metros board of directors voted unanimously to direct hundreds of millions of Measure R dollars away from a tunnel option and toward systematic traffic improvements throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

This is a huge day for La Canada and for the region, state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) said in an interview after the vote. The three generations of activists who worked first to kill the freeway and now to kill the tunnel, and those who drafted us into this fight, need to be commended.

La Canada officials and city staff members joined resident activists opposed to the tunnel at the meeting, where La Canada Mayor Mike Davitt addressed board members in a public comment about the motion to forego the tunnel as a feasible, fundable option.

The tunnel is not practical, is unfundable and, most importantly, does not address regional transportation needs, Davitt said, adding poor air quality and negative health impacts as chief concerns. We do believe that the motion provides an effective path for the affected cities in the region to work together in connection with Metros goals to allow for improvements which will benefit everyone.

After hearing two hours of public comments, board members voted 12-0 in favor of an amendment supporting systematic traffic signal upgrades, enhanced bus services and a number of local street improvements as part of a transportation system management/transportation demand management (TSM/TDM) plan.

The tunnel is not practical, is unfundable and, most importantly, does not address regional transportation needs.  Mike Davitt

The decision is expected to shift more than $700 million in funding from the countys 30-year Measure R sales tax, originally intended for the tunnel, to the $105-million TSM/TDM option and other locally driven improvement initiatives.

The motion was put forth by Metro board member and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Board Chair John Fasana, mayor pro tem of Duarte and a longtime tunnel advocate. Fasana said he could no longer continue to prolong finding a solution to increasingly vexing traffic issues along the 710 corridor.

It gets improvements out there now, he said of the amendment. Ive thought the tunnel is the best approach. Ive also come to the realization it is not fundable. If it happened, it would be many, many years away.

Portantino, a former La Canada City Council member who first took his worries about the 710 to his council colleagues in 1999, said Fasanas shift in thinking is emblematic of a changing climate surrounding the feasibility, financial and otherwise, of a multibillion-dollar tunnel project.

The senator attributed the shifting tide of public opinion, in part, to repeated missteps by Metro, as plans for a tunnel moved ever forward despite a lack of convincing and timely documentation proving it could be paid for.

The more stumbling they did, the more groundswell of support (against a tunnel) began to build, Portantino said.

Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian, a Metro boardmember whos long opposed a 710 tunnel, called Thursdays decision a historic moment and praised Fasana and Bargers motion as the environmentally and fiscally responsible thing to do.

The important thing is theres money being offered to the communities, significant money, to do your own projects and work together  from El Sereno and East L.A. all the way up to La Canada, youre all in this, Najarian said. This is truly a transportation step forward.

Former La Canada City Councilman Don Voss, a longtime critic of the tunnel, said he was thrilled to hear the tunnel option was, for now, off the table.

This is really a great day for La Canada, a great day for the San Gabriel Valley and a great day for Los Angeles County, Voss said in a phone interview from Seattle. This is an opportunity at last for citizens to reach out to Alhambra and Monterey Park and say now that were done with this discussion, lets find a way to address transportation issues in the San Gabriel Valley that we can all embrace.

Stalwart supporters of the tunnel, however, disagreed with the Metro boards ruling.

This has been a long battle but were not tired, Alhambra Mayor Dave Mejia said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. Our No. 1 priority is to provide relief to our communities and we will keep fighting to make sure our cities get the support and resources we need to reduce congestion on our streets.

Meanwhile, local activist members of the No 710 Action Committee, like La Canada resident Jan SooHoo, recognize their fight hasnt ended, either. Now the priority is making sure plans for a tunnel are stricken from Metros long-range plans and the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) developed by the Southern California Assn. of Governments to guide transportation projects decades into the future.

Im relieved, but theres still a lot of work to be done, SooHoo said after the board meeting. Now we need to get the tunnel out of the RTP.

sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine
The Roman Empire remains a powerful force in Las Vegas. Its shoppers, not soldiers, who rule as new stores join the already impressive ranks.

How much revenue does shopping bring to Vegas? According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the average visitor last year spent $230 on shopping purchases. The 2012 figure was $259.

The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace

In early 1992, workers were putting the finishing touches on the Forum Shops. It was the Strips first full-scale shopping center. (Las Vegas News Bureau)

The shops continue to draw serious, upscale shoppers and browsers. First-timers will delight in the animated statues and the ever-changing skyscape on the scenic ceiling.

The theme befitting a Roman emperor continues to fit with the long-established motif at the adjoining Caesars Palace. Most notably, the center redefined Las Vegas as not only a gambling mecca but a destination for shopping and dining.

Fans greet Arnold Schwarzenegger as he arrives at the Forum Shops in July 1994. (Las Vegas News Bureau)

The center contains more than 160 businesses. Seventeen original tenants remain, including Gucci, Versace and Louis Vuitton stores and the Palm and Spago restaurants.

The Fall of Atlantis fountain comes alive several times a day with a show featuring animatronics and other special effects. (Forum Shops)

As the silver anniversary is celebrated, new signage was put up on Las Vegas Boulevard. A marquee  85 feet tall and 41 feet wide  features LED technology that can be programmed to create everything from an ancient Roman gateway to a modern fashion runway.

Images created by Nathan Myrhvold, who describes himself as a photographer, chef, scientist and author, are displayed at Myhrvolds gallery at the Forum Shops. (Modernist Cuisine Gallery)

Four new tenants are joining the celebration: workout apparel company Lululemon, a gallery selling Disney-themed art called Magical Memories, the food and photography Modernist Cuisine Gallery and the Otheroom, a wine bar with locations in New York and L.A.s Venice neighborhood.

The three-story spiral escalator at the Forum Shops is the only conveyance of its kind in Las Vegas. People lined up to ride it following its launch in October 2004. (Forum Shops)

Two additions over the years have more than doubled its size, from 283,000 to 630,000 square feet. Like many of its competitors, Forum Shops welcomes guests 365 days a year.

Grand Canal Shoppes

The Forum Shops success led the way for other themed shopping centers at resorts along the Strip. At the Venetian, the Grand Canal Shoppes opened in 1999, offering guests an opportunity to float past stores in gondolas. (Grand Canal Shoppes)

It took seven years for another resort to open its own themed mall. In 1999, the Grand Canal Shoppes arrived at the Venetian-the Palazzo.

Beyond the dozens of stores and restaurants, the big attraction was, and continues to be, the canal that runs down the middle of the mall. Visitors can glide from one end to the other aboard gondolas  yes, with singing gondoliers.

Miracle Mile Shops

The Miracle Mile Shops, formerly known as Desert Passage, are a string of more than 200 stores and restaurants. They stretch for more than a mile behind the Planet Hollywood resort. (Miracle Mile Shops)

Close on the Venetians heels, Desert Passage opened at the Aladdin in 1990. The shopping center and the resort have since changed names; the Miracle Mile Shops now are connected to the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino.

Put on some comfortable walking shoes before venturing inside; the mall is more than a mile long, with 200-plus businesses.

The Shops at Crystals

Opened in 2009, the Shops at Crystals is the Strips newest upscale shopping experience. (The Shops at Crystals) (Al Powers /)

The arrival of CityCenter in December 2009 brought Las Vegas newest shopping experience. The Shops at Crystals  it was simply called Crystals until it was sold about a year ago  brought yet another opportunity for well-heeled Vegas visitors to spend money somewhere other than in a casino.

Theres plenty for the average visitor to drool over while window shopping; jewelers display necklaces and watches selling for more than half a million dollars.

One of the original tenants at Crystals, Louis Vuitton still has a presence with its expansive store. Its one of the French retailers seven locations in Las Vegas. (The Shops at Crystals) (Los Angeles Times)

Other resorts also have their own, smaller shopping districts. They include the Grand Bazaar Shops outside Ballys, and Via Bellagio at Bellagio.

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Where everyones going for Memorial Day
You can get to the exotic Cook Islands for $795 round trip from LAX on Air New Zealand.

The fare, which includes all taxes and fees and is subject to availability, is for departures on Saturdays on these dates: Aug. 26-Sept. 24, Oct. 21-Dec. 15 and Jan. 20-March 31.

Returns are on Fridays. You must stay at least six days but not more than 20 days. You must buy your ticket by June 10.

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Info: Air New Zealand, (800) 262-1234 www.airnewzealand.com

Source: Airfarewatchdog.com

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The new Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride set to open Saturday at Disney California Adventure looks like it was dropped from outer space into the middle of the Anaheim theme park. And thats by design.

Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm of the company, re-skinned the 2004 Twilight Zone Tower of Terror indoor elevator drop ride with a back story loosely based on the original 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy movie and its sequel. The films feature a mismatched team of intergalactic misfits who band together to save the universe.

Imagineer Joe Rohde, who led the renovation project, says the imposing Guardians building was designed to make an abrupt, powerful appearance out of nowhere, surrounded by torch marks where this thing burnt itself into our reality.

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Its not a fantasy world, Rohde said in an interview with The Times. It is an alternative reality world. It appears in our world and transforms it.

 The new Guardians of the Galaxy -- Mission: Breakout! ride will open May 27 at Disney California Adventure Park.

The polarizing exterior facade has drawn the ire of some Disney fanatics. One fan in a MiceChat forum described the renovated tower as a half-roasted turkey. Others were less kind. The positive comments tend to fall into the wait and see or give it time categories.

The renovated building is now home to an alien museum, where the Collector character from the first film stores his vast extraterrestrial collection. The structure  combining an industrial power plant with an imposing fortress  is intended to reinforce the notion of the power-hungry Collectors vast energy consumption.

If you look at the building, we had to draw from not only the filmic universe, but also the comic book universe, Rohde said. Make nods to Jack Kirby and to old, established comic book style in order to get that building to feel like it comes from the universe without necessarily being a copy of anything that youve seen in a film.

1 / 18 Exterior view of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheims California Adventure theme park. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 18 Joe Rohde, veteran executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, gives a preview tour of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride. Rohdes extravagant and worldly style is having a massive impact on Disney theme parks. For the past two-plus decades, Rohde has been helping to shape modern Imagineering, as his designs (Animal Kingdom, Pandora and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout) emphasize realism and abstract storytelling. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 18 An animatronic Rocket Raccoon of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 18 A view of the video screen inside the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 18 Interior view of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 18 Interior view of the Cosmo character inside a case at the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 18 Media members take a preview tour of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 18 Interior view of the Ultron Sentry character inside a case at the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 18 I am Groot sipper cup on display during a media preview day at the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 18 A preview the interior of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 18 The Groot character is announced during a media preview day at the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 18 A view of souvenirs for sale in the gift shop at the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 18 Members of the media preview the interior of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 18 Members of the media preview the interior of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 18 Joe Rohde, veteran executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, gives a preview tour of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride taken in Anaheim For the past two-plus decades, Rohde has been helping to shape modern Imagineering, as his designs (Animal Kingdom, Pandora and Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout) emphasize realism and abstract storytelling. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 18 Details of Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 18 A preview of the interior of the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 18 Interior view of an 89P13 blaster inside a case at the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout ride in Anaheim. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

To say the wild new exterior sticks out in the meticulously designed Disney theme park would be a vast understatement. Disney Imagineers purposely designed the Guardians facade to contrast with the Art Deco surroundings of the nearby faux Hollywood Boulevard.

The renovation transformed the exterior of the haunted hotel into an imposing space age fortress covered in power plant-like piping and shimmering earth tones. The effect is shocking. It looks like someone dropped an industrial oil refinery in the middle of the park. The 183-foot-tall building is visible throughout the park and even from the Santa Ana (5) Freeway.

The Collectors fortress was inspired by gothic influences, art nouveau design and even Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, Rohde said.

We want your eye to flow up that building, Rohde said. Make your eyes lift up and look up, up, up at this thing and feel that you want to go inside. Ultimately, the building has to make you want to go inside.

The design of the Guardians ride building drew upon Renzo Pianos inside-out Pompidou Centre in Paris, which Rohde described as an industrial building with high romantic feeling.

Ultimately our product needs romanticism, Rohde said. It needs to be picturesque. It needs to be beautiful.

The controversial renovation raises the age-old question Disney fans have been asking for decades: What would Walt think?

Walt Disney famously rejected early designs that called for a decrepit Haunted Mansion, refusing to build a ramshackle haunted house in the middle of his immaculately maintained theme park.

Imagineers followed Walts lead when plans called for a junkyard at the entrance to Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Maters Junkyard Jamboree is the cleanest, most orderly and well-manicured garbage dump you will ever find.

We will have to wait to see how the new Guardians attraction eventually fits into Imagineerings larger vision for a Marvel-themed land already in the planning stages.

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Rita Duartes grief was compounded by government mix-ups that took 57 years to correct.

The Mirror, sister paper to the Los Angeles Times, reported Aug. 26, 1952:

A 19-year-old paratrooper killed in action in Korea was buried in Calvary Cemetery yesterday without the guard of honor to which he was entitled.The lack of the guard capped a series of tragic misunderstandings that brought additional grief to the family of Philip Duarte of Basilone Homes (Sun Valley).

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The Army has not explained why the honor guard was not furnished.

The youth was buried beside his half-brother David Gonzales, 24, Los Angeles only Congressional Medal of Honor winner in World War ll. ...

Rita Duartes oldest son, David M. Gonzales, died in 1945 during fighting in the Philippines. After rescuing three soldiers buried under debris, he was hit by enemy gunfire. President Truman posthumously awarded Gonzales the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Gonzales was buried with military honors at Calvary Cemetery in 1949.

In 1950, Philip Duarte was killed in Korea. His body, escorted by an Army sergeant, arrived at a mortuary in San Fernando. Usually the military escort remains with the family through burial. But after a meeting with the Duarte family, the sergeant left.

A promised $75 government check never arrived. Rita Duarte had to pawn family furniture to cover the $247 burial costs. Duarte, mother of 14 children, died in 1977.

In 1998 family members discovered that websites and exhibits honoring Congressional Medal of Honor winners had the wrong photo  it was not David Gonzales in the image.

While correcting the image, the military discovered that Gonzales had earned eight other medals never awarded, including two Bronze Stars and a gold star for Rita Duarte.

The photo was corrected and the medals were awarded to the family by Rep. Howard Berman in 2002.

In 2006, Los Angeles Times writer Cecilia Rasmussen outlined the long list of misfortunes in her story A Family Finds Closure for Long-Ago Sacrifices.

Following both World Wars and the Korean War, families usually had to wait several years for the return of soldiers remains.

The Mirror, owned by the Los Angeles Times, closed in 1962.

An earlier version of this post was originally published on Nov. 10, 2010.

Nov. 7, 2002: Photo of Private 1st Class David Gonzales Sr. Congressional Medal of Honor Winner, on display at ceremonies homoring him at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar. (Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times)

Nov. 7, 2002: Pfc. David Gonzales is honored posthumously during a Veterans Day ceremony at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar. Great-grandson Ian Gonzales sits in the lap of his dad, John Gonzales. (Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times)

Nov. 7, 2002: David Gonzales Jr. greets grandson Ian Gonzales at the ceremony. California State Assmblyman Tony Cardenas is at right. (Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times)

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here
When Donald Trump was seen brushing his way past Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic for a group photo at a NATO summit in Brussels this week, many Europeans came to the same conclusion: The American president came off looking like a bully.

Markovic later said he felt it was an inoffensive gesture. It is natural that the president of the United States is in the front row, he said. But the incident drew almost as much attention as Trumps failure to mention and endorse NATOs Article 5  the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

Across Europe, the reaction to Trumps trip, and especially to the NATO photo op, was less than charitable. Scotlands J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books and a frequent Trump critic, posted a clip of the Trump-Markovic incident on Twitter with her own scathing comment: You tiny, tiny, tiny little man.

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German comedian Jan Boehmermann also turned to Twitter to compare Trump to a hungry man barging his way past others to get to the front of the line for an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Tension caused by Trump and his America first rhetoric has been running high across the continent since his election in November. This weeks meetings with leaders of NATO and the Group of 7 leading industrialized countries did little to ease it.

A number of Europeans shared their impressions on The Times Facebook page.

As someone who enjoys visiting the U.S., I am always impressed by the politeness and good manners of most Americans that I meet. Sadly, your president is a rude ignoramus, said Londoner Howard Allman.

An American, Richard J. Martinez, said he has encountered widespread negativity while traveling in Europe this month. Anytime someone hears we are from the States, a negative conversation ensues and instant judgment begins, he said. If youre traveling, try not to bring his name up.

But Marina Stefanelli noted: Lots of people in Italy wish he was our president.

Then there was Marija Masenka Yesenin: Montenegro calling, I am so happy that you finally know where we are! she wrote. Thanks a lot, Trump!

The media were hardly more forgiving.

In Belgium, the newspaper Le Soir said Trump had raised doubts about his commitment to NATOs Article 5 by not mentioning it. There is nothing in his words to suggest that Europe and America under his leadership still share a common world view or even basic values, it said.

Germanys bestselling Bild daily wrote: Rowdy behavior and bluster  Trumps first visit to NATO causes consternation among observers and NATO leaders alike.

Thomas Jaeger, a political scientist at Cologne University, said polls show that Trump was already the most unpopular postwar U.S. president to set foot in Europe. He said Trump is especially disliked for his tough-talking rhetoric in Germany, a country with a phobia of war after its belligerent 20th century past.

Trump is seen as the epitome of the ugly American,  Jaeger said. Hes loud, uncouth, ignorant, disgustingly and flamboyantly rich.

President Trump is just not capable of leading the Western alliance, Norbert Roettgen, a senior leader in Parliament from German Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative party, told the magazine Der Spiegel. He is not at all interested in that at the moment. The situation is far more grave as even those who are most surprised by all this could imagine.

Some of this weeks criticism was directed not at Trump, but at the media reporting on Trump. German publications were called to task for a dubious translation of Trumps comments about Germanys large trade surpluses with the United States.

The newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Der Spiegel reported that Trump had said: The Germans are evil, very evil because of the high trade surpluses. Evil, or boese, is one translation for the term bad, but not the most accurate in the context of what Trump said  that Germany is very bad on trade.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker weighed in to defend Trump: The record has to be set straight. Its not true that the president took an aggressive approach when it came to the German trade surplus. He said, like others have, that [the United States] has a problem with the German surplus. So he was not aggressive at all.

Trumps image as an outsider continued in Italy on Friday at the G-7 meeting in Taormina, Italy, where the distance between Trump and the others was as much physical as it was political. The presidents, chancellor and prime ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom walked the streets of Taormina.

Trump followed in a golf cart.

Kirschbaum is a special correspondent. Special correspondents Tom Kington in Taormina, Italy, and Catherine Stupp in Brussels contributed to this report.

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A fresh wave of airstrikes in eastern Syria killed at least 35 civilians including women and children, state media and an observer group reported Friday, and the U.N. human rights chief said civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating airstrikes against the Islamic State group in the country.

Zeid Raad Husseins comments came hours after airstrikes on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, where airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition Thursday night killed 35, many of them family members of Islamic State fighters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It added that the airstrikes happened at sunset Thursday as people were heading to mosques for evening prayers.

The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL, are also falling victim to the escalating airstrikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of Raqqah and Deir el-Zour, Hussein said in a statement from Geneva, using another acronym for Islamic State. Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas.

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Civilian casualties from airstrikes grow in Iraq and Syria. But few are ever investigated 

The observatory said 26 people were killed when a four-story building housing the families of seven Islamic State fighters from Syria and North Africa was destroyed in an airstrike. It added that nine other people were killed when an airstrike hit a market in the town, which is close to the Iraqi border.

Syrias state news agency SANA also said 35 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed in the airstrikes.

Reports of deaths among civilians have been on the rise as the fighting against Islamic State intensifies in northern and eastern Syria.

Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist who is originally from eastern Syria, said Mayadeen residents were urged through mosque loudspeakers to head to hospitals and clinics to donate blood. He added that more airstrikes occurred in the early hours Friday.

Pentagon investigation into deadly airstrike in Mosul says U.S. bomb ignited Islamic State explosives 

Hussein, the U.N. human rights chief, in a dramatic appeal on Friday urged all parties conducting strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria to take greater care differentiating between military and civilian targets.

He cited a May 14 strike that reportedly killed 23 farm workers in a rural area of Raqqah province and an airstrike the following day that is said to have killed at least 59 civilians and wounded dozens in the Islamic State-controlled eastern town of Bukamal that is also in in Deir el-Zour province.

Hussein, who is a member of the Jordanian royal family, said the rising toll of civilian casualties suggests that insufficient precautions are being taken in the attacks.

Hussein said he was concerned about retaliatory measures taken by Islamic State against civilians suspected of facilitating the airstrikes and reports that civilians were being prevented from leaving Islamic State-controlled areas. The day after the Bukamal incident, Islamic State fighters reportedly cut the throats of eight men at the site of the attack, accusing them of providing coordinates for the air strikes.

Chris Woods, director of the London-based independent monitoring group Airwars, said its staffers have seen an uptick in the air assault on eastern Syria during the last week.

We remain extremely concerned about Raqqah, he said, given the activity of U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces allies in the area, which is difficult for reporters and other outside observers to reach due to border restrictions. Were worried about their lack of local knowledge and that rules have been changed to allow them to make more strikes. Were also worried about the lack of public scrutiny.

Woods said they have seen more airstrikes in recent days, including strikes by Iraqi warplanes, near Abu Kamal, also in the Deir el-Zour area by the Iraqi border, and around Raqqah  two or three strikes a day for the last week.

As the Raqqah offensive nears, he said, theres also concern about the Mosul offensive drawing to a close to the east.

Now that really in Mosul were down to the last neighborhoods in the Old City, weve seen very little reporting of civilian casualties in recent days, Woods said of the coalition. Weve been extremely concerned about a final assault because all indications are they will not change their tactics of extreme air support.

The U.S. military says 352 civilians have been killed in coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since the air war against Islamic State was launched in August 2014  far fewer than Airwars estimate of 3,294.

U.S. investigators recommended in a report Thursday that the Pentagon intensify its investigations into whether its daily bombing runs over Iraq and Syria are inadvertently killing civilians.

The report also advocated that the two-person team investigating civilian casualties for the coalition be expanded and that teams of investigators begin visiting the sites where residents say civilians have been injured and killed by airstrikes.

Under the existing system, the coalition investigates civilian casualties based on reports from its staff, the news media, social media and local and international monitoring groups. Investigators are not required to visit the scene of strikes, speak with victims or other witnesses.

Staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Riyadh contributed to this report.

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Warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition pounded an eastern Syrian city Thursday and Friday, killing more than 100 family members of Islamic State jihadists, activists and a monitoring group said. The U.N. condemned the escalating airstrike campaign on the northeastern provinces of the country.

Two coalition airstrikes  on Thursday evening and early Friday morning  on the city of Mayadeen, which lies on a segment of the Euphrates River that straddles Iraq and Syria, killed 106 people, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with a network of activists in Syria.



For the record: An earlier version of this article said the airstrikes occurred after a condemnation from the U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Raad Al Hussein. The strikes occurred before Al Husseins comments.

In these two days alone, coalition airstrikes on the city of Mayadeen killed 47 children, and the rest of the victims  the vast majority were women. Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the group, said in a phone interview Friday.

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He said that those killed were family members of Islamic State members residing in the municipal building of Mayadeen.

By what right does the coalition kill women and children, even if they are family of Islamic State fighters? he asked.

Khaled, an activist with the Civil Action Group, a group of activists from Mayadeen with family members still in the city, could not give an exact death toll but said that the strikes had also targeted the Shaar hospital, a facility converted by Islamic State into a residence, as well as a government building that had become the headquarters of the groups religious police.

The forklifts are still removing the rubble and finding corpses in the area, he said in a phone interview Friday. He gave only his first name for reasons of security.

The fire after the strike was so powerful that it spread to school buildings nearby. They only managed to put it out today.

The coalition acknowledged that it had conducted strikes on Mayadeen but said it was still assessing the results of those attacks, according to Army Col. Joe Scrocca, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

Coalition forces work diligently and deliberately to be precise in our airstrikes, Scrocca said. .

Coalition forces comply with the law of armed conflict and take all reasonable precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.

He said all allegations of civilian casualties are compiled in a monthly report that is released to the public.

However, Scrocca insisted that although the goal has always been for zero civilian casualties, the coalition would not abandon [its] commitment to [its] partners because of ISISs brutal tactics terrorizing civilians, using human shields and fighting from protected sites such as schools, hospitals and religious sites.

Islamic State is also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, the groups acronym in Arabic.

The strikes, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said comprised the deadliest such attack involving Islamic State family members, came hours before a strong condemnation from the U.N. human rights chief, Zeid Raad Al Hussein.

The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries suggested that insufficient precautions had been taken in the attacks, he said in a statement from Geneva released on Friday.

The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL, are also falling victim to the escalating airstrikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates, Al Hussein said. Just because ISIL holds an area does not mean less care can be taken. Civilians should always be protected, whether they are in areas controlled by ISIL or by any other party.

In recent months, the coalition, fighting in concert with a Kurdish-dominated militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, has shifted focus to the northeastern desert provinces of Syria as part of a wide-scale campaign to snatch Raqqa, Islamic States so-called capital in the country.

It has also ramped up support to rebel groups operating in the countrys southeast in a bid to claw back wide swaths of the Syrian-Iraqi border, a vital transit conduit for the jihadist group.

The U.S. military has observed Islamic State leaders and their families flee to Mayadeen in recent months as the military campaign against them has isolated and seized their strongholds in Iraq and Syria. Airstrikes and ground raids have targeted leaders holed up in the eastern city, including the Uzbeki-born operative who helped organize the New Years Day attack on a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, that left 39 dead.

Chris Woods, director of the London-based independent monitoring group Airwars, said its staffers have seen an uptick in the air assault on eastern Syria during the last week.

We remain extremely concerned about Raqqa, he said, in light of U.S. and allied forces activity in the area, which is difficult for reporters and other outside observers to reach given border restrictions. Were worried about their lack of local knowledge and that rules have been changed to allow them to make more strikes. Were also worried about the lack of public scrutiny.

He said they have seen more airstrikes in recent days near Albo Kamal in the Deir ez Zor area at the Iraqi border, including strikes by Iraqi warplanes, and around Raqqa  two or three strikes a day for the last week.

The coalition has faced mounting criticism as the offensive on the city of Mosul, Islamic States last bastion in neighboring Iraq, draws to a close.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation determined that a U.S. bombing on Mosuls Jadida neighborhood in March had killed at least 105 civilians, an incident that Samah Hadid, Amnesty Internationals campaign director in the region, said in a statement Thursday was a tragedy that alerted the world to the horrors being inflicted upon Iraqi civilians.

While we welcome the U.S. investigation into the Jadida airstrike, we are curious to know whether any lessons were learned and what steps were taken to ensure such horrors do not occur again.

The Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), condemned the Mosul attack in a statement Thursday, exhorting the coalition to back up its public concern about civilians wellbeing with action and make the protection of civilians a strategic priority for counter-ISIS operations.

The group recommended that the coalition avoid the use of airstrikes as a primary tool in densely populated areas and that troops practice tactical patience in their advance.

The bottom line is that ISIS wants mass casualty events, said CIVIC executive director Federico Borello. The U.S. and Iraqis should have known better and not given it to them.

Bulos, a special correspondent, reported from Amman, Jordan. Staff writer Hennessey-Fiske reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and staff writer Hennigan from Washington.

Twitter: @nabihbulos

UPDATES:

12:30 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 9:20 a.m.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26



By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

A grant agreement has been signed for the feasibility study needed for the planned Eastring gas pipeline project.

European Unions Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) and Slovakian Eustream gas transmission system operator have signed an agreement allowing Eustream to receive EU grant for the projects feasibility study, said the message on the companys website.

Feasibility study will be funded under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in the amount of up to 1 million euros, or 50 percent of the eligible costs. The grant agreement entered into force May 12, 2017.

Eastring will transport natural gas from different areas and alternative sources. At the first stage, it will provide the Balkans and/or even Turkey with gas from the European gas market. At the final stage, when its bi-directional mode should be in place, Eastring will transit prospective Romanian Black Sea natural gas, Caspian and Middle East natural gas to Europe.

Earlier, Public Relations and Communication specialist at Eustream company Pavol Kubik told Trend that there is significant potential for the delivery of gas via the Southern Gas Corridor to Europe through the Eastring gas pipeline.

"Eastring project is not linked to any supplier. Therefore, it will be open for every source on the non-discriminatory basis in full compliance with EU legislation. In this context, we believe there is a significant potential towards Caspian region and Southern Gas Corridor route," said Kubik.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
A bus carrying Coptic Christians to a monastery south of Cairo was targeted in a bloody attack by gunmen Friday, killing 28 people, officials said.

Egyptian state television reported that 25 others were wounded in the attack in Minya province, a Christian enclave about 140 miles south of the capital.

Militants attacked a bus and a car  they shot them, 28 persons were killed at least, including women and children, said Ishak Ibrahim, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a Cairo-based think tank.

A group of laborers and volunteers from a village in Minya had boarded a bus to St. Samuel Coptic Orthodox Monastery about a dozen miles away Friday at about 8 a.m. Two white SUVs stopped them, said Anba Aghason, the Coptic Christian bishop in the area.

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Aghason recounted what survivors told him happened next.

Armed men emerged, faces covered, and asked the passengers, Are you Christian?

The passengers said yes.

The armed men then distributed a 10- to 15-page pamphlet of Koranic verses that explained fasting during Ramadan, the Muslim holiday that started Friday. Then the armed men told the group to recite the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith.

They refused, and said, No, we were born Christian and will die Christian,  the bishop said. So they killed all the men. They killed some of the women, injured others and stole what they had.

The attack prompted President Abdel Fattah Sisi to announce in a televised address that Egypt had struck training bases for militants and would continue to do so. Egyptian officials said separately that a half dozen bases had been struck in the northeastern city of Derna, Libya.

We will strike against these camps inside and outside Egypt and I hope that message is clear to everyone. We will not hesitate to protect our people, said Sisi, who turned his attention to the international community and President Trump in particular regarding the fight against terrorism.

I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task, he said of Trump.

Trump, who was attending a summit in Sicily Friday, issued a statement saying the U.S. stood with the Egyptian people and condemned the attack. He blamed evil organizations of terror and thuggish ideology for the merciless slaughter of Christians and said Fridays attack should bring nations together to crush evil organizations of terror.

An image grab taken from Egypts state-run Nile News TV channel on May 26 shows the remains of a bus that was attacked while carrying Egyptian Christians in Minya province, south of Cairo. (AFP/Getty Images)

In Maghagha, a city on the banks of the Nile in northern Minya province, more than 5,000 Coptic Christians gathered late Friday at Virgin Mary Church to mourn, sobbing and wailing in a crowd so large it spilled into the streets. Some, upset with the government, chanted, Sisi, Sisi, go away! others We are willing to die for the cross.

Yusuf Debabwy came to mourn his uncle, Aid Hanin, 45, a farmer who was going to serve at the monastery farm, as he does every week.

We have no rights. We are targeted. We feel no safety in Egypt, said Debabwy, 21, a pizza deliveryman in Cairo who complained theres no police checkpoint on the desert road between his uncles village and the monastery. We blame the police.

Mina Samuel lost a cousin, Lamelanei Tawadros, 55, also a farmer who volunteered at the monastery.

Im very upset and angry at the government and the president because we are not protected, we feel no safety in Egypt, said Samuel, 31, who works at a medicine company in Cairo. There is no justice.

Those outside the church said at least one child survived.

Some of the victims were taken to Nasser Institute Hospital in Cairo for treatment. A crowd of relatives and others eager to donate blood formed outside.

Wael Mahrous said he came for news of his uncle, Bushra Kamel, 62, who had been shot and was in surgery. He said the shooting injured a handful of people from their village, El Fashem.

As soon as we found out, we went to the site and helped carry the injured and dead, said Mahrous, 36. There were children everywhere. We brought them out to Minya hospital and then we came here to Cairo.

He said attackers robbed bus passengers of money and valuables before they opened fire, striking his uncle in the chest and leg.

If it werent for the fact that my uncle pretended to be dead already, they wouldve shot him again and killed him, Mahrous said.

Christians make up about a tenth of Egypts population of 92 million people. As Islamic States influence has expanded in Egypt, Minya  home to the countrys largest Coptic Christian community  has been a flashpoint in recent months for attacks by Muslim extremists against Coptic Christians.

After twin suicide bombings by Islamic State militants killed 47 worshipers at Coptic churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta on Palm Sunday, Minyas Coptic bishop announced that they would curtail Easter celebrations to avoid further violence.

Before Christmas, a bombing at a chapel beside St. Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo killed 29 churchgoers, marking the start of an Islamic State campaign against Christians in Egypt. Coptic Christians have been displaced from their homes in the Sinais city of Ismalia and harassed in Minya, their houses burned.

Sisi announced a three-month state of emergency after the Palm Sunday bombings in an effort to reassure the country  and Coptic allies  that terrorists would be rooted out and quickly prosecuted. Easter passed without bloodshed. Pope Francis visited soon after, appearing with the Grand Imam at Al Azhar University, the seat of Sunni Muslim learning, to urge an end to the violence.

The leadership of the Coptic Church in Egypt has supported Sisi, who came to power four years ago. That has also made Copts a target for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. After security forces killed hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators in Cairo in 2013, Islamists attacked hundreds of Coptic churches and homes, especially in Minya.

After Fridays attack, Sisi issued a statement calling for an emergency security meeting and instructed authorities to tend to the injured and arrest those responsible.

Egypts Grand Mufti Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, the countrys Muslim religious leader, issued a statement saying he condemned the lowly terrorist incident which has been carried out by extremists.

Grand Imam Ahmed Tayyeb, leader of Al Azhar Mosque, the Cairo-based seat of Sunni Muslim learning, was in Germany giving a speech when he learned of the attack, and observed a moment of silence for the victims. Tayyeb, who hosted Pope Francis during his visit to Cairo, also posted a statement online condemning the attack.

Neither Muslim nor Christian approves of the Minya incident, he said, asking Egyptians to stand united in facing this brutal terrorism.

But many remained skeptical that even Sisi, a former general, could stop Islamic States advance from Sinai strongholds into the countrys interior.

Ibrahim said no group had claimed responsibility for Fridays attack.

Although the government applied the emergency law, terrorists succeeded again to target Coptics and kill them. he said.

He said Sisis administration must do more to protect Coptic Christians against Muslim extremists.

They need to impose security against terrorist action, a short-term and long-term plan to address the atmosphere and the problem that created the sectarian incidents that target Christians, Ibrahim said. They need to take serious steps to deal with the culture and social problems, to send a message that the state protects all of the citizens.

Special correspondent Medhat reported from Cairo and special correspondent Makarios Nassar from Minya. Staff writer Hennessy-Fiske reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

ALSO

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Pentagon investigation into deadly airstrike in Mosul says U.S. bomb ignited Islamic State explosives

Death by stoning: Battered Syrian city offers a window into life under the thumb of Islamic State militants

UPDATES:

3:10 p.m.: This article was updated with more description of the attack and a statement by President Trump.

1:10 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from residents and details about the attack.

7 a.m.: This article was updated with eyewitness accounts and more information about the leadership of the Coptic Church in Egypt.

This article was originally published at 4 a.m.
All material is subject to strictly enforced copyright terms & conditions and cannot be repurposed or reproduced.  19882022 Latin American Financial Publications Inc.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Huseyn Veliyev  Trend:

An agreement has been reached on mutual recognition of electronic signatures (e-signature) among the member countries of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States (Turkic Council), said Azerbaijans Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies in a message May 26.

According to the message, this issue was raised at the second meeting of the Councils working group that was held in Istanbul.

Participants of the meeting reached an agreement on creation of necessary conditions for recognition of e-signatures among Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

They also discussed the formation of joint electronic services among the member countries of the Council, touched upon the issues on exchange of experience and training in the creation of electronic government, introduction of the single window principle in providing e-services, development of mobile applications and others.

As part of the event, subgroup meetings were held, where the prospects of cooperation of the countries in the areas of satellite communications, cyber security, development of broadband Internet services and construction of the Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) were reviewed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

The Azerbaijani CRM Group IT company will present the first smartphones under the Made in Azerbaijan brand in June.

The first laptops and tablet computers assembled in Azerbaijan will be also presented, the company told Trend May 26.

The assembly line will be based in the Pirallahi High-Tech Park.

In general, the company acquired the patent right to deploy the assembly of around 10 different types of IT products, including tablet computers, laptops, printers, etc., the source said earlier.

The products assembled in Azerbaijan will be sold on the domestic market and will be exported to the regional markets.

The assembly of high-tech equipment is the first large-scale project which is being implemented in the country.

CRM Group received the status of a resident of High Tech Park LLC in December 2016. CRM Group mainly focuses on management and IT consulting, business process automation, information security, IT outsourcing of specialized IT solutions, etc.
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When Nadjarazthou Raicha Kamara first came to Northampton Community College from her West African nation, she was so anxious about her English she shook before class presentations.

Today, the 20-year-old international student has conquered her fears. She speaks flawless English and boasts an impressive list of clubs and activities she's joined during her two years on campus.

On Thursday night, Kamara was one of nearly 800 graduates to cross the stage at NCC's Arthur L. Scott Spartan Center during spring commencement, graduating from the college's honors program with an associate's degree in biological sciences.

Nadjarazthou Raicha Kamara

She's one of 28 students graduating from the program, which means students have taken four honors classes and maintained a 3.5 GPA or higher.

Kamara plans to next attend LaSalle University in Philadelphia to earn her bachelor's degree and then enroll in medical school. She hopes to become a neurosurgeon and work in the U.S. for about a decade to gain experience.

"The brain is so amazing. It controls everything in the body," she said. "I want to learn more about it."

She eventually plans to return home to the Ivory Coast and open her own hospital. Kamara's elder sister, who is a pharmacist, inspired her to pursue a career in the sciences. And another sister led her to Northampton Community College.

"She got her associate's degree and she told me about how amazing (NCC) is and how the professors are really nice and how the size of classes is really small," Kamara recalled.

College classes in the Ivory Coast often have 500 students, making college a very impersonal experience, she said.

"The professor doesn't really have the time to know the students; you don't have time to talk to him if you have any questions," she said. "It is not easy."

Her sister inspired her to look into obtaining a student visa to study at NCC herself. The college has a thriving international program with 152 students from 50 countries enrolled for the spring semester.

It took several months and intensive English classes before Kamara obtained her student visa. She arrived at NCC in January 2015.

"It is not easy," she said of the process. "You have to really explain yourself and say why you want to go there."

Kamara lived in an off-campus apartment with her sister, who was then studying at Lehigh University. The first semester away from her family and home were quite difficult, she said.

In retrospect, she realizes she was dealing with culture shock and anxiety over the language barrier.

"I was so anxious I was always shaking and I didn't know what to say," Kamara recalled.

Things eased when she began taking science classes and having to interact with other students.

She's a member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and the Student Senate, among other organizations. She worked as a chemistry tutor helping other students grasp concepts.

"It was just amazing," Kamara said.

When Kamara got homesick, she recreated in her kitchen some of her favorite foods, including aloko, a fried banana dish, from the Ivory Coast. And she invited friends over to share in the traditional fare.

When her parents come to visit each year, they stock her up with ingredients she has trouble finding in the U.S. She was thrilled her parents made the trip for graduation on Thursday.

"They came with my older sister," she said. "That was a surprise. I was so happy to see her."

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Kyrgyzstans Manas International Airport, the main air gateway in Kyrgyzstan, signed loan and grant agreements, the bank said in a message.

The airport operating company, MIA (International Airport Manas), will receive a loan of $4.7 million and an investment grant of $500,000 to address the growing demand for good quality airport services in Kyrgyzstan, and will assist the installation of a ventilation and heating system, which complies with international best practice and energy efficiency standards.

Manas, the main airport in Kyrgyzstan, serves the capital Bishkek and is used by some international airlines as a transit airport.

The project will also be the first time in the Kyrgyzstan that a majority state-owned enterprise borrows funds without a sovereign guarantee.

In addition, the EBRD will provide technical assistance to the airport to improve financial management and efficiency of operations, as well as energy efficiency standards.

To date, the EBRD has invested about $770 million in various sectors of Kyrgyz economy, with projects in infrastructure accounting for a third of the total investment.

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
A DeSales University student is accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping woman and intentionally crashing a car soon after he was confronted, police said.

Nicholas Marcantuono, of Pittstown, New Jersey, reportedly told officers he crashed the car on purpose in the early morning of April 29, and had "hurt a lot of peoples' feelings."

The 19-year-old Marcantuono was arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault. He is free on $5,000 unsecured bail.

Marcantuono's attorney, Christopher Gray, did not immediately respond to a message asking about the allegations.

University spokesman Tom McNamara said Friday Marcantuono is on interim suspension; he cannot attend classes and is not on campus. McNamara declined to comment on the allegations, except to say the university was cooperating with police.

Upper Saucon Township police said the victim reported she was sexually assaulted by Marcantuono in the early morning of April 29, while she was asleep in a room in Donahue Hall.

The woman was sleeping next to her fiance, when she felt a hand on her breast and then her genitals, police said. The woman tried to push the hand away, and when the touching did not stop, she sat up and saw Marcantuono walking away from the bed, police said.

The woman confronted Marcantuono, who then left the room, police said.

A little less than two hours later, police were called to a rollover vehicle crash on Weyhill Drive in the township.

Marcantuono was driving the vehicle and was the only person inside, police said.

Marcantuono reportedly told officers he intentionally crashed the car and had "hurt a lot of peoples' feelings."

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito said he gave ex-substitute teacher Kelly Aldinger the benefit of the doubt with a "modest" sentence after she had sex with a student in Easton Cemetery.

But he realized that was a mistake Friday.

Her probation officer said the 50-year-old Palmer Township woman couldn't make it three months on parole before she contacted the victim, drank alcohol and was thrown out of her sex offender therapy program. All three violate the terms of her release.

Zito threw out his three- to 23 month sentence in Northampton County Prison and sent her to state prison for a year and a half to three years. She will serve a year on probation when her parole runs out.

Assistant District Attorney Tatum Wilson said Aldinger has called the victim, reached out to him on Facebook and texted him.

"She's still in love with the victim and she thinks she's done nothing wrong," Wilson said.

A polygraph administered during therapy suggests that she had sex with another minor victim, although Aldinger denies that, Wilson said. Zito said Aldinger went to the Jersey shore without checking in with her probation officer.

Aldinger was charged with the sexual encounter on May 6, 2016, with a 17-year-old boy. After repeated denials that she had sex with him before that, she admitted she started having sex with the boy when he was 15, Wilson said.

"If the Commonwealth would have known that, it would have subjected her to much more serious charges," Wilson said.

On top of that, she was kicked out of therapy because she refuses to take responsibility for her actions, Wilson said. When asked about her worst decision since entering treatment, she didn't say it was contacting the victim. She said her worst decision was drinking alcohol.

"Her statements show her complete lack of insight into why her actions were wrong," Wilson said.

Aldinger only admits to texting the victim. She did so because she saw him in her neighborhood and she was worried about his well-being, according to defense attorney Philip Lauer.

"I realize the seriousness of my offense," Aldinger told Zito. "I take full responsibility for my violations."

Lauer said Aldinger has struggled in therapy because she feels like the counselors don't have her best interest at heart.

"It's very confrontational. It's very accusatory," Lauer said. "You're called a liar frequently. She admits she didn't react well to that in the beginning."

He said she confessed to having sex with the teen at a young age and to texting him as part of her therapy. Now she's being punished for being honest, he said.

"Sending her off to serve more time for being truthful about what occurred is not the message the court wants to send," Lauer said.

Aldinger said she has come up with a "safe plan" where friends and family members can help her from violating the terms of her parole.

"I can't change what I did but I would like the opportunity moving forward to prove that I can and I will comply with every single rule imposed upon me," she said.

Zito said he weighed the fact that she lost her job as a substitute teacher in the Easton Area School District, that she was publicly embarrassed in the community where she served as council president at her church, that she had serious health issues and no criminal record when he allowed her to go on house arrest after spending only three months in prison.

But he feared when he imposed the original sentence that she might by "gaming the system or being manipulative," a fear that was bolstered by her track record while on parole.

If she had feelings for the boy, she needed to be patient, the judge said. But she couldn't wait.

"All she had to do was make it through what I consider a very modest sentence. At the end of her supervision if she wants to re-establish a relationship she's free to do so," he said.

Instead of sending her home, Zito sent her to state prison.

"I regret I have to do this but I am constrained to do so because of the history of this case," the judge said.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
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The Humber Stone: it's probably our oldest local landmark, yet not that widely-known  probably due to a macabre curse and legends attached to it.

Leicester historian and geologist Matt Sibson took the picture above last May showing an unusual perfect circle of daisies surrounding the Humber Stone.

As it happens, May is supposedly an important month for this mysterious monolith, as Matt explains: "On the face of it, the Humber Stone is just a chunk of rock.

"Estimated to weigh a whopping 20 tonnes, it's a large, isolated stone, standing in Sandhills Avenue, off Thurmaston Lane.

"But for hundreds of years, myths and legends have been attached to this weird and once-prominent feature of the Leicestershire landscape.

"They say there's no smoke without fire and it could be there is a grain of truth in some of these tales, linked to the story that this half-forgotten stone was once a site of great significance to our ancient ancestors.

"Geologically-speaking, the Humber Stone is probably an "erratic": a large block of rock transported by the action of glaciers and plonked down, now out of place, when the ice retreated.

"This would have happened about 440,000 years ago, during the Anglian Ice Age, when Leicester was traversed by swathes of thick ice.

"The rock is syenite granite, the nearest source of which is Mountsorrel, five-and-a-half miles away."

Myth and legend has added scores of details to this prosaic background.

"Down the years, the stone had various names, such as Hellstone, Holystone, Hoston and Holston.

"There's even a curse of the Humber Stone, which dates back centuries and crops up in a series of tales.

"It is said that between 1756 and 1766, the upper parts of the stone were broken off so that a plough might pass over it.

"The owner of the land who did the deed "never prospered afterwards", apparently. He was reduced from being the owner of about 120 acres, to absolute poverty and died in 1810 in the parish workhouse.

"John Harrison, in his booklet The Mystery of the Humber Stone, tells the story of a farmer in 1925 who decided to build a haystack on the stone. The stack burst into flames. The fire brigade was called, but as soon as they had extinguished the fire and left, it burst into flames. The hay continued to burn for three days.

"The villagers said it was due to "the curse of the Humber Stone", because it had been defiled."

More recently, in 1980, "Boy drew creature that stood beside his bed" was a Leicester Mercury headline, when a 10-year-old, living close to the Humber Stone, had constant "visits" from a devilish entity.

"It was, apparently, a creature with a goat's head and long curving horns, a man's body and cloven hoofs.

"After drawing it at school, the boy's teacher asked what it was. "I don't know, miss", he said. "It's the thing I sometimes see at the end of my bed".

"The family left Leicester soon after, but the same house was then occupied by the boy's grandparents. A month later, the Leicester Mercury proclaimed: 'Humberstone ghost tried to choke me.'

"The grandmother of the unnamed boy said: "I was roughly awakened, feeling that my life was being choked out of my body." The house in question was close to the Humber Stone.

"You should, of course, take all these tales with a pinch of salt. But, the fact remains that the Humber Stone has loomed large in local legends down the centuries.

"The 19th century writer John Dudley conjectured that all these strange tales stem back to the stone's ancient use  as a sacrificial altar. We've already mentioned that the stone was previously known as Hellstone.

"Hela, Dudley said, is the Saxon word for death, adding: "There seems to be little room for doubt that Hoston (the Humber Stone) was once sacred to the purposes of druidical, or rather of the more ancient bardic, worship".

"Dudley believed that Humberstone village acquired its name from the stone, for the places used for ancient bardic worship were known as Homberds or Humberds.

"Humberstone, he believed, was plainly the 'ton', or town, of the Humberd, or place of bardic worship.

"The village is situated half-a-mile from the stone. This is as near as habitations seem to have been allowed to approach these sacred places, where sacrifice was commonplace.

"A less bloody suggestion is that the Humber Stone was artificially positioned and was a mark stone, pin-pointing sunrise when observed from the nearby St John's Stone.

"It marked an important day on the pagan calendar, May Day, known as Beltain.

"The first stone circles of Britain and Ireland were built in 3,200 BC. The oldest human remains found in Leicestershire have been dated from 3,300 BC to 3,100 BC.

"So, could the Humber Stone be one of these early feats of engineering? It is possible."

Whatever the theory, the Humber Stone must surely compete as Leicester's oldest landmark.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 26

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

A business forum organized by the chambers of commerce and industry of Turkmenistan and Belarus has been held in Ashgabat, the Embassy of Belarus in Turkmenistan said in a message May 26.

The forum participants discussed development of bilateral cooperation at the level of business circles, including the supply chains, logistics and financing, the message said.

Ambassador of Belarus to Turkmenistan Oleg Tabanyukhov in his speech at the forum drew attention to the efforts of the Turkmen and Belarusian presidents aimed at creating a favorable environment for the two countries entrepreneurs.

About two dozen large enterprises and companies of Belarus took part in the forum.

Belarus offered its services in the supply of high-technology equipments and organization of their production, and expressed interest in Turkmen textile, agricultural and industrial products, and deepening cooperation in the manufacture of food products.

The sides also discussed the possibility of supplying railway rolling stock, agricultural and road machinery.

The two countries also discussed cooperation in establishing production of high-technology lighting equipment, as well as partnership in the field of printing.
A cosmetic brand made by a popular Newbridge woman has sold out on the US market.

Pestle and Mortar skincare line sold out in seven miniutes on QVC USA.

QVC is the largest home shopping television station in the world.

Sonia Deasy, founder of the Irish cosmetic and skincare brand, opened the business with her husband Padraic back in 2014.

Sonia and Padraic also own and run Deasy Photographic in Newbridge.

The Hyaluronic Serum was the first product the dynamic duo launched back in 2014, and has been highly rated and reviewed.

Speaking to QVC, Sonia said she wanted something that wasnt sticky or heavy, but lightweight and soft.

A little goes a long, long way! said Sonia.

The pair have since brought around six other products, including a night oil and cleanser.

The busy parents of five children will no doubt continue to be successful on the international market.
A man who defiled a 14-year-old schoolgirl, who was sleeping over at her friends house, has had the final year of his prison sentence suspended on appeal.

The 42-year-old man, who details cannot be published to protect the victim's identity, pleaded guilty to five counts at Naas Circuit Criminal Court, including the defilement of a child and sexual assault, at a location in Co Kildare on dates in January and February 2014.

He was given an effective eight year sentence by Judge Michael O'Shea on December 4, 2015.

The Court of Appeal suspended the final 12 months of his eight-year term today, Friday, May 26, after holding that the man's early guilty plea was significant enough to have been specifically referred to in the sentence.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the man, who was 38 at the time, was in a relationship with a lady whose daughter was the 14-year-old victim's school friend.

The victim had gone to the man's home for a sleepover with her friend. Initially there was contact between the parties through Facebook and some of this involved suggestive messaging from the man.

The victim indicated that matters progressed until a date between January 21 and 23 when the victim was sleeping over with her school friend. The man's partner was out working and, when the victim went upstairs to charge her phone, the man came into her room.

The sentencing judge described the impact on the victim, who has Asperger's Syndrome, as catastrophic.

The sentencing judge was criticised for commenting that the sexual abuse could only be described as disgusting, denigrating, repulsive, horrific, shocking and humiliating. It was submitted by Karl Monahn BL, for the man, that those remarks indicated the judge was not approaching his task of sentencing in a dispassionate way.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the offences were very serious. The age gap was very considerable, the injured party was visiting the house for a sleepover with her school friend, there was an element of grooming, gradual progression and despite being specifically averted to the risk of pregnancy, the man proceeded to have intercourse without a condom.

In the Court of Appeal's view, the case had to be met with a significant sentence.

Mr Justice Birmingham said it was not clear how the mitigating factors, particularity the early guilty plea, impacted on the sentence that was actually imposed.

The guilty plea was offered at a sufficiently early stage to obviate the need to transfer the case off circuit or to Dublin.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the it would have been appropriate to address it specifically in the sentence.

For this reason, Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Hedigan, said the court was prepared to suspend the final 12 months of the eight year sentence.

So providing will strengthen the provision for three years post-release supervision which of course remains in place, the judge said.
Sinn Fein Agriculture spokesperson and TD for Sligo, Leitrim, West Cavan, and South Donegal Martin Kenny told the Leitrim Observer that there is no provision by government for flood relief measures in the Upper Shannon area.

He was speaking after a parliament question to Minister Sean Canney, from Pearse Doherty TD, revealed that there has been no OPW flood relief spending North of Athlone in the past five years and none projected for the next five.

Deputy Kenny pointed out that, Devastating effects of flooding have been felt around Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim Village, and the Upper Shannon Region, north of Lough Ree. While there were proposals to build defence walls, they were opposed by many in the region as it was said they would not be effective and would simply push the problem farther down the river.

Flood relief in the Upper Shannon is about dredging small sections of the river where bottlenecks have developed over the decades. Selective dredging of this nature is a solution which would be much cheaper and less disruptive than the building of a wall.

I intend to speak directly to Minister Sean Canney and impress on him the need for this type of works in the Upper Shannon area.
A ceremony to honour an Irishman who died while fighting for the United States in World War 1 will take place in Kiltoghert Cemetery on Sunday, June 4 at 2.30pm.

Michael J. Moffatt, a native of Gloria, Cootehall, Co. Roscommon, was part of Company A, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, United States Army.

He was killed in action on October 18, 1918 near L'Arbe de Guise, France, aged 33 years. Sadly, he died just over three weeks before the Armistice was signed to end World War 1.

He was originally buried at the Somme American Military Cemetery in north eastern France. His remains were repatriated to Ireland at his family's request in 1922 and hastily buried with little or no formality at the Moffatt burial plot in Kiltoghert.

For nearly 95 years Michael Moffatt lay in an unmarked grave but now, thanks to the efforts of his nephew, Eamon Moffatt, and The American Legion, a US military type headstone is now in place, courtesy of the American Veterans' Administration, and will be unveiled on Sunday, June 4.

The ceremony, conducted by The American Legion in Ireland, will include the unveiling, a blessing of the grave by Fr. Brendan McDonagh, the folding of the US burial flag, the presentation of same to his next of kin, laying a wreath and sounding The Last Post by a bugler. Neighbours, friends and parishioners are invited to attend to remember and honour a courageous solider from The Great War.

Michael Moffatt was born to Peter and Eleanor (nee Doran) Moffatt on January 1, 1885 at Gloria, Cootehall, the fifth of twelve children.

At age 23 in 1908, Michael travelled to America on the SS Oceanic where he joined his sister Katie in New York.

Soon after arrival he secured employment as a railroad conductor and later worked for Western Electric Company.

Michael was drafted into the New York National Guard on August 18, 1917 and assigned to Company A, 71st Infantry, later redesignated as 105th Infantry Brigade.

His unit sailed for France aboard the USS President Grant arriving on May 17, 1918. On July 25 the 27th Division was rotated to the front line to relieve the British 6th Division and begin an offensive to oust the Germans from an area around Amiens to free the Amiens-Paris railroad.

The Somme offensive was launched on September 24 to October 21 1918 with the purpose of piercing the Hindenberg line.

On October 17, the 105th spearheaded an assault against German defences and rapidly took a portion of the line at L'Arbe de Guise and held it vigorously against counterattacks.

The following day the 105th attacked again and the Germans were forced to withdraw. The 105th held the line until October 21 when the division was relieved.

Unfortunately, Michael was killed just days before his regiment was taken from the front line and relieved to the rear.

Michael was buried in the Somme American Cemetery about 10 miles north of St. Quentin (Aisne), France.

In 1922 the families of those killed in action were offered to have the remains repatriated back to Ireland.

Michael's remains were brought to Dublin and on to Carrick-on-Shannon where the family took the coffin directly to the burial ground in Kiltoghert. There was little or no ceremony and definitely no honours rendered.

Michael Moffatt has lain in an unmarked grave for almost 95 years with no marker or headstone to indicate that lying beneath is a gallant American soldier of The Great War.

That has now been corrected.
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The recent revelations about Diane Abbotts support for Irish nationalists in the 1980s have not been particularly surprising. For many old enough to remember the horrendous violence and terror the IRA inflicted on people, such support is unpalatable; but we already knew that, as a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, she was likely to have shared his rigidly anti-West approach to world affairs. Criticism of the British States policies can of course be healthy, and indeed must be present in a functioning democracy. But in the pattern of Corbyns criticisms there seemed to be something more extreme, an apparent dislike of the State that led him to become close to IRA leaders. The claim that he was purely concerned with peace is rather belied by the absence of his reaching out to any unionists prior to the creation of Stormont in 1998.

It is not wrong for the Conservatives and the national newspapers to be pointing out these things. Many people of voting age are too young to have experienced the IRA threat. But there is another reason that people should be aware of Corbyns perspective, and which the Conservatives are not highlighting: understanding Corbyns views is relevant to the situation we find ourselves in right now.

It is noticeable that, even recently, Corbyn has only condemned the IRA in the vaguest possible terms while pointing out that force was used by the State too. He believes in a united Ireland. And that is of course legitimate, but were he to become Prime Minister it would have potentially profound implications for Northern Ireland on account of Brexit, and would change completely the dynamic of discussions around the future of a border that has extraordinary political significance.

In wanting to shore up support for her own strong and stable, and of course unionist leadership, you might expect Theresa May to be pointing out this particular question mark over Corbyns candidacy for the role of Brexit Prime Minister. But the focus of the Conservatives is far removed from the future of Northern Ireland. Consistent with their appallingly vacuous, blithe and infrequent comments on this most serious of situations since the 24 June, the Tories are still carefully avoiding any meaningful discussion about what their own extreme form of Brexit  outside the Customs Union as well as the Single Market  could entail for Northern Ireland, and the threat it poses to the frictionless border.

The implications of Brexit for peace and prosperity in the region were largely ignored in the referendum debate, and they are being entirely ignored in the Tory and Labour campaigns now. But if and when Theresa May eventually gets back to work after her seven-week General Election diversion, it may not be long before it is apparent why Ireland has been so assiduously overlooked.

* Sarah Tebbit has been a member of the Liberal Democrats since 2014.
Sarah Olney has written an article for the Times Educational Supplement talking about the difficulties facing universities as a result of Theresa Mays push for a hard brexit.

Citing Cambridge Universitys assertion that Brexit poses a significant risk to our Higher Eduction sector, Sarah outlines this in detail:

Unfortunately, the Conservative government doesnt seem to be listening. Theresa May has chosen to pursue the hardest and most destructive version of Brexit possible: taking us out of the single market and the customs union, and even threatening to do so without a new trade agreement with the EU. The government is also refusing to guarantee the rights of EU nationals living and working in the UK to remain after Brexit. The governments hard Brexit policies and rhetoric risk driving away international students and academics. The number of EU nationals applying to British universities has already fallen by 7 per cent compared with last year, despite the governments assurance that those starting this year wont face higher fees after Brexit. Some 53 per cent of foreign academics are now actively looking to leave the UK, and 88 per cent say that Brexit has made them more likely to do so in future. And what about the EUs Erasmus programme? It gives 16,000 British students the chance to study abroad every year but the government has made no commitment to maintaining or replacing it after Brexit. Last year, the Liberal Democrats delivered a petition to No 10 and the European Parliament, calling on them to save Erasmus. This petition was signed by more than 10,000 people.

And contrasts the Lib Dem view:

The Liberal Democrats want a brighter future for our young people. We would stay in the single market and guarantee EU nationals right to stay. We would protect the Erasmus programme and we would also give the British public the choice on whether the final deal is what they want, with the option to remain in the UK if it is not.

And theres more for students:

The Liberal Democrats would reinstate maintenance grants for the poorest students, ensuring that living costs are not a barrier to disadvantaged young people studying at university. We would ensure that all universities work to widen participation across the sector, prioritising their work with students in schools and colleges, and require every university to be transparent about selection criteria.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.
Its the first day of national campaigning since the Manchester attack on Monday night.

For Tim Farron, its not an immediate return to hostilities. Instead, hes going to Warrington to visit a Jonathan Ball/Tim Parry Peace Foundation in Warrington.

The Foundation was set up by the parents of the two boys who were killed by the Warrington Bomb in 1993.

Tim wants to learn about the charitys work.

Later he will attend a remembrance service at a Mosque with the Ahmadiyya community in Manchester.

In Scotland, Willie Rennie will be visiting a pharmacy in Glasgow. There, he will express gratitude to EU nationals working in the NHS and will call for NHS workers who are EU nationals to be given the immediate right to continue working in Scotland, regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations.

Recent reports suggest that there are as many as 225 family GPs and thousands of nurses and care workers in Scotland who would be lost to the Scottish NHS if their rights to reside and practice were removed.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 26

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Russian-Turkmen relations are of a strategic nature, Chairperson of the Federation Council (upper house) of Russias Federal Assembly Valentina Matviyenko said at a meeting with Chairman of the Turkmen Parliamentary Committee on Legislation and its Norms Serdar Berdimuhamedov, said the press release of the Russian Federation Council.

The meeting was held within the framework of the 8th Nevsky International Ecological Congress, which took place in St. Petersburg May 25-26.

We are interested in building up regional cooperation with Turkmenistan, said Matviyenko, who is also Chairperson of the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS).

The Turkmen side was invited to think about the countrys membership in the IPA CIS.

Particular attention within the assembly was paid to the positive experience of drafting model laws, the majority of which are actively used in national legislation of different countries.

Matviyenko invited the delegation of Turkmenistan to participate in the activities of the 137th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to be held October 14-18 in Russias St. Petersburg, and consider the possibility of joining this organization.
Worried About Money This Holiday Season? Heres What Psychologists Want You to Know

The most wonderful time of the year can be expensive. And in the midst of mounting global uncertainties and rising inflation, that can indeed be a challenge.
What is the rapture? What will take place at the time of this prophetic event? In this three-program series, you will learn why millions of Christians will suddenly be missing from the earth to meet Jesus in the air and then be taken to heaven. Second, youll discover why the power of world leadership will shift away from the United States to Europe. Third, well share how a world leader will arise and proclaim he can bring peace and stability to the world. Fourth, well discuss why the rapture will take place at any moment, before the tribulation period begins. Well walk verse by verse through the key biblical passages to help you better understand what Scripture teaches about the rapture.

The Biblical Case For the Rapture of All Christians

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More than 500 hundred people with links to some of the leading technology suppliers from Ireland and the UK attended a major roadshow and seminar at Limerick Institute of Technology.

Organised by the Gauge and Tool Makers Association (GTMA), the day-long event at LIT on Wednesday was the biggest in the organisations 75-year history. It is also the first time that it has taken place outside of the UK.

GTMA selected LIT as the venue for the annual roadshow in the hope of introducing more customers and suppliers to each other from across the UK and Ireland.

The organisation says it also hopes the roadshow will facilitate the building of closer relations and profitable opportunities between both countries post-Brexit.

Julia Moore, chief executive of GTMA, said this years roadshow  the largest in its history  attracted a record number of 500 visitors and 80 manufacturing technology and engineering solution companies, filling the exhibition halls to capacity.

Our aim, as a professional trade association is to assist businesses to grow by introducing more customers and suppliers to each other across the UK and Ireland, said Ms Moore.

I feel sure that many companies both sides of the Irish Sea are looking for more trading opportunities, and important events such as this held at LIT will provide the conduit for these business relationships to form and grow and establish links to open up opportunities for Irish companies to attend similar events we run for aerospace, automotive and the rail industries in the UK, she added.

Professor Vincent Cunnane, president of LIT, said that hosting the event at a time of political and manufacturing change was a significant boost for the institute.

Collaborations like this between GTMA and LIT have become more important than ever  both to capitalise on opportunities as well as to meet challenges.

LIT is therefore delighted to be part of an event that not only allows us to build strong partnerships but facilitates an exchange of ideas, he said.

The ability to adapt to change is vital, and LIT will continue to play a leading role in ensuring that manufacturing in this region is at the cutting edge of contemporary thinking, he added.

Charles Coughlan, chairman of PTMA  the Irish Prescison Turned Parts Manufactured Association  said Manufacturing Solutions 2017 gave its members the opportunity to view and source equipment, materials and services to maintain future competitiveness in a global market.

Meanwhile, a number of guest speakers addressed delegates at Manufacturing Solutions Ireland 2017.

Topics discussed included change and evolution in both manufacturing and trade, Brexit, Manufacturing 4.0 and Advanced Metrology.

Among the concerns addressed by delegates was how best to protect the bilateral trade, which is worth in the region of 60 billion, and supports around 400,000 jobs in both countries.

Deirdre McPartlin, senior advisor in the Enterprise Ireland Brexit Unit also provided information on the Brexit SME Scorecard, a new interactive online platform which can be used by all Irish companies to self-assess their exposure to Brexit.

The platform also gives details of the financial support available to help EI-exporting clients develop an action plan.

By completing the online questionnaire, the Brexit SME Scorecard will provide companies with an assessment of their preparedness under six key pillars.

Those are - Business Strategy, Operations, Innovation, Sales and Marketing, Finance and People Management.

The tool is a starting point for SME management teams looking to develop an action plan to help mitigate risks and leverage opportunities which may arise from Brexit, she said.
A COUNTY Limerick man has been charged with a total of 13 indecent and sexual assault offences against two different women.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Judge Marian OLeary at Kilmallock Court. The male is aged in sixties and the offences are alleged to have occurred over 20 years ago.

Garda Geraldine McCarthy, of Bruff Garda Station, gave evidence of arresting, charging and cautioning the accused.

The garda said he made no reply after each charge was put to him. The male faces 10 indecent assault charges in relation to one of the women.

They are alleged to have occurred in a location in County Limerick on dates on or between April 22, 1989 and January 17, 1991.

The defendant was charged with one indecent assault against the second woman on dates on or between September 1, 1990 and January 1, 1991, and two sexual assault charges, contrary to section two of the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act 1990.

They are alleged to have occurred on dates on or between January 18, 1991 and September 1, 1992, and September 1, 1995 and September 1, 1997. It is a different location to the first alleged victim.

Sergeant Michelle Leahy said they had received DPPs directions and they were for trial on indictment.

The case was adjourned until June for service of the book of evidence in Kilmallock Court.

Judge Marian OLeary ordered reporting restrictions on the media present not to identify the defendant, accused or locations.

There was no State objection to bail.
NEW ALLEGATIONS about more buried chemicals at the same site in County Limerick have emerged following last weeks Limerick Leader story.

An investigation has been launched by the council into claims that up to 20 barrels of toxic waste were secretly dumped in a hole on land at Friarstown, Ballysheedy some 25 years ago.

The whistleblowers contacted Deputy Niall Collins and the Leader last week with the alarming information and their belief it is connected to a "circle of cancer". The say up to 30 people have died from cancer in the Friarstown area in the last 15 years.

Deputy Collins said since the story appeared a number of individuals have contacted him to corroborate the allegations.

One said it was true and that there was also asbestos buried at the same location but in a different hole. I asked him to draw me a map, said Deputy Collins, who also received a lot of calls from locals worried about the possible cancer link. It is understood the current landowner doesn't know that anything is buried there.

Well known pedigree cattle breeder Paul Hannan, Friarstown, has lost his sister to cancer and his father was diagnosed earlier this year.

There have been examples from young children who have had leukaemia to older people - age doesnt matter. Personally, we have it in our family. I lost a sister six years ago. Today my father is very, very ill with it. We dont know what is going on but, look, theres something wrong. Why is it so bad in this area? I hope they find the root cause of it - it is very worrying. I have a young family, said Paul on TV3 News.

Another local told the Leader: There are four neighbouring households that have all been affected by cancer  through bereavement and treatment. We want to see a speedy investigation. Some people are on water schemes and some have their own wells.

Deputy Collins held an urgently arranged meeting with Limerick City and County Council staff in Dooradoyle last Friday.

It was a constructive meeting. I am happy that the council are taking this issue very seriously. They recognise the potential threat to public health. They have taken water samples, these are being analysed and when they get the results they will revert with a programme of action, said Deputy Collins.

A council spokesperson confirmed the samples have been sent to Great Britain for tests and they await the results.

Limerick City and County Council has also been in contact with the National Monuments Service to make them aware of the situation, said the spokesperson.

As the barrels are located on an archaeological site, the council needs verification of pollution and permission of the National Monuments Service (NMS) before any investigation, disturbance or excavation can proceed.

An NMS spokesperson said: Depending on the particular monument and the nature of the proposed activity, there are a number of different processes of the National Monuments Acts under which a person or body proposing to carry out works could refer an archaeological issue to the department for consideration. Equally such a referral could be made by an archaeologist acting on behalf of a landowner.
A YOUNG man who was convicted of assaulting a woman who barged into his bedroom has avoided an immediate prison sentence.

Throughout a contested hearing, Jason Power, aged 20, who has an address at Collins Avenue, Southill, denied assaulting Susan McCarthy insisting he had acted in self defence.

Ms McCarthy, aged 23, told Limerick Disrict Court she was drinking with Mr Power and a number of other people in the early hours of November 7, 2015  the date of the offence.

She said at one point she went for a walk but that when she returned to the house the others were no longer present.

Having established they had gone to Mr Powers home, she made her way there in the hope of establishing why they had left.

Ms McCarthy told the court when she entered the house, she located the defendant and three other people in his bedroom.

Jason immediately jumped off the bed and just started pushing me out of the house, she said.

Ms McCarthy, who is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for glassing a woman at Parnell Street in 2014, said Mr Power punched her and knocked her to ground and that she sustained a cut above her left eye in the struggle.

Judge Marian OLeary was told she was treated at University Hospital Limerick following the incident and received 10 stitches.

Cross-examined by solicitor Darach McCarthy, Ms McCarthy said she had consumed at least two naggins of vodka on the night as well as Xanax tablets which were not prescribed to her.

Ms McCarthy accepted the combination of alcohol and Xanax tablets gives you a buzz and that her memory of what happened on the night was a bit hazy due to her level of intoxication.

During heated exchanges, the 23-year-old said she was upset when she barged into Mr Powers bedroom.

I was upset and angry that they took off and left me behind purposely. I wanted an answer as to why they took off.

When Mr McCarthy put it to the witness that she had a thing for his client, she replied I did in my f***

In his evidence, the defendant, who has 22 previous convictions, accepted he went away with a number of friends when Ms McCarthy left to go to a cousins house.

He said while in his bedroom the door swung open all of sudden and that he pushed Ms McCarthy back towards the door and out the gate.

While insisting his actions were in self defence he accepted hitting Ms McCarthy above the eye.

The injury could have been caused by me, he said in reply to Inspector Dermot OConnor.

Insp OConnor put it to him that his defence of self defence was very convenient  particularly as he had not mentioned it to gardai following his arrest.

Mr Power rejected this saying: I could have done her for trespass. I didnt think this would happen. I did hit her but it was in self defence.

When it was put to the defendant that he had taken the law into his own hands, he replied: Where we come from, we dont really ring the guards.

Having considered the evidence and legal submissions, Judge OLeary convicted Mr Power describing what happened as terribly sad.

She imposed a three month prison sentence which she suspended for two years. She also imposed a 200 fine.
COUNCILLORS in Limerick are facing a key decision on whether a 150m road can effectively proceed.

This Monday, the 40 members of City and County Council will be asked whether they wish to vary local development plans to allow the Northern Distributor Road to be included.

The long-advertised link will see the road start at Coonagh on the citys northside  where it would open in Moyross  bypass Corbally and traverse the Mountshannon Road before continuing to the Dublin road.

After initial plans were decisively rejected by councillors in 2015, a new roundabout is being proposed to provide a link to the old Dublin/Castleconnell Road.

A second roundabout would also be included near the Daughters of Charity in Lisnagry to link the Dublin Road which connects Annacotty, Castletroy and continues to the city centre.

A spur is being planned across the Mulkear River to provide a link to the National Technology Park while the Northern Distributor Road would eventually continue and link to the Mackey Roundabout and the motorway.

There is huge opposition to the plans from residents of the Mountshannon Road and a number of other areas. But the IDA, the University of Limerick and a number of agencies have come out in favour of the orbital route, stating the plan is crucial to the future development of Limerick.

Half of councillors contacted by the Leader this week have said they will vote the plans through at Mondays meeting.

It means all eyes will be on a number of undecided members.

In a statement, local businessman Noel OConnor of the East Limerick Action Group (ELAG) has called on councillors to defend the interests and well-being of Limerick and its people, and not UL and its messenger boys.

Wed urge councillors to disregard the blather about a super highway from UL to LIT in Coonagh and remember we already have a motorway on which the tax payer is stumping up nearly 15,000 per day in subsidies because the traffic has never once hit the volumes we predicted, Mr OConnor said.

Limerick City and County Council has hit back, saying it has engaged with one of Irelands top hydrologists Tony Conway, who has carried out an assessment of the area, and has concluded the road will not cause an additional flood risk.

Initial plans for the Northern Distributor Road put to councillors in 2015 were rejected by 27 votes to three.

But this could be reversed this time around, with many undecided councillors privately saying they will likely vote in favour of the plans, but had not yet reached an absolute final decision.

The only councillor to this week confirm outright that he will vote against the revised route is Fine Gaels Michael Sheahan.

Sinn Feins City East councillor Seighin O Ceallaigh will vote in favour of the link following the changes that were made.

But Labours City East representative, Cllr Elena Secas is undecided.

Also yet to fully make up their minds are Cllrs Joe Pond and Marian Hurley, who are both based in City East.

Cllr Secas said: Im trying to put together the facts and the information so I can make a proper decision. There is still a few days to go, and Ill vote based on this.

Mayor Kieran OHanlon  who represents the Mountshannon Road area on council  will back the revision, warning: I think this is the final opportunity to get this road built.

But his partys leader in the metropolitan district, Cllr James Collins, said many unanswered questions remain, notably over the numbers of cars accessing the M7 from the road, plus access to an IDA-owned portion of land near UL Bohs rugby club.

Monday meeting kicks off at 3pm in County Hall  and if councillors pass the variation to the development plan, An Bord Pleanala will then be asked to rule on the plans.
A Limerick man has appeared in court charged with murdering a Romanian man in Limerick city centre earlier this week.

Calo Carpaci, 58, died at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) as a result of injuries he sustained during a stabbing incident at Roches Row at around 1.30pm on Wednesday.

Desmond Coyle, aged 59, who has an address at Davis Street in the city centre was brought before Limerick District Court this Friday morning after he was charged with murder.

Detective Sergeant Arthur Ryan told the court the defendant, who is originally from Garryowen, made no reply when he was formally charged at 11.40pm on Thursday at Roxboro Road garda station.

Free legal aid was granted to Mr Coyle and solicitor Ted McCarthy assigned to represent him.

Mr McCarthy said there was no application for bail and he asked that the legal aid certificate be extended to facilitate a psychiatric examination of his client.

He said his client suffers from Type 2 Diabetes and he asked that he receive all appropriate medical attention while in prison.

The matter was adjourned to next Tuesday, May 30 for DPP directions.

For updates, stay with limerickleader.ie or follow the Limerick Leader on our social media platforms - Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.
AS THE new emergency department at University Hospital Limerick is being prepared for its grand opening next week, members of the media and elected representatives were given a preview of the state-of-the-art facility, this Friday.

At 8am this Friday, executives and officials tasked with delivering the 24m project, greeted members of the Mid-West press  including the Limerick Leader  before embarking on an hour-long tour of the A&E.

The opening of the new facility follows almost 10 years of horrendous overcrowding for patients and staff, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

It also comes after a bid to obtain millions of euros worth of additional funding, which was recently secured, the UL Hospitals Group CEO Colette Cowan said.

The Minister for Health Simon Harris, who called the new emergency department "a priority", declined to comment on the opening of the facility when contacted by the Limerick Leader.

The new facility is three-times more spacious than the current A&E, more compartmentalised, and especially more visually pleasing.

One of the striking new features is the triage room capacity  instead of one triage room, there are four.

And where paediatric patients would be seen in the same triage area, they now have their own designated waiting room, and designated x-ray facilities, both for children and adults.

Dr Cormac Mehigan, emergency medicine consultant, said that the new facility will also significantly reduce the movement of seriously-ill patients. For example, patients can be resuscitated in CT room, where previously, patients would have to be moved from one unit to another.

Patients will also have access to an open courtyard, a feature that was not available in the previous emergency department.

The hospital has also invested in a more advanced pneumatic tube system, which will allow medical staff to propel blood samples from a number of locations within the department, instead of one central location.

As the hospital advances its digitalisation, a specific focus has been on an improved patient data system. Joe Hoare, of HSE Estates, said that the ICT infrastructure in the hospital is quite phenomenal.

There is also a simulation training room for staff to upskill and learn as they progress in their careers.

Near the end of the tour, Ms Cowan confirmed that the additional 94 staff needed to operate the facility have been recruited.

Tour of new ED in UHL in advance of opening next Monday, so impressive, well done @colettecowan1 and team pic.twitter.com/nWmiFlKBm4  Jan O'Sullivan (@JanOSullivanTD) May 26, 2017

Following the informative tour, the chief executive was joined at a press conference by Bridget Hoctor, clinical nurse manager 3 in the emergency department, Dr Mehigan and chief clinical director, Prof Paul Burke.

Earlier this week, the INMO expressed serious concerns over the skill mix of the new recruits, particularly those who have travelled from abroad.

The INMO said that the newly-qualified staff, who have recently arrived in Ireland, are still adapting to the new clinical environment, and that there is a lack of staff with an ED specialist qualification in the new unit.

INMO industrial relations officer, Mary Fogarty said that some international nurses have said that they are not ready yet to work.

In relation to INMOs concerns, the chief executive said: This is a normal process around any big change project...They have concerns that they have raised over the last few days, as you know, over the media, particularly. We are meeting them later today.

But none of them [issues] are insurmountable. The issues that they raised that we can look at, I would have concerns around international nurses commentary, because we have met them. They were interviewed on a competency-based interview. They are qualified staff who are entitled to work in this country, and I think its important that we encourage them. If its a skill-mix issue that they are worried about, of course we will put more clinical facilitators around for them.

Ms Cowen added: From my point of view, as the CEO, I have to ensure that it is safe and that we have high quality care. We have to make sure that the staff are comfortable coming in here, and that is why todays meeting is important, that we put all those issues to bed and that people can move here with confidence, and that we dont damage morale either in it.

Early Am meeting with local media @ULHospitals briefing on the new ED Each day each milestone met brings us closer to a new era in health pic.twitter.com/Nern8iM8Mu  Colette Cowan (@colettecowan1) May 26, 2017

Dr Mehigan said that when he first started working at the emergency department in 2010, he was seeing 51,000 admitted patients per year, which has now jumped to 64,000.

This rate, in line with international trends, is expected to rise to more than 70,000, following the launch of the new emergency department.

The INMO held a meeting with the UL Hospitals Group on Friday afternoon to discuss members concerns. It is also understood that elected representatives from across the Mid-West received a tour of the new facility.
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With the Manor Farm development nearing its completion at North Hykeham after 11 years, Nicholas Fletcher spoke to award-winning senior site manager Kevin Mowbray about his success in the housebuilding industry

Site Manager Kevin Mowbray was at a crossroads in his life when the recession hit in 2008.

He was laid off and was at a low until he was fortunately head-hunted by Australian construction firm Bovis Lend Lease.

Mr Mowbray was whisked off to Dubai just a few weeks later where he was a part of bringing the multi-billion pound Jumeirah Park to life.

The Bracebridge Heath man was in charge of quality control across the show villas, eventually meeting his soon-to-be wife.

He said: "I took a lot away from the project  the real attention to detail.

"You're working on villas that are worth around 5 million with people who have high expectations.

"One moment I had nothing then the next I was chairing meetings between multi-nationals.

"It was a great experience and a good thing for me as I met my wife over there."

Fast forward to 2017 and the lessons Mr Mowbray learned abroad are being put into practice on the Manor Farm development in North Hykeham  and the results are impressive.

He took over as senior site manager around three and a half years ago and has since scooped a number of high profile awards as the large scale development inches towards completion after 11 years.

Mr Mowbray said: "It was fantastic to get the awards, it is the peak of the industry  its' like getting a BAFTA or a Michelin Star."

However, the father-of-one puts a large part of his success down to the site team who work alongside him, who have all put their stamp on the Manor Farm scheme.

He said: "I have maintained the daily and weekly routine and go around all the trades and talk to them.

"They know that I have an open door policy and I rely on my team just as much as they rely on me.

"Our team is all about using the resources we have between us to come up with a solution."

Almost 1,000 homes will have been constructed on the site off Newark Road by the time the Barratt Homes team lay the last brick.

The development  and the staff working on it  have won a staggering 16 National House Building Council (NHBC) awards during construction over the last 10 years.

But more importantly, homeowners who have already moved into their new homes are happy.

He said: "We contact customers after they have moved in to see how they are settling in.

"We build a rapport with our customers and as this is a big investment in anyone's life, we give them a tour of their home so that they can meet either myself or the assistant site manager and take a look for themselves.

"It can take a lifetime to build a brand and it can be gone just like that."

Just as the recession proved to be a turning point in Mr Mowbray's own life, it also changed Barratt Homes for the better too.

Mr Mowbray said it turned 'everything upside down'.

The veteran construction guru acknowledges that other firms have had a superior reputation in the past but is adamant his company is now as good as anyone.

Despite having a number of awards under his belt, Mr Mowbray still has ambitions of winning more.

He admits his drive for perfection is 'obsessive' but said it is important to keep pushing the envelope as prospective buyers demand more and more from their property.

The best houses from just five years ago don't cut the mustard anymore, Mr Mowbray.

He said: "The expectations get higher every year.

"You cannot just work to the same standards you did five years because it is not good enough.

"You have to raise the standards every year and get better and better."

Recognition

The development and the staff working at Manor Farm have won 16 industry National House Building Council Awards.

These include nine Pride in the Job awards, six Seal of Excellence awards and one Regional award.

Chris Southgate, Managing Director at Barratt Homes North Midlands, said: "We would like to congratulate the team working at Manor Farm for their continued success at the development.

"We have received outstanding customer feedback from the new residents living at the development and we know this success will continue into the sixth and final phase of homes."
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, May 26

By Demir Azizov  Trend:

Delegations of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan conducted an inventory of contractual base for cooperation between the countries, exchanged views on draft documents under consideration during the next round of Uzbek-Tajik political consultations held between the two foreign ministries, the Uzbek Foreign Ministrys press service said in a message.

The delegation of Tajikistans Foreign Ministry was headed by Parviz Sodiki, deputy head of Legal Department, during the political consultations held in Tashkent.

During the negotiations, the parties also exchanged information on changes in legislative acts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan related to conclusion and implementation of international treaties, according to the message.

Diplomatic relations between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were established on Oct. 22, 1992.
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Police are hunting for a man who has absconded from North Sea Camp open prison.

Nicky Ward, 36, has been missing from the open prison near Boston since the evening of Wednesday, May 24.

Police say he has links to the Skegness area but originates from South Yorkshire.

Ward is described as being 6ft 2in tall and has black hair and green eyes.

He may be wearing a grey T-shirt, grey tracksuit bottoms and trainers.

If you think you have seen him, or you have any information concerning his current whereabouts, call Lincolnshire Police on 101, quoting 473 of May 24.
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Jack Harvey is counting down to the biggest day of his racing career.

But his thoughts ahead of Sunday's Indy 500 are also with his family and specifically the memory of his late uncle Peter.

The former British Formula Three champion says his whole family were devastated when his uncle suddenly died in February this year.

And when his dream of driving at the legendary oval circuit became a reality, he decided to dedicate the biggest day of his life to his late uncle.

People who really know me know how much I value my family," said Harvey.

I have always had incredible support from my family and losing uncle Peter really hit us all hard.

He was a huge fan of the racing and I want to do well in the race, not just for me, but for him as well.

He was still a relatively young man and it really knocked me hard, so I want to dedicate this effort and this race to him."

The build-up to Sunday's IndyCar series highlight has brought a mixture of emotions for the Bassingham racer.

His first day in the car brought an uncomfortable collision with the Indianapolis circuit wall after the steering column broke on his car.

The 24-year-old regrouped and was able to post a speed of 225.7mph in qualifying, despite another brush with the wall, which will see him make his Indy 500 debut from the ninth row.

The quickest man in qualifying was Scott Dixon with 232.1mph, while two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso was fifth quickest with 231mph.

Harvey had gone quicker in a subsequent practice session, hitting the 231mph mark after his team improved the set-up of Andretti Autosport Honda, which is supported by Michael Shank Racing.

We had a little brush with the wall and it was impressive that Jack was able to keep on it," said team owner Mike Shank.

We freed the car up a lot from qualifying and it was very quick. But in the conditions we had for qualifying, the balance just went away on us, so I am disappointed for Jack.

Now we will focus on the race. We have a few days this week to get a really good race balance so that Jack can race in traffic."

Harvey, though, made little of his 200mph brush with the wall.

It wasn't that bad, I hit the wall pretty square and just kind of grazed it and was able to keep going," he said.

Our balance wasn't great. It's disappointing considering the speed we had in the morning session.

We were able to run a 231 (mph lap) on our own so we just missed the balance a little bit.

It might have been a combination of the change in track temperature and the change in wind but now we'll just focus on the race."

After almost two years in the motor racing wilderness, Harvey says he has returned to what he loves with a team capable of winning the spectacular event.

This is a great opportunity for me to learn from the other Andretti drivers," he said.

I have worked really hard for this so I have to make the most of it and try and enjoy the occasion.

The last 18 months has been the worst time of my career, but this gives me my first proper platform to show what I can do."
May 3, 2021, 3 AM

The New Zealand 1937 Captain Cook Landing at Poverty Bay Official stamp (Scott O71) is in demand and selling at or slightly above 2017 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 value in unused hinged condition.

Tip of the Week  By Henry Gitner and Rick Miller

New Zealand is a former British colony and island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It lies about 900 miles east-southeast of Australia. The original inhabitants were Polynesians. Europeans began arriving in the 18th century.

The recent Disney hit Moana has sparked interest in all things Polynesian, but the market for New Zealand stamps remains generally quiet.

There are sparks of interest here and there. Capt. James Cook, that indefatigable explorer, arrived in New Zealand in 1769, the first European explorer to land there since Abel Tasman and his crew in 1642.

Connect with Linns Stamp News:

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Cook mapped most of the coastline of the two main islands and paused long enough to brew beer for his crew, making him the father of the New Zealand brewing industry.

Captain Cook is a popular stamp-collecting topic. In 1935, New Zealand issued a 2-shilling Captain Cook Landing at Poverty Bay stamp (Scott 197). In 1937, the stamp received a vertical Official overprint to become an Official stamp (Scott O71).

The 2017 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 values the Official stamp in unused hinged condition at $24.

Evidently topical collectors who have already acquired the postage stamp are coming back around for a second bite of the apple with the Official stamp, which is in demand and selling at or slightly above Scott catalog value.
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Russia may enter the Farzad-B gas field project replacing India, Irans petroleum minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Thursday, TASS reported.

"Russians," he said when asked who may enter the project if the deal with Indian partners fails.

According to the minister, the Iranian side has failed to make an appropriate offer.

Earlier it was reported that India and Iran are negotiating the investment project on the development of Farzad-B gas offshore field in the Persian Gulf by Indias ONGC Videsh. In April 2016, the parties agreed the projects implementation schedule.
Beautiful and bizarre things to buy: From Slow Juicer by Wonderchef to a paint-box series by RubberBand

Beautiful and bizarre things to buy: From Slow Juicer by Wonderchef to a paint-box series by RubberBand In this weekly compendium of objects of desire, also a Vanities column by Swapan Seth /fashion/beauty/beautiful-and-bizarre-things-to-buy-from-slow-juicer-by-wonderchef-to-a-paint-box-series-by-rubberband-111646829770184.html 111646829770184 story

Hot Seat: Langur Floor Cushion at Safomasi

Langur Floor Cushion at Safomasi

Get this hand screen-printed cushion with a langur motif to bring some monkey business into the living room.

At Safomasi, Chirag Delhi, Delhi or www.safomasi.com; Rs3,400.

This Is Lit: IC LIGHTS at Flos Lighting

IC LIGHTS at Flos Lighting

An elemental sphere balanced on a rod, Cypriot-British designer Michael Anastassiades is known for his minimal, geometric lighting design. The IC series is designed for the table, and as wall-mounted or ceiling-hung pendants.

At www.flos.com; Rs40,000 onwards.

Dress Circle: AntarAgni at Second Floor Studio

AntarAgni at Second Floor Studio

A brand entrenched in a groovy, gender-fluid fashion philosophy, Antar Agnis double-button jacket in heavy handwoven Khadi is quite at home at the design-forward store, Second Floor Studio by Punit Jasuja.

At Shahpur Jat, Delhi; Rs51,000.

Make Note: Paint-box series by RubberBand

Paint-box series by RubberBand

As RubberBand showcases at the Stationery Show in Javits Center in New York this summer, we reconsider their classic notebooks in a soft-touch cover. Not quite Moleskine but we love their pop-coloured pages.

At www.rubberbandproducts.com; Rs445-865.

Chef Special: Slow Juicer by Wonderchef

Slow Juicer by Wonderchef

Based on a slow-squeeze mechanism, this juicer by chef Sanjeev Kapoors company, Wonderchef, promises to retain every bit of vitamin, mineral and enzyme in fruits and vegetables.

At www.wonderchef.in; Rs20,000.

Compiled by Komal Sharma.

***

By Invitation: Vanities

An ode to things you dont need but must have

Single Malt No.16 Scotch Whisky Soaked Toothpicks by Daneson

This week: Single Malt No.16 Scotch Whisky Soaked Toothpicks by Daneson

Toothpicks were never destined for greatness.

That was never the badge of their tribe.

Condemned to a lifetime of lurking in cavities, no one had ever envisaged a life of luxury for the timid toothpick. It was certain that it would remain a prisoner of the gutter.

And then Daneson changed its fortunes. Turned the pumpkin into a carriage.

You see, Daneson makes flavoured toothpicks. There are six flavours ranging from mint to Bourbon.

These arent any old toothpicks. They are made of bone-white, American milled, northern-white-birch. All their lumber comes from managed American forests.

I use the Single Malt No 16. The Islay Single Malt scotch comes from a 200-year-old distillery. And it embraces the wood with unimaginable elan: botanicals, extracts and phenols all seep deep in the birch. It is beautifully boozy and poetically peaty.

It is, therefore, music to the molars and inspiration to the incisors.

Now that is not where this cantata of civility ends.

The clincher is the case.

Expectedly, these toothpicks do not deserve to be stored in some putrid plastic case.

Single Malt No.16 Scotch Whisky Soaked Toothpicks come with a leather case.

So, they come with a leather case (at an added cost, but obviously). The leather is handmade using Chromexcel Horween leather and a brass whale hook.

After having consumed an A5 Kobe Strip Steak, it is the only way to attend to the consequent teething problems.

A pack of four bottles for $36 (around Rs2,320). One-finger leather case for $45.

By Swapan Seth , CEO, Equus
Why Arundhati Roys new novel will be a heavy book The author has overseen every aspect of her new novel, including the Maplitho paper it will be printed on /how-to-lounge/books/why-arundhati-roy-s-new-novel-will-be-a-heavy-book-111646834354837.html 111646834354837 story

From all accounts, Arundhati Roy is a hands-on author, intimately involved in most of the production stages of her booknot just the editorial, as one would expect of writers. At the Penguin Random House office in Delhi, she was present at most meetings with the publishers in-house team of eight people involved in production, as also with their designers. She is very passionate about design and was actively involved in shaping the visual personality of the book," says Gunjan Ahlawat, head, creative, at the publishing house.

Also Read: Arundhati Roy, novelist with a sting

While the team works closely with any author particular about design and paper specifications, Roy has been one of the most involved, says Ajay Kumar Joshi, the associate vice-president, production, Penguin Random House India.

Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

Take the paper, for instance. While Penguin Random House used uncoated matte paper for the cover of The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness, they went for a natural shade" of Maplitho paper, imported from Sweden, for the pages. This specific type of paper (Maplitho) is also heavier than the high-bulk variety that the publishing house uses for practically all its other books. High-bulk paper is lighter, making your book feel lighter, while Maplitho, despite being lower in GSM (grammage per sq.m) is heavier," says Joshi. Why then use the heavier variety? Thats what Arundhati prefers," he says simply, adding that she is one of (their) most prestigious authors".

The God Of Small Things.

Over the two decades since its publication, her first novel The God Of Small Things has seen many sub-par prints, especially on online orders. When asked how they plan to sustain the product quality and paper supply of the new book, which is one of their biggest releases, Joshi says the publishing house maintains international standards and quality checks. If there are bad prints of Roys older books, he blames 99.99% of it (on) piracy".With the rise of e-commerce platforms, there are also many retailers that crop up," he explains, adding that you usually cant keep track of them (to take action) because a lot of them pop up again under new names.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Irans oil and gas condensate output increased by 0.6 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 4.3 mb/d in February 2017, compared to the same month of last year, US Energy Information Administration reported May 26.

According to the report, Irans oil output remained unchanged in February month-on-month.

Irans average oil output increased by 232,000 b/d and 1 b/d compared to 2016 and 2015 respectively.

The report didnt mention the volume of crude oil and gas condensate output separately, but Irans crude oil production stood at 3.79 mb/d during February based on OPECs estimations.

Iran has obliged to keep the oil output unchanged by March 2018, based on oil cut extension deal, achieved on May 25 among OPEC members.

Extension of the deal is in favour of Iran, because the country plans to increase its oil output from new fields by 0.35 mb/d, while its oil output would decrease by 0.3 mb/d from old fields during the current fiscal year, started on March 21. In total, Irans oil output would stand flat.
Tehran, Iran, May 26

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran invites domestic and foreign investors to a series of oil field development projects that the country is going to start in the near future.

The invitation was announced by Director of Investment at Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) of Iran Fardad Daliri in an international industrial exhibit in Tehran, Trends correspondent reported from the event May 26.

We are hopeful to be able to sign huge oil deals on the development of shared oil fields both on and offshore, the official said.

He added the Tehran is finalizing talks and expects signing contracts with big international companies such as Frances Total, the Danish Maersk, Indonesias Pertamina, Malaysias Petronas, and the Russian Lukoil.

We expect about $50 billion worth of oil contracts to enter their operational phases in 2018, Daliri stated.

Therefore, IDRO has felt a huge need for investment in industries that serve carry out these contracts in making all sorts of valves, electromotor, package units, etc.; and would therefore like to invite domestic and foreign investors to cooperation.

Irans oil industry suffered backwardness under years-long sanctions. As the sanctions were lifted in 2016, Tehran has decided to catch up with its rivals in producing oil. It has prioritized fields that are shared with neighboring countries.

Irans oil output grew from 3.3 mbpd in 2015 when it was under sanctions to 4.3 in February 2017, thanks to the removal of sanctions.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

During anti-terrorist operations held from May 18 to May 25 in the Turkish provinces of Sirnak, Hakkari, Diyarbakir, Erzurum and Ardahan, 45 terrorists were neutralized, said the Turkish General Staff in a message posted on its website on May 26.

Three grenade launchers, 5 machine guns, 13 rifles, 43 grenades, 27 improvised explosive devices, about 2 tons of explosives and more than 5,000 munitions were seized during the operations.

Seven Turkish servicemen were killed and 15 were wounded during the operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist organization.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for more than 30 years and has claimed more than 40,000 lives.

The UN and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organization.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
Lake Michigan is the third largest of the Great Lakes (when measured by water surface) and the only Great Lake located entirely in the United States. Its name is derived from the Ojibwa Indian word mishigami, meaning large lake.

Lake Michigan's water surface is 22,300 square miles (57,800 square kilometers). It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume (1,180 cubic miles / 4,920 cubic km). Only Lake Superior is bigger.

Lake Michigan touches Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Approximately 12 million people live along the shores of Lake Michigan, according to the New World Encyclopedia. Major port cities include Chicago, Illinois (population: 2.7 million); Milwaukee, Wisconsin (600,000); Green Bay, Wisconsin (104,000); and Gary, Indiana (80,000).

There are a number of beaches along the coast, and the Great Lakes are sometimes referred to as the Third Coast behind the Pacific and Atlantic (the Gulf Coast notwithstanding). Some of the most popular beach towns on the Michigan side of the lake include St. Joseph, South Haven, Grand Haven and Holland.

The Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas at the straits between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. (opens in new tab) Shutterstock (opens in new tab) ) (Image credit: lphoto

On the northern end, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected by the Straits of Mackinac, a 4- to 5-mile-wide (4.6 to 8 kilometers) channel, and technically, these two bodies of water are one lake.

Water temperature

Water temperatures on Lake Michigan make it to the 60s in July and August and can sometimes make it into the 70s when air temperatures have been in the 90s for a number of continuous days.

The water of Lake Michigan has an unusual circulatory pattern  it resembles the traffic flow in a suburban cul-de-sac  and moves very slowly. Winds and resulting waves keep Lake Michigan from freezing over, but it has been 90 percent frozen on a number of occasions. Ocean-like swells, especially during the winter, can result in a drastic temperature changes along the coast, shoreline erosion and difficult navigation.

The lakes average water depth is 279 feet (85 meters) and its maximum depth is 925 feet (282 meters).

Life on Lake Michigan

Marshes, tallgrass prairies, savannas, forests and sand dunes that can reach several hundred feet, all provide excellent habitats for all types of wildlife on Lake Michigan.

Trout, salmon, walleye, and smallmouth bass fisheries are prevalent on the lake. The lake is also home to crawfish, freshwater sponges and sea lamprey, a metallic violet species of eel.

The lake is also home to a wide range of bird populations, including water birds such as ducks, geese and swans, as well as crows, robins and bald eagles. Predatory birds such as hawks and vultures are also prevalent on the lake, due to the wealth of wildlife to feast upon.

The pebble-shaped Petoskey stone, which is a fossilized coral, is unique to the northern Michigan shores of Lake Michigan and is the state stone.

Formation, discovery and history

The formation that is recognized as Lake Michigan today began about 1.2 billion years ago when two tectonic plates were ripped apart, creating the Mid-Continent Rift.

French explorer Samuel de Champlain sent his underling Jean Nicolett to find the Northwest Passage but he ended up discovering Lake Michigan around 1634. In 1679, Nicolette explored the southernmost part of the lake where modern-day Chicago is.

Shipping and shipwrecks

Like all of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan has had its share of shipwrecks. One of the most famous maritime disasters was the sinking of the Westmoreland, a steamer that sank on Dec. 7, 1854. The wreck was discovered by a diver on July 7, 2010, 155 years after the accident, in excellent condition.

Before the invention of radar in the 1940s, the Straits of Mackinac could be an extremely dangerous area to navigate. Ships were at the mercy of unpredictable storms, dangerous currents, fog, ice, shallow areas and rocky shoals. A number of ships met their demise trying to pass through this skinny channel  so many, in fact, that an underwater preserve was eventually created where divers can explore these sunken ships.

This preserve, known as the Straits of Mackinac Underwater Preserve, contains 12 marked shipwrecks. Some of the wrecks on the Lake Michigan side include the Sandusky, the Maitland and the Eber Ward.

The Sandusky, the oldest known ship in the preserve, was heading from Chicago to Buffalo with a cargo of grain in September 1856 when it was struck by a violent gale, according to the preserves website. There were no survivors. In June 1871, the Maitland was carrying a load of corn from Chicago to Buffalo when she collided with two ships. The crew was able to jump into their yawl boat, and no lives were lost. In 1909, the Eber Ward, a 213-foot-long (65 meters) wooden freighter, left Chicago, picked up a cargo of corn in Milwaukee and was on its way to Port Huron when it was gashed by ice, sinking within 10 minutes and killing five crewmen.

Today, passing through the Straits of Mackinac is much safer thanks to the use of advanced radar and icebreakers  ships designed to break through ice so that other boats can safely pass. Nearly four dozen lighthouses still stand along the beaches of Lake Michigan, a reminder of the areas great shipping history.

Additional reporting by Traci Pedersen, Live Science Contributor.
Huge cyclones rage near Jupiter's mysterious poles, and the giant planet's powerful auroras are fundamentally different from Earth's northern and southern lights.

Those are just two of the discoveries made by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its first few close passes over Jupiter's poles, mission scientists report in two studies published online today (May 25) in the journal Science.

"What we've learned so far is Earth-shattering. Or should I say, Jupiter-shattering," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement. [Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter]

"Discoveries about its core, composition, magnetosphere, and poles are as stunning as the photographs the mission is generating," added Bolton, the lead author of one of the new Science studies and a co-author of the other.

Images of Jupiter's north and south poles captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft on Aug. 27, 2016. (Image credit: S.J. Bolton et al., Science (2017))

Lifting the veil on Jupiter

The $1.1 billion Juno mission launched in August 2011 and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Since then, the solar-powered spacecraft has been using eight instruments to study the gas giant's composition, interior structure, and gravitational and magnetic fields. It will continue to do this work, barring some sort of malfunction, through at least February 2018, the end of Juno's primary mission.

The mission's name is a nod to the Roman goddess Juno, who was able to look through the clouds to see her frequently misbehaving husband Jupiter, the king of the gods, who was hiding within. Likewise, the Juno probe is peering beneath Jupiter's thick clouds to learn about the planet's formation and evolution  information that could shed light on the history of our solar system as a whole, NASA officials have said.

Juno makes most of the measurements relevant to this goal during its close flybys, which occur once every 53.5 days and bring the probe within about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's poles. (The original mission blueprint called for Juno to maneuver to a less elliptical orbit and make these flybys every 14 days, but an issue with two helium valves in the spacecraft's propulsion system nixed that plan.)

GIF showing infrared emission from Jupiter, as observed by NASA's Juno spacecraft. (Image credit: S.J. Bolton et al., Science (2017))

Before Juno, no spacecraft had ever gotten close-up looks at Jupiter's poles. These mysterious regions are beautiful and bizarre, the Bolton-led study reports.Juno has now made five of these data-collecting "perijove passes." The first came on Aug. 27, 2016, and the most recent occurred just last week, on May 19. The two new Science papers report results just from the first few flybys, as well as some measurements Juno made as it neared Jupiter in June 2016.

"When you look over the poles, all of those zones and belts are gone," Bolton said in a Science podcast that was also released today, referring to the striped cloud patterns prevalent at Jupiter's lower latitudes. "You see this bluish hue to it, and there's tons of these cyclone and anticyclonic storms spinning around the poles. It almost looks like meteor craters, but, of course, it's all atmosphere. It's all gas." [Photos: Jupiter, the Solar System's Largest Planet]

It's unclear what, exactly, drives these polar cyclones, some of which are up to 870 miles (1,400 km) wide, or if they're stable over long periods, Bolton said.

"Over the course of the mission, we'll be able to watch the poles and see how they evolve," he said in the podcast. "Maybe these cyclones are always there, but maybe they just come and go."

Juno also has been mapping out the concentration of water and ammonia deep within Jupiter's atmosphere. Data gathered during the first few passes has revealed that ammonia abundances vary quite a bit from place to place  a discovery that surprised the mission team.

"Most scientists have felt that, as soon as you go down a little bit into Jupiter, everything would be well-mixed, and we're finding that that's just not true at all," Bolton said. "There's structure down deep, but it doesn't seem to match the zones and belts. And so we're still trying to figure it out."

Juno's measurements during the first few close passes also show that Jupiter's magnetic field is nearly two times stronger than scientists had predicted. And the probe's gravity data suggest that "there's a lot of strange, deep motions that possibly are going on inside of Jupiter," Bolton said.

"What Juno's results are showing us is that our ideas of giant planets maybe are a little bit oversimplified," he added. "They're more complex than we thought; the motions that are going on inside are more complicated. It's possible that they formed differently than [suggested by] our simple ideas."

The southern lights of Jupiter, auroras at the planet's south pole, glow in this animation of false-color images from NASA's Juno spacecraft. The red hues suggest emissions from deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere, while green and white indicate higher regions. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI)

Otherworldly auroras

Earth's auroras result when the solar wind  charged particles streaming from the sun  slam into the planet's atmosphere, generating a glow. (Earth's magnetic field funnels these particles toward the poles, which explains the phenomenon's other name: the northern and southern lights.)

Scientists already knew that the solar wind is a major driver of Jovian auroras, and that the planet's rotation is involved as well. But Juno has given researchers a chance to study the phenomenon in unprecedented detail; no other spacecraft had ever flown close to the planet's auroral regions before, Bolton said.

The second newly published Science study, which was led by John Connerney of the Space Research Corporation and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, details what the Juno team learned about the auroras and Jupiter's magnetosphere from the initial perijove passes. Once again, there were some surprises.

For example, the particles associated with Jupiter's auroras seem to be different than the ones responsible for Earth's most stunning light shows, study team members said.

"We can see that it doesn't work exactly like we expected, or as the Earth does," Bolton said. "We havent been able to see particles necessarily going up and down in both directions like we would've expected to cause the aurora. So there's definitely some strange phenomena that we still need to comb through and understand better."

Further close flybys should allow the Juno team to investigate such questions, he added.

"We're at the beginning of the mission, so these first results are sort of telling us some of our models and ideas are wrong and need to be corrected," Bolton said. "And we have some ideas of which way to go, but it really takes some more data to really test whatever theories we put together and see if we're right."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
A newborn's umbilical cord is usually severed soon after birth, once the placenta is no longer actively transferring blood.

The birthing practice known as "lotus birth," in which parents allow a newborn's umbilical cord to remain attached to the placenta until the cord breaks naturally, is enjoying some popularity, perhaps especially among those who favor home births and assign special significance to the expelled placenta.

In a lotus birth, rather than cutting the umbilical cord within a few minutes of the birth, the parents carry the placenta  still connected to the newborn baby  in a bowl or special pouch, for days, long after it has ceased to actively transfer blood to the newborn.

Hospitals, by comparison, usually dispose of the placenta shortly after the umbilical cord is cut. Advocates for lotus birth argue that prolonged contact with the placenta eases the newborn's transition to life outside the womb, and claim that the practice may provide health benefits. However, experts are skeptical about lotus birth, and some warn that it may even be harmful to the baby.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Placentas Are Amazing

There is significant risk associated with keeping a newborn connected to what is essentially a dead and decaying organ, Dr. William Schweizer, an OB/GYN and clinical associate professor at New York University Langone Medical Center, told Live Science in an email.

"Risks center around a concern for infection in the placenta, which can spread to the baby. The placenta is dead tissue, and because of this, the blood in it is prone to bacterial overgrowth," Schweizer explained.

Keeping it close

For a developing fetus, the umbilical cord is a lifeline, with the placenta sending nutrients and taking up waste through the pulsing connection. But once the baby is out, the placenta is no longer needed.

The idea of lotus birth emerged in 1974 in the U.S. and Australia, according to an excerpt from the book "Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering: The wisdom and science of gentle choices in pregnancy, birth and parenting" (One Moon Press, 2005), written by Dr. Sarah Buckley and published on the website Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond.

"Lotus birth is a beautiful and logical extension of natural childbirth, and invites us to reclaim the so-called third stage of birth, and to honour the placenta, our babys first source of nourishment," Buckley wrote.

An image shared on Instagram in November 2015 by photographer senhoritasfotografia shows the aftermath of lotus birth: a newborn baby with its umbilical cord still attached to the placenta, which is positioned a short distance away on a white towel.

(opens in new tab) A photo posted by on

Buckley explained that cutting her first child's umbilical cord felt "strange and uncomfortable," describing the feeling "like cutting through a boneless toe." The experience so unnerved her that she decided to have a lotus birth with her second child, in 1993. After her baby was born, Buckley placed the placenta in a red velvet bag that she had sewn; the umbilical cord eventually broke apart after six days, she wrote.

During that time, she and her family rubbed the placenta with salt and lavender oil every 24 hours, noting that it developed "a slightly meaty smell" that attracted the attention of the family cat.

Medieval origins

It is uncertain when it became common for humans to cut the umbilical cord, but one of the earliest mentions of the practice can be traced to medieval Europe, Schweizer said.

A collection of medical texts on women's health known as "The Trotula," written in southern Italy between the 12th and 15th centuries, recommended tying the cord, chanting a charm during the cutting and then wrapping the stump of cord still attached to the infant, Schweizer explained.

Early medical literature further suggested that the cord could be clamped or tied before cutting, to safeguard the fetus against excessive blood loss until the umbilical blood vessels close up, Schweizer said.

However, as early as the 18th century, physicians cautioned that tying and cutting the cord too soon could weaken the newborn, and recommended waiting until the cord ceased to pulse, Schweizer added.

Related: Signs of labor: 6 clues baby is coming soon

"Today, during vaginal delivery, many practitioners wait until the cord stops pulsing, or the placenta separates into the vagina," he told Live Science. But during C-section births, the cord is frequently clamped immediately, so the practitioner can remove the newborn away from the site of the surgery, and attend to the repair of the mother's uterus, he said.

Not so fast

Is there any advantage to holding off on cutting the cord? Yes  up to a point. Recent studies have suggested that delaying clamping by 30 to 60 seconds after the baby is delivered can be beneficial to infants, according to an assessment published online in January by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Obstetric Practice.

The committee found that postponing clamping for those crucial seconds raised newborns' hemoglobin levels and improved iron reserves for the baby's first months, "which may have a favorable effect on developmental outcomes," the authors wrote. In infants born prematurely, a short delay before cord clamping carried the additional benefits of improving blood circulation and decreasing the need for transfusions, the authors added.

However, waiting to cut the umbilical cord for 60 seconds is quite a different scenario than leaving the cord to dry up and fall off on its own, Schweizer told Live Science.

Once the blood is transferred to the baby  which is completed when the cord naturally collapses  "there is no documented medical value" in waiting any longer, he said.

Viewed with reverence

Still, some new parents view the post-birth placenta with reverence and incorporate it into rituals and ceremonies, according to a study published in January 2014 in The Journal of Perinatal Education.

They may opt for prolonging their contact with the placenta through lotus birth, burying it in a special location, and even consuming it, Emily Burns, a postdoctoral candidate with the Religion and Society Research Cluster at Western Sydney University, wrote in the study.

Concerns over increasing numbers of lotus births reported in the United Kingdom in 2008 prompted the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) there to issue a statement saying that "no research exists on lotus births and there is currently no medical evidence that it is of benefit to the baby."

In the statement, RCOG representatives also warned against keeping a newborn attached to dead tissue, which is likely to breed harmful bacteria.

"If left for a period of time after the birth, there is a risk of infection in the placenta, which can consequently spread to the baby," Dr. Patrick O'Brien, spokesperson for the RCOG, said in the statement.

RCOG officials affirmed their support of parents making informed choices about options for birth and after-birth practices, but strongly recommended that parents choosing "umbilical non-severance" monitor their babies closely afterward for evidence of infection.

Original article on Live Science.
By documenting the wreckage of the B-25 and surveying the final resting place of another aircraft, the team hopes to help the U.S. Department of Defense repatriate the remains of American service members missing in action.

Historical records indicate that both planes were shot down amid fierce combat more than 70 years ago, the researchers said. One B-25 was carrying six crewmembers who have long been unaccounted for. The second bomber also had six crewmembers, five of whom survived and were taken prisoner by the Japanese, while one went down with the plane. [Photos: Underwater Robots Help Recover WWII Plane Wrecks]

Twin engine B-25 bombers were among the most versatile aircraft developed by the North American Aviation company during World War II. They quickly became standard equipment for all Allied forces, and the warbirds were used to conduct nearly 10,000 missions, from bombing enemies to photo reconnaissance, submarine patrols and the historic raid over Tokyo.

But the impact of hitting the ocean waves at a high speed mangled the planes, so researchers had to take a few extra steps to identify the aircraft remains.

"People have this mental image of an airplane resting intact on the sea floor, but the reality is that most planes were often already damaged before crashing, or broke up upon impact," Katy O'Connell, an oceanographer at the University of Delaware who is associated with the expedition, said in a statement. "And, after soaking in the sea for decades, they are often unrecognizable to the untrained eye, often covered in corals and other sea-life."

The researchers, who are part of a public-private collaboration called Project Recover, began their hunt for the planes by digging through the National Archives, old military photos and interviews with veterans and locals. Once they narrowed the location to a 3.8-square-mile area (10 square kilometers) in the Pacific Ocean, the scientists used scanning sonars, thermal cameras and freely swimming underwater robots to pinpoint the location of the B-25.

A photomosaic constructed by Project Recover of an underwater wreck of a WWII-era B-25 bomber. (Image credit: Project Recover)

The discovery marked the sixth aircraft that Project Recover scientists have identified and documented since 2012.

Some expeditions have also resulted in new leads. Local villagers and scuba divers are often aware of the locations of some planes, according to the researchers. But those sites, like the second B-25 plane the group surveyed in Madang Harbor, Papua New Guinea, have never been officially documented or searched for possible recovery missions.The discovery marked the sixth aircraft that Project Recover scientists have identified and documented since 2012.

Once Project Recover scientists have gathered detailed information on a site, they turn the data over to the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is tasked with repatriation efforts and contacting surviving relatives.

"There are still over 73,000 U.S. service members unaccounted for from World War II, leaving families with unanswered questions about their loved ones," O'Connell said. "We hope that our global efforts can help to bring closure and honor the service of the fallen."

Original article on Live Science.

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A newly identified, 130-million-year-old marine reptile was enormous, measuring the length of nearly three grand pianos lined up, but it wasn't a top marine predator, a new study finds.

Researchers excavated the remains of this pliosaur  a type of short-necked plesiosaur with four flippers that lived during the dinosaur age  along the banks of the Volga River, near the Russian city of Ulyanovsk, in the fall of 2002. Now, scientists have classified the ancient marine reptile as a new species.

Unlike other pliosaurs, such as Pliosaurus funkei and Liopleurodon, which had larger teeth and likely dined on sizable four-legged prey, the newfound pliosaur probably wasn't a top predator, as it had "fairly small" teeth and likely hunted small prey such as cephalopods, including squid, and small fish, said study lead researcher Valentin Fischer, a lecturer in the geology department at the University of Liege in Belgium. [Photos: Uncovering One of the Largest Plesiosaurs on Record]

The scientists named the 26-foot-long (8 meters) newfound beast Luskhan itilensis. The name reflects the region's cultural history, as the area used to be part of the Mongol Empire. In Mongolian and Turkic mythology, "luuses" were spirits and masters of the water. "Khan" is the Mongolian word for "chief."

The species name refers to "Itil," the Volga River's ancient Turkic name. (Turkic refers to groups of people who used and still do live in the region.) Thus, the reptile's name essentially translates to "master spirit from the Volga," the researchers said.

L. itilensis' skull was long  5 feet (1.5 m)  and its snout resembled those of the modern-day river dolphin and gharial, a long-snouted crocodile.

"We show that pliosaurids have actually evolved a long-snouted, 'piscivorous' [fish-eating] ecological niche multiple times in their history," Fischer told Live Science in an email. "Each time they have done this, they have actually evolved convergently with another, distantly related group of plesiosaurs called the polycotylids."

Convergent evolution happens when two species with similar lifestyles evolve to have similar adaptations, such as a long snout. In this case, the finding shows that plesiosaurs had more convergence than previously thought, Fischer said.

The L. itilensis discovery shows that a diverse number of pliosaurs lived during the early Cretaceous, even after the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction about 145 million years ago, "which is thought to have been a deleterious event in the history of plesiosaurs," Fischer said.

The specimen, which was discovered by study co-researcher Gleb Uspensky, director of the Natural Science Museum at Ulyanovsk State University in Russia, shows that pliosaurs bounced back after the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction, Fischer said.

The study was published online yesterday (May 25) in the journal Current Biology.

Original article on Live Science.
Wookies to sarlacc

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Chalk it up to parallel evolution in a galaxy far, far away. As weird and wonderful as Star Wars' menagerie of multi-species aliens and exotic xeno-fauna appear, few are as implausible as they might seem at first blush. As a matter of fact, several of those beasties have real-life counterparts on Earth, albeit with inflated, misshapen or stylized proportions. From Wookies to the sarlacc in the Pit of Carkoon, here are 10 creatures you might recognize in the here and now.

Wookie

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Wookies may appear like big, hairy Sasquatches, but the ambulatory shag carpets can trace their lineage to man's best friend. George Lucas would later claim, in fact, that he based the character of Chewbacca on his own dog, an Alaskan Malamute called Indiana who would later inspire another Lucas creation.

"A very sweet dog, she would always sit next to me when I was writing," Lucas once said. "And when I'd drive around, she'd sit in the front seat. A Malamute is a very large dog like 130 pounds and bigger than a human being and very long-haired."

Han Solo's hirsute co-pilot also bears no small resemblance to the orangutan, a great ape found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra in Indonesia. Researchers from Durham University taught an orangutan named Rocky how to manipulate his vocal chords the way people do. The term they used for these human-like vocalizations? "Wookies."

Dewback

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Native to Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, dewbacks are massive, thick-hided reptiles that locals employ as a means of conveyance across the hot desert sands. Slow, lumbering, but hardy despite the searing oppressiveness of Tatooine's twin suns, dewbacks share a number of traits with Indonesia's Komodo dragon.

Though diminutive in comparison, Komodo dragons are the largest living species of lizard, sometimes reaching lengths of up to 10 feet (3 meters). Like dewbacks, Komodo dragons are four-footed, long-tailed and have a yen for arid environments. They also both possess flicking tongues: dewbacks for licking beads of morning dew from their backs  a behavior that gives them their name  and Komodo dragons to help them process airborne stimuli.

Ewok

(Image credit: Michael Buckner/Getty; Shutterstock)

If you picture Ewoks as miniature Wookies, you're onto something. "Ewok" almost sounds like "Wookie" in reverse, and George Lucas himself said that he designed the Endorian hunter-gatherers with another family dog in mind, this time a Griffon Bruxellois.

With their rounded ears, flat noses, and furry countenance, Ewoks instantly recall teddy bears. The popular toys, originally known as Teddy's bears, got their name from President Theodore Roosevelt, who famously refused to shoot an American black bear that his attendants had trounced and tied to a tree on a hunting trip in 1902.

Shaak

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Roaming the grasslands of Naboo, shaaks are essentially the planet's equivalent of grazing herbivores like sheep and cows. (Similar to our Earth-bound ungulates, they also tend to move in packs.)

Besides their tapir-esque snouts, the critters are characterized by ovoid girths not unlike those of engorged ticks, except that shaaks are are bulbous with blubber rather than blood. But while ticks prefer their habitats hot and humid, shaaks avoid the damp when they can. Despite the natural buoyancy that their stores of fat confer, shaaks have weak, spindly legs that are rather useless in water.

Varactyl

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Varactyls, also known as dragonmounts, are mammoth herbivores native to the Outer Rim planet Utapau. They are part bird, part reptile. Capable of scaling walls, thanks to microscopic hairs on their gecko-like feet, varactyls possess both scales and plumage, much like some current depictions of dinosaurs.

For a more extant analog for the animals, we can look to the iguana, a genus of omnivorous lizards with almost equally impressive spiny crests and tails. Unlike varactyls, however, they make poor steeds for humans. Found in the tropical climes of Central America, South America and the Caribbean, iguanas top out at roughly 5 to 6 feet (under 2 meters).

Bantha

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Indigenous to Tatooine, banthas bring together the immensity of woolly mammoths, the dense coats of wild and domesticated yaks, and the sweeping headgear found on bighorn rams.

Tusken Raiders, colloquially known as the Sand People, use the gargantuan pack animals as beasts of burden. You have to wonder about all that hair, though. As vital to survival as those locks may be in the Himalayas, where yaks are bred for milk, meat and transport, they're a curious attribute to have on a planet that's roasted daily by binary suns.

Exogorth

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

When the "Millennium Falcon" attempted to shake off a fleet of TIE fighters by hiding in a crater of an asteroid, that "crater" turned out to be the maw of a giant space slug known as an exogorth.

Exogorths are silicon-based life-forms that survive in the vacuum of space by feeding on asteroid minerals, stellar energy fields and wayward ships. They share their instinct for burrowing with Earth's moray eels, which create their marine lairs by secreting a mucus that coagulates the sand around them.

As with exogorths, morays possess a vicious set of hooked teeth. They reportedly don't take kindly to being disturbed in their burrows, either. Even at the maximum recorded length of 13 feet (3 meters), however, morays are unlikely to swallow you whole.

Hutt

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

What are Hutts if not oversized slugs with arms? Thick, blobby and bereft of feet, the corpulent criminal masterminds maneuver themselves by gliding along their flat bottoms, perhaps aided by the layer of mucus and oils that coats their skin. This slick surface also serves as the Hutts' greatest protection, shielding them from chemical burns and heat and making them difficult for enemies to gain purchase.

Akin to slugs, Hutts are hermaphrodites, possessing both male and female reproductive organs. Slugs are mainly composed of water, which makes them vulnerable to desiccation. Hutts, on the other hand, appear to consist mostly of muscle, blubber and an insatiable lust for indentured servitude.

Ortolan

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Ortolans, most notably Max Rebo, leader of the Max Rebo Band of musicians at Jabba the Hutt's palace, appear very much like dumpy blue-skinned, bipedal elephants. Their most defining features are their large floppy ears, beady eyes and trunk-like schnozz.

Unlike elephants, Ortolans don't manipulate objects with their trunks. While Earth's pachyderms have been known to pick up a paintbrush or two, Max Rebo prefers an instrument dubbed the red ball jett organ, which he coaxes music from with his feet.

Sarlacc

(Image credit: Lucasfilm; Shutterstock)

Next to having his prisoners go mano a mano with the Rancor, Jabba the Hutt's favorite means of execution is the Pit of Carkoon, a vast chasm in the middle of Tatooine's shifting Dune Sea. No ordinary hole in the ground, it's also the home of the sarlacc, a tentacled, carnivorous behemoth with parallels to the terrestrial antlion.

Antlions are insects that live in a variety of environments, although most prefer dry and sandy habitats, where their larvae can excavate steep, conical traps. Once they are lodged in their burrows, all that remains visible of the larvae are their large, sickle-like jaws, which lie in wait for hapless ants to tumble into. Like sarlaccs, antlions inject their prey with a paralyzing neurotoxin before proceeding to digestion. Lucky for its victims, this order of business takes far less time than the sarlacc's fabled millennia.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26

By Orkhan Quluzade  Trend:

The governorate of the Turkish province of Ankara has warned of a possible terror attack in the countrys capital.

The governorate said terrorists may hit citizens rallies, and in this regard it has banned holding any rallies in Ankara.

A protest rally in front of Ankaras railway station came under a terrorist attack on March 15, 2015. More than 100 people were killed there. The Islamic State terrorist group took the responsibility for the attack involving two suicide bombers.

Terror attacks, organized by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorist group, also occurred in Ankara on February 17 and March 13, 2016, which killed many people.
A new study may help reveal the nature of dark energy, the mysterious substance that is pushing the universe to expand outward. Dark energy may emerge from fluctuations in the nothingness of empty space, a new hypothesis suggests.

That idea, in turn, could also explain why the cosmological constant, a mathematical constant that Albert Einstein conjured up yet famously called "the biggest blunder of his life," takes the value it does. [8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life]

The new study proposed that the expansion is driven by fluctuations in the energy carried by the vacuum, or regions of space devoid of matter. The fluctuations create pressure that forces space itself to expand, making matter and energy less dense as the universe ages, said study co-author Qingdi Wang, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada.

Accelerating universe

Scientists call the force that pushes the universe to expand a cosmological constant (though it isn't a "force" in the strict sense). This constant is the energy density of space itself. If it is greater than zero, then Einstein's equations of relativity, which describe the structure of space-time, imply an expanding universe. In the late 1990s, measurements of distant supernovas showed that the universe was accelerating, not just expanding. Cosmologists call the energy that drives that acceleration dark energy. Whatever dark energy is, it dissipates more slowly than matter or dark matter, and doesn't clump together the way either of them do under the influence of gravity.

This acceleration has been a big quandary for physicists, because it contradicts the predictions of quantum field theories, the theoretical frameworks that describe the interactions of the tiniest subatomic particles. Quantum field theories predict vacuum energies that are so large that the universe shouldn't exist at all, said Lucas Lombriser, postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, in Scotland, who was not involved in the new study. This discrepancy is called the "old" cosmological constant problem, and physicists generally thought that once new physics was discovered, the cosmological constant would disappear; expansion would be explained in some other way.

However, when scientists discovered the accelerated expansion, a new problem arose. According to theoretical calculations, the cosmological constant should be 50 to 120 orders of magnitude larger than it is, with a correspondingly large rate of expansion, Lombriser said.

Essentially, the energy density of the universe (how much energy there is per unit volume) should be gigantic, and it clearly isn't.

Fluctuations in empty space

The new work addresses not only what dark energy is but why the rate of universal expansion has the value it does.

"Everybody wants to know what dark energy is," Wang told Live Science. "I reconsidered this question more carefully," from the perspective of the universe's energy density.

Wang and his colleagues assumed that modern quantum field theory was correct about the energy density being very large, but that the vacuum fluctuations, or the movements of empty space, were very large on tiny scales, near what is called the Planck length, or 1.62  10 ^ minus 35 meters. That's so small that a proton is 100 million trillion times bigger.

"Every point in space is going through expansion and contraction," he said. "But it looks smooth just like a table looks smooth from far away."

The vacuum fluctuations, in Wang's formulation, are like children on a swing pumping their legs. Even though nobody is pushing them, they manage to impart extra energy on the swing, making the swing go up higher than it would otherwise. This phenomenon is called parametric resonance, which basically means that some piece of the system  the expansion and contraction, or the swinging of the child's legs  changes with time. In this case, the density of a very tiny portion of the universe is changing, Wang said.

Since the fluctuations are little bits of the universe expanding and contracting, this tiny resonance adds up on cosmological scales, he said. So the universe expands. (Expansion and contraction of space doesn't violate conservation laws, because space itself is doing the expanding).

As a result of Wang's approach, there's no need for any new fields, as in some dark energy models. Instead the expansion of the universe is roughly the same as that already predicted by quantum field theory.

Observations needed

While Wang's idea is a good one, that doesn't mean it's the end of the story, Lombriser said. The question is whether observations of the universe bear the theory out, he said.

"So far, they can argue that the vacuum contribution is in the right ballpark for what is being observed (which, if it holds up, is already a huge success)," Lombriser said in an email. "They have not yet made an accurate prediction for the exact observed value, but this is something they intend to further investigate in their future work."

Other physicists are more skeptical.

"On these high-energy scales, classical general relativity doesn't work any longer, but that's what they use. So, their approximation is interesting, but it's not well-justified, because in this limit, one should be using quantum gravity (a theory which we don't have)," Sabine Hossenfelder, a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany, told Live Science via email.

"This paper is simply a first step in the process," said study co-author William Unruh, a physicist at UBC. "But I think the path is worth pursuing, as our results are suggestive."

The study is published in the May 15 issue of the journal Physical Review D.

Originally published on Live Science.
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Police captured an unlikely drug smuggler  a homing pigeon  carrying a custom-made backpack loaded with what supposedly are 178 ecstasy pills (though one expert thinks that number is too high), the Mirror reported. But if the photo is legit, could a bird brain really deliver a package to a certain location, and if so, how?

The bird was reportedly caught by customs officials in Kuwait after it crossed from neighboring Iraq. Local media outlet Al Arabiya published photos of the bird, its cargo still attached.

If the news is verified, this wouldn't be the first documented case of a pigeon being used to smuggle drugs. Two years ago, guards at the La Reforma Prison in Costa Rica caught a pigeon loaded with 14 grams of cocaine and 14 grams of marijuana, the Daily Mail reported. The guards reported that other animals, including iguanas and cats, also had been recruited to try to smuggle drugs into the prison. [10 Animal Recruits of War]

Homing pigeons are particularly adept at navigation, and scientists have tested several ideas for how they do it. In 2013, researchers reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology that they had found what may be responsible for the pigeons' direction-finding prowess. The birds, it seems, use low-frequency sound waves called infrasound to create a mental map of the topography of their location.

Other theories include the idea that homing pigeons use changes in Earth's magnetic field to map out an area, or that they rely on the sun's arc as a guide. Still another idea is that these expert navigators can smell their way home.

The pigeons may also be brainiacs, with the ability to learn several routes and hold those memories, according to research published online in April 2014 in the journal Biology Letters.

But could a homing pigeon be sent off to make a delivery? It's possible, but pigeons fly only one way  back home, experts say. That means the drug destination needed to already be imprinted as "home" for the pigeon: "The important thing to remember about homing pigeons is that they can't go from A to B and back. They go from B to A," said Andrew Blechman, author of"Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird (opens in new tab)" (Grove Press, 2007).

Given their ability to return to their nests across great distances, pigeons have made ideal couriers in the past. In the first World War, they were used by armies to relay messages. Once released, a pigeon can fly up to 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) and find its way home, according to Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the American Racing Pigeon Union.

"They tried getting pigeons to travel between lofts, but I don't think they had much success," Roberts told Live Science.

As for the supposed drug-smuggling bird, even the sturdiest pigeon would have trouble carrying more than a few pills, much less 170. Could a pigeon be used to smuggle drugs? Yes, Blechman said, "but the photo doesn't look like 170, more like 30."

Original article on Live Science.
It's a scenario you've probably experienced: You go to the supermarket hungry, and you end up with a shopping cart filled with foods you probably wouldn't buy if you weren't feeling famished.

But researchers from the Netherlands may have found a way to make healthier choices when shopping hungry.

It's true that "when people are hungry, they tend to make impulsive decisions," said lead study author Tracy Cheung, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. [The Science of Hunger: How to Control It and Fight Cravings]

Think of the phrase, "[your] eyes are bigger than [your] stomach"  you buy too much food, more than you actually need, for example, Cheung said. Or people may pick out tasty, but unhealthy foods that are immediately satisfying.

But in the new study, published online May 11 in the journal Appetite, Cheung and her team wanted to see if this impulsivity could be used to help people make healthy choices.

The researchers hypothesized that "because hungry people are impulsive, they would be more likely to use heuristics, which are essentially mental shortcuts or decisional rules of thumb," Cheung told Live Science.

In the study, the researchers used a type of heuristic called the "social proof heuristic." Basically, this type of heuristic is just being a copycat, Cheung said, and doing what the majority is doing.

The study consisted of two experiments. In the first, about 200 participants were asked to take an online survey, which included a question about how hungry they felt on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 7 (very hungry). Then, the participants were presented with six pairs of foods, one healthy (such as a salad) and one unhealthy (such as a quesadilla). But half of the participants were given additional information: For each of the food pairs, a bar graph showed that most "previous participants" had selected the healthier choice. This served as the social-proof heuristic.

The second experiment was similar, but instead of surveying people online, the researchers included hungry people in the real world: They visited a cafeteria and surveyed people who were about to eat, comparing them to people who had just eaten. As in the first experiment, the nearly 190 people were asked to choose between several pairs of foods, with a healthy choice and an unhealthy choice. Half of the participants were also presented with the social-proof heuristic, in this case, a pie chart showing that most "previous participants" had selected the healthier option.

The researchers found that when hungry people saw a chart that promoted the healthier choice, without explicitly hearing that it was the healthier choice, they would opt for the healthy option, Cheung said.

"The big takeaway is that impulsivity, as experienced in a pang of hunger, isn't always bad," so long as there are signals in the environment that promote healthy food choices, Cheung said. Such signals could include arrows in the grocery store leading to the fresh produce section or fresh fruit placed next to the cash registers, the researchers wrote in the study.

By installing these heuristics to promote healthy choices, "an impulsive choice could be turned into a healthy choice," Cheung said.

Originally published on Live Science.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that the military bloc is going to join the anti-Daesh coalition led by the United States, noting that the alliance members won't take part in the fighting, Sputnik reported.

Stoltenberg said at a press conference on Thursday that the organization will become a partner in the US-led coalition against Daesh.

"[W]e agreed that NATO will become a full member of the global coalition in which all 28 allies already take part," Stoltenberg stated in Brussels.

At the same time Stoltenberg noted that the bloc will not take part in fighting.

Stoltenberg also said that the organization will be increasing its efforts in the fight against terrorism.

"Today we agreed on an action plan for NATO to step up its efforts in the fight against terrorism," he added.
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Joyce Hayes, a longtime member of the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church family who proved her faith by being a foster mother to 87 children over a span of 40 years, has died at 73.

Ms. Hayes died Tuesday at the Morgan Hill home of her daughter, Jayne Rovianek.

A large personality, even by the exuberant standards of Glide, Ms. Hayes was known for her flowing African robes in shades of red, and for taking in people who had no other place to go.

Joyce was the heartbeat of the childrens program, said Janice Mirikitani, co-leader of Glide with her husband, the Rev. Cecil Williams. Her arms were open to every child and parent that needed help.

Ms. Hayes was born in St. Louis and grew up in Chicago. Her dream was to be a social worker, but by the time she was 20 she had two children. She and her husband, Robert Morrow, moved to San Francisco, where Ms. Hayes got a job as an operator for Pacific Bell. She worked either the graveyard shift or swing shift for 26 years.

The family lived in a high-rise apartment in Visitacion Valley. Some of Rovianeks earliest memories are of her mother bringing in wayward kids from the building. This informal fostering led to formal training and certification as a foster parent.

She usually took in six kids at a time, Rovianek said. Shed rent these big houses and put them two to a room. The houses were in Daly City, Alameda, Emeryville and Oakland, wherever she needed to go to get more room.

My mother always had a heart for kids, Rovianek said. Always.

She had long since been divorced, so she worked nights and took care of a houseful of kids during the day. She also began coming to Glide, first to worship and then to volunteer.

When she started in 1971, Glides Free Meals program was just being launched. Ms. Hayes offered to lead a second program that would not only feed children but give them a safe place to play in the Tenderloin church.

Eventually the program hosted 100 kids and took up the entire second floor of Glide. When even that wasnt big enough, a capital campaign was undertaken to buy a second building a block from the Ellis Street church. This became Janice Mirikitani Family, Youth and Childcare Center, which opened in 1991 with Ms. Hayes as its first director.

Her vision was to provide books and academic tutoring by volunteers she recruited. The center is now a licensed care facility for children ages 2 to 12 and serves more than 500 youths each year.

Thirty years after she started at Glide, Ms. Hayes was given the Congressional Angels in Adoption award in Washington, D.C., after being nominated by Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Five years ago, she was honored at the Glide Annual Holiday Jam. Adults she had fostered as children came to the stage.

She never knew how many she had cared for until she sat down at the kitchen table with Rovianek and counted them.

She remembered everybodys name and when they were in our home and for how long, Rovianek said. She kept in touch with half of them, and theyd either come to her home or go to Glide to see her.

In addition to Rovianek, Ms. Hayes is survived by her daughter Kellye Guidry of Somerset, N.J.; son, Robert Morrow of Los Angeles; sister, Carole Salter of Los Angeles; and brother, Gary White of Carteret, N.J.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. June 4 at Glide. The ensemble will be in full voice to send her on her way.

I will always remember her laughter, acceptance and love echoing off the walls at Glide, Mirikitani said.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhiting Instagram: @sfchronicle_art
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A man stabbed to death in San Franciscos Bernal Heights Park on Thursday was a 33-year-old city resident, officials said Friday.

Giovanny Alvarez, who was stabbed multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene, was identified by the city medical examiners office.

A jogger found Alvarezs body in the park about 5:30 a.m., according to Sgt. Michael Andraychak of the San Francisco Police Department.

No arrest has been made in the killing.

San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen, whose District Nine includes Bernal Heights Park, said Thursday that she and police officials will hold a community meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center to discuss public safety concerns in the community.

While little information is known at this time, the police do not believe the killing was random. Extra patrols will be in and around the park, Ronen wrote on Facebook.

Anyone with information on the slaying should call the San Francisco Police Department at (415) 575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
Associated Press file photo

RadioShack  once the go-to chain for consumer electronics  will shutter 1,000 stores during the Memorial Day weekend as it undergoes its second round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the company announced Friday.

RadioShack will continue to operate 70 brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S. as the retailer migrates most of its sales operations to its website, RadioShack said in a news release Friday. This round of closures does not affect the companys 500 dealers  or franchisee-run stores.
Every Saturday, at the end of his six-day workweek, Melvyn Wolff paused to share an Italian meal with the president of Star Furniture.

The lunchtime ritual of more than two decades gave the men a chance to set aside business matters and talk personally, often over a split plate of Carrabba's spaghetti. It was a small but thoughtful commitment, one of many Wolff made to his employees as he built a small Houston furniture business into a thriving enterprise that ultimately earned him a partnership with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Wolff, a Houston native who transformed Star into one of the nation's largest furniture retailers, died Thursday at 86 after a monthslong battle with cancer.

His family and friends recall him as a sharp, meticulous man with a bottomless well of energy. Until the final months of his life, he worked out daily at the Houstonian and appeared at the office in tailored clothes he had chosen the night before.

Melvyn Lee Wolff was born on May 12, 1931, at St. Joseph Hospital to Boris and Fannie Wolff. His father, who fled Russia and arrived in the U.S. around 1915 with no money or knowledge of English, eventually earned enough to purchase part of Star Furniture, a lower-end operation that did a lot of business on credit.

After graduating from high school, Melvyn Wolff set off to Austin to study law at the University of Texas. He soon returned to Houston when his father had a heart attack and assumed his responsibilities at the company. He enrolled at the University of Houston and earned his business degree.

He eventually took control of Star Furniture after his father died, and he brought his sister Shirley into the business. Faced with competition from Finger Furniture, which appealed to a similar customer base, he decided to reposition the company to target Houston's growing middle- and upper-income population, brother-in-law Marc Grossberg said.

"If he couldn't beat them, he'd go into a different market," Grossberg said.

The business grew quickly, due in part to Wolff's penchant for marketing. He turned his stores into galleries of sorts with bedrooms or dining rooms on the showroom floor, making it easier for customers to visualize how the furniture might look in their homes.

He also pioneered the "no money down" advertising approach with deferred loan payments, giving customers easier access to higher-end furniture, Grossberg said.

"The hard part was convincing the lenders that it made business sense," he said. "He was really good at financial analysis."

He paid close attention to detail, at times asking financial or operational questions that few employees had considered. President Bill Ward said he often gathered groups to brainstorm and listened intently to those who challenged his ideas.

"You had to be on your toes when you were discussing all of that with him," Ward said. "He did it in a way where you might disagree on something, but then he'd put his arm around you and take you to lunch."

Wolff's commitment to his employees earned him widespread loyalty. Ward said he established close relationships with everyone who worked for him, from warehouse workers to fellow executives.

In 1997, Buffett, who has often extolled the benefits of investing in good leadership, purchased the company and incorporated it into Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio. Wolff stayed on as chairman, a position he held until the final months of his life.

"The first day I met Melvyn, I knew he would be a wonderful partner and friend," Buffett said in an email. "More than 20 years later, his every action had confirmed that initial appraisal."

With greater access to capital, Wolff pushed for the company's expansion. It established stores in Austin, San Antonio and Bryan, and Buffett attended the grand opening of each.

Wolff, intent on providing students with business education and opportunities, became increasingly involved at UH as his company grew. In 2008, the school changed the name of its Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation into the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship.

He regularly met students for lunch in the cafeteria and invited them behind the scenes at the company to observe how the business operated. He recently gifted $1 million in scholarships to the center and hosted the recipients at his home for dinner.

"He was selfless in doing anything he could to help students and prosper personally and professionally," center director David Cook said. "He was the most humble guy I've ever known."

Perhaps most memorably, he and Cook each year took about 20 students to visit the Berkshire Hathaway headquarters in Nebraska to learn directly from Buffett.

"I would see him regularly with students from the University of Houston that he brought to Omaha," Buffett said. "They loved him as I did."

Wolff is survived by his wife, the former Cyvia Rose Grossberg; children Carrie Boudreaux and Curtis Wolff; granddaughter Sherrie Boudreaux; sister Shirley Toomin; and nieces, nephews, in-laws and friends.

A memorial service will be Sunday afternoon at 4:30 at Congregation Beth Israel, 5600 N. Braeswood.

Mike Glenn contributed to this report.
Not a Scientist: How Politicians Mistake, Misrepresent, and Utterly Mangle Science

By Dave Levitan

Norton. 256 pp. $15.95 paperback

---

Truths are all alike, but every lie is dishonest in its own way.

That could be the mantra of "Not a Scientist," by journalist Dave Levitan. Levitan has scoured the public record for politicians' most egregious misstatements, misrepresentations and manglings of scientific fact. He fact-checks and classifies these "alternative facts," many about climate change, and creates a taxonomy of untruths that may, he writes, help his readers suss out what's right for themselves.

Among his categories: the "oversimplification" (when a politician says, for example, that 2014 was the planet's warmest year on record, obscuring the complicated science of assessing global temperature); the "cherry-pick" (Sen. James Inhofe gave a master class on this when he brought a snowball onto the Senate floor in 2015 to prove that climate change is a myth); and the "demonizer" (when, for instance, a public official blames a disease outbreak on illegal immigrants).

In each case, Levitan traces the lies back to the source. He points out that when Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.) went on the radio in 2015 to say that the government was manipulating climate-change data, the argument in fact came from climate denier (and retired accountant) Paul Homewood. On his blog, Homewood offered no evidence to back up his incendiary claim of massive temperature tampering. Even so, that piece was picked up by Christopher Booker of the British newspaper the Telegraph and then shared hundreds of thousands of times. (Levitan calls this type of fib "blame the blogger." )

The book offers a common-sense approach for catching misrepresentations. "When a politician makes what sounds like a very specific point - no warming for (BEGIN ITAL)seventeen(END ITAL) years, not sixteen or eighteen - be wary." And: "Every measurement ... [has] some margin for error. Pointing that out when it suits a political agenda isn't an argument; it's just a smokescreen."

Levitan's analysis is accurate and often interesting. But the book feels terribly light on the "why" - why are politicians so willing to mangle science? How do corporations and other special interests back them up? How did we become a country of scientific know-nothings?

While the author spends a lot of time debunking myths around climate change, I wish he'd talked about how companies like ExxonMobil spent millions on phony science and research to create the confusion about global warming that so many people now feel, even in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus.

Instead, though, Levitan sticks to the facts. By doing so, he might miss the bigger picture.
Many filmmakers roam far afield to find a ripe topic for their next creative endeavor, but Francesco Carrozzini simply turned to his mother, who happened to be one of the most provocative and inspiring women in the international fashion industry - yet one he barely knew. Franca Sozzani was the longtime editor of Vogue Italia, a magazine with a small footprint but far-reaching influence.

Carrozzini has directed a documentary about Sozzani's life and work - a way of learning more about her, not just as a mother, but also as a woman. The result is the compact and unsentimental "Franca: Chaos & Creation," which is scheduled to open in the United States later this year. Carrozzini's timing was both wistful and prescient; his mother passed away in December. The film serves as a tribute to her life.

During Sozzani's 28-year tenure at the Italian glossy, she used fashion to address a range of subjects not typically considered alongside designer clothes. Vogue Italia focused on the brutality of domestic violence. It explored plastic surgery and eating disorders in artful, heartbreaking imagery. It used the devastating BP oil spill as a source of inspiration for a fashion shoot that depicted models as fragile, otherworldly creatures choking on petroleum. She confronted the fashion industry's discomfort with racial diversity by dedicating an entire issue to black models, using only black women in the magazine's fashion spreads.

In a scene from the film, a reporter challenges Sozzani on her unusual editorial vision. She replies: "Why can't a fashion magazine care about what happens in the world?"

Carrozzini was in Washington earlier this month, along with his mother's sister Carla Sozzani, whose Milan store 10 Corso Como helped launch the boutique-as-gallery trend, as honorees of the Italian Cultural Society. Carrozzini has the lean physique of a long-distance runner. He has waves of sandy brown hair, groomed stubble and a whirring energy that can burn through the oxygen in a room. He's engaged to Bee Shaffer, the daughter of American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who was both a colleague and friend of his mother's.

Carrozzini, 34, is as much a character in the documentary as his mother. The two at times engage in a conversational tug-of-war. When he asks her about an early, short-lived marriage, she exhibits a stubborn refusal to dwell on the past.

Why did you get married, Carrozzini asks. "Because I was already wearing the dress. I don't know," Sozzani says with a wry laugh. The marriage lasted three months.

The most intimate conversations between the son and his mother occur in the back seat of a car as she is being chauffeured from one appointment to the next. Sozzani was a petite woman who studied philosophy in school. She had long waves of blond hair, blue eyes and a deep trust in herself and herself alone. In the film, she exudes all the glamour one might expect of someone who crisscrosses the globe attending fashion shows, dining with artists and designers, and constantly pursuing the next iteration of beauty.

"The work, she loved talking about," Carrozzini says. She didn't like discussing her personal life. "She was a creative mind, a journalist. Although I don't think of her as a journalist as much as a revolutionary person.

"Fashion was a device to talk about other things, a way to meet people. My mother never came back home and said she'd seen an incredible collection. It was, 'Oh, I met this great person at this dinner.' "

For Carrozzini, Vogue Italia's oil spill issue was especially powerful. "It was almost like a movie. But the black issue was more impactful than all of them," he says. "It was about society."

That issue especially resonated in the United States. In the film, there is a clip of a young black man clutching a copy of the magazine and enthusing into the social media vortex about how long he has waited for such a historic moment.

"She never thought of Italy as her audience," Carrozzini says. In the film, Sozzani explains that because Italian is spoken only in Italy, to expand the magazine's reach - its circulation drifted between 120,000 to 150,000 - the photography needed to be particularly powerful. The stories had to be visually bold. She cultivated such photographers as Steven Meisel and Paolo Roversi and attracted an international audience to the magazine's pages even though many of its consumers weren't able to read most of it.

Carrozzini portrays his mother as unapologetically in love with her work. She does not seem like a woman who frets about a work-life balance. Whether a bad photo or a bad marriage, Sozzani believed in turning the page.

"She taught me to be curious. She taught me to look at things from different angles, to look for different perspectives," he says. "She was a super, super ambitious woman. . . . That's a great attitude to teach someone."

"She was ambitious because [her work] was never good enough," adds her sister Carla. "She wanted to do well. She was 3 and she was like that."

Ambition is often deemed a negative when exhibited by women. And it caused Carrozzini some tension when he was in his 20s. For him. Not her. Now, he takes pride in her striving.

Franca Sozzani was 66 when she died of lung cancer, but she'd had a chance to screen her son's film. "I always loved you," she told him afterward. "Now I'm also proud of you."

When Carrozzini looks at the fashion industry, he sees his mother's influence - directly or indirectly - as glossy magazines take on subjects that are roiling the culture, from politics to gender fluidity.

As a filmmaker, the experience of documenting his mother's life taught him that he was more interested in people, in character studies, than in traditional narratives. He also realized that his own mother was one of the most intriguing characters he has ever encountered. And was lucky enough to get to know her.
The London Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Thursday they had charged three men arrested last week over an undisclosed terrorist plot, Sputnik reported.

Umar Ahmed Haque, 24, was charged with "the intention of committing acts of terrorism engaged in conduct in preparation for giving effect to that intention" and four other offenses.

Muhammad Abid, 27, is suspected of withholding information from authorities which could have been "of material assistance" in apprehending Haque.

Abuthaher Mamun, 18, was charged over "intention of assisting another to commit acts of terrorism," according to the statement.

A fourth man  Nadeem Ilyas Patel, 25  was charged with committing a criminal offense for conspiring with Haque to possess a firearm or an imitation firearm to cause fear of violence.

All crimes were allegedly committed between March and May of this year, but prior to this Mondays bombing at Manchester Arena, which killed 22 concertgoers and injured more than a hundred.
Nairobi, Kenya

Food shortages and skyrocketing prices threaten to mar observance of the holy month of Ramadan for many East African Muslims.

Religious leaders fear the sharp rise in the prices of grains, cereals, produce and other staple foods is burdening people to the point that it may weaken their commitment to fasting.

A hike in the prices of dates  believed to be Prophet Muhammad's first food after breaking the Ramadan fast  particularly disappoints those who celebrate the lunar holiday, which started Friday with the sighting of the moon.

Outside Nairobi's Jamia Mosque, the seat of Islamic faith in Kenya, a vendor who sells dates alongside copies of the Quran and other Islamic texts, said dates are a source of energy.

"If you eat a few with milk, you don't get hungry the whole day. But I am afraid many Muslims may find them unaffordable due to the high prices," said Hassan Isaak.

Muslims fast from eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan. Many stay awake late to break the fast and wake up early to eat before dawn.

Over 16 million people are facing starvation in East Africa, in large part due to drought linked to climate change. In March nearly 3 million Kenyans were affected by the shortages

Rising prices reflect plummeting supplies caused by a severe drought that depleted water sources, killed livestock and wiped out harvests. Prices of maize, sorghum and other cereals are near or at record levels in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya's coastal region, Anglican Bishop Julius Kalu of Mombasa said the high food prices are denying meals to ordinary people in his diocese, which has many Muslims who live side by side with Christians.

"The prices of maize meal have doubled. They are being told, they either take it or leave," and many families are suffering because they simply can't afford food at that cost, said Kalu.

"It is essential that the government does something urgently to bring down the price of commodities during this month of Ramadan," added the bishop.

As Muslims are expected to give to charity during Ramadan, Kalu said Christians also will offer aid to the hungry in the region. "We shall distribute it this month as part of charity," he said. "We are in dialogue with the Muslims and we shall move together with them to preach peace and tolerance."

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is Christian, also gave 36 tons of dates to be distributed to poor Muslims during the holiday in the nation.
Venezuelan media have revised the death toll from nearly two months of violent protests in the crisis-hit country up to 60, with most of the victims being civilians, Sputnik reported.

The national newspaper, El National, published a list of alleged casualties that includes a National Guard and two police officers. The rest are civilians. Of those, nine are teenagers aged between 14 and 18.

The number of those injured in nationwide skirmishes between critics of Socialist President Nicolas Maduro and security forces has topped 1,000, according to official estimates.

Jose Barreras, head of the Palavecino municipal administration in the northwestern state of Lara, accused the National Guard on Thursday of raiding homes in the Valle Hondo community. He said two people were hurt when troops allegedly kicked in doors and threatened residents.

Opposition accuses the government of mismanaging the oil-rich country, causing severe shortages of basic consumer goods, and attempts to sidestep the parliament. President Maduro plans to set up a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution as a way out of the political crisis that broke out in early April when the Supreme Court briefly took over powers from the National Assembly, causing an uproar.
This week's episode of "New York Now," the award-winning co-production of WMHT and the Times Union, features Karen DeWitt of New York State Public Radio in conversation with State University Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, who's about to leave the post that she has held for eight years. (See Sunday's Times Union for more on Zimpher's tenure.)

Also this week, DeWitt and Bill Mahoney of Politico New York sit down at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the ongoing soap opera being acted out among the state Senate's Democratic factions, and the Cuomo administration's continued efforts to distribute blame for the problems facing the downstate transportation system.
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After hearing eight days worth of testimony, Cristian Yepez was found guilty late Thursday of murdering his girlfriends 3-year-old child in a motel room in Laredo and burying her body in a shallow grave in 2014.

Jurors in the 406th District Court deliberated for about three hours before convicting Yepez of murder and tampering with evidence.

The punishment phase will take place Tuesday.

During closing arguments Thursday, Yepezs attorney, Uriel Druker, asked the jury to consider an alternative cause of death  dry drowning.

After stating several reasons why he believes the prosecutions case does not fit the bill for murder, Druker offered an alternative to the claim of how Jasleen Valdez died.

READ MORE: Expert: 3-year-old suffered at least 11 skull fractures, three rib fractures

All it takes is a mouth full of water and an inhale. Thats it. You get water to the lungs and you start aspirating, Druker said.

Without medical attention, death from dry drowning can occur within one to 24 hours, he said.

Druker said statements made by Yepez and his girlfriend, Janette Pantoja, and testimony heard from a clerk at the Monterrey Inn support his alternative cause of death.

Valdez is believed to have died Aug. 16, 2014 at the Monterrey Inn before being buried around Aug. 19, 2014 in a north Laredo lot off Springfield Avenue.

Assistant district attorney Linda Garza-Martinez told the jury that Drukers theory of dry-drowning is ridiculous and didnt happen.

According to Druker, Valdez exhibited textbook symptoms of dry drowning.

Pantoja provided testimony last week about Yepez locking her inside a motel bathroom where she began to panic and yell for someone to open the door. Shortly thereafter, Yepez allegedly came rushing into the bathroom with Valdez unconscious in his arms.

According to the motels manager, there was a mechanical error with the bathrooms doorknob that caused the door to automatically lock if it was closed. The door only opened from the outside.

Yepez carried Valdez to the shower and tried splashing water on her face before running out of the bathroom with the child, according to Pantoja.

RELATED: How damage from May 2017 storms compares to the costliest Texas disasters ever

In statements to police, Pantoja said she attempted to perform CPR on her daughter and heard a gurgling sound come from her daughter before she took her last breath.

I told them in that stupid swimming pool she had water in her lungs, Pantoja allegedly told police.

Pantoja, a cooperating witness in Yepezs trial, also faces charges of murder and tampering with evidence. Her case is being tried separately, meaning Yepez is solely on trial.

Yepez told police Valdez was throwing up, sick from crying, before she slipped and fell from a sofa while she was on timeout.

Later in the interview, he tells detectives, I dont know if she choked because of all that crying and boogers.

Valdezs death was accidental, likely caused by her suffocating as she collapsed from the sofa, according to Druker.

It is certainly a reasonable explanation to consider  the kind of explanation that is grounds for reasonable doubt, Druker said.

A clerk, Sabrina Settles, from the Monterrey Inn, testified Monday about witnessing a fight between Yepez and Pantoja during one of her afternoon shifts.

She said she had seen them in the motels swimming pool about an hour prior to them entering the lobby.

MORE TRIAL: Laredo mayor declares city a disaster area in wake of devastating storm

Yepez and Pantoja fought outside the motels lobby before Pantoja came inside requesting to use the phone to call her mother, Settles said.

Settles said she became concerned because it just didnt look right.

Pantoja entered the lobby with Valdez in her arms, covered by a blanket, according to Settles, who said the child didnt make a sound and didnt move even though the couple was arguing.

The morning Valdez is alleged to have died, Marisol Martinez, a family friend, said she spoke with Valdez on the phone and described Valdez as sounding happy, like she was having fun and running around.

The prosecution alleges Valdez was struck on the head by Yepez, causing her to lose consciousness and die, sometime after speaking to Martinez.

Her soul left this earth and her body stayed in that ugly, cheap motel room to rot while Cristian and the one person in this world who should give her life for her daughter did nothing and watched her rot, Garza-Martinez said.

On Sept. 11, 2014, Laredo police, with assistance from Pantoja and Houston Police Department detectives, discovered the child's body buried in a shallow grave in the 7300 block of Springfield Avenue.

This precious treasure was reduced to a pile of bones because that man, along with his girlfriend  took her out to a brushy area and buried her so that nobody would ever find her again, Garza-Martinez said.

Rather than covering up a murder, Druker says the couple attempted to cover up their negligence due to tremendous fear.

The prosecutions claims are based upon the credibility of Pantoja, the flawed conclusions of the prosecutions expert witness and the sheer shock of the content of the case, Druker said.

The defense says Pantoja lied to her parents, friends and law enforcement about the whereabouts of her daughter, being kidnapped by Yepez and the cause of Valdezs death.

Cristian Yepez is not guilty of beating the child to death. Nor is he guilty of hiding that body for the purpose of getting away from the fact that he beat that child, Druker said.
Area students are among the beneficiaries of scholarships handed out by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Wednesday, May 24.

In total, 423 Texas high school graduates received $8.4 million in scholarships from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. These college-bound seniors are slated to attend 39 different Texas universities and colleges and will major in 151 different fields of study.

"The students recognized tonight are the leaders of tomorrow," said Joel Cowley, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo president and CEO. "With the support of more than 33,000 volunteers, our generous donors and those in the community who attend our Show, we are proud to contribute to the education of these very deserving individuals."

In 2017, Show scholarships were increased from $18,000 to $20,000 for students pursuing a four-year, undergraduate degree. On Wednesday, students received $8,405,000 in funds from the following Show scholarship programs: Metropolitan, Opportunity, Exhibitor, Hildebrand, School Art, Technical and Military. Each recipient received a $20,000 scholarship, payable over four years, with the exception of Technical recipients who received a $9,000 scholarship to apply toward a two-year degree.

Among the 423 scholars, 23 percent are first generation high school graduates. In addition, a majority of students - 238 Metropolitan and 114 Opportunity recipients - were selected from Houston-area high schools in Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery and Waller counties.

In the second, and largest, of four scholarship presentations this summer, the students will attend college in the fall alongside their fellow Area Go Texan and Texas 4-H and FFA scholarship recipients for a total scholarship commitment of $14.3 million in 2017. Currently, more than 2,000 scholars currently attending 80-plus Texas colleges and universities on Show scholarships.

These scholarships represent a portion of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's annual commitment of more than $26 million to scholarships, research, endowments, calf scramble participants, junior show exhibitors, School Art participants and other educational programs. For more information on the Show's educational support, visit rodeohouston.com/Educational-Support/Commitment.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a Section 501(c)(3) charity that benefits youth, supports education, and facilitates better agricultural practices through exhibitions and presentation. Since its beginning in 1932, the Show has committed more than $430 million to the youth of Texas. For more information, visit rodeohouston.com and connect with

#RODEOHOUSTON online via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for all of the latest news. The 2018 Show is scheduled for Feb. 27-March 18.

Scholarship winners

M - denotes Metropolitan; O - denotes Opportunity

FORT BEND ISD

Dulles

Rushil Dandamudi (M)

Elkins

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With days to spare before the deadline to respond, former Liberty County Pct. 1 Commissioner Mike McCarty's attorney in the civil trial accusing him of official misconduct and incompetency has responded to the lawsuit.

The response was filed on Tuesday morning and Houston-based attorney Scott Brazil pledges to vigorously defend McCarty in court.

The response denies "each and every, all and singular, allegations" and demands proof and asks that the claim be denied and dismissed.

Brazil, in the response, said the county's allegation and assertion that McCarty confessed or admitted to alleged wrongdoing is not only patently false, it is a gross misstatement of the facts.

The lawyer contends that all of McCarty's acts were fully explained by McCarty to the Texas Rangers investigating the case and, though found guilty in the case, was acquitted of the more serious felony allegations and instead found guilty of two non-specific misdemeanors.

That jury rendering is currently under appeal.

As to the Martin Marietta case where the county is being sued for non-payment of the balance due and owing on outstanding invoices for resurfacing material delivered to Pct. 1 for roadwork authorized by McCarty, Brazil alleges it wasn't wrongdoing at all by McCarty, but by then County Auditor Harold Seay who allegedly authorized the purchases.

McCarty is being accused of knowingly subverting the bidding process for the purchase of trap rock needed for a chip seal project.

McCarty alleges that at the time, only Vulcan Materials was the sole source for that particular type of material required for the project, but he found another vendor to use since the Vulcan plant was allegedly 'shut down.'

By state law, all purchases by the county must be bid out when they exceed the $50,000 threshold. The CEERTZ project would require some $80,000 and Martin Marietta has already delivered $70,000 worth of material to the county.

Brazil alleges Seay issued a purchase order and that McCarty followed the proper process.

On Monday, the Honorable Ernest "Ernie" L. McClendon from the 258th District Court that oversees Polk, San Jacinto, and Trinity counties, ordered the immediate removal of McCarty while he awaits his civil trial.

McCarty was ordered to give up his county keys, any equipment, data and documents.

On April 24, McCarty was sentenced by Judge Joe Ned Dean to six months in county jail, to be probated for a period of two years, and fined him the maximum at $2,000. The judge also ordered the removal of McCarty from office, but after the defense filed a Notice of Appeal, set aside the removal until the appeal was settled.

Just 10 days later, Liberty County Attorney Matthew Poston filed a petition with the Liberty County District Clerk's office seeking the immediate removal of McCarty saying he will prove acts of incompetence, abuse of office and official misconduct to justify immediate removal and was in the process of preparing a summary judgment to that effect. A date for the civil trial has not been set, but the judge has the authority to suspend McCarty from office until his case has been tried and a verdict rendered. In the meantime, Dayton News/Cleveland Advocate learned that Bruce Karbowski has been temporarily appointed as the new Pct. 1 Commissioner effective immediately.

The move did not sit well with McCarty's defense.

"It is a rare day when a duly elected public servant is deprived of his office against the will of the voters," Brazil said. "Rarer still when it is done without giving the office holder an opportunity to be heard. One judge already ruled the removal from office was inappropriate," he said.

Late Thursday, the Dayton News/Cleveland Advocate also learned that the defense has requested an emergency hearing before McClendon to reinstate him as commissioner.

"We are eager to get before the court and present our side of the story. We will work earnestly toward that end," Brazil said.
For many of the guru's millions of followers worldwide, Bikram Choudhury's signature "hot yoga," performed in sweltering, sweaty rooms, is a euphoric, spiritual practice that promotes healthy, peaceful living.

But over the course of about two years, the yoga tycoon's image has been tarnished by numerous sexual assault allegations and lawsuits. And now, attorneys say, Choudhury is on the run, dodging court hearings and a legal judgment.

The 73-year-old guru, the founder of Bikram yoga, has yet to pay any of the $6.8 million awarded last year to his former attorney, Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, who alleges she was sexually harassed by Choudhury and fired after investigating claims from a student that he had raped her. Choudhury has repeatedly denied the allegations.

So on Wednesday, a California judge issued an arrest warrant for Choudhury, ordering him to hand over the proceeds from his business to satisfy the judgment. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Edward Moreton issued the warrant and set bail at $8 million.

"It's been a long road chasing this guy down," Jafa-Bodden's attorney, Aaron Osten told The Washington Post. "I don't want to say it's done, but it's awfully close, because he's got nowhere else to go."

Choudhury, who is a three-time national yoga champion in his native India, created his system of yoga in the 1970s, turning it into a global yoga empire. Bikram yoga, which consists of 26 poses done in a 105-degree room for over 90 minutes, attracted celebrity clients such as Raquel Welch and Quincy Jones, the founder bragged.

But for Jafa-Bodden, who worked as head of legal and international affairs at Choudhury's yoga school from 2011 until 2013, there was a grim side to the business. She alleged that Choudhury sexually harassed and inappropriately touched her, tried to get her to stay with him in a hotel suite, and subjected her to obscene comments about women and minority groups. She accused him of pressuring her to cover up his sexual harassment of women.

"She tried to put her foot down and stop this man," Osten said."He threatened her life. He threatened her family's life, he threatened to have her deported."

And in March 2013, she was suddenly fired from her position. Last year, Jafa-Bodden successfully sued Choudhury, alleging gender discrimination, wrongful termination and sexual harassment during her time working for him. After she won, Jafa-Bodden told reporters, "I feel vindicated, I'm elated," and described Choudhury as "a dangerous, dangerous predator."

One of the jurors hugged her after the verdict, telling her she was a "warrior for women," according to the Los Angeles Times.

But in the year since, Jafa-Bodden's attorneys said, Choudhury has funneled his assets into sham corporations, even undergoing a "sham divorce" to hide his resources.

Choudhury could not be located for comment and no lawyers appeared for him, according to the Associated Press. Last year, he claimed he was nearly bankrupt.

Speaking to CNN in 2015, Choudhury repeatedly denied sexually assaulting anyone, saying he would never resort to physical aggression to have sex because he has so many offers.

"Women like me. Women love me," he said. "So if I really wanted to involve the women, I don't have to assault the women."

Osten said Choudhury had a fleet of about 44 luxury cars, including Bentleys and Rolls Royces, in a warehouse in California. "It was a pretty extraordinary collection," Osten said.

The attorneys said Choudhury tried to ship the cars and other property overseas, and tracked a number of vehicles in Florida and Nevada. Osten said the legal team now has court orders in those states preventing him from moving property from warehouses.

"He has sufficient funds to satisfy the judgment," Osten said, including a $3 million diamond-encrusted watch he has previously flaunted. "But he'd rather play this game and run fast and loose with this legal system."

Despite the allegations, the yoga master continues to travel and teach classes worldwide, Osten said, including recently in Acapulco, Mexico. The arrest warrant means authorities can flag Choudhury at any airport, and the legal team can work with authorities to arrest the yoga master in Mexico or any country that is a member of The Hague Convention.

Outside of court Wednesday, Jafa-Bodden celebrated the arrest warrant, calling it a win for any women who have endured sexual harassment.

"To have that bench warrant issued for Bikram. It sends a message to a debtor like Bikram that he will be held accountable and that the wheels of justice, although they don't turn as fast as we would want them to, they do turn," she said.

Six other women have filed sexual assault lawsuits against Choudhury, including five who accuse him of raping them. One of those lawsuits is in the process of being settled while the rest are set for trial later this year, according to the Associated Press.

In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, three of the women who have filed lawsuits say Choudhury nurtured a cultlike devotion among followers that allowed him to take advantage of female students. That devotion - and a fear of being exiled from the yoga community - kept victims and others from speaking up, the women told the Los Angeles Times.
Nine workers were injured Friday when a building partially collapsed at an Oakland construction site near downtown, forcing a desperate and successful effort to free many of them from wet concrete.

No workers were seriously injured in the collapse, which took place around 9:30 a.m. at 3093 Broadway, said Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Ian McWhorter.

While as many as 20 people fell from scaffolding, only about a dozen were taken to a nearby hospital.

When police and firefighters arrived, they found some of the workers hanging from the scaffolding while others were up to their knees in wet concrete. Others were struggling desperately with shovels to dig their co-workers out.

Its kind of like quicksand, McWhorter said, adding that the on-site construction workers did a great job, along with our members, in assisting those who were trapped.

Some workers were taken to the hospital as a precaution, while most of the injuries were bruises and back strains, he added.

But the frightening accident could easily have turned deadly. Workers were pouring wet concrete to build the second floor of what was to become a parking garage when part of the structure at the large construction site collapsed around them, McWhorter said.

No one was underneath the collapse; everyone who was trapped had fallen 10 to 15 feet from above.

We dont know exactly what caused this to happen, McWhorter said. The concrete is still wet. You can see on my boots.

Construction and fire crews used planks and plywood so they could reach the trapped workers without becoming submerged.

Joe Abraham, the 70-year-old owner of nearby American Auto Upholstery & Glass, heard the collapse.

It dropped twice like a bomb  Boom! Boom!  and it was loud, he said.

Abraham walked out and saw workers coming down from the roof and emergency personnel arriving.

Ezaud Duran, safety inspector for Cen Cal Plastering, said he was working at the other end of the site when he heard a sound like a boom, followed by people screaming.

He ran to the collapse and saw a scene of panic, with workers mired in knee-high wet concrete.

It appeared the poles supporting a platform had collapsed, plunging the men to the ground, Duran said.

With construction halted for at least one day, workers had time to think about the disaster that could have been.

Nearly 20 loitered in front of the site near Webster Medical Plaza. Some talked quietly in a small group, hands jammed in their pockets, while others sat on the street curb.

Two men walked out of the construction site, one with his arm bandaged and his face slightly dirtied. Another worker pulled off his sweatshirt, offering it to the injured man and helping him put it on over his bandaged arm.

As the pair joined the huddle of workers, the others circled the two men, hugging them and slapping their backs.

A worker at a Webster Medical Plaza cafe, who asked to be identified only as Randy, said he was standing outside the construction site with some workers when he heard a crashing sound.

He turned toward the noise, just in time to see the floor drop. The workers around him took off running toward the site.

All the guys started running to find out whos OK and whos not, Randy said.

Randy said he ran back into his store, grabbed his cell phone and called 911 as he raced back to the site.

There were guys hanging from the metal, Randy said. There were guys trapped in the concrete that fell, buried in the concrete. It was like quicksand trapping them in there.

Inspectors from Cal/OSHA, the states workplace safety regulator, and a building engineer from the city of Oakland were at the site shortly after the accident.

The state inspectors will be looking at the scene, talking to witnesses, speaking with the contractors and looking at safety plans and such, said Peter Melton, a Cal/OSHA spokesman in Oakland.

Largo Concrete, a subcontractor on the project, has had four accident investigations in the past five years, with three citations issued by Cal/OSHA for minor violations.

The Orange County companys lone, serious, state violation in that period came in April 2015 during routine inspection of a work site at 28901 Mission Blvd. in Hayward. The company was cited for having uncapped rebar and fined $6,385.

The Oakland construction area is on Auto Row, south of Interstate 580 and north of downtown and Lake Merritt.

The development, at the site of a former Chevy dealership, is one of the biggest housing projects in Oakland amid a building boom. The developer, CityView, is headed up by Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The seven-story building is slated to include 435 apartments and 24,000 square feet of retail space, as well as 472 parking stalls on the first and second floors, and 266 bicycle parking spaces. The design calls for five stories of wood-frame construction over two stories of concrete.

The corner of the building, which is preserved as a historical Chevy showroom, is being integrated into the new structure.

The project, which is slated to include a restaurant, is due to open in early 2018.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers J.K. Dineen, Hamed Aleaziz and John Wildermuth contributed to this report.
The Turkish delegation will hold talks with the Russian agriculture watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor) on June 13 in Moscow, the parties will discuss veterinary and phytosanitary issues, the regulator said in a statement, TASS reported.

"According to the preliminary agreement, on June 13, on the first day of the visit, the Rosselkhoznadzor will hold talks with the Turkish party in Moscow to discuss the most relevant aspects cooperation in the field of veterinary and phytosanitary," the report said.

After the meeting, the Turkish inspectors will inspect Russian meat production enterprises located in the Bryansk, Orenburg and Moscow regions.

Earlier, Russias Agriculture Minister Alexander Tkachev told TASS that lifting of the embargo on the supply of Turkish vegetables should be discussed simultaneously with the removal of restrictions on dairy and meat products from Russia.

On May 3, 2017, presidents of Russian and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed to cancel a range of restrictive measures on almost all positions, excluding tomatoes.
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For the past three years, CodeREV Kids, a summer camp dedicated to teaching youth about coding and other technology fields, has grown to more than 10 locations. The rapid growth is a direct result of an increase in demand for these skills, said Bryan Curran, director of operations.

The CodeREV Kids curriculum, developed with the help of professors at Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, is project based so students are able to engage with the lessons and explore their own creativity, Curran said. Campers are able to take home their work via email or Google Drive to share with family and friends or continue working on projects at home.

He added that no prior tech experience is necessary and students can pick and choose what they study if they attend multiple weeks.

Even if they just have a passive interest in technology, this is a great way for them to jump in and get their feet wet, Curran said. And with a lot to choose from, they can decide what subsection peaks their interest most.

CodeREV Kids was founded by Evan Boorman, a STEM teacher with more than 14 years of experience teaching students who both excel and struggle with STEM concepts. By learning coding, technology and robotics, students will begin to see how math and engineering can be used to build fun and useful things.

Camp groups have a 8-1 student-teacher ratio, but Curran said most are smaller, which allows campers to go more in-depth with what theyre learning. And the curriculum changes each week, so if campers only want to do the code-focused camp, they wont be repeating material.

Most kids do a bunch of different courses, but weve also had some kids do one the entire summer but there are different challenges and options each week, Curran said.

In addition to classroom work, campers will spend some of the day outdoors participating in games designed to exercise the body and mind while building social-emotional skills. Games include reverse tag, obstacle courses, capture the flag and freeze dance.

Courses for summer 2017 are organized into four tracks  game design, programming, engineering and creative. Within those categories are several weeklong classes, including video game development, adventures in programming, REV robotics and 3D modeling among others.

These are all skills students will need as they enter the workforce, Curran said. Staff and instructors are experts in the fields they are teaching and Curran said many of them lead spring break and after school classes so they are equipped to teach tech concepts to children using easily digestible but relevant curriculum.

Tech is the fastest growing job sector on the market right now and with parents thinking about the future of their children's careers, even those who arent tech focused, are going to need these skills, he said. Theyre going to need to morph and adopt as technology changes  [so] its really important for children to get their hands on these experiences from a young age.

But more than anything, Curran said he hopes students enjoy camp.

I want them to know theyre going to have a super awesome time this summer. We have a blast, he said.

The camps for ages 6 to 16 and they run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. They start at $545 per week. Partial scholarships are available to students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and are awarded on a first come, first served basis.

CodeREV Kids

Bay Area locations include two in San Francisco, one in Mountain View and another in San Jose. To register or for more information visit coderevkids.com.
MINYA, Egypt - Masked militants in military-style uniforms opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt on Friday, killing at least 28 people in the latest bloodshed targeting the country's Christian minority, officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the Islamic State has claimed links to previous attacks against Egypt's Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population.

The massacre took place on the eve of Islam's holy month of Ramadan, a time when some militant factions have stepped up attacks in the past.

The ambush - in the Minya region about 150 miles south of Cairo - underscored the increasing pressures on Egyptian forces as Islamist militants gain greater footholds around the country, undercutting Egypt's vital tourism industry and forcing greater security for Coptic Christians and others targeted by militants.

The Minya governor, Maj. Gen. Essam el-Bedewey, said at least 28 people were killed and at least 25 were wounded when the attackers fired on the bus heading for the St. Samuel Monastery, one of several pilgrimage sites in an area that is home to a large portion of Egypt's Christian population. Among the dead were two small girls, 2 and 4 years old, local officials said.

A member of the region's security department, Maj. Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, told reporters that about 10 men wearing military-style gear carried out the attack.

The attack spurred global condemnations, and Egyptian warplanes retaliated by striking militant bases in eastern Libya after President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi warned in a televised address that training camps for terrorists who attack Egypt would be hit regardless of where they are. The planes targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the eastern Libyan city of Darna, where local militias have been linked to al-Qaida rather than the Islamic State, the Associated Press reported.

Sissi also appealed to President Donald Trump to lead the fight against terrorism. "I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task," the Egyptian leader said.

Trump, attending a Group of Seven summit in Italy, denounced the "merciless slaughter of Christians" and called on nations to come together to fight "evil organizations of terror" and their "thuggish ideology."

Pope Francis said he was "deeply saddened" by what he called a "barbaric attack" and a "senseless act of hatred."

Israel joined the condemnation, as did its two main enemies in the region: Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militant group and the Islamist Hamas group that runs the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah denounced "terrorism that takes religion as a cover," while Hamas called the bus attack "an ugly crime."

The victims included Gerges Mahrous, a 25-year-old accountant, and his brother, Kirolos Mahrous, an 18-year-old high school student who were on their way to pray at the monastery, family members said after identifying their bodies at a local hospital.

"Why?" screamed their cousin, Amal Fares. "What have they done? Kirolos was just telling me he wanted to become a cardiologist and treat the people for free. An accountant and an honor student - what is their sin?"

An uncle, Fares Ishak, 70, said that according to survivors, the attackers demanded that the victims recite the shahada Islamic creed. His nephews "refused to give up on their faiths and died Christians," he said.

Another cousin, Sama Malak, 15, angrily demanded justice. "No matter how strongly we condemn this and regardless of how much we speak out or even scream, nothing changes," she said, citing previous attacks on Christians. "It is heart wrenching. We were shopping for dresses to attend Gerges's wedding. Now we are wearing black to mourn him."

Egyptian Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, the country's top Islamic authority, condemned what he called "the disgusting terrorist operation that was carried out by extremists against our Christian brethren." He quoted the prophet Muhammad as having declared: "Whoever harms a person of the covenant [a non-Muslim of a Muslim territory], I am his adversary, and I will be his adversary on the Day of Judgment."

Last month, twin bomb blasts rocked churches in the Mediterranean port of Alexandria and the northern city of Tanta, leaving 44 dead and prompting Sissi, to declare a state of emergency.

After the latest attack, the Egyptian president called an emergency meeting of security officials, state-run media reported.

In late April, Pope Francis visited Egypt as part of Vatican outreach to Egypt's embattled Christians, whose community dates back to the early centuries of the faith. But the papal trip also brought denunciations from Islamist militants and warnings of further reprisals.

In December, a bomb hit the main cathedral in Cairo, killing 25 people as part of what is being described as a new strategy by the Islamic State to target Christians.

Christians have been generally supportive of Sissi's military-backed government, but have become increasingly critical of the inability of the country's security forces to protect their places of worship.

"The state is doing its best, but we need more efforts," Minya's Coptic Bishop Makarios told The Washington Post. "They [security forces] are always present and on guard after the attack takes place, and keep their security measures tightened for a short while after. . . . What we need is real effort exerted to ensure this is not repeated, not just solidarity and compassion."

---

The Washington Post's William Branigin and Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.

- - -

Video: Gunmen attack bus carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt

Gunmen left at least 28 people dead after attacking a bus in the Minya region of Egypt on May 26. (Sarah Parnass, Julio Negron,Heba Farouk Mahfouz / The Washington Post)

Short URL: http://wapo.st/2rGCxd8

Embed code: <iframe width="480" height="290" scrolling="no" src="//www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/c55ff278-422b-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
JUBA , South Sudan - The last batch of Ground Self-Defense Force troops departed South Sudan's capital of Juba on Thursday, where the about 350-member 11th Engineer Unit had been taking part in a U.N. peacekeeping operation.

The about 40-member team are scheduled to arrive at Aomori Airport on Saturday. It became the first unit to be assigned the task of "kaketsuke keigo" (rescue missions) based on security-related laws, but did not carry out such missions.
Indonesian lawmakers should expedite the passage of revised anti-terrorism laws that give police more power, President Joko Widodo said after twin suicide attacks in the capital this week killed three policemen.

Authorities in the Southeast Asian nation have linked the explosions on Wednesday at a busy east Jakarta bus terminal to militants connected to Islamic State. Widodo, known as Jokowi, said in a statement late Thursday he ordered one of his Cabinet members to "soon finish" the revision of the anti-terrorism law.
Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.

The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the president was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, though it did not name Kushner.

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.

The Post has not been told that Kushner is a target - or the central focus - of the investigation, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. "Target" is a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect of investigators' attention, though prosecutors can and do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry," said Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys.

In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are also looking broadly into possible financial crimes - but the people familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly, did not specify who or what was being examined.

Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said, "I can't confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or subjects of investigations." The FBI declined to comment.

At the time of the December meetings, Trump already had won the election. Contacts between people on the transition team and foreign governments can be routine, but the meetings and phone calls with the Russians were not made public at the time.

In early December, Kushner met in New York with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak. Flynn was also present at the early-December meeting, and later that month, Flynn held a call with Kislyak to discuss U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia. Flynn initially mischaracterized the conversation, even to Vice President Mike Pence - ultimately prompting his ouster from the White House.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In addition to the December meetings, a former senior intelligence official said FBI agents had been looking closely at earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians dating to the spring of 2016, including one at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Kushner and Kislyak - along with close Trump adviser and current attorney general Jeff Sessions - were present at an April 2016 event at the Mayflower where then-candidate Trump promised in a speech to seek better relations with Russia. It is unclear whether Kushner and Kislyak interacted there.

The New York Times reported that Kushner omitted from security-clearance forms his December meetings with Kislyak and Gorkov, though his attorney said that was mere error and he told the FBI soon after that he would amend the forms. The White House said that his meetings were normal and inconsequential.

Kushner has agreed to discuss his Russian contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In many ways, Kushner is a unique figure inside the White House.

He is arguably the president's most trusted adviser, and he is also a close member of the president's family. His list of policy responsibilities is vast - his foreign policy portfolio alone includes Canada and Mexico, China, and peace in the Middle East - yet he rarely speaks publicly about any of them.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller III is now leading the probe into possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, and he has set up shop in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown District of Columbia. Even before he was picked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to take over the case, investigators had been stepping up their efforts - issuing subpoenas and looking to conduct interviews, people familiar with the matter said.

A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was recently notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing.

It is unclear exactly how Mueller's leadership will affect the direction of the probe. This week, Justice Department ethics experts cleared him to take over the case even though lawyers at his former firm, WilmerHale, represent several people who could be caught up in the matter, including Kushner, Manafort and Trump's daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner.

Mueller resigned from the firm to take over the investigation.

Investigators are continuing to look aggressively into the dealings of Flynn, and a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, recently issued a subpoenas for records related to Flynn's businesses and finances, according to people familiar with the matter.

Flynn's company, the Flynn Intel Group, was paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkey's president claims was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.

Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagon's top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.

- - -

Video: Jared Kushner is now a focus in the Russia investigation

Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation. The Post's Matt Zapotosky explains the development. (The Washington Post)

Short URL: http://wapo.st/2qhFyk8

Embed code: <iframe width="480" height="290" scrolling="no" src="//www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/df778220-418b-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
A 30-year-old Troy man who was shot in the chest breaking into a home in Marine was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison.

Prosecutors alleged that Brandon E. Switzer had broken into the home shortly after midnight on Nov. 20, 2015.

The homeowner called 9-1-1 to report that the man had broken into his home in the 11000 block of Mayer Road in Marine, according to an earlier news release from the Madison County Sheriffs Office.

Deputies arrived to find Switzer lying in the grass behind the home, which is in the unincorporated area east of Marine.

Switzer was conscious and had what appeared to be a single gunshot wound to the chest, according to the release.

He was taken to a local hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

The homeowner told deputies that he had been awakened by the sounds of someone trying to force open the rear door of his home. He picked up his gun and warned the man to leave, according to the news release.

The man reportedly ignored the warning and broke out the glass door in an attempt to enter the home, the news release stated. In response, the homeowner said he fired one shot at the intruder and called 9-1-1.

The deputies soon discovered that a home nearby had also been burglarized. They discovered that the inside of the home had been damaged as well as the attached garage.

After his release from the hospital, Switzer was taken to the Madison County Jail and held on $200,000 bond.

The Madison County States Attorneys Office charged Switzer with two counts of residential burglary and one count of theft under $500 for stealing a wallet.

He was also charged with two counts of criminal damage to property.

One of the charges alleged that he caused more than $300 worth of damage to a glass patio door and speaker, and the other alleged that he caused the same amount of damage to windows and doors on a 2012 Chevy Impala.
ISTANBUL - Airstrikes on an Islamic State-held town in eastern Syria have killed dozens of civilians, monitoring groups said Friday, notably in an alleged raid on a building that housed family members of the extremist fighters.

The strikes on Mayadin, which took place Thursday evening and early Friday, were carried out by aircraft that locals identified as being from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said coalition forces conducted airstrikes in the area in Deir al-Zour province May 25 and 26.

"We are still assessing the results of those strikes," Davis said. "We take all allegations of civilian casualties seriously."

If confirmed as coalition airstrikes, the bombardment in Mayadin would mark the latest in a string of U.S.-led attacks that have killed perhaps hundreds of civilians in Iraq and Syria in recent months.

The Pentagon on Thursday released an unclassified summary of its own investigation into a deadly raid on a residential building in the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Islamic State fighters are holed up and battling Iraqi forces. The U.S. Central Command acknowledged that a U.S. strike killed more than 100 civilians there, but it blamed the high death toll on secondary explosions from Islamic State weapons stored in the area.

The United States has carried out more than 8,500 strikes in Syria since 2014, according to the Pentagon. An additional 8,700 U.S. strikes have been conducted in Iraq. Islamic State fighters are based in parts of the two countries, where they declared an Islamic "caliphate" in 2014.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, "we are now seeing the emergence of clear trends," said Chris Woods, director of Airwars, a group that tracks coalition strikes in Iraq and Syria. "We are seeing high civilian casualties where six months ago we would not. This is the clearest evidence yet that protections for civilians on the battlefield appear to have been scaled back."

In a statement Friday, United Nations human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein urged all air forces operating in Syria "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

"The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by [the Islamic State] are also falling victim to the escalating airstrikes," he said. "The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Deir al-Zour and Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks."

Civilian casualties have risen as fighting has intensified ahead of a U.S.-backed assault on the Islamic State's de facto capital in Raqqa in northern Syria. There, the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by ethnic Kurdish commanders, are spearheading a ground offensive on the city with the help of U.S. advisers.

Mayadin, an unremarkable but strategic city in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir al-Zour, is roughly 100 miles from Raqqa and lies along Syria's fertile Euphrates River basin. Most of that area is under the control of the Islamic State. The group - also known as ISIS and, in Arabic, Daesh - captured Mayadin from more moderate Syrian rebel forces in 2014.

According to the Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of local contacts to track the Syrian civil war, the first strikes took place Thursday evening at 7:25 p.m. Two reconnaissance aircraft and two warplanes flew over the city before the latter fired four missiles at the town. Two reportedly struck the Dahmoush building, where displaced family members of Islamic State fighters from elsewhere in Syria were staying. The monitoring group said 42 children were among the dead, but that figure could not be corroborated with other activists or sources in the area.

Then, early Friday, the warplanes returned and struck the municipal building, the local power company and the blood bank. At least 10 Islamic State fighters were killed, the Observatory said.

A separate local monitoring group said it dispatched a fact-finder to assess the aftermath of the strikes in Mayadin but that Islamic State fighters had blocked the entrances to the city. The activist group said the strikes took place in the Souk al-Mokhales and Saraya areas of Mayadin. Another strike hit a market, according to local media operated by rebel-linked activists, and a separate missile reportedly landed between two hospitals.

The U.S. Central Command on Friday listed five strikes in Deir al-Zour, which it said destroyed "a command and control node, and an ISIS headquarters."

Some analysts have said the Islamic State has moved family members and some assets to Mayadin as the U.S. ramps up pressure on the group in Raqqa.

Also Friday, the Central Command said that coalition strikes in Mayadin on April 27 and May 11 killed two Islamic State commanders involved in planning the group's attacks abroad.

The commanders were identified as Mustafa Gunes, a Turkish national, and Abu Asim al-Jazaeri, a French-Algerian fighter. In April, the U.S. military said Special Operations commandos killed a senior Islamic State commander, Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, in a raid in Mayadin.

The aerial bombardments have been "unusually intense in the last two weeks" around Mayadin and other areas of Deir al-Zour, said Omar Abu Leila, the Germany-based editor of Deir Ezzor 24, a local independent news outlet.

Mayadin is currently home to tens of thousands of displaced Syrians, including civilians, according to Abu Leila and international rights groups.

Both the locals and the displaced "are all deathly afraid now" of the airstrikes and rising violence in the area, he said. "The airstrikes come so suddenly . . . and people even get kicked out of places to make room for the families of Islamic State fighters."

But "it's all the same now," he said. "The Russians, the international coalition and Daesh. The situation is extremely tense."

---

The Washington Post's Heba Habib in Stockholm and Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans plan to return from a week-long holiday recess with a partial draft of a bill to reshape the nation's health-care laws. But significant and persistent divisions in their ranks have cast the prospect of passing legislation into serious doubt after weeks of discussion.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his top deputies have bluntly voiced uncertainty about how they will round up the 50 votes needed to pass a bill. And they have declined to give details about their emerging measure, which is expected to look different from a House-passed bill that has drawn criticism from some Republicans who say it went too far in undoing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"I think people's staff will start putting together some language we can look at when we return," said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican. But he said, "There is no final agreement yet."

Others were less diplomatic about the disharmony in the effort to fulfill one of the GOP's signature campaign promises. The biggest issues yet to be resolved, according to Republican senators, include how expansively the federal government should fund Medicaid, whether to enable states to avoid key ACA regulations and how to structure tax credits to replace federal insurance subsides offered under the current law.

"We're having meetings, discussions about it to the point of utter boredom every lunch that we have," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "So I think they're trying to build consensus and there isn't consensus yet."

McConnell and the top Republicans on three committees are expected to work with staff to take the lead on crafting the measure, GOP aides said.

But what their final product will look like and when it will be ready for a vote were up in the air as senators dispersed to their home states for the one-week Memorial Day recess Thursday. With just a 52-to-48 advantage over Democrats, Republicans can afford only two defections. McConnell told Reuters this week "I don't know how" to get to 50 votes. And Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune of South Dakota offered a less than confident, "I hope so," when asked if Republicans can get to 50.

"We need to establish firmly what our goals are," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who has introduced a health-care proposal with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "It is a little nebulous."

Despite McConnell's public push to distinguish the Senate health-care effort from the secretive House process by focusing recent Republican lunches on health care and meeting with a smaller group of senators to discuss it, some critics say he is repeating the lower chamber's mistake of crafting the bill too privately.

"It's one way to go forward," Collins said. "I think it's always helpful to have some public hearings and bring in some experts."

Cassidy was among the Republican senators who attended a Senate GOP health-care working group meeting Thursday. The ideologically diverse group of senators, which meets twice a week and has grown to more than 13, was designed as a testing ground for ideas and a way to educate lawmakers about the intricacies of writing a health-care bill.

"We have not seen senators coming out to the press and drawing lines in the sand and saying if A, B and C aren't in the bill then I'm out," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of the group's founders. "You have a whole bunch of senators doing that. That breaks the process down quickly."

Even without such pronouncements, however, the wide gaps in policy and politics among Republican senators have become apparent.

One area of disagreement is the question of whether to allow states to opt out of some ACA regulations, such as the requirement that insurers cover people with preexisting medical conditions and do not charge them more than healthy individuals. The House bill allows this.

Cruz said he wants to give states more flexibility in lifting some ACA requirements on insurers to give people access to cheaper, leaner plans. But Cassidy expressed concerns that state waivers will translate into fewer benefits and trouble for those with preexisting conditions.

The House bill has come under renewed scrutiny following a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis released this week that showed it would leave 23 million more Americans uninsured by 2026 than under current law and would force some less healthy individuals to pay more for coverage.

Even though Senate Republicans are writing their own bill, the House bill is still relevant to their task. A key question they face is whether all of the elements of the House measure are compatible with the procedural maneuver known as budget reconciliation, which they have opted to use to avoid having to clear a 60-vote threshold. Instead, they will need only a simple majority.

Democrats have raised some doubts about the House bill's compatibility with reconciliation rules. The nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian will review the bill and is likely to rule that parts of it, such as its repeal of some ACA insurer regulations, for example, must be stripped because they don't affect federal spending directly enough.

The review process will also inform senators about what they can fit into their own measure. So will the projected deficit reduction of the House bill: $119 billion over a decade.

Medicaid and tax credits are the two other contentious topics with which senators are wrestling. Some Republican senators from states that accepted the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA have been pushing for a lighter touch on the program than the House bill would deliver and more generous tax credits so fewer people would lose coverage.

But a trio of conservative senators, Cruz, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have indicated a discomfort with the House bill for not pulling back harder on the ACA.

The House bill would cut $880 billion from Medicaid during the next decade, which provides coverage for low-income Americans and helps pay for long-term care for people with disabilities and seniors. It would also phase out the Obamacare-era expansion of the program in 2020 and change the way it disburses coverage payments.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, whose state expanded Medicaid, said this week that he continues to push for a more gradual "glide path" phaseout of the program as well as protections for people battling opioid addiction.

"I believe there is a way to provide for a mechanism to help people who are currently getting coverage on Medicaid expansion," said Portman.

"How they handle Medicaid certainly is an issue for me," said Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., whose state also expanded Medicaid.

Democrats have united against the Republican push to repeal and replace parts of the ACA. McConnell is not counting on winning a single crossover vote.

For some Republicans, that's problematic.

"A Republican plan to replace a Democratic plan is not what the country needs," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C. "We need a bipartisan plan."

Even if Republican senators come up with legislation capable of winning enough support from their own ranks, they must obtain yet another CBO score and a thumbs-up from the parliamentarian before holding a vote on it.

All of that would take several weeks, at a minimum, making it a challenge for the Senate to vote on anything before lawmakers leave town for August recess.

Asked whether there might be a health-care vote before that time, McCain responded: "Damned if I know."

"But I know this," he added. "Time is not on our side."
The number of Christians killed in an armed attack on buses carrying pilgrims in Upper Egypts Minya governorate has risen to 28, with 23 injured, the governor announced on Friday afternoon.

In a phone call interview with local satellite channel ONTV live on Friday afternoon, Minya's governor, Essam El-Bedewy, announced the new death toll, adding that seven of the victims were from El-Minya while the other 21 were from Beni Suef governroate.

Shortly after, Egypt's health ministry confirmed that the death toll had risen to 28.

The interior ministry said in an official statement that unknown assailants driving three 4x4 wheelers attacked by "firing randomly" at the bus carrying Coptic citizens.

The ministry added that an official count of the final death and injuries toll was underway.

A cordon was imposed around the site of the attack, with security forces intensifying efforts to catch the culprits, according to the statement.

The ages of the victims ranged from children to over 60, the bishop of Minya told Egyptian privately owned TV Channel DMC. Many victims were children, and only three children survived the attack, a source from the church told Al-Ahram.

The bishop added that the vehicles attacked included a minibus and two cars.

Fifteen of the injured were transferred from Maghagha Central Hospital in Minya to Maahad Nasser Hospital in Cairo, sources at Minya's ambulance service told MENA.

The bishop of Maghagha and Adwa in Minya, Bishop Agathon, said that the funeral service for the victims of the attack will be held tonight at the Monastery of Garmous in Maghagha.

"We are in pain over violence and evil, Egypts Coptic Orthodox Church said in a statement on Friday afternoon, adding that it was suffering "with the whole nation over the violence and evil that targets the heart of Egypt and our national unity.

While we appreciate the fast response by officials in dealing with the event, we hope that necessary procedures are undertaken to avoid such attacks, which damage Egypts image and cause Egyptians a great deal of pain, the statement added.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called for an emergency security meeting to follow up on the attacks.

In a statement from the presidency, El-Sisi also instructed authorities to take all necessary measures to attend to the injured and arrest the assailants.

Egypt's Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek has ordered an extensive investigation to arrest the attackers, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported.

The prime minister and the ministers of health and social solidarity are heading to the attack scene in Minya.

Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb condemned the attack while on a visit to Berlin, saying that "such attacks can never satisfy a Muslim or a Christian."

Arab and western countries have denounced the attack, expressing their solidarity with Egypt against terrorism.

No group has yet claimed the Minya attack, which is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypts Christians.

On 9 April, two suicide bombers targeted St George's Church in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing and injuring dozens in the deadliest attack against civilians in the country's recent history. A total of 29 people died in the Tanta explosion and 18 in Alexandria.

Egyptian authorities said they have identified the two suicide bombers and the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks.

Cairo imposed a nationwide three-month state of emergency after the bombings, with the option to extend for another three months dependent on a parliament vote.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.

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Seventh grader Lizeth Villanueva has been in her school's academic honors program for two years. She gets good grades and has never been a discipline problem. Yet on Tuesday, her teacher gave her a "most likely to become a terrorist" award.

It was supposed to be a joke, part of a mock end-of-the-year awards ceremony at Anthony Aguirre Junior High in Channelview, Texas, near Houston, where a group of teachers hand certificates to students. Lizeth, 13, said her teacher "just laughed" when she signed and handed her the certificate, just one day after the Manchester arena terrorist attack in Britain.

But Lizeth's mother Ena Hernandez didn't find the award funny at all.

"I was upset and very mad when I saw the award," Hernandez told The Washington Post. "I was surprised because my daughter has been doing well in the honors program."

Lizeth, who is Salvadoran American, wasn't laughing either. Her emotion was one of shock, she said.

She said two honors classes were brought together for the fake ceremony. Other awards included "most likely to cry for every little thing" that was given to a girl and "most likely to become homeless" that was presented to a boy.

The three other teachers in the room laughed when the awards were handed out, according to Lizeth.

Channelview Independent School District spokesman Mark Kramer told KPRC the awards were a "poor attempt to poke fun and it "wasn't well thought out."

Ena Hernandez said the principal Eric Lathan personally apologized during a meeting at the school.

In a statement the school district said:

"The Channelview ISD Administration would like to apologize for the insensitive and offensive fake mock awards that were given to students in a classroom. Channelview ISD would like to assure all students, parents and community members that these award statements and ideals are not representative of the district's vision, mission and educational goals for our students.

"The teachers involved in this matter have been disciplined according to district policy and the incident is still under investigation."

Hernandez says she wants them fired or else "they will continue doing the same thing."

Lizeth hasn't been back to school because she "feels uncomfortable."
So now President Donald Trump has completed his trip to the Middle East. The Saudi royals treated him to gifts and flattery, and he responded by selling them weapons and praising their dictatorship. Then he went to Israel, where he gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu everything he could have wished for.

This all marked a bit of a departure from the policies of President Barack Obama, who wasn't on the best of terms with either Riyadh or Tel Aviv. But in the larger scheme of things, Obama never really broke with the decades-old pattern of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East. He squabbled with Netanyahu, and he said a few things about democracy that made our Arab allies nervous.

Yet Israel, relying on its deep networks of support outside the White House, just went on doing what it wanted. The Saudi regime expressed its unhappiness with Obama's sermons, but ultimately life went on. The oil continued to flow. The kingdom went on exporting its unwanted jihadists and its own virulent teachings about Islam. The torturers and the secret policemen went about their work.

So even if Trump's visit was billed as a dramatic new start, it was really just a lazy reprise of long-established policies - exactly the policies, in fact, that have helped to perpetuate corrupt dictatorships, endless vendettas and simmering dysfunction throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Trump's trip should have at least hinted at a different future for the region. Instead it merely rehashed the past.

If Trump continues this course, it will be a tragedy of colossal proportions. History has given Trump a fantastic opportunity to send a positive signal to a region drained of hope. And he could do it without threatening established alliances, or drawing the United States into some new interventionist quagmire. By doing it, he could strike a huge blow to the Islamic State, al-Qaida and all their depraved ilk on the front that matters most: the political one.

The United States needs to help Tunisia, the lone success story of the Arab Spring. For the past six years the Tunisians have been stubbornly fighting to preserve their young democracy. In many respects, despite multiple elections and many rounds of reform, their revolution is still going on. But the obstacles - economic and political - are still huge. And so far Tunisia hasn't gotten anywhere near the support it deserves. The United States and the Europeans have both done far less than they could have.

For all its difficulties, Tunisia has an inspiring story to tell - not just to other Arabs but also the world at large. Yet who in the United States has ever heard anything about it? The U.S. president should declare his support for Tunisia's struggle, and he should visit it at the first possible opportunity. (Note to the homebody president: it's a lot closer than Saudi Arabia.)

On top of that, he should cajole the Europeans - who should be leading the charge on Tunisia but have been distracted by their own internal problems - to join the United States in devising an ambitious assistance program. (Tunisia is a small country, by the way, so "ambitious" actually means "not very large in the broader scheme of things." This is a place where a relatively small amount of help will go a long way.) As the Washington-based Atlantic Council noted in a policy paper last year, it's clear where the Tunisians need the most help: security, economic development and fostering democratic institutions. No nation-building is required. Tunisia already has robust state institutions, a politically engaged populace - and even a large cohort of determined and highly educated women.

Tunisians have made tremendous progress. Yet their experiment is teetering on the brink. The economy is stuck in the doldrums. Poverty and corruption fester. Youth unemployment is sky-high. Entrenched elites cling to power. Islamist extremistscapitalize on the growing discontent. For all its achievements, Tunisia has gained notoriety as a disproportionate source of foreign fighters in the Syrian civil war.

Yet just imagine the potential impact if the outside world could help Tunisians tackle these problems. An economic revival there would show that Arab countries can make their way in the world without floating on seas of oil. Anti-corruption programs could demonstrate how to tame one of the region's most corrosive ills. And continued democratization would offer a devastating reply to the Islamist militants who fear genuine "people power" more than anything else. As I've argued elsewhere, a successfully democratic Tunisia is the most effective non-military reply to the Islamic State that anyone could devise. And unlike the Saudi policy of perpetual repression, the Tunisian example would offer a chance to break the endless cycles of violence and radicalization.

The future of the Arab world doesn't lie in Saudi Arabia. It lies in Tunisia. Trump has a choice. He can go on siding with the governments that embody the failed policies of the past. Or he could try to send a signal for the future. He can still seize the chance.
Investigators are scrutinizing a series of meetings held by President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to people familiar with the investigation. Kushner joined the administration in early January to focus on Middle East policy and trade. He recently traveled with Trump on the president's first trip abroad.

Here's what you need to know about Kushner and the Russia investigation:

What are investigators looking into?

Law enforcement officials are examining Kushner's meetings in December with a Russian banker and the Russian ambassador. Both encounters have already been reported, but investigators are focused on the extent and nature of those meetings.

Kushner - along with former national security adviser Michael Flynn - met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak for about 20 minutes at Trump Tower in New York. The White House confirmed the meeting, saying "it made sense to establish a line of communication." Later that month, Flynn called the Russian ambassador to discuss the sanctions - a phone call that he lied about to Vice President Pence and that eventually led him to resign.

Kislyak requested a follow-up meeting with Kushner in December, but Kushner sent an aide in his place.

Kushner also met in December with Russian banker Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, a meeting that lasted for about 30 minutes. The bank was placed on the U.S. sanctions list after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Why is this significant?

Along with Flynn, the investigation into Russia's interference has also embroiled Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. But Kushner is the only White House official now connected to the investigation. He's also the closest to Trump and has been described as his confidant. During the campaign, Trump relied heavily on Kushner's advice.

Kushner also omitted mentioning his December contacts with the Russians when applying for top security clearance. The application requires an individual to disclose all recent contacts with foreign nationals. Kushner's lawyer called it an error and said the forms would be revised.

This week, CNN also reported that Sessions omitted his contacts with Russian officials from a security clearance form when he was preparing to serve as the attorney general. This was the same information Sessions left out during his confirmation hearing, which eventually led him to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Sessions met with Kislyak twice before Trump stepped into office.

What does this mean for Kushner?

To be clear, Kushner has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Also, The Washington Post has not been told that Kushner is a "target" of the investigation, a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect. However, prosecutors can and do bring charges against individuals who are not designated as targets.

Jamie Gorelick, one of Kushner's attorneys, said Kushner is willing to share what he knows.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry," Gorelick said.

Who else wants to know more about Kushner's Russia ties?

The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also conducting its own review into possible Russian meddling. Kushner agreed in March to testifyin front of lawmakers, who are gathering a list of witnesses and scheduling interviews.

"We expect him to be able to provide answers to key questions that have arisen in our inquiry," said Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va., in a joint statement.

The timing of the testimony has yet to be determined.

Meanwhile, the investigation has significantly expanded, with former FBI Director Robert Mueller III overseeing the probe as special counsel. Investigators are now "issuing subpoenas and looking to conduct interviews," The Post reports, and certain lawmakers have been notified about the change of pace.
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A 5-year-old Oregon child recently underwent surgery to remove a fidget spinner piece he swallowed.

Prior to the incident, 23-year-old Johely Morelos warned her child of the danger associated with the small toy and showed him the story of a 10-year-old Texas girl who lodged a fidget spinner piece in her throat.

"I showed him pictures and said, 'Never put that in your mouth,'" Morelos told Buzzfeed News. "I guess he didn't listen that well."

TOO FAR: A fidget spinner app is now the top free app in the App Store

After an unsuccessful visit to their local Albany hospital where doctors were unable to remove the piece, Morelos and her son Cayden were rushed by ambulance to a Portland hospital.

"It was super scary," said Morelos. "When they were putting a tube down his throat, he was throwing up blood. It was really scary for me to see he was in pain."

Cayden underwent a two hour surgery and woke up with a swollen lip and sore throat, which he quickly recovered from by the next day.

FINE DINING: A fidget spinner was confiscated in the kitchen of one of New York's top restaurants

Now, Morelos is pushing for a choking hazard warning along with Kids in Danger, a child safety advocacy group.

"Don't let your kid get a fidget spinner unless you absolutely think that they are responsible enough," wrote Morelos in a Facebook post warning her friends.

Click through above to see the most popular toys of the past three decades.
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A convicted child killer who is scheduled for release next year was indicted on a new murder charge Thursday by a Bexar County grand jury in the death of an infant in 1981.

Genene Jones, a former nurse at hospitals in San Antonio and Kerrville, is serving a 99-year sentence for killing Chelsea McClellan, who was 15 months old when she was given a fatal overdose of muscle relaxers in 1982.

Jones also was convicted in Bexar County of injury to a child/serious bodily injury and sentenced to 60 years in prison for giving an overdose to Rolando Santos in 1982. The infant, who was 4 weeks old, survived. The sentences are being served at the same time.

RELATED: Warrantless blood draw scuttles San Antonio man's conviction in fatal crash

In the new indictment, Jones is accused of giving a fatal dose of Dilantin, also known as phenytoin, to 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer on Dec. 12, 1981.

Jones, 66, is serving out her sentence at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Murray Unit in Gatesville. Because of a mandatory release law designed to prevent prison overcrowding, she is due for release in March, according to TDCJ.

In light of that, the grand jury went an extra step Thursday and issued an order setting bond at $1 million should she be released. Under the conditions, she would be under GPS monitoring with full house arrest and is ordered to have no contact with children under the age of 18, with any medical facility of any kind unless it is for her own care and with any child care facility.

Jones, dubbed the Angel of Death, has been eligible for parole before and was last denied in August 2014.

She worked in San Antonio at University Hospital, formerly Medical Center Hospital, in 1981 and 1982. Jones is suspected in the killings of at least 40 to 60 infants.

RELATED: 'It broke us': Father of accused sex offender fled S.A. after sexual abuse conviction

ezavala@express-news.net

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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As the largest planet orbiting the sun, Jupiter has a profound effect on our solar system.

But until recently, scientists have known little about Jupiters origins and structure. What they did know some might call boring  a gas planet that didnt vary much from pole to pole.

On Thursday, scientists unveiled the first in-depth science gathered by NASAs Juno mission, and it completely rewrites the Jupiter narrative. Turns out the planet is home to giant, swirling storms, has a magnetic field thats stronger than anyone imagined and has a core that scientists described as fuzzy.

We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves, said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. But now that we are here, we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckle balls and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didnt expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.

Southwest Research is leading the science investigation for the mission, providing two instruments to study the planets aurora and magnetic field. Bolton leads hundreds of scientists and engineers from five countries who have worked for more than a decade to get to this point.

The Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011 and completed its first flyby of Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Since then, its completed four more passes, traveling at mind-boggling speeds and passing just over the planets clouds.

Each flyby, which occurs about every 53 days, reveals new insight, scientists said Thursday.

For example, Bolton described how images of Jupiters previously unseen poles show a chaotic scene of bright oval features, very different from Saturns polar regions.

Time-lapse images from Juno reveal that the ovals are cyclones, some with diameters that are nearly 870 miles across.

The fact that there are a number of cyclones  its not something we expected to see, Bolton said.

A separate analysis has revealed that close to the planet, the magnetic field greatly exceeded scientists expectations. It has been measured at 7.766 Gauss, or roughly 10 times Earths magnetic field.

Already, we see that the magnetic field looks lumpy. It is stronger in some places and weaker in others, said Jack Connerney, Juno deputy principal investigator and the lead for the missions magnetic field investigation at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This uneven distribution suggests that the field might be generated by dynamo action closer to the surface, above the layer of metallic hydrogen. Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiters dynamo works.

Not only is the Juno mission yielding a treasure trove of science, the solar-powered craft appears to be holding up well to being exposed to the planets radiation and being pelted with specks of interplanetary dust traveling 10 times faster than a bullet.

Juno is very healthy, said Heidi Becker of NASAs Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. Its suit of armor is working.

Scientists said Thursday that they cant wait to unlock even more Jovian mysteries  the next flyby is scheduled for July 11. By the time the mission wraps up in 2018, Juno will have completed at least 32 passes of Jupiter.

kim.mcguire@chron.com
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons Child Exploitation Unit (CEU) nabbed the four men during a sex sting this week in Gregg County, just east of Tyler, a news release said Friday.

On Monday, CEU officials arrested 49-year-old Johnny K. Houston, of Gilmer, for a charge of online solicitation of a minor. He allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to someone he believed to be a 15-year-old boy and set up a time to meet to engage in sexual intercourse.
Border patrol agents on Thursday discovered over 44 pounds of cocaine hidden inside the toilet of a commercial passenger bus in South Texas.

According to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the bus was stopped at the Sarita checkpoint in Kingsville, Texas, where a K-9 unit alerted agents to possible narcotics on the bus.
Egypts interior ministry released details on the attack, saying in an official statement that unknown assailants driving three 4x4 wheelers attacked by "randomly shooting" the bus carrying Copts, killing 26 and injuring 25.

The ministry added that an official count of the final death and injuries toll was underway.

A cordon was imposed around the site of the attacks, with the security forces intensifying efforts to catch the culprits, according to the statement.

The Copts were heading to Upper Egypts Minya Monastery of Anba Samuel the Confessor, located at western Adwa City.

Fridays Minya attack is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypts Christians, following the Palm Sunday Suicide Bombings last April.

Egypt has had an imposed nationwide three-month state of emergency after the April bombings, with the option to extend for another three months dependent on a parliament vote.

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We appreciate the fast response by officials in dealing with the event, we hope that necessary procedures are undertaken to avoid such attacks, said a statement by the church

Egypts Coptic Orthodox Church said on Friday it was in pain over violence and evil, hours following an attack in Upper Egypt's Minya on a bus carrying Coptic Christians, which killed 26 people and injured others.

In an official statement, the church expressed its consolations to the families of the victims, adding that it was suffering "with the whole nation over the violence and evil that targets the heart of Egypt and our national unity, which is precious and which we strive to preserve and protect.

While we appreciate the fast response by officials in dealing with the event, we hope that necessary procedures are undertaken to avoid such attacks, which damage Egypts image and cause Egyptians a great deal of pain, the statement added.

This is the first official response by the Coptic Orthodox Church after unknown assailants on three 4x4 vehicles attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians on the way to Saint Samuel Monastery in the east of Minya governorate.

Egypts interior ministry released details on the attack, saying in an official statement that the assailants attacked by "randomly shooting" the bus.

The ministry added that an official count of the final deaths and injuries was underway.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypts Christians, following the Palm Sunday Suicide Bombings last April and a St Peter Church bombing in Cairo last December.

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Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: May 26 2017

Sonia Ponce Stole From Medicaid By Submitting False Timesheets And Forging Signatures For Services That Were Not Rendered.

New York, NY - May 26, 2017 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the sentencing of Sonia Ponce, 57, of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the sentencing of Sonia Ponce, 57, of Freeport , for stealing approximately $75,000 from Medicaid by causing claims to be filed with Medicaid that falsely stated that home-health care services were provided to two of her relatives by the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), a home-care program funded by Medicaid. In March 2017, Ponce pleaded guilty to Forgery in the Third Degree and Petit Larceny, both class A misdemeanors. Today, the Honorable Anthony Paradiso in Nassau County District Court sentenced Ponce to one week in jail, three years probation, 150 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.

Taxpayer funds meant to care for our sick and disabled should not be abused by those taking advantage of the system, Attorney General Schneiderman said. We will bring to justice those who defraud Medicaid and continue to protect the integrity of the system.

The defendant exploited benefits meant for her relatives who received home-care aide services provided by CDPAP. CDPAP allows a representative of a physically disabled person, often a relative, to assume full responsibility for their home care and recruit, hire, supervise and fire the personal aides providing the care. The investigation conducted by the Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) uncovered that Ponce used the personal identification numbers (PINS) of the aides to record them logging in and out of work at times when the aides werent working, including several days when the aides were out of the country.

Ponce also falsified the aides timesheets and submitted them to Recco Home Care Services, the CDPAP fiscal agent. On several occasions, Ponce picked up the aides paychecks from Recco, forged the aides signatures on their paychecks and cashed them. Ponce then used the cash to pay the aides for the work that they performed but kept the fraudulent portion of the check.

The Attorney General would like to thank the Nassau County Department of Social Services for referring this matter to the Office and for its assistance in conducting the investigation.

The investigation was conducted by MFCU Senior Auditor Investigator Gretchen Hugh and Investigator Stephen Clarke with assistance from Supervising Investigator Greg Muroff and Deputy Chief Investigator Kenneth Morgan. Kathleen Yoos is the Hauppauge Regional Chief Auditor.
SCPD: Teacher Arrested for Having an Inappropriate Relationship with 16-Year-Old Student

Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: May 26 2017

Brian Dreher, 41, of Huntington Station, was charged with Rape 3rd Degree, Criminal Sexual Act 3rd Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

SCPD have arrested Brian Dreher of Huntington Station, 41, a Walt Whitman High School teacher who had an inappropriate relationship with one of his students.

Syosset, NY - May 26, 2017 - Suffolk County Police have arrested a Walt Whitman High School teacher who had an inappropriate relationship with one of his students in Suffolk County Police have arrested a Walt Whitman High School teacher who had an inappropriate relationship with one of his students in Huntington Station

Special Victims Section detectives began an investigation into the conduct of a Walt Whitman High School teacher and discovered that he was having an inappropriate relationship with one of his 16-year-old female students. Detectives arrested Brian Dreher, 41, of Huntington Station, at his home on Thursday, May 25, 2017 at approximately 7:25 a.m.

Dreher, who teaches social studies at the school, located in Huntington Station, was charged with Rape 3rd Degree, Criminal Sexual Act 3rd Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact Special Victims at 631-852-6531.

Dreher will be held at the Seventh Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on May 26.
Tech & Science, Local News, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: May 26 2017

Attorney General Schneiderman had sued the Trump Department of Energy in April, charging that the Administration violated federal law.

New York, NY - May 26, 2017 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman issued the following statement on the Trump Administrations notice that it will end its delay of energy efficiency standards for ceiling fans that offer dramatic air pollution reductions, as well as energy- and cost-savings to consumers and businesses. Attorney General Schneiderman, leading a 11-member state and municipal coalition, had sued the Trump Department of Energy (DOE) in April, charging that the Administrations continued delay of the effective date of the rule violated federal law.

Im pleased that after suing the Trump Administration over their efforts to illegally block common sense energy efficiency standards, they have reversed course and agreed to put them into place. These measures are good for public health, our environment, and the pocketbooks of consumers. I will continue to use the full power of my office to fight back against the Trump Administrations attempts to rollback progress critical to the safety, health, and prosperity of New Yorkers.

On January 19, 2017, the DOE published new energy efficiency standards for ceiling fans as a final rule on January 19, 2017, with an effective date for the rule of March 20, 2017.

According to DOE estimates, these standards would combine to eliminate emissions of 132 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, 287 thousand tons of the pollution that creates soot and smog, 530 thousand tons of the potent climate change pollutant methane, and 400 pounds of highly-toxic mercury, over a 30-year period. Over this same period, the Appliance Standard Awareness Project estimates that the efficiency standards would save 200 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity  the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 17 million households. The DOE itself estimates that the standards would provide net savings to consumers and businesses of up to $12.1 billion.

Despite the overwhelming environmental and consumer benefits, the Trump Administration delayed the rules effective date twice  most recently pushing it back to September 30, 2017  asserting that stalling the standards was a non-substantive action, and that seeking public input on the delay would be impractical, unnecessary, and contrary to the public interest.

On April 3, 2017, Attorney General Schneiderman  joined by the Attorneys General of the states of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the City of New York  filed a lawsuit against DOE, charging that the delays in the effective date of the ceiling fan rule violated both the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. The suit was filed in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Yesterday, the DOE published a notice in the Federal Register ending the delay by confirming that the effective date of the energy efficiency standard for ceiling fans will be September 30, 2017.
Teen-aged jihadists attending the Cubs of the Caliphate program in Afghanistan. Abu Asim al-Jazaeri, who was killed in Syria on May 11, was a trainer in the same program.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced today that three senior foreign fighters in the Islamic State were killed near the Iraqi-Syrian border in recent weeks. Two of them, Mustafa Gunes and Abu Asim al-Jazaeri, were allegedly involved in planning attacks abroad. And the third, Abu-Khattab al-Rawi, helped oversee the jihadists drone program in western Iraq.

Both Gunes and al-Jazaeri were struck down near the city of Mayadin in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. The Islamic State has moved some of its leadership to Mayadin as it has lost ground elsewhere.

According to the US military, both Gunes and al-Jazaeri were part of the Islamic States external operations  that is, terrorist plotting outside of the jihadists battlefields  when they were bombed. Gunes was killed on Apr. 27, while al-Jazaeri perished in a separate airstrike on May 11.

CENTCOM describes Gunes as a Syria-based ISIS external operations facilitator from Turkey, who was identified as an ISIS recruiter in the central Turkish city of Konya. Gunes was linked to facilitating financial support for planning attacks outside Syria and Iraq against the West.

Jihadist networks have long operated in Turkeys Konya province. An al Qaeda facilitator who was killed in Idlib, Syria last year, and who was also reportedly plotting against the West, had operated in Konya in the past.

Al-Jazaeri, a French-Algerian, was an ISIS external operations planner as well. CENTCOM says al-Jazaeri was involved in training a new generation of ISIS youths, called the Cubs of the Caliphate, a high priority training program sanctioned by ISIS leadership.

The Islamic State has advertised its Cubs of the Caliphate training initiative. The effort is not confined to Iraq and Syria. It has been extended to the so-called caliphates provinces. For instance, in early 2016, the Islamic States Wilayah Khorasan (or Khorasan province) released a video of boys and adolescents being trained on light arms. The groups Cubs of the Caliphate Camp was likely located somewhere in Afghanistans eastern Nangarhar province, where the Wilayah Khorasan established its base of operations. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Islamic State joins others in training children for jihad in Afghanistan.]

It is not clear from CENTCOMs statement if al-Jazaeri was involved in the Cubs of the Caliphate program solely in Iraq and Syria, or elsewhere around the world as well.

The US has pointed to the role Islamic State leaders play in indoctrinating children after previous targeted killings. In March, a propagandist known as Ibrahim al-Ansari was killed in an airstrike in Al-Qaim, which is located in Iraqs Al Anbar province. US military officials said at the time that Al-Ansari was responsible for the brainwashing of young children to perpetuate ISISs brutal message. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Islamic State propagandist was brainwashing children, US military says.]

Mustafa Gunes and Abu Asim al-Jazaeri are not the only senior jihadists targeted in eastern Syria this year. In early April, a close associate of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi known as Abdurakhmon Uzbeki was also killed in a special operations raid near Mayadin. The US said Uzbeki played a key role in the groups external terror attack plotting and linked him to the New Years Eve massacre at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, US: Abu Bakr al Baghdadis close associate killed in special operations raid.]

The third Islamic State figure recently killed is Abu-Khattab al-Rawi. According to CENTCOM, al-Rawi was a senior ISIS military official and he died during an operation near Al-Qaim on May 18. Al-Rawi was killed along with three other terrorists. He was responsible for coordinating UAV operations and procurement in Al Anbar Province and provided direct support to ISIS leadership. The Islamic States jihadists have relied on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, to drop small bombs and perform surveillance on their enemies. The groups propaganda arms also utilize drones for overhead footage that is intended to dramatize the impact of suicide bombings and other operations.

The Islamic State released a photo of a martyr who used the same alias as Abu-Khattab al-Rawi on May 20. The group described him as a media brother, meaning he worked on propaganda. It is not clear if it was the same individual who was killed days earlier in Al-Qaim.

CENTCOM claims the deaths of these men  Gunes, al-Jazaeri, and al-Rawi  eliminates senior foreign fighters, who had extensive experience and training, and degrades ISISs ability to plan and conduct attacks on civilian targets in Iraq and Syria, as well throughout the region and in the West.

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Video purportedly showing the preparation of the military parade near Samara

Saraya al Salam (Peace Brigades), an Iraqi Shia militia led by powerful cleric Muqtada al Sadr, recently paraded its forces near the city of Samarra in Iraqs Salahadin province. The parade was meant to showcase the militias Rapid Intervention Brigade and its preparedness to be deployed in the region.

Last month, Saraya al Salam announced that a regiment of its Rapid Intervention Brigade (RIB) was being sent to Samarra, which sits north of Baghdad. Earlier this week, the militias Facebook page advertised a large-scale military parade for the brigade. The parade featured several tanks, rockets, mortars and a significant amount of ground troops. The RIB was estimated to have around 1,000 troops in its formation last year.

It is unclear if all the troops and vehicles belong to the Peace Brigades or if some are property of the Iraqi Army, however, the banners, patches, and flags on display indicate that the parade featured units belonging to the RIB exclusively.

Saraya al Salam is the current incarnation of the Mahdi Army, Sadrs militia that fought US forces in pitched battles in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq between 2004 and 2008. Sadr purportedly disbanded the Mahdi Army in the spring of 2008 after US forces battled the group in Baghdads sprawling neighborhood of Sadr City, and created the Promised Day Brigade. Saraya al Salam was formed in 2014 to combat the Islamic State as Iraqi forces in northern, central, and western Iraq disintegrated in its wake.

Last year, Sadr said that US troops in Iraq are a target for his militia. If the time comes and the proposed bill is passed, we will have no choice but to unfreeze the military wing that deals with the American entity so that it may start targeting American interests in Iraq and outside of Iraq when possible, Sadr said. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, US troops are a target for us, Iraqs Muqtada al Sadr says.]

Photos from the military parade:

Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
The Taliban launched another coordinated assault against Afghan military installations in the southern province of Kandahar today. At least one dozen Afghan soldiers are reported to have been killed in the fighting.

Security officials told TOLONews that 18 Afghan soldiers were killed, 16 were wounded, and four more were captured when Taliban fighters assaulted a base in the district of Shaw Wali Kot. Pajwhok Afghan News reported that hundreds [of] militants were involved in the attack.

In a statement released on its official propaganda website, Voice of Jihad, the Taliban confirmed it attacked a military base in Shah Wali Kot. Additionally, the group said it overran two of the three defensive check posts in the district, and claimed that 35 Afghan soldiers were killed and seven more were captured. The Taliban also claimed that it captured seven APCs, which likely are Humvees, and an assortment of weapons.

Last nights invasion is the latest in a string of assaults against Afghan military bases and security outposts in Kandahar over the past week. In the largest strike, on May 22 in Shaw Wali Kot, the Taliban claimed it killed 35 soldiers and overran a base. Afghan officials confirmed the base was overrun and said 11 soldiers were killed.

Additionally, the Taliban claimed it killed 40 more Afghan security personnel in attacks in Khakrez, Maiwand, Shorabak, and another operation in Shah Wali Kot. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Taliban assaults Afghan Army bases in Kandahar.]

The Taliban is successfully using its safe havens in the remote areas of Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Ghazni, and Zabul to sustain its recent offensives in northern Kandahar. US and Afghan officials have downplayed the Talibans control of remote areas and have described the far-flung districts as not important and less vital areas.

The Taliban disagrees, and have stated the remote districts under its control are the lifeblood of its insurgency. The Mujahideen have opened up operational lines between Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces and can throw its brunt at a time and place of its choosing, the group stated after its fighters took control of Sangin in neighboring Helmand province in March. [See FDDs Long War Journal reports, Taliban controls or contests 40 percent of Afghan districts: SIGAR and Capturing Sangin an important victory, Taliban says.]

The Taliban is making inroads into Kandahar province. As of March 26, the Taliban claimed it controls four of Kandahars 18 districts (Ghorak, Miyanashin, Registan, and Shorabak) and heavily contests five more (Arghastan, Khakrez, Maruf, Maiwand, and Shahwalikot). FDDs Long War Journal assesses the Talibans claim of control to be credible. Of the remaining nine districts, the Taliban says it does not control any specific area but only carryout guerilla [sic] attacks. If the Taliban was exaggerating its control in Kandahar, it likely would claim to control at least some areas of districts such as Panjwai and Zhari. Taliban founder and its first emir, Mullah Omar, founded the Taliban in Panjwai, and Zhari is considered the spiritual home of the group.

Kandahar is a strategic province for the Taliban, and is considered to be the birthplace of the group. The province borders Baluchistan, the Pakistani province that serves as the groups safe haven as well as a prime recruitment center. Kandahar is also a key to the production and distribution of opium, a major source of the Talibans income.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Akhtar Mohammad Khalil [center], the Pakistani Talibans commander for North Waziristan.

The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) has confirmed that the US killed two of its operatives in a drone strike in the tribal agency of North Waziristan earlier this week. The TTP announced today that it retaliated for the drone strike by attacking Pakistani forces.

The TTP wrote on its Telegram account that the US targeted companions of its emir for North Waziristan, commander Akhtar Muhammad Khalil, on May 24. Two of Khalils followers were killed in the attack. One of them was known as Abdullah, who was a great master in electronics.

According to the TTP, Khalil is still alive. When referencing Khalil, the TTP twice writes, may Allah safeguard him. The group said it would take revenge by assaulting Pakistani forces because the spies of the Pakistani apostate army  are actually American slaves  spying [on] the Mujahideen.

Then, the TTP followed up with a statement earlier today saying that it had executed two successive assaults in Waziristan against Pakistani forces. The TTP claimed it killed eight Pakistani soldiers in an IED blast and a subsequent ambush. The Pakistani military has not confirmed the death of its soldiers in North Waziristan.

Khalil, who has been featured in TTP propaganda in the past, was named the groups emir for North Waziristan in May 2016. He was responsible reconciling his North Waziristan faction with the TTPs hierarchy.

The US military has targeted Khalils forces in the past. In March, the TTP said that US drones killed Commander Yusuf Wazir, who was described as a very close and confidant companion of Khalil, in an operation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. It is unclear if Wazir was killed in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

In April, Pakistani officials claimed that US drones killed Khalil and an al Qaeda leader known as Abdul Raheem in North Waziristan. The strike took place in a compound owned by Khalil. The TTP denied that Khalil was killed and issued a statement claiming that it attacked Pakistani forces to avenge the strike.

Third strike reported in Pakistan this year

The May 24 strike is just the third bombing reported in Pakistan this year. It is also only the third since the US killed Afghan Taliban emir Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour in an airstrike in Baluchistan province in May 2016.

US drones reportedly killed two jihadists as they rode on a motorcycle in the tribal agency of Kurram on March 2. An Afghan Taliban commander known as Qari Abdullah Subari is thought to have been killed in the strike, according to Reuters. And on Apr. 29, US drones are believed to have killed al Qaeda commander Abdul Raheem.

Drone strikes in Pakistan have tapered off significantly since the peak of operations against al Qaedas leadership and allied jihadist groups in 2010, when 117 strikes were recorded. In 2015, the US launched just 11 attacks. In 2016, there were only three more, including the one targeting Mansour in May 2016, which was the final one for the year, the last of President Obamas second term.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Arab and western countries condemned on Friday an attack on Coptic Christians in Minya governorate in Egypt on Friday which killed 28 people and injured 25, according to the latest toll.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit condemned "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attack, expressing the league's "full solidarity" with Egypt against terrorism.

"The Arab League stresses the necessity of joint cooperation against terrorism," Aboul-Gheit was quoted as saying in a statement from the pan-Arab organisation.

Iraq's foreign ministry denounced the heinous terrorist attack in a statement, adding that Baghdad stands by the Egyptian people and government against all extremist and terrorist groups.

Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail received a call from his Jordanian counterpart, Hany Mulki, who expressed his condolences to Egypt for the terrorist attack of Minya Friday, MENA reported.

The Jordanian premier stressed his government's support for all of Egypts counterterrorism efforts, stressing the importance of collaboration to end this sinful phenomena.

Tunisia's foreign ministy expressed condolences and wishes for the swift recovery of the victims, Al-Ahram's correspondent in Tunis reported, and expressed Tunisia's full solidarity with the Egyptian people, and support for the measures the Egyptian government takes in confronting terrorism.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has also strongly condemned the attack; its secretary-general, Yusuf bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen said in a statement that "this terrorist act will only increase Egyptian unity and consolidation in fighting terrorism which violates the principles of Islam and all religions, and aims at terrorising innocent civilians," MENA reported.

Hezbollah has condemned the attack that targeted a bus carrying Coptic Christians in Egypt saying it "is a new crime added to the criminal record of a murderers' gang," AP reported.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also condemned the attack, stressing the importance of international cooperation against terrorism.

Palestine and Lebanon also released statements strongly condemned the attack, expressing their condolences and solidarity with Cairo.

A spokesman for Palestinian group Hamas called the shooting "an ugly crime," of which "the enemies of Egypt" are the only beneficiaries, AP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office issued a statement sending "condolences from the Israeli people to the Egyptian people and to President El-Sisi."

German Foreign Ministry Spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters in Berlin on Friday that Germany "condemns in the strongest possible terms these kinds of attacks on believers" and grieves with the victims and their relatives.

Schaefer also said Germany would cooperate with Egypt "to ensure that things like this don't happen again in future." Russia denounced the attack, stressing its rejection and condemnation of all acts of terrorism. This heinous incident once again demonstrates the inhuman nature of international terrorists who have now resorted to any means to achieve their despicable goals of instilling fear and insecurity in the hearts of Egyptians," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Russia Today. The statement stressed Russia's solidarity with the leadership and people of Egypt in the fight against terrorism and extremism. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has also condemned this cowardly and brutal act that has deeply saddened Egypt," state news agency MENA reported. Le Drian stressed that France would stand side-by-side with Egypt in its war against terrorism.The American and British embassies in Cairo condemned the attack on Twitter, The USA condemns the depraved, horrific terrorist attack today against innocent civilians in Minya read a statement released by the embassy. The United States continues to stand firmly with the Egyptian government and people to defeat terrorism, the statement concluded. The UK has also denounced the attacks. I despise & condemn the killing in Minya. May the terrorists fail in spreading hate. Strength & solidarity to all suffering & responding, UK envoy to Cairo John Casson posted on Twitter. The Austrian prime minister, Christian Kern, has sent a letter of condolence to El-Sisi, affirming the embassy's offer of any help regarding treating the injured, MENA reported. The United Nations Security Council also released a statement condemning the attack "in the strongest terms. The council expressed its "deepest sympathy" and condolences to the families of the victims and emphasised that the perpetrators need to be brought to justice, AP reported. The members of the Security Council reaffirmed "that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security," the statement said. The council members stood for a minute of silence at the beginning of their session on Friday to mark the attack. The Royal Hashemite Court announced on Saturday that it would fly the countrys flag at half-mast in the main entrance to the palace until 6pm this evening in mourning for "the innocent victims who fell in the terrorist attack that targeted the buses carrying Egyptian Christians in Egypt's Minya governorate Friday", said the official website of the bureau. The Hungarian foreign minister also expressed condemnation, condolences and solidarity with Egypt on Saturday, state news agency MENA reported. The chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, has condemned the attack, and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. In a statement issued Saturday, Faki stressed his call for the international community to "renew its obligation to defeat terrorist and extremist groups," MENA reported. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias sent his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, a letter of condolence saying he was shocked deeply by the terrorist attack, adding that "Greece confirms that such horrible actions still unite Egypt in their efforts to fight terrorism, and to bring the ones involved in it to justice." The Greek minister added that he trusts Egypt will stay a tolerant and multi religious society, "against criminal plans by terrorists," according to Egypts foreign ministry. Bahrains King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa called President El-Sisi on Saturday and expressed his condemnation of the terrorist attack and his solidarity with Egypt facing terrorism.

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The great Gold Rush Music Festival returns to the township of Waihi, with the first nuggets of gold dropping for the highly anticipated return of the 2023 festival.
Egypt's interior ministry has arrested a suspect in relation to the shooting of a 13-year-old boy and a 22-year-old woman in 6 October city earlier this month and he has confessed to involvement in the crime, the ministry said.

Shortly following the ministry's statement, Al-Ahram Arabic reported that the prosecution had ordered the suspect detained for four days pending investigation on charges of "possessing an unlicensed gun, and causing injury accidentally."

"Investigations showed that some people were firing guns during engagement celebrations at the same time of the accident, from the rooftop of a nearby building," read an official statement by the ministry released on Facebook on Friday.

Youssef Sameh El-Araby was struck down by a gunshot while standing with his friends in front of a restaurant in Hossary Square on 18 May, and he is currently in critical condition on life support at the intensive care unit at October University Hospital.

No further information was available on the condition of the second victim, Doaa Mohamed Kaoud.

The ministry's inspections of the building and its surroundings revealed the gun that was used, and eyewitnesses confirmed the shooting, the statement added.

The suspect is a student from Fayoum and owns the roof top, and he confessed responsibility for the shooting, along with two other people. They are being pursued by the ministry.

A close friend of Youssef's family told Ahram Online earlier that the bullet that hit him has settled in the brain stem, and doctors say the bullet can therefore not be surgically removed.

The incident sparked shock as well as shows of solidarity on social media, with many calling for a swift investigation.

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Film Kohey Nishi is 24 and measures 1.6m

Although it seems obvious, it is often more difficult to guess what is the physical quality that will turn a stranger into a porn star.

If someone thinks that being well endowed and having a muscular body is more than enough, just take a look at Kohey Nishi, the new porn star of Japan who, at 24-years-old and 1.6m tall, has become the most envied man in the country.

This former computer scientist has an incurable illness that stopped his growth, but his tenacity and his desire to try new things have turned him into an actor and director of adult films.

THE TALENTED MR. NISHI

The qualities that Nishi possesses, according to The Sun, are due, above all, to its youthful appearance.

"There is no one who is an adult but who looks like a child like me," he acknowledged

In addition, the change from vertical to horizontal position favours him in an obvious way.

"Usually porn shoots are done while I'm in a bed, so I have no problem," he continued,

In any case, his (diminutive) figure is magnified by recognising questions derived directly from his work.

"Sometimes it is very difficult to get an erection when you are surrounded by so many people," he concluded.
Dar Al-Iftaa, the Egyptian state body responsible for issuing Islamic edicts, has cancelled the celebrations scheduled on Friday to mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

The grand mufti, Shawqi Allam, who heads Dar Al-Iftaa, has issued a statement condemning the attack.

Gunmen attacked vehicles carrying Coptic Christians on their way to Saint Samuels Monastery in Minya on Friday, killing 28 people and injuring 25, according to the latest toll.

Dar Al-Iftaa organises a yearly committee to observe the appearance of the crescent moon, announcing the start of the new lunar month of Ramadan.

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AXTON - A Louisiana rocker is one of the headline performers for Rooster Walk 9.

Anders Osborne will perform from 8-10 p.m. Saturday on the Lake Stage.

Usually theres a really, really heavy element, drony, heavy guitar oriented, he said about his shows. Then a portion gets very improvised. Its improvised, but still, theres guidelines to where we go when we improvise, and structure too. Its not like avant-garde improvising  (it has) structure and chord format.

The improvisation comes from the guitar solo and how you back up each other, he said.

Also, in his shows, I try to put in something really, really sensitive and acoustic, an intimate performance.

He described his style not in terms of musical technicality but rather the drive behind his creation of music.

Its a variety of emotions, Osborne said. Its everything from angry to happy to sentimental and melancholy and improvised. I try to write about everything that happens in life, so I dont feel like I focus on one style.

Since he started recording in 1989, according to andersosborne.com, he has written nearly all of his own material, as well as plenty of songs which have been hits for other artists. He was the writer of Tim McGraws #1 hit Watch The Wind Blow By. He co-wrote two songs on Keb Mos Grammy-winning 1999 album Slow Down.

Other artists who have covered his songs include Brad Paisley, Tab Benoit, Jonny Lang, Edwin McCain, Sam Bush, Trombone Shorty and Aaron Neville and Kim Carnes. His songs have been in many movies.

Osborne said hes always had a drive to make music.

Specifically, itll be a set of emotions if Im writing, if Im going through something, Osborne said. Each time I write something, it usually ends up being about myself or somebody going through something.

When he was younger, he said, he used to be inspired by other peoples music, because theyre pulling at a string inside my heart and thatll get me going. Then again, it might have been a certain approach to how they produced it or how they wrote the song. There would be a line I think they did a great job of writing.

Friday

Tonight, the music will begin at 8:30 with Anderson East (a 70s-feel rock) on the Lake Stage and Jon Stickley Trio (genre-bending, with roots in gypsy jazz, bluegrass and hip-hop) on the Pine Grove Stage.

Reggae group the Wailers, who performed in the 1970s with Bob Marley, will play at 10 p.m. on the Main Stage.

From midnight to 2 a.m., Pimps of Joytime (blend of musical styles, including elements of afro-beat, salsa, rock & roll and electronic) will be on the Lake Stage, and Love Canon (bluegrass covers of 80s hits) on the Pine Grove Stage.

South Hill Banks will start performing jam/progressive bluegrass at 2 a.m. with a Campfire Jam at the Lake Stage area.

Saturday

Mountain Heart, headed by Bassett native Josh Shilling, will perform at the same time as Osborne  from 8-10 p.m. Saturday, on the Pine Grove Stage. Mountain Hearts music melds rock, jam band, country, blues, jazz and bluegrass music. The band recently produced and released Blue Skies!

After them, Greensky Bluegrass will perform from 10 p.m. to midnight. The five-piece bluegrass/rock band was founded in Michigan in 2000. Greensky Bluegrass is known for their improvisation. They have covered songs from artists at diverse as Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Grateful Dead and Fish.

The Motet (Lake Stage) and Marcus King Band (Pine Grove) will perform from midnight to 2 a.m. The Motet is a funk afrobeat and jazz-influenced group based in Colorado, founded in 1998. Marcus King Band plays American roots music which King has described as soul-influenced psychedelic southern rock.

Sunday

Stop Light Observations will perform what they call middle class blues from 8-10 p.m. on the Lake Stage. At the same time, Yarn Gets Stoned, a Rolling Stones tribute featuring Josh Shilling, will be going on at the Pine Grove.

The final concert of Rooster Walk 9 will be funk and soul by The Nth Power, from 10 p.m. to midnight on the Main Stage.
MARTINSVILLE  Sunscreen buyers beware.

Some of the company brand claims try to trick you into believing theyll prevent sun damage. Dont always trust them, said Dr. Jody Hershey, director of the West Piedmont Health District.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration only requires manufacturers to test their own products, and the FDA doesnt regularly conduct its own tests on sunscreens, Hershey said. The FDA determined in 2011 that high SPF (sunburn protection factor) claims may be inherently misleading and the FDA proposed joining most other industrialized nations in capping SPF values at 50-plus. Those regulations have not occurred.

Its a problem both here and across the commonwealth. According to a December 2016 Virginia Department of Health report, from 2009 to 2013, 1,194 people in the commonwealth died from melanoma of the skin.

Hershey described as pretty alarming several recent Consumer Reports findings that state

water resistant sunscreen basically is meaningless. Nearly half the water-resistant products Consumer Reports researchers tested failed after the products were applied to volunteers who soaked in water and then had their skin exposed to sunlight.

Also, the researchers found that chemical-free, mineral or natural sunscreens -- made only with zinc oxide, titanium dioxide or both  are far less effective than chemical-based formulas containing octyl salicylate, octyl methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octisalate, homosalate, mexoral, ecamsule and avobenzone. Mineral formulas, however, may be less irritating on the skin of some users.

Consumer Reports also indicated that SPF level does not matter as much as the chemicals in the product, Hershey said. Theres little difference in the protection you get from SPF 50 (which blocks 98 percent of ultraviolet B rays) and SPF 100 (which blocks 99 percent of UVB rays).

However, Hershey advises, for optimum sun protection, choose a chemical sunscreen with SPF 40 or higher to assure a greater chance of getting at least an SPF 30, the minimum protection dermatologists recommend.

The difference between an SPF 70 and an SPF 30 is minimal, Hershey said. If an SPF 70 gives you the protection of a 30, youre still blocking 97 percent of UVB rays.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ultraviolet rays are an invisible form of radiation that comes from the sun, sunlamps and tanning beds. Ultraviolet rays can penetrate and change the structure of skin cells. Of the three types of ultraviolet (UV) rays, UVA penetrates beyond the top layer of skin and can damage connective tissue and increase a persons risk for developing skin cancer. UVB rays, which penetrate less deeply into the skin, still can cause some forms of skin cancer. Natural UVC rays are absorbed by the Earths atmosphere and dont pose a risk.

Hershey said UVA and UVB rays also contribute to wrinkling and skin aging.

Hershey recommends using a sunscreen that filters out a significant portion of both UVA and UVB rays, but he said many American sunscreens lack strong UVA protection.

SPF is a measure of sun protection primarily caused by UVB rays. So, those values only tell you about UVB protection; they do not reflect UVA protection, Hershey said.

The American Cancer Society recommends people use a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, but the American Academy of Dermatology recommends 30, Hershey said.

More important than ultra-high SPF numbers is to apply sunscreen early, regularly and generously, Hershey said. Dont skimp on sunscreen. Most people rarely apply enough sunscreen to achieve the labeled SPF. Many studies show that they apply only a quarter to half as much as it takes to achieve the products SPF rating. That means that an SPF 50 product will act more like SPF 7 and you are more likely to get sunburned.

Hershey advises applying sunscreen 20 to 30 minutes before being exposed to the sun; applying about one ounce (about two tablespoons or a palm-full) or more evenly over your entire body; and reapplying it every two hours as well as after swimming, sweating or toweling off.

He also recommends checking the sunscreens expiration date. Sunscreen without an expiration date has a shelf life of no more than three years, but it has a shorter shelf life if it has been exposed to high temperatures.

If you need insect repellent, apply it before applying sunscreen, Hershey said.

As for children, they are more vulnerable to damage caused by the sun and to harmful effects of chemical exposure, so they should use a sunscreen rated highly effective against both UVA and UVB radiation. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends avoiding sunscreens on children younger than six months unless you cant find protective shade and clothing, Hershey said.

Among other advice, Hershey said, The best defenses against getting too much harmful sun exposure are protective clothing, shade and timing.

He suggests when possible, wearing dark, tightly woven protective clothing  such as pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses with 99 to 100 percent UVA/UVB protection. Sunglasses protect your eyes against ultraviolet radiation that causes cataracts.

You can reduce your risk of skin cancer or damage by avoiding direct sun exposure and seeking shade under a tree, umbrella or other shelter, especially between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. (daylight savings time) when the suns ultraviolet rays are the most intense. Ultraviolet rays are greatest during late spring and early summer.

Hershey advises avoiding tanning and tanning beds; examining your skin from head to toe every month; and seeing your physician every year for a skin exam.

He said a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that nearly 53 percent of skin cancers in the United States occur on the left, or drivers, side of the body, which means they could be related to ultraviolet exposure when you are in your car. Your head and neck are especially vulnerable, followed by your arms.

In addition to applying sunscreen, Hershey recommends avoiding driving or riding in a convertible with the top off or with an open sunroof during daylight. Whether you are a passenger or the driver, avoid resting your arm on an open window. Consider having transparent window film applied to your car windows to protect against ultraviolet rays.

There are six sunscreen mistakes that everyone needs to remember, Hershey added. These include: thinking youre exempt from sunscreen because you have dark or olive skin; not applying sunscreen often enough; neglecting to wear sunscreen while driving or working indoors; using a sunscreen that only blocks UVB rays; using a sunscreen that has expired; and missing areas of your skin when applying (sunscreen).

Paul Collins reports for the Martinsville Bulletin and can be reached at paul.collins@martinsvillebulletin.com.
Giza fire department has succeeded in extinguishing a major blaze that erupted Friday morning in the popular Imbaba fruit and clothes market, destroying 27 stalls and some apartments in three buildings, Al-Ahram reported.

Ten people were injured due to smoke inhalation, with many residents of the area exiting their houses because of the intense smoke.

A police checkpoint was also destroyed in the fire, Al-Ahram reported.

Ambulances and firefighters remained outside the market due to difficulties entering, meaning the process of extinguishing the fire with hoses took more than three hours.

Initial reports suggests losses of around EGP 10 million.

Initial reports also refer that the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the shops.

The fire extended rapidly because of the amount of wood in the markets structure, and because of its disorganised nature, Al-Ahram reported.

Prosecutors are investigating the fires courses.



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SPRINGFIELD -- Nuvo Bank & Trust has changed its name to Community Bank following two separate takeovers that resulted in Nuvo being owned by Community Bank of Syracuse, New York.

Temporary Community Bank signs are already up at Nuvo's first, and only, office in Springfield's Tower Square office building.

Community Bank System Inc., the parent company of Community Bank, completed its merger with Nuvo's most recent owner, Merchants Bancshares, Inc., of Vermont, on May 12. Community Bank paid Merchants shareholders $304 million in the deal, according to a news release.

The deal created a new Community Bank with $11 billion in assets, $9 billion in deposits and 225 locations across four states: New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Massachusetts.

Nuvo Bank & Trust Co. was sold to Merchants Bancshares, Inc. of South Burlington, Vermont, for $21.8 million, or $7.15 cents a share, in 2015. Prior to 2015, Nuvo was an independent bank owned by local stockholders.

Nuvo retained its name during its short time owned by Merchants.

Nuvo opened in April 2008 just as the worldwide banking crisis hit hard and was the first new bank company founded in Springfield in two decades.

Nuvo's focus was on business banking, which is why there was need for only one office. Nuvo's management spoke of stepping into the void for local business lenders left by the bank mergers of the 1990s.

Community Bank's only Massachusetts office is the one in Tower Square.

The next nearest Community Bank branches are all former Merchants locations in Vermont, all more than 50 miles away in Brattleboro, Wilmington and Bennington.

Hal Wentworth, senior vice president for retail banking at Community Bank, said via email there are no immediate plans to expand in Western Massachusetts, but Community is always looking for ways to better serve customers.

The Springfield location has 13 employees, and Wentworth wrote in the email that the number is likely to grow.

The merger gives customers access to more products, Wentworth wrote. It also increases the bank's lending limit.



Community Bank System Inc. trades as CBU on the New York Stock Exchange. It was trading at $54.88 a share early Friday afternoon.
SPRINGFIELD -- MGM Springfield and various officials including Mayor Domenic J. Sarno urged the Massachusetts Gaming Commission this week to allow some provision for ex-criminals to have access to hundreds of non-gaming jobs at the MGM casino project.

MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis and Sarno both asked the commission to consider some flexibility that would not compromise the state-mandated integrity of the gaming operation but would provide job opportunities to former criminals to help them turn their lives around.

Of the 3,000 jobs being created by the MGM project, there are approximately 1,000 non-gaming jobs, Mathis said.

Mathis, in addition to comments during the meeting held Thursday at the MassMutual Center, submitted a letter calling for some easing of the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) criminal background disqualifier clause within the Gaming Act. MGM and others say that adjustments for non-gaming jobs are within the commission's authority.

The commission took no vote on the issue Thursday pending further review and discussion.

In his letter, Mathis asked rhetorically how the commission can carry out its mandate to protect the integrity of gaming operations while also meeting its mandate for broad employment opportunities.

"By holding the owners, key executives and individuals involved in the gaming operation to a different standard than the warehouse manager, kitchen porter and bowling alley clerk," was Mathis' answer in support of some policy adjustment.

MGM is scheduled to open a $950 million resort casino in Springfield in the fall of 2018.

Sarno, also appearing before the commission and in a separate press release, called for a "fair and commonsense approach in ensuring that offenders of minor crimes can turn their lives around and develop a renewed sense of self-esteem through gainful, meaningful employment."

Mathis said the unemployment rate in Hampden County, and particularly Springfield, is significantly higher than state unemployment rates. The CORI criminal disqualification clause underpins efforts to provide jobs to local residents, the poor and minorities, he said.

Mathis said that current interpretations "will prevent thousands of potential job applicants from seeking entry level positions, frustrating the legislative goal of the Gaming Act to provide employment opportunities to the underemployed, particularly those in the communities hosting the gaming establishments."

Sarno struck a similar chord, saying that in urban communities, jobs and education are needed to knock down "the vicious cycle of poverty rates and public safety issues."

"The irony here is that I am a law and order mayor, but where it makes sense, some flexibility should be explored, and where appropriate, allowed," Sarno said.

A group of city councilors also submitted a letter to the Gaming Commission, raising concerns about former criminals being blocked from the job opportunities at MGM Springfield.

Regarding those residents who have "encounters" with the criminal justice system, it can have "a lasting impact on an individual's abilities to find and maintain gainful employment, which in turn can perpetuate a cycle of poverty and further involvement with the criminal justice system," the councilors wrote.

Councilors Timothy Allen, Michael Fenton, Adam Gomez, Orlando Ramos, Melvin Edwards, Marcus Williams and Kateri Walsh are listed as letter signees.

The commission also received letters supporting policy changes for former criminals from Dress for Success of Western Massachusetts and from the Greater Boston Legal Services CORI & ReEntry Project.

In addition, Springfield Technical Community College Presidennt John B. Cook and Holyoke Community College President Christina Royal, in a joint letter, raised concerns about the disqualifier provision of the Gaming Act, citing the "critical" need for job opportunities.
On his eighth scheduled execution date, Tommy Arthur was put to death by lethal injection for a 1982 murder-for-hire Thursday night.

Arthur made a thumbs up gesture with his left hand to his daughter Sherrie who was in the witness room between Arthur's attorney Suhana Han and another unidentified woman. At one point he also winked towards his daughter.

Arthur, his voice quivering and choking up, read out the names of his children. "I'm sorry I failed you as a father. I love you more than anything on Earth," he said.

He did not admit to or mention anything about the crime that landed him on death row - the shooting death of Troy Wicker Jr.

The execution began about 11:50 p.m., ten minutes before the death warrant was to expire, said Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn.

As long as the execution begins before midnight then the Alabama Attorney General stated they should complete the execution, Dunn said. "It went exactly according to protocol," he said.

The execution was to have begun at 6 p.m. but was delayed by appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the execution had not begun by midnight, the state would have had to sought another execution date.

The execution was in contrast to the Dec. 8 execution of Alabama Death Row inmate Ronald Bert Smith, who for 13 minutes heaved and gasped for breath and two consciousness tests were performed before the lethal drugs were administered. Smith's attorneys called it "botched" but Dunn said it too had gone to protocol.

Arthur slowly drifted off after they began administering the first of three drugs about 11:50 p.m. and his breathing became more shallow. He was pronounced dead at 12:15 p.m.

Gov. Kay Ivey's office issued this statement minutes after Arthur's death:

"How to proceed when faced with a potential execution is one of the most difficult decisions I will ever have to make as governor. After much prayer and careful and deliberate consideration, I thought it best to allow the decision of a jury of Tommy Arthur's peers to stand. In allowing the execution to proceed this evening, the rule of law was upheld, and Mr. Wicker's family can finally rest knowing that his murderer has faced justice.

"Three times Tommy Arthur was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Each time his case was reviewed thoroughly at every level of both our state and federal courts, and the appellate process has ensured that the rights of the accused were protected.

"No governor covets the responsibility of weighing the merits of life or death; but it is a burden I accept as part of my pledge to uphold the laws of this state. Mr. Arthur was rightfully convicted and sentenced, and tonight, that sentence was rightfully and justly carried out."

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he hoped the family of Troy Wicker can begin to recover.

"Thirty-four years after he was first sentenced to death for the murder of a Colbert County man, Thomas Arthur's protracted attempt to escape justice is finally at an end. Most importantly, tonight, the family of Troy Wicker can begin the long-delayed process of recovery from a painful loss."

Original article continues below:

A prison spokesman says that the execution is back on for tonight after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a temporary stay of Alabama Death Row inmate Tommy Arthur.

The decision came down about 10:40 p.m. Thursday.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority opinion denying a stay despite Arthur's attorneys challenges to the method of execution using the controversial drug midazolam and whether Arthur's attorneys should have access to a phone during the execution. The number of justices who voted for or against the stay was not included in the order.

"Alabama plans to execute Thomas Arthur tonight using a three-drug lethal-injection protocol that uses midazolam as a sedative. I continue to doubt whether midazolam is capable of rendering prisoners insensate to the excruciating

pain of lethal injection and thus whether midazolam may be constitutionally used in lethal injection protocols," according to her dissent. "Here, the State has--with the blessing of the courts below-- compounded the risks inherent in the use of midazolam by denying Arthur's counsel access to a phone through which to seek legal relief if the execution fails to proceed as planned."

Arthur's attorneys had argued that they should have a constitutional right to access to the courts through the execution. "Its (the court's) action means that when Thomas Arthur enters the execution chamber tonight, he will leave his constitutional rights at the door," Sotomayor stated in her dissent.Niece of victim: Tommy Arthur execution delays have put family through 'living hell'

Attorneys for Arthur had asked the court this afternoon to halt the execution.

The prison system is carrying reporters over to the prison to witness the execution this evening. Temporary stays like this are not uncommon, with SCOTUS granting several temporary stays before the execution either happens or is permanently stayed.

The death warrant for Arthur is only valid for May 25. So if the temporary stay had lasted past midnight, the state would have to seek a new execution date once the stay is lifted.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals this afternoon denied requests from Arthur's attorneys to halt the execution.

Arthur was set to be executed at 6 p.m. at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore for the 1982 murder-for-hire of Troy Wicker Jr. in Muscle Shoals.

It is the eighth time since 2001 Alabama has set an execution date for Arthur, nicknamed the "Houdini of Death Row" for his escape from the first seven times - often at the last hour - mainly due to legal wrangling by his attorneys.

Arthur, 75, is the second oldest inmate on death row. He also is the third-longest serving inmate among Alabama's 184 death row inmates.

The inmate's attorneys haven't heard whether Gov. Kay Ivey will stop the execution, which would be her first execution as governor.

However, Ivey today informed Arthur's attorney she was once again denying their request for DNA testing for hair samples associated with the case. "DNA testing of the hair samples would serve no purpose but to confirm a fact that has already been presented to the three separate juries, all of whom convicted Arthur of capital murder," wrote Ivey's general counsel, Bryan Taylor.

7:35 p.m. Arthur's attorneys file reply briefs to SCOTUS regarding Alabama Attorney General's arguments that their petition and request for another review of their lethal injection challenges and stay of executions should be denied.4:11 p.m.

5:30 p.m. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas granted the temporary stay regarding the appeal on allowing Arthur's attorneys to have access to a cell phone.According to a press release from Arthur's attorneys Sherrie Stone, the daughter of Arthur, is expected to witness her father's execution and will be accompanied by Mr. Arthur's lead counsel, Suhana Han. Stone may be available to talk briefly to media on Thursday night.

5 p.m.

Arthur's attorneys filed a second request for stay of execution to the U.S. Supreme Court pending action on their petitions - one for a review of their claims that Alabama's method of execution represents cruel and unusual punishment and the other on allowing the attorneys to have cell phones.

The method of claims are that the drug midazolam doesn't sedate the inmate enough so he won't feel pain. It is an argument already shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court but Arthur's attorneys say there have been other examples since then.

"In order to adequately brief this Court on the important Questions

Presented, Mr. Arthur requires a temporary stay of execution," his attorneys argue. "If it is not granted, Mr. Arthur will suffer the most irreparable injury imaginable: he will be strapped to a gurney, administered a drug that Alabama knows will not render him insensate, and then, injected with a succession of drugs that will paralyze and suffocate him, and then induce cardiac arrest in a way that

has been described as "the chemical equivalent of being burned at the stake."

The Alabama Attorney General's Office in its reply noted that Arthur's lethal injection claims had been rejected by the Supreme Court before.

"Given that Arthur today is facing the eighth setting of his execution for the brutal murder of Troy Wicker, he is well versed in the inequitable art of filing eleventh-hour lawsuits on the eve of his execution dates," the Attorney General's Office stated. As far back as August 2007, Arthur filed a last-minute method-of-execution challenge (his second), which the district court dismissed on the doctrine of laches "because the plaintiff unreasonably delayed in bringing this action," where Arthur waited until after the State moved to set his execution date," the Attorney General's Office stated.

"Three months later, Arthur's third (challenge) was also dismissed as meritless, previously litigated, and unreasonably late," the Attorney General's Office stated. "Undaunted, Arthur has continued to employ this same tactic of filing to stop his execution."

4:45 p.m.

Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton gave this rundown of what has been happening at the prison and with Arthur in the past day.

At 4 p.m. Alabama Prisons Commissioner Jeff Dunn and warden Cynthia Stewart met with Wicker's two sons, who will be in the victim witness room, Horton said.

Arthur had no visitors in the past 24 hours but called a friend, a son and daughter, and his attorneys, Horton said. Arthur also refused a breakfast and a final meal.

Arthur's request to view a photo of his children during the execution was granted, Horton said.

Arthur has been allowed to view a TV outside his holding cell where he was moved to on Tuesday, Horton said.

Midazolam concerns

Arthur and his attorneys are seeking a stay of execution so they can further litigate his challenges on two issues.

Tommy Arthur March 2017

On Tuesday, Arthur won a legal victory when the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed a judge's ruling that rejected Arthur's claim that the Legislature, not the prison system, should decide on the method and drugs used in executions. Arthur's attorneys then quickly filed an emergency request for a stay of execution to that court, stating that his execution should wait until litigation over their claims that the legislature should select the lethal injection drugs is completed.

Arthur's appeal to the U.S. 11th Circuit, based on Arthur's challenge to Alabama's method of execution that includes the drug midazolam as one of the three drugs, was denied earlier this afternoon.

Death penalty opponents, and other inmates and their attorneys will be closely monitoring the execution because of the controversial sedative midazolam used by Alabama and several other states in their lethal injection drug combinations. Lawyers have argued midazolam does not sedate the inmate enough to not feel the burning pain of the other drugs administered to stop the heart and lungs.

The 11th Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court have previously denied Arthur's and other inmates' challenges in Alabama and other states to lethal injection method that include midazolam. The Inmates cited problems - inmates struggling on gurneys - with executions in nation states using midazolam.

But in their current appeal Arthur's attorneys argue there have been problems with more recent executions in Alabama and other states since Arthur's previous challenges to the state's lethal injection method were rejected.

Smith's lawyers called the execution "botched," but Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn said the prison system followed its protocol. Prison officials, however, have refused to provide attorneys with records of executions, according to the court documents.

Arthur's lawyers argue in their latest appeal that Arthur faces "a nightmarish death ... conscious but entirely paralyzed, unable to move or scream his agony."

Cell Phone appeal

Wednesday night the 11th Circuit issued a ruling that affirms a lower court's denial of a request by Arthur's attorneys to have access to a cell phone or land line phone while in the execution witness room so they could call a court in case there is a problem.

Arthur's attorney Suhana Han this morning filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of the 11th Circuit's ruling on the cell phone issue.

Claims innocence

Arthur, while admitting to a previous murder in 1977, he maintains his innocence in the 1982 slaying of Wicker. He and his lawyers say there is no physical evidence such as DNA or fingerprints that link him to Wicker's death.

At first, Wicker's wife Judy claimed she had been raped and her husband killed by a burglar wearing a wig. But she was later convicted in her husband's death and sentenced to life in prison. She later testified at one of Arthur's three trials that she paid Arthur $10,000 of her husband's life insurance money to kill her husband.

Judy Wicker and Arthur were in a romantic relationship. Arthur at the time was in a community corrections program, working at a mobile home dealership, for his guilty plea in the shooting death of his sister and the wounding of another woman five years earlier. He had been sentenced to life for that crime.

Judy Wicker was paroled after serving about 10 years of her life sentence.

Arthur denies Judy Wicker's claims and contends he was involved in Troy Wicker's death. He has repeatedly tried to have evidence tested for DNA that he says was never tested. Gov. Ivey denied the testing of a wig (allegedly worn by the killer), which state officials say had been tested before in 2009 and found not to contain any genetic material.

"I am not guilty," Arthur recently wrote to AL.com. He claimed the state will be "murdering" him if they go through with the execution.

Alabama prosecutors and Wicker's family has said Arthur has had enough appeals.

Troy Wicker Jr.

"For many years, Thomas Arthur has abused the judicial process by heaving frivolous and baseless claims on the courts at the last minute in an effort to delay his lawful execution for a heinous crime he committed in 1982," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall recently wrote in March after one of Arthur's appeals to block another execution date from being set. "His latest filing is simply more of the same. Arthur's execution has already been set seven times. His conviction and sentence were affirmed by the courts years ago, and last month (February) the United States Supreme Court once again declined to hear his claims. Justice demands that his execution date should once again be set," he stated.

Vicki Wilkerson, a niece to Troy Wicker told AL.com in an email that: "There are no words to describe the living hell that this has been for the Wicker family. We are hoping and praying that the execution is not delayed any further."

Timeline of Arthur's case:
In considering how to best support undocumented families, a school district in Massachusetts is considering new privacy measures.

The Brockton School Committee may vote to ban immigration officials from school grounds and restrict access to student records.

"In recent months, I've heard from some families that they're fearful," School Committee member Lisa Plant told The Enterprise.

Earlier this year, committee members passed a resolution regarding immigration officials.

The resolution states that the school committee "believes the safe and caring (school) learning environment would be threatened by the presence of (immigration officers) on district property for the purpose of obtaining information about students and families, or for the purpose of removing or detaining student or their families."
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a televised speech following the terrorist attack on Christians in Minya on Friday morning, that an airstrike against a terrorist training camp was being carried out as he spoke.

He added that "Egypt will not hesitate in striking any camps that harbour or train terrorist elements whether inside Egypt or outside Egypt," adding that Friday's attack, which saw 28 Copts killed by armed gunmen, will not pass easily.

El-Sisi said that a strike was being launched targeting a camp that had been a source of terrorists who had carried out attacks in Egypt, without specifying the location.

The Egyptian armed forces released a short video which was shown on state television after El-Sisi's speech. The voiceover said that upon the directions of the president, the airforce had carried out a strike against terrorist gatherings in Libya "after confirming their involvement in planning and committing the terrorist attack in Minya governorate on Friday."

The strike is still ongoing, the army video said.

Senior sources had earlier told MENA agency that the strike mentioned by the president targeted terrorist militant group camps in Darna, eastern Libya.

"We are preserving our security and saving our people," he said, adding that such attacks are a price that is being paid for real freedom, and for preventing Egypt from falling into the hands of extremism and terrorism.

El-Sisi directly addressed the American president Donald Trump, saying: Your Excellency, I trust your ability to wage war on terrorism as your first priority, with the cooperation of the whole international community, that should unite against terrorism.

He added that all countries that support terrorism, should be punished, without any courtesy or conciliation."

"If Egypt falls, the whole world will be in chaos, he said. We are waging a war on behalf of the world."

He also referred to the Egyptian strategy to fight terrorism that was outlined during the Arab-Islamic-American summit in Riyadh earlier this month, calling on other countries to adopt it.

The president said that the target of such terrorist groups is to topple the Egyptian state and break apart Egyptian society, by creating religious strife between Muslims and Christians.

He said that recent attacks aim to make people believe that Christians are not secure in Egypt, and that the government is not protecting them, referring to efforts to "destroy our economy and our peace."

El-Sisi also said that he warned security bodies a few months ago that terrorist militants who had left Aleppo in Syria would come to Egypt.

The president stressed the huge efforts that have been taken to fight terrorism. He said that Egypt had destroyed 300 vehicles trying to cross the border from Libya while bringing evil over the past two months.

The president, who expressed his condolences to the Egyptian people for "the martyrs who fell among Egypt's sons," concluded by saying that Egypts national security is the responsibility of security bodies, himself and all Egyptians, and that we should move to fight these terrorist ideas.

Twenty-eight Christians were killed and 23 injured in the armed attack on buses carrying them to a St Samuels monastery in Upper Egypts Minya governorate on Friday morning.

No group has yet claimed the Minya attack, which is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypts Christians.

On 9 April, two suicide bombers targeted St George's Church in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing and injuring dozens in the deadliest attack against civilians in the country's recent history. A total of 29 people died in the Tanta explosion and 18 in Alexandria.

Cairo imposed a nationwide three-month state of emergency after the April bombings, with the option to extend for another three months dependent on a parliament vote.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million.

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EAST LONGMEADOW -- Just as quickly as it was called off, East Longmeadow's annual Fourth of July Carnival is back on.

A day after Town Manager Denise Menard said the East Longmeadow Jaycees Carnival will not be held this summer, town officials received a call Friday morning from R.W. Commerford and Sons, a Goshen, Connecticut-based contractor that provided rides and some concessions for the Jaycees carnival for the past two years, Town Council President Kevin Manley said. The business offered to put on the carnival independently and donate some of the proceeds to East Longmeadow.

"I think part of it is people always thought of it as a town event," Manley said. "We're glad to see it's potentially going to happen."

The town and R.W. Commerford and Sons are working toward a deal for a carnival that would run daily June 29 to July 3 from 6 to 11 p.m.

Town officials only realized early this week that East Longmeadow Jaycees would not put on the carnival this year, Manley said. Menard said the town's branch of the national junior chamber of commerce group had disbanded.

After looking at the logistics, putting on a carnival was determined to be too expensive and cumbersome for the town to helm.

"We just didn't think that we were going to be able to put something together in that short amount of time," Manley said.

But after hearing about the canceled carnival, Tim Commerford, owner and manager of R.W. Commerford and Sons, called East Longmeadow Town Hall on Friday to pitch the idea of throwing the event without Jaycees, Commerford said.

Since his company has handled rides and many of the concessions stands twice before, Commerford said, there should not be much of a learning curve in hosting the event.

"I don't think it's going to be much different," Commerford said in an interview Friday after speaking with several town officials about details they must hammer out before the carnival. "We're going to be coming in just as big or bigger."

Both Manley and Commerford said they hoped this year could be the start of a continuing relationship between East Longmeadow and R.W. Commerford and Sons.

"We're going to try to make this an annual event," Commerford said. "And we're going to try to make it better each year."
SPRINGFIELD -- A Florida man federal prosecutors say collected thousands of dollars from bogus tax returns was arraigned in U.S. District Court Thursday on charges of conspiracy, theft of public money and aggravated identity theft.

Cory "a.k.a Tony" Kizer, 35, of Kissimmee, Florida, pleaded not guilty to 15 criminal charges issued by a grand jury in Springfield in connection with pocketing around $45,000 in false tax returns from the IRS in 2011 using other people's identities, according to the charges.

"Kizer would ask Co-Conspirator No. 1 and others to recruit people willing to provide their personal identifying information," reads the indictment, which adds that Kizer filed false tax returns using their names without their knowledge.

But, the recruiters and providers of information did receive kickbacks, according to investigators.

The alleged victims in the case are only identified by their initials. While Co-Conspirator No. 1 is not identified, the charges state she is a Springfield resident Kizer first contacted by phone. He convinced her to travel to Florida and later open a bank account in which to deposit the funds from the scam, according to the indictment.

The refunds ranged from about $3,400 to $8,400 in some cases, court records state.

Kizer, whom court records state is a father of seven, is due back in court on June 2. He was released on an unsecured bond that was not contested by the government Thursday.
BOSTON -- The state Senate on Thursday approved a budget amendment filed in honor of Longmeadow Department of Public Works foreman Warren P. Cowles that would expand a benefit for family members of public employees killed on the job.

The vote moves the measure, proposed by Sen. Eric P. Lesser, one step closer to making the $300,000 benefit available to the family of Cowles, who died in a collision with a train while plowing snow on March 14.

If it survives negotiations in the Senate-House conference committee and the governor's final budget review, the amendment will retroactively benefit the Cowles family.

Under current state law, only the family of first responders who die in the line of duty are eligible for the benefit. Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill in March doubling the benefit from $150,000 to $300,000.

"A life is a life, and if a public worker dies in the line of duty, their families should be eligible for the same benefit," Lesser, D-Longmeadow, said in a statement. "This amendment is about equity and fairness to all those who do the public's work and put their own safety at risk to serve their communities."

As written in the amendment, those who would qualify for the benefit include "any public employee working for state or county government, a Massachusetts public higher education institution, a municipality, public school department, or public school district or public authority who, while in the performance of his/her duties and as a result of incident, accident or violence, was killed or sustained injuries which were the direct and proximate cause of his/her death."

The benefit would not apply in the case of a worker who dies of a health issue that happens to strike during work hours, according to Lesser's office.

"Other examples of eligible public workers would be a teacher attacked by a student or a forest ranger who has a tree limb fall on him after a storm," a spokesman for the senator wrote in a follow-up email to The Republican. "The point of this is to protect public workers who go to their job on an otherwise normal day with no expectation of harm and die while they were in the process of doing their work on behalf of the public."

In the statement released by Lesser's office, Frank Moroney, Executive Director of Council 93 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the amendment recognizes "the unsung heroes of the public-sector workforce."

"It's clear that different workers face different degrees of hazards on the job," Moroney said. "But there is an element of danger in every public-sector job and when that danger results in death, then everything should be equal and the spouses and children left behind should be treated with the same dignity and respect as public safety workers."

Lesser filed the amendment after State Rep. Jay D. Livingston, D-Boston, introduced a similar bill last year. Livingstone's proposal was referred to the Legislature's Committee on Public Service in January.

Money for the benefit would come from the public employees' pension fund -- so, according to Lesser's office, it is "revenue neutral."

The amendment was part of the Senate's $40.8 million budget proposal for fiscal 2018 passed Thursday night. The fiscal year begins July 1.
The Syrian army is in full control of the highway from Damascus to ancient Palmyra for the first time since 2014 after driving out jihadists, a monitor said on Friday.

Since troops recaptured Palmyra from the Islamic State (IS) militant group in March, the UNESCO World Heritage site had been accessible via Syria's third city Homs, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) to the west.

But after major advances on Thursday night, the army now controls the direct road from the capital to Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

With the support of Russian air strikes, regime fighters "pushed IS fighters out of desert territory amounting to more than 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles)," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"The jihadists were withdrawing because of how intense the Russian air strikes were," Abdel Rahman said.

Palmyra's temples, colonnaded alleys and elaborately decorated tombs -- some of the best preserved classical monuments in the Middle East -- attracted more than 150,000 tourists a year before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011.

IS fighters first overran Palmyra in May 2015, and government troops recaptured it 10 months later.

IS retook it in late 2016, but Russian-backed Syrian forces wrested back control in March.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow has been carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's troops since September 2015.

The Syrian army appears to be conducting a multi-pronged drive towards the oil-rich territory near the country's eastern borders with Iraq and Jordan.

But parts of the frontier are controlled by rebel groups backed by the US-led coalition fighting IS.

Earlier this month, coalition warplanes struck a convoy of pro-government forces headed towards a remote coalition garrison near the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The desert, known as the "Badiya", extends over some 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 square miles) and makes up about half of Syria's territory.

Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests demanding Assad's ouster.

But the popular demonstrations have since given way to a full-blown war that has killed 320,000 people and fragmented the country.

According to geography expert Fabrice Balanche, Syria's government is steadily chipping away at IS territory and now controls 46 percent of the country, compared with 36 percent in March.

Kurdish forces and IS each control 21 percent of Syrian territory, with rebels left with just 12 percent, according to Balanche.

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Working to create a clean and balanced energy portfolio that will provide for a safe and reliable energy future. Learn more at http://www.NorthWesternEnergy.com/BrightFuture
Republican Greg Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist on Thursday night in a race for Montanas lone seat in the U.S. House, despite being charged Wednesday with assaulting a reporter.

After clinching the win, Gianforte apologized to the reporter, saying he "learned a lesson."

Gianforte told the crowd celebrating his victory: "I should not have responded the way I did and for that I am sorry."

Scott Thompson, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

Full Story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/26/gianforte-charged-assaulting-reporter-leads/348108001/

***

Gallatin County Attorneys Office to review Gianforte case

Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said Thursday he will review the case involving Greg Gianforte, the Republican congressional candidate accused of shoving a reporter to the ground on the eve of a special election.

Lambert said he will set aside celebrity and hype and look at the facts surrounding Gianfortes altercation on Wednesday with Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper.

Lambert, who was elected as a Republican, says he knows Gianforte but not well. He sometimes encounters Gianforte at church, social events and GOP functions.

Jacobs said Thursday of Gianfortes account that "the only thing that is factually correct  is my name and place of employment."

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/government-and-politics/gallatin-county-attorney-s-office-to-review-gianforte-case/article_e98fa9df-488e-5ccc-a748-a0c6d1bed73f.html

***

Late Night with Seth Meyers: Video-Greg Gianforte, Trump and the First Amendment: A Closer Look

Seth takes a closer look at how some Republicans are dealing with increased scrutiny in light of the Trump-Russia scandal and their unpopular health care plan  like Greg Gianforte body slamming a reporter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dC2HvHhW5g

***

Dont Judge Montana for a Single Body Slam

This might have been Montanans splashiest national publicity week since Buttes Evel Knievel crashed his motorcycle jumping the Caesars Palace fountains.

By SARAH VOWELL

Full Story: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/opinion/montana-body-slam-greg-gianforte.html?_r=0

***

How can the U.S. restore civility? This panel has some ideas

When Billings Public Library Director Gavin Woltjer selected civility two months ago as the topic for Thursdays panel discussion, "I had no idea what was about to transpire," with all eyes on Montana following GOP congressional candidate Greg Gianfortes alleged assault Wednesday of reporter Ben Jacobs.

http://www.matr.net/article-77118.html

Greg Gianfortes slam drives home intersection of tech, politics

"He operates through intimidation," recalled Kolsky. "The worst thing you can say to him is no or youre wrong."

Still, the image of the physically imposing Gianforte slamming a reporter to the ground is hard for those who know him to imagine.

"Back then he was great with reporters. He was always eager to talk to any reporter," says Mark Coker, who handled PR for Gianforte in the 1990s. "In his new world view, it appears he considers the media the enemy."

Jon Swartz , USA TODAY

Full Story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2017/05/25/gianforte-slam-drives-home-intersection-tech-politics/102143186/

***

GOP Montana win may be blip in Democrats anti-Trump hopes

Stivers Democratic counterpart, Rep. Ben Lujan of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, contended in a statement that the election was "tainted" by the assault. "Theres no question in my mind that Gianforte should not be sworn into office," Lujan said. "Regardless of what happens next, we will be competing hard for this seat in 2018."

The assault allegation didnt seem to faze voters. Shaun Scott, a computer science professor at Carroll College in Helena, voted for Gianforte despite the assault charge, saying it was barely a factor in his decision.

"If you have somebody sticking a phone in your face, a mic in your face, over and over, and you dont know how to deal with the situation, you havent really done that, you havent dealt with that, I can see where it can  make you a little angry," Scott said.

Bobby Caina Calvan and Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Was-Montana-s-wild-House-race-a-Trump-test-Not-11175189.php

***

Why Mr. Gianforte Goes to Washington would be a horror film

For American journalists and anybody else who cares about the First Amendment and the role of the free press in a healthy democracy, the body-slamming incident added an exclamation point to the sad sentence that began writing itself during Donald Trumps press-hating presidential campaign and hasnt stopped since: We, the so-called enemy of the American people, are under attack, under arrest and, now, under (alleged) assault.

By J. Freedom du Lac

Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/25/montanas-greg-gianforte-is-fighting-for-a-house-seat-he-might-be-miserable-in-congress/?utm_term=.df8261f93d99

***

GOP candidate accused of body-slamming reporter has said retirement is not biblical

The candidate has a history of making controversial comments https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gianforte-has-history-of-controversial-views-hostile-comments-to-press/2017/05/25/ceab14bc-4144-11e7-8c25-44d09ff5a4a8_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.14c9a13228f0 . For example, he drew criticism in 2014 for remarks about an LGBTQ anti-discrimination bill.

Despite the 2015 remarks about Noah, Gianforte has suggested in his campaign materials that he would not interfere with other peoples retirement plans. On his campaign website, Gianforte wrote that he would work to "protect and secure" Social Security and Medicare if elected to Congress. "Ill stop the Washington politicians from cutting the retirement benefits Montana seniors earned," the website reads.

By Jonnelle Marte

Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2017/05/25/gop-candidate-accused-of-body-slamming-reporter-has-said-retirement-is-not-biblical/?utm_term=.dc3cf46089ac

***

Gianforte has a history of controversial views and hostile comments to journalists

"As soon as Greg started getting attacked on TV, people were like, Oh, yeah, that guy, [the] billionaire jerk from New Jersey, " an unnamed Republican strategist familiar with the race told Roll Call this week.

By Elise Viebeck

Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/gianforte-has-history-of-controversial-views-hostile-comments-to-press/2017/05/25/ceab14bc-4144-11e7-8c25-44d09ff5a4a8_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&tid=a_inl&utm_term=.0071c500179c
San Leandro, Calif., is drafting a fiber-optic master plan  an effort sparked by an upgrade to LED streetlights.

"What should we be doing with our poles that will help our community move into the era of environmental health, of self-driving cars, of better living in cities?" Acosta asked. "Were on that journey right now to figure out what we can do with that."

by Noelle Knell

Full Story: http://www.govtech.com/fs/Seeing-Past-Light-Poles-Plotting-a-Smart-City-Strategy.html

***

Thought you might be interested in this from U. Penn Law School. The Exec Summary alone outlines the risks involved with muni broadband nets, even Chattanoogawhich would take 412 years to pay off.

https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/6611-report-municipal-fiber-in-the-united-states

An examination of the NPV covering the five-year period from 2010 to 2014 reveals that of the 20 municipal projects that report the financial results of their broadband operations separately, 11 generated negative cash flow. Unless these projects substantially improve their performance, they will not be able to cover the costs of current operations, let alone generate sufficient cash to retire the debt incurred to build the project.

For the nine projects that are cash-flow positive, seven would need more than sixty years to break even. Only two generated sufficient cash to be on track to pay off the debt incurred within the estimated useful life of a broadband network, which is typically projected to be 30 to 40 years. One of the two success stories is an industrial city with few residents that is unlikely to serve as a model for other cities to emulate. Regression models based on the data and the case studies of individual projects underscore the difficulty that municipal fiber projects face in becoming financially viable.

As reported in Multichannel News:

http://www.multichannel.com/news/technology/muni-broadband-study-half-are-red/413063

Geoff Feiss

Montana Telecommunications Association

http://www.telecomassn.org

406.442.4316 (office)

406.594.0424 (mobile)

[email protected]
Dozens of relatives of Islamic State (IS) militants were killed on Friday in new US-led strikes on Syria, just hours after the UN urged nations striking them to protect civilians.

Bombing raids by the US-led coalition have pounded IS positions across Iraq and Syria since IS claimed responsibility for the devastating bombing of a concert in Manchester on Monday.

Scores of civilians, many of them families of IS members, have been killed in bombing raids in recent days on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, held by IS since 2014.

Early Friday, at least 80 relatives of IS fighters were killed in US-led coalition bombardment, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," he told AFP.

Coalition strikes on the town killed 37 civilians on Thursday night after 15 had been killed on Wednesday, according to the Britain-based Observatory.

The US military on Friday confirmed that it had struck "near Mayadeen" on May 25 and 26, but said it was "still assessing the results of those strikes", according to Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon.

The US military insists that it takes every precaution to avoid hitting civilians, but the United Nations on Friday urged parties bombing IS to do more.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians".

The Observatory gathered its information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen.

The town has seen an influx of displaced families from IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria, including its bastion Raqa.

It is in Syria's oil-rich east near the border with Iraq -- a region considered a prize by many of IS's enemies including the Syrian army.

Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have been waging a multi-pronged offensive east to reach the strategic border territory.

They scored a key victory this week by linking the capital Damascus to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Palmyra in central Syria.

It was the first time the government was in full control of the Damascus-Palmyra highway since 2014, according to Abdel Rahman.

With backing from Russian air strikes, regime fighters "pushed IS fighters out of desert territory amounting to more than 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles)," he said on Friday.

According to geography expert Fabrice Balanche, the government now controls 46 percent of Syria, compared with 36 percent in March.

Kurdish forces and IS each control 21 percent, and rebels just 12 percent.

A decades-old ally of Damascus, Moscow has been carrying out air strikes in support of Assad's troops since September 2015 -- a year after the American-led coalition began targeting IS in Syria.

The coalition is now backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities -- Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded operations to Syria on September 23 that year.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-IS air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Before the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed 352 civilians since 2014.

Rights groups put the number much higher, and the Observatory this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria.

It said between April 23 and May 23, coalition strikes killed 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

Reports of civilian casualties in the air campaign have swelled in recent days.

On May 20, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said US President Donald Trump had instructed the Pentagon to "annihilate" IS in Syria in a bid to prevent escaped foreign fighters from returning home.

The president has "directed a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS," Mattis said, using an acronym for IS.

But the Pentagon has denied that its rules of engagement have changed and insists that the coalition continues to strike only "military-appropriate targets".

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The Western Governors are excited to welcome Jeff Bridges, Academy Award-winning actor and No Kid Hungry national spokesperson, to the 2017 Annual Meeting in Whitefish, Montana. Bridges, who has been a leading anti-hunger activist for more than three decades, will join the Governors for a discussion about his work to end childhood hunger.

Ten Western Governors have now registered to attend the meeting. WGA Chair, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, will be joined by fellow Governors Dennis Daugaard (South Dakota), Matt Mead (Wyoming), Brian Sandoval (Nevada), Gary Herbert (Utah), Bill Walker (Alaska), David Ige (Hawaii), Doug Burgum (North Dakota), John Hickenlooper (Colorado), and Butch Otter (Idaho).

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also has just committed to deliver a keynote and have a public conversation with the Governors. Additional keynotes at the meeting, which runs from June 26-28, will be delivered by influential pollster Frank Luntz and world renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker.

Event Information: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1101381912966&ca=f934db53-c0a5-4483-9c66-bae63c9ce87a
Keith Blount is the Commander of NATO's Allied Maritime Command.

He is NATO's principal maritime adviser and has operational Command of NATO's Standing Naval Forces.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1984 as a helicopter pilot. He received his wings in 1986 and was a front line aviator at the age of 20. Through a varied flying career, he qualified as an instructor and flew in the Royal Navy Helicopter Display Team.
Some neighborhoods in Marion got an unexpected visitor on Thursday  a bear.

Marilyn Collins, who lives on Forest Road off Hillcrest Drive, spotted the critter in her yard about 7 a.m. and snapped several photos. The bear had torn down a bird feeder.

Marion Police Chief Allen Lawrence said his department had not received any reports of bears in the city, but he had seen at least two struck by vehicles in Burke County in the last few days.

Residential bear sightings in McDowell are not uncommon this time of year. Last May, The McDowell News reported of a traffic accident on the U.S. 221 bypass in which Marion resident was traveling southbound on the highway when a bear ran in front of her car, leading to a rear-end collision with the vehicle behind her.

Lawrence said at that time there are normally a couple of bear sightings in a year, usually near the end of the summer heading into the beginning of fall. Lawrence said black bears, commonly found in the McDowell area, are typically gentle, but can be aggressive if provoked.

Colleen Olfenbuttel, bear/furbearer biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, was asked last year about bear sightings in residential areas and explained, When homes are built into the animals habitat, they learn to adjust to their surroundings and adapt to the people around them. Theyre usually attracted to nearby food sources like dog food or barbeque smoke.

Olfenbuttel also stressed that, if encountered by a bear, the best thing to do is, Dont panic. Its exciting to see a bear, but you should maintain a respectful distance from it or stay inside. Find the cause for its arrival and remove it, such as unsecure garbage or bird feeders at this time in the summer.

According to the commissions website, wildlife officials will not relocate a bear. If it becomes a threat to people, it will be trapped and euthanized.

To learn more information about bears in the area, visit www.ncwildlife.org/bear or the North Carolina Urban/Suburban Bear Study page on Facebook.
HICKORY  The City of Hickory concluded two days of public meetings with stakeholders and community members as part of the citys effort to create a broad-based policy for food trucks.

The city allows food trucks on private, non-residential property with permission of the owner, but no overarching policy exists for food trucks on public property.

On May 2, the Parks and Recreation Department presented the Hickory City Council with a plan that would allow food vendors in certain city parks.

The plan would have annual permitting fees of $300 for food carts and $500 for food trucks at the selected parks. Vendors would be assigned spaces at the parks.

After council members discussed the proposal, and expressed particular concerns about proposed fees, the city staff was directed to come up with a broader plan.

Four meetings were held Tuesday and Wednesday to gauge the opinion of downtown stakeholders, the general public and food vendors.

Bob Steiger and Robert Garrison, who own the gourmet food truck Eats on the Streets, showed up to the Wednesday morning meeting to give their views.

Garrison said, in terms of their own business, he and Steiger were most interested in having the flexibility to serve their clients with as little regulation as possible.

So, from our standpoint, were not looking to sit in a parking lot every Monday or Thursday or whatever, and there are potentially people that may or may not want to do that, Garrison said. We want to be able to do bigger events.

The fees that had been proposed would be prohibitive, Garrison said.

Basically, that tells us that the citys not interested if those fees were followed because no one would participate because you wouldnt make your money back let alone make money to start with, Garrison said.

Garrison also said the city should find ways to give a preference for local vendors, saying he had been to city festivals and events where most of the food vendors were from outside Hickory.

This could mean the city working with the Hickory Downtown Development Association to ensure local vendors could have a chance at first refusal for events, Garrison said.

Ericka Gonzalez, speaking on behalf of Guadalupe Alamilla, asked about rules requiring a food truck to have an agreement with a separate, brick and mortar commissary.

Alamilla ran a taco truck last year but has been unable to since November because she has had difficulty finding a kitchen willing to serve as the commissary, Gonzalez said.

Deputy City Attorney Arnita Dula said state regulations requiring the commissary have been removed, but county regulations may still require it.

Gonzalez said Alamilla also wanted to know about whether or not there was a type of community kitchen in Hickory like one Alamilla had used in Asheville.

Assistant City Manager Andrea Surratt said, to her knowledge, there was no such place in Hickory.

As the business of food trucks grows in Hickory, something like a community kitchen may start up, Steiger said.

Its just not big enough yet, Steiger said. As the food trucks come, maybe somebody will open their own commissary and sell time to that commissary.

Those downtown stakeholders and community members who spoke at the Tuesday meetings added suggestions and input about creating communities through food trucks, the value of food trucks to the city and the best ways to approach regulation.

Barbara Rush Early, executive director of the Greater Hickory Cooperative Christian Ministry, suggested creating a food truck park that could become a space for social enterprise.

This space could be made into a gathering place to host activities like performing arts, Early said.

Early said she had seen areas in San Antonio, Texas, where blocks were dedicated as sites for food truck parks.

Especially in light of the citys bond projects, the food truck park idea could provide the city with an opportunity to really do something unique and something different, Early said

And when were talking about the population of people that you want to keep here in Hickory, this is something that would be very attractive to that population of people, Early said.

The property next to the GHCCM, which Early said is owned by N.C. Sen. Andy Wells, was mentioned as a possible site for such a park.

There was some discussion at the meetings about the effects on existing restaurants from food trucks.

Surratt said there had been a mixed response from restaurants on the matter.

They pay a lot, like they will tell you their largest expense is taxes in their monthly accounts payable, so they feel very strongly that they should be protected slightly from that, Surratt said.

At the same time, those restaurant owners or former restaurant owners who came to voice their opinions seemed to embrace the competition.

Julie Owens, owner of Taste Full Beans coffeehouse, said competition would improve service.

I figure if a coffee truck comes downtown, if theyre way more amazing than me, I better get on my game, Owens said.

Others discussed how having food trucks could bring variety and innovation to the dining scene in Hickory.

At one meeting, Chris Simmons said he believed food trucks could prompt a type of experimental speculative restauranting.

You can get speculation about types of food being attractive in a market, and they can try those things out without the enormous financial risk of going into a particular neighborhood, Simmons said.

Members of the general public also expressed the regulations in place would need to be flexible enough so the trucks can be truly mobile, rather than having to stay in one place all or most of the time.

I mean the whole point of food trucks that is the fun part of food trucks is they arent in the same place every day, and you get your following, you know, you follow them on Facebook or Twitter, and you have to go find them, Kristin Darbee said. And if theyre good, people find them.

Community members also expressed the initial regulations should be minimal early on and could be changed as necessary in response to the way the business develops.

Lets show ourselves on the forgiving side now and enforce the rules more heavily as needed, Meredith Ross said.

In addition to the meetings, the city also is accepting comments through a survey posted at www.surveymonkey.com/r/mobilefoodvendors.

The survey will be available through Monday morning.

Surratt said the staff hopes to have a food truck ordinance before the city council by mid-summer.
Although the use of statins for treating people at risk of heart disease has been historically quite controversial, new research suggests that statins may promote heart health by improving the structure, and, as a result, the functioning of this vital organ. Share on Pinterest Statin treatment may improve the structure and functioning of the heart, a new study shows. Statins are a type of drug commonly used to lower cholesterol levels in people with a higher risk of heart disease. Although the therapeutic use of statins has been subject to controversy , a new study  presented at EuroCMR, held in Prague in the Czech Republic  suggests that the benefits of statins go beyond their cholesterol-lowering effects. The lead author of the new research  Dr. Nay Aung, a cardiologist at the William Harvey Research Institute of the Queen Mary University of London in the United Kingdom  emphasizes the health benefits of statins. They can improve the function of blood vessels by preventing them from building up additional plaque, as well as reduce inflammation. Additionally, former studies have shown that they can reduce the thickness of the heart muscle, and recommended them as a beneficial way of treating left ventricular hypertrophy. However, these studies were primarily carried out in animals, and those in humans were quite small in sample size. Therefore, Dr. Aung and team set out to undertake a larger study to see whether they can confirm the findings.

Analyzing the link between statins and heart structure The study examined the link between statins and the structure and functioning of the heart, looking at 4,622 people with no history of cardiovascular disease. Participants were enrolled in the UK Biobank, a large cohort study. This health resource contains information on the patients use of statins, and the researchers used a questionnaire to ask participants for further information regarding their use of statins. The researchers used cardiac MRI to measure the volume and mass of the left and right ventricles. Dr. Aung and colleagues applied multiple regression to the data, adjusting for factors that might have influenced the results  such as body mass index (BMI), ethnicity, race, and gender. Overall, almost 17 percent of the participants were taking statins. These patients tended to be older, have a higher BMI, higher blood pressure, and diabetes. As Dr. Aung explains, these associations were expected, as statins are usually prescribed to patients with an increased risk of heart disease. A higher body mass, higher blood pressure, and diabetes are all known risk factors for heart disease.
Struggle With Thalassemia

Gagandeep Singh Chandok is like any other young man. He works for an MNC in Bangalore and has had a professional career spanning almost 10 years. He enjoys movies, music, hanging out with friends, traveling and exploring new places. One may imagine this is a perfect life. However, one particular thing in Gagandeep''s life sets him apart from his peers. He has to travel to the blood bank every 15 days to get 2 units of blood transfusion.
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In 2001-2003, half of patients stopped taking HIV medications 23.9 months after starting them, but by 2004-2006 the median of persistence reached 35.4 months. In the final study period, 2007-2010, more than half the patients were still taking the medications by the study's end, so the median had not even been reached. Statistical analysis that adjusted for possible confounding factors confirmed that the last group of patients had a reduced risk of discontinuing their medications compared to patients at the beginning of the decade.A few other studies have shown a similar trend, but they have been based on data from advanced, individual clinics, Wilson said. This study is the first to show progress among a broad-based, low-income population.Youn and Wilson agreed that while results showing strong increases in treatment persistence over a decade were encouraging, they acknowledged that it's still a major problem that so many people apparently discontinue HIV medications after a few years. And for all the progress reported in the study, some crucial disparities remained. Everyone improved at about the same pace, but women, blacks and people living in certain states (e.g. Texas and Louisiana) remained more likely to discontinue therapy sooner than men, whites and people living in other states (e.g. Maryland and New Jersey), the researchers found."Although it is improving, it is still not optimal," Youn said. "There is lots of room for further improvement. Still many people discontinue therapy in a short period of time."Wilson, who sees patients in addition to his teaching and research, said there are several reasons why patients discontinue HIV treatment even though it is life-sustaining in the long-term. So long as patients are on the medication, many typically have no HIV-related symptoms. Instead what they perceive most immediately is the cost of medicines, and the sometimes significant side effects. There is also still a stigma around HIV that can make taking the drug difficult, for instance if people feel like they'll have to hide it.In general, adherence to medications for many chronic conditions is poor, Wilson said, yet rigorous persistence with HIV treatment is especially important. Not only does staying on medications preserve the health of patients, but also it reduces the likelihood that the virus will develop drug resistance and it reduces the possibility that a patient could transmit the virus to someone else.A substantial portion of the improvement in HIV treatment persistence appeared to come from the fact that the drugs became much easier to take over the course of the decade. For one thing, some side effects have eased. Also, early in the decade patients might have had to take six pills a day but toward the end of the decade patients could take just one. People in the study on single-pill regimens had a 29 percent lower hazard of discontinuing medication than people on the six-pill regimen.But when the researchers statistically controlled for regimen, and a variety of patient demographic characteristics, they still saw improvements in persistence. That suggests that more is contributing to the improvement, Wilson and Youn said. The data don't show this, but they suspect that another important factor is a strong national push to emphasize persistence in HIV treatment.A hint of this comes from their comparison of persistence with HIV treatment and that of treatments for other chronic conditions such cholesterol, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. The study showed that HIV treatment persistence has improved markedly at the same time that persistence with other treatments has not. Among hundreds of thousands of HIV-negative Medicaid recipients taking any of the three non-HIV medications, persistence changed very little between 2001-2010, the study showed. Yet at the same time, persistence with those medications did improve markedly among HIV-positive patients who were also on antiretroviral therapy (ART)."There could be something about using ART or about HIV care settings that improves persistence with other medications," Youn, Wilson and their co-authors wrote in AIDS.Moreover, they added, "these findings suggest that more systematic efforts to prioritize and support medication adherence at the practice level could improve adherence with chronic medications more generally."In future studies, the team will continue to update its data, to investigate the potential link between adherence counseling and better persistence and to also measure how consistently patients take their medications, not just whether they continue to take them at all.Source: Eurekalert
Whenever we hear someone say airport appearance, our minds instantly start reeling images of top shot celebrities and actors walking past the cameras in their dapper and sexy avatar. Some of them even take a few minutes to pose for photographs which we later drool over secretly. But, starting today if anyone talks about showing up at the airport, we will immediately think of this 65-year-old South Korean politician who redefined thug life for this generation with his recent stint. Making an entrance is one thing, but making a GRAND entrance is something that we guess we can only relate with Kim Moo-Sung from now on. Take a look here.

South Korea's Kim Moo-sung arriving like an absolute boss pic.twitter.com/NNSEXzjii4  Chris York (@ChrisDYork) May 23, 2017

The badassery with which he passed his bag to the subordinate waiting for him has turned heads like no one else and thanks to this stint, he has now become a much talked about personality, after South Korean Presidents hot bodyguard.

We guess the Indian politicians should take tips from Kim Moo Sung on how to throw shade like a boss. Our PM Modi usually makes a bland entry, but hey, we are not complaining! Oh wait, actually former PM H.D. Deve Gowda did pull a similar stint when he parked his car inside a railway platform in Bengaluru.

Jokes apart, this attitude also makes us think about male entitlement in the society and how the middle-aged (slightly older actually) treat their juniors in general. His attitude wasnt that of a guy who looked even a bit concerned about his team. According to Korea Herald, http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170524000862 Kim Moo-Sung said I just saw my aide and gave (my luggage) to him. Why should I explain? I do not really care.

His confidence must have been hitting the roof, since he couldnt spare a second glance nor give two flying f**ks to whether his yellow suitcase was received by the guy or not. Clearly, after this incident, Twitter could not remain silent for long.
We all have been waiting for the eventual release of the now confirmed OnePlus 5, which also determines the fate of the OnePlus 3T. OnePlus has confirmed that the company will slow down the production of the OnePlus 3T and eventually discontinue the smartphone until the impending release of the OnePlus 5.

In a blog post, OnePlus clarified that although the company will discontinue the smartphones production, they will continue to support the OnePlus 3T with regular software updates. The company did not clarify the duration of the support but it is expected to have updates until the end of 2017.

 YouTube

The post further details, This is the last call to buy the OnePlus 3T before stock runs out. The company claims that they only have a few units in stock and if buyers want to get their hands on the device they should do it right away. Since the company will not be manufacturing the highly popular smartphone anymore, it is imperative that you buy the phone as soon as possible.

 YouTube

OnePlus claims that the 3T has been their most successful smartphone yet and is considered among the best smartphones in the world. The company, in the blog post, said Since merging our software platforms, weve been able to push out more consistent software updates simultaneously for the OnePlus 3 and 3T. Thanks to our Beta Program, weve also been able to implement more of your feedback, which has really helped improve the quality of our updates.

 YouTube

In a recent statement, both OnePlus and Qualcomm confirmed that the OnePlus 5 will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and they also said that, The OnePlus 3T (both 64GB and 128GB variants) will continue to be available for purchase in India until later this year. OnePlus products and accessories are available through all three official sales channels, including oneplusstore.in, Amazon.in and the OnePlus Experience Store in Bangalore. So don't worry if you still have an older phone!
Foreign Minster N. Kotzias talked by telephone today with the UN Secretary-General's Special Advisor on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, whom he invited to come to Athens, to the Foreign Ministry, where Mr. Kotzias will receive him, on Monday, 29 May, at 11.30.
CASEVILLE  Members of the Caseville Historical Society recently held their monthly meeting.

There were 19 members present.

President Rich Bass called the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance. The minutes of the previous meeting and the treasurers report were presented and approved by the group. Bass reviewed a list of opportunities ahead for members and interested persons. They included a history skills workshop presented by the Historical Society of Michigan on June 2 that will cover Fading Photos, and another on June 16 called, Developing Junior Historians.

Both conferences are available online as a webinar. The Michigan Upper Peninsula Conference will be held June 23-25 at Iron River and Caspian and will cover a number of topics. Anyone interested in attending these conferences may find more information available at the museum office. Bass thanked those who helped out with the spring clean-up at Maccabee Hall. Volunteers included Bud and Donna McCormick, Rosemarie Cregeur, Dan Calabrese, Audrey and Tom Jesmore, Paul Geiger, Harold and Sherry Hoelzle and Dick Pedler. Bass said Sherry Hoelzle has put together a very nice scrapbook covering Caseville Historical Society activities.

The membership committee reported one new member, Cathryn Snider.

Events committee chairwoman Joyce Miller reviewed the list of activities planned for the coming year. They included the Ice Cream Social from 1 to 3 p.m. May 28. Ice cream may be purchased at a cost of $4 for adults and $2 for children. Al and Pam Mason have donated the toppings and fruit for the treats.

The Ladies Luncheon will be held on June 8. Sherry Hoelzle reported all 40 tickets to this event have been sold. The featured speaker will talk about quilts.

The Charity Island Picnic will be held following the regular meeting on July 20. The 48 tickets to this event have all been sold. The picnic will include a boat ride and presentations regarding the history of the island. The Cheeseburger Museum will be open from noon to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 11-20. A raffle with a cash first place prize of $400 and a second place prize of $100 along with a silent auction for donated gift baskets will again be a feature of the Cheeseburger Museum.

Huron County Museum Weekend will be held Sept. 23-24, and it will feature a Classic Car Show at Maccabee Hall on the Sept. 23. Moore Shoreline will help sponsor this event.

The Harvest Dinner and Auction will be held Nov. 12.

Bass reported 24 people visited the museum over the past month. Items recently donated included items from Paula Darany, Jill Headley and the Pigeon Museum. The Ladies Dry Goods & Millinery Shop display is coming along nicely. Items still desired include: vintage fabrics, old cash register, house dress from the mid 1900s, sewing patterns, button-on-a-card, school dress, ankle socks, yarn and undergarments. Items may be donated or loaned for the duration of the exhibit.

Barb Eimers is available the first Thursday of each month at Maccabee Hall to assist persons interested in completing family or building histories. Eimers maintains books with information to help in these searches.

Bass informed the group that the construction project is nearing completion. There are just a few last minute items to finish. Following the meeting, the group went upstairs to view the work that has been completed. The entire group is thankful to D&D Construction, Last Call Drywall, All Pointes Services, Centerline Heating and Cooling, Jim Flock Plumbing, and Caseville True Value Hardware.

The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. June 15. All meetings are open to the public and everyone is invited to attend. Meetings are a good way to meet other parties interested in the history of the Caseville Area.

For more information, call 989-856-9090, visit www.thehchs.org/caseville, e-mail chscm@comcast.net or like the group on Facebook.
BAD AXE  No commercial solar development will be allowed in Huron Countys county-zoned townships for a year, or until an ordinance governing it is drafted.

The Huron County Board of Commissioners this week passed a moratorium banning such development.

Also at this weeks meeting, a representative from a commercial solar developer that has been courting local farmers to sign contracts introduced himself.

Casey May, of Cypress Creek Renewables, said he was not opposed to the moratorium, considering what Huron County has experienced with wind energy.

May said he was there to answer questions, and offered to help craft a zoning ordinance that works for everybody.

Were in the infancy of this, May said, explaining why no one from Cypress Creek had come to Huron County previously.

There is a lot of misinformation out there, he said, noting that Cypress Creek has built over 160 solar projects throughout the country  125 of which the company owns.

Were a pretty vertically integrated company, from development to financing projects, constructing projects ... and ownership of those projects, he added.

He said that in hindsight, he wished he would have reached out to the commissioners and/or planning commission earlier to denote the firms presence and provide context.

You havent heard from us, because typically we wait until we have something more tangible, May said, calling any Huron County projects still hypothetical in nature.

Cypress Creek has 400 employees in eight states, he said, and has other projects in southeast Michigan.

Commissioner John A. Nugent invited May to be on the agenda for the June 20 commissioners meeting, and May accepted.

Large-scale solar development is expected to be addressed in the Huron County Master Plan, which is currently being revised.

According to the moratorium language, no projects will be permitted until the master plan is complete.

Cypress Creek has reportedly offered landowners $800 an acre for large-scale solar developments.

Earlier this month, the Huron County Planning Commission conducted a public hearing on the proposed moratorium.

A handful of county residents spoke during the hearing, after which the planners debated the time frame of the moratorium for its recommendation to the board of commissioners.

The Huron County Board of Commissioners voted 6 to 1 in favor of the ban. Commissioner Steve Vaughan was the commissioner who voted against it.

In other news, Nugent told the board that while evaluating personnel requests, it would be helpful to have department heads at commissioners meetings.

Then questions could be answered, including whether there are sufficient funds for the position, and whether the employee would supervise others.

In other business at this weeks meeting, the board voted to:

 Increase the pay rate for dispatcher trainees to $11.75 per hour.

 Employ Lucas Loss as a full-time corrections officer in the Huron County Sheriffs Office, with a salary of $35,179.

 Employ Nehemiah P. Messing as a part-time dispatcher trainee.

 Employ Ashlyn Drews as a full-time deputy county clerk/election assistance, with a salary of $30,681.

 Employ Jillian Ferris as a full-time family court clerk, with a salary of $29,218

 Employ Tami J. Gettel as a full-time administrative assistant in the Huron County Prosecutors Office, with a salary of $27,827

 Authorize an independent contract with Tasha Tschirhart as the intensive prevention program/family liaison.

 Advertise for a vacancy on the Huron County Zoning Board of Appeals for a three-year term. The application deadline is 5 p.m. June 7. The applicant must be a resident of a county-zoned township.

The next commissioners meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 6 in the Huron County Building.
MARLETTE  The Nurse Practice Council of Marlette Regional Hospital (MRH) recently donated $639 to the Caring Heart Health Clinic in Marlette following an employee fundraiser.

The clinic provides free health care services to Sanilac County residents who are uninsured or underinsured.
UPPER THUMB  Before busy summer schedules set in, the American Red Cross urges eligible donors to roll up a sleeve to help ensure a sufficient supply for patients in need. Donors of all blood types are needed now to help accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and those receiving cancer treatment.

Kenneth Reed gives blood in his sons honor. When Trace was eight days old, he underwent heart surgery and received blood transfusions.

Its the least I can do, said Reed. If it wasnt for donors, he wouldnt be here with us today. I dont call it donating blood; I call it donating life.

Giving blood is an easy and thoughtful way to honor a loved one who has relied on blood products, to follow in the example of a family member who gives regularly or to simply help others. As a thank you, those who come out to donate May 26-30 will receive a Red Cross-branded visor, while supplies last.

Make an appointment to donate blood by downloading the free Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). Donors can then also visit redcrossblood.org/cedarfair to enter to win one of three grand prize packages for four to Knotts Berry Farm in California or Cedar Point in Ohio.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities in the Thumb include:

 Port Hope: 1 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. June 14, at Port Hope AmVets Post 115, 8011 Rubicon M-25.

 Marlette: Noon to 5:45 p.m. June 1 at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, 6785 W. Marlette St.

 Sandusky: 12:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. June 15 at Countryside Family Center, 912 W. Sanilac Road.

 Cass City: Noon to 5:45 p.m. June 13 at Cass City VFW Hall, 4533 Veterans Dr.

All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health, may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Blood donors can now save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, prior to arriving at the blood drive. To get started and learn more, visit redcrossblood.org/RapidPass and follow the instructions on the site.

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nations blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families.
The Air Force wants to hire another 1,600 personnel -- mostly civilians -- in an effort to provide squadrons with relief from a growing number of responsibilities.

The service on Wednesday said it plans to increase so-called commander support staff manning by 961 civilians, 469 enlisted personnel and 170 officers, bringing the total number of personnel in the function to 6,300.

The goal is to hire all 961 civilians in fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1.

Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Davis, director of Air Force manpower, organization and resources, will lead the initiative. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein in September announced Davis would head reshaping the function and formation of Air Force squadrons.

In August, the service began removing miscellaneous responsibilities known as "additional duties" typically assigned to airmen at the unit level. It has since cut 29 of 61 additional duties identified under Air Force Instruction 38-206, "Additional Duty Management."

But some duties were reassigned to commander support staffs. For example, the lead organizational defense travel system administrator, who approves travel orders and vouchers for unit members, realigned under CSS.

The new manpower will help lift some of the weight of those additional duties. Officials will work with major commands to assess areas of greatest need and prioritize manning, the release said.

The latest step should not to be confused with efforts by some major commands such as Air Combat Command to add extra support personnel to flying squadrons, Maj. Bryan Lewis, an Air Force spokesman, told Military.com in an email.

Units under ACC have been using contractors to "assist with operational administrative support for scheduling, standardization/evaluation, and administrative duties specific to requirements in the flying community within those specific work centers," he said.

U.S. Air Forces Europe, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Education and Training Command will begin doing the same for their fighter units in fiscal 2018.

"Several other MAJCOMs," Lewis said, are looking into using contractors in these roles and will make final decisions during fiscal 2019 budget discussions.

But additional CSS staffing must come first, Davis said.

"The CSS provides critical support to the squadron, but not all of these positions were fully funded in the past," he said in the release.

"We're fixing that and will also add new positions to increase the level of CSS support for many squadrons. Fully funding the increased CSS requirement is a key element in revitalizing Air Force squadrons," he added.

Lewis could not say by press time if the service plans to grow CSS through brand-new recruits, by moving current airmen around to these billets, or a mixture of both.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.
Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
A U.S. service member deployed to Syria in support of the fight against Islamic State militants died Friday after a vehicle rollover incident.

According to a statement from Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led command overseeing the ISIS fight, the incident happened in northern Syria. The military branch the fallen service member belonged to was not identified.

"Further information will be released as appropriate," officials said in the release. "It is CJTF-OIR policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."

U.S. forces in Syria are concentrated in the north, where a coalition of troops is fighting to flush ISIS fighters out of Raqqa, the one-time capital of the group's so-called caliphate.

There are now roughly 900 U.S. troops in Syria following the March deployment of an additional 400 service members in support of the Raqqa fight. That month, several hundred Marines entered the country to establish an artillery post, while Army Rangers maintained a visible presence north of Raqqa in Manbij.

The casualty represents the third death of a service member in Syria since the beginning of Operation Inherent Resolve, the name of the U.S. operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

On Nov. 24, 2016, Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott Dayton, an explosive ordnance disposal technician, was killed by an improvised explosive device in northern Syria. On March 28, Air Force Staff Sgt. Austin Bieren, an airman assigned to the 21st Space Wing, died in the same region of apparent natural causes.

For the combined OIR effort, including operations in Iraq, there have been 41 U.S. military deaths to date, according to Defense Department records. Of those deaths, 30 have been caused by non-hostile incidents.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Search workers on Monday discovered the remains of a victim of the April 2014 ferry disaster still wearing a life jacket.

The remains were found on the third floor of the salvaged wreck, where passengers other than students from Danwon High School were staying when the ship sank.

One search worker said, "We discovered relatively well-preserved remains while digging out the mud."
Former Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields will leave the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker with around $51.1 million in cash, stocks and pension benefits.

The Associated Press had Fields' compensation done by executive tracking firm Equilar. The 56-year-old retired earlier this week after three years as Ford's CEO, and 28 years in all at the company.

Specifically, Fields will be eligible for $22.1 million in stocks, $17.5 million in pension benefits, $7.9 million in stock options, and he could net an additional $3.6 million if he doesn't go to work for a competitor.

Replacing Fields as Ford's CEO is Jim Hackett, who was the former CEO of office furniture maker Steelcase and has been running the company's mobility unit for about a year.

Hackett is Ford's 10th CEO in its 113-year history.

"We're moving from a position of strength to transform Ford for the future," Bill Ford said in a statement.

"Jim Hackett is the right CEO to lead Ford during this transformative period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space. He's a true visionary who brings a unique, human-centered leadership approach to our culture, products and services that will unlock the potential of our people and our business."
U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Vincent Brooks on Thursday defended the deployment of a a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery in South Korea amid pledges from the new president here to let the National Assembly review the decision.

"This is all about North Korean missiles and the threat that North Korean missiles pose to [South Korea], and it's for the defense of [South Korea] and nothing else," Brooks told a security forum hosted by the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association and the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

He said that the THAAD deployment provides the allies with an unprecedented area defense against the North's missiles.


ANN ARBOR, MI - It started with a breakfast order - waffles, bacon, eggs and toast - and ended with handcuffs and questions about the immigration status of restaurant workers.

Sava Lelcaj, owner of Sava's Restaurant in Ann Arbor, said a compliment to the chef from a pair of plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents preceded the raid that resulted in three arrests and the brief detention of a green card-carrying line cook.

ICE and Lelcaj on Thursday revealed more details about the targeted immigration enforcement action that took place around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 24 at Sava's Restaurant, 216 S. State St. near the University of Michigan's central campus.

Lelcaj, who was not at the restaurant during the arrests, said she has been gathering information on the incident from employee accounts and surveillance footage.

She said it started when two plainclothes federal agents entered the restaurant and sat at the bar, which offers a clear view of the kitchen area and the entire cookline staffed by line cooks and sous chefs, including a number of immigrants.

The agents ordered breakfast - one had waffles and bacon, the other eggs and toast-and they complimented the food, Lelcaj said.

ICE public affairs officer Rachael Yong Yow said in a statement the agency utilizes various techniques in their enforcement efforts, but could not comment on whether agents ate at the restaurant before making the arrests.

The agents had a photo of a person of interest who they were looking for at the restaurant.

Lelcaj said the agents did not have a warrant or business cards, but wrote their names on a dinner napkin before leaving the premises.

It was then that word got back to the kitchen of the presence of ICE agents.

One employee, Carlos Rivera-Ochoa, stepped out the back door of the restaurant to call his wife and was approached by two different, uniformed agents.

They asked him if he knew the man they were seeking, Rivera-Ochoa said. When he said no, he was handcuffed and placed against a vehicle.

He was later released from custody after the agents saw his permanent resident card, which was on his person at the time.

When she heard about what happened to Rivera-Ochoa, Lelcaj said she figured the other employees in the kitchen may have heard or seen him being placed in handcuffs and "overreacted."

After seeing Rivera-Ochoa's detention, three other workers then tried to leave the restaurant through a front door, Lelcaj said, and were promptly arrested.

"The officers overextended and my guys overreacted," she said.

Those three, unlike Rivera-Ochoa, were not holding immigration documentation, and were not released at the scene.

ICE alleges two of the men arrested, Sergio Cardenas Rubio and Jesus Ortiz Hernandez, unlawfully entered the United States without inspection at an unknown date and location. The other, Mohamed Souman, lawfully entered the country, but did not depart in accordance with the terms of his status, according to ICE.

ICE confirmed on Thursday afternoon that Ortiz Hernandez had been released through the agency's Alternatives to Detention program, and is required to check in with ICE officers while in the immigration hearing process.

Cardenas Rubio and Souman remained in ICE custody Thursday afternoon.

Bree Stilwell, a spokesperson for Savco Hospitality, an umbrella company that runs Lelcaj's restaurants, said Ortiz Hernandez was released on a tether and could be allowed to come back to work, though it could take 60 to 90 days to get his employment authorization paperwork in order.

Lelcaj said that she once lived in the U.S. illegally in the 1980s before eventually becoming a U.S. citizen and an owner of three Ann Arbor-area restaurants. She said she vets potential employees for legal employment eligibility before hiring, and believed the workers who were arrested were in the U.S. legally.

Lelcaj worked late into Wednesday night, her infant son asleep in her arms at some points, as she arranged coverage for vacant shifts left by the arrested men. She moved other shifts around so Rivera-Ochoa could accompany his immigration lawyer to the Detroit ICE office Thursday morning.

It is not the first instance of immigration agents and police officers showing up at Sava's, she said, but previous visits did not end with employees in federal custody and her staff afraid of being detained themselves.

"I think it's a sign of the times," said Lelcaj, referring to immigration policy changes and rhetoric under President Donald Trump's administration. "This has been a real eye-opener for us."

Savco Hospitality has been receiving hate mail, including threats to no longer patronize Sava's since the ICE raid. At the same time, the restaurant has seen an outpouring of community support from other business owners, activist groups, and area residents.

"That gave us the steam to keep working," Lelcaj said.

She said immigration and documentation in the restaurant industry is not a simple matter.

Her team was in communication with ICE about the employees still in custody as of Thursday afternoon, Lelcaj said, hoping to eventually see the entire team back at work.

"To us, they're legal," Lelcaj said. "This is a reality they face."

Savco Hospitality is looking at strengthening its employee verification process.

E-Verify, an Internet-based system that compares information from I-9 forms to government records, is used when certain positions are being filled, but not for all positions, Lelcaj said.

"We do need to step up our security, and make our hiring more secure," she said.

Lelcaj said she is looking forward to getting back to normal business. She is hoping her employees and their families can as well.

"That's all I can do is be there for them," Lelcaj said. "Savco people are built tough. I am really proud of my team and of my kitchen guys."
Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

Amazon's new $90 million fulfillment center near Detroit is taking shape.

The project, announced in December, calls for at least 1,000 new jobs as the internet retail giant builds a 1 million square foot facility in Livonia for a regional fulfillment center about 10 miles west of Detroit.

"We're proud to welcome Amazon to Livonia and applaud the collaboration that took place to bring this significant capital investment and new, well-paying jobs to our community," Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans said at the time.

Don't Edit

Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

This is one of the single biggest job creation deals announced in 2016.

Amazon plans to quadruple its employee base in Michigan when the center opens later this year.

Today, it employs about 250 in a Detroit tech office, at Brilliance Audio in Grand Haven - where employees record audio books, among other things - and at a 210,000-square-foot sortation center in Brownstown Township, southwest of Detroit.

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The fulfillment center is among the 29 new centers planned by the online retail company, which had 103 operating in the U.S. as of this month, according to MWPVL International, a supply chain consultant.

The centers contained items stored by Amazon sellers. "(W)e pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products," Amazon says on its website.

The model is remaking retail. Amazon sales increased 23 percent in the first quarter of 2017, climbing to $35.7 billion.

According to MWPVL, the Livonia site will contain "small sortable" items.

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The building is 1,009,000 square feet at the corner of Amrhein and Eckles roads in Livonia. The size puts it near the top of Amazon fulfillment centers, which go up to 1.2 million square feet. Several are around 1 million square feet, while most are smaller.

It's located in an industrial area near I-275, I-96 and M-14. The property's address will be 39000 Amrhein.

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From Amazon.com/Photographer: Eric Slomanson

The project appears to be on track to open in October.

That's when Amazon initially said it would be completed. Company officials didn't confirm timing for this report.

However, Livonia Mayor Dennis Wright said he believes that timeframe will be met.

"It seems like everything is a go," he said, noting that crews have been working at night and weekends to get it ready for the next phases of work.

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Amazon is hiring the manager for the distribution center.

The recruiting ad says its looking for manufacturing plant managers from across the U.S., with full relocation provided.

More description: "Your background as a plant manager will give you the ability to balance strategy and execution in our complex, automated environment. You will be responsible for all aspects of the operations including people management and development, process, and meeting or exceeding the expectations and promise made to our customers. You will lead a dynamic team of Operations and Area Managers to achieve operational excellence through coaching and mentoring the team; driving employee engagement, and building leadership bench strength within the operation network.

"As a senior leader you may oversee upwards of 1,000+ salaried and hourly employees, in our fast-paced facilities that can exceed a million square feet. You will serve as the face of the organization to thousands of employees and the community where the center is located. This position offers unlimited career potential as we continue to grow our global footprint."

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Hiring started this spring for other targeted positions.

Nine other jobs are listed for the Livonia operation as of late May on the Amazon hiring site.

They include: IT support engineer, 3 senior staffing coordinators, a staffing specialist, a loss prevention manager, a site safety manager and an area manager for military veterans.

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The official Amazon jobs site doesn't list any hourly distribution positions for the Livonia center, and only had one seasonal position listed for Brownstown Township.

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Here's what Amazon said this week about hiring:

"(We) are hiring for more than 1,000 full-time positions for employees who will pick, pack and ship customer orders as well as operations management, human resources, IT, facilities management, finance and more. Full-time employees at Amazon receive competitive hourly wages and comprehensive benefits, including healthcare, 401(k) and company stock awards starting on day one, as well as generous maternity and parental leave benefits."

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Amazon will get up to $7.5 million from the state.

The Michigan Strategic Fund awarded Amazon the ability to qualify for that amount in three stages, if it adds 1,000 employees by Dec. 31, 2020.

The first deadline is Dec. 31, 2018. If it's hired 350 new employees by then, it will get a $2.625 million performance grant.

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The reason: It considered other states.

That's standard reasoning for state performance grants through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. In this case, Amazon told state officials that it was considering Ohio and Indiana for the distribution center.

From state documents: "The Company was searching for a location that would be within a 350 mile radius of Midwestern customers, putting Indiana and Ohio well within those search parameters"

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Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

Amazon estimates the center represents a $90 million investment.

The shell of the building is valued at $35 million, according to city assessment records.

A permit issued in mid-May calls for $1.2 million of interior alterations, including storage racking, interior conveyors, offices and restrooms.

Eventually, the road also will get improvements to handle the increased truck traffic. The city of Livonia is contributing $337,500 toward that work.

Oliver Hatcher Construction of Novi is doing the work.

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Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

The fulfillment center is rising on former General Motors Corp. property.

Amazon is using 48.8 acres of a 116-acre property sold in 2015 by RACER Trust. The former GM Delco Chassis plant had ceased operations years before GM's bankruptcy, and the buildings were demolished. RACER acquired it as part of the portfolio of former GM properties to be sold.

Ashley Capital bought the property, and now operates it as Livonia West Commerce Center.

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Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

RACER signs are still on fencing there.

But another portion of the site has been sold. Republic National Distributing Co. will move its spirits and wine wholesaling business to a building it will construct on Eccles, adjacent to the Amazon parcel. That move will bring up to 500 jobs to Livonia. RNDC paid $3.28 million for the land, according to city records.

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Paula Gardner | PaulaGardner@mlive.com

This fulfillment center is a big deal for Livonia.

"Were excited to be a part of the Livonia community," an Amazon spokesman said in an email.

Livonia feels it, too.

Wright said he regularly takes city employees to the property in small groups so they can see the progress. "I want them to feel the excitement like everyone one else," he said.

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"This is a big deal for the future of the city for next 25 and 30 years," Wright said.

Other areas of the city are seeing new development, which includes three new hotels along I-96. But it's also a mature western suburb of Detroit, where redevelopment happens just as frequently. One example is the newer retail center on the former Wonderland Mall property.

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Speaking of big:

Amazon's stock is selling at $993.38 per share as of May 25. And its value, based on outstanding stock shares, is $474.8 billion.

The Seattle-based company has more than 340,000 global employees.

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More Michigan business news

Ford changes senior leadership under new CEO Jim Hackett

Comcast to lay off 72 employees at suburban Detroit warehouse

Hidden disability spurs Michigan man to create $7M entertainment company
Geese Dog 2

Jill Hendrickson and Grace at Collins Park in East Grand Rapids playing fetch. Karen Waite | Mlive.com

(Karen Waite)

Jill Hendrickson and Grace at Collins Park in East Grand Rapids. Karen Waite | Mlive.com

Those visiting John Collins Park this summer may spot East Grand Rapids' most unusual city employee.

Grace, a border collie, works to reduce the park's geese problem by chasing them away. This is the city's second year utilizing Grace.

Jill Hendrickson, Grace's owner, has been running her business, Webs and Paws, for two years. The duo works at about four or five locations in the Grand Rapids area, Hendrickson said.

"She loves the work; for her it's play," Hendrickson said.

One of the job sites is East Grand Rapids' John Collins Park, where an overflow of goose droppings caused the city to come in contact with Hendrickson and her goose-chasing dog.

"Canadian geese like to find manicured, green space to eat, and when it's nice and open like John Collins Park, it allows them to see any potential predators coming their way," said Fred Bunn, EGR Parks and Recreation director.

One goose can drop one to one and a half pounds of excrement in the park per day, according to Bunn, and when you have up to 80 geese in the park, it can add up to more than 100 pounds of droppings.

Bunn had researched different methods of dealing with the geese problem, including noise makers, dog statues, and streamers, but none of them seemed feasible for a public park, until he came across the use of border collies.

"Grace basically is like introducing a predator back to the area," said Phil Weber, grounds maintenance supervisor for EGR.

Grace and Hendrickson even go as far as getting into the water to scare the geese off. While Grace swims out chasing the geese, Hendrickson will jump on a paddle board and join her.

Grace and Hendrickson visit the park five times a week. Their season starts on March 15 and runs until Dec. 31.

Jill Hendrickson's Grace is on the guard at Collins Park in East Grand Rapids. Karen Waite | Mlive.com

Hendrickson, a Grand Rapids resident, graduated from Cornerstone University, where she worked on the grounds.

"My boss was like, 'What do you want to do with your life?" she said, and that's when the business idea was brought to her.

Hendrickson had purchased Grace from a woman in North Carolina, who trains dogs specifically for the geese-chasing work.

At the time, she already had a few clients when she sent a cold email to the city, which led her to Bunn and Weber.

"The population (of geese) was such that the amount of droppings they were leaving in the park was truly becoming a nuisance," Bunn said.

They had been fighting the issue for nearly five years, according to Bunn, and it had left Weber and his team having to dedicate too many man hours cleaning up the waste.

"We had been struggling to find something that would assist us," Bunn said.

The city is paying $2,394 for Grace's services for the 2017 season.

In addition to Grace, Weber said they use a product called Scram, which is a mix of spices that can upset the geese's stomach when ingested.

While Bunn and Weber said that park-goers should still expect some droppings from the geese, Grace has helped reduce that amount dramatically.

The difference has been "night and day," Weber said. "It's been a big burden off of us."
batali

Chef Mario Batali (USDA photo by Lance Cheung (Flickr: 20120524-OSEC-LSC-011.JPG) CC BY 2.0 or Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Just in time for warm weather, part-time Michigan resident and foodie extraordinaire, chef Mario Batali, is sharing a drink recipe with fans.

The cucumber martini is decidedly summery - and very grown up. Cucumbers by the bushel won't be appearing in our farmer's markets just yet, so you'll want to snag one from your store's produce section if you want to try crafting this green cocktail at home.

Batali shared the video recipe on Facebook Friday, just in time for the holiday weekend.

The main ingredients are simple and fresh: A grated cucumber, a little seasoning, and a few splashes of vodka - stirred, not shaken.

The restaurateur and his family began making summer memories on the Leelanau Peninsula more than a decade ago, and he has not been shy about sharing his favorite Up North spots.

"Michigan is the America that I always thought existed, but doesn't necessarily exist right now in New York City," Batali told MLive's John Gonzalez in 2015. "It is pure. It is perfect. The water is fresh - it is unsalted and shark-free."

When Batali's son began attending The University of Michigan in 2015, he began visiting Ann Arbor and its food scene more frequently.

For tips on the proper way to stir cocktails, per chef Batali, check here.
UPDATE: The incident was cleared at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

ANN ARBOR, MI - The right lane of northbound U.S. 23 remains blocked Friday, May 26 as Memorial Day travelers get ready to head north.

At 5:41 a.m., a semi-trailer rolled over on U.S. 23 about one mile south of North Territorial Road.

At 1 p.m., the truck was still blocking the right lane and shoulder in a construction zone, causing backups past the M-14 interchange and to the west triple on U.S. 23.

Crews are using airbags to lift the semi upright and get it towed away, said Kari Arend, Michigan Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

She didn't have an estimate of when the scene would be cleared.

R lane still closed on NB US-23 N of M-14. Crews using air bags to try and get the truck upright before it can be towed away. pic.twitter.com/g4FI3TtpX4  MDOT - Ann Arbor (@MDOT_A2) May 26, 2017

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office has warned drivers to avoid the area.

For those traveling this holiday weekend, check out MDOT's Mi Drive map that shows construction, highway closures and traffic cameras.
Screen shot 2017-05-26 at 7.58.28 AM.png

(MDOT)

ANN ARBOR, MI - A semi-truck rollover has blocked the right lane on northbound U.S. 23 north of Ann Arbor.

The Michigan Department of Transportation reported the incident at 6 a.m. Friday, May 26 at U.S. 23 between M-14 and North Territorial Road in Ann Arbor Township.

The initial call was at 5:41 a.m.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office advises drivers to avoid the area.

Huron Valley Ambulance took one person in stable condition to the hospital, said spokesman Chad French.

Crews are using airbags to get the semi upright, according to MDOT.
nihbudgetcuts.jpg

The University of Michigan received $457 million in federal funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2016, accounting for 58 percent of its total federal funding. Proposed cuts to scientific research from the administration of President Donald Trump would slash funding to the NIH by 20 percent. Melanie Maxwell l The Ann Arbor News

ANN ARBOR, MI - The National Institutes of Health supplied 58 percent of the University of Michigan's federal research funding in 2016.

Future funding of that type of research might be in jeopardy, however, with President Donald Trump's proposed 20 percent cut to NIH funding he requested Congress approve earlier this week.

According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration's budget proposal would cut the overall NIH budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion, while the National Science Foundation, which dispenses grants to a variety of scientific research endeavors, would be trimmed $776 million, an 11 percent cut.

The two organizations are UM's biggest supporters of federally-funded research, with UM receiving $457 million and $86 million in 2016 from the NIH and NSF, respectively.

UM Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said funding from the NIH covers a wide range of units at UM, including its Medical School, its colleges Engineering, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Nursing and the Institute for Social Research.

"It's not possible to determine what areas of research may be affected by a cut in NIH funding," Fitzgerald said in an email. "However, a 20 percent cut to NIH-funded research, if approved by Congress, could cripple research in areas as diverse as biomedical devices to potential cures for disease to health care policy. It also would affect Michigan Medicine's ability to provide patient care to under-served communities in Michigan and beyond."

Fitzgerald said NIH-funded research also is central to graduate education, providing support for students working on federally funded research projects.

"A 20 percent reduction in funding would dramatically cut back our capacity to educate the next generation of scientists, physicians and engineers who drive our nation's economic vitality and quality of life," Fitzgerald said.

In March, UM President Mark Schlissel voiced his concerns about proposed federal funding cuts by the Trump administration that would impact the university's ability to conduct research as well as provide for arts and humanities.

UM's total volume of research expenditures for 2016 was its highest ever at $1.39 billion, ranking first among all public universities in the United States. That total was second overall to only Johns Hopkins, representing a 7.2 percent increase from the previous year. Of that total, $792 million came from federal sources.

"We are deeply concerned about the administration's proposed broad and destructive cuts to areas that support federally-funded research, the arts and the humanities," Schlissel said in March. "The cuts will have severe consequences and dramatically affect our work as a public research university to serve society and our students."

The Association of American Universities also has decried the administration's proposed cuts, with former UM President Mary Sue Coleman issuing a statement Tuesday.

Coleman said the Trump's budget would effectively cripple the nation's scientific efforts, undermining economic growth, public health and national security.

"For 70 years, America's universities have partnered with the federal government to develop cutting-edge technologies and medicines," Coleman said. "This partnership created the internet, put a man on the moon, ended polio, blunted the scourge of AIDS and put the world in the palm of your hand with the smartphone.

"This budget proposal would devastate the programs that enabled all those things, and hobble our ability to provide tomorrow's cures and technologies," she added. "The Administration's budget would also harm our ability to make higher education accessible and affordable, sidelining millions of future American innovators and creators."

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney defended Trump proposals to slash programs related to the environment, education, health care for the poor and foreign aid, according to The Associated Press.

The former tea party congressman told the Budget Committee that he went line by line through the federal budget and asked, "Can we justify this to the folks who are actually paying for it?"
Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Moon Jae-in's special envoy on Wednesday that he would be willing to mediate with North Korea by sending an emissary to Pyongyang.

Song Young-gil, a Minjoo Party lawmaker, quoted Putin as saying, "The North Korean nuclear issue could never be resolved through war. That's impossible."

"The problem should be solved through dialogue because using sanctions alone has limitations, and it could also work against North Korean people and have humanitarian consequences," Putin added according to Song.
Beauty doctor Kim Young-jae, who was convicted of providing clandestine treatments to ex-President Park Geun-hye, has decided not to appeal against his three-year suspended sentence and W3 million fine (US$1=W1,119).

Another doctor, Kim Sang-man, who was formerly employed by the luxury Chaum clinic in Gangnam and prescribed rejuvenating injections for Park under a soap-opera alias from 2011 to 2014, also gave up taking the case to an appeal court. He was fined W10 million.

But Kim Young-jae's wife Park Chae-yoon, who was convicted of bribing ex-Park aide An Chong-bum in connection with her medical supplies business, is appealing her one-year jail sentence.

And so is Lee Im-soon, another of Park's quacks and now a professor at Sunchunhyang University, who was given a two-year suspended sentence for perjury. She denied introducing Kim Young-jae and his wife to Suh Chang-suk, Park's official physician at Cheong Wa Dae.


The comments that stirred up the biggest controversy during the last presidential election campaign were made by South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung, who said former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye pursued their policies with "good intentions." Frontrunner Moon Jae-in's camp relentlessly attacked Ahn for the comment, and Moon criticized Ahn for "lacking anger" at Park, who went down in a massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal. The remark played a decisive role in causing voter support for Ahn to wane.

But now Moon's administration seems to believe that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un harbors "good intentions," unlike the former presidents. Moon accuses his predecessors of being brazen thieves but leaves open the possibility of a summit with the North Korean leader, vowing during his campaign to travel to Pyongyang even before a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

A few days ago, Moon's top official in charge of unification and national security mentioned the prospect of ending sanctions against the North imposed after it torpedoed the Navy corvette Cheonan in 2010 and even reopening the Kaesong Industrial Complex and resuming tours to North Korea's scenic Mt. Kumgang resort. The Unification Ministry did not miss a beat and rushed to look into measures to resume civilian exchanges.

But North Korea has still not apologized for shooting dead a South Korean tourist in Mt. Kumgang, sinking the Cheonan, attacking Yeonpyeong Island with artillery, or a box mine attack in the demilitarized zone in 2015. Meanwhile it conducted two more nuclear tests and countless missile launches.

The Moon administration's return to the abortive "sunshine policy" of rapprochement with North Korea must of course base itself on the assumption that Kim has good intentions, but where is the evidence? This is a man who used a chemical weapon in a crowded foreign airport to murder his own half-brother and had his own uncle executed by firing squad.

But the greatest danger is that Moon's crowd-pleasing will fatally undermine the efforts of the international community. UN Resolution 2321, which was adopted in November last year, aims to limit the number of bank accounts held by diplomatic missions as well as North Korean diplomats within their respective territories. One clause in that resolution points out that North Korea may use "bulk cash" to evade UN and international sanctions.

China and Russia backed the resolution even though they oppose the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery from the U.S. in South Korea, and neither believe the North Korean leader has any good intentions. In fact, a 20-page document included in the resolution warns not to trust Kim and to avoid any activities that could result in financial gain for the North because the money could be used to finance its nuclear weapons and missiles.

What would happen if Seoul unilaterally scraps sanctions against Pyongyang and ends up shoveling cash to the North? It would mean ridicule from the international community and the very real danger of violating UN regulations. The Moon administration must first of all come up with a North Korea policy framework that the majority of South Koreans can understand. Let Kim show how good his intentions are. Anything else would be reckless endangerment of the nation and the world.


The State Council has approved setting up an inter-ministerial meeting, to be headed by Chinas top economic planner, to jointly manage subsidence regions affected by coal mines and promote their transformation and development.

The meeting, led by the State Council, will be in charge of research on measures to manage and develop the regions, and of inspections on local governments performance in this respect.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will be responsible for organizing the meeting, and other departments, including the ministries of civil affairs, finance, and human resources and social security, also make up the meeting.

According to the circular, He Lifeng, head of NDRC, will serve as the convener, and Lin Nianxiu, deputy head of the commission, will act as the deputy convener. Other members of the meeting include Gong Puguang, vice minister of civil affairs, Liu Wei, vice minister of finance, and You Jun, vice minister of human resources and social security.
Over the past eight years, Chinas efforts in shantytown renovation benefited more than 80 million people, and the undertaking will continue to serve around 50 million more in the coming three years.

That was the task outlined at the State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang on May 24.

Eighty million implies a population equivalent to that of Germany moved to new housing from 2008 to 2016.

The achievement demonstrates the people-oriented principle of the Chinese government, which is also a common idea of the international community as reflected in the United Nations Habitat Agenda.

Adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements in an urbanizing world require global efforts. In China, shantytown renovation will continue to benefit more people under Premier Lis support.

According to an official from the United Nations Human Settlements Program, Chinas experience in shantytown renovation is a global miracle, and the success of Chinese cities deserves the worlds attention.

A consultant from the World Bank said, Shantytown renovation in China ensured housing, incomes, and interests of the poor population.

At the meeting on May 24, the government decided to build 6 million houses this year for residents in poor living conditions, and 15 million houses in shantytown areas will be renovated from 2018 to 2020.

As millions of people benefit, the policy will also drive up investment and consumption, and address imbalances in the process of the new type of urbanization.
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The Board of Directors of Eskay K'N'IT (India) Limited, at its Meeting held on 26th May, 2017 inter alia transacted the following business1.Approved the Audited Annual Accounts for the year ended 31st March, 2017, together with Auditors Report.2.Approved the Audited Financial Results for the Quarter and year ended 31st March, 2017, pursuant to Regulation 33 of the Listing Regulation. The copy of the Audited Financial Results for the Quarter and year ended 31st March, 2017, is enclosed herewith.3.Approved the Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the year ended 31st March, 2017, pursuant to Regulation 33 of the Listing Regulation. The copy of the Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the year ended 31st March, 2017, is enclosed herewith.Source : BSE
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Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on May 26, 2017, inter alia, has recommended a final dividend of Rs. 1.10/- per share of Rs. 10 each (i.e.11% on the paid up equity share capital) for the Financial Year 2016-2017 subject to the approval of the shareholders at the ensuring Annual General Meeting. The final dividend shall be paid within 30 days from the date of its declaration at the AGM. The said final dividend is in addition to the 1st interim dividend of Rs. 22.50 per share and 2nd interim dividend of Rs. 6.40 per share declared by the Board of Directors, for the Financial Year 2016-2017.Source : BSE
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In Compliance of regulation 33 read with regulation 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosures Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we wish to inform you that Board of Director in its meeting held on 26th day of May, 2017 has inter alia considered and approved the following:1.The Audited Standalone Financial Results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2017 issued by the Statutory Auditor.2.The 14th Annual General Meeting of Company to be held on Monday, 26th June, 2017 at 12.00 noon at Tivoli Grand Resort Hotel, Main GT Karnal Road, New Delhi.3.Board has approved the Notice of 14th Annual General Meeting, Financial Statement and Director Report together with Corporate Governance reports.4.Board has approved the E Voting facility with NSDL.5.Board has appointed Ms. Anita Aswal, Practicing Company Secretary as Scrutinizer for conducting E voting.6.The Board has approved to increase the Authorized Share Capital of the Company and consequential alternations of Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company subject to the consent of shareholders in the ensuing Annual General Meeting.7.The Board has appointed M/s. Khandelwal and Khandelwal Associates, (Firm Registration No. 008389C) Chartered Accountants as Statutory Auditor from the conclusion of Fourteenth Annual General Meeting till the conclusion of Seventeenth Annual General Meeting, subject to the approval of shareholders in upcoming Annual General Meeting of the Company.8.The Board has considered, approved and decided to issue bonus shares of face value of Rs. 10/- each of the Company by way of capitalization of Free Reserves subject to the approval of shareholders in upcoming Annual General Meeting of the Company in the ratio of 1:1 i.e. 1 (one) fully paid up Equity Share of Rs. 10/- (Rupees Ten only) each for every 1 (One) fully paid-up Equity Share of Rs. 10/- each held in compliance with applicable provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 read with the rules notified and SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2009 and subsequent amendments thereto.9.The Board has considered the appointment of Ms. Dipti Jain as Additional Director.10.The Board has considered the appointment of Mr. Rajpal Jain as Independent Director for the term upto March 31, 2022 and recommend the same to Shareholders for their approval thereon in the ensuing Annual General Meeting.11.The Board took on note the annual performance evaluation ofa.The Boardb.The Committeec.Individual DirectorsCopy of the Audited Standalone Financial Results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2017 along with statement of Assets & Liabilities, Auditors Report and Form-A are attached herewith for your record.The meeting of Board of Director commenced at 12.30 pm. and concluded at 2.45 p.m.Thanking youSource : BSE
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At the Board meeting held on today i.e. Friday 26th May, 2017 it was decided by the Board that the 37th Annual General Meeting of the company will be held on Friday, 21st July,2017 at 12.00 noon at the Conference Room, 5th Floor, Dhannur, Sir P. M. Road,Fort, Mumbai 400 001. The Register of Members of the Company and Transfer Books thereof will be closed from July 17th ,2017 to July 21st, 2017 (both days inclusive).Source : BSE
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The governments disinvestment agenda is gathering steam with the Finance Ministrys Department of Investment and Public Asset Management selecting merchant bankers for sale of governments holding in several public sector companies. Joining the queue are power sector-focused public sector companies  hydroelectric power generator NHPC and lenders to the power sector  Power Finance Corporation and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC).

As per todays closing prices, the share sale in the three companies will get the government Rs 8,935 crore. The government has collected Rs 1,195.46 crore from divestments done so far this financial year.

The government has already selected merchant bankers for share sale of Indian Oil Corporation, NTPC and RITES. Selection of advisors of several other public sector offerings is underway.

ICICI Securities, SBI Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Equities will advise the government on sale of its shares in NHPC. Edelweiss Securities, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Equities will advise it on sale of its shares in PFC while ICICI Securities, Axis Capital and SBI Capital Markets will do the same in case of REC. All the banks will get a fee of Re 1 each for managing the sale processes.

The government aims to sell 10 percent of NHPCs equity out of its shareholding of 74.5 percent. The hydel power generators equity base has a total of 10.25 billion shares. Going by todays BSE closing price of Rs 30.45, sale of 10 percent of the companys equity will help the government raise Rs 3,124 crore.

Similarly in PFC also, the government intends to disinvest 10 percent equity out of its shareholding of 66.35 percent. Its equity comprises 2.64 billion shares. At today's BSE closing price of Rs 143.70, sale of 10 percent equity will fetch the government Rs. 3,794 crore.

Against sale of 10 percent equity in both NHPC and PFC, the government wants to sell only 5 percent in REC whose equity base comprises 1.97 billion shares. At todays BSE closing price of Rs 204.30, the government will mop up Rs 2,017 crore from the REC share sale.

The government plans to raise Rs 72,500 crore through sale of its shares in various companies. It aims to achieve this by raising Rs 46,500 crore via minority stake sales, Rs 15,000 crore through strategic stake sales and Rs 11,000 from the listing of various public sector insurance companies.

Besides the above three, IOC, NTPC, Rail Vikas Nigam, Steel Authority of India, NHPC, amongst others are the companies the government has lined up to tap the capital market for achieving its target.
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Now, to flaunt a job title of software engineer, you may not require an engineering degree. HCL Tech is offering to make software engineers out of students who have cleared their higher secondary exams (twelfth standard or junior college) with 85 percent marks.

HCL is looking to hire 100 such students from Chennai under its Tech Bee Programme, which aims to provide employment to students from rural India. Under the programme, students will get classroom training for nine months and on-the-job training for three months. According to reports, students will get a stipend of Rs 10,000 per month in the first year to work in one of the many divisions at HCL Tech.

Through the Tech Bee initiative, the company says, the Early Career Programs focus is to provide employment-oriented training to candidate right after class XII for jobs in HCL. In response to a query from Moneycontrol, the company said the program has been devised to leverage the demographic dividend in rural India.

Indias technology companies are looking at multiple levers to bring down costs as clients drive a hard bargain on legacy tech spending. And the fastest way of lowering costs is bring down the age and work experience of employees. It may be recalled that some of the larger IT companies are in the process of weeding out more experienced employees and hiring younger and less expensive employees with the same skills.

In IT parlance, this is termed as the bulge mix. Employees of some large IT companies claim that the management is looking at lowering the bulge mix to improve profitability. Other than the IT architects, most of the work done by Indias vast army of engineers is low end. Several engineers are employed by large corporations to do repetitive and mundane tasks like filling log sheets and generating tickets. Engineers are even employed in business process outsourcing functions. Given that clients are pressurizing Indian vendors to reduce costs, Indian companies are not keen to hire graduates from engineering institutes for low end jobs.

This move will have repercussions on Indias educational system as well. Hundreds of engineering colleges have sprung up over the last two decades to feed Indias USD 150-billion software industry. With companies looking to hire junior college students, vast number of engineers that these institutes produce will become even more unemployable.

India produces 800,000 engineering graduates a year. Other than Indias IT sector, few sectors have created enough jobs to absorb these engineers. India also produces 12 million graduates a year. With the services sector slowing down over the last four years, India is staring at a jobs crisis in the coming years as its main jobs engine starts to sputter.
SoftBank has announced the induction of India-born Rajeev Misra who has been heading the firm's Vision Fund since over seven months, into the company's board of members.

Earlier this month, SoftBank CEO and President Masayoshi Son signed a deal with the Saudi Government raising USD 93 billion capital for his Vision Fund.

SoftBank Group and Saudi Arabia's main sovereign wealth fund have committed to invest over USD 93 billion in technology sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics. This will be the world's largest tech innovation.

The Softbank Vision Fund is expected to target long-term investment in firms that seek to target the next leg of innovation.

Before heading the Vision Fund, Misra was the head of strategic finance at SoftBank. He joined SoftBank in November 2014.

Misra has also served as the global head of credit at financial services firm UBS. SoftBank has funded a bunch of start-ups in India including e-commerce firm Snapdeal, wallet firm Paytm and cab aggregator Ola, among others.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), that caters to one-third of the world's oil requirement, along with non-OPEC countries Thursday extended a production cut aimed at tightening the market well into 2018.

Here is an account of what the deal entails for oil producing and consuming nations.

Why was the deal proposed?

To counter the US shale industry's sudden oil boom, the OPEC, in 2014, flooded the market with excess oil causing a supply glut. However, the move backfired with prices plunging steeply to almost USD 25 in early 2016 from more than USD 100 per barrel in 2014 .

This led the oil producing countries to propose production cuts starting December to firm oil prices back up to the current USD 50-55 per barrel-mark.

What is the current status of the deal?

The production cut has been extended by nine months and can persist up to a year. However, the extent of production cut is retained at 1.8 billion barrels per day.

Oil prices dropped more than 4 percent on the news Thursday as the market had been hoping oil producers could reach a last-minute deal to deepen the cuts or extend them further, until mid-2018, it said.

Which countries have stayed out of the deal?

Nigeria and Libya have not participated in the deal due to unrest following militant attacks. The attacks have hit oil production and damaged pipelines in Nigeria.

The US, which is the world's largest oil consumer, has also stayed out and instead become a strong competitor for the OPEC.

Equatorial Guinea has joined OPEC, cutting the number of non-OPEC countries down to 10.

What could be the repercussions of the deal for OPEC?

Competition from the US shale has toughened and is threatening OPEC's monopoly. Producers in the US raised output by more than 10 percent since mid-2016 to over 9.3 million bpd to take advantage of higher prices and the supply gap left by OPEC and its allies.

On the other hand, India, the third largest consumer of oil, is contemplating importing oil from US and Canada if OPEC countries continue the output cut.

Is a further extension likely?

According to OPEC President and Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih the output cuts will be extended further when the signatories to the deal meet next in November.
Size of retirement savings gap in India is expected to touch USD 85 trillion by 2050 from the current shortfall of USD 3 trillion largely due to longer lifespans and reduced levels of savings, says a WEF report.

The savings gap resembles the amount of money required in each country (including contributions from governments, individuals and employers) to provide each person with a retirement income equal to 70 per cent of their pre-retirement income.

According to a World Economic Forum study the retirement funding gap in the world's six largest pension saving systems  the US, UK, Japan, Netherlands, Canada and Australia  are expected to reach a USD 224 trillion gap by 2050.

Adding in China and India, which have the world's largest populations, the combined savings gap for the eight countries reaches a total of USD 400 trillion by 2050, a sum five times the size of the current global economy.

The report noted that the savings gap will grow fastest in China and India at growth rates of 7 per cent and 10 per cent respectively and three key drivers of this growth include rapidly ageing populations, high percentage of informal sector workers and growing middle class.

"The anticipated increase in longevity and resulting ageing populations is the financial equivalent of climate change," said Michael Drexler, Head of Financial and Infrastructure Systems at the World Economic Forum. To alleviate the looming crisis, governments must address the gaps in access to the pensions system and ageing populations as they are the key sources of the widening pension gap, WEF said.

"Individuals need to increase their personal savings and financial literacy, while the private sector and governments should provide programmes to support them," said Jacques Goulet, President, Health & Wealth at Mercer. The report was prepared by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Mercer, a global consulting leader across health, wealth and careers.
Indias four million IT employees have received support from an unlikely quarter. The All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), which has over 285,000 members, denounced the large-scale layoffs in the IT sector and warned of a cascading impact on the rest of the economy.

In its statement the AIBOC said: "We must understand that when people are unemployed in large numbers, it hurts the rest of the economy, creating a cyclical problem. Again, when companies suffer because of lost business, they might in turn be forced to make layoffs of their own, making the unemployment rate rise and overall spending drop even more leading to further loss.

Over the last five years, urban consumption has remained strong because of Indias strong six million middle-class white collar workers. Indias information and technology sector employs over 40 lakh people and mass layoffs in this sector would impact other sectors like banking, too.

All the major information technology giants have denied any mass layoffs and said that the separations were over performance issues. In its statement, the AIBOC said: We can very well understand that the IT companies have awarded lower ratings to the employees to prevent any possible labour litigation over the layoffs. Most of the people may not know that the performance evaluation system of IT companies is such that a section of employees will inevitably be rated as low performers irrespective of the revenue generated per employee. The IT sector companies amassed so much of wealth when business was doing well, now they should use some of the profit to re-skill and diversify the activity to retain the employees."

Even though companies have officially denied mass layoffs, employees have alleged that companies are using performance as a lever to justify retrenchment. Poor performance ratings are a way to prevent litigation over layoffs.
Four years after the government's decision to "demonetise" Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, data suggest currency circulation in value and volume continuously increasing, a massive rise seen in the digital payments transaction, and seen a sharp decline in counterfeit notes detected in the banking system, according to data available on RBI. Demonetisation was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2016, citizens were given 50-days to deposit old notes in banks and post-offices by December 30.

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who exchanged scrapped old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes are under the lens of Income Tax (I-T) department officials who suspect of them exchanging the money on behalf local citizens, according to a report in Business Standard.

Sources were quoted as saying that Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) informed the I-T department that old currency notes worth more than Rs 500 crore have been confiscated from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Gujarat since March 31.

NRIs were initially allowed to exchange old notes with the Reserve Bank of India till March 31, three months later than the deadline for Indian residents.

However, the deadline for NRIs was extended to June 30 with the condition that an individual can exchange a maximum of Rs 25,000.

Tax officials suspect NRIs are exchanging old notes that were hoarded by money operators and have sought some details about these NRIs from the RBI.

Officials however, believe that the confiscated notes did not form even one percent of an estimated Rs 70,000 crore in old notes which are still out of the banking system. So far, both the RBI as well as the government are tight-lipped about the amount of notes that have been returned to banks.
business Three years of Modi government: Here are hits & misses of the energy sector Energy security, recalling power distribution companies to life, reducing a national shortage of power. These were three big challenges for the Modi government when it came to power. Three years later, a lot has been achieved, but a lot more is still to be done. Here's a report taking stock of the changes in India's energy landscape over the last 36 months.
Demonetisation has "hammered hard on corruption" and the GST implementation has brought a positive change in the economy, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said, lauding 3 years of Modi government at Centre.

Congratulating the NDA government for completion of three years, Raje while addressing a gathering in Jhalawar district today said that India has established its identity as a super power on a global platform.

She said that three years of efforts made for uplift of villages, poor and farmers has brought a paradigm change, adding that historic decision of demonetisation has hammered hard on corruption.

She added that banking integration and GST implementation have brought a positive change in the economy.

Raje said the union government has given an accountable governance to the people of the country, adding the recent electoral win in Uttar Pradesh is an example of faith that people have in the governance.

She said at a time when the world is reeling under recession, India is on continuous path of economic growth under the effective policies and management of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India's emergence in the field of culture, politics, diplomacy and economy is an important achievement of the Centre in last three years, she said adding that the country's strong relationship with the USA, Afghanistan and other nations has established its image on the global platform.

Meanwhile, Raje today announced a package Rs 24.25 lakh for construction of roads and bridges in Jhalawar district. She also announced to provide international standard medical facilities at SRG Hospital in Jhalawar.

State government is making efforts to make available health facilities in rural areas so that people don't have to come to Jaipur, Raje said while inaugurating medical services.
American tech major IBM today said it is launching its first centre of excellence, in association with Vmware, to serve enterprises' needs on the cloud.

"The customers will have the ability to interact with teams from both IBM and Vmware through the centre of excellence," Vikas Arora, the company's newly appointed head for the cloud business in the country, told PTI.

He said the centre will not have a physical location per se and work will be carried out from across both the partners' facilities in the country or even from client locations, given the benefits of the cloud.

The centre will do more than an advisory, and will include 'show and tell' which will involve coming up with proof of concepts for clients, he said.

Arora, however, declined to divulge the exact resources which are being devoted for the initiative by both the partners.

"The centre of excellence intends to bring knowledge, resources and infrastructure for enterprise customers who move their workloads to a secure, compatible hybrid cloud solution, leading to an improved user experience and commercial benefits for their IT operations," a company statement said.

He said the company operates a data centre in Chennai since 2015, which is one of the 51 spread across 20 countries.

The company has signed up a slew of cloud customers in the country, including Kalyan Jewellers, Honda Cars, fashion designers and banking and financial services clients.

For the jewellery chain, the company is working to digitally transform the retail experience, while for the car company, efforts are directed at accelerating market launch of new services.
1. Always fill at a reputed fuelling station. If you have a pump near to your house or work space, make sure you always fill up there. If you build up a rapport with the workers, they could spill secrets you may not know otherwise. (Representative image)

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State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) saved over Rs 1,000 crore last fiscal after the government gave state-owned refiners the freedom to formulate their own crude import policies.

IOC Chairman B Ashok said the freedom allowed the companies to decide on tenders for purchase of crude oil within a very short span of time.

"Earlier we used to take 36 hours to formalise a tender. This time was considered too much considering crude oil prices change every minute. This time has now been brought down to less than two hours," he told reporters here.

The flexibility given in April last year allowed companies to decide on buying crude oil from spot or current market on their own instead of previous practice of a committee comprising company officials and a representative of the Oil Ministry deciding that.

The flexibility has led to oil companies shifting from traditional term or fixed tenure buying to spot purchases.

"Term crude volumes used to be as high as 80 per cent (of all the crude oil imported). We have brought it down to 68 per cent," he said.

This flexibility has allowed oil companies to quickly finalise any crude oil available in the international market at an economical price.

"We have made tremendous savings because of this... more than Rs 1,000 crore has been saved," he said.

Developing their own policies has helped oil companies adopt a dynamic, flexible policy for crude procurement, eventually benefiting consumers.

The freedom given to oil companies in April last year meant that PSU oil companies no longer needed approval of bureaucrats for deciding on spot imports.

The flexibiilty will boost refining profit margins and give state-owned firms a level-playing field with private refiners.

IOC Director (Finance) A K Sharma said the company will in current fiscal buy 4 million tonnes of crude oil on term or fixed contract from Iran as against 5 million tonnes bought last year.

Imports from Saudi Arabia will be almost flat at 5.6 million tonnes, those from Kuwait would rise to 6 million tonnes from 5 million tonnes last year.

Volumes from Iraq will jump to 18.3 million tonnes from 15.6 million tonnes previously, he said adding Iraq is now IOC's biggest oil supplier.
Iron & Steel | Imports from China, 2019: 4 percent. (Image: Moneycontrol)

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Jindal Steel and Power subsidiary Power Plant Engineers has forayed into emission control manufacturing by signing a technical cooperation agreement with Germany's VPC.

JSPL's foray is in line with the Make in India programme and is expected to give an impetus to India's commitment to United Nations COP21 for improving emission intensity, a company statement said today.

"Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) announces the signing of a technical cooperation agreement with German Emission Control Systems major - VPC GmbH -- and JSPL's EPC arm Power Plant Engineers (PPEL)," a company statement said.

"This first-of-its-kind engagement leverages the strengths of JSPL and VPC to provide cost-effective solutions to power producers, with an estimated market size of Rs 20,000 crore targeting a power generation capacity of 1,00,000 mw."

This mandate to reduce environmental pollution necessitates power generation companies to upgrade their existing emission control systems.

Under this alliance, the manufacturing lines will be set up at JSPL's existing facilities in Raipur and Punjipatra to harness emerging opportunities in the fast-growing market for emission control systems among power producers in India and key global geographies.

JSPL aims to start manufacturing and commercial despatch of Made in India emission control systems by December 2017.

In the first phase, the focus will be on manufacturing and supplying such systems to the existing power generation capacities in excess of 5,000 mw owned and operated by JSPL and its subsidiary Jindal Power.
L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering has signed an agreement with Institute of Chemical Technology to build ethanol plants based on indigenous technology.

"Today, India is producing about 3 per cent bio-ethanol blending with ethanol derived from molasses, which is called generation (1G) ethanol. There is huge impetus from the government to set up second generation (2G) ethanol plants in order to achieve the ambitious target of 20 per cent blending bio fuels," the company said in a statement.

"L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) to build ethanol plants based on fully indigenous technology by ICT," it said.

The technology is capable of processing a variety of feed stocks and offers one of the lowest project life cost, it added.

2G ethanol is defined as that derived from agricultural waters that do not much impact human and animal food chains, and result in more than 60 per cent reduction in fuel carbon emissions compared to equivalent petro-fuel use.

"The Department of Bio-Technology (DBT) set up country's first bio-energy research centre at ICT in 2008 known as the DBT-ICT centre for bio-science with express mandate to develop, scale up and monetise the 2G ethanol bio-ethanol technology," Professor GD Yadav, Vice Chancellor of ICT, said.

LTHE and ICT will collaborate to provide complete solutions in setting up 2G ethanol plants in terms of process license, technology knowhow, basic engineering, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) or engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM).

"We are delighted to be part of this initiative taken by the Government of India, and it is in line with our commitment to nation building. The 2G ethanol projects will herald a new age of technological development and will fuel India's green economic growth engine.

"LTHE will leverage its vast experience in engineering, construction and project management to meet challenges and deliver 2G ethanol plants," Subramanian Sarma, MD and CEO of L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering said.

L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering is a leading provider of design-to-build engineering and construction solutions across the hydrocarbon spectrum to global majors.
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi waves following a joint statement to the press with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Modi met with the Mexican President Wednesday evening during a short working visit to the country.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 26 percent while Nifty rallied over 30 percent as Modi-led government completes three years in office today. Narendra Modi was sworn in as Indias 15th Prime Minster on May 26, 2014.

D-Street which has already given a thumbs-up to the Modi government expects it to return to power in the year 2019. The policies implemented by the government in the last three years has far reaching impact on Indian economy and the fruits of which investors would only be able to see in the next 2-3 years.

The pro-growth reforms initiated by the government to boost consumption, rural employment, bringing down non-performing assets, real estate, boost manufacturing, doing business, making India as the best investment destination for foreign investors, streamlining indirect tax structure by goods & services tax (GST), among others has far reaching impact.

Current government policies are quite pervasive and impact multiple sectors. We believe though upliftment of lower strata of society is the main theme which cuts across the reform process, Saravana Kumar, CIO at LIC MF told Moneycontrol.

In this context, we are positive on consumption themes of FMCG and Financials. We are also positive on infrastructure sector due to the thrust of government on roads, rails and defense projects, he said.

We have collated a list of top seven sectors which are likely to benefit the most from the policies initiated by the Modi government in the past three years:

Analyst: Tushar Pendharkar, Head of Research, Right Horizons Investment Advisory Services

Capital Goods

Highways, railways and urban transport could witness huge government-led investments before general elections of 2019. In addition, renewable energy, T&D (power) and rural electrification are likely to see great order inflows.

Most of the funding would come from Government as the support from private players could be low due to financial stress on their balance sheet. We believe that government could make a capital expenditure of around USD 12-15 billion in the next couple of years through IPOs and OFS in PSUs, said Pendharkar.

Direct Beneficiaries of the move could be L&T, ABB, GE T&D, IRB, IL&FS Transportation.

Indirect Beneficiaries could be Cummins India, GE India, Ingersol Rand, Timken India, Cement Cos, and Steel companies.

Automobile

Rising disposable income (due to better rural spending), new launches and improving urban infrastructure triggered passenger vehicle & 2 wheeler sales and the trend is expected to remain strong.

In addition, rising demand for infrastructure and state transport could trigger demand for the commercial vehicle.

Direct Beneficiaries of rising disposable income are Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, and Eicher Motors. While indirect beneficiaries are Wabco India, Jamna Auto, Subros, tyres and battery manufacturers due to huge replacement market

Analyst: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Bank

Banks have been beneficiaries of major policy actions of government like financial inclusion, demonetization, affordable housing schemes to name a few. Demonetisation led to a flush of low-cost deposits into banking system which helped bring down the cost of funds and lower lending rates.

Further, transactions under the formal banking channels have seen a dramatic shift supported by the government measures of financial inclusion and linking of various government schemes.

Setting up of MPC has added more transparency to the RBIs monetary policy actions. Further, Government is moving in the right direction to strengthen the PSU banks space by favouring a merger of weaker small banks into much larger banks.

The revised PCA regulatory framework is expected to trigger the next phase of consolidation largely in the PSUB space. This will strengthen PSU banking space with fewer but stronger banks. Larger PSU banks will have significant benefits from synergies and scope of activity.

Infrastructure

The infrastructure sector is the key growth drivers of the Indian economy. The industry witnessed low demand due to slowdown and deteriorating balance sheets with mounting debts.

Currently, the infrastructure space is witnessing traction as the govt has increased infrastructure spending and deploying more orders which will stimulate the order book of infra space. Consequently, this will provide scalability and visibility to the future revenue book.

Building roads, railway, metro rail, airport modernization, Transmission & Distribution were the key area the government is giving more focus. On the other hand, the initiatives like the introduction of InvITs (Infrastructure Investment Trust) will help to provide long-term refinance for existing infrastructure projects. While Governments action plan through Niti Aayog for developing & transforming infrastructure will cement long-term benefit to the sector.

Defence

GoI is giving greater priority to defence in its Make in India programme with emphasis on indigenization to reduce import cost. The measures taken include: hike in FDI in defence, fast tracking of delayed projects and relaxed industrial license norms to build domestic capabilities.

Additionally, a new defence procurement policy (DPP) was introduced in 2016, wherein Indian designed, developed and manufactured products to get priority with a focus on enhancing the role of MSMEs & deep interaction with the industry at every stage of procurement.

Further to attain long-term self-reliance on strategic defence projects a strategic partnership (SP)" policy is finalised to boost the private sector's role in defence production. Going forward domestic private sector defence players are expected to benefit from the reforms measures.

Analyst: Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.

Affordable Housing/Real Estate

The most visible initiatives are the governments plan for Housing for All as well as the governments plans for infrastructure build out.

Since the timing of government flows can often be unpredictable, weve focused on identifying means of playing these initiatives via sectors that have predictable growth that isnt necessarily dependent on the governments initiatives kicking in on a predictable schedule.

Further, the business models for companies in housing finance, lets say, are far more predictable and attractive than the business model of a real estate developer.

With developers taking far greater risks and sitting on leveraged balance sheets, we prefer to play real estate through housing finance companies, said Sharma.

Cement

Further, cement is another area that is challenged currently, but has cyclical characteristics that will kick in as these initiatives gain traction. Finally, wed round out our preference with a focus on building materials, pipes and adhesive manufacturers, paints

and the like.

Within real estate, were interested in players with asset-light models and a focus on the affordable housing segment.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on Moneycontrol are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
With the kind of outperformance the Indian equity market has seen, it does look a bit overvalued is the word coming in from Manishi Raychaudhuri of BNP Paribas.

The house has turned slightly cautious on India and has cut down India position significantly in the model portfolio, said Raychaudhuri, adding that the rationale behind this was that in rest of Asia, the rally in equities is backed by earnings upgrade but that is not the case with India. In fact, earnings estimates have been gone down in India, he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

The market on Friday hit fresh all-time highs and settled at record closing highs as well. The Sensex clocked 31,000-mark and ended above it for the first time ever, while the Nifty ended a tad lower than the 9600-mark scaled intraday.

However, he said they are still overweight India but only about 10-15 percent overweight compared to the earlier 40 percent.

Sector specific, although they like the frontline IT names they have halved their weightage in the portfolio because of the structural headwinds like a threat from Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing etc.

According to him, the government's thrust on solving the NPA issues of banks is a very good step but would be a long-drawn process. So currently, the house is focused on banks that lend largely do retail than corporates.

Meanwhile, Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com said the current rally above 9600 is the best rally ever since 8000 on the Nifty. He said one may crib that market is not being supported by earnings but it could be that the market is getting re-rated because of all the reforms like GST expanding tax base etc., and the market will likely keep moving higher.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Reema: Markets at new record highs, is there any reason to be skeptical now?

Raychaudhuri: Going short or reducing position in this kind of a market can very often be like standing in front of a running freight train proverbially. However, I would still stick my neck out and say that the market does look a tad overvalued with the kind of outperformance that it has had. We had been arguing in the same vein for quite some time now and about 10 days ago we actually cut down the India position in our model portfolio significantly.

We are still overweight on India but that is hardly about 10-15 percent overweight compared to the benchmark, while earlier that overweight stance was as much as 40 percent. So, to that extent, we have turned a little bit more cautious on India and we think justifiably so because in rest of Asia the rally in equities has been driven by earnings estimate upgrade and this is particularly true of North Asia like Korea and Taiwan which have had very significant upgrades recently.

In contrast, in the case of India, while the markets have moved up spectacularly, earnings estimates have only drifted down. Over last six to eight months we have seen almost 5-6 percent downgrades to consensus earnings estimates for 2017 and 2018. So, this in a nutshell is the main concern that we have on India. If it had been just a case of premium valuations, we would not have been concerned because if earnings estimates move up then what is expensive today might appear cheap tomorrow. However, unfortunately that is not the case in India.

Prashant: You are saying you have cut your overweight on India, but what about emerging market funds as a whole? Do you think they have also reduced their overweight on India?

Raychaudhuri: If I look at Asia Ex-Japan and emerging market funds, on an average these funds are still overweight India. So, for Asia Ex-Japan funds, they are I think close to about 2-2.25 percent overweight, and for emerging market funds, it would be similar, possibly closer to 3 percent overweight compared to the benchmark.

I think over last one year or so, the extent of overweight position on India has reduced slightly, but not very significantly. From the discussions that we have with our key clients, the investors, we think that they are likely to continue with this overweight stance for the time being.

Reema: I was looking through your latest report and you have moved your focus away from some sectors. For example, you have downgraded IT, consumer, could you talk about those important ones?

Raychaudhuri: Within India, this weight reduction that I talked about, was effected essentially by halving the weight on IT that we had. While we are still focused on the frontline largecap companies in the sector, we have cut down the weight on them by almost 50 percent of what we had earlier because we think that the headwinds that this sector is facing is structural in nature.

So, the visa issues from the United States maybe a near-term headwind, possibly a near-term roadblock which some of the companies would use innovative ways to navigate around them. However, the bigger problem that this sector is facing is structural, the threat from artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing which would obviously take a much tougher degree of re-engineering of their businesses to navigate around. So, that is the medium-term concern that we have.

Within the consumer space, particularly the consumer staples space, we are still focused on rural consumption recovery. However, within that space, we have moved away from some of the more expensive stocks into the relatively cheaper ones.

Prashant: One space which everybody seems to be very excited about is the banking space. The reason of course is the possibility out there about where the fight against NPLs will lead us and how fast that fight can be. What is your view on the subject?

Raychaudhuri: This is a very important step that the government has considered and effected. This was actually one of our key takeaways when we visited India in late March and we met up with quite a few of the policy makers, industry experts, and companies. We realised that there is an increased degree of focus on the part of the government and Reserve Bank of India to tackle the NPA problem and we have seen a translation of such consciousness into action subsequently.

Having said this, I must point out that actual tackling of the NPA problem will be a long drawn out process because ultimately the banks will have to take a call on how much of a haircut they are willing to take on the assets that they want to sell-off from their books and that is never an easy decision.

However incrementally this is clearly a more positive outcome for the sector. For the time being in our Asian model portfolio, if I look at the Indian banks universe, we are still focused on the retail-focused banks. So, the banks which have a much larger proportion of retail lending than corporate lending. I think at least in the medium term these are the banks despite the fact that they are more expensive, these are the banks that are likely to do better as a consequence of the much lower degree of bad asset concerns on their balance sheets.

Reema: At this moment what is happening on the NPA front does not allow you to form a very constructive investment view on these companies?

Raychaudhuri: There are a few companies which would obviously be in a better position to tackle the problem and in that context the ones we are looking at are either the very large public sector banks which by virtue of their large balance sheets would possibly be able to weather the storm in case there are certain specific assets turning bad. Also, I think the banks which have a very strong deposit franchise, they would also be better placed compared to their peers.

I would think that as far as actual NPA problem translating into credit costs on the P&L account is concerned, we will have to watch for at least another 2-3 quarters.

Prashant: How would you look at today's close and what is your view where are we headed in the coming week?

Gujral: Important bit to note is that you should know how to use things. Whenever in a bull market you see breakdowns often you get shorts involved because they know but they dont know how to use it and that is what happened, the market turned viciously and sharply.

This is the best of the rally that I have seen from 8000 and chances are you will get to your upper end of the channel. So, 10000 should come in sooner than people expect because the more it goes up the more people will have left out feeling, the more they will throw in the towel, the more the report writers will say it is expensive, so that is how life and markets work out.

My sense is that this market is getting rerated because of all this reform that you are seeing, all these things getting on board  GST expanding tax base etc, I think it is something else other than earnings. We will keep cribbing about earnings and finally the market will continue to move higher.

Reema: Walks us through the trades that you are recommending for next week and the reason for that?

Gujral: Almost all stock are looking good because all of them have corrected. I have chosen stocks which havent corrected a whole lot but are continuing to see fresh highs.

So, Bajaj Finance has turned around strongly, it moved up sharply even today. In the next few days we should expect targets of Rs 1450. Tata Steel which actually held on to its 10 percent gains post the earnings, that has moved up sharply, we should see Rs 550 in the next few days.

Also Repco Home Finance in the latter half of today came back. So, that is a buy and we should look for targets of Rs 825 in the next few sessions.

Prashant: What is your view on ITC?

Gujral: FMCG as a group and ITC in particular they are both moving strongly. My sense is all stocks have some macro trigger and once that trigger happens stocks move up regardless of earnings etc because that changes the scenario where the stock or the company operates. I think taxation is a major issue for ITC and once that gets out of the way, it kind of rerates. So, for the moment keep Rs 270 type of stop and I wont be surprised if you get Rs 325 and even Rs 360 in the days and weeks to come.

Reema: What is your view on HPCL? The viewer has the stock at Rs 530.

Gujral: He has got a very good price. So, that becomes a kind of a trailing stop. Given the size of the move today, I wont be surprised if you get Rs 625-650 on HPCL.

Prashant: What is your view on ONGC?

Gujral: ONGC is a big dog. For years it does nothing. It goes up if there is some divestment which comes to the plate. Given the way Reliance has corrected and moved up today, I would move over to Reliance. I dont think ONGC has much going for it.

Reema: Reliance Industries showed signs of comeback in Fridays trade, what would be the key levels that you are looking at?

Gujral: Rs 1290-1300 is a decent stop. I wont be surprised if it retests its previous highs of about Rs 1450.

Reliance Industries owns TV18 Broadcast and Network 18 (that publishes Moneycontrol.com)
Mercedes Benz, BMW reduce prices ahead of GST. Mercedes E Class (pictured) now cheaper

This could be the best time to buy luxury cars in India as two of the largest luxury carmakers Mercedes-Benz and BMW have reduced their prices even before the government has implemented the Good and Services Tax (GST).

Prices have gone down in the range of Rs 125,000 to Rs 700,000 for all those models which are locally assembled in India. For those which are fully imported price reduction will follow soon.

Tata Motors-controlled Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen-owned Audi may also follow suit with a similar reduction. The price change by Mercedes and BWM is with immediate effect.

Mercedes-Benz India, the biggest luxury carmaker in India today, announced a downward revision in its transaction prices to cover the difference in current ex-showroom prices and post GST ex-showroom prices for customers on the entire range of Made in India product portfolio.

The price revision on a weighted average of 4 percent will be effective immediately, and is aimed at providing value to a customers purchase decision before GST implementation. Mercedes-Benz will reduce prices on the C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, M-Class and the Maybach to name a few.

Roland Folger, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India commented, We are now passing on the benefits of post-GST pricing of our Made in India cars with immediate effect. To ensure complete peace of mind for our customers, we have decided to pass on the GST tax benefits at an earlier stage at our cost. This approach will benefit the customers who want to purchase a locally produced Mercedes-Benz from now on and during the month of June.

The price reduction of the entire India-made portfolio ranges from 2-9 percent depending on the tax structure and local body taxes of the state. The weighted average of this is a price reduction of 4 percent on transaction prices of customers.

The impact on the prices on CBU vehicles is yet to be evaluated. We think the implementation of the GST structure is a landmark achievement for the Indian economy, which will support the ease of doing business in India. We are also confident that post GST implementation; there will be growth momentum in the luxury car industry, added Folger.

Another German giant BMW, which is the second biggest luxury car maker, followed suit announcing an immediate reduction in its prices. The company, however, refrained from detailing the actual reduction in prices. BMW makes the 5 series, 7 series, X5 to name a few at its Chennai-based plant.

Vikram Pawah, President of BMW Group India, said BMW Group India welcomes the implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in India. BMW is the fastest to offer preponed GST benefits to our customers much before the roll-out of GST itself.

The base rate for automobiles have been set at 28 percent under GST, which is on par with the current rates for small cars and lesser than the rates slapped on bigger vehicles. An additional 15 percent cess is levied on large cars including luxury cars.

Despite the additional cess, luxury cars will still be cheaper under GST at 43 percent than the current rates ranging between 47-53 percent, depending on rates charged by states.
S Naganath, President and Chief Investment Officer at DSP BlackRock Investment Managers has quit the fund house after working for almost 15 years with the firm. The fund house has now reshuffled the roles of the key management officials.

With immediate effect, Kalpen Parekh, Joint President takes over as President; Anup Maheshwari, Head - Equities, takes over as Chief Investment Officer - Equities and Pankaj Sharma, Head - Fixed Income, takes over as Chief Investment Officer  Fixed Income, the fund house said in a statement.

While Chief Administrative Officer Ramamoorthy Rajagopal takes over as Chief Operating Officer, Aditi Kothari Desai continues to head Sales, Marketing and e-Business division.

Naganath worked with DSP BlackRock Investment Managers (previously called DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers) from its inception in 1996 to October 1999 as Chief Investment Officer. He then worked for Credit Suisse Asset Management, New York as a portfolio manager for international equities before re-joining DSP BlackRock Investment Managers in 2002 as Joint President and Chief Investment Officer.

Prior to his initial position at DSP BlackRock Investment Managers in 1996, Naganath had worked in Hong Kong as a portfolio manager with Merrill Lynch Asset Management and GT Management, Hong Kong.

I have been privileged to lead a talented and experienced team of professionals at DSP BlackRock and am immensely proud of what we have achieved together. DSP BlackRock has a strong brand profile in the industry and the team has contributed enormously to building a solid foundation for the firm. I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future, Naganath said in a statement.

Hemendra Kothari, Chairman, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd., said I have known and worked closely with Naganath over the past two decades and will miss his inimitable humble and understated style. As head of DSP BlackRock, he helped build a unifying culture that set the foundations of our success today. Looking ahead, I am confident that Kalpen, Anup, Pankaj, Aditi and Ram will continue to add impetus to the pace of growth enjoyed by our business and assets.
N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder and chairman of Infosys, listens to a question during an interview with Reuters at the company's office in Bangalore February 28, 2012. Picture taken on February 28, 2012. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash (REUTERS - Tags: BUSINESS SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY PROFILE HEADSHOT) - RTR30CV2

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Founder Chairman of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy today expressed sadness over the IT companies laying off their employees as part of their cost cutting strategy.

"...It is sad...," Murthy told in an email reply to a PTI query about recent IT layoffs.

Murthy, however, did not elaborate on the matter.

Infosys had announced that it could hand out pink slips to hundreds of mid and senior-level employees as it carries out bi-annual performance review amid a challenging business environment.

The development comes at a time when its peers Wipro and Cognizant are taking similar measures to control costs.

The US-based Cognizant had rolled out a voluntary separation programme for directors, associate VPs and senior VPs, offering them 6-9 months of salary.

Wipro, too, is learnt to have asked about 600 employees to leave as part of its annual "performance appraisal" even as speculations were that the number could go as high as 2,000.

According to executive search firm Head Hunters India, the job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

A report submitted by McKinsey & Company at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum said, nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be "irrelevant" over the next 3-4 years.

IT companies have been one of the largest recruiters in the country. However, they have warned that increasing automation of processes would lead to reduction in hiring in coming years.

While the outsourcing model has placed India on the global map, increasing scrutiny and rising protectionist sentiment are also posing challenges for the USD 140 billion Indian IT industry.

Companies are now working towards reducing their dependence on work visas and instead hiring more locals to ensure continuity of work for clients, even though it impacts their margins.
Could this be Unicon Baba?, I think to myself.

Short, fair, beefy, dressed in a grey t-shirt and a pair of denim, the alleged Unicon Baba comes across as just your next door neighbour.

Am meeting Rajan Gupta, the beleaguered director of Ad monetisation at U2opia Mobile, who became an overnight talk of the town in Indias startup ecosystem, last week. It was after Vijay Anand, founder of a Chennai-based incubator, The Startup Centre, accused him of being the anonymous notorious Twitter handle -- Unicon Baba.

Even before I could perch myself atop a high wooden chair at a Gurgaon-based cafe, I'm thrown a question. He asks me if there's if he could be in trouble as a result of this episode.

For the uninitiated, the anonymous Twitter account Unicon Baba has been operating since a little over a year now and has been embroiled in multiple controversies, including reported legal actions by some entrepreneurs against the handle.

Gupta vehemently denies Anands claims that he owns the handle. His level of anxiety is palpable.

"Unicon Baba has not able to prove anything against anyone but has definitely affected a lot of people. Similarly (in this case) nothing has been proven but people take a lot of things on the face value," he tells me.

I have been clarifying things to each person who has reached out (post Anands allegations of him operating the Twitter account), he adds.

Last year, the Twitter troll Unicon Baba, which runs the handle @uni_con1, claimed that Jabong co-founder and ex-CEO Praveen Sinha made personal gains from business dealings at the company. According to media reports, an understandably angry Sinha filed a legal case against the Twitter account holder.

Baba's conflicts impacts Gupta

Being accused as Unicon Baba for Gupta means having slid into a direct conflict with the people affected by the anonymous handle's tweets. Besides Sinha, other CEOs who have come under fire in Twitterverse by Unicon Baba include Snapdeals co-founders Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal and InnerChefs co-founder Rajesh Sawhney. There are many others.

A father to a two-year-old, Gupta, is a B.Tech from a Delhi-based college and now looks after ad monetisation at U2opia. His wife works in a power sector company with whom he hasn't shared anything about the social media controversy brewing against him in Indias Twitterverse.

"If I told her ... she would be worrying about it day and night. There's no point (in disclosing)until she discovers it herself online or through a friend," says a worried Gupta.

Gupta shows me a selfie with Snapdeal's (Rohit) Bansal whom he met while raising funds for one of his startups.

While Bansal did not invest in his venture, according to Gupta, he was supportive enough to spend some time. Gupta also said he was very close to Rajesh Sawhney who mentored him during his startup days.

Gupta founded two start-ups -- BestDaam in 2010 and Zappka in 2014 before joining Gurgaon-based U2opia Mobile as a director of ad monetisation.

Now being accused as Unicon Baba, has created personal problems for Gupta.

"Rajesh Sawhney is a very very good friend of mine. He also helped in connecting me with people for employment. I look up to him for everything. Unicon (Baba) on the other hand has a different perception of him," Gupta explains.

"If I were Unicon Baba, I would have spared at least the people whom I knew. Why would I speak against people whom I admire?" he asks.

Did you call Sawhney after this (incident)? I ask.

"No I haven't. I will. But for now, the way, things have turned out, it is difficult for me to go back to him....In his mind, it could always be that I was the guy who has been trolling him on Twitter," he shares with me.

When Unicon Baba met Vijay Anand

It is lunch time. People at the cafe are grabbing the first seat they see. The ambience becomes noisy. I request Gupta if we could sit outside in the smoking zone under the Sun.

The unforgiving Gurgaon heat has ensured that the smoking area is emptier. Smokers seem to have vanished into thin air in the sultry heat. The alleged Unicon Baba politely obliges.

I ask him if he was approached by anyone who had been targeted by Unicon Baba?

"Not yet," he retorts. But Gupta is angry about his email id and picture being made public by Anand.

Also Read: Death of an anonymous Twitter handle - Till unmasking do us apart

It was last Thursday. Gupta had just landed in Dubai. As he connected his phone to the nearest available WiFi, his inbox started flooding with emails and text messages.

"I was totally confused. I had just arrived from Muscat and my entire day was packed," says Gupta.

Shortly, he realised that his email id and the picture was made public on the internet.

Gupta tells Moneycontrol that he started replying to emails from the Dubai airport itself clarifying that the episode was absurd. To his disappointment, some blogs even started publishing those emails.

Furious from attacks by Unicon Baba on social media, in Chennai, Anand had become determined to unmask the anonymous troll, earlier this month.



Opened my eye in @tokyo this morningsaw this masterstroke from @vijayanands. I have no doubts that he is real Chatur Ramalingam of 3idiots.

 Unicon Baba (@uni_con1) May 18, 2017



If I was Suvir of NVP my wife wud have thrown me to rehab for compulsive gamblers.  Unicon Baba (@uni_con1) May 26, 2017



A few weeks ago, Anand went onto Twitter and tried to set the password of the Twitter handle Unicon Baba.

It led him to a masked email address created to set up the Twitter account. He zeroed in on that id scanning through the email addresses on which he sends newsletters. Anand also went to Gmail and tried to set the password for the Gmail id used by Baba. It led him to an email id with the following details gup******@gmail.com.

Moneycontrol reached out to Anand on the controversy.

"I sent Gupta an email and waited for his response. I exactly know what time he actually opened the email. I told him I will give you two hours to respond before I go public with this. Since there was no response, I basically went public (with Guptas email address and identity, Anand tells me.

Did you ever contact Vijay Anand? I ask Gupta.

"I replied him stating that I was in Dubai and I would get back on Monday and that we should get on a call," Gupta tells me.

According to Gupta, Anand said he did not need to talk to him. "He was just so convinced that I was Unicon Baba," says Gupta.

Gupta knew Anand since 2007. They met at some event, being in the Indian startup circles. "I don't even remember him properly. But because of me being in his Linkedin connect, I am a part of his newsletter database too," he says.

He also clarifies, he never paid to get his newsletters.

But Anand seems convinced that Unicon Baba was somebody who had subscribed to his newsletters. Attaching an email address to a Gmail address requires two-factor authentication and can only be done with there has been access to both accounts, Anand puts forth his argument.

He went to his database and filtered the email id of Gupta, co-incidentally having the same initials.

"I expected him (Anand) to be a little more professional. He could have reached out to me and asked me for my (personal) information. I would have given him access to my emails. I have nothing to hide. I am an ordinary guy... not like somebody running a big funded startup," Gupta tells me.

On the other hand, when Moneycontrol reached out to the Twitter handle of Unicon Baba, he said he has met Anand multiple times in Chennai. "I know Vijay Anand very well I have met him multiple times when I was in Chennai for a year," the Twitter handle tells me.

Gupta now is also contemplating to send legal notices to everyone who published his email id or pictures. Anand is also contemplating the same.

What does your lawyer advise? I asked Gupta.

"As per my lawyers you cannot publish someones email id (without permission)...," the alleged Unicon Baba adds.

priyanka.sahay@nw18.com

(Moneycontrol is refraining from using Gupta's picture or even linking the article to his social media accounts, as per his request)
Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.

Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.

This week, Vijay Chopra, Ruchit Jain and Jay Thakkar battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Vijay Chopra of enochventures.com

Buy Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) with a stoploss at Rs 113 and target of Rs 125

Buy Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) with a stoploss at Rs 145 and target of Rs 160

Buy Godrej Industries with a stoploss at Rs 575 and target of Rs 595

Buy Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX India) with a stoploss at Rs 980 and target of Rs 1010

Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking

Buy Jindal Steel & Power with a stoploss at Rs 111 and target of Rs 130

Buy CG Power with a stoploss at Rs 89 and target of Rs 99

Buy Mindtree with a stoploss at Rs 531 and target of Rs 563

Buy Federal Bank with a stoploss at Rs 105.50 and target of Rs 119

Jay Thakkar of AnandRathi

Buy Bajaj Finserv with a stoploss at Rs 3934 and target of Rs 4168

Buy LIC Housing Finance with a stoploss at Rs 676.50 and target of Rs 698.50

Buy Indian Bank with a stoploss at Rs 324.90 and target of Rs 343.90

Buy Godrej Industries with a stoploss at Rs 573.70 and target of Rs 598.70
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Edelweiss' research report on Voltas

Voltas (VOLT) had a strong Q4FY17margin at 5-years high (projects), strong A/C business momentum (revenue up 28%) and easily navigating margin/market share concerns in this business. That said, a landscape changing development could be VOLTs decision to enter the white goods business in a 50:50 JV with Arcelik.

Outlook

That this business is profitable and well valued (peers 25% ROCE, 35x PE) should augur well for the stock. Enthused by this, we raise FY18/19 EPS estimate 10% each (projects business), see strategic & earnings upside on its JV and raise TP to INR 522 (INR 375 earlier; revise up consumer business target multiple to 35x (earlier 25x). Maintain BUY.

For all recommendations, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More
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Falling crude prices on the back of disappointment on the Street due to OPECs production policy pushed up stocks of aviation as well as paint companies.

Shares of Jet Airways, SpiceJet and InterGlobe Aviation, the operator of carrier IndiGo gained between 3 and 5 percent intraday. A fall in crude prices usually is considered to be positive for an airline as it would reduce fuel costs, thereby boosting its profitability.

Meanwhile, frontline paint stocks such as Asian Paints, Shalimar Paints and Kansai Nerolac, among others, gained between 3 and 8 percent intraday. For these companies, crude derivatives form a part of raw materials. Hence, a fall in crude prices helps in reducing input costs for a paint firm.

Oil prices plunged more nearly 5 percent on Thursday after OPEC and other major exporters extended their current deal to limit oil production for nine months, disappointing investors who were anticipating deeper cuts.

OPEC and other major producers, including Russia, will roll over their six-month deal to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the market through March 2018. Investors had hoped the cartel might reduce output even further to drain a global glut that has depressed the market for almost three years.

At 10:42 hrs, Jet Airways was quoting at Rs 486.55, up Rs 18.35, or 3.92 percent on the BSE. InterGlobe Aviation, meanwhile, was quoting at Rs 1,097.80, up Rs 24.10, or 2.24 percent on the BSE. SpiceJet was quoting at Rs 108.15, up Rs 4.40, or 4.24 percent on the BSE.

Among paints, at 10:43 hrs, Shalimar Paints was quoting at Rs 266.65, up Rs 17.35, or 6.96 percent. Asian Paints, on the other hand, was quoting at Rs 1,138.00, up Rs 25.65, or 2.31 percent. Kansai Nerolac Paints was quoting at Rs 404.05, up Rs 5.80, or 1.46 percent on the BSE. Berger Paints India was quoting at Rs 258.10, up Rs 15.20, or 6.26 percent.
1. Always fill at a reputed fuelling station. If you have a pump near to your house or work space, make sure you always fill up there. If you build up a rapport with the workers, they could spill secrets you may not know otherwise. (Representative image)

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Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) slipped as much as 4.7 percent in morning trade on Friday, a day after it reported 6.8 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) fall in the net profit to Rs 3,720 crore for the quarter ended March 31.

However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, net profit of the nations largest refiner and fuel retailer, rose 85 percent helped by inventory gain and increased operational efficiency.

Profit for the quarter rose to Rs 3,721 crore from Rs 2,006 crore a year ago. It reported a net profit of Rs 3,995 crore for the quarter ended December 2016, IOC said in a statement.

At 09:50 AM; IOC recouped some losses but was still trading 3.1 percent lower at Rs 425. It hit a low of Rs 418 and a high of Rs 433.40 so far in trade today.

The gross refining margin (GRM) for the quarter stood at $8.95 per barrel, which was much higher than $2.99 per barrel in the year-ago quarter.

Reacting to the results, two global brokerage firms namely Citigroup and Nomura maintain their buy rating in IOC.

Nomura maintains a buy rating on IOC with a 12-months target price of Rs 500. Operationally, it was a good quarter for IOC. Large inventory gains in refining/marketing resulted in the sharp beat at adjusted EBITDA levels. Bottom-line further boosted by higher other income and tax reversals, it said.

We believe that earnings have largely normalised for OMCs, IOCL could surprise, driven by a ramp-up in its Paradip refinery. IOCL has outperformed its peers over last one year, and we believe this outperformance will continue, said the brokerage note.

Commenting on the OMCs, Nomura said that our pecking order is IOCL followed by BPCL and HPCL.

Another global brokerage firm, Citigroup also maintained its buy rating on IOC with a 12-month target price of Rs462.

Reported gross refining margins (GRMs) improved sharply on a QoQ basis from $7.7 to $9.0, which was well ahead of our $5.4 est, said the Citi report.

Even excluding the impact of higher inventory gains, clean GRMs rose from $5.1 to ~$6.9, which was a positive surprise as Singapore GRMs declined QoQ ($6.7 to $6.4).
IRB Infrastructure Developers | In 2020 so far, the share price has moved up 76 percent to Rs 131.20. It's trailing twelve months (TTM) P/E was 6.40 multiple while 5-year average P/E was 8.30 multiple.

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VA Tech Wabag share price advanced more than 2 percent inraday Friday on strong March quarter results.

The company has reported 21 percent jump in its Q4FY17 net profit at Rs 79.48 crore against Rs 65.48 crore in a year ago period.

The company at its meeting held on May 25, has recommended a dividend of Rs 4 per equity share (200 percent) on the paid up equity capital of the company.

The company had won an order from Dangote Oil Refinery Company in Nigeria for a value of about USD 105.5 million.

This is the second order for the company from Dangote after the raw water treatment plant order for Dangote Fertilisers which is in advance stage of execution.

Rajiv Mittal, managing director and group CEO of Va Tech Wabag said, Winning of this order goes to prove our technological superiority and engineering capabilities in executing world class large and complex industrial projects both at home and abroad.

At 11:52 hrs Va Tech Wabag was quoting at Rs 687, up Rs 3.85, or 0.56 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
Representative Image

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today condoled the death of former state Director General of Police KPS Gill, recalling his "invaluable contribution to bringing peace back to the state from the grip of militancy".

In his condolence message, the chief minister said Gill's role in restoring peace and stability to Punjab cannot be undermined or forgotten.

"He continues to be emulated by the police and security personnel around the country, as an example of how the most complex of problems can be resolved with grit and determination," Singh said.

Expressing his heartfelt sympathies for the bereaved family, the chief minister said his thoughts and prayers were with them in this hour of grief.

Gill, who is credited with rooting out militancy in Punjab, passed away this afternoon at the age of 82.

An IPS officer, Gill was the chief of Punjab Police from 1988 to 1990 and then again from 1991 until his retirement from service in 1995.

He is credited with breaking the backbone of Khalistani terrorism in Punjab and finally eliminating it.

Gill was also an Advisor (Security) to the Government of Chhattisgarh for a year in 2006-07.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses an election campaign rally in Allahabad, India, February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash - RTSZHO9

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Indias largest bridge in Assam on Friday as his government completes three years.

At over 9 kilometres long, the Dhola-Sadiya bridge will connect Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and will enhance the existing transport network by reducing travel time up to four hours. In the long run, better connectivity will guarantee increase in trade and developmental activities.



PM Modi inaugurates Dhola - Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya, Assam pic.twitter.com/RMjRPilvAJ

 ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

Here are some facts about the Dhola-Sadiya bridge:

- The Dhola-Sadiya bridge is 9.15 km long, about 30 percent longer than the famous Bandra-Worli Sealink in Mumbai.

- The bridge is built over Lohit river, a tributary of Brahmaputra.

- It connects Sadiya, which is 540 kilometers from Assams capital Dispur, and Dhola, which is 300 kilometers from Arunachals capital Itanagar.

- The total cost of the project is Rs 950 crore.

- The bridge is of strategic importance to the military. Since the bridge is close to the India-China border, it will aid to quick movements of military troops and artillery in times of conflict.

- It can withstand the weight of a 60-tonne battle tank.

- Construction of the bridge started in 2011, under the Congress government.

- The bridge is a part of a larger project by the Centre to enhance road connectivity across the states.

- The bridge will ensure connectivity between the two states. Earlier, the only way to travel between these states was by a ferry, which operated only during the daytime.

- As Arunachal does not have a civilian airport, the bridge will help commuters to reach the nearest rail head in Tinsukia and the airport in Dibrugarh smoothly.
maoists_soldiers_attack_terrorist_1280x720

The Centre today said it is keeping a close watch on illegal flow of funds to fuel militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and action is being taken by security agencies in such instances.

"All terror related incidents, including terror funding, are being monitored by the agencies. Appropriate action is also being taken," spokesperson in the Home Ministry, Ashok Prasad told reporters here.

He was replying to a question on Pakistan's continuous attempts to fund militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Prasad said the state police along with the central paramilitary forces is trying to bring back normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been hit by unrest.

"All efforts are being made to bring back normalcy. The central government is providing all help to the state government," he said.

According to an estimate of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Pakistan-based terror groups finance terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir by generating millions in donations through their charity organisations.

Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a charity run by terror outfits Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Al Rehmat Trust, backed by another terrorists group Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM), have been supporting terrorists and funding terrorism in Kashmir. These outfits collect donations from people in Pakistan and then pass on the money to finance terrorism in Kashmir through their over ground workers, an NIA official has said.

'Al Rehmat Trust' distributes pamphlets to raise funds for sacrificing animals during Eid and after collecting the money, they finance terrorism.

FIF, one of the major and fastest growing Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in Pakistan, also collects money from people and uses them to fund terrorists.

The groups collect millions of dollars in donations through crowd funding in the name of social service, the officer said.

According to a 2012 report of an intelligence agency, 780 million Pakistani rupees were collected for funding terrorism in Kashmir.
May 26, 2017 / 07:09 PM IST

19:10 That's all from the Prime Minister. Modi thanks citizens again for their support and signs off.

19:00 The PM reiterates his stance on black money. In this government, there is no black money, he says. The govt will extract all black money and hand it to the poor, he says.

18:53 The Prime Minister lauds Indian citizens  More than 1 class="scayt-misspell-word" data-scayt-word="crore" data-scayt-lang="en_US">crore voters always walked with us and strengthened our belief, he says.

18:50 As he has done in the past, the Prime Minister thanks India for extending their support to demonetisation. He says, demonetisation was a tough decision, citizens' blessings made it a success.

18:45 Modi says that before "we came to power, there was only disappointment everywhere"; citizens thought nothing will change and make your peace with it. However, now everything has changed. Indians believe that we will become a global power, he adds

18:37 Next comes the common man. I have experienced and understand things the common man goes through, the PM says. I intend to do big things for the small people, he adds.

18:35 The government has provided more than Rs 3,500 crore of aid to Assam in one day, Modi says.

18:30 Keeping in mind educational needs, the govt has decided to raise the limit of creamy layer to 8 lakh, says Modi.

18:15 The Prime Minister is now speaking at a public gathering in Guwahati.

17:35 The Prime Minister is now on his way to Guwahati, where he will remotely lay the foundation ceremony of an All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the first in the north-east, at the Sarusajai stadium.

17:06 An interesting tidbit from Amit Shah's press conference. Here's what he said on the jobs front:

"Its not possible to provide employment to everyone in the organised sector in a country of 125 crore people. We have, therefore, promoted swarojgar (self-employment)."

16:40 Here's a photo of the Dhola-Sadiya bridge that the Prime Minister inaugurated today. It's India's longest bridge.

15:55 That's a wrap from Amit Shah. The Prime Minister is expected to speak about the government's achievements in about half an hour from now.

15:48 Shah says the Modi government has ended policy paralysis and the economy is growing at a promising pace.

15:45 The BJP President praises the decision to end VVIP culture by stopping the long-standing practice of using red beacons atop vehicles.

15:42 Shah is now recapping the achievements of the government including the surgical strikes, Make in India and the shift to digital payments.

15:40 He says the Prime Minister has been a successful leader.

15:37 BJP President Amit Shah is now talking about the Narendra Modi government's performance.

15:30 The Opposition parties are set to issue a joint statement soon. Could it be regarding the Presidential candidate?

14:44 The Prime Minister says, "NE for North East will soon mean - New Economy, New Energy, New Empowerment, New Engine. This new engine will take India forward."

14:42 "Our dream is to double farmers income by 2022, the year when India completes 75 years of Independence."

14:37 He says the foundation stone for projects laid today in Assam would transform the lives of people in the state and all over the country.

14:35 The Prime Minister is now speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) at Gogamukh in Assam.

14:10 The government has been putting out infographics on its achievements: You can see them here: http://www.narendramodi.in/category/infographics

13:15 Meanwhile, Opposition parties are meeting at Congress president Sonia Gandhi's residence now to zero in on a Presidential candidate.

12:17 And the Prime Minister wraps up his speech. He has a lot more travelling to do today. We'll keep you updated.

12:24 Modi says the government wants to name the newly-inaugurated bridge after legendary playback singer Bhupen Hazarika, who hailed from the state and passed away in 2011.

12:21 'Our aim is to make development permanent.'

12:18 Modi is now accusing the UPA government of hampering development during its tenure.

12:16 He lauds Sarbanada Sonowal's government in Assam, says the state is getting rid of many of its problems within a year of BJP rule.

12:14 "Atal Bihari Vajpayee's dream has been fufilled."

12:12 He is talking about the benefits of the Dhola-Sadiya bridge. Says it will cut travel time significantly, connect Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and open new doors for farmers.

12:08 The bridge you have waited 5 years for is finally here, says the Prime Minister.

12:05 The Prime Minister has begun his speech at a public rally in Dhola, Assam. We'll have live updates.

11:55 The Congress is alleging that the government is spending Rs 500 crore on its anniversary celebrations.

11:30 Meanwhile, the Congress is holding a press conference right now in which former Union Minister Kamal Nath is questioning the government's performance on various fronts, especially jobs.

11:05 Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari are also present at the inauguration.

11:00 We can expect the Prime Minister to speak about his government's achievements at around 4.30 pm today.

10:50 The Prime Minister has just opened the bridge.

09:40 The prime minister will conclude his trip with a political rally at Khanapara, straddling the Assam-Meghalaya border, which is likely to be attended by tens of thousands. We'll bring you live updates through the day.

09:38 Modi will then travel to an adjoining district, Dhemaji, to inaugurate an agriculture centre in Gogamukh. He then proceeds to Guwahati, where he will remotely lay the foundation ceremony of an All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the first in the north-east, at the Sarusajai stadium.

09:36 He will begin his trip in a remote northern district, Sadiya, to open Indias longest river bridge, the 9.5 km Sadiya-Dhola link across the Lohit, the main stream of the mighty Brahmaputra.

The bridge, which will ease connectivity between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, is a military-grade river expressway, capable of carrying heavy infantry and will provide swift defence access to the sensitive state.

09:34 Modi will dart from one venue to another today, covering nearly 1000 km in all.

09:32 Modis decision to be in Assam on the occasion of his governments third anniversary mirrors the BJPs deepening engagement in a region bordering three countries and home to several rebel outfits.

Good morning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a speech to the nation and launch a series of vital projects in Assam to mark his governments three years in office today, signaling the importance he attaches to a remote region that is hemmed in by China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
A Pakistani national has been detained for staying in a temple in Jhajjar district of Haryana under a fake identity. An Aadhaar card and a PAN card issued in his name, and a Pakistani passport have been seized from him.

As per the passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistan's Sindh province, the police said.

"Raja, a Hindu, came to India in 2013 and his visa expired last year. He had been living in Iskcon temple in Bahadurgarh for the last nine months," Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, B Satheesh Balan said.

The date of birth on his passport is different from what is mentioned on Aadhaar and PAN cards, the police said.

A team of the Intelligence Bureau and the police were questioning him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi

While one shouldn't dwell in the past, it shouldn't be forgotten either for it shapes events which play out in the future. Moneycontrol takes a look at some of the crucial episodes on May 26 which had a bearing on the fortunes of India and the world.

On this day in 2014, Narendra Modi was sworn in as India's 15th Prime Minister. After toppling their main contenders UPA and winning 336 seats out of 543 seats in Lok Sabha ten days earlier, the largest mandate in 30 years, NDA government stormed their way into power.

Three years into power, Modi government paved way for various game changing reforms like Goods and Services Tax, demonetisation and the controversial Aadhaar. In Modis three years, the stock markets have touched lifetime highs.

However, the government has been criticised for not giving enough attention to key sectors like agriculture and healthcare.

Let's go back in time and see what else happened on this day in history:
Men sit under a banner carrying a portrait of chief of India's Congress party Sonia Gandhi outside the Congress office in New Delhi May 16, 2014. Counting of votes began on Friday after India's mammoth election, which could usher in the most profound economic change in a generation if opposition leader Narendra Modi wins a clear mandate for his agenda to revive growth and create jobs. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (INDIA - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3PEHK

The Congress party will hold a day-long protest here today against the "inefficient" NDA government at the Centre, which completes three years in power.

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam told reporters that the BJP has completely failed to fulfil its poll promises.

"Soldiers are dying on the border due to constant attacks by the enemy. Terror activities and intolerance are rising. Youths, farmers, women, small industries and salaried people have nowhere to go today," he said.

Congress will hold a day-long protest at Azad Maidan today against the inefficient government, deteriorating law and order situation and the financial hardships being faced by the people, he added.

Nirupam said that senior Congress leader and former union minister RPN Singh, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, MPs, MLAs and corporators will take part in the protest.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Compared to the previous UPA government which was "steeped in corruption", the NDA dispensation has delivered graft-free governance, which is its "most outstanding" achievement, the BJP today said.

"Considering the previous government at the Centre which was steeped in corruption with scams surfacing one after another on a weekly basis, the last three years of the Modi government have been excellent.

"Perhaps the most outstanding of all achievements is that there has not been a single blot of corruption on anyone in his government," state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt told reporters at a press conference.

Alleging that a series of scams during the UPA rule had dealt a severe blow to the country's prestige, he said "clean and blemish-less governance" under Modi's leadership has instilled confidence among the people.

"It is because of this that Narendra Modi is the first prime minister after Atal Bihari Vajpayee to command the overwhelming confidence of such a large section of the country's population, including that of the poorest of the poor.

"Everyone is confident of his aspirations being fulfilled under Modi's leadership," Bhatt said.

Terming Modi's three years in office as "historic", he listed measures like demonitisation and the crackdown on benami properties as features of the prime minister's battle against corruption and surgical strikes as India's stern warning to a hostile neighbour.

Bhatt also extolled the NDA government for passing the GST bill, the Ujjwala yojana under which two crore below- poverty-line families have been provided free LPG connections, and the Sukanya Samriddhi yojana.

The Modi government did what what no other government had done for Uttarakhand, he said.

"The Rs 12,000-crore all-weather chardham roads project and the Rishikesh-Karnpaprayag rail link are going to prove a milestone in the development of Uttarakhand as they will give a boost to tourism besides generating employment for the local people," Bhatt said.
The fire broke out in M. Nirufehi area near the Maaveyo Mosque around 12:30 am, according to news portal SunOnline international.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she discussed "development and not politics" at a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

The Trinamool Congress chief's meeting with Modi came amid efforts by opposition leaders to choose a consensus candidate for the coming presidential polls. The ruling National Democratic Alliance is yet to announce its presidential candidate.

"This was not a political meeting, (but an) absolutely development oriented meeting. I have taken up several issues with the prime minister," Banerjee told reporters, describing it as a "customary" meeting between the state government and the Centre.

Banerjee, who was a bitter critic of Modi's demonetisation drive, said she discussed a range of issues related to soil erosion caused by the Ganga in West Bengal and restructuring of the state's debt.

Issues such as the Farakka barrage, the heavy export duty imposed by Bangladesh on mangoes from West Bengal and the construction of a dam over the Atrai River by Bangladesh were also discussed.

She also demanded a restructuring of the central government's loan to the state, which has been reeling under financial problems.

"I have to pay Rs 40,000 crore. How do we work in such a scenario," she said outside South Block, where the prime minister's office is situated, after the meeting.

Banerjee also demanded that India take up with Bangladesh the issues of heavy export duty on West Bengal mangoes and the Atrai dam construction, which had led to a water shortage in the state's West Midnapore district.
Somewhere along the line in the past three years, India cleaved into two, a second partition, a quiet but neat bifurcation that changed no maps, displaced no people and created no new countries.

But this division by stealth split the ground beneath us, leaving Nationalists and anti-nationals in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation more bitter than the one across the Line of Control that marks last centurys split.

Clearly, something fundamental has changed in a country famous for its middle ground; it now has the dominant Right, the sulking Left and very little space thats left.

Look more closely and youll find that the first two variables in that equation have merely swapped places and acquired new adjectives; for earlier, did we not have the arrogant Left and the defensive Right?

The fact is that theres only one casualty worth mourning: the often muddled middle, many of whose erstwhile members have defected and now speak with the overloud certainty of the newly converted.

And its that dwindling number that clings to its middleness that needs to carve out a space for itself, braving the ridicule that is sure to be its lot.

The seeds of our current bipolarity were sown when the Bharatiya Janata Party deservedly put a terminally ill UPA 2 out of its misery in the summer of 2014, an election that was a watershed in more ways than one. It featured a compelling candidate, strong optics, sharp rhetoric and ubiquitous social media; the result was unaccustomed, unbridled power for the Hindu Right; three years of Narendra Modis government have done little to bridle its zeal.

Social media became the new vehicle for disseminating opinion, open to all to use and misuse. And it opened the floodgates to a welter of suppressed emotion, some of it justified, most of it unpleasant.

As a direct result, it is today increasingly impossible to inhabit the middle ground. If anyone asks for proof of the surgical strikes across the LoC, they are anti-national; Muslim actors have to prove their loyalty to the flag; a disabled person is thrashed for not standing up for the national anthem; university campuses have to fly the tricolor; people are killed on the suspicion of dealing with beef.

It is no longer okay not to have an opinion; the very suspicion that an opinion vacuum may be occupied by something more sinister makes the uncommitted suspect.

Anyone who is neutral is deemed to be against nationalism, in effect, he or she is anti-national. The less said about those harbouring fancy notions of internationalism, the better.

This wave of nationalism often comes bundled with some odd baggage: misogynism, religious fanaticism, caste hatred and venom towards the media.

So if you happen to be a Dalit woman reporter for a news channel with links to the Congress, your goose is cooked, seasoned with a sprinkling of saffron. Death by social media will follow as a horde of Internet Hindus descends to rain its wrath on your bowed head and that of all female members in your family.

Its a fact that what has really happened is an exaggerated inversion of what passed earlier. When the Left liberals (now known as Libtards) held sway there was a searing contempt of anything remotely construed as Hindu belief, to the extent that a hint of religiosity was a badge of communalism. Ask any moderately religious person who has lived on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. In other words, the Left had it coming.

But the vast majority of Indians inhabited a comfortable middle ground, unthreatening and unthreatened. Perhaps the Left just couldnt be bothered, or it didnt have the benefit of social media artillery in those days, or was defanged by its inherent internationalism.

Be all that as it may, how does the Middle regain its lost ground?

It could use some help from three key players. Hindu religious leaders, flag-bearers for a famously tolerant tradition, need to take the temperature down and shun the notion that their time in the sun has finally come; the media needs to wear its judges hat and not don a tempting TRP turban; and our institutions need to remember that the notions of our founding fathers, flawed as they were, were noble in essence. It would be tempting to call for politicians to focus on development, but they clearly think that the prerequisite for that, getting elected, requires a deepening of every divide.

The idea of India is perhaps a slightly hackneyed concept. But common sense dictates that Indians should be able to opt out of this new partition that forces them to be, as that great Indophile George W Bush would say, with us or against us.

(A version of this story appeared on Oct 27, 2016)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the Dhola-Sadia bridge, Indias longest, over Lohit River in Assam, kicking off his governments celebrations of completing three years in power.

The bridge holds strategic importance as it ends just 100 km short of Chinas border. A few days ago, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had said the Dhola-Sadia bridge would meet vital requirements of the countrys defence perspective.

The Modi government had previously quashed Chinas claims on Arunachal Pradesh, saying that the state was an integral part of India. "Chinas claim is baseless. India has no boundary with China but with Tibet since China forcibly occupied Tibet in 1959. Now, they want to expand their boundary up to Arunachal which will not be accepted by the people of the state," state BJP President Tapir Gao told reporters in Itanagar.

Read More: http://www.news18.com/news/india/amid-chinese-protests-india-flexes-muscle-with-longest-bridge-near-border-1413045.html
BJP chief Amit Shah will listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' radio address along with slum dwellers in R K Puram area here on Sunday.

The BJP president will be present at Ravidas Ashram, under New Delhi Parliamentary constituency, to listen to the prime minister's monthly radio address to the nation on Sunday, 11 AM, said party vice president and Delhi unit in- charge Shyam Jaju.

"We have instructed our party workers to connect people with Mann Ki Baat and get them to listen to it. Our party president will visit Ravidas Ashram under the same programme," Jaju told PTI.

Delhi BJP leaders said that the party chief will also interact with locals and learn their hardships and problems.

"The party has promised to provide housing facilities to all by 2022. The policy of 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makan' given by BJP will be boosted by Shah's visit as he could advise the Centre about it," said a senior Delhi BJP leader.

The party president may also have lunch with the local people during the visit, he added.

The recent victory of BJP in the MCD polls was attributed to Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari's connect with residents of unauthorised colonies, slums and rural parts of the city.

Tiwari who had spent new year's eve at Inderpuri slum after assuming charge of Delhi BJP unit in November last year, has launched a programme of developing slums into 'model dwellings' on the lines of Adarsh Gram Yojna.

Another party leader and Union minister Vijay Goel too has come out with his 'Adopt A Slum' scheme under which the municipal councillors will adopt and develop slums in their wards.

The massive victory of BJP in MCD polls, has rekindled the party's hope of recapturing power in Delhi by repeating the feat in next Assembly elections due in 2020.

A tussle has been reported widely between Tiwari and Goel over the leadership in Delhi, although the two met recently to settle their misunderstandings as per instructions of the party leadership.

Delhi BJP leaders including Tiwari maintained a distance from Goel's 'Slum Yuva Daud' held today at DU marking launch of his 'Adopt A Slum' campaign, despite the national leadership's instructions to support the programme.
A police van and an ambulance are seen outside the Manchester Arena, where U.S. singer Ariana Grande had been performing, in Manchester, northern England, Britain May 22, 2017.

The recent attack at a concert in Manchester seems to reinforce British citizens fears about terror.

Almost 90% British citizens believe that more terror attacks imminent, according to a report by Statista. The survey was conducted in March immediately after the attack on the British Parliament in which six people were killed and 49 were injured.

On May 22, a suicide bomb claimed lives of 22 people and injured 120 outside a concert venue in Manchester. The police identified the suicide bomber as Salman Abedi and said that he had returned from Libya just days before the attack. They have arrested seven people suspecting them to be a part of a larger terror network.

United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Theresa May who was the country's longest serving Home Secretary before becoming the Prime Minister, announced that her government had raised the threat level from 'severe' to the highest possible 'critical', meaning an attack is "expected imminently".

She also announced that up to 5,000 armed officers are being deployed across the UK in to foil a second attack.

Almost 76% Brits believed another attack was possible between July 2010 and September 2014, but the number spiked to 84% in July 2016 months after the Brussels bombing in which 35 people died and 340 were injured.

Soldiers were deployed at key locations and will be guarding several important public events including this weekend's FA Cup final. The parliament and the Buckingham palace will remain off limits for the public.
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts after signing an executive order on education during an event with Governors at the White House in Washington

A smiling Donald Trump offered European Union chiefs assurances on security in Brussels on Thursday but EU officials did not conceal lingering differences with the U.S. president over Russia, trade and climate change.

"The leaders discussed ... shared challenges in fighting global terrorism," the White House said in a statement.

"They agreed on the need to work together to deepen our security cooperation in fighting ISIS (Islamic State), combating radicalisation and responding to other common threats."

In talks before a summit of NATO leaders at the Atlantic military alliance's headquarters across town, an EU source said Trump had also voiced fears that Brexit could cost U.S. jobs -- a possible sign of second thoughts on support for the British vote to leave which stunned the bloc.

And Trump also agreed to setting up a joint EU-U.S. "action plan" on trade, in an indication the new occupant of the White House is not as set on shunning free trade deals and promoting protectionism as some in Europe had feared he might.

The White House said "the United States and the European Union should deepen our strong economic relationship" and spoke of a need to protect U.S. and EU industries from "unfair competition" -- a shared concern coming, notably, from China.

Nonetheless, European Council President Donald Tusk indicated, there was less than a meeting of minds on trade and other issues, despite the cordiality of Trump's welcome.

"We agreed on many areas, first and foremost on counter-terrorism," Tusk said after he and EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker met Trump for over an hour.

"But some issues remain open, like climate and trade."

European leaders have been urging Trump not to abandon the U.S. commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions made when his predecessor Barack Obama signed up to the U.N. Paris accord.

RUSSIA

Tusk also said he did not feel he and Trump were on exactly the same page in terms of dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although they agreed on efforts to end conflict in Ukraine which the West blames on Moscow and which has resulted in both EU and U.S. economic sanctions on Russia.

A spokeswoman for Juncker, the president of the European Commission which had been negotiating an ambitious free trade deal with Washington known as TTIP before Trump's upset election victory, said the two sides would work to increase trade.

"Intensifying trade cooperation ... is a win-win situation for both sides," the EU spokeswoman said. "It was agreed to start work on a joint action plan on trade."

Juncker declined comment on whether talks in the coming weeks might revive TTIP. Trump has made clear his dislike of multilateral trade agreements, pulling out of the TPP agreement with Asian states. However, European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have suggested he is warming to trade talks with the EU, which unifies trade rules for all 28 states.

BREXIT COSTS?

Trump irritated EU leaders during his election campaign last year by hailing Brexit and suggesting other countries might follow Britain out of the 28-nation bloc. Eurosceptic leaders said he would offer Britain a free trade deal once it left.

However, EU officials believe Trump has come to appreciate more since taking office the value of European integration to U.S. interests. U.S. businesses have taken advantage of its single market to reduce the costs of exporting to Europe.

An EU source said Trump had told Tusk and Juncker he was now worried that Americans may lose jobs as a result of Britain leaving the EU in 2019: He "expressed concern that jobs in the U.S. would be lost because of Brexit", the source said.

EU officials said the meeting had been constructive and friendly. Tusk and Juncker joked with Trump about the EU having "two presidents" and being "too complicated". The U.S. leader appeared to mix the two of them up during remarks in January, deepening concerns in Brussels that the reality TV star in the White House failed to take the European Union seriously.

Trump waxed lyrical about his first foreign trip, which has offered distraction to ethics questions at home, notably over alleged campaign ties to Russia. Pope Francis is "terrific", Trump told Tusk and Juncker, and his welcome in Saudi Arabia was "beyond anything anyone's ever seen".

Tusk, a Communist-era dissident who once listed Trump among risks to the world order alongside Russia, China and Islamist violence, said he had tried to impress on the billionaire U.S. president a need for Transatlantic cooperation to promote "values" like human rights and not just selfish "interests".

The White House said the meeting had "reaffirmed the strong bond between the United States and Europe, anchored in shared values and longstanding friendship."
Police have apprehended a suspect in the Manchester attack in suburban Moss Side, raising the count to eight. The Guardian quoted police being confident of rolling up network

Security has been beefed up in the United Kingdom in the last four days, with the police patrolling the streets, trains and guarding landmarks nationwide including Heathrow airport and the Buckingham Palace, where a man with a 20 cm knife was apprehended on Wednesday.

Armoured police vehicles will also be deployed Saturdays FA Cup final at Wembley, the Metropolitan police have announced.

https://twitter.com/metpoliceuk/status/868021898512412672

Salman Abedi, 22, was identified as the bomber in the Manchester Arena on Monday evening. He was born in Manchester on New Year's Eve 1994 to Libyan parents, who left the country after opposing Colonel Gaddafi's regime.

The BBC reports that the family was based in London for a few years before moving to Manchester, where Abedi's father, Ramadan Abedi, used to voice the call to prayer at a mosque in the Manchester Islamic Centre, better known as the Didsbury Mosque.

Abedis friends say that he was a Manchester United fan, a college dropout and an occasional marijuana smoker, who had visited his family in Libya last month and may have been radicalised two years ago.

Abedi attended the Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester between 2009 and 2011, the Manchester College until 2013 and then Salford University in 2014, only to drop out.

His mother and father are now believed to be back living in Libya.

Police have placed eight men in custody UK following the attack, including Abedi's older brother Ismail, 23. Abedi's younger brother Hashem, 20, was held by special forces linked to the interior ministry in the Libyan capital Tripoli, as was their father, Ramadan.

Abedi allegedly detonated a bomb on Monday night as fans were leaving from a concert performed by Ariana Grande at Manchester Arena. The explosion killed 22 people, with the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.

At least 64 people were wounded, a third of them critically. Many victims were teenagers and young girls, with parents in tow, who idolised Ms Grande.
Education

Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu.

Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu.

Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events:

International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu.

EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu.

Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale  an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s  will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets  June Homecoming: Participant  $18 per person; Sustainer  $25 per person; Benefactor  $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler  Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary.

The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events:

SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available  for information call 610-275-1960

Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above)

SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m.

Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.

Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.

Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.  4 p.m.  computers are available during those hours.

Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863.

Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376.

Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com.

The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes:

Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at

other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020.

CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313.

The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events:

Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m.

Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m.

Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30.

Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301.

For Kids & Families

The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443.

Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950.

Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required.

The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950.

Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus.

Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage.

Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun.

Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train.

Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world!

Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class.

Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org.

Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583.

Community Events at the Ambler Y:

-YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register.

Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org.

Health

Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot.

The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863.

The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information.

Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245.

Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net.

Spring Aquatic Programs  UDHS Pool:

-Summer is just around the corner  Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required.

 Shallow Water Aerobics  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR.

 Adult Swim Instructions  Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR

-Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21.

-Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday  Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m.

-Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons.

-Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates.

Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994.

SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com.

Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org.

Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs:

FITNESS CLASSES

Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month.

Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30  9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly.

SUPPORT GROUPS

Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000.

Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30  7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047.

New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m.  12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30  4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931.

Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325.

Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes.

Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com.

Librarytalk

Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744

www.upperdublinlibrary.org

APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS:

Storytimes: Please register in the library.

o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m.

o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m.

o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m.

o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6.

APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS:

North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee

APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS:

NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org.

One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register  contact info above.

Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744.

o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register.

Meetings:

Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m.

Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m.

Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org.

For children and teens at Blue Bell:

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m.

* May 14  Despicable Me

* June 11  Alpha and Omega

* Special Events

* April  watch for date of spring/Easter events

* April 14 at 4:30 p.m.  Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children.

* April 14 at 7 p.m.  Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided.

* April 16 at 1 p.m.  Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King.

* April 16 at 1:30 p.m.  Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes?

* April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button.

* April 30 through May 3  Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults.

* May  sign up for Science in the Summer

* June  sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children

* June  sign up for Summer Reading, all ages

For adults at Blue Bell:

* Daytime Book Discussion Group  fourth Tuesday, Jan  April at 1:30 p.m.

* April 26  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Night-time Book Discussion Group  third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m.

o April 19  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

* Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges

o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked?

*Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs

* Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class.

* Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class.

* Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m.

* Giant Book Sale, April 29  May 3

o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults!

o Held during library hours.

o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m.

o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join.

* Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series

o May 11 at 1 p.m.  Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society

* Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room.

* Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read.

* Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome.

* Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome.

*Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older.

* Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours

* Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours

* Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday!

Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library.

* Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian.

* Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages.

* Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages.

* For adults:

* Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn.

* Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net

* Special Events:

* April 14 at 1:30 p.m.  Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian.

* April 19 at 7 p.m.  Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m.

* April 21 at 7 p.m.  Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades.

*May 2 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

*May 10  Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*May 12 at 1:30p.m.  Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

*May 17  Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m.

*June 13 at 6:30 p.m.  Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time.

Meetings and Lectures

The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833.

The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200.

The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/.

LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings.

Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org.

Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org)

-Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them.

The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter.

For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps.

Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin.

Special Events

The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County.

The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065.

Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org.

The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members.

Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex.

The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com.

The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348.

The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org.

Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163.

The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu.

The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com.

The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net.

Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd.

The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages.

13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries.

Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler.

The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family.

The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler.

JPRN  Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them  Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike.

Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies.

Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately.

Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information.

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways.

Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table.

Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m.

Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp  Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday  Friday from 9 a.m.  4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374

Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall:

-Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store.

Music and Theater

The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220.

Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html.

Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free.

The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org

Religious News

The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276.

Reunions

St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net.

Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572.

Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779.

Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net

Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net

The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411.

Support

New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149.

PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931.

The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296.

Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656.

Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group  every other Wednesday, 7  8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support  second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner  Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers  Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information.

CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7  8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich,
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May 26, 2017

Syria - Truth Slips Through In The New York Times - NATO Preps to Fight Iran And Russia

The New York Times Magazine has an interesting piece about east Aleppo. Robert Worth visited it recently and talked to people there. The NYT editors/censors inserted many of their standard slander against the Syrian government, but the can not drown out the realities described therein.

Thus the piece is headline: Aleppo After the Fall but one of the key sentences in it says just the opposite:

Yasser said he was one of the first people to come back [to east-Aleppo], right after what he  like everyone else I met  called the liberation.

Jihadi propaganda claims of government bombing of random hospitals without reason "verified" by a Skype call to some al-Qaeda propagandist in Idleb- are mixed with reality based on-the-ground reporting:

On my second day in the city, I went to see the Aleppo Eye Hospital, a sprawling compound that the rebels had used as a military headquarters. As we walked through the burned and shattered building, my government minder and the soldiers guarding the place kept picking up markers of the rebels Islamist leanings. They werent hard to find. A fire-blackened car out front still had the Qaeda logo on its hood. ...

Unfortunately the piece also includes factual errors:

The reporter, an Aleppan named Rida al-Basha, described the neighborhoods where [looting] had taken place and named the militias, including the notorious Tiger Forces, whose leaders include well-known thugs.

I do not doubt that looting has taken place after the liberation of east-Aleppo. Those who supported the "rebel" invasion of their city will have lost everything. But looting by the Tiger Force "militia"? The Tiger Force are the Special Operations Division of the Syrian Arab Army, not a "militia". It is led by highly professional officers, not by "thugs". Its leader, General Suheil al-Hassan, has been in the army for over 26 years. The division is armed with Russian T-90 tanks and other heavy assault equipment. It is an offensive unit which has been very busy on various fronts. It is not a mopping up or occupation force for urban areas that would have time for organized looting in Aleppo. The quoted claim is inconsistent with those facts.

But still - the Magazine piece is filled with detailed story of real people who factually tell what the "rebels" have done to their city. How they looted every factory and house down to the copper electricity wire and sold everything off to Turkey. Wherever the story is based on real reporting it confirms the view and position of the anti-Islamist Syrian majority which supports its government. After years of claiming the opposite in its hundreds of anti-Syrian propaganda pieces one wonder how the NYT editors let this pass.

One anecdote even reveals who the Syrians will choose as their future leader:

My Syrian businessman friend told me that he twice gathered about a dozen people for dinner and offered them a hypothetical in strict confidence. It is up to you to name the next president of Syria, he said. Whom would you choose? The guests were all Syrians, and none supported the regime. To his surprise, almost all of them named Assad.

And that, dear reader, is why the U.S. and its proxies are against truly democratic elections in Syria. Their nemesis would easily win and prevent the planned neo-liberal looting of what is left of the Syrian state.

The Islamic proxy forces of the "west", al-Qaeda under its various disguises, Ahar al-Sham and even ISIS are mostly done. The latest especially is no longer a capable military force but is reverting to guerilla levels of operation. Its final defeat will take a long time but it must and will be achieved by local forces.

Despite that the U.S. pressed on NATO members to let the NATO organization join its "fight against ISIS". The single NATO members were already part of the U.S. coalition. But NATO as an organization brings large scale command and control capabilities as well as additional resources. (All under U.S. control.)

Make no mistake - "fighting ISIS" is not the real purpose of the move. The U.S. wants NATO support to invade Syria from the north in Idleb as well as from the south near Deraa and from the south-east starting at the al-Tanf border station to Iraq. Syria and its allies will now be fought under the disguise of "fighting ISIS" which factually can no longer be the purpose. Thus NATO, together with Wahhabi Gulf forces, will now be engaged in an expanded war not only against the Syria government but especially against its Russian and Iranian allies. Trump's endorsement of anti-Iranian rhetoric on his visit in Saudi Arabia served a similar purpose.

Syria and its allies will try to prevent a further invasion by cutting off al-Tanf and holding on to Deraa city - thereby blocking any wider military moves. But those measures will probably be in vain. Unless some sane voices intervene we are now at the beginning of a far wider and more dangerous war that can easily slip out of anyone's control.

---

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Posted by b on May 26, 2017 at 13:49 UTC | Permalink

Comments
I sing what I want to sing, be how I wanna be, and reach as big of an audience as I can.

1 hour ago
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Is it better to plow through a public park or a neighborhood of homes to make way for the statewide High Speed Rail project that is projected to come to Morgan Hill by 2025? Will the city council get the definitive answers they want from HSR officials to questions posed by local residents about the impact of the project? How much weight does Morgan Hills input have on the final alignment and design of the states 400-mile, $65 billion bullet train system?

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These are some of the questions behind the questions that keep many locals up at nightparticularly those whose homes and properties are located in or near the path of two track alignment alternatives under consideration where the 220-mph train will pass through Morgan Hill. The city council May 24, after hearing an update on the project from California High Speed Rail Authority representatives, approved about $472,000 worth of consultant contracts to try to find some answers on their own. The consultants will also help the city prepare for the impact of the project and its construction on local streets, parks and public facilities.

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The three contracts, approved 4-0 by the council (Mayor Pro Tem Larry Carr recused himself because he owns property within 500 feet of one of the project alignment options) are:

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 $64,026 for Michael Baker International for technical railroad and transit engineering support services to review the HSR alignment option that would go along the west side of U.S. 101 a city staff report reads;

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 $153,440 for Urban Field Studio for development of Design Guidelines to mitigate potential impacts from all HSR alignments;

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 And $255,000 (maximum cost) for Kitchell CEM to update current (municipal codes) and develop new municipal code standards that address potential impacts from the HSR project.

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City staff expect CHSRA to reimburse the city for up to $232,000 of these costs, in accordance with a reimbursement agreement the city made with CHSRA in June 2016, the city staff report says. The remainder may also be eligible for reimbursement if the CHSRA agrees to amend the existing agreement.

<

The 84-mile HSR segment that will pass through or around Morgan Hilldepending on which alignment the authority approvesis known as the San Jose to Merced section. It includes HSR stations in San Jose and Gilroy. A station is not planned for Morgan Hill.

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The HSRA board of directors is expected to consider a HSRA staff-recommended preferred alignment later this year. The authority will then spend the next several months conducting an Environmental Impact Review of this preference, as well as project alternatives, according the HSRA representatives.

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After the EIR is complete and subject to public review, the board will vote on a specific alignment to implement by 2018, according to HSRA staff who addressed the council May 24. After that approval, construction could begin by the end of 2018.

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Statewide, the project is expected to be operational by 2025. When complete, the bullet train will be able to carry passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours.

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HSRA officials are currently considering two alignment alternatives through Morgan Hill:

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 Embankment adjacent to Union Pacific Railroad tracks: HSR would be constructed on a berm along the east side of the UPRR tracks, which go through downtown Morgan Hill;

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 Viaduct along the west side of U.S. 101: HSR would be placed on a 60 to 80 foot high viaduct, possibly with a noise barrier wall on top of the viaduct structure.

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These options have been narrowed down from four alternatives that were under consideration as of late 2016.

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A proactive approach

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The citys newly approved contract with Michael Baker will provide third-party peer review of work already done by CHSRA in evaluating the two options and how they might affect Morgan Hill, explained the citys Economic Development Manager Edith Ramirez.

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One possible outcome of this work is the consultant might identify an HSR alignment that stays within the right-of-way of U.S. 101, which many have suggested would be the least invasive to private property and public facilities, Ramirez said. HSRA engineers have said this is not a feasible option because the freeway right-of-way is too curvy to handle the bullet trains high speeds.

<

We think the work were doing (with all three contracts) is all equally important, and we need to do it nowwe need to do it yesterday, Ramirez told the council. Its a chance to influence the project in a meaningful way.

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Exactly how much influence the city will have remains to be seen. Councilmember Caitlin Jachimowicz asked HSRA reps this question at the meeting.

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Ben Tripousis, HSRA Northern California Regional Director, replied that the collection of public input in recent years has all been aimed at developing the best system in all of California. He noted that the planning for the HSRA section in Bakersfield has been heavily influenced by public input, as the authority is considering a locally generated alternative for that segment.

<

The HSR discussion at the May 24 meeting drew significant interest from Morgan Hill residents, many of whom own homes or businesses that either stand in the right-of-way of one of the alignments, or are close enough that they fear their property values will suffer. About a dozen members of the public addressed the council with these concerns, which have been cited at previous meetings on the project.

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Many of these residents also praised the council for being proactive in seeking information about the project and hiring consultants to investigate and prepare for the impacts.

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The CHSRA is required to mitigate any possible impacts on the environment and the community that the project will impose. This includes reimbursing property owners, at fair market value, whose lands and houses stand directly in the way of the final approved alignment.

Hundreds of properties could stand in the right-of-way

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The volume and type of properties that HSRA will have to purchase differs for each of the two alignments under consideration. The city in December 2016 created a potential property impact analysis of the different alignment options.

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An HSR alignment east of UPRR would require the purchase of 35 commercial and other non-residential properties, and 196 residential units, according to the citys analysis. The alignment alternative West of 101 would barrel through 11 non-residential properties and 51 single-family homes.

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The city council has not formally expressed its preferred alignment, but the broad consensus locally is that the alignment along the UPRR tracksnot to mention the construction of the project therewould have devastating impacts on downtown Morgan Hill.

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The council sent the CHSRA a lengthy scoping letter in December 2016 with more than 100 questions about the cost, alignment and potential impacts of the HSR on Morgan Hill. Many of these questions were submitted by residents. HSRA reps said May 24 they are still drafting a response to these questions.
CULLOWHEE  With four new exhibitions opening May 29 and on view throughout the summer, the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center is presenting art in a variety of forms from printmaking, to pottery and photography.

In Water Portraits: Barbara Tyroler, the North Carolina-based artist visually transforms the people in her photographs through the reflective properties of water. This exhibition includes a reception on June 15 from 5-7 p.m with an artist talk beginning at 5 p.m.

Also on June 15, Cullowhee Mountain Arts will present an all-day water photography workshop led by Barbara Tyroler. The workshop begins at 9 a.m. and ends with the WCU Fine Art Museum reception. This exhibition runs through Aug. 25.

In the museums main gallery space, patrons can explore Print Plus One: Beyond the Glass Matrix, which features vitreographs created by 17 different artists at Harvey K. Littleton Studios in Spruce Pine. Vitreographs are prints made using glass rather than metal, wood or stone as a printing plate.

In this exhibition, vitreographs are paired alongside objects made in these artists' primary medium, curated from the collections of the WCU Fine Art Museum and Asheville Art Museum. Viewers will experience works by Dale Chihuly, Sergei Isupov, Shane Fero and Cynthia Bringle, among others. This exhibition runs through July 28, with a closing reception on July 27 from 5-7 p.m.

The exhibition Ancient Forms, Modern Minds: Contemporary Cherokee Ceramics offers a preview to Western Carolina University's 2017-18 campus theme, "Cherokee: Connections. Culture. Community. This exhibition features the work of 11 Cherokee artists, including Joel Queen, Melissa Maney and Bernadine George, and brings together both historic and contemporary pottery techniques.

Ancient Forms, Modern Minds was organized by the Asheville Art Museum and made possible through the generous support of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. On view through Nov. 10, the WCU Fine Art Museum will be the last venue to host this important touring exhibition.

All WCU Fine Art Museum exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public. Guests should note that hands-on workshops may have an associated cost. The museum is open year-round Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The WCU Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center is located at 199 Centennial Drive on the Western Carolina University Cullowhee Campus. For more information, visit bardoartscenter.wcu.edu or call 828-227-ARTS.
One of the attorneys representing a murder suspect who also is expected to be sentenced next month on a terrorism charge wants to be part of his defense in the federal case.

Attorney Victoria Jayne, along with Attorney Matthew Cabe, represents Justin Nojan Sullivan in his Burke County murder case. He is accused of killing a neighbor, John Bailey Clark, who was 74 years old when he died, on Dec. 18, 2014 , and burying him in a shallow grave behind Clarks home. District Attorney David Learner will seek the death penalty against Sullivan if hes found guilty. He is charged with first-degree murder.

On Thursday, Jayne filed motions for a limited appearance and to intervene in the federal case. The motion for limited appearance is so Jayne can argue for the motion to intervene in Sullivans federal case.

Sullivan is expected to be sentenced on the terrorism charge on June 27 at the federal courthouse in Asheville. Sullivan pleaded guilty in November to one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. The plea agreement stipulated a life sentence, according to Jaynes motion. She says she nor Cabe had a chance to advise Sullivan prior to his plea agreement in the federal case.

In her motion, Jayne said, Counsel was informed by (Mike) Savage that he intends to put on evidence during Mr. Sullivans sentencing hearing as to the pending state charges. Specifically counsel is informed by (Savage) that he intends to call as a witness a jail house snitch, as well as FBI agents and laboratory technicians to, essentially, prove the murder case.

Jayne said she had asked that all reference to alleged evidence and facts in the murder case be removed from the federal presentence report for Sullivan. She said Sullivan has not confessed or pleaded guilty in the murder case. He has entered a plea of not guilty in the case, she said.

According to Jaynes motion, she and Cabe object to any discussion, testimony or documents that could be offered by prosecutors during his federal sentencing hearing in June that pertains to the murder case. That would violate Sullivans constitutional rights, including his right to due process and his rights against cruel and unusual punishment, the motion says.

Jaynes motion is asking to intervene in the federal case to request the court not allow any evidence, testimony or documents that are related to the murder case.

Clark was shot in the head three times with a small-caliber gun , according to previous News Herald reports . Federal officials have said ballistics testing on the rifle that federal agents seized from Sullivan's home showed it was used to murder Clark.

A response to Jaynes motion is due by May 31, plus an additional three days if served by mail, according to court documents.

Sullivans federal sentencing is set for 9 a.m. on June 27 in the federal courthouse in Asheville.

Sharon McBrayer is a staff writer and can be reached at smcbrayer@morganton.com or at 828-432-8946.
Harley-Davidson, the iconic American brand from Milwaukee, has announced the building of a new assembly plant in Thailand. Parts and components will be shipped from factories and suppliers in the USA, while the completely knocked down (CKD) bikes will be put together in Thailand. The plant is expected to operate by 2018.

H-D already has similar setups in India and Brazil, where CKD motorcycles are assembled in order to better respond to regional competition. Assembly plants are able to get around high import costs, reducing the burden of customers overseas while cutting shipping times  especially in countries like India where the import tariff is set at 100%. In Thailand, it is currently 60%.

The plan for a Thailand operation aligns with H-D's strategy for global growth, and will serve the emerging markets of China and Southeast Asia. The waning Baby Boomer demand for large, heavy cruisers has also convinced H-D to put more focus on their Custom Vehicle Operations (CVO) and beginner friendly bikes like the Street series.
Posse saddles up to help children Russell Libby describes his golden palomino horse, Sonny, as the calmest, sweetest guy and his best friend for nearly two decades. Sonny is the reason Libby and his wife, Laura,...

Kris Kringle to support library programs The Moorpark Friends of the Library is offering the second annual Letter from Santa fundraiser. For a $25 donation to the Moorpark Friends of the Library, children will receive a...

Oakmont welcomes new executive director Ronda Wilkin, certified dementia practitioner and a senior living executive, joins Oakmont of Moorpark with more than three decades of experience in health and human services. During her 15 years...
An oil and gas economy that has boomed for the better part of 15 years has generated significant business activity in the region.

Not all of that activity is on the up-and-up, however, and thats where the FBI comes in.

From theft to white collar crime, intellectual property theft to counterterrorism, agents from the bureaus El Paso division team with area law enforcement agencies and businesses to investigate.

We want to get the word out, were here and were here to help, said Andi Simmons, special agent in the FBIs Midland office in the Dinero Plaza building.

She said the El Paso division covers 17 West Texas counties, and the Midland office covers 14 of those counties, spanning Andrews and Martin counties south to the border. The El Paso office focuses on El Paso, Culberson and Hudspeth counties.

Businesses of any size within that 14-county region may contact the bureau with questions or concerns, she said.

Part of the FBIs local operations is the Permian Basin Oil Field Theft Task Force, which works with sheriffs deputies from Midland, Ector and Reeves counties to combat theft.

Simmons said the task force investigates thefts of crude oil, large items such as generators and pumping units, as well as smaller items such as tools and copper wiring.

After recording a decline alongside the fall in crude prices, she said thefts of crude oil recently have been on the upswing, with quite a few companies in Midland, Reeves and Glasscock counties reporting thefts. Since the end of March, 5,000 barrels of crude have been reported stolen. Based on $45-a-barrel oil, this crude has a value of about $225,000, she said.

While FBI agents may leave the theft investigations to local police departments or sheriffs offices, Simmons said they do keep apprised of whats happening. A main reason is to look for patterns that indicate the thefts are due to an organized crime ring, she said. Other thefts may simply be thefts of convenience, with employees stealing items that can be quickly converted to cash to pay for a drug habit, for example, she said.

Sometimes the bureaus involvement can result in a stronger criminal case. Simmons cited the recent arrest of 10 Cuban nationals who were charged with stealing credit card numbers and using those numbers to create gift cards used to purchase diesel fuel, which they sold to others. They face federal prison terms for access device fraud and aggravated identify theft.

At the time the task force was founded in 2008, it was the first of its kind. The Oklahoma City division recently added what Simmons called a quasi-task force as part of its overall major theft task force.

The bureau also looks into white collar crime, whether its overbilling a company, submitting falsified invoices or embezzlement. According to Simmons, her office saw an upswing in white collar reports beginning in late 2014 as the industry slowed down and companies had time to perform audits and discovered the crimes.

As oil prices go up, we anticipate less white collar crime being reported, not because it isnt happening but its not being reported by busy companies, she said.

She serves as a sort of bridge between the criminal side of the work and the counterintelligence-counterterrorism side of the work, she said, which can encompass intellectual property theft or computer hacking and malware attacks.

From where we sit, the Permian Basin has such significant infrastructure, and companies have proprietary information, and there are things happening here other countries would like to have, she said.

As such, the area frequently attracts visitors from other producing nations, either seeking to make business deals or study technology used in the oil fields that they could replicate in their homeland.

Simmons advised being wary of suspicious requests for information or visitors who take pictures of unusual items.

People in the Permian Basin are very trusting and helpful, and unfortunately there is a small percentage of people who want to take advantage of that, whether its a foreign country or a trusted employee, Simmons said.

Agents regularly meet with the security personnel of local large companies to share information, she said. But she said information sharing shouldnt be limited to large companies that can afford security departments.

Even the smallest of companies are urged to contact the FBI if they have questions or concerns. Reach out and we can help determine whether or not its an issue, she said.
This year, the summer movie season started way early. Blockbusters such as Logan, Beauty and the Beast, Kong: Skull Island and The Fate and The Furious would all have been reserved for the summer months but those premiered in March and April. Even Guardians of the Galaxy 2 got a jump on the summer fare this year. So whats left? Wonder women, mean mummies and one super spider are still on the way.

Here is a list of big-screen blockbusters -- and some smaller films -- set for release through August.

Compiled by AP film writer Lindsey Bahr.

May 25

Baywatch  Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario bare most in this raunchy big screen update of the cheesy 90s television show.

May 26

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales  Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow, with newcomer Brenton Thwaites, for a fresh adventure in the long-running franchise.

War Machine  Brad Pitt stars in this satire about a fictional four-star general charged with ending the war in Afghanistan.

June 2

Wonder Woman  After more than 75 years of being one of the most popular superheroes, the Amazonian warrior finally gets a big-screen origin story, set in World War I, with Gal Gadot.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie  An animated one for the kiddies, based on the hugely popular book, with the voices of Kevin Hart and Ed Helms.

June 9

The Mummy  Tom Cruise is helping to launch Universals monster movie universe with a reboot of the action/adventure classic.

Beatriz at Dinner  Salma Hayek gives a buzzy performance in this comedy about a Mexican immigrant and a billionaire (John Lithgow) who meet at a dinner party.

The Hero  Sam Elliott plays an aging Western actor rethinking his life choices.

Megan Leavey  Based on the true story of a young Marine and her combat dog, starring Kate Mara.

My Cousin Rachel  A mystery based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier about a young man (Sam Claflin) who falls for his possibly murderous cousin (Rachel Weisz).

June 16

All Eyez on Me  A dramatic biopic about the late rapper Tupac Shakur starring unknown Demetrius Shipp Jr.

Cars 3 Lightning McQueen is back for a new installment in the popular Pixar franchise.

Rough Night  Comedians Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell and Ilana Glazer join Scarlett Johansson and Zoe Kravitz for a disastrous bachelorette party in Miami. Yes, theres a dead stripper involved.

The Book of Henry Before he heads off to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, Jurassic Worlds Colin Trevorrow goes small again with this drama about a single mom (Naomi Watts) and her son (Jaeden Lieberher) who try to help their young neighbor.

June 23

Transformers: The Last Knight  Anthony Hopkins joins Mark Wahlberg in the fifth Transformers, from Michael Bay, which looks at the role the autobots played in King Arthurs time.

The Beguiled  A wounded Union soldier is stranded at an all-girls school in the South in this remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood movie. Nicole Kidman and Kirsten Dunst star; Sofia Coppola directs.

The Big Sick  Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani uses his real life as the template for this sweet and smart comedy about how he met his wife.

June 28

Baby Driver  Director Edgar Wright takes to the roads for an edgy thriller about big-time crooks and their music-loving driver. With Ansel Elgort, Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm.

Okja  Tilda Swinton reteams with Snowpiercer director Bong Joon-ho for an action pic about a young girl trying to protect her giant animal friend from a powerful corporation.

June 30

Despicable Me 3  Steve Carell gets double voice duty as Gru and his twin brother Dru.

The House  Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell try to recoup college funds by starting a gambling ring in their home.

July 7

Spider-Man: Homecoming  Theres a new web-slinger in town, Tom Holland, and hes just trying to survive high school (and save the world).

A Ghost Story  An unconventional grief tale from Petes Dragon director David Lowery, starring Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck.

July 14

War for the Planet of the Apes  In this third installment, Caesar (Andy Serkis) takes a dark turn after the apes suffer massive losses.

July 21

Dunkirk Visionary director Christopher Nolan takes us to the beaches of France in 1940 to tell the story of the evacuation of nearly 400,000 Allied soldiers.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets  The Fifth Element director Luc Besson adapts his favorite French comic book into an ambitious, eye-popping spectacle about two special operatives, Dan DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, maintaining order in space.

Girls Trip Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah get rowdy in New Orleans.

Landline  The follow-up to their charming indie Obvious Child, director Gillian Robespierre and star Jenny Slate take us back to 90s New York as two sisters try to find out if their father is cheating.

July 28

Atomic Blonde  Charlize Theron is a stone cold killer in this 80s-set spy pic.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power  Ten years after An Inconvenient Truth shed light on climate change, Al Gore returns with an update thats equal parts horror and hope.

Brigsby Bear  Before he returns as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill steals scenes with SNLs Kyle Mooney in this indie about a man-child and his favorite television show.

The Emoji Movie  :-)

Aug. 4

Detroit  Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow reteams with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty writer Mark Boal for this drama about the 1967 riots in Detroit starring The Force Awakens John Boyega and Anthony Mackie.

The Dark Tower This adaptation of Stephen Kings classic sci-fi Western features Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as Walter Padick.

Ingrid Goes West  A dark-as-night social media satire about an obsessive loner, Aubrey Plaza, who befriends an Instagram celebrity, Elizabeth Olsen.

Wind River  Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan makes his directorial debut with a wilderness-set thriller about a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) and a seasoned local (Jeremy Renner) investigating a murder.

Aug. 11

Annabelle: Creation  The terrifying possessed doll just wont go away.

Trip to Spain  Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon set off on another trip full of food and Michael Caine impressions.

The Only Living Boy in New York  His fathers mistress complicates life for an aimless college grad. With Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan and Kate Beckinsale.

Aug. 18

The Hitmans Bodyguard  Ryan Reynolds has to protect Samuel L. Jackson in this action pic.

Logan Lucky  Oceans Eleven director Steven Soderbergh insisted he was retiring from film after Behind the Candelabra, but hes already back with a heist comedy set around a NASCAR race with Channing Tatum and Adam Driver.
Midland County Sheriffs Office

A North Carolina man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the robbery that occurred Tuesday morning at Community National Bank in the 600 block of Florida Avenue, according to court documents.

Melvin Williamson, 50, was being held Friday on a $100,000 bond for a second-degree felony charge of robbery.
One badly bruised Lee High student went to the hospital with unspecified injuries after being assaulted by another student Thursday, Midland ISD reported Thursday night.

The district provided a press release that stated a student was arrested for aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury -- a second-degree felony. According to the release, campus administrators discovered a student badly bruised near a bathroom on campus. The student received immediate attention from campus nursing staff until the student was transported by EMS to the hospital.
Police in North Texas seized more than 275 pounds of marijuana on Tuesday, after a Texas Highway Patrol Trooper stopped a vehicle in Oldham County near Amarillo.

Around 10:40 p.m., a trooper stopped a 2009 Cadillac SUV traveling east on I-40 near Vega for a traffic violation. A canine unit was called to the scene and smelled something in the vehicle.
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BMW, Mercedes-Benz and VW are getting their turn in the cross hairs of President Donald Trump, whos making a habit out of attacking the visible  and free trade-dependent  auto industry.

The Germans are bad, very bad, Der Spiegel cited Trump as saying to unidentified participants at a closed-door meeting Thursday with European Union officials in Brussels. Look at the millions of cars that they sell in the U.S. Terrible. Were going to stop that.

Trumps singling out of German carmakers for contributing to the nations lopsided trade surplus follows rebukes of Japans Toyota and attacks on Americas own automakers for shipping cars from Mexico. The rhetoric overlooks that BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen operate some of their biggest factories in the world in southern states, and the impact that putting a stop to imports would have on the thousands of dealers who sell German vehicles.

The U.S. president doesnt argue based on facts but instead comes to conclusions based on alternative facts like how many cars are currently parked on a New York road or at the Trump Tower, said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the University of Duisburg-Essens Center for Automotive Research.

Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, acknowledged that the president said Germany is very bad when it comes to flooding the U.S. with cars, but insisted it wasnt a dig at one of the U.S.s most important allies.

Trump has complained repeatedly that Germanys high trade surplus with the U.S. is hurting the American economy. In a Bild newspaper interview in January, Trump singled out luxury-car maker BMW and threatened it with a 35 percent import duty for foreign-built vehicles sold in the country.

If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes Benz in front of his house, he told Bild, while lamenting the lack of Chevrolets in Germany. General Motors has largely withdrawn the brand from Europe.

BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen declined to comment on Trumps remarks. Combined, deliveries by the companies reached 1.33 million vehicles last year, according to data provided by Wards Automotive Group.

While the U.S. is the second-largest export market for German automakers and the manufacturers are adding or expanding Mexican production facilities, the U.S. remains an important source of their global production. More than half of the vehicles the German companies make in America are exported.

German auto factories are in Republican-leaning states, including the Volkswagen plant that makes Passat sedans and Atlas SUVs in Tennessee. In Alabama, Daimler produces more SUVs than anywhere else in the world and is in the midst of a $1.3 billion expansion.

The manufacturers have responded to earlier attacks with a mix of defiance and mollification. BMW Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger, one of a small group of business leaders to accompany German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her visit to the White House, has defended the importance of free trade and noted that BMWs biggest plant worldwide is in Spartanburg, South Carolina. That factory makes BMW the top exporter of vehicles from the U.S. by value.

Next to China, Germany is the biggest source of the U.S. trade deficit that Trump has vowed to narrow. The U.S. had a trade deficit of $68 billion last year with Germany.

Germany is far from alone in being lopsided with America with regards to autos. The U.S. had a $132 billion trade deficit with the world in terms of passenger vehicle sales last year. Imports of cars from Germany exceeded exports by $15.4 billion.

The German trade surplus rose to a record 253 billion euros ($284 billion) last year, and the U.S. trade deficit widened in January to the most since March 2012. In addition to drawing Trumps ire, the German imbalance has sparked criticism by European Union leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, asked about the matter at the G-7 gathering in Italy on Friday, confirmed the gist of Trumps comments but indicated theyd been exaggerated due to a translation error.

Its not true that the president took an aggressive approach when it comes to the German trade surplus, Juncker, who was present when Trump made his remarks, told reporters in Taormina. He didnt say that the Germans are behaving badly. He said We have a problem, like others, with the German trade surplus.
San Antonio-based military financial services company USAA, the automotive classified site Cars.com and several other companies pulled advertising from Sean Hannitys Fox News show after he came under fire for promoting a conspiratorial account of the slaying of a former Democratic National Committee staffer.

We dont have the ability to influence content at the time we make our advertising purchase, Cars.com said in a statement Wednesday. In this case, weve been watching closely and have recently made the decision to pull our advertising from Hannity.

The mattress maker Leesa Sleep and the exercise company Peloton, said they, too, were no longer advertising on Hannitys show. Crowne Plaza Hotels, online mattress retailer Casper, and the video doorbell company Ring told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday that they were backing out as well.

USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth said the company didnt pull its ads due to outside pressure.

It is our policy to not advertise on any opinion-based programming, Wildermuth said in an email. There was an error which led to our ads running during some opinion-based programs, and as soon as that was discovered, the error was corrected.

Hannity had been one of the main purveyors of a widely discredited theory that DNC staffer Seth Rich was shot and killed near his home in Northwest Washington last year because he had supplied DNC emails to WikiLeaks. District police say Rich died in a botched robbery. His parents have pleaded with news outlets to stop speculating about his death.

Facing a wave of criticism over its reporting, Fox News retracted an article on Tuesday that said Rich made contact with WikiLeaks before he was shot.

The left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters published a list of Hannitys sponsors on Tuesday  a move many interpreted as a call to boycott his show.

Fox News Channel lent support to Hannity on Thursday, saying that the popular host would return to its air next week following a Memorial Day holiday vacation, Variety magazine reported.

Like the rest of the country, Sean Hannity is taking a vacation for Memorial Day weekend and will be back on Tuesday, the 21st Century Fox-owned network said in a statement. Those who suggest otherwise are going to look foolish.
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San Antonio-based USAA touched off a firestorm on Twitter and Facebook this week after the financial services company was named on a list of TV host Sean Hannitys advertisers and then, under public pressure, decided to pull its ads.

USAA and other companies were criticized after Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media watchdog group, released a list of advertisers with the conservative Fox News talk show host. But USAAs Twitter feeds exploded after the company told followers Wednesday night that it would no longer advertise on the show.

Hannity supporters are now calling on customers to drop USAA, using the hashtag #BoycottUSAA on Twitter to express their displeasure. The company was founded by a group of Army officers in 1922 and serves about 12 million members across the world.

The controversy started after USAA responded to a request on Twitter to stop advertising on Hannitys show from @kathydettmer at 5:14 p.m. Central time Wednesday: Thanks for sharing your concern Kathy. Advertising on opinion shows is not in accordance with our policy and weve since corrected it.

USAA was among a handful of companies that pulled its advertising from Hannitys program after he was criticized for promoting a widely discredited theory over the murder of a former Democratic National Committee staffer.

That unleashed a torrent of anger from Hannity supporters and some USAA members on the companys customer service and official Twitter accounts, @USAA_help and @USAA, as well as on its Facebook page.

USAA betrayed @seanhannity @POTUS #Trump supporters and #veterans Please Google review websites & then leave reviews! #BoycottUSAA #MAGA, @Lazulu_OFFICIAL tweeted, referencing President Donald Trumps campaign slogan Make America Great Again.

Does @USAA_help @USAA care about your opinion when they're taking your money? I think not. It's a stupid business decision to get political, wrote @JamesKentjr on Twitter Friday morning.

Conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham tweeted her support for Hannity to her 1.47 million followers: The @USAA dropping @hannity is shameful--esp after all he has done for our troops. #IStandWithHannity .

On Facebook, USAA member Kevin Siffermann posted a video of himself cutting up a USAA Visa credit card with a pair of scissors. Bye, bye, USAA, he said in the video. He said he called USAA and was told it had to hire outside help to field all the complaints its been getting.

USAA spokesman Roger Wildermuth on Thursday said the company didnt pull ads because of outside pressure relating to the criticism.

It is our policy to not advertise on any opinion-based programming, Wildermuth said in an email, reiterating the companys tweets. There was an error which led to our ads running during some opinion-based programs, and as soon as that was discovered, the error was corrected.

Whether USAA has pulled ads from other opinion-based shows couldnt immediately be determined. Wildermuth did not have new comments on Friday.

Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center, a right-leaning media watchdog group, blasted USAA as dishonest and their spokesmen as terrible liars on Thursday because it is still advertising on MSNBCs Hardball with Chris Matthews on Thursday.

We have several other examples of USAA advertising on left-wing shows that would clearly violate their stated policy, Bozell said in a statement. USAA's customers  so many of them veterans who have no greater champion than Sean Hannity  have every right to be outraged. USAA owes them specifically, and the public at large an explanation. This duplicity is obnoxious and shameful.

Other companies that stopped advertising with Hannity were automotive classified site Cars.com; mattress maker Leesa Sleep; the exercise company Peloton; and Crowne Plaza Hotels, according to media reports.

pdanner@express-news.net
Summer isn't usually the best season for television. Traditionally, the networks have filled their schedules with reality shows and reruns, and that hasn't changed much this year. Fortunately, with the availability of streaming services and the cable, summer television has plenty to offer.

The highly anticipated penultimate season of Game of Thrones begins in July; the political drama House of Cards has never felt more relevant; and critically-acclaimed sci-fi thriller, Orphan Black, returns for its fifth and final season.
Pravind Jugnauth, the Mauritius Prime Minister today will begin a two-day visit to India. As per the news, the Ministry of External Affairs ( MEA) said the Mauritius Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After taking over as the prime minister in January it is going to be his first abroad visit. He would also visit Rajghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Jugnauth would call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari.

Also Read:

Bharatiya Janata Party to organise a pan-Indian festival-like publicity campaign

Prime Minister Modi to inaugurate India's longest bridge in Assam today

Arun Jaitley addressed the media after the cabinet meeting
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CHICAGO  The thought of optioning infielder Christian Arroyo to the minors would have seemed heretical as recently as Saturday, when he won a 13-inning game with a two-run double on the 12th pitch of an at-bat. Problem is, Arroyo is 6-for-49 with 12 strikeouts in his past 13 games, and a trip to Triple-A Sacramento, however brief, seems to be on the table.

I dont want to make any assumptions about what were going to do, manager Bruce Bochy said. Weve got decisions to make, and theyre not easy ones.

Arroyo has proved he can overpower Pacific Coast League pitchers, but the Giants offense is not strong enough to hide him until he stops pressing and regains his stroke. Bochy had a fatherly chat with Arroyo before Thursdays game and planned to sit him, but Arroyo got into the lineup at third base after Eduardo Nunez was scratched with a hamstring injury and went 0-for-3.

The Giants need to make room soon for rehabbing infielders Aaron Hill and Conor Gillaspie. At some point they might consider promoting Orlando Calixte, Jae-gyun Hwang or Austin Slater to see if they can improve the bottom of the lineup, which Thursday included Justin Ruggiano (.244), Mac Williamson (.182) and Arroyo (.196).

Arroyo, who will turn 22 on Tuesday, has provided two solid arguments for staying. His defense has remained strong despite the slump, and Bochy has seen not a whit of self-doubt from the kid.

Its easy to play this game with a lot of zest and energy when youre doing well, Bochy said. When you see a guy who has a tough day, 0-for-4 with a couple of strikeouts, you look at how he carries himself. Christian has done a good job with that. The bad body language, you dont see it, even though hes not having a lot of success right now.

Nunezs health will play into the decisions. His hamstring felt worse Thursday morning, but he hopes to play Friday night after two full days of treatment.

Streak gone: Jeff Samardzija walked Ian Happ with two outs in the sixth, Samardzijas first walk in five May starts, ending a streak of 154 hitters without one. He had allowed one homer in May before surrendering three Thursday.

Im pretty happy with it, Samardzija said. Against a team like that, its a fine line. Thats a tough way to take it, giving up one to (Ben) Zobrist that he hit well and two others into the Easter basket. If I keep the ball down they hit it on the ground, but it didnt happen.

Samardzija is winless in five starts against his original team.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Leading off

Clubhouse envy: The Cubs last year built a spacious, state-of-the art clubhouse. The broom closet where visitors dress will be replaced in 2019.

 Henry Schulman

On deck

Friday

vs. Braves

7:15 p.m. NBCSBA

Garcia (1-3) vs.

Cain (3-2)

Saturday

vs. Braves

7:05 p.m. Channel: 11

Foltynewicz (3-4) vs. Blach (2-2)

Sunday

vs. Braves

1:05 p.m. NBCSBA

Dickey (3-3) vs.

Cueto (4-4)
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UPDATE: 5:30 p.m.

According to a spokesman with the Galveston County Health District, as of Saturday May 27, 2017, all Texas Beach Watch Advisories in Galveston County have been cancelled.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:

Along with state parks, rivers and lakes, Texans will also be hitting the beaches for Memorial Day weekend, and some areas of the Texas coast are experiencing "high" levels of fecal bacteria, according to online trackers.

There are several locations around Corpus Christi Bay with high amounts of bacteria in the water, according to Texas Beach Watch.

JUNE 2016: Family: Texas man battling to keep leg after flesh-eating bacteria in Port Aransas causes infection

There are also a number of spots in the Galveston Bay area that have high amounts of bacteria.

Earlier this year, Chris Van Deusen with the Texas Department of Health Services said there were 102 cases of vibriosis in Texas in 2016. Thirty-five of those cases involved the bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus, which is known to cause necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating infection that shocked Texas.

RELATED: What you need to know about 'flesh-eating' infections caused by bacteria in Texas waters

While not everyone who gets the infection ends up developing the flesh-eating disease, bacteria is still something to consider when jumping in the waters of the Gulf this weekend.

Click through the slideshow to see a collection of recent stats regarding the fecal bacteria levels at various beaches across the Texas coast.

The fecal bacterial levels indicated in the slideshow above reflect readings reported by the Texas Beach Watch online mapping tool as of Thursday afternoon.

Staff writer Chris Quinn contributed to this report.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
Albany

Voters statewide overwhelmingly oppose the federal health care bill that was passed by the Republican-controlled House earlier this month, according to a poll released Thursday.

The Siena College poll indicates that just 10 percent of voters want the Senate to pass the American Health Care Act in its House form, while 39 percent want to see the bill overhauled and 46 percent want the Affordable Care Act to remain intact.

Given the choice between repealing and replacing Obamacare or keeping it and improving it, 67 percent of voters say the latter option is best, while 30 percent are on board with repeal and replace. Those numbers are unchanged from when voters were given the same choice in March.

While there is a partisan split on that question (71 percent of Republicans want repeal and replace; 84 percent of Democrats want to keep and improve the ACA), there is bipartisan unity in opposition to the current iteration of the AHCA.

Sixty-two percent of Republicans say the Senate should make significant changes to the AHCA before they pass it, while just 20 percent say it's good as written. Sixty-one percent of Democrats say Obamacare should remain in place.

The poll's release comes a day after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued its analysis of the retooled bill, which originally was set for a vote in March but was pulled from the floor at the last minute. The CBO found that 23 million Americans would be left without insurance but average premiums would decrease compared to those under the Affordable Care Act.

The CBO score led to mixed reaction from New York's congressional delegation and top state officials. Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a statement released Thursday excoriated the bill, as he has before, claiming that "ultra-conservatives in Washington have declared war on New York's health care system." His administration has projected that 2.7 million New Yorkers could lose their health care if the bill, expected to undergo heavy revisions in the Senate, becomes law. Conservative estimates for the number of potentially uninsured are far lower.

As the Times Union reported Thursday, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said the CBO score "confirms the painful truth about Trumpcare  it does not protect people with pre-existing conditions and it will lead to higher costs and less coverage."

Republican Reps. John Faso of Kinderhook and Elise Stefanik of Essex County emphasized positives of the report. Stefanik spokesman Tom Flanagin said the congresswoman "is encouraged that the CBO has found this legislation will lower taxes, reduce our deficits and lower premiums." Faso said he does not agree with the CBO's projections for the number of people who will lose insurance.

"The key in my mind is to lower premiums and deductibles while maintaining protections for those with pre-existing conditions," Faso said.

Siena polled 770 registered voters statewide. The margin of error is +/- 4 percent.

The full crosstabs are below:

SNY0517 Crosstabs 052517 by Matthew Hamilton on Scribd
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Although operations at the World Trade Bridge have gradually picked up speed over the past few days, it will still be many weeks or longer before its facilities are fully repaired and traffic is back to normal, CBPs Laredo Port Director Gregory Alvarez said Thursday.

Alvarez and other CBP officials led media through the administrative offices at the bridges secondary inspection facility, which took the brunt of the damage from Sundays storm.

Deputy Port Director Alberto Flores said he visited the building that night after the storm passed. It was completely dark, ceiling tiles were missing everywhere, and several inches of water covered the floor along with debris, he said.

Electricity has since been restored, and the water and debris have been cleared. But dark gaps in the ceiling remain where tiles are still missing, and desks sit empty without employees or computers.

One of the biggest problems, Flores said, is that only three of the buildings 13 air conditioning units are still intact. Some were upended from the roof and their parts strewn about outside. The large holes they left in the roof is how most of the rain water got in on Sunday.

READ MORE: Man found guilty of murdering 3-year-old in Laredo motel room

Most of the employees who work at this secondary inspection station have either been transferred to the Colombia Solidarity Bridge for the time being or they are working remotely. A couple are now working in their semi-operational but incredibly stuffy offices.

This building has a dock area for trucks carrying items that need secondary inspection, like produce; an agriculture laboratory; a large office of import specialists; an entry office; IT department and more.

Alvarez said the majority of muscle movements have been focused on trying to get the administrative process back in place, be it in mobile units or other CBP or city offices.

CBP is allowing empty tractor-trailers to cross both north- and southbound at the World Trade Bridge. And some C-TPAT (certified low-risk) trucks carrying dry goods are now able to go northbound through World Trade as well. Together this means about 3,000 trucks will have crossed the bridge Thursday, Flores said. Typically about 12,000 trucks cross the World Trade Bridge daily.

The rest of the traffic is being diverted to the Colombia Solidarity Bridge, which has half the number of lanes as World Trade.

Colombia is currently processing about 60-65 percent of normal commercial traffic, officials said, and theyre hoping to get it closer to 100 percent soon. Mexican customs has announced that they will be operating 24/7 until World Trade is up and running again. On the U.S. side, lanes open at 7 a.m. and close when the last truck comes through, well past midnight.

Bradd Skinner, CBPs assistant director for trade, said truckers have been waiting in line at the Colombia bridge for 7-10 hours. A typical wait time at World Trade ranges from 30 minutes to about 3 hours based on the degree of examination necessary per truck.

RELATED: How damage from May 2017 storms compares to the costliest Texas disasters ever

In spite of these hefty wait times, Skinner said there has been no significant shift in traffic to the Rio Grande Valley or Eagle Pass ports of entry. However the McAllen Monitor reported that the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge is handling diverted truck traffic.

We had a good meeting with stakeholders earlier this morning, Skinner said. I think they are very pleased with the level of progress to get operations up and going here at World Trade Bridge.

The fact that it could take weeks to get the bridge fully operational again is stoking some apprehension in the community, Skinner said, but people are taking comfort in the fact that traffic is flowing on both sides of the border.

(The business community) talks about resiliency and being able to adjust to these types of situations, he said.

Skinner said hes been impressed by all the creative problem solving taking place in the aftermath of this destruction.

Were getting there, he said.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, have also signified their involvement in getting the World Trade Bridge back up to snuff.

"Our office has been in close contact with the folks on the ground, and we plan to work with Rep. Cuellar's office, CBP, and GSA to help ensure the bridge is at full capacity as quickly as possible," one of Cornyn's spokeswomen said in a statement.
1 Climate accord: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and 21 other Republicans are urging the president to follow through on his campaign pledge to pull out of the Paris climate accord. The GOP senators sent a two-page letter Thursday to President Trump stating the international agreement to reduce carbon emissions could fuel legal challenges to the administrations plans to roll back environmental regulations. Most of the senators who signed are from states that depend on the continued burning of coal, oil and gas. That includes Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe and others who, like Trump, have suggested the scientific data showing the Earth is warming due to man-made carbon emissions is a hoax.

2 Long-term care: An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds a growing number of Americans age 40 and older think Medicare should cover the costs of long-term care for older adults. But that option is unlikely to gain much traction as President Trumps administration and Republicans in Congress look to cut the federal budget and repeal President Barack Obamas 2010 health care law. Fifty-six percent of Americans age 40 and over think Medicare should have a major role in paying for ongoing living assistance. Thats up from 39 percent who said so in 2013. The poll shows most older Americans mistakenly believe they can rely already on Medicare.
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May 19 was an exciting day for many Atascocita High School students. For some, they were eager to receive their yearbooks highlighting all they've accomplished that year. For others, the yearbook stood as their final memories of high school.

But the feeling of excitement quickly deflated as their parents became outraged at Editor-in-Chief Kyle Armour's decision to create an LGBT spread.

LGBTQ IN TEXAS: Two hundred faith leaders, opposing bathroom bill, urge equal treatment for gay, transgender Texans

Much of the drama unfolded on the forum Atascocita.com, where parents expressed their distaste that the LGBT spread included in the yearbook and aimed negative remarks at Kyle. This is the first time Atascocita High has published an LGBT spread in its yearbook.

Kimberly Hicks Armour said her son wanted to highlight the diversity of the school to make each student feel welcomed and accepted.

"His goal was to be as inclusive as possible for the entire student and to make everyone feel important in the book," Kimberly Hicks Armour said.

She said some people posting on the thread were attacking her son directly.

"People were saying he was dumb, not smart, that I should not be proud of who he is. I'm very proud of who he is. He did take a stand and make something diverse for the community and to our school," Kimberly Hicks Armour said.

NOT SO FRIENDLY: Laredo ranks as one of the least LGBT friendly cities in Texas

Senior Natalie Mendoza identifies as gay and Catholic and was amongst the students given a spot on the LGBT spread. Her senior quote, "I can turn your girl," was noted as offensive. Mendoza said her quote was a joke, but it received negative remarks focused on her sexual orientation from parents.

Under the name 'SteelerNation' on Atascocita.com, one user wrote about the spread, "That's jamming their crap down our throats!"

Another user posted under the name 'lynnsgirl', "We can't pray in school but now we have a section strictly dedicated to the gay community explaining how, when and why the came 'out'. I'm honestly disgusted and embarrassed."

Mendoza said reading comments like that made her feel ashamed of who she is, not knowing her quote and the spread would cause all this uproar.

"My friends know my sexual orientation and love and respect me regardless," Mendoza said. "There was many immature and ridiculous jokes, but mine, in specific, stood out due to my sexual orientation."

LGBTQ IN COLLEGE: First openly gay Texas A&M student president hopes to improve diversity

Mendoza said another student wrote "Viva Mexico" and was also targeted for his quote.

The same user name 'SteelerNation' wrote in response to that quote, "hope they self-deport, that crap does not belong in a USA yearbook."

Several students took to Twitter to express their frustration with the forum, stating the parents should stop acting like high school students and let their children express themselves.

Yearbook advisor Kevin Tatum did not have permission to speak to the media.

Jamie Mount, Humble Independent School District spokeswoman, said the district will take the necessary steps to ensure quotes deemed inappropriate are not published in the future, but has not detailed what steps will be put in place or the threshold as to what will be deemed inappropriate.

For a brief period, the district halted distribution of yearbooks and ordered yearbook staff to mark over the offensive quotes with a Sharpie. That decision was later reversed and the school Tweeted it would release the yearbooks in their original form.

"The yearbooks should have been more thoroughly vetted prior to publication," Mount said. "The issue has been addressed with staff. It will not happen again."

Also, amongst that turmoil, some senior quotes published in the yearbooks caused some parents to call for legal action or censure.

Student Matthew Rinn posted a photo of a Sharpie marking through a senior quote stating, "'I start the Lamborghini with a screwdriver.' - Riff Raff."

"So happy to be apart of a journalism program that serves the parents of Atascocita, not the students! Our innocent little minds!" Rinn captioned the photo.

Another senior quote included an arrow to the left and the words "dis man is ugly," pointing to Darlene Savoie Seal's son.

"The yearbook has already been published and released. Other people (have) seen the quote, took pictures with their phone and passed it around on Snapchat," Seal said.

She contacted her lawyer and the school.

"The school, after I contacted my lawyer, has given my son an apology and (is) saying they are taking steps so this does not happen again," Seal said.
Submitted

Members of the Rotary Club of East Montgomery County celebrated the installation of the first Rotary Free Library at Bull Sallas Park in New Caney May 18.

The library was unveiled in a public ceremony to introduce the Little Free Library concept to the community. Residents can borrow, keep and donate books to the small libraries which will be placed in parks and areas of high pedestrian traffic. Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Clark approved the first location at the playground at Bull Sallas Park and approved locations for three other parks in the county.
Shield Bearer, a nonprofit charitable organization that promotes individual growth and development, preserves and enriches marriages and strengthens and unites families, is ready to serve the community this summer.

"There are so many families in our community struggling with grief, traumatic events like a recent crime or abuse, depression, addiction, unhealthy relationships, and more. These issues can affect their ability to thrive and lead healthy, productive lives, which ultimately affects the entire community," said Melissa Rotholz, associate director of Shield Bearer. "When access to professional counseling care and preventative educational programs are introduced, families experience renewed hope and healing and bring that to everyone around them. If Shield Bearer wasn't here and able to offer sliding scale services, many families would be left behind and negatively impacted for generations. Shield Bearer helps strengthen the community, one heart and one family at a time."

Every month Shield Bearer offers a free community breakfast at the Jones Road location. Members of the organization believe the community breakfast is a great way for potential volunteers, employees, or supporters to come learn more about the ministry. The non-profit group welcomes the community to discover the story behind the Shield Bearer name and hear what God is doing through the organization to serve those who would otherwise be turned away.

"We have lots of opportunities to volunteer this summer at Shield Bearer," Rotholz said. "We are looking for individuals, businesses, and organizations that want to make a difference in the lives of struggling kids, couples, and families right here in Houston. We invite everyone to come to a free community breakfast this summer and learn how to get involved."

Shield Bearer offers community, faith-based and community services. Counseling services include marriages, pre-marital, couples, families, individuals, teens, adolescents and children. Shield Bearer's mission is to promote individual growth and development, preserve and enrich marriages and strengthen and unite families.

This year's Running for Hearts 5K Family Fun Run and Walk was a success for the organization. The event which was held in March raised money for counseling and prevention programs for victims of crime, abuse, and human trafficking here in Houston.

Shield Bearer believes the support from local businesses such as Avanti Senior Living and FINS: The Art of Swim, as well as organizations such as the American Business Women's Association play a large role in the success of the organization's events.

"Our prevention programs have also grown and reached even more kids, tweens, and teens this year," Rotholz said. "We've talked with thousands of teenagers about dating violence through our Lindsay's Light Dating Violence Prevention Program in local high schools and connected hundreds of dads and kids through our Strong Fathers Strong Families Program in elementary schools."

The organization is planning to expand their Mother Daughter Strong program, which serves as a bonding and holistic strength building for tweens and teens. Additionally, the organization will be expanding the Full Throttle to Fatherhood program which offers advice for new dads.

Shield Bearer welcomes volunteers to their organization. The non-profit organization also values the support from donors.

"Greater Houston really needs Shield Bearer Counseling. In my low income housing business and in my non-profit work, I see and hear about so many families and individuals who are struggling emotionally and with broken relationships," Bob Baldwin said, Shield Bearer financial supporter. "In many cases, caring professional counseling is essential to healing, but lacking insurance coverage or money for mental health services, people so often flounder along alone. That's why it's so important for people who have resources to support Shield Bearer. My wife and I have been giving to them monthly for many years, and Resale with a Purpose, a non-profit resale store in Tomball, on whose board I serve, has Shield Bearer as one of the anchor ministries we support in our community."

Locations for the organization include north and northwest Houston, Tomball, west Houston, and Montgomery County.

Shield Bearer

http://shieldbearer.org

Shield Bearer Free Monthly Community Breakfast

RSVP: events@shieldbearer.org or volunteer@shieldbearer.org

Call: 281-894-7222

Upcoming Breakfast Dates:

Tuesday, June 6

9-10 a.m., Shield Bearer 12340 Jones Rd Ste 290, Houston, TX

Tuesday, July 11

9-10 a.m., Shield Bearer 12340 Jones Rd Ste 290, Houston, TX

Tuesday, August 1

9-10 a.m., Shield Bearer 12340 Jones Rd Ste 290, Houston, TX

Shield Bearer NW Houston

(Main Office & Mailing Address)

12340 Jones Road, Suite 290

Houston, Texas 77070

281-894-7222

Shield Bearer Cypress Station

1340 Cypress Station Dr.

Houston, TX 77070

281-894-7222

Shield Bearer Tomball

455 School Street, Suite 30

Tomball, TX 77375

281-894-7222
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Eight New Canaan residents graduated from Norwalk Community College on May 18. Among the 752 new graduates were Adchara Boonyanan, Austin F. DiScala, Timothy J. Festo, Nolan Fitzpatrick, Wendy L. Hower, Mark A. Rustad, Jiwoo Song and Ginamarie M. Tiani.

Ruth Perry, of New Canaan, received a doctorate of nursing practice degree from Quinnipiac University during a recent ceremony.

LiveGirl empowers middle schoolers

LiveGirl hosted a Girl Original leadership summit at Stepping Stones Museum in Norwalk on May 19 that brought together 75 middle school girls from across Fairfield County.

The keynote speaker was Tanisha Akinloye, CEO of Empowering Through Beauty, who spoke about the importance of inner beauty. The girls also enjoyed dinner, poetry and team-building games.

LiveGirl, founded by New Canaan resident Sheri West, is a nonprofit organization that provides year-round leadership development and mentoring for middle school girls in Fairfield County, including after-school mentoring, leadership summits and summer camp.

The deans list

Two New Canaan residents achieved the deans list at Belmont University for the spring semester: Brendan McManus and Lauren Peet. Eligibility is based on a minimum course load of 12 hours and a quality grade point average of 3.5 with no grade below a C.

Robot experts

New Canaan Country Schools Middle School Robotics Team participated in the eighth annual ROBOnanza!, a competition for Westchester, N.Y., and Fairfield County independent schools that took place in Greenwich May 13.

The Cougar Bots  robots built completely out of Legos and programmed by the fifth- and sixth-graders  contended against robots from other schools in three levels of challenges.

As per the CSI-inspired theme, Forensic Frenzy, the students were challenged to build robots that could travel down a lane and knock over as many pins as possible in a five-frame game (Bowling For Burglars); navigate to five numbered areas with various Lego evidence worth various point values (Collect the Evidence); and complete an obstacle course autonomously (Police Academy Training).

Country School sixth-graders Sofie Petricone, of Norwalk, and Charlotte Calderwood, of Darien, took home the first-place trophy for Police Academy Training, while the fifth-grade team of Malcolm Stewart, of Darien, Cyrus Pearson, of New Canaan, and Decatur Boland, of Norwalk, netted second-place honors in the same category.

The Cougar Bot designed by sixth-graders Tyler Rosolen, of Norwalk, and Sam Cherry, of Westport, scored second place in Collect the Evidence, and the fifth grade team consisting of Waverly Walters, of New Canaan, Katey Charnin, of Darien, and Annie Nichols, of New Canaan, placed third.

Sixth-grader and New Canaan resident Parakram Karnik scored second place in Bowling for Burglars.

Darien resident Peter Metcalf, a fifth-grader, won a special trophy for being the only person in the competition to complete the Police Academy challenge fully. He was also cited for successfully navigating his robot around the line figure of a human body.

All team members took home certificates for successfully completing challenges.

New Canaan Country School is an independent day school serving students age 3 through grade nine.

At the library

Painting Inside-Out: How the internal drives  and translates to  the final, external outcome is beautifully explored in Painting Inside-Out, the next exhibition to open in the librarys H. Pelham Curtis Gallery. The exhibition runs from May 25 through July 23.

An opening reception will take place Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Curtis Gallery.

The exhibit will showcase works by Pam Ackley, a realist, and Bevi Bullwinkle, an abstract landscape artist.

Painting Inside-Out is sponsored by the Art Committee of New Canaan Library and is curated by Micaela Porta and Laura Case.

Attwood Lecture: Acclaimed journalist, documentary filmmaker, and multiple Peabody and Emmy Award-winning producer Chris Whipple will be the guest speaker for the librarys 2017 William Attwood Memorial Lecture.

The crucial  and ultimately powerful  role of any presidents chief of staff is explored and detailed in Whipples recently released book, The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.

The Attwood Lecture will be Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the Adrian Lamb Room. A light reception will precede the lecture at 6.

Copies of The Gatekeepers will be available for purchase, provided by Elm Street Books.

The William Attwood Memorial Lecture honors a longtime New Canaan resident, William Attwood. Throughout the course of his career, he helped define the times as well as shape the causes in which he believed. By enabling the library to present distinguished speakers, the annual lecture honors his memory and his lifetime interests in journalism, government, literature and politics.

Books and Beats: The summer kick-off event Books and Beats is back on June 3. Glamorous cabana lounges, great dance music and a specialty tequila-tasting bar will guarantee a white-hot Miami dance party vibe.

Fundraiser guests can look forward to a festive night with 300-plus people dining, dancing and enjoying some exciting new features and additions.

Coming off of rave reviews from last years event, On The Marc Catering returns, offering a superb variety of gourmet foods and Latin-inspired choices. Wine, craft beers, signature cocktails and a splashy tequila tasting bar will add to the dance-lounge flavor of the evening.

The party will take place under the stars (and tents) from 7 to 10 p.m. on the library grounds.

This years corporate sponsors include Brad and Vandy Reh Designs, Bankwell, April Kaynor and Kelly Defrancesco with William Raveis, the Hospital for Special Surgery , Haggerty Pool, Hoyt Livery, Peoples United Bank and Silver Hill Hospital .

Benefactor and general tickets are on sale at the librarys website, newcanaanlibrary.org/booksandbeats.

Register at newcanaanlibrary.org for events at the New Canaan Library, 151 Main St.
Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle / /

A 28-year-old former East Bay community college professor was arrested for a brutal bike-lock attack amid a clash between President Trump supporters and radical left demonstrators last month in Berkeley, officials said Thursday.

Video of the April 15 assault exploded on right-wing websites in the days following the clash as scores of cybersleuths began identifying Eric Clanton as the masked man seen bashing a Trump backer in the head, causing serious bleeding.
A veteran skydiver fell to his death on Wednesday outside a skydiving facility in northern California after his parachute failed to properly deploy.

Matthew Ciancio, 42, was undertaking a 13,000-foot jump with several other skydivers at the Lodi Parachute Center in Acampo, Calif., officials from the Federal Aviation Administration told the Sacramento Bee. The group was flying in formation in wingsuits, specialized jumpsuits with wings under the arms and between the legs.

When Ciancio tried to release his main parachute at about 4,000 feet, he started spinning uncontrollably, according to Bill Dause, a spokesman for the Lodi Parachute Center. As Ciancio plummeted toward the ground, Dause said, he tried to cast off the parachute at "an extremely low altitude."

The emergency parachute didn't deploy, and Ciancio crashed in a vineyard about a mile north of the Lodi Airport.

"I watched him dangle under his canopy unresponsive, not trying to fight it and just tumbled down and down," Gwillym Hewetson, one of Ciancio's skydiving partners, told KCRA 3.

Heweston said Ciancio was skilled in wingsuit base jumping, an extreme form of skydiving that involves free-falling over long distances in the flying squirrel-like suits. He said Ciancio may have experienced a "hard open," a whiplash effect that happens when a parachute deploys at a high speed.

"It can happen to any skydiver depending on how they pack their canopy," he told KCRA 3. "You're going 120 miles an hour and for that to be stopped in an instant gives your body a huge shock."

The FAA said it was investigating Ciancio's death. The agency has not determined what caused the crash, according to the Associated Press.

Dause, the Lodi Parachute Center's spokesman, said Ciancio was visiting the center and had completed several jumps in the past week. He didn't follow "proper emergency procedure" during his fatal jump, Dause told the Sacramento Bee.

"He waited too long to get rid of the bad parachute," he said.

"We feel bad about the family and the people (the skydivers) leave behind," Dause told KCRA 3. "But other than furnishing the aircraft for them to use, we didn't pack the parachute, we didn't train them, we didn't give them the equipment, in this case. Does it make it right? No. Do we feel bad? Of course we feel bad."

The Lodi Parachute Center has a history of fatal accidents. There have been 13 deaths connected to the center between 1999 and 2016, according to KCRA 3.

Last February, a skydiver died at the center after an apparent parachute malfunction caused him to slam into a cinder block wall and fall into a drainage ditch during his descent.

In May 2016, a skydiving plane carrying 18 people took off from the center and crash landed upside-down in a nearby vineyard after its engine malfunctioned. The pilot suffered a minor injury, and none of the passengers were hurt, as the Sacramento Bee reported at the time.

In August, a skydiving instructor with the center and a first-time parachuter died in a tandem jump after their parachute failed to deploy. The U.S. Parachute Association, the only federally-recognized organization that licenses skydivers, reported after the accident that it had never issued the instructor a license.

Nationwide, 21 people were killed in skydiving accidents in 2015 out of an estimated 3.5 million jumps, according to the USPA. The rate of skydiving fatalities has fallen over the past 15 years, even as more people have taken up the high-adrenaline sport, the association says.

Ciancio had been living in June Lake, Calif., since 1995 and was working as an X-ray technician at a local hospital when he died, according to his family. His brother, Brian Ciancio, told the Sacramento Bee he was a longtime rock climber, snobowarder and dirt bike rider, and had taken up skydiving over the past decade.

"If you went rock climbing or skydiving year-round, how could you be stressed?" Brian Ciancio said. "He is that poster child for living life to the fullest."

"He was really there when you needed him," he said, "and he was a great big brother."
A San Antonio man who served as a guard at the federal prison in Three Rivers has been indicted on charges of taking a $5,000 bribe to smuggle synthetic marijuana to an inmate there.

Ex-guard David Cavazos was arrested Thursday in San Antonio and released on bond with orders to report to Victoria, where he was indicted May 18 with inmate Edmundo Reyes.
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Hundreds  including family, friends, firefighters and community leaders  showed up Thursday to pay their respects to firefighter Scott Deem, who died while fighting a chaotic four-alarm fire a week ago on the Northwest Side.

Its hard for the family and children that are left behind, said Sal Rodriguez, 61 and a retired San Antonio firefighter of 19 years who was walking to the public viewing held Thursday evening at Porter Loring Mortuary downtown.

His son Manuel Rodriguez, who followed in his career path, was one of 12 firefighters who were part of the rescue team ordered to evacuate the burning structure at Ingram Square before they were able to find Deem.

Deem, a 31-year-old father of two, with a third on the way, ran out of oxygen May 18 as he and several other firefighters went inside the Spartan Box to make sure no civilians were still inside the burning building. The cause of his death hasnt yet been released.

He (Manuel Rodriguez) called me that night  he said he would talk to me about it the next day, Sal Rodriguez said, adding that his son took time off shortly after and that they still hadnt spoken about that night. I wanted him to go through all the emotions first.

RELATED: 'Heroic' firefighter killed in Thursday night blaze was father of 2, had baby on the way

Sirens from ambulances and passing firetrucks periodically broke the silence outside the mortuary Thursday as other visitors, including Mayor Ivy Taylor, District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg and Tax Assessor Collector Albert Uresti, waited in a line that stretched outside for a chance to offer condolences.

Firefighters from various agencies including Arlington, Austin and Memphis fire departments arrived to pay their respects. A decorated officer with a badge reading New York Police Department stood among those waiting outside.

Fire trucks from station 35, where Deem spent much of his daily life, were staged outside the funeral home exits Thursday, with one of the ladder trucks displaying an American flag. The department shields on either side of the trucks had a black line through them.

Vanessa Lopez, 35, stood examining one of the trucks for a moment.

He was a good friend of the family, she said of Deem. His family and friends came first before anything. He was always playing with his kids.

Retired San Antonio firefighter Roy Alvarado, 65, said the atmosphere was both somber and respectful inside.

There were a lot of people who didnt know each other acting like family, Alvarado said. They were all there to pay respects to their fallen brother.

Alvarado and three retired firefighters speaking among themselves just outside the funeral home. They said paying respects is what one does when a brother dies.

Its not just an 8-5 job. Were there 24 hours, said Charles Stiebing, who was a firefighter for 32 years before retiring.

RELATED: Things to know about Scott Deem and the massive blaze that killed the San Antonio firefighter

Debbie Delgado, 65, who served for 30 years before retiring, said they still spring into action when off duty.

When you pass a car fire, you still step in and help, she said.

jbeltran@express-news.net
The former finance secretary for the Mexican state of Tabasco has been indicted in Corpus Christi, the latest charges in a series of cross-border prosecutions by federal investigators in South Texas.

U.S. officials last month charged Jose Manuel Saiz Pineda, 49, the former finance secretary; his wife Silvia Beatriz Perez Ceballos, 49, and business associate Martin Alberto Medina Sonda, 44, with money laundering conspiracy and conspiring to commit bank fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office in Houston. The indictment was unsealed after Perez Ceballos was arrested Wednesday near Houston.
AUSTIN -- Gov. Greg Abbotts visit to a shooting range to sign a bill into law got big attention when he took some target practice and made a crack about journalists.

Im going to carry this around in case I see any reporters, Abbott said with a grin as he joked with journalists covering the event, after he was given his target sheet.
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Thousands gathered Friday afternoon at Community Bible Church to pay homage to fallen firefighter Scott Deem, who was was remembered as a dedicated first responder, a Dallas Cowboys devotee, and most of all, a family man.

The Catholic Mass culminated with the ringing of the bell and the sounding of the final alarm, a time-honored firefighting tradition. The call was broadcast over the radio system for all of Deem's brothers to hear.



RELATED: 'Heroic' firefighter killed in Thursday night blaze was father of 2, had baby on the way

"This is the final alarm for Scott Patrick Deem," the dispatcher said. "He faithfully served the city of San Antonio for six years. ... Although you are gone, you will never be forgotten. Rest in power, Scott."

After the service ended, a vintage firetruck bearing his casket, which was draped with an American flag, departed the church, traveling to the cemetery where he will be buried.

The funeral began with a rendition of "Amazing Grace" as hundreds of first responders, forming a sea of navy blue, flooded into the church. Officials said the church, which holds 3,600 people, filled completely.



READ MORE: S.A. honors, prays for firefighters killed, injured in 4-alarm blaze on Northwest Side

Robert Emmitt, pastor emeritus at Community Bible Church and San Antonio Fire Department chaplain, began the funeral with a prayer for Deem's widow, Jennifer, two children, 13-year-old Dakota and 7-year-old Tyler, and their unborn daughter.

"You all have made the ultimate sacrifice," Emmitt told them. "I thank you, on behalf of the church, on behalf of the whole city, for the price you have paid."

Deem, 31, joined the San Antonio Fire Department six years ago. He was killed in a Northwest Side fire on May 18 while searching for potential victims. Two other firefighters, Brad Phipps and Robert Vasquez, were also injured in the blaze.

The day's commemorations began with an apparatus procession that departed from the Alamodome  comprised of 120 firetrucks and fire vehicles, 100 motorcycles and 500 firefighters from various jurisdictions, a reminder of the brotherhood that abides in the first responder community.

From the Alamodome, the procession made its way north to U.S. 281. A firetruck and the public witnessed the procession at every overpass on the way to the church.



UPDATE: Firefighter in critical condition after Northwest Side blaze that killed one first responder

At 11 a.m., a second motorcade including a vintage firetruck carrying Deem's casket departed the Porter Loring Funeral Home.

Mourners came from near and far to honor Deem, including New York Fire Department firefighter Frank Busener, with Ladder 136, and five of his colleagues.

"This is not an easy event for us to attend," Busener said. "We felt a need to come down and show our respect, honor someone else who does the same job."

eeaton@express-news.net

Twitter: emilieeaton
In his dystopian Inaugural Address, President Donald Trump painted a picture of America as a nation gripped by vast carnage  a landscape of rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones that cried out for a strongman to put America first and stop the world from stealing our jobs. It was a shocking speech in many ways and reportedly prompted former President George W. Bush to say to those around him on the dais, That was some really weird (stuff).

It was weird, but was it all wrong?

I just took a four-day car trip through the heart of that landscape  driving from Austin, Indiana, down through Louisville, Kentucky, winding through Appalachia and ending up at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to try to answer that question.

Trump is half right in his diagnosis, but his prescription is 100 percent wrong. We do have an epidemic of failing communities. But we also have a bounty of thriving ones  not because of a strongman in Washington but because of strong leaders at the local level.

The big divide in America is between strong communities and weak communities. You can find weak ones along the coast and thriving ones in Appalachia, and vice versa. Its community, stupid  not geography.

The communities that are making it share a key attribute: Theyve created diverse adaptive coalitions, where local businesses get deeply involved in the school system, translating in real time the skills being demanded by the global economy.

They also tap local colleges for talent and innovations that can diversify their economies and nurture unique local assets that wont go away. Local foundations and civic groups step in to fund supplemental learning opportunities and internships, and local governments help to catalyze it all.

The success stories are all bottom-up; the failures are all where the bottom has fallen out.

I started in one of the bottomless places: Austin, Indiana, a tiny town of 4,000 off Interstate 65, which was described in a brilliant series in The Louisville Courier-Journal as the epicenter of a medical disaster, where citizens of all ages are getting hooked on liquefied painkillers and shooting up with dirty needles, resulting in an HIV infection rate of 5 percent.

I chose to go there to meet the towns only doctor, Will Cooke, whose heroic work I learned of from the Courier-Journal series.

Austin, Cooke explained to me, got caught in the vortex of declining blue-collar jobs, leading to a loss of dignity for breadwinners, depression and family breakdown, coinciding with doctors and drug companies pushing painkillers, and with too many people in the community failing to realize that to be in the middle class now required lifelong learning  not just to get a job but to hold one.

Lately, though, Cooke told me, the towns prospects have started to improve, precisely because the community has come together, not to shoot up but to start up and learn up and give a hand up.

Addiction is often a byproduct of social breakdown leading to a sense of isolation. Cooke feels hopeful because he sees the tide slowly shifting as social isolation gives way to community.

But just 40 minutes down the highway from Austin, Louisville also has another story to tell: We have 30,000 job openings, said Mayor Greg Fischer, and for the best of reasons: Louisville has a vision for how a city can be a platform for human potential to flourish.

One job-creation strategy led to creation of a slew of businesses that make end of runway products for rapid delivery by leveraging the fact that Louisville is UPS worldwide air hub; bourbon tourism that leverages the fact that Kentucky is the Napa Valley of bourbon; a partnership with Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky, has created an advanced manufacturing corridor; and by leveraging Humanas headquarters in Louisville, the city has unleashed a lifelong wellness and aging-care industry.

Show me a community that understands todays world and is working together to thrive within it, and Ill show you a community on the rise  coastal or interior, urban or rural.
Texas has long insisted that its redistricting has been done to preserve partisan advantage. In other words, to make sure that Republicans win and keep more state House and Senate and congressional seats than Democrats.

This wasnt racial bias, theyve said  even if it had the effect of denying racial and ethnic minorities due representation.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday just blew the cover off this farce. In striking down two North Carolina congressional districts, the high court essentially said that overusing racial factors in redistricting is racial gerrymandering.

In North Carolinas case, the Legislature packed African-Americans into two districts to deny them representation elsewhere.

The ruling on North Carolina prompted a panel of federal judges in San Antonio to suggest that Texas give up its defense of its own flawed redistricting. It should. The federal court in San Antonio has already ruled that three of the states congressional districts were intentionally drawn to disadvantage Latino voters in particular.

Judge Xavier Rodriguez, writing for the San Antonio panel, is right in suggesting that the Texas Legislature go into special session to redraw its maps. This ruling on North Carolina will only increase the chances of success for those who challenge redistricting maps when they unfairly affect minority voters. The chances of a Texas appeal prevailing appear dubious. So, why waste tax dollars on such an appeal?

Courts had ruled that redistricting for partisan advantage is not necessarily unconstitutional. But this partisanship-versus-racial-bias argument is a distinction without a difference. Voting is so racially polarized  minorities substantially vote Democrat, whites Republican  that redistricting for partisan advantage in states such as Texas translates into packing minorities into as few districts as possible and keeping their numbers low in as many other districts as possible.

But the irony here is that partisan redistricting is also unfair on its face. Our states leading lights have somehow reasoned that drawing maps so that legislators choose their voters  rather than voters better able to choose their representatives  is somehow palatable.

We applaud this ruling and urge Texas to drop any appeal. And in a special session, the Legislature should adopt the best solution: an independent redistricting commission to take the self-serving fingers of legislators out of the process.
Re: St. Anthonys Lost and Found; Poetry Exchange gives students a chance to study patron saint of lost causes, Jenny Browne, S.A. Tricentennial, May 20:

Reading Jenny Brownes delightful poem The Man Who Gives Wrong Directions in Downtown San Antonio reminds me:

Forty years ago, before loops and expressways, highways went straight through downtown. In San Antonio, there were U.S. 181 and U.S. 281, heading south.

I had a studio downtown, and one day I was hailed by a traveling couple for directions. I complied and sent them on their way. As they drove off, I realized I had smilingly sent them to Laredo. They wanted to go to Corpus. There was no poem there.

I still wonder how far they got before realizing they were seeing cactus instead of gulls. If they read this, I must say I am truly sorry.

Clay McGaughy

Hope for homeless

Re: Its time to expand the HOPE team, Editorial, Sunday:

You mention the heavy component of social work the officers on the HOPE team are doing. I wonder why you dont advocate for clinical social workers to work with police officers on the HOPE team. Social workers have the education, training and the experience to excel at doing this work. It is being done in other cities (go to www.socialworkers.org/pubs/news/2016/10/roles_in_community.asp).

Thank you for the excellent editorials your paper provides its readers.

Judy Lennon, L.C.S.W., Canyon Lake

Toxic tactics

Go to liberalron.com and you will find the ugly way Mayor Ivy Taylor is attacking her opponent, Ron Nirenberg.

She has sold her soul to the mastermind of Donald Trumps campaign, stooping to the lowest style of campaign. Nasty.

Do we really want Taylor, along with her poisonous tactics, representing our city?

Bring back integrity to the mayors office with Nirenberg.

Erin Strauss

Govs three choices

Whos in charge? Is Gov. Greg Abbott, the chief executive of Texas, or is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick?

The governor supposedly is the one who calls for a special session of the Legislature. But Patrick threatened to force a special session if his two pet bills, the property tax and the so-called bathroom bill, arent passed during regular session. Most folks think the bathroom bill is a joke.

I served in the Air Force for almost 28 years. When I was promoted to a three-striper (E4), I went into a supervisors office and was fascinated by a sign hanging on his wall. I asked him if he would make a copy for me. He carefully took it out of the frame and made me a copy. I put it in a frame, where it still hangs in my home office 60-plus years later. Apparently, the words did me some good; I retired at the highest enlisted rank and was also successful after I retired and entered the civilian workforce.

The sign reads: Do something! Either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.

So, Gov. Abbott, do something. Either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way and let Patrick make the decisions.

Lou Georgieff

Moral decay

Re: Aggrieved evangelicals find their defender in president, Michael Gerson, Other Views, May 18:

Bravo to Michael Gerson, who writes that evangelicals loyal to Donald Trump have associated their faith with exclusion and bias. They have become another Washington interest group, striving for advantage rather than seeking the common good. And a movement that should be known for grace is now known for its seething resentments.

Thank you for calling out hate and hypocrisy in all its glory. This piece aptly describes one sign of the moral decay taking hold at the heart of American society.

Carlos Saavedra, Shavano Park

Job insecurity

Re: Political cartoon, Nick Anderson, Sunday:

The Drain the Swamp cartoon depicts the president looking in the mirror and saying, Youre fired!

There is no need for him to do that. All the clucking squatters in Congress should get together and call Air Force One to the U.S. immediately. When the plane returns, tweet or email Trump that he and whoever is with him are all fired.

The justification will be the same as what he used to fire the FBI director. The only difference is that the American citizens, who do not embrace his un-American ideals, have empowered our representatives.

Guadalupe Flores

History lesson

I just watched the movie 13 Days again. Its about the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

Thank God, President John F. Kennedy and most of his administration used restraint and withheld massive attacks. Can you imagine what could happen today with North Korea, Syria, Russia and the Trump administration?

Im sorry I voted for him, but I thought he was the lesser of two evils.

If you have not watched this movie, please do so. Especially the younger generation. People need to see how much trouble we are in today with the mentality of a lets bomb them now president.

Roland Gerdes, Schertz

Surviving Trump

Our president has demonstrated time and time again that he has a major problem determining the difference between fact and fiction. And, of course, he is a self-avowed womanizer and bully.

These are serious character flaws and damage our credibility with other free world countries.

Now it appears he is providing classified information to countries that do not have our best interest in mind. Whether done out of ignorance or intentionally, the results are the same. Our leaders agree he has done serious damage to our country.

How much longer can our way of life survive this administration?

Eugene R. New
Texas lawmakers deserve some level of praise for hammering out a budget compromise in the closing days of this session, but not much. It almost didn't happen, and for a while it looked as if months of effort would be derailed by partisanship and brinkmanship.

For example, the compromise $217 billion state budget includes no new money for public schools but continues to pour $800 million into a border security effort that has questionable results.

Still, it could have been worse, and it almost was.

Just before the deal was struck, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick junked a bipartisan $1.6 billion plan to overhaul school financing. He didn't care that the bill had been worked on for weeks by serious members of the House and Senate who understand their responsibility on legislation of this magnitude.

No, Patrick was clinging to his school-voucher dream that is shared by only a handful of other lawmakers. He ignored reminders that similar bills in other states have usually been declared by the courts to be unconstitutional uses of tax dollars.

None of that mattered - just as he hijacked much of the session for his other lonely crusade, a "bathroom bill." As with his voucher obsession, he was immune to pleas that it addressed a problem that never occurs and would bring costly economic boycotts to Texas if it were enacted. He even ignored the drama in North Carolina, which was forced to amend its bathroom bill for these very reasons.

In the end, logic prevailed - barely - but it shouldn't be this way.

Our Legislature meets only once every two years for five months. That time should be devoted to a serious review of state government and thoughtful work on the next two-year budget.

This is the kind of focus exhibited by normal Texans in their personal and business lives. It would be nice if their elected representatives in Austin could match it.

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This is our opinion; what is yours? Email us a letter to the editor at opinions@beaumontenterprise.com Make sure to include your name, mailing address and phone number so we can contact you to verify the letter, but only your name and city of residence will be published. You can also mail letters to The Enterprise, P.O. Box 3071, Beaumont, TX, 77704. The limit on letters is 200 words.
Two members of the elite forces who allegedly went on a one night robbing spree armed with illegally attained AK47 rifles have applied for bail at the High Court.

Timothy Tshuma (33) and brothers Petros (32) and Norest Mubaiwa (29), a civilian are alleged to have robbed two bars in one night.

According to court papers, Tshuma is a member of the Presidential Guard Brigade and Petros is in the One Commando Regiment.

The three are alleged to have robbed two bars in Bindura and Chiweshe on February 17 after threatening their victims with AK47 rifles while using a Toyota Noah as their getaway vehicle.

Prosecutors said on February 17, the three men armed with AK 47 rifles, went to Chingwara Chidzamahosi Bar at Shopo Business Centre in Chiweshe.

The three allegedly broke into the bar and held the shop attendant Portia Muchadakuenda (34) at gun point and demanded cash.

Muchadakuenda is alleged to have escaped into the darkness as the trio allegedly stole cash amounting to $580, cellphones and television sets.

The trio then went to Manyangani Bar in Bindura at around 10pm and ordered revellers to lie on the ground.

The bar attendant Taurai Maorera allegedly resisted the orders, resulting in one of the three robbers firing a shot, forcing Maorera to co-operate and surrender the daily sales which amounted to $123.

Breaking News via Email
A leaked memo suggests that ZRP boss Augustine Chihuri is not welcoming the new President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The memo contains a hurriedly issued instruction to all ZRP stations not to remove the former President Robert Mugabes portrait until further notice.

Be directed that the former President of Zimbabwe Comrade Gabriel Robert Mugabe should not be removed until further notice is given. Stop Stop, reads the Memo.

The instruction was also issued via radio transmission, and was as is documented.

Police officers claim that this shows that Chihuri who has since been advised to resign by President Mnangagwas special advisor, Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa, has little reverence for his new boss, Mnangagwa.

There are some sections of society who support the school of thought that Mugabe will be reinstated as President of Zimbabwe, and Chihuri may have subscribed to it as well. Veteran publisher and academic Dr Ibbo Mandaza called the ousting of former president Robert Mugabe last month a coup detat, even though the international community has been hesitant in recognising it as such.

He said the AUs Peace and Security Commission should organise a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the coup and the implications thereof, and how the AU could intervene.

Former Higher Education Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo, wrote on his Twitter account yesterday, alleging that the international community should reverse the Mnangagwas inauguration and disregard his government as illegitimate.

When there was Military intervention in Zimbabwe which amounted to a coup in #2008, there was a stalemate & #Sadc intervened supported by the #AU. The intervention led to the #GNU in #2009. Unless mediated & cured, a coup can only produce an illegitimate government! #CuretheCoup, Professor Moyo wrote.

During President Mnangagwas inauguration on 24 November, Chihuri was booed by thousands of Zimbabweans as he pledged allegiance to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Chihuri was firstly booed as he arrived at the National Sports Stadium and when he stood up to pledge loyalty to the new Head of State.

His humiliation reached the peak when he read his loyalty pledge as people vented their anger and chanted He should go, he should go, he should go, while others rolled hands to signal a substitution, a sign that is normally used in football.

War veterans chairman Christopher Mutsvangwa said Chihuri deserved the disrespect and scorn from members of the public because he had failed to discharge his duties professionally.

In fact he should resign. He failed to act when the G40 cabal was busy looting national resources. Instead the work that was supposed to be done by the police ended up being done by the military, he said.

There were also rumours last month that the then President Mugabe has instructed Chihuri to get the military boss arrested upon his return from China where he had been sent by Mugabe on government business.

The Zimbabwe Republic Polices Support Unit, colloquially known as the black boots is reported to have attempted to arrest Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) Commander General Constantino Chiwenga when he returned from China a few days after Mnangagwa had been fired as the Vice President of this country.

Breaking News via Email
Kwik Trip, Kum and Go and RaceTrac met with Congress to move legislation that would allow them to sell E15 year-round.

WASHINGTON  This week, convenience retailers, including Kwik Trip, Kum and Go and RaceTrac, came to Washington to urge Congress to support legislation (S. 517) that would remove a regulatory barrier to sell E15 during the summer months.

The legislation, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and in the House by Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE), would give fuel blends containing greater than 10% ethanol a waiver from the Clean Air Act requirement that gasoline meet strict limits on volatility, as was done for E10. Without a waiver, E15 cannot be sold in most parts in the United States during the summer months, except in certain areas with air quality challenges.

The group shared that they want the ability to sell E15 to customers who want to buy E15 to fuel their vehicles, but in order to make the investment they need to be able to sell E15 year-round. This arbitrary regulatory obstacle is one of the major barriers in offering higher blends of renewable fuel into the marketplace.

As reported in several inside the beltway news outlets, Fischer garnered a commitment to hold a hearing to consider S. 517 from the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, but no date has been given when this may occur.
Action Against Hunger | ACF-International works to save lives by combating hunger and diseases that threaten the lives of vulnerable communities, through nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, health and advocacy.You'll Contribute to ending World Hunger by:Leading the development of donor reports in line with the Action Against Hunger Nigeria Mission.Key Activities in Your Role will Include:To support the Grants & Compliance Co in the development of high quality funding proposals in line with the Action Against Hunger Nigeria Mission, international strategies as well as donor requirements.To Identify and communicate to program/technical, field and M&E staff gaps in reporting/data collection.To support internal coordination and communication within the Action Against Hunger Nigeria mission.To assist communications and visibility activities of Action Against Hunger Nigeria.To Ensure comprehensive grant files are maintained up to date and are available for use in both hard and soft copy (proposals, contracts, amendments, reports etc.)You have University degree in relevant field (Fundraising, Public Relations, Communications, Development, Humanitarian Aid, International Relations); Masters degree preferred.You have at least 3 years of experience working in relief or development programs.You have previous successful experience developing projects and writing proposals and/or reports for public and/or private donors.You are Detail oriented, organized, and able to manage competing urgent requests and priorities.You are experienced in proposal writing and donor reporting.You have experience in project cycle managementYou have the ability to work in a multicultural context and be a team player.Action Against Hunger values its employees and offers a comprehensive remuneration and benefits package. These include but are not limited to:Health InsuranceR&R BreaksPaid annual leave (vacation)Training opportunitiesChild allowanceThe Logistics Archivist will play a key role in Implementing or improving archiving for all other logistic issues, create soft archiving folders and provide work plan activities and report to supervisor.Provide an up to date archives documentation of PDs files.Reorganize and classify in order all PDs folders.Control each PD by verifying them for missing documents using checklist.Ensure original documents exist in logistic folders (except for invoices).Verify all documents to ensure filling is correctly done and set up corrections or add missing data.Monitoring closely, all new PDs archiving and field files.Ensure PDs are archived serially and according to PD references for the dossiers.Request support from IT officer for tool setting.Follow up correct guidelines from the kitlog.Ensure field files are validated (cross-check of checklist) before any archiving (hard and soft copy).Provide backup for all hard copy archives.Processing payments for submission to finance.Change file details to new logo.Higher School certificate in any related field of studies.At least 2 years of professional experience in a similar role.It is desirable that experience is supported by academic study tactical levels.Well-organized, able to multitask, and rigorousComputer skills (Word, Excel, Microsoft Office)Preferred Skills and Experience:Previous experience with ACF or other NGOs preferred.Maiduguri, Borno StateThe Pharmacy Supervisor will be in charge of pharmacy management, monitoring orders and supply including taking stock inventories and consumption reporting.Maintain an organized and clean pharmacy in the warehouse: the drugs must be tidied, organised in a hygienic and clear way according to Action Against Hungers rules of classification of drug, allowing easy access to the information (type of drugs, expiry date).Organize weekly environmental cleaning in the pharmacy warehouse and environs.Monitor temperature of all refrigerators containing medications or any cold chain products and record it on the follow up sheet. And in all the rooms under controlled temperature.Report any deviation from the expected temperature ranges to the logistic manager, enquire the reasons of the dysfunctions and propose possible solutions.Ensure the quality (cold chain, packing, etc.) of the transport of medical items from the warehouse to HFExceptional orders  make a list of items in short supply and report it to appropriate program Manager on a weekly basis.At all time, the pharmacist is accountable for giving a correct and faithful picture about the stocks and the consumptions.Record any medical item entry and exit in stock cards on weekly basis.Provide weekly/monthly drugs inventory.Report discrepancies and general consumption issues to logistic manager and relevant program manager.Monitor the monthly consumptions of drugs and supplies and report it to logistics manager.Bachelor degree in Pharmacy + 1 year experience in stock management or pharmacy technician with extensive work experience will be consider.Experience in a pharmacy supply for hospital projectsFluency in spoken and written English language.strong work ethic: punctuality, responsibility and flexibilityStrong sense of organisation and attention to detailsCapacity to work in a team.High level of motivation.Computer skills (Microsoft office).Commitment to ACF mission, values and policy.PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCEPrevious working experience in INGO setting will be an added advantage.Monguno, BornoYou'll Contribute to ending World Hunger by:Ensuring sound and transparent administration of funds by providing accounting and financial management consistent with Action Against Hunger's financial management framework and local legislation. implementing the Country HR policy and applying best HR practices.RequirementsKey Activities in Your Role will Include:Consolidate the Base accounts monthly.Responsible for Base Tax operation.Contribute to Grant financial management, donors compliance & budget analysis.Treasury forecast & cash management.Capacity building for finance & Non finance staff.Supervision & Team Management.Conduct internal Audit.Management of fraud and corruption cases.Implementation and enforcement the HR policy.Implement pay and other benefits policies, support recruitment and contracts management.Lead the implementation of ACF performance management system at field level.Support to HR staff and other mission HR issues.Reporting and Staff management.You have Post Graduate qualification in Human Resource & Finance Management.You have 3 years of professional experience in finance and human resource with proven experience in team management.You have Minimum of 2 years experience in NGO financial & HR managementYou have exceptional organization, time management, and attention to detail.You have very good communication & training skills.You have Strong accounting skills.You have Strong budget management skills.You have Team management & coordination skills.You have experience with SAGA accounting systemYou can identify needs, develop plans, and also deliver training.You think strategically defining and communicating goals, also being genuinely committed to helping others to achieve the organizational objectives.You have previous experience working as an auditor.You have good analytical skillsBenefitsAction Against Hunger values its employees and offers a comprehensive remuneration and benefits package. These include but are not limited to: -Health InsuranceR&R BreaksPaid annual leave (vacation)Training opportunitiesChild allowanceDuty Station: Maiduguri, Borno StateClosing Date: 31st May 2017The M&E Assistant will be directly under the supervision of the M&E Technical Adviser. He/ She will be responsible for data gathering, collation and reporting activities of the Humanitarian multi-sectoral Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) program at community (LGA) level. The incumbent will assist in tracking progress of key indicators and provide timely report to the M&E Officer. The M&E Assistant provides support to the M&E Officer and M&E DPM in the design, planning, monitoring and evaluation of the program by managing data and facilitating program implementation monitoring at LGA level, under the guidance and direct supervision of the M&E Officer and Deputy Program Manager.Quantify methods and identify data sources for program performance and impact indicators, in conjunction with respective program component teams (WASH & FSL).Assist in conducting project baseline, end line and progress surveys, ensuring appropriate sample size and sampling survey methods, data collection procedures, and data verification through periodic site visits.Ensure proper monitoring of implementation of the program, focusing on overall M&E framework of the program at LGA level.Present and analyze data based on information needs of project team and partners and support in data base management.Complete and submit monthly report.Under the guidance of M&E Officer, work in a close collaboration with the FSL & DPM program team in the LGA (whenever required) for resolving complex programme-related issues and information delivery.Collaborate with government partners to ensure smooth implementation of the program delivery.Assist the FSL & WASH program team in terms of selecting the beneficiaries of NFI & Cash Transfer as per the established procedure.Assist the FSL & WASH program team in selecting the Community Volunteers to facilitate the process of beneficiaries selection.Monitor the progress of disseminating AAH Principles within the beneficiaries community by the program team.Bachelors Degree in Economics, Rural Development, Business, Administration, Statistics, Demography or related subject, with previous experience working in humanitarian projects.1 year M&E related work experience.Experience in data collection, collation, analysis, and report writing (Mobile Data Collection a strong advantage).Commitment to and understanding of ACF aims, values and principles.Professional, good organizational capacity, good human relationships and team spirit, motivated, open, creative, mature, responsible, flexible and, culturally sensitive.Microsoft Office Skills (Outlook, Excel, Power Point, Word).Willing and able to be based and travel regularly within remote areas, where services are limited.Fluency in Hausa and English.Previous M&E experience.Good knowledge of the intervention area/s and local economy.Previous experience with ACF.Previous humanitarian programming experience.Duty Station: Maiduguri, Borno StateClosing Date: 6th June 2017.The Cash Transfer Deputy Program Manager will play a key role in implementing the PROTECT IDP response in MMC/JERE (LGAs) Borno, in North-Eastern Nigeria. From June to November 2017. Action Against Hunger is implementing a multi-sectoral emergency response program to support IDPs in settlement and camps, and most vulnerable host households in a bid to contribute to the eradication of extreme hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Northern Nigeria.SPECIFIC OBJECTIVESOversee detailed planning and implementation of multi-sectoral cash transfer activities in collaboration with the Area Program Manager and FFP Multi-sectoral PM and technical assistance of the Mission Reg/Tech coordinators.Identify program implementation modalities that enhance partnership & coordination with government official and local communities, internal integration within sectors and other programs (Nutrition, WASH, FSL, NFIs, etc.)Identify areas of cross-program linkages with other Action Against Hunger programs in Borno State. Ensure program quality and adherence to program objectives, including respect for Action Against Hunger technical guidelines, systems, and established deadlines.In close coordination with the Monitoring and evaluation unit and field team, reinforce and coordinate regular program monitoring activities, i.e. Baseline, PDM, Market, Monitoring, Price Monitoring end line, etc.Support program budget design and updates; oversee budget monitoring and cash projectionsContribute to organizational and sector-wide learning through good quality documentation of lessons learned, best practices, evaluations etc. for the Cash component of the programConduct regular field visits, advice and provide regular technical support to field-based program team (multi-sectoral Supervisor and Assistants).Ensure harmonization of program operating plans and protocols across the program as well as the mission, with the help of technical support from Abuja, review tools and approaches, and ensure that technical standards, guidelines and methodologies are communicated and understood.Compile monthly cash program technical reports with an overview of activities and contextual updates, and quantitative indicator follow-up and submit to PM for consolidation.Review reports and gauge program progress against logical framework, ensuring compliance with Action Against Hunger internal and donors reporting standards.Coordinate with Action Against Hunger and partner technical and support departments to ensure a common approach and sharing of information.Represent Action Against Hunger with local authorities, partners and other program stakeholders.Represent Action against hunger at State Emergency Working groups (OCHA, CWG, FSSWG and INGO Consortium) when required by the Field Coordinator, Reg/Tech Coordinators FFP multi- sector PM and Area PM.Degree in FSL related studies e.g. agro-economy, agriculture, natural resource management, anthropology, and at least first level CALP (cash learning program).Minimum two years work experience in humanitarian contexts, with at least 1 year in conflict/insecure contexts.Professional, motivated, open, creative, mature, responsible, flexible and, culturally sensitive.Excellent team, budget and project management and representation competencies.Previous experience with cash transfer programming.Three years relevant work experience.Microsoft Office Skills (Outlook, Excel, Power Point, Word).Willing and able to be based and travel regularly within remote areas, where services are limited.Fluency in English.Commitment to Action Against Hunger mission, values and policy.Previous experience managing multi sector cash transfer programs (i.e. cash transfers or vouchers for nutrition, FSL, WASH, NFI, etc.).Previous experience in activity report writing.Previous experience with Action against hunger.Experience implementing programming on behalf of donor (i.e. USAID, ECHO, DFID, CIDA) funded activities.Fluency in Hausa or Kanuri.Click on Job Title below:Interested candidates should submit their application by email to recruitment.ng@acf-international.org To be considered, applications must include a CV and letter of interest as one attachment, and indicate the full position title and location in the email subject line, or on the application envelope. Also note that applications will be processed on FIRST COME FIRST SERVED basis and any application received without these specifications will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidate will be contacted.Qualified women and men are encouraged to apply1 June, 2017
This interview, courtesy of the Transnational Institute, is based on a paper by Walden Bello, Europe: social democracys Faustian pact with global finance unravels, published by the Transnational Institute (May 2017). Originally published at Triple Crisis

An Interview with Walden Bello

Europes social democrats played a central role in unleashing the financial sector that created the European economic crisis that continues to today.

Youve looked closely into how the financial crisis that erupted in 2008 played out in different parts of the world. What did the financial crisis in Europe have in common with the US crisis?

One common factor in the US and Europe was unregulated, undisciplined finance capital. First, European banks, including German banks, bought huge amounts of toxic subprime securities and as a result they saw their balance sheets gravely impaired, and, in the case of many, they had to be bailed out by their governments.

Second, European banks engaged in the same uncontrolled lending to real estate ventures, thus creating a huge property bubble in places like the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain.

Another common factor was that European countries had also adopted so-called light-touch regulation, under the influence of Wall Street and neoliberal theories like the so-called Efficient Market hypothesis, which asserted that financial markets left to themselves would lead to the most efficient allocation of capital. Even German authorities were under the spell of such doctrines, so that they were caught by surprise by the massive exposure of their banks to toxic subprime securities and to poor credit risks like Greece.

And what was unique about or particular to the European crisis that distinguishes it from the US crisis?

The main thing that distinguished the crisis in Europe from the US crisis was the complication introduced by 19 states having a common currency without a fiscal or political union. On the one hand, the euro gave lenders the illusion that the credit risk of the weaker economies was practically the same as that of the stronger economies, encouraging them lend to the former without due diligence. On the other hand, being in the Eurozone severely limited a countrys options to recover since it eliminated devaluation as a means by which an economy could move from a trade deficit to a trade surplus. The euro became a gilded cage where the weaker economies have been condemned to long-term stagnation.

What was Germanys role in the financial crisis? How did German policies shape what happened in, for example, Greece?

Germany had a central role to pay in the generation of the crisis. First of all, the neoliberal reforms called the Hartz Reforms, which were implemented by the Social Democratic government in the early 2000s, made German labour relatively cheap compared to its neighbours. This turned many other European nations into deficit countries in their trade relationship with Germany. To cover their deficits as well as support social security measures for those displaced by German exports, the governments of these countries, like Greece, borrowed heavily from German banks.

Second, unrestrained by supposedly sober German government institutions like the Bundesbank, German banks did not perform due diligence on borrowers like Greece and lent massive amounts, recklessly. German exposure in Greece came to some 25 billion euros, leading Barry Eichengreen, a prominent finance expert, to comment that what was at stake was not just the solvency of the Greek government but the stability of the German financial system.

Third, while refusing to acknowledge the responsibility of its banks and heaping the blame wholly on Greece and other borrowing countries, Germany has stubbornly dictated the austerity policies that Greece and other countries have been forced to adopt. These policies are designed to recover the bulk of the loans made by Germanys banks. Even the IMF acknowledges that these austerity policies simply doom Greece and other Southern European countries to long-term stagnation, but Germany insists on its pound of flesh, and this can only end up promoting the spread of anti-European Union right-wing populist movements.

So what about the standard accounts that say the Greek crisis was triggered by the revelation in 2009 that the government had been cooking the books?

Well you have to consider that, in 2007, two years before the statistics scandal, the tango of frenzied lending by German and French banks and addictive borrowing by the Greek government and private banks had already pushed Greeces debt to 290 billion euros, which was 107 per cent of GDP. Yet, Greece was still seen as a good credit risk.

What made the situation in 2009 different was the spread of the global financial crisis from Wall Street to Europe, with banks collapsing or being bailed out by governments. The fallout from Wall Street made the creditor countries worry that private borrowers in the debtor countries would not be able to pay back their loans. So they pressed governments like Greece, whose government was already highly indebted, to also take responsibility for or nationalize the private sectors debt. This conversion of private debt into a state liability converted the financial crisis in Europe into a sovereign debt crisis. The Greek statistical cover-up mainly functioned as an excuse for the creditor governments to crack down on the debtor states.

You quote Joseph Stiglitz as saying the euro is just a 17-year-old experiment, poorly designed and engineered not to work. Does that mean you think the euro will not survive?

As I said earlier, the problem with the Eurozone is that it is a monetary union that does not have the necessary requisites of a fiscal union and political union that would set up the rules and mechanisms to allow the central authorities to move capital from surplus to deficit regions. Right now there are only two ways to resolve the trade imbalances within the Eurozone. One is internal devaluation, that is, the adoption of harsh austerity policies that would cheapen labour and make a deficit countrys exports competitive; this carries the risk of subjecting a country to long-term stagnation owing to a sharp reduction of effective demand. The other way is to simply get up and go, leave the Eurozone, and adopt a new currency, the value of which would be low compared to the euro, thus making ones exports competitive. Not surprisingly, this would also carry the risk of squeezing effective demand in the debtor economy. However, the second option would allow one much more room for manoeuvre than if one were trapped in a loveless, depressed marriage like the Eurozone.

So in my sense, the countries in the Eurozone face the choice of either moving towards full fiscal and political union, which would make financial transfers a matter largely of financial transfers being automatically activated to flow from surplus to deficit areas in a fully unified economy. Or they end the monetary union. My sense is there is no middle way.

What would you say the role of social democracy was in the crisis?

Social Democracy is deeply implicated in the crisis. While Margaret Thatcher became the face of neoliberalism, social democrats had a very central role in pushing neoliberal measures throughout Europe. New Labour promoted financial liberalization and light-touch regulation in the United Kingdom, with Gordon Brown, first as chancellor, then as prime minister, becoming, as one writer puts it, lionized by the City as a result.

Francois Mitterand and the French socialists were the principal champions of the euro, in what former Greek Foreign Minister Iannis Varoufakis describes as a French project to harness German economic power to European integration under French political and administrative leadership.

And in Germany, it was under the Social Democratic government of Gerard Schroeder that implemented the labour market reforms that reduced labour wages and consolidated Germanys position as a surplus country and its neighbours as deficit countries, forcing them to rely on German banks to cover their trade deficits. The Christian Democrat party could not have done what the social democrats did, but Angela Merkel and the conservatives ended up eating the SPDs lunch.

Could the financial crisis in Europe have been averted? If so, how?

Yes, it could have been averted if there had been very stringent regulations governing finance put in place by governments that did not see finance capital as a partner but as a force to be disciplined. Finance has to be put in its proper place as a mechanism to get capital from those who have it to those who can apply it to productive use. More and more, it seems like only a nationalized banking system can properly fulfil this function. Having said this, I share the apprehension of the American economist Hyman Minsky that so long as capitalism reigns, finance capital will find ways to adjust to government regulations to again engage in reckless lending.

Are we out of danger now, or is there a chance this could happen again?

No, we are not out of danger because financial sector reform, which was pushed in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, has been ineffective or not implemented due to the successful lobbying efforts of financial corporations.

Finance capital remains undisciplined. In the meantime, owing to austerity policies, most of Europes real economy is in the grip of permanent stagnation. This creates the temptation for unregulated finance capital to engage again in speculative ventures, where one squeezes value from already created value through the creation of bubbles that are destined to collapse, again bringing chaos in their wake.
Yves here. This post makes some important observations about how the Trump Administration is going to unprecedented lengths to promote some of its narratives, such as scrubbing Federal websites of inconvenient warnings and data.

However, it is also important to recognize that mainstream reality to at least a fair degree is a social/political construct. Consider also this assessment from Jacobin (hat tip martha r):

Since Donald Trumps victory in November, liberals have felt a profound sense of loss. After decades of defining the relevant facts and truths for others, they find themselves in a world that seems to have given up on factuality itself. As an exasperated Huffington Post contributor : The greatest problem of our future is not political; it is not economic; it is not even rational. Its the battle of fact versus fiction. Sadly, a Trump victory illustrates that we are no longer able to distinguish between the two. In The Fallacy of Post-Truth, we recommended a healthy dose of skepticism toward this narrative. arguing that liberals who decry our post-factual age are really mourning the end of an era in which their statements of fact and value stood relatively undisputed. The age of truth never existed; the ruling class has always defined what counts as fact and fiction. But even if you agree with this point, you might insist that Donald Trump  inaugurated at the half-empty and totally packed Washington Mall on January 20, 2017  still profoundly threatens scientific fact and ethical truth. Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee, criticizing our work in LA Review of Books, seems to think so: . . . the authors take their one-sided judgement too far by ignoring the fact that a fascist onslaught against truth is not a mere advancement of liberal misrepresentation, but its antithesis. A radical assault on democratic values by a fascist regime is not a worsening of liberal pretensions but a radical distortion of social reality and ethical values. This argument shares many features with liberal nostalgia: both suggest that a firm affirmation of truth and values will defeat the grifter-in-chief. But if fact-checking and moral outrage couldnt stop the lying pussy-grabber from winning the election, how could they remove him from office? Liberals favorite tactic  correcting their opponents on moral, factual, or procedural grounds  not only doesnt work, but it also reveals their strategic incompetence. We can only confront Trumpism once we recognize it as a symptom of American political culture, that must be attacked on a political terrain. No doubt, Trumps election marks a rupture with previous administrations. But what kind of rupture? As we argued in the prequel to this text, many of the characteristics of the new post-truth era have been part of American politics  and all politics  for a long time.

By Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular, teaches in the philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes. Her previous books include Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States and Letters from Nicaragua. Originally published at TomDispatch

The Trump administration seems intent on tossing recent history down the memory hole. Admittedly, Americans have never been known for their strong grasp of facts about their past. Still, as we struggle to keep up with the constantly shifting explanations and pronouncements of the new administration, it becomes ever harder to remember the events of yesterday, let alone last week, or last month.

The Credibility Swamp

Trump and his spokespeople routinely substitute alternative facts for what a friend of mine calls consensus reality, the world that most of us recognize. Whose inaugural crowd was bigger, Barack Obamas or Donald Trumps? It doesnt matter what you remember, or even whats in the written accounts or photographic record. What matters is what the administration now says happened then. In other words, for Trump and his people, history in any normal sense simply doesnt exist, and thats a danger for the rest of us. Think of the Trumpian past as a website that can be constantly updated to fit the needs of the present. You may believe you still remember something that used to be there, but its not there now. As it becomes increasingly harder to find, can you really trust your own memory?

In recent months, revisions of that past have sometimes come so blindingly fast that the present has simply been overrun, as was true with the firing of FBI Director James Comey. First, the president ordered up some brand new supporting documents from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein. These were designed to underpin his line that Comey was fired on their recommendation  for being unfair to Hillary Clinton. Then, even as his surrogates were out peddling that very story, Trump told NBCs Lester Holt that, regardless of [Sessions and Rosensteins] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. And he explained why:

And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, its an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they shouldve won.

Which rationale for Comeys departure is true? Both? Neither? What is truth after all?

When the need to ask such questions occurs once in a while, its anomalous enough that we notice. We have time to remark that someone or various people in this story  Sessions, Rosenstein, the surrogates, Trump himself  are mistaken or even lying. Fortunately, in the case of Comeys firing, journalists are still reporting the lies, but what happens if the rewrites of our recent history begin to come so fast that we stop keeping up?

During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was famously said to have a credibility gap. People, including journalists, had stopped believing everything his administration said about one very important topic: the war. Trump doesnt have a credibility gap; hes tossed us into a credibility swamp. Were all there together swimming in a mire of truth and lies, with the occasional firecrackerthrown in just to see if were still paying attention.

If the age of Trump doesnt end relatively soon, the daily effort to sort out what happened from what didnt may eventually become too much for many of us. Memory fatigue may set in, and the whole project of keeping the past in focus shelved. In that case, we might very well start to give up the concept of citizenship altogether and decide instead to just get on with our own private uninsured, underpaid, and overworked lives.

Sometimes its easier to simply adjust to an ever-changing official version of reality than to keep up a constant, unrewarding struggle to remember. This was the phenomenon George Orwell described so unforgettably in his dystopian novel 1984. His hero, Winston Smith, becomes aware that the sole party that runs his country incessantly rewrites the past to its own liking and advantage. In fact, he realizes that the past not only changed, but changed continuously.

Like most inhabitants of the mega-state of Oceania, it wasnt that Smith couldnt accept such a reality. He could. What he couldnt shake was a nightmarish sense that he had never clearly understood why the Party needed to do it. The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious to him. That ultimate motive, he eventually realizes, is to so destroy peoples hold on memory that they come to believe that truth genuinely is whatever the Party says it is.

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable?

Does President Trump know what hes doing? Does he know that, in a more chaotic fashion than Orwells Big Brother, hes grinding away at American memories, threatening to turn them into so much rubble? Its hard to say; he appears to be incapable of either self-reflection or planning, indeed of acting in any way except on impulse. He does, however, seem to know in an intuitive way what works for him, what gets him things he wants, as he has his whole professional life. Hes called his method truthful hyperbole. And regardless of what he himself understands, there are certainly people around him who do grasp all too well the usefulness of that ultimate motive, of convincing the public that facts are not all that stubborn after all.

The Memory Hole

Supplying alternative facts is one way of destroying memory. Erasing real facts is another.

In Orwells 1984, there was a slot in the wall at the Ministry of Truth where Winston Smith worked, a memory hole, into which inconvenient documents could be fed to be consumed forever by a huge basement furnace. There are, it seems, plenty of memory holes in Washington these days.

Since January, the Trump administration has been systematically removing from federal websites inconvenient information on subjects as diverse as climate change and occupational health and safety, and replacing it with anodyne messages. Take, for instance, this one, which you get when you search the Environmental Protection Agencys website for the term climate change and click on links that search turns up:

This page is being updated.

Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect EPAs priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator [Scott] Pruitt. If youre looking for an archived version of this page, you can find it on the January 19 snapshot.

If you do click on the link for that January 19, 2017, snapshot, you can still (for now) see what the old climate change portal of the Obama era looked like. At the top of the snapshot, however, is a bright red notice announcing:

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.

The government has now entered full-scale climate change denial mode. Information of just about any sort on global warming has been or is being memory-holed in a wholesale fashion at other agency websites as well. The Guardian, for instance, reports that, in the part of the Department of Energys site addressed to children, sentences that point out the harmful health consequences of burning coal and other impacts of fossil fuels have gone. At the State Department, references to President Obamas Climate Action Planand a recent U.N. meeting on climate change have similarly been expunged.

However, its not just government pronouncements on issues like climate change that are being sanitized. Actual data is disappearing from government websites. The federal government collects vast amounts of data, much of it the results of studies it has funded. Some agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, are required by law to retain data they collect, but they are not required to post it. This means basic information and the results of scientific research, once available online, are now only available through a Freedom of Information Act request. Of course, you have to know that the information exists in the first place in order to request it.

One result of hiding such data is that scientists citing U.S. government webpages as sources in their own work are now finding that the references theyve pointed to have disappeared. Arctic researcher Victoria Herrmann describes watching her citations dissolve into thin air:

At first, the distress flare of lost data came as a surge of defunct links on 21 January. The U.S. National Strategy for the Arctic, the Implementation Plan for the Strategy, and the report on our progress all gone within a matter of minutes. As I watched more and more links turned red, I frantically combed the Internet for archived versions of our countrys most important polar policies.

Herrmann was able to find some of her missing articles using the Wayback Machine, an internet archiving project. But as Herrmann points out, Each defunct page is an effort by the Trump administration to deliberately undermine our ability to make good policy decisions by limiting access to scientific evidence.

Its not just environmental information thats been tossed down the memory hole. Concerned about the health and safety of workers or animals? The Washington Post reports some things you wont find anymore on federal sites:

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for instance, has dramatically scaled back on publicizing its fines against firms. And the Agriculture Department has taken offline animal-welfare enforcement records, including abuses in dog breeding operations and horse farms that alter the gait of horses through the controversial practice of soring the animals legs.

Sometimes information only hangs around for a brief moment, before sliding down the memory hole. Thats what happened to an advertisement for Trumps Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, which was masquerading as an entry on Share America, which the State Department calls its platform for sharing compelling stories and images that spark discussion and debate on important topics like democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and the role of civil society. The page appeared on the website of the U.S. embassy in London.

Someone must have realized that using the State Department to advertise the Presidents private club was not a great idea. Conflict of interest? No problem. Its down the memory hole.

Nor is it just government websites that are being reworked in a distinctly Orwellian fashion. Recently, the Trump 2020 reelection campaign (yes, it already exists) quietly removed many 2016 campaign documents from its website. The Washington Posts Avi Selk describes some of the missing press releases, among them the one that reproduced Trumps full interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos in which he so infamously insulted Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who spoke out against him at the Democratic Party convention, and his wife, Ghazala.

Similarly, links to Trumps New Deal for Black America, released a week before the 2016 election, now bring up a dreaded 404  Page not found message on the Trump-Pence website. Whatever that deal was, its evidently no longer on offer, nor is it even to remain in the historical record.

The same memory hole has also evidently devoured a December 2015 press release announcing that Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out what is going on. Fortunately, versions of that particular statement were repeated often enough in enough places that lawyers have been able to continue to use it to argue against the presidents executive orders banning the entry of people from seven (now six) majority-Muslim countries.

The Trump administrations memory holes have swallowed up more than documents and data. People have also disappeared  if not from the world, at least from their government positions. We still remember former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI Director James Comey, but who remembers Ponisseril Somasundaran or Courtney Flint? They are among the scientists recently dismissed from the Environmental Protection Agencys Board of Scientific Counselors. Among their duties was to give advice on environmental regulation. They are to be replaced, according to agency spokesperson J.P. Freire, by people who understand the impact of regulations on the regulated community  that is, representatives of polluting industries.

The United States of Amnesia

Gore Vidal coined the expression the United States of Amnesia in a 2004 book about George W. Bushs America. The particular instance of amnesia Vidal highlighted with that phrase was the failure of those then waging the war on drugs to remember the disasters of the prohibition of alcohol sales in the 1930s, and the ensuing corruption, gangsters, and smuggling rings that came with it.

His larger point, however, was that, in general, American historical memory is short. Thirteen years after Vidals book appeared, and with a new Republican administration ascendant, it seems that this country is in danger of sinking ever deeper into a state of amnesia. And can there be any question that, in a distinctly Orwellian fashion, the new administration is doing everything in its power to hasten that process? As the Trump administration prepares for a new surge on the perpetual battlefield that is Afghanistan, weve conveniently forgotten how little the last one achieved. Weve forgotten how deregulation led to the Great Recession, as the federal Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission concluded in 2011. The greatest tragedy, that panel wrote, would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done. If we accept this notion, it will happen again. Yet the Republicans in Congress cant waitto repeal Dodd-Frank, the law that restored a semblance of regulation to the world of commercial banking.

The fifth-century African bishop St. Augustine was probably the first western thinker to pay attention to human memory. In his Confessions, Augustine observes that it is memory  the ability to bring into present awareness past experiences and the ability to recognize the difference between past, present, and future  that makes us self-aware beings. He described the vast hall of my memory, where I meet myself and recall what I am, what I have done, and when and where and how I was affected when I did it. It is on the basis of memory, he added, that I reason about future actions and events and hopes, and again think of all these things in the present. I shall do this and that, I say to myself within that vast recess of my mind which is full of many rich images, and this act or that follows.

If Augustine was right and memory gives us our selves, allowing us to reason about future actions and events and hopes, then a political regime that seeks to destroy its peoples memory is an existential threat.

In that case, the first act of resistance is to remember who we are.
By Richard Bowen, a professor of accounting at the University of Texas at Dallas and a speaker on ethical breakdowns and the financial crisis. Bowen is a member of Bank Whistleblowers United for giving warnings to Citigroups board about extreme risks and potential losses to shareholders existing in its mortgage business. Originally published at LinkedIn

The White House just used a brazen back door move to bypass the Senate read the headlines of a recent Vanity Fair article regarding the appointment of Keith A. Noreika as the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, which makes Mr. Norieka the administrator of the federal banking system and acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC supervises more than 1,400 national banks and federal savings associations and about 50 federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States; which comprises nearly two-thirds of the assets of the commercial banking system. A very strong and powerful position to hold.

Mr. Noreika, formerly with the prominent law firm of Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett, LLP, where he advised a wide range of domestic and international financial institutions, will now be in charge of regulating the banks he once protected.

However, there are a couple of very interesting twists to this appointment. Not only is Mr. Noreika now regulating the banking industry heretofore he has defended and protected, his appointment is on an acting basis as a special government employee at a position of 130 days. Because of the length of time and that it is designated as acting comptroller this appointment does not require a Senate confirmation.

Talk about loopholes! This loophole means he does not have to sign the Presidents ethics pledge, which allows him fewer restrictions on lobbying when he returns to his former work at the law firm. And, heres another loophole apparently, government requirements to date mean an acting head of the federal agency has worked at that agency for 90 days. In Mr. Noreikas case, he was made first deputy at the OCC which assured he would get the top position should it become available. Mr. Norieka worked at the agency only a few hours before former Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas was conveniently ousted and yes, the position became available!

Im not making this up! Remember, President Trump promised his banking industry buddies that he would gut financial regulations. Well, hes on that path for sure. Mr. Curry, as best he could, imposed tough rules and big fines for wrongdoing. So it appears that President Trump and his sidekick, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, ride again, gaining another ally in their continued push to undo financial regulations, following the revolving door pattern which exists in government and on Wall Street, where the industry sends key individuals to government; they serve in the Department of Justice, the Treasury, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) knowing that their real reward is coming full circle  they come back home to Wall Street or serving Wall Street via the law firms which pander to them and reap huge financial rewards.

A spokesman for the Treasury Department, which houses the agency, said Mr. Noreika would face the same strong ethics laws that apply to all officials serving in the O.C.C., including divesting certain assets that pose a conflict and recusal from any specific matters involving his clients from over the past year.

However, the NY Times article goes on to say that seven of the 11 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, including Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, submitted a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, raising concerns about Mr. Noreikas client list and pressing for clarity on his recusal plans.

The letter, also questioning whether Mr. Mnuchins appointment of Mr. Noreika was circumventing the confirmation process and avoiding certain ethics requirements, called the episode an apparent political power grab. You have chosen to replace the current head with an acting head who is unvetted, has obvious conflicts of interest, and lacks the experience to run an agency that employs almost 4,000 individuals and oversees over 2,000 national banks, both large and small, they wrote.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Senator Chris Van Hollen, said: Mr. Noreika is an unvetted attorney who lacks the experience to serve as an independent Wall Street watchdog His work in the private sector creates an unprecedented series of conflicts of interest further underscoring the need for anyone serving as comptroller to go through the Senate confirmation process.

According to an analysis of government records by the New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica, it certainly appears that this administration is, in fact, filling its key positions with a small army of former lobbyists and corporate consultants whose intentions are to roll back government regulations at the agencies they once sought to influence. The Times continues with new details to our previous reporting on Trumps weakening of ethics rules and former lobbyists working on regulations they opposed on behalf of private clients just months ago.

Even the federal governments top ethics official, Walter Shaub, who runs the Office of Government Ethics and has tracked ethics waivers issued by the previous administration, is being kept in the dark. He told the Times, Theres no transparency, and I have no idea how many waivers have been issued.

As Marianne Jennings, J.D., Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University Ethical and Legal Studies, author of The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse, has said, people look for loopholes to get around rules and regulations, which while they may be legal, are not necessarily ethical.

When the U.S. government starts looking for, or creating, loopholes, and I believe this has been steadily evidenced, we are on a dangerous slippery slope. This brazen back door maneuver does not bode well. Ive predicted an eventual meltdown; I hope Im proven wrong.
About the Fallen Heroes on the JGR Cars at Charlotte

John Harrison Keener Jr.

Honored on the No. 11 Car

Rank: Corporal

Corporal Branch: Army Air Corps

Army Air Corps Born: 12/07/24

12/07/24 Died: 07/17/44 in Yugoslavia

07/17/44 in Yugoslavia Hometown: Franklin, NC





John Keener was a tail-gunner of a B-24 bomber. On his 17th birthday while listening to the radio broadcast from Hawaii that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, Johnnie announced to the family he was going to enlist. He join the service in 1943 and was deployed to Italy with his bonber group in July of 1944. On the return leg of his crew's 3rd bombing mission over the Polesti oil fields in Romania, his plane was shot down and crash landed in Ygoslavia, where he and all but one of his crew members were killed.













William Christopher Johnson

Honored on the No. 18 Car

Christopher Johnson, 22, of Oxford, N.C., was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, in Fort Riley, Kan. He died June 12 in Baghdad of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.

Christopher W. Swanson

Honored on the No. 19 Car









Christopher Swanson, 25, of Rose Haven, Md., was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, in Baumholder, Germany. He died July 22 of injuries sustained when his patrol encountered enemy forces small-arms fire in Ramadi, Iraq.





Jeffrey P. Shaffer

Honored on the No. 20 Car

Jeffrey Shaffer, 21, of Harrison, Ark., was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, in Bamberg, Germany. He died Sept. 13 of injuries sustained in Ramadi, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M2A2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle during combat operations.

Rank: Private First ClassBranch: ArmyBorn: 01/01/85Died: 06/12/07 in Bagdad, IraqHometown: Oxford, NCRank: Staff SergeantBranch: ArmyDied: 07/22/06 in AR Ramadi, IraqHometown: Rosehaven, MDRank: SpecialistBranch: ArmyDied: 09/13/06 in AR Ramadi, IraqHometown: Harrison, AR
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including favourite documentary series and films Free Solo, The Rescue, Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
A Service of Remembrance and solidarity with the people of Manchester, following the terrorist attack in the city earlier this week, will take place during the 7.30pm Mass in Ss Peter and Paul's Church, Clonmel this Saturday evening, May 27th.

Everyone is welcome.

Tipperary councillors have been invited to the service, along with many students.

Books of Condolence have been opened across the county.

Following the atrocity Fr. Michael Toomey, a curate at Ss Peter and Paul's, wrote to Bishop John Arnold, the Bishop of Salford, in Manchester, expressing his sympathy and that of people in the parish and town.

Bishop Arnold has thanked the people of Clonmel and Fr. Toomey for his kind thoughts.

"Nothing justifies an attack on innocent people, particularly when it is young people who are so deliberately targeted", stated Bishop Arnold.

"It certainly has nothing to do with religion or religious purpose and Muslims are as disgusted and revolted by these actions as we would be if perpetrated in the name of Christianity.

The vigil in Albert Square on Tuesday evening and the Faith Leaders vigil in St. Annes Square on Wednesday evening show a spirit of resilience and a determination to strengthen the solidarity of this cosmopolitan city and we must hope that, even from these awful events, positive things may emerge.

We must never forget the victims, their families and friends and all traumatised and frightened by this event but we must certainly not allow ourselves to be overcome by such senseless violence.

This was an attack on us all and our response must be firm and positive to create a better world for everyone", stated Bishop Arnold.

Tipperary civic offices open books of condolence in Clonmel, Carrick on Suir, Tipperary Town, Thurles and Nenagh
A major containment operation is underway to stop the further spread of the plague that has killed hundreds of thousands of crayfish along the River Suir between Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel.

The crayfish population along the river between the Coolnamuck Weir near Carrick-on-Suir town and Sir Thomas' Bridge near Clonmel has been wiped out by Crayfish Plague, a serious disease that only affects the native White Clawed Crayfish.

DNA test results confirmed that the plague was the cause of the mass deaths of the river's crayfish population between both towns last Tuesday, May 16.

According to environmental agencies, this outbreak of Crayfish plague is on a much greater scale than the last Irish outbreak on the Bruskey River in Co. Cavan two years ago. The cause of this outbreak is not known.

Ruth Hennessy, Executive Scientist at Tipperary Co. Council, said so far surveys have found no dead crayfish in Clonmel or upstream of the town. Crayfish are not found downstream of Carrick-on-Suir because the river water is not suitable for them as it's tidal.

"If the disease moves up into Clonmel and further upstream then the impact will be significantly worse. European experiences of similar outbreaks suggest that this may happen," Ms Hennessy warned.

The Co. Council along with Inland Fisheries Ireland, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, other agencies, stakeholders and volunteers have been working together to identify river users and to distribute information to them about the "biosecurity precautions" they must take to stop the spread of the plague further upstream.

The precautions include observing the Check, Clean and Dry protocol once they leave the river and before using it again. This means that all wet gear,namely boats, clothing and equipment should be checked for any silt or mud, plant material or animals before being cleaned and finally dried.

Disinfectant or hot water (over 40 degrees Celsius) should be used to clean all equipment and this should be followed by a 24 hour drying period.

The drying period is especially important in ensuring that all equipment is clear of infectious organism, including the removal of any water inside the boat.

The Crayfish Plague organism can be carried on wet equipment to new sites and containment of the outbreak is essential to prevent spread to other unaffected populations in Ireland.

More than 100 signs have been erected along the River Suir and its main tributaries advising river users of these biosecurity measures.

Ms Hennessy said the national agencies are meeting in Clonmel this week to further plan the response to the Crayfish Plague outbreak and develop a longer term strategy in partnership with the relevant bodies.

Dr. Fran Igoe of the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, appealed to river users to avoid moving from the River Suir below Clonmel to upstream of Clonmel.

"It is possible if the infection is limited to the lower river that it may disappear over the coming weeks once it reaches barriers such as weirs which sick crayfish have difficulty getting over."

He said the River Suir has a significant Crayfish population, which is internationally important on account of the large size of the catchment (3,500km2) and its relatively clean water.

"For this reason Crayfish were listed as a species of conservation importance when the river was designated as a Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. When we surveyed otters last September in Ardfinnan, we found that they were feeding exclusively on Crayfish.

"We know that they are also an important food source and also provide important ecosystem services to the river by cleaning up detritus. Contrary to a popular belief Crayfish are not a threat to fish and both salmon and trout feed on them, especially the juveniles," Dr Igoe added.

Reports of dead and dying crayfish on the River Suir upstream of Carrick-on-Suir were first brought to the attention of Inland Fisheries Ireland by anglers on Friday, May 5 and an investigation was begun.

Pollution was quickly ruled out as the cause of their deaths as water samples taken by Tipperary Co Council found that other invertebrates in the river were not affected.
(Natural News) How can you tell if a company is truly evil? If actively covering up the fact that their highly profitable products cause cancer wasnt your first clue, the knowledge that thousands of people around the world stage protests against them every year should illustrate the extent of their depravity quite nicely.

Of course, you might not have heard much about the 6th International March Against Monsanto, which was held on May 20, because the mainstream media simply does not cover it. The same outlets that are all too happy to show up when even small protests are held against Trump are conspicuously absent when people take to the streets in more than 200 cities across six continents to draw attention to a company that has caused irreparable harm to our planet and the life on it.

Why are they the worlds most hated company? Lets count the ways. Monsantos Roundup herbicide contains the chemical glyphosate, which the World Health Organization labeled a probable carcinogen. It is so pervasive that its been found in rain samples, vaccines, baby formula, prenatal vitamins, breast milk and around 90 percent of our conventional food supply.

Its now at the center of a slew of lawsuits that were filed by cancer patients or their loved ones, and it has also been linked to infertility and birth defects. It is also impacting the environment, leading to mass die-offs of butterflies and bees and polluting soil, water and air. Its use has risen 16-fold since GMO crops were introduced in the mid-90s, and it earned Monsanto nearly $4.76 billion in sales in 2015.

Taking evil to new heights

Promoting and selling a product to the public that you know is dangerous is bad enough, but the way that Monsanto has conducted itself in its dealings with the government, regulators, researchers, and the public takes their nefariousness to another level entirely.

Monsanto colluded with the EPA to cover up Roundups toxicity, resorting to such abhorrent measures as threatening and bullying scientists, smearing journalists who dare speak out against them, writing favorable research studies and paying scientists to sign off on them, and hiring a crew of trolls to search every corner of the internet  including peoples personal social media pages  for negative mentions of their products and counter them with false science. Its easy to see why people all around the world from all walks of life are so riled up.

The Twitter hashtag #MarchAgainstMonsanto was flooded with pictures of peaceful protests around the planet. Around 1,500 people showed up in Basel, Switzerland, while 300 people took to the streets in Lyon, France. Protestors in Bordeaux, France held signs that said: With nature, not against it.

A crowd marched near Monsantos office in Buenos Aires, while demonstrators shouted anti-Monsanto sentiments in Ghana. People in cities from Lisbon and Miami to San Antonio and London voiced their concerns about the firm. Large demonstrations in Montreal and Toronto prompted a Monsanto Canada public affairs director to defend the firm on Twitter, where she quite predictably claimed there is no scientific proof that glyphosate causes cancer.

The message in all these places was the same regardless of location and language: Buy organic and local, or better yet, grow your own food. Eating food with an unknown origin is simply not worth the risk. Be sure to express your outrage over Monsanto by joining in next years march!

Sources:

RT.com

March-Against-Monsanto.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) America has been under the spell of a vaccine hysteria due to the recent measles outbreak among unvaccinated Somali-Americans in Minnesota. Once again, vaccine skepticism and anti-vaccine activists, such as the discredited Dr. Andrew Wakefield, have been blamed for the outbreak that affected 48 people.

Americans are constantly told that vaccines are the safest, most effective prevention measures, only causing mild side-effects in very rare occasions. If vaccines are so safe, why has the U.S. government already paid out nearly $159 million to vaccine-injured families in 2017 alone? Since 1989, a grand total of more than $3.6 billion has been awarded to individuals and their families for injuries and deaths attributed to vaccines, according to data published by the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). (RELATED: Click here to view the latest report on vaccine injuries and payments made by the U.S. government for vaccine damages.)

Not many Americans, however, are aware of the existence of a vaccine fund, known as the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), that pays out claims to people and families whose loved ones were injured by vaccines. This special fund was a direct result of a law passed in 1986 that gave pharmaceutical companies total legal immunity from being sued for injuries and deaths related to vaccines.

With no risk whatsoever for vaccine manufacturers, vaccine production has gone through the roof since the initial passing of the law and the creation of the vaccine injury court. Not entirely surprising, the U.S. government is one of the largest purchasers of these vaccines, spending more than $4 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, reported Vaccine Impact.

Has fear driven us completely insane?

In the past, some vaccine proponents have suggested parents who decide not to vaccinate their children with toxic substances are criminals and should be sued or even jailed to protect public health. However, what these people are suggesting is that we keep poisoning the brains of our children while Big Pharma is laughing all the way to the bank. And they know they can get away with it since the government has their back.

Out of fear, imprinted in our brains through our family doctor, schools, and public campaigns, many Americans keep injecting their children with autism-causing substances. These people want us to believe diseases such as the flu and the measles are relentless killers, stressing once more the importance of vaccines to protect our childrens health.

Amidst the heated debate over the question of whether parents should be forced to vaccinate their child, it is often forgotten that most of these diseases arent so deadly after all. Between 2004 and 2010, a total of five people died of measles, according to the Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) own data.

Lets get back to the recent Minnesota measles outbreak for just a second. There are about 5.3 million people living in Minnesota, and only 48 of them got sick. Nobody died. Think of it, is the prevention of 48 cases of people contracting a rather harmless disease in healthy people worth damaging the brains of thousands of children living there?

Even though the mainstream media and government keep spreading fear or lecturing people about how the link between brain damage, autism, and vaccines has been debunked, we should know better by now. Vaccines arent the worlds miracle invention. On the contrary. A massive cover-up of their health risks has been ongoing for years. As a country with one of the most aggressive vaccination schedules and skyrocketing numbers of autistic children, it is time we stop ignoring the cold, hard facts and put two and two together.

Autism is far from being the only danger associated with vaccination. Learn more about the criminal practices of the vaccine industry at VaccineHolocaust.org.

Sources:

NaturalNews.comPDF

NaturalNews.com

VaccineImpact.com

NaturalNews.com

CDC.gov

SuburbanStats.org
(Natural News) In a bid to appear more professional for work, 21-year old Pasuda Reaw decided to get rid of the rose tattoo on her chest. But instead of opting for laser removal, she turned to Rejuvi, a chemical remover created by the Rejuvi Laboratory California. The Thai art student tried this laser-free alternative last February. Three months later, Reaw no longer has the chest tattoo; in its place is a massive chemical burn scar.

At first Rejuvi seemed like a good way to remove the tattoo. I did not want to use lasers, Reaw explained as she recounted her ordeal to the DailyMail.co.uk. Rejuvi is applied via a small tattoo gun, and works by raising ink pigments to the surface of the skin to form a scab which can then be peeled off.

I began the treatment and immediately it was itchy and [started] hurting a lot, said Reaw. She recalled how the lingering stinging sensation from the process was so severe that she was unable to sleep when she returned home. Instead, she cried all through the night. Things only became worse as the days passed. Ten days after her procedure, the area of the tattoo was filling with pus and the skin began flaking off. Weeks later, Reaw finally pulled off the blotchy scab. Left behind in its place were horrific, bloody wounds that took up most of her chest. Though the wounds healed over time, they eventually became the large scar that continues to remind Reaw of the pain she endured.

Her experience was captured and chronicled in photos  photos she hopes will convince others to rethink about how they remove their tattoos. What is left if worse than before. I do not recommend this treatment because it hurts so bad [sic] and takes a long time. Laser is a lot of money but I wish I had done that. At times the pain of the itching and the scar were unbearable, Reaw said.

Despite everything she went through, Reaw is not the first person to suffer through pain caused by Rejuvi. On their article about the dangers of non-laser tattoo removal, the Andrea Catton Laser Clinic touched on Rejuvi, calling it flawed. The author of the article listed down the possible side effects of the technique, which included pain, bruising, swelling, itching, scabbing, infection, and permanent scarring. A number of patients who used Rejuvi were forced to take steroid injections to help them deal with the pain, while others turned to solicitors for aid with their scars, stated the author of the article. (Related: Tattoos may lead to HEAT STROKE by impairing your skins natural sweat production)

Ritu Saini, a dermatologic surgeon at NY Medical Skin Solutions, told the clinic: Rejuvi involves the tattooing of a chemicals to extract the tattoo colour. I once saw a patient after he had the Rejuvi procedure which had caused extensive scarring. The patient required several treatments with Fraxel to improve the appearance of the scarring.

According to MedicalDaily.com, the safest method of tattoo removal is still laser tattoo removal. Rather than forcing the tattoo to scab like Rejuvi, laser tattoo removal makes use of a laser to break up ink molecules in the skin which are then carried into the liver by the immune system. The liver then safely disposes of the ink molecules by passing them out of the body alongside other waste materials. Though the possible side effects include blistering, scabbing, and swelling, these are just signs that the treatment has worked and the body is undergoing its natural healing processes.

Learn about what is and what isnt safe for you by visiting MindBodyScience.news today.

Sources include:

MedicalDaily.com

DailyMail.co.uk

AndreaCatton.co.uk
Friday, May 26, 2017 by: Tracey Watson Tags: Alexa , Smalt , smart salt shaker , technology This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author

(Natural News) While most of us can probably appreciate the value of being able to ask Alexa to tell us what the capital city of Uzbekistan is, or getting her to read us the newspaper while we lie on the couch, the idea that the process of putting salt on your chicken needs technical assistance just seems ludicrous. And yet, California-based lifestyle company Herb & Body swears there is a gap in the salt shaking market, and theyre sweeping in to grab the opportunity.

Herb & Bodys aim as a company is to make ordinary life more fun, easier and healthier. To that end, they firmly believe that their new creation  a salt shaker called the Smalt  does all those things by incorporating a Bluetooth-connected speaker and mood lighting to reduce stress, and by means of an app which will monitor your salt intake.

The app will also interface with Amazons Alexa, and users will be able to ask her to get the salt shaking without any strenuous twisting or grinding.

Is it just me, or are people becoming downright lazy? Since when is the process of putting salt on your food strenuous? Users will unfortunately still have to physically pick the salt shaker up  but dont worry, Alexa will take care of the rest! [RELATED: For more things that are just plain nuts visit Twisted.news]

Now, if the Smalt sounds super cool to you and youre dying to buy one, you might be in for disappointment  at least for now. Though the Smalt has been in the design phase for over two years, and a functional prototype was recently demonstrated at Chicagos International Home and Housewares Show, it has not yet gone into production.

To ensure their vision finds fulfillment, Smalts developers have launched an Indiegogo crowd funding project. The great news is that those who sign up first will benefit from up to a 50 percent discount on the price when the Smalt finally does hit the shelves.

Whether it is the healthy eating trend or the convenience of meal ingredient services, people love to prepare meals, get together, have fun, said CEO Bipan Singh. We want them to further enhance their dining experience with Smalt by using all of its features.

As the latest in a long line of so-called smart devices, Smalt may or may not prove to be a commercial success  only time will tell. And though its easy to laugh at all these crazy sounding creations, there is a serious side to the issue, too.

With devices like Amazons Echo in our home, can we really say we have any privacy anymore?

The fact is, we are surrounded by electronic devices, and theyre always listening.

The Echo has to listen to everythingthats kind of disturbing, said Ryan OLeary, vice president of WhiteHat Securitys threat research center. It doesnt capture voice until it hears the keyword, but it could. Youre trusting the devices to not do that, but its entirely possible.

Whats the point of having laws in place which prevent the government from listening to peoples conversations in their private homes, if our houses are literally jam-packed with devices that can listen to your every word? Could information from these devices be admissible in a court of law? [RELATED: Is your smart TV spying on you?]

Pretty soon well be living in a world where everything seems easy, but where society in general is under constant surveillance and privacy is a distant memory.

Nonetheless, its almost guaranteed that loads of people will think the Smalt is a really cool gift. And it will certainly give people something to talk about at dinner. Just be careful what you say. 

Sources:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com
A new breed of "space pups" are gaining the attention of the scientific world. This was after mice sperm stored inside the International Space Station (ISS) produces healthy offspring.

This proves that extended stay aboard the ISS does not affect sperm fertility, at least for the mice sperm samples. The mice sperm were used in order to complete a study. The fertilized mice sperm was frozen dried and was stored inside the ISS for one year.

The space pups pave the way for future reproduction of animals and potentially humans beyond the comforts of the Earth. Despite having proven that mice sperm can survive long storage period in space, researchers say that it will need more research in order to fully grasp how space can influence reproduction.

The study was published in the journal PNAS. The point of the study is to find out whether extensive stay in space can damage the DNA. People spending time aboard the ISS receives about 10 to 100 times more exposure to radiation. This subjects all systems in their bodies including the reproductive organs to radiation as well.

Based on the study, the sperm, which spent about 288 days in space between 2013 and 2014, show some damage to their DNA. However, this did not affect the sperm from producing offspring. They were still able to fertilize eggs when brought back to Earth. Despite some known changes in the DNA, researchers say that the difference between mice sperm stored in space and the ones kept on the planet is very little.

"We got many healthy offspring from space sperm," Teruhiko Wakayama, a biologist at the University of Yamanashi in Japan and lead author of the study, said in an interview with The Verge. "Those pups could not have any genetic damage."

The topic is highly controversial and vital if mankind is keen on establishing colonizations beyond Earth, like Mars. Radiation remains to be a key concern when it comes to reproduction in space. Will this work on human sperm, too?

"In the future, humans likely will live on large-scale space stations or in other space habitats for several years or even over many generations," the researchers said in the paper. "If humans ever start to live permanently in space, assisted reproductive technology using preserved spermatozoa will be important for producing offspring."

Although it's still too early to tell if this method will work for human sperm cells, experts are positive that the result will lead to further discoveries. They also have to find more technologies to save the human race and the reproduction system from being exposed to radiation in space.




A new study suggests that the Earth may have been donut-shaped or in a "synestia" form 4.5 billion years ago. The planet could have been a hot, donut-shaped object with vaporized rock as a result of a collision of two planet-sized celestial bodies.

The Earth's ancient history is linked to a collision, potentially with a Mars-sized object called Theia. But this is the first time a study suggested that the Earth could have been donut-shaped due to the impact.

"We looked at the statistics of giant impacts, and we found that they can form a completely new structure," study co-author Sarah Stewart, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Davis, said in a statement.

The donut-shaped or synestia form is proposed as a new type of planetary object. The researchers led by a graduate of Harvard University modeled the scenario that if an Earth-sized object collides with a larger object while moving and spinning really fast, according to Space.com.

These collisions were so violent that the resulting bodies melted and partially vaporized, eventually cooling and solidifying to the nearly spherical planets we know today.

Instead of a debris, their scenario suggested that it will result in a synestia or a weirder donut-sized object. Usually, collisions were believed to be violent causing bodies to melt and vaporize and then cooling and solidifying in nearly spherical shapes creating planets.

But the new ancient Earth theory suggested that it took the form of a donut after the impact called synestia. However, if these planetary objects really do exist, they are short-lived. Based on the paper, the donut-shaped Earth may have only stayed in that phase for about a century. It then lost enough heat to condense back into its form as a solid circular object.

The researchers also suggest that syntesias remain hypothetical at the moment since no one has ever seen it before. But, they are hopeful that mankind may be able to see one in the near future in alien solar systems. The result of the study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
In the case of a missing husband and father in San Francisco, police said Thursday they found a vehicle at San Francisco International Airport connected with the person of interest.

Piseth Chhay, a 48-year-old Uber driver and father of two, has been missing since Mother's Day, and police identified an acquaintance of the family, Bob Tang, as a person of interest. On Tuesday, Tang also went missing, and police believe he may have fled to Cambodia.

The vehicle associated with Tang is a 2004 Silver Toyota Sienna SUV, with California license plate 5JOT221, police said Wednesday. It was not clear if that's the vehicle found at SFO.

Meanwhile, Chhay's wife, Rattana Kim, said Tang is a family friend her kids call "Uncle Bob," and she was shocked to hear he might have harmed her husband.

"Why is it someone who we consider a brother or a uncle? Why would he do that, especially when you have your own family, two sons of your own?" Kim said.

Kim said she doesn't know what happened between Tang and Chhay on May 14. But she does know two families are suffering.

"I have not talked to (Tang's) wife," she said. "She's probably going through hell like I am."

The SFPD Special Victims Unit continued to investigate the case Thursday, serving search warrants in the cities of Hayward and San Francisco.

Tang, 48, had agreed to come in for an interview with police Tuesday but didnt show, police said. He is described as an Asian male, about 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.

Jean Elle/NBC Bay Area

Chhay's vehicle, a Mercedes Benz SUV, was found stripped Friday in the city's Bayview neighborhood, and police believe it may have been moved there.

Searches were conducted at three locations Tuesday, two in San Francisco and one in Antioch, police said.

Though he was not working on the day he disappeared, Chhay told a relative that an Uber customer had left a phone in his vehicle, and he wanted to return it.

Anyone who has seen either Tang or Chhay or has any information regarding their whereabouts should contact San Francisco Police via the anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message.

A GoFundMe account has been set up and can be viewed here.
Masked militants fired on a bus filled with Coptic Christians south of Cairo Friday, killing at least 28 and wounding 22, the Egyptian Ministry said.

The Vatican says Pope Francis is "saddened" by the "barbaric" attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt.

In a condolence message sent on Friday to the Egyptian president, Francis said he'll continue his "intercession for peace and reconciliation" throughout Egypt.

The message described Francis as being "deeply saddened to learn of the barbaric attack in central Egypt and of the tragic loss of life and injury caused by this senseless act of hatred."

U.S. President Donald Trump echoed the Pope's condemnation in a statement, calling the attack "merciless" and saying that attacks on innocents inflict wounds upon humanity.

"But this attack also steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology," Trump's statement continued.



No group immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's attack, but ISIS claimed responsibility for three attacks against churches in recent months that left about 75 people dead.

Last month's visit by Francis to Cairo aimed in part to show support for Christians in Muslim majority Egypt. Following the visit, the Islamic State group vowed to escalate attacks against Christians.


People got a start the summer on a lifesaving note by donating blood at the NBC Connecticut Blood Drive on Thursday, June 22 at Dunkin Donuts Park, home of the Yard Goats!

The American Red Cross held the blood drive from 7:30 a.m.  6:30 p.m. at Dunkin Donuts Park at 1214 Main Street in Hartford. Free parking was available. All presenting donors got a tour of the stadium, a free ticket to an upcoming Yard Goats game, and a free ticket to Six Flags New England. They also had a chance to make a monetary donation to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

Save up to three lives with a single blood donation.

Well over 200 units were collected Thursday thanks to the overwhelming turnout at our blood drive at Dunkin' Donuts Park.

If you were not able to donate today, rest assured, your donation is still critical this summer. Go to the Red Cross website to find a drive near you.


A burger from Teds Restaurant in Meriden ranks as one of the best 100 burgers in the United States.

Thrillist.com has released its list of the 100 best burgers, just as grilling season gets into full swing here in Connecticut, and "The Everything" ranks 74th on the list.

It comes with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, salt and pepper, ketchup, mustard and mayo.

On its face, a steamed cheeseburger kind of seems like a bad idea. You can't get a sear, you cook all the meat the same temperature, it sounds weird when you say it, etc. But sitting on a barstool at the counter of this tiny joint in a little pocket of central Connecticut and biting into the glory of Ted's cheeseburger made me a true believer, the review says.

Ted's has been serving the famous burgers up for more than 50 years. The original location is in Meriden, but there is also a location in Cromwell.



This was the only burger in Connecticut that made the list, but we know there are several places to get a truly good burger in Connecticut.

Here are some of them:

Louis' Lunch

Louis' Lunch in New Haven is the birthplace of the Hamburger Sandwich. Get the original burger and a side of potato salad or potato chips. Just don't ask for anything on your burger other than cheese, tomato and onion.

Goldburgers

GoldBurgers in Newington is another favorite in Connecticut, with more than 20 specialty burgers. Enjoy the classic or one of many others. Try the original GoldBurger, which is two patties, American cheese, lettuce, pickles, onions and the signature GoldBurger sauce. The restaurant's fries and hot dogs are also delicious.

Plan b burger

Plan b burger will be celebrating National Burger Month by hosting a Burger and Beer Community Combo-tition.

You can find b restaurants in West Hartford, Glastonbury, Milford, Simsbury, Stamford, and Fairfield.

The restaurants have created burger and beer pairings that will be rated on their performance in total sales, highest percentage of celebrity burger to total burgers sold, social media engagement, and a no purchase necessary vote. The winning burger and beer pair will be announced on May 8.

Shady Glen

At Shady Glen in Manchester, you can grab a Big Cheese Burger.

Max Burger

Max Burger in West Hartford offers a wide selection of burgers, such as the Sgt. Peppercorn, an 8-ounce peppercorn crusted, Applewood smoked bacon, mushroom, blue cheese-gruyere fondue, buffalo ranch aioli, arugula, and artisan roll burger. You can also get non-beef options like a turkey or tuna burger.

WoodNTap

Try the special Jalapeno Burger at WoodNTap  a steak burger topped with Pepper Jack cheese, fried sliced jalapenos, pickled red onion and Mexi-cali aioli.

Five Guys

You cannot go wrong at Five Guys and there are more than two dozen locations in Connecticut to get one of the handcrafted burgers and fries.
Local

The latest news from around North Texas.
Prosecutors say a Central Texas man must serve life in prison for killing his girlfriend and another woman in separate attacks in which one victim was decapitated using a machete.

Danny Carlos Diaz was sentenced Wednesday in Bryan after pleading guilty to murder, in a plea deal. Investigators say both slayings happened within a 12-hour period in May 2015.

Prosecutor Brian Baker says the 31-year-old Diaz, of Bryan, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and depression.

Investigators say Diaz killed his girlfriend, 30-year-old Vanessa Gonzales, and a friend, 26-year-old Ashley Garcia. The bodies were found on opposite ends of Brazos County.

Authorities believe Gonzales was run over by her own vehicle. Garcia was later found decapitated in a dumpster.

Diaz won't be eligible for parole for 60 years.
Home searches across Manchester and beyond have uncovered important items in a fast-moving investigation into the concert bombing that left 22 people dead, Manchester's police chief said Thursday as a diplomatic spat escalated over U.S. leaks about the investigation to the media.

Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins told reporters the eight suspects detained so far are "significant" arrests, and "initial searches of premises have revealed items that we believe are very important to the investigation."

He did not elaborate, but those arrests around the northwestern English city include Ismail Abedi, the brother of 22-year-old Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi. The bomber's father Ramadan Abedi and another brother Hashim have been detained in Libya.

After Abedi's mother and three of his siblings were brought in for questioning, a Libyan official told of a final phone call he placed to his mother and brother just before the attack. On that call, he purportedly told his mother: "Forgive me," said Ahmed bin Salem, a spokesman for the Special Deterrent Force.

"He was giving farewell," bin Salem added.

As police raced to uncover the network that may have helped Abedi attack an Ariana Grande concert on Monday night, furious British officials blamed U.S. authorities Thursday for leaking details of the investigation to the media.

One British official told The Associated Press that police in Manchester have stopped sharing information about their bombing investigation with the U.S. until they get a guarantee that there will be no more leaks to the media. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would discuss the leaks with President Donald Trump at a NATO summit. Upon her arrival in Brussels, May said the U.S.-British defense and security partnership is built on trust.

But she said "part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently."

British officials are particularly angry that photos detailing evidence about the bomb were published in The New York Times, although it's not clear that the paper obtained the photos from U.S. officials.

British security services are also upset that Abedi's name was apparently leaked by U.S. officials while British police were withholding it  and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya, where the bomber's father lives.

Hopkins, the Manchester police chief, said the leaks had "caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss."

Trump on Thursday pledged to "get to the bottom" of leaks of sensitive information, calling them "deeply troubling." He said he is asking the Justice Department and other agencies to "launch a complete review of this matter."

The New York Times defended its publication of crime-scene photographs, saying its coverage had been "both comprehensive and responsible."

"The images and information presented were neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims, and consistent with the common line of reporting on weapons used in horrific crimes," the paper said.

May said the national threat level from terrorism remains at critical  the highest level, meaning that another attack may be imminent. Hundreds of soldiers have replaced police protecting high-profile sites including Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament in London.

"The public should remain vigilant," May said.

Around the country, many people fell silent and bowed their heads at 11 a.m. for a minute in tribute to the bombing victims.

In Manchester's St. Ann's Square, where a sea of floral tributes grows by the hour, a crowd sang "Don't Look Back in Anger"  a song by the Manchester band Oasis.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Royal Manchester Children's Hospital on Thursday to talk to some of the victims, their families and medical staff.

"It's dreadful. Very wicked, to target that sort of thing," the 91-year-old monarch told 14-year-old Evie Mills and her parents.

Fifteen-year-old Millie Robson, wearing an Ariana Grande T-shirt, told the queen she had won VIP tickets to the pop star's concert. She was leaving concert when the blast struck, remembering an intense ringing but not entirely aware that she was bleeding badly from her legs.

She credited her dad's quick action in picking her up and tying off her wounds to stem the bleeding.

"I have a few like holes in my legs and stuff and I have a bit of a cut, and my arm and just a bit here, but compared to other people I'm quite lucky really," she said.

In addition to those killed, 116 people received medical treatment at Manchester hospitals for wounds from the blast. The National Health Service said 75 people had been hospitalized.

In Berlin, former U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a message of solidarity to the Manchester bombing victims.

"(This is) a reminder that there is great danger and terrorism and people who would do great harm to others just because they're different," Obama said.

Investigators are chasing Abedi's potential links with jihadi militants in Manchester, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The bomber himself died in the attack.

France's interior minister says Abedi was believed to have travelled to Syria, and U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was part of "a cell of ISIS-inspired terrorists."

Investigators are trying to find whether Abedi knew several Manchester-based jihadis, including Libyan man Abdalraouf Abdallah, who was jailed in the U.K. for terror offenses, and Raphael Hostey, an IS recruiter killed in Syria.

Investigators are also looking into the Abedi family's ties in Libya. Abedi's father Ramadan was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s  a claim he denies.

Manchester is home to one of Britain's largest Libyan communities. Mohammed Fadl, a community leader, said the Abedi family is well known, but Salman did not attend many gatherings.

"Very few people in the community here were close to him and therefore Salman's fanaticism wasn't something the community was aware of," he told the AP.

He said he had heard that Salman's father took his son's passport away amid concerns about his close ties to alleged extremists and criminals.

Authorities are investigating whether Abedi could have been stopped, after Libyan community members in Manchester reported concerns about his views.

Akram Ramadan said Salman Abedi had been banned from Manchester's Didsbury Mosque, one of the largest in the city.

"There was a sermon about anti-Daesh (IS) and he stood up and started calling the Imam  'You are talking bollocks,'" Ramadan said. "And he gave a good stare, a threatening stare into the Imam's eyes ... he was banned."

Fadl, the community leader, disputed that account and the bomber's father insisted Wednesday in an interview with the AP that Salman had no links to militants, saying "we don't believe in killing innocents."

Abedi had been in Libya in the weeks before the attack, and German magazine Focus, citing unnamed federal security source, reported that he passed through Duesseldorf airport four days before the bombing.

A German security official told the AP on Thursday the report was accurate, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information hadn't been cleared for public release.

On the artistic front, Grande cancelled concerts that were to take place Thursday and Friday in London, and in several other sites in Europe. Next week's premiere of the film "The Mummy" in London was also canceled.

Sylvia Hui, Rob Harris, Frank Jordans, Maggie Michael and Julie Pace contributed to this report.
The popular online vacation rental site Airbnb might be making it harder and more expensive for you to find an apartment or home to rent in Southern California, according to a community advocacy group that's studying the impact of vacation rentals. And, those community advocates say Airbnb rentals are also hurting the quality of life in some areas.

Consider the neighborhood around Troy Drive in the Hollywood Hills. When a group of eleven young Australians decided to visit Los Angeles, they wanted a big house where they could party. So they rented a house with a scenic view on Troy Drive, through Airbnb.

And, on their first night in town, they let loose in the backyard with booze and music.

"You could hear it through 4 o'clock in the morning," said Daisy Marco, who lives next door with her husband Mitch Gould. "It's not a house that a little family goes to; it's the house that Australians will go to to party."

The elderly owner of the house told the NBC4 I-Team she rented the house to a man named Barry Dadon, who said he was going to live there with his wife and baby.

But the I-Team found Dadon instead listed the house on Airbnb as a vacation rental, using the host name "Alex."

Mitch and Daisy have been calling the police and the city of LA for months about the problems with the Airbnb house. They've been awakened repeatedly by Airbnb guests partying next door. They've even seen a couple having sex in the backyard in the middle of the day.

"It disrupts your sleep, it messes up your sleep cycle, it affects your work," explained Mitch Gould.

The NBC4 I-team reveals whats becoming for many the nightmare next door: short term rentals growing in popularity. Its a convenient way for homeowners to rent to tourists, who in turn, avoid hotels. But it also means lost tax revenue for the city and frustration for some neighbors who are fed up with the constant turnover. Colleen Williams reports for...

In fact, the I-Team told Airbnb three months ago about problems with the Troy Drive house, but Mitch and Daisy say nothing has changed.

"I think Airbnb is being really irresponsible and they don't seem to care about the community they're affecting," said Marco.

And, short-term rental sites like Airbnb may not only be affecting the quality of life in some neighborhoods, but exacerbating LA's housing crisis, according to the community advocacy group Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, or LAANE.

"In the neighborhoods where there is the highest concentration of Airbnb listings, rents are going up faster than they are in the rest of the city," said Roy Samaan, a LAANE analyst who authored the report "Airbnb, Rising Rent, and the Housing Crisis in Los Angeles."

LAANE puts part of the blame on people like Barry Dadon, who they call "commercial hosts." They say these individuals and companies list multiple homes and apartments on short term rental sites in popular neighborhoods that are already experiencing low vacancy rates and rising rents, like Venice, Silver Lake, and Hollywood.

KNBC-TV

"Landlords understand that they can make a lot more money listing a unit on the short term rental market then they could renting out to a long term tenant. In some cases, two or three times as much," said Samaan.

In the case of "Alex," he's not only listing the Troy Drive home on Airbnb, but he's listing at least eight additional apartment units, including two units at the luxury building 8th and Grand in downtown LA. Many of these units are in buildings that forbid renters from subletting their apartments on short-term rental sites like Airbnb, like 8th and Grand.

When the I-Team asked an 8th and Grand leasing agent whether short-term rentals are allowed in the building, he told us, "No Airbnb allowed. Ever."

So how did "Alex" get away with turning leased apartments into vacation rentals in buildings that forbid subleasing? We had two I-Team researchers book several Airbnb listings from "Alex" to find out.

In one case, when we rented a unit at 8th and Grand, "Alex's" assistant told our researcher to say that she lives in the building if asked what she's doing at the property.

"You can just say you live at (apartment) 4131," the assistant said.

Later, we booked a unit at the La Belle Apartments in Hollywood from "Alex," another building that forbids Airbnb rentals. This time, his assistant took our researcher into the building through the garage, so residents wouldn't see the Airbnb guest check in.

"It's just that some residents, they don't really like it," the assistant told our I-Team member.

We asked Airbnb spokeswoman Connie Llanos if Airbnb is okay with a host listing units on Airbnb in buildings that don't allow short-term rentals.

"We don't get involved in issues between the tenant and the landlord. This is between the tenant and the landlord," said Llanos.

In a statement, Airbnb added, "If these buildings do not allow short-term rentals, we believe it is the landlord's responsibility to enforce the rules."

Aimco, one of the country's largest apartment building owners, said Airbnb needs to get involved and help them enforce the rules.

The company, which owns the Palazzo near The Grove in LA's Miracle Mile neighborhood, forbids listing its units on short term rental sites. Aimco said they asked Airbnb several times to remove the listings for their units from the website. After their third request was ignored, Aimco filed a lawsuit in California state court.

In the suit, Aimco alleged that Airbnb, "continues to actively promote illicit leasing of apartments" for vacation rentals. That suit is still pending.

"Airbnb is aiding in the participation of our residents breaking their lease agreement with us," said Didi Meredith, an Aimco spokesperson. "We get noise complaints all the time, we have people in and out of the apartments at all hours of the night."

"These big hosts that are moving a lot of people in and out, those are big money makers for the company," said Samaan.

In a new television commercial, Airbnb says "home sharing is very important to families in Los Angeles." And, they profile a woman in South Los Angeles who explains that "without that income now, I wouldn't be able to stay in my home."

But LAANE said the story Airbnb tells about helping families share their homes to make ends meet isn't the full story.

"The majority of their money comes from commercial hosts, from big hosts that have multiple units across many buildings," said Samaan.

LAANE says their analysis of Airbnb data shows that "commercial hosts" account for more than 40 percent of Airbnb's overall revenue in Los Angeles.

Airbnb disputes LAANE's findings and said its data and analysis is not accurate. They also point out that the data LAANE is using was not provided by the company.

The I-Team asked Airbnb for the complete data in February to independently confirm LAANE's findings, but the company has yet to provide all of the information we requested.

Instead, Airbnb sent us their own report that found the company isn't having an impact on rental pricing or availability when you look at the entire City of Los Angeles.

"Airbnb represents a tiny fraction of that housing stock," said Connie Llanos, an Airbnb spokesperson."

But what about individual neighborhoods? Could Airbnb impact some high density, low vacancy rate areas?

"Perhaps. But at a very small rate," said Llanos.

LAANE said you should look at individual neighborhoods and not the city as a whole to understand the impact of short term rental sites on the housing market.

The group's analysis found that more than 1,300 whole units were available for rent in Venice on Airbnb in March. 966 units were available in Hollywood. And, nearly 500 more were listed in Downtown Los Angeles.

"Removing additional units from the market, taking additional units out of circulation, is going to tend to increase the prices upwards," said Samaan.

We wanted to know if Barry Dadon was concerned that the Airbnb business he operates under the name "Alex" was contributing to LA's housing woes and impacting the quality of life in some neighborhoods.

He declined to speak with us on-the-record during a phone call and avoided our cameras when we approached him. He didn't respond to the letter we sent him through Fed-Ex.

The I-Team first told Airbnb about the problems neighbors were having with the Hollywood Hills property in February. We told them again in May.

In a statement emailed to us on Wednesday, Airbnb told us, "When we are made aware of hosting behavior that fails to meet our standards and expectations, we work to make things right and after careful review, we have permanently removed this host from our platform." And they tell us they "have systems in place to prevent bad actors from returning to our platform."

Airbnb added, "There have been over 160 million guest arrivals in Airbnb listings and the overwhelming majority have been safe and positive experiences."
More than 3 million Southland residents -- a record -- are traveling this Memorial Day weekend, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California.

The Memorial Day travel period, which the AAA regards as running from Thursday, May 25 to Monday, May 29 -- involves more travelers this year, with 3.03 million people in the Southland expected to travel at least 50 miles and 4.89 million people expected to do so statewide.

It's the sixth consecutive year that the number of Memorial Day travelers has grown compared to the previous year, the Auto club said in a statement, adding that this year will see the largest number since the all-time record of 3.2 million in the Southland and 5.18 million statewide, which was set in 2005.

The Auto Club noted that local gas prices are holding steady near $3 a gallon on average -- the second cheapest price averages for this time of year since 2009.

Among Southern California travelers, 2.52 million are expected to travel by car -- a 2.9 percent increase from last year's 2.45 million going by motor vehicle and a number representing about 84 percent of all travelers, according to the AAA.

Another 300,000 Southland residents are expected to go by plane, which is a 6.2 percent increase over the 2016 holiday's 282,000 air travelers. And about 197,000 local travelers will take a recreational vehicle, cruise ship, bus, train, or other mode of travel -- a 4.9 percent increase from the 188,000 who traveled by other means in 2016.

The top five Memorial Day destinations for Southern California travelers this year are Las Vegas, San Diego, the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, and Yosemite, according to the Auto Club.

"One significant trend we are seeing this year is solid growth in the number of air travelers, which also tends to signify longer vacations that are a greater distance away from home," said Filomena Andre, the Auto Club's vice president for travel.

Statewide, about 84 percent of travelers, or 4.08 million, are expected to go by car, a 2.9 percent increase over 2016. About 485,000 statewide are projected to fly, a 6.2 percent increase from last year, and 456,000 will go by other means, a 4.9 percent increase from 2016, the AAA said.

Nationally, travel is expected to increase by 2.7 percent compared to last year's Memorial Day holiday, with 39.29 million travelers expected compared to 38.27 million in 2015. Car travel is expected to rise by 2.4 percent to 34.6 million, while air travel is expected to increase 5.5 percent this year to 2.9 million. Other modes of travel will increase by 2.9 percent to 1.75 million.
A North Carolina sheriff's deputy recently discovered an opium poppy field outside of Charlotte worth an estimated $500 million, officials told NBC News.

More than 2,000 plants, which can be used to make opium, morphine and heroin, were found on an acre of land on a farm near the town of Claremont, the Catawba County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Cody Xiong, 37, was arrested at the farm Tuesday and charged with two felonies, officials said. He was later released after posting $45,000 bail.
Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill Wednesday that grants nearly $4 million to a boy who was at the center of a heinous case of child abuse in Southwest Miami-Dade.

In 2011, Victor Barahona was found doused in chemicals inside his adoptive father's pesticide truck while his dead twin sister decomposed in the back.

The Florida Department of Children and Families must pay out $3.75 million to Barahona, who was 10 years old at the time of the tragedy. The agency accepts negligence in the case involving the boy and his sister Nubia Barahona who suffered extreme abuse by their adoptive parents.

Attorney Neal Roth represents Victor Barahona.

"We are grateful that after four years of trying to get the claim bill passed through the Florida legislator, that it finally has occurred," said Roth.

The legal settlement states that red flags were ignored by the agency and that officials failed to protect the twins from abuse by allowing Jorge and Carmen Barahona to adopt them. Both remain in jail on murder charges.

Authorities later learned the couple tied the children up and locked them in a bathroom.

Roth said Victor is doing better but will carry the scars of abuse forever.

"Thankfully, Victor has been adopted by wonderful parents and is getting required care that he's going to need for the rest of his life," said Roth.

The attorney said there were two other kids in the household who also suffered abuse at the hands of the Barahonas. Roth said they, too, will benefit from the money.
If you're salivating over the thoughts of juicy, perfectly grilled burgers this Memorial Day weekend, you may want to let someone else make it for you -- and we've got a couple options in mind.



Thrillist has released its list of the 100 best burgers in America, and 13 in the tri-state area make the cut. Here they are in descending order (spoiler alert: we're home to the second best burger in the country, according to Thrillist's national burger critic Kevin Alexander, who spent the last year eating).



No. 79: Red Hook Lobster Pound, 284 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY -- You may not think a place known for lobster rolls would also have superior hamburgers, but you'd be wrong. According to Alexander, the Hook Burger at this joint draws quite a crowd.



No. 77: JG Melon, 89 MacDouglas Street, New York, NY -- Alexander says this is the ultimate classic burger, served in an ambiance rife with watermelon pictures and statues. Sounds special.



[NATL] Wildest Food Crazes: Emotional Support Chicken

No. 74: Ted's Restaurant, 1046 Broad Street, Meriden, CT -- Ted's has been serving "award-winning steamed cheeseburgers" for more than 50 years, the restaurant's website says. It's called "The Everything," and it comes with lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, salt and pepper, ketchup, mustard and mayo. And according to Alexander, there's a reason the shop's been around so long.

On its face, a steamed cheeseburger kind of seems like a bad idea. You can't get a sear, you cook all the meat the same temperature, it sounds weird when you say it, etc. But sitting on a barstool at the counter of this tiny joint in a little pocket of central Connecticut and biting into the glory of Ted's cheeseburger made me a true believer, the review says.



[Photos-NY Subscription Service] Consumer Reports Ranks America's Supermarkets From Best to Worst

No. 69: Rose's, 295 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, NY -- If you're going to hit up this neighborhood bar, try the hamburger with gruyere. Alexander bills it quite simply as "the best backyard burger you could never make."



No. 62: Bar Sardine, 183 W. 10th Street, New York, NY -- It's called the Fedora Burger -- and you should try it. It has crispy potato strings. Need we say more?



No. 60: Ruby's Cafe, 219 Mulberry Street, New York, NY -- Bronte, Blueys, Bells, Whaleys, Coogee and Bondi. Yep, those are the names of some of the burgers at this Australian-influenced SoHo (there's also a location in Murray Hill) restaurant. No doubt delicious, Alexander says the joint's classic cheeseburger is the best of them all. It comes with premium ground beef, lettuce, tomato, American cheese and "special sauce." Intriguing.



America's Favorite Pizza Chain, Mexican Brand u0026 More Revealed in Latest Harris Poll

No. 50: Wilma Jean, 345 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY -- This restaurant's homepage greets web visitors with a simple message: Fried Chicken. Cold Beer. Seven Days a Week. But it's got way more than that. Alexander recommends the single burger with American cheese, and it's just as simple as the website. As Alexander says in his review, "It really needs nothing else."



No. 41: The Happiest Hour, 121 W. 10th Street, New York, NY -- This restaurant is the child of Acme's Jon Neidich and veteran New York bartender Jim Kearns (formerly of the NoMad Hotel and Pegu Club). And at The Happiest Hour, you want to try The Happiest Burger, Alexander says. Its double patties are accessorized with confit onions, pickles and, yes, a special sauce.



"I now fully understand why everyone sprints to this bar at 5pm on the dot," Alexander writes.



These New York City Food Trucks Are Considered Some of the Best in America

No. 39: Emmy Squared, 919 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY -- The Le Big Matt at this restaurant is already one of Instagram's most famous burgers, Alexander says, and adds that it's worth the hype. The spicy aioli makes it unique.



No. 34: Boilermaker, 13 First Avenue, New York, NY -- Thrillist's Alexander is a fan of the simplicity of this one basic single burger with American cheese. "They don't make you do a Boilermaker when you walk into this bar, but they should make you eat the damn burger, which features secret and special spices that elevate it above most other bar burgers anywhere," his review says.



14 Italian Restaurants in NYC Make List of Best in the Nation

No. 25: Grindhaus, 275 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn, NY -- Try the Haus Burger, which comes with house-made pickles, American cheese and its own special sauce. Alexander says all of that "teamed up to attack my taste buds Captain Planet-style, melding together in beefy, salty, (porky, maybe?), creamy glory with just enough acid to keep balance."



No. 12: The Brindle Room, 277 E. 10th Street, New York, NY -- The East Village gastropub is known for serving American comfort food in shareable small plates, but you probably want to keep the Sebastian's Steakhouse Burger all to yourself. Caramelized onions are a perfect combination of crunch and rich flavor, the bun doesn't get soggy and the patty itself has some exciting "peppery elements," Alexander says.



A Look Inside the New Avocado Bar That Has Opened in NYC



No. 2: Raoul's, 180 Prince Street, New York, NY -- Remember, we're talking about the best 100 burgers in the nation, here. According to Alexander, Raoul's Burger au Poivre, with St. Andre and pommes frites, is second only to "Nick's Cheeseburger With Grilled Onions" at Stanich's in Portland, Oregon.



Alexander described his experience at Raoul's as nearly religious.



Straight from his review: "Raoul's makes the best non-diner burger in America. The brisket-heavy patty is seared like a steak, giving it a thick crust dotted with peppercorns and salt. If it'd then just added the rich triple-cream Saint-Andre and called it a day, this burger might be up with the rest of the hyper-fancy custom LaFrieda patties. But Raoul's recognizes balance perhaps better than 99% of the country, and so it adds thinly sliced red onions, cornichons, and some peppery greens to give it acid, bite, and some extra peppery elements. The challah bun is squishy and chewy and does not fold in the face of intense moisture. And the cream-and-cognac au poivre sauce served on the side makes for one of the all-time best dipping sauces, if you truly want to go for it."

These 8 Grocery Stores Have Some of the Best Prices in America, Study Says
Fairfield police detective Stephen Rilling, the son of the mayor of Norwalk, is accused of taking drug evidence from the Fairfiield police department and the mayor released a statement saying his son has a substance abuse problem brought on by a prescription for pain medication.

Detective Stephen Rilling, 40, was arrested after an investigation into the misappropriation of drug evidence between June 2016 and February of 2017. The investigation has been going on for several weeks, according to the Fairfield Police department.

Police said the allegations of inappropriate actions came to the departments attention on April 12 and Detective Rilling was placed on administrative leave pending the results of an ongoing internal investigation. Then, police launched a criminal investigation with the states attorneys office.

Like too many other families in Connecticut, my son and our family are facing the effects of the opoid epidemic that is sweeping our state, Mayor Harry Rilling said in a statement.

In the past few weeks I learned that my son has a substance abuse problem brought on by prescription pain medication. He has accepted responsibility for his situation and is in therapy. We are proud of the way he is facing this problem and will continue to stand by him as he works toward recovery.

We are a family who believes in the power of prayer. With prayer and hard work, Steve will get healthy and will move on with his life. This is a personal matter for our family and I will have no further comment, the statement from the mayor says.

Stephen Rilling has been charged with third-degree computer crime, larceny in the second degree, forgery in the second degree, possession of narcotics, false entry by an officer or agent of a public community and tampering with evidence.

He was processed and released after posting a $5,000 court-imposed bond.

Fairfield Police Chief Gary McNamara did not comment on what Stephen Rilling did with the evidence taken, but said more than 20 cases might be affected.

Police said the chief ordered an audit of the evidence room and revealed that, with the exception of these cases, all other evidence was accounted for and no money or other items of value were ever removed.
What to Know A federal appeals court ruled against President Donald Trump's executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries

If the Republican health reform plan becomes law, states trying to save money on health insurance are likely to seek cuts on some services

Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman is calling out an airport worker who she says questioned whether she had enough muscles to be a gymnast

Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

Trump Travel Ban Blocked; Fight Headed for Supreme Court

President Trump's revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination," a federal appeals court said in ruling against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries. Trump's administration vowed to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 10-3 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ban likely violates the Constitution. And it upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March. Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems that the first version from January encountered. A second appeals court, the 9th U.S. Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it. The Supreme Court almost certainly would step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Republican Gianforte Wins House Seat, Apologizes After Assault Charge

Republican Greg Gianforte won Montana's special congressional election barely a day after he was charged with misdemeanor assault following accusations that he body-slammed a reporter, NBC News reported. Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, claimed about a 50- to 44-percent lead over Democrat Rob Quist. "Tonight Montanans are sending a message to the Washington, D.C., establishment," Gianforte told a cheering crowd in Boseman after the results were announced. Gianforte also addressed his assault charge and clash with a Guardian reporter. "I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can't take back," he said. "I should not have treated that reporter that way ... I am sorry."

UK Police Make New Arrest in Concert Bombing Investigation



British police investigating the Manchester Arena bombing made a new arrest Friday while continuing to search addresses associated with the attacker who killed 22 people. Seven other men are in custody in connection with Monday's blast, all are being held on suspicion of offenses violating the Terrorism Act. Their ages ranged from 18 to 38. A 16-year-old boy who had been arrested was released without charge, police said. Britain's security level has been upgraded to "critical" meaning officials believe another attack may be imminent. Authorities are chasing possible links between the bomber, Salman Abedi, and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East.



Jared Kushner Under FBI Scrutiny in Russia Probe, Officials Say

Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, has come under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News. Investigators believe Kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry, officials said. That does not mean they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, NBC News reported. The FBIs scrutiny of Kushner places the bureaus sprawling counterintelligence and criminal investigation inside the Trump family circle. Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump are among the president's closest confidants and they have both assumed substantial roles in the White House; Ivanka Trump is an unpaid assistant to the president and Kushner is a senior adviser. Although Kushner has met with with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Russian banker Sergey Gorkov, it's unclear exactly why he has drawn the interest of the FBI.

How the GOP Bill Could Affect Essential Health Benefits

If the Republican health reform plan becomes law, states trying to save money on health insurance are likely to seek cuts on services like maternity care, mental health and dentist visits for kids, the Congressional Budget Office found. NBC News reports that health care advocates find the lack of an "essential health benefits" coverage requirement in the bill, passed by the House before the CBO score was released, will leave many patients without adequate coverage. "Women and their families will pay higher costs and receive less coverage, especially for maternity care, under the American Health Care Act," said Stacey Stewart, president of the March of Dimes, which funds research to prevent birth defects. Essential benefits requirements from "Obamacare" are very popular with American voters. The CBO predicted that some states will opt out of them, so they can seek lower premiums, leaving some people living there likely priced out of the market.

Man Arrested Inside Sandra Bullock's Home Convicted of Stalking

A man who broke into Sandra Bullock's home in 2014 and forced the Oscar-winning actress to hide in her closet while calling police has been sentenced to continued mental health treatment and probation after pleading no contest to felony stalking and burglary charges. Joshua James Corbett entered the plea and was also ordered to stay away from the actress and not attempt to contact her for 10 years. He was arrested inside Bullock's residence in June 2014 and authorities later uncovered a cache of illegal weapons at his home, but all weapons charges were dropped. Corbett entered the no contest plea without having an agreement for sentencing with prosecutors, the district attorney's spokesman said. Bullock never personally appeared during the case, but her frantic 15-minute 911 call was a key piece of evidence that led a judge in 2015 to order Corbett to stand trial. Corbett, 41, has received mental health evaluations while in custody and his attorneys had hoped to resolve the case with an agreement that ensured he received continued mental health treatment.

Aly Raisman Calls Out Airport Worker for Muscles Comment

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman is calling out an airport security worker who she says questioned whether she had enough muscles to be a gymnast. Raisman posted on Twitter that after a female Transportation Security Administration worker said she recognized Raisman by her biceps, a male employee said, "I don't see any muscles." Raisman called the encounter "rude & uncomfortable." Raisman, who turned 23 Thursday, says she works "very hard to be healthy & fit." She says that if a man can't compliment a girl's muscles, he's sexist. Raisman didn't say where or when the airport exchange took place.
Even Bleecker Street can't keep up with rising rents.

Eighteen percent of retail spaces along Bleecker Street from Sixth to Eighth avenues in Greenwich Village -- a popular shopping corridor -- remain vacant, according to a report released by Democratic state senator Brad Hoylman, who represents parts of Manhattan.

"Bleecker Street is a cautionary tale of how high rents in the Village and Chelsea are pushing out longtime independent business," Hoylman said.

While empty storefronts are traditionally considered signs of economically distressed or even crime-ridden neighborhoods, vacancies in the fairly prosperous areas of West Village, East Village and Chelsea indicate another phenomenon, according to Hoylman: "high-rent blight."

"In case after case, landlords push out local businesses in order to hold out for luxury retail or corporate chains capable of paying higher rents," Boylman said. "The result is a glut of empty storefronts, chain stores, pharmacies, and high-end national brands that often lack local character and don't provide goods and services the community needs."

Hoylman's office conducted a study of vacant retail spaces along major commercial streets in downtown Manhattan last month. They compared the number of vacant storefronts to the total number of stores along the corridors, determining the following vacancy rates:

First Avenue from 10th Street to 23rd Street: 5.76 percent vacancy

Second Avenue from 3rd Street to 14th Street: 6.67 percent vacancy

Eighth Avenue from 15th Street to 22nd Street: 6.52 percent vacancy

Bleecker Street from 6th Avenue to 8th Avenue: 18.44 percent vacancy

His report -- which he admits relies heavily on anecdotal evidence from interviews with small business owners and community leaders, as well as press reports, and is not intended to be scientific -- says several factors are at play when it comes to store vacancy, but exorbitant rent was chief among them.

"When mom and pop stores are pushed out, landlords will often leave stores empty for long periods of time in hopes of finding a tenant who can pay much higher rent," which often means large corporate chains, according to Hoylman.



Hoylman says recent examples include the 2015 closure of Avignone Chemists at 281 Sixth Ave., on Bleecker, which is now a Sweetgreen salad chain eatery; the closure of men's clothing store Camouflage at 139 Eighth Ave. at 17th Street after 38 years in business, replaced by a Verizon retailer; and the forced move of neighborhood store Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, from its space at 163 West 10th St. to the East Village.

Hoylman argues that when stores leave, residents often lose access to goods or services, and they may start shifting their shopping habits into a different street or neighborhood, sometimes permanently. And as stores pay higher rents, goods and services are priced higher, prompting fears among residents that they'll be priced out of their own neighborhoods.

"For example, the Redwood Kitchenette & Bar at 102 8th Avenue near 16th Street used to serve $5 beers at its daily happy hour," said Hoylman. "Now the store is a Liquiteria, a juice chain where you can get a smoothie for $9."

He also believes the chains, pharmacies and high-end retailers taking over the spaces harm the local character and flavor of the neighborhoods.

But Karen Bellantoni, vice chair of Robert K. Futterman & Associates, a retail broker who serves on the Real Estate Board of New York's retail committee, disagrees with the senator's conclusions.

"The local stores of [national chains] concide very well with the unique character of the neighborhoods," she told News 4. "If you ask any of these local retailers, they like the idea of having national coming in and do a concept so they drive traffic; they're a good draw."

"They're great local neighbors out there, and unique to the marketplace," she added.

Bellantoni believes most landlords will do their best to keep great tenants in place in any given neighborhood, and that they tend to honor longtime relationships with them.

She added that the market adjusts itself; the most recent REBNY Manhattan retail rent report from spring shows rents have actually declined.

"Rents did get a little ahead of themselves. What we're seeing is landlords have actually lowered their asking rents in the [Bleecker Street area] in a little over 12 months," said Bellantoni.

"I actually think landlords are in deal modes, that's what we saw from the retail report," she said. "They're in positions where they want to make deals and I think there's going to be an absorption."

Hoylman says he wants to combat small business vacancies by creating a registry of local legacy businesses that could potentially merit tax credits; create a formula retail zoning restriction to place limits on national chain stores; phase out tax deductions for landlords with persistent vacancies and eliminate commercial rent tax on many small businesses.
What to Know Elena Avetisian and her kids were visiting New York from Quebec when she was struck by a car in Times Square

An 18-year-old woman from Michigan was killed and 21 other people were hurt in the crash

After the crash, suspect Richard Rojas allegedly told authorities he was high on PCP and wanted to "kill them all"

The family of a Canadian woman who was critically injured in last weeks deadly rampage in Times Square has penned a letter to thank all New Yorkers for helping us get through these difficult moments.

Elena Avetisian was visiting New York from Quebec with her three girls to celebrate a relatives wedding when she was struck by a car allegedly driven by Richard Rojas; she remains in a coma at Bellevue Hospital, where her sister and husband remain at her side, the family said.

Elena was excited to come to New York and show it to her children, the letter reads. The photos they took together in Times Square are our precious moments which are shared together. All of a sudden, our lives turned upside down.

Police say 26-year-old Rojas plowed through a pedestrian-packed sidewalk for three blocks before hitting a barrier and being subdued by police and passersby.

Rojas told police after his arrest that he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP, according to a criminal complaint. He said he wanted to "kill them all" and police should have shot him to stop him, prosecutors said.

Avetisian was one of 22 people injured in the crash, which also killed Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old woman from Portage, Michigan.

A New Jersey high school senior and another person were released from hospitals Tuesday, but five other victims are still hospitalized, including Avetisian, officials said.

Mount Sinai Health System said it released its last patient from the crash Tuesday afternoon. Avetisian is at Bellevue Hospital, where another patient is in serious condition. The hospital didn't release names or details of the victims injuries, but prosecutors have said they suffered head injuries, a collapsed lung and a broken pelvis.

We had so much joy and now our sister is in a coma and there are no words that can ever describe our pain, the letter from the Avetisian family reads.

We can only say thank you! Thank you to the City of New York! Thank you to the NYPD for providing us with everything we need to be there for our sister.

We only wish that this city will never need to do this again and that there will only be peace here from now on. After all, this city deserves it, the letter goes on to say.

A GoFundMe page set up by the Avetisian family had nearly reached its goal of $25,000 by Thursday evening.

Rojas was charged with murder and attempted murder, but has not entered a plea. He told the New York Post in a jail interview Saturday that he had recently sought psychiatric help, and that the last thing he remembers Thursday is driving his car before waking up in a police precinct.
Editor's Note: Details in this story may be disturbing for some readers

An Illinois nurse taken hostage at a suburban Chicago hospital was raped and tortured at gunpoint before she saved staff from the gunman, attorneys and a new lawsuit claim.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of two nurses taken hostage May 13 at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, blames the incident on alleged violations by an officer guarding an inmate whose elaborate escape attempt turned into a deadly barricade situation. The suit also names Kane County and APEX3 Security as defendants, claiming they failed to properly monitor and secure the inmate.

The suit claims Tywon Salters, of Chicago, was left unshackled after a visit to the bathroom because he told a Kane County Sheriffs officer he may need to use the restroom again.

Thats when attorneys say Salters managed to gain control of the officers gun and begin his attempt at an escape.

Following the taking of his gun, the sheriff ran from the room, down the hall, into another patients room and hid, the lawsuit claims. The sheriff then took no action to attempt to regain control of his gun or protect hospital employees walking the floor.

Salters, 21, of Chicago, was taken from the Kane County Jail by ambulance on May 8 to Delnor Hospital after eating part of his plastic, jail-issued sandal, the Kane County States Attorney said. After undergoing surgery to remove the plastic from his stomach, Salters was recovering while awaiting a court appearance set for May 17 at the Kane County Judicial Center. He had been charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

After grabbing the officers gun, a naked Salters allegedly entered a nursing office and took a nurse hostage before demanding she take off her clothes so he could put them on.

Salters forced her to remove her clothes, threatened her, physically abused her, verbally abused her, the lawsuit states.

When another nurse entered the office, Salters let the first nurse leave while taking the second nurse hostage, eventually moving her to a decontamination room where they would stay for the more than three hours.

During which time he repeatedly beat her, forced her to remove her clothes, violently raped her, threatened her life, verbally abused her and held her at gunpoint, the suit states.

Its been said that the nurses were not injured - when in fact one of the nurses was repeatedly beaten, she was tortured and she was raped," said attorney Sean Murray.



At one point, the nurse convinced Salters to allow her to make a phone call, one she used to alert other employees to escape, attorneys said. She led Salters through an area of the hospital she knew would be evacuated and contain no hospital staff, according to attorneys.

The quick thinking by this nurse likely saved other hospital staff from being harmed, attorneys said in a statement.

Negotiations were ongoing through the incident, officials said, but ultimately failed.

A SWAT team entered the area where Salters held his hostage and one of the officers shot him, the states attorneys office said. One of the SWAT officers was also shot in the vest but was uninjured, officials said.

The suit offers the first account of what happened inside the hospital that day. Little information has been released by officials, with the states attorney earlier saying there are many questions to be answered about this incident.

The state's attorney's office declined to comment on the suit "pending the ongoing investigation and litigation."



"We really don't know what happened in the room," Kane County Sheriffs Lt. Pat Gengler told the Aurora Beacon-News last week.

Both the SWAT officer who fired the shot that killed Salters and the corrections officer who was disarmed were placed on paid administrative leave, per protocol.

Gengler told the Beacon-News the corrections officers placement was a formality.

"The officer had his weapon taken and that weapon was used (to hold someone) hostage," he told the newspaper. "To expect that person to come back to work is completely unrealistic."

The Kane County Sheriffs Office is conducting a review of its policies, procedures and protocol involving the transport of detainees and how they are guarded when outside the jail.

We are [filing suit] so this type of thing doesnt happen to anyone else, and so that hospital staff can feel safe returning to work, Taxman, Pollock, Murray & Bekkerman LLC said in a statement.
Not only have many of the faces changed at this year's Group of Seven summit of leading wealthy democracies, but also many national positions.

Four leaders are making their G-7 debut on Friday, including President Donald Trump. Also new to the table are French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Italian host, Premier Paolo Gentiloni.

Since the group's meeting last year, Britain has decided to leave the European Union. Trump has ordered a review of the U.S. position on climate change, sought a travel ban against several Muslim nations and is challenging the status quo on trade.

Where there was once broad agreement, now G-7 leaders will be looking to build trust among themselves as they seek common ground.

Here's a look at some key issues at the summit Friday and Saturday in Taormina, Sicily:

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change promises to be the most problematic issue for this summit, with delegations reporting no agreement on language just days ahead of the summit.

Trump's decision to review U.S. policies related to climate change and greenhouse gases has taken the U.S. out of step with its G-7 partners, leaving energy ministers earlier this year unable to reach a common declaration. Environmental activists are hoping that G-7 leaders avoid deadlock, but that might not happen.

Trump has said he will make a decision on whether to opt out of the Paris Agreement on fighting global warming only after the G-7 summit, leaving scant hope of even a compromise in Sicily that would give momentum to the G-20 summit in Hamburg in July.

A French official said it would be "disappointing" if the wording on climate change "is too light in the final statement." Talks are expected to go into the night Friday.

SECURITY

The deadly bombing that killed 22 people in Manchester after an Ariana Grande concert puts an even tighter focus on security. Gentiloni pledged that the G-7 was working to formulate "the strongest possible commitment against terrorism."

The Italians already had made security the summit's top subject  including the concerns on the Mediterranean basin as well as the Korean Peninsula. Sicily was chosen to host the summit to underline the security issue faces from Libya across the sea, which is sending an unrelenting flow of migrants toward Europe.

Most of the tens of thousands of migrants rescued at sea annually make their first landfall in Sicily  although not during the G-7 summit, due to a temporary ban on landings. Italian organizers intend to bring leaders closer to the migrant crisis.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The G-7 leaders are meeting with the global economy in relatively good shape. A long-awaited recovery in manufacturing and trade will lift growth to 3.5 percent this year from 3.1 percent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund. Financial markets are buoyant.

But growth remains lower than before the Great Recession, and worries stalk the recovery. One fear is chronic low increases in labor productivity. It reflects in part pessimism among businesses about future growth and earnings and makes them reluctant to risk spending on the new machinery, facilities or software.

In theory, the corporate tax cuts that Trump has proposed could be part of a solution but their passage remains uncertain. Italy has urged G-7 members to make growth benefit more people and to reduce inequality through more skills training and better tax policies.

TRADE

The Trump administration has pushed back against earlier G-7 agreements to reject protectionism  the practice of favoring domestic industries over foreign competitors through taxes or regulations.

Trump says trade needs to be balanced and fair, as well as free in order to benefit American workers and companies. He has criticized countries such as China and Germany who run large surpluses with the United States, selling more to U.S. consumers than they buy from U.S. companies.

The G-7 meeting in Japan last year agreed "to fight all forms of protectionism." But G-7 finance ministers recently agreed only to say that they are "working to strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies."

WHAT IS THE G-7

The Group of Seven is an informal, yearly gathering among seven democracies with advanced economies that among them have nearly 50 percent of the world's annual global economic output, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. That is down from nearly 70 percent three decades ago.

The G-7 now includes the U.S., Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada.

To some extent, the group has been overshadowed by the larger Group of 20, which includes major emerging economies such as China and resource-producing countries like Saudi Arabia. But the similarity among the G-7 members makes it easier for them to agree.

The G-7 isn't an international organization like the United Nations, so it has no headquarters and members take turns chairing its annual meetings. Its agreements aren't binding, but often serve to create common ground for deals in other forums, like the United Nations, the IMF and World Bank, which have more legal power.

The final G-7 statement represents the common will of the leaders to follow through on goals. Compliance with the 19 priorities at last year's G-7 summit is at 73 percent, according to the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto.
Ice cream purveyor Ben & Jerry's has joined Australia's fight for marriage equality, banning customers in the country from ordering two scoops of the same flavor.

The ban is part of a campaign to push for parliamentary action on marriage equality and covers all 26 Ben & Jerry's stores across Australia.

"Imagine heading down to your local Scoop Shop to order your favourite two scoops of Cookie Dough in a waffle cone. But you find out you are not allowed  Ben & Jerrys has banned two scoops of the same flavour. Youd be furious! the Vermont-based company said in a statement on its Australian website. "But this doesnt even begin to compare to how furious you would be if you were told you were not allowed to marry the person you love."



The company hopes the ban will encourage customers to contact their local lawmakers and demand marriage equality.

In Australia, over 70 percent of the population supports marriage equality, according to national polls. A push to legalize same-sex marriage last year through a referendum was blocked by the Senate over fears that campaigns against the issue "could endanger the LGBTQI community and wouldn't even guarantee marriage equality."

"Before the next parliamentary sitting on June 13th, it is time to stand up for fair and equal rights for all by letting our leaders know that we demand Marriage Equality!" Ben & Jerry's statement said.



And until then, "no marriage equality, no same flavor scoops."


A California judge on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for the founder of Bikram yoga, who's been ordered to hand over proceeds from his global fitness business to satisfy a $6.8 million judgment won by a former legal adviser.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Edward Moreton issued the warrant for Bikram Choudhury and set bail at $8 million.

No lawyers appeared for Choudhury, who claimed last year he was nearly bankrupt.

The award was won by Minakshi "Micki" Jafa-Bodden, who claimed Choudhury fired her when she refused to help him cover up a rape allegation.

Her attorney, Carla Minnard, says they've tracked luxury vehicles and other property that Choudhury moved out of state and have court orders in Nevada and Florida preventing him from moving property from warehouses.

Jafa-Bodden worked as head of legal and international affairs at Choudhury's Los Angeles yoga school from spring 2011 until March 2013, when she said she was abruptly fired from her six-figure position.

Jafa-Bodden also said Choudhury sexually harassed and inappropriately touched her, and tried to get her to stay with him in a hotel suite.

She called it a "great day for women" when she was awarded a victory over Choudhury.

Choudhury has built an empire around Bikram yoga, a rigorous, 90-minute routine performed in a room that can reach more than 100 degrees. The technique is taught at more than 650 studios worldwide and has drawn devoted followers.

He faces sexual assault lawsuits filed by six other women, five of whom accuse Choudhury of raping them. One of those lawsuits is in the process of being settled while the rest are set for trial later this year.

His attorneys have said he never sexually assaulted any of the women suing him, pointing out that prosecutors had declined to bring charges in the cases.
The controversy over an anti-bullying policy protecting Muslim students has reached a new level, with offended parents now suing the local school district.

Some parents are suing the San Diego Unified School District to stop what they call an Anti-Islamophobia program, recently adopted by the school board.

The policy calls for a safe environment for Muslim students, who the District said are often the target of bullying. The district has an anti-bullying policy protecting all students, and some parents argued a policy specifically for Muslims is not necessary.

"Under the guise of this anti-bullying program, defendants have fallen in with the aforementioned religious organization, (CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations) to set up a subtle discriminatory scheme that establishes Muslim students as a privileged religious group ... Students of other faiths are left on the outside looking in," alleges the complaint.

The executive director of CAIR-San Diego for the Council for American Islamic Relations says it isn't about privileging one religious group, but ensuring a safe environment for everyone.

We're not there to be treated better than anyone else, said Hanif Mohebi, the executive director of CAIRSan Diego. All we're saying is to be sure that when were trying to provide a safe environment for all, that includes the Muslim American community.

Mohebi was surrounded by supporters at a news conference Thursday.

He said in survey taken by Muslim students statewide, more than half stated they had been bullied.

Fifty-five (percent) is about twice the number of the national level of students being bullied," Mohebi said. "So definitely this is much more than any other community.

Some of those who filed the claim against the District also held a news conference.

Attorney Charles LiMandri from the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, said the anti-bullying program is a pretext because we have not been shown any evidence there really is a bullying problem in Muslim children, particularly in San Diego.

LiMandri also questioned the district's "entanglement" with CAIR, which he called an extremist political Muslim advocacy group.

Their mission and purpose is to spread the influence of Muslim in the United States, which is appropriate for them to do that as a political group, but not in our schools," LiMandri said. "The courts are very clear about that.

Mohebi said CAIR is a civil rights and liberty organization.

"I am appalled. I am not happy with people who have no shame to label people with no facts," said Mohebi.

He went on to say, We are not politically trying to change anything, ok, or make any political statement. We are responding to students being bullied and providing information for educators to deal with that. There's no politics in that.

Limandri said the district has reached out to him, and it's possible the two sides can work together on the program, to avoid this issue from going to court.
Republican Greg Gianforte won Montana's special congressional election late Thursday barely a day after he was charged with misdemeanor assault following accusations that he body-slammed a reporter, NBC News reported.

Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, claimed a roughly 6 percent lead over Democrat Rob Quist.

"Tonight, Montanans are sending a message to the Washington, D.C., establishment," Gianforte told a cheering crowd in Bozeman after the results were announced.

Gianforte also addressed his assault charge after a clash with a Guardian reporter. "I made a mistake, and I took an action that I can't take back," he said. "I should not have treated that reporter that way ... I am sorry."
An elderly man was killed in his Maryland home, Prince Georges County Police said.

A man related to the victim is in custody, sources told News4.

The victim's family requested a welfare check Thursday morning after he did not answer phone calls.

Officers saw him slumped over through the window of his home on Mill Street in Fort Washington, and the Prince George's County Fire Department forced its way inside.

Police found the victim unresponsive and suffering from trauma to his upper body. Responding units then suspected murder.

The house was locked up when officers arrived and there were no signs of forced entry, leading them to determine this was likely not a random act, police said.

At 5:20 p.m., police confirmed a suspect was arrested on Palmer Road, near the murder scene, on an unrelated warrant. The man is being questioned in connection to the murder.

It's unbelievable, a neighbor who lives across the street told News4. I don't believe it. I've lived here since 1975. Shocking.
A D.C. musician who was killed in a horrific crash along Suitland Parkway was laid to rest Friday.

The young rapper and singer Dasia Lasha'e Redd, who performed under the names London Dior and Lundy, was memorialized at The Way of The Cross Church of Christ International in Capitol Heights, Maryland.

Friends and family wore white as they celebrated her spirit.

"She was a bright star and still is," friend Steven Douglass said.

Redd, of Southeast D.C., had gained national attention and had big dreams.

"Her mom said she was her little star, ever since she was a little baby. That's what she wanted to be," Dior's grandmother April Epps said.

Redd and two other people were killed about 4 a.m. May 15 in a crash involving a sedan and a Jeep on Suitland Parkway, near the intersection with Forestville Road. She was 20.

The sedan caught fire, officials said. Authorities said the three people from the car all were pronounced dead at the scene.

The victims were Redd, her boyfriend and another person in the sedan, Dior's family told News4. They had just left a recording studio, where Redd was working on an album, her grandmother said.



The driver of the Jeep survived but was seriously injured.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

In March, a mother and her 2-year-old son were killed in a crash in the same intersection.

"The road has acquired a checkered history," said John Townsend, of AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Twelve people have died in parkway crashes over the past three years.
A 64-year-old Maryland man is facing murder charges after police say he stabbed his 82-year-old father to death inside the home they shared.

Officers were called to the 9000 block of Mill Street in Fort Washington at 9:30 a.m. Thursday for a welfare check. When they arrived, they found James Proctor suffering from trauma to his body.

Proctor was pronounced dead at the scene.

Proctor's son, Roland Proctor of Fort Washington, has been charged with first and second-degree murder in connection with his death.

Police believe the two had been arguing prior to the stabbing.

Roland Proctor is being held without bond.

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call 301-772-4925.
Maryland will consider changes to standardized testing for next school year.

The PARCC tests Maryland has used for the past few years consume a lot of time near the end of the school year, and some students and teachers are not happy with that.

Maryland education officials are considering shortening the test or moving it to earlier in the school calendar

"We worked to get them shorter, Maryland's State Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon said. Were looking at having them more integrated into the school schedule rather than be daylong events. And thats a goal of the governing board I serve on. We talk about it all the time."

Salmon said the agency received very little feedback about the PARCC tests, but at a public meeting in Baltimore, a group of Prince George's County high school students asked state officials to scrap the PARCC test or at least shrink it.

"When you have a school that has a lot of lower socioeconomic students issues there is a lot of other concerns, like maybe problems at home, so testing is not their main priority maybe as it is getting good grades and trying to work and helping out their families," Laurel High School sophomore Yarold Bautista said.

"I took two PARCC tests this year and I'm here to tell you that it's not working and that it should be eradicated," Laurel High sophomore Sydney Houston said.

This year is the first year sophomores must actually pass the PARCC test before graduating. In prior years, they only needed to take it.

Maryland is committed to the PARCC test for at least one more year.
Legislation to battle heroin and opioid overdoses in Maryland with education, prevention, treatment and law enforcement was signed into law Thursday by Gov. Larry Hogan.

Matt and Cheryl Godbey, whose 24-year-old daughter Emily died in November from a fentanyl overdose, came from Frederick, Maryland, for the bill-signing ceremony. Matt Godbey applauded a new law that will bring stiffer penalties to drug dealers who knowingly sell fentanyl resulting in a death. Fentanyl is a painkiller that is often combined with heroin, with deadly results.

Drug dealers were so aggressive in selling drugs to his daughter, Godbey said, they would pull up to the drive-thru window at the fast-food restaurant where she worked to place drugs in front of her when she was trying to quit.

"It killed her so fast, she couldn't even close her eyes. They found her sitting in a chair with her eyes open,'' Matt Godbey said. "We just don't want other families to hurt like we are.''

One measure is called the HOPE Act. It requires hospitals to set a new protocol for discharging patients treated for substance abuse disorders. It creates a 24-hour emergency hotline and establishes a 24/7 crisis treatment center for people experiencing mental health and substance abuse crises. It also increases access to the overdose-reversal drug known as naloxone. The bill also provides added funding for community behavioral health providers.

Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, a Baltimore County Democrat who sponsored the measure, said she worked to make the bill as comprehensive as possible to fight the stubbornly disturbing rise in overdose deaths. She said the only thing lawmakers didn't do was to put the words "please keep it in your prayers'' in the law.

"Because that's what we need to do, because I feel like it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse,'' she said.

Sen. Michael Hough sponsored legislation to create an added 10-year penalty for people who knowingly sell fentanyl resulting in an overdose death. The Frederick County Republican said his county has been particularly hard hit by the scourge.

"Lots of young people dying and overdosing,'' Hough said. "It's just a real epidemic.''

A separate bill is called the Start Talking Maryland Act. It requires education programs in schools on opioid addiction.

The governor signed 209 bills at his last scheduled bill signing from the legislative session that ended last month.

At a separate news conference, Hogan vetoed a bill that would require businesses with 15 or more employees to allow employees to earn up to five paid sick days, saying it would kill small businesses. Democrats who support the bill said a veto override will be a priority in next year's session.

Here's a look at some other bills signed by the governor Thursday:

MEDICAID-ADULT DENTAL

Authorizes expansion of Medicaid adult dental coverage.

BEE HABITAT

Prohibits pesticides known to harm pollinators on state land designated as pollinator habitats.

SCHOOL TESTING

Limits school testing to 2.2 percent of the school year. That's about 24 hours for elementary and middle schools and about 26 hours in high schools, except for eighth grade, which would be limited to about 25 hours.
A disabled Vietnam war veteran can call his fire damaged house a home again thanks to a home makeover just in time for Memorial Day.

Dereky Martin-Hagler and her husband, Al Hagler, co-owners of D&A Designs, were determined to restore Mark Wards Bowie home, which was completely destroyed in a fire that left him living in temporary housing with his granddaugthe for six months.

Martin-Hagler, the reigning Mrs. Maryland, and her husband wanted to help Ward after all of his service to the country.

She said if it wasnt for someone else paying it forward to her, she wouldnt be in the position shes in today.

When the real estate market crashed, I lost everything, she said. So I went from making seven figures to pretty much losing everything.

D&A Designs wanted to add a special touch to the home.

He loves to cook, so we gave him his dream kitchen, Martin-Hagler said.

Wards granddaugther was thrilled by the new designs.

Im so happy, like, its so beautiful, his granddaugther said when she first saw her new home. Im just so excited.
The Bowie State University student fatally stabbed just days before his graduation was remembered Friday as an "outstanding" man who wanted to follow in his father's footsteps.

Thousands of people attended the funeral for 2nd Lt. Richard Collins III at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro.

"Richard Collins did more in his life than most in a full lifetime," Maj. Gen. Christopher Hughes said.

Rev. Darryl Godlock, a spokesman for Collins's family, described the 23-year-old as an "outstanding" and "highly intelligent" man who wanted to follow in his father's footsteps in the military.

Richard Collins Jr. saluted his son's casket.

Sean Urbanski attacked Collins Saturday while Collins visited the University of Maryland, police said. The black student's slaying is being investigated by the FBI as a possible hate crime.

Collins was scheduled to graduate from Bowie State University Tuesday. His family accepted his degree at the commencement ceremony and a black gown was draped across a chair in the front row in Collins' honor.

Collins had just been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army, and "he prided himself on his time and in his ROTC unit on being the top runner in his PTs," remembered his father, Richard Collins Jr. "He even won a certificate for being the best."

"It is tragic to lose a service man in battle," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Gwen Bingham said. "It is even more tragic to lose them to senseless acts of violence."



Urbanski, who is white, is charged with murder and assault. The FBI is helping local police determine whether the killing was a hate crime after investigators learned Urbanski belonged to a Facebook group called "Alt-Reich: Nation," where members post disparaging material about African Americans and others.

America does not have a skin problem, Godlock said. "What it has is a sick problem."



Collins was waiting for the university's shuttle bus with his friends about 3 a.m. Saturday when they realized the shuttle bus had stopped running for the night, according to court documents obtained by News4. The three decided to call an Uber and were waiting for one to arrive when they heard Urbanski screaming nearby, according to the documents.

Collins and his friends watched Urbanski as he approached them. According to court documents, Urbanski said, "Step left, step left if you know what's best for you," and Collins responded, "No."

Urbanski continued to approach the group, pulled out a knife with a 3- to 4-inch silver blade and stabbed Collins once in the chest, the documents said.

Collins' father told NBC News he was in shock.

"I'm in no place to feel very many emotions beside sadness and just a deep sense of personal loss," he said.
A family member's employer is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the location of a Watertown, Massachusetts, man who has been missing since Sunday.

Nolan Gargas, 26, was first reported missing by his family at 10 a.m. on Sunday. His car - a gray, 206 Toyota sedan - was found near the water in the East Point area of Nahant around 4 p.m., according to police.

Local and state police and the U.S. Coast Guard searched on land and sea Sunday but were unable to locate Gargas and eventually called off the search.

His mother said she saw her son on Saturday night, and thinks he probably woke up early to photograph the sunrise, which is something he was known to do.

Gargas is described as 6'2" tall, 150 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a green and white plaid shirt, brown pants and boots.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call the "Find Nolan" tip line at 617-202-0411.
Firefighters in Arundel, Maine, had an emergency of their own Thursday night, when a car crashed into their building, barreling into the bedroom where paramedics sleep.

My medic described it as an earthquake, said Deputy Fire Chief Renald Tardif.

He said the car jumped a curb, went airborne, then sped up and slammed into the department around 10:30 p.m. Fortunately, no one was in the sleeping area at the time of the crash  but they should have been.

Deputy Chief Tardif said his crew was just returning from a medical call, and were walking from the fire truck to the door when the car crashed  placing them feet away from the impact.

They were actually kind of shaken up, said Tardif. Had they been in the bedrooms, it would be a totally different story. There would be some major injuries, possibly even some deaths.

The medics quickly went outside to check on the driver, who the Sheriffs Department identifies as 25-year-old Kastara Ylonen of Biddeford. She was not seriously injured, and was later charged with Operating Under the Influence. Kastara is expected to appear in court in July.

The fire department expects the repairs to cost at least $50,000. The nearby Kennebunk Fire Department is letting the Arundel firefighters use their building in the meantime.

Tardif is grateful the crash didn't cost a life.

I really hate it when the guys have to go out in the middle of the night to go out on calls, but Im so thankful that they were last night, he said. It was a blessing in disguise.
Police in Oxford, Massachusetts, are putting out a warning for an unusual scam targeting female realtors.

Oxford Police Chief Michael Hassett said, Our concern at first was of some sort of a scam to try to get money and not follow through on it, and it led to something which we didnt expect -- and it appears its some sort of a hair fetish.

That's right - a hair fetish

The victim, who doesnt want to be identified, is a realtor who was recently contacted by a man named Doug Barcelona, who was looking to buy a house in Auburn near a hair salon he said he was opening on Southbridge Street.

She said Barcelona said, Since Im opening a salon, hes like, Im looking for new clients, would you be my client? She said at first she turned down his offer but eventually agreed.

And then he started texting me and then hes like can you send me a picture, she said, it just got weird.

She went to Oxford police, who figured out Doug Barcelona is actually Doug Bartley of Framingham. Police say he admitted he didnt own a hair salon, and apologized for having a hair fetish. Chief Hassett said, He realized that it was wrong what he did and that he wouldnt do it again.

But Oxford Police ran Bartleys name and found that he faced similar accusations in 2009 in Westboro, in 2010 in Holden and earlier this year in Fall River. Reached by phone, Doug Bartley told NBC Boston, Its already been taken care of. Its the last time its going to happen. But police and the victim say people need to be vigilant.

The victim said, There are people with bad intentions that are out there. Chief Hassett added, Normally, if it doesnt seem right, it isnt. It should be stressed that Doug Bartley is not charged with any crimes here in Oxford, nor in any of the other places where he was accused of this type of behavior.
Avery Howard, 32, of Brockton, Massachusetts was charged with kidnapping and assault and battery Friday night after a missing 6-year-old girl was found with him hours earlier.

The girl, who's name has not been released, disappeared from her hometown of Norton, Mass., and was found safe in nearby Easton after a search that lasted several hours.

According to Norton police, the girl went missing in the area of East Main Street near the Easton line around 12:15 p.m. on Friday.

She was first seen on her own with a small pink suitcase. After, she was spotted in the area of Shaws Supermarket on Depot Street in Easton.

Norton police later received two tips that a child had gotten into a car with a man in the area of 792 Foundry St. around 11:45 a.m.

The child's description matched that of the missing girl.

"We rallied up detectives and officers and began to canvass that area. At approximately 2:45 p.m. as we were canvassing that area, a suspect vehicle came to the area we were [in]," Norton Police Chief Brian Clark said.

A detective stopped the vehicle, being driven by Howard, and found the missing child in the front seat.

Witness Amelia Moran watched as Howard was detained directly outside of her Easton home.

"The car just shows up and the police just stop him," she said. "She was just crying she was so scared."

Moran added that she heard Howard say, "Oh, I just found her. I just wanted her to be safe."

Clark said that "we don't know what the driver's intentions were, but the girl appears to be OK."

After learning of the girl's safe recovery, one of her family members said that "we want to give glory to God."

"She's safe," said another family member. "That's all that matters - she's safe."

Howard was detained and questioned. He was charged later in the evening and transported to New Bedford House of Correction. He will be arraigned in Taunton District Court.
Two incidents of swastika graffiti were discovered this month at Reading Memorial High School in Massachusetts, and town officials say they are taking it very seriously.

It all started on May 4, when police say students found a swastika drawn in blue marker on a classroom floor. Police were called, but no one was caught.

Wednesday night, another swastika, along with other graffiti, was found drawn on a wall of a bathroom in the school field house.

School officials and police are now reacting swiftly and publicly condemning the hateful drawings.

"As leaders in the Town of Reading, we are committed to ridding our community of hate and hateful speech," Reading Police Chief Mark Segalla said in a statement. "That means we need to come together and have uncomfortable discussions about how we treat each other and what words and symbols really mean."

"As a school district, we accept that we have a responsibility to dig deeper and teach our children about the topics of hate, racism, and fear," added Dr. John F. Doherty, the superintendent of schools. "We will continue to use these situations as teachable moments for our students."
Forty-four-year-old had not been seen since yesterday (Thursday) morning

A MAN missing from Tilehurst has been found safe, police have confirmed.

Paul Kiernan, aged 44, who was last seen at around 9.50am yesterday (Thursday) in Wensley Road, Reading, was located last night.

Thames Valley Police issued an appeal for help to find Mr Kiernan yesterday afternoon.

A police spokesman said: "Thames Valley Police would like to thank the media and the public for sharing the appeal to help to locate him."
C Shivakumar By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Your rental agreement is set to undergo a sea change after Tamil Nadu implements the Centres Model Tenancy Act. Changes include the mandatory registration of all rental agreements over 11 months in period or `50,000 in value, advance amount to be limited to three months and tenants right to continue possession of the property after lease period to be limited to six months.

The rental agreements now cite the more than five-decade-old Tamil Nadu Building (Lease and Rent) Control Act, 1960, which will change once the new Act is brought in. As land  and thus rent  is a State subject, the central Act is a draft; it is up to individual States to adopt it. However, by making it a mandatory condition for obtaining funds for Housing for All Mission under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the Centre has managed to convince States, including Tamil Nadu to come on board.

The new Act has some key changes when compared to the existing State Act. Under the Model Tenancy Act, it is mandatory that all rental agreements that have a period exceeding 11 months or are valued at over `50,000 must be registered with the Registration Department under the provisions of Indian Registration Act.

The new Act is considered to be more beneficial for the landlords. Under the old Rent Control Act, there was no tenure for tenancy and evicting a tenant was highly restrictive. Previously, the stress was on the tenants right to occupation. However, in the new legislation, this right to possession is limited to only six months after the lease period.

This would prevent the misuse, including usurpation of property, of the earlier Act, said sources. Officials point out there are several cases where tenants refuse to vacate the premises, which then become aged, ill-maintained, and on the verge of crashing.

In another feature, if the landlord takes possession of the premises to undertake repair or reconstruction, the re-entry of the tenant is on the basis of a mutually-agreed new tenancy agreement. Earlier, the premises had to be offered to the same tenant.

Also, the new Act has the provision to renew rent at periodic intervals.

In one of the features advantageous for tenants, the new Act restricts the advance amount that landlords can collect up to three months rent. However, it is another matter that this is decided arbitrarily by the landlord, with some charging as much as 12 months rent as advance. Though the old Act limits advance to just one month, it is at least three months rent at all metros and other cities in India.

The earlier Act which was passed to regulate rents also gave powers to the government to take properties on fair rent, even against the wish of the property owner, if it was in the interest of the State. But senior officials feel the provisions are outdated for the present scenario, where a robust real estate sector is now supplying sufficient housing stock.

A big challenge for the regulator was to calculate fair rent to be charged by the landlord. The fixing of rent depends on the land value, and there was a chance that it could be exploited by the landlord by charging exorbitant rent. The new Act will regulate rent as per the contract and safeguard tenants from extreme escalation due to rise in land value.

Sources indicated that all provisions of the Model Tenancy Act have to be covered by the lease agreement to be entered between the landlord and the tenant.

Meanwhile, the rent courts functioning under the provisions of Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent control) Act, 1960, may be continued in the Model Tenancy Act, too, by re-designating them to function under the new act in order to save the loss of revenue to the government.

Rent Control Act

Landlord to receive maximum of one month rent as advance Landlord cant cut off or withhold the amenities enjoyed by tenants Tenant has the right to occupation. Dispossession is highly restrictive (tenancy has no tenure) In case of possession of premises given to landlord for repair or reconstruction, after repair, it should be offered to the tenant for occupation Fair rent to be charged Rent once fixed is final Appointment of Rent Controller permitted State has powers to requisition any vacant property on rent

Model Tenancy Act

Landlord to receive three months rent as advance Landlord and tenant shall be bound to keep the premises in a good condition as specified in tenancy agreement Tenants right to possession only during lease period extendable up to a maximum of six more months Re-entry of tenant allowed only if mutually agreed with a new tenancy agreement Rent has to be agreed in rent agreement to be charged Rent to be renewed at periodic intervals Constitution of Rent Court and Rent Tribunal permitted All rental agreement to be made only by mutual consent

CHENNAI: Your rental agreement is set to undergo a sea change after Tamil Nadu implements the Centres Model Tenancy Act. Changes include the mandatory registration of all rental agreements over 11 months in period or `50,000 in value, advance amount to be limited to three months and tenants right to continue possession of the property after lease period to be limited to six months. The rental agreements now cite the more than five-decade-old Tamil Nadu Building (Lease and Rent) Control Act, 1960, which will change once the new Act is brought in. As land  and thus rent  is a State subject, the central Act is a draft; it is up to individual States to adopt it. However, by making it a mandatory condition for obtaining funds for Housing for All Mission under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the Centre has managed to convince States, including Tamil Nadu to come on board. The new Act has some key changes when compared to the existing State Act. Under the Model Tenancy Act, it is mandatory that all rental agreements that have a period exceeding 11 months or are valued at over `50,000 must be registered with the Registration Department under the provisions of Indian Registration Act. The new Act is considered to be more beneficial for the landlords. Under the old Rent Control Act, there was no tenure for tenancy and evicting a tenant was highly restrictive. Previously, the stress was on the tenants right to occupation. However, in the new legislation, this right to possession is limited to only six months after the lease period. This would prevent the misuse, including usurpation of property, of the earlier Act, said sources. Officials point out there are several cases where tenants refuse to vacate the premises, which then become aged, ill-maintained, and on the verge of crashing. In another feature, if the landlord takes possession of the premises to undertake repair or reconstruction, the re-entry of the tenant is on the basis of a mutually-agreed new tenancy agreement. Earlier, the premises had to be offered to the same tenant. Also, the new Act has the provision to renew rent at periodic intervals. In one of the features advantageous for tenants, the new Act restricts the advance amount that landlords can collect up to three months rent. However, it is another matter that this is decided arbitrarily by the landlord, with some charging as much as 12 months rent as advance. Though the old Act limits advance to just one month, it is at least three months rent at all metros and other cities in India. The earlier Act which was passed to regulate rents also gave powers to the government to take properties on fair rent, even against the wish of the property owner, if it was in the interest of the State. But senior officials feel the provisions are outdated for the present scenario, where a robust real estate sector is now supplying sufficient housing stock. A big challenge for the regulator was to calculate fair rent to be charged by the landlord. The fixing of rent depends on the land value, and there was a chance that it could be exploited by the landlord by charging exorbitant rent. The new Act will regulate rent as per the contract and safeguard tenants from extreme escalation due to rise in land value. Sources indicated that all provisions of the Model Tenancy Act have to be covered by the lease agreement to be entered between the landlord and the tenant. Meanwhile, the rent courts functioning under the provisions of Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease and Rent control) Act, 1960, may be continued in the Model Tenancy Act, too, by re-designating them to function under the new act in order to save the loss of revenue to the government. Rent Control Act Landlord to receive maximum of one month rent as advance Landlord cant cut off or withhold the amenities enjoyed by tenants Tenant has the right to occupation. Dispossession is highly restrictive (tenancy has no tenure) In case of possession of premises given to landlord for repair or reconstruction, after repair, it should be offered to the tenant for occupation Fair rent to be charged Rent once fixed is final Appointment of Rent Controller permitted State has powers to requisition any vacant property on rent Model Tenancy Act Landlord to receive three months rent as advance Landlord and tenant shall be bound to keep the premises in a good condition as specified in tenancy agreement Tenants right to possession only during lease period extendable up to a maximum of six more months Re-entry of tenant allowed only if mutually agreed with a new tenancy agreement Rent has to be agreed in rent agreement to be charged Rent to be renewed at periodic intervals Constitution of Rent Court and Rent Tribunal permitted All rental agreement to be made only by mutual consent
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has arrested a 19 year-old youth for allegedly trying to steal money from the ATM. According to the police, Accused identified as Manish took tutorials on the internet and then formed a team of four, including a juvenile, to steal money from an ATM machine to arrange for a big sum in order to be able to marry his 7-year-old love.

Cops said that Manishs robbery attempt was foiled by a group of local residents, who had arrived at the ATM to withdraw cash, but saw Manish and friends attempting to break open the ATM. Acting good samaritans, the group of locals raised alarm and following a short chase all four accused were nabbed. The accused have been identified as Mansih (19), who works at IGL, his friends Vishnu (18) and Ankit alias Gabbar (18) an undergraduate student. The gang also included a juvenile who was roped in by Manish.

The entire drama unfolded between 2 am to 3 am, when Anurag Sharma, a resident of Subhash Place and one of his friend were returning from office, When they came to a Canara Bank ATM to withdraw some cash. Meters before, they saw that some suspicious armed persons were trying to break the ATM to loot the money.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has arrested a 19 year-old youth for allegedly trying to steal money from the ATM. According to the police, Accused identified as Manish took tutorials on the internet and then formed a team of four, including a juvenile, to steal money from an ATM machine to arrange for a big sum in order to be able to marry his 7-year-old love. Cops said that Manishs robbery attempt was foiled by a group of local residents, who had arrived at the ATM to withdraw cash, but saw Manish and friends attempting to break open the ATM. Acting good samaritans, the group of locals raised alarm and following a short chase all four accused were nabbed. The accused have been identified as Mansih (19), who works at IGL, his friends Vishnu (18) and Ankit alias Gabbar (18) an undergraduate student. The gang also included a juvenile who was roped in by Manish. The entire drama unfolded between 2 am to 3 am, when Anurag Sharma, a resident of Subhash Place and one of his friend were returning from office, When they came to a Canara Bank ATM to withdraw some cash. Meters before, they saw that some suspicious armed persons were trying to break the ATM to loot the money.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

In what came as a major jolt to senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, present NDA minister Uma Bharti and others, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the senior BJP leaders will be tried for conspiring to bring down Babri Masjid in Ayodhya 25 years ago while allowing CBI's plea. (READ HERE)

Dec 1949: An idol of Lord Ram was placed inside Babri Masjid, after which police lodged an FIR and the city magistrate seizes and locks the property

Jan 1950: Gopal Singh Visharad files a civil suit in the Faizabad court demanding to unlock the Babri Masjid premises and start regular prayers.

Ramchandra Das Paramahans, the Mahant of Digambar Akhara and Nirmohi Akhara later approaches the court with the same demand

Feb 1961: Uttar Pradeshs Sunni Central Waqf Board challenges the three suits filed by the Hindus, declaring Babri Masjid as its property. Hashim Ansari and five others join the case through separate pleas

Feb 1986: Faizabad District Judge Hari Shankar Pandey orders unlocking the Babri Mosque in favour of Hindu parties, and allows worship

The Babri Masjid Action Committee is formed in the same year.

1989: All cases related with Babri Masjid-Ramjanma-bhoomi title suit are transferred to the high court. Triloki Nath Pandey also becomes a party by claiming to be Ram Lallas best friend

Dec 6, 1992: Babri Mosque is demolished

Dec 12, 1992: The Narsimha Rao government sets up the Liberhan Commission to investigate the case

1993: The Liberhan Commission begins its probe

CBI takes over and files a chargesheet against LK Advani and 19 others.

May 2001: The special court drops criminal conspiracy charges against L K Advani and MM Joshi

Feb 2002: Tension in Ayodhya with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) adamant on Shila Pujan to construct the Ram temple

April 2002: A three-judge bench of the court begins Ayodhya title suit hearing

2003: In a survey requested by the High Court, the ASI finds evidence of a temple under the mosque. Muslim groups dispute the findings

Sept 2003: The CBI court rules that seven Sangh Pariwar leaders should stand trial for inciting the Babri Masjid demolition. LK Advani, by now the deputy Prime Minster, however, is spared

June 2009: The Liberhan Commission submits its report, holding 68 people guilty for the demolition

Sept 30, 2010: The three-judge bench in its historic judgment divides the disputed land in three partstwo parts to the Hindu side and one to the Muslim side

2011: All three sidesNirmohi Akhara, Ram Lalla Virajman and Sunni Waqf Boardappeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court

May 2011: The Supreme Court stays the High Court verdict and orders status quo at the disputed site

Feb 2016: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy appeals to the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing to decide the title suit

Mar 21, 2017: Hearing Swamys petition, the three-judge bench says the parties involved should try and reach an amicable settlement out of court.

The Supreme Court is ready to mediate, says the Chief Justice of India

April 19, 2017: Supreme Court asks the CBI court to revive conspiracy charges against the accused named in FIR 198/92 and shifts their case from the Rae Bareli court to Lucknow, clubbing it with the case against accused Karsewaks, who were booked for the actual demolition of Babri Masjid

Supreme Court asks the CBI court to commence a day-to-day hearing in trial within a month of the order and wind up the case by 2019, delivering the verdict.

March 20, 2017: Special CBI court Lucknow summons six accused including RV Vedanti, BL Sharma, Champat Rai Bansal, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Dharam Das and Dr Satish Pradhan

All the accused except Pradhan appear in court and are granted bail, with the next date of hearing on May 25, 2017

May 24, 2017: Satish Pradhan appears in the CBI court Lucknow and gets bail

May 25, 2017: Six accused, including Vedanti and five others, fail to appear in court for framing of charges, and are asked by the CBI court to appear on May 30 beyond which no exemption will be allowed

May 26: The Special CBI court summons six BJP leaders including LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia, accused in the case (FIR 198/92) to appear before it for framing of charges.

All the six fail to appear and are directed to be present on May 30, 2017

May 30, 2017: All 12 accused named in the FIR no 198/92 for inciting the mob and conspiring demolition of Babri Mosque to appear in the Special CBI court in Lucknow Court frames addition charges of conspiracy under Section 120 B of IPC against them.

In what came as a major jolt to senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, present NDA minister Uma Bharti and others, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the senior BJP leaders will be tried for conspiring to bring down Babri Masjid in Ayodhya 25 years ago while allowing CBI's plea. (READ HERE) Dec 1949: An idol of Lord Ram was placed inside Babri Masjid, after which police lodged an FIR and the city magistrate seizes and locks the property Jan 1950: Gopal Singh Visharad files a civil suit in the Faizabad court demanding to unlock the Babri Masjid premises and start regular prayers. Ramchandra Das Paramahans, the Mahant of Digambar Akhara and Nirmohi Akhara later approaches the court with the same demand Feb 1961: Uttar Pradeshs Sunni Central Waqf Board challenges the three suits filed by the Hindus, declaring Babri Masjid as its property. Hashim Ansari and five others join the case through separate pleas Feb 1986: Faizabad District Judge Hari Shankar Pandey orders unlocking the Babri Mosque in favour of Hindu parties, and allows worship The Babri Masjid Action Committee is formed in the same year. 1989: All cases related with Babri Masjid-Ramjanma-bhoomi title suit are transferred to the high court. Triloki Nath Pandey also becomes a party by claiming to be Ram Lallas best friend Dec 6, 1992: Babri Mosque is demolished Dec 12, 1992: The Narsimha Rao government sets up the Liberhan Commission to investigate the case 1993: The Liberhan Commission begins its probe CBI takes over and files a chargesheet against LK Advani and 19 others. May 2001: The special court drops criminal conspiracy charges against L K Advani and MM Joshi Feb 2002: Tension in Ayodhya with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) adamant on Shila Pujan to construct the Ram temple April 2002: A three-judge bench of the court begins Ayodhya title suit hearing 2003: In a survey requested by the High Court, the ASI finds evidence of a temple under the mosque. Muslim groups dispute the findings Sept 2003: The CBI court rules that seven Sangh Pariwar leaders should stand trial for inciting the Babri Masjid demolition. LK Advani, by now the deputy Prime Minster, however, is spared June 2009: The Liberhan Commission submits its report, holding 68 people guilty for the demolition Sept 30, 2010: The three-judge bench in its historic judgment divides the disputed land in three partstwo parts to the Hindu side and one to the Muslim side 2011: All three sidesNirmohi Akhara, Ram Lalla Virajman and Sunni Waqf Boardappeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court May 2011: The Supreme Court stays the High Court verdict and orders status quo at the disputed site Feb 2016: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy appeals to the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing to decide the title suit Mar 21, 2017: Hearing Swamys petition, the three-judge bench says the parties involved should try and reach an amicable settlement out of court. The Supreme Court is ready to mediate, says the Chief Justice of India April 19, 2017: Supreme Court asks the CBI court to revive conspiracy charges against the accused named in FIR 198/92 and shifts their case from the Rae Bareli court to Lucknow, clubbing it with the case against accused Karsewaks, who were booked for the actual demolition of Babri Masjid Supreme Court asks the CBI court to commence a day-to-day hearing in trial within a month of the order and wind up the case by 2019, delivering the verdict. March 20, 2017: Special CBI court Lucknow summons six accused including RV Vedanti, BL Sharma, Champat Rai Bansal, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Dharam Das and Dr Satish Pradhan All the accused except Pradhan appear in court and are granted bail, with the next date of hearing on May 25, 2017 May 24, 2017: Satish Pradhan appears in the CBI court Lucknow and gets bail May 25, 2017: Six accused, including Vedanti and five others, fail to appear in court for framing of charges, and are asked by the CBI court to appear on May 30 beyond which no exemption will be allowed May 26: The Special CBI court summons six BJP leaders including LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia, accused in the case (FIR 198/92) to appear before it for framing of charges. All the six fail to appear and are directed to be present on May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017: All 12 accused named in the FIR no 198/92 for inciting the mob and conspiring demolition of Babri Mosque to appear in the Special CBI court in Lucknow Court frames addition charges of conspiracy under Section 120 B of IPC against them.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Lashing out at the Supreme Courts decision to reinstate criminal conspiracy charges against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti in the Babri Masjid demolition case, the Union Water Resources Minister on Wednesday remained defiant, saying she is ready to face the trial.

For Ayodhya, for Ganga, for the tricolour, Im ready to bear any punishment. Why should I regret it? There was no conspiracy, everything was open in front. There was nothing like this in contemplation, Bharti said.

Bharti turned the allegations against the Congress Party on the emergency when asked if she will resign on the Oppositions demand.

I will not react on Congress allegations and demands that I resign. Who are they to say anything? They imposed the emergency, they forcefully sterilised Muslims, she added.

Bharti further said that Ram Mandir needs to be built.

The (Babri Masjid) case is yet to conclude. I have not yet been pronounced guilty. This country belongs to the cow, Ganga, Ram and the tricolour. I will defend them at any cost, she added.

The apex court has directed the sessions judge in Lucknow to conduct the trial in the Babri demolition case on a daily basis and that the judge will not be transferred. It also ruled out a fresh trial in the case.

The top court has also ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure that witnesses are produced in court everyday so that there is no delay in the Babri demolition case trial. The trial will have to be completed in two years.



However, the apex court has clarified that Kalyan Singh, being Governor of Rajasthan, will not be tried due to constitutional immunity unless he ceases to be in that post. In effect, his trial will begin after his term as Governor ends.



Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the demolition took place.



Others who will face criminal conspiracy charges are Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara, Satish Pradhan, Champat Rai Bansal. The late Giriraj Kishore is also among the names in the original chargesheet.



There were two sets of cases relating to the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992.



The first involved unnamed karsevaks or volunteers, the trial of which is taking place in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relate to the VVIPs in a Rae Bareli court.



With todays order, both these cases are merged and will be heard in Lucknow.



The order comes after the CBI had petitioned the apex court saying 14 people, including BJP leaders, who had been acquitted of the charges under criminal conspiracy, should be tried in the Lucknow Court.

NEW DELHI: Lashing out at the Supreme Courts decision to reinstate criminal conspiracy charges against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti in the Babri Masjid demolition case, the Union Water Resources Minister on Wednesday remained defiant, saying she is ready to face the trial. For Ayodhya, for Ganga, for the tricolour, Im ready to bear any punishment. Why should I regret it? There was no conspiracy, everything was open in front. There was nothing like this in contemplation, Bharti said. Bharti turned the allegations against the Congress Party on the emergency when asked if she will resign on the Oppositions demand. I will not react on Congress allegations and demands that I resign. Who are they to say anything? They imposed the emergency, they forcefully sterilised Muslims, she added. Bharti further said that Ram Mandir needs to be built. The (Babri Masjid) case is yet to conclude. I have not yet been pronounced guilty. This country belongs to the cow, Ganga, Ram and the tricolour. I will defend them at any cost, she added. The apex court has directed the sessions judge in Lucknow to conduct the trial in the Babri demolition case on a daily basis and that the judge will not be transferred. It also ruled out a fresh trial in the case. The top court has also ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure that witnesses are produced in court everyday so that there is no delay in the Babri demolition case trial. The trial will have to be completed in two years. However, the apex court has clarified that Kalyan Singh, being Governor of Rajasthan, will not be tried due to constitutional immunity unless he ceases to be in that post. In effect, his trial will begin after his term as Governor ends. Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the demolition took place. Others who will face criminal conspiracy charges are Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara, Satish Pradhan, Champat Rai Bansal. The late Giriraj Kishore is also among the names in the original chargesheet. There were two sets of cases relating to the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992. The first involved unnamed karsevaks or volunteers, the trial of which is taking place in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relate to the VVIPs in a Rae Bareli court. With todays order, both these cases are merged and will be heard in Lucknow. The order comes after the CBI had petitioned the apex court saying 14 people, including BJP leaders, who had been acquitted of the charges under criminal conspiracy, should be tried in the Lucknow Court.
Samuel Merigala By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Roiled by the heat of May, Indians tend to head for the hills this month but it is not as if the hill stations have been spared of the warming witnessed across the nation. In fact, long-term temperature records show that Indias hill stations are warming up faster than towns, medium-sized cities and the big metropolises.

For instance, Shimla, the summer capital of the British Raj, witnessed its hottest day in 170 years with a temperature recording of of 32.4C on May 28, 2010.

While the average warming for the entire nation has been 0.91C over the whole of the last century, five hill stations -- Kodaikanal, Shimla, Darjeeling, Madikeri and Srinagar  have registered a spike of 0.4C every decade since the 1970s.

In other words, the hill stations have warmed up by 2C in the last 40 years.

These findings were part of a 2016 study published in the American Journal of Climate Change that monitored surface temperatures from 1901 to 2013 across 36 locations across India.

Interestingly, the warming of hill stations did not really begin until the 1970s. During the

1901-1970 period, only Shimla and Darjeeling among the five hill stations studied showed a significant rise in temperature. Post-1970, temperatures in all the hill stations except Madikeri spurted.

The study blamed the rapid industrialization in the recent past for the increase and hill stations are affected by greenhouse emissions to a greater degree than bigger cities although the latter have a higher carbon footprint.

The study found that the aerosols emitted along with CO2 by industries and the higher levels of particulate matter in the air in cities act as a shield against the suns radiation. Industrial cities like Surat, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow have higher aerosol levels and therefore have lesser warming rates than hill stations which have no such insulation.

CHENNAI: Roiled by the heat of May, Indians tend to head for the hills this month but it is not as if the hill stations have been spared of the warming witnessed across the nation. In fact, long-term temperature records show that Indias hill stations are warming up faster than towns, medium-sized cities and the big metropolises. For instance, Shimla, the summer capital of the British Raj, witnessed its hottest day in 170 years with a temperature recording of of 32.4C on May 28, 2010. While the average warming for the entire nation has been 0.91C over the whole of the last century, five hill stations -- Kodaikanal, Shimla, Darjeeling, Madikeri and Srinagar  have registered a spike of 0.4C every decade since the 1970s. In other words, the hill stations have warmed up by 2C in the last 40 years. These findings were part of a 2016 study published in the American Journal of Climate Change that monitored surface temperatures from 1901 to 2013 across 36 locations across India. Interestingly, the warming of hill stations did not really begin until the 1970s. During the 1901-1970 period, only Shimla and Darjeeling among the five hill stations studied showed a significant rise in temperature. Post-1970, temperatures in all the hill stations except Madikeri spurted. The study blamed the rapid industrialization in the recent past for the increase and hill stations are affected by greenhouse emissions to a greater degree than bigger cities although the latter have a higher carbon footprint. The study found that the aerosols emitted along with CO2 by industries and the higher levels of particulate matter in the air in cities act as a shield against the suns radiation. Industrial cities like Surat, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow have higher aerosol levels and therefore have lesser warming rates than hill stations which have no such insulation.
Aishik Chanda By

Express News Service

NAXALBARI: I shouldnt have agreed to feed Amit Shah. That one simple meal has cost very dearly for us. Our life was very simple and happy before I prepared that lunch for him, says Geeta Mahali, a tribal woman in Dakshin Kothiyajote village in Naxalbari whose life has changed since she prepared a meal of rice, pulses and vegetables for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah during his visit to the region on April 25.

After the fated lunch, Geeta and her husband Raju went missing for a week and then emerged to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on May 3 in the presence of tourism minister Goutam Deb. While BJP alleged that the Mahalis were kidnapped and forced to join TMC, the ruling party refuted the allegations saying that Mahalis decision was voluntary and not under pressure.

We had gone to meet our relatives in Matigara (near Siliguri) after April 25. We had planned beforehand of joining the TMC, Geeta said. When asked why then she fed BJP president Amit Shah, Geeta said with a shrug: I did not know who Amit Shah was. They asked me to feed him and I agreed.

However, people in the neighbourhood first alleged that we got Rs 3 lakh for feeding Amit Shah and now say we got Rs 3 lakh for joining TMC. Had we remained so poor with Rs 6 lakh? Just because we are poor doesnt mean that anyone can allege anything, she added.

Even as Geeta Mahali speaks with the New Indian Express at her semi-pucca house, the two-man police picket in front of the house informed of our visit to Naxalbari Police Station. We have to inform about every visit to the Mahalis to our officers, said one of the deployed police constable.

On the other hand, BJP stuck to its stand on the Mahalis. Amit Shah wanted to have lunch at an ordinary familys hearth. Hence, we randomly approached Geeta Mahali. We had no motive to make her join BJP. However, the way she joined TMC a week later is very unusual and indicates that the Mahalis were pressurised, said BJP Darjeeling district president Praveen Aggarwal.

NAXALBARI: I shouldnt have agreed to feed Amit Shah. That one simple meal has cost very dearly for us. Our life was very simple and happy before I prepared that lunch for him, says Geeta Mahali, a tribal woman in Dakshin Kothiyajote village in Naxalbari whose life has changed since she prepared a meal of rice, pulses and vegetables for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah during his visit to the region on April 25. After the fated lunch, Geeta and her husband Raju went missing for a week and then emerged to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on May 3 in the presence of tourism minister Goutam Deb. While BJP alleged that the Mahalis were kidnapped and forced to join TMC, the ruling party refuted the allegations saying that Mahalis decision was voluntary and not under pressure. We had gone to meet our relatives in Matigara (near Siliguri) after April 25. We had planned beforehand of joining the TMC, Geeta said. When asked why then she fed BJP president Amit Shah, Geeta said with a shrug: I did not know who Amit Shah was. They asked me to feed him and I agreed. However, people in the neighbourhood first alleged that we got Rs 3 lakh for feeding Amit Shah and now say we got Rs 3 lakh for joining TMC. Had we remained so poor with Rs 6 lakh? Just because we are poor doesnt mean that anyone can allege anything, she added. Even as Geeta Mahali speaks with the New Indian Express at her semi-pucca house, the two-man police picket in front of the house informed of our visit to Naxalbari Police Station. We have to inform about every visit to the Mahalis to our officers, said one of the deployed police constable. On the other hand, BJP stuck to its stand on the Mahalis. Amit Shah wanted to have lunch at an ordinary familys hearth. Hence, we randomly approached Geeta Mahali. We had no motive to make her join BJP. However, the way she joined TMC a week later is very unusual and indicates that the Mahalis were pressurised, said BJP Darjeeling district president Praveen Aggarwal.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped a luncheon meet of opposition parties today, is likely to be present at the lunch Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting tomorrow for visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.

Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi represented JD(U) at the lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi where Kumar, who is the party president, was conspicuous by his absence.

There has been speculation about a tie-up between JD(U) and the BJP, something Kumar has repeatedly refuted. JD(U) had broken its 17-year alliance with BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi was declared the saffron party's prime ministerial candidate.

Such conjecture has grown following the Supreme Court's decision to try RJD chief Lalu Prasad in four fodder scam cases and fresh allegations of corruption against him and his family members. Kumar heads the JD(U)-RJD-Congress coalition government in Bihar.

The chief minister has maintained a silence on the allegations against the RJD supremo and his kin, merely saying it was for the central government to look into them. During a recent visit to Delhi he had reportedly stressed on a larger opposition unity against the BJP-led NDA.

He had also met Gandhi. Sources close to Kumar have often rubbished reports about any bonhomie between him and the BJP.

NEW DELHI: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped a luncheon meet of opposition parties today, is likely to be present at the lunch Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hosting tomorrow for visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth. Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi represented JD(U) at the lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi where Kumar, who is the party president, was conspicuous by his absence. There has been speculation about a tie-up between JD(U) and the BJP, something Kumar has repeatedly refuted. JD(U) had broken its 17-year alliance with BJP in 2013 after Narendra Modi was declared the saffron party's prime ministerial candidate. Such conjecture has grown following the Supreme Court's decision to try RJD chief Lalu Prasad in four fodder scam cases and fresh allegations of corruption against him and his family members. Kumar heads the JD(U)-RJD-Congress coalition government in Bihar. The chief minister has maintained a silence on the allegations against the RJD supremo and his kin, merely saying it was for the central government to look into them. During a recent visit to Delhi he had reportedly stressed on a larger opposition unity against the BJP-led NDA. He had also met Gandhi. Sources close to Kumar have often rubbished reports about any bonhomie between him and the BJP.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Politics should not be left to politicians only and the BJP is open to all "good people", party chief Amit Shah said today, days after Tamil cine superstar Rajinikanth hinted at taking the political plunge.

Shah, however, did not specify whether Rajinikanth would be given an invitation to join the BJP. "We believe that any good person joining politics must be welcomed," Shah said while responding to a question on speculation about Rajinikanth entering politics.

He, however, said it is for the actor to decide whether he wants to join politics or not. "Politics should not be left to politicians alone," he told PTI during an interaction.

Speculation is rife that the BJP is trying to rope in the actor, who has a large fan following, to make inroads in Tamil Nadu. BJP national secretary H Raja had earlier said Rajnikanth is a "popular" personality and is welcome to join the saffron party.

Raja, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said the actor has to first make up his mind about joining politics, when asked if the BJP will approach him. "He has every right to form a political party or join politics. But so far he has not taken a firm stand.

So we have to wait and see," he had said. Rajinikanth had spilled the beans about his political entry during an interaction with his fans a few days ago and told them to be ready for a "war".

NEW DELHI: Politics should not be left to politicians only and the BJP is open to all "good people", party chief Amit Shah said today, days after Tamil cine superstar Rajinikanth hinted at taking the political plunge. Shah, however, did not specify whether Rajinikanth would be given an invitation to join the BJP. "We believe that any good person joining politics must be welcomed," Shah said while responding to a question on speculation about Rajinikanth entering politics. He, however, said it is for the actor to decide whether he wants to join politics or not. "Politics should not be left to politicians alone," he told PTI during an interaction. Speculation is rife that the BJP is trying to rope in the actor, who has a large fan following, to make inroads in Tamil Nadu. BJP national secretary H Raja had earlier said Rajnikanth is a "popular" personality and is welcome to join the saffron party. Raja, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said the actor has to first make up his mind about joining politics, when asked if the BJP will approach him. "He has every right to form a political party or join politics. But so far he has not taken a firm stand. So we have to wait and see," he had said. Rajinikanth had spilled the beans about his political entry during an interaction with his fans a few days ago and told them to be ready for a "war".
By PTI

LUCKNOW: A special CBI court today directed BJP stalwarts L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti to appear before it on May 30 for framing of charges in the Babri Masjid demolition case in light of the Supreme Court order restoring the serious offence of criminal conspiracy against them.

Special CBI judge S K Yadav also asked three other BJP leaders -- Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia -- to present themselves before the court in person on that day.

He said no application for adjournment or exemption shall be entertained.

The court which is hearing two separate cases, has already fixed May 30 for framing of charges against Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Ram Vilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma alias Prem Ji, Champat Rai Bansal, Dharma Das and Satish Pradhan in the other matter.

The apex court had on April 19 directed that Advani (89), Joshi (83), Bharti (58) and other accused in the case would be prosecuted for serious offence of criminal conspiracy in the politically sensitive 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. It had also ordered day-to-day trial to be concluded in two years.

The top court, which had dubbed the demolition of the medieval-era monument as a "crime" which shook the "secular fabric of the Constitution", allowed the CBI's plea on restoration of criminal conspiracy charge against the BJP stalwarts.

However, the Supreme Court had said Kalyan Singh, who is the Rajasthan Governor and during whose tenure as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh the disputed structure was razed, is entitled to immunity under the Constitution as long as he holds the gubernatorial office.

It had transferred the case against Advani, Joshi, Bharti and three other accused from a Raebareli court to Lucknow for a joint trial in the demolition case.

LUCKNOW: A special CBI court today directed BJP stalwarts L K Advani, M M Joshi and Uma Bharti to appear before it on May 30 for framing of charges in the Babri Masjid demolition case in light of the Supreme Court order restoring the serious offence of criminal conspiracy against them. Special CBI judge S K Yadav also asked three other BJP leaders -- Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia -- to present themselves before the court in person on that day. He said no application for adjournment or exemption shall be entertained. The court which is hearing two separate cases, has already fixed May 30 for framing of charges against Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Ram Vilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma alias Prem Ji, Champat Rai Bansal, Dharma Das and Satish Pradhan in the other matter. The apex court had on April 19 directed that Advani (89), Joshi (83), Bharti (58) and other accused in the case would be prosecuted for serious offence of criminal conspiracy in the politically sensitive 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. It had also ordered day-to-day trial to be concluded in two years. The top court, which had dubbed the demolition of the medieval-era monument as a "crime" which shook the "secular fabric of the Constitution", allowed the CBI's plea on restoration of criminal conspiracy charge against the BJP stalwarts. However, the Supreme Court had said Kalyan Singh, who is the Rajasthan Governor and during whose tenure as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh the disputed structure was razed, is entitled to immunity under the Constitution as long as he holds the gubernatorial office. It had transferred the case against Advani, Joshi, Bharti and three other accused from a Raebareli court to Lucknow for a joint trial in the demolition case.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today took a serious view of the conduct of an Indian doctor, who was barred from practising in the US for sexual offences against women, for coming here and setting up a clinic.

"You avoid a 25-year imprisonment by taking a plea bargain and you come here and start practising. It is not acceptable at all," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said.

"If he had done this (offence) in India and then gone back to US, he would have been in jail there," it said.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after coming across a news report about the doctor who, after being barred from practising by a US court in 2011, was now treating patients in the National Capital Region (NCR).

As per the report, a court in Georgia in the US had asked the doctor to surrender all US medical licences, leave the country and "not practice medicine in any form within the United States or any other country".

The report had also said that the medical practitioner had pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual battery, for unwarranted medical examination on women patients, a crime that carries a mandatory 25 years in prison in the US.

The court said women in the US had the courage to report his conduct, but here not many would complain when there is an offence of sexual violence or of such nature.

"You (the doctor) are playing with the lives of people.

We are rooting for the rights of the people," the court told senior advocate Amit Sibal, who represented the doctor.

The bench noted that the doctor, who was present in court today, was "desperate" to avoid the prison sentence of 25 years and hence opted for plea bargaining, a concept under which the quantum of sentence is negotiated after guilt is conceded by the accused.

It also observed that the doctor had started his practice here without informing the Medical Council of India (MCI) about his conviction.

The central government, during the hearing, said the US court had barred the doctor from practising anywhere else in the world in future, but he had started treating patients in Delhi and Gurgaon.

Sibal, however, said the US court's order was not clear on whether the prohibition was forever or just for a probation period of 36 months. In this connection, he has also sought a written legal opinion from an American lawyer associated with the case in which the doctor was convicted.

The bench did not agree with the submission regarding the probation period, saying in the instant case the prohibition did not appear to be for just 36 months.

It also noted the claim made on behalf of the doctor that as his license expired on May 7 and his plea for renewal was pending before the MCI, he has not been practising anywhere in India since then.

The court also asked if the doctor, an American citizen, can return to the US, to which his lawyer said legal opinion on this issue has also been sought from the American lawyer.

Sibal also said that the MCI, which has the statutory powers to suspend, revoke and renew the license of a medical practitioner, is looking into the whole matter.

He said all the documents related to the doctor's conviction would be placed before the MCI where the first hearing was on May 18 and the next slated for June 7.

The bench, on the other hand, said it has made MCI a party in the matter as it wanted the council to frame guidelines.

It also directed that the records of the doctor's conviction, plea bargaining and settlements entered into with the victims be placed before the court before July 19, the next date of hearing.

The high court had earlier observed that doctors indicted for sexual misconduct, deserved to be caught and barred from practising.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today took a serious view of the conduct of an Indian doctor, who was barred from practising in the US for sexual offences against women, for coming here and setting up a clinic. "You avoid a 25-year imprisonment by taking a plea bargain and you come here and start practising. It is not acceptable at all," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said. "If he had done this (offence) in India and then gone back to US, he would have been in jail there," it said. The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after coming across a news report about the doctor who, after being barred from practising by a US court in 2011, was now treating patients in the National Capital Region (NCR). As per the report, a court in Georgia in the US had asked the doctor to surrender all US medical licences, leave the country and "not practice medicine in any form within the United States or any other country". The report had also said that the medical practitioner had pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual battery, for unwarranted medical examination on women patients, a crime that carries a mandatory 25 years in prison in the US. The court said women in the US had the courage to report his conduct, but here not many would complain when there is an offence of sexual violence or of such nature. "You (the doctor) are playing with the lives of people. We are rooting for the rights of the people," the court told senior advocate Amit Sibal, who represented the doctor. The bench noted that the doctor, who was present in court today, was "desperate" to avoid the prison sentence of 25 years and hence opted for plea bargaining, a concept under which the quantum of sentence is negotiated after guilt is conceded by the accused. It also observed that the doctor had started his practice here without informing the Medical Council of India (MCI) about his conviction. The central government, during the hearing, said the US court had barred the doctor from practising anywhere else in the world in future, but he had started treating patients in Delhi and Gurgaon. Sibal, however, said the US court's order was not clear on whether the prohibition was forever or just for a probation period of 36 months. In this connection, he has also sought a written legal opinion from an American lawyer associated with the case in which the doctor was convicted. The bench did not agree with the submission regarding the probation period, saying in the instant case the prohibition did not appear to be for just 36 months. It also noted the claim made on behalf of the doctor that as his license expired on May 7 and his plea for renewal was pending before the MCI, he has not been practising anywhere in India since then. The court also asked if the doctor, an American citizen, can return to the US, to which his lawyer said legal opinion on this issue has also been sought from the American lawyer. Sibal also said that the MCI, which has the statutory powers to suspend, revoke and renew the license of a medical practitioner, is looking into the whole matter. He said all the documents related to the doctor's conviction would be placed before the MCI where the first hearing was on May 18 and the next slated for June 7. The bench, on the other hand, said it has made MCI a party in the matter as it wanted the council to frame guidelines. It also directed that the records of the doctor's conviction, plea bargaining and settlements entered into with the victims be placed before the court before July 19, the next date of hearing. The high court had earlier observed that doctors indicted for sexual misconduct, deserved to be caught and barred from practising.
By PTI

SRINAGAR: A month-long ban on 22 social media sites and applications in Kashmir was lifted by the Jammu and Kashmir Home department today.

Access to the banned social media sites was restored around 8.30 pm, an official said. Jammu and Kashmir Home Department had on April 26 banned 22 social media sites and applications, including facebook, whatsapp and twitter, in an attempt to curb the street protests in the Valley.

However, the ban had little meaning as users accessed the banned sites through virtual private networks.

SRINAGAR: A month-long ban on 22 social media sites and applications in Kashmir was lifted by the Jammu and Kashmir Home department today. Access to the banned social media sites was restored around 8.30 pm, an official said. Jammu and Kashmir Home Department had on April 26 banned 22 social media sites and applications, including facebook, whatsapp and twitter, in an attempt to curb the street protests in the Valley. However, the ban had little meaning as users accessed the banned sites through virtual private networks.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth today arrived here on a three-day visit to India, during which he will meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee.

Jugnauth held discussions with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today. He will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Modi tomorrow, besides meeting Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

The Mauritian premier will also meet President Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari tomorrow. The Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) leader is accompanied by his deputy Ivan Collendavelloo, and senior officials including the cabinet secretary and finance secretary of Mauritius.

This is Jugnauth's first visit abroad as prime minister after assuming office early this year. Modi had visited the island nation in March, 2015, as Chief Guest at the Mauritian National Day celebrations.

During his visit, Modi had commissioned the OPV Barracuda, built by an Indian shipyard and financed by India, into the Mauritian Coast Guard. "The Mauritian PM's visit to India is part of our continuing engagement with the Government of Mauritius at the highest level and reflects special ties between our two countries," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said yesterday.

NEW DELHI: Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth today arrived here on a three-day visit to India, during which he will meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee. Jugnauth held discussions with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today. He will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Modi tomorrow, besides meeting Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The Mauritian premier will also meet President Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari tomorrow. The Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) leader is accompanied by his deputy Ivan Collendavelloo, and senior officials including the cabinet secretary and finance secretary of Mauritius. This is Jugnauth's first visit abroad as prime minister after assuming office early this year. Modi had visited the island nation in March, 2015, as Chief Guest at the Mauritian National Day celebrations. During his visit, Modi had commissioned the OPV Barracuda, built by an Indian shipyard and financed by India, into the Mauritian Coast Guard. "The Mauritian PM's visit to India is part of our continuing engagement with the Government of Mauritius at the highest level and reflects special ties between our two countries," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay had said yesterday.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

TEZPUR (ASSAM): The wreckage of the missing Sukhoi-30 of Indian Air Force (IAF) jet has been found at 10 KM NW of Doimara in Arunachal Pradesh.

Defence sources said the wreckage was located on Friday and ground parties were standing by to be airlifted to the crash site as the area was totally inaccessible.

The aircraft had taken off from the IAFs Tezpur air base on Tuesday at around 10:30 am on a routine training mission. At 11.10 am, it lost radio and radar contact with the base.

Search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be perused by the ground parties after they reach the crash site. Search parties of Army are also attempting to reach the crash site by trekking cross country. However, their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of the terrain, defence spokesman Lt Col Suneet Newton said.

The aircraft was declared overdue and search and rescue operations were launched to locate the aircraft and the pilots. Help from civil administration and military authorities was also sought to locate the aircraft. Aerial search was commenced based on last known position of the Su-30 MKI. Incessant rain and dense clouds hampered the search operations in air and on the ground. Search parties of IAF and Army set out to the area where the aircraft was declared missing, Newton said.

He said a court of inquiry had been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.

In May 2015, a Sukhoi-30MKI crashed at a forested area near Tezpur after it had developed a technical snag. Although the two pilots had managed to eject safely, two locals suffered splinter injuries.

Tezpur is one of the three IAF bases in the country to host a fleet of Sukhoi-30 combat aircrafts and the first in Northeast. The IAF station here is strategically-located as it lies surrounded by China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The Tezpur airfield was constructed by the British Royal Indian Air Force during the Second World War in 1942. It developed into a full-fledged Air Force base in 1959.

TEZPUR (ASSAM): The wreckage of the missing Sukhoi-30 of Indian Air Force (IAF) jet has been found at 10 KM NW of Doimara in Arunachal Pradesh. Defence sources said the wreckage was located on Friday and ground parties were standing by to be airlifted to the crash site as the area was totally inaccessible. The aircraft had taken off from the IAFs Tezpur air base on Tuesday at around 10:30 am on a routine training mission. At 11.10 am, it lost radio and radar contact with the base. Search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be perused by the ground parties after they reach the crash site. Search parties of Army are also attempting to reach the crash site by trekking cross country. However, their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of the terrain, defence spokesman Lt Col Suneet Newton said. The aircraft was declared overdue and search and rescue operations were launched to locate the aircraft and the pilots. Help from civil administration and military authorities was also sought to locate the aircraft. Aerial search was commenced based on last known position of the Su-30 MKI. Incessant rain and dense clouds hampered the search operations in air and on the ground. Search parties of IAF and Army set out to the area where the aircraft was declared missing, Newton said. He said a court of inquiry had been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident. In May 2015, a Sukhoi-30MKI crashed at a forested area near Tezpur after it had developed a technical snag. Although the two pilots had managed to eject safely, two locals suffered splinter injuries. Tezpur is one of the three IAF bases in the country to host a fleet of Sukhoi-30 combat aircrafts and the first in Northeast. The IAF station here is strategically-located as it lies surrounded by China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Tezpur airfield was constructed by the British Royal Indian Air Force during the Second World War in 1942. It developed into a full-fledged Air Force base in 1959.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The NCP and the CPI-M are the only two parties which agreed to participate in the Election Commission's EVM hacking challenge, but the AAP and the BSP, which were the most vociferous in questioning the reliability of the machines, decided to stay away.

The EC announced this evening that out of eight parties only Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the CPI-M accepted the dare. Today was the last date to enlist for the challenge.

Earlier, the EC had said only the NCP had accepted the challenge but later it clarified that the CPI-M had also expressed its interest in the exercise. The EC said the RJD's application was received by e-mail at 5.39 pm and it missed the 5 pm deadline.

Thus, its aplication stood rejected. The challenge would take place on June 3 between 10 am and 2 pm at Nirvachan Sadan, the EC headquarters, a poll panel spokesperson said. There will be two counters for the two parties to try and hack the machines. Both will get four hours each for the task.

As per the framework chalked out by the EC, each participating party can have three members and will get four hours to prove that the machines can be tampered with. Each party can use four machines deployed in the recently held assembly polls and the NCP has left the choice of the machines to the EC. Now, the commission will bring few EVMs from Punjab, UP and Uttrakhand for conduct of the challenge, the spokesperson said.

NCP's Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan will lead the party's team for the challenge. Gaurav Jachak, said to be an advocate, and Yasin Hussain Shaikh, an IT expert, are the other members of the NCP team. While the BSP has so far not given reasons for not participating, the AAP wondered why the EC -- "an institution that has always protected democracy" -- was not ready for an open hackathon to safeguard the country's election process.

Both the AAP and the Congress also demanded access to EVM's motherboard, saying without it, the challenge was not practical. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia said a perception was being created that AAP has backtracked from hackathon. "Is the EC holding a hackathon?

The EC is itself saying that it is not holding any hackathon, then from where did the question of backtracking come from. "You (the EC) are saying not to touch, open the machines or carry any tool for the exercise. You are asking to challenge it. You cannot simply keep the machine before us and then ask us to hack it. It is the EC that has backtracked. If you want to hack the machines then you should allow us to touch it," he said.

The Congress said the "extensive terms and conditions" that the challenge imposes prevents challengers to conduct a thorough test of the EVMs. "We urge you to reconsider relaxing rules of the challenge and their inclusion undermines the very credibility of the initiative," the party said. The poll panel had invited seven national and 49 state recognised parties for the challenge but had kept away independents and smaller parties which had contested polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. Foreign experts too have been barred.

In the 2009 challenge, the commission had brought in 100 EVMs from across India and had allowed independent experts to prove that the machines can be tampered with. No one, the EC claims, was able to hack into the machines. After the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BSP and AAP had questioned the reliability of the machines.

Later, several opposition parties, except the AAP, had urged the EC to revert to paper ballot, saying the faith of the people in EVMs had eroded. A demand of the AAP to tamper with the motherboard of the machine was rejected by the commission. It said change in circuits would mean the EVM was no longer the one used by the commission.

NEW DELHI: The NCP and the CPI-M are the only two parties which agreed to participate in the Election Commission's EVM hacking challenge, but the AAP and the BSP, which were the most vociferous in questioning the reliability of the machines, decided to stay away. The EC announced this evening that out of eight parties only Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the CPI-M accepted the dare. Today was the last date to enlist for the challenge. Earlier, the EC had said only the NCP had accepted the challenge but later it clarified that the CPI-M had also expressed its interest in the exercise. The EC said the RJD's application was received by e-mail at 5.39 pm and it missed the 5 pm deadline. Thus, its aplication stood rejected. The challenge would take place on June 3 between 10 am and 2 pm at Nirvachan Sadan, the EC headquarters, a poll panel spokesperson said. There will be two counters for the two parties to try and hack the machines. Both will get four hours each for the task. As per the framework chalked out by the EC, each participating party can have three members and will get four hours to prove that the machines can be tampered with. Each party can use four machines deployed in the recently held assembly polls and the NCP has left the choice of the machines to the EC. Now, the commission will bring few EVMs from Punjab, UP and Uttrakhand for conduct of the challenge, the spokesperson said. NCP's Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan will lead the party's team for the challenge. Gaurav Jachak, said to be an advocate, and Yasin Hussain Shaikh, an IT expert, are the other members of the NCP team. While the BSP has so far not given reasons for not participating, the AAP wondered why the EC -- "an institution that has always protected democracy" -- was not ready for an open hackathon to safeguard the country's election process. Both the AAP and the Congress also demanded access to EVM's motherboard, saying without it, the challenge was not practical. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia said a perception was being created that AAP has backtracked from hackathon. "Is the EC holding a hackathon? The EC is itself saying that it is not holding any hackathon, then from where did the question of backtracking come from. "You (the EC) are saying not to touch, open the machines or carry any tool for the exercise. You are asking to challenge it. You cannot simply keep the machine before us and then ask us to hack it. It is the EC that has backtracked. If you want to hack the machines then you should allow us to touch it," he said. The Congress said the "extensive terms and conditions" that the challenge imposes prevents challengers to conduct a thorough test of the EVMs. "We urge you to reconsider relaxing rules of the challenge and their inclusion undermines the very credibility of the initiative," the party said. The poll panel had invited seven national and 49 state recognised parties for the challenge but had kept away independents and smaller parties which had contested polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. Foreign experts too have been barred. In the 2009 challenge, the commission had brought in 100 EVMs from across India and had allowed independent experts to prove that the machines can be tampered with. No one, the EC claims, was able to hack into the machines. After the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BSP and AAP had questioned the reliability of the machines. Later, several opposition parties, except the AAP, had urged the EC to revert to paper ballot, saying the faith of the people in EVMs had eroded. A demand of the AAP to tamper with the motherboard of the machine was rejected by the commission. It said change in circuits would mean the EVM was no longer the one used by the commission.
By PTI

JHAJJAR: A Pakistani national, who was living in a temple here for nine months under a false identity and had even got Aadhar and PAN cards, was taken into custody, police said today.

According to his passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistan's Sindh province, police said.

The PAN card seized from him mentioned his name as Rasraj Das, police said. The date of birth mentioned in his passport is different from the one mentioned in Aadhar and PAN cards, police added.

"During questioning, Raja told us he was spiritually inclined," Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, B Satheesh Balan said.

As per investigation conducted by police, Raja came to India in 2013 and his visa expired in 2016.

The SP said Raja, who is a Hindu, applied online for extension of visa in order to stay in India. "We are in contact with the External Affairs ministry on this issue," he said.

Raja has two brothers who have been doing menial jobs in Pakistan. He has been associated with Iskcon for some years, the SP said, adding that he had also stayed in Delhi.

The SP said a team of intelligence bureau and police was questioning him and no case has been registered so far.

JHAJJAR: A Pakistani national, who was living in a temple here for nine months under a false identity and had even got Aadhar and PAN cards, was taken into custody, police said today. According to his passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistan's Sindh province, police said. The PAN card seized from him mentioned his name as Rasraj Das, police said. The date of birth mentioned in his passport is different from the one mentioned in Aadhar and PAN cards, police added. "During questioning, Raja told us he was spiritually inclined," Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, B Satheesh Balan said. As per investigation conducted by police, Raja came to India in 2013 and his visa expired in 2016. The SP said Raja, who is a Hindu, applied online for extension of visa in order to stay in India. "We are in contact with the External Affairs ministry on this issue," he said. Raja has two brothers who have been doing menial jobs in Pakistan. He has been associated with Iskcon for some years, the SP said, adding that he had also stayed in Delhi. The SP said a team of intelligence bureau and police was questioning him and no case has been registered so far.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The government has banned the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter, a move that is expected to hit export and trade of meat and leather. It also prohibited practices that are cruel to animals including painting of horns and putting ornaments or decorative materials on them.

The environment ministry has notified the stringent 'Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017' under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said the new rules are very "specific" and aim to regulate animal markets and sale of cattle.

He clarified that the provisions only apply to animals in livestock markets and animals seized as case properties, adding these rules do not cover other areas. A senior environment ministry official told PTI that the notification is in the direction of animal welfare.

The rules define cattle as a bovine animal including bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels. The new rules also prohibit establishment of an animal market in a place which is situated within 25 km from any state border and within 50 km from any international border.

These also bar people from lifting an animal off the ground, other than poultry for weighing propose, dragging it along the ground, suspending it clear of the ground or tie up or muzzle any calf among others.

According to the notification, the member secretary of an animal market committee will have to ensure that no person brings a young animal to the animal market. "No person shall bring a cattle to an animal market unless upon arrival he has furnished a written declaration signed by the owner of the cattle - stating the name and address of the owner of the cattle, with a copy of the photo identification proof.

"Giving details of the identification of the cattle and stating that the cattle has not been brought to market for sale for slaughter," the notification said under the point 'Restrictions on sale of cattle'. In the past, rumours of cow slaughter and the sale of beef have triggered violence in parts of the country.

The rules envisage the constitution of district animal market monitoring committee and an animal market committee. "Cruel and harmful practices shall be prohibited, namely animal identification methods such as hot branding and cold branding, shearing and painting of horns, bishoping in horses and ear cutting in buffaloes. "Casting animals on hard ground without adequate bedding, forcing animals to perform any unnatural acts, such as dancing, putting any ornaments or decorative materials on animals, use of any type of muzzle to prevent animals from suckling or eating food and others," the notification said.

Reacting to the ban, the CPI(M)-led LDF government and the Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala, where beef is consumed widely, attacked the Centre. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, "It is not right that a government decides the choice of food of the people. With this decision, the Centre is destroying a sector which employees thousands of people." The Centre should have consulted with the states and sought their opinion before coming with the notification, he was quoted in a statement as saying.

Echoing similar sentiments, Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said, "The Modi government's effort from the beginning was to curb the constitutional rights and the ban was the latest example of the alleged fascist moves of the government." In Hyderabad, Mohammed Saleem, vice president of All India Jamiat-ul-Quresh, said, "The farmer sells cattle which are not useful to them and with that money they buy other animals.

Poor people can't afford fish or chicken. If the government brings this law, we will not follow it." The rules said that the committee will retain every declaration for six months and also take an undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter and also keep a record of name and address of the purchaser.

The committee will also verify that the purchaser is an agriculturist and "ensure that the purchaser of the animal gives a declaration that he shall not sell the animal up to six months from the date of purchase and shall abide by the rules relating to transport of animals made under the Act". "The purchaser of the cattle shall not sell the animal for purpose of slaughter, follow the state cattle protection or preservation laws, not sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose, not sell the cattle to a person outside the state without the permission among others," the notification said.

It said during removal of cattle from the animal market, the proof of sale shall be issued in five copies, first handed to purchaser, second to seller, third to tehsil office of the residence of purchaser, fourth to the chief veterinary officer in the district of purchaser and last copy to be kept intact in the record by the animal market committee. "The district animal market monitoring committee shall take steps to ensure that no animal market is organised in a place which is situated within 25 km from any state border or which is situated within 50 km from any international border," the notification said.

The rules also said that the local authority will make a list of animal markets functional prior to the commencement of these rules and every such market have to register themselves with the committee within three months.

Under the rules, the district animal market monitoring committee will have to ensure that the animal market has adequate housing, shade, feeding troughs, water tanks with multiple taps and buckets, lighting, ramps at the appropriate height of vehicles, separate enclosures for sick and infirm animals among other provisions.

NEW DELHI: The government has banned the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter, a move that is expected to hit export and trade of meat and leather. It also prohibited practices that are cruel to animals including painting of horns and putting ornaments or decorative materials on them. The environment ministry has notified the stringent 'Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017' under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said the new rules are very "specific" and aim to regulate animal markets and sale of cattle. He clarified that the provisions only apply to animals in livestock markets and animals seized as case properties, adding these rules do not cover other areas. A senior environment ministry official told PTI that the notification is in the direction of animal welfare. The rules define cattle as a bovine animal including bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels. The new rules also prohibit establishment of an animal market in a place which is situated within 25 km from any state border and within 50 km from any international border. These also bar people from lifting an animal off the ground, other than poultry for weighing propose, dragging it along the ground, suspending it clear of the ground or tie up or muzzle any calf among others. According to the notification, the member secretary of an animal market committee will have to ensure that no person brings a young animal to the animal market. "No person shall bring a cattle to an animal market unless upon arrival he has furnished a written declaration signed by the owner of the cattle - stating the name and address of the owner of the cattle, with a copy of the photo identification proof. "Giving details of the identification of the cattle and stating that the cattle has not been brought to market for sale for slaughter," the notification said under the point 'Restrictions on sale of cattle'. In the past, rumours of cow slaughter and the sale of beef have triggered violence in parts of the country. The rules envisage the constitution of district animal market monitoring committee and an animal market committee. "Cruel and harmful practices shall be prohibited, namely animal identification methods such as hot branding and cold branding, shearing and painting of horns, bishoping in horses and ear cutting in buffaloes. "Casting animals on hard ground without adequate bedding, forcing animals to perform any unnatural acts, such as dancing, putting any ornaments or decorative materials on animals, use of any type of muzzle to prevent animals from suckling or eating food and others," the notification said. Reacting to the ban, the CPI(M)-led LDF government and the Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala, where beef is consumed widely, attacked the Centre. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, "It is not right that a government decides the choice of food of the people. With this decision, the Centre is destroying a sector which employees thousands of people." The Centre should have consulted with the states and sought their opinion before coming with the notification, he was quoted in a statement as saying. Echoing similar sentiments, Opposition leader in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said, "The Modi government's effort from the beginning was to curb the constitutional rights and the ban was the latest example of the alleged fascist moves of the government." In Hyderabad, Mohammed Saleem, vice president of All India Jamiat-ul-Quresh, said, "The farmer sells cattle which are not useful to them and with that money they buy other animals. Poor people can't afford fish or chicken. If the government brings this law, we will not follow it." The rules said that the committee will retain every declaration for six months and also take an undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter and also keep a record of name and address of the purchaser. The committee will also verify that the purchaser is an agriculturist and "ensure that the purchaser of the animal gives a declaration that he shall not sell the animal up to six months from the date of purchase and shall abide by the rules relating to transport of animals made under the Act". "The purchaser of the cattle shall not sell the animal for purpose of slaughter, follow the state cattle protection or preservation laws, not sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose, not sell the cattle to a person outside the state without the permission among others," the notification said. It said during removal of cattle from the animal market, the proof of sale shall be issued in five copies, first handed to purchaser, second to seller, third to tehsil office of the residence of purchaser, fourth to the chief veterinary officer in the district of purchaser and last copy to be kept intact in the record by the animal market committee. "The district animal market monitoring committee shall take steps to ensure that no animal market is organised in a place which is situated within 25 km from any state border or which is situated within 50 km from any international border," the notification said. The rules also said that the local authority will make a list of animal markets functional prior to the commencement of these rules and every such market have to register themselves with the committee within three months. Under the rules, the district animal market monitoring committee will have to ensure that the animal market has adequate housing, shade, feeding troughs, water tanks with multiple taps and buckets, lighting, ramps at the appropriate height of vehicles, separate enclosures for sick and infirm animals among other provisions.
By Express News Service

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: ON a day when the Supreme Court refused to grant urgent hearing on a plea seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into recent incidents of caste violence in Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur district, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Friday denied permission to visit a village in the trouble-torn district.

An apex court vacation Bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha said there was no urgency and the PIL calling for a SIT may be heard after the courts summer break. The Bench was hearing the PIL filed by lawyer Gaurav Yadava saying that judicial intervention was required in the case.

The plea has also sought a direction to the State government to compensate families which lost their members and those who sustained injuries and lost properties.

To direct the State of Uttar Pradesh to constitute an SIT to investigate the matter under the supervision of sitting judge of High Court and to grant compensation to all who died and sustained injuries and whose articles were burnt and stolen from their houses, the plea stated.

It is pertinent to mention that the police resorted to lathi charge on innocent people and around 100 villagers sustained injuries in the lathi charge but their cases are not registered against perpetrators who have burnt the houses and looted valuable articles after trespassing, the plea said.

The petition, filed against the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government, also alleged that around 40 people were still missing and more than 5,000 were affected by the violence.

In the wake of the caste conflagrations during the last few days, the authorities on Friday denied Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi permission to visit the trouble-torn Saharanpur district. The Congress leader was contemplating a visit to violence-hit Shabbirpur village in the district on Saturday.

According to Saharanpur SSP Babloo Kumar, the Congress leader was denied permission to visit the village to avert any untoward incident.

BSP chief Mayawati had visited the strife-torn village last Tuesday following which there was a fresh flare-up between the two warring factions. In the fresh spell of violence, two persons were shot dead and about a dozen others were injured.

Consequently, the State government cracked down on the district authorities and suspended DM N P Singh and SSP Subhash Chandra Dubey.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur on April 20 following a procession to mark the Ambedkar Jayanti.

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: ON a day when the Supreme Court refused to grant urgent hearing on a plea seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into recent incidents of caste violence in Uttar Pradeshs Saharanpur district, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Friday denied permission to visit a village in the trouble-torn district. An apex court vacation Bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha said there was no urgency and the PIL calling for a SIT may be heard after the courts summer break. The Bench was hearing the PIL filed by lawyer Gaurav Yadava saying that judicial intervention was required in the case. The plea has also sought a direction to the State government to compensate families which lost their members and those who sustained injuries and lost properties. To direct the State of Uttar Pradesh to constitute an SIT to investigate the matter under the supervision of sitting judge of High Court and to grant compensation to all who died and sustained injuries and whose articles were burnt and stolen from their houses, the plea stated. It is pertinent to mention that the police resorted to lathi charge on innocent people and around 100 villagers sustained injuries in the lathi charge but their cases are not registered against perpetrators who have burnt the houses and looted valuable articles after trespassing, the plea said. The petition, filed against the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government, also alleged that around 40 people were still missing and more than 5,000 were affected by the violence. In the wake of the caste conflagrations during the last few days, the authorities on Friday denied Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi permission to visit the trouble-torn Saharanpur district. The Congress leader was contemplating a visit to violence-hit Shabbirpur village in the district on Saturday. According to Saharanpur SSP Babloo Kumar, the Congress leader was denied permission to visit the village to avert any untoward incident. BSP chief Mayawati had visited the strife-torn village last Tuesday following which there was a fresh flare-up between the two warring factions. In the fresh spell of violence, two persons were shot dead and about a dozen others were injured. Consequently, the State government cracked down on the district authorities and suspended DM N P Singh and SSP Subhash Chandra Dubey. Violence first broke out in Saharanpur on April 20 following a procession to mark the Ambedkar Jayanti.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A CRPF internal report on Sukma massacre to Union Home Ministry reveals grave lapses by the company commander including violation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The troops took the same route for nearly two months in violation of the SOP and even the back up team failed to reach in time.

According to the SOP, the troops are advised against taking the same route in the Naxal-hit areas, sources said.

The ultras were tracking the movements of the forces in the area and the CRPF personnel were ambushed by them on the fateful day.

The 74th Battalion of the CRPF could not even take cognisance of the fact that the Naxals had unsuccessfully sought to hit the forces at least four times in the past few weeks before the ambush on April 24.

The ultras had ambushed a CRPF Road Opening Patrol party in the Naxal hotbed between Burkapal and Chintagufa in Sukma district of Chhatisgarh on April 24 killing 25 paramilitary personnel.

The report, sources, said has also highlighted a glaring failure in reading telltale signs of the impending attack. Just a day before the ambush on April 24, a village that was just one kilometre from the CRPF camp celebrated during the night but none of the residents were seen the next day when the ROP team was on its way to secure construction of the road in the area.

As many as 55 personnel of the battalion were on leave in a sensitive area like Sukma resulting in delayed arrival of the reinforcement party after a company of the Force was hit by the ultras, the sources said. Following the revelation of the lapses by the Company Commander of one company of CRPF J Vishwanath was earlier suspended by paramilitary directorate for failure of leadership.

Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has directed the CRPF to complete the Court of Inquiry within a month and send the final report to it for further action against those responsible for the lapses.

NEW DELHI: A CRPF internal report on Sukma massacre to Union Home Ministry reveals grave lapses by the company commander including violation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). The troops took the same route for nearly two months in violation of the SOP and even the back up team failed to reach in time. According to the SOP, the troops are advised against taking the same route in the Naxal-hit areas, sources said. The ultras were tracking the movements of the forces in the area and the CRPF personnel were ambushed by them on the fateful day. The 74th Battalion of the CRPF could not even take cognisance of the fact that the Naxals had unsuccessfully sought to hit the forces at least four times in the past few weeks before the ambush on April 24. The ultras had ambushed a CRPF Road Opening Patrol party in the Naxal hotbed between Burkapal and Chintagufa in Sukma district of Chhatisgarh on April 24 killing 25 paramilitary personnel. The report, sources, said has also highlighted a glaring failure in reading telltale signs of the impending attack. Just a day before the ambush on April 24, a village that was just one kilometre from the CRPF camp celebrated during the night but none of the residents were seen the next day when the ROP team was on its way to secure construction of the road in the area. As many as 55 personnel of the battalion were on leave in a sensitive area like Sukma resulting in delayed arrival of the reinforcement party after a company of the Force was hit by the ultras, the sources said. Following the revelation of the lapses by the Company Commander of one company of CRPF J Vishwanath was earlier suspended by paramilitary directorate for failure of leadership. Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry has directed the CRPF to complete the Court of Inquiry within a month and send the final report to it for further action against those responsible for the lapses.
By Express News Service

PATNA: In a twist in the high-profile sex scandal in Bihar, the accused, the jailed son of a retired IAS officer, and the victim, daughter of a former minister, are set to tie the knot soon.

The development comes five months after the sensational case surfaced when the girl, the daughter of a Dalit Congress leader, lodged a case at the SC-ST police station in Patna accusing Nikhil Priyadarshi, a prominent automobile dealer, of sexual exploitation.

The allegations had sent ripples across Bihars political circles since the girl, a minor at the time of the FIR in December last, accused some of Priyadarshis political friends of running a sex trade.

Priyadarshi, who is in jail since he was arrested along with his father in Uttarakhand on March 14, and the girl have reportedly informed the SC-ST court of their desire to marry. Sources said Priyadarshi first offered the marriage proposal to the girl and that she accepted it. The couple jointly filed a compromise petition in the special court of judge Akhilanand Dubey, who is hearing the case, on Thursday. They are serious about their decision to tie the knot and begin a family, said a relative of Priyadarshi.

The petition was filed on a day when the court issued an arrest warrant against former State Congress vice president Brajesh Pandey, whose name had figured in the allegations made by the girl. Pandey had to resign from his post in the party, which is a constituent of Bihars ruling alliance led by CM Nitish Kumar. All eyes are now on the court and the legal provisions in matters of rape, which remains a non-compoundable offence.

In her statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC, the girl had said she was raped repeatedly by Priyadarshi and some of his friends. "It is unlikely that the compromise petition would have any effect on this case filed under the POCSO Act, SC-ST Act and several sections of the IPC because the victim was a minor when the crime was perpetrated," said S S Santosh, public prosecutor.

PATNA: In a twist in the high-profile sex scandal in Bihar, the accused, the jailed son of a retired IAS officer, and the victim, daughter of a former minister, are set to tie the knot soon. The development comes five months after the sensational case surfaced when the girl, the daughter of a Dalit Congress leader, lodged a case at the SC-ST police station in Patna accusing Nikhil Priyadarshi, a prominent automobile dealer, of sexual exploitation. The allegations had sent ripples across Bihars political circles since the girl, a minor at the time of the FIR in December last, accused some of Priyadarshis political friends of running a sex trade. Priyadarshi, who is in jail since he was arrested along with his father in Uttarakhand on March 14, and the girl have reportedly informed the SC-ST court of their desire to marry. Sources said Priyadarshi first offered the marriage proposal to the girl and that she accepted it. The couple jointly filed a compromise petition in the special court of judge Akhilanand Dubey, who is hearing the case, on Thursday. They are serious about their decision to tie the knot and begin a family, said a relative of Priyadarshi. The petition was filed on a day when the court issued an arrest warrant against former State Congress vice president Brajesh Pandey, whose name had figured in the allegations made by the girl. Pandey had to resign from his post in the party, which is a constituent of Bihars ruling alliance led by CM Nitish Kumar. All eyes are now on the court and the legal provisions in matters of rape, which remains a non-compoundable offence. In her statement recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC, the girl had said she was raped repeatedly by Priyadarshi and some of his friends. "It is unlikely that the compromise petition would have any effect on this case filed under the POCSO Act, SC-ST Act and several sections of the IPC because the victim was a minor when the crime was perpetrated," said S S Santosh, public prosecutor.
Santwana Bhattacharya By

Its been three years from that day in May 2014 when, in the sweltering summer heat on the expansive red-sandstone Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt, a former chief minister took oath as the prime minister with the entire subcontinental state power in attendance as witness.

Since then, we have had the fifties-vintage Planning Commission give way to NITI Aayog, telegenic surgical strikes, new and colourful rupee notes replacing old ones, a mass expansion of zero-balance bank accounts, a new unifying tax regime in the works, Aurangzeb giving way to Abdul Kalam on a street sign, the PMs address turning into 7 Lok Kalyan Margno Race Course Road anymoreand yes, transformative elections. We were on our way to a Swachh Bharat, mukt of counter thought. The man who never lost an election in Gujarat largely retained his winning streak on the national stage, with only a few losses in between. But the victories have been sweeping statementsnot mere winsas if to totally overwhelm the old order.

The modes and intensity of communication too changed in three years, with the successful leveraging of social media in combination with the use of one of the oldest modes of messagingthe All India Radio.

The impression was that of a government in constant and direct communication with the citizens, in contrast to inaccessible leaders in the rarefied zones of the older order. Whether it was yoga or the cleanliness drive or stand-up, start-up schemes, digital India or the board exam anxieties of students, the PM set up a connect unparalleled in many ways, sharing his mind on what the Opposition claimed were small and mundane issues.

But like the self-attestation of documents, this directness altered the perception of the common citizens relations to the levers of power. Modi became the man of small reforms, less remote and less remote-controlled for his voters. It was not so for the established media which had to become shriller to maintain its relevance to match the polarised voices of social media.

The selective dismantling of old apparatusesto remove, undo or refashion what was grudgingly called the Congress system (barring some big flagship programmes)happened step-by-step, programme by programme, election by election, institution by institution, bureaucrat by bureaucrat.

The process is still under way. It sometimes came with suddenness, sometimes through meticulous planning and plotting. But never without surprise. Shock treatment, not minimalism, seemed to be the unstated policy of the government. Waiting at the home office of a political veteran April 2016, I was asked by his long-time aide, Which way is Assam going? This was by way of small talk, since most of Delhi's heavy hitters were camping in Guwahati. I shared my feedback that the BJP is winning. The stunned look on the face of the once-powerful Lutyens native is not something I would easily forget.

A large part of the media may be writing requiems to the Congressfor those who grew in politics fighting the Grand Old Party, its decline is celebrated but not without a sense of bemused surprise. A BJP chief minister in Assam thus became a far bigger trophy for Modi than the second sweep in Uttar Pradesh. It gave a sense of expansionthe arrival of a new ordermore than any other. Little wonder the PM has decided to celebrate his third year in office not in New Delhi, not in Lucknow, but in Guwahati. Not with his allies and the media over dinner in 7 RCR/LKMdistributing booklets of achievements. Instead, a compilation of the PMs Mann ki Baat will be released by the president, with a live version of it on Sunday. The PM will talk to his people through the intimacy of the small transistor radio.

The Opposition, pushed to the wall, lived the last three years losing most elections spectacularly, but also winning some here and therehopping from one issue to another, one press conference to another. The Congress ministers who used to keep the media at arms length with a supercilious air took to writing columns and doing their politics through myriad press conferences and protest marches to Rashtrapati Bhavan. This aloof politics was on display all through.

When vigilantes killed an Air Force mans brother in UP on suspicion of beef-eating; when they slaughtered men in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal on suspicion of cow smuggling, or beat up Romeos on town roads, and brutal rapes hit the headlines. When campuses rose up in protests, young Vemulas committed suicide, Dalits clashed with Thakurs, when fuel prices refused to come down, and Kashmir remained on the boil, they addressed press conferences and set up committees. The Congress, the biggest opposition party with just 44 seats in the house of people, was minuscule in any case.

Not winning elections, except in Bihar and Punjab, and losing UP so resoundingly, and still haunted by what felled itcorruption chargesit seemed to have ceded more and more ground to Modi in these three years. The presidential election is giving them a chance to coalesce, but the contradictions are so deep that to accommodate Mamata Banerjee and Sitaram Yechury on the same agenda, Sonia Gandhi had to scale down a meeting to a lunch.

In Odisha, Naveen Patnaik is still undecided whether to stay aloof as he has done all these years, or get embroiled in opposition politics to survive. Nitish Kumar has already declared hes not in the 2019 race, while Rahul Gandhi seems to have again made way for his ailing mother to put the house back in order. As a PM unit official shares: You are wrong, we are not preparing for the third anniversary, or 2019, our programmes and projects are for 2024. In the short term, the PM is preparing for his next round of foreign visits that will end just before the Gujarat campaign starts. Well, the calendar is packed.

Santwana Bhattacharya

Political Editor, The New Indian Express

Email: santwana@newindianexpress.com

Its been three years from that day in May 2014 when, in the sweltering summer heat on the expansive red-sandstone Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt, a former chief minister took oath as the prime minister with the entire subcontinental state power in attendance as witness. Since then, we have had the fifties-vintage Planning Commission give way to NITI Aayog, telegenic surgical strikes, new and colourful rupee notes replacing old ones, a mass expansion of zero-balance bank accounts, a new unifying tax regime in the works, Aurangzeb giving way to Abdul Kalam on a street sign, the PMs address turning into 7 Lok Kalyan Margno Race Course Road anymoreand yes, transformative elections. We were on our way to a Swachh Bharat, mukt of counter thought. The man who never lost an election in Gujarat largely retained his winning streak on the national stage, with only a few losses in between. But the victories have been sweeping statementsnot mere winsas if to totally overwhelm the old order. The modes and intensity of communication too changed in three years, with the successful leveraging of social media in combination with the use of one of the oldest modes of messagingthe All India Radio. The impression was that of a government in constant and direct communication with the citizens, in contrast to inaccessible leaders in the rarefied zones of the older order. Whether it was yoga or the cleanliness drive or stand-up, start-up schemes, digital India or the board exam anxieties of students, the PM set up a connect unparalleled in many ways, sharing his mind on what the Opposition claimed were small and mundane issues. But like the self-attestation of documents, this directness altered the perception of the common citizens relations to the levers of power. Modi became the man of small reforms, less remote and less remote-controlled for his voters. It was not so for the established media which had to become shriller to maintain its relevance to match the polarised voices of social media. The selective dismantling of old apparatusesto remove, undo or refashion what was grudgingly called the Congress system (barring some big flagship programmes)happened step-by-step, programme by programme, election by election, institution by institution, bureaucrat by bureaucrat. The process is still under way. It sometimes came with suddenness, sometimes through meticulous planning and plotting. But never without surprise. Shock treatment, not minimalism, seemed to be the unstated policy of the government. Waiting at the home office of a political veteran April 2016, I was asked by his long-time aide, Which way is Assam going? This was by way of small talk, since most of Delhi's heavy hitters were camping in Guwahati. I shared my feedback that the BJP is winning. The stunned look on the face of the once-powerful Lutyens native is not something I would easily forget. A large part of the media may be writing requiems to the Congressfor those who grew in politics fighting the Grand Old Party, its decline is celebrated but not without a sense of bemused surprise. A BJP chief minister in Assam thus became a far bigger trophy for Modi than the second sweep in Uttar Pradesh. It gave a sense of expansionthe arrival of a new ordermore than any other. Little wonder the PM has decided to celebrate his third year in office not in New Delhi, not in Lucknow, but in Guwahati. Not with his allies and the media over dinner in 7 RCR/LKMdistributing booklets of achievements. Instead, a compilation of the PMs Mann ki Baat will be released by the president, with a live version of it on Sunday. The PM will talk to his people through the intimacy of the small transistor radio. The Opposition, pushed to the wall, lived the last three years losing most elections spectacularly, but also winning some here and therehopping from one issue to another, one press conference to another. The Congress ministers who used to keep the media at arms length with a supercilious air took to writing columns and doing their politics through myriad press conferences and protest marches to Rashtrapati Bhavan. This aloof politics was on display all through. When vigilantes killed an Air Force mans brother in UP on suspicion of beef-eating; when they slaughtered men in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal on suspicion of cow smuggling, or beat up Romeos on town roads, and brutal rapes hit the headlines. When campuses rose up in protests, young Vemulas committed suicide, Dalits clashed with Thakurs, when fuel prices refused to come down, and Kashmir remained on the boil, they addressed press conferences and set up committees. The Congress, the biggest opposition party with just 44 seats in the house of people, was minuscule in any case. Not winning elections, except in Bihar and Punjab, and losing UP so resoundingly, and still haunted by what felled itcorruption chargesit seemed to have ceded more and more ground to Modi in these three years. The presidential election is giving them a chance to coalesce, but the contradictions are so deep that to accommodate Mamata Banerjee and Sitaram Yechury on the same agenda, Sonia Gandhi had to scale down a meeting to a lunch. In Odisha, Naveen Patnaik is still undecided whether to stay aloof as he has done all these years, or get embroiled in opposition politics to survive. Nitish Kumar has already declared hes not in the 2019 race, while Rahul Gandhi seems to have again made way for his ailing mother to put the house back in order. As a PM unit official shares: You are wrong, we are not preparing for the third anniversary, or 2019, our programmes and projects are for 2024. In the short term, the PM is preparing for his next round of foreign visits that will end just before the Gujarat campaign starts. Well, the calendar is packed. Santwana Bhattacharya Political Editor, The New Indian Express Email: santwana@newindianexpress.com
By Express News Service

VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam police arrested three accused persons in the Tajangi (Chintapalli mandal) minor tribal girls gangrape case. Korabu Veera Venkata Varun alias K.Varun S/o K.Angadha Rao aged 21, Challangi Sravan Kumar aged 22, and Mamidi Hari Govinda Prasad, 26, were arrested and produced before the media on Thursday at Chintapalli Police Station.

DSP Anil Pulapati narrated the incident in detail. Basing on the complaint we registered a case under the POCSO Act and other related sections and started investigation. We deployed teams to nab the main accused and at last we are able to arrest the three accused on Thursday. Varun surrendered before the police while the remaining two were caught and arrested by the police on a tip-off.

According to the victims and their blood relatives, two of the accused, Varun and L Siva Nagendra alias Siva S/o Ganesh kumar were the key offenders.

After producing in Chintapalli- first class Judicial magistrate court, the Judge remanded them to 15 days judicial custody. Later, police shifted the three accused to the Visakhapatnam Central Imprison.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam police arrested three accused persons in the Tajangi (Chintapalli mandal) minor tribal girls gangrape case. Korabu Veera Venkata Varun alias K.Varun S/o K.Angadha Rao aged 21, Challangi Sravan Kumar aged 22, and Mamidi Hari Govinda Prasad, 26, were arrested and produced before the media on Thursday at Chintapalli Police Station. DSP Anil Pulapati narrated the incident in detail. Basing on the complaint we registered a case under the POCSO Act and other related sections and started investigation. We deployed teams to nab the main accused and at last we are able to arrest the three accused on Thursday. Varun surrendered before the police while the remaining two were caught and arrested by the police on a tip-off. According to the victims and their blood relatives, two of the accused, Varun and L Siva Nagendra alias Siva S/o Ganesh kumar were the key offenders. After producing in Chintapalli- first class Judicial magistrate court, the Judge remanded them to 15 days judicial custody. Later, police shifted the three accused to the Visakhapatnam Central Imprison.
By Express News Service

KADAPA: A 36-year-old was hacked to death in full public view at a market yard in Proddatur in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. The assailants repeatedly stabbed the man in the middle of the road as people watched in horror. Nobody came forward to save the victim.

The victim, Boreddy Maruthi Reddy of Devagudi village in Jammalamadugu mandal of Kadapa district, went to Proddatur to attend a court case when he was accosted by two sword-wielding men.

The attackers have been identified as Narapuram Srinivas Reddy and his brother Narapuram Raghunath Reddy. Boreddy tried to escape from his attackers, but they chased him down and hacked him to death at the busy marketplace. The duo stabbed Boreddy several times after he fell onto the ground to make sure that he was dead..



Though police initially suspected that the attack was triggered by factional animosity, as Devagudi happens to be the native village of marketing minister C Adinarayana Reddy, but later clarified that it was unlikely. Additional SP BSatya Yesubabu told mediapersons that vengeance over an extra-marital affair had led to the murder. The brothers have been taken into police custody.

Illicit affair

Boreddys sister Anuradha, who works as an anganwadi teacher in Proddatur, had an affair with Chandrasekhar Reddy, brother-in-law of the two accused. The issue created a feud between the two families. Boreddy went to the court on Thursday in connection with the case.

KADAPA: A 36-year-old was hacked to death in full public view at a market yard in Proddatur in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. The assailants repeatedly stabbed the man in the middle of the road as people watched in horror. Nobody came forward to save the victim. The victim, Boreddy Maruthi Reddy of Devagudi village in Jammalamadugu mandal of Kadapa district, went to Proddatur to attend a court case when he was accosted by two sword-wielding men. The attackers have been identified as Narapuram Srinivas Reddy and his brother Narapuram Raghunath Reddy. Boreddy tried to escape from his attackers, but they chased him down and hacked him to death at the busy marketplace. The duo stabbed Boreddy several times after he fell onto the ground to make sure that he was dead.. Though police initially suspected that the attack was triggered by factional animosity, as Devagudi happens to be the native village of marketing minister C Adinarayana Reddy, but later clarified that it was unlikely. Additional SP BSatya Yesubabu told mediapersons that vengeance over an extra-marital affair had led to the murder. The brothers have been taken into police custody. Illicit affair Boreddys sister Anuradha, who works as an anganwadi teacher in Proddatur, had an affair with Chandrasekhar Reddy, brother-in-law of the two accused. The issue created a feud between the two families. Boreddy went to the court on Thursday in connection with the case.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Dozens of farmers today protested in front of the Pakistan's parliament building here to press the government to allocate more funds for agriculture, prompting police to fire tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protest.

The protest near the D-Chowk was held ahead of the annual budget speech to be delivered by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar later in the day.

The protesters demanded the subsidies be increased to control prices of agricultural inputs and sought better prices for their crops.

All protests have been banned in the D-Chowk due to security situation and the protesters were warned before the use of force, a police official said.

Police used batons, tear gas and water cannons as the protesters marched towards the parliament house, the official said.

The protesters had demanded that they be allowed to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and also raised slogans against him after police action.

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah arrived at the site of the protest shortly after it started to express solidarity withe the protesters.

"My Pakistan Peoples Party stands by you. We believe that Pakistan will only succeed when the poor man is well-fed and his children go to school," Shah said.

The government is planning to increase the defence budget but it is not known if any special package will be offered for the agriculture sector.

ISLAMABAD: Dozens of farmers today protested in front of the Pakistan's parliament building here to press the government to allocate more funds for agriculture, prompting police to fire tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protest. The protest near the D-Chowk was held ahead of the annual budget speech to be delivered by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar later in the day. The protesters demanded the subsidies be increased to control prices of agricultural inputs and sought better prices for their crops. All protests have been banned in the D-Chowk due to security situation and the protesters were warned before the use of force, a police official said. Police used batons, tear gas and water cannons as the protesters marched towards the parliament house, the official said. The protesters had demanded that they be allowed to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and also raised slogans against him after police action. Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah arrived at the site of the protest shortly after it started to express solidarity withe the protesters. "My Pakistan Peoples Party stands by you. We believe that Pakistan will only succeed when the poor man is well-fed and his children go to school," Shah said. The government is planning to increase the defence budget but it is not known if any special package will be offered for the agriculture sector.
By Associated Press

PHILIPPINES: Foreign fighters are among the militants linked to the Islamic State group who are battling government troops in the southern Philippines, an official said on Friday.

Solicitor General Jose Calida said Indonesians and Malaysians are fighting alongside the gunmen who attacked Marawi, a city of some 200,000 people on Mindanao island.

"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Calida told reporters. "It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign terrorists who heeded the clarion call of ISIS."

Philippine troops backed by armoured vehicles and rocket-firing helicopters are fighting to re-take control of Marawi, which has been under siege by gunmen linked to the IS group since a raid earlier this week failed to capture one of Asia's most-wanted militants.

Rebels have torn through the streets of Marawi since Tuesday night, torching buildings, taking a priest and worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city. The violence forced thousands to flee and raised fears of growing extremism in the country.

At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials said on Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead.

In a sign of the confusion over events inside the city, a local police chief told The Associated Press on Friday that he was alive and well  two days after President Rodrigo Duterte told the media he had been beheaded by militants.

Police Chief Romeo Enriquez said there may have been confusion because his predecessor in Malabang, a town near Marawi, was killed in the fighting on Tuesday, although he was not beheaded.

As authorities worked to clear the city, residents spoke of their terror.

"At night we can hear the gunfire," said Mohammad Usman, who watched from his home just outside Marawi as thousands of residents streamed out of the city on Thursday. "I'm just praying that the bullets will not find their way to my house and hit us. I hope that the bombs will not land nearby and harm us."

Duterte imposed 60 days of martial law on Tuesday on the island of Mindanao, a traditional homeland of minority Muslims that encompasses the southern third of the nation and is home to 22 million people. Marawi has a population of around 200,000.

Duterte warned he may expand martial law nationwide, an unnerving development for many in the Philippines who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and used it to maintain his grip on power for more than a decade.

The man at the center of the Marawi violence is Isnilon Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults. He is at the nexus of several militant groups that are trying to merge into a more powerful force.

Hapilon, who is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. He also heads an alliance that includes at least 10 smaller militant groups, including the Maute, which have a heavy presence in Marawi and were instrumental in fighting off government forces in this week's battles.

All these groups are inspired by the Islamic State group, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties.

"We have not seen any concrete evidence of material support from IS," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday. But he added that the smaller groups "are working to really get that recognition and funds, of course."

Washington has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Hapilon's capture, but he has proved elusive. The Philippines launched an airstrike that wounded him in January, but he got away.

The army raided what it believed to be his hideout on Tuesday night in Marawi, but the operation quickly went wrong. Militants called in reinforcements and were able to overpower government forces. Once again, Hapilon escaped. The military said it believes Hapilon was still in Marawi.

Much of Marawi was still a no-go zone. Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard clearly and plumes of black smoke rose from the direction of the city center. Air force helicopters swooped overhead.

As authorities tried to gain more control over the city, disturbing details have emerged.

Militants forced their way into the Marawi Cathedral and seized a Catholic priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers, according to the city's bishop, Edwin de la Pena. The black flags of the Islamic State group were planted atop buildings and flown from commandeered vehicles, including a government ambulance and an armored car, said Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., vice governor of Lanao del Sur province, of which Marawi is the capital.

More than half of the population of Marawi has cleared out, Adiong said.

The problem of militancy in the south, the scene of decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings in the predominantly Catholic nation, is not new.

Duterte had repeatedly threatened to place the region under martial law, which allows him to use the armed forces to carry out arrests, searches and detentions more rapidly. But human rights groups and others fear that martial law powers could further embolden the president, who already has been accused of allowing extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.

PHILIPPINES: Foreign fighters are among the militants linked to the Islamic State group who are battling government troops in the southern Philippines, an official said on Friday. Solicitor General Jose Calida said Indonesians and Malaysians are fighting alongside the gunmen who attacked Marawi, a city of some 200,000 people on Mindanao island. "What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Calida told reporters. "It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign terrorists who heeded the clarion call of ISIS." Philippine troops backed by armoured vehicles and rocket-firing helicopters are fighting to re-take control of Marawi, which has been under siege by gunmen linked to the IS group since a raid earlier this week failed to capture one of Asia's most-wanted militants. Rebels have torn through the streets of Marawi since Tuesday night, torching buildings, taking a priest and worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city. The violence forced thousands to flee and raised fears of growing extremism in the country. At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials said on Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead. In a sign of the confusion over events inside the city, a local police chief told The Associated Press on Friday that he was alive and well  two days after President Rodrigo Duterte told the media he had been beheaded by militants. Police Chief Romeo Enriquez said there may have been confusion because his predecessor in Malabang, a town near Marawi, was killed in the fighting on Tuesday, although he was not beheaded. As authorities worked to clear the city, residents spoke of their terror. "At night we can hear the gunfire," said Mohammad Usman, who watched from his home just outside Marawi as thousands of residents streamed out of the city on Thursday. "I'm just praying that the bullets will not find their way to my house and hit us. I hope that the bombs will not land nearby and harm us." Duterte imposed 60 days of martial law on Tuesday on the island of Mindanao, a traditional homeland of minority Muslims that encompasses the southern third of the nation and is home to 22 million people. Marawi has a population of around 200,000. Duterte warned he may expand martial law nationwide, an unnerving development for many in the Philippines who lived through the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and used it to maintain his grip on power for more than a decade. The man at the center of the Marawi violence is Isnilon Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise in commando assaults. He is at the nexus of several militant groups that are trying to merge into a more powerful force. Hapilon, who is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. He also heads an alliance that includes at least 10 smaller militant groups, including the Maute, which have a heavy presence in Marawi and were instrumental in fighting off government forces in this week's battles. All these groups are inspired by the Islamic State group, but so far there is no sign of significant, material ties. "We have not seen any concrete evidence of material support from IS," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday. But he added that the smaller groups "are working to really get that recognition and funds, of course." Washington has offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Hapilon's capture, but he has proved elusive. The Philippines launched an airstrike that wounded him in January, but he got away. The army raided what it believed to be his hideout on Tuesday night in Marawi, but the operation quickly went wrong. Militants called in reinforcements and were able to overpower government forces. Once again, Hapilon escaped. The military said it believes Hapilon was still in Marawi. Much of Marawi was still a no-go zone. Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard clearly and plumes of black smoke rose from the direction of the city center. Air force helicopters swooped overhead. As authorities tried to gain more control over the city, disturbing details have emerged. Militants forced their way into the Marawi Cathedral and seized a Catholic priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers, according to the city's bishop, Edwin de la Pena. The black flags of the Islamic State group were planted atop buildings and flown from commandeered vehicles, including a government ambulance and an armored car, said Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr., vice governor of Lanao del Sur province, of which Marawi is the capital. More than half of the population of Marawi has cleared out, Adiong said. The problem of militancy in the south, the scene of decades-long Muslim separatist uprisings in the predominantly Catholic nation, is not new. Duterte had repeatedly threatened to place the region under martial law, which allows him to use the armed forces to carry out arrests, searches and detentions more rapidly. But human rights groups and others fear that martial law powers could further embolden the president, who already has been accused of allowing extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.
By AFP

TRIPOLI: Feeding on the chaos that has gripped Libya since the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, jihadists have used the country to recruit and export militants.

Salman Abedi, the man suspected of carrying out the attack on a pop concert in Manchester that killed 22 people and wounded dozens, was born in Britain but visited Libya before the bombing that was claimed by the Islamic State group.

- Rebellion to jihad -

At the start of the uprising against Kadhafi, dozens of Libyans who lived abroad travelled home to take up arms alongside other Muslim extremists against the veteran strongman.

They were supplied weapons by Western countries and fought the regime as NATO warplanes provided them with air cover.

Post-Kadhadi Libya quickly turned into a breeding ground for heavily armed groups, including Islamists, some of whom were paid by transitional authorities to secure the country's borders.

Among them was the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia which wooed jihadists and slowly spread its presence from Libya's second city Benghazi to Derna in the east.

Ansar al-Sharia was also present in Sirte, Kadhafi's hometown which was the Islamic State group controlled for more than a year before they were routed by Libyan pro-government forces late last year.

The Islamists who fought Kadhafi controlled army barracks and installations in the east and south of the country after his demise and transformed them into training camps.

Hundreds of jihadists were trained to fight in Iraq and Syria.

- Military and ideology -

The recruits first received ideological guidance and then military training, experts say.

Thanks to Libya's long and porous borders with Egypt and Tunisia, networks were able to radicalise, train and send fighters to battlefields in Syria and Iraq.

Foreign jihadists flooded Libya to prepare for battle.

Some joined Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate now known as Fateh al-Sham, while others joined ranks with its rival the Islamic State group.

As IS faced repeated setbacks in Syria and Iraq at the hands of the US-led international coalition, some fighters returned to Libya.

- IS still active -

Despite losing Sirte to pro-government forces in December, IS continues to be active in Libya, particularly in the country's remote south and in the east.

According to analysts, IS diehards in Libya consist of fighters from many nationalities.

Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Manchester bombing suspect Abedi could have been trained in an IS camp before the jihadists were routed from Sirte.

The Washington Institute think-tank says that "previously, most of the foreign fighters travelling to Libya hailed from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, and Tunisia.

"Yet once IS became the main recruiter there, individuals from Europe, North America, South Asia, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa began to show up as well."

Although the Islamic State group claimed the Manchester bombing there has been no confirmation it was behind the attack.

"If the Manchester attack is definitively tied to IS cells in Libya, it would show that the group can still be a lethal actor even without holding territory there," said the Washington Institute.

TRIPOLI: Feeding on the chaos that has gripped Libya since the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, jihadists have used the country to recruit and export militants. Salman Abedi, the man suspected of carrying out the attack on a pop concert in Manchester that killed 22 people and wounded dozens, was born in Britain but visited Libya before the bombing that was claimed by the Islamic State group. - Rebellion to jihad - At the start of the uprising against Kadhafi, dozens of Libyans who lived abroad travelled home to take up arms alongside other Muslim extremists against the veteran strongman. They were supplied weapons by Western countries and fought the regime as NATO warplanes provided them with air cover. Post-Kadhadi Libya quickly turned into a breeding ground for heavily armed groups, including Islamists, some of whom were paid by transitional authorities to secure the country's borders. Among them was the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia which wooed jihadists and slowly spread its presence from Libya's second city Benghazi to Derna in the east. Ansar al-Sharia was also present in Sirte, Kadhafi's hometown which was the Islamic State group controlled for more than a year before they were routed by Libyan pro-government forces late last year. The Islamists who fought Kadhafi controlled army barracks and installations in the east and south of the country after his demise and transformed them into training camps. Hundreds of jihadists were trained to fight in Iraq and Syria. - Military and ideology - The recruits first received ideological guidance and then military training, experts say. Thanks to Libya's long and porous borders with Egypt and Tunisia, networks were able to radicalise, train and send fighters to battlefields in Syria and Iraq. Foreign jihadists flooded Libya to prepare for battle. Some joined Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate now known as Fateh al-Sham, while others joined ranks with its rival the Islamic State group. As IS faced repeated setbacks in Syria and Iraq at the hands of the US-led international coalition, some fighters returned to Libya. - IS still active - Despite losing Sirte to pro-government forces in December, IS continues to be active in Libya, particularly in the country's remote south and in the east. According to analysts, IS diehards in Libya consist of fighters from many nationalities. Mattia Toaldo, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Manchester bombing suspect Abedi could have been trained in an IS camp before the jihadists were routed from Sirte. The Washington Institute think-tank says that "previously, most of the foreign fighters travelling to Libya hailed from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, the Palestinian territories, and Tunisia. "Yet once IS became the main recruiter there, individuals from Europe, North America, South Asia, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa began to show up as well." Although the Islamic State group claimed the Manchester bombing there has been no confirmation it was behind the attack. "If the Manchester attack is definitively tied to IS cells in Libya, it would show that the group can still be a lethal actor even without holding territory there," said the Washington Institute.
By AFP

BEIRUT: A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told AFP.

"The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians."

The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

BEIRUT: A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group told AFP. "The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the town's municipal building," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria," Abdel Rahman told AFP. The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said "all states" whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed "to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians." The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing. According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday. The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year. This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition's operations in Syria. Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children. The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against IS's last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq. On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March. Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.
By AFP

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte joked Friday that soldiers could rape up to three women, as he reassured them of his full support under his newly imposed regional martial law.

Duterte, who often peppers his language with man-on-the-street curses, made the comments in jest during a speech at a military base to lift the spirits of troops tasked with quelling what he says is a fast-growing threat of Islamist terrorism.

"For this martial law and the consequences of martial law and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible. Just do your work. I will handle the rest," he said.

"I will be imprisoned for you. If you rape three (women), I will say that I did it."

Duterte imposed martial law on Tuesday across the southern region of Mindanao in response to militants going on a deadly rampage through a city in the south and flying the black flags of the Islamic State group.

Duterte said the militants were planning to establish a caliphate for IS across all of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, and that martial law was the only way to crush the rebellion.

Duterte, 72, easily won presidential elections last year by presenting himself as in touch with ordinary Filipinos, often using street language full of profanities.

On the election campaign Duterte said he had two mistresses but jokingly reassured taxpayers that he would not cost them much if he was president because he took them to cheap, short-time hotels for sex.

Duterte also attracted controversy when he said he wanted to rape an Australian missionary who had been caught up in a 1989 prison riot in the Philippines and murdered by the inmates.

"There was this Australian lay minister. When they took them out, I saw her face and I thought, 'Son of a whore. What a pity. They raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first'," Duterte said in April last year.

The Australian and American ambassadors to Manila voiced their disapproval at the comments, but Duterte reacted furiously and insisted he had been taken out of context.

On the campaign trail Duterte also jokingly told voters to open funeral parlour businesses because as president he would fill them with corpses from a war on drugs.

Duterte did launch his drug war, and it has claimed thousands of lives.

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte joked Friday that soldiers could rape up to three women, as he reassured them of his full support under his newly imposed regional martial law. Duterte, who often peppers his language with man-on-the-street curses, made the comments in jest during a speech at a military base to lift the spirits of troops tasked with quelling what he says is a fast-growing threat of Islamist terrorism. "For this martial law and the consequences of martial law and the ramifications of martial law, I and I alone would be responsible. Just do your work. I will handle the rest," he said. "I will be imprisoned for you. If you rape three (women), I will say that I did it." Duterte imposed martial law on Tuesday across the southern region of Mindanao in response to militants going on a deadly rampage through a city in the south and flying the black flags of the Islamic State group. Duterte said the militants were planning to establish a caliphate for IS across all of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, and that martial law was the only way to crush the rebellion. Duterte, 72, easily won presidential elections last year by presenting himself as in touch with ordinary Filipinos, often using street language full of profanities. On the election campaign Duterte said he had two mistresses but jokingly reassured taxpayers that he would not cost them much if he was president because he took them to cheap, short-time hotels for sex. Duterte also attracted controversy when he said he wanted to rape an Australian missionary who had been caught up in a 1989 prison riot in the Philippines and murdered by the inmates. "There was this Australian lay minister. When they took them out, I saw her face and I thought, 'Son of a whore. What a pity. They raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first'," Duterte said in April last year. The Australian and American ambassadors to Manila voiced their disapproval at the comments, but Duterte reacted furiously and insisted he had been taken out of context. On the campaign trail Duterte also jokingly told voters to open funeral parlour businesses because as president he would fill them with corpses from a war on drugs. Duterte did launch his drug war, and it has claimed thousands of lives.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: The activities of President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner have come under FBI scrutiny as part of the probe of Russian interference in last year's presidential election, US media reported on Thursday.

Although it is unclear whether Kushner is a main focus of the probe, he is under investigation for the "extent and nature" of his interaction with Russian officials, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

NBC News, citing unnamed US officials, also reported that the FBI is looking at Kushner but emphasized that although investigators believe he has "significant information relevant to their inquiry," it does not mean they suspect him of a crime.

The news is sure to rankle Trump, who was in Italy for a Group of Seven summit, accompanied by his top aides including Kushner.

Kushner held meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and a banker from Moscow in December, the Post said.

The banker, Sergei Gorkov, is chairman of VneshEconomBank, a state bank under US sanctions since July 2014.

Kushner initially failed to declare the meetings on forms to obtain a security clearance to serve in the White House. His lawyer later said it was a mistake, telling the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he would amend the forms.

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is the only current White House official known to be considered a key figure in the probe, which is targeting other members of Trump's campaign team.

"Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys, said in a statement.

"He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry."

- 'Witch hunt'? -

The Post reported last week that the Russia investigation had been extended to a top White House official as a "significant person of interest."

But NBC noted that Kushner was not considered to be in the same category as either former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or sacked national security advisor Michael Flynn, who are considered "subjects" of the probe.

Investigators are looking into possible financial crimes in addition to possible collusion between the campaign and Russian officials, the paper reported on Thursday.

The probe is headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller, appointed special counsel with broad powers to investigate Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign after the president sacked FBI director James Comey, who was heading the investigation, earlier this month.

Comey's firing, together with Trump's reported repeated efforts to persuade senior politicians, justice and intelligence officials to help push back against the probe, have brought accusations that he is obstructing the investigation.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin, amid accusations from US intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated a sweeping campaign to tilt the vote in the Republican's favor.

The president last week declared himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history.

This week, former CIA director John Brennan revealed that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.

WASHINGTON: The activities of President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner have come under FBI scrutiny as part of the probe of Russian interference in last year's presidential election, US media reported on Thursday. Although it is unclear whether Kushner is a main focus of the probe, he is under investigation for the "extent and nature" of his interaction with Russian officials, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter. NBC News, citing unnamed US officials, also reported that the FBI is looking at Kushner but emphasized that although investigators believe he has "significant information relevant to their inquiry," it does not mean they suspect him of a crime. The news is sure to rankle Trump, who was in Italy for a Group of Seven summit, accompanied by his top aides including Kushner. Kushner held meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and a banker from Moscow in December, the Post said. The banker, Sergei Gorkov, is chairman of VneshEconomBank, a state bank under US sanctions since July 2014. Kushner initially failed to declare the meetings on forms to obtain a security clearance to serve in the White House. His lawyer later said it was a mistake, telling the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he would amend the forms. Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is the only current White House official known to be considered a key figure in the probe, which is targeting other members of Trump's campaign team. "Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys, said in a statement. "He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry." - 'Witch hunt'? - The Post reported last week that the Russia investigation had been extended to a top White House official as a "significant person of interest." But NBC noted that Kushner was not considered to be in the same category as either former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or sacked national security advisor Michael Flynn, who are considered "subjects" of the probe. Investigators are looking into possible financial crimes in addition to possible collusion between the campaign and Russian officials, the paper reported on Thursday. The probe is headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller, appointed special counsel with broad powers to investigate Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign after the president sacked FBI director James Comey, who was heading the investigation, earlier this month. Comey's firing, together with Trump's reported repeated efforts to persuade senior politicians, justice and intelligence officials to help push back against the probe, have brought accusations that he is obstructing the investigation. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin, amid accusations from US intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated a sweeping campaign to tilt the vote in the Republican's favor. The president last week declared himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history. This week, former CIA director John Brennan revealed that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.
By AFP

KANDAHAR: At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Friday, in the second such assault this week.

The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

"The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province," ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP.

"Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded."

A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20.

The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion.

It highlights a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq.

Raziq had lashed out at the central government in Kabul on Thursday, accusing them of a plot to destabalise his province.

"Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering.

"Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help."

The attack marks another setback for NATO-backed Afghan forces. It comes just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001.

And in another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help.

The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders.

The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan.

The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.

KANDAHAR: At least 15 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban fighters attacked their army base in the southern province of Kandahar, the defence ministry said Friday, in the second such assault this week. The attack in Shah Wali Kot district late Thursday came just three days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area. "The Taliban launched a coordinated assault on an army base last night (Thursday) in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province," ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP. "Fifteen Afghan army soldiers were martyred and five others wounded." A provincial official who spoke on the condition of anonymity gave a higher death toll of 20. The attack comes as Taliban insurgents intensify their annual spring offensive and their strength is growing, more than 15 years after they were toppled from power in a US-led invasion. It highlights a growing insurgent offensive in Kandahar, where security has relatively improved in recent years under the leadership of police chief and regional strongman General Abdul Raziq. Raziq had lashed out at the central government in Kabul on Thursday, accusing them of a plot to destabalise his province. "Some political figures within the National Unity Government are trying to destabilise Kandahar like (neighbouring) Helmand and Uruzgan provinces," Raziq told a public gathering. "Whenever there is an attack in Kandahar, the central government does not help." The attack marks another setback for NATO-backed Afghan forces. It comes just a month after the Taliban killed at least 135 soldiers in the northern province of Balkh in the deadliest insurgent attack on an Afghan military base since 2001. And in another deadly Taliban attack on security outposts in southern Zabul province on Sunday, local officials made desperate calls to Afghan television stations to seek attention because they were unable to contact senior authorities for help. The battlefield losses have raised concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces, beset by unprecedented casualties and blamed for corruption, desertion and "ghost soldiers" who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by fraudulent commanders. The Taliban launched their annual "spring offensive" in late April, heralding a surge in fighting as the US tries to craft a new Afghan strategy. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last month warned of "another tough year" for security forces in Afghanistan. The United States and several NATO allies are considering sending thousands more troops to break the stalemate against the resurgent militants.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in.

The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent. Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from making comment on the issue, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move. "Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades-old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars. However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI. "Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity. However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause. "We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development. "As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI. "That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question.

The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress.

The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush. Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity." The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."

The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for non-governmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia. It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.

The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity. The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in. The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent. Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from making comment on the issue, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move. "Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI. The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades-old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars. However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund. "As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI. "Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity. However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause. "We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said. Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development. "As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI. "That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question. The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush. Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity." The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives." The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for non-governmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia. It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet. The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office.
By AFP

TAORMANIA: US President Donald Trump said Friday the "problem" of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be "solved", as he met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, just weeks after he called North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un a "madman with nuclear weapons."

The issue of North Korea, whose missile and nuclear tests have its neighbours and the wider world concerned, will be discussed in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries, Trump said.

"It will be solved, you can bet on that," he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details.

Abe intended to use the summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea following its recent series of missile tests.

"The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act "resolutely".

Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

It carried out two atomic tests last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.

The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure.

- 'A lot of firepower' -

Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said "we can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that".

"We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 -- but we don't want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media.

Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable." The Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart's "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment."

The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with North Korea's ally China.

But Beijing, the North's main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority.

North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computer and demanding payment in Bitcoin to return control to users.

Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.

TAORMANIA: US President Donald Trump said Friday the "problem" of an increasingly belligerent North Korea would be "solved", as he met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit. "It's a big problem, it's a world problem," he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, just weeks after he called North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un a "madman with nuclear weapons." The issue of North Korea, whose missile and nuclear tests have its neighbours and the wider world concerned, will be discussed in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialised countries, Trump said. "It will be solved, you can bet on that," he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details. Abe intended to use the summit to underscore the danger posed by the unpredictable regime in North Korea following its recent series of missile tests. "The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world," he told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act "resolutely". Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a "heavy" nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington. It carried out two atomic tests last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion. The US is worried that if Kim is not stopped, other countries in the region including Japan and South Korea would be compelled to seek their own nuclear capability as a defence measure. - 'A lot of firepower' - Washington says it is willing to enter into talks with North Korea if it halts its nuclear and missile tests, but it has also warned that military intervention was an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling. In an April telephone conversation with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump said "we can't let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that". "We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20 -- but we don't want to use it," the US leader said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by US media. Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was "stable or not stable." The Philippine leader responded that their North Korean counterpart's "mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment." The United States has for weeks been negotiating a new Security Council sanctions resolution with North Korea's ally China. But Beijing, the North's main trade partner, has made clear that the push for diplomatic talks -- not imposing more sanctions -- is the priority. North Korea has also been accused of being behind the ransomware epidemic that hit global computer networks earlier this month, crippling hundreds of thousands of computer and demanding payment in Bitcoin to return control to users. Pyongyang has angrily dismissed these allegations.
By AFP

BEIRUT: US-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed at least 35 civilians in an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State group, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

"Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

"The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Thursday's toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the Observatory said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday.

The Britain-based monitor this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on September 23, 2014.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, the Observatory said.

The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on IS's remaining bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new relevation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.

More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011.

BEIRUT: US-led coalition air strikes on Thursday killed at least 35 civilians in an eastern Syrian town held by the Islamic State group, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a series of residential buildings in Mayadeen, a town in Syria's oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor. "Among the dead are at least 26 relatives of IS fighters, many of them women and children, including Syrians and Moroccans," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. "The other nine are Syrian civilians and include five children," Abdel Rahman told AFP. Thursday's toll brought the known deaths from two days of coalition bombing raids on Mayadeen to 50, the Observatory said, after 15 people were killed in US-led strikes on the town on Wednesday. The Britain-based monitor this week reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalition since it began bombing Syria on September 23, 2014. Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, the Observatory said. The international alliance is providing air cover for twin offensives on IS's remaining bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq. On Thursday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March. Prior to the new relevation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had "unintentionally" killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014. More than 320,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced since Syria's conflict broke out in March 2011.
Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark attended opening ceremony of Sternfahrt 2017 held at Sonderborg Citadel on May 25, 2017. Princess Marie gave a speech at the opening ceremony. During the opening event, a series of presentations such as fire fighting drills and emergency responses were made. Sonderborg hosts the biggest international meeting of European Fireman in 2017.
As children age into adolescence and on into young adulthood, they show dramatic improvements in their ability to control impulses, stay organized, and make decisions. Those executive functions of the brain are key factors in determining outcomes including their educational success, and whether they will use recreational drugs, or develop psychiatric illness. In a new study, published this week in Current Biology, a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers report newly mapped changes in the network organization of the brain that underlie those improvements in executive function. The findings could provide clues about risks for certain mental illnesses.

The study, led by Ted Satterthwaite, MD, an assistant professor of Psychiatry, Danielle Bassett, PhD, an associate professor of Bioengineering, and Graham Baum, a neuroscience doctoral student supervised by Satterthwaite and Bassett, reveals that in adolescence the brain networks becomes increasingly divided into distinct parts, called modules. Modules are parts of a network that are tightly connected to each other, and less connected to other parts of the network. Modules are thought to support specialized brain functions like movement, sensation, vision, and more complicated tasks like executive function. The new evidence shows that the degree to which executive function develops during this period in part depends on the degree to which these modules are present.

"We were surprised to find that the development of structural brain networks involved both more distinct modules but also more global integration across the brain," Satterthwaite said.

The findings suggest that these modular sub-networks are critical for the development of complex cognition and behavior. They could also lead to the identification of biomarkers of abnormal brain development that could predict a person's risk for psychosis and major mood disorders.

Satterthwaite and his team set out to define the normal development of structural network modules and its relationship to executive functioning using a large sample of 882 youth between the ages of 8 and 22 who completed diffusion imaging as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded study of brain development led by Raquel Gur, MD, PhD, a professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Radiology. As expected, executive function improved markedly in study participants with age. An analysis of specialized brain MRI scans allowed the team to estimate structural brain networks for each participant. Analyses of these networks revealed that modules became more defined with age, but also that the network as a whole became more integrated.

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"The development of network modules did not result in the brain network becoming fragmented," Baum explained. "In fact, the brain's predicted ability to send signals efficiently across the whole network actually increased. These results suggest that as kids grow up, their brains become both more modular but also more globally integrated. This may allow the brain to have specialized units that can work together to support advanced cognitive abilities."

Satterthwaite, Bassett and Baum suggest that modular brain organization may be critical for supporting specific types of processing. At the same time, the increase in integration across the network may allow those specialized parts to work together in a coordinated fashion. The researchers found that both the presence of specialized network modules and the ability to send information across the network was significantly related to a person's performance on tests of executive function.

The research team is now combining structural and functional imaging techniques, to examine how structural brain networks constrain and shape functional brain networks and activation patterns. They will also investigate whether information about brain networks can predict the emergence of psychiatric disorders in children years later.
The largest delegation of UK healthcare companies took part in this years China Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF); waving the British flag for innovation in China.

The companies, that ranged from small start-ups to large SMEs, exhibited their pioneering range of medical technologies (MedTech) on the UK Pavilion, in a bid to forge stronger relationships with the Asia-Pacific region.

Showcasing under the Innovation is GREAT campaign, the exhibiting British companies represented the breadth of the countrys medical equipment and technology sector and are a testament to how the UK continues to embrace innovation.

Held in Shanghai, CMEF is Chinas leading healthcare trade show and is now the largest medical equipment exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting over 60,000 visitors.

CMEF is world-renowned as the premier Asian trade event for medical devices and as such, it is no surprise that the UK's presence here continues to grow each year, Kevin Holland, Minister-Counsellor and Director for Life Sciences at the British Embassy in Beijing.

Our GREAT stand is an introduction to the very best of British MedTech as a sample of the 3500 MedTech companies active in the UK. Our companies are ideally suited to the rapidly developing Chinese market which demands the best quality goods and services.

Organised by the Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) - the industry association for the MedTech sector in the UK - the UK Pavilion at CMEF highlighted how British developments are transforming the lives of patients and clinicians across the globe.

The Pavilion was also supported by the UK Department for International Trade, the China Britain Business Council and the UK Life Sciences Organisation.

Paul Benton, International Director of the ABHI added: This is an exciting time for closer collaborations and partnerships between UK and Chinese companies and organisations.

The latest 13th China 5-year plan places a priority on innovation and healthcare reform, and both the public and private sectors in China are looking to develop stronger ties with international companies that can bring the highest level of technology to market. With their remarkable record in pioneering new treatments and technology in healthcare and life sciences, UK companies are certainly very well placed to play a leading role in China, in turn, supporting that process of change and reform.
Dr Rotstein received his Ph.D at Karolinska Institutet and has worked as an oncologist for almost 40 years. He was previously Head of Department at the Oncology Clinic at Danderyd Hospital where he together with his colleagues built and managed a highly-appreciated breast cancer clinic. As one of Sweden's leading oncologists, he was honored last year with the Swedish Breast Cancer Patient Advocacy Association's (BRO) Award 2016. Samuel Rotstein is currently working as a physician at Radiumhemmet, Karolinska University Hospital.

Samuel Rotstein

In the role as Scientific Advisor to Biovica, Samuel Rotstein, will contribute with his experience & expertise and assist the company in its extensive clinical study program and in the development of the company's products.

"We are very pleased to have Dr. Samuel Rotstein as Medical Advisor to Biovica and we are looking forward to our collaboration. His experience in oncology and in breast cancer will be very valuable for Biovica and our long-term objectives to assist patients. Our goal is through our technology contribute to best possible treatment for cancer patients", says Anders Rylander, CEO Biovica.

"I'm looking forward to working with Biovica. As more cancer treatments becomes available and more individualized, greater demands arise for improved diagnostic tools and evaluation methods in order to give the patient the optimal treatment", says Dr. Samuel Rotstein.
Newborn infant girls have better outcomes than their male counterparts due to an innate genetic advantage in responding to acute infections, according to new research from RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland). The research is published in the current edition of Pediatric Research.

While females have a recognised survival advantage throughout the entire human lifecycle, this is particularly evident during the newborn period. Newborn boys have higher rates of infection and sepsis compared with baby girls of the same gestational age and have poorer survival.

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The explanation is to be found in our chromosomes, in particular the difference in chromosomal make-up between females, who carry two copies of the X chromosome (XX), and males who carry one X and one Y chromosome (XY). The X chromosome contains more of the genes involved in immunity than does the Y chromosome. Females can have a higher expression of these immune genes than males and this gives them an advantage in dealing with acute infections, and could also be implicated in gender differences in certain diseases.

This research measured the presence of a factor called IRAK1 (interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 1), which contributes to immunity against infection, in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies. Higher IRAK1 gene and protein expression was detected in the female cord blood and the authors believe this may explain in part the differences in inflammatory outcomes in infants.

According to the senior author of the research paper Professor Catherine Greene, Associate Professor of Clinical Microbiology at RCSI:

The phenomenon of female neonates being hardier than their male counterparts is well recognised. This research shows this is due to a fundamental genetic advantage which may also contribute to more effective responses to infection and disease throughout the human lifecycle.

David ODriscoll, who carried out the experimental work in RCSI and is first author of the paper, said:

Our findings in full-term newborn babies suggest that a similar phenomenon could be occurring in preterm infants where gender differences can be even more marked.

This research arose from a collaboration between the RCSI researchers and Professor Eleanor Molloy, Head of Department of Paediatrics in Trinity College Dublin, neonatologist and co-senior author of the study who works with the neonatology departments of the National Maternity Hospital, the Coombe and Crumlin Childrens Hospital; and the Paediatrics Academic Centre at Tallaght Hospital.
Leman Micro Devices (LMD), the developer of regulated consumer healthcare products that is backed by major players within the mobile device industry, has announced that its V-Sensor and app - the only smartphone-integrated solution that measures blood pressure and other vital signs with medical accuracy  will satisfy new requirements imposed by changes in laws governing the use of medical devices in India, and will therefore be suitable for use in the Indian market. This is significant since leading Indian healthcare professionals have predicted a hypertension epidemic in the near future.

In an interview in the Times of India, senior surgeon Dr Ramakanta Panda explained that estimates of hypertension range from 20-40% in urban populations and 12-17% in rural areas. People are normally not aware that they have a problem, the Times of India quoted him saying, before going on to detail: High blood pressure kills nearly 1.5 million people every year in South-East Asia.

LMDs V-Sensor is currently being readied for submission to the FDA and European Regulators, and once it has been approved, smartphone makers are expected to begin integrating it into next-generation handsets from next year. The size of the Indian population means that the device, once integrated, could play a major part in reducing the number of deaths, since the price, power consumption and size of the sensor means that there is no penalty for users, either in cost or performance. Effectively, they get a medically accurate, easy-to-use blood pressure monitor free with their next smartphone upgrade.

The new Medical Devices Rules (2017) which come into force with effect from January 31st 2018 categorize the V-Sensor in Class B and state: Where a free sale certificate has already been issued in respect of any medical device by the national regulatory authority or other competent authoritya license shall be grantedwithout carrying out clinical investigation. Crucially, the smartphone itself does not become the regulated medical device; LMDs V-sensor is the regulated element with the handset classified as an accessory.

In order to tackle the growing and deadly problem of hypertension, everyone must have access to an effective, simple and cheap method of monitoring their blood pressure. As Dr Narsingh Veerma, Secretary General of the Indian Society for Hypertension, said: In hypertension the most important, the vital thing, is the measurement. Smartphone ownership is becoming ubiquitous, even in poor communities, so a smartphone-integrated technology that can deliver accurate measurement is likely to prove extremely efficacious.

Added LMD CEO, Mark-Eric Jones:
According to the data released by the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today, the mortality rates for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have increased to 55% between 1999 and 2014. During the same period, Alzheimer's mortality rates at home also increased from 14% to 25%, suggesting the rise in the number of caregivers that would benefit from support such as education and case management services.

A fatal form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the fifth leading cause of death in people between 65 to 75 years of age in the United States. Accounting for 3.6% of all deaths in 2014, Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States for all adults.

"Millions of Americans and their family members are profoundly affected by Alzheimer's disease," said CDC Acting Director Anne Schuchat, M.D. "Our new study reveals an increase in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease-related deaths. As the number of older Americans with Alzheimer's disease rises, more family members are taking on the emotionally and physically challenging role of caregiver than ever before. These families need and deserve our support."

The study is the first to provide county-level mortality rates caused by AD. CDC researchers examined state- and county-level death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System to identify deaths caused by AD. According to the analysis, possible reasons for the increase include growing older adult population in the U.S., rise in AD diagnosis at earlier stages, increased reporting by doctors and others who record the death cause, and fewer deaths in old adults from other causes of death such as heart disease and stroke.

The key findings of the AD rates analysis was that the mortality rates increased from 16.5 in 1999 to 25.4 in 2014 per 100,000 people after adjusting for age. While most deaths due to Alzheimer's still occur in a nursing home or long-term care facility, the rate has fallen to 54 % in 2014 compared with 68 % in 1999. High mortality rates were reported in the Midwest and West Coast areas and the counties primarily in the Southeast recorded the highest.

The greatest risk factor for AD is age and most adults with AD are 65 years or older. As the numbers of people who die from other diseases are fewer, more people survive into adulthood and this increases the risk for AD.

"As Alzheimer's disease progresses, caregiving becomes very important. Caregivers and patients can benefit from programs that include education about Alzheimer's disease, how to take care of themselves and their loved one, and case management to lessen the burden of care," said Christopher Taylor, Ph.D., lead author and epidemiologist, Division of Population Health, CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. "Supportive interventions can lessen the burden for caregivers and improve the quality of care for people with Alzheimer's disease."

Individuals should visit the physician if they come across symptoms such as memory loss, difficulties with problem solving, or misplacing objects that affect their daily life. As currently there is no cure for AD, early diagnosis is important to allow patients and their families to start planning medical and caregiving needs at all stages of the disease.

About CDCs Healthy Aging Program

CDC's Healthy Aging Program develops high-quality scientific information to educate, inform, and translate research into practice to improve the cognitive and physical health of older Americans and their caregivers. For more information on CDC's activities related to AD and the Healthy Brain Initiative, visit https://www.cdc.gov/aging/aginginfo/alzheimers.htm and www.cdc.gov/aging/healthybrain. In addition, listen to CDC's podcast on AD at https://www2c.cdc.gov/podcasts/. For more information on the National plan, visit National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease: 2016 Update.

Source:
Sigmascreening, a Dutch MedTech developer and world leader in the field of pressure based digital mammography and breast cancer screening, announces that a large independent Norwegian study further confirms Sigmas hypothesis that pressure has a clear relation with the most optimal results in mammography. The study confirms the importance of pressure in accordance with Sigmascreenings concept of the Sensitive Sigma Paddle , which applies pressure guidance during mammography. The combination of results of an earlier Dutch and this new Norwegian study shows an optimal pressure in the range of 10 kPa. This pressure clearly correlates very well with the proposed pressure by Sigmascreening.

The data show that high breast volume and low compression pressure are associated with positive performance measures such as lower recall rate and higher specificity (true positive) of tumor detection. Procedures with too low pressures result in unnecessary recalls due to false positives. Flattening of the breast on the basis of pressure, also prevents unnecessary discomfort and pain, which may contribute to a higher breast cancer screening compliance of women. The Sigma pressure technology aims to optimize these three elements.

Sigmascreenings Sensitive Sigma Paddle is the first pressure based compression paddle providing real-time and reproducible information on mammographic pressure, which can considerably reduce frequently experienced pain for women during screening. It optimizes compression for every individual breast, taking into account breast size and tissue stiffness, which leads to an optimal mean contact pressure per woman thereby optimizing both specificity (true negative) and sensitivity (true positive) for the most optimal screening result.

Ivo Aarninkhof, Sigmascreenings CEO, said:

The data from this Norwegian study clearly show the huge potential of our pressure based paddle for womens health. We strongly believe that our less painful solution will increase the compliance of breast cancer screening programs, while at the same time significantly improves the diagnostic performance. Our Sensitive Sigma Paddle can measure and visualize a  previously not available  parameter, PRESSURE, which allows hospitals and breast screening centers to take breast size and tissue stiffness into account. This avoids the currently experienced negative consequences of under- or over compression of the breast and enables a highly reproducible procedure, year after year. But foremost leads to a more precise tumor detection.

Norwegian study

The data of the Norwegian retrospective study of 261,000 mammography exams, show that high breast volume and low compression pressure are associated with positive performance measures such as lower recall rate and higher specificity (true positive) of tumor detection. Especially the findings on the applied pressure are in line with earlier data generated in a Dutch study by the research group of Professor Nico Karssemeijer et al in 54,137, showing that the performance of breast cancer screening also depends on mammographic compression. These studies confirm the philosophy behind Sigmascreenings Sensitive Sigma Paddle for breast cancer screening devices.

The Norwegian researchers, led by Dr. Nataliia Moshina, a doctoral research fellow at the Cancer Registry of Norway in Oslo categorized compression force and pressure to determine performance outcome measures such as recall rate, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV). "Based on our findings, low compression pressure and high breast volume are associated with favorable early performance measures, including lower recall rate, higher rate of screen-detected cancer, and lower rate of interval breast cancer, compared with high compression pressure and low breast volume," the study authors wrote.

But apart from the screened and diagnosed women, also radiographers and radiologists benefit from pressure based compression. The real-time visualization of the applied pressure gives more insights into the compression practice, which leads to a faster more pleasant and much more accurate procedure.

Rapid market acceptance in Europe

Sigmascreenings pressure-standardized breast compression is expanding rapidly in screening centers and hospitals throughout Europe. In Europe, over 10,000 patients already experienced the more woman-friendly way of making mammograms while clinicians are starting to recognize the improved sensitivity and specificity of our technology. The Sensitive Sigma Paddle with CE marking is already being used in the United Kingdom, Norway, France, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.
Academics and industry partners in Birmingham are developing a new device that will ensure newborn babies could survive in the event of a crash in an ambulance at up to 40 miles per hour.

Product design experts at Birmingham City University have teamed up with Evac+Chair International - makers of the world's most popular stairway evacuation chair - to develop the first-ever stretcher interface device (SID) for neonates.

The universal device for neonatal equipment will be securely attached to European Ambulance Loading Stretchers (EALS) and those in other markets worldwide, complementing the existing range of goods and services offered by Evac+Chair International.

With the newborn contained within an incubator, the partners are devising a quick attach/release mechanism that will see the device disengage from oxygen, power and other survival supplies in the event of a road traffic incident, to be then transferred quickly to another ambulance vehicle.

Through Birmingham-based Evac+Chair International's ParAid brand, the company already produces an award-winning ambulance child restraint (ACR) - a flexible and fully adjustable harnessing system for the safe and effective transport of infants and children. What makes SID unique to previous designs is that it will isolate the baby from sudden accelerations and decelerations to reduce the stress of road transport.

To test the effectiveness of the design, SID will be impact tested at 40 miles per hour in a similar manner to how the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) verifies the fit and protection offered by child restraints in the event of a front or side crash.

More than 78,000 lives have been saved since Euro NCAP's crash safety tests were launched in 1997, and the Birmingham team hope their SID and related products will achieve a safety rating similar to those given on child restraint systems.

The project has been made possible due to a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) which has been agreed between Birmingham School of Architecture and Design, part of Birmingham City University, and Evac+Chair International.

The terms of the programme will see a recent graduate from the University's Product and Furniture Design course employed to work on the two-year project. Research findings from the collaboration will also be fed in to the University's curriculum, ensuring that its teaching is informed by industry practice and innovation.

Dr Panch Suntharalingam from Birmingham City University is the lead academic on the partnership programme. He said:

"The major challenge in this project will be the development of a stretcher interface device with impact-resistant fixing points and ports for oxygen, power and other survival supplies situated around what encapsulates the newborn.

"In order for the product to be desirable, it needs to be compatible with any European ambulance trolley, so this adds an additional complication, as the variation in emergency vehicles and their components differs across the continent.

"However, our work is vital in guaranteeing the safety of newborn patients in ambulances and giving their families piece of mind - something that will be at the forefront of all our minds throughout the project."

There is a lack of research in recent ambulance accidents in Europe but in the USA, between

1992 and 2011, there was an average of 1,500 crashes involving an ambulance that resulted in an injury, with 2,600 incapacitated as a result. 29 per cent of the deaths caused in these incidents were ambulance passengers.

Ges Wallace, Managing Director, Evac+Chair International, said:

"Working with Birmingham City University will enable us to develop a world-class innovative safety conscious products to complement our existing range of specialist patient and casualty handling equipment."

There are approximately 16,000 transfers of premature and sick babies each year in Britain, according to the UK Neonatal Transport Group. Many of these transfers are needed so that babies can be cared for in the correct type of neonatal unit.

44 per cent of neonatal transfers in 2014/15 were of babies who were moved to a more specialist unit. For example, this happens when a baby needs complex, long term intensive care because they are very premature or sick. Another 44 per cent of transfers were of babies moved to a less specialist unit when their condition improved.
Swiss scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and the University of Basel have created artificial viruses that can be used to target cancer. These designer viruses alert the immune system and cause it to send killer cells to help fight the tumor. The results, published in the journal Nature Communications, provide a basis for innovative cancer treatments.

Most cancer cells only provoke a limited reaction from the immune system - the body's defense mechanism - and can thus grow without appreciable resistance. By contrast, viral infections cause the body to release alarm signals, stimulating the immune system to use all available means to fight the invader.

Bolstered defenses

Immunotherapies have been successfully used to treat cancer for many years; they "disinhibit" the body's defense system and so also strengthen its half-hearted fight against cancer cells. Stimulating the immune system to specifically and wholeheartedly combat cancer cells, however, has remained a distant goal. Researchers have now succeeded in manufacturing innovative designer viruses that could do exactly that. Their teams were lead by Professor Doron Merkler from the Department of Pathology and Immunology of the Faculty of Medicine, UNIGE, and Professor Daniel Pinschewer from the Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel.

The researchers built artificial viruses based on lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), which can infect both rodents and humans. Although they were not harmful for mice, they did release the alarm signals typical of viral infections. The virologists also integrated certain proteins into the virus that are otherwise found only in cancer cells. Infection with the designer virus enabled the immune system to recognize these cancer proteins as dangerous.

The unique combination of alarm signals and the cancer cell protein stimulated the immune system to create a powerful army of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, also known as killer cells, which identified the cancer cells through their protein and successfully destroyed them.

Hope for new cancer treatments

The treatments available to cancer patients have developed enormously in the last few years. However, as the researchers report, current treatments are still inadequate in combating many forms of cancer. We hope that our new findings and technologies will soon be used in cancer treatments and so help to further increase their success rates, say the study's senior authors, Professor Doron Merkler and Professor Daniel Pinschewer. This very promising designer virus has already been patented through Unitec, a structure that offers advice as well as industrial and financial contacts to UNIGE, the University Hospital and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Geneva researchers.
UK Lebanon Tech Hub (UKLTH) announced today that it will fund the research and development of ediamond (Electromagnetic Diabetes Monitoring Device): a one of its kind non-invasive blood glucose-monitoring device, which is being developed by the Maroun Semaan faculty of Engineering and Architecture and the Faculty of Medicine at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

The partnership between the UKLTH and AUB was agreed at a formal signing ceremony attended by H.E. Nicolas Sehnaoui, Chairman of the board of the UKLTH, Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri, President of AUB and Dr. Mohamed Harajli, Provost of AUB, in addition to AUB Deans of Medicine and Engineering and Architecture and senior executives.

The UK Lebanon Tech Hub (UKLTH) is a joint initiative by Banque du Liban, Lebanons Central Bank, and the UK Government through the British Embassy in Beirut. It aims to support the growth of the Lebanese knowledge economy through an International Research Centre, which was recently given 2.5 million funding from the British Government.

ediamond is a continuous glucose monitoring wearable device that will enable diabetic patients to check their glucose levels without needing to come into contact with their blood stream, i.e. through conventional methods such as repeatedly pricking their finger with a needle throughout the day.

The lead investigators of ediamond are Dr. Joseph Costantine and Dr. Rouwaida Kanj from the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, and Dr. Assaad Eid from the Faculty of Medicine.

Mr. Nicolas Sehnaoui, Chairman of the UK Lebanon Tech Hub, said:

The goal of this collaboration is to produce a one of its kind non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device that will make monitoring as easy as checking the time of day. With 15 per cent of the worlds population suffering from diabetes we believe this device, which uses advanced electromagnetic theory, could make a profound difference to the lives of hundreds of millions of people. We hope, in particular, to empower those patients who lack diabetes management capabilities.

President Khuri emphasized the importance of universities as centers of research for innovation and technology start-ups. He said:

One of the most efficient ways to do business is to have the initial ideas come out from the academic institutions. If you look at Silicon Valley, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, most of the companies have intimate ties with great universities.

The collaboration between the UKLTH and AUB demonstrates UKLTHs commitment to supporting applied research projects through the recently set up International Research Centre (IRC).

The IRC was set up to play a key role in boosting investment in R&D in Lebanon and the wider MENA region, in particular by developing links between universities and entrepreneurs. Arab countries still lag considerably behind other knowledge economies in terms of investment in R&D.

According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, Arab countries only allocated a maximum of 0.7% of their GDP to R&D whilst EU countries allocated up to 3.2 % and Japan allocated 3.6%.

However, the UKLTH believes Lebanon has great potential to develop a world leading knowledge economy from greater investment in R&D. Lebanon ranks 4th out of 144 countries in mathematics and science education according to the World Economic Forums Global Information Technology Report.

Also, over 11 per cent of the student population study engineering while 9 per cent study computer and information technology. This has lead to Lebanon having the highest number of engineers per capita in the world.

Lebanons entrepreneurial ecosystem is developing fast, which is demonstrated by Lebanon ICT sectors eight per cent annual growth over the last five years and the expansion of the market to USD 400 Million by 2015, according to a recent report by the UK Lebanon Tech Hub. This has helped position Lebanon in the Top 20 entrepreneurial nations of the world in 2015 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor).

At the same time, Lebanon has many universities with dedicated research policies. Based on the most recent QS University Rankings, Lebanon had three universities in the top 20 universities of the Arab region, including the American University of Beirut, whose Faculties of medicine and Engineering and Architecture are ranked among the top in the MENA region.

Mr. Sehnaoui also highlighted how this partnership with AUB is a great platform for further collaborations. He added:

We would like to create a direct link between the UKLTH and AUB by connecting our start-ups with AUB students. This will enable the students to gain first-hand knowledge of life at a start-up and hopefully spark their inner entrepreneur. It will also benefit our start-ups by providing them with interns to support their efforts. We would also like to create a simple incentive program for professors from around the world to visit AUB as adjunct professors. Part of the program will include being able to sit on the board of directors of our start-ups to offer valuable advice. This will benefit both parties as it will provide great international experience for the visiting professors, and our start-ups will have the advantage of participating in board meetings.

Sehnaoui also shared his natural optimism that Lebanon will become a technological hub a few years down the line, saying that he believes in the capabilities of the Lebanese people in terms of innovation and creation.
Kolkata: The Centre is committed to curb the circulation of black money and widen tax base, a senior Income Tax official said here on Thursday.



The Additional Director, Income Tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation), West Bengal and Sikkim, Priyabrata Pramanik urged people to come forward voluntarily to furnish transaction details with IT department to curb the menace of black money in the country.



Pramanik was interacting with the members of the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) here on "Mandatory Furnishing of Non-Pan Data and Statement of Financial Transaction to Income Tax Department in Form No. 61 and 61A".



For collecting information of certain types of transactions from third parties in a non-intrusive manner, the Income-tax Rules require quoting of Permanent Account Number (PAN) where the transactions exceed a specified limit, he said adding that "Persons who do not hold PAN are required to fill up Form 60."



"The objective is to provide a mechanism wherein the flow of information regarding certain specified high value transactions entered into by a taxpayer with other persons is automatic. This will help for widening and deepening the tax base," he added.
Scientists on Monday announced the discovery of 52 genes linked to human intelligence, 40 of which have been identified as such for the first time.



The findings also turned up a surprising connection between intelligence and autism that could one day help shed light on the condition's origins.



Taken together, the new batch of "smart genes" accounted for 20 percent of the discrepencies in IQ test results among tens of thousands of people examined, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Genetics.



"For the first time, we were able to detect a substantial amount of genetic effects in IQ," said Danielle Posthuma, a researcher at the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research in Amsterdam, and the main architect of the study.



"Our findings provide insight into the biological underpinnings of intelligence," she said.



Most of the newly discovered gene variants linked to elevated IQ play a role in regulating cell development in the brain, especially neuron differentiation and the formation of neural information gateways called synapses.



An international team of 30 scientists combed through 13 earlier studies in which detailed genetic profiles and intelligence evaluations -- based on IQ tests -- had been compiled for 78,000 people, all of European descent.



Links with autism



Increasingly powerful computers have made it possible to scan and compare hundreds of thousands of genomes, matching tiny variations in DNA with diseases, body types or, in this case, native smarts.



The human genome has some 25,000 genes composed of more than three billion pairing of building-block molecules.



Many of the genetic variations linked with high IQ also correlated with other attributes: more years spent in school, bigger head size in infancy, tallness, and even success in kicking the tobacco habit.



One of the strongest -- and most surprising -- links was with autism, noted Posthuma.



"Gene variants associated with high IQ are also associated with higher risk of autism spectrum disorder," she said in an interview.



One gene in particular -- SHANK3 -- "is a very good candidate for explaining that," she added.



Conversely, the absence of certain high-IQ genes was more common in people suffering from schizophrenia or obesity.



A genetic IQ test?



To challenge their own results, the researchers separately checked the 13 databases they drew from -- each had used slightly different IQ tests -- against the 52 gene variants to see if the combined match-up between intelligence and genetic profile held up. It did.



They also scanned a very large database that had not been part of their study. Once again, the link held up, though -- as expected -- with a smaller percentage overlap between with IQ.



Scientists would have to scan millions of genomes to find them all, and the raw data and computing power for doing so is still out of reach, Posthuma explained.



"For intelligence, there are thousands of genes," she said. "We have detected the 52 most important ones, but there will be a lot more."



Experts agree that genes probably account for up to half of measured intelligence. But even if scientists could map all the genetic quirks that contribute to being brainy, that might not be enough to predict IQ, much less success in life.



"We are looking at all these genetic effects in isolation," said Posthuma. "Maybe it's a certain pattern of genetic variants" -- and not just their sheer number -- "that makes you more intelligent."



The other major ingredient for achievement, she added, is exercising one's quotient of grey matter, however big or small it might be.



If someone with a big genetic endowment "chooses not to put any effort into learning, then that will definitely diminish their chances for achievement," Posthuma said.
New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Friday ordered a court of inquiry into the accident involving a

Sukhoi jet, whose wreckage was found 60 km from Tezpur in Assam.



The Su-30 MKI jet, with two pilots on board, had gone missing on Tuesday shortly after taking off from the Tezpur Salonibari Air Force station on a routine training sortie.



A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the accident, IAF spokesperson Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said.



The wreckage of jet has been found in the thick forest around 60 km from Tezpur where it lost radar contact with the base.



The wreckage was located today and ground parties are standing by to be airlifted to the crash site as the area is totally inaccessible. Search for flight data recorder and missing crew will be perused by the ground parties after they reach the crash site, Banerjee said.



He said search teams from the Army are attempting to reach the crash site by trekking cross country, adding their progress is hampered due to inclement weather, thick vegetation and steep gradient of the terrain.


New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the Dhola-Sadia bridge, Indias longest, over Lohit River in Assam, kicking off his governments celebrations of completing three years in power.

The bridge holds strategic importance as it ends just 100 km short of Chinas border.

Hailing the construction of the bridge, the PM said it will not just save time and money but will being about an economic revolution in the country.

The PM also decided to name the bridge after the late Bhupen Hazarika, singer and filmmaker from Assam.

In 2003, one of our MLAs Jagdish Bhuyan wrote to Vajpayee ji requesting for such a bridge. He approved, said PM Modi.

The PM complained that soon after the government changed and the work on the bridge kept on getting delayed.

The Modi government had previously quashed Chinas claims on Arunachal Pradesh, saying that the state was an integral part of India. Chinas claim is baseless. India has no boundary with China but with Tibet since China forcibly occupied Tibet in 1959. Now, they want to expand their boundary up to Arunachal which will not be accepted by the people of the state, state BJP President Tapir Gao told reporters in Itanagar.

Like it or not, India, on Friday, went ahead and opened its longest bridge. Here are 10 vital things you need to know:

* The bridge is built over the Lohit River, which is a tributary of the Brahmaputra.

* Construction of the bridge began when the Congress was ruling Assam. The project costs about Rs 950 crore.

* In 2015, the Centre made this project part of the Rs 15,000 crore package aimed at improving roads in the bordering states.

* With a length of about 9.2 kilometer, its almost 30% longer than the existing Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai.

* The bridge is located in Sadia, which is about 540 kilometers from Guwahati. The other end of the Dhola-Sadiya bridge is in Dhola, which is about 300 kilomteers from Itanagar i.e. the

capital of Arunachal Pradesh.

* Once open for public use, the bridge will reduce the travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh by up to four hours. This is important since there is no functional airport in Arunachal Pradesh.

* The bridge has been made and designed in such a way that it can withstand 60-tonne battle tanks.

* The strategic importance of the bridge is massive because once its opened, troops will be able to enter Arunachal Pradesh much more quickly. Arunachal Pradesh lies along the China border.

* This would be the first ever bridge strong enough to withstand tanks in that region. So far, troops had a difficult time getting to Tinsukia, from where they usually enter Arunachal Pradesh.

* As of now, there is little road connectivity between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which is said to be strategic in the sense that it can make any incursion from China difficult. As of now, they can only do so by boat.

Read all the Latest News and Breaking News here
Dubai: Ten Indians, facing execution in the UAE for murdering a Pakistani man, may soon return home as their death sentences were commuted to prison terms after a charity paid the blood money to the family of the victim, a media report said on Friday.



The ten men, who are from Punjab, were sentenced to death in October last year.



The Al Ain Court of Appeals following the payement of blood money sentenced two of the men to three-and-a-half years in jail and three others to three-year jail terms, Gulf News reported.



Two others will now have to serve one-and-a-half years in prison and the remaining three persons will be jailed one year each.



Dinesh Kumar, first secretary for community affairs at the Indian Embassy, said that the verdict is a relief to the

accused, who have been in jail since July 2015 and were sentenced to death in October 2016, and their families.



"We are grateful to the courts for this decision, and to the victims family, who agreed to pardon these young men. [What transpired in 2015] is indeed unfortunate, but these men hail from poor families that need their support," he said.



An Indian charity organisation, Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust, has already deposited the blood money in court on behalf of the accused, and this means that five of the men will soon be able to return home, said S P S Oberoi, chairman of the trust.



The rest will be able to go back home by the end of the year or in early 2018 after serving the remainder of their sentences.



The Indians allegedly killed the Pakistani man during a brawl over bootlegging in Al Ain. Eleven men were convicted in the case but one was spared the death sentence.



Following the initial verdict, the victims father appeared at the Court of Appeals in March 2017 and submitted a letter of consent to pardon the defendants.



"It was a tough task to convince the victims family to pardon the accused. The [father eventually] told me there was no solution to his familys pain. He said he didnt want to inflict the same pain to ten Indian families [through their sons death]," Oberoi said.



The Indian Embassy will soon issue air tickets and outpasses for the men who have finished serving their one- and one-and-a-half-year sentences and now face deportation.



The convicted men worked in Al Ain as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons. Most of them are in their twenties.
There are questions as to how does the central government effectively prohibit cattle slaughter across India when livestock is a state subject.

In a move aimed at curbing cattle slaughter, the Environment Ministry has banned sale of cattle from marketplaces for the purpose of culling.A gazette notification, titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change states that no one can bring cattle to an animal market unless he or she has furnished a written declaration that the cattle will not be sold for the purpose of slaughter. Further, upon sale of cattle, the animal market committee will take an undertaking that the animals are for agricultural purposes and not for slaughter.Officials at the animal market will have to verify that the purchaser of the cattle is a farmer by checking the relevant revenue documents. The gazette notification also states that the purchaser of the cattle will not sell the animal for the purpose of slaughter nor sacrifice the animal for any religious purpose.The notification defines cattle as bovine animals, including bulls, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels. Animal market is defined as a market place or sale-yard or any other premises or place to which animals are brought from other places and exposed for sale or auction and includes any lairage adjoining a market or a slaughterhouse.The new rules also prohibit the sale of cattle to persons from outside a state, without permission as per the state cattle protection laws. Animal markets have also been prohibited from within 25 km of state borders.Additionally, gaushalas, animal welfare organisations etc, which are giving up cattle for adoption, will have to provide an affidavit that the animals will be used for agricultural purposes and not for slaughter. In the case of draught and pack animals, they will have to give a similar undertaking.There are questions as to how does the central government effectively prohibit cattle slaughter across India when livestock is a state subject.However, these rules which prohibit cattle slaughter are under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and Section 37 and Section 38 of the parent act says that the central government does have the power to introduce such a regulation.Section 37 of the 1960 act is about the delegation of powers where the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, direct that all or any of the powers exercisable by it under this Act, may, subject to such conditions as it may think fit to impose, be also exercisable by any state government.Thereafter, Section 38 gives the central government the power to make rules to carry out the purposes of this Act.It was in January 4, 2017, that there were deliberations on a possible law banning beef and cow slaughter and the Union environment ministry had asked the agriculture ministry to explore the option of enacting a national law to prohibit slaughtering of cow, selling of beef or beef products.However, the Supreme Court in January, this year, while hearing a PIL to ban nationwide cow slaughter declined to entertain it as it was a state subject.One state may ban slaughter, the other may not we will not interfere in state laws, the Supreme Court said as it rejected the petition seeking a uniform policy on cow slaughter. The apex court had told petitioner Vineet Sahai that it had already passed orders on measures to stop the illegal inter-state transportation of cattle.
The book reveals names that were originally considered for the programme ranged from PM ke saath ru-ba-ru to Varta Modi Ji Ke Saath to Modi Vaani.

The genesis and evolution of Prime Minister Narendra Modis one-of-a-kind public broadcasting show Mann Ki Baat is set to be unveiled on Friday in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has written the preface for Mann Ki Baat - A Social Revolution on Radio, which will be presented to the President. Talking on a one-hour radio show once a month while addressing challenging tasks as Prime Minister requires tremendous efforts, and I cannot but feel his strong passion for dialogue with his people, Abe writes in the book.The book reveals names that were originally considered for the programme ranged from PM ke saath ru-ba-ru to Varta Modi Ji Ke Saath to Modi Vaani.CNN-News18 got exclusive access to the book. Excerpts from the same:When Narendra Modi was asked whether he gets time to read all the letters, he said:"Most certainly not. The volume is too much for me to do so. But the letters I read, I read word to word and even if I do not talk about them in the programme, I ensure that people's issues are addressed or their thoughts are given active consideration".So, if not Narendra Modi, then who scans the letters? A preliminary scan is done by the AIR team itself. Every letter is read and a short list is made which is then sent to the Prime Minister. The choice of letters to be taken up in the final programme lies with Narendra Modi himself. AIR officials add that any letter that is political in nature or uses any abusive language (which is rare though) is not entertained at all. This is in sync with Narendra Modi's philosophy of keeping 'Mann Ki Baat' apart from the daily rough and tumble of politics.While talking about the letters being received for 'Mann Ki Baat, Narendra Modi noted:"Even in this age of emails and technology, the joy of a letter is very special. I think the medium is very personal. Receiving a handwritten letter has a very different feeling. A few years ago I had urged people to share Diwali greeting through handwritten letter and people responded very well". During a meeting with his aides on a rainy August evening in 2014, the Prime Minister expressed his desire to communicate with people through the medium of radio. He wanted to begin this programme in September 2014 itself. His team, a mixture of government officials and those he had brought along with him from Gujarat, began to work out the modalities of such a programme.Then came the toughest part, that of deciding on a suitable name for the programme. How would it be branded? Inputs and options were sought through MyGov, the Government of India platform for public engagement and participation. Another set of questions persisted-how would people interpret the name? Would it connect with people across India? Meanwhile, a series of options for names ranging from 'PM Ke Saath Ru-Ba-Ru' to 'Vaarta Modi Ji Ke Saath' to even 'Modi Vani' started pouring in. It was now time to take a decision.When his officials went back to him with the issue of the nomenclature, Narendra Modi exclaimed, "Arre isme kya kai? Kaho kuchh halki phulki Mann ki baatein karoonga." The christening was done! They had finally found the name for the radio programme-it would simply be called 'Mann Ki Baat'.Narendra Modi could have opted for any medium. He chose the radio for a reason. 'Mann Ki Baat' is not about votes or television optics. It is about behaviour, responsibility, hopes, dreams, struggle and achievement in everyday life. Narendra Modi gave a very logical explanation on the subject:"I have been a quintessential organisation man all my life. I know the difference the radio can make. American Presidents used it well. So many people heard Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech on the radio. It has a transformative power like no other medium."On the radio, Narendra Modi explains, he coaxes; he never imposes. He looks at both sides of the argument. This is why he can confidently say in one broadcast, "I know I am choosing those topics which put the government in the dock:' This is always more about the conviction that politics.At a larger level, the 'Mann Ki Baat' exemplifies a new method of communication. It is direct, it is wide in its reach and it is soft in the nature of the message. It is in tune with the 'Modi way' of doing things reaching out to the people without barriers. The most effective example of how brand 'Mann Ki Baat' has become a part of the mainstream is seen in how the opposition leaders use it to criticise Narendra Modi. In August 2015, the Congress President said, "The champion of 'Mann Ki Baat' has retreated into a 'maun vrat' (vow of silence):' She was referring to the ongoing opposition pressure on the government to dismiss the External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje on perceived corruption charges. In both cases, the party and the government firmly backed their leaders. In September 2015, at a programme in Odisha, Rahul Gandhi pointed out that Narendra Modi only talks about his 'Mann Ki Baat' and ignores the 'Mann Ki Baat' of the rest of India. He compared the 'Mann Ki Baat' to mere lip service.Even the ally of the Modi government, the Shiv Sena, uses 'Mann Ki Baat' to taunt the Prime Minister. Though an ally in both Delhi and Maharashtra, the Sena has always criticised the BJP and the Prime Minister on every possible occasion. Not to be left behind, MNS founder and Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray's nephew Raj Thackeray termed it as 'Maun Ki Baat' at a rally in his home state.
Bhopal: A former Madhya Pradesh minister has been slapped with a showcause notice by the BJP on Friday after he spoke openly about illegal mining in Narmada in Harda.



Kamal Patel was forced into political exile after his family got entangled in a legal row following a youths murder.



Patel spoke openly about rampant illegal mining in the area and even expressed a threat to his life from the mining mafia.



He has even complained to the National Green Tribunals central zone bench in Bhopal over illegal quarrying of sand in Harda district. Patel accused both the collector and SP of the district of being in cahoots with the mafia.



MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhans recent Narmada Yatra was hit by controversy over allegations of rampant mining of sand from Narmada riverbed. Both the opposition and volunteers accused the state government of abetting indiscriminate sand mining in the state.


New Delhi: The officer who led from the front even as controversies dogged him, former Director General of Punjab Police Kanwar Pal Singh Gill passed away at 2.30 PM at the Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi at age 82 after a brief illness.



Known as the Supercop and given various other epithets - Sher-e-Punjab and Shan-e-Punjab, Gill was a man who largely had admirers but did not fall short of detractors either.



Assigned to the Assam Cadre in 1958, KPS Gill was moved to Punjab in 1984 to curb the rising militancy in the border state. From 1984 to 1995 Gill served the Punjab Police twice as Director General of Police and was instrumental in adopting an aggressive style of police functioning that eventually rid the state of the Khalistani Militancy movement even as it put him under the harsh glare of criticism for human right violations and excesses in the use of the police force.



Gill always defended his action in the state even as he was branded as one of the most hated people in the state. He always said he had no regrets and felt that he along with the rest of the Police force. He always said that the police had to be ruthless to rid the state of militancy.



Several human rights organisations and individuals criticised Gill for a high handed and brutal approach towards curbing militancy. Known to be a confident and almost immodest officer, he always absolved the police force and himself of any excesses in Punjab. He once said in an interview that the Punjab Police was almost near God in ratings.



Mourning his loss the Indian Police Service association tweeted: We deeply mourn the sad demise of iconic IPS officer, the legendary KPS Gill. His work in defeating Punjab militancy will always inspire us.



Gill was credited with using unorthodox techniques and also creating a unified Punjab Police to combat terrorism in the state. I have a gut feeling that militancy would never return to Punjab, was a refrain that KPS Gill repeated often.







From being known as a lion like officer to courting controversies including the one where a lady IAS officer complained of sexual harassment to facing human rights violations allegations, KPS Gill was a police officer who stayed in the headlines not just for his policing achievements but other exploits too.


Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Friday cancelled former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapatis bail in a rape case and said the lower court had acted in haste.



Allowing the petition of the Uttar Pradesh government seeking cancellation of the bail of Prajapati and and two others, Justice AP Sahi on Friday questioned the manner in which the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) handled the matter, PTI reported.



The entire process was concluded as if the grant of bail had been preordained, Justice Sahi said.



The HC had earlier stayed the April 25 order of the ASJ granting bail to Samajwadi Party leader Prajapati and his associates Vikas Verma and Amrendra Singh alias Pintu.



In the circumstances, there cannot be a presumption of the impugned order having been passed in good faith, the judge said.



The manner in which the bail was granted almost on the eve of the retirement of the officer concerned, that too even without any opportunity being afforded to the prosecution in the real sense, the grant of bail was clearly vitiated, Justice Sahi said.



The ASJ did not discuss the ingredients of the provisions of the POCSO Act and its implications, said the HC, adding that a court while dealing with such serious matters having the potential of wide ramifications has to act with gravity and patience.



It, however, said that the accused could move fresh pleas for bail to be decided on merit after affording adequate opportunity to the prosecution to present its case.



A woman had lodged an FIR with Gautam Palli police station in Lucknow that Prajapati and his accomplice had raped her for years after promising her a mining licence and they were trying to target her daughter.



The FIR was registered after the Supreme Court had pulled up the state government.
As the nation talks about Army rewarding Major Leetul Gogoi, who had tied a man to his jeep in the Valley, and the brutal murder of Lt Umar Fayyaz, Commander of the 15 Corps (Srinagar base) Lt Gen JS Sandhu tells CNN News18s Shreya Dhoundial how the situation in the Valley has changed after the incidents and why he thinks the Valley is moving towards peace.





Q: Major Leetul Gogoi, an officer under your command, has been in the news lately. In the light of the recent turn of events, the Army has been seen backing him, despite criticism over his actions. Is that because you justify his act of tying a man to his jeep or is it that youre just backing one of your own?



A: I think his actions were warranted. It is very easy for us to find fault, but if you put yourself in his shoes, he had very few options. Either he had to open fire, which would have resulted in more loss of lives and rise in violence, or he had to try and save his men of ITBP and also the J&K Police who were stuck at the police booth. The choice he made was the right one.



Q: There are many retired Army officers who are of the view that the image, of an Army jeep with a human tied to it, will haunt the forces for a long time. Do you agree?



A: Army is a vibrant, strong institution and the Indian Army is defined by many images, including those of soldiers climbing ice walls in Siachen, fighting for their lives, destroying bunkers across the LoC and helping people in times of a national calamity. As far as this image of a Jeep is concerned, one needs to understand there can be alternative solutions to every situation. And this image is of an alternative solution. The Army is too vast an organisation to get negated by an action of this nature.



Q: What about the fact that there are many who believe this was a gross violation of human rights of one man?



A: There are times when we have to act in a situation that we call the grey zone. That basically means we have to take a call on need for some flexibility, in terms of operation and action. This is what Major Gogoi has done. Its not right for us to put everything in black and white. I dont want to be a judge and rule on who the accused is and who isnt. But I definitely have to see the circumstances under which my officer acted the way he did. As of now, all evidence is against the circumstances.



Q: There is a court of enquiry on this incident. Do you think the award to the Major could have waited?



A: The court of enquiry is almost over. The findings of it are known. Hence, there was no reason for us to delay the award.



Q: There are many who are saying that the Valley has gone back in time and the situation is as bad as it was in the 90s. What do you think is the biggest challenge for the Army? Is it terror input from Pakistan or is it militants here or is it stone pelters?



A: Everything you mentioned is a challenge, and these are what I would call anti-Indian forces or anti-national forces. There forces include terrorists, including those from Pakistan and within India. Then we have stone pelters, and those who support them, whom we call on ground workers (OGWs). It includes separatists, organisations and the support base is obviously backed by Pakistan and the terrorists. We are contesting all anti-India forces. We need to break their network. When that is diluted, terrorists and stone pelters will succumb eventually.



Q: There have been pictures of young children picking up stones. How do you deal with that?



A: The student protests started with an event which has been misinterpreted. It was just the shifting of a post in Pulwama which was done by J&K Police and CRPF. Yes, the shifting of the post resulted in some stone pelting, but the situation was not grave. But then, you have to understand there are people who fuel these incidents. But, I have to say it was handled well by the CRPF and the J&K Police. Its not like the Army didnt want to get involved, but it was largely contained by other security forces.



Q: Do you sense any radicalisation among the Kashmiris since Burhan Wani was killed? Do you think there is a political vacuum that is leading to the frustration?



A: There are indications of radicalisation, and they are primarily because of a lot of propagation of radical messages by anti-India forces, including international ones. Radical messages from Pakistan, Gulf countries are part of this. There are many who fund such radicalisation also. It is difficult to say how grave the situation is, but there are definite feelers that radicalisation is on the rise.



Q: Is it true that South Kahsmir has been the worst hit by this radicalisation?



A: Terror recruitment in South Kashmir did increase. Last year, many young people wanted to join terror groups. Some of them were dissuaded by their elders, but I cant deny the fact that many did join. Even this year, there are many people who want to join. But I can also say that many have also realised that the future is bleak on that side of the spectrum.



Q: Political leaders of the country believe that things will die down in Kashmir over the next few years. Are you optimistic?



A: What we have gathered is that people, to a large extent, want peace. There are many people in Kashmir who have indicated that they dont want this situation in the Valley to prolong. They dont want to protest because it has hit their livelihood. So, yes, the situation should be peaceful soon.



Q: Squadron search operations are back in Kashmir after 15 years. What was the need?



A: What we have executed in the last couple of weeks is not similar to the operations that happened in the 90s. We are calling it a Clearance Search Operation, wherein we are largely going to areas where terrorists have gained a greater freedom of movement, where the support base has increased substantially. Our target is to move them out of their comfort zones and also make Army presence stronger in the area. The squadron search operations of the 90s was completely different.



Q: Have these operations been as successful as you expected them to be? There have been reports of stone pelting at forces as well.



A: Surprisingly, we had stone-pelting only in Turkwangam (near Shopian) in the first operation. That was it. We are not quantifying the success of this operation in terms of the number of terrorists killed or neutralised. The aim of this operation was restore peace back in the state and increase our presence, which we have achieved. We will continue to work on those lines.



Q: Did you, even for once, believe that the brutal murder of Lt Umar Fayyaz who was at home on leave to attend a wedding, could change the environment in Kashmir?



A: It may be too early to call it a turning point, but it most certainly was defining. How it will change the environment is yet to be seen, but it did result in anger among people who knew this was not acceptable. The interesting part is nobody owned up to the murder. Even a terrorist organisation like Hizbul Mujahideen, which generally is the first to take charge, didnt say a word. These indicators of anger among people made them stay shut and question their own actions against Lt Umar Fayyaz. Many within Kahsmir started realizing if their actions were hurting their own. Its definitely a time of realization for many, and were not ignoring the development.



Q: There are few Kashmiris in the Army. Do you think officer Fayyazs murder will deter people from joining?



A: I dont think this will deter people from joining the Army. He has been an inspiration to many. He was a brilliant officer, an excellent sportsman and a role model to everyone who knew him. There are many who want to join the Army. They want better opportunities for themselves, their families. This desire for a better future will remain in the Valley and will encourage people to join the Army.







Q: What bothers you the most about his murder?



A: He was just 22 and had come home on leave to spend time with his family. He had no anger towards the people who killed him, and he was murdered in cold blood. Since you spoke to me about violation of human rights, this is what it looks like. And the rights were violated by a terrorist.



Q: Coming to the recent video that was released by the Army on punitive attacks on Pakistan Army posts. Is there a change in Indias strategy to tackle infiltration? Will we see more such strikes?



A: We are ready to undertake more such attacks. I cannot, however, comment on our strategy to counter infiltration.



Q: Pakistan has denied any such happening and called the video fake. How do you respond to that?



A: This is expected because they need something to appease their countrymen. We all know Pakistani forces indulge in falsehood.




New Delhi: The Indian Army on Friday killed two members of the Pakistan Armys Border Action Team, (BAT) foiling the infiltration attempt along the Line of Control in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir.



The infiltration bid comes 25 days after two Indian soldiers were killed and their bodies mutilated when the Border Action Team infiltrated 250 metres into the Indian side in Krishna Ghati sector with the Pakistani army providing cover fire from across the border.



The intruders were spotted on the Indian side around 8:40 AM south of Jhelum in the Uri sector, sources said.



In exchange of fire, both were neutralised at distance of 500 metres from the LoC in the Indian side, the sources said. One AK-47 rifle, one pistol and other warlike stores were recovered.



On Tuesday, the Indian Army had launched "punitive fire assaults" on Pakistani positions across the Line of Control, inflicting "some damage". The Army had also released a video of the military action which showed some structures in a forested area crumbling in a heap under the impact of repeated shelling.



During a recent visit to the state, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had asked the Army to remain prepared to give a befitting reply to any misadventure from across the border.



(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir government lifted the ban on social media on Friday.



The ban was imposed from April 26 to prevent spread of rumours in the Valley which has been witness to spiraling violence.



The state home department did not extend the ban on 22 sites and WhatsApp and allowed it to lapse today.



They Valley has had a tense summer so far with several incidents of violence, with several clashes between security forces and stone pelting ptotestors. The violence peaked during the bypoll for the Srinagar parliamentary constituency on April 8 which witnessed several clashes between protestors and security forces.



Videos filmed during the unrest have further fuelled tensions in the area. The PDP-BJP government had banned 22 social networking sites and applications, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter in Kashmir on the grounds that these were being misused to fan trouble.
Wreckage of the Indian Air Forces Sukhoi 30 fighter jet, which went missing on Tuesday, was found in a heavily forested area of Arunachal Pradesh. The area is covered in dense foliage and the wreckage was found close to the last known location of the aircraft.The jet had lost radar and radio contact 60km north of Tezpur in Assam. Two pilots were on-board the aircraft.The plane went missing at 11:30 am, around 60 km north of the Tezpur IAF base from where it had taken off, said a defence spokesman and the deputy commissioner of Sonitpur district where the IAF station is located.The Sukhoi Su-30 is a Russian-made, twin-engine fighter meant for all-weather, air-to-air and air-to-surface missions. The first of the Su-30 planes were inducted by the IAF in the late 1990s.Since their induction, six crashes have taken place. An inquiry into the plane accidents has primarily indicated technical failure as their cause.Earlier this month, another Sukhoi-30MKI of the IAF crashed in Rajasthan's Barmer district, leaving three villagers injured.However, both the pilots of the twin-engine aircraft ejected safely.The government had, earlier this month, informed the Rajya Sabha that as many as 22 fighter aircraft of IAF have crashed since 2013-14 and human error and technical defects were the main reasons for the accidents.
How does one assess the record and the big picture, the peaks and the troughs, the successes and the disappointments of the Narendra Modi government as it approaches its third birthday on May 26, 2017? It would be easy to put down a laundry list of the various programmes and projects  from Swachh Bharat to the Jan Dhan bank accounts  that it has announced and begun work on. Some have done better than others.Many are still works-in-progress.Is the glass half-full, more than half-full, or below half-empty? The perception depends entirely on ones political preferences and the debate plays itself out on the 9 pm circus every evening.Yes, a more effective manner of analysing the tenure of the government so far would be to ask three specific questions: Is India better off than it was in May 2014, at least in the eyes of disinterested folk, neutral observers and independent individuals and institutions, be they investors, rating agencies or whoever? Has the Modi government taken enough strategic and long-term calls that are the true measure of a governments resolve and wisdom? These are projects that are unlikely to be realised in five years and the benefits of which will be reaped by a successor government (or the same government in case of a re-election)? Is the government re-electable? While nobody can predict an election two years in advance, is Prime Minister Modi still popular and does he still retain credibility and trust in the eyes of ordinary voters? This narrow measure, so easily dismissed by pundits, is the one that matters most to politicians in office.After all, what is the purpose of instituting and introducing cherished policies if these are not appropriately communicated to the people as meant in their interest and worthy of a reward in the form of an electoral renewal?In the case of all three criteria listed above, the Modi government passes with flying colours. In May 2014, India was in the midst of an economic meltdown that had begun in 2011. Doubts about its governing institutions, its ability to fight chronic corruption, and its promises of restoring fiscal discipline had ballooned. Today, fiscal rectitude, the adherence to fiscal deficit targets, irrespective of political pressures, even the raising of petrol and diesel prices in the midst of the Uttar Pradesh election campaign, have won the government and have won India a new esteem.It is not for nothing that economic prospects are looking up. A decent monsoon this year and the gradual coming together and actual roll-out of infrastructure projects in roads, railways, ports and power will push demand and ease up the employment situation in the coming two years. It will not be enough to provide jobs to all of the 12 million Indians coming into the job market each year, but it will nevertheless allow the government to present a better balance sheet in time for 2019.Of course, there will be some hiccups with the Goods and Services Tax, which gets going from July 1, 2017. The passage of the GST legislations and the grand bargain between states and the Union government has been a signature achievement of the Modi government. Having said that, for the first nine to 12 months GST will pose logistical and conceptual challenges, as individuals and businesses adjust to a new tax regime. It will take a lot of political capital to see through this phase. Modi has the political capital to do it, and also the self-belief that 2018-19, election year in India, may just be his governments best year in terms of economic numbers.As a result of these attainments and expectations, foreign investment in India, both FDI and FII, is far higher than it was in 2014. Indian markets have been among the best performing this year and the Modi dividend is just about expressing itself. For all its problems, the Indian economic story is the shining star in a dark sky.Even those who have disagreements with the government on this or the other policy issue, recognise the value of consistency and thoroughness in the Modi team. The final two years of a government usually see a policy slowdown as well as an investor slowdown, waiting for the next election and its verdict. It is to Modis credit that, especially after the Uttar Pradesh election, he has overcome that challenge as well.The issue of state elections is a tantalising one. The past three years have seen an interesting dynamic between Modi the prime minister  engaging with African leaders at a serious, solemn event in New Delhi  and Modi the campaigner  addressing a campaign meeting in Bihar with his trademark gusto, only hours after that meeting with African heads of government. Has it been worth it or has it taken away from precious time he could otherwise have spent on governance?Frankly, there has been a logic to investing so much effort in state elections. By taking care to win them, Modi has continually expanded his ability to take policy risks and to innovate in government. That ability to innovate  with cash transfers or an ambitious expansion of the LPG cylinder scheme for less-privileged households  has, in turn, enhanced his appeal to voters even in local elections.That takes us to Modis place in history. In 2014, he was elected prime minister. Today, he is more than that. He is a national leader who has taken his party, his government, his policies, his personal integrity and his political brand into new geographical and social constituencies. When you combine it with enlightened economic and developmental policies, he emerges as the countrys biggest pan-Indian as well as international political figure since Jawaharlal Nehru.Not bad for three years.The author is a distinguished fellow, Observer Research Foundation. He can be reached at malikashok@gmail.com. (views are personal)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a rally in Assams capital Guwahati on completion of three years of his government at the centre. Earlier in the day, PM Modi inaugurated the Dhola-Sadia link in Assam.

Stay tuned for live updates:

Read all the Latest News , Breaking News , watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
New Delhi: Adani Group received a setback on Friday with the Queensland provincial government deciding to not grant a royalty holiday to their controversy-hit mining project in Australia.



The company said it would review the the government decision.



PTI reported that following a Cabinet meeting, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said that an agreement was reached unanimously that Adani will pay full royalties for its $21.7 billion Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland.



"There will be no royalty holiday for the Adani Carmichael mine. The Adani Carmichael mine will pay every cent of royalties in full," Palaszczuk said, as quoted by PTI.



In a statement released after the Cabinet's decision, Adani Australia said it will analyse the details of the Cabinet's decisiononce it was formallyprovided to them.



"Adani Australia will give urgent consideration of State Cabinet's decision on a royalties arrangement for the Carmichael coal mine project," the company said.



Adani reiterated that "it will pay every cent of royalties to the state as was always the case, and that it also remains committed to regional Queensland and generating 10,000 direct and indirect jobs".



Earlier this month, the ABC News reported thatthe state government was considering giving Adani a discount on royalties which could totalup to 320 million Aus dollars in lost revenue to the state.



On May 22, Adani deferred a final investment decision on its much-delayed Carmichael coal mine project after the Queensland government failed to decide on royalties amounting to millions of dollars for the project.



Adani wanted the Queensland government to delay the start of royalty obligations on the coal mine it hopes to build in Queensland's Galilee Basin.



The Carmichael project, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs, has been facing opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups.



The group has for more than five years battled opposition from green groups who are opposed to any expansion of the port, saying it will cut into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.



The Adani group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north.



Australian Resource Minister Matthew Canavan on May 24 warned the Queensland government that India could look elsewhere for its coal requirements if it delays its decision on a royalty holiday deal with the Adani Group.



"India has a massive need for energy resources in the next couple of decades. A huge part of that will be increased coal use... We have the ability to produce the most environmentally sustainable energy resources for India," Canavan said.



(With PTI inputs)
PM Modi at the newly inaugurated Dhola - Sadia Bridge across River Brahamputra in Purana Sadiya, Assam pic.twitter.com/rbUubURfXu  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi kickstarted the celebrations of his governments third anniversary celebrations on Friday with the inauguration of the country's longest bridge in Assam.After inaugurating the 9.15-km Dhola-Sadiya bridge, Modi took a stroll on the road link with Assam Chief Minster Sarbananda Sonowal and Union Road Transport minister Nitin Gadkari.Modi will also address a public meeting in which he is expected to speak about the three years of his government. "I will be in Assam tomorrow (Friday) to take part in various programmes. I am eagerly awaiting this opportunity to interact with people of Assam," he had tweeted on Thursday.The 9.15-km-long bridge will reduce the travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh from six hours to just one hour as the distance will shrink by 165 km.The bridge is located 540-km from Assam capital Dispur and 300 km from Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar. The aerial distance to the Chinese border is less than 100 km.The bridge over the Brahmaputra river, which is capable of withstanding the weight of a 60-tonne battle tank, is seen as an attempt by India to shore up its defence requirements along the Sino-Indian border, particularly in the Northeast besides providing easy access to the people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam with air and rail connectivity.It is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai, making it the longest bridge in India.
Thiruvananthapuram: Around Rs 10 lakh was stolen from a State Bank of India ATM in Thiruvananthapuram.



Police said the incident came to light when bank officials came to refill the ATM at 6pm on Friday.



A police officer said the criminals used a gas cutter to break open the money chest. The ATM was not used frequently and there was no security guard.



Bank authorities told police that there was Rs 10,18,500 in the ATM. The last transaction was made around 1.10am on Friday, they said.



There are two CCTV cameras inside the kiosk, out of which one is not working. The police are trying to get the visuals from the other camera, which was installed inside the machine.
New Delhi: On Friday, as the Environment Ministrys gazette notification banning cattle slaughter and restrictions on the sale of cattle kicked up a controversy, confusion prevailed around the scope of the rules and rights of the state governments.



News18 helps you understand the rules in each state as on date:



States where cow slaughter is not illegal



Kerala, West Bengal and North-eastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. In Manipur, a royal edict banned cow slaughter, but beef is consumed widely.



States where cow slaughter is banned



RAJASTHAN

Slaughter of cow, calf, heifer, bull or bullock prohibited; possession, transport of their flesh prohibited. 10 years imprisonment and/or Rs 10,000 fine.



ANDHRA PRADESH & TELANGANA

Offenders face jail term for six months and/or Rs 1,000 fine.



ASSAM

Cow slaughter banned except on issue of fit-for-slaughter certificate at designated places.



BIHAR

Slaughter of cows, calves banned; of bulls, bullocks older than 15 years allowed. Violators face 6 months jail and/or Rs 1,000 fine



CHANDIGARH

Killing a cow, storing/serving/eating beef banned; eating meat of buffalo, bullock, ox also banned.



CHHATTISGARH

Slaughter of cow, buffalo, bull, bullock, calf, and possession of their meat banned. Transport, export to other states for slaughter also banned; attracts same punishment of 7 years jail, fine up to Rs 50,000.



DELHI

Slaughter of agricultural cattle  cow, calf, bull, bullock  and possession of [their] flesh, even if they are killed outside Delhi, banned. Buffalo meat, or carabeef, is allowed.



GUJARAT

Slaughter of cow, calf, bull and bullock; transport, sale of their meat banned. Punishment: Rs 50,000 fine, up to 7 years jail. Buffalo meat, or carabeef, is allowed.



HARYANA

Cow, which includes bull, bullock, ox, heifer, calf, and disabled/diseased/barren cows, cant be killed, as per a 2015 law. Three-10 years jail and fine up to Rs 1 lakh as punishment. Ban on sale of canned beef and beef products, and export of cows for slaughter.



HIMACHAL PRADESH

Slaughter of all bovines punishable by a jail term of five years. Killing allowed in the interest of research, or if animal has contagious disease.



JAMMU & KASHMIR

Slaughter of cow and its progeny punishable by jail term of up to 10 years. Possession of flesh of any [of these] slaughtered animal(s) punishable by a year; killing of he or she buffalo punishable with fine five times the animals price.



JHARKHAND

Slaughter of cows and oxen; possession, consumption of their meat, banned. Violators face up to 10 years jail and/or Rs 10,000 fine.



KARNATAKA

Cows can be slaughtered if old or diseased. Possession, however, is not a crime. According to a bill proposed by the BJP in 2010, cow slaughter made slaughter punishable by 7 years jail and Rs 1 lakh fine. The bill is still pending for approval in Karnataka assembly.



MADHYA PRADESH

Slaughter of cow, progeny banned. Penalty increased to 7 years jail in 2012, burden of proof on accused. Buffaloes can be killed.



MAHARASHTRA

Slaughter, consumption of meat of cow, bull, bullock banned since March 2015 after revision of existing law. 5 years jail and/or Rs 10,000 fine. Slaughter of buffaloes, however, is allowed.



ODISHA

2 years jail, Rs 1,000 fine for cow slaughter. Old bulls, bullocks can be killed on fit-for-slaughter certificate; cow if it suffers from contagious disease.



PUNJAB

Beef doesnt include imported beef; cow includes bulls, bullocks, oxen, heifer and calves. Slaughter allowed for export, of the govt allows.



TAMIL NADU

Cow, calf slaughter banned; up to 3 years jail and/or Rs 1,000 fine. Beef consumption and slaughter of economically worthless animals allowed.



UTTAR PRADESH

Slaughter of cow, bullock, ox banned. Cant store or eat beef. 7 years jail and/or Rs 10,000 fine. Can import in sealed containers, to be served to foreigners. Buffaloes can be killed.


Varanasi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday blamed conspiracies for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.



The CM said his government was making all out efforts to bring the state out from a situation of and lawlessness, PTI reported. Our government vows to provide safety to 22 crore people of the state, he said.



Efforts are being made to restore law and order and bring out the state from the jungle raj, mafia and goonda raj. But you must have seen that wherever these efforts were visible, at the same time conspiracy was hatched to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere, he said.



Adityanath said that those hatching conspiracies and taking law into their hands will be dealt sternly. They will not be spared, he said, apparently pointing towards the Saharanpur incidents.



Adityanath, who became the chief minister two months ago, has been under attack over the increasing number of crimes. Saharanpur has been witnessing caste-based clashes over the last several days.



The chief minister inaugurated a three-day exhibition highlighting achievements of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre on the completion of its three years in office.



He praised Modi for delivering a corruption-free rule and criticised the former Congress-led UPA government for its "vast corruption" during its 10-year rule.



"They (Congress) indulged in corruption everywhere from land to sky, Adityanath alleged.


In 2003, Disney debuted a fictitious sea-world based on a theme-park ride, and that one film went on to become one the most loved and followed franchises for the studio. After three successful films, the studio decided to end it with a fourth, critically bashed instalment, On Stranger Tides. However, the ardent fans hadn't had enough and it was their belief that helped in reviving the franchise after six long years.Titled Salazar Revenge for half of the world and Dead Men Tell No Tale for the rest, the film is more like an ode to the fans for retaining their hopes in a dead franchise.With Johnny Depp donning Captain Jack Sparrow's hat again, the film revolves around his drunken sloppy self, less than the other films.This time, the story has Sparrow dealing with bad luck on the land, as he hopes to command his precious Black Pearl again. Sparrow begins the film attempting a heist, and subsequently facing imminent execution at the hands of Royal Army. And once again, makes acquaintance of two straight-arrow youngsters.This time, his sidekicks are Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites), son of the first trilogys Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley); and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), a defiant, proto-feminist astronomer accused of witchcraft. That's about it for the nostalgia from the first trilogy. The antagonist here is Salazar, a Spanish Admiral, who was sent to cursed Devil's Trap by a young Sparrow and has now returned as death for all Pirates and in particular, for Sparrow. All the events make everybody set sail for a quest for their own reason. A quest to find Trident of Poseidon, as the one who has it wields the power of the sea.Johnny Depp's performance is no better or worse than the previous outings however, the focus on his swag and sarcasm is way less. The drunk humour is present but maybe, because of his off-screen image, one doesn't feel like smiling at his idiosyncrasy. The genius anarchic approach to Sparrow feels a bit old hat, like a repeated classic joke that has lost its charm but not the value.However, few scenes in the film are well staged and entertaining keeping the hopes of the fans alive. The film is a visual spectacle and the climax scenes keep you hooked till the end. Also, the moments film steal in between brings a nostalgic smile to the face.But, rarely is one ever swept up in the pirate fantasy that used to be the franchises purpose (at least in the first two films). Although, no one expected a brilliant plot built on luscious humour and growly emotion or horrific sequences from the film. To be fair, most entered with no expectations and thus came out satisfied with what was offered. After all, we knew what we are getting when we boarded this ship.Despite its limping irregularities and average performances by all actors, this instalment survives on familiar notes to carry on its predecessors' success and thus, doesn't disappoint the fans.The film ends with hope again, and looking at the current way the things with the franchise are proceeding, Disney needs to bring in plotline and decorate it with a better case of seaworthiness, in order to reach the same level it set in 2003 with Curse of The Black Pearl. A tad better than the last two outings, this instalment lies someplace in middle.Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge gets cheers of recognition and nothing else.
New Delhi: A court here has granted anticipatory bail to former 'Bigg Boss' contestant and self-proclaimed godman Swami Om, who was accused of molesting and threating a woman, court sources said on Thursday.



Special Judge Sanjay Garg on Tuesday allowed the anticipatory bail plea of Swami Om and asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 25,000.



The court order came on ground of parity as co-accused Santoshanand was granted anticipatory bail by the Delhi High Court on May 5.



Claiming innocence, Swami Om's counsel A.P. Singh told the court that he was falsely implicated.



He assured the court that if granted anticipatory bail, Om would not misuse his liberty.



In her complaint to Indraprastha Estate police station, the woman had accused Swami Om and Santoshanand of wrongful restraint and abusive behaviour, and committing objectionable acts.



The woman complained that the accused tore her clothes on February 7.


New Delhi: On a day when the BJP was celebrating its three years in power, Congress pulled a small but significant lead in Maharashtra civic elections.



While the grand old party won Bhiwandi, one of the three municipalities that went to polls, it had a lead in Malegaon, where it is likely to run the show with the help of Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.



The BJP, on the other hand, won Panvel in a decisive manner. In the city of Raigad district, the BJP won 51 seats in a 78-member municipality. Interestingly, Peasants and Workers Party of India, a left-leaning political outfit, came second with 23 seats. While Shiv Sena couldnt open account here, the NCP and Congress won two seats each.



In Bhiwandi, Congress won 47 out of 90 seats, while the BJP won only 19. Shiv Sena won 12 seats even as the NCP failed to open account. Others and independents won 12 seats.



In Malegaon, the Congress emerged as the biggest but party but failed terribly short of majority with 28 out of 84 seats. The NCP came second with 20 seats. An alliance of Congress and NCP is slated to govern the city.



The BJP was a poor fourth player here with only 9 seats, below Shiv Senas 13. Interestingly, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen won 7 seats, the same as others and independents.


Chennai: Tamil actor-producer Dhanush kicked up an internet frenzy early on Thursday when he unleashed his next venture  Kaala Karikaalan.



His father-in-law Rajinikanth sat on a jeep, sporting black shades, wearing black shirt and veshti,with a wicked smile on his face.



While the poster may or may not make your day mundane or exciting, the 67-year-olds seat of power in the poster has grabbed eyeballs.



The jeep Rajinikanth sits on has, mysteriously, an eye catching number plate: MH 01 BR 1956.



The year 1956 was the year when architect of Indian constitution BR Ambedkar converted to Buddhism.



The superstars release in 2016, Kabali, too stood out for many reasons. One of them being his character, which was loosely based on an Ambedkarite doubling as a gangster. The dynamics of power as shown in the movie were metaphorically hinting at a successful fight back to Dalit oppression.



With the current scenario in India simmering with Dalit activism, does Kaala Karikaalan shed light onto yet another show of the superstars support for minorities and the oppressed?



Asked if it was a subtle reference to Ambedkar, the Tamil superstars personal assistant, Ranjith, said it was all up for anyones interpretation.



All his films have dealt with some social message or the other. His character is that of a warrior fighting a cause, he added. The movie will be shot in Chennai and Mumbai, shooting for which begins on May 28.



With Rajinis open announcement of his deliberation on entering politics and the BJP wooing him, during times of a new wave of Dalit uprising, does the subtle reference to Dalit icon BR Ambedkar mean much more than what is visible to the naked eye? One will never know.
Even as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi made an effort to bring in opposition unity to decide upon the presidential candidate, JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar gave the luncheon a miss.Sources told CNN-News18 that the Bihar CM is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, hinting at a possible change of stand on presidential election.Clearing the air on the matter, the Bihar CM said he had already intimated the Congress chief that Sharad Yadav was going to represent the JD(U). He added: "I have sent a request to meet PM Modi tomorrow (Saturday) after lunch. I am the representative of my state and I have never skipped a meeting with the Prime Minister."The lunch meet coincides with the BJP-led NDA governments third anniversary in power. According to reports, the leaders will be discussing a united candidate for the upcoming presidential polls.Bitter contenders in Uttar Pradesh  the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party  and hostile rivals in West Bengal  the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M)  were present at the lunch at the Parliament House library.The lunch was also attended by NCP leader Sharad Pawar, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and DMK's Kanimozhi, reported PTI.Left leaders Sitaram Yechury, S Sudhakar Reddy, D Raja and P Karunakaran were also present, as were Sharad Yadav and KC Tyagi of the JD(U).Besides representatives of smaller regional parties, Omar Abdullah of the National Conference also attended the event.Apart from Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Congress was represented by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and leaders Ahmed Patel and Ghulam Nabi Azad.The Congress has been advocating unity among non-NDA parties ahead of the presidential election which, it believes, can be taken forward to the upcoming assembly polls in states such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, besides the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.Kumar missed Friday's lunch because of a prior engagement. Leaders of 17 parties attended the lunch. Among the many present were SP's Naresh Aggarwal and Ram Gopal Yadav, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, JMM's Sanjiv Kumar, JD(S)'s CS Puttaraju and RSP's NK Premachandran.(With inputs from PTI)
Mumbai: The counting for elections to three municipal corporations in Maharashtra Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon  will be held on Friday.



Elections in the three corporations concluded on May 26 and witnessed a voter turnout of 55 percent.



Around 77.9 per cent average polling was recorded in four nagar panchayat and nagar parishad elections in Chandrapur, Ahmednagar, Latur and Sangli districts, the State Election Commission said.



Altogether 1,251 candidates were in fray in the three municipal corporations.



This was the first elections held for Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC) since it was created in October last.



The Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation is ruled by the Congress-led alliance, while the Malegaon body has NCP-AIMIM alliance in power.



There were altogether 12.96 lakh eligible voters for 252 seats in the polls to these civic bodies, a SEC official said.



The BJP fielded 189, NCP 90, Congress 152, Shiv Sena 144 candidates across the three civic bodies. Altogether 355 independents also tried their luck.

AIMIM fielded nine candidates in Bhiwandi and 37 in Malegaon, while MNS put up seven in Bhiwandi and 25 in Panvel.



The Bahujan Samaj Party fielded 22 nominees, Janata Dal (United) four, Janata Dal (Secular) 10 candidates in the three civic bodies.



Of the 18 municipal corporations which completed their five-year term this year, elections to 10 bodies were held in February, while Latur, Parbhani and Chandrapur went to polls last month.
New Delhi: A 'workaholic' Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his government's third anniversary in the far North Eastern part of the country, inaugurating a state of the art bridge connecting Upper Assam, first state in North East where BJP came to power, to Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, a frontier state which shares its border with China.



As BJP enters the election mode with the intent to capture newer ground, the symbolism of this entire event is not lost on anyone. The Prime Minister will then return to Guwahati and lay the foundation stone for the new All India Institute of Medical Sciences. For Assam, which voted BJP government to power exactly a year back, this is a double bonanza.



THE BRIDGE OF HOPE



Dhola-Sadiya bridge has been buit over the Lohit river, which is a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra river. At 9.2 km it is the longest bridge of the country, over 3.55 km longer than the iconic Bandra-Worli sea link of Mumbai. As the name suggests the bridge will connect Sadia , which is about 540 kilometres from the state capital of Guwahati to Dhola, 300 kilometres from Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal.



For those living here this is certainly is a dream come true. After Kaliabhomora bridge near Tezpur, the Brahmaputra doesn't have a single bridge for the next 375 km upstream till Dhola, where the new bridge is constructed. Currently, all transportation between the river's two banks is carried out on ferries, which operate only during the day time. The situation becomes extremely difficult during the monsoon months, when Lohit constantly flows above the danger level.



The excitement is palpable at the venue, as hundreds have been lining up for days to catch a sight of the bridge and soak in the festive atmosphere. This bridge means the travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will go down by at least four hours. For Zinnia Baruah, a communication professional who hails from Tinsukia, this bridge means the birth of a new era in the growth and development in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. I still remember crossing the river during the monsoons, it was an ordeal. Our lives were at risk. With opening of the bridge, people like us will be able to commute safely and aspire for a better tomorrow.



STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THE BRIDGE



The bridge is part of yet another project to shore up Indias defence infrastructure along the Sino-Indian border. This three-lane road is capable of withstanding the weight of a 60-tonne battle tank. By cutting down the travel time for the military bases in Assam, the bridge will improve the operational mobility of men and material to the troubled Sino-Indian border in Arunachal.



For long infrastructural projects were stalled in Arunachal to ensure that in case of a Chinese aggression, the lack of basic infra would slow down the invading army. But this theory was junked post 2000. This project began in 2011, when Congress government was there at both, state and the Centre.



The Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told the media that the bridge "will bolster the road connectivity in the Northeast as the bridge will be used by people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh besides defence forces extensively."



WEATHER A DAMPNER



Only thing that stands between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the inauguration of the Rs 2,056 crore bridge is the inclement weather. It has been raining constantly in Tinsukia, though the forecast is slightly better for today. Even on Thursday, the Chief Minister's chopper was delayed due to the overcast conditions.

The administration has been facing an uphill task to keep the temporary helipad and the adjoining kaccha roads in order. According to the PWD minister of Assam, Parimal Shuklabaidya, over 60,000 to 70,000 people are expected to turn up for the event. With constant thundershowers, road rollers and dumpers have their jobs cut out to keep another temporary approach road ready to shoulder the burden of the expected traffic.



POLITICS OVER THE BRIDGE



Former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has criticised the BJP for appropriating a project started by the Congress. The former three-time Chief Minister has alleged that he was not even allowed to visit the site. "They did not allow me to go to the bridge saying that it is because of security concerns and law and order issues. Am I a terrorist? Will I break the laws? Why are they not allowing me to visit the bridge?" asked Gogoi.



The foundation of the bridge was laid down by the Congress government, the project has been completed by the BJP government and hence competition is on over who would take the credit. But for the residents, staying on the either side of the bridge, it means after 70 years of Independence they can finally hunk the two and a half hour long ferry ride and in less than 30 minutes drive to the other side of Brahmaputra.


BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, along with other senior party leaders, spent last night at Lalbazaar police lockup and did a Facebook live urging supporters to be ready for balidan (sacrifice) for Sonar Bangla.Vijayvargiya and other BJP leaders were arrested on Thursday while leading the demonstration against the Mamata Banerjee government.Carrying cell phones inside police lock up is not allowed and despite repeated requests by the city police, Vijayvargiya reportedly didnt pay heed and continued with his live speech.Main abhi Mamata ji ke jail se bol raha hoonHum abhari hain ki ek lakh karyakartaon ne aaj jan andolan main bhag liyaHamara yeh jan akrosh jari rahega (I am speaking from Mamatas jailI am thankful to lakhs of people who supported this movement. Our movement for the betterment of Bengal will continue), he said through Facebook Live.Later, while addressing the party workers and leaders inside the police lock up-he urged them to be prepared for balidan (sacrifice) for the sake of goddess Saraswati and Durga.This Bengal government prevents us from celebrating Saraswati puja, Durga puja. This government believes in appeasement politics. BJP will not tolerate this. We are here to save Bengal from such dirty politics. We are here to return people of Bengal its lost glory, Vijayvargiya alleged.The BJP leader also alleged that TMC workers ransacked police jeep and threw crude bombs at police to malign BJPs image.We were doing a peaceful protest rally. Suddenly, TMC workers threw bombs and set the vehicle on fire. This was done deliberately to malign us. A large number of our party workers were seriously injured after being beatan up by Mamatas police, he said.Sources said, last night concerned police officer had ordered to release Kailash Vijayvargiya, state BJP President Dilip Ghosh, Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly and BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.But all of them refused to leave central lock up saying that the police refused to release all 135 party workers along with them.You have to release all of us otherwise we will spend night in this lock up, Kailash told the police.On Friday, all the arrested party leaders and workers will be produced at Bankshall Court at around 2 PM.Vijayavargiya and other party leaders were arrested under sections 188 under CrPC for posing a threat to the law and order situation.Meanwhile, BJP leaders on Friday decided to hold a demonstration infront of Bowbazaar police station against alleged police brutality during Thursdays rally.
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday stressed that the Presidential candidate must be acceptable to all and he/she should be a secular person.



Soon after the meeting with the Opposition leaders in the national capital, she said, No names were discussed on Presidential candidate. Hopefully, we will be able to announce it soon.



Sources said, it was decided to form a 17-member committee (representative from all opposition parties) who will shortlist the ideal candidate for the Presidential post.



With Mamata stressing on secular candidate - it is not yet clear whether she will oppose or support if BJP announce their secular face for the post. Yesterday, she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and there are speculations that both the leaders might have discuss Presidential candidates.



Though, Mamata categorically rubbished media reports but party insiders claimed that there was some talks between them.



Todays meeting was good and apart from discussion in Presidential candidate, we have also discussed on how people suffered due to demonitisation. We have also discussed unrest in Kashmir and communal tension in Saharanpur, Mamata said while adding that everyone in the meeting criticized Central governments anti-people policies.



Apart from Meira Kumar and ex-Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the other names reportedly proposed by the opposition parties as their joint candidates are: NCP chief Sharad Pawar and JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav.



On the other side, BJP may field Jharkhand governor Draupadi Murmu for the post. Senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshis names had also been discussed. But BJP most likely will not take any chance after Supreme Courts order against them in Babri Masjid case.



The total strength of electoral college for the presidential polls is 11, 04,546 votes and BJP-led NDAs currently standing is nearly 5.38 lakh votes.



President Pranab Mukherjee is all set to retire in July.
New Delhi: Top leaders of several opposition parties will go into a huddle on Friday at a luncheon hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi where deliberations on a consensus presidential candidate are likely to take place.



The lunch is scheduled to be hosted by Sonia Gandhi in the Parliament House library on a day that also marks the third anniversary of the Modi government at the Centre.



Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, however, will not be there because of a prior engagement, PTI said quoting sources, adding that his party would be represented by Sharad Yadav. The Congress has reportedly not invited Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal.



BSP chief Mayawati is scheduled to attend the lunch meeting, sources told CNN-News18.



The leaders would explore the possibility of fielding a joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election. Sources said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja and JD(U) veteran Yadav would attend the lunch. Invitations had been sent to JD(U), CPI, CPI(M), Samajwadi Party, DMK, NCP, RJD and TMC, besides some other big and small regional parties.



The main opposition Congress is seeking greater unity among non-NDA parties ahead of the presidential election which could be taken forward to the upcoming assembly polls in states such as Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, besides the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.



Efforts are on to bring arch political rivals in Uttar Pradesh  the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party  together on a common opposition platform ahead of the presidential poll.



(With PTI Inputs)
Responding to the recent spate of crime and clashes in the state, UP minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said that the government did not promise a crime-free UP.It (UP) is such a big state, we never talked about zero crime. But if there is a culprit, that person shall be punished, said Khanna.The BJP had come to power in the north Indian state with a resounding victory in March 2017. The newly elected Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, during his initial days, had promised to crack down on crime.Clarifying his stand later to CNN-News18, Suresh Khanna said, The last government supported criminals. When I said we cant make UP crime free, I did not mean incidents such as rape.Even the smallest incident was noted and action taken against it. The Home Ministry has even sent a committee to Saharanpur, said the minister, talking about the clashes.Talking about the Jewar gang-rape case, Khanna said, I am in Varanasi right now and I dont know the details of what has happened in Jewar. Rest assured, the government is always on alert and the investigation is on. No culprit would go free.Reacting to the crime wave and Khannas comments, Samajwadi Party leader Rajendra Chaudhary said, Crime is on the rise in the state... How can a minister say this? The BJP is cheating the people of UP. This is a failure of the government... What is the governor doing?In April, clashes between the upper caste Thakurs and Dalits were first reported from Shabbirpur village of Saharanpur District. The clash started as Thakurs allegedly prevented Dalits from installing a statue of BR Ambedkar inside the Ravidas temple in the village.Things escalated on May 5 when a Dalit group allegedly objected to a procession of Thakurs to mark the birth anniversary of Rajput king Maharana Pratap. This triggered violence in which one person was killed and over 15 injured.The area has been simmering with communal tension since then. Another round of violence was reported on Tuesday which claimed a youths life following a visit by BSP supremo Mayawati.In another incident, a man was shot dead and four women were sexually assaulted by a group of men in Jewar on the Greater Noida Expressway.The family of seven  four women, two teenagers and a man  was on their way to Bulandshahr to visit a relative admitted in a hospital.As they were driving down the Greater Noida Expressway, the tyres of the car were punctured by the attackers. When some of the family members got down from the vehicle, they were attacked by a group of six men.The women were allegedly dragged to a nearby field and sexually assaulted. When the man protested he was shot dead.
New Delhi: Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa will be the BJP's chief ministerial face in the Assembly polls scheduled early next year, party president Amit Shah said on Friday.



During an interaction with PTI, Shah also indicated that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani would be the party's choice for the top post in the state, asserting that it would win more than 150 seats in the Assembly polls slated later this year. The Assembly has 182 seats.



He, however, said the party has not yet decided on its chief ministerial face in Himachal Pradesh, which goes to polls along with Gujarat.



"It (Karnataka election) will be fought under Yeddyurappa," Shah said.



Asked if it meant that Yeddyurappa, who is the BJP's Karnataka unit chief, will be the chief ministerial face, he said, "He will be."



The Karnataka unit has been facing factional fight with a group headed by former deputy chief minister K S Eshwarappa targeting Yeddyurappa's leadership.



To a question on the party's state of affairs in Karnataka, Shah said he would visit the state soon. The party had recently taken action against some leaders, suspected to be behind the internal wrangling.



Asked whether Rupani will be the party's CM face in Gujarat, Shah said, "He is already the chief minister."



"What does it mean that he will be the chief ministerial face...," he said in a lighter vein.



Yeddyurappa (74), an influential Lingayat leader, had led the saffron party to its maiden victory in the southern state

in 2008, but was forced to resign following charges of corruption against him.



He floated his own outfit in 2011. Though his party performed poorly in the 2013 Assembly polls, it managed to wean away a substantial chunk of the BJP votes, leading to a rout of the saffron party.



He returned to the BJP fold ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
The government will look into the proposal of the Indian telecom regulator on penalising three companies for not providing adequate points of interconnections (PoI) to industry newcomer Reliance Jio and will take a decision at the proper time.Read more: It's Official: OnePlus 5 to Be India's First Phone With Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 "Let the proposal come, we will look into it. We will decide in proper time," Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said on the sidelines of a press meet in New Delhi on Thursday, when asked what will be the government's stand regarding penalising Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.Read more: Twitter Updates Apple TV App With Support for 360-degree Videos The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has put a penalty of Rs. 3,050 crores collectively on these three telecom operators.In similarly worded decisions against the three operators, the TRAI on Wednesday said it "considered it appropriate to recommend penal action... in view of the large public interest involved."Read more: Asus Zenfone Live First Impressions Review: Just Another Budget Android Smartphone The regulator sent the letter to the telecom department on Wednesday.The regulator, in response to queries by the DoT, said on Wednesday that its earlier penalties imposed on the three companies on the basis of licence service areas (LSA) were being confirmed. It had proposed penalties of Rs. 1,050 crores each on Airtel and Vodafone and Rs. 950 crores on Idea for 21 and 19 licence service areas.The sector regulator in October said the top three telecom operators in the country had violated licence norms by denying adequate PoI to Jio.The TRAI said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may appreciate the fact that Airtel, Vodafone and Idea were "intentionally denying and delaying the provision/augmentation of PoIs to RJIL (Reliance Jio Infocomm), only to restrict a new entrant, thus violating the terms and conditions of licence and regulations/directions of the Authority, which also caused a lot of inconvenience to consumers."(Disclaimer: News18.com is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited that also owns Reliance Jio)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 features. (Image: Sarthak Dogra/ News18.com)

Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 features. (Image: Sarthak Dogra/ News18.com)

Devices using Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 tier processors. (Image: Sarthak Dogra/ News18.com)

Qualcomm has been in the news recently for many reasons. On the legal front, the company has been engaged in a heated battle with Apple Inc over patent issues with respect to the latest iPhone line-up. Apart from this, the company was fined $853 Million by the Anti-Trust regulators of South Korea back in December.On the other hand, if you are not much of a lawyer yourself and like to stay away from what goes behind the courtrooms, chances are that you will describe the chipset manufacturers current situation as the best possible.Within 2017, Qualcomm has unveiled its premium Snapdragon 835 processor, introduced Drive Data Platform for smart cars in its Snapdragon 820A, achieved Gigabit LTE Download Speeds commercially as a first-ever, brought IRIS scan biometric authentication to smartphones, introduced dynamic charging for electric vehicles through Halo and the list goes on.With all these innovations in different sectors happening simultaneously, the question arises as to what core is the company focussed towards at the moment? More importantly, what part of that will reach us here in India?In an unveiling of its Snapdragon 630 and 660 processors, Qualcomm executives shared the companys roadmap for India. The following is a break-down of the companys current offerings and future plans for the country.Qualcomm divides its processor line-up into 4 tiers: 200, 400, 600 and the premium 800 tier.The Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 line-up essentially focusses towards bringing the 4G connectivity to the masses by enabling 4G on feature phones.Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 400 tier sees the maximum traction in India.The processors in this segment power the entry-level smartphones in India such as the Xiaomi Redmi 4A.The 600 platform saw the latest addition to the Snapdragon family with the 630 and 660 processors. With these processors, Qualcomm introduced its X12 modem for the first time with download speed claims of 600 megabits per second.Other features of these processors include:- Spectra 160 technology for Dual cameras- Hexagon DSP along with support for its Vector extensions, for faster computing.- Kryo 260 CPU: first time in 600 tier with up to 20 percent higher performance claims (as compared to 656).- Adreno 512 GPU for better graphics.The Snapdragon 630 processor saw similar features with the absence of support for Hexagon vector extensions and a 508 GPU graphic support in place of 512.Similarly, Qualcomms premium offering  the Snapdragon 835 - brings a variety of new features for OEMs to select and incorporate into their devices.Now the noteworthy trend here is that Qualcomm is following a trickle-down technology approach. Meaning, whatever they come up with in their premium segment passes on to the lower tiers after some time. Examples of this can be seen with the Kryo CPU and the Dual Camera support for smartphones.With Qualcomm bringing its top technology vectors to the lower tiers and adding new ones to its premier line-up, the cost of each feature to be added to a smartphone will go down. Smartphone manufacturers will be able to incorporate more features into their lower segment smartphones.Result: You as a customer will be able to get more features for less cost.There is no denying the fact that there are other factors that influence the manufacturing cost of a smartphone. But as a generalised approach, OEMs can now opt for lower tier (like the 600) of Snapdragon processors and still include features like the Dual camera and a next-to-best display.As per the senior executives of the company, Qualcomm has its largest market in India and is still experiencing a positive growth trajectory in the country.More of Qualcomm products are being used in the devices which are brought to India. A recent example of this can be seen in the upcoming OnePlus 5, which will be powered by Qualcomms latest Snapdragon 835 and will be the first such smartphone in the country.
: Succumbing to the demands of Islamic radicals and a promise made by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to religious conservatives, the Greek-styled goddess of justice statue was removed from the Supreme Court premises as it was something which was not allowed in Islam.Maulana Abul Hasanat Amini, vice chairman of Khelafotee Islamir Amir of Islamic Okojot, an Islamic preacher, lauded Bangladesh PMs decision to remove the statue and said that she had kept her promise which she had made last month in gonobhobon (a congregation), that the statue would be removed from the court premises before Ramadan sets in. He also lashed out at the protestors stating that they were not the true believers of Islam, but were also a threat to the country.The statue of Lady Justice, which was installed six months ago and was sculpted by Mrinal Haque, was made out of iron rods. It was a subject of dispute ever since its installation as it did not go down well with the hardliners in the Muslim majority nation. The radicals had demanded that the robe-clad and blindfolded statue should be destroyed and be replaced with the Holy Quran.Since December last year, groups like Hefazat, Qawmi madrasa-based Islamist platform which wants to have Shariah law enforced in the country, and Islami Andolon Bangladesh have been vigorously raising their voice to destroy the statue. The terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladesh affiliate of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), has also expressed its support for the demand.The work to remove the statue from the court premises was on the instruction of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and was carried out in the wee hours of Friday morning. Around 10 people uprooted the statue using hammer and chisel. It was later picked up by a crane and was carried away by a truck. Scribes and the sculptor Haque was waiting at the gate of the Supreme Court but was not allowed entry.Syed Nazakat, editor of the Centre of Investigative Journalism told News18 that the country may look peaceful from outside, but it is burning from inside.The country is suffering from a great political divide. Since independence, the two political parties have tried to rule the country and now with the rise of extremists, the country has become a mess. Government is unable to deal with it too. Jamaat-e-Islami has a lot of say in the affairs of the nation and any prime minister cannot work without their support and that is what is happening with Sheikh Hasina too. She did try to be very hard but could not muscle up to them and hence now warming up by such measures, said Nazakat.
Cairo: Gunmen attacked buses and a truck taking a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, witnesses and the Health Ministry said.



An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles.



Eyewitnesses said masked men stopped the two buses and a truck and opened fire on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority.



Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.



The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.



"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.



President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said. The Health Ministry put the toll at 26 dead and 25 wounded.



Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.



About 70 have been killed since December in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta.



Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's attack.
Oskemen, Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan, the world's biggest uranium producer, will start producing nuclear fuel for Chinese power plants in 2019 through a joint venture set up by the two countries, a senior official at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant told Reuters.



The joint venture, Ulba-FA, is now building on land at the Ulba plant, Kazakhstan's main uranium processing factory.



The Central Asian nation has no enrichment facilities and mostly exports uranium in the form of triuranium octoxide or pellets, both of which require further processing before being used by power plants.



By contrast, the joint venture between Kazakh state nuclear company Kazatomprom and China's CGNPC aims to produce ready-to-use fuel assemblies. It will procure enriched uranium either in China or in Russia, the Ulba plant's head of sales Alexander Khodanov said on Friday.



The first stage of the joint venture will produce about 200 tonnes of nuclear fuel a year using technologies and equipment supplied by France's Areva.



Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic that borders China, has no nuclear power plants of its own.
Washington: President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity.



The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in.



The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28%.



Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from making comment on the issue, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven.



Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move. "Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.



The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars.



However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.



"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.



"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.



However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause. "We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.



Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development. "As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI.



"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question.



The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush. Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity."



The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."



The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.



It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.



The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).



It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office.



According to the CRS, retaining this earmark has become a major priority for the Central Tibetan Administration in India. With a major drop in budget of USAID, it is not clear what impact it would have on funding for the Tibetan Government in exile.



Congress required the establishment of "programmes of educational and cultural exchange between the US and the people of Tibet," including opportunities for training, in the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 and again in the Human Rights, Refugee, and Other Foreign Relations Provisions Act of 1996.



In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2000, Congress renamed the program the ANgawang Choephel Exchange Program, in honour of an India-based Tibetan ethnomusicologist and former Middlebury College Fulbright Scholar who in 1996 was sentenced to an 18-year prison term in China on espionage charges.



According to a 2015 CRS report, in 2014 the total financial assistance to the Tibetan cause was more than USD 24 million.



This included USD 1 million for the Office of the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, USD 10 million for the support to ethnic Tibetans in China through Economic Support Fund, USD 575,000 for the Ngawang Choephel Exchange Program, USD 3.8 million for Radio Free Asia Tibetan Service, USD 3.2 million for the Voice of America Tibetan Service, USD 2.8 million for NGO Programmes Benefiting Tibetan Refugees in South Asia (Migration and Refugee Assistance), USD 710,000 towards Tibetan Scholarship Program for Tibetans outside Tibet and USD 621,000 to the NED's Tibetan programmes.



Since 2014, there has been a gradual decline in Tibetan funding.



Slashing down of the Tibetan funding has come as a surprise to the supporters of the Tibetan cause in the US.



During his confirmation hearing, the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had assured lawmakers about the Administration's support for Tibetans. "Should I be confirmed, while recognising Tibet as part of the People's Republic of China, I will continue to encourage dialogue between Beijing and representatives of Tibet's "government in exile" and/or the Dalai Lama. I will also encourage Beijing and the governments of all nations to respect and preserve the distinct religious, linguistic, and cultural identity of the Tibetan people worldwide," Tillerson said during his confirmation hearing in February.



Powerful lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate have introduced identical legislations, which if passed, would deny access to the United States by Chinese officials who are responsible for creating or administering policies on travel to Tibetan areas until China eliminates discriminatory restrictions on access by Americans to Tibet.



Ahead of the April 6-7 US-China Summit, a group of influential lawmakers had urged Trump to raise the issue of Tibet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
President Trump appears to move aside the prime minister of Montenegro while at a NATO summit in Belgium https://t.co/TXLE34HocN pic.twitter.com/IkRO6b72s0  CNN (@CNN) May 25, 2017

Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? pic.twitter.com/bL1r2auELd  Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 25, 2017

No silly. That's just a 'locker room' shove. Nothing Trump does is offensive if you put 'locker room' in front of it. https://t.co/O92qRyvvnm  FrugalistaBlog (@frugieblog) May 25, 2017

Honestly, the best part is Trump fixing his coat and doing that chin-in-the-air thing he does after the shove. https://t.co/PWknhEZolH  Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) May 25, 2017

Trump truly taking "America First" to heart - willing to literally push aside world leaders to stand in front. https://t.co/L4UEcZExjK  Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 25, 2017

I HAD TO shove the leader of Montenegro to be in front during our NATO meeting lunch break. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN first in line for any buffet. pic.twitter.com/saE1QhJFry  Donald J. Trump (@RealDonaldTrFan) May 25, 2017

President Trump and newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron exchanged a white-knuckled handshake https://t.co/GPAU9kr3JV pic.twitter.com/ceHBPsYNK9  CNN (@CNN) May 26, 2017

US President Donald Trump found himself as the subject of Twitter humour again when he seemed to push aside the prime minister of soon-to-be NATO member Montenegro during a photo-op of leaders of member nations.The incident took place at the brand-new NATO headquarters in Brussels where Trump was walking with other leaders. In an apparent attempt to be at the centre of the group photograph, the US President "pushed" Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside and stood in front, just in time for the photo-op.Video of the incident spread on social networks in multiple languages. "It seems Donald Trump did not want that anyone overshadows his presence at the summit," said the Montenegro newspaper Vijesti.Other Balkan websites ran headlines such as "America First" and "Where do you think you are going?"Markovic himself, however, shrugged off the slight. "It didn't really register. I just saw reactions about it on social networks. It is simply a harmless situation," he told reporters after the summit.Twitter, however, was not so forgiving, with Harry Potter author JK Rowling leading the pack.A parody account of Donald Trump also had a take on the incident.The shoving comes hours after the power struggle handshake between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, just before the NATO summit was set to start. The two leaders sat down for a talk and as is customary, the press got to take a few photos first. And then this happened...
Donald Trump last week declared himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history.

The activities of President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner have come under FBI scrutiny as part of the probe of Russian interference in last year's presidential election, US media reported on Thursday.Although it is unclear whether Kushner is a main focus of the probe, he is under investigation for the "extent and nature" of his interaction with Russian officials, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.NBC News, citing unnamed US officials, also reported that the FBI is looking at Kushner but emphasised that although investigators believe he has "significant information relevant to their inquiry," it does not mean they suspect him of a crime.The news is sure to rankle Trump, who was in Italy for a Group of Seven summit, accompanied by his top aides including Kushner.Kushner held meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States and a banker from Moscow in December, the Post said.The banker, Sergei Gorkov, is chairman of VneshEconomBank, a state bank under US sanctions since July 2014.Kushner initially failed to declare the meetings on forms to obtain a security clearance to serve in the White House. His lawyer later said it was a mistake, telling the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he would amend the forms.Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, is the only current White House official known to be considered a key figure in the probe, which is targeting other members of Trump's campaign team."Mr Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys, said in a statement."He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry."The Post reported last week that the Russia investigation had been extended to a top White House official as a "significant person of interest."But NBC noted that Kushner was not considered to be in the same category as either former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or sacked national security advisor Michael Flynn, who are considered "subjects" of the probe.Investigators are looking into possible financial crimes in addition to possible collusion between the campaign and Russian officials, the paper reported on Thursday.The probe is headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller, appointed the special counsel with broad powers to investigate Russian election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign after the president sacked FBI director James Comey, who was heading the investigation, earlier this month.Comey's firing, together with Trump's reported repeated efforts to persuade senior politicians, justice and intelligence officials to help push back against the probe, have brought accusations that he is obstructing the investigation.Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin, amid accusations from US intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated a sweeping campaign to tilt the vote in the Republican's favor.The president last week declared himself the victim of the "greatest witch hunt" in American political history.This week, former CIA director John Brennan revealed that intelligence chiefs had been looking into suspicious contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials since mid-2016.
New York: The ongoing leaks of sensitive information that have been a hallmark of the Trump administration are antagonizing one of America's closest allies, with officials in Britain incensed over details of the Manchester bombing investigation finding their way into the news.



The longstanding practice of allied countries sharing intelligence had already been threatened by reports that President Donald Trump disclosed classified material gathered by Israel to Russian officials in a recent Oval Office meeting. Now police in Manchester have stopped sharing with the US details of their probe into Monday's concert attack that killed 22 people without a guarantee that leaks will be plugged, one British official told The Associated Press.



Investigators were upset about photos published in The New York Times that showed crime-scene evidence and about the release of bombing suspect Salman Abedi's name at a time British officials were still withholding it. British Prime Minister Theresa May said she wants to discuss leaks with Trump at the NATO summit in Brussels.



Trump said Thursday that the leaks were "deeply troubling" and pose a grave threat to national security. He called for a Justice Department investigation and said the leaker should be prosecuted.



The president has complained bitterly about leaks that have revealed private communications with other foreign leaders and contacts that his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had with the Russian ambassador. Yet Trump's administration is filled with people who privately reveal information to the press. Media reports of behind-the-scenes action and details about relations with Russia happen nearly every day.



"Sadly one of the chief culprits in leaking information has been the president himself, who may have injured our relationship with one of our other partners over his conversations with the Russians in the White House," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "So the White House can begin to take responsibility for a large part of the problem itself."



The photos published in the Times showed the container that held the Manchester bomb and how it was concealed. There were pictures of a switch likely held in the bomber's hand, the shrapnel from the device and a battery used to power it. At the time Abedi's name became public, raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya, where the bomber's father lives.



Some British officials were concerned that people affiliated with Abedi could hide or quickly detonate another bomb once his name was out, said Rep. Mike McCaul, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who said he talked to people involved in the case.



Leaks can also jeopardize investigations and judicial proceedings, said Nigel Inkster, former head of operations for MI6, the British intelligence agency.



"We shouldn't have leaked that information," said Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican. "That should be kept as sacrosanct. So whoever did it was wrong."



The New York Times did not reveal how it obtained the photos and defended the decision to publish them.



"This is the kind of information and the kind of photographs we and others have published countless times after terrorism attacks," said Dean Baquet, executive editor of the Times. "It serves to inform people about the way attacks are conducted. It was not personal or insensitive. Nor did it violate the privacy of the victims. Law enforcement never asked us to remove the information."



Information about terror attacks that occur in Europe is shared as a matter of course with American intelligence and law enforcement officials, who check their own files to see if suspects travelled to, from the US, and to offer any collaboration or support.



"We are facing the same enemy," said Ali Soufan, a former FBI counterterrorism agent. "We probably might have a lot of information that can help our allies. We check our databases. We check our files.



"We do the same thing with them," he said. "We're one team."



While sensitive information disclosed in the midst of an investigation can risk its integrity, it can also help investigators gather more tips and leads, said John Cohen, former acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.



A former CIA officer now based in Britain, Bob Ayers, said British officials should "get over it."



The Manchester police are "pouting, and ultimately that's their choice, but they have to accept that they get more than they give," Ayers said. "It's a suicidal and stupid decision."



He said there's been friction that goes both ways across the Atlantic, noting that British authorities in 2012 blocked the extradition of a man accused of hacking into military and NASA computers. May, who was home secretary at the time, played a part in that decision, he said.



Schiff said, however, that it's in the best interests of the United States not to do anything to jeopardize trust with Britain.



"The British have every right to be furious," he said. "And we need to do everything we can to make sure that we respect the information that's provided to us by our allies."
Bal-oi: Residents fleeing the besieged city of Marawi travel to an evacuation center, Friday, May 26, 2017, in Bal-oi township, southern Philippines. Philippine army generals say dozens of Islamic State group-linked extremists have been killed in two days of fighting in a southern city that has been under siege since one of Asia's most-wanted militants evaded capture and dozens of rebels came to his aid. (Image: AP/PTI)
GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us.
DC's Batman spotlight is expanding to his sidekicks more and more

Members of Batman's family will seemingly play huge roles in the DCU in 2023
START OVER

A brief statement from the Judiciarys Court Protocol and Information Manager Alicia Carter-Fisher yesterday said consensus was reached at a meeting on Wednesday between key stakeholders to have all 53 matters restarted de novo (a fresh). Acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle Caddle will preside over all indictable cases, while all summary matters will be taken over by an assigned magistrate at the Port of Spain Magistrates Court.

All other Eighth Court matters which were not started will be managed by Earle Caddle. The judiciary statement said priority will be given to the 53 matters which will be actively case managed using the new Criminal Procedure Rules (CPR) of 2016, having regard to the hardships already experienced by the incarcerated, accused on bail, victims, witnesses and other stakeholders within the system. Present at the meeting on Wednesday were Chief Justice Ivor Archie, Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, Law Association vice president Rajiv Persad, members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), the acting chief magistrate, senior magistrates and the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

This decision comes almost a month after former chief magistrate Ayers-Caesar resigned on April 27 as a judge, when it was revealed by the Chief Justice that she misrepresented the number of cases left unresolved before her elevation to the High Court. It comes a week before attorneys are expected to debate a motion of no confidence in CJ Archie and other members of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) over the bungling of Ayers-Caesars appointment.

WHY SO LONG TO RESOLVE? President of the Criminal Bar Association Pamela Elder, SC, whose Chambers has five cases now in abeyance by Ayers-Caesars appointment and subsequent resignation, asked why it took so long for the Judiciary to arrive at a solution. What were they waiting on? The case law is clear, she said.

Elder said it is extremely offensive that no consultation was held with attorneys involved in the 53 cases.

The Chief Justice should have done the courteous thing. Courtesy demands the attorneys involved be consulted especially when they sought constructive suggestions from interested parties, Elder said yesterday.

And now that a decision has been taken to restart the cases, Elder wonders who will pay the legal fees of accused persons who have been without bail; some for over half a decade. Do they expect attorneys to just roll over and continue (with the cases)? Perhaps those attorneys from the CBA who came to this decision would do these cases pro bono (free), she said.

Elder emphasised that the Judiciarys statement was confusing as it is a total shift from the initial press release which indicated no case would be affected as all that was left behind were paper committals, which could be continued by another magistrate.

She said Ag Chief Magistrate Earle Caddle has repeatedly told attorneys the new CPR does not apply to preliminary inquiries.

She intends to write to the acting chief magistrate asking for clarification on the position but she also wants to know who will foot the bill for the transcripts of the cases to be started afresh.

DALY: JLSC MUST LEAVE For his part, Martin Daly, SC, yesterday called on members of the JLSC headed by CJ Archie to do the honourable thing, and and pack up and go. He said it was absolutely shocking that yesterdays media statement offered no apology by the JLSC, which he said was refusing to accept responsibility for the imbroglio.

This, he said, has only hardened his position that the entire JLSC must resign.

Admitting he is not a criminal attorney, Daly said the decision taken on Wednesday could give rise to those who have been incarcerated without bail on capital offences, to argue that they have been deprived of protection by the law.

You are prolonging the incarceration of presumed innocent people.

This (the decision taken) is unsatisfactory as it is just aimed at keeping the status quo, Daly said, adding the question of legal fees now arises.

Daly, one of eleven senior counsel who called on the JLSC to account for the administrative blunder of Ayers-Caesars elevation, said while there is a need to examine the process of appointment of judges, we have an injustice on our hands now.

KHAN: THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO Another attorney, Israel Khan, SC, who was the first to label the imbroglio caused by Ayers-Caesars elevation as a scandalous state of affairs, yesterday said the judiciarys statement was an admission that the JLSC does not know what it is doing. It is an admission that they were wrong, Khan said, adding that Ayers-Caesar should not have been made to resign as a judge.

He is still calling for an investigation, adding that the decision taken on Wednesday should have been implemented immediately following the former chief magistrates appointment as a judge. Under the Criminal Procedure Act they would have known right away that these cases would have had to be restarted.

A serious study of criminal procedure should have taken place. They have said they will be expedited but this entire thing has cost millions, Khan said.

Newsday understands that the Legal Aid and Advisory Boards tenure came to an end on May 15 and a new board is yet to be appointed by government.

As a result, the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority cannot appoint attorneys to represent accused persons nor can they approve legal fees.

Also speaking yesterday was Opposition Senator and attorney Wayne Sturge who said, This was the obvious way forward as there was literally no other option. Sadly in TT, paper committals dont work the way they are meant to and with the criminal bar being so small, delay is inevitable.

The other obvious issue is the hardship which would be occasioned by the accused who will have to find money to pay for the new proceedings.

I am sure that legal proceedings will be brought to reimburse them for the cost incurred which has been wasted by no fault of their own. Dont be surprised if there is mayhem. You cant expect a man to lose seven years of his life in custody and simply accept that the administration of justice made a mistake. We are all enjoying our liberty while they are suffering
State holds off on Valencia squatters

This undertaking was given on Wednesday to Justice Frank Seepersad in the San Fernando High Court by attorneys acting on behalf of the State at the hearing of an injunction filed in the name of Pine Avenue residents Annesa Maharaj and Ashminee Joseph and granted during an emergency sitting on Sunday.

Fifteen squatters were met with an excavator and workers from the Ministry of Agriculture accompanied by police at about 5 am on Monday.

About 15 homes were demolished.

During the demolition, several residents formed a human barricade in an attempt to prevent further demolition of houses. UNC Senator and attorney Gerald Ramdeen filed the injunction last Friday against the Commissioner of State Lands.

Justice Seepersad heard the matter ex-parte on Sunday and granted a conservatory order preventing the Commissioner her agents from encroaching onto land for the purpose of demolishing houses.

The effect of the judges order saw residents being allowed to return to Pine Avenue and some have since rebuilt their houses. The value of these squatters houses range from $90,000 to $800,000.

Ramdeen contended that the residents have occupied land at Pine Avenue for the past 30 years and have nowhere else to live. He said the States action was unlawful, oppressive and breached the residents fundamental right not to be deprived of their property, except by due process of law.

On Wednesday, Justice Seepersad heard the matter in San Fernando while attorneys for the State participated via video conference from the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain. Attorney Terrence Bharath instructed by Tamara Toolsie, appeared for the Commissioner of State Lands.

Justice Seepersad directed that filing of evidence commence on both sides and adjourned the case to July 25 to be heard in the Hall of Justice.
There Was No Red Wave,

'That's for Darn Sure'
The winner of Miss Black Texas 2016 is alleging assault, wrongful arrest, and official corruption against a Texas police chief and other officers after she spent 24 hours in jail this past weekend, the Root reports. According to NBC DFW, Carmen Ponder says she was driving to Walmart on Saturday when a truck cut her off while driving erratically. She passed the truck and pulled into the Walmart parking lot. Ponder says the truck followed her and she was accosted by Commerce police chief Kerry Crews, who was in the passenger seat. Ponder says Crews was "yelling and cussing" at her that he was teaching his 14-year-old daughter to drive and that Ponder shouldn't have passed them. She says Crews called her a "black bitch" when she informed him that letting his 14-year-old daughter drive was illegal.

Ponder says when she left the store, she was confronted by plain clothes officers who demanded she apologize to Crews. She refused and was arrested. Ponder was later charged with evading arrest. In a Facebook post, Ponder's attorney says his client's only crime was "the color of her skin." The city has placed Crews on leave during an investigation into the incident, but it states Ponder's account conflicts with that of Crews and another officer. Crews says he wasn't involved in the initial argument between two motorists and only got involved when one of them approached him. The city doesn't say who the other motorist was. Ponder is a Dean's List student at Texas A&M and an intern with the Hunt County District Attorney. (Read more Texas stories.)
The suspect in the deadly Manchester concert bombing was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain, a relative said Thursday, confirming he made a final phone call in which he pleaded: "Forgive me." Salman Abedi was particularly upset by the killing last year of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by "infidels" in the UK, the relative told the AP. "Why was there no outrage for the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way?" she asked. "Rage was the main reason," for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.

Abedi's relative said the suspected bomber was pained by the killing of Abdel-Wahab Hafidah, an 18-year-old who news reports say was chased by a group of men, run over, and stabbed in the neck in Manchester in May 2016. "They wouldn't let you share bread with them," she said Abedi told her. "They are unjust to the Arabs." The new insight into Abedi's motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids, and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bomber's family lived. (Read more Salman Abedi stories.)
Investigators looking into Russian interference with the 2016 election are zeroing in on Jared Kushner, reports the Washington Post, citing "people familiar with the investigation." At issue are meetings President Trump's son-in-law and adviser held with the Russian ambassador and a Moscow banker whose bank has been the subject of US sanctions in the past. The news follows a report last week that investigators were focusing on an unnamed senior White House official. Kushner is the only known current White House official being considered a key person in the investigation.

Kushner's meetings with the Russians weren't made public when he held them in December, and he failed to report them on his security-clearance forms. Kushner has not been accused of any wrongdoing and is not known to be the main focus of the investigation. His lawyer says Kushner will be willing to share his knowledge of the meetings with investigators should they call on him to do so. Read the full Washington Post report here. (Read more Jared Kushner stories.)
After Montana's Greg Gianforte roughed up a reporter, the general sentiment was that he was way out of bounds. But another view cropped up, most noticeably on conservative media sites, along these lines: "What kind of a wuss files charges over broken glasses?" asked one tweet, and "What would most Montana men do if 'body slammed' for no reason by another man? asked another. In the Washington Post, former bar bouncer Felix Biederman thinks these critics should stuff their tough talk. "Most people in this country cannot fight their way out of a wet paper bag and have no clue what they're talking about when they opine on it," he writes.

Biederman, a co-host of the podcast Chapo Trap House, isn't making the case that people should know how to fight better, he's simply pointing out that this kind of bluster usually comes from clueless people. Actual fights are exhausting, brutal affairs, win or lose, as opposed to the "choreographed" ones we see in film. "They're painful and bizarre and usually unexpected, and anybody who's ever genuinely thrown down could hardly blame" reporter Ben Jacobs for going to authorities instead of retaliating. "That Jacobs did so isn't everything wrong with America; that a bunch of middle-aged pundits logged onto Twitter to strut their toughness in 140 characters or less isn't either, but it's closer to the problem than Jacobs ever has been." Click for the full column. (Gianforte won the House election despite the controversy.)
One of President Trump's comments during a meeting with EU leaders Thursday isn't going over well in Germany. "The Germans are bad, very bad," the president said, as quoted by Der Spiegel. It came during a trade discussion, with Trump's reference being about auto sales. "See the millions of cars they are selling to the US?" Trump said, based on accounts of those in attendance. "Terrible. We will stop this." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker pushed back at the sentiment, arguing that global free trade benefits all participants, and CNBC reports that he downplayed Trump's comments on Friday. "He was not aggressive at all, and anyway we have taken the defense of the Germans," said Juncker.

A blogger at Slate takes issue with Trump's criticism, pointing out that BMW has a giant plant in South Carolina that churned out more than 411,000 vehicles last year, while Volkswagen has a big plant of its own in Tennessee. "I suppose Trump could try to stop the sales of German cars in the US," writes Daniel Gross. "But that would involve shutting down a bunch of factories on American soil that employ American workers and use a lot of US-produced parts," something that would indeed be "very bad." German leader Angela Merkel hasn't responded to Trump's comments, notes Bloomberg, but a government spokesman did. "A surplus is neither good nor evil," he said. "Its the result of supply and demand." (Also making headlines: a Trump handshake and a shove.)
For years, the Los Angeles Zoo has been under a court order requiring it to exercise its three elephants on soft ground and not use electric shocks or barbed sticks on them. On Thursday, that court order was overturned in a unanimous decision by the California Supreme Court that animal activists are decrying. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued the injunction against the zoo in 2012 in response to a taxpayer lawsuit alleging animal cruelty. But in what the Los Angeles Times calls a "highly technical ruling" overturning the injunction, the state's highest court said a taxpayer lawsuit (which uses civil law rules) can't be used to address criminal conduct. The taxpayer lawsuit began in 2007 when an LA resident sued over what he said was abusive treatment of the elephants, also including the use of chains and drugs, Courthouse News Service reports.

A lawyer who worked on the case, for free, for more than five years says he'll attempt to find another way to get a similar injunction against the zoo, or request that the state legislature overturn the ruling. "I thought we had done something here to move the ball forward and instead the Supreme Court has allowed the zoo to take a step into the Dark Ages," he says. The Supreme Court explained in its ruling that by obtaining the injunction in such a way, the court did not allow the zoo to have a jury trial or the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The barbed sticks known as bull hooks have since been banned entirely in California, and for its part, the zoo says that it has never used and will never use them or electric shocks as disciplinary tools for its elephants, and that it will continue to follow the court order despite it being overturned. (Read more elephants stories.)
Donald Trump, already showing signs of "Russia mania," planned to ask President Reagan for an ambassadorship to the Soviet Union so he could negotiate nuclear disarmament. Or so a 95-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner tells the Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive interview. Bernard Lown, who invented the defibrillator, met Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, becoming one of the first Westerners to spend time with the leader of the USSR. That, apparently, gave Lown expertise Trump was interested in. The future president requested a meeting with the cardiologist in 1986.

Lown took the meeting. He says Trump believed he was the only one who could successfully negotiate a nuclear disarmament deal with the USSR, bragging that "within one hour the Cold War would be over." Lown recalls thinking Trump was "self-inflated" and wondering about his sanity. He says Trump appeared to lose focus during their 20-minute conversation about Gorbachev; it felt like he had "another agenda." It's unclear how far Trump pursued his plan to ask Reagan for an ambassadorship, though his desire to negotiate with the USSR was widely reported in the mid-80s. Trump did eventually travel to meet with Gorbachev about a never-built hotel in 1987. Read the full Hollywood Reporter piece here. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
#fine dust advisory 1st ultrafine dust advisory in 9 months issued across Seoul The first ultrafine dust advisory in nine months was issued across Seoul on Thursday, the city government said. The advisory was issued at midnight over the capital, the first s...

#football Son Heung-min says ready to play at World Cup with protective mask As he recovers from a recent facial surgery, South Korean football icon Son Heung-min said Wednesday he will play at the upcoming FIFA World Cup with a protective mask. The Tott...
For the first time ever, the US will attempt to shoot down an intercontinental-range missile speeding toward the homeland, the AP reports. The Pentagon has scheduled a test of its Ground-based Midcourse Defense system for next Tuesday. The test was announced three days after the director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress that North Korea is on an "inevitable" path toward a nuclear ICBM that could reach the US. "If left on its current trajectory the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland," Reuters quotes Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart as saying.

For next week's test, a target will be launched from an atoll in the Pacific. Mimicking an ICBM, it will be flying faster than previous test targets. An interceptor rocket will be launched into space from California, releasing a 5-foot-long "kill vehicle." If the test is a success, the kill vehicle will be guided into the path of the test target and destroy it over the ocean. But interceptors don't have the best track record. Only nine out of 17 tests since 1999 have been a success. The Pentagon describes it as being similar to hitting a bullet with a bullet. An expert on the missile defense system says it's "astonishing" the tests fail so often given they're "scripted for success." (Read more missile defense system stories.)
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New Delhi:

Ranbir Kapoor's love life has always been the talk of the town be it with Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone. The actor, who broke up with Katrina Kaif last year, had a strong relationship with Deepika earlier. The two were said to be madly in love with each other such that while RK wanted to marry her, Deepika too got herself inked with Ranbir's initials. But destiny had some other plans for them and Ranbir-Deepika called it quits. Interestingly, despite their break-up, the two had continued to share cordial terms and have displayed stunning chemistry in the last movie together 'Tamasha'.



However, there was a time when Ranbir was so miffed with Deepika that he forced himself on the 'Piku' actress. Yes! It's absolutely true and there is a visual proof to it. But before you rush to any conclusion, there is a different part of the story.

Also Read | Throwback Thursday: When Ranbir Kapoor REVEALED the reason behind his break-up with Deepika Padukone



Actually, this viral video is a part of Imitiaz Ali directorial 'Tamasha' where Ved (played by Ranbir), forces himself onto Tara (played by Deepika), as she tried protesting. Notably this scene was deleted from the movie by Imitiaz as the scene gets quite unnerving beyond a point.



But even after over a year of the release of 'Tamasha', this deleted scene is still doing the rounds on internet, making people laud the commendable chemistry between ex-lover Ranbir and Deepika.



Currently, Ranbir Kapoor is gearing up for the release of his upcoming movie 'Jagga Jasoos' which will hit the screens on July 14. On the other hand, Deepika Padukoen is busy shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming period drama 'Padmavati' where she'll play the titular role.

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New Delhi:

As the Modi government completes three years in power on Friday, BJP president Amit Shah going gaga over the achievements of the Centre said what previous governments could not achieve in the 70 years of independence, PM Modi has attained in these 3 years.

Shah during a press conference on three years of Modi Govt said the politics of the country has changed and last years surgical strike in Pakistan was an outcome of Modis strong political will.

Excerpts from Amit Shah's press conference:

# In the last three years, the confidence of the people has increased.

# That's why our motto for the celebrations this time is: Saath hai, vishwas hai, ho raha vikaas hai.

# PM Modi had said at the outset that this government would be for the poor and downtrodden... the farmers and the Dalits. This government has worked relentlessly to ensure that this has been achieved.

# After years of corruption under previous governments, we finally have a government that not even the opposition can accuse of corruption.

# Our Govt. has distributed gas connection to more than 2 crore people.

# To increase the tourism, we have given e-Visa to 161 countries.

# Demonetisation was a great and courageous move of our govt.

# Our government has successfully implemented One Rank One Pension.

# Good and Services Tax (GST) bill was passed.

PM Modi inaugurates India's longest 9.15-km Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Assam, says it will now be named 'Bhupen Hazarika Setu'

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Lucknow:

The Allahabad High Court on Friday cancelled the bail granted to former UP minister Gayatri Prajapati and two others in a case of alleged rape of a woman and molestation of a minor, saying the lower court had acted in haste.

The HC had earlier stayed the April 25 order of the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) granting bail to Samajwadi Party leader Prajapati and his associates Vikas Verma and Amrendra Singh alias Pintu.

Allowing the petition of the state government seeking cancellation of their bail, Justice AP Sahi on Friday questioned the manner in which the ASJ handled the matter saying "the entire process was concluded as if the grant of bail had been preordained".

In the circumstances, there cannot be a presumption of the impugned order having been passed in good faith, the judge said.

"Rather, the entire episode indicates that the manner in which the bail was granted almost on the eve of the retirement of the officer concerned, that too even without any opportunity being afforded to the prosecution in the real sense, the grant of bail was clearly vitiated," Justice Sahi said.

The ASJ did not discuss the ingredients of the provisions of the POCSO Act and its implications, said the HC, adding a court while dealing with such serious matters having the potential of wide ramifications has to act with gravity and patience.

ALSO READ: Yogi Adityanath refuses to meet rape accused SP leader Gayatri Prajapati's family



It, however, said that the accused could move fresh pleas for bail to be decided on merit after affording adequate opportunity to the prosecution to present its case.

A woman had lodged an FIR with Gautam Palli police station here that Prajapati and his accomplice had raped her for years after promising her a mining license and they were trying to target her daughter.

The FIR was registered after the Supreme Court had pulled up the state government. The three accused were later granted bail.

HC Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosle had on the petition of the state government stayed the bail order. Prajapati was not released from jail while the two other accused had surrendered after the HC direction.

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New Delhi:

BJP president Amit Shah said on Friday that the Narendra Modi government had tackled the problem of unemployment by promoting self-employment. However, Shah admitted that it is not possible to provide jobs to all in a country of 125 crore people.

Taking a swipe at opposition parties over their charge of a "jobless" growth, Shah said that had they paid attention to such figures during the UPA government, they would not have suffered defeat in successive elections.

At present, there was no accurate mechanism to estimate unemployment figures, Shah said.

"We have tried to give new perspective to employment as it is not possible to provide employment to everyone in a country of 125 crore people. We are promoting self-employment and the government has made eight crore people self-employed," he told reporters.

Read | 3 years of Modi Govt: PM lays foundation of Guwahati AIIMS, says demonetisation was a very tough decision

Shah was addressing the media on the third anniversary of the Modi government.

The BJP chief said the Modi government had laid the foundation of a "new India" as he described it as a decisive and transparent dispensation which had achieved what past governments could not since Independence.

"In 2014, the BJP replaced a government suffering from policy paralysis and gave people a decisive and transparent government," Shah said.

The BJP-led government has finished politics of casteism, dynasty and appeasement and has raised the self-confidence and pride of the country on global level, he said.

Attacking the opposition, Shah said they were working to corner the government while it was working to develop the country.

Read | Congress on 3 years of Modi Government: 'BJP wants a Dalit-free, tribal-free country'

On Kashmir, Shah said the government was monitoring the situation very closely. "We will control and find a solution soon," he added.

Highlighting the Modi government's flagship schemes, Shah said in last three years scores of villages were provided electricity which had been in dark since Independence. Toilets have been constructed in more than 4.5 crore houses, 'jan dhan' accounts opened with zero balance, gas connections provided in two crore households, he said.

Speaking at length about the government's schemes, Shah gave the slogan of "sath hai, vishwas hai, ho raha vikas hai" (with us, with trust, working for development).

Sharing the social initiatives of the government, the BJP president said the government had given constitutional status to the OBC commission for empowerment of backward classes and distributed various assistive devices for disabled persons across the country.

Speaking on the country's economy, Shah said India was today the fastest growing economy in the world. On the demand of ex-servicemen for 'one rank, one pension' (OROP), he said, "The demand for 'one rank, one pension' fell on deaf ears (for years), but we fulfilled that promise."

Referring to the surgical strike on terror launchpads across the border with Pakistan, the BJP president said it showed the "political will" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On demonetisation, Shah said it was a "courageous step" aimed at curbing black money.

Read | Modi Governments reforms create greater optimism for Indian economy

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New Delhi:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday named Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin as accused in the journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case.

As per the CBI Special courts order, Shahabuddin was produced in the court of Special Judge Anupam Kumari here through video-conferencing facility.

Shahabuddin is the 10th accused in the murder case.

The CBI Special court had on May 22 issued the production warrant against Shahabuddin on the plea of CBI to produce him through video-conferencing for trial.

The CBI had also filed the application the same day for making Shahabuddin as an accused in the case.

The CBI counsel submitted that it would soon file charge-sheet against Shahabuddin, who is currently lodged in high-security Tihar jail in the national capital.

The premier investigating agency has already filed charge-sheet against seven accused persons in the case while two accused persons- Mohammad Javed and Mohammad Kaif- are on bail. Javed and Kaif are active members of Shahabuddin gang.

The four-time RJD MP from Siwan is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Rajdeo Ranjan, a journalist of a prominent Hindi daily in Siwan last year.

Shahabuddin is facing trial in more than 45 criminal cases and was moved to Tihar Jail in February this year on a Supreme Court order on a plea by Siwan native Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons were killed in two separate incidents.

Rajdeo Ranjan, district bureau chief of a Hindi daily was gunned down on May 13 last year and his wife has accused Shahabuddin of having a role in the killing.

The Special court fixed June 9 as the next date for production of Shahabuddin in the case.

With PTI inputs

Also read: Lalu-Shahabuddin link: TV channel tapes show RJD chief 'taking orders' from dreaded criminal, BJP admires expose

Also read: Jharkhand court acquits RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin in triple murder case



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New Delhi:

The Centre's sanction for setting up an AIIMS campus in Kamrup district, on the suburbs of the city, has led to a mixed bag of feelings from the locals.

The medical community in Assam allied to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Assam Medical Services Association (AMSA) on Thursday hailed the Centre's approval of setting up of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Changsari in Kamrup in the outskirts of the city.

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted, "our efforts to overhaul facilities in Assam will get massive boost with AIIMS with facilities of super specialty health care to people."

Mentioning that illnesses such as cancer, cardiovascular, trauma, diabetes and road traffic accident incidents has been increasing in the state, medical professionals said AIIMS in the state will function as a referral centre and will be able to attend to the vital health issues that, till now were not being covered by the existing facilities in a viable manner.

"AIIMS in Assam will also be able to cater research in complicated medical subjects. It will benefit the northeast. Such research will help the medical fraternity more than ever. At the same time, people in the state should know that AIIMS in Assam will be a referral centre that will consider major ailments. People here will definitely be benefited in the long term," said Satyajit Borah, vice president of the state chapter of IMA.

Resonating his view was Kanak Talukdar of AMSA who was quoted as saying that AIIMS will bring in a radical phase in medical sciences particularly in research oriented topics. "This is a great beginning for Assam that has been witnessing shortcomings in the health sector for a while now. Doctors who are oriented towards research will really benefit," said Talukdar.

Some, however, were cynical about the move. "The city is already burdened with traffic and crowd. If Raha or someplace besides Guwahati had been selected, this would have given an opportunity for these places to be developed," said a doctor.

Meanwhile, just a day before PM Narendra Modi lays down the foundation of the AIIMS campus, the Central Assam AIIMS Demand Committee appeared on the streets of Raha in Nagaon district to object against the cabinet's sanction of setting up of AIIMS in the outskirts of Guwahati.

The committee has announced a middle Assam bandh on Friday. Raha was one of the recommended sites for AIIMS in Assam. Guwahati was preferred over Raha because of its better connectivity.

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Mumbai:

On the eve of NDA governments third anniversary, the Congress party will hold a day-long protest in Mumbai on Friday against inefficiency of the Centre.

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam told reporters on Thursday that the BJP has completely failed to fulfil its poll promises.

Soldiers are dying on the border due to constant attacks by the enemy. Terror activities and intolerance are rising. Youths, farmers, women, small industries and salaried people have nowhere to go today, he said.

Congress will hold a day-long protest at Azad Maidan on Friday against the inefficient government, deteriorating law and order situation and the financial hardships being faced by the people, he added.

Nirupam said that senior Congress leader and former union minister RPN Singh, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan, MPs, MLAs and corporators will take part in the protest.

Also read: PM Modi to inaugurate longest Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Assam today on third anniversary of NDA govt

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New Delhi:

With the deadline to apply for Election Commissions challenge to try and tamper with the electronic voting machines to end on Friday, no political parties have so far applied for it.

On Saturday last, the Commission had announced that the challenge to hack and tamper with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) would take place on June 3 and the seven recognised national and 49 state parties can apply by May 26, 5 pm, to participate in the challenge.

But till Thursday, nobody has applied, Commission sources said.

After the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the BSP and the AAP had questioned the reliability of the machines.

Later, several opposition parties, except the AAP, had urged the EC to revert to paper ballot, saying the faith of the people in EVMs has eroded.

A demand of the AAP to tamper with the motherboard of the machine was rejected by the Commission on Thursday.

It said change in circuits would mean the EVM is no longer the one used by the Commission.

Also read: EVM Hackathon: Election Commission rejects Aam Aadmi Partys demand to change motherboard

Also read: EVM challenge: EC awaits entrants; Congress, AAP, BSP keep mum as deadline looms

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Jakarta:

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three policemen, the latest attack to hit Indonesia as it faces a surge in terror plots.

Analysts described the claim as credible and said they believed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local network of IS-linked militants, carried out the bombing.

Two suicide bombers attacked the busy terminal in the capital late Wednesday in a dramatic assault that sparked panic and left human body parts and shattered glass strewn across the street.

Three policemen were killed, and five other officers and five civilians injured in the bombing at the Kampung Melayu terminal. Authorities Thursday raided the houses of the suspected bombers, and found Islamic teaching materials and bladed weapons.

IS propaganda agency Amaq said late Thursday that the attack on the Indonesian police gathering in the city of Jakarta was carried out by one of the fighters of the Islamic State, in a statement carried by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Hundreds of radicals from Indonesia, the worlds most populous Muslim-majority country, have flocked abroad to fight with IS, and the country has seen a surge in plots and attacks linked to the jihadists over the past year.

Police have said they believe that IS is linked to the attack, but have given no further details. They would not comment directly on the IS claim of responsibility.

Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones, who heads think-tank the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, described the claim as very credible.

She said she believed that the branch of JAD based in Bandung, a city on the main island of Java, had carried out the bombing.

Al Chaidar, a terrorism expert from the University of Malikussaleh in Indonesias Aceh province, said he also thought the claim credible.

JAD was designated a terrorist organisation by the United States in January, which said the network was an umbrella group for about two dozen extremist outfits.

Some have pointed the finger at the group for carrying out a suicide and gun attack in Jakarta in January last year that left four assailants and four civilians dead, and was also claimed by IS.

Also read: Two explosions heard in eastern part of Jakarta in Indonesia; ten injured

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New Delhi:

Indian Army on Friday shot down two soldiers of Pakistans Border Action Team after they opened fire on patrol party along the Line of Control in Uri sector.



Indian Army on Friday opened fire on Pakistani troops in retaliation to their ceasefire violation along the LoC in Uri sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Operations are still on.

According to reports, weapon, one AK 47 rifle, one pistol have been recovered with the two bodies of BAT attackers. Last month, Pakistan's BAT force had infiltrated and mutilated a BSF jawan and an Indian Army soldier.

ALSO READ | UN rubbishes Pakistan Army's allegation that Indian troops attacked its observers near LoC

The attack comes amid the heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. On Wednesday, Pakistans army, Air Force and Navy had warned India that it was fully capable of thwarting any aggression.

Pakistans naval chief Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah, while addressing a gathering at Lahore's Naval War College, said that "the Pakistan Navy was fully capable to thwart any aggression and will be equipped with the latest equipment to defend maritime borders of the country".

Pakistans Air Force chief had warned that his forces will respond to any aggression by the enemy in a manner that their future generations will also remember it.

Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman emphatically said that Pakistan will give a befitting response to any misadventure by the enemy, Radio Pakistan reported.

Talking to reporters at Qadri airbase in Skardu, he said the country should have zero concern over the statements of the enemy.

ALSO READ | CPEC may instigate more tensions between India and Pakistan: UN report

Our response to any aggression by the enemy will be such that their future generations will also remember it, he said according to the report.

The Air Force chief made the remarks after taking part in Air Force exercises and flying a Mirage fighter jet during his visit to Skardu. He also reviewed the exercises and operational preparedness of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).

His visit coincided with reports in Pakistani media that the Air Force flew fighter jets near the Siachen Glacier - the worlds highest battleground.

The Indian Air Force in New Delhi denied that the Pakistani fighter jets violated the Indian air space.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have run high since the attack on an Indian army base in Uri in September last year in which 18 Indian soldiers were killed by militants based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Ten days after the attack India launched surgical strikes there to destroy terrorist launchpads.

More recently, the Indian Army announced that it launched punitive fire assaults on Pakistani positions across the Line of Control earlier this month, inflicting some damage. The action was taken in response to the beheading of two Indian soldiers in Kashmir by Pakistani special forces.



On Wednesday, the Pakistani Air force chief said the PAF was fully prepared and capable to defend the countrys frontiers.



(With inputs from PTI)



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New Delhi:

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped an opposition meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Friday, is likely to attend a lunch being hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in honour of visiting Mauritius prime minister Pravind Jugnauth.

However, Nitish clarifying on the issue said he has already met Sonia Gandhi and it was announced 4-5 days back that Sharad Yadav would represent JDU. Everything else is misinterpretation.

Earlier, Sonia Gandhi called an all Party meet with the agenda to decide a joint opposition candidate for the upcoming Presidential polls.

However, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee after the meeting said if the parties donat agree on one name then a asmall committeea could be formed to help them select a suitable nominee.

A

Had already met Sonia ji, it was announced 4-5 days back that Sharad ji would represent JDU. Everything else is misinterpretation: Bihar CM pic.twitter.com/Z2Mg3d14KB a ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

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New Delhi :

India has not received any information on the status of appeal or the petition given by the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav, the Indian national who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on spying charges, to the Pakistan government.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said it was up to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to decide the future course in the case.

We have no information on the petition and appeal Jadhavs mother had sent. Our High Commission has handed over it to the Pakistan government. We do not know the charges against him. We had sought court documents which have not come to us, he said.

On the reports emerging from Pakistan quoting a former Pakistani army officer that Jadhav was arrested from Iran, Baglay said the government has been saying since last year that he had been kidnapped from Iran.

Also Read: Cleric offers reward of Rs 20 lakh for garlanding Pak PM with Kulbhushan Jadhavs shoes

In the absence of the consular access to him, the circumstances of his presence in Pakistan remains unexplained, he added.

On the future course of action in the case, Baglay said, ICJ matter is sub judice. We had a great relief last week when the ICJ passed the order for provisional measures. It is up to the court to decide what will be in future...As the court proceedings unfold, we will have to see what facts to submit to ICJ. It is up to the legal team which the government has assembled.

Also Read | Kulbhushan Jadhav case: Shiv Sena asks govt not to get over excited about ICJ verdict

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Jhajjar:

A Hindu Pakistani national, who was living in a temple in Haryanas Jhajjar for nine months under a false identity and had even got Aadhar and PAN cards, was taken into custody, police said today.

According to his passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistans Sindh province, police said.

The PAN card seized from him mentioned his name as Rasraj Das, police said. The date of birth mentioned in his passport is different from the one mentioned in Aadhar and PAN cards, police added.

During questioning, Raja told us he was spiritually inclined, Superintendent of Police, Jhajjar, B Satheesh Balan said.

As per investigation conducted by police, Raja came to India in 2013 and his visa expired in 2016.

The SP said Raja, who is a Hindu, applied online for the extension of visa in order to stay in India. We are in contact with the External Affairs Ministry on this issue, he said.

Raja has two brothers who have been doing menial jobs in Pakistan. He has been associated with Iskcon for some years, the SP said, adding that he had also stayed in Delhi.

The SP said a team of intelligence bureau and police was questioning him and no case has been registered so far.

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New Delhi :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated outgoing prime minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda for the successful conduct of local elections in the country.

Modi conveyed his felicitations to Prachanda in a phone call last evening, the PMO informed on Friday in a tweet.

Modi also felicitated Shri Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda for his strong commitment to strengthen democracy in Nepal, it added.

Millions of Nepalese on May 14 voted in the countrys first local-level polls in two decades as the Himalayan nation took a crucial step towards cementing democracy amid political turmoil.

Before the elections, Prachanda had called up Modi who had assured all possible help from India in conducting the polls successfully.

Also Read | Nepal: Prime Minister Prachanda's government fails to register Constitution amendment bill in Parliament

Prachanda, who became the prime minister in August last year, resigned two days back under an agreement with Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba at that time that they would share power on rotational basis till next years elections.

Under that understanding, Prachanda had to resign after nine months.

Also Read: My visit will improve soured India-Nepal ties says Prachanda

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New Delhi :

The Saharanpur district administration has denied permission to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who was heading to visit the riot-hit district on Friday.

Two people were killed and several injured in a communal clash on May 5 after Dalit houses were put on fire. UP ADG law and order Aditya Mishra said the administration has given no permission to Rahul Gandhi to visit Saharanpur.

BSP chief Mayawati had held the state administration responsible for caste-based clashes that had occured in Saharanpur district this month.

UP: ADG Law and Order Aditya Mishra says no permission to Rahul Gandhi to visit Saharanpur  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 26, 2017

Had the administration permitted the installation of an Ambedkar statue as well as a procession on Maharana Pratap Jayanti, the violence would have never occurred, she had said.

In Saharanpur, Mayawati had met those affected by the violence and demanded compensation for them.In Muzaffarnagar also, she had lashed out at the state government for the violence.

Also Read | Saharanpur clashes: Centre seeks report from UP's Yogi Adityanath govt

The district administration of Saharanpur did not allow Dalits to install a bust of Ambedkar, while the procession to mark the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap was taken out without any permission, Mayawati had said.

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Tezpur (Assam):

The Defence sources on Thursday said that the search operations continued for the third day on Thursday for the missing Sukhoi-30 fighter jet that went missing on May 23 after taking off from Salonibari airbase in Tezpur on a routine training sortie.

Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Sombit Ghosh told PTI that search operations were resumed on Thursday from dawn to dusk and it would continue till the plane is located.

As the weather was marginally better today than yesterday, intensive air efforts could be put in to the ongoing operation tasking C-130 aircraft with electro-optical payload, Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and Chetak helicopters of IAF for this mission, he said.

Apart from the aerial assets, four ground parties of IAF personnel, nine parties of Indian Army and two parties of state administration have been deployed at different locations to search the area for the aircraft, he added.

Till now, however, no breakthrough has been made in locating the aircraft and its pilot, the Defence spokesman said.

The fighter plane had lost radar and radio contact with Tezpur Salonibari Air Force station an hour after taking off from there at 10.30 am with the last contact approximately 60 km north of Tezpur, Ghosh said.

At present Tezpur has a strength of two squadrons of SU-30 aircraft with one squadron comprising 12 to 16 aircraft, IAF sources said.

Chabua IAF airbase in upper Assam in the eastern sector has one squadron at present, the sources said.

Also read: Search for Indian Air Forces Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jet hit by rough weather

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Srinagar:

Peaceful protests to be launched by separatists in Kashmir on Friday against the "inhuman act" of an Army officer tying a man to a jeep as a human shield against stone-pelters and then honouring him.

Three major separatist groups -- hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, moderate Hurriyat Conference headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and JKLF led by Yasin Malik -- issued a joint statement here on Thurday calling for the protests.

Major Leetul Gogoi had tied a man to his jeep as a humanshield against a large mob of stone-pelters who had surrounded a polling booth in Budgam district during bypoll to Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency on April 9.

Read more: Army Chief Bipin Rawat meets Arun Jaitley, briefs on Kashmir situation

Gogoi has said that he had to rescue some paramilitary personnel and polling staff and by his act, many lives were saved as, otherwise, he would have been forced to order firing.

Earlier this week, Gogoi got a commendation card from the Army chief for his action.

"Awarding erring officer for this inhuman and unjustified act vindicates our claim that forces are involved in war crimes and are patronized and encouraged by Indian leadership", the joint statement of the separatists said.

They said that awarding the Major tantamounts to "justifying the human rights violations" and sending a clear message to the people that "they can go to any extent without any apprehension of accountability".

Read more: Kashmir: Search operation ends in Pulwama as militants manage to flee encounter site due to stone-pelting

The separatist groups also appealed to human rights organisations, the International Court of Justice and Amnesty International to take cognizance of the incident and "fulfill their responsibilities in saving precious lives" in the state.

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New Delhi :

As many as 17 political parties on Friday attended the meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday.

After the meeting, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee informed the mediapersons that no name has been discussed and the opposition parties will come out soon with a joint statement on candidate for presidential poll.

All opposition parties including BSP Supremo Mayawati and NCP president Sharad Pawar were present in the meeting.

Top opposition leaders like HD Devegowda, Kanimozhi, Sharad Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav attended the lunch meet hosted by Gandhi in the Parliament House library on a day that also marks the third anniversary of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

No name has been discussed, we will come out with a joint statement soon: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee pic.twitter.com/KYI65ZuJ4G  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, however, did not attend the meeting due to a prior engagement, sources said.

Leaders of 17 parties are attending the meeting called by Sonia Gandhi in Parliament pic.twitter.com/92FZ76FWew  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

Source also added that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was not invited by the grand old party.

Also Read | Presidential polls: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar bats for Pranab Mukherjees re-election, asks BJP to build consensus

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Cairo:

At least 26 people, mostly children, were killed and 25 other injured when masked gunmen wearing army uniforms opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt on Friday, the second major attack on the community in nearly two months.

The attack took place when the bus was heading to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo.

The gunmen were riding in three 4x4 vehicles, twenty-six Christians were killed and 25 others injured the attack said the Ministry of Interior.

Sources and eyewitnesses said that most of the victims were children.

Reports said there had been between eight and 10 attackers who were wearing military uniforms. Security forces were searching for the attackers. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

ALSO READ: Islamic State claims attack on Egypt; 1 policeman killed, 3 injured



There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State (IS) militants.

Two suicide bombings targeting churches in Tanta and Alexandria on April 9 left at least 46 people dead.

In December, an attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people. Coptic Christians, which make up about 10 per cent of Egypt's 91 million population, have faced persecution in Egypt, which has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak's regime in 2011.

E

gypt had imposed a nationwide three-month state of emergency after the April bombings, with the option to extend for another three months.

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Washington:

American lawmakers have been told that India is "thinking big and moving big" to catch up fast in development as it lags behind its giant neighbour China, offering tremendous opportunities to a country like the US.

"India is moving quite quickly in a number of areas as well, again, on renewable energy, which is kind of a golden thread running through this hearing. India is thinking big and moving big", Robert Orr, professor and dean, University of Maryland, School of Public Policy, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.

"They have big goals on solar and wind. They are meeting them. They are surpassing them. And they will keep attracting investment, both domestic and international. Their smart cities initiative of the Prime Minister has many components. But I think it's a strategic vision that is both at once developmental and economic", Orr said in response to a question during a hearing on US Leadership in Asia-Pacific organised by the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia.

Read more: PM Modi inaugurates India's longest 9.15-km Dhola-Sadiya bridge in Assam, says it will now be named 'Bhupen Hazarika Setu'

Orr said he had visited India last year with the former New York Mayor Michael Blomberg and met with a number of the top business leaders in India, talking with them about what they were going to be doing in the climate and energy space.

Virtually, the head of every conglomerate in India, whether or not they are coal-based, oil-based or anything-else-based are making investments now in this sector, he said.

"So, while I described China as putting these huge dollars, USD 360 billion over the next four years, India is going to be mobilising a lot of internal capital in this", Orr said, adding that the race is on between India and China in the energy sector.

"It is something that the United States has a technological lead, has a potential market that we could be extremely competitive globally. But right now, we're not making the decisions we need to compete with these giants", Orr told lawmakers.

Noting that the Indians are coming from a lower baseline in terms of their economic development, he said Indian leaders know they have a lot of catching up to do.

"They are being quite strategic in certain sectors. They're heavily dependent on the IT sector. Just in my role as dean of the School of Public Policy, I've been engaging with a number of Indian officials", he said.

Read more: UN rubbishes Pakistan Army's allegation that Indian troops attacked its observers near LoC

"They are extremely interested in cyber security right now. This is important to them. They see this as important to their key industries. They know they're lagging behind. So I think you see a strategic intent on the part of the Indian government like the Chinese government", Orr said.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Manchester:

A relative of alleged culprit in a deadly concert bombing said that he was driven by what he saw as unjust treatment of Arabs in Britain. He confirmed that the culprit made a final phone call in which he pleaded: Forgive me.

Salman Abedi was particularly upset by the killing last year of a Muslim friend whose death he believed went unnoticed by infidels in the UK, said the relative Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity over concerns for her own security.

Why was there no outrage for the killing of an Arab and a Muslim in such a cruel way? she asked. Rage was the main reason, for the blast that killed 22 at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on Monday, she said, speaking by telephone from Libya.

The new insight into Abedis motivation came as Britons faced stepped-up security, authorities pushed forward with raids and the investigation extended across Europe into Libya, where most of the suspected bombers family lived.

The number of arrests in the UK ticked up to eight as British Transport Police said armed officers would begin patrols on some trains because of an increased threat of terrorism. Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said, without elaborating, that searches of suspects homes brought very important clues in the probe of the bombing. But leaks from the investigation were creating a trans-Atlantic diplomatic mess.

Also read: Manchester terror attack: UK police make seventh arrest

Manchester police halted their sharing of investigative information with the US through most of the day until receiving fresh assurance there would be an end to leaks to the media.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who spoke about the matter with US President Donald Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels, said the countries partnership on defence and security was built on trust. But part of that trust is knowing that intelligence can be shared confidently, she said.

Trump pledged to get to the bottom of the leaks, calling them deeply troubling and asking the Justice Department and other agencies to launch a complete review of this matter.

British officials were particularly angry over photos published by The New York Times showing remnants of a blue backpack which may have held the explosive. But it wasnt clear US officials were the source of the images, which the Times defended as neither graphic nor disrespectful of victims and consistent with basic reporting on weapons used in horrific crimes.

British security services were also upset that 22-year-old Abedis name was apparently leaked by US officials while police in the UK continued withholding it and while raids were underway in Manchester and in Libya. Hopkins said the leaks caused much distress for families that are already suffering terribly with their loss.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the blast widened. Authorities chased possible links between Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East. They were exploring potential ties to Abdalraouf Abdallah, a Libyan jailed in the UK for terror offences, and to Raphael Hostey, an Islamic State recruiter killed in Syria.

Abedis family remained a focus, too, with a brother in England, his father and another brother in Libya among those detained. Abedis father was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, a claim he denies.

Also read: Manchester attack: Suicide bomber identified as Salman Abedi, say US officials

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Riyadh:

The Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan is due to begin Saturday in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, religious authorities in both countries announced.

The announcements came after religious authorities in the two Gulf Arab countries failed to sight the crescent moon on Friday night, state media reported.

The Sunni mufti of Lebanon, Abdullatif Deryan, also announced that Saturday would be the start of Ramadan.

There was no immediate announcement from other Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. During Ramadan, Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk.

They break the fast with a meal known as iftar and beforedawn they have a second opportunity to eat and drink during suhur. Ramadan is sacred to Muslims because tradition says the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed during that month. Ramadan is followed by the feast of Eid al-Fitr.

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Washington:

President Donald Trump's revised travel ban targeting six Muslim-majority countries, "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination", a federal appeals court has in ruling against the executive order.

Trump's administration vowed to take the fight to the US Supreme Court.

In a 10-3 vote on Thursday, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the ban likely violates the Constitution. And it upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March. Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems that the first version from January encountered.

A second appeals court, the 9th US Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

The Supreme Court almost certainly would step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Read more: US President Donald Trump orders probe into leaks related to Manchester terror attack

Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe. If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.

A central question in the case before the 4th Circuit was whether courts should consider Trump's public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

Trump's administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which doesn't mention religion. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

But Chief Judge Roger L Gregory wrote that the government's "asserted national security interest ... appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the court's ruling blocks Trump's "efforts to strengthen this country's national security."

Trump is not required to admit people from "countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism until he determines that they can be properly vetted" and don't pose a security threat, Sessions said.

The three dissenting judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, said the majority was wrong to look beyond the text of the order. Calling the executive order a "modestaction", Judge Paul V Niemeyer wrote that Supreme Court precedent required the court to consider the order "on its face." Looked at that way, the executive order "is entirely without constitutional fault", he wrote.

Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, said if the Supreme Court follows a partisan divide, the Trump administration may fare better since five of the nine are Republican nominees. Still, he said, it's difficult to make a confident prediction because "Supreme Court justices don't always vote in ideological lockstep."

Read more: Trump administration proposes USD 800 million coalition support for Pakistan

The first travel ban issued January 27 was aimed at seven countries and triggered chaos and protests across the country as travellers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the ban.

The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesn't apply to those who already have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.

Critics said the changes don't erase the legal problems with the ban.

The case ruled on by the 4th Circuit was originally brought in Maryland by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Centre on behalf of organisations as well as people who live in the US and fear the executive order will prevent them from being reunited with family members from the banned countries.

"President Trump's Muslim ban violates the Constitution, as this decision strongly reaffirms", said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, who argued the case. "The Constitution's prohibition on actions disfavouring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the government's request to set that principle aside."

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Plane with family of four goes missing near the Bermuda Triangle

The private passenger plane carrying a New York businesswoman and her family has gone missing. After spending Mothers Day in Puerto Rico, Jennifer Blumin, her pilot boyfriend Nathan Ulrich, and Blumins two sons took to the skies at 11 am on a plane heading for Titusville, Fla. At 2:10 pm, Miami Air Traffic Control lost all communication with the twin-engine MU-2B as it flew at 24,000 feet with a speed of 300 knots. According to the Independent.co.uk, the last known location of the plane was 37 miles to the east of Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas, as well as within the area comprising the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

The cause behind the familys disappearance has yet to be determined. Coast Guard spokesman Lieutenant commander Ryan Kelly stated: There was no indication of significant adverse weather at the time, ruling out the possibility of bad weather.

Rae Dawn Chong, daughter of comedian Tommy Chong and Ulrichs ex-wife, has placed the blame on the plane, commenting: Hes an excellent pilot. You couldnt get a better pilot. Ive flown many hundreds of miles with him. It had to be a plane issue. To this, Kelly said that Ulrich may have been listed as the pilot, but it was unknown if he was the one flying the plane at the time of its disappearance.

Though there is no definite answer yet to the question of what happened to Blumin and her family, one may be coming in the near future. The NYPost.com reported that debris was found in the waters 15 miles east of Eleuthera. It hasnt been confirmed by the US Coast Guard if it came from the missing plane, however. Were putting two and two together and assuming that it is, unless we get more information, said Luke Clayton, also a Coast Guard spokesman. The debris has since been sent to the last mechanic who worked on the plane, with the hope that they might be able to identify it.

At the time of writing, speculations continue to run rampant as the mystery of Blumin and her familys disappearance remains unsolved.

A brief overview of the Bermuda Triangle

Also known as the Devils Triangle, the Bermuda Triangle refers to the 500,000 square miles of ocean bounded by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. The name Bermuda Triangle was coined in 1964 by author Vincent Gaddis, who first used it in a magazine article discussing the hundreds of planes and boats that vanished within its purported area of influence. Everything from navy bombers to cargo ships have all entered the Bermuda Triangle but never came back out. The death of Joshua Slocum, famous as the first person to sail around the globe by himself, and the loss the USS Cyclops, a 542-foot-long Navy Cargo ship carrying 300 men and 10,000 tons of manganese, have all been attributed to the Bermuda Triangle.

Aliens, sea monsters, and even reverse gravity fields have been cited as the causes behind the Triangles mythical destructive nature. Similar to Blumins case, there doesnt yet exist a conclusive answer to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Theories and counter-theories have popped up and will continue to pop up until thenfrom both the believers and the skeptics of the Triangle. (Related: Has the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle been solved?)

Visit WeirdScienceNews.com for more stories about the strange, the unusual, and sometimes the paranormal.

Sources include:

Independent.co.uk

TheNewDaily.com.au

NYPost.com

History.com

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The Government of Canada announces $4.5 million in funding for the museum to increase capacity and accessibility

BURLINGTON, ON, May 26, 2017 /CNW/ - The Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of Democratic Institutions and Member of Parliament (Burlington), today announced funding of $4,479,000 for the City of Burlington to support the redevelopment and expansion of the Joseph Brant Museum. Minister Gould made the announcement on behalf of the Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage.

This funding, provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, will allow the museum to relocate and expand its existing building. The increased accessibility and space of the new facility will allow more Burlington residents and visitors to engage with the museum's heritage activities.

During Canada 150, the Government of Canada is celebrating our cultural institutions and artists, ensuring that our arts and heritage are accessible to more Canadians.

Quotes

"We understand the importance of investing in cultural organizations in communities across the country. Investing in Canada's cultural sector helps create good jobs for the middle class, strengthens the economy and builds stronger cities. The improvements to the Joseph Brant Museum will ensure that it can continue to promote our heritage in an enhanced and accessible environment."

The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage

"Providing Canadians with access to our cultural heritage is a priority for our government. That is why I am so proud that we are supporting the redevelopment of the Joseph Brant Museum. I know how important this project is to the people of Burlington. It will give residents and visitors improved access to our rich local history and heritage. I look forward to visiting the new space once construction is complete."

The Honourable Karina Gould, Minister of Democratic Institutions and Member of Parliament (Burlington)

"We want to thank the Government of Canada for their funding and commitment to the Joseph Brant Museum, and their ongoing support of our community. The Joseph Brant Museum is one of the key cultural spaces which adds to Burlington being recognized as one of the best places to live."

Rick Goldring, Mayor of the City of Burlington

"Every day, wherever I am in the great city of Burlington, I hear from residents about the importance of cultural spaces that help us come together to explore our heritage. That's why I'm delighted to celebrate the next steps in the redevelopment of the Joseph Brant Museum. This project will help more people to access an exciting range of programming and activities for years to come, right here in Burlington."

The Honourable Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Government of Ontario

Quick Facts

Operating since 1942, the Joseph Brant Museum is a community museum focused on the founding, settlement and development of the Burlington area. The museum is run by the City of Burlington and is housed in a replica of the original homestead of Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea).

The Canada Cultural Spaces Fund invests in professional not-for-profit arts and heritage organizations for the improvement, renovation and construction of arts and heritage facilities. It also funds the acquisition of specialized equipment and the development of feasibility studies related to cultural infrastructure projects.

The announced funding will be used to support the construction of a new larger museum facility that will incorporate the existing building, thereby improving the museum's capacity and accessibility.

Associated Links

Museums of Burlington https://museumsofburlington.ca/joseph-brant

Canada Cultural Spaces Fund http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1455203896312/1455204007503

SOURCE Canadian Heritage

For further information: (media only), please contact: Pierre-Olivier Hebert, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, 819-997-7788; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.pch.gc.ca


/NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES./

Renoworks graphic services revenues up 323%

CALGARY, May 26, 2017 /CNW/ - Renoworks Software Inc. (TSXV: RW)("Renoworks" or the "Company") a leading provider of digital home imaging software and web solutions for new home construction and existing home renovations, yesterday announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017. The financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis ("MD&A") can be viewed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Quarterly financial and business highlights:

Quarterly revenues of $665,503 for the three months ended March 31, 2017 compared to $649,574 in 2016.

for the three months ended compared to in 2016. Graphic service revenues increased by 323% to $76,786 in the quarter ended March 31, 2017 , compared to $18,132 for the same period in 2016.

in the quarter ended , compared to for the same period in 2016. 64% of the first quarter's revenue in 2017 is attributable to annual recurring customer contracts.

Gross margins continue to be strong at 72% for the quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA* for the three months ended March 31, 2017 , a loss of $119,722 compared to a loss of $74,773 for the same fiscal period in 2016.

, a loss of compared to a loss of for the same fiscal period in 2016. Reduced long-term liabilities from $222,625 to $143,167

to Expenses for the first quarter of $636,964 . Increased expenses versus the same period in fiscal 2016 are primarily attributed to marketing resources and new staff in support of further revenue growth across all business lines in 2017 and beyond.

. Increased expenses versus the same period in fiscal 2016 are primarily attributed to marketing resources and new staff in support of further revenue growth across all business lines in 2017 and beyond. As at March 31, 2017 , the Company's cash balance was $1,161,618 compared to $311,946 as at March 31, 2016 .

Doug Vickerson, CEO of Renoworks, stated, "We are pleased to report our financial results for Q1 2017 and deliver substantial quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in our design services business line. Our design services strategy is proving very effective." Mr. Vickerson explained, "It's important to note that we launched a new business model with a leading manufacturer at the beginning of March and in only 31 days it has already grown revenues in that business line organically by 323% year-over-year. In the coming quarters, we will continue scaling this business line and expect it to become a larger percentage of overall revenues. As we expand our sales channel to support revenue growth across all our business lines, we see pursuing this lucrative opportunity as being one of the main driving forces of our bottom line."

Financial results from operations for the first quarter 2017 with comparatives for 2016 are as follows:



Three Months Ended March 31 2017 2016 Revenue $665,503 $649,574 Gross Margin $477,535 $481,632 Expenses $636,964 $543,845 Loss $233,237 $98,450 Loss per share $0.01 $0.01 Adjusted EBITDA (119,722) (74,773) Weighted Average Shares Outstanding 33,233,091 28,671,044

The Company's financial position as of March 31, 2017 with comparatives from 2016 is as follows:



March 31, 2017 March 31, 2016 Cash Balance $1,161,618 $311,946 Accounts Receivable 417,638 517,308 Working Capital $1,160,477 $244,074 Deferred Revenue 320,123 423,845 Long- term liabilities $143,167 $222,625 Shareholder's Equity $1,107,603 $65,560 Deficit ($5,671,734) ($5,417,199) Total Assets $1,762,180 $888,845

About Renoworks

Renoworks Software Inc. develops and sells unique digital visualization software for the remodelling and new home construction industry, primarily in the United States and Canada. Delivered online, as a custom developed app or desktop software, Renoworks provides its technology to manufacturers, contractors, builders and retailers offering the solution to one of the home remodelling industry's greatest challenges: enabling customers to see how their product choices will look in a realistic, virtual environment  even in their own home  before they make a purchase decision. Renoworks markets its software as a cost-effective lead generation tool and generates revenues from four main business lines: Enterprise, Renoworks PRO, Renoworks GSB and Renoworks SDK (Software Development Kit).

For more information, visit www.renoworks.com

*Non-IFRS Measures

Adjusted EBITDA is a measure not recognized under IFRS. However, management of Renoworks believes that most shareholders, creditors, other stakeholders and investment analysts prefer to have these measures included as reported measures of operating performance, a proxy for cash flow, and to facilitate valuation analysis. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest income, taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock based compensation, restructuring costs, impairment charges and other non-recurring gains or losses. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA is a useful measure that facilitates period-to-period operating comparisons.

Adjusted EBITDA does not have any standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Readers are cautioned that Adjusted EBITDA is not an alternative to measures determined in accordance with IFRS and should not, on its own, be construed as indicators of performance, cash flow or profitability. References to the Renoworks' Adjusted EBITDA should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of Renoworks posted on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Forward Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties. Such statements relating to, among other things, the prospects for the company to enhance operating results, are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which are significant in scope and nature. These uncertainties may cause actual results to differ from information contained herein. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of the management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE RenoWorks Software Inc.

For further information: For investor information please contact: Doug Vickerson, CEO, Phone: 403-296-3880, Email: [email protected], Renoworks Software Inc., 2816 -21st Street NE, Suite 7, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2E 6Z2; For investor information please contact: Rob Gamley, Phone: 604-689-7422, Email: [email protected], Contact Financial Corp., 1450 - 701 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V7Y 1G5
TORONTO, May 25, 2017 /CNW/ - TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM), the manager of TD Mutual Funds, today announced its plans to terminate operations of the TD Asian Growth Class due to a low number of unitholders.

Effective today, the terminating fund is closed to additional purchases, including Pre-Authorized Contribution Plans, and will be terminated on or about August 10, 2017.

Unitholders may redeem or switch their holdings in the terminating fund for settlement on, or prior to, the termination date. As at August 10, 2017, TDAM will liquidate the holdings of the terminating fund at fair market value, determine distributions and distribute the net assets to unitholders.

TD Asset Management Inc.

TD Asset Management (TDAM), a member of TD Bank Group, is a North American investment management firm. Operating through TD Asset Management Inc. in Canada and TDAM USA Inc. in the U.S., TDAM brings new thinking to investors' most important challenges. TDAM offers investment solutions to corporations, pension funds, endowments, foundations and individual investors. Additionally, TDAM manages assets on behalf of almost 2 million retail investors and offers a broadly diversified suite of investment solutions including mutual funds, professionally managed portfolios and corporate class funds. Collectively, TDAM manages C$345 billion in assets as at March 31, 2017.

SOURCE TD Asset Management Inc.

For further information: Emily Vear, TD Bank Group, 416-983-0050, [email protected]
The Government of Canada supports a series of events on June 24 to celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste: Fete nationale du Quebec et de la Francophonie canadienne, in several Canadian cities

QUEBEC, May 26, 2017 /CNW/ - The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, today announced funding of $2.4 million for a major project to be held on June 24 to mark Saint-Jean-Baptiste: Fete nationale du Quebec et de la Francophonie canadienne. Minister Joly was accompanied by Diane Blais, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques (CFA).

This funding will allow the CFA to present activities in several Canadian cities to celebrate the Canadian Francophonie like never before. For the first time, live performances will take place in six cities, featuring more than 50 Francophone and Francophile artists from across the country. Canadians will also be able to view the celebrations live on several online platforms, thanks to a partnership with Television francophone de l'Ontario (TFO).

Interactive doors installed in the six cities will offer viewers a unique multi-sensory experience by inviting them to connect through the magic of virtual reality. Minister Joly encouraged all Canadians to take part in the activities organized for this special day, and urged them not to miss the other activities planned throughout this exceptional year.

Quotes

"We are proud to support the celebrations of Saint-Jean-Baptiste: Fete nationale du Quebec et de la Francophonie canadienne. Canada 150 celebrations offer a great opportunity to open doors and build bridges between different Francophone communities in Canada, and demonstrate that the Francophonie is alive and more dynamic than ever. I invite all Canadians to take advantage of this symbolic day to celebrate the French language and culture from coast to coast to coast."

Hon. Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage

"This year, celebrations of the Canadian Francophonie will be bigger than ever before! Talented artists will perform live at several locations across Canada to showcase the plurality of our Francophone culture. I encourage all Francophones and Francophiles to make the most of this unique opportunity to join family and friends and celebrate this living language, which is woven into the intellectual and emotional fabric of our nation."

Randy Boissonnault, Member of Parliament (Edmonton Centre)

"Designed as a celebration of the French presence in the Americas, the project will bring life to communities and bring them together. Constellation francophone is first and foremost a dialogue between communitiesa reflection of a plural and inclusive Francophonie in a year of full celebrations, where the expression and pride of millions of Francophones are in the spotlight."

Diane Blais, Chair of the Board of Directors, Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques

Quick Facts

On June 24, 2017, the CFA will present six free major performances. The live stage shows will be simulcast from Moncton/Dieppe, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg and Whitehorse.

Established Francophone and Francophile artists, emerging artists and Indigenous artists will be featured on the six stages to showcase the plurality of Canada's Francophonie.

Community events will also be held in every province and territory so that all Canadians can participate in the June 24 celebrations.

These major celebrations, a key component of Canada 150, also include National Aboriginal Day, a celebration of Indigenous culture and heritage (June 21); Canadian Multiculturalism Day (June 27); and Canada Day (July 1).

Related Products

Twelve Days of Celebrations for Our Country's Birthday! http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/twelve-days-of-celebrations-for-our-countrys-birthday-623170513.html

Associated Links

Canada 150: Come out and celebrate! http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1468854891549/1469215680151

Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques http://www.francophoniedesameriques.com/

SOURCE Canadian Heritage

For further information: (media only): Pierre-Olivier Herbert, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, 819-997-7788; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.pch.gc.ca


The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS (FACA) says it expends about N3 billion annually on Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARV) for HIV patients in the territory.The Project Manager of the agency, Dr Uche Okoro, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.Okoro explained that about 60,000 people living with HIV were receiving ARV in FCT and N50,000 was spent on each of them per annum.He said that the FCT had a total of 100,000 patients that were accessing care in various centres pointing out that with new policy on test and treat, other persons living with disease would be added to 60,000 receiving anti-retroviral drugs.According to him, there used to observed some procedures before a patient could be enlisted among those taking ARV but henceforth all HIV patients under the agencys care would be receiving anti-retroviral drugs.The project manager also disclosed that majority of these patients were on first line drugs, while very few of them were receiving second and third line drugs which were more expensive and scarce than first line drugs.He regretted gradual withdrawal of support by some development partners, saying that government had no choice than to take ownership of the programme.He noted that people living with HIV were accessing their drugs in 134 centres while 230 centres conduct testing and counselling across the territory.Okoro said that the agency had scaled up their reach and expanded it to get to so many people living with the disease in FCT.
14-year-old schoolgirl, Luyanda Mhlongo was strangled to death after she was brutally gang raped and repeatedly stabbed in a plantation, a stones throw from her home in Elokishini near Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Her body partially clothed and riddled with stab wounds was discovered by children playing in the trees on Saturday, May 20.



We think she died on Friday night but we are not sure all we know is that she didnt come home her sister Hlengiwe Mathenjwa said. Police are trying to piece together Mhlongos last moments after she returned from school to change her clothes and then left to meet with her friends. They told us that she was gang raped. Our family was worried when she didnt come home on Friday night so we began to look but we couldnt find her.

On Monday the family went to the police station to report Mhlongo missing only to be notified that a body matching her description had been discovered days before.

Her grandfather Nkanyiso Mhlongo said what the teen endured in the moments before she was killed was what worried him most. "What has happened has shocked us as a family because there is so much we still dont knowWe are very worried about the condition she was found in and what is worrying us even more is that we dont know what happened to her he said.

A memorial service was held at the Gcwalulwazi High School on Thursday  May 25, attended by KZN Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana. These things are happening too many times for comfort. Society itself needs to participate in the fight against these horrible incidents he said. "We had another learner who was raped and murdered in a very gruesome way last weekwe are saddened by this death and for cases like this. One death is one too many he said.

Source/photo credit: Sowetan Live/Facebook
Justice Letan Nyordee of the Rivers State High court has fixed July 27 for judgment on the murder case of the four University of Port-Harcourt students, popularly called Aluu four.The court fixed the date after all the lawyers in the matter adopted their written addresses before the court.Seven accused persons are now standing trial in the matter, while five persons were earlier discharged and acquitted.It could be recalled that the late four UNIPORT students, Ugonna Obuzor, Toku Lloyd, Chiadika Biringa, and Tekena Elkanah, were all lynched after they were allegedly accused of theft at Umokiri community in Aluu, near University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State on October 5, 2012.
Kaduna State government has signed agreement with a Chinese company to build a refinery in the state, which will use crude oil from Nige...

Kaduna State government has signed agreement with a Chinese company to build a refinery in the state, which will use crude oil from Niger Republic via a 400-kilometre pipeline from Niger to Kaduna.Governor Nasir el-Rufai disclosed this when he returned from the Asian country, where he led a business delegation to. A statement by the governors spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said the proposed refinery is a 50,000 barrels per day capacity one and that representatives of the Kaduna Refinery Consortium and the China Machinery Engineering Corporation, CMEC, signed the agreement on the project this week in China.While the governor signed for the Kaduna consortium, Li Mingqiang signed for CMEC. Aruwan noted that during the trip, the Kaduna State team also signed a tripartite memorandum with the government of Hebei province and the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, CCECC.Signed on May 22, the agreement commits the three parties to facilitate exchanges and cooperation in the areas of economy, trade, energy, infrastructure, technology, culture, education, tourism and health.
Ex-Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, yesterday faulted the Federal Governments borrowing of money from China to fund airport, s...

Ex-Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, yesterday faulted the Federal Governments borrowing of money from China to fund airport, saying that financing of such project should be done through the Nigerian capital market.The former governor also stressed the need for government to come out with regulations that will make big companies and publicly privatised entities to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, stressing that the Nigerian stock market remains shallow because of absence of needed regulations and structures that allow public companies to list their shares on the Exchange.Speaking at the second Capital Market Summit titled The Road to Nigerias Economic Recovery organised by the Association of Stock broking Houses of Nigeria, ASHON in Lagos, Obi said Privatised public assets must be made to list in our market if they must be run profitably and efficiently. The idea of government providing intervention fund is not the best way to go about providing needed infrastructure to drive the economy. Continuing, he said: Nigeria has been in contraction for five quarters, so we should work quickly to move away from this recession. There is nothing wrong with borrowing when there is recession, but it must be done reasonably to attract investments and savings. So, borrowing is not bad except when the money is not used judiciously.There was no savings yesterday, that is why we are where we are today. The value of our capital market is just too low, about $30billion and that cannot attract foreign investors. We cannot compare ourselves now to Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, Indonesia, Singapore etc. whose economies were similar to ours in the 1990s. According to him As stakeholders in the capital market, we are all aware that the capital market is simply a barometer that gauges the performance of the economy, hence we all have a duty to support the government in whatever form that can bring about dramatic turnaround of our economy as Nigeria struggles to climb out of recession Continuing, he said There is a strong correlation between the development of an economy and its capital market. Apart from other roles, capital market primarily helps to mobilise funds from the surplus economic units and channels them to the deficit ones.This underscores the fact that governments budget deficit gap and critical infrastructure development can be financed through the instrumentality of the capital market.
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode Friday asked security agencies in the state to put machinery in motion to rescue six students of...

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode Friday asked security agencies in the state to put machinery in motion to rescue six students of Model College, Igbonla who were abducted by gunmen on Thursday.Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule, who visited the school on Friday in Epe, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria said the governor had directed security agencies to take immediate action to rescue the victims.The Deputy Governor said: We are on top of the situation and the Governor has directed all security operatives to step up action on rescuing the students, details of which l cannot disclose in order not to undermine their operation, she stated.Adebule in an emotion-laden voice urged parents of the affected children to be calm as the government would stop at nothing to ensure safe return of their children.
The youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on the Department of State Services, DSS, to immediately release the Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Ltd., Mr. Ifeanyi Ubah in line with a court order.Similar call also came from the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, which accused the DSS of having a penchant for disregard to court orders.It would be recalled that a Federal High Court had on Thursday gave the DSS 48 hours to free Ubah from custody.Speaking in Enugu at an event organized by the Authority Newspapers to honour the wives of South-East governors, the National President of the Ohanaeze Youths, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro lauded the judge for his courage in giving the orders.We want to salute the judge for upholding the law and human rights. The court indeed showed that the DSS cannot be the accuser and the judge at the same time, he said.However, while calling on the DSS to obey the order, Isiguzoro vowed that we shall mobilize the youths for a protest if the courts order is disobeyed.Similarly, the IPOB in a statement by its media and publicity secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful said We have been informed by IPOB intelligence unit that Ifeanyi Ubahs arrest by the DSS was the perfection of hard economic policies against our people and a strangulation of Igbo businessmen in Nigeria no matter your class.The ground plan to stop every business controlling by our people in Nigeria is eating deep in Nigeria economy because our people are the major businessmen in Nigeria today irrespective of the 20 they gave to our in 1970 after the war.In line with this, arresting Dr. Ifeanyi Uba because of his legitimate business proves to all and sundry that we are no more needed in the contraption called Nigeria.We are also aware that this is the another way of completing the economic policy of 1970 which permitted them to give Biafrans 20 after the war in 1970 irrespective of the amount in the bank. But we will not allow their plans against the people of Biafra to excel this time around.The Nigeria court ordered for the release of Dr. Ifeanyi Uba within 48 hours but the DSS continues keeping him in their secret cell.We want to ask: when did the DSS turn to be court of law in Nigeria; again what did he commit that warranted such a curel statement from the DSS that he should be sentenced to death?We want the DSS to know that an attack on Ifeanyi Uba is an attack on Biafrans; the DSS should know that we are watching on this matter and must continue following it until it get to the logical conclusion.It is pathetic that well meaning Nigerians are still keeping quiet over the continued damage the DSS is causing Nigeria in the face of the international community.More so, we want to state it categorically clear to all the Northern dominated DSS and other politicians that nothing should happen to our brother Dr. Ifeanyi Uba because he committed no crime against anybody or Nigeria state.In line with this, we warn that Ifeanyi Ubah should be released with immediate effect before it is too late or they will see the power of IPOB under Nnamdi Kanu in all over the world; we cannot afford to watch them continue to humiliate and intimate him for just no cause.Indeed, it is dangerous that Nigeria government will be releasing those Fulani herdsmen and Boko haram members who were killing innocent people in Biafraland and other parts of Nigeria and still disobeying court order for releasing someone who committed no crime.This hard economic policy against the Biafra businessmen, especially the Igbo businessmen by the Northern Nigeria oligarchy and their Hausa Fulani dominated security apparatus must stop.
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, has asked the Southeast to stop complaining of marginalisation by the President Muham...

The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, has asked the Southeast to stop complaining of marginalisation by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

He lamented that all his efforts to persuade the Igbo to wisely invest in Buharis presidential bid in 2015 failed because of lack of cooperation by many South-east leaders, who threw their weight behind former President Goodluck Jonathan.

This is not a question I should answer because Im a politician. But before these things happened, before the government of Jonathan failed, I went to all the Igbo fora to tell them that the Jonathan government will fall, he said.

I went to our Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo in Enugu twice. They could not even reply to a letter written by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, seeking for a meeting with them, he added.

Ngige, revealed how he went to Lagos and convened an Igbo stakeholders forum in William Nwodos house in Ikoyi, Lagos in 2014, where he analysed the voting pattern in Nigeria and told them that even if they did not want to support Buhari, they should give him 25 per cent of their votes.

They refused to listen to me, and to make matter worse, there was no voting in most of the areas in the South-east; they just allocated 5 per cent to APC.

It was that bad, it is too late to cry when the head is off. Politics is business in a way, you invest in business and you reap profit.

Yes, that is what it is. But all I want to tell you is that we played bad politics; we made a bad investment because they invested in the Jonathan presidency. They invested in Jonathan more than the South-south, where he hails from.

I am not saying that is enough to marginalise them or not allow them come in but we are there. I will continue to speak for them and when there is anything to be distributed, we will make sure that the South-east gets its own portion. But they will not get excess portion.

Even in a family where the head of the family goes to the farm to harvest his yams those who accompany the farmer to the farm get more share.

When they bring back the yams some of them will be damaged, and the pieces are put out in one section. Then the whole yams are put into the barn and some will be sent to the market for sale. And some will be sent to the family centrally for distribution among the family units.

Those ones that are in pieces, the extras, will be shared among those that went to the farm. We did not benefit from the extras with people who went to the farm. We didnt go to the farm in the south-east, he added.

On what the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be campaigning on ahead 2019, Ngige stated: Oh my God, so you are in the group of those who are pessimistic, who have refused to see the wonders of this government?

Well, Im from the South-east, so when we get there we will show them that first and foremost we have fought corruption to a standstill and that people can no longer steal at will, much less keeping such monies at home.

The movement was from the bank to the house, but now that homes have been raided, maybe they will go to the farm to keep them. But people cannot steal money because there is no hiding place anymore.

They cannot steal primitively like it was done before. The poor people of Nigerian are happy about this, he said.

The APC chieftain said he has no regret for his role in helping to bring Buhari to power, saying if the opportunity presents itself again he will do exactly the same thing.

If not for this government, the government of Muhammadu Buhari, government of change, Nigeria would have been worse than Venezuela.

The crisis you have in Venezuela today, the demonstrations in Venezuela, are as a result of the collapse of the whole economic firmament of that country. Venezuela, like Nigeria, did not plan for the rainy day.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday disagreed with Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai over how the Ecological fund was utiliz...

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday disagreed with Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai over how the Ecological fund was utilized under his administration.El-Rufai on Thursday after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja had claimed that Jonathan gave N2 billion each from the Ecological fund to PDP states without any emergency or ecological needs.But Jonathan on Friday replied that El-Rufai has an incurable knack for lying, which he said has been proven by El-Rufais boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.Jonathan, in a statement by his Media Adviser Ikechukwu Eze, said that Obasanjo had described El-Rufai in his book-My Watch Volume 2 as follows: Nasirs penchant for reputation savaging is almost pathological. Why does he do it? He is brilliant and smart. I grant him that also. Veryearly in my interaction with him, I appreciated his talent and brilliance. At the same time, I recognised his weaknesses; the worst being his inability to be loyal to anybody or any issue consistently for long, but only to Nasir el-Rufai. He barefacedly lied which he did to me against his colleagues and so-called friends. I have heard of how he ruthlessly savaged the reputation of his uncle, a man who was like, in the African setting, his foster father. I shuddered when Iheard the story of what he did to his half-brother in the Air Force who is senior to him in age.With such a description, the statement said Jonathan was not surprised at El-Rufais recent comments after the just concluded National Economic Council meeting where heaccused former President Jonathan of only sharing the National Ecological Fund to PDP States.El-Rufai had said What President Goodluck Jonathan did was to take N2bn each from theEcological Fund and gave to some PDP states. Any PDP state that was not his friend, like Kano and Kwara, didnt get.Jonathans spokesman said It is so easy to expose Malam Nasir El-Rufai as a liar being thatAkwa-Ibom, a PDP state governed by the then Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and a close confidante and major supporter of the then President, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, did not get the monies alluded to by Malam El-Rufai from the Ecological Fund as did multipleother PDP states including Ekiti state, a state governed by a thoroughbred patriot and Jonathan supporter, Ayo Fayose.Also, it is false that non-PDP states did not get monies from the fund. Nemesis catches up faster with liars than any other agent of evil. El-Rufai was probably led by the gods against his own sinister plot to confess in another breathe that States under non-PDP parties like APGA and Labour party also benefitted.The fact remains that the Ecological Fund is a specialized fund with certain constitutional requirements which must be met before a state can access the funds. Every state benefitted from the fund under President Jonathan who bent over backwards to accommodate states thathad difficulty meeting the criteria for accessing the fund.El-Rufais sinister narrative was intentionally silent on the over N10 billion specially deployed to fund the Great Green Wall (GGW) project in some northern states, in view of the need to work with the rest of Africa on the African initiative to check desert encroachment in theSahelian states. These states included Zamfara, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina and Adamawa.Others are Yobe, Borno and Kano which belong to Mallam El-Rufais class of non-friendly states that he alleged never benefitted from any discretionary fund.Similar principle applies to the conditions for accessing the Universal basic Education fund where some states have not had access to what is due them, because they are yet to fulfill the mandatory criteria for allocation. Would it then be right in the name of El-Rufais position on equity to blame the failure of those states to access their UBEC funds on Jonathan?He said that it is really sad that judicious presidential interventions to tackle emergencies and other pressing national needs are being interrogated in a rather facile manner, by those who never got tired of playing dirty politics.He urged Nigerians to recall that it was not the first time that El-Rufai has vented his known passion for lying against the former President.The public will recall that in October 2015 he falsely alleged that former President Jonathan spent a whopping N64 billion on Independence Day celebrations, during his tenure when in fact only N333 million was spent.Nigerians may also recall that this same El-Rufai falsely accused former President Jonathan and former CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion.We can only wonder what new false accusation El-Rufai may come up with tomorrow, as with him it is a case of one day, one lie!We therefore urge Nigerians to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath whenever this notorious liar opens his mouth, he stated.
The Nigerian Embassy in Washington has protested to the U.S. Government over the violation of its premises by the Secret Service agents f...

The Nigerian Embassy in Washington has protested to the U.S. Government over the violation of its premises by the Secret Service agents following fracas between two local workers.The Acting Ambassador/Charge dAffaires, Hakeem Balogun, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that a protest note had been transmitted to the U.S. Department of State.Balogun condemned the violation of the diplomatic protocol over altercation by two Embassy drivers adding: The embassy has as well transmitted a protest note to the U.S. Department of State.We have sent a protest note in respect of the entrance by the police into the embassy. It is against diplomatic protocols.They are not supposed to enter the embassy. The protest letter is in respect of the entrance of the police into the embassy, Balogun said.The Nigerian envoy also said that he has since taken appropriate and timely, administrative and diplomatic steps to address the incident.These measures include the immediate and indefinite suspension of the two local staff members involved in the fracas.There is the establishment of a Committee to investigate and recommend appropriate disciplinary actions against the two locally-recruited staff members involved in the fracas.Balogun dismissed the publication by a Nigerian newspaper alleging that the United States Police was called in to restore order in the Embassy as a result of a physical fight.The ambassador also described as baseless, claims that the fracas took place in the full glare of dozens of guests and visa applicants.To buttress its report, the Newspaper attached a photograph claiming to be the chaotic situation that erupted as a result of the fight, he said.According to him, however, the dispute between two of its drivers took place in the basement area of the Chancery where Embassy drivers are stationed.The physical encounter was, therefore, not in the full glare of the public as to have caused a chaotic situation.A cursory look and careful analysis of the picture attached by the Newspaper will reveal to anyone conversant with the Embassys premises that the picture used has no physical connection to the Embassy.This was clearly an effort at deception, the ambassador said.On the issue of the nationalities of the Embassys local staff members, he said the primary qualification for employment into the non-diplomatic workforce is knowledge of the job, not the nationality of the applicant.The Newspaper went further to question the composition of the nationalities of the Embassys locally recruited staff.This is an international best practice. Be that as it may, it is important to inform that out of the Missions current local staff strength of 44, there are 37 Nigerians.Seven are non-Nigerians from India, The Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka, he said.Balogun assured that the Mission would continue to do everything within its mandate to protect and defend the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians in the U.S. (NAN)
President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, John Nwodo has said that unless Nigerians come to the table to discuss issues affecting the nation ...

President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, John Nwodo has said that unless Nigerians come to the table to discuss issues affecting the nation truthfully, the future of the Nigerian nation will remain bleak, posing a major challenge for the future.Nwodo spoke just as as elder statesman, Prof. Anya O.Anya advocated for the restructuring of the current federal system which he said was too expensive for the country and revert to the old regional system.Speaking at the 90th birthday lecture for Chief Edwin Clark in Abuja, Nwodo said that since the attainment of independence, the civilians have not been able to agree on a political structure for FG he country.According to him, the present constitution and the previous 1979 constitution were impositions of the military  an unrepresentative and dictatorial corps whose decrees were seriously influenced by the lop-sidedness of their composition, while the economic and development data from Nigeria is unencouraging in many sectors.He said Our law and order system including the police, the court system and the penal system has been characterised by impunity, incompetence and indiscipline.On the global Terrorism Index Nigeria ranks 3rd after Iraq and Afghanistan and ahead of Pakistan and Syria. The World Economic Forum ranks Nigeria 127 out of 138 on the Global Competitiveness Index. The UNESCO ranks Nigeria with Chad, Pakistan and Ethiopia as the worst educational system in the world.Nigeria, according to the report, has the highest number of children out of school and one of the worlds worst education systems due to a combination of corruption, conflict and lack of investment.In the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Program, Nigeria ranks 152 out of 188 countries and is the lowest among OPEC countries. The data points to a bleak future as we march to post-oil world without a coherent plan to reduce conflict and build a new national consensus.On the positive side, there is a global consensus that Nigeria is highly potentiated. With a population of about 182 million people, by current estimates; and with our vast mineral and material resources; a well-organized Nigeria should be a land of plenty that supports its people and a leader in the comity of nations. Sadly, this is not the case.Almost every Nigerian is agreed that Nigeria is not working but there is no clear consensus on why; or on what to do about it. Some say that it is merely a problem of leadership and once that is fixed all other things will fall in place. Others say that it is a problem of corruption. Once you tackle that, everything will be fine.Others have said that our problem is one of law and order; some say it is more fundamental and has to do with control of resources, structure of the Federation and thus requires more equitable sharing of revenue and the devolution of powers.Others say it can be fixed with power rotation and a more level playing field. It has been said that it could be a bit of all of the above; and that Nigeria cannot be fixed without a fundamental change of values and attitudes. Whatever the case, it will not profit us to pretend that we do not face existential challengesThese challenges are worrisome; especially to our younger ones who must face the fact that the next 50 years could be even more challenging and there is a good chance that we could be left behind if we fail to take action today. For instance, it is estimated in some quarters, that by 2050  that is in 33 years time  Nigeria could be the 4th most populous country in the world.That means that Nigeria, which is just twice the size of Texas; would be more populous than all the United States of America. Meanwhile, as of today, we have a GDP that is barely 2% of that of the United States.At the same time, in the years ahead, we could face very severe ecological challenges that will impact negatively on our economy. The desert is encroaching southwards at a speed of up to 6 km per annum. Thus within 33 years we could lose about 200 km of land to the desert  across the north. This can only exacerbate competition for arable land in the north and elsewhere  with dire political consequences.We must become more responsive to the world around us, or we and our children will be left behind. These are some of the fears and anxieties of our youths. We have for too long allowed the bitterness of the war and its lingering feelings to dictate our political relationships.The coalition that fought the war is still in control of Nigeria engaging in rhetoric that fuelled the war in managing renascent Nigeria. The young men and women who were not part of the war are frustrated by this impasse.Also speaking, Prof Anya said one of the experience of the present democratic interlude that we have enjoyed since 1999 is the fact that the current 36 states, except for four states are financially unviable.He said that the present governance structure is too expensive to meet our needs for prudence and affordable management. In any case, the presidential system, in its current form has inherent centralizing tendencies consistent with the military ethos that gave birth to it in the first place, peharps, we need to reconcile this with the democratic ethos which the parliamentary system promotes.In this regards, we may consider any additional states that the principle of self determination may suggest in the interest of equity and justice to all sections of Nigeria especially the minorities.The states will then constitute development areas while the geopolitical zones or regions will be the federating units. In this manner we can release local talents and initiative for development while conserving resources by reducing the cost of governance.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, has empathically announced that the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan will begin on Saturday.This is contrary to the directive to Nigerian Muslims by the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, that they should look out for the moon today and commence fasting if sighted.Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (Sawm) to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Prophet Mohammed according to Islamic belief.This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam.According to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths, Ramadan lasts 29 to 30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon.The beginning and end of Islamic months are determined by the sighting of the new moon.Lebanons top Islamic authority, the mufti, said Ramadan would also begin in the country on Saturday.A similar statement was made by officials in Iraqs Muslim Sunni minority.The President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Sultan Saad Abubakar, has asked Muslims in Nigeria to look out for the new moon from Friday, May 26.During Ramadan, Muslims have to abstain from eating, drinking and smoking from dawn to sunset.Devout Muslims also mark the month by intense worship, performing special nightly prayers and reading Islams holy book, the Koran.Fasting is one of Islams five pillars, alongside declaration of monotheism, prayer five times a day, alms-giving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia
The President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alh. Muhammad Saad Abub...

The President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), and Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alh. Muhammad Saad Abubakar, has called on Muslims all over the country to search for the crescent of Ramadan today.If the crescent is sighted this night, the 30 or 29-day Ramadan fasting begins tomorrow, Saturday may 27, 2017, if not sighted tonight, then fasting begins on Sunday, May 28, 2017.According to a release sent to Vanguard, signed by both the Director of Administration, Ustaz Christian Isa Okonkwo and the Secretary General, NSCIA, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the Muslim apex body stated: Following the advice of NMSC, the President-General enjoins the Nigerian Muslim Ummah to search for the crescent of Ramadan 1438 AH on the night of Friday, 26th May, 2017 equivalent to 29th Shaban 1438 AH.If the crescent is actually sighted by Muslims of impeccable characters on the said night and communicated to the appropriate quarters, His Eminence would declare Saturday, 27th May, 2017 as the first day of Ramadan. If, however, the crescent is not sighted on that day, then, Sunday, 28th May, 2017 automatically becomes the first of Ramadan, 1438 AH.The Council however enjoined Muslims all over the country to be on the lookout for the directive of His Eminence, the President-General of NSCIA, on the commencement of the 1438 AH Ramadan fast. The council also felicitated with the entire Muslim Ummah on the auspicious occasion of Ramadan, praying that Allah grant the Ummah the opportunity to maximise the benefits and blessings of the Holy Month and ailing President Buhari speedy recovery.As we wish all Nigerian Muslims happy Ramadan in advance, we enjoin each and every Muslim to use the spirit of Ramadan to seek the face of God for national development. We also urge all Muslims to pray to Allah to grant our President, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, a speedy recovery and the wherewithal to pilot the affairs of Nigeria to greatness.
Real Madrid forward, Cristiano Ronaldo is being accused of tax fraud.Spanish prosecutors are considering whether the player should face charges over the allegations.Spains tax agency are claiming that Ronaldo defrauded the authorities of 15million between 2011 and 2014.Prosecutors said they have until the end of June to decide whether to charge the Portugal captain, based on evidence from an investigation by tax officials.Ronaldo attempted to regularise his tax situation in Spain in 2014. by paying an extra 5.6m, but the tax office says he should have paid a further 15m.The tax office asked prosecutors to press charges against Ronaldo for tax fraud and requested a minimum five-year jail term.If he is found guilty by a court, Ronaldo would face a prison sentence of at least 15 months.
How the brown pelican came back from the brink of extinction
Once elected, members of the Public Service Commission typically have an easy time hanging onto their jobs. Voters dont know much about them or their work, and the only real money in the campaigns has traditionally come from utilities and others 
Welcome to non league daily news now - your number one spot for all things relating to the National League System. Our dedicated reporters have come straight from the sidelines to bring you news fresh from the dugout - but not before theyve stopped off at the burger van first!

We know that non league football fans are full of heart, passion, and belief. You trust the manager, you believe in the team, and, for some strange reason, you trust those rickety stands, too! Here at Non League Daily, we hope we can become your trusted non league news resource - a platform thats just as passionate about non league daily news now as you.

Come rain or shine, well be out reporting on the latest non league fixtures. Well also be scouring the news, refreshing social media, and sourcing information from team websites in the hopes of finding the latest breaking non league daily news for our readers.

As youll soon see, weve got exclusive match reports on the Vanarama National League, weve got transfer speculation thatll affect the National League South, weve found great stories thatll spice up the National League North, and weve even got news on the latest giant killers of the FA Cup.

We may not be able to agree on who is going up this year, but we can all agree that any news on the NLS worth knowing will be published here, at Non League Daily.
Besides holding a key position with Veridian Credit Union, Jason Jay Ferris devotes much of his time to helping others, particularly in steering young people away from negative influences and into productive lives.

No doubt they appreciate what he does for them, but Ferris quickly added, I get so much more back from them.

It stirs his heart, Ferris said, to see young people do amazing, positive things. Sometimes, it begins simply with a little encouragement.

If we offer the message that You can be as great as you want to be, it then gives that young person hope and belief, Ferris said.

For more than a decade, Ferris has been involved with Abide Ministries of Omaha, an inner city, nonprofit organization focusing on the development of healthy neighborhoods through community building, family support programs, housing and partnerships. His duties there have involved helping young people improve their social and time management skills.

Its mainly being a positive influence in their lives, he said.

Ferris also serves on the Council Bluffs Community Education Foundation Board. This foundation, founded in 1991, runs various programs like Kids and Company, the Council Bluffs Alumni and Friends Network and the STARS Scholarship Program, sponsored by the Iowa West Foundation.

Fernando Butch Lecuona III, CEO and executive director of the foundation, had high praise for Ferris, a board member since March of 2015.

Jason is extremely supportive of the foundation, Lecuona said. I cant say enough good things about him. Hes just a great guy.

Ferris is also a member of the Council Bluffs YMCA Board.

Its a meaningful place in the community, he said of the Y.

He also finds time to be a CB Ambassador.

I enjoy that immensely, Ferris said.

Among their many duties, the ambassadors hold ribbon-cutting ceremonies at new or renovated businesses in town. Such ceremonies are a way to say thanks to these businesses for their commitment to the community, he said.

Ferris is also a member of the Leadership Council Bluffs Alumni Association, a group that actively pursues positive change in the community through community leadership development.

Wait, theres more. Ferris currently serves as chair of the citys three-member Civil Service Commission. He recalled that when Mayor Matt Walsh appointed him to the commission, Walsh told him, Youre fair.

Walsh said, He has been in business and is active in the community and so we wanted people (on the commission) with common sense and who could relate to both the employee and employer. We think we have a good civil service commission.

Ferris daily occupation involves being market president for Veridian, a growing credit union that was formed in Waterloo.

Im responsible for southwest Iowa and all of Nebraska. Im responsible for overseeing our branch operations, including leadership development, public relations and development of our staff. Im excited about our growth.

Others in the community are in high praise of what Ferris has meant to the community.

One of them is Leo McIntosh, executive director of the Council Bluffs YMCA.

Ive known him over the years and hes very community-minded, McIntosh said. Hes been active as a fundraiser for the Y and believes in its mission of serving others.

Walsh added, He is as involved in the community as anybody.

Its not surprising, then, that Ferris will awaken each morning asking himself what he can do to brighten the lives of others.

My heart is to serve others, he said.
Rene Orduna, who ran Dixie Quicks restaurant with his husband, Rob Gilmer, for more than 30 years in Omaha and Council Bluffs, died last November after being diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer in September.

And yet, his presence in some ways remains at the restaurant at 157 West Broadway in Council Bluffs.

His energy is still here, Gilmer said.

These past few months have been difficult for Gilmer, yet he quickly added, The crew has been amazing.

Orduna spent his life working in restaurants, and no doubt would be pleased with whats happening now at Dixie Quicks.

The restaurant is in the process of offering new dishes, according to Gilmer.

Weve done different soups, different specials, he said. Its been wonderful.

Even the longtime regulars are impressed, he added. The restaurant has cleared off a portion of the counter area and installed a new seated bar area for eight patrons with the added convenience of putting in purse hooks below the counter so that purses need not be placed on the floor.

People are so positive about it, Gilmer said. And, you can look into the kitchen and watch the show.

A host standing behind a hostess stand now greets patrons, Gilmer said.

Were doing more parties now, he added.

The restaurant still has its semi-private party room that seats up to about 25 people, but plans are also in the works in renovating what Gilmer calls the Vintage Store of old clothes, right in the middle between the restaurant and Gilmers art gallery.

Were creating a private dining room and calling it the Stella Long Room. Stella Long had a brothel there a long time ago, Gilmer said pointing towards the room.

Longs brothel was housed in a previous building, where Dixie Quicks stands today. The room will seat about eight to 10 people with a curtain or door installed for privacy, he added.

Were also promoting more of our catering service, Gilmer said.

Plans are also in the works for being open on Tuesdays, he added.

Were looking at musicians playing comfortable dinner music, Gilmer said. Were looking at adding happy hours.

The crew is still the same as its been for some time, creating unique dishes that Orduna was famous for.

Orduna began his restaurant career as a bus boy at his familys restaurant, Howards Charro, in South Omaha. He worked in restaurants in Kansas City and New Orleans, among other places, before moving to New York in 1978. There, he helped open the restaurant in Manhattans Grand Hyatt Hotel, owned by now-President Donald Trump.

Gilmer and Orduna met in 1982 and lived in New York until 1986. After a trip back to Nebraska to visit Ordunas family, they decided to stay in Omaha. Orduna started working at Howards, then worked at the now-closed French Cafe and Neon Goose. After a soul food restaurant he loved closed, he decided to open his own spot.

Dixie Quicks opened with just 10 tables and a small storefront at 15th and Dodge streets in 1996.

We didnt have much of a plan, we just did it, Gilmer said. It was all word of mouth.

After moving the restaurant to Council Bluffs, Orduna also brought his cuisine to Council Bluffs diners  favorites like chilaquiles, a casserole of corn tortilla chips with a sauce made with tomatoes, roasted garlic, onions and more.

People love it, Gilmer said.

Other favorites he noted were Texas Chili Pepper Steak and Blackened Salmon.

Mayor Matt Walsh said the death of Orduna was a sad story for everyone and offered praise for Gilmer, saying that he is admirably carrying on Ordunas legacy of quality food.

The restaurant has been good for the community and brings people from across the river who (maybe) normally wouldnt come to Council Bluffs to eat, he said.

After the death of Orduna, whom Gilmer described as the face of Dixie Quicks, business seemed to slack off a bit, as though people thought the restaurant had closed, according to Gilmer. He also believed the bitter presidential campaign got many too worn out to think of fun dining.

Business has picked up in recent times and Gilmer plans to be around a long time to oversee it.

I plan on being here for another 20 years, he said.
It was only a test.

CHI Health Mercy Hospital staff, Council Bluffs Firefighters and a crew from LifeNet Air Medical Services tried out procedures for responding to a medical helicopter crash in a drill Thursday at the hospital.

Its a low probability but high risk, if it would happen, said Denise Anderson, a patient safety/risk management nurse at Mercy.

It turned out the exercise raised more questions about communication than medical procedures.

The scenario was this: A patient who suffered traumatic injuries in a motorcycle accident was placed on a medical helicopter for transfer to an Omaha trauma center, said Jeremy Moore, clinical base lead for LifeNet. As the chopper was taking off from Mercys helipad, a mechanical failure occurred, causing it to crash to the ground.

Takeoffs and landings are generally the riskiest parts of a flight, Moore said.

Those times are when were asking the most of the machine, so its the most likely time for engine malfunction  mechanical failure, he said.

The patient, along with the three crew members, probably would have suffered injuries to their backs, heads and necks and perhaps their extremities, Moore said.

In addition, a groundskeeper working on the hospital grounds was knocked unconscious by flying debris and suffered large head wounds and a broken humerus, said Anderson, who played the part of that victim.

The choppers fuel cell could easily have ruptured, causing fuel to leak out, Moore said.

In the drill, participants assumed fuel would be leaking. That meant the patients couldnt just be carried into the building through the nearby critical care unit doors, Anderson said. That would allow fumes to enter the hospital.

Probably the patients would have fuel on them, so they would have to be decontaminated, she said.

Once decontaminated, the patients would need to be driven around to the emergency department doors by ambulance, then taken into the building, she said.

Personnel from the Council Bluffs Fire Department participated in the drill and received a briefing on helicopter safety  including how to fasten the safety belts, which are different than those in vehicles, Moore said.

Rick Benson, EMS operations officer at the fire department, said firefighters had trained in aircraft safety before but had never practiced responding to a crash scenario.

Its always good to practice, he said.

Inside the hospital, members of the management team gathered in the command center  a conference room near the center of the building equipped with walkie-talkies, a shortwave radio, special phones, video monitors and a white board and stocked with emergency preparedness manuals and other resources, said James Lewandowski, safety compliance specialist. They discussed how the incident had affected the hospital as a whole and worked on a plan to adjust.

When it was all over, participants gathered in the Rotunda Room to discuss what they had learned.

The safety team developed the drill after hearing about a medical helicopter crashing at a CHI hospital in Denver, Lewandowski said.

We started to ask the question, Can it happen here? Would we know what to do?

From what I saw out there, it went very well, Lewandowski said.

What we wanted to see was would our staff recognize the need to decontaminate, said Barb Roenfeld, director of operations in the emergency department.

They did.

Several people wondered whether they would receive information on the nature of the situation quickly enough in an emergency.

Roenfeld said the emergency department needs to have its own radio. During the drill, a staff member had gone to another part of the hospital to get one  but if they were busy or it happened during the night shift when fewer staff were working, that might not have happened.

The communication needs to be clear and consistent, she added.

Sharon Rock, administrative assistant and official scribe for the drill, said all employees should review the hospitals emergency preparedness manual.

Im just glad we did something out of the box, said Dr. Joseph Hoagbin, chief medical officer. We have to be prepared for anything.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump fulfilled a major campaign promise, proposing a $4.1 trillion budget plan that would upend Washington in a big way.

But he drew rebukes, even from some Republican allies, for the plans jarring, politically unrealistic cuts to the social safety net for the poor and a broad swath of other domestic programs.

The budget, Trumps first as president, combines his spending plan for the upcoming 2018 fiscal year with a promise to balance government books after a decade, relying on aggressive cuts, a surge in economic growth  and a $2 trillion-plus accounting gimmick.

Through streamlined government, we will drive an economic boom that raises incomes and expands job opportunities for all Americans, Trump declared in his budget message.

Basically dead on arrival, said the Senates No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas.

The proposal reflects a conservative vision of smaller government, a drastic rollback of programs for the poor and disabled to prod them into the workforce and a robust hike for the military and border security. Trumps budget foresees scuttling former President Barack Obamas health care law and an overhaul of the tax code, a boon to the wealthiest Americans.

The plan is laced with $3.6 trillion in cuts to domestic agencies, food stamps, Medicaid, highway funding, crop insurance and medical research, among others.

Many of the voters who propelled Trump into the presidency last November would see significantly less from the federal government.

Were no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs, but by the number of people we help get off those programs, said Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget and a former tea party congressman.

At the same time, the blueprint boosts spending for the military by tens of billions and calls for $1.6 billion for a border wall with Mexico that Trump repeatedly promised voters the U.S. neighbor would finance. Mexico emphatically rejects that notion.

The proposal got a chilly reception from congressional Republicans and Democrats, who insist they will have the final say as they struggle to complete a health care bill and rewrite the tax code.

Food stamp cuts would drive millions from the program, while a wave of Medicaid cuts  on top of more than $800 billion in the House-passed health care bill  could deny nursing home care to millions of elderly poor people. It would also force some people on Social Securitys disability program back into the workforce.

These cuts that are being proposed are draconian, said veteran GOP Rep. Harold Rogers, who represents a poor district in eastern Kentucky. Theyre not mere shavings, theyre deep, deep cuts.

Said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.: I dont think the presidents budget is going anywhere.

The budget would reduce pension benefits for federal workers by $63 billion by eliminating cost-of-living adjustments for most and by requiring employees to make larger contributions. In agriculture, it would limit subsidies to farmers, including for purchasing crop insurance, an idea already attacked by farm state lawmakers.

Weve lost 40 percent of our wheat crop and youre telling me theres going to be large cuts to crop insurance? asked Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan. Come on. That doesnt add up.

The Trump plan would roll back Obama-era increases to a childrens health program for lower-income families who dont qualify for Medicaid, take an ax to the Environmental Protection Agency and climate change programs, cut $95 billion from highway trust fund transfers to state highway departments, and curb payments to disabled veterans of retirement age who are eligible for Social Security.

Trumps budget holds true to his campaign pledge to leave Medicare and Social Security pension benefits alone and contains spending increases for the military and veterans, but it treats most of the rest of the government as fair game. Student loan subsidies, home heating assistance and Great Lakes cleanup would be on the chopping block as the departments of education, environment, energy and state take hits.

In the America of President Trumps budget, children, working families, seniors and people with disabilities will be fined, while the wealthiest Americans will get a bonus. Whats so great about that America? asked Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

The budget does feature a handful of domestic initiatives, including a six-week paid parental leave program championed by Trumps daughter Ivanka that would be designed and financed by the states through cuts to unemployment insurance. Some $200 billion in federal infrastructure investments are promised to leverage another $800 billion in private investment, though the idea has yet to get much traction.

During the campaign, Trump attacked the weak economic growth of the Obama years, and pledged that his economic program would boost growth from the lackluster 2 percent rates seen since recovery began in mid-2009. Trumps new budget assumes sustained growth above 3 percent, sharply higher than the expectations of most private economists. Without more than $2 trillion in such economic feedback over the coming decade, the nations budget would never reach balance and would run a deficit of almost $500 billion.

Trumps balanced-budget goal depends not only on the growth projections but also a variety of accounting gimmicks, including an almost $600 billion peace dividend from winding down overseas military operations and double counting $2.1 trillion in revenue from economic growth  using it to both pay for tax cuts and bring down the deficit.

The proposal projects that this years federal deficit will rise to $603 billion, up from $585 billion last year. It projects that if Trumps initiatives are adopted, the deficit will start declining and actually disappear by 2027.
Iowa court office employees are being placed on furlough today to save the state money, but an interruption of services and a backlog of filings could cause delays in some trials.

By closing Iowa courthouses for the day, the state will save an estimated $364,573, which is needed due to budget cuts to the judicial branch made this year.

Ken Wirth, District 4 Court administrator, said all regular non-judicial employees will not be providing services at the Pottawattamie County Courthouse.

Meaning no one will be able to come in to file mental health court applications, no hearings are scheduled, he said. Judges will still take care of jail court, but in case of emergencies people will have to go to law enforcement for assistance.

Wirth said they have been able to adjust schedules of employees to work around the furlough, but impacts will still be felt on anyone who wishes to come in and conduct business at the courthouse.

Steve Davis, a spokesman for the judicial branch, said the delays caused by the forced closure of the courthouses will create more work when clerks come back to work on Tuesday, since courts will also be closed Monday for Memorial Day.

Electronic filing will still happen, but clerks have to review and docket files, so theyll have more to do on Tuesday, he said.

Juvenile Court services will also be paused, which will cause more work for those employees as well, Davis said.

Im sure the staff would rather be working. They know people are counting on them to be there to provide essential services, Davis said.

The $3 million mid-year budget cut was approved by the Legislature this year, which forced a hiring freeze for judicial positions and travel restrictions, causing delays in some civil trials.

Those reductions will continue for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The Legislatures 2018 budget for the judiciary didnt restore its funding to fully operational levels. The Iowa Supreme Court will approve a budget for the upcoming fiscal year in late June.

Davis said the state Supreme Court will face difficult decisions as it finalizes the agencys tight budget.

After the Legislature approved the judiciary budget, State Court administrator David Boyd sent a memo to agency employees that warned the cuts would likely diminish the level of services provided to citizens.

Supreme Court decisions, which are typically issued on Fridays, will instead be published on Thursday.

It does change the schedule, but the court has been able to work around it, Davis said.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The North Platte Public Library continues its Nebraska Celebrate 150 series with Karen Drevo as prairie pioneer Maria Rodaway at noon on Thursday.

Maria, portrayed by Drevo, her great-great granddaughter in period attire, looks back at her life as a prairie pioneer in Otoe County, where she homesteaded in 1867. Maria crossed the Atlantic Ocean with seven children to reunite her family after a 7-year separation. She endured grasshoppers, hail, drought, tornadoes, blizzards and the loss of her husband and six of her 13 children as she worked to become a citizen and a landowner in a new country. Resilient and resourceful, she lived a life of usefulness to her family and large circle of friends with her loving deeds and kind acts, delivering babies and nursing the sick.

Seven generations of Drevos family have lived in Otoe County. She grew up on a farm north of Unadilla and received her early education in one-room Otoe County schools. Drevo has degrees in English and history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She lives in Norfolk and is a librarian at the public library. Her lifelong interest in her family history was sparked by the family stories told by her grandmothers.

Humanities Nebraska provides major funding for this program with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Nebraska State Legislature, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and private donations.

The library requests that people call 308-535-8036, ext. 3310, to reserve seats for the free program since seating is limited.
An estimated 39.3 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this weekend, according to estimates by AAA.

Itll be the highest volume of travelers since 2005.

Memorial Day is a time for remembrance with lots of travel and family gatherings, said Rachelle Lipker, executive director for the American Red Cross in central and western Nebraska. Everyone looks forward to having fun, and the Red Cross wants to make sure people know how to stay safe while enjoying the holiday.

The Red Cross recently offered up tips for staying safe while celebrating.

They are:

Buckling seat belts

Observing speed limits

Abstaining from drinking and driving

Paying attention to the road  dont call or text while driving

Using extra caution in work zones

Making sure headlights are clean and used appropriately

Once travelers arrive to their destinations, they may be planning a barbecue. Grills should always be supervised and should never be used indoors. Grills should be kept in the open away from the house, deck, tree branches or anything else that could catch fire. Its recommended that cooks use long-handled tools specially made for grills to avoid being burnt.
The market share of steel imports rose to 27 percent in April, and is up to 26 percent so far this year.

The United States imported an estimated 3.3 million tons of steel in April, a 3.1 percent decrease as compared to March, according to preliminary U.S. Census Bureau data.

The American Iron and Steel Institute estimates finished steel imports declined 1.7 percent month-over-month to 2.4 million tons in April. That included a 30 percent increase in oil country goods, a 23 percent jump in heavy structural shapes and hot dipped galvanized, a 20 percent rise in hot-rolled bars and a 15 percent boost in sheets and strip and all over metallic coatings.

"These high levels of imports in recent years have been a critical factor forcing several steel companies to temporarily close major steel-making facilities," AISI President and CEO Thomas Gibson said during recent testimony to Congress. "Employment in the steel industry declined by 14,000 jobs from January 2015 to December 2016, before seeing a slight recovery in the first part of this year."

So far this year, the United States has imported 12.2 million tons of steel, a 22.6 percent increase over the same period in 2016, according to AISI. That includes a 210 percent increase in oil country goods, a 40 percent boost in cold rolled sheets, a 39 percent upswing in sheets and strips and other metallic coatings and a 28 percent hike in mechanical tubing and standard pipe.

Finished steel imports have risen 11.5 percent over the first four months of 2017, as compared to the same period last year.

The largest offshore suppliers are South Korea, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan and Germany, according to AISI. Imports from South Korea rose 1 percent last month, while they shot up by 30 percent from Taiwan.

The United States has imposed 191 tariffs against imported steel and continues to fight against cheap, often subsidized imports, but import levels remain near historic highs.

"As one of the most open markets in the world, the United States is often the target of dumping by steel producers from countries around the world," Gibson said. "In many cases, these foreign producers are also subsidized by their governments. To date, the U.S. steel industry has relied on our trade laws to seek to address the impact of unfairly traded steel imports in our market.

"While the antidumping and countervailing duty laws have provided some relief because the resulting orders are necessarily country and product specific," Gibson continued, "they leave openings for steel products not subject to orders to continue to surge into our market."
CANNES, France  It's a long way from May in France to February in Los Angeles, but the Cannes Film Festival has often been a breeding ground for Academy Awards campaigns.

The Oscars aren't much on the minds of the filmmakers or attendees in Cannes; the festival is its own achievement, with nearly as much spectacle and prestige as the Academy Awards. Oscar potential, though, is often born in Cannes, and some early handshaking with the Hollywood Foreign Press, which puts on the Golden Globes, is sometimes sneaked into busy schedules.

Not since 2011's "The Artist" has a Cannes Palme d'Or winner gone on to win best picture. And, if anything, the fall gauntlet of festivals  Telluride, Toronto, Venice, New York  has recently only reasserted itself as the premiere path to the Oscars. Such was the road of most of the recent best-picture winners, including "Moonlight," ''Birdman" and "12 Years a Slave."

Still, Cannes last year kick-started eventual nominees like the best-picture candidate "Hell or High Water," Isabelle Huppert ("Elle"), Ruth Negga ("Loving"), "The Lobster" (which scored a screenplay nod) and foreign-language winner "The Salesman." The 2015 Cannes accounted for nearly 20 nominations, including "Mad Max: Fury Road," ''Carol," ''Inside Out" and "Son of Saul."

This year's festival, which concludes Sunday with the Palme d'Or presentation, might not produce such a haul as that. But standing ovations on the Croisette appear likely to lead to awards consideration for a number of big names  some of whom aren't the usual suspects.

ADAM SANDLER  When Sandler has waded into drama, he's often won raves. But even more than his turns in "Punch Drunk Love" and "Spanglish," Sandler's tender, rumpled performance as a recently divorced father in Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)" was hailed as a new high point for the Sand Man. The Netflix release could also earn some attention for Dustin Hoffman, who with typical distinction plays the prickly father of Sandler in the film.

NICOLE KIDMAN  It's less a question of whether Kidman will be back in the Oscar hunt than for which film. She had two in competition in Cannes: Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Lobster" follow-up "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" and Sofia Coppola's "The Beguiled," a remake of Don Siegel's 1971 Civil War thriller. While the nod for "The Lobster" suggests considerable support for Lanthimos' grandly demented comedies, the handsome period piece "The Beguiled"  in which Kidman plays the headmaster of a Virginia girls' boarding school  is probably the more likely shot. If the movie, which opens June 30, earned enough buzz, it could lead to attention for others, too, like Colin Farrell (Kidman's co-star in "Sacred Deer"), Kirsten Dunst and Coppola's directing.

ROBERT PATTINSON  Pattinson's former "Twilight" co-star, Kristen Stewart, has used Cannes to show a new side to herself in films like "Clouds of Sils Maria" and "Personal Shopper." Now, Pattinson has, too. His scruffy, scuzzy performance as a Queens bank robber in Benny and Josh Safdie's "Good Time" was immediately hailed at a career-best for the 31-year-old actor.

WIND RIVER  As the writer of "Hell or High Water" and "Sicario," Taylor Sheridan's Texas tales have already earned him a reputation for intense and weighty crime dramas. "Wind River," which first premiered at Sundance in January, makes it three in a row for Sheridan, now making his directorial debut. The film is about a murder investigation on an Indian Reservation and its lead, Jeremy Renner, is also a standout.

THE FLORIDA PROJECT  Sean Baker's previous film, "Tangerine," didn't make it to the Oscars, but it nearly did, landing on top-10 lists and taking critics awards  all despite being shot on an iPhone. For "The Florida Project," Baker switched to 35mm for this story about a pair of poor 6-year-old girls living in Orlando budget motels and in the shadow of Walt Disney World. It was one of the few runaway hits of the festival.

WONDERSTRUCK  Todd Haynes' "Wonderstruck" might not boast awards-friendly lead performances like Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in his last film, "Carol." But "Wonderstruck," Haynes' adaptation of Brian Selznick's young-adult book, is every bit as finely crafted in stitching together two parallel story lines between 1927 and 1977. Large parts of the film are also mostly wordless  there have been "The Artist" comparisons  with Haynes using all his cinematic abilities to weave his magic. Carter Burwell's score, at the least, should be an automatic.

AND OTHERS  Cannes entries will surely help fill the foreign-language category, and early possibilities include the French AIDS drama "120 Beats Per Minute"; Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Leviathan" follow-up, "Loveless"; and Ruben Ostlund's "The Square." And it would be difficult to ever count out Tilda Swinton, who  as she did in the Coen brothers' "Hail, Caesar!"  plays twin sisters, this time in Bong Joon-ho's "Okja."

Few would have guessed that Huppert or, for that matter, "Mad Max," would become such an awards force coming out the last two festivals. But with eight months to go until the Oscars, the bounty from Cannes surely holds more surprises in store.
LONDON: Britain and the United States agreed Monday to maintain how multi-trillion dollar financial transactions are carried out between the two countries after Brexit, aiming to avoid market uncertainty when the UK leaves the EU.



Market participants can be assured of the continuity of derivatives trading and clearing activities between the UK and US, after the UKs withdrawal from the EU, said a joint statement by authorities in both countries.



UK and US authorities are taking measures to ensure the UKs withdrawal from the EU, in whatever form it takes, will not create regulatory uncertainty, it added.



The UK and US carry out trades of derivatives  securities whose value is based on an asset such as currencies, stocks and commodities  worth a combined $2.4 trillion daily, Bank of England governor Mark Carney told a press conference in London.



British finance minister Philip Hammond on Monday said that the US and UK are fundamental to the smooth functioning of the worlds multi-trillion pound derivatives markets, with around 97 percent of the centrally cleared interest rate derivatives market located in London. The action we have taken today with our partners in the US will ensure that markets can continue to thrive without disruption, and is yet another example of the special relationship between our two countries, he added.



Carney meanwhile explained that while derivatives can seem far removed from the everyday concerns of households and businesses... they are essential for everyone to save and invest with confidence.



As host of the worlds largest and most sophisticated derivative markets, the US and UK have special responsibilities to keep their markets resilient, efficient and open, Carney said. Derivatives trades pass through clearing houses, or intermediaries between the buyer and seller.



Chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, J. Christopher Giancarlo, said London would remain a global centre for derivatives trading and clearing, adding that the deal provides a bridge over Brexit through a durable regulatory framework.



With just over a month to go until Britain is due to exit the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that UK MPs will have a chance to vote again on her massively-disputed Brexit deal by March 12.



After MPs rejected her withdrawal deal last month, May is seeking ways to address their concerns about its most controversial element, the so-called Irish backstop, ahead of the UKs planned EU departure on March 29.AFP




VALPARAISO  Valparaiso University's French program recently received a "tape dans le dos" from a national organization.

For those non-French speaking readers, that's a "pat on the back" for the program that aims to fully immerse students in the French language and culture.

The American Association of Teachers of French Committee on Exemplary Programs recognized the French program as an "exemplary program with honors," one of 11 in the nation.

That doesn't come as a surprise to either Jennifer LeCaptain or Andrea Sanchez, the two French majors who graduated from Valparaiso on Sunday.

"The faculty actually cares about the progress you are making and have very high expectations," said Sanchez, whose second major was political science.

"The professors make it successful and it makes you invested that they genuinely care about you," said the Aurora, Illinois, native who plans on attending law school to eventually became an immigration attorney.

LeCaptain, who double majored in music, agreed, crediting the university's staff with not only caring about the students and their success, but providing a program that immerses French students into their studies.

Their senior seminar program involved translating a Renaissance French cookbook into English, digitizing it and then organizing a formal, four-course banquet based on the recipes.

"It was so neat. I think I got so much more out of it than a regular seminar," said LeCaptain.

The initiative was one recognized by the teachers association in granting the recognition.

Associate professor Timothy Tomasik said because the VU program is small  with two declared French majors graduating this year and eight incoming French majors in the fall  students get to work directly with degreed staff members, an advantage over a larger university. There were about 20 students participating in the French program this past school year.

Tomasik said he most often gets the question about why students are taking French.

"Our neighbors to the north are one of the biggest French-speaking countries," he said, adding that France itself is one of America's largest trade partners and there are many other places where people use French.

Studying French, he said, gives students an edge getting a job, whether it is in the U.S., for a company with international ties or abroad.

"We also build into our program several extracurricular activities," he said.

French students, either those majoring or minoring in the subject, have a chance to live in the French House, a designated area of a dormitory on campus. Living together, eating together, he said, gives them a chance to use the skills they are learning in the classroom.

They also have a Esprit Francais program, which encourages students to participate in two activities, from field trips to viewing films, each semester. They also form relationships with native French-speaking students studying on campus and have the opportunity to participate in five different exchange programs.

Both LeCaptain and Sanchez spent a semester in France, living with host families, taking classes and then interning for organizations.

They also collaborate with the Valparaiso International Engineering Program, allowing engineering majors to complement their studies with French courses, leading to a minor or major, living in the French House and then studying a year abroad in an engineering exchange partner institution in Compiegne in northern France.
DURHAM, N.C.  Amy Pittman learned on her first day in jail to bottle up her grief.

As soon as she arrived, guards took her shoelaces so she wouldn't try to hang herself. Cry too much or scream too loud, and she feared they would come back to take everything she had left  her clothes, a sheet, a plastic spork.

But how could she not? How could anyone? Ten weeks before, Pittman was a single mom who worked overnight shifts as a gas station cashier to keep her three kids fed and clothed.

Now, alone in a cinderblock cell, she faced criminal charges for not doing enough to protect them. She pictured her youngest, Christian, 9, in his coffin. Dead at the hands of his 12-year-old brother, who had accidentally shot him in the back.

"Five minutes can change your whole life," said Pittman, 38. "I wish every day that I would have stayed home."

Children younger than 12 die from gun accidents in the United States about once a week, on average. Almost every death begins with the same basic circumstances: an unsecured and loaded gun, a guardian's lapse in attention. And each ends with the same basic questions: Who is to blame, and should the person be punished?

An investigation by the USA TODAY Network and The Associated Press found those questions are answered haphazardly across the nation.

Nearly identical accidents can have markedly different outcomes. A shooting that leads to a prison sentence in one state can end with no prosecution in another.

Similar cases, different outcomes

In 2015, a baby sitter in North Carolina was charged with involuntary manslaughter when a 2-year-old she was watching shot herself with a 20-gauge shotgun she found on a table. Two months later, police and prosecutors in Colorado opted not to charge a baby sitter after a 9-year-old boy was shot by his brother. The sitter had briefly left the boys unattended, and they found his loaded .38 Special in his pickup.

Grandparents in Detroit, both 65, faced manslaughter and weapons charges that could have sent them to prison for 17 years after their 5-year-old granddaughter found a loaded pistol under a pillow and shot herself in the neck. In Illinois, a grandmother pleaded guilty to a minor gun charge and received probation after a 6-year-old boy found a revolver in a bedroom closet and shot himself.

In the days after the April 2014 death of Amy Pittman's son, the decision of whom to blame fell to Cindy Kenney, an assistant district attorney in Durham. She said Christian's death seemed to be no ordinary accident.

Investigators said that in addition to the shotgun that killed Christian, they found a handgun under a mattress in a bedroom and an assault rifle in the closet. They found 100 rounds of ammunition in a grocery bag, and Kenney would later tell a judge that Pittman's underwear drawer "had more ammunition in it than it did panties."

In a country with almost as many guns as there are people, it's not unusual to find loaded weapons within children's reach. One study published in 2008 in the journal Health Education Research found that firearms are present in about one-third of all homes with children nationwide. Guns in half those homes were kept unlocked; guns in one-sixth of them were kept loaded.

Officials think some parents, guardians careless

In that sense, the accident that killed Pittman's son was like many others. What set it apart, prosecutors said later, was that she should have known better.

Kenney said someone had called the county's child welfare agency to say Pittman's children were seen chasing one another through the neighborhood with guns. A social services worker met with her, warned her that it was illegal to leave guns near unsupervised children, and offered to buy her a gun safe so she could secure them. Pittman's response, Kenney said later, was that the county should stay out of her business.

Pittman tells a different story. She said she was never contacted by social services officials and insists she was unaware of the guns in her house, which belonged to her boyfriend.

Prosecutors throughout the country say deciding whether to bring charges is seldom easy. Parents are suffering, and heaping a criminal prosecution on top of that grief may not do much to teach others to handle their guns more carefully. In some cases, the decision to seek charges can cost the surviving kids their parent.

Kenney did not struggle with her decision. Less than three months after the shooting, a grand jury indicted Amy Pittman on charges of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of felony child abuse.

Pittman dropped her kids with their grandmother and waited at a friend's house to be arrested. She wouldn't see them for almost a year and a half.

Journalists from the USA TODAY Network and the AP spent months using information from the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive, news reports and police records to examine all of the 152 accidents from 2014 to 2016 in which children younger than 12 either killed themselves or were mistakenly shot and killed by another child.

The review found that about half of those deaths led to a criminal charge, usually against adults who police and prosecutors say should have watched the children more closely or secured their guns more carefully.

The rest of the time, officials decided the grown-ups had broken no laws, or perhaps had simply suffered enough. In many cases, there was little to distinguish those deaths that led to a criminal charge from those that did not.

Three other AP reporters and eight reporters from newspapers across the U.S. contributed to this report.

Part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network to examine issues related to gun violence in America.
LAPORTE  A 20-year-old Valparaiso man suspected of posing as a police officer last weekend at the Kingsbury Fish & Wildlife area has been arrested.

Austin Shultz faces one count of impersonating a law enforcement officer, a level 6 felony, according to a news release from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Law Enforcement Division.

Shultz, arrested Thursday and booked at LaPorte County Jail, is accused of confronting three teenagers at about 11:30 p.m. May 19 near the Kankakee River in a dark Ford Crown Victoria with a bumper guard.

He allegedly shined a spotlight on them and implied he was a law enforcement officer, according to the news release. The three teens told police the man  later identified as Shultz  said he was responding on behalf of DNR officers for a complaint of someone shooting a high-powered rifle.

However, neither Indiana Conservation Officers' Central Dispatch Center nor the LaPorte County Sheriffs Office received a complaint of anyone shooting a high-powered rifle at Kingsbury at any time that day, according to law enforcement.

Schultz allegedly asked for the teenagers' fishing licenses, police said.

Indiana conservation officers will typically conduct a fishing license check but any police officer is authorized to check for a fishing or hunting license, the DNR news release stated.

Indiana conservation officers assigned to regular field patrol typically drive a fully marked pick-up truck or SUV and wear a complete uniform with a badge and shoulder patches.

Officers working in plain clothes will identify themselves by producing a badge and law enforcement credentials, police said.
CROWN POINT  A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against five officers involved in a high-speed pursuit that cost the life of a 13-year-old Whiting girl earlier this year, U.S. District Court records show.

Gabriela Erica Vasquez filed the lawsuit this month on behalf of her mother, Theresa Paramo, who was severely wounded in the crash, and Julianna Chambers, the teen killed. Vasquez is Chambers' aunt and Paramo's guardian.

Paramo is Chambers' grandmother and adoptive mother and Cecilia Paramo is Chambers' birth mother, according to family and two attorneys in the case.

The lawsuit  filed May 3 in Lake County Superior Court and transferred to federal court on Wednesday  alleges Chambers died and Theresa Paramo was badly injured as a result of the high-speed chase that began over a case of stolen beer.

The officers' decision to initiate the chase and continue through "crowded city streets" of East Chicago and Hammond at 4:30 p.m. on a weekday "is evidence of an utter disregard for public safety," the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit names the cities of East Chicago and Hammond and five police officers from both departments as defendants.

Hammond City Attorney Kristina Kantar said Friday the city does not comment on pending litigation. A spokeswoman with the East Chicago Police Department deferred comment to a city attorney. East Chicago City Attorney Michael Tolbert declined comment.

The deadly pursuit

On Feb. 15, police dispatched East Chicago police Officer James Solorio, one of the defendants, at 4:33 p.m. to the Strack & Van Til grocery store at 4725 Indianapolis Blvd. to investigate a shoplifting incident.

Both Solorio and a second defendant, Officer Eric Godoy, initiated the high-speed chase out of the parking lot in pursuit of suspects Jessica S. Pichon, 27, of Danville, Illinois, and Donnell Howard Jr., 31, of Highland, the lawsuit states.

"Defendants ... were at all times fully aware that initiating and continuing a high-speed chase in the aforesaid areas at approximately 4:40 p.m. on a weekday exposed innocent and unknowing drivers in these areas to an unreasonable risk of harm," the lawsuit states.

At one point during the chase, Howard was driving a 2010 Dodge Durango east on Gostlin Street when he hit the driver's side of a Chevrolet Equinox driven by Theresa Paramo in the intersection at Columbia Avenue, according to police.

A police report states Howard disregarded a red light before the crash just as Theresa Paramo was entering the intersection on a green light on northbound Columbia Avenue, with her granddaughter, Chambers, in the passenger seat.

'Negligent and reckless'

Theresa Paramo had recently picked up Chambers from an orthodontist appointment in Munster and began the drive home to Whiting on northbound Columbia when the crash occurred, court documents show.

"Theresa Paramo had absolutely no warning or notice that Defendants were conducting a high-speed chase of Donnell Howard and Jessica Pichon in the same area at the same time nor did Defendants attempt to provide warning or notice of same," the lawsuit states.

The suit alleges the officers' actions were negligent and reckless, and due to the crash, Paramo has sustained severe and permanent personal injuries, significant medical expenses and is now bed-ridden and disabled.

The 911 audio recording of the pursuit and crash was obtained by The Times through a public records request earlier this year in the wake of East Chicago and Hammond investigating whether their police departments violated policies in continuing the pursuit given the minor nature of the crime and after it reached unsafe speeds in crowded rush-hour traffic.

The 18-minute, 40-second file recorded conversations of 911 dispatchers as well as police chasing the suspects.

About a minute before the crash, someone suggested on the tape terminating the chase if this was only a property crime, and another officer responded it was more serious, since the suspects had nearly injured a police officer.

A man's voice says, "If this is for the stolen beer, we'll terminate." Seconds later, another replies, "Negative central. Advise they also tried to run (unintelligible) over."

'They are both devastated'

After the fatal crash, East Chicago police in a statement described an account of what happened. A police officer became trapped inside a passenger side door while the two suspects were attempting to flee the scene in a vehicle, police said. The officer let go of the door and the driver then sped south onto Indianapolis Boulevard, according to court records.

Pichon told police the couple smoked crack-cocaine earlier in the day and had attempted to steal the beer to get money for more drugs, according to the affidavit. She said she tried to tell Howard to stop the vehicle, but he did not listen, the affidavit states.

Asked earlier this year if he questions the decision made by his officers not to terminate the pursuit sooner, East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland said he was waiting on results from the state police investigation before commenting on the judgment call.

I can tell you its under investigation and I am waiting on the results of the investigation. But my heart  goes out to (the family) and theyre in our prayers, Copeland said. I am awaiting the investigation that will produce the facts that will give me a reason to never second-guess but truly, we owe the family the truth and nothing but the truth.

Shortly after the crash, McDermott offered condolences to the family. He questioned the decision to initiate and continue the chase during rush hour at a high rate of speed over a case of beer.

In the aftermath, you start asking questions like What did these people do? Did they rob a bank? Did they murder somebody? No, they stole a case of beer, McDermott was quoted as saying. Are you freaking kidding me? This is why were driving around, in rush hour, in north Hammond, at a high rate of speed, endangering hundreds of residents?

McDermott Jr. previously said the city's Pursuit Review Board was investigating the event and awaiting evidence from the E-911 tapes and an Indiana State Police traffic accident reconstruction probe.

At the time, he said no disciplinary action has been taken against the Hammond officers.

"They are both devastated," he said.

Howard and Pichon were later charged with three felony counts and one misdemeanor count of resisting law enforcement on allegations they caused the high-speed police chase.

(Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Cecilia Paramo is Julianna Chambers' birth mother.)
GARY  The city's Fire Department has received a $261,364 federal grant to assist with operations and safety.

The grant is offered through the Federal Emergency Management Agencys Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville.

Generally, the grant program assists first-responder organizations like Gary's fire department in obtaining emergency response equipment, firefighting and emergency vehicles, personal protective equipment and training, the release stated.

The department's fire chief, Paul Bradley, said in the release he is honored his department is one of the program's grantees. He said the funds will be used for physical examinations for all fire department personnel, fitness equipment and a training facility.

"We believe that a healthy firefighter constitutes a healthy fire department, thus enabling us to better serve our city," Bradley said.

In the news release, Visclosky commended Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and Bradley for "successfully identifying and securing this federal grant."

"I am pleased that this funding will further assist the brave members of the Gary Fire Department who put their lives on the line every day to respond to residents in times of need and keep our communities safe," Visclosky said.
A 34-year-old Merrillville man was sentenced to federal prison for possessing a sawed-off shotgun, despite a prior felony conviction, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Terry Kilburn was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to two years and four months in prison followed by two years of supervised release, according to court records.

Kilburn, who has a prior felony conviction for theft, pleaded guilty April 2016 to being a felon in possession of a firearm on allegations he possessed a sawed-off shotgun on Feb. 22, 2015, at his residence in Merrillville, records state.

Neighbors allegedly called the police on Kilburn because he was shooting the gun at a pile of bricks in his yard, records state.

The state alleges in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court earlier this month Kilburn was again found in possession of a firearm while he was waiting to be sentenced for the gun offense.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the assistance of the Merrillville Police Department, according to the release. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean R. Lanter prosecuted Kilburn.
CHICAGO  Two Northwest Indiana residents were among more than 45 members and associates of the Two Six street gang charged Friday following a two-year investigation into illegal drug and gun sales.

Alexander Rivera, 26, of East Chicago, and Tara Zambrano, 24, of Griffith, each face one count of illegal possession of a firearm by a felon, records from the U.S. District Court in Chicago show.

The investigation led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives resulted in federal charges against 21 people and state charges against 27. Many of the defendants live in Chicago, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of Illinois.

State and federal authorities involved in the investigation, called Operation Bunny Trap, uncovered the alleged criminal activity through undercover drug purchases and surveillance, according to a news release.

Authorities seized 118 firearms, including several assault rifles and shotguns; 25 rounds of ammunition; two ballistic vests; more than 800 grams of cocaine; more than 250 grams of fentanyl; and more than 280 grams of crystal meth, the release said.

The Two Six have been under investigation by federal and local law enforcement since 2014. The gang operates primarily on Chicago's South Side and surrounding suburbs, but also has ties to Indiana, Wisconsin, Texas, Georgia and Kansas, authorities said.

According to a complaint, Rivera messaged a police informant via Facebook Aug. 27, 2016, that he had a new 12-gauge shotgun for sale. Rivera has a felony conviction and is believed to be a member of the Two Six, court records state.

On Aug. 30, 2016, Rivera contacted the informant and they planned to meet at a Lowe's store at 8411 S. Holland Drive in Chicago, the complaint said. Rivera and Zambrano, also a felon, allegedly arrived together in a 2005 Ford Escape.

Rivera and the informant did the Two Six handshake, and Rivera placed a gun case wrapped in a blanket into the informant's vehicle, court records said. Zambrano is accused of placing a box of ammunition into the vehicle.

The informant paid Rivera $200 for the items, and they left the parking lot, according to court records.
VALPARAISO  A Portage police officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the April 22 shooting death of a local man during a traffic stop.

"Officer (Grant) Crizer responded appropriately to the situation and his decision to discharge his weapon was done in the course of reasonable self-defense as a result of the actions taken by (William) Spates," according to a prepared statement from Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel.

Portage Police Chief Troy Williams said in a prepared statement that Gensel's determination, "confirms that the response our officer took that evening based on Mr. Spates' actions were absolutely legal and justified just as I had expected."

Pointing out that Spates had been arrested more than 20 times over the last 20 years, Williams said, "Mr. Spates attempted to murder our officer by running him down with his vehicle."

Gensel revealed new details Friday about the events leading up to and during the shooting. The details are based on an investigation of the shooting by the Porter County Sheriff's Department and Indiana State Police.

After Spates was arrested April 19 on charges of domestic battery and strangulation involving family members, he "made comments to the transporting officer about not wanting to live if he was taken away from his family and asking what it would take for the officer to shoot him," Gensel said.

Spates was taken to jail where he was read the terms of an order preventing any further contact with his wife and their children, according to the press release. He was also prohibited from being in the area of the family home on Brown Street in Portage.

"While incarcerated, Spates violated the no-contact order by attempting to call his wife numerous times," Gensel said. "The two spoke briefly during some of the calls and Spates was agitated and despondent."

Spates bonded out of jail on April 21 and was supposed to stay in East Chicago with his mother.

Crizer stopped a vehicle driven by Spates at 1:47 a.m. April 22 for allegedly disregarding a stop sign at Brown Street and Mulberry Avenue, Gensel said. Spates pulled into a driveway on Royal Street.

"Spates gave false identification information and appeared very emotional, indicating that he 'messed up' and didnt want to go back to jail," Gensel said.

Spates reportedly ignored repeated requests by the officer to exit the vehicle, instead starting up the car in an attempt to leave. Crizer activated his Taser and struck Spates in the arm, according to the investigation.

"Spates put the vehicle in reverse and rammed Crizer's vehicle parked behind him in an attempt to push it out of the way," Gensel said. "Crizer had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by the open door.

"Crizer went to the front of the vehicle with weapon drawn and continued to order Spates to comply," Gensel said. "At that point, Crizer observed Spates reach for the gear shift, believing that Spates intended to put the vehicle in forward and hit him. Crizer was boxed in by a fence and had no room to escape. He fired eight shots through the windshield and passenger window. Spates died from the gunshot wounds."

Evidence collected from the scene, witness reports and statements from Spates' family about his recent state of mind back up the officer's story, Gensel said.

Williams said, "While his family and friends mourn his death, I am thankful that our officer had the skills and training to survive this encounter. If not for Mr. Spates' own actions  let me say that again, Mr. Spates' own actions  he would still be here."

"Officer Crizer will have to live with the decisions Mr. Spates chose that evening," Williams said.

The Portage Police Department Shooting Review Board also found the shooting to be justified, Williams said.
GARY  A 6-year-old boy and his sister were sitting alone in a car on May 8, 2015, when the boy grabbed his father's loaded handgun and shot his 3-year-old sister in the hand.

Though not present at the time, the father was swiftly charged with numerous felony counts in connection with the case  several of which were dropped once he pleaded guilty months later to neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury and criminal recklessness, Lake County Circuit court records show.

One year earlier, on May 17, 2014, a 4-year-old Merrillville boy fatally shot himself in the head with a handgun he found in his family's home. The parents were in the house at the time of the incident, but charges never were brought in that case.

Children younger than 12 die from gun accidents in the U.S. about once per week, according to the results of an investigative series by the USA TODAY Network and The Associated Press that examined gun violence from 2014 to the present.

Their investigation found cases of accidental child shooting deaths  such as in Gary, Merrillville and elsewhere across the U.S.  often start off with the same narrative: An unsecured, loaded gun and a guardian who was not around.

But the question of who, if anyone, is to blame, is not always as clear cut, the USA TODAY and Associated Press investigation found.

Accidental shootings in the Region

Between January 2014 and May 20, 2017, in Northwest Indiana, there have been two confirmed accidental shooting deaths involving children younger than 12, and 66 accidental shootings involving teenagers ages 12 to 17 that resulted in death or injury, according to information collected by Gun Violence Archive of Indiana, a nonpartisan research group.

The city of Gary accounted for 23 of the accidental teen shootings; East Chicago accounted for 10; and Hammond accounted for nine. Michigan City had four accidental teen shootings, whereas Hobart had two and Whiting had one.

That data encompass Indiana's 1st Congressional District, which includes all of Lake and Porter counties, and some northwestern and western townships in LaPorte County.

There was also one incident recorded in LaPorte, in which a teenage boy was injured by firing a handgun while at the Kingsbury Fish and Wildlife Area shooting range. The city of LaPorte is in Indiana's 2nd Congressional District.

In one case out of Gary, a juvenile was wounded April 12, 2016, behind the former Lew Wallace High School, according to reporting by The Times. The child suffered a serious injury that was not life-threatening.

In November 2015, a 16-year-old from the citys Brunswick section sustained a gunshot wound to the back. Shortly after the shooting, Gary police announced theres a possibility the shooting was accidental.

The Gun Violence Archive website also includes in its data a recent shooting death of another 4-year-old  Garrion Glover Jr.  in East Chicago. Relatives have said the boy shot and killed himself after finding a gun in the family's apartment on Guthrie Street.

However, the Lake County Coroner's office as of this week had not ruled on Glover's manner of death.

East Chicago Police Detective Terrence Fife told The Times on Wednesday the case remains an active investigation. Once the investigation is complete, the department plans to forward the results to the Lake County Prosecutor's office for review, Fife said. He declined to comment further.

Merrillville police wanted federal charges

In the 2014 case, Merrillville Detective Cmdr. Jeff Rice said this week he wanted to see charges filed against the parents and the individual who purchased and gave the family the weapon.

The boy's father has a felony record, including a murder conviction years ago out of Indianapolis for a fatal shooting, according to Rice and documents obtained by The Times.

A police report shows the family said the boy must have climbed to the top shelf of a bedroom closet to retrieve the weapon  a Springfield XMD 9mm. Rice said he believes an unsecured, loaded weapon should not have been allowed to be in the home due to the father's felony record.

He wanted federal charges brought in this case, he said.

"Bottom line is, that child had access to a gun that should have never been in the home, Rice said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives aided in the investigation. ATF spokesman David Coulson confirmed the agency referred the case for prosecution to the U.S. Attorney's office, but the case was subsequently denied.

Coulson added he believes the U.S. District Attorney's office for Northwest Indiana is typically aggressive on gun prosecutions and that he "trusts the judgment" of the office.

A spokesman for the U.S. District Attorney's office declined to comment, citing U.S. Department of Justice policy not to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

Four phone numbers associated with the family found online were disconnected or out or service. A Merrillville attorney who represented one family member on a separate 2015 case could not immediately be reached for comment.

Buncich: Education, gun locks necessary

One accidental shooting death of a minor is one too many, Lake County Sheriff John Bunich said. Parents should do all they can to prevent a child from obtaining a weapon if they choose to store one in the home for safety, he said.

Its a matter of safety and educating the public. Learn how to use a weapon and how to store it, Buncich said. Too many individuals throw their gun under a bed or in a drawer. Kids are inquisitive.

Guns need to be stored separately from its ammunition and in a place that is inaccessible to a child, he said.

The sheriffs department gives out free gun locks to people through a program dating back to the 1990s, Buncich said. Numerous local, state and federal police agencies  including in Lake, LaPorte and Porter counties  offer free gun locks through programs like ProjectChildSafe.org.

Buncich blames, in part, Indianas laws pertaining to child gun access. For example, he said, a parent or legal guardian can be charged with a crime of dangerous control of a child only if he or she knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly permits a child to possess a firearm, according to Indiana statute.

Oftentimes, charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death or bodily injury are filed, instead.

Its a weak law, Buncich said.
MICHIGAN CITY  Flotation devices recently placed along the pier here have been getting tossed into Lake Michigan, but not to rescue anyone.

The city is in the process of installing alarms to try and deter future acts of vandalism. Video surveillance could be next.

Each life ring is fastened to 100 feet of rope and kept inside a hard plastic box, available to grab and throw should anyone fall off the pier into Trail Creek or get caught in an undercurrent at Washington Park beach.

They were set out late in the summer season last year after two boys and an adult were pulled out of the water.

One or two of the life rings have been flung into the waters since, said officials, but more recently all 11 of the flotation devices along the west side of the lighthouse pier wound up in the water.

Michigan City Port Authority Harbormaster Tim Frame said he and others were on the lake setting out buoys to mark the course for an upcoming sail boat race when they spotted the life rings. The rings were more than a mile out into the lake. All were recovered and placed back into the containers mounted to the 4-foot high concrete wall.

"It was just lucky the way the wind was blowing," said Frame, "it put them right where we were going to be."

Michigan City Fire Chief Randy Novak said audible alarms, activated when the lid on a life ring container opens, will be installed to discourage vandals and provide an alert of a possible emergency. A dispatcher with 911 or the police then would look at a monitor to try and spot someone on surveillance video or determine if there's an actual emergency.

"To give us a heads up would be fantastic, especially in bad weather instead of having people running out there," Novak said of the alarms.

The rings, cases and alarms were purchased through a $13,000 grant from ArcelorMittal. Firefighters installed the equipment at no cost.

Novak said he's working with other emergency response agencies to try and find the money to pay for video security. He is unsure at this point how much such a video surveillance system would cost because it is in the discussion stages.

Just recently, another dozen or so life rings were installed across the channel at the U.S. Coast Guard station and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources headquarters, downstream at Millennium Plaza.

Novak said welding and manufacturing students at the A.K. Smith Career Center made the heavy metal 4-foot tall stands on which the newer containers sit.

Recently, Michigan City middle school students took part in an education program to raise awareness about the life rings and to stay off the pier during turbulent weather. Over the years, people have drowned or had to be rescued after being washed off the pier by high waves.

"It's all part of a program to try to cut down on the number of drownings and incidents we have on the pier during the summer," Frame said.
When Shelby Clindaniel received her bachelors degree in communication during Purdue University Northwest's commencement exercises she already had begun what she calls her dream job.

I knew for a while that I wanted to work for the Chicago White Sox, the Kouts resident said. It didn't matter what I did, I just knew that was my dream. And so, she put the wheels in motion.

When PNW academic adviser Craig Moore told her about the annual White Sox job fair last year, Clindaniel jumped at the chance to participate. Though she did not initially receive a response to the resume she submitted, she sent another in February and was called for an interview about a week later. That interview resulted in a job offer.

Today, Clindaniel applies her communication skills and PNW lessons as a fundraising seller for White Sox charities.

Clindaniel became widely known on the Westville Campus thanks to her involvement in organizations and activities, including the Deans Leadership Group, the Honors Program, the campus newspaper and Lambda Pi Eta communication honor society.

During commencement, Clindaniel wore honors cords representing the Deans Leadership Group, Honors College and Lambda Pi Eta plus an Honors College medal.

As a communication student, Clindaniel gained valuable experience working on the PNW student newspaper, The Pioneer, and prior to that, the Panther News Network, climbing the ranks from volunteer writer to editor.

I learned to quickly and efficiently interview people, write more sophisticatedly and improve on my photography and management skills, she said of her experience.

Her time off campus was filled with volunteer service at her church, a job at Valparaiso University, photography, cupcake making and quality time with her nephew and dog.

Clindaniel indicated she often found strength and inspiration from those around her. Through it all, my parents were always there to listen, she said.

She also credits her faith. I know that keeping faith that God will handle everything is hard to do in college, she said. Somehow, with His help I managed to do that.
LAKE STATION  Kurtz Ambulance Service will be the next company to handle emergency medical calls in the city.

The Board of Works recently selected the business to take over the ambulance service in Lake Station starting Thursday, which is when Prompt Ambulance Service, the municipality's current provider, will end its contract with the city.

Superior Ambulance Service also submitted a proposal to handle medical calls in the community.

Mayor Christopher Anderson said Kurtz will provide one ambulance that will be designated to Lake Station. The unit would only leave the city during calls for mutual aid.

Anderson said Fire Chief Chuck Fazekas and Kurtz officials are discussing the possibility of having two ambulances serving the municipality.

Under the contract with Kurtz, Lake Station will pay a maximum of $84,000 annually to subsidize the ambulance service. If Kurtz generates enough revenue, the figure would be less each year.

It will cost Lake Station $50,000 to have Kurtz handle emergency medical calls for the remainder of 2017.

City officials didn't include funding for ambulance service in this year's budget because Prompt provided it at no cost to the municipality.

The agreement with Kurtz will also have the council work with the company to set rates residents will be charged.

Prompt has been the city's ambulance service provider since 2014. About five months ago the company indicated it would end its contract June 1 because it was not profitable.
ST. JOHN  A controversial proposed resolution that would fully enroll the Town Council in the Public Employees Retirement Fund administered by the Indiana Public Retirement System is dead.

The council on Thursday voted unanimously to give Town Council President Michael Forbes permission to write a letter to the PERF offices stating that the Town Council will not pursue the PERF proposition that was proposed recently.

"This letter will eliminate any further discussion of PERF during our terms," Forbes said.

The resolution appeared on the agenda during the council's April meeting but was deferred.

Clerk-Treasurer Beth Hernandez asked to table the resolution at that meeting, saying it provides the council members with pension benefits without a 3-percent contribution required of every full-time employee, including Hernandez.

She said in February she was asked to complete a necessary survey so PERF would calculate the cost for councilmen to gain credit retroactively for all of their prior years of service. The town, she said, is responsible for 100 percent of the cost to buy back all of their previous years of service dating back to their original term of office. Hernandez said it "could be financially significant."

The town hall was packed with residents for that meeting, as it was on Thursday. Many wanted to know who on the council was responsible in bringing forward the PERF resolution in the first place.

Forbes, who told The Times earlier that he was never in favor of pursuing PERF, said he was not on board with it in the beginning.

Forbes was asked by resident David Delgado that if he was not involved in the discussion of the matter than who on the council was.

"I'll leave that up to the other members to address it," he said.

Resident Joe Hero asked Hernandez which council member in her opinion was responsible for the resolution.

"I'm going to defer that to the council member," she said. "They're here."

Nobody spoke up.
VALPARAISO  Vietnam War veteran James Chancellor said he was asked several years ago to speak about the connection between God and war.

Not knowing how to bridge the two topics, he turned to others for help, which left him questioning further why innocent people die during war and whether he would be forgiven for his role.

"War leaves more questions than answers," Chancellor said.

Chancellor, who spoke Friday during a Memorial Day Weekend Prayer Breakfast hosted by the Christian Leadership Council of Northwest Indiana, said he still does not have a clear answer to his questions.

But he found some relief when drifting off to sleep and feeling the presence of other veterans carrying a message.

"One day you will understand," Chancellor said he was told. "It will be alright, Jim."

W. Dennis Hodges, president of the Christian Leadership Council, said he organized the prayer breakfast after watching President Donald Trump recognize the widow of a Navy SEAL killed in action during his address to Congress earlier this year.

"It just seemed like a patriotic thing to do," he said.

May is also National Military Month, Hodges said.

Robert Carnagey, an Army veteran and commander of Disabled American Veterans in Hammond, said he was aware as a child that Memorial Day parades were less festive than other holidays.

While the holiday commemorates those who have died in military service to this country, he said the loved ones left behind live with that grief every day.

"They're reminded of their loved ones that didn't come home," Carnagey said.

LaPorte Mayor Blair Milo, who is herself a Navy veteran, had the group stand and be recognized as she read off the different branches of the military.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trump's administration is pledging a Supreme Court showdown over his travel ban. That's after a federal appeals court said Thursday in ruling against it that the ban "drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination."

Citing the president's duty to protect the country from terrorism, Attorney General Jeff Sessions says that the Justice Department will ask the high court to review the case. He's offered no timetable.

The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

The presidential executive order issued by Trump seeks to temporarily cut off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
It's a holiday born of remembrance of as many as 700,000 people who died serving in America's bloodiest war.

Since its post-Civil War origins, Memorial Day has grown as a day to hail all men and women of service who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and fellow Americans.

Some of that history can be found in the upcoming Times Sunday Forum section.

Beyond history and military remembrances, many families also use Memorial Day weekend as a time to reflect on all loved ones no longer with us.

Regardless of how you view or observe one of the most reverent days in the U.S. calendar, we urge you to join together with others of the Region community in any of the many Memorial Day observance opportunities this holiday weekend.

Northwest Indiana opportunities for honoring our fallen heroes abound.

They range from a 9 a.m. Memorial Day observance today at the Valparaiso Service Memorial at Foundation Meadows to Monday cemetery ceremonies at Crown Point's Historic Maplewood Cemetery or the 11th annual Memorial Day concert at 3 p.m. in Valparaiso's Memorial Opera House.

A full list of Region Memorial Day events from Friday through Monday can be found online in an article attached to this column or in copies of Thursday's Times newspaper.

Remembrance is one of the greatest honors we can bestow upon those no longer with us. In a sense, it helps their legacies live on.

Help provide a measure of immortality to those who have sacrificed on our behalf this Memorial Day weekend.
Premier to meet with EU leaders in bid to advance globalization, promote Belt and Road cooperation

Premier Li Keqiang is to hold a meeting with his European counterparts in Brussels on June 1 and 2. The aim is to send a joint message opposing protectionism and advocating globalization while deepening synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative and Europe's development strategies.

As well as further explaining his country's market reform packages, intended to beef up openness, Li is expected to exchange views on investment and trade friction with the European Union and Germany, which in recent months have increased protection measures against Chinese investment and exports.

Ahead of Li's departure, Chinese Ambassador to the European Union Yang Yanyi and other policy insiders say they believe the summit, arranged at "a critical moment", will boost the bilateral relationship to a new high if both sides inject ample "sincerity and vision" into the strategic partnership, which has implications for 1.9 billion people.

"Both sides will explore how to develop relations on a healthy and stable track while promoting pragmatic cooperation on trade, investment and other areas," Yang says.

Li will visit Germany and Belgium during the visit. The trip comes after President Xi Jinping made two visits to Europe in January and April. China organized the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on May 14 and 15 in Beijing, and an EU-US summit concluded at the European Union headquarters on May 25.

Li will be emphasizing China's stance on promoting cooperation, multilateralism, free trade and globalization while encouraging Europeans to deeply participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Amid rising trends of anti-globalization and isolationism, Premier Li and European leaders will be voicing their support for free trade and multilateralism, to reform the global governance structure in an even fairer and more reasonable direction," Yang says.

She says both sides will explore means of dealing with friction on trade and economic issues.

BRI and China-EU relations

China has described the Belt and Road Initiative as a proposal for achieving common peace and prosperity, the overarching umbrella of its foreign diplomacy, and says it will further expand cooperation with the EU in this regard.

Most of the EU's member states expressed enthusiasm for becoming part of the Belt and Road Initiative at the Beijing forum. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says the initiative highlights a vision of connectivity, cooperation and dialogue across Europe and Asia, as well as other parts of the world.

With China's shipping giant COSCO saving his country's lifeline port Piraeus from the depths of a debt crisis, Tsipras says this initiative is compatible with Greece's regional economic goals, while its dynamic, comprehensive, strategic partnership with China sets a solid basis for working in this direction.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was one of the European leaders at the Beijing forum. He says the old globalization model is obsolete and "the East has caught up with the West".

He sees the Belt and Road Initiative as "another direction of movement, which is specifically built on mutual acceptance." Orban describes the modernization of the 350-km Budapest-Belgrade railway line as a "most spectacular" agreement, signed between China, Serbia and his country.

In participating in the initiative, the two countries have not only benefited from infrastructural improvement, but also from being connected with the global supply chain.

The United Kingdom is still a full EU member, although Brexit talks will be launched soon. It also enthusiastically supports the initiative. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond says that, lying at the western end of the Belt and Road, his country is a natural partner in this endeavor and Britain has for centuries been one of the strongest advocates for an open global trading system.

He also says Britain can be a "natural partner" in delivering infrastructure for Belt and Road related countries by supporting the needed financing and planning.

The UK has been a pioneer in this regard. When China initiated the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in early 2015, the UK was the first Western country to respond.

Now, with the latest member Greece, roughly half of the countries in Europe have joined the new multilateral financial institution. Even the European Investment Bank recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the AIIB, which has gathered 77 members since its launch at the beginning of 2016.

In spite of the support of individual member states and businesses, the EU has not expressed collective enthusiasm. When Jyrki Katainen, vice-president of the European Commission, addressed the Beijing forum, he said China is at one end of the Belt and Road and Europe is at the other. But he is still hesitant, saying, "Done the right way, more investment in cross-border links could unleash huge growth potential with benefits for us all."

Katainen has repeated the principles of openness, transparency and sustainability, which China emphasized in the initiative vision paper published in early 2015.

Experts and China observers have been urging the EU to get on the same page as its members.

"The views of EU member states and businesses will be central to implementing the Belt and Road, and the success of the project will be based on building common commercial interests more than anything else," says Duncan Freeman, research fellow of the EU-China Research Center of College of Europe.

He adds that the Beijing forum has already demonstrated that the idea of the Belt and Road has attained a significant level of global influence, to which the EU should pay ample attention.

He also says the documents issued at the forum provide a greater degree of detail about how the Belt and Road will be implemented, and how it will affect the relations between China and other partners to the initiative.

"A common understanding between Europe and China of the Belt and Road will be the key to successfully implementing the strategy as a partnership," Freeman says.

Romano Prodi, former EU president and former Italian prime minister, has noticed "competition among European countries" in exploring synergies with the Belt and Road Initiative.

But he laments the lack of coordination at the European level.

Calling it a century long project that could offer better livelihoods for half of humanity, Prodi says, "We have to use all the patience that we need for political cooperation."

Despite that, Chinese Ambassador Yang has shown her satisfaction with the development synergies between China and Europe.

"It is fair to say that China and Europe share much in common in pursuing shared growth, development and connectivity, including through the Belt and Road Initiative, and have a proud record so far," she says.

When President Xi visited the EU headquarters in early 2014, both sides had started discussing the issue. When Premier Li held a summit with his European counterparts in Brussels in 2015, both sides agreed to support synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative and the 315 billion euro ($354.4 billion; 273.08 billion) European Investment Plan.

At the member country level, China and some European nations have signed intergovernmental cooperation documents and launched Belt and Road working group mechanisms to jointly advance the initiative.

Bilaterally, China has launched rail freight services with some European countries, including the first direct rail link between China and Britain, which went into operation early this year.

"Bilateral or trilateral cooperation in such areas as railway, ports, airports, power, transportation and logistics between China and European countries has also gathered momentum," Yang says.

Looking ahead, she says China and the EU should stay committed to free trade and economic openness - to a rules-based, transparent and fair international trading regime and order.

She also says time will prove wrong and unwarranted the notion that this project is designed to access new markets for China and presents a challenge - or even a threat - to the future of Europe.

"Such views neglect the many facets of the initiative and overlook the fresh perspectives it will bring to European integration," Yang says.

In addition to the Belt and Road Initiative, the leaders of both sides are going to inject new dynamics into ongoing talks on an investment pact to allow further access to each other's markets.

Chi Fulin, president of the China Institute of Reform and Development, has urged both sides to put free trade and investment in one shot to boost the bilateral economic relationship to a new level.

"The wide acceptance and recognition of the Belt and Road Initiative has offered a new direction and shape for the China-EU relationship, and both sides should grasp this opportunity to start free trade talks," says Chi.

He adds that his institute and European partners, such as the think tank Friends of Europe, will be discussing the proposal in detail at a forum at the end of June.

EU-China frictions

China still says it is an obligation for the EU to consider it a market economy by fulfilling the commitment it made when China joined the World Trade Organization more than 15 years ago. China is expected to put pressure on the EU in this regard at the pending summit.

Recently, when Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Germany to prepare for Li's visit to the country, he raised the issue with Chancellor Angela Merkel, hoping Germany could play a constructive role in removing "the barrier" hampering the China-EU relationship.

Within the EU, Germany is China's biggest economic partner, and both countries are manufacturing and export giants. Germany will be hosting the G20 summit in July, after China's hosting of the Hangzhou summit in September last year.

Shi Mingde, China's ambassador to Germany, has also hinted that both sides will be discussing how to facilitate two-way investment following Germany's recent action in blocking certain Chinese investment in the country.

Citing numbers, Shi says Germany's investment in China already amounts to $70 billion, while China's total in Germany has not surpassed $8 billion, a proportion of about 12 percent.

He has repeated this message on various occasions ahead of Premier Li's arrival, saying China's investment in Germany has only just started.

"Gradually, China has opened its door," says Shi, a veteran Chinese diplomat. "And Germany, a mature market economy, has already opened its door and we hope it will not be closed."

fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

Chinese workers at a construction site for building a highway in Serbia, not far away from the capital of Belgrade. Fu Jing / China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page1)
MICHIGAN CITY  Laying on the mat, a teenager holding down my feet, the drill instructor barking out the time, I realized: I'm out of gas.

Thirty-odd situps in and I physically couldn't do another one. The kids beside me kept bringing their chests to their knees. Still a minute left on the two-minute clock.

"Come on, Giles, get off the struggle bus," Master Sgt. Jeff Benak said.

I contorted my shoulders and back like a circus performer. I pushed my legs and butt cheeks and muscles I didn't know I had into the mat. None of it gave me any momentum. Finally, I reached my hands behind my thighs and lifted myself up.

"That doesn't count," said my holder, James Steinhagen.

I did 36 situps in two minutes, embarrassing my 18-year-old self. Luckily, I'm in my 30s.

I went back to high school for a day this week  and got a passing grade. That is, at the Marines Corps Junior ROTC physical fitness class at Michigan City High.

For my previous challenge as The Times' fitness experimenter-in-chief, I tested whether I was as a fit as senior citizen. In the interest of fairness, I decided to face off against high-schoolers this time around. Maybe I should have gone back to elementary school.

Kids have eye on military

Before we did the fitness tests, a few of the students told me how they plan to actually join the military. Senior Michael Livengood is starting basic training for the Marines later this year.

"I really only took the class to get out of P.E.," he told me. "Then I started to like it and I stayed."

"It's a little bit harder than the normal P.E. class," said Arturo Moreno, a senior who hopes hopes to join the Navy once he loses some weight. "We push each other."

"It's hard freshman year," Livengood said.

"When you're weak," Moreno said.

"You go home sore," Livengood said. "Now that we're seniors we've done it a couple hundred times, so it comes natural."

I went home sore.

"Are you done with these slugs?" Benak called out to me. "Are you ready to get started?"

The first exercise was to see how many situps I could do in two minutes. Real situps: arms across the chest, forearms to knees, all the way down and up again.

During this test, I heard the girls next to me say something to the effect of, "You're not going to let this old guy beat you, are you?" (At least that's how I interpreted it.) They didn't let me.

Next was the pushups test. I had to do as I many as I could before I needed a break of a second or longer.

Benak, who has the demeanor, build and haircut of a retired Marine (which he is), scolded me for not paying attention to his instructions. "This is for you, Giles," he said, sounding like a disappointed father.

Lucky for me, I actually do pushups in my personal life. When Benak said go, I was like a thoroughbred crashing through the starting gates.

"Uh, oh, Giles has got this one," Benak yelled out. "He's got this one. Look at him."

After my 29th pushup, I collapsed to the mat. My competitors were still going.

Versions of Marine Corps tests

I thought I'd perform better at pullups. I can do about 10 or 15 when I'm by myself. Apparently I've been doing them wrong.

For the Junior ROTC test, you have to do them overhanded and hang with your arms completely straight between each one.

I did the first one no problem. Then I found myself hanging, like a kid on the monkey bars, wondering how I was ever going to reach the bar, which seemed to be at "Jack and the Beanstalk" levels of height. I pulled with all my might and ... made it three-quarters of the way. My chin just wouldn't grow anymore. How I wished I was Jay Leno.

The final test was a 300-yard sprint. At the end, my lungs were pleading for oxygen. But I actually didn't come in last place this time. I finished ahead of those two girls. Payback.

Since the students are graded on how well they do on these fitness tests, I thought it was only fair that I received a grade, too. Totaling up my score (see the breakout box below for how I calculated it), I earned a 265, good for an 80 percent, or a B. (Benak had guessed I'd gotten a 70. Giles Bruce: exceeding fitness expectations in Northwest Indiana since 2014.)

Junior ROTC students who do well enough at these activities can compete at a national event in San Diego. These tests are versions of ones real Marines have to do in order to serve.

The fitness requirements for being in the Marine Corps at my age would be three pullups (the Corps lets you do them under- or overhanded); 45 situps (the Corps calls them crunches); and a 3-mile run in 29 minutes or less.

So I'm only 1 1/4 pullups, nine situps and a lot more running endurance from becoming a Marine. Good to know.

Compare yourself to other age groups

These last two fitness assignments for The Times have taught me that it's good to test your physical ability against other age groups. Going up against seniors and now teens really illuminated my strengths and weaknesses.

I learned my running speed and upper body strength are pretty solid, but I can use some work on my endurance, leg strength and flexibility.

On the other hand, if I had competed against fellow late Gen Xers/early millennials, who have couch-cushion indentations on their backsides from growing up playing video games, I probably would've come off looking like LeBron James. No improvements needed.

Sometimes it helps to compare yourself to people who are in way better shape than you. What's bad for the ego is good for the body in the long run.
A Bronx street has renamed for the man who took his own life after spending years on Rikers Island without ever being tried.

"Kalief Browder Way" now sits on the corner of East 181st Street and Prospect Avenue in Belmont.

Browder was locked up as a teenager for allegedly stealing a backpack.

He spent three years at Rikers, two of them in solitary confinement.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the charges and released Browder, but he killed himself in June 2015 at the age of 22.

Thursday would have been Browder's 24th birthday, and his siblings say his story is more relevant than ever.

"My brother means so much to me. Not only what he's done for us, but what he's done for millions of Americans that are out there right now suffering that are in solitary confinement that does need a voice," said Nicole Browder, Kalief's sister.

"Kalief's name was to understand all kids, not just Kalief, go through a system. We need more thought put into what we're doing and how we're doing it," said Akeem Browder, Kalief's brother.

Browder's suicide prompted former President Barack Obama to ban the use of solitary confinement for juveniles.

Earlier this year, Mayor Bill de Blasio cited Browder's death when he announced plans to close Rikers.
In a debate over city lawmakers being undercut, state lawmakers are proceeding with their own plan to give letter grades to food carts even though the City Council already passed that legislation Wednesday. State House Reporter Zack Fink explains the story.

Like restaurants, which are required to show a letter grade for their level of cleanliness, lawmakers at the city and state level want to make sure that street food vendors get the same treatment.

Wednesday, the City Council passed a bill that would require the health department to issue letter grades to street vendors.

"I think this is a city issue, I think it is being handled by a city agency, and I think we as the council have jurisdiction over city agencies and what they do," Queens City Council member Karen Koslowitz said.

But Mayor Bill de Blasio has also quietly pushed state lawmakers to take similar action, and this week the State Senate passed a bill that would require letter grades, and would supersede the council's efforts.

"The city corporations counsel came to us and said that the city doesn't have the authority totrack these street vendors; only the state has that authority," State Sen. Jose Peralta said. "So they wanted us to include that tracking system in the bill."

The State Assembly is now considering the bill.

"Letting people know if people serve food, that they are serving you healthy food, or that the situation they are using to serve food is sanitary, I think, is always a good thing," Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said.

A de Blasio spokesperson said City Hall supports increased transparency around mobile food vending inspections.

Supporters of the state legislation said they believe it "compliments" the council's bill, but others see this as an example of the mayor undercutting the council and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, with whom he has worked very closely until just recently.

The push from the state echoes another battle: the legislature's move to suspend the city's fee on plastic and paper bags. People close to Mark-Viverito said she felt her authority had been undermined.

The same could potentially now be said about street vendors. "I mean, people in Buffalo aren't that into street vendors," Koslowitz said.

Some insiders believe this is an attempt by Peralta to change the conversation because he and several other lawmakers have faced scrutiny for receiving state stipends for job titles they do not hold.
Hundreds of years after Chinese first visited Kenya, cooperation between the two countries continues with major projects

In the year 1415, Chinese navigator Zheng He led a fleet for his fourth far-reaching ocean voyage and arrived in Kenya, on the east coast of Africa.

Local governments sent envoys following Zheng He's visit, marking the first official contact between China and Africa.

Afterward, the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) explorer's fleet again visited Kenya and other parts of Africa, sharing China's philosophy of peace and prosperity with these countries.

Frequent contacts between China and Africa boosted the prosperity of the ancient Maritime Silk Road routes. Uhuru Kenyatta, president of Kenya, says that Zheng He's visits sowed the seeds of friendship between the two countries, and Kenya has been an important link between China and Africa ever since.

It is now 600 years since Zheng He's fifth visit to Kenya in 1417.

Earlier this month, Kenyatta participated in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, showing Kenya's support for the Belt and Road Initiative that President Xi Jinping proposed in 2013.Kenyatta said he recognized the bright future that the initiative will bring to the world and offered to connect Kenya's own development plan with the initiative to push cooperation to a higher level.

The business relationship between China and Kenya is deeply integrated. China is Kenya's largest trading partner, largest contractor, largest bilateral loan provider and the fastest growing source of tourists. For successive years, Kenya has been the African country in which China has invested the most. Of more than 30 flagship projects by the Kenyan government, about half are being carried out jointly with China.

These achievements have come about less than four years after President Xi and President Kenyatta decided to build their comprehensive partnership in 2013.

If we follow the locations that Zheng He's fleet visited, from the south to the north of Kenya's coast, we can find many China-Kenya projects.

The first stop is Mombasa, where the major project is the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, being built by the China Road and Bridge Corp. It is the biggest infrastructure project to be undertaken in Kenya since its independence and is recognized as the "Project of the Century". It also forms an important part of the East Africa railway network. The railway has adopted China's standards, equipment, technology and management methods.

By the end of 2016, the construction of the railway had created 42,000 jobs in Kenya, including 8,976 technicians and 8,790 management staff, accounting for 42.3 percent of all jobs in Kenya. The project will be completed by the end of May and will become a major part of the Belt and Road Initiative. This railway will not only reduce transportation costs but will also boost the development of the industrial parks and special economic zones along its route.

The second stop is Malindi, where the big project has been the modernization and strengthening of the CAMCE Kenya Power Distribution System, carried out by China CAMC Engineering Ltd. The project was funded with preferential loans from China and was completed in 2015. It has ensured the stable supply of electricity in coastal regions since then and has benefited 300,000 people. This is only one small example of how the Chinese government has been supporting Kenyan energy projects financially. Now, Chinese companies are accelerating investment in clean energy, including wind power, and solar and geothermal energy. In this sector, Chinese companies will change their role from being contractors to investors.

The third stop is Lamu, which is also where the descendants of ZhengHe's crew members still live. The landmark project here is Lamu Port, contracted to China Communications Construction Corp. This project is important for the development of the northern part of Kenya and for connecting it to Ethiopia and South Sudan. It is also a flagship project in the Kenyan government's 2030 Plan.

The building of the north corridor will connect the Lamu Islands with the central town of Isiolo, which has rich wildlife resources and the country's biggest inland water, Lake Turkana. This will boost the development of tourism and benefit logistics with South Sudan and Ethiopia. Economic development in these regions will also help neighboring regions fight terrorism.

So, in just three stops we can see the extent of China and Kenya's cooperation on infrastructure and connectivity. From being a stop on the ancient maritime silk road, Kenya has developed into an important supporter of China's Belt and Road Initiative. It will also become the first stop for Chinese companies entering Africa.

The author is the economic and commercial counsellor of the embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Kenya. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page13)
Thanks to genetic engineering, pink pineapple isnt just a product of Photoshop, anymore. Its an actual product and its coming to a grocery store near you, very soon.

Del Monte Fresh Produce, one of the worlds largest produce suppliers, has been working on pink pineapple for over a decade, and in December of last year, the company got permission from the FDA to sell them in the United States. Del Monte has already partnered with Dole, to have the new pink fruit grown in Costa Rica and Hawaii, and while it hasnt reached store shelves just yet, photos of the unusual-looking pineapple have been popping up on online social networks lately.

Photo: skaught88/Instagram

Del Montes scientists have genetically engineered the new pineapple variety to produce lower levels of an enzyme present in conventional pineapple that converts the pink pigment lycopene to the yellow pigment beta carotene. Lycopene is the pigment that makes tomatoes red and watermelons pink, so it is commonly and safely consumed, the FDA said in a statement.

A post shared by Michelle Blahay (@mblahay) on May 15, 2017 at 7:36pm PDT

News of the new pink pineapple broke out in December, 2016, when the FDA gave Del Monte the green light to commercialize it in the United States, but, at the time, nobody actually knew what the fruit looked like. Now, thanks to a series of photos posted on Instagram, we know that the fruit is pink in both flesh and peel, and can sometimes have a neon pink hue as well. Its pretty strange, if you ask me, but its definitely an eye-catcher.

A post shared by Celia Chan (@celia723) on May 3, 2017 at 2:29am PDT

Del Monte claims that this new variety will be extra sweet, compared to regular pineapple.

A post shared by The Gourmand and Gourmet (@gourmandgourmet) on Jan 5, 2017 at 9:06pm PST

No word yet on when the first batch of pink pineapples will be available in stores, but judging by the size of the fruits in this photos, Im pretty sure youll be feasting on pink goodness this summer.

A post shared by Michelle Blahay (@mblahay) on May 15, 2017 at 7:36pm PDT

Pink is apparently a very popular color with fruit genetic engineering experts, as we already have pink flesh apples as well. And speaking of interesting fruits, remember those cotton candy-flavored grapes that we features a few years back?


Quayle Tees Off for Saudi Arabia's LIV Golf Fri., Aug. 26, 2022 Hobart Hallaway & Quayle Ventures is representing Saudi Arabia's LIV Golf to protect the rights of professional golfers to play when and where they want. Ex-Congressman Ben Quayle handles the effort.


Fake News Thrives on 'Alternative' Social Media Sites Fri., Oct. 7, 2022 Alternative social media sites provide a community for a growing number of Americans who use these platforms to connect with others and stay informed on current events, but the fringe content that flows on these sites could be contributing to our polarized political environment.
Continent looks forward to more tangible economic benefits to ensure long-term, 'win-win' partnership

The Belt and Road Initiative launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013 is not only China's promising global grand strategy, but also the centerpiece of its foreign policy. It seeks to re-establish China's traditional economic influence along the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the sea-based 21st Century Maritime Silk Road trading route to connect China with Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

For Africa, this creates a big window of opportunity for deepening Sino-African relations and spurring economic growth and development through the global network.

China also views Africa as an integral part of its aspirations to become a more involved world leader in global affairs commensurate with its growing economic status. In this regard, Africa needs to examine and explore the means to best utilize the immense diplomatic, cultural, trade and investment opportunities provided by the Belt and Road. This means devising an aggregated policy mix that leads to some degree of economic rebalancing to guarantee that this relationship becomes a long-term, "win-win" partnership.

According to Professor Peter Kagwanja, chief executive of the Africa Policy Institute, "Africa needs a long-term strategy to profitably engage China in order to reap maximum benefits for its people."

In this regard, the Forum on China Africa Cooperation was founded in 2000 and consists of 50 African countries and China. The last FOCAC meeting in December 2015, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, culminated in the Johannesburg Action Plan under the theme "China-Africa Progressing Together: Win-Win Cooperation for Common Development". As a result, FOCAC was subsequently upgraded to a "new type of comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership" that links Africa's transformation aspirations to China's own ongoing transformation.

Other welcome initiatives include the "461 framework", which is a cooperation framework proposed by China that includes four principles (equality, solidarity/mutual trust, tolerance in development issues, innovative cooperation) six major projects (industrial cooperation, financial cooperation, poverty alleviation cooperation, environmental protection cooperation, civil and cultural exchanges cooperation and peace and security cooperation) and one platform, the FOCAC.

The Belt and Road Initiative is closely aligned with the African Union's long-term Vision and Action Plan, dubbed Agenda 2063, which is the strategic blueprint for the continent's socioeconomic transformation over the next 50 years. In particular, it complements Africa's aspirations to have world-class connectivity through an integrative infrastructure that crisscrosses the entire continent. This means developing bold new initiatives to link the continent by "four networks" (high-speed rail, highways, regional aviation and maritime ports). The Belt and Road Initiative not only supports this plan, but further extends Africa's links with the Middle East and Asia. Agenda 2063 also outlines Africa's renaissance vision by accelerating progress toward continental unity and integration for sustained growth, trade and exchanges of goods and services, as well as free movement of people and capital.

Some of China's key infrastructure investments in Africa include Ethiopia's first electrified railway linking its capital and Djibouti, which was launched in October. In Kenya, the first phase of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway project will be launched in June. It has been lauded by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as the modern railway line that will catalyze Kenya's industrial transformation and position the country as an investment hub. It is the largest infrastructure project undertaken by the country since its independence in 1963.

Other projects include Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls International Airport, upgraded and expanded with support from China, the Abuja-Kaduna railway in Nigeria and the Nyerere Bridge in Tanzania. The Belt and Road Initiative is expected to overlap continental initiatives and cover more African states soon. For instance, in March 2017, China and Madagascar agreed to synergize development strategies under the framework of the Belt and Road based on its expediency and utility in accelerating development.

For the most part, African leaders and ordinary citizens have so far welcomed Belt and Road and China's involvement in the continent with positive sentiments because of the contribution and financial investment China brings to Africa. One of the key factors contributing most to China's positive image is the expertise and capital for infrastructure development that the country brings and the promising prospects of manufacturing investment expected to soon follow.

While it is clear that China's infrastructural footprint is in Africa to stay through the Belt and Road and other initiatives, Africa looks forward to more tangible economic benefits, particularly in setting up manufacturing bases and increased job creation.

The author is the director of the Center for Strategic Policy Management at Africa Policy Institute. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page13)
Agricultural News

Kim Anderson Says Projected Lower Ending Stocks Could Mean Better Wheat Prices for Oklahomans

This week on SUNUP! - Oklahoma State University Grain Market Economist Dr. Kim Anderson visits with host Lyndall Stout to offer a little perspective on how the US compares in production and grain stocks this year to competitors around the world.





According to Kim, world production is projected to be approximately 2% less than last year at 27.1 billion bushels globally.





The US itself is expected to have produced roughly 21% less wheat this year compared to last year's 2.3 billion bushels, at 1.8 billion in 2017.





Compared to our competitors around the world, Argentina's production is up 6% at 463 million bushels; Australia, down 29% at 919 million bushels; Canada, down just 1% at 874 million bushels; the European Union is up 4% at 5.5 billion bushels; Kazakhstan, down 13% at 478 million bushels; Russia is down 8% at 2.5 billion bushels; and the Ukraine is down 7% - which as a direct competitor to the US is very significant says Anderson.





With the EU's contribution, this year, world stocks are projected to be up 1%. Aside from Argentina, the US and most all its competitors worldwide are down, many quite significantly.





"That's what we want to see," Anderson said. "If we can get those stocks lower, then we can get these prices higher."





You can watch their visit tomorrow or Sunday on SUNUP- but you can hear Kim's comments right now by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.







Beyond Dr. Anderson's weekly chat - the SUNUP crew has a very full lineup for your viewing this weekend:





This week on SUNUP, we travel the state looking at the 2017 wheat crop. We start the show north of Burlington in Alfalfa County and find wheat that is still fairly green.







- In the Mesonet weather report, Al Sutherland shows us the parts of the state that are above average in rainfall. Gary McManus has the first drought-free map in quite a while and says June could be wet.







- Then we travel to Blaine County to visit a wheat field that has had its share of rain.







- Kim Anderson explains why projected lower ending stocks in other countries could mean better prices are on the way for Oklahoma wheat.







- We meet a Caddo County producer who has an interesting crop rotation to maximize his wheat production.







- In Cow-Calf Corner, Glenn Selk has advice for limiting hay loss due to storage.







- We make our final stop at a Cotton County field that was damaged by hail last week.







- Finally, we learn what 125 years of the Magruder Plots means to wheat research at Oklahoma State University.







Join us for SUNUP:





Saturday at 7:30 a.m.





Sunday at 6 a.m. on OETA-TV

























You can watch their visit tomorrow or Sunday on SUNUP- but you can hear Kim's comments right now

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A 20-year-old man fatally shot a 29-year-old man after an argument about respecting the apartment they were in, a prosecutor said Friday.

Malcolm L. Ward has been charged with first-degree murder and two weapons counts in connection with the slaying of Brandon Mutum.

Douglas County Judge Stephanie Hansen ordered Ward held without bail.

Prosecutor Eric Fabian said Ward and Mutum were at a party at an apartment near 65th Street and Ames Avenue in April.

The two started arguing about respecting the apartment and not messing it up, Fabian said.

Ward had a gun on his lap during the party, witnesses said.

Other partygoers attempted to calm the men down, but the argument continued and spilled out into the hallway.

One person who continued to try to mediate had stepped back into the apartment when everyone heard three or four shots.

Mutum was shot in his chest, and Ward fled, Fabian said.

Police officers arrived and found Mutum, who was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he died.

Authorities later found the firearm they believe was used in the shooting. Fabian said ballistics tests show the bullets used to kill Mutum match the gun.

Ward told another person that he killed Mutum, Fabian said.

Mutums mother, Annette Mutum, said this week that she had not heard of Ward.

Annette Mutum said her son had been spending the night at a friends after having a fight with his fiancee.

Mutum worked in housekeeping at Methodist Hospital, where officials described him as a hard worker who ... was pleasant to be around.

Ward pleaded guilty in 2014 to an attempted burglary charge. Earlier this year, he was charged with strangulation and domestic assault on a pregnant woman, who authorities said was his girlfriend.

Defense attorney Cathy Saathoff said Ward has one child and another on the way.
Editor's Note: China is divided into as many culinary regions as there are different ethnic groups. Its geographical diversity and kaleidoscopic cultural profiles contribute to the unending banquet of flavors.

It's the butterfly effect, where demand for donkey glue in China has affected communities halfway across the globe. The issue is sensitive, simply because some of these countries depend on the donkey as a working beast in both agriculture and transportation.

But this is also the reality of a tightening global network of supply and demand, and the fearsome power of being one of the largest consumer markets on Earth.

Donkey glue, or ejiao, is not everyday food. It is used more as a medicine and as a health and beauty tonic. As China becomes more urbanized, its own donkey population is naturally diminishing, and so it is the imported meat and hide that is perpetuating the myths.

Ejiao was used as far back as 2,000 years ago. Photos Provided to China Daily

Let's start at the beginning.

Visitors to Beijing eagerly reach for their camera phones whenever they pass a restaurant advertising lyurou huoshao, the infamous donkey burger that is the highlight of so many travel blogs.

Yes, this is a regional specialty from Hebei province, and the best donkey meat comes from Baoding and Hejian. These neighborhoods are where they firmly believe in the saying, "in Heaven, they have dragon meat; on Earth, we have donkey meat".

Beijing, of course, is right smack in the middle of Hebei, slightly off center to the north. It is also crowded with migrant workers looking for an affordable taste of home.

Donkey burgers are more like sandwiches, with the salty braised meat minced and tucked into sliced-open unleavened flat bread or shaobing. Sliced green peppers are stuffed by the side.

We had a young English colleague once who survived on donkey burgers from a neighborhood shop near our newsroom for most of the two years she was with us. She told us it was a satisfying, nutritious meal with all of the necessary food groups.

But then, she was almost completely acclimatized, taste-wise, when she finished her internship and returned to London. The first article she wrote from home was all about Chinese dumplings.

According to those who know, a good donkey burger must have well-braised meat that is expertly seasoned and juicy fresh green peppers, and the flatbread must be soft and tender on the inside and very crisp on the outside so there is crunch in every bite.

Apart from this famous sandwich, donkey meat is also eaten in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong provinces, where it appears in various forms, just like pork or beef.

It is a lean meat, with not much fat, and aficionados claim it tastes even better than beef.

All along the lower reaches of the Yellow River, donkey is a rare but traditional meat, often enjoyed in the past when the beasts could no longer work int he fields. It has mostly been truly popular only in rural areas.

My own experience with this meat is limited to a meal in Hohhot, when we were invited for my husband's college reunion. The claypot stew on the table was very fragrant and redolent of spices, its brown gravy shiny and tempting.

Pork ribs, my husband said with a gleam in his eye. I tasted a piece. It was indeed delicious, but I knew it had nothing to do with a pig.

I no longer willingly eat donkey, not after a close encounter with a docile animal at a highway rest stop. As I fed it a carrot, it nudged me with its muzzle and looked at me with eyes that had inch-long lashes, and I knew the meaning of "don't make friends with your food".

Although most Chinese may not sympathize with animal activism attitudes, donkey meat is not easily available, and you have to look pretty hard for restaurants that serve this speciality. In a China that now has access to the best meat products from all over the world, this traditional treat is fading into the background. Which is good.

The flip side of the coin is, most Chinese are now affluent enough to afford tonics, health and beauty supplements that they could not before. This is where donkey glue comes in.

Where as meat is just meat, ejiao takes a lot of donkey hides to produce, and it commands a very good market price.

It is hard to believe that an extract distilled from the hide of donkeys can have any curative properties, but stranger things are found in the pharmacopeia of traditional Chinese medicine.

Ejiao was used as far back as 2,000 years ago. Apart from the ancient scripts that document the complicated process of turning hide into medicinal tonic, archaeologists have excavated evidence that it was a precious burial gift of the time.

Two thousand years is a long time to perfect a technique, and ejiao is now available in vials, in tablets, as chewy sweets and as thick black cakes that can be slowly dissolved in the best rice wine.

The Chinese firmly believe in the benefits of ejiao, and it is said that a little bit taken each morning will guarantee a long and healthy life. Ejiao promotes blood circulation, according to traditional Chinese medicine, and regular consumption is believed to help all the aches and pains that come with age.

For men, it is a tonic for those who drink regularly and, yes, it is an aphrodisiac.

It is also marketed as an excellent source of collagen to young and older ladies eager to add a glow to their complexion and suppleness to the skin.

paulined@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page18)
Creighton University plans a reduction in force of about 60 non-faculty staffers, according to a letter sent to Creighton employees last week.

Some of the reductions will be made by eliminating open positions, but the majority will be through a reduction in employees, said the letter, written by the Rev. Daniel Hendrickson, president of Creighton.

The cuts are expected to begin in early June and continue through mid-June. Sixty positions amount to 4.5 percent of Creightons non-faculty workforce. The reduction will place the non-faculty workforce at more than 1,300.

Hendrickson wrote that work continues on details of the plan, and final decisions are expected by June 2.

Severance packages will be offered, and staff members involved will have at least 30 days notice before their jobs are terminated, the letter said.

The president said reductions in expenses are necessary for Creightons long-term stability.

Hendrickson said Creighton expects to have a large incoming freshman class in late summer.

But competition with other universities is intense, he wrote, and increasing financial aid is needed to attract students. Many families also are struggling and need increasing support to send their children to a private university, he wrote.

Jim Berscheidt, a Creighton spokesman, said the university expects a record number of freshman students in the coming school year  about 1,100, up from 1,032 last year and 1,068 in fall 2015, the previous record.

Last fall Creightons total enrollment of 8,393 was the second-highest in school history. The record, set in fall 2015, was 8,435.

Berscheidt said a committee of faculty, staff and administrators reviewed positions and organizational structures across the university.

Those who arrived at the layoff plan used data regarding Creightons workforce in relation to peer schools, analyzed recent growth in non-faculty positions and took other information into consideration, the president wrote.

Berscheidt declined to say what positions or kinds of positions will be cut. He also declined to estimate the savings that would be realized through the reduction in positions.

He said another panel is reviewing purchasing practices at Creighton to maximize buying power and find efficiencies in that realm.

Hendrickson noted that the next few weeks will be difficult, but he expressed confidence that the university would emerge stronger than ever.
China's initiatives must be more than utilitarian, Swiss academic says

Generosity and a strong set of universally recognized values are the key to China becoming the new leader of multilateral collaboration, says Tomas Casas, director of the China Competence Center at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Casas says that, at a time when the United States is retreating from its former leadership in multilateral collaboration, China-led policies such as the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative are becoming key drivers that defend globalization at what Casas calls "an historical turning point".

Tomas Casas says that China-led policies are becoming key drivers that defend globalization at an historical turning point. Photo Provided to China Daily

To gain further support and momentum for these initiatives, Casas suggests generosity by China and a new, coherent narrative with which other nations can identify.

"Just like the US championed values such as liberalism in its international leadership, China must develop a narrative that cannot be seen as solely utilitarian or practical. A commitment to openness must be a value that underpins its initiatives," says Casas.

In his role at the university's China Competence Center, he works to help Chinese and Swiss companies conduct business with each other, and to inform policy within the framework of the Sino-Swiss FreeTrade Agreement, signed in 2013. He also conducts research and has seen China increasingly engage in international trade and development initiatives.

Casas says China's "no-strings attached" approach to international development projects demonstrates a noninterventionist attitude toward other countries' internal affairs, but he says that might not be sufficient.

"This approach can lead to developing countries seeing China as giving free funding to local elites, while the local people ultimately feel no sense of accountability."

Instead, values such as the AIIB's proposal to be "lean, clean and green" could become a central message, championing energy efficiency and sustainable projects as the way forward for international development, Casas says.

"The world needs alternatives to Western values, which have become tired, and are even challenged in Western countries themselves," he says, adding that effective narratives translate into associated values that are "not imposed; they are wanted".

In addition, Casas says he believes China could gain leadership legitimacy and support by being generous to international partners, in the same way the US was generous when it led post-World War II multilateral collaboration.

"Yes, the US was at the center of it all, but these were very generous policies. America benefits while its allies in Europe and Asia benefited even more and became advanced economies, under the institutional umbrella of the US. Generosity might be related to strength."

China can demonstrate its generosity through opening up its market further, especially for low-income countries, and by giving more international aid to emerging economies, Casas says.

By the end of last year, China had provided approximately 400 billion yuan ($58.2 billion; 51.8 billion euros, 44.8 billion) in development aid to 166 countries and international organizations during the past 60 years, according to government figures. It has absorbed about 23 percent of exports from the world's least-developed countries since 2008. And it will set up a South-South Cooperation Fund to improve economic growth and standards of living in developing countries.

"China is already generous, but going forward, it is important that China's international aid should not be seen as a way for China to export its overcapacity, because otherwise that generosity still has a domestic focus and will not be perceived as sincere," Casas says.

China's further opening up of its own domestic market for other economies will be key to building the momentum of multilateral collaboration and demonstrating generosity befitting a global leader, he says.

"Much of the future of humanity depends on what position China takes. If China closes up, it will be one type of world. If China opens up, it will be a very different type of world," he adds.

In his view, multilateral collaboration is key to "increasing mutual dependency on the global economy, hence increasing the cost of conflict in other areas".

During the past year, the push for globalization has seen setbacks, including Britain's choosing to leave the European Union and the United States' withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. In addition, the US has agreed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Casas says that, even if the US stays with NAFTA, it is unlikely to push forward international multilateral collaboration. Within this context, new multilateral organizations such as the AIIB "will provide fresh impetus for global arrangements conducive to free trade and increased cross-border investment".

The AIIB, established little more than a year ago with 57 founding members, has already approved a lending program of $1.73 billion and invested in nine projects across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Casas says such initiatives "reflect a long-term commitment and provide new ideas and resources", and offer more representation to emerging economies than such institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, he says, newly emerging economies are better represented in newer institutions such as the AIIB and the New Development Bank, which was established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, collectively known as the BRICS countries.

For instance, the New Development Bank's method of funding in local currencies is cited by Casas as an example of fresh institutions' innovation. Although local currency loans increase the risk for lenders, there are benefits for the borrowing countries; hence the system more efficiently achieves its ultimate purpose, he says.

Casas adds that China's new leadership role in multilateral development also helps the country resolve two important challenges of its own: the middle-income trap, in which development stagnates after a country reaches middle-income levels, and the Thucydides trap, which sees conflict as likely between a rising power and a dominant one.

Casas says opening its domestic market allows China to experience more domestic competition - which leads to a structural shift of domestic productivity toward advanced manufacturing - while establishing international partners supports its international authority.

"China needs to enter advanced economy territory, and in doing so, it needs to be a strong partner of existing powers. The only way to do so is with an enlightened, generous narrative embodying a set of universal values that other nations will wish to share."

cecily.liu@mail.chinadailyuk.com

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page32)
The Senates confirmation of former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as ambassador to China comes at a vital time for the relationship between the two world powers.

Tensions are high over Chinas assertion of territorial claims in the South China Sea and the U.S. need to protect some of the global economys busiest shipping lanes. The destroyer USS Dewey traveled this week within 12 nautical miles of one of Chinas man-made islands in the region, sparking a response.

Our national security depends on working with China to restrain its erratic, nuclear-armed client-state, North Korea. Only the Chinese have the economic and security leverage to persuade North Koreas Kim Jong Un to stop threatening nuclear attacks on the U.S. and its regional allies.

Our economies are also intertwined. China continues to be our largest trading partner, with $579 billion in goods exchanged in 2016, including agricultural exports from Nebraska and Iowa.

Into this breach steps Americas Governor, who heads to Beijing after a record 22 years steering Iowa state government.

Branstad, 70, is uniquely qualified for this diplomatic post, having spent years expanding Chinese market access for Iowas exports and developing a three-decade friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Chinas Foreign Ministry described Bran- stad as an old friend of the Chinese people.

Branstads last day as governor served as a reminder of his work ethic. He carried out his duties to the end, signing proclamations and holding meetings.

As new Gov. Kim Reynolds told him: You continue to make us proud, not only from your service and dedication and love for this state, but to continue to take that unselfish service and Iowas values to the world.

This could prove a pivotal time for Sino-American relations. The Trump administration deserves credit for choosing the steady, experienced Bran- stad for this significant role.
Should Kashmir be given to Pakistan: Row erupts after this question appears in MP civil service exam

From hijab to Kashmir, Zawahiri was Al-Qaeda's voice for everything anti-India

2 Pakistani BAT attackers killed in Uri sector

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Two Pakistani Border Action Team personnel were killed in a retaliatory firing by the Indian Army along the Line of Control in Uri sector Friday.

The Indian Army patrolling party came under attack by Pakistan's BAT along the LoC. Two BAT attackers were killed in retaliatory firing. "Alert troops foiled a BAT attack on our patrol party in Uri sector today. Two BAT terrorists were killed in the operation," an army official told agencies.

One AK 47 rifle and one pistol were recovered with the deceased BAT attackers, reported ANI

The encounter is still underway at the LoC, according to reports.

In fact, the Pakistani army provided cover with firing to Border Action Team to kill and behead two soldiers in the Krishna Ghati sector of Jammu and Kashmir. It may be recalled that, KN Choubey, ADG Western Command BSF, said: 'Taking advantage of the firing from Pakistan side, Border Action Team mutilated bodies of soldiers', added Choubey.

A junior commissioned officer of the Indian Army and a BSF head constable were killed in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Poonch sector. The Army had recovered mutilated bodies of soldiers.

(With agency inputs)
Chinese tourists like to visit less well-known small cities and villages - along with big cities and hot destinations - when traveling to countries and regions related to the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a report by international house-sharing service provider Airbnb Inc.

More than 420,000 Chinese tourists booked accommodations through Airbnb in the economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative in the past year, including Middle Eastern countries, in a process that contributed about $30 million in income to local property owners, the report said.

It found that Thailand was the most popular tourist destination for Chinese outbound tourists, followed by Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Among cities, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were the top choices.

The report said that more than half the Chinese visitors to Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam chose to live under the same roof as Airbnb homeowners.

Moreover, nearly 340,000 tourists from countries and regions related to the Belt and Road Initiative traveled to China through booking accommodations at Airbnb in 2016.

The report's findings showed that Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou have become the most favored destinations among foreign travelers. Meanwhile, property owners from China's third-and fourth-tier cities also received guests from those economies.

Users of Airbnb Singapore had the most extensive presence, covering almost 100 Chinese cities in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, followed by users from Malaysia, Thailand and Russia.

"Airbnb is committed to building a cultural exchange platform on which people from different countries can open their homes and welcome each other, and play an active role in promoting people-to-people communication," says An Li, vice-president of Airbnb China and head of the public policy team.

The report also found that more than 60 percent of Chinese tourists to the Belt and Road economies were 30 or younger.

The most popular destinations among Chinese tourists age 60 or older were Thailand, Singapore and Russia.

In March, Airbnb signed an agreement with Fudan University to establish an Airbnb Go-Global Fudan Scholarship, which will support students to study in the countries and regions related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Founded in August 2008 and based in San Francisco, Airbnb is a major player in the international sharing economy, having connected more than 150 million users in more than 65,000 cities in 191 countries.

Ma Tianjiao, an analyst at Beijing-based internet consultancy Analysys, says that nowadays Chinese travelers are not satisfied with a hotel and are willing to try something different during a trip.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page25)
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AAP unlikely to attend Election Commission's hackathon challenge

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, May 26: The Aam Aadmi Party, which has accused the Election Commission of 'running away from a no-holds barred hackathon', is unlikely to take up the Commission's challenge to demonstrate that its Electronic Voting Machines can be tampered with.

In a letter to the poll commission, AAP said that it had promised a hackathon but with 'rules and regulations'.

"Hackers are invited to test the security of any system, using any tools available. Such ethical hacking is to help understand loopholes, so that they can be removed in the future," it said.

It wondered why the EC an institution that has always protected democracy was not ready for an open hackathon to safeguard the country's election process.

The letter, to Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, was in response to EC's rejection of AAP's demand that it be allowed to tamper with the EVM motherboard at the challenge.

"Why is the Election Commission running away from no-holds barred hackathon," it asked.

Following this, AAP is unlikely to participate in the EVM challenge on June 3, party sources said. The last date to participate in the exercise ends today.

"You have said that tampering or replacing the motherboard of an EVM would mean that it is no longer the same device. But how would you know that the motherboards of the existing EC machines have not been replaced or tampered with," the letter, written by AAP National Secretary Pankaj Gupta, asked."

It said that "if the EC was so confident that an EVM was tamper-proof, it should allow the machines to be hacked, without imposing any rules.The EVM would lose its originality if changes were made to its internal circuitry and it would not be the EC's EVM."

"If the machines look the same, behave the same till some codes activate the changed programming, then how do you know whether any tampering has taken place on the machines in your possession," Gupta asked.

PTI
After BJP minister attends Dawood family wedding, Congress demands probe

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A major row has been kicked up after it was found that several policemen and politicians had attended the wedding of Dawood Ibrahim's relative on Monday at Nashik in Maharashtra. The Congress made a claim in which it was stated that senior BJP leader and Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan had attended the marriage.

Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the photos of Mahajan, who is the guardian minister of Nashik district, attending the marriage have gone viral. Some police personnel in Nashik are already in the soup after reports surfaced that they attended the marriage of the woman whose family members are said to be relatives of Dawood, at a posh mall in Mahatma Nagar locality of Nashik, around 170 kms away from Mumbai.

Local media in Nashik had reported that Mahajan and some MLAs attended the function. "The BJP minister and some party legislators attending the wedding of an international don is a very serious matter and a shocking issue. A high-level probe needs to be conducted into this," Sawant said.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari accepted that Mahajan attended the marriage, but from the side of the bridegroom. Girish Mahajan had attended the wedding from the groom's side and he did not have any idea about the girl's relation with Dawood.

Nashik police commissioner Ravindra Singhal yesterday ordered an internal inquiry against the concerned personnel of Bhadrakali police station on the basis of reports that they attended the marriage. The groom is the son of a former local corporator. Though some politicians, including MLAs and corporators, reportedly attended the function, the police commissioner yesterday said he could not confirm this though he conceded that the invitation for the marriage was indeed sent to some politicians.

OneIndia News
Imran Khan discharged from hospital, to resume long march from same point where he was shot

This cop from Pakistan became a millionaire overnight: Here is how

After return, Uzma calls Pakistan 'well of death'

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Indian woman Uzma, who had alleged that she was forced to marry a Pakistani man at gun point and returned home on Thursday, has described Pakistan as a 'well of death' where even men are not safe.

Speaking to the media after returning to India via Wagah border, she said, "It's easy to go to Pakistan, but tough to return. Pakistan is a well of death. Even those who go there after an arranged marriage are crying."

During a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday, zma thanked Swaraj for helping her come back home.

Swaraj, had earlier on Thursday, welcomed her home as well as empathise with the struggle she went through in Pakistan.

"Uzma - Welcome home India's daughter. I am sorry for all that you have gone through," the minister tweeted.

Earlier this month Uzma had submitted a reply in a Pakistani Court in which she had conveyed her desire to return to India. Before approaching the courts in Pakistan, Uzma, a 20-year-old Indian woman, had approached the Indian High Commission in Pakistan with a request to send her back to India after she alleged that she was forced to marry a Pakistani citizen at gunpoint.

Uzma had then filed a plea with an Islamabad court against her husband Tahir Ali, claiming that he was harassing and intimidating her. And she had also recorded her statement before a magistrate claiming the same.

Following this, a bench of the Islamabad High Court had returned Uzma her original immigration form, which her husband had submitted to the court.

According to Pakistani TV reports, the court had also ordered that police to provide security to Uzma till Wagah Border.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 8:49 [IST]
Away from Manipur in TN, Irom Sharmila to begin new innings after marriage

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Imphal, May 26: Manipur's iconic civil rights activist Irom Sharmila is all set to start a new journey of her life. Away from politics and protests, Sharmila is planning to start a fresh innings of her life after her marriage.

Loneliness of Irom Sharmila: Peace activist spends a quiet birthday in Kerala

The peace activist, who was on a 16-year-long hunger strike demanding the repeal of draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act till last year, is getting married to her long-term boyfriend Desmond Coutinho, a British citizen with Goan roots in July.

The date is yet to be fixed, Sharmila told reporters. Most likely by July-end, she added. "We have not fixed the date of our marriage yet, but are planning it sometime in July-end in Tamil Nadu," Sharmila recently told Times of India.

After marriage, the 45-year-old is planning to settle down in Tamil Nadu. Sharmila also said that she was quitting politics forever. However, she stressed that family life did not mean that she won't fight for the rights of the people of Manipur as an activist. Sharmila added that her crusade against the AFSPA will continue.

She said, "I will continue my struggle, not as a politician but as a civil activist. After my marriage, I'll lobby international bodies to urge India to scrap the draconian law AFSPA."

Since her "shocking" defeat in the Manipur Assembly elections 2017, where she managed to get just 90 votes, Sharmila is on a tour of south India. In fact, she celebrated her 45th birthday in Kerala on March 14.

Although many in Manipur did not approve of Sharmila's relationship with Coutinho, which started in 2011 as she was lodged in a security ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal, a few of her friends and family members have expressed happiness after learning about her proposed marriage.

Her friends from the Peoples' Resurgence and Justice Alliance--the political outfit which Sharmila formed last year after she ended her fast--are happy about her marriage.

PRJA convener Erendro said he was happy to learn about Sharmila's proposed marriage. Her brother Irom Singhajit welcomed the news too. "We are happy, she is the youngest and has the right to marry and we support her wishes," he said.

"I have not yet informed my family, particularly my mother, of my plan to marry. But I'll do so soon. I'll also invite some of my friends and well-wishers," she smiled.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 6:34 [IST]
Bitta Karate a separatist but J&K government makes his wife liaison officer

India

oi-Anusha

While Bitta Karate was spearheading a "movement for Azad Kashmir", the Jammu and Kashmir government was busy making his wife a liaison officer with GST ministerial teams in Srinagar. A government order from Jammu and Kashmir's General administration department shows how a separatist's wife is functioning as government's liaison officer for an event that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who is incidentally also the in-charge defence minister, unveiled.

The order copy dated May 15, 2017, shows the PDP-BJP government appointing 63 liaison officers in connection with the meeting of the Goods and Services Taxes (GST) Council. The meeting was held at SKICC, Srinagar on May 18 and 19. The name of the officer against serial number 51 is Assabah A Khan. The wife of Bitta Karate otherwise known as Farooq Ahmed Dar. Her position is indicated as Assistant Director (Administration), Directorate of Social Welfare, Kashmir.

The order copy that is now going viral on social media has enraged many who have questioned the position doled out to the wife of a separatist who on record took pride in killing Kashmiri Pandits. Bitta Karate leader of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) is a known separatist. He was imprisoned for the killing of innocent Hindus and terrorism-related charges from June 1990 to October 2006. He was arrested and detained under the Public Safety Act and had over 19 militancy related cases on him.

By his own admission made on video, Bitta participated in the 1990 ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus and claimed to have killed over twenty people in the Valley. Bitta Karate spent many years behind the bars but was eventually released by TADA court on bail on October 23, 2006. Currently being interrogated by the NIA for getting funds from Pakistan to fan unrest in Kashmir, Bitta has been taken to an undisclosed location.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 17:42 [IST]
Delay in Karnataka CET 2017 results: Expensive COMEDK likely to be held first

India

oi-Anusha

The Karnataka Examination Authorities' decision to delay declaration of Common Entrance Test (CET) 2017 results may make way for Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) to be held earlier. The tentative schedule by the KEA has now placed COMEDK seat allotment ahead of CET ranking.

With this change in schedule, students aspiring for engineering seats may now be compelled to choose seats through the COMEDK route by paying more. The KEA's tentative schedule for the first round of seat allotment under COMEDK is June 21 while CET rankings are likely to be released only be June 27. Seats allotted under COMEDK costs three times more than seats alloted under CET for government-quota seats.

With engineering colleges pressing for a hike, students ay ultimately be compelled to bear the brunt. Despite having to choose a seat under COMEDK, students will be given the option to surrender their seats after the first round. But with uncertainty looming large over the date of CET ranking announcement, students are a worried batch.

COMEDK goes online starting this year

Even as students aspiring for professional courses seats are going through an anxious period, some respite has come in the form of digitisation of COMEDK. Students appearing for COMEDK counselling will not have to travel to Bengaluru anymore. All processes, except document verification process, will go online starting this year.

The students will have to pay Rs 5,000 before the option entry process, which would be considered as part of the fees for the first term. Similar to regular counselling, the online counselling session will give students time to enter options of engineering colleges and combinations. Following this process, mock allotment of seats will take place. Candidates can then change their options if they wish after which real allotment of seats will take place. The ranks of the UGET will be announced on May 29.

OneIndia News
For the love of Lord Krishna, UPs homeless widow donates Rs 40 lakh to build gaushala

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Lucknow, May 26: She is a devotee of Lord Krishna, the Hindu god, and thus decided to donate all her life savings amounting to Rs 40 lakh to build a gaushala (cow shelter) and dharamshala (rest house) in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh.

The lady with a big heart is not a billionaire, but a homeless widow from Mathura, UP, who guards visitors' shoes in Banke Bihari temple to earn her livelihood. Meet 70-year-old Phoolwati, who migrated to Mathura, from Katni, Madhya Pradesh, after her husband and daughter died in 1982.

In order to fulfill her dream of seeing a gaushala and a dharamshala in Vrindavan, the abode of many Hindu widows in the country, Phoolwati, according to a report by Times of India decided to sell off her ancestral property in Katni.

Moreover, she saved all the money she earned working in the temple to be able to make a donation of such a humongous amount. Phoolwati also wants to build one more cow shelter at Barsana in Mathura.

"Cow shelters are the best way to honour Lord Krishna, which is why I put in everything I had to build one," said Phoolwati, with a smile in her face.

However, the quiet lady is reluctant to talk about herself or her family. "I only have attachment with Lord Krishna and no one else and that's why I have given away whatever I had in service to the Lord."

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 13:50 [IST]
How probe into a car theft led to the arrest of 3 Pak nationals in Bengaluru

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

On Thursday the Bengaluru police arrested three Pakistanis and an Indian national on the charge that they were staying in India with false documents. Fortunately it did not turn out to be a case of terrorism as is always the case with the Pakistanis.

How this case was cracked is very interesting. The police had no intelligence or even a clue about the Pakistanis residing in Bengaluru. The cops were in fact investigating a car theft case.

The three Pakistani nationals who were arrested have been identified by the police as Sameera, Kashif Shamshudin and Kiran Gulam Ali. The Indian citizen is Mohammed Shihab, a resident of Kerala.

The cops had launched a probe following a specific complaint regarding a car theft. Investigations led them to Shihab who had with him a TN registered vehicle. The police suspected that the car was stolen. While questioning him, they sought documents from him.

Something looked fishy for the Bengaluru police. They found that his personal identification documents were fake. This led them to asking for documents of the rest of the residents in the house. It was found that they were living in India on false documents and had even made fake Aadhaar card. Upon investigating further the police learnt that the three were from Pakistan following which they were all arrested.

While many TV channels beamed that this was a case of terrorism, it turned out to be a love story.

The four had met in Qatar. Shihab fell in love with Sameera and since their parents opposed the marriage they decided to break the law.

The parents of the girl took her back to Pakistan. The couple however kept in touch and one day decided that they wanted to be together. The girl along with the other Pakistani couple also in love with each other decided to come to India. They left from Pakistan to Nepal where Shihab was waiting for them. He then got them down to Bihar from where they made their journey to Bengaluru. Once in Bengaluru he made fake documents for them. However they were caught by the police on Thursday.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 13:12 [IST]
Include Puducherry in Central Finance Commission: Narayanasamy

India

pti-PTI

Puducherry, May 26: The Centre should take care of the financial requirements of Puducherry and the Union Territory should be brought under the ambit of the Central Finance Commission so that there would be flow of funds for the territorial government without break, Chief Minister V.Narayanasamy said on Friday.

Winding up the two-day debate on the motion of the thanks to the Lt Governor for her address to the Assembly, Narayanasamy said that "he had brought to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the need for extending sufficient grants to Puducherry so that the Union Territory could achieve balanced development."

Narayanasamy said that "Puducherry was getting a central grant to the extent of 70 per cent of its budgetary requirements in the past particularly before opening the government's separate balance account. The pattern of grant was slashed to 30 per cent in the wake of implementation of the separate balance account in 2008," he said.

He said that "Puducherry government was according priority for uninterrupted implementation of 20 kg free rice scheme, sanction of financial assistance to students joining professional courses under government quota and also for payment of monthly assistance under 'old age pension' and assistance to widows."

Air service from Puducherry airport to Hyderabad and also Bengaluru would be introduced in July as some flight operators have come forward to provide the services from here.

Earlier participating in the debate, opposition AIADMK (Amma) legislature party leader A Anbalagan urged the Lt Governor to function in tandem with government for Puducherry's development without engaging in any collision course.

Opposition AINRC legislator Kobika said government should initiate steps to close all bars and liquor shops functioning in residential areas in Thirubhuvanai reserved constituency from where she was elected to the Assembly.

"These liquor outlets are a nuisance to the residents and the government should therefore initiate steps to close them down," she said.

After the reply by the chief minister, the motion of thanks was adopted by voice vote in the House which adjourned to meet on May 29.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 14:44 [IST]
Energy and capital intensive giant Dow willing to stay longer and share more in China, says chief

Against a backdrop of reports that some multinationals are pulling back their low-end manufacturing operations from China in the face of struggles with rising labor costs and growing competition from local rivals, Dow Chemical Chief Executive Andrew Liveris is resolute, saying, "That's not Dow."

Panasonic, as one example, ceased manufacturing televisions in China in 2015 after 37 years of operating on the mainland.

But as some international companies developed a more cautious attitude toward their investments or moved their factories to neighboring countries, Dow did the opposite, Liveris says.

Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Chemical Co, says Dow is very suited to growing with China, with a strategy of integration and innovation. Simon Dawson / Bloomberg

"Those multinational factories leaving for either Vietnam or the Philippines are seeking low costs, whereas Dow is not labor-intensive - we are energy-intensive and we are capital-intensive."

"Science and R&D is growing in China and we are part of that growth," says Liveris.

"Dow has been investing in intellectual property development that's invented in China, made in China and sold in China, and that should keep growing in China for the obvious reasons."

Liveris suggests the government should further encourage entrepreneurial innovation to invest in technology that will allow China to move up the value chain in many industries.

"China has now reached the stage where it's big enough in its own right to develop its own intellectual property, and Dow welcomes that because it raises standards and the barriers to entry and means very few companies have the capability of developing the technology by investing in R&D and science," he says.

"I have seen us grow spectacularly in 10 years, better than our peers, and we are not leaving China."

Recently, he spoke with China Daily about the company's strategy, business opportunities and prospects. The following are edited excerpts from the interview:

Has the company witnessed a growth or decline in the past year's performance in China?

We have seen volume growth, and the driver behind that is the fit between Dow's solutions and the market's needs in China.

China is big enough, with many different geographies, markets and industries, so that when high-tech meets manufacturing and the old economy, China should be a leader in these areas, especially in environmental protection.

Dow is very suited to growing with China, with a strategy of integration and innovation, and that's why we are expanding here. We have a large R&D presence in China. Our Shanghai Dow Center has 700 scientists, working together with our customers to develop China solutions.

We have also diversified our geographical footprint away from just Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. We now have business centers in western, central, northeastern and northwestern China - to be close to local markets and provide on the ground support to our local customers.

What business opportunities do you see as China promotes the Belt and Road Initiative?

The Belt and Road Initiative is unleashing tremendous opportunities in China, particularly in less developed inland areas.

For example, sustainable urbanization of western and northwestern China and the technological development to lift people out of the low end of the income scale is creating demand for advanced technologies and products and ultimately factories that we build to supply them.

Dow has expertise in addressing the needs in infrastructure, housing, transportation, food and water. We are now building a coating plant in Chengdu which will provide high end coatings for buildings, construction and roads in the vast western region of China.

Dow opened its office in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 2015 to follow the government's Belt and Road Initiative. Since then, our business in the northwest has been expanding quickly as we forge partnerships to explore business opportunities there and in Central Asian markets.

Dow Chemical now operates 17 manufacturing sites and 10 offices in China. Will you consider investing more?

Yes. I think China and Dow share the same strategy: that dollars shouldn't be invested in yesterday's factories but in the human capital to invent better solutions for China's drive to improve living standards, food safety, water management, sustainable urbanization and efficient transportation.

Investments focusing on research and development are where we have been and where we are going. Dow doesn't aim to build big petrochemical plants, but to build high value product lines and to invest in human capital to help customers use modern technologies.

How do you see the effect of economic conditions on your businesses in China?

At Dow we made sustainability a business strategy. We can find solutions to these problems with technology and be efficient in delivering answers to our customers. So we are having no problem growing, and actually the company has had 18 quarters in a row of earnings growth and 14 quarters in a row of volume growth, year on year. So you may say the world has slowed down, but we haven't seen it and now I am being asked to put more capacity in place.

How has globalization benefited your business?

To companies like Dow who have been global for a long time, globalization has meant very efficient localization. We have developed our local people because these guys are good examples of how we globalize. Whatever you think of the word globalization, we are not afraid of it. We welcome it because we are global.

What is your biggest achievement in China? How has the company's expansion in China been going so far?

The biggest achievement has been with the human capital. We have incredible talent here that we get from universities and we can pretty much hire anybody.

We can compete for human talent because we are a great company to work for here. We have incredible people, a lot of them young, energized and motivated to do well for Dow in China.

How do you see the competition with your counterparts in China?

The other global foreign multinationals may have similar strategies, but I think our new approach to business is unique - cooperative partnerships, innovation and marrying the problems of the customer with solutions. Frankly, competitors may do the same things, but we are being very successful with that and I am not concerned.

We come up with technological answers that are specific to China, so no foreign company can copy us. The barriers to entry are high because we have set them high.

What will be the size of the combined Dow/DuPont business in China, and what will be the focus of the business activities?

The size of the company in China and around the world is roughly the same as we are now. The merger of equals between Dow and DuPont is complicated and size is not relevant because we are going to put the two together to create three separate companies, one focusing on materials science that Dow will take the lead in, the other two focused on agriculture and specialty business-es where DuPont will take the lead.

The time together has been short at 18 months, especially when you com-pare the history of DuPont, which is 215 years old, and Dow, which is 120 years old.

What essential leadership qualities do you consider important?

The new leadership is called "follow ship".Leadership used to be about management, but that changed decades ago. In this era, you literarily have to let your team lead and you follow - it's followship. Followship means you have to see the big picture and little picture.

What are your hobbies? How do you spend your time off while in China?

My hobby is my family, and I on't get any downtime. I pretty much read everything. I am an avaricious reader and a speed reader, too. One day I will start writing again, because I love to write and I am a decent writer.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page31)
Will benefit Indian Army

The Army has been pressing for this bridge for long. It would help the Army to mobilise and move its troops with heavy equipment to the frontier areas. Prior to this the Army had spend several hours crossing the river on boat from Dhola to Sadiya. Alternatively the Army would take a 10 hour, 250 km road route from Dinjan division HQ to Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh before driving to the border.

Benefits the people

The bridge will also benefit Arunachal Pradesh.Movement of goods will become smoother and people will have faster access to healthcare and education. Tourism will also receive a big push with eastern Arunachal becoming easily accessible.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had said that the Dhola-Sadia bridge that the prime minister would inaugurate on May 26 would meet a vital requirement of the country's defence perspective. "The Dhola-Sadia bridge would not only ease hardship of the people of Sadia but also fulfil a vital requirement in terms of the country," Sonowal told PTI.

Cost construction

The construction of this bridge began in 2011 and the project cost was estimated to be Rs 950 crore, reported PTI. The design is such that the bridge can withstand the movement of military tanks. The bridge is located 540-km away from Assam capital Dispur and 300 km away from Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar. The aerial distance to the Chinese border is less than 100 km.

The new bridge is being constructed over the Brahmaputra. Interestingly, after Kaliabhomora bridge near Tezpur, there is no bridge over the Brahmaputra for the next 375 km upstream till Dhola, where this bridge is being constructed.

Cuts travel time

The bridge is expected to cut travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. As there is no civilian airport in Arunachal Pradesh, the bridge will help people to reach the nearest rail head in Tinsukia and the airport in Dibrugarh easily.

Marks one year of BJP in Assam

The Bharatiya Janata Party government will complete one year in Assam on May 24 and this bridge would be a gift to the people. With the inauguration of this bridge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kickstart the three year celebrations of the NDA government at the centre.
Article 370 scrapped: A historic blunder corrected and how it will help women of Kashmir

Kashmiri group wants speedy probe against Major Gogoi who tied man to Army jeep

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Srinagar, May 26: An influential citizens group in Kashmir on Friday demanded a speedy police investigation against Major Leetul Gogoi for using a Kashmiri man as a "human shield" against stone pelters, and demanded withdrawal/deferment of an Army award to him till the probe is completed.

The Group of Concerned Citizens also questioned Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's "silence" on the whole issue and called for a "fair, objective, and expeditious investigation into the incident within a set time frame".

On April 9, a video clipping of a man -- later identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar -- trussed up to an Army jeep's bonnet in Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir went viral, leading to an uproar. The Army officer has since maintained he did this to avoid a large number of human casualties.

The citizens' collective said: "The strapping of an innocent Kashmiri young man by an Army officer to the bonnet and parading him for hours through a dozen villages... is totally unjustifiable. It is against human dignity, offends the core constitutional values and violates international covenants to which India is a signatory."

"The act is condemnable. The effort to legitimise the act by cooking up and concocting facts is bizarre and deserves to be equally condemned..."

"It is painful and shocking that instead of expediting the Court of Enquiry proceedings ordered by the Army against him and an investigation into the case registered by local police, the officer has been decorated with an award and is applauded by no less than the country's Defence Minister for an otherwise cowardly act," the group said.

It dubbed as "unfair and grossly inappropriate" the Commendation Card awarded to Major Gogoi before the conclusion of the Court of Enquiry and the police probe.

"The silence of the state government, in particular the Chief Minister, is deplorable. After condemning the incident and directing for investigation by a senior officer, she should have been the first person to strongly protest against the grant of award..."

"The Chief Minister, by her silence, has condoned the grant of award," the group said. "We demand that in the interest of justice and fair play, the decision to award the Army officer be withdrawn, or at least deferred, so that investigation proceeds uninfluenced by the decision," it added.

Justice Hasnain Masoodi (retd), former state Public Service Commission Chair Muhammad Shafi Pandit, Greater Kashmir newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Fayaz Kaloo and state Information Commission chief G.R. Sofi are among the members of the citizens collective.

IANS
Wreckage of missing Sukhoi- 30 found; No info on pilots

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Indian Air Force's missing Sukhoi-30 MKI's wreckage found close to the last known position of the aircraft on Friday morning, but there is no information on the two pilots.

"Wreckage found. Close to the last known position of aircraft. As of now weather is bad and the place has dense foliage. Further update follows," said the IAF in an official statement.

However, it is being presumed that the two pilots did not survive the crash.

The Sukhoi-30 MKI with two pilots onboard went missing along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. The fighter jet went missing soon after getting airborne from Tezpur. Reports suggested that it lost radar and radio contact with the controlling station around 11.10 a.m. near Arunachal Pradesh's Doulasang area, an area adjoining China, 60 km north of Tezpur.

An IAF C-130 aircraft with electro-optical payload, an Advanced Light Helicopter, and Chetak helicopters were tasked for the search operation on Wednesday. Su-30 aircraft with recce capability were also being utilised for locating the missing aircraft, the air force said. Apart from the aerial assets, four ground teams of IAF personnel, nine of the Indian Army and two of state administration were deployed on different axis to scour the area.

In fact, search operations for the missing fighter jet were affected due to bad weather.

(With agency inputs)
Modi @3: Opposition leaders discuss Presidential poll at Sonia Gandhi's luncheon

India

oi-Anusha

Leaders of almost all non-NDA parties were at the luncheon hosted by AICC President Sonia Gandhi on Friday. The big opposition meet is a show of strength against the BJP. With Presidential elections on their mind, a united opposition hopes to challenge the BJP's nominee for the top post. The opposition is expected to issue a joint statement on the meeting.

Meeting called by Sonia Gandhi of opposition leaders underway in Parliament pic.twitter.com/elvEPYrFeG  ANI (@ANI_news) May 26, 2017

"No name is being discussed currently by the opposition parties. The opposition will field a candidate only if there is no consensus on government's candidate. A joint statement will be issued on the subject," said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee post the meeting.

While Nitish Kumar was not present a the meet his alliance partner in Bihar Lalu Prasad Yadav was present along with Sharad Yadav. As expected Mamata Banerjee, Sitaram Yechury, Sharad Pawar, Mayawati, Omar Abdullah, Kanimozhi took part in the meeting held at the Parliament. In all leaders and representatives of 17 national and state political parties are taking part in the meeting called by Sonia Gandhi.

Leaders of the Congress including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi were in attendance as leaders of non-NDA parties walked in one after the other. A joint candidate for the President election is on the 'united opposition's mind and the meeting hopes to gather consensus on a name.

Pranab Mukherjee's tenure as President will end on July 14, and the election has to take place before that. While parties like DMK, SP, NC, CPI(M) and BSP have ben invited, the AAP has been left out. The Congress hopes to bring rival parties on board to put up a united fight against the NDA's Presidential candidate.

OneIndia News
In pictures, grandeur of Terminal 2 of Kempegowda International Airport which PM Modi will inaugurate

Congress can never give stable govt to Himachal; it is guarantee of instability, corruption, scam: PM Modi

Modi congratulates Prachanda for successful conduct of polls in Nepal

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, May 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated outgoing prime minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda for the successful conduct of local elections.

Modi conveyed his felicitations to Prachanda in a phone call on Wednesday, the PMO said in a tweet.

Modi "also felicitated Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda for his strong commitment to strengthen democracy in Nepal," it added.

Millions of Nepalese on May 14 voted in the countrys first local-level polls in two decades as the Himalayan nation took a crucial step towards cementing democracy amid political turmoil.

Before the elections, Prachanda had called up Modi who had assured all possible help from India in conducting the polls successfully.

Prachanda, who became the prime minister in August last year, resigned two days back under an agreement with Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba at that time that they would share power on rotational basis till next years elections.

The pact was to run the government on a rotational basis until elections to the parliament are held in February 2018. Under that understanding, Prachanda had to resign after nine months.

PTI
Is Chhattisgarh govt doing enough about Maoist menace?

The Magadh zone: Why naxals are desperate to revive it?

Elgar Parishad was a CPI (Maoist) conspiracy says HC while rejecting Jyoti Jagtaps bail plea

Naxals torch railway engine in Jharkhand's Bokaro

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Naxals torched a signal set and communication system and damaged engine of a goods train on Thursday night at Dumri Vihar railway station in Jharkhand's Bokaro, ANI reported.

Civil Police told a TV channel about the Maoist torched the property on late Thursday night at Dumri Bihar railway station. So far, no arrests have been made in connection with the case. No casualties or injuries have been reported. The Maoists have put up a poster against Raghubar Das government for implementing Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy act in Jharkhand.

Superintendent of Police Ys. Ramesh termed Maoists attack an 'act of desperation'.

#Naxalis set ablazed Dumri-Vihar station of #Bokaro in Gomia PS. Machines destroyed, left posters

SP @YsRameships says it step of desperate pic.twitter.com/IhpXdGwzWK  Mithila Varnan (@mithila_varnan) May 26, 2017

On May 25, naxals triggered a blast in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh as the movement enters 50th anniversary. However, police arrested a naxal attempting to flee the spot after triggering 10 kg pressure cooker blast.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 12:15 [IST]
Next President of India: BJP wants party affiliated candidate

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

To chose a candidate for the next President of India, the BJP leadership has begun preliminary consultations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the matter with home minister Rajnath Singh, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, finance minister Arun Jaitley and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari.

During the discussions all leaders said that a party nominee must be chosen. They were of the opinion that competence, seniority and party affiliation must be taken into account while choosing the candidate.

The presidential polls will be held in July when Pranab Mukherjee steps down after completing his term. BJP had last week turned down the suggestion of opposition parties that it should forego the chance to have its own nominees as President and Vice-President and look for a consensus.

Meanwhile the opposition parties too have been exploring the possibility of choosing a candidate. The joint opposition is scheduled to meet today. The opposition has been considering the name of Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the former West Bengal government for the post of next President of India.

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 6:13 [IST]
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Nitish Kumar skips meeting with Sonia Gandhi; likely to meet PM Modi tomorrow

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow at a luncheon to be hosted by PM Modi in honor of Mauritian Prime Minister at Prime Minister's residence.

Nitish Kumar' s meeting with the Prime Minister is going to be held when speculations are rife about realignments in Bihar. The speculation gains credence since Nitish Kumar skipped Sonia Gandhi's luncheon meeting held Friday afternoon in which leaders of 17 parties participated.

But, Janata Dal (United) national President Shard Yadav said as Nitish Kumar would not take part in the meeting called by Sonia Gandhi as he busy in government programmes. Also, confirmed that Shard Yadav himself to attend the meeting on behalf of Nitish Kumar.

However, political pundits think the other way about Nitish Kunar's likely meeting with the PM Modi. Analysts say since RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Misha Bharati's land dealings are under the radar Nitish Kumar wants to distance himself with the present coalition partner in Bihar.

So, is the meeting between Nitish Kumar and PM Modi going to be first setback for the 'Mahaghatbandhan'?

OneIndia News
"Rajinikanth knows where the cameras are": Kamal Haasan's jibe

India

oi-Anusha

Reacting to Rajinikanth's statements on politics, actor Kamal Haasan made a subtle jibe at the superstar. "Rajinikanth definitely knows where the cameras are," Kamal Haasan said when asked for his views about Rajinikanth's statements on politics.

Kamal Haasan, who met the media in Chennai during the launch of a television reality show where he features as an anchor, said that he would not want to make any comments on whether he supported Rajinikanth's entry into politics. "I cannot reveal that on camera," the actor said.

Kamal Haasan has been in the news for his statements on varied subjects via tweets. He is one of the few actors who came out in support of Jallikattu during the agitations that Tamil Nadu witnessed. Kamal Haasan had held press conferences when agitations gained momentum. Despite many criticising his move as a 'political one', Kamal Haasan had taken to Twitter to justify his stance.

Known to be good friends, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth have hardly shared screen space. The actors who have been cordial to each other in the public eye have often not crossed paths with movies or otherwise. Kamal's Haasan's statements on Rajinikanth's entry into politics definitely came as a jibe intending that 'everything was for the camera'.

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 14:12 [IST]
Saharanpur violence well-planned conspiracy: Adityanath government

India

pti-PTI

Lucknow, May 26: Terming the recent caste-based violence in Saharanpur as a well-planned conspiracy, Uttar Pradesh Principal Home Secretary Mani Parsad Mishra on Thursday said those responsible will not be spared.

Addressing a press conference, he said that though there had been incidents of violence reported from the district in the last few years, it had not attained the magnitude which was witnessed during the April 20, May 5, May 9 and May 23 clashes.

"It was also witnessed that since April 20 violence, the intensity of such incidents has been on a rise and somewhere it has been felt that there was something lacking in the police administration," he said, adding that following which, a new team was sent to the district within 24 hours.

He said that "in the next 24 hours, the situation is likely to become normal and those responsible for the violence would not be spared and no innocent would be made a scapegoat."

He said that he had met a number of people from Shabbirpur, including the aged, women and children, and came across cases in which an 80-year-old man or a 14-year-old child have been made an accused.

When asked why Congress leader Shailja was stopped from visiting Shabbirpur while Deoband MLA Brijesh Singh was allowed, he said that there is a total ban on visits by any political leaders to Shabbirpur, and, if it has happened, then action would be taken against those responsible.

On the arrest of Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar Azad, he said he would be arrested soon.

Asked about the ban on internet, he said the ban was imposed after there were reports of misuse of social media but it would be lifted soon when the situation becomes normal.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 8:48 [IST]
Huge investment in past five years makes it the go-to enterprise for economies along Belt and Road routes

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, also known as Sinopec, the world's largest refiner, believes that by deepening cooperation with countries and regions taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative, it can reshape the petroleum and petrochemical industry.

Toward that end, it has invested about $100 billion (89.4 billion euros; 77 billion) in the past five years in such fields as oil and gas exploration, development of oil fields, petroleum exploitation, refining, engineering, crude oil trade, equipment, materials and petrochemicals.

African and Chinese engineers work at a Sinopec drilling site in Sudan. Tong Jiang / For China Daily

This has made it the go-to enterprise for many economies seeking solutions and expertise in the petroleum industry and related fields.

According to Wang Yupu, chairman of Sinopec, many economies covered by the Belt and Road routes have abundant petroleum and gas resources. They also see massive demand for related hardware and services, including refining, investments, technology and equipment. Sinopec is eminently placed to meet all of that demand, he says.

"Economies taking part in the initiative have two-thirds of the global oil and gas reserves and half of global oil and gas output," Wang says.

"With institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund backing Chinese enterprises' expansion, Sinopec has established cooperation with over 30 Belt and Road countries."

Sinopec has conducted oil and gas exploration and development with 11 Belt and Road countries since 2001, involving itself in 18 projects in Russia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Mongolia.

With an investment of more than $20.3 billion, the company had acquired more than 98.3 million metric tons of equity oil by the end of 2016.

The company has provided petroleum engineering services to more than 20 Belt and Road countries, including well-drilling and logging, geophysical prospecting and land surface construction. It has signed 745 engineering technical service contracts worth about $11 billion in the past five years.

In the field of petroleum refining, 72 new business contracts were signed with 10 countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia and Thailand, since 2011, with a total contract value of $9.5 billion, it says.

Figures from the company show that in the past five years, Sinopec has imported more than 1.1 billion tons of crude oil from 15 countries, petrochemicals valued at $10.2 billion from 18 countries and equipment and materials worth $91.6 million.

It also has invested in six refinery storage projects in five countries along the routes.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/26/2017 page27)
This is how three Pakistanis got Aadhaar cards for mere Rs 100

India

oi-Anusha

For a mere Rs 100, three Pakistani nationals secured Aadhaar cards and passed themselves off as Indian citizens for the last few months. The Bengaluru police arrested four individuals including three Pakistani citizens on Thursday for entering India illegally and staying on with forged, fake documents and alternate identities.

The three Pakistani nationals who were arrested, including two women, surprisingly had Aadhaar cards. Mohammad Sihab, a native of Kerala who had married Pakistani woman Kiran Ghulam managed to get his wife and her Pakistani parents Aadhaar cards for a mere Rs 100 per card. All that he had to do was locate an agent who would get the UIDAI enrollment done.

"The information we have received so far from the accused is that they got Aadhaar cards done for as low as Rs 100. How they went about it and the documents they used to obtain it is still under investigation," said a senior police officer. The loopholes are glaring. Three Pakistani nationals got an Indian identity, one that the government claims is fool proof. This case has thrown light on the prevailing middleman, agent network that helps people secure government identity cards for fixed charges.

Three Pakistani nationals with fake Indian documents arrested in Bengaluru

Sihab who helped Kiran and her parents enter India illegally through Nepal brought them to Bengaluru. He rented an apartment with fake identities. The rental agreement was used as address proof to secure government identity cards. Most house owners in Bengaluru fail to seek identity proof of probable tenants. This merely helped the four secure a house as well as government documents.

The police are currently in the process of tracing the people who helped the family secure documents using incomplete and fake identity cards.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 9:36 [IST]
Narendra Modi sworn-in as Prime Minister of India

Narendra Modi took oath as the 15th Prime Minister of India along with 45 BJP leaders who took oath as ministers. Modi met President Pranab Mukherjee on May 20 after his party registered a massive win the parliamentary polls. The BJP had won 282 seats and their alliance National Democratic Alliance won a total of 336 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha.

Heads of all SAARC countries in attendance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony shot to fame not just for the huge mandate the BJP won but also for being the first ever swearing-in where heads of all SAARC countries were in attendance. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had to face flak in his home country for attending the swearing-in ceremony. This was considered the first diplomatic strike by Modi.

World leaders at event

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Bangladesh's Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, the speaker of Jatiyo Sangshad, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif were in attendance. After the ceremony, Modi described this new government's first major initiative in foreign policy as the "right decision at the right time"

When the opposition was all smiles

Leaders of every political party were invited for the ceremony. Despite the drubbing her party received, Sonia Gandhi attended the event in all grace accompanied by Rahul Gandi. During the ceremony, differences were forgotten and leaders were seen laughing, cheering, greeting and perhaps sharing a joke now and then. The swearing-in ceremony was a gala affair when politics took a backseat.

Celebration across the country

The Swearing-in was at Delhi but celebrations were witnessed across the country. Huge screens were set in various city centres. The ceremony was telecast live so people could get a glimpse of the Modi taking over as the Prime Minister of the country. BJP and Modi supporters in every nook and corner of the country were seen taking part in processions, bursting crackers, dancing and sharing sweets. The massive mandate was followed by a massive celebration. Caste and community lines aside, people of all religion who supported Modi celebrated.

Star-studded swearing-in ceremony

The who's who of the film industry were also invitees to the ceremony. Actors like Salman Khan were seen all smiles at the swearing-in ceremony. Dozens from the Bollywood fraternity were at the Rashtrapati Bhavan as Narendra Modi took oath as the Prime Minister

Industrialists, business tycoons also invited

Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Prashant Ruia, Gautam Adani, Pawan Munjal and AM Naik were among the 4000 people who attended the swearing-in ceremony. Invitations were sent out to spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and celebrities such as Rajinikanth, Lata Mangeshkar and Amitabh Bachchan, along with Vadodara tea seller Kiran Mahida, who was one of Modi's proposers when he filed his nomination.

"In the name of Lord"

After taking the oath of office in the name of God, Prime Minister Modi said, "I am not Pradhan Mantri but Pradhan Sevak". Time and again he had referred to himself as "a small man with focus on small tasks". "I promise you, If you work 12 hours, I will work for 13 hours and if you work for 14 hours, I will work for 15 hours," he had once said reiterating that he would go the extra mile to fulfil responsibilities.

OneIndia News
Congress can never give stable govt to Himachal; it is guarantee of instability, corruption, scam: PM Modi

We must go beyond green revolution and aim for 'evergreen revolution': Modi

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Highlighting the acheivements on his government since assuming power in 2104, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India must go beyond 'green revolution' and move towards 'evergreen revolution'.

Speaking in Dhemaji, Assam, after laying foundation stone IARI Gogamukh, Modi said adding value to agricultural products was key to grow in food processing industry. He said farmer incomes should dobule by 2022.

"2022 tak hamare kisaano ki aaye dugni honi chahiye. Ab dheere dheere aage badhne ka samay nahi hai (By 2022, the incomes of our farmers should dobule. It is not the time move forward slowly)," he said.

Modi also spoke on coutry's milk production. He said the milk produced per cattle in India was among the lowest in the world, adding that increasing the number of cattle will not solve the problem. The solution to the problem lies in incresing the yeild of cattle, he said.

Modi said infrastructure of the country must be strenghthened by working on 5-ways - Highways, Railways, Waterways, Airways and i-ways.

Earlier on Friday, the Prime Minister inaugurated India longest bridge connecting Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Built on a tributary of the Brahmaputra, the Dhola-Sadia bridge links Dhola in Assam to Sadiya in Arunachal Pradesh.

Asserting the the dream of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was fulfilled, Modi said termed the completion of Dhola-Sadia bridge as a 'symbol of revolution'.

OneIndia News
Congress can never give stable govt to Himachal; it is guarantee of instability, corruption, scam: PM Modi

What do you feel about the govt? PM Modi wants your feedback to run India better

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, May 26: Continuing with the country's democratic tradition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of the third anniversary of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre decided to take feedback from the voters on Friday.

3rd anniversary of Modi sarkar: Assam soaks in saffron, PM wants to meet fans

Taking on Twitter--where PM Modi has around 30.1 million followers--he asked Indians to rate his government. He also sought suggestions to run the government better.

"What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App. http://nm4.in/dnldapp," tweeted PM Modi.

What do you feel about the Govt? Where have we done well & where can we do even better. Join this survey on NM App. https://t.co/TYuxNNJfIf  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2017

Immediately after PM Modi tweeted, his followers started replying, retweeting and liking the message. Till the time this report was filed, the tweet got around 860 retweets and 2,600 likes.

However, not all comments were positive.

One follower said:

@narendramodi In last three years, all that the BJP Govt has inaugurated are UPA projects. Never heard of you laying foundation of a new project. Why Sir?  Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) May 26, 2017

In reply to the 'critical' tweet, one follower, a supporter of the BJP government wrote:

@GauravPandhi @narendramodi In 10 years, all UPA did was plan projects that BJP has to now inaugurate and complete. Never heard of any project that UPA completed. Why?  youindians (@youindians) May 26, 2017

The PM on the "special" day will be on a whirlpool tour of Assam, inaugurating several developmental projects and addressing voters.

PM Modi will be inaugurating the country's longest river bridge, the Dhola-Sadiya bridge, in Tinsukia district around 10.45am. Next, he will lay the foundation stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute Assam at Gogamukh in Dhemaji district around 12.10pm.

Around 3pm, he will symbolically lay the foundation stone of AIIMS Assam (proposed to be set up at Changsari in Kamrup district) at Sarusajai stadium in Guwahati through remote control.

OneIndia News
With Islamic radicalisation running so deep, why an NIA branch in every state matters

What is Jamaat Qaidat al-jihad fi'shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya, India's new terror group

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The National Investigation Agency filed a chargesheet in the Mysuru blast case and blamed an outfit called the Base Movement for the incident. There are several accounts for the Base Movement, but the most definitive one is that it is another name for the al-Ummah, a dreaded terror group down south.

The name Base Movement has an interesting history to it. It is derived from the Arabic words Jamaat Qaidat al-jihad fi'shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya.

Terror groups often change the name of the outfit when the heat is high. An example of this was the changing of the name of Jamaat-ud-Dawa to Falah-e-Insaniyat. In this case the al-Ummah became the Base Movement.

Tracking Base Movement:

In Tamil Nadu, an outfit called the al-Ummah was born several years back. This outfit has primarily targeted Hindu leaders and was also responsible for the Coimbatore blasts. The outfit also recently carried out a blast outside the BJP's office in Malleshwaram, Bengaluru.

However with the heat quotient soaring, the outfit decided to rebrand itself and call it the Base Movement.

Why Base Movement?

It is a well known fact that this group derives inspiration from the al-Qaeda. After the court blasts, the group would leave behind a letter with a stern message and a photograph of Osama Bin Laden. The group says that it supports the al-Qaeda in the Sub-Continent (AQIS) which was launched in the year 2014.

The name Base Movement is derived from the AQIS. The official name of the AQIS is Jamaat Qaidat al-jihad fi'shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya. When you translate this into English it becomes Organisation of the Base of Jihad in the Indian Sub-Continent.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 6:22 [IST]
Politician, Maulana, teacher and now martyr: How this IM facilitator stayed undetected in Nepal

23 dead as gunmen ambush convoy with Coptic Christians in Egypt

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

23 persons have died and 25 injured after gunmen opened fire on two buses and a truck carrying Coptic Christians in Minya, Egypt on Friday The attack happened as the victims traveled from Beni Suef province to the Anba Samuel monastery near the southern city of Minya.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet. The provincial governor, Essam al-Bedaiwy, confirmed the preliminary death toll, reported Reuters.

The US Embassy in Cairo warned of an imminent but unspecified terrorist attack on May 24. "The Embassy is aware of a potential threat posted on a website by the Hassm Group, a known terrorist organization, suggesting some kind of unspecified action this evening," the Egypt mission said in a statement.

OneIndia News
Be it for love or terror, Pakistanis always use Nepal route to access India

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The incident at Bengaluru in which 3 Pakistan nationals were caught only go on to show that, whether it is love or terrorism, the route to India from Pakistan is always through Nepal. Three Pakistani nationals including a woman who were living under false identities were arrested. An Indian from Kerala too was arrested.

The three Pakistani nationals have been identified by the police as Sameera, Kashif Shamshudin and Kiran Gulam Ali, the Indian citizen is Mohammed Shihab, a resident of Kerala. It is said that the four had met in Qatar. Shihab fell in love with Sameera and since their parents opposed the marriage they decided to break the law.

The parents of the girl took her back to Pakistan. The couple however kept in touch and one day decided that they wanted to be together. The girl along with the other Pakistani couple also in love with each other decided to come to India. They left from Pakistan to Nepal where Shihab was waiting for them. He then got them down to Bihar from where they made their journey to Bengaluru.

Once in Bengaluru he made fake documents for them. However they were caught by the police on Thursday.

The interesting bit in the story is the route they took. The infiltrations into India by the Pakistan terrorists looking to target places other than Kashmir is always the Nepal route. It has been seen in so many cases relating to the Indian Mujahideen that the operatives have taken the Nepal route to reach India.

At Nepal there are touts at both the India as well as Pakistan border who are ready to offer help at a price. A tout at the border charges just Rs 1,000 per person to sneak him into Kathmandu. From there they are taken closer to the Indian border. For just Rs 500, a person will transport the infiltrator either into Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. In most cases, it has been found that infiltrators are brought into India by motor-cycle. This is because it is faster and the heat is lesser.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 12:48 [IST]
Indian national arrested for alleged security breach at NY airport

International

pti-PTI

New York, May 26: An Indian national has been arrested and charged in connection with a security breach at LaGuardia Airport in New York, that led to the evacuation of a busy terminal earlier this week.

The man, identified as 41-year-old Phani Kumar Varanasi, had entered into a secure area of Terminal B at the airport through a guarded exit on May 23. He told police that he was confused about where to go and had wandered into the restricted area at the terminal.

His trespassing had caused a security scare and led to evacuation of the buys terminal, a report in the New York Daily News said. The Transportation Security Administration said Varanasi, who has no criminal record, spent five minutes in the "sterile area" before returning to the public space through the same exit.

The report said Varanasi, a general manager at an India- based manufacturing firm, was flying into New York from Detroit when the incident occurred. He was identified by police through surveillance video and a list of passengers aboard the flight.

A video obtained by the Daily News showed Varanasi walking directly past a TSA security employee at a desk. The federal agency said appropriate action will be taken against the employee who did not stop Varanasi from going into a restricted area at the terminal. Varanasi was due in Queens Criminal Court for a hearing on a criminal trespass charge, the report added.

Republican lawmaker Peter King called for a full investigation and explanation of how Varanasi was able to walk unchecked through a security guard from the airports baggage claim to the off-limits area.

"We have to be constantly on our guard, and the breach at LaGuardia has to be explained and corrected," King tweeted.

The report also said that police contacted Varanasi to come in for an interview at LaGuardia and arrested him after he voluntarily appeared.

PTI
Talented, driven and great potential: President Putin is all praise for India and Indians

Is it India or China? Debate over worlds most populous nation begins with a bang

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Beijing, May 26: Let's us quiz you first. Which is the world's most populous country? China. Right? No, wrong. According to a US-based researcher of Chinese-origin, India has beaten the neighbouring country to emerge as the world's largest nation.

The bold claim by Yi Fuxian, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, during an event at China's Peking University on Monday has sparked a new controversy over its "authenticity" across the world and especially in China.

According to the South China Morning Post, Yi suggested that China had only 377.6 million new births from 1991 to 2016, much lesser than the official figure of 464.8 million. This meant that China's official population estimate, currently at 1.38 billion, was wrong, Yi said.

That would make it 1.29 billion, and lower than India's estimated 1.32 billion population, according to Yi.

All these years, experts told us that India would outsmart China in terms of population by 2022. However, if Yi's estimate is correct, then India has achieved the "feat" almost six years before the scheduled time.

The latest case on population has widespread implication--both in India and China--suggest observers. As far as India is concerned, more people are not a very good news as the nation is still fighting various economic and developmental problems, the biggest among them are poverty and food crisis.

For China, it means that the population "slowdown" in the country is much worse than estimated. Thus the role of the government has come under the scanner especially its "draconian" family planning programme "one child policy" which has been scrapped only two years ago.

Yi, considered as a fierce critic of Chinese population control measures, since long in his writing stressed that country's policies were limiting its economic growth. Thus China could never compete with the United States.

He also suggested that China could soon have a negative birthrate and a declining population, like its neighbour Japan.

This is not for the first time when Yi has accused the Chinese government of providing "false" population data. In his book, Big Country with an Empty Nest--in 2013, Yi took a critical look at China's family-planning policies.

Yi stressed that he was sure the estimates were wrong far earlier. "In 2003, I knew China official announcement population data is much higher than the real population," Yi told The Washington Post.

His book, Big Country with an Empty Nest, first published in 2007, was initially banned in mainland China. He told the New York Times that he was warned in 2010 he faced arrest if he returned home after helping his sister-in-law escape a state-ordered forced abortion.

However, not all agree with Yi.

"His numbers should not be taken at face value," Wang Feng, a demographer from the University of California, Irvine, told the Guardian. Feng, who has previously warned that China was heading toward a "demographic precipice," said he believed the government's population numbers were accurate.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 9:07 [IST]
US midterm elections: Voting underway, Americans to decide who will control Congress

Russia not reliable for energy or security, US warns India

Senate confirms Indian-American judge Amul Thapar to US Circuit Court of Appeals

International

pti-PTI

Washington, May 26: The US Senate has confirmed Indian-American Judge Amul Thapar to a key judicial position on the powerful US court of appeals.

The first Indian-American to be nominated by US President Donald Trump for the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Thapar was confirmed by the Senate 52-44, a vote which took place on party lines.

With this, Thapar will become the second South Asian judge to be on a US Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan.

"Judge Thapar will make an outstanding addition to the US Appeals Court for the Sixth Circuit," said senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.

Currently a US District Court Judge, Thapar was nominated by Trump on March 21. Thapar was among the 20 judges whose names Trump had released during his presidential campaign as shortlisted candidates for his Supreme Court nominees.

McConnell said that Thapar has a reputation as a qualified judge with an impressive legal mind who will fairly apply the law to all who enter his courtroom.

"Judge Thapar has been recognised for his work on the bench, and the most recent edition of the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary quoted attorneys who agreed that Thapar has excellent legal ability," he added.

McConnell said that "the American Bar Association, which prominent Senate Democrats have called "the gold standard" for evaluating judges, awarded Thapar its highest rating."

The South Asian Bar Association of North America also congratulated Judge Thapar on his confirmation to the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

"On behalf of SABA, I congratulate Judge Thapar who is a proven asset to the federal judiciary, the people of the commonwealth of Kentucky whom he's served for almost a decade, and the South Asian legal community," said SABA president Vichal Kumar.

"Judge Thapar's confirmation further cements his legacy as a pioneer, esteemed jurist and dedicated public servant. We anticipate that Judge Thapar's renowned dedication to his craft and commendable judicial temperament will serve him well in this integral position," he said.

Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra said that "unlike Sri Srinivasan, Amul Thapar has been elevated while thinking that law is devoid of equity or compassion."

"There is a difference between reality and a reality show, the latter is fiction. One hopes that he will find the moral compass of the late great Justice Antonin Scalia," said Batra.

In 2007, the then George W Bush nominated him to be a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky. At that time, the Senate confirmed his nomination by a voice vote, and Judge Thapar became the first South Asian American federal judge in the history of the US.

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 9:23 [IST]
Trump's son-in-law under FBI scrutiny over Russian involvement in US elections

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Washington, May 26: US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, has come under the Federal Bureau of Investigation's scrutiny in its ongoing probe over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, the media reported.

Investigators believe Kushner, who is married to the President's eldest daughter Ivanka, has significant information relevant to their inquiry. However, it does not mean that they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, US officials briefed on the probe told NBC News on Thursday night.

Points of focus that pertain to Kushner include: the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation; his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn; and Kushner's own contacts with Russians, according to the officials.

Kushner met at least once in December with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and he also met last year with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of VneshEconomBank, a Russian government-owned institution that has been under US sanctions since July 2014.

It remains unclear if the FBI plans to talk to Kushner.

"Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Kushner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, told NBC News.

"He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry," he added.

The FBI is investigating possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia in connection with Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 election, reports USA Today.

Flynn, along with former Trump campaign associates Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Carter Page, are active subjects of the investigation.

IANS
Trump set to reverse US policy on Tibetans, proposes zero aid

International

pti-PTI

Washington, May 26: President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid to the Tibetans in 2018, reversing the decades-old US policy of providing financial help to the community to safeguard their distinct identity under the Chinese rule.

The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described the move as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent. The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in to help the Tibetan community.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from commenting on the Trump administration's move, saying they are still reading the budget papers. At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally- driven. The president of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Lobsang Sangay had said on Wednesday in Washington that the Chinese government "is hell bent upon the destruction of Buddhism in China".

Beijing views the 14th Dalai Lama as a "separatist" working to split Tibet from China. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Communist rule, the Dalai Lama fled to India. The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades-old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars.

However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than USD 14.7 million in 2017 to just USD 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.

"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause.

"We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move by the Trump Administration. Pelosi had this month led a high-powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama.

"Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

"As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill said.

"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said. T

The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush. Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity." The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."

The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.

It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet. The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office. Earlier this month, China's ruling Communist party for the first time publicly said some of its officials were funding the Dalai Lama by donating money to the 81-year-old exiled spiritual leader, undermining Beijing's fight against "separatist" forces.

PTI
UK hotel pays compensation to family of Indian woman burnt to death under shower

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

London, May 26: Finally, the family of Kalyani Uthaman, an Indian woman who died after being severely burnt by the water from the shower of a Scotland hotel, feels vindicated after the hotel authorities apologised and agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of compensation for their negligence which led the 59-year-old's "horrific" death.

However, justice for Kalyani did not come easy. Her family members, residents of Bengaluru, Karnataka, fought a five-year-old legal battle against the Premier Inn in Newcraighall, an Edinburgh suburb, where Kalyani was scalded under the shower during her vacation in Scotland in 2012.

In the incident, the victim suffered multi-organ failure and died in hospital weeks later.

Later Kalyani's family had sued Whitbread, the owners of the hotel, to recover the six-figure amount spent on hospital fees. The hotel had said it was not responsible for the "isolated incident".

The family's lawyer had argued that the hotel had failed in its duty of care by not fitting a thermostat to regulate the water temperature in the shower. The argument seems to have now been accepted by the hotel, leading to a settlement this week.

"I feel vindicated in the sense that a settlement is an acknowledgement by Whitbread that they did wrong," Sundar Uthaman, Kalyani's son, was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"I'm still angry at what they did and the fact it wasn't until Thompsons Solicitors raised the court proceedings that they issued an apology. I would also bring to attention that nobody spoke to me and my family regarding what happened," he said.

"So I really feel disappointed. The settlement has prevented the evidence being heard in court. I would really like this to be discussed in the court to make sure such a tragedy never happens to anyone else," he added.

A spokesperson for Premier Inn said the hotel was sorry for the "tragic accident".

"We take millions of bookings every year and we would like to reassure our guests that this was an isolated incident. We constantly monitor and regulate the water temperature of our showers in line with the industry's best practices, which is based on the Health and Safety Executive regulatory guidance and the National Health Service health-care guidelines," the spokesperson said.

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Story first published: Friday, May 26, 2017, 12:22 [IST]
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Build-A-Bear Workshop is celebrating the grand re-opening of its newly remodeled store at Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, N.Y by offering one free Lil Hazelnut Cub teddy bear to the first 20 Guests present at the store on Friday, May 26. (One bear per Guest present at the store on 5/26 during store business hours, while supplies last. Giveaway subject to full Official Rules.) Build-A-Bear Workshop is also donating 20 teddy bears to a local Boys & Girls Club to commemorate the re-opening.



The remodeled store features an updated look and feel that launched in 2015 as part of an ongoing company-wide Build-A-Bear brand refresh. New elements include new Build-A-Bear Workshop logo, layout and color palette, updated storefront, a seven-foot-tall stuffer in the center of the store.
Eurasia Review 13 Sep 2022

First Jews began replacing A.D. with CE, then, Muslims and academics in the disciplines of comparative religion and archeology..
Newsy 12 Aug 2022

Watch VideoFormer President Donald Trump called late Thursday for the "immediate" release of the federal warrant the FBI used to..
Brigadier Deshapriya Gunawardena, who has been accused of ordering the Army to open fire at protesters in Rathupaswala in 2013, was arrested and questioned by the CID yesterday, Police said.Three people died when security forces personnel opened fire indiscriminately at protesters who were demanding clean drinking water and the closure of a factory that was releasing chemical affluent that was seriously polluting ground water in the area.

Brigadier Gunawardena had called at the CID offices on earlier occasions to be questioned over the same incident.

Gunawardane, who is the fourth Army Officer to be arrested in connection with the Rathupaswala shooting, was remanded until 31 May when he was produced before the Gampaha Magistrate yesterday. Two corporals and a sergeant were earlier arrested by the CID in this connection.

Subsequent to the Rathupaswala killings, Brigadier Gunawardena was sent on a diplomatic posting to the Sri Lankan Embassy in Turkey by the Rajapaksa Administration, a move which was widely criticized by Sri Lankan Opposition lawmakers at that time. The Army attack on the protesters on 1 August 2013 resulted in three deaths, two of them teenage students, and injured 26 others including several journalists.

(Source: Ceylon Today  By Rathindra Kuruwita)
President Maithripala Sirisena and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull agreed to expand cooperation between the two countries in several areas.

This agreement was reached during their discussions held at the Australian Parliament in Canberra yesterday. The two leaders, after concluding a one-on-one round of talks, held bilateral discussions, in which ministers and officials from both sides participated.

Sri Lanka and Australia signed a joint declaration, a memorandum of understanding and a letter of intent to increase cooperation between the two countries.

These were signed in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The Joint Declaration on Enhanced Cooperation Between Australia and Sri Lanka was signed by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Harsha de Silva, the MoU on a Cooperative Programme on the Epidemiology of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology, between the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization and the Sri Lanka Presidential Taskforce for Prevention of Chronic Kidney Disease was signed by the ANSTO Chief Executive Officer Dr. Adrian Paterson, and High Commissioner, Somasundaram Skandakumar. The Letter of Intent on Cooperation between Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau of Sri Lanka was signed by the CEO of the Australian Institution James Johanson and the High Commissioner Skandakumar. Those who participated in the talks were, Prime Ministers Secretary Dr. Martin Parkinson, Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Sean Starmer, Foreign Secretary Ms. Frances Adamson, Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Bryce Hutchesson, National Security Advisor Justin Bassi and Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister Ms. Philippa King.

The official welcome was held this morning at the Government House, where the President was warmly received by the Governor General, Sir Peter Crosgrove and Lady Crosgrove. The welcome ceremony for President Sirisena included a guard of honour, hoisting of Sri Lankan flag by the Commander of the Unit and playing of the national anthems of the two countries. President Sirisena inspected the Guard of Honour while a 21-gun salute boomed .

Following the welcome ceremony, a luncheon was hosted by the Governor General in honour of President Sirisena. A delegation including Minister John Amaratunga, Deputy Ministers Harsha de Silva, Ajith P. Perera, and Member of Parliament Harshana Rajakaruna and High Commissioner, Somasundaram Skandakumar participated on this occasion.

(Source: Daily News)
Every conversation about education in the U.S. takes place in a minefield. Unless youre a billionaire who bought the job of Secretary of Education, youd better be prepared to answer questions about racial and economic equity, disability issues, protections for LGBTQ students, teacher pay and unions, religious charter schools, and many other pressing concerns. These issues are not mutually exclusive, nor are they distinct from questions of curriculum, testing, or achievement. The terrain is littered with possible explosive conflicts between educators, parents, administrators, legislators, activists, and profiteers.

The needs of the most deeply invested stakeholders, as they say, the students themselves, seem to get far too little consideration. What if we in the U.S., all of us, actually wanted to improve the educational experiences and academic outcomes for our childrenall of them? Where might we look for a model? Many people have looked to Finland, at least since 2010, when the documentary Waiting for Superman contrasted struggling U.S. public schools with highly successful Finnish equivalents.









The film, a positive spin on the charter school movement, received significant backlash for its cherry-picked examples and blaming of teachers unions for Americas failing schools. By contrast, Finlands schools have been described by William Doyle, an American Fulbright Scholar who studies them, as the ultimate charter school network' (a phrase, well see, that means little in the Finnish context.) There, Doyle writes at The Hechinger Report, teachers are not strait-jacketed by bureaucrats, scripts or excessive regulations, but have the freedom to innovate and experiment as teams of trusted professionals.

Last year, Michael Moore featured many of Finlands innovative educational experiments in his humorous, hopeful travelogue Where to Invade Next. In the clip above, you can hear from the countrys Minister of Education, Krista Kiuru, who explains to him why Finnish children do not have homework; hear also from a group of high school students, high school principal Pasi Majassari, first grade teacher Anna Hart and many others. Shorter school hoursthe shortest school days and shortest school years in the entire Western worldleave plenty of time for leisure and recreation. Kids bake, hike, build things, make art, conduct experiments, sing, and generally enjoy themselves.

There are no mandated standardized tests, writes LynNell Hancock at Smithsonian, apart from one exam at the end of students senior year in high school there are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Yet Finnish students have, in the past several years, consistently ranked in the top ten among millions of students worldwide in science, reading, and math. If there was one thing I kept hearing over and over again from the Finns, says Moore above, its that America should get rid of standardized tests, should stop teaching to those tests, stop designing entire curricula around multiple-choice tests. Hancock describes the results of the Finnish system, and its costs:

Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.

Moores camera registers the shock on Finnish educators faces when they hear that many U.S. schools eliminated music, art, poetry and other pursuits in order to focus almost exclusively on testing. Though lighthearted in tone, the segment really drives home the depressing degree to which so many U.S. students receive an impoverished educationone barely worthy of the nameunless they luck into a voucher for a high-end charter school or have the independent means for an expensive private one. In Finland, says the Minister of Education, all the schools are equal. You never ask where the best school is.

Its also illegal in Finland to profit from schooling. Wealthy parents have to ensure that neighborhood schools can give their kids the best education possible, because they are the only option. Many people in the U.S. object to comparisons like Moores by noting that societies like Finland are homogenous next to what may seem to them like maddening cultural diversity in the U.S. However, Finland has incorporated (not without difficulty) large immigrant and refugee populationseven as its schools continue to improve. The government has responded in part to rising immigration with educational solutions such as this one, a national initiative to reinforce Finnish higher education institutions (HEIs) as significant stakeholders in migrants integration.

The subtantive differences between the two countries educational systems may have less to do with demography and more to do with economics and the training and social status of teachers.

In Finland, writes Doyle, no teacher is allowed to lead a primary school class without a masters degree in education, with specialization in research and classroom practice. Teaching is the most admired job in Finland next to medical doctors. And as Dana Goldstein points out at The Nationa fact Waiting for Superman failed to mentionFinnish teachers are gasp!unionized and granted tenure. Perhaps an even more significant difference the documentary glossed over: in Finland, families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare, preschool and healthcare, all of which are proven to help children achieve better results at school.

Hundreds of studies in recent years substantiate this claim. It would seem intuitive that stresses associated with hunger and poverty would have a pernicious effect on learning, especially when poorer schools are so egregiously under-resourced. And the data says as much, to varying degrees. And yet, we are now in the U.S. slashing breakfast and lunch programs that feed hungry children and deciding whether to uninsure millions of families as millions more still lack basic health coverage. Most every American parent knows that quality daycares and preschools can cost as much per year as a decent university education in this country.

It seems to many of us that the atrocious state of the U.S. educational system can only be attributed to an act of will on the part our political elite, who see schools as competition for fundamentalist belief systems, opportunities to punish their opponents out of spite, or as rich fields for private profit. But it neednt be so. It took 40 years for the Finns to create their current system. In the 1960s, their schools ranked on the very low endalong with those in the U.S. By most accounts, theyve since shown there can be systems that, while surely imperfect in their own way, work for all kids, embedded within larger systems that prize their teachers and families.

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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness
WebRTC Market to Significant Growth Foreseen by 2021

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Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) is an internet browser interface which enables real-time communication between two internet browsers. WebRTC enables peer to peer audio, video and data communication between the browsers without plugins. This key functionality of WebRTC not only reduces the time required but also makes the process easy for a non-technical user since WebRTC requires no plugins, frameworks or applications. The browsers use Session Description Protocol (SDP) to establish a connection for data transfer. WebRTC is using JavaScript Application Programming Interface (APIs) and HTML5 for embedded communication within the browsers. However, WebRTC is an emerging platform that is anticipated to have significant impact on the communication between browsers in near future.A sample of this report is available upon request @WebRTC is available for free and is accessible worldwide which is the key growth driver of this market. Moreover, WebRTC is platform and device independent which would help to attract global audience. Further, it provides better video and voice quality with advanced security and other operational features. WebRTC can adapt to various network conditions and is interoperable with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Unified Communications (UC) solutions which is expected to help companies to easily integrate it with their existing infrastructure. WebRTC provides a bright solution for customer facing businesses. As this communication is real time, WebRTC provides audio visual solutions without any cost. Retail and healthcare are two industries with high demand for WebRTC as direct communication with end users or customers is of immense importance in these industries.One key restraint associated with the use of WebRTC is that it uses internet platform which is a public domain and thus, the quality of service cannot be guaranteed all the time. Use of Internet could result in privacy issues as it is still not clear how WebRTC manages the security and privacy. Further, integration is another key challenge associated with WebRTC. Organizations could face problems in integrating and adapting the WebRTC to their current system. WebRTC is currently not supported on Microsoft Internet Explorer. Thus, there are a number of complexities linked with WebRTC however, technological advancements are anticipated to eliminate these challenges in near future.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @With WebRTC nearing its completion, organizations especially the consumer facing entities are expected to use this technology in near future across all platforms. WebRTC is an emerging industry standard for audio and video communication through a web browser. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) decided that browser makers should implement VP8 and H.264 video codecs. WebRTC is of huge importance for call centers and customer care centers, where direct communication is happening between a company representative and the end user or customer. WebRTC can simplify this communication further and increase the level of customer satisfaction. Companies are integrating WebRTC into their websites to enhance the overall user experience.Some of the major players in the global WebRTC market are Google Inc., Facebook, Inc., Citrix Systems, Inc., TokBox Inc., Sinch AB, Twilio, Inc., WIRE SWISS GmbH, Talko Inc., Screenhero, Inc., and Comcast Corporation etc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Cloud Services Market Revenue Predicted to Grow Up by 2021

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Cloud services are those services that are offered to users via the Internet from the server of cloud computing service provider. Such services provide scalable and easy access to various resources and applications, and are entirely managed by the cloud service providers. The examples of cloud services include web-based e-mail services, online backup solutions and data storage, document collaboration services, technical support services, and database processing among others. Cloud service providers supply the necessary software and hardware required for cloud service, thereby eliminating the need for organizations to deploy their own resources for managing networked services. The other advantage of cloud services over the traditional methods of providing infrastructure is faster deployment of services and reduction in in-house maintenance costs.On the basis of mode of delivery, the cloud services market is segmented into Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). The SaaS mode of delivery is further segmented into SMB and mobile corporate SaaS cloud services, corporate SaaS cloud services, SMB SaaS cloud services and others. North America is the largest contributor to the cloud services market due to the high penetration of internet in this region. This region is followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW).Major benefits offered by cloud services are driving business organizations in implementing the use of cloud services. Cloud services maximize the effectiveness of shared resources and ensure the business organizations higher returns and faster paybacks. In addition, cloud services offer scalable solutions to growing business organizations at low cost of ownership. This drives business organizations to invest in such services that allow them to generate higher revenues by optimizing the available resources. However, the data security issues are the roadblocks that are adversely affecting the growth of this market. The increasing data hacking incidences using sophisticated tools result in loss of sensitive data, causing serious dents in the business revenues. Also, there are constant evolutions of new security threats that are affecting the quality of cloud services. Further, the small and medium businesses find it difficult to repeatedly invest in the customized solutions available for cloud services security. Due to such factors, the business organizations are reluctant in investing in the cloud services and prefer to carry on with conventional methods of network infrastructure.Some of the major players in the market are improving their existing services by adding new and innovative features. This helps them in staying competitively ahead in the market. For instance, Akamai Technologies, Inc., one of the leading cloud services providers, recently added Zone Apex Mapping feature to its Ion network acceleration technology. This feature reduces DNS resolution time and avoids HTTP redirects. Other major players in the market include VMware, Inc., (U.S.), Taleo Corporation (Ireland), Oracle Corporation, (U.S.), NetSuite Inc., (U.S.), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Joyent Inc., (U.S.), International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), Hewlett-Packard (U.S.), Flexiant Limited (United Kingdom), ENKI Consulting (U.S.), Etelos Inc.,(U.S.), Citrix Systems Inc., (U.S.), Cisco Systems Inc., (U.S.), CA Technologies, Inc., (U.S.), and SAP AG (Germany).About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Report 2017

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales ((K Square Meter)), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt sales volume ((K Square Meter)), price (USD/Square Meter), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAudubonWire Belt CompanyCambridge Engineered SolutionsFURNACE BELT COMPANYMARTENSOmni MetalcraftWMBKeystone ManufacturingRydell Beltech PtyEnter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume ((K Square Meter)), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Square Meter), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSmall SizeLarge SizeOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume ((K Square Meter)), market share and growth rate of Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt for each application, includingConstruction IndustryAgricultural IndustryFood IndustryMine IndustryOthersBrowse Market Research Report @Table of Contents1 Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt1.2 Classification of Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt1.2.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Small Size1.2.4 Large Size1.3 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Construction Industry1.3.3 Agricultural Industry1.3.4 Food Industry1.3.5 Mine Industry1.3.6 Others1.4 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market by Region1.4.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Middle East Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Africa Status and Prospect (2012-2022)2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)2.3 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt (Volume) by Application2.4 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.3 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Price by Region (2012-2017)3 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application3.1 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.2 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Type3.3 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Application3.4 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries3.4.1 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.2 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.3 Germany Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.4 France Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.5 UK Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.6 Russia Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.7 Italy Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.8 Benelux Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application4.1 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.2 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Type4.3 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Application4.4 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries4.4.1 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)4.4.2 Middle East Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.4 Israel Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.5 UAE Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.6 Iran Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application5.1 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.2 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Type5.3 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Market Share by Application5.4 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries5.4.1 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)5.4.2 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)5.4.3 South Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.4 Nigeria Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.5 Egypt Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.6 Algeria Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data6.1 Audubon6.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.1.2 Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Product Type, Application and Specification6.1.2.1 Product A6.1.2.2 Product B6.1.3 Audubon Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.2 Wire Belt Company6.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.2.2 Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Product Type, Application and Specification6.2.2.1 Product A6.2.2.2 Product B6.2.3 Wire Belt Company Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.3 Cambridge Engineered Solutions6.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.3.2 Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Product Type, Application and Specification6.3.2.1 Product A6.3.2.2 Product B6.3.3 Cambridge Engineered Solutions Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview11 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Market Forecast (2017-2022)11.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue and Price Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.1 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.3 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Price and Trend Forecast (2017-2022)11.2 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.3 Europe Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.4 Middle Eastt Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.5 Africa Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.6 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Forecast by Type (2017-2022)11.7 EMEA Stainless Steel Wire Mesh belt Sales Forecast by Application (2017-2022)QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. 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Folding Cartons Development Market - ASEAN Industry Analysis Size Share Growth Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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"Folding Cartons Market - ASEAN Industry Analysis Size Share Growth Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-ASEAN Folding Cartons Market: OverviewASEAN folding cartons market is expected to be driven by the mounting growth of packaged and takeaway food products in ASEAN countries. The takeaway food industry is growing in ASEAN as it is now considered to be a new business avenue for investors to make money. Moreover, the number of expats and tourists is increasing every year in ASEAN. This group of people prefer having their daily meals from such takeaways which in turn intensifies the sales of folding cartons during the forecast period.Get Sample Report With TOC @Moreover, folding cartons used in bulk storing and transportation cost less compared to other packaging solutions which makes it profitable for such uses. Flexible plastic packaging and rigid boxes are still being adopted owing to their low cost nature and flexibility in comparison to folding cartons which can pose a major challenge in the ASEAN folding cartons market.ASEAN Folding Cartons Market: Scope of the StudyThis report provides forecast and analysis of the ASEAN Folding Cartons market. The study provides historic data of 2015 along with forecast from 2016 to 2024 based on volume (Thousand Tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). It includes drivers, restraints and the ongoing trend of the ASEAN Folding Cartons market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The report also comprises the study of opportunities available in the market for ASEAN Folding Cartons market.In order to provide the users of this report with comprehensive view of market, we have included detailed competitiveness analysis and company players. The competitive dashboard provides detailed comparison of ASEAN Folding Cartons market manufacturers on parameters such as companys revenue, unique selling propositions and key strategic developments. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, by end use, material type and order type.ASEAN Folding Cartons Market: Research MethodologyMarket statistics have been estimated based on average consumption and weighted average pricing of ASEAN Folding Cartons market by product type and the revenue is derived through regional pricing trends. Market size and forecast for each segment have been provided in the context of ASEAN market. The ASEAN Folding Cartons market has been analyzed based on expected demand of the various Folding Cartons products.Prices considered for the calculation of revenue are average prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous industrial packaging manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. All key end users have been considered and potential applications have been estimated on the basis of secondary sources and feedback from primary respondents. Market numbers for the product type and application segments have been derived using the top down approach. The market has been forecast based on constant currency rates.A number of primary and secondary sources were consulted during the course of the study. Secondary sources include Factiva, Industrial Association, Packaging Digest, Packaging world, and Hoovers, and company annual reports and publications.Companies Mentioned in this ReportThe report provides detailed competitive outlook including company profiles of key participants operating in the ASEAN market. Key players in the ASEAN Folding Cartons market include Amcor Limited, AR Packaging Group AB, HUHTAMAKI GROUP, Mayr-Melnhof Karton Gesellschaft M.b.h., International Paper, DS Smith PLC, and Rengo Co., Ltd.The ASEAN folding cartons market is segmented into:By End UserFood & BeveragesFrozen & Chilled food productsFresh food productsBakery & ConfectionaryReady to eat food productsBeveragesOthersHomecare ProductsPersonal care productsPharma and Healthcare productsTobacco ProductsIndustrial ProductsOthersBy Order TypeStandardCustomizedBy Material TypeSolid Bleached Sulfate (SBS)Coated Unbleached Kraft (CUK)Coated Recycled Board (CRB)Uncoated Kraft Boxboard (UKB)ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Gas Detection Equipment Development Market - South East Asia Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024

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"Gas Detection Equipment Market - South East Asia Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-South East Asia Gas Detection Equipment Market: OverviewThis report provides an analysis of the South East Asia gas detection equipment market for the period from 2014 to 2024, wherein the period from 2016 to 2024 comprises the forecast period and 2015 is the base year. Data for 2014 is provided as historical information. The report details the prominent trends and adoption analysis of gas detection equipment across South East Asia region over the forecast period. It also highlights various drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the markets growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective of the growth of the gas detection equipment market throughout the forecast period in terms of revenue estimates (in US$ Mn), across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Philippines, and rest of South East Asia countries. The report provides analysis of the South East Asia gas detection equipment market in terms of market estimates and forecasts for all the segments across different countries.Get Sample Report With TOC @South East Asia Gas Detection Equipment Market: Trends and OpportunitiesSouth East Asia gas detection equipment market is primarily driven by increasing policies, acts, and regulations associated with workplace health and safety. The increasing emphasis on national occupational safety and health frameworks by South East Asian countries and international organizations such as international maritime organization (IMO) are supplementing the growth of gas detection equipment market. Similarly, increasing adoption of gas detection equipment by petro chemical, marine, and other companies across mining and electronics segment is contributing in the growth of gas detection equipment in South East Asia region.The report includes the impact analysis of such factors under the market dynamics, categorized as the drivers and the restraints. Apart from this, the report also details on presence of supplier, manufacturer, and distribution network of key players under the value chain analysis. Apart from this, report also covers the porters five forces affecting the gas detection equipment market across South East Asia region. In this report, detailed information on comparison matrix, and market attractiveness analysis for all the segments is provided at regional as well as country level.The report provides extensive information on policies and regulations implemented across the applications of gas detection equipment market, opportunities for the market across the countries. This is in consideration to the policies and regulations imposed by South East Asia countries for health and safety of work force and work environment expected to provide lucrative opportunities across the region.South East Asia Gas Detection Equipment Market: Key SegmentsBased on product type, South East Asia gas detection equipment market is categorized into fixed gas detection equipment, and portable gas detection equipment. On the basis of application, South East Asia gas detection equipment is segmented into mining, steel mill, petro chemical, construction, automobile, material, food & beverage processing & making, electronics, marine, utility services, government, security, medical, and environment detection. The study includes regional and country level key market trends of the gas detection equipment market.The report also includes detailed information and estimates for the product type and application segment across each country for South East Asia gas detection equipment market. Moreover, the report also focuses on competitive profiling of the regional and global key players associated within the gas detection equipment market catering into South East Asia. The important business strategies adopted by them, their market positioning, and country specific revenue, and SWOT analysis have also been included in the research report. Apart from this, the report covers the market share analysis for each company across the South East Asian countries.South East Asia Gas Detection Equipment Market: Competitive LandscapeThe growing market potential for gas detection equipment in South East Asia region has led many companies to expand their presence across the South East Asian countries, and strengthen their distribution network. Among these companies, the major players in South East Asia gas detection equipment include Honeywell International, Inc., Mine Safety Appliances, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Industrial Scientific Corporation, Riken Keiki Co., Ltd., New Cosmos Electric Co., Ltd., and Gastron Co., Ltd.Market SegmentationGas Detection Equipment Market, by Product TypeFixedPortableGas Detection Equipment Market, by ApplicationMiningCoalOthersSteel MillPetro ChemicalCrude OilOil RefineryConstructionTunnelSubwayOthersAutomobileMaterialFood & Beverage Making & ProcessingElectronicsSemiconductorConsumer ElectronicsMarineShip BuilderShip OwnerShip ChandlerUtility ServiceElectricityWaterGasTele-communicationGovernmentFire FightingPoliceMilitaryBorder ControlSecurityBuildingMedicalHospital & ClinicOthersEnvironment DetectionPollutionOthersIn addition, the report provides analysis of the gas detection equipment market with respect to the following country segments:SingaporeMalaysiaIndonesiaThailandVietnamMyanmarBruneiPhilippinesRest of South East AsiaResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Cosmetic Ingredients Development Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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"Cosmetic Ingredients Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-Global Cosmetic Ingredients Market: OverviewCosmetic Ingredients market is forecast to witness a stable growth rate over the forecast period. With increased demand of various end use products, the global market for cosmetic ingredients is increasing substantially. Various types of ingredients both natural and synthetic are used in various end use products such as skin care, hair care and make up among others. By type the market has been segmented into surfactants, polymers, emollients rheology modifiers and others which include absorbers and antimicrobials. By function the market has been segmented into cleansing agent, moisturizing agent and coloring agent and others which includes fragrances and toners. The market is further segmented into end use namely skin care, hair care; make up, oral care and others which include perfumes and deodorants.Get Sample Report With TOC @Consumers over the years has become excessive conscious about the well-being of the skin and is more focused in attaining perfect flawless skin without any blemishes, marks or dark spots. Manufacturers through continuous research and development capture the existing skin care industry with the introduction of new products with unique ingredients, thus triggering the global cosmetic ingredients market. In addition, major skin concerns among consumers include, premature ageing, wrinkles, dry skin, pigmentation, age spots, and uneven skin tone. Therefore, anti-ageing products are in great demand which in turn boosts the global cosmetic ingredients market. Major restraint hindering the global market includes stringent government rules and regulations on several ingredients.Global Cosmetic Ingredients Market: Scope of the StudyThe cosmetic ingredients market is seeing dramatic changes over the years. There are several regulatory bodies that have their own regulations regarding the use of different ingredients in order to provide safety to consumers. Thus, this has resulted in restraining the global cosmetic ingredients market. Major opportunities of the global cosmetic ingredients market include constant change in consumer preference. Changing lifestyle and rising disposable income coupled with growing consciousness about physical appearance has resulted in continuous demand for cosmetic products which in turn has fuel the demand for cosmetic ingredient market. A stable and continuous growth of the economy in the Asia Pacific region has resulted in rise in disposable income over the years. This has generated opportunities for the global cosmetic ingredients market.Moreover, in this report the study provides different countries included in different regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific is the most dominant region in the global market as well as the most rapid growing region. North America includes the U.S. and Rest of North America. The U.S. held the most dominant market share and it is also the most rapid growing country. Europe includes U.K., Germany, France, Russia, Italy and Rest of Europe. France held the most dominant share in the European market. U.K is the most rapid growing country over the forecast period. Asia Pacific includes countries such as India, China, Japan and Rest of Asia Pacific. In addition, Middle East and Africa includes country such as UAE, South Africa and Rest of Middle East and Africa. Latin America comprise of countries such as Brazil and Rest of Latin America.Companies Mentioned in the ReportA competitive analysis of all the leading players is included in the report. The leading players include Ashland Inc. (U.S.), BASF SE (Germany), Croda International Plc. (U.K.), Akzo Nobel N.V. (Netherlands), The Dow Chemical Company (U.S), Evonik Industries AG (Germany), Lonza Group (Switzerland), Solvay SA (Belgium), Clariant AG (Switzerland) and Innospec Inc. (U.S.) among others.The report provides an exhaustive study of the Cosmetic Ingredients market along with offering the market estimates, in terms of revenue (USD billion) for the forecast period from 2017-2025. Further, the global market is classified on the basis of type, function and end use.The global cosmetic ingredients market can be segmented as follows:-By TypeSurfactantsPolymersEmollientsAntioxidants and PreservativesRheology ModifiersOthersBy FunctionCleansing agentMoisturizing AgentColoring AgentOthersBy End UserSkin CareHair CareMake UpOral CareOthersBy GeographyNorth AmericaU.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeU.KGermanyFranceItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanRest of APACMiddle East and AfricaUAESouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilRest of Latin AmericaResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Global and United States Single Effects Market Drivers, Trends and Opportunities Forecasts from 2017 to 2022

Single Effects Market

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Executive SummaryGlobal and United States Single Effects Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Single Effects Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Request a Sample Report @This report studies the Single Effects market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Single Effects market by product type and applications/end industries.The global Single Effects market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Single Effects. United States plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2016 and will be xx million USD in 2022, with a CAGR of XX.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Single Effects in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaThe major players in global and United States Single Effects market, including BOSS, Digitech, Line 6, ZOOM Corporation, Dunlop Manufacturing, TC Electronic, Electro-Harmonix, Behringer, Korg, Fulltone, Chase Bliss Audio, Ibanez, EarthQuaker DevicesThe On the basis of product, the Single Effects market is primarily split intoSingle Effects for GuitarSingle Effects for BassOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversAcoustic GuitarsElectric GuitarsAcoustic BassElectric BassOthersBrowse Full Report Details@Some Major Points from Table of Content:Table of Contents2017-2022 Single Effects Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source2.1.1 Secondary Sources2.1.2 Primary Sources1.3 Disclaimer2 Single Effects Market Overview2.1 Single Effects Product Overview2.2 Single Effects Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Single Effects for Guitar2.2.2 Single Effects for Bass2.2.3 Others2.3 Global Single Effects Product Segment by Type2.3.1 Global Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.3.2 Global Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.3 Global Single Effects Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.4 Global Single Effects Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2012-2017)2.4 United States Single Effects Product Segment by Type2.4.1 United States Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Growth by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.4.2 United States Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)2.4.3 United States Single Effects Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)2.4.4 United States Single Effects Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2012-2017)3 Single Effects Application/End Users3.1 Single Effects Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Acoustic Guitars3.1.2 Electric Guitars3.1.3 Acoustic Bass3.1.4 Electric Bass3.1.5 Others3.2 Global Single Effects Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Single Effects Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.2.2 Global Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)3.3 United States Single Effects Product Segment by Application3.3.1 United States Single Effects Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.3.2 United States Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)5 Global Single Effects Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers5.1 Global Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)5.2 Global Single Effects Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)5.3 Global Single Effects Average Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2012-2017)5.4 Players Single Effects Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types5.5 Single Effects Market Competitive Situation and Trends5.5.1 Single Effects Market Concentration Rate5.5.2 Global Single Effects Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 Players5.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion6 United States Single Effects Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers6.1 United States Single Effects Sales (K Units) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)6.2 United States Single Effects Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)6.3 United States Single Effects Average Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2012-2017)6.4 United States Single Effects Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 PlayersPurchase a Copy of This Report @CONTINUEDMore about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
New report examines the Global Anesthesia Machine Sales Market 2016-2022

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The industry survey report Global Anesthesia Machine Sales Market Research Report (2016-2022) is an overview of the market. It covers all the recent trends including key developments in the Global market in present and in future. Analyses of the Global Anesthesia Machine Sales market trends along with the projections of CAGRs (compound annual growth rates) are provided in the research report.The existing advancements in the Global Anesthesia Machine Sales industry have helped in reshaping the biotechnology, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and environmental markets. We have launched a whole new service that can further support the Global Anesthesia Machine Sales sector with their reliable and comprehensive market research reports and analysis.For More Inquire@Any successful Global Anesthesia Machine Sales company conducts market research periodically to stay tuned to the dynamically changing market trends in order to create the traction they need or to retain their booming competitive edge. Whether your company is in the start-up or the expansion phase, you need market research to grasp the vital characteristics of your target market to boost your sales and ROI. We can now be your reliable partner in understanding the different factors that can affect your business success.Get 30% Discount on The Full Report Purchase @We back the Anesthesia Machine Sales firms by making available their wide and comprehensive database of reports and analysis on various areas of the market. The company supports the growth of the industry through its market analysis of the latest technologies, trends, predictions, and company profiles of the major players in the field. Theyre proud to support a huge industry that has had a huge impact on the world. The advancements in Global Anesthesia Machine Sales have led to great innovation and discoveries of photonics and drug products. It has also favorably impacted the environment in terms of decreasing a number of pollutants and discovering water treatment. We take pride in helping the marketers, founders, and staff of these Global Anesthesia Machine Sales companies because they know that what these companies are up to can change the world.This report studies sales (consumption) of Anesthesia Machine in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe, Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringMindrayDragerWEGOheineGEaeomedHuanaAOKAIRoyalSURUUSMEDKontroncomenPenlonTERUMOHEYEROn top of supporting the ground-breaking discoveries that these companies create, the company also supports them by making sure that their business operations flow well using their market research expertise.We cares about your business like its theirs. Thus, they make sure that the business decisions that you make are the best. They want to help you develop the best business tactics for your product pricing, logistics, distribution, marketing, etc. They are ready to guide you in starting, diversifying, consolidating, and strengthening your business activities. Contact us now to access the widest and most comprehensive database of Global Anesthesia Machine Sales market research and reports from the best and most reliable publishers in town.The company specializes in helping these firms cater their customers needs better. Their market research can be of help in modifying the products and services of these various medical device firms for the better. They have a series of reports and analysis that show the behavior patterns of any target market. Knowing the markets preferences can help you proceed more successfully in your projects and campaigns. We also help these businesses understand how their competitors work. Knowing what the crowd does will help you figure out how to make your tactic and approach unique and efficient. This eventually creates whole new opportunities that can help you tap the markets that the rest hasnt ever tapped. If your company is also having problems in your business, they have the right reports and market research products that can help you locate the root of any issue, helping you craft better plans and receive solutions to your troubles.About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin  77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Single Port Surgical Platform Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Single port surgical platform (SPSP) is a minimal invasive laparoscopy technique in which, a single incision is made on the body through single trocar which have multiple ports or single skin incision site with multiple facial incisions that have an individual trocar, are used to conduct the surgery. Single port surgical platforms are also called Single Port Access Surgery (SPA), Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS), and Laparo-endoscopic Single-Site Surgery (LESS). Normally, in abdominal surgeries, large incisions are made to conduct the surgery. Although, they are effective but they usually cause postoperative pain, wound infections, and prolonged hospitalization. Current rate of incisional hernia is 4-18% and wound infections are 2-25% in the U.S whereas, in case of conventional laparoscopic surgeries, multiple incisions are made on the body to conduct the surgery. To overcome the above challenges, companies are focusing on developing the novel single-port surgical platform, which creates single incision on the body. This surgical platform also helps in speedy recovery, small incisions, and are less prone to infections and pain conditions. In addition to these, it does not leave any scars on the body after the surgery.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Single Port Surgical Platform Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The market is driven mainly by factors such as technological innovations, increase in adoption of SPSP, growing preference towards minimally invasive surgery process, and exploration of their utility in other applications Ex: General Surgery, Gastroenterology, Urology, Gynecology and Bariatric Surgery. Increasing preference towards scar-less slimming surgeries is a major factor responsible for boosting the market growth. This platform allows surgeons to conduct surgeries in the abdominal cavity by accessing through small holes. Furthermore, SPSP reduces treatment costs by reducing hospital stay of the patients. Hence, patients and surgeons are prefer SPSP as compared to others. The major constraints of this market are high cost, lack of skilled professionals, and triangulation problems. The single port surgical platform (SPSP) is segmented based on its application and technology.Segmentation by ApplicationGeneral SurgeryGastroenterologyUrologicalGynecologicalBariatricSegmentation by TechnologyRobot/ Remote controlled AssistedManual  AssistedNew products are being launched into the market to alleviate the disadvantages of the current SPSP platforms. SPSP is a lucrative segment in the laparoscopic surgeries, due to its technical aspects and patient benefits. On the basis of application, SPSP is mainly used in Bariatric surgeries. However, they are gaining traction of the other application areas such as gynecology, urology, gastroenterology, and general surgery due to its advantages.On the basis of its technology, the manual assisted SPSP holds major market share as compared to robot-assisted. In future, robot/ remote controlled technology is expected to dominate the market because surgeons can perform the complex surgeries in a more accurate and flexible way than the conventional surgery process by using the robot/ remote controlled technologyRecently, Intuitive surgical, a U.S.-based company, received FDA approval for its da Vinci Sp single port robot-assisted surgical system.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:SPSP is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. North America is holds a major market share on the basis of application of the SPSP owing to factors such as spending power of the people and introduction of new technologies into the market. Asia-Pacific markets are growing relatively fast due to cost effective surgeries and advancements in healthcare infrastructure.Key players in this market are Covidien, Applied Medical, Ethicon, Olympus Gyrus-ACMI, Novare Surgical, Cambridge Endo, Karl Storz, Intutive surgical, Fortmedix Surgical, and Trans Enterix. The market is relatively dominated by major players however, new players are trying to hold a major part of the market share by developing innovative products.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) Analyzers Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) can be defined as the rate at which red blood cells or erythrocytes sediment in a period of one hour. ESR is usually measured in millimeter per hour (mm/hr) and a value above 100 mm/hr indicates a disease condition, such as a disease that causes inflammation, active infection, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, blood disease, diabetes, and collagen vascular disease. However, ESR is a non-specific test for inflammation and is used in conjunction with other tests such as C-reactive protein. Normal ESR result does not rule out the possibility of inflammation. Similarly, an elevated ESR without any symptoms of the disease does not aid in making any medical decision. ESR analyzers are devices employed to measure the sedimentation rate of erythrocytes for an accurate reading. Automated ESR analyzers need to comply with the 2011-published Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines for measuring ESR. The analyzer works on the basic principle of Westergrens method followed to determine ESR.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) Analyzers Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The ESR analyzers market can be segmented based on modality, end-user, and region. In terms of modality, the market can be segmented into automatic analyzers, semi-automatic analyzers, and manual analyzers. Based on end-user, the ESR analyzers market can be segmented into hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, and academic institutions. In terms of region, the ESR analyzers market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.ESR is one of the basic hematology tests performed to identify various disease conditions, which would contribute to the growth of the ESR analyzers market. Technological upgrades leading to the development of automated ESR analyzers from manual ESR analyzers would also contribute to the growth of the market. In addition, the increasing number of infections leading to various health hazards would contribute to the rising number of ESR tests, which in turn would drive the ESR analyzers market in the near future. However, the non-specificity of the tests and the necessity for other tests to be performed to confirm the diseased condition could have a negative impact on the ESR analyzers market, as demand for specific tests increases. Furthermore, false negative results of ESR due to the effect of drugs such as oral contraceptives, dextran, methyldopa, penicillamine procainamide, theophylline, vitamin A, aspirin, cortisone, and quinine also make ESR less desirable, thereby impacting the growth of the ESR analyzers market.Automatic analyzers are expected to dominate the ESR analyzers market during the forecast period, owing to their abilities to enhance the workflow and turnaround time. Diagnostic laboratories and hospitals are expected to be the leading segments of the ESR analyzers market. Geographically, North America is expected to be the major market for ESR analyzers. Growth of the market in the region can be attributed to the well-developed health care infrastructure in the region. Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period, owing to increasing infections, evolution of new diseases, and poor sanitation conditions which lead to increased infections among the population. In addition, government focus on enhancing the health care infrastructure and providing better health care facilities to the population contribute to the growth of the ESR analyzers market in Asia Pacific.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:Leading players in the ESR analyzers market include Sysmex, R&R Mechatronics International B.V., TRANSASIA Bio Medicals Ltd., Diesse Diagnostica Senese Spa, Vital Diagnostics, Caretium Medical Instruments Co, Limited, Grifols, S.A., Beckman Coulter, Inc., ALCOR Scientific, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Perlong Medical, BPC Biosed Srl, and SFRI.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Fertility Testing Devices Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Fertility testing is done by both men and women for the assessment of their fertility and various conditions associated with it. A reasonable period of unprotected intercourse without conceiving is a condition referred to as infertility. Couples carry out fertility testing to detect the root causes responsible for their infertility. Men and women both experience the fertility problems at equal rates, but women are considered to be more concerned about fertility testing. The gynecologist or general physician first review the fertility test results to diagnose the exact issue and recommends the corrective measures or treatment accordingly. The rising awareness about fertility testing devices is driving the patient adoption rate effectively for such devices instead of opting for laboratory based tests. Fertility testing is performed at home and is time saving and economical, helps maintain privacy, and is comfortable for females.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Fertility Testing Devices Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Increase in infertility cases due to changing lifestyles in women, growth in awareness about the fertility testing in women, rise in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) cases, continuous decline in fertility rate in both men and women globally are factors which are expected to drive the growth of the global fertility testing devices market by 2024. The restraints which impact the growth of the global fertility testing devices market are high cost of fertility and ovulating monitors, increase in utilization of mobile applications & websites for ovulation tracking, and easy availability of generic diagnostic tools such as saliva testing and blood testing. Some of the trends in the global fertility testing devices market are monitoring sperm quality by keeping track of heart rate, body temperature, air quality & environmental function, and emergence of technological advances such as trak system. Introduction of various techniques such as hysterosalpingogram, sonohysterogram (ultrasound scan), laparoscopy, and hysteroscopy are projected to boost the growth of the global fertility testing devices market.The global fertility testing devices market can be segmented by product and end-user. The product segment involves ovulation predictor kits and fertility monitoring devices. The ovulation predictor kits are further segmented into urine based kits, saliva based kits, and others. In 2015, the ovulation predictor kits segment captured a significantly large share in the global fertility testing devices market, which is attributed to lesser cost and user-friendly technique. However, the fertility monitoring devices segment is expected to grow at a higher rate during the forecast period, which is driven by continuous rise in the technological advancements in the fertility monitoring techniques and investments. Based on the end-user segmentation, the global fertility testing devices market is classified into hospitals, specialty clinics, and homecare settings.Geographically, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America held a significant share of the fertility testing devices market in 2015, which is attributed to the rise in awareness about technological innovations and their benefits in the fertility testing market and increase in prevalence of PCOS. The awareness about the fertility testing is high in the region. Therefore, the use of ovulation predictor kits and fertility monitoring devices is increasing in the North America fertility testing devices market. The anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) test is likely to be adding more value to the existing Europe fertility testing market leading to its further growth in region. Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a higher rate during the forecast period owing to increasing investments in the fertility testing devices market, declining fertility rate, and rising number of women suffering from lifestyle disorder in the region.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:Major players operating in the global fertility testing devices market include Hilin Life Products, Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Fairhaven Health LLC, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Geratherm Medical AG, AccuQuik, Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc., Quidel Corporation, and Alere Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Atrial Septal Defect Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Global Atrial Septal Defect Market: OutlookAtrial septal defect is one of the most common congenital cardiac diseases and usually affects women more than men. It is characterized by a hole or defect in the interatrial septum that separates the hearts two upper chambers, i.e., atria. The opening in the septum usually closes when the baby is born, but in few cases if the opening does not close, the hole is referred to as atrial septal defect. Huge and long-term atrial septal defects may lead to serious heart and lung damage. In some cases, extra blood volume can overfill the lungs and increases the blood pressure of the lungs, leading to pulmonary hypertension. Most of the congenital heart diseases are caused by certain genetic defects. The three most common types of atrial septal defects are ostium secundum atrial septal defect, ostium primum atrial septal defect and sinus venosus atrial septal. Various symptoms associated with atrial septal defect are as follows:Difficulty in breathing (dyspnea)Frequent respiratory infectionsSwelling of legs and feetHeart palpitationsFatigueGet accurate market forecast and analysis on the Atrial Septal Defect Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Global Atrial Septal Defect Market: Key SegmentsBased on diagnosis, the atrial septal defect market can be segmented as follows:Electrocardiogram (ECG): ECG records the electrical activity of an individual and identifies heart problemsChest X-ray: With the help of X-ray, condition of the heart and lungs are detectedCardiac catheterization: In this test, a catheter is inserted into the heart via vein and any congenital heart defects can be diagnosed including amount of oxygen in the bloodTransesophageal echocardiography (TEE): The test provides an ultrasound image to provide a clearer image of the atriaPulse oximetry: This test helps to detect whether oxygenated blood is mixing with deoxygenated blood, thereby confirming any type of heart defectThe medications which are used to reduce the signs and symptoms of atrial septal defect include beta blockers (Lopressor, Inderal), anticoagulants (Coumadin) and anti-platelet agents (aspirin). In some instances, surgery is also done to repair an atrial septal defect such as open-heart surgery and cardiac catheterization.Global Atrial Septal Defect Market: Regional AnalysisBased on geography, the atrial septal defect market can be segmented into four major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). Out of these regions, North America holds a leading position in the market followed by Europe. The prime factors which are driving the growth of atrial septal defect market in these regions are high prevalence of genetic heart disorders, and growing awareness of the population regarding atrial septal defects. Moreover, technological advancement in the treatment of congenital heart diseases is also accentuating the growth of the market. Asia Pacific is the most lucrative market for the growth of atrial septal defect market. The advantageous factors which would propel the growth of the market in Asia Pacific are presence of large population base and emerging economies such as China, Malaysia, India and Vietnam. Furthermore, favorable reimbursement policies and increasing disposable income of the Asian population would further boost the growth of atrial septal defect market in the coming years.Global Atrial Septal Defect Market: Companies Mentioned in the ReportVarious pharmaceutical companies are constantly trying to come up with novel therapeutic developments for the treatment of atrial septal defect. Some of the top major players operating in the atrial septal defect market are Asklepion Pharmaceuticals, LLC, Actelion Ltd., Novo Nordisk A/S, Abbott Laboratories, INO Therapeutics, LLC and others.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Medical Imaging Informatics Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Medical imaging informatics (MII), a subspecialty of biomedical informatics, aims to provide accurate, useful, and efficient interpretations of complicated images into simpler, communicable, and in a useful manner within the health care IT sector for radiologists. Medical imaging informatics mainly comprises application, development, and assessment of information which are useful to treat patients effectively.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Medical Imaging Informatics Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Medical imaging informatics has become a predominant tool in picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and radiology information system (RIS) to deal with the current workload. Nowadays, medical imaging informatics is used in cardiology, dermatology, pathology, and surgery which have adopted the use of digital images. Furthermore, medical imaging informatics tele consultation has several advantages such as online consultation among doctors over medical records and knowledge sharing.The medical imaging informatics market is segmented into application, end-user, and geography. On the basis of application, the medical imaging informatics market is further segmented into digital radiology, ultrasound, MRI, CT, nuclear imaging, and mammography. The digital radiology segment held a significant market share due to faster scanning, better image quality, and elimination of recurring cost associated with chemicals and films. However, the mammography segment is estimated to grow at a higher rate during the forecast period. On the basis of end-user, the market is segmented into hospitals, independent diagnostics centers, and ambulatory health care settings. Among these, the hospitals segment accounted for a major share of the market due to increase in hospital visits and hospitalizations, rise in government funding to screen various diseases, and growing research for diseases.The medical imaging informatics market is growing globally due to rise in the number of diagnostic imaging procedures, high prevalence of chronic diseases, advanced application, and availability of cost effective medical informatics data storage platforms. However, lack of expertise to operate information technology integrated imaging modalities is likely to restrict the market growth.Based on geography, the medical imaging informatics market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world. North America and Europe acquired major share of the market and are expected to lead the medical imaging informatics market during the forecast period. Factors attributing to the growth of the market are higher demand for medical imaging informatics, growth in the rate of adoption in health care, technological advancements for easy accessibility, and others. In addition, well-established health care infrastructure in North America and Europe attributed to a larger share in this market. Although, these regions accounted for a higher share of this market, Asia Pacific is estimated to grow faster owing to rise in number of medical imaging procedures, high prevalence of chronic diseases, and increase in investments to improve the health care system, and growth in R&D. Recent advancements in the medical imaging informatics market have enabled clinicians (radiologists and other physicians) to effectively manage patients documented information.Major players operating in the medical imaging informatics market include Agfa-Gevaert N.V., Carestream Health Inc., Dell Inc., Esaote SpA, General Electric Company, Koninklijke Philips N.V., McKesson Corporation, Siemens AG, and Toshiba Corporation.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Technology Spending On Revenue Cycle Management Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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McKesson Corporation, Allscripts, Cerner Corporation, and Optum Health, Inc. were the leading players in the global market for technology spending on revenue cycle management in 2015. These key companies show the common strengths in having built strong distribution channels and effective long-term partnerships.According to a research report released by Transparency Market Research, technology spending on revenue cycle management is expected to experience a buildup in competitive rivalries over time, owing to the entry of more players into the global market. The market is in a very expansive stage, which coupled with the recent positive changes in the regulatory scenario, have created a very advantageous position for a lot of new entrants. The global market for technology spending on revenue cycle management is expected to reach US$51.56 bn by 2024. It is expected to expand at an optimistic CAGR of 6.9% within a forecast period from 2016 to 2024, and was calculated at US$28.50 bn at the end of 2015.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Revenue Cycle Management Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Staggering Advantages Pull Healthcare Organizations towards Revenue Cycle Management SolutionsOf the many plus points that go with a standard revenue cycle management solution, the leading factor that a lot of healthcare organizations are looking for is better revenue generation. Claims get processed much faster under revenue cycle management solutions, along with a speedy denial management, thereby helping an organization generate a higher resolution rate. Thus, time saved becomes money earned and that is what is driving the global market for technology spending on revenue cycle management currently, states a TMR analyst.Another driver for the global technology spending on revenue cycle management market is the greater efficiency achieved in carrying out medical practice. When a revenue cycle management solution is implemented, a hospital can shift their focus off patient billing and paperwork, thereby becoming a more patient-centric organization and thus improving patient recovery outcomes. The implementation of a revenue cycle management solution can also allow a healthcare organization to safely adhere to the current state of regulatory structures. Since these processes are needed to by in sync with any changes in regulations, the organization can rest assured that all rules and requirements are satisfied through the implementation of RCM solutions.Complexity of RCM Solutions may Stifle Administrative Processes even FurtherOne of the core restraints acting on the global market for technology spending on revenue cycle management is the complexity of these solutions. A lot of claims submission processes involve tedious iterations of rework. Combined with the long and erroneous processes of data collection and other manual processes, the incorporation of a revenue cycle management solution into this will add to the errors that accumulate. On an average, close to 30% of all physician claims are erroneous and 15% of the claims may even get lost in the processes. The addition of a revenue cycle management solution to such an inaccurate data generation stream can only cause inaccurate results to be posted, thereby restricting the overall advantages that these solutions can bring to the table.Players in the global market for technology spending on revenue cycle management can look forward to operating in emerging economies of the Asia Pacific over the coming years. The rate at which the healthcare industry is evolving can bring about optimistic strategies in the implementation of revenue cycle management solutions in these countries, adds the analyst.The information presented in this review is based on a Transparency Market Research report, titled, Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle Management Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016  2024.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:Key segments of the Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle ManagementGlobal Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle Management  By PlatformIntegratedStand-AloneGlobal Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle Management  By SolutionIn-HouseHardwareSoftwareServicesOutsourceGlobal Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle Management  By DeploymentCloud-BasedOn-PremiseGlobal Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle Management  By End UsersPayersInsurance CompaniesGovernmentOthersProvidersHospitalsASCs and ClinicsOthersGlobal Technology Spending on Revenue Cycle Management  By RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyUKFranceItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)ChinaIndiaJapanAustraliaNew ZealandRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & Africa (MEA)Saudi ArabiaUAERSARest of Middle East & AfricaAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Heat Pipe Market 2022: by Key Manufacturers covers including are Furukawa, Aavid, Fujikura

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Market Size Forecasters released a new research report of 120 pages on title Global Heat Pipe Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, forecast to 2022 with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies. The study covers important Manufacturers such as including covering are Furukawa, Aavid, FujikuraA heat pipe is a closed evaporator-condenser system consisting of a sealed, hollow tube whose inside walls are lined with a capillary structure or wick. Thermodynamic working fluid, with substantial vapor pressure at the desired operating temperature, saturates the pores of the wick in a state of equilibrium between liquid and vapor. When heat is applied to the heat pipe, the liquid in the wick heats and evaporates. As the evaporating fluid fills the heat pipe hollow center, it diffuses throughout its length. Condensation of the vapor occurs wherever the temperature is even slightly below that of the evaporation area. As it condenses, the vapor gives up the heat it acquired during evaporation. This effective high thermal conductance helps maintain near constant temperatures along the entire length of the pipe.Request a sample copy of Heat Pipe Market Research Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Heat Pipe in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Furukawa, Aavid, Fujikura, Cooler Master, AVC, Yen ChingMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States and Canada), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia), Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Vapor Chamber, Variable Conductance, Diode, Thermosyphon, OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Aerospace, Consumer Electronics, Process Industry, OthersRequest Discount for Global Heat Pipe Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Heat Pipe market.Chapter 1, to describe Heat Pipe Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Heat Pipe, with sales, revenue, and price of Heat Pipe, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Heat Pipe, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Heat Pipe market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Heat Pipe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceBrowse full table of contents and data tables For Global Heat Pipe Market Report @Related Reports: -World Seed Processing Machine Market by Product Type, Market, Players and Regions-Forecast to 2021Seed Processing Machine market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability.MarketSizeForecasters.com, a Skyline Market Research LLP brand, is an online aggregator of market research reports. MarketSizeForecasters.com offers a comprehensive collection of full length reports on global and regional markets in 100+ industry verticals. We have partnered with some of the leading business and market research publishing houses and regularly update our online library to offer wide range of reports to our customers.Market size forecastersThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketsizeforecasters.comWebsite:News:
India Coronary Stent Market Excepted to Reach 14% CAGR through 2026

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India coronary stents market, valued at US$ 481 Mn in 2015, is expected to reach US$ 531 Mn in revenues by 2016-end, according to a new research report by Future Market Insights. The report titled, Coronary Stents Market: India Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026 projects the market to increase at 14% CAGR through 2026 and surpass US$ 1.8 Bn in revenues.Demand for coronary stents is expected to be driven by government initiatives to offer better healthcare amenities. Capping of coronary stents prices, increase in geriatric population, and increasing number of PCI procedure to treat CHD are other key factors anticipated to fuel demand for coronary stents during the forecast period.Easing of norms such as exemptions in direct taxes, while allowing 100 percent FDI in medical devices segment under the automatic route is expected to encourage entry of foreign players in the healthcare sector in the near future.Request For Sample@Increasing prevalence of diabetes is high among the ageing population in the country. In 2014, 43.2% of the sampled population in the country was aware about diabetes and related treatment options. Over the last few years, number of PCI procedures have increased in India due to increase in prevalence of CHD.India coronary stents market is segmented on the basis of product type, raw material and end-use.On the basis of product type, the market has been segmented into Drug Eluting Stent (DES), Bare Metal Stent (BMS) and Bioresorbable Vascular Stent (BVS). Drug Eluting Stent segment is expected to register impressive CAGR of 14.0% during the forecast period.Send An Enquiry@On the basis of raw material, the market is segmented into cobalt-chromium, stainless steel, platinum-chromium, nickel-titanium and polymer. Currently, demand for cobalt-chromium is the highest, followed by platinum-chromium.On the basis of end use, India coronary stents market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centres and cardiac catheterization laboratories. By end use, hospitals segment is expected to witness fastest growth during the forecast period.The key players profiled in FMIs report include Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic, Inc., Biosensors Inc., and Boston Scientific Inc. The report also identifies company-specific strategies related to product development, market consolidation initiatives and analysis of their specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
North America Meat Packaging Market to Grow CAGR of 2.2% from 20162026

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Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers key insights on the North America fresh meat packaging market in its latest report, titled Fresh Meat Packaging Market: North America Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016 - 2026. In terms of revenue, the North America fresh meat packaging market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 2.2% over the forecast period (20162026), owing to numerous factors, about which FMI offers thorough insights and forecasts in this report.To provide in-depth insights, a detailed consumer preference analysis was carried out at each level of the value chain, which includes film convertors, packaging equipment manufacturers, meat producers/co-packers and retailers. Some of the key highlights from the analysis include, preferred packaging technologies for different types of meat products, factors impacting purchasing decision of packaging materials and most commonly used layer types.Request For Sample@Two individual markets, namely North America fresh meat packaging film and North America fresh meat packaging equipment were collectively considered to arrive at data regarding the North America fresh meat packaging market. North America fresh meat packaging film market is segmented on the basis of packaging format, meat type, packaging material, layer type and country. On the basis of packaging material, the market is segmented into PE, PVC, BOPP, PA, EVOH, PP and others. In terms of value, EVOH segment is anticipated to register a CAGR of 2.7% during the forecast period. On the basis of layer type, the market is segmented into monolayer, 3-layer, 5-layer, 7-layer and 9-layer. Among all layer type segments, 7-layer segment is anticipated to exhibit the highest revenue growth, followed by 5-layer segment over the forecast period. On the basis of packaging format, the market is segmented into MAP, VTP, VSP and others. In terms of value, MAP segment is expected to register a CAGR of 2.6% during the forecast period. On the basis of meat type the market is segmented into beef, pork, poultry and others. Among all meat types, beef segment is anticipated to remain dominant during the forecast period. On the basis of country, the market is segmented into the U.S. and Canada.A key trend defining the market is that of major players focusing towards enhancing their product portfolio and expanding their customer base by entering into strategic mergers and acquisitions. Furthermore, film convertors are also increasingly focused on downgauging and optimisation of packages size to offer eco-friendly and cost-effective solutions to meat producers, co-packers and retailers.Send An Enquiry@This report assesses trends driving growth of meat packaging, and offers key takeaways that could prove substantially useful to manufacturers across different levels looking to enter into the market. The U.S. has been estimated to dominate the North America fresh meat packaging market, accounting for maximum revenue share of the market by 2016 end.Key players in the North America fresh meat packaging market were identified at each level of the value chain. At film convertor level, some of the key players are Bemis Company, Inc., Winpak Ltd., Sealed Air Corp. ,Berry Plastic Group, Inc., and Coveris Holdings S.A. At packaging equipment manufacturers level, some of the key players are Multivac Sepp Haggenmuller GmbH & Co.KG, Robert Reiser & Co, Harpak-ULMA Packaging, LLC, ALKAR-RapidPak, Inc., and Sealpac International BV. At meat producer level major player covered in the report include Tyson Foods, Inc., JBS SA ADR, Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation, National Beef Packing Company, LLC., and Hormel Foods Corporation. At the retailer level, some of the key players identified were Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., The Kroger Co., Costco Wholesale Corporation, Whole Foods Market IP. L.P., and Wegmans Food Markets Inc. At the retailer level, some players are focusing on private label products and regional expansion through setting up new stores. The Competitive Landscape is included to provide report audiences with a dashboard view and company share.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Fertility and Pregnancy Rapid Test Kits Market Analysis Will Expand at a CAGR of 4.1% through 2026

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Global demand for fertility and pregnancy rapid test kits market will reach US$ 1,068.4 Mn in 2016, up from US$ 1,029.1 Mn in 2015, witnessing 3.8% growth in 2016 over 2015. Increasing prevalence of gynaecological diseases and infertility will continue to drive demand in 2016, with dual-capability test kits gaining traction among consumers.Pregnancy rapid test kits will continue to witness higher demand than fertility kits, representing US$ 600 Mn in market value in 2016. Line-indicator kits will continue to outsell digital devices, with the latter generating only one-third revenues of the former. Mid-stream and cassettes line indicator pregnancy rapid test kits will witness strong growth rates than strips/dip sticks, however, strips/dip sticks will continue to account for the highest market value, representing US$ 197 Mn in revenues in 2016.Line indicators will remain the preferred product type in fertility rapid test landscape as well, representing market value worth US$ 329.2 Mn in 2016, up from US$ 317.7 Mn in 2015.Request For Sample@hCG urine test will account for the highest market share on the basis of test type, representing nearly 43% revenue share in 2016. Apart from hCG, other test types  FSH urine test, hCG blood test, and LH urine test will witness a decline in their market share, suggesting increasing preference for conventional laboratory tests.Drugstores and pharmacies will remain the largest distribution channels for both fertility and pregnancy rapid test kits. Drugstores will sell US$ 286.4 Mn worth of fertility and pregnancy rapid tests kits in 2016, representing nearly 27% revenue share of the market by distribution channel.North America will remain the largest market for fertility and rapid test kits in 2016, accounting for over half of global revenues. Demand for rapid kits will continue to grow in the developing countries of Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. While APEJ fertility and rapid test kits market will reach US$ 267.2 Mn in revenues in 2016, MEA market will be worth US$ 7.5 Mn.Send An Enquiry@Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Alere Inc., bioMerieux SA, and Quidel Corporation are the market leaders in the global fertility and pregnancy rapid test kits landscape. Collaboration with distribution partners and strengthening market position through acquisitions remains the key strategy of these players.Long-term Outlook: Future Market Insights projects a moderate 4.1% CAGR for fertility and pregnancy rapid test kits market during the forecast period 2016-2026.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Steam Jet Ejector Market Expected to Expand at a Steady CAGR through 2027

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A steam jet ejector is a device that has no moving parts and is used for pumping; the motive force it uses is a fluid or a gas, and the motive fluid is steam. The components of a steam jet ejector include the steam chest, nozzle, suction, throat, diffuser and discharger.Steam jet ejectors are simple in operation, reliable in functioning, and incur low operational costs to produce vacuum. They find numerous applications in the chemical industry, and are found to be of high utility where supply of high-pressure motive gas is available on the site. They possess several advantages over mechanical vacuum pumps. For instance, no source of power is required other than the motive gas, unlike that in mechanical vacuum pumps. Steam jet ejectors are also dependable producers of vacuum as they do not possess moving parts, and offer ease in installation, operation and maintenance.Considering the high utility of steam jet ejectors in vital applications, the study of the steam jet ejector global market becomes an important read.Request For Report Sample@Steam Jet Ejector Market: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global steam jet ejector market is segmented as follows:Single-stage steam jet ejectorsMulti-stage steam jet ejectorsOn the basis of application type, the global steam jet ejector market is segmented as follows:Crude oil distillationPetrochemical processesEdible oil deodorizationOrganic motivated systemsFertilizer plant operationsThermal compressorsHybrid vacuum systemsMetals vacuum degassingSpace simulationSteam Jet Ejector Market: Key Trends, DriversSince contemporary energy-efficient steam jet ejector systems have been offering many advantages over other vacuum producing systems and as they can utilize motive steam, which is already available on site and that would otherwise be wasted, steam jet ejectors have been finding increasing industrial applications in recent times, thereby driving their market growth.Besides, steam jet ejectors have been found to be extremely reliable among all high vacuum systems, and are simple in design and have low noise levels during operation vis-a-vis other vacuum equipment. Further, steam jet ejectors are found to be ideal for large load applications. They require negligible maintenance as they do not have moving parts, and could be custom designed for specific applications. Steam jet ejectors are easy to retrofit as well as upgrade, and are available in any workable material of construction. Such advantages have been significantly driving the global demand for steam jet ejectors in the recent past, and it is expected that these benefits will further propel their market growth for the next few years.However, steam jet ejectors display a few limitations. For instance, during operation, it is essential to maintain the design quality of steam. If the steam quality reduces, there is a decline in suction pressure and capacity, especially in multi stage steam jet ejector designs. Also, excessive superheating of steam can unfavorably affect the suction capacity of steam jet ejectors. It can reduce the ratio of energy levels, and subsequently, the rise in specific volume has a tendency to to choke the diffuser.The application of steam jet ejectors in a varied number of processes depends on appropriate process conditions. For instance, it is vital that the motive fluid pressure drop is significant enough to develop high nozzle velocities, and that the difference between suction and discharge pressures is not extreme and the suction fluid flow is relatively small compared to the motive fluid.Such factors are expected to dampen the market growth rate of steam jet ejectors at a global level, as end users tend to look for suitable substitutes.Request For TOC@Steam Jet Ejector Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global steam jet ejector market are as follows:Croll ReynoldsVenturi Jet Pumps Ltd.Gardner Denver NashGraham CorporationKorting Hannover AGChem Process SystemsUnique SystemsMazda LimitedJet Vacuum Systems Pvt. Ltd.New Field Industrial Equipment Pvt. Ltd.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
BRICS In vitro Diagnostics Market is Expected to have a Healthy Growth Rate Owing to the Booming Healthcare Industry, thus Driving the In Vitro Diagnostics Market

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In Vitro Diagnostics Market: OverviewIn vitro diagnostics (IVD) is a suite of diagnostic tests performed using analytical instruments and reagents, on samples such as blood, stools, urine, tissues, and other body fluids. These samples are derived from patients or healthy individuals, to detect diseases or infections. Some of the significant technologies incorporated in in vitro diagnostics are polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunoassays, and sequencing technologies. In vitro diagnostics play significant role in risk assessment, and disease monitoring. Great advances have been achieved lately, particularly in the field of clinical immunology Recombinant allergens have been investigated in diagnosing asthma and food, pollen-induced and insect allergies, in in vitro testing.Browse through In vitro Diagnostics Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:In Vitro Diagnostics Market: SegmentationThe market can be segmented across different categories such as product types, applications, end users and geography. Based on product types, the market is segmented into, instruments, data management systems and reagents & kits. Based on application, the market is further segmented into, diabetes, infectious diseases, oncology, cardiology, nephrology, HIV, and other applications. Laboratories, standalone clinics, hospitals and patients form the major end-users of the market.The in vitro diagnostic market comprises several tests such as thyroid function tests, renal function tests, lipid profiling, liver function tests, basic metabolism tests, immunoassays, Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), radio Immunoassay (RIA), florescent Immunoassay (FIA), hematology, full blood count (RBC, WBC, and platelets), bone marrow testing, blood coagulation tests, biopsy, microbiology, and other IVD techniques.In Vitro Diagnostics Market: Regional InsightOn basis of geography, the market has been segmented into five countries  Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The BRICS IVD market is expected to have a healthy growth rate owing to the booming healthcare industry, thus driving the in vitro diagnostics market. China is expected to have the major share and is likely to remain the largest regional segment of BRICS countries, followed by Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa.Rampant economic growth observed in BRICS countries and emerging markets enabling patient base to afford diagnostic services has resulted in steady increase in healthcare expenditure. This is likely to remain an important driver for the BRICS IVD market in coming years. Increased awareness of diseases and personalized medicines, and rising health conscious urban population, combined with growing incidences of infections and diseases, has led to rise in demand for in vitro diagnostics in BRICS countries. Large aging population and prevalence of chronic diseases, combined with government support for healthcare market will drive the in vitro diagnostics market in China.Brazil Chamber of Laboratory Diagnostics (BCLD) study demonstrated that out of the total in vitro diagnostics market, laboratories comprised 88%, followed by blood banks at 11%, whereas Point of Care (POC) testing centers comprised only 1%. Increasing healthcare budgets along with rising number of private hospitals, and income levels backed by huge untapped population base offer interesting growth opportunities for IVD market in Brazil. However lack of proper reimbursement policies and a stringent regulatory framework may hamper the market growth. IVD market in South Africa has reached a stable phase with growth concentrated around infectious diseases diagnostics. However price sensitivity, lack of reimbursement policies and labor shortages continue to prove a hindrance to the growth of IVD market in South Africa.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving In vitro Diagnostics Market by 2024:In Vitro Diagnostics Market: Key PlayersThe in vitro diagnostics market is competitive in nature and hence possesses higher threat to new entrants. Some major players of in vitro diagnostics market comprises Roche diagnostics, Siemens Healthcare, Danaher, Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and Bio Rad laboratories, Inc.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Travelers Diarrhea Market is Expected to Show Staggering Growth During the Forecast Period

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Travelers Diarrhea Market: OverviewTravelers diarrhea refers to intestinal and stomach infection and occurs due to unsanitary conditions during handling of food. This disorder is characterized by frequent abdominal cramps resulting in loose stools and is usually caused by consumption of contaminated water or food. Travelling from one place to another where the sanitary conditions, social conditions, climate and other factors are different and hence presents high risk of developing travelers diarrhea.Browse through Travelers Diarrhea Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:This is one of the most common condition affecting travelers every year, for example according to data enumerated by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 20% to 50% an estimated 10 million of the international travelers develop travelers diarrhea every year. This disorder occurs during the travel period or post return and also in some cases one can experience multiple episodes of diarrhea during one trip. Developing countries of Latin America, Middle East, Asia and Africa represent the areas for highest risk of contracting travelers diarrhea. Immunosuppressed individuals, young adults and individuals with inflammatory bowel disorders and diabetic patients constitute the highly susceptible patient population for contracting travelers diarrhea.Intensity of infection varies depending on the type of eating establishment. For instance, there is low risk of infection if the food is consumed in private homes and poses high risk of infection in the food from the street vendors. Nausea, vomiting, fever, frequent defecate and abdominal cramps are some of the common symptoms of travelers diarrhea. Most of the cases are benign and resolve quickly but sometimes sign and symptoms persist for several days and can be more severe in cases where it is caused by other organisms other than common bacteria. In these cases, prescription medicines are recommended for the treatment. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is the most common causative agent of travelers diarrhea. Travelers can minimize the risk of developing travelers diarrhea by adopting several preventive measures such as use of bottled drinking water, avoiding consumption of raw or uncooked seafood and meat and raw fruits.Consulting a doctor than self medication is preferred for the treatment of travelers diarrhea and especially relevant to pregnant women and children. There are several medications prescribed for the treatment of diarrhea. For example, Pepto-Bismol tablet shortens the duration of illness and decreases diarrhea. This drug is not advised to take for more than three weeks at a time as it results in certain side effects such as temporary blackening of stools and tongue, constipation, nausea and others. Also, the consumption of this is not recommended for the patients who have aspirin allergy, gout, renal insufficiency and who are already taking anticoagulants. Other treatment options are replacement of fluids and salts achieved by the intake of oral rehydration solutions such as oral rehydration salts (ORS).Travelers Diarrhea Market: SegmentationThe market for travelers diarrhea can be analyzed by the various medications available for the treatment and the geographical landscape. Antimicrobial therapy is the most preferred one and fluoroquinolones are the most preferred. The geographical landscape elucidates the analysis of the market by four major geographies namely North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World. In addition, factors such as side effects of the drugs, introduction of alternate therapies, and increased focus on preventive care would impact the market growth.Furthermore, regulatory policies, marketing approvals for drugs and safety concerns would further influence the market growth. The major factors favoring the market growth are increasing cases of travelers diarrhea and growing tourism across the globe. On the other hand, factors such as side effects of the drugs and lack of accessibility to appropriate treatment might encumber the market growth.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Travelers Diarrhea Market by 2024:Bayer AG, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc. and Novartis AG are some of the companies operating in this market.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market Forecast and Segments, 2017-2027

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Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors are an easy and user-friendly device which measure the blood pressure. Wrist blood pressure is fully automated device in which all the work is done by a unit process.The wrist blood pressure monitors small size gives much more space critical design, The mechanism of wrist blood pressure monitor based on the signal from the pressure sensor is conditioned with an op-amp circuit or by an instrumentation amplifier before data conversion by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, and pulse rate are then calculated in the digital domain using a method appropriate for the type of monitor and sensor utilized. The resulting systolic, diastolic, and pulse-rate measurements are displayed on a liquid-crystal display (LCD), time/date-stamped, and stored in nonvolatile memory . Wrist blood pressure monitors are widely worldwide acceptable for the PHR purposes.Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market: Drivers and RestraintHigh incidence and prevalence of heart-related diseases and improving awareness of precautionary health checkup be the Drivers for wrist blood pressure monitor. Portability and compactness of the blood pressure monitor drive the revenue of wrist blood pressure market. Easy to use and small size make the wrist blood pressure popular globally which further act as a driver for the wrist blood pressure market. Wrist Blood Pressure monitors can be used for PHP purposes, and cost effectiveness may be the restraints for the Global Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market.Request Report Sample@Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market: SegmentationThe global market for Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market segmented by modality, end user, and geography:Segmentation by Product TypePortableCompactSegmentation by End-userHospitalsDiagnostic laboratoryHome careOthersSegmented by geographyNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificThe Middle East and AfricaWrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market: OverviewThe globalWrist Blood pressure monitorsmarket currently is one of the rapidly growing markets, and it is expected to show excellent opportunities in forecasted period.Revenue of the Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market increases day by day with good values. Wrist blood pressure monitors industry expanding tremendously in the positive figure due to various factors including the incidence of different blood pressure related disease, user-friendly nature of the wrist blood pressure monitors is working as a booster for the market growth of wrist blood pressure monitor. Several wrist blood pressure manufacturer working on innovation of product and advancement in technology, i.e., also play a role of fuel to the market of wrist blood pressure monitors.By modality, wrist blood pressure monitor can be categorized into two types such asportable and compact. Whereas, portable wrist blood pressure monitors are widely used in worldwide rather than other.Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor Market: Region-wise OutlookBy region, global Wrist Blood Pressure monitors market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America has the largest share in wrist blood monitor market followed by Europe. Due to high awareness and high health expenditure North America leads the market. Whereas, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market for due to the adoption of advanced technologies.Visit For TOC@Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the major players stand in global Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Market are Omron, Microlife, A&D Medical, HoMedics, Proton Healthcare and others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment Market Expected to Be Biggest Emerging Market by 2024

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Urothelial carcinoma is a malignant neoplasm resulting from transitional epithelium, occurring mainly in the urinary bladder, renal pelves or ureters; frequently papillary. These carcinomas are classified according to the degree of anaplasia. Urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) is a type of cancer that normally occurs in the urinary system: urinary bladder, kidney and accessory organs. It is the most common type of bladder, ureter, urethra, and urachus cancer. Urothelial cell carcinoma is also known as transitional cell carcinoma. Bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most common tumor of the entire urinary system and TCC is the most common primary neoplasm of the urinary bladder. Cancer of the ureter may not have symptoms in the early stages of the disease. However, symptoms may appear as the cancer grows. These include: persistent back pain, blood in the urine, painful or frequent urination, fatigue unexplained weight loss. These symptoms are associated with malignant cancer of the ureter and other health conditions.Browse through Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:The treatment of Urothelial carcinoma involves surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The tests to diagnose Urothelial carcinoma includes Urine tests, Ureteroscopy, Intravenous pyelogram (IVP), Retrograde pyelography, CT scan, MRI scan and Chest X-ray. While the treatment with surgery include open surgery, laparoscopic surgery and percutaneous endoscopic surgery. Chemotherapy treatment usually involves the treatment with a combination of drugs. The combinations includes: gemcitabine and cisplatin, gemcitabine and carboplatin as well as methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin and cisplatin. Radiotherapy is not frequently used for transitional cell carcinoma of the kidney or ureter. Patient may have radiotherapy to the area of the ureter or kidney if patients are not fit enough to have an operation or cancer has spread into surrounding tissue.The Urothelial carcinoma market has been segmented by type of drugs, by end-user and by geography. The type of drugs sub-segmented as targeted and chemotherapy. The drugs like Levatinib, Atezolizumab, Nivelumab, Enzalutamide, Abiraterone acetate, Cabazitaxel, sipuleucel-T, everolimus, bevacizumab and pazopanib are used in treatment of Urothelial carcinoma. The end-users for the Urothelial carcinoma market include Hospitals, Specialty Clinics, Cancer Research Institutes and Ambulatory Surgical Centers.Belgium holds the top rank in incidences of bladder cancer, which is followed by Lebanon and Malta. Bladder cancer cases occur in more developed countries, notably around 59%. The regions like Northern America and Europe having highest incidence of bladder cancer; and Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean having the lowest incidence. Transitional cell cancer develops in the part of the kidney called the renal pelvis. Transitional cell cancers are rare and only about 7 out of 100 kidney cancers (7%) diagnosed in the UK. The most common type of kidney cancer is renal cell cancer. Transitional cell cancer of the ureter is even more infrequent than transitional cell cancer of the kidney. TCC of the kidney is 4 times more common than cancer of the ureter. The most common type of bladder cancer is transitional cell cancers of the bladder. According to the estimation of American Cancer Society for bladder cancer, in 2016 there would be about 76,960 new cases of bladder cancer, and about 16,390 deaths from bladder cancer alone in the United States. In recent years the rates of cancer deaths and new bladder cancers have been dropping slightly in women. Incidence rates have been decreasing and death rates have been stable in men. About 5% of all newly diagnosed cancers in the US are Bladder cancers. It is the fourth most frequent cancer in men, but it is not common in women.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment Market by 2024:The major players operating in Urothelial carcinoma market include Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, Novartis, Dendreon, Sanofi Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Eisai are among other significant players worldwide.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Pharmaceutical Solvents Market registering a 3.5% Value CAGR, 2016-2026

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Global Market for Pharmaceutical Solvents Projected to Witness Sluggish GrowthA majority of medicines & drugs produced in the world are derived from formulating Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), and such processes require alcoholic solvents such as ethanol, isopropanol, propanol and propylene glycol.Production of pharmaceutical solvents continues to be concentrated in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region as leading API suppliers and drug manufacturers in the world have based their production units in countries such as South Korea, China and India, among others.Ask For Report Sample @Nevertheless, the production of pharmaceutical solvents in the world continues to be riddled with challenges emanating from stringent manufacturing regulations imposed by governments. Administration authorities regulating industrial activities in a region are curbing the production of pharmaceutical solvents which contain high volumes of inflammable fluids. An alarming rise in the incidences of casualties reported in pharmaceutical solvent manufacturing plants as well as health risks of being exposed to volatile liquids present in several pharmaceutical solvents will continue to be a major challenge for drugmakers in the coming years.According to Future Market Insights, the global market for pharmaceutical solvents will expand at a sluggish pace, registering a 3.5% CAGR (in terms of value) during the forecast period 2016-2026. More than 2,000 kilotons of pharmaceutical solvents were estimated to be sold in 2016, projecting that the global pharmaceutical solvents revenues amassed in the year surpassed US$ 2,713.2 million. In the report, titled Pharmaceutical Solvents Market: Global Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, Future Market Insights expects that by the end of 2026, an approximate of US$ 4.1 billion revenues will be accrued through global sales of pharmaceutical solvents. Over the projection period, the APEJ pharmaceutical solvents market will account for over 30% of the global revenues, primarily due to the regions potential for large scale production of drugs, medicine and other pharmaceutical products. Meanwhile, North America and Western Europe are anticipated to incur a slight dip in their collective share towards global market value, procuring combined revenues of nearly US$ 2 billion by the end of 2026.Ask For More Information @Alcohol  Dominant Chemical Group for Pharmaceutical SolventsFormulation of pharmaceutical products is mainly instrumented by mixing alcoholic solvents with API and other pharmaceutical ingredients. During production of medicinal fluids, alcohols tend to serve as the inactive ingredients or excipients, helping in stabilising the chemical composition of resultant compounds. Hence, the global market for pharmaceutical solvents will continue to witness higher adoption of alcohols as the constituent chemicals used for production. By the end of 2026, more than 700 kilotons of alcohols will be consumed for global production of pharmaceutical solvents. Besides, esters are also expected to be a dominant chemical constituent in production of pharmaceutical solvents, and are estimated to have accounted for more than US$ 400 million revenues in 2016. On the other hand, manufacturers of pharmaceutical solvents are also augmenting their production techniques to include ether chemicals. During the forecast period, the global revenue share of ethers will exhibit an impressive growth by accounting for more than 16%.Fire Hazards Repressing Rampant Production of Pharmaceutical SolventsLeading manufacturers in the global pharmaceutical solvents market are being weighed down by government and administrative authorities for limiting their production potential. Presence of volatile chemicals in pharmaceutical solvents has led to imposition of strict regulations regarding production, storage and transport of pharmaceutical solvents. Subsequently, health hazards impact the pricing of pharmaceutical solvents as employees working in solvent manufacturing units demand better insurance cover and incessant salary hikes, which ends up spiking the production costs for companies.Prominent players in the global pharmaceutical solvents market are being compelled to remodel their production methods by including innovative techniques that constrain the fire hazards during manufacturing. Competitive landscape of the global pharmaceutical solvents market is fragmented into raw material suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. Companies such as The Dow Chemical Company, Clariant AG, BASF SE, and Alfa Aesar are recognised as global manufacturers of pharmaceutical solvents, while leading raw material suppliers in the global market include Mitsui Chemicals, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Eastman Chemical Company. Other companies profiled in the report include, Yips Chemical Holdings Limited, Merck KGaA, and Procter & Gamble Chemicals.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Friction Modifier Additives Market will hit CAGR of 5.1% through 2026

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Global demand for friction modifiers additives will reach about 174 thousand tonnes in 2016, up from 167 thousand tonnes in 2015. This will represent a market value of US$ 1,027 Mn, an increase of US$ 62 Mn from 2015. While wide-ranging applications, most prominently as lubricants in automotive sector, will continue to fuel demand, availability of affordable alternatives, such as dispersant additives, corrosion inhibitors and detergent additives will continue to pose challenges.By product type, inorganic friction modifier additives will continue to outsell organic, reaching about 597 thousand tonnes in 2016. Among the inorganic friction modifier additives, MoDTC will continue to account for the highest demand, reaching 275 thousand tonnes in 2016. Among the three types of organic friction modifier additives-polymers, fatty acids, and esters & amides-polymers are witnessing high demand from the automotive sector in North America and Western Europe. This trend is expected to gain further momentum in 2016, propelling the growth of the overall market.Request For Sample@Automotive lubricants will continue to be the largest application segment for friction modifier additives in 2016, witnessing a growth rate of about 6% over 2015, representing a market value worth US$272 Mn.Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) will maintain its numero uno position in 2016, with total demand expected to reach around 48 thousand tonnes. Demand will be supported by the regions expansive automotive sector, especially in the populous countries of China and India. These two countries will remain key to the growth of the global friction modifiers additives market in 2016 and beyond, as consumers in these countries put a lot of emphasis on the fuel efficiency of a vehicle while making buying decisions. In addition to the regions behemoth automotive industry, strong demand from the plethora of end-use industries in the region will continue to support demand. North America will continue to remain the second largest market for friction modifiers additives, representing a 22.5% share of global revenues.Send An Enquiry@Key players operating in the global friction modifiers additives market are Chemtura Corporation, Multisol, Archoil, International Lubricants, Inc., Afton Chemical Corporation, and Wynns.Long-term Outlook: The long-term outlook on the friction modifiers additives market remains positive with global volume witnessing a CAGR of 5.1% through 2026, whereas global revenues expanding at 6.9% through 2026.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Machine Learning As A Services Market value Share, Analysis and Segments 2017-2027

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With recent advances in science and technology, particularly in machine learning, organisations need to adopt more comprehensive analytics strategies rather than basic analytics as large volumes of data is needed to be analyzed. Machine learning draws from numerous fields of studyartificial intelligence, data mining, statistics, and optimization. With the emergence of need for new computing technologies, the machine learning as service market has emerged drastically from the past where an organisation need critical, reliable and faster ways to learn from the data already available and provide insights. The evolution of artificial intelligence enabled researchers to adopt new iterative models for machine learning and when these models are exposed to new data they are able to learn independently.Many organisation are adopting machines learning as a service (MLaaS) rather than in-house development due to various Organizational Challenges like talent scarcity etc., and Data Challenges like need of reliable and quality data. The organisations also face Infrastructure Challenges like lack of proper storage facilities and hardware for computation.Request For Report Sample@Market drivers & challenges:Major markets drivers for Machine learning as Service (MLaaS) market increased volume of data and diversity in the data available which need to be studied qualitatively. The other driver for Machine learning as service market was data storage became more affordable and cheaper.The other major market driver for the Machine learning as Service market (MLaaS) is Recommendation systems which are usedacross a wide range of industries, most notably online shopping sites which help organisation to get deeper insights about the customer behavior by helping them discover new and relevant offers thereby leading to stronger customer relationships and higher sales for the business.The other major factor driving Machine learning as Service market (MLaaS) is some organizations need to make important decision during real time where machine learning models provide best predictions.The biggest challenge in adopting Machines Learning as Service (MLaaS) by many organisations was the cold start problem wherein they lack the historical data needed to provide recommendations where in organisation first create a feedback lack that test user responses in order to make further recommendations which can improve over time.Global Machine Learning as a Service Market: SegmentationGlobal Machine Learning as a Service Market is segmented based on the, type, vertical and region.On basis of Type global Machine Learning as a Service Market can be segmented to Supervised learning, Unsupervised learning, Semi supervised learning and Reinforcement learning web and mobile.On the basis of vertical global Machine Learning as a Service Market is segmented into BFSI, Government, healthcare, retail, energy, transportation and others.On basis of region, global Machine Learning as a Service Market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA).Market Overview:North America region is dominant in Machine Learning as a Service Market due to growing demand from large enterprises and startup companies in North America and followed by Western Europe during the period. Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at a faster rate during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Key Market Players:Some of the Key players in Machine Learning as a Service Market include Google, Amazon Web Services, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, SAS Institute Inc., BigML, Inc., DataRobot, Inc., FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation), Yottamine Analytics, LLC, and Algolytics.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Russia Viscosupplementation Market Registering a steady increment at 5.3% CAGR, 2016-2026

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Russias healthcare infrastructure will continue witnessing significant rise in number of orthopaedic patients as several bone & joint-related disorders are likely to be caused by peoples eating & drink habits, their proactive lifestyles and the countrys harsh weather conditions. Rising occurrence of joint-related ailments such as knee osteoarthritis in Russia are a result of people performing physical labour in severely cold weather conditions. This has necessitated the adoption of viscosupplementation as an ideal medical procedure for injecting lubricating fluid in bone joints during surgeries. An in-depth analysis of Russias viscosupplementation market, conducted by Future Market Insights, projects that demand for three-injection viscosupplementation will gain traction over the next decade.According to Future Market Insights recent report, titled Viscosupplementation Market: Russia Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, nearly 70% of viscosupplementation revenues amassed across Russia in 2016 were accounted by three-injection viscosupplementation. The report estimates that the Russian viscosupplementation market incurred revenues worth over RUB 1.13 billion (US$ 19 million) in 2016. Registering a steady increment at 5.3% CAGR, Russias viscosupplementation revenues are expected to reach RUB 2.02 billion (US$ 34 million) by the end of 2026. With higher demand for three-injection viscosupplementation, Russias healthcare industry leaders will continue to extend production of three-injection viscosupplementation products as opposed to single injection and five-injection viscosupplementation products.Ask For Report Sample @The report also establishes projections regarding the end-use of viscosupplementation in Russia. Hospitals across the country will account for just above RUB 1.24 billion (US$ 21 million) revenues by the end of projection period. Within this, the demand for viscosupplementation will remain considerably higher in hospitals with capacity of more than 500 beds. End-use of viscosupplementation in Russias ambulatory surgical centres (ASCs) will remain nascent, while revenues accounted by orthopaedic clinics are expected to surpass RUB 595 million (US$ 10 million) through 2026.Ask For More Information @Top Players in Russias Viscosupplementation MarketTop three established players in Russias Viscosupplementation market include Hyaltech, Croma-Pharma GmbH and TRB Chemedica. The market is fragmented with small players holding substantial market share. While Hyaltech, Croma-Pharma GmbH and TRB Chemedica collectively dominate with more than half of the countrys viscosupplementation revenues. International players such as Sanofi, Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Fidia Farmaceutici spa have low share as compared to the other players, Anika Therapeutics has recently launched their viscosupplementation product in Russias viscosupplementation market.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Ceramic Tiles Market to reach US$ 112.3 Bn in revenues by 2019 end

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The global ceramic tiles market was valued at US$ 78.7 Bn in 2015, and is expected to grow at a year-over-year rate of 9.2% to reach US$ 86.0 Bn in 2016. Asia and Europe are the two major markets for ceramic tiles, collectively accounting for 80.6% share of the global market in 2015. Asia Pacific (APAC) is the largest market globally, both in terms of production and consumption.Demand for ceramic tiles is primarily driven by rising construction activities, economic reforms in developing countries, rapid urbanisation, growing per capita income, population expansion and higher disposable income especially in emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India. However, factors such environmental restrictions and stringent government regulations pertaining to excessive emission of CO2 during ceramic tiles production can hinder the growth of the market.Request For Sample@By application, residential replacement is the largest segment owing to its myriad uses, such as substitutes for marble, paint and other similar products. The residential replacement segment is anticipated to increase at a year-over-year rate of 9.5% in 2016 to reach US$ 85.9 Bn in revenues.On the basis of type, ceramic floor tiles is the largest segment, accounting for US$ 33.4 Bn worth of demand in 2015. This segment is anticipated to increase at a year-over-year growth of 9.5% to reach US$ 36.6 Bn in revenues in 2016.On the basis of regional segmentation the global ceramic tiles market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America & Latin America and rest of world (ROW).Send An Enquiry@In recent years, the global ceramic tiles landscape is witnessing increased production offerings and capacity expansion by various market participants, including China Ceramics, Ceramica Saloni, RAK Ceramics, Porcelanosa Grupo, Mohawk Industries and Kajaria Ceramics. The revival of the global economy has been bolstered the global housing sector, which in turn, has led to growth in the global ceramic tiles market.Long-term Outlook: The global ceramic tiles market is anticipated to increase at a CAGR of 9.3% during the forecast period to reach US$ 112.3 Bn in revenues by 2019 end. Asia Pacific will remain the most lucrative region during the forecast period, whereas residential replacement application segment will continue to account for the highest demand.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Carrageenan Gum Market anticipated to register a 4% CAGR, 2016-2024

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In spite of recording global sales of over 60,000 metric tonnes in 2016, Future Market Insights predicts that the global demand for carrageenan gum will witness a considerable decline. A latest research report published by Future Market Insights projects that by the end of 2024, the global consumption of carrageenan gum would have soared moderately at 4.3% CAGR and surpassed 88,000 metric tonnes. The report further reveals the real reason behind sluggish sales of carrageenan gum in the world.According to the report, titled Carrageenan Gum Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2024, the common fallacy that renders carrageenan gum as harmful ingredient has been instrumenting the decelerated growth in its global sales. Misconceptions arising from ambiguous status of carrageenan gum as a viable food ingredient has restrained the market from attaining a steady growth. The global carrageenan gum market, which is presently valued over US$ 700 million, is hence anticipated to register a 4% CAGR and bring in close to US$ 1 billion by the end of 2024.Ask For Report Sample @Limited availability of raw carrageenan is also expected to keep curbing the production of carrageenan gum in the world. A majority of carrageenan gum produced across the globe gets consumed by food and beverage manufacturers. The report reveals how more than half of global carrageenan gum revenues are accounted by food & beverage industries. Presence of carrageenan gum is also gaining traction in production of personal care products & toiletries. In 2016, nearly ten thousand metric tonnes of carrageenan gum were consumed by this segment. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical manufacturers are expected to lower their participation in the global consumption of carrageenan gum, owing to the ingredients speculative status and prolonging FDA approvals. Carrageenan gum will also be used in production of animal feed and pet food products, revenues from which are projected to surpass US$ 200 million by the end of 2024.Ask For More Information @A regional analysis of global carrageenan gum market projected higher demand for carrageenan gum in Europe. Apropos the report, Europe will contribute to more than 35% of global carrageenan gum revenues throughout the forecast period. Revenues emanating from Europe are also expected to rise at 4.4% CAGR, while the regions carrageenan gum consumption will register growth at 4.8% CAGR. Meanwhile, North America and Asia-Pacific will collectively account for almost 50% of global carrageenan gum revenues through 2024. Latin Americas carrageenan gum market, on the other hand, will bring in nearly US$ 120 million in revenues. Middle East & Africas carrageenan gum revenues, however, will be registering the slowest CAGR over the forecast period.A majority of carrageenan gum manufacturers in the world are based in the US. Companies such as CP Kelco ApS, FMC Corporation, E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., Ingredient Solution Inc., and Cargill, Incorporated are prominent players in the global carrageenan gum market. The market is also witnessing higher participation from companies namely, Compania Espanola de Algas Marinas S.A. (CEAMSA), W. Hydrocolloids Inc., Altrafine Gum, Kerry Group, Extractos Naturales Gelymar S. A., and Marcel Trading Corporation.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Transdermal Scopolamine Market Research Report by Geographical Analysis and Forecast to 2024

Transdermal Scopolamine Market

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In this research report, the worldwide market for transdermal scopolamine is primarily analyzed on the basis of its geographical presence. As per the study, Latin America, North America, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and Asia Pacific are the primary geographical segments of this market. North America, among these, has emerged as key contributor to this market, thanks to the presence of an advanced healthcare industry. Driven by the high healthcare expenditure and increased usage of transdermal scopolamine in surgeries and post-operative recovery, this regional market is likely to remain dominant throughout the forecast period, rising at a 6.40% CAGR.Although the North America market will retain its position, the market stagnancy caused by the availably of limited generics is expected to reflect negatively on its growth rate in the near future. Europe, on the other hand, is anticipated to witness a significant rise in its transdermal scopolamine market in the years to come, thanks to the presence of a state-of-art healthcare industry and the rising pool of travelers. Western Europe is projected to surface as the key domestic market in the European market for transdermal scopolamine over the next few years.Among other regional markets, Asia Pacific is projected to offer lucrative growth opportunities to market players in the near future on the grounds of the rising expenditure on healthcare, infrastructural advancements in the healthcare industry, and the growing focus on community healthcare in developing markets, such as China and India, reports the research study.This 103 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Transdermal Scopolamine Market. Browse through 7 data tables and 15 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The increasing awareness among consumers pertaining to the high efficiency of transdermal scopolamine in treating motion sickness is influencing the global market for transdermal scopolamine substantially, says a TMR analyst. With the increasing number of travelers across the world, the cases of motion sickness are on a rise, reflecting positively on the demand for transdermal scopolamine patches, globally.Since these patches are also utilized while surgeries to prevent hyper salivation and to speed-up the recovery from post-operative and anesthesia induced vomiting and nausea, the upswing in the number of surgeries performed worldwide is likely to boost the global transdermal scopolamine market considerably over the forecast period. However, the increasing reports of side-effects caused by these patches, such as retarted motion, drowsiness, and diluted pupils, may restrict their usage to some extent in the coming years. Beside this, the enforcement of strict norms and regulations in manufacturing and marketing of transdermal scopolamine patches and products may also hinder the growth of this market over the next few years, states the report.The study presented here is based on a report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), titled Transdermal Scopolamine Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Transdermal Scopolamine Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:With the increasing expenditure on healthcare, infrastructural developments in the healthcare industry, and the rising emphasis on community healthcare in emerging economies, such as China and India, Asia Pacific is expected to provide the most promising growth opportunities to players in the near future. The number of small- and medium- scale players, offering their transdermal scopolamine patches in this region, has increased substantially, making a competitive environment, which is likely to drive the Asia Pacific market for transdermal scopolamine further in the years to come. Amongst other, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa are anticipated to witness steady growth in their markets for transdermal scopolamine over the coming years, thanks to the rising number of travelers and the increasing focus of key industry players on these regions.Baxter International Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG, Perrigo Co. Plc, Caleb Pharmaceuticals Inc, and Myungmoon Pharma Co. Ltd. are the leading players operational in the global transdermal scopolamine market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Porcine Vaccine Market Research Report Forecast to 2024

Porcine Vaccine Market

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For several decades, vaccination has remained one of the most important interventions for disease prevention among humans and animals. In veterinary medicine, vaccination has proven to be a boon for animal health. Diseases such as diarrhoea, swine influenza, porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRSV), porcine circovirus associated disease (PCVAD), have been greatly reduced from spreading endemic in several cases. Some diseases such as foot and mouth disease and cholera high fever in swines have been significantly eliminated in North America with the help of vaccination.The market for porcine vaccine in the region is expected to exhibit healthy growth in the next few years as well. The rising demand for meat and gelatin and concerns regarding the rising pace of occurrence of zoonotic diseases will be the key factors driving the market in the near future. Transparency Market Research estimates that the North America porcine vaccine market will expand at a 5.3% CAGR from 2016 to 2024. As a result, the market, which valued at US$540.9 mn in 2015, will rise to US$926.2 mn by 2024.This 131 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Porcine Vaccine Market. Browse through 10 data tables and 43 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:In terms of the technology used to develop vaccines, the North America porcine vaccines market has been segmented into inactivated vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, recombinant vaccines, toxoid vaccines, DNA vaccines, and conjugate vaccines. Of these, the segment of inactivated vaccines dominated the market in 2015 and is expected to account for a 53.3% of the North America veterinary vaccine market in 2016. The segment is also expected to exhibit the most promising growth in the near future, expanding at a 6.7% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024.The segment of live attenuated vaccines will exhibit a strong 5.9% CAGR over the said period. Rise in the number of swine farms, rising prevalence of zoonotic disease, and increase in investments by key players are likely to drive the live attenuated vaccine segment. The DNA vaccine segment is projected to emerge as a high-growth segment owing to rise in demand and increase in R&D investments. DNA vaccines have shown excellent results in granting strong immunity against homologous infections and have a good score in terms of approval from regulatory bodies in the region. As a result, the demand for these vaccines is expected to rise at a healthy pace in the region over the forecast period.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Porcine Vaccine Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:The North America porcine vaccine market has been examined for two countries in the region: the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. market for porcine vaccines accounted for a larger 63% share in the North America market in 2015. The U.S. porcine vaccine market is expected to exhibit the most lucrative 6.6% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. Factors such as well-established infrastructure in immunological research, high concentration of key players, highly organized farming structure, increased demand for animal protein, and rising expenditure on animal health by farm owners are attributed to the dominant share of the country in the North America market.The market in Canada is also anticipated to expand at a healthy, but comparatively lower CAGR of 5.8% from 2016 to 2024. Factors such as the rising prevalence of PRRS virus and PCV2 among herds and rising focus of key players on R&D activities for the development of effective vaccines will contribute to the growth prospects of the Canada porcine vaccines market in the near future. Moreover, export and import permits among contract manufacturers or distributer firms and low estimated cost of products are also expected to make the porcine vaccine market more popular in Canada.Some of the key players in the market are Bayer AG., Bimeda Animal Health, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Ceva Sante Animale, Merck & Co., Inc., Merial (Sanofi), Vetoquinol, Zoetis, Inc., Elanco (Eli Lilly and Company).About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market Research Report by Geographical Analysis and Forecast to 2024

Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market

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The hyper-endemic prevalence of hepatitis E in various economies across the world, specifically in Asia Pacific, is likely to boost the need for hepatitis E diagnostic tests, globally in the coming years. The global hepatitis E diagnostic tests market, which was valued at US$43.7 mn in 2015, is projected to expand at a CAGR of 3.80% between 2016 and 2024 and rise to an opportunity worth US$60.4 mn by 2024.This 162 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market. Browse through 18 data tables and 55 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:ELISA HEV IgM test kits, ELISA HEV IgG test kits, and RT-PCR test kits are the main types of test kits available in the global hepatitis E diagnostic test market. Since ELISA HEV IgM test kits are utilized extensively in the primary tests for the diagnosis of hepatitis E infections, these kits have been registering a higher demand than other test kits. Supported by the growing seroprevalence of hepatitis E across the world, researchers expect the demand for ELISA HEV IgM test kits to continue to rise remarkably over the forecast period.The RT-PCR test kits segment is likely to follow the ELISA HEV IgM test kits segment closely in the coming years. As RT-PCR test is considered as the direct test for the diagnosis of acute infections of hepatitis E, the demand for RT-PCR test kits is also expected to increase substantially in near future. On the flip side, the ELISA HEV IgG test kits segment is projected to report a modest progression over the years to come.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Hepatitis E Diagnostic Tests Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:On the basis of geography, the global market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests is segmented into Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East and Africa. In 2015, Asia Pacific led the worldwide market with a share of more than 42% and is projected to remain dominant over the forecast period. A number of Asian countries, such as India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Thailand, and Burma, suffer from hyperendemicity of hepatitis E, which leads to an increased need for hepatitis E diagnostic tests, supporting the growth of the Asia Pacific market.Apart from this, the Middle East and Africa will also witness a prominent rise in the market for the hepatitis E diagnostic tests in the coming years on account of the growing prevalence of hepatitis E in several economies, such as Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria due to poor sanitation facilities and lack of safe drinking water. On the other hand, the markets in North America and Europe will not report any noteworthy growth in the near future due to the insignificant prevalence of hepatitis E.Some of the leading companies in the global market for hepatitis E diagnostic tests are Primerdesign Ltd., MP Biomedicals LLC, Mikrogen GmBH, Fortress Diagnostics Ltd., Fast-track diagnostics Ltd., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Dia.Pro - Diagnostic Bioprobes s.r.l, Biokit S.A., Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy, and Altana Diagnostics GmbH.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Market Research on Cellulite Treatment Market 2017 and Analysis to 2027

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Cellulite is a multi-faced condition, a type of fat that is more visible on the surface of the skin than another type of fat in the body which is caused by several physiological and hormonal factors. Cellulite Treatment is a process of reducing the amount or appearance of cellulite. Most of the women have cellulite to one or another degree. Most common areas of the body where the cellulite occurs are the body parts which serves as the body fat's reserves such as buttocks, thighs, and hips. Cellulite creates a dimpled appearance in these areas of the body because it is closer to the surface of the skin. A connective tissue like Septa anchoring the fat tissue beneath the skin to deep muscles forms cellulite when changes its position between layers of the various tissues. The septa may breakdown, stretch or pull tight and fat may squeeze close to the surface of the skin which results in cellulite.According to statistics, more than 85% of females past the age of eighteen regardless of ancestry cellulite shows up on the thighs, although it is more common for Caucasian and Asian women. As it is a benign condition but being much like wrinkles cellulite has become a concern of women worldwide. Everything from loofahs, miracle ingredients, , herbal supplements, vitamins, minerals, special washcloths, bath liquids, rubberized pants, rollers, body wraps, brushes, and toning lotions to electrical muscle stimulation, vibrating machines, hormone or enzyme injections, inflatable hip-high pressurized boots, and massage have been claimed to be successful cellulite treatments.Request Report Sample@Cellulite Treatment Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe desire to enhance the beauty and physical appearance among women with Increase in Awareness of the cellulite treatment procedures among the general public is the major factor that drives the Cellulite TreatmentMarket. The increase in efforts of Cellulite Industry on developing non-invasive and invasive techniques that help to address fat more effectively with the rise in disposable income due to increase in job opportunities in developing countries are also expected to fuel the market revenue for Cellulite treatment market over the forecast period. However, the suffering of the patients during treatment, high expenses of treatments, inadequate reimbursement infrastructures, unavailability of permanent cellulite removal procedures and certain side effects associated with the processes can hamper the growth of the Cellulite treatment marketto some extent.Cellulite Treatment Market: SegmentationCellulite treatment is segmented by:By treatment:Minimally InvasiveNon-InvasiveBy End-userHospitalsDermatology Clinics.Cellulite Treatment Market: OverviewCellulite is the problem for approximately 90 percent of women in Western nations. Before the middle of the 20th century, removal of cellulite wasnt a major issue for most women, because problematic fat buildups in their legs, thighs or buttocks werent as common back then but now people are concerned about how to get rid of cellulite for about 40 or 50 years. However, now there are many treatments against cellulite which is going to boost the revenue for cellulite treatment market in the upcoming period. Cellulaze one of the most effective laser cellulite treatment and is an FDA-approved procedure, which cuts the septae that cause skin dimpling and then melts the fat underneath the skin. Cellulaze session in Laser cellulite removal costs goes for a minimum of $2500. Most of the cellulite products come in the form of creams and lotions with lab-synthesized ingredients and the vast array of either exotic sounding beside this there are devices such as endermologie.Cellulite Treatment Market: Region-wise OutlookA geographic condition regarding for Cellulite treatment market, it has been segmented into five broad regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, and the Middle East & Africa.North America represents the largest Cellulite treatmentmarket followed by Europe due to advanced Healthcare Infrastructures and advancement in medical and surgical techniques. Expanding Urbanization as well as the increase in disposable income and increase in specialized surgeons in Asia-Pacific region results in elevation of Cellulite treatment market.Visit For TOC@Cellulite Market: Key Market ParticipantsSome of the key players in Cellulite treatment are Syneron Medical Inc., Cynosure Inc., Solta Medical Inc.and much more.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Auto-Injectors Market projected to exhibit an impressive value CAGR of 15.1%, 2016-2026

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Improving healthcare infrastructure across several countries and regions, coupled with availability of well-developed manufacturing units, facilitates the growth of medical device businesses. The changing attitude of patients towards treatment of generic diseases has indicated a significant rise in preference for self-administration devices such as auto-injectors. Promoting this notion, auto-injectors continue to gain prominence not just as an alternative route for drug delivery but also as point-of-care devices in homecare settings. Future Market Insights recently published its report on the global market for auto-injectors, which projects that by the end of 2026, more than US$ 6,800 Mn worth of auto-injectors will sold globally. Currently valued at US$ 1,673.7 Mn, the global auto-injectors market is being projected to exhibit an impressive value CAGR of 15.1%.In the report, titled Auto-Injectors Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, nearly three-fourth of global auto-injector revenues have been estimated to come from the US and Canada. While North America is being observed as the largest market for auto-injectors in the world, auto-injector sales will be relatively high in Western Europe as well. And, majority of auto-injectors are expected to be distributed through online pharmacies. Online pharmacies as a distribution channel will register the fastest revenue growth at 18% CAGR, while retail pharmacies will be procuring one-fourth of global market value by the end of 2026.Ask For Report Sample @Impact of Self-Injection Practices & Novel Drug Delivery SystemsThe global market for auto-injectors is projected to expand aggressively, and the report draws this forecast from identifying the most direct, impactful factors that drive the demand for auto-injectors. Firstly, the demand for auto-injectors is expected to keep soaring on the account of high adoption of self-injection practices by patients. Doctors, as well, are prompting patients to take up self-administration devices such as auto-injectors in order to fulfil their prescribed medication dosages through invasive yet safe administration routes.Along with that, the global demand for auto-injectors is also expected to be driven by growing development of novel drug delivery systems. Manufacturers of medical devices are collaborating with clinical scientists in order to pave way for next-gen tools in drug administration. In the years to come, the global auto-injectors market is anticipated to garner surplus demand, particularly for prefilled auto-injectors. In 2017 and beyond, more than 92% of global auto-injectors revenues will be emanating from sales of prefilled auto-injectors. Fillable auto-injectors, on the other hand, will incur a downtick in terms of global revenue share over the latter half of forecast period.Ask For More Information @Higher Demand for Auto-Injectors in Treatment of AnaphylaxisAnother factor that is inducing growth in demand for auto-injectors is the prevalence of multiple sclerosis and anaphylaxis. Notable disease monitoring associations from across the globe are predicting that these disorders are less likely to cease their occurrence rate among geriatric populations, which is incidentally boosting the demand for auto-injectors. In 2016, anaphylaxis as a disease indication accounted for an estimated US$ 1,500 Mn of global auto-injector revenues. Through 2026, almost nine out of ten auto-injectors sold globally are likely to be used for treating anaphylaxis. Meanwhile, auto-injectors sold for treatment of multiple sclerosis will register a marginal rise through the forecast period. And, revenues amassed from sales of auto-injectors for rheumatoid arthritis are expected to showcase highest CAGR of 18.3%.Parallel to their rising demand, the global supply of auto-injectors is also expected to propel by the end of 2026. Increased development of biologics, their use in production of advanced drug delivery devices, reduction of manufacturing prices, and additional cost-savings conferred by technological advancements, are all collectively bolstering the global production of auto-injectors. The report has profiled leading players in the global auto-injectors market, which include Amgen Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi, Pfizer, Inc., Becton, Dickson and Company, Mylan NV, Bayer AG, Eli Lily and Company, Janssen Global Services, LLC, and Antares Pharma, Inc.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Hospital Real-time Location Systems Market 2017 - Ekahau, CenTrak, IBM, Zebra Technologies

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The Hospital Real-time Location Systems Market 2017 examines the performance of the Hospital Real-time Location Systems market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Hospital Real-time Location Systems market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Hospital Real-time Location Systems market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Hospital Real-time Location Systems Market 2017 report includes Hospital Real-time Location Systems industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Hospital Real-time Location Systems Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Hospital Real-time Location Systems Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Hospital Real-time Location Systems Market 2017:1 Ekahau2 CenTrak3 IBM4 Zebra Technologies5 Versus Technology6 GE Healthcare7 Stanley Healthcare8 Awarepoint Corporation9 Sonitor Technologies10 TeleTracking11 Intelleflex12 Savi Technology13 TimeDomain14 ThingMagicHospital Real-time Location Systems Market Analysis: By ProductRFIDWi-FiUltrasoundInfraredOtherHospital Real-time Location Systems Market Analysis: By ApplicationPublic HospitalPrivate HospitalAt the beginning, the report covers the top Hospital Real-time Location Systems manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Hospital Real-time Location Systems report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Hospital Real-time Location Systems industry, Hospital Real-time Location Systems industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Hospital Real-time Location Systems Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Hospital Real-time Location Systems research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Hospital Real-time Location Systems market revenue worldwide.Finally, Hospital Real-time Location Systems market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Global Apple Accessories Market will increase at 4.8% CAGR through 2020

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The global Apple accessories market is expected to grow at 4.6% CAGR over the forecast period, 2016-2020. Demand is expected to remain strong in China, where rapid adoption of smartphones, combined with an increasing preference towards the Apple brand is pushing sales. The market in China is expected to grow at 8.5% CAGR through the forecast period. Globally, the demand for Apple accessories is expected to be positively influenced by the growing BYOD trend.Weak distribution channels in emerging markets have remained a longstanding challenge for manufacturers. However, popularity of e-commerce and focus on creating alternative distribution channels have positively impacted Apple accessories sales in emerging markets. The steady growth in these markets is expected to offset weak demand in developed markets of the U.S. and Europe.Ask For Report Sample @Apple accessories sales in Asia will be driven by rising popularity of e-commerce websites and apps. As is the case in Asia, steady e-commerce sales are driving Apple accessories sales in Brazil and Russia. These factors will contribute to the overall growth of the global market.Future Market Insights identifies that undefined standards in terms of components and technology have led to price and product differentiation. Moreover, widespread availability of counterfeit and pirated products offered at a fraction of the original price in various developing countries can significantly inhibit demand for Apple accessories.The Future Market Insights report reveals that iPhone screen guards will continue to be the most-sought after accessory among consumers. iPad cases and iPad screen guards are expected to remain the other lucrative product types. Collectively, these three product segments accounted for over 50% revenue share of the global market in 2016, and the status quo will remain unchanged throughout the forecast period. Among these product types, iPad cases segment will only witness an increase in its revenue share by 2020.Ask For More Information @North America will continue to be the most lucrative market, with the US leading total sales. The North America Apple accessories market was valued at US$ 1.93 Bn in 2016, with the US accounting for US$ 1.38 Bn in revenues. Future Market Insights projects the North America market revenues to increase at a CAGR of 4% CAGR through 2020. The report further reveals that the Apple accessories market in Europe is predicted to register a CAGR of 4.0% in the span of next four years. However, the Apple accessories market in South East Asia is expected to witness relatively sluggish growth by the end of 2020.3M, Bose Corporation, Western Digital Corporation (SanDisk), Logitech, Otter Products, LLC., Decoded, Adobe, Bang & Olufsen, Incase and ACCO (Kensington Computer Products Group) are the key manufacturers operating in the Apple accessories market globally.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Worldwide Analysis on Autoimmunity Immunoassay Market Strategies and Forecasts, 2017 to 2027

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The immune system of human body acts against foreign materials and help in protecting body. However, sometimes this immune system acts against own tissues or cells as foreign material and results in autoimmunity or autoimmune disease. Autoimmunity is chronic inflammatory condition which can be either organ specific or systemic in nature. According to a report from National Institute of Health autoimmune conditions are one of the top ten cause of death among female children and women of age up to 64 years, and there are at least 80 human conditions which are caused by autoimmune responses. Test which is normally used for diagnosis of autoimmunity is called as immunoassay. Immunoassay is a diagnostic test that uses the reaction of antibody against antigen to diagnose autoimmunity.Autoimmunity Immunoassay Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe major factor driving the growth of autoimmunity immunoassay market is rising incidence of autoimmune disease. Other factors which are driving the growth of this market are increasing awareness among people regarding, cost-effectiveness and rapidness in detecting autoimmunity. Higher accuracy and government initiate are also driving the growth of autoimmunity immunoassay market.Request Report Sample@Autoimmunity Immunoassay Market: SegmentationThe global autoimmunity immunoassay market can be segmented by Product Type, Technology, End User, and Geography.On the basis of product type global autoimmunity immunoassay market can be segmented as:AnalyzersReagentsOn the basis of technology global autoimmunity immunoassay market can be segmented as:Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent AssayFluorescent ImmunoassayChemiluminescence immunoassayRadio immunoassayOthersOn the basis of end users global autoimmunity immunoassay market can be segmented as:HospitalDiagnostic LaboratoriesResearch InstitutesBiopharmaceutical CompaniesBlood BanksAutoimmunity Immunoassay Market: OverviewAutoimmunity immunoassay maker is expected to show significant growth over the forecast period. Immunoassay methods are highly sensitive and rapid in determining the autoimmunity. Reagent product segment is expected to be highest and fastest growing segment due to cost effectiveness and focus of major players on development of reagent immunoassay kits. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay account for the largest share in the global autoimmunity immunoassay market due to its high accuracy, cost effectiveness and this method has been used for a long time. But chemiluminescence immunoassay is expected to be fastest growing due to due to ultra-sensitivity of this method and can be used to detect small amount of molecule or autoantibody. Increasing awareness and adoption of this method is also expected to be growth driving factor. Other factors which are expected to drive the growth of autoimmunity immunoassays market are increasing demand of rapid results of test, highly accurate results and increasing drug discovery for autoimmune diseases.Autoimmunity Immunoassay Market: Region Wise OutlookGeographically, global autoimmunity immunoassay market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa. North America is most attractive autoimmunity immunoassay market due to the better healthcare infrastructure and technological advancements. Followed by which is Europe. Presence of key players in these regions and higher awareness among people regarding autoimmunity is reason for higher revenue generation. Asia-Pacific market is expected to be fastest growing market due to increasing no of diagnostic laboratories, improving healthcare infrastructures and government initiative to spread awareness among people regarding the auto-immune disease. Availability of huge opportunity in this region is also driving the growth.Visit For TOC@Autoimmunity Immunoassay Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global autoimmunity immunoassay market are Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Akers Biosciences, Inc., Biomerieux SA, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Enzo Life Sciences, Inc., Eiaab Hong Kong Company Limited, Beckman Coulter, Inc. and Diasorin S.P.A. Focus of these companies are on development of the reagent kits for diagnosis of autoimmunity.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Acai Berry Market exhibiting a CAGR of 12.6%, 2016-2026

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Nowadays, consumers are becoming more aware about the benefits of acai berry, particularly to the use of acai berry products in production of organic cosmetics. Gradually yet resolutely, consumers are getting accustomed to the fact that acai berry promotes healthier skin with youthful-look and elasticity. Acai berry products are rich in vitamin A, C and E, and help in regeneration of the skin. In addition to this, acai berry has numerous skin benefits, owing to which they are used in various products such anti-aging creams. Future Market Insights latest report projects that increasing usage of acai berry in organic cosmetics products will play an instrumental role in boosting global acai berry sales in the future.The report, titled Acai Berry Market: Global Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, estimates that in 2016, more than 300,000 tonnes of acai berry products were sold across the world. Future Market Insights anticipates an impressive rise in global consumption of acai berry products, and expects the global sales to surpass 1 million tonnes by the end of 2026. During this forecast period, the global market for acai berry will reflect a volume CAGR of 12.5%. In terms of value, the global acai berry market has been estimated to be valued at US$ 696 Mn in 2016, and is expected to reach US$ 2,285.7 Mn towards the end of 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.6%.Ask For Report Sample @In addition to the rising use of acai berry in production of organic cosmetics, the report also observes that robust nutritional content of acai berry products have helped them to gain applicability in production of protein drinks and other beverages. Likewise, sales of acai berry increased over past three years due to the positive perception towards super-food, which consists enormous amount of nutritional content. The report predicts that in the years to come, the demand for acai berry pulp will be considerably higher than dried acai berries. Higher nutritional content of acai berry pulp will help it procure more than 80% of global acai berry sales throughout the forecast period.Increasing demand for All Natural preserving for frozen fruits, coupled with rising preference for acai with guarana (in Latin America) has also propelled the application of acai berry. In 2017 and beyond, acai berry products will be largely used for food & beverage applications, revenues from which are expected to surge at 13% CAGR. Application of acai berry in production of nutraceuticals is also expected to gain traction, showcasing an absolute $ opportunity of close of US$ 137 Mn between 2016 and 2026.Ask For More Information @According to the report, the largest market for acai berry is expected to be Latin America. With more than 55% share, Latin America will dominate the global acai berry sales towards the end of forecast period. Brazil-based Acai Frooty is among the key players in the global acai berry market. South Africas Phyto Nutraceuticals Inc. is also observed as prominent manufacturer of acai berry products, while US-based companies such as Sambazon, Inc., Acai Roots, Inc., Nativo Acai, Acai Exotic LLC., Jamaba Juice, Inc., Sunfood, Naked Juice Company and The Coca-Cola Company are also profiled in the report as active participants of global acai berry market. Owing to the dense presence of US-based acai berry manufacturers in global market, North America is also expected to be at the forefront, registering rampant growth at 12.8% CAGR.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Hot Carrier Diode Market 2017 - Vishay, ON Semiconductor, NXP (Nexperia), ROHM, Diodes

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The Hot Carrier Diode Market 2017 examines the performance of the Hot Carrier Diode market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Hot Carrier Diode market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Hot Carrier Diode market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Hot Carrier Diode Market 2017 report includes Hot Carrier Diode industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Hot Carrier Diode Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Hot Carrier Diode Price during the Forecast Period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Hot Carrier Diode Market 2017:1 Vishay2 ON Semiconductor3 NXP (Nexperia)4 ROHM5 Diodes6 Toshiba7 Microsemi8 Renesas Electronics9 Good-Ark Electronics10 Torex Semiconductor11 Comchip12 ANOVA13 Bourns14 Micro Commercial Components15 Pan JitHot Carrier Diode Market Analysis: By ProductThrough Hole TechnologySurface Mount TechnologyHot Carrier Diode Market Analysis: By ApplicationConsumer ElectronicsComputingIndustrialTelecommunicationsAutomotiveOthersAt the beginning, the report covers the top Hot Carrier Diode manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Hot Carrier Diode report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Hot Carrier Diode industry, Hot Carrier Diode industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Hot Carrier Diode Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Hot Carrier Diode research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Hot Carrier Diode market revenue worldwide.Finally, Hot Carrier Diode market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Global Hydraulic Valves Market 2017 - Star Hydraulics, CEI, Voith, Nanjing Electro-mechanical

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The Hydraulic Valves Market 2017 examines the performance of the Hydraulic Valves market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Hydraulic Valves market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Hydraulic Valves market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Hydraulic Valves Market 2017 report includes Hydraulic Valves industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Hydraulic Valves Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Hydraulic Valves Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Hydraulic Valves Market 2017:1 EMG Automation GmbH2 Star Hydraulics3 CEI4 Voith5 Nanjing Electro-mechanical6 Bmtri Precision7 Moog8 Woodward9 Bosch Rexroth10 Honeywell11 Parker12 Eaton Vickers13 Team14 YUKENHydraulic Valves Market Analysis: By ProductManual Hydraulic ValvesElectric Control Hydraulic ValvesHydraulic Control Hydraulic ValvesHydraulic Valves Market Analysis: By ApplicationOil IndustryChemical IndustryHydropower StationOtherAt the beginning, the report covers the top Hydraulic Valves manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Hydraulic Valves report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Hydraulic Valves industry, Hydraulic Valves industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Hydraulic Valves Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Hydraulic Valves research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Hydraulic Valves market revenue worldwide.Finally, Hydraulic Valves market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Global Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market 2017 - Medtronic, DePuy Synthes, Aesculap, B.Braun

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The Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market 2017 examines the performance of the Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market 2017 report includes Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market 2017:1 Medtronic2 DePuy Synthes3 Aesculap4 B.BraunHydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market Analysis: By ProductAdultChildrenHydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market Analysis: By ApplicationMedical CenterHospitalOthersAt the beginning, the report covers the top Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve industry, Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve market revenue worldwide.Finally, Hydrocephalus Shunt Valve market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Wearable Medical Devices Market Research Report Forecast to 2023

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The top five providers of wearable medical devices held over 47% of the market in 2014, finds Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a new study. Key companies  such as Medtronic Plc., OMRON Corporation, Fitbit, Inc., and Polar Electro  have helped strengthen this otherwise fragmented market. Through a strong presence in wearable medical devices meant for home healthcare, OMRON Corporation had held one of the largest revenue shares of close to 11% in 2014. Their product emphasis is particularly high on pedometers, blood pressure monitors, and similar home healthcare medical devices. Another key player, Fitbit, Inc., has made its mark in consumer electronics through its widely popular wearable fitness devices series.According to TMR, the large number of regional players makes for a highly competitive landscape. Smaller players are constantly pushing innovative boundaries in order to gain market share, while the larger names enjoy a greater amount of consumers trust and have a strong distribution chain.This 109 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Wearable Medical Devices Market. Unlock the hidden opportunities in this market:The two key drivers that players in the wearable medical devices can latch on to are the giant scope of innovation and the growing number of people that need these devices, states a TMR expert. Market penetration is, however, easier said than done, due to the large number of players that already exist on regional and global scales. But despite these numbers, the right kind of innovative effort can bring about major success for new entrants in wearable medical devices.Companies are generally providing devices for two types of customers. The first is the wealthy, tech-savvy consumer who is highly conscious about his/her health, and the second type comes from a lower economic bracket and is looking for cheaper devices that provide basic utilities. Targeting both audiences can prove to be successful with the right kind of products and concepts, and will additionally depend on the region in which a player wishes to hold base.At the same time, the sales of wearable medical devices are consistently driven by a growing global population that comes with a higher percentage of the elderly and patient pool with chronic diseases. Those suffering from issues such as diabetes are showing a high demand for fitness trackers and other wearable medical devices that can help them keep track of their physical health.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Wearable Medical Devices Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market:As mentioned before, the patients suffering from chronic diseases are the ones showing the highest demand for wearable medical devices. The World Journal of Diabetes has stated that over 60% of the total diabetics in the world were located in Asia Pacific. Studies have shown that Asians are prone to falling prey to Type II diabetes. Additionally, the OECD, over 90 mn people from China alone are suffering from diabetes, while over US$75 bn has already been spent on diabetic patient care throughout Asia Pacific in 2011, stated the TMR expert. It is expected that these high numbers are set to pose a growing demand for wearable medical devices in the near future.The global wearable medical devices market is expected to reach about US$10 bn in 2023 owing to the above drivers and opportunities. This market was valued close to US$2.7 bn in 2014. The device type with the fastest growth rate is heart monitors, with a CAGR of 18.0% between 2015 and 2023. It is expected to help the market gain a greater revenue stream in the near future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Industrial Displays Market 2017 - Samsung Display, LG Display, Panasonic Corporation, Advantech Co., Ltd.

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The Industrial Displays Market 2017 examines the performance of the Industrial Displays market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Industrial Displays market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Industrial Displays market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Industrial Displays Market 2017 report includes Industrial Displays industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Industrial Displays Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Industrial Displays Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Industrial Displays Market 2017:1 Samsung Display2 LG Display3 Panasonic Corporation4 Advantech Co., Ltd.5 NEC Display Solutions6 Winstar7 Densitron8 Apollo Displays9 EarthLCDIndustrial Displays Market Analysis: By ProductLCD Monitor DisplaysThin Film Transistor (TFT) MonitorsLiquid Crystal Displays (LCDs)Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) DisplaysOthersIndustrial Displays Market Analysis: By ApplicationManufacturingEnergy & PowerOil & GasMetals & MiningTransportationOthersAt the beginning, the report covers the top Industrial Displays manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Industrial Displays report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Industrial Displays industry, Industrial Displays industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Industrial Displays Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Industrial Displays research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Industrial Displays market revenue worldwide.Finally, Industrial Displays market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Hemodynamic Monitoring Devices Market is driven by Burgeoning Prevalence of Lifestyle Disorders and Cardiac Diseases

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Cardiovascular disorders are commonly observed in variable age group, which makes it necessary to see early detection and management of disease incidences. Burgeoning prevalence of lifestyle disorders and cardiac diseases is constantly raising the demand for hemodynamic monitoring devices. This has been a prominent driver for the growth of hemodynamic monitoring devices market globally, within the past decade.Browse through Hemodynamic Monitoring Devices Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:As cases of diabetes, obesity, blood pressure disorders, CVDs, stroke, and many more are on the rise, the need for routine assessment of standard hemodynamic parameters is also growing. These parameters include heart rate, blood volume, blood pressure, ECG, temperature, central venous pressure, blood gas analysis, and oxygen perfusion/peripheral venous oxygen saturation.When it comes to post-surgery monitoring of patients in critical care units, hemodynamic monitoring systems make one of the most critically required components in medical care arsenals of hospitals and healthcare facilities. As the number of both surgeries and hospitals are constantly increasing since the past few years, the demand for hemodynamic monitoring devices is also witnessing steady impetus.Hemodynamic monitoring primarily aims to accurately assess the cardiovascular system of patients and monitor their response to it but it also helps in recognizing the dysfunctioning of various organ systems. This has been another key factor propelling the demand for hemodynamic monitoring devices worldwide. Launch of new, innovative products will highly influence the market in the near future. In addition, growing popularity of disposables segment is also fueling recurrent demand for hemodynamic monitoring devices.Due to a growing trend of hospital system digitalization, the integration of monitoring devices with computers is gaining popularity worldwide, including developing nations, which are inclining more toward adoption sophisticated medical care infrastructure. These integrated systems enable critical care unit staffs to simultaneously view multiple patients parameters on the same machine. This is a key factor driving their popularity.Where cardiac output monitoring has been traditionally performed using the thermodilution method via a PAC (pulmonary artery catheter) that was first introduced in the 1970s, it is now monitored using lesser invasive and more efficient techniques. The advent of technology and value added benefits of newly emerging monitoring system models are positively impacting the market growth.Minimally invasive cardiac monitoring involves all such devices and methods, which evaluate the entire cardiac output without using a PAC. Minimally invasive or non-invasive systems are hitting the industry and capturing sizeable markets, prominently attributed to their non-invasive nature. There are a few more methods recently introduced with minimal invasiveness but are lesser popular than their mainstream counterparts. However, introduction of a miniature TOE probe, offering the real time information about cardiac function and anatomy, is expected to create a massive impact on conventional management methods for ITU patients.North America is the key market globally, registering the highest consumption of hemodynamic monitoring devices, more than 30%. With increasing number of clinics, hospitals, and individually operating physicians adopting these devices, the U.S. is witnessing robust sales of hemodynamic monitoring systems, which are equipped with non-invasive technology. The U.S. FDA has recently passed an approval to ClearSight, an advanced product in the category. It will further contribute to the market growth in the near future.According to a recent survey, over 85% of septic shock patients in Canada and Europe standardize central venous pressure as a parameter to monitor the resuscitation of fluid. This figure highlights the extensive need for hemodynamic monitoring systems in these regions. The most promising market is however emerging in Asia Pacific, owing to increased concentration of governments on high quality healthcare. Japan is currently leading the APAC market for hemodynamic monitoring devices.Based on type, hemodynamic monitoring devices are pulmonary artery catheters (PACs), pulse contours, monitoring sensors, and esophageal Doppler. By application, the market is segmented into invasive, non-invasive, and minimally invasive. Among end users of hemodynamic monitoring systems, hospitals and clinics dominate the market, whereas ambulatory surgery centers and home healthcare units also record significant consumption.Some of the key players dominating the global market for hemodynamic monitoring systems include ICU Medical, Inc., Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Cheetah Medical, GE Healthcare, Philips Medical, LiDCO Group Plc., Teleflex Incorporated, Siemens, PULSION Medical Systems SE, McKessen, Deltex Medical Group Plc., Hemo Sapiens, In., Tensys Medical, Inc., Osypka Medical GmbH, Schwarzer Cardiotek GmbH, and Drager Medical GmbH.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Hemodynamic Monitoring Devices Market by 2024:Leading players are constantly launching innovative products and investing increasingly in R&D. Geographic expansion and strategic company tie-ups has been a profitable move for key companies, supporting the overall market growth.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market 2017 - OmniVision Technologies, Aptina Imaging Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co

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The Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market 2017 examines the performance of the Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market 2017 report includes Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market 2017:1 OmniVision Technologies2 Aptina Imaging Corporation3 Samsung Electronics Co4 Sony Corporation5 Toshiba Corporation6 Hewlett-Packard7 Mellanox Technologies8 Phoenix Software9 Oracle Corporation10 Infinera11 Das Photonics12 TT Electronics13 Thomas Research Products14 Red Lion Controls15 Crouzet SwitchesIndustrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market Analysis: By ProductPosition SensorsLight SensorsImage SensorsPhotoelectric SensorsPhoto detectorsSafety SensorsMotion SensorsIndustrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market Analysis: By ApplicationAutomotiveAerospaceChemicalBuilding,F&BPackagingPaper & PrintSecurity & SurveillanceManufacturingOthersAt the beginning, the report covers the top Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors industry, Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors market revenue worldwide.Finally, Industrial Photoelectric Optical Sensors market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Enteral Stents Market Growth, Trends and Value Chain 2017-2027 by FMI

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Enteral stents can be defined as stents which are deployed in the stomach, colon and the small bowel. Enteral stents are designed to treat malignant luminal obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract. Although their use is for palliation of malignant obstruction, they can also be used within the colon as a pre-operative modality. Enteral stents maintain the lumen of hollow organs, vessels, and ducts. For colonic stents, preoperative stenting allows a one-stage operation and avoidance of colostomy. In patients undergoing palliation of obstruction, self-expandable metal stents (SEMS) allow avoidance of surgery. Newer stent designs for both upper and lower gastrointestinal use are needed which are covered while still allowing delivery through the endoscope channel, and are associated with low migration rates.Enteral Stents Market: Drivers and RestraintsExpanding use of stents in non-malignant applications, and the need for effective therapies that reduce the risk of complications, rising use of fully-covered, removable metal stents in gastrointestinal applications, technological innovations in stent technology with regards to stent design and delivery systems, movement towards the increasing use of minimally-invasive techniques augmented by rising patient demand and awareness are some of the drivers leading to the growth of enteral stents market. Although the current stent technologies provide mechanical support to the organ in which they are used, both short- and long-term complications still occur, resulting in poor clinical outcomes and endangering patient safety. Based on the shortcomings of the current stents, a newer generation of devices boasting innovative structures, durable metal alloys, biodegradable stent platforms, and bioactive coatings is in development. However unmet needs remain a challenge also adverse effects related to the products are likely to hinder the growth of the enteral stents market.Request Report Sample@Enteral Stents Market: SegmentationBy product type, the enteral stents market is segmented into,Esophageal StentsGastroduodenal StentsColon StentsBy material type, the enteral stents market is segmented into,Self-Expandable Metal Stents (SEMS)Self-Expandable Plastic Stents (SEPS)By end user the enteral stents market is segmented into,HospitalsSpecialty ClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentersOthersWhile all enteral stents were originally uncovered, partially covered and fully covered enteral stents have become more common, as covering helps to combat the complication of tissue and tumor ingrowth.Enteral Stents Market: OverviewIncreasing prevalence of cancer disease, changing lifestyles, rapidly growing population and new product innovation are some of the factors projected to drive the growth of global enteral stents market. Rising adoption and technological advancement in enteral stents are some other factors expected to fuel the growth of the enteral stents market.Enteral Stents Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically the market for enteral stents is segmented into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and the Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the enteral stents market due to growing prevalence of cancer, changing lifestyle, technological advancement, and early treatment adoption. Europe is the second leading market for enteral stents. Asia Pacific is also expected to grow at the higher rate in enteral stents market due to rapid population growth, developing healthcare infrastructure, increasing per capita expenditure, and increasing research and development. Latin America and the Middle East & Africa is also anticipated to create a significant opportunity in the enteral stents market due to private and government health care insurance coverage, increasing consumption of alcohol, growing awareness among people, and increasing investment by key manufacturers in this area.Visit For TOC@Enteral Stents Market: Key PlayersSome of the players operating in the enteral stents market include Abbott Vascular, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Biosensors International, Boston Scientific Corporation, Cook Medical, C. R. Bard, Cordis Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., Stryker Corporation, Taewoong Medical and Terumo Corporation. Cook Medical has established a strong presence despite a small product line, while Taewoong Medical has a more extensive product portfolio. Boston Scientific is also the leading company due to an extensive product line and presence in all the segments. Its presence in the enteral stents market is further strengthened by the acquisition of EndoChoice a former smaller player in this market.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market 2017 - Honeywell, Siemens, Cooper, Safeguard Communications UK LTD

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The Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market 2017 examines the performance of the Intelligent Emergency Response Systems market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Intelligent Emergency Response Systems market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Intelligent Emergency Response Systems market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market 2017 report includes Intelligent Emergency Response Systems industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market 2017:1 Honeywell2 Siemens3 Cooper4 Safeguard Communications UK LTD5 ATI Systems (Acoustic Technology, Inc.)6 Everbridge Inc7 Criticall Ltd8 Mircom Technologies Ltd9 Spectrarep, LLC10 Vocal Technologies11 United Technologies Corporation12 Phoenix It GroupIntelligent Emergency Response Systems Market Analysis: By ProductSignageBroadcasting SystemsCommunication SystemsVideo Surveillance SystemsBack-up Power GeneratorsOtherIntelligent Emergency Response Systems Market Analysis: By ApplicationGovernment and DefenseIndustry ApplicationHealthcareEducationResidentialOtherAt the beginning, the report covers the top Intelligent Emergency Response Systems manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Intelligent Emergency Response Systems report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Intelligent Emergency Response Systems industry, Intelligent Emergency Response Systems industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Intelligent Emergency Response Systems Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Intelligent Emergency Response Systems research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Intelligent Emergency Response Systems market revenue worldwide.Finally, Intelligent Emergency Response Systems market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Global Embedded Security for Internet of Things (IoT) Market estimated to reach US$ 11,123.6 Mn by 2027-end

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Increasing number of devices that are being connected through IoT networks is cited as a crucial factor fueling the demand for embedded security for IoT. In addition, rising intensity of cyber-attacks on IoT devices and networks coupled with the introduction of revised industry guidelines to implement embedded hardware solutions are observed as other key factors driving the sales of embedded systems for IoT. In the near future, embedded security for IoT is likely to move towards providing security to hyper-connected technologies. Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers such crucial findings in its latest outlook title Embedded Security for Internet of Things (IoT) Market Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20172027.As per the report, the global market for embedded security for Internet of Things stood at US$ 2,525.0 Mn in 2016 and is estimated to reach US$ 11,123.6 Mn by 2027-end. In terms of revenue, the market is expected to witness a CAGR of 14.6% forecast period (20172027). Embedded security for Internet of Things market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is projected to witness a relatively higher growth in terms of value over the forecast period.Ask For Report Sample @Key Highlights of the Report include:By the end of 2027, controller chip components will account for nearly 83% revenue share of the global market for embedded security for IoT, reflecting a CAGR of 14.7% over the forecast period.Application of embedded security for IoT in connected cars is expected to increase significantly throughout the forecast period. In 2016, around US$ 686.7 Mn worth embedded security systems for IoT were installed in connected cars.On the basis of vertical, the automotive industry is estimated to dominate the global embedded security for Internet of Things market, with 29.5% revenue share by 2027-end.In addition to APEJ, North America is projected to be one of the most attractive markets for embedded security for Internet of Things during the forecast period. In 2016, the regions market was valued at US$ 772.7 Mn and accounted for 30.6% revenue share. This region is expected to remain dominant in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period. Increasing adoption of IoT devices has resulted in increased security concerns, hence a number of government regulatory bodies in the U.S. have issued security guidelines for IoT solution providers across different verticals. Meanwhile, the Western Europe embedded security for Internet of Things market is estimated to reach US$ 1,676.9 Mn by 2027 end, registering a CAGR of 13.1% during the forecast period. Government authorities in many of the countries in the region are trying to ensure that device manufacturers implement better security features in order to prevent cyber-attacks on IoT devices and networks.Ask For More Information @Vendor InsightsSome of the key companies profiled in the FMI report include Intel Corporation, Cisco System Inc., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Infineon Technologies AG, Gemalto N.V., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Palo Alto Networks Inc., ARM Holdings Plc. (SoftBank Corp), Synopsys, Inc., Inside Secure, Trend Micro Incorporated. In order to strengthen their presence in the market many of these companies are implementing mergers and acquisitions strategies.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.compress@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Wood Coatings Market Opportunity, Key Trends 2014-2020

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Wood coatings refer to the process of refining or protecting a wooden surface, especially in the production of furniture. Wood coating applications include: interior wood, small furniture, panels, tables, cupboards, chairs, office furniture, kitchen furniture, doors and staircases among others. There are generally three types of wood coating: evaporative, reactive and coalescing. Wood coating starts with sanding either by hand or scraping. Imperfections or nail holes on the surface may be filled using wood filler. Often, the wood's color is changed by staining, bleaching, or any other techniques. Once the wood surface is prepared and stained, the coating is applied. It usually consists of several coats of shellac, drying oil, paint, wax or lacquer. Finally, the surface may be polished using wool, steel, rotten stone or other materials, depending on the shine desired. In addition, a final coat of wax is applied over the finish to add a degree of protection.Furniture, decking, and siding are the three largest applications in value terms. However, smaller doors, windows and cabinet applications are expected to achieve faster growth in the near future. Paint is the dominant wood protection product used on siding, windows and doors, but stains and sealers are more widely utilized on cabinets, decks, furniture, and flooring. Residential end-user is the largest market for wood protection products, driven by maintenance demand for items such as fences, siding and decks. Non-residential and non-building uses account for a much smaller market for wood protection products.Request For Sample@The growth in the housing market is the primary driver for the wood coatings market. Homeowners are investing more in the upkeep of their decks, fences, floors and siding. A well maintained home adds value of the home and saves money in the long term. In addition, stringent regulations, rising competition, growth in unique formulations and new product developments are some of the factors stimulating the growth of wood coatings market. However, availability of cheaper and quality substitutes, such as wood composites and plastic wood could hamper the growth of this market. These alternative are often more durable and require less maintenance as compared to wood products. Although substitutes are available, wood is a primary choice for commercial and residential purposes due to wide availably in the market. Wood coatings account for the majority of the wood protection demand with paints and stains holding the largest shares. In contrast, preservatives, which are applied to lumber by the wood treatment companies, account for smaller portion of wood protection demand.Asia Pacific is currently the largest market for wood coatings, followed by Europe, North America and Rest of the world (RoW). Sustained demand from the developed markets and burgeoning demand from emerging economies will continue to drive the wood coating market. The industry is witnessing a major shift of key market players from Europe and the U.S. to the emerging economies of Asia Pacific, comprising of China and India.Request For TOC@Some of the key players in this market are Akzo Nobel Coatings nv (Netherlands), PPG Industries Inc. (U.S.), Sherwin-Williams Co. (U.S.), DuPont Coatings and Color Technologies Group (U.S.), ICI Paints (UK), BASF Coatings AG (Germany), Valspar Corp. (U.S.), Nippon Paint Co. Ltd. (Japan), Dow Coating Materials (U.S.) and Kansai Paint Co. Ltd. (Japan) among others. Dow Coating Materials has launched two new acrylic binders for the wood coatings: EXP-4414 and EXP-77. According to the company, the new binders offer improved block, print and dirt pickup resistance and improved hardness development when applied to wood.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Bonded Abrasives Market Globally Expected to Drive Growth through 2025

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An abrasive is a material that when rubbed against a surface, producesthe desired surface finish and shape. Abrasives are usually minerals that are often available in a wide range of shapes, sizes and types. They are usually used to clean, grind, scour, abrade or remove the solid material usually by using impact or by the rubbing action. Abrasives are mainly classified as bonded abrasives, steel abrasives, coated abrasives, loose abrasives grain and raw super abrasives, among others. The abrasives material or the abrasives product finds various applications in industries such as electrical & electronics, machinery, metal fabrication and transportation among others.Bonded abrasives are the natural or synthetic abrasive grains which are usually bonded into a solid form. Bonded abrasives are usually made of the abrasive grains that are closely sized and molded or pressed to produce a wide variety of the products. Bonded abrasives are usually in the shape of a wheel. The products range of the bonded abrasives also includes the snagging wheel, mounted wheel, grinding and the cut-off wheel, cones and plugs. Bonded abrasives are mainly used for precision grinding, cutting, rough grinding, lapping, sharpening and light grinding among others.The growing automobile industry is expected to boost the overall growth of the bonded abrasives market. Bonded abrasives are widely used in giving the required surface finish as well as the desired design to the automobiles. The increasing demands for the advanced technology based machineries are further expected to boost the demand for the bonded abrasives. The bonded abrasives help in the super finishing of the machine shaft in order to achieve the required roughness. The bonded abrasives are used in providing the smooth finish to the various tools and the machineries that are manufactured. The bonding abrasives are used in the polishing as well as deburring of the bore holes on the machine blocks. Regular maintenances of the workshops further boost the overall demand for the bonded abrasives market. The increasing use of the bonded abrasives for de-scaling and for the rust and dust removal has augmented the overall growth for the bonded abrasives market. The bonded abrasives are also widely used in the medical sector. Bonded abrasives are used to sharpen the dental tools. The bonded abrasives are also used for smoothening of the edges of the dental tools such that it is extremely convenient for the doctors to use the dental tools on the patients.Request For Sample@The bonded abrasives segment accounts for the largest share within the global abrasives market. North America is expected to be the largest market for the bonded abrasives. The growing demand especially in U.S is expected to boost the growth of the global bonded abrasive market. Europe is expected to be the next largest consumer of the bonded abrasives especially due to the growing demand especially in Germany. Asia Pacific is expected to be fastest growing market for the bonded abrasives market mainly due to the presence of various end-use industries especially in China and India.Norton, 3M, Baystate, Tyrolit, Treibacher and Noritake among others are some of the key participants of the global bonded abrasives market. Companies are extensively conducting research in order to develop and introduce new products in the market such that they can efficiently cater the needs for the specific application.Request For TOC@ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Intelligent Power Switches Market 2017 - RICOH Electronic Devices, International Rectifier, STMicroelectronics

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The Intelligent Power Switches Market 2017 examines the performance of the Intelligent Power Switches market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Intelligent Power Switches market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Intelligent Power Switches market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Intelligent Power Switches Market 2017 report includes Intelligent Power Switches industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Intelligent Power Switches Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Intelligent Power Switches Price during the Forecast Period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Intelligent Power Switches Market 2017:1 RICOH Electronic Devices2 International Rectifier3 STMicroelectronics4 Infineon Technologies5 Freescale Semiconductor6 Texas Instruments Incorporated7 ROHM Semiconductor8 Fuji Electric9 SCHUKAT ElectronicIntelligent Power Switches Market Analysis: By ProductHigh Side SwitchesLow Side SwitchesIntelligent Power Switches Market Analysis: By ApplicationAutomotiveIndustrialCommercialConstruction ApplicationAt the beginning, the report covers the top Intelligent Power Switches manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Intelligent Power Switches report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Intelligent Power Switches industry, Intelligent Power Switches industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Intelligent Power Switches Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Intelligent Power Switches research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Intelligent Power Switches market revenue worldwide.Finally, Intelligent Power Switches market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Fine Chemicals Market Segments, Opportunity, Growth and Forecast By End-use Industry 2015-2025

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Fine chemicals, also referred to as specification chemicals, is a class of chemicals which is characterized by their low volume use and higher price as compared to that of commodity chemicals. These complex, pure chemicals are manufactured in limited quantities and according to exacting specifications for their intended application. Fine chemicals are produced in batches as against continuous production which is practiced for bulk chemicals. Moreover, manufacture of fine chemicals involves conversion of basic chemicals into complexes which serve as building blocks in a variety of applications across diverse industries such as agrochemicals, paints and coatings, electronics, pharmaceuticals among the others. Agrochemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients are the most common chemicals covered under Fine chemicals. Fine chemicals differ from specialty chemicals in that, these fine chemicals are sold primarily on the basis of what these chemicals are as opposed to specialty chemicals which are sold on the basis of what those chemicals can do.Fine chemicals Market: Drivers & RestraintsGlobal fine chemicals market is expected to witness a steady growth during the forecast period, this growth of global fine chemicals market is expected to be driven by growth of the major end use industries. Pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, being major consumers of fine chemicals, the growth in these industries is in turn expected to fuel the growth of global fine chemicals market during the forecast period. Moreover, growing demand from developing countries, especially those in Asia Pacific, is expected to result in growth of global fine chemicals market. A major trend witnessed in global fine chemicals market is that the companies producing fine chemicals are channelizing efforts towards development of efficient processes and newer products in order to gain a competitive advantage which eventually translates into a higher share in global fine chemicals market.Request For Sample@Fine chemicals Market: SegmentationDepending on the end use application industries, global fine chemicals market can be segmented into following key segments:PharmaceuticalsAgrochemicalPolymer additivesFood and FeedElectronicsPerfumes and FragrancesOthersAmong the above mentioned end use industry based segments of global fine chemicals market, the pharmaceuticals segment accounts for the largest share in global fine chemicals market value. The pharmaceuticals segment is followed by agrochemicals segment in terms of share in the global fine chemicals market value.Request For TOC@Fine chemicals Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of geographical regions, the global fine chemicals market can be segmented into seven key segments, namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East & Africa. Among all region based segments of global fine chemicals market, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the fastest growing segment.Fine chemicals Market: Key PlayersSome of the identified major participants of the global fine chemicals market are as follows:LonzaSumitomo ChemicalsBASF SEBoehringer-IngelheimSigma-Aldrich CorporationChemada fine chemicalsAlbemarle CorporationChina Sanjiang Fine Chemicals Company LimitedValiant Co. LtdABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Single Track Bluetooth Headsets Market Analysis, Shares, Forecast, and Company profiles for Key industry 2017

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The Single Track Bluetooth Headsets research report by QY Research represents an inclusive evaluation of the Global Single Track Bluetooth Headsets Market and comprises considerable insights, historical data, facts, and statistical and industry-validated data of the global market. Additionally, it consists of estimated data that is evaluated with the help of suitable set of methodologies and assumptions. The research report highlights informative data and in-depth analysis of Single Track Bluetooth Headsets market and its corresponding segments that are based on technology, geography, and applications.The examination on value chain of Single Track Bluetooth Headsets market is provided which covers the growth factors and restraints of the industry along with the key market competitors.To Request Sample Copy Of This Report:The report comprises precise information, comprehensive analysis in two waysqualitative and quantitativeindustry experts inputs, and information provided by industry analysts and industry participants involved in the entire value chain. The report highlights exhaustive study of major market and their present trends, along with corresponding market segments. The Single Track Bluetooth Headsets report also provides data regarding various market factors and their impact on the overall market and its segments.Global Research report analyzes the scope of Single Track Bluetooth Headsets industry including size, share, analysis, sales, supply, production, definition, specification, classification, demands, application, forecast trends, industry policy, and news. The report focuses on regional as well as global market, its key players, along with market segments including detailed study on various divisions and its applications. The report provides comprehensive information on each and every segment covered of the Single Track Bluetooth Headsets market.Furthermore, the report evaluated major market points such as production, revenue, capacity utilization rate, gross, price, capacity, gross margin, supply, cost, demand, export, consumption, import, growth rate, market share, and so on.Browse Complete Report At:The global Single Track Bluetooth Headsets market report is a helpful source which assists manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, customers, and individuals and investors who have interest in this market.Notes:Production, means the output of Single Track Bluetooth HeadsetsRevenue, means the sales value of Single Track Bluetooth HeadsetsThis report studies Single Track Bluetooth Headsets in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringJabraPlantronicsSennheiserJawboneGoerTekAbout Us:MRS Research Group is the worlds giant collection of the Market research Reports. Where we specialized in global publisher, tailor made reports and specialists consulting. Global Publisher provides in-depth analysis of global and Chinese market. Tailor-made reports represent methodologies deliverable to proper insight of the client. While, expertise research specialist helps to provide strategic solution in specialists consulting. It consists of head such as, latest report, category, niche market and news. Reports published on the million of category like chemical, machinery and equipment, consumer goods, manufacturing and construction etc. Latest national, international, business News published under news portal.3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138, Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,Tel: +1-386-310-3803GMT Tel: +49-322 210 92714USA/Canada Toll Free No. 1-855-465-4651
Eyewear Packaging Market Global Industry Analysis, size, share and Forecast 2017-2027

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Eyewear has now besides being necessity as in the case of power glasses or spectacles have also gained traction due to emerging fashion trend as well as changing environment in the form of sun glasses and goggles. Eyewear are fragile commodities and hence require safe packaging that ensures the product safety during transportation and storage. The manufacturer of the eyewear packages are therefore involved in producing user friendly, attractive packaging that can ensure product safety as well as gain customer attention. The various materials used for manufacturing eyewear packages include paper, plastic, leather and fibers. These materials are designed to best suit the product and ensure the product delivery without any tamper. Attributed by these properties the global eyewear packaging market is anticipated to grow both in value and volume throughout the forecast period.Eyewear Packaging Market  DynamicsEyewear has become a commodity that is used by almost everyone irrespective of age and gender. This has contributed in the burgeoning growth of eyewear market globally. This rise in global eyewear market is expected to translate into the increasing demand for allied products such as packages for eyewear between 2017 & 2025. The increasing demand for power glasses in parallel with the emerging trend for sun glasses and goggles are expected to drive the eyewear packaging market over the forecast period. The eyewear packages are manufactured in various styles and designs which includes eva cases, soft pouch, round boxes, bespoke boxes, triangle boxes and slide open boxes. The various materials used to manufacture eyewear packages includes kraft paper, plastic and leather. Leather is extensively used material for glasses and spectacle cases due to its hard wearing nature and flexibility. Leather glass cases offer a luxurious aesthetic and tactility. However, cases manufactured using plastics are relatively cheap and therefore are in higher demand in most part of the world. The use of these materials helps the manufacturer to design the product in more attractive manner contributing to the increasing demand for the eyewear packages throughout the forecast period.Request For Report Sample@Eyewear Packaging Market  SegmentationEyewear PackagingMarketcan be segmented as following:Based on material type, Eyewear Packagingmarket is segmented into:PaperKraft PaperCardboardPlasticLeatherOthersBased on design type, Eyewear Packagingmarket is segmented into:EVA casesRound boxesBespoke boxesSlide open boxesOthersEyewear Packaging Market  Region Wise OutlookOn the basis of geographical regions, the global eyewear packaging market is divided into following regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa.The increasing use of the eye glasses across all age group is anticipated to drive the market of eyewear packaging across the globe throughout the forecast period. The two emerging economies, India and China contributes about 36% to the global population and therefore is expected to witness a hike in the demand for the eyewear packaging over the forecast period. North America is anticipated to follow Asia Pacific in terms of demand for the eyewear packaging owing to its established market. Latin American countries is also expected to show relatively slower growth in the eyewear packaging market owing to its prevailing economy. However, European countries and Middle East & Africa are anticipated to witness a sluggish growth in the market of eyewear packaging throughout the forecast period attributed by the prevailing stagnant economy in these regions.Visit For TOC@Eyewear Packaging Market  Key PlayersThe key players in the eyewear packaging market includes Aesop Technologies, Inc., Well Packaging Limited, PROCESSO PLAST ENTERPRISE PVT. LTD., Kling GmbH, Wuxi Tianen Spectacles Case Co.Ltd.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Cosmetic Ingredients Market Growth, Trends, Absolute Opportunity and Value Chain 2015-2025

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Cosmetic ingredient market has changed a lot over the course of time. Since time immemorial, human beings are using different types of cosmetics to enhance their physical appearance, which in turn makes people feel more confident and pleasing in nature. It is due to growing demand for beauty products that market is flooded with various cosmetic products. The multibillion dollar industry is growing at a lightning speed to meet the consumer demand. Cosmetic ingredients are the specific sets of substance that are used in the formulation and composition of cosmetics. Any kind of impurities in raw materials and subsidiary technical materials are not considered as ingredients, hence water is also considered as separate ingredient. At present, various cosmetic business entrepreneurs use more than 5000 available cosmetic ingredients to offer selected cosmetics products.Cosmetic Industry: Drivers & RestraintsThe demand for good quality cosmetic products is fuelling the cosmetic ingredient market. Changing lifestyle specially in developing regions of Asia Pacific and Latin America brings a sea of opportunities to cosmetic ingredients manufacturers and suppliers. Increase in per capita income, rising awareness about beautification and increasingly urbanized population is offering momentum to the growth of overall cosmetic industry which in turn is escalating the cosmetic ingredients market to its zenith. Though cosmetic industry market size is growing at an impressive rate, various regulations prohibiting the use of certain chemicals as ingredients is a major challenge to the cosmetic ingredients manufacturers. In APAC, China and ASEAN regions are some of the most lucrative regions for increase in consumer spending and rise in GDP.Cosmetic Ingredients Market: SegmentationOn the basis of product type, the global cosmetic ingredients market is segmented into,SurfactantsEmulsifiersAntimicrobialsUV absorbersEmollientsConditioning PolymersOthersRequest For Sample@Alpha hydroxy acids, beta hydroxyl acids and talc are some of the examples of commonly used cosmetics ingredients. Among all these product type, surfactants are expected to hold the market dominance throughout the forecast period, however, conditioning polymers is projected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2015 and 2025.On the basis of end-use applications, cosmetic ingredients market is segmented intoSkin CareNail CareMake upOthersSkin care and make up are the two most lucrative markets for chemical ingredients manufacturers. Together, they account more than onefourth of total cosmetic ingredients market. Changing lifestyle and increasing awareness about skin care is boosting the demand for skin care applications.Cosmetic Ingredients Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region, cosmetic ingredients finds its market scope in North America, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific. North America and Europe dominates the cosmetic ingredients, however, Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to be the most promising region in terms of incremental opportunities lying ahead for generating high revenue. Cosmetic ingredient market is highly regulated in Europe and North America. China, India and ASEAN are the key promising countries driving the cosmetic ingredients market in Asia-Pacific. Rapid growth of urbanization coupled with growing desire for skin care is expected to offer above average growth to cosmetic ingredients market in Asia-Pacific. Brazil leads the cosmetic market followed by Mexico in Latin America. As per the CANIPEC, the Mexican personal care industrys national chamber and association, there are more than 64 business enterprises operating in personal care market that are worth approximately US$ 14 billion in Mexico.Request For TOC@Cosmetic Ingredients Market: Key PlayersCompany needs to meet the stringent quality norms before marketing their key ingredients. It is due to these factors that the market in North America and Europe is consolidated and is dominated by list of key cosmetic ingredient manufacturers and suppliers.Some of the market participants in the global cosmetic ingredients market are BASF SE, The Dow Chemical Co., Ashland Inc., Rhodia, DuPont Tata & Lyle Bio Products, Sederma Inc., Sumitomo Group, etc. Companies are investing heavily and are entering into mergers and acquisitions to tap the cosmetic ingredient market potential globally. For instance, Sumitomo Group is expected to acquire active cosmetic ingredient business from Kyowa Hakko Europe GmbH in order to advance its cosmetic ingredient business in Europe.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Night Cream Market Research Report 2017

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This report studies Night Cream in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringLancomeEsteeLauderCliniqueLOREALDiorGuerlainShiseidoElizabeth ArdenClarinsNiveaMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of Night Cream in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaEnter your information below to receive a sample copy of this report @Split by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoDryOilNeutralSensitiveSplit by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Night Cream in each application, can be divided intoSpecialist RetailersFactory OutletsInternet SalesOtherTable of ContentsGlobal Night Cream Market Research Report 20171 Night Cream Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Night Cream1.2 Night Cream Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Night Cream by Type in 20151.2.2 Dry1.2.3 Oil1.2.4 Neutral1.2.5 Sensitive1.3 Night Cream Segment by Application1.3.1 Night Cream Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 Specialist Retailers1.3.3 Factory Outlets1.3.4 Internet Sales1.3.5 Other1.4 Night Cream Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Night Cream (2012-2022)2 Global Night Cream Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Night Cream Production and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Global Night Cream Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.3 Global Night Cream Average Price by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.4 Manufacturers Night Cream Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Night Cream Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Night Cream Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Night Cream Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionBrowse full table of contents and data tables of Report @3 Global Night Cream Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Night Cream Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Night Cream Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.4 North America Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 Europe Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 China Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 Japan Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Southeast Asia Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 India Night Cream Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Night Cream Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2012-2017)4.1 Global Night Cream Consumption by Regions (2012-2017)4.2 North America Night Cream Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Night Cream Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Night Cream Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Night Cream Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Night Cream Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Night Cream Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Night Cream Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Night Cream Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Night Cream Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Night Cream Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Night Cream Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Night Cream Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Night Cream Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Night Cream Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.QYResearchreportsContact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Alnico Magnets Market : Research and Forecast Analysis Report of Top Countries 2017 - 2025

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Global Alnico Magnets Market: SnapshotThe global market for alnico magnets is predicted to grow at a substantial pace over the next few years, due to the rising number of applications across diverse industries. As alnico magnets are considered as one of the best options for permanent magnets, they are being used extensively in the automotive industry across the globe. The prominent players operating in the global alnico magnets market are making notable efforts to offer innovations and advancements to the product in order to expand their application base in the next few years.The increasing demand for alnico magnets from medical devices, automobiles, household equipment, electronic products, electricity generation, and other sectors is projected to encourage the growth of the global alnico magnets market throughout the forecast period. In addition to this, the rising awareness among consumers regarding the use of alnico magnets in accordance with the rising environmental concerns is predicted to generate several growth opportunities for the key players operating in the alnico magnets market across the globe.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The rapid development of the manufacturing sector in China is expected to result in a promising growth of the alnico magnets market in this nation. Moreover, the flourishing automotive sector in several emerging nations in Asia Pacific is projected to encourage the growth of the alnico magnets in the next few years. Furthermore, the rising level of competition among the leading players in terms of product portfolio, innovations, and technological developments is projected to contribute towards the overall development of the overall market in the coming few years.Global Alnico Magnets Market: OverviewAlnico refers to a family of iron alloys that primarily contain aluminum, nickel, and cobalt in addition to iron. Alnico magnets are ferromagnetic and are suitable to make permanent magnets. Permanent magnets retain magnetic properties even in the absence of an external magnetic field. Alnico magnets are used across a range of applications such as household equipment, electricity generation, automobiles, and electronic and medical devices among others.Alnico magnets are utilized in temperature sensitive applications such as MR-based electronic and automotive sensors and Hall Effect. They were considered the strongest permanent magnets until the introduction of rare earth magnets and are used across a range of applications.Request TOC of the Report @The report assesses vital market indicators such as market drivers, market challenges, and trends in the historic years based on which their behavior is analyzed for the 2017-2025 period. The report presents a detailed assessment of technological developments and competitive landscape that will impact the development of the global alnico magnets market until the end of the forecast period in 2025.Global Alnico Magnets Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe incessant development of the automotive industry due to the increasing population and technological advancements is favoring the growth of the alnico magnets market. Alnico magnets are extensively used in the automotive industry across a range of applications such as economy and pollution control. Components such as alternators, motors, and gearbox require alnico magnets to carry out their mechanism. Alnico magnets are utilized in battery components, moving car parts, engine components, and other integral systems.In addition, alnico magnets are one of the most vital components in electric motors and are used in exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) systems that help reduce NOx emissions. Most automotive engines and electric motors use alnico magnets as they are highly coercive in nature. Moreover, alnico magnets are used in the stator of the wind turbine for producing AC electricity.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@The rising environmental concerns and depleting conventional sources of energy have led to the increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy. This has favored the growth of the global alnico magnets market. Furthermore, hybrid electric vehicles are expected to present new growth opportunities to the global alnico magnets market during the forecast period.Global Alnico Magnets Market: Regional OutlookChina displayed the highest demand for alnico magnets in 2013 and held a major share of the global market. The flourishing automotive industry due to the increasing population and economic growth is favoring the growth of the alnico magnets industry in China. Asia Pacific (excluding China) stood as the second largest region in the global alnico magnets market in the same year due to the growth of the wind power industry. However, North America and regions contributed thinly to the global alnico magnets due to the non-availability of rare earth elements.Major Companies Mentioned in ReportSome of the leading players in the global alnico magnets market are Adams Magnetic Products Co, Dexter Magnetic Technologies Inc., Hitachi Metals Ltd., Molycorp Inc., Shin-Etsu Chemicals Co. Ltd., Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co., Arnold Magnetic Technologies, Electron Energy Corporation, Lynas Corporation Ltd., OM Group, and Tengam Engineering Inc. among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Insulin Resistance Market Scope and Trends Report by 2024

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Insulin Resistance Market: OverviewDiabetes has become a major concern across the globe owing to its increasing prevalence. Statistics published by World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that over 350 million individuals suffer from diabetes globally. The data also details that more that 80% cases are recorded in low and middle income countries, majority of which are from Asia Pacific, the Middle East and African countries. India accounts for maximum cases of diabetes with more than 30 million cases registered in year 2000. According to Medscape, a healthcare website, in the United States, the prevalence of insulin resistance is over 3%.Browse through Insulin Resistance Market report to know what factors will shape the market by 2024:Insulin resistance is a complication in which body develops resistance to insulin due to its over production. As the sensitivity towards insulin decreases, body produces excess insulin for better absorption of glucose. This conditions leads to development of type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. Prediabetes is a condition in which blood glucose level is higher than the normal level, but not enough for proper diagnosis of diabetes. Although exact cause of insulin resistance is not known, scientists and doctor believe that excess and sedentary lifestyle are main causes for development of the disorder. Major symptoms of insulin resistance are lethargy, hunger, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and kidney damage. Insulin resistance diagnosis is difficult and involves combination of tests. Usually hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp test is used to measures the amount of glucose which is necessary to compensate for increased insulin level without causing hypoglycemia. Other tests include glucose tolerance test and fasting insulin level.Insulin Resistance Market: Drivers and RestraintsFew drugs approved by FDA are available in the market for treatment of insulin resistance. Humulin by Lilly LLC, and Novolin and Velosulin by Novo Nordisk, are the major brands in the market. Various off label drugs are also prescribed to suppress the symptoms of insulin resistance. Inadequate clinical information on insulin resistance has restricted the scope of drug development. Although scientists are trying to gain insight for exact cause of insulin resistance, development of drugs may take more time owing to lengthy clinical trials. Diabetes and the consequent insulin resistance being a major concern in most of the countries, government initiatives to motivate research in diabetes is expected to give rise to more research projects for diabetes and insulin resistance. Aging population and increasing obesity prevalence in developing countries is expected to give rise to patients suffering from insulin resistance. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 35% of the U.S. population is obese. In another data published by OECD, more than 50% of the European Union population is overweight or obese. Obesity prevalence rates are on the rise in China, India and Brazil, making more and more population suitable to insulin resistance. China is now the second obese country in the world followed by India. Adoption of sedentary life style due to and reduced physical activities are adding to worries. Various educational institutes are taking serious steps to curb child obesity by increasing physical activities in schools. These factors are expected to increase the prevalence of increase prevalence of insulin resistance in India, China and other countries. Developing healthcare sector, increasing per capita income and increasing awareness about medical treatments will drive the market in these countries. Reimbursement and other government policies governing pricing will also play a major role in determining the future of the market.Request a sample of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Market by 2024:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
New Trends of Endosulfan Market with Worldwide Industry Analysis to 2025

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Global Endosulfan Market: SnapshotEndosulfan, a manmade pesticide belonging to the organchlorine group of pesticides, is used to rid insects in agriculture and associated sectors. Also referred to as off-patent insecticide, which is phased out globally, endosulfan is sold as a blend of two different forms of same chemicals known as alpha and beta endosulfan. It has myriad applications. Besides its use in the agriculture sector for keep at bay insects that damage crops and fruits, endosulfan also finds application as a wood preservative.The demand for endosulfan is being driven primarily by the agricultural sector, which is expanding by the day due to the pressing demand for food worldwide. They are sprayed on crops are soluble in kerosene, chloroform, xylene, and most organic solvents. They are also slightly soluble in water.Endosulfan, however, is highly toxic. They can result in acute and chronic health issues. For example, they can affect the central nervous system, resulting in overstimulation and a wide range of health issues. They can cause headache, nausea, vomiting, unconsciousness, and even death in extreme conditions. Studies show that over exposure to endosulfan may cause and delayed puberty in boys, increased risk of autism, and birth defects in male. As a result major regions such as Europe, the U.S., the Middle East, etc. have banned the manufacture and usage of endosulfan.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Currently, Asia Pacific is the only region which manufactures and uses endosulfan on a large scale on account of the growing demand from the agricultural sector in the region.Endosulfan Market: OverviewEndosulfan is a manmade pesticide that belongs to the organchlorine group of pesticides. Endosulfan is placed under the cyclodiene subgroup. It was introduced in 1950, which later emerged as a leading chemical that was used against a wide range of insects in agriculture and associated sectors. It is also known as off-patent insecticide, which is phased out globally. As a DDT-era insecticide, it is present in all living organisms such as animals and humans, and can be found in the environment as well.Half of the population, mostly comprising of young children are exposed to larger doses of endosulfan through environment or food. Endosulfan is sold as a blend of two different forms of same chemicals known as alpha and beta endosulfan. It differs from cream to brown crystalline solid or may appear as flakes. It has turpentine like odor and is combustible. Apart from its use in the agriculture sector, it is also used as a wood preservative. Endosulfan is used for controlling the insects that strive on various food crops including tea, grains, vegetables, and fruits among others. It is also used on non-food crops such as cotton and tobacco. It is used against a wide range of insects including beetles, leaf hoppers, Colorado beetle, caterpillars among others.Request TOC of the Report @Endosulfan Market: Trends and ProspectsEndosulfan was introduced in the era when environmental knowledge and awareness was low, and there were no national regulatory laws pertaining to its toxic nature. Recently, this chemical has been detected as a poisonous pesticide in many countries.It is often sprayed on crops with the help of sprayers. It is readily soluble in chloroform, kerosene, xylene, and most organic solvents, but slightly soluble in water. Growing demand from the agriculture sector is the major factor driving the global endosulfan market. Increasing demand from the wood industry is also expected to boost demand for endosulfan in the near future.Acute and chronic health effects of endosulfan has hampered the growth of the global endosulfan market. Endosulfan affects the central nervous system, leading to overstimulation and wide range of health issues. Acute symptoms of endosulfan include nausea, headache, vomiting, unconsciousness and death in extreme conditions. Studies have declared that, over exposure to endosulfan may lead to increased risk of autism, birth defects in male, and delayed puberty in boys. These factors have banned the manufacturing and usage of endosulfan under the Stockholm Convention in April 2011. This ban has been effective from mid-2012 in major regions such as U.S., Europe, and the Middle East among others. Asia Pacific is the only region which manufactures and uses endosulfan on a large scale.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Endosulfan Market: Key SegmentsNorth America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW) are the key segments for the global endosulfan market. Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest consumer of endosulfan due to the growing demand from the agriculture sector in the region. North America and Europe are expected to show very less growth and demand due to the prohibited use and manufacture of endosulfan.Endosulfan Market: Key Market PlayersThe key players of the global endosulfan market include Coromandel Fertilisers, Excel Cro Care Ltd, Hindusthan Insecticide Ltd and Indichem among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation Market to grow at a CAGR of 8.96% during 2017-2021 - A vital step in analytical chemistry to prevent degeneration and preserve the microscopic structure of the sample

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Latest Research Report titled " Global Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation Market 2017-2021" features Key Market Players, Market Challengges and Market Drivers.Electron microscopy sample preparation involves various procedures employed to treat a sample to prevent degeneration and preserve the microscopic structure of the sample. Sample preparation is a vital step in analytical chemistry. Certain substances in samples may interfere with proper chemical analysis. They need to be treated before these samples can be observed under an analytical device or undergo further processes. Electron microscopes are used to visualize biological samples clearly and in finer details as they obtain images and make nanoscale detections.The global electron microscopy sample preparation market to grow at a CAGR of 8.96% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global electron microscopy sample preparation market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the retail sales of equipment used for sample preparation sold to various end-users discussed in this report.Request Premium Research PDF with Tables & Figures at:The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEATechnavio's report, Global Electron Microscopy Sample Preparation Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Danaher (Leica Microsystems)- Hitachi High-Technologies- Thermo Fisher Scientific (FEI)- JEOLOther prominent vendors- Carl Zeiss- Gatan- SCIENIONMarket driver- Automated sample preparation systems creating high demand- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- High cost of equipment- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Increasing industry-academia collaboration for research- For a full, detailed list, view our reportReasons to buy:-- Determine prospective investment areas based on a detailed trend analysis of the global military infrastructure & logistics market over the next ten years- Gain in-depth understanding about the underlying factors driving demand for different military infrastructure & logistics segments in the top spending countries across the world and identify the opportunities offered by each of them- Strengthen your understanding of the market in terms of demand drivers, industry trends, and the latest technological developments, among others- Identify the major channels that are driving the global military infrastructure & logistics market, providing a clear picture about future opportunities that can be tapped, resulting in revenue expansion- Channelize resources by focusing on the ongoing programs that are being undertaken by the defense ministries of different countries within the global military infrastructure & logistics market- Make correct business decisions based on thorough analysis of the total competitive landscape of the sector with detailed profiles of the top infrastructure & logistics providers around the world which include information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins and financial analysis wherever availableAbout UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Orbis Research: 2017 Weeding Farm Robot Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast - 2022

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Orbis Research has added Latest report on Global Weeding Farm Robot Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Companies and Forecast up to 2022In our aim to provide our erudite clients with the best research material with absolute in-depth information of the market, our new report on Global Weeding Farm Robot Market is confident in meeting their needs and expectations. The 2017 market research report on Global Weeding Farm Robot Market is an in-depth study and analysis of the market by our industry experts with unparalleled domain knowledge. The report will shed light on many critical points and trends of the industry which are useful for our esteemed clients. The report covers a vast expanse of information including an overview, comprehensive analysis, definitions and classifications, applications, and expert opinions, among others. With the extent of information filled in the report, the presentation and style of the Global Weeding Farm Robot Market report is a noteworthy.Request a sample of this report @The Global Weeding Farm Robot Industry report provides key information about the industry, including invaluable facts and figures, expert opinions, and the latest developments across the globe. Not only does the report cover a holistic view of the industry from a global standpoint, but it also covers individual regions and their development. The Global Weeding Farm Robot Industry report showcases the latest trends in the global and regional markets on all critical parameters which include technology, supplies, capacity, production, profit, price, and competition. The key players covered in the report provide a detailed analysis of the competition and their developments in the Global Weeding Farm Robot Industry. Accurate forecasts and expert opinion from credible sources, and the recent R&D development in the industry is also a mainstay of the Weeding Farm Robot Market report.The report also focuses on the significance of industry chain analysis and all variables, both upstream and downstream. These include equipment and raw materials, client surveys, marketing channels, and industry trends and proposals. Other significant information covering consumption, key regions and distributors, and raw material suppliers are also a covered in this report.Browse the full report @Finally, the Weeding Farm Robot Market report ends with a detailed SWOT analysis of the market, investment feasibility and returns, and development trends and forecasts. As with every report on Orbis Research, the Weeding Farm Robot Industry is the holy grail of information which serious knowledge seekers can benefit from. The report which is the result of ultimate dedication of pedigree professionals has a wealth of information which can benefit anyone, irrespective of their commercial or academic interest.Purchase a copy of this report @MAJOR POINTS FROM TABLE OF CONTENTS:Chapter One: Weeding Farm Robot Market OverviewChapter Two: Global Weeding Farm Robot Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter Three: Global Weeding Farm Robot Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)Chapter Four: Global Weeding Farm Robot Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)Chapter Five: Global Weeding Farm Robot Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter Six: Global Weeding Farm Robot Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter Seven: Global Weeding Farm Robot Manufacturers Profiles/AnalysisChapter Eight: Weeding Farm Robot Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter Nine: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter Ten: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter Eleven: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter Twelve: Global Weeding Farm Robot Market Forecast (2017-2022)Chapter Thirteen: Research Findings and ConclusionChapter Fourteen: AppendixAbout Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019For more information contact sales@orbisresearch.com
2017 Global Cylindrical Robot -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast to 2022

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2017 Global Cylindrical Robot -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast to 2022In our aim to provide our erudite clients with the best research material with absolute in-depth information of the market, our new report on Global Cylindrical Robot Market is confident in meeting their needs and expectations. The 2017 market research report on Global Cylindrical Robot Market is an in-depth study and analysis of the market by our industry experts with unparalleled domain knowledge. The report will shed light on many critical points and trends of the industry which are useful for our esteemed clients. The report covers a vast expanse of information including an overview, comprehensive analysis, definitions and classifications, applications, and expert opinions, among others. With the extent of information filled in the report, the presentation and style of the Global Cylindrical Robot Market report is a noteworthy.Request a sample of this report @The Global Cylindrical Robot Industry report provides key information about the industry, including invaluable facts and figures, expert opinions, and the latest developments across the globe. Not only does the report cover a holistic view of the industry from a global standpoint, but it also covers individual regions and their development. The Global Cylindrical Robot Industry report showcases the latest trends in the global and regional markets on all critical parameters which include technology, supplies, capacity, production, profit, price, and competition. The key players covered in the report provide a detailed analysis of the competition and their developments in the Global Cylindrical Robot Industry. Accurate forecasts and expert opinion from credible sources, and the recent R&D development in the industry is also a mainstay of the Cylindrical Robot Market report.The report also focuses on the significance of industry chain analysis and all variables, both upstream and downstream. These include equipment and raw materials, client surveys, marketing channels, and industry trends and proposals. Other significant information covering consumption, key regions and distributors, and raw material suppliers are also a covered in this report.Browse the full report @Finally, the Cylindrical Robot Market report ends with a detailed SWOT analysis of the market, investment feasibility and returns, and development trends and forecasts. As with every report on Orbis Research, the Cylindrical Robot Industry is the holy grail of information which serious knowledge seekers can benefit from. The report which is the result of ultimate dedication of pedigree professionals has a wealth of information which can benefit anyone, irrespective of their commercial or academic interest.Purchase a copy of this report @MAJOR POINTS FROM TABLE OF CONTENTS:Chapter One: Cylindrical Robot Market OverviewChapter Two: Global Cylindrical Robot Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter Three: Global Cylindrical Robot Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)Chapter Four: Global Cylindrical Robot Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)Chapter Five: Global Cylindrical Robot Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter Six: Global Cylindrical Robot Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter Seven: Global Cylindrical Robot Manufacturers Profiles/AnalysisChapter Eight: Cylindrical Robot Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter Nine: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter Ten: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter Eleven: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter Twelve: Global Cylindrical Robot Market Forecast (2017-2022)Chapter Thirteen: Research Findings and ConclusionChapter Fourteen: AppendixAbout Us:Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.Contact Us:Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019For more information contact sales@orbisresearch.com
Global Masturbation Stick Sales Market Report to 2021 - Industry Growth, Sales, Production, Pricing, Demands, Trends

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This report studies sales (consumption) of Masturbation Stick in Global market, especially in USA, China, Europe, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringKonga NigeriaLETENDMMMolroseChengda Plastic Packing Products Co., LtdRhinioWanleInsMarket Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Masturbation Stick in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeUSAChinaEuropeJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaSplit by product Types, with sales, revenue, price and gross margin, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoManualElectricSplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Masturbation Stick in each application, can be divided intoManWomanBook a Free Sample Copy of this Research Report @Table of Contents1 Masturbation Stick Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Masturbation Stick1.2 Classification of Masturbation Stick1.2.1 Manual1.2.2 Electric1.3 Application of Masturbation Stick1.3.1 Man1.3.2 Woman1.4 Masturbation Stick Market by Regions1.4.1 USA Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 India Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)QYresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations.QYResearchReports1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Automotive Bearing Market is Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 6% by 2022

Automotive Bearing Market

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https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/automotive-bearing-market-1996

Market Research Future published a half-cooked research report on global automotive Bearing market. The global market automotive Bearing is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 6% during the forecast period, 2016 to 2022.Market Highlights:Automotive bearing system is used to enable the rotational and linear motion and also reduces the friction in the vehicles. The specialty of the bearing differs as per the vehicle it is used in such as, heavy vehicles demands bearings to be rigid enough to carry heavy weight and give trouble free and smooth operations. As per trend, ceramic and white metal alloy ball bearings are expected to capture the market for automotive bearing as these are lightweight and will enhance the product quality by reducing the friction and energy consumption during the operations. Moreover, increasing demand for the vehicles and technological advancement are driving the automotive bearing market. The global automotive bearing market is expected to show a growth at CAGR of about 6% from 2016 to 2022.Request a Sample Copy @Asia-Pacific is the major regions for the automotive bearing market. Asia-Pacific is expected to show significant growth in automotive bearing market. Emerging economies like China, India, are expected to drive the market due to increasing demand for vehicles, increasing individuals disposable income & purchasing power is expected to drive the market for automotive bearing. Developed regions such as North America and Europe will show the static growth for the automotive bearing market.Key Players of Automotive Bearing Market: Schaeffler AG Jtekt Corporation NTN Corporation Iljin Bearing Co., Ltd. Timken Company Svenska Kullagerfabriken AB RKB Bearings Timken Company ORS Bearings CW BearingScope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global automotive Bearing industry, tracking market segments across the categorized four geographic regions. The report provides a five-year forecast for the market size in terms of value for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the world. The scope of the study segments the global automotive bearing market based on type, and vehicle type.Brief TOC:1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1. Definition2.2. Scope Of The Study2.2.1. Research Objective2.2.2. Assumptions2.2.3. Limitations2.3. Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1. Research Process3.2. Primary Research3.3. Secondary Research3.4. Market Size Estimation3.5. Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1. Drivers & Opportunities4.2. Challenges & Restraints4.3. Value Chain Analysis4.4. Porters Five Forces Analysis5. Automotive Bearing Market, By Type5.1. Introduction5.2. Ball Bearing5.3. Roller Bearing5.4. Plain Bearing5.5. Trust Bearing5.6. OthersContinueAccess Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.ContactAkash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
CBCT Dental Imaging Market is expected to reach USD 817.5 million by 2023

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Market research future published a cooked research report on Global CBCT Dental Imaging Market. The Global CBCT Dental Imaging Market is expected to grow with CAGR of 9.8% during the period 2016 to 2023.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 50 market data tables and 40 figures spread over more than 93 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on CBCT Dental Imaging Market Research Report from 2011 to 2023"Market HighlightsOver the past few years in the field of dentistry, radiographic imaging has evolved from a conventional two-dimensional technique to a three-dimensional modality. CBCT has been referred to as the gold standard and standard of care for diagnostic maxillofacial imaging. There have been increasing references in the dental literature towards the utility of cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) in clinical dental practice.The use of CBCT devices is on the rise due to the increasing number of dental specialty hospitals and laboratories in the Americas and Europe and worldwide which led to the augmented adoption of CBCT in global market. In the Americas, the markets growth is high as public-private dental schools are increasing approximately 80% are in private practice as a replacement for panoramic devices. In the U.S. alone nearly 800 CBCTs are sold per year. The use of CBCT machines is rising at such a rate that it is expected that within three years this technology will replace over 50% of Digital Panoramic devices. There are many major players in this market which are competing to increase their market share in this market. Companies like Danaher Corporation, Planmeca OY and Dentsply Sirona are the leading players in this market globally.Request a Copy of Sample Report @Major Key Players: Carestream Health (US), Dentsply Sirona (US), FONA Dental, S.R.O., Gendex, Imaging Sciences International, LLC (US), J.MORITA MFG.CORP. (Japan), KaVo Dental GmbH (Germany), NewTom, Planmeca OY, Prexion (US), Sinclair Dental/Dentaire (Canada), SOREDEX (Finland), Vatech Networks (Republic of Korea)Hottest Trend in the MarketGlobally CBCT dental imaging market is a high growing market. The growth of the market is likely to driven by increasing incidences of dental caries and other periodontal diseases, increase in dental procedures, rise in dental tourism, increasing cosmetic dentistry treatments. However, factor such as lack of technological awareness is further hampering the market.The dental CBCT market by detector type is segmented into flat panel detectors, and image intensifier. The Flat Panel Detectors (FPDs) are the next generation digital X-ray technology. These detectors consists of amorphous silicon and solid state technology that produce digital imaging in radiography while the image intensifiers are those device which are capable of detecting and amplifying low-light-level images such as weak emissions or reflected light for bringing them into view as sharp contrast images. The use of image intensifiers is decreasing as they are losing image gain and their image quality is decreasing day by day while the Flat panel detectors exhibit very limited image degradation which has increased the use of FPD systems more in CBCT machines.Browse Report @Key Finding The Global CBCT dental imaging market and is expected to reach USD 817.5 million by 2023. Regionally, North America holds the largest market share of global CBCT dental imaging market and is expected to reach USD 326.6 million by 2023. Asia-Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market, and expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.1% from 2016 to 2023Regional Analysis:Depending on geographic region, dental CBCT market is segmented into four key regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America is the largest market for CBCT dental imaging. Europe is the second-largest market for CBCT dental imaging which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.7%. The European market for CBCT dental imaging is expected to reach at USD 250.0 Million by the end of the forecast period. Asia pacific region is expected to be fastest growing region in CBCT dental imaging market.Brief TOC5 Market Factor Analysis5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.1.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers5.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers5.1.3 Threat of New Entrants5.1.4 Threat of Substitutes5.1.5 Intensity of Rivalry5.2 Value Chain5.2.1 Research & Product development5.2.2 Component Manufacturing11 Company Profile11.1 Carestream Health11.1.1 Company Overview11.1.2 Product Overview11.1.3 Financials11.1.4 SWOT Analysis.........Browse Related ReportSpinal implants market information, by type (fusion implants, non-fusion implants), by procedure (open surgery, minimally invasive surgery) by material (titanium, titanium-alloy, stainless steel, and plastic) - Forecast till 2022About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Isoprene Rubber Market To Make Great Impact In Near Future by 2025

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Isoprene Rubber Market: SnapshotThe unique perceived benefits of isoprene rubbers, a form of synthetic rubber, are their resistance to abrasion and fractures. On account of having similar chemical and physical properties as that of a natural rubber, isoprene finds applications as tires, automotive mounts, shock absorbers, adhesives, healthcare items, sporting goods, and coatings among others.Isoprene rubbers are enjoying soaring demand on account of a flourishing automotive industry. Rising awareness about the use of isoprene rubber gloves for various purposes, particularly in surgeries and other healthcare processes, is also proving beneficial for its demand.With a huge thrust on research and development, more applications of isoprene rubber is expected to emerge in the near future. One such result of research and development is bio-isoprene that can be formulated from low cost sugars gotten from biomass, and provide a green preliminary material for products such as styrene block copolymers, for its use as adhesive and other applications. Many such innovative product categories is slated to bode well for the isoprene rubbers market in the near future. Already, renowned automakers in the world are pledging uptake for such eco-efficient products.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Asia Pacific, powered by particularly by China, is the primary driver of the global isoprene rubbers market. This is because of the explosive growth in the automotive industry in the region. North America and Europe are important contributors to the market as well due to the growing awareness of hygiene among people that has led to the significant uptake of isoprene rubbers in the healthcare sector.Isoprene Rubber Market: General OutlineIsoprene or 2-methyl-1, 3 butadiene, is a colorless liquid and volatile in nature. It is soluble in organic solvents such as alcohol and water due to its low vapor pressure and reactive nature. Isoprene rubbers are highly resistant to abrasion and fractures. Isoprene has electro insulating resistance, and is an organic compound that is emitted by various plants and trees. Some of the producers of isoprene are: poplars, oaks, eucalyptus, and legumes among others. About half of the yearly production of isoprene emissions comes from tropical broadleaf trees and the remaining from shrubs. Isoprene is denoted by a chemical formula CH2=C(CH3)CH=CH2. Isoprene is produced in the chloroplasts of plants through the MEP pathway that is also known as non-mevalonate pathway. Isoprene emissions are known to change dramatically with temperature and maximize at around 40 degree Celsius. This has led to the belief that isoprene protects plants from heat stress. Industrial production of isoprene was done primarily by isolation through thermal decomposition of natural rubber. It is readily available as a side product in manufacturing ethylene and as a by-product of thermal cracking of oil or naphtha.Request TOC of the Report @Isoprene Rubber Market: Trends and ProspectsIsoprene is known as a structural motif in most of the biological systems. The isoprenoids such as tetraterpenes and carotenes are derived from isoprene. Other substances and compounds derived from isoprene include retinol, phytol, dolichols, tocopherols, and squalene among others.As isoprene rubber has similar physical and chemical properties as that of a natural rubber, isoprene is used in host of applications. It does not contain fatty acids, proteins and other substances that are present in natural rubber. The various applications of isoprene include tires, shock absorbers, automotive mounts, adhesives, sporting goods, healthcare items, and coatings among others.Growing market demand for isoprene from the automotive industry is the major factor driving the global isoprene market. In addition, growing awareness has given rise to usage of gloves for various purposes. Therefore, the increasing demand for isoprene from the medical and healthcare sector is also expected to boost demand for isoprene in the near future. One of the drivers in developing bio-based isoprene is its capability to utilize low cost sugars derived from biomass, and provide a green preliminary material for products such as styrene block copolymers, for its use as adhesive and other applications.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@With rising research and development activities along with innovations, the wide range of applications in the end user industries are expected to provide opportunities for the growth of the global isoprene market. The potential for bio-isoprene is also expected to boost opportunities for isoprene in the market.Isoprene Rubber Market: Key SegmentsNorth America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World (RoW) are the major segments for the global isoprene market. Asia Pacific, especially China is expected to boost the market demand for isoprene due to the growing automotive industry in the region. North America and Europe are also expected to fuel demand for isoprene owing to the growing hygiene awareness among people. This hygiene awareness has led to a rise in demand for isoprene from the healthcare sector, thereby driving the growth of the isoprene market.Isoprene Rubber Market: Key Market playersThe key players of the isoprene rubber market are: JSR, Kaixin, Lanzhou Xinlan, Nizhnekamskneftekhim, Sinopec, Togliattikauchuk, Yikesi, Zhenjiang Xintian, Goodyear, Jinhai Deqi, Kuraray, Lyondellbasell, Shell, Synthez-Kauchuk, Formosa Plastics, Kraton Polymers, LCY, YUHUANG, ZEON and Zibo Luhua Hongjin, SINOPEC, Versalis(Polimeri Europa), TSRC, and ZEON among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Benzethonium Chloride Market : The research report also include in depth competitive analysis 2017 - 2025

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Benzethonium Chloride Market: SnapshotBenzethonium chloride (hyamine), a white colored, solid, odorless artificial quaternary ammonium salt that is water and ethanol soluble, has anti-infective, antiseptic, and surfactant properties. It has widespread applications in different areas. For example, it is used in first aid antiseptics as a topical antimicrobial instrument, in toiletries and cosmetics, anti-itch ointments, mouthwashes, in the food industry as a surfactant, as a preservative in the pharmaceutical industry, as a local antiseptic in hospitals and clinics, and as a disinfectant and detergent in various other end-use industries. Many lab tests have proven that benzethonium chloride is extremely effective against pathogens such as E.Coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus.Majorly fuelling the demand for benzethonium chloride is the flourishing pharmaceutical industry, the pressing demand for food on account of an ever-increasing world population, and the soaring personal care industry.Benzethonium chloride, however, has side effects and this is hampering their uptake to an extent. Ingestion of benzethonium chloride, for instance, can lead to vomiting, convulsions, and even a collapse followed by coma, in some rare cases. It can also cause hypertension, esophageal damage, nausea and paralysis of respiratory muscles leading to central nervous system depression.Request Sample Copy of the Report @From a geographical standpoint, Asia Pacific is primed to become a key market for benzethonium chloride because of the rising demand from the fast-expanding pharmaceutical industry in the region. The rising demand from the food industry in Europe and North America is expected to bode well for the growth of the markets in these regions.Global Benzethonium Chloride Market: Inclusive InsightBenzethonium chloride (hyamine) is an artificial quaternary ammonium salt which is white in colour, solid, odorless, and is soluble in water. It also dissolves in ethanol efficiently. It has a melting point of 327 to 331 degree Fahrenheit and molecular weight of 448.1. Benzethonium chloride properties include anti-infective, antiseptic, and surfactant among others. It is basically employed in first aid antiseptics as a topical antimicrobial instrument. It is also present in toiletries and cosmetics which include antimicrobial toiletries, anti-itch ointments, and mouthwashes among others. It is used on a large scale as a surfactant in the food industry. The food industry uses it on a large scale in the form of a surfactant.It is used as a preserving agent in the pharmaceutical industry, as a local antiseptic in hospitals and clinics, and as disinfectant and detergents in various other end-use industries. It is also used as a topical anti-infection agent which is brought into use for the purpose of disinfecting eyes, nose, throat, and skin. It also has application in the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture several other preservatives. It is also found in the formulation of grapefruit seed extract. benzethonium chloride known by other names such as BZP, Salanine, Polymine D, Antiseptol, Quatrachor, and Phermerol. Benzethonium chloride displays a wide range of microbiocidal action against mold, fungi, bacteria and viruses. Several lab tests have proven that benzethonium chloride is extremely effective against pathogens such as E.Coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus.Request TOC of the Report @Global Benzethonium Chloride Market: Drivers and InhibitorsThe mounting demand from the pharmaceutical industry is the chief driving aspect of the global benzethonium chloride market. Additionally, the rising demand from the food industry is further anticipated to boost the growth of the global benzethonium chloride market. The growing use of benzethonium chloride in the personal care industry is another factor that is likely to provide the global benzethonium chloride market with a shot in the arm.However, the rising health concerns among consumers regarding the side effects of Benzethonium chloride is expected to hamper the growth of global benzethonium market over the coming years. On ingestion of benzethonium chloride, the infected person may collapse and other symptoms include vomiting, convulsions and coma. It may also lead to hypertension, esophageal damage, nausea and paralysis of respiratory muscles leading to central nervous system depression. These factors are expected to hamper the growth of global benzethonium chloride market.Global Benzethonium Chloride Market: Regional OutlookThe global market for benzethonium chloride is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the leading region in terms of consumption of benzethonium chloride owing to the growing demand from the pharmaceutical industry in the region. The rising demand from the food industry in Europe and North America is expected to bode well for the growth of the markets in these regions.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Benzethonium Chloride Market: Vendor LandscapeThe leading companies in the market are Manus Aktteva Biopharma LLP, Quat-Chem Ltd, ATHENE CHEMICALS PVT. LTD, QIHAI CHEMICALS CO.,Triveni Aromatics And Perfumery Private Limited, Ampak Company, Pharmaco-Aaper and Commercial Alcohols, ACM Chemicals, Alfa Aesar, Ricca Chemical Company, Premier Group of Industries, LTD, Hetrium, Pacific Texchem Private Limited, Par Sterile Products, Dishman Pharmaceuticals & Chemicals (P) Ltd, SHIMADZU CORPORATION and Fisher Scientific among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Healthcare Logistics Market 2017 Trend, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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Healthcare logistics involve delivering, controlling, and planning the physical flow of pharmaceutical goods and information exchange from the producer to a market. The purpose is to meet customers' demand and provide outsourcing services that specialize in handling functions, such as transportation, warehousing, freight, and forwarding. The global healthcare logistics market consists of two types of products, namely generic drugs and branded drugs.Publisher's analysts forecast the global healthcare logistics market to grow at a CAGR of 5.62% during the period 2017-2021.For more information about this report:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global healthcare logistics market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated by different vendors through the sales of healthcare logistics services of generic drugs and branded drugs.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAPublisher's report, Global Healthcare Logistics Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- DB Schenker- Deutsche Post DHL- KUEHNE+NAGEL- CEVA Holdings- FedExRequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors- Agility- Air Canada Cargo- Biocair- Biotec Services International- Cold Chain Technologies- Continental Cargo- CSafe- Helapet- Igloo Thermo-logistics- LifeConEx- Marken- Nordic Cold Storage- Panalpina World Transport (Holding)- VersaCold Logistics Services- World Courier ManagementMarket driver- Increased Investment in technology- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Complex supply chain and lack of data standardization- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Provision of end-to-end integrated services- For a full, detailed list, view our reportInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Stem Cell Therapy Market 2017 Trends, Growth and Forecast to 2021

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Stem cell therapy is the use of stem cells for the treatment or prevention of a disease or condition. Bone marrow transplant is the widely-used stem cell therapy, followed by therapies derived from umbilical cord blood. Research is being undertaken to develop various sources (such as cord blood cells, bone marrow, and skin) for stem cells, and to apply them to various disorders like neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions.Publisher's analysts forecast the global stem cell therapy market to grow at a CAGR of 36.52% during the period 2017-2021.For more information about this report:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global stem cell therapy market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales of stem cell therapy products/segments in the market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEAPublisher's report, Global Stem Cell Therapy Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Holostem Advanced Therapies- JCR Pharmaceuticals- Organogenesis- Osiris Therapeutics- VericelRequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors- AbbVie- American CryoStem- AM-Pharma- Anterogen- apceth Biopharma- Astellas Pharma- Athersys- Baxter International- Beike Biotechnology- BIOTIME- bluebird bio- Bristol-Myers Squibb- BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics- Brainxell- Caladrius Biosciences- Cellular Biomedicine Group- Cellular Dynamics International (a subsidiary of Fujifilm)- Cesca Therapeutics- CHA Biotech- Chugai Pharmaceutical- Citospin- Corestem- Cytori Therapeutics- Daiichi Sankyo- Fujifilm- Gamida Cell- Global Stem Cells Group- Grupo Ferrer Internacional- GlaxoSmithKline- Hemostemix- Histocell- International Stem Cell- Ivy Institute of Stem Cells- Japan Regenerative Medicine- Kangstem Biotech- Kiadis Pharma- Laboratorios Salvat- MEDIPOST- Mesoblast- Nuo Therapeutics- Opsis Therapeutics- Osiris Therapeutics- Pharmicell- Pluristem Therapeutics- Promethera Biosciences- Q Therapeutics- ReNeuron- RHEACELL- Salus Medical Solutions- Sangamo Therapeutics- Shire- Steminent Biotherapeutics- Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma- Taiwan Bio Therapeutics- Takeda Pharmaceutical- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries- Thoratec Corporation- TiGenix- Translational Biosciences- TWO CELLS- U.S. Stem Cell- ViaCyte- VistaGen TherapeuticsInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Bladder Scanner Market with CAGR of 7.81% and USD 77.32 million by 2016

Bladder Scanner

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https://goo.gl/aFWKNo

The report that is written on the title Bladder Scanner Market 2016 covers all the aspects of the global market study. This report has an estimation about the Bladder Scanner Market size in terms of value (US$). The report contains the broad segmentation of the market. The report provides the information about the Bladder Scanner Market and also forecasts its position in the coming years.A bladder scanner is a medical device that utilizes ultrasound to noninvasively measure the amount of urine in the bladder or to determine how much urine remains in the bladder after urination as a way to measure residual levels. The type of scanner is a niche ultrasound system that provides fast and reliable information to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of urological conditions, access urinary retention, prevents unnecessary catheterization and reduces incidents of urinary tract infections (UTIs).Browse full report with TOC @Bladder Scanner market by volume, which measures output worldwide, was expected to reach 8,045 units in 2016 with an increase of 7.81% from its year-earlier level. The global bladder scanner market size is estimated to grow from USD 53.1 million in 2011 to USD 77.32 million by 2016, at an estimated CAGR of 7.81% between 2011 and 2016. With regards to this, key players of bladder scanner industry are expected to find potential opportunities in this market.The global bladder scanner market report profiles some of the key technological developments in the recent times. It also profiles some of the leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players.Global Bladder Scanner Market Segment By Key Players/Manufacturers,VerathonLaborieMcube TechBard MedicalEcho-SonVitaconMedicaCaresonoMianyang MeikeSRS MedicalAsk for Sample Report:Report on (Bladder Scanner Market Report) mainly covers 15 Topics acutely display the global Bladder Scanner Market.Topic 1, this report analyzed the basic scope of this industry like definition, specification, classification, application, industry policy and news;Topic 2, the analysis on industry chain is provided including the up and down stream industry also with the major market players. And the analysis on manufacturing including process, cost structure and major plants distribution is conducted;Topic 3, 4 global and regional market is analyzed. In these chapters, this report analyzed major market data like capacity, production, capacity utilization rate, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, supply, import, export, consumption, market share, growth rate and etc. For regional market, this report analyzed major regions like Global, North America, South America, Asia (Excluding China), China and ROW. These analysis are conducted;Topic 5, 6 and 7, the performance of major manufacturers are analyzed and then in Chapter 6 and 7 the analysis on major classification and application.Topic 8, Then the marketing channel analysis is provided including the major distributorsTopic 9 and 10, this report analyzed the market forecast from 2017 to 2022 for global and regional market in Chapter 9 and the new project investment feasibility analysis;Topic 11, At last, this report provided the conclusions of this researchThis report is a valuable source of guidance for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, customers, investors and individuals who have interest in this market.About Market Research Store:Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United States
Europe Coal Tar Market 2016 - AM, NLMK, Metinvest, SEVERSTAL, Erdemir

Coal Tar

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https://goo.gl/gB6Ltc

The report that is written on the title Coal Tar Market 2016 covers all the aspects of the global market study. This report has an estimation about the Coal Tar Market size in terms of value (US$). The report contains the broad segmentation of the market. The report provides the information about the Coal Tar Market and also forecasts its position in the coming years.Coal tar is a thick black liquid that's a byproduct of coke production. As an extra product of the cause of action (COA) process that results in the production of coke, this liquid is a versatile product in its own right. There are actually quite a few uses for this viscous liquid, ranging from building and home repair all the way to medical treatments.Browse full report with TOC @Coal tar can be distilled into many fractions to yield a number of useful organic products, including benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, anthracene, and phenanthrene. These substances, called the coal-tar crudes, form the starting point for the synthesis of numerous products - notably dyes, drugs, explosives, flavorings, perfumes, preservatives, synthetic resins, and paints and stains. The residual pitch left from the fractional distillation is used for paving, roofing, waterproofing, and insulation.The European coal tar production was expected to drop to XX tons in 2016 with a growth rate of XX% from its year-earlier level. The European coal tar market size is estimated to decrease from USD XX million in 2011 to USD XX million by 2016, at an estimated CAGR of XX% between 2011 and 2016.The European coal tar market report profiles some of the key technological developments in the recent times. It also profiles some of the leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players.Global Coal Tar Market Segment By Key Players/Manufacturers,AMNLMKMetinvestSEVERSTALErdemirEVRAZTataMMKISDMechelAsk for Sample Report:Report on (The European Coal Tar Market Report) mainly covers 15 Topics acutely display the global Coal Tar Market.Topic 1, this report analyzed the basic scope of this industry like definition, specification, classification, application, industry policy and news;Topic 2, the analysis on industry chain is provided including the up and down stream industry also with the major market players. And the analysis on manufacturing including process, cost structure and major plants distribution is conducted;Topic 3, 4 global and regional market is analyzed. In these chapters, this report analyzed major market data like capacity, production, capacity utilization rate, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, supply, import, export, consumption, market share, growth rate and etc. For regional market, this report analyzed major regions like Global, North America, South America, Asia (Excluding China), China and ROW. These analysis are conducted;Topic 5, 6 and 7, the performance of major manufacturers are analyzed and then in Chapter 6 and 7 the analysis on major classification and application.Topic 8, Then the marketing channel analysis is provided including the major distributorsTopic 9 and 10, this report analyzed the market forecast from 2017 to 2022 for global and regional market in Chapter 9 and the new project investment feasibility analysis;Topic 11, At last, this report provided the conclusions of this researchThis report is a valuable source of guidance for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, customers, investors and individuals who have interest in this market.About Market Research Store:Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United States
What Are The Reasons For The Rise In Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers in South Africa Market In Recent Period?

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Orbis Research released a new research report of 36 pages on title Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers in South Africa Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications with detailed analysis, forecast and strategies.South Africa continued to face a number of economic challenges towards the end of the review period. As a result, many consumers are now seeking to economise across various consumer goods categories and they are increasingly prepared to trade down to lower-priced products. This trend has resulted in an increase being seen in demand for economical brands and, in an attempt to capitalise on this trend, the countrys leading Health And Beauty Specialist Retailers are expanding their private labelDownload PDF Sample of Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers in South Africa Market@Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers in South Africa report offers insight into key trends and developments driving the industry. The report examines all retail channels to provide sector insight. Channels include hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounters, convenience stores, mixed retailers, health and beauty retailers, clothing and footwear retailers, furniture and furnishing stores, DIY and hardware stores, durable goods retailers, leisure and personal goods retailers. There are profiles of leading retailers, with analysis of their performance and the challenges they face. There is also analysis of non-store retailing: vending; homeshopping; internet retailing; direct selling, as available.Browse Full Report with TOC:Product coverage: Beauty Specialist Retailers, Chemists/Pharmacies, Drugstores/Parapharmacies, Optical Goods Stores, Other Healthcare Specialist Retailers.Data coverage: Market sizes (historic and forecasts), company shares, brand shares and distribution data.Why buy this report? Get a detailed picture of the Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers market Pinpoint growth sectors and identify factors driving change Understand the competitive environment, the markets major players and leading brands Use five-year forecasts to assess how the market is predicted to develop.Place Purchase Order for this Report@LIST OF CONTENTS AND TABLESHeadlines Trends Competitive Landscape Prospects Channel DataTable 1 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers: Value Sales, Outlets and Selling Space 2011-2016 Table 2 Sales in Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers by Channel: Value 2011-2016Table 3 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers: Value Sales, Outlets and Selling Space: % Growth 2011-2016Table 4 Sales in Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers by Channel: % Value Growth 2011-2016Table 5 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers GBO Company Shares: % Value 2012-2016Table 6 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers GBN Brand Shares: % Value 2013-2016Table 7 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers LBN Brand Shares: Outlets 2013-2016Table 8 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers LBN Brand Shares: Selling Space 2013-2016Table 9 Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers Forecasts: Value Sales, Outlets and Selling Space 2016-2021Table 10 Forecast Sales in Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers by Channel: Value 2016-2021Orbis Research is a single point aid for all your Market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customised reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialisation. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required Market research study for our clients.Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Email ID: sales@orbisresearch.com
Greenhouse Light Market Report Key Players Analysis and Forecast to 2017

ReportsWeb

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ReportsWeb.com added Global Greenhouse Light Market Research Report 2017 to its vast collection of research Database. The report is spread across 100 pages and supported by 10 company leaders.The Global Greenhouse Light Market Research Report 2017 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Greenhouse Light Market. This report studies Greenhouse Light in Global market, especially North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer covering top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering Gavita International, Hortilux Schreder, Plessey Semiconductors, SANlight, LumiGrow, Senmatic, Newlux, Illumitex, PARsource and Nihon Advanced Agri.Request a Sample copy of this research @Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Greenhouse Light in these regions, from 2017 to 2022 (forecast), like North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India. Firstly, Greenhouse Light Market On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into LED, Sodium Lamp and Halogen Lamp. On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales) , market share and growth rate of Greenhouse Light for each application, including Parks, Agriculture and Research.View more details about this report @Few points from Table of Contents1 Greenhouse Light Market Overview2 Global Greenhouse Light Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Greenhouse Light Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region(2012-2017)4 Global Greenhouse Light Supply (Production) , Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2016)4.1 Global Greenhouse Light Consumption by Regions (2011-2016)4.2 North America Greenhouse Light Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2011-2016)4.3 Europe Greenhouse Light Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2011-2016)4.4 China Greenhouse Light Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2011-2016)4.5 Japan Greenhouse Light Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2011-2016)4.6 Southeast Asia Greenhouse Light Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2011-2016)4.7 India Greenhouse Light Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2011-2016)5 Global Greenhouse Light Production, Revenue (Value) , Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Greenhouse Light Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)5.2 Global Greenhouse Light Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)5.3 Global Greenhouse Light Price by Type (2011-2016)5.4 Global Greenhouse Light Production Growth by Type (2011-2016)6 Global Greenhouse Light Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Greenhouse Light Consumption and Market Share by Application (2011-2016)6.2 Global Greenhouse Light Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2011-2016)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Greenhouse Light Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Gavita International7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Greenhouse Light Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Gavita International Greenhouse Light Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Hortilux Schreder7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Greenhouse Light Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Hortilux Schreder Greenhouse Light Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Plessey Semiconductors7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Greenhouse Light Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Plessey Semiconductors Greenhouse Light Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Greenhouse Light Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Greenhouse Light Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and ConclusionBuy a copy of complete 100 pages report @ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Open Source Software Market 2017-2022- Analysis and Trends

Research N Reports

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Global Open Source Software Market Research Report 2017Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.This report on Global Open Source Software market is a detailed research study that helps provides answers and pertinent questions with respect to the emerging trends and growth opportunities in this particular industry. It helps identify each of the prominent barriers to growth, apart from identifying the trends within various application segments of the global market for Global Open Source Software. Collecting historical and recent data from various authentic resources, and depending on all the factors and trends, the report presents a figurative estimate of the future market condition, along with compound annual growth rate (CAGR).This report studies the Global Open Source Software market, analyzes and researches the Global Open Source Software development status and forecast in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa and Latin America. Various key players are discussed in details and a well-informed idea of their popularity and strategies is mentioned.Get Sample Copy Of This Report:The study segments the market by geography into: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. It provides in-depth forecasts of revenue of the market as a whole as well as each and every application segment. The competitive landscape is mapped depending on product and technology. This study also offers an overview of pricing trends and ancillary factors that will be influencing pricing in the Global Open Source Software market. The market study, estimation, and market sizing have been done utilizing a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches.Get 30% Discount on This Report at:Most important data include the key recommendations and predictions by our analysts, intended to steer a strategic business decision. The company profiles section of this research service is a compilation of the growth strategies, financial status, product portfolio, and recent developments of key market participants. The report provides detailed industry analysis of the Global Open Source Software market with the help of proven research methodologies such as Porters five forces. The forces analyzed are bargaining power of the buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, and the degree of competition.Table of Contents:Global Open Source Software Market Research Report 20161 Open Source Software Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Open Source Software1.2 Open Source Software Segment by Type1.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Open Source Software by Type in 20151.2.2 Shareware1.2.3 Bundled Software1.2.4 BSD(Berkeley Source Distribution)1.2.5 other1.3 Open Source Software Segment by Application1.3.1 Open Source Software Consumption Market Share by Application in 20151.3.2 phpbb1.3.3 BMForum1.3.4 phpwind1.3.5 other1.4 Open Source Software Market by Region1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 China Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Korea Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Open Source Software (2011-2021)Complete Report Available At:About Research n Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.com(ResearchnReports)
Global Leafy Vegetable Seed Market - Huasheng Seed, Horticulture Seeds, Beijing Zhongshu & Jiangsu Seed

Leafy Vegetable Seed

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The market study on Global Leafy Vegetable Seed Market 2017 Research Report studies current as well as future aspects of the Leafy Vegetable Seed Market primarily based upon factors on which the companies compete in the market, key trends and segmentation analysis. This report covers each side of the worldwide market, ranging from the fundamental market info and advancing more to varied important criteria, based on that, the Leafy Vegetable Seed market is segmented. Leafy Vegetable Seed industry research report analyzes, tracks, and presents the global market size of the major players in every region around the world. Furthermore, the report provides data of the leading market players in the Leafy Vegetable Seed market.Request for FREE Sample Report @The Global Leafy Vegetable Seed Market report has Forecasted Compound Annual rate of growth (CAGR) differently price for explicit amount, which will facilitate user to require decision supported futuristic chart. Report additionally includes key players in world Leafy Vegetable Seed market. The Leafy Vegetable Seed market size is estimated in terms of revenue (US$) and production volume during this report.The study world Leafy Vegetable Seed Industry Research Report 2017 may be a elaborate report scrutinising statistical knowledge concerning the worldwide market. moreover, the factors on that the companies contend within the market are evaluated within the report. The report offers an in depth outline of the key segments at intervals the market. Analysis additionally covers upstream raw materials, equipment, downstream client survey, selling channels, industry development trend and proposals.The Leafy Vegetable Seed report offers a close summary of the key segments within the market. The quickest & slowest growing market segments ar lined during this report. This analysis report covers the expansion prospects of the worldwide market based on end-users. It outlines the market shares of key regions in prime countries, it also includes analysis of the leading vendors during this market.Inquiry For Buying Here @In the end, the report includes Leafy Vegetable Seed new project SWOT analysis, investment practicableness analysis, investment come analysis, and development trend analysis. The key rising opportunities of the fastest growing international Leafy Vegetable Seed market segments are coated throughout this report. This report additionally presents product specification, producing method, and products cost structure. Production is separated by regions, technology and applications.MarketNReports.com is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Global Broadcasting Transmitter Market Research Report 2016-2021

Broadcasting Transmitter

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https://goo.gl/9OdOAL

The report that is written on the title Broadcasting Transmitter Market 2016 covers all the aspects of the global market study. This report has an estimation about the Broadcasting Transmitter Market size in terms of value (US$). The report contains the broad segmentation of the market. The report provides the information about the Broadcasting Transmitter Market and also forecasts its position in the coming years.In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating current, the antenna radiates radio waves. Today, the term transmitter is popularly used specifically to refer to a broadcast transmitter, a transmitter used in broadcasting, as in FM radio transmitter or television transmitter.Browse full report with TOC @A radio transmitter is an electronic device which, when connected to an antenna, produces an electromagnetic signal such as in radio and television broadcasting, two way communications or radar. Heating devices, such as a microwave oven, although of similar design, are not usually called transmitters, in that they use the electromagnetic energy locally rather than transmitting it to another location. A radio transmitter is usually part of a radio communication system which uses electromagnetic waves (radio waves) to transport information (in this case sound) over a distance.Broadcasting Transmitter production, which measures output worldwide, was expected to reach ** units in 2016 with an increase of 4.33% from its year-earlier level. The global broadcasting transmitter market size is estimated to grow from USD 577.84 million in 2011 to USD 708.75 million by 2016, at an estimated CAGR of 4.17% between 2011 and 2016. With regards to this, key players of broadcasting transmitter industry are expected to find potential opportunities in this market.The global broadcasting transmitter market report profiles some of the key technological developments in the recent times. It also profiles some of the leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players.Global Broadcasting Transmitter Market Segment By Key Players/Manufacturers,R&SGatesAirThomson BroadcastHitachiSumavisionBECOMSASyesNECWeingarten QuartetAsk for Sample Report:Report on (Broadcasting Transmitter Market Report) mainly covers 15 Topics acutely display the global Broadcasting Transmitter Market.Topic 1, this report analyzed the basic scope of this industry like definition, specification, classification, application, industry policy and news;Topic 2, the analysis on industry chain is provided including the up and down stream industry also with the major market players. And the analysis on manufacturing including process, cost structure and major plants distribution is conducted;Topic 3, 4 global and regional market is analyzed. In these chapters, this report analyzed major market data like capacity, production, capacity utilization rate, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, supply, import, export, consumption, market share, growth rate and etc. For regional market, this report analyzed major regions like Global, North America, South America, Asia (Excluding China), China and ROW. These analysis are conducted;Topic 5, 6 and 7, the performance of major manufacturers are analyzed and then in Chapter 6 and 7 the analysis on major classification and application.Topic 8, Then the marketing channel analysis is provided including the major distributorsTopic 9 and 10, this report analyzed the market forecast from 2017 to 2022 for global and regional market in Chapter 9 and the new project investment feasibility analysis;Topic 11, At last, this report provided the conclusions of this researchThis report is a valuable source of guidance for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, customers, investors and individuals who have interest in this market.About Market Research Store:Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United States
The research is specially designed to estimate and analyze the demand and performance of Diphenyl Sulfone Market

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https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=167

https://www.tmrresearch.com/diphenyl-sulfone-market

Global Diphenyl Sulfone Market: SnapshotDiphenyl sulfone finds extensive usage in the paper and pharmaceutical industries owing to its favorable properties and significant applications.In the paper manufacturing sector, diphenyl sulfone is engaged as a sensitizer for completing thermal paper coatings. It could be safe to say that diphenyl sulfone is employed in a majority of thermal paper grades as a sensitizer. Followed by the processes of drying and calendaring, the compound could be applied as a sensitizer with the traditional technique of aqueous coating composition application onto a pre-coated base paper. Diphenyl sulfone could be most commonly used in combination with key color formers or developers such as WinCon-2. The paper grade of diphenyl sulfone is also used as a raw material for 3, 3 dinitro diphenyl sulfone.The usages of diphenyl sulfone have always been quite momentous in the pharmaceutical sector. For instance, the drug Promin was substituted by antibiotic Dapsone, chemically, diaminodiphenyl sulfone, for the treatment of leprosy a.k.a. Hansens disease. Although Promin offered successful treatment results for leprosy, its side effects and injection type of administration sidelined the drug gradually. Dapsone had also gained the reputation of treatment of choice in leprosy management due to its effectiveness and oral administration. Dapsone is also used for treating specific kinds of skin diseases such as dermatitis herpetiformis which generally occur on the scalp, knees, and elbows and infections caused due to HIV.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Since such drugs are usually taken for life or in longer dosages, the demand in the global diphenyl sulfone is expected to remain stable in the foreseeable future.Diphenyl Sulfone Market: General OutlineDiphenyl sulfone is a twelve carbon organic compound of sulfur with two benzene rings. The chemical is available as a white solid soluble in most organic solvents, and is insoluble in water. Diphenyl sulfone is manufactured commercially by a sulfonation of benzene, through a reaction between sulfuric acid and oleum. Diphenyl sulfone is also produced through a reaction between benzene and benzenesulfonyl chloride. Typically, these processes include the formation of an intermediate, benzenesulfonic acid.Diphenyl sulfone is a toxic inorganic chemical, and due to its sulfur content, it may cause irritation and/or burns to skin and eyes, and can be fatal if inhaled. Diphenyl sulfone is also considered hazardous, as it releases toxic and irritating sulfur dioxide gas, when burned. The chemical is required to be disposed of properly, as it is may cause harm the aquatic ecosystem.Diphenyl Sulfone Market: Application InsightsDiphenyl sulfone is primarily used in the chemical industry as a high temperature organic solvent. Diphenyl sulfone is used in processing of rigid thermoset polymers such as PEEK, as these polymers dissolve only in hot organic solvents. Diphenyl sulfone is also used as an intermediate raw material for the production of various phenyl chemicals such as dichloride diphenyl sulfone and bisphenol S among others.Request TOC of the Report @Diphenyl sulfone is also used in paper manufacture and pharmaceutical applications. The diphenyl sulfone market is driven by its demand in polymer processing applications, pharmaceutical applications, and paper and pulp applications. However, the rising awareness about the harmful effects of sulfur dioxide gas, and its hazardous nature, might hamper the market growth over the forecast period. New polymer applications are expected to bring prospective opportunities for future market growth of diphenyl sulfone as an intermediate raw material for the manufacturing of chemicals.Another use of diphenyl sulfone is for deriving a wide variety of sulfone monomers. These monomers are used to develop high performance sulfone polymers that are categorized by their high temperature sustenance, and clear transparency. These derived sulfone polymers are employed as replacements or substitutes for metallic materials and glass, and can find its application in the medical industry, aerospace industry, consumer products manufacture, and automotive industry.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Diphenyl Sulfone Market: Segment AnalysisIn terms of geography, Asia Pacific is the largest consumer of diphenyl sulfone in paper and pulp industry. Major industrial economies including China, India, Japan and South Korea are the key consumers of diphenyl sulfone for application in polymer manufacture and processing, paper and pulp and chemical industries.With the rise in disposable income and purchase power parity, two of the most populated countries of Asia, China and India are growing at an exponential rate. This, in turn, supports the demand growth for end use application products of diphenyl sulphone. North America is another major consumer of diphenyl sulfone, especially in the polymer processing and pharmaceutical applications. In Rest of the World, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, and Venezuela contribute to the demand for the market. Owing to stringent regulations against hazardous chemicals, Europe is projected to witness comparatively slower growth than other regions.Diphenyl Sulfone Market: Key Market PlayersSome of the market players of Diphenyl Sulfone are: Merck Millipore, Solvay, Calabrian, Indspec Chemical, Arichem LLC, Olympic Chemical, Vertellus Specialties Inc. and Southern ionics, among many others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Radiology Information Systems Market Expected to Reach US$ 1,179.2 Mn Revenues by 2024-end

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/2816

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/radiology-information-systems-market/toc

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Hospitals, medical research institutes, as well as governments, across the globe are hiking their healthcare IT spending to bring reforms in both, operations and outcomes. Instating databases is turning out to be more of a necessity for healthcare institutions, particularly for the field of radiology. Criticality of data produced and used by radiologists is compelling them to utilize speedy & error-proof data transference systems. Correspondingly, the transformation of global healthcare industry through digitization trends is also necessitating the deployment of radiology information systems. In its latest publication, Persistence Market Research has compiled more of such factors that will keep driving the growth of global radiology information system market in the years to come. According to this report, the global market for radiology information systems, which is presently valued at US$ 580.2 Mn, is anticipated to soar at 8.3% CAGR and reach US$ 1,179.2 Mn value by the end of 2024.Titled as Radiology Information Systems Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016-2024, the report reveals that global demand for radiology information systems continues to grow on the account of rising incidence rate of lifestyle-related diseases. Increasing consumer awareness to radiological procedures, and easy accessibility to these technologies are also serving as proponents for adoption of radiology information systems. Since installing radiology information systems supports a value-based healthcare model, medical practitioners are also promoting it as the immediate future of digitalized radiology.The report reveals that in 2017 and beyond, the demand for cloud-based radiology information systems will remain considerably higher than on-premise systems. Deployment of cloud-based radiology information systems is projected to bring more than US$ 800 Mn by the end of 2024, while revenues emanating from on-premise deployment will soar at 7.3% CAGR. During the forecast period, a little over 45% of global revenues will be accounted by sales of radiology information software. The adoption of radiology information services is also slated to grow robustly, while radiology information hardware is likely to incur a moderate dip in revenues.Through 2024, medical institutions adopting radiology information systems will continue to do so on integrated platforms. Similar to the current scenario, integrated radiology information systems will procure over three-fourth of global market value by the end of 2024. Standalone radiology information systems, however, will be valued at just over US$ 280 Mn by the end of projection period. And, hospitals will undoubtedly be the largest end-users of radiology information systems. More than US$ 600 Mn worth of global radiology information system revenues will be emanating from hospitals spanned across the globe. Adoption of such systems will also be considerably high in diagnostic labs and ambulatory surgical centers.By the end of 2024, North America will remain as the largest market for radiology information systems in the world. In 2016, the regions radiology information systems market was valued at US$ 269 Mn. Meanwhile, Europes advanced healthcare infrastructure will also work in the favor of radiology information system adoption. Throughout the period, Europes radiology information system revenues will soar at a health CAGR, and contribute to nearly 23% share. Although, fastest revenue growth is expected to be recorded by Latin America and the Asia-Pacific regions  revenues from which will surge at more than 8% CAGR.A Sample of this Report is Available Upon Request @Ten of the leading companies developing radiology information systems in the world are profiled in the report, and they include Cerner Corporation, Siemens AG, Merge Healthcare Incorporated (IBM), Koninklijke Philips NV, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., Epic Systems Corporation, Novarad Corp., General Electric Company, McKesson Corporation, and Medinformatix Inc.Request to View Tables of Content @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Worldwide Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin Market Forecast To 2021 by Region, Type and Players

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Publisher's Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving Revenue growth and profitability.The industry report lists the leading competitors and provides the insights strategic industry Analysis of the key factors influencing the market.The report includes the forecasts, Analysis and discussion of important industry trends, market size, market share estimates and profiles of the leading industry Players.The Players mentioned in our reportbiosynSigma-AldrichThermo Fisher ScientificG-BiosciencesStellar BiotechnologiesGlobal Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin Market: Product Segment AnalysisClinical GradeGrade KLHResearch Grade KLHFor More Information About This Report:Global Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin Market: Regional Segment AnalysisUSAEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSouth East AsiaGlobal Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin Market: Application Segment AnalysisResearchDiagnosicRequest Sample Copy At:Table of ContentChapter 1 About the Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin IndustryChapter 2 World Market Competition LandscapeChapter 3 World Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin Market shareChapter 4 Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 5 Company ProfilesChapter 6 Globalization & TradeChapter 7 Distributors and CustomersChapter 8 Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by Major CountriesChapter 9 World Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin Market Forecast through 2021Chapter 10 Key success factors and Market OverviewInquire For This Report At:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Industrial Gloves Market - Asia Pacific Industry Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Analysis For 2017 - 2025

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Asia Pacific Industrial Gloves Market: SnapshotConsidering industrialization witnessed in Asia Pacific over the last few decades, the demand for industrial gloves has soared higher than ever. The region has emerged as a lucrative market for a majority of the leading manufacturers, as they target capitalizing on untapped opportunities across developing nations. Besides this, the fact that the leading players in the rubber industry are domiciled in Asia Pacific has catapulted the region at the fore of the overall industrial gloves market. As workers operating in the rubber industry are often exposed to hazardous environment, wearing industrial protective gears is imperative for them. Growth witnessed in the regions rubber industry will therefore give significant impetus to its industrial gloves market. This also entails volatility witnessed in the demand for rubber will subsequently have a negative impact on the Asia Pacific industrial gloves market.Moreover, stringent regulations have compelled industries to invest in industrial protective gears, thus creating opportunities for the Asia Pacific industrial gloves market. Exhibiting a CAGR of 7.6%, the Asia Pacific industrial gloves market is forecast to reach US$1.25 bn by the end of 2025. The markets valuation was US$0.66 bn in 2016.Know More Information about Industry Research, Download Brochure@Disposable Gloves to Remain High in Demand on Account of their Low PriceBased on product, the dominance is expected to be with the disposable gloves segment through the course of the forecast period. It held nearly 75.4% of the Asia Pacific industrial gloves market in 2016. Manufacturing cost for the same is low compared to its re-usable counterparts. This is a key factor contributing towards the segments growth, as it allows producers to maintain a lower price point thus attracting a large number of consumers.Based on materials, rubber dominated the industrial gloves market in 2016 and is expected to remain the lead through the forecast period. Rubber gloves, also known as latex gloves are natural material which is made from rubber. Some of the key attributes of rubber gloves include its proper fitting, high level of touch sensitivity, good for wearing for a long period of time, durable against high-risk situations that involves infectious materials, cost effective, bio-degradable, and has a high level of elasticity among others. However, rubber has several adverse effects on human health such as irritant dermatitis, which is not considered extremely dangerous if neglected. It can cause cracks in the skin through which latex particles infiltrate, thus creating latex allergies on the individual. Delayed cutaneous hyper sensitivity is another effect caused due to extensive use of rubber/latex gloves which is manifested within 6 to 48 hours post exposure to latex particles. Due to these factors, this particular material is expected to lose demand in the future.Based on application, chemicals and pharmaceuticals accounted for the dominant share in 2016. Both industries are expected to maintain their respective positions throughout the forecast period. Workers in chemicals as well as pharmaceutical industries are exposed to hazardous chemicals and thus require high quality industrial protective gears. Also governments keep a strict vigil on these industries to ensure workers health and safety. Spurred by this, the market is expected to witness high demand for industrial gloves from chemicals and pharmaceutical industries.Browse Report@Malaysia to Remain Most Lucrative Market for Industrial Gloves in Asia PacificBy country, Malaysia has emerged as the most lucrative market for industrial gloves in Asia Pacific. It held over 49.9% of the market in 2016. The country is expected to remain dominant through the forecast period. The flourishing rubber industry will support growth of the industrial gloves market in Malaysia in the coming years. Besides this, China and Thailand are expected to hold considerable share in the market. Industrialization witnessed in these nations will drive the industrial gloves market.About Us:-Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact Us:-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Hair Care Market : Key Growth Factor, Industry Analysis by 2020

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Hair care products help to protect and nourish the hair and reduce hair damage. They keep hair healthy by enhancing the texture and quality of the hair. Hair care products can be made of synthetic or natural ingredients, combined with other additional substances such as preservatives, agents, surfactants and emulsifiers. Hair care products are used by hair care professionals in salons and by individual at home. According to the type of hair and its requirements there are different types of hair care products are available in the market such as shampoo, conditioner, hair styling gels, colorants, serums, hair spray, glazes, hair growth products and hair accessories. Modern hair care products provide multiple treatments for damage include split ends, rough, weak, dull and dehydrated.A sample of this report is available upon request @North America has the largest hair care market followed by Europe, due to increasing hair related problems among consumers, new hair care products innovations and increasing demand for natural and organic hair care products in these regions. Asia is expected to experience high growth rates in the next few years due to emerging economy, improvement in living standards, rising hygiene awareness and increasing hair related problems due to unhealthy lifestyle, seasonal and climatic factors.Increasing hair and scalp problems, intelligent advertising campaigns of hair care products, growing popularity of herbal hair care products, technology innovations in product manufacturing, rising disposable income and increasing spending on hair care are some of the key factors driving the growth for global hair care market. In addition, attractive packaging, increasing consumers awareness about the hair care and shifting towards hair care and styling products are driving the market for hair care. However, high cost involved and economic slowdowns are some of the major factors restraining the growth for global hair care market.Growing demographics and economies in the developing countries such as India and China are expected to offer good opportunities in hair care market. However, threat from counterfeit hair care products is a challenge for hair care market. Various trends that have been observed in the global hair care market include growing popularity of hair care treatments such as hair spa and deep nourishment, increasing number of product launches. In addition, rising number of mergers and acquisitions between companies, increasing focus on personal grooming and online retail for hair care products are some of the latest trends for global hair care market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the major companies operating in the global hair care market are LOreal USA, Unilever, Goody Products Inc., CONAIR CORPORATION, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Diamond Products Company, Aveda Corp, REVLON, Kao Brands Company, Avon Products, Inc. and Neutrogena Corporation.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Spectacles Lens Market - Global Industry Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Lens are transmissive optical device that are used to focus a ray of light through the process called refraction. These lens are made up of transparent material and can be differentiated by the material type of simple and compound lens. The focusing of the light helps in the formation of an image. Numerous manufacturers are developing lenses, usually the single vision lens that can be either concave or convex in nature. These type of lens are made from single prescription in order to correct a specific vision deficiency that can be either short sightedness or long sightedness. It is indefinite that the todays generation get fashionable choices and new materials in their spectacle lens and they are recorded to spend a lot in their frames and good quality lens. Current lens come with coatings that protect the material and gives the product a prolonged life.The rising incidences of refractive errors in consumers due to their sufferings from myopia and presbyopia are rising the demand for spectacle lens in the market. These are mainly caused due to the lifestyle errors and poor eating habits. People who are engrossed in usage of digital devices like laptop, smartphones and others are more prone to visiting the ophthalmologists for spectacle lenses. These are the major drivers aiding in the significant growth of the spectacle lensindustry.Get Details Industry Insight, Download Research Brochure@However there are certain restraints that pull back the spectacle lens market. The quality of the lens matter a lot in order to have a sustained life for the spectacle for the user. The poor handling of the product and lack of proper cleaning of the glasses can damage the spectacles, giving an urge to buy a new pair of spectacles and increasing its sales. However, the active usage of spectacles despite the recent uses of contact lens by the aged population will keep on fueling the demand for the product in the global market.The spectacle lens market can be segmented on the basis of types, by coating and by usage. By types, the spectacle lens can be segmented into single vision, bifocal, trifocal and progressive. The simple vision lens are the most popular type of spectacle lens and are found in either concave or convex shapes depending on the sightedness of the patient. By usage the spectacle lens can be either through prescription or OTC reading glass. There are many such users that just require a reading glass and have very minimum power. By coating, the spectacle lens market can be further differentiated on the basis of anti-reflective, scratch resistant, UV protection and others. Most of the consumers these days spend a lot on purchasing a good pair of spectacles and are convinced by the ophthalmologists suggestion to have a coated pair of lens.Geographically, the spectacle lens market is present globally in all the major regions of the world namely, North America, Europe, Asia- Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa all manufacture and use fillings and toppings. Owing to the rising demand of high quality spectacle lens, manufacturers are spending on preparing attractive designs of frames for the spectacles. North America and Europe are the leading regions globally that are reported to use the maximum number of spectacle lens. Other regions like the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa are adopting the culture of using contact lens but are still on the flex of using the lens with a pair of spectacles. Premium quality lens are highly priced but are preferred more if they have longer durability.Browse Report@The major players dominating the spectacles lens market are Essilor International SA, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Novartis AG(Alcon), Hoya Corporation,Rodenstock GMBH, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (Bausch+Lomb), Seiko Optical Products Co. Ltd,Johnson and Johnson, Cooper Companies, Inc. (CooperVision) and GKB Ophthalmics Ltdare a few among other leading producers in the world.About Us:-Transparency Market Research is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact Us:-Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment Market 2017 - Hearmec, Hyperbaric SAC, IHC Hytech, Perry Baromedical

Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment

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MarketReports.Biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment industry, and estimates the future trend of Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportHearmecHyperbaric SACIHC HytechPerry BaromedicalThe market research report explores the Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The worldwide Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment production volume, data pertaining to demand and Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Medical Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Equipment across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz
Smart Lighting Market: Global Smart Lighting Industry Worth US$ 51.05 Billion By 2025

The Insight Partners

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The smart lighting is a technology that enables its users to govern the lighting of any space without being surrounded by unnecessary wires. Smart lighting is a part of upcoming IoT technology, facilitating mobile and sensor based control on the luminosity of lights in a particular space. The intelligent connected lighting offers ecofriendly environment and effectively reduces the consumption of energy.According to a new market research study titled Smart Lighting Market to 2025  Global Analysis and Forecast by Lighting Type, Application and Connectivity Technology, the global smart lighting systems market was valued at US$ 10.55 Bn in 2015 and is estimated to reach US$ 51.05 Bn by 2025. The report highlights the trends prevalent in the global market and the factors driving the market along with those that act as deterrents to its growth.Complete Report is Available atThe global smart lighting market is fragmented on the basis of lighting Type into. Light Emitting Diode (LED) Lamp, Fluorescent Lamps, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), High Intensity Discharge Lamps and Others (Neon Lamps and Photographic Flashes). Furthermore the segmentation is based upon application of smart lighting viz. Industrial lighting, Commercial lighting, Residential lighting, Outdoor lighting, Automotive lighting and Government. According to the geographic regions, the market is segmented into Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific (APAC), North America and South America (SAM).The shortcoming of a wireless system are occasional disturbance in communications among the devices. When a wireless lighting system is installed in a place, one should always make sure that the keypads, processors and dimmers are within a specific range. For example, some old residential buildings may be constructed with metal wire integrated in the walls that might create disturbance or weaken the signals of a wireless system. Though it has certain drawbacks, it is expected to capture more than half of the lighting market in next few years. Thus, maximum companies are switching their product portfolio to wireless smart lighting solutions. Major players in this segment are Philips, GE, OSRAM and Daintree.Request Sample Report atNow a days wireless connectivity is taking a leap over the wire abled connecting networks as wireless is more convenient to use. First this technology was used in the telephones now called as the mobile phones and since then the wireless technology has revolutionized the way things were viewed. Wireless technology has given its consumers freedom from the limited range of the wired devices.The wireless technology has become an integral part of day to day lifestyle. Wireless technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RF Ids are experiencing high adoption rate among users. The rising popularity of wireless technology in lighting solution is thus considered to be one of the major reasons driving the smart lighting market. The wireless lighting solutions are easy to control and help its customers to attain maximum energy saving.The lighting hardware is highly integrated and dependent on the software platform being used. As there is no common standard for wireless smart lighting products, the complete idea of various smart lighting devices networked together and the entire process of networking becomes complicated. For example, Philips employs ZigBee Light Link, GreenWave uses NXP JenNet-IP and Insteon uses its own wireless technology and all these are incompatible with each other. This incompatibility would result in inconvenience for the user as the choice of products and services will get limited by the platform being used, or else the entire operation of smart lighting would get complicated.Inquire For Discount atMajor players in the global smart lighting market comprises of Osram Licht AG (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.A), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherland), Eaton Corporation PLC. (Ireland), Digital Lumens Inc. (U.S.A), Lutron Electronics Company Inc. (U.S.A), General Electric Company (U.S.A), Legrand SA (France), Streetlight.Vision (France) and Acuity Brands Lighting Inc. (U.S.A).among others.About Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Natural and Organic Personal Care Products Market to grow at a CAGR of 9.85% during 2017-2021

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Latest Research Report titled " Global Natural and Organic Personal Care Products Market 2017-2021 " features Key Market Players, Market Challengges and Market Drivers.Organic personal care products are manufactured with the usage of plants as main ingredients which have been grown organically without adding chemicals or pesticides. These products are extended for commercial purposes like cosmetics, skin care, and hair care products.The global natural and organic personal care products market to grow at a CAGR of 9.85% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global natural and organic personal care products market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- APAC- Europe- North America- ROWRequest Premium Research PDF with Tables & Figures at:Technavio's report, Global Natural and Organic Personal Care Products Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- AVEDA- Bare Escentuals- Burt's Bee- Este Lauder- Kiehl'sOther prominent vendors- NutraMarks- Colgate-Palmolive- REVELON- Colorganics- Gabriel Cosmetics- Giovanni Cosmetics- Iredale Mineral Cosmetics- Johnson & Johnson- Laverana- L'OCCITANE- L'Oral- Natural Solter- Oriflame Cosmetics- Physicians FormulaKey questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Influenza Diagnostics Market Report 2017

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Influenza Diagnostics Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the EMEA Influenza Diagnostics market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Influenza Diagnostics for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.EMEA Influenza Diagnostics market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Influenza Diagnostics sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingBDAbbott (Include Alere)RocheSiemensAnalytik JenaQuidelThermo FisherMeridian BioscienceBioMerieuxSekisui DiagnosticsResponse BiomedicalSA ScientificEnigma DiagnosticsFocus DiagnosticsObtain Report Details @On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRIDTRT-PCRCell CultureOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Influenza Diagnostics for each application, includingHospitalPOCTOther (Laboratory Diagnosis, Etc.)Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Table of Content1 Influenza Diagnostics Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Influenza Diagnostics1.2 Classification of Influenza Diagnostics1.2.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 RIDT1.2.4 RT-PCR1.2.5 Cell Culture1.3 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Hospital1.3.3 POCT1.3.4 Other (Laboratory Diagnosis, Etc.)1.4 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market by Region1.4.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Middle East Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Africa Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 EMEA Market Size (Value and Volume) of Influenza Diagnostics (2012-2022)1.5.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)2.3 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics (Volume) by Application2.4 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.3 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales Price by Region (2012-2017)3 Europe Influenza Diagnostics (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application3.1 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.2 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Type3.3 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Application3.4 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries3.4.1 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.2 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.3 Germany Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.4 France Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.5 UK Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.6 Russia Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.7 Italy Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.8 Benelux Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application4.1 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.2 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Type4.3 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Application4.4 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries4.4.1 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)4.4.2 Middle East Influenza Diagnostics Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.4 Israel Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.5 UAE Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.6 Iran Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5 Africa Influenza Diagnostics (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application5.1 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.2 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Type5.3 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Market Share by Application5.4 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries5.4.1 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)5.4.2 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)5.4.3 South Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.4 Nigeria Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.5 Egypt Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.6 Algeria Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data6.1 BD6.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.1.2 Influenza Diagnostics Product Type, Application and Specification6.1.2.1 Product A6.1.2.2 Product B6.1.3 BD Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.2 Abbott (Include Alere)6.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.2.2 Influenza Diagnostics Product Type, Application and Specification6.2.2.1 Product A6.2.2.2 Product B6.2.3 Abbott (Include Alere) Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.3 Roche6.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.3.2 Influenza Diagnostics Product Type, Application and Specification6.3.2.1 Product A6.3.2.2 Product B6.3.3 Roche Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview11 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Market Forecast (2017-2022)11.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue and Price Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.1 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.3 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Price and Trend Forecast (2017-2022)11.2 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.3 Europe Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.4 Middle Eastt Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.5 Africa Influenza Diagnostics Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.6 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales Forecast by Type (2017-2022)11.7 EMEA Influenza Diagnostics Sales Forecast by Application (2017-2022)QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States
Mobile Robot Market, Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth and Forecast Report To 2022

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The Global Smart Meters Market Research Report 2017 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Smart Meters Industry on a Global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.The report on Global Smart Meters Market is a professional report which provides thorough knowledge along with complete information pertaining to the Smart Meters industry a propos classifications, definitions, applications, industry chain summary, industry policies in addition to plans, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, etc.Request for sample of Smart Meters Market research report @The potential of this industry segment has been rigorously investigated in conjunction with primary market challenges. The present market condition and future prospects of the segment has also been examined. Moreover, key strategies in the market that includes product developments, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, etc., are discussed. Besides, upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also conducted.Report Includes:-The report cloaks the market analysis and projection of Smart Meters Market on a regional as well as Global level. The report constitutes qualitative and quantitative valuation by industry analysts, first-hand data, assistance from industry experts along with their most recent verbatim and each industry manufacturers via the market value chain. The research experts have additionally assessed the in general sales and revenue generation of this particular market. In addition, this report also delivers widespread analysis of root market trends, several governing elements and macro-economic indicators, coupled with market improvements as per every segment. Furthermore, the report contains diverse profiles of primary market players of Smart Meters Market.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering:Landis+Gyr, Itron, GE Digital Energy, Siemens, Kamstrup, Sensus, Elster Group, Silver Spring Networks, Aclara, Nuri Telecom,Sagemcom, Trilliant, Iskraemeco, Echelon, Tantalus Systems, ZIV, Sanxing, Linyang Electronics,Wasion Group, Haixing Electrical, Techrise Electronics, Chintim Instruments, XJ Measurement & Control Meter, Clou Electronics, HND Electronics, Longi, Hengye Electronics, Holley Metering,Wellsun Electric Meter, Sunrise.By types, the market can be split into:Single-Phase Smart Meters, Three-Phase Smart Meters.By Application, the market can be split into:Residential Application, Commercial Application, Industrial Application.Detailed TOC and Charts & Tables of Smart Meters Market Research Report available @The report is generically segmented into six parts and every part aims on the overview of the Smart Meters industry, present condition of the market, feasibleness of the investment along with several strategies and policies. Apart from the definition and classification, the report also discusses the analysis of import and export and describes a comparison of the market that is focused on the trends and development. Along with entire framework in addition to in-depth details, one can prepare and stay ahead of the competitors across the targeted locations.The fact that this market report renders details about the major market players along with their product development and current trends proves to be very beneficial for fresh entrants to comprehend and recognize the industry in an improved manner. The report also enlightens the productions, sales, supply, market condition, demand, growth, and forecast of the Smart Meters industry in the Global markets.Every regions market has been studied thoroughly in this report which deals with the precise information pertaining to the Marketing Channels and novel project investments so that the new entrants as well as the established market players conduct intricate research of trends and analysis in these regional markets. Acknowledging the status of the environment and products up gradation, the market report foretells each and every detail.So as to fabricate this report, complete key details, strategies and variables are examined so that entire useful information is amalgamated together for the understanding and studying the key facts pertaining the Global Smart Meters Industry. The production value and market share in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated in this report.Check for Discount @Some points from TOC:-Global Smart Meters Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Smart Meters1.1 Definition and Specifications of Smart Meters1.1.1 Definition of Smart Meters1.1.2 Specifications of Smart Meters1.2 Classification of Smart Meters1.2.1 Single-Phase Smart Meters1.2.2 Three-Phase Smart Meters1.3 Applications of Smart Meters1.3.1 Residential Application1.3.2 Commercial Application1.3.3 Industrial Application1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Smart Meters2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Smart Meters2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Smart Meters2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Smart Meters3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Smart Meters3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Smart Meters Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Smart Meters Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Smart Meters Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Smart Meters Major Manufacturers in 2016Enquiry before Buying @QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on Global industries, companies, products, and trends.Jia Wang, Room B1510, ShijiKemao Building, No.66,Zhongguancun East Road,Haidian District, Beijing, 100190,China
Aerospace Couplers Market Set to Grow Exponentially During the Forecast, 2027

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Aerospace coupler is a mechanical device, which is mainly utilized to connect the shafts end to end for the effective transmission of power. The couplers are designed to provide safe and accurate connection during refuelling of aircraft. Aerospace couplers aid the mechanical connection between the onboard systems such as terrain following radar and flight control system. Aerospace couplers and its dynamics can produce beneficial or adverse controllability and stability, depending on the characteristics of the aerospace. With the increase in speed, aircrafts are experiencing various strange instabilities, including violent motion about all three axes. At times, severity of these motions have resulted in loss of lives and aircraft. There are various kinds of coupling modes, which include inertia-roll coupling, control coupling, dutch roll coupling and so on. Aerospace couplers are majorly employed in military aircraft, commercial aircraft, rockets, satellites and missiles. Aerospace couplers are designed to transform power from the engine to various gearboxes on fixed wing and rotor craft alike. There are various types of couplers available in the market, which perform different functions such as pressure coupler, hydrant coupler and emergency breakaway coupler. Pressure coupler protects the aircrafts from damages caused by surges and excess pressure and are connected to the hydrant pit adapter in order to allow the flow of pressurized fuel from pipeline to the receiving aircraft. Hydrant couplers are made up of aluminium and high strength stainless steel. Based on the various couplers, there are numerous coupling techniques adopted for the effective fuelling of the aircrafts, which include threadless cramshell couplings, positivelok couplings and metal seal flexible couplings.Request For Report Sample:Global Aerospace Couplers Market: SegmentationThe global aerospace couplers market can be segmented mainly on the basis of product type and application.Based on the product type, the global aerospace couplers market can be segmented into;Pressure CouplerHydrant CouplerEmergency Breakaway CouplerBased on the application, the global aerospace couplers market can be segmented into;Commercial AircraftsMilitary AircraftGlobal Aerospace Couplers Market: DynamicsWith the advancement of aerospace industry, the competition among the aerospace coupler manufacturers has been increasing. Currently, a large number of people prefer aeroplanes as a convenient mode of transportation owing to the affordable charges and comfort in commuting, along with the shorter travel time required to reach the destination compared to other modes of transportation. Various governments are globally establishing their aerospace sector and there is a rising demand for aircrafts as well as aerospace couplers in commercial as well as military sectors. With the increasing demand for the aircrafts, the demand for aerospace couplers is expected to witness substantial growth in the near future. Growth of the air traffic in last 20 years has been spectacular and there is an indication that it will continue to expand over the forecast period, which in turn, is projected to propel the demand for aerospace couplers.Request For TOC:On the other hand, the growth in demand will bring forth number of challenges for dealing with mass transportation and congestion of ATM and airport infrastructure.Manufacturers of aerospace couplers are focussing on merger and acquisition related activities in order to expand their business in various regions & enhance their market share.Global Aerospace Couplers Market: Region-wise OutlookThe aerospace industry is matured in developed regions such as Europe and North America and represent a large share in the global aerospace couplers market. Aerospace couplers contribute a substantial share to the economy of the U.S., since aerospace industry is one of the major contributors to the GDP of the country. On the other hand, developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region such as India and China are expected to grow at a solid CAGR in the near future owing to the increased infrastructural activities.Global Aerospace Couplers Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the examples of the market participants in the Aerospace Couplers market identified across the value chain include Eaton, Coupling Corporation of America, Senior Aerospace Metal Bellows, Intrex Aerospace, Cla-Val, Parker Hannifin Corp. and UTC Aerospace Systems, among others.Browse Full Report:ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Plastic Packaging Products Market 2017 - Mondi, Amcor, Bemis Company, Crown Holdings, Saint-Gobain

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MarketReports.biz, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Plastic Packaging Products Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Plastic Packaging Products Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Plastic Packaging Products industry, and estimates the future trend of Plastic Packaging Products market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Plastic Packaging Products Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportConstantia Flexibles InternationalHuhtamaki OyjAmpac HoldingsSealed AirUkrplasticSonoco Products CompanyWipak GroupPlastic Packaging TechnologiesPlastipak PackagingBerry PlasticsThe market research report explores the Plastic Packaging Products market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Plastic Packaging Products Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Plastic Packaging Products market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Plastic Packaging Products. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Plastic Packaging Products market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Plastic Packaging Products is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Plastic Packaging Products market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Plastic Packaging Products market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The worldwide Plastic Packaging Products market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Plastic Packaging Products production volume, data pertaining to demand and Plastic Packaging Products supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Plastic Packaging Products along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Plastic Packaging Products across the world.About UsMarketReports.biz offers elevating market research worldwide. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different fields. Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank Valadez155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Toll Free: +1-855-918-5551 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +17739042683Web:Email: sales@marketreports.biz
Hemodynamic Monitoring Systems Market: Key Regions and Competitors

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Global Hemodynamic Monitoring Systems Market: OverviewA hemodynamic monitoring system is used in cases where a patients cardiovascular health needs to be assessed, especially among those patients that have undergone a cardiac surgery. The various parameters that tell doctors about how healthy a patients heart is are evaluated using photometric systems, pressure transducing equipment, electrical devices, and other types of invasive and noninvasive techniques. Intravascular catheters form an integral component during the use of a hemodynamic monitoring system.In recent years, the market for hemodynamic monitoring systems worldwide has exhibited steady growth mainly because of an alarming rise in the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, health conditions induced by sedentary lifestyles, the growing need for critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) screening, and the rising incidence of COPD and other respiratory disorders. The impact of all of these factors on the hemodynamic monitoring systems market has been amplified by the highly conducive regulatory scenario that currently exists. Moreover, a rapidly graying global population will lead to the increased adoption of hemodynamic monitoring systems in healthcare centers across the world.Obtain Report Details:Neonatal care professionals reliance on hemodynamic monitoring systems has risen in recent years as CCHD has been identified as one among the seven most life-threatening congenital heart defects. Likewise, in adults, COPD has spiraled to unprecedented levels, especially in low- and middle-income countries.Global Hemodynamic Monitoring Systems Market: Key SegmentsThe report on the global hemodynamic monitoring system market offers a detailed market overview and then goes on to study the market in detail by segmenting it based on criteria such as device type, end use, application, and geography. Types of hemodynamic monitoring systems used worldwide include pulmonary artery catheters, pulse contours, monitoring sensors, and esophageal Doppler.Likewise, the applications of hemodynamic monitoring systems can be invasive, noninvasive, or minimally invasive. The most common end users of hemodynamic monitoring systems are hospitals, clinics, home healthcare, and ambulatory surgery centers. The key regional markets studied in the report are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.Global Hemodynamic Monitoring Systems Market: Key Regions and CompetitorsThe report states that the market for hemodynamic monitoring systems is the largest in North America. However, it is firmly on course to reporting strong growth in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions as well over the forecast period of the report.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:North American countries, such as the U.S. and Canada hold massive opportunities for players in the hemodynamic monitoring system market on account of the dramatic rise in the number of cancer patients, cardiovascular patients, and aged individuals. While Europe is a major market for hemodynamic monitoring systems, it is expected that the region will not fare exceptionally well through the reports forecast period. Asia Pacific is a market where companies are recommended to expand their presence. The growth rate of the Asia Pacific region in the global hemodynamic monitoring systems market will be encouraging.However, competition is intensifying in the region; innovation and the launch of competitive priced products will help companies compete better. Among the companies that currently hold a leading position in the global hemodynamic monitoring systems market are ICU Medical, Inc., Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, LiDCO Group Plc, Teleflex Incorporated, and PULSION Medical Systems SE. Companies are recommended to focus on the emerging trend of minimally invasive and noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Europe Big Data Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report 2016

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Europe Big Data Market Report 2016" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies sales (consumption) of Big Data in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Benelux and Spain, focuses on top players in these countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these Countries, coveringTEG AnalyticsHeckyl TechnologiesKloudData IncGramenerGerminVIS Networks Pvt. Ltd.AbzoobaFintellixLatentviewIndixAnalytic-EdgeTookitakiTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Market Segment by Countries, this report splits Europe into several key Countries, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Big Data in these countries, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeGermanyFranceUKRussiaItalySpainBeneluxSplit by product type, with sales, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IIType IIISplit by application, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Big Data in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Application 3Table of ContentsEurope Big Data Market Report 20161 Big Data Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Big Data1.2 Classification of Big Data1.2.1 Type I1.2.2 Type II1.2.3 Type III1.3 Application of Big Data1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.3.3 Application 31.4 Big Data Market by Countries1.4.1 Germany Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 France Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 UK Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Russia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Italy Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Spain Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.7 Benelux Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Europe Market Size (Value and Volume) of Big Data (2011-2021)1.5.1 Europe Big Data Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.2 Europe Big Data Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)2 Europe Big Data by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Europe Big Data Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Europe Big Data Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.1.2 Europe Big Data Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Europe Big Data (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Europe Big Data Sales and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)2.2.2 Europe Big Data Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)2.3 Europe Big Data (Volume and Value) by Countries2.3.1 Europe Big Data Sales and Market Share by Countries (2011-2016)2.3.2 Europe Big Data Revenue and Market Share by Countries (2011-2016)2.4 Europe Big Data (Volume) by Application3 Germany Big Data (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 Germany Big Data Sales and Value (2011-2016)3.1.1 Germany Big Data Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.2 Germany Big Data Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.3 Germany Big Data Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)3.2 Germany Big Data Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 Germany Big Data Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 Germany Big Data Sales and Market Share by Application4 France Big Data (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 France Big Data Sales and Value (2011-2016)4.1.1 France Big Data Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.2 France Big Data Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.4 France Big Data Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)4.2 France Big Data Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 France Big Data Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 France Big Data Sales and Market Share by Application5 UK Big Data (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 UK Big Data Sales and Value (2011-2016)5.1.1 UK Big Data Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)5.1.2 UK Big Data Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)5.1.5 UK Big Data Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)5.2 UK Big Data Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers5.3 UK Big Data Sales and Market Share by Type5.4 UK Big Data Sales and Market Share by Application6 Russia Big Data (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Russia Big Data Sales and Value (2011-2016)6.1.1 Russia Big Data Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)6.1.2 Russia Big Data Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)6.1.6 Russia Big Data Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)6.2 Russia Big Data Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers6.3 Russia Big Data Sales and Market Share by Type6.4 Russia Big Data Sales and Market Share by ApplicationMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Roller Conveyor Market 2016 - mk Technology Group, Ensalco, DS Handling, David Roller, Fastrax

Roller Conveyor

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The report that is written on the title Roller Conveyor Market 2016 covers all the aspects of the global market study. This report has an estimation about the Roller Conveyor Market size in terms of value (US$). The report contains the broad segmentation of the market. The report provides the information about the Roller Conveyor Market and also forecasts its position in the coming years.A lineshaft roller conveyor or line-shaft conveyor is, as its name suggests, powered by a shaft beneath rollers. These conveyors are suitable for light applications up to 50 kg such as cardboard boxes and tote boxes.Browse full report with TOC @A single shaft runs below the rollers running the length of the conveyor. On the shaft are a series of spools, one spool for each roller. An elastic polyurethane o-ring belt runs from a spool on the powered shaft to each roller. When the shaft is powered, the o-ring belt acts as a chain between the spool and the roller making the roller rotate. The rotation of the rollers pushes the product along the conveyor. The shaft is usually driven by an electrical motor that is generally controlled by an electronic PLC (programmable logic controller). The PLC electronically controls how specific sections of the conveyor system interact with the products being conveyed.Advantages of this conveyor are quiet operation, easy installation, moderate maintenance and low expense. Line-shaft conveyors are also extremely safe for people to work around because the elastic belts can stretch and not injure fingers should any get caught underneath them. Moreover, the spools will slip and allow the rollers to stop moving if clothing, hands or hair gets caught in them. In addition, since the spools are slightly loose on the shaft, they act like clutches that slip when products are required to accumulate (stop moving and bump up against each other. i.e. queue up). With the exception of soft bottomed containers like cement bags, these conveyors can be utilized for almost all applications.A disadvantage of the roller lineshaft conveyor is that it can only be used to convey products that span at least three rollers, but rollers can be as small as 17mm in diameter and as close together as 18.5mm. For items shorter than 74mm, the conveyor belt system is generally used as an alternative option.Global Roller Conveyor Market Outlook 2016-2021, has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global Roller Conveyor market collected from specialized sources. The report covers key technological developments in the recent times and profiles leading players in the market and analyzes their key strategies. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players.Global Roller Conveyor Market Segment By Key Players/Manufacturers,Titan Conveyorsmk Technology GroupEnsalcoDS HandlingDavid RollerFastraxWheelabratorHytrolJolinpackWymaAXMANNRack & RollEQMLEWCOMarceauAlveyShanghai All-KaAsk for Sample Report:Report on (Roller Conveyor Market Report) mainly covers 15 Topics acutely display the global Roller Conveyor Market.Topic 1, this report analyzed the basic scope of this industry like definition, specification, classification, application, industry policy and news;Topic 2, the analysis on industry chain is provided including the up and down stream industry also with the major market players. And the analysis on manufacturing including process, cost structure and major plants distribution is conducted;Topic 3, 4 global and regional market is analyzed. In these chapters, this report analyzed major market data like capacity, production, capacity utilization rate, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, supply, import, export, consumption, market share, growth rate and etc. For regional market, this report analyzed major regions like Global, North America, South America, Asia (Excluding China), China and ROW. These analysis are conducted;Topic 5, 6 and 7, the performance of major manufacturers are analyzed and then in Chapter 6 and 7 the analysis on major classification and application.Topic 8, Then the marketing channel analysis is provided including the major distributorsTopic 9 and 10, this report analyzed the market forecast from 2017 to 2022 for global and regional market in Chapter 9 and the new project investment feasibility analysis;Topic 11, At last, this report provided the conclusions of this researchThis report is a valuable source of guidance for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, customers, investors and individuals who have interest in this market.About Market Research Store:Market Research Store is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations. Market Research Store is the comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services available on air. We have market research reports from number of leading publishers and update our collection daily to provide our clients with the instant online access to our database. With access to this database, our clients will be able to benefit from expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends.3422 SW 15 Street, Suit #8138,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442,United States
Advanced Energy Storage Technologies Industry : Key Trends, Challenges, Standardization and Forecast 2025

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Global Advanced Energy Storage Technologies Market: OverviewAdvanced energy storage systems play a crucial role in the power industry. Maintenance of power quality, effective distribution, and proper energy management are some of their unique perceived benefits. They carry out the aforementioned tasks through frequency regulation, mitigating power congestion on grids, and supplying power uniformly in distributed generation. Advanced energy storage technologies first convert electricity into energy, store it, and then convert it back into usable electricity when the need arises. This is because while only a fixed amount of electricity can be generated at a time, the demand for electricity changes all the time.A report by Transparency Market Research furnishes valuable insights into the global advanced energy storage technologies market by analyzing the key trends and current competitive dynamics. It segments the market based on applications, technologies, and geography. In terms of technologies, for example, it classifies the market into super capacitors, pump hydro storage, batteries, flywheels, compressed air energy storage, and fuel cells. There are also more recent, upcoming technologies such as synthetic gas, super magnet, and hydrogen gas. Among all of these, pump hydro storage has been around for a very long time and dominates the market too. Application-wise, the report segments the market into transportation and grid storage.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Advanced Energy Storage Technologies Market: Trends and OpportunitiesSpiking daily electricity consumption along with the yawning gap between energy supply and demand has necessitated substantial storage capacity additions. This has been the single-most important factor contributing to the global advanced energy storage technologies market. Other factors driving the market are the burgeoning renewable energy installations and the spurt in demand for hybrid and electric vehicles. Additionally, increasing concerns about greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions is also filliping the global advanced energy storage technologies market. This is because advanced energy storage technologies assist in effectively managing the flow of energy resources thus reducing the need for power generation, thereby bringing about energy conservation.Advanced energy storage systems have also allowed consumers to manage their electricity needs by using the load shifting technique which helps to bring down costs. Furthermore, other factors including the growing need of smart grid installation and new transmission and distribution grid construction and upgrades has also bolstered the global market for advanced energy storage technologies market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Advanced Energy Storage Technologies Market: Regional OutlookDepending upon geography, the global market for advanced energy storage technologies can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. North America, among them, is the leading market on account of the soaring popularity of electric vehicles and rising use of grid storage. North America is trailed by Asia Pacific and Europe. Going forward, Asia Pacific is predicted to outshine all other regions in terms of growth rate.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Companies Mentioned in ReportTo present an insightful assessment of the competition prevailing in the global market for advanced energy storage technologies, the report profiles companies such as Sony, Nippo Chemi-Con Corp., A123 System LLC, Denso, Hitachi, and Toshiba.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Casing Market : Latest Innovations, Drivers, Dynamics And Strategic Analysis, Challenges By 2025

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Global Casing Market: Brief OverviewIn the oil and gas industry, casing is referred to a string of pipes which is accumulated and implanted into the borehole of a well. Casings are a very vital part of the well and are cemented in place with accordance to a desired set of requirements. Casings serve various purposes which includes preventing contamination of fresh water zones, avoiding unstable formations from caving-in, and checking sticking of the drilling string. Casings also deliver a strong foundation for the well to use high-density drilling fluid for drilling deeper. The quality of the cement plays a critical role in the hindrance of fluid movement from deep zones into groundwater resources. Casing and cementing programs is an important tool to protect the underwater quality and provide well control. Oil and gas operators are investing heavily to secure the future production potential of the existing wells.Request Sample Copy of the Report @This industry research report is a brief review of the growth trail in terms of existing, past, and future scenarios of the global casing market. It deals with the evaluation of the aspects that are expected to influence the development of the market and the primary trends have also been specified in the research study. The research study also offers a broad lookout on the vendor landscape of the market through Porters five forces analysis. The research report offers references of the research and development activities, mergers and acquisitions, and specifics on licensing and collaborations. The report probes into the strategies related to publicity, shares, and product range of the key participants in the global casing market.Global Casing Market: Key HighlightsCasing strings are considered as indispensable elements for well completion services as they provide protection to the groundwater resources. Casings are constructed for the separation of fresh water zones and groundwater from leaks occurring in the well. Countless states and environmental agencies have listed requirements of casing and cementing. Such environmental regulations and conditions imposed by countries is the chief driver of the growth of the global casing market. Increasing exploration and production activities in unconventional fields and deep water areas are expected to further lift the requirement of casing strings. A casing once mounted in a well cannot be removed later. These strings cannot be reused again and thus every new well drilled requires new casing strings.Request TOC of the Report @Stern environmental regulations and swelling production from alternative fields in oil producing nations provides an attractive market for casing strings. New unconventional fields discovered in South America and Caspian Sea region can act as large markets for casing strings. The growing demand for energy in the Asia pacific region has led to exploration of numerous hydrocarbons potential areas in deep-water locations. These deep water fields will provide an attractive opportunity for the substantial growth of the casing market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Casing Market: Competitive LandscapeThe prime participants in the market are Sandvik AB, Tenaris, Offshore Products Ltd., Crestwood Tubulars IncELS & Company, Benteler International AG,Southland Pipe & Supply Co., and St. Louis Pipe & Supply among others.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Research Report and Overview on Growlers Market, 2017-2027

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www.futuremarketinsights.com

Introduction:Packaging solutions are necessary in that they protect and preserve a product from any type of harm such as leakage, contamination, damage, etc. during the course of transit, consumption, and storage. Over the last few years, packaging solutions have grown in terms of appearance, features, colors and convenience. A growler is a type of vessel or container that is used to transport beer while also protecting it from degradation. These growlers are also described as simply air-tight jugs. They are becoming increasingly popular and are being widely used to bring the craft beer experience home. The sudden increase in demand for craft beer over the past years has brought many changes to society. The amendments made in state laws created the brewpub culture, which in turn, made growlers an essential accessory for craft beer lovers. These growlers are available in different colors, materials, and features.Growlers Market  Market Segmentation:The global growlers market is segmented on the basis of material type, opening type, capacity type, and sales channel type. On the basis of material type, the global growlers market is segmented into stainless steel, glass, polymer, and ceramic, wherein the glass is further segmented into clear glass and amber glass. Stainless steel growlers have gained traction as these are quite durable and also keep beer cold for longer periods. The ceramic based global growlers market is expected to account for less market value and volume share due to its high cost and very low availability. On the basis of opening type, the global growlers market is segmented into the twist-up cap, flip top cap, and others. On the basis of capacity type, global growlers market can be segmented into 32oz, 64oz, 128oz, and others. The 64oz based growlers have a huge demand in the global growlers market. On the basis of sales channel, the global growlers market is segmented into online sales, supermarket / hypermarket, independent stores, and beer breweries. Beer breweries are expected to account for a significant market volume share. Online sales are expected to gain a higher market value share due to the growth of e-tailing which has enabled wider availability of growlers in terms features and design.Request Report Sample@Growlers Market  Market Dynamics:One of the significant factors that will contribute towards the growth of the global growlers market is the growing demand for craft beer consumption. Since growlers are primarily made for craft beer consumption, this particular trend will impact the demand positively. Another important factor that will contribute to the growth of the global growlers market is that beer can now be easily transported and with the same freshness and taste as the original with the help of air tight jugs. Moreover, these jugs provide drinkers with the facility of adjusting the quantity of beer poured. Yet another reason that will add to the growth of the global growlers market is that some states have now created laws that allow growler filling facilities at places other than bars and breweries. Adding to this is the environmental sustainability aspect -- the reusable nature of growlers is expected to drive the growth of the global growlers market. However, the large consumption of packaged beer in bottles and cans is expected to hamper the growth of the global growlers market. Moreover, the demand for bottles and cans is expected to grow due to growing brand consciousness amongst people and brand loyal beer drinkers who end up purchasing the same beer. Furthermore, the low availability of growler filling stations is still expected to hinder the growth of the global growlers market as these growler filling stations require long term huge investments.Growlers Market  Regional Outlook:Geographically, the global growlers market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The growth of the global growlers market is expected to witness a healthy CAGR over the forecast period of 2016-2024. Given the high consumption of beer, North America and Europe are expected to be the biggest contributors to the global growlers market in terms of value and volume. Moreover, the availability of breweries and bars along with filling stations in places such as supermarkets, restaurants, etc. will also be a contributing factor for the North American and European region. Furthermore, India and China are expected to account for a significant market volume share in the Asia-Pacific region. This trend of increasing beer consumption is gaining huge traction among these lucrative economies and is expected to drive the growth of the global growlers market.Request For TOC@Growlers Market- Major Players:Some of the major players identified across the globe in the growlers market are Michigan Beer Growler Company, DrinkTanks, Beer City Glass, PORTLAND GROWLER CO., Glass and Growlers, Goose Creek Growler Company, GrowlerWerks, Inc., Tote Glass, Inc., The Cary Company, and DISTRIMATICS, USA.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comPress: press@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report 2017

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBrightSource EnergySolar Millennium AGAbengoaArevaSiemensAccionaeSolarSolarReserveSchottWilson SolarpowerCool EarthNovatecLointekAcciona EnergyShams PowerZED SolarAbsoliconRioglass SolarGreenera Energy India Pvtfocus solarBrightSource EnergyNRELEvergreen Solar ServicesSuntechThai Solar EnergyBP SolarTrina Solar EnergySunhomeOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoTrench Concentrating Solar Power SystemsTower-Type Solar Power Tower SystemDish Concentrating Solar Power SystemsOtherOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) for each application, includingGenerate ElectricityIndustrial HeatingOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsGlobal Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Research Report 20171 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)1.2 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Trench Concentrating Solar Power Systems1.2.4 Tower-Type Solar Power Tower System1.2.5 Dish Concentrating Solar Power Systems1.2.6 Other1.3 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Segment by Application1.3.1 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Generate Electricity1.3.3 Industrial Heating1.3.4 Other1.4 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Multiformat Transcoders Market 2017- Digital Raids Corporation , Fujitsu , Arris Systems , Imagine Communications

Global Multiformat Transcoders Market 2017

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The Global Multiformat Transcoders Market 2017 examines the performance of the Multiformat Transcoders market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Multiformat Transcoders market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Multiformat Transcoders market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Multiformat Transcoders Market 2017 report includes Multiformat Transcoders industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Multiformat Transcoders Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Multiformat Transcoders Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Multiformat Transcoders Market 2017:1 Digital Raids Corporation2 Fujitsu3 Arris Systems4 Imagine Communications5 TelestreamMultiformat Transcoders Market Analysis: By ProductHEVCVideo Codec4KAt the beginning, the report covers the top Multiformat Transcoders manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Multiformat Transcoders report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Multiformat Transcoders industry, Multiformat Transcoders industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Multiformat Transcoders Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Multiformat Transcoders research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Multiformat Transcoders market revenue worldwide.Finally, Multiformat Transcoders market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
Europe Zero-energy Buildings Market Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Report 2016

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Europe Zero-energy Buildings Market Report 2016" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies sales (consumption) of Zero-energy Buildings in Europe market, especially in Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Benelux and Spain, focuses on top players in these countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these Countries, coveringDaikinHoneywellGESchneider ElectricSiemens Building TechnologiesAltura AssociatesBuilding RoboticsSunPowerView Inc.Market Segment by Countries, this report splits Europe into several key Countries, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Zero-energy Buildings in these countries, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeGermanyFranceUKRussiaItalySpainBeneluxTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Split by product type, with sales, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IIType IIISplit by application, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Zero-energy Buildings in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2Application 3Table of Contents1 Zero-energy Buildings Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Zero-energy Buildings1.2 Classification of Zero-energy Buildings1.2.1 Type I1.2.2 Type II1.2.3 Type III1.3 Application of Zero-energy Buildings1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.3.3 Application 31.4 Zero-energy Buildings Market by Countries1.4.1 Germany Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.2 France Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.3 UK Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.4 Russia Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.5 Italy Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.6 Spain Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.4.7 Benelux Status and Prospect (2011-2021)1.5 Europe Market Size (Value and Volume) of Zero-energy Buildings (2011-2021)1.5.1 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)1.5.2 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)2 Europe Zero-energy Buildings by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.1.2 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2015 and 2016)2.2 Europe Zero-energy Buildings (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)2.2.2 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2016)2.3 Europe Zero-energy Buildings (Volume and Value) by Countries2.3.1 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Countries (2011-2016)2.3.2 Europe Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Market Share by Countries (2011-2016)2.4 Europe Zero-energy Buildings (Volume) by Application3 Germany Zero-energy Buildings (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Value (2011-2016)3.1.1 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.2 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)3.1.3 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)3.2 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 Germany Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Application4 France Zero-energy Buildings (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 France Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Value (2011-2016)4.1.1 France Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.2 France Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)4.1.4 France Zero-energy Buildings Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)4.2 France Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 France Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 France Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Application5 UK Zero-energy Buildings (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 UK Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Value (2011-2016)5.1.1 UK Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2016)5.1.2 UK Zero-energy Buildings Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2016)5.1.5 UK Zero-energy Buildings Sales Price Trend (2011-2016)5.2 UK Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers5.3 UK Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by Type5.4 UK Zero-energy Buildings Sales and Market Share by ApplicationMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Wind Power in China, Market Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles Outlook to 2030, Update 2017

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Wind Power in China, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2017 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles" to its huge collection of research reports.Wind Power in China, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2017 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends, Regulations and Company ProfilesSummary"Wind Power in China, Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2017 - Capacity, Generation, Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), Investment Trends, Regulations and Company Profiles" is the latest report from GlobalData, the industry analysis specialists that offer comprehensive information and understanding of the wind power market in China.The report provides in depth analysis on global renewable power market and global wind power market with forecasts up to 2030. The report analyzes the power market scenario in China (includes conventional thermal, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) and provides future outlook with forecasts up to 2030. The research details renewable power market outlook in the country (includes wind, small hydro, biopower and solar PV) and provides forecasts up to 2030. The report highlights installed capacity and power generation trends from 2006 to 2030 in China wind power market. A detailed coverage of renewable energy policy framework governing the market with specific policies pertaining to wind power is provided in the report. The research also provides company snapshots of some of the major market participants.The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, secondary research and in-house analysis by GlobalDatas team of industry experts.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ScopeThe report analyses global renewable power market, global wind power (Onshore and Offshore) market, China power market, China renewable power market and China wind power market. The scope of the research includes -- A brief introduction on global carbon emissions and global primary energy consumption.- An overview on global renewable power market, highlighting installed capacity trends, generation trends and installed capacity split by various renewable power sources. The information is covered for the historical period 2006-2016 (unless specified) and forecast period 2016-2030.- Renewable power sources include wind (both onshore and offshore), solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), small hydropower (SHP), biomass, biogas and geothermal.- Detailed overview of the global wind power market with installed capacity and generation trends, installed capacity split by major hydropower countries in 2016 and key owners information of various regions.- Power market scenario in China and provides detailed market overview, installed capacity and power generation trends by various fuel types (includes thermal conventional, nuclear, large hydro and renewable energy sources) with forecasts up to 2030.- An overview on China renewable power market, highlighting installed capacity trends (2006-2030), generation trends(2006-2030) and installed capacity split by various renewable power sources in 2016.- Detailed overview of China wind power market with installed capacity and generation trends and major active and upcoming wind projects.- Deal analysis of China wind power market. Deals are analyzed on the basis of mergers, acquisitions, partnership, asset finance, debt offering, equity offering, private equity (PE) and venture capitalists (VC).- Key policies and regulatory framework supporting the development of renewable power sources in general and wind power in particular.- Company snapshots of some of the major market participants in the country.Reasons to buy- The report will enhance your decision making capability in a more rapid and time sensitive manner.- Identify key growth and investment opportunities in China wind power market.- Facilitate decision-making based on strong historic and forecast data for wind power market.- Position yourself to gain the maximum advantage of the industrys growth potential.- Develop strategies based on the latest regulatory events.- Identify key partners and business development avenues.- Understand and respond to your competitors business structure, strategy and prospects.Table of Contents1 Table of Contents 21.1 List of Tables 51.2 List of Figures 72 Executive Summary 82.1 Fall in OECD Countries Carbon Emission despite a Global Rise during 2010-2015 82.2 Technological Advancements and Government Support Driving Global Renewable Power Installations 82.3 Top 10 Countries Account for Over 85% of Wind Power Capacity 82.4 Thermal is the Dominant Source in the Power Mix 92.5 Growth Expected in Nuclear and Renewable Sectors 103 Introduction 113.1 Carbon Emissions, Global, 2001-2016 113.2 Primary Energy Consumption, Global, 2001-2025 133.3 Wind Power, Global, Technology Definition and Classification 153.4 Wind Power Market, Technology Overview 163.5 Wind Power Market, Turbine Components 163.6 Report Guidance 184 Renewable Power Market, Global, 2006 - 2030 194.1 Renewable Power Market, Global, Overview 194.2 Renewable Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 204.2.1 Renewable Power Market, Global, Cumulative Installed Capacity by Source Type, 2006-2030 204.2.2 Renewable Power Market, Global, Cumulative Installed Capacity Split by Source Type, 2016 and 2030 224.2.3 Renewable Power Market, Global, Net Capacity Additions by Source Type, 2016-2030 244.2.4 Renewable Power Market, Global, Comparison by Cumulative Installed Capacity of Technology, 2016-2030 264.3 Renewable Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 284.3.1 Renewable Power Market, Global, Power Generation by Source Type, 2006-2030 284.3.2 Renewable Power Market, Global, Power Generation, Source Comparison Based on Power Generation, 2016-2030 304.4 Renewable Power Market, Global, LCOE Comparison of Power Generating Sources, 2014-2014 325 Wind Power Market, Global, 2006-2030 365.1 Wind Power Market, Global, Overview 365.2 Wind Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 375.2.1 Wind Power Market, Global, Installed Capacity Share by Region, 2016 and 2030 395.2.2 Wind Power Market, Global, Cumulative Installed Capacity Share by Country, 2016 and 2030 415.2.3 Wind Power Market, Global, Cumulative Installed Capacity Share by Segment, 2016 and 2030 435.3 Wind Power Market, Global, Power Generation, 2006-2030 455.3.1 Wind Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Region, 2016 and 2030 475.3.2 Wind Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Country, 2016 and 2030 495.3.3 Wind Power Market, Global, Generation Share by Segment, 2016 and 2030 515.4 Wind Power Market, Global, Investment Trends, 2016-2020 526 Power Market, China, 2006-2030 546.1 Power Market, China, Overview 546.2 Power Market, China, Installed Capacity, 2006-2030 556.2.1 Power Market, China, Cumulative Installed Capacity by Fuel Type, 2006-2030 556.2.2 Power Market, China, Share in Cumulative Installed Capacity Split by Source Type, 2016 and 2030 586.2.3 Power Market, China, Net Capacity Additions by Fuel Type, 2016 and 2030 606.2.4 Power Market, China, Comparison of Technologies Based on Installed Capacity, 2016-2030 626.3 Power Market, China, Power Generation, 2006-2030 646.3.1 Power Market, China, Power Generation by Fuel Type, 2006-2030 646.3.2 Power Market, China, Comparison of Technologies Based on Power Generation, 2016-2030 67Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Remote Terminal Units Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2017 - 2025

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Remote Terminal Units Market: General OutlineA remote terminal unit is a microprocessor-based device, connected to process equipments, transmitters or sensors, for the purpose of remote telemetry and control. RTUs with the aid of appropriate sensors, monitor the status of the process via digital and analogue inputs. They provide control outputs to switch plant such as circuit breakers and tap changers. In the oil and gas industry, during the drilling process, RTUs are used to transmit drilling mechanics, and rock formation information up-hole, in real time. These services are known as logging while drilling and measurement while drilling, Schlumberger's Pulse Technology is a perfect example of this. During the process of drilling, tools use this methodology to send information acquired thousands of feet below the ground. The pressure wave is then translated into a useful information after DSP (Digital Signal Processing) and noise filters, and is later used for drilling optimization, formation evaluation, and geosteering.Remote Terminal Units Market: Comprehensive OverviewThe advent of improved technology for process monitoring and data transmission has dominated the market drivers for remote terminal units. With improved SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) regulations by various governments across the globe, and increased threat of data security, organizations are now looking at the latest technologies for remote terminal units.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Developing markets and new drilling areas also contribute to the growth of the RTU market for oil and gas sectors. Despite the growth factors, the industry does face a few challenges. In the European and North American region, RTU system has been established since the 1970s, and there remains no scope for new installations, in other words, markets of these regions have reached a saturation point. Also, significant financial investment is required to lay down a network across regions and to establish RTUs at inaccessible locations. However, with new fields being discovered in the Asia Pacific region, there is a scope for growth.Request TOC of the Report @Remote Terminal Units Market: Segment OverviewBased on the mode of application, the RTU industry is classified into: RTUs for Oil and Gas Wells and RTUs for Compressor, Pump or Valve Stations. A further classification can be made on the basis of the industry such as power, oil exploration or pipeline management. Also, based on the connectivity, RTUs may use telephone hard lines or wireless transmission systems.Geographically, the remote terminal units market is currently concentrated in the Asia Pacific region due to initiation of major oil exploration projects as well as power grid expansion in India, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In the Rest of the World, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America is also witnessing a similar trend. Whereas, the European and North American regions are expected to see a significant decline in the demand of RTUs, as the market already has a well-established SCADA network.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Remote Terminal Units Market: Key Market PlayersSome of the major companies involved in the manufacture and integration of remote terminal units are: TopRank Corporation Sdn. Bhd., ABB Ltd., Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, General Electric Company, and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Outlook to 2021

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry Outlook to 2021 - Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Planned Pipelines" to its huge collection of research reports."Global Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry Outlook to 2021 - Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Planned Pipelines" is a comprehensive report on major, trunk oil and gas planned pipelines industry in the world. The report provides planned pipeline details such as pipeline/pipeline system name, operator name, start year, start point, end point, status, length, capacity and diameter for all major, trunk crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas pipelines across the world by country and by region. The report also provides capital expenditure outlook by key countries, year on year, from 2017 to 2021. The report also provides key country comparisons based on contribution to total pipeline length (regional/ global). Planned or proposed (new build) pipeline projects, as announced by various companies, have also been included in this report. Further the report also offers recent developments and latest awarded contracts at regional level.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Scope- Updated information on all planned crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas pipelines in the world- Provides key details such as operator name, start year, start point, end point, location, length, diameter and capacity for all planned crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas pipelines to 2021- Provides capital expenditure outlook at global as well as regional level by year and by key countries for planned oil and gas pipelines till 2021- Latest developments and contracts related to oil and gas pipeline industry at the regional level.Reasons to buy- Obtain the most up to date information available on all key planned transmission pipelines across the world- Identify growth segments and opportunities in the industry- Facilitate decision making on the basis of strong pipeline data- Assess your competitors pipeline network and its capacity- Develop strategies based on the latest developments in the industry- Information on latest tenders and contracts in the industryTable of Contents1. Table of Contents 11.1. List of Tables 61.2. List of Figures 202. Introduction 232.1. What Is This Report About? 232.2. Market Definition 233. Global Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry 243.1. Global Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Snapshot 243.2. Global Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Oil and Gas Pipelines 344. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry 394.1. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Snapshot 394.2. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Pipeline Lengths 474.3. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Cross Country Pipelines 554.4. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Nigeria 574.5. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Mozambique 594.6. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Algeria 604.7. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, South Sudan 624.8. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, South Africa 634.9. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Uganda 644.10. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Kenya 654.11. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Niger 664.12. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Egypt 674.13. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Ethiopia 694.14. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Cameroon 704.15. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Djibouti 714.16. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Namibia 714.17. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Ghana 724.18. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Tunisia 734.19. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Madagascar 744.20. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Congo Republic 744.21. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Chad 754.22. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Morocco 754.23. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Gabon 764.24. Africa Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Recent Developments and Contracts 775. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry 915.1. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Snapshot 915.2. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Pipeline Lengths 1005.3. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Cross Country Pipelines 1145.4. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, India 1165.5. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, China 1215.6. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Indonesia 1235.7. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Pakistan 1255.8. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Myanmar 1275.9. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Philippines 1285.10. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Bangladesh 1295.11. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Thailand 1325.12. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Vietnam 1335.13. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Malaysia 1345.14. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Cambodia 1355.15. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Japan 1365.16. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Sri Lanka 1375.17. Asia Planned Oil and Gas Pipelines Industry, Recent Developments and Contracts 138Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Market : Professional Market Research Report and Forecasts, 2017 - 2025

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Global Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Market: OverviewEnergy storage is crucial for providing flexibility and stability that is critical for the effective functioning of electricity grid. With the booming demand for electricity from end users, the need for energy storage in the power sector is also increasing. As the need for energy storage is increasing, the global superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) market is expected to grow along with it. An SMES system has the ability to recharge and discharge in a shorter period without degrading the magnet and ensuring minimum energy losses. Therefore, it is being increasingly acknowledged for short duration energy storage applications.The research report on the global SMES market is an outcome of an in-depth analysis of various critical parameters pertaining to the market. The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of drivers, restraints, and opportunities and the extent of their impact on the growth of the market. It provides insights into the competitive landscape of the market. For a coherent understanding, it segments the market on the basis of various criteria including geography and end users.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe rising concerns regarding climate change are creating a burgeoning demand for green and eco-friendly storage solutions, which in turn is fuelling the demand for SMES systems. In addition, the increasing consumption of renewable sources for energy generation coupled with the depleting fossil fuels is working in favor of the growth of the market. The growing adoption of distributed energy solutions is also providing a fillip to the market.Moreover, the burgeoning demand for advanced and cost-effective energy storage technologies for on-grid and off-grid applications and in the utility industry is augmenting the global SMES market. Furthermore, the advancements in superconducting materials are influencing the market positively. On the other hand, the participants in the market are threatened by the presence of substitutes such as compressed air energy storage. This is hampering the growth of the market. The high cost of these systems is also limiting their widespread adoption.Request TOC of the Report @Global Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Market: Geographical SegmentationThe regional segments analyzed in the report are Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World. Asia Pacific will be a major destination for participants in the global SMES market. The rising emphasis on renewable energy integration, smart grids, and distributed energy storage is one of the primary factors contributing to the development of the market in the region. Moreover, the increasing government initiatives and conducive regulatory scenario are promoting the growth of the market. Other factors such as growing penetration of advanced technologies, flourishing electronics industry, and high manufacturing capacity in countries such as India, Korea, and China are supplementing the growth of the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players in the global SMES market are paying a high attention to research and development activities to launch more innovative and cost effective products. Some of the key players in the market are Columbus Superconductors SpA, GE Corporation, American Superconductor Corporation, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Nexans SA, and SuperPower Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Sudanese Takaful Insurance Industry Future Prospects and Market Attractiveness 2020

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Market Attractiveness and Future Prospects of the Sudanese Takaful Insurance Industry 2020" to its huge collection of research reports.Timetrics 'Market Attractiveness and Future Prospects of the Sudanese Takaful Insurance Industry 2020' report provides detailed analysis of the trends in the Sudanese takaful insurance industry.It provides values for key performance indicators such as gross written premium, direct written premium, earned premium, claims, incurred loss, loss ratio, combined ratio, commissions and expenses, assets and investments during the review period (20112015) and forecast period (20152020).The report brings together Timetrics research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages.SummaryTimetrics 'Market Attractiveness and Future Prospects of the Sudanese Takaful Insurance Industry 2020' report provides in-depth industry analysis, information and insights into the takaful insurance industry in Sudan, including:The Sudanese takaful insurance industrys growth prospects by insurance segment and categoryThe current trends in the Sudanese takaful insurance industryTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the takaful insurance industry in Sudan:It provides historical values for the Sudanese takaful insurance industry for the reports 20112015 review period, and projected figures for the 20152020 forecast period.It offers a detailed analysis of the key segments and categories in the Sudanese takaful insurance industry, with forecasts to 2020.It covers an exhaustive list of parameters, including written premium, incurred loss, loss ratio, commissions and expenses, combined ratio, total assets and total investment income.Reasons To BuyMake strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast industry data related to the Sudanese takaful insurance industry and each segment within it.Understand the demand-side dynamics, key trends and growth opportunities in the Sudanese takaful insurance industry.Identify growth opportunities and market dynamics in key segments.Key HighlightsIn October 2016, the International Federation of Takaful and Islamic Insurance Companies (IFTI) presented four recommendations to the global takaful and retakaful operators, including those operating in Sudan.In June 2016, the Sudanese government began working on a new law requiring every Sudanese person to have access to healthcare services.In March 2016, a new amendment was passed in Sudan that raised the value of blood money by a minimum of 800.0%, and is applicable in the event of accidental death.Table of Contents1 Key Facts and Highlights2 Analysis of Sudanese Takaful Market Dynamics3 Takaful Life Insurance Segment Trends3.1 Premiums3.1.1 Gross written premium3.2 Claims and Expenses3.2.1 Gross claims3.2.2 Paid claims4 Takaful Non-Life Insurance Segment Trends4.1 Premiums4.1.1 Gross written premium4.2 Claims and Expenses4.2.1 Gross claims4.2.2 Paid claims5 Takaful Non-Life Insurance Categories5.1 Takaful Property Insurance5.1.1 Gross written premium5.2 Takaful Motor Insurance5.2.1 Gross written premium5.3 Takaful Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance5.3.1 Gross written premium6 Takaful Reinsurance6.1 Premium Ceded7 Databook7.1 Takaful Life Insurance7.1.1 Premium7.1.2 Claims7.2 Takaful Non-Life Insurance7.2.1 Premium7.2.2 Claims7.2.3 Property insurance7.2.4 Motor insurance7.2.5 Marine, aviation and transit insurance8 Definitions and Methodology8.1 Definitions8.2 Methodology9 About Timetric9.1 Contact Timetric9.2 About Timetric9.3 Timetrics Services9.4 DisclaimerMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Market Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report 2015

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) Market Report: 2015 Edition" to its huge collection of research reports.The diagnostic industry is widely classified into two types: In-vitro diagnostics and In-vivo diagnostics. In-vitro tests are executed in glass test tubes, while In-vivo diagnostics tests are executed inside a patients body. IVD products are indeed designed and produced for collecting samples derived from the patients body and scrutinizing them outside, which are commonly conducted in hospitals, clinics and labs and in personal settings. Apart from the application of IVDs in medical diagnosis and health screening such as checking blood of signs for infections, or urine for the presence of glucose, they are also used in genetic testing, genomics, veterinary diagnostics, food testing, environmental testing, and research.As per the Global IVD market report, market segments such as blood glucose monitoring and clinical chemistry are relatively mature and stable. However, with growing personalized medical treatment trend, molecular diagnostics market is expected to grow significantly with strict regulatory measures.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The key factors driving the market growth apart from generic macro-economic factors include accelerating diabetic population, increasing sales of medical technological devices, increasing complexity of diseases, and development of cardiac troponin assays. Some of the noteworthy trends observed in the industry are newly growing vitamin D testing market, genome sequencing market, usage of companion diagnostics in oncology, and increased importance of diagnostics. However, the industry remains exposed to certain challenges such as narrow economic moats in diagnostic market, reimbursement issues in clinical laboratory services, laboratory-developed tests waning IVD profits, and government regulation for IVD tests and stringent in genetic based tests.The report provides a comprehensive study of global in-vitro diagnostic market covering regional markets and major segments. The competition in the global in-vitro diagnostic market is highly amalgamated with large players like Abbott, Siemens, Roche and Johnson and Johnson. All these companies have been profiled in the present report highlighting their key financials and business strategies for their long term growth.By combining SPSS Inc.s data integration and analysis capabilities with our relevant findings, we have predicted the future growth of the industry. We employed various significant variables that have an impact on this industry and created regression models with SPSS Base to determine the future direction of the industry. Before deploying the regression model, the relationship between several independent or predictor variables and the dependent variable was analyzed using standard SPSS output, including charts, tables and tests.Table of Content1. Overview1.1 Types of IVD Products-1.2 Types of IVD Tests-1.3 Market Segments1.3.1 Technology Type-1.3.2 EndUser Segmentation1.4 Uses of IVDs-1.5 IVD Value Chain2. IVD Market Analysis2.1 Global Market- Market Value- Regional Breakdown2.1.1 IVD Market by Technology Type-2.1.2 IVD Market by Product Type-2.1.3 IVD Market by Test Location2.2 Molecular Diagnostics-2.2.1 Molecular Diagnostic Market by Test Category2.3 Immunoassays-2.4 Regional Markets2.4.1 Europe- Market Value- Market Share by Countries2.4.2 China3. Market Dynamics3.1 Growth Drivers3.1.1 Rising Global Healthcare Expense-3.1.2 Increasing Global Ageing Population-3.1.3 Accelerating Global Diabetic Population-3.1.4 Increasing Global Gross National Income-3.1.5 Increasing Sales of Medical Technological Devices-3.1.6 Increasing Complexity of Diseases-3.1.7 Development of Cardiac Troponin Assays3.2 Key Trends3.2.1 Vitamin D Testing Market  New Growing Segment3.2.2 Illumina  Dominating the Genome Sequencing Market-3.2.3 Increased Importance of Diagnostics-3.2.4 Increased Usage of Companion Diagnostic in Oncology3.3 Challenges3.3.1 Diagnostic Market Containing Narrow Economic Moats-3.3.2 More Diagnostic Regulation in Genetic Based Tests-3.3.3 LaboratoryDeveloped Tests Waning IVD Profits-3.3.4 Government Regulation for IVD Tests-3.3.5 Coverage and Reimbursement of Clinical Laboratory Services4. Competitive Landscape4.1 Global Market-4.2 Competition by Segments4.2.1 Clinical Chemistry-4.2.2 Blood Glucose Testing-4.2.3 Microbiology-4.2.4 Hematology and Flow Cytometry-4.2.5 Molecular Diagnostic-4.2.6 Immunoassay-4.2.7 Tissue Diagnostic4.3 China5. Company Profiles5.1 Abbott Laboratories5.1.1 Business Overview-5.1.2 Financial Overview-5.1.3 Business Strategies5.2 Siemens AG5.2.1 Business Overview-5.2.2 Financial Overview-5.2.3 Business Strategies5.3 Roche Holdings AG5.3.1 Business Overview-5.3.2 Financial Overview-5.3.3 Business Strategies5.4 Johnson & Johnson5.4.1 Business Overview-5.4.2 Financial Overview-5.4.3 Business StrategiesMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Multi-walled Nanotube Market 2017- XG Science , Thomas Swan , Angstron Materials, Anderlab Technologies , Cambridge Nanosystems

Global Multi-walled Nanotube Market 2017

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The Global Multi-walled Nanotube Market 2017 examines the performance of the Multi-walled Nanotube market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Multi-walled Nanotube market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Multi-walled Nanotube market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Multi-walled Nanotube Market 2017 report includes Multi-walled Nanotube industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Multi-walled Nanotube Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Multi-walled Nanotube Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Multi-walled Nanotube Market 2017:1 XG Science2 Thomas Swan3 Angstron Materials4 Anderlab Technologies5 Cambridge Nanosystems6 Graphene Platform CorpMulti-walled Nanotube Market Analysis: By ApplicationAerospaceElectronicsOthersAt the beginning, the report covers the top Multi-walled Nanotube manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Multi-walled Nanotube report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Multi-walled Nanotube industry, Multi-walled Nanotube industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Multi-walled Nanotube Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Multi-walled Nanotube research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Multi-walled Nanotube market revenue worldwide.Finally, Multi-walled Nanotube market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
Global EEG Electrode Market Research Report 2017

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Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of EEG Electrode in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaGlobal EEG Electrode market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingGAES Medical Computer Systems Mega Electronics Neuroelectrics NeuroWave PMT CorporationSOMNOmedicsTo Receive a Sample Copy Global EEG Electrode Market @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRepeatable EEG Electrode Disposable EEG ElectrodeOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of EEG Electrode for each application, includingHospital Treatment Scientific Research OtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Buy a Copy of Global EEG Electrode Market for single user price of $ 2900 @Key Chapters1 EEG Electrode Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of EEG Electrode1.2 EEG Electrode Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global EEG Electrode Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global EEG Electrode Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Repeatable EEG Electrode1.2.4 Disposable EEG Electrode1.2.4 Type II1.2.4 Type II2 Global EEG Electrode Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global EEG Electrode Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global EEG Electrode Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global EEG Electrode Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)3 Global EEG Electrode Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global EEG Electrode Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global EEG Electrode Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global EEG Electrode Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)4 Global EEG Electrode Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global EEG Electrode Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America EEG Electrode Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe EEG Electrode Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)To View Full Report @Who we areResearch Trades has team of experts who works on providing exhaustive analysis pertaining to market research on a global basis. This comprehensive analysis is obtained by a thorough research and study of the ongoing trends and provides predictive data regarding the future estimations, which can be utilized by various organizations for growth purposes.We distribute customized reports that focus on meeting the clients specific requirement.Our database consists of a large collection of high-quality reports obtained using a customer-centric approach, thus providing valuable research insights. The research encompasses information gathered and examined by subject-matter experts, laying down growth opportunities and developmental strategies for enterprises.Reach at us:Flat No.10, Wing C,No. 245/4/2+245/5/1,Baner, Pune-411045Email: sales@researchtrades.comCall us: +91 7507349866Skype ID: researchtradesconWeb:
Global Multi-Well Drilling Pads Market 2017- Nabors Industries Ltd. , Trinidad Drilling Ltd. , Chevron Corporation ,Cairn India Limited , Chesapeake Energy Corporation

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The Global Multi-Well Drilling Pads Market 2017 examines the performance of the Multi-Well Drilling Pads market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Multi-Well Drilling Pads market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Multi-Well Drilling Pads market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Multi-Well Drilling Pads Market 2017 report includes Multi-Well Drilling Pads industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Multi-Well Drilling Pads Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Multi-Well Drilling Pads Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Multi-Well Drilling Pads Market 2017:1 ExxonMobil Corporation2 Nabors Industries Ltd.3 Trinidad Drilling Ltd.4 Chevron Corporation5 Cairn India Limited6 Chesapeake Energy Corporation7 Continental Resources8 Hess Corporation9 Pioneer Natural Resources10 Midwest IndustrialMulti-Well Drilling Pads Market Analysis: By ProductPad Size < 6Pad Size ? 6Multi-Well Drilling Pads Market Analysis: By ApplicationOffshoreOnshoreAt the beginning, the report covers the top Multi-Well Drilling Pads manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Multi-Well Drilling Pads report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Multi-Well Drilling Pads industry, Multi-Well Drilling Pads industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Multi-Well Drilling Pads Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Multi-Well Drilling Pads research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Multi-Well Drilling Pads market revenue worldwide.Finally, Multi-Well Drilling Pads market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
Global Brain Stroke Industry Key Trends, Size, Growth, Shares And Forecast Research Report Report 2015

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Brain Stroke Market Report: 2015 Edition" to its huge collection of research reports.Brain Stroke is one of the most common types of neurovascular disease in which either a clot blocks restricts supply of blood to the brain (ischemic) or blood vessels in the brain rupture (hemorrhagic). The vascular diseases affect normal functioning of the veins and arteries that constitute circulatory system of a human body generally in the form of blockage or rupture. The ruptures are usually headed by the formation of an aneurysm which is an unusual bulge or ballooning in the vessels of blood. They are formed when part of an artery wall weakens permitting the vessel to widen abnormally or balloon. It becomes difficult to predict an aneurysm before it ruptures, leading to existence of several un-ruptured aneurysms.The treatment market of brain stroke has experienced several shifts in the recent years with increasing volume of endovascular treatments globally. As a result market for aspiration catheters and stent retrievers market is also expected to see future growth. The market for endovascular therapies will see further innovations and growth whereas the market for brain aneurysm is relatively homogeneous, consistent and composed of small coil products.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Increasing diabetic population globally, growing ageing population, increasing obese population, increasing cigarette and tobacco consumption, rising healthcare expenditure, increasing GDP of economies are some of the significant factors driving the growth of brain stroke market. However, growth of the market is hindered by certain challenges including shortcomings in the drug treatment for brain stroke, shortage of stroke specialists in the U.S., and entry threats for small companies in medical device industry. The recent trends include introduction of early detection devices and non-invasive brain stimulations and shift in the treatment model of brain stroke.Table of Content1. Overview1.1 Definition of Brain Stroke1.2 Types of Brain Strokes1.3 Risk Factors for Brain Stroke1.3.1 Uncontrollable Factors1.3.2 Controllable Factors1.4 Symptoms of Brain Stroke1.5 Diagnosis of Brain Stroke1.6 Treatment Options for Brain Stroke1.6.1 Ischemic Stroke Treatment1.7 Brain Aneurysms1.7.1 Types of Aneurysms2. Global Brain Stroke Market AnalysisMarket Value2.1 Global ELVO Stroke MarketMarket ValueRegional Share2.1.1 Aspiration Catheter Market2.1.2 Stent Retriever Market2.2 Global Brain Aneurysm MarketMarket ValueRegional Share3. Regional Markets3.1. The U.S.Stroke Prevalence by Type3.1.1 The U.S. ELVO Stroke MarketELVO Market Value & VolumeAspiration Catheter Market Value & VolumeStent Retriever Market Value & Volume3.1.2 The U.S. Brain Aneurysm MarketPrevalenceMarket ValueCoil Market3.2. EuropeStroke Prevalence3.2.1 European ELVO Stroke MarketELVO Market Value & VolumeAspiration Catheter Market Value & VolumeStent Retriever Market Value & Volume3.2.2 European Brain Aneurysm MarketPrevalenceMarket Value3.3 JapanAspiration Catheter Market Value3.3.1 Japanese Brain Aneurysm MarketMarket Value4. Market Dynamics4.1 Growth Drivers4.1.1 Increasing Cigarette and Tobacco Consumption4.1.2 Escalating Diabetic Population Worldwide4.1.3 Rising Healthcare Expenditure4.1.4 Increasing Obese Population4.1.5 Growing Ageing Population4.1.6 Rising Global GDP4.2 Key Trends and Developments4.2.1 Shift in Stroke Treatment Paradigm4.2.2 Introduction of Early Detection Devices for Stroke4.2.3 Introduction of NonInvasive Brain Stimulations4.3 Challenges4.3.1 Entry Threats for Small Companies in Medical Device Industry4.3.2 Shortage of Stroke Specialists in the U.S.4.3.3 Numerous Shortcomings in tPA Drug Treatment5. Competitive Landscape5.1 Global Brain Stroke Market5.2 The U.S. Brain Stroke Market5.3 Brain Stroke Market outside the U.S.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Hadoop Hardware Industry 2017 Growth, Trends, Analysis and Market Research : Cisco,Datameer,IBM,Microsoft

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Hadoop Hardware Market Professional Survey Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Hadoop Hardware market has been methodically defined, evaluated, and forecasted on the basis of multiple factors such as segmentation type, geography, drivers and restraints, business opportunities and trends, and competitive landscape. All segments studied in the report have been strategically analyzed in terms of their individual contributions to the global Hadoop Hardware market alongside other aspects such as prospects and growth patterns. The analysts have brought to light some of the significant stakeholder opportunities and comprehensively assessed the core competencies of key participants profiled in the global Hadoop Hardware market report.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Furthermore, report buyers could gain an insightful understanding about critical strategies, important developments, and other vital factors that have helped leading players to sustain their spot in the global Hadoop Hardware market. The report also includes a commercial, result-oriented, and technical analysis of the global Hadoop Hardware market procured through extensive secondary research conducted with the help of accurate data collection via popular databases, directories, and secondary sources. As for primary sources, preferred organizations, service providers, distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers from different segments of the supply chain and several core and related industry experts top the list.Interested parties could be rest assured about the preparation methodology and accuracy of the publication as it has been compiled by seasoned hands and expert minds boasting of loads of experience in researching the global Hadoop Hardware market. The all-encompassing publication is a fine-tuned guideline backed by a wide range of facts, figures, and statistics to foresee the status of the global Hadoop Hardware market in the coming years.Table of ContentsGlobal Hadoop Hardware Market Professional Survey Report 20171 Industry Overview of Hadoop Hardware1.1 Definition and Specifications of Hadoop Hardware1.1.1 Definition of Hadoop Hardware1.1.2 Specifications of Hadoop Hardware1.2 Classification of Hadoop Hardware1.2.1 Servers Equipments1.2.2 Storage Equipments1.2.3 Network Equipments1.3 Applications of Hadoop Hardware1.3.1 Healthcare1.3.2 Banking & Finance1.3.3 Telecommunication1.3.4 Other1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 China1.4.3 Europe1.4.4 Southeast Asia1.4.5 Japan1.4.6 IndiaBrowse Complete Report with TOC @2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Hadoop Hardware2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Hadoop Hardware2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Hadoop Hardware2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Hadoop Hardware3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Hadoop Hardware3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Hadoop Hardware Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Hadoop Hardware Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Hadoop Hardware Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Hadoop Hardware Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Hadoop Hardware Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Hadoop Hardware Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Hadoop Hardware Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Hadoop Hardware Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Hadoop Hardware Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Hadoop Hardware Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Hadoop Hardware Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)5 Hadoop Hardware Regional Market Analysis5.1 North America Hadoop Hardware Market Analysis5.1.1 North America Hadoop Hardware Market Overview5.1.2 North America 2012-2017E Hadoop Hardware Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.1.3 North America 2012-2017E Hadoop Hardware Sales Price Analysis5.1.4 North America 2016 Hadoop Hardware Market Share Analysis5.2 China Hadoop Hardware Market Analysis5.2.1 China Hadoop Hardware Market Overview5.2.2 China 2012-2017E Hadoop Hardware Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.2.3 China 2012-2017E Hadoop Hardware Sales Price Analysis5.2.4 China 2016 Hadoop Hardware Market Share Analysis5.3 Europe Hadoop Hardware Market Analysis5.3.1 Europe Hadoop Hardware Market Overview5.3.2 Europe 2012-2017E Hadoop Hardware Local Supply, Import, Export, Local Consumption Analysis5.3.3 Europe 2012-2017E Hadoop Hardware Sales Price Analysis5.3.4 Europe 2016 Hadoop Hardware Market Share Analysis5.4 Southeast Asia Hadoop Hardware Market AnalysisQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United States
Concrete Admixtures Market Analysis, Manufacturing Cost Structure, Growth Opportunities and Restraint to 2025

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Global Concrete Admixtures Market: OverviewAdmixtures constitute those form of ingredients in a concrete mixture which are added during or immediately before the mixing procedure. They are, however, not to be confused with other ingredients such as water, Portland cement, or the aggregate. Plain concrete mixes fall short of providing the characteristics that can be easily obtained from concrete admixtures. While concrete admixtures are added to concrete at the time of batching or mixing, the dosages are normally less than 5.0% by the mass of the cement used.On the basis of function, concrete admixtures can see a classification by air entraining admixtures, water reducing admixtures, plasticizers, accelerating admixtures, retarding admixtures, retarding admixtures, hydration-control admixtures, corrosion inhibitors, shrinkage reducers, alkali-silica reactivity inhibitors, and coloring admixtures.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Concrete Admixtures Market: Driving FactorsConcrete admixtures have gained prominence in concrete construction activities as they allow cost reduction. Apart from enhancing the quality of concrete, they help in its maintenance during important stages such as mixing, transporting, placing, and curing and also in adverse weather conditions. Besides this, they find important usage in building and construction activities as well, which is one of the colossal markets on the globe with regard to revenue generation.Various application segments such as highways, houses, bridges, sidewalks, and skyscrapers are expected to significantly add to the rise in the consumption of concrete and consequently, concrete admixtures. Likewise, there is a growing demand from a variety of end users which is equally contributing to the growth. Plasticizers, especially super-plasticizers, are envisaged to lead the international concrete admixtures market among the other segments in the category.Request TOC of the Report @While the mature markets in developed regions could affect the growth of the global concrete admixtures market, new avenues are expected to open in developing markets with the inflating demand for ready-mix concrete (RMC).Global Concrete Admixtures Market: Geographical AnalysisOwing to the growth in residential complexes, corporate offices, and architectural designs, Asia Pacific had majorly contributed to the global concrete admixtures market in the recent past. The rising urbanization in Asia Pacific countries and elevating strength of the world population are currently driving the global building and construction market and will continue to drive as projected. Emerging economies such as India and China are contributing to the growth of the market in the Asia Pacific region on the back of changing lifestyles and swelling urbanization.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@South Africa followed by Europe also held an impressive consumption rate. However, North America has witnessed a stable advancement in the global concrete admixtures market. This trend is envisioned to continue until the end of the forecast period.Global Concrete Admixtures Market: Key VendorsAmong others, Ashland Inc., BASF, CICO Technologies Ltd., The Dow Chemical Company, Fosroc, Sika AG, LanYa Concrete Admixtures Co. Ltd., CHRYSO, and W.R. Grace & Co. are the crucial global players in the concrete admixtures market. The report presented here studies each company to provide a comprehensive analysis of their critical marketing strategies and future plans. The competitive landscape illustrated by the analysts will help the report buyers to gain a competitive edge in the global market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market 2017- Bayer , Novacap , Abbott , Pfizer , Geri-Care Pharmaceuticals

Global Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market 2017

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The Global Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market 2017 examines the performance of the Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market 2017 report includes Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market 2017:1 Bayer2 Novacap3 Abbott4 Pfizer5 Geri-Care Pharmaceuticals6 Perrigo Company7 Kopran8 Merck Sharp & Dohme9 Sun Pharmaceutical Industries10 Glaxo Smith Kline11 Reddy Pharmaceuticals12 Johnson & JohnsonNon-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market Analysis: By ProductAspirinIbuprofenNaproxenNabumetoneOthersNon-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market Analysis: By ApplicationBack Pain TreatmentOsteoarthritis TreatmentOtherAt the beginning, the report covers the top Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID industry, Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:The Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID market revenue worldwide.Finally, Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs?NSAID market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
Global Textile Chemicals Industry Including Definitions, Classifications, Applications And Industry Chain Structure, 2017

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Textile Chemicals Industry Including Definitions, Classifications, Applications And Industry Chain Structure, 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Textile Chemicals market analysis is provided for the international market including competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions China, USA, Europe, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Textile Chemicals industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Textile Chemicals11.1 Definition and Specifications of Textile Chemicals11.2 Classification of Textile Chemicals21.2.1 Pretreatment Auxiliaries21.2.2 Printing Auxiliaries31.2.3 Finishing Auxiliaries31.3 Applications of Textile Chemicals41.3.1 Home Furnishing41.3.2 Apparel51.3.3 Technical Textiles51.4 Industry Chain Structure of Textile Chemicals62 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Textile Chemicals112.1 Raw Material Suppliers and Price Analysis of Textile Chemicals112.2 Equipment Suppliers and Contact Analysis of Textile Chemicals122.3 Labor Cost Analysis of Textile Chemicals142.3.1 USA Labor Cost Analysis142.3.2 Europe Labor Costs Analysis162.3.3 China Labor Costs Analysis182.3.4 Canada Labor Costs Analysis192.3.5 Mexico Labor Costs Analysis20Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Trifluralin Market Research Study For Forecast 2025, Challenges, Demand, Woldwide Overview

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Global Trifluralin Market: OverviewThe global trifluralin market is projected to rise on the back of its main function as an inhibitor of weed growth. With key applications in the agriculture industry, the global market will ride on a robust demand for trifluralin products.Trifluralin helps to control the germination of a variety of broadleaf weeds by restraining their cell division and interrupting mitosis during the development of roots. The herbicide interferes with the synthesis of protein ropes that separate chromosomes during the process of cell division. In most cases, trifluralin is employed as a pre-emergent herbicide. It is studied that the ability of trifluralin to cling with organic matter and substandard water solubility could affect its efficacy and use. However, the crucial advantages provided by trifluralin in different applications compensate for its faint negations.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Trifluralin Market: TrendsThe European Union (EU) has already banned the usage of trifluralin, owing to the risk to fish and other aquatic species with the herbicides high toxicity level. Moreover, the threat of substitutes could be lingering around the growth of the global trifluralin market.Howbeit, the international market for trifluralin is anticipated to witness a strong advancement with its significant applications in the growing agriculture industry. The herbicide cancels the need to wait for a longer time until the unwanted plantings, especially weeds, are eliminated completely. While tiling is the most commonly used method of decomposing weeds naturally, modern-day techniques which use trifluralin are taking precedence quickly. Trifluralin helps to accelerate the turnaround time for crops while minimizing the dependence on the tiling activity. The herbicide is also a great mode of weed removal which encourages cost-effectiveness and reduction in labor and time.Request TOC of the Report @In this regard, the worldwide trifluralin market is envisaged to take advantage of the necessity for faster crop production and the rising agricultural sector.Global Trifluralin Market: GeographyThe demand in the developed regions, such as the U.S. and Australia, of the global trifluralin market is favorable. However, China as part of a developing region has been struggling due to the regulatory issues that are inhibiting the growth of its manufacturing plants. The short supply of intermediate chemicals required for production are also adding to the gradual downslide. This has resulted in an augment in the price of trifluralin over the past few years. The Chinese manufacturers have been cancelling supply contracts because of the steady price increase. New contracts have seen a rise, however with increased prices and generally, reduced supply.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Trifluralin Market: CompetitionWith a gamut of manufacturers operating across different geographical locations, the global trifluralin market is expected to stay fragmented during the course of the forecast period 20172025. Some of the important players in the global market are Shenzhen Sunrising Industry Co., Ltd., Shandong Qiaochang Chemical Co., Ltd., Chongqing Shurong Chemical Co., Ltd., BASF, Jiangsu Fengshan Group Co., Ltd., and Dow Chemical Company. Among others, ADVANCE 10G, HERITAGE, TREFLAN HFP, TREFLAN TR-10, and TREFLAN NF are the prominent trade banners under which the Dow Chemical Company has been manufacturing trifluralin on a large scale.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.ontact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Mr. Ciruli is the Director of the Crossley Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Denvers Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He is an adjunct professor teaching public opinion and foreign policy. The Crossley Center conducts research and presents live and virtual programs on foreign policy, politics, public policy and public opinion.





Mr. Ciruli holds a law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and a bachelors degree cum laude in political science from UCLA. He is a member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), and is the past-president of the Pacific Chapter of AAPOR (PAPOR). Mr. Ciruli is a board member of the Social Science Foundation of the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies and past-president of the Georgetown Law Alumni Board and the Denver Athletic Club.




Straddle Carrier Market to Grow at a CAGR of4.48% during the period 2017-2021

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Straddle Carrier Market report provide emerging opportunities in the market and the future impact of major Key vendors and Market driver and, support decision makers in making cost-effective business decisions. The market report assesses key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the Straddle Carrier industry. The Straddle Carrier Market is anticipated to increase at a significant to grow at CAGR of 4.48% during by 2021.The Report analysts forecast the global straddle carrier market to grow at a CAGR of 4.48% during the period 2017-2021.A straddle carrier is a non-road vehicle used in port terminals to transport and stack ISO standard containers. Shuttle carriers help improve the terminal operational efficiency by decoupling ship-to-shore and yard operations. Sprinter carriers enable the long-distance transportation of horizontal containers. They carry loads at high speeds between container bridges and stacking cranes. Straddle carriers are large with a load baring capability of over 50 tons. Smaller versions of straddle carriers are also available for users who need to move containers around their yard or depot as a by-product of their main business.Request a sample copy of Straddle Carrier Market Research Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global straddle carrier market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the unit shipment of straddle carriers.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas, APAC, EMEAThe report, Global Straddle Carrier Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Cobilift, Kalmar, Liebherr, KonecranesOther prominent vendors Terex Port SolutionsMarket driver Sea transport, a cost-effective way of logistic transport, For a full, detailed list, view our reportFor a limited time, this research can be ordered at a reduced price (USD 1000 OFF on listed prices!) via @Market challenge High maintenance and operational cost, For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Growing adoption of automated terminals, For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be What are the key market trends?, What is driving this market?, What are the challenges to market growth?, Who are the key vendors in this market space?, What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?, What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendorsBrowse full table of contents and data tables For Straddle Carrier Market Report @Related Reports: -Global Chain Hoist Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Chain Hoist is a mechanical device for lifting material, consisting of chain around a drum or wheel lift, and a hook for attaching payload.MarketSizeForecasters.com, a Skyline Market Research LLP brand, is an online aggregator of market research reports. MarketSizeForecasters.com offers a comprehensive collection of full length reports on global and regional markets in 100+ industry verticals. We have partnered with some of the leading business and market research publishing houses and regularly update our online library to offer wide range of reports to our customers.Market size forecastersThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketsizeforecasters.comWebsite:News:
United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia SaaS-based IT Security Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021

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This report studies the global SaaS-based IT Security market, analyzes and researches the SaaS-based IT Security development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeCiscoIBMIntel Security (McAfee)SymantecAlert LogicBarracuda NetworksCA TechnologiesCipherCloudCloudPassageCredant TechnologiesCYRENForcepointFortinetLogRhythmPanda SecurityPhantom TechnologiesProofpointRadwareSafeNetSecureAuthSophosSymplifiedTrend MicroTrustwaveWatchGuard TechnologiesZscalerRequest For Report Sample @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, SaaS-based IT Security can be split intoEmail gateway servicesIdentity and access management servicesCloud encryption servicesWeb gateway servicesSIEM servicesMarket segment by Application, SaaS-based IT Security can be split intoApplication 1Application 2Application 3Table of ContentsUnited States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia SaaS-based IT Security Market Size, Status and Forecast 20211 Industry Overview of SaaS-based IT Security1.1 SaaS-based IT Security Market Overview1.1.1 SaaS-based IT Security Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast AsiaBrowse full table of contents and data tables of Report @1.3 SaaS-based IT Security Market by Type1.3.1 Email gateway services1.3.2 Identity and access management services1.3.3 Cloud encryption services1.3.4 Web gateway services1.3.5 SIEM services1.4 SaaS-based IT Security Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Application 11.4.2 Application 21.4.3 Application 32 Global SaaS-based IT Security Competition Analysis by Players2.1 SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (Value) by Players (2015-2016)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Cisco3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 SaaS-based IT Security Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 IBM3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 SaaS-based IT Security Revenue (Value) (2011-2016)3.2.5 Recent Developments4 Global SaaS-based IT Security Market Size by Type and Application (2011-2016)4.1 Global SaaS-based IT Security Market Size by Type (2011-2016)4.2 Global SaaS-based IT Security Market Size by Application (2011-2016)4.3 Potential Application of SaaS-based IT Security in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of SaaS-based IT Security5 United States SaaS-based IT Security Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (2011-2016)5.2 United States SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)6 EU SaaS-based IT Security Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (2011-2016)6.2 EU SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)7 Japan SaaS-based IT Security Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (2011-2016)7.2 Japan SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)8 China SaaS-based IT Security Development Status and Outlook8.1 China SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (2011-2016)8.2 China SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)9 India SaaS-based IT Security Development Status and Outlook9.1 India SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (2011-2016)9.2 India SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)10 Southeast Asia SaaS-based IT Security Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia SaaS-based IT Security Market Size (2011-2016)10.2 Southeast Asia SaaS-based IT Security Market Size and Market Share by Players (2015-2016)QYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.QYResearchreportsContact Us1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Content Delivery Network (CDN) Market 2017 Share will grow high beyond 2021

Content Delivery Network (CDN) Market

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Research report studies Content Delivery Network(CDN) in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share.Read Complete Report @Manufacturer covering Content Delivery Network(CDN) in Global market Research Report :Tata CommunicationsEricssonChinacacheInternapLevel3 CommunicationsHighwindsAT&TAkamai TechnologiesCloudflareCDNetworksLimelight NetworksMax CDNAmazon CloudFrontLiquid WebRackspaceRead Sample Copy of Research Report @Research report Content Delivery Network(CDN) Split by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoCloud CDNTelco CDNTraditional Commercial CDNHybrid CDNOther CDNResearch report Content Delivery Network(CDN) Split by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Content Delivery Network(CDN) in each application, can be divided intoVideo SiteCloud GamingOthersEnquire Here with Your Queries:Abou Us: MRS Research Group provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Prof Research cover more than 30 industries including energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free : +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@mrsresearchgroup.com
Power Rental Market in Americas to grow at a CAGR of 3.40% during the period 2017-2021: Key Vendors are Aggreko, Energyst, APR Energy, Atlas Copco etc.

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ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Power Rental Market in Americas 2017-2021 " to it's Large Report database.ABSTRACTAbout Power RentalRental power is used to meet peak load demands, base load supply, or is used as a standby. The need to provide uninterrupted power is a major factor driving the growth of the power rental market; as using power rentals is more economical than maintaining a reserve plant, the demand for rental power has risen over time. Power rental equipment provides essential support to businesses and consumers during power outages. Diesel and gas generators are common forms of this equipment. It can also be used as a base load or as a standby application, depending on industry needs.Technavios analysts forecast the power rental market in Americas to grow at a CAGR of 3.40% during the period 2017-2021.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the power rental market in Americas for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.Technavio's report, Power Rental Market in Americas 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAggrekoAPR EnergyAtlas CopcoEnergystUnited RentalsRead All Power Market Research Reports @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionPower rental market: An overviewPART 05: Market landscapeMarket overviewMarket size and forecastFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by end-usersPower rental market in Americas by end-userPower rental market in Americas by utilities sectorPower rental market in Americas by oil and gas sectorPower rental market in Americas by industrial sectorPower rental market in Americas by others sectorsPART 07: Market segmentation by productPower rental market in Americas by productPower rental market in Americas by diesel generatorsPower rental market in Americas by gas generatorsPART 08: Decision frameworkPART 09: Drivers and challengesMarket driversMarket challengesAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at:
Europe: Heavy Construction Equipment Market Outlook and Foresight to 2025

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European market growth is mainly depending upon the countries such as Italy, Germany, U.K, Spain and France and others.The European market is facing an economic slowdown in the recent years due to the unusual demand. Due to the market uncertainty and sovereign debt crisis the Western European countries are facing the restraints in the growth activities but Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden are likely to be safe from this crises and uncertainty. The heavy construction equipment market is expecting ainadequate growth rate forecast in both commercial and residential spending by 2027. Also there are many planned constructions site are planning on postponing their plan due to the crises.Make an Enquiry @The spending on construction are likely to be stable and stagnant in in Western Europe with a very little growth expectations. Germany is considered to be a fasting growing region in Europe followed by Spain, Ireland, U.K, France and others. These regions will experience a decline growth rate till 2027.In the coming years, the Eastern Europe countries such as Poland, Russia and others will be expecting positive waves of huge spending on constructions. Non- residential sector will be forecasted as the fastest growing sector.Huge investment from Asia-Pacific and North America has created a ladder of opportunity for the European market to grown in the coming years.Furthermore, the report offers broad analysis of industry overview of Heavy Construction Equipment which includes types, application analysis, end users, supply chain management and key regulations in various regions along with the heavy construction equipment distributor analysis.Source: Market Research Future AnalysisNextly, the report covers geographical analysis of Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the report has been bifurcated on the basis of by types (earthmoving equipment, material handling equipment, heavy construction vehicles, others (cranes, excavator, dozer)), by application (mining & excavation, earthmoving, transportation, lifting, material handling, others), by end users (oil & gas industry, construction industry, military, mining, agriculture & forestry and others).The heavy construction equipment analysis market research report provides detail analysis of market in terms of value market. The report also provides the future outlook of the market till 2021. Moreover, the global as well as market share of various players based on methods is also analyzed in the report. Lastly, the report provides company profiles of major players in the market.Finally, the report provides trends, drivers and restraints along with the conclusion.Research MethodologyTo calculate Heavy Construction Equipment market size, we have considered revenue of top players in the market and to offer accuracy, our research is supported by industry experts who offer insight on industry structure and technology assessment, competitive landscape, penetration, emerging products and trends. Their analysis is based (80 to 85%)on primary &(15 to 20%) on secondary researchas well as years of professional expertise in their respective industries. In addition to analyze current and historical trends, ouranalysts predict where the market is headed over the next five to ten years. It varies by segment for these categories geographically presented in the list of market tables. Top-down and bottom-up are important strategies of processing the information and knowledge ordering, used in a variety of fields including humanistic, software and scientific theories and management and organization. Inpractice, they can be seen as a style of thinking, teaching, or leadership.Speaking about this particular report we have conducted primary surveys (interviews) with the key level executives (VP, CEOs, Marketing Director, Business Development Manager and many more) of the major players active in the market.Access Report Details @Table of Content1. Introduction2. Research methodologyEurope heavy construction equipment industry: overview4. Market dynamics4.1 drivers4.2 restraints4.3 opportunities4.4 mega trends4.5 macroeconomic indicators4.6 technological advancement/ industry updates4.7 important pointers by industry experts5. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: value/supply chain analysis6. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: porter's 5 forces analysis7. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: market value & volume forecast (2016-2027) (us $ million)8. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: by product type9. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: by application type10. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: by end users type10.3.1 Oil & gas industry10.3.2 Construction industry10.3.3 Military10.3.4 Mining10.3.5 Agriculture & forestry and others11. Europe heavy construction equipment industry: by country11.3.1 Western Europe11.4.1 Eastern Europe12. Company landscape12.1 introduction: key players12.2 commercial production date of key manufacturers12.3 market share analysis12.4 product pictures12.5 distributor's list13. Company profile13.1 caterpillars13.2 laing ORourke13.3 vinci13.4 jcb13.5 Hyundai heavy industries ltd13.6 Hitachi construction machinery co. ltd (hcm)13.7 kobelco construction machinery co. ltd13.8 Manitou group13.9 sumitomo heavy industries ltd13.10 Volvo construction13.11 Terex corporation14. Mrfr conclusionNote: the Toc contains more than 200 figures and tablesContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Europe: Heavy Construction Equipment Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Bioprocess Technology Market: Latest Trends and Future Outlook 2024

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The global bioprocess technology market is forecast to report a strong growth between 2016 and 2024. Besides the expansion of pharmaceutical industries across emerging nations, the market is seemingly gaining from the higher research and development funding. Furthermore, as pharmaceutical giants focus on their core competencies they are more likely to outsource a few crucial operations to vendors with expertise. This would further give impetus to the global bioprocess technology market.The report provides a detailed assessment of the market covering growth drivers, major restraints, and opportunities. It has segmented the market based on various parameters for the purpose of the study. The effect of Porters five forces on the overall market is studied in detail as well.Obtain Report Details @The bioprocess technology market is majorly gaining from the growth witnessed in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Given the scenario, the industry now witnesses rising research funding, novel drug launches, and increasing government support. These, coupled with the increasing incidence of chronic ailments, will keep the demand for bioprocess technologies high through the reports forecast period.Besides this, the market is also looking forward to the rapid growth in pharmaceutical and biotechnologies industries to gain more business. Rising R&D activities supported by favorable government policies are direct results of expansion witnessed in the pharmaceutical industry. Launch of novel therapeutics will ensue the trend. These factors will have a positive impact on the overall market thus helping it gain higher. Also the market will gain from the increasing pharmaceutical outsourcing to vendors operating in the bioprocess technology market.Regionally, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World constitute the key segments in the global bioprocess technology market. Among these, North America exhibited highly lucrative opportunities till 2016 and the trend is likely to continue through the reports forecast period. As the region exhibits increasing demand for high quality biologics and the top players domiciled therein increase research funding, the bioprocess technology market in North America will continue showing steep rise.Likewise in Asia Pacific the market is expected to witness highly lucrative opportunities. Benefiting from the growing pharmaceutical industry and investments by key market players, the demand for bioprocess technologies will rise in Asia Pacific. Besides this, the market players in the region are also gaining from the rising outsourcing to Asian countries and easy availability of academic excellence in Asia Pacific.Make an Enquiry @Policies adopted by prominent companies have a significant impact on the overall market. The report therefore profiles some of the leading enterprises and studies the impact of their latest marketing strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and product launches. For the purpose of the study, a detailed overview of their product portfolio is mentioned as well. The strengths and weaknesses of the companies profiled are analyzed using SWOT analysis, which also presents insights into opportunities and threats these companies could face during the forecast period.Some of the companies included in this list are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., GE Healthcare, Danaher Corporation, Merck Millipore, Dickinson and Company, Becton, Lonza Group AG, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A, Corning, Inc., and Charles River Laboratories.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Medical Holography Market: Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2026

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Biomedical imaging technology is bringing in numerous innovations in the medical technology field. Medical imaging has become one of the fastest growing industries. Medical holography is one such technical advancement in medical science that is expected to answer the most complicated diagnostic issues. A medical hologram produces three dimension (3D) images of the human body in real time images or in the form of video stream. The real time images produced by the medical hologram are of high resolution and would help to reveal the complexities in the diagnosed body. Some of the medical holograms are interactive in nature that also provide most effective user interface for better understanding.Obtain Report Details @There is a high demand for advanced medical imaging from the healthcare sector. As the innovations in medical education are growing, medical holography market is expected to benefit from these innovations due to increased technology integration. Increased awareness among the consumers related to advanced medical technologies is expected to have a positive influence on medical holography market. Medical holography facilitates the real-time viewing of the diagnosed body, further improving the analysis process.The medical holography system provides an advanced diagnostic methodology to the doctors. These systems offer doctors a better understanding about the anatomy of the patients body, driving the demand for medical holography market. Medical holography helps the doctors to view complex displacement of bones or tissues that had occurred. The medical holography system is also expected to help the doctors to understand the medical complications more easily and quickly.Hologram guided heart surgeries are expected to gain more importance during the forecast period. With the help of holograms doctors can easily examine patients heart conditions or detect a colon cancer without breaking the skin. It will result in the quick diagnosis of any disease and the doctor can start with his treatment. Furthermore, there are numerous companies across the world investing in medical holography technologies.Introduction of augmented reality in the field of medical holography could be one of the greatest opportunities to the producers of medical holograms. Limited adoption of medical holograms despite its numerous advantages could prove to be a restraining factor for the market. The pricing of such medical holography technology is also higher which could affect its adoption among customers. However, with increasing technology adoption in medical and healthcare sectors this hurdle is expected to be tackled.Make an Enquiry @The medical holography market can be segmented on the basis of medical hologram types and the technology adopted in medical holography. Volumetric displays, planar/HUD interactive display, segmented displays, static digital holograms are a few of the types of medical holograms. Some of the common technologies viewed in medical holography market are plasma, touchable, electro holographic, semi-transparency, and laser technology.Some of the key players engaged in medical holography market are Dongguan Linbiao hologram manufacturer, Eon Reality Inc., EchoPixel, Inc., Zebra Imaging, General Electric Company, Microsoft Inc, Provision Holdings Inc., RealView Imaging Ltd., Holographic 3d solutions, Holography Industry JV, Ne&Ro Invest SRL., Arnold Herzig GmbH, DPL Industri A/S Denmark and Olomagic.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Increasing Popularity of Anti-Wrinkle Products to Fuel Asia, Europe, and South America Anti-Aging Market

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Restoring the younger looks and thereby finding solutions against signs of aging has been a mission for cosmetologists and health care professionals for centuries. As a result, market for anti-aging products is experiencing continuous growth since decades. Various products and services are perpetually entering into the market to serve the agenda of restoring younger looks.Presently, various anti-aging products such as UV absorbers, dermal fillers, Botox, anti-stretchmark products, hair color, and anti-wrinkle products are widely used.Obtain Report Details @The anti-wrinkle products segment was valued at USD 8,088.3 million in 2013 in Asia. The dominance of this segment was primarily due to increasing adoption of anti-wrinkle products among the population. The anti-aging products market in Japan is growing swiftly owing to reasonable costs and rising awareness about the availability of aesthetic products. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ISAPS), a total of 146,150 Botox injection procedures were registered in Japan in 2010.The number further increased to 208,313 in 2011. Considering all the above mentioned factors, Japan was leading the overall anti-aging products market in Asia in terms of revenue in 2013. While on the other hand, China is expected to show significant growth in the anti-aging products market during the forecast period. Factors such as anticipated rise in the aging population coupled with rising awareness about commercially available anti-aging products are primarily driving the growth of the market in China.The anti-aging services market is growing rapidly in Europe owing to steady recovery from the economic crisis, and consequently, rising disposable income and increasing demand. Italy was a leader in the anti-aging services market in the overall Europe in 2013 due to higher demand for breast augmentation and hair restoration treatments. While on the other hand, Spain anti-aging services market is expected to record highest growth during the forecast period.Adoption of sclerotherapy is anticipated to primarily boost the growth of the Spain anti-aging treatment services market owing to the increasing prevalence of varicose vein due to aging and obesity. The growth of the geriatric population coupled with rise in obesity are some of the other factors driving the growth of sclerotherapy services segment in the country.Make an Enquiry @Brazil dominates the aesthetic procedures industry among South American countries. Brazil registered 1,447,213 aesthetic procedures in 2011. Affordable rates, availability of advanced techniques and a well-defined regulatory infrastructure are the prime drivers for the growth of the aesthetic industry in Brazil. As a result, people around the world travel to Brazil for aesthetic treatment. Thus, increasing demand for aesthetic procedures in the country is observed that would boost the growth of aesthetic devices in Brazil.Similarly, adoption of laser treatment and radiofrequency treatments is observed to be higher in Brazil owing to the safety and efficacy of these treatments. Therefore, in 2013, the laser aesthetic and radiofrequency devices segments accounted for the largest market of USD 59.0 million and USD 19.2 million, respectively.Some of the key players operating in the anti-aging market include Allergan, Inc., Alma Laser Ltd., Beiersdorf AG, Coty, Inc., Cynosure, Inc., LOreal SA, Solta Medical, Inc. (Valeant Pharmaceutical International, Inc.), and PhotoMedex, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) Market: Rising Pool of Geriatrics to Determine Market Growth

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The trend in the global cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) indicates that players must invest in developing countries to cater to consumers unmet medical demands and attain bigger revenue shares, says Transparency Market Research in a new report. Danaher, Planmeca, and Sirona jointly held a massive share of 70% in the global market in 2015.Analysts have identified Asia Pacific as the most promising region for growth in the coming few years. Furthermore, leading players are also focusing on strategic mergers and acquisitions to expand their product portfolio and their access to the customers.Obtain Report Details @Rising Pool of Geriatrics to Determine Market GrowthStatistics published by the United Nations Population Division in 2013 suggested that the aging population is anticipated to reach 2 billion by the end of 2050 from 841 million in 2013. This whopping rise is likely to be the basic premise ushering in a new wave of growth for the CBCT technologies across the globe. The dental complications of the aged people are going to increase the demand for sophisticated imaging techniques in dentistry, thereby propelling the revenues earned by these technologies in the coming few years. This growth will also be complemented by factors such as the need for effectiveness in medical interventions and result-oriented research and development activities.Heavy Excise Duties Hamper MarketThe tough excise duty imposed on the sale of medical devices across the U.S. is an unfair constraint for the CBCT market. The high cost of utilizing this technology is also holding back several institutes and healthcare centers to use CBCT technologies. TMR analyst says, The adamancy to stick with conventional methods instead of adopting new-age technologies is also hampering the growth of the CBCT technologies across the world.Developing Nations Open Up Growth OptionsAnalysts predict that strengthening economies of Mexico, Brazil, China, and India will offer a score of opportunities to the overall CBCT market to grow in the near future. Furthermore, the increasing healthcare expenditure of these countries is also going to play a major role in the surge of this market. The improving disposable incomes of Asia Pacific are also going to contribute generously to the CBCT market in the coming years.Make an Enquiry @The report published by Transparency Market Research states that the opportunity in the global CBCT market will be worth US$ 960.8 mn by the end of 2023. As of 2014, the market was valued at US$407.5 mn. However, the market will expand at a CAGR of 10.0% between 2015 and 2023. The report also suggests that oral surgery will be fastest-growing application segment promoting the use of CBCT technology. As of 2015, this application segment held a share of 26.4% in the overall market. Regionally, North America held a share of 41.4% in the total of CBCT market in 2015. The soaring demand for dental procedures is expected to keep this region as the leading geographical segment in the coming years.The review of the global CBCT market is based on the findings of TMR research report, titled Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2015  2023.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Polyurethane Dispersion for Paints and Coatings Market - Global Industry Analysis 2024 | Research Report

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Polyurethane dispersion is a technology which comprises a two phase system of water and a polymer, having high molecular weight and belonging to the class of polyurethane and some optional components. Polyurethane products are commonly known as urethanes. Most of the polyurethane polymers are thermosetting polymers which do not melt when heated. These polymers were initially used for the production of fibers and flexible foams but today polyurethane has a wide range of application ranging from concrete construction like bridges and motorway structures to steel railway carriages and wooden furniture.Browse Market Research Report @In addition to the construction industry, it is also used in the coating and adhesives, footwear, refrigeration and freezers industry. Polyurethane is also used in the production of medical gloves and manufacturing of furniture products. In terms of application, painting and coating industry represents the largest end user of polyurethane dispersion, where it is used as a film former or binders. Polyurethane dispersion has replaced the previously used solvent-based binders as they are more environment friendly as the latter used to use volatile organic chemicals (VOC) which causes serious threat to man and nature. Since then, demand for polyurethane paints and coatings has increased significantly. They are also used in painting and coating of metals, wood, plastics glass and textiles.Polyurethane paints are used in ship and automobile construction using polyurethane clear coat.. In addition to ships and automobiles, polyurethane clear coat is also used extensively in the production of coats for pipeline, floor and balcony, building and roads. Polyurethane is rapidly gaining importance in the construction industry on account of its ability to offer durability and resistance against corrosion and weather...In terms of output, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) account for the major consumption polyurethane dispersion technology. In 2010, limitations were set in Europe on the emissions of VOCs by the paints and coatings used for various industrial applications. The limit for VOC emissions was set to 50mg organic carbon concentration per m3 f air in most of the countries. Hence use of polyurethane dispersion having very limited VOC emission, gained importance. Resulting from this, production of polyurethane paints and coatings substantially increased. After EMEA, the industry wass dominated by Asia Pacific in terms of production, and is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. In Asia Pacific, China dominates the polyurethane dispersions industry . Initially China was a more of an importer of polyurethane paints. Over the recent years, construction and manufacturing companies have increased in numbers in China, which has further boosted the demand of polyurethanes. Owing to this, the domestic production in China has increased rapidly with both large multinationals and local producers entering into the market. After EMEA and Asia, Demand for polyurethane technology was also prevalent in Latin America and North America collectively, where developed economies such as the U.S. accounts as the largest user for this technology, followed by Brazil.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Polyurethane Dispersion for Paints and Coatings Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @The polyurethane market for paints and coating is experiencing healthy growth which is expected to continue in the near future, majorly driven by the growth in automotives and construction, particularly in Asia Pacific. A significant amount of innovations are made by various market players in order to be prepared to serve the high potential end-use industries in future. Some of the leading players in this market are Akzo Nobel N.C (Netherlands), PPG Industries (U.S.), Sherwin Williams (U.S.), Axalta Coating Systems (U.S.) and BASF SE (Germany).About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
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Barium Market: Latest Trends,Analysis & Insights 2024

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Barium Market. The study, titled Barium Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Global Barium Market: SnapshotThe growing usage of barium is strictly attributable to the exceptionally high level of chemical reactivity. Owing to this characteristics, the derivatives of this chemical element is extensively used for making metal alloys, drilling fluid in oil wells, inks, plastics, paints and varnishes, vacuum tubes, and rubbers. The commonly used derivatives of barium are barium sulfate, barium oxide, barium chloride, barium titanate, barium nitrate, and barium carbonate. The growing applications of barium across several industrial verticals is expected to give the global market a remarkable boost. Barium is not used by itself but as a derivative.Browse Market Research Report @The research report presented by Transparency Market Research provides a thorough analysis of the global market. It includes a SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis. Both of these market measurement tools discussed the various market dynamics impacting the trajectory of the global barium market along with highlighting the competitive landscape present in the overall scenario.Global Barium Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe exponential demand for alloys in various industries is expected to be the very premise of expanding barium market in the near future. The use of alloys is indispensable, especially in the automotive industry, where they are used for strengthening the structure of the vehicles and making them durable. Thus, the booming automotive industry is expected have a direct, positive impact on the global market. Meanwhile, demand for barium in the steel industry for making steel deoxidizers, production of bearings, and for creating creep resistance are all expected translate into improved revenue for the overall market. The growth of construction sector where paints and varnishes are integral have also upped the demand for barium and its derivatives. In light of these factors, the report states that the demand for barium is expected to remain relatively high in the coming years.Despite the steady growth drivers, the global market is likely to be hampered by a few challenges. The key restraint for the global market is the fact that barium has a high reactivity rate, which limits its usage under several circumstances. Owing to these reasons, several end users are looking for alternative metals that are safer to use. However, development of barium nanoparticles is expected to present new lucrative opportunities in the coming years. Furthermore, application barium derivatives in X-ray imaging will also offer terrific opportunities to the overall market.Global Barium Market: Regional OutlookThe global barium market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Of these regions, North America is expected to lead the pack in the coming years. This regional market will be the key consumer of barium derivatives in the coming years due to the strengthening automotive industry and the steel industry. Analysts anticipate that Asia Pacific will also be a significant contributor to the revenue of the global market in the near future. Rising number of manufacturing activities in the region, development of automotive industry, improving construction industry that will demand paints and varnishes, and high demand for various types of packaging are expected to fuel the Asia Pacific barium market. China and India are expected to augment the demand for barium in the next few years in Asia Pacific.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Barium market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Key Players Mentioned in the Report are:The report has analyzed some of the leading players in the global market such as Zigong Gold Way International Ltd., Lanxi Daming Chemical, Reagent Wuchang Shenyang, Shandong Xinke Environmental Chemistry Co., NaFine Group, Ningyang Huali Chemical Co. Ltd., Zhangjiaba salinization Ltd., Anyang Mingrui Silicon Industry Co. Ltd., and Alpha Chemika.Global Barium Market by Geography:EuropeNorth AmericaAsia-PacificRest of the WorldThis report gives you access to decisive data such as:Market growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for the coming yearsAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit :
Bio-based Anionic Surfactants Industry Trends and key Insights by 2024

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A new research report by Transparency Market Research offers a comprehensive evaluation of the global Bio-based Anionic Surfactants Market. The study, titled Bio-based Anionic Surfactants Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024, is available for sale on the firms website.Surface Active Agent also called as surfactants, are a group of organic compounds that lowers the interfacial tension between liquids or the surface tension of a liquid. Generally, these are used as detergents or wetting agents, emulsifiers or foaming agents. Globally, anionic surfactants account for the largest share in the surfactants market. Surfactants finds usage across various applications such as detergents, soaps, textiles, personal care, oilfield chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, elastomers, crop protection, and plastics amongst others.Browse Market Research Report @Anionic surfactants account for the largest share of the commodity surfactants market. Growing crude oil prices and environmental regulations are expected to increase the demand for bio-based anionic surfactants. In terms of volume, the three largest anionic surfactants were alpha-olefin sulfonates, linear alkylbenzene sulfonates and alcohol ether sulfates. All these anionic surfactants are ethylene based, which is a petrochemical derivative. Bio-based anionic surfactants include alcohol ether sulfate (AES) and methyl ester sulfonate (MES). Methyl ester sulfonate (MES) is produced from palm oil and alcohol ether sulfate is produced from coconut oil. Both the bio-based anionic surfactants namely alcohol ether sulfate and methyl ether sulfate can also substitute few of the other ethylene based anionic surfactants. In terms of properties, bio-based anionic surfactants have all the desirable properties that are required for personal care and detergent products.The main restraints of the synthetic surfactants market are the volatile raw material prices and environment regulations, these factors act as drivers for the bio-based surfactants market. Anionic surfactants are largely ethylene based and hence are prone to price and supply fluctuations. The increase in production cost due to raw material price fluctuation has put strains on the profit margins of synthetic surfactants. This volatility of supply and price fluctuation during the pricing of their products has made it difficult for the surfactant producers to transfer the increased price to their customers, or they risk of losing the market share. The current market demand for environment friendly alternatives has led to boost the demand for bio-based anionic surfactants. All these aspects are anticipated to drive the market for bio-based anionic surfactants in the near future.In initial stage of growth, bio-based surfactant market is being used as a substitute for synthetic surfactants in various applications. Moreover, the scope for bio-based surfactant is wide as the synthetic surfactants market is a relatively mature market. High comparative prices and technological constraints might act as a restraint to the growth of bio-based anionic surfactants market.The regions such as North America, Europe, and Japan contribute to a larger share of demand for bio-based anionic surfactants. In these regions, consumers are more aware about the environmental benefits of these products and tend to prefer environment friendly alternatives. Moreover, environment regulations in these regions have led to an increase in demand for bio-based anionic surfactants. The demand for bio-based anionic surfactants in regions such as Asia Pacific and Rest of the World is anticipated to witness strong growth over the next few years. High price and supply fluctuations of petrochemical products and reducing dependence on crude oil is likely to drive the demand for bio-based substitutes and consequently bio-based anionic surfactants.Some of the major companies operating in the global calcium carbide market are AGAE Technologies, BASF SE, Clariant AG, Rhodia SA, Henkel, Stepan Company, The Dow Chemical Company and AkzoNobel N.V. among others.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Bio-based Anionic Surfactants market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.The study is a source of reliable data on:Key market segments and sub-segmentsEvolving market trends and dynamicsChanging supply and demand scenariosQuantifying market opportunities through market sizing and market forecastingTracking current trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive insightsOpportunity mapping in terms of technological breakthroughsThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, North Africa)About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit :
Petrochemicals Market Size, Share | Industry Trends Analysis Report, 2020

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Transparency Market Research (TMR) has announced the release of a new market study on the global petrochemicals market. The report examines the historical trajectory of the market up to 2013 and presents forecasts for the markets development from 2014 to 2020. According to the report, the global petrochemicals market is expected to exhibit a steady 6.8% CAGR from 2014 to 2020. The market will reach a valuation of US$885.1 bn by the end of the forecast period.The report is titled Petrochemicals Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020 and is available for sale on the official website of TMR.This 112 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Petrochemicals market. Browse through 37 data tables and 23 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market @Petrochemicals, as the name suggests, are a wide range of chemicals derived from petroleum feedstock. The global market for petrochemicals is a crucial part of the chemicals industry and has significant impact on various walks of human life, as ubiquitous materials such as plastics are derived from petrochemicals. Due to the rising demand for its various end-use segments, the global petrochemicals market is expected to exhibit steady growth in the coming years.The major product segments of the global petrochemicals market are ethylene, propylene, methanol, butadiene, xylene, benzene, styrene, vinyls, and toluene. Of these, ethylene was the major product type in the market in 2013. Ethylenes use in the manufacture of polyethylene  which, as the name suggests, consists of multiple polymers of ethylene  is a major driver for the global petrochemicals market.The rising use of methanol in fuel mixtures has also provided a boost to the global petrochemicals market.Adding methanol allows for cleaner combustion of fuels, reducing the environmental damage caused by the combustion. According to TMR, methanol is expected to be the fastest growing product segment of the global petrochemicals market in the forecast period. The demand for styrene and butadiene is also expected to rise in the coming years, thanks to their growing application in styrene butadiene rubber and the rising demand for butadiene for the production of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.On the basis of geography, China emerged as the largest segment of the global market in 2013. China accounted for 25% of the demand from the global petrochemicals market, thanks in part to the countrys booming automotive and construction industries. China is also anticipated to remain in a dominant position in the global petrochemicals market in the coming years and is expected to be the fastest growing segment of the market in the forecast period.The rest of Asia Pacific followed China in the regional hierarchy of the global petrochemicals market in 2013. India is the leader in the rest of Asia Pacific, with the increasing demand for products containing petrochemicals and the countrys flourishing manufacturing sector expected to propel the regional market for petrochemicals.The Middle East and Africa also have an important role to play in the future of the global petrochemicals market. These two regions contain some of the largest petroleum producers in the world, with the easy availability of petroleum allowing petrochemical companies in the region to post strong growth figures.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Petrochemicals market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@In competitive terms, the global petrochemicals market is highly fragmented and marked by constant efforts on the part of multinational giants to acquire smaller regional companies. Key players in the global petrochemicals market are BASF SE, Shell Chemical Company, Total S.A., E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil, Sinopec Ltd., The Dow Chemical Company, SABIC, LyondellBasell Industries, and Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC.The global petrochemicals market is segmented as follows:Petrochemicals Market: Product Segment AnalysisEthylenePropyleneButadieneBenzeneXyleneTolueneVinylsStyreneMethanolPetrochemicals Market: Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaEuropeChinaRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaLatin AmericaAbout UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Visit :
New Trends of Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) Market with Worldwide Industry Analysis to 2021

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Report Description:The Market research future provides a detailed analysis of 10 years forecast of Cyclic Olefin Polymer market research between 2011 and 2021 and it is expected that Cyclic Olefin Polymer market will register the CAGR of more than 1.25% during the forecast period.Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) also known as Ethylene Copolymer, Clyclon Olefin Copolymer and Ethylene-norbornene Copolymer, is a chemical substance which is precisely used in the manufacturing of packaging of materials mostly used in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, electronic and optical industries among others. Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) is an amorphous polymer made by several polymer manufacturers. Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) is a relatively new class of polymers as compared to commodities such as polypropylene and polyethylene. Increasing demand from end-user industries such as lenses, packaging films, displays, vials and medical devices is escalating the demand for Cyclic Olefin Polymer market.Request a Sample Report @Global Cyclic Olefin Polymer market has been seen a prospective growth in the US and Europe in recent year as these regions have captured a large number of industries such as pharmaceutical, electronic, optical and others. The megatrends which may become a global market influencer for this product are global connectivity and rapid growth in North America and Latin America because of the huge demand for electronic products. In the Middle East & Africa and Asia-Pacific, the market of Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) is also generating huge demand from the emerging middle-class population and rapid urbanization. Also, the scenario has taken place due to increase in purchasing power of the customer in some parts of the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa includes South Africa, India, China and others.Moving ahead, the report offers comprehensive analysis of industry overview of Cyclic Olefin Polymer (COP) which includes classification, chemical structure, application analysis, supply chain management and key regulations in various regions along with the COP distributor analysis.Nextly, the report covers geographical analysis of countries includes China, India, Japan, US and Rest of the World. Furthermore, the report has been bifurcated on the basis of by technology (ring-opening materials polymerization (ROMP) and non-ring opened products), chemical structure (A-Series, B-Series, C-Series, and D-Series), by application (packaging, healthcare and optical and electronics industries)Afterwards, the report provides manufacturing cost analysis of Cyclic olefin Polymers (COP) which includes raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, process analysis along with their pricing analysis. Additionally, it provides the different types of COPs with their market size, technical and manufacturing plants analysis includes capacity and commercial dates of manufacturers along with R&D status and raw material supplier data.The Cyclic olefin polymers analysis market research report provides detail analysis of market in terms of value market. The report also provides the future outlook of the market till 2021. Moreover, the global as well as market share of various players based on methods is also analyzed in the report. Lastly, the report provides company profiles of major players in the market.Lastly, the report provides trends, drivers and restraints along with the conclusion.Browse Report Details @Research Methodology:To calculate Cyclic Olefin Polymer Market size, we have considered revenue and capacity of top players in the market and to offer accuracy, our research is supported by industry experts who offer insight on industry structure and technology assessment, competitive landscape, penetration, emerging products and trends. Their analysis is based (80 to 85%) on primary & (15 to 20%) on secondary research as well as years of professional expertise in their respective industries. In addition to analyze current and historical trends, our analysts predict where the market is headed over the next five to ten years. It varies by segment for these categories geographically presented in the list of market tables. Top-down and bottom-up are important strategies of processing the information and knowledge ordering, used in a variety of fields including humanistic, software and scientific theories and management and organization. In practice, they can be seen as a style of thinking, teaching, or leadershipSource: Market Research Future AnalysisSpeaking about this particular report we have conducted primary surveys (interviews) with the key level executives (VP, CEOs, Marketing Director, Business Development Manager and many more) of the major players active in the market.Source: Market Research Future AnalysisScope of the Report:This market research report covers the global cyclic olefin polymers analysis market by product / methods, application and region.US, China, Japan and Global Cyclic Olefin Polymer Market By Volume By ValueUS, China, Japan and Global Cyclic Olefin Polymer Market, by Applications Packaging Healthcare OpticsUS, China, Japan and Global Cyclic Olefin Polymer Market, by Product Type Monomers PolymersUS, China, Japan and Global Cyclic Olefin Polymer Market, by Region North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Alloys for Automotive Market to Undertake Strapping Growth 7% of CAGR Globally by 2022

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An alloy is a mixture of two or more chemical elements, one of which is a metal and is used in a wide variety of applications. In some cases, to reduce the cost of the material while in other cases, to provide strength, reduce overall weight and resistance to corrosion over pure metals. Automotive applications of alloys are growing due to increasing demand for more fuel efficient vehicles to reduce fuel consumption and air pollution. The growing demand for fuel efficient vehicles with reduced weight and improved performance is the major driving factor of alloys for automotive market. Strict government regulations for environmental safety are also driving the alloys for automotive market. Global Alloys for Automotive market is expected to register a CAGR of about 7%.Make an Enquiry @Key Players ArcelorMittal SA (Luxembourg), Aditya Birla Group (India), Alcoa Inc. (U.S.), UACJ Corporation (Japan), ThyssenKrupp AG (Germany), Kobe Steel, Ltd. (Japan), Norsk Hydro ASA (Norway), AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group NV (Netherlands), Constellium (Netherlands), AGCO Corporation (U.S) and others.Study Objectives of Alloys for Automotive Market To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Alloys for Automotive Market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To Analyze the Global Alloys for Automotive Market based on various factors such as supply chain analysis, and Porters five force analysis. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to regions and their respective key countries. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective. To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by Type, by Application, by Vehicles and sub segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market. To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global alloys for automotive market.Regional Analysis of Alloys for Automotive MarketAsia Pacific is dominating the global Alloys for Automotive market and followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific is expected to be leading the market by the end of the forecasted period due to increasing annual vehicle production and demand of vehicles in this region. Developing countries such as China, Japan and India are the key markets for alloys in the Asia Pacific region.Access Report Details @Geographic Analysis Geographical analysis across 21 countriesCompany Information Profiling of key market players SWOT analysis, and strategy information of top five profile players in the report Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Global Alloys for Automotive Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Alloys for Automotive Market Research Report  Global Forecast to 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Crash Barrier Systems market is driven by the growing construction and automotive industry

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Synopsis of the Global Crash Barrier Systems MarketMarket ScenarioThe global crash barrier systems market is driven by the growing construction and automotive industry. There is an increased awareness about road safety for both drivers and pedestrians which have led to the growth of crash barrier market globally. An expanding roadways network, especially highways further fuels the market for crash barrier systems. Furthermore the increasing per capita income of people has led to the increased number of personal and public transportation as well as number of roads, which further leads to the increased demand for crash barrier systems.Request a Sample Report @SegmentsGlobal crash barrier systems market is segmented on the basis of Type, Technology, Device, Application and Region. On the basis of Type it is segmented as Movable barriers and Immovable barriers. On the basis of Technology it is segmented as Rigid (such as pre-cast and concrete barriers), Semi-rigid (such as box beam barriers) and Flexible (such as chain and cable barriers). On the basis of Device it is segmented as Water & Sand Filled Plastic Barrels, Crash Cushions, Gating & Non Gating end treatment, GEAT (Guardrails Energy Absorbent Terminals), and others. On the basis of Application it is segmented as Median barriers, Roadside barriers, Work-zone barriers, Bridge barriers, and others (such as pedestrian footpaths and hilly terrain barriers).Browse Report Details @Key PlayersThe key players of Global Crash Barrier Systems Market report include- Nucor Corporation, Bekaert SA, Delta Scientific Corporation, Avon Barrier Corporation Ltd, Transpo Industries Inc., FutureNet Group, Gibraltar, Arbus Ltd, Tata Steel Limited, Trinity Industries Inc., Automatic Systems SA, Lindsay Corporation, FutureNet Group Inc., Hill & Smith Holdings PLC, Barrier1 Systems Inc. Valmont Industries Inc., A-Safe Ltd.Regional Analysis of Global Crash Barrier Systems MarketAPAC dominates the global crash barrier systems market with its fast growing market worldwide. The region is expected to show rapid economic and infrastructural growth. There is been a lot of investment in the regions of China and India, especially in roadways and bridges and highways are the focus area. The inflow of foreign investment in India further augments the market for crash barrier systems.Request Table of Contents for this Report @Americas (North America & Latin America) US Canada BrazilEurope Germany France Italy Netherlands UK Rest of EuropeAPAC China India Japan Rest of Asia-PacificRoW Middle East AfricaAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Sterile Medical Packaging Market SWOT Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecasts To 2024

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This Transparency Market Research report examines the Sterile Medical Packaging Market for the period 20162024. The core objective of the report is to offer in-depth view of the key factors impacting the global sterile medical packaging market, along with analyzing the future scope and opportunities in this market.Sterile medical is modern definition of pharmaceutical packaging. Sterile medical packaging drives from demand of pharmaceutical & biologics product, medical supplies, and medical equipment.The report has been divided into four parts, for better understanding and assessment of the global market scenario; the above mentioned divisions are: market analysis by product type, material type, application and regions.This 84 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Sterile Medical Packaging market Browse through 11 data tables and 35 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market.The report starts with an overview of sterile medical packaging and its usage in various applications across the globe. In the same section, TMR covers the sterile medical packaging market performance in terms of value. This section includes, TMRs analyses of key trends, drivers and restraints from supply and demand perspective.The next section of the report analysis the market based on product type and presents the forecast in terms of value for the next eight years.Product covered in the report include:Pouches & bagsGusset bagsHeader bagsLiner tear bagsSemi-ultra clean bagsSpout pouchesThermoform TraysVials & ampoulesClamshells & lidsIV ContainersOthersThe next section of the report analysis the market based on material type and presents the forecast in terms of value for the next eight years.Material covered in the report include:Plastic FilmsFoilsPapersGlassNon-wovenFoam SheetsOthersThe next section of the report analyses the market based on application segments and presents the forecast in terms value for the next eight years.Application segment covered in the report include:Medical suppliesGlovesScissorsSyringes and needlesSurgical tapesOthersMedical equipmentSurgicalTherapeuticDiagnosticPharmaceutical & biologicsThe next section of the report analyses the market based on regions and presents the forecast in terms of value and volume for the next eight years.Regions covered in the report include:North AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East & AfricaThe forecast presented here assesses the total value of sterile medical packaging. The starting point is sizing the current market, which lays the foundation for the forecast of how the market is anticipated to take shape in the near future. Given the characteristics of market, in-depth analysis based on supply side, demand side and sterile medical consumption rate, is taken into account. However, quantifying the market across above-mentioned segments and regions is more a matter of quantifying expectations and identifying opportunities rather than rationalizing them after the forecast has been completed.In addition, we have taken into consideration year on year growth to understand the predictability of the market and to identify the right opportunities across the sterile medical packaging market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Sterile Medical Packaging market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.As previously highlighted, the market for sterile medical packaging is split into various sub categories based on region, products, material and application segments. All segment and sub segment further presented in table form. These sub segments or categories have been analyzed in terms of market share (BPS) to understand individual segments relative contribution to growth. This detailed level of information is important for identification of many key trends in the global sterile medical packaging market.Also, another key feature of this report is the analysis of sterile medical packaging market by its revenue forecast in terms of absolute dollar. This is traditionally overlooked while forecasting the market. However, absolute dollar opportunity is critical in assessing the level of opportunity that a provider can look to achieve, as well as to identify potential resources from a sales perspective in the global sterile medical packaging market.Furthermore, Transparency Market Research has developed market attractiveness index for all three segmentsproduct type, material type, application and regional segments. This index helps in identifying the real opportunities that lies in the market.In the final section of the report, sterile medical packaging market landscape is included to provide a dashboard view, based on different categories of market players, along with their product portfolio and key differentiators.Key market participants covered in the report include:Amcor LimitedPlaconDupontSteripackWipak Group3M medical PackagingNelipak healthcare PackagingOracle packagingSonoco Plastics EuropeBillerkornas ABAmpac GroupRequest for Discount of this report - @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Pigments Market by Key Regions, Production, Consumption, Revenue, Share and Growth 2015-2023

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Pigments are compounds that impart colors by transmitting or reflecting absorbed light of selected wavelengths. Besides coloration properties, pigments help to improve several functional features such as hiding power, opacity, transparency, light fastness, and durability. Pigments are widely employed in various end-users industries such as paints & coatings, printing inks, plastics, construction materials, personal care, and paper. Synthetic pigments are broadly classified into three major product segments: inorganic, organic, and specialty pigments. Inorganic pigments dominated the pigments market in the recent past. In terms of volume. Asia Pacific accounted for the largest share of the pigments market in 2014, followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific is expected to be the largest consumer of pigments during the forecast period.The report estimates and forecasts the pigments market on the global, regional, and country level. The study provides forecast between 2015 and 2023 based on volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn). The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the product segments, which provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the pigments market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The report analyzes opportunities in the pigments market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources.This 349 page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Pigments market Browse through 45 data tables and 29 figures to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the pigments market. The report comprises a qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-users and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness. Growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report includes price trend analysis for inorganic, organic, and specialty pigments between 2014 and 2023.The study provides a comprehensive view of the pigments market by dividing it into product segments such as inorganic, organic, and specialty pigments. These product segments are further bifurcated into various sub-segments. In terms of end-users, the pigments market has been segmented into paints & coatings, printing inks, plastics, construction materials, and others. Product segments and end-user segments have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends, and the market has been estimated between 2015 and 2023 in terms of volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn).Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for pigments in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Additionally, the report comprises country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for application segments. Key countries such as the U.S., Germany, Italy, the U.K., France, Spain, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual applications in all the regions and countries.The report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include The Chemours Company, Huntsman Corporation, BASF SE, Lanxess AG, Clariant AG, Altana AG, and DIC Corporation. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview.Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.In-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Pigments market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The pigments market has been divided into the following segments.Pigments Market  Product Segment AnalysisInorganic PigmentsTitanium DioxideIron OxideCadmium PigmentsCarbon BlackChromium CompoundsOthers (Including bismuth vanadium, etc.Organic PigmentsAzoPhthalocyanineQuinacridoneOthers (Including quinophthalone, etc.)Specialty PigmentsClassic OrganicMetallicHigh Performance OrganicLight InterferenceComplex InorganicFluorescentLuminescent/phosphorescentThermochromicPigments Market  End-user AnalysisPaints & CoatingsPrinting InksPlasticsConstruction MaterialsOthers (Including personal care, paper, etc.)Request for Discount of this report - @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) Market Research Report: Technological breakthroughs, Value chain and stakeholder analysis by 2023

Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) Market

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Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is a surgical procedure to remove excess part of the prostate gland which obstructs normal urine flow. The prostate gland is a vital part of the male reproductive system which secretes fluid that nourishes and protects sperms. This obstructive condition of prostate is also referred as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Initial signs and symptoms of BPH are often vague, variable, and nonspecific, making its diagnosis challenging. During TURP procedure, prostate gland is investigated through the cystoscope (surgical instrument) and a small surgical tool is inserted through the cystoscope to remove the enlarged prostate. Sometimes, the fluid that is used to flush bladder during transurethral resection enters into bloodstream and causes severe problems such as hypothermia, bradychardia and hypoxia. This condition is known as TUR syndrome and is temporary in nature.For more than 60 year, TURP has been the gold standard for treating lower urinary tract obstructions caused by benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and benign prostatic obstruction (BPO). Current technological advancements such as continuous-flow instruments, bipolar TURP and video-TURP have substantially decreased the mortality and morbidity due to urino-genital infections. Globally increasing elderly population has been identified as one of the major factors contributing to the growing demand for transurethral resection procedures. As per the U.S National Library of Medicine, 60% of men over the age of sixty years and 80% of men over the age of 80 years have been diagnosed as BPH patients. Visual, hands-on access to the prostate, immediate removal of excess tissue and ability to combine with other procedures are some of the advantages of TURP over other available treatment options for lower urinary tract infections. Some major minimally invasive treatment options for BPH include lasers, microwave, radio waves, photoselective laser vaporization of the prostate (PVP) and ultrasound. These treatment options are expected to serve the market for TURP as growth restraints during the forecast period from 2014 to 2019. Moreover, medications, another possible treatment option such as alpha 1-blockers, antibiotics, finasteride and dutasteride to decrease the size of the prostate are also restraining the current TURP market.View Report-Resectoscopes, catheters and resectoscopes electrodes (monopolar electrodes bipolar electrodes, grooved roller turp electrodes and straight cutting loop turp electrodes) are some major devices that are widely used during TURP procedures.Based on geography, the TURP market has been analyzed as North America, Asia-Pacific,Europe, and the Rest of the World (RoW). North America and Europe held the largest shares in terms of market revenue of the global TURP market in 2013. The primary reasons for North America and Europe holding the leading positions in the global TURP market are high prevalence of lower urinary tract diseases such as BPH and BPO, and well established healthcare infrastructure in both the regions. According to the American Urological Association, 15 million men in the United States are symptomatic to BPH and in the approximately 150,000 people have TURPs performed each year. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness highest growth rate during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. A number of factors such as increasing prevalence of urinary tract infections, aging population, increasing focus on research and development would be fuelling the growth of TURP market in Asia-Pacific in coming years. According to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, 23 million individuals aged 80 years or over were living in China in 2013. The Department of Economic and Social Affairs further states that nearly 10 million and 9 million individuals aged 80 years or over were living in India and Japan, respectively in 2013.Some of the major players in TURP market include Olympus Corporation, Richard Wolf, Degania Silicone Ltd, Limbs & Things Ltd and KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.This report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsRequest a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) Market during 2015- 2023About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Neurofibromatosis Treatment Market Research Report: Technological breakthroughs, Value chain and stakeholder analysis by 2023

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Neurofibromatosis is a genetic condition that disrupts the cell growth in your nervous system, causing formation of tumors on nerve tissue. These formed tumors may develop anywhere in the nervous system of the victim, which may include the brain, spinal cord and nerves. Neurofibromatosis is usually diagnosed in childhood or early adulthood. The tumors are noncancerous (benign) in most of the cases, but in some cases these tumors become cancerous (malignant) tumors. People suffering with neurofibromatosis often experience only mild symptom and effects may range from hearing loss, learning impairment, and heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) complications to severe disability due to nerve compression by tumors, loss of vision and severe pain. There is no specific treatment for neurofibromatosis, but treatment aims to maximize healthy growth and development and to manage complications as soon as they arise.When neurofibromatosis causes large tumors or tumors that press on a nerve, surgery may help ease symptoms. Other therapies such as stereotactic radiosurgery, medications to control pain or physical therapy are proved to be beneficial for the affected people. There are three types of neurofibromatosis, known as neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), the most common one, and neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). One more type of neurofibromatosis which has been identified recently is known as Schwannomatosis, is a rare type and little is known about it. The factors that would drive the neurofibromatosis treatment market includes the drugs which are in the clinical trials and are anticipated to be a break through treatment for neurofibromatosis cases.The neurofibromatosis treatment market can be segmented into drug therapy, surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Surgery is the most preferred option for the removal of the tumors. Other treatments like radiation therapy and chemotherapy are also recommended in the neurofibromatosis treatments market. In case of NF2 tumors, MRI can felicitate the early treatment of the tumors by revealing the size of the tumors. Surgery to remove tumors completely is one option but may result in hearing loss. Surgery also can correct cataracts and retinal abnormalities.View Report-There is no currently accepted medical treatment or drug for schwanomatosis, but surgical management is often effective. Pain usually subsides when tumors are removed completely. There are currently no drugs in the market for neurofibromatosis treatment, however ever certain drugs in the phase III of the clinical trials include Lamotrigine (Erasmus Medical Center), and Tamsulosin HCL (GL Pharm Tech Corporation). The drugs in the phase II of the clinical trials include Cabozantinib (University of Alabama at Birmingham), RAD001 (Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Paris), Gleevec (Indiana University), Everolimus (Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation) and others.Geographically, Neurofibromatosis is an orphan disease, and the prevalence rate of neurofibromatosis is low. According to oxford journals the prevalence rate defers from region to region. The prevalence in the U.S. is 1 in 3,000, in Eastern Europe is 1 in 15,000, in Oceania is 1 in 10,000 and in Western Europe and Middle East is 1 in 10,000.The organization and institutes participating in the neurofibromatosis treatment market include Erasmus Medical Center, GL Pharm Tech Corporation, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Paris, Indiana University, Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation and others. The institutes and organization are involved in discovering of novel drug therapy for the treatment of Neurofibromatosis.This research report analyzes this market on the basis of its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends.This report provides comprehensive analysis ofMarket growth driversFactors limiting market growthCurrent market trendsMarket structureMarket projections for upcoming yearsThis report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porters five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Neurofibromatosis Treatment Market during 2015- 2023About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Equine Veterinary Services Market Research Report: Emergence of advanced technologies and global industry analysis 2023

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Equine Veterinary Services Market: OverviewGlobal equine veterinary market is observed to be a multi-billion dollar industry that consists of various equine activities such as horse racing, competitive riding and leisure. Thus, various veterinary services that supplement the growth of this market are vaccination, gynecological care, dental care, gastroscopy, lameness, respiratory care, colic assessment and treatment.The vaccination regime of horses is integral part of equine health against various clinical conditions like equine influenza, tetanus, strangles, ringworm, EHV (Equine Herpes Virus), EVA (Equine Viral Arteries) and West Nile Virus (WNV). Dental care services include the routine dental examinations and rasping service for horses, some of the complex problems are also diagnosed with an X-ray.The gynecological care comprises routine sampling of CEM (Contagious Equine Metritis) and EVA testing , fertility check accompanied with hysteroscopies, artificial insemination, pregnancy diagnosis, pregnancy follow-up, assistance during foal birth and umbilical scanning, bloodsampling for IgG estimation in newborn foal health management. Gastroscopy consists of use of 3 meter videoscope for diagnosis of gastric ulcers. Lameness is one of the most common cause that affects limbs of horses and is diagnosed with digital X-rays, ultrasound and thermal scans. Respiratory care includes services related with tracheal washing and broncho-alveolar-lavage.Equine Veterinary Services Market: Region-wise OutlookThe veterinary services provided in market by major breeding farms and equine veterinary hospitals. This is a very specialized sector and is limited to equine species healthcare management hence, overall its considered to be a premium sector because of the specific requirements. The major market shift is estimated to be observed in coming five years where due to economic downturn in Europe has forced the market to export the horses to slaughterhouses or to Asian countries as there is significant potential for horse racing and showcase in China. This is perceived to affect the North American and European global market share in equine veterinary market as the Asia-Pacific market is observed to be growing in case of horse population.As a constituent of Asia-Pacific, Australian equine market was observed to rank among the top three regional equestrian and equine veterinary services markets. After the European downturn and legal hindrances in North American market Australia turned out to be among the leading horse producing / breeding countries in the world. On the same basis, China was perceive to expand its investing and capacity in horse racing and betting by importing quality breeds from countries especially from European region.Thus, China intends to maintain particularly race-horse breeds; as race-horses require additional care and supervision thus equine veterinary services market is expected to grow significantly. According to a equine industry source, China is mounting the capacity and investing in horse racing and betting by importing quality breeds from North American and European countries. The equestrian racing infrastructure development comprises of horse race-tracks developed with an investment of approximately USD 2.0 billion with about 3,000 horses. Investment also comprises the cost of s developing trainers and riders in particular equine training schools.View Report-Equine Veterinary Services Market: Key Segments and PlayersThe major products observed in the industry are in-house diagnostics, reference laboratories, digital imaging and others. The in-house diagnostics segment is expected to account for the largest share in the global equine veterinary services market. Some of the key players having presence in the global equine veterinary services market are IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Medical Management International, National Veterinary Associates and VCA Antech, Inc.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, North Africa)Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Equine Veterinary Services Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Chronic Heart Failure Therapeutics Pipeline Analysis, 2017 - Clinical Trials & Results, Collaboration, and Other Developments

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Chronic heart failure therapeutic pipeline will increase in near future due to increasing cases of the disease. The prevalence of chronic heart failure is increasing globally due to the factors including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, less physical activity and tobacco consumption. These factors are contributing in driving the pipeline analysis for chronic heart failure. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 5.7 million adults in the U.S. have heart failure and about half of people die within five years of diagnosis. Asthma is equally prevalent in women than in men.Explore Report at:Chronic heart failure is a condition, in which heart muscles gets damaged and cannot pump blood properly. This condition slows down the rate of blood flow and increases the pressure, resulting in insufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to the body. The damage can be a result of heart attack or long-term health issues like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Heart failure can be caused by several conditions including heart attack, coronary artery disease, thyroid, kidney disease and cardiomyopathy. Some of the symptoms of chronic heart failure include lung congestion, dizziness, fluid and water retention, fatigue, irregular heartbeats and weakness. Chronic heart failure is categorized into two types, systolic dysfunction and diastolic dysfunction. Heart failure is diagnosed by analysing patients medical history and examining the symptoms. Also, alcohol consumption, smoking and drugs intake are considered while diagnosing the disease. Certain tests are also conducted for confirmation which includes blood tests, chest X-ray, B-type natriuretic peptide blood test, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, cardiac catheterization and the ejection fraction test. Chronic heart failure can be treated with strict medications and healthy lifestyle with regular monitoring. The treatment initially aims to decrease the symptoms and improve the quality of life of the patient.Request for Table of Content at:Some of the companies having a pipeline of chronic heart failure therapeutics include Amgen, Inc., Bayer AG, Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Daiichi Sankyo Company Ltd., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Merck & Co. Inc., Novartis AG, Sulfagenix Australia Pty Ltd., Janssen Research & Development, LLC, AstraZeneca plc, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, MorphoSys AG.Browse Other Related Report at:About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:KundanManager  Client Partner347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Retail Clinics Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Retail clinics are a convenient way for patients to visit a walk-in health care clinic. These clinics are located inside retail stores such as supermarkets and department stores. They are sometimes referred to as convenient care clinics. These clinics offer benefits similar to that offered by traditional clinics. They are usually staffed by nurses and physician assistants. Retail clinics provide medical services such as treatment for flu, cold, dehydration, fever, cough, diagnostic services, vaccination, laboratory tests, physiotherapy, and treatment for injuries.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Retail Clinics Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Major players operating in the retail clinics market include Kroger, Rite Aid, Doctors Care, Clear Balance, CVS Healths MinuteClinic, NEXtCARE, RediClinic, Target Brands, Inc., The Little Clinic, U.S. HealthWorks, Inc., Urgent Care MSO, LLC, and Walgreen Co. Growth of retail clinics and the companies are related to initiatives aimed at patients satisfaction. With growing experience, companies are expanding their services and experiment with new methods such as telemedicine integration, point-of-care technologies, and offering new services. For example, Minute Clinic (CVS) launched a digital tool in May 2016 which helped patients to estimate the wait time at several locations.The first retail clinic was opened in 2001 in Minnesota. Retail clinics are experiencing a commendable growth due to patient preference for convenient care options, cost effectiveness, easy accessibility, and multiple services offered. Furthermore, factors contributing to the growth of this market are increase in shortage of primary care physician, growth in health care expenditures, and rise in incidence rate of communicable diseases. Also, several retail clinics are providing treatment and management for chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol disorders. This factor is likely to propel the market growth during the forecast period. However, retail clinics are a secondary choice for many patients, which limits customer volume in these clinics. Low patient population visiting retail clinics and regulations in some countries are impacting the growth of the retail clinics market.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:The retail clinics market can be segmented on the basis of location, types of suppliers, and geography. Based on location, retail clinics are further segmented into stores, malls, and other retail locations. Geographically, this market is further divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East Asia and Africa. North America accounted for a significant growth rate due to factors such as large population base turning toward convenience care, adoption of electronic medical and chart records, and introduction of digital tools. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 18 million adults suffered from asthma in 2012, which was one of the factors that had driven the growth of the retail clinics market. South East Asia, Middle East, and Latin America are projected to be the potential markets in the near future due to higher adoption rate of retail clinics, rise of disposable income, increase in disease burden, shortage of physicians, and ease of usage. Star Dental Care, a U.S. based institute, is aiming to open up retail dental clinics in India by 2017, which is estimated to enhance the growth of the market in this country.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Medical Manifolds Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Major players operating in the global market for medical manifolds include Praxair, Inc., BeaconMedaes LLC, Merit Medical Systems, Inc., Smiths Group plc, Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA, Pattons Medical, Genstar Technologies, and Gascon Systems Pty Ltd.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Medical Manifolds Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Manifolds are pipeline systems with several openings. Manifolds are specially fabricated structures wherein two or more cylinders are connected to a single pipeline to increase the availability of gas at the source. Medical manifolds offer the function of reducing the pressure from cylinders with high pressure to the required pressure, which is feasible to use in the hospital pipeline. In hospitals, medical gases are largely used to provide long-term support to patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Medical air is used in hospitals in large quantities and hence, it is feasible to produce it on site, rather than storing it in gas cylinders. Medical gas supply in a hospital needs to fulfill the stringent requirements of the installation standards and safety of all patients in the hospital. The need for medical manifolds primarily arises from strict rules and requirements for the medical gas supply systems. For instance, in July 2012, the U.S. Congress passed a bill putting into effect the Food & Drug Safety & Innovation Act. This act provides selected gases as approved medications for common medical gas mixtures; provides manufacturers with the protection of their intellectual property rights for new products; and establishes a certification process for medical gas production. These factors serve as a driver for the market.Based on the region, the global fermented ingredients market has been segmented into: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounts for a significant share of the global market for medical manifolds, owing to presence of industry-friendly organizations such as CGA and GAWDA. These associations consist of industry experts working in reputed organizations. The members of these associations work continuously to make value additions to the market by understanding the market trends and implementing the policies that eventually work out in favour of the market. Europe is considered to be the second largest market for medical manifolds, due to enhanced health care processes and growing health concerns in the region. Moreover, rising geriatric population with the need for hospitalization augments the market in the region. Major factors that would drive the market in Asia Pacific include rapid development of health care infrastructure and presence of large population in the region. High prevalence of pulmonary diseases and emergency medical conditions provides countries such as India and China with multiple untapped opportunities. Latin American countries such as Mexico and Brazil are expected to have considerable growth potential for the medical manifolds market due to evolving health care infrastructure, and increasing medical expenditure.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:Increasing awareness regarding the medical gas safety amongst manufacturers and consumers is a major factor that drives the global medical manifolds market. Growth of the health care infrastructure has led to rise in the number of hospitals, which acts as a driver for the global medical manifolds market. In addition, the establishment of industry-friendly associations such as Medical Gas Association (MGA), Compressed Gas Association (CGA), and Gases & Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) is fueling the market. Constant efforts made by the members of CGA and GAWDA have rendered the actualization of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. These associations help in chalking out strategies that would ultimately help the market thrive and flourish. Therefore, establishment of such associations acts as a driver for the market.The global medical manifolds market has been segmented by product type and geography. In terms of product, the medical manifolds market has been categorized into simplex manifold systems, cradle pack manifolds, dual manifold systems, semi-automatic manifold systems, automatic manifold systems, digital automatic manifold systems, and others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Anesthesia Endotracheal Tubes Market: Global Industry Analysis 2024

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Anesthesia endotracheal tube is a tube implanted in trachea to administer anesthesia, maintain the airway passage of lungs, prevent aspiration into the lungs, and allow mechanical ventilation. It also establishes the aspiration of secretions and anticipation of the pathway of extraneous material into the tracheobronchial tree. The endotracheal tube is of two types: orotracheal tube and nasotracheal tube. The orotracheal tube is rooted through the mouth, while the nasotracheal tube is rooted through the nose into the trachea. Both are used for anesthesia management.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Anesthesia Endotracheal Tubes Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Some players operating in the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market are Medline Industries, Medtronic, C. R. Bard, ConvaTec, GE Healthcare, Smiths Medical, KindWell Medical, ROYAX, Fuji Systems, Teleflex, Neurovision Medical, and Intersurgical.With the advancement of health care facilities and modern technologies, surgery of vital organs such as lungs has become easy. Anesthesia endotracheal tubes make it easy for the surgeons to sedate the patient and perform the surgical procedure. Also, these tubes are accepted and used by the patients of all age groups with breathing or lung problems. This is a major factor driving the market for anesthesia endotracheal tubes. Growing industrialization leading to rise in air pollution and habits such as smoking are responsible for increasing incidence of respiratory diseases. This can be considered as a factor propelling the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. Rising incidence of other respiratory diseases, lung diseases, and breathing disorders also drives the market.. Introduction of advanced technology in the medical field, which enables easy performing of critical surgeries and usage of high-quality consumables in the field are the recent trends in the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. However, availability of an increased number of alternative disposable devices and upcoming better options may act as a barrier for the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. The anesthesia endotracheal tubes market has been segregated into organized and unorganized as well as global and regional players. The unorganized local market in developing countries may give a tough competition to the global players by maintaining high quality standards at reasonable pricing. The dealers in the developed market are targeting back with product innovations.Browse Global Strategic Business Report:Based on the product type, the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market can be segmented into: orotracheal tubes and nasotracheal tubes. Orotracheal tubes are implanted in the patients trachea through the mouth. Nasotracheal tubes are implanted in the trachea through the nose. These tubes are employed in the cases wherein the patients mouth needs to be operated.Based on the end-user, the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market can be segmented into: hospitals & clinics and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs).High demand for home-based therapy and modernization in video laryngoscopes also drive the global anesthesia endotracheal tubes market. However, complications in the anesthesia delivery system, availability of a small number of skilled medical practitioners to perform critical surgeries with perfection, and growing preference to laryngeal masks over anesthesia endotracheal tubes are likely be major factors restraining the growth of the market during the forecast period.Based on the geographical region, the anesthesia endotracheal tubes market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is a major market for anesthesia endotracheal tubes, due to respiratory disorder-prone lifestyle of people in the region and a large number of elderly population. Asia Pacific is an expanding market due to increase in the incidence of respiratory diseases in the region.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Reciprocating Compressors Market: Fraudulent Imitation of Compressors Restrains Market Growth

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The China reciprocating compressors has been witnessing a burgeoning demand over the past few years despite intensifying competition from the screw and centrifugal compressors. The cost-efficiency of reciprocating compressors and the increasing need to replace the old ones has created a positive outlook for the reciprocating compressors market in China in the past few years. The industrial sector is expected to steer the demand for reciprocating compressors in the near future as the country primarily depends on manufacturing activities to maintain its overall economy. Furthermore, a pressing need to optimize the high consumption of crude oil in an efficient manner is also anticipated to drive the demand for reciprocating compressors in the coming years. The application reciprocating compressors in the automotive industry and growing activities in refineries, CNG and LNG transportation and storage are also expected to propel the demand for these products.According to a research report published by Transparency Market Research, the China reciprocating compressors market is expected to be worth US$1,178.9 mn by 2022 rising from US$771.1 mn in 2014. During the forecasting horizon between 2015 and 2022, the global market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.3%. The increasing foreign direct investment (FDI), booming automotive sector, and growing industrialization are all expected to propel the China reciprocating compressors market in the near future.Obtain Report Details @Strategic Pricing Wins Industrial Process Gas Reciprocating Compressors Bigger Share in the MarketThe China reciprocating compressors market, on the basis of type, has been segmented into industrial process gas reciprocating compressors, labyrinth piston compressors, liquefied natural gas (LNG), reciprocating compressors, oil-free reciprocating compressors, and hyper compressors. Of these, the industrial process gas reciprocating compressors segment is anticipated to lead the overall market over the forecast period. This segment is expected to reach US$351.3 mn by 2022.The industrial process gas reciprocating compressors segment is expected to benefit from competitive pricing, enhanced efficiency, marketing to specific segments with integrated solutions, and providing value-added and after sales services. The burgeoning demand for oxygen from the growing steel and iron industry in China is also expected to bolster the demand for these compressors in the forthcoming years.Meanwhile, the oil-free reciprocating compressors segment is also likely to revolutionize the China reciprocating compressors market with a steady CAGR of 8.6% between 2015 and 2022. The sectors anticipated to drive the growth of the oil-free compressors segment are pharmaceutical, electronics, textiles, and food and beverage. The demand for oil-free reciprocating compressors is also being fuelled by the rising pressure on the country to address environmental concerns and achieve the mandated level of energy efficiency.This 68-page report gives readers a comprehensive overview of the Reciprocating Compressors Market. Browse to unlock the hidden opportunities in this market@Refineries Demand New Reciprocating Compressors with Upgraded FeaturesThe application of reciprocating compressors is seen in the refinery, upstream oil and gas, industrial gases production, LNG and CNG transport and storage, industrial gases, and ethylene and LDPE plants. The refinery segment is expected to expand at a CAGR of 7.0% between 2015 and 2022. As old refineries are being phased out by the government and new ones are being constructed, they are expected to drive the demand for reciprocating compressors in the coming years.Some of the key players operating in the China reciprocating compressors market are Zigong Tongda Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Wuxi Compressor Co., Ltd., Shenyang Blower Works Group Corporation, and Shenyang Yuanda Compressor Co., Ltd. The report suggests that manufacturers should collaborate with multinational players investing in the China reciprocating compressors market to acquire substantial funding in the near future. Furthermore, upgrading after sales services and competitive pricing products will also work in the favor of local players.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Hygienic and Aseptic Valves Market: Key Trends and Forecast Research Report 2025

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Global Hygienic Aseptic Valves Market: SnapshotThe increasing focus of fitness conscious consumers on changing lifestyles to live healthy has created a significant demand for hygienic and aseptic valves. These valves are predominantly being used for eliminating preservatives that are used on making several food items and beverages. The growing awareness about the negative impact preservatives is expected encourage the uptake of these valves in the food and beverages industry. According to the research report, the global hygienic and aseptic valve market was worth US$6.0 bn in 2015 and is expected to reach US$9.0 bn by the end of 2025. During the forecast period of 2016 and 2025, the market is expected to witness an expansion at a CAGR of 4.8%.Obtain Report Details @Emphasis on Eliminating Preservatives Leads to High Adoption of Hygienic and Aseptic ValvesThe global hygienic and aseptic valves markets growth will also be supported by the increasing emphasis on sanitary regulations established by the food and beverage industry. The growing awareness amongst manufacturers to ensure food safety practices is also projected to boost the demand for these valves. The rising compliance of small-and medium-sized businesses towards these food safety regulations has also augmented the demand for hygienic and aseptic valves. Efforts to automate and modernize manufacturing plants to meet the ever-increasing needs of consumers has bolstered the uptake of hygienic and aseptic valves across the world.On the basis of application, the global hygienic and aseptic valve market is segmented into dairy processing, food processing, beverage, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. Out of these applications, the beverage application segment held a lions share in the global market in 2015. In terms of revenue, the market held a share of 32%. Analysts anticipate that the pharmaceuticals application segment is poised to witness a remarkable growth rate in the coming years as several nations grapple to satisfy the medical needs of patients. Owing to this reason, the pharmaceutical application segment will show a sustained demand for hygienic and aseptic valves for the purpose of sanitation that is required in drug manufacturing processes.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Hygienic Aseptic Valves Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market@Asia Pacific Paces Ahead of Other Regions as Manufacturing Sector Shows Unstoppable ProgressIn terms of geography, the global market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and South America. Analysts project that Asia Pacific will be the dominant user of hygienic and aseptic valves throughout the forecast period. In 2015, the region held a whopping share of 40% in the overall market, which was followed by Europe and the U.S., which held 26% and 22% of the global market revenue respectively. The demand for hygienic and aseptic valve in Asia Pacific will be driven by the booming manufacturing activities that are focused on achieving operational excellence and energy efficiency.Some of the leading players operating in the global hygienic and aseptic valves market are ITT Corporation, SPX Flow, Inc., Cipriani Harrison Valves Corporation, Pentair Plc, GEA Group AG, Alfa Laval AB, Evoguard GmbH, M&S Armaturen GmbH, Zhejiang Yuanan Liquid Equipment Co., Ltd., Nocado GmbH, Kieselmann Fluid Process Group, INOXPA S.A., Definox SAS, Burkert Fluid Control Systems, Bardiani Valvole SpA, Gebr. Rieger GmbH & Co. KG, GEMU Gebr. Muller Apparatebau GmbH & Co. KG, and Armaturenwerk Hotensleben GmbH. The competitive landscape of the global hygienic and aseptic valve market is fragmented due the presence of several players in the market. These players are expected to focus on strengthening their presence in emerging economies as a means to ensure sustainable returns in the near future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Inline AOI Systems Market : Trends, outlook and Opportunity Analysis 2026

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Automated optical inspection (AOI) is a process of visual inspection which is operated automatically to detect different manufacturing defect such as catastrophic failure and quality defect. This technology is adopting by different types of manufacturer such as printed circuit board manufacturing, liquid - crystal display (LCD) manufacturing, transistor manufacturing, others. Moreover, AOI systems has been segmented in two types such as desktop AOI and Inline AOI systems. Inline AOI systems is a valuable parts of manufacturing workstation process. This technology is based upon software and hardware component. Inline AOI systems is able to capture different types of images and video from different angle. This systems works uses two basic algorithm group to detect component and soldering defect. Inline automated optical inspection system is integrated in assembly line to identify the errors and emerging process trends of product manufacturing. The growth of inline AOI system market is boosted by increasing complexity of PCBs, high demand for high-quality electronic components, and cumulative demand for consumer electronics. Increasing demand of this product market is anticipated to witness a robust growth during the forecast period from 2016- 2024.Moreover, growing demand across the globe, inline automated optical inspection system technique are using fast and accurate inspection of printed circuit board and electronic assemblies without manufacturing faults. On the basis of application market is fragmented into consumer electronics, telecommunication and automotive among others. Increasing the usage of electronics product in different application such as aerospace, defense, healthcare, others for high quality electronic component application is significantly contributed to growth of inline automated optical system market during the forecast period.Fill the form to Gain Deeper Insights on this Market @Moreover, telecommunication and automotive industry is using this technology in their product line to manufacturer different types of component which is predictable to dominate the market during the forecast period. Furthermore, in automotive application different types of adoption and innovation of new technologies in smart product technology is using to detect difficult problem in product manufacturing which is boosting the growth of this product market. In addition, increasing demand for high-quality products is promising manufacturers to implement Inline AOI Systems in manufacturing product line is also predicted to drive the market growth of this product market at an exponential rate in the coming years. The development in medical electronics presents huge progression prospective and adoption of new technological advancement in medical equipment is using this technology which is an opportunity to growing this product market during the next eight years. Moreover, infrastructure development is increasing in a global inclination of fully automatic aircraft manufacturing is uses different types of small and large electronic circuit board which is inspected by this technology to detect manufacturing defect. This factor is a prospects to growing this product market in coming years. In anticipated the growth of inline AOI systems market segment modification in designs parameters and production process is a restrains for growing the market demand of inline automated optical inspection system market.Geographically, the light sensors market is segregated into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America. In addition, in terms of revenue North America holds the largest market share in the inline automated optical system market as of 2015. Asia Pacific is forecast to witness the most promising market in the coming years, owing to increasing number of automotive and electronics manufacturers. Asia Pacific is expected to become the most promising region with second highest market share followed by other regions. Within Asia Pacific ever-changing consumer needs in smart electronic product segment market is the significant factor influencing the market growth for this product market.Obtain Report Details @The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Edward Albee's Tony Award-winning 1962 play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was an instant classic when it premiered. "No one had seen anything like it," said director James MacDonald, who directed a London production featuring Imelda Staunton this spring. The 1966 movie adaptation of Albee's sneering, sodden script about the collapse of a marriage starred the Hollywood couple of the era, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

So when Portland actor Damien Geter saw a casting call for Michael Streeter's planned Portland production, he considered it a rare opportunity, especially because Streeter had specified a black actor for the role of Nick. Streeter told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he went by the cast description from Samuel French, a leading publisher and licensor of theatrical works, which states, "Non-Traditional casting."

But when Streeter submitted Geter's headshot to the Edward Albee Estate, he said, he was told he would get the rights to the show only if he cast a white actor.

"It is important to note that Mr. Albee wrote Nick as a Caucasian character," a spokesman for the estate, Sam Rudy, wrote to Streeter, according to The New York Times. In Albee's script, other characters refer to Nick as "blond" and "Blondie."

Streeter's "short little rant" on his Facebook page about the incident ignited a debate over race and casting. We asked Streeter, Geter and several Portland directors for their thoughts on the incident; here are some responses.

Michael Streeter

Michael Streeter

"I've never been part of anything like this and it is quite surreal. ... I've gotten letters from Australia, Serbia, the U.K. and all over the country. ... I've gotten a tremendous amount of support. ...

"(There are) definitely solid arguments on the side of the estate. ... The drawbacks are outweighed by the dusting off of this 55-year-old play. It's not a museum piece, it doesn't have to remain a museum piece.

"Unfortunately, there are people hearing of it and thinking that Edward Albee is a racist and that the estate is racist. The intent may not necessarily be there, the results may be - that's a distinction that a lot of people don't make.

"Damien and I are going to be doing Portland Opera this summer, (David Lang's) 'The Difficulty of Crossing a Field.' I am playing a slave owner and he is playing a slave. ... And that's appropriate for that play. ... But Damien should not be limited to those roles. As a white actor, I have nearly the entire canon available to me to perform. If we go with the restrictive 'only black actors can play black roles,' then you have a huge swath of great works that are shut off to people like Damien."

Damien Geter

Damien Geter

"I don't know of any other chances where I could play this role. I like the play. It would be a good challenge for me. ... So I went ahead and auditioned. ...

"Michael sent me an email saying that he had submitted the headshot to secure the rights and they denied him because of the casting of a black man. (I was) shocked. I couldn't believe it, I'd never heard of such a thing. ...

"I don't know if I can even say the words of Edward Albee at this point and do it any justice. ...

"I think that you have the people of (the Edward Albee Estate) trying to protect the 'integrity' of his work ... I'm assuming that all these people knew him, and based on his previous interactions with other producers, other production companies, they went and made the assumption that casting an African American in that role would be against his wishes. ...

"The thing for me is, they kept making reference to the physical attributes of Nick. But they didn't tell me I couldn't play the role because I'm bald ... so to me, that makes a difference."

Josh Hecht, artistic director, Profile Theatre

Josh Hecht, Profile Theatre

"At Profile Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are core values -- so much so that we're devoting three full seasons exclusively to writers of color and women writers. For us, this kind of inclusivity goes beyond just casting to include directors, designers, technicians and community members. Our Community Council -- a group of stakeholders whom we invite into every aspect of the production process to share their thoughts with us and with the community -- is comprised of 70% people of color. As a theater dedicated to exploring a single living playwright's vision, we seek to create productions that interpret the writer's voice with maximum clarity, authenticity and integrity. We actively seek out writers whose plays present a true diversity of lives on the stage, and where possible we seek to amplify this diversity with conscious casting choices. We believe that in so doing, we can both more accurately reflect the complexity of the world around us and dream into being the world we want."

Samson Syharath, Portland actor, director, teacher, and theatre producer

Samson Syharath

"While I could see why the Albee estate might pull the rights to produce the play, it is very unfortunate that this production won't happen. The original conception of the play calls for a white actor, but the color-conscious choice of casting (Damien) Geter as Nick would have taken the play in a new and interesting direction that is probably more relevant to the present political climate. The Portland theatre community is already lacking in representation of people of color. To keep Geter from receiving this job, let alone firing him, is immoral. I don't believe casting Geter as Nick would drastically change the play but add more layers and complexities to the story, and that is what a good director tries to accomplish."

Brian Allard, artistic director, Original Practice Shakespeare Festival

Brian Allard

"Every performance we have is cast individually, with actors changing roles constantly. We draw from a company of 50+ actors each season to cast each of the currently 15 shows in our (repertory) one at a time.

"We believe that Shakespeare's works benefit from exploration by a wide variety of people from all walks of life. We approach casting from a conscious standpoint as regards color, gender, sexual orientation, and age. This year alone we will be presenting performances with an African-American Brutus and a Female Cassius in Julius Caesar, an Asian-American Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and a Much Adoe About Nothing with two men as Benedicke and (Beatrice).

"(C)asting is done with the race/color of the actor in mind. We believe that the story changes with the characteristics of the actor, and that Shakespeare's plays are large enough to encompass exploration and portrayal from many points of view. If a play is universal, as Shakespeare's tend to be, the story is not only unharmed by looking at it from different perspectives, but almost always enhanced."

Bobby Bermea, Portland director and actor

Bobby Bermea

"Unlike a painting or sculpture, a play is a living thing. It's different, literally, every single time it's performed, even within a given production. If you want your work to be truly timeless, it has to have the space to change and grow and evolve with the times. ... If your play can only exist in a specific time and place, it's going to lose relevance eventually. On one hand, it's Albee's estate and I have no doubt that they did what Albee would have wanted. On the other hand, this play is now a step backward in the human condition rather than a step forward. ...

"I don't know that I feel that the Albee estate was particularly racist. Albee's world was really quite small and only revolved around him. It's more like, Michael Streeter was trying to do a piece that reflects the world we live in and Albee's estate is committed to only recreating the tiny world in Albee's head. Honestly, the play itself is in the most danger. Of becoming obsolete. ...

"And the actor. ... It's the kind of thing white artists never have to deal with. That as much as anything, is indicative of what it is to be an actor of color in this country."
SolarWorld plans to lay off most, and possibly all, of its Hillsboro staff in July, according to a letter the company sent to state employment officials.

At least 500 regular employees and as many as 711 would be affected, according to a May 19 letter released by state officials Thursday night: "This employment action is expected to be permanent."

The letter also says the plant could close, painting a considerably more dire picture than the one SolarWorld has presented in the two weeks since its German parent declared itself insolvent.

As recently as Wednesday, SolarWorld had said it was operating as usual and "intends to continue operating into the future," albeit with an unspecified number of job cuts.

SolarWorld sent its May 19 letter in compliance with the 1998 federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), which requires employers to give employees and local communities advance notice of large job cutbacks.

It's not clear why state officials hadn't disclosed the letter earlier. Previously, they'd said they were expecting a letter from the company but didn't know when.

Like other U.S. solar manufacturers, SolarWorld had been under growing pressure from Chinese competitors the company says are dumping products on the American market. Earlier Thursday, SolarWorld joined a trade case that it hopes could trigger tariffs or other sanctions on Chinese imports.

SolarWorld opened its 103-acre Washington County campus in 2008, after spending $440 million to convert an idle computer chip factory for solar production. State and local tax breaks worth $80 million helped underwrite the project.

From the start, though, SolarWorld has battled Chinese competition in the U.S. and abroad. The U.S. imposed tariffs on Chinese solar panels in 2012 and 2014, but they proved insufficient.

On May 10, the company's German parent, SolarWorld AG, announced it could no longer cover its debts and would file for insolvency  which is roughly analogous to corporate bankruptcy in the United States.

The pending layoffs may be the largest since last year, when Intel eliminated 784 jobs in Washington County in a massive restructuring. Hundreds or thousands of additional Intel employees in Oregon  Intel won't say just how many  took buyouts to leave the company as it retooled to prepare for long-term decline in the PC market.

Nonetheless, Oregon's job market is the best it's been in decades. The state's unemployment rate stands at 3.7 percent, the lowest since at least 1976.

And economists say Oregon is approaching "full employment"  a metric that suggests employers are having increasing trouble filling open positions, but not that every single person who wants a job can find one.

Oregon once sought to become a leader in solar manufacturing, pumping tens of millions of dollars in subsidized loans and tax credits at a time into large companies like Sanyo and SolarWorld, as well as smaller outfits with little track record, such as the thin film solar manufacturer SoloPower and polysilicon manufacturer Peak Sun Solar.

The strategy has largely flopped. Oregon has 4,509 jobs in the solar industry, according to the most recent census from the Solar Foundation. But only 1,200 of those jobs are in manufacturing, and SolarWorld accounts for two-thirds of them.

The solar installation and development business, by contrast, remains fairly strong, and is largely responsible for the 1,500 jobs the industry added in 2016.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; 503-294-7699
A man presumed drowned in the frigid, fast-moving Clackamas River at High Rocks Park this week was born in a Kenya refugee camp and moved to the U.S. as a child, his cousin said Thursday.

Said Osman, 19, and his friends were planning to take Snapchats of each other jumping into the river on Tuesday evening, said cousin Sheyma Omar of Portland. When Osman jumped in, he surfaced and called for help at least twice before he was swept away, Omar said.

She was told two people tried to rescue him but were unsuccessful. Divers and other rescuers from area agencies also couldn't find him that night, said Sgt. Brian Jensen, a county sheriff's office spokesman.

Authorities used snorkels and water scooters to search the river Wednesday, Jensen said. They also combed the riverbanks, but didn't send divers back in because river conditions were too dangerous, he said.

Omar said she thinks rescuers could have done more thus far to recover Osman's body. Jensen said the dive team is waiting for water levels to drop, probably in the next day or two, before trying again.

"It's important for us to give this family closure," he said.

Osman, a Portland resident, was the first swimmer in the metro area presumed drowned this year as the weather warms. Officials urge swimmers to be aware of water temperatures and hazards, wear lifejackets and refrain from drinking alcohol. They should also keep an eye on children near the water, abide by posted rules, swim with others and be aware of their swimming skill, officials say.

Osman worked at a Subway sandwich shop on Southwest Barbur Boulevard and planned to enroll at Portland Community College in the fall, his cousin said. His family is from Somalia, resettled in the U.S. in 2006 and moved to Portland in 2011, she said.

Omar said Osman helped take care of his disabled mother and liked to dance and sing. He has an older sister and younger brother, she said.

High Rocks is a notoriously dangerous swimming hole. Jensen said the river is abnormally cold and high for this time of year, and he advised people to stay out of the water.

American Medical Response will post river rescue technicians at the park, as it has during the summer since 2002, beginning Saturday, said company spokeswoman Lucie Drum.

Drum said people swimming at High Rocks need to be aware of the risk of extremely cold water and high water levels and currents. Swimmers should also be aware of hazards such as branches under the water, she said.

AMR strongly recommends everyone in and around the water wear a lifejacket, she said. Technicians have free loaner lifejackets at High Rocks and Troutdale's Glenn Otto Community Park, which AMR technicians will also staff beginning Saturday.

"Even the strongest swimmers would have trouble keeping afloat and fighting against the cold water that's out there right now," Drum said.

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

503-221-8005; @Jimryan015

Molly Harbarger of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report
Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Portland's 27 best wood-fired pizzas by Samantha Bakall

Do you like wood-fired pizza? Just kidding. I already know you like wood-fired pizza. Thats because over the past 10 years, several dozen pizzerias sporting dried stacks of wood by the front door have opened in nearly every neighborhood in the city and deep into the suburbs. And these arent just forgettable spots. Save for a few notable exceptions (Apizza Scholls, first and foremost), the overwhelming majority of Portlands most celebrated pizzerias opt for this primal fuel over ovens warmed by gas or electricity.

For the last two and a half weeks, Ive eaten little besides wood-fired pizza, hoping to uncover the secret to its popularity or, failing that, at least determine the citys best. My search took me from Happy Valley to Hillsboro, from Oregon City to Beaverton, with a roadmap laid out by more than two-dozen reader recommendations. Of course Kens Artisan Pizza was on our list. The pizzeria, from baker and James Beard Award-winning writer Ken Forkish, likely set off Portlands wood-fired pizza craze when it opened in 2006. But the category has continued to expand and diversify from there, with farm-obsessed restaurants, happy-hour hotspots, pizzerias aiming for Neapolitan authenticity and corporate-owned chains all dedicating themselves to chewy, charred crusts.

A couple of quick notes on our methodology: We werent picky about style, though many of the pies we ate would be considered Neapolitan, or perhaps Neo-Neapolitan. To keep things consistent, we ordered margheritas -- the archetypal pizza style topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil  or its closest alternative at every spot we visited (the only deviation was at Lovelys Fifty Fifty, where we broke down and ordered a pie topped with feta, Calabrian chilies and fava beans, which ended up being a better reflection of their farm-to-table spirit). And to be included on this list, pizzas had to be cooked from start-to-finish in a wood-fired oven. That meant leaving off the rectangular slices at Roman Candle, the Southeast Portland cafe and bakery which cooks its Roman-style pizza in a commercial oven then finishes it front-and-center in a wood-fired oven. They would have likely cracked the top 10 otherwise.

(And while you're here, don't miss our guide to the 10 best pizzerias in Portland, period.)

And now, here are the Portland areas 27 best wood-fired pizzas, ranked:

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

27. The Rock Wood Fired Kitchen

A rock n' roll-themed wood-fired chain restaurant, The Rock Wood Fired Kitchen cobbled together a fairly bland margherita pizza ($12.95) for us. It was decent for upscale chain pizza, but it wasnt great.

2295 N.W. Allie Ave., Hillsboro, 503-747-5804; 22401 N.E. Glisan St.,

Wood Village, 503-328-8498; therockwfk.com

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

26. Mi Famiglia

We wanted to love this popular, longtime downtown Oregon City restaurant, but its well-charred and cracker-like pizza ($12) was more of a mozzarella flatbread with no sauce and toppings than a pizza.

701 Main St., Oregon City, 503-594-0601, mi-famiglia.com

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

25. BRIX Tavern

This perennially packed Pearl District restaurant is probably better known for its screaming happy hour deals than its menu of wood-fired pizzas and American standards. Theirs ($14.95) seemed fresh from a box, with no char, save for a few spots on the bottom of the floury, cracker-like crust.

1338 N.W. Hoyt St., 503-943-5995, brixtavern.com

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive

24. Lucca

There's no way this neighborhood pizzeria has their imported-from-Lucca oven cranked to 900 degrees as our server told us. The borderline under-baked dough ($12) had minimal char and was floury and flavorless. We enjoyed the healthy amount of basil on top though.

3449 N.E. 24th Ave., 503-287-7372, luccapdx.com

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

23. Stickmen Brewing

This recently opened Tualatin beer hall from Lake Oswego's Stickmen Brewing serves a very thin-crusted, unevenly cooked pizza ($9) with not enough sauce. We liked the lengthy tap list.

19475 S.W. 118th Ave., Suite 1, Tualatin, 503-486-7197, stickmenbeer.com

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

22. Crust

We stumbled upon Crust, a food cart at Happy Valley Station, while waiting for a Puffle Waffle. Their dry margherita ($8) had a nice garlic bite, but really needed more sauce and cheese.

13551 S.E. 145th Ave., Happy Valley, 503-482-5865

Don't Edit

Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive

21. Associated

The former home to hip-hop pizza joint P.R.E.A.M., Associated, from the team behind Jackknife, Bye and Bye and Century, has kept the pizzas slinging, and added a heavy dose of vegan offerings to the menu. Those pizzas ($13) were better under the P.R.E.A.M. team, now arriving super thin and bland, though chewy and charred.

2131 S.E. 11th Ave., 503-231-2809, associatedpdx.com

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

20. Big O's Wood Fired Pizza

A no-frills pizza shop whose centerpiece is a mosaiced wood-fired oven, Big Os served a pretty good cheese pizza ($8) with sliced tomato. The sauce had a nice oregano punch, but if I hadnt seen the oven in person, I wouldnt have known this was wood-fired.

12305 S.W. Broadway St., Beaverton; 503-596-2196; bigospizza.com

Don't Edit

Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/OregonLive

19. Heart Pizza

Check pizza off Micah Camden's quickly dwindling comfort food to-do list. In February, the prolific restaurateur (Little Big Burger, Blue Star Donuts) opened the first location of Heart Pizza, a wood-fired, takeout-focused pizzeria, in downtown Portland. The classic margherita ($12), slathered with tomato sauce and a drizzle of good olive oil, was the best of the three pies we tried on our visit, though skimpy on the fresh mozzarella.

417 S.W. 13th St., 503-764-9239; 672 S.W. Gaines Street, 503-954-1706; heartpizza.com

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18. Ash Woodfired Pizza

A gun-metal-gray food truck with a yellow-tiled oven somehow built inside, Ash serves wood-fired pizzas and farmers market vegetables outside Southeast Portland's Base Camp Brewing. Their margherita ($8) arrived well-charred, but under-seasoned with a cracker-thin crust and in need of sauce.

930 S.E. Oak St., 503-816-4639, ashwoodfired.com

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17. Fire & Stone

Fire & Stone is an 80-seat, wood-fired restaurant serving a small cafe menu, dinner and brunch in the Alameda/Beaumont/Wilshire neighborhood trifecta. Their dry, almost uncharred pie ($13) had a well-fermented crust but needed more of the rich sauce.

3707 N.E. Fremont Ave., 503-719-7195, fireandstonepdx.com

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16. Happy Hollow

Its not fair to judge a book by its cover. At this strip mall, Happy Valley restaurant with Keno and tablets to keep you occupied until dinner arrives, we found a surprisingly good pizza. Hand-tossed, with a well-fermented dough, this margherita ($12) had a well-balanced sauce, generous cheese and a drizzle of olive oil to boot.

16085 S.E. Happy Valley Town Center Dr., Happy Valley, 503-427-2961, happyhollowpizza.com

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15. Cibo

A neighborhood favorite, Cibos margherita ($13) had a pliable, but still floury crust and a sauce that couldve used a touch more sugar. Though well-seasoned overall, and served with scissors for DIY slicing, this pizza tasted off-balance.

3539 S.E. Division St., 503-719-5377, cibopdx.com

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14. Paper Bag Pizza

Meander through the crowds at Southeast Portland's Tidbit food cart pod at the right time and you'll catch Tom Daly, former executive chef at Pastaworks who co-owns the cart with wife Emily Goodman, shaving a blizzard of cheese over a blistered pie before sliding the whole thing into a paper bag. Though sadly an under-baked pie ($9), Paper Bags margherita had nicely browned cheese and healthy char.

2880 S.E. Division St., 971-300-7833, paperbagpizza.com

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13. Oven & Shaker

The perennially busy spin-off of Cathy Whims' beloved Nostrana, Oven & Shaker combines a creative cocktail bar from Aviation Gin co-founder Ryan Magarian with wood-fired classics. Their big-leafed pie ($13) had a chewy, charred crust, sweet tomato sauce and creamy, almost ricotta-like cheese that quickly lost its pull.

1134 N.W. Everett St., 503-241-1600, ovenandshaker.com

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12. Nonavo

This sleek, white-walled pizzeria almost feels out of place in downtown Vancouver. But as this brand new spot approaches its first birthday, it'll be a place to keep an eye on while some kinks are evened out. The margherita ($10) had a super chewy, almost fluffy crust with a lightly spicy tomato sauce but arrived gummy in some parts, maybe needing just a few more seconds in the beautifully tiled oven.

110 W. Sixth St., nonavopizza.com

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11. Life of Pie

Serving a $5 margherita pizza for 64 percent of your day is automatically going to bump you towards the upper reaches of a ranked list. Combined with the fact this Williams Avenue restaurant makes a very good version, with a chewy-crunchy, softly fermented crust, well-sweetened sauce and creamy cheese, makes it all the better.

3632 N. Williams Ave., 503-719-7321, lifeofpiepizza.com

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10. La Sorrentina

Pizzas have come a long way under La Sorrentina owner Daisuke Matsumoto. Matsumoto's dream of cooking authentic Italian food for a living has taken him and wife Amy through Japan, Yakima, and Sorrento before culminating in a Kickstarter campaign that helped launch the royal blue, Hazel Dell cart. This margherita ($8.50) had a good crust, good char, a healthy dose of cheese and a sweet tomato sauce.

1015 N.E. 78th St., 360-980-1651, lasorrentinavw.com

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9. Pyro Pizza

One of Portland's best wood-fired pizza carts, Pyro Pizza has been serving chewy, charred pizzas since 2009. This pie ($8) had a great, oregano-spiked sauce, but the well-fermented dough was a touch under-baked. Inconsistencies aside, we liked this pie and would come back for another (and another of the housemade sodas).

1207 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., 503-929-1404, pyropizzacart.com

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8. Renata

We've always found the one thing that needed work at our 2015 Restaurant of the Year was the pizza. But Renata's margherita ($15, $7 at happy hour at the bar) sports a well-charred crust with creamy, browned cheese and crispy basil. We would've traded some crunch for chew, but this pie was well-balanced.

626 S.E. Main St., 503-954-2708, renatapdx.com

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7. Nostrana

There's a reason this gracious Southeast Portland restaurant has a wall filled with accolades, including a half-dozen James Beard Award nominations and The Oregonian's 2006 Restaurant of the Year honors. Chef Cathy Whims margherita ($12) boasts a super chewy crust and house-pulled mozzarella balanced by a lightly acidic tomato sauce. We wouldve liked a longer fermentation in the dough, but overall it had a good rise and good char.

1401 S.E. Morrison St., 503-234-2427, nostrana.com

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6. Tastebud

You might not know that Tastebud, the popular farmers market mobile pizza stand, re-opened in Multnomah Village as one of Southwest Portlands best restaurants last year. Pies here are larger than any other pizza we ate, clocking in at 18 of chewy, non-Neapolitan-style dough topped with a generous sprinkle of mozzarella and tons of veggie-centric toppings. While we tried the classic here (just cheese and tomato sauce), the true stunners are the seasonal pies whose toppings change as the year goes on.

7783 S.W. Capitol Hwy, 503-234-0330, tastebudpdx.com

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5. Firehouse

Built inside an old Woodlawn firehouse, Firehouse serves up Italian snacks, beautifully charred Neapolitan pizzas, solid cocktails and the occasional pasta in a brick-and-wood space with a gorgeous patio. Firehouse's margherita ($14) was well-charred and had a pliable yet tender, long-fermented crust. Before serving, each pie is doused with a shower of Parmesan for extra salt and a healthy drizzle of olive oil.

711 N.E. Dekum St., 503-954-1702, firehousepdx.com

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4. Handsome Pizza

One of The Oregonian/OregonLive's 101 Best Restaurants of 2016, Handsome Pizza, on Northeast Killingsworth's ever-growing restaurant strip, has been pulling beautifully blistered margherita pies ($12/$23) from their wood-fired oven for nearly two years. Stylistically, theirs falls somewhere between New York City and Naples, and arrive wonderfully charred with stringy, browned cheese on chunky, lightly acidic tomato sauce under a chiffonade of fresh basil. The crust, made from flour milled in-house, has an excellent sourness and chew.

1603 N.E. Killingsworth St., 503-247-7499, handsomepizza.com

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3. Lovely's Fifty-Fifty

Welcome to Cheat Day. After 23 pizzas, I needed a break and ordered a non-margherita pizza from this North Portland pizzeria better known for its farm-to-pie approach to pies. Here, hyper-seasonal meets some of the citys best wood-fired pizzas, with many only gracing the menu for a matter of weeks. The chewy, sourdough-like crust was topped with crushed tomatoes, lemon, Calabrian chilies, fava beans and wonderfully salty goat feta, a perfect snapshot of a week at the market in mid-May.

4039 N. Mississippi Ave., 503-281-4060, lovelysfiftyfifty.wordpress.com

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2. Pizzeria Otto

The Roseway neighborhood hit the jackpot with Pizzeria Otto, a narrow restaurant where pizzas fly out of the red-and-black-tiled oven in less time than it takes to pick a drink off the affordable beer and wine list. This almost cloud-like pizza ($15) arrived beautifully charred, the sauce sweet and the mozzarella di bufala (worth the $3 upcharge) pulled into harp strings with each salty bite.

6708 N.E. Sandy Blvd, 971-373-8348, pizzeriaotto.com

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1. Ken's Artisan Pizza

Kens Artisan Pizza has been one of Portland's best pizzerias since it opened more than a decade ago. This stunner ($13) had a great chew and crunch, its crust unyielding in the center and smelling like a great loaf of sourdough. Paired with creamy, lightly singed cheese, a sweet tomato sauce and big leafs of basil, this is Portlands best wood-fired pizza.

304 S.E. 28th Ave., 503-517-9951, kensartisan.com

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What did we miss?

Still didn't see your favorite spot on our list? Share your top picks for wood-fired pizza on Twitter, by email or in the comments below.

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Read more

Don't miss our guide to the 10 best pizzerias in Portland, period.
As Oregon school districts head into a tough budget year, Portland Public Schools' negotiations with its teachers union over their next contract have taken a sharp turn for the worse.

The Portland Association of Teachers filed an unfair labor practices complaint Thursday against the district with the Oregon Employment Relations Board, alleging Portland Public Schools isn't bargaining in good faith.

One step that it objects to: District management proposes cutting teaching jobs, potentially laying off teachers, and does not plan to shave two teaching days off the school year, union officials say. Under the current teacher contract, teachers agreed to be paid to teach two extra days a year as long as the district maintains all teaching positions. If the district proposes to cut teachers, it must first spend the money it would otherwise use to fund the two extra days of class to maintain every possible teaching job, the contract says.

For decades, the union's deal with the district has called for teachers to work 184 days per year, with about 174 teaching days and about 10 more for planning and parent-teacher conferences. Beginning in 2014-15, the district paid teachers 1.1 percent more a year to stretch the year to 176 teaching days.

The teachers union says the district is obligated to cut those extra days before eliminating teacher jobs.

District spokesman Dave Northfield disputed the union's position. "It's disappointing we are at this point with the union making false accusations," he said. "The district wants to negotiate a contract that is fair to the dedicated teachers in (Portland Public Schools) and provides our students" with a 176-day school year, like they have now, Northfield said. He said a school year of that length "enables us to continue the progress in student achievement and graduation rates. We remain hopeful that we can work together to reach an agreement."

The teachers union also argues that management's planned cuts to high school staffing are improper and that teachers are wrongly being asked to make up snow days without compensation.

"Portland educators are fed up with the ongoing dysfunction in Portland Public Schools," Portland Teachers Association President Suzanne Cohen said in a statement. "The district's lack of leadership has created a culture of disorder. This situation has harmed the very students and educators (Portland Public Schools) exists to serve.

"The Portland community cares deeply about its public schools," she continued. "Our students deserve better than the constant stream of scandals and crises at PPS. Educators desperately want to work with the district to find a solution."

The fight comes against the backdrop of a tough budget year for Oregon schools.

Interim Superintendent Bob McKean's proposed budget would axe 70 teaching positions. That budget assumes Portland Public Schools will have $23 million less than what it would cost to run as it currently does, due primarily to a shortfall in state revenue.

-- Bethany Barnes

@betsbarnes

Got a news tip about Portland Public Schools?

Email Bethany at bbarnes@oregonian.com
A state higher education board reversed course Thursday, approving big tuition hikes at Portland State University and the University of Oregon that it had rejected earlier in the month.

Members of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission said they were convinced the schools would have to make critical cuts without the tuition levels they had proposed.

Absent an increase in state funding, the move means tuition will climb 8.4 percent at PSU and 11.5 percent at UO.

The decision came after about an hour of testimony from university administrators, who defended the need for higher tuition, and students. Many in the latter group described their difficulties in making ends meet.

Commissioner Carmen Rubio, who voted against the increases when the board last met, said she had spent the intervening weeks talking with students and administrators at both schools. She said the services on the chopping block were too vital to risk.

"I still don't like the idea" of the higher costs, Rubio said. "But I have a better picture of the critical services that are at stake here."

Commissioner Ramon Ramirez, who previously voted no but supported for the increases on Thursday, said the board had sent a message with its earlier denial.

"I think this is strong message" that we need it improve the way we engage with the student community, he said.

He also said that administrators need to work with students to persuade the Oregon Legislature to better fund higher education.

In their second time before the board, the two universities sought to address concerns raised earlier, including the idea they hadn't adequately involved students in discussions around the tuition increases.

In a letter to the commission, outgoing PSU President Wim Wiewel said the school had staged a campus-wide town hall about tuition, and that its board of trustees held a special meeting to talk to students in small groups about affordability and other topics.

"In total, I feel that there were meaningful opportunities for engagement by a broad and diverse group of students in this process," Wiewel wrote. "Of course, this process could always be better, and we look forward to discussions with next year's student leaders regarding ways that the process can be improved next year."

In a letter to the commission, UO Board of Trustees Chairman Charles Lillis and President Michael Schill, said the rejection had "thrown UO's budget into tremendous uncertainty that must be resolved in as swift a manner as possible."

"The magnitude of this responsibility and its implications on students and families is not lost on our members," they wrote. "We do not make decisions lightly, and would not have approved this proposal if it were not necessary."

Both schools agreed to reduce their tuition increases if the legislature came through with more higher education funding.

The commission's May 10 rejection of the schools' proposed tuition increases was the first time it had weighed in on the annual tuition increases since it was established in 2011, though it previously approved other cost increases that affected a small subset of students.

Public university leaders have asked for $767.3 million in public support for the upcoming biennium, which is $100 million more than Gov. Kate Brown recommended in the budget plan released Dec. 1. Lawmakers also are grappling with a $1.4 billion budget shortfall.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus
Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, the Caswell family pieced together land as it went up for sale in a declining southern Oregon timber town. Without a grand plan and over three decades, they came to own tiny Tiller, a remote, unknown and mostly unoccupied pinpoint on the map. Then they put it all up for sale and offers, and worldwide attention, poured in.

When news spread that this unincorporated town, aligned with the South Umpqua River, hidden in the hillside and devoid of cellphone towers, was for sale, it touched a universal nerve. To many, it seemed idyllic. Imagine, owning an entire town that could be remade to your liking.

Potential new owners could acquire most of Tiller by plunking down $3.5 million. For that, they would get the Caswell family's 28 different tax lots, plus a general store, whose owner agreed to sell it as part of a package. Then the school district decided to unload the shuttered elementary building and its 6.58 acres, for an additional $350,000.

The community church, which attracts about 50 people during Sunday services, isn't for sale. Neither is the new parsonage, part of the church property, or the volunteer-staffed fire station. Another holdout is the retired school teacher's house.

But everything else within the 97484 zip code, is for sale, including riverfront property, shops, six houses, timber, a future subdivision and the land underneath the post office, which was established here in 1902.

Buying the Caswells' 250 contiguous acres is easy, compared to the way in which the family acquired it, parcel by parcel, over time. Today, the tax lots are zoned for rural commercial, industrial, residential, agricultural, farm forest or timber resource use. But the zones weren't always that way.

Where did it all begin?

In an hours-long interview, Richard ("Rick") Caswell, Jr., 66, the trustee of the family estate who put Tiller up for sale, detailed how the town came together.

Flash back to the 1970s.

Caswell, Jr., a Medford mortgage broker dealing in real estate loans, or "paper," initiated the accidental acquisition.

Nearly 40 years ago, he interested his dad, Richard Caswell, Sr., who also lived in Medford, into buying a land sale contract secured by 93 acres in Tiller, about 50 miles away.

The borrower promptly defaulted on the loan contract and the property reverted to the lender, Rick Caswell's dad.

Rick Caswell felt bad the deal didn't stick and offered to find a new buyer, but his dad liked the area off Oregon Route 227 just past the river-rafting spots around Shady Cove.

Tiller's open land reminded Rick's dad of his youth. Richard Caswell, Sr.'s had a long career appraising, selling and managing commercial ranching properties throughout North and South America. But when he was younger, his interests were focused on what could be raised on open land.

He earned a degree in animal science from University of California Davis, after growing up among the prolific farmland of Salinas, California.

Rick's paternal grandfather was the publisher of the Salinas Californian who was a friend and researcher for author John Steinbeck. Rick's mom's family was from the Lodi-Walnut Grove, California area. So, appreciating the country is part of the Caswell family's heritage.





The Tiller land the Caswells got by default was part of pioneer Aaron J. Tiller's original homestead. There were fruit trees and an apple orchard. "It was park-like," says Rick Caswell, "beautiful."

The deed also included property across the Tiller Trail Highway, at the east entrance of town.

Here, on three shady acres, zoned for commercial use, were two beat-up barracks and a deck that hung over the South Umpqua River. Rick's dad decided this could be the family's vacation homes.

They remodeled the structures in the 1980s and over the years, hosted holidays and gatherings here, with kids, grandkids and great-grandkids spilling out to the sand bar to fish, swim, snorkel or wade in the river.

The family felt protective of the small town tethered to a soon-to-be slumping timber industry. Looking across the river from his deck, Rick's dad saw a forest that was prime to be cut. He bought the 100 plus acres of timber land to save the view.

"There was a log truck coming out of here every few seconds in the early 1980s," says Rick Caswell, pointing to the now underused highway.

Today, the land for sale has what's estimated to be 2 million board feet of merchantable timber.

Rick points to an up-to-date map of Tiller and explains that as land would come up for sale, his dad would buy it. There was a method to the purchases, but no grand plan.

His dad bought a parcel with an old filling station to have better access to a back parcel. Later, he bought acreage that included the old church parsonage. Then more acreage.

One purchase came with an old logging operations shop and an equipment repair shop. He bought the house next door and had it rezoned as rural commercial so it could be used as the shops' office-dwelling.

In all, the Caswells' holdings include six rural, commercial-zoned homes.

Long ago, the Caswells worked with the Douglas County planning department to rezone part of the old Tiller homestead into industrial land. Rick's dad wanted to build an electric cogeneration facility.

Soon after the zoning was approved, the logging business slowed down so much that there wasn't enough timber waste to make the project feasible to build.

When the timber industry collapsed in the early 1990s, mills throughout the Pacific Northwest closed and Tiller's unemployed workers sold their land. The Caswells paid for the lots and cleared away abandoned logging equipment.

Eventually, the family bought the 15-acre property where the post office sits, and had 13 acres rezoned to an approved rural subdivision. The south-facing, two-acre home sites sit on a hillside bench overlooking a meadow and the river valley.

Rick Caswell says the idea was never to acquire the entire town, but to make each piece the Caswells owned more desirable. "Every time my dad added land, I cringed because there would come a day when it would be time to sell," he says.

They acquired the last piece in 2004. Photos of Caswell, Sr. taken at the time show him wearing a white cowboy hat. Behind him is his forest of uncut trees.

In 2014, after 64 years of marriage, Rick Caswell's dad and his mom, Barbara, died within months of each other. Their ashes were laid to rest on the river that flowed by their Tiller home.

At one time, Rick's three sisters had lived in Tiller but they decided they didn't want to own land there any longer. It fell on Rick's shoulders to sell all their holdings.

"The timber industry in this region had died. My parents had died. One of the owners of the store had died and the school closed," he says. "The town was in dire straits."

He thought that if the assorted pieces could be sold together to the right buyer, however, Tiller could be reborn.

Others didn't share his enthusiasm.

Caswell was turned down by two real estate agents before broker Garrett Zoller of Medford-based Land and Wildlife Realty agreed to take the unorthodox listing with all its "unknowns, uncertainty and certain lengthy marketing challenges," says Caswell.

Zoller was also approved to represent the school district in its separate sale. The elementary school was listed for sale in March 2016 and for the first time, 257 contiguous acres and all but two Tiller tax lots were for sale together for $3.85 million.

Once the story about buying an entire Oregon town went viral, Zoller's office was bombarded with calls from media and potential buyers, from the U.K. to China. Regardless of their location, the callers asked about purchasing the American Dream. "They used those words," Zoller says. "They also were interested in 'getting back to the land."

The Oregonian/OregonLive broke the story about the first accepted offer. The still-anonymous buyers are two men living in Ashland, about a 90-minute drive from Tiller, and near the California-Oregon border.

Zoller says the buyers' plan is to help people live sustainably in a place with a long growing season and productive soils.

Still unknown are the names or intentions of the buyers, who are funded by money from California. They were the first to sign a contract on March 12. Soon afterward, two back-up offers at full price came in. Inquiries and requests for tours haven't stopped.

What will become of Tiller? The two men in line to take possession of the town this summer have a grand plan they want to introduce in a town meeting, perhaps in August, says Zoller.

Rick Caswell is optimistic.

"Dad was a dreamer and an idealist," he says. "He had a big vision. I think he'd be proud of how it's going."

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman
Pay-Per-View/Video-On-Demand

"Logan" (R), starring Hugh Jackman in his final screen appearance as X-Men hero Wolverine, shows that superhero movies can tell a human story. This near-future thriller delivers gritty action and ruthless battles, but at heart it's about mortality, aging and what we do for family. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.

"Get Out" (R) from comedian-turned-filmmaker Jordan Peele masters a delicate balance of witty thriller, social satire, modern horror and commentary on race on the "post-racial" era. It's funny, scary and very smart. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.

Also new: U.S.-China historical fantasy "The Great Wall" (PG-13), with Matt Damon in ancient China; spiritual drama "The Shack" with Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer; acclaimed French horror film "Raw" (R, with subtitles); and animated features "My Life as a Zucchini" from France (PG-13, English version available) and "Rock Dog" (PG).

Available same day as select theaters nationwide are psychological drama "Wakefield" (R) with Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner and thriller "Berlin Syndrome" (R) with Teresa Palmer.

Netflix

Brad Pitt is an American career officer charged with winding down the war in Afghanistan in the satirical "War Machine" (not rated), a fictionalized version of a true story reworked as a black comedy of bureaucratic dysfunction and military arrogance. David Michod directs this Netflix original film.

"Southpaw" (2015, R) rolls all of the "Rocky" movies into a single film with Jake Gyllenhaal as a hot-headed boxer, Rachel McAdams as the wife who grounds him, and Forest Whitaker as the philosophical trainer who rebuilds him after a tragic fall.

Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" (2009, R) is a wild, violent pulp fiction World War II fantasy starring Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender and Oscar winner Christoph Waltz.

Streaming TV: "Bloodline: Season 3" brings the Netflix original dark family drama with Kyle Chandler and Linda Cardellini to a close (13 episodes). From Germany comes the Cold War espionage miniseries "The Same Sky" from "Downfall" director Oliver Hirschbiegel.

Lea Seydoux and Vincent Cassel are "Beauty and the Beast" (2014, PG-13, French and English versions) in the lavish French version of the classic fairy tale.

More foreign affairs: From Japan comes the animated "Blame!" (2017), a sci-fi thriller in a future where the virtual world is overwriting the physical world, and the surreal (and gory) high school nightmare "Tag" (2015, not rated, with subtitles) from maverick filmmaker Sion Sono.

True stories: "Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower" profiles the Hong Kong teen who led a student protest against China when it reneged on its promise to give Hong Kong political autonomy in 2014. The Netflix original documentary is also receiving a limited run in theaters (not rated).

Also new: "I Am Jane Doe" (2017, not rated), about the battle against sex trafficking abetted by Backpage.com, and "What's With Wheat?" (2017, not rated), which looks at dangerous changes in wheat production.

Stand-up: "Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King."

Amazon Prime

"Moonlight" (2016, R) is a poetic and provocative portrait of a young black child, the sensitive, bullied son of a single mother addicted to crack in a tough Miami neighborhood, presented through three acts of his life from childhood to adulthood. It earned three Academy Awards including Best Picture (in a now-infamous Oscar moment) and Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali's tender performance as a drug dealer who shows the boy compassion and concern.

Streaming TV: "Boardwalk Empire: Season 5," the final season of the HBO drama about the birth of organized crime in America during Prohibition, is now streaming, which gives Prime members the entire run of the acclaimed series.

Kid stuff: "Dino Dana: Season 1" combines live action and computer-generated imagery for an educational series featuring two young sisters whose imaginations bring paleontology to life. Thirteen episodes.

True stories: "Seasons" (2016, PG), which looks at the life cycle of the forest, is a natural history documentary from the team that made "Winged Migration." "Bonhoeffer" (Germany, 2003, not rated, with subtitles) is about the religious philosopher who fought back against the rise of Nazism in 1930s Germany.

Amazon Prime/Hulu

Tongue-in-cheek comic book movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" (2016, PG-13) stars Megan Fox, Will Arnett and the four heroes.

Hulu

Documentary and memoir intermingle in "Becoming Bond" (2017, not rated), an entertaining profile of George Lazenby, who played James Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (one of the best) and then almost disappeared from sight.

"Casual: Season 3," the acclaimed Hulu original comedy about a divorced mother (Michaela Watkins) and her bachelor brother (Tommy Dewey) fumbling through adulthood, kicks off with new episodes each Wednesday.

Foreign affairs: "I Am Love" (Italy, 2010, R, with subtitles) stars Tilda Swinton as the Russian wife of an Italian industrialist who falls for a young chef with a love of life. Also new: the searing drama "The Hunt" (Denmark, 2012, R, with subtitles) with Mads Mikkelson, and action thriller "District B13" (France, 2006, R, with subtitles) with eye-popping stunt work.

Also new: the documentary "Client 9" (2010, R) on the scandalous fall of New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer and the snowbound crime thriller "Deadfall" (2012, R) with Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde.

HBO Now

Robert De Niro plays Bernie Madoff in "The Wizard of Lies" (not rated), an HBO original feature about the superstar financier whose famed investment fund was a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. With Michelle Pfeiffer and Hank Azaria.

Showtime Anytime

"Twin Peaks" (or "Twin Peaks: The Return," as many are calling it) brings David Lynch back to the small screen with most of his original cast for more Pacific Northwest noir. It is weird and enigmatic and creative and still unlike anything else on TV and Lynch directs every episode himself. The first four episodes of the 18-episode TV event are now available to stream; new episodes arrive each Sunday.

Sundance Now

A pair of animated features debut: "Waltz With Bashir" (2008, R), an autobiographical tale of memory and repression-turned-oral history of the Lebanon war, and the made-for-TV family film "The Point" (1971, not rated), with songs by Harry Nilsson and narration by Ringo Starr.

Acorn TV

"Delicious: Series 1," a British foodie drama about a cheating celebrity chef (Iain Glen) and the two women in his life (Dawn French and Emilia Fox), makes its American debut on the streaming service (four episodes).

New on disc

"Logan" "Get Out," "The Great Wall," "My Life as a Zucchini," "Othello" (1952)

Redbox

"The Great Wall," "Rock Dog," "Black Rose"
Becoming Los Angeles?: In my opinion, Portland is the best place to live in the country. Even with rain eight months out of the year, it's still a majestic paradise. However, this city, nicknamed "Stumptown," is slowly turning into a dump town.

It's a given that any urban area is more populated, and more polluted. But I have begun to notice a dramatic increase in trash everywhere around Portland. There are remnants from makeshift shelters - cut fences to closed-off areas, smashed soda cups, and every container or wrapper you can think of. But the pollution from the streets of Old Town Chinatown are now stretching to the Southwest side of town.

It reminded me of the heavily populated and dreamlike destination of Los Angeles, where palm trees and celebrity spotting was enough to disregard the rubbish filled streets and smog clouds. Is Portland becoming another Los Angeles? Is the growing population and popularity going to cripple current environmental practices set to mitigate pollutants around the city? It might just be the aesthetics of Portland that are threatened today. But it will be the quality of life for its occupants tomorrow.

Clayton Kangiser, Hillsboro

Goodies from government: We live in a very spoiled country where people want goodies from government, but want other people to pay for them. We see it at both the state and federal levels. The State of Oregon has record revenues, however, that is not enough as they want to put in place a gross receipts tax - even though the people just voted against one - so that the government workers won't have to bring their excessive benefits more in line with the private sector. We see it at the federal level where the administration just proposed the largest budget in the history of the United States yet people are demanding more.

There will be a day of reckoning where creditors will demand extreme austerity measures so that they can get some of their money back. Just look at Greece if you want to see the future.

Dan Davison, Beaverton
Oregon didn't need an impeachment process to oust former Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2015. Amid mounting influence-peddling allegations against him and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, Kitzhaber resigned, having lost the support of key allies in the Legislature.

But the Kitzhaber controversy revealed a weakness in Oregon's system of checks and balances. If pressure didn't work, legislators had little hope of forcing him out otherwise. Voters, too, were barred from initiating their own recall procedures due to a state law that blocks such petitions within six months of the start of an elected official's current term. Even as the allegations snowballed, Kitzhaber had just been sworn in to a second consecutive term in office.

Enter HJR 10 in this year's legislative session. The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Jodi Hack, R-Salem, would refer a constitutional amendment to voters that vests legislators with the power to impeach the governor or other statewide elected officials, modeled after Congress' process. It would also bring Oregon in line with the rest of the country - it's the only state in the nation that lacks impeachment as a means for removing the governor for malfeasance or corruption.

Case made, right? The Oregon House thinks so. It overwhelmingly passed the resolution this week, just as it did in 2015 when Hack first introduced a version of the bill as a freshman legislator, The Oregonian/OregonLive's Gordon Friedman reported. The problem now, as it was back in 2015, is opposition by Senate Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, who chairs the rules committee where HJR 10 is likely to go, opposes the bill. Sen. President Peter Courtney, who opposed the effort in 2015, has not changed his thinking this time around either.

Oregonian editorials

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Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches, John Maher and Len Reed.

To respond to this editorial:

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Burdick takes a pragmatic view. She told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board that energy would be better spent addressing problems in the voter recall process - for example, tailoring a fix to the six-month waiting period that blocked voters' recall petitions in the Kitzhaber case - than in giving the Legislature impeachment powers. The state doesn't need the kind of partisan gamesmanship driving the to-impeach-or-not-to-impeach decisions on the Congressional level, she notes. Moreover, if the Legislature were to ever take on impeachment proceedings for a state official, it would leave no time or attention for getting the other critical elements of the state's business done.

While Burdick raises legitimate arguments, there's a bigger one to address. Our government relies on a system of checks and balances in which the three branches of government all have the authority - and the expectation - to hold each other accountable. Adding impeachment to the Legislature's deficient toolbox is entirely consistent with that concept. And it would make clear that the primary onus is on them to take action against a statewide elected official when merited.

Passing this resolution doesn't take away from voters' ability to launch a recall. It doesn't force legislators to seek an official's impeachment in cases of misconduct. But it does provide the power to do so.

While it's heartening that legislators trust voters to wield sole responsibility for ousting a statewide official, it feels less sincere when they would deny voters the opportunity to share that responsibility with them. Courtney should ensure that the resolution gets to a full vote by the Senate in hopes that the public can have its say.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Some people will call it surprising that a reporter was reportedly assaulted Wednesday night by a political candidate. Truth is, it is not surprising in the least.

For those who hadn't heard: Greg Gianforte, a Montana Republican running for Congress, was charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly body-slamming Ben Jacobs, who works for the British newspaper The Guardian, hard enough to break his glasses. This, because Jacobs tried to ask for Gianforte's opinion of the GOP health care bill in the wake of an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that it would leave 23 million Americans without health care.

In a statement, Gianforte's campaign sought to paint the incident as a result of Jacobs' aggressiveness:

"Tonight, as Greg was giving a separate interview in a private office, The Guardian's Ben Jacobs entered the office without permission, aggressively shoved a recorder in Greg's face, and began asking badgering questions. Jacobs was asked to leave. After asking Jacobs to lower the recorder, Jacobs declined. Greg then attempted to grab the phone that was pushed in his face. Jacobs grabbed Greg's wrist, and spun away from Greg, pushing them both to the ground. It's unfortunate that this aggressive behavior from a liberal journalist created this scene ."

Problematically for Gianforte, his version of events is at odds with audio captured by Jacobs' recorder. In it, Gianforte is heard declining to answer Jacobs' question. Jacobs tries again, and Gianforte tells him to "speak with Shane" - meaning his flack. Immediately, there is a loud crash, and Gianforte is heard ranting: "I'm sick and tired of you guys! The last guy who came in here, you did the same thing. Get the hell out of here!"

Gianforte's story is also refuted by eyewitnesses, a crew from - you can't make this stuff up - Fox News, who describe the candidate grabbing Jacobs' neck with both hands, slamming him to the floor, and punching him.

Many adjectives might apply to all this. The incident is appalling, infuriating, disturbing. But no, it is not surprising.

Not after a congressman threatened to throw a reporter from a balcony. Not after the arrest of reporters covering a protest in Baton Rouge and the arrests and intimidation of reporters covering unrest in Ferguson. Not after a West Virginia reporter was jailed for shouting questions.

And especially not after Donald Trump declared journalists "enemies of the people." That was not unlike a home invader declaring the family Doberman an "enemy of the house," but his fans bought it, snarling at reporters and dismissing as "fake news" every fact that intruded upon their fantasies.

"Rope. Journalist. Tree," read a T-shirt spotted at Trump rallies. "Some assembly required."

Perspective is important here. After all, this is not yet Mexico, where journalists are killed with frightening regularity.

Still, Gianforte's alleged assault is the latest addition to a growing body of evidence suggesting right-wing intolerance, not simply for inconvenient facts, but also for impertinent questions. Of course the one is a tool of the journalist's trade, the other a part of her job description. So this should trouble you, whatever your partisan loyalties.

Power that answers no questions has no conscience. Power unconstrained by facts is unconstrained by anything. And a nation where asking questions or reporting facts leads to assault or arrest cannot be America. Down this path, then, lies potential disaster.

Many adjectives will apply to that, too. Once again, surprise will not be one of them.

(c) 2017, The Miami Herald

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for The Miami Herald and can be reached at lpittsmiamiherald.com.
By Stephen L. Carter

Going into Thursday's special election in Montana to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, now the secretary of the interior, a lot of experts are saying that the misdemeanor assault charges filed Wednesday against the Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, might not make much difference. If Gianforte somehow holds on to win, blame the absentee ballot.

Seriously.

Gianforte is accused of physically accosting a reporter at his campaign office and wrestling him to the ground. Witnesses back up the allegations, which Gianforte denies. Even granting the presumption of innocence, we can surely agree that the charges alone would ordinarily hurt a candidate at the ballot box. But this time the damage may be small.

Montana is one of 28 states that allow voters to obtain absentee ballots without providing an excuse. Half the state's voters choose this option, and nearly three-quarters of those have already filed. If a Gianforte supporter is now having second thoughts, they come too late. But the inability of voters to process late-breaking news is only one of many reasons that the absentee ballot is in some tension with the norms of democracy.

Before the cascade of eased voting rules over the past three decades, the right to vote was almost always exercised in person. The franchise possessed a communal aspect. Voting was something we did together. Here's political scientist Rick Valelly writing in the New Republic in 1999: "On Election Day, we must leave our homes and offices, travel to a polling place, and physically mingle with people who are plainly our equals that day, no matter what other differences we have."

The expanded use of the absentee ballot has the opposite effect. It emphasizes our separateness. We need not mingle with those who are unlike us. The absentee balloter makes a calculation -- "I cannot imagine anything will come up that will change my mind" -- and does so, I suspect, with full understanding of the risk of error. What the absentee probably does not calculate, however, is the loss of community, the decline of the sense that we are all in this together. It is far easier to despise those who support the candidate on the other side when we never meet them face to face.

One of the virtues of the town meeting form of government that was common in New England in the early years of the republic was that the voters faced each other and heard each other out before casting their ballots. Admittedly we are well past the point when partisans want to hear out the other side. But the physical mingling that Valelly describes would still not be a bad thing.

Here some history is useful. When absentee ballots first became available they were an aberration. Although they did not come into widespread use until the Civil War, various states experimented with them in the first half of the 19th century. Some laws applying only to soldiers were adopted during the War of 1812. Often a registrar, as a matter of discretion, might allow a voter to bring in a ballot on behalf of a relative too ill to make it to the polls.

The laws began appearing rapidly on the books in 1863, as Republicans feared that troops in the field, most of whom supported Abraham Lincoln, would be unable to vote for him the following year. Even in the Union, however, legislatures controlled by Democrats refused to allow absentee voting. This led to Lincoln's letter to General William Sherman, requesting that Indiana troops be furloughed so that they might go home and vote. Although many soldiers did indeed return to their states for the election and others were able to cast ballots by mail, historians tell us that only 15 percent of those on active duty managed to vote. Those ballots went overwhelmingly for Lincoln.

Although the history of absentee voting laws is deeply tied to the need to allow soldiers to vote, many states from early on allowed those who would be out of the jurisdiction and those who were ill to apply -- usually requiring an affidavit under penalty of perjury. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, a number of absentee voting provisions were either repealed by state legislatures or held unconstitutional by state courts.

Progressive opponents argued that laws allowing citizens to vote without showing up at the polling place were subject to abuse and corruption. A 1929 editorial in an Asheville, North Carolina, newspaper complained of "frauds that have made the present absentee ballot law notorious." The 1922 election in Missouri became notorious indeed, when allegations arose that Democratic registrars had distributed absentee ballots after the election day returns were counted. In 1940, supporters of Democratic gubernatorial candidate William H. Burke, who lost by 430 votes out of over 850,000 cast, were certain that the reason was Republican shenanigans with the absentee ballots.

To be sure, candidates who lose close elections often complain, and the great majority of elections under the old rules were conducted without any significant fraud attaching to the use of absentee ballots. But even their strongest proponents never argued that absentee ballots should become available for the asking. When most states greatly liberalized their absentee voting rules during World War II, the new provisions applied only to soldiers on active duty.

I do not recite this history because I am worried about abuse. My point, rather, is that absentee ballots were traditionally difficult to get, and this was a good thing. Some 20 states still require that the voter give an acceptable reason for being unable to get to the polls, and I think this traditional view is correct. Such rules signal the importance of the communal view of the election as an occasion on which we join together physically in an activity of democratic importance. At the same time, a more restricted availability of absentee ballots reminds voters of the importance of continuing to process new information right up until election day.

I have no partisan interest in the outcome of the Montana race. I am quite certain, however, that if nearly every voter had to show up in person, the charges against Gianforte would cost him dearly. With so many Montanans having already sent in ballots they can't take back, however, we might well see more evidence of how powerfully our rejection of community affects the outcome of elections.

(c) 2017, Bloomberg View

Stephen Carter is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
KLAMATH FALLS  Police arrested an Oregon middle school teacher accused of taking inappropriate photos of female students.

Matthew Walker

The Herald and News reports Matthew Walker was charged with invasion of privacy. Investigators in Klamath Falls believe he used his cell phone to take photos of two seventh-graders from under their skirts.

The 28-year-old math teacher was released from jail Wednesday after posting bail. Police say he declined to make a statement to detectives. It's unknown if he has a lawyer.

Klamath County School District Superintendent Greg Thede says Walker was placed on administrative leave.

 The Associated Press
The Beaverton Board of Education has named a former district teacher as its new junior high/high school principal.

I am extremely humbled, and very excited to be coming back to Beaverton Rural Schools in this leadership position, said Jennifer Quick, who was named the new principal Monday. Beaverton has my heart and it is where my husband and I chose to build our family and home over 20 years ago.

Beaverton is such a wonderful, strong community and I look forward to being able to serve in this capacity, she added. I am anxious to get started and bring research and initiatives that I have been working on at Central Michigan University to Beaverton Rural Schools.

Quick was selected from 21 applicants from all over the country including Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, Indiana and Michigan, said Beaverton Superintendent Susan Wooden. Quick, a Central Michigan University instructor, is expected to be officially hired at the June 12 board meeting.

She replaces retiring principal Jeff Budge, who has been with the district for 18 years.

Jen Quick is a dynamic woman with a world of experience, contacts, research interests, and proven leadership that everyone quickly embraced throughout the selection process, Wooden said.

Quick is an instructor in the Department of Education at CMU and Director of Pre-Student Teaching. Wooden said Quick spearheaded a new model of co-teaching in classrooms at CMU to improve student scores and better prepare young teachers to manage classrooms.

The new principal has a Bachelor of Science degree in history and psychology from Huntington College and two masters degrees, one in educational teaching and learning and the other in social science education, from Nova Southeastern University.

Prior to her eight-year tenure at CMU, Quick taught at Mid-Michigan Community College, and a combined 15 years teaching social studies, history and government at Beaverton Middle School and Chippewa Hills High School. She was the 1996 Indiana Student Teacher of the Year, 1998 Teacher of the Year at Chippewa Hills High School, and two-time recipient of the Central Michigan University Staff Excellence Award.

Quick said she builds her classrooms and work around two simple, yet abstract words  respect and responsibility.

It is my goal that this philosophy permeates all that we do as educators and students, Quick adds. I want our students to know that they are supported in their goals  whatever they may be. It is imperative that the students understand that we are setting their foundational future, that we care and are all in this together.

Quick was chosen following two weeks of candidate interviews by board members, teachers, parents, law enforcement and business leaders.

We were tough on them, Wooden said. This is not just a small-town school looking for a small-town principal. We are a very large district and our students can achieve any career goal they may have.

Wooden said the districts alumni runs the gamut, which includes public relations specialists, comptrollers, CEOs, professors, engineers as well as construction workers and farmers.

We are not a small town with a small vision, Wooden said, noting that the district covers 225 square miles.

During the search, Wooden and the board were focused on finding someone who was passionate about expanding their vision of the world.

Our next principal, Wooden said, needs to be a person who can inspire kids to be passionate about life after high school and make sure we do everything we can to prepare our kids for life in a global society.

Quick said one of her goals is to raise the academic profile and offerings at the junior and senior high schools. She hopes to collaborate with the community on initiatives that will help make every district student college and career ready for the day they graduate high school.

We are thoroughly confident, Wooden said, that bringing in a college-level professional who has been at the heart of preparing teachers for the rigorous challenges of the classroom to teach beyond the norms will be a significant asset in making Beaverton a highly competitive high school in the entire state.
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Health officials report a crow collected on Thursday and another on Friday in Hope Township tested positive for West Nile virus.

There have been no human WNV cases reported from Michigan this year but activity in Michigan often peaks in August or September so residents need to maintain awareness, a Midland County Mosquito Control news release states.

State officials last week confirmed the first cases of both West Nile virus and rabies in 2017. Three birds in Barry, Kalamazoo and Saginaw counties tested positive for the disease. They were already sick or dead, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. An Ingham County bat tested positive for rabies.

Midland County Mosquito Control says it will inspect for mosquito larvae and conduct ultra low volume fogging to control adult mosquitoes around the area of the crow deaths and throughout the county as necessary.

Midland County Mosquito Control will continue testing dead birds and adult mosquitoes from throughout the county, the news release states.

Crows and blue jays are most susceptible to West Nile virus and are the most useful indicator of possible virus activity in an area, according to Mosquito Control. Call Mosquito Control at 989-832-8677 to report any dead birds observed.

The Culex mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus often develop in container habitats around the home. Where possible, Mosquito Control advises residents to discard or empty water from flower pots, clogged rain gutters, swimming pool covers, scrap tires and similar sites where mosquitoes can lay their eggs.

To further help reduce your risk of acquiring West Nile virus:

 Consider the use of an insect repellent containing DEET, IR3535 or Picaridin, according to the manufacturers directions when adult mosquitoes are present. Even a short time outside can be long enough to get a mosquito bite!

 Be aware of peak mosquito hours. The hours of dusk to dawn are peak biting times for many species of mosquitoes. Take extra precaution by using protective clothing and insect repellent during evening and early morning hours, or consider avoiding outdoor activities at these times.

 When possible, wear long sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors.

 Keep vegetation trimmed down as much as possible around the home and make sure that doors and windows have tight-fitting screens. Repair or replace screens that have tears or holes.

For more information about Midland Countys Mosquito Control Program, go to http://co.midland.mi.us/MosquitoControl.aspx
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department.

Thursday, May 25

12:38 a.m.  Police were sent to Tucker Street for a domestic assault.

Wednesday, May 24

12:48 a.m.  A motorist was arrested for drunken driving after a traffic crash at North Saginaw Road and Orchard Drive.

4:35 a.m.  A motorist was arrested at Mill and North streets for driving while license suspended.

7:37 a.m.  A deputy investigated a report of gunshots heard in Lincoln Township. No suspicious activity was found.

10:27 a.m.  Police were called to the 600 block of Walnut Street to investigate a case of fraud.

11:09 a.m.  Officers were sent to the 600 block of West Wackerly Street to investigate a case of fraud.

11:47 a.m.  A motorist was arrested at Eastman Avenue and Sugnet Road for driving while license suspended.

1:58 p.m.  Police investigated a case of retail fraud in the 900 block of Joe Mann Boulevard.

6:37 p.m.  A deputy was sent to a report of a cow on a road in Mount Haley Township. The cow was gone when the deputy arrived.

8:06 p.m.  Deputies were sent to a Mills Township home to check a report of suspicious vehicles. The residents were in the process of moving out of the home.

8:32 p.m.  A motorist was arrested in the 2000 block of South Saginaw Road for second-offense driving while license suspended.

8:36 p.m.  A Lee Township man, 19, was arrested in the Village of Sanford for drunken driving.
Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers mobilizes senior involvement through several ministry initiatives.

The Church: Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers, Arkansas

The Challenge: Provide senior adults with meaningful ministry opportunities.

One Big Idea: Mobilize involvement through Operation Christmas Child, one of the groups many ministry initiatives.

Giving back to others through service is a hallmark of the senior-adult ministry at Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas. The Prime Time Communityan active group of 300 adultsnot only has made a big contribution to an outside ministry, but they also have helped their Rogers, Arkansas, church do the same.

Eight years ago, a dozen Prime Time seniors decided to participate in Operation Christmas Child (OCC), a ministry of Samaritans Purse that delivers shoeboxes filled with toys, hygiene items and school supplies to children around the world. The first year they assembled 50 shoeboxes, and they enjoyed it so much that they got the entire group to adopt the ministry and participate together as a whole.

According to Gil Pineira, director of Prime Time, the group filled 300 boxes in the first year involving the whole team; last year they put together more than 1,000.

Prime Time uses three luncheons a year to collect the items for the shoeboxes, and they have a big potluck packing-party, putting the [boxes] together, Pineira says.

Among the items collected were handmade gifts by the seniors, including 1,000 wooden toys, 600 dresses and 365 yarn animals.

OCC reaching out to children has touched the hearts of our seniors and motivates them for this project, Pineira says. Many are grandparents, after all.

The groups efforts havent gone unnoticed. Older adults who attend other churches have gotten involved in Prime Times OCC outreachand now Fellowship Bible has joined in. According to Pineira, Prime Time members help the 6,000-member congregation assemble an additional 3,000 boxes. Once the shoeboxes are ready, 35 to 40 seniors travel to the OCC processing center in Dallas to volunteer.

Many have never been on a mission trip before, so the Dallas trip helps with that fulfillment, he says. They feel they are being a part of the Lords work in the world.

This ministry involvement has cultivated an important sense of purpose and usefulness in the group.

Ive found that seniors want to serve and will serve, Pineira says. They just need to be able to serve where they have passion about the project and feel that their efforts are worthwhile.

Find more seniors outreach ideas 

FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH

Rogers, Arkansas

FellowshipNWA.org
NORMAL  Uptown Normal lost a restaurant this week, but another is slated to take its place.

Anand India, at 122 E. Beaufort St. since March 2015, closed Monday, but the location soon will house Uptown Pizza. Uptown Normal is also the site of a future Bloomington-Normal Starbucks and two recently-opened businesses.

Signs in the front window and updates to the Anand India website confirm the closure and future opening.

"Uptown Pizza Restaurant offers delicious dining, takeout and delivery to Normal," according to the site. "Uptown Pizza Restaurant is a cornerstone in the Normal community and has been recognized for its outstanding Indian cuisine, excellent service and friendly staff."

Signs on the window direct customers to visit Puran Indian at 1704 Eastland Drive, Bloomington, another restaurant of Anand India owner Sarbjit Singh.

Before Anand India, the uptown location housed Prime Time Pizza.

Uptown Normal is a natural home for a Starbucks, said Brian Landstrom, chief financial officer at Meatheads Burgers and Fries and a partner in the venture.

The appeal is just that theres a lot happening with uptown, he said, including business, hotel customers and college students. For the people down there that would want a Starbucks, theres not anything close.

Landstrom said Normal Coffeehouse LLC is targeting mid-August to open the business, located inside the Hyatt Place hotel at 200 Broadway Ave. Starbucks will be accessible from inside the hotel and from the street.

A lot of people would say, 'Why do we have another corporate store,' but its a license agreement," he said. "Even though it has the Starbucks name, its still really a local business.

One Life Gallery and Boutique opened in late December, but it's been in the works far longer, according to its Facebook page.

According to its first post in April, One Life Gallery and Boutique is "about being natural and homegrown, a retail (experience) that not only serves physical items but a retail (experience) that also expands the life of (every) customer."

In addition to hosting art shows, the gallery sells clothing and shoes.

One Life is located at 120 E. Beaufort, where It's Poppin' Gourmet Popcorn shut down operations in March 2016.

Three months in, another Normal boutique is exceeding expectations.

Ive had a great response. People have been excited about the store," said Whimsy owner Traci Tessone. The feedback Im getting is its unique and different and this is what uptown needed.

The Normal location, at 112 E. Beaufort St., is an extension of the first Whimsy store in Morris and also offers home decor, clothing, jewelry, accessories, antiques and vintage items.

I have been to France and love their storefronts. That was the inspiration for the one in Morris and now in Normal, said Tessone of the hand-painted wooden sign above the storefront.
Memorial Day observances will begin with the AUMC mens breakfast from 7-9 a.m. Monday at the Atlanta firehouse.

The Veterans Memorial Ceremony and Atlanta band concert will begin at 10 a.m. on the lawn of the Atlanta Public Library. This year's speaker will be William Kindred, a 1967 Atlanta High School graduate who served in the Air Force for several decades.

The Flying Feet Cloggers from Audras Dance Studio in Lincoln will perform at 11 a.m. All children are invited to take a fire truck ride at 11:45 a.m. from the library to the Atlanta Cemetery and place flowers on veterans' graves.

The VFW Auxiliary 1756 will serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the firehouse. In case of inclement weather, all activities will be inside the Atlanta Firehouse and the the childrens trip to the cemetery will be canceled.

Delavan

The Delavan-Green Valley American Legion Post 382 Memorial Day service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the National Guard Armory, 206 E. Third St., Delavan. The Rev. Jean Sparks of Delavan First Presbyterian Church will speak.

This will be the last time the armory will host the service because it is closing after the deactivation of the National Guard's 1144th Transportation Battalion.

A fundraising breakfast will be from 6:30-10 a.m., and there will be ceremonies at 9 a.m. at Green Valley Cemetery, 9:30 a.m. at St. Mary's Cemetery and 9:30 a.m. Prairie Rest Cemetery.

The Avenue of Flags will be displayed at the cemeteries and in downtown Delavan, weather permitting.

Graymont

The 133rd Rooks Creek Memorial Service will be at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Rooks Creek Cemetery, between Graymont and Pontiac. Retired Navy Veteran Tony Arrigo will offer a prayer and Flanagan American Legion Post 456 will conduct the military portion of the service.

Hopedale

The new Hopedale Area Veterans Memorial will be dedicated at noon in the 100 block of Grove Street. The keynote speaker will be astronaut Scott Altman.

Lincoln

A traditional Memorial Day service will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at American Legion Post 263 in Lincoln.

Dan Benedict, superintendent of the Logan County Veterans Assistance Commission, will speak and the Rev. Ron Otto of the Christian Church will give the invocation and benediction. Ham and beans will be serves at the Legion afterward, with donations accepted.

Minonk

American Legional Post 142 in Minonk will host its annual Memorial Day service at 10 a.m. Monday at Fieldcrest High School gymnasium in Minonk. There will be speakers and music hosted by the school.

Saybrook

Saybrook American Legion Post 427 and Sons of the American Legion Post 427 will conduct Memorial Day services at 9 a.m. Monday at Riverside Cemetery and at 11 a.m. Monday at the Township Cemetery.

Secor

A service will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Secor Cemetery, on U.S. 24 just outside of Secor.
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood claims to act in the interests of constituents. He offers words that sound as though he has an interest in us. This is common of elected officials driven by partisan politics and party loyalty.

This makes LaHood's compassion and concern hard to detect. I ask him about his compassion for folks, regarding healthcare and those who'll be severely affected under the proposed AHCA; he quickly responds "We can agree to disagree." I've heard that on many occasions. A switch flips when he detects certain topics: autopilot.

Regarding Trump and Russia and today's news headlines, all I hear from LaHood is more party-line responses, statements that assure constituents he's not swaying from the base that elected him, as well as non-committal statements. He refuses to commit or take a position due to the fallout such statements may lead to or the pressure such statements put upon him to follow-up on commitments. These are natural behaviors for career politicians.

We must ask the congressman, however, if this is how he wants to be remembered during this defining time period in our history. He and so many others, regardless of party affiliation, continue to take the easy road, the safe road. Representative LaHood, do you really believe this is what your constituents and the entire citizenry of this country are asking from you? How can you not hear the concern, the fear, the anxiety, in our voices and not respond to it, not act on it?

Roger Day, Bloomington
If one looks deep enough, there is probably one or more veterans in every family. This weekend is an appropriate time to pay tribute to them. Memorial Day is a time to stop for a moment to thank those veterans who gave their lives for this country.

While this day has been set aside for them, most of us also pay tribute to all deceased veterans. Flags are placed on the graves and ceremonies are attended.

This is a time to honor our living veterans as well. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 454 and Auxiliary will be sponsoring another "Poppy Day" on Saturday. Members will be at local stores and the farmer's market offering poppies for you to wear proudly to show your support of our veterans. All proceeds from donations received are used to assist local veterans as well as those who are in VA facilities around the state.

Since 2017 is the 100th anniversary when American troops became involved in WWI, what better time show your support for those who left their homeland to fight for the sake of liberty, many of whom are buried in Flanders Field where poppies grow.

By displaying your poppy you are showing you are grateful you live in a free country and are thankful there are those who have kept it so.

Mary Sheehan, Bloomington
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Even though Apple was the first major tech company to adopt a digital assistant for use in their smartphone natively, progress on this front seemed to be at a snails pace. Then out of nowhere Amazon shocked the market with a smarter digital assistant on a home device called Echo. Google Home rapidly followed and their latest upgrade will offer free phone calls within the U.S. and Canada and deeper connectivity to Android. Now Microsoft, Harman Kardon and many tech companies are jumping on the bandwagon with new smart home digital assistant based devices aimed to land on the market this fall.

Even Samsung has technically jumped into the market with Bixby in the last month on their Galaxy S8 that they promise will be integrated into future devices and appliances as part of their IoT roadmap. In fact a new design patent that surfaced on May 16 shows us that they have an advanced Echo-like device with a full flexible display on the drawing board that could run Android as their patent figures suggest below.





We noted in a report back on May 11 that the AI Wars were almost reaching Fever Pitch levels. Almost ever week if not every day there's an AI story surfacing. On May 14 Apple aquired their third major AI company in three years. On the same day we posted a patent report titled "Apple has designed a new Siri Architecture allowing Two Digital Assistants to Communicate with Each Other." Last month we posted a patent report tiled "Apple Patent Reveals a Visual System to Assist Siri in Future Devices to understand Gestures, Activities, & More"





At the top of this month we posted a report titled "Inventec Lands First Order for Apple's Echo-Like Home Device with Siri." Although it's a supply chain rumor, Apple fans hope that this could be a big moment at Apple's WWDC in June. Some believe it will launch this fall. Yet what matters is that Apple brings a new Siri based device into the home to support their Smart Home project and to keep the competition at bay.

Google is crafting the argument that they are the one's to beat in AI without question. Patently Apple covered Google's vision in two reports titled "The Vision of Artificial Intelligence According to the Gospel of Google" and "The Google Manifesto: The Arrival of the AI Revolution."

Apple supplier TSMC sees some of the sand beginning to shift into new directions. Co-CEO Mark Liu.Mobile let if be known last month that while smartphones will still drive the market for them in the short term, that new and innovative features for smartphones and other mobile devices including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), context-aware computation, and artificial intelligence (AI) and deep machine learning require support of more powerful computing technology." Translation: new chips are on their roadmap to power new technologies and features like VR/AR and AI.





The hint of new advanced chips coming to market gave way this afternoon to a new report by Bloomberg claiming that "Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company's devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition." So now the chip will have a name.

The timing of this latest leak about the Apple Neural Engine may have been timed perfectly to start cranking up their developers and fans for the WWDC keynote on June fifth.

The news of advances to Siri in the works have been mounting so fiercely in the last few months that it's now time for Team Apple to knock one out of the park and set their developers on fire for the next phase of Apple AI.

On the flip-side, it's always best to not get over-hyped about anything Apple until it actually unfolds. We know positive things are in the works and they'll roll out whenever Apple is ready to unleash them. But I have to admit, I'm definitely pumped-up for next month's event  are you?

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
In January Patently Apple posted a report tiled "A Weak Circumstantial Theory by French Investigators Points to Fiery Apple Device Bringing Down Air Egypt." At the time the French newspaper Le Parisien quoted Apple stating that "We were not contacted by the GTA or any other authority investigating this tragic event. We have not had access to the report, but our understanding is that there is no evidence linking this event to Apple products. We are entirely at the disposal of the investigators to answer any question. We rigorously test our products to ensure that they comply or exceed international safety standards."

Today a a follow-up report from the Le Parisien surfaced. The French report supposedly asked Apple again for comment on the matter and Apple gave them a response. However, the response was word for word identical to the statement given in January. So it's either that Apple legal has a set response on this matter or the reporter made no such follow-up call to Apple.

With that said, the report notes that there were three investigating judges in charge of the investigation. On May 17 a document was made public. The French paper notes that the "complexity and the technicality of the Mission", the judges chose specialists who were not on the usual list of experts of the Ministry of Justice. They retained a research engineer at the CNRS, a doctor of solids physics from the Ministry of hosts and a specialist in battery and battery engineering, which also depends on the Ministry of the Armies. Their mission? Determine precisely whether these devices, and in particular their batteries, were able to trigger the disaster. Experts are asked to acquire "three iPad mini Wi-Fi 3G Model A 1455" and "three iPhone 6s, both new and used". Smartphones and tablets will be put to the test.

The report further noted that most importantly, experts will have to "provoke a thermal runaway", write the judges in their mission letter. After determining if the devices can catch fire, the experts will have to cause this fire, in order to calculate in particular the heat radiation produced and to analyze the soots and fumes that come out. By this expertise, filmed and recorded, the investigators seek to know whether the tablet and smartphone can ignite spontaneously and, if so, under what conditions and at what speed; And, finally, to determine whether the combustion of the aircraft was able to make the aeroplane uncontrollable and/or asphyxiate the pilots.

Their report must be submitted to the judge before September 30th. This orientation of the investigation comes after careful work of the search section of the Air Transport Gendarmerie (GTA). They had identified the presence of the Apple products through cameras that scanned the cockpit of the device parked at its departure station at Roissy Airport. But also during the passage to the security control of the crews, who scanned their personal belongings. "The equation of this tragedy is perhaps to be found in the connection of these devices between the current delivered by the plugs behind the copilot and the reception of this current by lithium-battery devices," indicates a source close to the record.

Even with the fire on the Southwest Airlines plane due to a fire from a Galaxy Note 7 battery, the fumes didn't overwhelm anyone on the plane. Making the leap to an Apple device fire overwhelming both the pilot and co-pilot seems to be a wild guess. The testing that is being requested is going to take a long time to examine and there's still no way of knowing what will come of the test noted earlier.

With so much terrorist activity in-play these days, it's bizarre that the focus of the investigation in still on Apple devices. Last September a Russian jet blew up over Egypt due to a terrorist device. In the case focused on Apple devices, the UK's Guardian pointed to Terrorism for the crash of flight MS804 being likely, not Apple devices.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.
Last week the Tibetan spiritual leader offered talks to three groups of students at his residence in Dharamsala, India. The students came from the U.S., Canada, and 25 students from the Tong Len [Tibetan for giving and taking] charitable trust based in North India.

Rather than pushing traditional Tibetan teachings or verbatim scripture, the Dalai Lama urged students to pursue peace in the coming century. He emphasized the importance of cultivating reason and the basic human capacity for compassion in order to do this.

My generation seems to have created a lot of problems on this planet that your generation will have to work to resolve. Youll have to work to create a more peaceful world. But since basic human nature is compassionate, there is hope. If our basic nature was anger, there would be none.

The Tibet Post reported that: A young man mentioned his work with empathic concern, saying, We are poor and have known suffering. We dont want others to suffer as we have. We want to create a peaceful, supportive society. Another young man following a B.A. in Commerce course in Kangra said he used to be a beggar and has found his work with appreciating kindness very helpful in calming his feelings of anger.

Wonderful, His Holiness responded, you are putting my vision into action. You are showing how we can share the idea of ethics with others, without having to rely on this or that religious tradition, but based on common experience and human values. Everybody appreciates kindness, but unfortunately our modern education system, with its materialistic goals, doesnt have much room for inner values. We need to make people more aware of such inner values on the basis of scientific findings, common sense and common experience.

The Dalai Lama has long been an active advocate for moving beyond traditional values that no longer fit the needs of society. He explored Western culture with great interest even while living in Tibet in his youth and has been active in public dialogues with leading scientists, historians, activists, and others for decades. Two of his recent books have sought to push ethics beyond this or that religious tradition and into broader human consciousness, Ethics for the New Millennium (2001) and Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World (2012).

In a discussion with a UK magazine last year, the Dalai Lama went so far as to say that Ethics is more important than religion. We dont arrive in this world as members of a particular religion. But ethics is innate. He continued, Yesterdays ideas will get us nowhere. Especially for children, tomorrows adults, ethics is more important than religion. Clarifying this, he said:

The knowledge and the practice of religion has of course been helpful, but today this is no longer enough, as examples from all over the world show more and more clearly. This is true of all religions, including Christianity and Buddhism. Wars have been waged in the name of religion, holy wars even. Religions have been and still are frequently intolerant. This is why I say that in the 21st century we need a new ethic that transcends all religions. Far more crucial than religion is our elementary human spirituality. Its a predisposition towards love, kindness and affection that we all have within us, whatever religion we belong to. In my view, people can do without religion, but they cannot do without inner values, without ethics.

As a teacher of great importance around the world, the Dalai Lama often wears different hats. When speaking to more traditional crowds, he continues to teach Tibetan and Indian texts and ideas. However, his willingness to stretch traditional bounds bodes well for Buddhism in a world where wandering dusty roads and living in caves and under trees has decreasing appeal and cultural relevance.

Support independent coverage of Buddhism by joining a community of fellow learners/practitioners at Patreon.

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Last week I published a post that outed myself as an armchair Pagan  at least a temporary one, an unwilling one. I posted with the assumption that it would be one of my quiet boring posts, people would glance at the link and just pffft away from it. Instead it boomed all over Facebook and became my most read post ever.

I read all the comments on the post itself, as well as those on the link on the Patheos Pagan Facebook page and noticed a few interesting common themes going through many of the comments. The main thing though was people trying to comfort me and reassure me that ritual doesnt matter and I shouldnt be so hard on myself for not being able to do ritual. The sentiment is appreciated, very much so, but I also see that in some ways everyone has kind of missed the point. Dont get me wrong, I am not criticising the comments and ideas made, simply they made me realise that I didnt properly explain myself in certain areas.

Im Not a Pagan Pagan

I use the term Pagan almost purely for the community and ease of understanding aspects. I use the label Pagan because its a label that people know and think they understand, thus it saves me from having to explain what my religion is to random strangers. I also use it because it connects me to the entirety of the Pagan and related communities. But the fact is, I am not really Pagan.

Not in the usual sense. I have a religion that has a specific name, its Hellenism, Hekatean Hellenism to be more precise. It falls under the Pagan umbrella or inside the tent, giving me leave to label myself Pagan as well. But in truth I have no need for the Pagan label, because my religion already has a name. So there are many things that Pagans, who use the label of Pagan because that is the name of their religion, do and believe that dont necessarily fit into my religion.

This is fine, no problem, dont really care  we are all different and that is as it should be. But this also means that when I speak of an issue in my personal practice of my specific religion, I am not necessarily going to be able to adapt in the ways that many other Pagans are able to.

Ritual is the Backbone

In most forms of Hellenism ritual is the most essential part of the religion  nothing else is as important. Even belief in the Gods isnt as important as the act of ritual and worship. An odd truth, but it is the truth nonetheless. Belief plays second fiddle to action. Basically, it doesnt matter if you doubt the existence of the Gods, so long as you are still giving Them stuff, praising Them and not being open or noisy with your hubris.

Polytheists, of which I am technically one, often speak of orthopraxy over orthodoxy. This means, right action over right belief  and this holds true for the majority of us. So long as we are doing things the right way, nothing else really matters. Now of course, we might argue over what the right way IS, that is inevitable  but in my view this is something people need to figure out for themselves. Sure, the Gods have Their own rules, but I dont think its impossible for Them to have different rules for different people. Just like They seem to like some people more than others.

Its all irrelevant anyway  in my religion, in my Hekatean Hellenism, ritual has come to be the backbone. It matters, it is important. There is no substitute for ritual, there is no act that is just as good, or close enough.

Suggestions from kind people that I could just pray quietly in my mind in the shower, or go for a walk in nature  these are lovely and totally viable for many people. But not for me  these are things I can do of course, things I do in fact already do. But they are still no substitute for what is missing.

This is Not a Judgement

Some of the comments I read did mention that many Pagans do feel some kind of pressure, to measure up and be super active  whether at home or within the greater community. Some people feel like they are not doing enough in their religion, not because they really feel that way, but because reading about other peoples levels of activity makes them feel lesser. And there are a lot of posts online that denigrate those who are labelled Armchair Pagans.

But the fact is, we need to remember, at all times, that Paganism is not one religion  and for many of us its nothing more than a convenient name to connect us to other people. There are no rules or commandments, because the rules for one Pagan religion are not going to follow over into another Pagan religion. Paganism is diverse, the people are diverse, the requirements within Paganism will also be diverse.

The fact that ritual is an integral part of my religious practice is not a judgement call on anyone else. Because your religion is not mine, mine is not yours, and you are not me. The priorities I hold within my religion are for me and no one else. There are Pagan religions, traditions or paths that do not require rituals, do not require notable actions. Thats fine with me, it has nothing to do with me and I dont really care. It doesnt make your religion less, it doesnt make your devotion to your religion or your gods (if you have any) less than my own. Its just different, judgement cannot be made on a religion using the values of another religion.

That, would be ridiculous. No religion could ever be deemed good enough if we did things that way.

I am Not a Bad Pagan

People telling me to not be so hard on myself, to not feel bad about not being able to do ritual and even some pointing out that it doesnt make one a bad Pagan. Again, a nice sentiment but misses the point.

The idea that I am being hard on myself presumes that I am forced to do rituals, or something like that. But I dont do rituals because that is what Hellenes should do. I dont do rituals because thats the rules. I dont do rituals because the Gods command it or even request it. I dont do rituals just because everyone else says I should.

I dont feel bad about not doing rituals lately because I feel like I am a bad Hellene/Pagan. I dont feel bad because I am not doing what I am supposed to do, not following the rules. I dont feel bad about it because I am somehow not measuring up. Its not about outside influences, pressures or comparisons. Not at all.

I do rituals because I love to do them. I feel bad about not doing rituals because I miss them.

This could be likened to my children being away for a few weeks. I would miss them, because I love them. I could play with and cuddle a puppy, and it might make me feel a little warm and it would be sweet. But it wouldnt make anything better, it wouldnt fix anything. Because there is no substitution for my children. So quiet contemplation, meditation, lighting a candle and looking at it, thoughtful prayer and the like  these are nice things, they will make me feel good. But they wont take away the bad feeling, because they cant replace the rituals I miss and love.

Thank You

The comments I read on Facebook and on my blog were mostly super nice and lovely. I really was impressed by the way people reacted to my predicament. Yes, I have just done a post about why some of the well-wishing and suggestions made werent really helpful to me in the practical sense  but that doesnt mean I didnt appreciate the well-wishing and suggestions. I did, I found it to be really heart-warming actually.

And I am not in any way saying that people shouldnt have made those suggestions, because actually the comments people made will be very helpful to other Pagans of other traditions. Besides, it created a prompt for a blog post for me, so it was all quite helpful in that regard too. So thank you, for caring, for sharing helpful suggestions that will work for other people  and for giving me something to write about.
Iran Experts Assembly warns Bahrain of gathering 'storm'

05/26/17

Source: Press TV

Iran's Assembly of Experts has strongly condemned the Bahraini regime's recent raid on the residence of the spiritual leader of the country's Shia majority. The Assembly said in a statement on Friday that the inhumane treatment of Sheikh Isa Qassim by the Bahraini Al Khalifa regime, which has been aided by the Saudi regime, would "create a tide and a storm that will not subside except with the toppling of the oppressive Al Khalifah system."



Rally in Tehran in support of the Bahrain's senior cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim

(May 26, 2017photo by Islamic Republic News Agency)





Bahraini forces raided the northwestern village of Diraz on Tuesday, clashed with people who had gathered to protect the sheikh, killed five of them, and then stormed into his house.



Sheikh Qassim faces expulsion from Bahrain after authorities revoked his citizenship last year. Ever since, the public has been staging day-to-day sit-ins in front of his house in Diraz, and the government has placed the village under a siege.



The measure was taken against him over his support for the nation's uprising against the regime, which began in 2011.







Protests escalated on Monday after a court convicted the cleric of what it said were the illegal collection of funds and money laundering and sentenced him to one year in jail suspended for three years. The charges emanate from the collection of an Islamic donation called Khums, a religious practice by a senior cleric in Shia Islam to collect and spend donations in the interests of the needy.



The local police has, meanwhile, asked survivors to forgo a funeral ceremony for the victims. The families have shunned the demand and insist on receiving the bodies and holding a funeral for them.
Saudi Rulers To Take War Dreams In Iran To Grave: Iranian Official

05/26/17

Source: Press TV

Iran's Foreign Ministry says Saudi leaders will take their wish to provoke a military attack against the Islamic Republic to their graves. The strong-worded reaction by Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi came after Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a recent interview that his country "will work to have the battle in Iran."

"Some have been entertaining such wishes for quite a long time, but they will take them to their graves," Qassemi said on Friday, describing the remarks "unwise and wrong".



"They are trying to buy security for themselves with these methods and such statements but security to be bought is not enduring and will be of no consequence," he added.



The spokesman was referring to a $110-billion arms deal which US President Donald Trump clinched with Saudi Arabia during his recent visit to the kingdom.



"Naturally, security will not be achieved by purchasing numerous weapons. Contemporary history is witness that countries with a large arsenal and military capabilities had their situation totally changed in the end and this can happen to others as well," he added.



The Saudi kingdom could only achieve lasting security by relying on its own people and establishing democratic mechanisms that enable popular electoral participation, Qassemi said.







The spokesman also said Iran will maintain its missile work with utmost determination, and will not pay heed to "empty" interventionist statements about the program.



US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on President Hassan Rouhani to end Iran's missile tests after he was re-elected for another four years this month.



"Such remarks are void, groundless, fallacious, and deceitful," Qassemi said, adding Iran's missile work falls within the country's national policy and defensive programs.



Iran's defense program, he said, is a deterrent endeavor, which contributes to the regional stability and security and the fight against terror.



"We will continue this program with utmost strength and sternness, and will not allow others to pass comments on it," Qassemi said.



He also slammed Tillerson for attempting to vindicate the countries which promote terrorism and extremist ideologies.



Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan on Thursday hailed the country's self-sufficiency in producing ballistic and cruise missiles, including those with a range of 300 kilometers (186 miles).



"All efforts in the region today are directed at weakening Iran, and preserving Israel's security and the US arms market, but Iran is standing strong," he said.



Dehqan said, "Turning Saudi Arabia into a stockpile for American weapons is not a thing for them to be proud of," the minister said.



"We tell Arab rulers to submit to the demands of their nations," Dehqan said, reminding them of the fate of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and urging them to abandon "servitude" to big powers.



Iran has learned that acceding to the hegemonic powers equals a negation of national identity, the minister said.



Related Articles:

Trump's Alignment with Sunni Autocrats Masks Shallow Understanding of Region - President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia has engendered endless press reporting and analysis. Two key points stand out in the media coverage. First, the trip was mostly show than action. Second, the Saudis played up to Trump's craving for adulation and narcissism. They knew he was a fickle showman and acted accordingly. He of course loved it, and they proved that rich princely Bedouins could capture the world stage, at least for a fleeting moment. -Emile Nakhleh

JUST WHISTLING A TUNE IN A HURRICANE Mr. Trump's Historic First Foreign Trip - I watched with great disgust President Trump's long delivery at the gathering of Moslem heads of state in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His half-hour-long speech was eloquently worded, obviously not his words, as he lacks the degree of literacy or the command of the language required for that. The content of his speech was rhetorical, hypocritical and transparently shallow and, I might add, disgracefully dishonest. -Kambiz Zarrabi

Arms Deal Stories Omit War Crimes Arms Will Be Used For - The Trump administration wrapped up a weapons deal with the Saudi Arabian government this week that will be worth up to $350 billion over the next ten years. News of the deal came as Trump visited Riyadh and paid fealty to one of the United States' most enduring allies in the Middle East. -Adam Johnson, LobeLog

Trump's Riyadh Speech: Bowing to the Saudi Regime - The bar for Donald Trump's speech in Riyadh had been set so low that it was scraping the sand. How much could be expected from a notorious exploiter of Islamophobia speaking to a gathering of leaders of majority Muslim countries? Getting through the experience without causing major new damage should perhaps be considered a success. Perhaps Trump and his speechwriters were wise not to attempt anything more. -Paul R. Pillar, LobeLog 5/24/17

Trump in the Middle East: From 'America First' to Saudi and Israel first - President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East has turned out as expected: no single act of outreach to the Muslim world could undo his fueling of Islamophobia and no amount of Iranophobia could cover up the irony of Trump and Saudi Arabia uniting against intolerance. -Trita Parsi, Middle East


Senate Panel Backs New Sanctions on Iran

05/26/17

By Michael Bowman, VOA

CAPITOL HILL - A Senate panel has overwhelmingly approved new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's support for international terrorism and its ballistic missile program, the first move to punish Tehran since a landmark nuclear accord went into effect.









Thursday's 18-3 vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee came days after President Donald Trump pledged common cause with Israel and Sunni Arab states to counter Iranian influence in the region.



"The bill passed overwhelmingly today [in committee] and I believe will pass overwhelmingly on the Senate floor," said the committee's chairman, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee.



"If you think about what just happened with the [president's] trip to Saudi Arabia, this begins to coordinate a Middle Eastern strategy that counters Iran's aggression in the region. There is a move to push back against the many nefarious activities that Iran has been engaged in," Corker added.



Eight of the committee's 10 Democrats backed the bill, including Chris Coons of Delaware, who, in 2015, supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal.



"This bill shows a continuing determination by the American Congress to stand up to Iran's continued, even expanded malign activities around the world: their ongoing ballistic missile launches, their support for terrorism, their human rights violations," Coons said. "All of these are areas that are specifically called out in the JCPOA as areas where it is appropriate and possible for the United States, if necessary, to impose additional sanctions."



Ahead of the vote, a central figure in nuclear negotiations with Iran, former secretary of state John Kerry, took to Twitter to warn against new sanctions, writing: "There are many tools to up the pressure already in place and at our disposal. We need to weigh/consider risk to JCPOA."



That concern was shared by the bill's opponents in the Senate, including Democrat Tom Udall of New Mexico.



"Let's remember, the Iranians have just had an election, re-elected [President Hassan] Rouhani, who was a supporter of this agreement and he was re-elected by a big margin," Udall said. "So the first move of our government with this legislation is going to be to threaten the [nuclear] agreement. I think that's a very bad posture for us."



Such concerns are unwarranted, according to backers of the sanctions.



"We know that this in no way touches the nuclear deal," Corker said.



"Tehran can argue all they want that these areas for additional sanctions are not permitted under the JCPOA," Coons said. "The plain text of the agreement allows additional sanctions in these three areas [support for terrorism, missile development, and human rights]."



The committee's lone Republican to oppose bill, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, argued that punishing Iranian missile development makes no sense after President Trump inked a major arms deal with Iran's arch-rival, Saudi Arabia.



"If we want Iran to stop or lessen their development of ballistic weapons, we need to address the cause: the arms race in the Middle East," Paul said.



Between Trump's actions and the sanctions bill, no one is disputing that a shift has occurred away from the former Obama administration's handling of Iran.



"Some chose to believe that the regime in Tehran would respond to the JCPOA and the opportunity it gave the Iranian government to change their behavior, to engage with the West, to demonstrate that it wants to become part of the community of nations," Coons said. "In the last year their [Iran's] actions have proven the opposite, and I think it's now appropriate for us to take these steps [impose sanctions]."



Many will be watching Iran's reaction if the sanctions become law. Asked by VOA if he is concerned about how the bill will be viewed in Tehran, Corker shrugged.



"Are you talking about the people, [or] are you talking about this revolutionary leadership that is carrying out terrorism throughout the Middle East?" Corker responded. "I can't answer for both."

Related Articles:

Response to Passing of Deeply Flawed Iran Sanctions Bill (S.722) - "With a vote for this flawed sanctions bill the Senate Foreign Relations Committee decided to give Donald Trump new tools to kill the Iran deal and stumble into war with Iran. After Iranians overwhelmingly voted for openness and engagement, Senators have effectively endorsed Trump's calls for a provocative and dangerous approach to the Middle East. NIAC Action condemns this vote and urges the full Senate to abstain from moving the bill forward." -NIAC Action

Costs of the Clenched Fist - - In his first inaugural address, one of President Barack Obama's messages to America's adversaries was that "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." A few years later, the unclenching of Iran's fist was marked by the election of reformist Hassan Rouhani and the entry of Iran into negotiations with the United States and five other powers, leading to a detailed agreement in which Iran accepted severe limitations on, and intrusive scrutiny of, its nuclear program and closed all possible pathways to possible acquisition of a nuclear weapon. -Paul R. Pillar, LobeLog

Trump's Alignment with Sunni Autocrats Masks Shallow Understanding of Region - President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia has engendered endless press reporting and analysis. Two key points stand out in the media coverage. First, the trip was mostly show than action. Second, the Saudis played up to Trump's craving for adulation and narcissism. They knew he was a fickle showman and acted accordingly. He of course loved it, and they proved that rich princely Bedouins could capture the world stage, at least for a fleeting moment. -Emile Nakhleh

JUST WHISTLING A TUNE IN A HURRICANE Mr. Trump's Historic First Foreign Trip - I watched with great disgust President Trump's long delivery at the gathering of Moslem heads of state in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His half-hour-long speech was eloquently worded, obviously not his words, as he lacks the degree of literacy or the command of the language required for that. The content of his speech was rhetorical, hypocritical and transparently shallow and, I might add, disgracefully dishonest. -Kambiz Zarrabi

Arms Deal Stories Omit War Crimes Arms Will Be Used For - The Trump administration wrapped up a weapons deal with the Saudi Arabian government this week that will be worth up to $350 billion over the next ten years. News of the deal came as Trump visited Riyadh and paid fealty to one of the United States' most enduring allies in the Middle East. -Adam Johnson, LobeLog

Trump's Riyadh Speech: Bowing to the Saudi Regime - The bar for Donald Trump's speech in Riyadh had been set so low that it was scraping the sand. How much could be expected from a notorious exploiter of Islamophobia speaking to a gathering of leaders of majority Muslim countries? Getting through the experience without causing major new damage should perhaps be considered a success. Perhaps Trump and his speechwriters were wise not to attempt anything more. -Paul R. Pillar, LobeLog 5/24/17

Trump in the Middle East: From 'America First' to Saudi and Israel first - President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East has turned out as expected: no single act of outreach to the Muslim world could undo his fueling of Islamophobia and no amount of Iranophobia could cover up the irony of Trump and Saudi Arabia uniting against intolerance. -Trita Parsi, Middle East


Attorney General and Minister of Justice Gloria Akuffo has responded to a request by private legal practitioner Victor Kojoga Adawudu for details regarding the $2.25 billion bond issued by the Government of Ghana about two months ago.



I acknowledge receipt of your letter bearing reference number LL/17/26 and dated 4th May, 2017 on the above subject matter. Please be informed that the information being sought per your letter is not available to me and I am therefore unable to respond to the questions posed therein, the AGs office responded.



Mr Adawudu, who is one of the legal brains of the opposition National Democratic Congress, wrote to the AG for details covering the bond after his party accused Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of conflict of interest in the transaction.



The Minority in Parliament also claimed the deal was cooked for one person and that it lacked transparency.



In the midst of the controversy, Mr Adawudu in a four-page letter to the AG said he was exercising his right in Article 21(F) of the 1992 Constitution which states that: All persons shall have the right to information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society. ...The Constitution of Ghana is predicated on the tripod of transparency, probity and accountability, and as a citizen of Ghana, I am concerned about the apparent opaqueness of the processes towards the issuance of the bonds, the letter read.



Below are some of the information requested by Mr Adawudu:



(a) Please provide the date and the exact time all the Bond Transactions were opened or announced to investors to participate;



(b) How was each of the transactions communicated to investors?



(c) Before the official communication to investors of the opening of the Bonds did the Ministry or any of its officials directly or indirectly discuss any aspects of the Bonds with any of the investors?



(d) The date and time the Bond Transactions closed;



(e) The date and time the summary of issuance was made known to investors and the public.



(f) Please confirm the coupon prices for all the Bonds issued;



(g) Whether or not there was any roadshow towards the issuance of the Bonds;



(h) If yes, where did to take place, and what was the duration of the roadshow.



Background



The Minority in Parliament had accused Mr Ofori-Atta of engaging in a conflict of interest situation as far as the issuance of the $US2.25billion 15-year bond was concerned.



The Minority, at a press conference, said US-based firm Franklyn Templeton Investment Limited, which bought almost 95 per cent of the domestic bond, had private dealings with Mr Ofori-Atta.



The Minority said: Information that is now available in the public domain appears to indicate that Hon. Trevor G. Trefgarne is not just Board Chairman of Enterprise Insurance Limited, a company owned partially by the current Finance Ministers company, Databank Limited. Hon. Trevor G. Trefgarne is also a Director of Franklyn Templeton which is the main participant in the recent Bond issuance.



Putting these apparent facts together, we have reason to believe that there is a relational interest between our Finance Minister and Trevor G. Trefgarne which creates a potential lack of transparency and conflict of interest. As we all know, the constitution provides unequivocally that public officers shall not put themselves in a situation in which their private interest conflicts with their public obligations. There is no record available to us to the effect that the Finance Minister made known publicly this relational conflict of interest.



In other words, he failed and/or neglected to declare his relationship with Trevor G. Trefgarne and the extent to which that relationship might have potentially affected the decision to sell majority of the bonds to Franklyn Templeton. Furthermore, there is no disclosure as to the extent to which the determination of the price of the bonds could also have been affected by this relationship between the Finance Minister and Franklyn Templeton.



Now that a good link has been established between the Finance Minister and his friend Trevor, it is clear that the Finance Minister issued this bond in a way that will favour his friend, family and business partners. This situation is best described as cronyism and nepotism, cooked for his friend and associates, and not transparent.



Under these circumstances, we wish to call for a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into whether, and the extent to which, this situation of lack of transparency and conflict of interest has adversely affected the welfare of the people of Ghana. Failing such parliamentary inquiry we the Minority shall have no option but to resort to using the conflict of interest jurisdiction of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). Furthermore, we also intend to exercise the option of filing a report/petition with the Financial Services Authority of the U.S.A to investigate Franklyn Templeton.



We also wish to point out that this bond issue is clearly an international economic/business transaction within the meaning of article 181 (5) of the constitution. Therefore, we expected that the bond issuance would have been brought to parliament for approval. This is because although the transaction appears as to be a domestic sale of bonds, it is in truth a private placement and an international economic transaction given the fact that Franklyn Templeton is a United States registered company and, therefore, qualifies as a foreign entity under article 181 (5) of the constitution. We, therefore, call on the Finance Minister to provide parliament with the full complement of documentation on this transaction for scrutiny and ratification.



Read the full statement of the Minority below:



THE GREAT DEBT DECEPTION



To begin with, it has become apparent that the current government used deception and inflated promises to get to office. The most patent, which also compromises the professional integrity of the Vice President Dr Bawunia, in particular, is the NPPs position on our country's public debt. We will be succinct on this matter because it is as shameful as it is obvious.



We will not borrow: The NPP throughout the 2016 campaign claimed that it will not borrow when it comes to power. We noted that this claim was not possible because even when NPP in 2001 became the biggest beneficiary of debt forgiveness in our history by taking the country to HIPC, it went on a borrowing spree and before the NPP left office in January 2009, the debt-to-GDP ratio had gone up to nearly 40 percent as a result of excessive borrowing by the NPP. So we in the NDC new that the claim by the NPP that it will not borrow was a great deception which most people have failed to realise.



NPP has added another record in borrowing: In less than 100 days of being in office, the NPP has exceeded this notorious feat and deception again. NPP now holds another new record in our history as the Party that has borrowed almost over three billion United States Dollars (US$3.0 billion) within its 100 days in office. This is equivalent to about GH13.5 billion in 100 days (average Ghs 135 million a day) or in other words, every Ghanaians owes additional just in 100 days of NPP GH500 (GH 13,500,000,00027,000,000=Ghs 500)



Indeed, now we know that the Party is in a great hurry for the wrong deceptive reasons: even Usain Bolt (with 100 meters global sprint record) and Lewis Hamilton (Formula One race champion) will be envious of such speed and record!!!



Ladies and gentlemen,



You will recall that in 2015, the NPP criticised the NDC heavily for borrowing $1 billion Eurobond at a coupon rate of 10.75 percent for 15 years (with World Bank Guarantee) to replace a portion of the 2007 (NPP) Sovereign Bond and some Domestic Bonds.



The key points about the recent $2.25billion bond issued by the NPP government;



? The bond was virtually participated by only two investors. The whole Bond transaction was shrouded in secrecy to the extent that Ghanaian investors were denied the opportunity to participate in the deal. In essence, the entire deal lack transparency.



- One single investor by name Franklyn Templeton, which is a known non-resident investor that patronized both Domestic and Sovereign Bonds in the past, purchased almost 95% of the latest Government Domestic Bond. The size of this virtual private placement makes it akin to a sovereign bond or foreign loan.



Some have argued that this bond purchase should not be compared with our Sovereign Bond rates. We should be reminded that our Domestic Bonds have a Hybrid (cedi/forex) feature and, therefore, when non-resident investors bring in foreign currency at the time of purchase, they hold the equivalent cedi bond in the same implicit foreign currency. Therefore, when eventually they sell, they expect to repatriate the proceeds in US Dollars or other convertible currency.



- Hence, above 90 percent Bond holding is technically a dollar-denominated bond and not a cedi bond. The Ministry of Finance and Bank of Ghana are alert to the risk of default in non-resident investor holdings and plan to support the commercial banks or agents with enough foreign exchange to honour any sales and repatriation obligations at maturity or on the secondary market. In essence, the opposite sales activity for a non-resident bond holding is the opposite of a purchase (forex inflows) and implies depletion of our foreign exchange reserves (outflows).



- This is why the domestic bond issue must be efficient. On the contrary, the virtual private placement approach that was used in this Templeton case was not competitive: it was opened in the morning and closed in the evening of the same day, obviously cooked for one single investor. Hence our insistence that there was no transparency.



- In the past book-building approach for the issuance of bonds, initiated by the NDC government, the process was opened for a minimum of three days to ensure optimal participation. In the case of this historic US$ 2.25 billion bond issue, the process was limited to one day, denying other market players the opportunity to participate in the process.



We in NDC can promise the good people of Ghana that, we will continue to keep track of the countrys debt developments and hold the NPP accountable for its fake promises and deception that brought it to power.



MINISTRY OF FINANCE STATEMENT: UNMASKING THE SECRET OF THE SAID BOND ISSUE.



On Monday, April 3, 2017, the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Finance issued a statement announcing that the Ministry under the aegis of Hon. Ken Ofori Atta has successfully issued 15 and 7-year bonds with the same coupon rate of 19.75%, raising a total amount of USD1.13 billion. In addition, the Ministry of Finance raised the cedi equivalent USD1.12 billion in 5 and 10-year bonds via a tap arrangement.



The Finance Ministry did not however name any companies or individuals that participated in the sale, except to say that the issuance attracted a number of global portfolio investors including a very substantial investment in the 15-year bond by a very well respected global financial investor Reuters subsequently reported that a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Franklin Templeton had participated in the sale.



According to the report Franklin Templeton's high-profile bond fund manager, Dr Michael Hasenstab has taken a "substantial" position in Ghana's cedi-denominated government bonds Franklin Templeton Investment Limited is an American global investment management organization founded in 1947. In an unaudited semi-annual report of Franklyn Templeton Investment limited dated December 31, 2016; Honourable Trevor G. Trefgarne was named as one of the five board of Directors of the firm. He was also described as the chairman of Enterprise Group Limited in the report.



Enterprise Group has 10 Board of Directors. Principal among them are Keli Gadzekpo, Group Chief Executive of Enterprise Group; Dr Angela Ofori Atta, wife of Finance Minister Hon. Ken Ofori Atta who doubles as Director of Enterprise Insurance, a subsidiary of Enterprise Group. Enterprise Group also has Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo and Dr Angela Ofori Atta as non-executive members of the firm. Hon Gloria Akuffo is/was Director of Enterprise Life, a subsidiary of Enterprise Group (it is not clear whether she has resigned or not). It is now emerging that a firm that Hon Trevor G. Trefgarne works as a member of Board of Directors took a substantial position in the April 3, 2017 bond issued by the Finance Minister.



THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST



As noted, information that is now available in the public domain appears to indicate that Hon. Trevor G. Trefgarne is not just Board Chairman of Enterprise insurance Limited, a company owned partially by the current Finance Ministers company, Data Bank Limited. Hon. Trevor G. Trefgarne is also a Director of Franklyn Templeton which is the main participant in the recent Bond issuance.



Putting these apparent facts together, we have reason to believe that there is a relational interest between our Finance Minister and Trevor G. Trefgarne which creates a potential lack of transparency and conflict of interest. As we all know, the Constitution provides unequivocally that public officers shall not put themselves in a situation in which their private interest conflicts with their public obligations. There is no record available to us to the effect that the Finance Minister made known publicly this relational conflict of interest.



In other words, he failed and/or neglected to declare his relationship with Trevor G. Trefgarne and the extent to which that relationship might have potentially affected the decision to sell majority of the bonds to Frankly Templeton. Furthermore, there is no disclosure as to the extent to which the determination of the price of the bonds could also have been affected by this relationship between the Finance Minister and Franklyn Templeton.



Now that a good link has been established between the finance minister and his friend Trevor, it is clear that the finance minister issued this bond in a way that will favour his friend, family and business partners. This situation is best described as cronyism and nepotism, cooked for his friend and associates, and not transparent.



Under these circumstances, we wish to call for a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into whether, and the extent to which, this situation of lack of transparency and conflict of interest has adversely affected the welfare of the people of Ghana. Failing such Parliamentary inquiry we the minority shall have no option but to resort to using the conflict of interest jurisdiction of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). Furthermore, we also intend to exercise the option of filing a report/petition with the Financial Services Authority of the U.S.A to investigate Franklyn Templeton.



We also wish to point out that this Bond issue is clearly an international economic/business transaction within the meaning of article 181 (5) of the Constitution. Therefore, we expected that the bond issuance would have been brought to parliament for approval. This is because although the transaction appears as to be a domestic sale of bonds, it is in truth a private placement and an international economic transaction given the fact that Franklyn Templeton is a United States registered company and, therefore, qualifies as a foreign entity under article 181 (5) of the constitution. We, therefore, call on the Finance Minister to provide parliament with the full complement of documentation on this transaction for scrutiny and ratification.



Petition to CHRAJ



Also, the Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Brogya Genfi, petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), in his capacity as a citizen of Ghana, to investigate the bond controversy.



Below is Mr Yaw Brogya Genfis full petition:



Read the Full petition:



April 25, 2017



THE COMMISSIONER



COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS & ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE (CHRAJ), ACCRA



Dear Sir,



PETITION TO INVESTIGATE CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN THE RECENT US$2.25 BILLION BOND ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF GHANA THROUGH THE MINSTRY OF FINANCE



On April 3, 2017, the Ministry of Finance announced that the Government of Ghana had issued a 15-year and 7-year bond at a coupon rate of 19.75% each. The said issuance raised a total amount of USD1.13 billion. In addition, the Ministry of Finance raised the cedi equivalent of USD1.12 billion in 5-year and 10-year bonds via a tap arrangement.



A number of issues of conflict of interest and lack of transparency have emerged from the bond issuance. It is imperative that the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) investigates same to protect the national interest as per its mandate under article 218 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.



There is credible information in the public domain as follows:



1. One single investor, Franklin Templeton Investment Limited, purchased almost 95% of the Bond issued by the Minister for Finance. The size of this virtual private placement makes it akin to a sovereign bond or foreign loan.



2. The virtual private placement approach that was used was opened in the morning and closed in the evening of the same day March 31, 2017.



3. Franklin Templeton Investment Limited is an American global investment management organization founded in 1947.



4. In an unaudited semi-annual report of Franklin Templeton Investment Limited dated December 31, 2016, Mr. Trevor G. Trefgarne was named as one of the Directors of the its board.



5. In the same report, Trevor G. Trefgarne was also described as the Chairman of Enterprise Group Limited.



6. The Enterprise Group Limited is a company partially owned by Data Bank Limited, a company in which the Finance Minister is known to have significant interest.



7. The following are also Directors of the Enterprise Group Ltd.  Dr. Angela Ofori Atta, wife of the Finance Minister, Keli Gadzekpo, business partner of the Finance Minister, Hon. Gloria Akuffo, Attorney-General & Minister for Justice and Hon. Ken Ofori Atta, the Minister for Finance himself.



Further Details



1. The 7-year and 15-year Bonds were not on the issuance calendar.



2. The initial pricing guidelines of the Bond were issued around 5:37pm on March 30, 2017, by e-mail, which is after normal working hours.



3. The transaction was opened at 9.00am on March 31, 2017.



4. The public announcement of the transaction was sent by e-mail at approximately 9:09am on the March 31, 2017, which means the transaction was opened before the announcement was made to the public.



5. The issuance summary was issued on March 31, 2017, at about 4:20pm by e-mail indicating that the Bond transaction had been closed and announcement made to the public



6. April 3, 2017, was the Settlement Date and not the closing date of the Bond.



Please Note



1. From the points above, a reasonable person has cause to believe that there is a relational interest between Hon. Ken Ofori Atta and Mr. Trevor G. Trefgarne, who have been described as great friends.



2. The clear link between the Finance Minister and his friend Trevor Trefgarne, and the sub-links with the Finance Ministers family and business associates, leads to legitimate questions like



1. did the Finance Minister issue the bond in a manner that would favour his friend, family, associates and/or business partners;



2. was the deal influenced by cronyism, nepotism and corruption.



3. The Bond transaction seems to have been shrouded in secrecy  the process was limited to one day, unlike past bonds where the book-building method had been used and the process was opened for a minimum of three days to ensure optimal participation.



4. There is no record available to the effect that the Finance Minister disclosed his relational interest in the transaction. 5.



Please note further



19. On Monday, April 3, 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued a statement announcing that the Ministry of Finance had successfully issued 15 and 7 year bonds with the same coupon rate of 19.75%, raising a total amount of USD1.13 billion. In addition, the Ministry of Finance raised the cedi equivalent USD1.12 billion in 5 and 10 year bonds via a tap arrangement  a copy of the statement is attached marked A



20. It was reported by Reuters that a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Franklin Templeton had participated in the sale, and that Franklin Templetons high-profile bond fund manager, Dr Michael Hasenstab has taken a substantial position in Ghanas cedi-denominated government bonds  a copy is attached marked B



 On April 18, 2017, the Minority in Parliament held a Press Conference and raised serious questions of conflict of interest, transparency and lack of Parliamentary approval  a copy of the statement is attached marked C.



1. On April 19, 2017, the Ministry of Finance issued a response  a copy is attached marked D.



2. On April 20, 2017, the Minority in Parliament issued a response  a copy is attached marked E



3. On April 18, 2017, the Attorney-General & Minister for Justice on a radio station (Citi FM) indicated that she resigned from the Enterprise Group on April 1, 2017, and that she had no knowledge of the bond arrangement  a copy of the audio recording can be accessed from Citi FM. However, the Ministry of Finance records show that the bond process was opened and closed on March 31, 2017.



 On April 19, 2017, a Deputy Minister for Finance, Hon. Abena Osei Asare, on a radio station (Citi FM  Point Blank, Eye Witness News), indicated that once the Minister for Finance had declared his assets under the Declaration of Assets Act this meant that he had disclosed his interest in the matter  a copy of the audio recording can be accessed from Citi FM. It is, however, trite knowledge that declaration of assets forms filed with the Auditor-Generals Department are confidential until processes are executed that allow for their content to be exposed, and therefore cannot constitute disclosure of interest in this matter.



 On April 20, 2017, the Vice President, H.E. Mahamudu Bawumia, in an interview in Washington DC where he was attending the World Banks Spring meeting, described the Minority as ignorant but failed to answer the questions raised by the Minority in Parliament on the matter  a copy of the report can be accessed from Graphic Online.



2. On April 21, 2017, Dr. John Gatsi (Head of Finance Department, University of Cape Coast) published an article entitled What is External Borrowing in the context of the issuance of the US$2.25 Billion Euro Bond and Ghanas Public Borrowing Guidelines  a copy is attached marked F.



Some Relevant Laws, Regulations & Guidelines 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana



Article 284  A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts or is likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of his office.



Code of Conduct for Public Officers of Ghana



Principle 1.1.3



Public officer shall ensure that their personal interests or activities do not interfere with or appear to interfere with their obligations to serve the state.



Principle 1.2.4



Public officers shall not seek or obtain personal or private benefit from the use of information acquired in the course of their official duties.



Principle 1.3.1



Pubic officers shall not allow their personal interests, activities or conduct to interfere with or appear to interfere with the performance of their duties/functions.



Principle 1.4



Public officers shall not put themselves in a position where their personal interest conflicts or is likely o conflict with the performance of their functions/duties.



CHRAJs Guidelines on Conflict of Interest to assist Public Officials Identify, Manage and Resolve Conflicts of Interest:



2.0 Definition of Conflict of Interest



A Conflict of Interest refers to a situation where a public officials personal interest conflicts with or is likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of his/her office. In other words, a conflict of interest includes:



1. any interest or benefit, financial or otherwise, direct or indirect;



2. participation in any business transaction, or professional activity;



 an incurring of any obligation of any nature; or



1. an act or omission;



which is or appears or has the potential to be in conflict with the proper discharge of a public officials duties in the public interest.



Conflict of interest occurs when a public official attempts to promote or promotes a private or personal interest for himself/herself or for some other person, and the promotion of the private interest then results or is intended to result or appears to be or has the potential to result in the following:



1. an interference with the objective exercise of the persons duties, and



2. an improper benefit or an advantage by virtue of his/her position.



Section 4.2



Disclosure of Conflicting Interests



Whenever a conflict of interest situation occurs or is likely to occur, the public official must make a disclosure of the situation as provided by law or as follows:



What to disclose : assets and liabilities; gifts, conflicting interests, outside employment, and NGO activities



How to disclose : in writing, verbal, and surrendering the item



When to disclose : as soon as a conflict of interest situation occurs or is likely to occur, and when in doubt



To whom : CHRAJ, superior officer/head of institution, and ethics committee or compliance officer or a similar set up within the institution



Section 4.3



Resolution and Management of Conflict of Interests



Conflicts of interests may be resolved or managed by one or more of several ways, including the following:



1. divestment or liquidation of the interest by the public official;



2. detachment of the public official from involvement in an affected decision-making process;



 restriction of access by the affected public official to particular information;



1. transfer of the public official to duty in a non-conflicting function;



2. re-arrangement of the public officials duties and responsibilities;



3. resignation of the public official from the conflicting private-capacity function; and



 Resignation of the public official from the public office.



It seems clear that Hon. Ken Ofori Atta 



 put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts or is likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of his office;



 attempted to promote a private or personal interest for himself or for some other person, and the promotion of the private interest has resulted or was intended to result in or appears to have resulted in or has the potential to result an interference with the objective exercise of the persons duties and an improper benefit or an advantage by virtue of his position;



 did not take the proper steps in disclosing his conflicting interests;



 did not resolve or manage his conflicting interests.



Other relevant applicable rules are as follows:



In CHRAJs Guidelines on Conflict of Interest to assist Public Officials Identify, Manage and Resolve Conflicts of Interest, section 3 goes further to identify conflict of interest situations.



Section 3.1



General Rule: A public official shall not participate in an official capacity in any particular matter which to his knowledge:



1. he/she has a financial interest; and



2. any person whose interests are imputed to him in any way has a financial interest; if the particular matter will have a direct effect on that interest.



Section 3.2



A public official shall not take an action in an official capacity which involves dealing with himself/herself in a private capacity and which confers a benefit on himself/herself.



An example of self-dealing is the practice where tender board members bid for public contracts, which the board manages.



Section 3.3



3.3.1 General Rule:



A public official shall not participate in a matter involving specific parties, which he/she knows is likely to affect the interest of a member of his/her family, friend or partner if a reasonable person with knowledge of the facts would question his/her impartiality in the matter.



Section 3.5.1



Use of Public Office for Private Benefit



General Rule: A public official shall not use his public office for his/her own private benefit, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private benefit of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the public official is affiliated in a private capacity, including political parties, non-profit organizations of which he/she is an officer or member, and persons with whom the public official has to seek employment or business relations.



It further seems clear that Hon. Ken Ofori Atta



 has participated in an official capacity in a matter which to his knowledge he has a financial interest and/or persons whose interests are imputed to him have a financial interest;



 has taken an action in an official capacity which involves dealing with himself in a private capacity and which confers a benefit on himself;



 has participated in a matter involving specific parties, which he knows is likely to affect the interest of a member of his family, friend or partner and as a senior public official he should have known that a reasonable person with knowledge of the facts would question his impartiality in the matter;



 has used his public office for his own private benefit and for the private benefit of friends, relatives, and persons with whom he is affiliated in a private capacity. Several questions must be answered including the following:



 Was a substantial portion of the bond purchased by Franklin Templeton Investments, if so, how much?



 Is Trevor G. Trefgarne a Director of Franklin Templeton Investments?



 Is Trevor G. Trefgarne the Chairman/Director of Enterprise Group Ltd?



 Are Dr. Mrs. Angela Ofori-Atta, Mr. Keli Gadzekpo, Hon. Gloria Akuffo and Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta Directors of the Board of Enterprise Group Ltd.?



 If not, were they Directors of the Board in the immediate past?



 Does Databank Ltd. own part of Enterprise Group Ltd. or any of its affiliates?



 Does Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta have any shares or business interest in Databank Ltd. or did he have any shares or business interest in the immediate past?



 Is Keli Gadzekpo a business partner of the Minister for Finance or was Keli Gadzekpo a business partner of the Minister for Finance immediately before the Minister was sworn in as Minister for Finance?



 Did Hon. Gloria Akuffo resign from the board of Enterprise Group Ltd. and, if so, was this before the commencement of the process of the bond issuance?



 Did Hon. Gloria Akuffo, as Attorney-General & Minister for Justice, have no knowledge of the bond arrangement and, if so, why not?



 Were the initial pricing guidelines of the Bond issued around 5:37pm on March 30, 2017, after normal working hours?



 Was the transaction was opened around 9.00am on March 31, 2017, and closed around 4.20pm of the same day?



 Was the transaction opened before the announcement was made to the public?



 Was the placement method used competitive and transparent or was it cooked for one single investor?



 Did the Minister for Finance make full disclosure of his relational interest in the bond issuance either before or during the process?



 Did the Attorney-General make full disclosure of her relational interest in the bond issuance either before or during the process?



 Did the Minister for Finance adhere to the 1992 Constitution, the Code of Conduct for Public Officers of Ghana, CHRAJs guidelines on conflict of interest for Public Officers, and other relevant rules and laws pertaining to conflict of interest and issues of corruption?



 Should the Minister for Finance resign or be removed from office?



 Did the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice adhere to the 1992 Constitution, the Code of Conduct for Public Officers of Ghana, CHRAJs guidelines on conflict of interest for Public Officers, and other relevant rules and laws pertaining to conflict of interest and issues of corruption?



 Should the Attorney-General resign or be removed from office?



In line with my duties as a citizen of this nation, and in light of the above, I have no option than to petition CHRAJ for an investigation into the matter and the application of the necessary sanctions.



I am confident of your ability to investigate this matter thoroughly, dispassionately and in a non-partisan manner to help us reach a just conclusion.



Yours in the Service of the Nation



YAW BROGYA GYAMFI CITIZEN OF GHANA



cc H.E. President Akuffo Addo Flagstaff House, Accra



Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament Parliament House, Accra



Her Ladyship the Chief Justice Judicial Service of Ghana



The Hon. Minister Ministry of Finance, Accra



The Hon. Minister Ministry for Justice & Attorney General, Accra



Trevor G. Trefgarne c/o US Embassy, Accra



Securities Exchange Commission c/o US Embassy, Accra

Source: Classfmonline









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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.
Ghana and Sierra Leone have agreed to ratify the agreement for co-operation between their two countries, so as to provide the legal framework for addressing their trade and investment concerns.



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To this end, President Akufo-Addo has assured that I will pursue this matter with my Parliament to ensure the ratification of this Agreement, an agreement which was signed between the two countries on 19th December, 2013, but which is yet to be ratified.



Co-operation in the development of our agriculture, education, science and technology, infrastructure, health, energy and culture, and the co-ordination of the exploitation of our mutual natural resources, such as bauxite, iron ore, diamonds and gold, would be of immense benefit to our two countries.



President Akufo-Addo made this known on Wednesday, May 24, 2017, after paying a working days visit to Sierra Leone, at the commencement of the third phase of his official visits to countries in the ECOWAS region.



In addition to intensifying the links between Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean enterprises, the President stated that the process of regional integration must be hastened.



For a region that has made the choice of pursuing integration, we have not done much as we should have in liberalizing and encouraging trade amongst member countries, he said.



Research has shown that countries or groups of countries with the largest share of world trade are located within regions with the highest share of intra-regional trade. However, Trade between African regions remains low compared to other parts of the world.



With these very low levels of trade and investment co-operation, President Akufo-Addo noted that deliberate measures at expanding trade and business collaborations must be put in place to improve the prospects for prosperity of our two peoples.



In reiterating his commitment towards strengthening ECOWAS, President Akufo-Addo was certain that for a marked improvement in the welfare of the 350 million people currently living in the 15 member states of ECOWAS, I believe it is extremely important that we, the leaders, demonstrate strong political will to make the community an economic and political success, and make the project of integration real.



With West Africas population set to hit 500 million people in 20 years from now, up from the current population of 350 million, he stressed that this could be a large regional market, which could present immense opportunities to bring prosperity to our region with hard work, enterprise and creativity. The time for West African integration is now. Together, all ECOWAS member states should show real commitment towards converting ECOWAS into a true regional market.



President Akufo-Addo also commended his Sierra Leonean counterpart for the efforts he has made in restoring law and order, fostering a spirit of national reconciliation amongst the people, and the strong leadership he has exhibited in restoring macroeconomic stability since assuming the reins of government in 2007.



In 2013, for example, the GDP growth rate reached a record, all-time high of 20.70%. In 2014 and 2015, in the face of two major shocks, i.e. the ebola virus outbreak and the collapse of iron prices, Sierra Leones economy was shaken. Growth rates slumped dramatically, he said.



However, according to President Akufo-Addo, with prudent economic policies, spurred on by new investments in mining, agriculture and fisheries, economic growth has resumed, with GDP growth projected at 5.4% in 2016. Hopefully, this growth path will endure.



President Akufo-Addo added that it was his desire that Ghana and Sierra Leone to search continually for ways to co-operate, irrespective of who is at the helm of office of our respective countries. I have no doubt, that, together, we can forge a new, strong partnership for cooperation between our two nations for the mutual benefit of our two peoples.



With the Sierra Leonean people about to go to the polls in March 2018 to elect a new leader, President Akufo-Addo noted that that process will be enhanced, to the admiration of all in our region and beyond, by the quality of the arrangements for the next electoral contest in Sierra Leone, and by the quality of the democratic transition which Sierra Leone is about to witness. I wish you and the Sierra Leonean people well and Godspeed.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Thirty-one middle-level management officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) have been reassigned from their duty posts across the country.



This is the second major shake-up under the watch of new Comptroller of GIS, Kwame Asuah Takyi, who took office in March this year.



The officers affected are of Superintendent, Chief Superintendent, Deputy Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent ranks.





Earlier this month, 45 senior officers were transferred including the Head of Public Affairs at the Immigration Service Francis Palmdetti.



It includes two Deputy Commissioners of Immigration (DCOI), two Assistant Commissioners of Immigration (ACi), 18 Chief Superintendents of Immigration (C/SUPT.), eight Superintendents of Immigration (SUPT.), 11 Deputy Superintendents of Immigration (DSI) and four Assistant Superintendents of Immigration (ASI).



A letter dated May 17, 2017, and signed by Comptroller-General of Immigration, Kwame Asuah Takyi, said the transfers take immediate effect.





According to the letter, DCOI Prosper Price Delali Asima has been transferred from Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to Sekondi in the Western Region as the Officer in Charge (OIC) While DCOI Eric Affari at Sekondi heads to KIA as OIC.



In addition, ACI Isaac Luortey, the Commander in Tamale in the Northern Region has been transferred to Headquarters in Accra. He will be replaced by an officer from Headquarters Chief Superintendent Noah Ahomka Yeboah as Acting Regional Commander.



According to Mr. Takyi Asuah, the shake up is aimed at injecting more efficiency and effectiveness into the ranks of the service.



Ordinarily, officers are supposed to be transfered every four to five years.

But most of the officers being moved currently have stayed at their duty posts for six to seven years without being transferred.



The move is also to ensure that those who have served in deprived areas like Shia, Hamile and Axim be given the opportunity to operate at more exciting duty posts like the Kotoka International Airport, Aflao, Headquarters and Tema.



The move will also allow those who have served in cities to experience service in deprived areas.



In the latest shake-up, six officers are being moved from the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to other parts of the country whilst seven others are being moved from the Aflao border post.

Source: myjoyonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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President Akufo-Addo will today [Friday] leave Accra for Liberia as part of his tour of some West African states.



The President will hold bilateral talks with President Sirleaf Johnson as well as address the Ghanaian community in Monrovia. He will from Liberia move to Mali to hold similar talks with his counterpart before departing for Accra on Sunday.



President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, left Accra for Liberia. During his visit to Sierra Leone, he held bilateral talks with President Sirleaf Johnson as well as addressed the Ghanaian community in Monrovia.



A few weeks ago he also left for Senegal to start the second phase of his official working visit to countries within the ECOWAS region.



He spent (2) days conducting various businesses including holding interactions with that countrys President and meeting the Ghanaian community there.



He also visited Guinea and Cape Verde before returning to Accra on Sunday, May 21. The visit was aimed at deepening Ghanas bilateral relations with Senegal, Guinea and Cape Verde, and also reiterate Ghanas full commitment to the ECOWAS project.

Source: citifmonline.com









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The military is constructing a new cemetery at Burma Camp at the cost of $6 million to replace the current one at Osu.



However, the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, finds it outrageous to spend such a huge amount of money on a cemetery when there is not enough accommodation for officers at the barracks.



He has therefore caused the review of the contract and succeeded in bringing it down to $4.5 million.



The Deputy Minister of Defence, Major Derrick Oduro (Rtd), who revealed this, said the downward review followed a probe by the ministry into the cost of the project, which was awarded by the previous military high command under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress administration.



He said the ministry was still in consultation with the contractor to push for a further reduction.



The contractor was to construct a wall to cover the 64-acre land located at 5BN Burma Camp, an asphalt walkway and a place where visitors will be sheltered for refreshment on the new cemetery, he disclosed.



The cemetery, when completed, will replace the Osu Military Cemetery that is almost full, and civilians will also have a place to bury their departed ones at a fee.



Major Oduro (Rtd) revealed that during the review process, the two parties agreed that the contractor should construct a concrete road through the cemetery instead of asphalt.



He made this known when he toured One Garrison last Thursday in the company of the substantive minister and the military high command.



The tour was to acquaint the ministers with the situation on the ground and for him to inspect projects, some of which had been abandoned while others were still ongoing.



Galamsey



Mr Nitiwul, who was accompanied by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Obed Akwa, the Chief of Naval Staff, Real Admiral Peter Kofi Fable, and other service commanders, ordered the military high command to open investigations into allegations made by the Minister of Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, that some soldiers were providing security for illegal miners (galamseyers).



He said legal and military action would be taken against those soldiers, if found culpable.



Previous government, through the Chamber of Mines and the Minerals Commission, requested for military protection for some mining companies which have the licence to operate; and we are also going to look into that agreement and make possible amendments, the defence minister averred.



He urged the command to punish any soldier, who out of his own way, was providing security for illegal miners without the authority of the top men of the Ghana Armed Forces.



Housing



After touring some SSNIT projects abandoned 10 years ago, the minister said government had made provision of GH23 million for those projects to be completed.



The 18 high-rise buildings, when completed, would provide security for about 36 senior military personnel.



At the Army Recruit and Training School at Shai Hills, Mr Nitiwul ordered that an amount of $50,000 be taken from the peacekeeping fund to rehabilitate some dilapidated apartments being occupied by instructors.



He promised the personnel that government would soon launch a housing project to resolve their housing challenges.



Encroachment



At the 1BN regiment, and the army recruit training school, the minister discovered that most of the military lands had been taken over by encroachers and urged the high command to make sure they recover those lands.



Pension



He said the government intends to extend the retirement age of military personnel. For the commission officers, government intends to add five years to their retirement age of 15 years to help beef up the numbers while recruits would spend 30 instead of 25 years.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghana on Thursday renewed her commitment towards the building of a strong and more vibrant African Union (AU), to enable the continent take its rightful position in the world.



Mrs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, said Ghana would continue to invest tremendous political and financial capital towards the future of the AU.



Speaking at the flag-raising ceremony to mark the 54th AU Day in Accra, Mrs Botchwey said: For the Government therefore, this 54th Anniversary is not a celebration of the past, but an opportunity to renew Ghanas commitment to an organisation that we were very instrumental in founding.



The event on the theme Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investment in the Youth; was attended by traditional rulers, members of the Diplomatic community in Ghana, Ministers of state, Parliamentarians, members of the security forces, the clergy and students.



Mrs Botchwey and Mrs Pavelyn Tenda Musaka, the Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Ghana and Dean of the Diplomatic Community jointly inspected a guard of honour parade mounted by members of the security forces.



Mrs Botchwey said the theme for the celebration could not be more appropriate considering significance and centrality of the youth in the present context of national development and their aspirations towards continental prosperity.

She said it was a statement of fact that the youth in all nations were the bedrock of national development and therefore, had an interest in policies and institutions that concerned and shaped their future.



In spite of this, we are confronted with daunting statistics that indicate that the youth are being giving the priority that they deserve, both in the formulation of individual government policies across African countries and at the continental level.



They are in several instances the first casualties in armed conflicts and of the stark realities of poorly managed economies and of the competition for political power, she said.



As leaders and policy framers, we need to make a clear statement and focus our collective attention on unleashing the energies of Africas youth towards national development and ultimately continental unity and prosperity.

After all they are our future leaders, the Foreign Minister added.



She said: On this note, it is imperative to state that it is our collective responsibility, particularly the youth, to commit to the preservation of the rich and irreplaceable heritage bequeathed to us by our heroic forebears.



May our shared vision of An integrated prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the international arena soon become a reality.



Mrs Botchwey hailed the pioneering role Ghanas first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah played as a pillar in the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the AU, was founded on May 25, 1963, in Addis Baba, Ethiopia.



The AU was formed in the wake of the collective quest by African leaders, at the time, to work together in seeking the political emancipation of the African continent from the shackles of colonialism and the ills of imperialism.



Currently the AU Day is being observed as a statutory public holiday in Ghana, The Gambia, Mali, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.



President Alpha Conde of Guinea, AU Chairman, in a statement read on his behalf by Mrs Musaka paid a heartfelt tribute to the founding fathers of the AU.



He urged African leaders to invest in the youth, who were the future leaders for the continents socio-economic development.

Source: GNA









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The communications team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the United States (US) has sent warm wishes to its Director of Communications, Paul Kwaku Kyei Ofori, on his appointment as Deputy Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA).



Kwaku Kyei Ofori holds an MA in Technology Management from Georgetown University, Washington DC and a BA in Networking Technology, with a minor in Business Administration from the Central Connecticut State University, New Britin in Connecticut.



Until his appointment, Kwaku Kyei Ofori was the Director of Communications NPP-USA, the representative of Let My Vote Count Alliance representative (LMVCA) in the US, a member of the NPP side of transition team of 2016, technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, a consultant, founder/ CEO of O & O Technologies and OforiBowTies.



He is widely considered among his peers to be one of the most innovative young professionals of today.



At O&O Technologies, he and his team utilised advanced analytics in the resolution of business issues, whilst driving revenue growth through the development and delivery of tailored innovative support services.



Kwaku Kyei Ofori is also the founder of OforiBowTies, a handcrafted wooden bowtie line which has partnered with Barnes & Noble College to carry the wooden bow ties in major university books stores across the USA.

In addition to his leadership roles at his companies, Kwaku Kyei Ofori worked as a consultant at Accenture Federal Services, a global management consulting firm.



Aside this experience, Kwaku Kyei Ofori also worked as a technology server engineer at United Technologies and Aetna Life Insurance Corporation respectively, both Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Connecticut.



He also led a team of technical consultants at Vaskro International Corporation in New York and worked as part of a team of network administrators at his alma mater.



He is a regular speaker at career counselling workshops, capacity building and information sharing sessions to better equip the youth.



In a mentoring capacity, Kwaku Kyei Ofori provides advice and expertise to low-income earning sole proprietor businesses with basic technology needs.

Source: Charles Takyi-Boadu









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Deputy General Secretary for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho has said corruption under Akufo-Addo is going to be worst with the way things are going now.



According to him, as immoral act is part of corruption, appointing 110 ministers is immoral act as this will put pressure of the public purse; adding that the government agencies are filled with families, friends and party cronies.



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated unequivocally that he will not shield any public official found to be engaged in acts of corruption or malfeasance, but will ensure that the laws of the land are applied fully, without fear or favour.



According to President Akufo-Addo, the recent news of the arrest of some Customs officials responsible for the loss of some GH1.2 billion in revenue to the state is part of the efforts his government is making to block revenue leakages at the countrys ports.



I want to assure you that, so long as I have the opportunity, and I have breath and power, I am going to do something about it, so we can stop the leakages. I know that if we stop the leakages, we will have the money to do our own development. We are not going to be dependent on some people coming to say they are going to give us charity or grants. We will finance our own development ourselves, President Akufo-Addo stated.



The President stressed that when people get caught up in the net, I am imploring people not to come to me and say that Oh! Nana, this man is my relative, so spare him. That is the problem in Ghana. You find people going to speak to your wife with the hope of trying to influence you. I am not going to listen to that, because my concern is Ghana and not one or two individuals.



Reacting to President Akufo-Addo on corruption on UTVs Mpu Ne Mpu section on the 'Adekye Nsroma' programme, Koku Anyidoho averred that listening to President Akufo-Addos tape on fight against corruption shows no seriousness as he was laughing about it.



When I listen to the tape it looks as if he is not serious because he was laughing about it. Corruption takes many forms; immoral act is also corruption and appointing 110 ministers is immoral act. He is putting pressure on public purse and the government agencies are filled with families, friends and party cronies, he jabbed.



He reiterated that corruption under Akufo-Addo is going to be worst with the way things are going now.



He however asserted that President Akufo-Addo will be a one term president just as former President Mahama; thus, in 2020, the NDC is coming back to power as Ghanaians are now aware the NPP came to power through lies and falsehood.



The same way Ghanaians voted out NDC in 2016, they will vote out NPP in 2020; that I can assure you because the reason they voted against NDC, they will vote against NPP in 2020," he added.



He therefore revealed that the NDC members did not come out to vote in 2016, paving way for the NPP to win the election; adding that NDC is in talk with the aggrieved members to correct their mistakes.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says Ghanaians are looking up to the Ghana Armed Forces to be at the forefront in the fight against illegal mining, otherwise referred to as galamsey.



According to President Akufo-Addo, as his government intensifies its efforts to curb galamsey, which is polluting the countrys waters, destroying farmlands and forests, and threatening the very survival of the country, Ghanaians would continue to rely on the efforts of our security services, with the Armed Forces in the forefront, to help deal with the problem.



The President was confident that as always, the Armed Forces will rise to the occasion.



President Akufo-Addo made this known on Friday, May 26, when he delivered a speech at the Presentation of Colours to the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, at a ceremony at the Gondar Barracks, Burma Camp, in Accra.



Describing the current challenges confronting the officers, men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces as numerous, complex and sometimes quite unpredictable, the President noted that in the face of all these threats, the armed forces continue to discharge their duties equably and professionally.



All of us owe a great debt of gratitude to you, the men and women of the Armed Forces, for being prepared to put your lives on the line to keep our nation safe, safeguard our sovereignty and protect our territorial integrity. As the saying goes, you are the salt of the earth, he said.



In terms of military preparedness to address the new threats to the countrys security, President Akufo-Addo stated that his government will actively support contemporary training methods that will not only keep the military abreast with international military trends, but will also ensure that they remain the beacon of Armed Forces across the continent.



We are committed to providing you with modern military equipment, which would complement the training you would receive. Government is also committed to enriching the human resource base of the Armed Forces by supporting initiatives that will provide further education for soldiers, sailors and airmen to enhance further their skills at protecting our territorial integrity, he added.



History in the making



With Fridays Presentation of Colours ceremony his first as Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, President Akufo-Addo stated that this was also the very first time in the history of the Ghana Armed Forces that the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment is being presented with colours.



So you can see, it is an auspicious day for me. It means that the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment is now joined to me in a special way, for my future recollections of this day will always feature you, he added.



The ceremony for the Presentation of Colours, in tune with longstanding military traditions across the world, has been the sole preserve for units in the infantry. However, in line with the decision taken to present Colours to deserving combat support units of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Armoured Recce Regiment was presented with its own Colours. The only other combat support units who have ever been presented with their own colours are the 48 Engineer Regiment and the 66 Artillery Regiment.



The Colours of a regiment represent its honour and devotion to duty, as well as the fighting spirit of military units, and are symbols of bravery and unity.



As we present you, the Armoured Recce Regiment, with your own Colours, I urge you to revere it and be guided always by its undying principles of perseverance, unity and bravery in the protection of lives and property, and the defence of the territorial sovereignty of our beloved Ghana, the President stated.



President Akufo-Addo commended the Armoured Recce Regiment for their commitment to duty, and their overall contribution to the Ghana Armed Forces, since its establishment in 1963. The President cited the support given by the recce units of the Gold Coast Regiments in World War 1 and also in Burma, honours which have been inscribed on the colours, as well of honours chalked in international peacekeeping operations in Lebanon, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote dIvoire.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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You and I might know that a huntsman in the home is a thing to be celebrated (or at least, a thing to remain wilfully ignorant about, considering theyre more robust than your average tank and can accelerate from 0 to Pants-Ruining in the blink of an eye).

But our cousins in the motherland, sweet, innocent babes that they are  they havent the foggiest on how to deal with an unexpected arachno-guest. Bless em.

Im still happy to call this particular Brits response something of an overreaction, though. After discovering a largish huntsman on the wall of his Kent home, he didnt grab a Tupperware container and a magazine; instead he called in the RSPCA.

fair.

Louis Horton, the animal collector who showed up to assess the situation, apparently thought it was well worth his time:

I honestly expected to get there and find a big house spider or a toy spider or something silly but it was a huntsman. It wasnt a giant huntsman but was big enough, it was about the size of the palm of my hand so it wasnt the usual spider youd expect to find in your house. It was clinging to the outside wall of the mans house and he said it had barely moved since he first spotted it. I removed it, confined it in a box and took it to experts and Heathrows Animal Reception Centre to be quarantined.

Huntsman spiders arent venomous (to humans, anyway), but theyre also not supposed to be in the UK at all, and their behaviour can be confronting.

that is a mouse

Still, calling in the animal cops to deal with a lil old spidey? Come on, cobb. If youd kept it quiet, you could have had the best exotic pet on the block.

So cute!!!!

Source: Ten News.

Image: Louise Docker / Getty.
One of Australias biggest private vocational training schools has spectacularly caved in on itself today, leaving over 1,000 staff and 15,000 students dangling in limbo with no clear picture about their futures.

Careers Australia was placed into voluntary administration by its operators today, with staff told they would be stood down without pay effective immediately, and students informed by text message that all classes have ceased.

The company was already well up against it after a Federal Government decision six weeks ago that saw it stripped of its funding, largely due to a particularly poor track record which included worryingly low graduation levels and aggressive recruitment tactics that brazenly contravened consumer law.

The facility was denied entry into the Turnbull Governments revamped VET student loan scheme, effectively cutting off its source of cash completely. The school had previously raked in $264million in taxpayer funding between 2013 and 2015, but only managed a graduation rate of just 14.7% of all students.

The ABC reports that an appeal of the decision by Careers Australia failed earlier this week, triggering the collapse of the company.

Students enrolled at the facility were informed their school had virtually disappeared via text message delivered at 10:45pm last night.

All activities of Careers Australia Group are suspended. No classes, no workplaces effective immediately. Further information will be provided.

The company issued a media statement blaming the Federal Government ruling for the implosion.

The recent decision by the Federal Department of Education and Training not to approve Career Australias application to become a VET student loan scheme approved course provider has materially impacted the groups operations. Regrettably, we have had to suspend all classes and stand down employees while we assess all options available to the business moving forward.

A series of reports from 7:30 found that the company had been using shady and overly aggressive recruitment practices, including door-to-door salespeople dangling free computers as inducements to sign up. When the Federal Government put the kibosh on that, the company then allegedly moved to telemarketing, online competitions, and other nefarious means of spruiking their dodgy product.

Staff reported feeling blindsided by the decision, asserting that senior management never informed them of the companys dire financial position.

The Education Department has asserted that tuition assurance arrangements already in place would help transfer enrolled students into a similar course of study, or offer up refunds of any tuition money that remains unspent.

They also encourage students who were enrolled in courses at Careers Australia to contact TAFE Directors Australia  Careers Australias tuition assurance provider  on 02 9217 3180 with any queries. They can also contact the Department of Education and Training on 1800 020 108.

Source: ABC News.

Photo: ABC/Twitter.
GLOBAL LEADER BROMANCE: RED ALERT.

Confirmed dreamboat and Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau has been snapped walking around the frankly offensively picturesque Sicily location of this years G7 summit with none other than freshly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron.

Sure, you say. Its a global political event. They have to spend time together. Its just business.

To which I must respond:

DOES THIS LOOK LIKE JUST REGULAR PLATONIC HEAD OF STATE BUSINESS TO YOU?

Theyre speaking French! Macron is reaching for a flower! THIS IS THE MOST ROMANTIC BULLSHIT IVE EVER SEEN.

Lets get an UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN reboot with Trudeau and Macron asap thx pic.twitter.com/p4se5jfHDR  Slade Sohmer (@Slade) May 26, 2017

Apparently Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron flew to Sicily for their wedding photoshoot. pic.twitter.com/7trjOsXlfi  tessa (@sherlockify) May 26, 2017

This image of Trudeau and Macron in Sicily is right out of a liberal fantasy dream sequence. pic.twitter.com/3ayVQmMyrK  Dhruva Jaishankar (@d_jaishankar) May 26, 2017

no but seriously, the way Macron keeps looking at Trudeau, was Tumblr right all along pic.twitter.com/cW8BUBBzC6  Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) May 26, 2017

Justin Trudeau looks like The Bachelor and Macron has just stolen him away for a second. pic.twitter.com/tXLdSrD02j  Hanna Flint (@HannaFlint) May 26, 2017

Get a man who looks at you like Macron & Trudeau look at each other. (Youd probably also settle for a man who looks like Macron or Trudeau) pic.twitter.com/omDa1pjf8A  Tara Mulholland (@tara_mulholland) May 26, 2017

cant believe Justin has proposed already pic.twitter.com/r1kovkdeV5  Marie Le Conte (@youngvulgarian) May 26, 2017

If we can get a Rihanna/Lupita Nyongo heist flick, so help me god we can get the romance movies to end all romance movies out of this. If there is one shred of justice left in this sad sorry world, we will see Justin & Emmanuel: A Love Story in cinemas before were all swallowed up by rising sea levels. JUST GIVE US THIS ONE, PERFECT THING. PLEASE.

Source: Twitter.

Image: Twitter / @Slade.
Kisume (pronounced kiss oo may) is the latest brainchild of wildly successful restaurateur Chris Lucas  the guy who has blessed Melburnians with Chin Chin, Baby, Kong and Hawker Hall. The venues name, translated, means a pure obsession with beauty.

Its only a short stroll down from Chin Chin on Flinders Lane, but the three-storey Japanese extravaganza boasts a totally different vibe.

Walk through the understated entrance at No. 175 and you wont be hit with neon lights and booming music. Instead, the decor is sleek, with muted grey booths, dim lighting and blond timber floors. Its clean, refined and fresh, but never clinical.

There are subtle hints of fun throughout the whole venue  from the amusing but knowledgeable young waitstaff to the soy spray. Yep, theyve got soy sauce in tiny spray bottles.

Kisumes head chef, Master Chef K.S. Moon, is the real deal. The journey to become a head sushi chef is a long and winding one that can take a decade, and Moon has lived it, having trained and worked around the globe.

Raised and born in Korea, Moon spent his early career travelling back and forth between Seoul and Tokyo.

For years, he shadowed his itamae (his master, or teacher). Hed be at Toykos sprawling Tskukiji market by 3am sharp every day, collecting the days produce. Hed spend his nights observing his itamae in action. If he wanted to practice his technique, hed have to do so at home. This steady grind was gruelling, but designed to weed out the weak from the worthy.

He used his exacting technique and rigorous training to earn an elusive blowfish certification. Hes worked in and around Michelin-starred kitchens, and in multiple cities. First Seoul, then Dubai and Singapore. And now? Straya, mate.

While Moon means business and his technique is spellbinding, hes not didactic or removed from his guests. Hes cheeky and up for some lighthearted banter. PEDESTRIAN.TV were treated to a one-on-one experience with the master and from that, we present to you: how to eat sushi like you were put on this earth to do just that.

Dont be afraid to use your hands





When youre dining in any restaurant that isnt Maccas, using your hands to grab your grub feels a bit wrong.

But in news that will be music to the ears of everyone who doesnt quite have a handle on using chopsticks, Chef Moon reckons you can totally get away with grabbing nigiri with your sweaty little paws.

This way, youll notice the temperature of the piece. Since its made by the chefs hands, its the same temperature as his heart  meaning you feel his heart in yours. Now that is far more poetic than pinching a piece with wooden sticks.

But do use your chopsticks for other things

Its not uncommon to see someone eat sushi with chopsticks, then use their fingers to add some ginger or a dab of wasabi.

Do a switcheroo.

Use your chopsticks to place a little pearl of wasabi atop your sushi. Pick them up again when you want to cleanse your palate with some fresh ginger.

Dont be mixing your wasabi into your soy

Japanese cuisine is all about balance. If the Masterchef judges were to try and explain this, theyd say that each ingredient is, in itself, a hero ingredient.

Throwing wasabi into your soy sauce and giving it a whirl isnt exactly delicate. Instead, place the wasabi onto the fish and then dip it into your soy sauce. Itll look nicer that way, too.

Eat each piece in one bite

If you had, one shot, and one opportunity, to eat everything in one whole bite, would you capture it, or just let it slip?

Were not talking Mums spaghetti, so yes. Sushi pieces are designed to be taken whole. Split rice isnt pretty, nor is a sorry piece of fish hanging out the side of your mouth. Kisume encourage their guests to eat sushi in one unapologetic bite.





Flip it, flip it good

Eat your nigiri fish-down. That way, the fish is the first thing that hits your tongue and that way you can experience its flavour to the fullest. Again, this is where using your hands comes in handy; you need a fair bit of chopstick dexterity to get an upside-down piece of nigiri in your gob.

But we need to talk about the rice, too. A huge part of a sushi masters training is learning how to perfect rice. Every itamae creates his own secret recipe of rice, salt and rice vinegar. Its best not to go toying with that by drowning it in a sea of soy.

dont be this guy

Most importantly, enjoy

Sure, if youre on a junior budget, spending a night at Kisume is a real treat and probably more of an occasional thing.

So sit back. Relax. Sip some sake. Its all good, baby baby.

Kisumes open from 11am till late, seven days a week, at 175 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. You can book at chefs table seat and experience the full Chef Moon experience for $175.
Compiled by Julia Hatmaker | jhatmaker@pennlive.com

Memorial Day is about expressing our thanks to those who died for our country.

There are many tales of courage, self-sacrifice and valor in American history. Here are nine Pennsylvania men who died heroically for our country that you won't hear about in your standard history course -- but whose stories are worth telling, sharing and remembering.

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Hugh McNeil

Colonel McNeil was a bank cashier who moved up to Warren County in northwest Pennsylvania in the hopes that the mountain air would help him battle lung disease. However, when President Abraham Lincoln made a call for troops in 1861 he enlisted right away.

McNeil became the leader of the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment, also known as the Bucktails, which was full of backwoodsmen -- and crack shots. McNeil was no exception.

In the Battle of South Mountain in Maryland in Sept. 1862 he and his men were facing a barrage of fire from a group of Confederate soldiers who were sheltered behind a series of rocks. McNeil spied two of the Confederates peeking out through a small opening in the rocks, trying to take aim.

"There is nothing like killing two birds with one stone," McNeil allegedly told his men, before taking aim and firing. Both of the Confederates disappeared, McNeil's bullet having struck a slanting rock in front of them and been deflected so that it went through both of their heads.

McNeil died a few days later at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day of the war. His troops were sent out ahead of the rest of the Pennsylvania Reserves. He managed to get them within 75 yards of the enemy, at which point McNeil jumped up and rallied his troops to action by shouting Forward Bucktails, Forward. He was shot almost immediately after. He was 32.

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Sherwood Hallman

Sometimes one man can make all the difference.

Staff Sergeant Sherwood Hallman from Spring City saw some of the most horrific action in World War II, fighting on Omaha Beach in 1944. But it was for his efforts in the battle to take Brest that he will be forever remembered.

The main obstacle in taking Brest from the German forces was Fort Keranroux, which managed to stay strong despite three days of fire from the allies. Even getting close to the fort proved difficult.

So when Hallman and his squad were within several hundred yards from the enemy position, he knew he had to act fast. He had his company cover his movements and went out alone. He leaped over a hedgerow and into a sunken road, which had a machinegun and at least 30 rifle men. Using a carbine and throwing grenades he killed or wounded (the official report is unclear) four of the German soldiers and had the rest of them surrender.

After this was seen, 75 other enemy soldiers nearby surrendered. This one action allowed the Allies to capture Fort Keranroux that same day.

Hallman would receive a Medal of Honor for his actions, but he wouldn't live to see it. He was killed the next day by a German sniper. He was 30 years old.

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Day Turner

Sergeant Day Turner refused to give up, even when the odds were stacked against him.

On Jan. 8, 1945, the Berwick native had a mission, to hold a critical flank position with just nine men. But the German forces were determined to take it and assaulted his men with artillery, rocket fire and mortar. In an attempt to get some sort of shelter, Turner took his men into a nearby house. The enemy followed them, but no matter how hard they tried they couldn't take the position.

It was only with direct tank fire that the German forces could even get into the house -- but Turner wouldnt surrender (despite having five men wounded and one killed). He flung a can of flaming oil at the enemy then fought individual battles from room to room, sometimes in close hand-to-hand fights. When his own ammunition was gone he grabbed the enemys weapons and used them against them. Four hours after it began, the German forces surrendered. Turner and his men, of which only three were unwounded, took in 25 prisoners. 11 of the German forces were dead and many more wounded.

Turner was killed in action a month later. He was 23 years old.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor.

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George Rentz

Not all military heroes are soldiers

Commander George S. Rentz was a Presbyterian minister and navy chaplain in World War I and World War II. Originally from Lebanon, he was stationed aboard the USS Houston in February 1942 when the ship came under attack. Rather than stay in relative safety, Rentz went out and walked among the crew encouraging them as they fought.

"When the sailors saw this man of god walking fearlessly among them, they no longer felt alone," one officer would note.

A month later, the ship was engaged in another battle when it was sunk by torpedoes. The crew was forced to abandon the ship. Rentz took refuge on a pontoon that soon became overcrowded. As Rentz saw the pontoon begin to take water, he attempted to give his life jacket away and swim away from the pontoon, telling the crew "You men are young, with your lives ahead of you. I am old and have had my fun." But each time he was rebuffed and brought back.

Rentz was later seen huddled next to seaman first class Walter Beeson, who was wounded and did not have a life jacket. Rentz told Beeson that his heart was failing him and he wouldnt last much longer and gave Beeson the life jacket.

Rentz then said a prayer for the men on the pontoon and swam away.

Rentz was 59 years old and one year away from retirement. He was awarded the Navy Cross for his sacrifice.

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Robert Reem

Second Lieutenant Robert Reem thought of others before himself.

The Lancaster native didnt have time to think twice when an enemy grenade landed where he and his group were standing. They had been plotting out a fourth attack on a heavily fortified (and well concealed) position in Chinhung-ni, Korea on Nov. 6, 1950. Reem and his men had refused to give up, attacking the enemy units again and again, despite the constant stream of machine-gun, rifle and grenade fire.

He was giving orders for the fourth attack when the grenade landed. Reem leapt onto it, taking in the full impact of the explosion and saving the others. He was 25 years old.

Reem was given the Medal of Honor for his courage and self-sacrifice.

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Melvin Brown

When the odds were stacked against him, Private First Class Melvin Brown of Mahaffey kept on going.

Sept. 4, 1950: Brown and his platoon are securing the Walled City in Korea when the opposing forces counterattack. Brown retaliated with heavy rifle fire himself from a position along the 50-foot-high wall, but he soon ran out of ammunition and he became wounded. Still, he refused to leave his position. He threw grenades as the attackers came after him. When the grenades ran out, his fellow soldiers (who were holed up in nearby foxholes) threw some out to him. He braved enemy fire to retrieve the grenades, throw them at his attackers and return to position. Out of grenades and ammunition, all he had left was his entrenching tool. He took it out and waited, hitting each enemy soldier on the head as they peered out over his position. He managed to knock 10 enemy soldiers from the wall, inspiring his fellow soldiers so much that they were able to repel the attack and hold their position.

Brown was eventually declared killed in action. He was 19 years old. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry.

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Michael Crescenz

With the odds stacked against him, Corporal Michael Crescenz fought on.

On Nov. 20, 1968 the Philadelphia native was fighting in the Hiep Duc Valley area of the Republic of Vietnam. His unit was attempting to take out a well-fortified group of North Vietnamese Army soldiers. His company had already lost the two point men and was halted when Crescenz went into action. He left his position of safety, grabbed a machine gun and charged towards the enemy troops. He silenced their bunkers, killing the two occupants of each one. Still under fire, he took out a third bunker, allowing his company to continue its advance.

But as his comrades advanced, another hidden bunker began firing on them. He died trying to take out the fourth bunker, but because of his actions this company was able to complete its mission. He was awarded, posthumously, the Medal of Honor.

Crescenz was 19 years old when he died.

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Randall Shughart

Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart of Newville volunteered for the mission that killed him.

The sniper was initially charged with providing cover for an assault on a building and two helicopter crash sites in Mogadishu, Somalia on Oct. 3, 1993. Shughart and his team leader Gary Gordon were informed that there was no ground support available to help the second helicopter crash site. The two volunteered to be inserted to help protect those wounded. Their request was denied twice, as the crash site had an unknown amount of enemies closing in on it, ground fires and lots of debris. Eventually, after requesting to be inserted for a third time, they were put on the ground.

Gordon and Shughart had to fight through a maze of shanties before finally being able to reach the crash site. Upon reaching the site, Shughart pulled the pilot and crew members from the aircraft, established a perimeter and did his best to defend the position from their attackers. He was fatally wounded in the effort, but his actions saved the life of pilot Michael Durant.

Shughart was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and sacrifice. His valor in the Battle of Mogadishu was dramatized in the book and movie Black Hawk Down.

Shughart was 35 years old when he died.

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Department of Defense Photo.

Patrick Hawkins

I will never leave a fallen comrade is part of the Army Ranger creed, a part that Sergeant Patrick Hawkins took to heart.

The Carlisle-native was killed while going to help a wounded comrade in the Kandahar Province of Afghanistan on Oct. 6, 2013. An improvised explosive device went off as Hawkins moved to help, killing him and three others.

He was 25 when he was killed. Hawkins was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and Purple Heart.

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Paulette Irwin wanted to see the northern lights in Iceland, but she didn't want to get stuck on a schedule-focused tour with a group of other tourists.

One Pittsburgh startup helped make her vision a reality. ViaHero connected Irwin with an Iceland resident, who told her several locations to spot the auroras and how photograph them. By the end of the trip, Irwin and her husband had seen the northern lights on three separate occasions.

"We basically had the whole 360 view unobstructed," she said of one remarkable night. "You could literally spin in circles and see the lights dancing around you."

For the past year, ViaHero has made customized trip planning a breeze for those headed to Cuba, connecting travelers with residents and tour guides who have extensive knowledge about the country. The company more recently branched out to Iceland and Japan.

"The idea itself has been festering for probably five years or so," said CEO Greg Buzulencia. "Throughout the last 10 to 15 years, I spent a lot of time traveling internationally. Part of what I loved about traveling internationally was being integrated into the culture and understanding the culture, and not necessarily checking things off that I need to see."

Buzulencia realized not everyone enjoyed planning vacations the way he did, but many of his friends and colleagues expressed interest in immersing themselves more in the local culture when traveling abroad. ViaHero offers travelers the option to pick from the set of local "heroes" in each country, though the app will recommend certain guides based on interests.

"From an early stage, I had a mission of allowing more people to travel," he said, "and travel in a way that was personalized and off the beaten path, in whatever that might mean to that person."

These screenshots show a sample trip plan for Cuba. See a full sample plan here.

The company pays its heroes a flat fee up front to get honest feedback rather than focus on incentives and commission. Travelers can purchase trip plans for $15 a day that cover either recommendations or logistics, such as how to use public transportation or access the internet. A trip plan covering both costs $25 a day.

Additionally, the interactive trip plans and maps can be accessed in the app offline, making travel easier even in remote locations.

"It just made for a seamless trip, especially in Cuba. It was perfect," said Maya Hambright, who contacted Havana resident Ariel through ViaHero just four days before her flight. "He had a lot of good information. He just knew sort of an insider's view to dancing, restaurants and cafes."

Irwin learned about ViaHero through her daughter. When she and her husband decided to fly to Iceland and hunt for the northern lights, they also signed up for the service.

Their local contact, Gunnar, helped time the vacation to see the northern lights without having to deal with crowds or difficult weather. He also provided advice on a variety of topics, from how to photograph the auroras to where locals get ice cream.

"It was like having a tour guide in the back seat--an invisible tour guide," she said.
In honor of Memorial Day, and all those who have given their lives for then nation and Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered U.S. and Commonwealth flags at state facilities be flown at half-staff Monday morning.

The order applies to all U.S. and Pennsylvania flags at the Capitol Complex and all public buildings and grounds throughout the state. The flags will be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon Monday.

The governor invites all Pennsylvanians to participate in the tribute.
An executive with a private company that oversees maintenance at the Harrisburg School District was charged with bribery this week in connection with a similar job he performed for a New York school district.

John Gallagher, 53, of Harrisburg, was arrested Tuesday at his home, according to a news release from the United States Attorney's office in New York. He worked as an executive with Aramark, which just last month won a $14,500 contract with Harrisburg to oversee a five-year capital plan.

Harrisburg school board members last year approved a three-year renewal of Aramark's contract worth nearly $3 million to provide maintenance services to the district.

Those services were questioned last month when a parent complained that the restroom at her daughter's middle school, "looked like a crime scene."

In the ensuing outrage, Harrisburg school officials blamed much of the problem on the aging building and constant vandalism by students. The district's business administrator said at the time that Gallagher was going to provide before and after photos of the restroom once it was repainted and repaired. No photos have been provided to date.

Harrisburg school officials on Friday said they were told that Aramark had terminated Gallagher so he was no longer associated with the district's contract. Kirsten Keys, the district spokeswoman, said Harrisburg had not received a subpoena for any of its records or contracts.

"We have not been contacted by agents," Keys said. "Since we found out, it's obviously raised some questions for us. We're looking internally at our operations to make sure everything is okay."

Gallagher entered a not-guilty plea at his arraignment in New York Wednesday. The crimes allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2013 with the New Rochelle School District in southeastern New York.

The U.S. Attorney's office alleges that Gallagher solicited and accepted kickbacks from an outside contractor for ten percent of the cost of contracts paid by the school district.

"A school district official should be doing what is best for our children and their education," said acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim. "Instead, as alleged, John Gallagher demanded and received more than $150,000 in kickbacks and bribes from a contractor for the school district."

Officials from the New Rochelle School District said in a prepared statement after Gallagher's arrest that they asked Aramark in 2014 to remove Gallagher and the rest of the on-site Aramark team for unsatisfactory management and supervision.

The move came after the district got a new management team in 2014, including a new superintendent, a new assistant superintendent for business and administration, a new director of environmental facilities, and a new independent claims auditor.

After the complaints, new Aramark personnel were provided, but the new administration remained unsatisfied, according to the school district news release, and Aramark's contract was terminated entirely in June 30, 2016.

Meanwhile, in Harrisburg, the school district administration last April recommended renewing Aramark's contract. The contract called for no increase in costs the first year, then a one-percent increase for each of the subsequent two years.

As part of the contract, Armark provided three employees to administer the operation, all custodial and grounds supplies as contracted, and ten employees (nine custodians, one carpenter.)

According to charging documents filed against Gallagher in New York, Gallagher engaged in a corrupt scheme, in which he solicited, demanded, and accepted bribes in the form of cash payments for securing contracts with the district for Mauro Zonzini, who controlled a construction company in Westchester County.

Routinely, after the school district paid the company for work performed, Gallagher met in person with Zonzini in a parking lot, where Zonzini provided Gallagher with a kickback of ten percent, according to the U.S. Attorney's news release.

In this way, Gallagher received dozens of cash bribe payments from Zonzini, over the course of about four years, which collectively amounted to more than $150,000.

Gallagher did so, as he admitted during a secretly recorded conversation, by keeping the payments "in my car or in my trunk," according to the news release.

In some instances he used the cash to make payments directly toward living expenses, prosecutors alleged, without depositing it in his bank account.

Prosecutors said Gallagher used the bribe money to make credit card payments, car payments, and, as he admitted during the secretly recorded conversation, "I paid for some college."

Online court records show Gallagher was charged with driving under the influence in 2014 by state police in Reed Township. He entered a diversion program in 2015.

UPDATE: This article was updated with comments from the Harrisburg School District.

Armark contract extension proposal 2016 by PennLive on Scribd
Payless ShoeSource, which announced plans in April to close 400 stores, this week released a list of more stores closings, and a list of stores that might be closed, depending on the outcome of negotiations.

The latter list includes stores in Camp Hill and Lancaster.

The discount shoe retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April and announced then plans to immediately close 400 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company said it planned to restructure, reduce its debt by almost half, and better position itself to compete in the arena of online sales.

The Pennsylvania stores that it said at that time that it planned to close were:

Washington Crown Center, Washington

Bristol Commerce Plaza, Bristol

Montgomery Square, North Wales

Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, Tarentum

Wind Gap Plaza, Wind Gap

Rockvale Square, Lancaster

Plank Road Commons, Altoona

Aliquippa Shopping Center, Aliquippa

997 Wildlife Lodge Road, Mount Pleasant

Bradford Town Center, Towanda

On Wednesday, the company released a list of 112 more stores that will be closed. The only Pennsylvnaia store on the list is located in Royersford.

Payless also released a list of stores that it says "may be subject to closure pending ongoing negotiations.

"We remain hopeful that these negotiations will be successful and provide us with the ability to avoid additional closures," the company's statement reads.

That list includes 14 stores in Pennsylvania. They are:
Just when you'll need to the air conditioning the most, PPL Electric Utilities will be raising its rates.

Effective June 1, the electric company will raise its price-to-compare rate on residential customers from 7.439 cents per kWh to 8.493 cents per kWh. That's an increase of about 14.2 percent.

PPL spokesman Kurt Blumenau told LehighValley.com that the monthly bill for an average, non-shopping residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month will increase from $136.12 currently to $144.87 under the new price-to-compare.

Blumenau said that for small businesses, the bill for an average customer using 1,000 kWh per month will increase from $115.99 to $118.06.

Blumenau told PennLive that no customer has to pay the price-to-compare. Both residential and business customers have the option to buy their power from other suppliers.

Customers, he said, may be able to save money by obtaining a lower rate from another supplier. About 44 percent of PPL customers currently shop for their energy supply, he said.

PPL Electric Utilities serves more than 1.4 million home and business customers in Pennsylvania.
(Editor's Note: This editorial first ran on PennLive on May 27, 2016. One year later, it still resonates.)

It was one voice of several who responded to a posting on PennLive asking how to better recognize the meaning of Memorial Day.

But the thoughts of this former soldier from the Vietnam era were among the most eloquent.

"On Memorial Day, it seems to me that the story is best told one lost person at a time. In Vietnam, according to the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall, there were about 58,000 people lost, including non-combat losses. Of course, it's difficult to contemplate that number, but it's actually 58,000 INDIVIDUAL stories and that's where the meaning lies. Here is one such story:

"William Lynn Williams, from New Jersey, was known as Billy and Bing to his buddies. Bing came from an observation that he had Bing Crosby eyes, well, whatever. Bing died on Feb. 11, 1971. It was during a bad time for Delta Company, 1/46th Infantry.

"Ten days earlier, Charlie Company had seized a huge arms cache in this area, including a brand new 198 SKS semiautomatic rifles, still packed in grease, plus another 57 AK-47s, 16 light machine guns, and a number of other items. Those weapons had been painstakingly moved down the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, and then into South Vietnam. They were finally available and ready to distribute to the troops, except that the Americans seized them. To say that the enemy was upset at the loss is an understatement.

"Delta Company moved into this same area while the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) scrambled to remove any remaining weapons. The NVA harassed Delta Company to delay and disrupt the search. As it was impossible to hide a Company, the NVA was able to observe where Delta Company had their night laager position. They then set up ambushes on the likely routes out of that position. If the NVA guessed wrong on the route, nothing happened. However, when they guessed correctly, a quick hit-and-run ambush would be sprung, then the NVA would fade back into the bush.

"Bing Williams was killed in one of those ambushes. Sadly, his wife had given birth to a daughter, Amy, only nine days before he died. Years later, Amy and I connected through the Sons and Daughters in Touch program of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She wasn't interested in how he had died, it was more that she wanted to know what kind of man he was while alive.

"As I said, Bing was one person, one loss, or one story. Delta Company lost another five soldiers during that 15-day mission. But again, those represent only six stories. There are 57,994 others. And of course, that was from only this one war. Unfortunately, there were many other wars, too. And each of the losses in all of the wars was a person with their individual life story.

"I cringe just a bit at the common admonition to have a Happy Memorial Day. Personally, I say, 'Have a thoughtful, thankful Memorial Day.' It seems more fitting."

Fly the flag. Wear the uniform. Bring the kids out to the parade.

And, as one other member of our military community chimed in by email, "Do not tell a vet 'Thanks for your service.' We all know that Memorial Day is about the men and women who you can no longer say that to."
By Christian Herr

Two years ago, Pennsylvania farmers were just beginning to understand the extent of the devastation of America's worst animal disease outbreak, high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Christian Herr (Penn-AG photo)

In winter and early spring of 2015, the midwestern United States was infected with HPAI.

By June 2015, more than 49.5 million chickens and turkeys were dead.

Nearly 2,000 veterinarians, state and federal regulators, and special contactors were dispatched to help with the control and cleanup. The outbreak cost taxpayers, farmers, businesses, and consumers more than $3.3 billion.

During this troubling time for American agriculture, farmers in Pennsylvania were witnessing an unprecedented response from our legislature, state Department of Agriculture, and partners at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) and Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.

Our state legislature invested more financially on prevention and preparation than the rest of the states combined. An emergency authorization in case of an outbreak also was approved for the Department of Agriculture, totaling approximately $27 million.

Because of the implementation of an aggressive plan led by Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding and supported by veterinarians and animal health professionals at Penn Vet and Penn State, only a fraction of the legislative appropriation needed to be spent.

This proactive approach was a clear sign that no one wanted to relive the sins of our past. In April 1983, Pennsylvania had its first devastating experience with avian influenza.

By the time the disease was finally brought under control, 17 million birds died and $60 million was spent on the cleanup. We learned from that outbreak and successfully defended Pennsylvania against subsequent flare-ups of avian influenza that have devastated other states.

Today, Pennsylvania remains one of the largest and most diverse poultry states in America. Because of that diversity we are also one of the most vulnerable to a new outbreak of avian influenza. We have avoided the outbreaks for two reasons: planning and resources.

Pennsylvania's General Assembly has always understood the value of investing in a great animal health system. Its support for the Department of Agriculture, Animal Health Commission, Penn State University, and Penn Vet has kept poultry healthy to feed our citizens, and has saved taxpayers and consumers billions.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the value of the commonwealth's appropriation to Penn Vet as lawmakers continue to deal with difficult budgetary challenges. Each year, Penn Vet receives approximately $30 million in state support, and for good reason. Penn Vet is our veterinary school. There is no other in Pennsylvania.

What does Pennsylvania get in exchange for this investment?

It gets a veterinary school that is considered one of the best in the world.

If we have an outbreak of avian influenza in our chickens, or the pseudo-rabies virus in our hogs, we rely on veterinarians and staff at the Penn Vet diagnostic laboratories to guide our response.

When our horses are infected with life-threatening equine herpes virus (EHV-1), the best hope in the world of saving them is Penn Vet. When our cows are having difficulty birthing a new calf or are suffering from an endemic disease like mastitis, it's a veterinarian likely trained at Penn Vet who we call.

And as every Pennsylvanian who loves their pet knows, when our family cat or dog is diagnosed with cancer or heart disease, we know that the best care in the world can be found at Penn Vet.

Not only does state funding support animal health initiatives, but it also enables Penn Vet to provide scholarships for students who commit to practicing in some of the most rural areas of our commonwealth. In fact, some counties have just two or even fewer veterinarians. More often than not, those veterinarians are Penn Vet graduates.

We certainly understand fiscal challenges, but we must remain vigilant. Over the past several weeks, avian influenza has been detected in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Kentucky. Needless to say, many farmers and agribusinesses are nervous.

Farmers and animal owners agree: We believe that protecting animal health is a core function of our government. Our commonwealth has been a national leader in that regard, thanks to the efforts of our legislators. Pennsylvania's budgetary support of Penn Vet is one of the best returns on investment in our state budget. Maintaining this investment helps keep poultry, livestock - and humans - healthy.

Christian Herr is the executive vice president of PennAg Industries Association, which serves agribusinesses of all sizes and types. For more information, see: www.PennAg.com.
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Men jump from their vehicle known as "Jeepney" to be frisked by police at a checkpoint leading to Marawi city in southern Philippines Thursday, May 25, 2017. Army tanks packed with soldiers rolled into the southern Philippine city Thursday to try to restore control after ISIS-linked militants launched a violent siege that sent thousands of people fleeing for their lives and raised fears of extremists gaining traction in the country. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)
Forensic experts attend the scene of an explosion in Athens, on Thursday, May 25, 2017. A letter bomb exploded inside the car of former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos in central Athens on Thursday, wounding him and two Bank of Greece employees, officials said, and all three were described as being conscious and hospitalized in stable condition. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)
Resat Petek, the head of a Turkish parliamentary committee charged with investigating the coup attempt and a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party, speaks to the media in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, May 26, 2017. Petek says there is no doubt that U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind last summer's failed military coup. Gulen, a former ally-turned-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has denied he was involved. (AP Photo)
New East Jordan trail to be named for Don and EIleen Klein
Spain's Tubacex to sale pipes for Iran oil industry on a 550 million euros deal

BEIRUT

Petroleumworld 05 25 2017

Iran has signed a contract worth more than 550 million euros ($615 million) with Spain's Tubacex to buy corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) pipes for its oil industry, the oil ministry's news agency reported on Wednesday.

The contract was signed with Iran's Foolad Isfahan company which will take over production of the pipes completely within three years, the SHANA agency reported. The deal will lead to the production of 600 kilometers of pipe.

Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said CRA pipes were extremely difficult to obtain while sanctions were still in place. An agreement between Iran and Western powers led to a number of sanctions being lifted in January 2016 in exchange for curbs on the country's nuclear programme.

"If sanctions were still in place we would not have been able to sign such a deal," Zanganeh said, according to SHANA.

Anton Azlor, a Tubacex director, said the deal had taken approximately a year and half to negotiate and that the company is interested in doing more work in Iran, SHANA reported.

Zanganeh said that the signing of the deal had been delayed until after Iran's presidential election so that the oil ministry would not be accused of trying to sway the results.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was re-elected on Friday with 57 percent of the vote. ($1 = 0.8947 euros)






GE's joint venture with Saudi Arabia to start gas turbine production this year

DUBAI

Petroleumworld 05 26 2017

General Electric's joint venture to manufacture gas turbines in Saudi Arabia will start production by the end of the year, the chief executive of its state-backed Saudi partner said on Thursday.

GE and Saudi industrial development company Dussur signed an agreement on Wednesday to set up the one billion riyal ($267 million) joint venture in the eastern city of Dammam.

Dussur CEO Rasheed al-Shubaili said manufacturing of GE's H-Class turbines in Saudi Arabia would start before the end of the year with the first turbine to be completed in 2018.

The Saudi made gas turbines would be sold in the country and to international customers, he said in an interview in Dubai.

Dussur, formerly Saudi Arabian Industrial Investments Company (SAIIC), was established in 2016 by state firms Saudi Aramco, Public Investment Fund, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC).

It aims to develop industrial sectors in Saudi Arabia as part of the government's plan to create jobs and diversify the oil-dependent economy.

The joint venture followed a memorandum of understanding signed last year by GE and Dussur that is expected to draw nearly 3.75 billion riyals of investment by the two companies in 2017.

Al-Shubaili declined to say when the joint venture, which is 55 percent owned by Dussur and 45 percent owned by GE, aimed to make a profit.

"We're a long-term patient investor. Our investments are going to profitable," al-Shubaili said.

GE and Dussur signed the joint venture agreement days after GE announced $15 billion of deals with Saudi Arabia during United State President Donald Trump's visit to the Kingdom last weekend.

($1 = 3.7503 riyals)








Ecuador's new president Lenin Moreno says he is negotiating World Bank loan

COCHASQUI, Ecuador

Petroleumworld 05 26 2017

Ecuador's new leftist president, Lenin Moreno, said on Thursday he had reached out to the World Bank - an organization scorned by his predecessor - in a bid for financing that could help him fund ambitious social programs.

Former President Rafael Correa ordered the expulsion of the World Bank's representative in the country in 2007 because of conditions attached to a $100 million loan.

Moreno, a former vice president under Correa, has promised to govern in a more conciliatory style than his predecessor and improve relations with business.

"We've started to reach out to the World Bank, it's an excellent source of financing," said Moreno, who was sworn in on Wednesday after winning a close election on promises of maintaining Correa's popular social programs.

"We know the conditions of years ago are completely different (now.) These credits are more accessible and more affordable and without a doubt we're going to reach an agreement with them," Moreno added after a symbolic swearing-in by an indigenous community about an hour outside the capital, Quito.

Moreno, who has also said he would seek to renegotiate foreign debt to improve terms, did not provide details on the World Bank talks. The World Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moreno has vowed to provide free education, health and housing for lower-income families, and subsidies to eradicate extreme poverty.

But steep public debt and a dollarized economy hurt by lower oil prices are prompting the need for external financing. Ecuador's opposition accused the government of running up excessive debt and mismanaging a decade-long oil boom.

Ecuador's ruling Country Alliance party counters it has pulled millions out of poverty in the country dependent on exports of oil, flowers and shrimp.

"We will remain austere with our spending, but never, under any circumstance, will we stop serving the Ecuadorean people as we've promised in our programs," said Moreno, draped in a traditional red poncho.






Venezuela and Syria secret scheme to market sanctioned oil to the U.S.

Bloomberg/ Ben Bartenstein



Refinery in San Nicolas, Aruba. Venezuela secretly plotted to sell banned syrian oil to the U.S. Arrangement sought to refine Syrian oil in the Caribbean. Talks show how two outcast nations tried to help each other.

ORANJESTAD

Petroleumworld 05 26 2017

Syria and Venezuela plotted in recent years to evade international sanctions on Syria through a secret deal to transport its crude oil through Russia to the Caribbean.

The previously undisclosed plan aimed to sell Syrian oil at a big discount to Venezuela through a Russian shell company, which would send it to Aruba for refining and distribution to gas stations in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to dozens of emails, documents and interviews.

The scheme, which hasn't been executed, indicates the extent to which the two pariah nations are willing to go to evade international rules and antagonize global powers. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, written off repeatedly during the past six years as hundreds of thousands of his citizens have been killed in a brutal civil war, has clung firmly to power.

For Venezuela, the plan forms part of an international agenda initiated by the late socialist President Hugo Chavez that has made the country an ally of Iran and Cuba. Now under the leadership of his embattled disciple, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela is desperate for cash after years of government mismanagement drove oil output to a three-decade low, plunged the economy into a depression and fueled weeks of deadly nationwide protests. The Syrian initiative underscores Venezuela's international ambitions, indicating that its current crisis could have repercussions far beyond its shores.

Caribbean Scheme

It's unclear whether the plan is still under consideration. A key player, Wilmer Ruperti, a Venezuelan oil trader who grew enormously wealthy through his closeness to the country's leadership, acknowledged in a phone interview his participation but said he no longer has a role in it. Syrian officials approached him in early 2012 during a party at the Syrian Club of Caracas.

At that time, Ruperti began renting a lavish guesthouse on Aruba's northern coast to scout out a refinery and meet a local realtor, Oscar Helmeyer. He had his eye on a facility that had just been shut down by its owners, San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. , causing massive unemployment on the island. Ruperti offered to pay Helmeyer $15 million for help in buying the refinery, one of the world's largest, although in the end Venezuela's state oil company leased it. In an interview, Helmeyer said Ruperti also met with Aruban Prime Minister Mike Eman and another top official, Mike de Meza. Both declined repeated requests for interviews.

In a September 2012 letter to Syria's then-ambassador to Venezuela, Ghassan Abbas, Ruperti said the point of the scheme would be to avoid the boycott that has been implemented by United States of America and the European Community.

Socialist Fatherland

He proposed heading a business group called Sirius Venezuelan and recommended a five-year contract to supply 50,000 to 200,000 barrels a day of Syrian crude, as well as storage capacity for another 6 million Syrian barrels. Stamped beneath Ruperti's signature, in bold italics: Socialist fatherland, we will win and we will live.

What followed was a chain of communication between Syrian and Venezuelan officials that included several executives of Houston-based Citgo Petroleum Corp ., the U.S. subsidiary of PDVSA, or Petroleos de Venezuela , according to two people familiar with the talks. One note from Ambassador Abbas urged a Venezuelan official to come to Damascus to discuss volumes, terms and conditions of the deal.

In the phone interview from Caracas, Ruperti said the oil deal wasn't meant to make a political statement. It was a logistical solution to make a lot of money, he said.

PDVSA did not respond to requests for comment. A Citgo official said the company is not considering and will not consider Syrian crude imports to supply the Citgo Aruba Refinery. The company is committed to the operation of the Citgo Aruba Refinery in compliance with all applicable laws, and this includes all U.S. sanctions laws.

Abbas couldn't be reached for comment.

Trump Conflict?

Citgo attracted attention in Washington earlier this year by donating $500,000 to the inauguration fund of President Donald Trump, a sum that exceeded gifts by Shell, Walmart and most other U.S. companies. The donation raises concerns about how a foreign government might seek to buy influence inside the Oval Office, according to Richard Painter, who served as White House ethics counsel under President George W. Bush and has been critical of the Trump administration.

Citgo's inauguration gift surfaced after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators said that critical energy infrastructure in the U.S. owned by Citgo could come into the hands of Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC .

PDVSA used 49.9 percent of its Citgo shares as collateral for a loan from Rosneft last year, according to a Nov. 30 financial statement filed in Delaware. Senators, including Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, have said that the Russian company's purchase of additional PDVSA bonds on the open market would bring its total ownership potential, if PDVSA were to default, to more than 50 percent.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that, in the event of a PDVSA default, Citgo's loan from Russia will be reviewed by the department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which can derail deals on national security concerns. The U.S. is the largest buyer of Venezuelan crude, and Citgo takes the largest share of those imports, according to analysis of U.S. government data compiled by Bloomberg.

For many in Aruba, learning of a refining deal that would have included Syrian oil has come as something of a shock. U.S. officials have said that even planning such a scheme violates international sanctions. Alvin Koolman, the top official of Aruba's state refining company, Refineria di Aruba N.V., said in an interview that the company will investigate attempts to violate sanctions at the facility and cooperate with U.S. officials. If anything like that comes above water, it will be stopped, Koolman said at the company's headquarters in San Nicolas, Aruba.

The facility hasn't processed any oil since Citgo signed the lease, Koolman said, and there's no evidence of oil tankers actually taking the route from Syria to Russia to the Caribbean, according to shipping data tracked by Bloomberg.

Political Pawn

While many Aruban officials say they had no knowledge of the Syrian oil plan, parliamentary elections will be held in September and the refinery may turn into a political pawn because its closing caused so much suffering and unemployment. When Valero shut operations in March 2012, it was one of Aruba's largest employers and the island plunged into a double-dip recession. Its economy is now the third-most dependent on tourism in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.

This is a shock, said Dangui Oduber, an opposition lawmaker, whose father served two terms as Aruba's prime minister. Our tourism industry can't afford to be related to the Syrian government.

Oduber said he will request a public hearing to bring Eman and other ministers who signed off on the Citgo lease before parliament.

On a recent weekday, the only signs of life in once-bustling San Nicolas were two pimps standing guard on the street corners as Venezuelan and Colombian prostitutes in blue and yellow bikinis posed alongside abandoned row houses. Outside the refinery entrance, five donkeys plodded through a field of cacti.

Whatever happens to the refinery, the uncovered plot to reopen it raises questions about possible efforts that haven't been exposed.

"Syria is searching for alternatives and ways to get around the law and they've found friends in our own hemisphere, said Shannon O'Neil, senior fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. If Venezuela is willing to go through all of these contortions to help the Assad regime, what else are they willing to do?"






In a decision that strengthens the hands of homeowners swept up in civil forfeiture actions, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that authorities must have strong evidence showing a home or car was used in a crime and that the owner consented to the illegal activity before they move to seize the property.

In a unanimous, 73-page opinion, the court found that although authorities have the right to seize property used in illegal enterprises, they must prove that the owner not only was aware of the illegal activity but also had agreed to it. The court also found that property seizures may breach the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against excessive fines if the seizure is "grossly disproportional" to the underlying offense.

"The amount of forfeiture must bear some relationship to the gravity of the offense that it is designed to punish," Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Debra Todd wrote.

The ruling, issued late Thursday, came in the case of Elizabeth Young, a 72-year-old grandmother from the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia, whose house and minivan were seized by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office in 2013 after her son was arrested for selling small amounts of marijuana there.

Young contested the seizure, but Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick ruled in favor of the DA's Office, finding that Young had ample knowledge of her son's activities because the police had searched the house and seized drug paraphernalia, but the drug dealing continued.

"I am glad that this has come to some kind of conclusion," said Young, who has been out of the house since 2013 and is currently living in Yeadon. "I am glad that I will be here to see this thing cleared up. I never did anything wrong and I have been out of my house long enough."

The District Attorney's Office, noting that the Supreme Court decision leaves undisturbed the right of law enforcement to seize property implicated in illegal drug sales, said in a statement that it will litigate future property-seizure cases in line with the ruling.

"The Pennsylvania Supreme Court clarified the law regarding both whether a civil forfeiture equates to an excessive fine and what factors should be considered when a litigant argues that he or she is an innocent owner of a property that was used for illegal activity," the DA's Office said. "The Philadelphia DAO is reviewing the decision and will address all future cases as outlined by the court."

The Supreme Court decision upheld a December 2014 opinion by Commonwealth Court, a mid-level appeals court in Pennsylvania, overturning the seizure. The Supreme Court sent the matter back to the trial court for further review, which means there is no timetable for when Young will be able to return to her house. A team of lawyers at Center City's Ballard Spahr represented Young pro bono.

"It is a mandate for the government and to law enforcement and a victory for civil liberties," said Ballard partner Jessica Anthony, who argued the case before the Supreme Court.

Civil forfeiture is a practice long used by law enforcement to crack down on drug dealers not only by throwing them in jail but also taking their property. And it has generated heated opposition in Philadelphia and in jurisdictions around the country with seemingly innocent people getting swept up in the net. Because it is a civil proceeding, it can be used against homeowners such as Young, who haven't been convicted or even charged with a crime, but who are deemed by authorities to have indirectly participated in the criminal activity.

To prevail, prosecutors had to merely show that it was more likely than not that the homeowner was aware of or consented to the activity, a standard well below that of criminal trials.

The problem with that standard, the Supreme Court said, is that most of the people caught up in civil forfeiture proceedings are poor and typically appear without a lawyer because there is no right to counsel in civil proceedings. Although civil forfeitures can be an effective tool in fighting crime, the unique vulnerability of people subject to seizure actions requires that such trials be conducted with extra care, the court said.

In Young's case, even though the police had searched her house, and seized what they said were drugs and drug paraphernalia, she was under no obligation to believe them, the Supreme Court said. Moreover, she had been ill during the time that the police had targeted her son and thus was less able to judge his activity. Even if authorities could show that Young was aware of her son's drug dealing, they must also prove that she consented to it, the court said.

The court cited both state and federal case law in setting new guidelines for civil forfeiture in Pennsylvania, noting that the U.S. Supreme Court had earlier ruled that such seizures, to withstand judicial scrutiny, must be in proportion to the underlying offense. In Young's case, her son eventually was arrested for selling $140 worth of marijuana.
An LGBTQ-friendly affordable housing project planned by Project Home near Girard Medical Center, shown here in an architectural rendering is in jeopardy because the bankrupt North Philadelphia Health System is hesitating to go through with sales agreements reached before the bankruptcy. Read more

North Philadelphia Health System's bankruptcy has put a nearly $13 million LGBTQ-friendly affordable-housing project planned by Project HOME near Girard Medical Center in jeopardy, Project HOME officials said.

Project HOME, a nonprofit led by Sister Mary Scullion that has developed 714 units of housing for people who have been homeless or are at risk of homelessness, had agreements to buy five pieces of land from NPHS before the bankruptcy filing on Dec. 31. The bankruptcy froze those deals. As the clock ticks, Project Home is in danger of losing $11 million in construction financing.

To go through with the sales for $1.75 million or even to reject the agreements, NPHS needs permission from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Magdeline D. Coleman. NPHS wants to do neither. It wants to wait, arguing in a court filing last week that it "should be afforded maximum flexibility to deal with its financial affairs in this large and complex Chapter 11 proceeding."

"We are fully supportive of Sister Mary Scullion's efforts," Lawrence G. McMichael, a Dilworth Paxson lawyer representing NPHS, said in an interview Friday. "We have to get the highest value for the creditors. We think the deal with Sister Mary Scullion probably represents the highest value for the creditors, but there is a process we have to go through."

The uncertainty, driven in part by unsecured creditors owed $29 million, has put Janet Stearns, Project HOME's vice president of real estate development and asset management, on edge.

Since last May, Stearns and other Project HOME officials have been working on the project at North Eighth and West Thompson Streets. Much of the land is now used as a parking lot. The organization spent nearly $1 million on engineers, architects, and lawyers to get to this point, Stearns said.

The first phase of construction would be a four-story building at 1315 N. Eighth St., with 30 one-bedroom apartments for young adults age 18 to 25. The second phase would be a five-story, $14 million building with 40 apartments at 1301 N. Eighth St.
Hoisting tall ones at 2SP Brewing Co. are Michael Contreras (right), director of sales and marketing, and Junnosuke Nakamura, a beer distributor in Japan. The two met in graduate school in California and formed a friendship around beer and rugby that has become a business partnership Read more

Will a brew called Delco find a passionate following in Japan?

We'll find out in about a month, when a cargo ship scheduled to set sail Tuesday from the Port of Norfolk arrives in Tokyo carrying Aston-based 2SP Brewing Co.'s hometown lager and three of its other sudsy creations  80 five-gallon kegs in total.

2SP will be among the first East Coast craft beers on the market in a country where sake  and, more recently, craft whiskeys  have long been the alcoholic beverage of choice. Until now, the U.S. craft beers that have been available in Japan have been from the West Coast, primarily a matter of proximity.

Just how a Philadelphia-area brewery came to be introducing its beer across the Pacific is an origin story featuring rugby, "a pretty rundown bar," and a friendship that began 10 years ago  eight years before 2SP sold its first cold one.

Bucks County native Michael Contreras (now director of sales and marketing and part-owner at 2SP) met Junnosuke Nakamura (now a beer distributor in Japan) at a rugby practice while they were students at Claremont Graduate University in California. On the field, they were a visual mismatch: Nakamura, 5 feet, 4 inches, 130 pounds; Contreras, 6 feet, 270 pounds. The language barrier between them was significant, too.

So Contreras, a cultural studies/philosophy major, suggested they bond over beer and introduced his rugby mate, a business major, to craft brews in a local bar.

"The thing that impressed us was Jun stayed all night," Contreras, 33, of Queen Village, recalled on a recent afternoon at the 2SP brewery. Nakamura, 42, who now lives outside Tokyo, was there, too, making final shipping arrangements for the maiden beer voyage to Japan.

The two shared a beer as they talked about the start of a relationship that would lead to a business deal so many years later.

At the time, craft beer was "a very, very rare find" in Japan, where beer largely was "versions of Budweiser" that all tasted alike, Nakamura said. His first sips of California crafts impressed him with their range of flavors and origins.

"It seems like each craft beer has some story," Nakamura said. "In Japan, we have a lot of beer, but we never thought about the history or background. It's a commodity. Never thought about the brewer producing the beer."

Working in the beer business was not the plan when Contreras, a Newtown native, first enrolled at Claremont  a Ph.D was. He said his mother suggested a beer-industry job when he told her his heart wasn't in continuing that far in academia. (Contreras had worked at Triumph Brewing Co. in New Hope before heading west.)

As he finished his master's degree program at Claremont, Contreras took a job for a year and a half at Rogue Ales Brewery in Portland, Ore., as a regional sales manager for Southern and Central California and Las Vegas. After working outside the beer industry for a couple of years, he returned in 2011 as the Delmarva regional sales manager for Delaware-based Dogfish Head Brewery.

Meanwhile, Michael Stiglitz was head chef and operating the Two Stones Pub in Newark, Del. Dogfish was Contreras' biggest account. Stiglitz and his Two Stones partner, Ben Muse, had long had a dream of having a brewery. They opened 2SP in an industrial park along Concord Road, selling their first beer in August 2015, a year after Contreras joined their company.

Since graduation, Contreras had kept in touch with Nakamura, who had returned to Japan with his wife and worked as a mergers-and-acquisitions consultant at Ernst & Young in Tokyo. About two years later, he went to work for a Swedish-based international education school specializing in language, EF Education First, serving as president of its Japanese operation for six years. Yearning to do his own thing, he started his own company, 5GoodImporting, in 2017. And now, he's making good on something he long promised Contreras  that he would import his friend's beers if Contreras ever wound up owning a brewery.

With big beer firms such as Anheuser-Busch and Heineken buying smaller craft-brewing companies, Stiglitz, 2SP's majority owner, said one question in particular looms large: "How does a great craft brewery like ours get that shelf space when we're so small?"

He answered his own question: "We have to look for opportunity." The Tokyo deal, Stiglitz said, "gives us an opportunity to be showcased in another part of the world."

2SP's beer isn't making the journey alone. Also on the ship are 120 kegs from three other East Coast craft breweries that Nakamura has deals with: Captain Lawrence and Industrial Arts, both of New York, and Evolution, based in Maryland.

With shipping costs and taxes  Japan has some of the highest taxes for beer  a pint of Delco is likely to go for $9 or $10, said Nakamura. He estimates that the first shipment of 2SP and the other crafts will last just two months  he has 20 restaurants, bars, and bottle shops eagerly awaiting delivery.

"We have a lot of New York-style restaurants in Tokyo," Nakamura said. "They don't have any craft beers from the East Coast."

How does he plan to explain what Delco means?

"The working-class people," Nakamura said.

Offered Contreras: "It's like Osaka. That Osaka attitude."

And then they took another swig of beer.
The price of online freedom is eternal vigilance. That's the lesson cyber thugs keep shoving in our faces with attacks that steal identities, freeze networks, and make computer data disappear. Most recently, the extortion ransomware called WannaCry (or sometimes WannaCrypt) took out older Windows operating systems running crucial networked computers for hospitals, universities, and car factories, from Britain to Russia, India to Taiwan, in Latin America and Africa. The spread to the United States was stymied by a computer whiz who uncovered a blocking strategy.

Some accusatory fingers have been pointed at Microsoft for creating software patches back in March but then not yelling "Update your software, people!!!" Sure made for an impactful "upgrade" lesson.

Worming in as a viral email zip file attachment, WannaCry can attack only vintage Windows 8 software and the older, more popular Windows XP operating system, which Microsoft stopped supporting in 2014 after offering a free OS upgrade to those who had paid for the software. But lots of operations were lax or ran bootlegged versions of XP.

And let us not ignore where WannaCry came from. It was stolen by hackers, reportedly North Koreans operating inside China, from the cyber-weapons arsenal of our own National Security Agency. So we have met the enemy and it is us.

As Federal Trade Commissioner Terrell McSweeny suggested on C-SPAN, some blame for invasions and lockups can be put on internet service providers, which could be better gatekeepers, and on companies that make easily hacked IOT (internet of things)-connected gadgets.

The FTC is now bringing action against dozens of hardware makers that don't follow "best practices rules" to safeguard consumer privacy and security, she said. And the commission would press broadband service providers harder to do the right thing, were its mission legally blessed by Congress and not being challenged in federal court (by AT&T Mobility).

So where does all that leave us consumers? Don't wait for Congress to rescue you. It's time to take the law into your own hands.
Curtis Institute students in the Mozart Flute Quartet rehearse May 25, 2017, in London during a sound check for the BBC3 broadcast of the program In Tune. left to right: Lydia Roth, Maria Ioudenitch, Joshua Halpern, and Michael Casimir. Read more

LONDON  High alert in the United Kingdom looks something like this:

Curtis Institute of Music president Roberto Diaz was having a perfectly civilized interview on BBC Radio 3's live show In Tune around 6 p.m. Thursday when a warning came through one of the intercoms in the control room: A "suspect package" had been spotted at a nearby Caffe Nero, a popular coffee chain here, and evacuation might have to happen.

Minutes later  just before Diaz (also a violist) was due to play a Mozart duo with graduating violinist Kevin Lin  the announcement came through that the evacuation was for real.

"Due to a security incident  we request that all members of staff leave the building," intoned the anonymous voice over the loudspeaker.

The interview, which publicized the Curtis Symphony Orchestra's coming European-tour performance Friday in Cadogan Hall, was wrapped up quickly but gracefully, and a recording was put on where Mozart would have been. Diaz, Lin, and some fellow Curtis musicians who had played a movement from Mozart's Flute Quartet in D just before the evacuation joined throngs of others on the street. "This is one of the things you leave out when you talk to your parents," said Michael Casimir, the orchestra's principal violist.

"You just roll with it," said Diaz. "You act quickly, do what you're told, and get to safety. Most of the time these things turn out to be nothing, thank goodness. We're all safe and out of the way."

Fire trucks arrived and police sirens were heard, but within a half-hour they were gone.

Had it not been preempted by the evacuation, Lin's chamber music debut on BBC 3 would have occurred on a special day in his life: Thursday it was announced that he'd landed the prestigious co-leader position for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The position happened on a fluke: He applied for a temporary position with the orchestra, but has friends in good places who encouraged him to go for the much bigger job.

And, in truth, he has made his BBC broadcasting debut: During one of his tryout concerts with the orchestra, "I had one 15-second solo in the Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 9."

The rest of the Curtis contingent made a strong impression on the control-room engineers on a few fronts: One was Diaz's rich radio voice and the other was the quality of the Mozart performance. "They're really wonderful," said program producer Chris Barstow.

The show is already archived on the BBC's website, www.bbc.co.uk. (Search for "In Tune" to find it fast.)

The evacuation wasn't the only residual ripple from the Manchester terrorist bombing as the orchestra settled into London, the fifth stop on its nine-city European tour, after performances in Helsinki, Bremen, Berlin, and Dresden. As tour coordinators had suspected, passport lines held up entry to the U.K. for more than an hour.

Yet the young musicians are resilient: One minute, they're navigating a chaotic hotel lobby, and the next they're walking to the BBC studios enjoying the warm sunshine, seeing London's famous chamber music venue, Wigmore Hall, across the street, and joking about playing a few notes in the lobby so they can say they've performed there.

Laundry is becoming an issue at this point in the orchestra's first multi-city European tour since 1999. Thus, bus conversations wend their way to the clean-clothes challenge. Send clothes out to the cleaners, and they may not come back until you're off to the next city. Coin laundries can be found, but how the machines work in foreign countries can be mysterious. For the truly desperate, there's the rock and roll roadie trick: Dump your clothes in the bathtub, run the shower, pour in as much shampoo as possible, and then hang everything up to dry.

But if there's a godsend here, it's the super-cheap Primark department store located only blocks from the hotel where the musicians are saying. For the cost of getting a shirt cleaned and pressed by the hotel service, you can buy enough underwear to last for the rest of the tour. Normally, a shopping bag from a place so "down-market" (as the British say) is kept out of sight. But with the Curtis musicians, the Primark bags are objects of envy and wonder.

David Patrick Stearns is touring this week with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Europe. He will rendezvous next week with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra on the Mongolian leg of the Philadelphians' Asian tour.
FILE  In this Dec. 11, 2016, file photo, Kevin Hart, right, and Eniko Parrish arrive at the 22nd annual Critics' Choice Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. Hart and Parrish announced on May 14, 2017, that they are expecting their first child together. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File) Read more

The way Kevin Hart sees it, being funny kept him out of trouble while growing up in North Philadelphia  but it may also have hurt him with women.

"Nobody wants to fight the funny guy," Hart told CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith in an interview to air this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning (9 a.m., CBS3). "Nobody wants to mess with the funny guy. Everybody wants to be around the funny guy. And that's what I was."

But maybe nobody wanted to mess around with him, either?

"Not even going to lie to you. This would have been a perfect place to put that lie. 'Yes, women were all over' " Hart tells Smith, according to CBS. "Women bring out a different side out of you. So, it's like, you can be cool and you can be funny. But to women, you can be goofy when it's time to not be funny. I didn't know how to shut the funny off with women. That was my problem when I was younger."

Hart, who is now expecting a child with his wife, model Eniko Harris, has two children from a previous marriage.

His approach to fatherhood puts time before money, he told Smith.

"Be there. Be present. Hands down. Hands down. Nothing else matters," Hart said. "All the money in the world does not add up to time, to a child."

The interview promotes Hart's new book, I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons, which will be published June 6.

Read more: Kevin Hart's June speaking date becomes photo op
Plastic surgeon Aron D. Wahrman says working with veterans is especially meaningful to him in light of the fact that American soldiers liberated his father (shown in the photo he is holding) from a Nazi prison camp. Read more

When Aron Wahrman meets World War II vets in his job as the section chief of plastic surgery at the Cpl. Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia, he likes to tell them, "I'm here thanks to you."

As the son of a Holocaust survivor who was liberated when U.S. troops crashed through the gates of the Flossenburg concentration camp, Wahrman says he feels "a tremendous sense of connection" with these veterans, who saved the lives of both his father, Henry, and his uncle Wolf.

Working three days a week at the VA Center is one way that Wahrman acknowledges the tremendous debt he believes that he owes to veterans. Another is to tend a growing collection of military histories, photographs, and documents concerning his father's life and the story of the 90th Infantry Division that liberated his relatives.

Wahrman interacts with World War II vets on mostly age-related issues such as skin cancer and wounds.

"But I view vets of any age, service branch, or theater as part of an extended family and heritage that I am privileged to serve," he says.

On a recent day, the items spread across the dining room table in Wahrman's house in Bala Cynwyd included an image of Henry Wahrman as a young boy with his brothers, mother, and father  a photograph saved by a Polish aunt who escaped Europe before the war. Nearby rests Henry Wahrman's 25-page, single-spaced German testimony on the horrors he experienced in the camps, and his U.S. naturalization certificate, dated 1954.

Many of the photos and documents were given to Wahrman and his siblings by their mother after she relocated from Florida to New York following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Wanting to learn more about his father's history, Wahrman began to collect books and memorabilia of the period, including a copy of a personal memorial history of the 90th Infantry Division (known as the Tough Ombres), a division of Gen. George Patton's Third Army.

On Memorial and Armistice Days, Wahrman and his wife, Peggy, fill with flowers an artillery shell that had been hammered into a handmade vase. It's an artifact from the 90th infantry, which first served in World War I.

Wahrman's father, his uncle Wolf, and the Polish aunt were the only members of his father's family to survive the Holocaust.

Henry and Wolf's two younger brothers were taken by the Nazis from their town of Nowy Sacz (or Sanz) early in the war and gassed at the Belzec extermination camp in Poland. His grandmother, says Wahrman, "most likely died of cancer shortly before the war, but it was too painful and never spoken of by my dad or uncle." Wahrman's grandfather Aron and two aunts perished at Auschwitz.

Before Henry, Wolf, and their father, Aron, were sent off in transports in 1942, the older man begged Henry not to become separated from Wolf.

"Miraculously, the two were able to remain together during the war, and both immigrated to the United States," Wahrman said. But the brothers never saw their father again.

The Wahrman family roots are "in the depths of Hasidic Poland," said Wahrman, whose father had studied in a Yeshiva with the Bobover rabbi before the war started.

Henry and Wolf were sent to a number of concentration camps, including Tarnow, Plaszow, and Rzeszow, before Flossenburg, where they were put to work as slave labor on war plane assembly lines, quarries, and mines.

When the war was over, with the help of the allies, Henry resurrected a textile mill in Tirschenreuth, in the northeastern part of Bavaria. Wahrman later discovered that through his father's generosity, money from the mill helped other displaced people get married and emigrate, and even finance a medical school education.

In 1949, when Henry was 26 and Wolf 22, they immigrated to the United States. With his beautiful voice and religious training, Henry became a cantor, eventually working in synagogues in Brooklyn, Long Island, Ohio and Toronto.

"We had a very open, loving relationship," Wahrman says of his father, who died in 1993. "But I still think about all the things he didn't see with his own grandchildren. And all these questions I still have."

Decades after the war, the privations he endured still resonated with Henry.

"He liked to go food shopping. He found going into a supermarket and seeing a pile of fresh grapefruit was so reassuring and validating. It sounds like a cliche but he took pleasure in small things."

Aron Wahrman actually started his first day of Penn's surgery residency at the very same Philadelphia VA. For 15 years after finishing his residency and fellowship he was in private practice at Chestnut Hill, Hahnemann University and Roxborough hospitals. In 2007, he was recruited to Temple University as a professor of surgery. Last year, the head of the division of plastic surgery at Penn, Joseph Serletti, told him that he could "really use your help at the VA."

"I didn't even have to think twice," said Wahrman, who has maintained his clinical activities at Chestnut Hill Hospital and elsewhere under Penn Medicine. Wahrman was recently elected president of the Robert H. Ivy Pennsylvania state society of plastic surgeons.

As a family, the Wahrmans continue the tradition of talking about his father's Holocaust experiences at Passover, when the story of liberation and certain familiar prayers once sparked Henry's memories. These days, Wahrman also shares his historical collection at the seder, which includes a picture of his Uncle Wolf in an American uniform, during his service in Korea.

"My father was too old to be drafted," Wahrman said. "But he went with my uncle to the draft board and said he hoped he wouldn't lose another member of his family. But the brothers didn't ask for a deferment. They didn't ask for anything."

Wolf served in the psychological warfare division and rose to corporal. He died in 1997.

"I don't think you need to be a son of a Holocaust survivor to realize how wonderful it is to live in this country," Wahrman said. "Even the intellectual act of reading a book, that I love to do, is safeguarded by people who have sworn their lives to protect that right.

"When I take care of the vets, I see all of them as part of the same family and the same continuity. I'm very cognizant of where I come from, who got me here, how grateful I am, and how grateful my father and uncle was to our armed forces," he said.

"It's the best job I've ever had."

mice30@comcast.net
In this March 6, 2017, file photo, Greg Gianforte, right, receives congratulations from a supporter in Helena, Mont. Montana voters are heading to the polls Thursday, May 25, 2017, to decide a nationally watched congressional election amid uncertainty in Washington over President Donald Trumps agenda and his handling of the countrys affairs. Read more

Have you heard? The guy at the center of the political controversy du jour is from the Philadelphia region. Of course he is!

This time it's Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte, lately of Montana, but originally of Upper Merion, who was just charged with body-slamming a reporter at a campaign event.

Long-suffering local reporters have been assigned "hometown boy or girl makes national news" stories since time immemorial, of course, but I have a working theory based entirely on conjecture and a few hasty Googling sessions that any given political firestorm these days tends to sweep up at least one Philadelphian. (I floated an earlier version of this in my newsletter on the Trump administration's effect on Philadelphia, which I promise does not focus solely on locals who make it onto cable news.)

Consider, if you will, the case of former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn. During the campaign, Flynn was paid to lobby for Turkey's interests, which included digging up dirt on a Muslim cleric that the Turkish government wants extradited from the U.S. That cleric, Fetullah Gulen, currently lives in relative isolation in the Poconos.

Two weeks into his tenure as national security adviser, Flynn resigned over another foreign connection  the conversations he'd had with Russian officials after the election, about sanctions then-President Obama had imposed on Russia over its meddling in the presidential election. Flynn's replacement? Gen. H.R. McMaster, a son of Roxborough who went to Valley Forge Military Academy.

Meanwhile, FBI director James Comey was leading an investigation into said meddling  until President Trump fired him earlier this month. Comey's dad is  you guessed it  from New Jersey, and promptly went after Trump in the Bergen County Record. And while Trump would later admit he fired Comey over the Russian investigation, the White House first justified the firing with a letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommending Comey's dismissal.

Rosenstein is from Lower Moreland. You see where we're going with this?

Under increasing pressure to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the Russia investigation, Rosenstein did so a week after Comey's firing. Enter former FBI director Robert Mueller, a high-society scion of Villanova. Layers upon layers, folks.

Outside the Russian investigation, there's Mark Levin, the Philly-born talk show host whose conspiracy theory that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election made it into Trump's tweets in March. There's South Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur, whose controversial amendment to the GOP healthcare bill got the bill through the House, catapulted him into the national spotlight, and garnered him a town hall full of enraged constituents when he came home. And we can't forget Hammonton's own Blueberry Princess, Kellyanne Conway.

So. Is there something in the wooder in the greater (emphasis greater  who says the Poconos aren't local?) Philadelphia region that is thrusting our sons and daughters onto the national stage? Are we all just grasping at any handle in these heady, news-glutted times? Am I writing this to tell you to subscribe to my aforementioned newsletter?

It's anyone's guess, really. Call me when we learn Paul Manafort's aunt's cousin's best friend's hairdresser turns out to be from Mayfair.
Thomas Meyer (2nd left) and Valentina Amaya (center leaning over), canvassers for Atlantic City Citizens Against the State Takeover (of the citys water department) meet city residents on North South Carolina Avenue May 24, 2017, asking them to sign petitions to prevent Gov. Christie from privatizing the water department. CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer Read more

ATLANTIC CITY  The 300 block of North South Carolina Avenue, a straight shot uptown from Resorts, comes as a bit of a shock to the two organizers, one from Philly and the other up from Washington, as they turn the corner, clipboards in hand.

Two of the houses where registered voters are supposed to live are vacant, and men and women spill out onto porches and steps along the block with varying interest in whatever it is they imagine the canvassers want, along with various warnings not to photograph and to keep moving.

What these canvassers want, signature by signature, is not a completed absentee ballot for the heated mayoral primary, another topic of frantic canvassing in A.C. these days, but a way to keep the State of New Jersey from selling the municipal water authority, currently worth more than the recent sale prices of the shuttered Revel and Showboat casino hotels combined.

A one-year moratorium preventing the state from taking any action to monetize the water works expires this month, and advocates and residents are girding for battle.

Their rallying cry: "We're trying to stop Gov. Christie from selling the water to a private company."

Stoop by stoop, porch by porch, nearly faucet by faucet, it's the most effective pitch.

This, after all, is a city where the combative governor has long battled local politicians, and in November got his way with a takeover that effectively outsourced the city government to a favored law firm in West Orange, which so far has billed more than $1.1 million.

"They sold the city," said Deana Smiley, 48, a dealer at the Golden Nugget, leaning out over her porch. "The state took over the city, and once they did, it's a wrap. Meaning we're done."

Not so fast, say civil liberties and water watchers.

Working out of a donated Arctic Avenue former pizzeria being turned into a bakery, Lena Smith of Food and Water Watch is overseeing the 48-block petition drive. She hopes it will stave off any attempt to sell or lease the Municipal Utility Authority to one of several politically powerful water companies, including New Jersey American Water, whose lobbyist is Philip Norcross. He is the brother of South Jersey Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III. Parent company American Water just broke ground in Camden on the strength of $164 million in tax subsidies.

Two petitions are being circulated door to door and left on the counter of the MUA itself as residents come by to pay their bills. There are community leaders like Libby Wills organizing in her First Ward, Carol Ruffu in Chelsea, August Garrett in Venice Park.

ACLU lawyers say they need 15 percent, or 814 signatures, of the number of Atlantic City residents who voted in the 2015 Assembly race to force a referendum on selling the utility in a special election, and 10 percent (514 signatures) to put the measure on the general election ballot.



Their goal is to collect 1,500 signatures, said N.J. ACLU spokeswoman Allison Pelzman, because "we know the residents of Atlantic City do not want their public resources sold without their participation, and we want the numbers to reflect that public sentiment."

They are working on two tracks: One targets action by the state under the takeover law, seeking "the same statutory rights" as any other municipality by way of referendum; the other seeks similar referendum power, but under the 2015 Water Infrastructure Protection Act, which gives citizens 45 days to file petitions seeking a referendum on any sale or lease of the public water system.

In both plans, the activists, who have funded a full-time organizer in Atlantic City for the better part of a year, are working to get citizens the right of approval before the state can take action.

The Municipal Stabilization and Recovery Act, however, gives the state vast authority to sell assets and dissolve authorities, including the MUA, worth in excess of $100 million. Christie recently said, somewhat ambiguously, that he would be "protective" of the MUA.

Prior state monitors tasked with Atlantic City's recovery have recommended not selling the authority, which controls valuable water reserves in Pleasantville.

Brenda Smith, a school crossing guard, wandered into the storefront to help, and said she was concerned water privatization would lead to rate hikes and put the quality of the water  credited for the city's excellent bread  at risk. Others worry about a scenario like that in Flint, Mich., which was under a similar state takeover when calamitous decisions were made about that city's water treatment.

"We want to do what's necessary to make sure it doesn't get privatized," she said. "We have great water here. We feel like it's part of us, it's like a livelihood. We have to keep it ours."

Meanwhile, out on the streets, four workers from the Washington office of Food and Water Watch joined with two interns from Drexel University, Valentina Amaya and Robert Rowl, both 20, to go door to door with voter registration lists and petitions. Jorge Aguilar spoke Spanish to some residents on Arizona Avenue, a street notorious for flooding, a water issue of a different kind.

Opposing Christie was a relatively easy sell. After about four hours Wednesday, the canvassers estimated that they had collected about 100 signatures to go with pages of petitions being verified at headquarters, where Linda Steele, a retired Atlantic City tax collector, worked to organize folders of block lists.

The door-to-door work revealed that the heavily publicized state takeover, the endless discussions in City Council and in televised news conferences about the water department, speeches about civil rights, and comparisons to Flint, even a visit to town by the national head of the NAACP, did not necessarily result in residents having heard a lot about the issue. Many said they'd heard Christie wanted to take over Atlantic City, but were unaware that he had done so. There was much explaining to be done.

"So much stuff is going on," said Wilhelmina Dorsey, a retired housekeeper. "I don't think he should be doing it."
When the news broke Wednesday that the former home of the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com would become headquarters for the Philadelphia Police Department, it transported me back to that grand white tower that still dominates the corner of Broad and Callowhill Streets. To many of us who worked there in the three newsrooms, the business offices, and, at one time, the mail room, the pressroom, and on the loading docks, it also was known as the "Tower of Truth."

When I first entered the building one warm afternoon in June 1972, what I discovered was that a beautiful building on the outside was antiquated on the inside. Four uniformed operators ran the elevators; a little shop in the lobby sold cigarettes, cigars, candy, and magazines. On the fifth floor, home of the Inquirer newsroom, there were dull gray desks clustered tightly together and, in the background, the rhythmic tapping of typewriters and the clacking of news-wire machines amid the haze of cigarette smoke.

Despite a long-term, gradual decline in circulation, the newspaper industry in the summer of 1972  thanks to highly lucrative advertising revenues from department stores and classified ads for employment, cars, and real estate  was profitable and robust. Outside on Broad Street, one of the city's tallest police officers stood at the intersection of Broad and Vine  this was before the Vine Street Expressway was submerged below street level  and directed an unending stream of traffic. On the southwest corner, a newspaper vendor hawked the Inquirer and Daily News, cackling to passersby emerging from the subway, "Whaddaya read! Whaddaya read!"

When I joined the staff as an assistant to Pulitzer Prize-winning economic columnist J. A. Livingston, the Inquirer and Daily News were owned by Knight Newspapers, an Akron, Ohio-based newspaper group known for its commitment to public-service journalism and the highest ethical standards. Knight later merged with Ridder Publications to create Knight Ridder, a publicly held corporation that once was the largest newspaper group in the United States.

I worked in that cramped, grungy, collegial newsroom for 19 years, and I savored the experience. I then spent two more years working in the publisher's office on the 12th floor, which had once served as the office of Walter Annenberg, the former ambassador to England and the owner of the Inquirer and Daily News. Our newsroom was transformed in the fall of 1972 when Gene Roberts, the national editor of the New York Times, arrived to take the helm. A laconic man who spoke with a North Carolina drawl when he spoke  Roberts often intimidated staffers with his prolonged periods of silence  he came to Philadelphia with a wealth of journalistic experience that gave him immediate credibility. He had covered agriculture in rural North Carolina, the maritime beat in Norfolk, labor in Detroit, and the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War at the New York Times. He recognized excellence in his staff  reporters, editors, and photographers alike  and he gave them the latitude and the support to pursue their dreams.

Those dreams often were the seedlings that produced great stories  journalism that would make a profound difference in the lives and work of the Inquirer's readers, their community, and the nation. When Roberts arrived, the Inquirer had never received a Pulitzer Prize. By the time he left in the fall of 1990, the newspaper had amassed 17  for stories about questionable use of IRS audits; a near meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg; criminal violence by Philadelphia police during the administration of Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, onetime police commissioner; and many more. After Roberts' departure, the Inquirer added three more, including a Pulitzer for public service for stories about violence in the city's public schools. The Daily News, Philadelphia's aggressive, irreverent, and feisty tabloid, which also occupied the Tower of Truth, took home three of its own Pulitzers, including groundbreaking investigative work on allegations of misconduct by narcotics officers.

So as I contemplate the metamorphosis of our longtime home, I know that what will endure for those of us who toiled there and those who read our work is the excellent journalism produced over the decades  stories that made a difference  and the lessons taught and learned by generations of dedicated journalists.

William K. Marimow, Philadelphia Media Network editor-at-large and vice president, received two Pulitzer Prizes for stories about police misconduct. bmarimow@phillynews.com
Two cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown. Read more

Add a new name to the list of groups coming hat-in-hand looking for financial help from Harrisburg: the nuclear power industry.

No bills have been introduced yet, but the industry seems intent on asking for tax breaks or tax credits in Pennsylvania, along the lines of the hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies recently granted in New York state and Illinois.

A leader in the movement is Exelon Corp., which operates three of Pennsylvania's five nuclear plants. In other states, the industry sought and won "zero-emission credits" arguing, that much like wind and solar power, nuclear plants produce clean, carbon-free energy.

Recently, a group of state legislators  many with nuclear plants in their districts  formed a Nuclear Energy Caucus to promote the industry's cause in Harrisburg.

In New York, the industry got the Legislature to approve a zero-emission credit worth $500 million a year  to be paid by ratepayers, though the new law is being challenged in court.

Much like coal, nuclear power has a problem: It is losing out to competition with natural gas, which is plentiful and cheaper.

We don't believe taxpayers should be asked to subsidize industries that can't compete in the open market.

We realize that subsidies are part of the political landscape, especially in the energy sector. The government has given subsidies and grants to encourage growth of new industries  wind and solar got such subsidies in their early days. But the theory behind those breaks was that once those industries reached a larger scale, they could fend for themselves.

What's different now is that we have mature industries that are big businesses  and we include coal on this list  that want government to intervene to artificially protect their market share. Even with actions taken by the Trump administration to help the coal industry, most economists believe use of coal will continue to decline because it remains both "dirty" and expensive.

Is the situation in the nuclear industry different? No one is predicting a sudden or even long-term demand for nuclear power in this country. Utilities aren't building new plants, in the same way they are not building new coal-fired plants. Demand for electricity generally has been flat since the Great Recession.

That means that subsidies given today could end up becoming permanent price supports  for the industry's bottom line.

We also dispute that nuclear is a clean fuel. It certainly does not emit carbon, and that is a great strength. But accidents can have devastating long-term effects, especially if there are widespread nuclear emissions, as happened in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 and Chernobyl, Russia, in 1986.

Another problem is nuclear waste. Even if a plant shuts down, the waste must be stored on-site  another potential risk to the environment.

Ironically, if any Pennsylvania nuclear plant will be shut down within the next few years, it is likely to be the one at Three Mile Island.

The 1979 accident at TMI resulted in a partial meltdown that rendered one of the reactors permanently inoperable. Now the forces of change and the rise of natural gas may make the other reactor expendable, an antique from another era no longer needed today. We can't afford to collect antiques.
Its also an exciting time for Canadian space advocacy.

The federal government established a new Space Advisory Board this year to consult with various stakeholders and guide the nations space program. The government also sought public input on their Innovation Agenda and budgetary priorities, with widespread input from the space sector. And last year the Canadian space community came together in Ottawa for the first Canadian Space Policy Symposium, where representatives from academia, industry and the nonprofit sector shared ideas, challenges, and perspectives on Canadian space policy.

In all of these initiatives, The Planetary Society has had a seat at the table.

Throughout the Societys history we have had a large number of members and supporters in Canada, and over the past few years we have deepened our involvement here. Through outreach, presentations, conversations and partnerships, The Planetary Society has established itself as an active member of the Canadian space community.

As our presence in Canada continues to grow, we are proud to share with our Canadian members the opportunity to engage in and support outreach and advocacy work here at home.

For the time being, our advocacy efforts in Canada focus on where we see the greatest need, and this is the Canadian Space Agencys lack of an Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program. Inspiring Canadians is one of the central pillars of the Canadian Space Policy Framework, and yet the Agencys EPO department was eliminated in 2012 and has never been restored.

When the governments Space Advisory Board invited The Planetary Society to participate in a roundtable discussion of the future of Canadas space program, our message focused on advocating for a renewed national effort to educate and inspire Canadians of all ages about space. This is the first step toward having a public that is supportive of space exploration spending, and will shape the next generation of explorers.

And we practice what we preach; The Planetary Society supports volunteers who conduct educational outreach activities across Canada. We have outreach coordinators in Victoria, Vancouver, London, Hamilton, Toronto, Waterloo and Montreal, who share space exploration with their communities. And we are always looking to engage with other talented volunteers across the country. We are also working to expand our outreach activities through collaborative partnerships with the amazing educational organizations that are active in Canada.

As Canadas space program evolves, so too will our advocacy initiatives. We will seek opportunities to engage our members in Canada like we do in the United States, empowering you to shape space policy. In the meantime, I invite any Canadian who wants to get more involved to contact me at [email protected].

Together, The Planetary Society can enact real change in Canada, and help further the exploration of the cosmos.
OMAHA  Plattsmouth High School students entertained audiences with their presentation of the play Dear Edwina this spring.

They will be honored for their on-stage efforts at one of the regions top performing arts venues in June.

Omaha Performing Arts officials selected Plattsmouth as one of the winners in the annual Nebraska High School Theatre Awards competition. The Blue Devils were one of ten play production groups to earn Outstanding Ensemble honors. Bellevue West, Crete, Grand Island Northwest, Gretna, Lincoln Southeast, Lincoln Southwest, Millard North, Omaha Concordia and Omaha Gross joined Plattsmouth as winners in the category.

Plattsmouth cast and crew members said they were happy to learn they had earned a statewide accolade. The Blue Devils will be recognized with an Outstanding Ensemble Award for the second straight year.

Im quite thrilled and proud of our cast, junior Grace Roby said. I think that everyone is very deserving.

It took me awhile to realize how much of an honor it was to be recognized for our talent and hard work, sophomore Carson Santee said. But, once I did, I thought it was special and something Ill hold close to my heart.

I was shocked when I first heard, but now, Im extremely proud of our cast and crew with how much weve grown as actors and actresses, especially since we worked with a completely different type of show this year, junior Alene Groenjes said.

Plattsmouth Play Production Director Tyler Orvis said it was meaningful to win an award that recognized a large group of students. Many teenagers filled on-stage roles and other pupils helped with tasks such as stage design, music and makeup.

I work, year after year, with a striking array of young talent, Orvis said. Their commitment to the process and desire to create quality art never ceases to amaze me. I am so very fortunate to work with such wonderful and like-minded individuals. It is an honor to serve and create with them.

The Nebraska High School Theatre Awards Showcase will take place Thursday, June 8, at the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha. The 7:30 p.m. awards ceremony will feature performances by more than 350 students from 60 Nebraska schools. Plattsmouth students will join representatives from other schools on stage during the evenings opening and closing numbers.

The program will feature numerous award categories. Students will be honored for Outstanding Musical Theatre Production, Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Performance in a Lead Role, Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role, Backstage Excellence, Outstanding Achievement in Design and Outstanding Achievement in Stage Management. Grand Island Northwests David Sackschewsky will receive the Outstanding Educator Award and Bellevue Wests Marya Lucca-Thyberg will receive the Lifetime Achievement in Education Award.

2017 Omaha Performing Arts Outstanding Ensemble Award Selections

Bellevue West High School  The Drowsy Chaperone

Crete High School  The Addams Family

Grand Island Northwest High School  Sister Act

Gretna High School  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Lincoln Southeast High School  Cinderella

Lincoln Southwest High School  Mary Poppins

Millard North High School  Catch Me If You Can

Omaha Concordia High School  Oklahoma

Omaha Gross High School  Godspell

Plattsmouth High School  Dear Edwina
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In a 10-3 ruling the Fourth Circuit upheld a lower court ruling to block a key feature of Donald Trumps Muslim Ban.

The judges questions and comments when it heard the case made it clear this day was coming.

The government tried to persuade the court that it shouldnt consider Trumps campaign statements at all.

Judge Robert King countered that argument in one sentence. The President has never repudiated the statements he made on a Muslim ban.

In its ruling

The government tried to say clean up the mess that Trump made with his own words by arguing this is a travel ban based on national security interests- not a Muslim ban, no matter how often Trump promised to ban Muslims and no matter how often his surrogates referred to it as a Muslim ban.

The court was blistering in its response to this argument, as reflected in an excerpt tweeted by Trita Parsi

BREAKING: Read this closely from 4th Circuits ruling today: Trump's Executive order was in BAD faith, motivated to ban Muslims!@rulajebreal pic.twitter.com/m3shlA5zR7  Trita Parsi (@tparsi) May 25, 2017

As stated national security interest was provided in bad faith as a pretext for its religious purpose. And having concluded that the facially legitimate reason proferred by the government is not bona fide, we no longer defer to that reason and instead may look behind EO-2.

The court is saying the governments claim that this ban was about national security was an attempt to offer a legally acceptable argument for an unconstitutional Muslim ban. In other words, the government lied.

This isnt rocket science. Our constitutional doesnt allow discrimination based on a persons religion. The courts know that attempts to ban people are unconstitutional. They know what Trump promised and they know that he didnt back down from that promise. They also know that the national security argument isnt true. Words and intent matter in law. From a legal standpoint, this case is very straightforward.

Surely the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment yet stands as an untiring sentinel for the protection of one of our most cherished founding principles  that government shall not establish any religious orthodoxy, or favor or disfavor one religion over another,

While the president does have broad power on matters of national security, he doesnt have a blank check.

While the president has broad power over immigration, that power is not absolute. It cannot go unchecked,

Its clear that anyone who was paying attention knew the president intended to ban Muslims in the first executive order and that intent remained in this order. The president admitted it

.

Trumps words and the intent behind them werent limited to a one time incident during the campaign. His intent to ban Muslims was on his website. His surrogates referred to it as a Muslim ban, before the courts started weighing in. Rudolph Guilliani admitted the President wanted a commission to advise on how to ban Muslims legally.

It was only after the courts weighed in that the Administration started referring to it as a travel ban. It was after seeing defeat after defeat in the courts, all references to a Muslim ban were scrubbed on Trumps campaign website.

Rudolph Gulliani reversed his earlier admission that the president asked him to come up with a way to ban Muslims legally after the fact.

I have not served on any Trump administration commission relating to the so-called Muslim ban executive orders, Giuliani, 72, said Monday in an affidavit in Manhattan federal court, in a case unrelated to the travel ban. For clarity, I have not participated in writing any of the executive orders on that subject issued by the Trump administration.

Trumps disingenuous arguments backfired at the Fourth Circuit and its likely the same will occur when the 9th Circuit renders its ruling.

For all the good news about a ruling that upholds the constitution, this isnt over yet. The President can take the case to the Supreme Court, where the Presidents fortunes could change.

Image: Yahoo
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The investigation into Donald Trumps ties to Russia continues to move closer to the president as Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is now under new scrutiny by the FBI.

According to NBC News, the FBI believes Kushner has significant information related to the ongoing and increasingly explosive investigation into the presidents ties to Moscow.

More from NBC News:

Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, has come under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News. Investigators believe Kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry, officials said. That does not mean they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him. The FBIs scrutiny of Kushner places the bureaus sprawling counterintelligence and criminal investigation not only on the doorstep of the White House, but in the Trump family circle. The Washington Post first reported last week that a senior White House official close to Trump was a person of interest, but did not name the person.

In the past, Kushner met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Russian banker, Sergey Gorkov  two meetings among dozens that the Trump son-in-law did not disclose on his security clearance forms.

As NBC News notes, Gorkov is chairman of VneshEconomBank, a Russian government-owned institution that has been under U.S. sanctions since July 2014. Gorkov studied at the training school for the FSB, one of Russias intelligence services.

The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to question Kushner about these meetings, but the FBIs new look at Kushner not only shows that this investigation is reaching new levels as its no longer Trumps associates who are under investigation. Now its moved into the presidents own family orbit.

With each passing day, the idea that Trump himself was in no way involved in or aware of all these previously undisclosed contacts with Russia is becoming increasingly hard to believe.
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Republican Greg Gianfonte has been declared the projected winner of the special House election in Montana.

The official election results will be available here.

Republican Greg Gianforte is still favored to win despite assaulting a reporter, but the race has tightened due to the health care issue in the last two weeks.

Nate Cohn of The New York Times warns that we could be in for a very long night:

Bad news about Montana: The count could take a while.

D primary wasn't called until 2AM (Sanders+7)

Gov '16 wasn't called until 10AM (D+4)  Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) May 25, 2017

Early results show Gianforte running ahead of what he needs in Billings and Helena:

We already have some early resultsfrom Montana, and they're good for Gianforte. He's running ahead of what he needs in Helena and Billings  Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) May 26, 2017

CNNs Jake Tapper with a reminder that a whole bunch of people already voted:

Reminder that as polls in Montana close, 259,558 votes  of the state's 700,000 registered voters  voted early  Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 26, 2017

10:15 PM ET: Early voting results with 103, 194 votes in: Quist 48% Gianforte 46.2%

From Decision Desk HQ: Looking at some early voting from counties of interest:

Yellewstone (slighty R leaning): 56/37 Gianforte

Lewis and Clark (normally moderately blue): 52/42 Quist

10:19 PM ET: With 104, 509 votes in Quist: 47.8% Gianforte: 46.3%.

Steve Kornacki:

Missoula  early vote

Quist 61%

Gianforte 34% Was Clinton +16  Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) May 26, 2017





10:24 PM ET: With 159,662 votes in: Quist: 47.6 Gianforte: 46.9%

10:27 PM ET: With 162, 574 votes in Gianforte 47.3% Quist: 47%

10:28: PM ET: With 185,061 votes in Gianforte: 47.4% Quist: 46.9%



10:30 PM ET: With 190,890 votes in Gianforte: 47.6% Quist: 46.7%

Steve Kornacki:

Good news for Gianforte: eastern Montana  rural and overwhelmingly GOP, not reporting yet

Hope for Quist: Same-day surge in Missoula?  Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) May 26, 2017

10:40 PM ET With 191,086 votes in Gianforte 47.6% Quist: 46.7%

Update: 10:43 PM ET: Gianforte 47.7% Quist: 46.6%



Update: 10:49 PM ET: With 196,415 votes in Gianforte 48% Quist: 46.2%

With 199,788 total votes in: Gianforte: 48.3% Quist: 46%.

Update: 11:01 PM ET: With 202, 609 votes in: Gianforte: 48.6% Quist: 45.7%

With 203,677 votes in Gianforte: 48.6% Quist: 45.6%

Update: 11:06 PM ET: Gianforte: 48.7% Quist: 45.6%

Steve Kornacki:

Gianforte continues to roll up Trump-ish margins in small eastern counties. McCone was 81-15% Trump. 77-19% for Gianforte tonight.  Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) May 26, 2017

Update: Gianforte: 49.2% Quist: 45%

Update Gianforte: 49.9% Quist: 44.3%

The Trump vote has largely held for Gianforte so this race looks over:

So far in #MTAL, Flathead County (Kalispell) is the only county where Gianforte is doing worse than his #MTGov performance last year. pic.twitter.com/hZEDb4oaxZ  J. Miles Coleman (@JMilesColeman) May 26, 2017

Decision Desk has called the race for Gianforte:

We project that Greg Gianforte has won the #MTAL special election. #MTAL https://t.co/61tksgfeKf  Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) May 26, 2017

It looks Gianforte will be another red state Republican who substantially underperformed Trumps margin of victory in 2016. The Montana result only confirms that Democratic momentum is building towards 2018.
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Just as the FBIs Russia investigation escalated on Thursday, Donald Trump is reportedly considering looking at changing Russian sanctions.

In other words, the president could be on the cusp of lifting or even easing sanctions on the country, despite the fact that Russia was behind a massive attack on last years presidential election.

More from the report:

President Trump is weighing changes to U.S. sanctions against Russia, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said Wednesday. I think the president is looking at it, Cohn told reporters aboard Air Force One, when asked about the presidents position on Russian sanctions. Right now, we dont have a position. Trump arrived in Sicily on Thursday, where he will attend a G7 summit. Cohn said Russia is likely to be a topic of discussion at the meeting. Cohn also said that that Russian sanctions came up earlier in the day, while Trump was in Brussels meeting with NATO leaders.

The report comes as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, led by GOP Sen. Bob Corker, is considering imposing tougher sanctions on the country in response to Moscows meddling in the presidential election.

Despite even Republicans in Congress hoping to hold the Russians accountable, Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is reportedly talking up the improving relationship between the United States and Russia in hopes of preventing the tougher sanctions, The Hill adds.

The report notes, Corker said that unless Tillerson could soon prove to the committee that relations were changing, he would recommend tougher sanctions.

Not only would it be bad policy for the administration to essentially reward the Russians for meddling in last years election, but the optics are just as bad as Trump and many of his associates  including Jared Kushner  are currently under investigation for their questionable links to Moscow.

There are still many unanswered questions and its not certain what Trump will ultimately do with respect to Russian sanctions, but one thing is clear: Russias attempt to turn Trump into their puppet has been a wild success, whether or not the president and his associates were colluding with them during last years election.
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By Crispian Balmer and Noah Barkin

TAORMINA, Italy (Reuters)  Talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders of the worlds rich nations at the G7 summit on Friday were expected to be robust and challenging after he had lambasted NATO allies and condemned German trade policies a day earlier.

Trumps confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which Americas partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change.

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theater perched on a cliff overlooking the sea where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters.

Later, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States will hold talks on terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years, Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting got underway.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted robust discussions on trade and climate.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a hoax during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in. Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy, said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

VERY BAD

The summit, being held near Europes most active volcano, Mount Etna, is the final leg of a nine-day tour for Trump which started in the Middle East.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, he accused members of the military alliance of owing massive amounts of money to the United States and NATO  even though allied contributions are voluntary.

The remarks went down badly with European leaders, who had hoped Trump would use the opportunity to confirm his commitment to Article 5, the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

When an American president cannot commit clearly to Article 5 at a time when everyone is expecting him to do this then there is the risk that Moscow interprets this as meaning it is no longer valid, said Jan Techau of the American Academy in Berlin.

According to German media reports, Trump also condemned Germany for very bad trade policies in a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, signalling he might take steps to limit sales of German cars in the United States.

Juncker called the reports in Spiegel Online and Sueddeutsche Zeitung exaggerated, saying that while Trump had talked about Germanys trade surplus as a problem, he had not done so aggressively.

Trump, asked by reporters in Taormina whether he had accused Germany of being very bad on trade, did not respond.

Trump is attending his first major international summit but it not the only G7 newcomer. French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

May is expected to leave a day early, following Mondays suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people carried out by a suspected Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

G7 leaders were expected to issue a separate statement on terrorism on Friday, before issuing their formal communique on Saturday. Italian officials have suggested the final communique will be shorter than 10 pages. At the last G7 summit in Japan it totaled 32 pages.

RUSSIA CLOUD

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 140 miles (225 km) from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

Italy is eager for rich nations to do much more to help develop Africas economy and make it more appealing for youngsters to stay in their home countries.

The leaders of Tunisia, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria and Kenya will join the discussions on Saturday to say what should be done to encourage investment and innovation on their continent.

One country that will not be present is Russia. It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

But accusations from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaigns contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office.

Kushner and his wife, Trumps daughter Ivanka, have returned to Washington after accompanying the president for the first part of his first foreign tour.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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The White Houses real position on bringing back coal jobs was revealed after Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn made it clear in a meeting with reporters that coal isnt even good feedstock anymore, and the future of American energy is in natural gas, solar, and wind.

Here is what Cohn told reporters according to The White House Press Pool:



Cohns comments are the opposite of what Trump promised during the campaign when he said, Were going to get those miners back to work  the miners of West Virginia and Pennsylvania, which was so great to me last week, Ohio and all over are going to start to work again, believe me. They are going to be proud again to be miners.

The truth is that the coal jobs are gone, and they arent coming back. Trump lied to former and current coal miners in places like West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Western Pennsylvania.

Coal company bankruptcies and job losses in the Appalachian region werent caused by federal regulations as the company owners and Republicans like to claim. Automation within the industry, the natural gas boom, and declining international demand for coal are the real reasons behind the decline.

It was a rare moment of truth from the Trump administration that is likely to be walked back by the White House. The coal jobs arent coming back. Trumps advisers know this even as the President continues to sell a fantasy to a depressed economic region of a coal based revival that is never going to come.
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Today

Windy at times with rain likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. High 74F. Winds ENE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Tropical storm conditions possible. Rain. Low 71F. Winds SE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
Have you ever worked out your face? An eyebrow-raising beauty trend, called a microcurrent facial, aims to do just that.

The noninvasive treatment involves zapping your face with tiny electrical currents to stimulate, tone and tighten facial muscles.

"It's like a little workout for your face," actress Jennifer Aniston said in an interview with InStyle magazine last year.

The electrical stimulation technology behind the microcurrent facial has been used in partnership with various treatments for patients afflicted with Bell's palsy, a sudden paralysis or weakness of facial muscles that causes one side of your face to appear to droop. Now the technology is making waves in the cosmetic field.

Yet some experts question its effectiveness.

"It's been used for facial paralysis for about 70 years, and it's a common use for other areas of the body. If you pull your back or have a sore back or go to the physical therapist, they will hook you up to an electric (stimulation) machine sometimes. Same concept," said Dr. Daniel Knott, associate professor and director of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

"I'm not aware of electro-stim doing anything to the skin, the dermis, the fat. I would only think it would help the muscles," he said. "I would be skeptical of it doing anything except improving muscle tone."

So, for cosmetic purposes, "theoretically, yes, I see a rationale for it if you want to increase your muscle tone in your face. You could do that. I just think you'd have to do it a lot," Knott said.

For a cosmetic procedure, an aesthetician would apply a conductive gel to your face. The same type of gel is used for ultrasound scans, since it allows for the distribution of electric impulses, said Lauren Bays, an aesthetician.

Next, the aesthetician would use two metal prongs to apply electrical currents to the skin's surface, stimulating the facial muscles underneath.

"These two wands talk to each other. They're delivering currents back and forth," Bays said while performing a microcurrent facial procedure on a patient at the Plastic Surgery Centre of Atlanta in early February.

"This treatment starts out with lifting and tightening," she said. "It's just electrical currents going back and forth here and stimulating the top layer of the skin and the muscle."

The procedure ranges from $200 to $600 and takes about 45 minutes, Bays said. The more procedures you undergo, the more results you may see, she said.

During the treatment, patients might feel "a little bit of a tingle" on the skin or have a metallic taste in the mouth, Bays said, but many find the procedure to be relaxing.

The technology could be used similarly for a medical procedure. For instance, when people have facial paralysis or Bell's palsy, they would see a physical therapist to learn how to move and retrain certain facial muscles, Knott said.

As part of that retraining, some therapists may use an electrical stimulation device to help patients gain control of individual muscles and facial expressions, Knott said. (Bell's palsy can also be treated with anti-inflammatory medications, antiviral drugs, or surgery, according to the Mayo Clinic.)

Some experts, however, still question the benefits electrical stimulation may have for such patients. A 2015 review paper, published in the Journal of Novel Physiotherapies, found that "there is insufficient evidence" to support the procedure as an effective method to treat Bell's palsy.

The University of Rochester Medical Center lists electrical stimulation among "alternative therapies" in the treatment of Bell's palsy.

All in all, Knott said, microcurrent facials -- whether used for cosmetic or medical purposes -- are relatively safe.

"It might feel very nice to do it, as well," Knott said. "It gives this prickly electric feel to the skin."

However, he added, "there is no data demonstrating its effectiveness" as a cosmetic procedure.
A food drive conducted by the National Association of Letter Carriers, Seneca Foods and Channel One Regional Food Bank collected thousands of pounds of food for people in need.

Seneca Foods, letter carriers and postal customers brought in more than 75,000 pounds of food for Channel One during the 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive on May 13.

Letter carriers contributed 42,368 pounds of food, while Seneca Foods added 32,960 pounds. The food was transported by volunteers from Channel One and workers at the Valleyhigh and Bear Creek post offices in Rochester, and will be distributed to local areas.

"This year's total of over 75,000 pounds of food that was donated by postal customers and collected by local letter carriers as well as a generous donation from Seneca Foods will help us get ready to feed thousands of families this summer. We are so grateful for everyone's support," Jennifer Woodford, executive director of Channel One Regional Food Bank, said in a news release.
ST. PAUL  Despite plenty of fits and starts, Minnesota lawmakers finished their special session work this morning, passing a $46 billion budget bill and a $1 billion statewide construction package.

The work took more than three days longer than planned and, at times, it appeared the budget deal struck between legislative leaders and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton was in peril. But last-minute, closed-door negotiations between Republican and DFL leaders allowed the bills to move ahead.

House Taxes Committee Chairman Greg Davids, R-Preston, said the four-day special session was grueling. At one point, he had only three hours of sleep in 48 hours. But he said the exhausting work was worth it. In particular, he touted the $650 million tax-relief package passed by legislators  the largest in 18 years.

"It's great for Minnesota," Davids said. "Minnesotans are the big winners."

Lawmakers also approved a $300 million boost in transportation funding without tax increases and a $483 million boost to education spending. They also OK'd a health and human services budget that slices spending by $450 million but softens the cuts by draining the Health Care Access Fund, which is used primarily to fund MinnesotaCare  a program for low-income Minnesotans. Legislators also sent the governor a bill that prohibits local governments from passing their own minimum wage and sick leave laws  a bill Dayton has vowed to veto.

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Some Democrats say they fear the major tax cuts passed during the session will lead to future budget problems. Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said he is urging the governor to veto the tax bill.

"The Republican tax bill has massive spending in future years that will likely cripple Minnesota's economy and plow this state into ongoing deficits. The Republican tax bill is reckless and bad for Minnesota," Bakk said in a statement.

It is up to the governor to decide whether or not to sign the bills lawmakers have sent to him.

The deal included a nearly $1 billion construction borrowing package authored by Sen. Dave Senjem, R-Rochester. It includes $15 million for an at-grade rail crossing at Prairie Island Indian Community, $4 million to fix the Lanesboro Dam, $4 million to redevelop Red Wing's waterfront, $1.5 million to expand the Dyslexia Institute of Minnesota in Rochester and $500,000 to study Oronoco's wastewater infrastructure needs.

Left out of the bill was Rochester Community and Technical College's request for a nearly $22 million demolition and renovation project. That project was ranked seventh on Minnesota State's priority list, but other lower-ranked projects got funded instead. Those included ninth-ranked Winona State University's $25 million Education Village project.

Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, said she was deeply disappointed Senjem didn't demand the RCTC project be in the final bill.

"It sets a really bad precedent," she said. "For us to pick and choose politicizes them to a degree that is not necessary."

Senjem said last year's failed $1 billion bonding bill included funding for the lower-ranked projects, and lawmakers felt they could not remove them after having set the expectation that they would be funded. Overall, he said the $1 billion package has many important projects in it. Up until the end, he said lawmakers were working hard to add as many projects as possible while staying under $1 billion.

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"It's like filling a suitcase, you just keep pushing things in," Senjem said.

At one point, the bonding bill appeared to be in jeopardy, with Senate Democrats vowing they would refuse to vote for it over a provision that would get rid of a requirement that a bike trail be paved in Bloomington. Ultimately, that provision was dropped and the bill passed by a wide margin in both the House and Senate.

Rochester was successful in getting one of its major legislative priorities passed. The transportation bill includes $2.3 million to help with the cost of Rochester International Airport's expansion of U.S. Customs space.

Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, was among the lawmakers relieved to see the special session end. He said Democrats in the Senate were able to use their power to improve bills thanks to the Republicans' one-seat majority. At one point, two Republican senators were gone, requiring the GOP to get DFL senators to help pass budget measures.

While the session's end got messy, Sparks said he is pleased to see bills pass with more funding for transportation and education.

He added, "At the end of the day, we had divided government. It has been kind of a rocky road."
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) commands $842 million in assets. The Rockefeller name, coupled with RBFs financial clout, make this institution a pillar of American philanthropy.

Thus, its disappointing, though perhaps not altogether surprising, to learn that RBF is a substantial contributor to the boycott Israel movement. According to this superb article by Armin Rosen in Tablet, since 2013, RBF has contributed at least $880,000 to groups working to advance a boycott Israel. Rosen says that RBFs support for pro-boycott groups is virtually unique among major American institutional funders.

But for how long, I wonder. As one pro-boycott beneficiary gushed:

Its not just RBF. The R stands for Rockefeller. I think that has particular resonance for people both in the philanthropic world and more broadly.

I think shes right, at least with regard to the philanthropic world.

RBFs support for Israel boycott groups is extensive. According to Rosen:

The organizations that RBF currently funds engage in a broad spectrum of pro-boycott activity. RBF made a $140,000 grant to Jewish Voice for Peace, the primary Jewish communal validator for boycott efforts in the United States. JVPs national members meeting this past April featured a speech from Rasmea Odeh, a former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine militant who recently pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to omitting all mention of a 1970 terrorism conviction in Israel from a series of immigration applications. In 2015, RBF awarded a $50,000 grant to the American Friends Service Committee, which promotes boycott campaigns on college campuses and in various American Christian communities. In 2015, JVP and AFSC co-sponsored an International Conference on the Return of Palestinian Refugees organized by Zochrot, a Tel Aviv-based pro-boycott group that itself received two $20,000 grants for general support from RBF, in 2015 and 2017. In 2012, Zochrot published a document envisioning a post-Zionist Palestine; in 2014, the groups founder, Eitan Bronstein, appeared in a YouTube video filmed at Yad Vashem in which an actress portraying The Holocaust recites a monologue in which she asks who have you learned from to collect people according to their ethnic background and throw them into concentration camps?

RBF claims not to endorse BDS. Yet:

[I]t has. . .provided multiple open-ended grants to the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which is essentially the umbrella organization of the American BDS movement and a group whose Washington office provides boycott activists with an advocacy and policy presence in the nations capital. The Funds 2015 and 2017 grants to the group are for general support, and are not attached to any specific program. The U.S. Campaign lists comprehensive BDS among the coalitions common principles. Along with RBF grantees Palestine Legal, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the American Friends Service Committee, the U.S. Campaign coordinates a national Campus BDS Support Team to assist in boycott efforts at U.S. colleges and universities. The coalitions website also lists the Washington, D.C.-based Council for the National Interest as a member. That organizations president is Alison Weir, who has repeatedly appeared on a white supremacist radio show and promoted a conspiracy theory about the Israeli government harvesting the organs of Palestinians for profit.

Thus, RBF endorses BDS in the most meaningful way it can  by funding it. As Rosen says, it is impossible to argue that these grants are being made without the advancement of BDS in mind.

Tellingly, RBFs funding of BDS outfits was undertaken notwithstanding the objection of Nicholas Burns, the respected U.S. diplomat who has long been involved in the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire. As a RBF trustee, Burns supported the Funds decision to begin making grants related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but opposed funding pro-boycott groups.

During a trustee meeting in 2015, Burns urged RBF to stop funding pro-BDS organizations. He even suggested that the Fund request certain groups return some of their grant money. After three months of discussions, he failed to sway either the board, which included six members of the Rockefeller family, or Heintz.

Burns therefore resigned. He explained: BDS. While I favor the creation of an independent Palestinian state, I oppose BDS as fundamentally anti-Israeli.

RBF was also a player in the Iran nuclear deal, according to Rosen. Among other things, it worked to sell President Obamas Iran policy to a skeptical American public. It also funded Trita Parsi, a shameless pro-Iranian apologist. Rosens article has the details.

The article is long, but well worth reading in its entirety. He concludes:

RBFs engagement with American Jewish communal life has been minimal or non-existent, at least up until a couple of years ago. The Fund has now thrown its substantial resources behind a sweeping interpretation of what Israel and the American Jewish community really need. R BFs approach to philanthropy is based on the conviction that a private foundation should take the kinds of risks that government and the private sector cannot. That expansive sense of freedom and mission has now led RBF to stake out a clearand, to many, unpalatableposition on some of the most wrenching dilemmas in Jewish life.

To put it mildly.
Yesterday the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court order that found President Trumps second travel ban to be unconstitutional. This is one of those news stories that make me sad rather than angry.

The decision is ridiculous. The courts majority relied heavily on candidate Donald Trumps stump speeches in which he talked about a ban on all Muslim immigration. The court found that this context demonstrated a discriminatory intent. The decisions implication is that a different president could have issued the same order, and it would have been constitutional. The ACLUs lawyer made this explicit during his oral argument, saying that the order under attack may well have been constitutional if it had been issued by Hillary Clinton.

This is idiotic. For a court to say that a presidential order may or may not be constitutional depending on who the president isconstitutional if issued by a Democrat, unconstitutional if by a Republicanis the ultimate repudiation of the rule of law. Moreover, the presidents order didnt ban all Muslim immigration. It is absurd to condemn the order the president issued by arguing that he really wanted to issue something different.

It is also worth noting that the idea that a president cant discriminate with regard to travel to the U.S., or immigration, is ridiculous. Of course he can, and so can Congress. For most of our history, our immigration policy has been explicitly discriminatory. It arguably still is. Under federal law, the president has blanket authority to suspend immigration or travel, wholly or in part, from any country or group of countries, on the ground that it is in the national interest. The suggestion that a random Yemeni has a constitutional right to enter the United States is untenable, and flies in the face of all precedent.

Decisions like those we have seen on Trumps travel orders cant be viewed as legal rulings. As such, they are absurd. They can only be understood as part of the establishments war on the Trump administration. The Democrats (the 4th Circuit is now heavily Democrat) simply refuse to accept Trumps authority as president.

I assume the 4th Circuits decision will ultimately be overturned in the Supreme Court, and Trumps travel order will be upheld. However, as Steve pointed out during our Power Line Live event last night, there is a risk that Anthony Kennedy might decide to go out in a blaze of liberal glory, establishing previously unknown rights on behalf of Yemenis, Iranians, Syrians and so on. Unfortunately, we can assume that the four Democratic Party justices will vote as their party wants, regardless of how irrational that position may be.

As I said, this news story makes me sad rather than angry. The fact that Democratic Party judges are so far gone in hate and partisanship as to repudiate the rule of law suggests that the fabric of our society is coming apart.
I made a burrito for lunch today, because I wanted to commit a gross act of cultural appropriation.

Have you heard the latest out of Portlandia? The appropriately named Kooks Burritos was forced out of business after being attacked for white supremacy because these kooky burritos were being made and sold by white women. Seriously. The Portland Mercury, whose title may explain its mindset because only something like lead or mercury poisoning could explain its sheer stupidity, reports:

This week in white nonsense, two white womenKali Wilgus and Liz LC Connelydecided it would be cute to open a food truck after a fateful excursion to Mexico. Theres really nothing special about opening a Mexican restaurantits probably something that happens everyday. But the owners of Kooks Burritos all but admitted in an interview with Willamette Week that they colonized this style of food when they decided to pick the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever. You can eat $5 lobster on the beach, Connelly said, which they give you with this bucket of tortillas. The they she was referring to were probably the Mexican abuelitas these two women preyed upon in order to appropriate the secrets of their livelihood. Suitably impressed, these tourists began asking the locals questions about how these tortillas were made. They told us basic ingredients, Connelly said, adding [but] they wouldnt tell us too much about technique. Hmmm. Wonder why? This is where things go from quirky to predatory if you havent already guessed. . .

We were peeking into window of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look, she said. So lets recap the story thus far: These two white women went to Mexico, ate tacos, and then decided they would just take what the locals clearly didnt want to give them. If that wasnt bad enough, they decided to pack up all their stolen intellectual property and repackage it in one of the few places where such a business could plausibly work: Portland, Oregon. As soon as Willamette Week, who has a history of publishing racially insensitive food commentary, published this story, people of color were outraged.

Oh no! Not racially insensitive food commentary! Better call the United Nations Human Rights Commission! Anyway. . .

Immediately after the fury continued online, a different resource emerged and quickly went viral: a Google doc showing exactly how prevalent this epidemic is. The list titled White-Owned Appropriative Restaurants in Portlandprovides a whos who of culinary white supremacy. An introduction to the document begins by saying, This is NOT about cooking at home or historical influences on cuisines; its about profit, ownership, and wealth in a white supremacist culture.

Theres more, but this is enough. Meanwhile, anyone remember Emma Sulkowitz, better known as the mattress girl of Columbia University a few years back, after the bogus rape charge against a classmate made her a national celebrity and spawned the gimmick of carrying a mattress with her everywhere around campus? She called it an art project. (Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand brought her to a State of the Union speech.) Well, shes baaaackkk! With a new performance art exhibition that is truly an exhibition. An exhibition of what is pretty obvious. Here are a few pics:

You can read the whole story about it at the link above if you are a glutton for punishment. All I can say at this point is that I imagine all the sharks in the ocean are getting tired of having leftists jump over them in ever more spectacular acrobatic arcs. If they dont do on strike, theyre at least going to demand a union.

P.S. The Broadly story about Sulkowitzs latest performance runs this perfect correction at the end:

Correction: This story originally gendered a concerned viewer at Emma Sulkowiczs The Ship Is Sinking performance as she. They use pronouns they/them. We regret the error.
Once again we have seen how easy it is to knock out power. For 550 customers around Scott Lake in Thurston County, Washington, it was just one car crash away. About 7:30 Tuesday morning, reports note, a car crashed into some utility equipment, prompting the outage in question. Recovery took the next several hours, and with that, we got a look at how important power protection plans really are.

The outage was originally expected to be restored by nine, noted Puget Sound Energy, but subsequent estimates pushed the time back to noon. Power has since been restored, as the outage map only shows outages from May 26, but it was likely still a point that drove home the need for power protection.

We all know that outages can take place at any time. Car crashes can be a major part of this; one report from the Insurance Information Institute noted that, in 2014, there were around 186,000 accidents that involved the connection of a car and a power pole or similar electrical emplacement. That means a hefty number of outages as well, and makes it only a matter of time until someone hits a pole and takes the power with it.

That can be catastrophic for a business; imagine the loss of potential opportunity being without power for even an hour, let alone an entire day. The employees are stopped, the computers don't run, the call center probably can't answer calls...it's the kind of thing that sends customers in a screaming panic to your competitors. So how do you protect against this? Start with power protection.

Interestingly, Puget Sound Energy offers one such power protection method in its Solar Choice program, which sets up a solar bank at a separate location and adds solar power to overall grid operation. It's not the best power protection program, but it might well function as a sort of one. Better still to install panels on your own house or business, or even use something as simple as an uninterruptible power supply like those commonly offered by Minuteman in order to provide a couple minutes of additional power to save work and shut down systems properly.

Regardless of the method used for power protection, the key takeaway here is that power protection is a vital part of ordinary operations, and if it isn't, it should be. We depend on electrical power to carry out most everyday functions, and without it, we run the risk of opening up advantages for competitors. With the right tools in place, meanwhile, we can protect against such risk and deliver our valuable goods and services as if a car never crashed into that power pole.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
The Managing Director of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON, Ahmed Kuru, on Friday said the aviation industry is seriously challenged.

Mr. Kuru, who spoke at a media parley in Ikoyi, Lagos, said the government needs to intervene in the industry, noting that the sector needs reform.

The AMCON boss noted that some of the entrepreneurs behave in rascally manners, adding that government intervention is urgently needed to salvage the industry.

Mr. Kuru, whose agency has taken over two of the largest indigenous airlines, Arik and Aero, due to mounting debt, lamented that airlines are not able to survive more than ten years in the industry.

He suggested that the sector needs to be overhauled, noting that the worrisome state of affairs in the industry is not only about poor management on the part of the investors.

Aviation sector is seriously challenged, he said, adding that,not all investors are bad businessmen.

The AMCON chief listed some of the challenges affecting the sector to include access to aviation fuel, corporate governance and infrastructure.

Details later

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials in the wake of a deadly attack on a group of Christians in the south of the country on Friday, the state news agency said.

Masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians in southern Egypt, killing 26 people and wounding 26 others as they were driving to a monastery, medical sources and witnesses said.

The group was traveling in two buses and a small truck in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority, the sources said.

Provincial governor Essam al-Bedaiwy said earlier that 23 people had been killed and 25 wounded.

Witnesses said the Copts were attacked as they were going to pray at the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in the western part of the province.

They said masked men stopped the vehicles on a road leading to the monastery and opened fire.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypts population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.

About 70 have been killed in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta since December.

Those attacks were claimed by Islamic State.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Fridays attack. (Reuters/NAN)

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The Nigerian Embassy in Washington has protested to the U.S. Government over the violation of its premises by U.S. police following fracas between two local workers.

The Acting Ambassador/Charge dAffaires, Hakeem Balogun, told the News Agency of Nigeria that a protest note had been transmitted to the U.S. Department of State.

Mr. Balogun condemned the violation of diplomatic protocol over altercation by two embassy drivers.

We have sent a protest note in respect of the entrance by the police into the embassy. It is against diplomatic protocols.

They are not supposed to enter the embassy. The protest letter is in respect of the entrance of the police into the embassy, Mr. Balogun said.

The Nigerian envoy also said that he has since taken appropriate and timely, administrative and diplomatic steps to address the incident.

These measures include the immediate and indefinite suspension of the two local staff members involved in the fracas.

There is the establishment of a committee to investigate and recommend appropriate disciplinary actions against the two locally-recruited staff members involved in the fracas.

Mr. Balogun dismissed the publication by a Nigerian newspaper alleging that the United States police was called in to restore order in the Embassy as a result of a physical fight.

The ambassador also described as baseless, claims that the fracas took place in the full glare of dozens of guests and visa applicants.

To buttress its report, the newspaper attached a photograph claiming to be the chaotic situation that erupted as a result of the fight, he said.

According to him, however, the dispute between two of its drivers took place in the basement area of the Chancery where Embassy drivers are stationed.

The physical encounter was, therefore, not in the full glare of the public as to have caused a chaotic situation.

A cursory look and careful analysis of the picture attached by the Newspaper will reveal to anyone conversant with the Embassys premises that the picture used has no physical connection to the Embassy.

This was clearly an effort at deception, the ambassador said.

On the issue of the nationalities of the Embassys local staff members, he said the primary qualification for employment into the non-diplomatic workforce is knowledge of the job, not the nationality of the applicant.

The newspaper went further to question the composition of the nationalities of the Embassys locally recruited staff.

This is an international best practice. Be that as it may, it is important to inform that out of the Missions current local staff strength of 44, there are 37 Nigerians.

Seven are non-Nigerians from India, The Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka, he said.

Mr. Balogun assured that the mission would continue to do everything within its mandate to protect and defend the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians in the U.S. (NAN)

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Haliru Jika, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, says the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) will soon recruit an additional 35, 000 rank and file into the force.

Mr. Jika, representing Ganjuwa/Darazo Federal Constituency in Bauchi State on the ticket of APC, disclosed this while answering questions from journalist in Bauchi on Friday.

Weve just concluded the recruitment of 10, 000 police men and women of the Nigeria police Force in the country and we will soon kick start 35,000.

The last 10,000 we did was 1,500 for officers, 1,000 for specialists  that is for mechanics, nurses and others.

And then another 7, 500 for rank and file that is the normal conventional police which is the one you are seeing here working with us.

And now these 35, 000 that we are going to start soon is going to be strictly rank and file because this country is grossly under-policed.

It is part of our legislative agenda to strengthen the internal security of Nigeria, which is why we feel it is important to inject more policemen into the system for proper and effective policing of the country.

That is why we decided to do the first 10,000 when President Muhammadu Buhari came to power and he gave a presidential directive to recruit 10,000.

And now he has given another directive to recruit another 35,000.

Mr. Jika, who noted that the Nigeria police force was underfunded, said the legislative arm of government was working to enhance the welfare and morale of the personnel.

What the Nigeria police are facing now is under-funding.

So we are trying to work legislatively to improve the welfare and morale of the Nigeria Police. (NAN)

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The Nigeria Police Force has warned separatist groups like the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Biafra Independence Movement (BIM) to call off their planned protests.

In a statement issued by Force Spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, Friday, the police said it would not hesitate to deal decisively with any attempt to cause disturbance or carry out any unlawful procession or assembly.

The fact that freedom of expression as one of the dictates of democracy is being observed by the Police, should not be misconstrued as liberty by any group(s) for sectional or group interest to violate the laws and cause mayhem, confusion and apprehension in the minds of more than about 170 million Nigerians, said Mr. Moshood, a chief superintendent of police.

The IPOB group had scheduled a sit-at-home protest in the south-east and south-south regions of the country on May 30 to coincide with the annual Biafra Remembrance Day, as well as honour the memory of pro-Biafra activists killed by security agencies over the years.

The group ordered the closure of all markets within Biafran territory on May 30, and a halt of all vehicular movements in the area from 12 a.m. on May 29 till midnight of May 30.

No going back on protest

The Biafra separatist groups, particularly the IPOB, and Nigeria security agencies have a history of violence confrontations over the past few years.

At least 150 peaceful pro-Biafra protesters were killed between August 2015 and August 2016 as Nigerian security forces embarked on  what Amnesty International described as  a chilling campaign of extrajudicial executions and violence in the Southeast.

During last years Biafra Remembrance Day march, at least 60 people were killed as hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces across the Southeast region, according to Amnesty International.

In announcing this years protest, the IPOB had said it would resist any attempt to deter it from going ahead with its plan.

The saboteurs and agents cannot stop us from honouring our fallen heroes because it is our inalienable right to remember and honour those who died in the struggle for Biafra independence, the group had said.

Last year, the Nigerian government arrested the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and charged him for treason. Mr. Kanu was finally released on bail last month, after the government continually ignored repeated court rulings granting him bail.

In its response on Friday, the police said it was concerned with the security implications with regards to the renewed hostilities and subversive propagandas aimed at undermining law and order in some parts of the country.

Consequently, the police statement directed the heads of police commands in the respective regions to deal decisively in accordance with the law any eventuality that can disrupt commercial activities, vehicular movements and safety of lives and properties.

The Force sees the activities of these groups as not only unlawful but highly provocative and capable of causing breach of the peace currently being enjoyed in the South East States and other States of the Federation, the police said.

The planned protests and orders of market closure and illegal unilateral self imposed restrictions of vehicular movements by these groups in the affected States should be disregarded by all well meaning Nigerians.

The Nigeria Police Force, hereby advised the members of the public to go about their lawful duties and other responsibilities without any fear or apprehension as adequate security arrangements have been put in place for the safety of every Nigerian throughout the Country by Nigeria Police Force and other Security agencies.

The police said it was unaware of the rights of every Nigerian to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association as enshrined in the Constitution but warned that those rights must be exercised without violating the rights of millions of other Nigerians to free movements and access to public and private facilities.

The Nigeria Police while observing the rights of all Nigerians as stated above is equally conscious of the fact that these rights are not absolute as Section 45 of the same Constitution provide for derogations to these rights, the police continued.

Consequently, the Police will resist the action(s) of any person or group of persons for whatever course (sic) that is against the interest of public defence, public safety, public order, public morality and a threat to the rights and freedom of other Nigerians.

The Force will continue to police the country based on international core values and best practices and operate within the principles of democratic policing but will not succumb and tolerate criminal activities of any group(s) under any guise to cause disturbance of public peace and unleash mayhem on innocent Nigerians anywhere in the country.

As a result, the Police Force is hereby calling on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Biafran Independence Movement (BIM), the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) to consider the consequences of their actions and activities and without delay and call themselves to order in the interest of national security and safety of lives and properties of every Nigerian across the nation as the full weight of the law will be made to bear on violators of the law.

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Former President Goodluck Jonathan has hit out at criticisms of his role in the disbursement of Ecological Funds during his administration, singling out Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna State as he sought an avenue to vent his anger.

In a statement on Friday, Mr. Jonathan described Mr. El-rufai as one who has an incurable knack for lying.

An interim report by the National Executive Councils Ad-hoc committee on management of Ecological Funds had stated that 19 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, did not benefit from their statutory percentage share of the fund during Mr. Jonathans administration.

The NEC is an official platform for dialogue among the 36 state governors, the Central Bank governor, and other co-opted members, and is chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

The report, submitted by an 11-member committee headed by Mr. El-Rufai, shed light on how the Ecological Fund was disbursed during Mr. Jonathans government.

According to the committee, the states that did not benefit from the Fund include Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger and Ogun.

Others are Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara, and Abuja.

Submitting the report, Mr. El-rufai was quoted as saying that, What President Goodluck Jonathan did was to take N2bn each from the Ecological Fund and gave to some PDP states. Any PDP state that was not his friend, like Kano and Kwara, didnt get.

Referencing a book, My Watch, written by another former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, wherein Mr. El-rufai was portrayed as a disloyal figure, Mr. Jonathan said he was not surprised at Kaduna governors recent comments.

It is false that non-PDP states did not get monies from the fund, Mr. Jonathan said in the statement issued by Ikechukwu Eze, his media adviser.

It is so easy to expose Malam Nasir El-rufai as a liar being that Akwa-Ibom, a PDP state governed by the then Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and a close confidante and major supporter of the then President, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, did not get the monies alluded to by Malam El-rufai from the Ecological Fund as did multiple other PDP states including Ekiti state, a state governed by a thoroughbred patriot and Jonathan supporter, Ayo Fayose.

Nemesis catches up faster with liars than any other agent of evil. El-rufai was probably led by the gods against his own sinister plot to confess in another breathe (sic) that States under non-PDP parties like APGA and Labour party also benefitted.

The fact remains that the Ecological Fund is a specialized fund with certain constitutional requirements which must be met before a state can access the funds. Every state benefitted from the fund under President Jonathan who bent over backwards to accommodate states that had difficulty meeting the criteria for accessing the fund.

Mr. Jonathan said the Kaduna governors sinister narrative was intentionally silent on the over N10 billion specially deployed to fund the Great Green Wall (GGW) project in some northern states, in view of the need to work with the rest of Africa on the African initiative to check desert encroachment in the Sahelian states.

These states included Zamfara, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina and Adamawa. Others are Yobe, Borno and Kano which belong to Mallam El-rufais class of non-friendly states that he alleged never benefitted from any discretionary fund.

Similar principle applies to the conditions for accessing the Universal basic Education fund where some states have not had access to what is due them, because they are yet to fulfill the mandatory criteria for allocation. Would it then be right in the name of El-rufais position on equity to blame the failure of those states to access their UBEC funds on Jonathan?

The former president said it was sad that judicious presidential interventions to tackle emergencies and other pressing national needs were being interrogated in a rather facile manner, by those who never get tired of playing dirty politics.

Nigerians may recall that this is not the first time that El-rufai has vented his known passion for lying against the former President, he continued.

The public will recall that in October 2015 he falsely alleged that former President Jonathan spent a whopping N64 billion on Independence Day celebrations, during his tenure when in fact only N333 million was spent.

Nigerians may also recall that this same El-rufai falsely accused former President Jonathan and former CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of founding and funding Boko Haram to the tune of N50 billion.

We can only wonder what new false accusation El-rufai may come up with tomorrow, as with him it is a case of one day, one lie.

We therefore urge Nigerians to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath whenever this notorious liar opens his mouth.

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Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, on Thursday warned citizen advocacy platforms Sahara Reporters and Budgit, to be more careful now that its location has been made public.

The event was the launch of a citizen media lab, a collaborative project between Sahara Reporters and Budgit, located at 13B, Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

Sahara Reporters, a citizen advocacy platform, has for years operated out of New York in the United States.

In his speech at the event, Mr. Soyinka said he was hopeful the media lab would be a genuine media centre.

Let me congratulate you once again on the launching of this media centre, he said.

I hope it makes the media more careful, now that people know where to come and find you and to deal with you when you go wrong, and I hope it will be a genuine media centre, which means that when we stop by, we would have a drink before we get to more serious tasks.

I hope the media, when they do their launch will not be like the launching with which the nation was treated recently in Abuja, Mr. Soyinka said.

I think this nation, you and I, have been slapped in the face by some of the disgusting reprobates that we know in any level of connection with power, he added.

Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, thanked Mr. Soyinka for his presence at the launch despite his busy schedule.

Mr. Soyinka was later ushered into the centre, alongside other guests, to examine the facilities and launch the media lab.

Mr. Sowore said the media centre would be different in outlook and operation, adding that a spot for relaxation had been provided.

I also want to assure you that this media centre is different to the extent that if you wait long enough, there will be palmwine available on the other side of the centreif you want to pour libation to the gods, Mr. Sowore said.

On his motivating factor, the Sahara Reporters boss said he was disappointed in how young Nigerians have been lethargic with the opportunity they have to change the narrative of the country, adding that he was hopeful the centre would provide better platform for them to vent their frustration.

Designed with graffiti-like images of legendary Afrobeat musician, Fela Kuti, and late human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, the media centre had graphic arts illustrations chronicling civil resistance in Nigeria  beginning from the early 1960s to terminate at the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protest.

Also speaking at the event, Seun Onigbinde, the creator of Budgit, said the idea behind the centre was to build new tools to make democracy better in Nigeria.

Mr. Onigbinde said the initiative would also build capacity of young Nigerians with the desire to change narratives in the media.

Ayo Obe, a social activist and human rights defender, urged young Nigerians to persevere, be persistent and never give up in the struggle to liberate Nigeria.

Dont go awaydont give up, she counseled.

Musician and rights activist, Charles Oputa, on his part said the youth must leverage on social media to actualise real change.

Mr. Oputa, popularly known as Charley Boy, lamented the irony in of Nigerians being afraid of the government rather than the government being afraid of Nigerians.

He said the masses had been taken for a ride for far too long, urging them to resist further exploitation by politicians.

Our mumu don reach last bus stop Our mumu don do, he cried.

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An advocacy group, Access to Justice, has said the Nigerian Presidencys excuse for its continued detention of Ibraheem El-zakzaky and Sambo Dasuki in spite of court rulings ordering their release strikes a hard blow at the principle of separation of powers.

Adenike Aiyedun, deputy director of the group, said Thursday that the governments action would make it difficult for the courts to play their role as the last hope of the common man.

Where people are at any risk and need to be protected, they normally request for such protection, and responsible governments avail their citizens of the assistance of security personnel, said Ms. Aiyedun.

Mr. El-zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, and Mr. Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser, have been in detention for more than one year.

On Tuesday, Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President, said Mr. El-zakzaky was still in protective custody for his own safety.

As for Mr. Dasuki, the presidents aide said the former NSA was still being investigated for other allegations and could not be set free yet.

Access to Justice expressed dismay at Mr. Shehus claims.

As a point of departure, the executive branch of government has no power or authority to second-guess the judgments of competent courts or the effect of their orders, in order to disobey the courts or deny the adjudicated rights of Nigerians, Ms. Aiyedun said.

Where the executive arrogates to itself a general right to sit, as a court of appeal over judgments and orders of constitutionally established courts, it clearly makes courts of law irrelevant in protecting the rights of citizens and indirectly usurps the powers and functions of the judicial branch of government.

This sabotages the whole idea of a constitutional democracy and the rule of law, as it denies courts their legitimate role, as protectors of the rights of citizens.

Without this protection, citizens remain completely at the mercy of government, and their rights in perpetual jeopardy. Hence, we find the defence by the Federal Government of Nigeria, to be completely self-serving, disingenuous and audacious.

The group further said it was obnoxious and irresponsible for the government to claim it was detaining a citizen in his best interest when the same person had utilized every means available to oppose the incarceration.

Where people are at any risk and need to be protected, they normally request for such protection, and responsible governments avail their citizens of the assistance of security personnel, the group said.

It is also untenable to say that government plans at some point in the future to charge citizens for crimes, and without judicial authorization, keep crime suspects in custody in disobedience of court orders. This grievously offends the rule of law.

Finally, it appears that the Buhari administration which promised to uphold the Constitution  has upstaged the Constitution and exhibited, unbridled arrogance to its provisions within the stated context.

We would hereby like to remind the government of the day that it may someday be haunted by the precedent that it is now setting, as it is impossible to fight impunity, with a higher level of impunity.

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Every pilgrim embarking on the 2017 Hajj from Nigeria will pay N38,000 as price for the sacrificial animal (Hadaya).

The State Pilgrims Welfare Boards, commissions and agencies are to collect the sums and remit same to the designated accounts of Jaiz Bank Plc which is the appointed bank for the collection of Hadaya payments.

This is part of the reforms being undertaken by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, for a hitch-free hajj this year, the commission said.

To this end, the commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with the bank to ensure that all intending pilgrims achieve perfect Hajj by entrusting the important rite to a trustworthy agent.

In the past, pilgrims paid for the sacrifice to either the state boards and agencies or other third party agents.

However, many pilgrims often expressed doubt as to whether that important requirement for a Hajj was carried out on their behalf.

At a brief ceremony held within NAHCON complex Abuja on Wednesday, the Commissioner in charge of Policy, Personnel Management and Finance, Ibrahim Adebayo, who stood in for the Chairman/CEO of the commission, expressed the hope that the bank would discharge the assignment with the fear of Allah and great sense of responsibility.

Mr. Adebayo further explained that all state boards are to collect the Hadaya fees from intending pilgrims along with the 2017 Hajj fare, adding that pilgrims who wish to perform other forms of Hajj that do not require sacrificing animals need not pay.

Signing for the bank, the Managing Director/CEO, Hassan Usman, assured of the banks preparedness to carry out the responsibility with commitment and fear of God as it has done in the past two years, noting that they will not disappoint the Commission and the Muslim Ummah.

He thanked the board and management of NAHCON for the trust and confidence accorded to the bank.

He noted that Hadayah collection has been a onerous task and an integral part of Hajj rites that must be fulfilled to ensure accepted Hajj.

And for the 2017 Hajj exercise, Jaiz bank will deliver, he said.

The spokesperson of NAHCON, Uba Mana, in a statement Thursday, said with the new arrangement, pilgrims would be sure of having performed the sacrificial animal rite conducted by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Saudi Arabia without stress or the fear of being shortchanged by dubious agents.

The ceremony was also attended by senior management staff of NAHCON as well as the Deputy Managing Director of Jaiz bank, Abubakar Mahe, the banks secretary, Rukayat Saludeen and Yusuf Jonge.

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A former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Ango Abdullahi, on Thursday criticised the process of choosing delegates for the 2014 national conference, saying it was the reason the northern part of the country rejected the report.

Mr. Abdullahi, who is the chairman of Northern Elders Forum, said the north rejected the report because delegates convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan to the conference were not selected through a democratic process.

He also asked resource control campaigners, including former Akwa Ibom governor, Victor Attah, to discard the idea, and instead campaign for resource management, Nation newspaper reported Friday.

Mr. Abdullahi spoke on Thursday at an event marking the 90th birthday of a former minister, Edwin Clark, held in Abuja.

Mr. Abdullahi said he spoke in his personal capacity not on behalf of the NEF.

Mr. Attah, a keynote speaker at the event, spoke on the theme: Restructuring, True Federalism and Resource Control: Panacea for Enduring Peace and Sustainable Development in Nigeria.

I attended the 1986/87 Babangidas constitutional conference; I also attended the 1994/95 Abacha conference. I also attended the political reform conference of Obasanjo, Mr. Abdullahi said.

The only conference I refused to attend was the Jonathan conference. I call it Jonathan conference. I do not hide my feelings on that for obvious reasons.

All the conferences I attended were conferences where delegates were elected from their various constituencies, and they gave the feeling that they were representing people from their various constituencies. That was the different from Jonathans conference, he said.

He said the delegates should have been elected.

This was not done and that was why most of us declined to attend, he said.

Mr. Abdullahi said his decision to seek the change of resource control to resource management was because the countrys founding fathers judiciously managed the meager resources available to them for the development of the country up to the time of independence.

You will agree with me that during the time of our founding fathers, Azikiwe, Awolowo, Sarduna of Sokoto, they never had the volume of resources that is available for Nigeria today, he said.

But I can tell you that those our founding fathers managed the resources, these very scarce resources, to achieve so much for this country up till independence.

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International health donor agency, Global Fund, has pledged to continue to support Nigeria with funds, drugs, research and strategies development in the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

This was disclosed on Friday through a press statement by the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja.

Global Fund, which has been offering support to Nigeria over the years, restated its commitment against the backdrop of some international agencies withdrawing similar support to the country citing massive corruption and diversion of funds.

The infractions were reportedly perpetrated before the present administration of the Nigerian health sector and are being investigated.

The Executive Director of Global Fund, Mark Dybul, however, said at the ongoing World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, that the agency did not reduce its allocation to Nigeria because of the forthrightness and honesty being exhibited by Health Minister, Isaac Adewole.

Because of your leadership and appeal, we did not reduce the allocation to Nigeria. You have been honest. As a result of your honesty, when I leave the Assembly, I will be working on several projects across Africa, please let me know how I can be of help to you in Nigeria, he said.

The minister, who had earlier spoken on behalf of his colleagues from Africa, had presented the Nigeria Universal Health Coverage Agenda to the General Assembly attended by delegates from over 200 countries, including the outgoing Director-General of WHO, Magaret Chan.

Mr. Adewole also coordinated the meeting of the Commonwealth Health Ministers of the African region to articulate the continent`s agenda where he rolled out the plans and efforts of his ministry in tackling the menace of cervical cancer which includes free screening for breast and cervical cancer, as well as for prostate cancer in men above 50 years of age.

The minister said over 17,000 screenings were carried out in 2016 and that with the passage of the 2017 budget, close to 200,000 Nigerians will continue to benefit from the free screenings.

He also urged global partners to send more funds and investment in terms of research, drugs and treatment should to Nigeria.

The 70th World Health Assembly started on May 22 and is scheduled to close on the last day of this month.

The minister is attending the meeting alongside Faisal Shuaib, who is the head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, and the National Coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Programme, NMEP.

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The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, on Friday opened Nigerias first state-of-the art Priority American Space hosted at the Yaba offices of technology incubator, Co-Creation Hub (CC-Hub).

At the event attended by technology leaders, Mr. Symington explained that the space, which is equipped with cutting-edge digital technology, is a center for Nigerians to develop innovative ideas, learn about the United States and its people, explore possible study at U.S. universities, enjoy U.S. cultural programs and also interact with U.S. exchange program alumni.

At the Priority American Space in Lagos, we are investing in technology and programs to unleash the creativity of Nigerias burgeoning community of innovators. We are pleased to partner with Co-Creation Hub, a leading force for incubating social entrepreneurship and technological advancement, Mr. Symington said.

The centre, now open to the members of the public, comprises a MakerSpace  a tech area designed to promote digital skill building; a workshop space equipped with the latest laptops and tablets for internet learning; a conversation space for small group meetings and research and a meeting space that supports innovation and creative collaboration.

With a rich array of programs and trainings, the Priority American Space which is the tenth of its sort in Africa, will promote ingenious ideas, critical thinking and reasoned discourse. Worldwide, there are 67 Priority American Spaces.

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The Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III, has declared Saturday, May 27, as 1st Ramadan, 1438 AH, signifying the commencement of the annual long-month fast by Muslims.

That confirmed PREMIUM TIMES earlier report indicating the 2017 Ramadan fast would commence on Saturday.

Sultan Abubakar, President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council For Islamic Affairs, announced the sighting of the new moon in Sokoto, on Friday, in a broadcast.

Mr. Abubakar said that the new moon was sighted in various states of the country including Kebbi, Lagos, Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta, Cross River and Benue.

The Sultan stated that the reports of the sighting of the new moon were received from Muslim leaders and organizations across the nation.

Mr. Abubakar further said that the reports were duly verified and authenticated by the National Moon Sighting Committee.

He said that the sighting of the new moon of Ramadan also signified the end of Shaaban, 1438AH.

The Sultan, therefore, called on the Muslim ummah to commence fasting accordingly.

Mr. Abubakar implored the Muslim Ummah to devote themselves fully to worship throughout the Holy month.

We should also pray fervently for the blessings of Allah for President Muhammadu Buhari and others in leadership positions in Nigeria.

This is to enable them to succeed in steering the affairs of our dear country, as well as sustenance of peace and stability in Nigeria and the world, he urged.

He further called on Nigerians to continue to live peacefully with one another, irrespective of religious and tribal differences.

Ramadhan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and the month in which the Quran was revealed.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam.

(NAN)

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Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday visited the Garki Model Market in Abuja where he interacted with traders to know how they are faring and how the government could tailor policies to aid them.

The acting presidents visit was part of activities to commemorate the two years in office of the Buhari administration.

He arrived the market some few minutes after 3 p.m. to a rousing welcome by both traders and customers, and spent about forty minutes interacting with the marketers.

A few of them who spoke to Mr. Osinbajo complained of the high cost of rent paid for their shops, while others complained of rising cost of food items they buy and sell.

A trader who sells rice, Nasiru Kurfi, complained of inadequate storage space, saying that the management of the market had not been able to complete the shops they paid for long ago.

The acting president promised to take up both the matter of high rent and spaces with the management of the market.

He also called on the traders to combine carrying out business activities with farming.

The more we farm, the more cost of products will come down, he said.

The Minister of State, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar, and other presidential aides accompanied Mr. Osinbajo on the visit.

I just stopped by at theGarki market, Abuja.

This lady and I discussed some of the issues she faces in the sale of fish at the local market pic.twitter.com/5KV8Ninmo8  Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) May 26, 2017

Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the visit, Mr. Osinbajos Spokesperson, Laolu Akande, said the surprise visit was part of activities to mark the second anniversary of the administration.

He wanted to feel the pulse of Nigerians and to hear directly from the people and have one on one with them and assure them that the administration was committed to improving the economy and ensure life gets better for them,Mr. Akande said.

The visit came a day before the commencement of the annual Muslim fast and Mr. Osinbajo urged the traders to keep prices low for their fellow citizens.

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A guest house belonging to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, was raided by security operatives Friday morning, a spokesperson for the lawmaker has told PREMIUM TIMES.

The aide, Uche Anichukwu, told PREMIUM TIMES that the action was carried out by the Inspector-General of Polices Special Squad.

But nothing was found, he said.

However, the spokesperson for the police, Moshood Jimoh, denied the raid was carried out by the police.

It was not us, Mr. Jimoh said. I have asked all our departments and confirmed none of our officers was there.

The State Security Service, SSS, could not be immediately reached.

Mr. Anichukwu said the raid took place at about 8 a.m. at a guest house located on Ganges Street in the Maitama District of Abuja.

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The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday rejected an award slated to be bestowed on him by Governor Nyesom Wike, calling it a poisoned chalice.

Mr. Amaechi unequivocally rejected the award, a statement from his media office said.

Mr. Wike immediately welcomed the rejection, with the Rivers State Commissioner of Information, Austin Tam-George, describing it as a huge moral relief for the administration, and the people of the state, in a statement to PREMIUM TIMES Friday evening.

The rejection came two days after PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr. Amaechi had been listed amongst those to be honoured by Mr. Wike as part of activities marking the 50th Anniversary of Rivers State.

A list of honourees prepared by the jubilee anniversary committee set up by Mr. Wike had Mr. Amaechis name at number 18 amongst 29 people to be awarded Grand Service Star of Rivers State.

Former Nigerian leaders Goodluck Jonathan and Yakubu Gowon are also on the list, alongside late activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who would be honoured posthumously.

This newspaper also reported that it was not immediately clear if Mr. Amaechi would accept the award or attend the award night scheduled for May 27.

While echoing his past clashes with Mr. Wike, Mr. Amaechi made it clear in his Friday statement that he would not be part of the programme put together by the governor, who succeeded him in 2015.

The purported award itself is a contradiction of monumental proportions, a contradiction that can only come from a warped and perverted mind.

From day one as governor, Wike has made it his sole, one-point agenda to attack, abuse, insult and falsely denigrate Amaechi, his immediate predecessor and erstwhile benefactor.

Since he became governor, Wike spends most of his time making reckless, deeply irresponsible malicious, false allegations against Amaechi, as he attempts, albeit fruitlessly, to malign and destroy the outstandingly superb performance and legacy of Amaechi in Rivers State, Mr. Amaechi said.

Therefore, the minister wondered why the governor would even contemplate honouring him.

So, what are the bases or criteria for Wike to give an award/honour to a man he (Wike) has rashly attacked and called all sorts of unprintable names in the past two years?

Similarly, Mr. Amaechi said he could not accept the award in the face of a deplorable situation which Mr. Wike allegedly plunged Rivers into.

The minister said residents of the state would find his action untenable should he go ahead and pick up the award.

But Mr. Tam-George said Mr. Amaechi qualified for the award by default.

The Rivers State Government never set out to give any special award to Mr. Rotimi Amaechi for meritorious service, he said. There is a category in the award structure for former governors of the state. As a former governor, Mr. Amaechi fell automatically into that category.

Furthermore, Mr. Tam-George said Mr. Amaechi should prepare himself for serious legal challenges which the Wike administration would soon confront him with.

Mr. Amaechi was personally indicted for stealing billions of public funds, by a court-approved panel of inquiry set up by the state government.

The State government is about to begin a prosecutorial process against him in multiple jurisdictions, in Nigeria and abroad. And no award would have stopped that process, the commissioner said.

But Mr. Amaechi said Mr. Wike had become accustomed to making allegations with little regards for facts needed to establish same.

When the governor talks, he should talk with facts and must be able to prove his claims. Most unfortunately for Rivers State, Wike possess none of these qualities.

Mr. Amaechi highlighted a recent claim by Mr. Wike in which the governor linked the minister to the huge stash of cash found in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos last month.

The minister demanded a retraction and apology from Mr. Wike for the claim, which had since been found to be false.

The only other alternative is for him to publicly apologise and tell us that he wickedly and maliciously lied when he had that disgraceful, middle of the night press conference to push the false narrative that Amaechi owns the money and apartment, the minister said.

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The Nigerian Army said it raided a Boko Haram cell at Mokwa and its environs in Niger State on Thursday and arrested three leaders of the terrorist group.

The army spokesman, Sani Usman, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday, named the suspects as Mustapha Muhammed (Adam Bitri), Ali Saleh and Uba Mohammed.

Mr. Usman, a brigadier general, said they were picked up at their hideout at Gidan Mai village on Mokwa-Tegina road.

Preliminary investigation has confirmed that one of the terrorists, Mustapha Muhammed (Adam Bitri), along with one Bakura (at large), was among the group of the Boko Haram terrorists that kidnapped the late elder statesman, Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno, in Maiduguri on May 13, 2013.

Items recovered from them include Automated Teller Machines debit cards, Voter Registration cards, National Identity Cards, various mobile telephones and bank tellers, among other items.

The terrorists are currently being further interrogated, Usman said.

(NAN)

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A magistrate court in Yobe State on Friday sentenced a 37-year-old farmer, Khaki Nujiya, to 10 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl.

The rapist was not given an option of fine.

The prosecuting counsel, Fatima Mohammed, told the court that the convict who lives in Koromari village of Bursari local government area of Yobe State, was reported at the police station on September 9, 2016 for committing the crime.

She said the complainant, Mohammed Arabia, of the same village, told police at Garin Alkali division that the accused lured his daughter while she set out on an errand and forced himself on her.

The father said the rapist, during the forceful intercourse, inflicted injury on the girls private part.

Mr. Mohammed said by so doing the accused had committed a grave offence punishable under Section 283 of the Penal Code.

The accused could not prove innocence throughout the trial.

The presiding judge, Abubakar Maluri, ruled that having taken into consideration the submissions of both the prosecuting and defense counsels in the suit he had no doubt the former had proved his charges against the accused person beyond every reasonable doubt as required by law.

He sentenced Mr. Nujiya to 10 years imprisonment with no option of fine. In addition, the convict was asked to pay N50, 000 compensation to the victim.

Ms. Mohammed, a foremost women right activist in Yobe state said though she happy with the jail time, she was not satisfied with the N50, 000 compensation given to the victim by the court.

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The Rivers State Government has told 159 students it sent abroad on scholarship that it is arranging funds for them to conclude their courses and return home.

The final year students are currently stranded in tertiary institutions overseas following the failure of the state government to remit their tuition fees and other allowances.

The students were sent abroad by the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency, under a special scholarship initiated by the administration of former governor, Rotimi Amaechi.

Spread across countries in Europe, America and the Caribbeans, they were to graduate September last year but are being delayed as the state government has not released funds for the programme since December 2014.

Apart from their certificates being withheld, most of the students have also been thrown out of residential accommodation for failing to pay their rents, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

Among them are 16 whose dream of becoming medical doctors is hanging in the balance.

Investigation by PREMIUM TIMES showed that the 16 medical students have been barred from clinical rotation by St. Vincent University in Ireland, pending settlement of their outstanding tuition fees.

Paul Babeye Adden from Ido in Asari-Tolu Local Government Area, the leader of the final year Rivers State medical students in the university, told this paper that each student pays $7,995 per semester.

We are owing the school for five semesters, bringing the debts to $39,975 per student, he said in a phone chat this newspaper had with a group of the students.

Apart from tuition fees, Mr. Adden said the state government was paying $1200 monthly for the upkeep and accommodation of each student, but this has not been paid for two years and five months now.

I have been squatting with a friend since I was evicted from my apartment, one of the students, Udochukwu Amadi, narrated his ordeal.

The student Visa I am operating on does not have provision for me to work so I cannot even do a little side hustle to augment. I am totally helpless.

We have repeatedly reached out to our state government, they keep promising that they will do something but all their promises have not translated into action which is what we desperately need.

I was two months from finishing all my clinical rotations before we were suspended, Mr. Amadi said.

Following several complaints by the affected students and people speaking for them, the state government said it would release funds to offset the bills owed by its students on scholarship who are stranded in countries across the globe soonest.

The RSSDA Director, Lawrence Pepple, told this paper on Monday that he received confirmation from the state government that funds would be released soonest to institutions where the students have either graduated without collecting their certificates or some that may require few courses to round up.

He however could not disclose the amount to be released.

We are currently working with parents of these students with a view to verifying the exact financial standing of these 159 students with their schools so that we do not credit the accounts of schools when in actual fact, parents may have cleared the fees and we will need to reimburse them instead of the schools. Each student is being treated on case by case basis.

I am optimistic that before the end of next week a sizable number of these students will call you to update you with positive news, Mr. Pepple said.

The overseas scholarship programme administered by the RSSDA has gulped more than N23.7 billion since its inception in the 2008/2009 academic session and had a target of sending 300 students overseas annually.

The state government paid the entire bill of the students, including airfare, tuition (school fees, laboratory, books), accommodation, feeding and monthly upkeep.

However, shortage of funds saw a situation where the students were abandoned to fend for themselves as the former Governor Amaechi-led administration owed them for several months before leaving office.

When Governor Nyesom Wike was sworn in May 2015, he vowed that despite the shortage of funds, he would ensure that those already abroad would successfully complete their studies but that new scholarships would not be awarded.

However, in a letter dated 6 February, 2016, to parents and guardians of the students, the government made a U-turn on its initial position and said it would no longer pay the tuition and allowances of the scholars due to shortage of funds.

Consequently it advised all of them to return home.

According to the directive, the only exception were the 159 students in final year of their programmes, who were to graduate by the end of 2016.

All others will need to return to Nigeria to continue their studies; the government will continue to fully sponsor them. This way, all the students will still achieve the desired objective of successful graduation in your chosen fields of study, the letter read.

Mr. Pepple had said that the Nyesom Wike-led government had released over N2 billion to clear the arrears being owed by the previous government under the programme.

But the students said they have yet to receive any allowance from the government for about two and a half years now.

The students had written to Mr. Wike and the State House of Assembly speaker, Ikuini Owaji Ibani, in two letters dated July 4, 2015, explaining their ordeal and pleading with the government to come to their rescue.

But the plea of the indigent students has been to no avail.

Blaming the situation on the current economic crisis in the country, Mr. Pepple said the crisis is affecting all scholarship schemes in the country.

Nearly all governments at all levels, agencies, etc that were awarding overseas scholarships are grappling with the fall in the earnings of the Federal Government. The recession as well as the nosedive of the Naira and the opposite skyrocketing of forex have drastically affected the capabilities of governments and agencies to continue to fund scholarship schemes.

You may be aware of the pitiable conditions some Nigerian youths under schemes of the Presidential Amnesty Programme; State Governments, etc are living in abroad now, the RSSDA boss said.

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Justice Surajudeen Onigbanjo of the Lagos State High Court, Igbosere, on Thursday postponed judgement in a suit brought by residents of several waterfront communities against the state government to June 21.

Mr. Onigbanjo said he would deliver judgment if the court finds that it has jurisdiction to hear on the suit.

The judge stated this after listening to the oral addresses of the applicants and respondents counsel on the courts jurisdiction to entertain the case.

This is the second time Mr. Onigbanjo would postpone giving judgement on the matter.

While I was going through the court processes, I discovered that issues of jurisdiction were raised, the judge had said last month.

The applicant will have seven days to file their relevant court processes while the respondents also have seven days to file their court processes in response to the applicant.

The suit was brought last year by 33 applicants suing on behalf of themselves and other residents of settlements including Otodo Gbame, Tomaro, Otumara, Orisunmibare, Oko Agbon, Itun Atan, Sogunro, the Ikorodu communities of Ofin, Bayeku, Olufunke Majidun and the Bariga communities of Ago Egun and Ebute-Ilaje.

The communities are challenging the demolition of their waterfront settlement by the state government, a decision that has been condemned by local and international right groups.

Judgment in the suit has stalled since last April 12, when the court on its own motion raised the issue of its jurisdiction.

Addressing the court during proceedings on Thursday, the applicants counsel, Omotayo Enijiugha, said the matter ought to be for judgment adding that the respondents were trying to delay the suit.

Mrs. Enijiugha argued that the applicants claim was a fundamental rights issue, one which vested the court with jurisdiction to hear the suit.

She said it was not how the respondent sees the suit that should determine the courts view.

We urge this court to assume jurisdiction. The court has the power to grant the reliefs sought and even more, Enijiugha added.

Replying, first to third respondents counsel, Adetokunboh Ladega, stated among others that the governments position on the suit was based on security concerns.

Mrs. Ladega said: What Lagos State has been doing is to ensure that the security of the state is not breached.

She accused the applicants of wanting to cause an unnecessary delay by asking for an adjournment for judgment.

Mrs. Ladega added: We are saying that they have wrongly instituted this action. They ought to have come by way of originating summons. As the matter is, they themselves have robbed this court of jurisdiction.

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"We are starting a new chapter in Polish-French relations and everyting points to the improvement of relations right now ", said President Andrzej Duda on Thursday in Brussels, referring to his talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

As reported by the president at a press conference on Thursday in Brussels he held several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the NATO meeting. He spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May, President of the United States Donald Trump, and President Emmanuel Macron.

May be of interest to you Polish president, British PM discuss terrorism threat in Europe

According to Andrzej Duda, during a talk with Prime Minister May, the issue of the Manchester attack was raised. "The Prime Minister told me that they were currently incredibly sensitive about security issues right now, but that there were no reports of any serious serious threats in the UK right now. There is no specific indication that another attempt would be made. ", President Duda emphasized.

The conversation touched, among others, on Brexit. The President said that he presented Poland's position, namely that UK not to move away from the Union and cooperate with the Community. "In order to preserve the fundamental freedoms which are above all the freedoms of citizens within the Union", he noted.

"I am very pleased to hear the words of the Prime Minister, who very much said that in terms of security and military cooperation, nothing for the United Kingdom changed". On the contrary, the United Kingdom still wants to be the great state that carries security and peace in Europe. Andrzej Duda emphasized.

As he added, during the meeting with Trump he renewed his invitation to Poland. "The president said that he would come to Poland, so the matter of the deadline is here to determine", said the president.

He stressed that together with the Croatian President encouraged the American leader to participate in the Three Seas Summit scheduled for July. "In this regard, President Donald Trump said he would consider this issue. He did not close it, nor did he explicitly confirm that he would come," Andrzej Duda informed.

As he noted himself, the French president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed to meet in the format of the Weimar Triangle in France at the end of August.

May be of interest to you Weimar Triangle summit most likely in August

According to the president, future relations have been discussed with Macron. "We talked about the fact that we wanted to re-build them", he pointed out. "We are starting a new chapter in Polish-French relations and everything indicates that these relations are working out right now". There is a great openness on the part of President Macron, "stressed the president. (PAP)
Parents, students and teaching colleagues gathered at the Michael A. Guido Theater on May 24 to honor educators, nominated by the children they teach, who make a difference in young lives.

The ceremony, held at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, spotlighted four teachers selected from 1,800 nominations.

The Alberta Muirhead Teacher of the Year Awards, celebrating its 20th anniversary, honored Julie Spencer of Henry Ford Elementary in the pre-K to second- grade category, Nagwa Ali of Maples Elementary at the third- to fifth-grade level, Elham Barbat of Salina Intermediate School at the middle school level and science teacher Thomas Brown of Dearborn High at the high school level.

Spencer was praised as a teacher with fun learning games and a generous classroom library, and for how they read aloud and acted out stories in full costume.

Her nomination said Spencer also stayed after school to help make math fun and easy for her.

She is the best teacher in the whole wide universe and galaxy, and I love her, she said. Please, please pick her for the best ever teacher.

Ali was described as a teacher who greets each student at the beginning of the day, and who uses baked goods to master fractions.

She lets us bake treats on Fridays, and treats are really yummy, but they also help us do math, she said. Even though there are a lot of other things that she does, this one is the best.

Alis student nominator said she makes them way more educated and spends all of her time with us, even when we do not deserve it.

She said Ali started a girl power club after school to spend more time with them.

I do not know what I would do in my life without my teacher, she said. She makes coming to school easy.

Barbat, the winning middle school teacher, was described by the student nominator as giving examples every day of how math is used in the outside world.

The example she gave us was how construction men need to have the right measurement of every piece, she said. This is important because if they dont get the right measurements, the building can collapse.

She said Barbat describes careers that use math every day, and connects it to everyday life.

The high school honoree, Thomas Brown, who teaches science at Dearborn High School, was described by his student nominee as preparing them to be successful for life beyond high school.

He always tries his hardest to make sure each individual is guaranteed to reach their full potential, not only in class, but in life, she said. He reminds us that learning does not always have to be boring. He is someone I truly admire for showing us there are some things in life that will only be damaging to you if you let them.

She said his passion for teaching inspires his students to find a similar passion for their future careers.

We are all taught that we will not be spoon fed for the rest of our lives, she said. Instead, do things your own way, which is the best way.

The awards, presented by the Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce, is title sponsored by the LaFontaine Automotive Group, along with 27 other individual and corporate sponsors.

Jackie Lovejoy, president of the Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce, said she loves to hear the stories about teachers, and two years ago all four of the winners were products of Dearborn Public Schools.

Thats such a testament to the hard work that the teachers today do every single day, Lovejoy said. Every single nomination talks about what the teacher does beyond your basic curriculum.

Chastity Townsend, executive director of the Dearborn Education Foundation, announced the schools winning grants from the foundations Mardi Gras competition. Dearborn High School won the first place $1,000 prize, Bryant Middle School won the second place $500 prize and Lindbergh Elementary won the $250 third-place prize.

Nick Papcsik of the title sponsor, LaFontaine Automotive Group, said they are excited to be part of the awards and they appreciate the hard work of all the teachers in attendance. He said he wanted to call attention to what teachers do on a daily basis outside of the classroom, which he said he has seen his wife, a teacher for more than 15 years, personify.

I see the hours and hours of hard work and effort that they put in that many cant or dont get to see, Papcsik said. On top of all those responsibilities that all you have, when you get home, you still keep your chin up, and do it day in and day out. Thank you for the wonderful things you teach us and how you inspire.

Dearborn school Supt. Glenn Maleyko congratulated all the teacher nominees.

You are the teachers who make a difference in the lives of our students each and every day, he said. Teachers make connections, they inspire, they motivate, listen, build confidence and, most importantly, teachers create relationships.

They create relationships with their students that cannot be measured by a test or state accountability system. Those positive relationships are absolutely critical to the success of Dearborn students. When you hear the positive stories that students tell of teachers that had an impact on them its just amazing.

Maleyko said a teacher can never know where their influence stops, and those teachers are making a difference in the lives of those they serve.

The teachers I know never let challenges become excuses for failure, Maleyko said. They use their own talents, skills and expertise as professional educators to motivate students to become successful.

He said that for many teaching is not a job, but a passion to help others learn.

I would like to thank our entire teaching faculty for their dedication to our school district, our students and to make a difference in the lives of our children each and every day, Maleyko said.

The selection committee, who read the 1,800 nominations, includes John Zadikian of Multimedia Communications; David Mustonen, Ioanna Garrisi and Wedad Maatouk of Dearborn Public Schools; Christine Sipperly of the Dearborn Foundation of Teachers; Rob Carlson of Central Michigan University; Evan Kingsbury of Member Focus Community Credit Union; Claudine Marosi of Right at Home; Phillip Emma of Global E LLC; Susan Harrison of DFCU Financial; Chastity Townsend of the Dearborn Education Foundation; Jessica Haddad of LaFontaine Automotive Group; and Jackie Lovejoy and Zach Hayward of the Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce.
Bob Weatherly remembers the day he reached DaNang Air Base in Vietnam.

It was 1969 and the base had been hit with enemy rockets and mortar fire.

I had a rude awakening when I got off the airplane, the Fremont man said. It was hot and there were fires and smoke.

He and other military personnel hurried up a dark alley to the terminal. Weatherly saw what he thought was a small dog run in front of them.

It wasnt a dog, the man leading the group explained, it was a large rat.

This is not a good place, Weatherly thought. Its going to be a long year.

As Memorial Day approaches, Weatherly paused to remember his service in Vietnam almost five decades ago. As someone who had to make sure deceased military personnel made it back to their families in the United States, Weatherly knows the importance of this observance.

You do it to pay respect to the people who gave their lives for their country, he said.

Weatherlys own military experiences occurred years ago. A 1965 Tekamah High School graduate, Weatherly went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a year.

That didnt work out so I came back home and worked on the family farm, he said.

Weatherly enlisted in the United States Air Force in December 1966 and had basic training in Amarillo, Texas, in 1967. He then spent 1  years in McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., as an air traffic specialist in the base terminal.

Military personnel and their dependents went from that base to England, Germany, Spain and Newfoundland.

It was a job he liked.

Weatherly left for Vietnam in 1969.

I was older than most people going to Vietnam, he said. I was a little more mature than a lot of the kids.

Many were only 18 or 19 years old.

Weatherly first lived in a four-man tent along the perimeter close to a dike around some rice paddies. Every night, he and the other men saw Viet Cong running across the dike.

If they felt like it, theyd take a shot at our tent, he said, noting, You were always nervous.

DaNang was called The Rocket City, because VC and the North Vietnamese Army fired on it a lot.

Weatherly and other men were moved from the tent to a gym with bunk beds and no privacy.

The U.S. Navy built new barracks which moved Weatherly and other men closer to a newly built terminal, where he worked.

He chose to work nights since he often was awake anyway because of the rockets and mortar fire.

Weatherly recalls how the enemy would shoot a series of six or more rockets  with each one getting closer to the terminal.

They tried to play mind games, he said.

One night during enemy fire, Weatherly had taken cover under a desk in the office where he worked when a rocket exploded outside. A red hot chunk of metal landed about three feet from him in the open air lobby.

In his job, Weatherly worked with lost shipments or missing units.

He provided a daily report of the previous days activities to the squadron commander at 8 a.m. The report included data on every plane that landed and took off, what was loaded and unloaded and the number of passengers.

Each day, 30 caskets with deceased military personnel were sent home to the United States. Weatherlys job included matching a mortuary list of deceased personnel with a flight manifest to ensure the paperwork was correct.

Some caskets included people from Nebraska. Weatherly saw names of young men with whom hed gone to college.

One of Weatherlys friends, who unloaded freight from airplanes, died while driving a forklift around a building. Someone transporting a barrel for a 105 mm Howitzer collided with the forklift and his friend was killed.

Weatherly got out of the service in 1971 and remembers protesters yelling at the airport in California. He and other servicemen were told not to comment and just get through the airport lobby.

He came home, was married and worked at the family farm. He and his wife, Jane, would have two children, Mike and Jill.

Weatherly went to the University of Nebraska at Omaha on the G.I. bill from 1971-74. He graduated with a bachelors degree in business with majors in real estate and accounting.

I changed my attitude toward studies. Over the four years I was in the service, I decided youve got to be a little more serious and study more. Education is important, he said.

In 1991, his wife Jane died of a heart condition. Six months after her death, their son, Mike, died of cancer. He remarried in 1993. His wife, Beth, works in Fremont. His daughter, Jill, is employed in Lincoln. Daughter Amber lives in Louisiana with the Weatherlys grandchildren, Charlie and Will.

After he returned from Vietnam, Weatherly and his dad sold center pivots until 1990. Weatherly got an electricians license and worked in Omaha.

He then became an irrigation technician for the University of Nebraska Agricultural Research and Development farm at Mead. He worked there more than 10 years before retiring in 2014.

Weatherly was walking at the Fremont Family YMCA when he saw a notice stating that a part-time bus driver was needed.

During the school year, he takes children from the YMCA to four elementary schools, Johnson Crossing Academic Center and Fremont Middle School. He picks them up after school and takes them to the YMCA. In the summer, he takes children enrolled in the Ys Summer Fun Club to field trips.

Earlier this month, Weatherly was among 650 Vietnam veterans from Nebraska who made the Patriotic Productions Flight to Washington, D.C. The flight was made possible in part by a Fremont Area Community Foundation grant.

Weatherly said the reception when the group got off the plane in Washington, D.C., was tear-jerking. He liked seeing the wall and found the Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery to be emotional.

Coming into the Lincoln Airport, where veterans were greeted by an estimated crowd of 7,000 people left him speechless.

That was beyond what you could try to imagine, he said. You didnt realize that many people cared.

Weatherly and a fellow veteran were walking into the lobby then the other man summed up the experience.

The last time I did this coming from Vietnam, walking up the off ramp, they (protesters) were yelling at us, but they were throwing stuff at us, too, he said. This is completely different.

And it was a much different scene for Weatherly than ones he saw when he stepped off a plane in DaNang and later in a California airport so many years ago.
Before listing her Egg Harbor Township home last week, Sue Noone started getting it ready for sale in December.

The process included a fresh coat of paint, new carpets and a month of nonstop decluttering, Noone said.

The trees were pruned at their Pine Avenue home, and her husband cleaned the gutters.

These are things we notice when were looking at houses. We notice all those little things, said Noone, whose family is also shopping for a new home.

A lot of factors go into trying to sell a home in South Jersey. Some local experts offer tips that sellers can use to sell them faster.

A recent research report from Zillow said the average shopper goes on seven home tours before buying. Nearly three out of 10 sellers said their top regret was they didnt take more time to prepare for a sale.

Anthony DAlicandro, broker at Dwell Real Estate in Linwood, said the most important consideration is understanding the market, which can vary significantly based on location and listing prices.

Then, some simple steps can help. He suggests making sure the home is free of clutter. Little fixes or functional defects in electrical, plumbing, roofing or structural issues in the home should be addressed, he said.

If they can keep the home free of the kind of defects an FHA inspection might challenge, then they have the ability to make out a lot better. And then on top of that, making sure the homes free of clutter, so it presents well, he said.

I like to use the analogy: Imagine youre using a new home construction model. Thats the way we want the new home to look, as much in the spirit of how a builder would present a new home, he said.

Kathryn Martino, a Realtor at Grace Realty, cites cleaning as a priority. Grace Realtys offices are in Upper Township and Ocean City.

Clean, clean, clean. You want to deep clean, she said. Fresh paint if necessary, shampoo carpets if necessary.

Some people choose to replace carpets.

You want it organized, easy to walk through, she said. You want the buyer to see the property and not be focused on boxes stacked around or toys thrown all over. You want it to be easy for them to focus on the house itself.

Martino said this doesnt mean depersonalizing the home.

I dont push for taking down family photos. If its neat and clean, thats fine, but you want to get rid of clutter, she said.

Then theres curb appeal, including landscaping.

DAlicandro said its one of the most important parts of getting someone in the door. If it looks like maintenance is needed, it becomes work and something they have an issue with, he said.

Martino said curb appeal could be as simple as making sure the grass is cut, that theres no debris around the yard, and maybe some flowers.

Very simple but clean, organized, she said.
EGG HARBOR CITY  After six years of competing, Cedar Creek High School took first place in the annual New Jersey Envirothon environmental science competition, held this year at Schooleys Mountain Park in Washington Township, Morris County.

The team of Patrick Elkner, 18, of Mays Landing, Owen Mehler, 17, of Port Republic, and Laurel Worth, 18, Tim Meineke, 18, and Riley Blankenship, 17, all of Galloway Township, defeated 28 other teams May 13 and will travel to Mount St. Marys in Maryland for the national competition July 23.

All but Mehler are seniors and had competed in two previous competitions. Team members said each year they tried to improve on their weakest areas.

Ours was the public presentation, Meineke said.

We practiced a lot this year in from of teachers and classes, Elkner said.

This year they had to develop a conservation and sustainability plan for a farm that included protecting a river running through it. Teams also compete in written and hands-on tests in five academic areas: aquatic, current issue, forestry, soils and wildlife.

The total score determines the winner. Cedar Creek defeated a team from the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science in Ocean County by just under three points.

The questions are based on the site of the test, which changes each year. This years site in North Jersey included soils and forestry much different than South Jerseys.

Soil is one of the hardest categories because there is a lot to know, Blankenship said. Team members each take a specialty but also try to learn as much as possible about all of the categories, working with books and materials collected at the school.

Mehler said their strongest area is wildlife. The team had the highest scores among all teams in that category.

The team works with Cedar Creek environmental science teachers Lisa Martinelli and Ed Martino, who wrote the curriculum for the program at the school. Martinelli said the students victory against some of the top academies in the state shows the strength of the program.

The school has sent two teams to the competition for six years and has placed near the top but never won. A second Cedar Creek team placed 16th this year.

The program is sponsored by the National Conservation Foundation with support from state and local Soil Conservation Districts, the state Department of Agriculture and private sponsors.

All four seniors plan to attend Stockton University next year.

Elkner will study environmental science, Blankenship will study sustainability, Worth will study nursing, and Meineke will study criminal justice.
It happens every year. As temperature warm up, students begin ditching their winter wardrobe for shorts, tank tops and flip-flops. But student clothing choices may not always adhere to school dress codes, sparking a debate over whats appropriate to wear to school.

Brooke Hoffman, 17, is a junior at Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, where the dress code prohibits, among many items, any attire that reveals shoulders. Earlier this week, she was sent to the principals office by a teacher for wearing an off-the-shoulder blouse, which she said she was told was distracting to the class. This was her first offense, she said.

I dont see how my shoulders being out would be a distraction, Hoffman said.

At the office, Hoffman said, she was told to change or be sent home, but she had nothing to change into and no one to pick her up. She sat in the office for much of the day.

The school dress-code debate isnt new for parents, students or teachers. However, in recent years, the tone of the discourse has shifted to whether dress policies for students unfairly target girls, promoting victim-blaming and shaming.

Just last week, a senior honor-roll student at a North Carolina high school was suspended for an interaction with the school principal resulting from her wearing an off-the-shoulder blouse that exposed her collarbone and reportedly her lower back.

Jeanne LoCicero, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said students use clothing and style to express themselves and dress codes must be gender-neutral.

Schools have a responsibility to ensure that their school dress codes are not discriminatory and thats both in how theyre written and how theyre enforced. So even though dress codes might seem gender-neutral, weve seen reports where theyre enforced among girls disparately. Sometimes theyre called a distraction, LoCicero said.

She said this can exclude girls from school, shame them and blame them for others actions.

Schools need to make sure that (girls) education is just as important, she said.

Last month, Upper Township Middle School in Cape May County held a series of lunchroom presentations showing pictures of different styles of dress and asking students to determine what was suitable for school, which upset some students. One complaint was there were more slides for girls than boys.

Upper Township doesnt have a dress code per se, Principal Jeff Leek said. Rather, it has dress guidelines that require students to dress appropriately, as determined by the administration.

Upper Township dress policy reads, Students are expected to dress in a manner which is appropriate for a public school setting, adding it should not be unsafe or distracting to the educational process.

Leek said there were fewer slides about boys clothing because there arent as many options, not because girls are targeted.

We let them know the rules for shorts were the same for both students, he said. We explained to the girls theres just more types of girls fashion.

Leek said he also had a meeting with staff to explain how to determine inappropriate dress, which he said is not always synonymous with what would be worn in a workplace.

We would have to explain how a childs outfit actually interrupted the educational process or the students health welfare or safety, he said.

Oakcrest Principal James Reina could not speak directly to Hoffmans experience, but said, The overwhelming majority of our students do a very good job with how they dress for school.

As a father, he said, fashion trends and the cost of clothing can be prohibitive in finding appropriate clothes. However, Reina said, he believes most people realize schools and jobs require different dress than some social situations, and we have to plan accordingly.

Janet Bamford, communications manager for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said a state law allowing school dress codes dates back to the 1930s.

NJSBA recommends that boards of education adopt dress-code policies that are fair and equitable to all students, and that contribute to an environment that encourages learning and student achievement, Bamford said.

Bamford said certain aspects of dress codes were addressed in state law, including the ability of a school to impose a uniform. School districts such as Atlantic City, Pleasantville and Vineland have implemented uniform policies to avoid issues resulting from dress-code violations.

Oakcrests Hoffman said she sees why dress codes are needed  she said exposed midriffs are not appropriate for school  but disagrees with the way they are determined.

I think theyre important, but I think as long as nothing inappropriate is out, you should be fine, she said. I dont think girls should be seen as sexual objects to guys and have to dress a certain way so that were not a distraction to them.

She spoke with her parents about the situation, and said they sided with the school: Those are the rules.
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP  Genocide is personal for Elisa von Joeden-Forgey.

A professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton, she practices what she teaches, traveling to Iraq to educate and address the impact of IS on those the radical group has targeted.

On my first trip, they just wanted witnesses to what was happening, she said.

Her trip in May included an invitation to the Vatican, where she and colleague Irene Victoria Massimino, an Argentine human rights lawyer, met with Pope Francis and others of his office on refugees.

In a country wracked by war, terror and thousands of homeless refugees, education might not seem like a priority. But von Joeden-Forgey said people there are determined the murders be addressed.

To do that, they must be documented.

I was so impressed with the extent to which people were talking about genocide, she said. They were grateful to have scholars there. People are documenting. They are doing interviews and videos with victims and trying to abide by international standards.

The goal is to have enough evidence to present a case to the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands.

It is not easy, she said. Mass graves have not been secured. Animals get to the bodies. It is hard to collect the evidence for a trial.

She said getting justice is crucial, because history has shown genocide is likely to be repeated in a society without justice to hold perpetrators accountable.

Sometimes they remain in power, or the victims become the perpetrators to get revenge, she said.

Von Joeden-Forgey first went to Iraq in January 2016 as a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. She spent most of her time in Kurdistan and helped start the TeenSpirit Iraq English School for teens who wanted to learn English.

We visited mass graves, destroyed towns, emptied towns, she said.

Von Joeden-Forgey said it is important to have a plan in place to watch for signs of genocide and respond.

There are red flags, but it is hard to predict the trigger moment that will set off a genocide, she said. Often, there is backroom planning, but some event will trigger it. Once it gets to that point, it is hard to control the power and violence.

She and Massimino started the Iraq Project for Genocide Prevention, which is taught online to students in Iraq. Its goal is to build a grassroots effort to get action against IS and to stop the pattern of killing.

Money was raised to fund scholarships for 10 people to earn Stocktons genocide prevention certificate. They can then spread the program to schools.

The focus is on the here and now, but there is also a wider field of the opportunity for justice and peace, she said. People need justice. But we also want to understand why human societies do this. Most are ordinary people. We need that understanding.

The 40-minute visit with Pope Francis was inspiring, she said, because of his global view of the plight of the poor, refugees and genocide.

It used to be genocide was a way to vanquish enemies, she said. Now its a way to get rid of unwanted people. The pope takes a very big-picture view.

Genocide, she said, is not accomplished just by killing. Mass rape can be a way to humiliate and destroy communities. Destroying a town can destroy a culture.

Many traditions are tied to the land, she said. A church is a home. It goes back centuries. It can be hard for these people to relocate. We need to help these communities heal.
This week's gray and gloomy weather isn't exactly packing the beaches along the South Jersey shore.

But there is something enjoying the cool 61-degree waters off of South Jersey this week.

Mary Lee, the 16-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark with her own Twitter account, has made quite the splash up and down the East Coast each spring over the past few years.

According to GPS just after 5 a.m. Wednesday morning, Mary Lee was about six miles east of Ocean City. The great white shark has spent the last several weeks swimming north and then south along the South Jersey shore.

According to GPS, Mary Lee has been on a southerly course along the Jersey shore since the weekend, coming within a mile or two of the beaches of Long Beach Island over the last few days.

Mary Lee first visited South Jersey coastal waters in May 2015, spending several weeks swimming between Cape May and Sandy Hook. She returned for brief visits through fall 2015, and then again in spring 2016.

Mary Lee was first tagged off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in September 2012. OCEARCH, a nonprofit group that researches great whites, placed a tracker on Mary Lee that emits a ping each time the sharks dorsal fin surfaces above the ocean. Modern technology allows her movements to be tracked through Twitter, a website and a cellphone app.
South Jerseys beaches are open for business.

On Friday, a few shore towns unlocked their strands and welcomed throngs of visitors for the unofficial start of the summer tourism season.

In Ocean City, after municipal officials turned a large wooden key in the sand, local business people and others marched into the surf, some dressed in suits and others in elaborate costumes.

I just love to come down and see all the people, said Laurie Fox, of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, who watched from dry land. It just looks like the town is bustling.

In Wildwood, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno joined city officials for their unlocking ceremony, while Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian waded into the water to unlock the sea in his town.

Most of the license plates on cars parked and driving along Ventnor Avenue in Margate had out-of-state tags, and shoppers hurried in and out of Casels Marketplace in preparation for the weekend.

Kyla Gustavson, of Boston, was visiting the city with her boyfriend for the weekend. She comes every summer, she said.

Hopefully, the weather will be nice, Gustavson said. I always like coming here, going to Maynards.

Haim Hamberg, of Churchville, Pennsylvania, was waiting outside Dinos sub shop for his wife, who was across the street shopping. They have a second home in Margate.

Im looking forward to my family to come down, he said. The people (are) very friendly, and my wife especially enjoys the shore. She cant wait to come down to the shore.

Debora Lopchinsky has been coming to Ocean City for 18 years. On Friday afternoon, she and hundreds of others watched as participants in the Business Persons Plunge entered the ocean.

Its fun for the people that participate and to watch, said Lopchinsky, of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Its tradition.

Lisa Wise, of Berlin, and Marcella Hamburg, of Voorhees, Camden County, were set up on the beach near Bartram Avenue in Atlantic City at noon Friday. They were down for the day to take advantage of the nice weather.

The two said they plan to stay away from the crowds this weekend but will be back throughout the summer.
The United Nations this year announced a goal of ending child marriages by 2030, a practice it has found increases vulnerability to violence, maternal mortality, HIV AIDS and poverty among women and girls.

Ensuring that marriage is an informed choice made freely by those old enough to engage in such a binding agreement sounds like a typically American form of liberty. Yet the federal and state governments are among an international minority resisting conventions to end child marriages.

The N.J. Legislature this year passed a strong child-marriage bill nearly unanimously, putting the state on track to be the first in the nation to outlaw the practice altogether. But this month, Gov. Chris Christie lacked the reasoning or the courage to completely concur, stopping at improved but inadequate protections in his conditional veto requirements.

New Jersey, like most states, technically requires people to be 18 to marry, but then allows exceptions that result in children  almost all girls  as young as 13 being wed.

This isnt just a problem for the Third World. From 1995 to 2012, there were 3,481 children married in New Jersey, says the N.J. Center for Health Statistics  163 between the ages of 13 and 15. Nearly all were girls, and nearly all were married to adults.

Christie agreed to support a law that would prevent those under age 16 from marrying (or being married off against their will or under pressure). Currently, such marriages require getting a judge to sign off on them.

But he balked at stopping 16 and 17 year olds from marrying. They currently only need parental consent, and Christie would add a judges approval as a prerequisite. Thats better, but its inconsistent with basic law and provides insufficient benefit to offset the obvious potential harm of badly chosen or arranged marriages.

Christie said it isnt logical to say a 16-year-old child cant willfully consent to marriage when state law permits that child to consent to sex or obtain an abortion. But the failure is in Christies logic.

Having sex and obtaining an abortion are somewhat regulated private actions, but marriage is a state-authorized contract requiring certain preconditions. State statutes require someone to be 18 or older to have the right to contract, sue, be sued  serve on juries, marry, adopt children, attend and participate in  legalized games and gaming.

Frankly, if two truly mature teenagers know themselves and each other well enough to commit to each other, the year or two until the state-authorized marriage contract becomes possible shouldnt be a problem.

If Christie wont relent, the Legislature should override his veto (admittedly tougher in an election year). If the votes arent there for an override, legislators should at least take Christies halfway step. New Jersey and the United States are so deficient on child marriages that improvement is urgently needed, and fully joining the civilized worlds conventions can come later.
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AppSec Consulting, a leader in providing Information Security and IT Risk Management solutions, announced today the launch of its EU-US Privacy Shield and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) consulting services.

While there is about a year until GDPR (the update to Privacy Shield) becomes effective (May 2018), it is important to become aware of the new requirements it brings to those doing business with European organizations. Business ties between the US and EU partners are continuously getting stronger, and any organization that has employees, partners, customers, or customer prospects in the EU must ensure that any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) collected or transmitted to/from EU partners is properly handled and protected. Companies that do not meet the requirements may face termination of contracts and potential reputational risk, and can expect large fines for non-compliance (up to 4% of the company's annual turnover or 20M euros).

GDPR is a privacy law with global impact. To get ready for GDPR, AppSec Consulting recommends organizations assess their privacy programs and compare them to the EU Privacy Shield and GDPR requirements. Tony Fulda, Managing Director of Strategic Advisory Services for AppSec Consulting and a well-known data security and privacy expert, said, "Organizations who are or will be subject to GDPR have approximately one year to prepare for these new requirements. Our consulting team has been advising clients on how to best meet or exceed GDPR's new requirements and build out a sustainable and appropriate privacy program. An expanding number of organizations are getting in front of these new requirements as a good business practice, as well as to mitigate the risk of leaking private personal information by human error or cyber-attack."

AppSec Consulting is also announcing their online U.S Privacy Shield and GDPR training program, designed to help employees of impacted organizations understand and meet the new requirements.

Visit AppSec Consulting's Data Privacy page for more information about the regulations and how to get started.

AppSec Consulting has been serving customers since 2005. The company began by providing application security and training services; over the past 7 years, the AppSec Consulting's focus has expanded to include a continuum of Strategic Advisory services, including SOC 1/2/3 and ISO 2700x audit preparation, PCI DSS advisory and audit services, Security Awareness and Training, Strategic Security Program development, and expanded Security Testing services for Mobile, Application, Web, and Networks. AppSec Consulting is a Payment Card Industry Qualified Security Assessor (PCI QSA) helping merchants and service providers who process, store or transmit Visa (V), MasterCard Incorporated (MA), American Express Company (AMX), Discover Financial Services (DFS) and JCB transactions validate compliance with card brand Data Security Standards.

AppSec Consulting has a strong physical presence in the San Francisco Bay Area and Minneapolis-St. Paul marketplaces and employees in 8 states serving U.S. and worldwide customers in Financial Services, e-commerce, Technology, Healthcare, Service Provider, Retail, Hospitality and Transportation industries.

Media Contact:

AppSec Consulting

[email protected]

408.224.1110

Related Files

AppSec Consulting - Company Overview 2016.pdf

AppSec Privacy DataSheet.pdf

SOURCE AppSec Consulting Inc
FORT WORTH, Texas, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Christy Jack, a nationally recognized trial attorney from Fort Worth, has been selected to receive the esteemed Daniel H. Benson Public Service Award from the Texas Tech Law Alumni Association.

Fort Worth Criminal Defense Attorney receives Daniel H. Benson Public Service Award

The award recognizes an alumnus who has demonstrated significant and substantial contributions to furthering ideals of public service in the law. Jack, a 1991 graduate of Texas Tech University School of Law, said she is honored to receive an award based on a principle that has guided her 25-year legal career  first as a prosecutor and now as a defense attorney.

"Public service comes in many forms and there's a place for it on both sides of the courtroom," Jack said. "There is an abundance of opportunities in the criminal justice system for those who love the law and feel the need to serve others. I am grateful to those who have placed their trust in me over the years."

Jack's imprint on the Texas legal community is vast. After graduating from Texas Tech Law School, she served as a chief prosecutor in the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office for nearly two decades. She later joined the law firm of Varghese Summersett, where she devotes significant time to representing indigent defendants.

Jack currently serves as Chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the State Bar of Texas, which promotes excellence, education, and ethics in the practice of criminal law. She also serves as Chair of the Governing Board of the Texas Civil Commitment Office, which is responsible for overseeing the state's most violent sex offenders. Two Texas governors, Rick Perry and Greg Abbott, each appointed her to serve in this capacity  a position she has held since 2011.

When she is not in the courtroom or volunteering her time to these organizations, Jack can often be found speaking to students, lawyers and legislators about procedural law, law enforcement trends, and criminal justice issues. She is also frequently tapped to serve as a special prosecutor in jurisdictions across the state.

Jack will receive the Daniel H. Benson Public Service Award on June 22 at the Dallas Hilton Anatole during the Texas Tech Law School Alumni Reception, which is being held in conjunction with the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting. The award is named in honor of longtime Tech Law Professor Daniel H. Benson, who passed away in 2011.

Read more about Christy Jack, who was recently featured on an episode of 48 Hours about an infamous Texas murder.

Media Contact

Melody McDonald Lanier

Media Relations Director

Phone: 817-203-2220 (office) 817-821-3935 (cell)

[email protected]

SOURCE Varghese Summersett PLLC
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) executive told the U.S. Commerce Department this week that tinplate steel, the material used to make food cans, should be exempt from tariff and other import restrictions because of the vital role it plays in the U.S. economy.

CMI President Robert Budway provided this perspective at the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security May 24 public hearing, where Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross presided over the hearing investigating the effects of steel imports on U.S. National Security.

Tariff or trade restrictions will have severe economic impact on the can manufacturing industry and its employees. The dominant issue is that U.S. tinplate steel production does not meet domestic demand. In 2016, U.S. demand was 2.1 million tons, while domestic tinplate production was 1.2 million tons, which means that only 58 percent of domestic demand can be met by U.S. tinplate producers.

Tinplate steel is a unique type of steel that is specifically made for food cans. Approximately 2 percent of all steel is tinplate. In citing the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, acknowledging this fact, Budway stated that a separate category of tinplate steel requires its own consideration and examination as it is not used in any U.S. defense or national security applications.

There has been a noticeable decline in the quality of domestic tinplate. In Budway's statement, he said, "The rejection rates of domestically produced tinplate are approximately 300 percent to 500 percent higher versus foreign suppliers."

At the hearing, Budway noted that the steel cans manufacturing industry provides U.S. jobs that produce quality containers for nutritious, affordable, accessible food. A tariff on tinplate steel would provide economic harm because the U.S. material would be insufficient and it would put food cans at a disadvantage among competitive packages.

This proposed tariff or restriction would disadvantage the food can manufacturer versus competing packaging materials, such as plastic and glass, which are not subject to tariffs. Budway said, "Even a small increase in the price of raw materials would create a destructive competitive disadvantage, forcing possible closures of can manufacturing plants in the United States and negatively impacting the 10,000 workers and their families in these U.S.-based plants. One could easily foresee where finished cans or even cans with food products made overseas could be imported at lower costs than U.S. produced cans."

Finally, the vast majority of steel cans are used for canned food, which offers an affordable solution in feeding the nation. Budway reminded the committee that access to affordable nutrition is vital for the 42 million Americans that live in food insecure households, including 13 million children. Additionally, those on government food assistance, including the USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), consume canned fruits and vegetables at an even higher rate than the average American, at a cost 20 percent less than fresh food. "Tariffs or any trade barriers would have harsh consequences for those less fortunate," said Budway, "and diminish the value of taxpayer-funded federal food assistance programs."

In conclusion, Budway said, "For all of these reasons, we ask that the Commerce Department keep American can manufacturing competitive and exclude tinplate products from this investigation or any future tariffs or actions against this important product."

Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) is the national trade association of the metal can manufacturing industry and its suppliers in the United States. The can industry accounts for the annual domestic production of approximately 124 billion food, beverage and other metal cans; which employs more than 28,000 people with plants in 33 states, Puerto Rico and American Samoa; and generates about $17.8 billion in direct economic activity. CMI members are committed to providing safe, nutritious and refreshing canned food and beverages to consumers.

Contact: Sherrie Rosenblatt, CMI Vice President, Marketing and Communications

Phone: 202-232-4677; email: [email protected]

SOURCE Can Manufacturers Institute

Related Links

http://www.cancentral.com


The GAPP funds research and development projects that address industry opportunities in order to accelerate the application of genomics-derived solutions and sustainable innovations that are beneficial to Canadians. Canola is a major driver of the Canadian economy representing $7.4 billion in farm cash receipts and over $9 billion in exports, primarily to China, Japan, Mexico and the United States. Canola also serves a critical role in our global food system. Seeds are crushed into a cooking oil that is one of the lowest in saturated fats, making it a popular choice for food services seeking to lower trans fats in their products. The remaining canola meal provides a high protein livestock feed.

"Canola is a critically important crop that has not received sufficient focus to tap its full genetic potential," said Matthew Crisp, CEO and co-founder of Benson Hill. "By supporting collaboration between academia and industry, GAPP aligns with Benson Hill's vision to empower a more diverse community of innovators unlocking the global genetic potential of plants to benefit people and our planet."

Benson Hill, using its proprietary CropOS cognitive computational platform, has identified a portfolio of trait candidates demonstrated to improve photosynthesis, one of the most complex systems in plants that is responsible for all agriculture production. In collaboration with the University of Guelph, researchers will validate these and other trait candidates in canola for further testing and development.

"Benson Hill's system has developed promising trait leads with the potential to significantly accelerate the development of more productive and sustainable canola varieties," said Dr. Peter Pauls, University of Guelph. "Accessing the most advanced genomics through this partnership will benefit the Canadian economy and consumers around the world, aligning well with the goals of the GAPP."

Benson Hill's platform combines vast datasets and biological knowledge with big data analytics and scalable cloud-based computingan intersection of disciplines known as cloud biologyto predict biological outcomes for any target crop using any genomics tool, from breeding to gene editing to transgenics. The ability to more accurately predict gene targets that are linked to certain phenotypic outcomes with CropOS enables Benson Hill to accelerate identification of promising trait candidates, reducing product development costs and increasing speed to market.

About Genome Canada

Genome Canada is a not-for-profit organization funded by the Government of Canada which acts as a catalyst for developing and applying genomics and genomic-based technologies to create economic and social benefits for Canadians. By connecting ideas and people across public and private sectors to find new uses for genomics, and investing in large-scale science and technology to fuel innovation, Genome Canada translates discoveries into solutions across key sectors of national importance, including health, agriculture and agri-food, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, the environment, energy and mining.

About Benson Hill Biosystems

Benson Hill Biosystems is an agriculture technology company focused on improving crop performance using big data analytics and plant genomics. We partner with organizations to harness genetic variation through breeding, trait development, and genome editing to enhance the sustainability of food, feed, fiber and fuel production. More information can be found online at www.bensonhillbio.com. Follow us on Twitter at @BensonHillBio.

SOURCE Benson Hill Biosystems

Related Links

http://www.bensonhillbio.com


CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Direct ChassisLink, Inc. ("DCLI") is pleased to announce that Brian Taylor has been appointed President of the company. Brian will officially join DCLI on June 1, 2017.

Mr. Taylor has a long and distinguished career in the maritime and intermodal industries, having worked at Sea-Land and Horizon Lines in senior leadership roles that spanned a range of functions including logistics, sales and marketing, operations, and general management. Prior to joining DCLI, Mr. Taylor was most recently the CEO for the Jacksonville Port Authority, where he was instrumental in guiding the company through a significant period of growth.

"Brian's impressive and varied experience in the transportation industry will be a strong addition to our senior leadership team," said Bill Shea, CEO of DCLI. Mr. Taylor holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Economics and a Masters of Business Administration degree, both from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Taylor will work out of DCLI's headquarters in Charlotte, NC. "I am very excited to be joining the DCLI organization and look forward to working closely with my new colleagues to help the company achieve its next level of success," said Taylor regarding his new role.

About Direct ChassisLink, Inc.

DCLI is a leading provider of marine chassis and asset management services to the U.S. intermodal industry. The company owns, leases and manages over 135,000 marine chassis and also manages over 85,000 intermodal containers for third parties through its differentiated asset management platform, REZ-1. DCLI is owned by EQT, an investment firm headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

For further information, contact:









Media Inquiries: Investor Inquiries:

Stacy Kirincic, Director of Marketing Lee Newitt, VP of Finance and Treasurer

[email protected], Tel. # (704) 447-3244 [email protected], Tel. # (704) 594-3782

www.DCLI.com www.DCLI.com



SOURCE Direct ChassisLink, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.dcli.com


VALLEY FORGE, Pa., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard reported expense ratios changes today for funds with fiscal years ending January 31, 2017, marking the final round of changes covering the 2016  2017 fiscal year period. Over the past six months, 226 Vanguard mutual fund and ETF shares reported expense ratio decreases for an estimated $337 million in cumulative savings based on total assets.1 Over this same period, 160 fund shares reported no change and 14 fund shares reported an increase in expense ratios.

"Lowering costs can give our clients a better chance for investment success. In fact, more than 50% of our investment offerings -- spanning all product types, asset classes, and management styles -- have reported expense ratio reductions over the last six months," said Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb. "We continue to look for ways to reduce the cost of investing. At the same time, we are also investing in people and technology to protect our clients' assets, help improve their fund performance, and serve them more effectively and efficiently with the ultimate goal of improving their outcomes and overall investing experience at Vanguard."

Four Vanguard mutual funds and one ETF are reporting lower expense ratios:

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund Investor Shares (VDAIX) declined 2 basis points to 0.17%.

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund Admiral Shares (VDADX) declined 1 basis point to 0.08%.

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) declined 1 basis point to 0.08%.

Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund (VDIGX) declined 3 basis points to 0.30%.

Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund Admiral Shares (VWETX) declined 1 basis point to 0.11%.

Six actively managed mutual funds reported an expense ratio increase, three of which were a result of performance incentives and three of which were due to increased expenses:

Vanguard Health Care Fund Investor Shares (VGHCX) increased 1 basis point to 0.37%.

Vanguard Health Care Fund Admiral Shares (VGHAX) increased 1 basis point to 0.32%.

Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund (VGPMX) increased 8 basis points to 0.43%.

Vanguard Energy Fund Investor Shares (VGENX) increased 4 basis points to 0.41%.

Vanguard Energy Fund Admiral Shares (VGELX) increased 2 basis points to 0.33%.

Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund Investor Shares (VWESX) increased 1 basis point to 0.22%.

ALIGNING CLIENT AND ADVISOR INTERESTS

Vanguard aligns the interests of its external investment advisory firms with those of shareholders by using incentive/penalty arrangements. Under the majority of Vanguard fund advisory agreements, an external advisor's base advisory fee can be adjusted up or down to reflect the fund's investment performance relative to the total return of an appropriate market benchmark over a 36- or 60-month period. In effect, the advisor is rewarded for outperforming a market benchmark and penalized for underperforming it.

In the case of the Investor and Admiral shares of the Vanguard Health Care Fund and the Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining Fund, the increases in their respective expense ratios was a result of an incentive payment. These funds outperformed their benchmarks over a pre-established performance period and an adjustment was made to the base advisory fee of the advisors. Vanguard is among the few firms in the investment management industry to employ incentive/penalty arrangements.

About Vanguard

Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment management companies. As of April, 2017, Vanguard managed $4.3 trillion in global assets. The firm, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, offers 368 funds to its more than 20 million investors worldwide. For more information, visit vanguard.com.

1Cumulative figure for all share classes from December 2016 through May 2017 for the identified funds. Estimated savings is the difference between prior and current expense ratios multiplied by average AUM. Average AUM is based on daily average assets during a month, which are then averaged over the 12-months of the fiscal year.

Assets figures as of April 30, 2017 unless otherwise noted.

Vanguard provides its services to the Vanguard funds at cost. More information about Vanguard funds, including at-cost services, is available in a fund's prospectus.

For more information about Vanguard funds and ETFs, visit vanguard.com or call 800-662-7447 to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information about a fund are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Vanguard ETF Shares are not redeemable with the issuing Fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.

U.S. Patent Nos. 6,879,964; 7,337,138; 7,720,749; 7,925,573; 8,090,646; and 8,417,623.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.

Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor.

Actively Managed Equity Fund 2015 Expense Ratio 2016 Expense Ratio Basis Point Change Energy Fund Admiral 0.31% 0.33% +2 Energy Fund Investor 0.37% 0.41% +4 Health Care Fund Admiral 0.31% 0.32% +1 Health Care Fund Investor 0.36% 0.37% +1 Precious Metals and Mining Fund 0.35% 0.43% +8 Dividend Growth Fund 0.33% 0.30% -3







Actively Managed Taxable Bond Fund 2015 Expense Ratio 2016 Expense Ratio Basis Point Change Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund Admiral 0.12% 0.11% -1 Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund Investor 0.21% 0.22% +1







Equity Index Fund 2015 Expense Ratio 2016 Expense Ratio Basis Point Change Dividend Appreciation ETF 0.09% 0.08% -1 Dividend Appreciation Index Fund Admiral 0.09% 0.08% -1 Dividend Appreciation Index Fund Investor 0.19% 0.17% -2

SOURCE Vanguard

Related Links

http://www.vanguard.com


DUBLIN, May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Eubiotics Market Analysis By Product (Probiotics, Prebiotics, Organic Acids, Essential oils), By Form (Liquid, Solid), By Application (Gut Health, Immunity, Yield), By End-use (Cattle, Poultry, Swine, Aquatic), And Segment Forecasts, 2014 - 2025" report to their offering.

The global eubiotics market is expected to reach USD 9.4 billion by 2025. Growing meat consumption coupled with rising awareness regarding meat quality is expected to drive global eubiotics market growth.



Eubiotics influence the gut microflora and confer health benefits on the host. They maintain a correct balance of the microbial activity in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. This results in benefits such as enhanced nutrient absorption, better immunity and increase in overall performance. Such advantages are expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period.



Probiotics emerged as the largest product segment in 2016 and was valued at USD 2.5 billion in 2016. Broad product portfolio, rising awareness and efficacy in animal feed usage are the major attributed reasons for this scenario



Gut health dominated the application segment in 2016 and is expected to grow at an anticipated CAGR of 8.2% from 2017 to 2025. Eubiotics efficiency in treating gut related disorders and search for viable alternative to antibiotics are expected to drive market growth. Immunity is expected to observe the fastest growth among applications.



Fodder and water shortage, decreasing grazing lands has put pressure on livestock farmers to optimize feed utilization. Eubiotics cater to this demand by enhancing feed utilization, and increasing yield in comparatively less feed. Such trends are expected to fuel market growth over the next eight years.



Companies Mentioned



DSM

MSP Eubiotics

Greenvet

E.IDu Pont De Nemours and Company

and Company Novus

Calpis

Nebraska Cultures Inc.

Lallemand Inc.

Advanced BioNutrition Corp

Beneo Group

Behn Meyer

Kemin Industries Inc.

Lesaffre Group

Novozymes



Key Topics Covered:



1. Methodology and Scope



2. Executive Summary



3. Eubiotics Market Variables, Trends & Scope



4. Eubiotics Market: Product Outlook



5. Eubiotics Market: Form Outlook



6. Eubiotics Market: Application Outlook



7. Eubiotics Market: End-use Outlook



8. Eubiotics Market: Regional Outlook



9. Competitive Landscape



10. Company Profiles



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rsmmkk/eubiotics_market

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


TOKYO, May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan will be hosting its annual flagship event, Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL) Japan 2017, on June 8th, 2017 at the Tokyo American Club, Tokyo, to discuss the impact and implication of digital transformation on business innovation across industries in Japan.

Global markets are being disrupted by an accelerating pace of innovation in the digital world. Digital transformation impacts every person in every industry and has entered an era of unprecedented change for enterprises. Today, more than ever before, it has become imperative for companies to implement concrete strategies around digital transformation.

The GIL Japan 2017 summit will provide the insights needed to seize potential opportunities for growth through visionary perspectives on the digital transformation maturity model. The summit will also provide a well-defined roadmap that will help companies to effectively benchmark and reinforce strategies enterprises can use to reach new levels of success.

The GIL journey will kick off with a keynote presentation by Robin Joffe, Partner & President of Frost & Sullivan Japan, followed by his session on Digital Transformation  Business and Social impact. His session highlights the changing business landscape in Japan, its evolution and adaptation in the wake of digitization. The GIL summit will also discuss and provide insights on the future of technology and business in Japan through the panel discussion with industry leaders in Japan.

The afternoon session will showcase innovative Think Tanks along with thought-provoking breakout sessions. Frost & Sullivan's industry experts will provide insights based on the latest market trends in Healthcare, Energy, and Mobility, discussing various pilots and commercial implementations. They will also discuss key challenges, creating sustainable business models for various industries, as well as explore the role and impact of Artificial Intelligence on businesses in the future.

The GIL Japan summit promises to be a remarkable journey to visionary innovation and will pave the roadmap for Japan's economic evolution. To learn more about this conference, please visit: https://ww2.frost.com/event/calendar/digital-transformation-maturity-model-and-well-defined-roadmap-japan/

http://www.frostjapan.com/event/gil2017/

Asia Research News is the media partner for this event.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Media Contact:

Anna Tsuji

Corporate Communications

Frost & Sullivan Japan K.K.

Phone: +81-3-4550-2215

Email: [email protected]

www.frostjapan.com

http://ww2.frost.com

Twitter: @Frost_Sullivan

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/frostandsullivan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/4506/

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com


DUBLIN, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Opportunities in Polymer and Plastic 3D Printing - 2017: An Opportunity Analysis and Ten-Year Forecast" report to their offering.

Opportunities in Polymer and Plastic 3D Printing - 2017 is the third generation of the world's most comprehensive analysis of polymer 3D printing technology. In this new edition, market analysis is segmented by print technology market as each major polymer print process settles into its own roles and established applications, our analysis has deepened to the specifics of each driving print technology and associated materials.

Over the last two years, the polymer 3D printing industry has been in a state of tumultuousness marked by dozens of new competitors entering the market, partnerships for development of materials, and development of new print technologies. All of these and more have combined to create a whirlwind market that, in spite of so much activity and investment, has struggled to maintain its growth pace from 2012 through 2014 as customers have backed off purchasing in the traditional segments while adopting a 'wait and see' strategy. The demand for additive manufacturing in general has perhaps never been higher, but challenges associated with such rapid evolution in polymer and plastic 3D printing have suppressed growth in the face of historic interest in 3D printing at a professional level.



As the global chemical and polymer suppliers of the manufacturing world move into position to exert more influence over the increasingly integrated 3D printing industry, market change appears imminent. Meanwhile, the commercialization of disruptive new print technologies such as those from Carbon, HP, Rize, and more all ensure 2017 will be a pivotal year.



Utilizing purpose-built proprietary 3D printing market models, the report is able to present detailed market forecast data on thermoplastic filaments, powders, photopolymers, composites, and more utilized in popular print technologies of material extrusion (FDM, FFF), polymer powder bed fusion (SLS, Multi Jet Fusion), photopolymerization (SLA, DLP, CLIP), binder jetting, and more.



All available materials for primary polymer print technologies are analyzed and forecasted, including market revenues as well as material shipments, by industry and geography, over the next decade. Therefore, the report believes that Opportunities in Polymer and Plastic 3D Printing - 2017 will provide exceptional value to business development professionals and internal market strategy teams for the global chemical and polymer industries, as well as polymer 3D printer manufacturers, print service providers, and developers of polymer 3D printing manufacturing solutions.



Key Topics Covered:



Chapter One: Review of Current Market Trends and Dynamics in Polymer 3D Printing

1.1 Segmenting the Polymer 3D Printing Market: Specialized Processes versus Manufacturing Processes

1.1.1 Material Extrusion - A Flexible and Cost Effective Process for Low- to Medium- Volume Manufacturing

1.1.2 Polymer Powder Bed Fusion - A Highly Scalable Process for Volume Manufacturing and High-Performance Parts

1.1.3 Photopolymerization - A Multifunctional Process for Mass Customization

1.1.4 Material Jetting - A Specialized Process for High-Value Multifunctional Output

1.1.5 Binder Jetting - A Specialized Process for High Volume, Large Models

1.2 Polymer 3D Printing Market in Period of Transition Through 2017

1.2.1 Ongoing Influence of Low-Cost 3D Printers in the Polymer Printing Segment

1.3 Analysis of Growth Drivers and Emerging Dynamics in Polymer Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing

1.3.1 Markets Demand Greater Strides in Open Architecture for Professional and Industrial Polymer 3D Printers

1.3.2 Global Polymer and Chemical Providers Will Take Center Stage in Polymer 3D Printing by 2019

1.3.3 Current Go-to-Market Strategies for Polymer Print Material Developers

1.3.3.1 Development of Branded Third-Party Product Lines for Direct Sales to End Users

1.3.3.2 Sale of Feedstock or Private Label Materials to 3D OEMs or Third-Party Material Compounders and Developers

1.3.4 Market Growth Scenarios, 2017 through 2019

1.4 Major Adopters of Polymer 3D Printing Technology by Industry - Trends and Future Growth Drivers

1.4.1 Polymer 3D Printing in the Automotive Industry - Leading in Potential for Volume Manufacturing and Prototyping

1.4.2 Medical 3D Printing a Short-Term Driver for Current Polymer Printing

1.4.3 3D Printing Increasingly Disruptive in Dentistry as a Digital Production Tool

1.4.4 Aerospace Industry Rallying Around Polymer 3D Printing for Strategic Manufacturing Solution in Aircraft Interiors

1.4.5 Balancing Expectations for Polymer 3D Printing in the Jewelry Industry Versus Direct Metal AM Production

1.5 2016 Market in Review - Setting the Stage for a Global Manufacturing Revolution?

1.5.1 Major Hardware Market Competitive Shakeup - Hewlett Packard, Carbon, Farsoon, and Prodways

1.5.2 Global Polymer and Chemical Companies Make Significant Commitments to 3D Printing in 2016/2017

1.5.3 Cincinnati Inc., Stratasys, Others Look to Revolutionize the Value Propositions of Existing Processes Through New Vision

1.6 Summary of Ten-Year Forecasts for Polymer 3D Printing Materials



Chapter Two: Opportunities for Polymer 3D Printing Hardware and Materials in Material Extrusion Technology

2.1 Global Material Extrusion Market Metrics and Landscape

2.2 Characterizing the Material Extrusion Process

2.3 Influential Applications and Major Markets for Material Extrusion 3D Printing

2.4 Opportunities in Print Materials and Polymers in Material Extrusion

2.4.1 Established Thermoplastics for Material Extrusion

2.4.1.1 Nylon/Polyamide

2.4.1.2 ABS

2.4.1.3 Other Amorphous Thermoplastics - Polycarbonate, ASA, and TPU

2.4.2 Emerging Thermoplastic Material Opportunities in Material Extrusion

2.4.2.1 Opportunities in Amorphous Thermoplastics - PVC and PEI

2.4.2.2 Opportunities in Semicrystalline Thermoplastics - PAEK Polymers, Polyethylene, and Polypropylene

2.4.2.3 Thermoplastic Composites Utilizing Material Extrusion

2.5 Major Players and Influencers in the Material Extrusion Segment - Materials and Hardware

2.5.1 Stratasys

2.5.2 TierTime

2.5.3 Arburg

2.5.3 Bolson Materials/Argyle Materials

2.5.4 taulman3D

2.5.5 SABIC

2.5.6 Cincinnati Incorporated



Chapter Three: Opportunities for Polymer 3D Printing Hardware and Materials in Powder Bed Fusion Technology

3.1 Global Powder Bed Fusion Market Metrics and Landscape

3.2 Characterizing Polymer Powder Bed Fusion Technology

3.3 Influential Applications and Major Markets for Powder Bed Fusion 3D Printing

3.4 Opportunities in Print Materials and Polymers in Powder Bed Fusion

3.4.1 Established Powder Bed Fusion Thermoplastics and Polymers

3.4.1.1 Neat Polyamides and Composite Polyamide Materials (Nylons)

3.4.1.2 PEEK and PEKK

3.4.1.3 Polystyrene

3.4.2 Emerging Opportunities in Thermoplastics and Polymers for Powder Bed Fusion

3.4.2.1 TPU and Elastomeric Polymers

3.4.2.2 Semicrystalline Polymers - Polypropylene and Polyethylene, and High-Performance Semicrystalline Thermoplastics

3.4.2.3 Ceramics and Sand Processing Using Polymer Powder Bed Fusion Systems

3.5 Major Players and Influencers in the Powder Bed Fusion Segment - Materials and Hardware

3.5.1 3D Systems

3.5.2 EOS

3.5.3 Evonik

3.5.4 Arkema

3.5.5 Prodways and Farsoon (including ExcelTec)

3.5.6 Solvay

3.5.7 Oxford Performance Materials

3.5.8 CRP Technologies

3.5.9 BASF

3.5.10 Lehmann & Voss

3.5.11 Xaar/voxeljet



Chapter Four: Opportunities for Polymer 3D Printing Hardware and Materials in Photopolymerization and Material Jetting Technologies

4.1 Global Photopolymer 3D Printing Market Metrics and Landscape

4.1.1 Photopolymerization

4.1.2 Material Jetting

4.2 Photopolymerization Methods versus Material Jetting

4.3 Influential Applications and Major Markets for Photopolymer-Based 3D Printing

4.4 Opportunities in Print Materials and Polymers for Photopolymer Printing

4.4.1 Current Photopolymer Materials for Printing in Photopolymerization and Material Jetting Technologies

4.4.2 Development of Specialized Photopolymerization and Jetting Print Technologies for Printing in Established Polymer Materials

4.4.3 Development of Resins for Manufacturing Applications in End-Use Parts

4.5 Major Players and Influencers in the Photopolymer 3D Printing Segment - Materials and Hardware

4.5.1 3D Systems

4.5.2 EnvisionTEC

4.5.3 DSM Somos (Royal DSM)

4.5.4 Sartomer (Arkema)

4.5.5 DeltaMed and Prodways

4.5.6 Henkel

4.5.7 Carbon



Chapter Five: Opportunities for Polymer 3D Printing Hardware and Materials in Other and Emerging Print Technologies

5.1 Binder Jetting with Polymers - Is Polymer Binder Jetting Viable for the Future?

5.1.1 Process Characteristics and Marketplace for Polymer Binder Jetting Technology

5.1.2 Available and Future Materials for Polymer Binder Jetting

5.1.3 Notable Players for Polymer Binder Jetting and Future Outlook

5.1.3.1 Future Outlook for Binder Jetting

5.2 Lamination Based Processes - New Life in 2017 through Composite Processing

5.2.1 EnvisionTEC SLCOM1 Thermoplastic Composite 3D Printer

5.2.2 Future of Lamination-Based 3D Printing Processes

5.3 Specialized and Emerging Polymer 3D Printing Processes - Bringing Further Potential Disruption

5.3.1 Creating Enhanced 3D Printing Processes Through Hybridization



Chapter Six: Ten-Year Market Forecasts for Polymer and Plastic 3D Printing

6.1 Methodologies and Assumptions

6.2 Presentation of Key Market Metrics

6.3 Material Extrusion Market Data

6.4 Polymer Powder Bed Fusion Market Data

6.5 Photopolymer 3D Printing Technology Market Data

6.6 Binder Jetting Market Data

6.7 Industry Market Data



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rkgv69/opportunities_in

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthSouth Corporation (NYSE:HLS) today announced it has given notice of its intent to redeem all remaining outstanding 2.00% Convertible Senior Subordinated Notes due 2043 (the "Notes") amounting to an aggregate principal amount of approximately $320 million. The redemption date will be June 26, 2017. HealthSouth expects to fund the redemption using available cash and borrowings under its revolving credit facility.

The redemption price is equal to $1,000 per $1,000 principal amount of the Notes plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but excluding, the redemption date. Payment of the redemption price will be made upon surrender of the Notes at the address provided by the trustee of the Notes in the notice of redemption. A copy of the notice of redemption may be obtained from Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as trustee, paying agent and conversion agent, by calling +1(800)344-5128.

In lieu of receiving the redemption price, the holders of the Notes have the right until 5 p.m., Eastern time, on June 23, 2017 to convert their Notes into shares of common stock of HealthSouth at a conversion rate of 27.2221 shares per $1,000 principal amount of Notes, which rate will be increased by a make-whole premium. The make-whole premium will be based on HealthSouth stock prices preceding the conversion date and calculated in accordance with the terms of the indenture for the Notes. In the event any holder delivers a conversion notice as provided in the indenture, HealthSouth intends to satisfy its conversion obligation with respect to each $1,000 principal amount of Notes tendered by delivering shares of its common stock. Holders who wish to convert their Notes must deliver a conversion notice in the form found on the back of each Note before the deadline and comply with the other procedures in the indenture.

Additional detail regarding the Notes is provided in the following table (in millions):

Debt balance on balance sheet as of March 31, 2017 $278.2 Fully diluted shares as of March 31, 2017* 8.6 Cash interest expense (annualized) $6.4

* For purposes of calculating diluted earnings per share attributable to HealthSouth common shareholders, convertible shares are included in the denominator (diluted weighted average common shares outstanding), while the Notes' associated interest expense, net of tax, is excluded from the numerator (net income attributable to HealthSouth common shareholders).

The estimated accounting impact assuming holders elect to convert all of the outstanding Notes is provided in the following table (in millions):

Make-whole premium (shares)** ~0.2 Loss on early extinguishment of debt*** ~$8.0

** Assuming stock price calculated per the indenture of $46.00 *** Assuming current market conditions

In light of the notice of redemption and assuming all of the holders elect to convert their Notes, the Company reiterates as of the date hereof its guidance previously reported in the Current Reports on Form 8-K, dated May 16, 2017 and April 27, 2017, and during the Company's earnings conference call held on April 28, 2017. Accordingly, the Company continues to expect the following full-year 2017 ranges:

Net operating revenues of $3,850 million to $3,950 million

Adjusted EBITDA of $800 million to $820 million

Adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations attributable to HealthSouth of $2.61 to $2.73

Contact information for the conversion agent is as follows:

Wells Fargo Bank, National Association

Corporate Trust Services

600 S. 4th Street, 6th Floor | N9300-060

Minneapolis, MN 55415

Tel. +1(800)344-5128

Fax +1(612)667-9825

Email [email protected]

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities law of any such state or jurisdiction. The convertible notes and the common stock issuable upon the conversion of the Notes have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

About HealthSouth

HealthSouth is one of the nation's largest providers of post-acute healthcare services, offering both facility-based and home-based post-acute services in 36 states and Puerto Rico through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies, and hospice agencies. HealthSouth can be found on the Web at www.healthsouth.com .

Note Regarding Presentation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The financial guidance contained in this press release includes non-GAAP financial measures, adjusted earnings per share and Adjusted EBITDA.

Excluding net operating revenues, HealthSouth does not provide guidance on a GAAP basis because it is unable to predict, with reasonable certainty, the future impact of items that are deemed to be non-indicative of its ongoing operations. Such items include government, class action, and related settlements, professional fees-accounting, tax, and legal, mark-to-market adjustments for stock appreciation rights, gains or losses related to hedging instruments, loss on early extinguishment of debt, adjustments to its income tax provision (such as valuation allowance adjustments and settlements of income tax claims), items related to corporate and facility restructurings, and certain other items the Company believes to be non-indicative of its ongoing operations. These items are uncertain and will depend on several factors, including industry and market conditions, and could be material to the Company's results computed in accordance with GAAP.

However, the following reasonably estimable GAAP measures for 2017 would be included in the reconciliation for Adjusted EBITDA:

Provision for doubtful accounts - estimate of 1.8% to 2.0% of net operating revenues

Interest expense and amortization of debt discounts and fees - estimate of $165 million to $175 million

Amortization of debt-related items - approximately $15 million

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as the redemption or the conversion of the convertible notes, the expected settlement consideration upon conversion, the financial, tax or accounting impacts of the redemption or any conversions, and financial guidance, are forward-looking statements. In addition, HealthSouth, through its senior management, may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and HealthSouth undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those estimated by HealthSouth include, but are not limited to, HealthSouth's ability to comply with extensive, complex, and ever-changing regulations in the healthcare industry; the price of HealthSouth's common stock as it affects the tax and accounting impacts resulting from conversions of the Notes; the price of HealthSouth's common stock as it affects the Company's willingness and ability to settle conversions in shares of common stock or the holders' decisions to elect conversion; any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings involving HealthSouth, including its pending DOJ and HHS-OIG investigations and any matters related to yet undiscovered issues, if any, at acquired companies; HealthSouth's ability to attract and retain key management personnel, including as a part of executive management succession planning; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of HealthSouth's information systems, including unauthorized access to or theft of patient, business associate, or other sensitive information; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for HealthSouth's services by governmental or private payors; the ability to successfully integrate acquired operations, including realization of anticipated tax benefits, revenues, and cost savings, minimizing the negative impact on margins arising from the changes in staffing and other operating practices, and avoidance of unforeseen exposure to liabilities; HealthSouth's ability to successfully complete and integrate de novo developments, acquisitions, investments, and joint ventures consistent with its growth strategy; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels, including as part of national healthcare reform and deficit reduction; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and HealthSouth's response thereto; HealthSouth's ability to obtain and retain favorable arrangements with third-party payors; HealthSouth's ability to control costs, particularly labor and employee benefit costs, including group medical expenses; adverse effects resulting from coverage determinations made by Medicare Administrative Contractors regarding its Medicare reimbursement claims and lengthening delays in HealthSouth's ability to recover improperly denied claims through the administrative appeals process on a timely basis; HealthSouth's ability to adapt to changes in the healthcare delivery system, including involvement in coordinated care initiatives or programs that may arise with its referral sources; HealthSouth's ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages and the impact on HealthSouth's labor expenses from potential union activity and staffing shortages; general conditions in the economy and capital markets, including any crisis resulting from uncertainty in the sovereign debt market; the increase in the costs of defending and insuring against alleged professional liability claims and HealthSouth's ability to predict the estimated costs related to such claims; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in HealthSouth's SEC filings and other public announcements, including HealthSouth's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2017.

Media Contact

Casey Lassiter, 205-410-2777

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact

Crissy Carlisle, 205-970-5860

[email protected]

SOURCE HealthSouth Corporation

Related Links

http://www.healthsouth.com


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hypower, one of Florida's largest electrical and utility contractors, is proud to announce that the company has been selected by the South Florida Business Journal as a 2017 Business of the Year for companies with revenue of $50 million to $100 million.

Photo: left - Richard Paul-Hus, middle - Bernard Paul-Hus, right - Eric Paul-Hus.

With more than 250 people in attendance, the 2017 Business of the Year Awards at Jungle Island in Miami recognized organizations that build the South Florida economy through solid business practices, financial growth and community involvement. Now in its 20th year, this program highlights excellence across all industries in the region.

This prestigious award came only three days after Hypower celebrated its 26th Anniversary. "I'm thrilled to accept this award on behalf of our entire company, and we owe this recognition to all Hypower employees for their hard work, commitment to our internal management processes and integrity," acknowledged Bernard Paul-Hus, President. "Our customers know that they can depend on the quality of our work. We are proud to provide consistency and reliability, and celebrate long-standing client relationships as a result."

Over the past 26 years, Hypower has completed more than 1,000 projects valued at over $1 billion.

One of the core values that foster the culture at Hypower is the commitment to give back to the community. In 2017, Hypower continues to support and empower local charities, providing grants and sponsorships, facilitating employee volunteerism and offering our support through our executives serving on non-profit boards.

Past recipients of the prestigious Business of the Year Awards have included many notable companies in the region. This award is not new to Hypower. The company was named Business of the Year in 2012.

About Hypower

Hypower, based in Fort Lauderdale Florida, is a top ten Electrical and Utility Contracting Company servicing the State's leading General Contractors, Utilities, Developers, and Institutions. Hypower operates through several divisions that specialize in Electrical Building Construction, outside plant power and communications projects, prime electrical infrastructure, airfield lighting and ground-mount solar nationwide. Hypower also specializes in 24/7 commercial and industrial electrical service and repair in South Florida. Founded in 1991, Hypower is licensed to operate in 20+ states upholding high safety standards (ABC 2016 Platinum STEP Award recipient) and quality results on all projects. For more information about Hypower visit the firm's website at www.hypowerinc.com.

SOURCE Hypower, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.hypowerinc.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IAP Worldwide Services, Inc. has joined the select group of Phase 1 awardees of the U.S. Army's Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services (RS3) Program contract vehicle. RS3 is a 10-year, Multiple Award, Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) services contract, with a ceiling value of $37.4 billion.

Under RS3, IAP will provide customized solutions across the globe in a wide range of disciplines, including Engineering Support Services, Logistics, Education and Training, Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E), and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR). IAP joins other tier-1 providers such as BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., CGI Federal Inc., CSRA LLC, General Dynamics Global Force LLC, ManTech Advanced Systems International Inc., and SRI International on this marquis U.S. Army contract vehicle for supports Federal and State Government Agencies and Organizations.

"We are ready to continue to serve our customer communities on this expanded contract vehicle, giving military customers greater access and the flexibility to acquire IAP's diverse capabilities and services," said Doug Kitani, IAP Worldwide Services CEO and Director.

"IAP is proud to serve our customers around the world who rely on us to deliver ingenious solutions to their most demanding challenges. Our selection to support the Department of Defense is in keeping with the high standard and expertise to make our customers' missions our mission," Kitani added.

IAP's history of performance with CECOM under the predecessor contracts CECOM R2 and R2-3G dates back to 2003. The Army's award decision recognizes IAP's proven expertise in delivering value-added global solutions in the areas of IT and communications, aviation support, life support services, and expeditionary solutions throughout the defense industry.

About IAP

A leading international services company for more than 65 years, IAP provides a broad spectrum of services and solutions to U.S. and international government agencies, and organizations. A world-class leader in providing seasoned program management, IAP leverages and integrates its capabilities to provide safe, innovative, and reliable solutions to meet customers' diverse and complex challenges. With more than 2,500 team members, IAP operates in more than 110 locations in 27 countries worldwide and maintains offices in the Washington D.C. area, Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. Learn more at www.iapws.com.

SOURCE IAP Worldwide Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.iapws.com


NINGBO, China, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Kingbird, a leading yarns and threads manufacturer in China, today introduced the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Certified yarns and threads. This is part of the company's commitment to adhere to all global quality standards, with all certificates for Oeko-Tex Standard, ATC, BSCI and SGS quality test reports available on Kingbird's official website.

Kingbird Thread and Yarn Kingbird Blended Yarn

"At the heart of every Kingbird yarn and thread is our desire to adhere to strict and consistent manufacturing standards in every aspect; right from raw material selection to finished textile product," said Jessica Lee, Kingbird's Product Manager. "Today, with our competent team headed by Mr. Lino we ensure all our products conform to the standard 100 by Oeko-Tex."

Standard 100 by Oeko-Tex

This is a critical test in the fabric and yarn industry that was introduced in 1992. It outlines all the fundamental quality testing procedures for raw materials, semi-finished to finished textile products.

The testing criteria involves assessing quality of knitted fabrics, buttons, woven fabrics, dyed yarns, finished yarns, labels, sewing threads, etc.

Kingbird, through the R&D and laboratory evaluates raw materials and finished yarns and fabrics for banned substances such as nickel, cadmium and formaldehyde, among other substances. Furthermore, the standard 100 by Oeko-Tec ensures yarns and threads conform to the European Chemicals Regulation annexes XVII and XIV.

Kingbird Threads and Yarns

Kingbird manufactures a range of yarns and threads that meet the Oeko-Tex Standard 100. The product line includes: Embroidery thread, sewing thread, pre-wound bobbin yarn, nylon sewing and bonded nylon thread.

Additionally, Kingbird has a range of yarns, which include: metallic, fancy, blended, knitting, carpet, functional, craft and high tenacity polyester yarns. Apart from the standard designs, Kingbird offers customized yarns and threads.

About Kingbird

For over 15 years, Kingbird has expanded to be an internationally recognized manufacturing force for yarns and threads. Kingbird uses the finest raw materials imported from Vietnam, Turkey and Korea.

With a dedicated and motivated team headed by Mr. Lino, Kingbird manufactures and supplies over 17 different types of yarns and threads that conform to the ATC, Okey 100, ISO 9001 and SGS standards.

For more information:

Contact Person: Jessica Lee

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 86-0574-2787-6969

Website: www.kingbird-tex.com/

SOURCE Kingbird

Related Links

http://www.kingbird-tex.com


ATLANTA, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

CONTACT

Raymond Moss,

Moss & Gilmore LLP

(678) 381-8601

[email protected]

Moss & Gilmore LLP announced today on behalf of their client Kamal Al-Sultan, a Kuwaiti businessman and U.S. military contractor of base camp logistics and support, the settlement of a whistleblower lawsuit initiated by Mr. Al Sultan in 2005. The suit alleged fraud on the part of publically traded Kuwaiti based Agility Public Warehousing Company "("PWC") and its affiliate, The Sultan Center ("TSC"). PWC was the prime vendor to feed U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq, Iran and Jordan from 20032010, pursuant to $8.5 billion worth of prime-vendor food contracts.

As a result of Mr. Al Sultan's whistleblower suit, beginning in November 2009, the Department of Justice's Office in the Northern District of Georgia, under the leadership of then Acting U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, joined Mr. Al Sultan's whistleblower lawsuit (filed in November 2005 by his attorney Raymond L. Moss of Moss & Gilmore LLP) and criminally indicted PWC and TSC (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-joins-false-claims-act-lawsuit-against-kuwait-based-companies-supplied-food-us-troops). In 2010, the U.S. government suspended PWC and TSC and nearly 300 of their officers, directors, employees, subsidiaries and affiliates from contracting.

Under agreements finalized today, PWC has agreed to pay $95 million and relinquish significant potential claims in pending litigation claims filed by PWC against the Defense Logistics Agency arising under the Contract Disputes Act related to additional payments due under these prime vendor contracts.

As part of the settlement, PWC agreed to enter a criminal guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of Theft of Government Property, in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 641. Defendants agreed to resolve the civil allegations against them without acknowledging any wrongdoing The settlement and guilty plea are subject to Court approval by Judge Thomas Thrash, the Chief Judge of the Northern District of Georgia. (The civil complaint, selected pleadings, rulings by Judge Thrash, settlement agreement and criminal plea are available at http://www.agilitytscusprimevendorlawsuit.com.)

The settlement resolves other allegations as well, including PWC and TSC's deliberate violation of the False Claims Act and other federal laws by:

Inflating and falsely representing that affiliate TSC's invoice price for local market-ready items was the delivered price Obtaining disguised "prompt payment" and other discounts and rebates from various vendors, including TSC, which it failed to disclose or pass along to the U.S. Government.

According to whistleblower Mr. Al Sultan, "Raymond Moss and his team at Moss & Gilmore were highly effective, skilled and tenacious advocates over this entire 13-year battle. They never took their foot off the gas and, with DOJ, went toe to toe against six of the largest and most powerful law firms in the country."

"This is one of the largest military procurement fraud cases in the history of the False Claims Act, passed by Abraham Lincoln to combat war profiteers and one of the largest whistleblower awards ever in a military-procurement fraud case," said Raymond Moss, Mr. Al Sultan's lawyer. "Mr. Al Sultan's unrelenting perseverance to see justice done for U.S. taxpayers and the troops who bravely fought in the two Iraq Wars to protect Kuwait, is awe inspiring and a classic David vs. Goliath story. This case proves the power and efficacy of the False Claims Act to right wrongs and expose and deter fraud anywhere in the world."

The filing of Mr. Al Sultan's lawsuit in 2005and its resulting DOJ investigationresulted in sweeping governmental changes in prime food vendor contracts to reflect greater pricing transparency, prohibitions on kickbacks and rebates and prompt payment discounts, saving the U.S. government and taxpayers billions of dollars.

Mr. Al Sultan's whistleblower lawsuit also spawned the initiation of other DOJ investigations, whistleblower lawsuits, prosecutions settlements and convictions against other prime vendors and their suppliers for similar conduct.

"As the great ancient Roman politician and lawyer Cicero once said, 'Any man can make a mistake, only a fool keeps making the same one,'" said Mr. Al Sultan.

The two criminal and civil cases were investigated by a joint team, including the various branches of the Department of Justice, special agents of Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Army Criminal Investigative Command, auditors from the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Department of Defense and the Office of Inspector General.

The government civil investigation and settlement of these allegations were jointly handled by the United States Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Georgia through Civil Chief Amy Berne and Assistant Branch Director Michael Tingle, and Assistant United States Attorneys Art Coulter and Patrick Klein of the Commercial Frauds Branch of the Civil Division, all in Washington, D.C.

The False Claims Act fosters a private-public partnership to fight fraud against the government. The law encourages whistleblowers to file civil lawsuits against companies that are defrauding the government by offering job protection against retaliation and a reward of 15 to 25 percent of the government's civil recovery if the government joins or intervenes in the case. Under the False Claims Act, the United States may recover three times the amount of losses, plus civil penalties.

About Moss & Gilmore LLP: With offices in Atlanta and New York, Moss & Gilmore LLP represents whistleblowers in the U.S. and worldwide in federal and state false claim whistleblower and related retaliation cases, involving healthcare fraud and military procurement fraud. Moss & Gilmore LLP represents whistleblowers in cases under the False Claims Act and claims under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission involving securities and commodities fraud and IRS whistleblower reward programs. For more information, visit www.mossgilmorelaw.com.

SOURCE Moss & Gilmore LLP

Related Links

http://www.mossgilmorelaw.com


FORT WORTH, Texas, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- From humble beginnings in Boston in 1921, over the past 96 years RadioShack established itself as a globally recognized leader and the go to retailer for consumer electronics. RadioShack has always been known as the place for answers to the American public's technology and electronics questions. "You've got questions, we've got answers."

At its peak, RadioShack operated over 7,300 stores with retail sales and operating revenue in the billions of dollars and its locations were famously within 3 miles of more than 95% of households across America. This Memorial Day Weekend, we will be closing over 1,000 stores, leaving less than 70 corporate and 500 RadioShack dealer stores around the country. With 96 years of history, go say goodbye to the RadioShack in your neighborhood. This weekend you still have an opportunity to come visit your nearby store for your electronic needs at great liquidation sale prices, before we close the doors for good.

RadioShack introduced consumers to exciting and affordable gadgets and electronics that have become household items. As we cleaned out our historic archives in Fort Worth, Texas, we uncovered a cache of iconic memorabilia in 12 huge legacy safes, including: unused original TRS-80 Microcomputers, Realistic Transistor Radios, Tandy computer software games, original brick cell phones, gold commemorative watches and so much more. We all remember coming into RadioShack whether it was for the battery-of-the-month, new walkie-talkies, or to check out the newest RC toy cars. Many of these nostalgic items will be up for auction over the next 30 days.

At the end of this month, RadioShack will be closing its doors at all but 70 retail store locations as we migrate to RadioShack.com and we cannot thank you, the RadioShack family, enough for sharing in the journey throughout the years. We have heard countless stories and truly appreciate the millions of employees and customers that have made RadioShack their neighborhood convenience electronics store for the past century and we invite every home in America to come innovate with us one last time.

RadioShack will be hosting the online auction beginning today, May 26, 2017 at www.radioshack.com/auction/. Check in regularly over the next month as we will be revealing over 500 RadioShack classic items for auction.

Again, be sure to visit your local RadioShack location this Memorial Day Weekend for your last chance at clearance pricing or visit us at www.radioshack.com !

We cannot thank you enough for your patronage and support over the years and continued support as we shift to a primarily online business.

Contact us at:

[email protected]

www.radioshack.com

Instagram: @radioshack | Twitter: @radioshack | Facebook: facebook.com/RadioShack

SOURCE RadioShack

Related Links

http://www.radioshack.com


TULSA, Okla., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE: MMP) announced today that Aaron Milford, chief financial officer, is scheduled to participate in a question and answer session about Magellan at the 2017 Investor Conference hosted by the Master Limited Partnership Association at 1:40 p.m. Eastern on Thurs., June 1 in Orlando, Florida.

The session will be moderated by Rick Gross of Barclays Capital, with an audio webcast available live on the day of the event on the partnership's website at www.magellanlp.com/investors/webcasts.aspx. A replay of the webcast also will be available for 30 days at www.magellanlp.com.

About Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P.

Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE: MMP) is a publicly traded partnership that primarily transports, stores and distributes refined petroleum products and crude oil. The partnership owns the longest refined petroleum products pipeline system in the country, with access to nearly 50% of the nation's refining capacity, and can store approximately 100 million barrels of petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and crude oil. More information is available at www.magellanlp.com.

SOURCE Magellan Midstream Partners, L.P.

Related Links

http://www.magellanlp.com


ATLANTA, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MemberClicks, the leading provider of membership management software for small-staff associations, is pleased to announce the acquisition of ePly, an online event registration software company located in Vancouver, Canada.

Founded in 2001, ePly handles registration for conferences, workshops, galas and other events for more than 600 different organizations across North America, including event planning companies, government agencies, nonprofits, universities and corporations. The company brings extensive expertise in online event registrations to MemberClicks and the small-staff association community.

"While the majority of M&A activity we are currently seeing in the space is driven solely by the pursuit of revenue and a profits-first mentality, we believe strongly that by bringing ePly into the MemberClicks family, we will create a win for both ePly's customers, as well as the MemberClicks Nation," said Mark Sedgley, President and CEO of MemberClicks. "The value we can create for the nonprofit community by combining forces was the single biggest driving factor for making this decision. We couldn't be more excited about the opportunity. Simply put, the team at ePly is based on similar values and driven by the same mission: to empower organizations to thrive through refreshing technology and a heart for service."

"Everyone at ePly is excited to be joining the MemberClicks team and looking forward to seeing ePly grow to the next level," said Jim Romanik, President of ePly. "This is an opportunity we couldn't pass up. It creates new opportunities for growth for the ePly team internally and over time will deliver more functionality to our customers. That's a win-win."

"The ePly team is both talented and hardworking," said Sedgley. "More importantly, they are crucial to the overall strategy for success in the joining of our two companies. We are very excited to work with the ePly team to further enhance their reputation for customer service and deliver growth for both companies moving forward."

MemberClicks will continue to develop and maintain its current product lines, as well as ePly's platform, while also identifying opportunities to leverage functionality that will benefit both customer bases.

ABOUT MEMBERCLICKS  MemberClicks provides an all-in-one membership management solution and a refreshing support experience that small-staff associations actually love. Founded in 1998, MemberClicks works with more than 1,600 organizations throughout North America. For more information, visit memberclicks.com or call 1-800-914-2441.

ABOUT EPLY - Founded in 2001, ePly handles registration for conferences, workshops, galas and other events for more than 600 different organizations across North America, including event planning companies, government agencies, nonprofits, universities and corporations. The company is located in North Vancouver, Canada. For more information, visit eply.com or call 1-800-507-3759.

CONTACT: Callie Walker, [email protected]

SOURCE MemberClicks

Related Links

http://www.memberclicks.com


NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mesothelioma Compensation Center says, "If your family just lost a loved one to confirmed mesothelioma before the your loved one could hire a lawyer to assist with a financial compensation claim for this rare cancer please call us anytime at 800-714-0303. If it has been less than a year we will make certain you have on the spot access to some of the nation's most skilled, experienced and capable mesothelioma attorneys. We are always open on holidays, weekends and most evenings until 10 PM Eastern Time. If you wait too long to begin the mesothelioma financial compensation process the time to get compensated could literally come to an end, as we would like to discuss anytime." http://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.Com

Mesothelioma Victim Asbestos Warning Sign

The Center wants to emphasize these claims can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more as they would like to discuss at 800-714-0303.

According to the Mesothelioma Compensation Center, "About once a week we hear from a family who lost a loved one to mesothelioma and the lawyers we suggest have to explain to them-they waited too long to begin the financial compensation claims process. If it has been less than a year since the confirmation of mesothelioma by a medical doctor we typically can help. To make things easier we ask the family to get organized and make a list of the following information:

"Where, how and when was your loved one exposed to asbestos? (Please get as specific as possible)

"Does the family know the names of some of your dad's shipmates or co-workers who witnessed the exposure to asbestos? This can be incredibly vital information for attorneys who specialize in mesothelioma compensation claims nationwide.

"Is there a family member such as a wife, or adult son, or daughter who has power of attorney with respect to the estate of the loved one who died from mesothelioma?" http://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.Com

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center specializes in assisting US Navy Veterans, power plant workers, shipyard workers, oil refinery workers, public utility workers, hydro-electric workers, chemical plant workers, nuclear power plant workers, manufacturing workers, oil and gas field production workers, plumbers, electricians, millwrights, pipefitters and welders who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. In most instances these people were exposed to asbestos during the1950's, 1960's, 1970's, or 1980's.

According to the CDC the states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon. However, a person with mesothelioma could live in any state including California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, or Alaska.

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center says, "If you very recently lost your husband or your dad to mesothelioma before anyone had the chance to hire a lawyer to begin the financial compensation process please call us at 800-714-0303 for on the spot access to some of the nation's top mesothelioma attorneys. These remarkable attorneys can add enormous value to a family in this predicament as we would like to discuss anytime." http://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.Com

For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mesothelioma.html

Contact:

Michael Thomas

800-714-0303

[email protected]

SOURCE Mesothelioma Compensation Center

Related Links

http://mesotheliomacompensationcenter.com


DETROIT, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed one of the largest ever personal injury jury verdicts in Michigan, $22.6 Million, in a unanimous opinion.

On March 3, 2011, Plaintiff Burt Holt inspected his trailer at the Container Port Group (CPG) on Fort Street in Detroit when he was struck by another truck driven by Defendant Amarild Ushe, who drove for Reliable Transportation Specialists. Holt was transported via EMS to Detroit Receiving Hospital and later transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan (RIM) where he remained inpatient for several months. Live testimony at trial from Holt's treating doctors overwhelmingly proved that he suffered a traumatic brain injury, severe depression and chronic pain syndrome; all of which are life long, chronic conditions which will worsen with age. He also endured four surgeries.

A three-week trial was held in Wayne County Circuit Court by the Honorable Kathleen MacDonald. On June 9, 2015, a unanimous jury awarded Holt, client of prominent trial attorney Ven Johnson of Johnson Law, $22.6 Million. The defendants appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals (MCA) and argued that the jury verdict should be reversed and set aside. Johnson and Attorney Chris Desmond represented Mr. Holt on appeal. The MCA unanimously (3-0) upheld the jury's verdict, stating no significant errors occurred at trial necessitating reversal. This verdict is one of the highest personal injury verdicts ever affirmed by the MCA.

For further details about the case, see Burt Holtv. Amarild Ushe and Reliable Transportation Specialists, Inc., No. 330076 Wayne county Circuit Court LC NO. 12-007202-NI

Johnson Law, PLC is a personal injury law firm specializing in vehicle negligence, product liability, medical malpractice, police misconduct and more. Visit http://venjohnsonlaw.com/ for more information.

SOURCE Johnson Law, PLC

Related Links

http://venjohnsonlaw.com


DUBLIN, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Middle East & Africa Naphtha Demand Supply Analysis, By End Use (Gasoline Blending, Reforming, Steam Cracking and Others), Forecast & Opportunities, 2011-2026" report to their offering.

Middle East & Africa naphtha consumption market is projected to cross 100 million metric tons by 2026. The region is home to many oil & gas producing countries whose economy is dependent on export revenues derived from trade of hydrocarbons and other associated products. Middle East & Africa is the largest naphtha exporting region globally and most of the region's exports cater to the surging demand for naphtha in Asia-Pacific. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Algeria dominate naphtha exports from the region. Also, countries in the region are quickly adding new naphtha based cracking capacities to export more value-added products across the globe.



Report Scope:



Naphtha Consumption, By Type:



- Light Naphtha

- Heavy Naphtha



Naphtha Consumption, By End Use:



- Gasoline Blending

- Naphtha Reforming

- Steam Cracking

- Others



Key Topics Covered:



1. Product Overview



2. Research Methodology



3. Analyst View



4. Global Naphtha Market Outlook



5. Middle East & Africa Naphtha Market Outlook



For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vmcctd/middle_east_and

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


"It's gratifying to see our core values and proactive approach result in exceptional results for the client," said Agon Management Group CEO Tarek Beidas. "We will continue to relentlessly pursue excellence and plan to win this award again next quarter."

Employing a fresh approach to personalized brand marketing, Agon Management Group's clients include Fortune 500 companies seeking to expand their market share. The company's highly trained professionals nurture enduring customer relationships and provide the client with outstanding results while developing strong leaders from within. At Agon Management Group, giving back to the community is also important, as evidenced by the company's continued support of Operation Smile.

Like Agon Management Group on Facebook and check them out on Instagram.

About Agon Management Group

Agon Management Group is a trusted outsourced marketing and sales firm headquartered in Virginia that offers a fresh yet proven perspective on marketing. Working to obtain new customers, retain current customers, and increase market share on behalf of leading companies, Agon Management Group provides an effective, creative approach to the client's marketing goals. For more information, call 703-821-2842 or go to http://www.agonmanagementgroup.com/.

Contact: Tarek Beidas

703-821-2842

SOURCE Agon Management Group
DUBLIN, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Power Rental Market: North America 2017" report to their offering.

The North American Power Generation Rental market research report includes market size, growth rates, vertical end-user split, competitive market share data and revenue forecasts from 2013-2023 for the United States and Canada.

The study is a comprehensive analysis including market share splits by fuel type (diesel, natural gas others), output power, application, end-user group and rental provider. Furthermore, profiles of key companies, growth drivers, restraints, challenges, and quotations from industry participants are also included.

The North American Power Rental Market is mature and competitive with the presence of regional and national market participants trying to get a strong foothold in the market. The market is projected to experience moderate growth during the next seven years driven by economic growth, an increase in infrastructure, and the continuing shift from ownership to rental and demand from events.

This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the North American Power Rental Market along with competitive intelligence for the year 2016.

The market numbers included in this report represent revenues generated by companies operating in the North American Power Rental Market by country (United States and Canada) The base year for the study is 2016 and the forecast period is from 2016 until 2023.

Based on the mode of operation, electric power generators can be classified into:

Prime Power- Prime power generators are designed to operate continuously for extended periods of time at variable load.

Standby Power- Supplying emergency power during the duration of normal power interruption. Standby power is run only when there is an outage to the utility grid or there is a disruption in the main source of power.

Peak-Load- Peak load is a period in which electrical power is provided at a significantly higher than average supply level. Peak Shaving is the process of reducing the amount of energy purchased during peak hours when the charges are highest.

Key Topics Covered:



I. Scope of Research



II. North American Power Rental Market Landscape



Market Drivers

Impact Analysis of Market Drivers

Market Restraints

Impact Analysis of Market Restraints

Competitive Advantages

Market Trends

Market Participant Quotes

III. North American Market Data



Regional Analysis

North America Revenue Forecast (2013-2023)

Revenue Share By Fuel

Revenue Share by Power Output

Revenue Share by Applications

Revenue Share by End User

Market Participants - Tier Level Analysis

Distribution Trends

Market Share by Revenues

United States Power Rental Market Measurements

United States Power Rental Market Revenue Forecasts (2013-2023)

Canadian Power Rental Market Measurements

Canadian Power Rental Market Revenue Forecasts (2013-2023)

IV. Key Organizations



Aggreko plc

Caterpillar, Inc.

United Rentals, Inc.

Cummins, Inc.

Sunbelt Rentals, Inc.

Herc Rentals, Inc.

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/55rn5n/power_rental

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


MONTREAL, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Nova Bus is proud to announce that, since this week, Montreal is the first city in North America to put Nova Bus 100% electric buses in service. These buses were delivered by Nova Bus factories in Saint-Eustache and Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada. It is within the framework of the Montreal City Mobility project that three buses will circulate in order to continue the observations on this new electric bus operating in the city. These vehicles were acquired by the Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) in accordance with a financial support from the Green Fund of the Government of Quebec. This project is a result of the Quebec Transport Electrification Action Plan 2015-2020.

The Quebec Minister of Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Transportation Electrification, Mr. Laurent Lessard, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Mr. David Heurtel, Mayor of Montreal, Mr. Denis Coderre, and Mr. Philippe Schnobb, Chairman of the Board of the Societe de transport de Montreal, made the announcement earlier this week.

Nova Bus, a member of the Volvo Group is responsible for the development of the buses and will support the STM throughout the evaluation of the project.

"It is a great feeling for our team to be part of changing our world, making it a greener place and helping our commuter travel with great comfort and peace of mind". Ralph Acs, President of Nova Bus and Prevost divisions and Senior Vice President of Business Region Americas.

"City Mobility is a program that is already established elsewhere in the world, in innovative cities that offer effective, safe and sustainable solutions. Nova Bus is extremely proud to contribute to this movement to make Montreal the first North American city to benefit from it. This collaboration with our partners illustrates all the Quebec know-how deployed in the service of the metropolis", saint Martin Larose, Vice President of the Nova Bus Project Management Office.

Highlights:

The City Mobility projet:

- Is an initiative of Volvo and its North American division, Nova Bus ;

- Is deployed in several cities, and Montreal is the first North American city to take part in it;

- Aims to make Montreal a showcase for technologies associated with electromobility

The Action Plan on Transport Electrification 2015-2020 targets:

- Achieving a target of 100,000 rechargeable electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles registered in Quebec;

- The reduction of 150,000 tonnes of annual emissions of greenhouse gases produced by transportation, thereby contributing to the objectives of combating climate change in Quebec and improving air quality;

- The reduction of 66 million liters of fuel consumed annually in Quebec;

- 5,000 jobs in the electric vehicle sector and total investments of about $ 500 million.

About Nova Bus

Nova Bus is a leading provider of sustainable transit solutions in North America. Its portfolio includes hybrid electric buses, high-capacity vehicles and integrated intelligent transportation systems. Following its Electro Mobility strategy, Nova Bus is moving forward with the electrification of its vehicle key components to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Nova Bus is part of the Volvo Group.

For more information regarding Nova Bus products and services, please visit www.novabus.com.

SOURCE NOVA BUS

Related Links

http://www.novabus.com/


















lavoro.web@alice.it >

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP THE INTERNET.

FED GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division

FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C .

Federal Bureau of Investigation

J. Edgar Hoover Building

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001

warrant no; usa/batch97494/tzx14/washingto n DC

FBI. inset. Washington



SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI. WASHINGTON DC

FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET FBI OFFICIAL NOTICE!!!



FINAL WARNING



ATTENTION!



This is the final warning you are going to receive from us. I hope you

understand how many times this message has been sent to you? We have warned you

several times and you have ignored our e-mail. If you fail to respond back to

us with the payment details below, then we would be forced to contact other

security agencies and have your name blacklisted. We would also send a letter

to the company/agency that you are working to suspend you until we are through

with our investigations



Your Identification which we have in our database has been sent to all the

crime agencies for them to insert you in their website as an internet fraudster

and to warn people from having any deals with you. This would have been solved

all this while if you had gotten the CERTIFICATE SIGNED, ENDORSED AND STAMPED

as you where instructed in the e-mail below.



This is the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) am using this medium to

inform you that there is no more time left to waste because you have been given

a mandate. As stated earlier to have the document endorsed, signed and stamped

without failure and you must adhere to these directives to avoid you being

arrested.



You failed to comply with our directives/instructions, and right now the

WARRANT OF ARREST has been signed against you and it will be carried out in the

next 24hours as strictly signed by the FBI Director. We have investigated and

believe (but have no proof) that you didn' t have any idea when the fraudulent

deal was committed with your information/identity and right now if your ID is

placed on our website as a wanted person, I believe you know that it will be a

shame to you and your entire family because after then it will be announced in

all the local channels that you are wanted by the FBI.



I decided to see how i could be of help to you because i would not be happy to

see you end up in jail and all your properties confiscated all because your

information ' s was used to carry out a fraudulent transactions, i called the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Benin Republic and they directed me

to a private attorney who could help you get the process done and he stated

that he will endorse, sign and stamp the document at the sum of $255.00usd only

and i believe this process is cheaper for you.



You need to do every possible thing today and tomorrow to get this process done

because our director has called to inform me that the warrant of arrest has

been signed against you and once it has been approved, then the arrest will be

carried out, and from our investigations we learnt that you were the person

that forwarded your identity to one impostor/fraudsters in Benin Republic when

he had an deal with you about the transfer of some illegal Lottery funds which

is valued at Millions of dollars with proofs.



I pleaded on your behalf so that this agency could give you till (1) day from

now so that you could get this process done because i learnt that you were sent

several e-mail without getting a response from you, Bear it in mind that this

is the only way that i can be able to help you at this moment or you would have

to face the law and its consequences once it has befall on you. You would make

the payment through Money Gram transfer with the below details.



Here is the Money Gram or Walmart to Walmart information for the transfer.



RECEIVER NAME: SUNDAY UDE

COUNTRY: BENIN REPUBLIC

CITY: COTONOU

AMOUNT: $255



Send the payment details to me with the senders name and address, mtcn number,

text question and answer used and the amount sent. Make sure that you didn' t

hesitate making the payment down to the agency by today so that they could have

the certificate endorsed, signed and stamped immediately without any further

delay. After all this process has been carried out, then we would have to

proceed to the bank for the transfer of your compensation funds to be complete

which was suppose to have been transferred to you all this while.



Note/ all the crimes agencies have been contacted on this regards and we shall

trace and arrest you if you disregard this instructions. You are given a grace

today to make the payment for the document after which your failure to do that

will attract a maximum arrest and finally you will be appearing in court for

act of terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking charges, so be warned

not to try any thing funny because you are been watched.





FBI Director James B. Comey



J. EDGAR HOOVER FBI BUILDING

935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW

WASHINGTON, DC 20535shame to you and your entire family because after then it will be announced in

all the local channels that you are wanted by the FBI.



I decided to see how i could be of help to you because i would not be happy to

see you end up in jail and all your properties confiscated all because your

information ' s was used to carry out a fraudulent transactions, i called the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Benin Republic and they directed me

to a private attorney who could help you get the process done and he stated

that he will endorse, sign and stamp the document at the sum of $255.00usd only

and i believe this process is cheaper for you.



You need to do every possible thing today and tomorrow to get this process done

because our director has called to inform me that the warrant of arrest has

been signed against you and once it has been approved, then the arrest will be

carried out, and from our investigations we learnt that you were the person

that forwarded your identity to one impostor/fraudsters in Benin Republic when

he had an deal with you about the transfer of some illegal Lottery funds which

is valued at Millions of dollars with proofs.



I pleaded on your behalf so that this agency could give you till (1) day from

now so that you could get this process done because i learnt that you were sent

several e-mail without getting a response from you, Bear it in mind that this

is the only way that i can be able to help you at this moment or you would have

to face the law and its consequences once it has befall on you. You would make

the payment through Money Gram transfer with the below details.



Here is the Money Gram or Walmart to Walmart information for the transfer.



RECEIVER NAME: SUNDAY UDE

COUNTRY: BENIN REPUBLIC

CITY: COTONOU

AMOUNT: $255



Send the payment details to me with the senders name and address, mtcn number,

text question and answer used and the amount sent. Make sure that you didn' t

hesitate making the payment down to the agency by today so that they could have

the certificate endorsed, signed and stamped immediately without any further

delay. After all this process has been carried out, then we would have to

proceed to the bank for the transfer of your compensation funds to be complete

which was suppose to have been transferred to you all this while.



Note/ all the crimes agencies have been contacted on this regards and we shall

trace and arrest you if you disregard this instructions. You are given a grace

today to make the payment for the document after which your failure to do that

will attract a maximum arrest and finally you will be appearing in court for

act of terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking charges, so be warned

not to try any thing funny because you are been watched.





FBI Director James B. Comey



J. EDGAR HOOVER FBI BUILDING

935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW

WASHINGTON, DC 20535 2017-05-01 10:30 GMT-04:00 FBI Director James B. Comey



enriquetalledo@rocketmail.com >



Fraud Department Director-Sir James B. Comey Jr Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division Fbi Headquarters In Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau Of Investigation.FBI-Washington Field Office 601 Street, NW Washington, DC 20535



Attention: Beneficiary ,



Am writing to make you understand that this is AGENT James B. Comey Jr representing the office of the FBI Director in fraud department in which I head has been informed about your refusal to comply with the directives from the FBI and we are going ahead with the arrest by today and tomorrow.



We monitored your contact with these con men through our global tracking device that detects all the incoming and outgoing e-mails and telephone calls globally from all the countries of the world. We have your e-mail address under our monitoring device set-up any more e-mails to the fraudsters from you will be automatically detected.



Our concern in this issue is for your name to be cleared from the scammers list which has already been submitted to all the crimes agencies in Benin, Nigeria Germany and United States of America. We make sure that the laws are followed to the core and this is why the Benin Republic Government which its citizen carried out the fraudulent activities with your information' s which you sent to them have to compensate you with the amount as regards the FBI Laws of Sub-Section 12/13 Of the United States Anti-crimes laws.



We have in our file your details which you sent to them and we have checked and found out that you are a honest and hard working person and by this regards we decided to persuade the Benin Republic Government tocompensate you for the evil deeds that was carried out with your name.



The German man knows that you are a the person because he was duped with your identity and this fraudulent activities was carried out by the same people who you have been forwarding your information ' s/details to all this while with the pretense of dealing with the right offices in Africa and other countries of the world.



You will have to get the CLEARANCE FORM from the office of the High Court of Justice in Benin Republic at the sum of $50USD (United States Dollars Only) This certificate will enable you to get access to the compensation funds of $10.5M) Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars which was offered to you by the

Benin Republic Government and don' t forget that you need to get the document within 2 days from now as you already know the deadline given to you to secure the document.



If not for the fact that we checked your data before acting towards this directives given to us, you would have been arrested by now and jailed because of your association with criminals in the internet and don ' t forget our warnings to you. You will have to forward your bank account details to us where you want the $10.5M) Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars to be transferred into as soon as you secure the CLEARANCE FORM.



The German business man who was duped with your identity has reported this case to the world court and it will involve the Government of both countries which are Germany and USA and that is the reason why you must get this document immediately so as to avoid anybody calling your name as being among the fraudsters.



With the Certificate, you are free from any form of crimes as your data shows that you are an honest and respectable person in the society. You will have to send the fees to the High Court of Justice over there in Benin Republic within 2days from now so that our local agent can be able to apply our modalities with the High Court of Justice to issue the CLEARANCE FORM to you.



Send the fees of $50 USD through money gram with the name of the account officer in High Court of Justice.



Receivers Name: JOHN OBI

Country: Benin Republic

City: Porto Novo

Text Question: God Is

Text Answer: Able

Amount: $50.USD.

MTCN. . .



As soon as you send the fees, you will have to get back to us with the following details which are Senders Name and Address, MTCN Number, Text Question and Answer Used and the amount Sent.



As soon as all this requirements are in place, the Certificate will be issued to you and then the compensation funds of $10.5M) Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars will transferred into your bank account.



To avoid the riot of the law on you and your entire family, we have been pleased to allow you secure the document from the High Court of Justice so that your name could be cleared off the fraudulent list and we also argued with the Benin Republic Government about your compensations and that was the reason why you were compensated with the sum of $10.5M) Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars.



Just click reply to reply back to us immediately Ok,



Yours sincerely

Director-Sir James B. Comey Jr

Department of US Federal Bureau of Investigation 2017-05-03 4:55 GMT-04:00 Director-Sir James B. Comey Jr From: JAMES B.COMEY < ftbb.enin@yahoo.com >

Sent: Thu, May 4, 2017 9:07 am

Subject: ATTENTION OWNER OF THIS E_MAIL I.D



Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.

Washington Field Office 601 4th Street NW Washington, DC 20535, Tele: +1(432) 231-1514 Terrorist Screening, checkmating Money laundry, Trafficking, Bank Fraud And Scam.

Security Interception of Unsolicited Business Transaction.



ATTENTION OWNER OF THIS E_MAIL I.D



I am James Brien. Comey Jr, the new FBI director nominated by President Barack Obama to replace the previous director Robert S. Mueller due to internal logical protocols guiding international and local transactions, my tenure represent peace, equity and justice and rule of law shall prevail, my duty is to ensure global maximum security and to protect fundamental human rights. FBI has increased their priorities because of the recent terrorist global threat; find below the interception information's of the sum $6, 800,000,00 manifested in your name as the beneficiary, we have every evidence to prosecute this case, we are presently movement of funds from different countries based on the security Intel exposing links of terrorism sponsorship.



FBI global security wire tape has confirmed that the sum of $6, 800,000,00 dollars have been severally attempted to be release in your name through different methods like Automated card payment system method (Bank Drafts), Consignment Diplomatic Delivery, method Bank Wire Transfer method , every attempts by your partners to move this funds according to your instructions have been futile and frustrated by the FBI global security hard disc which is been control by world bank international security server , the amount in your name have been abandoned under government security vault which is against international law of money laundry, terrorism and trafficking, I met your file at the security strong room with every other transactions relevant documents without the International Fund Release Clearance Permit Certificate.



Our security Intel have confirmed your email address on the payment manifest booklet, I have clinically crosschecked the manifest and discovered that several business transactions have been also linked to your email address, you have consented by either sending money to them or aid the transactions by providing your information's for the movement of the funds through several means, your email address is on the hard disc.



Security Order: the amount registered in your name is $6,800,000,00 dollars which you have to secure the below documents to enable our appointed agents in Washington Field Office 601 4th Street NW to release your funds according to international government protocols or I will submit your file for legal prosecution if you refuse to procure the needed certificate which will only cost you $55 dollars through independent corrupt practices commission (ICPC). Use the below information's to contact independent and corrupt practices commission ICPC with the $55 USD to secure the three government documents for immediate release of your intercepted funds according to FBI security description. Send the $55 to attorney (Collins Egodi) immediately and forward him the payment details on email below:



Forward the payment details to Me,



Receivers Name: PAUL NNALOU

country= = = =Benin

ciyt= = = = porto-novo

Question= = When

Answer= = Now

Amount: $55

Senders:

MTCN ;



Finally, you have to contact him with your information's once you receive this message to secure the International Fund Release Clearance Permit Certificate if you don't want legal prosecution at the international court of justice, this message super-cedes every other FBI message you have received in the past with this registered serial number TSGFB/09-PL.3R45.



Waiting for the International Fund Release Clearance Permit Certificate so that your funds will be released according to the government international security law, you should either follow the instructions or accept court prosecution, don't allow ignorance to affects your sense of reasoning. You should put behind your past dealings with crooks from different country now that I have contacted you, you have only four working days to submit the above mentioned certificates if you don't want to blame yourself for ignoring security instructions, you will be issued an official receipt once you observe the official fee by the ICPC.



Regards,

CALL +1(432) 231-1514

JAMES B.COMEY.

New Director FBI

C-C -. Homeland Security Council

C-C. CIA

C-C- International Police?



Director Mr James directorfbi342@gmail.com >

Date: 2017-05-06 4:21 GMT-04:00

Subject: Re: FBI Director James B. Comey





Your Welcome to deliver, we receive you email with you reconfirmation

information where you box will ship to you, this company is writing to

inform you that everything to ship you parcel is now ready and waiting

for the payment of $655,to complete the process, I want you to try all

you possibly best as much as you can to make sure that you raise this

payment and send it right away so that we can ship you parcel and

email you the tracking number to enable you be tracking you box

delivery until it arrive in you home and hand over to you and useable

ok.send the fee by MG or Walmart to Walmart.



Here is the receive information Western Union office.



Receiver Name: Steven .P Feldhouse

Country : USA

Text question : urgent

Answer : today

City : Uvalde .tx 78801. state teaxs



FAITHFULLY YOURS,



MR JAMES B COMEY

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (FBI)

DIRECT TELEPHONE +1-214-3907-056 From:Date: 2017-05-06 4:21 GMT-04:00Subject: Re: FBI Director James B. ComeyYour Welcome to deliver, we receive you email with you reconfirmationinformation where you box will ship to you, this company is writing toinform you that everything to ship you parcel is now ready and waitingfor the payment of $655,to complete the process, I want you to try allyou possibly best as much as you can to make sure that you raise thispayment and send it right away so that we can ship you parcel andemail you the tracking number to enable you be tracking you boxdelivery until it arrive in you home and hand over to you and useableok.send the fee by MG or Walmart to Walmart.Here is the receive information Western Union office.Receiver Name: Steven .P FeldhouseCountry : USAText question : urgentAnswer : todayCity : Uvalde .tx 78801. state teaxsFAITHFULLY YOURS,MR JAMES B COMEYEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (FBI)DIRECT TELEPHONE +1-214-3907-056

To: jbcomeyfbidirector12 < jbcomeyfbidirector12@usa.com >

Sent: Mon, May 8, 2017 8:49 am

Subject: Executive Director FBI



Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI)Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.

Federal Bureau Of Investigation.

J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington Dc

Customers Service Hours / Monday To Saturday

Office Hours Monday To Saturday:



Dear Beneficiary,



We hope this notification arrives meeting your good health

and mind.Series of meetings have been held over the past 7

months with the secretary general of the United Nations

Organization. This ended 3 days ago. It is obvious that you

have not received your fund which is to the tune of 10.3M)

million due to past corrupt Governmental Officials who

almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reason

and some individuals who have taken advantage of your fund

all in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to so

many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the

receipt of your fund.for more information do get back to

us.



The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by the

United Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation have

successfully passed a mandate to the government of the

states the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owed to

you and other individuals and organizations who have been

found not to have receive their Contract Sum, Lottery/,

Inheritance.



we are happy to inform you that based on our recommendation

your outstanding contract inheritance funds of over-due

payment in tone of USD 10.3M) has been credited in your

favor in SunTrust Bank. Having said all this, we will further

advise that you go ahead in dealing with the SunTrust Bank, IL

accordingly as we will be monitoring all their activities

with you as well as your correspondence at all levels.



NOTE: There are numerous scam emails on the internet,

imposters impersonating names and images. We therefore warn

our dear citizens to be very careful with any claim email

you receive prior to these irregularities so that they do

not fall victim to this ugly circumstance anymore.



And should in case you are already dealing with anybody or

office claiming that you have a payment with them, you are

to STOP further contact with them immediately in your best

interest and contact the real bank (SunTrust Bank ) only where

your fund is laying, with the below information:





Bank Name: SunTrust Bank

Address: 300 N Martingale Rd Schaumburg, Illinois 60173

Attn:Lambert Caan

(Remittance Director)

E-mail:

Department Code:63804

website: www.suntrust.com



Contact the bank today and furnish them with this

information below for processing of your payment/funds

accordingly.



FULL NAME:

CURRENT ADDRESS:

CITY:

STATE:

ZIP CODE:

DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:



NOTE: In your best interest, any message that does not come

from the above email address should be nullified and avoided

immediately for security reasons. Meanwhile, we will advise

that you contact the SunTrust Bankk office in Illinois immediately

with the above email address and request that they attend to

your payment file as directed so as to enable you receive

your payment/fund accordingly.



Ensure you follow all directives from SunTrust Bank as this will

further help hasten up the whole payment process in regards

to the transfer of your fund to you as designated. Also have

in mind that the SunTrust Bank equally has their own protocol of

operation as stipulated on their banking terms.



All modalities has already been worked out before you were

contacted and note that we will be monitoring all your

dealings with them as you proceed so you don't have anything

to worry about. All we require from you henceforth is an

update so as to enable us be on track with you and the

SunTrust Bank . Without wasting much time, we will want you to

contact them immediately with the above email address and

phone number so as to enable them attend to your case

accordingly without any further delay as time is already

running out.



Should in case you need any more information in regards to

this notification, feel free to get back to us via email so

that we can brief you more as we are here to guide you

during and after this project has been completely perfected

and you have received your payment/fund as stated.

Thank you very much for your anticipated co-operation.

BEST REGARDS,



James B. Comey

Federal Bureau of Investigation.

J. Edgar Hoover Building

601,4th Street,

935 Pennsylvania Avenue,

NW Washington, D.C.

20535-0001, USA

From: Federal Bureau of Investigation < jbjamesdirectorsfbss23@plumbingpros.com >To: jbcomeyfbidirector12 < jbcomeyfbidirector12@usa.com >Sent: Mon, May 8, 2017 8:49 amSubject: Executive Director FBIFederal Bureau of Investigation(FBI)Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.Federal Bureau Of Investigation.J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington DcCustomers Service Hours / Monday To SaturdayOffice Hours Monday To Saturday:Dear Beneficiary,We hope this notification arrives meeting your good healthand mind.Series of meetings have been held over the past 7months with the secretary general of the United NationsOrganization. This ended 3 days ago. It is obvious that youhave not received your fund which is to the tune of 10.3M)million due to past corrupt Governmental Officials whoalmost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reasonand some individuals who have taken advantage of your fundall in an attempt to swindle your fund which has led to somany losses from your end and unnecessary delay in thereceipt of your fund.for more information do get back tous.The National Central Bureau of Interpol enhanced by theUnited Nations and Federal Bureau of Investigation havesuccessfully passed a mandate to the government of thestates the exercise of clearing all foreign debts owed toyou and other individuals and organizations who have beenfound not to have receive their Contract Sum, Lottery/,Inheritance.we are happy to inform you that based on our recommendationyour outstanding contract inheritance funds of over-duepayment in tone of USD 10.3M) has been credited in yourfavor in SunTrust Bank. Having said all this, we will furtheradvise that you go ahead in dealing with the SunTrust Bank, ILaccordingly as we will be monitoring all their activitieswith you as well as your correspondence at all levels.NOTE: There are numerous scam emails on the internet,imposters impersonating names and images. We therefore warnour dear citizens to be very careful with any claim emailyou receive prior to these irregularities so that they donot fall victim to this ugly circumstance anymore.And should in case you are already dealing with anybody oroffice claiming that you have a payment with them, you areto STOP further contact with them immediately in your bestinterest and contact the real bank (SunTrust Bank ) only whereyour fund is laying, with the below information:Bank Name: SunTrust BankAddress: 300 N Martingale Rd Schaumburg, Illinois 60173Attn:Lambert Caan(Remittance Director)E-mail: lambertcanctb001@aol.com Department Code:63804website: www.suntrust.comContact the bank today and furnish them with thisinformation below for processing of your payment/fundsaccordingly.FULL NAME:CURRENT ADDRESS:CITY:STATE:ZIP CODE:DIRECT CONTACT NUMBER:NOTE: In your best interest, any message that does not comefrom the above email address should be nullified and avoidedimmediately for security reasons. Meanwhile, we will advisethat you contact the SunTrust Bankk office in Illinois immediatelywith the above email address and request that they attend toyour payment file as directed so as to enable you receiveyour payment/fund accordingly.Ensure you follow all directives from SunTrust Bank as this willfurther help hasten up the whole payment process in regardsto the transfer of your fund to you as designated. Also havein mind that the SunTrust Bank equally has their own protocol ofoperation as stipulated on their banking terms.All modalities has already been worked out before you werecontacted and note that we will be monitoring all yourdealings with them as you proceed so you don't have anythingto worry about. All we require from you henceforth is anupdate so as to enable us be on track with you and theSunTrust Bank . Without wasting much time, we will want you tocontact them immediately with the above email address andphone number so as to enable them attend to your caseaccordingly without any further delay as time is alreadyrunning out.Should in case you need any more information in regards tothis notification, feel free to get back to us via email sothat we can brief you more as we are here to guide youduring and after this project has been completely perfectedand you have received your payment/fund as stated.Thank you very much for your anticipated co-operation.BEST REGARDS,James B. ComeyFederal Bureau of Investigation.J. Edgar Hoover Building601,4th Street,935 Pennsylvania Avenue,NW Washington, D.C.20535-0001, USA



quartaronefrancesco@alice.it >

Good Day:Last warning



We have been watching every single transaction you made since last year until

this 2017 and you have to know that we are also working to make sure your

funds



which are suppose to be delivered to you and also bear in mind that what ever

you emailing us will be forward to the court . Also we are hereby to notified



by the federal bureau of investigation Cotonou department of the insult you

imposed on them by failing to comply by their requirements. Your full

residential



address has been forwarded to us for your immediate arrest to face your charge

but I deemed it fit to give you one more chance to save yourself from

this mess.



We have been told that you have failed to dance by the rule of the FBI which

will warrant 2 years jail sentence. Now I Hon. James B. Comey, the special

agent



in charge of the FBI Albany department I am giving you 24 working hours to

effect the payment of the $99.00 usd. To the FBI in republic of Benin

(fbisecurity



) with the information written



below By Western Union Or Money Gram:



Receiver: DEAN EDSON

Country: Benin Republic

City: Cotonou

TestQ: HONEST

Answer: TRUST

Amount: $66 dollars

Mtcn Number . . . . .

sender ' s name . . . . .

Here to send the mtcn no and order details of the payment



You have to try as much as you can and make this payment so that your funds

will be delivered immediately to your destination. You have to stop every



transaction you are communicating with other organization to avoid delay on the

processing of your funds. Note that you??if you fail to stick with my advice



or any delay will lead to us coming

directly to your home address at any time,so try and dance by the rule and get

back to me with good understanding ASAP.



Special Agent in Charge;

Hon. James B. Comey.

+1830) 282-4718 2017-05-08 11:18 GMT-04:00 MR JAMES COMEY

Sent: Tue, May 9, 2017 9:19 am

Subject: Did you know her?



Office Of The Executive Director, Mr. James B Comey, Jr., Federal Bureau Of Investigation, 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20535-0001, USA. Attention: Beneficiary, The Federal Bureau of investigation in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund has discovered your over-due inheritance / contract payment of US$8,000,000.00 (Eight Million United States Dollars) in an escrow account in the Central Bank of Nigeria. From the security report made available to us by the executive governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria in the person of Mr Godwin Emefiele, the funds are 100% real and have been approved for release to you, but a lady by the name of Mrs. Joan B Melvin of New York has already filed an application of claim at the Central Bank of Nigeria with a power of attorney and some official documents signed by you, which empowered her to claim the funds on your behalf due to your ill health. In prospect of this, we have been recommended to warn US citizens who have received information pertaining to their outstanding inheritance / contract payment to be very careful, in order not to fall a victim of ugly circumstance. In case you are already dealing with some cruel officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria or other agency, you are strictly advised to STOP further communication with them in your best interest and thereby contact the governor's office of the Central Bank of Nigeria via the below details: NAME: MR. GODWIN EMEFIELE OFFICE ADDRESS: Central Bank of Nigeria, Central Business District, Cadastral Zone, Abuja, Federal. Capital Territory, Nigeria. Email: godwin_ emefiele@outlook.com NOTE: You should ignore any message that does not come from the above email address and phone number for security reasons. And to enable the Central Bank of Nigeria process and release the fund to you, you are demanded to re-confirm your full details such as FULL NAMES: CITY: STATE: ZIP: COUNTRY: SEX: AGE: TELEPHONE NUMBER: Ensure that you follow the Central Bank of Nigeria due process as enshrined in the International Banking Secrecy Act to avoid any form of discrepancy, which may hinder your fund transfer. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation as we earnestly await your urgent reply. Best Regards, James B. Comey, Jr., Federal Bureau of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover Building, 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. E-mail: jamescomeycode2017@outlook.com From: James B Comey Jr < ''JBC''@axel.ocn.ne.jp >Sent: Tue, May 9, 2017 9:19 amSubject: Did you know her?



marianoz66@alice.it >

Attention:



This is the final warning you are going to receive from us. I hope you

understand how many times this message has been sent to you? We have warned you

several times and you have ignored our e-mail. If you fail to respond back to

us with the payment details below, then we would be forced to contact other

security agencies and have your name blacklisted. We would also send a letter

to the company/agency that you are working to suspend you until we are through

with our investigations.



Your Identification which we have in our database has been sent to all the

crime agencies for them to insert you in their website as an internet fraudster

and to warn people from having any deals with you. This would have been solved

all this while if you had gotten the CERTIFICATE CLEARANCE FORM from High Court

as you where instructed in the e-mail below.



This is the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) am using this medium to

inform you that there is no more time left to waste because you have been given

a mandate. As stated earlier to have the CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE without failure

and you must adhere to these directives to avoid you being arrested.



You failed to comply with our directives/instructions, and right now the

WARRANT OF ARREST has been signed against you and it will be carried out in the

next 24hours as strictly signed by the FBI Director. We have investigated and

believe (but have no proof) that you didn' t have any idea when the

fraudulentdeal was committed with your information/identity and right now if

your ID is placed on our website as a wanted person, I believe you know that it

will be a shame to you and your entire family because after then it will be

announced in all the local channels that you are wanted by the FBI.



I decided to see how i could be of help to you because i would not be happy to

see you end up in jail and all your properties confiscated all because your

information ' s was used to carry out a fraudulent transactions, i called the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Benin Republic and they directed me

to a private attorney who could help you get the process done and he stated

that he will endorse the CLEARANCE FORM at the sum of $155.00usd only and i

believe this process is cheaper for you.



You need to do every possible thing today and tomorrow to get this process done

because our director has called to inform me that the warrant of arrest has

been signed against you and once it has been approved, then the arrest will be

carried out, and from our investigations we learnt that you were the person

that forwarded your identity to one impostor/fraudsters in Benin Republic and

Nigeria when he had an deal with you about the transfer of some illegal funds

which is valued at Millions of dollars with proofs.



I pleaded on your behalf so that this agency could give you till (2) day from

now so that you could get this process done because i learnt that you were sent

several e-mail without getting a response from you, Bear it in mind that this

is the only way that i can be able to help you at this moment or you would have

to face the law and its consequences once it has befall on you. You would make

the payment through Money Gram transfer with the below details.



Note/ all the crimes agencies have been contacted on this regards and we shall

trace and arrest you if you disregard this instructions. You are given a 2 days

grace to make the payment for the document after which your failure to do that

will attract a maximum arrest and finally you will be appearing in court for

act of terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking charges, so be warned

not to try any thing funny because you are been watched.





Yours in service,

Mr.James.B.Comey Jr

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

WASHINGTON, DC 20535-0001 2017-05-09 18:12 GMT-04:00 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION From: James B. Comey < officefedex@yahoo.com >

Sent: Tue, May 23, 2017 10:47 am

Subject: Attention Beneficiary







Attention Beneficiary



This is the final warning you are going to receive from me do you get me? I

hope you understand how many times this message has been sent to you?.



We have warned you so many times and you have decided

to ignore our e-mails or because you believe we have not been instructed to get

you arrested and today if you fail to respond back to us with the payment

details below,then we would first send a letter to the MAYOR of the city where

you reside and direct them to close yourbank account until you have been jailed

and all your properties will be confiscated by the FBI,CIA and other

enforcement agency. We would also send a letter to the company/agency that you

are working for so that they could get you fired until we are through with our

investigations because a suspect is not suppose to be working for the

government or any private organization.



Your ID which we have in our database have been sent to all the crimes agencies

in America for them to inset you in their website as an internet fraudsters and

to warn people from having any deals with you. This would have been solved all

this while if you had gotten the CERTIFICATE SIGNED,ENDORSED AND STAMPED as you where instructed in the e-mail below. This is the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) am writing in response to the e-mail you sent to us and am using this medium to inform you that there is no more time left to waste

because you have been given a mandate. As stated earlier to have the document

endorsed, signed and stamped without failure and you must adhere to this

directives to avoid you blaming yourself at last when we must have arrested and

jailed you for life and all your properties confiscated.



You failed to comply with our directives/instruction and that was the reason

why we didn't hear from you, as our director has already been notified about

you get the process completed yesterday and right now the WARRANT OF ARREST has

been signed against you and it will be carried out in the next 48hours as

strictly signed by the FBI director. We have investigated and found out that

you didn't have any idea when the fraudulent deal was committed with your

information's/identity and right now if you ID is placed on our website as a

wanted person, I believe you know that it will be a shame to you and your

entire family because after then it will be announce in all the local channels

that you are wanted by the FBI.



As a good Christian and a Honest man, I decided to see how i could be of help

to you because i would not be happy to see you end up in jail and all your

properties confiscated all because your information's was used to carry out a

fraudulent transactions, i called the EFCC and they directed me to a private

attorney who could help you get the process done and he stated that he will

endorse, sign and stamp the document at the sum of $98 usd only and i believe

this process is cheaper for you.



You need to do every possible thing today and tomorrow to get this process done

because our director has called to inform me that the warrant of arrest has

been signed against you and once it has been approved, then the arrest will be

carried out, and from our investigations we learnt that you were the person

that forwarded your identity to one impostor/fraudsters in benin when he had a

deal with you about the transfer of some illegal funds into your bank account

which is valued at the sum of $10.500,000.00 usd.



I pleaded on your behalf so that this agency could give you till 6/08/2016 so

that you could get this process done because i learnt that you were sent

several e-mail without getting a response from you, Bear it in mind that this

is the only way that i can be able to help you at this moment or you would have

to face the law and its consequences once it has befall on you. You would make

the payment through western union money transfer with the below details.



RECEIVERS NAME:. . . SHAWN GRADYaaaaaaa

COUNTRY:. . BENIN REPUBLICaaaaaaaaa

CITY:. . . .COTONOUaaaaaaaaaa

AMOUNT:. . . .$98.00aaaaaaaaaa

QUESTION:. . . .URGENTaaaaaaaaaaaa.

ANSWER:. . . . .TODAYaaaaaaaaaaaa.

MTCN:. . . . . . aaaaaaaa

SENDER a s NAME:aaaaaaaa.

SENDER a S ADDRESS:. . aaaaaaaaaa



Send the payment details to me which are senders name and address, mtcn number,

text question and answer used and the amount sent. Make sure that you didn't

hesitate making the payment down to the agency by today so that they could have

the certificate endorsed, signed and stamped immediately without any further

delay. After all this process has been carried out, then we would have to

proceed to the bank for the transfer of your compensation funds which is valued

at the sum of $10.500,000.00 usd which was suppose to have been transferred to

you all this while.



Note all the crimes agencies have been contacted on this regards and we shall

trace and arrest you if you disregard this instructions. You are given a grace

today to make the payment for the document after which your failure to do that

will attract a maximum arrest and finally you will be appearing in court for

act of terrorism,money laundering and drug trafficking charges, so be warned

not to try any thing funny because you are been watched.



THANKS FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION.



James B. Comey

FBI DIRECTOR







We the Federal bureau of investigation (FBI) Washington, DC, believe you received the previous message we sent to you, USA FBI IVESTIGATION < " U.S. " @ gamma.ocn.ne.jp > 07:40 (Ha 37 minutos)

JAMES B. COMEY Federal Bureau of Investigation United States Department Of Justice Fbi New York 26 Federal Plaza 23rd Floor New. York 10278-0004







Attention, Consignment Box Owner



We the Federal bureau of investigation (FBI) Washington, DC, believe you received the previous message we sent to you, prior to your dealings with the U.S Custom Authority at (JFK) John F. Kennedy International Airport New York as regards to your over-due contract payment consignment trunk boxes worth $2.700.000.00USD), which was endorsed in your favor and like we stated earlier, we have dully screened through this project as stipulated on our protocols of operation and have finally confirmed that your contract payment is 100% genuine and hitch free from all facet and of which you have the lawful right to claim your fund without any further delay.



We The Federal Bureau of Investigation United States Department Of Justice Fbi New York 26 Federal Plaza 23rd Floor New. York 10278-0004 is hereby announcing to you that your fund consignment box worth $2.700.000.00usd received at JFK airport since year 2014 from Benin Republic government authorities and Every necessary fees/charges has been paid by senders except $200.00 for CCC custom clearance certificate but a Lady Mrs. Jane Frederick came forward and claimed you sent her to claim your $2.700,000.00 because you has died in a year 2014 during the affected Disease called Ebola spread in your country, is it true that you died?





Or Did you order her to pay for Custom Clearance Certificate (CCC) to claim your fund consignment box ? Also be informed that we came to an agreement with the U.S Custom Authority at (JFK) John F. Kennedy Int' l Airport NYC that you will send $200.00 latest tomorrow morning.



This is to bring to your notice that we have just been informed through secrete source that the U.S Custom Authority at (JFK) John F. Kennedy International Airport New York are making arrangement to have your contract fund wired into the Bank account of Mrs. Jane Frederick, the lady that contacted them, earlier and presented some documentations evidencing your claim purported to have being signed personally by you for the release of your contract fund to her, since you have chose to ignore their messages and refuse to pay the required $200 for Custom Clearance Certificate charges as imposed, despite the advise we gave to you.



I want to personally assure you once again that you will have every course to smile and be happy upon conclusion of this project, as we will continue monitoring all your services with them at all level as well as your correspondence, until you have received your Metal Trunk Box accordingly. As a LEGAL OWNER, we are here to protect your interest and that is the reason why we are doing all we can to make sure all goes well, this is a huge amount of money which we don' t wish for you to lose.



We understand that the imposed fee might be too much for you to pay so to further make things easier for you, we have discussed with the U.S Custom Authority at (JFK) John F. Kennedy International Airport New York pleaded on your behalf for them to give you the grace of sending half of the charges $100 for now after which the Diplomatic Agent delivery your consignment trunk boxes to you then once you receive your fund, you can then pay the balance $100,



All we want you to do right now is to send the half of the money with the name listed below so we can forward it to Benin Republic Customs authority to help us bobtail the Custom Clearance Certificate and the diplomat will make the delivery to your home address tomorrow morning.





Receiver ' s Data / information:



Receivers Name: PETER EKENE

Country: Benin Republic

City : Cotonou

Text Question: Urgent

Answer: Urgent

Amount: $100

Sender s Name. .MTCN#. .



Description of Consignment box to be delivered:



Type:. . . CONSIGNMENT TRUNK BOX



Size:. . . / 2:1 CM.

Weight:. .5.6KG.

Colour:. . .BROWN BOX

Registration NO: #98952457

Serial #1256784315

Pin numbera* * *



Contact us right away and let me know when you send half of the charges as we discussed with them to enable them route your fund to you with immediate effect. This is a life time opportunity and we will advise you take advantage of it, before it is too late to do so.

God bless you

Thanks.

Yours in service,









Best Regards,



JAMES B. COMEY (DOG)

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTIC

If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more....
EAST HANOVER, N.J., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis today announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the expanded use of Zykadia (ceritinib) to include the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, as detected by an FDA-approved test. Zykadia first received accelerated approval in 2014 for patients with ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC who progressed on or are intolerant to crizotinib. In January 2017, the FDA granted Zykadia Breakthrough Therapy designation for the first-line treatment of patients with ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC with metastases to the brain, and Priority Review for first-line ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC.

The first-line approval of Zykadia is based on results from an open-label, randomized, multicenter, global, Phase III trial, ASCEND-4. The study demonstrated that patients treated with first-line Zykadia had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 16.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 12.6, 27.2), compared to 8.1 months (95% CI: 5.8, 11.1) for patients treated with standard first-line pemetrexed-platinum chemotherapy with pemetrexed maintenance1.

Overall intracranial response rate (OIRR) in patients with measurable brain metastases was 57% (95% CI: 37, 76; n = 28) for patients treated with Zykadia, versus 22% (95% CI: 9, 42; n = 27) for patients treated with chemotherapy1. The whole body overall response rate (ORR) was 73% (95% CI: 66, 79; n = 187) in patients treated with Zykadia1.

"Today's approval represents the next step in the development of Zykadia as a treatment option for ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC, bringing this important medication to a patient population where a need still exists," said Bruno Strigini, CEO, Novartis Oncology. "At Novartis, we are tireless in our pursuit of developing novel medicines to treat lung cancer, and the first-line approval of Zykadia for ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC illustrates our commitment to cancer patients."

Approximately 3-7% of all patients with NSCLC have an ALK gene rearrangement2. An FDA-approved test at the time of diagnosis may help to determine the presence of this mutation and, thus, the most appropriate treatment option3.

Novartis Commitment to Lung Cancer

Worldwide, lung cancer causes more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined, and an estimated 1.8 million new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year4,5. Among patients with NSCLC, roughly 25% have an actionable mutation that may be targeted with available therapies6.

Over the past decade, Novartis Oncology's research has supported the evolution of treatment approaches for patients living with mutation-driven types of lung cancer. The company continues its commitment to the global lung cancer community through ongoing studies, as well as the exploration of investigational compounds that target genomic biomarkers in NSCLC.

About ASCEND-4

ASCEND-4 is a Phase III randomized, open-label, multicenter, global clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Zykadia compared to standard chemotherapy, including maintenance, in adult patients with Stage IIIB or IV ALK-positive advanced NSCLC who received no prior therapy for their advanced disease. Patients received Zykadia orally at 750 mg/daily or standard pemetrexed-based platinum doublet chemotherapy (pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 plus cisplatin 75 mg/m2 or carboplatin AUC 5-6) for four cycles followed by pemetrexed maintenance.

Of 376 patients, 189 (59 with brain metastases) were randomized to Zykadia and 187 (62 with brain metastases) to chemotherapy1. Approximately 70% of patients with measurable brain metastases at baseline did not have prior radiation therapy, the current standard of treatment for baseline brain metastases1. Among patients randomized to the chemotherapy arm, 43% received Zykadia as their next treatment after platinum-based chemotherapy1.

Patients treated with first-line Zykadia had a median PFS of 16.6 months (95% CI: 12.6, 27.2), compared to 8.1 months (95% CI: 5.8, 11.1) for patients treated with standard first-line pemetrexed-platinum chemotherapy with pemetrexed maintenance1. A 45% risk reduction in PFS was obtained in the Zykadia arm compared to the chemotherapy arm (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55 [95% CI: 0.42, 0.73; one-sided p value <0.0001])1.

Patients without brain metastases at screening receiving Zykadia experienced a median PFS of 26.3 months (95% CI: 15.4, 27.7), compared with 8.3 months (95% CI: 6.0, 13.7) among patients treated with chemotherapy (HR = 0.48 [95% CI: 0.33, 0.69])7. Among patients with brain metastases at screening, the median PFS was 10.7 months (95% CI: 8.1, 16.4) in the Zykadia group versus 6.7 months (95% CI: 4.1, 10.6) in the chemotherapy group (HR = 0.70 [95% CI: 0.44, 1.12])7.

The most common adverse reactions in ASCEND-4 (incidence 25% all grades) were diarrhea (85%), nausea (69%), vomiting (67%), fatigue (45%), abdominal pain (40%), decreased appetite (34%) and cough (25%)1. In ASCEND-4, Grade 3/4 adverse reactions (incidence 2%) were fatigue (7%), vomiting (5%), diarrhea (4.8%), abdominal pain (3.7%), weight loss (3.7%), nausea (2.6%) and prolonged QT interval (2.6%)1. The most common laboratory abnormalities in ASCEND-4 (incidence 25% all grades) were increased ALT/AST (91%/86%), increased GGT (84%), increased alkaline phosphatase (81%), creatinine increase (77%), anemia (67%), hyperglycemia (53%), decreased phosphate (38%), increased amylase (37%) and neutropenia (27%)1. In ASCEND-4, Grade 3/4 laboratory abnormalities (incidence 2%) were increased GGT (49%), ALT/AST (34%/21%), increased alkaline phosphatase (12%), hyperglycemia (10%), increased amylase (8%), increase lipase (6%), creatinine increase (4.2%), anemia (4.2%), decreased phosphate (3.7%) and neutropenia (2.1%)1.

About Zykadia

Zykadia is an oral, selective inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), a gene that can fuse with others to form an abnormal "fusion protein" that promotes the development and growth of certain tumors in cancers including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Zykadia is currently approved in over 69 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.hcp.novartis.com/products/zykadia/ for additional information.

Zykadia Important Safety Information

Zykadia may cause serious side effects.

Zykadia may cause stomach upset and intestinal problems in most patients, including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach-area pain. These problems can be severe. Patients should follow their doctor's instructions about taking medicines to help these symptoms, and should call their doctor for advice if symptoms are severe or do not go away.

Zykadia may cause severe liver injury. Patients should have blood tests prior to the start of treatment with Zykadia, every two weeks for the first month of treatment and monthly thereafter, and should talk to their doctor right away if they experience any of the following symptoms: tiredness (fatigue), itchy skin, yellowing of the skin or the whites of the eyes, nausea or vomiting, decreased appetite, pain on the right side of the abdomen, urine turns dark or brown, or bleeding or bruising more easily than normal.

Zykadia may cause severe or life-threatening swelling (inflammation) of the lungs during treatment that can lead to death. Symptoms may be similar to those symptoms from lung cancer. Patients should tell their doctor right away about any new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing or shortness of breath, fever, cough, with or without mucous, or chest pain.

Zykadia may cause very slow, very fast, or abnormal heartbeats. Doctors should check their patient's heart during treatment with Zykadia. Patients should tell their doctor right away if they feel new chest pain or discomfort, dizziness or lightheadedness, faint, or have abnormal heartbeats, blue discoloration of lips, shortness of breath, swelling of lower limbs or skin, or if they start to take or have any changes in heart or blood pressure medicines.

Zykadia may cause high levels of glucose in the blood. People who have diabetes or glucose intolerance, or who take a corticosteroid medicine have an increased risk of high blood sugar with Zykadia. Patients should have glucose blood tests prior to the start of treatment with Zykadia and during treatment. Patients should follow their doctor's instructions about blood sugar monitoring and call their doctor right away with any symptoms of high blood sugar, including increased thirst and/or urinating often.

Zykadia may cause high levels of pancreatic enzymes in the blood and may cause pancreatitis. Patients should have blood tests prior to the start of treatment with Zykadia and as needed during their treatment with Zykadia. Patients should talk to their doctor if they experience signs and symptoms of pancreatitis which including upper abdominal pain that may spread to the back and get worse with eating.

Before patients take Zykadia, they should tell their doctor about all medical conditions, including liver problems; diabetes or high blood sugar; heart problems, including a condition called long QT syndrome; if they are pregnant, if they think they may be pregnant, or if they plan to become pregnant; are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed.

Zykadia may harm unborn babies. Women who are able to become pregnant must use a highly effective method of birth control (contraception) during treatment with Zykadia and up to 3 months after stopping Zykadia. Patients and their doctor should decide whether to take Zykadia or breastfeed, but should not do both.

Patients should tell their doctor about medicines they take, including prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and herbal supplements.

The most common adverse reactions with an incidence of 10% diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, liver laboratory test abnormalities, fatigue, abdominal pain, decreased appetite, weight decreased constipation, blood creatinine increased, rash, anemia, and esophageal disorder. Grade 3-4 adverse reactions with an incidence of 5% were fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, nausea, and prolonged QT Interval.

Patients should stop taking Zykadia and seek medical help immediately if they experience any of the following, which may be signs of an allergic reaction:

Difficulty in breathing or swallowing

Swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat

Severe itching of the skin, with a red rash or raised bumps

Patients should tell their doctor of any side effect that bothers them or does not go away. These are not all of the possible side effects of Zykadia. For more information, patients should ask their doctor or pharmacist.

Patients should take Zykadia exactly as their health care provider tells them. Patients should not change their dose or stop taking Zykadia unless their health care provider advises them to. Zykadia should be taken once a day on an empty stomach. Patients should not eat for at least 2 hours before and 1 hour after taking Zykadia. If a dose of Zykadia is missed, they should take it as soon as they remember. If their next dose is due within the next 12 hours, they should skip the missed dose and take the next dose at their regular time. They should not take a double dose to make up for a forgotten dose. Patients should not drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit during treatment with Zykadia, as it may make the amount of Zykadia in their blood increase to a harmful level. If patients have to vomit after swallowing Zykadia capsules, they should not take more capsules until their next scheduled dose.

Please see full Prescribing Information for Zykadia.

Disclaimer

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by words such as "Breakthrough Therapy designation," "next step," "tireless," "commitment," "ongoing," "investigational," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential new indications or labeling for Zykadia, or regarding potential future revenues from Zykadia. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of management regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Zykadia will be submitted or approved for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Zykadia will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding Zykadia could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the company's ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; general economic and industry conditions; global trends toward health care cost containment, including ongoing pricing and reimbursement pressures; safety, quality or manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Located in East Hanover, NJ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2016, the Group achieved net sales of USD 48.5 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis and @NovartisCancer at http://twitter.com/novartiscancer.

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.novartis.com/news/media-library

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact [email protected]

References

1. Zykadia (ceritinib) Full Prescribing Information.

2. Lovly, C., L. Horn, W. Pao. 2016. Molecular Profiling of Lung Cancer. My Cancer Genome. https://www.mycancergenome.org/content/disease/lung-cancer/. (Updated March 28). Accessed March 22, 2017.

3. Lindeman, N.I., et al. Molecular Testing Guideline for Selection of Lung Cancer Patients for EGFR and ALK Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2013; 137: 828-1174.

4. World Health Organization. International Agency for Research on Cancer. GLOBOCAN 2012: Estimated Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide in 2012. Lung Cancer. Available at http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/fact_sheets_cancer.aspx?cancer=lung. Accessed March 22, 2017.

5. Riess JW, Wakelee, HA. Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Management: Novel Targets and Recent Clinical Advances. Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology. 2012; 10: 226-224. 6. Korpanty, G.J., et al. Biomarkers that currently affect clinical practice in lung cancer: EGFR, ALK, MET, ROS-1, and KRAS. Frontiers in Oncology. 2014; 4: 204.

7. Soria JC, et al. First-line ceritinib versus platinum-based chemotherapy in advanced ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer (ASCEND-4): A randomized, open-label Phase 3 study. The Lancet. 2017; 389(10072):917-929.

Novartis Media Relations

Central media line: +41 61 324 2200

E-mail: [email protected]

Eric Althoff

Novartis Global Media Relations

+41 61 324 7999 (direct)

+41 79 593 4202 (mobile)

[email protected]

Kristen Klasey

Novartis Oncology

+1 862 778 4763 (direct)

+1 862 754 1732 (mobile)

[email protected]

SOURCE Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation

Related Links

http://www.novartis.com


WASHINGTON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) applauds the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) for passing Iran Bill to hold the regime accountable for its missile development, support for terrorism and human rights violations.

The bipartisan legislation, now with 48 cosponsors, spearheaded by Senators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) expands sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), expands sanctions for Iranian ballistic missile development, support for terrorism, transfers of conventional weapons to or from Iran, and human rights violations.

"We can no longer allow the nuclear agreement with Iran to dictate U.S. policy throughout the Middle East, and this bill is an important first step in finally holding Iran accountable for their non-nuclear destabilizing activities," said Senator Bob Corker, SFRC Chair, adding, "It also sends an important signal that the U.S. will no longer look the other way in the face of continued Iranian aggression. I am proud of the strong bipartisan momentum behind this effort and will push for timely consideration on the Senate floor."

"Today's committee approval of this bipartisan legislation brings us one step closer to finally ensuring Iran's leaders understand they do not enjoy blanket impunity as the United States continues to live up to its commitments under the JCPOA," said Senator Menendez.

Senator Ben Cardin, SFRC Ranking Member underscored, "Today's bipartisan Committee passage of Iran legislation underscores Congress' role in articulating a roadmap for pushing back on Iran's aggressive actions we remain committed to pushing back on Iran's ballistic missile program, support for terrorism, violations of the arms embargo, and human rights abuses against its own citizens."

OIAC welcomes the new bill for imposing sanctions on IRGC and for codifying individuals who are currently sanctioned due to Iranian support for terrorism.

The IRGC's primary focus has been to preserve Iranian theocracy, first by suppressing the Iranian people and second, by conducting extraterritorial terrorism. As such, diminishing IRGC influence and reach would weaken this prominent pillar of Iran's religious dictatorship.

Organization of Iranian American Communities-US (OIAC), as the largest, all-volunteers, most active and enduring grass root organization of Iranian Americans in the United States lauds this bipartisan Congressional initiative and calls for designating the IRGC what it is, a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

SOURCE OIAC

Related Links

http://www.oiac.org


The Forum is an annual event that reimagines China's business and economic landscape. In its fourth year, this year's theme provided a look at the road ahead for China.

Peking University, Guanghua School of Management's Dean Prof. Qiao LIU expressed the importance of continuing the Forum's tradition. The Forum, Prof. LIU said, "is a very specific and unique opportunity for us to gather together outside of China. The School aims for the forum to serve as a platform where we can exchange ideas about China and thus give better insights."

Carolyn Brehm, Vice-President of Global Government Relations and Public Policy at Procter & Gamble, echoed this sentiment in her welcome remarks saying that forums, such as these, help companies navigate China's changing environment.

The forum itself was organized into three themes: (1) Global Economy: China, US & the World, (2) Corporate China 2.0: The Great Shakeup and (3) Attracting China's Middle Class Consumer. For each session, the forum featured an impressive line-up of speakers from think tanks to consumer giants.

During the Global Economy theme, the panel revisited the recent upheaval in the world economy- from Brexit and the US presidential election to the impeachment of Brazil's president. As Joseph Lake, Director of Global Forecasting for The Economist Intelligence Unit, put it, "we are now living in the age of anxiety, featured by great uncertainty and turbulence, including Brexit, Trump-induced division and the constant risk of the North Korean state."

Despite this context, the China-United States economic and business relationship received an overwhelming positive outlook from the panelists. David Dollar, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, John L. Thornton China Center, mentioned the difference between rhetoric and substance when it comes to the China-U.S. relationship. Dollar illustrated this perfectly, saying, "Trump has performed an abrupt volte face over China after the election while he seemed to be anti-China before and during the election."

The Mar-a-Lago China Summit, which occurred this past April, also signaled a positive outlook for collaboration between the two countries moving forward. In fact, Hongbin CAI, Professor of Applied Economics at Guanghua, said, "The Trump-Xi meeting was a success in the sense that it resolved some early anxiety between the two countries."

Simon JIN, President of Greater China at S&P Global, further discussed the positive results of that meeting mentioning positive moves that resulted, such as the softening of some of China's financial regulations. Starting on July 16th, JIN mentioned that US financial institutions will be able to provide increased services in China.

However, the panelists conceded that a truly, free bilateral trade agreement for the two countries would not occur in the foreseeable future.

During Corporate China 2.0 theme, Prof. Qiao LIU analyzed China's economic success and explored why great firms are vital for its future. He maintained that Chinese firms must pursue greatness in order to transform the Chinese economy. "Institutional changes should occur to promote entrepreneurship and foster great firms," he argued. Prof. LIU also insisted that the key is Return of investment capital (ROIC). Increased ROIC, he pointed out, is vital for China's economy and will drive its growth.

While Prof. LIU recognizes that driving China's next phase of growth is no easy task, he remains confident. "China can continue strong growth for another 10 or 20 years, but reform of the micro foundation is needed." The emergence of "Made in China," increased ROIC, and reforms that foster entrepreneurship and great firms will be a vital part of driving that growth.

The last theme, Attracting China's Middle Class Consumer, was a panel discussion on the rise of the Chinese consumer. The emergence of a prosperous class of Chinese consumers creates unique opportunities for multinationals. More than three-fourths of China's urban households will approach middle-class status by 2020 and their consumer habits and trends will create winners and losers in the domestic and global marketplace.

As Ying ZHANG, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Science at Guanghua, put it, "With over 600 million middle-class consumers in the next several years, the Chinese middle-class cannot be ignored."

Caroline Brehm explained further, "China has unprecedented economic growth and a competitive market," yet she noted that, "the biggest difference between American middle class customers and the Chinese ones is how quickly Chinese customers change." Patricia Graue, Director of Brunswick Group agreed, stating that all sectors in China will undergo dramatic changes in the next several years.

Jeffrey Towson, Professor of Investment at Guanghua, also pointed out that the Chinese consumer is complicated because of their changing tastes. "The pace of how consumer tastes changes is astonishing and they are shaping the world," he said.

In short, to win in the China market, firms need to understand Chinese consumers at the local level and continually fight for dominance in the market. Anything short of that will lead to failure.

Stephen Orlins, President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, delivered the Closing Remarks, with these words "the change in China since my first visit in 1979 has been so enormous, great and unpredictable. If I think back of my career, and I think back of the defeats, I realize that the defeats have opened up more doors than the victories."

About the Peking University, Guanghua New York Forum

The Peking University Guanghua New York Forum is an annual event that explores the future of the business and economic landscape of China, as well as its relationship with the United States. The forum brings together over 200 business leaders, innovators and scholars from China and the United States to discuss, debate and exchange ideas on China's road ahead.

This year's forum was made possible due to the generous donations of our sponsor, Jyah Asset Management, and held in partnership with the US China Business Council.

Full list of speakers:

Welcome Remarks:

Qiao LIU, Dean, Professor of Finance, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Carolyn Brehm, US-China Business Council Representative

Panel 1: Global Economy: China, US & the World

Moderator: Joseph Lake, Director of Global Forecasting, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Panelists:

Hongbin CAI, Professor of Applied Economics, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

David Dollar, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, John L. Thornton China Center

Simon JIN, President of Greater China, S&P Global

Presentation: Corporate China 2.0: The Great Shakeup with Guanghua Dean Qiao Liu

Panel 2: Attracting China's Middle Class Consumer

Moderator: Ying ZHANG, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Science, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Panelists:

Carolyn Brehm, Vice President for Global Government Relations and Public Policy, Procter & Gamble

Patricia Graue, Director, Brunswick Group

Jeffrey Towson, Professor of Investment, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

Closing Remarks:

Stephen Orlins, President, National Committee on United States-China Relations

About Peking University, Guanghua School of Management

"To advance management knowledge and develop business leaders for China and the Global Society."

-Mission Statement of Peking University, Guanghua School of Management

Peking University, Guanghua School of Management is a leading business school in the Asia-Pacific renowned for its China-expertise and international perspective. Guanghua offers a comprehensive business education with programs including, undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, MBA, Executive MBA and executive education programs. Guanghua has a global network of over 30,000 alumni working across industries for leading domestic and multinational corporations. It also has over 100 partner institutions across the globe. In addition to its main campus in Beijing, Guanghua has campuses in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi'an and Chengdu and is actively engaged in policy making and economic development in China.

SOURCE Guanghua School of Management of Peking University
CORONA, Calif., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Power Drop is a self-service kiosk that sells single-use, recyclable, phone chargers. On an investor conference call, Joe Menichiello and the Power Drop team discussed the newest Power Drop collection of installations throughout North America. Topping the list is the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu as it is one of the most visited sites in all of Hawaii. Ala Moana is one of GGP's flagship locations and considered a top tier shopping center throughout the world.

The first quarter of 2017 saw new installs at the St. Louis Galleria, Scottsdale Quarter, Shops at Fairfield Commons (Dayton, OH), Sooner Mall (Oklahoma City), Edmonton International Airport, Bonnie Centre Mall (Canada), South Gate Center (Canada). Each of these new locations have a Power Drop kiosk either within the food court area or a main causeway. Most importantly, initial sales are proving to be solid and consistent.

Along with current installations, Power Drop Management announced their upcoming installs as well. Included in the list was the Toronto International Airport, San Marcos Premium Outlets (San Marcos, TX), River Oaks Park (Houston, TX), Plaza West Covina, as well as many other high traffic locations spreading across North America.

"Our machines are made to sell phone chargers. Plain and simple," said Joe Menichiello, Managing Director of Power Drop. "There are little to no demographics for this product. Any location that experiences high foot traffic is a good location." The Power Drop team is looking into new spaces for their kiosks. They touched on several new sectors including fitness, education, amusement, and events.

The call concluded with the introduction of the new Power Core battery. The new recyclable charger boosts a groundbreaking 1200 milliamp cell that allows for an even stronger charge. The Power Drop team confirmed that this new charger will be more consistent and much more durable. Power Core batteries will be available to all Power Drop owners, as well as the public, by July of this year.

Visit PowerDropShop.com or call (888) 600-0709 to purchase batteries or inquire about becoming an owner of the kiosks.

SOURCE Power Drop

Related Links

http://www.PowerDropShop.com


MARSHFIELD, Wis., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PreventionGenetics, a Marshfield, Wisconsin based genetic testing laboratory, has partnered with KolGene, a technology company that streamlines the process for provider ordered genetic testing from around the world. KolGene's responsive online platform provides greater awareness and access to PreventionGenetics' test offerings.

"We are excited to have PreventionGenetics added as a leading laboratory," said Dan Faszczyk, CEO and Founder of KolGene. "With KolGene, clinicians have easier access to PreventionGenetics' wide offering of tests, including PGxome, whole exome sequencing test. Providers receive customized offers and can manage all aspects of ordering in one place."

PreventionGenetics is a CLIA and ISO 15189:2012 accredited lab, known as a leader in providing high quality genetic testing and has earned a solid reputation for knowledge, integrity and professionalism. A large global contender, PreventionGenetics accepts samples from over 80 countries, with comprehensive coverage for 4,100 genes, including whole exome sequencing (PGxome).

As the market for genomic testing continues to grow KolGene has responded with a solution allowing laboratories to tap into global opportunities and showcase their unique competitive advantages. KolGene allows the clinicians access to the global supply of genetic tests enabling them to stay up to date with the laboratories' offerings.

"Through KolGene, we can provide immediate access to clinicians worldwide who are looking for solutions for their patients," said Dr. James Weber, CEO and Founder.

PreventionGenetics and KolGene will both be present at the upcoming European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to highlight their partnership and availability of genetic testing worldwide.

About PreventionGenetics

Founded in 2004 and located in Marshfield, Wisconsin, PreventionGenetics is a CLIA and ISO 15189:2012 accredited clinical DNA testing laboratory. PreventionGenetics provides patients with sequencing and deletion/duplication tests for nearly all clinically relevant genes. These tests include our powerful and comprehensive whole exome sequencing test, PGxomeTM. PreventionGenetics also offers DNA Banking (PGDNABank), a long-term storage of a person's DNA. DNA Banking is available direct-to-consumer. We invite you to visit our DNA Banking website PGDNABank.com.

About KolGene

KolGene is a responsive online platform to streamline the ordering process and connect a global network of labs to clinicians worldwide. With KolGene, clinicians receive customized offers from the world's leading labs, and can manage all aspects of ordering the test in one place. To become an ordering clinician, view our website at www.kolgene.com.

Contact: Marsha Bushman, MBA

Business Development Officer

PreventionGenetics, LLC

P: 715.387.0484 Ext. 282

[email protected]

www.preventiongenetics.com

SOURCE PreventionGenetics

Related Links

http://www.preventiongenetics.com


WASHINGTON, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Last night, Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins was pleased to honor the Rev. James Robison, founder of LIFE Outreach International, with the "Watchman Award." The award was presented during the Watchmen on the Wall briefing, an annual conference sponsored by Family Research Council that has drawn hundreds of pastors to the nation's capital from 42 states.

For more than 40 years, Rev. Robison has delivered the Gospel to the masses -- first, through crusade evangelism and for more than 40 years, via television. He has preached in-person to more than 20 million people, with more than 2 million decisions for Christ. The ministry he founded -- LIFE Outreach International -- now focuses on television and mission outreaches, and more people are coming to Christ in a single year than in his first 20 years of ministry.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made in part the following comments in presenting the award:

"Long before meeting him, I admired James Robison for his effective ministry and his work in laying the foundation for the Moral Majority and what eventually became known as the 'religious right.' His ministry, LIFE Outreach International, is well-known around the world for saving the lives of more than 13 million starving children.

"Seven years ago, he called together a meeting of Christian leaders to once again address the moral crisis facing our nation. James knew that moving back into the public policy arena was risky because many of those who supported his ministry feeding children didn't care so much about the moral crisis facing the nation. When a leader stands up and begins speaking out about the choices that lead to destructive consequences both in our personal lives and to our nation, people don't respond as positively. Yet James stepped out to provide leadership to leaders.

"A watchman stands on the spiritual walls of our nation and declares what he sees regardless of the personal consequences. James is a watchman of the watchmen. He saw the need of our nation and he stepped out to provide the leadership that the evangelical community needed and we saw the results last fall. Since then, God has opened doors for him to speak not only into the life of the president but into the administration.

"We are pleased to honor him with the 'Watchman Award' for preaching the truth of God, extending the grace of God and for loving others and leading leaders.

"His outstanding demonstration of servant-leadership, is inspiring Christians across America to be salt and light and courageously advance faith, family, and freedom," concluded Perkins.

Video of last night's "Watchman on the Wall Award" presentation: http://watchmenpastors.org/wotw17/robison

SOURCE Family Research Council

Related Links

http://www.frc.org


TYLER, Texas, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 23, 2017, a Hopkins County, TX, jury awarded a verdict of almost $8.5 million to a truck driver injured in a railroad accident, a record verdict for Hopkins County and much of East Texas. Plaintiff Charles Knighton was represented by Randy Roberts and Mike Ace of the Roberts & Roberts Law Firm in Tyler, Texas and by local counsel John C. Ginn of Smith, McDowell, Ginn.

Knighton was unloading a feed truck into a hopper train car at The Blackland Railroad trans-loading facility in Mount Vernon, Texas, when he was injured. Evidence showed that The Blackland's conductor gave Knighton permission to get on top of the train car and then moved the train without notifying Knighton. This caused Knighton to fall over 15 feet and forcibly land on the train coupling between the cars. He suffered serious injuries, including a pelvic fracture that caused permanently disabling nerve damage and physical impairment.

Local counsel John C. Ginn praised the lead attorneys and the jury. He noted, "First the jury was very attentive and conscientious and second, Mr. Roberts and Mr. Ace did a superb job of presenting what amounted to overwhelming evidence."

A vital discovery during the trial was that The Blackland's conductor may have given erroneous testimony. On the first day of trial, the jury heard from The Blackland's engineer. He stated that the conductor did in fact tell him that Knighton had permission to be on top of the train car. This statement directly contradicted the previous testimony.

This proved to be a pivotal moment within the trial. "Juries are interested in the truth and when witnesses are less than honest with them, a jury will exact appropriate justice," said Ginn.

Randy Roberts believes that the verdict will finally offer some much-deserved peace for the Knightons and said, "Roberts & Roberts is proud to have had a role in obtaining a measure of justice for Charles and Misti Knighton. The jury's verdict will allow them to move past Charles' injuries and begin a long-delayed process of healing."

The case is Knighton v. The Blackland Railroad, Case No. CV42641, in the 62nd District Court, Hopkins County, TX.

The East Texas personal injury attorneys at Roberts & Roberts Law Firm have a history of helping people injured by unsafe practices and products as well as by unfair insurance practices.

The firm has received national recognition for obtaining notable verdicts and settlements in personal injury and defective products cases, including Nemon v. Manchester Tank & Equipment Co. (No. 02-310-B, 87th Dist. Ct., Freestone County, Texas); Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Morgan, (No. 12-98-00093-CV, 1999 WL 33312264, Tex. App.Tyler); and Taylor v. Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., (No. 25,537-B, 87th Dist. Ct., Limestone County, Texas).

Contact :

Randy Roberts

[email protected]

903-597-6655

SOURCE Roberts & Roberts Law Firm

Related Links

http://www.robertslawfirm.com


SOUTH HOLLAND, Ill., May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Rupari Food Services, Inc., a leading producer of branded and private label restaurant-quality barbequed meats, including Tony Roma's and Butcher's Prime retail brands, announced today that a subsidiary of family owned and operated Carl Buddig & Company is the successful bidder in the sale process previously approved by the Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

"While we entertained interest from several other potential bidders, the Company did not receive any additional qualified bids by the extended May 25th deadline, thus negating the need for the scheduled auction," said Rupari Chief Executive Jack Kelly. "We will seek approval of the sale at the previously scheduled approval hearing on June 6, 2017."

The Company has been working with Buddig, a leading manufacturer of lunch meat and sausage products, since the Company filed for Chapter 11 protection last month to ensure an easy transition for Rupari's employees and operations through the closing of the sale. Buddig and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 1546, have been working to conclude a new collective bargaining agreement that will be in place following the sale.

"We have always believed that a sale to Buddig was good for our employees, our customers, and our vendors," said Mr. Kelly. "We have been working together to ensure there is no interruption in delivery and service to our valued customers and are excited that our customers will now have a larger selection of fresh quality meats to choose from."

Once the sale is approved, it is estimated that the transition and closing should be completed in mid-June.

About Rupari Food Services, Inc.:

Established in 1978 and headquartered just outside of Chicago, IL, Rupari Food Services has a passionate staff of Pitmasters & BBQ enthusiasts who have perfected the art of BBQ. A leading manufacturer and distributor of naturally smoked, premium quality Ribs and BBQ meats to deli, food service and retail chains across the nation, Rupari is recognized for excellence industry-wide. Rupari offers a wide range of mouth-watering BBQ meats under Tony Roma's, Butcher's Prime, Rupari and private label brands. For more information, visit www.rupari.com or www.tonyromasribs.com

Tony Roma's is a licensed trademark of Romacorp

SOURCE Rupari Food Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.rupari.com


BIRMINGHAM, Mich., May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Schechter Wealth is pleased to announce that Alex Martin, CIMA , has joined the firm as Wealth Advisor, Director of Independent Partner Development. Mr. Martin comes to Schechter with over 20 years of experience providing independent wealth management to his clients. In addition to his role as a Wealth Advisor, Mr. Martin consults with CPAs and attorneys that wish to expand their scope of services and add value for their clients by offering insurance and investment advisory services.

Marc Schechter, Senior Managing Director said, "We are excited for Alex to engage the professional services community with the intent of helping advisors improve their client service as well as helping them add new revenue channels to their practice. With his background and experience, Alex has much to offer these professionals in educating and advising their high net worth clients."

Prior to joining Schechter Wealth, Mr. Martin spent nearly 20 years with Southeast Michigan consulting firms advising individuals, business owners, and professional services firms throughout the country. He also has experience establishing Registered Investment Advisers and has held a leadership position with a broker dealer.

Alex is a graduate of Michigan State University, a Certified Investment Management Analyst, has held his Series 7, 63, 24, 66, 53, 27, 79 licenses, and carries insurance licenses for life, accident, and health.

About Schechter Wealth

Schechter Wealth is a boutique, third generation wealth advisory firm. For over 75 years, Schechter's multi-disciplined team consisting of one or more JDs, LLMs, CLUs, PFSs, CAPs, MBAs and CFA charter holders has been quietly advising wealthy families on financial matters including institutional quality investment advisory services, advanced life insurance planning, income and estate taxes, business succession and charitable planning.

SOURCE Schechter Wealth

Related Links

http://www.schechterwealth.com


NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against United States Steel Corporation ("U.S. Steel" or the "Company") (NYSE: X) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired U.S. Steel securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased U.S. Steel securities between November 1, 2016 and April 25, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until July 3, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

U.S. Steel is an integrated steel producer of flat-rolled and tubular products with major production operations in North America and Europe.

Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) while the Company was implementing its Carnegie Way program, it was focused on cutting costs and was not making investments necessary to position U.S. Steel so that it could respond to improved market conditions; (ii) Defendants' failure to invest in improving capital assets during the industry downturn, in order to report apparent financial improvements, meant that U.S. Steel had higher production costs than its competitors, even in the face of improved pricing, which would negatively impact its financial results; and (iii) Defendants were forestalling expensive capital equipment upgrades in order to boost the Company's short-term financial results at the expense of long-term financial performance, leaving U.S. Steel in need of accelerated, costly equipment upgrades that would leave the Company years away from generating improved financial performance; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, U.S. Steel's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

During the Class Period, steel market conditions improved substantially. Indeed, in the first quarter of 2017, the average price of U.S. hot-rolled steel coil, a benchmark product used in a variety of products ranging from bridges to microwaves, rose 55% from a year earlier, helped by successful U.S. trade cases against foreign imports. By all accounts, U.S. Steel appeared primed to pounce on the domestic steel market turnaround.

After the market closed on April 25, 2017, however, the Company reported what analysts labeled "hard-to-fathom" and "abysmal" financial results, as U.S. Steel revealed shortcomings that, according to Bloomberg, "choked earnings even as prices of the metal surged." Specifically, the Company reported a net loss of $180 million, or negative $1.03 per diluted share, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization ("EBITDA") of $74 million. The Company's earnings release revealed negative operating cash flow of $135 million, a significant decline in the Company's Flat-Rolled segment, and a reduced 2017 outlook that widely missed analyst expectations, including a 35% reduction to 2017 EBITDA guidance. 2017 guidance was worse at the earnings level, where guidance was cut 50% from $3.08 per share to $1.50. The $1.50 earnings per share ("EPS"), however, included the benefit of an accounting change that cut $175 million from operating costs. Factoring that positive accounting change out of the mix, the Company's adjusted EPS guidance was closer to $0.85, a cut of approximately 72%. The Company also eliminated language about being "cash positive" for the year.

The Company's earnings release quoted Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") Mario Longhi ("Longhi") as stating, in part, that "operating challenges at our Flat-Rolled facilities prevented us from benefiting fully from improved market conditions." Longhi also added that U.S. Steel would "not let favorable near-term business conditions distract us from taking the outages we need to revitalize our assets in order to achieve more reliable and consistent operations, improve quality and cost performance, and generate more consistent financial results." He also added that U.S. Steel "made the strategic decision to accelerate [its] efforts to resolve the issues that challenge our ability to achieve sustainable long-term profitability." During a conference call before the market opened on April 26, 2017, Longhi stated that in 2017 the Company would "be taking more downtime at our facilities, which will limit our steel production volumes."

On this news, U.S. Steel's share price fell $8.33, or 26.78%, to close at $22.78 on April 26, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

http://www.pomerantzlaw.com


NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Celadon Group, Inc. ("Celadon" or the "Company") (NYSE: CGI) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-03806, is on behalf of a class consisting of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Celadon securities, seeking to recover compensable damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

If you are a shareholder who purchased Celadon securities between January 27, 2016 and May 1, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until June 19, 2017 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

Celadon, through its subsidiaries, provides long-haul, full-truckload freight service across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Company also provides supply chain management solutions such as warehousing and dedicated fleet services, as well as freight brokerage services.

Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Celadon's equity contribution to its joint venture with Element Financial Corp. was $68.2 million, rather than the $100 million contribution the Company reported in its public filings; (ii) the Company is being actively investigated by the SEC; (iii) Celadon had errors in previously reported consolidated financial statements related to its accounting of transactions involving dispositions and acquisitions of revenue equipment; (iv) in turn, the Company lacked effective internal controls over financial reporting; and (v) as a result of the foregoing, Celadon's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On April 5, 2017, the market research website Seeking Alpha published a detailed report authored by a Prescience Point Research Group, entitled "Celadon Group: A Story That Ends At Chapter 11," which, among other things, alleged that "CGI has used . manipulative accounting practices to hide its insolvent condition from investors and creditors."

On this news, Celadon's share price fell $0.85, or 13.6%, to close at $5.40 on April 5, 2017.

On April 19, 2017, the same prominent market research group published another report entitled "FOIA Requests Reveal CGI as the Subject of an Active SEC Investigation," which reported that the research group was denied information about Celadon sought under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") due to an ongoing SEC investigation.

On this news, Celadon's share price fell $0.20 or 4.55%, to close at $4.20 on April 19, 2017.

On May 1, 2017, post-market, Celadon issued a Current Report filed on Form 8-K in the SEC, stating that "the Company's financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 and quarters ended September 30 and December 31, 2016, and related reports of [Celadon's auditor], should not be relied upon."

On this news, Celadon's share price fell $2.20, or 55%, to close at $1.80 on May 2, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

http://www.pomerantzlaw.com


NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of General Motors Company ("GM" or the "Company") (NYSE: GM). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether GM and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On May 25, 2017, reports emerged that a consumer lawsuit was filed against GM for allegedly installing defeat devices on more than 700,000 Duramax diesel trucks. According to the consumer lawsuit, the Company's Duramax diesel trucks emit between two-to-five times the legal amount of nitrogen-oxide pollutants.

On this news, GM's share price fell $0.60 or 1.81%, to close at $32.60 on May 25, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

http://www.pomerantzlaw.com


About Sherwin-Williams Founded in 1866, The Sherwin-Williams Company is a global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. The company manufactures products under well-known brands such as Sherwin-Williams, HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams, Dutch Boy, Krylon, Minwax, Thompson's Water Seal, and many more. With global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin-Williams branded products are sold exclusively through a chain of more than 4,100 company-operated stores and facilities, while the company's other brands are sold through leading mass merchandisers, home centers, independent paint dealers, hardware stores, automotive retailers, and industrial distributors. The Sherwin-Williams Global Finishes Group distributes a wide range of products in more than 115 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.sherwin.com .

About Valspar

Valspar is a global leader in the coatings industry providing customers with innovative, high-quality products and value-added services. Our 11,000 employees worldwide deliver advanced coatings solutions with best-in-class appearance, performance, protection and sustainability to customers in more than 100 countries. Valspar offers a broad range of superior coatings products for the consumer market, and highly-engineered solutions for the construction, industrial, packaging and transportation markets. Founded in 1806, Valspar is headquartered in Minneapolis. Valspar's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: VAL). For more information, visit www.valspar.com and follow @valspar on Twitter.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This communication contains forward-looking information about Valspar, Sherwin-Williams and the proposed transaction. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "project," "could," "plan," "goal," "potential," "pro forma," "seek," "intend" or "anticipate" or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, and include discussions of strategy, financial projections, guidance and estimates (including their underlying assumptions), statements regarding plans, objectives, expectations or consequences of announced transactions, and statements about the future performance, operations, products and services of Sherwin-Williams, Valspar and their respective subsidiaries. Valspar and Sherwin-Williams caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, actual results and experience may materially differ from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the following: the possibility that the remaining closing conditions to the contemplated transactions may not be satisfied or waived; the occurrence of any event that could give rise to termination of the merger agreement; risks inherent in the achievement of cost synergies and the timing thereof, including whether the transaction will be accretive and within the expected timeframe; fluctuations in the availability and prices of raw materials; difficult global economic and capital markets conditions; risks associated with revenues from foreign markets; interruption, failure or compromise of Sherwin-Williams' or Valspar's information systems; and changes in the legal and regulatory environment. Valspar and Sherwin-Williams make no commitment to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances occurring or existing after the date any forward-looking statement is made.

CONTACTS

For The Sherwin-Williams Company:





Investor Relations Contact: Bob Wells Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Sherwin-Williams (216) 566-2244 [email protected] Media Contacts: Mike Conway Director, Corporate Communications Sherwin-Williams (216) 515-4393 [email protected] Or Sard Verbinnen & Co Jim Barron / Jared Levy / Patrick Scanlan (212) 687-8080



For The Valspar Corporation:





Investor and Media Contact: Bill Seymour Vice President, Investor Relations, Communications and Finance (612) 656-1328 [email protected] Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher Matthew Sherman / Tim Lynch / Joseph Sala (212) 355-4449

SOURCE The Sherwin-Williams Company

Related Links

http://www.sherwin.com


Allan Waters, Sirius Group Chairman, commented, "We are proud to have our long-time business partner IMG join the Sirius family of companies. Over the course of our relationship that has spanned over 20 years, we have witnessed IMG grow and evolve, while consistently delivering innovative products and superior service to its clients. This acquisition is a natural fit within Sirius's specialty insurance segment that further enhances our global Accident & Health offerings and supports our long-term growth strategy."

IMG will be run by President & CEO Brian Barwick, who has been with IMG for 23 years and has worked with Sirius throughout his tenure. "We know Brian and the IMG management team well and are lucky to have such a quality team leading IMG," Waters said.

Barwick commented, "Today we celebrate our long-lasting partnership. As our underwriting partner since 1997, Sirius has worked with IMG on almost all of our international and domestic products. Sirius understands and values the work we do each day, and our passion to 'be there' for our constituents. This transaction was a natural next step for IMG, and we look forward to continuing to work with Sirius long into the future."

Commensurate with the transaction, IMG's subsidiary IMG-Stop LossSM, a managing general underwriter dedicated to medical stop loss insurance products for self-funded employers, has been spun off and acquired by the management team that currently runs this business unit.

"We wish the stop loss team continued success and are very grateful for the contributions that they have made to IMG over the years," Barwick said.

Sirius purchased IMG from private equity investment firm ABRY Partners. A substantial portion of the transaction consideration is in the form of Sirius Preference Shares. These shares are convertible into Sirius common shares. As a result, on a fully converted basis an entity controlled by ABRY would own up to approximately 6 percent of Sirius's common shares following the transaction. Waters commented, "We are pleased to welcome ABRY as a cornerstone owner of Sirius stock. We look forward to working with their talented team to further develop IMG's business."

_____________________________________________

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Sirius is a global (re)insurance company founded in Stockholm in 1945 with its group corporate headquarters in Hamilton, Bermuda. Sirius Group has $2.6 billion of GAAP capital and wrote $1.3 billion of premiums in 2016, $435 million of which related to Accident & Health. Its largest offices are in Stockholm, New York City and London. Additional information is available at Sirius Group's website located at www.siriusgroup.com.

IMG is the second Accident & Health addition to Sirius's specialty insurance platform in as many months. In April, Sirius acquired ArmadaGlobal, a market-leading insurance services and healthcare technology business that creates specialty health and benefit products, delivered with its hallmark world-class service excellence. Click here to learn more.

About IMG

International Medical Group (IMG), an award-winning provider of global insurance benefits and assistance services for more than 25 years, enables our members to worry less and experience more by delivering the protection they need, backed by the support they deserve. IMG offers a full line of international medical insurance products, as well as trip cancellation programs, medical management services and 24/7 emergency medical and travel assistance  all designed to provide members Global Peace of Mind while they're away from home. Learn more at www.imglobal.com.

SOURCE Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.siriusgroup.com


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Soupman, Inc. (OTCQB:"SOUP"), makers of gourmet soup made famous on "Seinfeld", today announced that it has hired Michael Wyse as its Chief Restructuring Officer and Interim Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately. Mike is the Managing Partner of Wyse Advisors LLC, with more than 19 years of experience advising companies and other constituents through stressed, distressed and turnaround situations.

"The Company has immediately filled the functions of the CFO position to manage our business and lead the efforts to explore all strategic funding alternatives. I am confident in Mike to spearhead this process," said Jamieson Karson, CEO.

About Soupman, Inc.

In 1984, The Original Soupman opened its doors at 55th Street & 8th Avenue in Manhattan and quickly became a worldwide destination. Rated #1 by Zagat and praised by the New York Times as "Art, not Soup," it set the standard for innovation and excellence long before the famous "Seinfeld" episode made it a cultural icon. For additional information on our company please visit: www.originalsoupman.com, [email protected] and "Like" us on Facebook.

Safe Harbor Statement:

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections made by management. The Company intends for the forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements. Words such as "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", "believes", "seeks", "estimates" or variations of such words are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, statements regarding the Company's ability to raise the capital it needs to remain in business. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law. The forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements such as our ability to continue to reduce liabilities and expand our product line and distribution, our ability to execute our business strategy and position the Company for future growth, and the risk factors discussed in the Business and Management's Discussion and Analysis sections in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Copies of these filings are available www.originalsoupman.com.

SOURCE Soupman, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.originalsoupman.com


AUSTIN, Texas, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas executives, economic developers and government officials visited Shanghai this week on a business development mission to promote strengthened economic ties between China and the Lone Star State.

Led by Texas Secretary of State Rolando B. Pablos and organized by Texas Economic Development Corporation, in partnership with the Office of Governor Greg Abbott, the trip included a series of meetings, seminars and tours with top companies and government bodies in Shanghai. The delegation also attended the World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment to meet with the 300 global investment decision makers in attendance.

"China is a leading market for Texas, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead our state's delegation to explore opportunities for future collaboration," said Secretary Pablos. "As our second largest import source country and with more than 150 Chinese companies operating in Texas, China is a growing partner in elevating the Lone Star State's continued economic prosperity."

Texas exported $10.8 billion in goods to China in 2016, making the country Texas' third largest export destination. Texas' top export to China is oil and gas, valued at $1.7 billion last year. Over the past 10 years, Texas has established three memorandums of understanding (MOU) with Chinese provinces to further strengthen economic and cultural ties.

"Texas is an ideal location for Chinese investment," said Robert Allen, President and CEO of Texas Economic Development Corporation. "Texas is home to the second largest civilian workforce in the United States and offers a central North American location and world-class infrastructure, which are critical for the 1,400 foreign-owned businesses already operating in the state."

At least 27 Chinese projects have translated into $1.6 billion in direct investments in Texas since 2003. Hisun Motors Corporation, a leading all-terrain vehicle manufacturer, established North American headquarters in McKinney in 2014, creating 80 jobs. Other major Chinese investors include telecommunications giant Huawei, which established its North American headquarters in Plano in 2001, and Tianjin Pipe Corporation (TPCO), which plans to open a state-of-the-art pipe manufacturing facility in Gregory in late 2017.

"Beyond our shared strength in oil and gas, there are vast opportunities in our other growing industries, such as technology and aerospace," said Allen. "We expect our meetings this week to reinforce the value and attractiveness of investing in Texas."

The delegation included representatives from Texas Economic Development Corporation, the Office of Secretary of State Rolando B. Pablos and the Office of Governor Greg Abbott and Abby Liu, Executive Vice President of McKinney Economic Development Corporation. WorldVentures Holdings, based in Plano, and McKinney Economic Development Corporation served as sponsors of the mission.

About Texas Economic Development Corporation

Texas Economic Development Corporation is an independently funded and operated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is dedicated to economic development, business recruitment and job creation in the State of Texas. The public-private partnership coordinates efforts with the Office of the Governor to market Texas globally as a premier business destination. For more information about Texas Economic Development Corporation, visit www.texaswideopenforbusiness.com.

SOURCE Texas Economic Development Corporation

Related Links

https://texaswideopenforbusiness.com


"With new technology we are able to not only provide aerial footage of the community, but a virtual tour of the home and pool area that feels so real it's like being there in person. This technology really gives home buyers a sense of what their vacation life could reflect," said Brad Ballard, Principal of Seagrass Beach. "Our clients can't always escape their busy lives to tour potential properties. This type of innovation allows our team to service our high- end clientele and give a few hours back in their day."

From soaring ceilings and hardwood floors to quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances, 408 Seagrass, the first completed home in the community, exemplifies the attention to detail and posh standards of the community. The home's sights and sounds of the water steal the show and embellish the already grand architecture.

Seagrass Beach was conceived with the idea of bringing luxury homes with high-end amenities and a family oriented environment to the Bolivar Peninsula. The community continues to raise the bar on beachfront living on the Gulf Coast with details that include an elevated beachfront pool with poolside cabanas, expansive communal lawns and a beachside fire pit. With controlled access points and security gates, the exclusivity adds extra privacy for the community and its visitors.

All homes are constructed with extraordinary quality, luxury, and personalized touches to reflect a home buyer's individual lifestyle, and are engineered to meet the IBHS, Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, FORTIFIED Home Gold Level.

"We are designing and constructing each home to not only be beautiful, but to be tough, to give our home buyers the peace of mind from knowing their home was FORTIFIED to be more disaster resilient against Mother Nature," said Ballard. "I tell people our homes are built like YETI ice chests and they get it," said Ballard.

Seagrass Beach will host a community open house on Saturday, June 3 from 1:00- 4:00 p.m. Currently, Seagrass Beach includes a total of 35 homesites with only a limited number of lots still available. Beachfront home sites start at $225,000. Completed beachfront homes start in the mid $500,000s. Pre-construction pricing available for a limited time.

Visit seagrassbeach.com for available homes, home-sites, tour information and much more.

About Seagrass Beach

Seagrass Beach is an exclusive beachfront community located on the Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County, Texas, with 35 beachfront homesites. Seagrass Beach offers expansive Gulf of Mexico views, sprawling common areas and green spaces, a resort-style pool overlooking the beach and other luxury amenities in a family-oriented setting just a short drive from Houston. Seagrass Beach is a development by NewCoast Properties.

This is not an offering where prohibited by law.

SOURCE NewCoast Properties

Related Links

http://www.seagrassbeach.com


"We need affordable, secure, domestic, and clean energy technologies to move people and goods across America. Developing innovative technologies that improve vehicle efficiency and enhance mobility will grow our economy and create jobs," said Acting Assistant Secretary for EERE, Daniel Simmons. "Students in the EcoCAR 3 program are our future technology leaders that will keep the American automotive industry moving forward."

In addition to the coveted trophy and bragging rights, the Buckeyes become this year's best and brightest students in automotive engineering as they unlock solutions to our nation's transportation and energy challenges. The team earned 853.7 out of 1000 overall points while also taking the top spot in multiple categories including, but not limited to Project Management, Vehicle Design Review and Emissions & Energy Consumption.

EcoCAR 3 is the latest Energy Department Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series and challenges 16 North American university teams to redesign a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro by incorporating cutting-edge advanced powertrains as well as emerging connected and automated vehicle technologies that are helping to re-invent the future of mobility. During development and demonstration, teams must also maintain the engineering mastery and expectations of this iconic American car. EcoCAR 3 teams have four years (2014-2018) to harness those ideas into the ultimate energy-efficient, high performance vehicle.

The competition included a week of rigorous safety, technical, drive quality and emissions testing of the team Camaros at GM's Milford Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan. Next, teams had several days of presentations to show judges how they have developed as the next generation of engineers and business leaders who will be better prepared for the auto industry and related careers. Presentations took place in Washington, D.C., with students judged by industry and government officials.

"EcoCAR3 is a great program that fosters future generations of automotive engineers and business people, encouraging them to become true innovators," said Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. "This year's winners  and all the teams  are proof of that. It's a competition that GM is proud to support."

This year, the teams gained hands-on experience by building and refining their advanced technology vehicles, and incorporated an industry-standard multi-year vehicle development process. Teams were able to achieve their goal of presenting a fully integrated vehicle capable of driving in both electric and conventional mode while sustaining a charge.

AVTCs have long provided a real-world training ground that transcends the traditional classroom for college students. Through EcoCAR 3, teams are able to demonstrate emerging automotive technologies to help strengthen American competitiveness.

"Ohio State fully integrated their vehicle with impressive attention to details, and they managed to maintain the legacy of the Camaro while moving it into the future," said Kristen Wahl, director of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition at Argonne National Laboratory. "Innovative thinking and tireless devotion clearly contributed to the team's success."

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Georgia Tech took second and third place respectively. The student teams have now developed and integrated their energy efficient powertrains to maximize performance while retaining the safety and high consumer standards of the Chevrolet Camaro. In the final year of competition, teams will focus on controls refinement and market engagement.

Additional sponsors joining the DOE and GM include: MathWorks; National Science Foundation; California Air Resources Board; NXP; AVL Powertrain Engineering; Robert Bosch, LLC; ETAS; PACCAR; dSPACE, Inc.; Snap-on Tools; Siemens PLM Software; GKN Driveline; Transportation Research Center (TRC, Inc.); DENSO; Champlain Cable Corp.; Woodward; Proterra; Ricardo; Mentor Graphics; New Eagle; tesa tape; Vector CANtech, Inc.; Delphi Foundation; EcoMotors; Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.; A123 Systems; Flextronics; and Samsung SDI.

EcoCAR 3 industry sponsors have provided more than $6.1 million in hardware and cash donations, as well as $911 million in software to the 16 participating universities in the first three years. To learn more about the EcoCAR 3 program, please visit www.ecocar3.org.

About EcoCAR 3

EcoCAR 3 is a four-year collegiate engineering program that builds on the successful 26-year history of Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) by giving engineering students the chance to design and build advanced vehicles that demonstrate leading-edge automotive technologies. General Motors provides each of the 16 competing teams with a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, as well as vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. The DOE and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, provide competition management, team evaluation and logistical support. Through this important public/private partnership, EcoCAR 3 provides invaluable experience and training to promising young minds entering the North American job market.

SOURCE EcoCAR 3

Related Links

http://www.ecocar3.org


(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 68 market data tables and 76 figures spread through 159 pages and in-depth TOC on "Tokenization Market"



http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/tokenization-market-76652221.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The growing technology trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) has introduced many security threats associated with payment and healthcare data theft. As there is a rise in sophisticated cyber threats of critical information, the Tokenization Market is expected to gain traction in the next 5 years.

Payment security application area is expected to play a key role in the Tokenization Market

Payment security in the application area segment is expected to play a key role in changing the Tokenization Market landscape and grow at the highest Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) during the forecast period. Tokenization solution provides real-time payment data security for all the transactions through smartphones, tablets, and laptops, and other devices. Additionally, it helps organizations to comply with PCI DSS and HIPAA regulatory compliances.

Request for PDF Brochure @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=76652221

Cloud-based deployment is expected to be the fastest-growing deployment mode.

In the Tokenization Market, cloud is expected to be the fastest-growing deployment mode, as it benefits organizations with increased scalability, speed, 24/7 services, and enhanced management capabilities. Cloud-based tokenization solutions are available according to customer's demand, wherein customers can start or stop any service, at will.

North America is expected to contribute the largest market share; Asia Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest CAGR

North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the Tokenization Market from 2017 to 2022. The increased payment security challenges, along with meeting strict compliance regulation is driving the organizations in North America to adopt tokenization solutions. APAC offers potential growth opportunities for the Tokenization Market to grow, as countries in this region are investing heavily in deploying the payment security and compliance management solution.

Inquiry before Buying @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=76652221

Major vendors in the Tokenization Market include Hewlett-Packard Enterprises (US), Symantec Corporation (US), Gemalto NV (the Netherlands), Fiserv, Inc. (US), First Data Corporation (US), CardConnect Corp. (US), Thales e-Security (US), 3Delta Systems (US), CipherCloud (US), CyberSource (US), Liaison Technologies (US), Protegrity USA, Inc. (US), Futurex (US), Paymetric, Inc. (US), and TokenEx LLC (US).

Browse Related Reports

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http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/encryption-software-market-227254588.html

Identity & Access Management Market by Component (Provisioning, Directory Services, Password Management, S SO, and Audit, Compliance, and Governance), Organization Size, Deployment Type, Vertical (BFSI, Telecom & IT), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/identity-access-management-iam-market-1168.html

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"I have spent my career in aviation because it combines my love of aircraft, travel and people. Coming on board an airline like WestJet Encore with its huge growth curve, passionate employees and caring culture is a perfect fit with my professional background," said Charles Duncan. "I look forward to moving into the role and supporting this dynamic team in realizing even greater impact across the WestJet network."

In his most recent role at United Airlines, Charles was Senior Vice-President, Technical Operations. While at United, he oversaw the maintenance organization of 12,500 employees, including aircraft line and base maintenance, maintenance planning, reliability, ground service equipment, facilities and supply chain. During his 20-year career in aviation, Charles has held a number of leadership positions, including Vice-President, Chicago O'Hare Hub, where he was responsible for all operational aspects of United's largest hub, including 10,000 total employees, 600 daily flights and 50,000 customers. Charles was also the Vice-President, Europe, Middle East, Africa and India for United Airlines and President and Chief Operating Officer, Continental Micronesia for Continental Airlines.

Charles' first day at WestJet Encore will be June 6, pending immigration approval.

About WestJet

We are proud to be Canada's most trusted airline, powered by an award-winning culture of care and recognized as one of the country's top employers. WestJet, and our regional airline, WestJet Encore, offer scheduled service to more than 100 destinations in North America, Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Through our partnerships with airlines representing every major region of the world, we offer our guests more than 150 destinations in more than 21 countries. Leveraging WestJet's extensive network, flight schedule and remarkable guest experience, WestJet Vacations delivers affordable, flexible travel experiences with a variety of accommodation options for every guest. Members of our WestJet Rewards program earn WestJet dollars on flights, vacation packages and more. Our members use WestJet dollars towards the purchase of WestJet flights and vacations packages on any day, at any time, to any WestJet destination with no blackout periods  even on seat sales. For more information about everything WestJet, please visit westjet.com.

Recent recognition includes:

2017/2016 Canada's Most Trusted Airline (Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria)

2017 Best Airline in Canada and Travellers' Choice Winner Mid-Sized and Low Cost Airlines  North America (TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice awards for Airlines)

2016 Canada's most reputable company for Corporate Social Responsibility (Reputation Institute)

2016/2015/2014/2013/2012 Ranked top three for Canadian Brands (Canadian Business Magazine)

2016/2015/2014/2013 WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard ranked #1 in Canada (MoneySense magazine)

2015/2011/2010/2008/2007/2006/2005 Canada's Most Admired Corporate Culture (Waterstone Human Capital)

2015 Best Employers in Canada (Aon Hewitt)

Connect with WestJet on Facebook at facebook.com/westjet

Follow WestJet on Twitter at twitter.com/westjet

Subscribe to WestJet on YouTube at youtube.com/westjet

Read the WestJet blog at blog.westjet.com

SOURCE WestJet

Related Links

http://www.westjet.com


"Once all parties agree, we'll actually enter a different phase in Bible Prophecy. We are about to see 'peace, true peace' declared in the Middle East, then a serious and sudden change; all of which is shown in Prophecy."

Yisrayl says that the "true peace" that will be declared in the Middle East will be a "false peace." He says Scripture shows it will not bring a true and lasting peace but actually the opposite. He says the world should have their eyes on this process and take careful note, because even though this seems like just a Middle East issue, it will shortly involve the whole world.

"I've gone into great detail concerning this seven-year peace plan in my books written in the 70's, long before the peace plan was signed. It wasn't signed until September 13, 1993, and was shut down after 3 years, as prophesied, leaving 3 years yet to be fulfilled," Yisrayl says.

Yisrayl has provided his writings on this topic for anyone to read at no cost online. He says the easiest way to find it is through the Yisrayl Says program found at www.yisraylsays.com. Yisrayl is determined to shout this message from the rooftops to get people to listen and pay attention, because he says this Prophecy is very soon to be fulfilled and will have lasting effects. Everyone needs to know about them.

To read about this, go to http://yahwehsbranch.com.

About Us

The House of Yahweh, fully recognized in 1983 as a non-profit organization in the United States of America, continues to this present day to fulfill its commissioned work of preaching and publishing the True Message of Salvation.

The House of Yahweh has correctly restored the Heavenly Father's Name and the Savior's True Name in the translation named in Scripture as The Book of Yahweh.

SOURCE The House of Yahweh

Related Links

http://www.yahweh.com


NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ABO Capital announced today that its CEO Zandre Campos was featured in African Leadership Magazine discussing ways to improve education in Africa. The article entitled "Three Ways to Improve Education in Africa" was originally published on African Leadership Magazine on May 23, 2017.

Education is the cornerstone of success and in order for Africa to succeed, the continent needs to invest more time and energy into improving its education system. Child enrollment figures from schools around Africa have been growing, with enrollment in primary schools more than doubling between 1990 and 2012. Making education a priority is critical and Mr. Campos believes the three ways Africa can improve its education system are investing in teachers, prioritizing universities and focusing on student needs.

"With an increase in quality teaching, coupled with a growth in universities and attention to student needs, Africa has the potential to become an education powerhouse," said Mr. Campos. "Investment in Africa's education system is necessary to accommodate the burgeoning enrollment numbers, proving an investment in a child's education is an investment for a brighter future."

Zandre Campos is chairman and CEO of ABO Capital, an international investment firm that invests in companies in the healthcare, energy, transportation, hospitality, technology and real estate sectors throughout Africa. ABO's mission is to create global value for developing countries in Africa, while contributing to their economic development.

Read the full African Leadership Magazine article:

http://africanleadership.co.uk/three-ways-to-improve-education-in-africa/

About ABO Capital

ABO Capital, formerly Angola Capital Investments, is an international investment firm that invests in companies in the healthcare, technology, energy, transportation, hospitality and real estate sectors throughout Africa. The mission of ABO Capital is to create global value for developing countries in Africa, while contributing to their economic development.

About Zandre Campos

Zandre Campos is one of the great, innovative business leaders and global entrepreneurs emerging out of Africa. Currently, he is chairman and CEO of ABO Capital, an international investment firm headquartered in Angola with holdings throughout the Globe. Mr. Campos was named one of the Top 25 African business influencers and was a recipient of the Distinguished Business Excellence Award by African Leadership Magazine. He is frequently quoted as an expert on Africa in the media and is a recurring contributor for The Huffington Post and US News & World Report. He recently addressed both students and professors at the NYU Africa House on the opportunities in Africa.

SOURCE ABO Capital

Related Links

http://www.abocapital.net


BEIJING, May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Zhaopin Limited (NYSE: ZPIN) ("Zhaopin" or the "Company"), a leading career platform[1] in China focused on connecting users with relevant job opportunities throughout their career lifecycle, today released a report on its 2017 career survey of college graduates in China. The report found that college graduates are facing a more challenging labor market, and declining average monthly salary.

China will have a record of 7.95 million graduating students joining the labor force this year. Zhaopin conducted its 2017 survey of college graduates to analyze their employability, based on their perceptions of the labor market, job-hunting efforts and results. About 93,420 college graduates participated in the survey this year, including junior college graduates, undergraduates and graduate students.

Strong overall market

There are signs that the overall labour is showing signs of strengthening in line with overall economy gaining momentum. This has been evidenced by the CIER index compiled by Zhaopin and Renmin University, which tracks the ratio of job vacancies to job seekers in a variety of industries and cities across the country, rose to 1.91 in the first quarter of 2017, from 1.71 during the same period of 2016. The rising index is an indication the labour market had improved with the economy as was reported in April.

But certain challenges exist for graduates

However, not all parts of the labour market are strengthening. The record size of this year's graduating class is posing unique challenges for graduates. With such a large graduating class this year, new job seekers still face a daunting challenge, especially those from less well-known universities outside the top tier. To help address some of these challenges, Zhaopin has developed the National Employability Test to both help graduates and employers identify suitable talents.



Highlights of Zhaopin's 2017 report on college graduates:

About 40.8% of graduates believed the labor market was very challenging this year, up from 36.5% last year.

26.7% of college graduates had signed employment contracts this year, down from 35.4% last year.

The average monthly salary for college graduates declined by 16% this year to RMB4,014 .

. The average monthly salary for male graduates was RMB4,374 , higher than RMB3,624 for female graduates.

, higher than for female graduates. The IT/telecom/electronics/internet sector offered the highest monthly salary of RMB4,867 , followed by RMB4,692 in the financial sector and RMB4,457 for the traffic/transportation/logistics/warehousing sector.

, followed by in the financial sector and for the traffic/transportation/logistics/warehousing sector. For the first time since Zhaopin started the survey in 2014, "opportunities to learn and grow" overtook "good salary and welfare" as the most important factor for college graduates in assessing jobs.

Challenging labor market for college graduates

Zhaopin's survey shows that college graduates are facing a more challenging labor market this year. About 40.8% of graduates believed the market is very challenging this year, up from 36.5% last year. 47% of graduates thought the job market was acceptable, even though difficult.

2017 labor market situation for colleges graduates Difficult and very challenging 40.8% Difficult, but acceptable 47.0% The market was OK 9.4% Not difficult at all 0.8% Not clear 2.0%

Trying to secure a job, 41.3% of graduates submitted 11 to 30 resumes this year, and 11.7% even gave out more than 51 resumes to potential employers.

Resume submission by college graduates More than 51 resumes 11.7% 31 to 50 resumes 12.5% 11 to 30 resumes 41.3% Under 10 resumes 31.5% Did not submit resume 3.0%

It was more difficult to get interview opportunities this year, Zhaopin found. 31.9% of college graduates got 1 to 3 interviews, and 27.1% had 4 to 5 interviews. About 8.3% of graduates did not get any interviews this year, up from 3% last year.

Interviews obtained by college graduates More than 11 interviews 12.0% 6 to 10 interviews 20.7% 4-5 interviews 27.1% 1-3 interviews 31.9% No interview 8.3%

By the end of April this year, 27.7% of college graduates still had not received any job offer, higher than the 24.8% seen last year. Meanwhile, 50.2% of graduates got 1 to 3 job offers, lower than the 55.4% last year.

Job offers for college graduates No offer 27.7% 1 offer 15.5% 2 offers 18.9% 3 offers 15.8% 4 offers 9.1% 5 offers 6.0% 6 offers 4.9% 7 or more offers 2.0%

About 26.7% of college graduates had signed employment contracts this year, down from 35.4% last year. 29.5% of male graduates and 24.7% of female graduates signed contracts this year.

Employment contracts for college graduates Signed contract 26.7% Did not sign contract yet 73.3%

For graduates who had job offers but declined to sign contracts, the top reasons were "salary/welfare did not meet expectation" (35.5%), "did not like position/work" (32.4%), and "not satisfied with work location" (27.7%).

Reasons for not accepting job offers Salary/welfare did not meet expectation 35.5% Did not like position/work 32.4% Not satisfied with work location 27.7% Waiting for better offers 22.2% Poor outlook for career development 21.2% Work environment did not meet expectation 19.6% Poor industry outlook 11.1% Choosing among multiple offers 10.1% Company reputation did not meet expectation 6.7% Ready to sign contract 6.4% Start-up company with high risk 5.7%

Declining monthly salary

Both the expected and actual monthly salary for college graduates declined this year, Zhaopin survey found. The average expected monthly salary was RMB4,875 this year, a drop of RMB110 from last year. The average actual monthly salary for college graduates declined by RMB751 to reach RMB4,014 this year.

Average monthly salary for college graduates (RMB)

Expected Actual 2014 4,357 3,945 2015 5,265 4,793 2016 4,985 4,765 2017 4,875 4,014

The average actual monthly salary for male graduates was RMB4,374, higher than RMB3,624 for female graduates. The IT/telecom/electronics/internet sector offered the highest monthly salary of RMB4,867, followed by RMB4,692 from the financial sector and RMB4,457 from the traffic/transportation/logistics/warehousing sector.

Sectors with highest average monthly salaries for college graduates (RMB) IT/telecom/electronics/internet 4,867 Financial 4,692 traffic/transportation/logistics/warehousing 4,457

Among graduates who already signed employment contracts, 33.5% choose to work in first-tier cities and 33.1% would go to emerging first-tier cities. Emerging first-tier cities were actually more attractive to college graduates as 37.5% of them desired to find jobs there.

Cities selected by college graduates

Preferred Actual First-tier cities 29.9% 33.5% Emerging first-tier cities 37.5% 33.1% Second-tier cities 21.3% 19.0% Third-tier cities and below 11.3% 14.4%

The IT/telecom/electronics/internet sector was the most attractive sector with 19.4% of college graduates preferred to work in this field and 20.3% actually found related jobs.

Sectors selected by college graduates

Preferred Actual IT/telecom/electronics/internet 19.4% 20.3% Culture/media/entertainment/sports 9.6% 3.3% Financial 9.3% 7.8% Professional service (consulting/finance and accounting/legal/AD/PR/authentication/outsourcing) 9.1% 5.6% Real estate/construction 8.0% 11.2% Service(healthcare/nursing/beauty/hotel/restaurant/ travel/vacation) 6.9% 8.6% Automobile/manufacturing/processing 6.7% 15.3% Trade/wholesale/retail/leasing/FMCG/durable

consumer goods 6.2% 7.5% Education/arts and crafts 5.7% 4.3% Government/non-profit organization 5.0% 0.7% Energy/mineral/environmental protection 3.4% 3.6% Traffic/transportation/logistics/warehousing 2.9% 4.2% Farming/forestry/animal husbandry/fishery 0.9% 1.2% Others 7.0% 6.5%

Changing attitude

As to future plans after graduation, about 73.5% of graduates would find a job. Students planning for further education in China dropped sharply to 6.3% this year, from 16.5% last year. Students planning for further education overseas also declined to 3.4% this year, from 4.8% last year. Nearly 10% of graduates said they don't intend to take a job after graduation. They would like to take some time off to travel, do volunteer work, or spend time with parents.

Intentions after graduation Looking for a job 73.5% Further education in China 6.3% Further education overseas 3.4% Start own business 6.3% Taking some time off 9.8% Others 0.7%

What is the ideal job for college graduates? About 55.9% of graduates preferred jobs with "opportunities to learn and grow", while 52.2% chose "good salary and welfare". It was the first time since Zhaopin started the survey in 2014 that "opportunities to learn and grow" had overtaken "good salary and welfare" as the most important factor for college graduate to assess a job.

Ideal job for college graduates Opportunities to learn and grow 55.9% Good salary and welfare 52.2% Growth potential of industry/company 34.9% Harmonious company environment 25.2% Fit with personal interests 22.8% Room to perform with abilities 20.5% Suitable position 19.1% Clear career development path 17.8% Balance of work and life 16.2% Freedom in workstyle 13.5% Others 0.3%

College graduates were more rational with overtime. They would work overtime when necessary to complete urgent projects, finish their own work, or improve their skills. About 40.3% of graduates would accept 2 to 5 hours of overtime a week, and 23.1% could work overtime 5 to 8 hours a week.

Acceptable overtime for college graduates Within 2 hours a week 24.5% 2 to 5 hours a week 40.3% 5 to 8 hours a week 23.1% 8 to 10 hours a week 8.6% No overtime 3.5%

About Zhaopin Limited

Zhaopin is a leading career platform in China, focusing on connecting users with relevant job opportunities throughout their career lifecycle. The Company's zhaopin.com website is the most popular career platform in China as measured by average daily unique visitors in each of the 12 months ended March 31, 2017, number of registered users as of March 31, 2017 and number of unique customers[2] for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The Company's over 135.0 million registered users include diverse and educated job seekers who are at various stages of their careers and are in demand by employers as a result of the general shortage of skilled and educated workers in China. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, approximately 36.9 million job postings[3] were placed on Zhaopin's platform by 509,813 unique customers including multinational corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises and state-owned entities. The quality and quantity of Zhaopin's users and the resumes in the Company's database attract an increasing number of customers. This in turn leads to more users turning to Zhaopin as their primary recruitment and career- related services provider, creating strong network effects and significant entry barriers for potential competitors. For more information, please visit http://www.zhaopin.com.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Zhaopin may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Zhaopin's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: Zhaopin's goals and strategies; its future business development, financial condition and results of operations; its ability to retain and grow its user and customer base for its online career platform; the growth of, and trends in, the markets for its services in China; the demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; competition in its industry in China; its ability to maintain the network infrastructure necessary to operate its website and mobile applications; relevant government policies and regulations relating to the corporate structure, business and industry; and its ability to protect its users' information and adequately address privacy concerns. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Zhaopin does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

[1] Zhaopin's website is the most popular career platform in China as measured by average daily unique visitors in each of the 12 months ended March 31, 2017, the number of registered users as of March 31, 2017 and the number of unique customers for the three months ended March 31, 2017. [2] A "unique customer" refers to a customer that purchases the Company's online recruitment services during a specified period. Zhaopin makes adjustments for multiple purchases by the same customer to avoid double counting. Each customer is assigned a unique identification number in the Company's information management system. Affiliates and branches of a given customer may, under certain circumstances, be counted as separate unique customers." [3] Zhaopin calculates the number of job postings by counting the number of newly placed job postings during each respective period. Job postings that were placed prior to a specified period - even if available during such period - are not counted as job postings for such period. Any particular job posting placed on the Company's website may include more than one job opening or position.

For more information, please contact:

Zhaopin Limited

Ms. Daisy Wang

Investor Relations

[email protected]

ICR Beijing

Mr. Edmond Lococo

Phone: +86 10 6583-7510

[email protected]



SOURCE Zhaopin Limited
NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at Zoompass Holdings, Inc. ("Zoompass" or the "Company") (OTC:ZPAS).

The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by engaging in a potentially illegal stock promoting scheme. Specifically, on May 25, 2017, an article published on Seeking Alpha made reference to a Company's press release published on May 9, 2017, to allege that the Company is currently engaging in a pump-and-dump scheme. The Seeking Alpha article claims that the Company's stock price increased exponentially for no apparent reason until May 9, 2017 during which Company allegedly paid $2 million Sargon Finance SA in order to promote the stock.

On this news, Zoompass's share price fell from $3.64 per share on May 9, 2017 to a closing price of $1.97 on May 12, 2017a $1.67 or a 45.9% drop.

If you invested in Zoompass stock or options and would like to discuss your legal rights, click here : www.faruqilaw.com/ZPAS. There is no cost or obligation to you.

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Seoul, May 22 : South Korean President Moon Jae-in's first approval rating since his inauguration earlier this month topped 80 per cent, a local poll showed on Monday.

According to a Realmeter survey, Moon gained 81.6 per cent in support scores. Negative assessment on him was 10.1 per cent, while 8.3 per cent refrained from replying, Xinhua news agency reported.

It was based on a poll of 2,526 voters conducted from Monday to Friday last week. It had 1.9 percentage points in a margin of error, with a 95 per cent confidence level.

Moon's approval scores were much higher than his predecessor Park Geun-hye's 54.8 per cent. Park's predecessor Lee Myung-bak logged 76 per cent in the first survey results.

Support for Moon surpassed 90 per cent in the country's southwest region, a traditional home turf for the ruling Democratic Party.

The support rate exceeded in all regions across the country, including the southeast region, a political home turf for conservative politicians.

Moon's Democratic Party posted 53.3 per cent in support scores last week, up 8.6 percentage points from a week earlier. The rate kept rising for the third consecutive week.

Four major opposition parties saw a fall in approval ratings. Support for the main opposition Liberty Korea Party fell 0.6 percentage points to 12.4 per cent.

It was followed by the centrist People's Party, whose support rating shed 1.1 percentage points to 7.7 per cent.

Support for the minor conservative Righteous Party dipped 1.5 percentage points to 6.8 per cent.

The minor progressive Justice Party saw its support tumble 3 percentage points to 6.6 per cent as support for the party moved to the ruling Democratic Party.
Kabul, May 23 : At least 11 soldiers were killed and nine wounded when Taliban militants attacked a military base in Afghanistan's Kandhar province.

The attack took place in Shah Wali Kot district base on Monday night, Khaama Press quoted a military official as saying.

The attack comes after six policemen were killed in by Taliban insurgent in Helmand province on Sunday, officials said on Tuesday.
New Delhi, May 23 : The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday said it has arrested the chartered accountant of RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti in connection with an alleged money laundering case, an official said.

An ED official told IANS that chartered accountant Rajesh Agrawal was arrested on Monday from Delhi for his involvement in money laundering and the black money racket.

Agrawal was accused of converting black money into legal source of income through dubious transactions with the help of Surendra Kumar Jain and his brother Virendra Jain -- known as Jain brothers. The ED arrested the Jain brothers on March 20.

At least 90 shell firms are under the ED scanner.

Agrawal has also been accused of helping Bharti's husband's company, Mishail Packers and Printers Pvt Ltd. "with some transactions".

The arrest follows the May 16 Income Tax Department raids at 22 places in and around Delhi in connection with alleged "benami" property deals involving Lalu Prasad and his children -- Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav and Misa Bharti, who is also a Rajya Sabha member.

The ED official said that Agrawal was dealing as a mediator between persons possessing illegal money and Jain brothers, owners of Jagat Projects Ltd, who are accused of 'benami' (proxy) transactions involving over Rs 200 crore through shell companies.

The agency registered a case on February 11 following a criminal complaint filed by the Serious Fraud investigating Office (SFIO) in Delhi's Tis Hazari courts against the Jain brothers, Jagat Project Pvt. Ltd., Agrawal and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery and under the provisions of the Companies Act.

The ED investigation has revealed that Jain brothers, through Jagat Project Pvt Ltd, had converted their unaccounted Rs 64.70 crore into apparently legitimate transactions by way of share subscription by various shell companies, an official said.

Of this, Rs 62.20 crore of unaccounted money was laundered through 26 shell companies controlled by the brothers, another ED official said.

In lieu of accommodation entry for Rs 62.20 crore, Jain brothers received a consideration of Rs 1.12 crore through Agrawal, he said.

"The properties worth consideration amount of approximately Rs 1.12 crore of Jain brothers were attached last week under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act."

The modus operandi of Jain brothers was to launder the unaccounted money through the process of placement of funds, layering of transactions and the final integration of laundered money into the banking channel camouflaged as legitimate share premium transactions, the official said.

"Funds were brought in by the mediators on behalf of the beneficiaries."

Jain brothers were providing accommodation entries by accepting funds through these mediators and converting the same into share premium transactions in the beneficiary company for a certain percentage of the unaccounted money converted into share premium, he said.

"Jain brothers had been maintaining ledger accounts in the name of Agrawal. The running account of Agrawal in the cash books of Jain brothers clearly establishes the close link between the inflow of funds into the cash books and outflow of the same in the form of so-called investments by way of share subscription."

The official said, "Thus, the so-called investment in shares of companies with no real business is nothing but accommodation entry given in lieu of cash received from the beneficiaries through Agrawal, who has transacted in this manner for over Rs 39.21 crore in financial year 2009-10 alone."
Chandigarh, May 23 : After supporting Army Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi for tying a man on a jeep bonnet in Kashmir to "avoid civilian casualties", Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday welcomed the Army decision to honour the officer.

The Commendation Card for Major Gogoi of 53 Rashtriya Rifles by Army chief General Bipin Rawat was given for "sustained efforts" in counter-insurgency operations, Army officials said on Monday.

Amarinder Singh, a former Army Captain, dubbed the move as "upholding the highest traditions of the Army, which has always rewarded bravery and recognised initiative".

The Chief Minister lashed out at those demanding action against the Major, saying "they clearly had no inkling of the way the Army works and the traditions which continue to make it a unique institution rooted in a distinctive culture of valour and courage".

A video clipping of the Kashmiri man -- later identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar -- tied to a moving Army jeep in Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir had gone viral on April 9, creating an uproar.

On April 15, the Army ordered a Court of Inquiry, the report of which is pending.

Amarinder Singh said the officer exemplified a high level of presence of mind and daring -- two attributes of a good Army officer.

The Chief Minister, the first political leader to call for an award for the Major, said it was good that the Army stood by the young officer despite criticism from certain quarters.

"You cannot let the Army deal with such stone-pelting mobs with one hand tied behind their backs," Amarinder Singh said, adding he would have done the same had he been in Major Gogoi's place.

Amarinder Singh served in the Army in the 1960s.

He said it is important to send out a strong signal in the Major's support to show that the Army is neither weak nor our officers the underdogs.

"Human rights cannot be allowed to be used as a shield for lawlessness," the senior Congress leader said.

He said the Army cannot be expected to negotiate peace without first getting an upper hand against terrorists and other elements bent upon disrupting India's stability.

"In any case, don't human rights apply to security forces who risk lives every day for the protection and safety of the common people?" he questioned.

The Chief Minister said to ensure peace and stability in Kashmir, and on the borders, it is necessary to give the Army a free hand.
Nashik (Maharashtra), May 23 : In a first in Maharashtra elections, drones will be deployed as the eye in the sky to monitor the Malegaon Municipal Corporation elections on Wednesday, a top official said here.

Police Commissioner Rakesh Ola said that the police have hired four private drones to cover important and congested areas in the city with a population of around 700,000 on polling day on Wednesday.

"In Malegaon, there are some areas which are very congested with extremely narrow bylanes which can be effectively monitored by drones. In case of any situation, the control centre can immediately rush additional security forces there," Ola told IANS.

Successive trials of the drones were carried out at different locations on Tuesday, he added.

A State Election Commission (SEC) official said that maintaining law and order to ensure peaceful elections is the responsibility of the local agencies and they are authorised to take any suitable measures for this.

Malegaon, a Muslim-dominated city in Nashik district, around 280 km north-east of Mumbai, was rocked by two terror attacks in 2006 and 2008 and is listed among the 'sensitive' cities in the state.

Muslims comprise over 75 per cent of Malegaon's population and elections are to be held for 83 of the 84 wards. One Congress candidate has been declared elected unopposed.

Besides Malegaon in Nashik, Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation in Thane district and Panvel City Municipal Corporation in Raigad district also go to polls on Wednesday, said a State EC spokesperson.

A total of 1,251 candidates are in the fray in the three civic bodies for 252 seats to be elected by nearly 1.30 million voters.

While Malegaon is currently controlled by the Nationalist Congress Party-AIMIM, the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation is ruled by a Congress-led alliance.

This is the first election to Panvel's Municipal Corporation after it was formed in October 2016.

All the poll results are to be declared on May 26, the state EC spokesperson said.
Bengaluru, May 23 : True religion never divided a society on caste basis but denying social justice to the deprived was due to the feudal system, said Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Tuesday.

"A religion does not divide society into upper and lower castes. Religion has nothing to do with it (division). Denying social justice on caste basis is from Aour feudal system," he said at a seminar on B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution.

Admitting that social justice was being denied on caste basis due to the feudal system that still existed in society, he said caste-related injustice could be removed through education.

"Inferiority complex among sections of society can be eradicated only through education. A sense of equality facilitates self-confidence. Equality can be achieved through self-confidence and hard work," he reiterated.

The Dalai Lama also called for efforts to revive ancient Indian values and knowledge as they were more relevant to modern times.

"Ancient values and knowledge side by side with modern science are useful to society," he asserted.

Noting that Buddhism, like other religions, had different philosophies originating from various schools of thought, he said wonderful people conveyed a common message of love and compassion though they come from diverse faiths.

"Any activity that brings happiness is a positive karma and that which makes uncomfortable is a negative karma," he added.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge were present on the occasion.

The seminar on "Ambedkar Jnana Darshana Abhiyana on Eradication of Caste System and Counter Revolution" was organised by the Karnataka Social Justice Department to commemorate Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary.
Orlando (Florida), May 24 : While rumours of Microsoft eyeing the cloud and desktop virtualisation leader Citrix for acquisition are dotting the tech landscape for quite some time, for Satya Nadella, the two companies are focused on enabling customers digitally transform while providing cyber security and compliance.

Microsoft and Citrix have partnered for over 25 years on remote desktop devices and have nearly 230,000 joint customers and millions of users that rely on their joint solutions.

"Our mission is to empower every person, every organisation on this planet. The core of the mission is fostering strong partnerships with leading organisations like Citrix," the Indian-born Microsoft CEO told the gathering via video link at the 'Citrix Synergy 2017' event here.

"The customers are already witnessing the benefits of our partnership and the rapid adoption of the purpose-built Citrix Cloud services on Azure has seen more than 500 deployments from Azure marketplace in just couple of months," Nadella said as Citrix President and CEO Kirill Tatarinov took the stage.

According to industry experts, the long Microsoft-Citrix association makes for a perfect bond though Citrix has denied any such move.

"We are not up for sale. We are growing and look forward to infuse AI, analytics and machine learning into our Cloud offerings. You will see more announcements on this from us in months to come," Tatarinov later told reporters during an interaction.

Citrix has accelerated innovation in the Cloud, with the introduction of new services like XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials that are native to Microsoft Azure but managed from Citrix Cloud.

Citrix announced additional Cloud services at the event, including XenMobile device management and app management and NetScaler Gateway Service, allowing customers to create a gateway-in-the-cloud, speeding and simplifying implementation.

In addition, Citrix Cloud now offers integration with Azure Active Directory for administrators, internet of things (IoT) capabilities and other new services in the labs area.

"We are excited to work closely with Citrix to help organisations easily deploy Windows 10 with familiar productive experience," Nadella told the gathering.

According to market research firm Gartner, organisations currently using Cloud services indicate they are allocating 40 per cent of their IT budget to cloud-related spending (including cloud-related services).

Seventy-eight per cent of these organisations plan to increase their spending on cloud through 2017.

Citrix Cloud continues to provide the cloud-based management plane across all Citrix technologies, integrating them with a simple, consistent administrative experience.

Because Citrix Cloud is designed to manage multi-cloud environments, customers who use it for virtual apps, desktops and data can place their workloads on any public or hybrid cloud, or on any on-premises virtualised environment.

For Swedish engineering and consulting company AF, Citrix is creating secure digital workspaces through its Cloud.

"By adopting a Citrix Cloud solution running workloads on Microsoft Azure, we have created a new way of working at AF. This solution gives us the agility we need to respond to various business needs," said Mattias Jadeskold, innovation team leader, AF.

The firm recently revealed how it uses gaming engine and virtual reality software to create 3D, walk-through visualisations for clients on building and infrastructure projects.

"The bigger question is how to harness the technology to drive business outcomes. The rapid pace of innovation like cloud computing, artificial intelligence and advanaced analytics present the most exciting opportunity for businesses of all sizes," Nadella noted.

(Nishant Arora is attending the event at the invitation of Citrix. He can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
New Delhi, May 24 : President Pranab Mukherjee, in a written message to British Monarch Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday conveyed his condolences over the terror attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, an official said.

Expressing shock and condemning the attack, President Mukherjee said: "We stand in solidarity with the people and the Government of the United Kingdom in this difficult hour."

"This is not an attack just against the UK and its people; it is an attack against the humanity and the values that we all live for."

Calling the attack "a grim reminder" for a need to "intensify the global fight against terrorism", Mukherjee said: "India is fully committed to working with the UK and the international community in defeating these evil forces."

Police named 22-year-old Salman Abedi as the suspected bomber behind the attack at Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert that also injured 59 persons on Monday night.

The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the second assault in Manchester in the last 20 years.
Kathmandu, May 24 : Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' on Wednesday announced his resignation, in keeping with his agreement with the Nepali Congress, which had propped up his coalition government since last August.

Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, who has also been the Prime Minister earlier, is likely to succeed him.

Prachanda, who made the announcement of his resignation in a televised address to the nation from his office, said it would end "a long drought of trust in Nepali politics".

There were several examples in Nepal's politics that leaders made commitments but never honoured them, he said.

"But today I am going to set an example and as per the accord reached with Nepali Congress, I am going to announce my resignation," he said.

Prachanda had earlier decided to announce his resignation in Parliament but changed his mind after the main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified-Marxist-Leninist obstructed the house proceeding on Tuesday against the government decision to increase local units in various Tarai/Madhes districts. That would bring the Madhes-based parties in the local polls scheduled to take place in June 14.

After approving the resignation, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari will call on political parties to form a new government on the basis of two-thirds majority as per the constitutional process. If parties fail to garner two-thirds votes, the President will call for formation of the new government on the basis of majority votes.

It is likely that Deuba will contest for the Prime Minister's post on the basis of majority votes on the support of Prachanda's Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre and take over probably by the end of next week.

He is likely to hold the second round of local polls on June 14 and will stay in power in February until periodic elections take place.

The agreement between Prachanda and Deuba was to run the government on a rotational basis until the next parliamentary elections in February 2018. Prachanda was to hold office till local polls are held and remaining two elections -- provincial and central -- were to be conducted under Deuba.

In his address, Prachanda said he was leaving as a "successful Prime Minister", highlighting the achievements of his government in ten months in office. The achievements included balancing ties with India and China, ending years' long power outrage and some good beginning in the fields of economy, health, infrastructure, education and, most importantly, holding the local elections which was considered challenging and crucial.

In his second stint in power, Prachanda was elected the 39th Prime Minister after forging alliance with the Nepali Congress on August 3, 2016.

He had become Prime Minister for the first time in August 2008 after his party emerged as the largest political party from the Constituent Assembly elections in the same year.

After then President Ram Baran Yadav turned down the Cabinet decision to remove the then army chief Rookmangud Katawal and ordered Katawal to remain in the office, Dahal had resigned on May 4, 2009.

Nepal held the first phase of local elections on May 14 in three provinces, mostly in hills, where the CPN-UML is reported to be ahead.

The second phase is to be held in four provinces, mostly in the plains known as Tarai or Madhes, where the number of local bodies is almost twice as those that went to polls in the first phase.
Orlando (Florida), May 25 : As desktop virtualisation leader Citrix moves aggressively into the domain of enterprise mobility, Cloud and data analytics, the company is set to hire and invest more in India at a time when the country aims to digitally transform workplaces in a secure way.

With a 5,000-strong customer base in the country, Citrix has been in India for the past 15-20 years, but the real journey for the company started five-seven years ago when enterprises started adopting Cloud and real-time data analytics.

"We are bullish on India and looking forward to cement our position in an ever-growing market. The country is fast embracing technology. At the same time, the speed at which our Indian customers are implementing Citrix solutions is growing exponentially," Stanimira Koleva, Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), Citrix, told IANS.

"I am surprised the way the country is transforming digitally -- slowly but steadily at both the government and enterprise levels. Our discussions are now revolved around India in an entirely different way," added Koleva, who has 25 years of industry experience across the globe and within the APJ region.

Citrix has built teams tasked to deal with the governments across the APJ region.

"We are looking at building strong partnerships with top system integrators in India who are already serving large government enterprises. For me, it is important to ensure that my service partners have latest, secure Cloud-enabled technology in place to serve the government sector," Koleva emphasised.

For her, adoption of latest technology is on an upward trajectory in India. "We have leapfrogged into a new business model and are now pursuing partnerships with local vendors to deliver secure products to our customers in the country," Koleva told IANS on the sidelines of 'Citrix Synergy 2017' event being held at the Orange County Convention Center here.

The company has a full-fledged research and development centre in Bengaluru.

"We are set to hire more people along with more investments in India at a time when a lot of global patents are originating from the R&D centre there," Parag Arora, Citrix's Area Vice President and Country Head, India Subcontinent, told IANS.

Arora sees four key trends that India is fast embracing -- Cloud, mobility, Internet of Thing (IoT) and data analytics.

The public Cloud services market in India is projected to grow 38 percent in 2017 to $1.81 billion, according to the market research firm Gartner.

The highest growth will continue to be driven by Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) which is projected to grow at 49.2 percent in 2017, followed by 33 percent in Software as a Service (SaaS) and 32.1 percent in Platform as a Service (PaaS).

According to a recent Nasscom and Deloitte research report, the cloud market in India could be worth as much as $16 billion by 2020.

Sensing the opportunity, Citrix has accelerated innovation in Cloud with the introduction of new services like XenApp Essentials and XenDesktop Essentials that are native to Microsoft Azure but managed from Citrix Cloud.

In addition, Citrix Cloud now offers integration with Azure Active Directory for administrators, IoT capabilities and other new services in the labs area.

The company offers XenDesktop, XenMobile, XenApps, NetScaler and now SD-WAN -- a new cost-effective solution that allows aggregation of different bandwidth, applications and networks.

"The industries we are chasing are banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and telecom. IT services is another big area for us. We are already working with CIOs and employees at large software firms like Infosys and Wipro to help build secure platforms for their customers," Arora informed.

Citrix is Secure by Design (SbD) so when banks deploy its solutions, security comes inbuilt.

"The whole IT landscape is changing. There has been a new level of awareness among the customers that security is by design and not something that comes into force after they face malware issues," Arora said.

Aiming to make governments and enterprises more secure in the wake of the recent global 'WannaCrypt" ransomware attack, Citrix this week announced a new secure digital workspace product, new-age Cloud services and Citrix Analytics.

Another key area for Citrix in India is health care. The company is working with some of the top hospitals to help patients' data move seamlessly and in a secure way.

"Data is critical for the health care sector and Citrix, with its diverse product portfolio, can become a trusted ally," Arora said.

According to Koleva, Countries in the APJ region have their own ways to deal with data privacy, protection and loss. "This is where Citrix fits in. We can not only prepare a strong base but also upgrade it to a level where governments will have more control over their data," she noted.

(Nishant Arora is attending 'Synergy 2017' at the invitation of Citrix. He can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
Noida, May 25 : Armed miscreants looted a family, killed one of its members and molested women near Jewar in Uttar Pradesh early on Thursday morning, police said.

The incident occurred some 60 km from here on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway around 1.30 a.m. when eight members, including four women, of a Greater Noida-based family was headed to Bulandshahr to visit an ailing relative in a hospital there.

The victims said five miscreant forced them to stop the car by shooting at its tyres. They then molested and attempted to rape the women present.

On resisting, the attackers shot Shakeel Qureshi, who died. The victims were also looted of their valuables and cash.

"We are hunting down the criminals. No one has been arrested so far. The statements of the family members have been recorded," a senior police official told IANS.

According to the senior officials of Uttar Pradesh Police, the incident occurred on the highway, about two kilometres from Jewar towards Bulandshahr.

Several such crimes, including murders and gangrapes, have been reported in the past on the same route and the specific location around Jewar in Gautam Buddh Nagar district, and around Bulandshahr.
Berlin, May 25 : Former US President Barack Obama, in a first speaking event in Europe since leaving the White House in January, received an exuberant welcome in the German capital on Thursday as he took part in a public debate with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama made a plea for international engagement as he told an audience of tens of thousands in Berlin that "we can't hide behind a wall".

"In this new world we live in, we can't isolate ourselves. We can't hide behind a wall," Obama said, sitting on stage next to Merkel in front of the Brandenburg Gate at an event that's part of "Kirchentag", a multi-day meeting sponsored by the Protestant church in Germany.

Security was tight, with police helicopters patrolling the skies and snipers with balaclavas watching the scene from rooftops, Politico reported.

Obama praised Merkel as someone who had done "outstanding work", and defended his own presidency and the values of liberal democracy that both he and the German leader championed.

Obama made the comments as his successor Donald Trump, in Brussels for his first NATO leaders summit, was meeting with European Council leaders Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker.

Obama addressed a rapt crowd of Germans lining the streets from blocks away, some holding signs like, "Welcome Home", "You're Looking Great", and "Du Bist Ein Berliner" (You are a Berliner).

The former US leader attended the event at Merkel's invitation -- there's no foreign leader that he was closer with during his time in the White House -- and she's hoping for a boost from his still sky-high popularity in Germany in her own re-election campaign in the fall.

Obama warned against leaders who don't question themselves.

"If I become so convinced that 'I'm always right'," Obama said, "the logical conclusion of that often ends up being great cruelty and great violence."

Merkel had breakfast with Obama in Berlin before the event, and she was set to fly to Brussels later Thursday to have dinner with Trump.
Washington, May 26 : The US military blamed the Islamic State (IS) group for the death of more than 100 civilians in Iraq's northern city of Mosul in a March airstrike by coalition forces.

The airstrike on March 17 against two IS snipers ignited a large amount of explosive material the group had placed in the structure, where 101 civilians were sheltered, the US Defense Department said in a statement on Thursday.

Neither Coalition nor Iraqi forces knew that civilians were sheltered within the structure, the statement said, adding that an additional 36 civilians who were reported to be connected to the structure remain unaccounted for, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Our condolences go out to all those that were affected," said US Major General Joe Martin, the commanding general of coalition forces.

"The Coalition takes every feasible measure to protect civilians from harm. The best way to protect civilians is to defeat ISIS," the general said, using an alternate acronym for the group.

The US Defense Department said in April that at least 352 civilians were killed as a result of US-led campaign against the IS in Iraq and Syria from August 2014 to March 2017. The figure is lower than the estimation of monitoring groups.
Washington, May 26 : The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has refused Congress' request to turn over the memos that sacked Director James Comey wrote in which he detailed his interactions with President Donald Trump.

Both the House Oversight Committee and the Intelligence Committee requested the memos in early May after The New York Times reported that Comey noted in one of them that Trump had asked him to end the investigation into the links his former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, had had with Russia.

In a letter to Republican committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, the FBI's assistant director for congressional affairs, Gregory Brower, on Thursday said the agency cannot turn over the memo until it consults with Robert Mueller, the newly appointed special counsel heading the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, Efe news reported.

After Mueller's appointment "and other considerations" the FBI is conducting "appropriate consultations" to ensure that "all relevant interests implicated by your request are properly evaluated", Brower said.

The FBI official added, though, that the bureau will update the committee "as soon as possible".

In response to the letter, Chaffetz on Thursday repeated the committee's demand to be provided with the memos by June 8.

"Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the special counsel's investigation," Chaffetz said.

"I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decision - to produce these documents to the committee immediately and on a voluntary basis," he added.

Congress, simultaneously with different federal agencies, is conducting several investigations to determine possible coordination between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin to interfere in the presidential election to hurt the chances of Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this week, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan told Congress that Russia "brazenly" interfered in the US election process.

He confirmed that Russian officials made contact with Trump's team, although he said he was unable to confirm if - in the final analysis - there had been collusion between them with an eye toward ensuring Clinton's defeat.
Dibrugarh, May 26 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday arrived here in Assam. He will inaugurate the longest river bridge in India.

Modi, who is on a day-long visit to the state, was received by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Governor Banwarilal Purohit and several other dignitaries at the airport here.

Modi left for Dhola, soon after his arrival, to inaugurate the Dhola-Sadiya bridge.
Kolkata, May 26 : Amateur radio, quintessentially a geeky hobby, has come to the rescue of a 35-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu who had puzzled doctors at a West Bengal hospital for four years for her inability to recall a shred of information about her life.

In a few days, Visalakshi is all set to be united with her family here, over 1,500 km away from her native Krishnapuram village in Tamil Nadu, thanks to a network of Ham radio operators -- or Hams -- spanning the two states.

It was four years ago that she was brought in by locals to the Barasat District Hospital in North 24-Parganas district (about 30 km from state capital Kolkata) after they spotted her wandering about in the area.

"She was unable to recall anything initially. She has been with us for four years and is under treatment as a psychiatry patient. We even arranged a translator as she was unable to communicate with us in Hindi or English. We tried to contact the local police in Tamil Nadu but couldn't make much progress," the hospital's Superintendent Subrata Mondal told IANS.

But, as her memory improved, Visalakshi began to plead with Mondal to contact her family.

"Once her condition improved and she seemed to recollect pieces of information, we decided to try out Ham," Mondal said, especially as the police seemed of little help.

"We approached West Bengal Radio Club (Amateur Club) and provided a video recording of Visalakshi talking about herself," Mondal said.

Led by Ambarish Nag Biswas of the club, a team of around nine Hams hooked up with some of their counterparts in Tamil Nadu.

Through EchoLink, a software that allows licensed amateur radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using streaming-audio technology, the Hams exchanged information.

"One of our licensed Hams, T. Gopinath, a research scholar, helped translate and interpret Visalakshi's data. There is a very popular app called EchoLink through which Hams in India contact each other around 9.15 pm each night. During our chat, the first update is about any medical or traffic emergency. We conveyed to the Chennai Hams about the woman's plight," said Biswas.

What followed sounds like something out of a sci-fi thriller. Only it was real.

P. Kalyanasundaram, a Ham operator as well as professor of electronics and communication engineering in Erode's Nandha Engineering College, picked up the emergency transmission and swung into action, alerting other Hams across the state.

"It was a mix of ham radio and mobile communication and finally the information reached a village administrative officer who managed to locate the woman's brother," Kalyanasundaram told IANS from Erode.

Around six Hams from various parts of Tamil Nadu were involved in the task.

As suspense mounted, a call facilitated between the woman's brother, Damodharan, and Barasat hospital staff member Joita Sarkar brought much-needed relief for all.

"Visalakshi spoke to her brother and recognised him. This call took place on Wednesday morning. Now we are waiting for them to reunite," said Biswas.

Damodharan is now gearing up to travel to Bengal. In a barely discernible mix of Hindi and English, he told IANS: "I am going to meet my sister."

There is a minor twist in the tale. Visalakshi was constantly worried about a missing daughter, recalls Biswas, which he found intriguing.

"Perhaps she was harbouring some delusion, but we have found out that her daughter is fine and is expecting. So we are trying to arrange a communication between the two. The good news will aid her recovery," said Biswas.

"During disasters, when all communications fail, Ham survives. There is no discrimination in terms of age, religion and country. Service is our motto -- Ham is for helping mankind," remarked Kalyanasundaram.

This is one disaster with a decidedly happy ending.
Lucknow, May 26 : Politicians have never shied away from using crime, riots or caste and communal clashes for furthering their interests. The latest round of caste clashes in Saharanpur district of western Uttar Pradesh seems to have yet again provided political parties the grist to drum up support among their respective constituencies and take cynical advantage of a tragedy that has left two dead and scores injured.

And so as villages like Chandrapura, neighbouring Shabbirpur -- Ground Zero in the current spell of violence -- and some more in the vicinity are witness to sword fights, stone-pelting and firing between rival groups, local politicians have added fuel to the fire.

The first to jump into the ring was the Samajwadi Party (SP), which after its rout in the state assembly elections, saw its chance to fish in troubled waters as clashes erupted between Dalits and Rajputs.

Though both the stakeholders -- the Dalits and the Thakurs -- in the bitter feud are not traditionally the support base of the SP, it did not stop the latter from accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing miserably on the law and order front.

Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav targeted the state government in the Vidhan Parishad, accusing it of "abject failure" in maintaining communal harmony, peace, and law and order in the state. "They accused us of doing nothing, now look what they are doing... it's both sad and disappointing," the 44-year-old opposition leader fumed.

Decimated in two back-to-back polls -- the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 assembly elections -- the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is now using the clashes at Saharanpur to regain lost ground, specially among its core vote bank, the Dalits.

And it is for this reason that BSP supremo Mayawati, who has not taken a road trip anywhere since 2003, finally hit the road in the sweltering May heat to drive from her New Delhi house to Saharanpur to show sympathy for the Dalit victims and support for their cause.

Used to heli-hopping on such occasions, the Dalit leader made no bones about her political gameplan either. She stopped at various places en route, invited the media (also a departure from her traditional style of keeping the press at bay) and mingled with the victims and their families.

No sooner had she started from Delhi on Tuesday than violence erupted in Shabbirpur village, already singed by conflicts since April 20. District officials say the Dalits suddenly felt emboldened and attacked the houses of upper caste Rajputs, set them on fire and went on a rampage.

The four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister urged the "Dalit Samaj" not to be scared and be with the BSP to safeguard their interests. Clearly rattled by the quiet but steady growth of a regional outfit, Bheem Sena, Mayawati appealed to such splinter groups to come under the "big, solid umbrella of the BSP".

Saharanpur has been a bastion of the BSP support and even in the 2012 elections, when the party was ousted from power, the BSP managed to have three legislators elected from this district. Mayawati has contested from Saharanpur twice and the BSP under Kanshiram, its founder, started its political journey from here as well.

Soon after she left the village, violence re-ignited and escalated, leading to the killing of two persons, damage to property and attacks on Rajputs. Lalji Prasad Nirmal, the president of Dr Ambedkar Sabha, a Dalit outfit, blames the new government of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for the violence and says the decision to allow Mayawati in the strife-torn village was a grave mistake.

With fires being stoked by politicians, the state government went into damage-control mode and sent four senior officials to the violence-hit regions. Their political bosses, however, took little time to resort to the blame game.

State Power Minister and government spokesman Srikant Sharma alleged that the BSP had incited violence in Saharanpur and that the visit of Mayawati, rather than pacifying the Dalits, had triggered the fresh round of violence.

Chief Minister Aditynath, who had so far used his spokesmen and other crisis managers to "sort out the first major challenge" to his two-month-old government, finally spoke on Wednesday night.

In a statement released by his office, Adityanath, himself a Thakur, appealed to people of the state not to pay heed to rumours and inflammatory speeches and statements but to help the state government to bring the matter under control.

Clarifying that his government did not represent any caste, community or religion and that it was guided by the principle of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas" (government for all, development for all), Yogi also accused "some forces of not being able to digest the welfare schemes rolled out by my government".

The BSP has not taken kindly to this insinuation by the Chief Minister and is planning to hit back.

Whatever be the case, people seem to be both sceptical and scared of whatever is unfolding in the state as politicians get ready to play with caste and communal fire at the cost of the state's harmony and development.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)
Lucknow, May 26 : Police conducted a flag march in the Shabbirpur, Badgaon, Chandrapura and Maheshpur villages of violence-hit Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Friday, though no untoward incident has been reported, an official said.

Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar told IANS the situation was under control but as a precautionay matter the deployment of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) platoons will remain in place till further orders.

Meanwhile the Uttar Pradesh government has made it clear that no politician will be allowed to visit the strife-torn countryside, specially after violence broke out soon after the visit of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati.

Congress leader P.L. Punia and former Union Minister Kumari Shailja have been denied permission to visit the villages.

Sources said intelligence inputs suggest that the situation in the seven villages around Shabbirpur remains tense and "something to be watchful and worried about".

Peace committees in many villages have been sensitized and have been asked to ensure that communal harmony is maintained. Sub Divisional Magistrate Rampur Maniharan has also been transferred for dereliction of duty.
Dibrugarh, May 26 : Marking the third anniversary of the NDA government at the Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the country's longest river bridge -- the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge over the Brahmaputra river in Assam -- and dedicated it to the people of the nation.

The 9.15 km long bridge between Dhola and Sadiya in Assam's Tinsukia district will not only shorten the distance between the state and Arunachal Pradesh by 165 km but will also reduce the travel time between the two states by five hours.

Besides giving a major boost to tourism, this over Rs 950 crore bridge also assumes strategic significance given its position vis-a-vis the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

The new bridge across the Lohit river that can withstand the weight of 60-tonne battle tanks, will provide easy access to the Indian Army to reach the country's eastern borders.

Modi inaugurated the bridge by cutting a red ribbon and walking a few meters on it. He waved to the hundreds of people waiting there.

The Prime Minister, accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Assam Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Union Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, travelled in a cavalcade on the bridge for about two km towards Sadiya before returning to Dhola.

Earlier on Friday, on the third anniversary of his taking over as the Prime Minister, Modi arrived here on a day-long visit with the launch of several new projects in the state on his itinerary.

Besides the Chief Minister and Governor, several other dignitaries were present at the Dibrugarh airport to receive the Prime Minister.

Soon after his arrival, Modi left for Dhola to inaugurate the river bridge.

After inaugurating the bridge, Modi was scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Gogamukh.

From Gogamukh, Modi will head to Guwahati, where at the Sarusojai stadium in Changsari he will inaugurate the All India Institute of Medical Sciences project in Tezpur through remote.

Later in the afternoon, Modi will attend a public rally in Guwahati celebrating the successful completion of three years of the NDA government at the Centre and one year of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in the state.
The wreckage of the Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft with two pilots, that had gone missing on May 23 after taking off from Tezpur airbase, has been found. Image Source: IANS News

The wreckage of the Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft with two pilots, that had gone missing on May 23 after taking off from Tezpur airbase, has been found. Image Source: IANS News

Guwahati, May 26 : The wreckage of a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet that went missing on May 23 after taking off from Tezpur airbase in Assam has been found though there was yet no information about its two pilots, IAF sources said on Friday.

"The wreckage has been found close to the last known position of the aircraft at a place that has dense foliage," an India Air Force officer said.

A defence spokesman based in Tezpur said: "The weather is bad, as of now. Hence, it is difficult for the search teams to reach the wreckage spot."

The Su-30 warplane had taken off from the IAF's Tezpur air base, located 172 km from the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh around 9.30 a.m. on a routine training mission on Tuesday.

It lost radar and radio contact with the controlling station around 11.10 a.m. near Arunachal Pradesh's Doulasang area, adjoining China, 60 km north of Tezpur.

Four ground parties of the Indian Air Force, nine of the Indian Army and two of the state administration were involved in the search operation, apart from a C-130 aircraft, advanced light helicopter and Chetak chopper.

Tezpur is one of the three IAF air bases in the country that host the Sukhois.

Last year, a Sukhoi-30MKI crashed near Nagaon town of Assam during a routine sortie. While the two pilots ejected safely, some locals suffered splinter injuries when the plane crashed.
New Delhi : The government's surprise announcement that solar photovoltaic cells and modules will attract a levy of 18 per cent under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime that comes into force on July 1 caught the industry unawares, but experts said it was unlikely to have any lasting impact on the rapid growth of India's solar energy sector.

The GST regime, which does away with state levies such as excise and value-added taxes, will unify the entire country into a common market. The government has proposed four slabs of taxes under the new system. According to a list of 1,211 items released after the meeting of the GST Council, which comprises finance ministers of all the states of the Union, "Photosensitive semiconductor devices; including photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled in modules or made up into panels", will be charged at a rate of 18 Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. The effective rate for solar panels and modules currently stands at zero.

However, the council has proposed that renewable energy devices, which includes waste-to-energy and biogas plants, solar water heaters, solar lanterns and lamps, solar power generating systems and windmills, be charged at the lowest tax slab of per cent. The low five per cent tax on wind turbines is expected to keep project costs low for developers such as Inox Wind and Suzlon Energy, and soothe worries of the wind energy sector. Some battery types and components may get the highest tax of 28 per cent.

The rates are not yet final. The proposals are subject to further vetting and the list may undergo some changes. They will be finalised by the end of June.

The government has strongly defended the high rate of tax for solar panels and modules. "Tariffs for solar projects vary from project to project. The rise (in tax rate) will be compensated by the decline in corruption and operational difficulties," Energy Minister Piyush Goyal said at a media briefing after the list was made public. "The prices of solar and wind energy have hit a record low and the industry is now able to stand on its own feet."

But the new rates will hit more than 10 GW of utility scale solar power projects and could pose a threat to their viability, according to Bridge to India. They will result in an increase of 18 per cent in the cost of solar modules, about 12 per cent in inverter cost, and three per cent in all service costs, thus increasing overall project cost by about 12 per cent, the clean energy consultancy said.

"There was widespread expectation that solar modules would be classified under zero or five per cent bracket to continue growth momentum in the sector," Bridge to India said. "However, sharp reduction in equipment costs and solar tariffs seems to have convinced the government that the sector doesn't need any more financial incentives."

India's solar energy sector is in the middle of unprecedented growth, fed by declining tariffs, improved technology and a global oversupply of photovoltaic panels and other material, mainly in China. "India is on track to install more than 10 GW of renewables per year from 2017 as large-scale renewables, rooftop solar and off-grid sectors show impressive growth," Bloomberg New Energy Finance said in November.

The increase in tax rates for solar panels is not wholly unexpected. Solar power tariffs, which sank to a record low of Rs 2.94 per KWh for a newly auctioned project in the Thar desert in Rajasthan, could see upward pressure of as much as 10 per cent if tax incentives are squeezed when the GST is introduced. This is as per the prediction of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

"India's solar industry can stand its ground with 18 per cent GST rate," Jasmeet Khurana, Associate Director at Bridge to India, said in a post on microblogging site Twitter.

The pace of solar tenders accelerated sharply after the government announced an ambitious target of adding 100 GW of solar capacity addition by 2022. Currently, the cumulative installed capacity in India is above 12 GW, and the solar sector is expected to add around 10-12 GW of new capacity in 2017.

The wind power sector seems to have shifted into a higher gear as well, aiming to build wind farms and installations to add at least six GW of capacity every year for the next five years. The first-ever wind power auction in February saw a record low tariff of Rs 3.46 per kWh.

"We don't need support of lower taxes to encourage renewable energy," Goyal said. "By itself, it is good for the nation. It reduces pollution. It gives discoms 25-year-long affordable power at prices which are even below grid (parity price)."

The cost of grid-connected, coal-fired power plants averages around Rs 2.60 per kWh.

"We believe that the long-term prospects of the (solar) industry would not be impacted by the GST move as an increase in tax rates will be quickly offset by falling costs," Bridge to India said. "A commercially viable, non-subsidy dependent sector is naturally more sustainable in the long run."

(In arrangement with indiaclimatedialogue.net. Soumya Sarkar is Managing Editor, India Climate Dialogue. Views expressed are those of indiaclimatedialogue.net. Feedback at information@indiaclimatedialogue.net)
Abu Dhabi, May 26 : A court here has commuted the death sentence given to 10 Indian men for murdering a Pakistani man in 2015 following a feud over bootlegging.

According to the verdict on Thursday by the Al Ain Court of Appeals, the Indian men from Punjab will now serve jail terms ranging from one to three and a half years, Gulf News reported.

Indian charity organisation Sarbat Da Bhala, run by Dubai-based Indian businessman S.P.S. Oberoi, had paid blood money as compensation to victim Mohammad Farhan's family and they agreed to pardon the Indian men.

The men were convicted in October 2016 for killing Farhan during a brawl over bootlegging in 2015. Eleven men were convicted in the case but later one of them was spared the death sentence, the daily reported.

The victim's father appeared in the Al Ain Appeals Court in March and submitted a letter of consent to pardon the defendants.

"Five of the men will soon be able to return home," said Oberoi, chairman of the Sarbat Da Bhala trust.

"The rest will be able to go back home by the end of the year, or in early 2018, after serving their sentences," he added.

Dinesh Kumar, First Secretary for Community Affairs at the Indian Embassy, said the verdict was a relief to the accused, who were in jail since July 2015 and were sentenced to death last year, and their families.

"We are grateful to the courts for this decision, and to the victim's family, who agreed to pardon these young men. (What transpired in 2015) is indeed unfortunate, but these men hail from poor families that need their support," he said.

The Indian Embassy will soon issue air tickets and outpasses for the men who have finished serving their one and one-and-a-half-year sentences and now face deportation.

All the convicted Indian men were from poor families and worked in the United Arab Emirates' Al Ain city as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and masons, said the report.

Most were in their 20s and had paid huge sums to recruitment agents in India to secure a visa to reach the UAE.
A Davenport man is facing charges after Davenport police allege he brandished a handgun during a road rage incident late Wednesday.

According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police officer Ryan Leabo, officers were dispatched to the area of River Drive and Gaines Street at 11:26 p.m. to investigate a driver of a car who displayed a gun at another vehicle.

Officers were able to locate the vehicle described by the victims.

The driver of the car, Michael Raymond Oldenburg, 24, of 523 W. 13th St., was arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault while displaying a weapon and carrying weapons.

He also is charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana after officers seized 3.2 grams of marijuana from the car's glove box.

According to the arrest affidavit, there was a verbal altercation between the people in the vehicles. Oldenburg displayed his pistol and pointed it at the other vehicle, stating, "How about this."

Oldenburg had a valid permit to carry that dated from Aug. 4, 2015 through Aug. 4, 2020.

Scott County Sheriff's Major Shawn Roth said that Oldenburg's permit to carry can be suspended immediately if there is a violation of the conditions regarding the permit, "which this sounds like there was."

Roth said all incidents reported to police that involve firearms where the person has a permit to carry are reviewed to insure that the laws are being obeyed.

Oldenburg was booked into the Scott County Jail at 3:34 a.m. Thursday. He was released at 7:09 a.m. after posting 10 percent of a $2,000 bond through a bonding company.
Mumbai, May 26 : On the 72nd birth anniversary of late former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, his actor son Riteish Deshmukh thanked his father for teaching him to smile in good and bad times.

Riteish on Friday shared a collage of himself and his father on Twitter and captioned it: "Thank you for teaching me to smile in good times and bad. Happy Birthday Pappa. Miss you everyday. 72nd Birth Anniversary."

Riteish's wife and actress Genelia Deshmukh shared on a photograph too on Instagram.

"Happy Birthday Pappa... You are and will always be our guiding star. My children pray to you because they know Ajoba is always looking after them. 72nd Birthday. Miss you forever," she captioned the image.

Vilasrao Deshmukh was diagnosed with cirrhosis in 2011. He died on August 14, 2012.
New Delhi, May 26 : The state-owned conglomerate NTPC Ltd -- long associated with coal-fired power generation -- is poised to facilitate India's bid to achieve its ambitious national renewable energy targets. This, at a time overseas investors are seeking more opportunities in the country's renewable projects.

"Despite its deep historical connection to coal-fired electricity generation technology, NTPC has recently moved to the forefront of India's energy transition and stands to be the country's key new energy enabler," said a report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The report's release coincided with the completion of three years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government at the helm on Friday.

The 44-page report titled "NTPC as a Force in India's Electricity Transition" showcases how the government is shifting rapidly towards a low-carbon economy -- a step towards achieving the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement aim of cutting greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

The company currently provides about a quarter of India's electricity and is among the top 10 coal-fired power generators in the world. It ranks third in coal-fired capacity and seventh in generation.

The role NTPC -- earlier called National Thermal Power Corporation -- is now playing in transforming the energy sector in its ongoing shift away from the increasingly stranded assets of the fossil fuel industry cannot be underestimated, Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies Australasia with the IEEFA, told IANS via email.

With economic growth at 7-8 per cent annually, India is the world's fastest-growing major economy. As a state-owned power utility, NTPC's priority is to underpin that growth.

Whilst this responsibility has arguably required expansion of coal-fired power generation in the past, this has changed.

"With the average new solar tariff in 2017 below NTPC's coal-fired power tariff for its existing fleet, it is clear that renewable energy offers a cheaper way to provide power," report co-author Buckley said.

Solar prices hit a record low twice this month.

On May 10, India finalised a new auction at the Bhadla solar park in Rajasthan with the award of a power tariff at a record low Rs 2.62/kWh ($0.040/kWh), 12 per cent below the previous record low Rewa solar tariff awarded only just three months ago in Madhya Pradesh.

This new record only lasted two days with the latest 500MW solar auction coming in at Rs 2.44/kWh ($0.038/kWh), down yet another seven per cent.

This tender was also for projects at the Bhadla Phase IV solar park.

"The ongoing Indian electricity transformation, which can be increasingly spearheaded by NTPC, will have global ramifications not least for the thermal coal sector which faces a technology driven structural decline," Buckley said.

Energy Minister Piyush Goyal's plan to cease thermal coal imports by the end of this decade is being led by NTPC which has already stopped them this past fiscal year.

"Coal exporters that are looking to India to prop up volumes as China continues to reduce coal consumption are going to be disappointed," he said.

The report, also authored by energy finance analyst Simon Nicholas, says overseas investors are now seeking more opportunities in Indian renewable projects.

India's renewables boom is attracting the attention of a diverse range of leading overseas investors, including banks, utilities, pension funds and asset managers. They include Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, the Macquarie Group, Sembcorp, Enel, EDF, Engie, SoftBank and Brookfield.

The IEEFA, which conducts research and analyses on financial and economic issues related to energy and the environment, says the total renewable energy capacity additions in India matched thermal capacity additions for the first time in 2016-17.

The rate of thermal capacity additions declined 50 per cent from the prior year, even as solar installations doubled in 2015 and again in 2016.

The report forecasts that this will be repeated again in 2017.

According to financial experts in India, there is a noticeable spike in solar investment by Chinese firms.

"Chinese investments in Indian coal projects have been declining. At the same time, Chinese investments in India on solar projects are slowly increasing," Jai Sharda, a founding partner with equity research Indian firm Equitorials, told IANS.

Greenpeace India senior campaigner Nandikesh Shivalingam says it is an opportunity for China to play a much more positive role.

"Given that India has an ambitious renewable energy target and China being the largest exporter of renewable energy equipment in the world, there would be an opportunity for China to play a much more positive role," he said.

India's draft "Ten Year Electricity Plan" calls for a staggering 275 GW of renewable energy by 2027, in addition to 72 GW of hydro and 15 GW of nuclear energy.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
Mumbai, May 26 : Actor Rajkummar Rao, whose movies often travel to film festivals, says there is no point cribbing about how the Indian focus at the 70th Cannes Film Festival is more on glamour and red carpet appearances than the celebration of cinema.

Veteran actress Shabana Azmi had recently opened up on how in their times, the experience at the Cannes film jamboree was more about their film and work rather than dressing up.

Asked about his opinion, Rajkummar told IANS here: "Yes... But there is no point in criticising that. Every film festival is different. I feel good to see Indian actors are going there, making their presence felt... It is fantastic. I see no point in criticising celebration of glamour."

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and Deepika Padukone's photographs from the Cannes red carpet were splashed all over as they represented a global cosmetic brand at the gala, while only one student made movie made it to the fest this year from India.

Rajkummar likes to believe that the Cannes Film Festival is an amalgamation of glamour and cinema.

"I think it is not only Indians, but also people from all over the world are coming there, getting clicked and international media is praising it... There's nothing wrong in that. And I also read articles about Nandita Das's upcoming film 'Manto', they did a launch there. So you see, they (international audience) are getting an exposure to our films as well, so why to criticise?"

The actor is all geared up for his upcoming romantic comedy titled "Behen Hogi Teri" with Shruti Hassan. It is releasing on June 9.
Agartala/New Delhi, May 26 : The University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed special audit in 10 central universities in the country to check complaints of financial, administrative, and academic irregularities, officials said on Friday.

The UGC order follows a Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) directive, a top Tripura (Central) University official said on the condition of anonymity.

"The Tripura varsity has already notified the UGC decision to all its 41 departments and eight centres and asked officials concerned to be prepared for the special audit," the official added.

The audit will also be conducted at the Aligarh Muslim University and Allahabad University in Uttar Pradesh, Pondicherry University, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand, Central University of Jharkhand, Central University of Rajasthan, Central University of Jammu, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha in Maharashtra, and Hari Singh Gour University in Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Tripura assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday to urge the Ministry of HUman Resource Development for action on complaints of various irregularities in the Tripura (Central) University.

Trinamool Congress key leader and legislator Sudip Roy Barman moved the resolution requesting the ministry to send a high-level team to probe the misdeeds of the Tripura University.

Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty, and Congress and treasury bench members supported the resolution before it was accepted by Deputy Speaker Pabitra Kar.

Teaching and non-teaching staff of the Tripura (Central) University have been agitating for several months against alleged irregularities.

"There have been irregularities in the recruitment of professors, assistant and associate professors, promotions, admissions, construction and purchase of materials in the university," Salim Shah, a spokesperson for professors and the teaching staff, told the media here.

He said the varsity spent Rs 10 crore on purchase of e-books from select few publishers without floating tender and without consultation/requisition from academic departments concerned.

Tripura (Central) University Vice Chancellor Anjan Kumar Ghosh was not available for comments and other senior varisty officials refused to comment.
Srinagar, May 26 : The Army said on Friday it has foiled Pakistan's Border Action Team (BAT) attack on the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir and killed two infiltrating militants.

The bodies of the slain militants have not be retrieved as these are laying in the 'no-man's land' on the LoC, defence sources said here.

The sources dubbed BAT attacks from across the LoC as dastardly, especially in the Jammu region.

On May 1, two Indian soldiers were killed and their bodies mutilated in a BAT attack in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian Army said such attacks are carried out under the command and cover provided by the Pakistan Army to groups of militants.
Patna, May 26 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who skipped an opposition meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Friday, is likely to attend a lunch being hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, setting political tongues wagging.

"Nitish Kumar has been invited by Modi for the lunch on Saturday in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister P. Jugnauth," a JD-U leader said.

JD-U leaders, while reluctant to say much on Saturday's meeting, remarked that it will be purely an "official meeting" and nothing to do with politics.

"Nitish Kumar will submit a list of unfulfilled promises made to Bihar, including a special financial package and his old demand of special category status for the state. It is not going to be a meeting to discuss politics," a senior JD-U leader said.

Sonia Gandhi had recently called Nitish Kumar over phone and discussed with him the possibility of a consensus opposition candidate in the Presidential election. The Bihar Chief Minister is reported to have favoured a second term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee.

However, his absence on Friday at the luncheon meeting convened by Gandhi to discuss the issue set off speculation that something could be amiss in the opposition camp, more so after the recent Income Tax raids on the properties of RJD chief Lalu Prasad's kin.
Hyderabad, May 26 : After 18 percent degrowth in sales volume during 2016-17, Honda Cars India registered over 38 percent growth in April and expects to do "a bit" better than the likely growth rate of 7-8 percent of the automotive sector during the current fiscal.

Yoichiro Ueno, President and CEO, Honda Cars India, told reporters here on Friday that the company began the new calendar year on a positive note with overall sales growing by 9 percent during January-April 2017 compared to the same period last year. He hopes the company will post consistent growth in the coming months.

However, like other auto majors, Honda is keeping its fingers crossed on the impact that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will have on their sales and the overall market during 2017-18.

Honda, the fourth largest manufacturer of passengers cars in India, registered 38.1 percent growth in April, which is the highest ever for the month.

Ueno said new models including New City and Honda WR-V contributed significantly to this sales growth. It received over 30,000 bookings for Honda City since its launch in mid-February and 16,000 bookings for WR-V since its launch in mid-March.

Honda sold 1,57,313 cars during 2016-17, a degrowth of 18 percent. Terming the previous fiscal a tough and challenging year, Ueno attributed the decline in sales to a combination of factors including high inventory at the beginning of the year, change in the fuel preference of the customers and demonetisation.

Despite the challenges, the passenger car market in the country grew by 9.2 percent. India was the fifth largest market in the world, closely behind Germany.

The Honda CEO believes that if the current growth trend continues, India will overtake Germany to become the fourth largest market during the current year. He said India had the potential to overtake Japan in five years to become third largest market after China and the US.

Stating that India will witness real motorisation like China between 2020-2030, Ueno said Honda would reinforce the brand and focus both on the product and enhancing customer experience.

He said while maintaining its positioning as premium brand, Honda was also trying to have presence in entry level cars with reasonable pricing.

Ueno said Honda had been receiving lot of inquiries as to when their topmost brands like HR-V and Civic will be introduced in India. "HR-V is one of the options for Indian market but we are assessing," he said adding that the SUV may be "a bit expensive".

The company has two manufacturing facilities in India - Greater Noida and Tapukara in Rajasthan. It has made cumulative investments of Rs.8,600 crore in the two plants, which together have installed capacity of 3 lakh units per annum and employ 9,800 people.

The two manufacturing facilities currently operate at a capacity of 2.40 lakh units a year. The plant in Rajasthan also manufactures components for Honda's global operations. The high quality components are exported to 15 countries. The export turnover in 2016-17 was Rs 1,140 crore. He said it has been growing by 157 percent over last three years.

Anita Sharma, Assistant Vice President, marketing, Honda Cars, said they were acquiring land in Gujarat for their third plant. She said this plant would be part of their long-term plan.

Honda Cars has dealership network presence of 345 facilities across 230 cities in India. It plans to add 29 new dealerships and enter 22 new cities in the current fiscal.

Honda, the 8th biggest automobile company in the world, has 137 plants in 41 countries.
New Delhi, May 26 : A notorious robber carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head has been arrested in south Delhi, a police officer said on Friday.

A stolen Royal Enfield motorcycle and a countrymade firearm were seized from Vicky Panwar's possession, police said.

Vicky Panwar, 26, was arrested on Thursday night from the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan Trauma Centre in Safdarjung Enclave area on a tip-off. He is a resident of Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.

"He was evading arrest since October 2016. He was involved in an armed robbery at an ice-cream parlour in Preet Vihar area in east Delhi," Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh told IANS.

During the robbery, they had shot at and injured a customer at the ice-cream parlour.

His accomplices Ravi and Badal, who were involved in the robbery, were arrested last year.
Cairo, May 26 : Twenty-six persons were killed on Friday when unidentified gunmen opened fire at a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt, the state-run media said.

The passengers were travelling to the St. Samuel Monastery near the city of Minya when they came under attack, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mugahed told TV al-Masriya.

He said 25 others were also injured as the gunmen fired from two cars on a desert road around 100 km (62 miles) west of Minya.

The Health Ministry cited witnesses as saying there were between eight and 10 attackers, and that they were wearing military uniforms.

Ambulances dispatched from the cities of Beni Suef and Minya transported the victims to local hospitals in Adwa, Minya and Maghagha, according to local news outlet Youm7.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, which followed Islamic State-claimed bombings that killed at least 46 people at churches in Tanta and Alexandria last month.
Srinagar, May 26 : An influential citizens group in Kashmir on Friday demanded a speedy police investigation against Major Leetul Gogoi for using a Kashmiri man as a "human shield" against stone pelters, and demanded withdrawal/deferment of an Army award to him till the probe is completed.

The Group of Concerned Citizens also questioned Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's "silence" on the whole issue and called for a "fair, objective, and expeditious investigation into the incident within a set time frame".

On April 9, a video clipping of a man -- later identified as Farooq Ahmad Dar -- trussed up to an Army jeep's bonnet in Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir went viral, leading to an uproar. The Army officer has since maintained he did this to avoid a large number of human casualties.

The citizens' collective said: "The strapping of an innocent Kashmiri young man by an Army officer to the bonnet and parading him for hours through a dozen villages... is totally unjustifiable. It is against human dignity, offends the core constitutional values and violates international covenants to which India is a signatory."

"The act is condemnable. The effort to legitimise the act by cooking up and concocting facts is bizarre and deserves to be equally condemned..."

"It is painful and shocking that instead of expediting the Court of Enquiry proceedings ordered by the Army against him and an investigation into the case registered by local police, the officer has been decorated with an award and is applauded by no less than the country's Defence Minister for an otherwise cowardly act," the group said.

It dubbed as "unfair and grossly inappropriate" the Commendation Card awarded to Major Gogoi before the conclusion of the Court of Enquiry and the police probe.

"The silence of the state government, in particular the Chief Minister, is deplorable. After condemning the incident and directing for investigation by a senior officer, she should have been the first person to strongly protest against the grant of award..."

"The Chief Minister, by her silence, has condoned the grant of award," the group said.

"We demand that in the interest of justice and fair play, the decision to award the Army officer be withdrawn, or at least deferred, so that investigation proceeds uninfluenced by the decision," it added.

Justice Hasnain Masoodi (retd), former state Public Service Commission Chair Muhammad Shafi Pandit, Greater Kashmir newspaper's Editor-in-Chief Fayaz Kaloo and state Information Commission chief G.R. Sofi are among the members of the citizens collective.
A Davenport man was sentenced Tuesday to more than six years in federal prison for receiving numerous images of child pornography.

Jason Michael Mower, 43, was ordered to serve eight years of supervised release once he completes his prison sentence. There is no parole in the federal system.

He asked the judge to recommend that he be placed at the federal prison in Elkton, Ohio, and that he be made eligible for a 500-hour residential drug abuse program.

Mower pleaded guilty in December to one count of receiving child pornography. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed an additional charge of possession of child pornography.

According to the plea agreement:

The FBI conducted an investigation into a child pornography online bulletin board and identified a user who went by the username gayliner1979.

The user logged into the website for a total of 52 hours and 20 minutes. Between three dates in February and March 2015, the user viewed more than 60 images of child pornography.

The FBI learned that the user was Mower, and on July 14, 2015, a search warrant was executed at his home. Several electronic devices were seized during the search.

Mower was interviewed and admitted that he has accessed, viewed and downloaded child pornography from websites.

A forensic examination of the electronic items located multiple child pornography video and image files of pre- and post-pubescent children. One video specifically listed the ages of children involved as between 4 and 7 years old, according to the plea agreement.

Mower was arrested in April 2016.
Rome, May 26 : US President Donald Trump on Friday described North Korea as a global problem that would be "solved" as he held a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before the start of the G7 summit in Italy.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem and it will be solved. At some point it will be solved. You can bet on that," Trump said in reference to Pyongyang, Efe news reported.

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington over North Korea's continued missile programme have escalated since Trump took office in January.

In April, Trump claimed to have sent a fleet of US Navy vessels towards the Sea of Japan in an apparent show of force in the region, but the US President has since signalled that he would prefer a diplomatic solution to the situation in North Korea, using China's President Xi Jinping as a mediator.

In early May, Trump even suggested that he would meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un under the "correct circumstances", although this was later downplayed by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

G7 leaders from Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy, Japan and the UK were meeting for a two-day summit in Sicily.
New Delhi, May 26 : Major opposition parties, including the Congress and mutually antagonistic outfits in states, came together on Friday on a common platform and decided to contest the upcoming presidential election if the government does not come up with a consensus candidate -- but the absence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar set off speculation.

On a day the Narendra Modi government completed three years in office, the luncheon meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, also provided a joint platform for them to hit out at its policies, saying that they had imposed unprecedented burden on all sections of people, including farmers, youth, minorities and weaker sections.

A joint statement issued after the meeting said, it's a normal practice for the ruling party to take the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for the posts of President and Vice President. "This has not happened so far. If acceptable consensual candidates do not emerge, then we (opposition parties) shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our republic."

Banerjee, who left the meeting at the Parliament House a little early, told reporters that it was agreed that a consensus was possible on a government nominee also if the candidate was secular and would uphold the Constitution. In case a consensus was not possible then a committee would be formed to choose an opposition nominee.

However, the absence of JD-U chief Nitish Kumar set political tongues wagging, with his scheduled attendance on Saturday at a lunch being hosted by the Prime Minister for the visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, adding fuel to the fire.

JD-U leaders were at pains to explain that Kumar was only attending an official function, and it had nothing to do with politics.

However, political observers say that Kumar's absence from the opposition leaders meeting where RJD chief Lalu Prasad was present, was more than what meets the eye -- especially after the IT raids on the "benami" properties of Lalu's kin.

Observers wonder whether it could lead to fresh political realignment in Bihar.

Friday's luncheon meeting however brought together some leaders who have been strong rivals in the states, including BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and her Left rivals - CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury and CPI's S. Sudhakar Reddy.

Others present included former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

The term of President Mukherjee will end in July and that of Vice President Hamid Ansari in August this year.

The ruling BJP-led alliance has so far not come up with any names but is learnt to have begun discussions with its allies to pick up nominees for both the posts.

The BJP has a clear edge in the presidential election due to support of some parties outside the ruling National Democratic Alliance.

Banerjee said there was no harm in discussing a candidate with the government if it comes out with a name and referred to the 2002 Presidential election when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had floated A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's name and a consensus was evolved around it.

Asked about another term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee, she said no names were discussed in the meeting.

Banerjee said all the parties were united in criticism of the government over Kashmir, the violence in Saharanpur and demonetisation.

The joint statement said the opposition parties resolved to strengthen floor coordination in Parliament and "unitedly oppose the government's policies that are imposing unprecedented further burden on all sections of our people - farmers, working people, youth, SCs, STs minorities, women and other weaker sections of the society in various parts of the country".

Talking to reporters, Mayawati said the condition of Dalits, people belonging to weaker sections, religious minorities, poor and farmers has deteriorated in the three years of NDA government.

"The meeting was held in a very good atmosphere. All parties decided that the policies and working style of the central government will be taken to the public," she said.

Lalu said the Modi government has failed on all fronts.

"Under Modi's rule the Pakistan flag is being waved in Jammu and Kashmir and terrorists from Pakistan cross the border and kill our soldiers. All promises made to the youth have also failed," he said.

CPI's Sudhakar Reddy said the opposition parties may wait for the ruling alliance to announce a candidate "till the announcement of presidential polls".

Among those who attended the meeting were Congress leaders A.K. Antony, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel, JD-U's K. C. Tyagi, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Agrawal, BSP's Satish Misra, DMK's Kanimozhi, RJD's Prem Chand Gupta, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Hemant Soren and Sanjiv Kumar, Kerala Congress' Jose Mani, IUML's P.K. Kunhalikutty, CPI-M's P. Karunakaran, CPI's D. Raja, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, RSP's N.K. Premchandran and C.S. Puttaraju of Janata Dal-Secular.

Sonia Gandhi had taken the initiative to evolve a consensus presidential candidate of the opposition and had spoken to a number of leaders in this context.
Dhola (Assam), May 26 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the strategically crucial and India's longest 9.15-km river bridge connecting Assam and Arunachal Pradesh near the China border, and made a veiled attack on the previous Congress-led government for "delaying" its construction.

Marking three years of the BJP-led central government, Modi named the bridge -- built over Brahmaputra tributary Lohit and linking Dhola in Assam to Sadiya in Arunachal -- after music maestro late Bhupen Hazarika.

"Our government has decided to name the bridge after a son of the soil, who is the son of Brahmaputra, a worshipper of the Brahmaputra. He is late Bhupen Hazarika," the Prime Minister told a well-attended gathering here.

The bridge, which can bear the weight of a 60-tonne battle tank, will provide a road-link to various strategic locations in the region and make civil and military logistics movement easier for Arunachal's Anini, some 100 km from the China border.

The bridge constructed at a cost of Rs 950 crore will also reduce travel time for the military supplies to reach the border areas in Arunachal's Dibang and Anjaw -- a tedious journey that otherwise takes about two days.

Modi said the bridge will lay a new beginning for economic revolution not only for the region but the entire country.

After throwing it open for the public, the Prime Minister said the bridge would connect and bring closer the people of Assam and Arunachal.

The travel time from Dhola to Sadiya through another route would take some eight hours. Through the Brahmaputra river ferry, the journey would take about four and a half hours. Now, the same journey will take only 30 minutes.

"The bridge will not only save money, reduce travel time but it comes as a foundation for the beginning of a new economic revolution. That's why the whole nation has its eyes on this bridge. This region can play a huge role in connecting India to Southeast Asia," Modi said.

After the inauguration by cutting the ceremonial red ribbon, the Prime Minister walked for a few meters on the bridge, saluted the mighty Brahamaputra river, waved to the waiting people and drove with his cavalcade for about 2 km on the bridge towards Sadiya before returning to Dhola to address the gathering.

He said the previous Congress-led UPA government delayed the project after it was conceived by then BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003 and the people in the region had to wait for five decades for it.

"If Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji had returned to power in 2004, then you would have got this bridge 10 years ago. But then another government came to power due to which your dreams were delayed," Modi said. The project got approval in 2009 under the Congress-led UPA government, and construction began in 2011, under the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government in Assam.

The Prime Minister arrived in Dibrugarh Airport with Union Minister of Roads and National Highways Nitin Gadkari and headed straight to Dhola accompanied by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

He also highlighted the development initiative taken up by the BJP government at the Centre for the northeast region for which improving the railway infrastructure was also in the pipeline to speed up the economic progress.
New Delhi, May 26 : The Delhi Police launched 10 anti-terror 'Parakram' vans on Friday, each carrying five commandos armed with assault rifles, to provide round-the-clock security in high footfall areas of the national capital.

The five commandos, all trained by the National Security Guard, who will man each van include a driver and a team in-charge.

'Parakram' personnel will act as a first response team in case of a terror attack until reinforcements arrive.

"Parakram vans will be deployed at Vijay Chowk, Palika Bazar, IP Marg, Saket Select City Mall, Vasant Kunj Mall, Pacific Mall (Subhash Nagar), Market/Mall Complex (Netaji Subhash Place), Akshardham temple, Lotus temple, and Jhandewalan," Special Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak said.

"Commandos dressed in fatigues will be armed with AK-47 assault rifles," he added.

The 'Parakram' vans were flagged off by Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik at the Delhi Police Headquarters here around 12.30 p.m.

"Around 200 commandos have been trained for the project and will work in three shifts to provide round-the-clock protection," Pathak told IANS.

All 'Parakram' vans are GPRS-enabled and will be tracked by the Police Control Room.

The first batch of 'Parakram' vans is part of a pilot project that will be extended to more locations after assessment of its success, Pathak added.
Jakarta, May 26 : Indonesian police on Friday arrested three suspects in connection with the Islamic-State claimed twin suicide bomb attacks that rocked a bus terminal in the Indonesian capital, killing five people.

Three policemen died in the attacks that occurred on Wednesday at Jakarta's Kampung Melayu bus station.

"Yes, we have arrested three people. Their initials are JIS, WS and AK," East Java Police spokesperson Yusri Yunus told EFE.

"We are still examining the crime scene," he added. "So far, we have gathered evidence such as mobile phones, personal documents and eyewitness accounts."

The suspects were arrested in the city of Bandung, located 149 km southeast of Bangkok, and other locations in East Java province.

The Islamic State terror organisation on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack through its news agency Amaq.

Several embassies and the delegation of the European Union in Indonesia and Brunei condemned the attack and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

The double bombing was the latest in a series of violent attacks in Indonesia in recent months, all of which were claimed by the IS.
Brussels, May 26 : US President Donald Trump has "reignited" tensions with his EU counterparts as he called the Germans "bad, very bad" for their trade surplus with the US.

Trump vowed to block German car exports to the US during a meeting with top EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel.

"The Germans are bad, very bad," Trump said, according to participants in the room who spoke to the magazine.

"See the millions of cars they are selling in the US. Terrible. We will stop this," Trump said during the meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk.

Both Juncker and Tusk showed solidarity with the Germans at the meeting and contradicted Trump's rebuke.

Juncker, later, dismissed the claims on Friday, saying that the German media reports were exaggerated. "He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly," Juncker told reporters in Sicily ahead of G-7 talks.

"He was not aggressive at all and anyway we have taken the defence of the Germans," he said.

"I was making clear that the US cannot compare their trade situation with individual member states of the European Union.

"They have to compare their performances with the global performances of the European Union, and I made it clear that the commission is charged with trade issues and not the member states," Juncker added.

Trump has long voiced his frustrations with Germany's trade surplus with the US, insisting that German imports have damaged the US manufacturing industry.

In January, he threatened to slap a 35 per cent tax on German auto imports.

White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn on Friday defended the President's remarks.

"He said they're very bad on trade but he doesn't have a problem with Germany... He said 'I don't have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade'," Cohn said.

The closed-door meeting was part of broader talks among world leaders over defence, trade and the environment.

He also attacked NATO members for failing to meet the military alliance's target to spend two per cent of GDP on defence.
Mumbai, May 26 : The BJP bagged the Panvel civic body in Maharashtra's Raigad district, but was virtually rejected in the Muslim-dominated Bhiwandi and Malegaon towns as per election results declared on Friday, the day when the NDA central government celebrated its third year in power.

In Panvel Municipal Corporation's first civic polls after it was elevated to a corporation last October, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 51 of the 78 seats where it contested the polls independently.

The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and Peasants & Workers Party which fought in alliance, secured 27 seats, of which the PWP bagged 23 and the other two partners secured two each.

The BJP had virtually made it a prestige issue to win the civic body and left no stone unturned to capture the corporation, and in the process, Shiv Sena, other parties and independents were wiped out.

Panvel and surroundings are considered critical in the near future with the upcoming new international airport, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and a new city, Naina, which will attract investments in excess of Rs 60,000 crores.

In Malegaon Municipal Corporation with 84 seats in the Nashik district, the Congress emerged the largest single party with 28, followed by Nationalist Congress Party's 20.

The Shiv Sena stood third with 13, the BJP secured nine, the AIMIM bagged seven, the Janata Dal six and a sole independent was elected.

The BJP has contested 55 seats including around 27 Muslim candidates hoping to exploit the triple talaaq issue, but all its Muslim candidates were defeated.

While the Congress, BJP and Shiv Sena fought the polls independently, the NCP fought in alliance with Janata Dal in the elections held on May 24.

The Congress came up trumps in the 90-seats strong Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation in Thane district, by bagging 47 seats and will elect its mayor.

The BJP came a distant second with 19 seats, the Shiv Sena won 12, the Republican Party of India-A four, the Samajwadi Party two, and other smaller parties and independents bagged the remaining six seats.

The Congress bettered its performance dramatically over the last elections in 2012, when it held only 26 seats, but the SP took a massive fall from 17 seats then to just two now.

The Congress announced today that it would govern both BNCMC and MMC - which has thrown up a hung house - by getting its mayors elected in the two civic bodies.

Of the total 252 seats in the three civic bodies, the BJP won 79, Congress 77, Shiv Sena 25, PWP 23 and NCP 22.

The AIMIM bagged seven, the JD six, the RPI-A four, the SP two, other parties and independents won seven.
New Delhi, May 26 : Major opposition parties, led by the Congress, came together on Friday on a common platform and decided to contest the upcoming presidential election if the government does not come up with a consensus candidate -- but the absence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar set off speculation about possible political realignment.

On a day the Narendra Modi government completed three years in office, the luncheon meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, brought together leaders of mutually antagonistic outfits in states, like the Left with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, and BSP chief Mayawati face to face with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav.

The meeting also provided a joint platform for them to hit out at the Modi government policies, saying it had imposed unprecedented burden on all sections of the people, including farmers, youth, minorities and weaker sections.

A joint statement issued after the meeting said, it's a normal practice for the ruling party to take the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for the posts of President and Vice President. "This has not happened so far. If acceptable consensual candidates do not emerge, then we (opposition parties) shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend the constitutional values of our republic."

Banerjee, who left the meeting at the Parliament House a little early, told reporters that it was agreed that a consensus was possible on a government nominee also if the candidate was secular and would uphold the Constitution. In case a consensus was not possible then a committee would be formed to choose an opposition nominee.

However, the absence of JD-U chief Nitish Kumar set political tongues wagging, with his scheduled attendance on Saturday at a lunch being hosted by the Prime Minister for the visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, adding fuel to the fire.

Questions were raised whether Saturday's lunch could be a precursor to BJP and JD-U coming together in Bihar, and by extension on national issues.

JD-U leaders were at pains to explain that Kumar was only attending an official function, and it had nothing to do with politics.

Kumar himself sought to downplay the development, saying he was being invited to a lunch for the Prime Minister of a country with which Bihar has long-standing ties. He also recalled that he had already met Sonia Gandhi last month.

However, political observers say that Kumar's absence from the opposition leaders meeting where RJD chief Lalu Prasad was present, was more than what meets the eye -- especially after the IT raids on the "benami" properties of Lalu's kin.

Others present at the meeting included former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.

The term of President Mukherjee will end in July and that of Vice President Hamid Ansari in August this year.

The ruling BJP-led alliance has so far not come up with any names but is learnt to have begun discussions with its allies to pick up nominees for both the posts.

The BJP has a clear edge in the presidential election due to support of some parties outside the ruling National Democratic Alliance.

Banerjee said there was no harm in discussing a candidate with the government if it comes out with a name and referred to the 2002 Presidential election when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had floated A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's name and a consensus was evolved around it.

Asked about another term for incumbent Pranab Mukherjee, she said no names were discussed in the meeting.

Banerjee said all the parties were united in criticism of the government over Kashmir, the violence in Saharanpur and demonetisation.

The joint statement said the opposition parties resolved to strengthen floor coordination in Parliament and "unitedly oppose the government's policies that are imposing unprecedented further burden on all sections of our people - farmers, working people, youth, SCs, STs minorities, women and other weaker sections of the society in various parts of the country".

Talking to reporters, Mayawati said the condition of Dalits, people belonging to weaker sections, religious minorities, poor and farmers has deteriorated in the three years of NDA government.

"The meeting was held in a very good atmosphere. All parties decided that the policies and working style of the central government will be taken to the public," she said.

Lalu said the Modi government has failed on all fronts.

"Under Modi's rule the Pakistan flag is being waved in Jammu and Kashmir and terrorists from Pakistan cross the border and kill our soldiers. All promises made to the youth have also failed," he said.

CPI's Sudhakar Reddy said the opposition parties may wait for the ruling alliance to announce a candidate "till the announcement of presidential polls".

Among those who attended the meeting were Congress leaders A.K. Antony, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ahmed Patel, JD-U's K. C. Tyagi, Samajwadi Party's Ram Gopal Yadav and Naresh Agrawal, BSP's Satish Misra, DMK's Kanimozhi, RJD's Prem Chand Gupta, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Hemant Soren and Sanjiv Kumar, Kerala Congress' Jose Mani, IUML's P.K. Kunhalikutty, CPI-M's P. Karunakaran, CPI's D. Raja, AIUDF's Badruddin Ajmal, RSP's N.K. Premchandran and C.S. Puttaraju of Janata Dal-Secular.

Sonia Gandhi had taken the initiative to evolve a consensus presidential candidate of the opposition and had spoken to a number of leaders in this context.
Bhubaneswar, May 26 : The Odisha government on Friday decided to make four airstrips operational by September this year for regional air connectivity under the initiatives of Ude Desh Ka Amm Nagarik (UDAN).

Four airstrips at Utkela, Jeypore, Jharsuguda, and Rourkela would be developed for regional air connectivity, it was decided at the state-level monitoring committee meeting chaired by Chief Secretary A.P. Padhi here.

Biju Patnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar has also been included in the list for regional connectivity. The routes like Bhubaneswar to Utkela, Utklela to Raipur, Bhubaneswar to Jeypore, Bhubaneswar to Jharsuguda, Jharsuguda to Ranchi, and Bhubaneswar to Rourkela were suggested for regional connectivity.

The UDAN scheme, which is being implemented in Odisha in joint collaboration between state and central governments, would prioritise the unserved and underserved areas in the state, said an official.

The meeting further deliberated on viability gap funding and other subsidies to the airline operators to kick-off operations during initial period keeping the passenger fares at affordable level.

The average price of a subsidised ticketfor these flights would be around Rs 2,500, with the subsidy to be borne both by the central and state governments on 80:20 ratio basis.

An MOU was signed among Ministry of Civil Aviation, Odisha government and Airport Authority of India on March 1 to jointly carry forward regional connectivity programme.
New Delhi, May 26 : India and Mauritius are negotiating the finalisation of a "ground breaking" Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) that will boost trade and investment between both countries, visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said on Friday.

"The CECPA that is currently being negotiated will be a ground breaking agreement between both nations with close cultural links," Jugnauth said at a business meeting here organised by industry chambers CII, Ficci and Assocham.

He said that the CECPA, or a free trade agreement, builds on the India-Mauritius Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) that was amended last year.

"The CECPA negotiations buid on the DTAA signed by our contries in 2016, which will give certainty to mutual investments," the Prime Minister said, noting that over 100 Indian companies are doing business in Mauritius.

The Indian Ocean island nation is the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India with a cumulative inflow that has touched $111 billion. Mauritius, thus, accounting for 30 per cent of all FDI inflows into India.

The DTAA protocol agreement with Mauritius in 2016 aims to prevent evasion of taxes on income and capital gains by entities of either side. It is designed to tackle a long-pending issues of treaty abuse -- where ill-gotten money is first sent to Mauritius through havala transactions, and then comes back as a legitimate investment. This is called round-tripping.

"More than fifth of Mauritius' imports come from India, amounting to over a $1 billion, making India our second largest trading partner," Jugnauth said.

He invited Indian business to invest in Mauritius, pointing to its strategic location "in the cornerstone between India and Africa" and its World Bank ranking as the "most business friendly country in Africa."

"Investments in Mauritius will give Indian companies preferential market access to the US and to Africa through the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa)," he said, adding that Indian businesses could also profit from Mauritius' bilateral arrangements with many African countries.

India-Mauritius trade in 2014-15 was worth around $1.9 billion.
It was another rough week for political reporters. Well, one in particular.

I know Ben Jacobs. Some of you may as well. He was here in Iowa a lot during the 2016 caucuses.

For those who may not know, Jacobs is a reporter who covers U.S. politics for the U.K. newspaper The Guardian. On Wednesday night, on the eve of a special Congressional election in Montana, Jacobs was body-slammed, he said, by Republican candidate Greg Gianforte after Jacobs tried to ask Gianforte about the estimated impact of U.S. House Republicans health care reform bill. An audio recording seemed to confirm his account.

Gianforte was charged with assaulting Jacobs, a misdemeanor.

The next day, Gianforte won the election.

He never did answer that question about the health care reform bill.

Its the latest  and certainly most violent  incident in what has become, for this reporter at least, an unsettling trend of increasing hazards for political journalists.

In recent months other journalists also trying to ask questions of people in positions of government power have been arrested and pinned against a wall by security guards.

Jacobs handled his incident with aplomb, even joking with a New York Times reporter who called for a story on the incident. While still in the hospital, Jacobs asked that the New York Times not post its story online before Jacobs had a chance to post his story because he did not want to be scooped on an incident in which he was involved.

I am pleased to report that Jacobs has emerged from his brief stint as professional wrestling heel relatively unscathed.

Equally upsetting as journalists being physically attacked and arrested for nothing more than doing their jobs, perhaps even more so, is the disinterest with which so many people reacted.

Heck, some conservative commentators darn near celebrated the incident involving Jacobs. One Fox News personality called it a bit of Montana justice.

Many folks on the ground level, in Montana and across the country, doubted the story (even though it was confirmed in small part by the audio recording and in large part by a local Fox News television crew that witnessed it), said they were unfazed by it or even cheered it, according to various media reports.

Steve Thomma, executive director of the White House Correspondents Association, listened to Rush Limbaughs radio show and tweeted one quote from a caller who said, If enough of this happens, those reporters are gonna learn to back off a little bit.

Fortunately, with only a rare few exceptions of which I am aware, I have not experienced or witnessed similar hostility toward the press in Iowa in the past couple of years. Maybe there really is something to that Iowa nice thing. It would be better if that was the case everywhere else, too.

We need less anger toward and more trust of the press in this country these days. Thats not a lecture and its not laying blame at anyones feet. Im not smart enough to know how we repair the publics trust with the press; I just know we need to, because our democracy will not function as well as it should without that relationship.

The best thing I know to do is maintain an open dialogue with readers. If someone calls or emails me, even in passionate anger, I try to respond. It may not always sway an upset readers viewpoint, but I hope it at least helps develop a trust that Im just trying to do a job, not promote an agenda.

We need more trust in that relationship between the press and the people. Fewer gas lighters would help, too.

Speaking of which, Im sorry to disappoint that caller to Limbaughs program who expects a few more assaults would teach reporters to back off a little bit. Unfortunately for him or her, we reporters dont learn very quickly. Pin us to the wall, arrest us, body-slam us ... were going to keep doing our job, keep asking questions.

That reminds me, I have a quick question for Rep.-elect Gianforte: Could you give us your reaction to the CBOs impact analysis of the American Health Care Act?
Lucknow/New Delhi, May 26 : The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied permission to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to visit the violence-hit villages of Saharanpur district, where caste conflict has left two dead and scores injured.

But the Congress party questioned the decision, saying Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is nobody to stop Rahul Gandhi from visiting Saharanpur.

The Gandhi scion had sought permission to visit Saharanpur on Saturday.

"The permission has been denied based on the state policy of keeping the region out of bounds for leaders until the situation returns to normal," Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Aditya Mishra clarified.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "Who is Adityanath to stop Rahul Gandhi from visiting the Dalit brothers? Doesn't it show the anti-Dalit mindset of the BJP government? This kind of mindest is deplorable."

"Congress and Rahul Gandhi will continue to speak against injustice. Nothing will be able to stop us," he added.

Sources said that as the violence broke out soon after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati's visit, the Chief Minister's Office asked district officials not to grant any permission to political leaders to visit the area in future.

Newly-appointed SSP of Saharanpur Babloo Kumar also said that in case the Congress leader still tried to come to Saharanpur, he would be prevented from doing so at the air strip itself.

Earlier, former union minister Kumari Shailja and senior Congress leader P.L. Punia were denied permission to visit Saharanpur.
New Delhi, May 26 : Four persons, including a woman, members of an inter-state kidney racket, have been arrested here, the police said on Friday.

The arrests came after a month-long joint undercover operation by the Delhi Police Crime Branch and a news channel, according to police.

"A youngster from Rajasthan, who got a phone call offering to sell his kidney, approached a reporter and together they came to Delhi Crime Branch to expose the racket," Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said.

A sting operation spread over a month was carried out by the joint team, during which about 200 hours of footage was shot, Verma said.

The arrested have been identified as Sulekha Panda, 27, Jayant Sahoo, 32, Anoj Patra, 33 -- all from Odisha, and Birju Paswan, 45, of Delhi.

It all began with 23-year-old Jaideep Sharma of Rajasthan getting a call from one of the accused, Jayant, offering to sell Jaideep's kidney for Rs 4 lakh, the police said.

On April 13, Jaideep, along with a reporter of a news channel approached Delhi Police Crime Branch to expose the racket, and the police decided to do a joint operation.

The undercover operation revealed how Jaideep was given a fake identity to fulfil the hospital requirements. Jayant also obtained an Aadhaar Card, Election Identity Card and a State Bank of India passbook for the man under the new identity.

The police said that an internal committee of doctors even approved Jaideep for kidney transplantation after interviewing him, which is a mandatory provision under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.

"The kidney transplantation date was fixed for May 25 at Batra Hospital," Verma said.

The police said that during investigation, raids were conducted including at Batra Hospital and several documents have been seized.
Kolkata, May 26 : Terming Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's luncheon meeting with leaders of 17 opposition parties in Delhi "just a beginning", party General Secretary B.K. Hariprasad on Friday said the party would make all efforts to bring together political forces for a united fight against the Narendra Modi government ahead of the 2019 general elections.

"We will try to bring all opposition forces together before the 2019 elections and put up a united fight against Modi government," Hariprasad told media persons here.

In this context, he said Friday's opposition parleys at Parliament House "is just a beginning".

Attacking the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, he said the communal forces were trying to divide the country.

He however refused to reply to a query regarding strong misgivings in the Congress in Bengal about West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's meeting with Gandhi.

Hariprasad also deftly parried a poser on whether the Trinamool would form a part of an extensive opposition grouping in the near future.

"The Congress Working Committee is empowered to decide on such matters. For now, we are concerned with evolving a common strategy for the presidential polls."
Cairo, May 27 : At least 28 persons were killed and over 20 injured in a shooting attack on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in a central Egyptian town, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

The attack took place in the town of al-Adwa, about 80 km (49 miles) northwest of the city of Minya as the worshippers were traveling to the monastery of Saint Samuel, Efe news reported.

Ten armed men in four cars surrounded the bus and began to shoot arbitrarily as the vehicle neared al-Adwa on the way to the monastery, the statement added.

The death toll could increase further due to the number of people injured.

The wounded were transferred, according to the spokesman, to three hospitals while police have imposed a security cordon in the area and doubled their efforts to find the assailants.

So far, no group has assumed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement, the Coptic Church sad that it shares with the whole country the pain caused by this attack, which has targeted the heart of Egypt and its national unity.

The note added that those responsible should be detained as soon as possible and that the church hopes to take the necessary measures to avoid the dangers of such events, which harm the image of Egypt and cause great pain to Egyptians.

The Coptic Christian minority in Egypt has been the victim of numerous attacks in recent months, as on Palm Sunday, April 9, the Islamic State terror organization claimed responsibility for the two attacks on the cathedrals of St. George in the city of Tanta (on the Nile Delta), and San Marcos in Alexandria (Mediterranean coast), in which 46 people died.

Likewise, on Decemebr 11, an extremist affiliated to the IS detonated himself inside a church located next to the Coptic cathedral in the capital Cairo, and killed about 30 Christians, most of them women and girls.
Through the creation of a beautiful bronze memorial, the men and women of the military can be honored and remembered forever.

At the entrance to the Brewster Veterans Memorial, you will see scale models of the World Trade Center twin towers that were destroyed in the attack, killing 2,606 people. They will be inscribed with a dedication and facts so America never forgets. Beyond the towers is the walk of honor, with black pavers in groups of 34 to honor the 34th Division Red Bulls of the Minnesota Army National Guard. Down the sand colored sidewalk in the walk of honor will be boot imprints, signifying a Soldiers last steps.

At the end of the walk of honor is a pentagon shaped monument, to honor the attack on the Pentagon where 125 workers perished; inscribed with the five branches of the service. Surrounding the pentagon will be benches, so people can sit and reflect. The grasses and flowers around the flags are there to honor the brave members of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a meadow near Shanksville, Pennsylvania killing 40 Americans. The United States lost 2,977 victims in the attacks, the deadliest foreign attack on American soil since the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

On top of the monument is a custom bronze sculpture of Sergeant Kyle Miller, who died in Iraq on June 29th, 2006 while serving with the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, 34th Division from southwest Minnesota. The custom bronze battlefield cross is a composite to honor several wars; paratrooper boots from World War II, a bayonet from the Cold War, an M-16 from the Vietnam war, and a steel helmet from the Korean War.

All of these custom bronze sculptures were created by Utah based Big Statues. They have been known to have quite an extensive track record of creating Veteran memorials of all sorts, whether that be for individual businesses and owners or the U.S. Army itself. Big Statues takes on such projects because they want to give back and return the service in the ways that they can. To give back to the men and women in the armed forces that do so much for this country and give their lives to protect this land. Through the creation of a beautiful bronze memorial, the men and women of the military can be honored and remembered forever.'

The unveiling of the Kneeling Soldier is expected to take place near the end of this month. For more information on this memorial and the status of the unveiling, please click here.
Its wonderful to be recognized by our employees with this honor, - Glenn Belt

Meridian Home Mortgage, one of Marylands premier mortgage lenders, is honored to be awarded First Place in the Baltimore Business Journals Best Places to Work Contest.

Each company received a numerical score based on survey results. Meridian emerged as the highest-ranking company in the Large Business category.

Its wonderful to be recognized by our employees with this honor, said Glenn Belt, one of the founders of Meridian Home Mortgage. From the beginning, Mike Zgorski and I have focused on building a great company culture that allows employees to prosper. This is a prestigious honor. Thank you to our team for making this possible.

Meridian is acknowledged for their competitive salaries, 100%-paid health benefits, strong 401k match options, and fun cultural events, which include professional massages, food truck lunches, omelet bar breakfasts, fondue parties, paint nites, and more.

This award is the result of a months-long nomination process, which included a survey performed by the employee feedback software company Quantum Workplace.

Quantum Workplace analyzed thousands of anonymous employee reviews from hundreds of companies across the Baltimore area.

About Meridian Home Mortgage:

Located in Westminster, Maryland, Meridian Home Mortgage takes pride in their upfront approach to lending. With a strong dedication to ethics and integrity, the business has grown though a recession and continues to expand today. In the last 18 months alone, Meridian has more than doubled in size.

In 2008 and 2010, Meridian was also awarded with the Inc. 5000 Award for being one of the most innovative privately-held companies in America.

While their business has expanded to over 34 states, Meridian still treats every customer like a neighbor. Walk into their offices and youll find a family of people working together to improve the lives of homeowners all over the United States.
Leading CEOs from biotech, pharmaceutical, and healthcare investing communities will gather at Boston CEO 2017 on May 30th and 31st at The Four Seasons Hotel Boston.

The Boston CEO Conference is an off-the-record networking forum for leading executives in the life sciences, offering exclusive access to key decision makers who influence deal making and investment. Attendees gain insight from presentations and panels featuring CEOs from several of the worlds leading biopharmaceutical companies. Healthcare and finance investors also attend this world-class meeting.

FDAs Richard Moscicki will give a keynote speech. John Maraganore (Alnylam), Robert Coughlin (MassBio), David Meek (IPSEN), and Mike Ehlers (Biogen) will speak in Fireside Chats moderated by Christoph Westphal (Longwood Fund).

The conference will commence with a remembrance for the late Henri Termeer, Remembering a Biotech Legend: Henri Termeer with Christoph Westphal, Rob Perez, Deborah Dunsire, Geoffrey McDonough, and Richard Moscicki.

John Maraganore, CEO of Alnylam, says, The Boston CEO conference is an invaluable opportunity for CEOs to gather in a casual and off-the-record atmosphere and discuss the most pressing issue in the biotech space and beyond. I look forward to these conferences and fully support their mission to continue to grow Bostons thriving biopharma community.

Panel topics include a CEO roundtable, healthcare market outlook, diversity: moving from sound bite to implementation, ensuring transparency and drug value, cell & gene therapy, building a biotech, evolving biotech boards, Boston-Bound biotech and pharma, achieving organizational turnarounds, and many more.

The 2017 Boston CEO Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented by last years winner, Robert Couhglin (MassBio) and 2015 winner, John Maraganore (Alnylam) on Wednesday, May 31st at 4:20 pm. Nominees include Mary Lynne Hedley (TESARO), Jeffrey Leiden (Vertex), David Meeker (fmr Sanofi Genzyme), Rob Perez (Life Science Cares), David Scheinkein (Agios), and Christopher Viehbacher (Gurnet Point Capital).

Boston CEO is sponsored by L.E.K. Consulting, Russell Reynolds Associates, ICON plc, inVentiv Health, Leerink Partners, RSM, Prolung, Corealis Pharma, and BioPharma Executive Council.

For more information or to register for the conference,

visit: https://bbbiotechconference.com/conference-details.php?id=57

ABOUT BOSTON BIOTECH CONFERENCES

The Boston Biotech Conferences (BBC) mission is to build a vibrant community of biopharma leaders, which will help to drive innovation in biotech by convening leaders across industry and academia.

The conferences are exclusive, thought-leader forums for senior biopharma executives. Each conference is highly interactive and co-hosted by healthcare industry leaders to foster discussions and facilitate information-sharing, networking and corporate development within the biopharma community. These off-the-record forums bring together the past, present and future leaders in the healthcare community to network, exchange ideas and share insights into the industry's challenges and opportunities.
Armstrong Teasdale, a law firm with offices in the United States and in China, announces that 21 of the firms attorneys will be featured in the 2017 edition of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business. Chambers USA annually ranks leading law firms and lawyers in various practice areas. The print edition will be available next month.

In addition to the individual attorney honors, six Armstrong Teasdale practice areas will be recognized by Chambers: Corporate/Mergers and Acquisitions, Environment, Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment, Litigation: General Commercial and Real Estate. Additionally, two practice groups and seven attorneys received a Band 1 status.

Lawyers can be ranked Band 1-6, with one being the best. According to Chambers, bands are decided based on a number of qualities most valued by clients including legal ability, client service and commitment.

Armstrong Teasdale attorneys listed as leaders in their respective practice areas include:

Corporate/Mergers and Acquisitions

David W. Braswell

Mark Stoneman

Environment

Julie E. O'Keefe

George M. von Stamwitz*

Intellectual Property**

John S. Beulick

Christopher Goff**

Michael G. Munsell

Patrick W. Rasche

Richard A. Schuth

Labor and Employment

Jovita M. Foster

Robert A. Kaiser

Daniel K. O'Toole*

Litigation: General Commercial

Clark H. Cole

William M. Corrigan Jr.

Charles W. Steese

Laurence Tucker

Litigation: White Collar Crime & Government Investigations

Jeffrey T. Demerath**

Kevin Evans***

Real Estate*

James Mello

Timothy Tryniecki*

Daniel Wofsey*

*Received Band 1 status

**Received Band 1 status for the state of Missouri

***Received Band 1 status for the state of Colorado

About Armstrong Teasdale: With lawyers in offices across the United States and in China, Armstrong Teasdale LLP has a demonstrable track record of delivering sophisticated legal advice and exceptional service to a dynamic client base. Whether an issue is local or global, practice area specific or industry related, Armstrong Teasdale provides each client with an invaluable combination of legal resources and practical advice in nearly every area of law. The firm is a member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 160 independent law firms with locations in more than 100 countries, and the United States Law Firm Group, a network of 18 law firms headquartered in major U.S. cities. Armstrong Teasdale is listed in the Am Law 200, published by The American Lawyer, and the NLJ 250, published by The National Law Journal. For more information, please visit http://www.armstrongteasdale.law.

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BRAM Auto Group graciously donated $8,000 to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation this past April of 2017. The dealerships knew that the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation was a special one. However, theyre finding out more about the charity that makes them even happier for contributing. The foundation is holding a fundraiser called Joe Ribaudos Transamerica Bike Tour for Our Bravest. Its a bicycle ride across America with a goal to raise awareness of and money for the foundation.

The bicycle ride is meant to support the charitys goal. Its goal is to honor Firefighter Stephen Siller, who sacrificed his own life for the sake of others on September 11, 2001. Sillers shift had ended when he received news of the Twin Tower attack. He immediately let his family know that hed catch up with them later, as he felt it was his duty to hurry to the scene. Siller gave up his life, a beautiful family and friends that day. The Foundation aims to regard Stephen Sillers act of greatness as a reminder to do good in the world. Joe Ribaudos Transamerica Bike Tour for Our Bravest will honor not only Stephen Siller, but all of the brave men and women who sacrifice for our country.

The bicycle ride is a 12-week adventure that begins in Yorktown, Virginia and ends in Astoria, Oregon. Joe Ribaudo said that itll be a challenge dealing with fatigue, weather conditions, wildlife and the need to find food, water and shelter every day. But he is extremely motivated and joyful to support such a cause, as he feels its most appropriate to ride across the country for the people who fight to defend it.

Words cant describe how much we admire this foundation and all that they do. We feel fortunate to have been able to donate to the charity and wish them the best of luck with this fundraiser, said General Manager Rich Prager of Westchester Toyota, BRAM Auto Group.

BRAM Auto Group is one of the largest family owned businesses in the Tri-State area. Its dealerships have been in business since 1964. BRAM Auto Group is dedicated to giving excellent service and is focused on building relationships with customers.

Westchester Toyota is a full-service Toyota dealership located at 2167 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, New York. Westchester Toyotas goal is to always give the best customer service and fulfill every customers need, whether it be in the sales or service department.

To learn more about or donate to Joe Ribaudos Transamerica Bike Tour for Our Bravest, please visit https://www.crowdrise.com/joe-ribaudos.

For more information on the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, please visit http://www.tunnel2towers.org.

For more information on BRAM Auto Group dealerships, please visit http://bayridgeautomotive.com/.

For more information, hours and directions, please visit http://www.WestchesterToyota.com.
Sunshine Mobile Great customer service, got the phone I wanted with no credit checks

Sunshine Mobile, through its credit-friendly offers, has attracted 50,000 customers over the last 10 months. Establishing itself as the only mobile company in UKs that offers bad credit phones, Sunshine Mobile has opened the doors for clients who were initially having trouble securing a mobile contract under their name because of negative credit histories. The astonishing feat is a testament to the companys unique approach to providing quality smart phone contracts to practically everyone, regardless of their past credit history.

Smart Phone Contracts Made Accessible

According to statistics, 2.4 out of 5 customers fail to score high in terms of their credit standing, which bars them from applying for a typical 24-month mobile phone contract with the device of their choice from various networks and high street stores.

Recognising the rudiments and the long list of requirements customers have to brave just to get hold of a smart phone contract, Sunshine Mobile made sure that acquiring a smart phone will never be a burden. The company offers a smooth and seamless application process specifically designed for customers who have been declined for a mobile contract in the past. Through their website, interested parties simply need to fill in an online application, which can be done in just 2 minutes or less!

Apart from no credit check mobile contracts, the company also offers capped monthly costs which can be paid on a weekly basis, plus a guaranteed smartphone for those who are looking for a more powerful device.

Wide Range of Options, Guaranteed

Sunshine Mobile also carries some of the latest handsets from the worlds leading smartphone manufacturers. They carry brand new mobile phones from Apple, Samsung, HTC, Sony, and Nokia. Furthermore, Sunshine Mobile offers a comprehensive catalog of smartphones where clients can choose from a wide range of colours, as well as payment options.

Coverage Built on Speed and Reliability

Sunshine Mobile also boasts of extensive network coverage in the UK, piggy backing off of the nations largest 4G network covering up to 93% of the population as well as a 98% coverage for their 3G network. Their network has also been rated number one in terms of speed and reliability, which are considered non-negotiables.

Eliminating the Fear of Rejection

Primarily catering to customers with troubled credit mobile histories, Sunshine Mobile took it upon themselves to eliminate the fear of being rejected, which is a normal sight for people who are struggling to get a contract in the past. As long as prospective clients can show that they have the means to afford the re-payments, they will be awarded with guaranteed mobile contract, regardless of their past credit history.

About Sunshine Mobile

The company is UKs only No Credit Check Mobile Network, catering mostly, but not exclusively to clients who had problematic past credit histories. Since it started trading in summer of 2016, Sunshine Mobile, the company has attracted over 50,000 customers through its friendly deals and offers that equate to guaranteed mobile contracts. The company is privately-owned and debt-free, which allows them to cater to different kinds of customers with their varying backgrounds and credit standing.
Reacting to President Trumps proposed budget, the National League for Nursing (NLN) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) expressed the associations alarm at the negative impact that certain elements of the budget will have on the nursing workforce and the nations access to high-quality nursing care.

The NLN and AACN cannot support the presidents budget due to its near elimination of funding to programs that help educate the nurse and nurse educator workforce. For more than 50 years, HRSAs Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs have been a mainstay in the pipeline, ultimately improving access to, and quality of, health care in underserved communities.

These competitive grants strengthen education programs, including faculty recruitment and retention efforts; clinical lab enhancements; loans, scholarships, and services that enable students to overcome obstacles to completing their nursing education programs. Moreover, Title VIII grants support the education of nurse faculty preparing them for a future in academia. This increases the pool of faculty during a time of shortage and allows schools of nursing to accept more qualified applicants. These programs are a direct investment in the clinicians who will provide health services to patients in all communities including in rural and underserved populations.

Eliminating $146 million in Title VIII nursing program funding is counter intuitive to the presidents goal of increasing access and reducing costs. It is crucial that the federal investment meets current and future nursing and nurse educator demands. This cannot be relegated to private or state funding alone.

AACN and the NLN will continue to advocate for federal support in nursing education programs that are essential to the health and well-being of our nation.

###

________________________________________

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is the national voice for academic nursing representing more than 810 schools of nursing nationwide. AACN establishes quality standards for nursing education, influences the nursing profession to improve health care, and promotes public support of baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, research, and practice.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers faculty development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its more than 40,000 individual and more than 1,200 institutional members, comprising nursing education programs across the spectrum of higher education and health care organizations.
Biker Next - Wherever You Ride, Keep on Dating This bad reputation has caused many bikers, who want to meet local bikers, to pull inward, and that's why more and more of them have turned to the privacy and security that only online dating can offer.

Freedom, the open road, rebel and loner are all concepts many would use when describing the average biker. Although bikers do attract a lot of attention and admiration in the mainstream media and many wish they could live out their roadster dream the way bikers do, bikers dont always have it so easy when it comes to dating. BikerNext.com is a niche dating site dedicated to biker dating so that real bikers can meet others actually living their lifestyle.

Getting over stereotypes is hard, especially when there are such obvious prejudices held against a community such as the biker one. For instance, in 2011, the FBI released its National Gang Threat Assessment, where nationwide law enforcement professionals estimated that currently there are 44,000 members of outlaw motorcycle gangs functioning and active. This number were then affiliated with what could be of any 3,000 active gangs in the country, all of whom have violent track records. Even though these gangs amount to just 2.5% of all gang members in the U.S., the image that goes along with being a biker is intimately linked with crime and violence, says the 2013 National Gang Report from the FBIs National Gang Intelligence Center.

This bad reputation has caused many bikers, who want to meet local bikers, to pull inward, and that's why more and more of them have turned to the privacy and security that only online dating can offer. This site will bring all different types of people, from all walks of life together under the biker banner, where they can meet, chat, get to know each other and do it in a safe and judgment-free environment. Since no one wants to be associated with the under belly of any subculture, now real bikers will not have to fear that either. They can be themselves, share their adventures and possibly even find someone similar, who owns a bike, to hit the road with.

Currently, there are no real recognized and organized communities of bikers outside of gangs, and that just doesn't appeal to most bike enthusiasts, so with this dedicated niche dating site, which promotes interaction, exchange and socializing, bikers have more freedom on who they choose to ride with, and with whom they want to associate or get romantic with. It offers them such a wide network of contacts for all kinds of social interactions, that simply put, biker culture will never look back from this. Going virtual is going to open a lot of paths for bike lovers to share their passion with the world, in a positive way. And thats where BikerNext.com comes in, to point them in the right direction, so they'll never have to ride alone again.

BikerNext.com is available 24/7 from all parts of the country, wherever there is an internet connection, and can be found at https://www.bikernext.com/.
Author John Hemingway, a 2017 Mystery Fest Key West headliner, pauses next to a painting of his grandfather Ernest, in the late authors Key West writing studio. In its first three years our Mystery Fest Key West developed a reputation not only for the caliber of authors that attend and participate, but the wide range of mystery genres they represent, said Shirrel Rhoades, co-founder of the Fest.

Those interested in bloodstain pattern analysis, forensic science, how to craft the perfect crime  or who just like to hang out with fascinating storytellers - can follow the clues to the 4th Annual Mystery Fest Key West, set for June 16-18, 2017 at the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Grand Key.

During a weekend of panels, presentations and social events, Fest guests can learn first-hand how to craft tales of murder and mayhem from a stellar hit-list of mystery and suspense luminaries and true-crime experts.

Event headliners are John Hemingway, grandson of Ernest and author of Strange Tribe, Keynote Speaker Clifford Irving and Mystery Writers of America Florida Chapter past-President Randy Rawls.

Featured presenters include New York Times bestselling author Lisa Black, award-winning crime and science fiction writer James O. Born, award-winning cozy mystery writer Nancy J. Cohen and New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Heather Graham, each of whom will also moderate and appear on panels with mystery/suspense authors David Beckwith, Robert Coburn, Bill Craig, John Cunningham, Mike Dennis, Lewis C. Haskell, Susan Haskell and Norah-Jean Perkin, Renee Kumor, Siera London, Meg Muldoon, Rick Ollerman, Reef Perkins, Ken Rijock, Shirrel Rhoades, Marjory Sorrel Rockwell, Paul Sinor and Charles Todd.

2017 attendees will also have an opportunity to meet with and pitch their own book ideas to several on-sight literary agentsDianna Collier, owner/agent Collier & Associates, Tom Colgan of the Berkley Publishing Group, Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary Agency, and Scott Miller of Trident Media Group.

In its first three years our Mystery Fest Key West developed a reputation not only for the caliber of authors that attend and participate, but the wide range of mystery genres they represent, said Shirrel Rhoades, co-founder of the Fest. Its an intimate environment where authors and fans get to mix and mingle while exploring the craft in a tropical island paradise.

Additional highlights include a reception and dinner at the Hemingway Home and Museum, presentation of the 2017 Whodunit Mystery Writing Competition Award, a ghost tour hosted by Heather Graham, a panel on How to Commit a Perfect Murder, author book signings, a mysterious special event at the Custom House Museum, a Bloody Mary Morning breakfast at Key Wests historic Schooner Wharf Bar and several back-to-back true-crime workshops led by Florida Keys Law Enforcement Officers who will present a birds eye view of how detectives and CSI investigators collect and work with evidence in real life.

Those who register by June 1 will be automatically entered in a drawing to win a walk-on role in popular author Meg Muldoons next book. Registration is $195 and includes all panels, presentations, social events and four meals.

The 2017 Mystery Fest Key West is sponsored by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, the Key West Citizen daily newspaper, Mystery Writers of America  Florida Chapter the Florida Keys Council of the Arts and supported by the Marion Stevens Fund at the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys and the Helmerich Trust. For registration and information visit mysteryfestkeywest.com. (High resolution image of John Hemingway available here.)
Ashley Lanzoni Most 12-year-olds are just beginning to figure out who they are, but Ashley Lanzoni has already spent years working hard to pursue her dreams. This spunky, passionate, adorable young teen is ready to release her debut music video.

Watch Ashley Lanzoni's cover of Meghan Trainor's smash hit "Lips Are Movin'"

Most 12-year-olds are just beginning to figure out who they are, but Ashley Lanzoni has already spent years working hard to pursue her dreams. She moved with her family from Boston to New York City to continue her training in voice, acting, and dance, and has since appeared on stage and in several recordings and commercials, as well as being a host for Walden TV. On top of all that, Ashley's been involved with community service and fundraising work for many causes ranging from American Cancer Society, PATH Fund, Suicide prevention to anti-bullying efforts. Recently, Ashley was in the feature films Joy and Detours, and now, this spunky, passionate, adorable young teen is ready to return to the screen with her debut music video: a cover of Meghan Trainor's hit song "Lips Are Movin".

Trainor released "Lips Are Movin" as a single from her 2015 debut major-label album Title, and it's since sold over four million copies and reached Number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Ashley Lanzoni's take on the track keeps the bubblegum pop-meets-doowop feel of the original, while adding an updated, youthful ebullience with her vocals.

Ashley's "Lips Are Movin" music video begins with her sitting on the couch with her dog, Zoe, a maltese like Meghan Trainors dog, singing the opening lines of the song. She's then walking through Times Square with a boy- who suddenly gets a message from another girl! The boy continues ignoring Ashley when they go out to eat, and Ashley returns home from the "Worst. Date. EVRRR!!!" to a hug from her equally talented real life big sister Haley, and a sympathetic Zoe. On their way to the subway, Ashley tells the boy she's "done" and takes the train to Coney Island alone, where she sings and dances along the boardwalk like a scene from Grease with her sister, Haley, and friends. The boy later tries to apologize and win her back at Grand Central Station, only for her to sing, "I might be young, but I ain't stupid"- Ashley (rightfully so!) wants a boy who will treat her right.

Throughout the video, Ashley can be seen singing and dancing in a variety of retro outfits, paying homage to the 50s and 60s. It's a nod to Meghan Trainor, whose musical style takes significant influence from these magical moments in American history. But it's also an ultra-modern clip, with plenty of references sure to please the social media, selfie, and emoji-obsessed teens and tweens of today.

Watch Ashley Lanzoni's cover of Meghan Trainor's smash hit "Lips Are Movin'"

https://www.ashleylanzoni.com

https://www.facebook.com/ashleyblanzoni/

https://twitter.com/AshleyLanzoni

https://www.instagram.com/ashleylanzoni/
New study analyzes 20 health measures

A new analysis of community health data reveals that four out of the top five U.S. states with the healthiest seniors are located in the Midwest. With the average cost of healthcare rising and the U.S. senior population expected to double by 2060, more and more people are concerned with both the quality and affordability of where they live. An annual 2017 report looked at a variety of community health metrics to determine which states have the healthiest over-65 residents and which states are trailing behind the national average. The results of the study show the following were the 2017 healthiest states for seniors:

1. Minnesota

2. Iowa

3. North Dakota

4. Florida

5. Nebraska

The study was commissioned by the consumer insurance agency website MedicareSupplement.com and analyzed more than just health care. The research aggregated 20 measures including cost of living index, median incomes, hospital & nursing home quality, and community factors such as the availability of public parks and air quality. The data were sourced from national public health data as well as private reporting organizations such as the United Health Foundation. Each state was ranked based on a weighted average of variables.

The combination of lower average costs of living and better healthcare outcomes is why the Midwestern states beat out more common retirement destinations, said senior data scientist Win Pratt.

Minnesota ranked among the top eight states in four of the five major categories, missing out on only cost of living. Minnesotas Twin Cities area fared the best in the community factors category, with some of the best rated public parks in the nation.

Iowa displayed tremendous versatility by ranking no worse than 13th in any of the five categories.

North Dakota scored exceptionally well in environment, community well-being and cost of living.

Florida, already considered by many to be the top retirement destination, was boosted even further by good scores in both healthcare and population.

Nebraska rounded out the top five thanks to its environment, cost of living and community well-being.

For a full summary of findings and methodology, visit the full report here.
Liberty Universitys Debate Team finished atop the final rankings of all three national debate tournaments for the eighth time, sweeping the American Debate Association (ADA), the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA), and the National Debate Tournament (NDT).

After topping George Mason University for the overall titles in both the NDT and the CEDA earlier this spring, Liberty was recently announced the winner of the ADAs grand sweepstakes, again ahead of George Mason.

Liberty remains the only school in the country to finish first in all three rankings in a single year. The team has placed first in the CEDA for the last eight years, first in the NDT for seven out of the last eight years, and first in the ADA for 13 out of the last 14 years.

This years debate topic was Resolved: The United States Federal Government should establish a domestic climate policy, including at least substantially increasing restrictions on private sector emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States. Examples of arguments students researched and presented are cap and trade policies, carbon taxes, and renewable fuel standards.

2017 ADA final overall rankings

1. Liberty

2. George Mason

3. Minnesota

4. Emory

5. Harvard

6. James Madison

7. (Tie) Wake Forest and Georgia

9. Wayne State

10. Northwestern

2017 NDT final overall rankings

1. Liberty

2. George Mason

3. Cornell

4. California (Berkeley)

5. Wake Forest

6. Emory

7. Harvard

8. Kansas

9. Binghampton

10. Rutgers-Newark

2017 CEDA final rankings

1. Liberty

2. George Mason

3. Cornell

4. Wake Forest

5. Kansas

6. Binghamton

7. Rutgers

8. Georgia

9. Harvard

10. NYU

About Liberty University

Liberty University, founded in 1971, is the largest private, nonprofit university in the nation, the largest university in Virginia, and the largest Christian university in the world. Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty offers more than 550 unique programs of study from the associate to the doctoral level. More than 250 programs are offered online. Libertys mission is to train Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrows world.
Dickinson Wright PLLC is pleased to announce that Attorney John C. Wright has joined the firms Nashville office as Of Counsel.

Mr. Wrights practice is focused on counseling clients in various corporate matters, business insolvencies and restructurings, and commercial litigation. His corporate and transactional practice includes advising clients on stock and asset acquisitions, joint ventures, and other general corporate matters. In his insolvency and restructuring practice, he focuses on representing creditors and other parties in interest in out-of-court workouts, chapter 11 reorganizations, chapter 7 liquidations, and associated litigation in distressed situations. Mr. Wright has widespread experience across multiple practice areas and industries.

Mr. Wrights prior experience includes serving as a law clerk for the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of New York and practicing for several years in New York at a boutique insolvency and restructuring practice and at a New York based international law firm focusing on, among other things, complex commercial litigation and transactions.

Mr. Wright is a member of the Nashville Bar Association. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his J.D. and LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. Johns University School of Law.

About Dickinson Wright PLLC

Dickinson Wright PLLC is a general practice business law firm with more than 450 attorneys among more than 40 practice areas and 16 industry groups. Headquartered in Detroit and founded in 1878, the firm has seventeen offices, including six in Michigan (Detroit, Troy, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw) and ten other domestic offices in Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Nashville and Music Row, Tenn.; Las Vegas and Reno, Nev.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Washington, D.C. The firms Canadian office is located in Toronto.

Dickinson Wright offers our clients a distinctive combination of superb client service, exceptional quality, value for fees, industry expertise and business acumen. As one of the few law firms with ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, Dickinson Wright has built state-of-the-art, independently-verified risk management controls and security processes for our commercial transactions. Dickinson Wright lawyers are known for delivering commercially-oriented advice on sophisticated transactions and have a remarkable record of wins in high-stakes litigation. Dickinson Wright lawyers are regularly cited for their expertise and experience by Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and other leading independent law firm evaluating organizations.
Brahman Cattle for Sale - Moreno Ranches Based on the success we have had this Spring in sales of our Brahman Cattle.

Moreno Ranches, a top producer of both gray and red Brahman cattle at http://www.morenoranches.com/, is excited to announce one of the most successful spring sales seasons of Brahman cattle on record with three events held in April. The Magic City Sale was part of the 10th Anniversary Miami International Agriculture Horse & Cattle Show (MIACS) held at the Tropical Park Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center in Miami on April 14th. Attendees came from nearly everywhere to see and buy top-rated Brahman cattle of both red and gray varieties.

Kelvin Moreno, head of Moreno Ranches stated, Based on the success we have had this Spring in sales of our Brahman Cattle, we are very excited about the Catalyst 5 Sale coming in September. We believe the success is due to the superior quality of the Brahman Cattle we are committed to producing.

SUMMARY OF RECENT BRAHMAN CATTLE SALES

The Viva La Brahman Fiesta II Sale was held on April 5th and was such a success that the Viva La Brahman Fiesta II Sale Continued was held on April 27th. After such a busy Spring sale season with outstanding sales of Brahman cattle, Moreno Ranches will be working behind the scenes through the Summer preparing for the upcoming Catalyst 5 Sale on September 2, 2017.

The Catalyst 5 Sale is an exciting one for Moreno Ranches as it is a sale that provides the public the opportunity to participate at the beautiful ranch in Venus, Florida, or via online. Moreno Ranches welcomes public buyers to view award winning Brahman cattle in person.

Information and catalog for the Catalyst 5 Sale will be forthcoming soon.

While Moreno Ranches is between sales, anyone who is interested in purchasing Brahman semen or embryos for sale or would like to purchase through special treaty, information can be found by visiting http://www.morenoranches.com or calling us at 863-444-8745, or visiting the company's contact page at http://www.morenoranches.com/contact-us/

ABOUT MORENO RANCHES

Moreno Ranches is a top producer of Brahman cattle for sale. Customers come to the ranch for genetically superior Brahman bulls for sale and Brahman semen (seed stock) as well as Brahman embryos. The ranch produces both Brahman heifers and calves for sale, including for use as show cattle or to produce Brahman F1 hybrids. Visit the ranch's website to browse stock. Moreno Ranches is a trusted source of Brahman cattle whether a buyer is in Florida, Texas, or Louisiana, or Latin America, or anywhere in the world.

Web. http://www.morenoranches.com/

Tel. 863-444-8745
Safe Harbor LLP, a Top San Francisco Bay Area CPA Firm We know that customers read online reviews, and we're very proud of these milestones explained Chun Wong, Managing Partner at Safe Harbor LLP.

Safe Harbor LLP, considered one of the best CPA firms in San Francisco, is proud to announce new review milestones on popular sites such as Google and Yelp. The reviews on Google now top twenty and on Yelp forty five. In addition, the firm is clearly experiencing a 2017 burst in word-of-mouth as the best San Francisco accounting firm for international tax issues, including expatriate tax preparation services.

We know that customers read online reviews, and we're very proud of these milestones, explained Chun Wong, Managing Partner at Safe Harbor LLP. While not every review is positive, we know that discriminating customers will read them in detail and thereby realize that we focus on high net worth individuals, business customers, and those seeking tax and accounting services of the highest calibre. We are not a cheap tax service that provides cookie cutter returns, nor a CPA firm in San Francisco that takes a short term view of our client's interests. We are in this business for the long haul.

To read reviews of the firm as a San Francisco CPA, visit https://goo.gl/Dw7vaz (Google) or to view reviews of the CPA firm on Yelp, visit https://goo.gl/CysqtU. Safe Harbor CPA reviews can also be accessed on the website at http://www.safeharborcpa.com/testimonials/.

A Specialized San Francisco CPA Firm Committed to the Internet

Although San Francisco is literally the center of the world's technology revolution, many CPA firms in the city are laggards and not leaders when it comes to the use of the Internet. Safe Harbor LLP, in contrast, has been focused for some time on using and deploying Internet technologies. To the basics of email have been added secure file uploads and video conferencing using systems like WebX. In addition, the firm has embraced social media, and is active on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. The firm's lively blog keeps potential clients informed on tax and accounting issues, and the firm's email newsletter sends a monthly alert to all subscribers on not-to-be-missed tax and financial issues, including retirement and estate planning. Finally, the firm is heavily reviewed on Internet websites like Google and Yelp, giving potential clients a way to learn that this is a small but serious firm, focused on specific client needs such as those of high income individuals, San Francisco businesses, expat and international tax problems, etc. By announcing these new review milestones on Google and Yelp, the firm hopes to highlight just how committed it is to a vibrant Internet ecosystem.

About Safe Harbor LLP  a Professional CPA Firm in San Francisco

Safe Harbor LLP is a CPA firm that specializes in accounting and tax services for individuals and businesses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and greater California. Safe Harbor CPAs helps both individuals and businesses with tax preparation, IRS audit defense, and audited financial statements. The firm prides itself on friendly yet professional service and utilizes state-of-the-art Internet technology to provide quality customer service.

Safe Harbor CPA

http://www.safeharborcpa.com

Tel. 415.742.4249
Oral Surgeon for Wisdom Teeth Extraction in San Francisco Just because a dentist recommends a specific oral surgeon doesnt mean the patient is obligated to use them.

Dr. Alex Rabinovich, a highly-skilled oral surgeon specializing in wisdom teeth extraction in San Francisco, is proud to announce a new, informational blog post on insurance options. If a Bay Area patient has to search for a second opinion before wisdom tooth surgery, checking insurance plans may help save time and money. Visiting an in-network provider for a second opinion can ensure a patient receives the full benefits of an insurance plan.

Just because a dentist recommends a specific oral surgeon doesnt mean the patient is obligated to use them, commented Dr. Rabinovich. Its important to check insurance plans first. To get the most out of a plan, getting a second opinion and, where possible, using an in-network oral surgeon for wisdom teeth extraction can be the best choices.

To read the new post for wisdom teeth extraction SF and the value of an in-network oral surgeon please visit http://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/2017/04/wisdom-teeth-problems-need-skills-best-oral-surgeon/. Details concerning oral surgery and receiving a second opinion from an in-network provider can be found. To review information specific to dental implants, visit http://www.sfdentalimplants.com/, which is a sister site to Dr. Rabinovich's oral surgery site.

Insurance Options and Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Medical insurance has been a popular topic of conversation in the United States including the Bay Area. Rising costs in premiums and co-pays may have caused patients to become more aware of medical expenses, including for even relatively common procedures like wisdom teeth extractions. One simple way to help get the most of an insurance plan can be to check if a doctor is in-network or out-of-network to insurance. An in-network provider for oral surgery such as wisdom teeth extraction in San Francisco, can help reign in the costs of medical care. Many doctors or dentists may require a patient get a second opinion before moving forward with oral surgery. A referral system does not always take into account whether an oral surgeon is in-network. It may be important to confirm the referred oral surgeon accepts an insurance plan before receiving a second opinion.

For this reason, Dr. Alex Rabinovich, a highly-skilled oral surgeon for wisdom teeth extraction in San Francisco, has announced a new blog post. Patients blindly trusting a referral for a second opinion may be confused by the large co-pay after a visit, or their responsibility for all charges. Oral surgeons referred by a dentist for a wisdom teeth extraction in San Francisco may not accept a patients insurance plan. This new blog post reminds San Francisco locals to check for in-network status before consulting with an oral surgeon for wisdom teeth extraction in SF.

About Oral Surgery San Francisco

Oral Surgery San Francisco (http://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/) is located in the Financial District of the City. Under the direction of Dr. Alex Rabinovich, a Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon specializing in the field of oral surgery. This additional training, along with his years of experience, sets Alex Rabinovich MD DDS apart from the growing number of general dentists offering oral surgery and other dental procedures. Procedures include wisdom teeth extraction, jaw surgery and dental implants. Oral Surgery San Francisco serves all neighborhoods in the city of San Francisco including Pacific Heights, Russian Hill and Noe Valley.

Contact

Tel. (415) 817-9991
San Francisco Bay Area Serviced Apartment San Francisco is a world-class city known as a hub for business and pleasure.

Key Housing, one of the top sources for so-called serviced apartment units in San Francisco and all of California, is proud to announce a new blog post about finding temporary furnished apartments in the Bay Area. (It should be noted the British citizens and Europeans may use the term "serviced apartments," where Americans would use "furnished apartments.")

San Francisco is a world-class city known as a hub for business and pleasure, explained Robert Lee, President of Key Housing. Its also known as a tough city for long-term accommodations, especially so-called 'serviced apartments' or 'furnished apartments.' Our new post explains how we can help visitors find that elusive rental in the City by the Bay.

To review the new blog post for finding an extended stay apartment in San Francisco, please go to http://blog.keyhousing.com/finding-a-serviced-apartment-san-francisco-is-like-looking-for-a-needle-in-a-haystack/. Information for furnished short-term rentals in the Bay Area can be found. Details about temporary housing locations, such as the featured Strata Mission Bay can also be reviewed at http://www.keyhousing.com/rightside.asp?action=form3&ID=476. Furnished apartments can also be known as serviced apartments or extended-stay corporate apartments. Amenities can include secure parking, concierge and walking distance to restaurants and sightseeing destinations. Finally, those looking to browse available San Francisco apartment listings can visit http://www.keyhousing.com/rightside.asp?location=San%20Francisco.

San Francisco Serviced Apartment Can Be Harder to Find than a Needle in a Haystack

In many cities, searching for a fully furnished temporary apartment may be simple. If the visitor plans to stay in San Francisco, serviced apartments may appear more difficult to acquire. The Bay Area can have a reputation as being expensive for both permanent and temporary housing. Costs can climb further as visitors add up the price for dining out and renting a car. Tourists on holiday or contracted employees may be discouraged by the lack of choices for a serviced apartment in San Francisco. Still, visitors from Europe and other countries may prefer the comfort of a home-away-from-home type of environment. A solution must be found to help contracted employees and out-of-town guests find a perfect match.

For these reasons, Key Housing, leaders in sourcing serviced apartments for Northern California, has announced a new blog post. Finding furnished short-term rentals in the Bay Area can be possible and affordable. Budget-conscious visitors may be able to save money on food and travel by renting an extended-stay apartment in the heart of San Franciscos Mission Bay. Key Housing has also announced Strata Mission Bay as the featured apartment for May 2017. Walking distance to farmers markets and access to a full kitchen can help a food budget. Easy access to public transportation such as the Muni T-Line can help cut costs for car rentals, parking and gas. Proximity to Union Square and South of Market can be perfect for sight-seeing adventures. Amenities may also include on-site gym, laundry services, free WiFi and swimming pool. Serviced apartments in San Francisco may seem out of reach, but Key Housing can help visitors find one easier than searching for a needle in a haystack. Reading this post is just one way to get started.

About Key Housing

Based in Folsom, California, Key Housing Connections Inc. (http://www.keyhousing.com/) specializes in serviced apartments, corporate housing and corporate rentals in large cities like San Francisco or San Jose as well as smaller cities like Fremont and Sacramento. Whether the need is for a serviced apartment in San Francisco or a short term rental in San Jose, just browse our listings to find the rental that fits ones short term corporate housing needs. We are competitive with extended stay hotels in cities such as Cupertino, Redwood City and Mountain View. Many nurses, interns and people seeking pet friendly corporate rentals or corporate relocation services depend on us for their furnished apartment or other temporary housing needs. Whether after San Francisco corporate housing, short term rentals in Redwood City, or a serviced apartment near Palo Alto, we can aid the search for the right apartment in the Golden State. After all, we're among the top-rated short-term apartment listing service in places San Francisco and just about every city in California. Whether it's serviced apartments or a furnished rental, just search, click or call today!

Key Housing

(800) 989-0410
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City mental health counselor's license has been suspended indefinitely because of accusations he had romantic relationships with two of his clients.

The Iowa Board of Behavioral Science ordered that Mark Garlick must return his mental health counselor license to the board on June 17. He has until then to transition his clients to new providers.

The board brought seven charges against Garlick in November, and Garlick waived his right to a hearing in front of the board before the settlement agreement and final order was entered.

Charging documents said that Garlick began a romantic relationship with one client about one year after providing the counseling.

Another client told Garlick she had feelings for him, and he continued to provide counseling to her while not documenting her romantic feelings, documents said.

Garlick made remarks of a sexual nature to the second client during sessions and communicated outside of sessions. Documents say he hugged, kissed and touched the client and also accepted gifts from her.

In its May 17 order, the board said that Garlick may request reinstatement of his license after one year, but only after undergoing a comprehensive mental health and boundaries evaluation. He also must pay a $1,000 civil penalty.
Dallas Probate Attorneys: Burdette & Rice, PLLC While Eds extraordinary contributions to the legal community and the profession will be greatly missed, he leaves a strong legacy at Burdette & Rice.

Burdette & Rice, considered one of the top Texas law firms for probate, estate, and trust litigation, is saddened to announce the passing of firm attorney Edward L. Rice. Mr. Rice died on April 6, 2017, after a long and courageous battle with cancer.

While Eds extraordinary contributions to the legal community and the profession will be greatly missed, he leaves a strong legacy at Burdette & Rice for our litigation attorneys who proudly carry on his tradition and practice," explained Elliott Burdette, Managing Director of Probate Litigation at Burdette & Rice. He continued, "Those of you that had the opportunity to know Ed will remember his infectious warmth and friendship as much as his insatiable curiosity for the law. Those of us blessed with the opportunity to work with him will remember his unceasing compassion and kindness. Even in the heat of a profession marked by zealous advocacy and argument, Ed managed to exude patience and professionalism. His willingness to mentor young attorneys (and even some older ones from time to time) stands as an example to all of us. We will truly miss our friend."

Burdette & Rice: A Philosophy of Bringing Calm to the Conflict

Rice leaves a strong legacy at Burdette & Rice in the area of litigation. As one of the top Texas probate, trust and estate litigation, guardianship and estate law firm firms, the firm is committed to effective representation and achieving results for its clients in all types of fiduciary, trust, estate, and guardianship litigation matters as well as helping clients with efficient administration of probate estates, guardianships, including accountings, and wills and trusts. Carrying on the legacy of Ed Rice, the firm is proud of its hard working attorneys who are totally dedicated to providing superior legal services. The firm's strategy is to care for its clients and relentlessly pursue their rights. To learn more about the firm's philosophy, visit http://www.dallasprobateattorneys.com/our-philosophy/.

About Burdette & Rice, PLLC

Burdette & Rice, PLLC is a top Dallas probate law firm, with lawyers dedicated to listening to their clients, being fully present to them, and advocating their clients positions in the simplest and most persuasive way possible. The law firm employs some of the top probate and estate lawyers in Dallas, Texas. Clients come to Burdette & Rice to contest a will in Texas, work on complex inheritance litigation and disputes, and to litigate disputes over powers of attorney, guardianship and trustee issues all based on Texas law.

Burdette & Rice, PLLC

Media Relations

http://www.dallasprobateattorneys.com/

972-991-7700
DES MOINES  Hoping to head off a legal challenge, Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday appointed state Public Defender Adam Gregg to be her acting lieutenant governor  a hybrid capacity that makes him a full partner in her administration but leaves him out of the line of constitutional succession.

Gregg, 34, of Johnston, called Reynolds selection of him the honor of a lifetime, while the governor said it removes a distraction and allows her new team to focus on creating a better Iowa.

The new Republican governor said she would work with the Legislature next year to resolve the constitutional dispute raised by her taking over from Terry Branstad, who resigned Wednesday to become ambassador to China.

The legal cloud arose from a recent formal opinion published by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. He said research found that an individual ascending midterm from lieutenant governor to governor, as did Reynolds, does not have the constitutional authority to appoint a new lieutenant.

Reynolds told reporters Thursday she believes the attorney general is wrong, but battling over who is going to be second in line in succession is a distraction and it is a waste of taxpayers dollars at this point.

Miller, a Democrat, came under fire for issuing a legal opinion that contradicted what he had informally said just months earlier.

Reynolds appointed Gregg to conduct the duties of the lieutenant  but without officially holding the office.

We are going to be focused on doing the job, were going to be focused on building a better Iowa and Im not going to have the taxpayers of Iowa in a potential lawsuit pay millions of dollars toward something that will be settled in 18 months with the 2018 election, she said.

Miller called the action a new concept that deserves further study, but he said he was pleased Reynolds chose to make the right decision by not attempting to alter the line of succession. Should Reynolds at any point be unable to serve as governor, Senate President Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, would be next in line without an elected official serving as the lieutenant governor.

I think the constitutional question has been addressed and its been the right way, Miller said Thursday. Weve had a bit of a controversy here going back and forth and theres a winner on this and the winner is the constitution. The constitution has prevailed as it should.

Reynolds aides called the decision unprecedented to have an acting lieutenant do the administrative and ceremonial duties of the office and draw the $103,212 yearly salary, but be outside gubernatorial succession.

Despite the high drama behind the attorney generals reversal of opinion, this does not need to be a crisis or chaotic, said Tim Albrecht, Reynolds deputy chief of staff.

Reynolds said Gregg will be a full partner who travels to every county and is involved in developing policy and guiding initiatives.

Call it whatever you want, Gregg said when asked about the acting part of his title. Its not going to change the way that I serve. Im going to work as hard as I can for the people of Iowa. Im excited to get to work. I havent even really processed this yet, quite frankly.

Gregg, who ran an unsuccessful 2014 statewide GOP bid for Iowa Attorney General, reintroduced himself to Iowans as an ordinary Iowa guy who grew up in small-town Hawarden, married his high-school sweetheart, Cari, and now has two kids, a mortgage and college debt after graduating from Central College with degrees in political science and history and from the Drake University Law School in 2009.

I am honored and humbled by the trust that Gov. Reynolds has put in me, Gregg said. Over the last six years, she has revolutionized and rejuvenated the role of lieutenant governor. To follow her in that role, and to serve alongside her as she now leads this state, is the honor of a lifetime.

Gregg previously served as Branstads legislative liaison beginning in 2012 and worked on initiatives to reform education, cut property taxes and revamp the states health care system. After the 2014 election, Branstad appointed Gregg as the state public defender, where Reynolds said he became a trusted member of the administrations cabinet.

He proved to me that he could accomplish big things, Reynolds said, but he also proved that he could do it in a bipartisan way and that he could build a coalition.

Reynolds interviewed several people for the position but chose Gregg because I value his opinion, I trust his judgment, he is respected by leaders on both sides of the aisle, he knows how to get things done and has a record to prove it.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Derek Eadon said Reynolds, in her first major decision as governor, appointed someone who shares responsibility for helping craft a disastrous state budget that jeopardizes the future of Iowa.

Gov. Reynolds had an opportunity to assure Iowans that she would make Iowas economy a priority. Instead, she has sent a clear signal that her administration will continue the reckless economic policies that have led to massive budget shortfalls, forcing drastic cuts to education, health care, and other essential services in the state, he said in a statement.

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, countered that Reynolds stepped up in the face of Millers ridiculous, partisan political stunt.
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MASON CITY | Alliant Energy customers voiced their concerns with a proposed electric rate increase at North Iowa Area Community College Thursday.

The meeting held by The Iowa Utilities Board, Alliant and the Office of the Consumer Advocate allowed locals to voice their concerns on the record about several issues, mostly about Alliants application to increase electric rates for Iowa customers.

Alliant provides electric service to approximately 490,000 customers in 83 Iowa counties.

Several speakers brought up reliability and power outages, specifically the most recent power outage May 17 affecting more than 700 customers in Mason City.

Our crews went out and worked to the best of their ability, said Doug Kopp, president of Alliant Energys Iowa division.

Representatives from Mason City Chamber of Commerce, the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and more praised the company for their reliability and service.

We certainly do not like to see our rates go up, said Chad Schreck, president of the North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corp. But we understand that this is a business.

Alliant is requesting a permanent annual revenue increase of approximately $176 million, or 11.6 percent, the first increase in six years. The average residential customer's monthly bill would increase by $14.26, or 12.5 percent, but the increase varies by customer usage.

Several expressed their concern about the impact of this increase on low income and elderly customers.

I have a problem with them telling us how cheap the rates are, Ray Wenrich of Mason City said.

Wenrich said the increase would be tough on those with fixed incomes and those on Social Security.

Chris Petersen of Clear Lake said that wages havent kept up with the cost of living and said the rate increase would hurt low income people the most.

I really cant see giving you a rate increase right now, Petersen said. Twelve percent is way too much.

Robert Wolff talked about economic development surrounding renewable energy.

I have some real concerns, Wolff said. The best economic development will happen with lower energy costs.

Alliant implemented a temporary monthly rate increase April 13. It was for 8.3 percent, increasing an average residential customer's electrical bill by $9.47. The company says base rates cover service costs, maintenance and equipment costs.

This will be the first base rate increase in six years. Base rates are not the entire bill.

Before a rate increase, the utility or equipment must be in power and in use. Rate changes must be approved by the Iowa Utilities board.

The IUB's decision on permanent rates are pending. The temporary rates collected are subject to refund with interest if the temporary rates are higher than final rates approved by the IUB.

In October, the IUB will hold a hearing where board members will approve or deny Alliant's request based on testimony from involved parties.

The full rate increase will go into effect if approved. If it is denied, customers will receive rebates.

The IUB is continuing to accept written comments regarding the rate increase. Customers can comment via email to customer@iub.iowa.gov.

All publicly-filed documents available for review in the IUB's electronic filing system at efs.iowa.gov and by searching under Docket No. RPU- 2017-0001.
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MASON CITY | The Clear Lake City Council will consider an ordinance Tuesday night restricting the use of fireworks to two or three days  far narrower than what the new state law allows.

City Administrator Scott Flory says it is a quality-of-life issue.

Clear Lake is among many cities throughout the state that are drafting their own ordinances regarding use of fireworks. The ordinances modify standards established in a new state law that many officials think is too broad.

The law, signed by former Gov. Terry Branstad on May 8, legalizes the sale of bottle rockets, roman candles and most other consumer fireworks between June 1 and July 8 as well as from Dec. 10 to Jan. 3 from licensed shops.

It allows three options: discharging them during same period as sales; modifying the discharge period or prohibiting their use altogether.

The Mason City Council and the Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors have not acted on any changes but Supervisor Chairman Casey Callanan said Friday the subject is likely to be addressed.

Flory said the Clear Lake council will discuss limiting the use of fireworks to July 3 through July 5  "maybe even less, we'll see," he said.

The council meets at 6:30 p.m. in the council room at City Hall.

Flory said he disagrees with communities that are not making changes to fit their situations.

"They have grossly underestimated the safety aspect and quality of life issue," he said. "Who would want consumer class 1 fireworks shot off next to their home for six weeks in the summer between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m.?

"Mercy Hospital should be leading the campaign. Can you imagine the disruption to patients?" he asked.

Flory said the Des Moines City Council has taken a hardline approach to protect medical facilities and has imposed other restrictions.

Des Moines' ordinance, passed last week, allows discharging fireworks only on July 4 from 4 to 10 p.m. and with these restrictions:

 User must be 18 years old.

 User must be within the legal alcohol limit.

 Fireworks may not be set off on public property.

 Fireworks must be more than 200 yards from hospitals and senior living facilities.

 Fireworks are prohibited in in parks, cemeteries, public streets and sidewalks.

 Violators face a $625 fine.

Several North Iowa communities are looking at modifications.

In Hampton, the City Council met Thursday night to discuss possible changes but no formal action was taken.

"Our current ordinance prohibits use of fireworks within the city limits without city permission," said City Administrator Ron Dunt. "That won't change.

"What the council is considering is what to do regarding the sale of fireworks. They're looking at other city ordinances and doing other research. They just don't want to rush into anything," he said.

The Charles City Council has taken no formal action yet but is looking at a draft ordinance that:

 Continues to prohibit use of consumer fireworks within the city limits.

 Creates a fire inspection for anyone wishing to sell fireworks and establishes $100 and $200 fees, depending on the size of the operation.

 Requires anyone selling fireworks to prominently display notice that fireworks usage is not permitted inside the city limits.

 Establishes insurance requirements.

 Continues policy that display fireworks usage requires city permission.

In Forest City, city planning and zoning officials will meet June 1 to discuss areas of the city where fireworks sales will be allowed, according to City Administrator/Clerk Barbara Smith.

Worth County supervisors have it on their agenda for this week.

In other areas of the state, West Des Moines, Urbandale, Ames, Clinton and Spirit Lake have either continued existing bans or enacted laws creating bans on use of fireworks.

Cedar Falls has opted to allow use of them for the entire time allowed by state law.

Waukee has approved on first reading limiting the use of fireworks to between June 30 to July 8. They can be used from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays during that time frame and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekends and July 4.

Use would also be limited to 9 a.m. to noon on New Year's Eve and midnight to 12:30 a.m. on New Year's Day. Fireworks will not be allowed on public property.

A new law in Waterloo allows fireworks use from June 30 to July 4 but not on public property.
With 36 trains per hour running along the entire line, LU says an extra 3000 passengers will be able to travel every hour during peak times.

Were running more trains than ever before, with the most frequent train service in the country and one of the most frequent anywhere in the world, says managing director of LU, Mr Mark Wild. This will make a real difference to our customers,creating more capacity and making stations and train services less crowded.
The state-of-the-art facility is located in Fairfield, Ala. and will be home to training hundreds of Watco team members each year. The center was created as Watco ramped up efforts to provide standardized safety training for all team members. The company said that the addition of the STAT Center will ensure that team members receive the same training regardless of their location.

The new facility features classroom space, breakout session space, a functional model railroad to assist in non-traditional learning instruction of railroad operations, a simulator room with two FRA Type II Simulators, two portable desktop type simulators, and an indoor components training area with a cutaway railcar, air brake simulator rack and other hands-on tools for training operating and mechanical personnel.

The important thing to focus on is what this will do for Watco, Travis Herod, Watco senior vice president of safety and training, said. Its taking our training to the next level, incorporating the same modern training technologies and tools that Class 1s are using, equipping people better in the field to operate new equipment and to work more safely and efficiently.
The Metra Board of Directors approved a trio of contracts May 24 that will see inward-facing cameras installed on its system, renovations made to its Hazel Crest Station and work performed on several bridges.

Metra says it was taking steps to install inward-facing cameras ahead of pending federal rules. The $11 million contract, awarded to Railhead Corp., will replace the camera system on Metras trains with an upgraded system that includes inward-facing cameras in the locomotives, cabcars and Highliner cars to record the actions of engineers.

Congress in 2015 ordered the Department of Transportation to draft rules within two years to require passenger railroads to install inward-facing and outward-facing cameras in all locomotives and other operating compartments. Metra says those rules are expected from the Federal Railroad Administration by the end of 2017.

At Metra, safety is our highest priority, and we are pleased to be moving forward with this safety feature before the requirement takes effect, said Metra Executive Director/CEO Don Orseno. These cameras will give us another tool to ensure we are operating as safely as possible.

Additionally, the board approved three contracts worth $48.2 million to replace or repair several bridges along the Union Pacific North Line on the North Side of Chicago and build the new inbound half of the Ravenswood Station.

These projects represent a major investment in the infrastructure along the UP North Line, which is essential to maintaining safe, reliable service, said Orseno. Together, these improvements will have a lasting impact that our customers will benefit from for many years to come.

The board approved a $17.2 million contract with Judlau Contracting Inc. of Lisle to replace the bridges that carry the inbound UP North Line tracks over 11 streets from Grace to Balmoral. The bridges are more than 100 years old and can no longer be economically repaired and maintained. Construction of bridges for the outbound tracks over the same 11 streets was completed in 2015. The new bridges will last for more than 100 years.

Kenny Construction Company of Northbrook was awarded a $15.5 million contract to rehabilitate the bridges that carry the UP North Line over Webster Avenue and the North Branch of the Chicago River just north of Webster (known as the Deering Bridge).

IHC Construction Companies of Elgin was awarded a $15.5 million contract to build the new inbound half of the Ravenswood Station, the busiest station on the line outside of downtown. The work will mirror that of the outbound half of the new station, which was completed in 2015.

The station will have longer, covered platforms, warming shelters, new lighting, ramps, stairs, new landscaping and a vendor space. Once the work is complete, the station will be fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Customers will continue to use the temporary inbound platform until the new station and bridge project are complete.

Work on all three projects is expected to begin in July. The work on the Deering and Roscoe bridges will take about a year, while the work on the other bridges and Ravenswood Station will take about 30 months. Construction could result in minor delays to off-peak trains.

The commuter agencys board also approved a $3 million contract to the Bowa Group Inc. of Chicago to renovate the Hazel Crest Station on the Metra Electric Line. The work includes construction of a new street-level depot complete with vendor space and restrooms, as well as the replacement of the stations stairways. The project will also include the addition of an elevator on the north end of the station, which will make the station fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The bridge contracts and Hazel Crest Station work are part of Metras 2017 construction program, which includes approximately $216 million in infrastructure improvements to 29 stations, 21 bridges and 29 road crossings and the replacement of 57,000 railroad ties to ensure safe and reliable service and maintain a state of good repair systemwide.

Metra also will receive at $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) on its Milwaukee North and West lines. U.S. Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.-3) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.-5) and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) announced the $20.2 million grant.

This much-needed grant for Metra is great news, said Rep. Lipinski. Representing a district with a large number of rail lines, I have always made rail safety a top priority on the Railroad Subcommittee. In 2008, I included language in a bill to create the Rail Safety Technology Grant program to help railroads install life-saving PTC more quickly. Unfortunately, Congress never fully-funded this program and commuter railroads like Metra were not able to implement PTC. Last Congress, I joined with Rep. Quigley on a bill to reauthorize the grant program so that Metra could get federal help to install this critical safety technology.

Metra is responsible for installing PTC on all trains and along the five lines it operates: Metra Electric, Milwaukee North, Milwaukee West, Rock Island and SouthWest Service. Metra estimates the federally mandated technology will cost between $350 million to $400 million to implement. In January 2016, Metra filed an alternative schedule for implementing PTC by 2020, although the commuter agency had previously committed to implementation in 2019.

Implementation of Positive Train Control is a vital step in ensuring our rail systems are as safe and reliable as possible, said Rep. Quigley. Metra plays such an important role in the Chicagoland region, and this much-needed funding will help guarantee that one of the busiest commuter rail systems in the nation continues to provide for residents. It will also help drive additional economic activity and further solidify Chicagos role as a leader in innovative transportation.

Metra has more track than any commuter rail system in the country and 150,000 daily passengers, said Sen. Durbin. Positive Train Control is critical to the safety of these passengers. This funding will greatly help Metra meet its goal and move forward with full PTC operability.
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Russian Supreme Court upholds liquidation of Jehovahs Witnesses chapter

MOSCOW, May 26 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russia has upheld a ruling declaring a branch of Jehovahs Witnesses religious organization in Cherkessk extremist and liquidating it, RAPSI learnt in the courtroom on Friday.

The court has dismissed an appeal against the February 10 ruling of the Supreme Court of the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic. In addition to the organizations declared extremist status and it liquidation, its real estate property was ruled to be transferred to the state. On Friday, this ruling came into force.

On April 20, Russias Supreme Court banned the Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses as extremist organization. According to the ruling, the Centre and its local branches are to be liquidated.

The Justice Ministry said that violations of the law On Combatting Extremism had been revealed during inspection conducted in the organization. The Prosecutor Generals Offices notice concerning inadmissibility of carrying out extremist activities by Jehovah's Witnesses has taken effect, the Ministry said.

Jehovahs Witnesses religious organization has had many legal problems in Russia. Since 2009, 95 materials distributed by the organization in the country have been declared extremist and 8 Jehovah's Witnesses branches have been liquidated, according to the Justice Ministry.

Jehovah's Witnesses is an international religious organization based in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2004 several branches and chapters of the organization were banned and shut down in various regions of Russia.
ALBERT LEA, Minn. | A Lake Mills man charged in connection with the theft of firearms, ammunition and tools in January from a Manchester residence pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Freeborn County District Court.

Jeromy Eugene Dann, 35, is charged with 13 counts of felony theft, as well as one count of first-degree criminal damage to property and second-degree burglary.

Court documents state Dann was charged after he was arrested early in the morning Jan. 22 following a pursuit after an alleged burglary in Hayward.

Dann was allegedly in possession of .12-gauge shotgun ammunition. Distinctive tread on boots that were seized from Dann matched the tread found at the scene from the alleged Jan. 8 burglary, court documents state.

The alleged victim stated the house was broken into and items  two Cabelas gun safes totaling 11 firearms, two other firearms in the residence, ammunition and tools  were stolen. Damage to the alleged victims vehicle and doors were estimated at more than $2,000.

The safes were reportedly found broken open with the firearms missing Jan. 15. Tread from Danns boots was found in the snow where the safes were dumped, court documents state.

Items recovered from Danns truck after the chase Jan. 22 were identified by the alleged victim as the items stolen, and deputies reportedly recovered around 25 tools two days later that were identified by the alleged victim as items that were taken from him.

In a separate file, Dann is charged with second-degree burglary after items recovered from his truck reportedly matched a burglary that took place in December on 770th Avenue in Freeborn County. He pleaded not guilty to that charge Tuesday.

Dann is charged with second-degree assault, fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, possessing ammunition or a firearm with a previous felony conviction and second-degree burglary from the Hayward burglary.

Jury trials on the three files are scheduled to begin July 11, if the cases have not been settled by then.
President Trumps ambiguous decision-making process regarding whether to stay or leave the Paris framework agreement on climate change means he will meet with European, Canadian and Japanese leaders at the G7 meeting in Sicily with what looks like an open mind.

But informed observers argue he has already successfully renegotiated the 2015 Paris Agreement in which the Obama administration had agreed to cut U.S. carbon emissions by 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 and spend billions of dollars to support environmental programs in developing nations.

Critics of Trumps environmental and energy policies had hoped that those Trump aides who want to remain in the Paris agreement would win the day. Enormous amounts of political capital were spent during the Obama administrations second term to craft the Paris agreement in a way that could survive future administrations, no matter how anti-climate-action they could be. But its likely many of the Obama-era efforts regarding climate change will largely be undone.

Trump has essentially forced European leaders and the environmental community to accept a reinterpretation section 4.11 of the climate agreement that says: A Party may at any time adjust its existing nationally determined contribution [NDC] with a view to enhancing its level of ambition

There is no obligation embedded in the Paris agreement, nor is there an obligation in the forum itself, said Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a political consulting firm.

After the Trump administration signaled in late April that remaining in the agreement could create legal problems for the administration as it looked to undo Obama-era environmental policies, nearly every major environmental group spontaneously reinterpreted section 4.11 to allow the U.S. to revisit its ambitions downward, Book said. Arguably, this may be the greatest negotiating success of the presidents political career, so far.

Negotiators in Paris debated whether to lock in language that would only allow one-way, more stringent adjustments to emissions, but decided against it. The looser language means a country like the United States can weaken its commitment to the agreement and not be in violation. Before going further, its worth noting:

The overarching international legal authority for everything related to climate change is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty passed by the U.S. Senate in October 1992. This treaty was signed by nearly 200 countries and has created the international legal foundation for the entire climate change political economy.

The actual U.S. legal foundation for the national control of greenhouse gas emissions is the obscure but powerful endangerment finding made by the Environmental Protection Agency in December 2009. The EPA found that greenhouse gas emissions were a danger to the health of U.S. citizens because of the threat rising sea levels and temperatures can have on humans. The endangerment finding found six actual pollutants  carbon dioxide (C02), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfurhexafluoride (SF6)  as the cause of man-made climate change.

In the simplest of terms, the fight over what to do about rising greenhouse gas emissions is a disagreement over the view that argues human life has been put at grave risk by fossil fuel emissions. Democrats and those on the left of the political spectrum believe climate change is an acute political emergency; most Republicans and those on the political right believe it is not a political emergency and are unresponsive to the scientific consensus that global warming is a threat to the health of the planet.

A key part of the argument against pulling out of the Paris agreement is that it will alienate Americas allies in Europe at a time when disagreements over NATO funding and a refugee crisis emanating from the Middle East are challenging U.S.-European relations.

I think [Trump] is going to start learning, especially as the G-20 process unfolds, that pissing off the Europeans for no reason is not a good idea, said David Victor, an international relations scholar at University of California San Diego, speaking with Vox journalist David Roberts.

The idea that such an exit would alienate European partners is not unprecedented. In May 2001, George W. Bush withdrew the United States signature from the Kyoto Protocol signed in the late 1990s, much to the consternation of Germany and France.

Its possible that Trump will simply frustrate expectations regarding Paris and punt a final decision even further into the future. The United States cannot withdraw from the Paris agreement as currently written until 2019, giving Trump plenty of opportunity weaken the U.S. pledges in the meantime.
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MASON CITY | A man who allegedly entered into a Mason City residence earlier this month and assaulted someone living there has pleaded not guilty to first-degree burglary as an habitual felony offender.

Jeffrey A. Beier, 34, Mason City, is scheduled to be tried July 25 in Cerro Gordo County District Court.

Beier is accused of entering a residence in the 100 block of 16th Street Northwest on May 3 and assaulting a male resident.

Mason City Police Lt. Rich Jensen said the resident went to the ER for a facial injury.

Beier was sent to prison for up to 15 years in 2015 after violating the terms of the probation he received for felony convictions of methamphetamine delivery, domestic abuse assault (strangulation) and possession of a controlled substance, third or subsequent offense.

He was released from prison early on parole.

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Posted by Jeremy on at 03:16 AM CST

Smyths Toys in the United Kingdom are stocking - and selling the new Summer 2017 sets ahead of their June 1st release date. So far the following sets have been seen in the wild: 75178 Jakku Quadjumper - 54.99, 75180 Rathtar Escape - 84.99, 75182 Republic Fighter Tank - 19.99, 75183 Darth Vader Transformation, 75185 Tracker I - 54.99 and 75186 The Arrowhead - 54.99. These join 75191 Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive Booster Ring , which is a Smyths exclusive, in being released ahead of schedule. If you have store reports to share we have a special Recent LEGO Acquisitions thread in our forums for just this kind of information.
'While Indian IT has known what is coming and has a strategy ready to combat it, the same can't be said about the country and the government.'

'Restructuring of Indian IT will have a powerful impact on jobs for the middle class. And reskilling across the board has a strong chance of a social downside.'

Subir Roy's insight.

IMAGE: Not all Indian IT and services firms have been equally affected by the current headwinds. TCS, the largest player in the Indian industry, is going about its business as if it is residing in a different planet. Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters.

The media is full of reports of the spectre of thousands of job cuts looming before the Indian software and services industry, dramatically altering the perception of the industry till now as a global winner. It is critical to understand the forces at play and see them in the correct historical perspective so that right supportive policies can help the industry tide over the present challenges.

The Indian software and services industry has historically displayed a cyclical pattern as new challenges have emerged and been overcome by evolving strategies.

The year 2009-10 was a challenge for the industry as it grappled with the great recession triggered by the global financial crisis of 2008.

Almost a decade earlier, as the tech and telecom bubbles burst, seriously undermining customer investment in new technology, and 9/11 cast its spell on the global business sentiment, Indian software and services vendors had to overcome headwinds.

So, this is an industry which has periodically encountered and overcome adversity.

The industry, which last year (financial 2016) employed 3.7 million people, had in a study of its own (Nasscom Perspective 2025) identified the task of rolling out a massive programme to "train and reskill 4-5 million people". So, it knew that it had to reskill in under a decade more than its entire current workforce.

Hence, the industry has not been caught unawares by the technological challenges before it, though the victory of Donald Trump, and hence his new visa policy may not have been foreseen.

It is also important to note that all Indian IT and services firms have not been equally affected by the current headwinds.

Quite dramatically, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest player in the Indian industry, is going about its business as if it is residing in a different planet. It has indicated no plans for letting staff go, in whichever way you like to couch the idea.

What is more, it just joined the Bihar government in inaugurating a 1,000-seat centre in Patna which will create 3,000 jobs.

Also, among all large IT and services firms operationally anchored in India, TCS is the most geographically diversified (54 per cent of revenue comes from North America), including extensive operations in India.

Conversely, the worst affected and currently the largest issuer of pink slips is Cognizant, which gets 75 per cent of its revenue from North America.

Two simple principles emerge from this, which are staple for business school students -- spread your business geographically as extensively as possible and be ready to do all kinds of work.

Any Indian who has recently got his passport issued or renewed by a Passport Sewa Kendra, almost entirely run by TCS, will vouch for the transformative role that the firm has played, making one corner of Indian's legendary bureaucracy incredibly customer friendly. After applying online, I recently walked out of a Sewa Kendra in well under two hours with a slip of paper saying my passport had been renewed and it was delivered to my home in under a week.

I doubt if TCS makes much money out of this part of its work, but look at the domain knowledge that it has acquired in transforming the customer facing parts of the Indian bureaucracy. Now juxtapose this with the declared aim of the government to take India digital.

Look at the business opportunity that exists as the Unified Payments System makes it possible for a barely literate Indian who was earlier scared to go near a bank or use a credit card to switch to digital payments by, among other things, his identity being established biometrically.

Also note the way in which the truly small shop owner will soon be able to get working capital one week at a time, based on the cash flow that he is able to establish through customers paying him digitally.

Further note the opportunity that a rapidly digitising poor country offers to innovative start-ups to develop applications from the humungous amount of data that a billion plus population generates.

Also read:

How does Indian IT reinvent itself to counter the challenges posed by automation, artificial intelligence, cloud to offer a winning proposition in a rapidly digitising world?

The Nasscom study referred to earlier outlines a path.

Make the country a global centre of innovation in digital technology.

Foster innovative clusters linked to technology institutes.

Build capabilities to reskill 4-5 million people.

Put more steam into the Startup India programme to foster entrepreneurship.

Rebrand India as a global technology hub instead of the current one of a low cost and efficiency leader.

Evolve regulation to create a domestic market that can support what is outlined above.

Protect intellectual property.

Strengthen cyber security laws.

Ease the creation of public-private partnerships in education and generally enhance the ease of doing business.

While Indian IT has known what is coming and has a strategy ready to combat it, the same cannot be said about the country as a whole and the government.

The restructuring of Indian IT will have a powerful impact on jobs for the middle class. IT will no longer be the great job giver. And reskilling across the board has a strong chance of a social downside.

Look at the team leader in an IT firm with 10-15 years of service who has gone off technology and into management. For him, with a family and EMI for an apartment to take care of, learning a new technology to hold on to his job will be a daunting task.
Codgers on holiday in rising India! Growing foreign travel is one sign of the radical change in rising Indias vacation dynamic.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.



As scorching temperatures empty Indias cities, the emerging rich, ordinary rich and seriously rich engage in the gentle snobbery of overseas destination shopping, the level of exotica marking the distinction between sophisticate and arriviste.

Growing foreign travel is only one sign of the radical change in rising Indias vacation dynamics.

The narrowing gap between private sector and government in the fine art of vacationing is the other prominent shift, and no one has been more influential here than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.



Executive vacation was a rare concept until the growing multinational presence in India imported the notion of work-life balance. This largely means that executives get to sequester a chunk of time specifically for a vacation -- instead of sneaking time out from an overseas business trip with family tagged along.



Gone, therefore, is the routine envy accorded to government servants and bureaucrats, who miraculously discovered vital business involving the worlds largest democracy in foreign climes as the temperature neared the 40s. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in some salubrious outpost of Britains former empire has been the jewel in this official vacation crown.



It escaped no one that a biennial meeting between the heads of governments of rising powers and the rapidly declining former colonial overlord -- all accompanied by vast staffs -- was a pretty useless exercise. Not for nothing did a wag attach a different long-form label to CHOGM: Codgers on Holiday on Government Money.



But beyond CHOGM, the scope for official overseas trips was vast. Ingenuity played a key role. Some bureaucrats and MPs in a nineties regime were missing from their respective bhavans because they were on an official trip to the West Indies to study -- wait for it -- the spread of Hindi in the region.



An austerity programme after the 2008 global financial crisis put paid to the more bizarre overseas trips but did not staunch the appetite for domestic breaks at taxpayer expense. In 2012, when the Indian economy was struggling, India Today published a report on how MPs on parliamentary panels blowing up crores on study tours.

Here are some of the more egregious examples. A coal ministry study to Leh in June, 2012. Two tours in 2011 by current speaker Sumitra Mahajan, then on a rural development panel, to major cities in the north and south with stays in five star hotels ended with a bill of Rs 16.9 lakh.



Like his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, Mr Modi does not take vacations -- a fact his staff is proud to highlight. Many unkind comments about his vigorously publicised foreign travel in his initial months in charge caused him to cut back. As for CHOGM, Mr Modi also eschewed attendance at the 2015 meeting in Malta because of the Indian governments disagreement on the line on climate change.

Ironically, the 2017 meet in Vanuatu was cancelled because of cyclone damage in that tiny country (a climate change impact if there ever was one). And British Prime Minister Teresa May has extended him a personal invitation to the 2018 meet in the UK (would it be worth the trouble in a Brexit world?)



Mr Modis workaholic proclivities make it incumbent on ministers in his government to follow suit. Last year, he put in some tougher guidelines limiting travel by bureaucrats -- foreign trips only four times a year, for instance, subject to authorisation by a committee of secretaries, among other things.



Small wonder, then, that central bureaucrats are urgently requesting postings back to their home cadres. For the states remain decidedly relaxed on the question of taxpayer-funded foreign tours.

West Bengals Jyoti Basu set the trend long ago; after the Left Front government agreed on the criticality of foreign investment, he infallibly headed UK- or US-ward each summer, though the bulk of interest came from Malaysia and Indonesia and from within India.

This year, NDTV broke news of a 16-member team of Maharashtra legislators heading to Australia and New Zealand, with a one-day stop in Singapore, for a study tour on drought management.



At Rs 6 lakh a head, free meals and provision for one companion, you do wonder at the sheer insensitivity of this plan in a state where farmers have suffered so much hardship -- and many have died -- on this account. A trip to neighbouring Gujarat, where Israeli technology and drip irrigation have transformed the landscape, would have been immeasurably more useful.



But, then, when Indias new rich are cavorting in the moneyed playgrounds of the world, is it practical to expect public servants to toil in the heat and dust at home?
Our target is to award Rs 25 lakh crore worth of projects that would result in creating 25 million jobs

Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister of road transport and highways, and shipping, says he would like to speed up the pace of work in the government.

So, while he talks to Megha Manchanda and Jyoti Mukul for an interview, he keeps a meeting of officials going simultaneously.

What he shares is a lunch and the news that his ministry is set to enter the Guinness Book of Records for awarding 16,800 km of projects in a year.

Has there been enough investment pick-up in the highways sector? What would be the focus?

This is a record in itself, that we awarded 16,800 km of highway contracts till March.

Second, road construction that was in the range of two km a day has been increased to 23 km a day.

Currently, the total length of roads in the country is 5.2 million km. Of this, 96,000 km are highways or two per cent of the total; 40 per cent of the countrys traffic is on this two per cent. We plan to take this 96,000 km to 200,000 km; of which, which 170,000 km have been declared national highways and the rest is under process.

The aim is to have a four-lane road wherever the traffic is 10,000 PCU (passenger car unit) and a six-lane highway wherever it is 20,000 PCU.

We have also decided to construct 13 expressways -- we hope to inaugurate the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) this August 15. The expressway would bring down Delhis pollution and congestion by half.

The other expressways include Delhi-Meerut, Mumbai-Vadodara, the Dwarka Expressway (from Delhi), Bengaluru-Chennai and Delhi-Jaipur.

What happened to the earlier proposal for a separate Expressway Authority?

Not an authority, we are thinking of setting up two subsidiaries of NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) -- Express Highways and NHAI International.

Many countries, including Sri Lanka and Nepal, have approached us for construction of highways in their countries.

Within the Authority, we can have various Special Purpose Vehicles, on the lines of NHIDCL (National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation).

NHAI International would execute projects in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Iran and even some African nations.

Indian Port Rail Company (IPRCL) is our entity for constructing port-rail and road-rail connectivity. The company executed projects worth Rs 30,000 crore in 2016-17 and by the end of the current financial year (2017-18) is likely to do another Rs 35,000-40,000 crores.

We are also doing about Rs 1 lakh crore worth of projects for the railways.

How much economic activity has been generated with these works?

Our target is to award Rs 25 lakh crore worth of projects that would result in creating 25 million jobs. We have also designed a scheme which would provide employment to the local population where the project is being developed.

We would provide Rs 10,000 (monthly) stipend to them; the contractor who would conduct their exam would also provide them with a sum.

Is land acquisition still a challenge?

As far as the Jaipur highway is concerned, the project was stuck for a while, which I cleared after several consultations with the banks. To complete work there, NHAI would provide Rs 400 crore but the NoC (no objection certificate) from the banks was pending and was granted only 10 days ago.

We are hopeful that before December this year, the project would be completed; 85 per cent of the work is already done. Land acquisition being a challenge is a perception in the media. In reality, landowners are being given Rs 1.5 crore for land worth Rs 1 crore. The rates have increased under the new law and so people have queued up to sell their land to us.

The government has planned 13 expressways, which require fresh alignment and larger stretches; therefore, more for compensation. With land cost going up, how do you plan to bring down the construction cost?

We are working at reducing the cost of construction by bringing down the interest cost on loans, currently in the range of nine to 10 per cent, to five-six per cent.

In the ports sector, we are constructing the JNPT (Navi Mumbai) to Panvel container traffic corridor; for that, we took a loan at 2.25 per cent from DBS Bank Singapore and SBI Capital Markets. Higher land compensation can be offset by reduced cost of construction, by way of reduction in interest cost.

How much expenditure was made by the government towards land acquisition in the past financial year?

We must have spent about Rs 30,000 crore. This fiscal year also, about Rs 35,000 crore would be spent on that. About Rs 20,000 crore is still with the states that is yet to be disbursed for acquisition.

There was a general slowing in the sector, due to which private companies were not willing to participate. Has this improved with introduction of the hybrid annuity (HAM) model?

Yes. We saved the banks from massive NPAs (non-performing assets).

Do you see more private investment coming? What would be the mix between EPC (engineering, procurement construction) and HAM projects?

The companies were tired of PPP (private-public partnership) agreements; therefore, we got HAM. Companies are coming up for this model but EPC is still the preferred mode, since that brings in liquidity to companies.

So, for the next six months, EPC would be important. Under the hybrid-annuity model, we have already awarded works for over Rs 70,000 crore.

There was a proposal that commuters will have to pay toll per kilometre on the highways. What is the status?

It would be done on a pilot basis in Delhi on the EPE, where CCTVs would be used to establish how many kilometres a vehicle has travelled.

Is enough investment coming in the maritime sector?

More than Rs 4 lakh crore investment is envisaged in port-led development and modernisation. We are developing six new ports, automobile and leather clusters alongside ports; these would invite Rs 12 lakh crore investment. We have completed Rs 6 lakh crore of work and have a target of Rs 25 lakh crore by the end of 2018-19.

Growth in ports and highways was hampered due to lower traffic volumes. Has this improved?

That was not the reason. It was lack of decision making during the UPA (earlier government) rule. Delayed environment clearance hampered the progress of projects.

What is the status of the proposed multi-purpose berth at the Chabahar Port in Iran?

The tender is out, civil work is done. We hope to make it operational by December. It is economically viable for us. It has a lot of strategic importance.

What is happening on road safety?

This is one area I am very unhappy about. There has been a four per cent rise in road accidents since I took charge of my office. Were now spending Rs 11,000 crore on 786 black spots. We are working on a war-footing to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by the end of our five-year term.

When do you see the Motor Vehicles Bill getting cleared?

It has been passed by the Lok Sabha and as soon as the monsoon session of Parliament begins, it would be cleared by the Rajya Sabha. It is a major reform for the sector. The states are on board to implement it.
Will private firms really boost Make in India in the defence sector? Ajai Shukla seeks answers.

IMAGE: T he Defence Acquisition Council has failed to clear a new policy for nominating private companies as strategic partners for building major weapons platforms for the military.

Photograph: Reuters.

Earlier this month, a meeting of the defence ministry's top procurement body, the Defence Acquisition Council, or DAC, failed to clear a new policy for nominating private companies as strategic partners, or SPs, for building major weapons platforms for the military. This is expected to come up before the DAC again, with some changes.

The contours of the new policy had been spelt out to chief executive officers of private defence firms, who were briefed by the ministry.

Under the new policy, six Indian private firms that met stipulated financial and technical criteria would be selected as SPs -- described as "'system of systems integrators' that would set up a widespread industrial eco-system encompassing development partners, specialised vendors and suppliers, especially those from the micro, small and medium enterprises sector".

Chosen SPs would be expected to establish joint ventures with global original equipment manufacturers shortlisted by the ministry.

After competitive bidding, one JV would be chosen for each of the four categories: single-engine fighters, helicopters, submarines and armoured vehicles.

Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar had repeatedly promised an SP policy, but missed numerous deadlines over the last two years as various stakeholders -- ministry bureaucrats, public sector defence companies and different segments of the private sector -- failed to find common ground.

The policy was to form a part of the Defence Procurement Procedure of 2016, but that was eventually issued last June without the chapter on SPs.

Meanwhile, badly needed acquisitions, such as single-engine fighter aircraft for the air force and submarines with air-independent propulsion for the navy, languished without an SP policy to select Indian vendors that would build these platforms locally.

Why strategic partners matter

The National Democratic Alliance government has always regarded defence production as a key vehicle for job creation.

In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto promised that India would 'harness its skilled human resources and technical talent to emerge as a global platform for defence hardware and software production.'

Private sector partnership was to be the key in achieving this goal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to hold this view.

In February 2015, while inaugurating the Aero India 2015 exposition in Bengaluru, Modi described defence manufacture as 'the heart of our Make in India programme.'

Elaborating on its potential for job creation, Modi said: 'Even a 20 to 25 per cent reduction in imports could directly create an additional 100,000 to 120,000 highly skilled jobs in India. If we could raise the percentage of domestic procurement from 40 per cent to 70 per cent in the next five years, we would double the output in our defence industry.'

Yet, for the next two years, the government took only baby steps towards this end.

It eased defence licensing, allowing private firms to manufacture more products without licences.

The cap on foreign direct investment in defence was eased from 26 to 49 per cent.

Taxes and duties were rationalised and private manufacturers protected against foreign exchange rate variation.

Even so, private industry has waited impatiently for a Big Bang manufacturing reform that would bring it on a par with the privileged defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) and ordnance factories (OFs). That is why many welcome the SP policy, conceived in 2015 by the Dhirendra Singh Committee.

In 2016, a follow-up task force led by former Defence R&D Organisation chief VK Aatre recommended the financial and technical benchmarks that Indian firms must meet to be nominated as SPs. It was envisaged that one SP each would build aircraft, helicopters, aero engines, guns, submarines, warships and armoured vehicles; while two SPs each would manufacture metallic material and alloys; non-metallic materials; and ammunition, including smart munitions. The SP policy being finally issued envisages just four technology realms.

Models for defence manufacture

The idea of empowering private companies goes back to 2005, when the Vijay Kelkar Committee conceptualised the "Make" procedure. This envisaged Indian private and public firms designing complex weaponry, with the defence ministry reimbursing 80 per cent of the cost and assuring manufacturing orders for products that met the military's requirements.

The "Make" procedure went well beyond mere licenced manufacture and aimed at creating design capability and system integration skills in India.

To implement the "Make" procedure, the ministry's Probir Sengupta Committee identified 12 companies, designated "Raksha Udyog Ratnas" (RuRs). Like SPs, these RuRs were selected based on strict financial and technical criteria that favoured larger companies.

However, trade unions of DPSUs and OFs pressed then defence minister AK Antony to scuttle the concept, fearing that RuRs would put them out of business. Smaller defence companies also objected, worrying that RuRs would corner the market, leaving little for them.

Although the RuR concept never took off, the "Make" procedure remains a category in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). Two "Make" category acquisitions are currently under way: the Tactical Communications System, and the Battlefield Management System, with a third being evaluated to build a Future Infantry Combat Vehicle.

The "Make" category accords major responsibility to the defence ministry, which would have to create a methodology for assessing cost-plus pricing, since it must accurately assess and reimburse design cost claims of vendors.

Another alternative for the private sector is the "Buy & Make (India)" category of procurement, which was promulgated in DPP-2011. This requires Indian vendors to partner foreign OEMs of their choice in bidding to build proven military platforms and which meet defence ministry specifications.

This model has yielded at least two procurements already: Tata Advanced Systems is manufacturing naval combat management systems in partnership with Danish company, Terma; while Tata Power (Strategic Engineering Division) is building anti-diver sonar in partnership with Israeli firm, DSIT.

Critique of SP model

Private company CEOs say the new policy has met its objective of insulating ministry decision-makers from future allegations of wrongdoing by introducing competitive bidding for winning contracts.

Instead of choosing one/two SPs for each segment, as proposed by the Aatre Task Force, the ministry will choose six SPs to compete in multiple segments. When one SP wins a contract, it would be eliminated from further tendering, since the SP policy restricts each company to a single segment. This would scuttle an OEM's bid the moment its SP partner is selected in another segment.

For example, if Lockheed Martin partners L&T to build single-engine fighters, their JV would stand nullified if L&T won a tender to build armoured vehicles.

In fact, competitive bidding by SPs was never envisaged, in the form that it is in the "Buy", "Make" and "Buy & Make (India)" categories.

The Aatre Task Force report, quoting the Dhirendra Singh Committee, states: "Whenever the vendor base is large and competition is feasible, the competitive bidding process must be followed. There are cases, however, where certain platforms are of strategic importance. For these, we are recommending the strategic partnership model for creating capacity in the private sector on a long-term basis. Such a capacity will be created over and above the capacity and infrastructure which exists in public sector units."

Private firm executives also complain the government is taking on too much by nominating the SPs as well as foreign OEMs. Given there would be just two or three OEMs and an equivalent number of SPs in the fray, the latter complain they would have little negotiating leverage.

This lack of negotiating leverage would play out in other ways too.

An Indian CEO cites the 49 per cent FDI cap on OEMs to argue that an Indian vendor would carry 51 per cent of the risk, while an OEM -- which would supply most of the technology -- would control 85 per cent of the cost. Since the OEM would extract his technology cost through a transfer pricing mechanism, the SP would be left with little financial benefit, but a majority share of the risk.

"In a 'Buy & Make (Indian)' category acquisition, the Indian partner decides the foreign partner, and effectively negotiates the price. In the SP policy, the Indian partner is reduced to being the assembly house of a foreign OEM", says an Indian defence CEO.

Furthermore, few Indian defence companies have the technological savvy to negotiate on comparable terms with high-tech OEMs. This is especially true of new entrants like Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Adani Group, which have so far demonstrated no defence technology capability.

Given that, selecting these firms as SPs would be fraught with risk for decision-makers, given their perceived proximity to the ruling party.

Indian companies like L&T and Tata Power (SED), which have developed genuine technological capability in defence, worry that foreign OEMs would prefer Indian SPs with lesser technological capability, upon whom the foreign partner could impose terms. Without the capability to demand a greater share of manufacture or to absorb technology to capture the maintenance, repair, spares, overhaul and upgrade market, a weak SP would allow the OEM to defeat every aim of indigenisation.

Additionally, there are apprehensions even within the ministry that companies without strong defence technology capabilities might prefer to leverage their SP status into lucrative land grants, defence technology enclaves, low-cost bank loans and initial public offerings, rather than risk foraying into defence manufacture.

Nor does the SP policy provide for penalties for defaults and delays in projects, which some private Indian companies are well known for.
'She could not believe how much India had changed since the last time she experienced it first hand,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

After the results of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, my 85-year-old mother-in-law found it difficult to understand why the Bharatiya Janata Party was winning election after election.

She could not understand how Prime Minister Narendra Modi's electoral magic was working everywhere.

"What good has Modi done that he is winning every election?" she asked me.

I told her that voters believe Modi is delivering on his promise of good governance and they feel India has become free of corruption.

"Is that so?" she asked, amused.

"Many believe so," I replied.

"Did you not bribe someone recently to get something done?" she asked.

"Not really," I said, adding, "I never ask officials for favours."

"How can you say India is free of corruption?" she argued, unconvinced.

My mother-in-law has been confined to our home for the last 10 years because of arthritis and a spinal disorder.

In the India she had seen before being home-bound, government offices operated on the basis of bribes or the infamous baksheesh.

One needed to bribe for everything -- for a birth certificate, for school admission, for a ration card, for a gas connection, for a passport, for water connection, even for a death certificate.

My mother-in-law could not believe that bribes had been curbed, if not supposedly extinct in Modi's India.

I wanted to convince my mother-in-law, but I couldn't do so because she is unable to go out and visit government offices.

My Eureka moment arrived when I spotted an Aadhaar mobile van in my area. I sprinted like Bolt to catch the Aadhaar van.

I told the official that my mother-in-law was immobile and wanted an Aadhaar card.

I would have to seek an appointment, he informed me, and an Aadhaar mobile van would arrive home with the necessary equipment.

Giving me the contact information, he asked me to take an appointment at once.

I called up the Unique Identification Authority of India office and provided the details.

My mother-in-law wanted an Aadhaar card for two reasons.

One: She could not believe our maid was getting the LPG subsidy deposited directly in her bank account; two: She thought one needed an Aadhaar card to be buried.

The route to test Mr Modi's governance and prove its widely reported efficacy to my mother-in-law was found.

"Let us see whether we are asked for a bribe," I told her.

Within two days, I got a call from the UIDAI office, asking if I had registered for an Aadhaar card for my mother-in-law.

When I said I had, the person at the other end said a mobile van would be at my home within the hour.

I was late for office, my wife was busy, so I told the UIDAI person that this was not a good time because my mother-in-law may not open the door while she was alone at home.

No problem, the person indicated, they would call me another time.

A week passed. My mother-in-law chided me for my faith in Mr Modi's governance.

Two weeks later, I got a call from the UIDAI office. An Aadhaar van was coming to my area and would it be okay if UIDAI staff visited our home to register my mother-in-law's application?

Thirty minutes after I consented, the Aadhaar staff were at my door.

They took my mother-in-law's photograph and completed the other formalities.

They told us that the Aadhaar card would be available on the UIDAI Web site in 15 days and a hard copy would be mailed to us in three months.

And they left without taking a single rupee as baksheesh.

Two weeks later, I sat with my mother-in-law and logged onto the UIDAI Web site.

I got her Aadhaar card printed, and, within seconds, she had a government id without any hassle and without giving a single paisa as baksheesh.

She could not believe how much India had changed since the last time she experienced it first hand.

"It's magic," she said.

"Modi magic," I replied.
CHARLES CITY | Authorities say they found evidence of a meth lab this week at a residence in the 300 block of 13th Avenue in Charles City.

Narcotics-related and meth lab-related items were seized during a narcotics search warrant at the residence Wednesday evening, according to the Charles City Police Department's Facebook page.

Charles City Police Capt. Brandon Franke said two individuals he described as "persons of interest" were detained for questioning, but they are no longer detained and have not been charged.

Testing will be done on the items found at the residence as part of the investigation, according to Franke.

He said he didn't have a timeline as far as how long the investigation will take or when arrests will be made.

The Charles City Police Department was assisted at the scene by the Floyd County Sheriff's Office, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement and a Iowa State Patrol tactical team.

 Mary Pieper
Why are the 'secular' parties silent about the lynchings on our streets?

Are they so busy forging political alliances that they ignore the numerous distortions of Constitutional values?

Mohammad Sajjad examines the state of India's Opposition parties three years after Narendra Modi and the BJP were elected to power.

From the perspective of a deeply concerned citizen, it appears that Indian democracy is passing through its worst phase.

This became much more evident with what happened on May 18 in Jharkhand, a few kilometres away from the steel city of Jamshedpur.

According to news reports, in two different villages, because of absolutely baseless rumours, four Muslims and two Dalits were barbarically lynched by mobs, consisting mostly of tribals.

The consequent degree of outrage about these murders from civil society is woefully inadequate.

People seem to have either gone mute or so gotten used to such ghastly killings which are increasingly the order of the day across the country.

Is it indeed the 'new normal'?

Neither the Opposition nor the intelligentsia (including most of the media, a substantial section of which has already been kowtowing before the establishment) speak of the breakdown of the Constitutional machinery in the Bharatiya Janata Party-governed Jharkhand.

Nobody speaks of imposing President's Rule in the state.

No political party has come out onto the streets to protest the killings.

No opinion writer of a liberal-secular persuasion has asked the non-BJP parties to take its support base out on the streets to protest the brutality.

Not only power-seeking politicians, but also the liberal-secular intelligentsia desperately wait to stitch together a broad alliance which can dislodge the BJP from power in 2019.

Within the confines of luxurious hotels, talks on coalitions and alliances are taking place for the elections to be held two years from now.

None are prepared to come out of their comfort zones and take to the streets.

Little do they realise that mere unity from the top can no longer befool the masses in the name of secularism and social justice.

In fact, such moves of opportunistic unity at the top would create a counter-mobilisation with greater vengeance in the BJP's favour.

Mayawati has not come out onto the streets when thousands of Dalits are protesting against the atrocities in Saharanpur. Nor did Akhilesh Yadav, Uttar Pradesh's recently dislodged chief minister, join these protests from Saharanpur to Delhi, even while stating his willingness to align with Mayawati.

The leaders will bargain about coalitions for power, but they won't ask their core/captive support bases to come together to protest these lynchings on the streets.

In November 2015, after the Mahagathbandhan won the Bihar assembly election, Lalu Yadav, the darling of the secularists, boasted of camping in Varanasi -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency -- to launch a mass mobilisation against the PM's unkept promises.

Lalu is now busy affirming the power base for his two sons inside the coalition government in Bihar. Yet, his support base refuses to ask him some pertinent questions. Why? It will strengthen Hindutva, they say.

By not asking such questions, they ignore the fact that they have created a vacuum which has come to be filled in by Hindutva forces.

The likes of Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati etc are extremely discredited today, yet they doggedly refuse to learn any lesson.

No traditional 'secular' party is prepared to accommodate the rising aspirations of the OBCs, Dalits, MahaDalits and other lower castes and classes. These left-out groups have been lured by the saffron forces.

Today, these traditional 'secular' forces are neither willing to nor capable of re-scripting the grammar of politics.

Even the intelligentsia has become palpably partisan. They shout against the omissions and commissions of saffron establishments, but they choose to become less shrill and less strident when they are needed to speak against the non-saffron forces.

The liberals, for instance, did not speak out against the Akhilesh Yadav regime whose police in Dadri, Muzaffarnagar, and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh failed to uphold Constitutional values.

For citizens, even more alarming is the unwillingness of the liberal-secular intelligentsia to speak against politics which schemes to grab power through opportunistic and self-serving coalitions, negotiated in luxurious hotels.

If frequent lynching and similar atrocities across the country cannot make the Opposition come out onto the streets, then what can move them?

People are not prepared to trust the existing Opposition parties who have been cheating them for long. In the name of secularism and social justice, they have only perpetuated their dynasties.

Never before have India's Opposition parties and the intelligentsia witnessed such a pathetic crisis of credibility.

Both India's polity and society have been reduced to a bizarre binary as if no third space really exists anymore. On social media sites, it seems India has only two colours: Saffron and non-saffron.

A polychromatic India is becoming elusive.

One rarely finds someone who can simultaneously speak out against scams on all sides of politics, be it the fodder scam or Vyapam.

One set will say speaking about the fodder scam will strengthen the Hindutva forces while the other side will argue that speaking against lynching and Vyapam will bring back the regressive dynasties.

Forget the ruling elites, even citizens on social sites have become partisan and fall prey to the carefully constructed bipolarity of politics.

They will feign shameless ignorance about crimes and corruption on one side while speaking out loudly against the same on another.

They will invoke 'jungle raj' of one regime, but look away from similar or even more palpable failures of the Constitutional machinery under another regime.

If the Rashtriya Janata Dal's supporters were not shaken by the massacres of Dalits and other crimes when Lalu Yadav or his wife Rabri Devi were chief minister, saffron supporters are hardly outraged about the lynch mobs. Both enjoy(ed) impunity under the respective regimes.

While drawing this parallel, one runs the risk of being condemned for having ignored the degrees of ferocity of suffering of the victims. They must understand that one isn't ignoring the degrees. Comparisons do carry oddities.

Killers of various varieties -- be it the cow vigilantes and lynch mobs of today or those in the so-called 'Muslim friendly' regimes of Lalu Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and their predecessors -- have always enjoyed impunity.

Yet, they manage to keep getting the votes of the victims.

In 1996, the Bharatiya Janata Party protested when Mohammed Taslimuddin -- perceived to be close to Lalu Yadav -- was appointed minister of state for home in the H D Deve Gowda government despite his dubious background.

In 2017, the same BJP selected a chief minister who faced serious charges.

One of the biggest failures of Indian democracy has been in the domain of the criminal justice system where killings in the name of identity-based hatred (against Muslims, Dalits, tribals, etc), are rarely taken to their logical conclusion.

Quite often, even well-meaning people insist on forgetting and moving on.

This is how the perpetrators of such crimes enjoy impunity and are emboldened further. These acts of 'forgiveness' embolden the thuggish hate merchants and killers.

In such a bleak scenario, why cannot the intelligentsia and media help the country?

Because even those universities, hitherto known for their anti-establishment politics and academics, are now being made to confront this crisis of credibility in an unprecedented manner.

In the 1960s and 1970s, when the hegemony of the ruling Congress had to be challenged, sections of motivated students and teachers took to the revolutionary path and joined the poor landless labourers of Bihar, West Bengal, and other parts of India.

They lived with them, they suffered for them, were imprisoned as well. As late as the 1990s, Chandrashekhar, a student leader at Jawaharlal Nehru University, rather than opt for a comfortable career in academics at elite universities chose to fight the gangster-landlord nexus in Saran, patronised by the state government.

In this act of revolution, he made the supreme sacrifice. Ironically, the state government was then controlled by someone professing his commitment for social justice and secularism.

All these sacrifices and contributions from those at these educational institutions seem to have gone in vain.

Today, motivated political forces have succeeded in unleashing propaganda, accusing those very institutions and emancipatory ideologies to be unpatriotic, seditious, and what not.

Today, even the most illiterate segments in the remotest hinterlands have been fed with lies about those institutions, that they are dens of treasons.

We should not and cannot dismiss it merely by saying that since this is the era of mass stupidity, rumours are replacing truth successfully.

There is certainly more to it. Despite so many anti-people economic measures inflicted upon the masses by this government, the Opposition parties are unable to mobilise the people against the incumbent regime.

The suffering masses just don't trust the Opposition parties anymore.

Professor Mohammad Sajjad, who teaches at the Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University, is the author of Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur since 1857.

IMAGE: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, centre, Janata Dal-United President Sharad Yadav, CPI Secretary Doraiswamy Raja, Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien and other Opposition leaders march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan to protest against the land bill, March 17, 2015. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI Photo
'The success or otherwise of Modi's foreign policy will largely depend on the equation he is likely to strike with Donald Trump,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.

A device that many playwrights use to either complicate matters or to resolve a difficult plot is deus ex machina or god from the machine, so called because the concerned character comes to the stage from the roof with the help of a pulley.

Such a phenomenon has appeared in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's successful journey in foreign policy towards the end of his three years in office.

The arrival of Donald Trump on the world scene has transformed international relations beyond recognition and his impact will be of great significance on Modi's foreign policy moves.

The success or otherwise of Modi's foreign policy will largely depend on the equation he is likely to strike with Trump.

Given Trump's mercurial character, there is no guarantee that he will build on the foundations laid by Modi and Obama.

Modi's sterling achievement in his first three years was the way he brought India-US relations from the rock bottom of the roller coaster to its pinnacle.

Setting aside issues like the denial of a US visa to himself and the Devyani Khobragade incident, Modi went right ahead to strengthen the strategic relationship and to expand it further into closer cooperation in the Asia Pacific and to close defence cooperation.

He sought to cut the Gordian knot of the liability law issue to enhance nuclear cooperation in accordance with the historic nuclear deal, which the BJP had opposed and countered with the liability law.

During his fourth visit to the US, he announced in the US Congress in 2016 that henceforth the world would hear a new symphony in India-US relationship.

Obama echoed the same sentiments and began co-designing and co-producing advanced military equipment with India.

Obama called Modi a man of action and the latter came close to being named Time's Man of the Year.

The arrival of the deus ex machina on January 20, 2017 was as dramatic, unexpected and inevitable as it used to happen in the theatre.

The BJP camp, which had counted on Obama's reincarnation in female form, was as surprised by the advent of Trump as the majority of psephologists.

They started counting their blessings in terms of his hatred of Islamic terrorism, allergy towards China, inclination towards Russia, love of business and affinity to his Hindu fundraisers.

It was hoped that his migration policies would not come in the way of the deployment of our IT personnel in the US in large numbers.

A Trump-Modi meeting was anticipated to establish a new equation between the two men, who had appeared to share decisiveness, rightist policies, business mindedness and courage, to carry the new symphony forward.

But the freeze that descended on the international scene had its impact on India.

Except for a phone call and meetings at lower levels, there is no sign of extensive and intensive interaction between the two countries. Nor is there a date for their meeting in sight.

As Trump began to move on to the international scene, many myths were shattered.

Russia became a dreaded ghost in a scandal, which could lead to a first step towards impeachment.

The North Korean threat to blow up the world transformed China from an adversary and a currency manipulator to a partner.

Trump gave a message of peace to the Muslim world, not from Cairo, as Obama did, but from the land of the Holy Mosques itself.

Islamic terrorism was downgraded to Islamist extremism.

Not a word was spoken in public about human rights issues.

Migration control began to affect Indian IT personnel.

The method in the madness of the election campaign gradually emerged.

US foreign policy appeared to return to its traditional moorings. The expectation today is not that Trump would bring in new dynamism, but that the traditional comfort level between India and the US would be maintained.

The best hope is that at their first meeting, Modi and Trump would strike an equation.

The terrible mess that our neighbourhood has become at the beginning of the fourth year of the Modi government may have nothing to do with the Trump phenomenon.

But the hardline stand that China and Pakistan take with India may be the result of confidence on their part that neither the US nor Russia would go out of their way to side with India.

News has just come that the Trump administration has proposed to give Pakistan $800 million as reimbursement for its military and logical support in counter terrorism operations in the next fiscal year.;

India has also become tough with them as evidenced by the worsening situation on the Pakistan border and the Indian boycott of the Chinese OBOR Summit.

Modi's vision of cooperation with neighbours lie shattered as China has considerably enhanced its influence over them.

His effort to build a SAARC without Pakistan might end up in a SAARC without India under China's tutelage.

The recent launch of a satellite for use by South Asian countries other than Pakistan was a diplomatic coup, but there is fear that it might become a white elephant, with the countries in the region not having the technology or the ground facilities to make use of the satellite.

Moreover, some of them already have arrangements with China or some of the European countries for use of satellites. Whether ISRO will be able to replace them is a matter to be seen.

The height of irony will be if these countries get Chinese money to build ground facilities to use the Indian satellite.

A legal victory in the International Court of Justice, new surgical strikes and increased tension have added a new dimension to India-Pakistan relations.

A silver lining in the region is the PM's visit to Sri Lanka during which there were signs of Sri Lanka's disillusionment with China.

Early in the fourth year, Modi will visit Russia and Israel. Both these can have an impact on India's relations with the US.

But with Trump's own attitudes to these countries in a flux, it is difficult to predict whether there could be any coordination between India and the US.

Modi is expected to press Russia to influence China to budge on the question of India's admission to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, but China is likely to be even more adamant, following the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh and the Indian boycott of the OBOR.

The change that has taken place in Russia's assessment of ISIS as the major terrorist threat as against cross border terrorism is a challenge that India would face in the future.

In the fourth year, the Modi government appears formidable internally, having overcome the hazards of demonetisation, but it looks vulnerable on the foreign policy front.

Too many imponderables make it difficult for India to steer clear of the turbulence on the international scene.

The eventual success of Modi's first term will depend more on the evolving global scene this year than on the diplomatic skills and innovative initiatives that India can take.

We have to watch how the deus ex machina goes about his act on the stage.

T P Sreenivasan, (IFS 1967) former Ambassador of India and Governor for India of the IAEA, is Chairman, Academic Council and Director, NSS Academy of Civil Services, Director General, Kerala International Centre.
'Let us not say that Modi has not delivered on anything; he has delivered something and in parts substantially, but he has to also deliver on a large number of his electoral promises.'

M R Venkatesh, chartered accountant and political commentator, discusses three years of the Narendra Modi government with Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.

If you were to give a report card to Narendra Modi after completing three years, what will it be?

If you look at the performance of the Narendra Modi government, I would say it has done spectacularly well in certain areas and has room for improvement in some areas.

Put pithily, it is a good government on its way to greatness!

For instance, in the fight against corruption there can be no complaint against it. There are no major allegations even by the Opposition against the prime minister or for that matter any of his Cabinet colleagues.

But that is not the only mandate the NDA got; the mandate was not just to be clean, but also take action against those who were party to the loot during the UPA regime.

This is where I feel the Modi government can do better.

Strangely, it is willing to strike but for some inexplicable reason is unwilling to wound.

Several Opposition leaders seem to be enjoying a peculiar sort of confidence that somehow or the other, the system will contrive and protect them.

Narendra Modi cannot overlook this portion of the 2014 mandate.

He has not only to act but also destroy the perception that his government is slow to act on past corruption cases.

Do you think he is afraid of people perceiving it as a witch hunt, and fears it would have a negative impact on the government?

Probably, that is the reason. Narendra Modi must have had his political baptism in the 1970s. He must have seen the kind of sympathy wave for Indira Gandhi post her arrest by the Janata government.

It was the hasty arrest that subsequently led to her political resurrection. So, Modi probably believes that unless there is a huge public demand for action against a particular leader, he doesn't want to take the risk.

But he must understand that 2017 is not 1977.

I am sure the nation will be with him if he were to take action against all those corrupt backed by evidence and proper investigation.

He had promised in 2014 that he would bring black money back to the country. Do you think he has done enough on that?

Demonetisation has been a resounding political success.

There were naysayers right from the first day, but he has won election after election whether it was at the state level or panchayat level.

Narendra Modi, the politician, has come out unscathed in the aftermath of demonetisation.

Looking at it from the economic point of view, the Budget of 2017 gives us some clues; That one-and-a-half lakh people have deposited around Rs 5 lakh crores.

We have to wait for some more time for these people to be assessed.

I understand from my sources that the enforcement directorate, the corporate law ministry and the income tax department have been able to collect a lot of data post demonetisation.

Analysis is going on now. Zeroing in on those who are party to the loot of the nation over the past several years will take time.

On one hand, we want instant judgement. On the other hand any action is also termed as political vendetta.

My guess is that it will take some more time for any action to be visible.

The way the data has been collected and being put to use subsequently, even the hardened critics of Narendra Modi admit that it was a huge success in the fight against black money.

You said demonetisation was a political success. But Modi's critics say he somehow managed to make the poor of India believe that demonetisation was against the rich and for the poor.

According to his critics, demonetisation has not achieved anything like fighting corruption, terrorism or black money.

Critics said he hurt the poor the most and challenged that he would lose all the state elections.

After the UP and other state elections, his critics have lost credibility in the eyes of the public even to criticise Modi.

The larger issue is, today even to take action against the corrupt, no government department had adequate data or information based on which they could have made an objective analysis.

Remember, we are not playing a T20 match, but a 5 day Test match.

As a chartered accountant, I understand why it is taking time, but the common man may wonder why no news about black money.

That's why I want Narendra Modi to take action against the low hanging fruits.

That must be visible and perceptible. It would make people see that the crooked are being punished and the law of the land prevails.

In 1977, people were patient and the Janata government took a hasty decision and made a mess of itself.

In 2017 the people are in a hurry and I hope the Modi government takes a decision in line with the mood of the nation.

Another plank on which Narendra Modi fought the elections was job creation. He had promised to create millions of jobs. Where does he stand on this promise?

Unfortunately, jobs are not getting created. And that is a fact.

But this is complicated economics.

For instance, 20 years back, to lay a kilometre of road, you might have used say 100 people.

But today, thanks to technology, you need only 30 or 40 people to do the same job.

Technology and automation are revolutionising the jobs market.

But that's not the only issue. The government is also wanting in job creation.

And for that we need skills. And you cannot create skills overnight. I would say this lack of skills is the legacy of the past 30, 40 years.

My grouse with this government is that it has not properly brought the performance of the previous Congress government to the attention of the nation.

When it took over in 2014, my view was that it should have come out with a white paper so that people of India would have known the precise state of the economy.

For example, there are some 10 to 12 business groups in India which owe around Rs 7  to 8 lakh crores to various banks, but most are not reportedly earning enough to even pay the interest on their loans.

India's NPAs (non performing assets) and banking problem can be sorted out only when you settle the issues of these 10, 12 business groups. This is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

Unless we settle the NPA problems, banks will not lend.

Unless business houses borrow, they will not invest.

Unless they invest, the investment cycle will not pick up.

Unless the investment cycle picks up, the employment cycle will not pick up.

While we all talk of unemployment or NPA problems, no one blames the previous government for its profligacy and the way it messed the economy.

When you have around 50% of the population below the age of 30, will lack of jobs affect Narendra Modi when he faces the election in two years' time?

It is not only jobs, but industrial growth and Make in India also.

If I am disappointed with one issue with the Modi government, it is water.

If you travel from Haryana to Rameswaram via Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, parts of Andhra, Telengana, Karnataka down to the interiors of Tamil Nadu, as many as 200 to 250 districts are perennially water starved.

But we are not thinking of taking the basic steps in dealing with water in these areas.

What was the water position in May 2014, it is the same in May 2017 also.

So, if you start dealing with water as a subject, unskilled labour can be used.

For that to happen we must repair, restore and rejuvenate our water bodies.

That is how you create employment. Once you store water, you create water bodies, farming will be more intense.

When agricultural production goes up, there will be a cascading effect on the economy.

Whenever we talk about jobs, it doesn't mean only factory jobs.

Whenever we mean infrastructure, it doesn't mean roads and national highways.

There are at least a million water bodies that need to be restored and rejuvenated. But strangely, water is not a focus area of this government.

I would prefer the prime minister himself to give attention to this crucial subject as he did when he was the CM of Gujarat.

Is it true that India faces an agrarian crisis?

Yes. But let us understand that since Independence we are facing an agrarian crisis.

Even today, agriculture uses the largest manpower in India. And we are one country that can have three crops.

We have the potential to export vegetables and fruits to the world, not to speak about cereals.

But if you look at the agricultural policies of Sharad Pawar and distinguish it with that of Radha Mohan Singh, one will surely conclude that there is no significant difference between the two (agriculture ministers in the UPA and NDA governments respectively).

To tackle this water-agrarian-rural employment crisis, Modi has to concentrate on water.

Though the economy is growing, it is jobless growth.

Unfortunately, it is the truth.

The only place where you can create jobs and growth, it is in the SME sector (small and medium-size enterprises) which Professor Vaidyanathan describes as India Unincorporated.

Unfortunately, they are starved of finances. Mudra scheme is not yet evolved fully.

These are the areas, the Niti Aayog and the advisor to the prime minister's office should look into.

Another drag from industry's perspective is that ease of doing business has not improved substantially.

Even today, every businessman is looked at with suspicion by government departments and it is the onus of the businessman to prove that he has done everything under the law.

There are weak areas in our manufacturing sector. Consequently, our industrial growth is tepid.

Exports have marginally gone up, but that was only in March 2017. I would only pray that the Modi government comes out with a far more industry-friendly policy, especially for MSMEs (micro small and medium enterprises).

Banking and financial institutions are consequently in a huge flux and we still have no clear idea how to deal with it.

Unfortunately, we are happy with solutions that last for half a day and not looking at composite long term solutions.

On the other hand, if you take coal, mining, power, ports, roads or railways, the government has done wonderfully well.

When the UPA demitted office in 2014, we were laying 2 km of highways a day. Today, the figure is approximately 32 km per day and is expected to touch 50 km by next year.

Unfortunately, the growth in these sectors are not translating into overall job growth.

To sum up, let us not say that Modi has not delivered on anything; he has delivered something and in parts substantially, but he has to also deliver on a large number of his electoral promises.

Another criticism against Narendra Modi is about the Hinduisation of India. Critics say it is only because of polarisation that the BJP wins state after state.

The sad part of Indian politics is that unless you abuse Modi, you are not an intellectual.

The fact is the much talked about Mahaghatbandhan (grand alliance) is trying to polarise the country against Narendra Modi and not the other way around.

When others polarise, Narendra Modi will obviously be a beneficiary.

Everybody should realise that polarisation is not a one way street.

India is going through a phase leading to a binary polity.

The more the Opposition Mahaghatbandhan gives the colour of pseudo secularism and by pampering the minorities, it will become the pan Indian Muslim League of the 1940s with the sole exception that this crowd will be in search of a Jinnah to lead them.

In this scenario, if Modi benefits, is it his fault?

So, you agree that Hinduisation or consolidation of Hindus is happening?

I will say minority-ism practised by the so-called secular parties has given rise to a Hindu consolidation.

Let us understand the cause and the effect. The more the Opposition pampers and protects the minorities at the cost of Hindus, Hindus will get consolidated under Narendra Modi.

Is this what is happening in states like UP?

Yes, Hindu consolidation is happening on a massive scale.

That is why I say the pseudo-secular parties should do deep introspection for their own good.

This consolidation was waiting to happen and Hindus were waiting to get consolidated under a person who has appeal across all castes.

Narendra Modi has appeal across all castes. And that virtually makes him electorally invincible.

This Hindu consolidation is not something new. It had happened during Bal Gangadhar Tilak's time, it had happened during the Mahatma's time, it had happened during Netaji's time, it had happened during Indira Gandhi's and Rajiv's time and it is happening now under Narendra Modi.

Hindu consolidation has happened throughout our history, but only when it happens under Narendra Modi, it acquires monstrous overtones.

The more minority-ism, the more the consolidation.

Do you feel Muslims in India feel insecure?

I wouldn't say they are feeling insecure because of Hindu consolidation, but because their political bosses are transferring their political insecurity to the Muslim community.

The mullahs, religious leaders and pseudo-secular parties who had been manipulating the minorities for decades are the reason for this feeling of insecurity in the Muslims.

Mark my words, sooner or later, the minority communities will see through this game and would join the majority community disregarding their political bosses.

That will lead to a healthy development of a polity where Muslims and Christians will not vote for X party and Hindus will not vote for Y party, but all communities will vote for the best candidate and the better party.

That will be the ultimate crowning glory for Indian democracy.

The BJP talks about a Congress-mukt India, Opposition-mukt India.

In the early years of India when there was no opposition to the Congress, we saw the repercussions.

Don't we need a strong Opposition and a strong ruling party for a healthy democracy?

I fully agree with you; for the healthy functioning of democracy, we need both.

What can we do when the main Opposition party is hell bent on destroying itself?

It is not the job of the BJP to sustain the Congress, let us be very clear on this.

I was talking about (BJP President) Amit Shah talking about a Congress-mukt Bharat...

It is a very legitimate political line that Amit Shah wants to decimate the Opposition.

But tell me whether the government is doing anything to destroy the Congress party?

On one hand, we lament that the government has not taken any action against the corrupt Congress leaders.

On the other, we say the government is destroying the Opposition.

As the leader of a political party, Amit Shah can talk about destroying the Opposition.

But the crucial question is whether Narendra Modi as head of the government is using the agencies of the State to destroy the Congress based on false cases?

The answer to this question is, no, he is not.

IMAGE: On his way back from Kedarnath, the prime minister greets a soldier's child. Photograph: Press Information Bureau
It is thanks to these internal differences that the much-awaited merger between the two factions has not made any headway so far, reports R Rajagopalan.

The Sasikala faction of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is facing a tremendous amount of internal pressure, with three or four warring groups unable to come to grips with each other.



With the faction leaders V K Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran behind bars, there has been behind-the-scenes build-up by various second-rung leaders to jostle for positions, with no collective leadership visible that can overcome these differences.

Even the rival faction, headed by former chief minister O Panneerselvam, has been facing internal conflicts.

In both the camps, the undercurrents of dissension in the top leadership have come to the fore after the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi  OPSs last week, and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamis this week.

In the EPSs cabinet there are three-four groups that are vying with each other for supremacy, and things may remain fluid till Dinakaran is released and is able to exert some control over the faction.

The saving grace here is that it is not facing any financial crunch, thanks to which the factions day-to-day administration and the operations of Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR, its mouthpieces, are being met without any hitch.

But the internal differences were visible when the chief minister was camping in New Delhi on Wednesday. Unlike earlier, when the entire state cabinet would accompany the visiting CM, this time only his top associates came to the capital. The M Thambidurai group was conspicuous by its absence, as were the Sasikala loyalists who stayed away from EPSs meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

Insiders in the Sasikala faction hint that the first casualty in the internal battle for supremacy is Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai. The EPS faction conveyed to the Prime Ministers Office that the chief ministers co-brother Manickam will act as interpreter, in place of the former, and secured an appointment.

It is thanks to these internal differences that the much-awaited merger between the two factions has not made any headway so far.

While the OPS faction blames Thambidurai and the state governments special representative in New Delhi for being the stumbling blocks to the merger moves, the Sasikala faction in turn blames a few senior leaders in the rival camp for the peace talks going nowhere.

All said and done, things will become clearer only after the Election Commission commences hearings into the two leaves election symbol case.



Interestingly, the Bharatiya Janata Party is learnt to have told the two factions that there is no tearing hurry to settle the matter since there is no election facing Tamil Nadu in the near future and to expect any developments after July, once the current CEC Syed Nasim Zaidi demits office.

The effect of this prolonged phase of uncertainty has had a negative impact on cadre morale, with the rank and file of the two camps unsure of how to deal with the rival camp. The only positive outcome, said an insider, is that there has been no defection from both the camps to the rival DMK.

Image: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami addresses the media after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on May 24, 2017.

R Rajagopalan is a senior journalist in New Delhi, and has reported on Tamil Nadu for decades.
ALBERT LEA, Minn. | A Sheffield man who was charged in connection with a prostitution sting conducted in late December by the Albert Lea Police Department pleaded guilty Wednesday in Freeborn County District Court.

Randall Richard Grilz, 65, pleaded guilty to two counts of gross misdemeanor prostitution in a public place.

Grilz and Kurt Allen Roderick, 58, of Wixom, Michigan, were charged separately after Albert Lea officers set up an undercover sex trafficking operation in December at a hotel in Albert Lea.

Court documents state an online advertisement was set up with a phone number listed, which rang to a decoy phone answered by law enforcement. Grilz called the phone number listed in the ad, and he arrived at a hotel room.

Court documents state two decoys told Grilz that one of them was only 17 and her services would cost extra. He reportedly placed $300 in an envelope on a nightstand, undressed and laid down naked on a bed before he was arrested.

In a Mirandized statement following the incident, Grilz reportedly admitted he had seen the ad and made the agreement with the decoys, but he said the younger girl never told him how old she was, and he denied hearing she was 17.

Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 10. Grilz is expected to be placed on probation, according to the Freeborn County Attorneys Office. He was charged with felony engaging in, hiring or agreeing to hire a minor to engage in prostitution, but that charge was reduced.

Roderick is charged with one count of gross misdemeanor prostitution in a public place. A jury trial is scheduled to begin July 11, if the case has not been settled by then.
CHARLES CITY | Two male juveniles from Cedar Rapids in an allegedly stolen vehicle face multiple charges following a high-speed chase in Floyd and Cerro Gordo counties early Friday.

A deputy observed a speeding vehicle traveling west on the Avenue of the Saints at 3:19 a.m., according to a news release from the Floyd County Sheriff's Office.

The deputy attempted to stop the vehicle, which led to a pursuit with speeds exceeding 120 mph.

The Iowa State Patrol deployed stop sticks, and a short distance later the vehicle approached the Avenue of the Saints/Interstate 35 interchange in Cerro Gordo County.

The vehicle entered a ditch and the driver and passenger allegedly fled. They were taken into custody after a brief foot chase, according to the Floyd County Sheriff's Office.

A handgun and drug paraphernalia was found inside the vehicle, which authorities believe was stolen in Linn County.

The driver of the vehicle was charged in Floyd County with felony eluding and first-degree theft, as well as misdemeanor carrying weapons, possession of drug paraphernalia and multiple traffic violations.

The State Patrol has charged the driver and passenger with multiple offenses in Cerro Gordo County.

Both were transported to a juvenile detention center. Police have not identified either juvenile.

No injuries were reported at the scene.

The Clear Lake Police Department assisted the Floyd County Sheriff's Office and the State Patrol.
ROCKFORD | In honor of a lost classmate known for her bright spirit, students at Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock High School Thursday planted a shrub that will sprout colorful flowers.

Sydney Alcorn, 14, an RRMR freshman, died on April 10 when the Jeep Liberty she was in struck a tree in Mason City. The driver and the other three passengers in the vehicle, all young people from Mason City, also died.

"Sydney was so colorful in her dress and her personality," said her grandmother, Debbie Alcorn of Rudd.

That's why she and her husband, Mike Alcorn, chose a limelight hydrangea to be planted in front of her school.

The plant is known for its huge blooms in different colors throughout the year  even in winter.

Sydney had a zest for life, according to Mike.

"She had such an outgoing personality," he said. "I wanted her to be remembered."

The Alcorns asked the administration at RRMR for permission to plant the shrub at the school.

They were happy to do so, said Assistant High School Principal Nick Johnson.

Although she was only at the school for a few years, Sydney left a big impact on the students, according to Johnson.

The hydrangea "will help them remember her and carry on her legacy," he said.

The entire RRMR freshman class as well as other students who were close to Sydney were present for the shrub planting, as well as family members.

Sydney began attending school at RRMR when she was in sixth grade. Even after moving to Mason City, she continued to go to RRMR through open enrollment.

She loved RRMR, according to her grandparents.

"This is a great school," Debbie said. "Everyone cares about everyone."

Debbie and Mike lost a 6-year-old daughter in 1989, so Sydney was like a daughter to them, Mike said.

She also was like a sister to Debbie and Mike's two other daughters, Sierra Alcorn, 19, and Shaina Alcorn, 16.

Sydney, Sierra, Shaina and a neighbor, Drake Munson, 16, who is considered part of the family as well, were always together.

Every year the four of them went to the carnival at the North Iowa Band Festival, where Sydney loved to ride The Zipper.

They plan to go to the carnival this weekend to ride The Zipper in her memory.

"She had a contagious laugh," said Sierra, an RRMR graduate.

She also loved to dance, she added.

Drake, a sophomore at RRMR along with Shaina, said Sydney's personality was "off the charts."

Debbie said Sydney "made us smile and laugh, and now cry, unfortunately."

"Sydney, we love you," she said. "We know you are around."
Authorities in Cambodias Oddar Meanchey province briefly detained four activist monks Friday and forced them to delete content from their phones after they posted video on social media of what they said was intimidation of supporters at an opposition campaign event ahead of upcoming local elections.



Luon Savath, known as the multimedia monk, told RFAs Khmer Service that he, Prim Huon, Nop Vanny and Seng Nara were arrested by authoritiesincluding deputy police commissioners and Oddar Meanchey provincial governor Sar Thavyat around 10:00 a.m., after attending a campaign event led by Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Kem Sokha in Samroang commune.



The four were questioned after Prim Huon livestreamed on Facebook a video of security personnel using electric batons to block vehicles from accessing the event and demanding to know which commune the CNRP supporters had arrived from.



Venerable Prim Huon commented [while live streaming], telling people not to vote for any official or party that routinely uses intimidation, threats or [uses its power to perpetrate] attacks against its own citizens, Luon Savath said.



A police officer standing nearby only heard Venerable Prim Huon say the word attacks and accused him of spreading falsehoods.



The four monks were released around 1:00 p.m. after agreeing to delete videos they had shot and promising not to post any more material to social media about the event.



RFA was unable to contact Sar Thavy or the deputy police commissioners present at their arrest for further details about the incident.



The Phnom Penh Post cited a now-deleted Facebook video posted by Luon Savath, in which he speaks with Sar Thavy during the initial confrontation, saying that the monks supported neither the CNRP or the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP).



We are not broadcasting things that are contrary to or distort the facts. And we just broadcast it, and if it is right or wrong the public will know, the Post quoted Luon Savath as saying in the video.



Other harassment



The detention of the four monks was only one of several incidents documented on Friday of authorities harassing people present at the opposition rally in Oddar Meanchey.



Oddar Meanchey provincial ADHOC coordinator Srey Naren, who was present when the four monks were arrested, told RFA that provincial deputy police commissioner Puth Ngob ordered his men to prevent him from monitoring their questioning.



Mounh Sarath, head of the provincial CNRP taskforce, told the Post that authorities attempted to prevent organizers from setting up a marquee for the campaign event in Samroang commune, had blared loudspeakers in order to drown out Kem Sokhas speech, and had set up illegal checkpointsblocking roads and forcing supporters to walk for many miles to the rally.



The campaign event had prior approval from the provincial election committee, he added.



Observers say the CNRPone of 12 political parties competing for 1,646 commune council seatscould give the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) a run for its money in the June polls, foreshadowing a possible CNRP win in national elections scheduled for 2018.



Reported by Savyouth Hang for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
China said on Friday it has formally arrested a former local activist with Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on suspicion of subversion, drawing criticism from Taiwan that the charge was vague and questionable.



The activist, Lee Ming-cheh, 42, is the first overseas NGO worker known to be detained in China since a draconian law gave police control over foreign non government groups at the beginning of this year.



He was detained by the ruling Chinese Communist Party's state security police on suspicion of "endangering national security" on his arrival in the southern border city of Zhuhai on March 19 and held incommunicado since then.



China's official Xinhua news agency quoted China's Taiwan Affairs Office as saying that Li had been formally arrested in the southern province of Hunan on suspicion of subversion of state power.



Li had during multiple visits to China "colluded with relevant people in the mainland, formulated action programs, established illegal organizations and plotted and enacted activities to subvert the power of our authorities." the agency said.



"After being interrogated, Li Ming-che (sic) confessed to engaging in activities to harm our state security, and the judicial authorities will handle the case in accordance with the law."



Reuters news agency quoted Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles relations with China, as saying the charges were vague and that China had provided no evidence.



"This cannot convince the people of Taiwan," it said. "We do not agree with any of the alleged charges China has against Lee Ming-cheh."



Sen Hong Yang, chairman of the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights, told RFA's Cantonese Service "the Chinese Communist Party is very foolish to charge Li with such a heavy crime, which is effectively a show of intimidation to the people of Taiwan and contempt for democracy, freedom and human rights."



"Declaring to the world that the universal values of democracy, freedom, human rights and rule of law represent subversion of state power is tantamount to making the Communists the enemy of the entire world, Yang added.



Rights groups have strongly criticized Beijing's use of televised "confessions" from detainees accused of wrongdoing, who have included Swedish NGO worker Peter Dahlin and some of the five Hong Kong booksellers detained for selling banned political books to customers in mainland China.



Many lawyers caught up in China's 2015 crackdown on attorneys who handle human rights cases have been tortured, their family members and legal representatives say.



Lee's case highlights the stark and growing gap in civil liberties between China and Taiwan, which began its transition to democracy in January 1988, starting with direct elections to the legislature in the early 1990s and culminating in the first direct election of the island's president in 1996.



Recent opinion polls indicate that there is broad political support for de facto self-rule in Taiwan, where the majority of voters identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese.



But while the Chinese Communist Party has never ruled the island, Beijing regards it as part of Chinese territory and has threatened to invade if Taiwan seeks formal independence.



Reported by RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Paul Eckert.
Zhao Guo An (L), head of the foreign affairs office of the China-backed United Wa State Army (UWSA), attends the second session of Myanmar's 21st Century Panglong Conference in Naypyidaw, May 24, 2017.

Myanmars de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi met on Friday with an alliance of seven ethnic armed groups from the countrys northeast on the sidelines of a key peace conference to discuss the changes the militias want to make to a controversial cease-fire agreement, an official from the country's remote ethnic Wa region who attended the meeting said.

During the Pangkham Allies meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also Myanmars state counselor and foreign affairs minister, at her house in the capital Naypyidaw, representatives from the group gave her a book outlining their political stance, said Zhao Guo An, head of the foreign affairs office of the United Wa State Army (UWSA).

The book details agreements reached by the ethnic militias at a conference they held in February in Pangkham, the administrative capital of the UWSA-controlled territory in Myanmar, and most of its content is similar to that of the nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) that eight other ethnic armies signed with the government in October 2015, he said.

Neither the UWSA nor the other six groups have signed the NCA.

The book praises the current 21st Century Panglong Conference, also called the Union Peace Conference, as smooth and good, according to a report in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.

After the meeting, Zhao Guo An said the influential and powerful UWSA, which leads the Pangkham Alliance, has rejected the NCA, which the government wants all remaining ethnic militias to sign.

He told reporters that the UWSA will not sign the NCA because it is no solution to ongoing ethnic separatist conflicts with the national military. Instead, the group will forge its own new path to peace.

When a reporter asked Zhao if Aung San Suu Kyi urged the UWSA to sign the NCA, he responded in Chinese through an interpreter, saying that she would like the militia to sign the peace pact.

She hopes that we will sign the NCA, but the new way for peace that we have prepared is different from the NCAs way, he said. We will not sign the current NCA.

Zhao did not spell out how his groups plan differs from the one offered by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Backed by China

The China-backed ethnic Wa militia has emerged as a key player in Myanmars peace process, a development seen as boosting Beijings influence over its violence-ridden neighbor.

The other members of the Pangkham Allies are the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA-N), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA), and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

Aung San Suu Kyi has met the groups separately, with the KIA, UWSA, SSPP, and NDAA invited to one meeting, and the TNLA, AA, and MNDAA to another.

Their meetings with her comes a day after a delegation of representatives from the groups had a two-hour closed-door discussion with negotiators from the governments Peace Commission.

China, which wants to see ethnic separatist civil wars end in Myanmars war-torn north, convinced the ethnic groups to go to the peace conference in Naypyidaw, even though they have been designated as guests, or observers, rather than full participants.

Beijing has sent a delegate to the Panglong Conference because it is eager for stability in Myanmars volatile border areas, so it can push ahead with its One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative that will link Asia to Europe and Africa via northern Myanmar.

The Pangkham Allies issued a statement on May 17 indicating they were willing to attend the peace conference only if they were represented by a new joint committee they had formed, called the Union Political Negotiation Dialogue Committee (UPNDC), to hold collective talks with the government.

In the statement, they also urged immediate negotiations among the UPNDC, the government, and the national armed forces as well as an end to fighting between ethnic militias and government troops in northern Myanmar.

The ethnic militias will leave Naypyidaw on Saturday, while the ethnic armed organizations that have signed the NCA will remain at the conference until it ends on May 28, Eleven Myanmar media group reported.

Only one army

Meanwhile, Tin Myo, chairman of the governments Peace Commission, met on Friday with four ethnic militias comprising the Northern Alliance, which includes the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

The four militias teamed up last November to carry out coordinated attacks on government and military targets in northern Shan state.

There needs to be a peace conference held with ethnic armed groups in Naypyidaw, and the army needs to stop attacking ethnic armed groups, said Ta Panla, general secretary of the TNLA.

During the third day of the five-day conference, several hundreds of representatives held discussions and debates on politics, the economy, social and land issues, the environment, and security matters.

One sticking point in the discussions on Friday was the concept of a single, federal army in Myanmar, which would require all ethnic militias to disband.

Because this conference is the one we have now after seven inadequate rounds of peace talks, the security issue is the major theme, said Aye Maung, chairman of the Arakan National Party (ANP), which represents the interests of the ethnic Rakhine people.

We have been discussing ways to accept the policy of having only one army in the country, he said.

Colonel Khun Okkar of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO) confirmed that the parties involved in the conference are still discussing the principle of having only one army under a democratic government that can guarantee federalism.

We will continue talking about the results from this conference on this matter over next six months until the next conference, he said.

The 21st Century Panglong Conference is Aung San Suu Kyis key initiative to try to end decades of civil war in Myanmar by fostering national reconciliation and peace among the countrys various armed ethnic groups and the government military.

The first session of the conference was held in late August and early September 2016, with the expectation that follow-up meetings would be held every six months.

Reported by Win Naung Toe for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
MASON CITY | Iowa has been feeding the world for years and now has the chance to energize it, Gov. Kim Reynolds told a Mason City crowd Friday.

Reynolds, who succeeded Terry Branstad as governor on Wednesday, addressed about 70 Republican Party faithful at a hangar in the Mason City Municipal Airport.

She identified four goals for her administration:

 Creating a better business environment.

 Developing an innovative energy policy.

 Educating Iowa youth to prepare them to compete in a global economy.

 Developing training programs to make sure Iowa will have a workforce ready to meet the needs of global economy.

"I won't stop until every Iowan has an opportunity to succeed," she said.

Acting Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, whom Reynolds appointed to the position Thursday, was also introduced. He spoke briefly, expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to serve.

Reynolds said Gregg will be a full partner in her administration just as she was as lieutenant governor for the past six years for former Gov. Terry Branstad, who was recently confirmed as U.S. ambassador to China.

Reynolds was Clarke County treasurer for 14 years and was in the State Senate when Branstad pegged her as his running mate.

She greeted many Republican friends Friday and at least one Democrat, former Cerro Gordo County Treasurer Mike Grandon, who was in the audience and received a hug from the new governor.

Reynolds and Grandon have known each other since the days when they were both county treasurers. Grandon retired in 2010 after 36 years in office.
Nearly four years after it started operations as a farm brewery in Goochland County, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery is planning a $14 million expansion that is expected to create 59 new jobs over the next three years.

State and local officials, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, turned out to sample beer at the brewery Friday, as co-founder and CEO Lisa Pumphrey outlined plans for the expansion in both Goochland and downtown Lynchburg.

The brewery plans to add 50,000 square feet of production space and a new tap room to its existing 4,000-square-foot brewery on Knolls Point Drive in Goochland. The brewery was built in the style of a horse stable overlooking a 290-acre farm near Little Lickinghole Creek.

Creating world-class beer has always been our absolute top priority, Pumphrey said.

The expansion will enable the brewery  known for its specialty ales incorporating farm products such as berries  to expand production and make what Pumphrey described as a distinctive new lager style of beer.

Lickinghole Creek has hired a new brewmaster, Brandon Greenwood, formerly of California-based Lagunitas Brewing Co.

What we have dreamt up and what we are branding is the Virginia lager, Pumphrey said, adding that she hopes it will be copied by other breweries and become identified with the state.

The expansion also includes opening a new production brewery in a leased building in downtown Lynchburg.

The location is phenomenal, Pumphrey said of the decision to open a second site in Lynchburg. Its in the heart of the downtown, which they are trying to revive.

(The city) needs jobs, and we think we can bring in tourism and be an anchor for other businesses, she said.

The Lynchburg brewery will focus on innovative brewing techniques to make sour beers and barrel-aged brews. In Goochland, the expansion will include a new production and packaging line.

Gov. McAuliffe approved a $250,000 grant from the Governors Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund for the companys expansion in Goochland and a $50,000 grant from the same fund for the new facility in Lynchburg. Both grants will be matched with local funds.

To receive those funds, the brewery agreed to purchase more than $550,000 worth of Virginia farm products for its brewing operations over the next three years.

Manuel Alvarez, a member of the Goochland County Board of Supervisors who represents the district where the brewery is located, called it a good example of a business that can create jobs while preserving a rural environment.

A lot of people in Goochland would like to keep it rural, he said. To keep it rural, we have got to support farmers.
Doug Rozendaal has been flying airplanes for more than four decades, but when he took off from Mason City Airport on Friday it was a first for
Police have arrested a man suspected of robbing, or attempting to rob, the same BB&T Bank in Petersburg twice in seven days.

Petersburg police Capt. Brian Braswell said officers were called just before 4 p.m. Thursday to the BB&T branch in the 3330 block of South Crater Road for a report of a robbery.

Police learned that a man who had concealed his face had entered the bank with a note that demanded cash and implied he had a weapon. The man appeared to be the same man who robbed the business on May 18, Braswell said in a release.

Based on the actions of the bank staff, the man in Thursdays incident fled the location without receiving any money. Officers quickly cordoned off the area and began searching for the man, Braswell said.

Police received a telephone tip that provided authorities with a description of the would-be robber and his direction of travel. Prince George County police located the man fleeing into the county. He was arrested and charged with two counts of bank robbery, based on statements made to detectives, Braswell said.

Colonial Heights police assisted in the suspects quick apprehension by sending K-9 tracking dogs to the scene.
A divided Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld an injunction blocking President Donald Trumps revised travel ban targeting six Muslim-majority countries.

Trumps administration vowed to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high-profile, hotly contested case concerns the Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States executive order of March 9, a revision of an order issued in January that also ran into trouble in courts.

The government appealed U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuangs March injunction blocking the part of the revised order that bars entry to the U.S. to citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen in a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center on behalf of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

The appeal was heard by 13 of the appeals courts 15 judges on May 8.

A central question in the case was whether courts should consider Trumps public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion. The order itself doesnt mention religion.

Thursdays majority decision cites comments by Trump and other high-ranking administration officials in upholding Chuang.

These statements, taken together, provide direct, specific evidence of what motivated both (versions): President Trumps desire to exclude Muslims from the United States, Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote for the majority. Three others wrote concurring opinions.

The order, held Gregory, cannot be read in isolation from the statements of planning and purpose that accompanied it, particularly in light of the sheer number of statements, their nearly singular source, and the close connection they draw between the proposed Muslim ban and (the order) itself.

Gregory wrote that the governments asserted national security interest ... appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country.

In a concurring opinion, Judge Stephanie D. Thacker said she would not consider statements made by Trump prior to his taking office.

But she wrote, Even without focusing on any campaign rhetoric, the record in this case amply demonstrates the primary purpose of (the revised order) was to ban Muslims from entering the United States in violation of the establishment clause.

During two hours of argument before the appeals court May 8, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the order had a religious purpose that violated the establishment clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which bars establishment of religion, and that the president is not allowed to set a policy that violates the establishment clause by invoking national security.

The government said that the revised order on its face is an appropriate national security measure that temporarily suspends the entry of nationals from those countries while it is determined if current vetting is adequate to detect terrorists, and denied that the order discriminates on the basis of religion. The government argued that campaign and other statements should not be considered.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that the courts ruling blocks Trumps efforts to strengthen this countrys national security.

Trump is not required to admit people from countries that sponsor or shelter terrorism until he determines that they can be properly vetted and dont pose a security threat, Sessions said.

The appeals court covers Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The 10-3 split in Thursdays ruling was along the party lines of the presidents who appointed the judges, with the minority opinion joined by judges appointed by Republicans.

A dissenting opinion written by Judge Paul V. Niemeyer and joined by Judges Dennis W. Shedd and G. Steven Agee concluded that Chuang erred.

The district courts approach is not only unprecedented, it is totally unworkable and inappropriate under any standard of analysis, wrote Niemeyer, who added that he would vacate Chuangs injunction.

In looking behind the face of the governments action for facts to show the alleged bad faith, rather than looking for bad faith on the face of the executive action itself, the majority grants itself the power to conduct an extratextual search for evidence suggesting bad faith, which is exactly what three Supreme Court opinions have prohibited, he wrote.

Niemeyer added, The majority, now for the first time, rejects these holdings in favor of its politically desired outcome.

It is hard to imagine a greater or more direct chill on campaign speech than the knowledge that any statement made may be used later to support the inference of some nefarious intent when official actions are inevitably subjected to legal challenges, he wrote.

Shedd, in his dissenting opinion joined by Niemeyer and Agee, warned: Todays decision may be celebrated by some as a victory for individual civil rights and justice, and by others as a political defeat for this president. Yet, it is shortsighted to ignore the larger ramifications of this decision. Regrettably, at the end of the day, the real losers in this case are the millions of individual Americans whose security is threatened on a daily basis by those who seek to do us harm.

Agees dissent held that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring an establishment clause claim.

Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project who argued the case, said after the ruling, President Trumps Muslim ban violates the Constitution, as this decision strongly reaffirms. The Constitutions prohibition on actions disfavoring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the governments request to set that principle aside.

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring said, I saw this ban for exactly what it was, as have courts across the country. Even after President Trump tried to scale it back and better hide his tracks, his Muslim ban still suffers from a fatal dose of religious animus.

The first travel ban issued Jan. 27 was aimed at seven countries and triggered chaos and protests across the country as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours. Trump tweaked the order after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate the ban.

The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesnt apply to those who already have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.

A second appeals court, the 9th U.S. Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.
The engaged Orange County couple charged in the death of a 4-year-old who shot himself at a home daycare was found eligible for release from jail Friday morning during their first appearance in circuit court.

Judge Daniel Bouton set bail at $5,000 secured bond each for defendants Nicholas Joseph Stoia, 25, and his fiancee, Heather Christine Massey, 27.

Massey was babysitting Cole James Clark at the home she shares with Stoia in the Mine Run area on May 15 when the child fatally shot himself with a loaded gun owned by Stoia, according to court records. An investigation led to felony child neglect charges against both Stoia and Massey.

Arraignment in the case for both defendants was set for July 7. Neither has a previous criminal record, according to court records.

Stoia is a Stafford County sheriffs recruit in training at the Rappahannock Criminal Justice Academy, but the gun involved in the shooting was not his service weapon and he was not at home at the time, authorities said. He was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, the Sheriff's Office said.

He and his fiancee were also charged with four misdemeanor counts of reckless handling/leaving a loaded firearm endangering a child related to other children in the home daycare at the time, according to the Orange Sheriffs Office.

Stoia, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, appeared first in court Friday with his attorney, Ghislaine M. Storr Burks of Spotsylvania County. Under the terms of his bail, Stoia can have no contact with the 4-year-olds family and must comply with a safety plan put in place by the Orange County Department of Social Services. DSS representatives were in court Friday to administer the plan.

Stoia was granted permission to travel after he posts bond to New York, where his family lives, but he must give advance notice to authorities. He can also go to North Carolina to visit the two children of his fiancee, who were living with them at the time of the shooting death, according to testimony.

Masseys two children were placed with a family member in North Carolina following the incident. She will be permitted to go and live with them upon her release, according to testimony.

Massey appeared in court Friday with her attorney Amy Harper. The terms of her bond also prohibit her from any contact with the boys family.

Shes also required to follow the safety plan of DSS because thats where her children are, said Orange County Commonwealths Attorney Diana OConnell.

The prosecutor also ordered that Massey receive a mental health evaluation and comply with any recommendations, including taking prescribed medication and/or receiving counseling.

Massey indicated in court Friday that she was previously in therapy. She faces additional felony child neglect charges related to other children in her custody on May 15.

Stoia and Massey have no local family ties, according to testimony, and had moved in November to the home on Cecilia Lane. Before that, Stoia lived in Spotsylvania County and Massey in North Carolina, according to court records.

Earlier this week, the commonwealths attorney filed a motion seeking access to all records related to Stoias training and instruction in the handling, storage and use of firearms. The record are necessary, OConnell wrote, to show Stoias understanding and training with regard to the danger loaded firearms pose when improperly stored in an area accessible to minor children.

His attorney declined comment after Fridays hearing.

The commonwealth has also filed a motion seeking access to all records pertaining to the 911 call made by Massey on May 15 from her home. The subpoena requests records showing the physical condition, location and surroundings of the child upon first response by EMS as well as the locality, handling and condition of the firearm used in the fatal shooting, according to court records.

Cole James Clark died five days after his fourth birthday. He is survived by his parents, Joshua and Kyrin Falcetti, and siblings, Caydance Clark and Adaline Falcetti, according to his obituary.

His smile would light up any darkened room. Everyone who met Cole fell in love and they could never get enough of his love. He showered everyone with hugs and kisses and would tell everyone all about his toys, movies and his favorite monkey he slept with every night, his obituary read.

Four children younger than 12 died in Virginia between 2014 and 2016 after accidentally shooting themselves or being mistakenly shot and killed by another child, according to an investigation published this week by USA Today Network and The Associated Press. Virginia law prohibits anyone from recklessly leaving a loaded, unsecured firearm in a manner that endangers the safety of any child younger than 14, the report said.
A Roanoke County printing plant will close in July and lay off 140 workers, the company told local officials this week.

LSC Communications, formerly known as RR Donnelley & Sons, will begin closing its book-printing plant in the countys ValleyTech Park on July 23, according to a letter sent to Salem Mayor Randy Foley. The facility is in Roanoke County, but Jill Loope, the countys economic development director, said she believed the notice was sent to the wrong person because the company has a Salem mailing address.

The letter says the Chicago-based company will close the facility due to changing market conditions.

At this time, the Company anticipates that employees will be permanently separated from employment with the Company during a 14-day period commencing on July 23, 2017, the letter says.

Loope said the county has engaged a regional rapid response team to help employees find new work, including getting training or education. She said the county also intends to work with company officials to put the 278,000-square-foot building on the market.

Its unfortunate that the downturn in the market for commercial printing has resulted in this action, she said. Our concern is for the affected employees and our goal is to assist them with identifying new employment opportunities.

The company, which was then known as RR Donnelley, came to the Roanoke Valley in 1997.

Last year, Donnelley spun off its publishing and print services operations into the standalone LSC Communications. LSC earlier this month reported that first quarter net sales were down 6.7 percent from the prior year, $821 million vs. $880 million.

The company reported a net loss of $1 million for the quarter, compared to a net profit of $31 million the previous year. First quarter 2017 results included $17 million in interest expense related to the October separation from RR Donnelley.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people employed in commercial printing nationwide declined almost 10 percent between 2010 and 2015, from 466,716 to 421,240 people. The number of establishments in the commercial printing industry declined by about 11 percent over the same period, from 27,038 to 24,090.
MASON CITY | Motorcycles escorting an American flag will arrive in Mason City Tuesday as part of a journey across the U.S. to raise funds for wounded veterans and their families.

The motorcyclists, who will be coming from Ames, will arrive in Mason City on Highway 65, stopping at Harley-Davidson around 4:30 p.m.

Kyle Easley, one of the local coordinators, said plans are to "fire up the grill" outside Harley-Davidson and serve food for a freewill donation during a reception for the riders.

The procession will leave Harley-Davidson at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and head north on Highway 65 to Albert Lea.

Those in cars, trucks or other vehicles, as well as motorcycles, are welcome to accompany the tour to Albert Lea, Easley said.

All drivers and riders are asked to register between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Harley-Davidson.

The 14,000 mile, 100-day Patriot Tour begins Saturday in Madison, Wisc.

The tour is presented by Nation of Patriots, a nonprofit organization whose sole mission is to enhance the lives of wounded veterans and their families.

The flag travels on the back of a motorcycle, transferred to a new flag bearer at each destination along the route and is escorted by groups of motorcyclists.

The tour will end back in Wisconsin.
MASON CITY | Byron John Hill, 93, of Mason City, died Friday, March 31, 2017, at The Heart Hospital in Plano, Texas.

Memorial services will be held 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 30, at Major Erickson Funeral Home, 111 N. Pennsylvania Ave., with the Rev. Kathleen R. Moore of the First United Methodist Church officiating.

Inurnment will be at Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery with Military Honors conducted by the Mason City Veterans Association.

A gathering of family and friends will be from 4 to 6 p.m., followed by a Masonic Service, on Monday, May 29, at Major Erickson Funeral Home.

Memorials may be directed to the Byron Hill Memorial Fund in care of the family. Memorials will be donated to help fight heart disease. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.majorericksonfuneralhome.com.

The baby of the family, the fifth child of John and Elizabeth Hill (Wepking), Byron was born on Jan. 11, 1924, in Mason City, Iowa. (For future genealogists: the family always celebrated on Jan. 11, but Byrons birth certificate says that he was born on Jan. 3, 1924.) The Hills lived on the family farm north of Mason City, which was established by Byron's father around 1910. As a teenager, Byron became responsible for the day-to-day operation of the 80-acre farm, in charge of the livestock as well as the fields. He was drafted into the U.S. Navy during WWII and stationed at Navy Pier in Chicago (which he referred to as the U.S.S. Concrete). He served there for one year, and returned to Iowa at the end of the war. Back in Mason City, he met Georgiana (Jana) Johnson, and the two were married in 1956.

Byron was a hardworking, devoted, and loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, uncle, and brother, and he loved spending time with his family, and playing and working on his farm. He also worked for the U.S. Postal Service from the early 1960s until his retirement in 1982. He was a member of the American Legion for over 50 years, and he and Jana were also both members of various Masonic organizations for over 66 years. Byron was a loyal Hawkeyes fan all of his life, and his love for dogs was only surpassed by their love for him.

Byron is survived by his children Jon (Julia Matteson), Sara, and Jay (Darla Clark), and four grandchildren, Megan (Evan Ware), Kevin (Amanda Roth), Molly, Maddy, and his great-grandson Lincoln (son of Kevin and Amanda). He is also survived by his sister, Lois Ellett.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Jana, as well as his siblings, Charles Hill, Gordon Hill, and Frances Nutton.

Byron was a soft-spoken but quick-witted man, who would often bring on everyones laughter with an unexpected joke and a twinkle in his eye. In the words of a family friend, he was someone whose quiet presence was still large enough to fill a place in your heart. He will be dearly missed by his many friends and family.

Arrangements are with Major Erickson Funeral Home & Crematory, 111 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Mason City, IA 50401, 641-423-0924, www.majorericksonfuneralhome.com.
Nearly four years after it started operations as a farm brewery in Goochland County, Lickinghole Creek Craft Brewery is planning a $14 million expansion that is expected to create 59 new jobs over the next three years.

State and local officials including Gov. Terry McAuliffe turned out to sample beer at the brewery on Friday, as co-founder and chief executive officer Lisa Pumphrey outlined plans for the expansion in both Goochland and downtown Lynchburg.

The brewery plans to add 50,000 square feet of production space and a new tap room to its existing 4,000-square-foot brewery in Goochland overlooking a 290-acre farm near Little Lickinghole Creek.

The expansion will enable the brewery  known for its specialty ales  to expand production and make what Pumphrey described as a distinctive new lager style of beer.

Lickinghole Creek has hired a new brewmaster, Brandon Greenwood, formerly of California-based Lagunitas Brewing Co.

What we have dreamt up and what we are branding is the Virginia lager, Pumphrey said, adding that she hopes it will be copied by other breweries and become identified with the state.

The expansion also includes opening a new production brewery in a leased building in downtown Lynchburg.

The location is phenomenal, Pumphrey said of the decision to open a second site in Lynchburg. Its in the heart of the downtown, which they are trying to revive.

(The city) needs jobs, and we think we can bring in tourism and be an anchor for other businesses, she said.

The Lynchburg brewery will focus on innovative brewing techniques to make sour beers and barrel-aged brews.

Gov. McAuliffe approved a $250,000 grant from the Governors Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund for the companys expansion in Goochland, and a $50,000 grant from the same fund for the new facility in Lynchburg. Both grants will be matched with local funds.

To receive those funds, the brewery agreed to purchase more than $550,000 worth of Virginia farm products for its brewing operations over the next three years.

The (Lynchburg) News & Advance contributed to this report.
Pulaski police are warning residents they might have gotten more than new ink from an unlicensed tattoo artist, and should be checked for hepatitis C.

The department said it was notified by the Department of Healths New River District that illegal and unlicensed tattooing was taking place and that some customers had been infected with the virus.

The tattoo artist was not identified, but police suggested anyone who had gotten a tattoo from someone in the Meadowview apartments area should be tested.

Police said officers executed a search warrant related to the case Friday afternoon in the 800 block of Bland Street.

Health department spokesman Robert Parker declined to provide any details due to considerations for patient privacy. He would not say how many people were infected.

State law requires those doing tattoos and body piercings to comply with Centers for Disease Control guidelines and to obtain a license.

The health department said in a news release that hepatitis C, or HCV, is the most common form of viral hepatitis in the U.S., causing about 19,000 deaths each year. There are several strains of hepatitis, with each affecting the liver. Cases can be mild to severe and last a short time or become chronic.

The number of hepatitis C cases has increased nearly 300 percent between 2010 and 2015, coinciding with the opioid epidemic.

Testing, prevention and treatment are effective measures against hepatitis, which is a significant public health threat in the United States, in Virginia and in the New River Valley, Dr. Noelle Bissell, director of New River Health District, said in a news release. In Virginia, the total number of hepatitis infections is 50 percent higher thus far in 2017 compared with the average number for the same period in the five preceding years.

The New River Health District is in the 200 block of Pepper Street in Christiansburg and can be reached at 540-585-3300.
MASON CITY | When Eleanor "Elly" Krapek died in 2008 at the age of 75, her three adult children wanted to find a way to honor her.

Elly lived with her family in Mason City for nearly 50 years, and interacted with hundreds of residents as a paraprofessional at Mason City High School and as a unit secretary at North Iowa Medical Center.

Through a unique gift set up by her children, Kimberly Krapek of Littleton, Colo.; Kay Nolan of Monmouth, Ill. and Steven Krapek of San Jose, Calif., her legacy not only lives on; it enhances the lives of others.

The children took $2,000 from her memorial contributions and deposited it in what Steven described as "an upstart micro lending fund" called Kiva.

In the 7 1/2 years since the account was started, 485 loans have been made -- and most of them have been paid back, he said.

"We have never withdrawn any money, and my sisters and I have reseeded the fund with the maintenance fees Kiva charges to maintain the original balance," Steven said.

"As people pay back these small loans that are aggregated with other donors, the funds are used for more loans -- and we have been able to make this $2,000 loan effectively become $14,300 worth of loans."

He said in the nearly eight years the account has existed, only three people defaulted.

One was a farmer in Micronesia who died. His community paid off the loan in full. The other two who defaulted were both from West Virginia, unrelated to one another -- and neither offered any explanation for defaulting.

Kiva fund loans are for borrowers in more than 80 countries who are often financially excluded and cant access other fair and affordable sources of credit.

Many Kiva borrowers work multiple jobs to generate enough income to support their families.

Kimberly Krapek said the loans are given out in $25 increments -- and $25 can go a long way to help families in underdeveloped countries.

The Krapek children want no credit for their idea. They wanted to honor their mother in a meaningful way and now they want to honor the people of Mason City who helped make it happen.

"This is an announcement that her spirit and the generosity of fellow citizens of Mason City do affect lives around the globe that no one would ever imagine," Steven said.
Jared Kushner is the husband of first daughter Ivanka Trump and senior adviser to Donald Trump's administration. Here are five facts to know about him.

1. Kushner is a former CEO of Kushner Companies, which specialized in real estate.

2. In 2007, at the age of just 26, Kushner purchased a Manhattan office tower, 666 Fifth Avenue, for what was then a record $1.8 billion.

3. Kushner served as a publisher for the New York Observer newspaper.

4. He defended Donald Trump against allegations of anti-Semitism and racism by sharing a story of his Jewish grandparents who emigrated to the United States in 1949. His family took to Facebook to shame him for it.

5. With Trump's advisement, Kushner will head the White House Office of American Innovation, collaborating with Tesla's Elon Musk, Salesforce's Marc Benioff and Apple's Tim Cook.
St Mary's Church tower, Tickhill

AN UNHOLY ding-dong at a church where bellringers threatened to fall silent amid fears over a proposed telecoms mast has been averted.

The furore at St Marys Parish Church erupted after an offer was made by mobile network providers 02 and Vodafone to host a shared antenna within the church tower.

The church would have received at least 6,000 a year in rent but the place of worships bellringers were worried over potential health risks.

They had wanted any decision to be delayed until a new vicar is chosen for the parish following the departure of Rev Christopher Betson.

But after the church fabric committee consulted with residents, the proposal for the mast in the tower has been dropped.

A statement from the Parochial Church Council (PCC) said that the study was complete apart from a structural engineers report and propagation testing to check if the louvres (panels) of the bell chamber were of a density suitable for the required signal strength of the mast.

The council said the two network providers had asked the council to give a firm commitment to the project, subject to the outcome of these tests.

The statement added: Only then would the consortium agree to fund these two important and costly pieces of work, to finally determine the structural integrity of the bell chamber.

As the PCC are unable to give this commitment, on advice from the Fabric Committee, the project has been abandoned.

The bell-ringing team, many of whom are young people, were concerned because the World Health Organisation (WHO) has claimed that radio frequency electromagnetic fields are possibly carcinogenic and that the NHS is looking into the long-term safety of mobile telephone usage.

The ringers wanted a decision delayed until further research by the WHO is finalised.

Ven Steve Wilcockson, Archdeacon of Doncaster, said in a letter to bellringing team member Col Gordon Whitehead that he believed there were ethical issues relating to the nature of material that may have been transmitted by any telecoms mast, which the church would not want to be linked to.
Sarah Champion

MUSLIMS are resigned to being spat at, abused and intimidated in Rotherham, it was claimed, as figures showed one hate crime incident every three weeks.

Anti-hate crime group Tell MAMA said it had received reports of 19 crimes against Muslims - more than one a month - in the past year, with the majority being assaults.

Sarah Champion, who is campaigning to continue as Rotherham MP, said she wanted to make it clear people of ethnic minorities should not have to endure abuse and was concerned many incidents were not being reported.

She said: I am very concerned that people in Rotherham are facing abuse and intimidation because of their religion or ethnicity.

Nationally, we saw a 41 per cent increase in recorded hate crime the month after Brexit and I know constituents have spoken about feeling more intimidated in the town since then.

What worries me most about the hate crime figures are the assaults and abuse that are not recorded.

I have spoken to many women of Pakistani, Yemini and Chinese heritage who have lived in this town all their lives and are now resigned to the fact that verbal abuse, being spat on and being intimidated is something they have to endure.

This is hate crime and they must report it to the police so that we can see prosecutions.

Iman Atta, director of Tell MAMA, said: We have seen troubling incidents in South Yorkshire where taxi drivers, late-night catering industry and people travelling on public transport have been targeted for anti-Muslim hatred.

These cases have to be put into context though and whilst they are troubling, we are aware of the fact that the police are now making strides to put hate crime high on their agenda with the police and crime commissioner also pushing on this.

South Yorkshire Polices hate crime figures showed eight hate crimes and non-crime hate incidents between April 2016 and March 2017 in Rotherham which were recorded as Islamophobic.

Of those, only one was a recorded assault.

Supt Sarah Poolman said: We know that under-reporting of hate crime and incidents across all strands remains an issue.

We work closely with Tell MAMA and other organisations to improve our understanding of incidents of hate in Rotherham so that we are able to tackle it and engage proactively with our communities to build confidence in us.

A steady rise in reported hate crimes and incidents was in part down to raising awareness and building confidence in communities, she said.

South Yorkshire Police was on Tell MAMAs South Yorkshire Advisory Board, Supt Poolman said, which allowed them to share data and look for areas of under-reporting.

Muhbeen Hussain, Rotherham-based founder of British Muslim Youth, said he had been a victim of abuse himself, suffering verbal abuse from a motorist who drove by while he was being interviewed by the BBC.

Mr Hussain said he was not surprised people were more likely to make reports to Tell MAMA rather than the police as many Muslims in the town were reluctant to contact the police.

He added: The police are becoming better than they were but a lot of work has to be done.
A FESTIVAL to honour a former Poet Laureate will take place in Mexborough next month.

The third annual Ted Hughes Poetry Festival will focus on Mexborough Business Centre on College Road but satellite events will take place further afield.

The festival  which will be held between Friday, June 23, and Sunday, June 25  will feature poets and academics discussing Hughes, who lived in Mexborough between the ages of eight and 21.

It is organised by the Ted Hughes Project (South Yorkshire) and promises something for all fans of the popular poet, who died in 1998.

Ted Hughes Project (South Yorkshire) chairperson Steve Ely said: We have a fabulous line-up of performers and activities programmed for this year.

On the Friday, the headliner is poet and broadcaster Simon Armitage, professor of poetry at Oxford and Sheffield Universities.

Appearing with him will be Forward Prize-winning poet Vahni Capildeo and local poet and performer Mike OBrien.

Saturdays programme will be opened by poet and scholar Andy Armitage with a creative writing workshop based on the writings of Ted Hughess first wife, Sylvia Plath, and the Plath theme will be continued in the early afternoon by short readings from three award-winning younger female poets  Melissa Lee-Houghton, Kim Moore and Charlotte Wetton.

After the readings the poets will be joined by Andy Armitage and American scholar Heather Clark, the worlds leading expert on Sylvia Plath whose biography of the poet will be published next year, for a panel discussion on the relevance of her work to younger women poets today.

Ms Clark will round off the Sylvia Plath Afternoon with a talk on Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

Creative producer Dominic Somers will lead poetry-related activities and giveaways on Mexborough High Street between 11am and 1pm and the poet, songwriter and creative writing tutor Ray Hearne will run a childrens workshop in Mexborough Library between 1pm and 3pm.

The Saturday evening session is headlined by the dub poet and social activist Linton Kwesi Johnson who will appear alongside London poets Tim Wells and Janine Booth with Middlesbrough-based folk band Peg Powler completing the bill.

The main festival weekend ends on the Sunday morning with the Ted Hughess Paper Round performance trail led by Steve Ely and Dominic Somers, which is based on the poets childhood paper round.

A number of satellite events will take place at other venues. The launch of Steve Elys book of poems Incendium Amoris will take place at St Laurences Church in Adwick-le-Street on Thursday, June 8, with readings from the writer, Chris Jones and a talk on Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hampole by rector Ann Walton.

On Sunday, June 11, award-winning poet Helen Mort will lead a poetry walk from Denaby Ings to Sprotborough and on Saturday, July 1, poet, publisher and auteur Brian Lewis will lead a poetry and landscape event at RSPB Adwick-on-Dearne Washlands.

The festival will also have an art exhibition and competition on the Hughesian theme of transformation led by artist Peter Olding.

Mr Ely said: This the third Ted Hughes Poetry Festival we have organised in Mexborough and we believe it will build on and surpass the achievement of the previous two, in which we programmed performers of the stature of Ian McMillan, Ian Clayton, David Morley and Ted Hughess daughter, Frieda.

Ted Hughes was one of the greatest 20th century English poets and we are proud to celebrate the fact that he was made in Mexborough, attending Schofield Street Junior School and Mexborough Grammar School, where he wrote his first poems, by developing a literary festival of national stature in the town in which he was formed as a poet.

Tickets for the festival can be bought at http://tedhughesproject.com/festivals/2017-festival.
A WALK around town will once again celebrate the towns army of unrecognised charity volunteers.

Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR) invites all volunteers on the town centre stroll, which takes place on Tuesday, June 6.

Starting at All Saints Square around 1.20pm, walkers will do a lap of the town centre before returning to the square for refreshments and a chance to network with fellow volunteers.

Rotherham has almost 50,000 volunteers, who give time and energy to good causes each week.

VARs Big Walk forms part of the Count Me In campaign, which celebrates and encourages volunteering around the UK from June 1 to June 7.

Julie Adamson, VAR services manager, said: You are never too old or too young, never too busy and everyone has something to offer to volunteering.

It is a great way of giving back to your community and gives you the feel good factor that other things often dont.

She added: It is important for us to celebrate the unsung heroes who give so much to our town.

To join the event, volunteers can call Alison Thorp on 01709 834462 or email alison.thorp@varotherham.org.uk.

The deadline for bookings is Friday 2nd June. For more information visit www.varotherham.org.uk/big-walk-2017.
Firestone Diamonds said it has entered into a conditional option agreement with Amulet Diamond for the potential disposal of its Botswana operations, which include the BK11 mine, for $5.1 million in cash.

Amulet was a Canadian special purpose vehicle formed for disposal by a group of private investors led by Gareth Penny and Diacore Diamond, a multinational diamond company with diversified interests in the diamond industry.

Amulet would acquire an option, effective from 1 June 2017 for a period of up to 14 months to take over Firestone's wholly owned subsidiary Firestone Botswana and its 90 percent interest in Monak Ventures, which hold Firestone's interests in Botswana.

Firestone said Amulet was expected to pay $100 000 immediately with the balance to be placed in escrow no later than 10 days following the exercise of the option.

Completion of the disposal was subject to the parties gaining approval from the Botswana Competition Authority and the parties obtaining Botswanan ministerial approval for the transfer of the controlling interest in Monak to Amulet.

Meanwhile, Firestone said Amulet would fund the construction and operation of a bulk sample plant and the carrying out of a bulk sample programme at the BK 11 mine during the option period to further assess the deposit.

In addition, Amulet will, during the option period and, in the event it exercises the option, from the time it exercises the option up and until completion of the disposal, pay the ongoing cost of BK11's care and maintenance programme up to a maximum of $30,000 per month, it said.

The company will also be entitled to retain 10 percent of the proceeds from diamonds sold from the bulk sampling programme (after royalties and agreed expenses) during this period.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) has accused Kimberley Ekapa mine of operating without the relevant mining permits.

Petra Diamonds entered into a joint venture with Ekapa Mining last year, which combined the three operations they owned and operated in Kimberley, South Africa.

The operations consolidated were Petras Kimberley underground mines, Ekapa Mining's tailings operations and Kimberley Mines tailings operations.

Mining Weekly reports Macua members claimed that they had been mining the land on which Ekapa was located since 2003, providing a needed source of income for more than 8 000 people who are now being prevented from contributing taxes of over R8-million monthly.

It also claimed that a case of theft and arson was opened by Informal Miners in Northern Cape chairperson Victor Taku last September against the mine, but Macua claimed that nothing was ever reported about this case.

When we mine the same land, we are arrested. Why? Macua was quoted as saying.

The Kimberley Mines Tailings Minerals Resources (TMRs) had resources of 2.8 million carats.

Ekapa was expecting to produce about 700,000 ctpa in the first three years of operation of the Kimberley Mines, with revenue of about $65 million per annum, based on an assumed diamond price of about $95 per carat.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished




Metra will receive at $20-million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) on its Milwaukee North and West lines.

U.S. Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-IL-3) and Mike Quigley (D-IL-5) and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced the $20,168,000 grant.

This much-needed grant for Metra is great news, said Rep. Lipinski. Representing a district with a large number of rail lines, I have always made rail safety a top priority on the Railroad Subcommittee. In 2008, I included language in a bill to create the Rail Safety Technology Grant program to help railroads install life-saving PTC more quickly. Unfortunately, Congress never fully-funded this program and commuter railroads like Metra were not able to implement PTC. Last Congress, I joined with Rep. Quigley on a bill to reauthorize the grant program so that Metra could get federal help to install this critical safety technology.

Metra is responsible for installing PTC on all trains and along the five lines it controls  Metra Electric, Milwaukee North, Milwaukee West, Rock Island and SouthWest Service. Metra estimates the federally-mandated technology will cost between $350 million to $400 million to implement. In January 2016, Metra filed an alternative schedule for implementing PTC by 2020, although the commuter agency had previously committed to implementation in 2019.

Implementation of Positive Train Control is a vital step in ensuring our rail systems are as safe and reliable as possible, said Rep. Quigley. Metra plays such an important role in the Chicagoland region, and this much-needed funding will help guarantee that one of the busiest commuter rail systems in the nation continues to provide for residents. It will also help drive additional economic activity and further solidify Chicagos role as a leader in innovative transportation.

Metra has more track than any commuter rail system in the country and 150,000 daily passengers, said Sen. Durbin. Positive Train Control is critical to the safety of these passengers. This funding will greatly help Metra meet its goal and move forward with full PTC operability.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) appointed Sally Librera, to vice president and chief officer of the Staten Island Railway (SIR).

Librera, a longtime professional in MTA New York City Transits Department of Subways operations, is the first woman to lead SIR; her appointment is effective immediately.

Most recently, Librera served as vice president for Subway Operations Support at NYC Transit, where her responsibilities included key operational support functions such as financial management, employee safety, administrative operations, workforce development and planning. She joined the MTA in 2004 as a transportation planner and advanced to leadership positions in logistics and employee development.

At NYC Transit, Librera led technical training for Subways employees, including training programs for crews in rail car maintenance, service delivery, occupational safety, emergency response, and for technicians in the track, electrical and infrastructure departments. Her accomplishments at the Department of Subways included enhancing employee safety, streamlining administrative processes, identifying operational efficiencies, and implementing programs for employee development.

Librera holds masters degrees in urban planning and transportation engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelors degree in labor relations from Cornell University. She succeeds Douglas Connett, who retired in 2016.

Sallys leadership and experience in our Subways operations are huge assets to the operations of Staten Island Railway, in particular her extensive knowledge of the training that is critical to running every aspect of a transit system. The Staten Island Railway operates in a mix of suburban and urban environments that present unique challenges, but Sallys successes at the Department of Subways show that she is well equipped for the job, said MTA New York City Transit Acting President Darry C. Irick.

Libreras appointment to the leadership position at SIR comes as the railway is in the midst of a major rebuilding effort after Superstorm Sandy severely damaged track infrastructure and critical facilities in 2012. SIR is building a new mechanical repair shop to replace the Clifton facility that was flooded during Sandy and upgrading the St. George interlocking to improve service reliability. The new Arthur Kill SIR station opened in January 2017 and became the MTAs first newly constructed SIR station since the railway was incorporated into the MTA in 1971.

The MTA 2015-2019 Capital Program includes $386 million of investments and improvements to SIR, such as the replacement of the car fleet and three new power substations to increase supply to the line, allowing for service flexibility and reliability. Capital investments also include rolling out countdown clocks at all SIR stations, track replacement, radio system enhancements and station repairs.

This is an exciting time at Staten Island Railway, with New York State investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the modernization of the railway in every aspect of its operations, from new railcars to updated power and track infrastructure and a new maintenance facility. I am thrilled to join the talented team at SIR and look forward to working with the community to ensure these investments yield significant improvements to service for our customers on Staten Island, Librera said.
Despite being cited for assaulting a reporter covering his campaign, Montana Republican House Candidate Greg Gianforte won a high-profile special election on Thursday.

Results from the Montana Secretary of State show that Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist by 50 percent to 44 percent, with Libertarian Mark Wicks receiving 6 percent.

Gianforte, who is accused of "body slamming" The Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs at a campaign event in Bozeman, was cited for misdemeanor assault late Wednesday, just hours before voters went to polls. Gianforte faces a maximum $500 fine or 6 months in jail if convicted.

Three of Montana's largest newspapers subsequently rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte, although the impact on the race was expected to be limited to due to significant mail-in voting in the state.

A multi-millionaire executive, Gianforte reportedly grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground.

Addressing his supporters after the election, Gianforte apologized for the incident and said that he had "learned a lesson."

The special election was called after Ryan Zinke vacated Montana's lone seat in the House to become Secretary of the Interior.

Speaking to reporters in Italy, President Donald Trump said Gianforte had secured a "great win in Montana."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
A bipartisan bill proposing tight restrictions on travel to North Korea, and banning tourists to the reclusive Communist country, has been introduced in the Congress citing the risk of U.S. citizens being detained there for political reasons.

The North Korea Travel Control Act was tabled in the House jointly by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (CA) and Republican Rep. Joe Wilson (SC). The Bill proposes that the Treasury Department issue regulations requiring a license for transactions related to travel to, from, and within North Korea by U.S. citizens. The Bill also proposes a complete ban on issuing licenses for American tourists to visit North Korea.

Citing the risk that the North Korean Government will arrest Americans for use as diplomatic "bargaining chips," Rep. Schiff said "it is appropriate for the United States to take steps to control travel to a nation that poses a real and present danger to American interests."

Rep. Wilson alleged that the "tyrannical regime" uses money it collects from foreign tourists to develop weapons to threaten United States and it allies, as he "saw firsthand on a rare visit to Pyongyang."

At least 17 U.S. citizens were detained in the past ten years, and at least four Americans remain imprisoned currently in North Korea, according to the lawmakers. Several American tourists visit North Korea ignoring the State Department's strong warning to U.S. citizens against traveling to a country deemed as dangerous to them.

The Trump administration had made it clear last month that it aims to pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with its Allies and regional partners.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
The European ended Friday's session with mixed results. Energy and automakers were under pressure at the end of the trading week. Investors were unimpressed by the results of yesterday's OPEC meeting. OPEC members and some non-OPEC producers agreed to extend a pledge to cut around 1.8 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter of 2018.

Automakers, particularly German automakers, were under pressure after US President Trump threatened to block German car exports to the United States.

The FTSE 100 of the UK outperformed the rest of the European markets due to a drop in the value of the British pound. A new poll indicated that Britain's opposition Labour Party has cut Theresa May's Conservative Party lead to five points, ahead of the June 8 election.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened by 0.21 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone blue chip stocks decreased 0.17 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.19 percent.

The DAX of Germany dropped 0.15 percent and the CAC 40 of France fell 0.01 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.40 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 0.08 percent.

In Frankfurt, Volkswagen declined 0.11 percent and Daimler fell 0.52 percent. BMW also weakened by 1.0 percent.

In Paris, Peugeot dropped 0.86 percent and Renault decreased 0.91 percent.

In London, Petrofac sank 9.70 percent, extending yesterday's sharp losses. The company suspended Marwan Chedid as Group Chief Operating Officer until further notice on Thursday. The company said it will cooperate with the SFO Investigation, and formed a Committee to be solely responsible for its engagement with the SFO and to oversee the company's response to their investigation.

Confidence among Germany's exporters was the highest in nearly three-and-a-half years in May as exports continue to rise, results of a study by Ifo showed Friday. The Ifo Export Expectations Index rose to 14.7 balance points in May from 13.8 balance points in April, marking the highest level since January 2014.

Italy's consumer confidence weakened in May to the lowest level in nearly two-and-a-half years, survey figures from the statistical office Istat showed Friday. The consumer confidence index fell to 105.4 in May from 107.4 in April. Economist had expected the index to drop marginally to 107.3.

A report released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed that the U.S. grew by much more than initially estimated in the first three months of the year. The Commerce Department said gross domestic product climbed by 1.2 percent in the first quarter compared to the previously reported 0.7 percent increase.

Economists had been expecting a more modest upward revision to the pace of GDP growth to approximately 0.9 percent.

New orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods pulled back by less than expected in the month of April, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Friday. The report said durable goods orders slid by 0.7 percent in April after jumping by an upwardly revised 2.3 percent in March. Economists had expected orders to slump by 1.4 percent.

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. was virtually unchanged in May, according to revised data released by the University of Michigan on Friday. The University of Michigan said the consumer sentiment index for May was downwardly revised to 97.1 from a preliminary reading of 97.7. The May reading is slightly higher than the final April reading of 97.0.

Economists had expected a more modest downward revision to the consumer sentiment index to a reading of 97.5.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market Analysis
Former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has offered some harsh criticism of President Donald Trump's early days in the White House, saying most of his time in office has been "a complete disaster."

Boehner noted during the KPMG Global Energy Conference on Wednesday that he has been friends with Trump for 15 years but never envisioned him as president, according to a recap by energy publication Rigzone.

When asked what he thinks Trump has done well, Boehner cited international affairs and foreign policy, highlighting the president's aggressive stance on ISIS.

The former Republican leader said Trump also "did what he could" with healthcare but suggested a better strategy would be to "repair" Obamacare rather than try to repeal and replace the law.

"Everything else he's done [in office] has been a complete disaster," Boehner said, according to Rigzone. "He's still learning how to be president."

Boehner also downplayed the likelihood Congress will pass Trump's proposed tax cuts, saying, "Tax reform is just a bunch of happy talk."

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
The investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election is partly focusing on Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key aide, The Washington Post and NBC News reported Thursday.

Previous reporting has said other members of Trump's orbit are also focuses of the investigation, but the reports Thursday evening were the first to name a current White House official.

The Justice Department earlier this month appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to handle the investigation into all matters related to Russian involvement in the election, including potential collusion with Trump's associates and potential attempts to influence the investigation.

Kushner has also drawn increased scrutiny in recent months, as reports have showed that he met with a representative of a Russian bank under US sanctions prior to Trump's inauguration and failed to disclose the meeting.

The Senate intelligence committee signaled in March that it was reviewing information about Kushner's Russian contacts and his role arranging meetings. At the time, Kushner offered to meet with the committee voluntarily. He has not yet been called to testify, however.

In response to the reports Thursday evening, Kushner's attorney told CNN that Kushner would provide details of the Russia meetings to any investigation, including the special counsel.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Jamie Gorelick, Kushner's attorney, told CNN. "He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry."

Since Trump has taken office, Kushner has emerged as one of Trump's most trusted aides, and his portfolio has expanded to include finding peace in the Middle East and reshaping the federal government.

CNN's Jim Acosta contributed to this report.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Ardor SA formerly Decillon Limited announced that it was still in the process of securing cash from various subscribers in order to provide guarantees to enable the transfer of various properties to the company.



Property development company Ardor SA formerly Decillon Limited announced on Wednesday that it was still in the process of securing cash from various subscribers in order to provide guarantees to enable the transfer of various properties to the company.

Ardor has secured R359 million from a European based private equity investment company, which confirmed that it is finalising its banking processes in order to make the investment. The receipt of the investment is expected within the next 14 days Ardor said.

Ardor is planning a reverse listing on the JSE.

On receipt of the investment Ardor will proceed to acquire the minimum portfolio and unsuspend the trade in the shares of the company on the JSE.



The listing remains subject to the transfer of the minimum portfolio.



Following the recent announcement of the new proposed tax legislation for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) Ardor has decided to obtain advice to establish the benefits of having the company classified as a REIT.



The salient dates for the issue and listing of the new shares in Ardor to be allotted and issued pursuant to the acquisition of the minimum portfolio will be announced once the transfer of the minimum portfolio has been finalised it added.



Investors and/or shareholders are permitted to continue to subscribe for shares up to the date of the listing of the securities to be allotted and issued pursuant to the acquisition of the minimum portfolio.



The company has received interest well in excess of the R360 million minimum subscription .



The board still has to finalise negotiations in respect of these subscriptions.



The company will keep shareholders informed of progress made the final results of the subscription and new salient dates.



Due to the revival negotiations previously announced and the requirement for the minimum portfolio to be transferred to the company ahead of the reverse listing of Ardor shareholders were advised to continue to exercise caution when dealing in their shares until a further announcement is made.
Turnout for general election less than expected for Saline County

Ballots are still being counted as of Wednesday, but it seems the turnout for the 2022 general election was lower than expected by the county clerk.
The Minister of Finance, Sili Epa Tuioti, says Polynesian Airlines must have a very solid business case for the government to revive its international operations.

He also believes that learning from the lessons of the past is a must for the government.

He made the comment when his opinion was sought over the governments plan to revive Polynesian Airlines as a fully-fledged international airline.

As you know weve been through that path before, Minister Sili told the Samoa Observer during a recent interview.

It was quite costly and we are just paying off some of the debts.

Learning from the lessons of what happened in the past, looking around at whats happening, I think its up to Polynesian Airlines to come in with credible a strong business case.

Sili said the government is working on some options.

Currently we are also trying to make sure that we leverage other people resources, more flights by Fiji Airways, more flights by Air New Zealand, more flights from Australia and we are looking at that.

We appreciate that there is Fiji Airways flight that comes to us from Honolulu, maybe theres an opportunity for an additional flight or we invite Hawaiian Airlines to fly directly instead of us going to Pago.

He believes a better cheaper alternative can be found.

I think the business case has to be very strong and Im sure they are already doing that.

Id like to see their numbers and the discussion and negotiations with other airlines for the sake of our tourism.

As of now, the Minister said Polynesian Airlines is performing very well.

They have a fairly strong performance with operations to American Samoa.

Does he support the governments decision for Polynesian Airlines international flights?

Id like to look at the business case. We need to have a look at the discussions with Virgin and other airlines. I know Polynesian is also talking to Fiji Airways.

If we can get more flights in and with Polynesians sort of co-sharing with those airlines thats going to be beneficial for Polynesian but also for the wider economy.

But I suspect the board and management of Polynesian Airlines are working really hard to come up with a business case.

For me, Ill be willing to look at it.

We all need to make sure that we know where things will be in five years time. We do have opportunities to maybe also increase the capacity of Polynesian to regional routes.
The lack of employment opportunities has forced more than 400 women in Samoa to turn to prostitution.

And Member of Parliament Olo Fiti Vaai blames the government for ignoring the unemployment problem for far too long.

There are no employment options, he told the Samoa Observer. Im sorry to say but there is no other option for these girls.

I know for a fact this is happening and I see these girls near the compounds where there are foreign workers.

Olo told the Samoa Observer his heart goes out to these young women.

There are no jobs available, the government has not followed their word in creating job opportunities for the youth and this is the result of desperation, he said.

The Member of Parliament said the government should be held accountable for their failure to address the issue.

Accoring to the Multi-country Mapping and Behavioural study 2016, quoted by the Ministry of Health in their sixth annual report to UNAIDS, it says that in 2016, the number of female sex workers in Samoa was estimated at around 400.

The age during which some of them began sex work ranged from 13 to 21 years old.

Most women are doing sex work for economic reasons. Payment varies considerably from $50 to $200 tala," the report reads.

These women have a wide range of clients, including local and foreign men and 58.3% had children and the majority had no other employment.

The study was the work of the U.N.D.P, U.N.I.C.E.F and the University of New South Wales which called for urgent need for reforms in Pacific island countries to adequately address HIV and sexually transmitted infections (S.T.Is) among vulnerable populations.

It examined the behaviour risk factors and social and structural determinants of risk that drive the epidemic among vulnerable groups, such as men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers and seafarers. Samoa was among nine countries the Study covered.

Olo believes the government should address this issue immediately.

The government should correct these mistakes as this should never happen in Samoa, he said.

The truth is, there are not enough job, most of the College graduates upon return cannot find employment.

While some of these college graduates have already attained employment but its not what they went to school for. They are working for a totally different field and they settle for what is available to them.

Olo accused the government of being hypocritical.

The government has been singing about creating more jobs for the youth, but nothing and this is the end result. Out of desperation these girls turn to do what is wrong, because they are poor, they need the money.

Last month when P.M Tuilaepa was asked about the issue, he laughed at claims that poverty and hardship are to blame. He has also attacked the newspaper over its coverage of the issue describing the reporting as rubbish.

If that is true then you shouldnt find that in America, the wealthiest country in the world, yet there are a lot of women like that in America, Tuilaepa said.

Thats where its wrong; you cant control this type of behavior.

Tuilaepa then had a go at the newspaper.

I know the newspaper is trying hard, he said laughing.

It doesnt matter how far off the issue is, they always try to pull it towards my doorstep. They blame me as the reason for everything.
Early this month, Pacific Trade Invest (P.T.I) Australia, working in collaboration with the Samoa Chamber of Commerce, was in Samoa leading a buyer delegation.

As part of their programme they visited the Samoan Coconut Cluster to see firsthand their operations. Samoa Coconut Cluster Limited is the company behind the Samoa Heritage brand of raw organic virgin coconut oil (V.C.O).

Founded in 2013 by Edwin Tamasese, Alo Kolone Vaai and Gasu Isaako Aipovi, the company has grown to a cooperative group of over 200 registered farmers and processors working with the central oil processing facility based at Vaitele.

P.T.I Australia began working with the Samoan Coconut Cluster in 2016 providing essential export development support, they also assisted developing product packaging and labels and accessing jars for the Samoan Coconut Clusters first international shipment of V.C.O to New Zealand.

We are thankful for the support P.T.I Australia has provided the Samoan Coconut Cluster its enabled us to confidently enter the international market, which more importantly is now providing a sustainable income for our farmers and their families that we intend to grow, Mr. Tamasese.

Mona Mato, Manager Export Services, P.T.I Australia said he was impressed by the facilities.

Edwin and the team have a fantastic facility, its great to have this opportunity to see how the V.C.O is made, its PTI Australias mandate from the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat to help Samoan exporters.

The flow on effect of the Samoan Coconut Clusters export success to Samoan farmers, their families and communities is immense.

P.T.I Australia is an agency of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

They work with export and investment ready Pacific Island business establishing opportunities in international markets with a focus on Australia.
The definition of poverty differs from person to person.

If you ask Simati Tiai, he believes poverty can be defined as the lack of money and sometimes the absence of food.

He knows what it is like.

The man from the villages of Malua and Vaitele said he and his family struggle a lot with having no land, no money and little food.

Yesterday, he was spotted by the Village Voice on the side of the road with his daughter.

Right now, I admit we have no money and hardly have any food, he said.

We just got back from taking some Taula bottles I gathered to the store.

We got only $7 and we used it to buy two loaves of bread and $3 sugar.

Simati and his wife work as cleaners.

We work to maintain this other businessmans land at Vaitele for $50 a week, sometimes $35.

So in order to try and get by each day, I walk around to gather Taula and Taxi bottles to earn a little money.

The father said they are desperate for help.

Not only do we hardly have money, my wife has special needs, he said.

She once fell from a cocoa tree and hit her head.

Right now, she is very hard to care for and look after. We also need money for her appointments and medical bills.

The worst part is none of my four children go to school.

We cant afford that right now and I dont know when we will.

We might have to wait until I get a job that pays well then save before we put them to school. This is why I really need your help.

Ive heard most people live off the plantation and I would love to be one of them.

Like I said before, we are living and maintaining another familys land at Vaitele, so we cannot develop anything on it because its not our land.

Looking to the future, he is worried.

I can imagine my childrens lives and what it will be. When I see other kids living a happy and peaceful life, I only dream of putting my kids to school. I dont care if we eat from the rubbish dump, slaves to other people but I only want my kids to be educated in school.

In tears, Simati humbly requests for help.

All I want is my kids to go to school. I dont want them to end up the way we are, struggling and trying to make ends meet. They deserve better and happy lives.

The father has no phone but if you want to help him and his family please contact the Samoa Observer on 23078. Ask for the Village Voice team.
The Office of the Electoral Commission celebrated National Voters Day yesterday.

A parade led by the Police band kick-started the celebration guided by the theme To empower youth participation in elections.

Hundreds of students from different colleges participated in this years celebration.

The rationale behind National Voters Day is to encourage stronger participation for a stronger democracy.

Todays event is expected to provide Samoas youth from the age 18 to 35 years old with a sense of empowerment, citizenship and pride in participating in elections, said the Minister of Justice and Courts Administration, Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu.

It is also aimed to provide an opportunity to vent or share their thoughts and to help them become part of Samoas political process.

The Office of the Electoral Commission findings during the 2016 elections shows that a significant number of young people did not participate or vote during the elections.

We hope to increase this margin by encouraging the youth of Samoa to participate more in this process.

We also want to acknowledge that their right to vote is a basic human right in our democracy.

We hope that the National Voters day initiative changes things for the better.

The Minister acknowledged the assistance provided by the Australian government through the Leadership Programme for funding the event.

I would also like to thank the management and staff of O.E.C. for making this initiative possible in the effort of building a sustainable electoral system.

After the parade, students were took part in a Speech competition with the topic of: If you were to run for candidacy from your respective constituency what would be your message to the community.

The National Voters Day ended the Democracy and Development in Samoa: the Role of Elections" national conference which started on Monday.

The four-day conference was opened by Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.
Traffic congestions on the east side of the Apia Township has been lessened a great deal thanks to the multimillion tala Leone Bridge reopening.

The bridge was officially opened for public use this morning.

The government is planning an official opening next month.

For the meantime, motorists and people living in the area are delighted that theyre able to commute freely and conveniently using the road.

Its something they have not been able to do since the bridge was destroyed by flooding brought by Cyclone Evan in 2012.
Dear Editor,

Re: Palemene idolises P.M. as a servant

Palemene Asa Segifili is one of the 99.99 per cent of happy Samoa people who adores the Hon. Prime Minister of our dear country, tofa Fatialofa Auelua Tuilaepa Lolofie Lupesoliai Neioti Galumalemana Aiono Chief Logohu Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi.

As Mataafa Keni Lesa resonates in his recent editorial about leadership and political stability in Samoa, that surely endures the quality of this great man who has been our leader for near 20 years as prime minister.

My vivid memory of an interview with the great leader live on air while he was the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, I asked him why he waited for so long to enter parliament after he returned to Samoa decorated with an Honour and Master in Economic.

I wouldnt challenge Fatialofa Momoe who was the Member of Parliament because he was the paramount chief of Lepa.

Why not? I followed on.

Because he was chosen by God and endorsed by the chiefs and orators of Lepa. He responded.

He then took me into a journey in thy holy Devine to remind me he is also a master in Theology when he mentioned about David and Saul. He reiterates:

The Israelites were demanding David to kill Saul and become King after the Israel armies were annihilated by the Philistines.

I dont know. I assured him. But continue on, I encouraged.

I know you wouldnt know because you dont go to church Joe Hollywood. He reminded me.

It appears you know more about me than me to my own self. I confirmed; I giggled then we both had a laughing session.

Then he told me about David going into the cave where Saul was sleeping and slashed a bit of his robe exiting to the waiting Israelites and said:

I could have killed him but I am not able as Saul was chosen by God to be your King.

My time will come.

He told me after he served his bond to the government for his scholarship an opportunity had become available with the United Nations in Brussels.

He migrated with his family and relocated in Europe until the then Minister of Finance Vaovasamanaia Filipo and a delegation to Europe asked for him to return to Samoa to head the Treasury.

He could have been a millionaires by now if he had continued on with the United Nations but Tuilaepa heeded a call that his country needed him most as he was the only person with such a degree to help lift his country out of the doldrum.

He started to resettle back in Samoa with family then Fatialofa Momoe passed on.

From there on, it is his time from God to lead Samoa.

If he had run against Fatialofa Momoe, he would have won as he had told me in this interview there were matai in Lepa who asked him to run.

Just as the Israelites had done asking David to be their King, but Tuilaepa would not let his egos to overcome his good judgement.

After our interview in 1992 while working for Radio New Zealand, I knew this is The Chosen One.

I asked for his elevation in these pages and calling for the late Tofilau Eti Alesana to step aside.

Without a slightest doubt in my mind, this is the David; Lepa being the smallest electorate in Samoa, thats another DAVID.

If ever I were not satisfied with this gentleman as the leader of Samoa, I would have run for parliament.

And then, first I had to be qualified as a candidate. That is not easy. Then I have to have voters to support me. Again that is even harder.

Should I overcome that, then I had to wait for the writ to confirm I didnt bribe anyone. Its a mammoth task to meet as a politician.

Hence, its so simple for one to become a sporadic gutless faceless homo ghost to write one word, two, three or one sentence, two, three but anymore the grammar is shambolic.

Just like a sporadic rows of bullets from a sniper hiding so low rather fighting the war like a real soldier.

Tofaeono Joe Hollywood
The former Secretary General of the C.C.C.S., Reverend Dr. Afereti Uili, has been reinstated as a pastor with a monetary gift of $150,000.

The decision was made during at the Churchs annual meeting yesterday.

Rev. Afereti Uili was stripped of all his roles in the church over an allegation of a sexual nature made by a woman.

The Supreme Courts decision to give consent by judgment as a result of mediation between the two parties ended the longstanding fight by Rev. Afereti to clear his name.

In January this year, the Elders Committee of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S) reinstated Reverend Dr. Afereti Uili as a Pastor of the church.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer at the time, Rev. Afereti acknowledged the decision by the Elders Committee.

Firstly, I want to thank the church for their decision, he said.

Whats very important to me is the fact that they reviewed their decision and made it right.

The most important thing is that they have reinstated my position as a Reverend. Im very happy with that, he said.

With the allegation resolved and the reinstatement by the Elders Committee he was asked if he was considering suing the church for his sacking.

He said: To be honest Ive never thought of that."
All is well that ends well.

And after two weeks of meetings, the 2017 annual conference of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (C.C.C.S) at Malua ended yesterday.

The last activity was the selection of leaders to drive the church for the next year.

Reverend Elder Tunumoso Iosia from the Matagaluega of Falealili is the new Chairman.

He replaces pensioner Reverend Elder Tavita Roma.

Rev. Elder Iosia has served the Sapoe, Falealili parish for 28 years.

In accepting the role, he thanked the church for trusting in him.

He acknowledged Gods guidance over his life and his family and said that his prayer is for Gods blessings upon all church members and Samoa.

I want to thank God for everything especially the church members in Samoa and around the world.

To Tiaga (Rev. Tautiaga Senara), elders of the church, church members...to our Matagaluega at Falealili thanks for all your support and prayers."

Reverend Elder Tautiaga Senara returns as Deputy Chairman.

He won the vote with 340 votes. Second place was Rev. Palemia Tauiliili who had 327 votes.

Speaking to the Weekend Observer, Rev. Elder Senara said he is humbled to be elected.

The truth is we cant do anything without Gods love and faithfulness so the glory returns to Him for his guidance and protection upon each and every one of us, said.

We must fully depend on God for without Him we have nothing, but with Him we have everything. Its all about relying on Him and his Spirit.
Traffic congestions on the east side of the Apia Township have been lessened a great deal thanks to the multimillion tala Leone Bridge reopening.

The bridge was officially opened for public use yesterday morning.

The Samoa Observer understands that the government is planning an official opening next month.

In the meantime, motorists and people living in the area are delighted that theyre able to commute freely and conveniently again using the road.

Its something they have not been able to do since the bridge was destroyed by flooding brought by Cyclone Evan in 2012.

At the beginning of the year, the China Railway First Group (C.R.F.G) Samoa, which is responsible for the $10,915,707.48 project, announced that the bridge will be opened before June.

Leone Bridge is a one span designed bridge consisting of eight beams (six inner beams and two outer beams) in total, said Drummoyne Pepe Meki, Secretary of China Railway Cooperation Limited, told the Samoa Observer.

Each beams length is 26.8 meters, 1 meter width and weighs 48tons, all these beams were pre-casted by Stahlton Engineered Concrete Company in New Zealand before they were shipped to Samoa last month."

China Railway First Group (Samoa) Company Limited was contracted by Land Transport Authority to conduct the project co-funded by the World Bank.

C.R.F.G is known to the world through civil work skills and it recently established its branch in Samoa and are now working on their first project at Leone Bridge.

Yang Jun is the Project Manager with Yu Zhigianq as the deputy Project Manager.

Mr. Jun said the bridge should last 100 years.
The Savaii Samoa Tourism Association (S.S.T.A) has voted to keep Tupai Saleimoa Vaai as their President.

The decision was made during the Associations 7th Annual General Meeting last week at the Va-i-Moana Seaside Lodge, Asau.

In addressing the association, President Tupai reported on the achievements and challenges of the past year.

Without wishing to exaggerate, the past year undoubtedly has been both an active and challenging period yet again for the Executive Council and membership, a statement from the Association said.

One of the many challenges as alluded to by Tupai was the remoteness of Savaii and thereby limited communications, exchanges and subsequently funding assistance for our Savaii members at times."

The cost of and time taken in travelling to Upolu for such meetings are undoubtedly not a luxury and most of the time financed as in-kind by their own Executive Council."

Nonetheless, as a non-profit, non-Governmental organisation the Executive Council still does their utmost to have their industry voice heard at the several committees and taskforces they have been privileged to represent Savaii on."

Most of these committees see the close collaboration of Savaii tourism with their main partner organisation in Apia, the Samoa Hotel Association as well as improved alliance with the government body, the Samoa Tourism Authority."

He further accentuated the hard struggling efforts of the Executive Council in bringing much needed funding support for its Savaii members.

He also spoke about projects which provide assistance for the big Island. These include the Tourism Climate Change Project (T.C.C.P) which involves a small grants scheme for some attraction sites and beach fale operators with the purpose of increased adaptive capacity to climate change and disaster risks of tourism-reliant communities.

There is also the Samoa Tourism Growth Partnership (S.T.G.P) with a total approved NZ$7.3million which is still in its early planning phase has already perceived S.S.T.A as a key implementing agency for Savaii whereby S.S.T.A will assist in implementing the upgrading key site attractions and associated signage to help improve the visitors experience.

Finally in the presidents annual report was the emphasis on the events, campaigns and fundraising activities fruitfully accomplished in the past year and those to be undertaken for the benefit of the association.

The Miss Pacific Islands Event held in November 2016 saw the enormous support of members and local businesses, the successful Inaugural Fishing Tournament recently held in Asau beginning of May, the Savaii Games initiated by Seti Afoa, the support of Samoa Observer through advertisement campaigns, S.S.T.A annual raffles and their environmental programme, Keep Savaii Clean campaign which involves clean-ups around the island and creating awareness of the environmental and social impacts of the malpractice of public littering.

S.S.T.A was incorporated in 2010 and it is a non-Government membership organisation that strives to be the united voice of the hospitality and tourism industry on Savaii.

The associations financial statements for the 2016/2017 financial year presented by Treasurer Dr. Nola Gidlow and adopted.

She highlighted the importance of annual membership fees in order to keep the office and information center in permanent operation.

Though the association has been fortunate to have received grants from S.T.A and M.C.I.L, these are insufficient to sustain the existence and success of the office both as a secretariat and as an information hub."

Included in the AGM agenda were presentations by noteworthy companies: Digicel (represented by Asuao Dennis Williams and Toalepai Waikato Lefale) and EMD (Events, Marketing & Distribution, represented by Kevin Schuster). "

The AGM which was attended by more than 30 members and guests concluded with a networking session over food and drinks and a raffle drawn with touchphones and phone credit prizes sponsored by Digicel Company."

S.S.T.A would like to acknowledge with deep appreciation the sponsorships by Digicel Company and Salafai Metal Industries (SMI) for this years meeting.
The countdown continues towards the historical first Super Rugby game in Apia between the Blues and the Reds next Friday.

As part of the excitement, the winners of Samoa Observers Clash of Colours Competition have chosen the players they will meet and dine with next week.

Taupau Emanuele Taupau from Lalovaea and Anoanoai Faafetai Tinei from Elise Fou were drawn as the winners last week.

They both win the chance to meet and dine with their favourite players from a team of their choosing.

Anoanoai works at N.P.F. He chose Quade Cooper and Alex Mafi.

I love how they play on the field, he said. They are the best players in their team.

As for Taupau, who works for J.I.C.A, she chose Jerome Kaino and Stephen Luatua of the Auckland Blues.
The National University of Samoa (N.U.S) is looking at making Open Distance Learning (O.D.L) available to students.

N.U.S. is in its early stages of designing online courses with the focus of O.D.L, said Dr. Ioana Chan Mow.

Dr. Ioana Chan Mow said there are now an increasing number of workshops in the use of technology offered to N.U.S. staff to further the reach of our teaching methods.

Dr. Chan Mow believes that the major concerns were the lack of instructional design support, lack of hardware and software, concerned about students access to technology and the lack of time to develop e-courses.

It is hoped that with the establishment of the National University of Samoas (N.U.S.) Technology Enabled Learning (T.E.L.) policy and implementation plan, that there will be a documentation of lessons to be done in the University.

The University has yet to develop policies in the use of Open Educational Resources (O.E.R.) and T.E.L.

This meant that teacher experiences in technological advances are much needed in N.U.S.

During the Technology Enabled Learning Workshop hosted by the Faculty of Science (F.O.S.) concerns were raised that there is a very limited knowledge in technological experiences within the University.

This called for the need to encourage new staff and additional tutorial sessions to get everyone on the same page as the I.C.T. experts in modern teaching techniques.

N.U.S is at the early stages of developing preparedness and is in the process of developing a robust system, she said.

The University of Samoa currently does not have a strategic plan for the implementation of T.E.L. and this is one of the proposed activities and outcomes of the Technology Enabled Learning workshop.

*Vaise Taalefili is a final year Media and Journalism Student of the National University of Samoa.
Its election season, so were hearing plenty about lousy leadership and dysfunctional government, generally along with a promise the next candidate will do better.

In reality, true government reform is rare. Yet hope occasionally is rewarded.

For proof that success is possible, we need look no further than David Wescoe, a lawyer by training who recently completed his first year as chief executive of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association.

Advertisement

If the name sounds familiar, Wescoe in the late 2000s rehabilitated the operations and reputation of San Diegos municipal pension system, after the city had earned its Enron-by-the-sea slur by lying to bondholders, diverting contributions and spending the system to near-insolvency. Five city pension officials were indicted.

Amazingly, Wescoe has surpassed himself at the countys system.

One reason, in my view, was a higher degree of difficulty posed by the second turnaround. While the citys retirement board had melted down and been rebuilt, its investment management wasnt dysfunctional.

The challenges were broader with San Diego County. When Wescoe arrived a year ago, the overall pension system was arguably the nations worst managed, from end to end.

At more than $100 million a year, its investment cost as a percentage of assets was among the highest of any public plan.

Worse, the systems outsourced chief investment officer, Lee Partridge of Salient Partners, had loaded its portfolio with leverage  a form of borrowing  to buy derivatives, swaps and other arcane financial instruments. By late summer of 2014, the risk had grown so much that an extraordinary crash could have wiped out the countys entire $10 billion nest egg, and left taxpayers owing billions more.

Standing idly by was the systems previous chief executive, Brian White, who had held the job since the Clinton era. His main distinction was to say as little as possible in board meetings and avoid interaction with employees and the public.

Along with investment management, the countys system had punted command of its legal work to an outside general counsel. Instead of cutting costs and raising quality, the net effect of such outsourcing was to raise spending and shift responsibility away from White, because both positions reported directly to the systems part-time board, as did the chief executive.

Speaking of the governing board, its members were divided and confused. Two threatened to sue each other, at county expense.

Lets pause here to note that Wescoe waded into this mess willingly, leaving a promising private-sector job to do so. He appears to view public service as a duty and an honor, rather than a sinecure.

Results seem to matter to him, too.

The accomplishments are unprecedented, said Dianne Jacob, a county supervisor and pension board member, on March 17 after Wescoe reported on the systems progress during his first 12 months.

The litany begins with Wescoes hiring of Stephen Sexauer as chief investment officer, replacing the outside consultants with a talented in-house executive. Its far too soon to judge returns, but as of March 31 the funds value had declined by 1.3 percent since the fiscal year began July 1, nearly even with the 1.2 percent decline in its investment benchmark.

On the bright side, the system already has cut $14 million in annual costs from its investment operation.

And Sexauer moved with balletic precision to reduce risk in the portfolio. Over two weeks in August, he carefully dismantled elaborate bets on everything from the price of zinc to global currencies, replacing swaps and derivatives with cheap index funds.

We were literally able to move 1,400 market positions at 15 worldwide exchanges around the world, error-free and at low cost, Sexauer told me this month.

Now the portfolio has no direct leverage. Roughly 25 percent is invested in bonds; 44 percent in stocks; 23 percent in private equity and real estate; and 8 percent is opportunistic, basically waiting to pounce on deals when prices crash in various foreign or domestic financial markets.

The investment mix reflects an understanding that nobody can reliably predict market behavior, so diversifying the portfolio can cushion downturns and avoid missing big upward movements.

To be sure, the consultant, Partridge, understood this, too. His mistake was to depend on leverage to goose returns, a strategy that multiplied risk as well as consequences.

As Sexauer was pulling the portfolio off the railroad tracks, Wescoe was busy overhauling the systems management.

For members who call with retirement questions, the average waiting time has declined from three minutes to 20 seconds. I know what youre thinking: Id be delighted if my cable company only kept me waiting for three minutes on hold.

But monopoly-style service was unacceptable to the new chief executive. So he encouraged the call center to cut steps from the voicemail system and get callers to a live person more quickly.

Wescoe, whose resume includes counsel to commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission, also replaced outsourcing with an in-house general counsel, gaining tighter control and boosting output of legal work without raising costs.

A big obstacle for would-be reformers in government is the job-for-life mentality that can afflict workers backed by unions and civil-service protections.

Through a mysterious combination of personality, enthusiasm and wisdom, Wescoe appears to have found ways to encourage incumbent employees to higher levels of service, often by promoting some and moving others to different departments or adjusting responsibilities.

My experience is this: Good people like a challenge, Wescoe said.

This has been no minor overhaul, as 28 of 32 people on the systems management team were either hired, promoted or realigned over the last year. Whereas succession planning was weak a year ago, today the system is at least two experienced people deep in key departments.

Improvements are in evidence almost anywhere you look.

A complex transition to a new technology system is nearly complete. In one of several organizational changes, Wescoe moved responsibility for disability claims, which had been managed separately, under supervision of the general counsel.

Communication with the press and public is vastly better. The system has beefed up and expanded retirement seminars for members. The latest annual report is clear and easy to read.

Sexauer, Wescoe and company overhauled the pension funds investment policy statement, a giant undertaking akin to writing a constitution. Now the board has a fighting chance to actually understand how the publics $10 billion is being invested, and prevent excessive risk-taking.

My favorite line in the document: An investment program need not be complex to be successful.

Speaking of the pension board, theres been a profound shift from dissension to harmony. Meetings that once stretched past quitting time now take two or three hours.

In a very real sense, the boards members have been the architects of their success. In particular, credit goes to Jacob, county Treasurer Dan McAllister and Samantha Begovich (a deputy district attorney representing county workers), who pushed for reform.

In the ordinary course of events, staying awake is a chief challenge of service on a pension board. Since 2014, this board has voted to fire its entire outside investment and legal team and, later, accepted its chief executives resignation  and hired Wescoe.

The biggest remaining problem is one the board cant solve. Like nearly all public pensions in California, the countys is gravely underfunded. Todays retirees are enjoying benefits at the expense of tomorrows taxpayers. The problem can only get worse until the countys elected supervisors find the political courage their pension board has displayed.

As for Wescoe, he has hit bumps along the way. Late last year, workers struggling with the old technology came close to missing a deadline for producing the systems actuarial valuation, a key report card on the pension funds financial health.

And hes undoubtedly made some enemies, both internal and external, given the pace of change.

If Wescoe is eager to admit shortcomings, he is equally quick to distribute praise and credit. If you ask him how he succeeds, youll get an earful about all the great stuff his managers and staff members are doing.

Another thing: In a culture that worships innovation, I cant think of a single aspect of Wescoes management style that is innovative, or even new.

Instead, his talent lies in deploying old-fashioned ideas about focusing on customers, helping workers succeed, and keeping institutional promises. Most of all, he eats his own cooking, as the saying goes.

I believe in public service, Wescoe said. And I believe in the power of government to do good.

Business-school academics debate whether chief executives matter much. When researchers follow the trajectories of many private companies, its hard to tell whether success or failure owes more to any particular leader or just plain luck.

In the case of the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association, its the public that at last has gotten lucky.

dan.mcswain@sduniontribune.com
Sharon Vilsack pulled into a San Clemente strip mall on a recent morning to perform one of Southern Californias most quintessential rituals  picking a pink box of doughnuts to share.

She chose carefully: an old fashioned, plenty of glazed, a few sprinkles, and a puffy maple bar, all tucked neatly into that familiar container that so often blends into the background of daily life here.

Im like one of Pavlovs dogs when I see a pink box, said Vilsack, 29, outside Rose Donuts & Cafe. My mouth starts watering because I know whats inside.

The pink box is a distinctly regional tradition, one so ingrained it often requires an outsider to notice. The Northeast has Dunkin Donuts and its neon orange and pink box. The South has Krispy Kreme and its polka dot box. But come to Los Angeles and its the no-frills pink box, with signature grease marks, that commands counter space in our offices, waiting rooms and police stations.

Any time you see a movie or sitcom set in New York and a pink doughnut box appears, you know it obviously took place in L.A., says Peter Yen of Santa Ana Packaging, a local manufacturer of the carnation-pink containers that cost about a dime each.

But unlike New Yorks celebrated Grecian coffee cups, the pink box has endured with little fanfare, its origins something of a mystery.

One thing is certain, though, the pink box phenomenon could only happen here. Southern California is the undisputed epicenter of the doughnut world  a testament to our love affair with junk food you can handle behind a steering wheel. L.A. County alone has at least 680 doughnut shops, according to Yelp, about 200 more than New York City and double the number in Chicagos Cook County.

Instead of national chains, the Southern California doughnut sector is dominated by mom-and-pop businesses run by immigrants, none more influential than Cambodian Americans.

Landing here as refugees in the mid-1970s to escape the Khmer Rouge, the Southeast Asian community quickly found a lifeline in the demanding doughnut business, giving it an outsized role in the expanding waistlines of countless Angelenos  and the spread of an unsung culinary icon.

For years, the doughnuts Stan Berman sold out of his eponymous Westwood shop were packaged in a neat white box with a smooth clay coating. But when the supplier of those boxes died in the early 1980s, Berman turned to the biggest local distributor at the time, a Pico Rivera company that had been around since the 1920s called Westco.

They gave us pink boxes and I didnt think anything of it, said Berman, now 87.

What Berman didnt know at the time was that a sea change was taking place in the doughnut business farther south in Orange County.

Im like one of Pavlovs dogs when I see a pink box. My mouth starts watering because I know whats inside.  Sharon Vilsack, 29

An ambitious Cambodian refugee named Ted Ngoy was building a vast network of doughnut shops and staffing them with hundreds of countrymen whose visas he sponsored. Ngoy (the g is silent) started in La Habra and expanded to Fullerton, Anaheim and Buena Park. It wasnt long before Cambodian doughnut stores spread to L.A. County too, upending a market that had long been dominated by the Winchells Donuts chain.

Ngoy grew fantastically rich and bought a 7,000-square-foot mansion in Mission Viejo, a vacation home in Big Bear and a time-share in Acapulco. Then he squandered his wealth gambling in an epic reversal of fortune first chronicled in the Times in 2005.

Ted could talk a bird out of a tree, said Chuong Lee, who married Ngoys nephew and bought DKs Donuts in Santa Monica in 1981. Hes such a good businessman. But every time hed go to Las Vegas, hed lose one of his stores.

Ngoys wife divorced him and he ended up sleeping on the porch of a friends Long Beach mobile home. But before all that, Ngoy set in motion a change that, for Angelenos, has made the color pink synonymous with sweets.

Experienced doughnut makers know you cant skimp on ingredients. Switch regular wheat flour for cheaper potato flour and the doughnut becomes glutinous and sticks to your teeth. An otherwise good jelly doughnut can be undone by an inferior filling loaded with corn starch and too little fruit.

For decades, doughnut makers got their better ingredients from Westco. But even purveyors of glazes and sprinkles arent immune to corporate consolidation. In 1992, Westco was sold to CSM, a century-old sugar processing company from Holland thats grown into a baking supply behemoth now headquartered in the suburbs of Atlanta. Westcos business shifted to a brand CSM launched in 1998 called BakeMark.

I know they wanted to do red boxes, but the mills kept sending it back pink.  Peter Yen, sales manager at Santa Ana Packaging

According to company lore, a Cambodian doughnut shop owner asked Westco some four decades ago if there were any cheaper boxes available other than the standard white cardboard. So Westco found leftover pink cardboard stock and formed a 9-by-9-by-4-inch container with four semicircle flaps to fold together. To this day, people in the business refer to the box as the 9-9-4.

Its the perfect fit for a dozen doughnuts, said Jim Parker, BakeMarks president and chief executive.

More importantly to the thrifty refugees, it cost a few cents less than the standard white. Thats a big deal for shops that go through hundreds, if not thousands, of boxes a week. It didnt hurt either that pink was a few shades short of red, a lucky color for the refugees, many of whom are ethnic Chinese. White, on the other hand, is the color of mourning.

Alfredo Paredes loads pink doughnut boxes from a shrink wrap machine at Evergreen Packaging in La Mirada. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Len Bell, president of Evergreen Packaging in La Mirada, first noticed the proliferation of pink boxes as a regional manager for Winchells in the early 1980s. Back in the Southland after a few years in Minnesota, Bell was amazed to see the doughnut business seemingly transformed overnight by Cambodian refugees, who proved quick studies and skillful businesspeople.

Pink boxes have been around for a long time, dont get me wrong, he said. But they really came into vogue in the late 70s and early 80s simply because it was a less expensive box to produce and buy.

The trend has caught on in other states too. Evergreen sells pink boxes in Arizona and Texas to relatives of local Cambodian doughnut shop owners.

And few pink doughnut boxes are more coveted than those found at Voodoo Doughnut, the outlandish Portland, Ore., shop that gave us the NyQuil doughnut. A trip to California 15 years ago inspired the stores owner Kenneth Cat Daddy Pogson to go pink. To this day, Voodoos slogan remains: Good things come in pink boxes.

Susan Lim was 12 when her parents, three brothers and one sister fled the Khmer Rouge in 1979 for the U.S. The family was taken in by Ngoy, Lims uncle, who lived in a five-bedroom house in La Habra. When Lim arrived at her uncles house, it was the first time she had ever seen a refrigerator.

I thought it was a mansion, said Lim, 49. We were so happy just to see food on the table every day and not having to worry anymore if they will come to kill us today or tomorrow.

Within five years, Lims parents were running multiple doughnut shops. Lims father baked and her mother worked the counter. The children were tasked with mostly menial jobs, none more tedious than folding stacks of pink boxes.

Wed sit in the back and fold hundreds and hundreds of them, Lim said. And they always needed more on the weekends. After a while, I found it meditative.

Lim now runs Rose Donuts & Cafe. The Orange County shop has used pink boxes since Lims parents bought the business in 1984. Recently, Lim replaced the larger of her two pink boxes (made for two dozen doughnuts) with a pricier brown variety that doesnt require folding. She didnt think anyone would notice. But a customer returned to say her children found the brown box unsatisfactory.

They asked their mother, Wheres the pink box? said Lim, whos sticking with the new box.

Susan Lim, the Cambodian American owner of Rose Donuts & Cafe, serves doughnuts at her San Clemente store. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Lim isnt certain who first requested cheaper boxes from Westco. But after consulting relatives, including Ngoys ex-wife, she figures it may have been Ning Yen, a protege of Ngoy who went on to open doughnut shops, a doughnut supply distribution company called B&H (which was sold to BakeMark in 2005) and then box manufacturer Santa Ana Packaging.

Its possible, she added, that Yen and Ngoy, who were business partners, may have requested pink boxes together.

Yen, who was traveling in Cambodia, couldnt be reached for an interview. His son, Peter Yen, agreed it was possible that his dad first called Westco. He remembers his dad saying, back in the 1980s, he wanted red boxes to bring some much-needed good fortune to a community traumatized by war.

I know they wanted to do red boxes, said Peter Yen, 32, a sales manager at Santa Ana Packaging, but the mills kept sending it back pink.

Driving through Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he has mostly lived since 1992, Ngoy is tickled to see doughnut shops in his homeland. He cant help but feel somewhat responsible.

It all started with me and one shop and it became thousands of people, Ngoy said.

He could have just as well been talking about the boxes, though his memory is fuzzy about whether it was he or Ning Yen who asked for cheaper boxes.

We doughnut makers were all about saving money, Ngoy said. Why buy the more expensive white? Save a few pennies and make big bucks.

Ted Ngoy sits inside a Christys Donut Shop, which he built in the mid-1980s, in Hawthorne in 2004. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

How the pink box has persevered so long may be about more than just dollars and cents. Experts say the color triggers an emotional connection to sweetness that makes doughnuts more irresistible than they already are.

Its romantic and childlike and it entices you, said Kimberly Marte, who teaches at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and helped Tesla Motors develop its hues. It makes you crave sugar.

There are hints, though, that the pink box may soon be passe.

Evergreen is getting more orders from shops wanting boxes with graphics and logos. Store owners want to stand out and they understand the inherent branding opportunity of customized packaging.

Evergreens printing room features a wall covered with pink and white pastry boxes bearing logos of some of the regions most beloved bakeries and doughnut shops, including Du-pars, the Donut Man in Glendora, California Donuts in Koreatown and DKs Donuts in Santa Monica, which uses its glossy packaging to promote its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter handles.

The box is the work of Mayly Tao, who in recent years has re-branded her mothers shop for the social media generation, attracting nearly 79,000 followers on Instagram.

When the cronut craze swept New York, it was DKs that was the first to introduce a similar hybrid pastry in the L.A. area in 2013. Business at the shop tripled.

There were lines out the door every day, said Taos mother, Chuong Lee.

Tao was folding pink boxes for as long as she can remember. But to dedicate a career to the grueling work seemed to go against everything her mother had hoped for in raising a family in America. Its a quandary facing myriad refugee shop owners. Should their children take over or should they cash out of the business?

Tao argued firmly for the former and has relished the opportunity. Introducing a new box  one adorned with winged doughnuts flying above a beach tableau  is no small feat for a store averse to change. But Tao insisted on a fresh look, despite her mothers reservations.

People seem to like the new box, said Lee, 53. To me, I dont care as much. People come for good doughnuts. But, she added, Id rather pay half the price for the old pink box.

Follow me @dhpierson on Twitter

Additional credits: Animations by Swetha Kannan | Design and development by Sean Greene

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SeaWorld San Diegos plan to unveil its fastest, tallest coaster near year won easy approval Thursday from the citys Planning Commission.

The next step is the City Council, which will be asked to make the same determination as the commission  that the Electric Eel coaster is in keeping with an existing master plan governing what can be developed on SeaWorlds leased Mission Bay site. Approval also will be needed from the California Coastal Commission.

The roller coaster, which the marine park hopes to open by early summer 2018, proposes a combination of loops, twists and a nearly 150-foot-high ascent followed by an inverted roll designed to give riders an upside-down view of Mission Bay. It is being developed as the second phase of Seaworlds new Ocean Explorer attraction opening this weekend, which has as its centerpiece a three-minute submarine ride that gives riders the sense of being a deep-sea explorer.

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Also debuting this weekend is the new Orca Encounter, which will be replacing the Shamu show.

The Ocean Explorer area is situated on the southeast side of the park where Animal Connections had been and before that, the old Clydesdale barn and pasture. Both Ocean Explorer and the coaster, which will be where Arctic Plaza now is, will occupy an area west of the Journey to Atlantis ride.

Although the city of San Diego maintains a 30-foot height limit in the coastal zone, SeaWorlds approved master plan allows for an exception of up to 160 feet on four designated sites. The coaster location is one of those sites.

Both the design and feel of the coaster are inspired by eels, which are known for their unique hunting abilities, moving easily in and out of crevices, tying themselves in knots and, among some species, generating electricity to attack their prey.

SeaWorld designers are working on a way to mimic the behavior of electric eels at the start of the ride. As the individual vehicles prepare to launch, riders will sense the generation of electricity via lighting and sound techniques, and people in the ride plaza will also experience that with the help of LED lights and strobes, according to Brian Morrow, vice president of theme park design for SeaWorld.

SeaWorld San Diego has two other coasters  Journey to Atlantis, which is partly a water ride, and Manta, which opened in 2012. Where Mantas fastest speed is 42 mph, Electric Eel will top out at 62 mph.

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lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-2251

Twitter: @loriweisberg
Innocuous though they may seem, emojis, or the symbol-based form of communication  such as hearts, crowns and cherries  have been hijacked by those wishing to hawk sex trafficking services through online websites without detection.

The link was recently uncovered by San Diego State University Information Systems Masters Program graduate Jessica Whitney and her thesis advisor Dr. Murray Jennex as they sought to further decode the language of sex traffickers, who communicate out in the open but in code  particularly about underage victims  in online dating forums offered by sites such as Craigslist and Backpage.

Professor Jennex had worked with a different student two years ago to uncover common keywords used by online traffickers in ads, but he thought more could be done.

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The criminal behavior is difficult to measure yet widespread. Officials with the National Human Trafficking Hotline said that more than 7,500 cases of human trafficking were reported in 2016, with more than 1,300 cases reported in California alone.

This time around, Jennex and Whitney analyzed a sample of more than 8,000 online ads posted to classifieds site Backpage.com in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County.

The pair applied the known keyword indicators from the prior research and found something unexpected in the process: emojis, and lots of them, weaved into the content of ads.

Now the question was changed to, What do the emojis mean?, Jennex said. We used the keywords that were indicators  ran the machine-learning software against the words and the emojis, and how they appeared in the ads, and were able to interpret what the emojis actually meant. Now we think we can do an even better job of identifying potential victims.

Specifically, the duo determined that emojis, and not words, are now the primary means of communicating several things to would-be buyers, including that a sex service is for sale, that a victim is underage and that a person being trafficked has restricted movement (indicating the buyer must travel to the victim).

According to the research, the most prominent emoji indicators of trafficking are the rose, rosette, cherry, cherry blossom, growing heart, airplane, and crown. The growing heart and cherry, for instance, highlight that the victim being trafficked is a minor, whereas an airplane relates that a person will be in town for a temporary amount of time.

The end result is a new computer algorithm, coded by Whitney, that can sift through classified listings by both keywords and emojis, and even adapt to changes in language over time.

What (the algorithm) does is  if you have the data, then you upload it into the program that I use, run the code that I wrote and then come back with results, said Whitney, who works in the IT department of the countys District Attorney office.

Now Jennex is in the process of taking Whitneys thesis and turning it into a paper that will be submitted to the Hawaii International Conference of System Sciences, where it will be peer-reviewed this summer. The pair are also working on a formal journal article for submission, which they hope to compete in the fall.

Outside of the academic realm, Whitney and Jennexs research has laid a foundation for an automated monitoring tool, which, if developed, could aid law enforcement officials in more quickly and accurately locating potential victims. As is, the program works with data uploaded to the system, but the goal is to get to the point of being able to monitor online ads in real-time.

Law enforcement goes page by page and looks at these ads, so we wanted to be able to automate (the process), said Whitney, who added that her bosses at the DAs office have already expressed interest in her research.

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jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin
Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday afternoon in the retrial of a former headmaster of a Carlsbad military boarding school who is accused of repeatedly molesting a ninth-grade cadet 18 years ago.

Eighteen months ago, a jury in another trial deadlocked over most of the charges faced by former Army and Navy Academy headmaster Jeffrey Barton, 59, who has denied the long-term abuse the alleged victim said started when he was 14 and a cadet at the seaside academy where Barton lived and taught.

Prosecutors are retrying Barton on 11 felony charges accusing him of repeatedly molesting the boy from 1999 to 2001, both on campus and during out-of-town trips. If convicted, Barton faces a prison sentence of 88 years. He is jailed in lieu of $1 million bail and has been in custody since his 2013 arrest.

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The case hinges on the credibility of the accuser, who did not disclose the alleged abuse until 2013. The prosecution pointed to corroborating evidence, including contemporaneous suspicions from adults at the school, and other accusers dating back decades. The defense tore into his story, called him a liar, and noted that the accuser has since sued the school.

During closing arguments Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Patricia Lavermicocca told the jury that Barton followed a formula in which he groomed the boy, plied him with gifts and trips and then did the unspeakable for his own perverted sexual desires.

The alleged victim, she said, did not want his first sex act committed on his body (to be done) by a 42-year-old teacher.

The now 32-year-old accuser, identified in court as John Doe, testified that Barton began molesting him not long after his mother shipped him off to attend the military boarding school in 1999, with promises he could come home if he did not misbehave during the school year.

Lavermicocca said Barton was in a position of power as a teacher, administrator and friend of the then-school president, and the boy was vulnerable  small, scrawny and bullied by the other cadets..

When the molestation started, the boy was left confused and helpless, sure he would not be believed over Barton, who also had gained the trust of his mother, the prosecutor said. The accuser testified that Barton threatened to tell his mother he was acting out if he did not comply.

When you look at it, he was the perfect victim for him (Barton) to pounce on, Lavermicocca said.

The victim, she said, was psychologically coerced and emotionally twisted by Barton.

Suspicion was so strong by others on campus that Carlsbad police were called to investigate in 2000. At that time, the boy denied the abuse.

Defense attorney Sherry Stone pointed to that denial and other inconsistent statements from the accuser since he came forward four years ago. Stone also noted that the accuser had initially denied that hed continued his communication with Barton long after he left the school in early 2001. Cell phone records show more than 60 calls between them in 2004 and 2005.

This case is based on John Doe and his statements  his prior inconsistent statements and his lies, she said. John Doe cannot be believed.

As happened at the first trial, the retrial included testimony from two additional accusers from out-of-state schools whose allegations date back more than 30 years. Although Barton is not formally charged with molesting the additional accusers, the jury can consider their testimony as evidence of the defendants inclination to commit the crimes.

The retrial spent no time on allegations made at the first trial by two former cadets who accused Barton of drugging and molesting them on a 1997 ski trip. Jurors from the first trial acquitted Barton of four of five charges arising from those accusations. The panel deadlocked on the fifth charge, and prosecutors opted to dismiss it before retrial.

During the first trial, two other former Army and Navy students testified they had been abused by Barton, but he was acquitted on those charges.

Before the current case, Carlsbad police had investigated Barton in 2000 and again in 2010, after adults reported suspicious behavior by Barton with particular cadets. In each instance, those cadets denied abuse and the investigations fizzled.

But in 2013, one of those former cadets came forward  John Doe, the same one whose allegations are at the heart of the current trial.

His accusations sparked a new investigation, which uncovered more alleged victims and led to the current criminal case.

Last year, after the first trial and three years after he first disclosed abuse allegations, John Doe sued Barton and the school. That suit is scheduled to go to trial in August.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
Solana Beach this week became the first city in San Diego County to launch an effort to provide its residents with a renewable energy alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

The Solana Beach City Council voted 4-1 Wednesday to enter the first of three phases that would lead to the creation and operation of a community choice aggregation, or CCA, through a partnership with two private companies to oversee its maintenance and operation.

Only Councilwoman Ginger Marshall opposed the idea, saying that although she supports renewable energy, she has concerns about adding another layer of government and the costs and fees of the program.

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Other council members and more than a dozen residents spoke strongly in favor of the plan, which could begin operating in as soon as two years.

This is a really great thing for us, said Mayor Mike Nichols. He said its clear the city is protected financially and that customers rates are likely to be lower than they are under SDG&E.

Solana Beach has a history of environmental innovation, being among the first to ban smoking in public places, disposable plastic bags, and polystyrene take-out food containers.

One of San Diego Countys smallest cities, Solana Beach would have 7,800 customers in the CCA if no one opts out. Officials say few people have opted out of similar programs elsewhere in the state.

The vote authorizes City Manager Greg Wade to enter contracts with two private companies  The Energy Authority (TEA) and Calpine Energy Solutions  to set up and operate the CCA. TEA will focus on operations, while Calpines responsibility will be primarily data management. The City Council would oversee the CCA, even setting the rates based on information provided by staff members.

The companies will receive monthly payments and fees based on the number of customers and amount of energy purchased. The CCA will be a nonprofit with no shareholders, which is one reason its rates are expected to be lower.

SDG&Es parent company, Sempra Energy, set up a shareholder-funding lobbying group this year to highlight concerns about the regulatory uncertainty new nonprofit energy groups face at the states Public Utilities Commission and the state Energy Commission.

Industry experts say traditional utilities such as SDG&E are locked into long-term commitments to fossil fuels because of big investments in coal and gas-burning plants and related resources. As a result, those utilities are slower to switch to alternative fuels than the nonprofit, government-run groups can be.

San Jose became the ninth California city to approve a community choice energy plan earlier this month, according to an article in the Mercury News. Eight others have been launched since 2010. The closest one to Solana Beach is Lancaster Choice Energy in northern Los Angeles County.

The city of San Diego is expected to review a report this fall on a proposed CCA there.

Solana Beach officials stressed that there is no cost to to the city for the first phase of the plan, which includes publicizing the program within the community, establishing a budget and staff, and planning the implementation.

The citys maximum financial commitment for the second phase is $156,000, should the city choose to discontinue the program. That phase is expected to take six months to a year and includes setting rates, procuring power sources and implementing the plan.

The third and final phase of the program is a contract with the two companies for the operation and maintenance of the CCA for up to five years. It also includes the possibility of enrolling additional communities in the program. Each phase is subject to the City Councils approval.

Like CCAs elsewhere in California, it would initially include all Solana Beach residents but give them the choice to opt out and stay with SDG&E.

SDG&E would continue to deliver the electricity provided by the CCA.

Former Councilman Peter Zahn, speaking as a resident, said CCAs are a proven mechanism for reducing costs and increasing renewable energy, and that its one of the best ways for cities to meet their conservation goals.

This really is innovation, and its effective and its proven, Zahn said.

Former Del Mar Councilman Don Mosier encouraged Solana Beach to approve the plan, saying Del Mar and other cities are watching and may be interesting in joining the CCA.

You are an important example for the region, Mosier said.

Wade, the city manager, said the CCA is an important tool for helping Solana Beach reach the reduction in greenhouse gases mandated by the state.

Environmental advocates praised the citys decision.

You guys are always at the vanguard of environmental decisions, said Nicole Capretz of the San Diego-based Climate Action Campaign.

Several other San Diego County cities have looked at community choice energy, primarily as part of their state-mandated Climate Action Plan, and activists often speak up for the idea at city council meetings.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
Star Wars was released 40 years ago, on May 25, 1977. In his review, James Meade, theater writer for The San Diego Union describes a story that has former San Diegan Mark Hamill as farm boy from the planet planet Tatooine drawn into a rebellion against the Galactic Empire. This review was originally published in the Union on May 27, 1977.

Daring to be different and swimming against the tide is especially dangerous in an expensive medium such as motion pictures but the rewards can be great, if successful. George Lucas has risked his American Graffiti reputation on Star Wars and gotten away with it.

Lucas has drawn upon the childhood fantasies, which most of us shared, to write and direct a futuristic fantasy that has roots in both pop and classical literature. Star Wars is a bit Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon with parts of Lewis Carroll and Frank Baums Oz. There also is a touch of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian adventures of John Carter of Virginia. The movie involves science-oriented swashbuckling with laser-beam swords; a Graustarkian princess in distress; a rebellion against dark-garbed evil, and space races at the speed of light.

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There is a Bridge at Toko-Ri finale in which our heroes fly through a well-guarded valley to strike a fatal blow at the heart of a powerful Death Star space platform. There even is a mystic force field which strengthens the pure of heart as religious fervor did the Arthurian knights in their quest for the Holy Grail.

IN ADDITION to borrowing from his youthful memories of derring-do, Lucas has added much that is original, contemporary and audience-grabbing.His use of the North African deserts and cave dwellings perfectly simulates the popular conception of distant planet surfaces, especially in his chosen settings of the future and a far-off galaxy.

The Lucas screenplay is skeleton simple. Farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) from the planet Tatooine boondocks is drawn into a galactic rebellion when his loved ones are slain in a search for plans stolen by the now-imprisoned princess (Carrie Fisher).

Luke joins with Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness), an aged warrior, in hiring Han Solo (Harrison Ford), a smuggler, to fly them to rescue the princess and plans. They are accompanied by two computerized robots with the unlikely names of C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2D2 (Kenny Baker), plus Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), half-man, half-animal.

Their opposition is Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) and Lord Darth Varda (David Prowse), who scheme to oppress the galaxy. There are chases and jousts galore, a crushing wall threat, and numerous ray-gun battles in which the good shoot straight and the evil fire erratically, as is requited in fantasy adventures.

GOOD AS the movies hardware is, and the-technical credits seem endless, Lucas has not let technocracy overshadow the human element in his movie.

Guinness and Cushing bring an aura of dignity and majesty to their opposing roles. Dartha Varda, although enacted by Prowse, unseen because of a black mask, is voiced by an uncredited James Earl Jones in a convincing menacing baritone.

Former San Diegan Hamill, whose previous experience has been in TV, makes a likeable hero, using strength inspired by Guinness that Luke didnt know he had. Harrison Ford, previously in American Graffiti, is fine as the smuggler who turns from cynicism to belief in causes. Carrie Fisher, the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds seen briefly in Shampoo, is excellent as the spunky princess.

Star Wars is, indeed, a movie that dares to be different, not only in setting, but in theme at a time when imagination has surrendered to realism in motion pictures. If you dont enjoy Star Wars, you are not as young at heart as you think you are. Star Wars, rated PG, is at the Valley Circle.
Hollywood stars, high-definition video, digital animation, classic pop songs and an animatronic raccoon have come together ingeniously this summer in Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: Breakout!, a new ride opening Saturday at the Disney California Adventure theme park.

The new free-fall elevator ride  a high-tech revamp of the Anaheim theme parks former Hollywood Tower of Terror  arrives on the heels of Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, a film sequel that has already raked in $750 million since its release on May 5.

The films stars  Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Benicio Del Toro, Dave Bautista and Bradley Cooper (who provides the voice of fiery-tempered Rocket Raccoon)  lent their talents to the new ride in high-definition videos that play both in the lobby and during the 2.5-minute ride.

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This not only brings star wattage to the experience, but also embellishes the storytelling arc of the Guardians, a group of galactic bounty hunters and misfits who band together to fight space villains.

The bones of the old ride are the same: Riders walk through a decorated lobby and library to be seated in an elevator that carries them on a randomized flight up and down several stories of a 183-foot vertical tower. But now, every step of the journey is more technically dazzling.

The tower is now the fortress of Tivan the Collector, who gathers specimens of space creatures from across the galaxy for his private museum.

As in the movies, the rides lobby is filled with more than 20 glowing specimen cases containing weird creatures, galactic weapons and artifacts.

On a large video screen, queued-up riders will see the Collector (Del Toro) inviting guests inside to see his latest exhibit, the Guardians of the Galaxy, including Star-Lord (Pratt), green-skinned Gamora (Saldana), Rocket and baby Groot (a monosyllabic extraterrestrial tree sprout).

Things get fun in the library, where another video of Tivan is hijacked by a three-dimensional Rocket, who drops out of a ventilation shaft and explains his plan to short-circuit the tower wiring to free the other Guardians from their cases.

The ride itself is similar in length and speed, but the doors this time open on high-definition, all-new video scenes inspired by the movies and the experience is enhanced with upbeat pop music from the films.

There are six different versions of the video and movement tracks for the ride. All of them involved Rocket breaking out the Guardians and each includes some of the oldies that Star-Lord carries with him on an old-fashioned Walkman tape player, including Pat Benatars Hit Me With Your Best Shot and Steppenwolfs Born to Be Wild.

Its an exhilarating journey that feels longer and more exciting than the previous version of the ride and a much more modern and immersive experience.

The Guardians ride is the first at the Disney parks dedicated to Marvel Comics superhero characters. But it may not be the last.

During remarks at the rides press opening Thursday night, Disney Parks chairman Bob Chapek said the Guardians ride is just the beginning of what could be a long and fruitful superhero partnership.

The gift shop at the new ride is filled with Marvel merchandise, including Thors hammer and Captain America gear. And Disney officials have cryptically implied that the parks Hollywood Backlot area could soon be re-branded, perhaps with a Marvel theme?

In keeping with that, the rides public opening on Saturday will kick off the parks Marvel-themed Summer of Heroes promotion, which runs through Sept. 10.

Park-goers entering the Hollywood Backlot will have the chance to interact with costumed superheroes, including a giant Groot, Captain America, Spider-Man and Black Widow. The Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Dance Off! will be a rock n roll dance party featuring Star-Lord and his old-school boom box.

There will also be an Avengers Training Initiative, where Black Widow and Hawkeye will host an Avengers training academy for children.

Through the summer, themed superhero merchandise and food will also be sold in the Hollywood Backlot.

Across the way at Disneyland Park this summer, the Disneyland Railroad and Rivers of America attractions will reopen, including the nightly Fantasmic! show.

Theyve been temporarily closed due to major construction work on the parks future Star Wars Land, which is set to open in 2019. Meanwhile, the recently launched limited return of the Main Street Electrical Parade continues through June 18.

Disney California Adventure Park, 1313 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim. disneyland.disney.go.com

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
From abstract art to antique airplanes, San Diego-area museums are filled with treasures that will educate, entertain and inspire. And while the Balboa Park museums all offer free admission on certain Tuesdays, many institutions are a bargain every day of the week. Heres a look at 10 places to while away the afternoon for less than $10 (adult admission, other discounts often available).

California Surf Museum

Spend the afternoon soaking up good vibrations and taking in surfings history and culture at this repository of all things surf. A special exhibit focuses on surfing during the Vietnam War. 312 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $5. (760) 721-6876 or surfmuseum.org

Anthenaeum Music & Arts Library

While the library houses a collection of visual and audio material dedicated to music and art, the gallery space exhibits an eclectic variety of work. Look for the 26th annual Juried Exhibition this summer, which draws some of San Diegos most creative artists. 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Free. (858) 454-5872 or ljathenaeum.org

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Museum of Photographic Arts

Experience photography as a medium of record and as fine art. The museums See Is Believing? exhibit delves into the history of photography  and the third dimension, with 3-D viewers that can be tested and make-your-own 3-D photos to take home. 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park. Pay what you wish. (619) 238-7559 or mopa.org

Oceanside Museum of Art

This family-friendly museum showcases regional artist and strives to coax out the inner artist in everyone with classes for kids, families and adults. Healing Journeys is a trio of exhibits focusing on art as a means of healing, especially for veterans. 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $8. (760) 435-3720 or oma-online.org

Visions Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts and Textiles

From abstracts to portraits and landscapes, this museum promotes quilting as a form of art. Part mosaic, part stitchery, these pieces take vision  and lots of patience. 2825 Dewey Road, Suite 100, Liberty Station. $7. (619) 546-4872 or visionsartmuseum.org

Flying Leathernecks Aviation Museum

Twenty-seven aircraft, including the Lady Ace helicopter used to evacuate the U.S. ambassador from the embassy in Saigon on April 30, 1975, are available for viewing. To get inside some aircraft, check for open-cockpit days on certain weekends. 4203 Anderson Ave., Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. Free. (858) 693-1723 or flyingleathernecks.org

San Diego Childrens Discovery Museum

Learning through play is the goal of this museum designed for kids up to 10 years old. The focus is on science, art and world culture. Daily activities include feeding chickens, art projects and story time. 320 N. Broadway, Escondido. $8. (760) 233-7755 or sdcdm.org

Timken Museum of Art

Nicknamed the jewel box, the Timken displays old European masters, 19th-century American art and Russian icons, as well as the only Rembrandt publicly exhibited in San Diego. 1500 El Prado, Balboa Park. Free. (619) 239-5548 or timkenmuseum.org

San Diego Chinese Historical Museum

Located in what was once the heart of Chinatown, this museum celebrates Chinese art, culture and history from local, regional and global perspectives. Besides art and artifacts, the museum hosts a variety of events, including an annual Chinese New Year celebration and weekly free tai chi lessons. 404 Third Ave., San Diego. $5. (619) 338-9888 or sdchm.org

J.A. Cooley Museum

Enter a time warp chockablock with antiques from the personal collection of Jim and Carmen Cooley. The eclectic display includes 15 cars, plus everything from clocks and cameras to phonographs and pianos. Added bonus: personal descriptions from Jim Cooley, who is often there. 4233 Park Blvd., North Park. $5. (619) 296-3112 or find them on Facebook.

Schimitschek is a freelance writer.
Two U.S. Navy planes came in fast over a bridge in Dong Phong Thuong, North Vietnam. It was June 1965.

Cloud cover forced them to descend extremely low. The enemy was waiting.

Heavy ground fire erupted and the plane of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby of San Diego was on fire as it plummeted toward a fish pond.

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The RF-8A reconnaissance aircraft rolled before it crashed, spraying up water and mud.

Crosby, a 31-year-old father of four, was listed as killed in action, though his body remained missing. It left his wife to grieve, pick up the pieces and provide a life for their children.

Deborah Crosby  6 years old when her dad died, the familys only daughter  always felt a void in her chest, especially on each Memorial Day, when people mourn at the graves of the fallen.

It wasnt something we talked about, she remembered last week. It was something we all carried in our hearts quietly.

It was a terrible story to shoulder over the years.

My dads plane was shot down, and thats the end of the story. And, hes there. That always hurt me, Deborah Crosby said.

But on Friday, Frederick Crosbys remains finally came home to San Diego  thanks to the tenacity of his daughter, the long memory of the U.S. Defense Department and the will of the taxpayers to keep searching for troops missing in action.

The flag-draped coffin arrived at Lindbergh Field just after noon. Six sailors in dress whites met the plane on the tarmac.

Crosbys four children  now adults with salt-and-pepper hair and grown kids of their own  gathered to touch his casket as it emerged. They wept.

Its nice to let out the tears and have relief in our hearts, Deborah Crosby said afterward.

The decorated pilot will be buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Sunday, virtually within eyeshot of the Point Loma house where his children grew up.

His headstone will read, He is home.

On the back of it, the name of his widow, Mary, will be etched. She never remarried and died in 2002.

Her side will bear the inscription, Wherst thou goest, so go I. Its from a pendant that Mary Crosby wore around her neck, made from pilot wings.



Deborah Crosby didnt start inquiring about her fathers remains until the 1990s. The family left the topic alone before then, in part because of high anti-war sentiment in the nation.

In 1973, nearly 600 American prisoners of war returned from Vietnam in airlifts called Operation Homecoming. Deborah Crosby remembers looking at the list of names.

Her fathers wasnt on it.

Eventually, her fathers mother urged her to launch the search. She said Frederick Crosby should be brought home and buried.

Deborah Crosby called the Navys casualty office, but officials said they would give information only to the next of kin  her mother.

Mary Crosby and her oldest son, Doug, saw the issue as closed. They had met with Fredericks wingman after the crash.

They felt, dont get your hopes up. There are probably no remains to recover because of the way the crash happened, Deborah Crosby told The San Diego Union-Tribune. I was never told that, so I guess I just wasnt limited by that statement.

She contacted the Library of Congress for the declassified files. The discoveries there opened the eyes of this Navy daughter.

She found the coordinates of the crash site, which she mapped out on Google. There were tantalizing reports from the ground.

They said something about the grass is not growing there because of the damage from the fuel from the aircraft crash, she recalled.

Deborah Crosby was inspired enough to attend an annual meeting of the National League of POW/MIA Families.

The Virginia-based advocacy group traces its roots to the late 1960s in Coronado and families of Navy POWs. It is credited with focusing the nations attention on the plight of missing U.S. troops and war prisoners, a mission it continues today.

Crosby learned that the Pentagons recovery branch, now consolidated as the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, had conducted investigations and interviews as early as 1993 in search of Lt. Cmdr. Crosbys remains.

There were two sites: One, where the Navy thought the RF-8A went down. Another, where Vietnam villagers said the aircraft crashed.

In the end, they found an 89-year-old resident who witnessed the plane going down. The man was close enough to be splashed with mud upon impact.

He even kept a piece of the RF-8As broken glass in his home. The bulk of the wreckage was hauled away by North Vietnamese authorities.

Deborah Crosby also learned that she needed to get mitochondrial DNA from her aunt, her fathers sister, as it is best for identification of remains.

With that to go on, a Defense Department team excavated the fish pond between October and December 2015. They used buckets to empty the pond and then sifted through the mud.

Mary Crosby, widow of downed Vietnam War Navy pilot Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby, wore this pendant made from pilots wings. The inscription on the back reads, Wherst thou goest, so go I. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Mary Crosby, the widow of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby, wore a pendant with the inscription Wherst thou goest, so go I. Those words will go on their joint headstone at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. She never remarried. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

After five decades, they were still there: Crosbys wedding ring, his lighter, pieces of his uniform and some bone fragments.

Three days before Memorial Day last year, Deborah Crosby got the call.

At a defense lab in Hawaii, the DNA was a match.

My heart is so much lighter, Deborah Crosby, who now lives in New York, said last week. I feel a tremendous amount of relief that hes been returned.

...

More than 1,600 Americans who served in the Vietnam War are still missing or unaccounted for.

Since 1973, the United States has recovered 1,035 from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and China.

The Defense Department has long spent more than $100 million a year on recovery efforts for its missing troops. In 2016, the POW/MIA Accounting Agency had a $115 million budget and more than 600 employees.

That amount covers annual recovery expeditions, including to Vietnam with the cooperation of the Vietnamese government. Anthropologists, medics and hundreds of hired hands in Vietnam are included.

Pilots such as Lt. Cmdr. Crosby, and Navy and Air Force air crews, make up a large portion of the still-missing population.

(Recovery) was something they were largely able to do in ground-combat situations. It was harder for pilots and air crews who were shot down, particularly if it was over enemy territory, said Michael Allen, a professor of modern U.S. history at Northwestern University and author of Until the Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs and the Unending Vietnam War.

Recovery efforts hit their stride in the 1990s after relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments began to normalize.

The introduction of DNA evidence, also starting in the mid-1990s, has been essential to the programs success, allowing defense officials to authenticate finds that would have been too uncertain in the past.

The vast majority of these men were lost in very traumatic incidents  shot out of the sky at high rates of speed. And then, being exposed to the elements in a tropical environment for going on 50 years now, Allen said. In most cases there are very, very little remains left to recover. Absent DNA, you are essentially making a circumstantial case.

Whats left now are the most difficult and labor-intensive cases, according to Allen.

All the low-hanging fruit has already been plucked, so to speak, he said.

But in the eyes of Ann Mills-Griffiths, longtime leader of the National League of POW/MIA Families, the Crosby homecoming shows that it can still be done.

A man is finally being brought home. The family has peace of mind, said Mills-Griffiths, whose brother is still missing after being shot down over North Vietnam.

Weve done it a lot of times, she said. A lot of families have gotten answers because the league didnt give up and walk out.



Lt. Cmdr. Crosby and the men he flew with knew they faced losses.

It was 1965, the early part of the air war in Vietnam, called Operation Rolling Thunder.

Thats where you see some of the most intense air-to-air combat of the war. A lot of losses, said Hill Goodspeed, historian at the National Naval Aviation Museum.

Crosby was deployed on the Bon Homme Richard, an Essex-class aircraft carrier operating off the coast of Vietnam.

His was the first of 14 aircraft shot down during the ships 1965 to 1966 cruise, in addition to three noncombat losses, according to the naval aviation museum.

Nine of those pilots were killed, two became POWs and six were rescued.

Deborah Crosby, 58, holds a photo of her father, Navy pilot Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby. Deborah Crosby is in San Diego to greet her fathers casket on Friday, as his remains will be returned from North Vietnam after more than 50 years. (K.C. Alfred / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Crosbys mission was almost designed to be dangerous.

His unarmed reconnaissance plane had to fly low enough for its cameras to capture photographic evidence of damaged caused by bombs dropped from other U.S. planes. The RF-8A pilots had speed on their side, but timing was against them.

They were coming in low and fast on an enemy who is already spun up because hes already been attacked, said Karl Zingheim, historian at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego. They were bearing the full brunt of the attack so they could bring the intelligence to bring back to the (aircraft) carrier.

The North Vietnamese were prepared with their ground fire: medium- and heavy-caliber guns such as the 37mm, 57mm, 85mm and 100mm, supplied by the Soviets and Chinese.

As in Crosbys case, it was anti-aircraft artillery that shot down the majority of Navy aircraft over North Vietnam, Goodspeed said.

F-8 fighter planes flew as escorts for their reconnaissance brethren. Their job was to scare off enemy pilots, said San Diegan Bob Pearl, a former F-8 pilot.

But, Pearl said, You cant do much about ground fire.

Hearing of a missing pilot being returned after five decades, its astounding, he said.

It always hits you in the gut.



Mary Crosby didnt talk much about her late husbands death, her daughter remembers.

Instead, she took action. First there was a job as a hotel events coordinator. Eventually, Mary Crosby launched a San Diego talent agency that supplied actors for local commercials.

Raising a family alone wasnt easy. Deborah Crosby remembers that her mother had trouble opening credit card accounts at first.

Mom was a very strong woman, and she decided she was going to have to pull it all together, her daughter said. She managed. She definitely provided a beautiful life for us and a beautiful home.

But after awhile, they didnt feel like a military family.

There was no gravestone at a national cemetery. No military honors. Mary Crosby accepted her husbands posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross medal with little fanfare.

Now, that will be partially rectified.

It means a lot to my family for my dad to get the military honors that he deserves. Hes truly an American hero, Deborah Crosby said Thursday.

And its just so wonderful that hes going to be home, at last.

1 / 14 With his four adult children walking behind his casket, Final Honor, the horse drawn funeral carriage carries the casket of their father, Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 14 At Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, the casket of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby is carried by a U.S. Navy honor guard. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 14 Family and friends attend funeral services for Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 14 A flyover by U.S. Navy pilots in the missing man formation over Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, where Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby will be buried. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 14 At Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, the casket of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby is carried by a U.S. Navy honor guard. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 14 The Navy honor detail passes the folded U.S. flag that covered Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby casket. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 14 Cpt. Robert Nowakowski carries the U.S. flag to present to Deborah Crosby, daughter of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 14 Funeral services for Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 14 John Crosby wore a military dog tag with a photo of his father, Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 14 At Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Cpt. Robert Nowakowski presents the U.S. flag to Deborah Crosby. L-R, Deborah Crosby, Steven Crosby, Douglas Crosby and John Crosby. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 14 The Navy honor detail stands graveside where Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby will be laid to rest at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 14 Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby is carried by a U.S. Navy honor detail to his final resting place at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 14 Family and friends stood graveside at Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby funeral services at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 14 With his four adult children walking behind his casket, Final Honor, the horse drawn funeral carriage carries the casket of their father, Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Peter Crosby at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosbys Distinguished Flying Cross citation

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Commander Frederick Peter Crosby (NSN: 0-509126), United States Navy, for heroism and extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight as pilot of a jet photographic aircraft in Light Photographic Squadron SIXTY-THREE, Detachment ECHO, serving aboard U.S.S. BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA-31), on 1 June 1965.

Lieutenant Commander Crosby was leader of a two-plane flight launched from the carrier to conduct bomb damage assessment photography against a heavily-defended bridge site at Dong Phong Thuong, North Vietnam.

Lieutenant Commander Crosby, because of cloud coverage at the target area, executed his run at an extremely low altitude in the face of heavy enemy ground fire. After completing the run, his aircraft was hit by hostile fire and crashed.

His courageous and selfless devotion to duty throughout the run were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Military Videos  On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France  at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Facebook: U-T Military

Twitter: @jensteeley
Members of the San Diego Rotary Club celebrated their decades-long relationship with the Tijuana Rotary Club Thursday, donating $30,500 for a community center in Tijuana and applauding speeches about importance of the bilateral relationship.

The center, located south of the Otay Mesa border crossing near Tijuanas Parque de la Amistad, is a community space that aims to help the citys low-income residents, with a special focus on children, youth and women.

Rotarians have always been on the forefront of our relationship with Tijuana, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer told a group of 250 Rotarians and guests gathered at the Liberty Station Conference Center.

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The San Diego clubs relationship to Baja California goes back to 1931, when San Diego Rotarians helped Tijuana launch its own chapter. The group built a school in Tijuana in the late 1980s, and has projects in Tecate and Ensenada.

Thursdays donation by the Rotary Club of San Diego Foundation is helping fund the second phase of the Centro de Atencion Rotaria Tijuana, built on land donated by the state of Baja California. It is paying for the construction of parking spaces, bathrooms, a security booth and warehouse.

Also planned for the second phase is the construction of three halls.

We were so impressed by the project and its vision, said San Diego Rotary Club President John Morrell.

With the additional facilities, one of our ideas is to expand our classes in English and computer skills, said Noe Morales, president-elect of the 70-member Tijuana club.

The event featured speeches by Faulconer and Bernabe Esquer, chief of staff at Tijuana City Hall, as well as some words from San Diego civic leader and developer Malin Burnham, a member of the Rotary.

Its important what you are doing, what the Rotary Clubs have always been doing, Faulconer said. While governments have their role, its about all of us, about service, about the business community working together.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble
South El Monte officials racked up thousands of dollars on city credit cards for consultants bar tabs, airfare and pricey electronics. They splurged on hotel stays and a trip to Las Vegas without proof that it was related to city business.

The former city manager charged more than $3,000 for a cheerleading camp, and the city paid $390,000 to a consultant after their contract had already expired.

These are just a few of the findings of a California state controller review of how South El Monte spent money. In a scathing assessment, Controller Betty Yee declared: South El Monte officials demonstrated a culture of incompetence and blatant disregard for taxpayer dollars.

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In a statement released Thursday, Yee also said that she was especially concerned with exorbitant lobbying and consulting expenses that resulted in undefined benefits to the city and its residents.

The states blistering review comes just as the city is embroiled in a corruption scandal involving ex-Mayor Luis Aguinaga, who in September pleaded guilty in a federal bribery case. Prosecutors said Aguinaga accepted at least $45,000 in bribes from an unidentified city contractor.

The former mayor also split some of the payoff, delivered in envelopes with cash, with another city official, according to prosecutors. That person has not been charged or publicly identified.

Aguinaga was sentenced last month to a one-year federal prison term.

I think our city was a mess, said Councilman Joe Gonzales, who has criticized how the city has been run and contracts handed out. I just dont think there was any type of checks and balances whatsoever.

The city has been taking actions to correct the problems and plans to adopt even more changes, according to the review.

But Gonzales said the city needs to go above and beyond the steps it has taken and is proposing to take. He said South El Monte needs to appoint a special overseer to be a check on the administration. He said he hoped such a step could help the city get its financial affairs in order.

Anthony Ybarra, who had been city manager for more than a decade until he resigned in August, said he couldnt recall some of the expenses highlighted in the review. He also disagreed with Yees assessment that there was a culture of incompetence. He said he would contact her personally after he reads the report.

The state review of South El Montes spending found that from July 2013 to June of last year one contractor billed the city $1 million without submitting time cards. The city was negligent about having written contracts for services and employment and sometimes renewed top managers contracts long after they had lapsed.

In 2009, South El Monte and agencies in four other cities reached an agreement to lobby the Metropolitan Transit Agency on a Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension route.

When two cities stopped paying their share, according to the state review, it cost South El Monte $314,000. But South El Monte was so sloppy in its financial controls, according to the review, that it incorrectly billed a city that was not part of the pact and collected $56,000.

The city had paid $1.4 million to lobbying and consulting firms to fight for South El Montes preferred Metro Line route. But there was no public airing of the project or costs associated with it.

The controllers review found that the vast majority of South El Montes internal controls  almost 90%  were inadequate.

Several of the more exorbitant expenses by city officials involved hotel stays. For example, on Jan. 30 of 2013 a former city manager charged $642 to stay at a Wyndham hotel in San Francisco. In October of that year, the manager charged $840 twice for a two-night weekend stay at a Westin hotel in Seattle.

One council member charged the city-issued credit card $378 in June of 2015 for a hotel stay at the Aria hotel in Las Vegas.

In each of these cases, according to the state review, there was no description, justification, or any type of documentation as to the purpose and necessity of these trips.

adam.elmahrek@latimes.com

Twitter: @adamelmahrek

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UPDATES:

4:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from former City Manager Anthony Ybarra.

4 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from South El Monte Councilman Joe Gonzales.

This article was originally published at 1:55 p.m.
Two U.S. Navy planes came in fast over a bridge in Dong Phong Thuong, North Vietnam. It was June 1965.

Cloud cover forced them to descend. The enemy was waiting.

Heavy ground fire erupted and the plane of Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby was on fire as it plummeted toward a fish pond.

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A 31-year-old father of four, Crosby was listed as killed in action, although his body was not found.

Deborah Crosby, 6 years old at the time, said she has always felt the void  especially each Memorial Day, when people mourn at the graves of the fallen.

It wasnt something we talked about, she said recently. My dads plane was shot down, and thats the end of the story.  That always hurt me.

On Friday, Frederick Crosbys remains finally came home to San Diego. The decorated pilot will be buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Sunday, near the Point Loma house where his children grew up.

His headstone will read He is home.

On the back of it, the name of his widow, Mary, will be etched. She died in 2002.

In 1973, nearly 600 American prisoners of war returned from Vietnam in airlifts called Operation Homecoming. Deborah Crosby remembers looking at the list of names.

Her fathers wasnt on it.

And the antiwar sentiment in the country at that time, Crosby said, was one reason that her family didnt push for answers.

It wasnt until decades later, at her paternal grandmothers urging, that Crosby started inquiring about her fathers remains.

She contacted the Library of Congress for the declassified files on her fathers mission and learned where the Navy thought the RF-8A went down.

Crosby also learned that after relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments began to normalize, the Pentagons recovery branch had conducted investigations and interviews as early as 1993 in search of her fathers remains.

Vietnam villagers said the aircraft had crashed in a different spot than Navy records indicated. Investigators found an 89-year-old who had witnessed the plane going down.

The man said he was close enough to be splashed with mud upon impact. He even had a piece of the RF-8As broken glass in his home.

But it wasnt until the fall of 2015, armed with a mitochondrial DNA sample Crosby got from her fathers sister, that a Defense Department team excavated the fish pond, emptying it and using buckets to sift through the mud.

After five decades, they were still there: Frederick Crosbys wedding ring, his lighter, pieces of his uniform and some bone fragments.

Three days before Memorial Day last year, his daughter got the call.

At a defense lab in Hawaii, the DNA was a match.

My heart is so much lighter, Deborah Crosby said recently. I feel a tremendous amount of relief that hes been returned.

More than 1,600 Americans who served in the Vietnam War are still missing or unaccounted for. Pilots and Navy and Air Force air crews make up a large portion of that population.

The vast majority of these men were lost in very traumatic incidents  shot out of the sky at high rates of speed. And then, being exposed to the elements in a tropical environment for going on 50 years now, said Michael Allen, a professor of modern U.S. history at Northwestern University.

In most cases there are very, very little remains left to recover. Absent DNA, you are essentially making a circumstantial case, he said.

The Defense Department long has spent more than $100 million a year on recovery efforts for its missing troops. In 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency had a $115-million budget and more than 600 employees.

Lt. Cmdr. Frederick Crosby and the men he flew with knew they faced losses.

It was 1965, the early part of the air war in Vietnam, called Operation Rolling Thunder.

Thats where you see some of the most intense air-to-air combat of the war, said Hill Goodspeed, historian at the National Naval Aviation Museum.

Crosby was deployed on the Bon Homme Richard, an aircraft carrier operating off the coast of Vietnam. His mission by its very design was dangerous.

His unarmed reconnaissance plane had to fly low enough for its cameras to capture evidence of damage caused by bombs dropped from other U.S. planes. The RF-8A pilots had speed on their side, but timing was against them.

They were coming in low and fast on an enemy who is already spun up because hes already been attacked, said Karl Zingheim, historian at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego. They were bearing the full brunt of the attack so they could bring the intelligence to bring back to the carrier.

The North Vietnamese were prepared with their ground fire.

There was no gravestone at a national cemetery for Frederick Crosby. No military honors. Mary Crosby accepted her husbands posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross medal with little fanfare.

Now that will be partially rectified.

It means a lot to my family for my dad to get the military honors that he deserves. Hes truly an American hero, Deborah Crosby said.

And its just so wonderful that hes going to be home, at last.

jen.steele@sduniontribune.com

Steele writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune
The saddest day in the history of Iowa was the day the that Terry Branstad became the longest serving governor in U.S. history. Now the greatest day will when he goes to China.

In 22 years of service, he only did one thing that was right and that was signing bill that made texting while driving illegal. His other accomplishments were in the his first term to defund Iowa State and cause the engineering college from being the No. 3 engineering school in the country to 40th in world. Iowa State lost many of its best professors since they could pay them what they were worth. Iowa State was passed by Kansas State , Purdue, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, among others. Now, he has defunded all three state universities by 35 million dollars for the year.

He has also destroyed the state health system, both mental and physical health. He has destroyed the state education system from one the best in the country to No. 43 in nation.

Now they want us celebrate a new governor in Reynolds, who the Republicans would not let out on her own because they were afraid she would be embarrassing to them. Remember for last six years, she has been in lock-step with Branstad on every dumb thing he has done.

Ray Wenrich, Mason City
Four inmates remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds Thursday, a day after California correctional officers opened fire to quell a rare mass attack on eight prison guards by more than 100 inmates, officials said.

One Pelican Bay State Prison inmate will need surgery after he was shot in the chin. The other three were shot in the arms and legs, Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

Three more inmates were sent back to prison after being treated for injuries to their back, head or foot.

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All eight correctional officers were treated and released for beating injuries, but one will need surgery for a torn shoulder. He also has a fractured eye socket, Thornton said.

Another officer has a broken nose, while a third needed stitches to close a wound around his left eye.

They all suffered numerous facial injuries, Thornton said of the correctional officers. She described them as having beating-type injuries. It doesnt appear that a weapon was used even though [investigators] recovered two weapons. Both appeared to be makeshift weapons that inmates grabbed during the assault, she said.

Guards fired 19 rifle bullets and three hard foam rounds to stop the attack, which began as one sergeant and seven officers were trying to break up a fistfight between two inmates in an exercise yard holding about 300 prisoners.

They were among about 2,000 inmates in the maximum-security prison near the Oregon border.

Of those inmates in the exercise yard, 107 have been isolated in a disciplinary housing unit because they are believed to have participated in the assault, Thornton said. Thats up from the initial 97 inmates sent to the disciplinary unit immediately after the attack.

Investigators arent sure what sparked the inmates to swarm the officers, or whether it was premeditated or spontaneous. They also dont yet know whether it was related to prison gangs or to racial tensions, she said.

Officials are waiting until the investigation is completed before they decide if they need to change their procedures or responses, she said.
A motion to throw out a lawsuit accusing the San Diego Police Department of driving one of its retired criminalists to suicide when he became a suspect in the cold-case murder of 14-year-old Claire Hough has been denied by a federal judge, a major development that brings the case closer to trial.

Kevin Browns widow filed the lawsuit after her husband, who worked in the departments crime lab from 1982 to 2002, was found dead off the highway at Cuyamaca State Park in 2014.

Police said they had been close to presenting their case against 62-year-old Brown to the District Attorneys Office, more than a year after his DNA came up as a match on re-tested evidence from the 1984 slaying at Torrey Pines State Beach.

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Rebecca Brown accused detectives of targeting her husband despite reasonable explanations of his innocence. The lawsuit claims detectives omitted crucial information from a search warrant affidavit, conducted an overly broad search of the couples home and put pressure on an emotionally fragile suspect, ultimately leading to his suicide.

San Diego police say the detectives were only doing their job, following a trail of clues that could not be ignored. They pointed to Kevin Browns history of mental issues and alleged guilt as the reason for his suicide. He had stopped taking several medications days before his death, according to police.

On Thursday, after considering motions for summary judgment from both sides, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ruled there appears to be numerous questions of fact for a jury to decide the case. Sabraw also ruled the detectives were not entitled to qualified immunity, a doctrine that says reasonable law enforcement officers shouldnt be held liable unless their actions were obviously incompetent or they knowingly violated the law.

Claire, who lived in Rhode Island, had been visiting her grandparents and had taken a short walk to the beach from their Del Mar Heights home the evening of Aug. 24, 1984. Her body was found by a passer-by early the next morning, on a towel under the Old Highway 101 bridge. Shed been strangled, her left breast sliced away and her body mutilated by cuts.

The case went unsolved for decades. Then, in 2012, police used new technology to examine evidence and run DNA tests. They got two hits.

Ronald Tatro was a violent convict who had kidnapped and raped a woman in Arkansas in 1974 and snatched a La Mesa woman in 1985. His DNA was found in blood found on Claires torn jeans zipper and clothing. But Tatro wasnt prosecuted because he drowned in Tennessee in 2011.

The other hit came back to Brown, whose small amount of semen was found on a vaginal swab taken from Claires body.

The lawsuit, filed by San Diego attorney Eugene Iredale, claims it is an obvious case of cross-contamination, as male lab workers in the 1980s would often use their own semen for testing. Lab protocol was not as strict in those days, and swabs were air dried on benches, the suit states. Also, no sperm had been found on the swab during the autopsy and initial crime lab examination.

None of that information was included in the search warrant affidavit written by Detective Michael Lambert  an issue a jury might see as a crucial omission or misrepresentation. The affidavit instead stated the manager of the lab had concluded contamination was not possible and that Brown had no access to the evidence.

Lambert claims he didnt know about the semen sample method until long after the warrant was served, Deputy City Attorney Catherine Richardson wrote in a court filing.

The affidavit pointed to interviews with Browns former co-workers, who said was nicknamed Kinky Kevin and was known for making inappropriate comments. The affidavits also noted extremely incriminating statements Brown made to police, including that he may have hung out with and had sex with a girl from out of town named Claire around the time of the killing.

Brown also visited strip clubs and took photos of nude girls as a hobby back then. He allegedly told a friend from those days that police were investigating him and that a girl hed photographed on the beach had turned up dead, according to the affidavit.

The judge ruled in the widows favor on the claim that police seized property that went beyond the scope of the search warrant, including historical memorabilia, the wifes work documents, a fudge recipe and the wifes mothers tax return.

Police seized 14 boxes, four garbage bags and a suitcase from the couples Chula Vista home but did not find any solid evidence of Browns involvement in the murder or a connection to Tatro.

The lawsuit claims police continued to put pressure on Brown, who became obsessed with the return of his seized property. He began to experience severe anxiety attacks, depression and insomnia, his wife said. He lost weight and contemplated suicide.

When he was found dead, there was no suicide note.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
The longtime director of Californias judicial discipline agency, which has come under scrutiny from lawmakers and the public over the past year, has announced she is retiring.

Victoria Henley, director and chief counsel for the Commission on Judicial Performance, will end her 26-year career at the helm of the agency at the end of this year.

The commission reviews complaints and assesses discipline against the states 2,000 judges, appeals court justices and judicial officers.

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The commission is currently weighing misconduct allegations against San Diego Superior Court Judge Gary Kreep, who is accused of 29 violations of judicial ethics rules. A public disciplinary hearing is set for June 28 in San Francisco.

The commission has come under pressure from the public and legislators frustrated with the agencys practices, which are largely conducted confidentially. Some judges also are dissatisfied with the agency, saying it doesnt tell them enough about the substance and source of complaints against them.

In August, the Legislature ordered an audit of the commission  the first in its 56-year history  to examine its policies and practices when it comes to investigating and resolving complaints against judges.

Lawyers for the commission subsequently sued, contending the Legislature did not have authority to order the audit. The suit is pending.

The commissions offices also were picketed last year because the agency wouldnt say if it was investigating Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced a Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Several legislators and citizens, upset the punishment wasnt more severe, wanted Perskys conduct investigated.

In an unusual move, the commission acknowledged in December there had been an investigation and it found no reason to discipline Persky.

In a news release Thursday, Henley said she was honored to have worked at the agency for a quarter century and did not give a reason for retiring.

One critic, Joseph Sweeney of the group Court Reform, said he thought she was being forced out. Its not a coincidence that Henley is retiring with the ongoing audit and heavy criticism from the public, judges, and attorneys across the state, he said.

The commission will begin accepting applications to replace Henley on June 1.

Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.com
A policy to protect Muslim students from bullying in the San Diego Unified School District was the subject of intense debate Thursday, with opponents who are suing the district arguing that the issue is overblown while supporters said it was overdue.

Daniel Piedra, executive director of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, said the numbers of reported cases of Muslim students who are bullied is skewed because the data includes students who said they were rarely or sometimes bullied.

If you look at the results, only 7 percent said they were bullied often or very often, he said at a news conference in Mission Valley, citing a study by the Council on American-Islamic Relations that claimed 55 percent of Muslim students were bullied.

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In Clairemont an hour later, the head of the local the local chapter of CAIR defended the study at a news conference, and said Muslim students have been bullied for many years.

I am shocked, ashamed, of the level of hate, the level of bigotry thats out there in the community, said Hanif Mohebi, executive director of CAIRs San Diego office. But it exemplifies what weve been saying for so many years. We need to thank and honor the school district for trying to create a safe environment, a safe place for all students to learn.

San Diego Unified approved a policy to protect Muslim students from bullying in April. While details of the policy still are being rolled out, district staff members have talked about adding additional lessons about Islam to social study classes to create a better understanding about the religion.

The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund filed a lawsuit to stop the policy on Monday. The legal firm represents six parents, Citizens for Quality Education San Diego and the San Diego Asian Americans for Equality Foundation.

Mary Baker, president of Citizens for Quality Education, called the policy discriminatory and unfair at the earlier news conference and said she questioned why the district had made a separate anti-bullying program for Muslim students.

The district itself may be being bullied to take this action, she said.

Both side agreed that all students should be protected, but disagreed on the districts approach and whether Muslim students were being disproportionately bullied.

Students of all faiths face daily bullying, but instead of protecting all religious students, the school district has selected Muslim students to receive special protection and resources, said Frank Xu, president of San Diego Asian Americans for Equality, Therefore, as a minority group, were deeply disappointed.

Mohebi and others at the CAIR news conference said the districts anti-bullying policy would not give special protection to Muslim students, but rather treat them equally.

Were not asking for privilege just for this community, Mohebi said. Were asking that they should include the Muslim-American community in this process so we can learn about each other and have dignity for each other.

Mohebi said he agreed that no group should be given special treatment.

We are a civil rights and liberty organization, he said. We at our core would disagree with giving better treatment to one community versus another.

Joining Mohebi on Thursday was a broad group of supporters that included Jeanne Brown, president of the League of Women Voters of San Diego.

The League has a position that supports violence-prevention programs in all communities and action to support those programs, she said. We also believe that educations purpose is to oppose ignorance. Ignorance of history, science, math and other cultures.

Ernie McCray, a retired principal from San Diego Unified, also defended the idea that greater understanding of different religions and cultures could deter bullying.

If someone is being bullied and you think that maybe there needs to be an understanding about that group of people, and you as a school district can do something about that, youre not dealing with special treatment, he said. Youre dealing with the kind of treatment that all people should be given. It means youre willing to give everyone the dignity they deserve.

Piedra and Charles LiMandri, president and chief counsel of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, also criticized the district for its association with CAIR, which they said was an extremist group. LiMandri referred to CAIR as a militant, political organization with long-standing ties to terrorism.

The two agreed there was nothing wrong with the secular teaching of world religion, but also said CAIR should not be involved with the curriculum. Piedra referred specifically to a concern of plaintiff and parent Jose Velazquez.

Hes deeply disturbed by the fact that his students are possibly going to be indoctrinated with materials provided by a radical Islamist organization, Piedra said.

San Diego Unified spokesman Andrew Sharp said Thursday that the districts partnership with CAIR has been limited to outreach to the Muslim community to learn about their concerns, and the organization has not contributed to the curriculum or the anti-bullying program.

Mohebi gave a heated defense of the organization and said there had been a smear campaign against it.

Its disturbing to say the least that people have come out and labeled, in this day and age, an organization that has for over two decades served the American community, the American Muslim community, and the larger community as a civil rights and liberties organization, he said, adding that the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union also had been called terrorists by some people.

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939
Border Patrol agents chasing people who cross illegally into the United States through the Tijuana River Valley often get covered in toxic mud and must wade through hazardous wastewater.

Thats according to union officials representing the agents, who said respiratory problems, rashes and nausea have become an ever more routine part of patrolling the border with Mexico.

The issue of pollution flowing down the Tijuana River, especially amid rainy conditions, is well-documented. It includes a series of massive sewer spills during this past winter  an abundantly wet season  that fouled beaches as far north as Coronado.

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In addition, Border Patrol agents on the ground said increasingly urbanized canyons and tributary areas in Tijuana  located west of the river along the international border  have become a major source of sewage and contaminated runoff.

They said the situation has created dangerous health conditions, whether the agents are patrolling on foot, in all-terrain vehicles or on horses. The National Border Patrol Council Local 1613, which advocates for agents in the San Diego region, has threatened legal action if the circumstances dont improve.

We have it coming through Smugglers Gulch. We have it coming through Goat Canyon. We have it coming through Yogurt Canyon, said Christopher Harris, a border agent in San Diego for 20 years and the secretary for Local 1613. The footprint of the sewage and the contamination is so much larger than it was in the 90s and the 2000s that its hard for us to go anywhere without being contaminated.

Scientists and state regulators in the U.S. have confirmed the agents concerns.

The ongoing challenge is highlighted by a recent string of unanticipated sewage and wastewater flows through the canyons, said Dave Gibson, executive officer of the San Diego County Regional Water Quality Control Board.

In the case of Goat Canyon, its coming from businesses or persons who are dumping into the canyon farther upstream, he said. Its very likely that those are illegal discharges comingled with  smaller sewer line breaks or water line breaks.

Oscar Romo, a professor of urban studies and planning at UC San Diego, said runoff and flows from broken pipes in Tijuanas canyons pick up contamination from junkyards and other urban environments before streaming across the border.

While Romo said hes yet to document illegal dumping directly in these canyons, he recently photographed septic companies emptying effluent into the Tijuana Rivers main channel at night.

This activity of dumping that septic water has been reported (to public utility officials in Tijuana), he said. However, its still happening.

Officials with the State Public Service Commission in Tijuana, known as CESPT, repeatedly said for days that they would comment for this story, but have yet to do so.

The U.S. side of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a binational agency that oversees water treaties between the U.S. and Mexico, said it didnt know of any illegal dumping activity.

We are not aware of midnight dumping, said Lori Kuczmanski, a spokeswoman for the commission. That cannot be proved at this time.

Over the decades, Tijuanas aging and under-built sewer system has struggled to serve the regions growing population in terms of collecting and properly treating sewage  not only during storms, but also during dry weather. There has been some progress thanks to Mexican and U.S. infrastructure investments, but water-quality and environmental experts on both sides of the border agree that much more needs to be done.

Since the late 1990s, the U.S. side of the boundary and water commission has operated a series of pumps in the canyons that help divert flows coming across the border. Such systems in Smugglers Gulch and Goat Canyon were upgraded in 2010 as part of the border-fence project.

In response to the complaints expressed by Border Patrol agents and others, the San Diego section of the U.S. Border Patrol issued the following statement this past week: The health and safety of agents is of paramount importance to the U.S. Border Patrol. San Diego Sector is monitoring this matter and will appropriately address any health-related issues reported to the agency by its personnel.

Border agents have joined an expanding group of lawmakers, state regulators, scientists and environmental groups concerned about the contamination spilling over the border into the Tijuana River Valley and polluting South Bay beaches at an extensive rate.

Along with pathogens found in sewage  including bacteria such as E. coli, vibrio and salmonella  there are viruses and intestinal parasites that can cause everything from diarrhea to meningitis to respiratory infections.

Citing border agents worries, a bipartisan congressional delegation from San Diego County has called on the Trump administration to devote more attention to helping Tijuana fix its old sewer pipes and wastewater treatment plants. The issue has sparked an unusual collaboration between people such as Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, and Juan Vargas, D-San Diego.

The presidents budget, released Tuesday, proposes to do the opposite. It calls for cutting funding for programs aimed at improving water quality along the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as the budgets of agencies that oversee such initiatives, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Boundary and Water Commission.

San Diegos congressional delegation, Republicans and Democrats, has urged the Trump administration to make these sewage spills a priority and provide resources and oversight, said Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego. Clearly, they are not listening.

Following a huge sewage spill in February, officials in Baja California acknowledged that Tijuanas sewer network needs significant upgrades. They released a blueprint for funding specific projects that together would greatly reduce the flow of pollution.

If the plan can attract federal dollars from both the U.S. and Mexico, it would follow up on similar efforts in the late 1990s. Before the two countries spent billions of dollars during that time to construct treatment plants on both sides of the border, 5 to 10 million gallons of raw sewage a day flowed down the Tijuana River and into San Diego County.

Harris, the Border Patrol union official, said the labor group sued the federal government at the time and reached a settlement that stipulated agents wouldnt have to enter the Tijuana River.

We cant redo the initial lawsuit. Thats closed. Thats the Tijuana River, Harris said. But now that the imprint, the footprint is so much bigger, the attorney said you have a whole new lawsuit now.

The union is very serious, he added. Our guys are getting ill.

Gibson, with the San Diego regional water board, said contamination has always flowed through the canyons, but that the issue does seem to be compounded by Tijuanas rising population.

The Border Patrol officers are probably correct that the problems gotten worse in the main tributaries, even if its gotten somewhat better in the main channel, Gibson said. Thats because the growth has moved into those areas now.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
San Diego philanthropists Doug and Geniya Manchester have given $1 million to Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns.

Doug and Geniya Manchester (Vincent Andrunas / San Diego Union-Tribune)

The gift, presented Thursday during an annual event at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine, is meant to support ongoing programs and services at the hospital. Sharp Mary Birch handles about 9,000 deliveries per year, making it by far the largest maternity facility in the region.

In honor of the donation, which is part of a larger $12 million fundraising campaign by the Sharp HealthCare network, Sharp will rename Mary Birchs delivery center the Papa Doug and Geniya Manchester Family Labor and Delivery Unit.

Doug Manchester is a well-known real estate developer and former owner of The San Diego Union-Tribune. The beneficiaries of his philanthropy over the years have included his alma mater, San Diego State University, the maternity wing at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and The Bishops School.

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He has been active in conservative politics and was recently nominated to serve as the next United States ambassador to the Bahamas by President Donald Trump.

Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life

paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson
Search for colon cancer on the governments clinical trials website and more than 4,000 results pop up  most are useless for desperate patients. Theyre already finished or closed to new participants.

Checking a single box cuts out a lot of the chaff, limiting results to open studies, but that still leaves 1,040 results for colon cancer alone, and new trials pop up weekly. Its a daunting haystack to search and research, especially for anyone whose life is on the line due to a difficult cancer diagnosis.

Its just the thicket that Tom Marsilje confronted after he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2012, but, unlike most, he had just the set of tools to start pruning. The lanky, low-key and bearded Point Loma Heights resident has a doctorate in medicinal chemistry and is the co-inventor of Zykadia, an FDA-approved lung cancer drug made by his employer, the massive Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, Novartis.

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When he started looking at trials shortly after his diagnosis, Marsilje, 45, a husband and the father of two young girls, began keeping track of his most promising finds on a spread sheet. Four years later, that personal project, with the help of the advocacy group Fight Colorectal Cancer and New Yorks Flatiron Health, has turned into a new Internet app where late-stage colorectal cancer patients can find a carefully and professionally-curated list of trials that Marsilje (pronounced mar-SIL-ya) deems the most promising for patients in his situation.

He weeds out those that have been enrolling for years without results and those not likely to yield meaningful results in a time frame that would help stage IV patients who may not have multiple years to wait and who may only have one shot at finding the right trial. He also keeps an eye on Internet forums for patients already in trials who often share their personal outcomes long before the research theyre participating in finishes and results are published.

Leaning forward in his home office, Marsilje makes it clear that this list, which contains only 164 trials, is made up only of what he considers the best possible current options for patients.

I wanted to get people in Montana and Michigan the same information I have as quickly as I have it, Marsilje said.

Other opportunities

While his work has been focused just on the kind of colon cancer that he has, there is no reason why the same approach couldnt be used for other cancers. All it would take is a curator with a solid scientific background willing to devote about two hours per week following the vetting criteria Marsilje has honed over the years.

Flatiron Health, the New York company that held a special hackathon event to build the software that automates pulling trial information from clinicaltrials.gov, the government site all human research programs are listed, could help other cancer organizations in the same way says Dr. Bobby Green, the companys senior vice president of clinical oncology.

There is no reason that other people, using slightly different curation criteria, wouldnt be able to use our software to do the same thing for other types of cancer, Green said.

Some are already expressing interest.

Dr. Allyson Ocean, chair of the scientific advisory board of Lets Win!, an advocacy group for pancreatic cancer, said Marsiljes approach to finding patient-relevant trials may be applicable to an existing database her group already operates. The relevance of this kind of work, she said, cannot be underestimated.

I get frustrated even doing research myself for patients. What he has created is really really a game changer. So many patients now will be able to find trials in a much easier way, Ocean said. If we picked Toms brain and applied it to what we already have, we might be able to curate our list even better than we already do. In pancreatic cancer less than 5 percent of patients ever go to a clinical trial, and we want to increase that number.

Pancreatic cancer has a special significance for Marsilje whose mother was diagnosed with the disease while he was in graduate school. She died at age 55. With cancer affecting several of his family members, the experience only strengthened his resolve to make a significant contribution to find a cure.

Triumph and bad news on the same day

To be safe, he decided to start getting regular colon cancer checks at age 40, a decade before experts recommend all adults begin receiving regular colonoscopies or other methods of screening. Little did he know that his very first check would find early-onset colorectal cancer. In the ultimate instance of cosmic cruelty, the finding came the very day that the positive results for the phase one clinical trial for Zykadia, the lung cancer drug whose active ingredient he was the first to synthesize in the lab, was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncologys annual meeting.

At 6 a.m. the trial data was announced. I thought I had made real progress against cancer. Six hours later, I woke up from a colonoscopy hearing the words your husband has colon cancer. You need to schedule emergency surgery immediately, Marsilje said.

From the zenith of professional accomplishment to fighting for his life, it was one hell of a shocking day. At first, he said, there were tears, but he resolved to fight. He has been fortunate, he said, to work for a company that has allowed him to shift full-time to cancer advocacy and outreach, allowing him to become a full-time participant in the Colontown Clinic, an online group for colon cancer patients that runs more than 50 private Facebook groups which provide community, support and information for colon cancer patients and their families.

Here, he found himself reading posts of patients who were already enrolled in trials and sharing their individual results or who were looking for a trial to participate in. He found that, having a deep scientific background and living in a city with one of the worlds largest biotechnology hubs, he had access to resources that few others had. He started to reach out, guiding others to the information they needed to make better decisions and eventually sharing the spreadsheet of the most promising trials that he initially started building for his own use.

A self-described introvert fond of spending as much time as possible in Californias redwood forests, Marsilje is amazed and gratified that his diagnosis helped him open up and form hundreds of meaningful new relationships. His personal blog, Adventures In Living Terminally Optimistic, has gotten him plenty of unexpected media attention in recent years even has his cancer has spread, causing painful tumors in his back and now covering his liver.

Trying for trials

It has been a lot better than the alternative.

A lot of fantastic things have happened in the last five years, so Im glad I didnt curl up in a ball in the fetal position, he said.

Perhaps the most astounding aspect of what he calls his Cancer Life is the fact that, in the five years since diagnosis he has helped hundreds find the right clinical trials to enroll in, but has never himself participated.

In 2015, he was poised to join a promising immunotherapy trial but received a surprise diagnosis of stage one melanoma which derailed his plans. He was denied entry into a second trial that year, this one run by the National Institutes of Health, because his tumors were too small. Finally, in February, he was excited to finally join a trial for that combines a cancer-killing virus with one of the new checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy drugs which resensitize the immune system to cancer cells which have managed to evade detection by mimicking the bodys healthy cells.

Just when he was about to enroll in this trial, his cancer suddenly flared, with tumors popping up all over his liver and forcing him to undergo chemotherapy every two weeks. What had been indolent and slow growing has suddenly become aggressive, attacking an organ that has been unaffected since his diagnosis in 2012. He is about to undergo a high-tech radiation therapy which will insert radioactive microspheres into his liver, one half at a time, to kill the tumors.

If the therapy works, he should finally be able to participate in a trial, though he also has another trick up his sleeve. He has been working with San Diego researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and genetic sequencing pioneer J. Craig Venter to create a one-off cancer vaccine tailored to a few dozen mutations detected in the genetic code of his tumors. Here too, the road has not been perfectly easy. Though scientists have been able to synthesize special molecules, short segments of ribonucleic acid, that seem able to retrain certain types of T-cells in his immune system to hunt down his cancer cells, making a one-off drug will cost about $30,000, an amount that, at the moment, has launched a fundraising effort at his daughters school.

Hope in the near future

Dr. Ezra Cohen, associate director at Moores and the clinical side of the partnership who worked on Marsiljes tailored cancer vaccine with immunologist Stephen Schoenberger of the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, said working with a patient scientist has been a collaborative experience.

He brings ideas to us, we bring ideas to him. Its a nice interchange. I take for granted that scientists are smart, but hes really clever, Cohen said.

He added that he believes, if the funding issue is solved, and approval can be obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, he could see moving forward with a custom cancer vaccine for Marsilje and others very soon.

There are clearly challenges. But I really think we will be in the clinic treating patients like this soon. My hope is that we would be in the clinic within three or four months, Cohen said.

Some might think that Marsiljes current liver problems, combined with the number of trials he has been unable to join due to sheer bad luck, might have him throwing himself a pity party and abandoning hope. Far from it. As he has scoured clinical trials daily since 2012, he has built up a feeling that big things are coming for cancer patients. He knows, for example, a woman with stage IV cancer who has now participated in three life-extending trials.

Her son was in sixth grade when she started the whole process of clinical trials, and now hes at MIT. A huge percentage of her adult life she has had terminal cancer. I emailed her a couple of days ago; shes doing great, Marsilje said.

And he is convinced that he just needs to make it a little further. His research has shown him whats just over the horizon.

There are so many exciting things coming down the pipeline ... Im crossing my fingers that my prognosis allows me to live long enough to see them in the clinic, Marsilje said.

Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life

paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson
Not all unauthorized immigrants cross into the U.S. without permission. Some come on temporary visas like tourist visas or student visas and stay after the visa has expired.

More than 628,000 people are suspected of still being in the U.S. after their visas expired at the end of fiscal 2016, according to a report released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Over 40,000 of those suspected overstays were in the U.S. on student visas.

The report does not measure total overstays for Mexico and Canada because people leaving the U.S. at a land border are not tracked in the same way as those leaving by air or sea.

Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter
The first of several new proposals aimed at solving San Diegos affordable housing crisis took a key step forward this week when the Planning Commission unanimously approved loosening regulations on granny flats.

Making it easier for homeowners to add a second housing unit on their property is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to increase the local supply of housing affordable to people with low and middle incomes, city officials said.

Granny flats also have the potential to fight climate change and reduce traffic congestion by increasing opportunities for workers to live closer to their jobs, officials said.

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More granny flats, officially called companion units by the city, would also give struggling homeowners extra money to cover their mortgage and property taxes, another way to boost local housing affordability.

Critics, however, expressed concerns about parking problems, encouraging more short-term vacation rentals, conflicts with city minidorm legislation and whether suburban parts of the city should have different granny flat rules than urban areas.

The new city rules, which still must be approved by the City Council this summer, would go significantly beyond state efforts to ease granny flat regulations that took effect in January.

The new state laws force cities to soften regulations for granny flats regarding parking, installation of fire sprinklers, requirements to hook up public utilities and rules requiring setbacks  buffer areas between structures and property lines.

Those laws apply to granny flats of 1,200 square feet or less and garages of that size converted into granny flats.

In addition to those changes, the city would allow granny flats to be created inside single family homes as long each such unit is equipped with a kitchenette, but a separate bathroom wouldnt be required.

Called junior companion units in the proposed regulations, these could be a maximum of 500 square feet and would cost far less to construct than a separate structure on the property.

A kitchenette is defined under the proposed regulations as a room with a sink, a cooking facility with appliances, a food preparation counter and storage cabinets. Tenants in a junior granny flat could use bathrooms located elsewhere in the house.

The city would also soften regulations for traditional granny flats beyond the state modifications.

Setback rules would be more liberal and no on-site parking spots would be required if the granny flat was near mass transit, an area where mass transit is planned in coming years or a bike sharing station.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who soon is expected to unveil a series of additional policies aimed at solving the housing crisis, also proposed no minimum stays for granny flats and no requirement that they be owner-occupied.

But Planning Commissioners raised concerns about those policy decisions and reversed them in the proposed legislation they approved on Thursday.

They added a 30-day minimum stay for granny flat tenants to avoid exacerbating problems the city is facing with how to regulate short-term vacation rentals.

They also required that either the tenant in the granny flat or the main house be the owner of the property.

Commissioner Bill Hofman said the goal was avoiding an incentive for people to buy a house, build a granny flat and then move out and rent both units to tenants.

I think it starts tearing at the fabric of a single-family community, he said.

Concerns were also raised about yard parking, which would be allowed under the new state regulations as a way to boost housing stock without clogging streets with parked cars.

Commissioner Vicki Granowitz said she was concerned this would damage the character of already dense neighborhoods, such as North Park.

Rhea Kuhlman, leader of a resident group near San Diego State University that has successfully lobbied the city for minidorm legislation in recent years, predicted her neighborhoods problem with yard parking would spread under the new granny flat legislation.

You dont want to create this problem in the rest of the city, she said.

Commission Stephen Haase said the city should consider allowing street parking for granny flats in more suburban neighborhoods where parking spots are relatively plentiful.

He said the parking requirements in the proposed legislation, while less restrictive than those in place now, would still unnecessarily deter people in suburban areas from adding granny flats.

Or, he said, they might pave part of their yards to allow parking there, another scenario that he said should be avoided.

This would be less likely to happen in more urban areas because they could take advantage of the parking exemption for granny flats located close to transit.

Im troubled by the fact in areas in the city where we have large lots with a lot of room, we could be creating a barrier thats simply impossible to overcome, he said. It just doesnt make sense to me. Theres not a parking problem in those neighborhoods  theres plenty of street parking.

Granowitz suggested the city create a formula to determine availability of street parking in each neighborhood and adjust the granny flat parking requirement accordingly. But her recommendation was not included in the proposed legislation the commission eventually approved.

Haase said the city would be missing a big opportunity if they didnt find a way to encourage granny flats in relatively spacious suburban areas.

The purpose is to produce more housing, and I dont know that this is going to do that in certain areas of the city that have the bone structure to do it in a very unobtrusive manner, he said.

The granny flat proposal is the first legislation to come forward of a large package proposed this year by Mayor Faulconer, City Councilman Scott Sherman and others.

Addition proposals include reducing fees housing developers pay to build nearby parks, incentivizing developers to build smaller units instead of larger ones, and accelerating redevelopment of Huffman-style apartment buildings.

Others are allowing developers to build more intense projects if they contribute to the citys fund to construct subsidized housing, and making it harder for neighborhoods to be declared historic.

Mary Lydon, spokeswoman for a local nonprofit called Housing You Matters, praised the proposed granny flat legislation.

Catalyzing an increase of companion units is a small part of the equation of solving our housing crisis, but its a great one to get us started, she told the commission.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
Veterans, service members and their families can adopt a pet this weekend at no cost, thanks to help from non-profit group Animals for Armed Forces.

The organization is covering adoption fees for dogs, cats and rabbits adopted from San Diego animal shelters from Friday through Sunday as a way of helping service members for Memorial Day, and putting animals into good homes.

If adopted from County Animal Services, the county will also include vaccinations, spaying and neutering, microchip IDs, licensing and a free veterinary exam within the first 10 days.

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Both active duty members and reservists in the four armed forces branches, the Coast Guard and the the National Guard, as well as the immediate family members of these service members, all are eligible for the fee waiver.

Animals adopted from San Diego Countys three shelters, as well as the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe, the San Diego Humane Societys four shelters, are all eligible for free adoptions by qualified people. Animals for Armed Forces has events at 30 different California animal shelters this holiday weekend as well as one in Utah.

Its the third time that the county has partnered with Animals for Armed Forces. Typically, it costs $69 to adopt a puppy or young dog, $58 for a kitten or a cat, and $25 for a rabbit from the county. Dogs and cats that are at least five years old, or adopted by a senior citizen, are $35.

While this weekends event is for service members and veterans looking to adopt, the county regularly has special deals to encourage animal lovers to take home a new pet, including sales where adopters pay $1 for each pound the animal weighs.

Other shelters have different adoption fees.

More information about the countys adoption program, including animals that are in need of a new home, is available on the Animal Services website, www.sddac.com.

Hopeful adopters need to bring a photo ID, and, in order to get fees waived, one of the following: a military or military dependent or veterans ID, a DD-214 and a drivers license, or an NGB Form 22.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841
The North Iowa Farmers Market started its summer market season on May 19, despite the rainy weather. Vendor expectations were cautiously optimistic about the day, and rightfully so. The opening market is usually slow, a lot of produce isn't in season yet and the market moved this year from the Mills Fleet Farm parking lot. Vendors were pleased to find that customer traffic held steady from the start of the market at 4 p.m. until closing at 6:30 p.m.

Based on the comments received by board members and vendors, most customers expressed approval of the market move to the new downtown location at the corner of First Northeast and Delaware in Mason City. Some customers even mentioned that passing the new, highly visible market location caught their attention on their way to the grocery store, allowing them to stock up on fresh, locally grown produce before heading to the grocery store to finish their other shopping.

With every change comes challenge. The new market location occupies a portion of a public parking lot, forcing people to move their cars on market days. The NIFM Board members went around to area businesses to inform them of the potential changes to their parking routines and explained why the new location was selected. While somewhat an inconvenience, the majority of area businesses were excited to hear about the move. In fact, many businesses have expressed interest in collaboration efforts in the future and altering their business hours to accommodate the market.

The NIFM vendors and board members want to thank everyone who braved the rain and cold to come out to support the opening market.

Sarah Tweeten, Kensett
The driver was rescued from a car that crashed and landed upside down in the Tijuana River in San Ysidro Friday morning, authorities said.

San Diego lifeguards and firefighters were sent to therescue about 6:15 a.m. off Dairy Mart Road south of Camino de la Plaza. The car had gone off the road and mowed down brush and grasses on a slope that ended in a marshy, slime-covered pond along the river.

It ended up on its roof in waist-deep water, a fire official said.

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Rescuers helped the driver get out of the car, and used ropes as an aid while he waded out of the marsh. He was on his way to a hospital by about 6:45 a.m.
A Steele Canyon High School student was arrested Thursday night, accused of posting a shooting threat on Snapchat.

School officials issued a statement on the schools website that classes would be held as usual on Friday, but a planned assembly was cancelled.

The officials said only the one student was involved in the threat, and the Rancho San Diego-area school was safe after his arrest.

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The 14-year-old boy is suspected of having posted a picture of himself holding what appeared to be a handgun, with a warning that a particular person should not show up for school at Steele Canyon High on Friday, sheriffs Sgt. Matt Cook said.

He said several students were on Snapchat together, and the handgun photo started spreading about 5 p.m. Thursday. Parents saw it and called the Sheriffs Department about 5:45 p.m.

Detectives contacted the boy and his parents and learned that the pistol was a BB gun, Cook said. He said the teen admitted posting the picture and acting alone.

The teen was placed under arrest and released to his parents, and the pistol was confiscated, about 10:45 p.m. Cook said the Sheriffs Department continued getting calls from concerned parents through the night, and some erroneously believed the school would be closed on Friday.

As a precaution, deputies were to run extra patrols at the campus Friday.

The message posted on the Steele Canyon Highs web page said,

A Snapchat threat was made against the school Thursday evening. Please know the suspect was immediately identified and arrested.

A rumor that other shooters are involved is false according to law enforcement. We are all safe to attend school on Friday. To address concerns todays assembly is cancelled and the regular bell schedule will be followed.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission on Thursday approved a $300 penalty against Nancy McFadden, the former Pacific Gas & Electric executive who serves as Gov. Jerry Browns top adviser.

Commissioners approved the fine without debate on a unanimous vote despite the objections of Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica advocacy group that filed the original complaint leading to the investigation.

After a yearlong review, the commission noted three separate violations McFadden committed on her state-mandated disclosure forms and imposed a $100 penalty for each transgression.

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McFadden admitted the violations and agreed to the fine.

She filed amendments to her state-mandated financial disclosure forms last year, within days of the Consumer Watchdog complaint to the commission.

Governors Office spokesman Evan Westrup dismissed the majority of allegations as unfounded and noted that McFadden was quick to amend her statements when those mistakes were identified.

Inadvertent filing errors were acknowledged and amended Form 700s were voluntarily re-filed with the FPPC to clear this up more than a year ago, he said. Contrary to the poppycock some continue to peddle, the FPPCs findings make it clear theres no evidence of any conflict of interest or intent to conceal.

Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court said the penalty amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.

Before the meeting Thursday, he urged the commission to delay the settlement and reopen the case instead. He said state investigators failed to examine all the evidence submitted by the advocacy group and did not interview many witnesses.

My concern is there was political pressure brought to bear from the Brown appointees to the FPPC to curb the scope of what was being looked at, Court said. Its almost like they didnt want to look because they were fearful of finding something.

He said the commissions decision to close the case without discussing his request was shocking and distressing.

It wasnt just a whitewash, it was a bleach bomb, Court said. This shows that the FPPC is unwilling to even have a conversation about the tough questions when it comes to the governor and his top staff and political party.

In another stipulation approved Thursday, commissioners fined the state Democratic Party $3,500 for failing to properly account for oil industry contributions.

That investigation rejected separate allegations that the party laundered donations to Browns 2014 re-election campaign.

Commission spokesman Jay Wierenga said the criticism from Court was unwarranted.

After a thorough investigation, all I will say is the vote speaks for itself, said Wierenga, who declined to address the Consumer Watchdog allegations more specifically.

McFadden is one of several Brown administration officials who previously worked for regulated utilities such as PG&E.

When she left the San Francisco-based utility to become Browns chief of staff, McFadden got a $1 million payout and also owned PG&E stock options valued at up to $1 million.

The Consumer Watchdog complaint included hundreds of pages of documents indicating that McFadden did not properly disclose her stock holdings.

It also alleged that McFadden held shares of another energy company that had an interest in legislation she helped draft and wrongly served as a liaison to the Governors Office regarding potential appointments to the state utilities commission, among other things.

Court said in his letter to the commissioners that staff conceded to him that some of the emails he provided might have prompted a deeper review if they were not outside the five-year statute of limitations.

Consumer Watchdog has long alleged that Brown and his top officials have cultivated too cozy a relationship with energy companies.

Last year, the group issued a report documenting almost $10 million in political contributions from dozens of oil and energy interests to the governor and his pet causes and to the state Democratic Party.

According to the report, titled Browns Dirty Hands, some of those donations were made the same day or within days of administration decisions that benefited the donors.

The Governors Office said there was no connection between the political contributions and actions taken by the governor.

The governors leadership on climate is unmatched, Westrup said at the time. These claims are downright cuckoo.

Previously

jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald
Churches, businesses and labor unions usually make headlines for their unique beliefs  especially any that conflict with one other. Its easy to picture a group of union workers holding picket signs, a group of parishioners bowing their heads in prayer, or a board meeting of CEOs. Now, imagine a room packed with leaders from all three groups, stepping out of their daily responsibilities to raise their voices with one clear message. What are they saying?

This unlikely picture is whats playing out in the halls of San Diego County. It includes the two of us: a small business operator and a reverend. We normally dont share a public podium with each other, let alone together with our local labor union, but were coming together to speak now because we share the same vision for our community. County employees and SEIU members are also small business customers; small business customers are also churchgoers. When we watch out for each others interests, we all fare better.

Right now, the County of San Diego has a unique opportunity to invest in solutions that help us all. As a business leader and a faith leader, were bringing our diverse communities together to echo the same demands our local labor union is making: that our county government works for everyone.

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The county has one of the largest budget reserves in the United States. At $1.7 billion, its not only unnecessary, its three times larger than what financial experts recommend. Each year the county holds back these resources, it costs our region an estimated $900 million in economic activity, but it doesnt have to be this way. By negotiating in an open setting with SEIU and community input, the County of San Diego can make smart investments that benefit every churchgoer, every taxpayer, every skilled laborer, every person struggling to make ends meet.

Right now, nearly one in five children in San Diego lacks enough healthy food for their full growth and learning. San Diegos homeless population is the fourth-largest in the country. Our young people are getting stuck in the maze of our criminal justice system because of antiquated policies. The countys budget surplus could be the pathway out of these problems if the county will heed our collective voice.

When county workers from SEIU 221 started budget negotiations with County of San Diego representatives, we had a promising start. SEIU invited community members to join negotiations so they could contribute their deep expertise on issues facing San Diego. This is well within their legal rights and would have been a step toward ensuring that county government uses resources wisely. However, county representatives did not welcome the presence of community partners.

Regardless, we continue to speak up through our partners at SEIU. County workers are still at the negotiating table, and were there with them in spirit for the long haul. The county may think that by excluding community partners from formal meetings they have excluded our voices, but in fact were helping to inform SEIU every step of the way. For the sake of San Diego, were in this together.

As one voice, we call on the County of San Diego to use its plentiful resources to:

Ensure all children have access to nutrition programs like CalFresh

Invest in homelessness prevention and mental health services such as fully funding Psychiatric Emergency Response Teams

Invest in restorative justice programs that achieve justice while giving youth the tools and opportunities to make amends, learn, grow and stay out of prison

In the midst of troubling national news, the good news is that positive change can happen here, first. We are working together in an uncommonly close partnership to demand that all San Diegans have the opportunity to raise their children with the hope of a more prosperous future. We may not be able to change national policies overnight, but if San Diego County listens to residents needs and makes smart investments that put family and community first, it has the opportunity to improve everyones well-being here at home.

Owens, lead minister at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, is a member of San Diego Organizing Project. Knab is director of operations at Meza Family Restaurant Group, which includes Ponces Mexican Restaurant, and a member of Main Street Alliance of San Diego. They are both part of the Invest in San Diego Families coalition.
The Marines have historically known how to put together a good recruiting ad. Sword-wielding warriors slaying dragons. An endless row of immaculately dressed Marines with shiny rifles stretching protectively across America. A selective group of the few and the proud.

And now, a bully-stopping little girl who grows up into a Marine with a rifle, leading her troops out of an ambush in a dusty town. It swells the heart and fills the recruiters office.

But is it smoke and mirrors? This most recent ad, dubbed Battle Up by the Marines, features a solo female protagonist for the first time.

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Considering recent reports of the online network known as Marines United that shared and commented on nude photos of female Marines, one cant help but wonder if this is a ham-handed attempt to whitewash a serious cultural problem in the most male-dominated and insular of the four military services.

We both know a little about the dark side of Marine Corps culture: one of us as an Asian with a face resembling those of the Marines greatest enemies during the 20th century and the other as a woman. Both of us have had ugly encounters with the insular Marine culture.

As an Asian among mostly white comrades, one of us has constantly been inappropriately questioned about such things as his loyalty and fighting spirit and the size of his genitals.

As a woman, one of us has constantly been bombarded with stories, told by male friends, about how females were either whores or weak, always feeling an overwhelming need to mold herself into the version of a female Marine that her male counterparts defined for her just so she could belong.

Marine culture can be a stifling weight that threatens to separate its members from the society that it is supposed to serve.

But when Marine culture is at its best, it becomes a beacon that attracts like-minded men and women into its ranks and gives them a common language to express their desire to live lives of honor, courage and commitment. Marine Corps advertisements focus on values more explicitly than other services  values like duty, sacrifice, selflessness and noble service.

The commercials demonstrate those aspirational values of the Marine Corps and add to the mystical ethos of what it is to be a Marine.

The well-honed recruiting tool helps move people of all backgrounds to join the Marines. Battle Up continues in the same vein, while also conveying to the public the Marine Corps shared commitment to the full role of women in its ranks.

But this ad also has a message for current Marines, reminding them of the values that they are supposed to embody.

For female Marines, it signals the full acceptance of women as part of the warrior culture of the Corps. For the first time, our female colleagues are saying things like Finally, a video of me or I see myself in her. In order to retain and inspire the women in our ranks, it is important they see themselves reflected in their services narrative.

For all Marines, Battle Up and its predecessors communicate ideals that should be lived up to. A knight fighting on a chessboard is part of a team striving toward a greater purpose. A young man fighting a dragon represents the forging of the internal discipline needed to march one more mile, save one more comrade. Battle Up reminds all Marines that the race and gender of its members matter little when compared to integrity and willingness to fight for what is right.

The Marines say that Battle Up wasnt meant to address the Marines United scandal.

But it does, through a kind of moral storytelling that the Marines Corps has excelled at.

The Marines should build on this to genuinely address problems like the nude photo scandal, the recent hazing-related death of an Asian American Marine and other issues that accentuate the dark side of Marine culture.

The Battle Up advertisement is an unequivocal guiding star to once and future Marines of the values that they are expected to uphold. Marines as a whole are good storytellers and should use that skill to continue to demonstrate that the Marine Corps is at its best when it draws from a diverse set of individuals who represent their core values.

Fleming is a Major in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. She is a member of Truman National Security Projects Defense Council. Wong served in the United States Marine Corps from 2001 to 2011. He is a Security Fellow at Truman National Security Project. Views expressed are their own and do not represent the views of the Marine Corps or Department of Defense.
President Donald Trump  fresh off House approval of a health care bill that would cut taxes for the wealthy to gut care  is now peddling a tax proposal that would cut corporate taxes by $2.4 trillion over 10 years. The wealthiest corporations would get the overwhelming majority of this, while small businesses would get far less. And like all tax cuts for the wealthy, the people who would end up paying for them are us, the everyday taxpayers, in the form of deep cuts to vital services that we rely on every day.

To make matters worse, those same corporations benefit from a loophole in Proposition 13 that allows them to avoid paying $9 billion per year in taxes. While corporations pay less and less in taxes, our taxes go up. To fight back against corporate giveaways, we need to close the corporate loopholes in Proposition 13 and reaffirm protections for homeowners and renters.

When voters passed Proposition 13, they did so with the intention of protecting homeowners from taxes that could push them out of their homes. Retirees and other people on fixed incomes were in danger of losing the main source of their familys financial security with the rising cost of property taxes. Proposition 13 regulated property tax increases across the state, which reduced fear for homeowners.

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However, Proposition 13 also allowed big corporations to freeze their property taxes by locking their assessed value, as if they are worth what they paid for them nearly 40 years ago. That single act has allowed them to avoid over $9 billion per year in taxes. Who pays for that? We do, in the form of increased income taxes, sales taxes and other taxes that the state needs to make up for the money corporations are taking out of the system.

While this problem has persisted for years, with new threats to federal funding, California has reached a breaking point. Wealthy corporations will receive hundreds of billions of dollars in tax giveaways, and California needs to find a way to fill the gap. Our communities are still recovering from the Great Recession of 2008. Closing the corporate property tax loophole would prevent our fragile economy from nose-diving and driving California into another recession.

Closing the loophole would address unintended consequences that have plagued small businesses for decades without sacrificing our states unique commitment to keep residential property taxes low. In fact, the proposed changes in recent proposals have no effect on actual tax rates or residential property taxes.

Beyond the prospects of creating budget stability, by closing the loophole in Proposition 13, California can create a more equitable business landscape, where small businesses can compete. Our economy relies on fair competition, but the commercial property loophole in Proposition 13 institutes harmful barriers to market entry and throws our markets out of balance. Anyone looking to start a business faces an uphill climb against companies that can rely on outdated property assessments to save costs.

Under the current policy, companies that own properties valued at over $5 million reap the most benefit, collecting 75 percent of the tax breaks. The majority of small businesses pay their fair share in taxes, making it difficult to compete with wealthy corporations that reap billions from property tax loopholes. If an equitable economy with fair competition is what we hope to achieve, we should fix the policies that make rich corporations richer on the backs of small businesses and taxpayers.

Alliance San Diego supports closing the corporate property tax loophole because it would level the playing field, applying new protections that allow small businesses to maximize efficiency.

A proposal in the works would eliminate the burdensome property tax on fixtures and equipment, and delay reassessment on businesses under a certain size until properties are sold. Instead, by providing exemptions for owner-operators and a phase-in period for every company, businesses of all kinds would be able to compete with one another. Its a win-win for California small businesses and consumers.

Since last years election, people across California want to know what they can do to fight back. Here in California, we have a property tax policy that is already everything that big business could ever want: a huge tax giveaway that goes directly to their bottom line. The best thing that Californians can do to fight back is make it fair and take back some of that money funneled to big corporations and use it for our schools, health care and infrastructure.

Rice-Wilson is associate director at Alliance San Diego.
The California Board of Equalization collects more than $60 billion a year in taxes and fees and has a governing board consisting of the state controller and four members elected from different state regions. Its 4,000-plus employees handle appeals of state tax assessments, among other duties.

The board seems like an agency that would have a fairly high profile. Instead, it is a classic example of a government body that gets little attention and goes astray as a result. A recent state audit found that board members improperly interfered with hiring decisions and used agency employees for self-promoting activities having nothing to do with tax collection, which is against state law.

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On Tuesday, at the urging of member George Runner, the board unanimously approved new rules keeping members out of all hiring decisions except for those involving its executive director and chief counsel and adding safeguards against improper use of employees. But board members Jerome Horton and Diane Harkey objected to some of the audits criticism of self-promotional education and outreach programs, and the board could not agree on establishing a new governance model that established explicit limits on members authority. The board will now wait until August to revisit a policy.

The boards refusal to embrace a single governance policy this week makes no sense. Meanwhile, board member Fiona Ma wants another state audit. What a mess. If the Board of Equalization wont reform itself, Gov. Jerry Brown and the state Legislature should force needed changes upon it.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian, said a Montana congressional candidate body-slammed him to the ground and broke his glasses Wednesday night, setting a whirlwind of events into motion. The Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, was cited for assault by the sheriffs office. Three Montana newspaper editorial boards took the rare step of withdrawing endorsements of him on the eve of the election. And Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, told The Associated Press the next day that, Its not appropriate behavior. Unless the reporter deserved it.

Hunters chief of staff, Joe Kasper, later admonished a reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune who asked about it, saying, Theres so much more important stuff going on in the world, who even cares. Its dumb youre even writing about this.

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But assaulting journalists verbally or physically is neither dumb nor unimportant. Its not appropriate when Hunter says, Unless the reporter deserved it. Or when Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, dismissed questions about the GOP health care bill by telling a reporter, None of your business. Or when San Diego Unified School District spokesman Andrew Sharp joked about a reporters dead body.

Journalists are not the enemy of the American people. For proof, look to the First Amendment.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board for years has urged every single elected official in the county to do all they can to make sure the region becomes the Silicon Valley of the overlapping fields of life science, biotechnology and nanotechnology  industries which are on track to be a cornerstone of the global economy and which have the potential to revolutionize medicine, manufacturing, engineering, energy and more.

A new report from Biocom, the San Diego-based life sciences trade group, illustrates anew why this should be such a top priority.

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The report shows that San Diego shouldnt just be worried about Boston and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, as rivals in the race to be the planets life sciences/biotech/nanotech hub but should keep an eye on other parts of California as well.

While San Diego may have a higher profile in the field because it is home to such tech powerhouses as the J. Craig Venter Institute and companies like Illumina, the Biocom report found that the regions life-sciences cluster generated $33.6 billion in economic output  much less than the Bay Areas $114 billion, somewhat less than Los Angeles Countys $40.3 billion and about the same as Orange Countys $33 billion.

Theres no reason to doubt that life sciences/biotech/nanotech are going to be huge in San Diego County for decades to come and that the nearly 50,000 people who now have generally high-paying local jobs in the fields will grow to 100,000 or more.

But the momentum the region has established must be cultivated and maintained by our leaders  and never taken for granted.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
California primary change wont matter

Your articles on Time to move California primary? (May 21) were interesting reading, but arguably miss the most important fact: California always votes for Democrats, any Democrats the party serves up.

Changing our voting time will have no impact. The rest of the country actually makes decisions who to vote for. They do not care how we vote. In the country outside California, for example, in 2016, Trump won the popular vote by about 2 million votes.

Our politicians should try finding ways to improve the quality of our own in-state elections and not be so concerned with trying to get others to adopt our failing governance practices.

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Barry McElmurry

Vista

Republicans back their brand no matter what

The general distrust of and disgust with politicians across the country should bode well for efforts to unseat unsavory incumbents next year.

But dollars to doughnuts the Democrats targeting of Rep. Duncan Hunters seat (Democratic group sets sights on Rep. Hunter for 2018, May 23) will come up short. The Justice Department investigation of Hunters misuse of campaign funds  $60,000 repaid so far  seems to mean little to myopic supporters who rehired him last time around.

Their mantra seems to be: Better a shady Republican than any Democrat.

Dale Rodebaugh

San Diego

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Democratic leaders have tarnished state

In the first 60 years of the 20th century, all of Californias governors were Republicans. Since then our state has increasingly gone to the Democratic Party. In 1960, our state became known as The Golden State. Possibly we had the finest educational system in the country. Our transportation system was the envy of the world. We were considered to be recession proof.

Today, with our political shift to the left, our prospects have dramatically changed.

Pete Burgert

Tierrasanta

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Lightly edited comments from our online coverage.

Regarding San Diego home price hits all-time high of $525K (May 23): Just remember every refugee and immigrant needs a home too. They are adding to the demand and making all homes more expensive.

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Ben Giley

Joined April 16, 2016

And prices will continue to climb, but not because of jobs. The Baby Boomer transfer of wealth has begun ($1-plus trillion), life insurance proceeds, trust funds, etc., are being handed down and buyers will be coming in with massive down payments and/or paying cash.

BigTsunami

Joined April 19, 2016

Regarding Parents sue SD Unified over Islamophobia bullying policy (May 23): How anyone can subject their kids to this fickle and ineffective school system is beyond me. Bowing to unwarranted pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations only serves their agenda of conquering and replacing Western culture and civilization.

temporarycalifornian

Joined Feb. 2, 2017

Id like to know if those leaving comments actually have children in district schools or if they are just interested citizens. As the parent of a student in the district, Im thankful for SDUSD doing whatever it takes to create a safe learning environment for all students.

mclanea

Joined April 21, 2016

In most places in the U.S., hate crimes against Jews outnumber hate crimes against Muslims (see the annual hate crimes report from the FBI). Id be surprised if San Diego is any different. Yet we have this belief that followers of Islam face unique problems from bullying over their faith, and thus must be specially protected, while nobody in the schools need concern themselves with anti-Jewish bigotry.

mikebythesea

Joined May 24, 2017

Regarding Fake Navy SEAL gets 4 years in prison (May 23): This is the best news Ive read in years. Real warriors, whove been wounded and served their country, are the real heroes. Scum like this, falsifying their history, is a black mark on every member of our military and their families. We should send all these wannabes to prison.

Johnb

Joined April 2, 2017

I cant tell you how many individuals Ive come across who claim to have been SEALs, Marine RECON, Army Special Forces, Vietnam veteran, CIA and on and on. These stolen valor crimes have got to stop and prison time is just the venue. Kenneth E. Jozwiak will now have 4 years or more to think about his misdeeds!

benwallace

Joined April 16, 2016

Regarding 3 San Diego restaurants stop serving plastic straws (May 22): Remember PAPER straws? How about going back to using those? Too obvious?

Gordon M. Wagner

Joined April 22, 2016

I like how they passed a law last year to make plastic bags thicker and therefor more dangerous to the environment. Im sure this will turn out just as well.

sjaxon

Joined April 17, 2016

Regarding Opposing views on media coverage of Trump (May 22): President Trumps trip to the Middle East on a mission of uniting countries to fight against Islamic terrorism is historic. It might even be a pivotal point in history if it results in eradicating terrorism. Yet, probably because the mainstream media does not print anything positive about Trump, your coverage was minimal. So in order to see the real news, as usual, I had to seek out other venues. I was stunned to see the lavish reception our president has received and not even one photo of this reception, or one description of it, is included in your report. You could have printed a special section on the trip with photos  but you chose not to report it in the way it deserved. Trump could broker peace between Israel and Palestine and probably not get more than a grudging sentence from the U-T.

visionsoffrance

Joined May 24, 2017

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Want to see more letters that appear only online? Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to the university where he invented the social networking site on Thursday to give a commencement speech that is being viewed as pretty, pretty, pretty political.

Questions over whether the billionaire  who is currently on a year-long trip across the country to meet Americans in every state  would run to be U.S. president have been swirling for months. And his speech at Harvard University didnt help to squash the rumors.

Check out the seven parts of his commencement speech that came off more like a campaign speech.

1. A classic anecdote about his family

My best memory from Harvard was meeting Priscilla. I had just launched this prank website Facemash, and the ad board wanted to see me. Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out. My parents came to help me pack. My friends threw me a going away party. As luck would have it, Priscilla was at that party with her friend. We met in line for the bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower, and in what must be one of the all time romantic lines, I said: I'm going to get kicked out in three days, so we need to go on a date quickly.

I didn't end up getting kicked out  I did that to myself. Priscilla and I started dating. And, you know, that movie made it seem like Facemash was so important to creating Facebook. It wasnt. But without Facemash I wouldnt have met Priscilla, and shes the most important person in my life, so you could say it was the most important thing I built in my time here.

2. The catchy and inspirational message

Today I want to talk about purpose. But I'm not here to give you the standard commencement about finding your purpose. We're millennials. We'll try to do that instinctively. Instead, I'm here to tell you finding your purpose isn't enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.

3. Lines about the everyday American

As I've traveled around, I've sat with children in juvenile detention and opioid addicts, who told me their lives could have turned out differently if they just had something to do, an after school program or somewhere to go. I've met factory workers who know their old jobs aren't coming back and are trying to find their place.

4. Talking about challenges we face

How about stopping climate change before we destroy the planet and getting millions of people involved manufacturing and installing solar panels? How about curing all diseases and asking volunteers to track their health data and share their genomes? ... How about modernizing democracy so everyone can vote online, and personalizing education so everyone can learn?

5. Lamenting inequality

Today, we have a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone. When you don't have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise, we all lose. Right now our society is way over-indexed on rewarding success and we don't do nearly enough to make it easy for everyone to take lots of shots.

6. Offering vague policy plans

It's our time to define a new social contract for our generation. We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like Gross Domestic Product, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things. Were going to change jobs many times, so we need affordable childcare to get to work and healthcare that aren't tied to one company. We're all going to make mistakes, so we need a society that focuses less on locking us up or stigmatizing us. And as technology keeps changing, we need to focus more on continuous education throughout our lives.

7. And last but not least, an emotional story

Remember when I told you about that class I taught at the Boys and Girls Club? One day after class, I was talking to them about college, and one of my top students raised his hand and said he wasn't sure he could go because he's undocumented. He didn't know if they'd let him in.

Last year I took him out to breakfast for his birthday. I wanted to get him a present, so I asked him and he started talking about students he saw struggling and said You know, I'd really just like a book on social justice.

 If a high school senior who doesn't know what the future holds can do his part to move the world forward, then we owe it to the world to do our part too.

Watch the full speech below.

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg gave his address at Harvard's 366th Commencement on May 25, 2017 at Tercentenary Theatre. For more information, visit https://news.harvard.edu/gazet ...

Did he sound presidential? You dont have to take my word for it. Check out all these people who were watching and had something to say about him seeming presidential.

Do you think Zuckerberg should run for president? Or at least that his speech could be viewed as looking like he will?

Sound off in the comment section below.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
On the outside, Brian Tzeos days all looked the same. Up at 6 a.m. Wash face. Cup of coffee and a kiss goodbye for the kids. Always prompt for his shift at a North Carolina paper mill.

That regular working dad routine hid his entanglement in an opium smuggling ring that reached all the way to Thailand, and eventually led to the slayings of his wife and three children at their home, investigators say.

I regret everything, Tzeo said Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. Its something I never should have gotten involved in. Its hard to live with this.

Advertisement

Tzeo declined to discuss any details of his alleged drug dealing and he has not been charged. For friends and family of the thin, mild-mannered Laotian refugee, the allegations were just as shocking as the March 12 stabbing and shooting deaths of his family.

I was clueless. My uncle was always working late, taking care of his family, said Tzeos nephew, Michael Saechao, 22, of Conover. He never talked about drugs. I cant believe it. This was so unlike him. It just doesnt make any sense.

How could someone so devoted to his family do this?

Last week, Lisa Saephan, 40, and the couples three children  Melanie, 20; Pauline, 18; and Cody, 4  were found dead inside their home in Conover, about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. Detectives believe they were killed by 37-year-old Chiew Chan Saevang, of Schofield, Wis., and his girlfriend, 40-year-old Yer Yang of Long View. Both were at the home soon after Tzeo left for work that morning to steal a recent a drug shipment, authorities say.

Authorities have said Tzeo would convert the opium to heroin, which Yang would take to Saevang in Wisconsin for sale.

In an earlier interview with the AP, Tzeo said his family was his whole life. He said his daughters doted on him and were sneaking around planning his annual surprise birthday party in the days before they were killed.

He admitted to waiting for years to have a son to carry on my family name. Cody was found shot to death at the familys kitchen table, his fingers still inside his cereal bowl.

Both Tzeo and his wife lived in refugee camps before emigrating from Laos to the United States in the 1980s. They met at a New Years Eve party in 1988, were married a year later and lived on the West Coast. He worked odd jobs until they moved to North Carolina about a decade ago.

Tzeo struck up a friendship with next door neighbor Mai Cai, who had moved to the U.S. from Vietnam, when Mai settled into the quiet subdivision not far from Hickory. They spent a lot of time fishing and doing everything together, Mai said.

We talked about our lives, how things were so much better in America, he said. We didnt have much when we moved here. We always talked about how we were able to buy homes and have nice things. I learned one thing from this: You cant trust anyone. My wife is so upset she wants to move.

The typical image of a drug dealer often doesnt hold true, said Eric Sevigny, an assistant professor in the criminology and criminal justice department at the University of South Carolina. Those who expect a flashy car and someone who spends money frivolously can often be caught off guard by a mild-mannered family man such as Tzeo.

These are the traditional middle-class family people trying to make an extra dollar, Sevigny said. They might be living in your neighborhood next to you.

The often have regular clientele and investigate the people they sell to so theres not a lot of law enforcement exposure, he said.

Tzeo and Saephan separately filed bankruptcy in recent years, citing thousands of dollars in mounting debt and suggesting the family was spending more than it was bringing in.

At the International Paper Co. plant in nearby Newton where Tzeo operated a machine that made cardboard boxes, co-workers said he arrived on time every day and gave them no reason to suspect he was dealing drugs.

He was hardworking, said co-worker Ruthie Jordan, 48, of Hickory. Nobody could say a bad word about him. He always tried to help you.

That may be what he was doing with Saevang, the man accused of killing his family. Tzeo introduced him to his family about a year ago during a picnic, his nephew Saechao said, telling those there that he had just gotten out of jail and was looking for a job.

He didnt seem threatening or nothing like that, Saechao said of Saevang. He was kind of quiet and just kept to himself.

Kelly ODriscoll, a spokeswoman for U.S. District Court in Madison, Wis., said Saevang was sentenced in 2005 in North Carolina to nearly four years in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute opium. He was paroled in October 2007, and had been living in Wisconsin since December with an aunt and uncle.

ODriscoll said Saevang apparently left for North Carolina shortly after meeting with his parole agent at 4 p.m. on March 9 and he returned briefly to Wisconsin on March 13. He has not been authorized to leave the state, ODriscoll said. Wisconsin state police said Thursday that Saevang was not on our radar.

Tzeo was meeting with investigators Thursday afternoon to discuss their investigation into the drug smuggling. He said he hoped they would allow him to travel to California, where he planned to bury his family.

I hope they understand, he said. Im trying to be strong and hold up. But it is very difficult. Im so lonely without my family. I miss my family. 



Associated Press writer Robert Imrie contributed to this story from Wausau, Wis.
A fan of crime fiction finds herself the prime suspect of a New Hampshire murder that took place in her small home town.

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From the three-second mark on the tape cassette:

For the record, my name is Brook Tyler, and Im a detective sergeant with the New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Unit. Todays date is Monday, March 27, and the time is 9:05 a.m. With me in this meeting room at the State Police offices on Hazen Drive in Concord is Detective Laura Gadsen and Miriam Wilson, resident of Montcalm, New Hampshire.

[[Pause as papers are shuffled and the microphone is moved.]]

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Q. Miss Wilson, are you prepared to answer my questions?

A. Please, call me Miriam.

Q. All right, Miriam. Youve been read your Miranda rights, youve reviewed them on a handout, and youve check-marked and signed each paragraph, and the bottom of the page. So you are fully aware of your rights under the law, correct?

A. Yes.

Q. And you know that at any point, you can halt this questioning, and ask for a lawyer?

A. Interrogation.

Q. Excuse me?

A. Detective Sergeant Tyler, lets not fool around or play games. This is an interrogation, thats all, and yet Im still prepared to answer your questions. So lets not play around, shall we?

[[Pause]]

Q. Miss  I mean, Miriam, how long have you resided in Montcalm?

A. More than 20 years.

Q. And prior to that?

A. Alexandria, Virginia. I worked for a number of years as a transitional office employee for the government, and I was offered an early retirement, and I took it. However, I was born in Montcalm before I started my career. I really looked forward to coming back home and took the opportunity when I could.

Q. And you ran a business in Montcalm?

A. Correction, I still do run a business  even with the, ah, unfortunate circumstances I find myself in.

Q. And what kind of business is it?

A. You know exactly what kind of business it is.

Q. Please, Miriam, could you just answer the question?

A. No need to get snippy, Detective Sergeant  Anyway, my business is Miriams Web. Its a knitting supply shop. The only one within an hours drive in that part of the state.

Q. And in addition to owning this store, you were also president of the Lake Montcalm Chamber of Commerce.

A. You are correct.

Q. And what is the function of the Lake Montcalm Chamber of Commerce?

A. For real?

Q. Miriam, please.

A. Oh, for heavens sake, three minutes on the internet and you can see everything we do on our website  but to answer your question, we help promote the businesses around Lake Montcalm and in the village, advertise in various tourist publications, and fund a scholarship for both a male and female student from Montcalm Regional High School.

Q. And how long have you been president of the Chamber of Commerce?

A. Four years.

Q. I see  now, if I can change the subject for a moment  are you aware of a gentleman named Cornelius Pope?

A. No.

[[Pause as voices are raised and theres crosstalk]]

Q. Miriam 

A. Im telling the truth. I dont know of a gentleman named Cornelius Pope. However, I did know of a true jerk named Cornelius Pope. I can tell you that.

[[Pause]]

Q. Go on, Miriam. Please tell us how you came to know Mister Pope.

A. Do you want the long story or the short story?

[[Pause]]

Q. The true story.

[[Laughter]]

A. Ill tell you the short story, otherwise well be here a week. Pope was a retired professor from UNH. One of those granola-munching types, you know? Ready to protest at the drop of a hat, or announce a boycott of chicken or veal or something silly like that. He opened up a bookstore and cafe down by the town docks. He called it the Half Moon Cafe, but we all called it the Communist Cafe. I mean, we all knew that a bunch of his customers would sneak out back and smoke 

Q. Thats enough, thank you. And wasnt there a time when Mister Pope became active in the Chamber of Commerce?

A. He did.

Q. And is it fair to say that the two of you had a  contentious relationship?

A. A what?

Q. A contentious relationship. That you didnt get along.

A. Oh, we certainly didnt get along, but it wasnt my fault. I wanted to be friends, but Pope  he had another agenda. He wanted to  make a difference, bless his heart. But I wouldnt say we were that contentious.

[[Pause]]

Q. Miriam, weve reviewed two years worth of minutes from the Chamber of Commerce. There were a lot of arguments, name calling, and so forth.

A. Really? Well, if its in the minutes, it must be true.

Q. And there were a number of letters he wrote to the Montcalm Gazette, criticizing your leadership of the Chamber of Commerce.

A. That was his right, of course, to publicize what a moron he was.

Q. Miriam, if I may skip ahead 

A. Oh, please do. After all, youre in charge here.

Q. Thank you. Miriam, Id like to talk now about the Ice Out Festival.

A. Go right ahead.

Q. Could you explain what the Ice Out Festival is about?

A. Certainly. After all, it was my idea  and I ran it successfully for a number of years before Professor Pope showed up with all his new ideas. You see, by the time spring comes, a lot of us around here are ready for more daylight, warm weather. We have a serious case of cabin fever. So I thought a little festival marking when the ice officially breaks up on Lake Montcalm  thats called ice out  would be a fun way to mark the end of winter. It was quite the success.

Q. Mister Pope didnt think so.

A. Pope was from away. I didnt care for his opinion.

Q. But his opinion was that the Chamber and the town could do more. More publicity, advertising, contests, food carts  make it a real festival.

A. A real circus, you mean.

Q. But from the minutes and from reviewing the local newspapers, it seems Mister Pope won the day. Plans were put into place to expand the festival. And you were opposed.

A. I was. It didnt fit the town, didnt fit our history. Like I said  it was a circus.

Q. And you resented that?

A. Wouldnt you?

Q. Miriam, please answer the question.

A. Of course I resented it. I resented it very much. He was from away, he was very bossy, and he didnt want to fit in. He wanted to run things.

[[Pause]]

Q. All right. Miriam, could you explain how ice out was noted?

A. Noted?

Q. How people knew when the ice had officially broken up for the spring.

A. Oh, I see. You should have been clearer in your questions. Well, what weve done for years past, is that we go into the center of Lake Montcalm and secure a buoy thats eventually frozen in place when the lake starts to freeze. Then, one of those  highway flares is attached to the buoy, and is also attached to the ice. When the ice starts breaking up around the buoy, the flare is lit off, and then you have ice out.

Q. But isnt that something hard to predict? I mean, you could schedule the festival and ice out wouldnt occur at the same time.

A. Thats what I said! But Pope said, so what. What difference would it make? And I said it would make a hell of a difference, that the good people coming to the lake, if they didnt see the flare going off, they would think they got cheated. And Pope said, well, they had a chance to get drunk and have fun, so there you go.

Q. And you also resented that?

A. I certainly did.

[[Pause]]

Q. Miriam?

A. Still here.

Q. Miriam, isnt it true that Cornelius Pope went missing last fall?

A. I suppose he did.

Q. And did that concern you?

A. Not at all.

Q. And he remained missing all this past winter, correct?

A. Yes.

Q. In fact, he remained missing right until your towns Ice Out Festival last week, correct? Where by chance, the flare lit off the Sunday morning of the festival?

A. Funny how that happened. I guess Pope might have been right all along.

Q. And something else happened later that day, am I right?

A. Of course youre right. Or why else would I be here?

[[Pause]]

Q. Miriam, when a reporter from the Montcalm Gazette motored through the broken ice to get a close-up photo of the buoy and discharged flare, something else was there, wasnt it?

A. Thats what the papers said.

Q. Yes. What were there were the remains of Cornelius Pope. Apparently, he had been dead all that winter, fastened to the buoy.

[[Pause]]

Q. Miriam, do you have any idea of how Mister Popes body ended up attached to the buoy?

A. I do.

[[Pause]]

Q. You do?

A. Of course. I put him there.

[[Pause]]

Q. Miriam 

A. Still here.

Q. How in the name  how did he end up there?

A. I motored him out at night  a very clear night, nice full moon, I could see everything though it was damn cold, you knew ice would start forming in a few days  and I got to the buoy, I fastened him to the buoys chain with another chain, and with three cement blocks, I tossed him overboard. And I motored back. And then we got a cold front move in and the ice started forming 

[[Pause]]

Q. Didnt he put up a fight?

A. Excuse me?

Q. Didnt he put up a fight when you tossed him into the water?

A. Dear me, no.

[[Pause]]

Q. Was he unconscious?

A. Oh, no, he was dead. Quite dead, in fact.

[[Pause]]

Q. Did you murder him, Miriam?

A. No, I did not.

Q. Then how 

[[Pause]]

A. Oh, didnt I make it clear? Pope committed suicide.

[[Pause]]

Q. Say again?

A. Pope killed himself.

Q. He  did?

A. Yes, he did. Right in my kitchen.

Q. How  I mean  when  I 

A. Shall I tell you the whole story?

Q. Please do.

[[Pause]]

A. Well, he came to me out of the blue that night, wanting to make apologies. He said things had gotten out of hand and wanted to make amends. He he could be charming, I do admit that. So I reheated a nice tuna casserole and we talked and both had a glass of wine, and then he got weepy. He said that he and his wife were getting a divorce, he had cheated on her plenty of times with the co-eds, and that the bookstore and cafe was failing. That he was a failure at everything he did.. and then well, I couldnt believe it. He had this little tube and emptied it into his wineglass, swallowed it, and then he just slid to the floor. Dead.

[[Pause]]

Q. And you didnt call the fire department? Or EMTs?

A. Why? He was dead.

[[Pause]]

Q. And the police? You didnt call the police?

[[Pause]]

A. A dead man in my kitchen? For real? I didnt want the scandal.

[[Pause]]

Q. And you thought it would be best to motor out in the middle of the night, fasten his body to the buoy chain, and not tell anyone?

A. Thats right.

Q. But you knew his remains would be found eventually, come spring and Ice Out.

A. Right again, Detective Sergeant.

Q. But why?

A. Isnt it obvious?

[[Pause]]

Q. Not really.

A. Oh. You see, Pope, this whole extended festival was his idea. He wanted to make it splashy. Wanted it widely known. And I thought well, finding his body on the ice-out buoy would certainly do that. I did it in a way of honoring him and his idea.

[[Pause]]

[[Cross-talk]]

Q. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute here

A. Im sorry. Who are you?

Q. You know exactly who I am.

A. Im very sorry, but the older I get, the worse I get with names

Q. Im State Police Detective Laura Gadsen, Miss Wilson.

A. Nice to meet you, Detective Gadsen. And you may call me Miriam.

Q. Miss Wilson 

A. Miriam

Q. Please dont interrupt, Miss Wilson. I was the detective in charge of executing the search warrant at your home and your place of business. And what we found was very interesting.

[[Pause]]

Q. What we found there were hundreds of books, true crime books, mystery fiction. Some with interesting titles, like how to get away with murder.

A. Sorry, Ive never been one to read those romance novels. I find them dull.

Q. And another thing. Your past work history youve spent time with the FBI, the Secret Service, the Treasury Department Im sure you were exposed to many, many interesting examples of crime investigations and forensics. Years worth.

A. Well, I did meet some very interesting people.

Q. Im sure.

[[Pause]]

Q. All right, Miss Wilson. Youve told us this tale of a remorseful Cornelius Pope committing suicide in your kitchen, and of you taking his body out to the lake, to chain it to a buoy and let it rot over the winter all for announcing his death during the Ice Out Festival. For publicity. To honor his memory. Thats one hell of a story.

A. You know, I do have to agree with you there.

[[Pause]]

Q. Yes, one hell of a story. But lets look at a simpler story, shall we? A story where for some reason, Cornelius Pope comes to your house. The two of you are alone. A perfect situation for you. Based on your reading, research and work experience, Im sure youre aware of a number of poisons that are hard to trace in a victims body. Combined that with the fact his remains were immersed in water for several months, it would be nearly impossible to come up with a certain cause of death. It would seem to be the perfect crime, dont you think?

A. Not really, Detective Gadsen.

[[Pause]]

Q. Miss Wilson, heres the deal. Theres no way Cornelius Pope came to your house, intent on committing suicide. You got him there on some sort of pretext, poisoned him, and then transported his body out to the ice buoy. You could have dumped in the woods or dumped him in the lake but, no, you wanted a final humiliation, a final revenge. Thats what you did. Thats what really happened. There was no suicide. There was a murder. And you committed it.

[[Pause]]

Q. Miss Wilson, you committed murder, didnt you?

[[Pause]]

A. Prove it.

End of recording.
Dublin, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/26/2017 -- Earlier this year, Investment conferences were organized by both the private sector and the public sector. The government's Nepal Investment Board has published that it has received many billions of dollars of interests from foreign companies to be invested in Nepal. Although it's speculative how much of those dollars would actually turn into investments in Nepal, the wave of some of the foreign companies entering in Nepal is overall a positive sign for the nation. Recently, Frost and Sullivan and Apprit Technology Group - both based in Silicon Valley -- have announced they have entered in Nepal.



Apprit Technology Group is one of the leading technology companies in the valley. The statement issued by the company said that Nepal expansion would help the computer science graduates to work in Nepal and develop the nascent technology industry. Compared to India and China, Nepal's large neighbors, Nepal lags in technology infrastructure. Unlike other technology outsourcing companies, Apprit operates on a country client model which means that the employees in Nepal would mostly be working on Nepal clients. Both private sector and government are in need of technologies that is usually unavailable in Nepal. Apprit plans to supplement the local talent with the know-how in Silicon Valley which would help the Nepal employees effectively serve the market in Nepal and build superior technologies customized for the region.



Nepal's main foreign investment has been in infrastructure related projects and hydropower. Deloitte is also administering a contract of USAID to invest and bring investments in Nepal related energy projects. With the rise in technology companies and a changing culture due to new startups, more Silicon Valley companies are planning to enter in Nepal, sources say.



About Apprit

Apprit was started by few computer science students to address the digital challenges faced by small businesses who were shutting their doors because of their inability to compete on a growing digital landscape. Since the times have changed significantly the way business was conducted just few decades ago, Apprit helps businesses to create a digital strategy which enables the businesses to effectively compete online. Apprit's core philosophy is to help small business owners. Apprit professionals have background in engineering and business which helps them to build products and provide services that benefits their clients.



Media Contact:

R Sodhi

http://www.apprit.com

Phone: 925-336-1888

ravi@apprit.com

8019 IGLESIA DR DUBLIN CA 94568-1366
New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/26/2017 -- Synopsis



In real terms, the Philippine construction industry registered an average annual growth rate of 12.0% during the review period (20122016). This growth was supported by the Philippines Development Plan 20112016, under which the government invested heavily on transport infrastructure projects, residential buildings and social infrastructure. Investment in energy projects under the Philippines Energy Plan 20122030 also contributed to growth during the review period.



GET SAMPLE REPORT @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1268606-construction-in-the-philippines-key-trends-and-opportunities-to-2021



The Philippine construction industry is expected to continue to grow over the forecast period (20172021). Industry growth will be supported by the country's development plan 20172022, as well as population growth, urbanization, and favorable government policies with regards to public-private partnerships (PPPs).



In February 2017, the government launched the Philippines Development Plan 20172022, with an aim to make the Philippines an upper-middle-income country by 2022. Consequently, it plans to reduce unemployment from 5.5% in 2016 to 3.0% by 2022.



The industry's output value in real terms is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.79% over the forecast period; compared to 10.68% during the review period.



Summary



Construction in the Philippines, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2021 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the Philippine construction industry including:



- The Philippine construction industry's growth prospects by market, project type and construction activity



- Analysis of equipment, material and service costs for each project type in the Philippines



- Critical insight into the impact of industry trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the Philippine construction industry



- Profiles of the leading operators in the Philippine construction industry



- Data highlights of the largest construction projects in the Philippines



Scope



This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the construction industry in the Philippines. It provides:



- Historical (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2021) valuations of the construction industry in the Philippines using construction output and value-add methods



- Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by project type



- Breakdown of values within each project type, by type of activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by type of cost (materials, equipment and services)



- Analysis of key construction industry issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricing



- Detailed profiles of the leading construction companies in the Philippines



Reasons to Buy



- Identify and evaluate market opportunities using standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.



Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts.



- Understand the latest industry and market trends.



- Formulate and validate strategy using critical and actionable insight.



- Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.



- Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.



Key Highlights



- The government's plan to bridge gap between the demand and supply of affordable houses in the country is expected to support the growth of the residential construction market over the forecast period. According to the government estimate, demand for housing units is growing by 345,941 units annually and it is expected to reach to 6.2 million units by 2030. To meet this, the government plans to provide financial assistance to middle- and low-income families through various programs, such as the Pag-IBIG Affordable Housing Program, Community Mortgage Program (CMP), Core Housing Program and the Abot-Kaya Pabahay Fund Developmental Loan Program (AKPF - DLP).



- With robust and modern infrastructure vital for economic growth, the government is focusing on infrastructure development. Accordingly, in September 2016, the National Economic and Development Authority announced its plan to spend PHP8.2 trillion (US$173.9 billion) on nine infrastructure projects by 2022.



- In the Budget 2017, the government increased its total spending on the Department of Transport by 25.0%, rising from PHP42.6 billion (US$903.3 million) in the budget 2016 to reach PHP53.3 billion (US$1.1 billion). The government also increased the budget of Department of Public Works and Highways by 18.3%, rising from PHP384.4 billion (US$8.2 billion) in 2016 to PHP454.7 billion (US$9.8 billion) in 2017, to improve the country's transport infrastructure.



- In March 2017, the government approved National broadband plan with an aim to support economic development and growth. Through this, the government aims to create investment opportunities and ensure social and economic inclusion. Consequently, the government plans to deploy fiber optic cables and wireless technology across the country with an investment of PHP200.0 billion (US$4.3 billion), to equip all schools and government offices with a high speed internet connection.



- Over the forecast period, the government's plan to expand the capacity of manufacturing plants is expected to support growth of the industrial construction market. Under the Manufacturing Resurgence Program (MRP), the government aims to enhance the existing capacity of manufacturing industries, support new entries, increase employment, and maintain the competitiveness of industries by 2025.



Table of Content: Key Points

1 Executive Summary

2 Industry Outlook

2.1 Commercial Construction

2.2 Industrial Construction

2.3 Infrastructure Construction

2.4 Energy and Utilities Construction

2.5 Institutional Construction

2.6 Residential Construction

3 Key Issues and Developments

4 Market Data Analysis

4.1 Construction Output and Value Add

4.1.1 Construction output by project type

4.1.2 Construction output by cost type

4.1.3 Construction output by activity type

4.1.4 Construction value add by project type

4.2 Commercial Construction

4.2.1 Commercial construction output by project type

4.2.2 Commercial construction output by cost type

4.2.3 Commercial construction output by activity type

4.2.4 Commercial construction value add by project type

4.3 Industrial Construction

4.3.1 Industrial construction output by project type

4.3.2 Industrial construction output by cost type

4.3.3 Industrial construction output by activity type

4.3.4 Industrial construction value add by project type

4.4 Infrastructure Construction

4.4.1 Infrastructure construction output by project type

4.4.2 Infrastructure construction output by cost type

4.4.3 Infrastructure construction output by activity type

4.4.4 Infrastructure construction value add by project type

Continued



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Uintah, UT -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/26/2017 -- Stephen Hopkins was from Hampshire, England. He married his first wife, Mary, and resided in the parish of Hursley, Hampshire. They had three (3) children: Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles; all baptized there. It has long been claimed that the Hopkins family was from Wortley, Gloucester, but this was disproven in 1998 with the discovery of his true origins in Hursley.



http://mayflowerhistory.com/hopkins-stephen/



Stephen Hopkins went with the ship Sea Venture on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609 as a minister's clerk, but the ship wrecked in the "Isle of Devils" (Bermuda). Stranded on an island for ten months, the passengers and crew survived on turtles, birds, and wild pigs. Six months into the castaway, Stephen Hopkins and several others organized a mutiny against the current governor. The mutiny was discovered and Stephen was sentenced to death. However, he pleaded with sorrow and tears. "So penitent he was, and made so much moan, alleging the ruin of his wife and children in this his trespass, as it wrought in the hearts of all the better sorts of the company." He managed to get his sentence commuted. Eventually the castaways built a small ship and sailed themselves to Jamestown. How long Stephen remained in Jamestown is not known. However, while he was gone, his wife Mary died. She was buried in Hursley on 9 May 1613, and left behind a probate estate which mentions her children Elizabeth, Constance and Giles.



Stephen was back in England by 1617, when he married Elizabeth Fisher, but apparently had every intention of bringing his family back to Virginia. Their first child, Damaris, was born about 1618. In 1620, Stephen Hopkins brought his wife and children Constance, Giles, and Damaris on the Mayflower (child Elizabeth apparently had died). Stephen was a fairly active member of the Pilgrim group shortly after arrival, perhaps a result of his being one of the few individuals who had been to Virginia previously. He was a part of all the early exploring missions, and was used as an "expert" on Native Americans for the first few contacts. While out exploring, Stephen recognized and identified an Indian deer trap. And when Samoset walked into Plymouth and welcomed the English, he was housed in Stephen Hopkins' house for the night. Stephen was also sent on several of the ambassadorial missions to meet with the various Indian groups in the region.



Stephen was an assistant to the governor through 1636, and volunteered for the Pequot War of 1637 but was never called to serve. By the late 1630s, however, Stephen began to occasionally run afoul of the Plymouth authorities, as he apparently opened up a shop and served alcohol. In 1636 he got into a fight with John Tisdale and seriously wounded him. In 1637, he was fined for allowing drinking and shuffleboard playing on Sunday. Early the next year he was fined for allowing people to drink excessively in his house: guest William Reynolds was fined, but the others were acquitted. In 1638 he was twice fined for selling beer at twice the actual value, and in 1639 he was fined for selling a looking glass for twice what it would cost if bought in the Bay Colony. Also in 1638, Stephen Hopkins' maidservant got pregnant from Arthur Peach, who was subsequently executed for murdering an Indian. The Plymouth Court ruled he was financially responsible for her and her child for the next two years (the amount remaining on her term of service). Stephen, in contempt of court, threw Dorothy out of his household and refused to provide for her, so the court committed him to custody. John Holmes stepped in and purchased Dorothy's remaining two years of service from him: agreeing to support her and child.



Stephen died in 1644, and made out a will, asking to be buried near his wife, and naming his surviving children.



BAPTISM: 30 April 1581 at Upper Clatford, Hampshire, England, son of John and Elizabeth (Williams) Hopkins.

FIRST MARRIAGE: Mary, possibly the daughter of Robert and Joan (Machell) Kent of Hursley, co. Hampshire, prior to 1604.

SECOND MARRIAGE: Elizabeth Fisher on 19 February 1617/8 at St. Mary Matfellon, Whitechapel, co. Middlesex, England.

CHILDREN (by Mary): Elizabeth, Constance, and Giles.

CHILDREN (by Elizabeth): Damaris, Oceanus, Caleb, Deborah, Damaris, Ruth, and Elizabeth.

DNA HAPLOGROUP: R1b-M269



Contact Adam Green!

c: 801-809-7766

e: g3president@comcast.net



Master Christopher Jones and several business partners purchased the ship Mayflower about 1607. Its origins prior to that remain uncertain. Its first documented voyage of record was to Trondheim, Norway, in 1609. Andrew Pawling hired the ship to take a cargo of London goods to Norway, sell them off, and buy Norway goods (lumber, tar, and fish) to return back to England. Unfortunately on the return voyage, the Mayflower encountered a severe North Sea storm and the master and crew were forced to toss most of Pawlings goods overboard to lighten the ship. The home of Master Christopher Jones: Harwich, co. Essex, England.



http://mayflowerhistory.com/



Following that, Christopher Jones seems to have stuck with safer trading routes. The Mayflower made numerous trips primarily to Bordeaux, France, returning to London with cargoes of French wine, Cognac, vinegar, and salt. The Mayflower could freight about 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower also made occasional voyages to other ports, including once to Malaga, Spain, and twice to Hamburg, Germany.



Upon returning from a voyage to Bordeaux, France, in May 1620, the Mayflower and master Christopher Jones were hired to take the Pilgrims to Northern Virginia. This was the first recorded trans-Atlantic voyage for both ship and master, though Christopher Jones had several crewmembers, including pilot and master's mates John Clarke and Robert Coppin, who had been to the New World before.



The Mayflower was supposed to accompany another ship, the Speedwell, to America, but the Speedwell proved too leaky for the voyage so the Mayflower proceeded alone. Departing on 6 September 1620, the ship was at sea for 66 days, arriving November 9. The ship and crew overwintered with the Pilgrims and departed back for England on 5 April 1621, arriving back to England on May 6.



Christopher Jones took the ship out for a few more trading runs, but he died a couple of years later in March 1621/2. The ship was appraised for probate purposes in May 1624, and was referred to as being "in ruins." It was only valued at 128 pounds sterling, and was almost certainly broken up and sold off as scrap.



The Mayflower was hired in London, and sailed from London to Southampton in July 1620 to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage--much of which was purchased at Southampton. The Pilgrims were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. They hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven, the Netherlands, to Southampton, England, to meet up with the Mayflower. The two ships planned to sail together to Northern Virginia. The Speedwell departed Delfthaven on July 22, and arrived at Southampton, where they found the Mayflower waiting for them. The Speedwell had been leaking on her voyage from the Netherlands to England, though, so they spent the next week patching her up.



On August 5, the two ships finally set sail for America. But the Speedwell began leaking again, so they pulled into the town of Dartmouth for repairs, arriving there about August 12. The Speedwell was patched up again, and the two ships again set sail for America about August 21. After the two ships had sailed about 300 miles out to sea, the Speedwell again began to leak. Frustrated with the enormous amount of time lost, and their inability to fix the Speedwell so that it could be sea-worthy, they returned to Plymouth, England, and made the decision to leave the Speedwell behind. The Mayflower would go to America alone. The cargo on the Speedwell was transferred over to the Mayflower; some of the passengers were so tired and disappointed with all the problems that they quit and went home. Others crammed themselves onto the already very crowded Mayflower.



Finally, on September 6, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England, and headed for America. By the time the Pilgrims had left England, they had already been living onboard the ships for nearly a month and a half. The voyage itself across the Atlantic Ocean took 66 days, from their departure on September 6, until Cape Cod was sighted on 9 November 1620. The first half of the voyage went fairly smoothly, the only major problem was sea-sickness. But by October, they began encountering a number of Atlantic storms that made the voyage treacherous. Several times, the wind was so strong they had to just drift where the weather took them; it was not safe to use the ship's sails. The Pilgrims intended to land in Northern Virginia, which at the time included the region as far north as the Hudson River in the modern State of New York. The Hudson River, in fact, was their originally intended destination. They had received good reports on this region while in the Netherlands. All things considered, the Mayflower was almost right on target, missing the Hudson River by just a few degrees.



As the Mayflower approached land, the crew spotted Cape Cod just as the sun rose on November 9. The Pilgrims decided to head south, to the mouth of the Hudson River in New York, where they intended to make their plantation. However, as the Mayflower headed south, it encountered some very rough seas, and nearly shipwrecked. The Pilgrims then decided, rather than risk another attempt to go south they would just stay and explore Cape Cod. They turned back north, rounded the tip, and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor. The Pilgrims would spend the next month and a half exploring Cape Cod, trying to decide where they would build their plantation. On December 25, 1620, they had finally decided upon Plymouth, and began construction of their first buildings.



Uintah, UTAH General Society of Mayflower Descendant, Adam Paul Green (Ancestor Stephen Hopkins / Gen.No. 86,723) Reveals New Geneology Asset Website for Local Enthusiasts http://www.xocohealth.goodchocolateblog.com/



Adam Paul Green was born to a multi-talented beauty queen Mother and a Father who, in addition to being a US Army Spy and a Counter-Intelligence Special Agent, was also a highly accomplished entrepreneur. Adam was taught at a young age that, in both life and business, loyalty is a requirement for success. He's had the honor of working directly with his father in several of the family businesses. In fact, this is where he learned crucial entrepreneurial skills and honed his talents with international business strategies and venture capitalism. http://www.AdamPaulGreen.com , http://www.ImAdamGreen.com



Adam earned his Bachelors of Science Degree in International Business and Marketing from the University of Utah. He was hand-picked by the President of the University's renowned School of Business to compete with dozens of other ambitious nationwide-graduates for the opportunity to secure a lucrative job within a prestigious Fortune 100 company. http://www.Twitter.com/AdamPaulGreen



Adam's hard work and creativity helped him land this job of a lifetime. He obtained incredible business experience there and spent years innovating, improving processes and setting sales records. Although this dream job in Traditional Corporate America was a fun challenge for him, and something he truly enjoyed mastering, Adam's natural entrepreneurial spirit kept nudging him to do something more significant with his time and talents. http://www.MyChocolatePod.com , http://www.Facebook.com/AdamPaulGreen



Since 2001, Adam has been involved in the Health and Wellness Industry as a successful Entrepreneur, Broker, Product Developer and Manufacturer of Cosmeceutical products. During his career, he has worked with some of the most recognizable Fortune 500 businesses along with many top international Network Marketing companies. Adam has consistently proven his unique ability to help his clients achieve their goals through creative Distribution-Channel Placement, innovative Product Development and custom Manufacturing. Adam currently owns three profitable businesses.



Admittedly, Adam was not initially a fan of Network Marketing. He did not understand the business model because it was new to him. However, once he learned that the REAL focus of Direct Sales is to help average people get a taste of entrepreneurialism --- with minimal risk and at a low cost --- Adam was absolutely convinced of the potential with Multi-Level Marketing.



http://www.ImAdamGreen.com



About MayflowerHistory.com

MayflowerHistory.com, the Internet's most complete and accurate website dealing with the Mayflower passengers and the history of the Pilgrims and early Plymouth Colony. The website was first created back in 1994 (when the web was still mostly text!) as a simple, but complete, passenger list of the Mayflower. It has grown over the past twenty years as the author, historian Caleb Johnson, has researched and compiled material.



http://mayflowerhistory.com
NASAs Juno mission is rewriting what planetary researchers thought they knew about Jupiter, the largest and most massive planet in our Solar System: the latest science results from the mission portray the gas giant as a complex, turbulent world, with massive polar cyclones, plunging storm systems, and an extremely strong magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planets surface than previously thought.

Juno made its first scientific close-up, known as a perijove, on August 27, 2016.

Lasting a few hours, the solar-powered spacecraft flies from the north pole to the south pole, dipping within 2,600 miles (4,200 km) of the equatorial clouds and beneath Jupiters most intense and damaging radiation belts.

The findings from the first data-collection pass are being published this week in two papers in the journal Science, as well as 44 papers in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves, said Juno principal investigator Dr. Scott Bolton, from the Southwest Research Institute.

But now that we are here we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckleballs and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didnt expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.

What weve learned so far is earth-shattering. Or should I say, Jupiter-shattering, he added.

Among the findings that challenge assumptions are those provided by Junos imager, JunoCam.

The images show both of Jupiters poles are covered in Earth-sized swirling storms that are densely clustered and rubbing together.

Were puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiters north pole doesnt look like the south pole, Dr. Bolton said.

Were questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage, and over the next year, were going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?

Also surprising, Jupiters signature bands disappear near its poles.

Since the first observations of these belts and zones many years ago, astronomers have wondered how far beneath the gas giants swirling facade these features persist.

Junos Microwave Radiometer (MWR) reveals that topical weather phenomena extend deep below the cloudtops, to pressures of 100 bars, 100 times Earths air pressure at sea level.

However, theres a north-south asymmetry. The depths of the bands are distributed unequally, Dr. Bolton said.

Weve observed a narrow ammonia-rich plume at the equator. It resembles a deeper, wider version of the air currents that rise from Earths equator and generate the trade winds.

Prior to the Juno mission, it was known that Jupiter had the most intense magnetic field in the Solar System.

Measurements of the gas giants magnetosphere, from Junos magnetometer investigation (MAG), indicate that Jupiters magnetic field is even stronger than models expected, and more irregular in shape.

Junos gravity field measurements differ significantly from what we expected, which has implications for the distribution of heavy elements in the interior, including the existence and mass of Jupiters core, Dr. Bolton noted.

The magnitude of the observed magnetic field was 7.766 Gauss, about 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field found on Earth, significantly stronger than expected.

But the real surprise was the dramatic spatial variation in the field, which was significantly higher than expected in some locations, and markedly lower in others.

Planetary researchers think a dynamo  a rotating, convecting, electrically conducting fluid in a planets outer core  is the mechanism for generating the planetary magnetic fields.

We characterized the field to estimate the depth of the dynamo region, suggesting that it may occur in a molecular hydrogen layer above the pressure-induced transition to the metallic state, Dr. Bolton said.

Juno is giving us a view of the magnetic field close to Jupiter that weve never had before, said Juno deputy principal investigator Dr. Jack Connerney, of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

Juno also is designed to study the polar magnetosphere and the origin of Jupiters powerful auroras.

These auroral emissions are caused by particles that pick up energy, slamming into atmospheric molecules.

Junos initial observations indicate that the process seems to work differently at Jupiter than at Earth.

Although many of the observations have terrestrial analogs, it appears that different processes are at work creating the auroras, said Junos JADE (Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment) instrument lead Dr. Phil Valek, from the Southwest Research Institute.

With JADE weve observed plasmas upwelling from the upper atmosphere to help populate Jupiters magnetosphere.

However, the energetic particles associated with Jovian auroras are very different from those that power the most intense auroral emissions at Earth.

Jupiter threw an auroral firework party to celebrate Junos arrival, said Dr. Jonathan Nichols, reader in planetary auroras at the University of Leicester.

We have been able to show that intense pulses of aurora were triggered during intervals when the solar wind was buffeting the giant magnetosphere. This tells us that even Jupiters mighty magnetosphere is, like those of Earth and Saturn, not immune to the vagaries of the Sun and the solar wind.

The Jovian system is known to contain several icy moons, namely Europa and Ganymede, which may potentially have extraterrestrial life in their underground oceans of liquid water, and the energy driven from the far area toward Jupiter could provide support for chemical processes on the icy surface of the moons, said Dr. Tomoki Kimura, a special postdoctoral researcher at RIKEN, Japan.

In the past we did not know how the energy was accelerated to such tremendous velocities, but now, thanks to the new findings, we have a better idea. Now that Juno is in orbit around Jupiter, we will continue to receive new observational data that will help us pin down how the energy is transferred, again allowing us to gain insights in our search for life in those icy worlds.

We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating, said Dr. Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

It was a long trip to get to Jupiter, but these first results already demonstrate it was well worth the journey.

_____

S.J. Bolton et al. 2017. Jupiters interior and deep atmosphere: The initial pole-to-pole passes with the Juno spacecraft. Science 356 (6340): 821-825; doi: 10.1126/science.aal2108

J.E.P. Connerney et al. 2017. Jupiters magnetosphere and aurorae observed by the Juno spacecraft during its first polar orbits. Science 356 (6340): 826-832; doi: 10.1126/science.aam5928

J.D. Nichols et al. Response of Jupiters auroras to conditions in the interplanetary medium as measured by the Hubble Space Telescope and Juno. Geophys. Res. Lett, published online May 25, 2017; doi: 10.1002/2017GL073029

T. Kimura et al. Transient brightening of Jupiters aurora observed by the Hisaki satellite and Hubble Space Telescope during approach phase of the Juno spacecraft. Geophys. Res. Lett, published online May 25, 2017; doi: 10.1002/2017GL072912

S.W.H. Cowley et al. Magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at Jupiter: Expectations for Juno Perijove 1 from a steady state axisymmetric physical model. Geophys. Res. Lett, published online May 25, 2017; doi: 10.1002/2017GL073129
A mobile mapping app that draws on crowdsourced data to help humanitarian responders find people in remote areas is being rolled out by the medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF  Medecins Sans Frontieres).



MSF personnel told the MSFs Scientific Days meeting last week in London, UK, that the app has helped them locate people even during urgent missions  but needs work to be more reliable.



Finding people fast in an emergency, whether an earthquake or disease outbreak, can make the difference between life and death. Better knowledge of West Africa could have helped tackle the 2014 Ebola epidemic faster, MSF has said.



Launched last year, MapSwipe gets citizens to put together detailed maps of areas where existing geographical information is basic. It draws on the open-source platform OpenStreetMap, and is part of the Missing Maps project designed by MSF and partners to put vulnerable people on the map.

When MSF staff went to the field, the map was there. Benjamin Herfort, Heidelberg University

The app works by supplying satellite imagery to volunteers who signal, through their phones, whether they recognise features, such as buildings, which are proxies for population. The app team aggregates this input to produce maps that reflect features on the ground more accurately.



Results from South Sudan and Madagascar show that about 90 per cent of the crowdsourced data agree with each other  an indication that citizen feedback is reliable, Benjamin Herfort, from Heidelberg University in Germany and member of the team, tells SciDev.Net.



But in some cases users disagree with each other, which is limiting the apps ability to guide field staff.



We will address this by giving better instructions and providing more image-based examples, says Herfort.

Reliability is always a challenge and needs good tutorials, according to Patrick Meier, international consultant on humanitarian technologies. Meier has developed a similar tool, MicroMappers.



What we did with MicroMappers is that any disagreements would be flagged for review, Meier explains. One can take a statistical approach and calculate areas of highest consensus.

Herfort says MSF has already deployed MapSwipe in a few field sites, including urgent missions such as Aweil city in South Sudan. The app could effectively shrink the area that needed detailed mapping from the initial site of 5800 sq km to the 690 sq km that proved to be inhabited.Scoping the site was done even before responders reached the ground, Herfort says. When MSF staff went to the field, the map was there.The initiative is valuable and should be supported according to Liz Hughes, chief executive of MapAction, a charity that provides mapping services in emergencies and publishes a field guide to humanitarian mapping
[NAIROBI] A new report has called for an accelerated action to tackle issues that affect adolescents, especially in regions of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa with high number of adolescent deaths.

According to the report released last week (16 May) by the World Health Organization (WHO), lower respiratory infections, suicide and road traffic injuries are the leading causes of death among adolescents worldwide, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report adds that more than 3,000 adolescents worldwide die unnecessarily every day from preventable causes. In 2015, nearly two-thirds of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, with 45 per cent and 26 per cent of the deaths occurring in Africa and South-East Asia respectively.

Sub-Saharan Africa should intensify their efforts to better address issues that affect the health of adolescents. Simplice Mbola Mbassi, WHOs Regional Office for Africa

The report, which includes more than 50 case studies highlighting actions being implemented in countries such as Burkina Faso, Brazil, Chad, Cote dIvoire, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Rwanda and South Africa, was coordinated by the WHO in collaboration with adolescents and several experts in many institutions including academic institutions, UN agencies, ministries of health and non-governmental organisations.

Simplice Mbola Mbassi, a member of the WHO working group that helped create the report, tells SciDev.Net: Sub-Saharan Africa should intensify their efforts to better address issues that affect the health of adolescents and youth as well as their development.

Mbassi, who is a technical officer in charge of adolescent health at the WHOs Regional Office for Africa, explains that to realise the UNs Agenda 2030 on sustainable development, adolescents need to be put at the centre of countries agenda in order to promote healthy behaviours and foster their access to education, employment and health services.

All actions need to be taken under the leadership of the health sector in order to reach adolescents in or outside schools with comprehensive health services, says Mbassi. It is urgent to invest more in adolescents health because this will bring a triple dividend of health benefits for young people.

He notes that it is imperative for countries in Sub-Sahara Africa to review or develop policies and strategies in order to align them with the global strategy for addressing the health of women, children and adolescents.

Among the actions the report highlights to tackle adolescent health issues are adolescent leadership and participation in health programming, funding adolescent health priorities in national health plans, and ensuring financial risk protection of adolescents.

Sobbie Mulindi, a senior lecturer at Kenyas University of Nairobis School of Medicine, says that Sub-Saharan Africa needs to train more psychologists and family therapists to help prevent such deaths.

Mulindi, a former director of Kenyas National AIDS Control Council, tells SciDev.Net that increased capacity building in early childhood development for teachers and parents could be key in addressing adolescent health problems.

A lot of controversies surrounding implementation of policies in this area such as religious and morality concerns should be reduced to help our young people, said Mulindi, adding that adolescent sexual health should be incorporated in school curriculums across the continent to help prevent sexually-related deaths.



This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
Despite South Sudan's wildlife surviving on the current civil war, activities that are hurting their survivability such as poaching, commercial wildlife trafficking, are increasing. Environmental issues like illegal mining, timber harvesting, and charcoal production are also on the rise.

In an article published in Eureka Alert, it indicates in the first aerial assessment of South Sudan's wildlife that the impact was not harsh. The wildlife of the country, which is home to the second-largest land mammal migration, includes species with global importance like elephant, lion, giraffe, and hippopotamus.

In a report released by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), they have conducted an aerial survey in 2015 to 2016 as a project powered by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and part of the Great Elephant Census, which is funded by Microsoft founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen.

The aerial survey covered the South Sudan areas of Boma, Badingilo, Nimule, Southern, Shambe National Parks, and the proposed protected area of Loelle. The combination of aerial survey methods was employed with a total of 17,934 km flown or 98 hours of flight time and an estimated 20,845 square km surveyed systematically.

The survey also confirmed at least 730 elephants in the surveyed zone. However, an estimated 50 percent of previously documented important wildlife areas like the northern part of South Sudan's vast wetland were inaccessible due to a conflict which prevents them from having a comprehensive assessment.

In the earlier surveys and applied research conducted by the WCS and the South Sudan Wildlife Service have estimated that an elephant population of about 2,300 in the country prior to the civil war went down from an estimated 79,000 in the 70's. Also, elephants continue to face expanded threats.

It was also observed that giraffes in South Sudan had a very low numbers. They are down from about 13,000 in the early 80's to just hundreds remaining as they are in the risk of local extinction. Migratory tiang and other forms of antelopes are also vulnerable because of the annual migration between Badingilo National Park and the Sudd.

"Some of these species have become endangered asI want to appeal to the people of South Sudan to take special care in protecting these endangered animals so that the next generation will continue to benefit from their presence," Jemma Nunu Kumba, Minister, Ministry of Wildlife Conservation and Tourism, has said. She also said that this wildlife would serve as an ecotourism for the country.
15,000-year-old artifacts were reported to be discovered in Northern Peru. The discovery on site was mentioned to be the sites second as the first excavation was conducted by late archeologist Junius B. Bird back in the late 1940s.

According to Peru This Week, team of scientists from Florida Atlantic Universitys Harbor Branch discovered 15,000-year-old artifacts in the ancient temple of Huaca Prieta. Huaca Prieta was then identified to have existed since 3500 and 1800 B.C.

With that said, the discovered artifacts were said to uncover that society was much more complex and complicated than people believe it to be. Early human lives were also believed to be more advanced contrary to the peoples belief nowadays. The discovery was also mentioned to successfully prove that development at the Pacific coast booms faster compared in the high mountains of Peru.

Phys Org then reported that some of the artifacts discovered in the temple were food remains, stone tools, ornate baskets, and textiles. James M. Adocisio, Ph.D. then stated that what they had found out indeed makes them scratch their head as they think about how high the levels of human knowledge were back then.

"Like so many of the materials that were excavated, even the baskets reflect a level of complexity that signals a more sophisticated society as well as the desire for and a means for showing social stature. All of these things together tell us that these early humans were engaged in very complicated social relationships with each other and that these fancy objects all bespeak that kind of social messaging," Adocisio explained.

Adovasio also noted that aside from the aforementioned revealed artifacts, tools for deep-sea fish like herrings were discovered as well. The aquatic tools for fishing then made archeologists assess the diversity of fishing back in the times. Another discovery that triggered their curiosity were the extensive collection of basket remnants made from diverse materials.

Rest assured, the whole discovery of the 15,000-year-old remnants would be published in a book by the University of Texas Pres later this summer. Lead researcher Tom D. Dillehay, Ph.D., principal investigator and an anthropologist from Vanderbilt University along with Adovasio was said to go back to Peru to delve into the mysteries of the artifacts further.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently announced its trip date for an asteroid that could cost "quadrillions" of dollars in the future. The asteroid is called 16 Psyche. It is a massive chunk of precious metals that include platinum, gold as well as iron and nickel, which is why it would be very expensive.

According to Science Alert, the 16 Psyche asteroid contains $10,000 quadrillion of iron alone. If NASA could find a way to mine the minerals of the asteroid and bring these back to Earth, it would collapse the global economy of $78 trillion times over. But for the sake of the economic stability of the world, NASA only plans on looking and not extracting.

The 16 Psyche asteroid orbits the Sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter. NASA holds great scientific interest in it because it also holds clues to one of the earliest eras in the history of the solar system. With the agency's mission, NASA might discover something about 10 million years after the birth of the Sun.

According to Phys.org, NASA is planning to launch the discovery mission in the year 2021 or 2023. The Lucy mission is selected for the first launch opportunity in 2021 and Psyche mission is to follow in 2023. NASA is expecting the arrival at the main asteroid belt where the space rock is located in 2026.

The asteroid 16 Psyche measures 240 km (149 miles) in diameter. It is nowhere near as large as some other known asteroids in the asteroid belt. The largest asteroid in the belt is Ceres and it has 945 km (587 miles). But Psyche is by far the largest exposed iron metal body in the asteroid belt.

The lead scientist on the NASA mission, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, claimed that Psyche is definitely worth more than its weight in gold. If NASA would succeed in its mission, the asteroid will give humans their first ever chance of exploring a world made of iron.
A lot of people are impressed with new Samsung devices because of its top-of-the-line specs and its grand technology. Samsung devices always show a glimpse of the future.

Samsung Display recently unveiled its new stretchable screen at the Display Week conference. The event was all about display technology and it was hosted by the Society for Information Display.

According to Mashable, the South Korean tech giant unveiled its new 9.1-inch screen with dynamic stretchable AMOLED display at the Display Week conference. The new Samsung screen technology lets the display maintain its original image quality while increasing the screen depth for up to 12 mm when the display is pressed. The device is unlike any other flexible screens that are out in the market.

Some flexible screens can only be in one direction, while the new Samsung screen can flex in concave and convex positions. Samsung unveiled a prototype and it is still uncertain when the company will officially release it in the market. The technology used for the screen is a Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon display. This feature helps on deforming the necessary pixels for stretching

As per CNET, Samsung predicts that the stretchable screen technology might be used for wearable devices someday. If the company can perfect the technology, it can be used in several things like information screen tag in a hospital patient's garment to instantly give updates on the patient's medical status. If the texture of the device could be made similar to fabric, it would be comfortable to wear.

Samsung also unveiled its 1.96-inch LCD with a 3,840 x 2,160 4K resolution, which could one day show up in a VR or AR headset. If ever the stretchable prototype involves a design that can be mass-produced, fans expect similar marketing-related delays before it finally ends up in the hands of consumers.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has released the results of its inquiry into the Schiaparelli lander crash after investigating the matter for seven months. The EDM lander of the ExoMars program had failed to land successfully on the Red Planet last October.

The investigation done with the help of orbital images and telemetry data has confirmed that the mishap occurred due to a sudden and violent rotation of the module, according to a Phys.org report. This movement made the onboard computer assess that the spacecraft had already landed. Subsequently, it shut down Schiaparellis landing thrusters while still far above the Martian surface.

The computers telemetry analysis showed that it had mistakenly believed that the lander was on the ground when it was actually thousands of feet in the air. Moreover, the computer had even started its ground program and relaying housekeeping data.

Incidentally, the spacecrafts crash was actually confirmed with the help of images taken by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It was also established that Schiaparellis crash had led to an explosion of its fuel tank, and consequently, the lander was destroyed.

An independent external inquiry headed by ESAs Inspector General was set up by the space agency to look into the matter, determine the cause of the mishap, and also suggested recommendations to avoid such a scenario again in the future. Incidentally, according to ESA, the landing was successful -- barring the crash, explosion and total loss of the lander.

"Interestingly, had the saturation not occurred and the final stages of landing had been successful, we probably would not have identified the other weak spots that contributed to the mishap," ESA's Director General Jan Woerner had said, as The Guardian reported. "As a direct result of this inquiry we have discovered the areas that require particular attention that will benefit the 2020 mission."
A bag of lunar dust is reportedly going to be auctioned and is expected to fetch millions. Interestingly, it is the same bag that the first person to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, had used to collect the very first lunar sample in 1969.

The bag containing the lunar dust has quite some story associated with it, having been on a wild ride for the past nearly 50 years. The Moon bag was mistakenly put up for public auction online and was bought by a Chicago lawyer for a paltry sum of $995 in 2015. The U.S. space agency realized its mistake after the woman had already bought the Moon bag and refused to give it to her. She then sued NASA and was awarded the ownership of the extraterrestrial artifact by a federal judge.

Since returning to Earth, the moon bags erstwhile custodians have included a museum president who was convicted of theft; a woman in Illinois who had the good fortune to stumble upon the bag, mislabeled, at an online auction; and the NASA space center in Texas, The New York Times reported. The American space agency held the artifact under lock and key as the United States attorneys office fought a yearlong legal battle to transfer the bag into government custody.

The majority of the bag's content was removed by NASA for testing. However, the Moon bag still contains traces of lunar dust. Now, the immensely rare artifact will be put up for an auction by Sothebys, where it is expected to fetch anywhere between $2 million and $4 million, according to Chicago Tribune.

The curators at Sothebys auction house believe that the artifact will be the only privately held object of its kind in the world because lunar objects obtained by NASA are generally prohibited from being privately owned. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," a vice president at Sotheby's in New York, Cassandra Hatton, said. "This transcends space exploration. It's a relic of one of the most historic achievements of humanity." The auction will take place on July 20 to coincide with the 48th anniversary of Apollo 11s landing on the Moon. The bids for the auction will be taken in-person as well as online and by phone.
All over the world, people are dying from common diseases with well-known treatments.

The newly created Healthcare Access and Quality Index shows how well countries use their healthcare systems to stop preventable deaths. The inaugural version of the index finds huge disparities both between countries, and within them. Access to quality healthcare, the study shows definitively, is often the difference between life or death. For Americans, the results aren't heartening.

"What we have found about health care access and quality is disturbing," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and senior author of the study, published in The Lancet. "Having a strong economy does not guarantee good healthcare."

At the top of the list for countries with high socio-demographic indicators, Andorra-that tiny little principality wedged between France and Spain-scored a 95 out of 100. Nordic countries-Iceland (94), Sweden (90), and Norway (90)-also scored high on the list. Australia, a country with publicly funded and universal healthcare recently praised by U.S. President Donald Trump, also scored a 90. America, meanwhile, scored only 81, putting it behind countries such as France, Canada, and the U.K., but ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

"America's ranking is an embarrassment, especially considering the U.S. spends more than $9,000 per person on health care annually, more than any other country," Murray said. "Anyone with a stake in the current health care debate, including elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels, should take a look at where the U.S. is falling short."

Not all diseases kill Americans with equal power, however. Despite recent skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines, diseases that they prevent-like tetanus and measles-kill significantly fewer Americans than those that require ongoing prevention and care, like hypertension and diabetes (both of which kill far fewer people in Andorra). Meanwhile, maternal and neonatal disorders are also much more likely to kill Americans than people elsewhere.

Scores were assessed on a scale of 1-100. Researchers chose 32 causes of death preventable through access to high-quality healthcare listed by co-authors Professor Martin McKee and Dr. Ellen Nolte, and then mapped those against data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study. The GBD, as it's called, is a widely cited, worldwide observational epidemiological study that's been examining mortality trends from 1990 to the present.

The researchers then adjusted their analysis to account for variations in death rates not easily attributable to lack of personal healthcare, and measures of personal healthcare access and quality. The rankings were separated to draw comparisons between countries of similar socio-demographic make-ups.The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, lists a number of limitations, including any that are applicable to the larger GBD study, and that not all countries have reliable statistics. They note that "achieving 100 does not mean that additional improvement is not possible."
Trusting Saudi Arabia to combat terrorists and extremists and "drive them out," as President Trump called on the kingdom and other Arab and Muslim nations to do in his Riyadh speech, is akin to forging an alliance with the Ku Klux Klan to combat racism and anti-Semitism.

Saudi Arabia has for years promoted the very evil it now "commits" to fighting through a newly established Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. Never forget that 15 of the 9-11 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

President Trump's speech was written by Westerners, delivered by a Westerner and based on a faulty Western premise, namely, that radical Muslims can be persuaded to abandon their goal of establishing a worldwide caliphate. It is a central theological principle of Wahhabism, an austere form of Islam based on a literal interpretation of the Koran, which Saudi Arabia has for years promoted in children's textbooks, in mosques and through its media.

No reporter asked the central question that should have been put to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir during his press availability with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: Since Saudi Arabia's domestic and foreign policy is based on a theological worldview, have those views changed and if so, how did that "revelation" come to you?

One indication the Saudis might be engaging in duplicity that is common practice throughout the Middle East comes in a Washington Post story. The Saudis, the newspaper says, helped block a Trump administration proposal to impose sanctions against a Saudi branch of ISIS: "The plan to add the Islamic State's Saudi affiliate to a U.N. list of terrorist groups was quietly killed two weeks ago in a bureaucratic maneuver at the U.N. Security Council, records show. U.S. officials familiar with the move said the Saudis objected to the public acknowledgement of the existence of a separate Saudi offshoot of the terrorist group inside the kingdom."

Here, a definition of duplicity might be helpful: "Deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter." Arab and Muslim leaders have long said one thing to the West and the opposite to their own people.

This is not "breaking news." The surprise is that Westerners continue to fall for it.

President Trump's speech was well delivered, and he got some economic benefits from Saudi Arabia by signing a nearly $110 billion arms deal, effective immediately, plus another $350 billion over the next 10 years, which the president said would create thousands of new American jobs. All of that is good, but Saudi Arabia will stop promoting an ideology that encourages terrorism only if its god cancels the order for establishing a worldwide caliphate, the elimination of Israel and the vilification of Jews. This is what the secular West under several administrations has failed to grasp.

A policy forged in theology is not about to be changed by the urging of "infidels."

Saudi Foreign Minister Jubeir also said, "If we can change the conversation in the Islamic world from enmity towards the U.S. to partnership with the U.S., and if we can change the conversation in the U.S. and in the West from enmity towards the Islamic world to one of partnership, we will have changed our world, and we will have truly drowned the voices of extremism, and we will have drained the swamps ... from which extremism and terrorism emanates."

It is an interesting metaphor in a desert land.

Speaking of Iran and its recent election, Jubeir said, "From our perspective, we judge Iran by its actions, not by its words."

That's a suitable standard by which to judge the words of Saudi leaders. Without a change in their theological worldview, however, I'm not buying it.
PALM BEACH, Fla.

By now you're exhausted by all of the head-swiveling news: the terrorist slaughter in Manchester; the president's trip to Everywhere; and investigation upon investigation of the possible collusion with Russia, obstruction of justice and liars by the dozen.

Which is why I'm sitting in Palm Beach practicing Lilly Pulitzer's dictum: "Being happy never goes out of style."

Also, President Trump is not here, which seems to please everyone, since his frequent forays to his "southern White House" have meant nothing but roadblocks, impenetrable traffic and lousy retail sales.

The otherworldliness of the nation's most glamorous beach town makes current events seem at times remote. This sense was magnified recently by visions of Trump's sword-dancing, orb-fondling and demonstration of ugly Americanism in its latest iteration of massive wealth, arms deals and blind-eye talking  the president's uncanny ability to see only what he chooses and to speak in terms compatible with that vision. Witness: His condemnation of Iran, which recently re-elected a moderate president, while schmoozing in autocratic Saudi Arabia, whence came 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 terrorists.

Other-awareness has never been Trump's strong suit, especially as concerns his wife, Melania, who forever-famously appeared to flick away the president's hand when he reached toward her, seemingly trying to mimic Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was holding his own wife's hand.

Captured on film, it was the flick (or slap?) seen 'round the world  and in many cases, cheered. In that instant, the first lady became every American woman who donned a pink-kitten hat to protest the then-new president  and cemented her status as star of the show: "Melania of Arabia, High Priestess of the Testosterone-Intoxicated, Tiny-Hands Revue." Or something like that.

All politics aside  Melania and Ivanka Trump stood as beacons of light in a part of the world that remains cloaked in the darkness of religious fundamentalism and oppression. Preternaturally beautiful, they seemed to glide as apparitions above the sea of dark suits and white robes and must have struck fear in the hearts of men whose culture demands that women be publicly invisible.

Yes, they were relegated to traditional role-playing in Saudi Arabia. Some might have wished they'd had more significant roles, though surely Melania and Ivanka were grateful to be excluded from the all-guy Toby Keith concert. Otherwise, the importance of adhering to protocol can't be exaggerated in diplomatic relations.

Many people also noted that Melania declined to cover her head, which isn't required of visiting dignitaries. Nor is going bare-headed considered insulting despite citizen Trump's tweet criticizing Michelle Obama when she chose to leave her head uncovered. For the record, Laura Bush didn't cover her head either while in Saudi Arabia 10 years ago, despite breathless headlines to the contrary. Both Greta Van Susteren and I were present and can attest that Bush only briefly donned a black scarf festooned with pink ribbons as a gesture of gratitude for the gift. It came from Saudi women showing their appreciation for the first lady's efforts to raise awareness for breast cancer prevention and treatment in the Middle East, where, at the time, 80 percent of women with breast cancer died of the disease.

It is true that Western women are encouraged to dress modestly, as Melania and Ivanka did. It helps that both are beautiful and have fathomless wardrobe budgets. Despite their apparent ornamentalism, there's little doubt both women made a lasting impression on Saudi women, who would have recognized and identified with their feminine power. Wordlessly, they projected strength, intelligence, grace  and a timeless wisdom that all women share.

This was also the impression of a Palm Beach image consultant I interviewed here, Susan Bigsby, who for 30 years has dressed an elite, diverse clientele  from a transgender executive to first ladies to a Syrian Muslim seeking to Westernize her wardrobe with attention to her cultural modesty. Following the petite Bigsby up and down Worth Avenue as she shopped for a client was like tracking a hummingbird on a sugar spree.

"Perfect and stunning," she said of Ivanka and Melania. "Muslim women, while respecting their religion, also love glamour. You can be sure they were studying  and appreciating  Melania and Ivanka. ... They represented the American woman with appropriateness, elegance and style."

Thus, as your long-suffering Palm Beach correspondent, I propose a toast to America's first ladies for showing the world that despite our coarse, ham-fisted president, we have not completely forsaken class.
WILMINGTON, Del., May 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andrews & Springer LLC, a boutique securities class action law firm focused on representing shareholders nationwide, announces that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed by another law firm on behalf of shareholders of AdvancePierre Foods Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:APFH) (AdvancePierre or the Company) for possible corporate misconduct and violations of securities laws.



A copy of the complaint is available from the Court or from Andrews & Springer LLC. If you currently own shares of AdvancePierre and want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit us at http://www.andrewsspringer.com/cases-investigations/advancepierre-foods-class-action-investigation/ or contact Craig J. Springer, Esq. at cspringer@andrewsspringer.com, or call toll free at 1-800-423-6013. You may also follow us on LinkedIn  www.linkedin.com/company/andrews-&-springer-llc, Twitter  www.twitter.com/AndrewsSpringer or Facebook - www.facebook.com/AndrewsSpringer for future updates.

NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. YOU MAY RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE.

On April 25, 2017, Tyson Foods, Inc. (Tyson Foods) and AdvancePierre announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Tyson Foods will acquire AdvancePierre Foods in a merger, via a tender offer worth $4.2 billion. As a result of the merger, AdvancePierre Foods shareholders are only anticipated to receive $40.25 per share in cash in exchange for each share of AdvancePierre Foods.

An AdvancePierre shareholder represented by another law firm has filed a class action complaint against AdvancePierre for federal securities violations. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Case No. 1:17-cv-00333-TSB.

According to the lawsuit, on May 9 2017, defendants filed a Solicitation / Recommendation Statement (the Solicitation Statement) with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with the merger.

The Solicitation Statement omits material information with respect to the Proposed Transaction, which renders the Solicitation Statement false and misleading. Accordingly, plaintiff alleges herein that defendants violated Sections 14(e), 14(d), and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 1934 Act) in connection with the Solicitation Statement, and that the close of the tender offer should be enjoined until defendants disclose the material information.

If you currently own shares of AdvancePierre and want to receive additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit us at http://www.andrewsspringer.com/cases-investigations/advancepierre-foods-class-action-investigation/ or contact Craig J. Springer, Esq. at cspringer@andrewsspringer.com, or call toll free at 1-800-423-6013. You may also follow us on LinkedIn  www.linkedin.com/company/andrews-&-springer-llc, Twitter  www.twitter.com/AndrewsSpringer or Facebook - www.facebook.com/AndrewsSpringer for future updates.

Andrews & Springer is a boutique securities class action law firm representing shareholders nationwide who are victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty or corporate misconduct. Having formerly defended some of the largest financial institutions in the world, our founding members use their valuable knowledge, experience, and superior skill for the sole purpose of achieving positive results for investors. These traits are the hallmarks of our innovative approach to each case our Firm decides to prosecute. For more information please visit our website at www.andrewsspringer.com. This notice may constitute Attorney Advertising.
May 26, 2017

Notice of Q1 2017 IFRS Results

Acron (LSE: AKRN) will release its IFRS financial results for Q1 2017 on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at 11 a.m. (Moscow time).

Media contacts:

Tatiana Smirnova

Public Relations

Phone: +7 (495) 777-08-65 (ext. 5196)

Investor contacts:

Ilya Popov

Investor Relations

Phone: +7 (495) 745-77-45 (ext. 5252)

Background Information

Acron Group is a leading vertically integrated mineral fertiliser producer in Russia and globally, with chemical production facilities in Veliky Novgorod (Acron) and Smolensk (Dorogobuzh). The Group owns and operates a phosphate mine in Murmansk region (NWPC) and plans to implement a potash development project in Perm Krai (VPC). It has a wholly owned transport and logistics infrastructure and distribution networks in Russia and China.

In 2016, the Group sold 6.4 million tonnes of various products to 63 countries, with Russia, Brazil, Europe and the United States as key markets.

In 2016, the Group posted consolidated revenue under IFRS of RUB 89,359 million (USD 1,333 million) and net profit of RUB 25,525 million (USD 381 million). Acron's shares are on the Level 1 quotation list of the Moscow Exchange and its global depositary receipts are traded at the London Stock Exchange (ticker AKRN). Acron employs over 11,000 people.

For more information about Acron Group, please visit www.acron.ru/en.
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Scunthorpe's first-ever heavy metal festival is set to be held tomorrow (Saturday, May 27).

Promoter Will Nicklen is bringing the event to the Lincoln Imp pub.

Empires, from Manchester, will stop off in Scunthorpe on their UK tour to headline the six-hour show, starting at 5.30pm.

Leeds five-piece The Mechanist will be in support, along with Grimsbys Resonance and Reversing Destiny, Hulls South Cave and Scunthorpes own One Under.

Tickets at 6 are expected to sell out before the doors open at 5pm.

Meanwhile, Will is in talks to bring Hersham Boys hit-makers Sham 69 to the Lincoln Imp in November.

Formed in Horsham in 1976 and led by Jimmy Pursey, Sham 69 were co-runners with The Sex Pistols in the UK punk movement.

Their other UK top 10 hits included If The Kids Are United and Hurry Up Harry.

Metal Fest gets the festival season in North Lincolnshire off the ground.

Next up is the Barton Fake Festival at Baysgarth Park on June 24.

An expected 1,000-strong crowd will be entertained to tributes to The Stereophonics, Stone Roses and Guns n Roses.

The five local supporting bands have not yet been named.

For more information, visit here.
Quantum computing and carbon nanotubes may come across as sci-fi to most of us, but they have successfully moved out from research labs into...
Close to 4,000 free surgeries are planned during 10 months there, where Mercy Ships will also work to improve the healthcare-providing capacity of the country through training and mentoring.

According to the World Health Organization, 48% of Cameroon's population lives below the poverty line on $1.90 a day. It is a young country that has yet to establish adequate infrastructure or a healthcare system for the population.

Surgical procedures planned include correcting maxillofacial deformities, reconstructive plastic surgery, corrections to vision impairments, obstetric fistula, orthopedic surgery and dental treatments. Other work will include palliative care and training courses in surgical skills, obstetric and pediatric anesthesia, trauma care, pain management and more.

Africa Mercy's crew hopes to foster transformational development within the host nation's healthcare structure, according to Mercy Ships' Russ Holmes, director of development/corporate relations.

Currently Africa Mercy is coming to the end of its time in Cotonou, Benin, where the all-volunteer crew have provided more than 1,900 free surgeries and healthcare training courses to over 1,800 participants.

This has been Mercy Ships' fifth stop at Benin in recent years.
BEIJING, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Autohome Inc. (Autohome or the Company) (NYSE:ATHM), a leading online destination for automobile consumers in China, today announced that it has called an extraordinary general meeting (the EGM) of shareholders to be held at 10th Floor Tower B, CEC Plaza, 3 Dan Ling Street, Haidian District, Beijing, the Peoples Republic of China on June 27, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. (local time) to consider and vote on the proposal to approve, confirm and ratify the adoption of the Amended and Restated 2016 Share Incentive Plan. Holders of record of ordinary shares of the Company at the close of business on June 1, 2017 are entitled to notice of, to attend and vote at, the extraordinary general meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Holders of the Companys American depositary shares (ADSs) who wish to exercise their voting rights for the underlying ordinary shares must act through the depositary of the Companys ADS program, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas. Since the Company is a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (the Hong Kong Parent), a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Amended and Restated 2016 Share Incentive Plan is conditioned on the approval by the shareholders of the Hong Kong Parent pursuant to the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. The Hong Kong Parent will be holding its general meeting on June 16, 2017 and the Amended and Restated 2016 Share Incentive Plan will be submitted to such meeting for approval. Therefore, the EGM will not be held as scheduled on June 27, 2017 in the event that the shareholders of the Hong Kong Parent do not approve the aforementioned plan at its general meeting on June 16, 2017. The Company will announce the cancellation of the EGM and notify the shareholders in such event.



Autohome has filed its annual report on Form 20-F (the 2016 Form 20-F), including its audited financial statements, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Amended and Restated 2016 Share Incentive Plan was filed as exhibit 4.65 to the 2016 Form 20-F. The 2016 Form 20-F can be accessed on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov. Shareholders may also obtain a hard copy of the Companys annual report on Form 20-F, free of charge, by writing to Vivian Xu, Autohome Inc., 10th Floor Tower B, CEC Plaza, 3 Dan Ling Street, Haidian District, Beijing, the Peoples Republic of China, or by email to ir@autohome.com.cn. In addition, the Companys proxy materials (including the final proxy statement) will be mailed to shareholders and ADS holders.

About Autohome Inc.

Autohome Inc. (NYSE:ATHM) is the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China. Its mission is to enhance the car-buying and ownership experience for auto consumers in China. Autohome provides professionally produced and user-generated content, a comprehensive automobile library, and extensive automobile listing information to automobile consumers, covering the entire car purchase and ownership cycle. The ability to reach a large and engaged user base of automobile consumers has made Autohome a preferred platform for automakers and dealers to conduct their advertising campaigns. Further, the Companys dealer subscription and advertising services allow dealers to market their inventory and services through Autohomes platform, extending the reach of their physical showrooms to potentially millions of internet users in China and generating sales leads for them. The Company offers sales leads, data analysis, and marketing services to assist automakers and dealers with improving their efficiency and facilitating transactions. As a transaction-centric company, Autohome operates its Autohome Mall, a full-service online transaction platform, to facilitate transactions for automakers and dealers. Further, through its website and mobile applications, it also provides other value-added services, including auto financing, auto insurance, used car transactions, and aftermarket services. For further information, please visit www.autohome.com.cn.
Day one of the strike saw some 850 Bolivian trucks struck at the border unable to cross into Chile, reported Xinhua. According to the Bolivian president of exporters, Wilfredo Rojo, the strike prevented Bolivia from moving goods worth $5m a day to and from Chile.

Only special cases attended, such as those related to humanitarian support and dangerous cargo, said ANFACH.

"The Government represented by the Undersecretary of the Treasury has not known the protocols of agreement signed with ANFACH on 28 May 2015 and 23 November 2016, when presenting a counter proposal that does not take over the commitments acquired with the customs workers. Consequently, we call for an indefinite National Stop of activities from 08:00 hrs. Of Wednesday 24 May 2017 ", the union said in a statement.

The National Customs Service informed that in order to ensure operational continuity and ensure the flow of foreign trade and the circulation of vehicles and passengers, the entity implemented a contingency plan at all border control points, ports and airports.

This coordination work is implemented from Arica in the North of Chile to Punta Arenas in the South to facilitate the completion of customs formalities, giving priority to the dispatch of dangerous, perishable or emergency cargoes, as medicines, the entity said. In addition, this plan monitors in detail the status of all control points where Customs is present, in order to respond quickly to any demands for attention that may arise in the context of the contingency.

Although port workers are currently not under strike, but some shipments may be delayed due to industrial action by other public sector services.

The National Agricultural Society [SNA] warned of the negative effects of the strike by public sector workers, especially of the Agriculture and Livestock Service [SAG].
In a statement announced by Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC), the government board managing Taiwanese ports, South Koreas HMM has taken over operations at berths 76, 77 and 78 from compatriot Hanjin Shipping, which was declared bankrupt in February.

The three berths have an annual handling capacity of 640,000 teu, representing about 6% of Kaohsiungs 10.6m teu achieved in 2016.

The three berths add on to HMMs existing operations at berths 118 and 119.
Manila-headquartered ICTSI said that its Nigerian subsidiary and Lekki Port (LFTZ) Enterprise had agreed to terminate a sub-concession agreement signed in August 2012.

Under the sub-concession ICSTI was to invest $225m to build and operate a container terminal at the Port of Lekki for 21 years.

ICSTI said that the parties arrived at the agreement due to delays in execution of the Lekki Port project. The container terminal was originally scheduled to be operational in 2016.

Lekki Port (LFTZ) Enterprise, which is developing the port, is a special purpose vehicle of the Singapore-based Tolaram Group. According to Tolarams website the port is scheduled to be completed in 2019.

Philippines-based ICTSI's international ambitions have been thwarted recently with the group also pulling out of the Port of Portland last March, after a legal dispute between its US unit ICTSI Oregon and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union affected operations at its terminal there.
Saudi Arabias Rawabi, which presently owns 672m shares in Vallianz or 15.6% share capital, has agreed to undertake to subscribe for the excess rights in the proposed rights cum warrants issue for the set-off and settlement of $102.1m owing by Vallianz to Rawabi.

The completion of the proposed conversion of Rawabis advances to Vallianz could result in Rawabi becoming the single largest shareholder of Vallianz, Singapore-listed Vallianz mentioned in a statement. Currently, bankrupt Swiber is the largest shareholder of Vallianz controlling approximately 20.9% stake.

Our decision to increase our stake in Vallianz reflects our unwavering confidence in the groups business and prospects. As a strategic shareholder and partner, Rawabi is committed to working with Vallianz to sustain and grow the groups offshore marine services business over the long term, said Sheikh Abdulaziz AlTurki, group chairman of Rawabi.

Vallianz has also entered into a separate set-off and settlement agreement with Swiber to convert net payables to the latter of $36.6m into shares in Vallianzs capital.

Ling Yong Wah, ceo of Vallianz, said: The signing of the set-off and settlement agreement with Swiber represents a critical step in the restructuring efforts of the company. It provides clarity on the intention of both parties to move forward with a planned resolution on the net payables issue.

By fulfilling the groups financial obligations towards Rawabi and Swiber using equity, we will be able to conserve our cash resources for working capital and strengthen the groups equity base, Ling added.
English Latvian

1. Reports of Management Board, Supervisory Board, Audit Committee and statement of Sworn auditor, approval of Annual report for the year 2016.



1) To take notice of the Reports of Management Board, Supervisory Board, Audit Committee and statement of Sworn auditor for the year 2016 of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA.

2) To approve the Annual Report of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA for the year 2016 prepared by the Management Board of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA and revised by the Supervisory Board of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



2. Distribution of the profit for the year 2016.



1) To approve the net profit of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA for the year 2016 in the amount of 2.439.974 EUR.

2) To leave undistributed and use 2.439.974 EUR for the development of joint stock company Valmieras stikla skiedra with the aim to increase joint stock company Valmieras stikla skiedra competitiveness.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



3. Election of the auditor for the audit of Annual Report for the year 2017 and determination of the remuneration for the auditor.



1) To elect audit company Deloitte Audits Latvia SIA (commercial company license No. 43) as auditor of the Annual Report of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA for the year 2017.

2) To determine that the remuneration of the auditor for the audit of Annual report for the year 2017 shall be set according to the agreement signed between the auditor and joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA on the audit of the Annual Report 2017.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



4. Determination of the remuneration for Supervisory Board for the results of the year 2016.



1) For the results of the year 2016 of the joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA to pay additional remuneration in the amount of 1% of the net profit for the year 2016 to each member of the Supervisory Board.

2) To determine that for the duties during the year 2017, each member of the Supervisory Board of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA shall receive a remuneration in the amount of 3000,- EUR (three thousand euro) for each attended Supervisory Board meeting.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



5. Election of the Audit committee and determination of the remuneration for the Audit committee.



1) To elect for the office of the member of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA Audit Committee for the term three years, starting on 26 May 2017:

1. Aivars Losmanis;

2. Philipp Kogel;

3. Andris Oskars Brutans.



Voting results: decision is taken by dividing of votes.



2) To establish that the meetings of the Audit Committee shall be held in line with necessity of the company; however not less than 3 (three) times a year, but not more frequent than 4 (four) times a year.

3) To determine that for the duties each member of the Audit Committee of joint stock company VALMIERAS STIKLA SKIEDRA shall receive a remuneration in the amount of 1850,- EUR (one thousand eight hundred fifty euros) for each attended Audit Committee meeting.



Voting results: decision is taken with the required majority of votes.



Valmiera, May 26, 2017



Chairman of the Management Board A.H.Schwiontek

Member of the Management Board D.Senbergs




Washington, DC, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Washington, D.C. (May 17, 2017)  Madison Investments, the family owned and operated real estate development firm located in the nations capital, is pleased to announce the anticipated September 2017 opening of their newest luxury condominium, Kipling House, located at 900 11th Street, SE, 20003.

Renderings here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lpc04smjac16vc6/AABe8dugsm6l7fIbLI1hsez4a?dl=0

Conveniently located in the center of our nations capital, Kipling House offers city dwellers the first entirely new condominium built on Capitol Hill in the last 15 years. With spacious studio, one, and two bedroom homes, Kipling House offers luxury living with designer finishes and convenient amenities to complement a modern lifestyle and bring the epitome of living well in the heart of the District.

Madison Investments tapped PGN Architects and Akseizer Design Group to design its unique and well-proportioned units, which span between approximately 550 to 1350 square feet. Kipling House offers its homeowners sophisticated materials and subtle, natural palettes, which provide the perfect backdrop for each owners individual style. The spacious residences feature dynamically contrasting two-toned wood cabinetry harmonizing beautifully with stone countertops and backsplashes as well as, striking matte-black fixtures and hardware. Residents can also take advantage of upscale-shared amenities including a chic outdoor terrace, perfect for grilling and summer entertaining. The expansive rooftop deck has a capacity for 158 people with comfortable all weather furnishing affording homeowners striking views of the Washington Monument, the US Capitol building, and the Library of Congress. There is a combination of 22 underground and five surface parking spaces, as well as 26 bicycle slots.

Situated in the heart of Capitol Hill, Kipling House residents have everything they need right at their fingertips, from excellent donuts at District Donuts to the Miracle Theater, a beautifully restored historic cinema house. Right outside their door, one can take full advantage of some of the most intriguing landmarks and restaurants including the upcoming 11th Street Bridge Park, the U.S. Capitol, Marine Barracks, Library of Congress, Nationals Park, Rose's Luxury, Hank's Oyster Bar, Montmarte, Tunnicliff's Tavern, Bayou Bakery, and Peregrine Espresso.

Madison Investments' philosophy and approach to each development stems from the notion of how much can we give as opposed what can we get away with the latter of which is all too common. Every property is developed with a great deal of attention to details and exquisitely designed common areas and all of this is brought about through careful collaboration with designers and architects. With the partnership of world class businesses including PGN Architecture, McWilliams | Ballard for sales and marketing, Eagle Bank, and ADG for Interiors architecture and branding, Madison Investments was able to bring their impressive vision for Kipling House to life. For sales inquiries please visit: https://www.kiplingdc.com/inquire/.

About Madison Investments

Founded in 2006, Madison Investments is a family owned and operated real estate development firm located in the nations capital, focusing on the renovation and ground-up development of residential and mixed-use properties in the District with an emphasis on luxury design. Madison is propelled by the vision of its two founders, Sia and Barry Madani, and behind them is a versatile team that fuses expertise with diverse sectors. The firms management team has worked together in Washington D.C. and its surrounding markets in varying capacities for over 35 years. The company has performed a successful number of projects beginning with a six-unit condo conversion project in Columbia Heights called The Elysium, and currently has seven completed projects throughout the district including Elysium Fourteen, Colvin House, Trevelyan House, Hailey House, Thomason House, Lawrence House, and 1020 Monroe. For more information, please visit http://www.madisoninvestments.net/.

###

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ba1e11a3-f87d-42cf-9cba-84ea3a9e662a
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

NEW YORK - Kendall Graveman has been scratched from his scheduled Friday night start at Yankee Stadium because of shoulder soreness, The Chronicle has learned.

Sean Manaea is now listed as the teams Friday night starter and Jharel Cotton is listed as the As starter for Saturday, although Oakland has not yet announced that Cotton has been called up from Triple-A Nashville. The team would not need to make the transaction until Saturday.
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A census of people living on the street confirms what people in Oakland see every day: The homeless crisis there has gotten worse.

The biennial count of homelessness, released Thursday, turned up 25 percent more people without long-term shelter in Oakland than there were two years ago.

Many of the 2,761 homeless people live in the encampments that have sprung up over the past year, sprawling beneath Interstate 880 overpasses and along desolate stretches in West Oakland. Others are largely unseen, staying in transitional housing or shelters.

The survey was part of a county-wide effort in which 345 volunteers counted 5,629 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in all of Alameda County on the morning of Jan. 30. The number reflected a 39 percent increase from 2015, when 4,040 homeless people were counted in Alameda County.

People are living in places not meant for people to live  in cars and abandoned buildings and alleyways and parks and overpasses and camps and encampments, said Elaine de Coligny, executive director of EveryOne Home, a nonprofit that seeks to end homelessness in Alameda County and administers the survey. Weve seen this as we drive around this county. We can see this problem is growing.

Nearly 70 percent of homeless people in the county survey were considered unsheltered, sleeping in places such as vehicles or on sidewalks.

Berkeley had the second-largest homeless population in Alameda County, with 972 homeless people. Just one of the 14 cities in Alameda County, Piedmont, had no homeless individuals.

Outside the downtown Oakland Henry Robinson Multi-Service Center, a temporary shelter with job counselors and other resources, Issac Joseph, said he was squeezed out of his Oakland home by rising rents.

Joseph, who now lives in Vallejo, was at the shelter to visit friends and family.

Every single person I knew growing up in West Oakland is homeless, said Joseph, 53. I cant even stop at anyones home to say hi. If you want to have a beer with someone now, you got to go to the camps. You cant have no picnics, no barbecues anymore.

Despite all of his friends and relatives being homeless, Joseph said, nearly all of them have jobs. But their income isnt enough to afford the first and last months rent needed to sign an apartment lease, he said.

Also outside the shelter was Jackie Goodwin, 53, who said she wasnt surprised by the survey results.

Its getting bad, Goodwin said. You cant live in Oakland cause the rents too high. These people dont have nowhere to stay.

Friday will be her orientation day to become a security guard  her first job in years, which a counselor at the Henry Robinson center helped her get, she said. Goodwin, her hands sticky from squeezing the air out of hundreds of soda cans to be exchanged for cash, said she was looking forward to the work.

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.

Eighty-two percent of the homeless people counted told volunteers that they lived in the county before becoming homeless. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf called them our former neighbors.

Its painful to see so many unsheltered residents living on our streets in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, Schaaf said at a news conference outside the county administration building on Oak Street in Oakland. They are victims of not only our cost-of-living crisis, but they also suffer from disabilities, mental health and chemical dependencies.

The City Council is expected to set aside about $10 million in its coming budget for direct services for the homeless. The budget also sets aside funding to bring sanitation and trash services to encampments and to create a second transitional housing center like that of Henry Robinson on 16th Street.

Some of the increase in the numbers of homeless between 2015 and 2017 could be attributable to a change in survey methodology, de Coligny said. This year, volunteers were accompanied by 99 homeless guides who showed them where their peers congregate  including some out-of-sight places that may not have been captured by previous measurements.

Yet, there are also reasons to believe this years count could have missed many homeless people. The day of the count was cold and followed several rainstorms, de Coligny said. Its possible some homeless people had sought temporary shelter from the bad weather with friends and relatives.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov
St Lowitsch / Getty Images

An inmate firefighter died in Humboldt County after a 120-foot tree fell on him as he was clearing brush to help contain a fire, officials said Thursday.

Matthew Beck, 26, was leading a crew working to contain a fire in a remote area near Hoopa on Wednesday when the tree uprooted and fell on him, killing him before life-flight crews could reach him, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The suicide bombing that killed nearly two dozen people at an Ariana Grande concert in England this week weighed heavily on the minds of students at Sequoia High School in Redwood City on Thursday as they were taught how to save lives if ever caught in a similar mass-casualty scenario.

For two hours, the students learned the lessons of tying tourniquets and applying pressure to stop the bleeding of a gushing wound  emergency techniques made all the more relevant by the slaughter at the Manchester Arena more than 5,000 miles away.

The same thing keeps happening over and over again, said Roger Soriano, a 17-year-old junior at the school. Not only teenagers, but also adults, they should have an idea of what some of the things are they can do to alleviate some of the stress in a catastrophic event.

Though the classroom emergency drill was planned long in advance, this weeks deadly bombing upped the gravity of the curriculum.

As tables in the classroom were lined with artificial limbs that had lacerations and puncture and gunshot wounds, teacher Greg Schmid began the medical-clinic class by asking the 16 students to ponder the grim current events.

At your tables, talk about something thats happened recently thats brought our attention to natural disasters or man-made disasters, Schmid said.

In unison, the students replied, The Ariana Grande concert.

As part of a nationwide effort to train people, including students and teachers, to respond in mass casualties, Stanford Health Cares Stop the Bleed program brought a team of trauma surgeons and nurses to the school to instruct the students on how to pack wounds, use tourniquets and save lives until first responders arrive.

Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle

The training came three days after the Manchester mayhem left 22 people dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and injured 59 others. The terrorist group ISIS claimed responsibility in the attack.

Any training that we would do to prepare young people to be able to assist first responders during an emergency is important, said Schmid, who has been teaching at Sequoia High for two years. Empowering students to feel like they can contribute really impacts their self-esteem and self-confidence.

The medical-clinic class is part of Health Careers Academy, at Sequoia High, which prepares students interested in careers in the medical field and teaches them practical skills.

In class, Graeme Rosenberg, a third-year resident in general surgery, ran through a power-point presentation on how to take action until paramedics arrive.

I dont mean to scare you guys. At the end of this course, what I want is you to feel less scared. You can really make a difference, Rosenberg said, referencing instances where these skills could be applied, including the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut where 20 children and six staffers were fatally shot.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less





As Rosenberg showed the students videos on the different types of bleeding  from blood spurting out to blood pooling on the ground  and how to pack wounds, Roger tapped his foot lightly, taking notes. Seated near several mannequins that displayed the human digestive system and brain, he raised his hand.

If you dont have gauze, what would be a good alternative? he asked.

Responding, Rosenberg said, Use what you have to pack the wounds. You can deal with dirt and debris later. You cant deal with six liters of blood on the ground.

Roger said he first became interested in medicine when his mother suffered a spinal-cord injury from falling when he was 8 years old.

It was kind of traumatic for me seeing her like that. During those times, it was really hard. Seeing her pain has inspired me to help people, the 17-year-old said.

He joined five of his classmates gathering around David Spain, the trauma medical director at Stanford Health Care, and practiced stuffing a long piece of gauze into a wound on a fake thigh.

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.

Tuck it all inside, Spain instructed Roger as he quickly shoved as much gauze into the wound as he could, concentrating and balling the remaining gauze while using both his hands to apply pressure.

Whos next? Spain asked as the other students put on the blue, latex gloves provided to them. Get way in there.

Dez Frazier, a 17-year-old junior, said the training made him feel like he was prepared to handle stressful situations because the doctors grilled him with questions as he attempted to apply a tourniquet.

I was amazed. These are skills you only learn at hospitals and in college, beyond high school, he said. The instructors were challenging my thinking.

The students werent the only participants in the training.

Sean Priest, the school principal, got on his hands and knees as he applied a tourniquet to the leg of a dummy body, focusing as he strapped the Velcro.

When youre prepared to save someones life, it sets you up with a lot of confidence for anything that comes your way, Priest said.

At the end of the instruction, the students received a certificate for completing the demonstration training for bleeding control. They high-fived the doctors and some received congratulatory slaps on the back as the doctors jokingly welcomed them as members of the trauma unit.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @SarRavani
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Americas Mutual Banks, a national association of prominent mutual banks, announced today its support of S. 1284, the Community Bank Relief Act. The bipartisan Bill was introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch, (R. UT), William Nelson, (D. FL,) and Angus King, (I. ME).



The Bill would increase the threshold for defining small bank holding companies to those with assets up to $5 billion, a threshold well under the Federal Reserve Boards $10 billion threshold for defining community banks. It would free community banks from compliance with international capital standards designed for systemically significant mega-banks.

AMB Chairman Chuck Boulier said in a letter to the three Senators dated May 26, 2017, that: We believe strongly that small banks are engines of economic growth in communities where large multi-national banks have forsaken small businesses. Many studies have shown that collectively community banks disproportionately support small business lending where much larger banks seek their business in complex international activities involving large multi-national corporations. He went on to say that, "it is with great enthusiasm that we welcome the bi-partisan introduction of S. 1284 the Community Bank Relief Act and support its passage in the Senate.

About Americas Mutual Banks

Americas Mutual Banks is an association of like-minded mutual banks dedicated to preserving and advancing the mutual banking form. Americas Mutual Banks is headquartered at 701 8th Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20001. Please visit www.americasmutualbanks.com or contact Douglas Faucette, Locke Lord LLP, at 202-220-6961 with any questions or requests for additional information on Americas Mutual Banks.
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The Oakland city attorney is recommending that officials approve a nearly $1 million settlement of a legal claim against the city filed by a woman who claims multiple police officers sexually abused her when she was a minor.

The 19-year-old woman, the daughter of an Oakland police dispatcher, has filed multimillion-dollar claims against Oakland and Richmond alleging that officers in both cities sexually exploited her.

The alleged abuse was uncovered when Brendan OBrien, an Oakland police officer, killed himself in 2015 and left behind a note describing relations between the woman and several of his fellow law enforcement officers.

At the time, the woman went by a pseudonym, Celeste Guap. The Chronicle is not using her real name because she allegedly was a sex-trafficking victim as a juvenile.

The woman filed a $66 million civil claim against Oakland in September. City Attorney Barbara Parker will recommend to the City Council on Tuesday that it settle the claim for $989,000, according to the councils meeting agenda.

Parkers office confirmed Thursday that the agenda item was accurate but did not respond to a request for more information.

The woman told The Chronicle in June that she had sex with at least four Bay Area law enforcement officers when she was a minor, and 29 officers in total over the previous two years. She has testified that she worked as a prostitute for six years beginning when she was 12 years old.

The woman testified last week at a preliminary hearing for former Oakland police Officer Brian Bunton, who has pleaded not guilty to engaging in an act of prostitution and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

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.

The womans attorney, John Burris of Oakland, would not confirm the possible settlement Thursday, saying that nothing is finalized.

Im not in a position to talk about a settlement, but I can say the case, overall, is moving along, Burris said. The cases  theres six of them  were working on them all at once.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
Saturday

Immigration discussion: The Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity will host a discussion on immigration, followed by postcard-writing to support social justice. The event is from 10 a.m. to noon at the Northern Police Station Community Room, 1125 Fillmore St. in San Francisco. For information: info@owlsf.org.

Russia conversation: A public forum on the confrontation between Russia and the U.S., from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. in Berkeley. For information: (415) 282-1908 or www.upwa.info.

Thursday

Elizabeth Warren event: A conversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon St. in San Francisco. The discussion is part of an all-day event organized around opposition to President Trump. Tickets cost $100 and can be purchased at www.joyouspersistence.com.

Friday

Gun violence: For National Gun Violence Awareness Day, activists are asking people to wear orange to stand against gun violence. For more information: https://wearorange.org.

June 3

Gun violence march: A march across the Golden Gate Bridge to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day and to stand against gun violence. Participants are asked to wear orange. The event begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Golden Gate Bridge plaza. For information: www.facebook.com/events/1324576680972179.

LGBT rally: As part of Sonoma County Pride weekend, a rally to support LGBT rights, womens rights, immigration rights and other causes. The rally is from 1 to 4 p.m. at Guerneville Lodge, 15905 River Road in Guerneville. For information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1420477121307743.

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.

Peace and Freedom: The Peace and Freedom Party is hosting a forum, Peace and Freedom: Fifty Years of Struggle, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the party. The free event will be from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Starry Plough Pub, 3101 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley. For information, contact (510) 332-3865 or cuyleruyle@mac.com.

Anti-Trump marches: Marchers are demanding an independent investigation into Trumps Russia connections in a March for Truth. In San Jose, the march will begin at 11 a.m. at City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St. For information: http://www.indivisibleeastsanjose.org/march-for-truth/. In San Francisco, a march will begin at 2 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza. For information: https://www.facebook.com/events/1978572495762727.

June 11

Sierra Club: The Sierra Club is seeking volunteers to recruit new members and educate people on environmental issues at Sunday Streets, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Golden Gate Park. The exact location is to be determined. For information, contact Katherine Howard at sfoceanedge@earthlink.net.
Jacques Rancourts poem doesnt comfortably fit the conventions of the sonnet  a 14-line love poem written in meter, with patterned rhymes. His formal departures enact the restlessness felt by the poems speaker. Sonnets are usually private poems addressing a lover. The reader eavesdrops but occupies a space away from the unfolding drama. I like how Rancourts poem complicates our position, suggesting our complicity in a culture that has generally failed to sanction gay love  We call this a marriage, but it isnt/ called that outside/ this room. Rancourt accomplishes something I thought impossible. He has written a love poem, a sonnet, that might also serve as an instrument for civic compassion.

The Same Word

Last night I watched the drag queens hip-pad

drift down her leg

and distort the full moon

of her figure. By dawn you wont recall

how I hummed her song to you while you were sleeping.

We call this a marriage, but it isnt

called that outside

this room. It isnt called a thing. Ive searched for a word

that means what I mean it to  how we are a part

of the world as much as we are apart from it 

and it does not exist. Still, we make of this thing

an imitation, an effigy. Still, we make it each day

because we exist, weary phantom, as both the flesh

and the illusion,

because we live together

even if we live as a drag queen does, drawing

applause from a world that holds her at bay.

The Same Word is from Novena  2017, by Jacques Rancourt. Appears with the permission of Pleaides Press. All rights reserved.

Jacques Rancourt is the author of Novena, winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry. He lives in Redwood City.

David Roderick is the co-founder of Left Margin LIT: A Home for the Literary Arts, in Berkeley. He is author of Blue Colonial and The Americans.
Four people were arrested on Friday after attempting to burglarize a car in Gilroy and shooting a man several times in the leg when he tried to stop them, police said.

Officers responded to reports of suspicious activity about 2:50 a.m. at the intersection of Hyde Park and Victoria drives, a residential area, police said. The caller was concerned due to an uptick in recent burglaries in the area, police said.
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If youre heading to Napa for BottleRock, it wont be hard to find a great bite and refreshing drinks to wash it all down with. But here are our best bets: five restaurants, five wineries and five breweries that you should not miss, at the three-day event or outside the festival grounds.

Food

Bouchon Bakery: Thomas Kellers bakery has evolved into a mini-chain of sorts, with five outposts nationwide. But the Yountville location remains one of Napa Valleys best breakfast stops (especially if you cant make it to Model Bakery). The cookies, many inspired by classic American favorites like Oreos or Nutter Butters, are perennial favorites.

6528 Washington St., Yountville. www.thomaskeller.com

Oenotri: Pound for pound, Oenotri has remained one of the best restaurants in downtown Napa since opening. The Italian spot specializes in pizza and pasta and sources vegetables from its local farm.

1425 First St., Napa. www.oenotri.com

La Toque: Despite the bevy of big names, the only Michelin-starred restaurant to be represented on the BottleRock food lineup is La Toque, Ken Franks upscale French spot  and truffle specialist  in the Westin Verasa Napa. (Note that the Meadowood representative is the events team, not the restaurant.)

1314 McKinstry St., Napa. www.latoque.com

Miminashi: The best new restaurant to open in downtown Napa in the last year is Miminashi, Curtis di Fedes stylish Japanese-inspired izakaya.

821 Coombs St., Napa. www.miminashi.com

Morimoto Napa: Masaharu Morimoto, the Iron Chef whose eponymous restaurant is right across the river from the festival grounds, has become a fixture at BottleRock. Last year, his menchi katsu burger ($16)  a panko-breaded, deep-fried hamburger patty  was one of the best things our intrepid on-site food reporters tasted at the festival.

Esther Mobley/The Chronicle

610 Main St., Napa. www.morimotonapa.com

 Paolo Lucchesi

Wine

Etude: Known for its generous, refined Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, Etude also makes tasty Pinot Blanc, rose and Cabernet. If you want to taste the full portfolio, stop off at the tasting room in nearby Carneros.

1250 Cuttings Wharf Rd., Napa. www.etudewines.com

Chappellet: Chappellets ageworthy Cabernet and refreshing Chenin Blanc would taste good anywhere, but its hard to beat the sensation of tasting them at the winery, high up on St. Helenas Pritchard Hill overlooking Lake Hennessy.

1581 Sage Canyon Rd., St. Helena. www.chappellet.com

Chandon: Though they wont be the only option for Napa Valley bubbles at BottleRock  look also for Schramsberg  Chandons winery, should you choose to visit while youre in the area for the fest, is just a short drive up-valley in Yountville. My moneys on their Etoile Rose.

1 California Dr., Yountville. www.chandon.com

Silver Oak: The Cabernet houses iconic dairy barn looks more impressive in person than on the wine label. Enjoy their plush, polished Napa Cabs at BottleRock, or visit the winery for lunch by their wood-fired pizza oven.

915 Oakville Crossroad, Oakville. www.silveroak.com

Starmont: If you enjoy the Merryvale wines, try its sister winery, Starmont, which specializes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Carneros near downtown Napa.

1451 Stanly Ln., Napa. www.starmontwinery.com

 Esther Mobley

Beer

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Fieldwork: Berkeleys fast-growing craft brewery opened a taproom in Napas Oxbow Public Market last year. With a roster of beers that changes weekly, you may never get the same brew twice. Their eclectic, ultra-hazy IPAs are always a good bet.

610 First St., Napa. www.fieldworkbrewing.com/napa

Napa Palisades: You can catch this local brewpubs Gold Rush-inspired beers at BottleRock, or stroll over to the bar on Main Street.

1000 Main St., No. 100, Napa. www.napapalisadesbeer.com

Napa Smith: A fixture on Highway 29 since 2008, Napa Smith Brewery moved last year to a new taproom in Vallejo, which is still an easy way station on the way into or out of Napa.

101 Yolano Dr., Vallejo. www.napasmithbrewery.com

Tannery Bend Beerworks: Oenotri owners Tyler Rodde and Lauren Duncan opened this tiny-production brewery last year. Their on-site taproom, near downtown overlooking the Napa River, showcases their saisons, IPAs and more.

101 S. Coombs St., Suite X, Napa. http://tannerybendbeerworks.com

Mare Island: Traveling north via ferry? Stop in the Vallejo Ferry Building to check out Mare Islands taproom. The brewery is still working on restoring the historic coal shed that will eventually house its brewhouse and taproom on Mare Island, a one-time naval shipyard.

289 Mare Island Way, Vallejo. www.mareislandbrewingco.com

 Esther Mobley
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WASHINGTON  President Trumps revised travel ban speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination, a federal appeals court said Thursday in ruling against the ban that targets six Muslim-majority countries.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from temporarily suspending new visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

This was the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban, which Trumps administration had hoped would avoid the legal problems that the first version encountered.

In all, 10 of the 13 judges who heard the case voted against the Trump administration.

Although the decision was another sweeping defeat for the president and his lawyers, it clears the way to them to take the issue to the Supreme Court, where a conservative majority gives them a better chance of prevailing. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department will appeal the block on the travel ban to the high court.

Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe.

A central question in the case before the Fourth Circuit was whether courts should consider Trumps past statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

Trumps administration argued the countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.

The governments asserted national security interest ... appears to be a post hoc, secondary justification for an executive action rooted in religious animus and intended to bar Muslims from this country, wrote the chief judge of the circuit, Roger L. Gregory.

Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute, Gregory wrote.

The first travel ban in January triggered chaos and protests across the country as travelers were stopped from boarding international flights and detained at airports for hours.

Trump tweaked the order after the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to reinstate the ban.

The new version made it clear the 90-day ban covering those six countries doesnt apply to those who already have valid visas. It got rid of language that would give priority to religious minorities and removed Iraq from the list of banned countries.

Jessica Gresko is an Associated Press writer.
Nine workers were injured Friday when a building partially collapsed at an Oakland construction site near downtown, forcing a desperate and successful effort to free many of them from wet concrete.

No workers were seriously injured in the collapse, which took place around 9:30 a.m. at 3093 Broadway, said Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Ian McWhorter.

While as many as 20 people fell from scaffolding, only about a dozen were taken to a nearby hospital.

When police and firefighters arrived, they found some of the workers hanging from the scaffolding while others were up to their knees in wet concrete. Others were struggling desperately with shovels to dig their co-workers out.

Its kind of like quicksand, McWhorter said, adding that the on-site construction workers did a great job, along with our members, in assisting those who were trapped.

Some workers were taken to the hospital as a precaution, while most of the injuries were bruises and back strains, he added.

But the frightening accident could easily have turned deadly. Workers were pouring wet concrete to build the second floor of what was to become a parking garage when part of the structure at the large construction site collapsed around them, McWhorter said.

No one was underneath the collapse; everyone who was trapped had fallen 10 to 15 feet from above.

We dont know exactly what caused this to happen, McWhorter said. The concrete is still wet. You can see on my boots.

Construction and fire crews used planks and plywood so they could reach the trapped workers without becoming submerged.

Joe Abraham, the 70-year-old owner of nearby American Auto Upholstery & Glass, heard the collapse.

It dropped twice like a bomb  Boom! Boom!  and it was loud, he said.

Abraham walked out and saw workers coming down from the roof and emergency personnel arriving.

Ezaud Duran, safety inspector for Cen Cal Plastering, said he was working at the other end of the site when he heard a sound like a boom, followed by people screaming.

He ran to the collapse and saw a scene of panic, with workers mired in knee-high wet concrete.

It appeared the poles supporting a platform had collapsed, plunging the men to the ground, Duran said.

With construction halted for at least one day, workers had time to think about the disaster that could have been.

Nearly 20 loitered in front of the site near Webster Medical Plaza. Some talked quietly in a small group, hands jammed in their pockets, while others sat on the street curb.

Two men walked out of the construction site, one with his arm bandaged and his face slightly dirtied. Another worker pulled off his sweatshirt, offering it to the injured man and helping him put it on over his bandaged arm.

As the pair joined the huddle of workers, the others circled the two men, hugging them and slapping their backs.

A worker at a Webster Medical Plaza cafe, who asked to be identified only as Randy, said he was standing outside the construction site with some workers when he heard a crashing sound.

He turned toward the noise, just in time to see the floor drop. The workers around him took off running toward the site.

All the guys started running to find out whos OK and whos not, Randy said.

Randy said he ran back into his store, grabbed his cell phone and called 911 as he raced back to the site.

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.

There were guys hanging from the metal, Randy said. There were guys trapped in the concrete that fell, buried in the concrete. It was like quicksand trapping them in there.

Inspectors from Cal/OSHA, the states workplace safety regulator, and a building engineer from the city of Oakland were at the site shortly after the accident.

The state inspectors will be looking at the scene, talking to witnesses, speaking with the contractors and looking at safety plans and such, said Peter Melton, a Cal/OSHA spokesman in Oakland.

Largo Concrete, a subcontractor on the project, has had four accident investigations in the past five years, with three citations issued by Cal/OSHA for minor violations.

The Orange County companys lone, serious, state violation in that period came in April 2015 during routine inspection of a work site at 28901 Mission Blvd. in Hayward. The company was cited for having uncapped rebar and fined $6,385.

The Oakland construction area is on Auto Row, south of Interstate 580 and north of downtown and Lake Merritt.

The development, at the site of a former Chevy dealership, is one of the biggest housing projects in Oakland amid a building boom. The developer, CityView, is headed up by Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The seven-story building is slated to include 435 apartments and 24,000 square feet of retail space, as well as 472 parking stalls on the first and second floors, and 266 bicycle parking spaces. The design calls for five stories of wood-frame construction over two stories of concrete.

The corner of the building, which is preserved as a historical Chevy showroom, is being integrated into the new structure.

The project, which is slated to include a restaurant, is due to open in early 2018.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers J.K. Dineen, Hamed Aleaziz and John Wildermuth contributed to this report.
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A worker at the Port of Oakland discovered a noose inside a truck at a shipping terminal Thursday  the latest in a series of racist incidents at the facility in recent weeks, officials said.

Thursdays episode was the second noose found at the port in two weeks and prompted SSA Marine workers at the Oakland International Container Terminal to walk off the job for several hours in the morning, said Derrick Muhammad, secretary-treasurer of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10.

This kind of thing adds to the insecurity and the feeling of unsafeness, Muhammad said. When you have 80,000-pound boxes and fast-moving equipment, you want to feel safe in that environment. Then when you must worry about racism and hatred, that just adds to the discomfort.

Bob Watters, senior vice president of SSA Marine, said that he was aware of the episode and that the company is taking steps to investigate.

An arbiter, though, determined the noose did not qualify as a legitimate health-and-safety issue, and union workers headed back to the job around noon, he said.

From our understanding, the object in question was the size of a key-chain lanyard, Watters said. SSA has a zero-tolerance policy for any discriminatory behavior.

In November, someone scrawled racist graffiti on equipment inside a shipping terminal, Muhammad said. The racial epithet was scrawled on the leg of a transtainer, a large piece of equipment used to load and unload shipping containers.

Two weeks ago, workers found a noose attached to a fence at the entrance of the same terminal, Muhammad said.

Workers said they are concerned because two of the incidents happened inside the terminal gates, signaling the culprit may have special access to the area.

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Our workforce is more than 70 percent African American, Muhammad said. Considering the history that black people have in America, this kind of thing is not good  not good.

Oakland police said they were looking into the incidents.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
With San Francisco politicians and police mostly looking the other way as injection drug users shoot up in broad daylight, the official effort seems to have moved from preventing the drug use to cleaning up all those dirty needles left behind.

Remember when cigarette butts littered the city? Gross, yes. But there wasnt the possibility of contracting a deadly disease from them. It seems the butts have been replaced in Needle City  er, San Francisco  with dirty syringes.

It may not seem like it as you two-step around the dirties that sprout from sidewalks like weeds, but the needle-cleanup effort in San Francisco is enormous.

And if ever there was a Sisyphean task, this is it.

The citys Public Works crews collected an eye-bulging 17,511 needles in April alone. Thats 584 every day  and 4,178 more syringes than the department collected in March. And thats just from the crews that focus on homeless tent camps, not from the general crews that clean other areas.

The Department of Public Health has recently installed two big black boxes the size of those blue mailboxes the U.S. Postal Service puts on street corners, but these are for used needles, not letters.

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Cheerily called kiosks, one was installed outside the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on May 11 and had about 1,500 needles dropped inside within 11 days. Another kiosk was placed at 1380 Howard St. in February, and it had about 1,000 syringes inside a month later. The department also has 10 smaller needle collection boxes around the city.

Eileen Loughran, the Public Health Departments expert on syringe disposal, is so committed to cleanup, she carries a bio-box for needle collection in her purse. She said shes proud of the kiosks and thinks most injection drug users want to do the right thing and dispose of their needles safely.

A lot of people are frustrated with syringes on the ground and drug users using publicly, Loughran said. For the most part, drug users are frustrated by that, too. Its a small population of individuals who just really dont care about where their syringes go.

Each of the kiosks is in a three-month pilot program, during which the Public Health Department hopes to see fewer needles on the ground around them and many syringes deposited inside. It will also monitor neighbors concerns about the kiosks drawing more injection drug users to their immediate vicinity.

The Bill Graham kiosk has drawn a lot of birds and a few graffiti artists, if whats on the outside of the box is any indication.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation also helps with needle cleanup. It collected a whopping 23,000 pounds of used injection equipment, including needles, last year.

The good news about the cleanup, however, underscores the devastating news that so many San Franciscans are shooting up. The latest estimate is that 22,500 injection drug users live in the city, Loughran said. She said thats about 7,500 more than a few years ago.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

City and nonprofit officials say the needle problem seems so much worse lately because of the growing nationwide opioid epidemic, which means more people are using needles. And development in the city has pushed drug use that used to be hidden in empty buildings and vacant lots into the open.

Also, needle-exchange programs used to require that dirty needles be turned in to receive clean ones. Now, drug users can get however many clean needles they want  no dirties required.

Barbara Garcia, public health director, says her staff has had many conversations about whether the current needle-giveaway approach is the right one but said shes convinced it is. She said drug users are far more likely to use clean needles and not share dirty ones under the current approach. That means far fewer HIV and hepatitis C transmissions.

But asked whether thats putting the health of drug users over the health of pedestrians, kids and others who might find dirty needles on the ground, Garcia paused.

We have to do both  provide clean needles and provide the cleanup of the dirty needles, she said. We have to do better.

Thats the truth.

But actually, San Francisco is doing a lot better than most of California when it comes to safely disposing of dirty needles. The state auditor recently released a report calling Californias oversight of needle disposal outside of medical centers fragmented and inconsistent.

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.

Seventy-two percent of Californians live within a 10-minute drive of needle-collection sites, but some in rural parts of the state live more than a half-hour drive from one. The report recommends that CalRecycle take over proper disposal of needles, implement a public awareness campaign and publicize a list of collection sites.

Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said hes looking at options for streamlined needle collection. We dont want 58 different counties doing 58 different things, he said.

He said hes tired of walking through Civic Center Plaza and seeing syringes all over the place.

What were doing is not deterring or stopping that behavior, so you might as well create opportunities for safe disposal, Ting said.

Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru is even more of a, pardon the pun, straight shooter when it comes to needle talk. He wants to see the citys acceptance of open-air drug injection end.

I personally believe that shooting up in public should not be allowed. Period, he said.

And hes even more adamant that dirty needles should not be tossed aside with no consequence.

Were picking up thousands of needles, and thats just not safe for anybody, he said. They have enough sense to go get the needles, so they should have enough sense to get rid of them.

In the meantime, his crews are doing the job. To the tune of more than 60,000 needles picked up this year.
EDMONTON, Alberta, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inclusion Alberta commends the Alberta government for ensuring, within Bill 17 - Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act - that the Employment Standards section allowing individuals with disabilities to be employed at less than minimum wage will be repealed in its entirety. Although this section of the Employment Standards Code had not been utilized for over 10 years, the fact it remained in law was a continuing insult to the dignity and rights of individuals with disabilities. Previous governments had committed to removing this offensive section but had not acted on that promise.

Albertas Employment Standards Code has permitted people with disabilities, for decades, to be employed at less than minimum wage. In defeating the very essence of the purpose of a minimum wage to align human dignity with an individuals labour, this Section of Albertas Employment Standards also reflected the historical devaluation of people with disabilities.

This section of the Employment Standards was also an insult to Albertas business community in suggesting that it would not employ people with disabilities if it had to pay a fair and decent wage. Barb MacIntyre, Inclusion Alberta President and whose son with developmental disabilities is employed, stated, For over 30 years Inclusion Alberta has been securing inclusive employment for individuals with developmental disabilities, on average, above minimum wage and never lower. Our more recent partnerships with Rotary, municipalities and the business community have created almost 450 inclusive employment opportunities, as well, on average above minimum wage and never lower.

As Bill 17 is a government Bill, Albertans with disabilities, their families, friends and allies are assured of its passage and welcome the end of an outdated and deplorable section of the Employment Standards Code.

Now we require action. Bruce Uditsky, Inclusion Alberta CEO whose son with developmental disabilities is a valued employee in an Edmonton business, said, Without a commitment to advance the employment of individuals with disabilities, this portion of Bill 17 will be an important but symbolic act. Our partnerships have the capacity to create more jobs, but we require additional resources to sustain this growth. The Alberta government itself must become a leader in the inclusive employment of individuals with developmental and other disabilities and increase funding to sustain and advance the creation of employment opportunities in community.

About Inclusion Alberta: Inclusion Alberta (formerly Alberta Association for Community Living) is a family based, non-profit federation that advocates on behalf of children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. Together, we share a dream of meaningful family life and community inclusion for individuals with developmental disabilities. As an advocacy organization we support families and individuals in their desire to be fully included in community life.
A Fresno State professor was recorded this month erasing a students sidewalk-chalk antiabortion messages while declaring, College campuses are not free-speech areas. In 2015, Cal Poly Pomona agreed to revise its policies and pay damages to a student prevented from handing out leaflets advocating veganism outside its free-speech zone. And in two particularly ironic cases, community college students in Modesto and Los Angeles were told not to distribute copies of the document granting that right, the U.S. Constitution.

Americans should be disturbed that a government-funded educational institution would find it necessary or appropriate to corral First Amendment protections into designated areas lest anyone be unexpectedly confronted with an unpalatable opinion. But though UC Berkeleys unfortunate disinvitation of conservative agitator Ann Coulter drew national attention to campus expression, more obscure cases of indefensible college speech restrictions are common enough to have provoked a legislative response. A measure sponsored by state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, one of a few campus speech bills recently taken up in Sacramento, reiterates that public areas of public university campuses are presumed to be open to free speech, providing for penalties against institutions that attempt to restrict expression to particular zones.
House Republicans kept a seat and gained a headache in the Montana special election Thursday.

Their candidate, tech entrepreneur Greg Gianforte, displayed a serious lack of impulse control and a brazen lack of honesty when he physically attacked a reporter on the day before the election.

One might even question the intelligence of a politician who fabricated an account of an incident that was captured by the victims audio recorder and witnessed by a television news crew. That evidence made it clear that his version was pure hogwash.

Still, Giganforte won with slightly more than 50 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Rob Quist at 44 percent.

We may never know the extent of the good people of Montanas disgust with the thug they are sending to Congress. A majority of the votes already had been sent by mail before Gianfortes day of rage.

His apology to the Guardian reporter, Ben Jacobs, did not come until after the results were in. He acknowledged that he made a mistake and promised not to embarrass the state again.

The congressman-elect has been charged with misdemeanor assault and has been ordered to appear at the Gallatin County Courthouse on June 7.

President Trump congratulated Gianforte for a great win in Montana; Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his kudos for a great win and gracious speech. Neither said a word about the assault.

Such is the sorry state of leadership in Donald Trumps America.
What if you had the opportunity to acquire land in San Francisco for $1?

What if the land you acquired for a just a buck would end homelessness for 250 senior and disabled people? The right thing to do is to seize this rare opportunity.

Under Title V of the 1987 federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, San Francisco will apply to acquire for $1 land at 1064-68 Mission St. valued at approximately $36 million. Title V calls for underutilized federal properties such as this to be prioritized to assist people experiencing homelessness. This little-known provision is a powerful tool designed to help communities use public property to address one of our most pressing issues: chronic homelessness.

Luckily, we have a mayor and a Board of Supervisors who understood that this land could be available and thus directed us to get it under the citys control. Mayor Ed Lee saw it as one of those rare opportunities to end homelessness for some of the approximately 7,000 people experiencing it in San Francisco on any given night. San Francisco has successfully ended homelessness for more than 24,000 people since 2004, so we know how to do this.

We know the only way to end homelessness is to find that person or that family a home.

We will acquire this land for $1 a in the face of the Trump administrations budget proposal, which  if enacted  would decimate affordable-housing and homeless programs across the country and in the Bay Area. San Franciscans continue to see the effects of federal divestment in housing and homelessness support on our streets every day. Deeper cuts will make the problems only worse.

Over the past 30 years, federal divestment from affordable housing has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of affordable homes in San Francisco. Embracing this opportunity is a unique way to reinvest and collaborate with the federal government to bring much needed affordable housing back to SoMa, a neighborhood that has lost much of its affordable-housing stock.

In addition, the state of California will be allocating approximately $97 million in San Francisco through the No Place Like Home program, which uses proceeds from the sale of bonds to help communities house chronically homeless and mentally ill individuals. This investment will help San Francisco jump-start its effort to build more supportive housing.

With award-winning projects such as the Richardson Apartments in Hayes Valley and the Rene Cazenave Apartments in Rincon Hill, San Francisco has demonstrated that supportive housing can be built and managed in a way that adds value to the community and integrates well with the neighborhood. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerces 2017 poll found that homelessness is the top concern for voters and 77 percent support having homeless services in their neighborhoods.

We believe San Francisco has a moral and fiduciary responsibility to maximize every opportunity to provide a solution to the homeless crisis. Acquisition of this parcel would help us create supportive housing for up to 250 seniors and people with disabilities who would otherwise be on our streets. Given the ongoing homelessness crisis, it would be unconscionable to forgo this opportunity.

Jeff Kositsky is the director of the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Olson Lee is the director of the Mayors Office of Housing and Community Development.
NEW YORK, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Henry Chen, Physician at MAXhealth PrimeCare of Manatee has been selected to join the Physician Board at the American Health Council. He will be sharing his knowledge and expertise in Internal Medicine.



With over three years of experience in the field of Internal Medicine, Dr. Chen offers valuable insight in his role as a Physician at MAXhealth PrimeCare of Manatee. MAXhealth serves as a patient-centered primary care system that offers services in Sarasota, Florida and the surrounding areas. Composed of a team of board-certified practitioners, MAXhealth prides themselves in putting the patient first, providing comprehensive care to ensure optimal health.

As Physician at MAXhealth PrimeCare of Manatee, Dr. Chens day-to-day responsibilities include inpatient and outpatient coverage for MAXhealth PrimeCare, as well as oversight of primary care and urgent care services.

Following graduation with his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2012, Dr. Chen completed a residency at Manatee Memorial Hospital. He is board certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

To keep abreast of the latest trends and events in the industry, Dr. Chen maintains affiliation with the Manatee County Medical Society and The American Osteopathic Association.

Dr. Chen became fascinated by the field of Internal Medicine due to his belief that he can make the greatest impact in the community. Looking back, Dr. Chen attributes his success to always making sure that his patients come first.

In his free time, Dr. Chen is an avid volleyball player and enjoys traveling.

Considering the future, Dr. Chen hopes to continue building his practice and teaching at LECOM and Nova SE.

About the American Health Council:

The American Health Council is the nations only organization with a constituency representative of all sectors of the healthcare industry. From the coasts to the heartland, the American Health Council has drawn Affiliates from major metropolitan hubs and small communities. These Affiliates span generations and have reached different stages of their careers  from recent graduates to retirees. More information about the American Health Council and its mission can be found at: http://americanhealthcouncil.org

Additionally, the American Health Council strives to provide recognition and support for those individuals making the difference in patients lives day in and day out. Throughout 2017, the AHC is honoring Americas Best Doctors and Nurses. The American Health Councils Best in Medicine and Best in Nursing awards programs honor the individuals and institutions that have contributed significantly to medicine and nursing, as well as the training and education of physicians and nurses. The most current selections for these honors may be viewed here: http://bestinmedicine.org and http://bestinnursing.org.
The Mayors Office of Housing and Community Development has requested that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors grant the authority to acquire the lot at 1064-1068 Mission St. to build housing for 250 of the citys estimated 1,700 chronically homeless. The site is within District 6, which already contains 57 percent of the citys homeless persons, according to a 2015 survey. The districts residents have accepted more below-market housing than those in other parts of San Francisco. District Six Supervisor Jane Kim appears unlikely to oppose the further concentration of the homeless on that parcel.

The mayors office thinks it can obtain the site at virtually no cost from the federal government under the provisions of the 1987 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Whether the Trump administration would allow such a give-away is unknown. This proposal:

Is not in the best interests of the homeless, the neighborhood or increasing the housing supply needed to deescalate rents and home prices in San Francisco.

Does not make fiscal sense. Over time, keeping housing habitable costs more than building new. In rental buildings with a mix of market-rate and below-market housing, those who pay market rents provide the bulk of the support for needed maintenance. Public housing projects have shown us the fiscal effects of the maintenance burden on local and federal treasuries: To keep the units habitable, the city must either skimp on maintenance or draw sizable funds from the general fund.

Does not make economic sense. The argument made to the Board of Supervisors that providing housing for the homeless will enhance housing affordability is just plain wrong. For the last 42 years, San Franciscos stringent restrictions on new development have kept new housing from meeting the demand  at all economic levels. Homeless individuals are not part of effective market demand because they cannot afford to rent or buy. However, increasing the concentration of the formerly homeless, who will spend significant time on the street even when they have their own apartments, will make the neighborhood less desirable to those who can afford to pay the full cost of new housing. That will make it more difficult to build market-rate housing for teachers and other critically needed workers.

Does not make social sense. Studies have shown that concentrating the poor within one neighborhood further disadvantages them. The double whammy of cramming 250 chronically homeless into two buildings within a neighborhood that already contains a high proportion of low-income households seems designed to recreate the failed public housing projects of the 1960s.

If federal policy is to use government resources to alleviate the condition of the homeless, then it should not support a project that merely crams them into high-density housing.

San Franciscans should encourage the feds to take the site through the citys entitlement process and then sell it to the highest bidder for a project that conforms to contemporary planning requirements.

The feds then would have the opportunity to truly help the chronically homeless  by dedicating the proceeds of the sale to the treatment and housing of the mentally ill, who make up a significant portion of the homeless population.

Claude Gruen lives in District Six and is the principal economist of Gruen Gruen + Associates in San Francisco.
A one-man powerhouse behind three San Francisco mayors is calling it a day at the end of June.

Steve Kawa, known as the level-headed point man who turned big ideas into sensible policy, plans to retire and will be replaced by Lees deputy chief of staff, Jason Elliott, on July 1.

Kawa wiped away tears Wednesday as he confronted the end of a long career at City Hall.

Theres so much cynicism about government and politics, and when Im here, I dont see the cynicism, Kawa said. I just see people working really hard for other people.

Raised in a large Polish American Catholic family in Dracut, Mass., Kawa said he learned the value of grit and hard work early on. He grew up in a small duplex that housed his Polish immigrant grandparents, his mother, father and five siblings. His mother drove a school bus and his father was a construction worker.

Kawa, 55, said he was first mesmerized by government watching the Watergate hearings on television as a youngster.

It wasnt about the politics of it, it was about how government functions, he remembered.

After earning a bachelors degree in political science from Merrimack College, Kawa put himself through Suffolk University Law School by working as a legislative aide in the state Senate while taking classes at night.

He came to San Francisco in 1991 and got a job as an aide for Supervisor Tom Hsieh, who said Kawa stood out for having an unusually sincere demeanor.

The minute he stepped into my office, he started talking about what he could offer, Hsieh said.

From there, Kawa established himself as a striver who wore a blue pinstripe suit and a yellow tie every day. He also came out as a gay man, heeding the advice of a fellow aide.

He leaned over during a holiday lunch and said, Are you gay? You really should go out there and tell everybody, Kawa recalled.

The mayors Kawa served characterize him as a cautious, shrewd negotiator and driving force behind numerous policy decisions. He launched a subsidized health care program for uninsured San Franciscans under Willie Brown, steered the issuing of same-sex marriage licenses under Gavin Newsom, drafted two pension reform measures that voters passed in 2011, and balanced the budget during a painful economic recession.

He caused multiple labor strikes to be avoided, said Brown, who hired Kawa to be a liaison to the Board of Supervisors, later promoting him to acting budget director and then deputy chief of staff.

He was so good that I never interviewed him for a promotion, Brown said. I just kept promoting him, and he would find out from his friends or from the press.

To Mayor Ed Lee, Kawas greatest contribution to the city was the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

We were having conversations with county clerks all around the state about the legality of including gay marriage at a time when it wasnt recognized, said Lee, who served as Newsoms city administrator. He guided us through. He said, Change is difficult, but its the right thing to do. And its the right role of government.

The on-again, off-again legal challenges to same-sex marriage led Kawa to marry three times to the same man  Dan Henkle, who leads a global sustainability program at Gap Inc.

The two first wed at Trinity Episcopal Church in 1995, then married again in 2004 under Newsom, and again in 2008, just prior to the passage of Proposition 8, the state antisame-sex marriage law that was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2013. Theirs was among 18,000 unions that stuck, in spite of the law.

Kawa and Henkle now live in Golden Gate Heights with their two adopted children, Michael and Katherine. They plan to retire together and spend more time at home as their daughter, Katherine, prepares to start her senior year of high school.

Many City Hall staff members and elected officials were visibly heartbroken Thursday after getting word of Kawas pending departure.

Hes been the backbone of our city government for more than a decade, said Supervisor Mark Farrell, who served for four years as the boards budget chair. He fondly recalls Kawa barking at me with his thick Boston accent during the budget process.

Hes selfless, said political strategist Nathan Ballard. Hes totally focused on the best interest of the city.

Kawas persistent focus on public service earned him the reputation of a Boy Scout, said Browns former spokesman P.J. Johnston, who considers himself a close friend of Kawa and Henkle.

But its very genuine, Johnston said. He spent his whole life in public service.

But Kawa also has foes, mostly in the progressive wing of city government. Former Supervisor John Avalos, who chaired the Budget and Finance Committee in 2009 and 2010, said he fought with Kawa and Newsom for cutting social services to close a deficit.

Kawa kept the city solvent, Avalos said. But he also ensured there wasnt a strong effort to deal with the crises of our time  economic inequality, displacement of people of color, mistrust in the Police Department. In a city like San Francisco with tremendous resources, we could have done better.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission, said she welcomes the change that will come with Kawas retirement.

I really believe San Francisco is at a crossroads right now, she said. We need a new direction.

For the next month, Kawa will keep working in Room 200 of City Hall, where his office is decked with family photographs, a bust of John F. Kennedy and a large window that overlooks Civic Center. Its a place where hes spent long hours brokering labor deals, drafting legislation and going over line items in complex budgets.

With news of his retirement spilling through corridors of City Hall, Kawa stayed upbeat. The highs, the highers, even the bad days, he said, Ive loved it all.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
Birria can be a broth of restorative clarity, with shredded goat curling in the depths like anemone. Try it at El Potrillo, at the edge of Oaklands Fruitvale near Alameda. At La Casita on Foothill Boulevard, it can be tender jewels of meat clinging to thorny bone crowns in a ruddy bath that leaves orange beads clinging to the sides of a bowl. At Santo Coyote, on International near 49th Avenue, you can order soup  birria en su jugo  or opt for a plate of collapsing, sauce-covered hunks of boneless goat to swaddle in fat, toasty, slightly bitter tortillas.

These are all birria, though they do not look or taste alike. Whether you dine in Guadalajara, the dishs mecca, or at the Jaliscan eateries of Oakland east of Lake Merritt, birria is a big tent  though proponents of one approach or another enjoy weighing in with their preferences. As Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold (then writing for LA Weekly) wrote in a 2009 reflection on a visit to Guadalajara, birria is a personal matter.

For me, I vividly remember a birria breakfast encounter in Austin, Texas, as I attempted to recover from a Pyrrhic victory over a bottle of bourbon. I was drooping into the plastic table when the small bowl arrived. It was mostly liquid yet hearty, soothing yet spicy, rich yet clean  the marriage of long-cooked meat, smoky chile, sweet tomato and other flavors I couldnt immediately distinguish. They melded into one  like a battery of uniquely toned guitars hammering away at the same chord. I left refreshed, like Id visited a curious spa where addled guts, sore limbs and worried minds might be smoothed over with meat, fat and spice, not massages and acai purees. I was also ready for a cold Lone Star. Thats the other thing about birria. Its a famed hangover balm that begs for beer, which makes it both a sop and a spark, the solution to a problem and also the start of one.

Throughout Oaklands birria hot spots  Fruitvale, International Boulevard farther to the east  the best restaurants are family affairs, like La Casita, owned and operated for the past year by Nolberto Martinez Jr., whose aunt, Ana Maria Campos, first established its reputation 16 years ago.

Were keeping everything the same, says Martinez, who, as a child, relaxed by cooking with his sisters. We do things the old-fashioned way, from scratch, like my mom cooked for me, and her mom cooked for her. Martinezs grandmother, Isabella, arrived in Fruitvale from Jalisco in the 1950s and worked at a pizza place in Alameda before she could open her own restaurant in 1968.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

La Casita seems to shrink around Martinez, who wedges into the tiny kitchen behind the takeout window, and his brother-in-law Esteban Campos, who patrols the dining room. Hey, buddy, youll hear as you approach the restaurant. How was it, bro? both men will boom in succession as you polish off the last of your birria with a warm torn tortilla. Youll swear theres an echo, even in a room the dimensions of a walk-in. Mouth full of masa, youll mumble something laudatory and unintelligible. La Casitas tortillas still undulate with puffed air when they hit the table, living, breathing tortillas that are nearly as much the main event as the birria itself. Martinez says that his birria simmers for three hours. The dried chile sting deepens into something muted but swarthy. Raw onion softens in the broth. Lime juice cuts the richness. Suddenly, a fearsome-looking bowl tastes like a tonic.

With its high, smudged skylight and mismatched tables, narrow Santo Coyote could be a country church  albeit one with bars on the windows. The sauce pooling around the goat swirls into a lake of refried beans, which appear earlier, dusted with queso, as a pre-birria sop to scoop with chips.

And at 15-year-old El Potrillo, the meat may also come attached to a hatchet-size bone. The consomme carries not a hint of tomato, or even chile, although you can order your goat in sauce, too. Theres a direct sort of purity to the former, a broth that is salty and flavorful but also malleable, its destiny in the hands of the diner, not an autocratic cook. There is cilantro in a little pot, diced onion and a trio of miniature tortillas folded around mashed beans. El Potrillo owner Javier Davalos says that his birria recipe is 100 years old, the invention of his great-grandfather, a butcher who passed on the craft to his grandson. In the 1960s, Davalos father picked in fields across California before settling in Oakland to work in restaurants.

Thats a secret, deadpans Davalos when I ask about the unique cuts of kid he uses for El Potrillos birria. Id be disrespecting my great-grandfather if I told you.

The cooking technique? Another secret. The sauce? Yeah, you guessed right. Secret.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Ive never been to Guadalajara. My understanding of birria comes from eating and reading. Yet what makes birria birria is a secret to me. My sense of what its supposed to taste like isnt rooted in family and culture. In other words, its not a personal matter.

It is for Stephanie Quiles, a food writer for the Guadalajara newspaper Mural. She knows her way around Los Nueves Esquinas, her citys famed patchwork of cobblestone streets that is home to expert purveyors of birria. Goat  the standard, preferred meat among older folks, Quiles says  should marinate in salt and chile and then break down in a covered pot. The chiles may be some combination of ancho, cascabel, morita and guajillo. The sauce should contain tomato, oregano, garlic, vinegar and onion. Yet when it comes to eating birria, Quiles eschews some of what Ive come to view as traditional. She doesnt like raw onion garnish, for instance, and so doesnt add any. Shes suspicious of a clear broth and wants to sprinkle dried oregano, not cilantro, on top before eating. In Jalisco, we use lime for everything, she adds. So Ill just squeeze a couple of limes on it. Quiles recommends rolling the goat in tortillas to make a sushi shape, and alternating bites with gulps of the consomme.

While exacting, Quiles approach is the correct one. That is to say, while shes not necessarily demarcating the unshakeable universal rules of how birria is to be prepared and eaten, shes appropriately outlining her own preferences. Shes making it personal.

Martinez agrees. Its all about the condiments, he says. We leave that up to the customers.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Perhaps that is one way in which birria complements the American breakfast canon, a meal people seeking morning comfort want to customize at length: the bacon burnt or merely crisp, the eggs over-easy or sunnyside-up, the toast buttered or not, the potatoes shredded or cubed, and so on.

Birria may be one dish, but its really many. It emerges from the kitchen off or on the bone, with or without sauce, in soup or dry, to the table where customers may nudge the balance of textures and tastes one direction or another with splashes of hot sauce, handfuls of onion and herbs, and squirts of lime. Its an exercise in individualism, freeing  pure Jalisco, and as American as it gets.

Andrew Simmons lives in Oakland. He writes for the Atlantic, the New York Times and other publications. Twitter: @adlsimmons Website: adlsimmons.com. Email: food@sfchronicle.com

Where to get your goat in Oakland

El Potrillo, 400 29th Ave., Oakland, (510) 261-1104

La Casita, 3659 Foothill Blvd., Oakland, (510) 261-4260

Santo Coyote, 4806 International Blvd., Oakland, (510) 261-8696
Thomas Keller, one of the countrys most decorated chefs, might want to meet Zongyi Liu. They have something in common: the Bocuse DOr.

It was international news, filled with Champagne toasts, in January when the American team, guided by Keller and other prominent chefs, took gold at this international competition thats often cited as the culinary equivalent of the Olympics.

When diners enter Royal Feast, a seemingly modest Chinese restaurant on El Camino Real in Millbrae, they see Lius framed medal by the door. In 1999, he represented China in that competition.

This impressive accomplishment seems incongruous when you look around the modest restaurant with carpeted floors, white textured walls and window and ceiling moldings that are no doubt best-sellers at Home Depot. The brightly lit chandeliers reflect off the white polyester cloths on the tables spread over two rooms. The look is generic, like dozens of other Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area.

Yet when the food arrives, the techniques that earned Liu a place in the competition are on full display, whether its a special dish such as sauteed finless eel and leek shoots ($19.95) or those found at many other restaurants such as minced chicken with basil ($12.95). The green beans scattered throughout the mixture are precisely cut on the bias, and spooned into two lettuce leaves the size of a bowl.

Chunks of tofu and scallions in the mapo tofu ($10.95) are so exacting they look like they were cut by machine. Its as if Liu used a scientific formula to calculate the interplay of fiery Sichuan peppercorns and the cooling, custard-like cubes.

Dishes are only briefly described, and the Sichuan spicy fish fillet ($22.95) came as a surprise to me because I wasnt expecting a soup. It was a tureen-size bowl with dozens of precisely cooked filets covered with scallions and dried chiles floating on golden broth that made silk seem rough.

Waiters, guided by co-owner Jian Wang, are exceedingly friendly and efficient as they scoop off the floating debris to reveal the moist fish below. It was so beguiling I ate too much, and still ended up taking nearly 2 quarts home.

Lius skill, and the way he astutely balances the salty, bitter, sour, sweet and pungent elements of the cuisine, so impressed Cecilia Chiang that she asked to arrange a banquet for six diners. At 97 years old, Chiang is the matriarch of Chinese cooking in the United States; she introduced many now-familiar dishes at her now-closed Mandarin restaurant.

Since I had already visited Royal Feast and was equally impressed, I was excited to see what the chef could do. Some of the 10 dishes prepared by Liu for the banquet arent on the menu, but others are listed under the heading Aristocrat Cuisine.

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

Chiang, who is one of the last people with firsthand knowledge of Chinese grand cuisine before the Communist revolution, grew nostalgic on several dishes, including braised abalone with four treasures ($39.95 a la carte), a dish often served at royal banquets. The beef tendons, sea cucumber, fish maw and quail egg are presented in a shimmering broth thickened with chicken fat, giving it a smooth, buttery texture.

Another course was chicken and braised pork belly whipped into clouds of egg whites floating in an equally rich broth with sea cucumbers. These are dishes Liu perfected when he trained and worked at Chinas famous Beijing Hotel, which is the storehouse for Tanjia cuisine of the late Qing dynasty.

The most dramatic presentation was a whole duck. The bird, with head intact, is boned without tearing the skin, stuffed with 10-treasure rice and then deep-fried and presented with a red bow tied around the center.

I saw a glint of a tear in Chiangs eye when the waiters presented glazed bananas for dessert, a dish she served at the Mandarin and one that is on the regular menu at Royal Feast. The fruit is covered in molten caramel and plunged in ice water table side to give it a glassy outer wall.

While many of the banquet dishes were specially made for the banquet, Liu is just as focused in his approach on the 140-item menu. I wasnt able to check out every dish, but I am able to surmise that I could return a dozen times, order something different and still be impressed. The only choice that was even slightly disappointing was the Sichuan-style dumplings ($7.95), which were still better than most Ive had in the Bay Area.

Ive had the five-spice beef shank ($7.95) at many restaurants. Here, we got more than two dozen slices of beef, and the interplay of meat and seasonings was in perfect harmony.

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

Even the simplest items take on a complexity, such as the quick-fried cabbage ($9.95), where the buzz of Sichuan peppercorns brought out the sweet components inherent in the vegetable.

Every dish, even the more rustic ones, has an uncharacteristic refinement often reflected in the distinctive sauces. In the cumin lamb with red and green peppers ($15.95), the pungent spices were so well integrated into the sauce that they supported, rather than overpowered, the thin slices of meat.

There was a creamy intensity to noodles with Madame Songs fish broth ($8.95), a classic Hangzhou specialty, where the mouth-filling texture hid the fire of the chiles so diners could taste every ingredient before the chiles assert themselves. Each bite was like a one-act play culminating in an explosive ending.

Braised duck presented on tofu rectangles ($18.95) was infused with a bold sauce made from beer. The gravy in the Sichuan-style beef stew ($12.95) was almost like an intricate French sauce.

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

In dish after dish, the comparison to French sauces seemed apt. Each was different, often spicy, but with a depth you only see at a four-star restaurant.

While Liu specializes in Sichuan dishes, he has the knowledge to intersperse other styles into the menu, a talent that few Chinese chefs in the Bay Area have achieved.

I think Thomas Keller would be impressed.

  

Royal Feast

Food:    

Service:   

Atmosphere:  

Price: $$

Noise: Four Bells

148 El Camino Real (at Millbrae Avenue) Millbrae; (650) 692-3388. Open daily 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. for lunch; 5-10 p.m. for dinner. Beer and wine. Call for reservations. Credit cards accepted. Street parking; small lot in back.
A former gastroenterologist at UC San Francisco has been charged with fraudulently prescribing and obtaining Ritalin, officials said Thursday.

Christian Mathy, 46, is accused of issuing 86 fraudulent Ritalin prescriptions over a three-year period using three aliases, according to District Attorney George Gascon.

The case came to the attention of authorities when one of the pharmacies where Mathy was filling prescriptions complained to UC police, who brought the matter to the attention of the district attorneys office, according to prosecutors.

Mathy, who attended the Duke University School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 10 years, according to his online profile on US News & World Report, was arrested last Friday on three counts of issuing a false prescription, three counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud,and three counts of forgery, according to the district attorneys office.

Mathy was placed on probation by the Medical Board of California in February after a complaint was filed against him alleging that he had been prescribing controlled substances  including Ritalin, Xanax, Atvian and Vicodin  to at least four fictitious patients for more than 10 years, state records show.

Mathy entered a not guilty plea on Thursday afternoon and is out on bail, according to prosecutors.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi
The suicide bombing that killed nearly two dozen people at an Ariana Grande concert in England this week weighed heavily on the minds of students at Sequoia High School in Redwood City on Thursday as they were taught how to save lives if ever caught in a similar mass-casualty scenario.

For two hours, the students learned the lessons of tying tourniquets and applying pressure to stop the bleeding of a gushing wound  emergency techniques made all the more relevant by the slaughter at the Manchester Arena more than 5,000 miles away.

The same thing keeps happening over and over again, said Roger Soriano, a 17-year-old junior at the school. Not only teenagers, but also adults, they should have an idea of what some of the things are they can do to alleviate some of the stress in a catastrophic event.

Though the classroom emergency drill was planned long in advance, this weeks deadly bombing upped the gravity of the curriculum.

As tables in the classroom were lined with artificial limbs that had lacerations and puncture and gunshot wounds, teacher Greg Schmid began the medical-clinic class by asking the 16 students to ponder the grim current events.

At your tables, talk about something thats happened recently thats brought our attention to natural disasters or man-made disasters, Schmid said.

In unison, the students replied, The Ariana Grande concert.

As part of a nationwide effort to train people, including students and teachers, to respond in mass casualties, Stanford Health Cares Stop the Bleed program brought a team of trauma surgeons and nurses to the school to instruct the students on how to pack wounds, use tourniquets and save lives until first responders arrive.

Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle

The training came three days after the Manchester mayhem left 22 people dead, including an 8-year-old girl, and injured 59 others. The terrorist group ISIS claimed responsibility in the attack.

Any training that we would do to prepare young people to be able to assist first responders during an emergency is important, said Schmid, who has been teaching at Sequoia High for two years. Empowering students to feel like they can contribute really impacts their self-esteem and self-confidence.

The medical-clinic class is part of Health Careers Academy, at Sequoia High, which prepares students interested in careers in the medical field and teaches them practical skills.

In class, Graeme Rosenberg, a third-year resident in general surgery, ran through a power-point presentation on how to take action until paramedics arrive.

I dont mean to scare you guys. At the end of this course, what I want is you to feel less scared. You can really make a difference, Rosenberg said, referencing instances where these skills could be applied, including the 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut where 20 children and six staffers were fatally shot.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Paul Kuroda/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of 5









As Rosenberg showed the students videos on the different types of bleeding  from blood spurting out to blood pooling on the ground  and how to pack wounds, Roger tapped his foot lightly, taking notes. Seated near several mannequins that displayed the human digestive system and brain, he raised his hand.

If you dont have gauze, what would be a good alternative? he asked.

Responding, Rosenberg said, Use what you have to pack the wounds. You can deal with dirt and debris later. You cant deal with six liters of blood on the ground.

Roger said he first became interested in medicine when his mother suffered a spinal-cord injury from falling when he was 8 years old.

It was kind of traumatic for me seeing her like that. During those times, it was really hard. Seeing her pain has inspired me to help people, the 17-year-old said.

He joined five of his classmates gathering around David Spain, the trauma medical director at Stanford Health Care, and practiced stuffing a long piece of gauze into a wound on a fake thigh.

Tuck it all inside, Spain instructed Roger as he quickly shoved as much gauze into the wound as he could, concentrating and balling the remaining gauze while using both his hands to apply pressure.

Whos next? Spain asked as the other students put on the blue, latex gloves provided to them. Get way in there.

Dez Frazier, a 17-year-old junior, said the training made him feel like he was prepared to handle stressful situations because the doctors grilled him with questions as he attempted to apply a tourniquet.

I was amazed. These are skills you only learn at hospitals and in college, beyond high school, he said. The instructors were challenging my thinking.

The students werent the only participants in the training.

Sean Priest, the school principal, got on his hands and knees as he applied a tourniquet to the leg of a dummy body, focusing as he strapped the Velcro.

When youre prepared to save someones life, it sets you up with a lot of confidence for anything that comes your way, Priest said.

At the end of the instruction, the students received a certificate for completing the demonstration training for bleeding control. They high-fived the doctors and some received congratulatory slaps on the back as the doctors jokingly welcomed them as members of the trauma unit.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @SarRavani
Refugee arrivals to the Bay Area and communities across the nation are plunging under the Trump administration, even as courts block the presidents effort to halt refugee resettlement, researchers said Thursday.

Nationwide, 3,316 refugees were admitted in April, down two-thirds from October, when 9,945 people were admitted, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Only four states saw an uptick in resettlements.

In California, 338 refugees arrived in April, down 58 percent from Octobers total of 814. The dip  which has alarmed advocates for refugees and prompted questions from some lawmakers  has been particularly striking in Alameda County, data show.

One of a handful of places in California that hosts a significant number of refugees, Alameda County typically welcomes people from Iran, Iraq, Eritrea and other countries plagued by war or human rights abuses. But while 70 refugees arrived between October and January, only nine came in February and March, according to the state Department of Social Services.

Its a shame, because people who are eligible for refugee status are the most highly vetted (for security threats) to come into the U.S. compared to other ways of entry, said Amy Weiss, director of refugee and immigrant services at the Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay, whose organization helps resettle refugees. It doesnt really make sense.

Though courts have so far blocked President Trumps executive orders  which seek to temporarily bar refugees as well as restrict U.S. entry from a half-dozen majority-Muslim countries  the administration sent a clear signal that it planned to bring in fewer refugees, said Karen Ferguson, the executive director of the International Rescue Committees Northern California chapter.

Because of that, she said, government agencies changed their operations and brought people in at a slower pace.

In order to start to align with the new presidential determination, there has been a decrease in arrivals. It really isnt more mysterious than that, Ferguson said, noting that the president has the power to determine the number of refugees allowed in the country, though he has not done so officially outside of the executive orders.

Among the few to make it to the Bay Area was a 28-year-old gay Iraqi named Ali who fled his home country for fear of being killed and came to the U.S. in March. Ali, who lives in the East Bay and asked that his full name be withheld, had been in limbo after Trump signed his first executive order in January, kicking off protests and the court challenges.

I lost hope, he said in a recent interview. It was a miracle when I was finally able to get on the plane. It was a dream to see the runway and take off.

Refugees became a key point of debate during the 2016 presidential campaign, with Trump at one point claiming that refugees from war-torn Syria represented a dangerous Trojan horse. In seeking to freeze the entry of refugees, the president cited security concerns and a need to strengthen vetting procedures for the new arrivals.

In his second executive order, signed in March, Trump sought to suspend the nations refugee program for 120 days and cut the number of refugees allowed every year to 50,000 from 110,000. But the order  like the first  was blocked by federal courts.

On Thursday, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., declined to reinstate the revised travel ban, saying it drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination. The administration will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Another ruling on the travel ban is expected soon from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Despite the administrations legal setbacks, We are still seeing drastic cuts in refugee arrivals and a near-total shutdown in refugee interviews, said Betsy Fisher, policy director of the International Refugee Assistance Project. The Departments of State and Homeland Security owe Congress and the American public an explanation of whether and how they are complying with a federal court order.

The slowdown prompted a group of both Democratic and Republican senators to send a letter this month to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly asking how the administration will handle the resettlement process in light of the court opinions.

Citing Homeland Security sources, the Washington Post reported that officials from the agency had ceased going abroad to do interviews of would-be refugees hoping to resettle in the U.S. The refugees must go through a comprehensive approval process  one that can take up to two years  that begins with being referred by the United Nations to the State Department for consideration.

From there, applicants go through interviews with multiple agencies, including Homeland Security.

So far in the 2017 fiscal year, which ends in September, more than 42,000 refugees have been admitted to the U.S.  well below the 110,000 that resettlement organizations had expected before the election, according to the Pew Research Center analysis.

If Trumps desired ceiling of 50,000 refugees were to be fulfilled this year, advocates said, many people would be left in difficult or deadly situations.

Thats 60,000 people who potentially may not be brought in  thats a significant change in the number of human beings brought into this country, said Ferguson of the International Rescue Committee. It can end up in a tragic result for those individuals  they are scraping for survival every day.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz
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Four letters scrawled across a rock might be the epitome of romance for a pubescent teen, but for park rangers, those four letters spell nuisance.

Such is the case for a recent "promposal"  an elaborate prom invitation  that employed some white spray paint and protected federal land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in Los Angeles County.

Earlier this week, law enforcement spotted a rock near Sandstone Peak scribbled with the phrase "PROM?" Beside the inquiry lay a ditched can of spray paint. The vandal and recipient of the promposal were nowhere to be found.

See also: Popping the promposal question

To make matters more bizarre, Park Ranger Zack Behrens says the exact same graffiti, in the same handwriting, appeared on the same rock at the same time last year. Behrens speculates that the perpetrator hit the same rock two years in a row, as many schools hold proms for juniors and seniors.

Behrens posted a photo of the graffiti on the recreation area's Facebook and Twitter with hopes of identifying the suspect. As he points out, "This graffiti was meant for an audience."

The ranger is also seizing the opportunity to make one point clear: "Graffiti is definitely not acceptable on national park lands."

According to Behrens, the punishment for defacing protected land varies  sometimes perpetrators receive a fine, sometimes they receive community service hours. Every time, suspects will receive a citation and a summons to appear before a federal judge.

Santa Monica Mountains is the most urban national park unit in the country, and Behrens says incidents of graffiti are common, and a drain on resources.

More importantly, Behrens says, "We're here to preserve these places for future generations. Part of that involves keeping the views and the nature intact."

A suspect in the promposal incident has yet to be identified or apprehended.

Those with information about the crime are asked to contact park dispatch at (661) 723-3620.

Read Michelle Robertsons latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.
Mustang Island, Texas, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

The first ever Texas Monthly Gulf Coast Show Home, a collaboration between Texas Monthly and Cinnamon Shore, a pedestrian-friendly planned community nestled behind 300 feet of protective dunes, opens to the public for home tours beginning Memorial Day through Labor Day. A percentage of tour ticket proceeds will benefit Animal Rehabilitation Keep (ARK) at University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTmsi) and Cinnamon Shore Giving Fund. Located at 200 Round Road in Cinnamon Shore on Mustang Island, the property is minutes away from Port Aransas and Corpus Christi.

The Texas Monthly Gulf Coast Show Home is all about inspiration, said Jeff Lamkin, Principal and Developer of Cinnamon Shore. Idea House Tour goers will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Mustang Island experience and lifestyle.

Cinnamon Shore and Texas Monthly are shining a light on the warm and welcoming Texas Coast with the development of the Texas Monthly Gulf Coast Show Home that highlights the unique advantages to owning a home in a community-driven, family-friendly beach environment. Cinnamon Shore offers first-class amenities including beautiful groomed beaches, pools, parks, stocked lakes, restaurants, kids camps, live music in the Town Center and more. A designated concierge offers homeowners scheduling services to the endless activities available on Mustang Island.

The multi-generational vacation home boasts clean lines, simple massing and understated, yet meticulous architecture, like the two-story wrap around porch that allows social interaction with the community as well as privacy, thanks to innovative wood screens that open and close. Combining classic building traditions with cutting-edge design and furnishings, the show home features sustainable interior and exterior building products that maximize new technologies. The main living space is on the second floor, with gathering space in the kitchen and family room, where timeless light fixtures in classic designs from Circa Lighting add panache and focal points within the soaring space. A third-floor suite guarantees a little peace-and-quiet, and a stairway and reliable, space-saving unit with custom-designed interiors from D&D Elevators, Inc., provides easy access to this getaway retreat. Downstairs, a kid-friendly bunkroom opens to a second living space, and a nearby bedroom allows adults to keep an eye on things. Sliding barn-style doors offer additional privacy and epitomize the homes hand-hewn character. Helping oversee the home from afar, the Carrier Cor Home Automation System allows remote monitoring through a mobile appan added level of security for such a well-designed home.

With interiors by celebrated designers from Brewer Designs, the custom-built home will be a private sanctuary with all the modern comforts and conveniences offered. The home is designed by Austin-based Architecture firm Davies Collaborative, and built by Legacy DCS. Davies Collaborative is known for creating distinctive, sustainable architecture that fosters community and maximizes energy efficiency. Legacy DCS is renowned for developing green homes and green communities by using sustainable building practices and earth-friendly products. The home design was certified platinum by the Coastal Bend Green Built sustainable building initiative, the highest level of compliance.

TEXAS MONTHLY GULF COAST SHOW HOME TOUR INFORMATION

Hours of Operation: Open Memorial Day through Labor Day; Tuesday  Sunday from 10am  5pm

Parking: Complimentary parking available on Grand Blvd.

Lodging: For lodging please visit http://reservations.cinnamonshore.com/ or call 361.749.0422

What Else To Do: World class coastal dining at Lisabellas in Cinnamon Shore, Schlitterbahn Water Park, Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Sandcastle building, deep sea fishing, live music and more.

We have enjoyed our partnership with our friends at Cinnamon Shore to create the first ever Texas Monthly Gulf Coast Home, said David B. Dunham, publisher of Texas Monthly. The home reflects the best of Texas great coastal traditions and is available for purchase to some lucky family.

About Cinnamon Shore:

Cinnamon Shore is a pedestrian-friendly planned community nestled behind 300 feet of protective dunes located on Mustang Island. Every detail of Cinnamon Shore was thoughtfully designed to embrace the beauty of Mustang Island and the slow-paced charm of a walking neighborhood with amenities including beautiful beaches, pools, parks, stocked lakes, restaurants, kids camps, a bustling town center and more. For more information, please visit http://www.cinnamonshore.com. Follow us: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (@cinnamonshore).

About Texas Monthly:

Texas Monthly is an award-winning general-interest magazine best-known for its longform journalism, political reporting, reader service, design, and photography. Texas Monthly has a circulation of 300,000 and is read by more than 2.7 million people each monthone out of every eight Texas adults. Texas Monthly is published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. Emmis owns and operates radio stations and other magazines.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ec52a4f0-899e-4362-a1fc-7f82fe90b919

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/476ef427-9a8d-4d50-be51-4d46e0f688d0
Cambridge is toying with us

Cambridge University has appointed its first professor of play, backed by Lego, whose miniature playing bricks are thought to help develop the skills required for careers in fields such as engineering and technology. Professor Paul Ramchandani will examine the role that recreational activity plays in equipping children with skills such as problem solving, teamwork and self-control, the British university said.

If you build a faster mousetrap ...

Amazon.com is experimenting in Seattle with letting some Prime customers pick up orders in as little as 15 minutes, which could impact rival retailers and grocers. A GeekWire story on trying AmazonFresh Pickup hints at the future for drive-throughs: Amazons sensor system can recognize a repeat users license plate, speeding up the process. (Yes, you can opt out if youre concerned about Big Brother.)

Hear here

The amount of money were going to have to spend to remove all those minarets and all that purple. Jesus! What were we thinking?

Thats from Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, on all the company is having to do to remake the former Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. By the time the casino reopens in summer of 2018, the minarets will be replaced with typical Hard Rock stuff, like its logo and lots of guitars.

Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle
Waymo says proof that its former engineer colluded with Uber to steal driverless-vehicle technology can probably be found in a report the ride-hailing company commissioned in anticipation of a lawsuit.

Now the Alphabet unit is fighting to get the document as it prepares for trial against Uber in a trade-secrets case that could influence who wins the race to market self-driving cars.

Its chances look good.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said at a hearing Thursday in San Francisco that based on her review of the document, its important and would need to be shared with Waymo unless theres good reason to keep it secret. She didnt reach any conclusion about whether Uber was justified in withholding it.

Since Waymo sued in February, Uber and engineer Anthony Levandowski have steadfastly refused to turn over a due diligence report evaluating the risks associated with Ubers acquisition of Otto, the company Levandowski formed days after he quit Waymo. They argue it cant be disclosed because it involves confidential communications between attorneys and clients.

Corley also said Ubers redactions to the documents that lay out the terms of the Otto acquisition raised a giant red flag.

What are you hiding? she said. What is the basis as you stand here today to continue to withhold that information from Waymo?

She ordered Uber to turn it over by the end of the day.

Waymo claims that in 2015, Levandowski and Uber hatched a plan for him to steal more than 14,000 proprietary files, including the designs for lidar technology that helps driverless cars see their surroundings. Levandowski left Waymo in January 2016. Uber bought Otto in August for $680 million.

Wells Fargo

may pay more

Wells Fargo & Co. may have to cough up more than the $142 million it agreed to in order to settle a bevy of class-action lawsuits in connection with its unauthorized-accounts scandal.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said late Wednesday in San Francisco that he would approve a settlement reached by the bank and plaintiffs attorneys, but only if they agree to several conditions, including a guarantee that all customers will be fully compensated for their losses.

The two sides had previously agreed that the bank would pay $142 million to compensate customers for fees and other damages related to millions of unauthorized checking, savings and credit card accounts.

But at a hearing last week, Chhabria had said the proposed sum, while potentially more than enough, could fall short and leave customers in the lurch.

In a filing late Wednesday, Chhabria laid out 11 conditions, including the guarantee, and gave the bank and plaintiffs attorneys two weeks to come back with an amended deal.

Legislation

Bar-hours bill

edges forward

A bill that would allow cities to extend the hours bars can serve alcohol is one step closer to the governors desk.

The bill, which state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced in February, advanced from the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday and is headed to a vote on the Senate floor next week.

The bill would allow bars and restaurants to serve alcohol between 2 and 4 a.m. with the appropriate permits and approval from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. If approved, it will proceed to the Assembly  the furthest a bill of its kind has made it in the Legislature since Prohibition, according to its backers.

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California officials will soon inspect the headquarters of Ubers self-driving-truck division, formerly known as Otto, to help settle a lingering question  whether the companys tests on public roads violate state regulations.

Representatives of the Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Highway Patrol plan to visit the San Francisco facility sometime in the coming weeks, a DMV spokesman said Friday. The specific date has not been set.

Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint with the department in February, arguing that Ottos tests of self-driving trucks on the freeways around San Francisco broke state rules governing autonomous vehicles. Those regulations dictate that vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds shall not be approved for testing as autonomous vehicles on public roads, and tractor cabs typically weigh 15,000 pounds or more.

Ride service Uber, which bought Otto for $680 million last year, argues that the trucks should not be considered autonomous because they require someone behind the wheel ready to take control as needed. And yet, all companies currently testing self-driving cars on California roads follow that same protocol.

Department spokesman Artemio Armenta said DMV officials had a productive meeting with Uber executives in February. The company, he said, maintained that the technology should be considered a kind of advanced driver-assistance system, rather than something that can fully control a truck.

The DMV will be conducting a site visit with CHP to see the capabilities of Ottos trucks in person within the next few weeks, Armenta said in an email.

An Uber spokeswoman said the company maintains an open invitation for policymakers from across the country to visit the facility.

We look forward to hosting DMV and CHP when they decide to accept our invitation, the spokeswoman said in an email.

Forbes reported Friday that Uber recently dropped the Otto name, following a lawsuit from Canadian company Otto Motors, which makes robotic vehicles that operate inside factories and warehouses. The truck operation is now part of Ubers Advanced Technology Group.

Uber has clashed with the DMV before over self-driving technology.

In December, the company started offering rides in self-driving cars in San Francisco without obtaining a permit from the DMV. When the department insisted that Uber get a permit first, the company shipped its cars to Arizona. In March, however, Uber applied for and obtained a DMV permit to test autonomous cars in California.

Otto was founded last year by a veteran of Googles self-driving car program, Anthony Levandowski, and was quickly snapped up by Uber. But that purchase has come back to haunt the company.

Googles program, now spun off as a company called Waymo, sued Uber in February, accusing Levandowski of stealing Waymos proprietary designs for lidar, a laser sensor used by most autonomous vehicles. This month the judge hearing the high-stakes case said it should be decided by a jury, and he barred Levandowski from working on lidar technology for Uber. The company, in turn, ordered Levandowski to turn over any purloined documents or swear under oath that he hadnt stolen anything.

David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
The California Air Resources Board has asked Volkswagen to do a better job of explaining how the automakers plan to spend $200 million to boost the adoption of zero-emission vehicles will benefit lower-income communities.

Volkswagen has pledged to invest a total of $800 million over the next 10 years in California  and $2 billion nationally  to promote zero-emission vehicles as part of the settlement stemming from companys emissions-cheating scandal.

In addition to installing electric-vehicle charging stations, VW has proposed funding educational campaigns and a $44 million green city in Sacramento to showcase the benefits of zero-emission vehicles.

From the outset, the air board recommended that VW earmark 35 percent of the $200 million for disadvantaged, low-income, underserved and disproportionately impacted communities.

But a draft of the companys investment plan, which must be approved by the Air Resources Board, was beset by criticism from elected officials, regulators and advocacy organizations who claimed that lower-income areas, particularly in the Central Valley, were being overlooked.

Under the proposal, most of the charging stations would be concentrated in affluent cities like San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles  places with existing charging infrastructure and communities of electric-vehicle drivers. Other charging stations would be placed along major highways, but few were due to be put in the centers of lower-income cities, which critics say is essential to spurring the adoption of zero-emission in those communities.

This week, the board sent a letter to VW requesting that the automaker provide more detail on how the company plans to meet the 35 percent target, calling it a critical issue.

I think the message was sent that, Heres what wed like you to return with, and hopefully VW gets it. The letter was pretty specific, said Dean Florez, a member of the air board. We want to make sure the money is invested in the most equitable way for communities who really need to move into this new area of electric vehicles. Im proud of the board and our staff for pushing back.

A VW spokeswoman wrote in an email that the company is reviewing the letter we have received from (the air board) about the plan for the first cycle of investment.

California legislators also put pressure on VW this week to meet the 35 percent investment recommendation for underserved communities. On Tuesday, the Assembly budget committee for resources and transportation adopted language that would force the air board to accept VWs investment plan only if it meets the 35 percent target, among other stipulations.

The current version of VWs plan appears to have missed the mark in terms of alignment with Californias priorities especially as it relates to investments in disadvantaged communities, the subcommittee wrote.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
Its too late to invest in Airbnb but a company that bills itself as the Airbnb of cloud computer storage is raising cash  and anyone with an Internet connection can get in on the action.

Storj Labs is selling digital coins at 50 cents apiece to raise $30 million in an early-stage financing round. In just five days, hundreds of contributors signed up for a piece of what they hope will be the next Silicon Valley unicorn. But theres a catch  unlike traditional venture capital investments, the tokens dont confer a claim on Storjs equity or future profits.

Instead, the tokens value derives from their utility in the firms app, by providing access to data storage on a distributed network. They are the latest entry in the growing ledger of cryptocurrencies, digital coins that unlock myriad apps across the computing world. The coins can be traded on dozens of online exchanges, and demand for all sorts of them has exploded as people speculate on the next big tech startup.

The average investor is missing out on the Ubers and Airbnbs of the world, said Bart Stephens, a managing partner at Blockchain Capital, a venture capital firm that has invested in blockchain-related startups since 2012. If the next Uber decides to issue tokens, that would be an opportunity for more investors to get access to the most exciting technologies out there.

The Storj sale is known as an initial coin offering, a model of finance spreading across the tech sector. Investors spent $332 million on tokens in the past year, more than double what venture investors handed over in seed rounds, according to data compiled by coin-focused blog the Control. The haul is slated to hit $600 million in 2017, it says, adding to a market for tokens thats nearly tripled in a year.

Such offerings are possible thanks to blockchain, the catchall term for a digital ledger that promises incorruptible storage of financial transactions. Banks and stock exchanges have spent millions on it, looking for ways to cut the costs for transferring money or recording equity sales. One of the latest to back the technology was the chief executive officer of Fidelity Investments, Abigail Johnson. Most famously, its the technology that underpins bitcoin  just as it does for every token offered in a coin offering.

Their huge increase in popularity has more than a few detractors warning of a bubble, worried that the allure of finding the next tech lottery ticket is fueling rampant speculation. The concern is particularly acute at a time when investors are fretting about stretched valuations for tech startups, with the likes of Uber commanding multibillion-dollar price tags even as they burn through cash.

Take Gnosis, a prediction market application based on the Ethereum blockchain that raised $12.5 million in 12 minutes on April 24, resulting in a market capitalization of almost $300 million. It generates no revenue and has little more than a white paper describing what it intends to do. Yet its tokens, which would allow users to bet on things such as election outcomes, soared eightfold in the three weeks since May 2, giving it a valuation of over $2 billion  more than the average Russell 2000 Index stock.

Gnosis growth is just part of the craze thats gripped the cryptocurrency market in the last month, with the price of bitcoin gaining more than 30 percent last week, to more than $2,500. That has pushed the market capitalization of digital currencies more than 50 percent higher to more than $90 billion.

Even after that, the market is still relatively small, though its taking steps toward maturity as the boom in coin offerings spreads. There are places to track historical prices and volume, and reports on individual offerings to help prospective buyers assess a firms prospects.

The offerings happen outside the purview of regulators  quite by design  because technically, the coins are part of the app and not securities. Initial coin offerings dont have disclosure requirements, and the issuer can accept an unlimited number of investors, instead of the limit of 99 vetted investors in traditional venture funding rounds.

But the marketplace has also been a breeding ground for scams, and some coins have turned out to be vulnerable to attacks. Hackers were able to steal $50 million from a fund called Decentralized Autonomous Organization after it raised $150 million in the biggest offering ever in April 2016.

For entrepreneurs, the appeal is obvious. A white paper published online replaces weeks of pitches to venture capital firms, followed by an online auction that can take minutes. The technology can be poked and prodded by geeks around the world, providing a depth of expertise often missing at even the best tech firms.

You dont have to limit yourself, said Jae Kwon, who raised $16.8 million in a coin sale for Cosmos, which provides custodian-like service for transactions in different blockchains. There are just not that many VCs and theyre not experts. People who contributed to our fundraiser are the experts.
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Carnaval San Francisco is a steady tradition in the city, celebrating 39 years of music, dancing, food, drink and art.

Carnaval shuts down several city blocks in the Mission, offering a mostly volunteer-run, family-friendly, multicultural celebration of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other cultures.

The festival is set for Saturday-Sunday, May 27-28, with the Grand Parade as the main event. The parade, led by Grammy-nominated percussionist John Santos and dancer Blanche Brown, begins at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, and the theme this year is El Corazon de San Pancho  The Heart of San Francisco.

 Peter Hartlaub

Carnaval San Francisco: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, May 27-28. Free. Harrison Street, between 16th and 24th streets, S.F. (415) 206-0577. www.carnavalsanfrancisco.org
In ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC patients, Zykadia median progression-free survival (PFS) was 16.6 months, compared to 8.1 months with chemotherapy [1]



The overall intracranial response rate in patients with measurable brain metastases was 57% for patients treated with Zykadia, compared to 22% for patients treated with chemotherapy [1]



Approval provides a new treatment option for previously untreated patients

Basel, May 26, 2017 - Novartis today announced the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the expanded use of Zykadia (ceritinib) to include the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive, as detected by an FDA-approved test. Zykadia first received accelerated approval in 2014 for patients with ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC who progressed on or are intolerant to crizotinib. In January 2017, the FDA granted Zykadia Breakthrough Therapy designation for the first-line treatment of patients with ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC with metastases to the brain, and Priority Review for first-line ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC.

The first-line approval of Zykadia is based on results from an open-label, randomized, multicenter, global, Phase III trial, ASCEND-4. The study demonstrated that patients treated with first-line Zykadia had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 16.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 12.6, 27.2), compared to 8.1 months (95% CI: 5.8, 11.1) for patients treated with standard first-line pemetrexed-platinum chemotherapy with pemetrexed maintenance[1].

Overall intracranial response rate (OIRR) in patients with measurable brain metastases was 57% (95% CI: 37, 76; n = 28) for patients treated with Zykadia, versus 22% (95% CI: 9, 42; n = 27) for patients treated with chemotherapy[1]. The whole body overall response rate (ORR) was 73% (95% CI: 66, 79; n = 187) in patients treated with Zykadia[1].

"Today's approval represents the next step in the development of Zykadia as a treatment option for ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC, bringing this important medication to a patient population where a need still exists," said Bruno Strigini, CEO, Novartis Oncology. "At Novartis, we are tireless in our pursuit of developing novel medicines to treat lung cancer, and the first-line approval of Zykadia for ALK-positive metastatic NSCLC illustrates our commitment to cancer patients."

Approximately 3-7% of all patients with NSCLC have an ALK gene rearrangement[2]. An FDA-approved test at the time of diagnosis may help to determine the presence of this mutation and, thus, the most appropriate treatment option[3].

Novartis Commitment to Lung Cancer

Worldwide, lung cancer causes more deaths than colon, breast and prostate cancer combined, and an estimated 1.8 million new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed each year[4],[5]. Among patients with NSCLC, roughly 25% have an actionable mutation that may be targeted with available therapies[6].

Over the past decade, Novartis Oncology's research has supported the evolution of treatment approaches for patients living with mutation-driven types of lung cancer. The company continues its commitment to the global lung cancer community through ongoing studies, as well as the exploration of investigational compounds that target genomic biomarkers in NSCLC.

About ASCEND-4

ASCEND-4 is a Phase III randomized, open-label, multicenter, global clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Zykadia compared to standard chemotherapy, including maintenance, in adult patients with Stage IIIB or IV ALK-positive advanced NSCLC who received no prior therapy for their advanced disease. Patients received Zykadia orally at 750 mg/daily or standard pemetrexed-based platinum doublet chemotherapy (pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 plus cisplatin 75 mg/m2 or carboplatin AUC 5-6) for four cycles followed by pemetrexed maintenance.

Of 376 patients, 189 (59 with brain metastases) were randomized to Zykadia and 187 (62 with brain metastases) to chemotherapy[1]. Approximately 70% of patients with measurable brain metastases at baseline did not have prior radiation therapy, the current standard of treatment for baseline brain metastases[1]. Among patients randomized to the chemotherapy arm, 43% received Zykadia as their next treatment after platinum-based chemotherapy[1].

Patients treated with first-line Zykadia had a median PFS of 16.6 months (95% CI: 12.6, 27.2), compared to 8.1 months (95% CI: 5.8, 11.1) for patients treated with standard first-line pemetrexed-platinum chemotherapy with pemetrexed maintenance[1]. A 45% risk reduction in PFS was obtained in the Zykadia arm compared to the chemotherapy arm (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.55 [95% CI: 0.42, 0.73; one-sided p value <0.0001])[1].

Patients without brain metastases at screening receiving Zykadia experienced a median PFS of 26.3 months (95% CI: 15.4, 27.7), compared with 8.3 months (95% CI: 6.0, 13.7) among patients treated with chemotherapy (HR = 0.48 [95% CI: 0.33, 0.69])[7]. Among patients with brain metastases at screening, the median PFS was 10.7 months (95% CI: 8.1, 16.4) in the Zykadia group versus 6.7 months (95% CI: 4.1, 10.6) in the chemotherapy group (HR = 0.70 [95% CI: 0.44, 1.12])[7].

The most common adverse reactions in ASCEND-4 (incidence >=25% all grades) were diarrhea (85%), nausea (69%), vomiting (67%), fatigue (45%), abdominal pain (40%), decreased appetite (34%) and cough (25%)[1]. In ASCEND-4, Grade 3/4 adverse reactions (incidence >=2%) were fatigue (7%), vomiting (5%), diarrhea (4.8%), abdominal pain (3.7%), weight loss (3.7%), nausea (2.6%) and prolonged QT interval (2.6%)[1]. The most common laboratory abnormalities in ASCEND-4 (incidence >=25% all grades) were increased ALT/AST (91%/86%), increased GGT (84%), increased alkaline phosphatase (81%), creatinine increase (77%), anemia (67%), hyperglycemia (53%), decreased phosphate (38%), increased amylase (37%) and neutropenia (27%)[1]. In ASCEND-4, Grade 3/4 laboratory abnormalities (incidence >=2%) were increased GGT (49%), ALT/AST (34%/21%), increased alkaline phosphatase (12%), hyperglycemia (10%), increased amylase (8%), increase lipase (6%), creatinine increase (4.2%), anemia (4.2%), decreased phosphate (3.7%) and neutropenia (2.1%)[1].

About Zykadia

Zykadia is an oral, selective inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), a gene that can fuse with others to form an abnormal "fusion protein" that promotes the development and growth of certain tumors in cancers including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Zykadia is currently approved in over 69 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.hcp.novartis.com/products/zykadia/ for additional information.

Zykadia Important Safety Information

Zykadia may cause serious side effects.

Zykadia may cause stomach upset and intestinal problems in most patients, including diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach-area pain. These problems can be severe. Patients should follow their doctor's instructions about taking medicines to help these symptoms, and should call their doctor for advice if symptoms are severe or do not go away.

Zykadia may cause severe liver injury. Patients should have blood tests prior to the start of treatment with Zykadia, every two weeks for the first month of treatment and monthly thereafter, and should talk to their doctor right away if they experience any of the following symptoms: tiredness (fatigue), itchy skin, yellowing of the skin or the whites of the eyes, nausea or vomiting, decreased appetite, pain on the right side of the abdomen, urine turns dark or brown, or bleeding or bruising more easily than normal.

Zykadia may cause severe or life-threatening swelling (inflammation) of the lungs during treatment that can lead to death. Symptoms may be similar to those symptoms from lung cancer. Patients should tell their doctor right away about any new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing or shortness of breath, fever, cough, with or without mucous, or chest pain.

Zykadia may cause very slow, very fast, or abnormal heartbeats. Doctors should check their patient's heart during treatment with Zykadia. Patients should tell their doctor right away if they feel new chest pain or discomfort, dizziness or lightheadedness, faint, or have abnormal heartbeats, blue discoloration of lips, shortness of breath, swelling of lower limbs or skin, or if they start to take or have any changes in heart or blood pressure medicines.

Zykadia may cause high levels of glucose in the blood. People who have diabetes or glucose intolerance, or who take a corticosteroid medicine have an increased risk of high blood sugar with Zykadia. Patients should have glucose blood tests prior to the start of treatment with Zykadia and during treatment. Patients should follow their doctor's instructions about blood sugar monitoring and call their doctor right away with any symptoms of high blood sugar, including increased thirst and/or urinating often.

Zykadia may cause high levels of pancreatic enzymes in the blood and may cause pancreatitis. Patients should have blood tests prior to the start of treatment with Zykadia and as needed during their treatment with Zykadia. Patients should talk to their doctor if they experience signs and symptoms of pancreatitis which including upper abdominal pain that may spread to the back and get worse with eating.

Before patients take Zykadia, they should tell their doctor about all medical conditions, including liver problems; diabetes or high blood sugar; heart problems, including a condition called long QT syndrome; if they are pregnant, if they think they may be pregnant, or if they plan to become pregnant; are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed.

Zykadia may harm unborn babies. Women who are able to become pregnant must use a highly effective method of birth control (contraception) during treatment with Zykadia and up to 3 months after stopping Zykadia. Patients and their doctor should decide whether to take Zykadia or breastfeed, but should not do both.

Patients should tell their doctor about medicines they take, including prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and herbal supplements.

The most common adverse reactions with an incidence of >=10% diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, liver laboratory test abnormalities, fatigue, abdominal pain, decreased appetite, weight decreased constipation, blood creatinine increased, rash, anemia, and esophageal disorder. Grade 3-4 adverse reactions with an incidence of >=5% were fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss, nausea, and prolonged QT Interval.

Patients should stop taking Zykadia and seek medical help immediately if they experience any of the following, which may be signs of an allergic reaction:

Difficulty in breathing or swallowing

Swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat

Severe itching of the skin, with a red rash or raised bumps

Patients should tell their doctor of any side effect that bothers them or does not go away. These are not all of the possible side effects of Zykadia. For more information, patients should ask their doctor or pharmacist.

Patients should take Zykadia exactly as their health care provider tells them. Patients should not change their dose or stop taking Zykadia unless their health care provider advises them to. Zykadia should be taken once a day on an empty stomach. Patients should not eat for at least 2 hours before and 1 hour after taking Zykadia. If a dose of Zykadia is missed, they should take it as soon as they remember. If their next dose is due within the next 12 hours, they should skip the missed dose and take the next dose at their regular time. They should not take a double dose to make up for a forgotten dose. Patients should not drink grapefruit juice or eat grapefruit during treatment with Zykadia, as it may make the amount of Zykadia in their blood increase to a harmful level. If patients have to vomit after swallowing Zykadia capsules, they should not take more capsules until their next scheduled dose.

Please see full Prescribing Information for Zykadia.

Disclaimer

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by words such as "Breakthrough Therapy designation," "next step," "tireless," "commitment," "ongoing," "investigational," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential new indications or labeling for Zykadia, or regarding potential future revenues from Zykadia. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of management regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that Zykadia will be submitted or approved for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that Zykadia will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding Zykadia could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the company's ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; general economic and industry conditions; global trends toward health care cost containment, including ongoing pricing and reimbursement pressures; safety, quality or manufacturing issues, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2016, the Group achieved net sales of USD 48.5 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis and @NovartisCancer at http://twitter.com/novartiscancer.

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit www.novartis.com/news/media-library

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com

References

[1] Zykadia (ceritinib) Full Prescribing Information.

[2] Lovly, C., L. Horn, W. Pao. 2016. Molecular Profiling of Lung Cancer. My Cancer Genome. https://www.mycancergenome.org/content/disease/lung-cancer/. (Updated March 28). Accessed March 22, 2017.

[3] Lindeman, N.I., et al. Molecular Testing Guideline for Selection of Lung Cancer Patients for EGFR and ALK Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2013; 137: 828-1174.

[4] World Health Organization. International Agency for Research on Cancer. GLOBOCAN 2012: Estimated Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Prevalence Worldwide in 2012. Lung Cancer. Available at http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/fact_sheets_cancer.aspx?cancer=lung. Accessed March 22, 2017.

[5] Riess JW, Wakelee, HA. Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Management: Novel Targets and Recent Clinical Advances. Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology. 2012; 10: 226-224.

[6] Korpanty, G.J., et al. Biomarkers that currently affect clinical practice in lung cancer: EGFR, ALK, MET, ROS-1, and KRAS. Frontiers in Oncology. 2014; 4: 204.

[7] Soria JC, et al. First-line ceritinib versus platinum-based chemotherapy in advanced ALK-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer (ASCEND-4): A randomized, open-label Phase 3 study. The Lancet. 2017; 389(10072):917-929.





# # #

Novartis Media Relations

Central media line: +41 61 324 2200

E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com

Eric Althoff

Novartis Global Media Relations

+41 61 324 7999 (direct)

+41 79 593 4202 (mobile)

eric.althoff@novartis.com Kristen Klasey

Novartis Oncology

+1 862 778 4763 (direct)

+1 862 754 1732 (mobile)

kristen.klasey@novartis.com

Novartis Investor Relations

Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944

E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com
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This summer, Disneyland guests will see the return of two classic beloved attractions and the opening of one brand new one.

Over Memorial Day weekend, the new Guardians of the Galaxy attraction will open in the former Tower of Terror hotel space at the California Adventure theme park. In the ride, guests join Rocket, the gun-wielding, lab-enhanced raccoon, as he attempts to rescue his friends and fellow Guardians Star-Lord, Baby Groot, and Gamora, Drax from the Collector's Fortress.

The ride features lifts and drops on a gantry lift  not unlike the elevator movements on the former Tower of Terror ride  while the Guardians make their escape. The adventure is, of course, soundtracked to classic pop songs by Steppenwolf, the Jackson 5, and Pat Benatar.

However, not all guests will experience the ride the same way. As Estefania Harbuck, a Creative Producer with Walt Disney Imagineering explains, there are a bunch of totally different shows on the ride.

"Guardians of the Galaxy  Mission: BREAKOUT! has six different shows, each one set to a different pop song and each one with a different mix of media scenes," she says. "These shows will play randomly so guests won't know what they're going to get until they get on the ride and hear the song start."

Disneyland also has plans to reopen updated the Rivers of America and the Disneyland Railroad.

The Rivers of America, paying homage to the American Mississippi, Missouri, Rio Grande, and Columbia rivers, will add a new Columbia Gorge section and five new waterfalls. Additionally, the "Indian Village" section will feature a more prominently placed Shaman, "seen telling the story of how the hummingbird taught the Indian chief to make a flute."

There's no word yet when those two classic attractions will re-open, other than a note that it will be sometime this summer.

See photos from the new and updated attractions in the above gallery.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


There are dozens of critically lauded, extremely popular bars in San Francisco, so it's especially an honor when a publication dedicated to all things cool  Esquire Magazine  plucks just one and adds it to the ranks of their Best Bars in America.

This week, two editors, Jeff Gordinier and Kevin Sintumuang, added 24 bars across the country into what they call their "growing Hall of Fame" of best bars in the country.

But the bar might not be what you first think. It's not on Eater's Cocktail Heat Map, which includes such new and trendy bars like Pagan Idol, Wildhawk and Anina. It's not even on Yelp's list of the 10 best cocktail bars in San Francisco, which lists ABV, Holy Water and Trick Dog among the city's finest.

Nope. Their pick, Bar Agricole, is an established classic, at least by San Francisco standards. Here, the bar and restaurant, situated on 11th Street across from Slim's, is lauded for its "agrarian" approach to classic cocktails. Here's Sintumuang's writeup, which precedes a recommendation to get the oysters:

It is good to be reminded, every once in a while, that booze is an agrarian product. Which is why whenever I'm in San Francisco, I find my way to Bar Agricole (translation: Farm Bar). To start: the Ti' Punch, a simple classic that consists of nothing but sugar, the pith of a lemon, and a rhum agricole from Martinique that has that whiff of freshly cut sugarcane. Then wind your way through other rums and calvadoses that capture the essence of the earthly products they were born from. It'll make you swear off the industrially produced stuff.

Interested tipplers take note: come prepared to splurge. The bar menu is not cheap; cocktails there will set you back $12-$15 a glass.

Note: Esquire is a Hearst publication.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


CALADESI ISLAND, FLA.  Kaylee Sturm sat in the low surf, the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico lapping around her.

The University of Tampa senior had never been to this barrier island north of Clearwater, but she and her mom were immediately impressed.

"I like that it's natural," Sturm said, adding that she preferred it to other Gulf Coast beaches. "The water's just more beautiful here."

It's an assessment with which Stephen P. Leatherman would agree. Leatherman, a Florida International University professor dubbed "Dr. Beach," picked Caladesi Island as the best beach in the 2008 ranking for his annual list. Caladesi beat out beaches in Hawaii, along the Eastern Seaboard and in California for this year's honor.

Runners-up on Leatherman's list of best beaches:

 Hanalei Beach, Hawaii

 Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Fla.

 Coopers Beach in Southampton, N.Y.

 Coronado Beach in San Diego

 Main Beach in East Hampton, N.Y.

 Hamoa Beach, Hawaii

 Cape Hatteras, N.C.

 Cape Florida State Park near Miami

 Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island, S.C.

Caladesi's somewhat remote location factored into Leatherman's rankings  and why Sturm and her mother, Cynde Jayden, were awed by it.

"It's an island getaway," said Leatherman, who has released his annual list since 1991.

He noted that despite being in the densely populated Tampa Bay area, many nearby residents have never visited Caladesi.

Most beach goers reach the island by a 15-minute, $9 ferry ride. Visitors  unless they bring their own boat  are limited to four-hour stays at the beach, which is a state park.

While more remote than the tourist mainstays of Clearwater or Miami, Caladesi still boasts showers, restrooms, kayak and beach chair rentals, and a snack bar where burgers and beer are available.

The waves are generally low on Caladesi, which Leatherman said adds to its family-friendly atmosphere. He uses 50 criteria  including quality tests on water, sand and amenities  to make his assessments.

"It's not just about going out and kicking sand," Leatherman said.
LONDON  Four days after a suicide bombing plunged Britain into mourning, political campaigning for a general election in two weeks resumed Friday with the main opposition leader linking acts of terrorism at home to foreign wars like the one in Libya.

Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn risked being assailed for politicizing the Manchester Arena attack that killed 22 people by saying that his party would change Britains foreign policy if it takes power after the June 8 vote by abandoning the war on terror.

Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home, Corbyn said in his first speech since Monday nights atrocity.

National campaigning had been on hold to honor the victims of the arena bombing.

Salman Abedi, the bomber who struck the Ariana Grande concert, had strong links to Libya. His parents were born and lived there before moving to Britain in the early 1990s. They eventually returned with several of their six children, and Abedi traveled there to visit his family on occasion.

Defense Secretary Michael Fallon was quick to attack Corbyn for his comments.

Jeremy Corbyn could be prime minister of our country in less than two weeks time, yet he has said only days after one of the worst terrorist atrocities this country has ever known that terror attacks in Britain are our own fault, Fallon said.

While Corbyn faces criticism for his comments, he is trying to win back the many Labor supporters who turned away from the party in the aftermath of then Prime Minister Tony Blairs decision to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Blairs backing of President George W. Bush brought more than 1 million protesters into the streets. When the rationale for war failed to pan out because weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, Blairs popularity faded badly after a string of election victories.

When home-grown terrorists attacked London subway and bus lines in 2005, some blamed Britains involvement in the Iraq war. Corbyns speech reflects the view that Britains actions overseas are at least in part responsible for the increase in extremist attacks.

The Labor Party under Corbyn has consistently trailed Prime Minister Theresa Mays Conservatives in the polls, but has begun to make gains in the last week. It is unclear how the worst attack in Britain in more than a decade will impact voter sentiment.

British police investigating the Manchester bombing made a new arrest Friday.

A total of eight men are being held on suspicion of offenses violating the Terrorism Act.

Authorities are chasing possible links between the Abedi and militants in Manchester, elsewhere in Europe, and in North Africa and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Ariana Grande says she will return to Manchester for a benefit concert to raise money for the victims and their families.

Gregory Katz and Rob Harris are Associated Press writers.
WASHINGTON  Investigators are focusing on a series of meetings held by Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and an influential White House adviser, as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and related matters, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner, who held meetings in December with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, is being investigated because of the extent and nature of his interactions with the Russians, the people said.

The Washington Post reported last week that a senior White House official close to the president was a significant focus of the high-stakes investigation, though it did not name Kushner.

FBI agents also remain keenly interested in former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, but Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe.

The Post has not been told that Kushner is a target  or the central focus  of the investigation, and he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Target is a word that generally refers to someone who is the main suspect of investigators attention, though prosecutors can and do bring charges against people who are not marked with that distinction.

Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, said Jamie Gorelick, one of his attorneys.

In addition to possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, investigators are also looking broadly into possible financial crimes  but the people familiar with the matter did not specify who or what was being examined.

At the time of the December meetings, Trump already had won the election. Contacts between people on the transition team and foreign governments can be routine, but the meetings and phone calls with the Russians were not made public at the time.

In early December, Kushner met in New York with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and he later sent a deputy to meet with Kislyak again.

Kushner also met in December with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russias annexation of Crimea and its support of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Matt Zapotosky, Sari Horwitz, Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous are Washington Post writers.
SPARTANBURG, S.C.  A South Carolina man who admitted killing seven people over nearly 13 years while running a successful real estate business pleaded guilty Friday to seven counts of murder and other charges.

Todd Kohlhepp admitted his role in the deaths less than seven months after he was arrested when investigators checking on a missing couple rescued a woman chained inside a shipping container on Kohlhepps Spartanburg County property.

The woman had been raped and locked inside the container for more than two months after Kohlhepp shot and killed her boyfriend, authorities said. Charles David Carter, 32, was the last of the seven murder victims.

According to the plea agreement, Kohlhepp, 44, will serve seven consecutive life terms plus 60 years on kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges. He will not be eligible for parole, and he also agreed not to appeal the sentence.

Kohlhepp admitted Friday that he killed four workers at Superbike Motorsports motorcycle store in Chesnee in 2003 after the manager made him angry. The victims were the owner, Scott Ponder, 30; Beverly Guy, 52; Brian Lucas, 30; and Chris Sherbert, 26.

Kohlhepp also admitted guilt in the deaths of a husband and wife who disappeared in December 2015. The bodies of Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, and Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, 26, were found on Kohlhepps land after his arrest. The couple had been hired to do work on Kohlhepps property.

Kohlhepp was eligible for the death penalty, but the plea deal took that off the table.

Jeffrey Collins is an Associated Press writer.
A 50-year-old man was rushed to a hospital Thursday after being shot at a Muni bus stop in the Portola district of San Francisco, police said.

The victim, whose names was not released, was shot about 10:30 p.m. when a man he was arguing with at the 9-San Bruno stop on San Bruno and Silver avenues pulled a gun and opened fire, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
BELGRADE, Mont., May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xtant Medical Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT:XTNT), a leader in the development of regenerative medicine products and medical devices, today announced that its board of directors has rescheduled the Company's annual meeting of stockholders, originally scheduled for June 21, 2017, to a later date, as the Company continues to evaluate its strategic alternatives. The Company will announce a new annual meeting date and record date when they are determined by the board of directors, and will subsequently file and mail proxy materials as required.



About Xtant Medical Holdings, Inc.

Xtant Medical Holdings, Inc. (NYSE MKT:XTNT) develops, manufactures and markets class-leading regenerative medicine products and medical devices for domestic and international markets. Xtant products serve the specialized needs of orthopedic and neurological surgeons, including orthobiologics for the promotion of bone healing, implants and instrumentation for the treatment of spinal disease, tissue grafts for the treatment of orthopedic disorders, and biologics to promote healing following cranial, and foot and ankle surgeries. With core competencies in both biologic and non-biologic surgical technologies, Xtant can leverage its resources to successfully compete in global neurological and orthopedic surgery markets. For further information, please visit www.xtantmedical.com.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain disclosures that may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "continue," "efforts," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," "strategy," "will," "goal," "target," "prospects," "potential," "optimistic," "confident," "likely," "probable" or similar expressions or the negative thereof.

Statements of historical fact also may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. We caution that these statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors, including, among others: the ability to comply with covenants in the Companys senior credit facility and to make deferred interest payments; the ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to fund operations; the ability to remain listed on the NYSE MKT; the ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms; the ability to increase revenue; the ability to continue as a going concern; the ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to fund operations; the ability to achieve expected results; the ability to remain competitive; government regulations; the ability to innovate and develop new products; the ability to obtain donor cadavers for products; the ability to engage and retain qualified technical personnel and members of the Companys management team; the availability of Company facilities; government and third-party coverage and reimbursement for Company products; the ability to obtain regulatory approvals; the ability to successfully integrate recent and future business combinations or acquisitions; the ability to use net operating loss carry-forwards to offset future taxable income; the ability to deduct all or a portion of the interest payments on the notes for U.S. federal income tax purposes; the ability to service Company debt; product liability claims and other litigation to which we may be subjected; product recalls and defects; timing and results of clinical studies; the ability to obtain and protect Company intellectual property and proprietary rights; infringement and ownership of intellectual property; the ability to remain accredited with the American Association of Tissue Banks; influence by Company management; the ability to pay dividends; and the ability to issue preferred stock; and other factors.

Additional risk factors are listed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q under the heading "Risk Factors." You should carefully consider the trends, risks and uncertainties described in this document, the Form 10-K and other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC before making any investment decision with respect to our securities. If any of these trends, risks or uncertainties actually occurs or continues, our business, financial condition or operating results could be materially adversely affected, the trading prices of our securities could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
Phoenix, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- / BioNovelus, Inc. (ONOV), whose CR-10 Biofungicide is a non-toxic solution for safe and effective pre- and post-harvest applications, today announced that Chief Financial Officer Mark R. Johnson has left the Company to pursue other interests.

Effective immediately, Company founder and CEO Jean Ekobo will assume the role of interim CFO until a permanent successor to Mr. Johnson is named.

BioNovelus is part of the award-winning business incubator program at the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation in Phoenix, Arizona.

We are grateful for Mr. Johnsons support and encouragement through the beginning of our incubation phase, said Ekobo. His wisdom and assistance with our financial statements have been greatly appreciated.

About CR-10 Biofungicide and Disinfectant

CR-10 is a proven, biodegradable, non-toxic solution that kills most bacteria, fungi, and spores rapidly, safely and effectively. It is a new generation of biofungicide and biodisinfectant with a unique mode of action. BioNovelus management believes that CR-10 has a broad range of uses in crop protection before harvest, as well as post-harvest sanitation.

Coffee Rust Update

Phase I Testing in Guatemala Still Underway for Organic Coffee Rust-Fighting CR-10

In a press release dated February 27, 2017, the Company shared its positive results during the first round of testing done by Anacafe, the Guatemalan Coffee Association. This release revealed that important first steps had been taken towards the goal of showing CR-10 efficacy validation by Anacafe, something that would make successful marketing of the biodegradable and non-toxic product possible in the region.



To further clarify that release while Anacafe has not validated the biofungicide CR-10 for commercial sale, CR-10 has been approved to enter Phase II of Anacafes testing and the Company will provide further updates as this testing continues.



Anacafe is an esteemed organization, says BioNovelus CEO and President, Jean Ekobo. Their potential validation means a great deal to us and having reached an agreement to continue pursuing the validation process with this institution is very good news.

About CEI

The Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation (CEI), a comprehensive business incubator centrally located in Phoenix, Arizona, provides the services, space and support critical to the development of these early-stage and startup companies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements covered by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties and actual results for the fiscal year 2017 and beyond could differ materially from the Company's current expectations. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as "anticipates," "projects," "expects," "plans," "intends," "believes," "estimates," "targets," and other similar expressions that indicate trends and future events.

Factors that could cause the Companys results to differ materially from forward looking statements regarding the efficacy of the crop restoration and results of CR-10 and registration approval include the lack of capital needed to complete testing, the lack of experience with pursuing approval of this product and modifications and receipt of information that may be demanded by the registration of the CR-10 formula and the delays in the various government approval processes unrelated to the product itself. Factors that could cause lower rates of success in CR-10 eradication of fungi include the method and timing of applications of CR-10, the impact of heavy rainfall, the strength of fungi contamination, and other environmental conditions resulting in re-infection. Factors that may impact transactions with Mexican and Central American distributors include the alternatives of genetically modified crops, products of competitors, government approvals, and pricing.

There is no assurance of when registrations will be obtained for CR-10 and various applications. There is no assurance that the coffee rust application will prove commercially viable. There is no assurance that any transaction will be done with Mexican and Central American distributors.

Factors that could cause the Company's results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, without limitation, variation in demand and acceptance of the Company's products and services, general business and economic conditions beyond the Company's control the consequences of competitive factors in the marketplace including the ability to attract and retain customers, results of continuous improvement and other cost-containment strategies, and the Company's success in attracting and retaining key personnel. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update forward-looking statements because of new information, since these statements may no longer be accurate or timely.

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933, and are subject to Rule 3B-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this press release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and other results and further events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements.

For more information, contact http://bionovelus.com
Estimados amigos,

Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.

Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.

Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.

There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen.

You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.

No soy alguien que sabe, sino alguien que busca.

Only Gold is money. Everything else is debt.

Las grandes almas tienen voluntades; las debiles tan solo deseos.

Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
"Stealthing," the recently publicized and widely condemned phenomenon of men secretly removing a condom during intercourse, has already been given the cutesy first-person editorial treatment in the NY Post. And now a legislator in the New York State Assembly has introduced a bill that would criminalize the despicable practice.

Assembly Member Francisco Moya introduced his bill in the Assembly yesterday, spurred on by reading the accounts of survivors who have experienced getting stealthed. "It's a phenomenon that most people aren't aware of, but when you see men are creating blogs teaching others how to get away with this, it's problematic. We have to make sure we provide for and protect victims with stronger laws," Moya told Gothamist.

The bill in front of the Assembly would put stealthing in the same category of crime as sexual assault, and on the level of performing a sex act without consent, which is a Class E felony. If convicted of stealthing, the bill prescribes a one to four year prison sentence and mandatory registration on the state sex offender registry.

Two other states are debating legislation that would criminalize stealing as well. In California and Wisconsin, lawmakers introduced bills that would classify stealthing as rape and sexual assault.

"When anyone is consenting to having protected sex, and a person removes a protective device such as a condom without the partner's knowledge, now what we're seeing is that's a case of sexual assault," Moya told Gothamist.

Moya said that his office is still looking for a partner in the State Senate and is currently having conversations to see who could make the best partner in the chamber. He's undaunted at the prospect of the bill getting caught in the State Senate's internal power struggles. "This is based on issue, not on the politics of the Senate," he told Gothamist. "We're going to see who's the right partner. We're trying to protect both men and women and ensure this isn't a common occurrence."

One of the now-dropped rape charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange involved an accusation that Assange tampered with or ripped the condom he was wearing during sex, despite a woman insisting he use a condom.

And while the NYPD has been criticized for its handling of rape and sexual assault investigations, Moya said that he doesn't expect a new law to prove problematic for law enforcement. "What I think is, just like sex without consent, it will ultimately fall on the prosecutors to sort through the conflicting accounts to kind of make that determination, and that's what we're looking to do with this."
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The South Texas Hunting Association shared a photo on Facebook this week of what looked like a mildly-monstrous bullfrog catch, but commenters arent so sure its real.

PREVIOUS: Nightmare-inducing Texas rattlesnake photo sending shivers across Facebook ... but it isn't what it seems

A man named Markcuz Rangel shared the photo with the website, stating that it was caught in a pond on a ranch near Batesville and weighed 13 pounds. It appears the creature had been shot and killed, judging by the rifle in the hand of Rangel.

Of course any photo on the internet should be viewed with suspicion. There are no videos of said bullfrog being caught or postmortem and the photos shown seem somewhat  off.

Steve Lightfoot, spokesman for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, confirmed to Chron.com that the photo IS real, but that doesn't necessarily mean monster frogs are taking over South Texas.

"It's not as bigly as it appears," Lightfoot said video." [It's an] optical illusion created by extending frog toward the camera -- similar to what you see with fishermen holding up fish to make them appear larger. Still a big bullfrog, though."

OOOF: Fecal bacteria levels at Gulf beaches ahead of Memorial Day weekend

Back in 2015 the folks at Snopes debunked a supposedly 42-pound bullfrog catch by studying the viral photo that had been going around.

Chron.com reached out to Rangel on Friday afternoon to get more detail on his frog catches. Apparently he's been quite adept at finding the biggest ones in South Texas.

For now we will just have to imagine the all the ways that our foodie friends would cook those frog legs, which look like turkey legs at the rodeo carnival.
More than 100 students at a Chelsea public high school staged a brief sit-in outside of their principal's office on Thursday morning, following an assembly on dress code for the sophomore class, during which students say Principal Darlene Miller shamed female students.

Students at the NYC Museum School on West 17th Street gathered in the hallway around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, according to social media posts and a Museum School senior who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearful of repercussions from school administrators. Earlier that morning, he said, a group of sophomore girls posted signs around the school criticizing comments Principal Miller had made on Wednesday.

"At Wednesday's assembly, the Principal began making comments about 'suggestive' clothing and indirectly speaking of certain students and what they were wearing," said the senior, who was not present at the sophomore class assembly. "She even went as far as to say that the clothing one wears dictates their intent, obviously a very offensive statement," he alleged, adding that Miller warned students that if they "dressed inappropriately, she would give them an oversized shirt to make them 'look like a sack of potatoes.'"

A secretary at the Museum School referred us to Vice Principal Joel Lowy, who did not immediately respond to an email or voicemail requesting comment.

"We are dedicated to providing students with a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment," Toya Holness, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, told Gothamist. "The school is reviewing its dress code policy and staff members are working with students and families to address any concerns."

Students decided to gather Thursday when school staff allegedly began removing the posters and disciplined students, according to the senior.

"The students who organized the posting of the flyers were called into the office to be spoken to and had their parents called, with one student being sent home," he told Gothamist in an e-mail.

"When you interrupt a girl's school day to force her to change clothes, or send her home because her shorts are too short or her bra straps are visible, you are telling her that making sure boys have a 'distraction free' learning environment is more important than her education," one sign at the sit-in read.

"It doesn't matter what she was wearing," read another. A female student was photographed wearing a T-shirt with the message "don't slut shame me" and "it's 2017 NOT 1920s."

Social media from the scene shows students chanting "What I wear is not my intent!" and holding hand-written signs reading "NYC Museum School: Your support of rape culture Is showing. Better put on a big shirt."

Photos of the action also show female students wearing t-shirts with "sexism is deeply rooted in our school's dress code" written in Sharpie.



(via tipster)

The protest lasted about an hour, according to the Museum School senior. "The principal finally got across that she'd be willing to speak to a group of ten students, versus the 200 in the hallway," he said. "It was a really great experience. I think it did a lot of good work."

He added that the school's dress code "is very anti-women in my opinion."

According to the Bill of Student Rights and Responsibilities section of the DOE's Citywide Behavioral Expectations, students are permitted to determine their own dress, so long as their attire is not offensive, dangerous, or interferes with the learning and teaching process. Individual schools can determine what type of clothing violates those guidelines.

The Museum School dress code is posted on the school website.

"You should use common sense and good judgment by avoiding offensive or distracting types of clothing," it states. "Please know that in an effort not to disrupt the educational process, we will provide you with a Museum School t-shirt to wear if you come to school dressed in an inappropriate manner."

In addition to hats, students are prohibited from wearing "shear or transparent" clothing; tank tops, tube tops or halter tops; and shirts that "expose bras/underwear or anatomy from the front/back or side," among other items.

The NYC Museum School made the NY Post's list of 40 top public high schools in 2016.
BEIRUT  A fresh wave of air strikes in eastern Syria killed at least 35 civilians including women and children, state media and a monitoring group reported Friday, as the U.N. human rights chief said civilians are increasingly paying the price of escalating attacks against the Islamic State group in the country.

Zeid Raad al-Husseins comments came hours after air strikes on the Islamic State-held eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, where air strikes Thursday night killed dozens, many of them family members of Islamic State fighters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air strikes were conducted by the U.S.-led coalition. It added that the air strikes began around sunset Thursday as people were heading to mosques for evening prayers and continued until the early hours of Friday.

The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL, are also falling victim to the escalating air strikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour, al-Hussein said in a statement from Geneva, using another acronym for Islamic State. Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas.

The air strikes came as the U.S. military said it killed three Islamic State fighters in attacks in Syria and Iraq over the past month.

The Observatory later said 106 people have been killed in Mayadeen since Thursday evening, including Islamic State fighters and 42 children.

The monitoring group said among the 106 were 80 people who died when a four-story building housing families of Islamic State fighters from Syria and north Africa was destroyed in an air strike. More than 20, including 10 Islamic State fighters, were killed in other air strikes that hit the municipality building among other places.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition.

Reports of deaths among civilians have been on the rise as the fighting against Islamic State intensifies in northern and eastern Syria.

Omar Abu Laila, a European opposition activist who is originally from eastern Syria, said Mayadeen residents were urged through mosque loudspeakers to head to hospitals and clinics to donate blood. He also said that more air strikes occurred in the early hours Friday. He added that about a dozen people were killed and that he is still waiting for casualty figures to emerge.

in a dramatic appeal Friday, U.N. human rights chief Al-Hussein urged all parties conducting strikes against the Islamic State in Syria to take greater care differentiating between military and civilian targets.

Al-Hussein, who is a member of the Jordanian royal family, said the rising toll of civilian casualties suggests insufficient precautions are being taken in the attacks.

The U.S.-led coalition also announced Friday that a U.S. service member has died in northern Syria. A statement said the serviceman died of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over.

Bassem Mroue and Dominique Soguel are Associated Press writers.
TAORMINA, Sicily  Leaders of the G-7 wealthy democracies on Friday put pressure on Internet companies and social media sites to do more to stop the spread of hateful ideology, appealing to their sense of social responsibility to more swiftly identify and remove terror propaganda.

The measure signed by the seven nations leaders was a show of solidarity with Britain after Mondays suicide bombing in Manchester, England, that killed 22 outside a pop music concert. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, although authorities are working to establish the bombing suspects ties to extremist organizations.

British Prime Minister Theresa May said the leaders agreed that the threat posed by the Islamic State is evolving rather than disappearing.

As they lose ground in Iraq and Syria, foreign fighters are returning, and the groups hateful ideology is spreading online, May said. Make no mistake, the fight is moving from the battlefield to the Internet.

She said terror propaganda is warping young minds and that she thinks technology companies both could do more and have the responsibility to act.

In their declaration, the leaders said they were targeting propaganda supporting terrorism and violent extremism, online recruitment by extremists, radicalization and incitement to violence. They said they would work also with youth and religious leaders, prisons and educational institutions toward that end.

They also agreed in the declaration to strengthen the process for returning foreign fighters operating in Europe to their countries of origin, to better share intelligence on individuals who have trained in Islamic State territory, and to do more to cut off funding streams they called the lifeblood of violent extremists and terrorists.

The G-7 leaders, including President Trump, on Friday also discussed climate and trade. Trump has criticized Germanys trade surplus with the United States, drawing attention to a contentious issue. Germanys Der Spiegel reported that Trump had told EU leaders the day before that the Germans were bad, very bad when it came to trade.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said the presidents comments focused on the surplus and not the country: He said theyre very bad on trade, but he doesnt have a problem with Germany.

Colleen Barry, Sylvie Corbet and David McHugh are Associated Press writers.
CAIRO  Masked gunmen riding in three sport utility vehicles opened fire Friday on a packed bus taking Coptic Christians on a visit to a monastery south of Egypts capital, killing at least 28 people, including two little children, authorities said.

Twenty-two others were reported wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State. The bloodshed came on the eve of the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Egyptian warplanes retaliated by striking militant bases in eastern Libya after President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi warned in a televised address that training camps for terrorists who attack Egypt would be hit regardless of where they are. The planes targeted the headquarters of the Shura Council in the eastern Libyan city of Darna, where local militias have been linked to al Qaeda rather than the Islamic State.

For years, Islamic militants have been waging an insurgency mostly centered in Egypts Sinai Peninsula, though a growing number of attacks have recently also taken place on the mainland.

The bus came under fire on a side road in the desert on its way to the remote monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in Maghagha, about 140 miles south of Cairo.

The monastery, reachable only by a short, unpaved route that veers off the main highway, is in Minya province, where Christians account for more than 35 percent of the population, the highest level of any province.

Security officials quoted witnesses as saying they saw eight to 10 attackers in military uniforms and masks.

Arab TV stations showed images of a bus riddled with bullet holes, with many of its windows shattered and bloodstains on the seats. Bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

Local officials said the dead included two little girls, ages 2 and 4.

Egypts Copts, the Middle Easts largest Christian community, have long complained of discrimination and violence at the hands of radicals from the countrys Muslim majority. The Copts account for about 10 percent of Egypts 93 million people.

Maggie Michael and Hamza Hendawi are Associated Press writers.
1 Border controls: Chinese officials have told the U.S. that theyve tightened inspections and policing along the border with North Korea as part of U.N. sanctions aimed at halting Pyongyangs nuclear and missile activities, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said Friday. Beijings action reflects a growing awareness about the urgent need for China to pressure North Korea into halting its testing of missiles and nuclear bombs, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton said in Beijing.

2 Taliban attack: Taliban fighters attacked an army camp in the southern Kandahar province Friday, killing at least 15 soldiers, said Daulat Waziri, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry. He said the attack wounded five others. Waziri says more than 20 Taliban militants were killed in the fighting. It was the third assault by insurgents on soldiers in Afghanistan this week, including a Taliban attack Wednesday in the Maiwand district that killed 13.
ILIGAN, Philippines  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his troops to crush militants who are fighting street battles with government forces in the south, warning Friday that the country is at a grave risk of contamination by the Islamic State.

The city of Marawi, home to some 200,000 people, has been under siege by Islamic State-linked militants since a government raid Tuesday night on a suspected hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washingtons list of most-wanted terrorists.

The raid went awry and gunmen swept through the streets, fending off government forces and taking over large parts of the city. Duterte imposed martial law on the southern third of the nation earlier this week as the battles continued.

At least 44 people have died in the fighting, including 31 militants and 11 soldiers, officials say. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the dead. The violence has forced thousands of people to flee and raised fears of growing extremism.

Duterte told soldiers in Iligan, a city near Marawi, that he had long feared that contamination by ISIS loomed in the countrys future, using the acronym for the Islamic State. You can say that ISIS is here already, he said.

He gave his troops a free hand to wrest control of Marawi.

You can arrest any person, search any house without warrant, said Duterte, who has allowed extrajudicial killings of thousands of people in his crackdown on illegal drugs.

Still, he also offered dialogue to militants who are not on the streets fighting.

We can still talk about it, Duterte said. But those who are out-and-out terrorists, and you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let us fight.

Hapilon is still hiding out in the city under the protection of gunmen who are desperately trying to find a way to extricate said Gen. Eduardo Ano, the countrys military chief.

Jim Gomez and Teresa Cerojano are Associated Press writers.
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[UPDATE BELOW] Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. affirmed his commitment on Friday to marching in the Puerto Rican Day Parade despite mounting boycotts over its honoring Puerto Rican nationalist militant Oscar Lopez Rivera. Diaz said the uproar over Lopez Rivera being named the parade's first National Freedom Hero "accomplishes nothing" and called the boycott from big-name sponsors "incredibly disheartening."

"The National Puerto Rican Day Parade has never been about one person, but the more than five million Puerto Ricans who call the mainland United States their home," said Diaz, whose parents came to the Bronx from Puerto Rico in 1965. "To suggest otherwise is to reduce our traditions and pride into the background noise of a novela."

Lopez Rivera was the leader of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, known as FALN. The group was implicated in more than 100 bombings, including the Fraunces Tavern bombing that killed four people in 1975, as well as a New Year's Eve bombing of NYPD headquarters that injured three officers in 1983. The group also bombed all three New York area airports.

Lopez Rivera was convicted in 1981 of transporting explosives and weapons with the intent to kill and destroy government property and sentenced to 70 years, but the feds were never able to pin a specific bombing on him. Obama commuted his sentence in January just before leaving office, and he was released from prison earlier this month. He had previously rejected a commutation offer by Bill Clinton that included the requirement that he renounce violence. He was the last convicted FALN member to be released.

The decision to honor Lopez Rivera has prompted a wave of corporate sponsors to pull their support from the parade, including Goya Foods, JetBlue, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Corona, the Yankees and, most recently, Univision. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the Hispanic societies of the FDNY and NYPD, and Police Commissioner James O'Neill have also said that they will not participate.

Earlier this week, Councilman Jumaane Williams appeared on Fox New's Tucker Carlson Tonight to share his support for the parade's stance. Williams pointed out that the NYPD did not boycott the St. Patrick's Day Parade of 1983, which honored Irish Republican Army supporter Michael Flannery. "The United States has supported people who have done violent acts in the course of getting their freedom across the world, so we should at least be consistent," Williams said.

On Tuesday, Mayor de Blasio also reiterated his support for the parade during a press conference with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who is Puerto Rican and a longtime advocate for Lopez Rivera. De Blasio has said in his defenses of Lopez Rivera that he has renounced violence, but that is not true.

"Let me say this: We are a colonized people, and according to international law, that says all colonized people have a right to struggle for its independence using all methods within reach, including force," Lopez Rivera told the Times last week. That is a right."

Rivera denies having been involved in killing anyone.

Also on Tuesday, the parade's organizers released a statement saying that they were saddened and disappointed that so many sponsors were pulling out of the parade, adding, "we respect their decision to do so."

"Equally, we respect our Parade's mission and commitment to inclusiveness, and the responsibility of representing the broadest possible blend voices that make up the Puerto Rican community," the statement continued.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade is scheduled for Sunday, June 11th at 11 a.m.

UPDATE: Governor Cuomo is the latest to announce that he wont be marching in the Puerto Rican Day Parade. On Friday afternoon, his spokesperson told the Post: "The Governors support and long term affection for the Puerto Rican community remains unwavering, unfortunately he will not be marching in this years parade."


Pictured above is the The Doughnut Project's Maple Bourbon Tabasco Glazed Doughnut serving as a bun for the Fried Chicken Sandwich at Root & Bone. If this tickles your taste buds, head to Root & Bone's East Village restaurant anytime this weekend to order it. The doughnut minus the chicken will also be available all weekend at The Doughnut Project's West Village shop.

Downtown Brooklyn's Alamo Drafthouse will become the first Drafthouse in the nation to serve brunch this weekend. In addition to mainstays like queso and popcorn, catch a flick during weekend brunch hours and nosh on Deviled Eggs with smoked trout and dill; Breakfast Toastadas with beans, chorizo, pickled onions, avocado crema and cotija cheese; and a Breakfast Pizza with onion puree, cheddar, green onions, egg and bacon. The menu is rounded out by a classic BEC and a Spring Vegetable Frittata.



(Burger & Lobster)

Hester Street Fair hosts a summery-sounding Lobster and Beer event at their Saturday market. They'll be pouring $3 beers alongside lobster rolls from Burger & Lobster, whole lobster Louisiana Boil from Claw Daddy's, and hard shell lobster tacos from Tijuana Picnic. The Lower East Side market will also have some music from Nelleke, Arahaw and Ary Warnaar.

Food Karma Projects, which also produces the popular Brisket King and Pig Island events, will set up multiple grilling stations in the outdoor pavilion of the Food Sciences Academy of Long Island University Brooklyn on Saturday for the Great Brooklyn Grill Out, tapping some local grilling talent to man said grills. George Motz, burger expert and director of The Food Film Festival, will be cooking up 500 smash burgers for the event, among other local cooking folks from the Chefs' Consortium out of the Hudson Valley. Single admission tickets to the May 27th event cost $65 and are all-inclusive of as much food and drink as you can reasonable (or unreasonably, I'm not your mom) stuff into your bodily cavity.

While many of us will be slathering on the bug spray this weekend, an event happening in Williamsburg suggests we eat the bugs instead. Cooking Bugs in Brooklyn with ChefPV & Merci Mercado invites attendees learn to create Entomophagy-friendly dishes including chapuline (grasshopper)-crusted catfish, gusano (larva) marinara over zucchini pasta de chapuline, and citrus hopper brownies. The event runs from noon until 1:30 p.m.; tickets $27.

On Sunday, staycationers can head to the Vanderbilt Avenue location of Ample Hills Creamery for some free 'scream. The Prospect Heights ice cream shop will be reducing the price of their scoops incrementally throughout the day until they finally reach zero. We're told they typically give away around four full tubs of ice cream each year at this annual "thank you" event to the neighborhood.



(Katie June Burton)

Elsewhere in ice cream, Sam Mason of OddFellows Ice Cream has turned a Strawberry Pop Tart into a sundae for a collaboration with the Kellog's shop in Times Square. Beginning Memorial Day Monday, stop by the newly-opened brand cafe to try the "Deconstructed Pop-Tart Sundae": Strawberries and Cream Soft Serve Swirl, layers of house made sour strawberry jam, topped with toasted Pop-Tart Crumbs and rainbow sprinkles. The sundae will be on the menu for two weeks if you'll be traveling for the holiday.

Dale Talde's new Prospect Heights restaurant Atlantic Social hosts an all you can eat Pig Roast Cookout on Monday for the low price of $20 per person. Add on another $10 to that and be treated to bottomless beer and rose wine. The restaurant promises beer pong and other "fun and games" to keep guests both well-fed and entertained as they try to ignore their impending Tuesday morning hangovers.



(Scott Lynch/Gothamist)

Feltman's, NYC's best hot dog, returns to its long ago home on Coney Island this summer and they're celebrating their grand opening with free hot dogs. At their new shop at Surf Ave & W. 10th St, they'll offer free hot dogs to the first 150 guests who show up on Monday. "In addition to the Original Frankfurter (onions, sauerkraut, and spicy brown mustard), there will be variations from the chili cheese to the Al Capone, topped with parmesan cheese and vodka sauce," Feltman's says.
The way of the empty hands The Simi Valley Shotokan Karate Dojo recently hosted a two-day seminar at Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District headquarters featuring a trio of karate experts. The Oct. 22 seminar was...

Slide into winter fun at SnowFest The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District is bringing snow to Simi Valley. SnowFest will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sun., Nov. 6 at Rancho Madera Community...
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The Smith Family is hoping to raise $230,000 in the ACT before June 30 to deliver support programs for 530 schools kids in Canberra.

Part of the money raised would go towards supporting the one-on-one tutoring service Learning Club, which provides after-school educational support for disadvantaged children.

Student Malakai Reinhard 14, and Smith Family Learning Club volunteer Ann Goleby. Credit:Jamila Toderas

ACT regional programs manager Olga Srbovski said Learning Club started late last year and runs out of the Gungahlin and Tuggeranong libraries.

"Research has shown us that about one in three students who come from disadvantaged families, they start behind at school," Ms Srbovski said.
Careers Australia, one of the biggest vocational education providers, has gone into voluntary administration with 1000 staff stood down and classes cancelled for 15,000 students.

David McEvoy and Martin Ford of PPB Advisory, appointed administrators, are doing an emergency assessment of the business, which runs 14 campuses across Australia.

"We do not currently have sufficient funds available to meet payroll and other costs which would allow us to continue trading the group on a business as usual basis," the administrators say in a letter to staff.
The Japanese arm of Domino's generated $225.1 million in sales in the six months to January 1. Credit:Wayne Taylor

The $5.5 billion fast-food giant said the purchase of Bain's stake would be "funded from existing cash resources and bank facilities".

Pizza giant Domino's will take full control of its rapidly expanding Japanese operations, after its minority partner, private equity firm Bain Capital, announced it would pull the plug on its 25 per cent stake in August.

The Australian-listed company bought a 75 per cent stake from Bain in 2013 for 12 billion, or more than $200 million. This deal provided a mechanism for Domino's to move to 100 per cent within three to five years, a Domino's spokesman said.

There were 472 Domino's stores in Japan as at the start of this year, and Domino's plans to open 850 stores there by 2022.

Pizza is an expensive fast food in Japan, which is the world's third-largest economy but has been dragged down by deflation and a declining birth rate.

Domino's chief executive, Don Meij, said: "Japan is an impressive market inside our business. When we purchased the business, Domino's was the third-largest pizza delivery chain, and in the past financial year we became the market leader in the country.

"We thank Bain for their partnership, and look forward to continuing to grow our business by focusing on continual innovation in food and technology."
Job seeker Isobel Robertson, 26, starts to lose interest in a job she has applied for when a prospective employer takes more than one to two weeks to get back to her.

Yet despite a clear message about the need to get back to job seekers sooner, some employers take a relaxed approach, to their detriment.

Ms Robertson has been looking for a full-time job in Sydney for the past three weeks since returning from New York, where she worked for just over a year doing event management.
It's hard to feel sorry for a man with a gun who hunts elephants for sport. But that's one of the many problems with animal rights extremists. In their religious zeal to place the world's beasts on an equal footing with people, they always manage to snatch defeat when an emphatic victory is handed to them. How ironic, really, that attempting to save animals sometimes exposes the worst of human traits.

But irony has been a word bandied about way too often in the past week. It's why I've come to feel such sorrow over the events following the death of Theunis Botha. Amid all the carnage inflicted on the world over the past seven days, you may have missed the news about the passing of this 51-year-old former South African soldier with five children. That's not such a bad thing. It means you also escaped the embarrassing celebrations that accompanied his demise.

Theunis Botha, a well-known big-game hunter from South Africa, had taken high-paying customers on legal excursions for three decades. Credit:Facebook

Botha was a leading big-game hunter who had been taking high-paying tourists on legal hunts for more than three decades. Last Friday, near a small village in western Zimbabwe, his touring party came across a group of elephants that began to charge at them. Botha fired as they attacked. But one elephant managed to get close enough to hoist him with its trunk. That elephant was then shot by another hunter and, as it fell, it took Botha with it, crushing him.

As news began to emerge about the death of such a prominent hunter, animal rights activists around the world began a frenetic victory dance, joyously celebrating Botha's demise at the hands of "his enemy" with a string of abusive postings on social media, some of them plastered across his Facebook site so his wife and children could view them.
Senator Hanson began the late-night Senate estimates hearing exchange by asking the ASIO chief whether all the perpetrators of four terrorist attacks, and 12 thwarted attacks, in Australia since 2014 were Muslim.

Mr Lewis indicated one of the 12 foiled attacks "involved a right-wing extremist". "So the answer is no, they have not all been carried out by Muslims," he said.

"But I've got to stress, senator  this is very important  ASIO does not make its inquiries or its assessments on the basis of somebody's religion.

"We are only interested in people who are exhibiting or offering violence, and to the extent that there is violent extremism  which is very frequently inspired by a warped version of Sunni Islam  that's when our interests are invoked."

The One Nation leader has been a strident critic of Islam and has called for a ban on Muslim people immigrating to Australia - a position rejected by one of her own party colleagues this week.
A referendum could be held early next year to enshrine a "First Nations Voice" in the constitution after a historic all-Indigenous convention overwhelmingly backed the move.

In a stunning repudiation, the convention rejected acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution, instead backing the Indigenous voice. It also called for a road map to a treaty.

It has called for a "Makarrata Commission" to supervise agreements between Indigenous groups and government and a period of truth-telling about the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Bill Shorten has described the Turnbull government's slow thaw in the Medicare rebate freeze as "cash for no comment" designed to buy doctors' silence on healthcare issues.

The Opposition Leader has told physicians at the Australian Medical Association's national conference that the government's policy was the minimum it could do to "silence the system". It was seen by some as a thinly veiled swipe at doctors' groups  including the AMA  that have welcomed Health Minister Greg Hunt's phased approach.

Mr Shorten used the event to release new independent costings of the government's plan, which he says shows the budget locks in $2.2 billion in Medicare cuts over the next four years.
CCTV footage of police entering the Lindt Cafe. That said, police had had years to prepare for the growing complexity of terrorism challenges unleashed by the rise of Islamic State and its murderous adherents. So it was all the more sobering to see the sheer range of deficiencies identified by Barnes in the police response to the siege, though some were of greater magnitude and consequence than others. These ran from weaknesses in negotiating tactics, to equipment and training deficiencies, poor intelligence co-ordination, critical lapses of communication at key points in the final stages of the siege, lack of clarity about the "triggers" for storming the cafe, failure to grasp the lethal threat that gunman Man Haron Monis represented, failure of police commanders to push for more creative thinking when their "contain and negotiate" strategy was clearly stalling, and the bungled way in which the families of the two hostages who died in the siege  cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson  were given the news of their loved one's deaths. It wasn't until nearly three hours after police stormed the cafe, for instance, that the Johnson and Dawson families learnt of Tori and Katrina's fate, a delay the coroner described as "unjustified".

It was a stark reminder of the arbitrariness of life NSW Coroner Michael Barnes Criticism extended beyond the police. Monis should have been behind bars after being charged with a string of offences ranging from sexual assault to being an accessory to murder. Instead he was out on bail, earning a rebuke from Barnes for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Similarly, ASIO had had Monis on its radar for years, but did not flag him as a concern, despite his sparking 18 calls to the National Security Hotline in the days before the siege. A consultant psychiatrist was allowed to overly influence the course of negotiations, his assurances that Monis was "grandstanding" helping to lull senior police into a state of complacency about the progress of the siege. The Australian Defence Force and the Australian Federal Police had a marginal role on the night but could have done more, Barnes suggested. Yet some of the fault for that must lie at the feet of NSW police and political leaders. Then Prime Minister Tony Abbott's chief of staff, Peta Credlin, revealed this week that Abbott had offered to provide then premier Mike Baird with military personnel and ballistics experts early on in the course of the siege.

"The Premier said they didn't need it at that stage and thanked the Prime Minister for the offer," Credlin said pointedly. One of the clearest themes to emerge from Barnes' 45 recommendations is the need for police to rethink their deeply entrenched "contain and negotiate" mindset when confronted with terrorist actors. In essence, this boils down to no longer waiting it out but acting early and pre-emptively. The Lindt siege dragged on for 17 hours without negotiators making any progress. Only the execution of Johnson by Monis forced police into action. Fuller accepted on Wednesday that police had waited too long, and would act more swiftly under similar circumstances in future. "The terrorism threat is evolving and we need to evolve with it," he said. But he cautioned that earlier entry would not necessarily have guaranteed a better outcome. "World standards would say early engagement was necessary ... it does not [necessarily] mean less lives lost, it may mean different lives." Police are likely to beef up their armed presence on the streets. Just before his retirement in April, former police commissioner Andrew Scipione predicted Sydneysiders would soon see police officers carrying long arms, and Fuller is moving forward with that proposal. The force is currently trialling different weapons before picking a supplier, aiming to roll them out first across the Public Order and Riot Squad.

Former deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas, now working abroad in a senior policing role with the United Nations, also flagged the need recently for more overt shows of police firepower. He told a Safeguarding Australia summit in Canberra in early May that there needed to be a "harsher, deterring" presence for police and security offices at places of mass gatherings, with tactical teams in "full kit" patrolling on foot. That flows into a growing debate about whether a more explicit right to "shoot to kill" should be invested in police. The coroner found that while snipers on the night had no opportunity for a clear shot at Monis, they'd felt hamstrung in any case by being unsure of their legal right to shoot before he'd physically harmed any of the 18 hostages. "It may be that the special powers available to police responding to terrorist incidents should include a more clearly defined right to use force," Barnes suggested. Abbott has since come out in enthusiastic support of "shoot to kill" where police reasonably suspect they are dealing with a terrorist event, and NSW Police Minister Troy Grant, a former officer, is looking favourably at Barnes' recommendation. But there has been a lukewarm response in Canberra, with Counter-Terrorism and Justice Minister Michael Keenan saying police already have "every power necessary to respond with required force to remove a terrorism threat".

Civil liberties groups, too, are urging caution. On Wednesday, Fuller played his cards close to his chest, saying issues around "taking a life or saving a life" were not to be treated lightly, but he will almost certainly be taking some action on Barnes' recommendation. A review of the role of the Australian Defence Force in future terrorism crises has also gained fresh momentum following Barnes' report. The current threshold for ADF intervention is set high. State police and political leaders have to decide an unfolding crisis is beyond their capabilities before the ADF is invited in. In the case of Lindt, NSW authorities seemed highly resistant to that option. Barnes has questioned whether "given the rise of global terrorism and Islamic jihadist movements ... the traditional roles of domestic police forces and the ADF in Australia ought to be reconsidered". That is already happening, though what's most likely to emerge is slashing of red tape to enable easier sharing of ADF resources with the states rather than an overriding power for federal agencies to step in. Federal Attorney-General George Brandis said this week that "it is important, I think, that when there is a major terrorist episode of the kind that we've lately seen in the United Kingdom, that all of the capabilities that the country has that may be useful to deal with that terrorist event are at the disposal of the operational commander". On the whole, Barnes' report has met with a strongly positive reception, though the bereaved Dawson and Johnson families are yet to give a comprehensive response. There is much for them to consider.

Despite some speculation in advance of the reports's release that former police chief Scipione and deputy Cath Burn would attract some criticism, the coroner has made no adverse findings against them. Neither officer had, or should have had, a role in directing operations on the night of the siege under existing NSW counter terrorism protocols, Barnes heard. Indeed the lawyer representing the senior officers at the inquest told the coroner that the pair "did not give any orders, directions or provide any guidance or advice in respect of the conduct of the siege on the day". Loading But some believe their role on the night was too hands off. "They did not have to be designing the details of the operation, but in my view, they had a responsibility to ask if the strategy was working, and if not, what the alternate strategy was" argues one former senior police commander.
Officially, there has been no deal done for Schapelle Corby's first interview, and no media outlet in the country is admitting to offering one.

Unofficially, PS is reliably informed a media stampede is well underway in Bali as news crews get ready for Corby's departure from Denpasar Airport today aboard a Virgin flight bound for Brisbane.

Soon-to-be-home Schapelle Corby and her nephew Wyan. Credit:Network Seven

While Corby will be joined on the aircraft by her sister Mercedes and brother Michael, the Corbys have also hired John McLeod, a body guard who normally looks after Hollywood types and pop stars, to chaperone them.

And sitting all around them will be a long list of media types, from news photographers and reporters to paparazzi, who have been clamouring for a ticket aboard the same six and a half hour flight.
Wellesley: Hillary Clinton assailed the man who beat her to the White House, slamming as "unimaginable cruelty" President Donald Trump's proposal to cut $US3.6 trillion in government spending over the next decade in a speech to college students on Friday in which she also encouraged them to go out and "make a difference."

The defeated Democratic candidate did not name the Republican president in her remarks to the graduating class at her alma mater, Wellesley College. But she took several veiled swipes at the businessman-turned-politician, whose budget proposal earlier this week proposed sharp cuts in programs for healthcare and food assistance.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers the commencement address at Wellesley College. Credit:AP

"Look at the budget that was just proposed in Washington. It is an attack of unimaginable cruelty on the most vulnerable among us," Mrs Clinton told a crowd at the all-women's college, located in Boston's suburbs.

"It grossly underfunds public education, mental health and even efforts to combat the opioid epidemic."
The M5 East has reopened in both directions after a "major power failure" forced it to close, causing "extensive delays" for commuters, with part of the light rail network also shut down.

The motorway was closed between Mascot and Beverly Hills for more than two hours, with motorists advised to avoid the area or catch the train. Westbound lanes reopened at about 6.15pm, with eastbound lanes opening shortly afterwards.

The outage began just before 4pm, Ausgrid said, leaving 60,000 homes and businesses without power and necessitating the closure of major roads.

Cars were diverted from the M5 at General Holmes Drive and King Georges Road, instead directed through General Holmes Drive, Bestic Street, West Botany Street, Forest Road, Stoney Creek Road and King Georges Road.
On May 19th, the IR published a letter signed by seven organizers of the Womens March on Montana, endorsing Rob Quist for Montanas at-large congressional seat. YWCA Helena sponsored the Womens March on Montana with the express understanding that the event would not endorse or promote any particular elected official or candidate for political office. The purpose of the March was to bring issues into the public eye that should be of concern to all, regardless of political affiliation.

YWCA Helenas mission is to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. Sponsorship of the Womens March on Montana promised to encourage discussion of the tenets central to YWCA Helenas mission. No one party or candidate has a monopoly on these ideals. The hope that the event would spark conversation about these principles, across the political spectrum, spurred YWCA Helena to sponsor the March.

YWCA Helena does not, and will not, endorse individual candidates. What YWCA Helena has done, and will continue to do, is facilitate discussion and help voters be well-informed. YWCA Helena is proud of the good participation by legislative candidates and the voting public in the voter forum we held last fall to discuss issues related to our mission. We hope for that same participation this summer when YWCA Helena hosts a similar forum for the municipal candidates on the ballot in Helena.

We remain proud of our issue oriented work and hope you will join us in promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.

In Peace,

Kellie Goodwin McBride

YWCA Helena Executive Director
A man has been charged with a string of serious driving offences after he allegedly crashed a stolen ute into another vehicle, killing two men, in Sydney's inner west.

Raymond Lomas, 33, will face the Downing Centre Local Court on Friday following the high-speed crash on the Princes Highway at St Peters just after 4.30am on Thursday.

Among the charges he is facing are two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and one count of negligent driving occasioning death.

Police will allege in court that Mr Lomas, from Waterloo, was disqualified from driving when he stole a Toyota Hilux ute during a home invasion in Sydney this week.
Brisbane commuters have had to wait longer than expected to start their weekends, with heavy congestion surrounding the city on Friday evening.

Australian Traffic Network spokesman Dave Andrews said "the planets have aligned", as while there were usually delays on a few major roads, it was rare that the majority were affected like on Friday evening.

Australian Traffic Network spokesman Dave Andrews said conditions on the majority of major roads connected to the city had gone from "a headache to a migraine" on Friday evening. Credit:Michelle Smith

As of 6.30pm, the Queensland Reds taking on the Western Force meant all roads around Suncorp Stadium were "a mess", according to Mr Andrews.

Heading north, traffic delays stretched about 20 kilometres from the Gateway Motorway from Eagle Farm through to the Bruce Highway at Bald Hills. In addition, Gympie Road from Kedron to the Bruce Highway at Balds Hills was heavily congested for more than 10 kilometres.
Former Queensland CFMEU boss David Hanna has been slugged with the maximum possible penalty for threatening an employee after a heated argument with managers of a Brisbane construction site.

Hanna was fined $10,200 in the Federal Circuit Court on Thursday for breaching entry laws at the Broadway on Ann construction site at Fortitude Valley in February 2015.

Former CFMEU boss Dave Hanna. Credit:AAP

In the penalty hearing, he was found to be in breach of the Fair Work Act over the incident where he raised his middle finger, swearing and spraying water on managers.

He made the gesture when asked to provide right-of-entry permits for the site by authorities before spraying water on a site manager who tried to record him on a mobile phone.
It has been nine years since Schapelle Corby's father died and her family have kept his ashes in wait for the 39-year-old's return home.

Corby, who is holed up in her Kuta villa ahead of her deportation to Australia on Saturday, reportedly had a close connection to her father.

Her mother Rosleigh Rose told the Gold Coast Bulletin they had waited for Corby to return before they scattered the ashes of her late father Michael Corby.

"We've got her dad's ashes. When we are all in touch, when it's the right time, we're going to put his ashes where he wanted," Ms Rose told the Bulletin.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Donald Trump was isolated on climate change at the Group of Seven meeting on Friday, as the US president said he's in no rush to decide whether to scrap his country's involvement in the Paris Agreement.

A closed-door session on the first day of the G7 summit in Sicily found unity on stepping up efforts to combat terrorism, but entered stormier waters on trade and on climate, Mrs Merkel said. At that stage it was six against one as leaders pressed Trump to hold to US agreements made under the landmark Paris climate accord.

"We made it clear that we want the US to stick to its commitments," Mrs Merkel told reporters after the meeting on Friday. "There were very different arguments from us all urging the president to hold to the climate accord." She said the discussion was conducted in a very "honest" atmosphere, leading to a "very intense exchange."

After deriding climate change as a hoax and pledging to pull out of the Paris deal during his election campaign, Mr Trump has sidestepped the issue and passed up an number of opportunities to outline his international stance toward global warming. Members of his administration are deadlocked about whether the US should uphold the pact.
WARNING: Graphic images

Cairo: Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians travelling to a monastery in central Egypt on Friday, killing 29 people and wounding 24, with many children among the victims, Health Ministry officials said.

A policeman and a priest next to the bus at the centre of Friday's attack. Credit:AP

Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were travelling in a bus and other vehicles. Local television channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and smeared with blood. Clothes and shoes could be seen lying in and around the bus.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan. It followed a series of church bombings claimed by Islamic State.
Eilidh MacLeod, 14, was "vivacious and full of fun" and played the bagpipes. "My stunning, amazing, beautiful daughter you were my rock," said the mother of Courtney Boyle, 19. Eilidh MacLeod, 14, was "vivacious and full of fun". She played the bagpipes. The Queen speaks to Millie Robson, 15, and her mother, Marie, during a visit to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Credit:Getty Images Sorrell Leczkowski, 14, was going to be an architect and "wanted to build hotels with slides coming out of the rooms".

Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19, were "perfect for each other" and wanted to be together forever. Armed police officers are patrolling on board trains across Britain for the first time. Credit:PA I ask of friends, strangers, relatives ... please stay together, don't let this beat any of us, please, don't let my daughter be a victim. Mother Charlotte Campbell Saffie Rose Roussos, just eight years old, would be remembered for her warmth and kindness. In her last moments, as she died in a forklift truck driver's arms, she called out for her mum. On Thursday it emerged there were more victims  children and adults  who had survived the attack but were left with potentially life-changing injuries, facing months or years of reconstructive surgery and rehab.

There has been a strong show of unity in Manchester following the attack at Manchester Arena. Credit:Getty Images And beyond those directly affected, even beyond those present at the arena, there is trauma. One Manchester teacher said his students were "silent" the day after the terror attack. "They are watching, and watchful." Mancunians are fighting not to be seen as victims, but the city and Britain as a whole have to deal with a new reality. Credit:The New York Times A 16-year-old girl told me she had a terrible realisation in Manchester Arena that night, as she stood in a screaming, shouting, fleeing crowd, watching them fall and stamp on each other in blind panic.

"Someone wants to hurt me, and all these other people  who are children," she said. She woke the next day shaking. There has been a fierce determination to answer hate with love. Credit:The New York Times Still  still  the city unspokenly determined that the terrorists would win only through division and fear, they could be beaten with unity and resolve. Even those most wracked with grief have echoed these sentiments. At a vigil for victims on Wednesday night, the mother of a murdered girl gave a passionate plea. Saffie Rose Roussos, 8, one of the 22 killed, was remembered for her warmth and kindness. Credit:Facebook

"I ask of friends, strangers, relatives ... please stay together, don't let this beat any of us, please, don't let my daughter be a victim," Charlotte Campbell said. Mancunians are fighting not to be seen as victims. Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19, died in the Manchester blast. Credit:Facebook Few are looking back in anger. But, looking forward, this city and this country have to deal with a new reality. This was the biggest terror attack on British soil since 7/7.

Just two months ago Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer, the Met's Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, allowed himself a moment of pride: at the launch of a fresh appeal for the public to report their suspicions he said security services had prevented 13 terror attacks since June 2013. That included the case of "Boy S" from Blackburn  the 14-year-old who had nearly succeeded in organising an attack on an Anzac parade in Melbourne, but was stopped through the vigilance and cleverness of Manchester detectives, and the effectiveness of the Prevent scheme that identifies young people at risk of radicalisation. According to another source, more than 40 terrorist plots have been disrupted since 2005. Police released a podcast of previously untold stories of how terrorist attacks had been foiled. They were reassuring and chilling  for example a lecturer who went to police after his 19-year-old student asked how he could use bacteria to kill people. There has been a terror-related arrest in Britain almost every day since 2014, mostly of people allegedly linked to, or inspired by Islamic State. This year Britain's anti-terror hotline received 22,000 calls in the first three months, more than twice the number the previous year.

Alex Younger, the head of MI6, said in an interview late last year that the scale of the terrorism threat to Britain was "unprecedented", as IS had a "highly organised external attack planning structure" plotting attacks against Britain and other countries, from Syria. Despite Britain's well-resourced intelligence services, despite its well-co-ordinated system of intelligence sharing among the agencies and police, despite weekly meetings at MI5's London headquarters where threats are weighed by counter-terror chiefs, despite the top-secret list of "targets" for surveillance who have been assessed as the biggest risk of mounting an attack  despite all this  the accepted wisdom was, and has been for years, that it was just a matter of time. In the end two slipped through the net, unconnected but nearly coincident. In March, 52-year-old Khalid Masood drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster bridge then fatally stabbed a police officer; then this week 22-year-old Salman Abedi,carried a bomb in a backpack into the busy foyer of the Manchester Arena. Of the two, Abedi's has caused by far the greatest surprise and concern among anti-terror bodies. It was not just the death toll, it was the complexity of the bomb, the nature of the target, and the careful planning and execution. Early forensics leaked to The New York Times suggested it was a powerful, high-velocity explosive, with a sophisticated detonator using a powerful lead acid battery. It was not the makeshift work of a dumb amateur, it was a device packed with redundancy and deadly intent.

Since the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013 Britain has come to expect low-tech terror threats: knives and cars. Instead, terror experts are now drawing parallels to the Paris terror attacks, which targeted a music concert in a youthful inner-city area. This shift in focus was anticipated in Britain a year ago, when Scotland Yard's Rowley told media: "In recent months we've seen  much more plans to attack Western lifestyle  going from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader." He feared IS had "big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we've seen foiled to date". Police are working on the assumption that Abedi was not a "lone wolf" attacker (though that phrase has increasingly lost currency, as there is almost always an online extremist cheer and support squad behind an attacker) but the work of a previously-under-the-radar network of violent Islamist jihadists.

And here is another, troubling parallel to Paris. Police have not eliminated the possibility that Abedi did not make his own bomb, or at least had help. In the Paris attack, the bomb-maker assembled suicide vests for the November 2015 slaughter, but remained at large until March 2016 when he attacked Brussels airport. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the attacker had been known to security services "up to a point". But, clearly, that point had not been enough to justify expending precious resources on surveillance. If there is a network, it is one that has managed to go unseen. Something has failed. Once sensitivity to the bereaved and political, election-clouded calculus allow, British authorities will have to confront and solve this failure. Britain's counter-terrorism strategy is known as the "four P's": Protect, Prepare, Pursue and Prevent. Prevent is the most public and contested corner of this strategy  it's the "soft" community element, the part where extremism is nipped in the bud in the mind, long before bombs are assembled or knives sharpened.

Dr Imran Awan is an associate professor at Birmingham City University and has been writing about Prevent and extremism for the last decade. Prevent is failing, he says. "If it is about stopping people, preventing them becoming violent extremists and radical, we have to ask why almost 800 people are in Syria at the moment fighting with Daesh [IS], we also have to answer how this individual was not picked up by security services or even Prevent," he says. "It's not working." Under Prevent, if someone seems vulnerable to radicalisation or displays extremist behaviour they are meant to go through an intervention, where a panel assesses the case and assigns a mentor or another deradicalisation process.

Awan says the barbarity of the Manchester attack might work to repel some young people toying with IS propaganda, but others will already be under the thrall of IS psychology that justifies anyone being a target. "That takes a long-term process of deradicalisation," he says. "By that stage it's very difficult to bring them back." Awan worries that Prevent is actually counter-productive. Prevent has become "toxic" in Muslim communities, he says. Under legislation passed in 2015 schoolteachers, doctors, nurses, even firemen have an onus to report suspect radicals. "It's very much a profiling exercise. There are 22 indicators if someone is vulnerable to radicalisation. It talks about people's beliefs being changed, people becoming more overtly religious."

If a young person so much as talks about foreign policy issues they tick a Prevent box, Awan says. There is a massive over-diagnosis. It's catching the normal radicalisation common to young people of a certain age. And it's having an effect. "Communities have gone insular, they feel isolated," Awan says. Prevent is seen as a spying tool, a symbol of mistrust and fear. It has turned Muslim communities into "suspect communities". "You've created this idea that everybody affiliated with Islam is under official suspicion," he says. This atmosphere encourages rather than prevents jihadist radicalisation, Awan says.

"People don't feel part of society  it's part of the narrative of those who've gone to Syria, they feel belonging [there], they don't feel British and that's why they went to Syria to join the romanticised utopian version of a Caliphate." He wants a return to "grassroots" programs, giving young people a platform to say how they feel without fear of being criminalised. He wants to embrace and reintegrate those returning from Syria, rather than reject them. But he's realistic that this is going to be a hard idea to sell right now. "It's a much harder battle now to say that message," he says. "There was a very strong theme on social media asking why the Muslim community hadn't done enough  it's a natural reaction to ask 'it was one of you, why didn't you do something'." But Prevent is not a lost cause. It has defenders in government and on the frontline.

Before the Manchester attack Rudd had already flagged she was planning to boost Prevent, putting in more money to improve the effectiveness of its programs. Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal, a Prevent practitioner in the West Midlands, works with colleges and universities on the Prevent strategy, and passionately believes it is doing good every day. 'We had the case of a nine-year old who stood up in class and proclaimed his support for ISIS," she said. "He had been on the internet and wanted to find out what happened in the Paris attacks  and inadvertently ended up watching execution videos that had been put up there by Daesh [IS]. "He was one of the referrals that went through to Prevent and they were able to support him and his family and pull him away from the things he was watching. He was a child, a vulnerable little boy forming opinions without any understanding of what was going on. "It was about making sure he had the help and the support at the right time to turn his life around."

She strongly rejects the kind of criticism levelled by Awan. "These opinions are coming from people who have no idea how the process works," she says. "[Prevent] is not a secret department  it's all very open and upfront, the individuals need to agree, the families can work with them and it's about getting them the support that they need. "This is about protecting our society  we've taken down 260,000 items of terrorist-related material off the internet and stopped 50 children from going to Syria. It is working and we do need it to continue." Beyond government policy, the biggest bulwark against IS in Britain may be the community itself. Muhammad Khurshid is a 27-year-old imam from the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in central Manchester. He and fellow Muslims took a "Love for all, hatred for none" banner to the vigil in central Manchester on Tuesday evening, and they were greeted with warm applause from thousands in the crowd.

"It was important for us to become visible to the crowd," he says. "It was important to get the message across  and the crowd was with us throughout and we were with the crowd. "It was important for us to get the true message of Islam, love for all and hatred for none, a message that accepts tolerance within society. It was important for us to get our message clearly across to the people of Manchester." It was "wonderful" to see so many people from different cultures and faiths expressing their unity that evening, Khurshid says. "The aim [the terrorist] must have had in mind, that had already collapsed the very next day. "We got to see a really dark night in the history of Manchester but the very next day we got to see the very best of Manchester as well."
Bali: He was the man Schapelle Corby believed in.

"Pak Erwin, you are a good man. I have faith in your ability as a lawyer and a trusted friend. If anyone is capable of bringing me home a free woman, it's you. I know you always do your absolute best for me," she wrote in her autobiography.

In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media ahead of Corby's scheduled deportation on Saturday, Erwin Siregar said he still believed his former client was innocent, but admitted that there were only two people who knew for sure: "Schapelle Corby and God."

Mr Siregar suggested Corby may have received a lighter sentence if the case had been less high-profile.
Washington: The founder of Bikram yoga is facing arrest for failing to pay more than $6 million ($8 million) to his former lawyer in a sexual harassment case.

Bikram Choudhury, 70, is famed for a technique that counts Madonna, Andy Murray and Gwyneth Paltrow among its followers.

But a California judge has issued an arrest warrant shortly after Mr Choudhury was ordered to hand over the proceeds from his global fitness empire.

He has been told to pay Minakshi "Micki" Jafa-Bodden, his former lawyer, who claimed Mr Choudhury fired her when she refused to help him cover up a rape allegation.
Unhampered by being charged with the assault of a reporter just 24 hours earlier, Republican Greg Gianforte on Thursday won the special election to fill Montana's empty seat in the U.S. House by 7 percentage points.

The Bozeman technology entrepreneur, who did not appear publicly after the assault until his victory speech late Thursday, traded leads with Democrat Rob Quist as early results came in, but by 10 p.m. he took a lead Quist could not recover from.

Addressing supporters, Gianforte apologized to the reporter he had an altercation with, as well as other journalists who witnessed the event. He also apologized to Montanans, saying, "When you make a mistake you have to own up to it. That's the Montana way."

With turnout at 51 percent and 462 precincts fully reported and 199 partially, Gianforte had 51 percent of the vote, or 181,371, to Quist's 44 percent, or 156,205 votes. A total of 360,508 votes were counted by 11:40 p.m.

Notably, Libertarian Mark Wicks had 20,736 votes, more than what his party's candidate got in the fall election.

Addressing supporters late Thursday, Quist said "Don't be discouraged. Be determined." He said Montanans would continue to hold Gianforte accountable.

"These issues and this fight does not end," Quist said.

In an unorthodox race that lasted just 85 days but broke spending and fundraising records, Gianforte faced off against Quist and Wicks, vying for the position after it was vacated when President Donald J. Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.

Gianfortes altercation with a reporter for The Guardian fixed Montanas race even more firmly in the national spotlight. Out-of-state reporters had been crisscrossing the state for months, looking to Montanas vote as a sort of barometer on the fledgling Trump presidency.

Democrats viewed the seat as one they could possibly flip, and Republicans grew more wary as the race wore on that they might not be able to find a path to victory in a state thats generally viewed as red but has a strong independent streak.

Jeremy Johnson, a professor at Carroll College in Helena, said Quist under-performed in key swing counties of Cascade and Yellowstone.

"Many of the strong Republican rural counties stayed strongly Republican, although Democrats had hoped a non-politician identified with rural Montana could make inroads," he said.

Neither Gianforte nor Quist has ever held public office, but thats where the similarities end. Gianforte, who lost his bid for the governorship last fall, is a wealthy Bozeman businessman who sold a technology company he founded in Gallatin County for $1.8 billion to Oracle in 2012. Quist is a musician and poet from Creston who for years toured the state with the Mission Mountain Wood Band.

This spring Gianforte displayed strong support for Trump that was absent in his race for governor last fall. He never failed to align himself with the president, billing himself as a business guy, calling for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He also brought Donald Trump Jr. to the state for two rounds of rapid-fire rallies across the state.

Quist played to the states Democratic base, holding campaign rallies just last week with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who won Montanas presidential primary over eventual nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump carried Montana in November by 20 percentage points over Clinton, even as Gianforte was losing to incumbent Gov. Steve Bullock by almost four points.

[VIDEO] Watch Greg Gianforte's full victory speech and apology Republican multimillionaire Greg Gianforte won Montana's only U.S. House seat on Thursday de

Quist emphasized he would work to preserve the Affordable Care Act and funding for programs like Planned Parenthood. He also created a sharp contrast between himself and Gianforte by playing up his support of preserving access to abortion and legalizing marijuana.

Montanans were inundated with election advertising as outside groups spent more than $7.1 million in attempts to sway voters. Both candidates reported raising more than $7 million, which included a $1.5 million loan Gianforte made to his campaign.

Just $9.5 million was spent last fall when Zinke faced Democrat Denise Juneau. Zinke easily won re-election with 56 percent of the vote.

More than 37 percent of registered voters had already cast absentee ballots by Wednesday night, when at a campaign event in Bozeman the Guardian journalist said Gianforte body-slammed him. Though some expected the event to cut Gianforte's chances of victory, it seemed like the news broke too late to matter much. Even some at the Gianforte watch party were unaware of the incident. A little over 2,000 registered to vote Thursday. In the 2012 election, 8,053 registered on Election Day.

There were no less than nine TV camera tripods set up for cable news networks, plus a couple local channels, at Gianforte's event at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bozeman.

Gianforte remained silent about the altercation as voters went to the polls Thursday. Major Republicans in Montana stood by the candidate, while others nationally said his behavior was unacceptable.

Quists campaign was not without its own struggles. The candidate had a 16-year trail of debt that included unpaid taxes and loans. Quist said he fell behind after a botched gallbladder surgery kept him from working, though videos surfaced of him performing with his band during the period he said he was out of commission.

On Thursday the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that the U.S. House would decide if Gianforte's charge of assault could stop him from assuming the seat if he wins the election. The paper spoke with Anthony Johnstone, a law professor at the University of Montana, who said the House could punish or remove Gianforte based on the body's own rules.
Claim: During a 1955 speech at West Point, General Douglas MacArthur told assembled cadets: "The next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of the earth must someday make a common front against attack by people from other planets." Rating: About this rating False

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This item is a difficult one to classify: It's literally false as worded, because the person named didn't speak the specific words attributed to him at the time and place claimed (or at any other time and place). However, by combining things the same person said at different times and places, one could come up with a reasonable approximation of the original statement.

The subject here is a quote attributed to a 1955 West Point address by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, in which the famous military man supposedly mused about the next war being an interplanetary one. That alleged quote has since been cited in a variety of works and web sites related to UFOs and extraterrestrials and still surfaces in newspapers and other publications from time to time:

In October 1955 General Douglas MacArthur told the cadets of West Point: 'The next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of the earth must someday make a common front against attack by people from other planets.' The cadets must have wondered which planet MacArthur himself was from, but his fears were no more far-fetched than the current government-fed paranoia that millions of us are about to be murdered in our beds by Islamofascist superbiotoxins kept at 45 minutes' readiness in a bedsit in Tipton and activated by psychotic double-amputees.

However, General MacArthur did not deliver a speech at West Point that year, nor is there any record of his specifically stating an opinion that the "next war" would be an "interplanetary" one.

The confusion started with comments reportedly made by MacArthur when he was paid a private visit at his residence in New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel by the Mayor of Naples, Achille Lauro, in October 1955. The following day Mayor Lauro relayed the gist of their 45-minute conversation to the press, maintaining MacArthur had expressed a belief that someday (perhaps as far as 1,000 years in the future) the people of Earth might find themselves facing an extraterrestrial confrontation:

General MacArthur described himself as "a confirmed optimist" regarding the possibility of another world war, Mayor Lauro said. "He thinks that another war would be double suicide and that there is enough sense on both sides of the Iron Curtain to avoid it," the Mayor went on. "He believes that because of the developments of science all the countries on earth will have to unite to survive and to make a common front against attack by people from other planets." The politics of the future will be cosmic, or interplanetary, in General MacArthur's opinion, the Mayor continued. He quoted the military leader as saying that a thousand years from now today's civilization would appear as obsolete as the stone age.

According to Lauro, the only comments MacArthur made about the next war were that he had no idea what form it would take:

"He quoted Einstein's reply when asked what weapons would be used in a third world war  that he did not know what weapons would be used in a third world war but that a fourth global conflict would be fought with sticks and stones."

Some newspapers (such as the Chicago Tribune) played up the sensational aspects of Mayor Lauro's remarks, reproducing only a brief portion of them under headlines such as "MacARTHUR FEARS SPACE WAR."

Several years later, on 12 May 1962, MacArthur delivered a speech (commonly known as the "Duty, honor, country" speech) to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on the occasion of his receiving the Sylvanus Thayer Award, during which he once again alluded to the possibility that mankind might someday face an extraterrestrial foe:

We deal now, not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier. We speak in strange terms of harnessing the cosmic energy, of making winds and tides work for us, of creating unheard of synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify sea water for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundred of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of spaceships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all times.

So, General Douglas MacArthur did suggest the notion of an eventual interplanetary war on at least a couple of occasions; one of them was in 1955, and one of them was during a speech at West Point. But he never stated it would be the "next war" fought on (or by) Earth, or that it was likely to happen in any timeframe outside of the very distant future.
Greater Grove Hall Main Streets Hosts Mass Innovation Nights

BOSTON, MA  (Marketwired)  05/25/17  (MIN) and the are collaborating on a technology showcase and networking event in the Thelma D. Burns Building, 575 Warren Street, Dorchester, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on June 14th, 2017. This will be the first time Mass Innovation Nights will be held in Grove Hall and it will be the first to feature African and African American founders of tech companies.

We are excited to support diversity in tech and bring visibility to start-ups looking to be heard in the noisy tech space. said Bobbie Carlton, the founder of Innovation Nights, and .

We are very excited to be partnering with Mass Innovation Nights on MIN #99. We want to see more people in Grove Hall as producers of technology instead of just consumers. Helping people get jobs in technology and starting tech companies is one way to revitalizing the community while mitigating gentrification, said Ed Gaskin, Executive Director of .

Free-of-charge and open to the public, Mass Innovation Nights #99 features experts, networking, tabletop demos and presentations from the winners of online voting.

The featured companies will include:

BeautyLynk

Black Girls Nutrition

Cede

Dolume LLC

Donii

dot Teach

FABLabs For America

IncluDe

Kids in Tech

MOON Selfie Light

Pulse24/7

Quality Interactions

UZURI Health and Beauty

There will also be business experts from:

Greater Grove Hall Main Streets

Sankofa, Inc.

Duplessy Foundation

Eastern Banks Business Equity Initiative

Additionally, a student-founded startup from Wentworth Institute of Technologys Accelerate program will be presenting: OCC Youth Unleashed.

Guests are encouraged to use hashtag #MIN99 and @MassInno to share their photos and commentary. The gatherings typically generate hundreds of tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, and videos, and are key visibility drivers for these companies. To attend, please .

Mass Innovation Nights (MIN) offers an opportunity for people interested in innovative new products to connect live and online. Each month, different companies launch new products with Innovation Nights and the social media community helps spread the word. The popular product launch party and networking event draws attendees from the entire region. Over the past 8 years, it has launched almost 1000 new products which have collectively received more than $1.3 billion in funding. Follow or visit the at mass.innovationnights.com/.

Greater Grove Hall Main Streets (GGHMS) partners with the City of Boston, private businesses and community stakeholders to improve the economic vitality of the Greater Grove Hall area such that residents can enjoy the benefits of development without displacement. Greater Grove Hall Main Streets (GGHMS) is committed to providing a diverse business district while maintaining our neighborhoods historical character. We encourage innovative and creative techniques for fostering economic development that enriches the lives of the business owners, employees and residents in our community. Follow us on or visit our website greatergrovehall.org.

Media Contact:

Kristen Avini

510-221-8122

Mass Innovation Nights
Urbanimmersive Adds Three New Affiliate Vendors to its Platform for All Customer Transactions

LAVAL, QUEBEC  (Marketwired)  05/25/17  Urbanimmersive Inc. (Urbanimmersive or the Company) (TSX VENTURE: UI)(OTC PINK: UBMRF), a real estate content marketing platform, is pleased to announce the signing of three (3) new affiliate program agreements with La Clic Mobile, a real estate photographer agency, Yvan Dube and Eric Laurin both freelance photographers for the use of Urbanimmersives visual content marketing platform for 100% of their real estate business transactions.

All three of the new Affiliate vendors customer business transactions will take place on the platform and will grow Urbanimmersives top-line revenue. The Company will then take a transaction fee in line with its current pricing model on each transaction generated through its platform.

Were excited to see that more and more visual content providers are realizing the value of our Affiliate Program and embracing it for their entire business, said Ghislain Lemire, CEO of Urbanimmersive. All Affiliate vendors, whether small or large operations, are making a difference not only to our top-line revenue because they bring with them their existing customers, but also because they are creating a synergy between each other. This provides an enhanced buying experience for our marketplaces end users and ultimately helps spread our market reach much faster, added Mr. Lemire.

The Affiliate Program is offered to visual content providers ready to use Urbanimmersives Marketplace for 100% of their real estate business transactions with existing and new customers. The program provides real estate photography agencies, photographers and 3D artists in Urbanimmersives Marketplace with increased marketing visibility while enabling them to effectively manage their internal operations and account receivables. The Affiliate Program offers a white label ordering interface, presenting only services offered by the agency or by other Marketplace content providers selected by the agency. It also provides a dashboard to manage bookings and payments from the incoming customers phone calls, emails and SMS. As part of the Affiliate Program, visual content providers become Urbanimmersive resellers of the Companys internal products and services.

About Urbanimmersive

Urbanimmersive is a content marketing platform for the real estate industry. The Company connects real estate professionals, photographers and writers in order to simplify and optimize original content production workflow. Urbanimmersive enables its customers to leverage their marketing investment while increasing productivity, competitiveness, their web visibility, consumer engagement with their brand and ultimately, their revenue.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties. Such statements relating to, among other things, the prospects for the company to enhance operating results, are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which are significant in scope and nature. These uncertainties may cause actual results to differ from information contained herein. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of the management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management estimates or opinions change. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other assumptions and risk factors, please refer to the last Corporations MD&A filed with the Canadian securities commissions. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release represent our expectations as of the date hereof. We disclaim any intention and assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Urbanimmersive Inc.

Ghislain Lemire

President & CEO

514-394-7820 X 202

For investor relations:

Contact Financial Corp.

Frederick Chabot

438-863-7071
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KALISPELL  A 29-year-old northwestern Montana woman suspected of ordering a man's murder has been sentenced to prison for dealing drugs.

Melisa Ann Crone was sentenced Thursday to 40 years with 20 years suspended. She earlier pleaded guilty to criminal distribution of dangerous drugs.

Crone was initially charged with accountability to deliberate homicide in the May 2016 stabbing death of 35-year-old Wade Rautio.

During Robert Wittal's homicide trial, witnesses testified that Crone approved of Wittal's plan to assault Rautio and let Wittal know when she was going to kick him out of her house east of Kalispell. Wittal is serving a 110-year prison term for taking Wittal to a rural area and killing him.

Crone insisted that she had no control over what happened to Rautio after she kicked him out.
4 players to watch in annual matchup between Navy and Notre Dame

Notre Dame is a confident bunch after its win over Clemson, but Navy will be a test the Irish have to be prepared to ace
Well, while we can still express our personal opinion, I firmly believe the Democrat party and all the gullible fools that allow themselves to be led around by this corrupt, U S of A-hating bunch, are by far the biggest threat to our country! Of course the fact that approximately 90 percent of the news media in this country is left wing slanted and just overlooks their destructive ways is willingly fanning the flames of destruction. This paper right here in Decatur seems to be somewhat left slanted by the way they do the opinion page column writers. More are lefties. Other examples of their bias is the non reporting or under reporting anything positive of President Trump or the Republicans. Usually anything positive is on further back and just sort of an afterthought.
ORANGE, Calif.  A Southern California university has awarded an honorary degree to the mother of a quadriplegic student after she attended every class with him and took his notes while he pursued his Master of Business Administration.

Judy O'Connor, a retired elementary-school teacher, pushed her son Marty in his wheelchair for him to receive his degree during commencement Saturday at Chapman University in the Los Angeles suburb of Orange.

Then, a choked-up graduation announcer said the school's faculty, administrators and board of trustees had decided to give her an MBA. The idea for the surprise honorary degree came from her son.

A stunned but composed Judy O'Connor blew a kiss to the crowd giving her a standing ovation.

"I'm a geek. I love being in school," she said before the ceremony. "I'm not going to lie. I've enjoyed every minute of it."

Marty O'Connor received an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado and was working as a salesman for a packaging industry company in 2012 when he fell down a flight of stairs and was paralyzed.

"After I got hurt, I didn't know which end was up. I didn't really have a direction," he said in a story on the school's website. "I needed that mental challenge and wanted to add some professional value to myself."

His mother was living in Florida but moved to Southern California to help her son earn his MBA.

He uses an iPad, laptop, voice-recognition software and a special mouth stylus to communicate but could not take notes or write the answers to tests. So his mother did.
Humanity now has a new perspective on Jupiter's rings, thanks to NASA's Juno spacecraft.

During its initial data-collecting dive over Jupiter's poles on Aug. 27, 2016, Juno captured the first-ever photo of the giant planet's faint ring system from the inside, mission team members revealed Thursday (May 25).

The photo, which Juno took with its star-tracking navigation camera, also shows part of the constellation Orion, including the bright star Betelgeuse and the three stars that make up Orion's belt. [Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter]

The star-tracker camera aboard NASAs Juno spacecraft captured this view of Jupiters faint rings on Aug. 27, 2016, during the probes first data-gathering close approach to the giant planet. Its the first-ever view of the rings from inside of them. The bright star above the main ring is Betelgeuse, and Orions belt can be seen in the lower right. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI)

"What you're looking at here is a ring of dust that's 40,000 miles [64,000 kilometers] away [from Juno] and stars that are hundreds of light-years away, all in the same picture," Heidi Becker, Juno's radiation-monitoring investigation lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during a press conference Thursday.

The Juno team wanted to share this glimpse of Jovian stargazing with the world, Becker said. "Heaven looks the same to us from Jupiter," she added.

Zoomed-in version of Junos unprecedented photo of Jupiters ring system, with the outlines of the Orion constellation mapped out. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI)

The $1.1 billion Juno mission launched in August 2011 and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. The spacecraft is using its eight science instruments to study the giant planet's structure and composition, as well as its gravitational and magnetic fields. The mission's main goal is to understand how Jupiter formed and evolved, information that should yield insights into the history of solar systems in general, mission team members have said.

Juno collects most of its data during close flyovers of the planet's poles that occur once every 53.5 Earth days. The Aug. 27 dive was Juno's first such "perijove" pass; the probe has since performed four others.

Juno's mission is scheduled to end in February 2018.

The newly released photo of Jupiter's rings was a sidelight during Thursday's press conference, which was devoted to discussion of the planet's surprising polar cyclones, mysterious auroras, possibly "fuzzy" core and some other key science results gleaned from Juno's first few perijove passes.

Jupiter's ring system is much smaller and fainter than the famous icy disk that girds Saturn. Galileo Galilei observed Saturn's rings way back in 1610, but Jupiter's weren't spotted until 1979, when NASA's Voyager 1 probe zoomed close to the giant planet. (For the record: Galileo couldn't tell exactly what Saturn's rings were, because his telescope was too crude; the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens was the first to identify them as rings, in 1659.)

"Jupiter's ring system has three main components: a pair of very faint outer rings called the gossamer rings; a wide, flat main ring; and a thick inner ring called the halo," NASA officials wrote on an explainer page about the planet's rings. "The rings appear to be created by dust thrown off by impacts on small moons."

All four of the solar system's giant planets  Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune  have ring systems.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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NEW YORK (AP)  Facebook's CEO returned to Harvard Thursday, telling graduates that it is up to their generation to create a purpose for today's world, to care about others, to fight inequality and strengthen the global community.

"Change starts local. Even global changes start small  with people like us," Mark Zuckerberg said after sharing anecdotes about graduates like David Razu Aznar, a former city leader who led the effort to legalize gay marriage in Mexico City, and Agnes Igoye, who grew up in conflict zones in Uganda and now trains law enforcement officers.

"And this is my story too. A student in a dorm room, connecting one community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we can connect the whole world," said the 33-year-old billionaire, who received an honorary doctorate degree on Thursday, 12 years after dropping out of Harvard to focus on Facebook.

Zuckerberg, who like the graduates is a millennial, started Facebook in his dorm room in 2004. What began as a closed networking site for Harvard students is now a global communications force with nearly 2 billion members.

Zuckerberg follows another famous Harvard dropout, Bill Gates, who spoke before its graduates a decade ago. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who dropped out of Reed College in Oregon, gave Stanford's commencement speech in 2005, reminding students to "stay hungry, stay foolish."

Besides launching Facebook, Zuckerberg also met his wife, Priscilla Chan, at Harvard. Chan went on to become a pediatrician. Together, the two formed the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization focused on advancing science and education. They have also pledged to give away 99 percent of their massive wealth.

On Thursday, Zuckerberg received an honorary doctoral degree from the university, along with nine other people including the actress Judi Dench, the composer John Williams (known for "Star Wars," ''Harry Potter" and many other scores) and Somali human rights activist and physician Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe.

"If I get through this speech today it'll be the first time I actually finish something here at Harvard," Zuckerberg said. He did.
PANA  Even at 70, Jim Hicks is a mans man.

Former Marine. Retired tire builder from the old Firestone plant in Decatur. Firefighter. The first to raise his hand when theres a job to be done.

But now in the final days of his 45th year as a respected and beloved member of the Pana Fire Department, Hicks has bumped into something that rarely stops a man like him in his tracks.

He has bumped into tears.

Knowing for a couple years retirement was approaching, hes been wrestling with the decision. Its been tough for the simplest of reasons: Saying goodbye to something he has so completely poured his heart and soul into will be difficult. Its in my blood, he said.

But theres the trickier matter of finding the peace of mind to step away at a time when many of the 34 members of Panas volunteer fire fighting force are still relatively new to the department and, in Hicks eyes, havent been entirely tested.

So he asked himself, are they thoroughly trained? Will they know what to do when lives are at stake and danger is flaming all around them? Can I really leave them now?

These were the unanswered questions that haunted him until early April, when within six days Pana experienced two awful fire catastrophes that claimed three lives.

Ironically, it was in those tragic days that Hicks found the answers that will allow him to stand proud and certain of his decision when he is honored Sunday in an open retirement reception from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Pana Fire House, 401 E. 1st St.

Hicks was one of the first responders to the fire on April 2 that claimed the lives of a 2-year-old and 2-month-old.

His firefighting friend, Mike Foster, can barely tell the story of what happened in that fire, and the one six days later that resulted in the third fatality, without being moved to tears.

Foster figures he had a very close brush in that second fire when it flashed over and nearly engulfed him and a colleague.

I thought I was dead, Foster said.

It doesnt take long to figure out that theres an extraordinary amount of pride that drives the members of Pana Fire Department, led by Chief Rod Bland, and Jim Hicks has always done his part to assure thats the case.

So when pagers went off to alert volunteers that there was a structure fire on April 2, the response was immediate. It always is. Their average response from the time a pager sounds until they arrive on the scene is seven minutes.

But Foster said he knew the situation was grim the moment he could see the smoldering two-story home.

I knew as soon as I pulled up, no human could survive in that kind of smoke for that long, Foster said.

What Hicks witnessed was Panas firefighters performing at their absolute best.

We had no chance with that fire but these guys went in and came crawling back out in 20 to 30 seconds because of the heat. And they turned right back around and went back up that ladder and through that window again.

They did that three times before they got control of the fire and that told me they were ready.

Ive been afraid to quit because we have so many new guys but that fire proved to me they were ready. And when it was over, I just stood there and cried.

Its precisely that kind of fire that has worried Jim Hicks wife for many years.

Janet Hicks, who retired as the director of the Pana Public Library, is grateful her husband is finally stepping aside.

Im happy because of the intensity of the fires that are happening now, she said. Theyre much better trained than they were when Jim first started, but I worry that at his age he might not be as agile as he once was to do what firemen need to do.

For the last several years Janet Hicks has bravely waged war on cancer and is cancer-free now. So she has prepared a bucket list of things to do once her husband has the time to do it, starting with a cruise to Alaska in July. Shed like to see Las Vegas, drive a tractor and ride a horse, all things that got pushed to the back burner while working, raising a family and keeping track of her always-moving husband.

The truth is, theres been precious little time for travel and fun with the schedule Jim Hicks keeps.

His life has been a wall-to-wall commitment to volunteerism that stands as a model in his home community. Minus two years spent studying architectural engineering in Indianapolis and two years in the Marines, the other 66 years of his life have been spent in this Christian County community of about 6,000.

His volunteer efforts have included teaching fire safety in the schools, public speaking on behalf of the department, fundraising for the departments equipment fund, helping with the Boy Scouts, serving as Eucharistic minister at St. Patricks Catholic Church, teaching swimming lessons for the Red Cross, running the youth-oriented Explorers Fire program for 32 years, helping with the communitys Fourth of July fireworks show, teaching CPR classes and helping neighboring communities with their emergency medical services programs and serving on the departments honor guard.

Hes a member of the Lions Club, Knights of Columbus, participates in parades, sells Crispy Creme donuts to raise money for new fire gear and makes sure every kid who wants to has a chance to climb on a fire truck.

He was also instrumental in helping to get a piece of steel beam from the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster that is proudly displayed at the Pana Fire Station. Hicks and Foster have transported it around the state to share with others.

All three of the Hicks children and most of their seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren will be at Sundays reception, as will Jim Hicks 100-year-old father, Sheridan, and his 94-year-old mother, Betty.

Janet Hicks said while shes looking forward to traveling with her soon-to-be-retired husband, she will miss the excitement of being a firefighters wife, even with the countless inconveniences.

Ive enjoyed being a part of the family and it really is a true family at that firehouse, she said. Weve made life-long friendships.

And our children have loved having their dad as a fireman. I can still see the excitement in their eyes when the alarm went off. Theyd get on the couch and stay out of the way because they knew how quickly their dad would be moving.

What she wont miss is being left in the grocery store with a basket full of groceries when Jim fled to answer a call. Or when hed have to abruptly leave the family on Christmas Eve, as happened one year when the temperature was 18 and the wind howled at 60 miles an hour. Jim Hicks fell that night and was instantly stuck to the ground by water that froze as it pooled around him. Fellow firefighters had to use two pry bars to chip him free from the icy ground.

For his efforts, Jim Hicks received the usual pay for answering a fire call: $10.

Hicks said he did manage to turn his beeper off briefly while walking his daughter down the aisle for her wedding. But as I walked back up the aisle, I turned it back on, he admitted.

Those days of constantly being on call will end officially next week, 45 years after he signed up as a volunteer fireman in 1972.

Jim Hicks still thinks about that awful week in April, when circumstances beyond their control resulted in three fire fatalities.

The home in which the two young children died did not have smoke alarms. It was caused by an electrical problem.

The home in which the man died turned into a smoke-filled tomb when he fell asleep while smoking.

But while those deaths took a toll on the fire department and the community, they also served as a reminder that Pana has a group of volunteers who are thoroughly committed to answering any call when it comes.

What happened was terrible, Janet Hicks said. But it gave the whole community comfort.

Days later, during a counseling session with mental health experts, the firefighters had a chance to tell their stories.

At one point, the guy said, Did you break any safety rules?  Foster recalled. I said, Damn straight. Every single damn one of them. Because we were determined to save those kids.

Fosters eyes are wet as he recounts his story and his friend, Jim Hicks, slowly nods his head.

Thats when I knew it was OK for me to retire, he said. Our guys get it. Our guys showed me they can do the job.

They learned it from the man Panas school kids call, Fireman Jim.
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'Not Gonna Happen'

For years, Germany has exported more than it imports and Trump has criticized the country's trade surplus before - in an interview with the German tabloid Bild prior to his inauguration, for example. In that interview, too, he voiced particular frustration at the number of German cars he sees on the streets of New York. "I would tell BMW if they think they're gonna build a plant in Mexico and sell cars into the U.S. without a 35 percent tax, it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen." It was a clear threat to slap punitive tariffs on German automobiles.

The new U.S. president finds Germany's surpluses unfair because they necessarily mean that its trading partners have a trade deficit, the U.S. in this case. But the German government has also been criticized within the EU for its trade surplus. In a recent interview with SPIEGEL , German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble also said that the surplus was too large.
Havana, May 26, 2017 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO, Brahim Gali, is exoected to arrive in Cuba on the occasion of an official visit during which he will hold official talks with the President of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba, Raul Castro Ruz, and will carry out other activities.

Recently, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina paid a visit to SADR and in his meeting with President Brahim Gali stressed Cuba's support for the struggle of the Saharawi people for their right to self-determination and independence.

On the occasion of the 58th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the President of the Republic, in a message congratulating his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, reiterated the commitment of the Sahrawi Republic to strengthen ties of friendship and cooperation between the two Nations, stressing the importance of the legacy of Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro, for the oppressed peoples of the world.

Cuba and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic established diplomatic relations in January 1980, and currently their main areas of collaboration are health, education and food supply.

The President of the Republic, Brahim Gali, will arrive in Havana after having participated in the presidential ceremony of transmission of power in the Republic of Ecuador, where he has been since Tuesday, invited by the highest governmental authorities of that Latin American country. SPS

125/090/TRA
Arlas recent 0.4ppl reduction is a surprising move when the Arla Amba price remains unchanged.

NFU dairy board chairman Michael Oakes said:

Last month I applauded the UK Arla Farmers board in supporting UK members by removing the impact of the EU milk price reduction of one eurocent per kilogram. Little did I know at the time that they would seek to rebalance the UK purse so soon.

At the Dairy Industry Newsletter conference last week I heard that EU butter markets are exceptionally good with futures prices up to 5,400 and 5,500 for June and July. At the current exchange rate thats around 4,720 so I can clearly see why farmers are asking whats going on. Latest figures from AHDB show that while both Actual Milk Price Equivalent and Milk for Cheese Value Equivalent indicators have weakened slightly, the cream income to the processor continues to rise and is now delivering on average 10.1ppl back to the processor.

"A question I want answered is who benefits from this high cream and butter price - as it clearly isnt dairy farmers? With spells of dry weather impacting grass growth - and ultimately volumes - and the GDT market continuing to strengthen, it makes no sense that are we are now seeing milk price reductions. Last month it was Dairy Crest announcing a 1ppl cut for June and a further 1ppl cut for July, with County Milk Products even backdating milk price cuts.
The title fell to their first prize two-year-old bull, Oddacres Landlord, acquired at last years main Limousin breed highlight at Skipton from local breeders John and Claire Mason, who run the highly regarded Oddacres pedigree herd in Embsay.

Landlord is by the Masons reputable French-bred stock bull, Gallois, acquired several years ago, out of Oddacres April. Already with calves on the ground in the Prietec herd, the first time shown victor was paraded in the show ring by the Priestleys 18-year-old daughter, Mya.

Described as a good well fleshed bull with a full back end by show judge Andrew Fisher, of Pateley Bridge, the drinks were on Landlord when he sold for a price-topping 2,900gns, returning to North Craven with David White, of Low Birkwith Farm, Horton-In-Ribblesdale.

He will be put to use on Mr Whites 20-plus suckler herd of Limousin, British Blue and Simmental-cross cattle, and replaces another Mason-bred bull, Oddacres Bugatti, acquired in 2006, who now, aged 11, has served his time well.

With variety a keynote of the annual highlight, which brought down the curtain on the marts 2017 pedigree beef season, all three prizes in the bull show class fell to different breeds. Runner-up and reserve champion was a Simmental from show debutants, South Yorkshires Tony Hill and Ruby Wright, of the Scotland Hill pedigree herd in Wadworth, Doncaster.

Their home-bred December, 2015, Scotland Hill Godfrey 15 is a son of Burghbridge Duncan 12, and was acquired as a calf with his mother from his Suffolk breeders. He has already made his mark in the show arena as a yearling when becoming junior interbreed champion at both Newark and Lincoln.

The couple have been breeding Simmentals for eight years  they were also back-to-back winners with their cattle at the Great Yorkshire Show a few years ago - and currently have 50 cows in the herd. Out of Scotland Hill Nelda Cosmos, the reserve champion joined David Mattinson, of Bracewell in West Craven, for 1,800gns, and will be used on his dairy herd to produce strong beef calves.

Standing third was a 14-month-old Parthenais bull from the Walshaw herd of Brian Lund, based at Walshaw Farm, near Hebden Bridge. Walshaw Mokey Joe is among the last line of progeny to Willow Creek Frankie, a product of Peter Wesleys Grimsby-based herd and well utilised by the Calderdale breeder. Out of Walshaw Diva, who remains in the herd and is again in-calf, the third prize winner sold for 1,900gns to R&E Pollard, of Colne

Mr Lund was also represented by a well thought-of 2016 maiden heifer, Walshaw Misty, again by Willow Creek Frankie, out of his Atomic daughter, Walshaw Gracie. Ripe for breeding, she sold for 2,500gns to a Yorkshire buyer who requested anonymity.

RW&HJ Lewis, who run the Redland pedigree Limousin herd in Hunsingore, near York, achieved 2,000gns with their April, 2011, cow, Redland Georgette, and her seven-month-old bull calf, Redland Mosaic, at foot. The duo  the dam has been run with Heron - joined Mick Harker in Wycoller.

Outside the show classes, a 2015 pedigree British Blue bull from W&M Seels, of Doncaster, sold well at 2,650gns to local buyer John Airey, of Elslack, while L Driver, of Oakenshaw, Bradford, also did well with pedigree Blue entries. He sold a 2010 bull for 2,000gns to G Edwards, of Preston, along with a cow with Blue bull calf at foot for 1,950gns to Silsden Moors Simon Bennett.

A good entry of cows with calves at foot followed the pedigree sale and trade was fast, peaking at 2,250 for a Blue-cross heifer with her Blonde-cross heifer calf from Jack Berry, of Silsden Moor, the outfit finding a new home in Nidderdale with the Middlesmoor-based Verity family. Also doing well at 2,150 was a Limousin-cross heifer with a same way bred heifer calf from James and Deborah Ogden in Austwick, which sold to Eldroths John Cowperthwaite.
Bluetongue virus is transmitted by midges and can infect all ruminants, particularly sheep and cattle. It can reduce milk yield, cause sickness, reduce reproductive performance or, in the most severe cases, cause death in adult animals.

It does not affect people, and meat and milk from infected animals are safe to eat and drink.

Vaccination is the best way to protect livestock and a safe and effective vaccine is available in Great Britain. Livestock keepersparticularly those on the Kent and Sussex coastlineshould discuss with their vet if vaccination is an option which would benefit their business.

The holding where the virus was detected in northern France is less than 150km from the south coast of England. Farmers across the south of England in particular should look out for clinical signs of disease, including mouth ulcers; drooling; swelling of the mouth, head and neck; fever; lameness and breathing problems. Any suspicion of disease must be reported immediately to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) .

The latest expert assessment, published by Defra, is that the risk of an outbreak of Bluetongue virus in the UK is currently low, but will change as we move into summer. The risk of incursion via infected midges later in the summer depends on the level of disease on the continent, proximity to the UK, the vaccination status of animals in the UK and weather conditions.
DECATUR  Giving a green light to veterans is a glowing and growing trend that one Decatur couple hopes will turn on the whole city.

Rich and Sue Smith, who live out in the South Side Country Club neighborhood on Decatur's southern edge, also dream of seeing a nationwide network of twinkling green lights from sea to shining sea.

The intent is show honor and respect for veterans and, by extension, support for all active duty military, said Rich Smith, 69, a retired Navy captain.

The Greenlight A Vet campaign has participants swap out one light bulb visible from outside their homes  front porch light, yard light, deck light, whatever  to a green bulb to honor veterans. Green was picked because, according to the campaign's website, it's the color of hope, renewal and well-being and is the universal color sign for forward movement.

Walmart is a corporate backer of the national campaign, which got first got switched on in 2015. Greenlightavet.com says green lights are an easy way to show veterans they are cared about and not forgotten now that their service is over and they are back in civilian society. Honoring veterans is a message many will also emphasize this Monday on Memorial Day, the federal holiday for remembering people who died while serving in the armed forces.

The Smiths now have three green lights, two in the front and one in the backyard of their home, and have been glowing green since November.

Neighbors soon noticed, Sue Smith says, and she believes some of them were curious because they thought the couple were reluctant to shut off decorative lights to mark the Christmas season. People did notice and as soon as we told them what it was for, they said 'yeah, we would like to have a green light, too, she added. People are patriotic.

One of their recruited neighbors, Gary Beaman, is so keen he burns his green bulb around the clock. It costs me maybe a nickel a day, so what? said Beaman, 76. I want to show my support for the veterans and I don't forget about our first responders like police, fire and EMTs; I don't think they get enough attention, either.

Beaman has said he has seen other green lights on his travels and believes the message of the light is spreading, like the dawn of a new day. Greenlightavet.com has a map where green bulb participants can add their point of light and, so far, more than 9.3 million glowing green dots are represented coast to coast with a heavy concentration out towards the East Coast.

Back in Central Illinois, Pana Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4431 has noticed a few green lights twinkling here and there. Officer of the Day, Raymond Grandfield has one at his home in Macon and hopes to see a lot more. I think it will catch on, this is an area that supports veterans, he said.

Dave Parker, commander of the Macon County Honor Guard, also likes the idea of going green and urges veterans themselves to light the way forward. The ones that should be supporting this are the veterans, said Parker, 53. We're brothers that do and should keep ahold of each other.

One place ready and willing to arm all-comers with a green bulb is Decatur's American Legion Castle Williams Post 105. A donation from Walmart has left them with an arsenal of green bulbs awaiting deployment: We've got four or five boxes of them, if you know anybody who wants one, said post finance officer Robert Scheibly, 74. I've got one at home, and showing a green light in support of veterans looks like a good idea to me.

If you would like a bulb, drop by the Castle Williams Post 105. It's open Monday-Wednesday, 3 p.m to 9 p.m, Thursday-Friday from 3 p.m to 10 p.m., and Saturday 3 p.m to midnight. Call (217) 423-1411.

Scheibly said they'd be happy to give them out free but, if people want to make a small donation to help out the post, that would be outstanding, too.
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STAMFORD  Taxpayers are on the hook for at least $1 million in the settlements reached this month over the fatal Christmas Day fire in Shippan.

The city has two insurance policies that provide a combined $30 million of coverage with a self-insured retention  or deductible  of $1 million, legal affairs director Kathryn Emmett told city legislators Thursday.

Our insurance structure is such that our financial exposure is up to the million mark and after that its insured, Emmett said.

The city would be responsible for any amount in excess of $30 million, she said.

Officials have not disclosed how much money is being awarded in any of the three suits brought by the late Matthew Badger, who lost his three daughters in the 2011 blaze; their mother, Madonna Badger; and the estates of Madonnas parents, Pauline and Lomer Johnson, who also died in the fire.

Emmett was questioned by Board of Representatives members before continuing the discussion with them in executive session. The full details of the case could not be disclosed in public, she said, and several questions she declined to answer. Public boards and commissions are allowed to meet in closed session to discuss personnel matters and pending litigation. Otherwise, their meetings are part of the public record.

The executive session was held during a Public Safety and Health Committee meeting but was open to all members of the board.

City Rep. J.R. McMullen, R-18, asked whether the reason for executive session was pending litigation, despite press releases from the city announcing the cases settled.

So the May 3 and May 5 press releases by the mayor, by the administration, were premature? he asked. Its either settled or its not, isnt it?

No, Emmett said.

It says in the press release its settled, McMullen said.

I can respond in this way, Emmett said. This is almost always true when theres a settlement. Theres a process that occurs to conclude the settlement and to conclude the litigation. Neither of those are concluded yet. Should they not conclude, and there is certainly a possibility of that, were still in court.

Emmett has said the settlements are not signed and require probate court approval. They could be finalized in a month or two, she said.

Attorney and Board of Representatives member Kieran Ryan, R-1, filed a complaint last week with the state Freedom of Information Commission, arguing the Board of Finance on May 11 improperly convened in executive session to discuss the settlements. His appeal argues the cases are settled and should not have been discussed in private with the Board of Finance because they are not involved in the suits.

Emmett would not say whether the citys deductible would triple since there are three cases, or whether a $250,000 donation in the name of the three girls announced in a press release would go toward the deductible or be covered by insurance.

She would also not elaborate on outside attorneys who have worked on the cases, except to say there was counsel in addition to the law department.

Matthew Badger, who died in February of natural causes, had brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of his daughters  Lily, 9, and twins Grace and Sarah, 7. The suit charged that two city officials, Director of Operations Ernest Orgera and Chief Building Official Robert DeMarco, improperly inspected a renovation of the 116-year-old Victorian home on Shippan Point owned by his ex-wife.

He claimed building officials allowed the contractor to do work even though he did not have a Connecticut Home Improvement Registration. In an effort to cover that up and conceal improper inspections, he argued city officials tore the house down a day after the fire without Madonna Badgers permission and hauled away the debris.

Matthew Badgers trial was set to begin this month.

The wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the Johnsons made similar claims.

Madonna Badgers civil suit concerned the destruction and disposal of her home without her consent.

eskalka@stamfordadvocate.com
STAMFORD  John Scharf, manager of the Food Bag/Citgo on Hope Street, has learned to anticipate the ebb and flow of holiday weekends.

The Friday before Memorial Day, for instance, is always the busiest day of the holiday weekend, followed by a slowdown Saturday and Sunday. Vehicles at the pump usually double on Friday, he said.

Out of the three summer holidays  Memorial Day, July Fourth and Labor Day  this weekend is neither the busiest nor the slowest. July Fourth is when he serves the most customers.

Theres really nothing to brag about with Memorial Day, said Scharf, who, despite the surge at the pumps, sees only a small uptick at the stations 24/7 convenience store.

AAA has estimated nearly 40 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles this Memorial Day weekend  a million more people than last year and the most since 2005. The New York City metro area that includes Stamford is one of the busiest for holiday travel.

The vast majority of those travelers, 88 percent, will drive to their destinations, according to AAA. The rest will travel via airplane, bus or train.

Metro-North Railroad is operating 17 extra getaway trains from Grand Central Terminal between 1 and 4 p.m. on Friday. Trains will operate on a regular weekend schedule Saturday and Sunday, and a Sunday schedule Monday.

Jim Cameron, founder of the Commuter Action Group, advises travelers taking the train to plan for the trip.

If your friends are coming out for a barbecue, advise them to check the schedule in advance and buy tickets before getting on the train, he said. Tickets can run an extra $5 or $6 when purchased on the train.

Parking at the stations in many cities on the New Haven Line  Stamford excluded  is free on the weekends.

Taking the train might be a cheaper option than getting behind the wheel since drivers will be paying more at the pump than last year, according to AAA.

The national average for gas was $2.37 a gallon as of Wednesday.

In Stamford, the five cheapest gas stations are Gulf, 250 Hope St., Citgo, 953 Hope St., Mobil, 942 Hope St., Mini Mart, 942 Cove Road, and Citgo, 939 High Ridge Road, according to GasBuddy.com. Prices per gallon range from $2.41 to $2.53.

Drivers should expect heavy traffic in New York City on Friday. Accident alerts rise 27 percent the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day, according to Waze, the app that provides crowdsourced traffic data.

The Stamford Police Department has advised residents the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign is running until June 4. Ninety percent of motorists nationwide wear seal belts, while only 82 percent do in Stamford, according to the department. Getting caught not wearing one comes with a $92 fine.

State police will also be enforcing seat belt and drunken driving laws.

Excessive speed, intoxicated drivers, distracted drivers and the lack of seat belt usage needlessly claim the lives of motorists on Connecticut roadways each year, said Lt. Kenneth Cain, of State Police Troop G. We will continue to utilize all the resources at our disposal to identify those operators who violate these laws and will take strict enforcement action against them.

Staff writer Jim Shay contributed reporting.
STAMFORD  Marco Pensiero is known for his charity work with children by helping to raise money for Cerebral Palsy research.

The Stamford native also made a name for himself in the U.S. Army.

Pensiero, who will be the grand marshal for Stamfords annual Memorial Day parade on Sunday, served in the 7th Infantry Division and was involved in some of the most violent fighting in the Korean War. He returned to the U.S. in December 1953 after a yearlong tour with various medals, including the Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal and three Bronze Service Stars.

Pensiero, who also owned a Stamford painting business for 20 years and worked for the city for 33 years before he retired, is an active member of the Springdale VFW. He has served as chaplin for 13 years.

The 1948 Stamford High grad will lead the parade, which steps off at noon Sunday from the corner of Hoyt and Summer streets.

All of the local veterans associations will participate in the parade, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Catholic War Veterans and the American Legion.

The parade, which is expected to last about an hour, will be followed by a short memorial service at Veterans Memorial Park.

In addition to honoring Stamfords veterans, Archie Elam, commander of Fairfield Countys branch of Connecticut Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the ceremony will feature a short update on the upcoming renovation of Veterans Memorial Park.

Elam, a Stamford resident and former U.S. Army soldier, has been a strong advocate for the project and has worked closely with the citys Downtown Special Services District during its renovation planning process.

nnaughton@stamfordadvocate.com; @noranaughton
I n a world where technology is changing at a break-neck pace, keeping on top of developments can be a costly and labour-intense job, both for individuals and companies.

In addition to navigating market competition and evolving consumer behaviour, businesses are facing a multitude of risks stemming from increasingly sophisticated cyber breaches.

No security loophole is now too small to ignore, but how prepared are you? Does your company have adequate resources to clear unexpected hurdles? Can it meet the costs involved?

Share your thoughts in our survey here and in return youll have the chance to win a brand new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 - 128GB, Intel Core i5 Processor with pen.

Naturally, well share the findings of our survey when its done so that you can see how youre measuring up and how your peers are preparing to tackle whatever lies ahead.

Terms & Conditions: 18+. UK residents only. Promotion closes at 23.59 on 22 June 2017. Only one entry per person. The winner will be the first entry selected at random after the closing date and will be contacted by 1 July 2017.

The winner will receive one Microsoft Surface Pro 4, which will be delivered to a mainland UK address only (excluding Channel Islands). The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.

The promotion is open to readers of our sister publications: The Independent/Evening Standard. We may substitute the prize with another prize of similar value. The prize comes with a 1 year limited hardware warranty  please contact Microsoft for further details. Usual promotion rules apply, see www.standard.co.uk/rules.

For further information, please write to Customer Care, The Independent, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry St, London W8 5EE
DECATUR  One by one, Illinois senators stood and said, I knew Roger Walker.

After state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, introduced a resolution to name a stretch of Macon County highway after the former county sheriff during Thursdays session, he and four other senators talked about their experience knowing Walker and the influence he had on their careers.

I met Roger Walker in 2003 when I was speaking at a conference in Collinsville on blacks in law enforcement, said state Sen. James Clayborne, D-East St. Louis. I finished the speech and he came up to me and introduced himself. He made me feel like Id known him for a long period of time.

"He was a personable man who believed in people and his community. He had a passion for his job. Even when he became ill, he was still a very proud man. He made no excuses and did his job. I have a lot of respect for Roger Walker.

The resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 37, passed unanimously. It designates Illinois 48 from Elwin Road to East Mound Road as Sheriff Roger Walker Memorial Road.

Walker, who died in 2012, was elected Macon County sheriff in 1998. He was the first black sheriff in Illinois. Walker would go on to serve as the director of the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Hes one of the most remarkable citizens Illinois has ever seen and had run for public office, said Manar, who met Walker while he was leading the corrections department. He overcame a lot of obstacles. He was personable, positive and he could work with both sides of the aisle.

Walker was an Eisenhower High School and Richland Community College graduate, and served in the Navy from 1967 to 1969. He joined the Macon County Sheriffs Office as a deputy in 1972 and served the department in several capacities until running for sheriff in 1998. He was re-elected in 2002, but was appointed to the Department of Corrections a year later by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and served as director for six years.

I knew law was Rogers passion, because growing up he was the neighborhood sheriff. He would wear his two cowboy guns and keep peace in the neighborhood, said Hilda Walker, Rogers sister.

She was one of several family members in Springfield on Thursday. Others attending were Roger Walker's brothers, Thomas and Arthur Lee Walker, and nephews, Corey and Shalen Walker.

He was always genuine and he never let his head get bigger than his heart. He had compassion for his community. If he was here today, he would be so honored, Hilda Walker said.

While Walker was well-known locally, he was just as appreciated statewide. State Sen. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago, said shes been to Thomas Walkers church, Main Street Church of the Living God, and couldnt think of a better man to name a street after.

State Sen. Tim Bivins, R-Dixon, said he also knew Walker.

I had the honor of working with Roger Walker while he was the sheriff and hes everything you all are saying he was, Bivins said. The sheriffs loved him. He was a fun guy to be around. He was always happy and uplifting. He always had a smile. I appreciate his family for sharing him with us.

While Walkers family knew of Rogers fame statewide, it was still a proud moment to hear his name spoken by so many on the Senate floor.

To hear all those people talk about him. There are so many people who hell live forever in their hearts, Shalen Walker said. Hes still a pillar within our family. His name will always bring all of us together.

I tried to hold back the tears, but were a faith-based family and in light of everything thats going on in the world  its good to hear his name out there."
T he foreign exchange empire of Sadiq Khans business guru boomed last year as it negotiated its way through Brexit, it has emerged.

Rational Group, which comprises the foreign exchange firms founded by deputy mayor for business Rajesh Agrawal, saw revenues surge 20% last year to 1.4 billion, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

The increase was described as a significant achievement by the parent company of RationalFX and Xendpay, which said the results were in line with targets set before the Brexit vote hammered sterling.

The company said the pounds slump helped the group identify opportunities for operational improvement that have driven a small spread contribution from the previously loss-leading Xendpay. Pre-tax profits jumped more than 200% to 1.6 million, but were still tiny compared with revenues.

Agrawal joined Khans team at City Hall last summer, handing over the chief executive role to co-founder Paresh Davdra, as he stepped back to be non-executive chairman at RationalFX and Xendpay.

Agrawal has hit out at Theresa Mays Brexit strategy. He said last year that London firms needed to maximise access to the single market, passporting rights, and access to talent in Europe.

We are concerned by the uncertainty caused by Brexit, Davdra said today. From our London office, we serve customers from across Europe and employ many people from the EU. Brexit is not the result we hoped for but I believe we have to move forward.

Expansion in Europe, investment in tech, reducing costs and improving customer service have all helped its performance.
S candal-hit carmaker Volkswagens spending plan for clean-vehicle infrastructure  charging stations for electric cars  in the US has shortcomings, regulators have claimed.

The German company has agreed to spend $800 million (621 million) in California, part of $2 billion in the US over the next decade, as it looks to atone for diesel-emissions cheating.

VWs new Electrify America division will manage investments in zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, with plans to install more than 500 charging stations in the US.

But the firms plans for the first $200 million have been queried by the California Air Resources Board (Carb).

It has asked VW to explain how it would meet a requirement to spend funds in disadvantaged communities, including installing electric vehicle charging stations.

It also sought for details on plans for hydrogen vehicles.

The remarks come amid concerns the plan could give VW a competitive advantage on other vehicle and charging-station makers, and ignore poorer communities where states want to promote clean cars. VW did not respond to requests for comment.
T his country is engaged in a high-level, very public spat with its closest ally, the United States, about one of the core elements of the bilateral relationship: the long-standing and intense co-operation in the field of intelligence. The Prime Minister could not let the matter pass with President Trump when she saw him in Brussels yesterday, and she made the right point in underlining in simple terms the need for security of intelligence shared.

Leaks of intelligence are not new, and both sides have been guilty at various times in the past. In this instance what seems especially irresponsible was the timing  at a moment of heightened tension in the UK with the imminent possibility of another attack and right at the outset of the police investigation, the dimensions of which are still unknown but which grow by the hour. And as if one leak by US officials were not enough, a second occurred hard on its heels with potentially more serious consequences, as if the displeasure and disquiet that had just been publicly expressed by British ministers  a rarity in itself  was of absolutely no consequence.

Those involved know that their actions violate the so-called control principle whereby intelligence shared remains the property of the originating government and may not be shared with third parties without permission. The Americans themselves are fierce guardians of this principle, with good reason as it underpins the maintenance of trust and confidence that the intelligence will not be misused or sources compromised. It may feel restrictive when you want to show off to the press how well informed you are but lack of discipline of this sort will sound the death knell of sharing.

It is hard at this stage to know what the aftermath of this episode might be. Some lessons learned, one hopes, but not great consequences. In ordering an investigation by the US Justice Department into the leak, President Trump has, of course, his own agenda. The common interest will not be served if, as a result, intelligence-sharing is reduced.

This is because the sharing of intelligence between allies has become a key tool in the fight against international terrorism. The flow of information between them is extensive; the circle of generators and users thereof is wide, and it includes organisations going well beyond the intelligence community itself, such as police forces. Given the numbers involved, the process is in fact remarkably cohesive. Experience has shown that the likelihood of success in both disrupting and preventing atrocities, as well as pursuing the perpetrators in the aftermath of one, is greatly increased by the ability to collect, accumulate and use data from as many relevant intelligence sources as possible. It is the resulting enriched picture, taken together with other information from police investigations, border controls and such bodies as travel organisations that leads to the discovery of networks and the uncovering of individuals.

It was not always thus. The attack on the Twin Towers in New York was a landmark event in changing habits in the intelligence world. One of the conclusions of the inquest into why the attack, which killed more than 3,000 people, was not prevented was that the individual agencies involved did not pool the leads that came to them.

Intelligence-sharing was born within the US government, and the old principle of access to intelligence being solely on the basis of need to know while still operational was now accompanied by the need to share. Similar changes took place in the UK about the same time, with the individual agencies coming together not just to share individually generated intelligence with each other but also to work together in integrated teams and with other branches of government.

New working methods are transforming the success rate in preventing attacks and pursuing perpetrators. We know all too well about the attacks that take place, but for every one that does, there are now many that do not get through, and about which we do not learn.

While the United States remains this countrys most important intelligence partner, intelligence co-operation and sharing with other European governments has become a very important component in the UKs national security.

Much of the terrorist threat to us has its roots in, or links with, the Middle East and North Africa, and the ability to track through intelligence and policing co-operation the movements of jihadis across continental Europe before they reach our shores adds greatly to our security.

In relation to the Manchester investigation, valuable intelligence is coming in from Germany and other countries. Not all our neighbours in Europe are equally capable in combating terrorism or reliable as intelligence partners, but capacity is being built and the UK has, in its own interest, been a foremost player in this. Some of the valuable bits such as Europol are built on EU structures and law.

In leaving the EU, the UK can expect to keep its bilateral intelligence links in good repair but these will be much less useful to us if we do not also have access to data in EU organisations. The Prime Minister recognises this issue and has said she wants a bespoke deal that will give the UK much more access than would normally be available to a non-EU country. Given how much the UK has already put in, our position is strong, but we should not be surprised if, in the end, we are not as well placed as now.

The terrorist threat will be with us indefinitely. We can diminish it over time. Intelligence-sharing is only one of the instruments we need to achieve this, but it is a very important one.

Baroness Neville-Jones is a former security minister and chairman of the British Joint Intelligence Committee.
T he decision to deploy soldiers on our streets as part of Operation Temperer may be seen as strong leadership by Theresa May in response to the increased threat level but it should be remembered that when she was Home Secretary, May reduced police numbers to a level last seen in the Seventies.

Our police service is stretched beyond the limit and the extra officers on patrol are in fact existing exhausted officers working extended tours of duty, often up to 18 hours a day.

The Police Federation has consistently raised concerns that unsustainable budget cuts have plunged the police into crisis.

As recently as 2015, May dismissed these concerns and accused the police of crying wolf. The wolf has now arrived at the door and the presence of soldiers alongside the police on our streets is a sad indictment of the failures of Mrs May, both as a Home Secretary and now as Prime Minister.

Clifford Baxter



On Wednesday, in my capacity as a London Tour Guide, I led two successful walking tours in London. Afterwards, I went to the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park to watch a preview of the musical On the Town.

On the way home I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard to read that Britain was placed in lockdown today. As I walked freely through the streets of London and entered a major secure building, I would say that this assertion was incorrect.

While the areas around Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Whitehall now have heightened security, the capital and the rest of London is hardly locked down. The media should not pander to the terrorists by printing headlines which will scare people into cancelling travel plans. Whatever happened to London is Open?

Diane Burstein, Registered London Blue Badge Tour Guide



The deployment of the Army in London is a necessary measure taken by Theresa May. With the number of police officers on the beat diminishing, it is good to know we can count on soldiers to guarantee our safety. While this should not be a long-term measure, the current level of threat cannot be ignored.

Lisa Morley



I did not agree with your front page headline saying London was on lockdown. Along with many others, I enjoyed a beer on a sunny South Bank on the same evening. London is open, safer than many cities in the world and tolerant. I would hope your headline would be be less sensationalist.

Joanne Frost



Salafis have nothing to do with terrorism

Both Ed Husain and your editorial are wrong to link Salafi Muslims to the cause of extremism and terrorism.

Most Salafis are quietist in nature and live perfectly peacefully. They tend to integrate with society as a whole and many of them have condemned the vile act of violence in Manchester this week.

Indeed, most Islamic groups in Britain adhere to traditional values of gender segregation in certain public settings as well as opposing nudity and alcohol as a matter of faith and morality. This is in line with other faith groups and should not be considered a mark of extremism.

We need to confront the root cause of terrorism, which is the legitimising of violence against civilians and non-combatants, and try not to conflate it with actions which are practised by many peaceful and law-abiding people.

Abdullah Ansari



Writers should not face 'race identity'

I have written many novels with leading characters of diverse race and sex. I never hesitate to do so out of fear that I might offend others [Writers afraid to use their imagination? Its not just a black-and-white issue, Comment, May 24].

I can relate to characters of all races, genders and ages, and hope others feel the same. Being mixed race, I get cross when this race identity issue comes up. If Anthony Horowitz chose to write black characters into his books, I dont suppose anyone would care. These editors are not doing anyone any favours.

J Jagra



Safety should be ahead of profit

Profits for Southern Rails current operator, Govia Thameslink, are predicted to be near zero [May 24], as it persists in trying to impose on passengers and staff its dangerous driver-only operation policy.

The basic security provided by a safety-specific staff-member in addition to the driver has always been a necessity. The tragic events in Manchester merely underline the urgency of keeping the public safe.

Francis Prideaux



So much for the 'the special relationship'

The furore over the Trump administrations apparent disregard for shared security information protocol over the Manchester terrorist attack may in the end be the first step towards allowing Britain to regain some control in its relationship with the US.

It is because of successive British governments willingness to accept interventions from the US that has got us into this terrible mess.

Geoff Naylor



After this weeks security leak from the US, which saw evidence from the Manchester attack appear in the media, it would seem that the special relationship is very much under strain. But we need the support of other superpowers to keep us protected from further terrorist threats.

While we must make it clear to the US that there can be no repeat of the leaks, we must find a way to move forward. Even under Trump, we need the US now more than ever.

David Clark

Join the conversation: #esnewsviews
L ondon's canals could be transformed into a series of floating markets in a plan put forward as part of a competition to boost the citys 24-hour economy.

The proposal was one of a series of bright ideas welcomed by Night Czar Amy Lame that will form the heart of an exhibition opening next month.

She was one of the judges in the competition, which asked for small-scale solutions that would make London work better at night. It attracted entries from around the world.

The winning idea was developed by a team at Sir Terry Farrells architecture firm. Its myKanaal app would direct boats to empty moorings where they can set up shop and alert Londoners when they arrive. The aim is to get people using towpaths and canals at night when they are often seen as intimidating places and avoided.

London has more than 60 miles of canals linking Camden to Paddington and Hackney to Islington, and stretching out into Essex and Hertfordshire.

Runners-up included a new design for a urinal, which funnels waste off into boxes full of compost to be used in parks, and childrens swings which light up and play music depending on how they are being used.

The Night Time Is The Right Time exhibition opens on June 1 at The Building Centre in Store Street, Bloomsbury, and is free to visit. The competition was organised by The Built Environment Trust and supported by the Mayor of London. The trusts Lewis Blackwell, chairman of the jury, said modest investments could help transform the way the city works at night.

We called for big joined-up ideas in how culture and infrastructure can better work together, he said. Looking at the finalists is like seeing an alternative city that is more exciting, efficient, with more opportunity, and safer.

These projects typically dont call for rebuilding but just using what is there more smartly, with mostly ingenious small-scale interventions that have the potential for great impact.

Ms Lame said: To become a truly 24-hour metropolis we need bright ideas about how we can fulfil the citys potential at night in a way that works for everyone. From night markets on the river to light and music installations and innovative ways to keep streets clean, these concepts are truly inspiring.
A self-taught chef is offering Londoners a peek at the food she will be serving at her first permanent restaurant as part of London Food Month.

Asma Khan is the founder of Indian street food kitchen Darjeeling Express, which began as a supper club and will open a restaurant in Kingly Court, just off Carnaby Street, at the end of June.

On June 3, Khan will be serving preview dishes at the free-to-enter, one-day Carnaby Street Eat festival.

From noon to 6pm, the areas restaurants, bars and cafes  including Dishoom, Korean restaurant Myung Ga, and oyster and prosecco vendor Wright Brothers  will be serving up 5 tasters of their signature dishes and drinks.

Khans menu will include masala chai, lamb samosas and Calcutta puchka (a stuffed puffed snack).

Khan, 47, a trained constitutional lawyer, said: This will be a taster of some of the foods I will bring to Darjeeling Express. It will be a great way for me to introduce my food and also for me to get to know my neighbours.

London Food Month will also see Khan host the Come Aboard the Darjeeling Express event on Sunday June 25 at her new restaurant that will be a traditional celebratory Eid feast.

Khan said she was forced to learn to cook when she moved to Cambridge from her native Calcutta in 1991, as neither she or her husband  a lecturer in economics at the university  could.

Over the course of several months she took long trips home, learning to cook Indian food from her family. She then began selling samosas on the streets of Cambridge to raise money for the relief effort in then war-torn Yugoslavia  with her customers encouraging her to sell food more regularly.

After moving to London, she turned her back on her legal training to start supper clubs in her home in South Kensington.

Several years later, Simon Quayle, executive director of Shaftesbury, the property company that owns the area, went to her club  and encouraged her to open a restaurant in Carnaby Street. She said: Simon was a real influence as I never wanted to open a restaurant. I am really excited to do it now. I cant wait to get in the kitchen.

All of Khans kitchen staff are Indian housewives and second-born daughters, employed through word of mouth or through friends. The chef said her employment ethos was to help encourage women from traditional Indian families who felt undervalued or had few opportunities.

Carnaby Street Eat is one of several festivals taking place in London Food Month. KERB in Granary Square, Kings Cross, will be running an Americana hoedown on June 2 and 3 and, on June 11, W5 Food Market in Ealing is running a cheese market. The London Food Month centrepiece is the Night Market, at Perks Field from June 7 to 18, with The Ivy, Asia de Cuba and Angela Hartnett serving street food for the first time.
Dear Dr. Roach: What advice do you have for both doctors and patients for approaching medical marijuana use? What is your ideal vision of its future?

-- C.C.

A: I look at marijuana as a potentially useful medicinal plant that has several potential downsides. One of the downsides is an unrealistic expectation of its usefulness by believers. I increasingly see claims that marijuana (or one of its extracts) can treat or cure almost every known disease. It also is hampered by its status as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, so high-quality research is difficult to do. Finally, it has been used for many years as a recreational drug (which is partially responsible for the first two downsides). This has led to resistance to the idea among nonbelievers that it might have legitimate use. The psychological effects for which it is used recreationally can cause it to be intolerable for some. Further, a small percentage of people (estimates range between 2 percent and 6 percent) have difficulty quitting the drug, even when they want to.

Marijuana contains many potentially active chemicals, of which only two (THC and cannabidiol) have been studied well. The best evidence of effectiveness for any type of marijuana product is in epilepsy and chronic pain, but the quality of the data is limited. There are very few situations where I would consider prescribing medical marijuana, but they do exist.

Most of the risks of medical marijuana are also unknown. Anecdotal reports suggest that fewer users of medical marijuana are smoking it, in favor of ingesting extracts. I suspect that this will lead to lower risk of heart and lung problems, but I withhold judgment until there is good data. It also is clear that marijuana can cause or worsen anxiety in some people. Adolescents who use marijuana may be at higher risk of schizophrenia.

My ideal future regarding medical marijuana is one where it is studied openly and subjected to the same scrutiny as other medicines, where both the purified extracts are studied as well as the whole plant. Marijuana needs to be compared against the best treatments we have, not just against placebo. Only this way can we confirm or refute the benefits and risks of this drug.

Colonoscopy

Dear Dr. Roach: My physician has recommended a colonoscopy. I've never had one and am overdue. My question involves the prep protocol. My wife had one with the doctor who will do mine at the local hospital, and he prescribed a liquid prep mixture that my wife found quite unpleasant. A friend from out of state who had a colonoscopy was given a single pill as a prep. Please discuss the difference and efficacy of these two types of prep. I'm inclined to ask the doctor doing my colonoscopy for the pill prep rather than the liquid.

-- B.W.S.

A: There are several different preparations available. Most of them involve a fairly large amount of liquid: 2 to 4 liters. I'm afraid my experience is like your wife's: The preparations are not particularly pleasant, but drinking them quickly, having them cold and using flavorings in them (such as Mio or Crystal Light, but not red-colored ones, though) can make them much more tolerable.

Pill-based colonoscopy preparations, like your friend had, are based on sodium phosphate, and they are used less frequently now because of safety concerns. This is especially true in people whose kidneys are less than perfect (which includes a lot of older people). I recommend the lower-volume liquid (polyethylene) preparation as a good balance between safety and tolerability.
 Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance, opined Coco Chanel. Hers is a tenet transferable to chic cocktails, where a core spirit acts as the main article, adorned with complementary, or classily contrasting, accessories of vermouth, bitters and perfume-like essences

The Savoys Beaufort Bar renders explicit the relationship betwixt cocktails and couture. Guests are lit almost as under a spotlight, with views to the former cabaret stage that now curtains a tall bar. Ordered from an illustrated, limited run menu book evoking a grown-ups version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Height of Fashion cocktail takes inspiration from the hotels red lift.

According to bartender Alex Walker, young porter Guccio Gucci once conveyed guests leather steamer trunks in this ascending room. Inspired by the hotels opulent surroundings, Gucci subsequently formed the eponymous fashion brand in 1920s Florence.

Negroni-like, Walkers libation collages cognac, Campari, Aperol and vermouth with a secret tincture evoking limousine leather. The result is smoothly powerful: an iron fist in a velvet glove, best sipped in glad rags while beholding the bars monthly burlesque show.

At Dukes, furtively tucked away from St James main avenue, debonair Alessandro Palazzi crafts a cocktail commemorating the hotels partnership with Lock & Co, the worlds oldest hat shop. Odd Job 1676 combines Koniks Tail saffron-infused vodka with Galliano LAutentico and, to Palazzis recipe, amber vermouth. Palazzi explains his cocktail takes the name of the Bond villain that Lock & Co hatted, Dukes being the ultimate destination for fans of the fictitious British spy.

Finally, you can sip cocktails inside an actual fashion store at bijou Ralphs at Regent Streets Ralph Lauren, sequel to Manhattans Polo Bar. I order Jeffersons bourbon Old Fashioned ringside at the 12-seat bar with a dozen invigorating oysters.
T awqeer Rashid, a vascular surgeon, was woken by a phone call on Monday night. It was the hospital registrar. He said, Its chaos here, were calling everyone in, Rashid recalls. They didnt know then what had happened  that a suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, had blown himself up at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, killing 22 and seriously injuring 64.

The 44-year-old works at Manchester Royal Infirmary but was told to go instead to Salford Royal Hospital because it doesnt have any surgeons with his specialism. When he arrived after 1am, he treated a woman with multiple injuries who was being taken to the operating theatre. There was a problem with blood flow to her legs that case ran through the night. In the morning he saw a patient with a spinal injury and damaged blood vessels. He didnt leave until 3pm.

The injuries we saw were horrific, Rashid says. It hit home when I was removing the bolts from people. They were bigger than a 50p piece, not little bolts you use in your home  enormous ones. This is a level of depravity I cannot understand: how a human being would be capable of planning this if they knew what it would do to another human being. These bolts ripped through bodies, into the stomach, the legs, severing arteries, severing nerves, smashing bones and damaging spinal cords.

Rashids particular area of medical expertise is foot problems in diabetes patients. Sometimes it takes a team of 20 of us working for months to save a single toe. And yet someone  in a second  deigned to wipe out 22 people like this.

Surgeon Tawqueer Rashid infant of the MRI Manchester rushed back to work in the wake of the attack / Zenpix Ltd

What struck Rashid, though, was the extent to which everyone rushed to help. I didnt know my way around the hospital but  this will sound like the simplest thing  people helped me. I needed to make sure the right kind of CT scan was done for a patient, and someone walked me to the room. We operated through the night and staff brought us hot food and tea. Everyone was pulling together  every shade of religion, or none at all.

That was echoed at the scene too, and in the aftermath. Sam Arshad, who owns Street Cars, gave free rides to survivors stranded at the arena. I had left the office to go home and passed the arena on the way, where a police officer told me there had been an explosion, he says. I had a bad feeling, span my car around and went back to the office. The phones were going crazy, with panicked parents and children who wanted to get out of there. Arshad contacted his drivers and decided they should take passengers home without charge. The news had started coming in that there had been fatalities, so we got the gist of what was happening. We said we needed to pull together for the people of Manchester.

Taxi driver Sam Arshad switched off his meter and drove injured concert goers away from the scene / Zenpix Ltd

Arshad notes how many people chipped in. It wasnt just us. People left their houses to come and help. It was hotels giving free rooms, restaurants giving free food. I saw people carrying crates of water bottles down the street.

Gibran Awan, who runs his own jewellery business, had taken his two sisters, aged 14 and 15, to the concert. They were meant to go with one of their friends but she pulled out at the last minute, the 26-year-old says. Im so happy I ended up going with them so they werent alone.

The concert, he adds, was joyful. My sisters had planned their outfits a month in advance and played Arianas songs on the way there. He says the explosion came mere seconds after the lights came up. I thought it was a burst speaker, or something heavy dropping. I had never heard a bomb blast before.

Gibran Awan was inside the arena when the blast happened / Zenpix Ltd

He was high up so had a vantage point over what was happening. Parents were handing their children to strangers who were closer to an exit. It was like a scene from the Titanic. They were trying to save their children in case there was an attacker there still, or perhaps something was going to collapse. Thats how a lot of children became separated from their parents. Some other people were pushing people out of the way, clambering over them. I dont think it was their fault  an instinct kicks in to save yourself.

Awan didnt want to be separated from his sisters so grabbed their hands and stood beside the railings, allowing others to pass. Once he found a quieter exit, he walked around the arena with his sisters, as his car was stuck behind a police cordon. There were lots of young children there. You could hear a 10-year-old girl saying, I dont want to die today.

Manchester crowd sing Oasis song after minute's silence

Awan still didnt know what had happened. He saw a young man covered in blood and mistakenly assumed there had been a fight. There were a lot of groups of teenage girls on their own, with no adults, he adds. And they were really scared, crying and trying to call their parents, but lots of phone calls werent going through as there were so many people trying to ring in the area. He spoke to some girls, to try to offer comfort. They couldnt really speak  they were just crying. Some girls were so frightened they just kept running. By the time they stopped, they werent in Manchester city centre any more.

Manchester's Arndale Centre evacuated 1 /17 Manchester's Arndale Centre evacuated People rush out of the Arndale shopping centre as it is evacuated in Manchester, Darren Staples/Reuters People rush out of the Arndale shopping centre as it is evacuated in Manchester Darren Staples/Reuters Retail staff hug each other after being evacuated from the Arndale Centre shopping mall in Manchester AFP/Getty Images People rush out of the Arndale shopping centre as it is evacuated in Manchester Darren Staples/Reuters Police evacuate the Arndale shopping centre AP People rush out of the Arndale shopping centre as it is evacuated in Manchester Darren Staples/Reuters A bomb squad officer attends the scene as police evacuate the Arndale shopping centre AP Security staff inside the Arndale Shopping Centre in Manchester city centre which was evacuated PA People leave the Arndale Centre as the shopping mall is evacuated in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Shoppers flee the area as the Arndale centre in Manchester was evacuated Armed police patrol the Arndale Shopping Centre after the terrorist attack Christopher Furlong/Getty Images A sign saying 'We love Manchester' is displayed Leon Neal/Getty Images Manchester's Arndale Centre Gary M. Prior/Getty Images

Awan is a practising Muslim. If you look at the perpetrator, he fits a similar description to me  a Muslim male in his twenties. I could have been killed  he wouldnt have known I was a Muslim and spared me. There may be people out there who are ignorant  they think all Muslims are terrorists  so I think its important they know Muslims could have died too.

Half a mile from Manchester Arena sits the Bukhara Restaurant on Cheetham Hill Road, which serves halal food. That night, two women walked in as the restaurant was closing. They were distressed and were given water, says Zaffer Khan, who does marketing for the restaurant. They werent aware of what had happened, and neither was the proprietor. He only realised on his way home, listening to the radio. The following day we had a quick discussion and decided what we would do.

UK falls silent to remember Manchester victims

The restaurant gave out food  a chicken biryani  to the emergency service workers. Were part of this community, he adds. Were Muslim, but whether we were Muslim or non-Muslim, we would have done this. We wanted to give something back.

Othman Moqbel, chief executive of the Muslim charity Human Appeal, has launched an appeal for the victims and their families. It has raised almost 15,000. We do a lot here in Manchester: feeding the homeless, food banks, so on Tuesday morning we launched this campaign, Moqbel says. We  from all different backgrounds, faiths, religions, ethnicities  must stand united against anyone who wants to divide us. Manchester is a peaceful, neighbourly city.

Manchester terror attack: What we know so far

He adds that, during Ramadan, non-Muslim neighbours brought him food when his wife was away so he had company for iftar, the evening meal to break the fast. At Christmas, he and his wife visit them. You cannot blame a religion for crazy people who do this, he says. We are all praying for the victims and their families.

Othman Moqbel has launched an appeal for the victims and their families / Andrew Parsons / i-Images

Rashid is a Muslim too. These people claim to be my co-religionists, he says. But if they want to make it a battle of them and us, the them is them and the us is all the rest of us. I know theres the English Defence League and the Katie Hopkinses of this world who will never warm to people like me but this is a time when we stand together as one. Its been the same thing throughout the ages  if people have a political agenda they will slap religion on it to justify their ends.

In the aftermath of the atrocity, arsonists attacked a Manchester mosque. Awan reveals that a friend of his mother was spat on in Greggs the following day. I was a potential victim that night and the next day I could have been another type of victim, of a different kind of violence, he adds.

We cannot stop people reacting negatively, Moqbel says. But that is just a few individuals. People have come together this week and supported one another. Any kind of reaction should be a positive one  a negative reaction just fuels the problem. We stand together  for the children and for the great city of Manchester.

@RosamundUrwin

The crowdfunding campaign for victims and their families: mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/muslimsformanchester
A violent thug who repeatedly stabbed a plain clothes police officer with in an unprovoked attack is facing a substantial jail term.

Andrew Beadie, 22, already had a string of convictions and had just been released on licence when he launched the unprovoked attack in east London.

Minutes before knifing the officer in the stomach, he was caught on CCTV beating up a man near the Bow Bells pub, in Bow Road, on November 22 last year.

A court heard how the thug was unaware of the police officers identity and thought he was a drug addict who was out to get him before stabbing them with a Rambo knife.

Bow stabbing: The scene near the Bow Bells pub where Beadie repeatedly knifed a plain clothes police officer / Nigel Howard

Having accused the officer of looking at his girlfriend, Beadie produced a large knife and repeatedly stabbed him in the abdomen before running off.

The officer suffered three stab wounds, and colleagues administered first aid until paramedics arrived and rushed him to hospital. He has since been discharged.

The jury heard how Beadie was in the company with his partner - a 34-year-old woman - and her two 16-year-old twin sons on the day of the attack.

Beadie, of Claremont Road, Basildon, was cleared of attempted murder but convicted on Friday of assaulting a member of the public and wounding the officer with intent.

Police officers taped off the road after the incident in east London last year / Saleh Ahmed

At the Old Bailey hearing, Judge Rebecca Poulet QC remanded him in custody and asked for a pre-sentence report to look into whether he should be treated as a dangerous offender.

She said: "I'm really troubled by the randomness and the viciousness of this conduct. His own sister was worried about him.

"I have to say I appreciate the very unhappy start this man had in life, and that is clearly the case, but this was very serious. He is inevitably looking at quite a substantial custodial sentence.

"The defendant was in possession of a large Rambo knife and caused serious injury to a plain clothes police officer and he has been convicted of a much lesser assault of a man in the street just minutes earlier."

The judge adjourned sentencing until June 16.
M I5 has thwarted five terror plots in the last two months alone as the country faces an unparalled threat from Islamist extremists, according to a senior Whitehall source.

The threat is so high that security services in the UK are currently managing around 500 active investigations looking into some 3,000 potential suspects, the Telegraph reported.

Officials say a total of 18 plots have been foiled since 2013.

The scale of the menace was disclosed by counter terrorism officials after it recently emerged that the Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was known to the security services before he carried out the horrific attack.

The danger posed by Abedi was reportedly flagged up to authorities on at least five separate occasions before he blew himself up at a pop concert at Manchester Arena killing 22 people.

The source said: Abedi was one of a larger pool of former subjects of interest whose risk remained subject to review by MI5 and its partners."

The source added that if a former subject seems to show a risk of heading back into terrorism MI5 can consider re-opening the investigation, but this process inevitably relies on difficult professional judgements based on partial information.

A former senior security figure added: "For every suspect that appears to be high priority another has to be pushed down the list.

"So who not to investigate urgently is as important a decision as who might be worth investigating."

Prime Minister Theresa May raised the terror threat in the UK to critical on Tuesday, meaning another attack could be imminent.
A thug who spat in three police officers faces as they tried to help him in a busy A&E department has been jailed.

Darren King, 29, was chased by police following a fight in Harrow in the early hours of the morning on February 17.

He was detained but not arrested, however, complained of pain in his leg and had suffered injuries to his head and hand.

King, of West Way, Ruislip, was taken to a north London hospital by officers where he subjected them to a vile tirade of abuse in the waiting room.

When asked to stop by a special constable, King spat in his face, leaving blood and saliva on the officers forehead.

He was arrested for assaulting a police officer and taken into a bay in the A&E department where he spat in the eye of the female arresting officer.

King became verbally abusive towards medical staff, prompting a third PC to draw his Taser.

As a fourth officer moved a bed for King into the bay, he also spat in his eye and mouth.

The officers were treated at St Thomas Hospital and are still awaiting the results of blood tests following the incident.

King was jailed for 12 weeks at Willesden Magistrates Court on Friday.

He was also fined 225.

Detective Sergeant Phil Moor, from the Met Police, branded the assault completely unacceptable.

He said: The custodial sentence given to King today shows how seriously the courts take assaults on police officers.

"These officers were trying to help King prior to him receiving treatment at the hospital, but despite this he spat in their faces, going into the mouth and eyes of one officer and the eyes of another.

The impact of this vile offence was significant and the possible health implications for the officers and their families is apparent.

"Today's sentencing sends a clear message that assaulting police officers is completely unacceptable behaviour for which those responsible can expect to face the full weight of the criminal justice system."
A magazine publisher walked free from court today after being cleared of raping a young woman at an exclusive Mayfair private member's club.

Antioco Piras, 36, was accused of preying on the woman as she slept in a bedroom upstairs at the Home House club.

She claimed the Zimbabwe-born publisher of glossy food magazine Four was on top of her when she awoke, after she had fallen asleep upstairs because she was very drunk and unwell.

But Mr Piras told Southwark crown court that the woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had invented the rape claim because he rejected her romantic advances.

He also said claims that he had spiked her drink were "lowly and disgusting".

A jury deliberated for more than six hours, at the end of a week-long trial, before clearing Mr Piras of one charge of rape.

The allegation stemmed from a party Piras threw at Home House, where he is a member, in December 2014, laying on bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne and pre-paid bar bill.

The woman said she only had two glass of champagne and quickly became drunk once Mr Piras handed her a third drink.

However, the magazine impresario insisted he had not given her a drink and he would have been "foolish" to pressure her into having one.

The woman was helped up to Mr Piras' bedroom during the evening to go to sleep, and he said he went to the room at around 2.30am to charge his mobile phone.

He told the court she woke up and they kissed, but he then told her: "I don't think this is right".

Mr Piras said the woman was "put out" that he had turned her down, but she then took a taxi home.

Asked if he had raped the woman, Mr Piras replied: "No. It is a lowly and disgusting thing to do. What kind of person would I be to do such a thing?"

Piras denied rape and was acquitted by the jury.
M anchester has seen a spike in hate crime following a suicide bombing at the citys arena, police chiefs said.

A total of 56 hate crimes were recorded by Greater Manchester Police on Wednesday, a significant rise on the 28 reported on Monday, chief constable Ian Hopkins said.

He urged the city to remain united after the attack at an Ariana Grande gig left 22 people, including seven children, dead.

He added: "Whilst we can't directly link this to the events of Monday night, we are continuing to monitor the situation and support our communities."

Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Victims 1 /21 Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Victims Nell Jones, 14, who died in the Manchester attack PA Jane Tweddle, 50 of Blackpool, was also killed 'Inseperable couple' Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19 Scottish teenager Eilidh MacLeod, 14, was confirmed to have been killed in the blast PA Michelle Kiss died in the blast. Her family have said they are "absolutely devastated" PA Saffie-Rose Roussos eight, from Lancashire, had been at the concert with her mother and sister when she was killed in the blast Wendy Fawell died in the attack Collect Olivia Campbell, 15, is also confirmed among the dead after a desperate search to find her Ariana Grande superfan Georgina Callander, 18, was one of the first victims to be named Lisa Lees and Alison Howe were killed while waiting in the foyer to collect their children Facebook Kelly Brewster died shielding her niece from the blast John Atkinson, 26, was also killed in the suicide blast Polish couple Angelika and Marcin Klis are confirmed among the dead in the Manchester attack Credit: Family photograph Victim: Martyn Hett has been confirmed as one of those killed in the attack Confirmed dead: 14-year-old Sorrell Leczowski Facebook Victim: Elaine McIver, an off-duty police officer Greater Manchester Police

Salman Abedi, a British-born Muslim from a Libyan family, launched his deadly assault on the pop concert having apparently been supported by an extremist terror cell.

It was feared that another attack on British soil from a suspected Islamist group would spark a backlash against the religious community in the city.

Manchester Arena explosion 1 /18 Manchester Arena explosion PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA

The chief constable continued: "Manchester has come together this week, the public has seen that, they have seen that compassion.

"But it is important that we continue to stand together here, in Greater Manchester.

"Particularly standing together against some of the hateful views that we have seen from a very small minority of the community that have no place here in Greater Manchester.

"Sadly, we've seen an increase in reports of hate crime from 28 on Monday - which is our normal average for a day - through to 56 on Wednesday."

He added: "I have sent a personal message out to all the faith leaders and places of worship today and have thanked them for the support they have shown and stressed that hate crime will not be tolerated."
F ootage has emerged of moped thugs snatching a mobile phone from an unsuspecting woman as she walked to a supermarket.

The dashcam video, recorded by a taxi driver in waiting traffic in Kingsland Road, shows two people on a moped mount the pavement as the victim, a young blonde woman, walks along looking at her phone before it is snatched from her hands.

The woman, who was on her way to a Tesco supermarket, is left dumbfounded as the thieves sped away.

Hackey Police released the footage as part of an awareness campaign of Operation Venice, the investigation into moped-related crime in London.

The force tweeted that the cab driver had stopped to help the victim and passed over the footage to the police.

Detective Inspector Paul Ridley, the operation Venice lead for Hackney borough said, "The two males on the moped slowly skulk behind the victim and then pounce.

"Within seconds they have been able to steal mobile from the clearly bewildered lady."

"The victim has not yet came forward and I would urge her to do so. We can then complete enquiries in a bid to locate the phone and attempt to find these criminals.

"We are absolutely committed to preventing and detecting these offences. If you have any footage of these offences I would urge you to send them to us."

A day of action under Operation Venice will be taking place on Thursday 25 May 2017 in Hackney with regular updates on Twitter.

The warning from officers comes after footage emerged of a motorbike rider surrounded by a gang on mopeds who sprayed a fire extinguisher over his helmet in a bid to steal his bike.

The brazen attack, in Roden Street, Ilford, was unsuccessful and the thugs fled the scene at about 5.15pm on Tuesday, April 18.

Campaigners have called for the Met to be given greater powers to tackle the problem which has rocketed to the level of one crime per hour.

All footage can be sent to @metcc.
T he moment a scooter rider who was being detained by police was kicked in the crotch by a passer-by was caught on camera by an amused onlooker.

The suspect was being held by police on suspicion of anti-social behaviour close to famous biker haunt the Ace Cafe in north-west London.

While the youth was being held on his knees by three officers, a man strolls behind them without being noticed.

He kicks the suspect hard before sprinting away across the north circular road  closely followed by two officers.

Arrest: Three police officers detaining the suspect / Premises187

Instagram user Premises187 shared the footage on Sunday, writing: Haha holy s****. So the police pounced at Ace Cafe.

An Ace punter boots the scooter guy.

Kick: A man, dressed in blue, is seen strolling up to the suspect and kicking them / Premises187

The footage appears to have been shot from the front of Ace Cafe  a popular spot for rockers, bikers and petrolheads.

Surprise: The officers look startled before chasing the man / Premises187

The youth was later released with no action taken against him.

The man dressed in blue seen in the clip was arrested on suspicion of assault.

A Met spokesman said: "At approximately 5pm on Sunday May 21 police were called to a number of mopeds acting in an anti-social manner near the Ace Cafe.

"On arrival a number of mopeds made off from the scene.

"One male was detained by officers. As police were dealing with him, a second male approached and aimed a kick at him.

"The second male was arrested on suspicion of common assault and subsequently released under investigation. The male originally detained by officers was released with no further action."
A murder hunt was under way today after a woman was stabbed to death in the street in south London.

The woman, who is in her 30s, died at the scene after being attacked in Aubyn Hill, West Norwood shortly after 7pm last night.

Scotland Yard said there had been no arrests.

Police are seeking an attacker who is understood to be known to the victim.


Two years into Illinois' budget wars, Jeff Gripp has some advice for Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Don't back down.

A retired truck driver who lives in a middle class neighborhood in Rock Island, Gripp thinks Illinois' first-term governor is engaged in a worthy fight for control.

"If he can get power away from Chicago, then it's better for the rest of us," he said.

Given the slip in the governor's approval rating over the two-year budget impasse, voices such as Gripp's are probably pretty welcome to Rauner. That's likely even more true given where it comes from. Gripp's single story house, in a tree-lined neighborhood just southeast of Longview Park, lies within a precinct that backed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

In 2014, it shunned Democrat Pat Quinn and delivered Rauner a close victory, 50.7 percent to 46.3 percent.

That's roughly the same margin by which Rauner won Rock Island County.

If Democrats expect to win Rock Island County back next year, an important one in the fight for Downstate Illinois, neighborhoods like these will be important. Seeking to unseat Rauner are Democrats Sen. Daniel Biss, businessman Chris Kennedy, billionaire J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar.

But after months of cascading headlines about struggling social service agencies and college debt downgrades, Illinoisans' patience is wearing thin with Springfield, and Rauner is feeling the impact, too.

The governor's statewide approval rating in March was at 36 percent, according to a poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, down 5 points from the year before. Downstate, it was slightly better, at just short of 38 percent, but it too was down by about five points from the year before.

It's true that House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Democrat, fared worse. But Rauner's 58 percent disapproval rating statewide was up eight points in the poll from the previous spring and 26 points from the spring of 2015.

The governor has stepped up his presence in recent months. He's hit the road to sell his case against the Democrats, and campaign-like television ads featuring the governor with a roll of duct tape have been a constant presence in communities such as Rock Island since early April.

It's not hard to find a harsh word for Springfield in Rock Island County. Complaints that people and businesses are fleeing the state abound.

"If you live in Iowa, stay there," Rich Simmons, a retired postal worker, said the other day. His house sits just a few blocks from where Gripp lives.

Simmons voted for Rauner in 2014, and he still supports him. Nevertheless, he doesn't think much will change. "I'm not real confident," he said.

That pessimism about change is also frequently heard. But so is a desire  its particularly loud in the business community  that the state end the budget standoff.

Bill Anderson, a retired federal government worker who voted for Quinn in 2014, is resolute when he says, "we've got to get a balanced budget." And he's equally sure that he doesn't think Rauner is doing his share to get there. "It sounds to me like he's politicking more than he's doing his job," he said.

Since he came into office, Democrats have accused Rauner of an ideological campaign to bust unions and hurt working people. Now, they say, the states fiscal stalemate and its consequences cant help but hurt him with voters.

"He's held the state's budget hostage for two years," said Doug House, chairman of the Rock Island County Democrats and leader of the Illinois County Democratic Chairmen's Association.

With 18 months to go before next year's election, it's hard to tell what the political climate will be like, nationally and statewide. Christopher Mooney, director of the institute of government and public affairs at the University of Illinois, said even if a deal is reached, its elements will be important. And to make a dent in the state's debt, it will require sacrifice. Its not as if they get a deal and its happy days are here again. Thats when the pain is going to really start," he said.

Senate Democrats passed a budget package Tuesday that raises income taxes and expands the sales tax. They argued the state couldn't wait any longer, and there needed to be some certainty brought to the state's fiscal situation. Moody's Investors Service warned in March if the state can't get a budget by the scheduled adjournment date of May 31, its already weak credit rating would suffer further.

Rauner has argued that any deal with new revenue had to include a measure to curb property tax increases. He and Democrats couldn't come together on the issue, and after the vote the Republicans unleashed robocalls criticizing Democrats.

That Rauner is holding fast to his agenda wears well with the two dozen or so conservatives who attended the Ronald Reagan Breakfast Club on Wednesday at City Limits Saloon and Grill in Rock Island.

A weekly meeting, its members like to joke it is the "largest unorganized gathering of conservatives that meet weekly in the state of Illinois." Members pass a microphone and, over eggs and coffee, take turns making announcements, sharing information and offering opinions on events of the day.

Rauner has been a guest at the club, and so have other officeholders.

Support for Rauner here appears to be strong. Told of a reporter's interest in their opinion about the governor, several people at the table vowed their support as the microphone went around the table.

"He is doing what he said, and he is sticking to his guns. And that is what we want," said Bill Long, a Republican from Rock Island.
A teen moped rider is fighting for life after he was rammed from behind by a car in a hit-and-run in Londons East End, police said.

The 19-year-old was thrown off his bike when he was struck by a dark-coloured car shortly after midnight on Friday in Cavell Street, Whitechapel.

Police and paramedics raced to the scene and found him with a head injury.

He was rushed to an east London hospital where he remains in a life threatening condition.

Police said he had been riding east along Stepney Way when the car, believed to be a Volkswagen Passat, came up behind him before hitting him at speed.

The driver of the car did not stop at the scene and is believed to have made off heading east down Stepney Way, Scotland Yard added.

Detective Sergeant Mike Stubbins, from Tower Hamlets CID, said: "A young man has been left in a critical condition and it is of paramount importance that anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information comes forward.

We would urge anyone who may have seen this vehicle or witnessed the collision to get in contact immediately."

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Tower Hamlets CID on 020 7275 4550 or tweet @MetCC

Alternatively Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A psychiatrist who says his career has been blighted by an ex-patients campaign of harassment has won a High Court injunction against him.

Dr Marius Dreyer said the obsessed patient turned against him after receiving a diagnosis he was unhappy with, making death threats and posting damaging allegations against him online.

The psychiatrist, who was working at the Park Royal Mental Heathcare Centre, told the High Court he fears he will be confronted or attacked at home as the patient had acted violently during a visit to the hospital where he works.

Judge Martin Chamberlaine QC granted Dr Dreyer an interim injunction against the patient, who has not been named, banning him from going to the doctors home or creating online posts about him. Victoria Jolliffe, for Dr Dreyer, said an email was sent to the doctor which indicated the patient had discovered details about his private life.

This is a person who was obsessed with Dr Dreyer and the concerns he has about leaving his home are still very real, she told the court.

Granting the order, the judge said: Dr Dreyer made a diagnosis to which the defendant took great exception.

The defendant later went to the hospital, acted violently and made threats to kill Dr Dreyer. In April 2016, the patient emailed the doctor. The email suggested that the patient knew the doctors partner was away from home, which she was.

Dr Dreyer inferred from this that the defendant may have been following him and knew where he lived.

The patient had already been barred from going to the hospital in north-west London unless for genuine medical reasons, but Dr Dreyer sought a new order extending the injunction.

The judge, noting that the online comments could have affected the doctors professional standing, said Dr Dreyer has been off work with stress.

The judge rejected a bid to ban the man from complaining about Dr Dreyer to other people or a professional body. He said the patient would have the chance to challenge the interim injunction at a future hearing.
A 250 million plan to turn a former Piccadilly gentlemens club into Britains most expensive home has been scrapped following the slump in the top end of the central London property market.

Instead the property tycoons Simon and David Reuben have set their sights on converting the Grade I listed mansion that housed the In and Out club into a luxury hotel.

The Indian-born brothers bought the palatial property at 94 Piccadilly  originally known as Cambridge House  and a number of surrounding buildings, for about 100 million in 2012.

They won planning consent to convert them into a 60,000 sq ft residence in 2014 but work had made little progress and the listed buildings remain on Historic Englands at risk register because of their poor state.

It was used as the Naval and Military Club from 1865 to 1999 and earned its nickname from the In and Out signs on its gateposts.

But a planning application lodged this month with Westminster council shows that the brothers now intend to convert the block of buildings into a 102-room hotel, provisionally known as the In and Out Hotel, as well as four serviced apartments.

The plans from architects PDP London show that the hotel would have a 2,200 sq ft ballroom, more than twice the size of the average home, and a two-level basement with a gym, spa, wellness centre and swimming pool.

According to the planning documents, the proposals seek to retain and enhance the setting of the Grade I and II listed buildings and restore the existing finishes.

George Nicholas, global head of hotels at property agent Savills, said the sector looked increasingly attractive to investors.

He said: Since mid-last years devaluation of sterling, the UK, and in particular London, has seen a marked increase in demand for hotel rooms across the spectrum of hotel categories.

The Reuben brothers were unavailable for comment.
M ayor of London Sadiq Khan has asked Londons Muslim community to pray during Ramadan for those affected by the appalling and cowardly attack on Manchester Arena.

In a video statement to mark the beginning of Islams holy month, Mr Khan wished Muslims in London and elsewhere a peaceful and blessed Ramadan, adding that: This year in particular our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the appalling and cowardly attack in Manchester just a few days ago, and of course to those affected by the Westminster attack in March.

He said: As Ramadan gets underway, Id like to take this opportunity to extend my very warmest wishes to Muslims both in London and across the world, as we observe this holy month.

And I hope that all of those who are fasting during these long summer days will find strength and solace in their daily routine.

Mayor Sadiq Khan's Ramadan message

Mr Khan added that charitable donations made during Ramadan as the Muslim community comes together make a huge difference to the lives of those in need.

Striking a tone of openness, ended his address with a plea for good interfaith relations.

Here in London we show that we dont simply tolerate different faiths, we respect and celebrate them too, he said, adding: Our diversity is what makes London the greatest city in the world.

Wishing viewers Ramadan Mubarak, his statement ends with the on-screen text: #LondonIsOpen.
A woman is fighting for life in hospital after she reportedly fell from a building during a house fire in south-east London.

Police, paramedics and fire crews were scrambled to the scene in Poplar Place, Thamesmead, on Thursday evening.

The 57-year-old woman was rushed to an east London hospital with injuries police believe were sustained after falling from a building that caught fire.

She remains in critical condition following the incident shortly before 5.30pm.

Pictures from the scene show emergency services vehicles on the street, which had been cordoned off.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at approximately 5.25pm on Thursday to a fire at a residential address on Poplar Place.

The woman remains in a critical condition. Enquiries into the cause of the fire are ongoing.


T he General Election race tightened today as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were both accused of failing to publish honest promises.

A damning verdict by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies came as an opinion poll electrified the battle by showing Labour catching up to within five points.

The pound dropped 0.6 points against the euro as investors took fright at the increased possibility of a high-tax Labour government following the YouGov survey. It put Mrs Mays party on 43 per cent, with Mr Corbyn nipping at her heels on 38 per cent.

On the first day of full-scale campaigning since Mondays bombing in Manchester, Mr Corbyn came under fire from his own side and the Tories for linking terrorist attacks in the UK with foreign interventions such as the Iraq invasion. As the party leaders took the gloves off again:

Back on the campaign trail: Jeremy Corbyn / AFP/Getty Images

The IFS tore holes in both parties manifestos, saying that neither sets out an honest set of choices and taxes would probably rise whoever wins. The independent experts were particularly scathing about shadow chancellor John McDonnells tax and spending plans, saying they contained a 9 billion black hole in finances as well as mistakes and wrong assumptions.

Mrs Mays promise to slash immigration would cause considerable economic damage, warned the IFS, and cost the Government 6 billion a year in lost revenues.

Mr Corbyn was attacked by Labour grandees including Charles Clarke, the former home secretary, for his speech implying that terror attacks such as the Manchester bombing may be caused by British foreign policy. Mr Clarke said he could not believe that Jeremy Corbyn is prime ministerial material. Security minister Ben Wallace branded Mr Corbyns speech a totally inappropriate and crassly timed intervention.

At the G7 summit of world leaders in Sicily, Mrs May urged tougher action against terrorism. She warned: The fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet. She said Islamic State was losing ground in Iraq and Syria but that its ideology is spreading online.

Ministers revealed that 15,000 people have been investigated by the security services as possible terrorist suspects.

Eight suspects aged 18 to 38 remained in custody today in connection with the Manchester bombing. Thousands of police officers are being deployed over the bank holiday weekend to protect crowds at events including tomorrows FA Cup final at Wembley.

Mrs May told the G7 that social media companies such as Facebook were allowing extremists to run hateful propaganda that is warping young minds. She said: Corporations have a social responsibility to now step up efforts to remove harmful content.

Mr Corbyns speech caused dismay among Labour candidates. Mike Gapes, candidate for Ilford South and an ex-chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: [IS] hate us for what we are. Not for what we do. Our foreign policy is used as justification for their crimes. It is not the reason.

The YouGov poll was carried out yesterday and on Wednesday, reflecting the Tory U-turn over social care funding and reactions to Mondays bombing.
J eremy Corbyn insisted he had never supported the IRA as he faced renewed questions over his links with the republican terror group.

The Labour leader stressed his desire for peace in Northern Ireland, adding: "I never met the IRA."

His remarks came during a primetime BBC One interview with Andrew Neil.

Mr Corbyn also denied claims he supported the armed struggle for a united Ireland and was only seeking to distance himself from this position in his bid to become prime minister.

Asked why people would want him as PM given his previous support for the IRA, Mr Corbyn replied: "I didn't support the IRA. I don't support the IRA.

"What I want everywhere is a peace process. What I want everywhere is decency and human rights.

"We went through all the horrors of Northern Ireland - all through the 70s and 80s - through the period of the Troubles, and eventually came from that a peace process, the Good Friday Agreement, and now relative peace and stability."

Mr Corbyn said a minute's silence he observed in 1987 for the eight IRA members killed by the SAS in Gibraltar was "for all who'd died" in Northern Ireland.

Questioned if he urged the IRA to stop the bombs, Mr Corbyn replied: "I never met the IRA.

"I obviously did meet people from Sinn Fein, as indeed I met people from other organisations, and I always made the point that there had to be a dialogue and a peace process.

"Now, a lot of people did a lot of work on this and eventually it was Mo Mowlam as much as anybody else that managed to bring those groups together, and she used a lot of connections in order to bring those people together. And I think we should recognise that."

Mr Neil later asked: "Isn't the truth that you've basically supported the armed struggle for a united Ireland, but now you want to be prime minister you have to distance yourself from it?

Mr Corbyn said: "No. What I want is peace.

"What I want is to learn the lessons from Northern Ireland and also to make sure during the Brexit negotiations we don't return to or receive any kind of hard border between the North and the Republic."
T heresa May faced new battles over care fees today as Tories urged fresh concessions to protect middle-class homeowners.

The Prime Minister quelled a major revolt on Monday by promising an unspecified cap on the amount any individual will pay for care in old age.

But senior party figures say further reforms are needed when Parliament gets back, including special measures to prevent homeowners in London and the South-East feeling unfairly targeted. Demands being discussed between MPs include:

Keeping the cap as low as possible to protect homeowners from losing the majority of their estates. One senior MP said he was telling voters the figure should be 72,000 rather than the 300,000 mooted by some.

Regional bandings to reflect variations in property prices, allowing homeowners in high-price regions like London to pass on more of their estates to their children.

Further clarifications to the policy before election day on June 8 if polls suggest the row is still endangering marginal seats.

Mrs May stepped in after a wobbly weekend when candidates reported that a manifesto plan to reform care for the elderly was causing havoc.

The plan, dubbed a dementia tax, would allow councils to recoup the costs of elderly care in their own homes from peoples estates after death. It exposed one in 10 elderly people to bills of more than 100,000  with a small minority losing several times as much.

Experts say the cap promised by Mrs May will mean millions of pensioners losing the winter fuel allowance, worth up to 300. Ministers have earmarked savings from means-testing the annual benefit, which costs just over 2 billion, to fund the cap on care fees. The number who lose the allowance will depend on how low the cap is set.

A cap of 72,000, in line with the Dilnot proposals, would cost 2 billion and mean scrapping the allowance for all 12 million current claimants.

Andrew Hood, of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said restricting fuel payments to those in the 40p tax band would raise just 100 million, implying a much higher cap. Restricting the benefit to elderly people on pension credit could pull in 1.2 to 1.5 billion.

A manifesto pledge that people will be able to pass on the last 100,000 of their estate  up from 23,000  is seen as unduly helpful to regions of low house prices. The average house price in London was 490,718 in January compared with 123,781 in the North-East. That means the North-East homeowner could pass on the vast majority of his or her estate, regardless of the care bills he or she runs up. But the Londoners estate could be exposed to up to nearly 390,000 of charges.

A government source said the cap would be at a level to create regional fairness. We hope this will benefit the guy in London as much as the guy in Hartlepool, said the source. However, the level is not due to be decided until a summer consultation starts.

A tax expert said bills would fall hardest on the middle-classes, especially in London, who had large savings in property but were not rich enough to join complicated avoidance schemes for the very wealthy. Jolyon Maugham QC predicted a boom in snake oil avoidance schemes aimed at middle-class people who fear their childrens inheritance being gobbled up by the so-called dementia tax. It is certain that these measures will encourage people to take avoidance action, he said.
T heresa May will today call on world leaders to force internet and social media giants to crackdown on the spread of extremist material.

The Prime Minister will reportedly tell the G7 summit in Sicily that the Manchester atrocity should lead to a tougher approach to digital policing.

She will say that governments must work together to cleanse the internet of terror videos and manuals  freely available within minutes of searching.

A senior Government official said she would be coming forward with a series of proposals for G7 members as the extremist threat moves from the battlefield to the internet.

She will argue that as Islamic State loses ground in its heartlands in Iraq and Syria, the threat from extremism is "evolving rather than disappearing".

"This sort of material being on the internet is obviously harmful. It has in the past been linked to acts of violence and the less of this material that is on the internet, that is clearly for the better," one official said.

While Mrs May will acknowledge the industry has been taking action to remove extremist content, she will say they have not gone far enough and need to do more.

The Prime Minister will say the industry has a "social responsibility" to take down harmful content and will call for the creation of an "international industry-led forum" to work through the issues.

Among the specific proposals, she will say companies should be encouraged to develop tools which automatically identify and remove harmful material based on what it contains and who posted it.

Minute's silence for Manchester bomb victims 1 /21 Minute's silence for Manchester bomb victims Mourners in St Ann's Square, Manchester Owen Humphreys/PA Wire St Ann's Square Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images St Ann's Square AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire St Ann's Square Owen Humphreys/PA Wire St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham lays flowers after a minute's silence in St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire St Ann's Square Ben Birchall/PA Wire The Queen visits the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital to meet victims of the terror attack Peter Byrne/PA Wire Soldiers and police outside Buckingham Palace Alex Lentati Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joins firefighters at Islington Fire Station, north London Yui Mok/PA Wire Australian cricketers at The Oval Reuters / John Sibley Silence in Westminster for the Manchester bombing. Jeremy Selwyn

Mrs May will say companies need to block users who post extremist content and inform the relevant authorities when they identify harmful content so appropriate action can be taken.

She will also call for industry guidelines to be revised by the tech companies to make absolutely clear what constitutes harmful material, with those that fail to do so being held to account.

Mrs May has already made clear she intends to curtail her visit to the G7 in the wake of the Manchester attacks. She is now expected to leave on Friday evening, missing the final day.
T he final movements of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people when he detonated a bomb at Manchester Arena on Monday night, have been pieced together as sources came forward to offer details from the past weeks.

Mr Abedi, who was educated at Burnage Academy for Boys and Salford University, is thought to have recently travelled to Libya for a trip lasting several weeks.

His Libyan father, Ramadan Abedi, who lives in Tripoli, said his son Salman was there six weeks ago. Other sources reported Abedi returned just a few days before the attack to the UK, where he was lived until as recently as 2016 at his family home in Fallowfield.

According to German intelligence services, the bomber was in the German city of Dusseldorf four days before the attack, on Thursday May 18.

Salman Abedi movements in the days ahead of the Manchester attack

Mr Abedi was then seen the next day, Friday, on CCTV withdrawing 250 from an ATM before going shopping at 8pm at the Arndale centre in Manchester. His father said he spoke to him around this time and that his son sounded normal.

Chilling CCTV images appear to show Salman Abedi days before the Manchester bombing / Sky News

Finally, it is thought that on Monday evening at around 7pm Abedi was in a rented flat on Granby Row, near to Manchester Piccadilly station in the city centre.

According to a pub owner nearby who was asked by police for CCTV footage, it is thought the bomber was there just hours before the attack.
CHARLESTON  It was described as "a deluge of water, wind, thunder and lightning" and "the most terrible shrieking roar you can imagine."

Such words are commonly used to described what hit Coles County 100 years ago today, though the magnitude of what happened barely has equal.

With 91 people killed  and nearly 600 more injured  in Charleston and Mattoon alone, the May 26, 1917, tornado still ranks as the third-deadliest on record for the state of Illinois.

Today, the anniversary of the tornado, there's still evidence of the true impact of the disaster.

A telling example is a photograph that shows a man carrying a Bible alongside a woman, a child with a doll and toy drum, and another child pushing a stroller, apparently a family walking past piles of debris and several damaged buildings.

Bill Lovekamp, an Eastern Illinois University professor who's studied the tornado's impact and who's helping with the anniversary observation, called the photograph "amazing."

"It really puts it in perspective, that it impacted real people," he said.

The photograph is part of a display on the tornado at the Coles County Historical Society museum in the basement of the Mattoon Amtrak depot. That collection and others give some idea today of what happened on that Saturday 100 years ago and the days that followed.

The tale of the "deluge of water" and "shrieking roar" comes from Izora Story, who witnessed the tornado from the Coles County Courthouse, where she worked as the county's assistant superintendent of schools.

Story's account, also part of the historical society's display, also tells of the devastation she and others experienced following the storm.

She described a scene at the courthouse where "corridors were filled with women screaming and begging someone to hunt their children or other members of their families."

The tornado was one of several that were part of a storm system that hit the Midwest that afternoon. It reached Mattoon just before 3:30 p.m. and, at its peak, had wind speeds of more than 200 mph, which would have made it an F4 tornado with today's rating system.

Story's account starts by noting a "peculiar haze all around" during sun-filled hours before the tornado. But another tells of "angry clouds" and how a "gathering gloom began to make itself apparent" but was met with little concern.

Visitors to the historical society museum can also take a step back a half-century and hear a recording of a documentary the WLBH radio station in Mattoon aired on the 50th anniversary of the tornado.

"Men still refused to heed the promptings of their better judgement, or else despite their judgement with that most terrible of maladies, the blind faith in the past that says because a destructive storm has never visited our city, it never will."

The documentary reported that "the duration of the disaster was brief" but "the destruction was appalling." And "the enormity of the disaster" soon led to a response that ranged from military personnel overseeing the town to "criers ... sent through the streets calling for food and clothing."

The documentary also mentioned the fledgling Illinois chapter of the American Red Cross and its response to the emergency, one of the first duties which it undertook. It took one day for a citizens relief committee to form to care for the injured and raise money.

A Charleston newspaper reported that "a pale gloom rests over our city" two days after the tornado, and how the loss of electricity and other effects of the storm limited the publication to one page for several days.

It's still possible to read accounts of "Charleston's awful calamity," as the June 4, 1917, edition of the Charleston Courier described the disaster.

The newspapers from the time of the tornado are among those that Charleston resident Gary Brinkmeyer rescued from the Times-Courier building on Sixth Street when the newspaper moved from there in 2003.

Brinkmeyer noted that, when the paper returned after the tornado to publishing an eight-page edition, part of its coverage was a list of damaged property along with the names of the killed and injured.

"They literally identified all the demolished residences, those damaged and the owners of the property," he said.

Brinkmeyer credited an interest in history, especially Charleston's, for preserving the newspapers as well as obtaining the postcards and a photo book that are also part of his collection.

"Tornadoes are so unusual," he said.

Many of the photos show general but extensive damage to buildings that were in Charleston at the time. Others are more personal, with one showing a mattress on which a baby and a Bible were found.

Brinkmeyer also noted how the newspaper reported on donations to the relief effort from other cities and towns, including nearly $2,400 from Chicago, quite a bit of money in the day.

But there was also what he described as "almost chastisement" as well, with the publication's urging people to contribute more.

"It was almost shaming people who hadn't done their part," he said.

The newspaper's call was to "the last opportunity to fix the price of your own humanity." It asked: "What shall the recovering angel write as the value of your soul?"
T wenty-three people are still receiving critical hospital care after the Manchester Arena suicide bombing.

At least five children were among the patients being treated for horrific injuries on Friday after Salman Abedi murdered 22 people and wounded 116 by blowing himself up near the venue's exit.

Among them was 15-year-old Laura MacIntyre, of the Outer Hebrides, who was left fighting for life by the nail bomb that killed her Eilidh MacLeod, 14, at Monday night's Ariana Grande concert.

Sixty-six bombing victims remained in eight hospitals across Greater Manchester on Friday, NHS England said.

Some have "life-changing injuries" and will need care for years to come, according to head of the city's health services.

Laura MacIntyre, left, was critically injured in the explosion that killed her friend Eilidh MacLeod

Jon Rouse, chief officer of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, said: "There are still a number of individuals receiving treatment and care  as would be expected following an attack like this. Some of this care is critical care, meaning patients require intensive and constant support and monitoring. We are also providing support to families during this difficult time.

"The NHS and care organisations together with partners across the voluntary sector will be providing care and support for individuals in the weeks, months and years to come. Some individuals will now have life-changing injuries which will require the support of the NHS and partners for a long time."

He added: "Were dealing with injuries to major organs, were dealing with loss of limbs potentially, were dealing with embedded objects, all the horrific injuries that you would expect from the event that happened."

Hospitals were on the brink of being overwhelmed by the extraordinary number of people with critical injuries in the aftermath of the attack, doctors have said.

Twenty of those still in critical care on Friday were at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester Children's Hospital, Salford Royal, which were each treating five patients, and Wythenshawe Hospital, which was treating six.

The mother of eight-year-old Saffie Roussos, the youngest person killed in the bombing, is thought to be among those still critical. Lisa Roussos, 48, was unconscious in intensive care and was said in Thursday to be unaware her daughter had died.

Saffie Roussos, eight, was the youngest person killed in the bombing

NHS England said the fact the patients remained in critical care did not mean they were all in a critical condition.

Dr Peter-Marc Fortune, a consultant in paediatrics at Manchester Childrens Hospital, said it was a number of hours before all the injured children were identified after the bombing.

He said: "I cant imagine what their parents were going through but actually it was remarkably hard  not having a clue of the name of the person you were looking after and not knowing where their parents were to be able to talk to them and share with them actually what was going on.,That was really difficult."

Dr Steve Jones, an A&E consultant at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said the staff pulled together in a very impressive way.

Medics worked through the night and came in on days off to treat the victims, many of whom had suffered injuries similar to being in a car crash, he added.

It potentially had the ability to overwhelm what we were doing, he said.

Laura MacIntyre's family on Thursday thanked medics as they kept a vigil at her hospital bed

In a statement, they described the teenager as "strong-willed and a fighter", adding: "We know that Laura is in the best possible place and is receiving the best care that she can.

"Laura and her friend Eilidh were so looking forward to the concert, but that night has now ended in a tragedy where Eilidh has lost her life and Laura is in a critical condition.

"Our hearts and minds have been with Eilidh's family since we heard their news."
H undreds of Mancunians queued to get the citys symbolic worker bee tattooed in the wake of the terror attack that rocked the city.

By having the design tattooed, people have raised thousands of pounds for the Manchester Tattoo Appeal for which all proceeds go to those impacted by Mondays atrocity.

Among those who opted for the distinctive tattoo is the mother of 15-year-old Olivia Campbell, one of the victims.

More than 17,000 has been raised so far, and tattoo artists at Rapture Tattoo in said the overwhelming demand means they do not have the staff to ink everyone

Steve Bramhall, of Rapture Tattoo, said: "We've had an overwhelming demand, so much so that we basically don't have enough space for everyone."

Explaining the significance of the winged creature he said: "The bee symbol is used all over Manchester really.

"You see it on buildings, it's on all the bins, it's to symbolise the people from Manchester, it used to be very industrial.

"It just shows people come together and working as a community, in solidarity.

"It's nice for everyone to get the same tattoo basically because it shows we're all together in this and it's a good way to raise money for a worthy cause.

"It's the perfect symbol for this city and its heritage.

"And when people work together they work together like a hive of people," he added.

He said the studio had received requests for tattoos from people "from every walk of life", and were hoping to help raise the 50,000 total by the end of the weekend.

He said: "It's been really impressive just how much money's been raised already.

"It just shows you like, even on the day when it took place everyone was just going above and beyond, homeless people, taxi drivers, anyone who could help was helping and that's what we're trying to do as well, trying to help in any way we can, doing what we love."

Arena bombing: People have raised thousands of pounds for the Manchester Tattoo Appeal for the attack victims / PA

The history of the insect as a motif for Manchester dates back to the Industrial Revolution, when the city was at the centre of textile manufacturing.

It is believed the busy workers in the mills were commonly compared to bees in their hives and so the association was born.

Colleague Sam Barber, who set up the campaign, said it was a symbol of strength for proud Mancunians.

She said had heard from friends and relatives of some of the victims, A&E staff who were working on the night of the attack, and others who "just want to feel part of something."

"The tattoo means something different to each person that's getting it," she added.

"It can be seen as a badge of honour or some people are doing it as a remembrance tattoo for a loved one."
P olice are confident they arrested some key players in the network connected to the Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi and are making immense progress.

Assisstant Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britains top counter-terror officer, said the force has got hold of a large part of the suspects sought over Mondays atrocity.

In a defiant message to the nation, he urged people to go about their business as normal over the Bank Holiday weekend and to be reassured by the larger police presence.

The senior officer added: "We can't let the terrorists win by dissuading us from going about our normal business."

Armed raid: A woman has been arrested in Blackley, Manchester / PA

Nine people are currently being held by police in connection to the bombing after an arrest in Rusholme, Greater Manchester, on Friday.

A huge security operation is planned with 1,100 armed officers on hand to protect major spectacles around the country, including the FA Cup Final at Wembley.

It was revealed that specialist teams have carried out a review of security for more than 1,300 events with Britain remaining at the highest threat level of critical while the investigation into the bombing continues.

Providing an update on the probe earlier on Friday, Mr Rowley said it was likely further arrests would follow.

"Having made enormous progress and made some significant arrests and had some significant finds, there still remain important lines of inquiry for us to pursue," he said.

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"We've got to try to understand everything we can about the dead terrorist, his associates. We need to understand the whole network and how they acquired and built the bomb that exploded on Monday night.

"It's going to take a little more time to close down those gaps in our understanding. We are working as fast as we can do because everyone wants answers to this."

He said police now have a "much better understanding" with a "lot of the risk contained". However, some uncertainty remains.

Armed officers patrolling at Euston / Yui Mok/PA Wire

Mr Rowley said: "We need to grow our confidence that we have got every component of the network and we have got as full an understanding as possible about how the device was constructed and whether there's any remaining risk.

"Clearly we haven't covered all the territory we want to but we have covered a large part of it.

"Our confidence has been increasing over recent days but there's still more to do to get to the degree of confidence we want."

Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Victims 1 /21 Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Victims Nell Jones, 14, who died in the Manchester attack PA Jane Tweddle, 50 of Blackpool, was also killed 'Inseperable couple' Chloe Rutherford, 17, and Liam Curry, 19 Scottish teenager Eilidh MacLeod, 14, was confirmed to have been killed in the blast PA Michelle Kiss died in the blast. Her family have said they are "absolutely devastated" PA Saffie-Rose Roussos eight, from Lancashire, had been at the concert with her mother and sister when she was killed in the blast Wendy Fawell died in the attack Collect Olivia Campbell, 15, is also confirmed among the dead after a desperate search to find her Ariana Grande superfan Georgina Callander, 18, was one of the first victims to be named Lisa Lees and Alison Howe were killed while waiting in the foyer to collect their children Facebook Kelly Brewster died shielding her niece from the blast John Atkinson, 26, was also killed in the suicide blast Polish couple Angelika and Marcin Klis are confirmed among the dead in the Manchester attack Credit: Family photograph Victim: Martyn Hett has been confirmed as one of those killed in the attack Confirmed dead: 14-year-old Sorrell Leczowski Facebook Victim: Elaine McIver, an off-duty police officer Greater Manchester Police

Mr Rowley said police have seized a large amount of material during searches of properties, and are trawling through footage to establish activity ahead of the attack.

Meanwhile, further details about the scale of a wider terror threat emerged as figures indicated as many as 23,000 people have appeared on the radar of counter-terror agencies.

Authorities are handling 500 investigations into 3,000 individuals currently, while it was disclosed on Friday that around 20,000 people are considered former "subjects of interest".

Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee in Whitehall on Saturday morning to discuss the latest developments in the Manchester investigation.
T he security services have investigated 15,000 people as they seek to protect Britain from a massive terror threat, a minister revealed today.

Security minister Ben Wallace admitted there were valid questions about whether MI5 or the police could have done more to stop suicide bomber Salman Abedi from carrying out the Manchester atrocity.

However, he insisted there was no failure by the security services and denied they lacked resources despite the number of police officers being cut by thousands. At least one leading expert has challenged this view.

Mr Wallace also accused Jeremy Corbyn of crassly timed comments after the Labour leader used a speech today to link Britains foreign policy with terrorist attacks in the UK.

Speaking in central London, Mr Corbyn argued: We must be brave enough to admit the War on Terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.

However, Mr Wallace said: Now is not the time to decide to use this event to attack foreign policy decisions. He insisted that Islamist extremists were launching terror strikes because they hate what we stand for, they hate our society.

Up to 500 investigations are being carried out by the security services into around 3,000 individuals.

Ben Wallace admitted there were valid questions about whether MI5 or the police could have done more to stop suicide bomber Salman Abedi / PA

Below the 3,000 is another 12,000 people who have in the past come to our attention and who have not necessarily shown signs of doing anything at all or no longer posing a risk, Mr Wallace told BBC radio.

He rejected criticism from Labour and some police figures that cutting officer numbers by 19,000 was making the UK less safe, and said funding for the security and intelligence services had been increased by 20 per cent to 15.2 billion.

Police and security chiefs have been accused of missing chances to stop Abedi, amid claims he was reported several times to the authorities.

Professor Michael Clarke, who was director general of the Royal United Services Institute until 2015, said most terrorism could not be prevented, but added: In this case there is a lot of evidence that Abedi and his family and friends were well known to different parts of the security services and police networks and there was a failure to join the dots.

Mr Wallace also signalled new laws to force internet and social media companies such as Facebook and YouTube to swiftly take down material that could encourage terrorism.

At a G7 meeting in Sicily, Italy, Theresa May was due to say: The fight is moving from the battlefield to the internet. Corporations can do more.

Indeed, they have a social responsibility to now step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks.
D onald Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is reportedly being investigated by the FBI as part of its probe into Russias alleged meddling in the US presidential election.

The NBC network quoted US officials as saying that Ivanka Trumps 36-year-old husband, who was with the president when he met the Pope in Rome this week, was facing FBI scrutiny.

It is the first time a member of the administration has been identified as a target in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director.

Agents reportedly believe that Mr Kushners contact with some Russian officials is relevant to their inquiries, although there is no suggestion they suspect him of any wrongdoing.

They are focusing on two meetings in December: the first with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in New York; the other with Sergey Gorkov, the head of Vnesheconombank, Russias largest state-owned commercial bank.

The bank has been the subject of US sanctions imposed over Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in Ukraine.

Donald Trump 100 Days as President - In pictures 1 /88 Donald Trump 100 Days as President - In pictures 20 January 2017 Donald Trump (L) is sworn in as the 45th US president by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in front of the Capitol in Washington AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 First Lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump,former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama at the US Capitol after inauguration ceremonies at the in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump takes the oath of allegiance during his swearing-in ceremony on January 20, 2017 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President elect Donald Trump (C) arrives for the swearing-in ceremony on in front of the Capitol in Washington AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania walk the inaugural parade route with son Barron on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and the first lady Melania Trump dance at the Liberty Ball at the Washington DC Convention Center following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, in Washington, DC, on 20 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and the first lady Melania Trump dance at the Armed Services ball at the National Building museum following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, in Washington, DC, on 20 January 20, 2017 AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he waits at his desk before signing conformations for General James Mattis as US Secretary of Defense and General John Kelly as US Secretary of Homeland Security, as Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus look on in the Oval Office of the White House on 20 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 Police pepper spray at anti-Trump protesters during clashes in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump (C) gestures as the first lady Melania Trump (center L), Vice Presidant Mike Pence (L), his wife Karen (2L) and family look on at the Liberty Ball at the Washington DC Convention Center following Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 20 January 2017 Vanessa and Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner salute the crowd after dancing on stage during the Freedom ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on 20 January 2017 in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 21 January 2017 Demonstrators gather at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado, during the Women's March on 21 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 21 January 2017 Demonstrators protest near the White House in Washington, DC, for the Women's March on 21 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 23 January 2017 US President Donald Trump holds up an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership after signing it in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on 23 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 25 January 2017 US President Donald Trump signs an executive order to start the Mexico border wall project at the Department of Homeland Security facility in Washington, DC, on 25 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 25 January 2017 Greenpeace protesters unfold a banner reading "Resist" from atop a construction crane behind the White House AFP/Getty Images 26 January 2017 US President Donald Trump salutes as he steps off Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland upon his return from Philadelphia AFP/Getty Images 26 January 2017 Demonstrators protest President Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall along the United States and Mexico border in Chicago, Illinois AFP/Getty Images 27 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May speak during a press conference at the White House AFP/Getty Images 27 January 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks after signing executive orders alongside US Defense Secretary James Mattis (R) and US Vice President Mike Pence on 27 January 2017, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 27 January 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks following the ceremonial swearing-in of James Mattis as secretary of defense on January 27, 2017, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 28 January 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin from the Oval Office of the White House on January 28, 2017, in Washington, DC. AFP/Getty Images 31 January 2017 Senior Advisor Jared Kushner (L) and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly (R) listen while US President Donald Trump puts his papers away at the beginning of a meeting on cyber security in the Roosevelt Room of the White House January 31, 2017 in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 28 January 2017 US President Donald Trump holds an executive memorandum on defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria after signing it in the Oval Office of the White House AFP/Getty Images 31 January 2017 Judge Neil Gorsuch speaks, after US President Donald Trump nominated him for the Supreme Court, at the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 31 January 2017 Demonstrators gather outside of The United States Supreme Court after President Donald Trump announced Neil Gorsuch as his nominee to fill the seat of former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia in Washington, DC, on 31 January 2017 AFP/Getty Images 1 February 2017 US President Donald Trump (2L) congratulates Rex Tillerson (seated) after he was sworn in as Secretary of State as his wife Renda St. Clair (R), and Vice President Mike Pence (L) look on in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 1 February 2017 US President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka walk to board Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 3 February 2017 US President Donald Trump chats with reporters on board Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, bound for Palm Beach, Florida AFP/Getty Images 4 February 2017 Zeina, who did not want to give her last name, takes part in a protest against US President Donald Trump outside the White House AFP/Getty Images 4 February 2017 Demonstrators holding placards take part in a protest against US President Donald Trump outside the US Embassy in London AFP/Getty Images 6 February 2017 US President Donald Trump sits down for lunch with troops during a visit to the US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida AFP/Getty Images 7 February 2017 US President Donald Trump holds up a gift given to him by county sheriffs following a meeting as they pose for photos in the Oval Office of the White House AFP/Getty Images 13 February 2017 National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (centre) attends a joint press conference by US President Donald Trump and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the East Room of the White House on 13 February 2017 in Washington AFP/Getty Images 15 February 2017 US President Donald Trump (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walk into the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 15 February 2017 Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive for a joint press conference by US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House AFP/Getty Images 15 February 2017 US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, as they arrive at the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 16 February 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House AFP/Getty Images 26 February 2017 An activist paints the wall between the United States and Mexico during a demonstration against US President Donald Trump on the border of Ciudad Juarez with Nuevo Mexico, Chihuahua State, Mexico AFP/Getty Images 26 February 2017 View of the paintings made by activists in the wall between Mexico and United States during a demontration against US President Donald Trump on the border of Ciudad Juarez with Nuevo Mexico, Chihuahua State, Mexico AFP/Getty Images 27 February 2017 Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway (L) checks her phone after taking a photo as US President Donald Trump and leaders of historically black universities and colleges pose for a group photo in the Oval Office of the White House before a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence in Washington AFP/Getty Images 28 February 2017 US Vice President Mike Pence (L), US President Donald Trump (C) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) clap during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 2 March 2017 US President Donald Trump salutes as he arrives onboard the pre-commissioned USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier in Newport News, Virginia AFP/Getty Images 2 March 2017 US President Donald Trump salutes as he walks to Air Force One prior to departing from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia AFP/Getty Images 3 March 2017 Sandy Adams holds up a placard during a protest outside St. Anthony Catholic school in Orlando, Florida during a visit by US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images 3 March 2017 US President Donald Trump walks off Air Force One after arriving in Orlando, Florida AFP/Getty Images 7 March 2017 US President Donald Trump gestures as he surprises visitors during the official reopening of public tours at the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 10 March 2017 People rally during the Native Nations Rise protest in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 15 March 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Nashville, Tennessee AFP/Getty Images 17 March 2017 US President Donald Trump and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel shake hands after a press conference in the East Room of the White House AFP/Getty Images 20 March 2017 US President Donald Trump arrives for a 'Make America Great Again' rally at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky AFP/Getty Images 21 March 2017 S President Donald Trump reacts after signing a bill increasing funding for NASA in the Oval Office at the White House AFP/Getty Images 23 March 2017 Protesters dressed as medical staff march towards the Federal Building during a "Save the Affordable Care Act" rally in Los Angeles, California AFP/Getty Images 23 March 2017 US President Donald Trump sits in the drivers seat of a semi-truck as he welcomes truckers and CEOs to the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 23 March 2017 Health care activists hold placards during a rally at Freedom Plaza during a protest in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 28 March 2017 US President Donald Trump (C) speaks before signing the Energy Independence Executive Order at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 28 March 2017 Surrounded by miners from Rosebud Mining, US President Donald Trump (C) signs he Energy Independence Executive Order at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 29 March 2017 US President Donald Trump addresses the Womens Empowerment Panel in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC AFP/Getty Images 1 April 2017 People wearing masks of US President Donald Trump take part in the 32nd Annual April Fools Day Parade in New York AFP/Getty Images 3 April 2017 Translators watch as Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (L) and US President Donald Trump shake hands in the Oval Office before a meeting at the White House AFP/Getty Images 6 April 2017 US President Donald Trump (L) sits with Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) during a bilateral meeting at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida AFP/Getty Images 6 April 2017 Donald Trump is in a meeting with his National Security team and being briefed by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford via secure video teleconference after a missile strike on Syria while inside the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility at his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. on April 6, 2017 The White House via Reuters 15 April 2017 A man gets sprayed with a chemical irritant as multiple fights break out between Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters in Berkeley, California AFP/Getty Images 15 April 2017 Protestors take part in the "Tax March" to call on US President Donald Trump to release his tax records in Los Angeles, California AFP/Getty Images 17 April 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump walks to the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House AFP/Getty Images 17 April 2017 Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and son Barron Trump attend the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House EPA

According to NBC News, Mr Gorkov studied at the training school for the FSB, one of Russias intelligence services.

The White House and the FBI declined to comment on the reports.

Mr Kushners lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement that the White House adviser previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry.

A former senior intelligence official told the Washington Post that FBI agents were also investigating earlier exchanges between Trump associates and the Russians, including at an event at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington in April last year which was attended by both Mr Kushner and Mr Kislyak, as well as Trump adviser Jeff Sessions, who is now US attorney general.

In a speech at the event, Mr Trump promised to seek better relations with Russia, although it is not known whether Mr Kushner and Mr Kislyak had any interaction at the time.

Mr Kushner  whose familys property fortune is said to be worth about 1.5 billion  did not initially mention the December meetings on his White House security clearance forms, but later admitted the error.

Both meetings took place during the presidential transition, when Mr Kushner became known as a facilitator for foreign governments looking to make contacts in the new administration.

President Trump has denied any collusion with the Russians. One-time Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page has said he will testify before a House intelligence panel investigating alleged Russia links.
E mmanuel Macron veered away from Donald Trump, greeting him last after other leaders including Angela Merkel, in another awkward encounter between the two presidents.

In a video posted to his Twitter account, Macron walks down a blue carpet in Brussels to greet President Trump and Ms Merkel.

Mr Macron walks on the left of the frame and looks poised to greet Trump first  but at the last minute he swerves to the right, warmly kissing the German chancellor on both cheeks.

He then greets other leaders, eventually reaching Mr Trump, who shakes his hand vigorously.

The video is captioned: In Brussels, united with our Nato allies.

Observers saw the snub as a show of support for Ms Merkel, whose hand Mr Trump appeared to refuse to shake during an uncomfortable White House photo shoot in March.

It is the second toe-curling episode between the French and US presidents in a single day.

On Thursday, as Mr Trump and Mr Macron met face to face for the first time, they were seen gripped in an awkward power handshake that entertained Twitter users and was swiftly branded a battle for dominance.

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post said: Trump tried twice to release and Macron held on tight It was quite a handshake, two alphas.
A man known as the "Houdini" of death row for avoiding seven execution dates through legal challenges has finally been put to death for a 1982 murder.

Tommy Arthur, 75, was pronounced dead at 12.15am local time on Friday at a prison in south-west Alabama after a lethal injection, authorities said.

Arthur was convicted of killing riverboat engineer Troy Wicker after being hired to shoot him as he slept in his bed.

"Thirty-four years after he was first sentenced to death for the murder of a Colbert County man, Thomas Arthur's protracted attempt to escape justice is finally at an end," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. "Most importantly, tonight, the family of Troy Wicker can begin the long-delayed process of recovery from a painful loss."

During his final statement, Arthur appeared to cry and got choked up as he said he wanted to apologise to his four children and said each of their names.

"I'm sorry I failed you as a father. I love you more than anything on earth," Arthur said. He waved his fingers in the direction of his daughters, who watched from a witness room.

Tommy Arthur was convicted of the 1982 murder-for-hire of Troy Wicker / AP

Mr Wicker's two sons witnessed the execution but did not make a statement to the media.

Arthur's lawyers filed a flurry of last-minute appeals seeking to halt the execution, but the US Supreme Court paved the way for the execution to proceed shortly before 11pm. The state prison system began administering the lethal injection drugs around 11.50pm before the death warrant expired at midnight. Arthur was not pronounced dead until after midnight.

Mr Wicker's wife, Judy, initially told police she came home and was raped by a black man who shot and killed her husband.

After her conviction, she changed her story and testified that she had discussed killing her husband with Arthur, who came to the house in make-up and an Afro-style wig and shot her husband. She said she paid him 10,000 US dollars.

Arthur was in a prison work-release programme at the time for the 1977 killing of his sister-in-law, a crime he admits committing.

His first two convictions in the Wicker case were overturned, but the third one was not. Arthur asked jurors to give him the death penalty. The decision was strategic, he said, to open up more avenues of appeal.

The state set seven execution dates for Arthur between 2001 and 2016. All were delayed as a pro-bono legal team fought his sentence. In 2016, Arthur came especially close to the death chamber.

In a telephone interview on Monday, Arthur maintained his innocence but acknowledged that his chance of another stay was diminishing.

"I'm terrified, but there's nothing I can do," he said.

Janette Grantham, director of the Victims of Crime and Leniency, called the years of execution delays exceedingly painful for Mr Wicker's family to bear.

Arthur's lawyers had asked the US Supreme Court to halt the execution. They argued that the opening sedative in Alabama's execution protocol - midazolam - would not properly anaesthetise him before he was injected with other drugs to stop his heart and lungs.

In December, inmate Ronald Bert Smith coughed for the first 13 minutes of his execution and moved slightly after two consciousness tests. Arthur's lawyers argued that Smith was awake during his execution. The state responded that there was no evidence Smith experienced pain.
A mystery SOS sign made of rocks has prompted fears that a person or persons could be missing.

The distress signal was spotted by a helicopter pilot flying over the remote region of Kimberley in Western Australia.

A police ground search soon followed but failed to find any indication of recent human activity.

However police did say they discovered the remains of a campsite at the scene.

Authorities are now appealing to the public for information.

Western Australia Police said on Facebook: "Kalumburu Police wish to speak to anyone who may have been in the Swift Bay (Kimberley) area over the past few months who can assist them with locating the person(s) who made an SOS sign.

"Police are trying to establish if there are any missing persons in the area who require assistance."

Senior Sgt Peter Reeves told the Australian Broadcasting Corp it is difficult not know for how long the message has been left there.

He said: "There are indications that there may have been someone camped there at one point in time, but it is just not clear how long ago that was.

In 2015 a couple who were stranded on a desert island for a week were rescued after a plane spotted their 20ft SOS message written in the sand.
T he number of visas issued to visitors from Donald Trumps seven travel ban countries halved this April compared to last year.

According to preliminary government data analysed by Reuters, the total number of US non-immigrant visas issued to people from any country was also down by 15 per cent on the average monthly figure for 2016.

The new data suggests a drop in visas issued to travellers from the seven Muslim-majority countries subject to President Trumps temporary bans.

President Trumps controversial January executive order has been repeatedly blocked by US courts after it was met with outrage.

However, people from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Libya were granted about 2,800 visitors visas in April 2017, whereas the average month in the fiscal year of 2016 saw 5,700 issued.

The data was made public by the state department after the US leader ordered it to publish monthly figures. But the number of visa applications has not been made available, making it difficult to explain the drop.

It could be due to a higher rejection rate, but other factors could be slow processing times or a smaller number of applicants.

"Visa demand is cyclical, not uniform throughout the year, and affected by various factors at the local and international level," said William Cocks, a spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, according to Reuters.

The executive order that placed temporary blocks on people from seven mostly-Muslim countries travelling to the US was signed on January 27 and was set to last for 90 days.

Mr Trump justified the highly controversial order on the grounds of national security.

Federal courts overturned the ban, so Mr Trumps administration issued a new, revised order that did not include Iraq.

However, that has also been blocked.

On Thursday, a US appeals court branded the order discriminatory and refused to reinstate it.
A man has been accused of murdering a fellow wedding guest who heckled him during a karaoke performance for the newlyweds.

Nguyen Ngoc Diep was performing a congratulations song at the event in Southern Vietnam on Tuesday when another guest told him he was terrible and snatched the microphone away.

Diep, 44, then became embroiled in an argument with the man and left the party after guests intervened.

But, according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper, he returned a short time later armed with a knife and lunged at the guest  who was, at the time, performing his own song with a friend.

Diep then stabbed the man and his friend multiple times, police said.

Both men were rushed to hospital and the heckling guest later died from his injuries.

The condition of the other man is not yet known.

Diep has been arrested by police suspicion of murder.
DECATUR  Amid relatively low gas prices and an economy with some good signs, AAA says more people will travel this weekend than in any previous Memorial Day period in the past 12 years.

The auto clubs prediction for the holiday weekend, the traditional start of the summer travel season, is on track with other organizations projections of record-high airline travel this summer.

AAA says 39.3 million people across the country are expected to go more than 50 miles from home during the holiday weekend, which the organization defines as running from Thursday through Monday.

Thats an increase of about 2.7 percent over last year, with the vast majority of travelers  88 percent  driving.

Lower unemployment and gas prices have been credited for the rise in travel plans. As of Thursday, the average price for regular gas in Illinois was $2.44 per gallon, according to an AAA survey.

Thats only one cent higher than a year ago, but far below the peak of more than $4.31 reached on May 5, 2011.

The national average Thursday was $2.37, up from last years $2.30, but far below the all-time high of $4.11 reached in July 2008.

Most construction work zones on Illinois highways will be inactive from 3 p.m. Friday until midnight Tuesday morning, but some lane closures will remain in place, said the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The auto club says travel is predicted to jump this weekend even though some key costs of trips have gone up.

For example, AAA says its average three-diamond rated hotel has a price tag of $215 a night, or 18 percent more than last year.

The auto club said car rental rates will average $66 a day, or 7 percent above the 2016 figure. But car rental bookings are running 19 percent higher than in last years Memorial Day period, AAA said.

AAA said average air fares this weekend are expected to be 9 percent higher than in 2016, with $181 the average round-trip ticket.

Still, Airlines for America, the trade industry group for major domestic airlines, cited low air fares as one reason for its projected all-time high of 234.1 million passengers traveling worldwide on American carriers for June, July and August.

Also predicting an all-time high for summer travel is airfarewatchdog.com. That website says it surveyed more than 1,300 travelers and that almost 85 percent expect to take at least one trip, a 12 percent increase over 2016.

The website adds that online search demand related to summer travel is up almost 50 percent from a year ago.

Joani Zachry, travel consultant for Franklin Travel in Decatur, believes the economy has given a boost to the travel industry.

People are traveling and traveling further out, she said.

The worries of terrorists and diseases have altered travel only slightly. Zachry has seen travelers continue to visit popular overseas destinations, such as Paris, Ireland and Italy.

They are still doing all of those trips, she said. But they take precautionary measures.

Travelers booking through Timi's Tours in Moweaqua have requested trips to areas they view as safe.

Guests go to Australia and other countries not hit by the violence, said Timi Kaufman, owner. It makes a difference.

Both travel agents find many travelers still prefer popular sites in the United States. Domestic travel includes Florida's Disney World, California, Myrtle Beach S.C., Alaska and Las Vegas, Nev.

They are always busy, Zachry said.

Many of Kaufman's clients are senior citizens seeking easy travel to popular destinations. Her bus is often seen at St. Louis and Chicago theaters and other nearby tourist destinations.
G ame Of Thrones star Liam Cunningham says finishing filming the hit television series will be like coming off heroin for the cast.

The Irish actor plays the former smuggler Davos Seaworth, a rare heroic character in the fantasy show which begins its seventh series in July. Filming for the eighth and final series starts in the late autumn.

Cunningham, 55, said the actors were already preparing for life after the show: Its very bizarre. The punters only need to find another thing to fall in love with, but were having our living taken away from us, so to speak. Its a double bogey for us. Theres no one in this whole cast that I speak to who isnt a fan.

I think everybody involved realises this thing is special. We were already talking about the end when we were shooting this season  people are trying to decompress.

End in sight: Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth in Game Of Thrones / Sky Atlantic

Rather than looking at each other during the last scene and going, What do we do now?, were easing ourselves off the heroin that is Game Of Thrones!

Its going to be impossible to reproduce something on this scale. There will be beautiful and genius television again, but Game Of Thrones will be unrepeatable.

Game of Thrones Season 7- Official Trailer

Cunningham was speaking after returning from a humanitarian trip to Uganda, where he met South Sudanese families fleeing war in what is labelled the worlds fastest-growing refugee crisis. According to charity World Vision, last year Uganda received just 40 per cent of the $251 million (193 million) needed to feed and house refugees.

Cunningham said: More food is needed, a huge amount. Sanitation is needed and medical facilities. There are 2,000 people arriving a day. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

I was virtually unaware of this particular crisis. I knew that there was a war in South Sudan but I didnt realise that almost a million people who have fled this fighting have arrived in northern Uganda. Because it is not well known or well publicised, there isnt a great deal of food to go around. So theres a food crisis here. Yesterday we were in a place called Bidi Bidi, which I had never heard of until very, very recently and it is the worlds largest refugee settlement with 270,000 people.

The bottom line is, this is a disaster that could turn into a catastrophe. We are in great danger of losing a generation through lack of education, perhaps even lack of food and if we all work together we can all give a little bit and send it over here. Ive seen how far a little bit goes, its extraordinary what a little bit can do, so please, please help.

Game of Thrones AirBnbs 1 /6 Game of Thrones AirBnbs Live like a king on the Dalmation Coast, Croatia The capital of the Seven Kingdoms is not far away from this beautiful property, which is just a short distance from the beach. From your window youll be able to overlook the beautiful Old Town, the real life backdrop of Kings Landing which played host to many of the shows most incredible moments  from Tyrions escape to Cerseis naked walk of penance.



18 per night based on one guest. Book it here Copyright (c) Ivan Ivankovic. Any use of this image without the permission of the photographer is in violation of the copyright. Go over the Wall in Galway, Ireland This refurbished medieval castle, which was built in the 1400s is reminiscent of Castle Black - the home of the Night's Watch. Inside you'll find winding staircases, oak beams and plenty of cosy spots to kick back with a tankard of beer.



From 95 per night based on two guests. Book it here Dorne of a great break in Seville, Spain The harsh desert climates of Dorne are one of the most spectacular new locations to feature in season five, and were shot on location in Seville. The beautiful verdant courtyards included in this lovely listing are reminiscent of the show's home for the regal House Martell.



From 61 per night based on three guests. Book it here Holiday in Khaleesi's paradise in Slavers Bay, Morocco This classic guesthouse offers the most spectacular views of Ait-Ben-Haddou in Morocco, the setting for Slavers Bay. Fans of the show will recognise the area from season three, where Daenerys Targaryen successfully led a military campaign to liberate the areas enslaved populace.



From 16 per night based on four guests. Book it here A summerhouse north of Westeros, Iceland Any true Game of Thrones fan will know that the scenes 'beyond the Wall' were filmed in Iceland. This listing boasts 360 degree views of its famous Thingvellir National Park, the setting for the epic battle between the Hound and Brienne.



114 per night based on two guests. Book it here

To help go to worldvision.org.uk.
L iam Gallagher has announced a charity gig in the wake of the Manchester terror attack.

The former Oasis frontman will play the O2 Ritz on May 30, as part of his mini tour, with all proceeds going to the Manchester Evening News fund raising appeal for victims.

Twenty two people were killed and dozens were injured after suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated an explosive at Ariana Grandes Manchester arena concert on Monday night.

Gallagher said he decided to donate all of the proceeds from his upcoming gig in a bid to help pick people up.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News he said: I just knew I had to. Im not in it for the money. The gig was going to happen anyway and we all have to do what we can.

I want to try and help pick people up. People like me, doing what we do, its our duty to give people a good time.

He continued: Its outrageous. Just so sad. What can you do? Its just f****** out of order. There are kids and people dying all over the world. And for what?

Manchester crowd sing Oasis song after minute's silence

Id gone to bed early - about 10pm - then got up in the morning to a text from my other brother saying what had gone on and I put the TV on. Its just unbelievable.

Gallagher, who hails from the city, was among several stars who paid tribute in the wake of the tragedy.

He tweeted: In total shock and absolutely devastated about what's gone down in MANCHESTER sending Love and Light to all the family's involved LG x.

The Manchester date will kick-off Gallagher's mini tour which will see him perform at Londons Electric Ballroom in Brixton, Dublins Olympia Theatre and Glasgow Barrowlands.

Gallagher teased a massive announcement on Thursday night, telling fans: The wait is nearly over Brothers n Sisters massive announcement first thing tomorrow morning sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite LG x.

The news comes days after he announced details about his first solo single, Wall Of Glass.

His debut solo album, which saw him team up with Adele's producer, Greg Kurstin, will be called, As You Were and is slated for release in October.

Liam Gallagher - In pictures 1 /37 Liam Gallagher - In pictures Getty Images Members of the British rock band "Oasis" Gem, Noel Gallagher, Andy Bell and Liam Gallagher hold a photocall in Hong Kong on February 25, 2006 AFP/Getty Images Liam Gallagher arrives for the special screening of Oasis documentary "Supersonic" Getty Images Liam Gallagher, former Oasis front man, arrives in Glasgow to open the clothing store Pretty Green on January 7, 2011 in Glasgow, Scotlan Getty Images Liam Gallagher and girlfriend Debbie Gwyther arrive at the Etihad Stadium PA Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Ricky Hatton of England, Noel Gallagher of Oasis and boxer Matthew Hatton celebrate Ricky Hatton's 11th round TKO victory against Paulie Malignaggi after their light-welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena November 22, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada Getty Images Liam Gallagher of Oasis adopts a novel pose for receiving the band's Brit award from Chris Evans (with glasses), chatting to brother Noel Gallagher in rear, at a star-studded ceremony at London's Earl's Court PA Liam Gallagher accepts Oasis' award for 'Best Album of 30 Years' on stage at The Brit Awards 2010 at Earls Court on February 16, 2010 Getty Images Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher "Che Tempo Che Fa" Italian TV Show on November 9, 2008 in Milan, Italy Getty Images Liam Gallagher, of Oasis, and Damon Albarn, of Blur, during the second Music Industry 'Soccer Six' football tournament at Mile End Stadium PA Oasis receive their 'Best British Newcomer' award from Kinks lead singer, Ray Davies. (L/R) Noel Gallagher, Paul McGuigan, Liam Gallagher, and Ray Davie PA Liam Gallagher of 'Beady Eye' performs live on the Other Stage at day 2 of the 2013 Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm on June 28, 2013 Getty Images Liam Gallagher of Beady Eye performs live for fans at the 2014 Big Day Out Festival on January 26, 2014 in Sydney Getty Images Liam Gallagher visiting his new son, Lennon, and wife Patsy Kensit at the private Portland Hospital, London in 1999 PA Liam Gallagher of Oasis Liam Gallagher with Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Bradley Wiggins at the 2012 GQ Men Of The Year Awards at the Royal Opera House, Bow Street, London PA Wire/Press Association Images Liam Gallagher performing with his band Beady Eye during episode 12 of the BBC reality show The Voice PA Liam Gallagher with Oasis Liam Gallagher performs during the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium PA Liam Gallagher with Oasis Liam Gallagher with Oasis PA Getty Images Dave Benett Getty Images Getty Images EPA PA

Tickets go on sale at 9am today.
P iers Morgan has hit out at Ariana Grande for flying back to the US straight after the suicide bombing at her concert.

The controversial TV star, 52, said Grande should have remained in the UK and visited those who were wounded in the terror attack.

Twenty two people were killed and dozens injured after Salman Abedi detonated an explosive at Manchester Arena on Monday night.

Morgan praised the Queen for visiting young victims at the Royal Manchester childrens hospital on Thursday, and condemned Grande for not doing the same.

Queen meets young bomb victims and staff at Manchester Children's Hospital

In response to Katy Perry praising the monarchs kind heart, Morgan tweeted: Agreed. Might have been nice if @ArianaGrande had stayed to do the same.

He added: I expected her to stay, visit and comfort her wounded fans and relatives of those who died.

Morgan said it struck [him] as odd that the Queen would visit the wounded over Grande, who everyone had paid to see at the gig, and claimed he would have 100 per cent stayed in the UK.

He faced a fierce backlash from his followers who pointed out that Grande most likely found it too traumatic to visit the victims.

Others accused him of hypocrisy and pointed out that he wasnt present at the inquiry into the Daily Mirror's alleged phone hacking, to which he replied: That was purely because my daughter was born 2 weeks before so we couldn't fly home.

Grande told fans she has been left broken by the attack.

The Queen visits Manchester victims 1 /6 The Queen visits Manchester victims Queen Elizabeth II speaks to Millie Robson, 15, who survived the attack in Manchester PA Queen Elizabeth II arrives to see victims and medical workers PA The Queen personally thanked members of staff who treated victims PA Escorted by Kathy Cowell (right) Chairman of the Central Manchester University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II meets hospital workers PA The Queen shakes hands with staff at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital PA

The US pop superstar, who was unhurt, tweeted: Broken. From the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry.

I don't have the words.

Grande was performing as part of her Dangerous Woman tour. She was set to play London's O2 Arena on Thursday and Friday, but cancelled in the wake of the tragedy.

She later cancelled a string of European dates into June in order to pay her proper respects to those lost.

Grande also released a joint statement with her manager Scooter Braun, telling fans they will never let evil win.
A women-only screening of Wonder Woman has been mocked online for having a sexist agenda.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas, attempted to celebrate girl-power by banning men from one of its screenings, including staff members.

The announcement read: The most iconic superheroine in comic book history finally has her own movie, and what better way to celebrate than with an all-female screening?

Apologies, gentlemen, but were embracing our girl power and saying No Guys Allowed for one special night at the Alamo Ritz. And when we say People Who Identify As Women Only, we mean it. Everyone working at this screening  venue staff, projectionist, and culinary team  will be female.

Teaming up: Gal Gadot and Chris Pine at the US premiere / Frazer Harrison/Getty

But news of the event didnt sit well with some who branded it wrong questioned whether there will be all-male screenings for Thor or a clown only screening for IT.

One man commented: Very tacky Alamo. I'm all for equality and having a screening specifically stating it is not inclusive to everyone, is against equality. I'm not saying Alamo did this intentionally, but it is still just wrong.

Wonder Woman - Trailer 2

Another wrote: Great, let us know when you have guys-only screenings of Thor, Spider-Man, Star Wars, etc. Let's see you walk the walk now that you set this precedence.

One enraged female fan posted: I'm a feminist and have read a ton of WW comics. I am so pissed at how this film is being treated as a girl film worthy of less than full promotion by the studio, and now gender segregation at Alamo.

It's an insult to the character who challenged (in more than one title) the exclusion of men on Themyscera.

Others posted a flurry of memes, one of which pictured a mug with the slogan 100 per cent organic male tears and another which read: Now thats what I call male fragility.

Wonder Woman is gearing up for its UK release on June 1 - but film bosses this week announced that there will be no London premiere in the wake of the Manchester terror attack.

Warner Bros, starring Gal Gadot, confirmed that it will not be proceeding with any of the planned promotional activities in the UK, scheduled for May 31.

Stars including Gadot, Chris Pine and Robin Wright had been due to walk the red carpet at the Leicester Square premiere, as well as attending a photocall and press junket.

Our thoughts are with those affected by the recent tragedy in the UK. In light of the current situation, we will not be proceeding with our plans for the Wonder Woman premiere and junket activities in London, read a statement from Warner Bros.
R ichard Ayoade fans have been treated to their first look at the comedian in his new role as host of The Crystal Maze.

The legendary game show, which follows teams as they attempt several challenges in a bid to win crystals, has been revived for a new series on Channel 4.

Comedian Ayoade can be seen in a red suit and white boots as he takes centre stage in front of the famous Crystal Dome.

The new series will see teams of five contestants navigate the Aztec, Medieval, Industrial and Future zones of the maze.

Start the fans: The comedian showed off his get-up for the new series / Channel 4

They will face a range of skill, mystery, physical and mental challenges to win crystals that equate to time in the final test to win the cash in the Dome.

A host of celebrity specials in aid of Stand Up 2 Cancer will also air later this year.

TODO: define component type brightcove

The iconic game show originally ran in the UK from 1990 to 1995 with one series per year.

Rocky Horror Show creator Richard OBrien hosted the first four series of the programme before Ed Tudor-Pole took over the reins for the final two.

Rumours of a TV comeback first surfaced last year, with former Doctor Who David Tenant tipped to host.

Stephen Merchant fronted a one off charity special for Stand Up 2 Cancer which saw comedian Josh Widdicombe, radio DJ Sara Cox, actress Michelle Keegan, Paralympian Jonnie Peacock, and sportsman Rio Ferdinand enter the maze.

The Crystal Maze - 2016 Stand Up To Cancer special 1 /9 The Crystal Maze - 2016 Stand Up To Cancer special The Crystal Maze The hit game show is back for Channel 4's Stand Up To Cancer charity event Channel 4 / Ray Burmiston Stephen Merchant Channel 4 Rio Ferdinand Channel 4 / Ray Burmiston Michelle Keegan Channel 4 / Ray Burmiston Josh Widdicombe Channel 4 / Ray Burmiston Sara Cox Channel 4 / Ray Burmiston Jonnie Peacock Channel 4 / Ray Burmiston

The Crystal Maze is set to air on Channel 4 in June.
New Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 82F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 66F. Winds light and variable.
Ukrainian authorities Wednesday arrested 23 former high-ranking tax officials who are suspected of helping ex-President Viktor Yanukovychs government to defraud the state of nearly US$ 4 billion.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said at a press conference that the arrests took place over the course of 454 raids in 15 regions across the country, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Avakov called the raids and arrests "the biggest anti-corruption operation the country has ever seen" as it involved 1,700 National Police officers and about 500 military prosecutors.

Some of the suspects allegedly tried to evade arrest, including one official who was caught at the airport.

While arresting former tax official Oleksandr Antipov from Luhansk Oblast, investigators reportedly found US$ 3.8 million in cash, according to Kyiv Post.

"The economy suffered from their activities," said Matios, according to Interfax-Ukraine. "The state was robbed of billions of hryvnia, which enriched individuals who are living quietly in Ukraine."

"During the course of the criminal investigation we foresee detaining and charging employees of the Prosecutor-Generals Office, Ukraines SBU Security Service, and employees of the state tax administration," he said.

Ukraines Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko presented the raids as a major achievement in the corruption case against Yanukovychs Tax and Revenue Minister Oleksandr Klymenko, according to Kyiv Post.

Like Yanukovuch, Klymenko fled to Russia in 2014 amid anti-government protests and is believed to be living in Moscow.

Lutsenkos critics, however, dismissed the raids as a public relations stunt, as he is being accused of helping tax officials involved in the Klymenko case to escape corruption.

Last year, out of some 50 suspects in the embezzlement case against Klymenko, only 12 were charged. Many trials were reportedly conducted in secret and rushed through in a matter of weeks.

The Prosecutors Office also allegedly struck secret plea deals with other defendants.

occrp.org
Observed annually, National Missing Childrens Day has been commemorated each year on May 25 since 1983, when it was first proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan.

Six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared from his New York City home on his way from the bus to school on May 25, 1979. The date of Etans disappearance was designated as National Missing Childrens Day. During the time of his disappearance, cases of missing children rarely gained national media attention. However, Etans case quickly received much coverage. Etans father, who was a professional photographer, distributed black-and-white photographs of his son in an effort to find him.

Children reported missing in Nebraska and Wyoming

Photographs of the smiling, sandy-haired boy were on milk cartons, missing posters, newspaper front pages and television newscasts. "The alarm caused by the abduction reverberated across America, evoking the worst fears of parents and helping to change the way the authorities tracked missing children," according to the New York Times.

The result was a massive search and media attention that focused the publics attention on the problem of child abductions and the lack of plans to address them.

After 38 years, Etan Patz's case was solved in 2012 when the brother-in-law of Pedro Hernandez called detectives to share his suspicion that he believed Hernandez to be responsible for the boy's disappearance.

Etan's remains were never found, but Hernandez gave a detailed confession that he had killed the boy. He was convicted Feb. 14, 2017, in the murder and kidnapping of Etan Patz. Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in April.

The Star-Herald has gathered photos of missing children in Nebraska and Wyoming. Information is from the National Missing & Exploited Children's website as of May 24.
The crowds who cheered the removal of Robert E. Lees statue in New Orleans last week are not fit to lick the Confederate generals boots. They may bill themselves as the conscience of the world, as fighters for social justice, an expansive term it seems that covers everything from helping the poor to looting and burning the local CVS Pharmacy. But their kind is not new.

They are Pharisees (I thank thee, that I am not as these white males are, racists, sexists, homophobes, or even as this Republican) whose only accomplishment in life amounts to easy and endless moral posturing. They are of the same line as Jacobins who defaced Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and installed a prostitute on the high altar as the Goddess of Reason. They are akin to any number of Islamists who bulldoze, bomb, and burn the glories of the ancient past and churches of the present.

Soldiers such as General Lee may have been warriors, expounded New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, but in this cause they were not patriots.

The cause of which the opportunistic mayor speaks is the War Between the States. I would say Landrieu wants to re-fight the Civil War, but that would give him credit for any thought beyond grandstanding. Intentional or not, he is shredding what remains of the national consensus that allowed the land to heal in the years after the war. Namely, the North should have won, as it did, but the South is to be accorded respect as brothers in arms. Civil wars typically do not end so well, nor does peace hold. Syria, anyone?

If it were not for General Lee, the subject of the current Two Minutes Hate, there might be no United in Untied States. Before Lee surrendered his forces at Appomattox Court House, he said in response to those under him  those who wanted to fight on and head for the hills and swamps and mountains  that there was no future for the country in guerrilla warfare.

Confederate soldiers would become mere bands of marauders, and the enemys cavalry would pursue them and overrun many wide sections they may have never occasion to visit, said Lee, who had accepted a generalship with the Confederacy not out of abiding love for it or its principles, but rather out of devotion to his home state of Virginia. We would bring on a state of affairs it would take the country years to recover from.

If for no other reason than knowing when to surrender, and surrender honorably, General Lee deserves recognition as a patriot.

History is messy. It is neither a melodrama of kind-hearted progressives against sneering reactionaries, nor a march to this supposed apex of progress (insert the current year here). Slavery was not born on these shores; nor is it gone from the world; and racial disharmony is not uniquely American. What I do know is that nations who hate themselves  especially when hating themselves and their past is treated as signals of virtue  will not be long for this world when the going, as it always does, gets tough.

We cannot revive old factions, T.S. Eliot wrote in lines relating to the English Civil War. We cannot restore old policies / Or follow an antique drum. / These men, and those who opposed them / And those whom they opposed / Accept the constitution of silence / And are folded in a single party.

Grey and Blue have long made peace. They no longer need us. We need them, the memory of them. If we cannot even honor the men and leaders of both sides of the Civil War, I fear for the nations future. Today it is Robert E. Lee. Tomorrow it will be George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and the Stars and Stripes.

But I have a feeling that Presidents Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln  not to mention the flag that fluttered over that courthouse on an April day in 1865  will not go gently into the night at the hands of those who build themselves up by pulling down their betters. If these were to fall, one thing will be certain: What remains of America will no longer be worthy of them.
SCOTTSBLUFF  When the Civil War ended on May 9, 1865, many slaves stayed in the south, but others began looking for family members theyd been separated from.

Two former slaves eventually made it to Scottsbluff where they enjoyed a relatively peaceful life. In the Sunday, Dec. 5, 1937, edition of the Star-Herald, two former slaves, Aunt Lucy Young and Mrs. Lucinda Woods recalled their times in bondage.

Young remembered, a kind mistress who loved her slaves and wept when they left her after the close of the Civil War.

Woods saw slavery in a much different light. She witnessed slaves being beaten and she toiled for years before she was freed.

Reporter Robert McCaffree wrote about the bitter memories Woods had about her time as a slave. Woods was taken from her mother when she was about 5 years old. She was given as a wedding gift to Old Master Jesse Matlocks daughter.

Woods life was filled with terrible images.

I can remember seeing men chained to trees and beaten with whips, Woods told McCaffree. Ive seen their shirts cut to ribbons.

She worked in the house and the field for so long, her hands were permanently scarred.

I remember going into the woods with a team of oxen or horses, whichever was handy, cutting down trees, hauling them to the house and chopping them into kindling, Woods said. And I can remember hours and hours in the cornfields.

Woods was born on a plantation near Louden, Tennessee. Having been born on Matlocks plantation, she was his property. Slaves on the Matlock plantation were not allowed to read. Woods mother once got a book for her children to try to learn to spell words.

When Old Mistress came, wed throw the book way back under a bed where she couldnt find it, Woods said.

Woods was first sold as a gift to Matlocks son when he married. She was to move to Pennsylvania with him, but that didnt happen.

I cried and carried on like my mother told me to, Woods said. So Old Master bought me back for $1,000.

Later, she was given to Matlocks daughter, who moved to Maysille, Missouri. Woods never saw her parents or siblings again. She learned about her parents deaths 35 years after they had passed away in a letter from her brother.

After slavery was abolished, she worked for white families who she said were good to her. After marrying Thomas Woods, they moved around, seeking work before finally moving to Scottsbluff in 1918.

When Thomas died, she remained happy and active. Woods complained she wanted to work, but her daughter-in-law wouldnt let her. Still, at the time the article ran, she was attempting to finish a quilt 32 years in the making and declared the Lords really good to me.

By 1937, Young was physically disabled, but enjoyed spending her days smoking her pipe and just sitting. She recalled a happier time as a slave. She was not old enough to start working as a slave and was only required to look after her brother and sisters.

Slave times were bad for some folks, but not for us, Young said. Our mistress loved my mother and they were so glad when my papa came back from the war that they didnt know what to do.

Her father was forced into the Army, but Young didnt know which branch or where.

Young lived on the Fox farm and remembers soldiers and bushwhackers ransacking the farm looking for valuables.

But old Mistress had hidden all the goods under the rug so they didnt get much, Woods said.

Foxs sons were also forced to go to war. When one refused, he was shot.

Young didnt know who her father was when he returned from the war.

I wondered why that man wanted to hold me in his arms, Young said.

That same night, her mother stayed up all night cooking. In the morning, they left in a covered wagon for Kansas City. Young lived there most of her life. After her husband died in 1903, she did some washing, then I got some of this government aid.

The article does not explain what type of aid this was, but may have been enough for her to move. Youngs brother, Bishop Arthur, lived in Scottsbluff and she moved to be closer to him.

At the time of the interview in 1937, Young was alone. Her husband, brothers and sisters and her only child had all died.

Im ripe for the grave, Young said.

Young pdied at age 82. Her obituary ran in the Feb. 6, 1944 edition of the Star-Herald.

Young had indeed spent the remainder of days sitting contently, puffing on her pipe.
A white University of Kentucky student accused of physically assaulting a Black student worker while repeatedly using racial slurs says she will withdraw from the school. The decision announced Tuesday by a lawyer for 22-year-old Sophia Rosing came after hundreds of students rallied on campus the night before. News outlets report the students called for unity and for the university to quickly address the situation. Officials say Rosing has been charged with assault, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. She pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday afternoon. The altercation at Boyd Hall was captured on video and posted to multiple social media platforms.
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[This is part of the series: A List of Things I Remember About Living In Saudi Arabia.]

I remember the first night we arrived in Saudi Arabia.

My dad picked my mom and I up from the airport in Jeddah.

It felt like a different world. A blur of sights and sounds.

We drove the three hours back to the Al-Gaim compound in Taif in an old dusty brown Suburban, and arrived sometime in the early morning hours.

It was still dark.

I tried to walk the twenty steps from the car to the door of our new home barefoot, but my dad stopped me with a stern warning about scorpions.

The warning seemed ridiculous. It was ridiculous.

But now that I have kids, I know I would have done the same.

I lay in my new bed with butterflies in my stomach about the possibilities ahead of me.
When it rains, it pours, and no group of companies understands that better than Detroit automakers right now. We're only a few days removed from Ford Motor Company's (NYSE: F) abrupt removal of former CEO Mark Fields in favor of Jim Hackett, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' (NYSE: FCAU) stumble into the crosshairs of the U.S. Justice Department -- and at the time, one could have thought General Motors (NYSE: GM) was looking pretty good right now.

GM was looking good until Thursday, when Detroit's largest automaker was accused in a lawsuit of using emissions devices, similar to Volkswagen's, in more than 705,000 Duramax diesel trucks. Let's take a look at the scenario, how it's different from FCA's situation, and what GM had to say about the allegations.

What's going on?

This seemed to come out of nowhere on Thursday, and it makes General Motors the sixth automaker linked to diesel cheating scandals since Volkswagen was discovered to have installed cheating software to dupe emissions testing. It was a scandal that caused upheaval in Volkswagen's management, massive recalls and fixes, and forced the German automaker to set aside roughly $18 billion to cover the cost of fines, legal claims, and other related issues -- a massive amount. To emphasize how costly VW's diesel scandal was, it was more than four times the $4.1 billion that General Motors' recent ignition switch debacle cost.

Simply put, this could cost GM big if there's any merit to the lawsuit, especially considering that these are some of GM's most profitable and popular products. The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of people who own or lease more than 705,000 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size trucks produced with Duramax engines between the model years 2011 and 2016. Here's one of the more incriminating lines of the filing, via Automotive News:

The defeat devices allowed GM to have its cake and [eat it] too. It could gain the advantage of hot exhaust going into the SCR system needed to pass cold-start tests, while avoiding the fuel- and power-robbing Active Regeneration procedure that the DPF filter requires when the SCR treatment comes first. GM turned a blind eye to the twofold to fivefold increase in deadly NOx emissions its scheme caused...

What's next?

GM's stock initially traded 2% lower on the news Thursday. On the bright side, at least initially, the company vehemently denies the allegations. According to GM's statement:

These claims are baseless and we will vigorously defend ourselves. The Duramax Diesel Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra comply with all U.S. EPA and CARB emissions regulations.

There is a difference investors should note between FCA's recent legal issues and GM's developing lawsuit. The U.S. Justice Department filed the lawsuit against the FCA, which will force the automaker to defend itself and could cost the automaker anywhere from $460 million to over $1 billion, according to multiple estimates, including from Barclays and Evercore ISI. General Motors, at the time of this writing, is only dealing with a class action lawsuit and not the U.S. Justice Department, and it is much better equipped, with a cash hoard and less automotive debt, to handle this potential financial torpedo.

But at a time when U.S. auto sales appear to be peaking and with GM's stock price having remained in neutral recently, this is just about the last development investors wanted to see thrown into the mix.

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President Klaus Iohannis stated on Thursday that Romania has achieved its goals at the summit of NATO Heads of State and Government in Brussels.

"I am convinced that this meeting helped to ensure Romania's durable defence and its visible role in ensuring the security of our region and of the Euro-Atlantic area. From our point of view, it was a successful meeting," the Head of the State said after the meeting.

He stressed that NATO remains the same relevant, powerful and united organisation.

The Head of the state specified he hailed at the meeting "President Trump's firm reiteration of the U.S. commitment to the Alliance for Joint Defense and the Strengthening of the Eastern Flank," including through the very recent proposal of increasing the European Reinsurance Initiative funding in 2018 from 3.4 billion dollars, at present, to 4.8 billion.

"We highlighted the importance of a strong transatlantic relation. To its support, an important decision of the Member States looked at a more judicious division of responsibilities, by stimulating the increase in the defence budget of each ally," showed Iohannis.

He pointed out that the Allies appreciate that Romania has already allocated 2 percent of GDP for defence, but emphasised that it is essential to spend these amounts according to their purpose, which depends on the Government.

"We have firmly supported the growth of NATO's role in combating terrorism," Iohannis said.

President Iohannis welcomed the completion of Montenegro's accession to NATO.

"We have underscored Romania's status as a major and responsible contributor to NATO, fulfilling all its commitments. Hence, I referred to the progress of the Multinational Brigade and the Combined Joint Enhanced Training Initiative, to the exercises we are hosting, and to the intensified naval presence at the Black Sea," he added.

He welcomed the American participation on the Romanian territory, but also within the anti-missile system hosted by our country.

"We stressed at the meeting that NATO's adjustment to the developments in the Black Sea and Eastern Alliance should continue, and it is essential to establish priority lines of action along three directions. Firstly, we need to continue strengthening the collective defence, which entails consolidating the progress already achieved regarding the deterrence and defence posture on the Eastern Flank. We have also reiterated the importance of coherence between the North and the South of the Eastern Flank, with a need for an enhanced, persistent allied presence in the South, in all its dimensions - terrestrial, air and, of course, at the Black Sea. Secondly, NATO's backing must be pursued to strengthen the resilience and defence capabilities of neighbouring partners in a balanced way, including the ones in the East, within the framework of the Alliance's effort to boost stability. Thirdly, a clear and consistent approach is needed in relation to Russia," Iohannis completed.

agerpres.
Approximately 4,000 Romanian and NATO-allied troops participate with 500 pieces of equipment in the "Noble Jump" 2017 (NOJP17) multinational exercise running between May 26 and June 16 on the territory of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, the Ministry of National Defence informed in a release to agerpres.

Most of the foreign forces will arrive from Albania, Germany, the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain by air, and the heavy equipment will be transported by sea and rail, followed by the land convoy on the Greece - Bulgaria - Romania route, at the "Getica" National Training Center in Cincu.

"Noble Jump is an important NATO exercise. It allows us to sustain interoperability as an alliance. We will deploy or 'jump' forces from around the theater to Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. I appreciate the support of the host nations' authorities and their close cooperation as Noble Jump ensures that our skills, knowledge and experience are kept up to date," Admiral Michelle Howard, Commander of Joint Force Command Naples, which has command of the NATO Response Force in 2017, said about the exercise.

As part of NOJP17, the Multi-National Division South East HQ will have the mission of coordinating the entire tactical deployment of troops and equipment on the territory of Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. This process will be facilitated by the NATO Force Integration Units (NFIUs) in Bulgaria and Romania, as well as by forces of the host nations.

"The high point of the operation will be the live-fire exercise that will take place at the Cincu Training Center. Besides the two NFIUs in Romania and Bulgaria, the Romanian forces that will participate in the integrated training at Cincu belong to the Craiova-based Multinational Brigade," Commander of the Multinational Division South East HQ, Brigadier General Ovidiu Uifaleanu, said about the Noble Jump 2017 exercise.

NOJP17 is a short-notice exercise, planned and led by the Joint Force Command Naples. The exercise will test the operational capabilities of the elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) and the level of implementation in Bulgaria and Romania of the Readiness Action Plan to increase the Alliance's response capability.
One of the most contentious healthcare-reform issues centers around pre-existing conditions. Obamacare guaranteed coverage for people with a pre-existing condition, and critics of Trumpcare suggest that plans to repeal and replace Obamacare would eliminate those guarantees.

To understand how this could affect health insurance, it's important to understand what a pre-existing condition is, what the rules were for pre-existing conditions before Obamacare, what changes occurred with Obamacare, and what modifications Trumpcare would make.

What is a pre-existing condition?

A pre-existing condition is any health condition you have prior to the date insurance coverage takes effect. Some people are born with pre-existing conditions, while others develop health issues later in their lives.

Examples of conditions that could be considered pre-existing if diagnosed before the effective date of a health insurance policy include, but are not limited to: Alzheimer's, anemia, asthma, bipolar disorder, cancer, cerebral palsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cystic fibrosis, depression, diabetes, dialysis-dependent kidney disease, hepatitis, heart conditions of various types, menstrual irregularities, multiple sclerosis, obesity, Parkinson's disease, pregnancy, sleep apnea, and care related to transplanted organs.

There are more than 52 million Americans with declinable pre-existing conditions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which defines a "declinable" pre-existing condition as a condition that would have resulted in a denial of individual insurance coverage before the passage of Obamacare. More than a quarter of Americans under Medicare age have a condition that could make obtaining insurance coverage impossible without protections for pre-existing conditions.

How were pre-existing conditions treated before Obamacare?

Before Obamacare was signed into law, insurers that sold policies on the individual market -- as opposed to those that sold group policies to employers -- used a medical underwriting process when issuing policies. Insurers would require applicants to provide a complete medical history and would use past health status to make a determination on coverage.

Some applicants with serious and costly conditions would be denied insurance coverage entirely. Others would face very high premiums or might be offered coverage but with a rider -- a clause specifying the insurer would not pay for any care associated with a specific health issue.

For those denied policies or priced out of policies, the majority of states had high-risk pools to provide coverage for individuals whose health issues precluded the purchase of individual insurance. However, these pools were often costly to join, provided limited benefits, and made enrollment difficult for those who needed help.

What protections did Obamacare provide for people with pre-existing conditions?

Obamacare required insurers to provide coverage to all applicants who enrolled during the open enrollment period. Obamacare also prevented policies from being priced based on health status. Instead, insurers were mandated to use adjusted community ratings. Community ratings mean insurers must charge the same premiums for everyone within the same age group in the same community, regardless of health status.

More than 2.2 million people with pre-existing conditions now have coverage through the individual insurance market. Critics of Obamacare argue that a disproportionate number of people who are high consumers of medical services signed up to obtain this coverage, driving up premiums for younger and healthier people who were forced to buy policies on the exchange because they have no access to employer-based coverage.

How would Trumpcare change coverage for pre-existing conditions?

Trumpcare, or the American Health Care Act, has passed the House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate is revising and rewriting the healthcare reform plan; substantial changes are expected. However, Trumpcare was able to win votes from the House Freedom Caucus -- a group of more than 30 Republican representatives whose votes are necessary to pass the bill -- only because of the MacArthur-Meadows Amendment.

The Amendment allows states to request a waiver from certain Obamacare provisions, including community ratings. States requesting a waiver would remove the requirement that insurers use community ratings to price insurance policies in all circumstances. While Trumpcare mandates that insurers issue policies to individuals with pre-existing conditions, modifying the community-ratings requirements would mean insurers could charge much higher premiums for people with medical needs.

Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, one of the Amendment's namesakes, is working with the Senate as it revises Trumpcare; while he acknowledges the bill may move left, most current proposals involve some type of modification to Obamacare's pre-existing condition rules.

Lawmakers in several states -- including Wisconsin and Florida -- have expressed preliminary support for waivers, although Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin appeared to walk back his plans after public outcry and suggest that Wisconsin would keep coverage for pre-existing conditions. While it may prove politically perilous for state lawmakers to take away health benefits granted through Obamacare, Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky shuttered successful state exchanges after his election and is working toward rolling back Medicaid expansions, proving it is not impossible for governors to cut back on coverage for state residents.

What can you do to protect your coverage if you have a pre-existing condition?

If you have a pre-existing condition, one option is to find coverage through an employer, as group policies sold to employers typically do not exclude coverage based on health issues.

Trumpcare also allocates $8 billion for high-risk pools, which would provide coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions. However, the AARP warns that premiums for high-risk pools could be as much as $25,700, putting these policies out of reach financially for most families.

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China Life Insurance Group has invested in U.S. real estate before, but the insurers nearly $1 billion deal this week with Clayton-based ElmTree Funds LLC was a further sign of increasing investor appetite for properties beyond the hottest U.S. cities.

For nine months, Jim Komans ElmTree Funds, launched in 2011, worked to sell the merits of a portfolio of 48 commercial properties located in smaller markets across the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest.

ElmTree announced Tuesday a $950 million deal with Beijing-based China Life in which the state-owned insurer would take a 95 percent stake in the portfolio while ElmTree retains the remainder and continues to manage the properties.

Koman, in an interview, said it took a long time for the big institution to see the advantages of ElmTrees platform of office, medical and industrial properties leased by a single tenant and located outside of major markets such as New York and San Francisco.

The longtime St. Louis area developer and real estate investor who also founded Koman Properties (now Clayton-based KP Development), thinks investors are increasingly looking for higher yields in secondary markets such as St. Louis, where property values havent been driven as high as those in faster-growing cities.

The core markets, in their mind, perhaps, had started to become a little overheated, Koman said. They could find better returns with similar credit and expand beyond these primary markets.

Indeed, local real estate brokers in St. Louis say there has been growing demand in the last couple of years for local real estate from private equity groups and other investors, many from outside of the region.

Markets like St. Louis offer an opportunity for these out-of-town buyers where theyre not finding any opportunity in tier-one markets, or the opportunities that are out there, the yields are so low that theyre looking in markets like St. Louis, said Joseph Hill, a senior vice president at the St. Louis office of Colliers International who focuses on real estate investment.

Most of the buyers are private equity groups looking for higher returns beyond the biggest U.S. cities, Hill said. But many of the local high-quality properties with strong tenants and long-term leases have already changed hands.

Markets such as Clayton, where office vacancy is in the low single-digits, could probably even support speculative office space, Hill said. Downtown, on the other hand, has high vacancy, so theres less demand from investors for office properties there because downward pressure is expected to continue weighing on rental rates.

Demand (from tenants) is somewhat limited because St. Louis is not a major growth market, so a lot of demand for space is coming from within St. Louis, Hill said. Itd be great to see more opportunities to sell because there is ample demand (from investors) and prices are at peak.

Even big institutional investors such as real estate investment trusts (REITs) are looking at St. Louis-area properties, particularly on the industrial side, said Brian Bush, a vice president with commercial real estate firm CBREs local office.

Warehouses have gone up in Kinlochs NorthPark recently and several new ones are being built in Hazelwood. Two in Edwardsville leased by Amazon last year were recently bought by a New York REIT and a German real estate investment firm.

What youre starting to see a little more this year, because so much equity is being raised, youre seeing these institutions becoming even more aggressive, Bush said.

Now theyre willing to buy single properties instead of large portfolios, in order to push that money out the door, he said.

All that capital means theres at least one local real estate investment firm with a fresh pot of money to put into new properties in markets that had been largely overlooked by big institutions. And Komans ElmTree will be doing it from one of those so-called secondary markets.

I think were just going to continue what we do every day, Koman said. Were going to continue to manage and look for net lease opportunities around the country.
One of the first questions any beginning investor asks is how to get into stocks in the first place. The answer is a lot like learning to swim. You want to get into stocks gradually and limit your risk -- dip your toes in the water and stay in the shallow end, as it were -- before trying to execute a reverse somersault dive with two and a half twists.

Let's take this one step at a time.

Dip your toes in the water

Much like a beginning swimmer approaching the edge of a swimming pool, the stock market looks like a pretty scary place. At first. It's not a familiar environment. It's not a place you've been before, and you don't know quite what to expect once you first get into stocks. You don't know how to swim before you start paddling, and you probably don't know how to invest before you pick your first stock, either.

So don't.

Or rather, don't try to pick a winning stock on the very first day you start investing. Instead of trying to pick the best stocks, consider buying all the stocks at once. You can do this by buying an exchange-traded fund, better known as an ETF, that represents a stake in all 500 of the largest companies on the S&P 500 index of stocks. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: IVV), and SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY) are three popular ETFs that will do this for you.

It doesn't really matter which of these ETFs you buy. Each charges a very reasonable expense ratio of less than one-tenth of 1%, guaranteeing that whether you buy the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, or SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, you will enjoy gains very similar to what the 500 companies in the S&P 500 enjoy.

Stay in the shallow end

Once you've dipped your toes in the water by buying your first ETF, just sit there for a while and get used to the sensation of being "in the market." Watch how the value of your investment goes up and goes down from day to day, and get yourself comfortable with the idea that investing in the stock market can cause you to lose money as well as gain money.

Perhaps you'll decide you don't like that sensation at all and want to get back out of the pool. That's fine.

But if you stay long enough, you'll discover that over time, the stock market tends to rise in value more than it falls. Eventually, you may get the urge to find out if you can pick stocks that will rise more than the average -- but again, I'd urge you to start slow.

Pick one company you really like and that you think might do better than average, and buy that one stock. Now you have a couple of things to compare. Over time, does the stock that you picked do better than the S&P 500 ETF that you bought? Or does your stock do worse than your ETF?

Reverse somersault dive with two and a half twists

If the stock you picked does better than the ETF -- then hey, you just might have a knack for this stock-picking thing. You might be ready to move beyond just knowing how to invest, and be ready to begin picking a few more of the best stocks in the market. Your interest piqued, you might be ready to start discovering the differences between earnings and free cash flow, learn how to read a balance sheet, and decide whether you prefer dividend stocks or growth stocks.

Conversely, if the stock you picked does worse than the ETF (and it may take a few weeks, or months, for the difference to become obvious), then you might be better off sticking with owning broad-based index fund ETFs. Or, you might decide that you need to educate yourself a little bit more before buying your next stock. The important thing is that by this point, you will already know how to get into stocks and be able to make an informed choice about whether you want to stay there -- and exactly how deep you want to dive in.

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Ranken Technical College is planning a $4.6 million job training facility just east of its main campus in north St. Louis where students will work for area manufacturers that partner with the school.

The 30,000-square-foot building will provide new space for the nonprofit technical schools microenterprise programs, which Ranken President Stan Shoun described as reverse apprenticeships where area companies send work to Ranken that students perform.

Eight companies, including medical device maker bioMerieux Inc., Hunter Engineering and manufacturer Brewer Science, currently participate in the microenterprise program, Shoun said. And with the new training facility, he hopes to add six more companies to the program. Some have already expressed interest, he said.

Its come to a point where its gotten so good that we have to expand and put our own building in, Shoun said.

Ranken hopes to break ground on the facility this fall and open by next summer. It will be branded as MFG Inc.

Between 100 and 150 students could participate in the microenterprise programs, where theyre paid a part-time salary of between $8 and $12 an hour and receive college credit.

Students are already helping to design the center through apprenticeships at Fox Architects, Shoun said. And like always, students will use the construction project as an opportunity to learn the trades hands-on.

Once its built, companies that partner with Ranken send the equipment needed to make actual products or parts for their business. In exchange, students make what Shoun estimated was $4 million worth of products and services for partner companies, and that work often leads to internships or jobs for the students.

The microenterprise effort comes as some area manufacturers complain that they cant find the skilled employees needed to run modern machines and equipment. As the labor market nears full employment, some in the industry say they have to hire students in Rankens factory trade programs before theyve even finished with courses.

The new center will be one more place where businesses can begin training a future workforce. The building will have separate work cells set up for participating companies, as well as classrooms and other areas. A common work area will have shared equipment such as 3-D printers and other frequently used tools.

To build the center, Ranken will have to tear down three old industrial buildings at 4300, 4324 and 4321 Finney Street. It already owns the land as well as plenty of other real estate in the neighborhood just to the east of its campus off Page Boulevard.

The college has long-term plans there, too.

Just like Cortex is to the tech industry, Id like to be the same thing to the manufacturing industry, Shoun said, referring to the complex of labs and offices in the Central West End. Wed like to turn that whole block there into a manufacturing corridor.

He thinks Ranken can build more training and learning centers as well as attract private businesses looking to expand with a new shop or facility. Theres an available workforce ready to be taught right next door.

Im giving them 2,000 potential students that are trained and ready to work, Shoun said.

The new campus is dependent on a $2.5 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration, but Shoun said Ranken is pretty confident about it.

Ranken is seeking $200,000 in local matching funds for the grant from St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, which voted to approve using some of its funds on Thursday.

On the north side of town, this is really a great initiative there, said Otis Williams, head of the St. Louis Development Corporation, which staffs the LCRA.

Rankens construction project is a bright spot in part of St. Louis that sees precious little investment. But its not the only project proposed in that area right now.

Just to the east of where Ranken wants to build its new center, another developer is proposing to build 38 homes for $8.8 million along and near Finney Street. Finney Place Developer LLC would buy the land from the citys land bank and use low-income housing tax credits and Community Development Block Grant funds for the project, as well as private funds, according to the LCRA.

The LCRA board approved 15 years of tax abatement for the project Thursday.

Finney Place Developer lists Efficacy Consulting LLC as an owner, which is registered to Yaphett El-Amin. She is the executive director of minority contracting advocate MOKAN.

Williams noted there are three low-income housing projects in the area along the Martin Luther King Drive corridor. That, and Rankens work buying vacant lots and building new houses to give its students experience, has helped to reduce blight near the campus.

This is sort of a rebirth for this neighborhood, Williams said.
Many Muslims in America and around the world have become disillusioned in the past few years by Donald Trumps rhetoric and executive actions.

As candidate Trump, the vitriolic description of Muslims, Mexicans, the physically challenged and many more had become almost daily occurrence.

I presumed before the inauguration that as president, Trump would move on and become the leader of all the Americans. Unfortunately our country has not healed yet from the divisions during the elections. By some accounts the divide is becoming deeper.

Recently on his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump addressed many Muslim leaders and touched on collective efforts to root out extremism and reflected on the rich history of Islam and Muslim worlds. He even referred to the faith as one of the worlds great faiths.

Many other accolades about Islam and Muslims in the address have been shared by other U.S. presidents in the past. The difference: These words were in stark divergence from what Muslims all over the world have heard from Trump and his team in the last two years.

Trump correctly stated in Saudi Arabia that Our goal is a coalition of nations who share the aim of stamping out extremism and providing our children a hopeful future that does honor to God. He also acknowledged that almost 95 percent victims of the terrorism have been Muslims. Muslims have been fighting the extremism for many years.

I hope this realization for the presidents team is not a fleeting moment. Ignoring facts does not eradicate them.

Referring to war on terrorism, Trump stated, This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilizations. These words are true and believed by Muslims and non-Muslims. Hopefully this will replace the rhetoric such as, Islam hates us.

Starting a partnership with Muslim-majority countries to root out terrorist organization is an excellent idea. I hope at the same time that Trumps administration revisits the idea of banning travel to the U.S. from six Muslim-majority countries.

Trump also reflected on a well-known historical fact: For many centuries the Middle East has been home to Christians, Muslims and Jews living side by side. We must practice tolerance and respect for each other once again  and make this region a place where every man and woman, no matter their faith or ethnicity, can enjoy a life of dignity and hope.

I could not agree more. Muslims and governments in Muslim-majority countries have to step up efforts to root out hostility and intolerance toward other faiths in some segments of their societies. At the same time, it is incumbent on our government to combat increasing hate crimes against minority faiths. Alarming figures show a dramatic increase in hate crimes against Muslims and Jews since last year.

In my 37 years in the United States, I rarely came across any Muslim who wanted to move back to the country from which he or she immigrated. The exceptions were usually due to family responsibilities.

Sadly, now I have heard from many Muslims and at times from Jewish friends who talk about emigrating from the United States. I strongly believe our Constitution and values can and will withstand any attempts to break down the fabric of cultural and religious diversity.

I also believe that leaders do learn on the job. I fervently hope that the positive changes made in Trumps assessment of Islam were not only for the benefit of his audience that day.

Consistent positive messages about minority faiths and concrete efforts to combat the increasing intolerance both in and out of our country will create a long-lasting collaboration among the worlds Muslim-majority countries to fight the common enemy: terrorism.

Hayat serves as chair of the public relations committee of the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis. She is a regular Faith Perspectives contributor to STLtoday.com/religion.
Sisters Amanda Helman and Susan Logsdon have the kind of parallel lives youd expect from twins, not siblings three years apart, but their close bond destined them to go into business together. They grew up among the orange groves and not much else on Golden Gem Road in Apopka, Fla., where their parents still live on eight acres. Their collection pays homage to where they grew up, but the sisters have clearly acclimated to their new home in St. Louis. Among their best sellers are a banner that simply reads, Midwest ($30) and another that features the letters S-T-L with a fleur-de-lis ($30). In the edgy category of their offerings, theres a small pocket knife engraved with the phrase, Dont call me, baby ($30).

Mirror image  Aside from complementary tattoos too numerous to count, the sisters both graduated from Greenville College in Illinois and met two guys from small towns in Illinois. Somehow they all ended up in St. Louis.

Pop start  They officially launched Golden Gems in July 2016 after years of talking about working together. We had all kinds of ideas, said Helman. And we were like finally we just have to do it or shut up about it, they said in unison. So the first venture was a pop-up shop at Urban Outfitters that led to them opening an Etsy shop.

Meow  Helman, who has the letters M-E-O-W tattooed across her knuckles, said that shes the one who is usually trying to push the boundaries of provocative wordplay. Logsdons the one that reins me in, but Helman noted that Logsdon approved of the enamel pin pun shaped like a cat head that says, Show me your kitties. And it was in fact Logsdon who came up with, Bitch Please to Helmans delight and surprise.

Naughty by nature  If it was up to me there would be f-words on everything, Helman confides. I had drawn up an item that read, I will seduce you like F. Scott Fitzgerald and ... umm... make love to you like Hemingway, she explained. We havent tweaked it yet, but I want to. We might find another way to use it. In the meantime, they live by a mantra on another banner ($30) and key chain ($5) that reads Give Em Hell.

Nasty  Among their popular items is a biker badge of an unfurling scroll that reads, Nasty woman. They will be releasing it in a peel-and-stick version instead of just the iron-on so that it can be placed on anything they want to make cooler.

Professional tats  Considering that both sisters are decorated with more tattoos than you can readily count in a style reminiscent of vintage sailor body art, most would be surprised to learn that one works for a church and the other is a college professor. Helman teaches art at Greenville College (she earned her masters degree in fine art from Washington University in 2015). Logsdon is a graphic designer at a United Methodist church by day, and she is fond of wearing her Nasty woman patch to the office.

Tumbling  Logsdon also sings and writes songs for an indie pop band, Scarlet Tanager, that includes both of their husbands. The band has a few claims to fame, including Tumbleweed, a song from their American Songbird album about new love and growing up that has an elaborate and delightful music video with puppets, as well as some airtime on MTV and national commercials.

Golden Gems

Designers  Sisters Amanda Helman, 26, and Susan Logsdon, 29

Home  Both live in Tower Grove

Family  Amandas husband, Ben Helman, two cats, Winston and Marshall; Susan lives with Michael Logsdon and two cats, Penelope and Clementine

What they sell  Enamel pins and handmade goods and home accessories that range from minimalist to cheeky with an edge.
ST. LOUIS  Relatives of two people killed last month in a steam tank explosion at Loy-Lange Box Co. have filed three wrongful death suits against the company.

On April 3, the 1-ton tank ripped away from where it had been repaired in 2012 and launched like a rocket through the roof, crashing more than 10 seconds later through the roof of Faultless Healthcare Linen Co. 520 feet away, according to an investigative report issued on Thursday by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

Kenneth Trentham was killed at Loy-Lange; Christopher Watkins, Tonya Gonzalez-Suarez and Clifford Lee were fatally injured at Faultless Healthcare Linen.

Watkins father, Jimmie Watkins, and sister, Coneatra Watkins, filed suit April 13, alleging that the box company failed to exercise care and caution in maintaining the tank, and was responsible for their loved ones death. A jury trial is scheduled for March 12.

In a lawsuit filed on April 26, seven siblings of Lee alleged that Lange-Loy failed to properly maintain, inspect, repair or test the steam tank and other boilers and equipment, failed to employ qualified employees or train employees, or have appropriate safety procedures. They were seeking at least $25,000 plus additional damages for aggravating circumstances. A jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 10.

Lees brother James Lee filed his own lawsuit on May 5 with claims nearly identical to the other Lee siblings. A jury trial is scheduled for April 2.

Loy-Lange has not yet filed responses in any of the lawsuits. A representative from the company said no comment and hung up on a reporter on Friday.

The chemical safety board said Thursday that the explosion was caused by a failure where the tank had been patched in an emergency repair in 2012.

The report said Loy-Lange never obtained a permit for the repair nor acted on a recommendation for a more permanent solution, and the city didnt inspect the unit.

The report found that the city opts out of national standards for inspections. Although the city code requires annual inspections, the city puts that responsibility on the companies. The city requires all companies to have a stationary engineer licensed by the city on the premises when a high-pressure boiler or steam tank is in operation.
Tobacco giants Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) and Altria Group (NYSE: MO) have enjoyed huge profits from their traditional cigarette businesses for decades. But recently, both Altria and Philip Morris have seen the opportunity to diversify into reduced-risk products, and both companies have worked hard at building up a presence in the new, fast-growing industry.

One of Philip Morris' most promising products has been iQOS, its heated-tobacco system that seeks to replicate a traditional smoking experience with reduced health risks. After having applied for consideration from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a "modified risk tobacco product" (MRTP) late last year, Philip Morris got the good news this week that the FDA had decided to initiate a substantive scientific review process. Although the process could be long, the FDA decision has huge positive implications for Philip Morris and Altria.

How we got to where we are

Philip Morris has made two submissions to the FDA with respect to iQOS. In early December, the company submitted its MRTP application. Then, at the end of March, Philip Morris followed up with a premarket tobacco product application to the FDA.

This second application set the stage for Philip Morris to commercialize and market the heated-tobacco system in the U.S. That's where Altria steps in, because it has made an agreement with Philip Morris under which Altria will have exclusive rights to market iQOS domestically.

What just happened

On May 24, the FDA published an executive summary and research summaries in support of the initial Philip Morris MRTP application. The executive summary is more than 200 pages long, putting forth Philip Morris' case for its claims that switching to iQOS can reduce risks of tobacco-related disease, present a lower risk of harm compared to continuing to smoke cigarettes, and reduce exposure to harmful chemicals. Meanwhile, the research summaries are voluminous enough to take up 75 megabytes, even in a zip file, and further information is expected to get released on a regular basis.

Philip Morris responded favorably to the news. As company executive Dr. Moira Gilchrist said, "We welcome FDA and public review of the comprehensive scientific evidence package that we submitted to the agency through its MRTP application process." Philip Morris is convinced that it can develop lower-risk options that will help smokers and ultimately replace conventional cigarettes.

Altria also had positive comments to make regarding the FDA move. As company executive Sarah Knakmuhs said, "We are excited about the opportunity to add this product to our portfolio for adult tobacco consumers who are looking for an alternative to conventional cigarettes," referring to the U.S. commercialization plans that Altria is actively working on in case the FDA eventually approves iQOS.

What should investors expect?

Philip Morris noted that the FDA has established a one-year timetable for review applications under the MRTP framework. However, the company did recognize that the timing standard doesn't bind the FDA to a firm deadline. Given the size of the submission that Philip Morris provided, it's reasonable to think that the process could potentially go well beyond a single year.

Still, the move opens the door to public comment and reaction from interested parties. On one hand, seeing how the scientific community responds to Philip Morris' research will be eye-opening. At the same time, investors can expect consumer groups to lobby against iQOS, even though it could arguably reduce the risk to users compared to regular smoking.

In the meantime, Philip Morris and Altria will keep moving forward with their respective reduced-risk campaigns. Philip Morris has already seen huge success with iQOS in Japan and plans to keep rolling out the platform elsewhere across the globe. For Altria, efforts with its MarkTen line of e-cigarettes have been encouraging. Both companies are working together on technology to keep innovating in the reduced-risk arena.

The FDA's recent move is just the first step in a long process, but investors in Philip Morris and Altria are hopeful for an eventual positive outcome. If that happens, then the size of the market for iQOS could expand dramatically, and that in turn could help drive a move away from regular cigarettes toward the reduced-risk side of the spectrum.

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As she wraps up her fourth school year in Madison, Hanks spoke with the Cap Times about her commitment to public education and ensuring that Madisons youngest students have the mirrors and windows to reflect on themselves and see possibilities in the world around them.
Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is the real hero behind development projects in Pakistan.

He affirmed the existing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will eliminate the darkness of power outages. While addressing to the people in Sahiwal Coal Power Project inauguration, he criticised political rivals and accused them of delaying China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by seven months.

Shehbaz Sharif claimed Chinese President Xi Jinping could not continue with his Pakistan visit due to sit-ins by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in the capital city.

In his address, he told China doesnt want our schools and hospitals suffering from power outages. PM Nawaz took steps to resolve issues, he added.

Talking about the project, he said Chinese engineers broke their own record by completing the plant within a short duration. The project was completed in 22 months in China, he said.
Police on Friday fired water canon and resorted to baton charge to gain control over a protest of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) held at Islamabad's D-Chowk.Police also deployed tear-gas shelling to disperse the protesters who had gathered in the capital's D Chowk area demanding subsidies on fertilisers and electricity bills.

The protesters chanted slogans agaisnt Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and threatened to seal Islamabad if their demands are not met.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah arrived at the site of the protest shortly after it started.

"Today, the budget is being presented and the farmers are out on the streets protesting," Shah said.

Services of the city's metrobus were temporarily suspended as the protest continued. Offices and shops in the surrounding were closed, as well.

The police were able to push the protesters towards China Chowk and Poli Clinic.

The farmers had demanded to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to present their demands within the first hour of the protest but the demand was not met.
Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has arrested a man who mistakenly crossed the Wagah Border in Lahore during the traditional flag-lowering ceremony. 20-years old Pakistani named Abdullah arrived at Wagah to witness the traditional parade, he crossed the border at a time when people arriving to watch soldiers.

The man had come alone from Swat to attend the parade, initial reports revealed. BSF has denied returning the arrested man.

The Rangers told media that they tried to stop the boy but he suddenly jumped on the other side of the border.

The conflict between Pakistan and India are very sour, after the arrest of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav India is trying more cheap methods to get rid of its defamation around the world.

Recently, the Indian forces had opened fire on the convoy of UN members surveying the conflicted area along LOC, although no causalities have reported yet the action of military clears the aims of Indian authorities.
The Jain community is left bewildered over where to turn to free their temple from the clutches of illegal occupation by none other than the police. The Samandhi of Shri Atmaramji Maharaj, reformer of the contemporary Jain community, has been occupied by the force since 1984, or some 33 years. As the property is in police control, no members of the land mafia have been able to establish a footholdperhaps a blessing in disguise, depending on who the community deems easier to deal with.

The building had been housing the Gujranwala Sabzi Mandi Police station since its inception in 1984. As a result of correspondence between Police and Evacuee Trust Property Board, the station was shifted to a new building in 2003. However, traffic wardens and the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Squad still went about their business in the samandhi till 2015 when they shifted out. For the last two years, the building is home to the office of Gujranwala Deputy Superintendent of Police (Investigation-1).

DSP Hafiz Ataur Rehman, planted on his seat at the centre of the samandhi, is using the area as his office, while one of the entrances is his retiring room. He confirms to The Express Tribune that he has been using the structure as his work space even since taking on the role of DSP some two years ago.

He says the police do not pay any rent for the building and boasts that land grabbers dare not take a claim due to the police presence.

A staffer of the DSP, meanwhile, reveals one of the rooms at the entrance is being used by garbage collectors. He says when the police station was set up, the SHO at that time constructed a mosque and three wash rooms which are still functional.

Gujranwala Evacuee Trust Property Board Assistant Administrator Abdul Matin Bhatti, showing several letters written by his department to the police over vacating the samandhi, says the then deputy secretary shrines Azhar Nadim Sulehri intervened and freed the structure of police. However, it was no permanent solution as one after the other, police have held possession over the building.

He assures though that the authority is working on getting the Samadhi renovated and free it from illegal police possession.

The building has 25 rooms on the ground floor and four on the second floor, complete with damaged ceilings. The octagonal building of the samadhi is in the middle of these rooms. It has a big central dome and four smaller ones at the entrances.

There is a room with small arches which was once used for the worship of idols, a police official says.

Through plaques inscribed with writings, it is learnt that portions of the building were built at different times. According to one plaque, Lal Maya Das and Nanak Chan caste Bhabhra (Barar), residents of Gujranwala, constructed the building as Samadhi of Maharaj Shri Atmaramji in 1904.

Another marble plaque fixed into the floor says Lala Panju Shah and Nand Shah paid Rs 1000 on the marriage of Aziz Rajkumar and the same money was spent to make the floor. Another one in a room says the area was constructed by treasurer Lal Jaswant Raye to commemorate his mother Shrimati Saguwanti.

According to Jain history, Suri was also known as Atmaramji of Gujranwala. He was the first Jain monk in modern times to receive the title of Acharya by a congregation of Palitana. It was a notable event because not a single an ascetic has been conferred with the title of Acharya for four centuries. He was the first Acharya of contemporary Jain history. The man was born on April 6, 1837 and died on May 20, 1896.

In a letter written to Pakistans high commissioner in New Delhi in 2013, Jain Shakti Foundation General Secretary Mumbai Kanak Parmar requested the police station be shifted to maintain the sanctity of the samadhi.

If not, he asked that the statues etc at the Samadhi be relocated to the Lahore Museum. He also requested the place be developed as such that Jains may visit it periodically and pay their respect to a respected soul. He also requested a ban/restrain on the consumption of meat on the premises to maintain its sanctity.
Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
State Debate: Wisconsin can show the way on health care, Mike McCabe insists on Blue Jean Nation
Brian Rogers

Rogers Rabbits

www.sunlive.co.nz

Keep your Nerf gun handy, just in case



Two very disturbing stories emerged from the world of science this week. Firstly, the possible existence of an alien megastructure orbiting a mysterious star in the Milky Way.



Known as Tabbys Star, or KIC 8462852, the odd pattern of light emitted from the star located about 1500 light years away continues to leave scientists puzzled, noting strange luminosity in recent years.



The stars observed brightness dips by about 20 per cent, an unexplained phenomena that has led to a number of theories, some more sensational than others.



Our alien theory is the most exciting.



Last year the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life Institute announced it was going to focus on the star to get to the bottom of the mystery.



Dan Werthimer, a chief scientist at Berkeley SETI, was quick to dismiss the wild theories of an alien megastructure. Hes quoted in the news this week saying: "I dont think its very likely  a one in a billion chance or something like that  but nevertheless, were going to check it out." Here at Earth, were pretty sure it doesnt have resource consent.



WiFi spy



The second shocking discovery: scientists have found a way to photograph people inside walls using WiFi. Apparently not all of that microwave radiation makes it to or from our phones, tablets, and laptops. What isnt frying our minds (and making us think there are aliens in space) makes its way to bounce their signal off objects, illuminating our homes and offices like invisible light bulbs. German scientists have found a way to exploit this property to take holograms, or 3D photographs of objects inside of a room  from outside of the room.



It can basically scan a room with someones WiFi transmission, Philipp Holl, undergraduate physics student at the Technical University of Munich, told Business Insider.



Nothing to hide



Here at RR headquarters, we are taking all this news very seriously. The fact that some science boofheads can see inside the walls of rooms, using your WiFi, is quite disturbing.



Especially if you are the sort of person who keeps things inside of walls that you dont want anyone to see.



Personally, I dont keep anything sensitive or personal inside the walls of the house, apart from a middle-aged podgy waistline. If anyone wants to see that, well, go for it.

Knock yourselves out. No special secrets here except probably a few too many deep-fried rums and the odd chocolate burger.



But I can imagine there are people with stuff inside the walls of their houses, who dont want you to see any of it.



This would include:



People who have stolen supermarket trollies.

Exuberant Hide and Seek exponents.

Habitual library book stealers.

People who dance like no-one is watching.

Closet air guitarists.

Meth laboratory specialists.

Clandestine Abba fans.

New Zealand First.



Colonel Sanders (in case the recipe of 11 secret herbs and spices is written on the wall)



Anyone harbouring Myrtle Rust or any of the Rust family of fugitives.



Which is why the people on the mysterious alien megastructure orbiting the mysterious Milky Way star should also be very concerned, because the scientists here may be thinking of using their wifi-spy connections to see whats going on in the aliens place.



Poor old ET is minding his own business, singing in the shower and putting the hair straighteners on his antennae  or whatever aliens do in the bathroom when some nosey nerd from Planet Earth taps in from the far side of the cosmos to perve on him. No wonder the aliens are nearly always angry and aggressive whenever they arrive here in a science fiction movie. Theyve been stalked in their own galaxy and made to feel completely alienated.



That is why we recommend you all arm yourselves with a Nerf gun. We are not entirely sure what a Nerf gun does, but they come highly recommended by a six-year-old I know, who is going on a mission shortly to his friends house to check out a new fort.



A Nerf gun must surely be the best all round option to dissuade invaders.



Our young man is going prepared and heres the list of equipment a six-year-old needs while holed up in a fort: 2 shields, 1 black gun, 1 nerf gun, 6 bullets, and 1 black cape.

Sounds to be like excellent defence against weirdo aliens, and weirdo scientists who want to WiFi-spy inside our forts. And I reckon a Nerf gun might just be the thing to take down Myrtle Rust and her gang.



Harvey Wilson



Winners of the Heres Harvey game last week, drawn from hundreds of correct entries: Brent Souter, Barry Shaw, Ross Phipps, John Mutlow, Phil Potts, Vivienne Wilton, Stuart Box, Andree Withington, Val Butler, Janice Craig. The Weekend Sun beanies are on the way to you, as Stuart says, that will help ward off the man flu.



Thanks to the many who entered and for the many great comments about our paper.



Your challenge this week: Find the six mysterious nerfy aliens lurking on the pages (not including the one on this page), dob them into brian@thesun.co.nz so we can send Ben on a search and nerf mission. (There would be nothing more welcoming, after youve travelled 1500 light years to visit another galaxy, than to be ambushed by a six-year-old Earthling in a black cape firing rubber bullets from a six-barrelled gatling gun.) Email with nerf in the subject line and list the pages containing extra-terrestrial life. Remember to include your name and address so we can send alien-deflecting beanies to the winners.



brian@thesun.co.nz
Weather Eye

with John Maunder

What causes the climate to change as well as understanding the methods for detecting changes in the climate are on-going research activities.

The following is a brief summary of the methods scientists and others, such as historians, employ in inferring and detecting changes in climate during a variety of time scales. I am indebted to a NIWA web site for much of this summary.

Instrumental measurements

Data from instruments and written or oral records provide quantitative records of temperature and other meteorological records for the last 150 years in New Zealand  and up to 350 years in a few other countries, such as summer, winter, and annual temperature charts for central England from 1659-2015 shown in the graph.

Such records must be analysed carefully, to identify the influence of any non-climate factors, such as changes in observing site or method, or encroaching urban development. Records of sea level and land movements are also important for assessing sea level change.

Proxy data

Beyond the scope of instrumental measurements, information about past climate can be obtained from natural proxy archives, as well as historical records of events, such as harvests etc.

Changes observed in these archives often identify so closely to climate variations they can be used as a substitute for climate records prior to the instrumental record after a careful calibration process has been undertaken.

Piecing evidence together from various natural proxy data sources includes:

Ice cores

Ice cores drilled in Greenland, the Antarctic ice sheets, the Himalayas, and in other alpine regions of the world comprise very important archives because they provide extensive detailed information about past climate variability and atmospheric composition

The ratio of oxygen isotopes in ice can indicate the temperature at the time ice was deposited as snow. Air bubbles can be analysed to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations at the time the bubbles were trapped in the ice.

Dust trapped in the ice may indicate windy, arid conditions. Geochemistry, including trace elements and salts, can tell a story about regional atmospheric circulation. The core from the Russian Rostock station in Antarctica provides information back to at least 160,000 years ago, and when drilling is completed a climate record of the last 500,000 years is probable.

Fossil pollen and phytoliths

Different classes of plants produce pollen grains and phytoliths (siliceous formations precipitated by plants) that have distinctive shapes. Pollen grains and phytoliths are often found preserved in sediment cores from ponds, lakes and marine environments.

Lake sediments

Composition and sedimentation rates in lakes change in response to variations in environmental conditions during periods of wet and dry climate. Pollen in the sediments can indicate the type of vegetation present, and plankton biota indicates physical and chemical conditions in the lake water. In some cases, stark seasonal changes in lake inflows and sedimentation can cause annual layers to form in lake sediments.

Annual layers, or varves, commonly form in lakes fed by glacial meltwater, and can be used to infer the amount of melted ice and what past warm season temperatures were like. Within the sediment layers, microfossils like diatoms, bugs, and plant material are preserved. These fossils can also reveal information about what past environmental conditions were like, sometimes with incredible precision.

Ocean sediment cores

These cores contain primitive shelled animals (foraminifera) whose abundance in the surface layers of the ocean depends on surface water temperature and other conditions. Off New Zealand the rate and type of sediment deposition depends on factors such as the amount of glacial activity and on other climate-driven erosion processes.

Pollen types and the isotopic composition of material in the sediments provide further information on past climates. Cores obtained off New Zealand from the international deep sea drilling project provide information as far back as 6.3 million years, and drilling of more cores is planned.

New Zealand is coordinating an interesting international drilling project near Cape Roberts in Antarctica, to establish more information about past Antarctic climate and ice extent.

Loess

Loess are fine-grained wind-blown dust deposits on land. They typically accumulate during periods characterised by dry and windy conditions. In New Zealand, they are associated with cool and cold intervals that coincide with glacial advances. Numerous loess sections can be found on the South Island, particularly in eastern regions.

Glaciers

Variations in the past size of glaciers can be inferred from the location of moraines (rocks and debris deposited by glaciers that mark a former ice margin position), outwash fans, buried soils, and by the presence of glacial features in the landscape. In New Zealand, cool summer temperatures are only one factor in promoting ice accumulation on glaciers, and snow accumulation rates also respond to changes in the strength and direction of the westerly wind flow and sea level pressure in summer.

Speleothems

Speleothems are used to describe a stalactite, stalagmite or flowstone cave deposit of crystalline nature. These deposits occur within karst terranes in subterranean caverns mainly as calcite precipitated from groundwater that percolated through overlying limestone or marble rock.

Tree rings

Tree rings are some of the best resolved records of past climate in the world. This is because, in many cases, one tree ring is grown each year, allowing tree rings to be dated with great precision and with annual resolution.

Tree growth is dependent on many factors. However, common growth patterns often emerge at the regional scale between trees, suggesting there is a common growth response to climate changes. Correlations of tree ring data with soil moisture, temperature, and precipitation often enable tree ring records to be substituted for instrumental climate data into the distant past.

In the case of NZ, which has many long lived tree species suitable for dendrochronology, long climate reconstructions of droughts, storms, and even El Nino events are possible.

Boreholes

It is sometimes possible to deduce past surface temperatures going back several hundred years by measuring the way temperature varies with depth in a borehole several hundred metres deep (at a suitable site not disturbed by groundwater flow). This is because fluctuations in ground surface temperatures propagate slowly downwards into the earth as a temperature wave.

For further information see: https://sites.google.com/site/theweatherclimateeye/
Clayton Mitchell

New Zealand First MP

Police are crucial to ensure a safe, functioning New Zealand. We hope well never need them, but we need to know theyre there, and ready to go, if we ever do.

The Bay of Plenty is  like the rest of New Zealand  haemorrhaging police officers. We have had 24 officers resign in the past 15 months, for reasons including stress and the unbearably high workload.

We know were getting amazing value from our local cops, who do an amazing job in spite of being completely under-resourced. The problem is, instead of getting closer to Australias one officer to every 432 people, in our region weve currently got one to every 936 people.

Youth crime is on the rise with this blue governments molly-coddling tag-and-release programme failing young people and society at large. Young offenders aged 15-19 make up six per cent of the population, yet account for 42 per cent of violent robberies. New Zealand First will hold them to account.

In the 12 months to June 30, 2016 serious assaults resulting in injury were up 7.3 per cent, with public place assaults up 13.1 per cent.

Police morale is at an all-time low and you dont have to be Nostradamus to see it isnt going to get better without serious and sustainable change. New Zealand First has been calling for this ever since this blue government froze funding in 2008.

Our population is booming. Unfortunately, so is our crime rate. Tauranga is now the fifth-largest city in New Zealand, and according to local law enforcement officers, in the last month we have had nine aggravated burglaries, when in the past we would have expected only one.

But help is on its way. Just like we promised and delivered 1000 more frontline police from 2005-2008, New Zealand First will get another 1800 quickly, not this blue governments trickle of 880 new officers over three years (313 of whom will not actually be chasing or deterring criminals). We have proved that we keep our promises.
More than 200 Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi graduands will receive their degrees and certificates during a formal graduation ceremony in Whakatane this Friday.

The graduands are from the more than 1300 students from throughout Aotearoa who will graduate from Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi this year.

Chief executive Wiremu Doherty says the ceremony is a major highlight for Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, the community and especially for the whanau and friends who will attend in support of their loved ones and their achievement.

The ceremony marks the culmination of much hard work and sacrifice by each graduand. It is an absolute pleasure and honour to be able to share in their celebrations and success at the ceremony.

More than 600 iwi representatives, staff, students and their whanau and supporters, academics and national and regional government officials will attend the day-long celebrations at Te Manuka Tutahi Marae in Whakatane.

A number of special awards will be made during the formal ceremony, including the presentation of an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) in Maori Development to master navigator and waka builder Hekenukumai Puhipi (Hector Busby) of Te Rarawa, Ngati Kuri and Ngati Kahu.

The honorary doctorate acknowledges outstanding academic achievement and endeavour over a lifetime.

Hekenukumai Busby is recognised internationally as a leading figure in the revival of ancient Polynesian navigation and ocean voyaging techniques, using the movement of the elements, stars, moon and birds as navigational tools.

He has built more than 30 vessels and continues to make a significant contribution to waka construction, voyaging, and navigation throughout the Pacific.

Graduation 2017 will begin at 8am with a powhiri at Te Manuka Tutahi Marae, followed at 10am by the annual Gown and Town Hikoi from Mitchell Park Reserve through the centre of Whakatane to Te Manuka Tutahi. The formal capping ceremony begins at 11am.

The procession along The Strand has become a highlight of the days events, with hundreds of well-wishers lining the street to perform haka and cheer on the formal parade of students, academic staff and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi Council members in academic regalia.
The Neapolitan based Arcadia Yachts, a yacht builder with a strong personality, now looks to the future with an evolution in styling that nods to the yards principles whilst also creating a new vision to renew and revamp their current yacht range. We take a closer look at what's on the horizon for the Italian shipyard.

In Collaboration with Hot Lab

When teaming up with the best of the best, Arcadia Yachts new styling race has entrusted interior and exterior design to the Milan based Hot Lab studio, famous for their youthful, innovative and refined approach that reconciles elegance and contemporary styling, exalting in all their yachts a timeless beauty that sets the studio apart as truly world-class.

Here the role of the design studio in the early phase of design plays a fundamental role in creating a solid and trustworthy relationship between the yard and the owner. We therefore went to the best professionals in yacht design who not only are technically prepared, but also have an extraordinary ability to listen and to emphasize." comments Sole Administrator of Arcadia Yachts, Ugo Pellegrino.

The A100+ and Beyond

The first project by Hot Lab will be the A100+. Just as the name suggests, will be an evolution of the 30 meter yacht presented at last years Cannes Yachting Festival. Its features are truly unrivalled, full-height windows  providing natural illumination even from above  spacious external areas, the latest generation of solar panels and a generalized eco-green approach.

With leisure being a high priority- the aft deck can comfortably seat up to ten guests for formal dining, with space for a further twelve guests in the lounge area, transformable into an ulterior dining area, making an escape on the water with guests, truly spectacular.

Personalisation and Innovation

Hot Lab has proposed five different interior layout options to satisfy any owners need, which also simplify design choices, as well as reducing development times. Reflected in a contemporary minimalist decor that perfectly matches exterior styling, as well as the continuous play of inside-outside exchange, its ability to accomodate to the tastes and preferences of individual client needs with a personal touch throughout.

Interior design is simple and linear, yet rich in detailing and finishings. It attracts attention, letting new visitors discover new aspects with every glance. A perfect mix of contemporary design and neo-ornamentalism that unifies typical products of high Italian design with exotic rarely used materials for a unique update.

Statements of Style

The yards semidisplacement and semi-custom yachts differ in length (from 58 to 115), in layout and decor, all reflect the aim of merging form and function by use of a design envelope that not only hosts the top design brands in the world. Yet, it's the shipyards ability to immerse its owners into the experience of their surroundings that set them apart. Playing with transparencies, shafts of light create a continual exchange between the internal and the external thanks to innovative windows that open and close like those of an automobile. It all feeds into their new marked era of innovation, one to follow as their projects unfold.
Donald Trump, the so-called leader of the free world, made his first foreign visit as president to an absolute monarchy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a petrostate legendary for its complete absence of democratic institutions and rampant violations of human rights. The signature foreign policy development that Trump announced in Riyadh over the weekend was a massive, $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Many people are going to be killed by this flood of weaponry. But this is not a done deal; Trump's affinity for autocrats, strongmen and bullies is facing resistance. As the world processes the horror of the suicide bombing in Manchester, England, where most of the victims were young girls out for a concert, we should brace ourselves for another wave of similar, innocent casualties, this time in Yemen, the target of relentless, U.S.-supported Saudi Arabian bombardment.

Start with the premise that killing children is wrong, period. It is as wrong in Manchester as it is in Sanaa, Yemen. It is wrong to kill a child as an act of war, whether the killing is done by a U.S. soldier, a remote pilot of a U.S. Predator drone, a Saudi Arabian pilot of a U.S. provided F-35 or, to use the current term, a terrorist.

When a suicide bomber exploded a bomb at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester this week, those killed were almost entirely from among her immense fan base: young girls  tweens  and their parents. The newscasts appropriately labeled the attack "barbaric."

Jump to the first week of the Trump administration, for example. Then, with expected hubris, Trump and his surrogates touted a "successful" raid in Yemen, despite the death of a Navy SEAL and loss of a helicopter. What went largely unreported, at first, were the 30 civilian casualties of that attack, many of them women and children, including an 8-year-old girl, Nawar Anwar al-Awlaki. Her name is known because she was the daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the Islamic cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Her older brother, 16-year-old Denver-born Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed in a separate drone strike two weeks after their father was killed. Abdulrahman didn't know his father had been assassinated, and was trying to locate his father when the U.S. military killed him.

The botched January raid came in the wake of the disastrous Saudi Arabian attack on a funeral in Sanaa on Oct. 8, 2016, where over 140 people, almost all civilians, were killed. After this attack, President Barack Obama, who had authorized a $115 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, withdrew precision-guided munitions from the sale, since their most likely use would be to target civilians. Donald Trump has removed the restriction on those weapons; the Saudi king, a dictator, now has state-of-the-art weaponry to unleash on the people of Yemen.

"These terrorist attacks are not confined to Europe. They take place every single day in Iraq, in Syria, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan and Yemen, Bahrain," Tariq Ali said on the "Democracy Now!" news hour, reacting to the Manchester bombing. He is a British political commentator, writer, editor of the New Left Review and longtime peace activist. "We all deplore the loss of lives of innocent people. We do. Everyone does. But we can't have double standards, in which we say that someone killed in Europe, their lives are more valuable than the lives being taken in large parts of the Muslim world. And unless the West understands that these double standards provoke and anger more people, it will carry on." The media should use their coverage of the victims of the Manchester bombing, with its poignant biographies and life stories of each of the young lives lost, for the coverage of the deaths in Yemen, in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. We need to know the names, we need to hear the stories, of those lost lives as well.

Trump's arms deal with Saudi Arabia is wrong. It will inflame an already war-ravaged region, hitting Yemen especially hard. Because of the utter destruction of the country, Yemen is suffering a cholera epidemic, famine and an almost complete breakdown of the sanitation, water, and health and hospital infrastructure in the country. This is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions.

After he sold this new arsenal to the king of Saudi Arabia, Trump swung through Israel, then had an audience with the pope. After that meeting, Trump tweeted, "I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world." Some might maintain hope that Trump means what he tweets. In the meantime, millions around the world are organizing to end war, and to stop the arms sales that promote it.

Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,400 stations, including WORT here. She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, of the newly published New York Times best-seller "Democracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America."
Ten years of economic crisis have left their mark on peoples spending power in Spain, and a lack of money has also had an effect on their dental health. Many of those who used to visit the dentist regularly, aiming for perfect, blindingly white teeth, have found themselves with no choice but to restrict their visits and only go when absolutely necessary.

Spanish people have never looked after their mouths very well, but things nowadays are the same as they were 20 years ago: people have to worry more about what they can afford to eat, rather than what they are going to eat with, says Oscar Castro, the president of the General Council of Dentists of Spain.

In the early years of the economic recession, research was carried out by Granada University, using a Survey into Living Conditions which had been drawn up by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). It showed that people were not visiting the dentist as often as they used to, especially the more vulnerable groups (the unemployed and those with little money).

Genetic code determines some dental illnesses, but so does peoples postcode

Experts say neglecting dental health can lead to more serious problems in the future

Now, Jose Maria Suarez, president of the College of Odontologists of La Coruna, says the situation has not improved: four out of every ten patients no longer go for regular checkups. By 2007 and 2008 we had reached acceptable levels of dental health, but from then onwards things changed. We are seeing more dental problems which are exclusively related to the crisis. It has been like a kick in the teeth for Spanish people, he says.

The patients themselves, according to the latest White Book of Dental Health, which was published by the Spanish Dental Association (Consejo General de Dentistas) in 2015, corroborate this: the first reason why people dont visit the dentist is because they dont have any dental problems; the second is because they cant afford it.

Consequences

The result? There has been a three per cent increase in dental caries in adults aged 35 to 44, and it has become a problem which currently affects 95 per cent of the population in this age group; a sharp rise in bruxism, a condition associated with stress - because people who are tense and worried tend to clamp their teeth, wearing them down and causing dental fractures; an increase in extractions that could have been avoided if the problem had been caught in time; and more periodontal illness, an infection which affects the gums and destroys the bone which supports the teeth. About 73 per cent of the population in Spain are affected by this.

Experts say that stress and smoking are two factors which have contributed to the problem.

Periodontal illness needs constant treatment; if people stop going for checkups, those who suffered from it previously will get it again. In the end, they may have saved a bit of money by not going for regular checkups, but the problem gets worse and they then have to spend far more on long and costly treatments, says Antonio Bujaldon, vice-president of the Spanish Periodontics Society.

All the specialists we consulted agreed that prevention is always the cheapest option in the long run. However, surveys show a different picture: although for 84 per cent of people in Spain it is important to visit the dentist at least once a year - according to the White Book - the reality is that only 50 per cent of them do so, placing Spain among the EU countries with fewest visits to the dentist, above only Romania, Hungary and Turkey.

The experts say that dental health has never been a priority for the Spanish, and even less so during times of crisis, partly because of a lack of education, partly because of a fear of the dentist and also because of the cost.

Dental health appears to be low down the list of priorities, not only for the people but also for the health service. Services covered by the Ministry of Health only include the treatment of acute odontological processes, such as infections, dental traumas and the removal of unhealthy teeth. Implants, the extraction of healthy teeth and orthodontics are expressly excluded, as are cosmetic dental treatments.

The Ministry of Health has no qualms in admitting on its website that childrens dental health in Spain could be improved and, especially, is not equal to that of some other countries, so this could be described as inequality.

Location is important

The president of Spanish odontologists, Oscar Castro, says that many dental illnesses are determined by the genetic code, but someones post code also has an influence: Depending on where you are born, you will have a better or worse mouth, he says. In his opinion, it is a shame that there are 17 different health systems in Spain, one in each autonomous region.

Dental health should be covered by the public health service as a priority, because it is incredible that they will not pay for a filling but they will for a heart transplant, he says. It is the great paradox of our health system and it is short-sighted, because some illnesses begin or become worse as the result of bad dental health, such as diabetes, premature births and many cardiovascular problems. They all have to be treated.

In the Basque Country and Navarra, there is a pioneering plan for childrens dental care (PADI), which has been in operation since 1991 and is a benchmark for the whole country. It is based on four factors: public financing, mixed services (public health and private dentists), specific clinical protocols to guarantee a focus on prevention, and a system of payment per treatment.

A similar scheme is also used in Andalucia, Aragon, Baleares, the Canary Islands, Extremadura and Murcia. In other regions childrens dental care is funded exclusively by the regional health system, except Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y Leon, where there is a mixed system - basic dental care under the health service and more specialised services by the private sector, with payment per treatment.

At present there are about 35,000 dentists in Spain, nearly three times the number recommended by the World Health Organisation. This, and the system, has resulted in a proliferation of clinics, some of which are criticised for charging low prices to attract clients, but providing a low standard of care in return. As Oscar Castro describes it, in some cases the clinics work on a system of low-costs and maximum profits.

IN FIGURES

Treatments. The Observatory of Oral Health in Spain shows that in 2016 more people went to the dentist for simple treatments, but more complicated procedures such as cosmetic dentistry, whitening and dentures dropped by 27 per cent.

Professionals. There are 35,000 dentists in Spain, one for every 1,167 inhabitants, three times higher than WHO recommendations (one for every 3,500).

Faculties. Spain has more Odontology faculties than any other European country, 23 in total, including private ones.

Work. Only two per cent of patients say they have had difficulty doing their job because of dental problems.

Clinics. About 80 per cent of patients go to an independent private clinic; 11 per cent to one approved by their insurance company; and eight per cent to a franchise.
There are few things that define the Costa del Sol quite like a freshly-grilled sardine espeto (skewer), accompanied by a cool glass of tinto de verano. For this reason, Diario SUR has teamed up with La Casera, the brand famous for its pre-made tinto de verano, to help residents find the best espeto in the province.

From 26 May until 11 June, almost 100 chiringuitos and restaurants along the coast will take part in the first Ruta del espeto competition.

The contest is a celebration of the typical Malaga dish that has been eaten here since the end of the 14th century, while at the same time promoting the restaurants and chiringuitos that make this dish for thousands of residents and tourists every day.

Many of the participating restaurants can be found in Fuengirola, Torrox, Marbella and Malaga city. However, for any readers interested in taking part in the search, a bilingual guide, found inside the Spanish edition of SUR today (Friday), contains the complete list of all the competing restaurants, with some information about each one.

Each chiringuito and restaurant will serve espetos, priced between four and seven euros, alongside a complimentary glass from La Casera. Diners can then rate the restaurants from one to 10 on www.rutadelespeto.es between 26 May and 11 June, which automatically enters them into raffle which offers a three-day romantic holiday as its prize.

Professional food critics will also judge the restaurants based on the quality of their barbecues and, of course, the flavour of their sardines. The winners of both the public and judges vote will also receive prizes.
Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan soldier, politician and one of the most prominent figures in the independence of many South American countries, married Maria Teresa del Toro y Aleyza in San Jose church in Madrid on 26 May 1802. Bolivar, who had come to Spain from South America to continue his studies, was just 19 when in 1800 he met his future wife, who was two years his senior.

With the permission of both families, each from the Spanish aristocracy and political classes, the two were married.

Bolivar described his bride as A perfect jewel, priceless.

However, the marriage was to last just eight months, as on 22 January 1803 Maria Teresa tragically died from yellow fever in Caracas where Bolivar had returned with his young bride shortly after their marriage. They had left Spain on 15 June 1802 and arrived in Caracas on 12 July.

Simon Bolivar promised that he would never marry again and despite allegedly having numerous lovers, he remained true to his word until his own death on 17 December 1830 in Santa Marta, Colombia.

The church, San Jose, on the corner of Calle Libertad and Calle de Gravina in Madrid is no longer standing and the parish of San Jose was moved to another part of the city in 1838. Yet a plaque in the new church, situated on Calle Alcala, says that it is where the couple wed, which is, according to historians, technically incorrect.

Bolivar went on to become arguably the most significant figure in the history of many South American countries and in particular Bolivia (named after him), Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and Peru, establishing them as sovereign states independent of Spanish rule.

His legacy as El Libertador (The Liberator) lives on and is still often cited by Latin American leaders, most notably the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez until his death in 2013.

The Venezuelan film Libertador (The Liberator) was released in 2013, starring Edgar Ramirez as Simon Bolivar and Spanish actress, Maria Valverde as Maria Teresa del Toro y Aleyza. The biographical film follows the life of Bolivar and includes his short-lived relationship and marriage with Maria Teresa as well as his political and military career.
Maya and Talla are twins from Palestine. They are eight years old and suffer from keratoconus, a condition which stops them seeing normally and can even lead to blindness if not treated.

The two little girls arrived at Malaga airport on a flight from Istanbul earlier this week, with their mother and Palestinian doctor Fayez Bibi, who trained in Cuba as a specialist in internal medicine. The girls will be diagnosed and treated free of charge at the Antonio Moreno eye clinic in Malaga. If necessary, they will undergo surgery for a cornea transplant.

Maya and Talla, who live with their family in the Meh-Meh Palestinian refugee camp, on the border of Israel, Syria and Lebanon, have been brought to Malaga by an association called Asociacion Palestino Andalusi para la Infancia (APAINF).

The president of the NGO, Rafael Aldehuela, and its manager, Vanessa Celestino, were at the airport to collect the girls, their mother and two Palestinian women aged 18 and 20, who will also be treated at the Antonio Moreno clinic. One of them was shot in the eye during the war in Lebanon when she was two years old. The other has keratoconus, like the twins.

Rafael Aldehuela said the association has 800 members and it organises charity markets all over Spain to raise funds to help sick and disabled Palestinian children from refugee camps.

Those who receive help and are brought to Spain are from extremely poor families or have been injured in the war in Syria.

The NGO receives assistance from Cordoba, Pontevedra and Bilbao councils, who have allocated them a site for the charity markets so they can raise funds. The association is also grateful to the ONCE Foundation, the Ronald Mcdonald Foundation and the Costa del Sol Tourist Board for their support.

Accommodation

While they are in Malaga, the sisters will be staying at the Ronald Mcdonald house. Antonio Moreno is an ophthalmologist who collaborates with us. At his clinic he will provide the treatment the girls need to overcome their sight problems, said Rafael.

APAINF covers all the costs of bringing the patients to Spain: flights, paperwork, accommodation etc.

This week another child will also be arriving in Malaga: Taher, a Palestinian boy, lost a leg in an explosion in the war in Gaza and the association has decided to help him. He will be treated by Ortopedia Poyatos, who will provide him with an artificial leg so he can walk.

We would very much like Malaga council to bear us in mind and help us with our projects as well, said Vanessa Celestino.
Spain is part of a small group of countries in southern Europe, together with Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Malta, where the system is essentially private, with hardly any government funding, and patients have to pay at least 90 per cent of the cost. The other countries have a dental health system which is either State-funded or mixed, according to the report from the Spanish Dental Association. As well as the Spanish model and the other Mediterranean countries, the study highlights five others:

The Nordic model (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) consists of a public dental service which is accessible to everyone, free for children (in some cases up to the age of 19) and with extensive facilities for adults. In the case of Sweden and Denmark, orthodontics are included for children, and in Finland free dental treatment is provided for priority groups (under-18s, people with psychological disability, those with chronic illnesses and recovering addicts).

The Eastern European model (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) involves a traditional health service system, but since the Berlin Wall came down the trend has been moving towards private treatment.

The Bismarck model (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg) is different because there is practically no free dental treatment. In this case, dental care is provided by the private sector with payment per treatment (generally official rates) and patients are reimbursed afterwards by insurance companies.

The British model is based on dental services provided by private dentists with contracts with the health authorities. Some services normally have to be paid for, but are free for under-18s, students, pregnant women and people with limited resources.

The hybrid model (Ireland and Holland) is mid-way between the Bismarck model (for the adult population) and the British model (free dental care for children).
Two police officers were assaulted by British tourists at Malaga airport last week. According to police, the visitors, of African ethnicity, were unable to find their passports on departing the airport so were asked to step aside from the queue until they found them. This resulted in them becoming aggressive, accusing the police of being racist. When one officer accidentally tripped over the four-year-old child of one of them, the two men became violent and left one officer with a black eye and the other with a deep cut to his ear. The tourists were arrested, missing their flight.
Police have made two arrests in connection with the death of a 30-year-old motorcyclist in Marbella in March this year. The victim was shot in head.

The first person to be held was a man of Arabic origin, who was released with charges after being questioned. The second person is a Danish man held last Monday and refused bail on suspicion that he is the murderer.

The attack took place at about 9.30pm on 5 March in the area of Lomas de Rio Verde, between Puerto Banus and Marbella centre. A pizza-delivery rider found the victims body next to the bike in a badly lit roadside ditch. There were no witnesses to the attack.

The victim was identified by police only as Karim, originally from Ceuta and of Moroccan origin, and the murder is believed to have been a revenge killing related to drugs.

The detained Danish citizen is suspected of having left a nearby restaurant with the victim as the passenger on the motorbike before carrying out the killing. CCTV images have been found of the pair. The detainee has admitted discussing a deal with Karim over hashish the same night but denies the killing.
In Finland, not everyone pays the same amount for a traffic fine. As an example of the progressive country it prides itself on being, Finland sets traffic fines in accordance with the offenders income, so they have the same impact on everyone. However, although the amounts may be different, those who receive a fine do have something in common: everyone has to dial the same phone number to appeal against them, or to arrange to pay by instalments, among other options.

What most of them dont know, though, is that these calls from anywhere in Finland to the countrys traffic department are actually answered in Fuengirola, home to the largest community of Finnish expats in the world.

Barona (which employs 8,000 people worldwide) runs this service through a call centre in the town, and 185 members of staff work there. The office manager is Paulina Manso, who came to Malaga 20 years ago and has been in Spain longer than any of the others.

All the staff are Finnish and most of them have come specifically to do this job, she says.

The services provided by Barona for the Finnish traffic department are very similar to those of its counterpart in Spain, but rather more modern.

We have a customer service department, and people can pay their road tax through us, report the loss of their driving licence and pay traffic fines or appeal against them, explains Paulina.

The difference with a call centre is that in Finland people can deal with things online or via social media. For example, you can pay a fine or appeal against it via our official Facebook page, she says. At present the company is training staff on how to assist customers via a chat service, which will be faster still.

Although most of the business handled by Barona in Fuengirola is traffic-related - 70 members of staff work exclusively in that department - the company also handles work for other types of Finnish business.

A Finnish person who has to ring the main electricity or telephone companies for some reason will also be speaking to someone on the Costa del Sol, says Paulina.

The reasons the company, which is currently advertising for more staff, decided to set up in Fuengirola are clear.

The salaries here are lower than in Finland, so the costs are cheaper, but despite the fact that they will be earning less, people who live in Finland find the idea of working in Malaga, at least for a couple of years, very attractive, especially because of the climate, she explains.

She also considers that there is a great potential for growth. There are 185 of us here at present; by the end of the year there will be over 200, and we have space for about 400 staff altogether, she says.

A working Erasmus

The office, which has several empty areas, is also the base for a government programme which Paulina describes as a type of working Erasmus. There is a pool of people who are offered the chance by their companies to work remotely from another country, in this case Spain. They normally stay for between six months and a year, and they are paid at the same rate as they would be in Finland.

For these people, it is important that they earn the same as they would at home, despite the climate and quality of life in Fuengirola, says Pauline. So we dont just have people answering the phone here; there are a lot of people doing very different jobs, she explains.

Fuengirola is the favourite destination for Finnish citizens on the Costa del Sol and they make up one of the largest foreign communities in the town. Official figures show that in December 2014 there were 4,500 Finns on the population register, a much higher figure than those from other Scandinavian countries: 1,750 Swedes, 1,200 Danes and 800 Norwegians.

However, the real number of Finnish people in Fuengirola is probably even higher, because many people come regularly for short periods and have not registered at the town hall.
In its latest report on the risks faced by the Donana coastal wetlands in Huelva province, UNESCO has warned that the area is close to being put on its at risk register.

The organisation is urging the national and regional governments to do more to protect the parks water supply before February next year. In addition they want dredging to stop in the nearby Guadalquivir river.
The Majestic Theatre takes the music outdoors this summer for Live on King Street. Seven nationally touring groups are featured at the free concerts appropriate for all ages. Gates open at 6 p.m. and music begins at 7 p.m. in front of the Majestic Theatre, 115 King St.

Dark Star Orchestra kicks off the Live on King Street concert series on June 23. Their shows continue the Grateful Dead experience.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band brings the sound of New Orleans to Madison on July 14. Straight from the heart of the French Quarter, the band honors traditional New Orleans jazz while creating new original music. Local bands Mama Digdowns Brass Band and The Handphibians are scheduled special guests.

Hip-hop artist Brother Ali performs July 28. Special guests for the concert are Fringe Character and Lucien Parker.

A gentleman from Texas, Shakey Graves, takes the Live on King Street stage Aug. 4. An Americana artist, his music is a cross between blues, folk and rock and roll. Joining him as special guests are David Ramirez and Seasaw.

The New Pornographers will rock King Street Aug. 18. with special guests Ought and Trophy Dad.

Majestic prolongs the joy of summer with two Live on King Street concerts after Labor Day. Strand of Oaks brings their folk rock to Madison Sept. 15.

The American punk rock band Against Me! arrives Sept. 29 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Majestics latest incarnation. Bleached and The Dirty Nil join the anniversary celebration as special guests.

Information: www. majesticmadison.com; or phone 608-255-0901.

 Robyn Norton
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The Auburn Correctional Facility, pictured in 2008 in this file photo from The Post-Standard | Syracuse.com.

(The Post-Standard | Syracuse.com archives)

AUBURN, N.Y. -- Officers were closing the Auburn prison's recreational yard for the night on Tuesday when a brawl began.

Inmates started to fight around 10 p.m. in the Auburn Correctional Facility's south yard, said James Miller, communications director for the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association. As more and more inmates joined the fray, the fight grew to include about 10 men, he said.

Correction officers rushed into the yard of the 135 State St. prison and tried to break up the brawl, he said.

"Several orders were given to the inmates to stop fighting," Miller said. "They were all ignored."

As more inmates geared up to join the melee, an officer stationed at a roof post tossed a gas canister into the yard, Miller said. Three inmates then separated from to crowd to continue their fight, he said.

An officer used pepper spray on two of the inmates, ending the fight, Miller said. No officers were injured.

After inmates returned to their cells, officers searched the yard. Two makeshift weapons composed of ceramic blades wrapped in tape were found, Miller said.

Since then, the maximum security prison has been locked down, Miller said.

The large fight came a day after officers found a drone inside the prison and broke up a fight involving a knife.

During afternoon recreation time Monday, three inmates approached a sergeant and handed over a drone they had found in the prison's yard, Miller said. The drone had a camera and a picture of a Ninja Turtle painted on its side, he said.

The drone was turned over to the New York State Police, Miller said. Investigators are working to determine when the drone was flown into the prison's yard.

On Monday night, the eventful day turned violent.

Officers rushed to intervene around 9:50 p.m. after two inmates started to fight in the prison's yard, Miller said. One man refused to stop struggling until officers forced him onto the ground, he said.

The inmate who was forced onto the ground was taken to the prison infirmary with minor injuries, Miller said. While he was being treated, the man admitted having drugs and turned over a stash of synthetic marijuana wrapped in cellophane, he said.

The second inmate involved in the two-man fight had two cuts on the left side of his face and two small cuts on his left hand, Miller said. It appears the man was slashed by a "cutting instrument" during the scuffle, he said.

The wounded man was taken to the infirmary. While he was being frisked, the inmate stuffed an object into his mouth and swallowed, Miller said. Officers believe the man swallowed drugs, he said.

Two officers suffered minor injuries while breaking up the fight, but stayed on duty, Miller said.

Officers acting on a tip later found synthetic marijuana, a drug that is also known as "spice" or "spike," in the prison chaplain's office, said Joe Miano, NYSCOPA's western region vice president.

The drugs, fights and mysterious appearance of a drone are concerning, Miano said.

"The number of fights occurring as well as drugs still making their way into Auburn Correctional Facility is alarming," he said. "As the facility remains on lockdown, these security issues simply are not being addressed by the administration and comes at the risk of the safety of our members."

When asked about the lockdown, Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said the department was looking into the string of incidents.

The lockdown will remain in place while officers conduct a "full" search of the prison, Mailey said.

"The outcome of the investigation will determine what further actions are necessary," he said. "DOCCS cannot comment while the investigation is ongoing."
A lawsuit against a UW-Madison official, brought by a student who said the official withheld key information from her while counseling her over her mothers death, has been settled for $200,000, a state Department of Justice spokesman said Friday.

UW-Madison student Megan Mengelt sued UW-Madison College of Letters and Science assistant dean Tori Richardson last year after learning that Richardson had been texting with former Lutheran bishop Bruce Burnside shortly before Burnside struck and killed Mengelts mother, Maureen Mengelt, on April 7, 2013, but never told her.

After her mothers death, Mengelt became involved in a counseling relationship with Richardson, when he reached out to her in an email message asking whether she needed any help.

According to the lawsuit, it wasnt until much later, in January 2015, that Mengelts family learned that Richardson was the person exchanging text messages with Burnside before Burnside struck and killed Maureen Mengelt in Sun Prairie, while she was taking a training run.

At the time, Burnside was headed to an event at a church in Sun Prairie. His blood alcohol concentration was 0.12 percent, and other distractions in his car also have been cited as factors in the crash.

Burnside, 63, later pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide and drunken driving and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

State Department of Justice spokesman Johnny Koremenos said that the $200,000 will come from the states risk management fund. The settlement contains no admission of wrongdoing by anyone, he said.

Richardson served a 30-day suspension from UW without pay in 2015 for not meeting the universitys professional standards.

Lawyers for Mengelt did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The lawsuit states that Mengelt received an email from Richardson, whom she had never met, four days after her mothers death. They developed a counseling relationship, her lawsuit states, that was confidential and trusting, and during that relationship Richardson sought information about the ongoing prosecution of Burnside and a potential civil lawsuit against him.

The lawsuit accused Richardson of misrepresenting himself throughout the counseling relationship, causing Mengelt to disclose information that she would not have otherwise told him. Mengelt said the discovery that Richardson had been the person with whom Burnside was texting just before her mothers death caused severe and permanent emotional distress to her.

The Mengelt family also sued Burnside, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the South Central Wisconsin Lutheran synod over Maureen Mengelts death. A confidential settlement of that lawsuit was reached in June 2016.

According to a deposition given for that lawsuit, Richardson said that he had asked his boss whether it would be appropriate for him to personally reach out to Megan Mengelt after her mothers death, but he admitted not telling his boss that he had been exchanging text messages with Burnside before the crash.

He also said in the deposition that he never told Mengelt that he was acquainted with Burnside, or that he had been texting with him.

Richardson also admitted that he continued to have contact with Mengelt even after learning that police had identified him as the person exchanging text messages with Burnside.

In a deposition for the lawsuit against him, Burnside said that Richardson barely mentioned the Mengelts or any information he had gleaned from conversations with Megan Mengelt.
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Beer tanks bound for the Genesee Brewery in Rochester on the Erie Canal near Lock 18 in Jacksonburg (near Little Falls) on Thursday, May 25. Photo by Jeannine Bonhoff.

(Jeannine Bonhoff)

A set of giant beer tanks destined for the Genesee Brewery in Rochester are making their way on the Erie Canal from Utica to Rome this morning, and could make it across Oneida Lake by tonight.

They are expected to pass through Rome and arrive at Lock 21 in New London, just east of Sylvan Beach, about 11:15 a.m. today. Then they pass through Sylvan Beach and enter the lake, according the Genesee Brewery public relations team. No specific time was given for crossing the lake but it won't be after dark.

If they maintain that pace, they could tie up tonight at Brewerton, on the lake's western shore. That is ahead of the tentative schedule released earlier this week, which had the first set of tanks crossing Oneida Lake on Saturday.

Twelve 20-foot by 60-foot tanks, too large to be trucked down the state Thruway, are moving in two groups of six. The first set of six are the ones reaching Oneida Lake today. The second set is traveling roughly a day behind the first. That second set should be at the New London locks tonight.

The first set of tanks should head to Baldwinsville Saturday, then head through Wayne County enroute to Rochester over the next few days.

The New York State Canal System, of which the Erie Canal is a part, has issued alerts to boaters using the canals that they could experience delays caused by the big shipment of tanks.

The tanks are a key part of a $49 million renovation and modernization project underway at the Rochester brewery.

Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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Giant beer tanks headed to the Genesee Brewery in Rochester via the Erie Canal. This photo was taken at Lock 12 (Tribes Hill) by Corbett Godwin

(Corbett Godwin)

Updated with response from state economic development officials (below).

Three Upstate New York lawmakers say they're angry that the state-supported modernization of the Genesee Brewery in Rochester includes beer fermentation tanks made in China.

Those are the same tanks that are now making their way down the Erie Canal to Rochester, where they will be a key part of the brewery's $49 million renovation project. "The fermentation tanks going down the Erie Canal are literally on a slow boat from China," said Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, D-Utica.

The three Mohawk Valley-area lawmakers -- Brindisi, Brian Miller of New Hartford, and Marc Butler of Newport -- wrote to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state economic commissioner Howard Zemsky expressing their frustration.

They are upset that the state plans to contribute $9.5 million to the Genesee project and argue that the tanks could have been made by a New York company, such as Feldmeier Equipment, a Syracuse-based tank fabricator with two factories in Little Falls.

The lawmakers also urge support for a bill sponsored by Brindisi that would require state officials to give preference when offering financial help to projects using New York goods, products and services.

"It disgusts me to know that state economic development dollars were used to support a project where goods were manufactured in China, when we have companies like Feldmeier Equipment that produce products like this right in the Mohawk Valley," Brindisi said in a news release Friday. "New York should put its money where its mouth is and support our state workers and state companies first, before they ship taxpayer's money right out the door to China."

On Thursday, Feldmeier vice president for sales Dave Pollock expressed similar frustration that the tanks came from China, noting the irony that the barges carrying them on the canal passed just 100 feet in front of one of the Feldmeier facilities in Little Falls.

"Our issue is they're getting $9.5 million from the state for this project," Pollock told NYup.com Thursday. "And they're asking people to come down and toast the tanks on the canal that are coming from China. And we have employees to feed here."

Pollock said his company had submitted a proposal for the work to Genesee, but it was not accepted.

Genesee responded that it asked bidders to submit proposals for the entire tank project, and Feldmeier instead bid on just a piece of the tank work. Feldmeier, in fact, did not bid on the specific tank work that ended up with the Lehui Group of China, Genesee officials said.

Genesee also argued that it is spending $40 million of it own money on the current phase of the brewery modernization, including the tanks. It will not receive the state money for several years, and only after it meets certain requirements, including adding 125 workers to its current payroll of 600. When the state money arrives, it will be used to expand the Genesee Brewhouse next to the main brewery.

On Friday, in response to the three lawmakers, Empire State Development spokesman Jason Conwall issued this statement:

"Governor Cuomo and Empire State Development support New York State businesses, period.

"In fact, ESD provided $750,000 to Feldmeier Equipment in 2013 in order to secure their expansion to Herkimer County, ensuring the new operations and 80 new jobs came to Little Falls instead of going out-of-state, which was under strong consideration by the company.

"The bottom line is that while Feldmeier bid on a larger equipment package, the company declined (twice) to bid on the tanks in question and not one penny of State funds were spent on the equipment purchased by NAB, from China or elsewhere. If local elected officials had contacted ESD with their concerns before issuing a press release, they would have known these indisputable facts instead of playing politics with inaccurate information."

Here is the text of the letter the three lawmakers sent to Cuomo and Zemsky:

"While it has been exciting to see the interest generated in the Erie Canal over the recent shipment of beverage tanks to the North American Brewery Facility in Rochester, the event has generated some strong concerns for us here in Herkimer County and the Mohawk Valley.

As you know, the tanks were manufactured in China and then shipped here for delivery. We believe you can understand that the fanfare for this event was less than enthusiastic in the City of Little Falls, where Feldmeier Equipment, Inc., has a production facility that specializes in tanks of this nature. While there have been statements that Feldmeier did not submit a bid for the project, we are led to believe the opposite is true. In fact, we are absolutely convinced that Feldmeier submitted a proposal for the project and had asked for your support.

Gentlemen, this was a $50 million project which included approximately $9.5 million in state assistance ($4.5 million in performance based Excelsior Jobs Program Tax credits and up to $5 million in Upstate Revitalization Initiative)- assistance provided by the taxpayers of New York State, Herkimer County and the residents of the City of Little Falls. We feel we must express our surprise and disappointment that there were no conditions placed on the expenditure of this state funding.

This project had the potential to be a great win for New York with the attention it drew to the canal, the development of additional brewing capacity for the Rochester area, and the production of the new tanks for an upstate New York Company. Feldmeier has an outstanding reputation for this kind of work and has, in fact, done other work for the Genesee Brewing Company in Rochester.

As things now stand, we must express our strong disappointment that this highly-regarded local company was not given more consideration in this project. We would hope, in the future, New York companies and businesses will receive stronger support from this administration."

This is from a statement that the Genesee Brewery has issued in response to those questioning the decision to use Chinese-made tanks:

"We love Rochester, and New York State. It's our home and home to our 600 employees whose jobs we are securing through this $40 million investment in our brewery.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will transform the Genesee Brewery into a world-class operation. We will create new opportunities for our business and community for generations to come. We worked to get the highest quality equipment that fit within our budget while still allowing us to complete the full vision of this project. We have a strong track record of creating jobs, investing in the business and supporting our community that demonstrates our commitment to both Rochester and the state of New York. The brewery modernization is privately funded by us. NYS funding and tax credits kick-in based on that private investment and our commitment to create new jobs. Those dollars will fund the expansion of the Genesee Brew House."

Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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State police charged the following people Charles V. Wareham, 20, of Carthage; Jacob N. Hawkins, 20, of Lorraine; Amanda R. Goutremout, of, Carthage; and Tyler R. Shambo, 20, of Watertown.

(State police)

State police say they have arrested four people in connection with a meth manufacturing operation in this vacant home in Rodman, N.Y.

RODMAN, N.Y. -- Four North Country residents have been charged after police uncovered a methamphetamine manufacturing operation in a vacant Jefferson County home, according to the New York State Police.

Police were contacted in early April after someone reported that a home at 13102 County Route 156 in the town of Rodman may have been broken into, state police said Friday.

The owner of the home checked on the residence and called police when he discovered a vehicle at his property, police said.

Police said officers found numerous "one pot" methamphetamine containers that had been used to manufacture methamphetamine at the property.

The following were arrested:

Charles V. Wareham

Jacob N. Hawkins

Tyler R. Shambo

Amanda R. Goutremout

Wareham was arraigned in the Town of Pamelia Court and released on his own recognizance. Hawkins, Shambo and Goutremout were issued appearance tickets to appear in the Town of Rodman Court.

A contaminated crime scene emergency response team assisted at the scene to remove the hazardous waste generated from the illegal manufacturing process.
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Kali Mai Riedl-Graham (left ), and her husband, James Alexander Graham II pose for a photo. The couple was killed, along with their unborn son, in a car crash on Monday May 22, 2017 in Madison County.

(Provided photo)

MORRISVILLE, NY - Kali Riedl-Graham, 24, was 22 weeks pregnant and excited both about the upcoming birth of her baby and her new job at Oneida Healthcare, family members said.

Her husband, James Graham II, 22, was apparently driving her to work Monday morning when the couple was killed in a one-car crash in Madison County, family members said.

Kali Riedl-Graham had just started work at the hospital as a phlebotomist the previous week, said Carrie DeSordi, James Graham's' mother.

Police said the car James Graham was driving went off Buyea Road in Lincoln and crashed into a tree between Eddy and Whitman roads. A passing motorist spotted the accident around 9:15 a.m., police said.

DeSordi said police told her the road was slick from rain and that speed was a factor. There is a sharp curve, DeSordi said, and her son actually was in a rollover accident in that same place six years ago.

The hospital where Kali worked is about a 20-minute drive from the couple's Morrisville residence, DeSordi said.

DeSordi said James' father also was killed in a car crash years ago, which she said makes the couple's death even more painful.

"They loved the hell out of each other,'' DeSordi said. "They were inseparable. And James was so looking forward to becoming a dad."

The couple's son, who they had planned name Leon when he was born, did not survive the crash.

Kali's 6-year-old son, Wyatt, lived with the couple and their lives revolved around him, DeSordi said.

"They were just a normal, married couple and they just loved to stay at home, spending time with Wyatt," DeSordi said.

Kali's friend, Mary Holland, said Kali's world centered on Wyatt and James, and that Kali was thrilled to be having another child. Holland said she last saw Kali the day before the accident at a baby shower for Kali's sister.

"Everyone was in good spirits at the shower, and Kali was excited to be an aunt again - and soon to have her own baby,'' Holland said. "It was such a great day, and we were all so happy. What's happened is devastating."

Holland has set up a GoFundMe for Wyatt, to raise money for Kali's son. Friends of the DeSordi family have set up a GoFundMe to help her pay for funeral expenses.

Kali and James met through friends in April 2016 and were married in August, DeSordi said. They realized right away they were meant for each other, she said.

"James would tell me 'mom, she is definitely the one for me' and he said they just really connected," DeSordi said.

James was working with Kali's grandfather doing carpentry at the time of his death, his mom said.

James loved to read books about medieval times, and the family loved to watch "Game of Thrones," DeSordi said. The couple lived with DeSordi for a bit, and then moved to their own apartment in Morrisville.

The last few days have been "a complete nightmare,'' DeSordi said. She saw her son briefly on Friday when he came over to the house, never realizing it would be the last time she would see him.

There will be joint calling hours for the couple and their baby from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Michael E. Brown Funeral Services, 2333 Fenner Rd., Cazenovia.

Kali's service will be private, according to her obituary.

James' funeral will be graveside next week, his mother said.
Village of Fair Haven, N.Y. -- The Village of Fair Haven plans to open one public boat launch, and possibly another, over the Memorial Day weekend even as flooding on Lake Ontario has closed other launches.

The village will open its free launch site on Bell Avenue with a temporary dock system through the help of local marinas and businesses, Mayor James Basile said Thursday afternoon.

"The fishing has been great," he said.

The village is hopeful the launch will open Friday afternoon, he said. Officials are also hopeful that a second launch on King Street will also open over the weekend, Basile said.

Both launches were closed earlier in May when they were swamped by flooding along Lake Ontario. A 5 mile per hour wake zone in the bay remains in effect, Basile said.

The launches are free, but there is a donation box on site, he said.

Charley Hannagan covers breaking news, the Western Onondaga County suburbs, Cayuga County and transportation. Contact her: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2161.
Memorial Day weekend may be synonymous with the Indy 500. But drivers dashing off to visit family or friends or head to the cabin up north for the unofficial start of the summer season will also be burning rubber this weekend.

Nobody is more aware of that than the radar gun-toting officers and deputies working for the states law enforcement agencies, which write more speeding tickets around Memorial Day weekend than any other time of the year, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

No other four-day holiday stretch came close to matching the 9,251 speeding tickets handed out to drivers licensed in Wisconsin during Memorial Day weekends (including Friday) from 2013 through 2015, DOT data show.

Part of the reason is obvious: An increase in traffic volume. AAA estimates 34.6 million Americans to drive to a vacation destination this weekend  an increase of 2.4 percent over last year.

Yet, in Wisconsin, Christmas ranked last among four-day holiday stretches for speeding tickets from 2013 to 2015, with 2,183, while Thanksgiving was second to last at 5,409, according to the DOT data.

I dont know if people are just in a hurry, but for whatever reason there is always a spike in speeders for Memorial Day weekend, said Sgt. Jeffrey Nelson of the State Patrols Northeast Office in Fond du Lac.

In Wisconsin, about 694,000 people will travel somewhere by car this weekend despite the highest gas prices since 2015 and climbing car rental and mid-range hotel rates, AAA said.

Itll be all about a lot of impatient people trying to get from Point A to Point B as fast at they can after leaving home an hour late, said Nick Tracy, 47, of Janesville, who was gassing up Thursday afternoon at the Kwik Trip outside Verona.

Youll see on Interstate 90-94 people pulling campers going 85 (mph). Not good, Tracy said. Then about 30 minutes later youll see that same camper stuck in traffic. So being in a rush doesnt get you too far.

Fond du Lac County is king

Nelson has seen plenty of chaos over Memorial Day weekends while working in Fond du Lac County where traffic heading north from Milwaukee and Madison and south from the Fox Valley converge on highways 41, 23, 151 or 26.

The 262 speeding tickets written in Fond du Lac County by the State Patrol and the sheriffs office over Memorial Day weekends between 2013 and 2015 was the most of any county, according to DOT data.

In seven of the 10 counties that issued the most tickets over Memorial Day weekends, a large majority of the tickets went to drivers who were just passing through. Just 16 percent of the speeders ticketed in Racine County were from that county.

Peak driving periods begin late Friday morning and continue until about 9:30 Friday night, Nelson said. During that period, its sometimes impossible for law enforcement to write speeding tickets because traffic flow is so heavy, he said.

Those drivers are still susceptible to getting picked up by improved police radar, which can clock drivers pulling away from police or driving up from behind from as far as a mile away, Nelson said.

Holiday weekend or not, the cops are about as lenient on when to give a ticket as any other time of the year, the data show, with most of the tickets going to speeders who are going 14 mph or more over the limit. Thats typical for any other time of the year.

Our job is highway safety, Nelson said. Were looking for voluntary compliance. If a warning does the job, thats fine with us.
Average adjusters get new head

The Association of Average Adjusters new chairman, Willum Richards, is to lead the Association in an international drive to bolster high standards in settling marine and offshore claims.

He aims to build on the work of his predecessor, Keith Martin, in advancing the Association internationally. Along with the management committee, Richards will also be steering the Association through some organisational changes required by the success achieved in expanding the scope of, and interest in, the Associations examinations. Richards was confirmed as chairman for 2017-18 at the Associations annual meeting, which took place at the London offices of law firm Clyde & Co, on 11th May, 2017. Richards said; it is a sign of the international development of the Association over the past years, with more and more Fellows, Senior Associates and Associates based outside the UK, that it has been deemed the time is right to appoint a non-UK based chairman. The fact that the first such chairman is based in New Zealand, about as far away as one can get from the UK, is a credit to the Association and the technology which allows for remote participation in meetings. He has spent most of his career outside the UK  in India, the US, Singapore, Hong Kong and now New Zealand - where he runs the average adjusting and insurance claims consulting company Willum Richards Consulting. He said: My involvement in the marine insurance industries in different markets, as well as over 10 years working within insurance companies in Asia and Australasia, gives me a unique perspective on the international value and regard afforded to average adjusters and the importance of the qualifications they bring to the table. Average adjusters are experts in insurance and maritime law, who may be appointed by any party in a marine or energy claim and are obliged by the terms of their profession to act in an impartial and independent manner. The Associations rigorous examinations are a keystone in the career path not only of average adjusters but of people involved in other aspects of marine and offshore energy insurance. Burkhard Fischer, a director of Albatross Adjusters of Limassol, will remain as vice-chairman of the Association and the management committee has been supplemented by Chris Kilbee of Marine Claims Office of Asia, Singapore and by Amy ONeill of Richards Hogg Lindley, Liverpool. Richards said: I am grateful for Burkhards commitment to assist me with the management of the Association and the new members of the management committee will add further expertise and international balance to the committee reflecting the ever more diverse qualified and unqualified membership of the Association. With the increasing membership of the Association and their varied professional interests, the challenge is to keep the Association relevant for more than simply its examinations. We have some 565 men and women from 45 countries who are variously Fellows, Associates, Subscribers, Representatives and Affiliates and their requirements from the Association need to be a priority. We are also proud to have first-class relations with the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States and Canada, as well as with the Association Mondiale de Dispacheurs (International Association of Average Adjusters) and European and Japanese associations, he said.




Coldharbour links with Singapore and Chinese engineering concerns

Ballast water treatment system (BWTS) manufacturer, Coldharbour Marine has signed an agreement with Hansun (Shanghai) Marine Technology and Sembcorp Marine.

The Chinese agreement covers the marketing and distribution of Coldharbour products in mainland China. It was finalised at a recent ceremony in Shanghai and forms part of the companies joint preparations for the IMOs Ballast Water Convention, which enters into force on 8th September this year.

This wide-ranging agreement brings a number of Coldharbours product lines, including its unique inert gas generation systems and in-tank BWTS into Hansuns portfolio of in-house marine technology products.

Hansun chairman, Simon Gu, said: Our existing products are already well-known for their reliability and operational advantages for shipowners. Adding the Coldharbours inert gas, flue gas, BWTS and domestic water module product lines means that we now have a comprehensive catalogue of products for our customers, from incinerators to the latest IGG units, from ultra-violet BWTS for small and medium sized ships, to the Coldharbour GLD inert gas-based in-tank BWTS for the largest vessels. We believe that this places Hansun in a unique position to supply the needs of our Chinese customers.

The agreement is the first step in a plan that will eventually see Hansun manufacture Coldharbour units at its facilities in Qi Dong, with Coldharbour in turn offering Hansun products to its customers outside China.

Coldharbour CEO, Andrew Marshall, said: Hansun is a highly respected marine equipment manufacturer and we are delighted to be able to work with them. The Chinese market is vital to Coldharbour, and our Chinese customers are increasingly demanding the kind of high quality, high technology solutions that both we and Hansun produce.

Training of the Hansun sales engineers and project engineers has already started and Hansun predicted that its first sales of Coldharbour equipment will begin this year, based on the response it has received from the customers it approached in anticipation of the agreement.

Gu added The right products, for the right markets, at the right time and at the right price are the foundation of our continued success. We look forward to a bright future with our new partners at Coldharbour and to bringing these world-beating technologies to our customers. In a separate move, Coldharbour will also offer its patented Coldharbour GLD BWT, as part of Sembcorp Marines Green Technology Retrofit (GTR) solutions.

The GTR solutions provide evaluated this BWTS was chosen from a select group of equipment manufacturers with whom Sembcorp Marine is working closely. Marshall said: We are delighted to sign this agreement with Sembcorp Marine. We have always maintained that no single technology is suitable for all vessel types and for all operating requirements. Our ballast water treatment systems target the largest vessels with the highest pumping rates, largest ballast volumes and longest ballast legs. For many ballast water treatment technologies, these three elements combined would have translated into a perfect storm of terminal delays and unrecoverable costs for owners, which by comparison, would make the initial cost of installing a ballast water treatment system pale into insignificance.

As the global marine industry prepares for the implementation of the Ballast Water Convention, there is still a considerable level of confusion and uncertainty surrounding the questions of suitable equipment choice for different types of vessel and securing a successful retrofit installation strategy.

Addressing these concerns, Sembcorp Marine executive vice president and head of repairs and upgrades, Lee-Lin Wong, said the company had examined various ballast water technologies and established collaborations with the best manufacturers around the world over the past 24 months.

She said: Our one-stop GTR solutions have everything needed to achieve successful ballast water treatment outcomes  from the analysis of requirements, system selection, scanning and engineering, to full installation and commissioning of equipment. We are confident that ship owners working with us and our chosen equipment partners such as Coldharbour, will no longer be confused by ballast water treatment requirements.

Ms Wong added that Sembcorp Marines GTR solutions will also include ultra-violet and electro-chlorination-based systems so as to offer the most suitable technologies for all vessel types and operating requirements.




Refusing to self-insure state employees would trigger a 10 percent increase in health care premiums for 2018  3 percent more than what Gov. Scott Walkers budget plans for, state officials said Friday.

And revised estimates released by the Walker administration also show the state would save about $43 million more than the $60 million figure the governor had touted in the past while trying to persuade lawmakers to approve his plan.

The announcement from top officials in Walkers administration is part of a renewed push to convince lawmakers to move forward with Walkers self-insurance proposal despite a promise from the states budget committee to reject the idea, and was met with questions from critics about the legitimacy of the new figures.

Self-insurance allows us to get a taxpayer savings of $103 million with no changes to benefits to state employees, Department of Administration Secretary Scott Neitzel said Friday during a press conference with Walkers budget director Waylon Hurlburt and Deputy Insurance Commissioner J.P. Wieske.

The $103 million in savings includes the $60 million in general purpose revenue, a $22 million health insurer fee under the Affordable Care Act and $21 million worth of premium increases that would not materialize if the state self-insured, according to Hurlburt.

But critics say the Walker administrations numbers are misleading because bids for health plans arent due until June 30, so the figures are based on assumptions.

And Joint Finance Committee co-chairman Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, said the administration released new, higher savings figures with unsupported evidence and in spite of health insurance sector experts disagreeing with their analysis.

The projection violates the integrity of the states proven bid-negotiate process and ignores its effectiveness, said Phil Dougherty, spokesman for the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans, which has opposed the proposal to move to self-insuring state employees.

Nygren said Friday in a statement that Walker administration officials are being disingenuous when saying by moving to a self-insurance model, the state could avoid paying the ACA health insurer fee, or whats known as an Obamacare tax.

The Obamacare tax has never been collected and theres no evidence to show it will be collected in the future, Nygren said.

Nygren also said the savings are largely based on the use of reserves collected by the Group Insurance Board by likely overcharging for health care coverage.

Dougherty said that the 7 percent increase in premiums that Hurlburt said the budget proposal expects is nearly double the performance of the fully insured program over the last nine years.

The only way the state can be certain of its costs  or savings  is to fix its payments with a fully insured benefit program, he said in a statement. The health plans pay the cost of fully insured medical services and bear the risk of unexpected increases in medical costs. Fully insured premiums do not change during a contract period.

In the last nine years, final premium increases averaged 3.7 percent and the negotiated difference between preliminary and final bids equaled $283 million, Dougherty said. Fully insured premium rates increased 1.6 percent in 2017 after preliminary bids reflected a 5.4 percent increase, he added.

Walker in his 2017-19 spending plan proposed switching about 236,000 state workers and family members from a competitive HMO model, in place since 1984, to a self-insured program like that used in at least 20 states. The idea was one of the governors most ambitious and contentious proposals this budget cycle.

Under Walkers plan, the state would pay benefits directly and assume the risk for losses instead of buying insurance from 18 HMOs. Self-insurance could save the state money or could cost more, according to consultants reports.

Deductibles would

increase 400 percent

The new projections presented Friday also said annual deductibles would increase about 400 percent, or $1,000 per person and by $2,000 per family.

The public plea to revive the proposal comes days after the states Group Insurance Board met and floated the idea of moving forward with self-insurance regardless of what the Legislature decides to do with Walkers proposal.

One way would be to divide the states into regions that insurers must cover and reducing the number of insurers, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

Wieske said Friday its unclear how much savings that plan would generate because its unknown which insurers would participate.

Officials with the Group Insurance Board and the Division of Personnel Management also on Friday sent a letter to the Joint Finance Committee detailing consequences of not moving to a self-insurance model.

This new information confirms that the current fully insured model will be much costlier than moving to a self-funded approach, the letter from GIB chairman Michael Farrell and DOA deputy administrator Stacey Rolston said.

A spokesman for Joint Finance Committee co-chair Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, said Darling was unavailable for comment. A spokesman for a union representing state employees did not respond to a request for comment.
Markets - VLCC earnings further depleted

Continued lack of volumes depleted VLCC rates and earnings down to about $15,000 per day.

Tonnage was also building up, applying pressure on rates going forward, Fearnleys said. Older and handicapped tonnage, plus newbuildings added to the sentiment, particularly for MEG/East. Suezmax activity in the first decade of June picked up last week after a prolonged period of stagnation with levels maintained at WS72.5 for TD20. However, sustained activity in both the North Sea and the Med contributed to a considerably tighter position list, as tonnage was steadily picked off. In addition, at the end of last week, we saw the Med Aframaxes spiking rapidly to levels that made more economic sense for charterers to fix Suezmaxes. This pressure developed further, which was another contributing factor for owners to renew their resolve, Fearnleys said. On Wednesday, WS85 was paid for WAfrica to UK/Cont/Med. Both current fundamentals and sentiment point to a firmer few days ahead, which is an unexpected bonus for owners who only a week or so back were contemplating some difficult months ahead. The North Sea and Baltic Aframaxes finally moved off rock bottom levels this week. This happened as the early June Baltic programmes came out and a couple of prompt replacements were being worked. Rates should move sideways at present levels going forward. In the Med and Black Sea we saw the market reach new heights. The tonnage list was still looking extremely tight and with several replacements putting even more pressure on the market, we saw WS150 being paid for a cross-Med voyage. Going forward, we expect the market to slow down, but this will not happen overnight and rates will remain at high levels for the week to come, Fearnleys predicted. In other chartering news, brokers reported that NORDEN had chartered out the 2013-built Nord Steady, to Chevron for 12 months at $14,500 per day and had chartered in the 2009-built MR FPMC 19 for 12 months at $12,000 per day. In addition, Norient Product Pool, commercially run by NORDEN, has reportedly fixed the 2009-built MR sisters Atlantic Mirage and Atlantic Muse for 12 months plus six months option at $12,500 per day each. The 2016-built Aframax North Sea was believed to have been fixed by Vitol for six months at $16,000 per day. She was also said to have been taken on a short charter by Clearlake for $15,000 per day. Another Aframax, the 2003-buikt Astro Saturn was believed to have been fixed to Jellicoe for 12 months at $15,000 per day. Euronavs VLCC Anne was due to be the first VLCC to load at Corpus Christi at the time this newsletter was distributed. It was thought that due to draft restrictions, the vessel would only load a part cargo. DryShips took delivery of the newbuilding Suezmax Saga on 19th May in what is effectively an in-house deal. The vessel was chartered back to the seller and on 24th Ma, 2017, commenced its five year timecharter,r plus optional periods in charterers option, at a base rate plu sa profit share. The total expected gross backlog under the timecharter, assuming that the spot market for Suezmaxes for the next five years averages $25,000 per day, is estimated to be around $43.1 mill. The vessel was acquired from and chartered out to entities affiliated with chairman and CEO, George Economou. Odfjell has confirmed the purchase of the 2009-buit 33,609 dwt chemical tanker  Argent Eyebright for $25.5 mill. The vessel was built by Kitanihon Shipbuilding in Japan. She is fitted with 16 stainless steel tanks and fits well with Odfjells fleet of large stainless steel tankers and is in line with the fleets renewal strategy, the company said. Argent Eyebright has been on short term timecharter to Odfjell Tankers since January, 2017. She will be renamed and put under NIS flag after closing the transaction at end of June. The 19,807 dwt 2010-built chemical tanker Sky Dream was also reported sold to Norwegian interests for $18.5 mill. India Steamship has sold three LR2s to Centrofin in an en bloc deal said to be $63 mill. One vessel is trading in the clean market while the other two are trading dirty. In the newbuilding sector, Cido was believed to have re-negotiated an order for four PCTCs at Hyundai Mipo, changing the contracts into MRs for 2020 delivery.




Oman Shipping launches VLCC chartering business

Oman Shipping Co (OSC) has set up a new commercial chartering desk to offer its VLCCs to major traders and charterers worldwide.

OSC, one of the largest shipowners in the MENA region, has a diversified and young fleet of 50 vessels, including 16 VLCCs of which the company is now commercially managing 15 through a subsidiary - Oman Charter Company (OCC). The move follows OSC withdrawing 15 VLCCs from the VL8 pool based in Singapore. The VLCCs were being outsourced to be run commercially through the pool. After setting up its own crude oil chartering desk, OCC, OSC has taken over full commercial control of the VLCCs. As part of this strategy, OCC has signed a three-year Contract of Affreightment (COA) with Shell International Eastern Trading Co, a Shell subsidiary, which gives a substantial cargo base for the 15 VLCCs, the company claimed. OSC general manager commercial, tankers & gas, Debasish Mohapatra said the new chartering desk will enable OSC to harness the full potential of its relatively young VLCC fleet, serving clients better. We are targeting oil majors and crude oil traders worldwide with our new chartering service. Our VLCCs are modern vessels with high specifications and good safety records. The fleet is economical in its fuel consumptions and therefore highly attractive to the charterers, traders and oil majors. A total of 12 VLCCs were built in Korean shipyards and a further three in Japan using state-of-the-art technology. The fleet is being technically managed entirely in-house and in-line with the international safety standards offering totally safe and secure shipment to our clients. Our contract of affreightment with Shell Eastern Trading International provides our chartering desk with an initial cargo base for the 15 VLCCs and demonstrates how we can provide world-class shipping solutions to major operators, he claimed. OSC CEO, Tariq Al Junaidi, said bringing the commercial management of the VLCC fleet in-house will help meet ambitious growth targets. Our mission is to deliver intelligent global transport solutions that directly benefit Omans national economy. As a company, we take great pride in delivering reliable, safe, environmentally responsible and economically sustainable services. This is underpinned by international quality and performance standards. Bringing the management of our VLCC fleet in-house gives us greater autonomy and ultimately enables us to direct the operation with greater control. The VLCC fleet is set to play a large role in the future growth of the company. We are satisfied that vessels are now within the correct chartering structure to maximise their potential, he said.




Sembcorp signs up De Nora BWTS

De Nora, a supplier of electrochlorination equipment, has signed a MOU with Singapores Sembcorp Marine to supply and install the patented De Nora BALPUR BWTS at its shipyards.

The agreement also enables BALPURE systems to be marketed through turnkey projects, which includes project management, vessel survey, integration design engineering, ballast water management system equipment selection, and retrofit installation services. As a result, Sembcorp Marine will supply and be a trained installation partner for the patented De Nora BALPUR slip stream electrochlorination system, which is suited to large vessels with high ballast flow rates and utilises self-cleaning electrodes. De Nora will support Sembcorp with training on the installation and operation of the BWTS. This collaboration will also allow Sembcorp to offer both leading types of ballast water treatment, UV and electrochlorination, as full end-to-end turnkey supply and installation solutions, enabling Sembcorp to effectively meet the needs of the majority of shipowners. Don Stephen, Managing Director of BALPURE systems at De Nora Water Technologies, commented: Offering our De Nora BALPURE system as a turnkey solution to meet the needs of shipowners has long been an aspiration of ours. Working with Sembcorp to realise this objective allows us to better support shipowners in co-operation with a leading yard that has the understanding and expertise to provide excellent customer service. In turn, we look forward to developing a close relationship providing our electrochlorination expertise, relevant training, and reliable services to Sembcorp. It has long been recognised that no ballast water treatment system provides a one size fits all solution. Different vessel types, sizes and routes have differing demands and requirements from a ballast water treatment system. Being able to offer a full solution to customers with high ballast flow rates in conjunction with Sembcorp, gives peace of mind to customers on their choice of ballast water treatment retrofit in a challenging time for the industry, he concluded.




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The state Legislatures budget-writing committee voted on Thursday to require some Wisconsin residents using food stamps and receiving public health care to be tested for drug use and to meet work requirements in exchange for benefits.

The Joint Finance Committee, the states budget-writing panel, voted 12-4 to approve Walkers plan that would make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to make drug tests mandatory for Medicaid recipients and would impose tests on adult food stamp recipients without dependent children seeking coverage through the states BadgerCare program.

Some parents with children over the age of 6 who are enrolled in the states FoodShare program, which administers federally funded food stamps in Wisconsin, also would be required to work or look for employment for at least 80 hours per month under another measure proposed by Walker that the panel approved Thursday. The work requirement currently only applies to FoodShare recipients without children.

The panel scaled back the governors proposal by applying the work requirement to parents using food stamps in certain regions of the state between April 2019 and June 2020 and not allowing the requirements to be applied statewide until an evaluation indicates it should be.

Republicans on the panel approved the measures over Democrats objection to its effect on some of the states poorest residents.

It is one thing to deny food stamps or W-2 benefits to poor people  to deny health care is another thing altogether, said Rep. Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh.

Rep. Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton, said the proposals are a balanced approach to improving the workforce in Wisconsin and welcomed federal block grants to allow state lawmakers to make decisions about how welfare services are provided.

Were not releasing the funding until we know were going to get what we expect and what we expect is a better workforce for Wisconsin, Loudenbeck said about requiring an evaluation of requiring parents on FoodShare to work.

All the proposals require federal approval, which the Walker administration is requesting. The administration also is asking federal officials to charge monthly BadgerCare premiums to childless adults and charge more to people engaging in risky health behaviors.

The GOP lawmakers plan also calls for the budget panel to sign off on the Medicaid changes, should they be approved by federal officials, before they take effect. Under the plans, people seeking benefits would have to undergo screening, with potential drug tests contingent on their responses.

Walker has proposed expanding drug-test and work requirements for a range of public programs. He and other supporters say the requirements prepare benefit recipients to enter the workforce.

Critics of the moves, which include Democrats and some advocacy groups, have said the drug tests, in particular, are meant to shame public-benefit recipients but wont deter drug use.

The panel also supported Walkers plan to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for nursing homes and personal care providers. Both would receive 2 percent reimbursement hikes in each of the next two years under Walkers plan.

Personal care services are provided to people with disabilities and chronic health conditions to assist with tasks such as eating and meal preparation, dressing, light housework and shopping.

During Thursdays Medicaid debate, Democrats on the budget panel highlighted what advocates describe as uncertainty with federal health care funding created by President Donald Trumps proposal for the next federal budget. Programs such as BadgerCare, EBD Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, are funded with both state and federal dollars.

Also Thursday, Walker said splitting transportation funding from the larger state budget, as some Republican lawmakers have suggested, could delay work on critical highway projects.

Walker spoke publicly Thursday at an event in Neenah, near the site of a project to expand Highway 10/Highway 441.

The only way we have troubles with major projects like this  is if we dont have a transportation budget by July 1, Walker told reporters Thursday.

The 10/441 project is one of four major highway expansions that Walker has proposed to fund in his transportation budget proposal, keeping their construction on track for the next two years. Others include an expansion of Interstate 39/90 from the Madison Beltline to the Illinois state line, of Verona Road from Raymond Road to McKee Road and of Highway 15 in Outagamie County.

For months, the transportation debate has centered on whether to increase gas taxes or vehicle fees to ease the states growing backlog of road and bridge projects. Walker opposes the move, and proposed a budget that would hold the line on taxes and fees and increase funding for local roads while slashing funds for freeway projects in southeast Wisconsin.

The plan also relies on $500 million in borrowing. Thats a key point of contention between Walker and some legislative Republicans wary of putting more on the states credit card.

Legislative Democrats and some Republicans say tax and fee increases should be considered for the transportation budget.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke insisted that Assembly Republicans arent halting progress on the transportation budget.
Andy Fowler is the CTO and cofounder of Nutshell, a provider of CRM for small businesses.

In this exclusive interview, Fowler shares his thoughts on the importance of effective sales process management.

Nutshell CTO AndyFowler

CRM Buyer: What are some of the significant trends youre seeing in the CRM industry now? How is the industry changing and evolving?

Andy Fowler:

Ive been in this industry almost seven years now, and the message that we took to the market seven years ago has evolved over time.

When we launched, mobile was just becoming central, and now mobile is fully expected from any buyer. People also expect intuitive design.

What is changing, and what were learning today, is that CRM was originally created for the managers and bosses to report on the pipeline, and it was sold as a value proposition to the manager.

Whats changing now is that CRM is becoming much more about supporting the rep  giving them the tools they need to improve their performance. Its no longer just a tool for the boss to check in on the salespeople.

CRM Buyer: How can a CRM system motivate salespeople?

Fowler:

If they see the intrinsic value of the CRM tool theyre using, that motivates them. Weve seen trends come and go, but if the tool itself adds value, that motivation happens intrinsically. The ultimate tool is one that doesnt require motivation to use. Its sitting in the background and working automatically.

CRM Buyer: What is the key to making CRM user-friendly?

Fowler:

The first piece is staying out of the way. A good sales rep knows how to develop a relationship and build rapport. If the tool is getting in the way, thats a de-motivator. If the tool gets out of the way, thats the best way to improve the experience.

The other way is delivering value. If people recognize a tools value, then they dont need to be motivated to use it. There are a number of ways that can happen. Part of that is the middle name of CRM  relationships. Good sales reps know how to develop relationships and use tools to do that.

A tool can help augment their memory about the person on the other end of the phone or someone in the meeting theyre about to walk into.

CRM Buyer: What kind of information is needed for an effective CRM system?

Fowler:

The information stored in CRM is variable, based on the business. As a small business owner, you understand what needs to be known. The most important piece is the time line of information, the back-and-forth of what they said to you last, and what you said to them.

Those conversations  having that transcript or a newsfeed style timeline of who said what to whom is key. Thats the best way to jog your memory and build that rapport with a lead.

CRM Buyer: What is sales process management, and why is it important?

Fowler:

Sales process is one of the original problems that we set out to solve. For a lot of small businesses, the process of closing a sale is a long-running deal. Those kinds of sales processes sometimes involve sending demo equipment or proposals that take a long time to develop.

For many customers, theyre building a sale over a long time, and thats a lot different than the e-commerce world. We think that CRM and managing a sales process are valuable for that long sales process for a high-ticket item.

It varies by company, but we think of it as different stages, from the first time you hear about a lead to the moment a deal is closed. Its important to measure the velocity of how a sale moves from one stage of the process to another.

In a long-running sales process, information and communication needs to flow back and forth between a lead and a rep, and managing that information is part of managing the sales process, and making sure a ball isnt dropped in that process.

All of those different transactions that happen along the way need to be monitored. Our tools allow you to track what sales are sitting at different stages.

CRM Buyer: Whats in the future for CRM? How will it continue to evolve?

Fowler:

CRM will become increasingly connected to the tools that customers already use. If youre using Outlook, for example, your CRM is going to become closer to that platform. Companies find and purchase tools, but these tools havent yet come together and become fully integrated. The line is going to get fuzzier between CRM and your own personal Outlook.

Account-based marketing is something that businesses have been practicing for a long time, but I think thats going to continue to change how tools are developed. There wont just be sales and marketing and support tools; the lines will blur and the pieces will become more integrated with each other.
Have you ever held an enormous, powerful chainsaw in your hands and thought: "This is great, but I wish it was so small that I could fit it in my (admittedly spacious) pocket?" Probably not. But for those who do long for a fun-sized version of Leatherface's favorite weapon, Bosch has you covered with the EasyCut 12.

The German engineering and electronics company isn't actually referring to the device as a chainsaw; it prefers the term "cordless mini-saw." But the fact it looks like a chainsaw made for leprechauns that's been attached to a hand unit is glaring.

This is no novelty item, though; the vibration-free device is said to give a straighter cut than a jigsaw. It has a cutting depth of 2.55 inches in wood and 1.18 inches in plastic, weighs just under 2 pounds, and comes with a no-load speed of 4,000rpm. Bosch says it's the world's first saw blade with a micro-chain with 44 teeth.

Bosch adds that its SDS system allows the saw's Nanoblade to be changed without requiring additional tools, and you can use its 12v battery and charger to juice the company's other cordless power tools.

While there are plenty of other cordless miniature saws available, many designed specifically for indoor or outdoor use, the versatility of the EasyCut 12 could make it popular. T3 reports that the saw quickly sold out when it launched at the Royal Horticultural Show in Chelsea, UK. Even the Queen of England's husband, the now-retired Prince Phillip, is said to have bought one, perhaps to scare off the British paparazzi while he's out and about.

No word on a US release or price, but a direct conversion from pounds works out at around $167.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the organization behind the credit card-sized single-board computers, has announced it is merging with coding network charity CoderDojo, which runs coding clubs across the world for people between the ages of seven and 17.

Raspberry Pi says the two organizations will work together to advance their shared goals of getting more young people interested in computing and coding.

The Raspberry Pi mini computer, which now has a third generation model available, has sold more than 10 million units since it launched back in 2012.

Dublin-based CoderDojo says there are more than 1250 of its code clubs in 69 countries, which are regularly attended by more than 35,000 young people. The pair hope that by teaming up, they'll be able to increase the number of CoderDojos to 5000 by the end of 2020.

"In technical terms, the Raspberry Pi Foundation is becoming a corporate member of the CoderDojo Foundation (which is a bit like being a shareholder, but without any financial interest). I will also join the board of the CoderDojo Foundation as a director. The merger is subject to approval by Irish regulators." Writes Philip Colligan, CEO of the Pi Foundation, a blog post.

As noted by VentureBeat, those of a more cynical nature may see this as a way for Raspberry Pi to get its devices into CoderDojo classes, but Colligan says the classes will "continue to be platform-neutral, using whatever kit they need to help young people learn."

The public is unlikely to see much change as a result of the merger, other than an increased number of CoderDojos. Since Raspberry Pi joined forces with the UK-based Code Club in 2015, the latter's popularity has increased dramatically.

"Code Club and CoderDojo are both massively successful organizations in their respective areas, with strong brands. The rationale for the merger is the same: alignment of goals, communities and day-to-day activities, but very little overlap between programs and funding sources. We expect to be able to achieve significant economies of scale, and to learn from each others' different approaches and experiences," Colligan told TechCrunch.
Recently, a video was released showing people how to hack the Samsung Galaxy S8's iris scanner. Samsung has since issued a statement defending its technology.

Possible, But Impractical

When news of the hack first broke, Samsung issued a statement saying that it would look into the matter further. Now, it has released a follow-up statement where it admits that the hack is technically possible, but highly unlikely in a real-world situation.

"You need a camera that can capture infrared light (used in the video), which is no longer available in the market. Also, you need to take a photo of the owner's iris and steal his smartphone," a Samsung spokesperson told The Korea Herald.

For the most part, we agree with Samsung's assertion. The odds of someone successfully managing to pull off this hack are very low. That being said, we do question the company's claim regarding the difficulty of obtaining a camera that captures infrared light. While these cameras may not be available from first-party sellers, a quick Google search turned up plenty of options from eBay and other third-party sites.

That being said, this issue does call into question Samsung's claims that its iris scanner is more secure than the FBI's fingerprint technology. After all, Samsung didn't dismiss the possibility of the hack so much as the likelihood of it occurring, which doesn't address the security flaws within the iris scanning technology.

Despite Samsung's reassurances, a spokesperson for Chaos Computer Club, the group behind the hack, claims that a secure PIN is still the best way to secure your smartphone.

The Reality

The truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle. Samsung is correct that the hack presented by Chaos Computer Club would be very difficult to pull off and the hacking group is also correct that a PIN would prevent this particular method of hacking.

The reality is that if someone wants to get into your phone bad enough that they'd be able to hack the iris scanner then they'll probably be determined enough to figure out your PIN.

Obviously, you should always do your best to ensure that your personal information is secure. In truth, a secure PIN and the iris scanner are sufficient security for casual users as most people simply aren't going to be the target of such a sophisticated effort.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Want a Surface Pro 4 without having to pay the $800 price tag? Well, thanks to Chinese manufacturer Chuwi, you can, sort of.

SurBook

In light of Microsoft's announcement of a new Surface Pro, Chuwi has launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the creation of a $300 competitor known as the SurBook.

We'll be honest, we find the name to be silly. We know that it is trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Surface line, but the name SurBook comes across as too desperate. It reminds us of those movies you'll find on Netflix with names like The Starving Games. It's just too on the nose.

Our issues with the name aside, the SurBook is clearly doing well with its target audience. The crowdfunding campaign has only been up for a few days, but it has already raised more than $175,000, well beyond its target goal of $30,000. The cheapest option is the $300 64 GB SurBook, but the most popular offering appears to be the $350 one that includes a stylus and keyboard. There is also a 128 GB model for $400 that also includes a stylus and keyboard.

Unsurprisingly, the SurBook's design is very reminiscent of the Surface Pro 4 and offers an identical 12.3-inch screen.

Specs

The Surface Pro 4 features Intel's Skylake processor, while the upcoming Surface Pro will have Intel's newest CPU, Kaby Lake. The SurBook, meanwhile, uses Apollo Lake, which was actually launched with Kaby Lake as its budget counterpart. The SurBook offers 6 GB of RAM compared to the 4 GB RAM offered by the Surface Pro 4.

The SurBook will offer one USB type-C port and two type-A ports. The Surface Pro 4, on the other hand, only offers the type-A port. Like the Surface Pro 4, the SurBook will run on Windows 10 so it will be compatible with all the Windows Universal Apps.

One area in which the SurBook does win out over the Surface Pro 4 is the battery department. Chuwi boasts that the SurBook's 10,000 mAh battery, compared to the Surface Pro 4's 5,087 mAh, will last for about eight hours. The new Surface Pro, however, is expected to last up to 13.5 hours on a single charge.

Of course, the SurBook's increased battery life may also be responsible for it being heavier than the Surface Pro 4. All in all, the SurBook is about 7 ounces heavier than the Surface Pro 4.

Value

Based on what we've seen so far, the SurBook does look like it offers a good value for its price. It probably won't be as fast as the upcoming Surface Pro and have a shorter battery life, but Chuwi's latest tablet makes up for those shortcomings by being significantly cheaper.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
An unauthorized person gained access to information about 2,036 UW Hospital patients in March, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

While the breach didn't include patients' Social Security numbers, health insurance information or other financial information, it did include files on patient names, addresses, dates of care, reasons for visits, medical history and conditions, medications, diagnostic results and/or social history, among others.

The March 16 incident was discovered by UW Hospital on March 28, spokeswoman Lisa Brunette said.

The person accessed the information through an employee's email. Once discovered, UW Hospital started an investigation, disabled the employee's email and reset the password, Brunette said.

UW Hospital is sending letters to a group of patients about the incident and has set up a call center to answer patient questions, she said.
Whom the gods would destroy, they first tempt to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

 Irving Kristol

WASHINGTON  The quixotic American pursuit of Middle East peace is a perennial. It invariably fails, yet every administration feels compelled to give it a try. The Trump administration is no different.

It will fail as well. To be sure, no great harm has, as yet, come from President Trumps enthusiasm for what would be the ultimate deal. It will, however, distract and detract from remarkable progress being made elsewhere in the Middle East.

That progress began with Trumps trip to Saudi Arabia, the first of his presidency  an unmistakable declaration of a radical reorientation of U.S. policy in the region. Message: The appeasement of Iran is over.

Barack Obamas tilt toward Iran in the great Muslim civil war between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arabs led by Saudi Arabia was his reach for Nixon-to-China glory. It ended ignominiously.

The idea the nuclear deal would make Iran more moderate has proved spectacularly wrong, as shown by its defiant ballistic missile launches, its indispensable support for the genocidal Assad regime in Syria, its backing of the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, its worldwide support for terrorism, its relentless anti-Americanism and commitment to the annihilation of Israel.

These aggressions were supposed to abate. They didnt. On the contrary, the cash payments and the lifting of economic sanctions  Tehrans reward for the nuclear deal  have only given its geopolitical thrusts more power and reach.

The reversal has now begun. The first act was Trumps Riyadh address to about 50 Muslim states (the overwhelming majority of them Sunni) signaling a wide Islamic alliance committed to resisting Iran and willing to cast its lot with the American side.

That was objective No.1. The other was to turn the Sunni powers against Sunni terrorism. The Islamic State is Sunni. Al-Qaida is Sunni. Fifteen of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. And the spread of Saudi-funded madrassas around the world has for decades inculcated a poisonous Wahhabism that has fueled Islamist terrorism.

Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states publicly declaring war on their bastard terrorist child is significant. As is their pledge not to tolerate any semiofficial support or private donations. And their opening during the summit of an anti-terrorism center in Riyadh.

After eight years of U.S. policy hovering between neglect and betrayal, the Sunni Arabs are relieved to have America back. A salutary side effect is the possibility of a detente with Israel.

That would suggest an outside-in approach to Arab-Israeli peace: a rapprochement between the Sunni state and Israel (the outside) would put pressure on the Palestinians to come to terms (the inside). Its a long-shot strategy but its better than all the others.

Unfortunately, Trump muddied the waters a bit in Israel by at times reverting to the opposite strategy  the inside-out  by saying that an Israeli-Palestinian deal would begin a process of peace all throughout the Middle East. That is well-worn nonsense. Imagine if Israel disappeared tomorrow in an earthquake. Does that end the civil war in Syria? The instability in Iraq? The fighting in Yemen? Does it change anything of consequence amid the intra-Arab chaos? Of course not.

And apart from being delusional, the inside-out strategy is at present impossible. Palestinian leadership is both hopelessly weak and irredeemably rejectionist. Until it is prepared to accept the legitimacy of the Jewish state  which it has never done in the 100 years since the Balfour Declaration committed Britain to a Jewish homeland in Palestine  there will be no peace.

It may come one day. But not now. Which is why making the Israel-Palestinian issue central, rather than peripheral, to the epic Sunni-Shiite war shaking the Middle East today is a serious tactical mistake. It subjects any now-possible reconciliation between Israel and the Arab states to a Palestinian veto.Ironically, the Iranian threat that grew under Obama offers a unique opportunity for U.S.-Arab and even Israeli-Arab cooperation. Over time, such cooperation could gradually acclimate Arab peoples to a nonbelligerent stance toward Israel. Which might in turn help persuade the Palestinians to make some concessions before their fellow Arabs finally tire of the Palestinians century of rejectionism.

Perhaps that will require a peace process of sorts. No great harm, as long as we remember that any such Israeli-Palestinian talks are for show  until conditions are one day ripe for peace.

In the meantime, the real action is on the anti-Iranian and anti-terror fronts. Dont let Oslo-like mirages get in the way.
Brazil's president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, met this Wednesday in the country's capital with the leaders of the National Congress: the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur... | Read More
Alabama prisoner faces eighth execution date amid death penalty debate: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report .

Supreme Court forced to confront the unsavory politics of district lines: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report .

The Year of the Patent: Adam Feldman has this post at his Empirical SCOTUS blog.

And thanks to you for that very kind email! I will post another reader email tomorrow.

So thank you for being a wonderful resource and eminently readable.

I have been reading this blog since its inception when I was an undergraduate at NYU. I had been reading cases since high school as I just loved (and love) the law. Your blog is the greatest resource for keeping current on the state of the law, which I believe is absolutely necessary to have a successful practice. I have been litigating appeals for 10 years now and I find your insights always interesting and refreshing. Most notably, I think, your blog provides a great resource for CTA cases that eventually become SCOTUS cases. Following the percolation of issues in the circuits is something that is invaluable, and without your blog it would be impossible to track things like that.

Congratulations on the 15-year milestone!

15 years of How Appealing  reader mail: Todays email is from an attorney who asked me to omit his name:

Trump lawyers ask Supreme Court to reject 2nd Amendment claim by men who lost gun rights over nonviolent crimes: David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times has this report .

Appeals Court Will Not Reinstate Trumps Revised Travel Ban: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Ann E. Marimow and Robert Barnes of The Washington Post report that Federal appeals court maintains freeze of Trumps travel ban. Attorney general vows Supreme Court appeal.

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump is dealt another defeat on travel ban as U.S. appeals court in Virginia blocks enforcement.

Brent Kendall of The Wall Street Journal reports that Appeals Court Rules Against Trumps Revised Travel Ban; Administration says it will appeal to Supreme Court.

Alan Gomez and Richard Wolf of USA Today report that Appeals court rules against President Trumps revised travel ban.

Andrea Noble and Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times report that Appeals court upholds block on Trumps extreme vetting policy; Jeff Sessions vows appeal to Supreme Court.

Frank Green of The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Divided appeals court rules against Trumps revised travel ban.

Erik Larson, Andrew M Harris, and Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News report that Sessions Says DOJ Will Seek Supreme Court Review of Travel Ban.

Mica Rosenberg and Dan Levine of Reuters report that In blow to Trump, U.S. appeals court refuses to reinstate travel ban.

Ariane de Vogue of CNN.com has a report headlined Travel ban case: Heres what the Supreme Court might look at.

Josh Gerstein of Politico.com reports that Appeals court keeps block on revised Trump travel ban; administration vows SCOTUS appeal; Attorney general vows to take legality of executive order to Supreme Court.

Cristian Farias of HuffPost reports that Appeals Court Slaps Down Donald Trumps Travel Ban Yet Again; The court said that the presidents executive order drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.

Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that Federal Appeals Court Upholds The Nationwide Injunction Blocking Trumps Travel Ban.

And in commentary, online at Bloomberg View, law professor Noah Feldman has an essay titled Court Essentially Says Trump Lied About Travel Ban; The decision by the Fourth Circuit is extraordinary in its rebuke of the president.

You can access todays en banc ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit at this link.
It has been said before, but bears repeating: Louisiana must increase transportation infrastructure investment if critically important project
Fake news has been a major topic of discussion lately. While most of this debate has focused on national issues, it is important for informed 
Landrieu's office: Public input, possible online vote to help decide replacements for monuments

Landrieu's office: Public input, possible online vote to help decide replacements for monuments
Government policies must be reviewed to ensure those with disabilities are given "real and meaningful choice in their lives", Canberra advocates say.

On Friday, the ACT Council of Social Services alongside People With Disabilities ACT released two separate reports highlighting policy failures that impacted on people with disabilities.

Advocates say greater emphasis is needed to ensure those with disabilities have a better choice of services.

These included "significant" barriers to employment, mainstream health services and a lack of control over housing options.

Robert Altamore from People With Disabilities ACT said these limitations reduced the ability for those with disabilities to control their own lives.
Job-hungry graduates are lining up for a growing pool of entry-level roles at the ACT public service while federal departments shrink their intake of young jobseekers.

The number of applicants for ACTPS graduate roles rocketed to 1200 in 2015 and 2016 from 750 in 2014, figures from the territory's government show.

Access Canberra deputy director-general Dave Peffer with artsACT graduate officer Clair Reidy. The ACT public service's graduate program has steadily grown in recent years. Credit:Rohan Thomson

While the ACT public service will hire 56 jobseekers for its 2018 graduate program, which will stop taking applications on Wednesday, it employed 39 in 2014.

Graduate positions at federal departments have contracted by 5 per cent to 1134 in three years.
Fifty indigenous youth parliamentarians have arrived in Canberra for a week-long leadership summit to mark the 50th anniversary of aboriginal Australians getting the right to vote.

The democratic engagement program, coordinated by the Australian Electoral Commission, coincides with a momentous week celebrating 25 years since the Mabo land rights decision, 25 years of the Torres Strait Island flag, and 20 years since the Bringing Them Home report on stolen generations.

ACT participants: Garigarra Mundine, Rebecca Beutel, Thaaramali Pearson, Alexander Radoll, Talei Elu and Hope Davison during National Indigenous Youth Parliament 2017. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Six participants from each state and territory and two from the Torres Strait will debate bills, learn more about the parliamentary process, and speak their mind on issues they are passionate about in an adjournment speech.

The bills canvas indigenous human rights and race discrimination, youth mental health, restorative intervention and young offending, and access to alcohol and drug rehabilitation services in rural and remote communities.
Police found it stashed in a black garbage bag under a computer desk in the kitchen, in a rice cooker box in the walk-in wardrobe of a main bedroom and inside a laundry cupboard: vaccum-sealed bags of cannabis that together weighed nearly nine kilograms.

They charged father-of-six Gregory William King, 47, with drug trafficking after his DNA and fingerprints were found on latex gloves and a fertiliser bottle seized from a growhouse fitted out with lamps, fans and heaters in the garage of the Chisholm house.

Gregory William King, 47, planned to swap cannabis for cocaine. Credit:Rohan Thomson

King pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court shortly before his trial was to begin and admitted to a pre-sentence report author this month he had intended to sell the cannabis and had also swapped the drug for cocaine.

That plan lost King his family home, and his liberty for nine months, when Justice David Mossop sent him to jail for "clearly a deliberate and organised activity" driven by his desire to make a profit and get more drugs.
A Canberra woman accused of trying to kill her mother with a knife told police the elderly woman had confessed to stabbing herself, a court has heard.

When officers interviewed the accused Mary Ivanisevic, 45, later that afternoon on December 6, 2015, she said her mother had been feeling suicidal.

"Because mum was saying, you know, 'Nobody loves me. Everyone hates me but you. Only you're here with me, Mary, caring for me'," Ms Ivanisevic said.

In the police interview, which was played to the ACT Supreme Court at her trial on Friday, she described how she looked after her mother, then aged 74, who used an oxygen machine to help her breathe.

They had slept on the same couch the night before, Ms Ivanisevic said, and she fixed her mum's breakfast and dressed her before leaving the house to get a dose of methadone and go to the Curtin shops.
ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja says this month's federal budget confirms a 60 per cent increase in health funding to the ACT since the Coalition returned to government in 2013.

Figures from 2013-14, the final year of the Rudd-Gillard Labor government, show the ACT received $233 million under the national funding agreement for health spending, growing to $340.80 million in Scott Morrison's second budget this month.

ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Senator Seselja welcomed the growth under Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull as admissions to territory hospitals grew by 7 per cent last financial year, but Labor said the comments didn't take into account population growth or indexation.

"The ACT government needs to be doing more to ensure the funding they receive from the Commonwealth is spent efficiently and effectively," Senator Seselja said.
The Islamic School of Canberra's imam warns the potential closure of the Weston campus may mean young Muslims learn their faith from harmful corners of the internet rather than in a safe, controlled environment.

Adama Konda, the school's spiritual leader and Islamic studies teacher, has pleaded for the federal government to reinstate the $1.1 million it decided to cut from the school in April. The federal funds represent 80 per cent of the 215-strong school's operational funding.

Islamic School of Canberra teacher Adama Konda and principal David Johns. Credit:Karleen Minney

"This place will give birth to real, good Australian citizens who will know God and know man at the same time, because that is the purpose of having an Islamic school: to make them more responsible towards their religious duties and towards society," Konda says.

"If they don't have these types of places, they may not learn at all or they may learn from the internet and wrong places and end up becoming harmful Muslim members for the community.
History teachers take note, the Museum of Australian Democracy is trying a new way of engaging with kids: a chatbot.

The museum is marking the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum by allowing people to learn about it through simply chatting with it on Facebook Messenger, emojis included.

The Museum of Australian Democracy has launched a chatbot for Facebook Messenger to help mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum.

The bot relies on you sticking to pre-prepared questions, and struggles slightly when you try to take it off script by typing your own.

"So what made the 1967 referendum different? Let's zoom back to the 60s and have a look," the chatbot said.
The family of an Indigenous man who died in Canberra's jail last year say they will continue to fight for justice for him but will "never, ever recover" from his loss.

Steven Freeman's family, including his young daughter, led at least 1000 marchers over Commonwealth Bridge on National Sorry Day on Friday.

Steven Freeman's mother Narelle King is comforted by a family member as his relatives lead the 2017 Canberra National Sorry Day march over Commonwealth Bridge. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos

Mr Freeman's mother, Narelle King, helped to hold a large Aboriginal flag at the head of the march.

She was embraced by family members dressed in red hoodies, Mr Freeman's favourite colour, as she sobbed for her lost boy.
Tigerair has ramped up its commitment to the national capital and will introduce three weekly return services between Canberra and Brisbane in September.

The low-cost airline will also add an extra Friday return flight from Canberra to Melbourne.

Tigerair, which begins flights between Canberra and Brisbane on Thursday. Credit:Jon Hewson

It's understood Tigerair will offer regular fares between Brisbane and Canberra from $109.

Qantas one-way fares for September 14 were being advertised online yesterday from $214 while Virgin had some seats available at $139 and others from $225.
Fairfax Media can reveal NAB financial planning became aware of instances of "false witnessing" in November last year during a routine review of an adviser. Since then it has made moves to investigate the problem internally. It is understood the breaches, which involve planners incorrectly witnessing documents in the absence of clients, could go back more than five years and involve people across its planning network. The bank says it believes no client is out of pocket due to the practice and is not yet aware of any client that has been negatively impacted.

"We've become aware that some of the nominations have not been completed completely," NAB head of financial planning Tim Steele told Fairfax Media on Friday. This is a culture designed to maximise and achieve sales revenue at all costs. FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano "This is clearly wrong and inconsistent with our expectations and code of conduct." Planners 'scapegoats' for systemic problems Illustration: Simon Bosch

Despite that assessment, NAB has opened an amnesty for planners who "self-report" the misconduct, meaning those that come forward will avoid being terminated and instead have up to 25 per cent cut from their bonus. That arrangement was announced to a national meeting of financial planning staff on May 10. NAB notified the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on May 18  six months after the bank first became aware of the issue. ASIC said it was aware of the matter but would not say what actions, if any, it would take. NAB said it had not contacted any customers about the matter as of Friday.

The Financial Services Union, which as been vocal in criticising the sales culture of the big banks, says false witnessing has been standard practice for years and the bank was making planners scapegoats for a systemic problem. "This is a culture designed to maximise and achieve sales revenue at all costs," FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said. "We can't have another example of frontline workers being thrown under the bus because of something that is systemic in practice. "We need to look higher up and ask how was this the case for so long?" The bank denies that high sales targets are pressuring low-level planners into falsifying documents.

"We don't believe there was any ill-intent here," Mr Steele said. 'Moving things forward' NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn. Credit:AAP In an email to financial planners on Tuesday, Mr Steele said while not condoning the behaviour, the bank acknowledged the misconduct may have happened "in the spirit of moving things forward" for customers. "There is no indication that anyone received any personal gain in not following the correct process," he told planners.

He has also said junior staff could bet let off the hook (as demanded by the union), saying consideration would be given to any "direction or expectation" that was issued by senior planners. "While all employees are accountable for their actions, a different outcome may be appropriate in circumstances where the support staff team member is able to demonstrate they acted under instruction/direction from a financial planner or senior staff member," he said. NAB would not say how many instances of false witnessing it had encountered, but the union has been told there are 17 cases being investigated, many understood to be junior staff acting under instruction. Trustees retain discretion Credit:Rob Homer

The focus of the problem is death beneficiary nominations. The nominations are legal documents that determine who gets a person's superannuation or life insurance when they die. The forms generally require two witnesses to sign the form at the time they are completed. If the forms are rendered unbinding, the trustee has full discretion over who gets the money. Andrew Simpson, an estate lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, said the breaches could have serious ramifications for customers, given the forms are designed to speak on behalf of a person after they die. "If that nomination falls over because it wasn't witnessed properly, then the trustee retains discretion as to who to give the money to," he said.

"The purpose of the nomination would be defeated." It is the second misconduct issue inside NAB's wealth division relating to superannuation customers after it was revealed in February that it had overcharged members and knocked back insurance claims to seriously ill customers. ASIC imposed extra licence conditions on NAB's super trustee in response to the breach, which has forced to pay $36.5 million in compensation to 220,000 customers. Mr Steele says failure to witness documents correctly may be a breach of the bank's licence conditions but it was not clear whether it rendered the documents void. Broken trust

The timing could not be worse for NAB, who like the other big banks are trying to win back trust with the community in a battle over the government's new $6.2 billion bank levy. ANZ chairman David Gonski told shareholders on Thursday the tax was further evidence of a breakdown of trust between the banks, parliament and the community. "Our aim is to work even harder to help repair the relationship for the good of shareholders and of all Australians," he said. "We acknowledge that this will require us to think and act differently."

It is unclear whether the practice of false witnessing is occurring in other parts of the industry, the FSU could not say whether its members had faced similar problems. AMP chief executive Craig Meller said he was not aware of any instances of false witnessing and condemned the practice. "Frankly, if we found people doing that they would be dismissed," he told Fairfax Media. Westpac, which owns BT Financial Group, said it was also unaware of any instances of false witnessing by its planners. "BT expects all its advisers to adhere to correct process and procedures," a spokesperson said.

"We have strong compliance and monitoring procedures in place and will take action against advisers as appropriate who may breach these standards." A review by the corporate watchdog in March revealed the banks are taking up to six months report misbehaving advisers to the regulator. It also found nearly half of the advisers the banks knew to be dishonest, incompetent or fraudulent had not been disclosed to the watchdog. "They need to take some responsibility here  the regulator can't hold their hands," ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said at the time. ANZ told Fairfax Media it had "zero tolerance" for document alteration but that problems with signatures were "extremely rare".
His chairman, Ken Henry, has also pointed to excesses in executive pay, saying boards around the country were saying "enough is enough" when deciding on executive remuneration .

Mr Chronican, a non-executive director of National Australia Bank, on Friday agreed that change was justified in how executives were paid, and Australia could play a "global leadership role" in this area.

The budget's executive pay regime for senior bankers will do little to lift accountability, or achieve more "balanced" pay outcomes, says banking veteran Phil Chronican.

However, Mr Chronican said the answer was not the budget's "arbitrary" rule that a minimum of 40 per cent of senior executive banker pay must be in shares, and 60 per cent for bank chief executives, which would be deferred for at least four years.

NAB non-executive director Phil Chronican says the budget's changes on banker pay will not help the debate. Credit:Louie Douvis

"I actually am disappointed that these issues have been used in this way, as if they were some kind of punishment for the industry," said Mr Chronican, previously a top banker at ANZ Bank and Westpac.

"Actually there is a real opportunity here for us to think about improving the way Australian business operates, within the framework of stronger personal accountability and much more balanced remuneration systems," he said at the Australian Retail Banking Summit in Sydney.

"Arbitrary rules imposed in the heat of the budget aren't likely to lead to the best outcomes.
The broadcaster now has a market capitalisation of just $61 million, with shares closing at 17 cents on Friday.

As Ten's share price hit 16 the ASX issued the network with a price query, wondering why shares have dropped 24 per cent since Tuesday.

A fresh low for Network Ten's languishing share price has attracted the attention of the stockmarket regulator.

Ten has blamed the drop on Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co selling down its position from a 10 per cent (37 million shares) holding over the past few months. A Ten spokesman declined to comment further.

Can MasterChef save Network Ten? Credit:Martin Philbey

Lazard started selling its 37 million shares on March 29, weeks before Ten released half-year results on April 27 that included a $2.4 million loss (amplified by $214 million in writedowns) and a warning from directors about the business continuing as a going concern.

In particular, the network needs to renew a $200 million loan by December that is only likely to get approval if three major shareholders - Lachlan Murdoch, Bruce Gordon, and James Packer - agree to guarantee it again.

Analysts described the company as "un-investible" after the results and predicted full-year losses for three years to come.
Hip inner-city suburbs are undergoing a worker renaissance as surging office rents begin to tip the construction scales away from residential apartments.

Record low office vacancy rates combined with a crackdown on funding for locals and offshore apartment buyers have triggered a change in direction for local developers, particularly in Cremorne, Richmond, Collingwood and South Melbourne.

Melbourne's city fringe is now the second-fastest-growing leasing market in the country, with effective rents rising by 22.7 per cent in the year to March.
"The chief economist is essentially parachuted into the bank and put in this very exalted position," said Peter Lanjouw, former head of research into poverty and inequality within DEC. "It takes some effort to become familiar with the individual researchers in the group and the things that are being done. There was a lot of grumbling that Paul didn't seem interested," said Lanjouw, now a professor at VU University in Amsterdam and editor of the World Bank Research Observer. Lanjouw, who consults for the bank, said he's spoken to DEC researchers about the matter. Romer, 61, assumed the role in October after taking leave from his position as a professor at New York University. His appointment was hailed as a coup for the World Bank, which is trying to maintain its status as a leading development voice at a time when governments in some rich nations are increasingly reluctant to finance the development of poor nations. It's possible that I was focusing too much on the precision of the communications and not enough on the feelings my messages would invoke.

Romer pioneered research into "endogenous growth", examining how the diffusion of knowledge boosts output. His name often comes up in short lists for the Nobel Prize in economics. Macro cred But in recent years, his attacks on the credibility of macroeconomic models irritated many of his peers. His combativeness didn't endear him to some of the more than 600 economists who work in DEC, according to people familiar with the matter. Romer wanted DEC to set the intellectual agenda among those who think deeply about how to help the world's poorest countries, said one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The World Bank is already considered a major source of development research, ranking first among institutions in terms of the number of times its work is cited, ahead of Brown University, the London School of Economics and Harvard University.

But Romer expressed to those around him that the department should communicate more clearly, dive right into public debates, and align its work with the institution's goals of ending extreme poverty and reducing inequality. It didn't take him long to shake things up. He declared several positions redundant and enforced term limits on senior managers. In the interview, Romer said he cut more than $US1 million in annual expenses from the group's budget. Straight shooter Romer asked for shorter emails and insisted presentations get straight to the point, cutting staff off if they talked too long, said another person familiar with the matter. He cancelled a regular publication that didn't have a clear purpose, one of the people said. But researchers didn't like the curt way Romer often conveyed his message, said two people familiar with the matter.

Staff were upset by what they saw as his abrasive emails, and they didn't feel Romer listened to their concerns, these people said. Researchers were flummoxed by some of his stylistic hang-ups, including a distaste for the conjunction "and". Romer was frustrated with what some see as the dense, convoluted style of many of the department's reports. He pushed researchers to write more clearly, using the active voice to be more direct. Romer said he was surprised by the defensiveness of the group's economists. "They felt under-appreciated," he said. "It reflected a kind of siege mentality that I can't quite understand." A study by Stanford University's Literary Lab in 2015 found the bank's use of language has become more "codified, self-referential, and detached from everyday language" since the bank's board of governors held their inaugural meeting in 1946. The study coined the term "Bankspeak", a vague "technical code" that symbolised the lender's organisational drift.

Fewer 'ands' In an email to staff obtained by Bloomberg, Romer argued the World Development Report, one of the bank's flagship publications, "has to be narrow to penetrate deeply", comparing his vision for the report to a knife. "To drive home the importance of focus, I've told the authors that I will not clear the final report if the frequency of 'and' exceeds 2.6 per cent," said Romer, citing the percentage of the word's use in World Bank documents analysed as part of the "Bankspeak" report. The "Bankspeak" study noted the penchant of World Bank authors to link long chains of nouns with the word "and" can produce mind-numbing lists that create the impression of activity. One of the study's authors, Stanford English professor Franco Moretti, was sceptical that eliminating the conjunction would improve the clarity of World Bank communications.

"It will take much more than a few fewer 'ands'," Moretti said in an email. Writing gimmick Romer said the limit on "and" was a "gimmick" he used to show he's serious about good writing. "They've worked it down to 3.4 per cent. They said, 'We're getting there'." In her new role overseeing DEC, Georgieva will look to strengthen the link between research and the bank's lending operations, Kim said in his note to staff. But some scholars worry the unit's independence will suffer if the arrangement is permanent.
Children will be sent home early from childcare centres in coming months, with thousands from the sector's female-dominated workforce voting to walk out in protest against the large pay gap between men and women.

In a recent ballot, more than 3000 early childhood educators overwhelmingly voted in favour of "escalating" their battle for better wages with a series of national walkouts in coming months.

The move follows similar action in the sector earlier this year, coinciding with International Women's Day. Up to 1000 workers walked off the job, forcing hundreds of children to be sent home early from childcare centres all across Australia.
ay packages for America's top executives once again climbed in 2016 after slipping the year before.

Perhaps the pay surge reflects the times: Stocks are coming off a strong run. Unemployment is low. The US economy is percolating.

And President Donald Trump is not only promising to roll back what he calls excessive business regulations but also listening keenly to what corporate America has to say. Since taking office in January, the businessman-turned-politician has met with hundreds of executives, including at least 41 of last year's 200 best-paid CEOs, a New York Times analysis shows.

The biggest winner last year was Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, who pulled down a $US98 million pay package, according to the Equilar 200 highest-paid chief executive rankings, conducted for The New York Times.
It is quite something else to visit a place like Yad Vashem and forget, in your comments in the visitors' book, to mention the mass murder of Europe's Jews at the hands of fascists, instead opting for the upbeat "here with all my friends, so amazing!"

The US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross. Credit:Bloomberg

Trump left out only the "wish you were here" part, complete with cellphone selfie. We can be thankful he didn't travel on to Manchester.

The thing that distinguishes Trump's crass behaviour is that Yad Vashem moves most of those who visit, at least those with a flicker of humanity in their hearts, to reach deep for words to give appropriate meaning to the experience.
At least $10,000 in taxpayer funds have been paid to Ashby's personal printing business since Hanson entered the Senate last year, a conflict of interest according to Labor. Separately, a party staffer was arrested this week on an assault charge. "I think it's all falling apart for her," a Cabinet minister says. "The commentators were wrong," a Labor frontbencher says. "One Nation is a spent force." Donald Trump's campaign, and now even his son-in-law Jared Kushner according to US media, is to be probed by a special counsel over collusion with Russia. Predictions of imminent impeachment fill the airwaves. Trump's administration is racked by incompetence and division. The party that led Britain's Brexit uprising, UKIP, is verging on irrelevancy. In recent local council elections all 145 of its sitting councillors were thrown out, and it gained just one new seat. The greatest encouragement that former leader Nigel Farage could offer was to say the party "will survive". In France, the National Front's Marine Le Pen was soundly beaten in the presidential election by an establishment figure, former banker Emmanuel Macron.

And in the Netherlands, the upstart party of the far-right Geert Wilders was defeated by the government of centrist Mark Rutte. Germany's own far-right party, Alternative for Deutschland, is languishing. The main contest is between the establishment parties, Angela Merkel's coalition government and the Social Democrats. "The notion of a kind of 'Internationale' of the nationalists is no longer going to be viable at all," concludes the former top US diplomat for European affairs, Daniel Fried. One widespread explanation? A "Trump factor". Seeing Trump as president was "making people think twice about voting for a populist, as people have seen that if you elect a populist you can get all kinds of wacky policies," says Charles Grant of London's Centre for European Reform. And Brexit showed that while a protest vote could be fun, the disruption that followed "is not funny at all". Has the movement stalled, the monster exhausted? Or is it just pausing to digest the first course? The American journalist who wrote the book Populist Explosion, John Judis, says that populism is not an inevitable movement but a "warning sign" to the political establishment, an opportunity for the main political parties to realise their mistakes and change course.

This is exactly what Britain's Tories have done under Theresa May. The party that resisted the Brexit referendum has now taken charge of delivering the Brexit reality. Instead of resisting the move to nationalism, the Tories have co-opted it. Malcolm Turnbull's government has made a similar course correction. Taxing big banks, toughening citizenship criteria, tightening visa eligibility for foreign workers are all concessions to the nationalist populist cause, but without embracing any of its extremes. Like the Tories, Australia's Coalition government is trying to harness some of the populist energy while avoiding its worst. There are many definitions of populism, but a sound operating definition is that it's a form of politics that promises unworkable simplistic solutions to complex problems. Ending immigration, expelling foreigners, embracing old-style tariff protection or banning Muslims will neither create prosperity and jobs nor bestow the recognition and respect that the marginalised and the disgruntled seek. Such policies only indulge grudges and hatreds. Neither Theresa May nor Turnbull is proposing to embrace any of these ideas, but they are hardening the symbols and definitions of nationhood. In Britain, the voters have responded by supporting May, who is on course to win the June 8 election handily.

In Australia, it's not clear the voters have even noticed Turnbull's moves. But the core concept is that the populist movement is a protest wave. The main parties can recover through addressing the people's concerns. The populist parties are a residual of the actions of the major parties, the people left behind or left out. "People vote for One Nation for what it is not, not what it is," Griffith University professor emeritus of politics Patrick Weller says. "It's not the traditional Labor or Liberal parties, it's not the traditional party of government." There is no clear evidence the main parties have done enough to redeem themselves. Nor is there evidence that the failings of Hanson's One Nation have harmed the party's level of support. Ian McAllister of ANU says Hanson's party will eventually fade away as Clive Palmer's PUP has done. "Basically, they are protest parties and they flash across the stage and after an election or two they disappear." Indeed, that's exactly Hanson's experience of two decades ago.

But just now, McAllister says, Hanson's latest creation is not at that point. "It's too early to say. The stories about Ashby and so on are just an interesting sidelight," not enough to turn voters away from One Nation, he argues. "If you're tracking the polls there's not really any change." Weller says the forthcoming Queensland state election will be a major test for Hanson. "I would not argue that they have hit their peak yet because dissatisfaction with the traditional parties hasn't peaked yet. "The mood in Queensland is 'a plague on both your houses', perfect conditions for a protest party. Will One Nation get 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the vote? Conceivably." That's in line with the party's current polling in that state. That's enough for One Nation to be disruptive, not enough for it to wield power. McAllister says that One Nation could only break into serious contention for government "if there's a strategic realignment  a split in the Liberal Party, for example." The famous US political scientist Francis Fukuyama has won some recent acknowledgement for recognising the potential appeal of Trump as a political candidate in his book The End of History and the Last Man, published 25 years ago.

Paul Sagar of Cambridge University recently wrote a piece titled, "Was Francis Fukuyama the first to see Trump coming?" He says Fukuyama spotted Trump's appeal to "the shallow celebrity culture, the essential emptiness, of the habitat of the last man" that was to come. Fukuyama posited Trump, even a quarter-century ago, as the archetype for a syndrome he called megalothymia, defined as "a desire not just for respect and proportionate recognition, but a need to disproportionately dominate over others in ostentatious and spectacular ways". Sagar points out that Fukuyama singled out "a developer like Donald Trump" as the ideal candidate for the time he saw coming. So where does Fukuyama see Trump and his movement today? "I don't think it's valid," to say the nationalist populist movement has peaked globally, he tells me.

"I think there's an underlying sociology that has to do with the left-behind working class and a strain of identity politics that's still very strong. And I think that the biggest threat is the US." Trump could yet go down as a "weak and ineffectual president", certainly not an American dictator. "It's ridiculous to talk of impeachment because that would require the Republicans to turn against him and he still has the support of 75 per cent of Republicans." It's possible the Republicans would start to abandon him in a year or so if he presents a big risk to the midterm election prospects of Congressional Republicans, but "he's not going to go quickly or easily", Fukuyama says. And the people who elected Trump, the right-wing populists, will remain angry, he says, mobilised because "they have been disrespected, they hate the liberal elites for ignoring their interests and looking down on them culturally".
As we mark the 50th anniversary of the referendum that gave the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and finally recognised them in the census, the plight of Australia's Indigenous people remains perhaps the worst blot on our prosperous nation. This is not to say the efforts made, large sums invested and policies tried in the past five decades have not led to some improvements, but the persistent gap between outcomes for Indigenous Australians and the rest of the community is terrible across all measures, including life expectancy, health, employment, incarceration and education. The referendum was 50 years ago, but we still have far to go. Credit:Brendan Esposito The battle to improve lives will be a prominent part of Reconciliation Week, which this year is also focused on another pivotal moment in contemporary Australian history, the High Court's Mabo decision. Twenty-five years ago, after a decade-long case, the decision opened the way for land rights  Native Title  by legally recognising the special relationship Indigenous people have with the land.

Reconciliation Week 2017, which starts on Saturday, is themed "Let's Take the Next Steps". What might some of them be? Experience has shown that the best chance of easing the plight of Australia's first peoples is for Indigenous communities to be directly involved in developing and delivering solutions. A long-sought step is constitutional recognition and negotiating a treaty or treaties. Agreeing on such a pathway looks to be the likely outcome of Australia's first Indigenous constitutional convention, being held at Uluru. Agreement and then unity will be crucial; any proposal must first pass through the Federal Parliament and then gain a majority of votes nationally and in at least four of the six states. Of the 44 referendums ever held in Australia, only eight have succeeded. The Mabo decision was but one of a series of historical moments 25 years ago. Another was the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. There were 339 recommendations, including legislation to ensure imprisonment is a sanction of last resort and that police take all possible steps to eliminate violent or rough treatment of Aborigines. And yet, all these years later, there is not a gap, but a chasm, in incarceration. Imprisonment rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have soared by almost 80 per cent in the past 15 years. Indigenous women are imprisoned at 15 times the rate of the general female population. For Indigenous men and youths, the figures are, respectively, 11 times and 25 times.
As Noel Pearson and others worked on the wording of the Statement from the Heart, into the early hours of Friday morning, the Cape York leader found himself reflecting on the last time a huge effort was mounted to reach a kind of compact between black and white Australia.

It was 10 years ago, in the lead-up to the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, when he and Marcia Langton and Patrick Dodson, the man known as the father of reconciliation, tried to secure a breakthrough moment with a prime minister whose time was running out.

Illustration: Jim Pavlidis

"We thought that in the twilight of the Howard government there might be some softening of the heart and he might seek to remedy his legacy in relation to Indigenous Australians," Pearson explained on ABC radio.

The enterprise fizzled through lack of political will, though John Howard did make a headline-grabbing election-eve gesture: a promise to hold a referendum to recognise Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the constitution as the first Australians if he was returned.
A hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into modernising the electricity grid was told that the AEMC's EIS recommendation last year was based on a range of scenarios .

Anne Pearson, who became chief executive of the rule-making body in February, also said uncertainty about climate change policy beyond 2020 was chilling investment and contradicted the argument than an EIS was less desirable in a market with sky-high gas prices.

The new boss of the Australian Energy Market Commission has described an emissions intensity scheme, currently ruled out by the Turnbull government, as the most effective policy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

"And the reason we came to the conclusion that an emissions intensity scheme was the best way forward and the best, the most appropriate mechanism was because it was the one that worked the best against high gas prices, low gas prices, high demand, low demand or a range of those variables," Ms Pearson said.

Under an emissions intensity scheme, cleaner generators would earn credits they could then sell to dirtier generators. Credit:Jesse Marlow

"It was recommended on the basis of when you look at different variables, which of the mechanisms copes and has the best price outcomes and stability outcomes over time. The other thing we were looking at were the implications for system security, for keeping the lights on as well."

An emissions intensity scheme would impose limits on how much a power station can freely emit. Cleaner generators that emit less than the limit earn credits, and sell them to high-emitting generators above the baseline.

The AEMC's modelling found it would be more cost-effective than alternatives including the renewable energy target and direct government intervention to phase out coal-fired power.
Robin Wright in The Princess Bride. Being typecast is a situation Wright was already familiar with. As a young actor she had to fight past her early fame as a daytime soap-opera ingenue, heiress Kelly Capwell, in Santa Barbara . While other opportunities eventually came her way, changing the notion that she could play only a specific set of emotions was tough. At the 2013 Emmy Awards; accepting her Best Actress Golden Globe for House of Cards in 2014. Credit:Handout "When I think back on my career choices, the movies where I did play characters, I think six people saw those movies, [or] nobody saw them," Wright says. "So they're in the archive, but nobody saw them because they weren't huge blockbuster studio flicks."

Everything changed when House of Cards writer-producer Beau Willimon asked her to portray Claire Underwood. It was this role, perhaps more than any other, that gave Wright the recognition  and the creative freedom  she deserved. It also put a Golden Globe Best Actress award on her mantelpiece. With children Dylan and Hopper at the 2013 Emmy Awards. Credit:Jason LaVeris "I started getting more character off ersand not just the pained, soulful wife role, you know?" she says. "Opportunity was suddenly there and I thought, 'Let's just seize the moment. I want to do all the things.' " Among those things is directing  Wright has so far directed seven episodes of House of Cards and is looking forward to doing more. Robin Wright was born in Dallas, Texas, but raised north of San Diego, in the California coastal town of La Jolla. As a teenager, her family moved to the quiet Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. Her great passion then, she says, was for dance. Though she watched the first emergence of female action heroes in cinema, they weren't her inspirations for becoming an actor.

"Of course I remember seeing Linda Hamilton in Terminator and just going, 'She's badass  of course she is,' " Wright says. "But it didn't feel so separatist, like, whoa, suddenly there's this woman who transcends being the victim." Wright was more affected by the work of actors such as Meryl Streep and films like Silkwood, in which Streep played corporate whistleblower and union activist Karen Silkwood. "That to me was a superhero," Wright says. "Those were more the movies that I responded to." In the years that followed, Wright married twice, first to actor Dane Witherspoon, and then to Sean Penn, with whom she has two children, daughter Dylan, 26, and son Hopper, now 23. While they were growing up, Wright became aware of the lack of strong women characters that could act as role models in her chosen industry. She observes that this may be changing at last, that Wonder Woman is notable as the first Hollywood superhero blockbuster with a female lead character, and that it will be followed by a female Captain Marvel in 2019. Until now, Wright says, the superhero/comic strip genre has been pretty much monopolised by men, "male action heroes, male characters that are strong. And then you get this slew of green-lit projects with women at the helm, fierce women. Fierce."

However, she says it's not a case of "we're bigger and badder and you better treat us as that. We need to get out of the conventional thought process." The director of the Wonder Woman film, Patty Jenkins, has said she sees herself as a feminist and this iteration of Wonder Woman as a feminist narrative. Wright agrees. "The definition of feminism is simply just equality and this female superhero [story] that has now been revamped ... the symbolism is about equality and justice," she says. "This movie goes one step beyond that  it is about justice and about love conquering all." Wright describes Wonder Woman as a beautiful fairy tale. "It illuminates the two sides of the female, which are that she's very strong, she's a warrior, and at the same time she's very sympathetic and empathetic. She believes we have got to save the world and create love and not have war." Though her own character, Antiope, is writ large in Greek mythology  she's the daughter of Ares, the god of war  Wright did not dive too deeply into that. Neither did she pay much attention to the comic-book version of her, where she is the sister of Themiscyra's queen Hippolyta and the aunt of Diana, who becomes Wonder Woman. Rather, she says, she focused on material given to her by co-star Connie Nielsen, who plays Hippolyta. What struck her most powerfully, she says, were images depicting the Amazons running towards danger, not away from it. "That immediately gives you a mental picture," Wright says.

Particularly amusing, she adds, was discovering that before an Amazon agreed to marry a man, she had to fight him. "And if he defeated her,' says Wright, "then he was worthy enough to marry. What a great picture! Literally, don't go easy on me and then I'll marry you if you win." When I ask her if there's a lesson there for the Tinder generation, Wright falls into peals of laughter. "Oh my god, that's hysterical  Tinder. Yeah, maybe there's a whole new app coming out, you know  find your Wonder Woman." Away from the screen, Wright is deeply involved with a number of causes. She works with The Gordie Centre, which addresses issues of peer pressure and alcohol abuse among young people, and the Enough Project, which focuses on genocide and war crimes in Africa. While she doesn't see the choices she makes as an actress as being consciously political, it can be easily argued that stories such as House of Cards and even Wonder Woman deal with a raft of political and social issues. "Storytelling in general can always be interpreted that way," she observes, "and then you have the 'message' this movie is sending  about justice and about love, not war. Some stories are just a mechanism to share a feeling, an emotion, a simple love story or fairy tale, but it definitely becomes political when you have a clear-cut message and story."

As an actress, she says, she has been given the greatest of gifts: an action heroine that will fit in neatly alongside the pantheon of strong, independent women she has played. First among equals, perhaps, is Claire Underwood in House of Cards. "She is very thoughtful about every move, every beat counts," Wright says. It's fun to examine that kind of person. What would she do, what would she not do? And I've loved building those differences every season with Kevin [Spacey]. We're a good team; we're polar opposites but we work so well together." And yet even the formidable Claire Underwood cannot steal the stage from Wright's work in the universally adored The Princess Bride, for which she is still stopped in the street. "It feels like an honour to be part of something so iconic  it is everlasting, like Forrest Gump," she says, referring to her role in the film that took out the Best Picture Oscar in 1995. " The Princess Bride is so beautifully done. I'm so honoured to have been a part of that, and to be part of both those classic films. "I love it when people are, like, ' The Princess Bride is my favourite movie,' " she adds. "It's just such a great movie. It is so original. And I am grateful to be able to look back and go, that's in my scrapbook. How wonderful."

FIVE FACTS: ROBIN WRIGHT She started her career as a model, aged 14. She was one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2014. She became involved with actor Sean Penn in 1989 after his divorce from Madonna. She and Penn broke up, reconciled and filed for divorce numerous times before their final split. She owns two oil wells in Texas.
My daughters and I have finally reached the front of the queue to meet Marvel's Sana Amanat.

Janah, 11, and Serene, 10, have waited almost an hour to meet the woman former United States president Barack Obama once called a "real-life superhero".

Kamala Khan, the Pakistani-American and Muslim teenager who is Ms Marvel.

Amanat, 34, was in Dubai speaking at a literature festival about co-creating the first Muslim superhero, Kamala Khan, a revamp of the classic Ms Marvel character (originally named Carol Danvers and created in 1968).

First introduced in early 2014, Khan is a Muslim, Pakistani-American teenager who fights crime in Jersey City and occasionally teams up with the Avengers.
A mother and her nine-year-old son have been found dead in a suspected murder suicide at a home in Adelaide.

Their bodies were found by police, who went to the Glenelg North home about 11pm on Thursday night.

Due to the sensitive nature of the deaths, police said they would not comment on how the tragedy happened.

Concern was raised by the woman's estranged partner during the afternoon on Thursday, when he couldn't make contact her by phone, police said.
Is it a hoax, or is someone in dire need of help?

An SOS sign made out of rocks has been spotted in a remote part of Western Australia, sparking fears someone - or some people - could be missing.

The SOS sign spotted by a pilot in the Kimberley. Credit:Western Australia Police

How old the sign is, is hard to tell. There are indications someone may have camped nearby.

The distress signal was spotted by a helicopter pilot last week in an area known as Swift Bay, about 120 kilometres west of the Kalumburu Aboriginal Community in the Kimberley region.
A federal public servant has lost a legal bid have the Commonwealth pay more than $100,000 for university degree to help her recover from a workplace injury.

The IP Australia employee thought the $35,000-a-year degree at La Trobe University would be a better return-to-work option than doing a job that was "beneath her", the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was told.

uni degree. Credit:Virginia Star

But federal workplace insurer Comcare feared the university plan would leave the Commonwealth on the hook for years of workers' compensation benefits, running to tens of thousands of dollars a year, as well as the $98,000 tuition fees, HECS payments, text books and materials.

Now, after losing her legal action, the IP Australia worker will have to settle for a $10,000 rehabilitation course aimed at getting her back to work.
Macquarie University professor Mark Taylor, who led the review, found the authority had decided "not to routinely declare all sites where the contamination is significant enough to warrant regulation".

The Environment Protection Authority told a government review that it wanted to avoid "unnecessarily blighting" land values and could be trusted to manage the contamination without its usual public disclosure.

The state's chief environmental watchdog has been keeping "significant" chemical contamination hidden to protect residential property prices, internal documents show.

Housing affordability was the most pressing issue for focus group participants. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Real estate agents and a key environmentalist behind the creation of the state's land contamination laws said they were alarmed that residents throughout the state could be living unknowingly on top of dangerous chemicals.

On Friday, authority chairman and chief executive Barry Buffier said property values were not the "driving factor" in decisions to declare sites significantly contaminated and the authority's chief concern was the protection of human health and the environment.

Mr Buffier said the onus to inform residents about the contamination fell on local councils and the polluters themselves.

The authority's usual practice is to declare land "significantly contaminated" when the site poses an elevated risk to human health or the environment. The process requires that the site be gazetted and listed on its website with a description of contaminants and their possible harm.
Illinois has acknowledged it needs an Information Technology (IT) industry workforce for the future. This new collaboration with IoTTC will provide affordable, state-of-the art online training for individuals interested in working in the Information Technology industry.

Just when it seems there is no good news coming out of Springfield. well, there is. Illinois has partnered with the Internet of Things Talent Consortium (IoTTC) to provide affordable Data Science training for students of all ages.

The Digital Ready Workforce Program

A Microsoft program will be a tool offered to facilitate training to all types of gender, race, and income levels. The coursework is offered online and self-paced.

To receive the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Data Science, individuals must complete 9 courses (at $49 to $99 per course) plus a Capstone project

Each course requires an estimated 16-32 hours of coursework. Courses include: Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Excel, Applied Machine Learning, Data Science Essentials, Developing Intelligent Applications, Essential Statistics for Data Analysis, and Implementing Predictive Solutions

The courses teach the core principles of Data Science, learning programming languages and Data Science tools

The first 500 participants in the program will receive reduced certification costs by 50% (there are currently 71 individuals registered)

In addition, Illinois has received a grant to provide 100 certified Data Science courses for free to inmates at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

To take a look at the coursework and sign-up, visit IoT Talent Consortium and choose the Data Science curriculum.

Future curricula include Cyber Security and other emerging information technology fields of study.

Why Did Illinois Create This Program?

According to the Illinois Competitiveness Council (Cutting the Red Tape), Illinois currently has 21,094 open IT jobs, which is four times the average demand rate in Illinois. The average salary for IT positions is $86,131 per year (compared to the average salary in Illinois of $49,970). Existing open IT jobs represent a $1.8 Billion opportunity in terms of annual salaries.

Illinois created this program to help fill the need for an Information Technology-skilled workforce for the states future.

*Nancy Mathieson has a 30-year career in business, securities regulation and public policy. Nancy held positions at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), where she was a Director of Market Surveillance and managed a professional staff in the investigation of securities trading violations. She also served as Operations Director at Truth in Accounting, a Chicago think-tank whose mission is to promote transparency in government financial reporting. She was a Contributing Editor for WirePoints Illinois News, and is currently Communications Director for Vernon Township G.O.P. in Lincolnshire, IL. Nancy received her B.S. in Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and her M.B.A. from New York University.
Former NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald is expected to be jailed for criminal misconduct after a Supreme Court judge revoked his bail at the end of a dramatic sentencing hearing on Friday.

Macdonald and his political ally, former union boss John Maitland, were led from the dock by corrective services officers and will spend the next week in jail before they are sentenced next Friday.

Former NSW Minister Ian Macdonald is escorted to a prison truck after his sentencing hearing on Friday. Credit:Daniel Munoz

Macdonald was found guilty in March of misconduct in public office for granting a multimillion-dollar coal exploration licence in 2008 to Doyles Creek Mining, a company chaired by Maitland.

Maitland, the former head of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, made $6 million from the deal and was found guilty as an accessory.
"There is one bloke in Macquarie Street who has been working his butt off and doing a damn good job in difficult circumstances, and this is the Primary Industries Minister  Ian Macdonald," enthused broadcaster Alan Jones about the now convicted criminal.

It was almost a decade ago and Jones' fulsome praise of the agriculture minister knew no bounds.

Broadcaster Alan Jones has been very supportive of now disgraced minister Ian Macdonald. Credit:James Brickwood

"I think you should be running the trains, the desalination plant and everything," he gushed.

The reason for the broadcaster's enthusiasm surrounded minister Macdonald's move to ensure that the Hunter Valley's wealthy horse studs weren't crippled by the equine influenza.
There will be only minor changes to the proposal to shake-up Queensland's electorates.

The Queensland Redistribution Commission published its final determination in the Queensland government gazette on Friday morning.

The Brisbane to Gold Coast boundaries under the Queensland Redistribution Commission's final determination. Credit:QEC

It comes after rounds of consultation and outcry by some over changing boundaries and the names of electorates and scrapping seats.

The re-drawing of boundaries includes boosting the number of seats in Parliament from 89 to 93.
"You can't stop it but you can become more resilient, where we can just swat away those particular attacks and it doesn't impact our business," he said. "The difference between being resilient and not being resilient is understanding what's important to you. "It's like how you protect your home. You don't keep your jewellery box near the front door. "You understand what's important to you as a business. It might be your contact list or your pricing, then you put layers of protection around your crown jewels." While it may be scary, this is a new norm. Reserve Bank cyber security chief Andrew Pade.

COSBOA chairman Paul Nielsen said one in five small businesses experienced a cyber extortion attack last year and experts expected this to increase. "It's real and it's not a matter of if but when," he said. "There is no silver bullet that can guarantee to eliminate the problem." Mr Nielsen said COSBOA had adopted a "three pillars" approach that involved education and training; prevention and inoculation; and disaster recovery. The forum heard a new government-funded program would launch later this year or early 2018 to help small business identify cyber security risks and implement protection.

The Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers [CREST] was founded as a not-for-profit company with a one-off grant from the Attorney General's Department. The organisation will provide assessment, accreditation, certification, education and training in cyber security. Chief executive Greg Rudd said a new "penetration test" service would be offered. Mr Rudd said the federal government had committed $15 million to the program for grants of up to $2100 per small business. "We're also looking at developing an automated online test that's free of charge or a small cost to small business that can be used on a regular basis," he said.

"Through that process if you strike a problem, that's when you might have to spend more and get people in, depending on the issue." A communique issued at the end of the forum identified cyber crime as a key risk facing small business along with power outages, communications failures and natural disasters. COSBOA resolved to work with government agencies to promote small business understanding of threats and build capacity to minimise disruption. Chief executive Peter Strong said the aim of the forum had been to increase awareness and develop strategies quickly to combat the risk. "As a business community we need to be on top of this and cultural change is required," he said.

"Twenty years ago most businesses didn't have burglar alarms and now if you haven't gone one it's weird. "That's the culture we want with cyber security. We want people to have protection, to train their staff members and have insurance." Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security Dan Tehan said the government was committed to improving cyber security for small business. "The majority of Australians affected by the recent 'WannaCry' ransomware attack were small businesses, which should be a wake-up call about the importance of cyber security to small business," he said. Mr Tehan said the government's $230 million cyber security strategy included co-funding for matched grants up to $2100 for small business operators to have their cyber security tested by a CREST-approved provider.
Barokes holds international patents for Vinsafe in 17 different countries, including Japan where wine-in-a-can "took off". "What they like is the two glasses of wine in a can, it was tamper proof, easy to chill and came out of a vending machine," says Stokes. "It is consistent like the Starbucks of wine." Greg Stokes in Barokes Wines Tullamarine offices and warehouse. Credit:Penny Stephens The alleged rip-off But in 2009 Stokes was surprised to discover wine-in-a-can labelled Monde Petit Monteria on sale in Japan.

"We bought it from 7-11 in Japan, they had been channelling this product through 7-11 to retail to the consumer. We found it belonged to Daiwa which is part of Nippon steel and Summitomo group. We fronted them and said 'What is going on? We've examined this, it infringes the patent'. We said 'Take it out of the market or take out a licence'." Greg Stokes holding one of the Japanese patents with some of his company's many patents on the wall behind him. Credit:Penny Stephens Stokes says Daiwa didn't want to enter into a licensing deal and agreed to stop selling the Monde Petit Monteria products on the basis Barokes would discuss a method of participating in its business. A deal was struck and in 2012 Daiwa purchased a 60 per cent stake in Barokes for a disputed amount of between $18 and $24 million with the plan for Daiwa to use its clout to supercharge the business globally using Barokes' patents and intellectual property. Barokes Wines' wine-in-a-can product. Credit:Penny Stephens

We are fighters and won't give up, although with every day that goes by it becomes more and more difficult. Greg Stokes, Barokes Wines. But Stokes claims the deal was all a front to rip off Barokes' intellectual property. "They were telling you everything you wanted to hear but refusing to put it on paper," Stokes says. "What we didn't know was they had been accessing our technology. During the time of the build up they were asking to deploy our intellectual property into their filling facility and our pilot line in Japan." Barokes Wines' wine-in-a-can invention. Credit:James Davies Barokes claims Daiwa has instead done secret distribution deals with major Japanese beverage companies such as Seven-Eleven and Kirin in Japan, selling copycat products worth $150 million, and cutting out Barokes.

"They were telling us one thing like a Trojan horse to get in the front door and pass it out the back door to thier own subsidiary company," Stokes says. Stokes claims Daiwa has supported over 45 copy products for nine companies in the Japanese market since 2012 when it partnered with Barokes.  In December 2014 Stokes claims Daiwa, having only supplied $3 million of the agreed funding, said it was pulling its funding. Litigation battles Daiwa and Barokes are now embroiled in litigation in Australia, Japan and China after Stokes and Barics sought leave in April 2015 to commence proceedings in the Victorian Supreme Court against Daiwa for allegedly failing to honour representations about additional funding.

In July 2015 Barokes commenced patent infringement proceedings in China and it has also begun patent infringement proceedings in the Tokyo District Court against four Japanese companies. Daiwa launched its own proceedings in the Victorian Supreme Court in August 2015 to wind up Barokes and remove Stokes as managing director. "It is like a David and Goliath battle here," Stokes says. "These people have pushed in so much funding and used one of the biggest law firms in the world and have just said 'We are going to take this technology and we are going to shut you down while we are doing it'. Daiwa could have just paid a licensing fee. But companies of this size just say 'We don't want a piece of the pie, we want the whole pie'." Barokes is launching further proceedings in the Victorian Supreme Court under the Corporations Act alleging Daiwa has acted in an "oppressive manner" against Barokes. Leave to bring these proceedings was granted by the Supreme Court in June 2016.

"The claim for infringement of the Vinsafe patent is a serious case," Justice Michael Sifris found. "It involves sufficiently complex technical and factual matters that make it extremely difficult, inappropriate, undesirable and indeed unfair for a court to conclude, in the face of rival experts reports, that the claim is not a serious one." Stokes says Barokes wants to get its shares back, get control of its intellectual property back and get a "decent" shareholder on board. Fighting on Stokes and Barics have both remortgaged their homes to fund the litigation across three countries in a three-year battle. "Unfortunately for them we are not people who go away easily, we are going to fight this no matter what it takes us," Stokes says. "We know we have a good invention. What we are doing is licensing Australian wineries and giving them an edge that nobody else in the world has got. Imagine if you had patented the cask, or the screw cap, they are both Australian inventions. We should be a $100 million company by now."
An associate of drug kingpin Mohammed Oueida, who was gunned down as he left a Melbourne mosque last month, has been bashed by armed men outside another mosque.

The 41-year-old man had finished Friday prayers at Olsen Place Mosque in Broadmeadows when he was approached by four members of a notorious crime family, who were brandishing knives and a gun.

When the man tried to flee he was chased, punched in the head and then warned not to speak to police about the incident. He suffered no serious injuries.

A police spokesman confirmed they were investigating Friday's assault.
Alleged Bourke Street killer Dimitrious "Jimmy" Gargasoulas has told a court the Illuminati were to blame for the fatal attack, claimed he was privy to the secrets of the Freemasons and insisted that the government was controlling his life.

Mr Gargasoulas, who allegedly killed six people, including two children, on January 20 by driving a car at pedestrians, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday via video link.

Alleged Bourke Street killer Dimitrious "Jimmy" Gargasoulas

He interrupted his lawyer's discussion about future court hearings, saying: "Your honour, I was under extreme stress which caused me to have a mental breakdown".

In a short stream of consciousness, Mr Gargasoulas also said he held the "key to Freemasons treasure" and declared "It's not fair that my life is being controlled by the government".
Melbourne's CBD will soon have bollards, loudspeakers and more CCTV cameras to prevent terrorism and stop vehicle attacks, according to Lord Mayor Robert Doyle.

Cr Doyle said the 30 new CCTV cameras, with loudspeakers attached to them, would be installed in the CBD in the wake of the Bourke Street Mall tragedy and similar incidents overseas.

He could not say exactly where the cameras, speakers and bollards would be located - only confirm that the new security measures would be installed quickly.

"They will all be in as soon as we can get them in. We are identifying with police the locations for the extra 30 cameras, just as we are for the bollards we think we need to put in to protect against vehicle attack," he said.
After living in a 35 hectare dam next to the Hazelwood power station for about 18 months, Victoria's unique barramundi population has gone on a pre-winter move.

They have swum out of the main body of water in the "Hazelwood pondage" and into a "hot water channel" in search of warmer water.

Mitch Chapman with a large barramundi recently caught in the Hazelwood pondage in the Latrobe Valley. Credit:Fisheries Victoria

It's a short distance, but it could prove to be a life-saving move. The area where they have congregated houses a pipe that continuously delivers warm water from an aquifer underneath the nearby Hazelwood coal mine.

Fisheries Victoria recently used a boat with electrofishing equipment in the colder parts of the dam, which allowed them to temporarily stun fish, net them and transport them to the warm water for release.
A convicted child sex offender and arsonist who wants to keep Mandurah safe has launched a Facebook page urging the public to "name and shame" criminals.

Paul John Willis set up the Crime Watch Mandurah page in late 2016, not long after he was released from prison where he served time for deliberately lighting fires in Collie in 2014.

Paul Willis said his criminal past has nothing to do with his name and shame page in Mandurah.

In 2011, Mr Willis was convicted of two counts of indecently dealing with a 13-year-old.

He was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment when he was found guilty after trial in the District Court.
A man associated with the so-called "Evil 8" who failed to turn up to court this week has been located in New South Wales, more than 3,700km from Perth, after several days on the run.

Alfred John Impicciatore was due to face trial in the WA District Court this week over allegations he sexually abused a girl aged between 11 and 13 but failed to turn up to court, so an arrest warrant was issued.

'Evil 8" accused Alfred John Impicciatore was believed to be travelling to the eastern states with 40-year-old Rachel Galvin. Credit:WA Police

Police put out a statement on Thursday afternoon claiming Mr Impicciatore may be travelling to the eastern states in a red Nissan Pulsar with 40-year-old Rachel Galvin.

WA Police announced on Friday afternoon Mr Impicciatore, 46, had been found in NSW.
Philippine troops backed by helicopters and tanks launched "precision" strikes on extremists linked to Islamic State as the death toll in a besieged southern city rose to more than 46, with dozens wounded.

Authorities believe militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, who is on Washington's most wanted list, is still in hiding in Marawi, a city of 200,000 on Mindanao island, 830 kilometres south of Manila, where fighting has raged since Tuesday.

Attack helicopters fired rockets into buildings where heavily-armed militants were holed up threatening to kill hostages, including local priest Father Chito Suganob and at least 10 parishioners.

By Friday morning at least 40 militants were believed to still be in the city.
Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem. Credit:AP Historically, Israel has sought to exclude any foreign involvement - save for Washington - from its negotiation with the Palestinians. But by the time, as he put it, Trump "got back from the Middle East" to Israel, the President wanted it known that he and his new Sunni friends saw an Israeli settlement with the Palestinians as essential to a new regional alignment. In persuading Trump to make Riyadh his first stop on his first overseas trip, Saudi King Salman was able to dust off Riyadh's moribund, 15-year-old proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict  recognition of Israel by the 22-member Arab League in return for a withdrawal to the pre-1967 truce lines; the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a Palestinian state  with East Jerusalem as its capital; and a "just" solution on the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and US President Donald Trump review an honour guard in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Credit:AP The President dodged talk of recognising disputed Jerusalem as Israel's capital  "that's an idea", he told Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a champion of the settlers, as though it was the first time he had heard it.

The Saudis, Riedel says, "played Trump like a fiddle". Still nauseous over the nuclear deal with Tehran, by which then President Barack Obama and other world powers freed Iran from isolation and a raft of crippling economic sanctions, King Salman feted and flattered Trump, rounding up dozens of Arab and Muslim leaders to celebrate his arrival in the birthplace of Islam - the religion Trump repeatedly traduced as a candidate. Donald Trump meets with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa in Riyadh on May 21. Credit:AP There has been something of a thaw between Israel and the Gulf states, driven by mutual worries about Iran. At the same time, the Palestinian cause has been relegated in regional priorities by the immediacy of war and chaos in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, and the impact of low oil prices. Yet at stops in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Trump made not a single mention of the much-vaunted two-state solution or any other preferred outcome between Israelis and Palestinians; and nothing about Jewish settlements, or of the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. This image provided by an activist who requested anonymity shows people carrying a man injured in a police raid on a sit-in, in Diraz, Bahrain, on Tuesday.

In his Riyadh speech, Trump argued that defeating extremist ideology and terrorism "transcends every other consideration". But just as his predecessor George W. Bush selected Iraq as an enemy of choice when he might have focused solely on al-Qaeda - with disastrous consequences - Trump's decision to focus on Iran raises fears that his eye might be taken off Islamic State. Bahraini security forces during a raid on the sit-in demonstration in Diraz. An activist said one protester was killed. And by abandoning even a pretense of fealty to the human rights of people in the region, Trump defaulted to a military-only response to terrorism, thereby empowering corrupt and calcified autocracies to use their mostly US-supplied and trained security apparatuses to brutally suppress minorities and stamp out political opposition. Any doubt about Trump's acceptance of force as a first response was allayed by the coincidental release in Manila of the transcript of a phone call Trump placed to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, to congratulate him on the government-sanctioned slaughter of thousands of drug suspects: "I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem  what a great job you're doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that."

Shares of three major US defence contractors - Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon - hit all-time highs after US President Donald Trump bestowed Saudi Arabia with a $US110 billion arms deal. Credit:AP In Bahrain, where a Shiite majority is locked down by a minority Sunni monarchy propped up by Saudi Arabian troops, the response to Trump's speech was immediate: one of the harshest crackdowns since the "Arab Spring" protests of 2011, leaving five dead and hundreds in detention. Trump invariably gets into trouble for what he says. But like many commentators, Riedel was troubled more by what the President did not say in Riyadh. Ashwaq and Areej al-Harby, Saudi teenagers who tried to flee their family alleging they were abused. Credit:Twitter Riedel writes: "[Trump] did not discuss Saudi Arabia's decades of promoting intolerance and extremism in the Muslim world. Human rights and gender equality were given little attention. The focus was on the Muslim world uniting behind Washington and Riyadh against terrorism and Iran."

The rights of Saudi citizens are circumscribed; the public practice of any religion other than Islam is banned; and the worst crimes are punished by IS-style beheadings, with the amputation of limbs and public lashings for lesser infractions. And lest there be another outbreak of popular sentiment in the region, the regime busies itself propping up thuggish security regimes in Bahrain and Egypt. Supporters of President Hassan Rouhani celebrate his re-election holding a sign that reads "Rouhani 100%". Credit:Getty Images Fifteen of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis; as many as 2500 Saudis signed up as IS fighters; and when IS was searching for school texts to match its cruel and intolerant outlook, where did it go? To Saudi Arabia, home of the puritanical 18th-century strain of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. Farah Pandith, who served both the Bush and Obama administrations, reported after travels in 80 countries as an envoy to Muslim communities: "In each place I visited, the Wahhabi influence was an insidious presence, changing the local sense of identity; displacing historic, culturally vibrant forms of Islamic practice; and pulling along individuals who were either paid to follow [Wahhabi] rules or who, on their own, became custodians of the Wahhabi world view. Illustration: Richard Giliberto

"Funding all this was Saudi money, which paid for things like the textbooks, mosques, TV stations and the training of imams." In examining Trump's call to "drive them [the terrorists and extremists] out", expert advisers to previous Republican administrations were scathing. Former counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke said: "Unless governments and Islamic religious leaders can address the underlying causes of the terrorist movements, they will be unable to 'drive them out'. "Oppressive regimes that attempt to solve the terrorist problem simply with force actually strengthen the terrorist's cause, by pushing more young men to the cause. Thus, Trump's blank cheque to do whatever it takes to 'drive them out' will actually make things worse." In explaining why a military approach would fail, former assistant secretary of state Elliott Abrams pointed to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia: "Trump complimented Bahrain in his speech, saying it 'is working to undermine recruitment and radicalism'. This is quite wrong. The Sunni royal family's oppression of the country's [Shiite] majority is in fact creating a breeding ground for radicalism and opening a door for Iranian subversion.

"Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi Islam is at least a gateway drug for extremism  [this] version of Islam treats unbelievers with contempt and often hatred, oppresses women, and opposes democracy." Scholars too were strident in their criticism  among them, Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "We are picking one side in this geopolitical struggle, and there is very little room for grey," he said. "Sectarianism is a byproduct of this geopolitical rivalry  It is feeding into the Gulf [Arab] narrative, where they project a lot of their insecurities about domestic politics outward and onto the Islamic Republic of Iran, but is Iran the source of all evil in the region? No." In the affairs of a region where transnational interference is de rigueur, Iran is no saint. But the error of Trump's new stand, as analysts see it, is his heaping of blame for all of the region's ills on Shiite Tehran, especially in an era in which the vast bulk of terrorist attacks in the region and the world are by the Sunni adherents of IS and al-Qaeda. While Trump drew his line between good and evil, Iranians were dancing in the streets to celebrate an election in which they had voted by the million to re-elect Hassan Rouhani, a reform-minded president, who in response to the lashing from Trump in Riyadh quipped that Saudis had never seen a ballot box.
London: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday the close relationship between US and British intelligence agencies would survive the strain of recent leaks as investigators seek to unravel a suspected network linked to the terrorism bombing in Manchester.

Tillerson's remarks came during a trip to Britain to offer condolences after Monday's suicide blast that killed 22 people - even as British leaders expressed displeasure at leaks related to the bombing investigation that they blamed on US authorities.

The rare dispute with Washington's closest intelligence partner flared Thursday when police authorities in Manchester briefly interrupted sharing information with their American counterparts.

The cooperation later resumed after President Trump assured Prime Minister Theresa May that he would crack down on leaks.
SATURDAY MORNING LIVE! - Auto Lab Talk Radio LIVE From New York Saturday May 27, 2017 7-9 AM







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Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

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Auto Lab Correspondents Report Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That May effect You!

Broadcast Date: May 27, 2017

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VOLVO S90 R DESIGN SALOON APPRAISAL

Sharon Sudol & John Russell Senior Correspondents

INTERVIEWING MARY WENNERSTROM ABOUT GREENWICH CONCOURS

Russ Rader, Vice President Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

WITH IMPROVED CRASH PROTECTION, BMW 5 SERIES EARNS TOP IIHS AWARD

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AAA MEMORIAL DAY 2017 TRAVEL PROJECTIONS
Honoring the helpers Awards recognize those who support autism community

Thirteen community members and providers were recognized for their resilience, passion and heart at the 2022 Awesome in Autism Awards ceremony. The 14th annual event, hosted by Autism Society Ventura County, was held Oct. 20 at Wood Ranch Golf Club...

Go purple to support those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer November is the busiest month of the year for cancer awareness campaigns. Im going to focus on one of thempancreatic cancer because its a type weve seen a noticeable rise in over the last few years. And because it remains...

Hospital offers safe option to dispose of meds, narcotics Los Robles Health System is working to crush the opioid drug crisis by raising awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse and the importance of safe and proper disposal of unused or expired medications. Crush the Crisis will take place...

Alzheimers Foundation to host free conference The Alzheimers Foundation of America will host a free virtual educational conference from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tues., Nov. 15. The event is part of the foundations 2022 national Educating America Tour. The conference, which is free and open...
Donald Trump stood outside a Carrier manufacturing plant in Indianapolis, Indiana weeks before taking office and boasted he just saved 1,100 jobs from being shipped to Mexico.

Inside the plant, some workers were skeptical. Carrier had promised layoffs, which Trump glossed over in his claim to save over 1,000 jobs.

On Monday, these workers were proven right. Though Trump struck a deal with Carrier promising them $7 million in local business incentives if they kept their Indianapolis plant open, the heating and cooling company warned that it would still outsource a number of Indiana jobs to Mexico, regardless. But the Trump campaign still championed the deal as a win for American workers. This week, the Carrier announced it will cut 632 jobs from its Indiana plant by the end of the year.

For labor leaders like Chuck Jones, the layoffs are a grim told-you-so moment. Jones is president of the United Steelworkers 1999, which represents employees at Carriers Indianapolis plant.

We knew sometimewhether it be June, July, or Augustwe were gonna lose 300, 350, somewhere in that vicinity, because they were going to start moving the fan cool lines to Monterrey, Mexico, Jones told The Daily Beast.

In a Monday letter, Carrier put a timeline on its layoffs, announcing that it would eliminate 338 jobs by July 20, and another 290 by Dec. 20. To some employees who expected to be laid off, but did not know when, the announcement was almost a relief.

Its been received well because its given the people some clarity as to a date, Robert James, a Carrier employee who also serves as vice president of United Steelworkers 1999. Now if theyre applying for jobs, they can give a start time.

The company had openly promised the layoffs even while Trump was celebrating the companys decision to keep its Indianapolis plant open.

While this announcement is good news for many, we recognize it is not good news for everyone, Carrier wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to employees, the same day Trump rallied outside the plant. We are moving forward with previously announced plans to relocate the fan coil manufacturing lines, with the expected completion by the end of 2017.

But Trumps speech that day gave no indication of the impending layoffs. Instead, Trump predicted his deal would lead to new Carrier jobs.

So many people in that big, big beautiful plant behind uswhich will be even more beautiful in about seven months from nowtheyre so happy. Theyre gonna have a great Christmas, Trump said at his Dec. 1 rally outside the Carrier plant. That numbers going to go up very substantially as they expand in this area, this plant. So the 1,100s gonna be a minimum number.

Some employees who believed Trumps promises are now destined for disappointment, Jones said.

There are some people who feel they were misled. Because he misled them, Jones said. With him saying what he did that day, and not saying... that 550 jobs were still going to leave that facility and go to Mexico. Carrier is most likely to lay off its least-senior employees, Jones said.

James said he was among a number of employees who appreciated Trumps gesture to keep the Carrier plant open, but did not expect the move to prevent layoffs.

We probably didnt expect it to happen, no, James said. I am appreciative of what took place. But there are still 500-some people who are going to be unemployed. And he bragged about saving 1,100 jobs.

Trump knew his deal would lead to layoffs, but touted the 1,100 figure in front of employees anyway, Jones said.

He promised during the campaign that if he was president he would keep all these jobs here in this country. And then when he did work out the deal with [Carrier parent company United Technologies Corporation], he came into the facility and kept saying he saved over 1,100 jobs. Thats where me and him ended up getting sideways, Jones said, referencing a December spat between him and the president-elect.

After Trump failed to mention the major layoffs during his December speech, Jones told The Washington Post that Trump got up there and, for whatever reason, lied his ass off.

Trump retaliated on Twitter. Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country! Trump tweeted of the local union leader, adding that If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues.

Now, as Carrier warned on the day of Trumps triumphant speech outside the plant, the jobs are leaving Indiana anyway.

It wasnt a shock by no means, Jones said.
By Karen Jowers, Military Times

WASHINGTONA senior mortuary employee at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware twice offered horrified inspectors a peek at American icon John Glenns dead body while the famed astronaut awaited burial last year, according to an internal memo obtained by Military Times.

The disturbing allegation has outraged Pentagon officials and sparked a top-level investigation to determine whether misconduct was committed. The memo, written by Deborah Skillman, the Defense Departments director of casualty and mortuary affairs, states the employees alleged actions were clearly inappropriate and personally shocking. The document is dated May 11.

Glenn, who in 1962 became the first American to orbit Earth, was 95 when he died Dec. 8. A combat-decorated Marine, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors April 6, on what wouldve been his 74th wedding anniversary.

Glenns family asked the Air Force to care for his remains in the interim, a request that was granted to ensure an increased level of privacy and security for a renowned public servant, Marine Corps officer, and pioneer of space exploration, Skillmans memo states. It was during that time, first on Feb. 28 and again on March 2, when William Zwicharowski, the mortuarys branch chief, offered to allow the inspectors to view the deceased. Skillman was among them.

Moreover, she wrote, this offer to view the remains was also made in the presence of, and observed by, junior personnel on the Dover Mortuary Branch staff.

Skillman, who led the inspection team that traveled to Dover, immediately alerted the mortuarys deputy commander and asked him to address the matter with Zwicharowski.

Concerning to me, her memo states, is that even after Mr. Zwicharowski was counseled by his chain of command regarding the inappropriate nature of his earlier offer, he repeated it. This breach of protocol is serious and troubling as these offers were made to members of an official Department of Defense inspection team on-site to inspect the facility and determine whether it was in compliance with applicable procedures and policy and being well-run by its leadership.

One defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: If he did that with our inspection team, who else did he make that offer to?

Military Times made multiple attempts to contact Zwicharowski. All were unsuccessful.

The Glenn family has been notified of the allegations, officials said. Attempts to reach them were not successful either.

Based on the inspection teams concerns, newly appointed Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has directed the services inspector general to investigate, said Col. Patrick S. Ryder, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon.

The Air Force takes extremely seriously its responsibility to fulfill the nations sacred commitment of ensuring dignity, honor, and respect to the fallen and care, service, and support to their families, Ryder said. At the conclusion of the investigation, the Air Force will determine what further corrective actions, if any, may be necessary and appropriate. If any allegations of misconduct are substantiated, those involved will be held accountable.

Skillman noted in her memo that Zwicharowski made comments indicating he believed the inspection was an act of reprisal for having exposed, six years prior, how the mortuary mishandled the remains of some fallen service members returning home from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. She disputes that in memo, writing it is important to note that this inspection was pursuant to a new DoD inspection policy, and three other sites had been inspected prior to the teams inspection of Dover.

Its unclear what that new policy entails, though Ryder said the mortuary passed its inspection with a score of 94 percent.

Zwicharowski, along with two other mortuary employees, was at the center of a whistle-blower scandal that revealed body parts had gone missing or were disposed of improperly. They were subsequently honored with Public Servant of the Year awards after nearly being fired for going outside their chain of command to report what they believed were code violations, public-health dangers, and gross mismanagement.

In a 2013 interview with William H. McMichael of the Delaware News Journal, Zwicharowski said: I want to guarantee the families of our fallen, in the past and in the future, that theyre treated with honor, dignity and respect here at Dover. As long as Im here, theyll be treated that way.

This article was originally published by Military Times, an independent media network with a proud, longstanding reputation for producing hard-knuckle accountability journalism. Based in Washington, its titles include Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times.
Like a dad scolding a kid who has skipped his chores, President Donald Trump put NATO members on notice, bawling out the almost two dozen members who havent spent enough on defense.

It was one of many ways in which Trumps debut at the worlds most important military alliance was more like a campaign speech than a diplomatic address.

Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what theyre supposed to be paying for their defense, Trump said on Thursday to the assembled leaders, in his first visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, he said, adding that the U.S. had spent more on defense over the last eight years than all other NATO countries combined.

It was a jarring lecture as NATO allies stood shoulder to shoulder after unveiling a plaque memorializing how they all responded to Americas request for help after al Qaeda attacked New York and Washington.

Trump followed the dressing down with a slightly snarky aside saying, I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost, referring to the gleaming new billion-dollar NATO headquarters he just helped open and hinting it probably cost too much. It was a rare flash of campaign trail Trump in the carefully choreographed official remarks during his whistle-stop overseas tour that has hopscotched from Saudi Arabia to Israel to Rome to Belgium and goes on to Sicily.

The trip, arranged by his son-in-law and one of his closest White House advisers, Jared Kushner, sketched out the foreign policy goals of his presidency: defeating the so-called Islamic State and al Qaeda; bringing peace to Israelis and Palestinians; and shoring up foreign alliances so the U.S. doesnt have to bear what the Trump administration considers an unfair burden of blood and treasure to police world instability.

For his base, calling on NATO members to pay up is a key tenet of his America First policy. Only four other NATO members, Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland, invest two percent of their gross domestic product in defense and the rest have pledged to meet the requirement by 2024. But thats not fast enough for the Trump administration. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the members two months ago that they should present a plan to meet that goal at this meeting.

They didnt, but NATOs Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said they would eventually. We decided to develop annual national plans, setting out how allies intend to meet the defense investment pledge we made together in 2014, he said. The State Department declined to comment on the 23 nations failure to deliver.

Trump telegraphed disdain for at least some members of NATO when he visibly shoved Prime Minister Dusko Markovic of Montenegro out of the way to get closer to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a video clip sure to become a meme of the ugliest expression of America First.

I am somewhat perplexed when youre at a ceremony that is centered around Article 5, which he said shows U.S. commitment just by taking part. He called the criticism that the president didnt verbally affirm that commitment almost laughable.

Trump did mention NATOs Article 5 in his remarks, which requires all allies to respond to any member under attack, by recognizing the first and only time it was triggered was by the U.S., asking for help after 9/11.

Some members had hoped Trump would go further and repudiate his campaign trail remarks in which he warned broadly that he might not come to the aid of countries who hadn't met their two percent investment targeta hope Trumps press secretary Sean Spicer derided in remarks to reporters after the event.

I am somewhat perplexed when youre at a ceremony that is centered around Article 5, which he said shows U.S. commitment just by taking part. He called the criticism that the president didnt verbally affirm that commitment almost laughable.

Instead, Trump used his reference to Article 5, combined with the suicide bomb attack in northern England on Monday, to pivot to his belief that NATO should turn its sights on militants as one of its primary missions.

The recent attack on Manchester demonstrates the depths of the evil we face with terrorism, he said, referring to the suicide bombing that killed 22 people including children as they were leaving an Ariana Grande concert. It was a barbaric and vicious attack on our civilization.

Trump has previously claimed credit for NATO counterterror programs that started before his campaign or presidency. After this visit, however, hell be able to claim credit for pushing a proposal the NATO leaders approved Thursday to join the 69-member ISIS coalition. That gives Trump a deliverable for his basealbeit, somewhat limited, in that most NATO members are already part of the anti-ISIS coalition.

NATO chief Stoltenberg gave Trump one more deliverable Thursday, announcing the establishment of a terrorism intelligence cell within our new intelligence division, to improve information sharing on the foreign fighter threat.

Trump revisited his speech Sunday to Arab and Muslim leaders, calling on NATO members to help eject these killers and extremists and yes, losers, they are losers."

Once again, there was no use of his one-time catchphrase on the subject, radical Islamic terrorism, that apparently having been erased by the studious efforts of his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who finds the phrase causes more harm than good, alienating the large majority of Muslims who the U.S. needs to cooperate to battle extremism.

So instead of slamming radical Islamic ideology in the NATO address, he said of the Saudi summit, Leaders agreed to stop funding the radical ideology that leads to this horrible terrorism all over the globe.

Trump sprinkled the speech with incomplete phrases hed used on the campaign, like signposts for his base that show hes still aiming at resolving the same issues though using more tempered language.

You have thousands and thousands of people pouring into our various countries and spreading throughout, and in many cases, we have no idea who they are, he said, when calling on NATO to do more on immigration to fight terrorism. That line was a clear if unintended homage to his campaign trail press release calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our countrys representatives can figure out whats going on.

In another appeal to Trump voters who fear an influx of Mideast terrorists via refugee flows or Latin American fence-jumpers who would steal American jobs and commit crimes against its people, he deployed lines like this: We must drive them out and never ever let them back in.

The White House pool reporter (Philip Rucker of The Washington Post) wrote that at times during the ceremony, "Trump crossed his arms and fidgeted slightly, looking around at the scene before him or staring down at his feet." When the meeting adjourned, and some of the other leaders stopped to mingle, Trump talked to no one and walked out alone.

This story was updated to correct the name of the Prime Minister of Montenegro.
LONDONIn trouble with global allies, Donald Trump apparently has sided with the British Prime Minister against members of his own government in an attempt to defuse the most poisonous diplomatic row in generations of the so-called special relationship.

At a moment of national trauma, Britain felt betrayed as never before by the United States. Intimate details of the investigation into a savage killer and his network of jihadi accomplices has been undermined by repeated leaks to the American media.

Within hours of an improvised nail bomb ripping into a crowd of kids and their parents in Manchester, Englandkilling 22 and wounding 50 morethe U.S. intelligence agencies were passing crucial information from the investigation straight to the American media.

After increasingly desperateand unprecedentedpublic appeals from senior British officials for the U.S. intel community to stop, the New York Times was handed crime scene photographs of the bloodstained lobby where Salman Abedi is believed to have detonated his deadly weapon.

That was the final straw. The BBC reported that the British security services stopped sharing intelligence with their American counterparts, and Prime Minister Theresa May made an extraordinary television statement in which she said she would confront the U.S. president at Thursdays NATO summit. I will make clear to President Trump that intelligence that is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure, she said.

The House Intelligence Committees top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff said: The British government has every right to be furious.

Although a senior U.S. intelligence official suggested to The Daily Beast that the public outrage was partly motivated by frustration, not least since Mays previous role as Home Secretary had been to oversee security and intelligence operations. Theyre embarrassed about this, they had him [Abedi] on their list, had his travels documented, knew his father, had files on all these people. They were watching him, but not well enough, the official said.

Trump responded to Mays anger by ordering a Department of Justice probe into the source of the information. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security, he said, in a statement released by the White House. If appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The leaks had shattered a fundamental principle of intelligence: Always deny your opponent knowledge of what you know, when you knew it, and how you know it.

This weeks bomber may have been no more than a brain-washed mule, a subsidiary to the terror operation, which means the key objectiveand an urgent oneis to find the support group behind the attack, the cell, and beyond the cell the network.

There are all sorts of leads here to Libya, and also many failures on the part of the British intelligence and security services: the failure to intercept the planning, the failure to track the mule. Where were the ingredients for the explosive acquired? The crime scene pictures offer clues to all of these matterspotentially revealing the architecture of the backpack bomb, the identity of the people involved; the materials and the provenance of its design.

Every one of these details is compromised simply by the release of these pictures, arguably making the New York Times an accessory to aiding and abetting the enemy.

This is unprecedented in the history of the special relationship, said former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, in an email to The Daily Beast.

It is extremely rare for an intelligence partner to stop sharing information, said Shawn Turner, former spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence. He couldnt recall a time that this happened during an active investigation.

He said information shared with the United States from an ally about a terrorist attack gets distributed as U.S. officials think necessary across the intelligence agencies, the FBI and law enforcement. The information also gets briefed to a small number of people on Capitol Hill, so there are a number of places it couldve leaked out other than intelligence community, he added.

Chris Abbott, the executive director of Open Briefing, an international team of former military and intelligence officers, told The Daily Beast that the leaking by U.S. officials had spun out of control.

Revealing the bombers name and crime-scene photographs that detail elements of the bomb may have jeopardized an ongoing counter-terrorism operation and a criminal investigation. This puts lives at risk. The U.S. government urgently needs to get a handle on how it treats information from its allies. But this is going to be difficult when the man currently at the top has such a cavalier attitude to intelligence, he said.

Trump has had a tumultuous relationship with U.S. intelligence agenciespublicly doubting their findings at, at times, likening them to Nazis. The president has previously admitted to sharing classified intelligence about the inner workings if ISIS during an Oval office meeting with the Russians. It will be far more difficult to work out who was responsible for the leaks on the Manchester attack.

Shawn Turner, former spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence, said information shared with the United States from an ally about a terrorist attack gets distributed as U.S. officials think necessary across the intelligence agencies, the FBI and law enforcement, as per who they think needs to know what to guard against a similar attack in United States. The information also gets briefed to a small number of people on Capitol Hill, so there are a number of places it couldve leaked out other than intelligence community, he added.

One senior intelligence official, who has worked in several sectors of the intelligence community under both Republican and Democrat administrations, told The Daily Beast that any increase in leaks during this counter-terror operation was likely part of the ongoing effort by some Obama era holdovers to make Trump appear weak and incompetent, although he had no specific information about the origin of these leaks.

Theres a lot of insidious kind of bullshit going on where theyre putting stuff out there in the media to make POTUS look bad, he said.

On the other hand, Trumps strongest point of common ground with other world leaders is the fight against the terrorists he calls evil losers, and the American leaks, which came at a time when British officials were being especially cautious about assigning responsibility, intensified the specific focus on Islamic terrorism.

There should be no sense of anger on our part, rather a sense of disappointment and embarrassment in our own performance, said former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden in an email to The Daily Beast. This is British information that is shared on the condition that we will follow British rules. They have an absolute right to do what they did. It should be a lesson for us.

With additional reporting by Kim Dozier.
The College Station City Council approved the rezoning of about 369 acres of rural land in the southern part of town for a subdivision that's estimated to bring about 1,000 homes to the area.

The council unanimously OK'd rezoning the land between Greens Prairie Road West and Arrington Road south of Whites Creek Lane with no discussion. Seven people, meanwhile, spoke against the change from rural to restricted suburban uses during the public hearing, and more silently expressed their displeasure through the small signs they held, a red "X" slashed through "rezoning."

The developer of the subdivision, Hunter Goodwin, said he sympathizes with the residents of the Nantucket, Castlegate, South Oaks, Indian Lakes and other neighborhoods who attended Thursday's meeting. "I understand that it is not easy," Goodwin said of the growing pains the residents were experiencing, but said he pleads that they recognize that the development of the land was identified by former elected officials years ago as a place appropriate to support demands for more single-family homes.

"I am a developer, but I'm also a neighbor. It makes no sense for Hunter Goodwin to destroy this community," Goodwin said. "I am putting all of my heart and soul into this subdivision, and I want it to be the pride and joy of this community as a whole, and from a capital standpoint it makes no sense to anger and irritate all of my immediately adjacent neighbors."

The restricted suburban zoning allows for larger lots with a minimum average size of 10,000 square feet and a maximum density of four lots per acre. After accounting for parkland dedication, right of way, roads and more during the upcoming preliminary planning stage, Goodwin said he estimates enough acreage will remain for about 1,000 homes.

In 2014, the city's Comprehensive Plan Five-Year Evaluation and Appraisal Report identified the need for a land-use change for portions of the area, and a year later the council amended the future land use from estate to restricted suburban. That change included the land rezoned Thursday, known as the Margraves tract.

Like similar contentious zoning changes in south College Station, residents opposed the rezoning citing the potential for increased cut-through traffic in existing neighborhoods, a change in their quality of life, decreased property values and other concerns. They also questioned the traffic impact analysis performed as part of the rezoning, and expressed concern particularly for whether Arrington Road and Greens Prairie Road have the capacity to handle an increase in vehicles to the area.

"At some point you have to decide how many people you want crammed into an area, and that decision is in your hands," said Indian Lakes resident Elizabeth Varvel, adding that while College Station is known for its rural and agricultural traditions, "at this point we're really feeling that we're losing those."

A number of roadway improvements are already planned for the area, totaling about $16.8 million, according to Mitchell & Morgan Engineers, which represents the developer of the subdivision. Those include Brazos County's extension of Mesa Verda Drive and Cherokee Drive to Texas 6, the city's plans for install a traffic signal at the intersection of Greens Prairie Road West and Arrington Road and the widening of Greens Prairie Road West to four lanes.

Goodwin said he'll also spend $3 million for roadway improvements, including $2.7 million for a spine roadway that will connect Greens Prairie Road West and Arrington Road and dual left turn lanes at Greens Prairie Road West.

Goodwin added that he also plans to pass deed restrictions on the subdivision that will limit homes to having no more than two unrelated occupants and rule out short-term rentals.

"I've put a lot of time into this," Goodwin said of the development. "It was done with great thought and great intention."

He plans on inviting neighbors to contribute to the preliminary planning stage of the subdivision, which is the next step of the process when street networks and lots are laid out.
Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University professor Raymond Robertson has been studying the North American Free Trade Agreement since its origins nearly 25 years ago and says the negative effects have been more widely discussed recently than its benefits.

President Donald Trump's administration has announced an intention to renegotiate the deal, which has brought NAFTA back into the public spotlight.

While Robertson said there are certainly Americans who have been negatively impacted by the deal since its implementation -- and are "rightfully" upset about it -- he added there are many people who don't even realize the positives it has afforded the average citizen.

"Trade can be really complicated and people are busy," Robertson said. "It's really difficult to sit down and make the time to deeply understand these issues... So people often end up relying on places where you might not be getting the whole story, and that's been a big part of the problem with NAFTA. There are no cheerleaders out there listing the benefits."

He said a few of the most common places where Americans see a benefit from NAFTA include through produce at the grocery store and some areas of the manufacturing industry where parts are imported from Mexico at a cheaper price to keep production costs down.

"For just about anyone who goes grocery shopping or buys appliances like toasters or TVs, the price for those is lower than it would have been otherwise," Robertson said. "But that is really difficult for people [to visualize] because you don't know what the prices would have been otherwise. You don't always feel those benefits but they're there. People are being affected without really knowing, 'Oh, this is a NAFTA avocado.' "

If the deal were to be canceled altogether, Robertson said he would expect to see a rise in the cost of imported goods for consumers and the potential for industry layoffs to account for more costly imported parts -- something he is particularly worried about for Texas.

"We really rely on integrated production in everything from cars to cows," he said. "They go back and forth, so that would be a big risk."

Robertson said it "surgical retaliation" from Mexico is also a possiblity. He said the U.S. neighbor to the south has the ability to put tariffs on American goods, targeting particular production areas resulting in "localized damage."

Bringing the deal back into negotiation does have potential to yield some positive benefits to the U.S., however, Robertson said.

He said updating the agreement to redefine the parameters of what counts as a NAFTA-protected product is one modernization that would yield beneficial results. He said since the deal was put in place, Mexico specifically has started producing a wider range of products through expanded capabilities. With that change, Robertson said it might be reasonable for the agreement to be updated to include a higher domestic content requirement for the nation so that NAFTA-protected products would need to include a higher percentage of Mexico-North American origin to qualify than previously expected.

Another change -- which he described as a "pie-in-the-sky" item -- would be the inclusion of migration policy. Robertson said there is even precedent for the inclusion of the topic in similar modern agreements and that NAFTA negotiators could look to Europe and South America as examples of how to craft the policy.

"It might be an opportunity for us to work out what we feel is reasonable migration, what the laws should be or how to let people in instead of the way we are addressing it now," Robertson said.

As talk of renegotiation continues, Robertson said it would be helpful for businesses who have benefitted from NAFTA to be more vocal about their views on the deal to balance out the debate.

He cited San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B as an example of one company that has begun to speak out about positives associated with the deal.

"I think a little bit more voice on that side would probably help balance the debate," Robertson said. "H-E-B has been doing a little bit because they have stores in Mexico and they talk about bringing products in. I'd like to see more of that."
It's been eight years since Melvin Thompson has been in the bathroom of his Bryan home.

The 63-year-old Vietnam veteran became wheelchair bound eight years ago, and his motorized wheelchair just would not fit in the bathroom door. His hot water heater hasn't worked in two years, but he didn't have the $10,000 needed to renovate his bathroom and fix the water heater.

Enter area nonprofit Rebuiliding Together BCS and Sears department stores. The two worked in conjunction to give Thompson's home a desperately needed renovation -- providing him with a wider bathroom door, special shower seating and a new hot water heater that was installed for free by another area veteran.

"He hasn't had a real shower in eight years," Steve Godby, executive director of the local branch of Rebuilding Together, said.

Thompson, who is afflicted with the muscle-degeneration disease inclusion-body myositis or IBM, has been forced to use a portable toilet over the past eight years and his caretaker has helped him clean himself. He had made pleas to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, but ran into complications barring him from receiving needed modifications.

Godby was contacted several months ago by the Brazos Valley Agency of the Aging and alerted to Thompson's situation. Godby, in turn, appealed to a charity program hosted by Sears, called Heroes at Home. Twice a year, Sears awards 45 veterans nationwide $10,000 each to make home repairs and modifications as needed.

Godby surprised Thompson by applying without his knowledge, and to both their shock, Thompson was approved for the grant from Sears. Godby and Rebuilding Together BCS took the money received from Sears and have spent the past two months repairing Thompson's home.

"The first thing Melvin did was to look in his bathroom mirror," Godby said. "He hadn't done that in eight years, and it tickled him pink."

Thompson was born and raised in Bryan. The only time he lived anywhere else was when he was stationed in Vietnam and military bases during his four years of service in the late '60s and early '70s. When Thompson volunteered for the Army, he never thought about being eligible for health benefits some day. He was told he would be given a paycheck, and that was it.

"I wanted to serve my country and I wanted my father to see me in uniform," Thompson said.

During his time in Vietnam, Thompson suffered various physical and psychological problems. He underwent surgeries and was also sent to psychiatrists for behavioral issues. He was eventually discharged under the condition of being unable to adapt, he said. At the time, no one suggested to Thompson that he see a doctor concerning post-traumatic stress disorder -- or "shell shock," as it was known at the time -- or possible negative effects of Agent Orange exposure.

Thompson spent the next 35 years working as a driver for various trucking companies. Thompson said he's been through four divorces at this point, and feels some of the struggles had to do with coping with PTSD.

"I've been having reoccurring dreams for 40 years now, memories of Vietnam," Thompson said.

Thompson began to feel the effects of the mobility-limiting muscular disease IBM about 25 years ago, though the problems peaked in 2000. Thompson said he has been denied many requests from the VA, on the condition that his disability is not directly related to combat.

"I know a lot of veterans who have problems and have a hard time working with the VA," Thompson said.

Now that Godby and Sears have stepped into Thompson's life, however, things are looking up for the veteran. Today, Sears employees and members of Rebuilding Together BCS will gather at Thompson's home to celebrate the full completion of his home renovations.

"I didn't ask these people to help," Thompson said. "I don't even know how they got my name. I'm just so glad that they came to me."
The government had transferred their land to a bauxite mining company without consulting them. The Yolngu people explained that that land "has been hunting and food-gathering land for the Yirrkala tribes from time immemorial", and the "places sacred to the Yirrkala people, as well as vital to their livelihood are in the excised land."

They expressed their concern that "their needs and interests will be completely ignored as they have been ignored in the past."

A few years later, in 1971, more than 1,000 Indigenous Australians signed a petition organised by the Larrakia people. They described themselves as "refugees in the country of our ancestors", and called for land rights, a treaty, and political representation. Their voices went unheard.

In 1979, the National Aboriginal Conference, an elected Indigenous body advising government, passed a resolution calling for a 'Makarrata'. This resolution sparked talk of a treaty within the federal parliament.

Four years later, a Senate committee delivered a report on the idea of a treaty. It recommended constitutional change to implement a 'compact'. That report was also ignored.

In 1998, the Barunga Statement called on the federal parliament to "negotiate with us a treaty recognising our prior ownership, continued occupation and sovereignty and affirming our human rights and freedom."

Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised to negotiate such a treaty by 1990. But no treaty was forthcoming, and it dropped off the political agenda.

This week Indigenous leaders have again called for a voice in their country. The central concern is an oft-repeated one: that, as a small minority, dispersed across the continent of their ancestors, and continuing to resist the legacy of colonialism, Indigenous Australians have almost no say about legislation that affects them.

Treaty now?

A constitutionally enshrined national representative body is an important proposal, but the Makarrata Commission is more significant.

The statement records that a "Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda." For Indigenous people, it "captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination."

Treaties are accepted globally as the means of reaching a settlement between Indigenous peoples and those who have colonised their lands. They are formal agreements, reached via respectful negotiation conducted in good faith, that recognise an inherent right to some level of sovereignty or self-government.

Treaties have been achieved in the US and New Zealand, and are still being negotiated in Canada. In contrast, no treaty between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians has ever been recognised.

Indigenous Australians are willing to negotiate. But are non-Indigenous Australians ready to enter into respectful negotiations? Or will they, once again, ignore the invitation?

Next steps

The Uluru summit was organised by the Referendum Council, a body set up by Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten to advise on the path toward a referendum.

Through the Uluru statement, Indigenous people have invited non-Indigenous Australians to walk together for a better future. The statement is the voice of Indigenous Australians.

Now is the time for non-Indigenous Australians to hear that voice.

Harry Hobbs is PhD Candidate, Constitutional Law and Indigenous Rights, UNSW,

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
As the leaders of the G7 meet in Italy this weekend and Donald Trump tries to work out whether he's going to pull his country out of the Paris Agreement or not, the latest new polling shows that the British public are firmly behind two vital pieces of climate change legislation.

Polling by YouGov, published today, (26th May, 2017) reveals that two thirds (66 per cent) of Brits say that the UK should remain part of the Paris Agreement and even more, 69 per cent, want Parliament to retain the UK's Climate Change Act - a pioneering piece of law-making which when it was passed in 2008 set the bar for others to follow.

This comes hot on the heels of research conducted by the think tank Bright Blue, which found that Conservative voters were in favour of strengthening or maintaining a number of EU standards on the environment post-Brexit.

Eighty-five per cent of Tory voters were in favour of renewable energy generation targets, 92 per cent wanted the targets on air pollution to be kept or increased while 93 per cent wanted protections for habitats and wildlife to be preserved.

The polls clearly show that concern for the environment and the transition to a low carbon economy is now mainstream and rightly viewed as plain common sense. Why wouldn't we want more home grown, clean, renewable energy when it is now becoming cheaper than fossil fuels and when it is also a source of well paying, future-proof, high tech, jobs.

Richard Black, Director of the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit who commissioned today's research says: "In the post-EU referendum context we're hearing a lot about the will of the people' for Brexit - but interestingly, some of the individuals ploughing that furrow most strongly are also those calling for Britain to pull out of the Paris Agreement and scrap the Climate Change Act.

"But if you back the will of the people', you must now, after these results, back the Paris Agreement and the Climate Change Act, because a substantial majority of Britons support both.

"Climate change is going to be centre-stage for the G7 summit this weekend, and one presumes that the Prime Minister will, when she discusses it with President Trump, be highlighting the recently-expressed will of both the British and American peoples to see climate change brought under control."

The wobbles from the White House over America's approach to climate change is actually forcing other nations to step into the leadership void left by President Obama. Just this week Canada's environment minister met with China's climate envoy and the EU's climate and energy commissioner to discuss how to maintain the momentum generated by the Paris Agreement.

The irony is that Trump has spoken as if pulling out of the Paris Agreement would give his country some kind of advantage when actually the opposite is true. There are local environmental benefits from a cleaner energy system such as reduced air pollution and fewer leaky oil pipelines snaking across America's beautiful natural landscape.

That energy supply will also be secure, being homegrown, and cheap. The US has an abundance of solar and wind, something a number of Republican-controlled states and cities have already began to capitalise on - were it its own country Texas would be the world's sixth largest producer of wind power.

Should the US pull out it will also face a diplomatic backlash and global isolation as other nations express their disgust at Trump endangering the world's shared biosphere. For the self-styled deal maker' it will be much harder for him to get things done internationally if he tries to sabotage the climate efforts of the rest of the world.

Ultimately, climate legislation helps to drive innovation and business, pushing technological breakthroughs and helping to boost the growth of green jobs. Part of the reason for the UK's prominent clean tech sector is thanks to the Climate Change Act, which gave business and investors the signs they needed to invest.

It's no wonder the British public backs it. And further such signals from Government would no doubt be highly popular with the public from whoever wins the UK General Election on June 8.

This Author

Joe Ware is a journalist and writer at Christian Aid and a New Voices contributor for the Ecologist. Follow him at @wareisjoe


Brynn Casady makes most of her volleyball season at Spoon River College

Casady played defensive specialist, libero and outside hitter at various times during the season
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NORWALK  Long in search for a candidate to challenge Democratic Mayor Harry W. Rilling this November, Norwalk Republicans soon may have two.

Andrew T. Conroy, a former District E councilman and chairman of the Norwalk Republican Town Committee, said Friday afternoon that he had formed a candidate committee titled Conroy for Mayor and filed the paperwork with the Town Clerks Office.

I want to see competition in the contest for mayor, said Conroy, who served five terms on the council, most recently under Republican Mayor Richard A. Moccia. As we move toward the convention, Ill lay out what my expectations for the betterment of Norwalk are. This isnt a personal campaign. I want to see the city do better.

Town Clerk Richard A. McQuaid confirmed that Conroys paperwork was filed Friday afternoon.

The Republican convention will be held July 24, most likely at The Norwalk Inn & Conference Center on East Avenue, Conway said.

Between 1980 and 1988, Conroy worked as a manager and later marketing director for Max Factor & Co. in Stamford. Since 1989, he has operated a small business consulting service. He now specializes in online marketing. A U.S. Army veteran, he holds an MBA from the University of California.

Conroy is chairman of the Norwalk Zoning Board of Appeals.

Ellen Gamer Wink, who served nearly two years as Norwalk city clerk before resigning in April 2011, said Friday that she also plans to run for mayor and will file paperwork to form an exploratory committee after the Memorial Day weekend.

Norwalk needs to go in a different direction, statewide also, and Id like to pitch my hat into the ring, Wink said Friday. Im going to file on Tuesday paperwork for a exploratory committee. I wanted to let the (Memorial Day) parade go by and then start up. I know Andy is running, too.

From 1982 to 1985, Wink operated Lea Manor Health Care Center in Norwalk. She later was director of Louise Carlson Senior Residence, Inc. She studied nursing home administration at Quinnipiac College and holds a bachelors degree in biology from Southern Connecticut University.

Wink currently works as a real estate agent.

Rilling, Norwalks former police chief and a former city zoning commissioner, filed paperwork last fall for a third-term heading Connecticuts sixth-largest city. He expressed no surprise that Conroy had stepped forward to challenge him.

I heard that may happen, and we expected that the Republicans would put up a candidate, Rilling said Friday. We look forward to a fair and civil and open campaign based on issues.

Rilling announced his re-election bid to nearly 150 supporters at The Norwalk Inn & Conference Center in January. The Democratic mayor cited redevelopment efforts, school funding, paving and quality-of-life issues as grounds for voters to re-elect him.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Rilling served in the Norwalk Police Department for 41 years, including 17 years as chief of the department. He is a past president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association and holds a masters degree in public administration from the University of New Haven.

Before facing any Republican challenger in November, Rilling first must stave off a challenge from fellow Democrat Bruce V. Morris. The South Norwalk Democrat and state representative filed paperwork in late April to run for mayor of Norwalk.

The Democratic Town Committee will endorse its candidates during a meeting slated to take place between July 18 and 24.

rkoch@hearstmediact.com
WILTON  The Wilton Democratic Town Committee is taking suggestions to modify its Listen to Wilton Platform for the 2017-2019 platform. The platform is amended and voted on biennially.

The 2015-2017 platform focused on fiscal responsibility, town character, and education  all of which the committee believes strives for quality of life in Wilton.
WILTON  An investigation into alleged cheating at Wilton High School has been closed with no evidence found of wrongdoing, Principal Bob ODonnell said in a letter to parents Friday morning.

I am writing to inform you that the Office of Testing Integrity (OTI) of the Educational Testing Service performed an administrative review of the scores in question from the April 5, 2017 SAT administration and found no concerns with these scores, ODonnell wrote. There was no evidence to support the rumors which have been circulating since the release of the scores.
ALBION  Two murdered Boone County officers will be honored with a community-sponsored monument and anniversary event on June 10.

The Boone County Historical Society Museum and its partners are organizing the 80th anniversary events. The two officers, Lawrence Smoyer and William Wathen, were shot in the line of duty on June 17, 1937. Smoyer was a sheriff, and Wathen was a constable.

The monument dedication will be at 11 a.m. on the Boone County Courthouse lawn in Albion. Pastor Ray Avidano will give the invocation and benediction. Other speakers include state Sen. Tom Briese, Sheriff Dennis Johnson of Boone County and Sheriff Joe Yocum of Seward County.

The American Legion/VFW Honor Guard will present and retire the colors along with firing a salute and performing taps.

Those attending are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. The event will be moved to the Knights of Columbus Hall on Church and Fifth streets in the event of inclement weather.

While a monument at the murder site was paid for by one of the officers daughters, the new monument is sponsored by the community. The new monument will have the two officers names, birth and death dates. On the bottom will be a saying that honors all Boone County officers, said Mary Jane Noble, who is one of the event organizers.

All events on June 10 are free, but donations will be accepted at Cornerstone Bank. Envelopes that are clearly marked can also be given to event volunteers. Funds will be used for maintenance and education about both monuments.

A presentation of the life and death of Smoyer and Wathen will be at 1 p.m. at the Caseys Building on the Boone County Fairgrounds. Noble will give an overview of the day the officers were killed. Roberta Duffy, granddaughter of Smoyer; and Dorald Robinson, grandson of Wathen, will share their thoughts.

A poem, Sandhill Tragedy, written by Irene Young Christensen (Wathens niece) at the age of 13, will be read. Pat Boilesen will sing The 17th of June, written in honor of the 80th anniversary. Seward County Sheriff Joe Yocum will give an update of his ongoing investigation of these unsolved murders. There will be a general social time until 3:30 p.m.

The Akron Presbyterian Church and community of Akron will have a freewill offering roast beef dinner at the Boone County 60 schoolhouse from 4 to 7 p.m. To help ensure enough food, RSVP to (402) 741-2386 or marvinpbrugger@gmail.com. In the event of inclement weather, the dinner will be relocated to the Caseys Building on the fairgrounds.

If traveling to the site of the shootings in Akron between 4 and 7 p.m., go to the school and join the caravan at set times to help everyone get safely up the one-lane road. There will be a trolley to provide a ride to the site.

Noble said some people in the area havent heard of the murders. She said this is a historical event that community members should know about.

It is our only downed officers in Boone County and an unsolved mystery, Noble said.

The Akron community is very honored to be able to share their history and the history of Boone County, she said.

For more information, call Mary Jane Noble at (402) 741-2527.
Seedling Mile Elementary Principal Charity LaBrie is adding fine arts director to her title.

Mrs. LaBrie does a wonderful job with blue-ribbon-caliber Seedling Mile, Superintendent Tawana Grover said. Her background will help elevate the districts dedication to the arts.

LaBrie will remain principal at Seedling Mile while adding the additional responsibilities of the new fine arts director position.

The Seedling Mile principal has long been a half-time administration position. LaBrie had previously spent her other half role as integration specialist at Seedling Mile. She will still spend most of her time at Seedling Mile.

Im excited to take an active role in the Grand Island Public Schools fine arts community, she said. The interaction between the school system, the city of Grand Island and surrounding area is so special. I am thrilled to partner with the outstanding teachers and students in our district.

LaBrie has been principal at Seedling Mile since 2011. Previously, she was a music teacher at Wasmer Elementary and Grand Island Senior High. She said she understands the importance GIPS and the community have put on fine arts and the teaching of skills to students.

GISH is a leader in the area of fine arts, LaBrie said. A large percentage of students dedicate countless hours and give freely of their talents to communicate to our community and beyond through the arts. Students not only have opportunity to share their abilities but also learn valuable lessons about themselves and the world around them.

It is important to continue to provide such rich opportunities for the young people of Grand Island, and I am so humbled to be part of such a strong tradition.
Jeanna Randalls last day at Jefferson Elementary began, continued and ended with hugs. After starting the day with a school-wide group hug  over 300 hundred students and staff circling Randall  the retiring principal couldnt walk three steps without being stopped.

I want a hug, a second-grader would declare, her arms outstretched.

Its gonna be a rough time without you, fourth-grade teacher Shane Campbell told Randall, patting her on the back.

Students smiled and raced through the doors of Grand Island Public Schools to summer vacation this Thursday, but at Jefferson Elementary the students had tears running down their cheeks as they walked out the doors of their school for the last time. The students and staff of Jefferson said goodbye to a school year, a building and a principal.

The Jefferson Elementary building at 1314 W. 7th St. will be demolished over the summer, making room for a new building at the same location. For two years, students will be bused to the old Starr Elementary school building as the new Jefferson Elementary is built.

The last year of the building also marked Randalls last year as principal. The Jefferson students wished Randall a retirement filled with family, books, travel and ice cream.

As Randall greeted students for the last time Thursday morning, a little girl told her, Mrs. Randall, Im going to miss this school.

Well, me too, Randall replied. But Jefferson Elementary isnt about a building, its about a family, Randall said. And that will always exist, even in a new building.

Randall has worked at four different schools as a student teacher to first-graders, a teacher for third-graders and kindergartners, and shes been the Jefferson Elementary principal for the past 11 years.

Randall wanted to make a difference. And so you wont see an unruly child waiting for punishment outside her door. Youll see students waiting to tell her about accomplishments or funny stories, or about how much theyre going to miss her.

Mrs. Randall, I wanted to give you this. Nazli, a fourth-grader, hands Randall a picture. Nazlis drawn Randall with markers, and the notebook paper reads Im going to miss you!

Randalls office is sprinkled with tokens of appreciation: flowers line her desk and handmade cards sit propped up.

Jefferson Elementary became a family because of the staffs dedication, Randall said. Randall calls every staff member  the nurse, the teachers, the lunch ladies, the office staff  Amazing, just amazing.

Randall said the passion of her staff radiates to reveal each students talents.

The best way to love kids is to celebrate who they are, Randall said. And every teacher sees the positive in every student at Jefferson.

That appreciation allows students to learn more than just reading, riting and rithmetic. With programs like Jefferson Gentlemen and Jefferson Jewels, the students learn the emotional and communication skills to grow up to be good people, Randall said.

Thats what our kids need, Randall said. And thats the kind of thing you cant find in a textbook.

Emily Roemmich, the music teacher, walks by Randalls open door. Dont make me cry! she tells Randall, Im already a hot mess.

I am, too! Randall said, reaching for tissues.

Through Randalls office door  which has been saran-wrapped in a prank from her coworkers: Please know how youre wrapped in love! the door reads  Randall makes her rounds through the school.

In the first classroom, first-graders have covered every desk with shaving cream. Look at my hands! students squeal as Randall enters the classroom. In a second-grade classroom, mini beach balls fly through the air, and in Jason Zelasneys class the students write on the walls with markers. I will miss this school forever, purple handwriting reads. Randall adds I love Jefferson to the wall with an orange marker.

When Randall stops in a fourth-grade classroom, every student deserts their desk to give her a hug. When she meets the kindergartners Randall asks Did the school year go really fast? The kindergartners cheerfully yell Yes! and Randall agrees. I think it went really fast, she said.

The kindergartners have spent the last day finding adjectives for their classmates. One student shows Randall his list; his classmates think he is happy, nice, cool, handsome and a good friend.

That is so true, Randall said. You are all of those things.

Back in her office, Randall prepared to call the school to their last school assembly. But not before one more hug.

I need another one! fourth-grader Tomas declared, bursting into the office.

With Tomas hug done, Randall picks up the phone. Could I please have your attention, she said into the phone. She paused, turning away from the receiver to hold back tears. Teachers, please bring your students to our last school assembly.

In the gym, the school has gathered for Randalls favorite part of the year: the all-school sing. More than 300 students and staff sing and dance along to songs like Best Day of My Life by the American Authors and Home, by Phillip Phillips. Randall walks around the gym, talking to her staff and students and of course, giving lots of hugs.

After the music, a video shows students who tell a camera what they love about Randall. Shes the best in the west! a boy yells, and then its time for Randall to get some adjectives of her own.

Randall is generous, extraordinary, smart and loved, her students tell her on the screen. She is crying, laughing and smiling all at once as she walks up to the front of the gym to address the school for the last time.

Jefferson would not be so special without you, she told her students. Randall is crying, the teachers are crying and now the students are crying, too. Once the assembly is over, a line of tearful students re-directs itself toward Randall. Every student hugs Randall before they leave the gym for the last time.

April Franzen leads her kindergartners out the doors. Where are we going? they ask her. Are we coming back?

Nope, Franzen replied. This is the last time well walk through this hall.

The last year at Jefferson has been emotional for everyone, Randall said. But its been a treasure, too.

Its made us appreciate every small moment, Randall said. And now were looking forward to what we can be, and we know it will be okay because were doing it with people that we love.
For the Intelligencer

The Board of Directors of the Edwardsville Community Foundation (ECF) has appointed Pam Farrar as the organizations new Executive Director. Her primary role will be accelerating the Foundations growth, increasing its impact on community projects, and improving the quality of life for the residents of District 7 schools.

Farrar has lived in Edwardsville for 15 years and was previously the President of the Friends of the Colonel Benjamin Stephenson House. While in that position, she was involved in the capital campaign to raise funds for a new cedar shake roof. She was also a board member at the non-profit MESA, Metro-East String Association. Pam has been active in PTO and booster clubs within District 7. Prior to moving to Edwardsville, she handled computer support and system administration at MIT and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, in Hanover New Hampshire.
For The Intelligencer

This May, the Edwardsville Rotary Club honored Edwardsville High School student Madelyn Foster with the Student of the Month Award. Nominated by a Theater Arts teacher Kate Motley, Madelyn will be attending University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign next fall and major in Journalism with a double minor in Political Science and Spanish. After graduation, she plans to further her education by attending law school.

Madelyn participates in multiple organizations at Edwardsville High School including Model UN, National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, Edwardsville High School Leadership Council, Edwardsville High School Task Force Chair, Edwardsville Peer Influence Club Council Member, Student Council, Broadcast Club, New Student Ambassadors, Bravo Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and the Bel Canto Female Acapella Ensemble.
In the wake of the upheaval in Ferguson in 2014 and the numerous conflicts around the country, the YWCA of Alton is hosting Mother 2 Mother, a conversation with black mothers to white mothers about the talk with their black sons.

The event will be moderated by Dr. Christi Griffith, Founder and President of The Ethics Project with multiple mothers discussing their experiences with their sons and the talk they have had to have. This conversation is being held in hopes of continuing the healing and understanding in the community through conversations between black and white mothers.

This event will be held on Saturday, June 10, 2017 at 2 p.m. at the YWCA of Alton, 304 E. Third St., Alton IL and is free to the public with a reception to follow. Please contact the YWCA of Alton at 618.465.7774 for details and to reserve your seat. Dorothy Hummel, Executive Director of the YWCA of Alton encourages the public to join us for this powerful story-telling, witness bearing event.

The invitation to the Mother 2 Mother group was extended by the Social Justice Committee and the Board of Directors of the YWCA of Alton, which engages in dialogue on race and works to fulfill the mission to eliminate racism.

The purpose of Mother 2 Mother is to expose a community of women to the dangers and reality of raising Black sons in America regardless of the socio-economic status achieved. Concurrently it provides an outlet for other Black mothers to share in their struggle.

Together, the Conversations are intended to spur women to use their considerable power and energy to create broad change within their homes, schools, and communities. Attendees have acknowledged a broadened view and have publicly pledged to create change.

The YWCA of Alton has been a community leader in the fight to eliminate racism and understands that many in the community may be unsure of a way forward, and are challenged to teach their children about racism and prepare them to thrive in a diverse world. It is the YWCA of Altons hope that attention to this topic will help the community navigate the issue of racism and prejudice.

The YWCA of Alton is proudly sponsored by Morrissey Contracting Co., Inc., Simmons Hanley Conroy, and Phillips 66 Wood River Refinery.

Alton YWCA is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families and strengthen our community. Alton YWCA is part of an international movement serving over 2 million in the United States and 25 million worldwide. Visit www.altonywca.org or follow us on Facebook (YWCA of Alton).
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Linkedin Testriono (The Jakarta Post) Illinois  Fri, May 26, 2017

The governments plan to ban Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) is counterproductive to democratic consolidation.



First, there are no reasonable grounds to disband the HTI except that it propagates the idea of a khilafah (Islamic state). Propagating ideas, as long as it is done through lawful ways, is part of freedom of speech and freedom of expression, which are guaranteed by the Constitution.



Second, there is no evidence that the HTI has resorted to violent and unconstitutional measures in disbursing its ideology. If a vigilante group like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) is allowed to operate, why should a more peaceful organization like the HTI be banned?



Third, there are a number of examples of how excluding Islamist groups from politics radicalizes them. Take the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria during the 1990s and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the era of Gamal Abdel-Nasser in the 1950s.



In contrast, political access, which would allow Islamists to participate legally in the political process, may have a moderating effect on Islamists and marginalize hard-liners.



The lack of support for violent jihadi groups in Indonesia has been caused by, among other things, political access that allows Islamist groups to establish political parties and contest elections. Thus, there is no reason for them to resort to violent and underground movements.



The only problem with the HTI is that it seeks to establish a global caliphate and promotes its Islamist ideology as an alternative to our secular democracy.



Referring to the 2013 Mass Organizations Law, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Wiranto announced that the government had decided to disband the HTI on the grounds that it promoted values that contradicted Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution and conducted activities that threatened national unity.



It is the law itself that led the United States-based Freedom House to downgrade Indonesias status from a free country in 2007 to a partly free country. The law imposes new restrictions on the operations of mass organizations, in a revised law from the era of the authoritarian New Order regime.



In addition, the government often seems inconsistent on the place of Islam in public affairs. For example, without a caliphate, Aceh province is authorized to implement sharia under the 2006 law on Aceh governance. Furthermore, local governments have issued hundreds of sharia-inspired bylaws in the Reform Era.



If the government was really consistent, we would not have seen any Islamic-inspired regulations because they contradict the Constitution.



While the HTI has been campaigning for sharia under the banner of a global caliphate, local governments have already issued sharia-inspired bylaws under our secular democracy.



Moreover, the HTI is not the only organization that promotes a non-Pancasila ideology. Other Islamist organizations overtly promote sharia as an alternative for Indonesia. Apart from the FPI, others include the Islamic Ummah Forum (FUI) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI). These organizations do not clearly state that they aim for a caliphate. However, it is easy to find their strong aspirations for sharia apart from their leaders statements referring to the democratic government as an infidel government.



Thus, is the HTI really a danger to democracy? In fact, we have rarely seen any democracy that was broken down by an Islamist takeover. We have yet to hear that the HTI could take over power in a particular Muslim country.



Empirical evidence reveals that democracy has broken down because of military involvement in politics and weakly institutionalized political systems. Democratic transition in Egypt, for example, has been suspended by the military, which ousted the countrys first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.



In Mali, democracy broke down after the military took over power in 2012, which triggered a rebellion by the Islamist opposition. Its weak political system paved the way for a political crisis.



Democracy is not built with an iron fist. Our democratic institution will be strong when most people in this country believe that democracy is the most effective political system to administer the government and manage society  or as the scholars Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan wrote in 1996, when most people consider democracy the only game in town.



Under democracy, the HTI should not be dissolved by an oppressive policy, but by ideological contestation. The presence of the HTI should push the government to design civic education that is effective to fertilize Pancasila in a globalized era where different information, knowledge and ideologies are easy to access and to disseminate.



The HTI will disband itself when most Muslims in this country believe that such an ideology is outdated and irrelevant for modern Muslim democrats.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 08:00 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a279029 4 Editorial #Editorial,police,counterterrorism,East-Jakarta,suicide-bombings,kampung-melayu Free

Wednesday evenings twin bomb blasts at the packed Kampung Melayu bus terminal in East Jakarta have sent a stark warning not only to the security authorities, but also to religiously pluralistic Indonesia. Three policemen and two civilians  believed to be suicide bombers  were killed, while six other police officers and five civilians were injured in the explosion.

No organization or individual has claimed responsibility for the latest terror attack on Jakarta, which occurred on the eve of the celebration of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, a public holiday in Indonesia, and only three days before Muslims begin the fasting month of Ramadhan. However, speculation is rife that the attack was aimed at the police, a force that has persistently combatted acts of terrorism.

The Kampung Melayu bombing is therefore the latest attack to have targeted the police in recent years. In January last year Jakarta was rocked by an attack around the Sarinah shopping mall in Central Jakarta. Eight people, including four terrorists and four civilians, were killed and 20 others were injured, including five police officers.

Earlier in April 2011, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at a mosque inside the Cirebon Police compound in West Java where a congregation was performing Friday prayers. Dozens of police officers suffered shrapnel injuries.

In view of similar incidents worldwide, the police suspect a link between the Kampung Melayu bombing and attacks rocking other parts of the world, including the city of Manchester in the United Kingdom, the bombing at the Bangkok hospital, both on Monday, and the occupation of Marawi City in southern Philippines, which also took place on Wednesday.

Shortly after the Kampung Melayu attack the police collected documents related to the two suspected suicide bombers, including ID cards of the two and a passport belonging to one of them. The police also found half-burned papers at the bombing site, yet it remains to be seen whether the hand-written text documents have anything to do with the attack.

It will take the police some time to disclose the motives and masterminds behind the act of terror and whether they are associated with either local or international terror networks. History shows the Indonesian police and its counterterrorism squad have managed to identify groups behind acts of terrorism plaguing the country and conducted raids to foil their attempts to spread fear, for the sake of all our safety.

Following Wednesdays attack the police, who are responsible for domestic security, need to beef up measures simply to prevent the terrorists from launching another attack. The blasts are the latest evidence that terror threats are clear and imminent, rather than part of a political ploy as some people have suggested.

Protecting the nation, while risking their own lives, is indeed an uphill task the police face alone, especially in view of the countrys archipelagic nature and huge population. The police surely need the trust and support of other elements of the nation, including each one of us.
Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts is a well-known local hospitality company under the Kompas Gramedia Group that was established on Aug. 22, 1981.

The companys debut was the opening of the Hotel Santika Bandung in West Java. Santika Indonesia was quick to recognize the countrys unlimited tourism potential, as it continued opening hotels all over Indonesia.

It has carved out its distinctive image and pioneered its way as a preferred brand, particularly among middle- and upper-segment business and leisure travelers. The groups hotels are in well-chosen locations with facilities and components designed to meet guests demands well into the future.

Building properties in strategic spots within a city has always been the philosophy of every hotel chain. Santika takes pride in maintaining this tradition, as all of its properties are built in excellent tourism and business locations.

Santikas other characteristic lies in its personal way of introducing discerning guests to the magical touch of Indonesia along with its countless aspects of local culture and color. The virtue of traditional values is truly the groups endless source of inspiration.

Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts manages 104 hotels with five brands in 38 strategic business locations and exotic resorts throughout Indonesia. One, The ANVAYA is a five-star hotel, 10 Santika Premiere Hotels are four-star hotels, 25 Santika Hotels are three-star hotels, 65 Amaris Hotels are smart hotels and there are also the luxurious boutique villas of The Royal Collection (The Samaya Seminyak, The Samaya Ubud and The Kayana).

There is also an Amaris hotel available in Singapore. Each hotel is unique, but they all provide the same high-quality standards of service, excellent facilities and relaxing environment. The Samaya and The Kayana hotels assure guest privacy in each of their villas.

With a vision of professionally developing high standards in hotel service, Santikas mature outlook is well ahead of its time and is today a trendsetter in its category of hotels. And in the highly competitive world of the hospitality industry, Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts will consistently strive toward better service, today and in the years to come.

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Seoul  Fri, May 26, 2017 08:03 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a27bf42 2 Science & Tech Samsung,galaxy-S8,#Samsung,smartphone,hacking,iris-hack,security Free

Samsung Electronics is investigating claims by a German hacking group that it fooled the iris recognition system of the new flagship Galaxy S8 device, the firm said Wednesday.

The launch of the Galaxy S8 was a key step for the world's largest smartphone maker as it sought to move on from last year's humiliating withdrawal of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7s, which hammered the firm's once-stellar reputation.

But a video posted by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), a German hacking group founded in 1981, shows the Galaxy S8 being unlocked using a printed photo of the owner's eye covered with a contact lens to replicate the curvature of a real eyeball.

"A high-resolution picture from the internet is sufficient to capture an iris," CCC spokesman Dirk Engling said, adding: "Ironically, we got the best results with laser printers made by Samsung."

A Samsung spokeswoman said it was aware of the report and was investigating.

The iris scanning technology was "developed through rigorous testing", the firm said in a statement as it sought to reassure customers.

Read also: Tests find Samsung's S8 phones more prone to screen cracks

"If there is a potential vulnerability or the advent of a new method that challenges our efforts to ensure security at any time, we will respond as quickly as possible to resolve the issue."

Samsung's hopes of competing against archrival Apple's iPhone had been pinned on the Galaxy S8 after last year's Note 7 disaster.

The recall debacle cost Samsung billions of dollars in lost profits and hammered its global credibility, forcing it to apologise to consumers and postpone the S8 launch.

But since it was released in April it has received positive reviews and strong orders.

The CCC previously demonstrated a way to defeat Apple's TouchID fingerprint sensors -- using graphite powder, a laser etching machine and wood glue -- just weeks after the first iPhone 5s hit the shelves.

Traditional PIN protection was "a safer approach than using body features for authentication", Engling said.
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Linkedin Allison Jackson (Agence France-Presse) Beijing  Fri, May 26, 2017 09:05 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a280ff2 2 Lifestyle Taiwan,gay-marriage,marriage,#marriage,LGBT,#LGBT Free

Taiwan's giant step towards allowing same-sex marriage has reverberated across Asia, but activists warn the fight for equality isn't over in a region where gay sex remains illegal in some countries.

Challenges to an Asia-wide embrace of same-sex unions were highlighted by this week's caning of two Indonesian men as punishment for gay sex and a South Korean military court's jailing of a soldier for having intercourse with another man.

In mainland China, two men lost a court battle to get married last year.

But activists are hopeful that the push for marriage rights will be reinvigorated by Taiwan's constitutional court decision, which paves the way for the island to become the first place in Asia to allow same-sex couples to tie the knot.

The court ruled Wednesday that laws preventing same-sex unions violated the constitution's guarantees of freedom of marriage and gave the government two years to implement the decision.

"We're very happy," said Vuong Kha Phong, a rights assistant at iSEE advocacy group in Vietnam. "This is a historic victory for the LGBT groups in Asia."

Read also: Taiwan court rules in favour of gay marriage in Asia first

- The first domino? -

Gay marriage is currently legal in only around 20 countries around the world, 13 of which are in Europe. New Zealand also allows same-sex couples to legally marry.

Taiwan is seen as one of the most progressive societies in Asia when it comes to gay rights.

"While I think it is still a long way to the equality dominos falling all over Asia, I think a few East Asian countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, may be more ready to consider equality legislation," Ray Chan, Hong Kong's first openly gay lawmaker, told AFP.

"I can foresee many couples in Hong Kong will try to get married in Taiwan. When they return home, they will press the government and even the private sector for recognising them because the current laws, policies, and rules are blatantly discriminatory."

In Vietnam, which is seen as socially progressive on LGBT issues and where a vibrant gay scene flourishes online and in some big cities, hopes for marriage reform have stalled.

But iSEE's Phong said the Taiwan ruling "will give us momentum to mobilise the community to take action -- to do something so that gay marriage can be considered when lawmakers discuss changing the marriage law in 2020."

Gay activists in China expressed optimism that their country's cultural connections with Taiwan could help their efforts to change the law on same-sex nuptials.

Homosexuality was officially decriminalised in 1997 but only taken off the list of psychiatric disorders four years later.

"Taiwan and mainland China have the same roots and culture so it suggests that Chinese society could also accept the idea of gay marriage," said Li Yinhe, a renowned Chinese sexologist who has pressed Beijing policymakers on the issue.

There have been small signs of progress. While a Chinese court last year ruled against two men seeking to marry, the fact the case even made it into the judicial system was seen by many as an achievement.

"I am very happy and very excited that homosexual marriage is legalised in Taiwan. It's a pity that the mainland has not taken this step," said Sun Wenlin, one of the men in the case.

"But I'm optimistic about the legalisation of same-sex marriage in China."

Elisabeth Lund Engebretsen, a senior lecturer at the University of Oslo's Centre for Gender Research, said Taiwan's court ruling "creates a momentum for putting this on the table as a political issue" in Asia.

Read also: Tens of thousands march against same-sex marriage in Mexico

- Gay sex illegal -

South Korea allows homosexual acts between civilians but not military personnel and a high-profile legal challenge to the country's ban on same-sex marriage in 2015 by movie director Kim Jho Gwang-Soo and his long-time partner Kim Seung-Hwan failed.

"People say that it's too early for our society to handle but I think if there is an open debate about the troubles of sexual minorities then I hope South Korean society can also walk a similar path," said Lee Na-Ra from Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea.

Before they can consider marriage, activists must win other battles in places such as India, Singapore and Indonesia's Aceh province, where gay sex is still outlawed.

"Legally we are not even pressing for gay marriage now. We are being denied our fundamental right," said Manvendra Singh Gohil, one of India's most vocal gay rights activists. "We have to go step by step."
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Linkedin Tarko Sudiarno (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 12:08 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28a0a1 4 Art & Culture farming,budi-ubrux,cattle,exhibition,economic-inequality,capitalism Free

The yard of the Taman Budaya Yogyakarta cultural center showcases cowsheds housing luxury cars as an icon of present-day riches, which reminds us of the symbolization of Raja Kaya (rich king).

In the past, rich people would place their cattle and cowsheds in front of their yard as a symbol of their social status. The more cattle they had, the more respected they would be. These people were called Raja Kaya in Javanese.

Artist Budi Ubrux plays with this symbolization, painting BMW, Mercedes and VW cars with newspaper motifs that embellish the automobiles bodies, like mosaics covering their exteriors and interiors. The Raja Kaya symbol of todays wealthy people is thus manifested in the unique creations of this artist.

Conversely, cows as the other symbol are placed in the main hall of the cultural center. Visitors enjoy an art installation in the form of a traditional cow market that displays 25 cow sculptures assuming different postures. Like the cars outside, all the cows are also illustrated with newspapers and produce.

Meanwhile on the walls, newspaper painting fashion becomes the signature of dozens of large canvas that present not only cows but also other objects. Budi Ubrux has also repainted the works of Indonesias legendary painter S. Sudjojono, which are compiled with his newspaper painting and have their titles changed.

Farmers' powers: Visitors take a closer look at a painting titled Kedaulatan Pangan (Food Sovereignty), an appropriation of S. Sudjojono's work.(JP/Tarko Sudiarno)

These are the highlights of a solo visual art exhibition by Budi Ubrux, which bears the theme of Raja Kaya and will last until May 31. Promoted by fine art collector Agung Tobing, this program was opened by Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi.

Budi Ubrux, born Budi Haryana in Yogyakarta in 1968, studied at the Indonesian Arts Institute of Yogyakarta for one-and-a-half years after failing in his entrance tests four times. The grand prize winner of Philip Morris Indonesia Art Award 2000 has organized solo exhibitions in Indonesia, Europe and Singapore.

The present Raja Kaya show affirms his distinctive style. With his realist painting skills, his painting objects or sculptures adorned with newspaper appear to be really draped, making them attractive, artistic and meaningful. Some intriguing headlines are President Should Take Firm Action on the cow head and 9 Corruption Convicts on the cow back.

According to exhibition curator Suwarno Wisetrotomo, Budi Ubrux has created his works by exploiting his ideas and energy. This solo display constitutes an important statement in his artistic journey with regard to how he views the social realities around him in all their dimensions.

Cattle story: A part of the installation of (JP/Tarko Sudiarno)

The exhibits serve as Budi Ubruxs visual statement on social realities while the Raja Kaya theme represents his critical assertion on the ironies found in the social, political, economic and cultural spheres of the country.

Ironies are clearly depicted in the installations, as shown in a pair of cows dragging a luxury car.

The installation of cows pulling a luxury car was initiated by cultural expert and author Sindhunata. Normally, cows are dragging carts instead of cars. This artistic piece apparently describes commoners, represented by cows, who are pulling rich people, which is symbolized by a luxury car. It is a story about the poor who are exploited by the rich.

Its a question of turning reality and fact upside down, a reflection we feel in Budi Ubruxs cowshed, Sindhunata said.

Poultry matters: Cattle installation in Raja Kaya exhibition.(JP/Tarko Sudiarno)

Budi Ubrux said his newspaper painting originated in a sketching assignment at Beringharjo Market, Yogyakarta in 1998. He observed female porters chatting while on a break, showing their broad knowledge of whatever subject was being discussed, just like newspaper pages full of reports.

The idea struck me that I should combine newspapers with the female workers as my sketching objects, he said, adding that it took nearly two years to prepare for the Raja Kaya exhibit.

His newspaper painting ability was developed after working as a poster painter in the New Order Era and residing in Switzerland. Only in 1999 did Budi Ubrux begin his typical newspaper design painting, enabling him to realistically wrap objects in daily reports and later taking him to various local and international exhibitions.

His memories as a herdboy during primary school in Bantul village are now portrayed in his cow paintings and sculptures.

As a child I was already close to cattle, so Im all too familiar with the shape of cows. My parents also bought me five cows to raise, he said.
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Linkedin Dan Martin (Agence France-Presse) Shanghai, China  Fri, May 26, 2017 09:55 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a282b23 2 Science & Tech China,AlphaGo,go-player,computer Free

Chinese netizens fumed Thursday over a government ban on live coverage of Google algorithm AlphaGo's battle with the world's top Go player, as the program clinched their three-match series in the ancient board game.

The artificial intelligence (AI) program won its second straight match against 19-year-old Chinese world number one Ke Jie, who will try to salvage some pride for humanity in the third and final game on Saturday.

This week's series in the eastern Chinese city of Wuzhen has been closely watched by futurists and Go fans curious over whether AlphaGo could beat the world's best, after making headlines last year by trouncing a South Korean grandmaster.

But Chinese fans struggled to get information on the event after authorities banned live coverage, amid online speculation in China that it was linked to Google's tense history with Beijing.

Google shut down its www.google.cn website in 2010 in a row over cyberattacks and Chinese censorship, and most of its offerings have remained blocked by authorities.

That made for an awkward situation in the Go series, in which the company's corporate logos have been clearly visible on live stream broadcasts.

This week's match-up received considerable attention in Chinese media in the run-up, but live coverage was abruptly banned shortly before the first match, according to a government directive to media outlets that was widely circulated online.

Anger online

The notice said the contests "may not be broadcast live in any form, without exception, including text commentary, photography, video streams, self-media accounts, etc."

A Google spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chinese fans denounced the ban.

This file photo taken on March 9, 2016 shows South Korean Go game fans watching a television screen broadcasting live footage of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match in Seoul. It's man vs machine this week as Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo faces the world's top-ranked Go player in a contest expected to end in another victory for rapid advances in AI. China's 19-year-old Ke Jie is given little chance in the three-game series beginning May 23, 2017 in the eastern Chinese city of Wuzhen after AlphaGo stunned observers last year by trouncing South Korean grandmaster Lee Se-Dol four games to one.(AFP/Jung Yeon-Je)

Read also: Samsung investigating Galaxy S8 'iris hack'

"I just lost my chance to witness such a historic moment. I feel so terrible," wrote one user on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.

Another user asked: "Has the political environment become so dangerous that covering something that has gained public attention has become impossible?"

AlphaGo was developed by London-based AI company DeepMind Technologies, which Google acquired in 2014.

Its win last year over South Korean grandmaster Lee Se-Dol marked the first time a computer program had beaten a top player in a full contest and was hailed as a landmark for AI.

Ke, who last year said he would never lose to a machine, accepted defeat after game one, calling AlphaGo a "Go god".

For some, AI advances conjure sci-fi images of machines enslaving humanity.

But for AI proponents, AlphaGo's feats have fuelled visions of AI that can not only perform mundane tasks, but potentially help mankind figure out some of the most complex scientific, technical and medical problems.

Computer programs have previously beaten humans in cerebral contests, starting with the victory by IBM's Deep Blue over chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997.

But AlphaGo's success is considered the most significant yet for AI due to the complexity of Go, which has an incomputable number of move options and puts a premium on human-like "intuition".

Go involves two players alternately laying black and white stones on a grid, seeking to seal off the most territory.

AlphaGo's "thinking" is powered by millions of connections similar to neurons in the brain. It is partly self-taught, having played millions of games against itself.
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Linkedin Yannick Pasquet (Agence France-Presse) Cottbus, Germany  Fri, May 26, 2017 17:09 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a298b62 2 Art & Culture aleppo,Syria,conflict,Germany,reconstruction Free

With its battered facades, pulverized houses and skeletons of buildings, one of the world's oldest cities, Aleppo, has been utterly devastated by the war in Syria.

Now, in Germany, scholars are preparing for its reconstruction one day by creating a super-detailed map of the old city and its treasures, long listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In a bright office of a university campus in Cottbus in the former East Germany, urban planner Christoph Wessling runs his index finger through the labyrinth of alleys and streets of Aleppo.

Spread across his large desk lies a huge map, measuring two by 2.5 metres (more than six by eight feet), drawn to a scale of 1:500.

It is an exceptional document that replicates the walled ancient city with its souks, hammams, mosques, churches and residential dwellings, with infinite precision and loving detail.

In total, some 16,000 plots have been traced, as well as 400 floor plans of the main buildings of this city, which has been inhabited continuously for over 6,000 years.

As the academic traces the ancient web of streets and alleys of the Silk Road city, his minds drifts back to a place that a 12th century poem described as being as old as eternity.

Urban planner Christoph Wessling gives explanations on a map showing Syria's town of Aleppo at the university in Cottbus on May 17, 2017. With its crushed facades, pulverized houses and skeletons of buildings, one of the world's oldest cities, Aleppo, has been utterly devastated by the war in Syria. (AFP/Tobias Schwarz)

Hidden gems

Aleppo was a city of hidden gems, recalled Wessling, who was a frequent visitor to the northern Syrian metropolis before the start of the war in 2011.

"In Aleppo, we would enter a house whose austere facade was absolutely nothing special," he said.

"And then suddenly we came upon a chain of three enchanting inner courtyards with richly decorated pillars."

That was life before the country's commercial centre was divided between the rebel-held east and the loyalist-controlled west and became a main battleground of the civil war.

Aleppo became the scene of a major humanitarian tragedy in late 2016, before it was captured by the army of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran.

Read also: Budi Ubrux: Art imitating life in cowsheds

In coming weeks the map, created by six experts with a budget of 60,000 euros ($67,000), will be put online and made available to anyone wishing to participate in the eventual reconstruction of Aleppo.

The online map will feature "all the site plans, photos and descriptions of a given place", according to the university, which is handling the project with the German foreign ministry and German Archaeological Institute.

"We are not politicians," said Wessling. "But as urbanists, we wanted to lay a foundation" so that the city can one day recover some of its peculiar splendor.

The hope is, he added, that construction companies don't simply bulldoze the ruins and build hotels and shopping malls atop the ancient rubble.

Syrian doctoral student Zeido Zeido, poses for an AFP interview in his office at the university in Cottbus on May 17, 2017. With its crushed facades, pulverized houses and skeletons of buildings, one of the world's oldest cities, Aleppo, has been utterly devastated by the war in Syria. (AFP/Tobias Schwarz)

Rest of Aleppo?

Syrian Cottbus student Zeido Zeido, 29, who is preparing a doctoral thesis on his hometown Aleppo, warns against excessive attention to the old city.

He said "there are other districts with more recent architectural styles that need to be protected, such as late 19th-century buildings" from the era when Aleppo was one of the main cities of the Ottoman Empire.

"There is no national heritage protection plan for the districts which are not classified by UNESCO," he added.

The challenge of reconstruction will be immense, according to researchers at the Cottbus faculty of architecture.

According to UNESCO, about 60 percent of the old city was badly damaged and, of this area, 30 percent was totally destroyed.

In the souk, once one of the largest covered markets in the world, the stalls and wooden doors have been reduced to ashes.

The minaret of the famed Umayyad mosque collapsed four years ago, and the monumental Citadel has suffered "considerable damage" as have the caravan stops once used by Silk Road traders.

The Technical University of Brandenburg, Cottbus campus, was chosen to create the map because its architecture faculty has a long tradition of exchanges with that of Aleppo.

And Germany, given its World War II bombing, has a wealth of experience in rebuilding its cities, having also restored many urban centres after its 1990 national reunification.

At Cottbus, Zeido Zeido's thoughts wander off again to the city 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) away, recalling the days when he would "hang out in the streets with my friends".

But what he misses most is the sandy hue of Aleppo, "a city built with a peculiar stone that gave it a unique color" -- and a feeling that the map before him, however precise, cannot bring back to life.

Topics : aleppo Syria conflict Germany reconstruction
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Linkedin Nedi Putra AW (The Jakarta Post) Malang  Fri, May 26, 2017 09:10 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a2810e0 4 Food wine,Italy,Chile,food,Malang Free

Italian chef Nazario Orlando presented A Degustation Dinner at Tugu hotel in Malang. Exclusive dishes were offered by this executive chef of Gaia Italian restaurant who started his career in 1996.

The first dishes served were a porcini mushroom soup shooter and mango prawn cocktail salad, paired with Vina Ventisquero Clasico Sauvignon Blanc 2015.

This soup is a mixture of pulverized champignon, porcini, Shimeji and truffle mushrooms mixed with special seasonings, Nazario said. The salad was created using mango, lettuce, boiled prawns and cocktail sauce garnished with a sturgeon caviar topping.

Next up was Sicilian style crab with spinach and honey mustard dressing, which was paired with Vina Ventisquero Grey Chardonnay 2014.

Read also: Drinking wine a form of exercise, study says

For the main course, Nazario served beef ravioli, taleggio cheese cream mushroom sauce and risotto with smoked salmon, asparagus, prawns and gold dust. The combination of meat, vegetables and cream danced along with risotto, salmon, asparagus and prawns. It created a luxurious sensation as it was savored with Vina Ventisquero Reserva Pinot Noir 2014.

We spared enough room for the grilled fillet of swordfish in pistachio crust, green pea mash, pesto sauce, caponatina and grilled tenderloin on truffle soft polenta, truffle sauce and french beans. The dish was made special by Vina Ventisquero Grey Cabernet Sauvignon 2014.

Nazarios classic Italian tiramisu comprising biscuits dipped in espresso, sabayon (egg yolk and port wine), mascarpone and cocoa powder was the dish that ended the dinner, with Vina Ventisquero Reserva Merlot 2015 Borgona Cocktail to pair.

Nazario said wine pairing should retain the original flavors of Italian food, which tends to be creamy and rich in herbs.

Everybody can cook but the character of each ingredient should be identified, said the chef who developed his culinary character by combining meat, vegetables and sea fish.

This knowledge is important to make sure that the dishes offered will have their flavors enhanced when consumed with a certain wine.

Juicy: Grilled rib-eye is offered as a main course.(JP/Nedi Putra AW)

Michael Milton, the sales manager for Asia and the Middle East of Vina Ventisquero, acknowledged the difficulty of pairing wine with the typical cuisine of a country because of distinctive culinary varieties and flavors.

Basically, wine should be adjusted to the types of food served. White wine is meant for fish and chicken based dishes due to the lighter taste and red wine is better combined with red meat, he said.

Read also: Organic wine tastes better: Study

For example, Ventisquero Clasico Sauvignon Blanc 2015, white wine with its light-body character, is suited to accompany light meals. Vina Ventisquero Grey Chardonnay 2014, which is a bit acidic and tends to be salty, is fit for seafood.

Vina Ventisquero Reserva Pinot Noir 2014, with its soft feminine character, is compatible with mushroom cooking, he said.

For a main dish, Vina Ventisquero Grey Cabernet Sauvignon 2014, masculine and strong-bodied red wine, is perfect to be relished with seafood and beef. Reserva Merlot, made from dark blue wine grapes, is suitable to be consumed with classic Italian tiramisu.

Milton also described Chilean wine as among the worlds best.

In his view, Chiles narrow and elongated geography in South America is favorable as its climate is fitting for grape plantations.

The grape estates are rarely affected by pests so that the use of pesticide is considerably reduced, he said.

Milton also suggested that wine should be consumed by sipping instead of gulping, so as to reduce the amount of alcohol and avoid getting drunk.

Wine is good for health if wisely consumed according to the menu served and moderately enjoyed, he said.

Topics : wine Italy Chile food Malang
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Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 18:38 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a29b697 1 Food Ramadhan-recipe,Ramadhan-2017,ramadhan,#Ramadhan,#RamadhanFastingMonth,recipe,#recipe,recipes Free

Those looking for a hearty iftar (breaking-of-the-fast meal) may want to cook this special laksa created by Arcad Fadillah, chef de cuisine at Spectrum restaurant at the Fairmont Jakarta hotel.

Laksa is an easy and quick [meal to make]. As long as you have the ingredients, Arcad told The Jakarta Post.

Though the recipe uses bihun (rice noodles), Arcad said it could be substituted with other types of noodles, such as kwetiau (flat rice noodles) or Cantonese noodles.

Read also: Istiqlal to hold Ramadhan fair

Special laksa

Ingredients:

Laksa paste

5 shallots

3 garlic cloves

3 candle nuts

2 cm turmeric

1 tbsp coriander

5 red chilies

15 grams of a mix of dried shrimp and dried fish

1 cm ginger

1 cm galangal

Laksa soup

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 lemongrass

1 small size chicken breast

5 tiger prawns

2 baby bok choy

200 ml coconut milk

Salt and pepper for seasoning

200 ml coconut cream

50 grams bihun, soak in a cold water and drain

1 hard-boiled egg

25 grams bean sprout, clean and pour with hot water

3 kemangi (sweet Thai basil) leaves

Method

To create the laksa paste, put all the ingredients in a blender. Blend well.

Heat oil in a wok or pan. Add the kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass and laksa paste. Stir until fragrant. Add a bit of water and continue to stir.

Add chicken breast and prawns. Add a bit of water and stir until the chicken breast and prawns are half cooked.

Add coconut milk and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.

Add baby bok choy and coconut cream. Stir until it is boiled. Set aside.

In a bowl, put the bihun, hard-boiled egg and bean sprout.

Pour the laksa soup and garnish with kemangi leaves.
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Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 21:26 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a2a1dd4 1 National UNESCO,komodo,Komodo-Island,komodo-mau-main-musik,KomodoNationalPark,Komodo-National-Park,wildlife Free

Indonesias permanent delegation office to UNESCO in Paris, France, has launched a childrens book that promotes the beauty and richness of culture and wildlife in the country.

The book, entitled Komodo Mau Main Musik (Komodo Wants to Play Music), aims to introduce Indonesian culture to children aged 3 to 8 worldwide, Indonesias UNESCO office said in a statement on Friday.

The book launch coincided with the 40th anniversary of Komodo National Parks inclusion in the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). The publishing of the book also marked the 26th anniversary of the national parks inclusion on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List.

Published in Indonesian, English and French, the book presents a Komodo dragon, orangutan and an Indonesian teenager that live surrounded by the richness of Indonesias culture and nature.

Through this book, we want to introduce rare animal species from Indonesia, such as orangutan and Komodo dragon, as well as various musical instruments angklung [bamboo made musical instrument], suling [flute], sasando [a stringed bamboo tube covered with palm leaves] and gamelan [traditional Javanese music instrument], Indonesia deputy ambassador for UNESCO TA Fauzi Soelaiman said during the book launch on Wednesday.

The books author, Felicia Nayoan Siregar, said  Komodo Wants to Play Music was part of a series of five books. The first book was released in 2013. Astri Sefrina van Eenbergen, the illustrator of the book, attended the book launch. (ebf)

Educating children: Children attend the launch of a children's book entitled Komodo Mau Main Musik (Komodo Wants to Play Music) in an event in Paris, France, on May 24. (Courtesy of Indonesia Permanent Delegation to UNESCO/File)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 18:30 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a29a796 1 World EU,kampung-melayu,#KampungMelayubombings,terrorist-attack,IS,Islamic-State,terrorism Free

The European Union delegation to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, as well as embassies of EU member states have condemned the May 24 terrorist attack in East Jakarta.

They expressed their heartfelt condolences to the families and colleagues of the victims, as well as to Indonesian authorities and people.

We wish all those injured in the attack a quick and full recovery, the EU said in a statement on Friday.

The EU also paid tribute to Indonesian law enforcement, the vigilance and actions of which had prevented and contained many attacks. The EU also conveyed its respect to National Police officers who tragically lost their lives in the line of duty.

We all stand united against the scourge of terrorism, it said.

(Read also: Police arrest three allegedly linked to Jakarta suicide bombings)

Two explosions occurred at the Kampung Melayu bus station on Wednesday evening, killing three police officers and two alleged suicide bombers. A dozen people were injured in the blasts.

The National Police have said the Kampung Melayu suicide bomb attack was likely linked to the Islamic State (IS) movement.

The attack is similar to a terrorist attack that occurred near the Arjuna subdistrict office in Bandung, West Java, in February. IS-affiliated Jamaah Anshar Daulah (JAD) is believed to be behind the Bandung attack. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 13:17 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28df00 1 City vehicle Free

The South Jakarta Transportation Agency announced on Thursday a spectacular accumulated fine of Rp 77 million (US$5790) that the owner of two neglected and towed vehicles was now obliged to pay after failing to heed warning letters.

The vehicles, a minibus and a taxi, were towed more than two months ago. The fine for the minibus has reached Rp 45.5 million and that of the taxi is Rp 31.5 million, said Christianto, the South Jakarta Transportation Agency head, as quoted by beritajakarta.id.

(Read also: 200 vehicles in Jakarta undergo emissions test)

He added that the agency had sent two warning letters for each car, but the agency had yet to receive any response.

According to City Bylaw no. 5/2014 on transportation, owners of towed cars are to be fined Rp 500,000 for each day their cars sit in the administrations compound.

Christianto said that the agency would register every towed vehicle to Bank DKI, so owners could pay the fine directly to the bank. (kuk)

Topics : vehicle
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 18:15 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a299f0b 1 City kampung-melayu,#KampungMelayubombings,Densus-88,counterterrorism,suicide-bombings,SuicideBomber,IS,Islamic-State Free

Personnel of the National Polices Densus 88 counterterrorism squad arrested on Friday five people in relation to the twin suicide bomb blast that left five people dead and 12 injured at the Kampung Melayu bus station in East Jakarta.

"Since this morning, Densus 88 and police personnel have conducted searches to further investigate the possible involvement of other parties, Garut Police chief Adj.Sr.Comr. Novri Turangga said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus confirmed the arrests. "Early this morning, we rounded up three people allegedly linked to the Kampung Melayu terrorist attack," Yusri said.

(Read also: Kampung Melayu bomb victim buried in Klaten)

Three people arrested by Densus 88 on Friday morning were identified as J, W, and A. They were arrested in Cisarua, Dayeuh Kolot and Margasari  all in West Java.

The two others, HR and IS, are married. They were arrested in Paledang village, Garut regency, West Java.

Yusri said HR and IS were arrested because they were related to Ahmad Muslih, the suspected suicide bomber in the Kampung Melayu terror attack.

Investigation results revealed Ahmad Muslih lived in Garut for three months, Yusri said.

HR and IS are still being investigated by Densus 88 so we cannot confirm whether they will be taken to Jakarta. (hol/ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 10:12 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a284886 1 National Islamic-State,#JakartaAttack,#KampungMelayubombings,suicide-bombings Free

The suicide bombings at the busy bus station in East Jakartaan attack that killed three policemen and injured 12 others on Wednesday nighthas put authorities on alert to remain vigilant in anticipation of further attacks.

The Islamic State (IS) group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted police officers who were guarding a traditional parade of residents welcoming the fasting month of Ramadhan.

"The executor of the attack on the Indonesian police gathering in Jakarta was an Islamic State fighter," the group's news agency, Amaq, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The attack was the second IS-claimed attack on Indonesian soil. A series of bomb and gun attacks in front of the Sarinah shopping center in Central Jakarta in January 2016 resulted in the deaths of eight people, including four attackers.

(Read also: Police find links between Jakarta twin bombings and Bandung bombing)

Analysts have called on the public to stay alert following reports that hundreds of Indonesians have flocked abroad to join the fight with the militant group and could pose as threats upon their return.

"We could see pro-IS groups trying to prove they still have the resources and will to act. However, the Indonesian Police have been very effective in disrupting terrorist networks," said Sidney Jones, the director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), on Thursday.

Following the attack, several embassies in Jakarta, including that of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Malaysia, have issued travel advisories for their respective citizens who currently reside in Indonesia. (dmr)
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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 18:50 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a29d869 1 Business energy-and-mineral-resources-ministry,oil-and-gas,business Free

The government has reshuffled two agencies tasked with overseeing upstream and downstream oil and gas businesses in the wake of a plan to merge those agencies.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan announced on Friday the new composition of a committee at the Downstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Agency (BPH Migas) and appointed five new executives to the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas).

Fanshurullah Asa, who previously served as a BPH Migas committee member, was appointed the agencys new boss. Meanwhile, Sukandar was appointed SKK Migas new deputy head.

Jonan has high hopes for BPH Migas new committee members to help the government fully implement the one fuel-price policy and to lower the costs of distributing gas across the country.

Ive been tasked by the President to create bigger efficiencies in this [downstream] sector. So, well sit together and try to manage these matters once again, Jonan said at his office in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Jonan called on SKKMigas to find ways to further reduce costs in oil production and to develop a more efficient administration process in the upstream sector.

Lawmakers previously proposed the establishment of a new state company to take over the roles of BPH Migas and SKKMigas in a bid to cutting red tape and facilitate businesses.

The establishment of such a company will be included in the revision of the 2001 Oil and Gas Law, which is expected to be passed this year. (bbn)
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 15:51 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a294756 1 Business Airlines,passengers,Idul-Fitri-2017 Free

The Transportation Ministrys director general for air transportation, Agus Santoso, said on Friday that the number of people traveling by plane was expected to increase by 9.75 percent, during this year's seasonal exodus before and after the Idul Fitri holiday, from last year.

The figure is estimated to surge to 5.5 million passengers this year from 4.9 million passengers last year.

The number of 5.5 million passengers is our prediction for the entire [holiday], Agus said, adding that the airlines was prepared to accommodate a total of 5.7 million passengers.

It is a tradition for many Indonesian Muslims, who will start fasting on Saturday, to celebrate Idul Fitri in their hometowns, with many of them traveling from urban areas.

The exodus typically brings along with it traffic jams on roads from Jakarta to cities in West, Central and East Java, days ahead of the celebration. (bbn)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26 2017

Jakarta Police narcotics unit found people carrying drugs at Exotic nightclub in Mangga Besar, Central Jakarta, during a series of raids on several nightclubs and karaoke parlors in the city late on Wednesday.

The police discovered one male clubgoer carrying two ecstasy pills, while one female clubgoer was found to be carrying one pill of ecstasy.

The male clubgoer was identified as Nurasli, 47, while the female was identified as Ambarsari Setianingsih, 19. Nurasli lives in Kemayoran while Ambarsari is from Klaten, Jakarta Police narcotics unit director Sr. Comr. Nico Afinta said as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 13:02 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28d44e 1 City ahok,basuki-tjahaja-purnama,city-budget,resignation Free

Jakarta Gubernatorial and Foreign Affairs (KDH-KLN) bureau head Mawardi has confirmed that non-active governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama returned his remaining operational fundsRp 1.2 billion (US$96,708)as governor to a bank account belonging to the city administration.

"We have received Rp 1.2 billion," Mawardi said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

Mawardi said that the funds were automatically transferred to acting governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat as operational funds for the 2017 city budget.

"Later, at the end of year, the remaining funds will be returned to the city's coffer," he said.

Previously, Ahok's attorney, Josefina A. Syukur, said that her client had returned the operational funds through the administration's Bank DKI account.

Ahok tendered a letter of resignation from his position as Jakarta governor to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Tuesday. In the letter dated May 23, Ahok wrote that he would resign in consideration of the North Jakarta District Court's verdict and sentence on May 9 and Presidential Decree dated May 12, which ordered Ahok's temporary dismissal as governor.

The letter was signed by Ahok at the Police Mobile Brigade Command detention center in Depok, West Java, where he is currently being detained. (agn/dmr)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Klaten, Central Java  Fri, May 26, 2017 13:46 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28f28e 1 National kampung-melayu,#KampungMelayubombings,Klaten,Klaten-regent,terrorism,suicide-bombings,SuicideBomber Free

The body of First Brig. Imam Gilang Adinata, one of three police officers killed in twin bombings in East Jakarta on Wednesday, has been buried in his hometown in Klaten, Central Java.

He was laid to rest at the Gedong public cemetery in Srago Gede, Mojayan subdistrict, Klaten, at around 6:20 p.m. local time on Thursday.

Central Java Police human resources director Sr. Comr. Edy Murbowo led the burial ceremony, which was attended by hundreds of police and military personnel.

Jakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Suntana and acting Klaten regent Sri Mulyani attended the procession. Hundreds of people, including Gilangs family members and friends, also saw off their loved one to his final resting place.

Gilang has become a hero and good example for us. This incident should not make us afraid and, instead, it should serve as a lesson that spurs us to be brave to fight against terrorism. We must not be afraid of terrorism, said Suntana.

Gilang was guarding a pre-Ramadhan event when two suicide bombers attacked the Kampung Melayu bus station.

Rohmat Sugiarto, one of Gilangs uncles, said his nephew had dreamed of becoming a police officer since he was a child. He joined the National Police in 2013 and was stationed in Jakarta.

Hopefully, he died in khusnul khotimah [with blessings ahead] because he died when he was on duty, said Rohmat. (mos/ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 18:41 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a29b90c 1 Business Lion-Air,new-route,daily-flight,flyers,Bandung-Pekanbaru Free

Major Indonesian carrier Lion Air Group plans to operate a new route connecting Bandung, West Java and Pekanbaru, Riau to cater to surging demand from flyers between the two cities.

Airlines under the group will fly daily to these destinations starting from June 16, according to the groups statement.

We hope to fulfill the needs of residents in both Bandung and Pekanbaru with a direct flight. This will allow efficiency in terms of time and costs [for the passengers], Lion Air Group public relations manager Andy M. Saladin said in the statement Friday.

(Read also: Malindo Air receives Boeing's first 737 Max 8)

Andy further said the launch of the latest route would also aim to anticipate an increase of travel between both cities ahead of Idul Fitri, which will fall at the end of June.

The new service will add to 21 daily flights from Bandungs international airport, Husein Sastranegara, to 11 domestic destinations, such as Makassar, Surabaya, Denpasar, Medan and Batam, and one international destination, namely Kuala Lumpur, served by three airlines under Lion Air Group  Lion Air, Wings Air and sister airline Malindo Air. (lnd)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 14:00 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a290298 4 City attack,police,Central-Jakarta Free

A group of people broke into and damaged parts of the Monas Barat police post in Gambir, Central Jakarta, on Thursday night.

The post is in the vicinity of City Hall and a handful of government buildings, including the State Palace.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono told reporters on Friday that one of the post's guards, Adj. First Insp. Aiptu Yusuf Indra, was approached by a visitor carrying a large knife at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

The man was angry and looking for some police officers who he said had stopped him on the street.

"The man quarrelled with the officers at the post but they managed to calm the man down," Argo said as quoted by kompas.com.

The man left the post, but at 9:30 p.m. he returned with three other people who claimed to be the man's superintendents. At 11:30 p.m., 10 more men came to the post. They asked the same thing as the first man but were angrier and even pushed Yusuf around, Argo said.

"They entered the police post, broke into the cabinets then just left. Indra later sought help from another nearby police post but when he came back with help, the windows of his post had been broken and so had the computers inside," he said.

Argo said the police were still looking into the case to find out who was responsible for the assault. (dea)
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Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 19:21 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a29ec5f 1 National NU,ramadhan,Ramadhan-2017,radicalism,kampung-melayu,#KampungMelayubombings,terrorism Free

Indonesias largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), has said it will optimize the use of its newly opened internet command center to curb the spread of radicalism during Ramadhan.

We will use the command center to tackle the spread of [radical] teachings, to educate people via social media and to fill our social media accounts with positive content, NU deputy secretary-general Imam Pituduh told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Located at NUs central office in Kramat, Central Jakarta, the Nusantara Command Center (NCC) commenced operations on May 26. It is stated on NUs official website that the NCC was jointly established by NU and telecommunication company PT XL Axiata. The new facility will also function as a communication forum among NU executives in an effort to counter any attempts to divide the country.

Imam said during Ramadhan that it was better for social media users, especially those who had a lot of followers, to spread goodness instead of negative content that could harm the religious life of Indonesian people and the countrys diversity.

NU would also carry out its perennial program of deploying preachers to mosques across the country during Ramadhan to ensure people witnessed comprehensive sermons, not those that contained misinterpreted Islamic teachings.

Imam said NU was concerned Indonesian society had become increasingly apathetic, paving the way for radical and terror organizations to flourish in the country.

He said a twin suicide bombing in East Jakarta on May 24 was a wake up call for all parties to intensify the monitoring of those two groups. (ebf)
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Linkedin Wahyoe Boediwardhana (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya, East Java  Fri, May 26, 2017 17:52 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a299876 1 National Muhaimin-Iskandar,Gus-Ipul,PKB,NU,Saifullah-Yusuf,Abdul-Halim-Iskandar Free

The National Awakening Partys (PKB) East Java regional executive board has nominated East Java Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf to run in the 2018 gubernatorial election.

The decision goes against expectation that the boards chairman, Abdul Halim Iskandar, would be nominated for governor.

Halim had long declared his intention to run in the 2018 gubernatorial election and claimed that he was supported by 38 PKB branches across East Java.

Because all ulemas and Muslim leaders from across East Java have come to an agreement, Im calling on the executive board to follow through with nominating Saifullah Yusuf as its gubernatorial candidate. Pak Halim should accept wholeheartedly what the ulemas have decided because the PKB is a party that is loyal and obedient to the words of ulemas, said Muhaimin during a meeting attended by 1,421 NU ulemas and leaders at the Bhumi Sholawat Islamic boarding school in Lebo district, Sidoarjo, on Thursday.

Muhaimin, who is also the younger brother of Halim, said the decision to nominate Saifullah was based not only on the order of NU ulemas but also logical reasoning. Perceived to have vast experience in governance, Saifullah graduated from an NU Islamic boarding school.

East Java has never been led by an NU member, he said. If the nomination is successful, Gus Ipul [Saifullah Yusuf] will become the first governor from the PKB, said Muhaimin. (ebf)

Show of support: National Awakening Party (PKB) East Java executive board chairman Abdul Halim Iskandar shows a letter from Indonesias largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), to the party in a press conference on May 25. (JP/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 11:15 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28885d 1 National #JakartaAttack,#KampungMelayubombings,suicide-bombings,East-Jakarta Free

Personnel of National Police counterterrorism squad Densus 88 have arrested on Friday morning three people allegedly linked to the suicide bomb attack that claimed five people and injured 12 others at the Kampung Melayu bus station in East Jakarta.

West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Yusri Yunus confirmed the arrest.

"Early this morning, we rounded up three people allegedly linked to the Kampung Melayu terrorist attack," Yusri said as quoted by kompas.com.

According to Yusri, the three alleged accomplices, identified only as J, W, and A, were arrested in three separate locations in West Java.

(Read also: Kampung Melayu suicide bomber identified)

"They were arrested in Cisarua, Margasari and Dayeuh Kolot," he said.

Densus 88 are currently questioning the suspects.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted police officers who were guarding a traditional parade of residents welcoming the fasting month of Ramadhan. (dmr)
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Fri, May 26 2017

Only 10 hours after the twin bombings went off at the Kampung Melayu bus station in East Jakarta on Wednesday evening, claiming five lives and injuring a dozen more, police arrived at the residences of the alleged suicide bombers in Bandung, West Java.

Personnel from the National Polices Densus 88 counterterrorism squad conducted a search on the house of the alleged suicide bomber, Ichwan Nurul Salam.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 19:50 1993 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a29f3e0 1 National ramadhan,Ramadhan-2017,Lukman-Hakim-Saifuddin,Religious-Affairs-Ministry Free

The government has announced that the first day of Ramadhan 1438 H will fall on May 27, as observers in several areas across the country have spotted the presence of the new moon.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said all Muslims could perform tarawih (evening Ramadhan prayers) on Friday as they would start fasting on Saturday.

All Indonesians should maintain peace and harmony during the holy month, he further said.

The new moon could be observed by sworn witnesses in several locations, Lukman told journalists in a press conference after an isbat (confirmation) meeting to determine the start of Ramadhan at the Religious Affairs Ministry in Jakarta on Friday evening.

Based information we received, we decided that the first day of Ramadhan will fall on Saturday, May 27, he said. There were no varying opinions voiced by Islamic organizations about the start of this year's Ramadhan fasting month during the meeting, he added. (rdi/ebf)
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Linkedin Bryan McManus and Danny Kemp (AFP) Brussels, Belgium  Fri, May 26, 2017 08:15 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a27f0f4 2 World DonaldTrump,Donald-Trump,NATO,terrorism,immigration,Manchester,manchester-attack Free

US President Donald Trump on Thursday launched an extraordinary broadside at NATO allies for failing to pay their fair share of the defence bill.

The billionaire leader used the highest possible profile platform of his first NATO summit in Brussels to accuse members of the alliance of owing "massive amounts of money".

Unveiling a memorial to the 9/11 attacks at NATO's new headquarters, Trump also urged the alliance to get tougher on tackling terrorism and immigration in the wake of the Manchester attack.

Allies who had hoped to hear Trump publicly declare his commitment to NATO's Article 5 collective defence guarantee were left disappointed as he made no mention of it and instead castigated them on their home turf.

"Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they're supposed to be paying for their defence," the president said as fellow leaders looked on grim faced.

Trump said that even if they met the commitment they made in 2014 to allocate two percent of GDP to defence, it would still not be enough to meet the challenges NATO faces.

"This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years," Trump added.

The diatribe stirred memories of his campaign trail comments branding NATO "obsolete" and threatening that states that did not pay their way would not necessarily be defended, which deeply alarmed allies.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg was repeatedly asked at a closing news conference about Trump's comments but insisted that while the president might have been "blunt" his message was unchanged -- the allies had to do more.

In dedicating the 9/11 Article 5 memorial, the president was "sending a strong signal" of his committment to NATO, Stoltenberg said.

"And it is not possible to be committed to NATO without being committed to Article 5."

- Terrorism 'must be stopped' -

Trump said the bombing of a pop concert in the British city of Manchester on Monday, claimed by the Islamic State group, showed that "terrorism must be stopped in its tracks."

"The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration as well as threats from Russia and NATO's eastern and southern borders," the president said.

The surprising focus on immigration echoed another key feature of Trump's campaign, which included a vow to build a border wall with Mexico, a measure derided in Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck an entirely different note as she unveiled a memorial made up of a section of the Berlin Wall to mark the end of the Cold War.

"Germany will not forget the contribution NATO made in order to reunify our country. This is why we will indeed make our contribution to security and solidarity in the common alliance," she said.

Trump's rebuke came despite NATO saying it would formally join the US-led coalition against IS at the summit, despite reservations in France and Germany about getting involved in another conflict.

Article 5 has been invoked only once in NATO's six-decade history -- after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Analyst Thomas Wright of the Washington-based Brookings Institution said Trump's failure to publicly declare this was "shocking and damaging".

Brussels presented Trump with the first problems of a landmark foreign trip, including tense moments with the head of the European Union and with key ally Britain.

Trump announced a review of "deeply troubling" US intelligence leaks over the Manchester bombing, in which 22 people died, and warned that those responsible could face prosecution, the White House said.

He later discussed the row with Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, who had condemned the leaks that left British authorities infuriated with their US counterparts.

- EU Russia tensions -

A meeting with the two top EU officials did not go smoothly either, despite hopes it could clear the bad blood caused by Trump backing Britain's Brexit vote.

European Council chief Donald Tusk, who met Trump with European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, said there were differences on climate change and trade but above all Russia.

"I'm not 100 percent sure that we can say today -- 'we' means Mr President and myself -- that we have a common position, common opinion about Russia," said Tusk, a former Polish premier who grew up protesting against Soviet domination of his country.

Trump on the campaign trail made restoring relations with Russia a key promise but he has faced bitter opposition in Washington and has since become embroiled in a scandal over alleged links to Moscow.

Trump also held talks with new French President Emmanuel Macron, with the pair appearing to engage in a brief yet bizarre battle to see who could shake hands the hardest.

Trump came to Brussels direct from a "fantastic" meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, after visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

On his arrival on Wednesday in Brussels, the city he once said had been turned into a "hellhole" by Muslim immigration, the president was greeted by around 9,000 protesters saying "Trump not welcome". (**)
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Linkedin Sebastien Blanc (AFP) Washington, United States  Fri, May 26, 2017 07:45 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a2772ad 2 World US,DonaldTrump,Donald-Trump,travel-ban,Muslim-countries,immigration,immigration-policy Free

A US federal appeals court on Thursday dealt a fresh setback to President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban, upholding a lower court's decision to block the measure targeting travelers from six Muslim majority countries.

The government quickly announced its intention to appeal the decision -- the latest in a series of stinging judicial defeats for the Republican billionaire, who took office in January -- to the Supreme Court.

At issue was the intent behind the measure -- whether or not it deliberately singled out Muslims by targeting nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The US Constitution forbids religious discrimination.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said it "remained unconvinced" that the part of the measure naming the specific countries had "more to do with national security than it does with effectuating the president's promised Muslim ban."

The court -- based in Richmond, Virginia -- said it could not find that the government's security concerns outweighed the plaintiffs' concerns about discrimination.

"Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute," Chief Judge Roger Gregory said in the 10-3 ruling.

"It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation."

Gregory said the order "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions countered that the court's move "blocks the president's efforts to strengthen this country's national security."

"This Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the power and duty of the executive branch to protect the people of this country from danger, and will seek review of this case in the United States Supreme Court," he said.

- 'We won' -

Trump issued his initial travel ban by executive order in January, but that measure -- which banned entry to nationals from seven countries for 90 days and suspended the nation's refugee program for 120 days -- was quickly halted by the courts.

A revised executive order announced in March, meant to address the issues raised by the federal judges, deleted Iraq from the list and removed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees.

It earned widespread scorn nevertheless, including from human rights activists and states led by Democrats.

A district court judge in Maryland issued a nationwide block on the ban's core provision concerning travel from the short list of countries, sending the issue to the Fourth Circuit.

Given the case's high-profile nature, the full appeals court in Richmond heard the arguments -- bypassing the usual initial three-judge panel -- for the first time in a quarter-century.

Thirteen of the court's 15 active judges took part. Two recused themselves over potential conflicts of interest.

In a May 8 hearing, acting solicitor general Jeffrey Wall, representing the government, insisted that Trump "never intended for that to discriminate on the basis of any particular religion."

"He made clear he was not talking about Muslims all over the world," he said. "That's why it's not a Muslim ban."

But Omar Jadwat, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union -- which represented the associations who were the plaintiffs in the case -- argued that Trump the candidate made clear he wanted to ban all Muslims for a time while studying enhanced immigration vetting.

"We won," the ACLU and Jadwat tweeted Thursday.

"The Constitution's prohibition on actions disfavoring or condemning any religion is a fundamental protection for all of us, and we can all be glad that the court today rejected the government's request to set that principle aside," Jadwat said.

A federal court in Hawaii has issued a broader injunction that halted both the travel ban and the suspension of the US refugee admissions program.

The White House is fighting that ruling in the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, which heard the case on May 15. A decision is pending. (**)
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Linkedin Tassia Sipahutar (The Jakarta Post) Cancun, Mexico  Fri, May 26, 2017 12:08 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28a222 1 World United-Nations,Global-Platform-for-Disaster-Risk-Reduction,disaster-risk-reduction Free

Several world leaders have highlighted challenges faced in disaster situations in a communique issued during a United Nations Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction event in Cancun, Mexico.

In the communique, the leadersincluding Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Haitian President Jovenel Moise and Nepal Deputy Prime Minister Bilamendra Nidhiacknowledge that direct economic losses attributed to disasters are increasing significantly.

The losses have reached close to US$1.4 trillion over the last decade, according to the communique issued on Thursday.

(Read also: Global leaders, civil society address disaster risks in Mexico)

Losses to countries capital stock, including housing, infrastructure, productive assets and livelihoods, and impacts on health and education have had major fiscal implications, hindering economic growth and development, the statement says.

In some regions, the risk of losing capital stock in disasters may even be growing at a faster rate than the capital being produced. At the same time, the poor suffer disproportionately from natural and man-made hazards as poverty undermines their resilience to disasters.

They also highlight the condition of low-income households, which usually live in hazard-exposed areas with low land value, deficient or non-existent infrastructure and services within degraded environments.

The leaders say that they are then committed to consider the risk of loss in infrastructure and housing and its consequences in the development of economic strategies and budgets and to make disaster risk assessments a prerequisite for infrastructure and housing investments.

The event will run until May 26 and is attended by around 5,000 people from 176 countries.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 27 2017

A group of people broke into and damaged parts of the Monas Barat police post in Gambir, Central Jakarta, on Thursday night.

The post is in the vicinity of City Hall and a handful of government buildings, including the State Palace.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono told reporters on Friday that one of the posts guards, Adj. First Insp. Aiptu Yusuf Indra, was approached by a visitor carrying a large knife at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 13:18 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28e003 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,AirAsia,Narita-Airport,Ngurah-Rai-International-Airport,Airport,#airport,Airlines,#airlines,tourism,#tourism Free

Low cost carrier AirAsia has opened a new route from Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali.

On Thursday, AirAsia Xs maiden flight, with the flight number XT402, landed for the first time in Bali from Narita. Using an Airbus A330-300 plane, the flight was 93 percent occupied.

In Ngurah Rai, arriving passengers were welcomed by a performance of traditional Balinese dance. A press conference was later held at the Novotel Bandara Ngurah Rai attended by representatives of the Tourism Ministry, Transportation Ministry, Consulate General of Japan in Denpasar, Japan National Tourism Organization and AirAsia.

Read also: What to prepare before traveling to Japan

We are very keen about the opening of this new route as this gives more options for tourists from both Indonesia and Japan. Both countries will reap the benefit from this direct flight, especially in the economic and tourism sectors, said Hirohisa Chiba of Consulate General of Japan in Denpasar.

With 93 percent of the seats occupied in this first flight, we are going to add more flights from four times a week to daily flights beginning June 16, said Dendy Kurniawan, AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Indonesia operations. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, May 26, 2017 12:26 1994 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97a28a701 1 News yogyakarta-tourism,Bantul,tourism,tourist-village,Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,#tourism Free

Located in Bantul regency, 15 kilometers south of Yogyakarta, Ngiringan tourist village is famously known as home to Bantul Museum.

As one of the villages main tourist attractions, the museum presents artifacts, photos and documentary films showcasing the Bantul area and its surroundings during the Dutch colonial era from the end of the 1800s to the early 1900s.

Upon entering the museum, visitors can see old photos of the Palpabang train station that used to serve as a meeting point for trains coming from the west, south and north. There are also photos of the opening ceremony of Ganjuran Temple, the 1942 inauguration ceremony of Ganjuran Church, a movie about the famed Gondanglipuro Ganjuran sugar factory and artifacts from the colonial era, such as money, letters and clothes, among others.

Read also: The best apps for people who travel alone

On the other side of the building, visitors can see how madumongsoa sweet delicacy made from fermented black glutinous rice, cooked in coconut milk and sugar and wrapped in corn huskis made.

In addition, visitors there can marvel at other cooking processes, such as tempe (fermented soybean), emping (melinjo nut crackers), gula batu (rock sugar) and gula jawa (palm sugar).

Ngiringan tourist village itself is famous for its handicrafts, such as wooden statues shaped like a person or animal, and handicrafts made from pelepah kelapa (coconut midrib). Visitors can also try their hand at making handicrafts themselves.

Read also: Online tourism community GenPi launched in Yogyakarta

Another interesting draw of the tourist village are the blacksmiths who specialize in making iron and steel tools, such as sickles, swords and crowbars.

The village also regularly hosts festivals, such as bersih desa (village cleaning), majemukan and nyadran (self-cleaning). The villagers also participate in kethoprak and jathilan art activities.

To reach Ngiringan tourist village, visitors can take the Samas-route inner-city bus from the Giwangan bus station. The ticket costs Rp 5,000 (less than US 50 cents) but since there are a limited number of buses making the trip, there might be a long wait time at the station.

Tourist packages to Ngiringan tourist village range from Rp 85,000 per person to Rp 300,000 per person. For accommodation, there are at least 30 homestays available in the area. (kes)
PROTECT, CONNECT, AND STRENGTHEN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Learn more about the LMCR Project HERE and join us on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at the Rutgers Community Center at 200 Madison St. from 6:30  8:30 p.m. This meeting will focus on the waterfront from Montgomery Street to the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Theresa May is urging the worlds leading industrial nations to come together to pressure tech giants like Google, Twitter and Facebook to remove harmful extremist content from the internet.

Days after the Manchester bomb attack, the Prime Minister will seek to focus on the online threat from violent extremists when she chairs a session on counter-terrorism at the G7 summit in Taormina in Sicily, Italy, on Friday.

(Lauren Hurley/PA)

A senior Government official said she would be coming forward with a series of proposals for members to strengthen their hand by adopting a common approach to dealing with the industry.

While Mrs May will acknowledge the industry has been taking action to remove extremist content, she will say they have not gone far enough and need to do more.

She will argue that as Islamic State loses ground in its heartlands in Iraq and Syria, the threat from extremism is evolving rather than disappearing, with the fight moving from the battlefield to the internet.

(Dominic Lipinski/PA)

This sort of material being on the internet is obviously harmful. It has in the past been linked to acts of violence and

the less of this material that is on the internet, that is clearly for the better, one official said.

The move reflects frustration among the security services at the way the internet continues to be used by violent jihadis to radicalise young people  and has been used as a recruitment tool by Islamic State to enlist them to join its ranks in Syria.

There are further concerns that detailed terror manuals  including instructions on how to build a homemade bomb  remain freely available online, even after the tech companies have been alerted to them.

A recent report by the Commons Home Affairs Committee warned that there was a great deal of evidence that these platforms

were being used to spread hate, abuse and extremism.

(PA)

That trend continues to grow at an alarming rate but it remains unchecked and, even where it is illegal, largely unpoliced. The evidence suggests that the problem is getting worse, it said.

The Prime Minister will say the industry has a social responsibility to take down harmful content and will call for the creation of an international industry-led forum to work through the issues.

Among the specific proposals, she will say companies should be encouraged to develop tools which automatically identify and remove harmful material based on what it contains and who posted it.

Mrs May will say companies need to block users who post extremist content and inform the relevant authorities when they identify harmful content so appropriate action can be taken.

(Dominic Lipinski/PA)

She will also call for industry guidelines to be revised by the tech companies to make absolutely clear what constitutes harmful material, with those that fail to do so being held to account.

But with most of the companies based in the United States, it is unclear how far she will be able to enlist the support of President Donald Trump for her agenda.

In response, Google said it was committed to creating an international forum designed to tackle extreme content appearing online.

The internet company has said it will continue to invest in fighting abuse on its own services.

(Gareth Fuller/PA)

We are committed to working in partnership with governments and NGOs to tackle these challenging and complex problems, and share the governments commitment to ensuring terrorists do not have a voice online, a Google spokeswoman said.

We are already working with industry colleagues on plans for an international forum to help accelerate and strengthen our existing work in this area.

We employ thousands of people and invest hundreds of millions of pounds to fight abuse on our platforms, and will continue investing and adapting to ensure we are part of the solution to addressing these challenges.
LBC and Katie Hopkins have agreed that Katie will leave LBC effective immediately.  LBC (@LBC) May 26, 2017

The decision comes just days after Hopkins announced on twitter that there needs to be a final solution in the wake of the Manchester Arena terror attack, which left 22 dead and 59 injured. Some have interpreted her tweet as a call for ethnic-cleansing and mass genocide of the Muslim race.She wrote on the social media site: 22 dead - number rising. Schofield. Dont you even dare. Do not be part of the problem. We need a final solution. #Manchester. Her initial comment has been taken by many as a reference to the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, attended by high-ranking German and Nazi governmental officials in which there were calls for a "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem." The broadcaster and MailOnline columnist hastily took down her controversial tweet and re-posted an altered version, changing final to true, after receiving widespread criticism from the public. LBC however faced building pressure to take the presenter, who only joined the radio station last April, off air, after many people reported the comment to the Metropolitan police via the social media site. Just minutes after the announcement was made by LBC on twitter, Hopkins reposted a video which includes comments such as The Muslim community needs to sort this out and We do not stand united. Hopkins is well known for her outrageous remarks and this is not the first time her comments have sparked worldwide condemnation. Last month in the wake of the Westminster attack, the former Apprentice contestant was accused of hate crime after tweeting: Ramadan has not yet begun. Without food these sods get nasty.
Last week the group exposed an innocent man to radiation. As Clarke said, if the night blood injected into his veins protects him from the radiation, they survive  simple. However in true The 100 style, nothing is ever that simple in God Complex.

The team is anxiously waiting to see if the grounder survives after being exposed to radiation, now that hes a night blood. Things start to look hopeful when the man remains unaffected, but when Jackson reaches the maximum radiation exposure the test subject begins to convulse and burn, and dies within seconds. Lunas bone marrow does not work.

In Arcadia, they pay their respects to the 18 people who died in the acid rain storm. Jaha overhears Niylah using traditional words from her culture: from the ashes we will rise. A few episodes back, Jaha went hunting for a bunker. Hearing the words from the cult that created the first failed bunker, Jaha is led to believe another bunker may exist. After Niylah tells him to go ask the Flame Keeper about the phrase, Jaha sets out with Kane and Monty to find Indras daughter Gaia.

Back in the lab, Abbey discovers that the radiation breaks down a specific gene, by removing that she thinks the next test subject might survive the radiation. The group discuss finding another person to use as a test subject and Luna chastises the group for even considering it. However, it turns out they dont need to hunt for another person, as Emoris deception is revealed because the man they used does not have the tattoo to connect him to the group that tortured her as a child. Her deception places her next in line to be tested.

Morals play a key role in this episode. Raven is evidently uncomfortable with the way the group are handling the situation, especially when Roan forcefully knocks Luna unconscious to get her bone marrow. The Mechanic says what weve all been thinking: Welcome to Mount Weather. Taking us back to season two when Skaikru and Trikru we having their blood and bone marrow removed without consent so that the society of Mount Weather could survive outside.

Meanwhile Indra isnt too happy to see Skaikru, she is angry that they are continuing their alliance with Ice Nation despite the fact that Roan sent an army to take down Arcadia. She allows Kane to see her daughter once he reveals that she could save everyone with the knowledge she possesses.

Gaia claims Jaha's medallion that matches the tattoo on her arm, is a holy symbol of her order. Jaha questions why a logo from a business corporation become a religion? They move to the temple, taking down Ice Nation guards as they move across the city to see if they can find any information about another bunker.

When they take Emori to be tested, Murphy reminds Clarke that he was the one who kept her alive during the City of Light. Clarke is confident that Emori will survive, but Murphy responds with a direct threat: If she dies, you die.

With pressure mounting, Clarke takes the syringe from Abby when she struggles to inject Emori. Almost expected, Clarke sacrifices herself and puts the bone marrow into her own vein. Clarke will be the one to be tested in the chamber. In a moment of desperation and fear, Abby destroys the radiation chamber. Any chance of creating night blood is ruined, and all hopes rest on Jaha finding a secret bunker.

Luckily, Kane and Jaha succeed in finding the secret bunker. The medallion that Jaha possesses, when burnt turns into a key. The key fits into a door that opens up into a secret basement bunker within the temple  is this the solution to surviving the radiation?

Although Clarke tried to do the right thing by offering up her own body for testing, the thought of losing her daughter was too much for Abby. Luckily for the group, a new solution has been found, but would they be able to keep the peace and fit everyone into the new bunker is still a question that hangs in the air.
The new series of the Australian prison drama Wentworth Prison returned to UK screens this week.

'Scars allowed the audience and characters to mourn for Bea Smith, who was shockingly murdered last series, but also kept up the gripping tension that the programme is known for.

The first five minutes of the episode are dedicated to Bea Smith. The distress felt by the characters is undeniably powerful in taking the audience back to last year's shocking finale where Wentworth Prison's leading lady was ruthlessly murdered by Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson, who has been terrorising the inmates of Wentworth since series two.

Naturally Ferguson, is back in jail after a few minutes of freedom last season. Her lawyer tries to convince her to please guilty and get a reduced sentence under manslaughter. Refusing her lawyers advice, Ferguson is on her own mission to find out which staff member helped Bea leave the prison.

Meanwhile, Prison Governor Vera is being pressured to find out which member of staff let Bea outside. Obviously Vera cannot give up her own name and ruin her own career. No longer timid and afraid, Vera has grown since her first appearance and resolves to run the prison on her own terms; such as when Ferguson meets her in her office to discuss letting her into general population.

Since series two, Pamela Rabe (Ferguson) and Kate Atkinson (Vera) have played off each other beautifully. Now that Vera is stronger and more confident, thanks to the manipulation of her form Governor, Ferguson can no longer manipluate her as easily. It is clear though, that Vera does not have complete control, as Ferguson is let back into general population.

Kat, the new top dog, is keen to stop the violence, insisting that no one should look at Ferguson. The women in Wentworth are used to violence being the go-to punishment - it seems unlikely that Kat's rule be an effective one, especially as inmate anger for Ferguson is very strong.

Mourning Bea, Allie is out for revenge and attacks Ferguson in the yard. Like a rabid animal, Ferguson takes Allie down in one movement. Allies attack encourages more inmates to try and take out Ferguson. In previous seasons, it has been Ferguson's threats that have been powerful enough to install fear. Her hands are also quick as she puts four more inmates in medical. Here, Ferguson is pushed to the edge, savagely screaming at the women watching her. It is undeniable that Rabe is an astounding actress and here the performance is raw and edgy. Ferguson is quite simply terrifying.

As the comedic character, Boomer's hysterics usually allow for light relief during the heavier elements of the programme. With Maxine being moved to another prison to recieve better cancer treatment, Boomer locks herself in Maxine's cell to prevent her from leaving. Katrina Milosevic is a strong comedic actress and the skill at which she can turn the scene from comedic to emotional is commendable. As Sonia calms Boomer down, she admitts that she wants all the people she loves to stop leaving her.

Meanwhile Vera covers up the fact that she let Bea out of the prison by altering the records to make it look like Brenda  a guard who frequently takes cigarette breaks  lost her card and Bea used it to exit the prison. Brenda takes her leave when Vera threatens her with the police and the end of her career.

Like Vera, Franky Doyle is another character that has developed immensely over the years. Her life on the outside is successful - with a girlfriend and a permanent job, the previous top dog has truly left the prison life behind. However, at the end of the episode Franky is arrested after Mike Pennisi, the man she assaulted with hot oil, is murdered. Throughout the episode, it is revealed that Mike had been stalking Franky, going so far as to create a mannequin of her. Whilst the arrest of Franky means she can be placed back in Wentworth (and also allow Nicole De Silva more screen time), it almost feels as if the creators are putting the previous top dog and fan favourite back in prison simply for the sake of creating more drama. Seeing Franky on the outside was a highlight of the fourth season and it's a shame to see her backtrack.

Though I was initially doubtful about the success of the show without Bea Smith, it's clear that the prison drama is as dramatic as ever. With previous top dog Franky returning to prison and Ferguson still causing trouble for everyone around her, this series is looking promising.

Wentworth Prison airs on Sundays at 10pm on 5Star.
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The First Forum of China Chief Legal Officer was held in Shenzhen

2017-05-26  Shenzhen Nanshan





On May 20th, CACLO held the First Forum of China Chief Legal Officer and released a hard-hitting report The Top 100 Chinese Enterprises Ruled by Law in Shenzhen. Southern Airlines, TCL and some listed Companies in Nanshan District ranked the top 100 Chinese enterprises ruled by law.

It is known that CACLO, a large, high-end public welfare organization, established by legal officers from a number of transnational listed companies in China, is located in Nanshan District High-tech Park. 2017 The First Forum of China Chief Legal Officer was held by CACLO and supported by SCIA. With the theme of compliance governance and sustainable development of Chinese Enterprises, the forum upheld the high-end, professional style and paid attention to the practice of legal compliance communication.Nearly 500 legal directors from more than 300 well-known enterprises all over the country signed up and attended the forum. Among them, legal directors from ZTE, China Southern Airlines, Baidu Group and many other well-known listed companies in Nanshan District attended the forum and delivered a keynote speech. Chief legal officers from DJI and other enterprises joined the discussion.

It is reported that the book Corporate Chief Legal Officer Night Watchman of the Company, which was the world's first book on the chief legal officer's system and called the classic work with corporate legal management, was published in the forum.
Kolkata, May 26 (IBNS): Axis Bank, Indiaas third largest private bank announced the opening of its new branches in Bangur Avenue, Ultadanga and Karimpur which will offer a comprehensive range of banking services like deposits, loans as also savings and current accounts and locker facilities.

Axis Bank will leverage the branches to reach out to the customers and empower them with digital offerings and facilitate services through Axis Pay, Axis Mobile application etc.

It will consistently educate and encourage the customers to make more use of digital mode of payments for their daily transactions.

On digital payment solutions, Axis bank is offering the desired infrastructure across India to conduct cashless transactions. Banks QR based scanning solutions has been a great digital platform for small ticket vendors to conduct cashless transactions.

Commenting on the inauguration of the branches, Sanjay Silas, Head - Branch Banking, Axis Bank said, We are very happy to inaugurate our new branches in Kolkata. We have witnessed the increasing demand of banking services & products amongst the retail & institutional customers in West Bengal and to bridge this gap we have expanded our existing network to cater the customers and enhanced their overall banking experience. We are committed to bringing superior banking services, with digitally-driven convenience for our ever-increasing customer base.

The Bangur branch was inaugurated by P.Srinivas - Circle Head, Kolkata, Axis Bank while the Ultadanga branch was inaugurated by Dilip & P. Srinivas - Circle Head, Kolkata, Axis Bank and the Karimpur Branch was inaugurated by Sudhir Kontham - IAS, SDO, Tehatta.

The branch shall cater to all basic banking transactions and also specific needs of customers, offering the entire spectrum of banking products and financial services covering Retail, Institutional and Consumer lending.
Kolkata, May 26 (IBNS): ALL Ladies League - Kolkata chapter recently organised a programme titled 'The Magic of Ray' to commemorate the 96th birth anniversary of one of India's top film makers, Satyajit Ray.

ALL Ladies League is said to be the worlds largest forum for women, singularly working at enhancing women empowerment.

Besides members of the ALL Ladies League, members of the film fraternity and Ray's immediate family were also present at the event held at the city's JW Marriott Hotel.

Ranju Jha Alex  General Manager, JW Marriott Kolkata & MPVP East, said, Mr. Satyajit Ray has been an icon of Indian cinema and a source of inspiration for many. It was an honor to commemorate his 94th birth anniversary at our property, and paying homage to his work along with the team that has worked with him so closely, who are present here today.

The organisers also invited several artists from various Satyajit Ray films, such as actor and dramatist, Pradip Mukherjee, known his role in Jana Aranya; Alakananda Ray, who made her debut as Monisah in Kanchenjunga in 1962; Chandana Banerji - who stole our heart as the young and vulnerable Ratan in Rays trilogy  Teen Kanya; Madhabi Mukherjee, one of the all-time greats of Bengali cinema, particularly known for her towering performance as Charu in Charulata (1964). Prior to this, Mukherjee had put up an equally powerful performance as Arati in Rays Mahanagar and later as Karuna in Kapurush.

Guest of Honor was Satyajit Rays son, Sandip Ray, himself a versatile personality  writer, designer, film maker, music composer and editor.

He was accompanied by wife, Lalita Ray.

They shared many fond memories of Satyajit Ray as a family person and a film maker.

Satyajit Ray (May 2, 1921  April 23, 1992) won many awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film awards, a Golden Lion, a Golden Bear, two Silver Bear, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992 to name a few. He was awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, in 1992.

Chairperson of the Kolkata chapter, Nilaanjana Chakraborty, herself a well-known jewelry designer, Tarot Card reader and writer was the main driver of the programme.

The event was supported by Techno India Group.


An opportunity for foodies and beer lovers to get lost in a world of food and drink from a hand-selected range of food trucks and breweries from around New Zealand.
Mumbai, May 26 (IBNS) : Results for three civic bodies in Maharashtra have started trickling in with the Congress and NCP taking early lead in two and the BJP being ahead in one municipal corporation body.

According to reports, the Congress and NCP have taken early leads in Malegaon and Bhiwandi and the BJP is leading in Panvel Municipal Corporation.

AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi has made some gains in Bhiwandi.

As per the latest trends, the Congress is leading at 30 seats in Malegaon while NCP has taken lead with 24 seats.

AIMIM was ahead at 11 seats when the reports last came in.

The Congress won two seats in Bhiwandi Municipal Corporation polls and was was leading in six other seats.

The BJP was leading in 24 seats in Panvel Municipal Corporation election while its ally Shiv Sena was leading in one seat.

This is the first municipal elections for the Panvel Municipal Corporation which was upgraded from the status of a municipality in October last year
Suresh Khanna, a top minister in the Yogi Adityanath government said on Friday that ensuring zero crime in a state as big as Uttar Pradesh is an improbable task. He was speaking in connection with the series of crimes in the state, including the murder and gangrape incident at the Jewar-Bulandshahr road off the Yamuna Expressway.

Itna bada pradesh hai, humne kabhi zero crime ki baat nahi ki thi. Lekin koi bhi apraadhi ho, use saza milegi. (Ours is a huge state, we never claimed that we will ensure zero crime. But I assure you criminals wont go unpunished, minister Suresh Khanna said.

The minister made the statement hours after four women were allegedly gangraped and a male relative shot dead by a group of robbers on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway.

Khannas statement is likely to trigger a row as the Opposition is already criticising the Yogi government over its failure to control caste clashes in Saharanpur.

The incident, which is a horrific reminder of last year's Bulandshahr gang rape, took place near Sabota village in Jewar around 1.40 a.m. when the eight people were going to visit a relative undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh.
New Delhi, May 26 (IBNS) : Uttar Pradesh police on Friday denied permission to Congress vice-President Rahul Gandhi to visit the riot-hit Saharanpur district, CNN-News 18 reported.

Gandhi was on Saturday scheduled to visit Shabbirpur village, where Dalit houses were torched on May five.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has already visited the village and lashed out at the Yogi Adityanath-led state government for failing to maintain law and order in the state.

Fresh clashes broke out in the area during her visit.

Following the clashes on May 23 and 24, which left two people dead and dozens injured, prohibitory orders under 144 Cr PC were imposed in the city.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that the Opposition parties will field a candidate for the Presidential election if the nominee suggested by the government is not acceptable to them.

A small committee will be formed to decide on candidate for presidential election if no unanimity among parties, Mamata said after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Mamata said the Opposition would accept a candidate of government choice if he or she is secular and one who would uphold the Constitution.

For the Presidential election, the decision (of the meeting) is Let us wait for the name of the candidate that may be given by the government, and if it satisfies all of us, then we can take a look at it. He should be secular and uphold the Constitution. If there is no consensus, then a committee (of opposition leaders) will be formed that will decide (on the candidate), she said.

Names for consensual candidate for presidential election was not discussed at Sonia Gandhis 17-party meet, she said, adding, We will come out with a joint statement soon.

Banerjee said all the parties were united in criticism of the government over Kashmir, violence in Saharanpur and demonetisation.
The Haryana Police have arrested a Pakistani national who was living illegally in an Iskon temple in Jhajjar district with Indian identities for over nine months, an official said on Friday.

A Pakistani passport, with an Indian visa stamp of 33 days' validity, and Indian identity cards were recovered from his possession. His visa expired in 2016.

The name mentioned on the passport is Raja, a resident of Hindu Colony in Larkana, Pakistan, a senior police official said.

Raja was arrested on Thursday evening from the Iskon temple in Bahadurgarh town close to the Delhi-Haryana border. He was living in the temple as a volunteer.

The police said they have also recovered an Aadhaar card, a voter card and a PAN (permanent account number) card from his possession. Both bear his name as Rasraj and the address is Iskcon temple in Bahadurgarh.

His passport has January 1, 1978, as his date of birth, while his Aadhaar and PAN cards have March 13, 1987, as his date of birth.

"Some more identify proofs have been recovered from him and we are verifying whether they are original or fake," said the official.

A case is yet to be registered.

In a similar incident in Karnataka, three suspected Pakistani nationals, including two women, were arrested from Bengaluru with fake Indian identity cards and passports on Thursday.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday denied permission to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to visit the violence-hit villages of Saharanpur district, where caste conflict has left two dead and scores injured.

But the Congress party questioned the decision, saying Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is nobody to stop Rahul Gandhi from visiting Saharanpur.

The Gandhi scion had sought permission to visit Saharanpur on Saturday.

"The permission has been denied based on the state policy of keeping the region out of bounds for leaders until the situation returns to normal," Additional Director General (ADG) Law and Order Aditya Mishra clarified.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "Who is Adityanath to stop Rahul Gandhi from visiting the Dalit brothers? Doesn't it show the anti-Dalit mindset of the BJP government? This kind of mindest is deplorable."

"Congress and Rahul Gandhi will continue to speak against injustice. Nothing will be able to stop us," he added.

Sources said that as the violence broke out soon after Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati's visit, the Chief Minister's Office asked district officials not to grant any permission to political leaders to visit the area in future.

Newly-appointed SSP of Saharanpur Babloo Kumar also said that in case the Congress leader still tried to come to Saharanpur, he would be prevented from doing so at the air strip itself.

Earlier, former union minister Kumari Shailja and senior Congress leader P.L. Punia were denied permission to visit Saharanpur.
At least 23 people were killed and 25 injured when gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Coptic Christians in central Egypt on Friday, the state media reported.

The incident occurred in Minya province, about 220 km south of the capital Cairo, as the bus headed to the St. Samuel Monastery.

Ambulances dispatched from the cities of Beni Suef and Minya were transporting victims to local hospitals in Adwa, Minya, Maghagha, according to local news outlet Youm7.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, which followed Islamic State-claimed bombings that killed at least 46 people at churches in Tanta and Alexandria last month.


Ahead of the plenary session of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Switzerland in June, Japan has strongly favoured Indias admission to the 48-member nuclear cartel and stated that it respected the position taken by New Delhi on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) based on the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

We are working together closely with India on the (NSG) issue and we want India to become a member of the NSG as soon as possible, Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu said in an interview to The Statesman. Asked why China was opposing Indias entry into the elite group, he said, Please ask this question to China.

The Japanese envoys comments came within days of China saying it would oppose Indias unilateral entry into the NSG, pending a consensus on the membership issue. China is also said to be under pressure from its all weather ally Pakistan to ensure that India was kept out of the nuclear cartel.

Referring to the India-Japan civil nuclear deal that was signed in November 2016, Hiramatsu pointed out that the Lower House of the Japanese Parliament had passed it on 16 May and it had to now get the approval of the Upper House. He hoped the Upper House will also approve the pact as soon as possible so that it becomes operational.

On whether Japan endorsed Indias opposition to the CPEC on the ground that it runs through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Hiramatsu said, As a strategic partner, Japan has been discussing all issues with India, including CPEC. We understand and respect the position taken by India based on the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

He said Japan was carefully watching Chinas One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, hoping that it will be open to all and based on international standards. China is Japans neighbour and we will like to have a constructive relationship with it.

Asked how Japan looked at the situation in South Asia with relations between India and Pakistan touching a new low, Hiramatsu said as a strategic partner of India, Tokyo was keeping a watch on the ties between New Delhi and Islamabad as well as the situation in Kashmir. We have been informed by India about the situation in Kashmir.

On how he rated the prospects of the G-4, comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, becoming permanent members of the UN Security Council, he hoped there will be progress at the ongoing Inter-Governmental Consultations on the issue at the UN. We hope Japan and India will become members of the Security Council in the very near future.

He said it was difficult to explain why China was adopting a rigid position on the South China Sea. Japans position was that the issue of maritime domain should be in accordance with the international law, he said, adding, We expect to resolve and settle conflicting issues peacefully. Any action that escalates tension should be avoided.

On whether the India-Japan-US trilateral dialogue was aimed at containing China, the envoy said the dialogue had been initiated since the three countries were key global players and shared same values like the rule of law, open societies and democracy.
US President Donald Trump on Friday described North Korea as a global problem that would be "solved" as he held a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before the start of the G7 summit in Italy.

"It's a big problem, it's a world problem and it will be solved. At some point it will be solved. You can bet on that," Trump said in reference to Pyongyang, Efe news reported.

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington over North Korea's continued missile programme have escalated since Trump took office in January.

In April, Trump claimed to have sent a fleet of US Navy vessels towards the Sea of Japan in an apparent show of force in the region, but the US President has since signalled that he would prefer a diplomatic solution to the situation in North Korea, using China's President Xi Jinping as a mediator.

In early May, Trump even suggested that he would meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un under the "correct circumstances", although this was later downplayed by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

G7 leaders from Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy, Japan and the UK were meeting for a two-day summit in Sicily.
New Delhi, May 26 (IBNS): President Pranab Mukherjee received the first copies of books aMann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radioa and aMarching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modias Government at Midterma from Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker Lok Sabha who formally released these books at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday in the presence of Mohd. Hamid Ansari.

Vice President of India, Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance and Defence and other dignitaries.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said effective communication is important for any leader. Without having the capacity to communicate, a leader may not be able to inspire people to follow his ideas and approach.

He said that undoubtedly, in the contemporary period Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most effective communicators of the times.

In independent India, Prime Minister Pt. Nehru effectively propagated the values in our Constitution including secularism.

Indira Gandhi mobilized public in favour of the Liberation war of Bangladesh effectively. Various initiatives taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have resulted in the Indian economy moving forward in a steadfast manner.

The President congratulated and expressed gratitude to the publishers for bringing out the two books.

He said the books cover important issues of topical concern and should have a wide readership because of their inherent merit.

Vice President of India, Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Speaker Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan and Union Minister for Finance and Defence, Arun Jaitley also addressed the gathering and gave an account of how the books capture key aspects of the personality of Narendra Modi and achievements of the Government.

The book Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio is a compilation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modis addresses to the nation on radio every month under the programme Mann Ki Baat.

It contains a comprehensive, qualitative and academic analysis of Mann Ki Baat  the themes, the choice of topics, the salient features. It illustrates how Mann Ki Baat has connected with the New India  the youth in particular. It also presents a coherent narrative about the manner in which Mann Ki Baat has created mass movements, be it in cleanliness, in promoting Indias tourism potential, safer roads, drugs free India etc.

The book has been compiled by Rajesh Jain.

The book Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modis Government at Midterm analyses the monumental changes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought on multiple fronts as Prime Minister on Indias governance landscape by ushering in an unprecedented culture of transparency to create a level playing field so necessary in a developing country.

It is authored by Uday Mahurkar.

The books have been brought out by BlueKraft Digital Foundation and LexisNexis.


Port aux Basques woman feels as though her 'future is in somebody else's hands' as she waits for answers on Fiona compensation

Patty Munden has faced her share of loss and frustration over the past seven, almost eight, weeks, but the Port aux Basques woman is not letting it get her down. She has found an outlet to express her feelings about whats been happening, or not ...
New Delhi, May 26 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the Foundation Stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Gogamukh in Assam.

Addressing a large public meeting on the occasion, the Prime Minister congratulated the State Government in Assam and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, for the work done by them in the State.

He said the foundation stone of IARI laid today, had the potential to impact the entire region in a positive way in the future. He said agriculture needs to be developed in line with the requirements of the 21st century.

He added that farmers must benefit from the changing technology.



He stressed on the need of modern agriculture and technological interventions, keeping in mind the specific needs of the region.



The Prime Minister spoke of his vision of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022, the 75th anniversary of independence.

The Prime Minister said the Union Government had taken a number of steps for farmers' welfare in the last three years. In this context he mentioned the soil health cards, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

He spoke of the vast network of soil health laboratories being set up across the country, and the popularity of the Fasal Bima Yojana among farmers.

The Prime Minister spoke of "Panch Tatva" - five elements to boost connectivity in the North-East: Railways, Highways, Airways, Waterways, and i-ways.

He said his Government is working towards boosting prosperity and welfare of the people in the North-East through this "panch-tatva."
Organization: QED Group, LLC

Project Name: USAID/Uganda Monitoring, Evaluation and

Learning Program

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About QED:

The QED Group, LLC is a full-service international development firm

that provides practical solutions to social problems through sound analysis,

proven management techniques, and creative implementation. We focus our efforts

on two core practice areas: Monitoring & Evaluation and Knowledge

Management. We work with U.S. agencies and overseas governments, international

donors, private-sector clients, and PVOs/NGOs in more than 80 countries around

the world. Key clients include USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the

U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

About USAID/Uganda MEL Program:

The USAID/Uganda Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Program, also

referred to as The Learning Contract, is a five-year activity that supports the

USAID Missions Program and Policy Development office. USAID/Uganda contracted

QED to implement this program, which provides Monitoring, Evaluation, and

Learning (MEL) support services and aims to increase USAID/Ugandas capacity to

implement a Mission-wide Collaboration, Learning and Adapting (CLA) approach.

Background:

The State of Ugandan

Agriculture Forum will be held in Kampala o/a February 2018. It will be a multi-day event with the primary

focus on how Uganda can be competitive in the international agricultural

markets. It will have approximately 1000 participants, including key

stakeholders from industry, relevant ministries, local government, policy

makers and private sector, civil society, the Parliament, researchers, and

development partners. Up to four regional follow-on events may also be carried

out to disseminate data and best practices as well as key outcomes of the main

event. The goal of the forum is to eliminate the top five agriculture

bottlenecks to make a difference in the lives of as many Ugandans as possible.

It is to encourage increased and better-targeted investment in the

countrys agricultural sector, and to better understand the current status,

potential and future prospects for agriculture in Uganda.

Job Summary: The High-Level Agriculture Forum Project Manager will

manage the conceptualization and organization of the forum, oversee data

review and new research commissioning, provide forum oversight; manage logistics associated with the forum, and

manage initial follow up and articulation of results of forum. The High-Level Agriculture Forum Project Manager willmanage the conceptualization and organization of the forum, oversee datareview and new research commissioning, provide forum oversight; manage logistics associated with the forum, andmanage initial follow up and articulation of results of forum.

Scope of Work:



project manager to oversee the conceptualization, planning, execution, and

follow up of a high-level agriculture convening tentatively scheduled for

February 2018, working title for the forum is The State of Ugandan Agriculture.The

consultant will ensure all activities under the SOW are completed in a

professional and timely manner. He/she

will work closely with the USAID/Uganda Economic Growth Office who is

ultimately responsible for the forum. QED requires the services of aproject manager to oversee the conceptualization, planning, execution, andfollow up of a high-level agriculture convening tentatively scheduled forFebruary 2018, working title for the forum is The State of Ugandan Agriculture.Theconsultant will ensure all activities under the SOW are completed in aprofessional and timely manner. He/shewill work closely with the USAID/Uganda Economic Growth Office who isultimately responsible for the forum.

The consultant is required to assist the mission to define the goal and

objectives of the event. The consultant will also help the mission to determine

the target participants, including

key stakeholders from national and international industry, relevant ministries,

local government, policy makers and private sector, civil society, the

Parliament, researchers, and development partners

interview key stakeholders in USAID, the GOU, private sector and others and

developing a plan based on this information. . The consultant willinterview key stakeholders in USAID, the GOU, private sector and others anddeveloping a plan based on this information. includingkey stakeholders from national and international industry, relevant ministries,local government, policy makers and private sector, civil society, theParliament, researchers, and development partners



made up of diverse stakeholders to build ownership and include multiple

perspectives in designing the event. Such assistance may include determining

suitable candidates, developing a terms of reference for the committee, and

additional logistics associated with supporting the meetings and decisions of

the steering committee. The consultant will assist the mission in forming a steering committeemade up of diverse stakeholders to build ownership and include multipleperspectives in designing the event. Such assistance may include determiningsuitable candidates, developing a terms of reference for the committee, andadditional logistics associated with supporting the meetings and decisions ofthe steering committee.

In line with the stated forum objectives and based on information

provided by the key stakeholders, readings, best practices, and other research,

the consultant will propose themes to be presented and discussed in the forum. Broadly,

illustrative themes include: regulations and policies, investments, partnerships,

political economy / rent seeking, economic participation and benefits for

women, land access, labor issues, finance, and information/knowledge. The

consultant will propose narrowing and tailoring themes to align with the forum

objectives.

The consultant, in concert with the Economic Growth Office, will prepare

a list of research, reports, and analyses to inform the forums objectives and

selected themes. The consultant will conduct a desk review of existing

materials and determine where the gaps exist, where materials should be

updated, and what new research needs to be commissioned. The consultant will

also research other agricultural forums in Uganda, East Africa and other parts

of Africa as required, to cull best practices, useful lines of inquiry, topics,

speakers, formats and so on. The consultant will manage research agendas and

researchers to produce high quality, timely research products to inform the

forum. The consultant will manage the

drafting, editing, finalizing, and distribution of the 20-page forum summary

document.

distribution of the materials to be provided before, during, and after the

forum. The consultant will further propose and manage the preparation anddistribution of the materials to be provided before, during, and after theforum. summarydocument.



but not limited to defining the duration of the event, presentation formats,

speakers, panel presentations, plenary and breakout sessions. The consultant

will manage the master of ceremonies, ensuring that the master of ceremonies

facilitator fully understands the forums objectives and is positioned to lead

the proceedings successfully. The consultant will oversee the logistics of the

event including but not limited to venue, managing invitations, post-event

communications with participants and speakers, pre/during/post-event press and

publicity if any, refreshments, VIP support if required, and all other support

to make the event a success. The consultant will define a structure for the multi-day forum, includingbut not limited to defining the duration of the event, presentation formats,speakers, panel presentations, plenary and breakout sessions. The consultantwill manage the master of ceremonies, ensuring that the master of ceremoniesfacilitator fully understands the forums objectives and is positioned to leadthe proceedings successfully. The consultant will oversee the logistics of theevent including but not limited to venue, managing invitations, post-eventcommunications with participants and speakers, pre/during/post-event press andpublicity if any, refreshments, VIP support if required, and all other supportto make the event a success.



after the forum. It will include details on who will do what, timing for

actions, intended outcomes for the various next steps, etc. The consultant will prepare a follow up plan for actions to be takenafter the forum. It will include details on who will do what, timing foractions, intended outcomes for the various next steps, etc.



oversee budget and contracts as outlined: The project manager willoversee budget and contracts as outlined:



Develop a costed event budget which allows for

cost sharing



Assist in recruitment of assistant to the forum

project manager, manage and train.



Recruit and train forum facilitators to support

planning and facilitation of main event and regional events (2 facilitators

with conference planning, facilitation, and training experience)



Recruit report writer, note-takers/timekeepers, photographers

and videographers to document events.



Identify at least three potential venues for the

main forum and three for Regional events that are available for event dates

(Identify cost of venue, food, AV equipment, and other costs)



With QED, contract venue and reserve

accommodation for out of town participants



Issue other contracts, as needed and approved by

QED



all forum communication and logistical support, including: Project manager will overseeall forum communication and logistical support, including:



Attend steering committee meetings and assist

with agenda development and preparation of support materials



Work with Government of Uganda on the

inter-ministerial forum coordination



Work with GOU, donors, private sector etc. to

assist with funding and buy into the event



Oversee sending of invitations to

speakers/moderators and confirm availability



Draft session outline and presentation template

and instructions to speakers and submit to USAID for approval and send to

speakers



Receive and prepare final presentations for

speakers/moderators



Oversee development and manage a forum website

and system for receiving registrations for the forum



Draft and send invitation to participants,

including instructions for registering for the forum and booking accommodation,

if necessary



Monitor registration, accommodation booking,

travel arrangements, shuttles, visa status for attendees, and confirmation of any

other special duties



Develop layout and print conference binders,

following Steering Committee approval



Provide pre-departure logistics support to

participants



Organize shuttles, if necessary



Draft and send pre-departure logistics letter to

participants and package of forum materials.



Draft and publish Press Release with USAID

approval



Draft instructions/templates for note takers and

provide with laptops



Develop timecards



Develop Evaluation Form



Develop Agenda at a glance



Develop Detailed Agenda with session summaries



Load conference binder material on USBs



Print nametags



Prepare venue and manage the team for all event

logistics (manage registration table, post signage, facilitate meals, organize

and distribute Binders, etc..)



Provide other logistical support, as needed

Deliverables:

A) Detailed

plan for preparing, executing, and following up the forum

B) Regular

informal progress reports

C) Plan

of research

D) Completed

research, reports, and analyses, and other materials for distribution,

including forum summary document

E) Successful

execution of high level agriculture forum

F) Forum

notes, photographs and report including post-forum follow up plan

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The

applicant should preferably hold a Bachelors degree in business,

economics, agriculture, social sciences, international development, or a

related field.

At least seven years of related work experience

with mid-level expertise

Previous experience with designing and overseeing large, high level

stakeholder events.



agendas. Experience managing technical researchagendas.



government and private sector actors. Experience interacting with high levelgovernment and private sector actors.



agri-business sector. Experience working with agriculture oragri-business sector.



organizational skills, including an ability to multitask in a fast-paced

environment Excellent customer service andorganizational skills, including an ability to multitask in a fast-pacedenvironment



cross-cultural skills, both in person and by phone, with high professionalism Excellent interpersonal andcross-cultural skills, both in person and by phone, with high professionalism

Excellent attention to detail



independently Ability to solve problems and workindependently



and budget preparations Strong computer skills, including Exceland budget preparations

Level of Effort and Consultant(s) Needed: The anticipated LOE

for this event is approximately full time over the period of performance (Immediately

 one year) with anticipated additional resources (facilitators) at the time of

the event (anticipated February 2018).

How to Apply:



criteria should send their CV, Cover letter and Bio Data Form,

expressing interest to thelearningcontract.recruit@gmail.com

with the subject line as ATTN: Consultancy Opportunity (USAID/Uganda High-Level Agriculture Forum Project Manager. All suitably qualified and interested Candidates who meet the abovecriteria should send their CV, Cover letter and Bio Data Form, download here expressing interest towith the subject line as ATTN: Consultancy Opportunity (USAID/Uganda High-Level Agriculture Forum Project Manager.

th June, 2017 by 5:00pm



Deadline: 9June, 2017 by 5:00pm
But the tribe has a long way to go
New Delhi, May 26 (IBNS): Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh met the Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth here on Friday.

During the meeting, the two leaders discussed bilateral relations and security cooperation, including Maritime Security and Counter Terrorism, read a government statement.

The meeting was held in cordial atmosphere and reflected the mutual desire to deeper cooperation between the two countries.

Senior officers of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs were also present on the occasion.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Thursday agreed to extend until March 2018 an oil output cut agreement put in place for six months effective from January 1 and will expire in June, Iranian media reported.



Iranian channel Press TV reported that the decision of the 13-nation cartel that includes Iran and Saudi Arabia, to extend the cuts for 9 months would effectively lower OPEC's production by 1.8 million barrels per day.



"We fully support nine months...it will have more impact on market stability and prices. It will have more benefit in 9 months and we think it is a period that will have more stability in the market," Press TV quoted Iraqi Petroleum Minister Jabbar Ali Hussein Al-Luiebi as telling reporters following the OPEC meeting here.



Non-OPEC producers led by Russia, which are participating in the current output cut, also agreed here to join the extension till next March.



According to Press TV, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on the sidelines of the meeting that Iran, which has been exempted from the ongoing output cut deal, would continue producing at its existing level.



Nigeria and Libya would also be exempted from the cuts as their output has remained curbed by disturbed conditions internally.



Following the meeting, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih lauded OPEC's consensus over the output cut.



"We do have consensus. My job has been very easy. There is great solidarity among members...I think everybody sees the benefits and everybody appreciates this collective action," Falih said.



Last week, Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed on the need to prolong the current agreement on cuts.



In early December, oil producers outside OPEC, led by Russia, agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day (bpd). This came in the wake of the OPEC's November 30 decision to cut output by 1.2 million bpd for six months effective from January 1.



This is the first time since 2001 that OPEC and some of its rivals had reached a deal to jointly reduce output to tackle the global oil glut.



Oil prices had earlier fallen by more than 50 per cent in less than two years, from levels of over $120 a barrel.



The Indian basket, comprising 73 per cent sour-grade Dubai and Oman crudes, and the balance in sweet-grade Brent, closed trade on Wednesday at $53.28 for a barrel of 159 litres, which was higher than the previous day's close at $52.64.
A rumour on social media about a school bus with 40 students falling into a gorge in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday triggered anxiety and massive searches before it turned out to be false.

Taking a serious note of the "planned mischief", the state government late last night ordered a magisterial probe and registration of a case into spread of the rumour, which was picked up by the national media, particularly the TV channels.

The government is contemplating slapping of the Public Safety Act (PSA) against the culprits.

The "rumour" about the bus falling into a gorge emanated during the day after which the district administration, the police, the Army, the Airforce and several other agencies were ordered to initiate rescue and evacuation.

However, after a massive search for the purported accident site, it turned out out to be a false alarm.

Deputy Commissioner of Rajouri Shahid Iqbal Choudhary "ordered a magisterial probe into the incident of rumour spread on social media about bus accident causing death of more than 40 students near Chhatapani in Poonch," an official release said.

"The magisterial enquiry was ordered after preliminary verification revealed involvement of some people who circulated the unverified news on WhatsApp groups on twin districts which was also traced to a private school and some news groups," Choudhary said.

The rumour spread by "credible persons" on social media groups and the media led to high alert in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.

"The information was also sent to control rooms regarding the incident by some people which led to massive evacuation and rescue efforts," the release said.

More than a dozen vehicles, including ambulances, were rushed from Rajouri to the reported spot of accident while a similar effort was made by Poonch districts as well, it said.

"Officers of the district administration contacted the owner of private school in Manjakote and thereafter the driver of vehicle which was reported to be safe and on way back within hours after report of accident was spread," the statement said.

Additional District Magistrate Mumtaz Ali will conduct the probe to identify the persons involved in this "planned mischief" which spread in electronic and social media like a wildfire, it said.

Assistance from the cyber wing of the police department will also be sought, it said.

Choudhary said more than a dozen people have been shortlisted for initial questioning to trace the originator(s) of the rumour.

The DC said the persons involved in "spreading such a serious kind of rumour are definitely guilty" of disturbing security of the state and law and order.

"Such practices, if not controlled at this stage, could take alarming proportions to cause irreparable damage over controversial issue," he added.

A report has also been sought from the intelligence agencies in this regard.

Police are lodging an FIR in the matter, he said.
IAF on high alert after PAF jets fly over Siachen

by R. Prasannan

Did Pakistan Air Force chief fly over Siachen? That's the big question in South Block now, and reminds many of General Parvez Musharraf's claim, though made many years after the incident, that he had crossed over to Kargil in 1999 and even spent a night on the Indian side of the Line of Control.

PAF has not officially claimed that its chief flew over Indian airspace; it has only claimed that it had carried out exercises over Siachen. An exercise was carried out from base Qadri, and Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman flew a sortie from there on a Mirage. There was no claim by Pakistan that the sortie flew over Saltoro Ridge, the heights of which are occupied by the Indian Army and overlooks Siachen.

There is, however, growing concern in South Block that Pakistan may now seek to put military pressure on the Siachen-Ladakh region. All the airbases in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, from where Pakistan's Siachen operations are controlled, have been put on operational alert.

This is now putting pressure on the Indian Air Force, which has been focusing on the eastern sector for a while now. Its frontline Sukhoi-30MKIs have largely been deployed in the bases that take care of the eastern sector with China, such as Bareilly, Kalaikunda and Tezpur and Chhabua.

The air defence of the western theatre was left to the older squadrons of MiGs and Mirages and Jaguars, with just Halwara hosting the Sukhois. Now there is a move to have another Sukhoi base in Sirsa in Haryana, and if tensions build up over the Ladakh sector, there may have to be more of them up north.

Only a couple of years ago, did India operationalise the Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) which is located just about 15 km south of the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh, and begin upgrading the 255 km road from Darbuk to Daulat Beg Oldi.

Mukherjee gets ready to move out of Rashtrapati Bhawan

(File photo) President Pranab Mukherjee

by Rekha Dixit

President Pranab Mukherjee could not have been clearer when he, for the first time, made a statement on the 14th presidency. His term gets over in July and Mukherjee said he was now busy winding up his work and stay at Rashtrapati Bhawan, thus making it clear he was not interested in seeking a second term.

The president's staff has already started moving outhis press secretary Venu Rajamony bid farewell on Thursday. Rajamony goes as ambassador of India to The Netherlands. Gaitri Issar Kumar, his social secretary, is the new ambassador to Brussels.

The BJP had earlier said though it respected Mukherjee, it was not considering him for a second term. Incidentally, it was BJP leader L.K. Advani who had first proposed Mukherjee's name for president after Pratibha Patil vacated the post.

While Mukherjee makes retirement plans, New Delhi is crackling with excitement over Kaun Banega Rashtrapati. Although the NDA alliance does have numbers to be able to nominate a candidate without much ado, the opposition has united together to suggest a consensus candidate.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi had a luncheon meet on Friday for this, and decided to field a candidate if the BJP did not come up with consensus candidate. The BJP is upping the suspense, and refusing to even suggest any name at this stage.
US President Donald Trump said the alleged intelligence leaks, in reference to the Manchester attack, were a grave threat to security and described them as "deeply troubling".

Trump said this in reference to the confidential information on the terror attack in Manchester that was published by US media before British police were ready to make it public.

"These leaks have been going on for a long time, and my administration will get to the bottom of this," media reports cited a statement from Trump, as he prepared for his first NATO summit in Brussels. "The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security."

"I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Trump added.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May had previously warned Trump that the fact that sensitive information about the investigation has repeatedly been handed to American outlets could undermine the "special relationship" between the two countries.

British police investigating the terror network behind the Manchester Arena attack have reportedly stopped providing relevant information about the case to the US intelligence.

On Monday evening, a suicide attacker detonated an improvised explosive device at the entrance to Manchester Arena, killing 22 people, including many children.
SirteIslamic States Libyan headquartershas been reduced to a silent mass of rubble. Nothing but bad memories remain.

Near the Zafaran roundabout, where until a few months ago IS leaders had publicly hanged and beheaded people, the streets bear scars of the intense battle that saw US-backed Libyan forces retake the coastal city (see graphics).

Homes, banks, mosques and hospitals lie razed, even as residents cautiously return to the city. Some shop walls still bear IS stamps for tax collection. The road to Ouagadougou Conference Centre has two IS billboards. While the first one is an invitation to pray, the second depicts a Kalashnikov, and declares: If you betray us, you are betraying your family.

The bloody battle has left hundreds of families betrayed.

During the final cleansing operation, General Mohammed al Ghasri, spokesman for the Libyan offensive, said more than 2,500 corpses of IS militants were found in the rubble.

Most of themTunisians, Iraqis, Nigerians and Libyansdied young.

Documents from their bodies show years of birth as 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988....

Mohammed Malouf is a young Libyan soldier who lost many comrades-in-arms in Operation Al-Bunyan al-Marsous, better known as the Battle for Sirte, which lasted from May to mid-December last year.

They [the militants] were young guys like us, says Malouf. I cannot understand how it is possible for a young man to blow himself up in the name of a corrupt interpretation of Islam. Our God does not want this.

Scarred, scared: In a Sirte field hospital, a doctor distracts a wounded child, while another tends to her. The prolonged fighting has left children famished, dehydrated and disoriented.

Malouf says he was scared, especially during the final weeks of the battle, as the IS militants were ruthless to the extent of sacrificing their own families to kill Libyan soldiers.

We were not trained like them. Also, we lacked equipment; many of our guys went to fight wearing slippers, he says. The IS militants fought as if it was a blood sport; they were merciless.

The Libyan armys strategy regarding IS militants was clear from the start of the offensive: No prisoners, finish them all.

In Sirte alone, hundreds of militants were executed, often in haste. It was not worth taking them to jail, says a Libyan soldier, who does not want to be named. It was better to kill them, and leave them under the rubble.

The policy, however, was different when it came to the militants wives and children. They were not to be harmed. But now, the problem lies in differentiating between civilian and IS families, especially the women. Some of these women, soldiers say, could be dangerous.

Another young Libyan soldier, Mofth Ali, recalls one such deadly woman. We saw her walking towards our team with a baby in her arms, he says. We promised help, and told her to give us the baby first. She stretched her arms out to give the child, and then blew herself up. Four of our men died and 20, including me, were injured.

Courage under fire: Libyan soldier carrying a colleague wounded in a booby trap set up by IS militants.

Abdalh Ahmed recalls a similar shocker. One day, as a woman with a baby walked towards our position, a sniper shot her dead, says the Libyan soldier. The child sat crying beside the dead mother, but we could not save him, as we, too, would have been sniped at. It was a trap; they wanted to use the baby as bait.

Ali al Zawhiri, who specialises in mine clearance, cannot forget the rants he heard in an IS house his team had marked. The militants were threatening their own petrified families: Shut up or we will kill you. It was terrible, he says.

Ali says he is proud about saving children from such homes, but the thought that their minds would be scarred forever haunts him.

Children, he says, are the first victims of war. I have seen women, wives of IS militants, run out of buildings with babies in their arms, wailing out that they have left other children behind, he says.

In one of the two field hospitals on the frontline in Sirte, Dr Walid el Hamroush treats children pulled out from the rubble.

No quarter: An IS militant being taken away on December 5, as soldiers hurl abuses and threaten to lynch him. His body, with multiple gunshot wounds, was later found at the place he had surrendered.

One boy has a burnt face, and he screams his lungs out as the doctor tries to treat the wounds. Three girls lie on stretchers; one of them is battling for life. Another one, with an IV drip fastened to her with duct tape, has a deep wound on her back, and she wails as doctors try to calm her.

Every child around is famished, dehydrated and disoriented. These children are in really serious conditions. We are trying to stabilise them, says Hamroush.

Some children say they have not eaten for weeks. One girl says all that she had over the past couple of weeks was a mixture of water and turmeric.

Another victim, Roudha, seems like a dead girl walking. She has not been bathed for weeks, and the stench is so bad that the medics wash her for about half an hour.

Evidently, all these children have been traumatised by the bombings and fighting. A little girl covers her ears, trembling in fear, at the slightest noise of a door creaking open.

When doctors ask these children where their fathers are, many of them shake their heads and say: Fighting.

Many of them are children of IS fighters of Libyan, Tunisian, Syrian, Iraqi and Nigerian origins, says Hamroush. It is hard to differentiate between children of civilian and IS families. Anyway, for us, it makes no differencewe have to take care of these innocent children.

Dust unto dust: The body of a militant lying beneath the rubble in Sirte.

Eight-year-old Mohammed is on the verge of collapsing. Yet, as doctors get close to him, he shouts: You are infidels, my father will kill you all.

Mohammed never went to school; all his father taught him was that it was great to die in the name of Allah. My father says all infidels should be punished and eliminated, he says.

Khaled Zowbat, an ambulance driver, recalls rescuing a five-year-old Egyptian child recently. The famished child told me: My parents went to heaven. My father told me that the Libyan soldiers were infidels and will go to hell.

Zowbat says he is worried about such children. Their fates could be real tragic, he says.

Rescued or detained womensome of whom are mothers of these childrenare also caught in a tragic situation. They are interrogated and taken to a prison at the air force compound in Misrata. Libyan intelligence officers say they need to assess which of them could be dangerous.

One of the women being interrogated is an 18-year-old Tunisian, who has a son. I am ashamed to return home and face my parents, she says. My husband brainwashed me. He told me that he would fight until his death and that I should also die for Allah.

During the final weeks of the war, IS militants forced their women to wear explosive belts. They said it was our duty to kill and die, says an Iraqi woman. They said paradise awaited us, too.

The situation in Libya is really very serious, says Salah Bowzareb, the emergency head of the Libyan Red Crescent in Misrata. There is shortage of cash and supplies, including medicines, and often there is no electricity, he says.

Misrata is taking care of internally displaced people as well as IS families. Many of them will remain in prison because they are considered a threat to the country. But the question is: what about the children?

If we do not take care of these children, says Bowzareb, they are likely to grow up into terrorists.
Mumbai, May 26 (IBNS): Makers of upcoming Bollywood movie Raabta have denied that the film is a copy 2009 Telugu film Magadheera.

Official Statement on behalf of the producers of #Raabta, Dinesh Vijan and Bhushan Kumar pic.twitter.com/ueU87TUIuv  taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) May 25, 2017

Raabta is also dealing with the theme of reincarnation.



Meanwhile, the makers of the southern movie recently approached the Hyderabad court and sought injunction against the release of the Bollywood movie featuring actors Kriti Sanon and Sushant Singh Rajput.

Magadheera producer Allu Arvind was quoted as saying in statement as reported The Indian Express, "This is to inform to the large public that we, Geetha Arts the original makers of Magadheeraa felt through various sources including the trailer and publicity material that the Hindi film Raabta is being remade violating the copyrights.

Meanwhile, Raabta makers have denied the charges made against the movie.

In a statement, Raabta makers said: "We would like to, however, categorically reject even the remotest of suggestions that our film is a copy of Magadhreera."

Produced by Dinesh Vijan, Bhushan Kumar and Homi Adajania the film is set to release on June 9.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following this weeks visit by US President Donald Trump announced that Israel will maintain its qualitative military advantage in the region as has been the case over the years.

Speaking from Mt. Herzl on Yom Yerushalayim, the prime minister stated, We have just finished the visit of US President Donald Trump, the president of our greatest ally. The US has promised to maintain Israels qualitative advantage in the Middle East. Three days ago, the US added another $75 million to the aid package for the missile defense program. While we very much appreciate the assistance and support, I would like to reiterate: History has proven that Israels security depends on our readiness and our ability to defend ourselves by ourselves against any threat.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Cairo, May 26 (IBNS): At least 23 people were killed as gunmen attacked a bus in Egypt on Friday, media reports said.

The bus was reportedly carrying Coptic Christians.

The incident reportedly left 25 others injured.

The bus was heading towards the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, about 220km (140 miles) south Cairo, when it came under fire,BBC reported.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

Last month, suicide bombings hit churches in the northern cities of Alexandria and Tanta that left at least 46 people killed.
(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

As part of the festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Yerushalayim from Jordanian occupation, the Chief Rabbinate Council on Wednesday, 28 Iyar, held a special session at the Kosel, which was also a tribute to Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau Shlita, who announced his retirement as he marks his 80th birthday.

During the special session, the rabbonim reaffirmed the Kosel and Kosel Plaza are holy sites to be used for tefilos, tefilos in line with the minhagim maintained throughout the years.

The statement to the media from the council also addressed recent provocations challenging the never-ending connection between Jerusalem and the Jewish People. We do not require backing from any source whatsoever since the fact is that Eretz Yisrael, including Yerushalayim are the soul of the nation.

The council also reiterated the prohibition against visiting Har Habayis, adding As has been ruled by the Chief Rabbinate throughout the years, in line with the position of Gedolei Yisrael. It has been stated unequivocally that we must maintain the kedusha and sanctity of the Mikdosh and it is our tefilla that we will merit visiting Har Habayis with Moshiach Tzidkeinu in kedusha and tahara.

The council praised the actions of Rav of the Kosel and Holy Sites Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz Shlita along with all those working to maintain and protect the holy sites.

The rabbonim also officially took leave of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Yisrael Meir Lau Shlita, who officially retired as he has reached his 80th birthday.

Rav Yisrael Meir Lau said, Fifty years after we saw the salvation of HKBH and saw tangible miracles and wonders, we have recently been challenged by the unending connection between [the land located between] the sea and the people of Israel  We do not need any support for the fact that the Land of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular is the soul of the nation. No authority in the world can sever the connection between the people, their homeland.

Rishon LTzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita added, This is an opportunity to thank HKBH for all the miracles and wonders and that we merited the Kosel. It is important to add here that the Kosel belongs to Am Yisrael contrary to what UNESCO states. The Kosel belongs to Am Yisrael.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit:   )
It is not enough that chareidim are being locked up in IDF prisons, but some are subjected to abuse RL when there. In this case, the chareidi youth was physically assaulted as his head was smashed against a stone wall in Prison 4.

The complaint was filed about a year ago, accusing prison guards of exceeding their authority and using unjustifiable physical force.

Attorney Noa Levi represented the victim, speaking of how the youth was tortured while in prison, in addition to being tormented by other personnel for asking for tefilin, a siddur and other seforim. Attorney Levi is amazed that the officer who assaulted the youth was only sent to ten days of detention for such a severe offence.

She is quoted saying the officer in question has a history and is known for abusing chareidi prisoners.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Less than two weeks before Election Day, federal agents descended on a hotel lobby to meet a Louisiana private investigator they believed had illegally tried to obtain Donald Trumps tax returns.

At the time, the agents didnt know if Jordan Hamlett had been successful  and they feared a public release of Trumps tax returns could influence the U.S. presidential election, according to a transcript of testimony obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The agents worried Hamlett could be armed and orchestrated an elaborate operation at the hotel on Oct. 27, with plainclothes officers blending in with guests at the Embassy Suites in Baton Rouge. Other officers took up positions outside.

Authorities now say Hamlett was not able to get Trumps tax returns. He has been charged with misrepresenting his Social Security number, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities have not said what Hamletts motive for getting the federal tax returns was, and they wondered in the documents whether he was working with anyone or planned to sell them or release them.

Every president since Jimmy Carter has released their tax returns in what has become an American tradition during presidential elections, but Trump so far has refused to release his.

According to testimony, authorities used an undercover agent posing as a potential client to lure Hamlett to the hotel. Instead of meeting the client, he encountered the agents  one from the FBI and the other from the Treasury Department.

Hamlett agreed to an interview in the hotels atrium and the agents questioned him for hours in hushed tones inside the crowded lobby, authorities said.

Hamlett immediately took credit for his genius idea to seek Trumps tax returns from a U.S. Education Department financial aid website before he was accused of anything, Treasury Department Special Agent Samuel Johnson testified.

He sounded somewhat, I would describe it as proud, Johnson said. We spoke in lower voices because there was a number of people passing by and the information that were discussing at this time relates directly to  presidential candidate Trump and his tax returns.

Hamlett apparently tried to use Trumps Social Security number on a program that allows people seeking financial aid to locate their tax records, and transfer the information to the education website. The U.S. Education Department has not returned messages for comment.

Its not clear how he got the Social Security number, but agents did question him about the internet hacking group known as Anonymous, which had released some of Trumps personal information, Johnson said.

Neither Hamlett nor his lawyer, Michael Fiser, has returned phone and email messages from The Associated Press.

The complaint against him was initially filed under seal, but it has since been unsealed and new details about the case are coming to light.

In court records, Fiser characterized the interview in the hotel as an interrogation, and Hamlett said he was terrified. His lawyer has sought to have his statements thrown out as evidence.

I was under the impression as soon as we were done talking, I was going to jail, Hamlett testified, according to the transcript.

Johnson said the interview at the hotel was almost like friends talking in a sense. He said Hamlett was free to leave at any time.

Hamlett was asked what he thought would have happened if he had left the hotel and got into his car.

That I would be in a high-speed chase on the news, he said.

(AP)
In his first big tour on the world stage, President Donald Trump is choosing caution over his usual brand of chaos.

The early morning Twitter rants that so often rattle Washington have disappeared as Trump travels through the Middle East and Europe. The president has traded his free-wheeling speaking style for tightly scripted remarks. And with most of the traveling press corps being kept at a distance, the opportunities for him to be pressed on the controversies engulfing his administration back home are dramatically lessened.

Trump did briefly respond to one shouted question about his meeting with Pope Francis on Wednesday, offering this indisputable assessment of the pontiff: He is something.

The president appears likely to go his entire nine-day trip without holding a full news conference, a break from presidential foreign travel precedent. Thats allowed him to steer clear of the steady stream of new revelations about his dealings with ousted FBI Director James Comey and the federal investigations into his election campaigns possible ties to Russia. And its left no real opportunities to push the president beyond his talking points on some of the trips most complex issues, including the prospect of restarting Middle East peace talks and strengthening regional alliances to combat terrorism.

The White House has been jubilant over the trips results so far, and content to let the images of Trump meeting with world leaders tell the story instead of the presidents own unpredictable words. The White House did not respond to questions Wednesday about whether he might squeeze in a news conference on the final legs of the trip, his meetings with NATO and European leaders in Brussels and the Group of 7 summit in Sicily.

Jen Psaki, who served as White House communications director for President Barack Obama, said every White House has to contend with the risks of letting events at home step on a trips message. But she said theres also value in an American president engaging with the press on foreign soil.

We always saw press conferences as part of our objective: to send the message in countries without a free press, or with limitations on freedom of speech that the United States valued these sometimes-unpredictable interactions as a part of democracy, Psaki said.

Not that Trump has gone silent on his five-stop trip abroad. He called on Arab and Muslim leaders to step up in the fight against terrorism during an address in Saudi Arabia, and he called on Israelis and Palestinians to get back to the negotiating table during remarks Tuesday in Jerusalem. In both instances, he hewed closely to his prepared text  a rarity given his normal pattern of veering not only off script but sometimes wildly off topic.

There have been some self-inflicted wounds, most notably Trumps decision to field a journalists question to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about concerns over the presidents decision to share with Russia some classified intelligence that had been obtained by Israel. The president declared that he never mentioned the word or the name Israel in his discussions with the Russian officials.

In one short set of off-the-cuff remarks in Jerusalem, Trump told an Israeli delegation that he had just gotten back from the Middle East  despite the fact that Israel is squarely in the region. Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., can be seen in the video visibly reacting to the flub.

But some leaders Trump was slated to meet with on his trip had been preparing for far worse than the occasional Trump gaffe. At NATO headquarters, where he will visit Thursday, aides have prepped Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for the possibility that the president could try to pull off a stunt such as passing around invoices to member countries who have not met the alliances financial guidelines, according to a person with knowledge of the planning.

Trump has been a sharp critic of NATO countries that dont spend the agreed-upon 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the president indeed planned to push allies hard on that issue. The person with knowledge of the NATO planning insisted on anonymity in order to disclose private discussions.

Trump advisers vigorously contest the idea that the presidents more measured tenor abroad is the result of significant staff intervention, arguing that the president himself is behind the approach for his first foreign trip.

The final leg may be the most challenging. After warm embraces from the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Israel, Trump will be meeting with European leaders who are still skeptical of his untraditional approach to politics and his hard-to-pin-down policy positions. The arrangements for the summits will also put Trumps patience to the test, requiring him to spend hours locked in rooms listening to his foreign counterparts.

(AP)
Israels parliament speaker says a proposal that Donald Trump would speak before the Knesset during his visit to Israel was scrapped over fears that the American president would be interrupted and heckled by some lawmakers.

Yuli Edelstein told Army Radio on Thursday that U.S. officials rejected the idea of a parliament tour and address to lawmakers because of the Knessets notoriously raucous debates.

Edelstein says the possibility was explored as a first option, and it was dropped from the agenda because it was clear that the president wouldnt be able to speak without interjection.

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush addressed the Knesset during visits; Barack Obama opted to speak at a university. Trump delivered a speech across the street from parliament at Jerusalems Israel Museum.

(AP)
He has served a full-term as New York City mayor, but Bill de Blasio has never attended a New York Yankees game during his tenure. And he doesnt plan to break the streak now.

The Democratic mayor grew up outside Boston and is a fan of the Yankees rival Boston Red Sox.

During events in the Bronx this week, the mayor was asked if he planned to attend a Yankees game in the Bronx at any point in the future. The New York Post reports de Blasio gave a one-word answer: no.

Bronx Republican Chairman Michael Rendino says the mayors refusal to attend a home game is one more reason hes endorsing Republican mayoral candidate Paul Massey. Democratic state Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., of the Bronx, says de Blasio is insulting Bronx residents.

(AP)
Teach MD, a project of the Orthodox Union, praised Gov. Larry Hogan for signing a new school security bill (HB 1661). Teach MD worked with Maryland Parents for Education (MPFE), Delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk, and Senator Roger Manno to draft and advocate for the legislation.

The new bill will authorize the Maryland Center for School Safety to make grants for security related projects. Schools and childcare centers deemed at risk for hate crimes or ideological attacks will be eligible for the grants.

In the wake of increased threats and anti-Semitic incidents, Teach MD has been a leader in advocating for the bills passage, recently testifying before the Maryland Senate Education Committee on behalf of HB 1661.

In Maryland, the Rockville and Baltimore Jewish Community Centers and the Charles E. Smith Day School in Rockville were recently targeted with bomb threats.

We are very grateful to Gov. Hogan, Del. Pena-Melnyk, and Sen. Manno for supporting this important bill, as well as the Baltimore Jewish Council, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, and Agudath Israel of Maryland, said Yehuda Neuberger, Co-Chair of Maryland Parents for Education. Too many religious schools, of all types, face threats, and these sponsors have recognized that the state has an important role in ensuring the safety of all our children.

HB 1661 is a tremendous victory in the face of a tough environment, but there is more work to be done. We look forward to working with the legislature and the governor to secure direct funding allocation for the legislation, said Sam Melamed, Co-Chair of Maryland Parents for Education.

The Teach Advocacy Network has worked to increase security for school children for several years, but the recent increase in anti-Semitic incidents brings a new urgency to this mission, said Maury Litwack, Teach Advocacy Networks executive director. We are heartened that Maryland is taking a leadership role in protecting all our children.

(YWN Headquarters  NYC)
A Learjet approaching New Jerseys Teterboro Airport made a later-than-usual turn toward the runway before it banked hard and crashed into an industrial area, killing the two crewmen aboard, federal investigators said Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report into the May 15 crash of the twin-engine Learjet 35, which was headed to Teterboro from Philadelphia International Airport.

Radar data indicated the aircraft did not start its right circling turn until it was less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the approach end of the runway, the NTSB said. Controllers said aircraft typically start that turn about four miles (6 kilometers) away, investigators said.

A controller reported that he observed the airplane bank hard to the right and he could see the belly of the airplane with the wings almost perpendicular to the ground, the NTSB said. The airplane then appeared to level out for just a second or two before the left wing dropped, showing the entire top of the airplane.

Other ground witnesses also reported that they observed the airplane in a right turn with the wings in a high angle of bank.

The jet crashed among small warehouses and industrial buildings in Carlstadt, a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the runway. There were no passengers aboard and no one on the ground was injured.

Surveillance video from a nearby business showed the moment of impact and then a huge fireball.

The NTSB said at the time of the crash, the wind speed was 23 mph with gusts to nearly 35 mph.

The crash and fire consumed much of the airplane, but all components of the airplane were located amid the wreckage at the accident site, investigators said.

The cockpit voice recorder is being examined. The plane did not have, and was not required to have, a flight recorder.

(AP)
House Speaker Paul Ryan says the violence against peaceful protesters in Washington by Turkish security forces was completely indefensible.

Hes welcoming a House resolution condemning the attacks that took place earlier this month outside the Turkish ambassadors residence.

Ryan says in a statement that Turkey is an important ally, but its leaders must fully condemn and apologize for this brutal behavior against innocent civilians exercising their First Amendment rights.

Video from the incident showed members of the security detail for Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan violently breaking up the peaceful protest.

The Wisconsin Republican issued the statement after a House panel approved a resolution condemning the violence.

Ryan says the response from Erdogan governments has been wholly inadequate.

(AP)
The suspected bomber in the concert attack in Britain passed through Germany and Turkey before the attack, authorities said Thursday.

Salman Abedi spent only a short time at Duesseldorf airports transit area four days before the bombing at Manchester Arena, Duesseldorf police said, confirming an earlier report in German magazine Focus.

According to the current state of the investigations, the suspect transferred in Duesseldorf on his travels to Manchester. Therefore he spent a short time in the transit area, police said in a statement. Police didnt provide any further information or say where Abedi was coming from when he landed in Duesseldorf.

A Turkish official told The Associated Press that the 22-year-old suspect traveled through Istanbul and Duesseldorf on his way to Britain.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules that bar civil servants from speaking to reporters without prior authorization, wouldnt say which country Abedi had arrived from to Istanbul. However, the official added that the attacker had on several occasions in the past used Istanbul as a transit for flights between Libya and Europe.

German magazine Focus, citing unnamed federal security sources, had earlier reported that British-born Abedi twice flew from a German airport in recent years and that he wasnt on any international watch list.

A German security official told The Associated Press on Thursday the report was accurate. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information hadnt been cleared for public release.

Focus reported that Abedi previously flew from Frankfurt to Britain in 2015. The magazine also wrote that German authorities are trying to determine whether Abedi had contact with Islamic extremists in Germany. The report said that British police informed their German counterparts that Abedi had received paramilitary training in Syria beforehand.

The Czech Republics interior minister, meanwhile, said a report by German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel claiming Abedi had traveled to Germany via Prague, wasnt correct.

Milan Chovanec tweeted that I can confirm that information that this person was flying through Prague isnt true.

(AP)
House Speaker Paul Ryan is assuring investors that Congress will meet a new deadline to increase the governments borrowing cap and avert an economy-quaking default on U.S. obligations.

Ryan says, The debt ceiling issue will get resolved. He spoke a day after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned lawmakers that Congress needs to vote to increase the almost $20 trillion borrowing cap before taking its annual August vacation.

It had been previously assumed that lawmakers wouldnt have to vote on the debt limit until sometime this fall.

Conservatives are pressing to include spending cuts in any debt legislation as a condition of voting for a debt hike. Ryan didnt address the idea, but such spending cuts would likely drive away potential Democratic support.

(AP)
Forty-eight years after she gave her first commencement address at Wellesley College, Hillary Clinton returns on Friday to offer another  and once again, shes at a crossroads in her life.

The first time, she was 21 years old and eager to take on lifes adventures, a graduating senior whose bold speech delighted her classmates, dismayed the schools president, and made it into Life magazine. The Hillary who will speak this year on Severance Green Lawn is the battle-scarred politician who came agonizingly close to becoming the first female president of the United States.

Half a year after her stunning loss to Donald Trump in November  a loss that left her devastated and heartbroken, those close to her say  Clinton has professed herself ready to come out of the woods, a winking reference to the viral photo of her in the woods near her home days after the election.

But what will coming out of the woods look like? And how will Clinton, long seen as a master at redefining herself over three decades in the limelight  define her role in the Trump era? Some have even speculated she might run for elected office again  a possibility she hasnt flat-out denied, but has said she doesnt expect to happen. Friends say its unlikely.

I think shes basically closed the door on ever running again, says Melanne Verveer, Clintons longtime friend and chief of staff from her first lady years who also worked with her at the State Department. But she adds emphatically: Shes not going to recede. Youre going to continue to see her engaged on issues that she is passionate about and has played a leadership role in. She will be out there  but not as that public candidate. So its a new place.

After remaining largely out of public view for a few months after the election, Clinton has stepped up the pace of her public appearances. On May 15, she announced the formation of Onward Together, a political group designed to aid progressive causes and oppose the Trump agenda. Its website bears the slogan Clinton has called her new mantra: Resist, insist, persist and enlist.

Shes also working on a book of personal essays, announced with fanfare in February. And shes writing the forward for a book by her friend and Methodist pastor, the Rev. Bill Shillady, that will contain 365 of the devotionals he wrote for Clinton during the campaign, sending them by email early each morning to bolster her on the trail.

The former secretary of state is also speaking at events like this weeks Childrens Health Fund benefit, where she lashed out at Trumps spending plan, saying it showed an unimaginable level of cruelty.

Shes addressed gatherings for Planned Parenthood, for an LGBT group in New York, for the Society of Irish Women in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She presented awards to Colombian peacemakers at Georgetown, and made a surprise appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival to discuss saving endangered elephants from poachers in Africa.

At such events, Clinton has been treated more like a conquering heroine than the loser of an election  certainly with more affection and enthusiasm than during the campaign. At the Tribeca event, surprised attendees called out, Love you, Hillary! At an event for the Center, an LGBT group, she received repeated standing ovations. At the Women in the World conference, host Samantha Bee introduced her as Hillary Rodham Beyonce Clinton and told her: It should have been you!

The reception was even more striking at the final performance of The Color Purple in January, one of her first public sightings after the election (and one of several Broadway shows shes turned up at.) The audience broke out into sustained cheers, with theatergoers leaning precariously over railings and shouting, We love you! At the curtain call, actors pointed to her and touched their hearts.

Of course, these events were in Clinton territory, and at organizations that strongly supported her. Still, many note she seems in loss to have touched a chord with her base  particularly younger women  that she hadnt before.

There was such an expectation that she would win, says Debbie Walsh, of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, that people never envisioned a world where the alternative was true and didnt appreciate what the world would be like. I dont want to call it buyers remorse because I dont think these people voted for Trump, but maybe they werent the enthusiastic supporters that they could have been.

Shillady, the Methodist pastor, says that when he had Christmas Eve dinner with Clinton, the crowd in the restaurant stood up and cheered. People came over to the table in tears, he says. Its almost as if people were feeling like they personally had let her down.

I think she finds comfort in it, and its energized her to come out of the woods, he adds. Shes coming out to speak more fully and with more freedom. She doesnt have to be politically correct.

Of course, not all the feedback has been flattering  not with one of the most polarizing figures in American political history.

I never thought she was a great candidate, Joe Biden was recently quoted as saying. I thought I was a great candidate.

And former Clinton campaign officials took to Twitter to push back against a portrayal, in the book Shattered by journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, of a dysfunctional campaign beset by infighting and an out-of-touch candidate.

Clinton also got flak for saying, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour, that shed be president now if not for the late-October announcement by FBI head James Comey that the agency was again reviewing her emails. Critics  among them David Axelrod, chief strategist for the Barack Obama campaigns  suggested she wasnt taking enough responsibility for her loss.

Rutgers Walsh feels that Clinton could play a crucial role in getting a new generation of women, who are responding to her now as they perhaps never did, to enter politics.

Hillary Clinton has put gender front and center more than anyone, Walsh says. Shes the one who can say, I pushed the boundaries, and now we need you.'

Not everyone feels that Clinton needs to do anything at all.

Hillary Clinton should be free to do anything she wants, feminist author and leader Gloria Steinem wrote in an email, including walking in the woods with her grandchildren.

I think she owes us nothing and we owe her everything  especially gratitude, respect and the right to be free.

(AP)
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a warning Thursday to gang members in Tennessee and around the country, saying their criminal networks will be devastated as police and prosecutors take a stronger stance on fighting violent crime.

Sessions tough talk came as he spoke before more than 90 local, state and federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers in Memphis, a city beset by gang activity, drug crime and gun violence.

Promoting the Justice Departments efforts to bring the most serious possible charges against most suspects, including drug traffickers and those who use guns to commit crimes, Sessions told the Tennessee officials that we have your back.

Sessions has contended that a spike in violence in some big cities and the nations opioid epidemic show the need for a return to tougher tactics compared with the Obama administration. Critics have warned the shift would crowd prisons and strain law enforcement resources. The move also has been assailed as a return to failed drug-war policies that unfairly affected minorities and loaded prisons with nonviolent offenders.

One of the poorest big U.S. cities, Memphis saw a record 228 homicides last year. Police say there have been 84 homicides this year, compared with 91 at this time last year.

Statistics show the overall crime rate in Memphis through the first four months of this year is 7 percent higher than during the same period in 2016. But the overall crime rate in the city is down 18 percent since 2006, according to the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission.

Still, violent crime seizes headlines every day in Memphis. Residents expressed outrage after three people were shot this week during a vigil for a pregnant 18-year-old who was fatally shot last year.

State and federal law enforcement has targeted gangs in Memphis for years, prosecuting members of groups such as the Gangster Disciples. Courts have closed businesses suspected of gang and drug activity.

But Memphis police officials say they need more officers. As of Thursday, 1,941 officers were active in the Memphis Police Department, down from a high of 2,452 in 2011, officials said. Sessions mentioned this decline in his speech, attended by Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings and Amy Weirich, the citys top prosecutor.

If you are a gang member, know this: You think youre targeting us, well were targeting you, Session said. We will find you. We will devastate your networks. We will starve your revenue sources, deplete your ranks and seize your profits. We will not concede a single block or street corner.

Sessions said theres been too much talk about legalizing drugs and not enough discussion about prevention. He also said long sentences are necessary for people who traffic large amounts of drugs.

People dont want to believe that we have to have prisons. I wish it werent so, I really do, Sessions said. Later, he added: Weve got to be realistic. Imprisonment unfortunately is a part of what is needed to have safety in our streets.

Advocates point to a crowded Shelby County Jail and say that more police and more people in prison is a bad idea. Instead, officials should be looking at reducing poverty and creating more jobs to prevent crimes such as armed robbery and murder.

Meanwhile, statistics show that more than 80 percent of inmates in Shelby County Jail are African-American, with many of those being drug addicts and low-level dealers with no history of violence, said Josh Spickler, a former Shelby County public defender. About 63 percent of Memphis residents are black, according to the U.S. Census.

A lot of criminal justice reform is simply the application of logic and common sense. Almost all of Sessions policies run completely counter to this, said Spickler, executive director of Just City, a criminal justice reform organization in Memphis. We must also note that the real costs of these outdated policies and proven failures will not be borne by the Department of Justice  they will fall entirely on the backs of Memphis and Shelby County taxpayers.

About two dozen people protested outside. They held signs criticizing Sessions civil, rights record and chanted, Hey hey, ho ho, Jeff Sessions has got to go.

(AP)
Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and one of his senior advisers, has come under FBI scrutiny in the Russia investigation, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News.

Investigators believe Kushner has significant information relevant to their inquiry, officials said. That does not mean they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him.

The FBIs scrutiny of Kushner places the bureaus sprawling counterintelligence and criminal investigation not only on the doorstep of the White House, but on the cusp of the Trump family circle. The Washington Post first reported last week that a senior White House official close to Trump was a person of interest, but did not name the person. The term person of interest has no legal meaning.

READ MORE: NBC NEWS
The chairman of the House Oversight committee asked the FBI on Thursday to turn over more documents about former FBI Director James Comeys interactions with the White House and Justice Department, including materials dating back nearly four years to the Obama administration.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe that he wants records of Comeys contacts with the White House and Justice Department dating to September 2013, when Comey was sworn in as FBI director under then-President Barack Obama.

In a letter to McCabe, Chaffetz said he is seeking to review Comeys memos and other written materials so he can better understand Comeys communications with the White House and attorney generals office.

Chaffetz previously requested Comeys recent memos about his private contacts with President Donald Trump. But the bureau told him Thursday it could not yet turn them over because of Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russias meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump fired Comey May 9 amid questions about the FBIs investigation.

Chaffetz, who said last week he has his subpoena pen ready to force Comey or the FBI to turn over the documents, told McCabe that Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the special counsels investigation.

He added, in a thinly veiled threat: I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decision  to produce these documents to the committee immediately and on a voluntary basis.

Chaffetzs letter comes a month before he is scheduled to leave office after abruptly announcing his resignation earlier this year. Chaffetz canceled a hearing scheduled Wednesday after Comey declined to testify.

Assistant FBI Director Gregory Brower told Chaffetz Thursday the agency is evaluating his request and will update him as soon as possible.

Some Republican members of Congress have pressured Chaffetz to step down from the Comey probe, saying it should be led by someone who will remain in Congress.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., is considered the front-runner to replace Chaffetz as oversight chair. Gowdy led a special House panel that spent more than two years investigating the deadly 2012 attacks at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

(AP)
The case of a Montana congressional candidate accused of body-slamming a reporter is being blamed by some media watchers on a wave of hostility toward journalists that President Donald Trump helped generate.

It definitely started before Trump, but he definitely exacerbated it, said Kelly McBride, a vice president at the Poynter Institute, a media think tank and training center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

For months, Trump, first as a candidate, now as president, has attacked the media, calling it dishonest, branding it the enemy of the people and accusing it of putting out fake news.

During the White House campaign, reporters at Trump rallies were often confined to a penned-in area, vilified by the candidate and subjected to such insults and threats from his supporters that some members of the media feared for their safety. At one rally, a man was photographed in a shirt that read, Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some Assembly Required.

Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested during the campaign on battery charges for grabbing a female reporter. A Florida prosecutor later dropped the charge.

On Wednesday, Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for a House seat in a special election Thursday, was charged in Montana with misdemeanor assault for allegedly grabbing Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs by the neck and slamming him to the ground after Jacobs asked him about the GOP health care bill. Gianforte could be fined up to $500 or get six months in jail if convicted.

Gianforte, who has tried to align himself with Trump, said the reporter was being aggressive and grabbed him by the wrist. Jacobs said he never touched Gianforte. And a Fox News reporter who witnessed the incident said Jacobs was not physically aggressive.

The attack in Montana is only the crudest and most visible expression of the rising hostility toward the media, Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University, wrote in an email. The chilling fact is that half of the people seeing the Guardian reporter being beaten may actually  if privately  relish the image.

Among other recent incidents, all of them reported in May:

 The editor of Alaskas largest newspaper said a state senator slapped one of his reporters when the reporter sought the lawmakers opinion on a recently published article.

 A Washington-based reporter from CQ Roll Call said he was pinned against the wall by security guards and forced to leave the Federal Communications Commission headquarters after he tried to question an FCC commissioner after a news conference.

 A West Virginia journalist was arrested after yelling questions about the opioid epidemic at U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price.

McBride said that while the hostility toward the media really began decades ago with talk radio and the rise of Fox News, Trump has stoked it.

Reporters are subject to abuse all the time. Most of its verbal, but its not hard to imagine some of that verbal abuse transitioning to physical abuse, especially when you have the president calling journalists scum, bad people, evil people and enemies of the people,' McBride said.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the conservative watchdog Media Research Center, said that while he is not condoning an attack on a reporter, its goofball analysis to lay blame for the Montana episode at Trumps feet.

If Ann Coulter gets hit by a pie, Im blaming everyone who has ever criticized her, he said sarcastically.

Carlos Lauria of the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists wouldnt draw parallels between the U.S. political climate and what happened in Montana. But he said, I think this incident sends an unacceptable signal that physical assault is an appropriate response by an unwanted question by a journalist.

Everybody needs to take a step back and realize the press has a role to play. We have a right to do our jobs, said Bernie Lunzer, a former journalist and the president of the NewsGuild, a union representing some 25,000 journalists in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. You dont have to like it and you dont have to talk to us.  If you want to attack journalists for doing their job, then theres something very wrong.

Turley said something more chilling than the recent clashes between politicians and reporters might be underway.

The White House has admitted that it is actively studying new avenues to increase the liability of journalists. President Trump reportedly pressed former FBI Director Comey to arrest reporters using leaked information, he said. I dont think the U.S. media has ever faced this type of concentrated threat that runs the gamut from physical to legal actions.

He added: Ive tended not to be alarmist, but I think theres a real danger here.

(AP)
by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

Sal and Vinny, the barbers, have, uncharacteristically, been calling up the halacha hotlines across the country: Should we staff up for an onslaught on Friday or not?

[Actually, they probably have not called  but you get the picture].

On Sunday, most everyone can get a haircut. For those that keep the second Zman, however, getting a haircut today, on Rosh Chodesh Sivan Erev Shabbos, is a machlokes  a big debate in halacha.

When Lag BaOmer falls on Sunday, it is kind of a bizayon  a slap in the face to the Shabbos to get a haircut for Lag BaOmer but not for Shabbos! Therefore, on the 31st of the Omer that falls on a Friday, it would be permitted to get a haircut.

But what about today?

The issue about not getting a haircut on Rosh Chodesh in general for those who follow the recommendations of Rav yehudah HaChassid  the Mishna Brurah had addressed that regarding Rosh Chodesh Iyar  that it would be permitted. But our question is can we apply the logic of haircut for Shabbos before Sunday Lag BaOmer to haircut before Shloshes yemei hagbalah of Shavuos?

Can we not apply the same logic here and allow a haircut for Shabbos on Rosh Chodesh Sivan when it falls on a Friday?

So the answer to this is that it is a Machlokes.

THOSE WHO PERMIT

The Pri Magadim in his Aishel Avrohom 493:5 goes with a minority opinion that when Rosh Chodesh Sivan falls on Sunday  one can get a haircut on that Sunday. Most people do not agree with this Pri Magadim  and the Mogain Avrohom clearly does not.

The Pri Magadim holds that since one could get a haircut on Sunday, then one can get it on Friday before Shabbos as well. Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach permitted it as did Rav Chaim Stein ztl of Telze, and Rav Sraya Duvlitzky (Zeh HaShulchan Vol. I #493). Rav Gavriel Zinner in his Nitei Gavriel also rules permissively.

THOSE WHO FORBID

Rav Elyashiv ztl is quoted as forbidding it (See Bain Pesach LShavuos p. 252) by his son-in-law Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein. Rav Moshe Feinstein is also quoted as forbidding it by his student Rav Elimelech Bluth Shlita in LeTorah vHoraah (Vol. X p. 14).

The fact that the Mishna Brurah does not cite this example as he does for LaG BaOmer is indicative that he did not hold of applying the heter here.

The rationale for differentiating between the Shloshes yemei hagballah and Lag BaOmer is fascinating. It is only a slap in the face to Shabbos when we would get a haircut on Lag BaOmer, a special day. However, here, there is no slap in the face to Shabbos if the period of mourning is just ending  so there would be no heter to do so early.

CONCLUSION

There are choshuva Poskim who have suggested that this is not a question of being lenient or stringent in a minhag, but rather, on the opposite end, it is being lenient or stringent in Kavod Shabbos. They suggest that one can rely on the lenient Poskim to get a haircut before Shabbos. Nevertheless, we have the silence of the Mishna Brurah, the opinion of Rav Elyashiv ztl, and also the quoted opinion of Rav Moshe. It is difficult to discount all three of them together. So in conclusion, ask your Rav or Posaik, but certainly one should not criticize those that get the haircut  especially if they are doing so on account of Kavod Shabbos.

Aside from the halacha about haircuts, we must keep in mind that there are three aspects to Sefirah:

1. It was the time that we transformed as a nation from a lowly spiritual state to our highest point of spirituality ever.

2. On the 16th of Nissan, a measure of the newly grown barley crop was brought to Hashem as an offering in the Beis HaMikdash. The amount of the offering was called an omer, which was one-tenth of an eifah. An eifah is the volume of 432 chicken eggs. So the Korban Omer is the volume of 43.2 eggs.

3. It is a sad period during which the 24,000 students of the great sage Rabbi Akiva died tragically.

The meforshim (see Rashash Siddur p. 1070) have explained that the first two aspects are tied to each other. The Korban Omer is made of barley, generally the feed of animals. On Shavuos we bring the Shtei HaLechem, food that is the exclusive domain of man. Thus the two offerings represent the transformation from a low spiritual state to a high one. Others have further pointed out that the third aspect also ties into the first two, in that the students of Rabbi Akiva, unfortunately, did not entirely fathom the full depth of the lesson of the spiritual apogee that the Shtei HaLechem offering represents.

The Rambam writes that it is a positive mitzvah of the Torah to count the Omer, as it states (Vayikra 23:15), And you shall count for yourselves mimacharas haShabbos. The word haShabbos means after the yom tovPesach. The Rambam (Hilchos Temidim uMusafim 7:22) is of the opinion that at this time, even though we are in Galus and we do not have the Beis HaMikdash, the mitzvah still retains its biblical status.

Most other poskim (see Beis Yoseph O.C. 489), however, believe that the mitzvah is now only miDerabannan. The Ran, the Rosh, and Tosfos hold that since we no longer have the Beis HaMikdash, the mitzvah is only of rabbinic origin. The Mishnah Berurah rules like this latter opinion. However, the Rema writes that we must be concerned for the opinion that it is biblical, and that is why we are stringent in regard to these laws.

Period Of Transformation

During this period, with Hashems help, the Jewish nation transformed itself from the second-lowest level of impurity into becoming the Dor Deah, the generation of knowledge. In short, they catapulted themselves into becoming the greatest generation that ever lived.

The Zohar teaches us that on account of this transformation of the nation of Israel, the days themselves were imbued with special qualities and capabilities. How can we take advantage of them?

Our general tools of becoming close to Hashem throughout the year involve the areas of Torah, avodah, and chesed. This is through developing our connection to Hashem through studying His Torah, in our davening, and through emulating Him with acts of chesed. The spiritual high we feel after performing a genuine act of chesed, such as engaging in hachnasas kallah, is, in actuality, part of the journey of Dveikus Bashemconnecting and cleaving to Hashem.

During the time of Sefirah, we include an additional set of tools. The brother-in-law of Rav Shlomo Alkabetz was Rav Moshe Cordovera, ztl, or the RaMaK. He lived in Tsfat in the 1500s. In the RaMaKs Galus HaShechinah (p. 116 Yudaikin Edition) we find how these tools may be used:

Each of the seven weeks of the Omer represents one of the seven attributes of Hashem. Each day in the week also has the qualities of the seven attributes of Hashem as well.

The first week represents the attribute of Chesed, or lovingkindness.

The second week represents the attribute of Gevurah, or strength. Thus, the first day of the first week represents the concept or notion of chesed within the concept of chesed. The second day represents the idea of strength within chesed. Rather than to be ignored, this should be viewed as a rung of spirituality that one can ascend in ones own personal growth.

The third week represents the attribute of Tiferes, or glory.

Then comes Netzach, consistency.

Hod represents beauty.

Yesod represents fundamentals.

The last week represents the attribute of Malchusregality.

The combination of each of these attributes, wherein the attribute of the day is an element of the attribute of the week, serves to catapult our personal growth and development in emulating Hashem and developing our Dveikus toward Him. Thus, on the eighth day of the Omer, according to the RaMaK, we should focus on achieving the strength of chesed (gevurah shbechesed).

Increasing Our Sense

Of Appreciation

The Midrash further explains that the Torah gave us this mitzvah of bringing the Korban Omer on the 16th of Nissan in order to remind ourselves of the Omer of manna that we received from Hashemeach day we were in the wilderness. This element of the Sefiras HaOmer therefore serves to increase our hakaras hatov to Hashem for sustaining us in the wilderness as He made us into His Torah Nation. It also serves as a reminder that Hashem will always love us and watch out for us.

The author can be reached at [email protected]
The Gateshead Primary School held a moment of silence on Thursday morning to remember those who died and were injured in Mondays Manchester bombing.

22 people were killed and 59 injured as they left a concert at Manchester Arena on Monday evening, when a suicide bomb exploded.

Thursday morning at 11AM, (local time) millions of people across the United Kingdom paused for one minute of silence to honor the dead and support the injured. The Gateshead Cheder students and Rabbeim are pictured standing orderly outside their yeshiva building, many holding signs reading We Stand With Manchester.

Salman Abedi was identified as the suicide bomber who carried out the attack. His brother and father have since been detained. Abedi is believed to have travelled to Syria and had links with ISIS.

(Charles Gross  YWN)
A broad coalition of ministers from a variety of factions in the government will form a special caucus on the security and development of the historic Har Hazeisim. This important development came as part of an unprecedented mission by the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeisim (ICPHH) that was headed by Avrohom Lubinsky, founding chairman and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a member of the ICPHH Executive Committee.

The delegation that included representatives from Israel, Europe and the US met with a number of Ministers and heads of Government. MK Rabbi Yoav Ben Zur, the head of the Shas faction, will spearhead the effort to create the multi-party lobby. The delegation was invited by the government to participate in the festivities marking the liberation of Yerushalayim in the 1967 Six-Day War. The delegation, which included representatives from New York, Washington, Toronto, and Los Angeles met with such leading Israeli government officials as Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Housing and Construction Yoav Galant, Culture Minister Miri Regev, Minister of Religions Rabbi Dovid Azoulai, MK Yoav Ben Zur, and MK Dudi Amsalem, Chairman of the Knesset Interior Committee.

In accepting the task, Rabbi Ben Zur noted: I thank the ministers for assigning me this task to assure that the government continues its efforts to secure Har Hazeisim so that visitors can come to the graves of kedoshim and their loved ones without fear. The delegation urged the government to complete the security fence that has been installed in the perimeter of the Eastern section of Har Hazeisim. It also raised the continued neglect of the area in the vicinity of the burial site of the saintly Rav Ovadia from Bartenura as well as security issues in A-Tor, a main access road to Har Hazeisim.

Also on the agenda of the ICPHH unprecedented mission was its partnership with the government to build the Visitor Educational Center on Har Hazeisim which continues to advance. The delegation and the government mapped out a series of events that are being planned on Har Hazeisim. In analyzing the historic mission, Mr. Lubinsky said: While it has been seven years since the ICPHH was founded and so much was accomplished, we made it clear that Har Hazeisim must be on the daily conscience of the government and people. As the international cemetery of the Jewish people, we cannot expect anything less than total security. He thanked officials for vastly improving the security situation on Har Hazeisim which has resulted to a dramatic increase in the number of visitors.

(YWN Headquarters  NYC)
Recently, a group of Jews met with the Pope in the Vatican. The story was covered extensively on YWN, and many videos were viral on social media.

Many were angry and upset with the way the visit was done, while many defended the group.

YWN is doing neither  but today we are simply publishing an audio clip of the Telzer Rosh HaYeshiva, Hagaon HaRav Mordechai Gifter ZATZAL, who spoke about a group of Jews that met with a previous Pope when he visited Miami.

Rav Mordechai Gifter (October 15, 1915  January 18, 2001) was the Rosh Yeshiva of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland and among the foremost religious leaders of Orthodox Jewry in the late 20th century.

For many years he led the presidium and leadership council Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America. He was one of the most electrifying speakers in the Jewish world.
MALKERNS  With hours left before the MTN Bushfire Festival begins it seems as if the hosts are ready for the over 25 000 people expected.



The festival held at the popular House on Fire lawn has turned to be one of the biggest festivals bringing tourists from all over the world.

On Wednesday afternoon the venue looked set with everything in place except for a few touch-ups which the organisers were busy with.

A South African company known as Sound Headquarters which normally provides sound, light and stage during the festival looked ready to accommodate some of the well-known artists in the world.



A top of the range stage has also been erected so that the large crowed will have a proper view of the artists performance.

The festivals main man Jiggs Thone was hardly seen on the day as he was reported to be too busy preparing for the beginning of the festival.



Some of the employees especially those who were working on the stage mentioned that they were almost ready for the beginning of the festivals.



They mentioned that they were already doing the last sound check adding that they believe when the festival starts, they will be more than ready.

Also ready are the drinks serving points which have been added to accommodate all the music lovers.

The organisers mentioned that they do not want queues and adding the serving points would help in making sure that people get access to drinks at anytime.
MBABANE  Teachers of Ezulwini Community Primary School have lived to tell a sad story of watching a pupil take her last breath right in class.



The incident happened on Wednesday morning and the child, aged seven years, was certified dead upon arrival at the Mbabane Government Hospital.



As per the daily routine of going to school, the Grade II pupil, Hlelelwe Madlopha, is said to have arrived in the company of some of her schoolmates who are said to have noticed that something was not right.



They are said to have assisted her to her classroom where they helped her rest on her desk while others went to call her teachers, who were already taking part in the assembly routine.



We rushed to her class together with our superiors where we found her struggling to breathe. We all gathered and prayed while some of our colleagues made efforts to call an ambulance, said a female source who asked not to be named.



The source said they could see that the child had stopped breathing and that they stayed with the lifeless body while waiting for an ambulance.

Other pupils came and we requested them to wait outside. We could not rush the child to hospital using a car belonging to one of us because we had already called the ambulance and we were all shaken, she said.



Paramedics are said to have arrived after about an hour, took the child and requested some of the teachers to accompany them to hospital as they made it clear that things were not looking good.
Senior Crown Counsel Macebo Mxumalo ( L) talking to Mbabane Police Station Desk Officer Solo Mavuso at the Mbabane Magistrates Court on Wednesday. (Pic: Sibusiso Shange)

MBABANE  Mduduzi Schaza Matsebula was killed allegedly because he had overwhelming evidence against his three colleagues, who are implicated in the fingerprints case.



Matsebula was a police officer who was stationed at the High Court of Swaziland.

It has since been established that Matsebulas death has dealt the Crown a major blow as his evidence was vital for it to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against the suspects.



He was allegedly deprived of his right to life a few weeks before he could take to the stand and testify in the matter that was due for continuation before Judge Cyril Maphanga in the next High Court session.



It is believed that the gruesome murder of Matsebula was allegedly aimed at eliminating him to prevent him from testifying against the police officers in the ongoing criminal trial. This is according to Lucky Obama Matsenjwas charge sheet.

Matsenjwa has been charged with the murder of Matsebula. The charge sheet states that Matsenjwa acted jointly with other unknown people for the furtherance of a common purpose.



It should be noted that Matsenjwa tendered a resignation letter to the police service after he was arrested for allegedly clearing the criminal records for ex-convicts with his colleagues. Matsebulas body was discovered by children who were returning from church, floating in a river in Ezulwini (Ebuka).



A post-mortem report has established that Matsebula was found with a swollen head and had gaping wounds all over the body, which left the Crown with the view that he met his death during the heat of assault before he was thrown into the river.
EZULWINI  A regular gambler jumped up and thanked his ancestors when the machine he was playing on displayed that he had hit a E100 000 jackpot only to be told the machine was malfunctioning.



Mbongiseni Mhlanga still cant believe that what he and a colleague saw at the Royal Casino was nothing but the alleged result of a faulty machine.



As a regular gambler and a card holder, the 42-year-old Mhlanga was a regular winner of amounts ranging between E500 and E5 000.

On the unlucky day in January this year, he had spent about E2 000 when the machine beeped and flashed E100 000 on its screen. He was overjoyed and some people even formed a crowd around his machine.



Having already thanked his ancestors, his mind immediately started budgeting and his immediate plan of action was to cash-out at the counter on his way out when a lady who works for the Casino approached him to ask for his card.

According to him, the lady returned in the company of a colleague and proceeded to inspect the machine before they called him aside to give him the bad news.



They said the machine was not functioning properly because if it wasnt malfunctioning, it would have awarded me this amount of money.

Mhlanga said the employee who had returned with the lady who first approached him, made numerous attempts to switch the machine off but he did not succeed. He then switched it off and handed back my card without any hope that I would get my money.

The would-be-winner said the duo only awarded him E500 instead. Since that day I have not even set my foot at the casino until last week when I went there to lodge a formal complaint with the management. I met with two senior officials and submitted my affidavit.

He said he was still awaiting managements response.



In the affidavit Mhlanga swears that he is a member at Sun International and holds card No. 22501.

On January 29, 2017 I went to play at the casino from around 8pm until late.



I played and won E100 000. Before I took the card to claim my money a lady came and asked me to give her my card, saying she wanted to fix something. She took it out of the machine and left.

He wrote that while he was waiting for the lady a guy who works at the casino approached and asked if he had realised that he had won E100 000 to which he responded positively.



He then tried to make the machine reflect an out of order but when it couldnt do that and continued displaying the E100 000 cash out on the screen, he then switched it off totally, he wrote in the letter that he swore before one Commissioner Thwala in Manzini that the contents of the letter are true. Mhlanga further alleged that the lady who had taken his card returned with the E500 voucher and said it was compensation because the machine was not supposed to pay this amount of money. I then went to play on another machine where I won E1 500 before I left.



He has since requested the casino management to note this and assist him accordingly.

Comment could not be obtained from the Royal Swazi Spa Public Relations Officer Nondumiso Bongwe said she could not comment on the matter as it was beyond her jurisdiction.
MBABANE  Municipals and Town Board councillors are aggrieved following governments decision to call for local government elections before their term of office expires.



The timing has been viewed as a calculated move to fire councillors, something, which has resulted in deciding on taking government to court if government does not pay them for the seven months that they would be out of office.

Councillors and mayors would officially leave office on May 31, 2017, making way for the new electorate.



Illegal



Some of the councillors are aggrieved at this decision and said governments move was illegal as the outdated Urban Government Act of 1969, which fell away in the advert of the 2005 Constitution.



We know that some councillors felt aggrieved, from what I heard. However, I havent seen any of them since but I have just heard mumblings around, George Falcomer, Ezulwini Town Board Councillor said, though he pointed out that he was not one of those who feel there was a sinister motive in governments decision to call for elections a few months before their term of office expired.



He said all councillors were called to a meeting at Esibayeni but unfortunately the meeting started a bit later than it had been scheduled and he had to leave for South Africa.



Meeting



But prior to that meeting, we were given notice that all councillors must attend the meeting. We were not told the reasons for the meeting, if I remember very well.
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By Frederick R. Bedell

I would like to impress upon the masses the importance of donating blood. I was at the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston recently, where many groups were being honored for running blood drives.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and the New York Blood Center gave praise for Brooklyn and Queens for the 2016 Blood Campaign which accounted for 8,000 donations.

The donation of blood is a sign of social-consciousness because unless people are willing to donate blood, the health of our communities will not be very well, Bishop DiMarzio said.

I wholeheartily agree with the bishop. Im grand knight of St. Anastasia Knights of Columbus council #5911. As chairman, along with my co-chairman, Giuseppe Petruso, and fellow members Joseph Stock and Martin Aversa, and with the help of Boy Scout Troop #153, we run two blood drives a year at St. Anastasia parish in Douglaston.

Now here is my question: Would you like to save three lives ? Giving one pint of blood does just that.

Our blood drive is on June 4, from 8:45 a.m. until 2:45 p.m., at St. Anastasia parish in Douglaston, located at 45-14 245th St.

Let me also point out that the need for blood is constant. Did you know that our local hospitals need more than 2,000 pints each day?

You never know when someone you love needs blood, or even yourself. So, if you can, please give the gift of life. You will be glad that you did.

Frederick R. Bedell Jr.

Glen Oaks Village, N.Y.
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President Donald Trumps Draconian budget proposal jolted Queens lawmakers, who were braced for steep cutbacks but not the evisceration of programs for children, the elderly, the hungry and students struggling with loans.

Besides the very rich, few were spared the ax in his $4.1 trillion blueprint for 2018, which raised military spending by 10 percent and set aside $1.6 billion for the early construction of the border wall with Mexico.

The conservatives favorite targets were on the line: Medicaid, food stamps, heating bill assistance for seniors, disability programs, public housing and Meals on Wheels.

In Trumps world, its apparently a crime to be poor even if youre too young to pay your dues or too old to keep plugging away at a minimum wage job.

If Trump is keeping count, as we know he is, Queens and the rest of the city  except for Staten Island  overwhelmingly rejected his bid for the White House. His budget is an affront to his hometown and a repudiation of New York City values.

In Queens, where Trump grew up, 343,834 people were living below the poverty level  or 15.1 percent of the population  in February, according to the New York State Community Action Association. Queens ranked third in poverty in the entire state behind only Brooklyn and the Bronx.

New York City is home to more than 1 million impoverished people, a staggering number that includes legions of the working poor.

Hunger Free Americas 2016 annual survey found 11 percent of Queens residents were hungry from 2013-2015, while 16 percent of children did not have enough food and 10 percent of seniors were inadequately fed.

Trump appears untroubled turning his back on his fellow New Yorkers, many of whom have taken to the streets to challenge his presidency. But what about his core supporters in other parts of the nation who propelled him into the White House on promises that he has now broken?

His mission is to lacerate spending so that he can cut taxes for the richest Americans and spur what many economists believe is an unrealistic 3 percent economic growth rate.

U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley called Trumps plan a slash and burn budget, while Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney warned it would set our country back decades. And Mayor Bill de Blasio minced no words when he said children will die.

We hope Congress will dismiss the extremes in his budget, including the severe blows to scientific and medical research. This could always be Trumps opening negotiating salvo in the latest chapter of The Art of the Deal, but it is certainly not the way to make America Great Again.
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ALTAMONT -- A celebrated State Police diver retired Wednesday afternoon after almost 25 years on the force. Hours later, he died by apparent suicide.

Timothy Hard, 52, was found in his Altamont home on Thursday morning by other troopers after a family member called 911.

Hard was the father of two young adults and was engaged to be married, with plans to move to a waterfront home in Long Island.

"He was a great trooper and a hard worker," said State Police Capt. Robert Patnaude, who commands Troop G. Hard was a field training officer, a position the captain said is only given to the best on the force. "They pass on what they do to the recruits," Patnaude said.

What to watch for, what to do Warning signs of suicide: Talking about wanting to die

Looking for a way to kill oneself

Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose

Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain

Talking about being a burden to others

Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs

Acting anxious, agitated, or recklessly

Sleeping too little or too much

Withdrawing or feeling isolated

Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge

Displaying extreme mood swings

Giving away meaningful possessions

Making final arrangements What to do: Listen and acknowledge the person's emotions

Ask about suicidal thoughts: "Some people in your situation have thought about suicide. Have you? Are you now?"

Do not leave the person alone

Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs, or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Take the person to an emergency room, or seek help from a medical or mental health professional Access free resources: National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Chat, a national suicide prevention organization that offers online support and crisis intervention: www.crisischat.org

Man Therapy, mental health tools tailored for men: www.mantherapy.org

Safe Call Now, a confidential resource for law enforcement: 1-206-459-3020

Uniformed Service Program at Brattleboro Retreat: 1-800 738-7328

Protector Project, which provides addiction treatment to those who serve our communities: 1-877-HELP LINE, www.theprotectorproject.com

National Police Suicide Foundation: www.psf.org See More Collapse

He led the State Police's Capital Region dive team for several years as senior diver, but had been on medical leave since winter, after he suffered a hernia while on the job, and a colleague had taken over as senior diver Patnaude said. The autopsy results are pending but investigators do not suspect foul play, he said.

The State Police had the option to hand the scene over to local cops, but declined. "He's one of ours, and we wanted to handle it," Patnaude said.

Hard's death highlighted a tragic reality within the law enforcement community.

"Police have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession," Patnuade said. The stress and trauma of policing, plus officers' easy access to weapons, can be a deadly combination, he added.

The State Police has an employee assistance program that offers counseling, but "many troopers have personalities that make it difficult for them to ask for help," Patnaude said.

Nationwide, police suicides have dropped in recent years  from 141 in 2008 to 108 last year, according to Badge of Life, a national not-for-profit that helps law enforcement agencies modernize their training, policies and attitudes on mental health.

"It is a matter of, What are the departments doing for the living?" said Badge of Life Chairman Ron Clark. "How do you talk to officers about their own psychological wellness in a dangerous field?"

A Connecticut state trooper for 25 years, Clark used his master's degree in counseling in helping to run the agency's peer-to-peer support office. Almost 30 troopers acted as mental health support officers for their colleagues. Most cases would eventually be referred to a mental health professional, but Clark said police were more likely to seek help if the first person they were calling knew the realities of the job.

In a law enforcement career, Clark said, "You're going to see more raw trauma in 20 to 25 years than most people see in a lifetime, and nobody is prepared for that."

Clark said he believes police suicide rates are slowly dropping in part because Baby Boomers who see mental health as "alien" are retiring and younger generations  who are less likely to perceive counseling as a stigma  are taking their place.

"They're beginning to see that it can't be done with booze, drugs or sex. These are the old ways," he said. Instead, the chiefs and superintendents who are the first to get a free, voluntary and yearly mental health checkup are the ones leading healthier agencies, Clark said. "They also have to grasp the element that this all starts from the academy."

In New York, State Police recruits studying at the six-month academy undergo a weeklong mental health course that starts with a 90-minute conversation about officers' emotional well-being.

Trooper Greg Pencek, who teaches the class with a state Office of Mental Health employee, advises recruits to develop hobbies, make friends outside of law enforcement, and to contact a State Police counselor for themselves or a colleague.

To drive his point home, Pencek tells recruits about some of his own friends on the force, who live with post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing horrific car crashes, crime scenes or suicides.Several took their own lives or tried to, he said.

"It's cavalier to say the weak people can't handle it and the strong people can," Clark said. The average person "has never seen a dead body outside a funeral home, has never been shown up to find everyone screaming in pain, and has never walked into a house where someone just beat a 2-year-old to death."

"Human beings recoil at these things, and cops are human beings," he said.
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COLONIE  A volunteer firefighter stands accused of assaulting two police officers on May 18 after his colleagues called 911, town police said.

A fellow firefighter called police just after midnight that Thursday to report 38-year-old William E. Boomhower "was actively out of control" at the Colonie Village Firehouse on Central Avenue, town police spokesman Lt. Robert Winn said Friday.

Boomhower had allegedly punched multiple colleagues at the station and "they became concerned about him driving home," Winn said. The man had been drinking and was complaining of chest pain before driving off, Winn said.

Two officers arrived at Boomhower's Birch Avenue home in Albany at about 12:38 a.m. to investigate.

When Boomhower came outside to be interviewed, he was "physically aggressive" and punched one officer in the face, Winn said. As police tried to arrest him, Boomhower continued to throw punches and also clawed at the officers with his fingernails, the lieutenant said.

One officer suffered bruising and significant pain in the right side of his head and ear, Winn said. The second officer suffered cuts to his forehead and scratches on his elbow.

Police wrestled Boomhower to the ground and "drive-stunned" him just below the knee  meaning one officer pressed his Taser to the man's flesh and shocked him without shooting the device's sharp barbs.

After getting Boomhower into handcuffs, police put him in the back of a squad car. The man kicked the rear left door so hard that it no longer closes properly, Winn said.

When Boomhower complained of chest pain and minor injuries, officers took him to St. Peter's Hospital. He was cleared by a doctor without significant injuries and released, Winn said.

Boomhower is charged with two counts of felony assaulting a police officer, one count of misdemeanor resisting arrest and one count of misdemeanor criminal mischief.

He was not charged in connection to the firehouse fight because crew members declined to press charges, Winn said.

The Colonie Village Fire Department did not return requests for comment.

Boomhower previously served as the station's assistant chief and was named the department's firefighter of the year in 2013.

Neither police officer took time off in connection to their injuries. Both finished their overnight shifts, Winn said.
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Albany

Thousands of the Capital Region's Muslims will begin the annual observance of Ramadan at sundown Friday, fulfilling their religion's requirement of daytime fasts for a month as they aim to cleanse body and spirit.

Fasting is an obligation for every healthy adult Muslim. The faithful wake up early and eat a predawn meal called suhoor. At sundown, the fast is traditionally broken with sweet dates and followed by a nutritious meal called iftar.

Immigrants and refugees find the observance of Ramadan in the United States differs from what they were used to back home.

"The whole community fasts in Yemen, and schedules are moved forward a few hours," said Dr. Saddam Abisse of Niskayuna, who moved to the U.S. in 1996. He and his wife, Ayesha Murshed, have four children ranging in age from 2 to 12.

Abisse said that instead of starting at 7 a.m., schools in Yemen start in the afternoon. Businesses do the same, and often stay open until 1 a.m. during the holiday.

"The focus toward spiritual benefit is more in the Middle East. Fasting in America is more challenging," said Abisse, a cardiologist in private practice in Schenectady. "But Muslims here have a sense of identity and try harder. There is a lot of community involvement. Most mosques have a community iftar almost daily."

"The only time you are reminded of Ramadan in America is when you go to the mosque," he said.

Ranim Barakat, 31, of Menands, a refugee from Syria, is awaiting her asylum papers. She, her daughter Roz, brother Amir and mother Samar AlSarraj moved to Orlando, Fla., in 2013 and came to the Capital Region two years ago. They had a good life back in Syria: Barakat's father had a wholesale business selling auto equipment, her mother worked in a finance company. But war broke out and Amir was blacklisted after taking part in protests. Now 24, Amir Barakat said the family realized emigrating to America was "better than staying in Syria."

The family goes to the mosque whenever possible during Ramadan, said Ranim, 31.

"In Syria, we hear the adhan  the call to prayer  at home. Here we only hear it when we go to the mosque," she said. They break the fast with fellow Muslims and attend prayers at the Islamic Center of the Capital District in Schenectady or at Masjid Al Hidayah in Latham. Taravih prayers are held nightly at area mosques, with the imam often reciting the entire Quran during the month.

"O you who believe, fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint," says the Quran, Islam's holy book.

In addition to performing acts of charity and giving up food and drink during daytime hours for a month, Muslims focus on prayer and self-accountability.

Muslims believe the Quran was revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, starting in the year 610. Since the Islamic calendar is a lunar one, Ramadan begins 11 days earlier each year. This year is 1438.

The fast of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. The others are belief in one God, daily prayers, charity and pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are physically and financially able.

Abisse said another difference between observance of Ramadan in this country and in Yemen is that American Muslims  similar to Catholics during Lent  choose something particular to give up.

"In our house, we have both American and Arabic TV. We try to listen to only Arabic television in Ramadan," said Abisse. "We are successful 80 percent of the time."
Budapest, Hungary

Hungary's government said Thursday it sees no reason to alter the recently amended education law which could force a university founded by billionaire George Soros to leave the country.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said the conflict over Budapest-based Central European University was "political hysteria."

Janos Lazar said the government's position was included in a reply to legal proceedings launched in April by the European Union because of concerns that the new legislation could infringe on European norms.

"The European Commission was unable to present a single, normal legal argument which could be taken seriously," Lazar said.

On May 17, the European Parliament adopted a separate resolution calling for an investigation to determine whether Hungarian laws are in "serious breach of EU values" and the start of a procedure which could lead to the suspension of Hungary's EU voting rights.

Lazar blamed the steps taken by the EU on Soros. "George Soros lobbied well in Brussels since he was well able to mobilize the European Parliament and the European Commission," Lazar said.

The chief of staff also said Hungary's government is ready to accept New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's offer to hold talks about the future of CEU, which is also accredited in New York state.

The new amendments would force CEU to establish a campus in New York state if it wants to stay in Hungary, but the university says that would be unnecessary and expensive.

While the amendments apply to over 20 foreign universities operating in Hungary, the campus proviso and other conditions in the law are seen as targeting CEU.

The CEU issue is part of a wider government campaign accusing Soros, a Hungarian-American, of trying to influence Hungarian politics. A draft bill expected to be approved next month on non-governmental groups receiving funds from abroad is seen by NGOs, some of which get money from Soros foundations, as an effort to intimidate them.
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TROY  Police aren't being called to arrest shoplifters caught stealing less than $100 in merchandise from Walmart stores in Brunswick and East Greenbush under an agreement reached between the retailer and Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abelove.

Abelove said the move is meant to ease court overcrowding, but police aren't happy. Setting parameters for when Walmart will summon troopers, deputies or police officers runs counter to their law enforcement training, they say.

"We shouldn't be sending the message that stealing is acceptable," said Sheriff Patrick Russo, whose deputies respond to the Walmart Supercenter at 760 Hoosick Road, Brunswick.

The State Police are unaware of any similar arrangements in the Capital Region, said Trooper Mark Cepiel, a spokesman for Troop G. "If we get a call, we're going to respond," Cepiel said. East Greenbush Chief Chris Lavin declined comment when asked about the policy affecting calls to the Walmart Supercenter on 279 Troy Road, which is in his department's coverage area.

Abelove said he contacted Walmart about reaching a memorandum of understanding to make better use of limited resources in prosecuting cases in the Brunswick and East Greenbush town courts. The district attorney said the volume of shoplifting cases was crowding those court calendars.

"We're not condoning stealing. Obviously, we're going to prosecute the cases they send us," Abelove said.

"We want to concentrate on a person stealing a $500 television, not a piece of gum," Abelove said.

The cases, the district attorney said, would involve first-time, non-violent offenders.

The agreement between Walmart and Abelove's office is detailed in a March 9 memo obtained by the Times Union that Abelove sent to Russo, Lavin and the State Police. Abelove concludes the memo stating, "This MOU should benefit your agencies by resulting in fewer calls for service at these locations."

Abelove said it was tougher than an agreement Walmart told him it had reached with Albany County.

Cecilia Walsh, spokeswoman for Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares, said there is no agreement with Walmart, with stores in Glenmont and Albany, or any other retailer in the county setting rules for reporting shoplifting.

Abelove's memo says, "Recently, I entered into an MOU with Walmart, with the goal of establishing practices aimed at minimizing the amount of resources to effectively accomplish each party's mission without causing an undue burden on the other or placing the public at risk."

The first of six criteria cited by Abelove for Walmart to call police would be in "any case where the loss to Walmart exceeds $100.00."

The other requirements are if a suspect tries to flee lawful apprehension; commits or threatens violence; has committed a previous act against Walmart that could be considered for prosecution under the MOU; disrupts business operation and/or refuses to cooperate with a lawful investigation; and cannot be identified and found to be free of warrants.

In Schenectady County where there Walmart has stores in Glenville and Rotterdam, District Attorney Robert Carney said there are no such agreements with the retailer. He questioned whether issues of fairness would be raised in courts when a shoplifter arrested for stealing $50 of goods from one business is arrested while the police are not called at a business which operates under the MOU.

Walmart spokesman Ragan Dickens said he could not speak to the MOU due to confidentiality concerns. He said the company has numerous programs, technology and people in place to reduce crime and calls to police.

"We're encouraged by a 35% reduction in calls to law enforcement on average across the country since we began implementing new crime deterrence programs. We'll continue our outreach to law enforcement as appropriate as part of our ongoing commitment to meet our customers' and associates' expectations of a safe and enjoyable shopping experience," Dickens said in a statement.

Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said he had never heard of any law enforcement agency reaching an agreement on when a crime would be reported.

"We are responding to the Walmarts in our towns, Wilton and Halfmoon," Zurlo said. "We don't have any agreement with any stores in our county."
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Police say detectives arrested the man who set up the murder-for-hire that left city man Charles Dembrosky dead last year.

The arrest of Friday of Tarchand Lall on first-degree murder charges comes three days after police accused Joevany "Moon" Luna, a reputed Panamanian gang member living in Delaware, of carrying out the killing.

The 42-year-old Luna, the suspected hit man, is being held in a Wilmington, Del., jail on $1 million bail.

The criminal complaint alleges Lall, 52, "did knowingly, unlawfully and feloniously contract for the murder of victim, Charles Dembrosky."

A passerby called police to 2436 Campbell Ave. just before 7 a.m. on Nov. 19 after spotting Dembrosky's body near a bush at the corner of 12th Street and Campbell Avenue.

Paramedics treated Dembrosky but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

In 2011, Dembrosky bought the property at 2436-38 Campbell Ave., real estate records show.

At the time, neighbors described the area as very quiet, but routinely cited the two-story duplex as a source of problems for nearby residents.

They described the house a disruptive spot where neighbors complained of arguing and cursing in the early morning hours. They also complained about an unusual number of visitors to the home in the months before Dembrosky died.

Luna has an extensive criminal background. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for a 2009 drug-related shooting at the Maryland motel that wounded a man.

In exchange for his guilty plea the state of Maryland dismissed six additional counts against Luna.

Luna, then 36, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Law enforcement authorities in Maryland said Luna was a member of a Panamanian gang. He also faced federal charges.

In January, police announced a $5,000 reward for help in solving the case.
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Washington

President Donald Trump's revised travel ban "speaks with vague words of national security, but in context drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination," a federal appeals court said Thursday in ruling against the executive order targeting six Muslim-majority countries.

Trump's administration vowed to take the fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a 10-3 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ban likely violates the Constitution. And it upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the Republican administration from cutting off visas for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th Circuit is the first appeals court to rule on the revised travel ban unveiled in March. Trump's administration had hoped it would avoid the legal problems that the first version from January encountered. A second appeals court, the 9th U.S. Circuit based in San Francisco, is also weighing the revised travel ban after a federal judge in Hawaii blocked it.

The Supreme Court almost certainly would step into the case if asked. The justices almost always have the final say when a lower court strikes down a federal law or presidential action.

Trump could try to persuade the Supreme Court to allow the policy to take effect, even while the justices weigh whether to hear the case, by arguing that the court orders blocking the ban make the country less safe. If the administration does ask the court to step in, the justices' first vote could signal the court's ultimate decision.

A central question in the case before the 4th Circuit was whether courts should consider Trump's public statements about wanting to bar Muslims from entering the country as evidence that the policy was primarily motivated by the religion.

Trump's administration argued the court should not look beyond the text of the executive order, which doesn't mention religion. The countries were not chosen because they are predominantly Muslim but because they present terrorism risks, the administration said.
Brussels

Surrounded by stone-faced allies, President Donald Trump excoriated fellow NATO members Thursday for failing to meet the military alliance's financial benchmarks, asserting that leaves it weaker than it should be and is "not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States."

Trump, who has often complained back home about other nations' NATO support, lectured the other leaders in person this time, declaring, "Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years."

The president's assertion immediately put NATO under new strain and did nothing to quiet questions about his complicated relationship with an alliance he has previously panned as "obsolete." Notably, he also did not offer an explicit public endorsement of NATO's "all for one, one for all" collective defense principle, though White House officials said his mere presence at the meeting signaled his commitment.

Fellow NATO leaders occasionally exchanged awkward looks with each other during the president's lecture, which occurred at an event commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. When Trump tried to lighten the mood with a joke about NATO's gleaming new home base  "I never asked once what the new NATO Headquarters cost"  there was no laughter from his counterparts.

NATO officials had expected Trump to raise the payments issue during Thursday's meeting, even preparing Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for the prospect that the president could try to pull off a stunt like handing out invoices. But one European official said NATO members were still taken aback by the aggressive tone of his speech.

As a presidential candidate, Trump railed against NATO's financial burden-sharing, suggesting the U.S. might only come to the defense of countries that meet the alliance's guidelines  for committing 2 percent of their gross domestic product to military spending. A White House official said the president wanted to deliver the same direct message in front of NATO allies.

Trump's public scolding was all the more remarkable given the fact that he has actually backed away from some of his most provocative comments on foreign policy issues since taking office. He's retracted his vow to label China a currency manipulator and has lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping. During a visit to Saudi Arabia this week, he called Islam one of the world's great religions after declaring during the campaign that "Islam hates us."

But few issues appear to have as much staying power with Trump as the uneven financial contributions of NATO members. Last year, only five of the 28 countries met the 2 percent goal: the U.S., Greece, Britain, Estonia and Poland.

During a private dinner Thursday night, the 28 members, plus soon-to-join Montenegro, renewed an old pledge to move toward the 2 percent by 2024  a move the White House touted as a sign of Trump's influence.

Some of the allies  particularly Eastern European nations deeply worried about Russian aggression  were hopeful that Trump would state a firm commitment to NATO's Article 5 mutual defense agreement, which underpins the entire alliance. Instead, he highlighted NATO's decision to invoke the article for the only time after 9/11 and said the U.S. would "never forsake the friends that stood by our side."
I used to be a Republican. Having worked on New York congressional and gubernatorial campaigns and for Linwood Holton, Virginia's first Republican governor in 100 years (and father-in-law of Tim Kaine), I was a proud, liberal Republican.

Liberal Republicans are an extinct breed today. Being fiscally conservative and socially liberal was not good enough for many Republicans. Somehow, their political needle kept moving, inexorably, to the right.

As the needle moved and as Republicans embraced hard-line conservative views, those of us who believed in civil liberties and social justice, who thought foreign aid made sense from a humanitarian, foreign policy and military viewpoint, who believed the environment should be protected, and who thought health care a human, if not a legal, right were thought to be suspect. Labeled RINOs (Republican in name only), we were no longer welcome in the Republican Party.

I had become an independent long before the forced exodus began. Even in the 1970s, when I was Lin Holton's special counsel and wanted to vote Republican, I did so by using an absentee ballot and writing in Lin's name for president.

From then on, I was independent. Sometimes I voted Democrat, sometimes Republican. Always, I voted for the person, not the party.

Being tied to the Republican Party was particularly difficult this year. Ironically, at the same time the Barnum and Bailey circus announced it would close, a new carnival hawker, Donald Trump, emerged to take the place of P.T. Barnum. (It should be noted, though, Barnum had political experience in the Connecticut Legislature and as a mayor.)

Despite all odds, the new-day Barnum won the presidency. Of course, no one knows what Barnum would have thought of Trump. Clearly, though, he would have been impressed by the way Trump manipulated the press (and in some cases the public, who seemed to vote against their self-interest).

Speaking of the press, it is now playing catch-up and questioning, after the fact, the newly elected president on a range of issues and lies. Let's not forget, though, how we arrived at this point.

Early on, CBS' Les Moonves said Trump was good for business. So CBS, and other networks, reported on every tweet and gave candidate Trump the opportunity to call in whenever he wished. The result: a reported $4.6 billion in free publicity during the campaign (Hillary Clinton received $1 billion).

Thanks to that free publicity, and thanks, of course, to the FBI's role in the campaign, Attorney General Lynch's foolish meeting with Bill Clinton, Republicans who could not vote for a Democrat (at least not Clinton), people who did not vote, and Russian interference, we now have a Trump presidency.

What will the Trump presidency produce? Trump's deconstructionist cabinet appointments say a great deal. With education, energy and environment heads who have advocated for the dismantling of their departments, a Treasury secretary who wants to discard banking regulations developed following the 2008 financial crisis, and an attorney general with a questionable civil rights past, the president seems bent on dismantling government.

As for health care, the administration is turning its back on both Republican history and the American people. Beginning with Teddy Roosevelt, Republicans have long championed some form of national health care. Not today. Instead, Republicans believe if you can afford health care, fine, and they will help you with tax credits; if not, you are on your own. Besides, there is always the emergency room.

A formula for successful governance? Perhaps  if your goal is to dismantle government.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

Why reduce government? Because taxes on the wealthy  among the lowest in the developed world  can then be reduced further.

Speaking of wealth, it is amazing Republicans, who railed (rightly) about Hillary Clinton's speaking fees and supposed pay-to-play contributions to the Clinton Foundation, have remained mum on clear conflicts of interest of the president and his family. The Constitution's emolument clause restricts such conflicts. Besides, benefitting from one's office is unethical.

My suspicion/prediction: Some of the president's supporters will soon find themselves with a Flint, Mich.-like moment when mine debris pollutes drinking water, when they are without health care or when a crisis develops that cannot be solved by tweeting. Then the president's base of support will weaken. And when that happens, Republicans in Congress, who would much prefer one of their own, Mike Pence, will impeach and convict Mr. Trump.

Those of us who are fiscally conservative and socially liberal have been shut out of the Republican Party for decades. The Trump phenomenon has only highlighted the gap.

At some point, the political needle will move again. Whether it will be enough to bring back folks like me, though, I don't know.

Roger H. Hull is a former president of Union College and president of the Schenectady-based Help Yourself Foundation.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has described the call made by a French farm leader for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic as disappointingly self-centred.

John Comer was reacting to comments by Christophe Hillairet, a council member of COPA and the leader of an influential regional French farmers association, in which Mon. Hillairet said that he was afraid that the UK would sign agreements to import food from Commonwealth countries and that he was particularly concerned by how these imports might find their way into the Republic and the wider EU.

In the widely respected Agra Europe, Monsieur Hillairet is quoted as saying that Ireland is a big problem but for the French farmer we will need to have a hard border between the north and the Republic as otherwise we will have a lot of products that will cross from north to south. That would be very dangerous for our producers.

Mr Comer said the comments were at best premature and could more frankly be described as self-centered.

He said that Monsieur Hillairet must be aware of the very recent history of suffering and conflict in the border region whose avoidance would continue to take clear precedence over the anxieties of French farm groups as far as both Ireland and the United Kingdom were concerned.

These were farming and rural communities, Mr Comer explained, who owned lands and collected and processed milk in plants on both sides of the border.

He said that the farming communities concerned had every right to expect that the EU and the UK would continue  so far as was possible with goodwill and intelligence - to facilitate that absolutely natural process.

As to Monsieur Hillairets fear that lamb from New Zealand could arrive in Northern Ireland and cross a soft border into the Republic before entering the mainland EU markets, Mr Comer said that there was already a whole Third Country Of Origin labelling procedure worked out and operated satisfactorily throughout the EU and the UKs continued adherence to that procedure could be negotiated as part of the overall process.

What was more important, said the ICMSA president, was that EU farm leaders showed some degree of solidarity and commitment to the Irish farming communities who were  by a considerable margin  the most affected sector within the EU both in economic and practical terms.

The only people who would have enjoyed reading Monsieur Hillariets comments were the very anti-EU British Eurosceptics who want to play the different member states off against each other and who want to forment that feeling of tension between different sectors and nations.

That must not happen and with respect to our French friends we would prefer them to reflect on the common good and not just on their own particular sectoral anxieties,said Mr Comer.
[May 25, 2017] Shareholder Alert: Girard Gibbs LLP Investigates Potential Securities Claims for Investors of Petrofac Ltd. (POFCY)

Girard Gibbs LLP is investigating potential claims on behalf of purchasers of Petrofac Ltd. (OTC: POFCY) involving possible securities law violations related to a bribery, corruption and money laundering investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office. On May 12, 2017, the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office announced that it has launched an investigation into Petrofac's activities, on suspicion of "bribery, corruption and money laundering." Following this news, Petrofac's stock dropped significantly to its lowest level since June 2016. Then, on May 25, 2017, Petrofac announced the UK Serious Fraud Office had arrested and questioned the company's CEO and COO. Both were released without charge. In addition, the Company's board suspended the COO and precluded the CEO from involvement in any matters connected to the SFO investigation. This news drove the price of Petrofac securities down by nearly 30% If you purchased Petrofac shares and would like to speak priately with a securities attorney to contribute to or learn more about the investigation, visit our website or contact the securities team directly at (800) 254-9493.



Girard Gibbs LLP is one of the nation's leading firms representing individual and institutional investors in securities litigation to correct abusive corporate governance practices, breaches of fiduciary duty, and proxy violations. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients against some of the world's largest corporations, and has earned Tier-1 rankings and been named in the U.S. Lawyers - Best Law Firms list for five consecutive years.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170525006172/en/

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[May 25, 2017] UnitedHealthcare Employees Honor Veterans by Placing More Than 1,800 Flags in Front of Orange County Offices

UnitedHealthcare employees for the fourth year honored America's veterans and service members this Memorial Day by placing more than 1,800 U.S. flags in front of the company's California headquarters in Cypress through Memorial Day weekend. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170525006177/en/ Left to right: Andy Timko of the American Legion, Don Collins of the 82nd Airborne Division Assoc. Honor Guard, UnitedHealthcare employee Allen Patrick, and UnitedHealthcare of California CEO Robert Falkenberg honor America's veterans and service members this Memorial Day by placing more than 1,800 flags in front of UnitedHealthcare Orange (News - Alert) County offices. Employees were joined by members f American Legion Cypress Post 295 who shared their personal stories and also placed the flags in front of the building (Photo: Jamie Rector).



Employees also added pictures and stories of loved ones to memorial walls outside the building to honor their service and sacrifice. Patriotic music was played as employees and members of American Legion Cypress Post 295 shared their personal stories and placed the flags in front of the building. The flags will remain in place until May 30.

About UnitedHealthcare UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter (News - Alert). Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170525006177/en/

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Berkana Resources Opens Calgary Office

Berkana Resources Corporation, a leading provider of SCADA System Integration, Security, Compliance and Consulting, is pleased to announce that we have opened a Calgary office.

"We are pleased to announce the opening of our Calgary office to serve clients in Canada. Calgary is the next natural step for us as we continue to grow," said Jeff Whitney of Berkana Resources.

For additional information about Berkana Resources, contact Jeff Whitney or visit our website at www.berkanaresources.com.







ABOUT Berkana Resources Corporation - Berkana Resources Corporation (BRC) provides Operational and Information Technology consulting, integration, security and compliance solutions to customers in the Oil & Gas and Electric Utilities markets. Our clients include major Oil & Gas Companies, Utility Companies and Mid-Stream MLPs.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170525006179/en/
[May 25, 2017] The Ohio State named top students in automotive engineering and Year Three champion of EcoCAR 3 competition

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ohio State University took home first place in the third year of EcoCAR 3, an Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors Co. "We need affordable, secure, domestic, and clean energy technologies to move people and goods across America. Developing innovative technologies that improve vehicle efficiency and enhance mobility will grow our economy and create jobs," said Acting Assistant Secretary for EERE, Daniel Simmons. "Students in the EcoCAR 3 program are our future technology leaders that will keep the American automotive industry moving forward." In addition to the coveted trophy and bragging rights, the Buckeyes become this year's best and brightest students in automotive engineering as they unlock solutions to our nation's transportation and energy challenges. The team earned 853.7 out of 1000 overall points while also taking the top spot in multiple categories including, but not limited to Project Management, Vehicle Design Review and Emissions & Energy Consumption. EcoCAR 3 is the latest Energy Department Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series and challenges 16 North American university teams to redesign a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro by incorporating cutting-edge advanced powertrains as well as emerging connected and automated vehicle technologies that are helping to re-invent the future of mobility. During development and demonstration, teams must also maintain the engineering mastery and expectations of this iconic American car. EcoCAR 3 teams have four years (2014-2018) to harness those ideas into the ultimate energy-efficient, high performance vehicle. The competition included a week of rigorous safety, technical, drive quality and emissions testing of the team Camaros at GM's Milford Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan. Next, teams had several days of presentations to show judges how they have developed as the next generation of enineers and business leaders who will be better prepared for the auto industry and related careers. Presentations took place in Washington, D.C., with students judged by industry and government officials.



"EcoCAR3 is a great program that fosters future generations of automotive engineers and business people, encouraging them to become true innovators," said Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. "This year's winners  and all the teams  are proof of that. It's a competition that GM is proud to support." This year, the teams gained hands-on experience by building and refining their advanced technology vehicles, and incorporated an industry-standard multi-year vehicle development process. Teams were able to achieve their goal of presenting a fully integrated vehicle capable of driving in both electric and conventional mode while sustaining a charge.

AVTCs have long provided a real-world training ground that transcends the traditional classroom for college students. Through EcoCAR 3, teams are able to demonstrate emerging automotive technologies to help strengthen American competitiveness. "Ohio State fully integrated their vehicle with impressive attention to details, and they managed to maintain the legacy of the Camaro while moving it into the future," said Kristen Wahl, director of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition at Argonne National Laboratory. "Innovative thinking and tireless devotion clearly contributed to the team's success." Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Georgia Tech took second and third place respectively. The student teams have now developed and integrated their energy efficient powertrains to maximize performance while retaining the safety and high consumer standards of the Chevrolet Camaro. In the final year of competition, teams will focus on controls refinement and market engagement. Additional sponsors joining the DOE and GM include: MathWorks; National Science Foundation; California Air Resources Board; NXP; AVL Powertrain Engineering; Robert Bosch, LLC; ETAS; PACCAR; dSPACE, Inc.; Snap-on Tools; Siemens PLM Software; GKN Driveline; Transportation Research Center (TRC, Inc.); DENSO; Champlain Cable Corp.; Woodward; Proterra; Ricardo; Mentor Graphics; New Eagle; tesa tape; Vector CANtech, Inc.; Delphi Foundation; EcoMotors; Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.; A123 Systems; Flextronics; and Samsung SDI. EcoCAR 3 industry sponsors have provided more than $6.1 million in hardware and cash donations, as well as $911 million in software to the 16 participating universities in the first three years. To learn more about the EcoCAR 3 program, please visit www.ecocar3.org. About EcoCAR 3

EcoCAR 3 is a four-year collegiate engineering program that builds on the successful 26-year history of Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) by giving engineering students the chance to design and build advanced vehicles that demonstrate leading-edge automotive technologies. General Motors provides each of the 16 competing teams with a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, as well as vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. The DOE and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, provide competition management, team evaluation and logistical support. Through this important public/private partnership, EcoCAR 3 provides invaluable experience and training to promising young minds entering the North American job market. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-ohio-state-named-top-students-in-automotive-engineering-and-year-three-champion-of-ecocar-3-competition-300464288.html SOURCE EcoCAR 3

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[May 26, 2017] Calbee to Release "Frugra" on Tmall Global in Advance of General Sales

TOKYO, May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- - Aiming to Raise Revolution in Breakfast in China - Calbee, Inc. (hereinafter Calbee) will release its popular breakfast series, "Frugra," on Tmall Global, a cross-border e-commerce website, in August 2017 in advance of general sales in cooperation with Japan MD Center operated by Alibaba.com Japan Co., Ltd. (hereinafter Alibaba), a Japan subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Calbee URL: https://www.calbee.com/

Calbee E-commerce URL: https://calbee.tmall.hk/ (Logo: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M103645/201705242059/_prw_PI2fl_jrRmmQc1.gif) On the occasion of releasing Frugra, Calbee will fully use Alibaba's marketing service (data on and knowledge of consumption in China) to promote sales and develop products that will meet local consumer tastes. This will be the first time for Calbee to sell Frugra products overseas on a full scale. Calbee has set a goal of selling 50 billion yen worth of Frugra products on the Japanese market and 100 billion yen overseas. Calbee is determined to take the opportunity of releasing Frugra in China to trigger a "breakfast revolution." - Process of joining hands with Alibaba The scale of the cross-border e-commerce (*) market has recently surpassed 1 trillion yen, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and has been posting 30% year-on-year growth in recent years. The cross-border e-commerce market is becoming a common shopping method for Chinese consumers who are seeking safe and secure products. With the aim of increasing the name recognition of its brand, Calbee established Calbee E-commerce Ltd., an e-commerce subsidiary, in October 2015. Since January 2016, Calbee E-commerce has been selling "Jaga Pokkuru" and "Jagabee" among other products on an online shop it has set up within Tmall Global, a BtoC shopping mall that Alibaba Group opened in 2014. With the aim of further increasing its name recognition and increasing its sales in China, Calbee has decided to collaborate with Alibaba on Tmall Global. To begin with, Calbee will work on the marketing of Frugra products by taking advantage of data on active users accumulated by Alibaba as well as its knowledge of consumption behaviors in China, expand the sales of Frugra goods produced in Hokkaido and develop new products, thereby aiming to trigger a "breakfast revolution" in China. Moreover, Calbee will strive to cooperate with Alibaba in boosting demand on the Chinese market for not only Frugra products but also overall Calbee goods on sale on the cross-border e-commerce market.







(*) Cross-border e-commerce is a system that allows Chinese consumers to buy products made outside China online.

- Project details 1. Advance sales of Frugra products Calbee will be able to sell products in the Frugra series in China as the company is set to begin manufacturing products in this series at its Hokkaido factory in Chitose, Hokkaido, in August this year. Calbee is scheduled to sell Frugra products only on Tmall Global until Singles' Day on Nov. 11, which is regarded as the biggest business opportunity in China, in advance of general sales. A "made in Hokkaido" logo will be displayed on the package of Frugra products to be sold in China to offer a sense of security to local consumers through the effects of the "Hokkaido brand." 2. Development & sales of limited items Calbee plans to sell limited items exclusively on Tmall Global and jointly develop products with Alibaba by utilizing data accumulated by the latter. (Photo: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/prwfile/release/M103645/201705242059/_prw_PI1fl_V2OUO4Zh.jpg) 3. Awareness-raising campaign on "breakfast revolution" To disseminate the idea of "time-shortening plus health" -- which spurred the popularity of Frugra in Japan -- throughout China, Calbee will proactively promote the series and offer new values to breakfast in China. About Frugra "Frugra" (initially called Fruit Granola) is a popular series of food products that Calbee has been selling in Japan since 1991. Oats and rye are used as their prime ingredients and mixed with coconuts, nuts, syrups such as honey, and plant oil before being baked to produce Frugra products. Products in this series are drawing attention and becoming increasingly popular as a new type of breakfast in addition to traditional breakfast featuring rice and bread. Calbee regards food products for breakfast as its second pillar in its business activities following the snack food business, and will expand the production of Frugra at its Hokkaido factory in Chitose in August 2017 and at its Kyoto factory in Ayabe in summer of 2018. About Japan MD Center Japan MD Center offers a one-stop service for Japanese companies that either wish to do or have been doing e-commerce business in China. The services include helping them open stores on Tmall and/or Tmall Global, run by Alibaba Group, and to support their marketing to Chinese consumers. It also supplies those Japanese companies with big data provided by Alibaba Group to help them make ever more efficient marketing strategies and support its development of new products that better match consumer needs in order to increase their sales. (Reference)

1. Calbee, Inc.

Established: April 30, 1949

Lines of business: Production and sale of snacks and other foods

Chairman of the Board & CEO: Akira Matsumoto

President & COO: Shuji Ito

Address: Marunouchi Trust Tower Main, 22nd Floor, 1-8-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Capital: 12,008 million yen (As of March 31, 2016)



2. Alibaba.com Japan Co., Ltd.

Established: May 30, 2008

Lines of business: BtoB & support for BtoB overseas advancements

President CEO: Makoto Kouyama

Alibaba Group Vice President and Director COO of Alibaba.com Japan Co., Ltd.:

Satoshi Andy Okada

Address: SSP Co., Ltd. Headquarters Building, 4th Floor, 2-12-4, Nihonbashi-Hamacho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

Capital: 100 million yen



3. Calbee E-commerce Limited

Established: October 19, 2015

Lines of business: Operation of Calbee's e-commerce website

President::Sheng Qiying

Address: Unit 402, 4th Floor, Fairmont House, No. 8. Cotton Tree Drive, Admiralty, HONG KONG

Capital: 1.2 million Hong Kong dollars

URL: https://calbee.tmall.hk/ SOURCE Calbee, Inc.

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[May 26, 2017] The 2017 China International Big Data Expo Opens in Guiyang

GUIYANG, China, May 26, 2017 /CNW/ -- The 2017 China International Big Data Expo opened on Friday in Guiyang, capital city of southwest China's Guizhou Province. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent a congratulatory letter while Vice Premier Ma Kai addressed the opening ceremony. Premier Li pointed out that the digital economy is transforming mankind's way of production and living and is increasingly becoming a new engine powering economic growth. Guizhou Province followed the trend and pioneered in the process with remarkable fruits. China is willing to work with other countries to promote innovation and cooperation in digital economy. Data has become one important fundamental and strategic resource and China should go further in big data innovative application to speed up transforming the manufacturing sector, according to Ma Kai. With "Digital Economy Drives New Growth" as the theme, this year's expo will feature two summits, one exhibition and one contest. A total of 78 forums and 15 other activities will be held throughout the Expo.



As the first exhibition in the world with a theme centered around big data, the Guiyang Big Data Expo has now been successfully held for two years in a row. The previous expos have attracted investment worth 58.9 billion yuan (8.6 billion U.S. dollars) to Guizhou Province. The Expo became a national-level event in 2016.

Applicants for the Expo exceed 50,000, who come from 23 countries. Meanwhile, over 1,000 cutting-edge products, technologies and solutions are displayed brought by about 316 exhibitors from both home and abroad, according to the organizer. Among the six exhibition halls, Hall 1 to Hall 5 exhibit the latest innovations and achievements and high-tech products in big data from world-renowned internet companies such as Oracle, Alibaba, Huawei, SAP, Foxconn and JD.com, while Hall 6 is designed as featured experience hall for VR, AR and AI. On Thursday, a number of futuristic technologies were unveiled in the exhibition hall, such as the Driverless Magnetic Unit of central air-conditioning invented by Haier, the AR red envelope from Tencent and the latest lip-reading recognition technology from Hydata. Over 10,000 visitors went to the exhibition on Thursday. The Guizhou provincial government rolled out a development strategy for big data in 2014, with the big data digital information sector scoring a 62-percent year-on-year growth in market scale that year. Guizhou's GDP totaled over 900 billion yuan in 2014, achieving the growth target outlined in the 12th Five-Year Plan one year earlier. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-2017-china-international-big-data-expo-opens-in-guiyang-300464495.html SOURCE 2017 China International Big Data Expo

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[May 26, 2017] Constellation francophone - More than 400 artists opening doors to the Francophonie!

QUEBEC CITY, May 26, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - The Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques, with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, is proud to present "Constellation francophone  ouvrons les portes". The event, which will highlight the vitality and diversity of the country's dynamic Francophonie, is part of the Canada 150 celebrations. It will include major events in six Canadian communities, featuring more than 400 artists and a network of "interactive digital doorways". Above all, Constellation francophone is a dialogue between communities. It will involve a full year of festivities that showcase a diversified and inclusive Francophonie, as well as the pride and identity of millions of Francophones. The communities are the stars!

Developed out of a desire to celebrate the Francophone presence in the Americas, this project seeks to bring communities to life, as well as bring them together. "The concept of Constellation francophone is rooted in the geographic vastness of the Americas. When linked together, the Francophone communities dispersed across this immense space form constellations. Thus, just like stars, these communities shine and demonstrate inspiring longevity. When connected, they form constellations of memories, historical narratives, lived experiences, artists and accents!" explains Diane Blais, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques. Opening doors to Francophone communities

A key highlight of the celebrations will be the "digital doorways" set up across Canada, to serve as genuineconnectors between communities. They will allow residents of 12 host communities to communicate directly with one another. The doorways will be available on June 23 and 24 in Edmonton, Moncton/Dieppe, Ottawa, Quebec City, Saskatoon, Toronto, Victoria, Whitehorse and Winnipeg, as well as in other communities that will be announced shortly.



More than 400 participating artists!

Constellation francophone is also a television megaproduction that will be broadcast on the TFO and UNIS networks. Filming will take place on June 24, when more than 400 artists will perform on six stages in communities across the country: Moncton/Dieppe (Place 1604), Ottawa (Major's Hill Park), Quebec City (Parc de la Francophonie), Toronto (Harbourfront), Whitehorse (Shipyards Park) and Winnipeg (The Forks). These events will feature well-known Francophone and Francophile artists, up-and-coming artists, and Indigenous artists. The television programs will be broadcast in the fall, presenting highlights from each of the local events, interspersed with commentary from artists, members of the public and key figures in the Canadian Francophonie. Everyone is invited

By way of a live webcast, Constellation francophone is also reaching out to Francophones from throughout the Americas. They're invited to celebrate with our artists by organizing "kitchen parties" in their own communities. Indeed, on June 24, performances from all six stages will be simulcast at constellationfranco.ca. Online presenters will introduce the event and provide commentary on festivities covering four times zones! Join the party!

"We are proud to support the celebrations of Saint-Jean-Baptiste: Fete nationale du Quebec et de la Francophonie canadienne. Canada 150 celebrations offer a great opportunity to open doors and build bridges between different Francophone communities in Canada, and demonstrate that the Francophonie is alive and more dynamic than ever. I invite all Canadians to take advantage of this symbolic day to celebrate the French language and culture from coast to coast to coast."The Honourable Melanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage "On June 24, as Quebecers collectively observe the Fete Nationale, Canadians from across the country celebrate the French language. These festivities are particularly appropriate on the 150th anniversary of Confederation, since French is fundamental to the identity of both Quebec and Canada. Constellation francophone will transport Quebecers and all Canadians from one end of the country to the other, giving them a window on the vitality and diversity that define today's Canadian Francophonie. On June 24, 2017, we will all come together to celebrate the French language."  Jean-Marc Fournier, Minister responsible for Canadian Relations and the Canadian Francophonie Details on the celebrations planned for June 24 will be announced in each community during the weeks of June 5 and 12. Constellation francophone is an event organized by the Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage and numerous partners. constellationfranco.ca

Facebook: Constellation-Francophone SOURCE Centre de la francophonie des Ameriques

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[May 26, 2017] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Commences Investigation on Behalf of Petrofac Ltd. Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of Petrofac Ltd. ("Petrofac" or the "Company") (OTC: POFCY) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws. To obtain information or aid in the investigation, please visit the Petrofac investigation page on our website at www.glancylawcom/case/petrofac-ltd.



On May 25, 2017, Petrofac suspended its chief operating officer Marwan Chedid after a U.K. prosecutor said the Company hasn't cooperated with a bribery probe. The Company has also brought on a "senior external specialist" and set up a new committee to oversee the response to the bribery investigation. Petrofac CEO Ayman Asfari and COO Marwan Chedid were arrested, questioned and released without being charged in connection with alleged bribes paid to secure lucrative contracts. On this news, shares of Petrofac fell sharply, over 30%, during intraday trading on May 25, 2017.

If you purchased Petrofac securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at http://www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005078/en/

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[May 26, 2017]

Patriot Software Partners With Summit Consortia Management, Inc.

CANTON, Ohio, May 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Patriot Software, LLC, a provider of online accounting and payroll software solutions for small businesses, partnered with Summit Consortia Management, Inc.



Through the partnership, Summit Consortia Management has negotiated discounts for Michigan State Medical Society associated members. The partnership with Patriots Royalty Program is a great opportunity for MSMS members to find significant savings with low-cost, online accounting and payroll software.

The Michigan State Medical Society is a professional association representing more than 15,000 physicians furthering science, quality, and ethics in the practice of medicine.

"We are excited and honored to be partnered with Summit Consortia Management," says Steven Hoffman, Patriots Director of Business Developmet. The partnership is a great opportunity to make payroll and accounting easy and affordable for members of the Michigan State Medical Society.







Through the partnership, MSMS members receive a 10% discount on full-service payroll and a 60-day free trial. Participating members can access a free employee portal, free direct deposit, and unlimited payroll runs. Patriot withholds and deposits payroll taxes and files federal, state, and local payroll tax returns for full-service customers.

Michigan State Medical Society members also receive discounts on Patriot Softwares accounting and 1099 software products. Members can use free, U.S.-based support for Patriots accounting and payroll software. Customer support also offers free setup for payroll accounts.

"Summit is a marketing partner with Patriot who has faithfully served the Association community and its members for more than a dozen years," says Bill Burnich, President at Summit Consortia Management, Inc.

The partnership is a part of the MSMS Practice Solutions program, which aims to help physician members navigate vendor opportunities while saving money in the process.

Patriot Software, LLC, located in Canton, Ohio, provides easy-to-use online accounting and payroll software for small businesses in the USA. For information on all of Patriots products servicing the United States, contact Patriot Software, LLC at 877-968-7147, or visit www.patriotsoftware.com.

Contact: Patriot Software, LLC Michele Bossart, Marketing Manager 877-968-7147 ext. 182 [email protected]
[May 26, 2017] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Continues Investigation on Behalf of BRF S.A. Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") is continuing its investigation of potential claims on behalf of investors of BRF S.A. ("BRF" or the "Company") (NYSE: BRFS) concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of federal securities laws. GPM represents investors in securities class actions, seeking to recoup damages caused by corporate fraud and wrongdoing. On March 17, 2017, news sources reported that Brazilian federal police raided BRF offices and other meatpackers after a two-year investigation of alleged briberyregarding the inspections of their facilities. The investigation, known as "Operation Weak Flesh," exposed roughly 40 cases of meatpackers who bribed inspectors and politicians to overlook unsanitary procedures such as processing rotten meat and running plants with traces of salmonella. Brazilian police arrested three BRF employees, and 20 public officials. On this news, BRF stock has fallen as much as 8% during intraday trading on March 17, 2017.



If you purchased BRF securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to [email protected], or visit our website at http://www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005118/en/

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[May 26, 2017] $5K Special Needs Assistance Program Grant Replaced Leaky Roof

With a leaking ceiling and outdated, exposed wiring, 70-year-old Theresa Kimble didn't just have a problem - she had a fire hazard. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005441/en/ Nearly $6,000 in Special Needs Assistance Program funds from Red River Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas helped Theresa Kimble of Shreveport, Louisiana, replace the roof of her home. (Photo: Business Wire) "It's a very old house and it needed a lot of work," said Ms. Kimble, who lived in her home until she got married, and moved back after her mother passed away. "They said if I didn't get a new roof, the house was going to fall in." Ms. Kimble, who is semi-retired and works part-time as a housekeeper, learned about the Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP) from her cousin, who suggested that she contact Red River Bank and apply for a grant. She received $5,750 in grant funds from Red River Bank and FHLB Dallas, which replaced her roof and updated the wiring of her home. SNAP grants assist income-qualified, special-needs homeowners with necessary hoe repairs and modifications. The grants are awarded by FHLB Dallas through participating member institutions, such as Red River Bank.



"Everyone deserves a safe, decent place to live," said Judy Madison, assistant vice president, Community Outreach, Mortgage Lending at Red River Bank. "Thanks to SNAP, Ms. Kimble can live more comfortably in her home." Since SNAP's inception in 2009, more than $11.6 million has been awarded in grants through FHLB Dallas member institutions to assist more than 2,300 families across FHLB Dallas' five-state District of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. In 2016, FHLB Dallas awarded nearly $1 million in SNAP grants that assisted 205 families. The 2017 SNAP funding, made available in January on a first-come, first-served basis, has been exhausted.

Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas, said the repairs to Ms. Kimble's home exemplify the true nature of FHLB Dallas' partnership with its member financial institutions through community investment. "There is a great need for programs such as SNAP across our District," said Mr. Hettrick. "SNAP brings more value to members and improves the lives of local seniors, allowing them to stay in their home longer than they might otherwise." Ms. Kimble said receiving the SNAP grant changed her life for the better. Now that her home's wiring is updated, she can install a central heating and cooling system. "I used to hear the rain," she said. "Now, with the new roof, I don't even know when it's raining. This grant has been a blessing." About Red River Bank Red River Bank is a full service community bank headquartered in Alexandria, Louisiana. Red River Bank was chartered in 1998 in Rapides Parish and began operating its first banking center in Alexandria in 1999. Red River Bank offers consumer and commercial banking services and products, mortgage lending services, and investment services. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $57.5 billion as of March 31, 2017, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community investment by providing competitively priced loans and other credit products to approximately 850 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit fhlb.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005441/en/

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[May 26, 2017] INVESTOR ALERT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Announces an Investigation Concerning Possible Breaches of Fiduciary Duty by Certain Officers and Directors of First American Financial Corporation

Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of First American Financial Corporation (NYSE:FAF) concerning possible breaches of fiduciary duty. To obtain additional information, go to: http://zlk.9nl.com/first-american-financial-faf or cntact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972. There is no cost or obligation to you.



Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, Connecticut, California, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities lawsuits and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. For more information, please feel free to contact any of the attorneys listed below. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005471/en/

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[May 26, 2017] National Interstate Employees Honored by Department of Defense

Three National Interstate Insurance Company ("National Interstate") employees recently received Patriot (News - Alert) Awards by the Ohio Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve ("ESGR"). Paul Stock, Assistant Vice President Risk Management, Timothy Brewster, Risk Management Team Leader, and Dave Michelson, Senior Advisor and former President and CEO of National Interstate were recognized for the extraordinary support and flexibility provided to Christopher Vasquez and Chad Poniewasz in balancing their National Interstate employment with their Ohio Army National Guard obligations. "Supportive employers like National Interstate who encourage managers like Paul, Tim and Dave are vital to the success of our mission and the defense of this nation," said Randy Gasser, Ohio ESGR Ombudsman Director. "Our Guard and Reserve members could not perform their military duty without knowing their civilian employers support them 100 percent." ESGR, a Department of Defense program, seeks to foster a culture in whch all employers support and value the employment and military service of members of the National Guard and Reserve in the United States. For more information about ESGR outreach programs or volunteer opportunities, call (800) 336-4590 or visit www.ESGR.mil.



About National Interstate An Insurance Experience Built Around You

National Interstate Insurance Company is a specialty property and casualty insurance company with a niche orientation and focus on the transportation industry. We differentiate ourselves by offering insurance products and services designed to meet the unique needs of our customers. Products include insurance for passenger, moving and storage, and truck transportation companies with an emphasis on alternative risk transfer, or captive, insurance programs. National Interstate and its insurance subsidiaries, which include Vanliner Insurance Company and Triumphe Casualty Company are rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company. Founded in 1989, we are headquartered in Richfield, Ohio with operations in Kapolei, Hawaii and Fenton, Missouri. National Interstate is a member of Great American Insurance Group. The members of Great American Insurance Group are subsidiaries of American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG). AFG's common stock is listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFG. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005477/en/

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INVESTOR ALERT: Goldberg Law PC Announces an Investigation of General Motors Company

Goldberg Law PC, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of General Motors (News - Alert) Company ("General Motors" or the "Company") (NYSE: GM).

If you purchased or otherwise acquired shares of General Motors, and would like more information about the investigation, we encourage you to contact Michael Goldberg or Brian Schall, of Goldberg Law PC, 1999 Avenue of the Stars Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067, at 800-977-7401, to discuss your rights without cost to you.

You can also reach us through the firm's website at http://www.Goldberglawpc.com, or by email at [email protected].







The investigation focuses on whether General Motors and certain of its officers and/or directors violated federal securities laws. On May 25, 2017, news reports announced that a consumer lawsuit was filed against the Company for allegedly installing defeat devices on over 700,000 Duramax diesel trucks. According to the lawsuit, General Motors' Duramax diesel trucks emit between two-to-five times the legal amount of nitrogen-oxide pollutants. When this news was announced, General Motors' stock price fell.

If you have any questions concerning your legal rights, please immediately contact Goldberg Law PC at 800-977-7401, or visit our website at http://www.Goldberglawpc.com, or email us at [email protected].

Goldberg Law PC represents investors around the world, and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005495/en/
[May 26, 2017] Nova Bus equips the city of Montreal with its first fully electric buses, a first in North America

MONTREAL, May 26, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Nova Bus is proud to announce that, since this week, Montreal is the first city in North America to put Nova Bus 100% electric buses in service. These buses were delivered by Nova Bus factories in Saint-Eustache and Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec, Canada. It is within the framework of the Montreal City Mobility project that three buses will circulate in order to continue the observations on this new electric bus operating in the city. These vehicles were acquired by the Societe de transport de Montreal (STM) in accordance with a financial support from the Green Fund of the Government of Quebec. This project is a result of the Quebec Transport Electrification Action Plan 2015-2020. The Quebec Minister of Transport, Sustainable Mobility and Transportation Electrification, Mr. Laurent Lessard, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Mr. David Heurtel, Mayor of Montreal, Mr. Denis Coderre, and Mr. Philppe Schnobb, Chairman of the Board of the Societe de transport de Montreal, made the announcement earlier this week.



Nova Bus, a member of the Volvo Group is responsible for the development of the buses and will support the STM throughout the evaluation of the project. "It is a great feeling for our team to be part of changing our world, making it a greener place and helping our commuter travel with great comfort and peace of mind". Ralph Acs, President of Nova Bus and Prevost divisions and Senior Vice President of Business Region Americas.

"City Mobility is a program that is already established elsewhere in the world, in innovative cities that offer effective, safe and sustainable solutions. Nova Bus is extremely proud to contribute to this movement to make Montreal the first North American city to benefit from it. This collaboration with our partners illustrates all the Quebec know-how deployed in the service of the metropolis", saint Martin Larose, Vice President of the Nova Bus Project Management Office. Highlights: The City Mobility projet: - Is an initiative of Volvo and its North American division, Nova Bus ;

- Is deployed in several cities, and Montreal is the first North American city to take part in it;

- Aims to make Montreal a showcase for technologies associated with electromobility The Action Plan on Transport Electrification 2015-2020 targets: - Achieving a target of 100,000 rechargeable electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles registered in Quebec;

- The reduction of 150,000 tonnes of annual emissions of greenhouse gases produced by transportation, thereby contributing to the objectives of combating climate change in Quebec and improving air quality;

- The reduction of 66 million liters of fuel consumed annually in Quebec;

- 5,000 jobs in the electric vehicle sector and total investments of about $ 500 million. SOURCE NOVA BUS

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[May 26, 2017] Minister Carr Meets with Leaders from New Brunswick's Forest Sector

FREDERICTON, May 26, 2017 /CNW/ - Canada's forests are vital to employment in communities across the country. Collaboration among federal and provincial governments is essential to keep our forest sector, and the workers and communities that depend on it, strong and resilient. Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, today met with key representatives of the province's forest sector to show support to those affected by the decision of the U.S. Department of Commerce to place countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber. Minister Carr and New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant visited the Crabbe Lumber mill in Bristol, New Brunswick, gaining insight into mill operations and how the duties will affect small mills in rural communities. After the tour, Minister Carr held a roundtable discussion with local forest sector stakeholders and others, including Matt DeCourcey, Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Foreign Affairs; TJ Harvey, Member of Parliament for Tobique-Mactaquac; and other members of Parliament. The discussion provided perspective on the impacts of the U.S. duties, and how the federal and provincial governments can work with New Brunswick's forest sector to reduce the effect of the duties on local communities and forest workers.



Minister Carr also met with Indigenous leaders to discuss economic development and youth employment opportunities in the natural resources industry. During the discussions, Minister Carr reiterated the federal government's commitment to vigorously fight for Canada's softwood lumber industry and those whose livelihoods depend on it, including through litigation at the World Trade Organization and under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Quick Facts Canada's forest industry sustains hundreds of thousands of good, middle-class jobs in communities across our country, including more than 13,000 jobs in New Brunswick .

forest industry sustains hundreds of thousands of good, middle-class jobs in communities across our country, including more than 13,000 jobs in . Approximately 77 percent of forest products from New Brunswick are exported to the U.S.

are exported to the U.S. In 2016, New Brunswick exported $1.7 billion in forest products.

exported in forest products. Softwood lumber accounted for $470 million of the provinces forest exports. Quote

"Today's opportunity to meet with Premier Gallant, the New Brunswick forest sector and Indigenous leaders, mill owners and workers provided valuable insight into the unique challenges facing the province as a result of the U.S. countervailing duties on our softwood lumber. Our Government will continue to vigorously fight for the interests of the Canadian softwood lumber industry, including through litigation, to ensure its continued growth and resilience for future generations." Jim Carr

Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan) NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.news.gc.ca. SOURCE Natural Resources Canada

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[May 26, 2017] PETROFAC INVESTOR ALERT: Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $100,000 Investing In Petrofac Limited To Contact The Firm

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential securities fraud at Petrofac Limited ("Petrofac" or the "Company") (OTC:POFCF; OTC:POFCY). The investigation focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws. On May 12, 2017, the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office announced that it had launched an investigation into the Company's activities, on suspicion of "bribery, corruption and money laundering." The investigation is linked to an ongoing probe of bribes paid by Monaco oil contractor Unaoil SAM for government contracts around the world. Then, on May 25, 2017, Petrofac announced that it had suspended its chief operating officer, Marwan Chedid, after UK prosecutors accused the Company of refusing to cooperate with the investigation. UK prosecutors announced that Chedid and the Company's chief executive office, Ayman Asfari, were arrested, questioned, and released without beig charged in the ongoing investigation.



On this news, the Company's stock price has decreased, damaging investors. If you invested in Petrofac OTC stock or options and would like to discuss your legal rights, click here: www.faruqilaw.com/POFCF There is no cost or obligation to you.

You can also contact us by calling Richard Gonnello toll free at 877-247-4292 or at 212-983-9330 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170526005696/en/

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Conman Sukesh, in his fifth letter to Delhi L-G, sought transfer of his jail to any other state outside Delhi alleging constant threats and pressure from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to withdraw complaints. He also alleged that he and his wife were tortured and threatened to withdraw the complaints.
Election results: Check out results from various races across the state
The Aam Aadmi Party has decided not to send its nominee to the EVM challenge of the Election Commission. The poll panel had yesterday rejected the demand of the AAP to allow it to change the motherboard of the EVM.

By India Today Web Desk: A day after the Election Commission rejected its demands, the Aam Aadmi Party has decided to stay away from the electronic voting machine (EVM) tampering challenge thrown by the poll panel.

The AAP has written another letter to the Election Commission accusing it of running away from open EVM hackathon. "Why is the Election Commission running away from organising a no-holds-barred hackathon," AAP asked in its letter.

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The Election Commission yesterday rejected the demand of the AAP to allow it to tamper with the motherboard of the machine during the EVM challenge.

AAP INSISTS ON OPEN HACKATHON

AAP leader Gopal Rai said, "The stand taken by the Election Commission is not good for democracy. The conditions put by the Election Commission don't resolve the issue. The Election Commission has denied us the permission to touch the voting machine."

Gopal Rai said, "If the Election Commission conducts a hackathon, we will participate. Else, there is no point taking part in it."

It has been learnt that the AAP has decided not to apply for the EVM tampering challenge from June 3.

Incidentally, no political party has applied to take part in the EVM tampering challenge of the Election Commission.

The TMC, another party that raised doubts over the reliability of the EVM, sought more time to decided about its participation in the challenge. But, the Election Commission is learnt to have rejected the TMC's request.

AAP shot off another letter to the Election Commission over EVM tampering challenge.

WHAT ELECTION COMMISSION HAS SAID

The Election Commission on Thursday rejected the demand of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to allow it to tamper with the motherboard of the electronic voting machines during the EVM challenge.

In a point-wise rebuttal of the allegations leveled by the AAP, the Election Commission said that the EVM would lose its originality if changes were made to its internal circuit.

The AAP had asked the Election Commission not to conduct the EVM challenge under a set of guidelines. The AAP had argued that the person, who might tamper with the EVM, would not go by the rule-book.

The AAP has raised doubts over reliability of EVMs for casting and recording votes during elections. The matter was first raised by BSP chief Mayawati, who alleged after the UP Assembly election that the BJP tampered with the EVMs.

The AAP led an aggressive campaign against EVM after Bhind incident where the voting machine was reported to have behaved 'erroneously'.

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But, the Election Commission has maintained that the EVMs owned and maintained by the poll panel are tamper-proof. The Election Commission has resisted all the attempts to go back to ballot paper system of conducting polls.

ALSO READ |

Arvind Kejriwal claims he has 10 ways to hack EVMs, goes on to describe one

WATCH: Arvind Kejriwal to India Today: Can tamper in 10 ways; Here's one

--- ENDS ---
Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, two years after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Russian law prohibits sexual discrimination. But prejudices still run deep and much of the gay community remains underground.

Members of the LGBT community protest against constant the discrimination and violence against the gay community in Chechnya and other regions of Russia, in Mexico City, Mexico. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: A chain of Russian food stores run by a devoutly religious nationalist businessman has placed signs in its windows saying gay customers will be refused entry.

Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, two years after the fall of the Soviet Union, and Russian law prohibits sexual discrimination. But prejudices still run deep and much of the gay community remains underground.

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"No entry for faggots," read a wooden plate at the entrance to one of German Sterligov's shops in central Moscow.

Sterligov, 50, became a millionaire by opening a mercantile exchange shortly before the Soviet Union's demise. Later in his career he turned devoutly religious and retreated with his family to rural Russia to sell organic farm produce.

"Our planet is full of filth and sick humans," Sterligov told Reuters Television at a country fair outside Moscow.

"In front of our eyes is the historical experience of Sodom and Gomorrah when God burned these towns," he said, referring to a passage from the Old Testament.

Addressing the farm fair through a loudspeaker, Sterligov praised US President Donald Trump, who was swift to revoke his predecessor Barack Obama's landmark guidance to public schools allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.

"We thank him. May God give him health," Sterligov said.

Yulia Gorbunova, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said the retail chain's disregard for the law sent a dangerous message in a country where homophobia remains prevalent.

"It seems like they are promoting homophobia in an already homophobic society and it only leads to rising tensions," she told Reuters Television. "The state certainly has a responsibility to stop that and step in."

Alyona, a young assistant in one of Sterligov's Moscow stores, said she shared the chain's stance on homosexuals "as a true Christian".

"It's our guarding talisman," she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied he discriminates against sexual minorities.

--- ENDS ---
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the best big-screen phone yet, thanks to its versatile dual cameras, S Pen improvements and beautiful 6.3-inch screen.

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 is a big-screen phone that commands your attention  and not just because it's a sequel to a device the company was forced to recall. It's because the Note 8 ushers in a new class of smartphones that is super-premium.

Priced between $930 and $960 (depending on the carrier), Samsung's new phablet has the loftiest price tag of any mainstream Android handset yet. But the Note 8 tries to justify its high price with the first dual-camera setup ever on a Samsung phone; the biggest screen ever offered by Samsung, at 6.3 inches; and a host of new tricks for the S Pen. The Note 8 also offers more RAM than the Galaxy S8 and S8+, as well as a smart new way to multitask.

Is all of that worth about $80 to $100 more than the already large-and-in-charge Galaxy S8+? After living with the Note 8 for more than a week, I would say "yes."

We've updated our review of the Galaxy Note 8 based on our in-depth smartphone drop tests. See the results below.

Design: The pinnacle of phablets

With its curved Infinity Display that goes from nearly edge to edge, the glass front of the Galaxy Note 8 is simply stunning. In fact, it makes other big-screen phones like the LG V30, Google Pixel XL and iPhone 7 Plus look downright dowdy.

I know what you're wondering: Is 6.3 inches too big? Not really, and I have pretty small hands. That's because this phone has the same narrow 18.5:9 aspect ratio as the Galaxy S8 and S8+. I found I could reach across the screen with my thumb, but because the Note's design is so tall, I sometimes had to reposition the phone in my hand to target items on the top or bottom of the display.

Samsung purposely made the curves on this screen less severe than those on the S8 or S8+, which gives you more usable real estate for the pen. I dig these more slanted edges, as they also help visually differentiate the Note 8 from its siblings. However, I do wish Samsung would offer more color options in the U.S. to make this phone truly pop. U.S. carriers are offering midnight black and orchid gray, but I want to see the gold and blue versions that are available overseas arrive stateside, too.

Around the back, you'll find the dual-lens cameras and a fingerprint reader to the right of the flash. I'm not a fan of this somewhat awkward placement, as it would be easier if the sensor were beneath the camera. It also didnt always work on the first try; fortunately, you can log in via facial recognition or iris scanning.

MORE: Which Carrier Has the Best Note 8 Deal?



Measuring 6.4 x 2.9 x 0.34 inches and weighing 6.9 ounces, the Note 8 is on the heavy side, but it feels pretty balanced in my hand. By comparison, the S8+ is slightly shorter, at 6.3 inches, but significantly lighter, at 6.1 ounces. That's to be expected, though, because the Note 8 carries a stylus.



Durability: It could be tougher

As with the Galaxy S8, the Note 8 is water-resistant. It's also pretty tough; I accidentally stepped on the screen, and it didn't crack.

But to get a better sense of the phone's durability, we tested the toughness of the Galaxy Note 8 by dropping it on its face onto wood from a height of 4 feet and 6 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face onto concrete from 4 feet; we then dropped it on its edge and face from 6 feet onto concrete.

Samsung's phablet withstood 4- and 6-foot drops on its face onto a wood surface without any difficulty. A 4-foot fall on its edge onto concrete caused some minor scratches on the bottom edge, but a 4-foot drop on its face cracked the screen in a number of places, including in front of its front-facing camera, which gave selfies a very artistic look. A 6-foot face drop onto concrete caused the Note 8's screen to start flashing white, black and green, and the touch screen was completely unresponsive.

As a result, the Note 8 earned a low toughness score of 4.3 out of 10. To see the results of other smartphones, as well as our complete scoring methodology, check out our smartphone drop tests.

Galaxy Note 8 Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally Price $930 to $960, depending on carrier

Display: A big and beautiful canvas with more purpose

The 6.3-inch Infinity Display on the Note 8 makes your jaw drop even before you put it in your hands, and Samsung devised a clever new way to make the most of the phone's billboard-like real estate.

For starters, the Note 8's screen is deliciously colorful. I was mesmerized by the multifaceted silver armor of Cyborg in the Justice League trailer, as well as his piercing red eye. When playing Mortal Kombat X, I marveled at how grotesquely awesome the gooey brains of my splayed enemy looked when they spilled out of his head.

MORE: The Best Smartphones Available Right Now



In our lab tests, the Note 8's display covered 204.8 percent of the sRGB color gamut. By comparison, the Moto Z2 Force's OLED screen hit 199.7 percent, and the LG G6's LCD displayed 134 percent. The Note 8's display delivers accurate hues, too, as it registered a Delta-E score of 0.5; a score of 0 is perfect. The Z2 Force notched 1.06, and the LG G6 scored 1.1.

Because the Note 8's panel supports HDR (high dynamic range), you should be able to enjoy better contrast and more colors when streaming HDR content.

To maximize this phone's ultrawide screen, Samsung introduced a feature called App Pair with the Note 8. When you swipe in from the right side of the screen, you can launch two apps on the screen at once  side by side or on top of each other, depending on how you hold the phone. It's also pretty easy to create pairs.

I liked being able to have the Email app open on the left and the Calendar app on the right, or the browser on one side and YouTube on the other.

Dual Cameras: Amazing photos, great flexibility

Samsung isn't just playing catch-up with the dual cameras on the Note 8. It has leaped ahead of the iPhone  at least for now. That's because both 12-megapixel cameras on this device offer optical image stabilization; the iPhone 7 Plus' telephoto lens doesn't have that feature.

What can you do with these dual shooters? For starters, you get a 2x optical zoom with a simple tap on the screen. In Union Square, I could easily zoom in on a statue from afar without losing any detail.

You also get a new Live Focus mode, which is similar to the Portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, which blurs the background and makes your subject pop. But only the Note 8 lets you adjust the intensity of this effect both before and after you snap the photo.



I felt like a pro when I snapped an image of purple flowers in front of a fountain. The iPhone 7 Plus did a better job than the Note 8 of blurring the background more consistently through the frame, but I liked that I could control how much of the fountain I could see.



I also really like the Dual Capture feature on the Note 8, which snaps both a close-up and a wide-angle photo at the same time, and then lets you toggle between both views in the gallery. One pic I took of the New York City skyline looked so good that a woman sitting next to me on the bus asked me to text it to her. Even in a moving vehicle, the picture turned out fairly sharp, thanks to the optical image stabilization.

My only complaint is that I sometimes had to tap more than once on the screen to switch between the close-up and wide-angle views.

In terms of image quality, the Note 8 delivered the same type of remarkably sharp and colorful pics that made the Galaxy S8 our top camera phone.

Compared with a shot taken with the iPhone 7 Plus, a Note 8 photo of trees and a statue in Union Square had richer greens and slightly more refined details around the edges when zoomed in. However, as with most iPhone photos, its colors were warmer than the Note 8's, and the Samsung image ran a bit cooler and nearly blew out some of the highlights.



S Pen: Neat new tricks (with some kinks)

Samsung has been broadening the appeal of the S Pen for the past few years, and the Note 8 takes it to the next level.

For starters, you can now take up to 100 pages of notes using the Screen Off memo feature. You just take out the pen and start writing. It's easy to pin notes to the always-on display and to edit notes in place. I found this feature handy when crossing off items on my to-do list and shopping lists.

The coolest new S Pen feature is Live Message, which turns your scribbles into animated GIFs to share with others. For example, I wrote "Love you" on top of a photo with a fun sparkle pen tip and then tried to send it to my wife via text message. I say "tried" because I got an error message that said "Maximum total size of attachments exceeded." Strangely, other times, I didn't get that error, so it might depend on the size of the image captured.

The other noteworthy new S Pen feature is the ability to translate full sentences into different languages just by hovering the pen above the screen. This worked well when I visited the French site Le Monde and highlighted a few rows of text.

For those so inclined, the S Pen remains a viable tool for sketching and drawing. I handed the Note 8 off to a colleague to create a couple of sketches, and he found the pen to be fairly accurate. However, he wished that the pen offered more nuanced control, as the Apple Pencil does on the iPad.

Battery Life: Surprisingly good

We'll have to wait and see whether the Note 8's battery lives up to Samsung's safety claims, but I can say that the phone lasts quite a long time on a charge. Although the battery's 3,300-mAh capacity is a bit lower than that of the battery inside the ill-fated Note 7, as well as the battery in the Galaxy S8+ (both 3,500 mAh), it turned in excellent results.

On the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing over 4G on 150 nits of screen brightness, the Note 8 lasted a very strong 11 hours and 11 minutes on T-Mobile's network. That's even better than the 11:04 that the S8+ turned in and the 10:39 runtime from the S8, both also tested on T-Mobile. It's possible that the Note 8's extra RAM makes it slightly more efficient.

MORE: Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life

By comparison, the iPhone 7 Plus lasted 10:38, and the Moto Z2 Force ran for 10:23. The LG G6 mustered only 8:39.

Performance: More RAM, serious power

The Note 8 has the same Snapdragon 835 processor as other current Android flagships, but it ups the ante with 6GB of RAM. Most other phones make do with 4GB of RAM; exceptions include the OnePlus 5, which comes with up to 8GB of RAM.

In everyday use, the Note 8 was very swift, whether I was jumping right into the camera from the lock screen instantly (just double-press the home button) or playing Injustice 2 with silky-smooth frame rates. However, there were more than a couple of times when I had to tap the screen more than once for the phone to do what I wanted.

On Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the Note 8 scored 6,564 on the multicore portion of the test. That's better than the Galaxy S8 (6,124), a bit better than the Moto Z2 Force (6,489) and just slightly faster than the OnePlus 5 with 8GB of RAM (6,542).

When it comes to graphics performance, the Note 8 more than holds its own. It notched 39,834 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test, which beat the Galaxy S8 (35,903) and edged out the Z2 Force (39,807) and the OnePlus 5 (39,576).

Software: Bixby is underrated

Other than the added capabilities of the S Pen and the App Pair feature for split-screen multitasking, Bixby is the highlight software feature on the Note 8, which runs Android 7.1.1. It's best not to think of Bixby as a direct Siri competitor but rather more of a personal assistant that speeds up tasks that typically take multiple taps.

For instance, I said, "Capture a screenshot, and show it to me in the gallery," and the Note 8 did both tasks in succession successfully. I also liked that I could add specific items to my to-do list by saying them aloud, such as "Add 'approve vacation day' to my task list." At first, Bixby thought I said "A prove," but the mistake was easy to correct.

MORE: Galaxy Note 8: Features to Enable and Disable

The other main highlight is the Apps Edge menu, which makes it easy to pull up your favorite apps without having to go back to the home screen. You can also quickly access your favorite contacts from this menu.

Accessories Aplenty

The Galaxy Note 8 has a new design, so you're definitely going to need a new case for this 6.3-inch monster. The good news is that there are plenty of options to choose from already, including a suede-like Alcantara cover that's available in multiple colors. My favorite is green.

MORE: 11 Best Galaxy Note 8 Accessories

The Note 8 also supports a new version of the Gear VR headset ($129) for people who want to get into virtual reality. The headset comes with a motion controller to make the VR experience more immersive.

DeX Station

If you want to leverage the full power of the Note 8 on a bigger screen, check out the DeX Station, which costs about $125. With this dock, you can run Android apps on a full-size HD monitor, and get a desktop-like experience with a mouse and keyboard connected to the peripheral. More developers are starting to support this accessory, including Zoom, which lets you seamlessly continue your conference call after you plug the phone into the dock.

Bottom Line

Spending nearly $1,000 on a smartphone seems a bit nuts when you can get a very good phone, like the OnePlus 5, for less than $500. But the Note 8 isn't just very good  it is awesome. The combination of its glorious 6.3-inch Infinity Display, excellent dual cameras and more versatile S Pen makes it the big-screen phone to beat. Some people may want to wait for the iPhone 8, but if you're an Android fan, you need look no further.

The Note 8 could be better in some ways. The fingerprint sensor is located in an awkward spot, and the Live Message feature (as novel as it is) doesn't always work the way it should. Then, there's the price. If you don't have a need for the S Pen and you just want a big screen, you'll be plenty happy with the $850 Galaxy S8 Plus. But I'd spend the extra dough on the Note 8 simply because of its dual-lens camera and what you can do with it.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide


Two worlds of Aussie rock have collided this morning, as The Smith Street Band unveil the new video clip for Shine  one that looks just a little bit familiar.

Not only have they recreated AC/DCs all-time classic music video for Its A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock n Roll), but theyve also enlisted its director Paul Drane, who shot the original version for Countdown all those years ago.

Having worked on videos for Aussie rock icons like Cold Chisel, Skyhooks and Little River Band, he can now add The Smith Street Band to that list of names, with the band rolling through their home of Footscray on the back of a flatbed truck.

Wil Wagners sister Lizzie Wagner makes an appearance, joining a choir of Jess Locke, Mel Calia, Laura Quattrocelli, Sara Patrick and Ciume Lochner  while Lachlan McSwain shows up for the bagpipe section.

There arent many more iconic Australian music videos than the one for AC/DCs Its a Long Way To The Top! Wil says. The footage of the band driving down Swanston St on the back of a flatbed truck to the delight and bemusement of passing pedestrians is such a nostalgic and wonderful image.

Weve talked a lot about recreating that music video and after living in and falling in love with Footscray for the last few years we found the perfect place to do it! But what we didnt expect was to get to work with the one and only Paul Drane who not only directed the famous AC/DC film clip but has also worked with basically every Aussie band worth their salt!

So with a lot of help from our friends and the local council we set up our stuff on the back of a truck and drove through Footscray playing our song Shine. It was a fun, funny and surreal day that was perfectly captured by Paul and his team in this clip!

Shine of course appears on the bands new record More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me, and the clip arrives just as the band have set off on their national tour in Hobart last night.

The Smith Street Band tour dates

Thu 25th May  Odeon Theatre, Hobart (LIC. AA)

Fri 26th May  Enmore Theatre, Sydney (LIC. AA)

Sat 27th May  The Tivoli, Brisbane  SOLD OUT

Sun 28th May  The Tivoli, Brisbane

Fri 2nd June  Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Sat 3rd June  Forum Theatre, Melbourne  SOLD OUT

Fri 9th June  Metro City, Perth

Sat 10th June  Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide (LIC. AA)
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Independence Police shot an armed man outside of a home Thursday night. The incident occurred near the 700 block of North Forest around 8:30 p.m. Officials said officers were sent to a house after a report of a person armed with a gun.
"Mike Shanin interviews Johnson County Parks & Rec Executive Director Jill Geller about the upcoming grand opening of the Arts and Heritage Center in the former King Louie building. Then Pat McInerney, Danedri Herbert, Crosby Kemper III and Mary Anne Murray Simons discuss the push for a single terminal KCI, the search for a new Kansas City Police Department chief and negative media coverage of Trump."

Credit to Crosby Kemper III for calling out Pat McInerney's vapid defense of no-bid corruption that's part of Mayor Sly's silly scheme . . . No matter how breathless of a defense, there's simply no justifying a RIGGED process.

Tonight thehas a show that's sowith political talk that they were brave enough to start out with some artsy chick . . .Check the description . . .You decide . . .
Tasty Kansas City Drone

It's a bird; it's a plane; it's a LaMar's 'dronut' - Kansas City Business Journal Keep looking to the skies, LaMar's Donuts fans. LaMar's Donuts, founded in Kansas City, will make its first delivery of "dronuts" next week. Alas, it will be in the chain's new headquarters city of Denver. LaMar's plans to make four drone deliveries on May 31, including to the Denver City and County Building, the police and fire headquarters and the city's 16th Street Mall.

Kansas City Burrito Tech Backfires

Dozens of Kansas City-area Chipotle restaurants hacked Fast food restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill confirmed on Friday that malware invaded the company's post-of-sale systems at hundreds of its restaurants, including dozens in the Kansas City metro, leading to the possibility that some credit card information from thousands of customers was stolen by hackers.

The Kansas City Building Boom

KC-area homebuilders continue to pick up single-family pace - Kansas City Business Journal Builders in the eight-county Kansas City area pulled 2,059 single-family building permits during the first four months of 2017 - a pace not matched since before the recession. According to the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, it was the highest year-to-date total though April since 2007, when 2,339 single-family permits were issued during the first four months of the year.

Show-Me Session Smelted

Missouri legislature's special session ends with smelting plant bill sent to Gov. Greitens Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' first special session was a success. The Senate passed a bill 24-5 on Friday designed to reopen an aluminum smelting plant once operated by Noranda, as well as to build a new steel plant nearby. The bill will take effect the moment the Republican governor signs it.

Shadow Of Death In KCK This Summer

Schlitterbahn opens 2017 season as Verruckt still stands On Friday, thousands of people will return to a major metro water park. But as the park opens, the scene of a tragedy continues to tower in the skyline. Schlitterbahn Kansas City Waterpark will open it's 2017 season on a much more somber note.

Summer School Update

The Kansas City Cookout

Food Critics: The Best Grilled Dishes In Kansas City Summer grilling season is upon us. Over this Memorial Day weekend, we'll be firing up the backyard grill, cold beverage in hand. But what exactly is grilling? KCUR's Food Critics defined it on Friday's Central Standard . "It's over hot fire or coals," Carlton Logan told host Gina Kaufmann.

and her evening gown hotness begins our evening look at all the important Kansas City newz . . .And this is thefor right now . . .
Much against the popular perception of drinking water being supplied free in the households of Delhi, a family in the northwest district has received two bills for the same period from the Delhi Jal Board. The bills are allegedly inflated and show a difference of over Rs 5,000.

Before becoming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had promised free water upto 20,000 litres for every household. (Photo: PTI)

By Prabhash K Dutta: Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party stormed to power in 2015 decimating the Congress and pushing the BJP to the margins with his promise of free water, cheaper electricity and corruption-free government.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lists free water to lakhs of households in the city as one of his achievements. But at a time when he sacked his Water Resource Minister Kapil Mishra - who has put Arvind Kejriwal in the dock with corruption allegations, a family in the northwest Delhi has got a water bill of Rs 8,642.

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Madhav Sharan Shukla, a resident of Shalimar Bagh, was surprised when he found a bill delivered to him from the Delhi Jal Board of nearly Rs 9,000. "Wasn't drinking water supposed to be free under Arvind Kejriwal government," asks Shukla.

'WHAT HAPPENED TO WATER SWARAJYA'

"Arvind Kejriwal told us that they would bring water swarajya in Delhi. We supported him for this. What happened to the promise of water swarajya," asked Shukla.

In 2015, the AAP promised to bring Water Swarajya in Delhi saying that they "will provide Water as a Right" to every household in the city.

Sudha, Shukla's wife' said, "We have been using the same quantity of water. Our water usage has not changed. We have got such an inflated bill for the first time. The bills were never so high during Sheila Dikshit government."

"The Delhi Jal Board officials say that this is the combined bill for the period (of one year)," Madhav Shukla added.

The water bill - dated March 28 - that was delivered to Shukla read 'current period charges' and contains arrear of Rs 10,109.54 and after making some 'adjustment', the payable amount has been billed at Rs 8,642.

First water bill delivered to Shukla family. (Photo: India Today)

DJB 'RECTIFIES BILL' AFTER COMPLAINT

Nervous after seeing the bill amount Shukla made a few rounds to the Delhi Jal Board office at Ashok Vihar - the regional centre for the area. Shukla got to speak to some of the officials registering his complaint.

"I asked the DJB officials as to how they calculated my water bill. They told me that my meter was not functional, so standard bill has been sent to me," Shukla said adding, "But, none of the DJB men, who came to take down the meter reading ever complained of non-functional water meter. And, how all of a sudden they come to know that it was not working for two years?"

Meanwhile, Shukla was isistent and kept visiting the Delhi Jal Board office. He was later told that his bill was being revived as 'erroneous' copy of the same was delivered to him.

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Shukla got another water bill dated May 1 with payable amount of Rs 3,553 without making any 'adjustment'.

After complaints, the DJB issued another bill to Shukla family. (Photo: India Today)

The new bill reads 'current period charges' for April 20, 2016 to April 17, 2017 against January 29, 2017 to February 19, 2017.

Shukla family is still not convinced with the calculations of the DJB officials. Sudha Shukla insists that the 'water usage' has not changed.

Previous payment history shows Shukla family paying a maximum bill of Rs 300 for June-August 2015. The last water bill paid by Shukla family for February-April 2016 was of Rs 130.

The family is planning to raise the issue in Janata Darbar of Arvind Kejriwal.

Madhav Sharan Shukla complains of receing inflated water bills from the DJB and plans to take the matter to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in Janata Darbar. (Photo: India Today)

WHAT AAP MANIFESTO 2015 SAID

In its manifesto for the Delhi Assembly election in 2015, the AAP promised -

It will provide universal access to clean drinking water to all its citizens of Delhi at an affordable price.The DJB Act will be amended to make clean drinking water a right of people.Free Lifeline Water: AAP will ensure free lifeline water of upto 20 kiloliter to every household with DJB's metered water connection.

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Incidentally, presenting the AAP government's budget in March, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Mansih Sisodia said that the Delhi Jal Board's revenue went up by Rs 178 crore despite providing free water to over 12.5 lakh consumers. Shukla family is certainly not one of those.

ALSO READ |

AAP offers free water to Delhi residents, but mohalla clinics running dry

Delhi may face water shortage for a day as canal in Haryana closes for repair

ALSO WATCH | 45-YEAR-OLD DIES OF THIRST

--- ENDS ---
CHECK THIS EPIC KANSAS CITY TESTIMONY REVEALING BURNS & MAC INSIDER FRUSTRATION WITH SKETCHY CITY HALL POLITICS!!!

Source: Insider breaks rank

An impressive bit of journalism from our blog community that offers a peek at the behind the scenes conversation and a glimpse of discontent over current corporate tactics.To wit . . .Here's the word on the hush, hush and to protect both the innocent and corrupt alike with hope that one of the top players in Kansas City listens to a growing groundswell of discontent . . .An employee at Burns and McDonnell Engineering confirms that campaign donations were made to Mayor Sylvester James following pressure/inducement from management.Speaking strictly off-the-record, as an anonymous source, the individual expressed concern that in their zeal for company growth, Burns and McDonnell management is inadvertently impugning their own reputation and placing at risk the future of employee/owners.In exchange for communicating with us, the individual insisted that the following points be highlighted:1. Because we're employee/owners, Burns and McDonnell has a very protective insular corporate culture. It's a great company to work for and most of us are not politically active, especially in Kansas City Missouri.2. The only reason I'm speaking with you is because I'm concerned that corporate management has strayed from the principles which this company was built upon. My parents and faith community instilled in me the utmost respect for core values like honesty, integrity, and competing on a level playing field.3. Burns and McDonnell doesn't need to ingratiate itself into the good graces of the Mayor and Council by throwing around political donations. We're an excellent engineering firm and we stand proudly ready to compete with anyone in the world for projects. To do anything less is an insult to our staff.4. Frankly, I've been embarrassed to read about some of the disclosures regarding our company's receipt of corporate welfare, especially in light of the fact that many residents of Kansas City are struggling to provide for their families. It's counter to what my faith teaches.When asked about a specific Burns and McDonnell political fundraiser (we provided a listing) in which several hundred employees made almost identical campaign donations to Mayor Sylvester James, the source redirected the questioning back to us:"To a reasonable person, what does that look like? Exactly.""If we don't live in Kansas City, why would we donate to the Mayor's campaign? I didn't donate to my own Mayor and Councilperson in ------- (a suburb).""I guarantee you, that everyone received the message loud and clear that Mayor James was a special friend of Burns and McDonnell and it would be in our personal interest to make a contribution. Did I receive a memo directing me to do so? Of course not. They're not going to put something like that in writing, but they do keep track of who participates."In regards to the current pending airport terminal proposal between Burns and McDonnell and Kansas City, the source expressed a fear that the no-bid aspect of the proposal will blow-up in the company's face and any problems arising during the multi-year project will be laid squarely at the feet of Burns and McDonnell. "It's not the way you ever want to enter a project. When there are questions from the outset about whether the project was necessary, whether it was awarded fairly, and whether political favors are being exchanged, it's like walking into a minefield. The city first needs to get the approval of the voters, then publicly solicit bids, if they're not going to do it themselves, and go from there. The longer this drags on, the worse it's going to be for us."#######Developing . . .
Interim Chief Zimmerman: My first week on the job





As I near the end of my first week as Chief of Police, I must acknowledge that I could not fulfill the responsibilities of this position without the support and encouragement of the women and men of the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. My experiences this week only reinforce my conclusion that I made the right choice over 34 years ago when I joined this organization.





As for the community we serve, the support I have received over the past week is humbling as individuals I dont personally know approach me with words of congratulations, along with offers to help and kind words of reassurance. I have been a life-long resident of Kansas City, Missouri, raising a family here, and I will continue to call this great city home long after I am finished with policing.





One final thought as we gather with friends and family this Memorial Day weekend to remember the loved ones we have lost, I pray everyone has a safe holiday and we extend a hand of friendship and support to those around us.

#######
Kaltsidis, who turns 54 today arrived in Crete from Messinia on his luxury yacht

Greeces wealthiest man Filaretos Kaltsidis (also known by his Russian name Filaret Galchev) is spending his birthday today in Chania, where his super yacht Sapphire has been spotted at the beach of Agion Apostolon.

Kaltsidis, who turns 54 today arrived in Crete from Messinia on his luxury yacht, to celebrate his special day at one of his most beloved destinations.

The Greek entrepreneur, who holds both Greek and Russian citizenship is currently worth $1.42 billion (according to Forbes). He got his start in coal, but made the bulk of his fortune in cement, buying plants from Stern Cement and from Inteko, the construction company owned by Russias richest woman, Elena Baturina.

His Eurocement Group is one of Russias largest cement producers. In February 2016, Galchev lost his 6.2% stake in the worlds largest cement producer, LafargeHolcim, as a result of margin call.

Filaretos Kaltsidis was born on May 26th, 1963, in the village of Tarson in Georgia. In 1991, he graduated the Moscow Mining Institute as mining engineer-economist and began working in the coal industry, as an expert in his doctorates subject on coal market development in Russia.

In 2011, he was named Person of the Year by CemWeek, as the most influential man in the cement industry in Russia.

Hes member of the Mining Science Academy and the International Energy Academy. He has authored 22 books and on October 20th, 2004, he was positioned as a Professor at the Economics and Mining Planning Department of Moscow State Mining University.

Russias largest producer of cement

Since 2000, Kaltsidis is Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC Rosuglesbyt and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Krasnoyarsk Coal company. Since 2002, hes also Chairman of EUROCEMENT and Chairman of the Board of Directors of EUROCEMENT Group.

Kaltsidiss Eurocement Holding AG is Russias largest producer of cement, with annual production capacity of 38 MT, expected to raise up to 50 MT in the near future according to corporate plans.

Kaltsidis resides in Russia, however every summer he makes his way over to Greece, where he spends the majority of his time on the Messinian Gulf on his luxury yacht Zapphire one of the best 75m yachts in the world.

Galchev adores Messinia and in January 2013, he donated the amount of 55,000 to the Municipality of Kalamata for the restoration of the Municipal Theatre building.

He is married and has one daughter and a son.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
The most famous island group in the Aegean Sea comprises some of the most beautiful islands in the world! Gorgeous sandy beaches, architecture in white and blue, traditional lifestyle, folk music, warm, hospitable people and barren landscapes with isolated chapels turn a trip to the Cyclades into a lifetime experience.

The name Cyclades refers to the islands forming a circle (the name in English means: circular islands) around the sacred island of Delos. According to the Greek mythology, Poseidon, God of the sea, furious at the Cyclades nymphs turned them into islands.

Millions of Greek and foreign visitors come to the Cyclades every year to enjoy the dazzling light and the crystal blue waters, in the quest of the paradise on earth.

Andros is the northernmost island of the group with a great naval tradition and no landscape like the postcards from the Cyclades: apart from the sandy beaches, there are rocky coastlines, mountain ranges alternating with fertile plains, lush vegetation and abundantly flowing streams.

One of the most enchanting yet less known islands of the Cyclades, Tinos is the religious centre of the country thanks to the church of Panayia Meyalohari (the Blessed Virgin Mary). Pilgrims from all over the country come here to fulfil their vows and to seek spiritual comfort.

One of the most famous destinations worldwide and a favourite holiday spot of the jet set, Mykonos, is extremely beautiful and well known for its bare hills, the amazing sandy beaches, the white country chapels and the Cycladic architecture.

Due to its proximity to Attica, Kea is an easily accessible beauty with a scenery variety: steep mountains, small fields, olive groves, vineyards, valleys, picturesque coves and off-the-beaten-track beaches. On the island with the largest oak forest in the Cyclades, bird-watching is a real delight.

Cousteau looked for the lost city of Atlantis on Santorini. Crescent-shaped Santorini (or Thira), the precious gem of the Aegean, is actually a group of islands consisting of Thira, Thirassia, Aspronissi, Palea and Nea Kameni in the southernmost part of Cyclades.

Also called Thermia on account of its thermal springs, Kythnos is very close to Attica; still, it is one of the less visited islands of the Cyclades.

Pristine beauty and exotic beaches

Greek Mythology has it that Anafi, a paradise of pristine beauty and exotic beaches washed by crystal clear waters, had emerged from the bottom of the Aegean sea to give shelter to the Argonauts.

Ios. The locals call their island Nios but its formal name comes from ion, the Greek name for the flower violet. It is said to have been the birthplace of Homers mother and the place of his own tomb.

Remaining untouched by the growth of the tourist industry, Folegandros (or Polykandros) offers complete relaxation in a typical Cycladic landscape. The Greek mythology refers to Folegandros as son to Minos and head of the first colonists on the island.

Ideal for a relaxed holiday, Serifos is a typical Cycladic island with white villages, quiet harbours, golden beaches, bare hills and beautiful landscapes. The mild tourism growth has not affected the islands nature and traditional features.

Kimolos.This tiny and extremely beautiful island lies in the western part of the Cyclades, close to Milos island. Possessing a volcanic soil and a unique variety of minerals, it is famous for its fantastic beaches, ranging from thin sand to pebbles.

Sifnos will definitely turn a holiday into an unforgettable experience, having a rich tradition in pottery and gastronomy. Due to its gold mines, it used to be one of the richest islands in the ancient times.

Escape from everyday stress and anxiety on this small island, located between Ios and Folegandros. Sikinos is a typical Cycladic island, with terraces, low stone fences and numerous country chapels dotting a scenery bathed in the wonderful green and blue waters of the Aegean.

Delos, the birth place of Apollo and Artemis, used to be a religious centre for the whole of Greece in the ancient times, as well as the principal trading port in the Eastern Mediterranean during the roman times. Delos is uninhabited today and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, receiving large numbers of visitors who flock to admire remarkable monuments and impressive mosaics.

Unrivalled natural beauty, beaches of crystal clear waters, unique Byzantine footpaths connecting traditional villages and breathtaking landscapes make Paros, located at the heart of Cyclades, one of the most beloved holiday destinations in Greece

Monasteries and Venetian castles coexisting harmoniously

Naxos: the biggest and the greenest island in Cyclades with impressively high mountains, fertile valleys, lush green gorges, stunning seascapes and traditional villages perched high on mountain tops, where the inhabitants still wear their traditional dress and live off the fruits of the land! Naxos is also an island of beautiful old churches, monasteries and Venetian castles coexisting harmoniously with Cycladic cubic houses

Iraklia is a tiny island with only 115 residents located at the western edge of the Small Eastern Cyclades island group. Dense vegetation, natural springs, smooth hills, crystalline waters (with shipwrecks at the sea-bottom!), scenic bays and caves are the characteristics of this unspoiled paradise in Cyclades.

Schinoussa is located at the centre of the Small Eastern Cyclades island group, south of Naxos and north-east of Iraklia. It is a tiny island with three villages: Hora, Mesaria and Mersini.

Koufonisia is a small group of two islands, Pano Koufonisi (Upper Koufonisi) and Kato Koufonisi (Lower Koufonisi), that are separated by a narrow strait. They are located southeast of Naxos and west of Amorgos; Pano Koufonisi is inhabited, with a land area of 5.5 sq. km and a population of 366 residents.

Donousa is the northernmost island of the Small Eastern Cyclades is located east of Naxos and north of Amorgos. The island has a land area of 13.5 sq. km and numerous coves some of which hide magnificent sandy beaches.

The islet of Antiparos, lying southwest of Paros, is ideal for a relaxed and serene holiday and can easily be reached from Punda or Parikia by boat. The ancient name of Antiparos was Oliaros.

Amorgos: The island of The Big Blue  a large part of the Luc Besson film was shot there  is at the southeasternmost point of the Cyclades and it displays a very special scenery: mountains, cliffs ideal for climbing, terraces, precipices and picturesque coves with lovely waters.

Milos: The volcanic activity in ancient years has endowed this island with an exciting variety of gorgeous landscapes, consequently offering the visitor a wide range of activities. The funny shapes of the rocks and their wonderful colours at the beautiful white sandy beaches are one expression of the volcanic features of Milos.

Syros: This is the island where Greek tradition and western influence come to a harmonious marriage. Ermoupoli (meaning the city of Hermes) is the islands capital town and has been the first important trade and industrial centre of the country in the 19th century.

Source: visitgreece.gr

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
The number of Chinese tourists to Greece had risen almost ten-fold in the last two years

Greece aims to attract between 500,000-600,000 Chinese tourists each year for the next two years, Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura said on Friday, while addressing an event at the Athens Chamber of Tradesmen. Chinese officials, she noted, put this number even higher at one million.

The minister was speaking at an event entitled "Alitrip in Greece: Boosting incoming tourism from China to Greece" organised by the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the tradesmen's chamber to present the Chinese travel platform to Greece. The aim, according to Kountoura, was to capitalise on the contacts between the Greek and Chinese governments, working in cooperation with all the agencies involved, from local government to private businesses.

Presenting the Alitrip platform - part of the Alibaba group - was Alitrip Vice President for European Markets Kai Cui, while 50 top Greek tourism-sector companies and agencies attended. Given that the Alibaba "ecosystem" currently has more than 500 million Chinese users and the Alitrip platform is one of the largest in China, the company's executives believe that a target of one million tourists to Greece over three years can be met.

Kountoura noted that the number of Chinese tourists to Greece had risen almost ten-fold in the last two years, from 15,000-20,000 in 2015 to some 150,000 at present. "This is a significant increase even if this number does not yet satisfy us, given that the number of Chinese travelling to Europe are 15 million," she added. A key to further growth in tourism would be the start of a direct flight from Athens to Beijing in the autumn, Kountoura said.

The minister also referred to efforts to open new tourism markets, such as South Korea, China, the Middle East, India and Brazil and "rekindle" existing markets, such as Russia and the United States.

"In the last two years, the growth of Greek tourism was at 7 pct - or double the world average. In 2016 we had 28 million arrivals (with cruises) and increased luxury tourism by more than 10 pct. We had a spectacular start to 2017, with prebookings and occupancy in hotels exceeding all expectations from all markets," she said.

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

Source: ANA-MPA
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Local Upland Travel Agency Joins Avoya Travel Network to Provide Travelers Exclusive Deals and Service



(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED STATES - May 26th, 2017 - UPLAND, CA  May 26, 2017  Kevin Melchor, owner of Melchor Jets, celebrates his travel agencys one year anniversary and affiliation with Avoya Travel, one of the worlds leading travel companies. As an Independent Agency in the Avoya Travel Network, Melchor Jets provides travelers with exclusive offers, world class customer service, and increased value on their custom vacations.



Avoya Travel is one of the largest leisure travel companies in the world and the top-producing travel company for cruises and tours in the American Express Travel Representative Network. Independent Agencies in the Avoya Travel Network offer customers the unique combination of powerful online search with personal service, a best price guarantee, and much more so that travelers receive the most vacation value possible.



Melchor Jets is excited that we made the strategic decision to continue our affiliation with Avoya Travel on our one year anniversary of being open for business. As a travel agency, we continue to plan fun and memorable vacations, and offer customers exceptional pricing and value added extras for the best travel experiences, said Melchor. We pride ourselves in creating custom vacations and with Avoya Travel we continue to offer travelers better value than ever before, while still running our own business and providing the personal attention that our clients deserve.



Melchor Jets and Kevin Melchor have provide travelers with personal service and unmatched expertise on dream vacations and will continue to do so for many years. Melchor Jets specializes in Cruise Vacations, Rail Vacations, Resort and Group Travel, Disney Vacations, and all-sorts of travel such as Air, Hotel, and Rental Car.



Melchor Jets decision to continue its affiliation with Avoya Travel will significantly benefit travel consumers worldwide, said Brad Anderson, President of Avoya Travel. The expertise and dedication to customer service that Melchor Jets offers will help further Avoya Travel as a leader in creating dream vacations for travelers around the world.

Melchor Jets is an Independent Agency in the Avoya Travel Network, and customers who would like to book their next trip can call 1-844-248-0174 or visit www.AvoyaTravel.com/IA/KevinMelchor.

About Avoya Travel:

Avoya Travel is a family-owned company with a longstanding reputation for being one of the worlds most innovative marketing and travel technology companies. As an American Express Travel Representative for more than 30 years, and their largest seller of cruises and tours, Avoya is deeply committed to Integrity and Professionalism, service, and value in every aspect of planning cruises and vacations. Through an elite network of independently owned and operated travel agencies, Avoya provides exclusive discounts, amenities, and first-class customer service to travelers worldwide. Cruise lines recognize this. Avoya has received numerous accolades, including being repeatedly named Travel Partner of the Year by Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Carnival Cruises, American Express, Oceania Cruises, and more.

Travel agency owners, travel professionals, and others interested in owning and operating their own travel business should contact Avoya Travel at 800-521-2597 or visit www.JoinAvoya.com.

About Melchor Jets

Melchor Jets, an Independent Agency in the Avoya Travel Network, has been planning fun and memorable vacations for their clients since 2016. Whether it is a cruise around the Caribbean; a backpacking and hiking trip to Machu Picchu; a flight to the Far East to see the Great Wall of China; a trip to Disneyland to take an Instagram selfie with Mickey Mouse; a tour with your guide around Europe to the most unique places; tasting the variety of cuisines at the Pattaya Floating Market in Thailand; or dancing the night away to Calvin Harris and Tiesto in Las Vegas, Melchor Jets plans it all. Melchor Jets plans vacations with integrity and professionalism. Melchor Jets: Its A Whole New Experience and Happy Travels.

Melchor Jets is an Independent Agency in the Avoya Travel Network and specializes in sending travelers on Cruise Vacations, Rail Vacations, Resort and Group Travel, Disney Vacations, and all-sorts of Travel such as Air, Hotel, and Rental Car to destinations around the world. To plan your next vacation with Melchor Jets can call 1-844-248-0174 or visit www.AvoyaTravel.com/IA/KevinMelchor.

Media Contact:

Kevin Melchor

President

Melchor Jets

1-844-248-0174

Kevin.Melchor@AvoyaNetwork.com

Melchor Jets is an Independent Agency in the Avoya Travel Network

###
By Press Trust of India: anniversary

(Eds: With additional quotes and information)

Pune, May 26 (PTI) Criticising the Narendra Modi government on its third anniversary today, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh has said "autocracy" has replaced democracy under the BJP-led NDA dispensation.

He also accused the Modi government of re-branding and repackaging the welfare schemes which were initiated by the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.

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Ramesh, who had served as environment minister during 2009-2011, also launched a caustic attack on the green policies of the Central government, saying the senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar had tried to "destroy" environment when he was heading the ministry.

"In the last three years, the Modi government has failed on all fronts, be it economy, agriculture, generation of employment, internal security, Jammu and Kashmir issue and foreign policy.

"There is an increase in caste violence, atrocities against dalits and adivasis and vendetta politics is being adopted," Ramesh said while addressing a press conference.

Taking a swipe, he said the NDA government is celebrating the three years of "failure".

"The tune of democracys shahnai is replaced by mortar of autocracy in the last three years," Ramesh said.

Ramesh said the prime minister has a "self-centred" outlook and does not speak to anyone.

"The PM does not discuss or deliberate, he thinks that he knows everything, but it does not suit him as PM," the Congress leader said.

To back his argument, Ramesh said one can check the number of all-party meetings convened by the prime minister in the last three years.

"In the last three years, the PM invited (ex-prime minister) Manmohan Singh and (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi only once and that too for (passage of) the Goods and Services Tax Act," he said.

Ramesh said the NDA government was only "re-branding and repackaging with different names" the welfare schemes initiated by the former UPA government during its tenures.

"During the UPA rule, the then finance minister had floated a scheme called the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account and after coming to power, the Modi government re-branded and repackaged it as Jan Dhan Yojana," he said.

Ramesh, however, conceded that the UPA dispensation had failed to effectively communicate about these schemes with people. "We started many schemes, but failed to give good names to them and also failed to communicate properly," he said while responding to a query.

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Ramesh stressed unpredictability of electoral outcomes when he was asked about the prospects of his party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"An atmosphere is being created that the results of the 2019 elections are already decided. But let me remind you that in 2004, everybody including our Congress leaders had lost hope that Congress stood a chance against (then PM) Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but people voted BJP out," he reminisced.

Without taking any names, Ramesh said the current opponents of the Congress are different from those in 2004 as they now have "money" and are "ruthless while lacking any standards".

Accusing the NDA government of failure on all fronts, the former minister said, "During demonetisation, it was told that it is fight against black money, terrorism and counterfeit currency, but today neither prime minister nor finance minister is ready to share how much black money has been accounted for after the note bandi".

He said the small and medium scale industries were hit due to scrapping of old notes.

Ramesh said though the government is patting itself on the rollout of GST, "it was the same Narendra Modi who had opposed the GST bill when UPA government was in power".

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The Congress leader said nobody is investing in India and contrary to the promise made by the prime minister of creating two crore jobs, only 2.5 lakh employment opportunities have been generated in 2016.

"In the last three years, the environmental-related laws have been weakened. This government talks a lot about environment, but their actions are contradictory to their talks. Today, I am worried about environment as various laws related to environment are being destroyed," he said.

Targeting Javadekar, currently holding HRD portfolio, Ramesh said the BJP leader acted against safeguarding environment when he was handling the ministry.

"When he (Javadekar) was environment minister, he used to say that he has cleared scores of projects. I told him that his job was not to give (environmental) clearances but to safeguard environment," he said.

Ramesh said environment minister Anil Dave, who passed away recently, had supported him when he was looking after the portfolio.

"Dave had supported me on the issues of Lavasa, BT brinjal, but unfortunately he passed away and (I have) no idea what new minister will do," he said, adding that ministers in the present government have no say as they are there only for namesake.

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When asked to comment on scrapping of the Special Planning Authority (SPA) status of Lavasa, the countrys first private hill city project in Pune district, Ramesh said he had red-flagged the project in the past.

The SPA status of Lavasa was revoked recently by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. PTI SPK NSK

--- ENDS ---
The statue erected in December 2016, holding a sword and the scales of justice in her hands, amounts to idolatry.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: A statue called 'Lady Justice', sculpture set up as a symbol of justice, was removed today from Bangladesh's Supreme Court complex, after an outcry from religious hardliners.

According to the hardliners, the statue, a variation on the Greek goddess Themis but in a saree, goes against Islam.

The statue erected in December 2016, holding a sword and the scales of justice in her hands, amounts to idolatry.

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The statue is now kept in front of a nearby building wrapped with clothes. The authorities havnt made clear as to under whose instructions the sculpture was removed.

The sculptor Mrinal Haq said that he was forced to remove it "under pressure". He said he was present at the time of removal so that the sculpture was not ravaged and added that it was not a statue of the Greek goddess, but a Bengali woman.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters that the Supreme Court has taken steps to remove the sculpture.

Students and cultural workers protested outside the locked gate of the Supreme Court during the removal of the sculpture. Various other organisations protested in Dhaka on Friday, calling it a 'capitulation of ethics' to fundamentalists.

In April, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approved the statue's removal.

In reaction to criticism over her approval, Hasina said she had asked Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha why the statue of a Greek goddess had been distorted by having it clad in a saree.

"Why shouldn't it be removed? Don't they see that it is no more Greek. It's half Greek, half Bengali. It's Greek-Bengali now. Don't they see it?" she inquired.

The work to remove the statue started on Thursday night at around 9 pm, and took about three hours to completely dismantle it, authorities said.

More than 50 demonstrators from the rights group Ganajagaran Mancha, mostly students, gathered in front of the court to protest against the removal.

Some Islamic organisations threatened to go on strike demanding the removal after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to remove the sculpture last month.

Police used teargas shells, water cannons and rubber bullets to disband the protesters as they tried to break through the barricades, said Samajtantrik Chhatra Front's General Secretary Snehadri Chakroborty Rintu.

Bangladesh Students Union General Secretary Liton Nondi was among five who were detained. At least 20 protestors have been injured.

--- ENDS ---
Swami Om of Bigg Boss 10 fame, has been accused of molesting and threatening a woman.

By Indo-Asian News Service: A court in Delhi has granted anticipatory bail to former Bigg Boss contestant and self-proclaimed god man Swami Om, who was accused of molesting and threatening a woman, court sources said on Thursday.

Special Judge Sanjay Garg on Tuesday allowed the anticipatory bail plea of Swami Om and asked him to furnish a personal bond of Rs 25,000.

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The court order came on ground of parity as co-accused Santoshanand was granted anticipatory bail by the Delhi High Court on May 5.

Also read: Case registered against Om Swami for molestation; 5 controversies he has been involved in

Claiming innocence, Swami Om's counsel A.P. Singh told the court that he was falsely implicated.

He assured the court that if granted anticipatory bail, Om would not misuse his liberty.

In her complaint to Indraprastha Estate police station, the woman had accused Swami Om and Santoshanand of wrongful restraint and abusive behaviour, and committing objectionable acts.

The woman complained that the accused tore her clothes on February 7.

--- ENDS ---
Mohali, May 26

An advocate working in the judicial court complex in Sector 76 was fired at by assailants here today. He escaped unhurt. Advocate Harkishan Singh, a resident of Phase V, was allegedly attacked when he was going on an Activa scooter towards the court complex. The incident took place near the boundary wall of the Radha Soami Satsang around 10.15 am. Harkishan Singh told Chandigarh Tribune that he had a miraculous escape. He said three or four persons, who had their faces covered, followed him in a white Swift car when he was going towards the court complex.

First they attacked him with a metal rod, which struck his scooter. Then the attackers allegedly fired two shots from a pistol. The shots, however, did not hit him. He said two empty shells of a .38 pistol were recovered by the police from the scene. He said he made a complaint at the police station and later met the DSP concerned.

A case under Section 307 of the IPC was registered against unidentified persons, he added. He said he told the police that he had no enmity with anyone, but suspected the role of a relative in the attack. He said last year, shots were fired at a door of the house of his in-laws, who lived in Babnara village, near Kurali. However, no empty shells were found at the scene at that time.  OC
Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26

The local Municipal Corporation today awarded the contract of managing 25 parking lots and the multi-level parking in Sector 17 to a Mumbai-based company, Arya Toll Infra Ltd.

The company bagged the contract after it quoted Rs 14.78 crore in a sealed bid. The other company in the race -- Delhi-based SA Parking Service -- quoted Rs 8.2 crore price. The reserve price for the parking contract was Rs 4 crore.

Three days ago, two companies had filed the same e-bids of Rs 7.96 crore for managing the parking lots, forcing the MC to write to them to file sealed bids. The contracts of 23 of the 26 parking lots have not been given to any contractor for over a year, causing a loss of nearly Rs 5 crore to the civic body.

The parking lots remained open for all as the civic body failed to finalise the contractor for managing these. And when the process of hiring was started, the matter was taken to the court by one of the companies, which was in the race for the contract.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, on May 22, dismissed the petition challenging the process of allotting 25 parking lots through the e-tender process following which, the MC asked the two firms to file e-bids.

Solid arrangements

We have provided smart parking to residents and it will also increase the revenue of the civic body. There will be no botheration of contractors running away every now and then. We have made solid arrangements this time, said BJP councillor and former Mayor Arun Sood. The Congress said the hike in parking rates was burden on residents.

Paid parking to start in 10 days

The paid parking is expected to start within 10 days. For a three-month period, the public will pay the existing rates -- Rs 2 for two-wheelers and Rs 5 for four-wheelers. Confirming the development, Joint Commissioner Manoj Khatri said in a week or 10 days, the paid parking was expected to be operational.

Pay more

For the current financial year, for two-wheelers, the civic body has increased the rate from Rs 2 (full day) to Rs 5 for the first four hours and Rs 5 for the subsequent two hours, which will go up to Rs 25, for parking in the paid lots.

For 2018-19, the MC House resolved to increase the rate of two-wheeler parking from Rs 5 for the first four hours to Rs 10 and Rs 10 for the subsequent two hours.

Similarly, for four-wheeler, the rate for the current financial year has been increased from Rs 5 (full day) to Rs 10 for the first four hours and Rs 10 for the subsequent two hours, which will go up to Rs 50 for 10 hours and above. For 2018-19, the rate will be further hiked from Rs 10 to Rs 20 for the first four hours and Rs 20 for the subsequent two hours.

Rates of monthly passes

Monthly pass for two-wheelers in single parking Rs 150

Monthly pass for four-wheelers in single parking Rs 300

Hike after 15 years

On February 28, the MC had passed the agenda of increasing parking charges in the city. The charges were raised after 15 years. In 2002, the MC had introduced paid parking and had fixed Rs 2 for two-wheelers and Rs 5 for four-wheelers.

Parking features

Under the smart parking system, there will be a central server of CCTVs and e-ticketing machines at the MC office from where the staff will keep an eye on attendants.

Lots lying unattended

Empire Store parking, Sec 17

Sahib Singh parking, Sec 17

CMC parking, Sec 17

Jagat and Anand parking, Sec 17

Parking opposite RLA office, Sec 17

Bank Square parking, Sector 17

MOH parking, Sector 17

Sector 35

Two parking lots in Sector 22

Shanti Kunj parking, Sector 16

Several parking lots on Madhya Marg
S Nihal Singh

The United States and the rest of the world have heaved a sigh of relief that President Donald Trump's first visit abroad on his first leg to the Middle East in his new capacity passed off without a major gaffe. He largely stuck to script and although his boast about resolving the Israel-Palestinian issue remains unfulfilled, he in effect formed a Sunni conglomerate against Shia Iran led by Saudi Arabia to give a new twist to an old problem.

He did not fail in tackling the Palestinian problem because he talked about it in airy fairy terms; there were no proposals put forward to fail or succeed. And by way of showing his love for Israel he shares with his policymakers and legislators, he visited the Wailing Wall sacred to Jews in a kippah scul cap and gave a strong pro-Israel speech met by thunderous applause.

President Trump came to Israel after being ostentatiously welcomed in Saudi Arabia by King Salman himself. Indeed, his host had organised a large gathering of Arab and other Muslim leaders to make it an Islamic-US series of summits. And Mr Trump obliged by meeting several of the leaders individually, admiring Egyptian President al-Sistanis shoes in particular. The Saudis were celebrating the fact that Mr Trump was not Mr Obama, with whom the Arab world had frigid relations. Mr Trump returned the compliment by making no mention of issues such as human rights.

Indeed. Palestinians were disappointed with the Trump visit because all they could find on the positive side was "peace" with Israel being placed on the table without any indication of how it was to be approached, if at all. His meetings with the Palestinian Authority leader, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, first in the White House and now on the handkerchief of land that is Palestine did not seem to have changed the configuration.

The hardening of the Sunni-Shia divide has been programmed by Mr Trump and his advisers, abusing Tehran both during his address to the Muslim world in Saudi Arabia and later in Israel. And its consequences will reverberate in times to come. For Mr Trump and the Sunni world, Iran has now been designated as the main enemy. The irony is that in re-electing reformist President Hussan Rouhani, Iran was signalling peace to the world. And the victor himself said it was a hand outstretched to the world.

The Sunni Arab world has its own quarrels with Iran. To begin with, Saudi Arabia is leading a proxy war against Iranian-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen and has been distressed by the consequences of the American invasion of Saddam Husseins Iraq facilitating the suppressed Shia majority to take over. In Lebanon, Iran has the loyalty of the formidable Hezbollah movement and is supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, together with Russia, to prop up his Shia minority sect regime.

It is no secret that, despite their rhetoric, Sunni Arab kingdoms have been in communication with Israel from time to time. But the dispossession of Palestinian land and Palestinians being treated as second-class citizens in Israel is a deep wound that will not go away with clever footwork and semantics.

President Trump himself has said in the past that he does not care about a one-state or two-state solution as long as the two parties agree. There is an elemental fear in Jewish minds that if Palestinians are given full citizenship and voting rights in a one-state version, Jews would become a minority. Intense Israeli settlement building on occupied land is to ensure that they will retain more and more of Palestinian land captured in the 1967 war.

So what has Mr Trump achieved during his visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel and Ramallah? That he has escaped largely unscathed is a minimal achievement. At the same time, though he has thus far resisted the itch for tearing up the nuclear agreement with Iran while imposing fresh economic sanctions, he left the Middle East vastly more accident-prone.

There are obvious problems in divining the future, as far as Mr Trump is concerned. It is not even clear that his present trance on Iran is something of a Trump Doctrine. He has somersaulted so often on major policy issues such as NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Chinese President Xi Jinping transformed into an angel from a gnome and other historical events distorted by a jaundiced view that it is difficult to see the contours of a Trump foreign policy.

One must not forget all the troubles waiting for him after his return from the European leg of his tour. His campaign's alleged collusion with Russia in his presidential election bid is to be supervised by a special investigator. And the sacked Federal Bureau of Investigation Director, Mr James Comey, is to give his side of the story to a Congressional committee.

President Trump certainly earned a few brownie points by largely behaving in a presidential manner in the Middle East, but he has a lot more homework to do to begin the process of a workable agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has the most right-wing cabinet in its modern history. Jerusalem's fate largely hangs in the air, with an America ambassador with deep roots in illegal settlements having taken up his post. The President's promise of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has been withheld for the moment to avoid a Palestinian explosion.

All new US presidents learn on the job, but Mr Trump suffers from severe handicaps. His understanding of world affairs is limited and while he boasts of his mastery in the art of deal making, running a country is unlike running a business empire because actions have their complexities and consequences. One simply cannot walk away from a deal that is unsuccessful.

Where this leaves the Israeli-Palestinian quagmire is anyone's guess. Israel's Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike and the odd Palestinian stabbing of Israelis continues. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and is colonising larger portions of occupied West Bank. Time alone offers no solution.
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, May 25

Shanta Kumar, BJP MP from Kangra, today pulled up the PWD and Education Department authorities at a meeting held to review the progress of Centrally sponsored schemes at Dharamsala.

Shanta pulled up the PWD authorities for the poor construction of roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). An NGO had complained that as per the reports of inspection agencies many roads built under the PMGSY were not meeting the standards set for them. Shanta asked the PWD authorities to produce the inspection reports for all the 300 roads constructed under PMGSY within the next 30 days.

When Education Department officials were giving details of expenditures done under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Shanta said it was a matter of concern that the results of the government schools were dismal. He said despite the fact that the government was spending crores on improving facilities in government schools and training of teachers, private schools were still outperforming them. It was generally seen that private schools outperformed government schools despite having lesser facilities and lesser paid teachers.

Talking to newsmen, Shanta said CM Virbhadra Singh should resign on moral grounds as corruption cases were registered against him.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 26

The Army today foiled a major BAT (Border Action Team) attack by Pakistan when they killed two militants on the Line of Control in the Uri sector of north Kashmir.

The BAT action was foiled in a thick forest area close to Aman Setu, the peace bridge which connects Uri in Kashmir to Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said the BAT action was aimed against the Army along the LoC. Two BAT terrorists were killed in the operation, the defence spokesman said.

Sources said that around 8.40 am today, two armed intruders came close to an Army post, about 500 m inside the LoC. They said the intruders came from a known Pakistani post.

Their movement was picked up by Armys 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) Regiment deployed in the area.

They were challenged and in a 30-minute gunfight, two BAT terrorists were killed. The bodies of the two have been recovered. The duo was only carrying a AK-47 rifle and a pistol. They were not carrying stuff like rucksack, which the infiltrators usually carry while they sneak into the Indian territory, they said.

As the terrorists were not carrying rucksacks, it clearly indicates that the two were BAT members who had planned an attack on the Army before fleeing back to Pakistan, the sources further said.

Commanding Officer of the 4 JAKLI Regiment Col Bhanwar Singh told reporters at Uri that the combing operation in the forest area was underway as the Army expected more BAT members were hiding in the area.

This is the second time that BAT teams  small groups of specialised Pakistani troops supported by militants  have tried to attack the Army in J&K.

On May 1, two soldiers were killed and their bodies were mutilated in BAT action in the Krishna Ghati sector of Poonch district in the Jammu region. The mutilation of bodies had triggered tension along the LoC and the Army had carried out a fire assault on Pakistani posts which were aiding cross-border infiltration in the Nowshera sector.
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 26

Youth Congress activists today held a protest under a nationwide programme, Hisaab Do Jawab Do, to protest against the failure of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in fulfilling the promises made with people during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

The protest was held under the leadership of Dr Uma Shanker Pandey and Pradesh Youth Congress president Pranav Shagotra.

Raising slogans against the Central government for betraying the nation, activists of the Youth Congress started their protest from Shaheedi Chowk party office which passed through several markets and localities.

As the activists marched near the BJP office at Kacchi Chawni, they were stopped by the police from moving further after some scuffle.

Addressing the activists, Pranav Shagotra said the NDA government headed by the BJP was shamelessly taking credit for projects which were started during the UPA regime. The only noticeable achievement of the BJP-led government is the inauguration of the projects which were conceptualised and started during the UPA regime, he said and pointed out that work on the bridge which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated today, was started during the UPA regime.

Challenging the BJP to come up with any project which was started and completed during the past three years, Shagotra said some projects which were started during the Congress regime for Jammu region were abandoned due to the failure of the BJP leadership in the state.

Pandey said the three-year tenure of the BJP was an era of unfulfilled promises because except for giving lip service, it had done nothing for the people. He said the people of the country were anxiously waiting for a bullet train, Rs 15 lakh in their accounts, 5 crore jobs, smart cities, etc.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

Noting that it was not possible to provide jobs to all in a country of 125 crore people, BJP president Amit Shah said on Friday that the Narendra Modi government had tackled the problem of unemployment by promoting self-employment.

Taking a swipe at Opposition parties over their charge of a jobless growth, Shah said had they paid attention to such figures during the UPA government, they would not have suffered defeat in successive elections.

At present, there was no accurate mechanism to estimate unemployment figures, he said.

We have tried to give new perspective to employment as it is not possible to provide employment to everyone in a country of 125 crore people. We are promoting self-employment and the government has made 8 crore people self-employed, he told reporters.

The BJP president said in the past three years the BJP had achieved many milestones.

Addressing a press conference here on the completion of three years of the Narendra Modi government, Shah said the Prime Minister had been able to change the thought process of people in the past three years.

He said, The fact that our opponents also cannot accuse us of any corruption, I think is a big achievement.

The BJP president recounted the formation of the OBC Commission, OROP, surgical strikes, the success in space technology and passing of the enemy property law as some of the major achievements of the government.

Quoting GST and maternity benefits, Shah called the Modi government a sensitive and decisive government.

The BJP president gave examples of various policies, programmes and decisions the government took to make his point.

The BJP has increased its vote base, which is a certificate of the people to Modi, Shah said.

I would like to assure the people of the country that the Modi government is following closely the Kashmir unrest and soon it will be resolved, he said.

'Acche din aa gaye hain'

Acche din aa gaye hain, Shah said in response to a question whether good days as promised by the Prime Minister in the run-up to the polls have indeed come.

Ask women who have benefitted from the Ujjwala Yojna or the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or the son of a barber who can avail easy loans, he said. With PTI inputs
If the BJP has to come to power again at the Centre in 2019, it must extend its footprint substantially in these two regions.

As he sits sipping morning tea at his 11, Akbar Road residence in Delhi, the first thing BJP chief Amit Shah does is scan the papers for news of the party from the eastern and the southern states. He even has an aide specifically tasked with the job of gleaning news of the success of BJP programmes, or rifts in non-NDA parties and public agitations against the ruling dispensations. All these are flagged for discussions with the party's point men in the south and east-Kailash Vijayvargiya, Ram Madhav and P. Muralidhar Rao, in charge of Bengal, the Northeast and Tamil Nadu-Telangana, respectively.

The focus of the new Chanakya of Indian politics is quite understandable. If the BJP has to come to power again at the Centre in 2019, it must extend its footprint substantially in these two regions. In 2014, except for Assam, Odisha and Karnataka, the Modi magic didn't have much impact. Of the total 160-odd MPs that come from these states, the party won three seats in Andhra Pradesh, two in Bengal, one in Tamil Nadu and Telangana and had nothing to show in Kerala,

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The BJP did win seven seats in Assam and Odisha and six in Karnataka, which was a beginning. Since then, the party won the Assam assembly polls with the help of a skillfully crafted coalition and also increased its vote share in Bengal and Kerala, but it's still way behind on its Mission 2019 targets. After the landslide win in Uttar Pradesh, there's a new spring in Amit Shah's stride as he travels across the country, visiting state after state as part of his 95-day plan to galvanise the BJP organisation for 2019-and the state assembly elections en route. Indeed, some of the assembly polls will be like previous battle rounds before the epic contest for the Lok Sabha.

The focus on the east and the south is also to offset the conceivable losses in some of the western and northern states, where the BJP has reached saturation point. Shah and his boss, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have identified 120 'weak seats', a majority of them from these two regions which the party aims to win. The party chief refuses to name the seats and admits there's no set strategy. It differs from constituency to constituency but has apparently been put together after months of research on the political scenario of each state.

The common thread of these variously stitched strategies is to project the prime minister as a messiah of the poor, a clean leader who, through central schemes like the Ujjwala cooking gas, Mudra loans for the skilled and Jan Dhan accounts, has committed himself fully to their welfare. Shah is sure the party will succeed. "After 2014, we are a strong force in all eight states in the east as well as the south. Modiji is the nation's most popular prime minister after independence and is seen as a symbol of change. We'll take full advantage of this," he says.

Shah's most recent move has been to strengthen the BJP's electoral network. He has floated a nation-wide vistarak (expansion) scheme by raising an army of dedicated party workers. They are in three categories-4,000 workers who will work full-time six months a year, some who will devote a full year to the party and another 730 who will remain entrenched in select constituencies till the 2019 polls are over.

Plus there is an army of over 368,000 workers who will dedicate 15 days each before 2019 to the party's expansion drive. Their focus will be to strengthen the party at the booth level, the topmost priority for Modi and Shah. BJP Yuva Morcha president Poonam Mahajan says the "youth brigade is bracing for the challenge on a war footing". She herself has been touring across India to put the plans in place.

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Another U.P. in the making

The fact that Shah's clarion call of "Ebar Bangla" ('This time Bengal') has the ruling Trinamool Congress worried was evident when a nervous Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee thundered back, "We will target Delhi if you target Bengal." The increase in the BJP's vote share, up from 10.5 per cent in the 2016 assembly elections to as much as 31 per cent in the recent byelections this year shows how it has got the status of principal opposition in West Bengal today.

Naturally, the party has gained at the expense of the Left and the Congress. "The biggest advantage of the BJP is that it is untested in Bengal politics and people are willing to give it a try," says analyst Biswanath Chakrabarty, professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University. "Moreover, the party is in power at the Centre, it has cadre strength, organisational abilities and money, so it's a perfect match for the TMC."

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That the TMC government runs like an autarchy that won't tolerate dissent is a common plaint in the state. The violence unleashed on BJP and CPI(M) supporters, combined with the government's 'Muslim appeasement' measures (the latter count for 28 per cent of total votes) has created a UP-like situation, primed for the BJP to exploit.

Allegations of "minority community appeasement" had surfaced in October 2016, with the high court chastising the TMC government for the curbs placed on Puja celebrations (it wanted to give the coinciding Muharram festivities a boost). State BJP president Dilip Ghosh says "the situation is worse than in UP". The Sangh parivar is also exploiting the sudden surge in 'Hindu sentiments'. Ramnavami and Hanuman Jayanti celebrations have seen huge participation this year. Hindu supporters were seen marching with swords, clubs and other weapons. Such was the mood that the CM even tried to pin down the leaders by invoking the Arms Act. She soon backtracked though, fearing a Hindu backlash.

"Mamata is so scared of the cross-currents her appeasement has wrought that she's now trying to establish her Brahmin credentials, even chanting mantras to prove she's is a sachcha Hindu," laughs Ghosh. Interestingly, the BJP is also targeting the 1.75 lakh Hindu voters of Bangladeshi origin who are feeling the pinch most of the TMC's alleged pro-Muslim tilt. The party is zeroing in on 22 of the 42 seats for 2019. "These are the areas where the party's vote share increased by 17-22 per cent. They can be a real game changer," Ghosh adds.

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That said, the party's big weakness is the lack of a charismatic leader who can take on Mamata Banerjee. "Even today, the BJP is heavily dependent on the central leadership and state leaders have to cart in the big names from Delhi to pull in the crowds," says Chakrabarty.

The Coromandel Coast Plan

Of all the states in the BJP's 'Coromandel Coast' plan, party strategists find Odisha one of the most promising. The panchayat election results in March have already indicated as much. Many even believe the BJP has replaced the Congress as the main opposition party after the saffron party won 297 seats. It was still a distant second, though, to the ruling BJD, which bagged 473 of the total 846 zila parishad seats. Even then, that the BJD strength came down by over 35 per cent and the Congress by over 70 per cent surprised many.

After his January 2015 visit, Shah had sensed there was anti-incumbency in the state but the state BJP unit was not ready to cash in on it yet. So a three-point plan was put in place. Odisha in-charge Arun Singh and Shah's point man there, Union MoS for petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan, were entrusted with taking the Modi government's infrastructure and welfare schemes to the people; organising agitations against the Naveen Patnaik government's failures; and expanding the party in the 36,000 state election booths (the BJP had a presence in just 17,000 at the time).

Meanwhile, the Centre started implementing a slew of infrastructure projects. In the past three years, the Modi government has announced rail projects worth nearly Rs 15,000 crore and highways work over 4,800 km. Odisha's petroleum sector has seen an investment of Rs 1.25 lakh crore. As many as 2.5 million new cooking gas connections have been allotted. Says Pradhan: "The state is a laboratory for the Modi government's welfare politics. The results are going to surprise everyone."

State BJP Yuva Morcha leader Tankadhar Tripathi explains, "Odisha is now turning towards aspirational politics, and here the BJP holds a distinct advantage." The party is aiming at 13-18 Lok Sabha seats here in 2019 and a victory in the assembly polls, which will be held simultaneously.

Illustration by Anup Ray

An opportunity opens up

Till recently, the BJP was seen as a cowbelt party in Tamil Nadu in the backdrop of the north versus south debate and the anti-Hindi agitations. It had to worm its way in through the NDA by tapping the Dravidian parties. But the party finally has a presence here now, especially in the western districts.

With the AIADMK still in turmoil, the BJP is keeping its alliance options open, focusing more on working the caste combinations to its advantage. The social engineering it is experimenting with is significant-some 150 partymen are working on the ground even now. The focus is on supporters from dominant castes like Thevar, Vanniyar, Nadar and Gounder, and a backward community called the Arundhatiyar, who make up over 60 per cent of the Dalit segment in the state.

Most of these castes have been with the AIADMK and could look to PM Modi as a suitable charismatic leader to replace the late Jayalalithaa. The BJP has deliberately focused on these pro-AIADMK castes as it knows the cadre-based DMK might be a difficult nut to crack. The BJP membership in the state too has reportedly risen, from 961,000 to 3.7 million. The party's plan is to woo smaller Dravidian parties as potential allies as elections draw near, keeping an alignment with the AIADMK as a possible last option. It is eyeing 11-18 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

However, here too the BJP is missing a popular face to front their campaign. Superstar Rajinikanth, who's been threatening a foray into politics for years now, would be an ideal choice. Whether he transforms as the mascot of the BJP or strikes out on his own, Rajini will be a game changer in Tamil Nadu. The BJP also lacks an across-the-state network which will take time to evolve.

Closer on the radar

In, Telangana, which has 17 seats, the party is banking on the growing discontent with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government to work in its favour. Significant sections of farmers and students have turned against the government for not living up to its promises. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao even left the inaugural session of the Osmania University centenary celebrations without speaking, apprehensive of the student protests.

The minority appeasement bogey might work in the BJP's favour here too, especially after the TRS government's announcement of 12 per cent quota for Muslims. "Post-bifurcation in 2014, the Congress has become a non-entity in Telangana," says Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya. "There is a political vacuum as people are fed up with the KCR government's policies. The BJP is the only alternative to the TRS."

Meanwhile, in Kerala, the party has tried to wave the radical Islamist card to its advantage. The party has a tenuous tie-up with a Hindu Ezhava consolidation, the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), and a few other fringe outfits, but relations with these have been fickle at best. The tit-for-tat political murders in the north involving the RSS and the CPI(M), especially in Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's home district Kannur, have kept the pot boiling in New Delhi, but has had little impact back home. It is true that the BJP has made a presence for itself in the state after Modi became prime minister. The party has widened its mass base, kept infighting to a minimum and has even posed challenges to the ruling LDF government on occasion. But it's still a long way off from offering a political alternative to the Left or the Congress-led UDF.

The main reason for this is that it's yet to find a credible ally among the minorities-Muslims (26.6 per cent) and Christians (18.4 per cent) constitute roughly 45 per cent of the total population in the state.

The party says it's focusing on 11 of the 20 seats in the state for 2019, a tall order as it has never had an MP from the state, and vote share, even with the Modi wave of 2014, never crossed 11 per cent. The reported increase in party membership, from 4 lakh to 15 lakh, though, is a good sign. A crucial concern for the BJP is that it is yet to realistically identify a political platform for itself in the state. Even the 'beef ban' can torment the party at the grassroots level here, as the last byelection in Malappuram showed.

In the Northeast, after Assam, it now has two more state governments-in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The party has taken the smart alliances route to better its position in the region. Last year, Shah, party general secretary Ram Madhav and Assam leader and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma cobbled together the Northeast Democratic Alliance of 11 non-Congress parties to fight for the 25 seats from the region. Right now, the BJP has eight of these, seven of which are from Assam. The plan is to take this figure to 20 by capitalising on the unprecedented development being ushered in by the Modi government in the region in the form of huge infrastructure projects, particularly in the railways. Clearly, Shah has laid the tracks for 2019. How smooth the ride will be in the unclaimed territories is still an open question.

With Amarnath K. Menon, Amitabh Srivastava, Romita Datta and Jeemon Jacob

--- ENDS ---
Barabanki (UP), May 26

A 12-year-old girl was allegedly abducted and gang-raped at a village here, with the accused men also filming the act on their mobile phone, police said on Friday.

The girl had gone to her agriculture field on Wednesday when three men of her village, identified as Pravesh, Ramu and Pankaj, abducted and raped her, the police said.

The village comes under Ramnagar police station area of Barabanki, adjoining the state capital Lucknow.

The accused are said to have also made a video clip of the crime and threatened the victim of dire consequences in case she informed anyone about the incident, the police said.

The victim's family has alleged that police did not take their initial complaint seriously and registered their named FIR only yesterday evening when the matter was brought to the notice of senior officials.

Circle Officer Sripal Yadav, who visited the scene of the crime, said a case has been registered and efforts were on to nab the culprits. PTI/ANI
Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, May 26

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today unveiled the nations longest Dhola-Sadiya bridge, naming it after legendary singer and musician late Dr Bhupen Hazarika, to kick-start celebrations marking BJP-led NDA governments three years in office.

The Dhola-Sadiya bridge will be known after renowned musician and son of the soil of Sadiya late Dr Bhupen Hazarika, who strived to promote the magnificence and invaluable contribution of the Brahmaputra to the life and economy of Assam and North-East before the global audience through his timeless music. A decision has been taken by the Government of India in this regard as a tribute to the illustrious son of the country whose music and songs continue to inspire the nation and the younger generation.

The Prime Minister said the 9.15-km bridge would not only reduce the distance and time of travel between Sadiya (on north bank of Brahmaputra in Assam) and remote eastern parts of Arunachal Pradesh but also spur economic growth and promote tourism in the region.

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The video of the bridge released by the Government of India: Courtesy: DD News

The government is aware of North-Easts potential of becoming an economic hub in the South-East Asia, provided state-of-the-art infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railways and waterways are set up expeditiously. The new bridge is a step towards that. We are focused on developing Brahmaputra waterway to reduce the distance and cost of transportation of goods and people. Fast expansion of the railway network has been facilitated in the region, the PM said.

Earlier, Modi took a ride on the bridge and got down from his vehicle for a stroll.

People of Sadiya and eastern Arunachal Pradesh had for long been demanding a bridge. The remote area had been cut off from the rest of the country following the 1950 earthquake that rocked the Assam valley and parts of Arunchal Pradesh.

The S-shaped bridge, built at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore over six years, is strategically important as it is located 100 km from the the China border in eastern Arunachal Pradesh. Besides, it brings eastern areas of Arunachal Pradesh such as Anini, Roing, Myodia, Tezu, etc. closer to mainland India through surface route.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said besides building more bridges over the Brahmaputra, including one spanning 14 km to connect Dhubri (Assam) and Phulbari (Meghalaya), the age-old waterway of the Brahmaputra would be reinvented through dredging and setting up of navigation facility to push growth and tourism in the state.

In the 19th century, Brahmaputra was a crucial link in the development of tea, coal and oil industry in the absence of roads or rail connectivity in this part of Assam.

Gadkari said Rs 1.5 lakh crore would be spent on developing waterways and road bridge infrastructure in Assam and the North-East. Also, 15 floating terminals would be set up on the Brahmaputra. In 2016, the UPA government constructed 16,800 km road at the rate of 33 km road per day and target had been set to construct 40 km road per day this year, he said.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

Confident of registering an even bigger electoral win in 2019, BJP chief Amit Shah today said achche din (good days) are here if seen through the eyes of people who benefitted from the pro-people policies of a sensitive and decisive NDA regime.

Speaking on the completion of BJP-led governments three years in office today, Shah lauded PM Narendra Modi as the most popular leader since the Independence and said India achieved in past three years what it could not in 70 years.

On Opposition parties putting into the governments court the responsibility of a consensus candidate for the post of President, he said: Uchit samay par vipaksh se bhi baat ki jaegi (we will speak to Opposition at the right time).

Expressing confidence that the government would control the situation in the troubled Kashmir valley with the help of security forces, Shah expressed appreciation and support for Major Leetul Gogoi, who used a human shield to save lives during polling, for the work he had done.

On the recent caste violence and gangrape in Saharanpur and Jewar, respectively, Shah said the Yogi Adityanath government had tackled everything promptly. Whether it was Jewar, Mathura or Saharanpur incidents, it has taken strong steps.

On a query related to Prime Ministers slogan of achche din aane waale hain, on which the BJP built its 2014 election campaign, Shah said the phrase had been used by Opposition and also some media friends to poke fun.

But if you ask those two crore women who now have the facility of a gas stove, they will say achche din aa gye hain (good days are here). If you ask the 4.5 crore households, a 16-year-old who would go out in open (for defecation), they will say achche din aa gye hain.

Shah said the Prime Minister in the past three years had changed the way India thinks and also politics by weeding nepotism, corruption and appeasement out of the system.
Beijing, May 26

China on Friday said the Dalai Lama could not change the religious rituals and processes to appoint his successor as the title of Dalai Lama was conferred on him by the Chinese government.

As per the Tibetan Buddhism, the competent departments of the government had talked about it and the government had issued a white paper, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing here.

The 14th Dalai Lama is also clear about this. The title of Dalai Lama is given by the central government, he said.

The 14th Dalai Lama was also enthroned under the representatives of the Republic of China at that time, he said, referring to the presence of Chinese officials when he took over the post of Tibetan Buddhism in 1950.

So there are fixed set of religious rituals and processes and this cannot be changed by any individual, Lu said.

The 81-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader was enthroned in 1940 as the 14th Dalai Lama and he took full responsibilities of the post in 1950 when he turned 15. He fled to India in 1959 to escape from the Chinese oppression in Tibet and has since been living in Dharamsala.

Lu was responding to questions to the Dalai Lamas recent remarks that my incarnation cannot be born in a place where there is no freedom.

The Chinese communists should first accept the concept of rebirth. Then communists should accept reincarnation. And then they have the moral connection to the Dalai Lamas reincarnation, he had said. PTI
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

On the third anniversary of the NDA government today, the Congress accused the ruling BJP of comprehensive failures on agriculture and employment fronts and said the future of India was dark under the current dispensation.

Under the BJP, the future of India is dark from the economic and social point of view. The country is witnessing strife all over, Congress general secretary and former minister Kamal Nath said today.

Apart from Nath who spoke from Delhi, 18 Congress leaders addressed press conferences across India to expose BJPs politics of falsification, hyperbole and bravado.

Congress described BJPs three-year rule as bhashan aur aashvaasan, yeh hai mera shasan. Kamal Nath demanded a White Paper on BJPs employment strategy saying it had no plan to prevent job disruptions being caused by IT revolution.

Bank credit is at an all-time low. The atmosphere of trust required for investment is missing. There are no jobs. We want the government to bring out a White Paper on how it plans to create jobs. We need over three crore per year, Nath said adding farm growth was down from an average of 4.3 per cent during the Congress-led UPAs 10-year rule to 1.3 per cent in the three years of the NDA rule and governments farm-insurance scheme was only benefiting insurers. As many as 35 farmers kill themselves daily, Nath said asking what the government was celebrating.

Asked why the BJP was winning popular support if it was doing as badly as the Congress was saying, party's media head Randeep Surjewala said: Electoral success is not the sole indicator of a governments performance. The UPA lost the 2014 poll after winning many state elections. It doesnt take long for time to change.

Nath personally conceded to Congress shortcomings, but added, BJP celebrated its UP win in a way that it glossed over its losses in Goa and Manipur. The BJP has been losing vote shares since the 2014 poll. Thats not to say the Congress does not have shortcomings. We are putting things in order.

Nath, however, smiled when asked if he was being sent to election-bound MP as the state party chief. After the conference, scores of Nath supporters from MP were heard raising slogans at the AICC office, seeking Naths appointment as the MP Congress chief. At present, Kamal Nath is the Haryana Congress general secretary.
Jitendra K Shrivastava

Tribune News Service

Ranchi, May 26

Armed Maoists on Thursday night set the Dumbri Bihar railway station in Bokaro district of Jharkhand on fire, while leaving pamphlets at the station.

Around 50 Maoists allegedly attacked the station, and set it on fire reducing goods to ashes. They also set the engine of a goods train ablaze. Railway officials are yet to reach the spot to estimate the damage.

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Soon after the incident, security officials started the combing operation in the district to trace the Maoists.

Maoists claimed in the pamphlet that they had been protesting against the amendment in the CNT-SPT Act and had called a state-wide strike in Jharkhand on May 29.

Bokaro Superintendent of Police (Railway) Ashim Vikrant Minz said, Maoists on Thursday night attacked Dumri Bihar railway station and set it on fire reducing the goods to ashes. They also looted a walkie-talkie from the rail driver, co-driver and guard. After the incident, the Barkakana-Gomo rail route was blocked that is yet to resume functioning.
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

The wreckage of an Indian Air Force Sukhoi SU-30 jet, which had gone missing on Tuesday, was found on Friday at a spot some 60 km north-west of Tezpur.

Wreckage found. Close to the last known position of aircraft. As of now weather is bad and the place has dense foliage. Further update follows, said the IAF in an official statement.

Two pilots were onboard the aircraft and their location is yet to be ascertained. However, it is being presumed that they did not survive the crash.

The jet lost contact on May 23rd following which massive search operations were launched to track the jet.

However, bad weather did serve as an impediment in the rescue mission.

Four ground teams of IAF personnel, nine of the Indian Army and two of state administration, were deployed on different axis to scour the area.

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The Sukhoi, a twin-engined aircraft, is of Russian origin and is considered a stable aircraft.

The aircraft had got airborne from Tezpur around 10. 30 am on a routine training mission.

It lost radar and radio contact approximately 60 Km north of Tezpur towards Arunachal Pradesh.
Bhopal, May 26

Taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the third anniversary of his government, the Congress on Friday accused him of maintaining a strategic silence on a host of issues, including rising atrocities on Dalits and violence being perpetrated by cow vigilantes.

While the BJP has been terming the three years of Modi government as historic, the Congress is criticising the Prime Minister and the BJP-led NDA dispensation on scores of issues.

Though our Prime Minister talks a lot, he remains silent on the key issues like corruption in the BJP-ruled states, countrys security, fleeing of big loan defaulter Vijay Mallya, illegal help extended to (ex-IPL commissioner) Lalit Modi by BJP leaders, rising atrocities against Dalits, spiralling unemployment, violence by gau rakshaks, etc., senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik alleged while addressing reporters.

The former Union Minister was in the Madhya Pradesh capital to put forward his partys view on completion of three years of Modi government today.

His (Modis) silence is deafening. This is a strategic silence by the Prime Minister. He remains silent on alleged Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, mining scam worth Rs 45000 crore in Rajasthan, the Rs 3,600 crore PDS scam in Chhattisgarh, the land scam in Gujarat involving the daughter of former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, a CAG report indicting (the then) Modi regime in Gujarat among others.

He alleged the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had helped Lalit Modi, who fled India in 2010 after facing charges of financial irregularity in IPL. Vijay Mallya, a defaulter of Rs 9000-crore, also escaped the country, Wasnik added.

He said the Prime Minister should speak on issues like rising infiltration by Pakistan and China, growing incidents of attacks on the Army, and on terrorism and Naxalism.

Questioning the foreign policy of the Modi government, he said the countrys relations with neighbours like Nepal are at an all-time low.

Wasnik asked the government to present White Paper on the countrys economy, saying banks recorded the lowest growth rates in the past 60 years last year.

In contrast to Modis promise of (creating) 2 crore jobs annually, only 1.35 lakh jobs were actually created in 2015. We need to generate over 34 crore jobs by 2028, but what is the status of domestic investment and bank credit? Both are at their historic lowest, he said.

Experts are saying the information technology sector is facing joblessness and around 20,000 jobs will be lost annually while 60 per cent jobs in unorganised sectors would be reduced this year, Wasnik said.

He alleged atrocities against Dalits have gone up by 38 per cent since the Modi government came to office after defeating the Congress-led UPA government, whereas 12,602 farmers have committed suicide in 2015.

Governments decision to revoke import duty on wheat only harmed the farmers interests, he said. PTI
Jhajjar, May 26

A Pakistani national has been detained for staying in a temple here under a fake identity.

An Aadhaar card and a PAN card issued in his name, and a Pakistani passport have been seized from him.

As per the passport, his name is Raja and he is a resident of Hindu Colony, Larkana, in Pakistans Sindh province, the police said.

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Raja, a Hindu, came to India in 2013 and his visa expired last year. He had been living in Iskcon temple in Bahadurgarh for the past nine months, Superintendent of Police B Satheesh Balan said.

The date of birth on his passport is different from what is mentioned on Aadhaar and PAN cards, the police said.

A team of the Intelligence Bureau and the police are questioning him. PTI
The Madhya Pradesh BJP has served a show-cause notice to former revenue minister Kamal Patel for allegedly damaging the party's image by his statements on illegal sand mining.

By Hemender Sharma: The Madhya Pradesh BJP has served a show-cause notice to former revenue minister Kamal Patel for allegedly damaging the party's image by his statements on illegal sand mining.

Patel had recently approached the National Green Tribunal, seeking an SIT probe into the illegal sand mining activities that he alleged were being carried out from the Narmada River. Acting on his petition, the NGT served notices to the Madhya Pradesh government, asking why an SIT probe should not be ordered.

HERE IS THE STORY IN DETAIL Kamal Patel's stance on illegal sand mining is being seen at variance with the stand of the chief minister, who recently concluded that the Narmada Seva Yatra was aimed at building public opinion for conservation of the river. The government also imposed a complete ban on sand mining from the Narmada river after the completion of the Narmada Seva Yatra. Party observers feel that Patel's utterances against illegal sand mining raised questions against the chief minister's action. Hence, this action has been taken against the former Madhya Pradesh minister. "The party has sought a reply from Patel within seven days, failing which disciplinary action will be taken", BJP spokesman Rajneesh Aggarwal said. "His utterances against officers and the government have adversely impacted the party's image," Aggarwal said. Kamal Patel, however, denied receiving any notice from the party. "I have not received any notice from the party but I want to say that I have not said anything against the party or Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. I have just raised the issue of corruption of officers. I am committed to saving Ma Narmada and will even give my life for it if required", he said. It may be recalled that a day after Kamal Patel approached the National Green Tribunal, the state government responded by externing his son Sudeep Patel from his home district Harda and five neighbouring districts for indulging in criminal activities. According to sources in the BJP, Kamal Patel is in touch with top RSS leaders, who are understood to have given him a go-ahead for starting his own Narmada campaign.

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Also read | No electricity, water supply in 5 Madhya Pradesh villages, residents say 'enough is enough'

Also read | Madhya Pradesh: Mafia operates with impunity ever after government's ban on sand mining

--- ENDS ---
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

A united Opposition featuring regional arch-rivals chose the third anniversary of the government today to signal the ruling BJP of its intent to contest the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections, if the government fails to sew a consensus on candidates for these offices.

Leaders of 16 non-NDA parties attended a lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at the Parliament House and later pledged to field joint candidates for twin elections, if agreement eluded the names the government put forth. The Opposition cited secular democratic credentials as a pre-requisite for candidates the BJP proposed for the posts of President and Vice-President.

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The lunch saw sworn rivals BSPs Mayawati and SPs Akhilesh Yadav and TMCs Mamata Banerjee and CPMs Sitaram Yechury share space. Banerjee, however, left before lunch.

In a joint statement, the Opposition said, Elections to the posts of President and Vice President are forthcoming. The normal practice has been that the ruling party takes the initiative to build a consensus on the names of candidates for the key offices. This has not happened so far. If acceptable consensual candidates do not emerge, we the Opposition parties  shall decide to field such persons who shall steadfastly defend Constitutional values of our Republic. Opposition parties expressed their resolve to strengthen the coordination in Parliament to oppose government policies that are imposing burden on people. They also expressed concern over the prevailing situation in J&K, it said.

Prominent absentees were JD-U chief Nitish Kumar, JDS supremo Deve Gowda and SPs Mulayam Singh Yadav. AAP wasnt invited.

Nitish likely to attend PMs lunch

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who skipped a lunch of Opposition parties on Friday, is likely to be present at the lunch PM Narendra Modi is hosting for visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth on Saturday. There has been speculation about a tie-up between JD-U and the BJP, something Kumar has repeatedly refuted. pti
New Delhi, May 26

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday filed a civil defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and newly- launched news channel Republic TV in the Delhi High Court claiming damages and compensation of Rs two crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him while airing news relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

The Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram has also sought a direction from the high court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi Police.

The Congress leader, in his lawsuit, has made Goswami and Arg Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited, the company which owns Republic TV, as parties.

He has referred to the broadcasting of news items from May 8 to 13 when the TV channel claimed to air an expose connected to the death of his wife.

The lawsuit filed through advocates Muhammad Ali Khan and Gaurav Gupta denounced the news, claiming that the recordings were released in a sensational manner so as to appease the viewers and created a non-existing controversy by maligning his public life and public image.

"It is not out of place to say that defendants (Goswami and TV channel) broadcast news reports and alleged expose' which were intended to lead the viewers to believe that the deceased was murdered either by plaintiff (Tharoor) or at the instance of the plaintiff.

"Such a broadcast clearly has the potential of adversely impacting the ongoing investigation into the death of the deceased," the plea said, while seeking to restrain from "maligning and defaming him in any manner" by reporting or broadcasting the news relating to the death of Pushkar.

Tharoor said earlier also Goswami as the editor-in-chief with another TV news channel had aired such news, which was restrained by the National Broadcasting Standards Authority.

In the lawsuit, he was entitled to Rs two crore damage and compensation "for having suffered humiliation and having suffered severe loss of reputation in the eyes of the public and he has baselessly been declared by the defendants as the alleged murderer of his late wife".

He stated that the police is probing into the matter and has also lodged an FIR.

"It is pertinent to mention that the Delhi Police took statements from a number of people, including him," the suit said, adding that during the probe not a single allegation has been made by the investigating authorities against the MP.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014.  PTI
Washington, May 26

President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid in 2018 to the Tibetans, reversing the decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in. The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described it as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from making comment on the issue, saying they are still reading the budget papers.

At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has expressed concern over the move.

"Leader Pelosi is very concerned about the zeroing out of aid to the Tibetan community in the Trump budget proposal," Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.

The State Department, in its budgetary proposal for the fiscal year 2018 beginning October 1, have removed the decades old Tibet Fund and has proposed zero dollars against Ngwang Choephel Fellows. Both the categories in 2017 and 2016 had accounted for more than a million dollars.

However, the State Department in its footnote of the budget, said that Special Academic Exchanges, whose budgetary allocation has been reduced from more than US$ 14.7 million in 2017 to just US$ 7 million for 2018, would include funding for programmes such as the Benjamin A Gilman International Scholarship Program, Mobility (Disability) Exchanges, and the Tibet Fund.

"As we work to streamline efforts to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of US taxpayers' dollars, we acknowledge that we have to prioritise and make some tough choices," a State Department official told PTI.

"Focusing our efforts will allow us to advance our most important policy goals and national security interests, while ensuring that other donor countries contribute their fair share toward meeting global challenges," the official said requesting anonymity.

However, the official did not identify the countries that it would like to help continue funding for the Tibetan cause.

"We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities," the official said.

Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama, has expressed concern over the development.

"As she has said many times, including during her visit this month to His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world," Hammill told PTI.

"That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America's interests in the world," Hammill said in response to a question.

The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush.

Enacted into law on September 30, 2002, as part of the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act, FY2003, it lists its "purpose" as being "to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity."

The act establishes in statute the State Department position of United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues and states that the Special Coordinator's "central objective" is "to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives."

The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for nongovernmental organisations to work in Tibetan communities in China; an educational and cultural exchange program with "the people of Tibet"; Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia.

It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet.

The Special Coordinator is also required to "vigorously promote the policy of seeking to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and national identity of Tibet" and press for "improved respect for human rights," according to a 2015 report on Tibet by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

It was in 2002 that the Congress began earmarking Economic Support Fund assistance to Tibetan communities in China. In addition to this the US Agency for International Development (USAID) manages provision of this support out of its India office. PTI
Greater Noida, May 26

Gautam Budh Nagar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Luv Kumar on Friday said that no proof of rape has been found in the medical reports of the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway gang-rape victims.

No proof of rape has been found in the medical reports of the Jewar gang-rape victims. But we are investigating the matter and will soon catch the culprits, SSP Kumar said in a press briefing here.

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He further said the case is being investigated and it is being assumed that some professional criminals are involved in the incident.

We are working to track such professional gangs. The victims earlier said the gang-rape incident was a part of personal revenge, but later they denied the claims. We are working on the same, he said.

Chief Medical Officer A. Bhargava also confirmed that no injury marks were found in the private parts of the victims.

We have send swabs to a Lucknow lab for testing but there were no semen stains on the clothes of the victims, Bhargava said.

As many as six criminals allegedly looted a family at the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway in Uttar Pradeshs Greater Noida region on Wednesday.

According to primary information, the criminals held the family (four men and four women) hostage and allegedly molested and raped the women.

The criminals also shot a person dead after he raised objection against the crime.

In a similar incident on the National Highway passing through Bulandshahr last year, a car was waylaid by criminals who then gang-raped a 13-year-old girl and her mother in a nearby field.  ANI
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 26

The state BJP was not in favour of holding the Budget session of the government in Gairsain as it would unnecessarily put a financial burden on the government, party president Ajay Bhatt said while addressing mediapersons here today.

We are not in favour of wasting money when the infrastructure over there has not been developed. We have already declared that Gairsain will be developed as a summer capital and we will work for it, said Bhatt when he was queried on the partys views on the venue of the upcoming Budget session, which will start from June 8.

Significantly, last year under the Congress government, the Uttarakhand legislative Assembly had passed a resolution in favour of holding the next Budget session in Gairsain.

Bhatt said the Uttarakhand BJP was of the view that the new BJP government need not copy what the previous Congress government had done. We will first develop suitable infrastructure required for a summer capital and then think about other things, said Bhatt.

Speaking on the achievements of the Modi government that completed three years, Bhatt said, Three years of the Modi governments rule will be written in golden letters for being corruption free. He cited several schemes that the Modi government had announced for Uttarakhand, including the all-weather road for Char Dham yatra.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, May 26

Three months have passed since the new BJP government under Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat came to power in the state, but not a single minister has submitted details of their assets.

Soon after taking over the reins of the state, Rawat had directed his ministers to submit details of their assets by adhering to the code of ethics, similar to the one evoked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The code was released on March 23 and was aimed at bringing in transparency and accountability in the functioning of the government. But, two months have passed, since the directions were issued but none of his ministers have filed the information.

On being asked from Minister of Social Welfare Yashpal Arya, about his inability to file the information, he said, I have been busy in my constituency and government work. I will file the return at the earliest.

While bureaucrats who do not adhere to the code of conduct stand the risk of being denied promotions, there is no provision to penalise the ministers who fail to submit these details.

In the past, when former Chief Minister Harish Rawat was heading the Congress government in the state, none of his ministers had filed the information, even though the then Pradesh Congress Committee chief had asked all the ministers including the chief minister to take the initiative.

Similarly, during the reign of the BJP government under former Chief Minister BC Khanduri, very few ministers had taken the initiative.

Most ministers, privately say, the information has already been submitted to the Election Commission during the 2017 Assembly elections, as such there was no need to submit it again.

However, under the code of ethics the ministers have to submit the information every year by August 31. As the new government had taken over on March 18, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had directed his ministers to give these details within two months of the code of ethics for ministers coming into effect on March 23.
Brussels, May 26

US President Donald Trump said that alleged intelligence leaks, in reference to the Manchester attack, were a grave threat to security and described them leaks as "deeply troubling".

As he prepared for his first NATO summit in Brussels, Trump said this in reference to the confidential information on the terror attack in Manchester that was published by US media before British police were ready to make it public.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

"These leaks have been going on for a long time, and my administration will get to the bottom of this," Efe news cited a statement by Trump.

"The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security." "I am asking the Department of Justice and other relevant agencies to launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Trump added.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May had previously warned Trump that the fact sensitive information about the investigation has repeatedly been handed to American outlets could undermine the "special relationship" between the two countries.

British police investigating the terror network behind the Manchester Arena attack have reportedly stopped providing relevant information about the case to US intelligence.

On Monday evening, a suicide attacker detonated an improvised explosive device at the entrance to Manchester Arena, killing 22 people, including many children.

IANS
Taormina (Italy), May 26

Leaders from the worlds major industrialised nations began talks on Friday at a G7 summit in Sicily, which is expected to expose deep divisions with US President Donald Trump over trade and climate change.

The two-day summit, at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, began a day after Trump blasted NATO allies for spending too little on defence and described Germanys trade surplus as very bad in a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

After receiving warm receptions in Saudia Arabia and Israel, Trumps confrontational stance with long-standing partners in Europe cast a cloud over the meeting in Taormina, where leaders are due to discuss terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years, Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting.

White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted robust discussions on trade and climate.

Trump was elected in November after a campaign in which he rejected many of the tenets that the Group of Seven has stood for, including free trade, multilateralism and the liberal democratic values.

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to use the summit to convince Trump to soften some of his stances.

But diplomats conceded as the talks began that the United States was unlikely to budge, meaning the final communique could be watered down significantly compared to the one the G7 unveiled at its last summit in Japan.

Trade and climate

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theatre overlooking the sea, where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters. Nine fighter jets soared into the sky above Taormina, leaving a trail of smoke in the red-white-green colours of the Italian flag.

The leaders then adjourned to the San Domenico Palace, a one-time Dominican monastery that is now a luxury 5-star hotel.

During World War Two, it housed Nazi air force chiefs.

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 140 miles (225 km) from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

But trade and climate, to be discussed on Friday afternoon, are the most contentious issues.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a hoax during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in.

Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy, said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, Trump accused members of the military alliance of owing massive amounts of money to the United States and NATO - even though allied contributions are voluntary.

The remarks went down badly with European leaders, who had hoped Trump would use the opportunity to confirm his commitment to Article 5, the core NATO principle that an attack on one member is viewed as an attack on all.

When an American president cannot commit clearly to Article 5 at a time when everyone is expecting him to do this then there is the risk that Moscow interprets this as meaning it is no longer valid, said Jan Techau of the American Academy in Berlin.

Very bad

In a private meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Trump also denounced the German trade surplus as very bad and complained about the large number of German cars being sold in the United States, officials said.

Juncker tried to play down the comments ahead of the summit.

But they underscored ongoing policy divisions between Trump and his partners four months after he took office.

Trump is attending his first major international summit but is not the only G7 newcomer. Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.

May is expected to leave a day early, following Mondays suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people carried out by a suspected Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

G7 leaders were expected to issue a separate statement on terrorism on Friday, before issuing their formal communique on Saturday. Italian officials have suggested the final communique will be shorter than 10 pages. At the last G7 summit in Japan it totalled 32 pages.

One country that will not be present is Russia. It was expelled from the group in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Trump called for improved ties with Moscow during his election campaign.

But accusations from US intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the US election to help Trump, and investigations into his campaigns contacts with Russian officials, have hung over his four-month-old presidency and prevented him from getting too close to Moscow.

On Thursday, the Washington Post and NBC News reported that Trumps son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner was under scrutiny by the FBI because of his meetings with Russian officials before Trump took office. One of Kushners attorneys said her client would cooperate with the investigation.

Kushner and his wife, Trumps daughter Ivanka, have returned to Washington after accompanying the president for the first part of his first foreign tour. Reuters
Pooja Dhingra is creating desserts inspired by the outfits worn by celebrities at Cannes this year.

Chef Pooja Dhingra has created some desserts inspired by the most popular Cannes outfits this year. Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra

By India Today Web Desk: Let's just admit it, a lot of people have been going gaga over the gorgeous appearances made by Indian and international celebrities at Cannes this year. And that's nothing new, because the Cannes film festival is a fashion extravaganza every year. This year, we've been floored by the outfits of desi ladies, from Sonam Kapoor to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

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Paying the ultimate delicious tribute to these outfits is chef Pooja Dhingra, who runs the very popular bakery chain, Le 15 Patisserie in Mumbai. She has, in fact, turned some of the best looks from the Cannes red carpet and media interactions into delectable desserts like cakes and macarons!

The famous pastry chef posted photos of her creations on Instagram, and you'll be as floored by it as we have been.

Also Read: 3 chocolate-filled desserts that are guaranteed to make your period blues disappear

The border of Elle Fanning's Gucci dress helped Dhingra draw out the best floral motifs for her pistachio cupcakes.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra

Deepika Padukone's ethereal Marchesa gown transformed into red wine-infused dark chocolate macarons. We just have to say that this combination for the dessert is as classy and attractive as Deepika's attire was.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra

Dhingra's take on Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's Yanina Couture gown is a multi-tiered, white chocolate and Matcha cake. The floral design on the sheer fabric of the dress looks alluring when displayed in cake form.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra

Sonam Kapoor's dazzling golden Elie Saab gown inspired the most beautiful and sparkling cake ever. This champagne and chocolate cake is so stunning that it actually got approval from the Neerja actress, her sister Rhea, and even designer Masaba Gupta.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra

Also Read: This mango kheer is the most chilled dessert you can have this summer

Naomi Harris' rainbow-coloured Gucci gown also inspired Dhingra and her talented team. The rainbow cake glazed with a cream-coloured icing actually matches Harris' gown completely.

Picture courtesy: Instagram/poojadhingra

"We conceptualised the idea a week before the Cannes film festival and decided to pick our favourite looks. We made the desserts soon after seeing them on the red carpet," the chef told the Indian Express.

A look at these stunning desserts, and we know that Pooja Dhingra has created the most #FashionForwardDesserts ever! Who wouldn't want a bite of these fashionable and delicious creations?

--- ENDS ---
Cairo, May 26

Gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians travelling to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 28 persons and wounding 25 others, and many children were among the victims, Health Ministry officials said.

Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were travelling in a bus and other vehicles.

Local television channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and smeared with blood. Clothes and shoes could be seen lying in and around the bus.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy month of Ramadan. It followed a series of church bombings claimed by Islamic State. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said, and the cabinet said the attackers would not succeed in dividing the nation.

Muslim leaders condemned the killings. The grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypts 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.

I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism, Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, condemned the perpetrators as traitors. The Coptic church said it had received news of the killing of its martyrs with pain and sorrow.

The attack took place on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles. Egypt's Copts are vocal supporters of Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. Reuters

About Coptic Christians
TAORMINA, Italy, May 26

Leaders from the worlds major industrialised nations began talks on Friday at a G7 summit in Sicily which is expected to expose deep divisions with US President Donald Trump over trade and climate change.

The two-day summit, at a cliff-top hotel overlooking the Mediterranean, began a day after Trump blasted NATO allies for spending too little on defence and described Germanys trade surplus as very bad at a meeting with EU officials in Brussels.

After receiving warm receptions in Saudi Arabia and Israel, Trumps confrontational stance with long-standing partners in Europe cast a cloud over the meeting in Taormina, where leaders are due to discuss terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

No doubt, this will be the most challenging G7 summit in years, Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who chairs summits of European Union leaders, said before the meeting. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn predicted robust discussions on trade and climate.

Trump was elected in November after a campaign in which he rejected many of the tenets that the Group of Seven has stood for, including free trade, multilateralism and the liberal democratic values.

European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and new French President Emmanuel Macron, had hoped to use the summit to convince Trump to soften some of his stances.

But diplomats conceded as the talks began that the United States was unlikely to budge, meaning the final communique could be watered down significantly compared to the one the G7 unveiled at its last summit in Japan.

The summit kicked off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theatre overlooking the sea, where war ships patrolled the sparkling blue waters. Nine fighter jets soared into the sky above Taormina, leaving a trail of smoke in the red-white-green colours of the Italian flag.

The leaders then adjourned to the San Domenico Palace, a one-time Dominican monastery that is now a luxury five-star hotel. During World War Two, it housed Nazi air force chiefs.

Italy chose to stage the summit in Sicily to draw attention to Africa, which is 225 km from the island at its closest point across the Mediterranean.

More than half a million migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached Italy by boat since 2014, taking advantage of the chaos in Libya to launch their perilous crossings.

But trade and climate are the most contentious issues.

Trump, who dismissed human-made global warming as a hoax during his election campaign, is threatening to pull the United States out of a 2015 climate deal clinched in Paris in 2015.

Fellow G7 leaders are trying to convince him to stay in. Cohn and other administration officials have said Trump will wait until after the summit to decide.

This is the first real opportunity that the international community has to force the American administration to begin to show its hand, particularly on environment policy, said Tristen Naylor, a lecturer on development at the University of Oxford and deputy director of the G20 Research Group.  Reuters

EU chief Tusk calls on G7 to maintain Russia sanctions

EU president Donald Tusk called on G7 leaders to maintain sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, but the White House said it did not yet have a position on the issue

The EU and US under Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Moscow over its 2014 annexation of Crimea and fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russia rebels

But it is as yet unclear whether Trump, who is under fire domestically over allegations that Russia meddled to aid his election campaign last year, will maintain these sanctions

Newcomers at summit
London, May 26



According to latest revelations about the Manchester arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi, the accused carried out the horror as he wanted "revenge" for the injustices inflicted against Muslims.

According to media reports, Abedi was angry about the death of a friend, Abdul Wahab Hafidah, 18, who was run down by a car and then stabbed in Manchester.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Prosecutors argue the killing was gang-related and six men and a 15-year-old boy are on trial for the murder.

But a family friend said Abedi viewed the crime as a hate crime.

His sister, Jomana Abedi, 18, also told The Wall Street Journal, that her brother was a kind man who wanted "revenge" for injustices inflicted against Muslims.

"I think he saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere, and wanted revenge.

He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge," she said.

The Independent reported that attacker reportedly called his mother and brother just 15 minutes before he blew himself up his mother to "forgive him".

His father and brother have now been arrested in Libya, with the latter confessing to know "all the details" of the terror plot.

Meanwhile, authorities have arrested a tenth man in relation to the bomb attack that killed 22 people this week.

The latest suspect was being held in the Moss Side area of the city in the early hours of Friday. ANI
Beirut, May 26

A US-led coalition air strike on the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen early Friday killed at least 80 relatives of Islamic State group fighters, a monitoring group said.

The toll includes 33 children. They were families seeking refuge in the towns municipal building, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

This is the highest toll for relatives of IS members in Syria, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The latest strike came as the United Nations urged all nations bombing jihadist targets in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein said all states whose air forces are active in the anti-IS missions needed to take much greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians. The Britain-based Observatory gathered information from civilian and medical sources on the ground in IS-held Mayadeen, which was facing its third day of fierce bombing.

According to the Observatory, 37 civilians were killed in coalition raids on the town on Thursday night, including 13 children, and another 15 had been killed in coalition strikes on Wednesday.

The 68-member coalition began bombing IS targets in Iraq in the summer of 2014, and expanded their operations to Syria on September 23 of that year.

This week, the Observatory reported the highest monthly civilian death toll for the coalitions operations in Syria.

Between April 23 and May 23 of this year, coalition strikes killed a total of 225 civilians in Syria, including dozens of children.

The US-led alliance is backing twin ground offensives against ISs last main bastion cities: Raqa in northern Syria and Mosul in neighbouring Iraq.

Yesterday, a Pentagon investigation concluded that at least 105 civilians died in an anti-jihadist air strike on an IS weapons cache in Mosul in March.

Prior to the new revelation, the US military had said coalition air strikes in Iraq and Syria had unintentionally killed a total of 352 civilians since 2014.  AFP
Washington, May 26

US President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, has come under the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) scrutiny in its ongoing probe over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, the media reported.

Investigators believe Kushner, who is married to the President's eldest daughter Ivanka, has significant information relevant to their inquiry. H

owever, it does not mean that they suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, US officials briefed on the probe told NBC News on Thursday night.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Points of focus that pertain to Kushner include: the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation; his relationship with former national security adviser Michael Flynn; and Kushner's own contacts with Russians, according to the officials.

Kushner met at least once in December with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and he also met last year with Sergey Gorkov, chairman of VneshEconomBank, a Russian government-owned institution that has been under US sanctions since July 2014.

It remains unclear if the FBI plans to talk to Kushner.

"Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings," Kushner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, told NBC News.

"He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry." The FBI is investigating possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russia in connection with Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 election, reports USA Today.

Flynn, along with former Trump campaign associates Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Carter Page, are active subjects of the investigation.

IANS
The Central Board of Secondary Education late evening on Friday announced that the class 12th results will be declared on May 28, Sunday.

By Mail Today: Putting an end to the uncertainty over the class 12 results, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Friday announced that these will be declared on May 28.

The board also maintained that it will follow the Delhi HC order on the moderation policy, which was scrapped last month, and continue with it.

There have been anxious moments for students who feared that any consequent delay in the result could affect their college admission.

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"The results will be announced on May 28, Sunday in the forenoon. We will follow the five-point moderation policy as directed by the high court," a senior official said. The Centre had Thursday assured students that there will be no delay in the results and justice will be done to everyone.

--- ENDS ---
NATSO, a national association representing truckstops and travel plazas, joined a coalition of trade associations representing the biodiesel supply chain to urge Congress to extend the biodiesel blenders' tax credit, saying it is crucial to the competitiveness of the alternative fuel.

In letters to members of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, Natso asked lawmakers not to change the existing biodiesel tax credit structure, arguing that it helps displace traditional petroleum-based fuel with a cleaner-burning substitute.

NATSO was joined by the Advanced Biofuels Association, American Trucking Associations, National Association of Convenience Stores, Petroleum Marketers Association of America, and the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America in signing the letter.

According to NATSO, there has been an effort in states that produce biodiesel fuel to change the current biodiesel blenders tax credit into a tax credit for producers. The group argued that because price competitiveness is so critical to the viability of biodiesel sales, taking away the tax credit would hurt sellers.

"A producer's credit would be horrible for consumers and the American economy," said Lisa Mullings, NATSO president and CEO. The biodiesel tax credit helps fuel retailers to sell biodiesel at a cost that is competitive with traditional diesel. If the price of biodiesel is no longer on par with the price of diesel, consumers won't be inclined to buy it."

Since 20015, there has been a $1 per gallon biodiesel blenders tax credit that has helped fuel retailers sell biodiesel at a competitive price. The tax credit expired at the end of 2016.

By converting the tax credit from a blenders credit to a producers credit, biodiesel prices would increase and consumer interest would decline, hindering the governments efforts to advance cleaner-burning fuels, according to Natso.

While NATSO is urging Congress to extend the tax credit, it is also advocating for phasing it out over time and allowing the fuel to eventually stand on its own and thrive long-term without direct government support.

Congress has already considered - and rightly rejected - past efforts to shift the biodiesel blenders' tax credit to the producer's credit, said Mullings. We strongly urge you to again reject efforts to alter what continues to be sound public policy."
A video shows a horrific accident where the breaks of a truck failed and the truck destroyed everything that came in its way injuring seven people and destroying many vehicles.

By India Today Web Desk: A truck loaded with rods of steel crashed into a toll barrier alongside Mexico's La Marquesa Lerma highway. A shocking footage has captured the horrific moments.

The CCTV footage of Friday's dreadful incident emerged Monday when it was posted to a Toluca road traffic page by E Fabian Lozano.

According to local media, the brakes of the truck failed while it headed in the direction of Toluca. The truck rammed into retaining walls, which sent the steel rods flying through the air, RT reported.

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"As soon as he approached the booths he collided with the barrier and his cargo went out to the stands that were being repaired," inspector Angel Romero Gonzalez, head of the Toluca station of the Federal Police (PF) said, as reported by Expansion.

Asi fue el accidente de la semana pasada en la caseta de la autopista Mexico Toluca ??? pic.twitter.com/7nkp7pnRY9- Fabian Lozano (@eflozano) May 22, 2017

LA MARQUESA-TOLUCA HIGHWAY

State Emergency System of Mexico (SUEM) and the Red Cross rushed to the scene. Two of the critically injured were taken to a local hospital by a helicopter.

The La Marquesa-Toluca highway has not seen it the first time as a number of crashes have taken place there. In April, a trailer crashed and exploded which killed one person.VIDEOS AND PHOTOS OF THE ACCIDENT

Another video was posted on Facebook by a page which was taken on the day of the crash.

Another photo of the auto-accident.

#TZP Accidente aut Mx-Tol impacta triler parte trasera de tracto camin,arrastro auto particular en fila d casetas la Marquesa @CapitalMX_ pic.twitter.com/hwIe5lcnBU- Infotraffic (@ApoyoVial) May 23, 2017

More photos showing the aftermath.

The crash injured seven people, some of whom were working to repair an area already damaged by a crash in April, Se Uno Noticias reports.

--- ENDS ---
OKLAHOMA CITY  Some relieved Republicans and more than a few disgruntled members of both parties walked away from the Capitol on Friday far from satisfied but mildly comforted in the conviction that the 2017 legislative session could have ended a lot worse than it did.

And may yet.

The nearly $7 billion general appropriations bill bundled off to the governor on the last day of the session Friday depends heavily on at least two measures  a $273 million cigarette fee and a $110 million increase in the sales tax on motor vehicles  of questionable constitutionality.

If one or both are ruled out by the courts, lawmakers will be back at the Capitol in special session, either looking for more money or cutting 10 to 15 percent out of budgets that have been under the knife through most of the past decade.

For now, though, most Republicans seem to be congratulating themselves on getting to the end of the session without the train coming completely off the tracks. They viewed the budget, flawed as it might be, as a stunning achievement given the $1 billion hole they started in, and the Houses inability to muster the three-fourths majority to pass revenue bills under the terms of the state constitution.

It was a session filled with a lot of pressure, said Senate President Pro Tem Mike Schulz, R-Altus. We had a $1 billion shortfall going in. We didnt get it all filled, but we got most of it filled.

House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Altus, said he was proud of the session and that ultimately $575 million in recurring revenue was added to the budget baseline.

He said resolving Oklahomas long resistance to Real ID, elimination of all wind energy incentives and passage of a long laterals measure the oil and gas industry badly wanted were some of the sessions other achievements.

Democrats and some Republicans, however, were less impressed.

I struggle to find words to describe what happened here, said House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City.

I looked for highlights, but I couldnt really find any. I thought we would have criminal justice reform, but that didnt happen.

Unlike McCall, who is only in his third term, Inman has been in the House 11 years and minority leader for seven. His ability to hold together his 26-member caucus in an effort to pry concessions from the Republican majority frustrated the GOP as well as some potential allies who felt he lost a chance to get more revenue this session by holding out for too much.

Inman, though, blamed Senate Republicans, who he said scotched a grand bargain because they wouldnt include personal income taxes in the deal.

He said the Republicans left another $100 million on the table when they refused to consider capping itemized deductions after the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs threatened to sue over the matter.

Inman said the only blowback he and his caucus heard from constituents was from those who wanted the Democrats to hold out for more.

Some Republicans were frustrated, too.

Rep. Scott Fetgatter, R-Okmulgee, one of more than 40 first-year lawmakers in this years session, said he voted for several bills that amounted to tax increases because he wanted raises for teachers.

Instead, he said, Im going to go home and be called a RINO  a Republican in name only.

About 15 to 20 House Republicans consistently voted against revenue bills, making it even more difficult for majority leadership to come up with even 51 votes, let alone the 76 for revenue bills required by the state constitution.

The constitution also prohibits passage of revenue bills in the last five days of session.

To get the cigarette fee and auto tax bills introduced and through the Legislature with bare majorities in the last week of the session, leadership ruled that neither met the legal qualification of a revenue bill. Democrats maintained this was merely a charade, and Inmans House caucus fought the GA and both non-revenue revenue bills to the end.

The House spent more than three hours on the GA bill Friday morning before passing it 57-42. The cigarette fee was a closer call, at 51-43, with the vote called the instant the bare minimum needed for passage hit the board.

The Senate had already passed those two measures, and on Friday needed only to pass the vehicle tax  which it did, 25-18, with 25 votes needed for passage.

Total spending authorized by the Legislature this session for fiscal year 2018 is $6.85 billion and does not include $124.4 million in FY17 supplemental appropriations approved for this session. That is a 1.6 percent increase over FY17, and includes small increases for common education, Medicaid, mental health, corrections and several other agencies. The Department of Human Services received an 8.2 percent increase, largely because it was funded for only 10 months in the FY17 budget and required a $34 million supplemental this spring.

The DHS budget also includes an additional $11.3 million for implementation of mandated improvements to child welfare services.

Most state agencies, including higher education, were cut about 4 percent.

It has been an interesting and fascinating year. And frustrating, said Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville. Now that its come together, I can honestly say I have found peace with what we have.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Lawmakers on Thursday were limping toward adjournment following several long days.

The Legislature must adjourn by 5 p.m. Friday.

The Oklahoma House on Friday is expected to take up a $1.50 smoking cessation fee on cigarettes and the states $6.8 billion general appropriations bill. Both are expected to be controversial.

Previous efforts to pass the $1.50 increase on cigarettes as a tax failed in the House. The chamber needs 76 votes to increase a tax but only 51 to implement a fee.

The cigarette measure and the budget bill have already cleared the Senate.

Most of the drama to be had Thursday involved a dispute between Gov. Mary Fallin and Rep. Scott Biggs, R-Chickasha, over several bills related to her criminal justice reform initiative.

Fallin chided Biggs during an early afternoon news conference for holding several bills in conference committee and called either for them to be reassigned or for him to allow votes on them.

Its pretty clear from the last year that the public gave its support ... to criminal justice reform in our state, Fallin said at a 12:30 p.m. news conference.

Weve asked leadership to reassign bills to a different committee, just to let the members have a chance to debate the bills and vote on them, Fallin said.

Biggs ultimately called a meeting Thursday evening of the House Criminal Justice Committee to hear the four bills he said the committee controls, but only so they could be signed out under conferees could not agree. That effectively kills the measures for this session but allows them to come back next year.

What the governor is asking us to do took Texas six years to do, and were being asked to do it with zero funding, Biggs said.

Rep. Cory Williams, D-Stillwater, twice tried to ask what the differences between the House and Senate conferees are but received no substantive answer.

Thats right, kill criminal justice reform, he said as Biggs gaveled the meeting to a close.

Earlier, during the afternoon session, the House passed Senate Bill 603, which instructs the Department of Corrections to carry out certain assessments during prisoner intake. The assessments are used for inmate case management and are expected to save money in the long run.

Biggs said he agreed with the idea but objected to implementing it now because the DOC said it will cost $80 million, including $10 million in the coming fiscal year.

Rep. Terry ODonnell, R-Catoosa, who carried the bill, said he believe the estimate to be inaccurate.

The Legislature on Thursday passed House Bill 2360 to backfill $18 million in cuts made to common education in fiscal year 2017 due to a revenue failure.

Sen. Kim David, R-Porter, said passage of the measure kept a commitment to hold common education harmless from cuts.

Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, said the measure was insulting to other agencies that also took cuts due to the revenue failure.

Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Broken Bow, said he found it disrespectful to be asked to backfill cuts to common education when other agencies were not backfilled and still took cuts in the fiscal year 2018 budget.

The Senate also passed a measure to raise the gross production tax to 4 percent on wells currently paying 1 percent.

House Bill 2429 would increase the rate to 7 percent after June 30, 2019, said Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah.

Thompson said 5,790 wells are currently paying 1 percent and would be affected. The measure would generate about $95 million a year in revenue, Thompson said.

The Senate also passed House Bill 1570 to correct an error in a bill that had already been signed. The signed version increased the age to 45 years from 20 years for child sex abuse victims to bring a civil suit.

An amendment added to the measure, House Bill 1470, made the loser in all civil suits pay the defendants legal fees. Currently, each party normally pays their own legal fees.

Critics said the amendment would have increased litigation and costs for job creators.
By Press Trust of India: By K J M Varma Beijing, May 26 (PTI) A former top police officer was executed in China today after being convicted of homicide and corruption, authorities said.

Zhao Liping, 65, was executed after Chinas Supreme Court approved the sentence.

Zhao, who headed the police in Inner Mongolia for seven years until his retirement in 2012, was found guilty of murder, bribery and possession of firearms and explosives by a court in Taiyuan in November.

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He was also found guilty of shooting dead a 26-year old woman in Chifeng in Inner Mongolia on March 20, 2015. He took advantage of his post to secure business contracts and official positions for associates, and accepted bribes totaling 23.68 million yuan (USD 3.45 million) from 2008 to 2010, as the police chief of Inner Mongolia, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Zhao was also a deputy head of the regional People?s Political Consultative Conference. PTI KJV NSA

--- ENDS ---
Federal and local law enforcement officers arrested a woman Wednesday in Tulsa in connection with mid-May gun theft that resulted in the death of a 12-year-old.

U.S. marshals and Tulsa County deputies arrested Kimberly McGee, 31, on an outstanding warrant out of Howard County, Texas.

McGee and three others were allegedly unloading 30 guns reported stolen near Big Spring, Texas, located in the central part of the state, U.S. Deputy Marshal Breland Speaks said.

"One of the guns went off and killed a 12-year-old boy," Speaks said.

McGee allegedly fled to Joplin, Missouri, before coming to Tulsa.

The 12-year-old boy was killed earlier this month while guns were being unloaded from a truck. When a gun discharged, the bullet passed through the tailgate and struck the boy, the Big Spring Herald reports.

The boy was reportedly a runaway living with one of the suspects.

U.S. marshals arrested McGee at a west Tulsa motel. Three others allegedly involved in the gun theft that resulted in the 12-year-old boy's death were previously arrested elsewhere.
Republican Lauren Boebert is in a tight race in her bid for reelection to a U.S. House seat in Colorado against Democrat Adam Frisch, a businessman and former city councilman from the posh, mostly liberal ski town of Aspen. Boeberts contest in Colorados sprawling 3rd Congressional District is being watched nationally as Republicans try to flip control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections. The Donald Trump loyalist established herself as a partisan flashpoint in Washington, D.C., in her first term, and had been favored to win reelection after redistricting made the rural conservative district more Republican. Frisch criticizes what he calls Boebert's divisive brand of angertainment in Washington. Boebert vows: We will have this victory.
By Press Trust of India: By K J M Varma

Beijing, May 26 (PTI) The kidnapping of a Chinese couple from the restive Balochistan province two days ago highlights the risks faced by Beijing in building the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an article in a state-run daily said today.

"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the other projects under the grand (Belt and Road) initiative are like every investment where opportunities and risks co-exist," an op-ed article in the Global Times said.

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"Terrorism, unstable domestic politics, and disagreement among various parties within Pakistan about how CPEC transportation routes should be mapped out are prominent challenges to the implementation of the CPEC," it said, acknowledging differences within Pakistan over the project.

Besides Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province apprehend that the Chinese investments would be garnered by the people from the powerful Punjab province.

"No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping yet. But it is worth noting that Islamic militants have often carried out abductions of foreigners on Pakistani soil, either for ransom or to get publicity for their cause," the article said.

Reports from Pakistan also pointed fingers at Baloch nationalists, who are opposed to the Chinese projects over apprehensions of marginalisation in their native province.

"Chinese people have also been targeted occasionally, despite the friendly relations between the two countries," the article said.

"But the restive region has seen frequent violence committed by Islamic terrorists and separatists and the Belt and Road programme is often been exposed to potential threats," it said.

Last year, a Chinese engineer was injured in a bomb attack in southern Pakistan and a separatist group, the Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting the CPEC, it said.

The Chinese presence in Pakistan has increased in the past few years thanks to the thriving CPEC involving roads, ports, power plants and other crucial infrastructure.

"CPEC is also the flagship project of the China-led Belt and Road initiative," the article said.

Balochistan is in the centre of the CPEC which is expected to link Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the southern coast, it said.

India has objected to the 3000 km-long corridor as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

"Pakistan is betting big on the economic corridor which will be a major boost to its future development," it said.

The logic behind this project is that it would improve Pakistans economy and help eliminate the challenges posed by political extremists, radicals and jihadists in the country.

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But these challenges have posed risks to this ongoing project that require attention and solutions from both sides, the article said.

The Pakistani government has deployed 15,000 military personnel to protect projects under the economic corridor. China has also urged Pakistan to intensify its efforts in protecting the safety of Chinese personnel in the nation, it said.

"If implemented well, the Belt and Road initiative would become a milestone during the process of Chinas rise," it said. PTI KJV ASK AKJ ASK

--- ENDS ---
The Oklahoma Legislature has enriched big oil and natural gas producers and gotten very little in exchange for the state.

By the narrowest of margins, the House gave final legislative approval to Senate Bill 867 Wednesday night. That opens the way for broader use of so-called long laterals, a petroleum drilling method that uses hundreds of feet of horizontally drilled arteries that can greatly enhance productivity of wells.

It will mean a lot more profitability for some oil companies, the really big ones that can afford the more expensive front-end costs.

We are comfortable with long laterals environmentally and on other levels, but its ridiculous that the Legislature signed off on this gift to Big Oil without getting more in return.

Simultaneous with consideration of the long lateral, the Legislature considered raising the effective gross production tax on oil and natural gas wells to 4, 5, or even 7 percent.

Oklahomas effective gross production tax rate is the lowest among oil states and for no good reason. A reasonable gross production tax increase would bring in much needed revenue for essential state services without any real impact on the state economy.

But, under heavy and sometimes dishonest lobbying from Big Oil, the Legislature blinked, approving only a modest change in the gross production tax  affecting only 11 percent of the producing wells and only having any impact there for two years.

Essentially, Big Oil got its long laterals for pennies.

SB 867 is a bad deal for our state. Gov. Mary Fallin should veto it and insist on a better gross production tax bargain for Oklahoma.
Think of the children.

This sentence is so overused as a persuasive tactic that Wikepdia, the online encyclopedia, actually has an entry for it, and defines it as a worn-out cliche. The Simpsons has mocked it as trite for years.

Yet I still hear it.

Often, when teachers talk about low pay, low per-pupil expenditures, and high budget cuts, we are told to overcome these inconveniences and spend more time thinking about the children. Sometimes the sentence feels like an instrument of guilt used to silence us.

But guess what? I agree.

Since being named Oklahoma Teacher of the Year for 2017-2018, my message to teachers across this great state has been, Stay and Fight.

Our children and our state are worth it. I remind teachers of their responsibilities to take care of our children and be loyal to the state that educated them and trained them so well that any other state would love to have them.

And I remind them that sometimes, the greatest causes demand the greatest sacrifices from those who would do the greatest work.

Im sure we can all agree on the value of making some sacrifices for our next generation. Im sure we can all name specific instances in which we already do so. But I would like to extend a challenge and ask that every time you ask or expect a teacher to focus less on his or her own needs and more on the needs of the children, you be willing to do the same. In other words, find ways to help us do what you want from us.

I think the results would surprise us all.

In my home town of Durant, I have attempted to engage the business community in specific efforts to improve education, now and in the future. They have been remarkably responsive. I believe that our legislative community, despite its growing emphasis on privatization, would nonetheless support public school initiatives that would benefit our children. I think the same of the general populace, which  too often in my opinion  buys into the myth of our failing public schools.

Instead of teachers bemoaning a lack of support, and instead of our business leaders, legislators and general population bemoaning failure, wouldnt it obviously be better to work on improving what we all agree is our most important concern  the children?

Let me be more specific. Many argue that low gross production taxes for oil companies allows for research and development that will ultimately benefit our state. Clearly, those companies prioritize research to the tune of millions if not billions of dollars. Just as clearly, these same businesses need educated, capable employees. If or when those employees do not appear, its easy for the business sector to blame the failures of the education system. Its equally easy for teachers to blame the government and business sector for not providing the same investment into education as they do into drilling and production research and development.

This circular blame benefits no one.

From where I sit, I can ask our business leaders and legislators to invest resources in education in the same fashion they do in business development. The reason I can ask is because I ask teachers all the time to find innovative ways to work with the resources we have to provide the education our state needs to thrive. Lets meet each others needs rather than lament each others so-called failures.

Of course I am biased, but I believe teaching is the most important profession. The effects of education ripple throughout our society, affecting poverty, crime, health, and, of course, the economy. Teachers spend more time influencing your children during their formative years than anyone (including many parents).

But while teachers teach, we all possess the broader responsibility of education. The responsibility requires sacrifice, which I believe we all our willing to share.

In other words, we are not just asking, What about the children?

We are asking, What about all of us?

Jon Hazell teaches at Durant High School. He was recently named Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year, 2017-2018.
60 Minutes has a cross-promo story for Hamish & Andy ahead of True Story plus a Queensland cold case solved after breaking the criminal code of silence.

Hamish & Andy

Like Dame Edna and Kylie before them, Hamish and Andy have achieved such a level of fame theres no need to bother with their last names. For the record though, theyre Blake and Lee. The stars of radio and television have been making Australia laugh for 15 years now, although when the gangly duo first came to our attention, no one predicted their longevity or celebrity. On 60 Minutes, Hamish and Andy share the rather simple secret to their business success  if theyre having fun, then so too will their fans. Liz Hayes is also invited behind the scenes to meet the best mates families and she discovers theres a new generation of performer who cant wait to steal the show.

Reporter: Liz Hayes

Producer: Nick Greenaway

Breaking the Code

In a Brisbane court today, one of Australias most horrendous crimes was finally solved when 78 year-old Vince ODempsey was found guilty of murdering young mother Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters, 13 year-old Vicki and 11 year-old Leanne. In all likelihood, the evil thug ODempsey will now spend the rest of his life in prison, along with another monster, his 70 year-old co-accused, Garry Dubois, who was convicted of the crime in a separate trial late last year. The murders happened 43 years ago and had been one of Queenslands oldest cold cases. But as Ross Coulthart reports in this major 60 Minutes investigation, the brutal crime was only solved because of the incredible dedication of two unassuming police detectives who convinced two vital witnesses to do the unthinkable  to break a four-decade-long criminal code of silence.

Reporter: Ross Coulthart

Producer: Grace Tobin

8:40pm Sunday on Nine.
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) The "unscrupulous acts" of five convicts including former Coal Secretary H C Gupta led to non- extraction of coal from a mine in Madhya Pradesh causing "immense" loss to the country, a special court here has said.

The significant observation has been made by Special Judge Bharat Parashar in his verdict convicting the former top bureaucrat and four others including beneficiary firm Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL) and its Managing Director Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia in allocation of a coal block in MP.

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"Non-availability of such an important raw material has in fact caused an immense loss to the country in its journey to achieve higher infrastructural/industrial development.

"Thus it is the country as a whole which has suffered loss on account of such unscrupulous acts of the convict persons," the judgement said.

The special court rejected the fervent plea of the accused for leniency on the grounds that no loss was caused to anyone as not even a single ounce of coal was extracted from the allocated mine.

The court has also imposed a fine of Rs one crore on the firm while Ahluwalia was awarded three-year jail term.

Rejecting the submissions, the court said "it would be suffice to state that non-extraction of coal in itself has caused huge loss to the country".

Gupta and two serving senior officials -- K S Kropha and K C Samaria -- were awarded two-year jail term by the court in the case pertaining to irregularities in the allocation of of the Thesgora-B Rudrapuri coal block in Madhya Pradesh to the firm. PTI UK SJK ARC

--- ENDS ---
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) The Congress today predicted a dark future for the country on the economic and social side and alleged that it was on the verge of seeing strife under the BJP-led NDA government.

The Congress also demanded a White Paper on the governments employment strategy.

Launching a frontal attack on the NDA government on its third anniversary, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath said the hallmark of this government in the last three years has been of "bravado, rhetoric and hyperbole".

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"The future of this country is dark from the economic point of view and from the social point of view. The country had never been so undivided. The country is on the verge of seeing strife in the future," he told reporters here.

Nath, the former Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said the last highlight of Modi government is "media management, propaganda, platitudes and acronyms" and asked people to bring a change in the politics.

Noting that the voter of the country is very intelligent, he said, "India needs a massive political change. This change in politics is not only going to reflect in the politics of today but the politics of tomorrow."

Alleging the government has failed to create jobs, he said, "We demand the government issue a White Paper on its employment strategy."

He said people do not want to hear speeches, but want to know the governments employment strategy based on hard facts of last three years.

Nath said the IT sector is facing joblessness and feared this is not only going to cause economic issues, but huge social issues.

He claimed that only 1.35 lakh jobs were created in 2015 and by 2028, the country needs 34 crore jobs.

"How will jobs be created, by slogans?," he asked, adding that the prime minister promised 2 crore jobs "but what is the outcome?".

He said the employment is at a 15 year low and alleged that BJP is spending Rs 2000 crore on "Modi Fest".

"But in the last three years, aspirations have been crushed and the nation betrayed. BJP governments Modi Fest, is it a celebration of people? Are farmers and youth celebrating? Is the Industry celebrating?," he asked.

Painting a pessimistic picture of the country on several fronts, he said that tall claim of 7.2 per cent GDP growth does not translate into jobs or wealth creation and asked what it translated into.

Nath said we are seeing disposable incomes in rural India going down, which generate demand in rural areas and that is the reason for the misery of the people.

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The Congress leader alleged that huge loans of crony businessmen are being written off but the debt ridden farmer is getting no help from this government.

He claimed that farmers have not benefited from the Fasal Bima Yojana and rules are so complicate that only insurance companies benefited.

"Insurance companies collected premium of 17,185 crore, but gave back 6,808 crore to farmers and made net profit of 10,376 crore," he alleged.

"We are seeing schemes being announced, where is the execution. Unfortunately the country is becoming victim to this hyperbole and sloganeering," he said. PTI SKC RCJ

--- ENDS ---
Scott Cooper can often be found in the corridors of the U.S. Capitol, speaking with lawmakers and aides and anyone else willing to listen. His mission: making sure refugees remain welcome in the United States of America.

Cooper, 46, is accustomed to fighting for his beliefs. He spent two decades as an aviator with the U.S. Marine Corps, completing five tours of duty in Iraq and two in Afghanistan before retiring as a lieutenant-colonel. Now a civilian again, he continues to defend his country and the humane ideals upon which it was built.

When you get out of the military you think, Whats the next mission? Seeing those affected by war, protecting human rights and national security led me to start Veterans for American Ideals last year to advocate for military interpreters and Syrian refugees."

For U.S. veteran, compassion for refugees is key to genuine security

This nonpartisan group of former servicemen and women share the belief that America is strongest when its policies and actions match its principles. Its latest campaigns focus on protecting refugees, countering Islamophobia and saving the Special Immigrant Visa program for interpreters and translators who supported the U.S. military.

Regardless of what you think about those wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should be welcoming those victims of those conflicts, Cooper says. As a veteran, this is about who we are  this is about our security.

In response to plans to bar refugees from seven war-torn countries from entering the United States, Cooper earlier this year led a delegation of refugees from six of the seven countries affected to Capitol Hill.

Joined by a former officer of the U.S. Army's elite Green Berets, they met with staff in the offices of senators Ed Markey, Joe Manchin, John McCain and Marco Rubio, among others  to attest to the rigor of the U.S. refugee vetting process.

If people were to understand the process of those vetted, we would be better off, Cooper says. There is a false narrative that refugees are somehow not vetted Nothing could be further from the truth. Look at what they go through.

Only a tiny fraction  less than one percent, only the most vulnerable  of refugees are ever resettled to a third country and they do not choose which. In the case of the United States, they are admitted only after exhaustive security checks that can take years and that are conducted by the U.S. government overseas before any refugee ever travels to the United States to begin a new life.

Cooper says he strives to live his beliefs every day. He has helped more than a dozen people, refugees as well as Iraqis and Afghans with special immigrant visas, resettle in the United States only after they have completed the rigorous U.S. government vetting process.

Cooper is the father of two daughters, both now in their 20s. Their safety and security, he says, is his paramount concern.

We have always been a country with an open door, he adds, voicing dismay at the way refugees have become politicized. The symbol of the United States is the Statue of Liberty, not barbed wire or walls.
Bosco starts his daily work routine at eight oclock. White lab coat on, he heads straight for the paediatric ward, where all the beds are occupied. Many children shiver with high fever under their blankets because of malaria. A few malnourished toddlers are hooked up to drips supplying therapeutic food.

Bosco checks on his little patients with a gentle touch here and a heartfelt sorry there when a patient cries out in pain. Worried mothers seem comforted by his caring manner.

Saving lives is a huge responsibility, he says. This is what I always wanted to do and I wouldnt change my job for anything.

A refugee from Burundi, 35-year-old Bosco works as a nurse in a health centre in Nakivale settlement, nearly 300 kilometres west of Ugandas capital Kampala.

I am so thankful that I could use my skills and qualifications to do what I love to do.

The facility is one of 70 in Uganda that provides services to both refugees and locals, the outcome of a national integrated service delivery programme. Receiving steady funding, Nakivale health centre has grown in size and capacity over the years, keeping pace with the increasing refugee population. Today, it serves more than 120,000 refugees and 40,000 Ugandans.

The integrated service delivery programme also allows health centres like Nakivale to employ Ugandans and refugees alike, based on a competitive selection process. It is this process that gave Bosco the opportunity to do what he is so passionate about  caring for others.

Some days, there are more locals than refugees here, especially at the Nutrition Services Department, says Bosco. Whether a patient comes from the village or is a refugee, it doesnt matter. For me, they are all people in need of care, and I treat them equally.

In the mens ward, William, a 60-year-old Ugandan patient with a chest complaint, sits up on the edge of his bed as Bosco monitors his laboured breathing. Every time I fall sick I come to this hospital. They always manage to sort me out without fail, he says.

Bosco, who works at the hospital at Nakivale settlement, tends to refugees and locals alike.

William lives in Ruhoko, a village in the outskirts of Nakivale settlement. He says he has used the health centre for over 10 years, during which he has seen services improve as refugee numbers rose. There are certainly more drugs than there used to be. Its a good thing that refugees have settled here. We live like one community.

In 1998, Bosco enrolled in a school for paramedics in Burundis Ngozi province and got a degree in nursing in the midst of a civil war. There was so much fear and uncertainty those days. My classmates and I used to spend one week at school and one week in the bush hiding from the gunmen who wanted us to fight.

By 2001, he feared that he would be forcibly recruited and get swept up in the violence. Kissing his mother goodbye, he crossed the border into Tanzania and then Uganda  his nursing qualification tucked among his few belongings. He made it to Nakivale within weeks.

After starting out as a volunteer at the clinic 16 years ago, he has been on a full-time contract since 2005, with a monthly salary and family benefits.

A patient has his lungs checked by Bosco.  UNHCR/Rocco Nuri

Bosco gives pain relief to nine-year-old Zakaio.  UNHCR/Rocco Nuri

Parents visit their sick children at the health centre at Nakivale settlement.  UNHCR/Rocco Nuri

Bosco and his colleague review the patients' files.  UNHCR/Rocco Nuri

Burundian nurse Bosco was recently diagnosed with cancer.  UNHCR/Rocco Nuri

Refugees and locals gather outside the health centre at Nakivale settlement.  UNHCR/Rocco Nuri

I am so thankful that I could use my skills and qualifications to do what I love to do, he says. I consider myself self-sufficient as I am able to provide for my family and pay for my childrens education. I have a dignified life here.

He is both thankful and surprised by the warm welcome he found in Uganda. I never thought I would be able to find such a rewarding job and follow my dream in a foreign country.

The extent of that welcome became clear when Bosco recently became ill himself. Diagnosed with cancer, he had to travel to neighbouring Kenya for treatment. My colleagues raised the money to help me undergo surgery. I dont know where I would be right now if it wasnt for them.

But Bosco still needs further treatment. He hopes to be resettled to another country with more advanced medical care. Uganda gave me so much, but I have to look after my health now. My family needs me, and I need them.

The integrated service delivery as provided in Nakivale clinic is a key element of Ugandas Refugee and Host Population Empowerment (ReHoPE) strategy, a multi-partner initiative which encourages refugees and their hosts to live together as one community and become more self-reliant.

The refugees and the Ugandan people need the worlds support.

The government grants refugees freedom of movement, the right to work and start a business and access public services such as education, healthcare and justice. Refugees are also given a plot of land, either by the government or local communities, to build their home and to cultivate.

But with over 1.25 million refugees and more than half of them arriving in less than a year, this policy is under threat. The country has limited resources and Uganda cannot continue to support so many refugees without help.

Ugandas approach to extend and protect refugee rights is commendable but it is not enough to enable refugees to thrive, says Bornwell Kantande, the representative in Uganda for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. He explains that refugees ability to be truly self-sufficient is directly linked to available resources and investments by humanitarian and development partners.

In support of Ugandas progressive refugee policy, the World Bank has approved Ugandas request for a U $50 million loan and UNHCR has pledged US$31 million for ReHoPE. But there remains a need for member states, who endorsed the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework as part of the New York Declaration last year, to support host countries like Uganda taking in large numbers of refugees by timely and robust funding of programmes like ReHoPE.

The refugees and the Ugandan people need the worlds support, says Kantande.
Gathered together in their hundreds, possibly thousands, on May 21, Dalits protested the violent clashes breaking out in Uttar Pradesh for weeks now. Jantar Mantar, Delhi's designated spot for demonstrators, was awash with blue caps and flags. This impressive show was engineered by the newly prominent Bhim Sena, founded in Saharanpur in 2015.

On May 5, Dalits in Shabbirpur village allege, over dozens of their houses and shops were burned down by Thakurs. The violence, which left one dead and at least 16 seriously injured, was the culmination of months of feuding over the installation of an Ambedkar statue and a memorial procession for Rajput king Maharana Pratap. There has been more violence and the death of a Dalit youth as recently as May 23, in the wake of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati's visit to Saharanpur.

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At the Jantar Mantar protest, Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, leader of the Bhim Sena, emerged from hiding to make a powerful speech. "We are not weak," he said, "we must fight back against those trying to oppress us." Chandrashekhar and the Bhim Sena were denied permission for a 'mahapanchayat' in Saharanpur a few days after the May 5 violence. Frustrated, Dalit groups took to the streets, leading to further violence. FIRs were filed against Chandrashekhar, who was accused by the police of organising the showdown. A lawyer native to the area, the 30-year-old Chandrashekhar told the crowd he was "not a coward", that he was glad to see his community had "woken up" and that he would now surrender.

Groups like the Bhim Sena have emerged, analysts say, to fill the gap left by the BSP after its crushing defeat in the state elections. Bhim Sena claims to have over 40,000 members. With civic polls approaching, Dalit voters might play a decisive role. Vijay Sonkar Shastri, a Dalit BJP leader from UP, argues the Bhim Sena is "a socially regressive force". But charismatic as Chandrashekhar is, he is not the point. Rising Dalit anger is, and that will test the cross-community voter base the BJP has built for itself in UP.

--- ENDS ---
Three coast guard boats "immediately" approached the MV John Paul DeJoria upon its arrival in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The Sea Shepherd ship was then "quickly boarded" by "armed" forces.

Captain Paul Watson, the founder of Sea Shepherd, stressed that the officers thoroughly inspected the MV John Paul DeJoria. Apparently, they were looking for him. On his Facebook page, Captain Paul Watson confirmed that he was being targeted.

At the moment, Captain Paul Watson has a whopping $25,000 reward on his head. He hinted that the bounty was from the "shark fin mafia". Additionally, a warrant of arrest has been served for his intervention in illegal shark finning operations. Watson bravely made fun of the idea that these 'armed men" thought he would just "waltz" into Costa Rica with such major risks.

The incident he was talking about was the time he stopped an illegal Costa Rican shark finning vessel in Guatemalan waters. For the record, Watson's move was permitted by the Guatemalan government. Nevertheless, an officer wearing a skull mask with an automatic rifle on his shoulder, searching for Watson in the MV Joh Paul DeJoria, appears to be planning revenge.

The Sea Shepherd captain clarified that he stopped pirates "at the request" of the Guatemalan government. However, it is ironic how Watson is the one being accused of being a pirate. More interestingly, the people who are trying to catch him are the ones "dressed like a pirate".

Well, fortunately, the MV John Paul DeJoria has been cleared into Costa Rica. Despite the show of force, no crew has been hurt. The Sea Shepherd is here to offer the Costa Rican government their assistance in shutting down illegal fishing in their territorial waters. For one, this area is a part of the Galapagos corridor.

Reportedly, the authorities need a fast patrol vessel. The Sea Shepherd has one. The question is: Will they accept the help or not?

Also in the past, Watson's group has given small boats, radars, generators, and enforcement equipment to the rangers. Sadly, they are still being treated like they are the enemy. Meanwhile, the poachers get protection in shipping shark fins from Costa Rica to China.

On the other hand, Watson admitted that they need more support. On seashepherd.org, he said that they already have the vessel and the crew, but they need resources like fuel, cameras, and dive equipment. For anyone who wants to support the mission against illegal shark finning, they may visit the Sea Shepherd link indicated above.
Australia's Information Commissioner is now certain that the government should release the "controversial footage" of Japanese whaling. Sea Shepherd, a non-profit organization that protects whales, announced that it won the battle for transparency.

As part of Australia's whaling suit against Japan in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last 2008, the vessel Oceanic Viking filmed Japan's whaling fleet "chasing, harpooning, and killing" whales inside the Australian whale sanctuary off the Antarctic. On March 31, 2014, ICJ ruled that Japan's whaling program was never for scientific research. Thus, the release of the video evidence will reveal Japan's true colors to every Australian and to the whole world.

According to Sea Shepherd, Australians really have the right to see the 2008 "public tax funded" whaling footage. The Environmental Defenders Office NSW, Sea Shepherd, and the Humane Society International first sought access to the footage in March 2012. Over the past five years, the Australian government declined their request.

Apparently, Australian authorities believed that the release of the footage would harm their relations with Japan, despite condemning Japan's whaling program in the ICJ. The Information Commissioner, on the other hand, has found that such an argument "cannot be sustained" and "ordered the release" of the video. The Australian government has 28 days to appeal the decision before the footage will be officially publicized.

Per Maritime-Executive, Sea Shepherd Australia's Managing Director Jeff Hansen said that survey shows that more Australians want and end to whaling in the Australian Whale Sanctuary. However, the government has been granting the wishes of Japan and not of its own people. Sea Shepherd is known to be the primary "contender" of the Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic.

As a matter of fact, of their vessels, the Ady Gil, collided with Japan's MV Shonan Maru 2 last January 6, 2010. The incident resulted in the loss of the Ady Gil and the injury of one of its crew members. The Japanese crew initially said that the Sea Shepherd vessel rammed into them, but video evidence proves otherwise.
NASA's Juno spacecraft have captured dramatic photos on the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter. NASA's Juno spacecraft released beautiful images of Jupiter, which showcased a new light as well as answers researchers have been asking for a long time.

The Juno mission that NASA launched in 2011and reached Jupiter last July, started observing the fifth planet from the Sun right away. The results from NASA's Juno spacecraft came from a series of flybys that started in late August that brought the spacecraft within 2,600 miles of the highest clouds of Jupiter. The information that was transmitted by the Juno spacecraft was able to confirmed one theory researchers had, the largest planet in the solar system is more complex than the researchers originally thought.

NASA's Juno spacecraft is orbiting the Jupiter planet on a polar orbit track. Most days, the Juno spacecraft is observing Jupiter from a distance, but once every 53 days, the planet is getting closer, NASA reported.

A planetary space physicist at the University of Colorado, Fran Bagenal, stated that they were all jumping with excitement when the images of Jupiter came down. Bagenal also said that the rewards of their patience are fantastic, The Guardian reported.

Nonetheless, a photo that was taken on Jupiter's south pole showed the giant planet from about 32,000 miles away. The image revealed a cyclone on the Jupiter that's about 600 miles in diameter. The photo is actually a compilation of several images to show the pole which was fully illuminated by the sun.

Also, another Jupiter photo which was captured by JunoCam is in a more detailed way than ever before. This image was taken by JunoCam on May 19. The small-looking clouds in the photo are actually gigantic, which is about 30 miles wide. These waves of clouds in the image are most likely made of water.

Watch The Video Here:
Asteroids come in different sizes and shapes. Some are small but some are bigger than the largest cities on Earth that if they land here, it will create utter destruction on Earth. There's also one huge asteroid that NASA is studying, an asteroid that can collapse the world economy.

16 Psyche is an asteroid that can be found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Planetary scientists have taken great interest on this one not just because of its size because of its uniqueness - it is the only known asteroid that's made of metal, specifically of nickel-iron metal. Because of that, NASA is sending a probe to the huge metallic rock by 2022 as part of their Discovery Program.

How does it connect with the world economy?

The nickel-iron metal rock is 200 kilometers in diameter and scientists estimate that the iron alone that will be extracted from 16 Psyche will be worth $10,000 quadrillion, an amount that is many times over the total economy of the whole world brought together. Thus, if scientists are able to mine the metallic rock and bring them to earth, that would collapse the $78 trillion global economy at present. Fortunately, NASA only plans on examining 16 Psyche, not mining it.

Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the lead scientist who proposed the mission and director of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, told Global News Canada in January that even if it's possible to grab that giant chunk of metal, it is impossible to control the global resource and protect the market.

Aside from nickel and iron, NASA thinks that 16 Psyche's surface can also have water or hydroxyl based on what they saw using the Infrared Telescope. The 2022 probe will answer all those speculations and hopefully, it will also reveal clues what our Solar system looked like in its early days.
This story has expired.

By India Today Web Desk: This story has expired.

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Prospective sculpture, painting and art history students, listen up: DU's College of Arts is opening its courses in June. Admission to the 4-year Bachelor of Fine Arts isn't a part of the centralised admission procedure, and will be carried out individually.

By Arpan Rai: Aspirants looking forward to study sculpture, painting, applied art, print making, art history and visual communications, here is Delhi University's College of Arts which is opening its courses in June.

The admission to the four-year programme in Bachelors of Fine Arts will be carried out individually and the online registration will not be a part of the DU's ongoing centralised admission procedure.

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Keen students can download the online application form from the college website from June 5 till June 20. The last date for submitting the application form is June 22, following which, a list of eligible candidates shortlisted will take an aptitude test on June 27.

ENTRANCE EXAM

Students will have to appear for three papers in the entrance exam -two practical and one theory.

GK and drawing will be the two common exams for all the applicants.

"No change has been introduced in this year's admission process. Interested students will have to download application form from the college website and submit the form manually in college," said Ashok N Ninawe, assistant professor at College of Art.

Those students appearing for the aptitude test will have to take an object-drawing test. All the students will have to take a GK test.

Those appearing for specialisation in sculpture will have to model a clay structure on a given subject. As for those wanting to appear for BFA in art history, they will be asked to write an analysis on a given topic. Students interested in print making will have to paint on a given subject on a paper.

The visual communication students will be tested on their ability to examine a concept, application and ability in using line, colour and space in visualisation.

The admission prospectus will be released on on May 28, confirmed Rajesh Ahuja, a college official. DU has received 75,298 applications so far.

ALSO READ | Delhi University kicks off admissions with 6,000 applicants

ALSO READ | Delhi University to open up 2,000 seats for popular courses

--- ENDS ---
FullContact Founder is e2e Wyoming Speaker in Laramie June 14

Travis Todd, head of labs for FullContact, a Denver-based technology company, will be the guest speaker at e2e Wyomings meeting in Laramie June 14. (Photo provided by UW WTBC)

The co-founder of FullContact, a Denver-based technology company, will be the next e2e Wyoming speaker in Laramie Wednesday, June 14.

Travis Todd, a University of Wyoming graduate, will present Startup to Scaleup: FullContacts Story of Accelerators, Venture Funding and Growth from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, 222 S. 22nd St.

Todd will tell the story of launching FullContact and the company's growth over the years, which includes acquiring four companies as well as the assets of two others. FullContact now has a presence in Denver, Dallas, Latvia and India, giving it a truly global presence. FullContact, which introduced the idea of "paid, paid vacation" in 2012, has consistently been voted as one of the best companies to work for by Outside Magazine.

FullContact provides a suite of cloud-based contact management solutions for businesses, developers and individuals. Launched from a basement in 2010 by Bart Lorang, Dan Lynn and Todd, FullContact has graduated from TechStars accelerator in Boulder, Colo., received $50 million in venture capital and now employs 230 people.

In addition to serving on FullContact's board of directors, Todd's current role is head of labs, which allows him to work on experimental, research and development projects.

Todd received his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from UW and his MBA from the University of Texas-Austin. He and his wife, Mindy, have two children, Houston (6) and Elsie (2), with a third child on the way. Raised on a family ranch in northeastern Wyoming, Todd and his family were excited for the opportunity to recently return to the state.

E2e is an educational networking program with chapters in Laramie, Casper, Gillette and Sheridan. It is designed to improve the climate for the startup and growth of entrepreneurial companies. Each e2e chapter meets bimonthly for 45 minutes of networking, followed by a 45-minute program. The programs feature successful entrepreneurs telling their stories, panel discussion on relevant topics and advice from experts in specific businesses. The Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC), located on the UW campus, sponsors the program.

Administered by the UW Office of Research and Economic Development, the WTBC is a not-for-profit business incubator that provides entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools necessary for success.

To register for the June 14 program, go here, call (307) 766-6395, or email Fred Schmechel at fschmech@uwyo.edu.
Wyoming Business Tips for June 4-10

A weekly look at Wyoming business questions from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC), part of WyomingEntrepreneur.Biz, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By Andrea Lewis, WSBDC procurement specialist

I want to do contract work for the Department of Defense, and I have been hearing about cybersecurity regulations. Can you explain them? Joe, Cheyenne

If your company is a Department of Defense (DOD) contractor or subcontractor, the Department of Defense cyber requirements are something that you will need to understand and comply with by Dec. 31. The purpose of this article is not to go into detail about the requirements, but to alert business owners to their existence and where to find more information.

Cyber threats are on the increase and cost companies a lot of money. Impacts are downtime, loss of revenue, reputational damage and loss of customers. Most cyberattacks (89 percent) have a financial or an espionage motive. Weak, default or stolen passwords are the cause of 64 percent of confirmed data breaches.

Having to comply with the regulations depends on what type of contract you have with the DOD and, if within that contract, certain clauses are listed. Commercial items that are bought off the shelf -- no customization -- generally are not required to have the clauses in their contracts. Agricultural bulk products and petroleum products are subject to the regulations.

In general, the DOD clauses require contractors to safeguard certain information that is either on their internal systems or networks, or passing through their systems or networks. The clauses also require the contractor to report cyber incidents that either affect certain information or that affect the contractors ability to perform operationally critical support requirements.

The contractor also is required to submit any malicious software discovered that was isolated in connection with a reported cyber incident to the DOD Cyber Crime Center. If requested by the DOD, the contractor also needs to submit media and additional information for damage assessment.

The definition of information that needs to be protected is past the scope of this tip. However, the regulations that define it can be found at DFARS Regulations (review DFARS clauses 252.204-7008 and 252.204-7012).

DOD has several programs, both regulatory and voluntary, to improve cybersecurity. The agency is using the National Institute of Standards and Technology special publication 800-171, Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Information Systems and Organizations, as a framework for companies to follow when developing cybersecurity programs.

If you are doing business with the DOD, take the time to understand its cybersecurity rules and regulations, and be aware that implementation is due at the end of the year.

For more information, call the WSBDC Network Procurement Technical Assistance Center at (307) 772-7372 or email amlewis@uwyo.edu.

A blog version of this article and an opportunity to post comments are available at www.wyomingsbdc.org/blog1/.

The WSBDC is a partnership of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Wyoming Business Council and the University of Wyoming. To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.
By Santosh Chaubey: According to a report in German publication Der Spiegel, US President Donald Trump has charged Germans for cornering business and jobs in the US. While blasting Germans, Trump said, "The Germans are bad, very bad. See the millions of cars they are selling to the US. Terrible. We will stop this". Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of trade imbalance between Germany and America that is largely tilted in German favour.

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In January, he had targeted German carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz comparing their high sale volume in America with low sale volume of Chevrolet in Germany and had threatened to impose 35 per cent import tariff on BMW on its cars imported from its Mexican plant. But, it is not only about German carmakers. In fact, data from the Wall Street Journal shows that apart from General Motors, with a market share of 17.1 per cent in April 2017 and Ford with market share of 15.1 per cent, the two largest automakers in the US, most other automakers in the top ten are foreign companies. i.e., Japanese Toyota has a market share of 13.5 per cent, German Chrysler has a market share of 12.4 per followed by Nissan's 9.9 per cent, Honda's 9.2 per cent and Hyundai's 4.2 per cent.

In response to Trump's criticism, German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, Angela Merkel's deputy, quipped that the US automakers needed to come up with better cars. He termed products of American automakers "worse, weaker and more expensive", an Associated Press report said.

According to a Reuters report, the US has a trade deficit of $65 billion with Germany, its third largest negative trade balance. The top slot goes to China with which the US has a trade deficit of $349 billion. Japan accounts for $69 billion deficit, coming in at the second spot. And going by Trump's assessment of Germans in context of running trade deficit, China and Japan should be even bigger headaches for the US economy then.

In fact, according to a Financial Times report, Trump signed an executive order days before Chinese Xi Jinping's US visit in April 2017 authorizing a study to look into the $500 billion annual trade deficit of the US. The study has a mandate of 90 days to analyze the issue country country-by-country and product-by-product, the report said. Also, Trump tweeted before the meeting that " it will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits and job losses".

The meeting next week with China will be a very difficult one in that we can no longer have massive trade deficits...- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017

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After Trump-Jinping Summit, the Trump Administration hailed it as a historic meeting with a breakthrough trade deal that would cut the US trade deficit with China as Beijing agreed to open its market for certain US companies and product categories. But experts are not satisfied.

According to a Forbes report, "the deal might actually increase America's bulging trade deficit with China". To support its point of view the Forbes analysis further says, "China over the last decade has been progressively closing off its market, and this trend is now proceeding faster than ever under current supremo Xi Jinping".

Trump would often talk about "unfair economic ties" with Japan. He blames Japan of currency manipulation and unfair trade practices and went on to the extent to say Japan a "drag on the US economy'. He made the comment days before his White House inauguration on January 20 that drew sharp criticism from Japan.

Trade deficit was one of the central campaign themes of Donald Trump. He, in fact, has blamed trade deficit for slowing down the US economy. When the GDP data came out in April, he tweeted his displeasure, "The U.S. recorded its slowest economic growth in five years (2016). GDP up only 1.6%. Trade deficits hurt the economy very badly".

The U.S. recorded its slowest economic growth in five years (2016). GDP up only 1.6%. Trade deficits hurt the economy very badly.- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2017

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Also read:

US: In first Trump-Merkel meeting, awkward body language and a quip

Trump to visit China to boost Sino-US ties

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DMK MP Kanimozhi said her party - the main Opposition party in the Tamil Nadu Assembly - was only against the imposition of Hindi.

By India Today Web Desk: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi on Thursday said her party didn't oppose Hindi, but that it was only against forcing people to learn it, the Tamil daily Thina Thanthi reported.

Kanimozhi's remarks came at a conference organized by the DMK's West Velur unit in Jolarpettai to oppose the imposition of Hindi, and to ask for an exemption for Tamil Nadu from the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the report said.

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Only weeks ago, DMK Working President MK Stalin said that by imposing Hindi, the BJP government at the Centre was betraying all non-Hindi speaking Indians.

He slammed a parliamentary committee's proposal to make it mandatory for MPs and Union ministers who know Hindi to use it as their official language, both in speeches and writings.

Stalin also criticised the BJP government for - among other things - making Hindi a compulsory subject in CBSE schools across the country.

In fact, the DMK deputy chief alleged that the BJP-led central government had been making efforts to destroy and decimate the unity of the nation, and urged the Narendra Modi administration to "give up these efforts of sidelining non-Hindi speaking citizens."

ALSO READ | DMK MP Kanimozhi rescues man injured in hit-and-run case

ALSO READ | BJP govt destroying nation's unity by imposing Hindi on non-speakers, says MK Stalin

ALSO WATCH | BJP spreading disharmony by imposing Hindi on non-speakers, says Stalin

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British Prime Minister Theresa May (L) speaks to US President Donald Trump during a working dinner meeting at the NATO headquarters during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool)

MANCHESTER: Britain launched a manhunt on Thursday (May 25) for a Libya-linked militant network thought to be behind the deadly Manchester bombing as US President Donald Trump threatened to prosecute those responsible for leaking details from the investigation to US media.

London reacted furiously after sensitive details about the probe into Monday's suicide attack, which targeted young concert goers and killed 22 people, appeared in the US press.

And as more children were named as victims of the massacre, police carried out fresh arrests and raids.

With the row over intelligence-sharing escalating, a shellshocked Britain held a minute's silence to remember the victims of the latest Islamic State-claimed atrocity to hit Europe.

After bowing their heads in silence, the grieving crowd in Manchester's St Ann's Square broke into a spontaneous, gentle rendition of "Don't Look Back in Anger" by the city's own Britpop band Oasis.

It was a message of defiance three days after Manchester-born Salman Abedi's attack on young fans attending a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande.

"It's like your own family just passed away, it's just so, so sad," 69-year-old Carmel McLaughlan told AFP, standing next to the sea of flowers filling the square.

'VERY WICKED'

As the nation mourned, Queen Elizabeth II visited children injured in the attack at a hospital in the northwestern English city. "It's dreadful. Very wicked to target that sort of thing," she told Evie Mills, 14, and her parents.

Some 75 people are still being treated in hospital, including 23 in critical condition, medical officials said. Twelve of the injured are under 16.

LEAKS 'DEEPLY TROUBLING'

With investigators pushing ahead with the probe into the attack, British authorities were left "furious" by repeated leaks of material shared with their US counterparts that they said undermined the investigation.

In Brussels for a NATO summit on Thursday, Prime Minister Theresa May confronted Trump over the issue.

"She expressed the view that the intelligence sharing relationship we have with the US is hugely important and valuable, but that the information that we share should be kept secure," May's spokesman said.

Trump, who led NATO allies in paying respects to the victims, slammed the leaks as "deeply troubling".

"If appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he said in a White House statement.

Images obtained by The New York Times newspaper showed a detonator Abedi was said to have carried in his left hand, shrapnel including nuts and screws and the shredded remains of a blue backpack.

"We are furious. This is completely unacceptable," a British government ministry source said of the leak.

Manchester police had stopped passing information to Washington on their investigation, the BBC reported.

BROTHERS IN ARMS

University dropout Abedi, 22, grew up in a Libyan family that reportedly fled to Manchester to escape the now-fallen regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi.

His father Ramadan and younger brother Hashem have been detained in Libya, with officials there saying the brother was aware of the planned attack.

They said both brothers belonged to the Islamic State group, while the father once belonged to a now-disbanded militant group with alleged ties to Al-Qaeda.

Libya said it was working closely with Britain to identify possible "terrorist networks" involved.

Libyan officials said Abedi's brother Hashem had been under surveillance for six weeks and that investigators had information he was planning "a terrorist attack" in Tripoli.

A relative told AFP that Abedi had travelled to Manchester from Libya four days before the bombing.

German police said he made a brief stopover at Duesseldorf airport, while a Turkish official said he had transited through Istanbul airport without saying where he was travelling from.

A source close to the family said Abedi wanted to avenge the murder in Manchester last year of a friend of Libyan descent, with his sister Jomana Abedi also telling The Wall Street Journal newspaper that he might have been driven by a desire for revenge.

"I think he saw children - Muslim children - dying everywhere, and wanted revenge. He saw the explosives America drops on children in Syria, and he wanted revenge," she said.

The bombing was the latest in a series of IS-claimed attacks in Europe that have coincided with an offensive on the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq by US, British and other Western forces.

EIGHT IN BRITISH CUSTODY

A British official confirmed Abedi had been on the intelligence radar before the massacre.

The MI5 domestic security service is managing around 500 active investigations, involving some 3,000 "subjects of interest", the senior government ministry source said.

"Abedi was one of a larger pool of former SOIs whose risk remained subject to review by MI5 and its partners," he said.

The source added that 18 plots had been foiled since 2013 in Britain, including five since late March.

Police announced two new arrests on Thursday, bringing the total to eight people in custody in Britain. A woman detained on Wednesday was released without charge.

Officers were also evacuating people from an area in Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester, as they searched a house in connection with the probe, police said.

An AFP photograph showed a bomb disposal unit nearby.

Britain's terror threat assessment has been hiked to "critical", the highest level, meaning an attack is considered imminent.

Armed troops have been sent to guard key sites, a rare sight in mainland Britain. Armed police were also deployed on trains for the first time ever.

Monday's attack was the deadliest in Britain since 2005 when four Islamist suicide bombers attacked London's transport system, killing 52 people.

The bombing occurred just over two weeks before a snap election set for Jun 8.
Senior managers of Diebold Nixdorf in the Q&A session with the press

Diebold Nixdorf has been operating through both third-party business partners and direct sales for ten years and is continuing to provide hardware, software and services to its banking and retail customers. It is the only ATM manufacturer to have a direct presence in Vietnam and currently serves 32 banking customers with over 6,000 ATMs deployed across the country.

Earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue signed a policy decision encouraging cash-free transactions to reduce the number of cash-based deals, improve overall electronic payment methods and control tax evasion. Under the plan, by 2020 total cash transactions would total less than 10 per cent of total market transactions. But as Vietnam treads the path between the physical and digital worlds, cash remains king as the mode of payment, though in improved and more versatile ways.

With a population of nearly 95 million people, Vietnam has huge growth potential in the banking sector as it expands its services outside of the main cities to more rural areas where almost 70 per cent of the population is unbanked. As of 2016, the total number of automated teller machines (ATMs) in Vietnam was approximately 18,000.

Based on the installed base forecasts in Global ATMs 2021, the CAGR for end-2015 to end-2021 would be 3.9 per cent. 496 million cash withdrawals were made from Vietnamese ATMs over the course of 2015; the annual volume has been increasing at a CAGR of 12 per cent since 2011 according to strategic research and consulting firm RBR.

In addition to its banking solutions, Diebold Nixdorf also has 32 local and international retail customers in Vietnam. It is one of the leading EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) suppliers in the country with approximately 20 per cent market share. With the impending rapid expansion of the e-commerce market, Diebold Nixdorf is firmly positioned to be able to provide solutions for retailers who are looking for both an online and offline approach with its omni-channel software and services.

Diebold Nixdorf has a team of 68 employees across 2 offices of which 49 work within services. The service call centre team support the field techs through a dedicated helpdesk located in Hanoi including an in-house depot repair centre.

Were delighted to be celebrating our 10 years of direct presence in Vietnam, which shows our continuous commitment to our customers in Vietnam. Now through our business combination between Diebold and Wincor Nixdorf we can further expand our solutions to our banking and retail customers driving innovation through technology and services, Neil Emerson, Diebold Nixdorfs senior vice president and managing director for Asia-Pacific, said.

We continue to see a significant growth in the banking and retail industry in Vietnam over the last ten years, and we have already been a long and established partner to our customers, said Khoi Doan Tran, country manager for Vietnam. We are excited about the rapid growth for consumers to adopt the digital channels, and we will be there partnering with our customers to provide a comprehensive omnichannel experience.

Neil Emerson, Diebold Nixdorfs senior vice president and managing director for Asia-Pacific and Khoi Doan Tran, country manager for Vietnam

Diebold Nixdorf is a world leader in enabling connected commerce for millions of consumers each day across the financial and retail industries. Its software-defined solutions bridge the physical and digital worlds of cash and consumer transactions conveniently, securely and efficiently.

As an innovation partner for nearly all of the worlds top 100 financial institutions and a majority of the top 25 global retailers, Diebold Nixdorf delivers unparalleled services and technology that are essential to evolve in an always on and changing consumer landscape.

Diebold Nixdorf has a presence in more than 130 countries with approximately 25,000 employees worldwide. The organisation maintains corporate offices in North Canton, Ohio, US and Paderborn, Germany. Shares are traded on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges under the symbol DBD.
Gunmen killed 26 Coptic Christians and injured 25 others on Friday as they were driving to a monastery in Minya province of Egypt.

By Reuters: Gunmen attacked buses and a truck taking a group of Coptic Christians to a monastery in southern Egypt on Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 25 others, witnesses and the Health Ministry said.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the unidentified gunmen had arrived in three four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Eyewitnesses said masked men stopped the two buses and a truck and opened fire on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority.

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Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

ATTACK INTENDED TO DESTABILISE COUNTRY, SAYS IMAM

Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar, Egypt's 1,000-year-old centre of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilise the country.

"I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism," Ahmed al-Tayeb said from Germany, where he was on a visit.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called a meeting of security officials, the state news agency said. The Health Ministry put the toll at 26 dead and 25 wounded.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 92 million, have been the subject of a series of deadly attacks in recent months.

About 70 have been killed since December in bomb attacks on churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta.

Also read | US: Two dead, including suspect in shooting at North Lake College

Also read | Paris shooting: 1 cop killed, Islamic State names attacker as Abu Yousif al-Belgiki

ALSO WATCH VIDEO

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The ceremony to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Vietnam Limited (EMEPVL) and VinaCapital Foundation

This year, eight hospitals in Quang Nam, namely Phu Ninh, Que Son, Hiep Duc, Tien Phuoc, North Tra My, South Tra My, Phuoc Son and Nong Son, will receive medical equipment for improved pediatric care. The critical care equipment, selected in consultation with both the district health departments and the provincial Department of Health leadership, will have a profound and measurable impact on child mortality in the province.

The VinaCapital Foundation is grateful for ExxonMobils continued and generous support for neonatal and emergency care in central Vietnam, said Robin King Austin, chief executive officer of VinaCapital Foundation.

Greg Smith, president and country manager of ExxonMobil in Vietnam, on behalf of the company, gave $50,000 to the Survive to Thrive programme in 2017

ExxonMobil has led the way in Vietnam by supporting this lifesaving programme regionally in the central provinces. The Survive to Thrive programme reduces infant mortality and morbidity in a measurable way, a national priority of the Ministry of Health. ExxonMobils contributions help save the lives of hundreds of children and adults every day, he added.

Since 2011, ExxonMobil has contributed a total of $500,000 to VinaCapital Foundation through its Critical Response and Survive to Thrive programmes. More than a million children in Danang, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai have benefited from ExxonMobils contributions.

Early this month, ExxonMobil also provided Operation Smile Vietnam with $30,000 in support of its mission to providing medical evaluation and treatments for children born with facial deformities in the central region of Vietnam.

More than 100 children who are born with a cleft lip and/or palate benefit from Operation Smile Vietnams on-going mission in Quang Ngai. All health care services  including consultations, treatments and medication  will be provided free of charge to these children from the central provinces of Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, Danang, Kon Tum, Binh Dinh and Gia Lai.

In addition, a dental care mission is also designed to provide dental screening, treatment and education for around 1,500 elementary students in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

Since 2014, ExxonMobil has contributed a total of $185,000 to enable Operation Smile Vietnam to provide screenings and operations for more than 1,000 children born with facial deformities and helped change lives of more than 600 underprivileged children and families in Vietnam.

ExxonMobil strives to make a positive contribution in the local communities where we operate, said Greg Smith, president and country manager of ExxonMobil in Vietnam. We believe the support of VinaCapital Foundations Survive to Thrive programme and Operation Smile Vietnam will help build a brighter future for these underprivileged children.

Greg Smith, president and country manager of ExxonMobil in Vietnam, made a speech at the ceremony

ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Vietnam Limited, an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation, is contributing to energy supplies by exploring for oil and gas resources in Vietnam. The company is currently in ongoing discussions with PetroVietnam and Vietnam government agencies and businesses to evaluate the feasibility of developing central Vietnams Blue Whale natural gas resources off the coast of Danang.

VinaCapital Foundation (VCF) is a US registered 501-c3 public charitable organisation, registered as a foreign non-governmental organisation in Vietnam. Founded in 2006, VCF aims to empower the children and youth of Vietnam, by providing opportunities for growth and improvement through health and education programmes. The work of VCF touches the lives of millions of Vietnamese in 63 cities and provinces every year.


A scene from Mullewapp  A Beautiful Mess".

On May 25, LenaLove will be introduced. This thriller is about the danger of social networks for young people.

The film was directed by Florian Gaag (born in 1971), who studied film at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts. Active as a director, screenwriter, musician and producer, he is concerned with the world of youth in his movies. After focusing on the German graffiti scene in his first movie Wholetrain (2006) he now launches the audience into the dangers of social networks and cyber mobbing with his movie Lenalove (2016).

LenaLove won several awards, including:

 Label especially worthwhile, Nomination of Jannik Schurman as Best Junior Actor at the Film Festival Max Ophuls Preis (2016)

 Preselection at the German film award LOLA and performance within the framework of the Berlinale 2016

The movie is about 16-year-old Lena (Emilia Schule), who is creative and highly sensitive, dreams of escaping the suburbs, where nobody understands her. Spending her time assembling expressive collages and chatting on the internet, she meets a guy online. As Lena begins growing closer with her classmate Tim, a gifted graffiti-artist, she only confides in her chat buddy, whom she has never met in person.



A scene from "Center of My World"

When Lena sees her best friend Nicole kissing Tim, she throws herself head-on into the social network even more. The joke among teenagers becomes a bullying excess that the adults are just as much a part of. As the facade of harmonious suburban life comes tumbling down and not only Lenas life is at risk, each one has to question their loyalties.

On May 26, the movie Center of My World will be screened. This film is based on the 1998 bestselling novel The Center of the World by Andreas Steinhofel.

The movies director - Jakob M. Erwa (born 1981 in Graz), actually wanted to be a rock star but then, in June 2001, he started his studies at the University of Television and Film Munich, which he completed in February 2007.

His movie Heile Welt received the Diagonale award for the best Austrian feature film in 2006/07 and the German Independence Award at the Oldenburg International Film Festival for the best German movie. Jakob M. Erwa is now living in Berlin and works as a director, screenwriter and film producer.

Center of My World won several film awards, including:

 Internationales Filmfestival Moskau 2016

 Nominierung im Hauptwettbewerb fur den Goldenen Georg

 Filmfest Munchen 2016 (Auswahl)

 Nominierung in der Kategorie Bestes Drehbuch

 Nominierung in der Kategorie Beste Regie

 Nominierung in der Kategorie Bester Nachwuchsproduzent

 Nominierung in der Kategorie Beste/r Nachwuchsschauspieler/in (Ada Philine Stappenbeck und Svenja Jung)

Filmkunstmesse Leipzig 2016

 Auszeichnung mit dem Preis der Jugendjury (Jakob M. Erwa)



A scene from Rico, Oskar and the Mysterious Stone

The film is about a 17-year-old boy named Phil (Louis Hofmann) who returns home after summer camp, to find that his mother, Glass (Sabine Timoteo), and his twin sister, Dianne (Ada Philine Stappenbeck), arent speaking to one another.

Not willing to confront his family during the last days of summer holidays, Phil escapes to hang out with his best friend Kat. When school begins, a new student arrives: the handsome and mysterious Nicholas (Jannik Schumann). Phil starts to question his feelings towards Nicholas and is thrilled when his feelings are returned. However, when first loves volatility comes to light, Phil realizes that he must deal with envy, jealousy and secretiveness

On May 27, the movie Mullewapp  A Beautiful Mess, an animated film based on the popular childrens books by Helme Heines will come to Hanoi.

After the great success of Mullewapp  The Great Adventure of the Movies Friends in 2009, directors Tony Loeser and Theresa Strozyk present the second adventure based on the work of German childrens author Helme Heine. Mullewapp is a production of MotionWorks in co-production with STUDIOCANAL FILM and Melusine Productions Luxembourg. Directed by Tony Loeser, and Theresa Strozyk, the 79-minute movie was produced in 2016.

The film is about the three friends Waldemar, Johnny Mauser and Franz von Hahn in the village of Mullewap. As Waldemars big birthday party approaches, the whole village is very excited about the strawberry cake that will be served in celebration of the big party. But Waldemar cant resist the cake, and he eats the whole thing himself.

Before Waldemar ruins the whole party, the village is surprised by the arrival of unexpected guests: the boar Horst and his gang have heard about the cake and they take over the village.



A scene from "LenaLove"

The three friends Waldemar, Johnny and Franz want to liberate their beloved home from the intruders. Suddenly things start happening too quickly and the three friends find themselves involuntarily on an adventurous bicycle tour.

Another German movie - At Eye Level  will be also screened on May 27.

The author and directing duo of Evi Goldbrunner and Joachim Dollhopf has developed a moving story for the cinema. At Eye Level is not only entertaining, the film also conveys an important message: It is a plea for tolerance, openness and empathy for people who are different.

The film was made possible by the initiative Der Besondere Kinderfilm (The Special Childrens Film) with which public broadcasters, sponsors, government and the film industry support childrens films that are based on original screenplays.

The movie won a lot of awards in Germany, including: Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung  Pradikat besonders wertvoll, Kinder Filmfest Munchen 2016  Publikumspreis and Jugend Filmjury  Der besondere Kinderfilm.

The film is about an 11-year-old boy named Michi (Luis Vorbach), who lives in a childrens home and has to fight every day to win the respect of the other kids.

One day, he finds out who his father is and writes him a letter. But when he eventually meets his dad Tom, its a shock for both of them. Tom (Jordan Prentice) happens to be a dwarf and is even shorter than Michael. He didnt know about his son, but he wants to accept the challenge of fatherhood.

For Michael, Toms condition is a disaster, as its the opposite of the manliness and strength he envisioned his father to have. When the other kids find out, Michaels life becomes hell and he runs away from the childrens home. With nowhere else to go, he moves in with Tom.

Tom is new to this fatherhood thing but tries his best, while Michael tries to hide his embarrassment and shame from his new friends he meets at a local skating rink. This forces Tom, who had coped well with his differentness so far in his life, to confront his condition head on.

The last movie - Rico, Oskar and the Mysterious Stone  will be screened on May 28. The film is based on the popular novel of the same name by Andreas Steinhofel.

The film is directed by Neele Leana Vollmar. From 1999 to 2000, Neele Leana Vollmar (born 1978) worked as a freelance assistant director for various productions. In 2000 she began her studies at the Film Academy of Baden-Wurttemberg in Ludwigsburg, from which she graduated in 2005.

For the movie Rico, Oskar und die Tieferschatten she was awarded the Goldener Spatz 2014 for Best Script at the German Kinder-Medien-Festival. Filmography: Rico, Oskar and the Deeper Shadows (2014), Maria, ihm schmeckts nicht! (2009), Peaceful Times (2008), Holiday of Life (2005) i.a.

The movie is about Rico (Anton Petzold) and Oskar (Juri Winkler), both friends and amateur detectives, who experience a range of adventures. During their last one, the neighbor Fitzke dies and Rico inherits his stone collection. Rico and Oskar find out that the most precious stone is missing! The boys quickly decide to take the train to Prerow where they hope to find the main suspect. Their journey to the Baltic Sea will not only be their biggest adventure but also become the greatest test their friendship has ever had to endure

Free tickets are available at:

Goethe-Institut Hanoi

56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Ba Dinh, Hanoi

Tel: +84 4 3734 2251

Monday  Friday | 9 AM  12 PM & 1 PM  5 PM at the reception

Saturday & Sunday | 9 AM  7 PM in the hall

Think Playgrounds Workshop

244 Au Co, Tay Ho, Hanoi

Tel: +84 4 6663 6053

Monday  Sunday | 9 AM  12 PM & 2 PM  5 PM

Blossom Art House

6.Stock, 94B Tran Hung Dao, Hanoi

Tel: +84 91 320 1389

Monday  Sunday | 10  12 PM & 2 AM  6 PM

Ti Toay studio

46 Ngo 121/14 Chua Lang

Tel: +84 4 6266 2940

Monday  Sunday | 9 AM  12 PM & 2 PM  6 PM
Hai Phat is a well-known name in real estate M&A circles

In such a context, Hai Phat Group is one of the most active companies in terms of M&A in the real estate market.

M&A successes and failures

Hai Phat entered the market at the end of 2003 with the total chartered capital of only VND8 billion ($352,000). Four years later, this figure has increased to VND15 billion ($660,000). In 2008, Hai Phat surprisingly increased its chartered capital to VND300 billion ($13.2 million), and at the same time, it announced plenty of huge real estate projects, including the commercial, services, and apartment complex The Pride in An Hung New Urban Area in Hadong district.

At the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, when the real estate market was in its most active period, Hai Phat increased its capital to VND750 billion ($33 million) and launched numerous projects with an acreage of hundreds of hectares, such as Tan Tay Do Urban Area, Phu Lam residential area, and Southwest An Khanh New Urban Area. During this period, information about these projects was scarce, but experienced brokers in the real estate market knew that Hai Phat was behind the purchases.

However, due to its huge real estate investments, the recession of the real estate market in the period of 2012-2013 spelled bad news for Hai Phat. Many of its projects were left abandoned, including HH-B condominium of the Tan Tay Do project, and CT3 condominium of The Pride, both of which were delayed for a long time, leading to disillusioned and belligerent clients.

To stay afloat, Hai Phat had to sell its Dai Thanh project to Muong Thanh Group, a large part of CT2A condominium of the Tan Tay Do project, and the golden land plot at 36 Pham Hung Street to FLC Group. Thanks to these deals, Hai Phat to stay out of the red and survived the recession.

Afterwards, the VND30 trillion ($1.32 billion) bailout by the government helped rescue its Tan Tay Do project for the middle income segment. At the trough of recession, thanks to the VND530 billion ($23.32 million) loan package from MBBank, Hai Phats two projects Tan Tay Do and The Pride were completed and handed over to homebuyers.

Hai Phat during real estate market recovery

When the real estate market recovered at the end of 2014, Hai Phat has rapidly grown to dominate the middle income apartment segment. It successfully constructed CT3 building in The Pride and handed it over to homebuyers before deadline.

At the end of October 2015, Hai Phat acquired the HPC Landmark 105 project, purchased 35 per cent of the exploitation rights in the Phu Luong project in Hadong for VND700 billion ($30.8 million), successfully got the 7,000-square-metre land plot in Van Phuc (Hadong) for its shophouse project, started construction of Hai Phat Plaza, and invested in a wide range of projects, such as Dong Quang Eco Urban Area, Southwest An Khanh Urban Area, A7 Trung Yen, and especially, the famous Usilk City.

At the same time, Hai Phat spent over VND200 billion ($8.8 million) to purchase over ten million shares of Civil Engineering Construction Corporation No.5 (Cienco 5) through open auction. This amount accounted for 23 per cent of Cienco 5s shares. The transaction was thought to be a necessary step for Hai Phat to succeed with Thanh Ha-Cienco 5 Urban Area in Hadong.

At the end of 2015 Hai Phat partially bought the exploitation rights in the Phu Luong project

However, after Hai Phats announcement of purchasing the Cienco 5 stake, Muong Thanh Group announced acquiring a 95 per cent stake in Cienco5 Land Development Corporation (Cienco 5 Land), the company directly responsible for the implementation of the Thanh Ha-Cienco 5 project. Thus Hai Phat and other Cienco 5 shareholders could not seize control of the Thanh Ha project.

Not satisfied with this result, the group of new Cienco 5 shareholders, including Hai Phat, took several actions to respond.

In 2007, Cienco 5 Land was a Cienco 5 subsidiary, established for the implementation of the Thanh Ha project, with a total chartered capital of VND50 billion ($2.2 million). Of the total, Cienco 5 held a 49 per cent stake.

In 2009, Cienco 5 Land raised its chartered capital, while Cienco 5 sold down its holding to 5 per cent. Hai Phat and other Cienco 5 shareholders submitted documents to the related agencies, claiming that Cienco 5 Lands capital raising was illegal. This was aimed to recover the rights of Cienco 5 in Cienco 5 Land and, as a result, the Thanh Ha project.

However, the plan was unsuccessful, so Hai Phat and other shareholders of Cienco 5 officially gave up on the Thanh Ha-Cienco 5 project to their competitor, Muong Thanh Group.

Under the theme Seeking a big push, Vietnam M&A Forum 2017 will be the place to exchange suggestions and introduce opportunities as well as share experiences to create a breakthrough in the market. Slated to take place on Thursday, August 10, 2017 at GEM Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, the 9th Vietnam M&A Forum will feature the following activities:  A specialised conference on M&A activities in Vietnam;  A Deal Awards ceremony to honour the best M&A deals of 2016-2017;  The issuance of Vietnam M&A Outlook 2017 Special Publication;  A post-conference master class on M&A strategy. We are delighted to invite your organisation to become part of the forum by jointly organising and sponsoring the event, promoting your image, and presenting your business and projects at the forum and in its related publications.

Hai Phat Plaza, a Hai Phat project in South Tu Lien district, Hanoi, was on the State Audit Offices list of investigation on land use and administration. Not only losing the Thanh Ha-Cienco 5 project, Hai Phat and the new Cienco 5 shareholders were found violating the Law on Enterprises and Resolution No. 59/2011/ND-CP on transformation of enterprises with 100 per cent state capital into joint stock companies. The Ministry of Transport (MoT) ordered Cienco 5 to retrieve to its status before March 11, 2016, the date of the chartered capital adjustments, as well as the transferring of the stake and restructuring its board of directors.

The most recent project of Hai Phat is Usilk City. At the end of March 2017, the Hanoi Peoples Committee issued Decision No. 1983/QD-UBND, allowing Song Da-Thang Long Joint Stock Company to transfer CT2-105 Building in Usilk Citys CT2 land plot to Hai Phat. However, in this transaction, Hai Phat allegedly violated some regulations by signing the transfer agreement before securing the Hanoi Peoples Committees approval.

According to experienced brokers, the acquisition by Hai Phat will bring about a chance for revival to Usilk City. Nevertheless, Hai Phat will be confronted with a lot of problems to complete the project. Renaming the project as HPC Landmark is only the first step to restart it, which is no guarantee for success, as there are just too many problems involving the rights of homebuyers who bought apartments before the project was transferred to Hai Phat.

In addition, Hai Phat will have to alter the design and function of the project, so that it will become more appropriate to market trends. This is not easy for a sizeable project like Usilk City.
Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017, the new facility will provide additional storage space and accommodate future high-volume production of computing, storage, networking, telecommunications, automotive, digital home, mobility, point of sale, printing, industrial and energy sectors. This expansion comes as Jabil marks its decade milestone in Vietnam and prepares for future growth.

Since we began operations in Vietnam ten years ago, we have been on a consistent growth trajectory. We are currently operating at maximum capacity and this expansion is central to our growth strategy. Besides positioning us well for future growth, this expansion also reflects our continued commitment to develop and invest in Vietnam, said Vijay Chinnasami, senior vice president of electronic manufacturing services (EMS) operations at Jabil.

In 2015, Jabil Vietnam signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the SHTP Management Board to expand its operations. It currently employs about 4,500 employees and aims to create more than 3,000 new jobs in the local area over the next five years. Jabil also plans to develop the local talent pool for future leadership roles with training and development opportunities.

With its location in the heart of Vietnams growing tech industry, proximity to major air and sea ports and availability of skilled workforce, the Saigon Hi-Tech Park offers competitive advantages for companies looking to establish operations in Vietnam. We are pleased that Jabil has decided to expand its facility at SHTP and are confident that this will bring about both direct and indirect benefits to the local community, said Le Hoai Quoc, president of SHTP.

Jabil Vietnam specialises in high volume product solutions and serves the industrial and energy, networking and telecommunications, point of sale and printing sectors. The site has also received several Best-In-Class awards from respected companies in the telecommunications, point of sale, smart meter and set-top box industries.
Tra fish processed at An Giang Fisheries Import Export Company in the southern province of An Giang.-VNA Photo Pham Hau

The conference was attended by representatives of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, local reporters and various businesses from both countries.

Hung said that a number of press reports and articles published recently did not have correct information about the production, trade and export of Vietnamese tra fish, which has affected the trust of Spanish customers and the reputation of Vietnamese tra suppliers.

As per European Union (EU) regulations, to export tra fish products to the bloc, enterprises and exporters have to clear many steps. For instance, every batch of tra products is inspected by EU-authorised centres. The EU also conducts annual examinations and checks the list of exporters.

Viet Nam exports tra fish products to 160 countries and territories across the world, making an estimated annual turnover of around US$1.66 billion. Breeding of tra fish has become one of the key businesses in the country, helping farmers improve their finances and contributing to reducing the negative effects of globalisation.

At the conference, VASEP representatives and Vietnamese exporters provided Spanish reporters and businesses with concrete, accurate information about the countrys tra fish industry.

Earlier this year, Spanish television channel Cuatro Broadcast had telecast incorrect, defamatory information on tra fish bred in Mekong Deltas Cuu Long river. The report claimed that the fish are bred in unclean cages and given non-industrialised feed such as dead fish and other food waste, which it claimed is the reason why Vietnamese tra fish is inexpensive.

After the show, the Carrefour Group announced that it would stop selling tra fish products in its supermarket chain in Spain, Belgium and France. A number of schools in Spain also refused to buy Vietnamese tra fish.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would step up its fight against Islamic State. (Photo: AFP/Thierry Charlier)

"This will send a strong political message of NATO's commitment to the fight against terrorism," Stoltenberg said.

He stressed this did not involve NATO taking on a combat role in the fight against IS and other extremist terror groups in Syria and Iraq.

Trump came to Brussels on his first foreign trip as president to push NATO allies to take on a more active role, having dubbed the Cold War-era alliance "obsolete" for failing to focus on the threat from terrorism.

Arriving in the city Wednesday, Trump said Monday's deadly bomb attack in Manchester only showed how dangerous the threat was and that the fight against terror had to be won.

All 28 allies have individually joined the anti-IS coalition of more than 60 countries, but NATO as an institution has not followed suit until now despite intense pressure from Washington.

Diplomatic sources say some member states such as France, Germany and Italy had opposed such a move for fear the alliance would be dragged into a ground war and risk relations with Arab powers.

NATO sources told AFP on Wednesday those reservations had now been overcome.

Stoltenberg said NATO would expand the role of its AWACS surveillance planes in supporting anti-IS operations and step up its training programmes in Iraq.

A special cell would be set up at NATO headquarters in Brussels to coordinate anti-terror intelligence and planning, he said.

He said the allies would also meet Tusk's demands to share more of the security burden and reaffirm a commitment to spend two percent of annual GDP on defence.
Ambassador Matthews speaking at the meeting

Education New Zealand (ENZ), the Kiwi government agency for international education, held an all-encompassing seminar on the merits and advantages of New Zealand education for Vietnamese students.

The invited speakers, including Ambassador Matthews, Ben Burrowes, Marketing and Strategic Relations manager at ENZ, and Giang Nguyen, regional manager for Southeast Asia at the University of Waikato, as well as alumni prominent New Zealand universities, not only shared facts and information on this massive opportunity, but managed to convey genuine care and enthusiasm to extend this once-in-a-lifetime chance at living and studying at world class universities in a uniquely supportive environment to Vietnamese students.

According to John Laxon, regional director of South, South East Asia & the Middle East at ENZ, the countrys emphasis on the safety and overall well-being of its people has become one of the key factors for Vietnamese students in choosing New Zealand as their international education destination. Add to this the universitys devoted care to make international visitors and students at home, and you have the recipe for an accommodating and supportive learning environment.

Laxon emphasises first and foremost New Zealand's efforts to accommodate international students

Safety is a major concern for many students and their families, and institutions in New Zealand are highly involved in ensuring their international students are well-cared for. New Zealand was the first country in the world to put in place a Code of Pastoral Care for International Students, which is aimed at ensuring they are well informed, safe, and well-adjusted to the wider society, said Laxon.

Besides the socially-inclusive environment, education in New Zealand is nothing to scoff at, either. All New Zealand universities are ranked in the top three per cent worldwide, and the 2017 QS World University Rankings also included 22 subjects where New Zealand universities ranked the top 50 worldwide.

Vietnamese families can be confident their children will gain a world-class education in New Zealand, assured us Laxon.

In addition to offering world-class education, the New Zealand system also equips international students with industry-relevant experience through extra-curricular activities and work placements. International students are allowed to work up to 20 hours per week during term time and up to 40 hours per week over term break, giving them the chance to add various entries to their resumes well before entering the job market.

These efforts to equip graduates with industry-relevant skills have landed two New Zealand universities, the University of Auckland and Massey University, on the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2017 listthe list of 300 leading global institutions based on five key aspects of graduate employability.

While the learning environment and academic strengths were potently stressed and clarified, the speakers also spent time on potentially the biggest obstacle for international educationtuition fees and scholarships.

New Zealand institutions currently offer over 100 different scholarships for Vietnamese students. These include the Wellington scholarship provided by 12 secondary schools located around New Zealands capital, offering students a 15 per cent subsidy on tuition fees for one academic year.

Additionally, the University of Canterbury offers a number of scholarships for international undergraduate and postgraduate students, along with the University of Auckland International Student Scholarships, the Auckland Grammar School First Year Scholarship, and the New Zealand ASEAN Scholar Awards.

Given New Zealands appeal as the most peaceful country in the Asia-Pacific, its dynamic growth, and renowned jovial hospitality, it is little wonder that it is a top-choice for Vietnamese students. Currently, 2,200 Vietnamese students are living and studying in New Zealand, and, according to Matthews, the country has received twice the number of student visa applications from Vietnam than any month everand there is always space for a few more.

Trinh Thi Hang - Master of Development Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand ASEAN Scholars Awards 2015 New Zealand education is very different and advanced. Teachers are instructors who open topics and offer several ways for students to approach knowledge. Students also have full control in their approach and obviously, it will show through the quality of essays, presentations and discussions.
Black smoke billows from burning houses as fighting between Philippine soldiers and the IS-affiliated Maute group rages in the city of Marawi. (Photo: AFP/Ted Aljibe)

An initial rampage by the gunmen, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, through the mainly Muslim city of Marawi on Tuesday prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to impose martial law across the southern third of the Philippines.

Authorities said ending the crisis was proving extremely hard because, although there were only 30 to 40 remaining gunmen, the militants were moving nimbly through homes, had planted bombs in the streets and were holding hostages.

Intense gunfighting could be heard constantly throughout the day, according to an AFP reporter in the city, and the military said it had dropped bombs on residential neighbourhoods.

"We are using surgical airstrikes," local military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera told reporters in Marawi shortly before big clouds of black smoke rose from a bombed area near the provincial government building.

Most of Marawi's 200,000 residents had fled the city, which is about 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Manila, but Herrera said those who remained had been warned to get out of the areas where there was bombing and fighting.

"We are requesting our people in Marawi to go to safe places ... and to stay indoors," he said.

Five soldiers, two policemen and 13 militants have died in the three days of fighting, according to authorities.

Herrera said two civilians had also been killed inside a hospital that the gunmen had occupied on Tuesday, and the military was investigating reports that nine people had been murdered at a checkpoint the militants had set up.

Local GMA television network showed images of nine bullet-riddled bodies lying in a field with their hands tied together.

Duterte said on Wednesday that one of the policemen killed was similarly caught at a checkpoint set up by the militants, then beheaded.

The militants are also holding between 12 and 15 Catholic hostages abducted from a church, according to the local bishop, Edwin Dela Pena.

FAILED RAID

The fighting erupted on Tuesday after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.

The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world's most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of US$5 million for his capture.

The raid went spectacularly wrong as dozens of gunmen emerged to repel the security forces, then went on a rampage across the city while flying black IS flags.

The gunmen belonged to the Maute group, which along with Hapilon's faction of the Abu Sayyaf, had pledged allegiance to IS, authorities said.

The militants raided two jails, leading to the escape of more than 100 inmates, according to Mujiv Hataman, the governor of a Muslim self-rule area that includes Marawi. They also set fire to many buildings, including a church and a university.

An enraged Duterte, who was in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, declared martial law shortly after the fighting erupted and cut short his trip to fly home and deal with the crisis.

"It is brutality, cruelty," Duterte said on Wednesday after flying back to Manila.

RISE OF IS

Duterte said martial law was required throughout the southern region of Mindanao, home to 20 million people, to stop the rising threat of hardline militants aligned to IS.

Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an independent or autonomous homeland in Mindanao, with the conflict claiming more than 120,000 lives.

The main Muslim rebel groups are now involved in peace talks with the government. But the Abu Sayyaf, Maute and other hardline groups want to set up an Islamic caliphate in the south for IS, according to Duterte and security analysts.

Duterte said Wednesday he may impose martial law throughout the rest of the country if he believed the terrorism threat was spreading.

The president, who has waged a controversial war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives, warned martial law would be "harsh" and similar to military rule imposed by dictator Ferdinand Marcos a generation ago.
To be built in three phases, the North-South Highway will be completed by 2030

On May 25, the Government Office announced the PMs conclusion of picking Plan No.1 proposed by MoT. In particular, the plan specifies that in the first phase, 684 kilometres of road should be completed by 2022. The total investment for this phase will be VND140 trillion ($6.16 billion), of which VND55 trillion ($2.42 billion) will be provided by the government for site clearance, resettlement, and construction. The remaining capital will be mobilised from private firms.

The second phase (from 2023 to 2028) will construct 688km with a total investment sum of VND103 trillion ($4.53 billion). The last phase will have VND69 trillion ($3.04 billion) in investment capital and it will be completed by 2030.

The PM said that learning from the success of the projects on expanding National Highway No.1A and National Highway No.14 through the Central Highlands, a successful site clearance needs support and cooperation from all local agencies.

He also said that each phase of the project should be compatible with traffic flows and related agencies should have suitable measures for land administration in accordance with the planning as well as other technical requirements to ensure efficient intersection operation.

The government required the project to meet the needs for high transport capacity, high speed, and safety, as well as connect the socioeconomic centres between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, through 20 cities and provinces. Additionally, it is required to reduce pressure on National Highway No.1 and help exploit it more efficiently.
On May 31, Queen Maxima will have talks with international partners on the state of inclusive financing in Vietnam

Vietnam is developing a national strategy for inclusive finance to promote adequate, affordable and sustainable access to financial services. The strategys aim is to improve the economic position and of the Vietnamese people and foster development.

After arriving in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday morning, Queen Maxima will travel on to the city of Dalat in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Agriculture and horticulture dominate the local landscape, with a great many small farms. One of the themes of the visit is value chain finance in agriculture, i.e. financing activities in the chain of products and services that make up a production or marketing process, and the increase in value during these processes.

Queen Maxima will visit an agricultural business where she will talk to the owner and other farmers about the Horti Dalat project.

The project, which is supported by the Rabobank Foundation and implemented by the Vietnam-based food consultancy Fresh Studio, provides financing and technical support. Farmers receive loans for the construction of greenhouses, advice on how to improve yields and help in setting up a business plan.

The project also links farmers with retailers, giving participants a more secure market for their products and a fixed income. The farmers agree among themselves which crops to grow, to prevent overproduction.

Queen Maxima will also visit a mobile telephony shop which provides banking services to customers. In the afternoon she will return to Ho Chi Minh City, where she will talk with representatives of agricultural businesses and civil society organisations about the financing of agricultural activities.

On Wednesday May 31, the Queen will travel to the capital, Hanoi, where she will have talks in the morning with international partners like the World Bank Group, the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the Asian Development Bank and the local UN office on the state of inclusive financing in Vietnam.

There will also be a roundtable discussion with private partners like financial institutions and fintech companies on their role in improving access to financial services. In the afternoon Queen Maxima will talk with Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Le Minh Hung. The central bank coordinates the development of the national strategy for inclusive financing. She will also meet Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

On Thursday June 1, Queen Maxima will talk with Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, and Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung.

In the afternoon the State Bank of Vietnam will host a roundtable discussion with representatives of ministries and other organisations involved in preparing and coordinating the national strategy for inclusive finance.

Queen Maxima will also meet Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The two of them discussed developments in inclusive finance in Vietnam at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.

In 2011 the then Prince of Orange and Princess Maxima paid an official visit to Vietnam from March 28 through 31. On March 29 the Princess spoke at a seminar on financial inclusion in Hanoi in her capacity as Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance.

Financial inclusion seeks to unlock economic opportunities and improve lives by providing everyone with the financial tools they need to protect against hardship and invest in their futures. The mission of the UN Secretary General's Special Advocate (UNSGSA) is to advance financial inclusion for development through strategic and sustained advocacy.

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was appointed UNSGSA by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2009. She was trained as an economist and has worked in international finance and emerging markets. She also serves as honorary patron of the G20s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). In her own country, she is a member of the Committee for Entrepreneurship and Finance and honorary chair of the Dutch Money Wise Platform.
By Press Trust of India: Christians

(Eds: Making changes in para nine and 11)

From Youssra El-Sharkawy

Cairo, May 27 (PTI) The Egyptian army has launched intensive airstrikes on terrorist groups in Libya in response to the attack by suspected Islamic State militants that killed 28 Christians south of Cairo, the army spokesperson said.

Announcing the retaliatory attack, the Egyptian army spokesperson Tamer el-Refae posted a clip, which also included footages of army aircrafts while taking off, on his official Facebook and Twitter pages yesterday.

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The army operation is still going on, he said in a statement.

The airstrikes came after the army gathered information that confirms the terrorists participation in the attack.

Masked gunmen yesterday attacked a bus and other vehicles taking a group of Coptic Christians to Anba Samuel monastery in the Minya Governorate, 250km south of Cairo, the Ministry of Interior said.

The gunmen were riding in three 4x4 vehicles, it said.

Reports said there had been between eight and 10 attackers who were wearing military uniforms.

Prior to the armys announcement, Egypts President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi has vowed to strike any training camp in Egypt or outside, where terrorists are trained on attacks against Egypt.

In his televised addresses, the president said that the army has already hit one of these camps following the attack.

The president did not give other details on the strikes or the location, however, the local media then quoted official sources who confirmed that Egypt launched airstrikes on camps belonging to terrorists in Derna city in Libya.

According to the Ministry of Health, at least 28 people were killed and dozens others injured in the attack.

The attack comes as the country is still under a three- month state of emergency period following twin attacks on Coptic churches on Palm Sunday last month that killed dozens of people, in attacks claimed by ISIS.

There have been a number of attacks on Copts in the country in recent months claimed by Islamic State militants.

The Minya attack is the latest in a series of deadly attacks on Egypts Christians, following the Palm Sunday Suicide Bombings.

On April 9, two suicide bombers hit Saint Georges Cathedral in Tanta and St Marks Cathedral in Alexandria, killing and injuring dozens in the deadliest attack against civilians in the countrys recent history. A total of 29 people died in the Tanta explosion and 18 in Alexandria.

In December last year, an attack on a Coptic church in Cairo killed 25 people.

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Coptic Christians, which make up about 10 per cent of Egypts 91 million population, have faced persecution in Egypt, which has spiked since the toppling of Hosni Mubaraks regime in 2011. PTI YES CK

--- ENDS ---
Inside the Ha Noi Stock Exchange trading floor. - Photo hnx.vn

Classification rules on the UPCoM will categorise registered stocks into three categories, except for stocks on the Investors Warning list.

Under the system, stocks issued by companies or organisations with a registered owners equity of more than VND1 trillion (US$44.67 million) will belong to the UPCoM Large category, while stocks from those with VND300 billion ($13.4 million) to VND1 trillion in equity will be classified as UPCoM Medium. The UPCoM Small is for those from VND10 billion ($446,747) to below VND300 million.

These lists will be displayed on the live screens at the HNXs headquarter in Ha Noi and will be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. There are exceptions for stocks whose companies fail to meet the required level of capital, stocks being replaced by another or exchanged between lists.

UPCoM classification, based on levels of current capital, will sort registered companies stocks into their respective list according to the companys owners equity, which will be calculated from the closest balance sheet stated in the latest audited and published financial report.

In case the registered organisation is the mother company of another firm or is a firm with non legal entity subsidiaries, owners equity will simply be based on audited financial reports.

The new classification rule will replace the UPCoM Premium currently being used, and the official list of categorised stocks will be published by the HNX on June 24, 2017 on the occasion of the UPCoMs eighth year in operation.

For the first five months of 2017, 125 businesses have been newly listed on the UPCoM, with an average of 10.74 million shares being traded each session, amounting to VND202.9 billion ($9.06 million). This marks a 10.2 per cent increase in terms of quantity traded and 62.4 per cent in terms of quality compared to the same period in 2016.

At the end of Thursdays session, there were a total of 540 listed companies on the UPCoM, with VND419 trillion ($18.71 billion) in capital and VND185.55 trillion ($8.28 billion) in traded value.
Elite Capital Resources Limited bought the development rights from VinaLand for $41 million

In a recently released statement, VinaLand announced that it has divested its entire stake in the Times Square project, for net cash proceeds of approximately $41 million, resulting in an IRR of 5.3 per cent.

The project consists of a total land area of approximately 4.0 hectares and was acquired by VinaLand in 2007, at which time the land was designated as a future development site.

The buyer of the project is Elite Capital Resources Limited.

In conjunction with the announcement of the divestment, VinaLand said it will conduct a distribution of $40 million to shareholders through a tender offer to purchase ordinary shares of the company.

This tender offer follows todays announcement of the Times Square disposal which, in conjunction with several other exits, will enable shareholder distribution to continue in various forms, including share buybacks and tenders, and is a good outcome for shareholders as we continue to maximise shareholder value, said VinaLand managing director David Blackhall.

VinaLand also stated that its total valuation is 20.4 per cent above the March 31, 2016 un-audited net asset value, and 48.1 per cent above the unaudited net asset value at the time of VinaLands extraordinary meeting in November 2016. Both figures include adjustments for additional investments up to the date of exit.

At the time of this announcement, $17 million, or 41.5 per cent of the net proceeds, have been received by VinaLand with the remainder subject to precedent conditions expected to be satisfied by no later than July 2017.

Located in the emerging business district of the capital, Times Square Hanoi is a 65-35 joint venture between VinaCapital and Thang Long GTC, a unit under state-owned hospitality group Hanoi Tourist.

The planned mixed-use project has a committed investment capital of $50 million and broke ground in 2008. However, the development has been abandoned since then.

The project expected to provide a complex of 20,000 square metres of high-end office space for lease, a 300-room five-star hotel, and a trading centre.

Recently, VinaLand and Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited (VOF), both under VinaCapital, have been exiting from a range of real estate projects.

Right last month, VinaLand divested its entire stakes at Dai Phuoc Lotus, a residential complex in Dong Nai province, to China Fortune Land Development and earned about $65.3 million. Dai Phuoc Lotus consists of 332 high-end semi-detached and detached villas. Around 200 villas of the first phase have been handed over to buyers.

VinaCapital divestment bout continues with $11 million deal The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) just announced that three of VinaCapitals foreign investment funds have recently sold more than 29.4 million shares of Quoc Cuong Gia Lai Joint Stock Company (QCG).

VinaCapital completely divests Dai Phuoc Lotus Vietnam Opportunity Fund Limited under VinaCapital, the leading asset management and real estate development firm in Vietnam, announced on April 10 that it has divested its entire stake in the Dai Phuoc Lotus real estate project located in the southern province of Dong Nai, near Ho Chi Minh City.

Big sell-off in VinaCapitals recent real estate strategy VinaCapital-owned funds have divested from a number of real estate assets in Vietnam, supposedly including the long-held Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel, as the investment firm restructured its strategy.


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Many thought that Palaniswami would never last in office for 100 days, but he's proved them all wrong.

By Akshita Nandagopal: Many thought that he would never last in office for 100 days, but he's proved them all wrong. Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his government have completed 100 days in office and while they've faced a barrage of criticism about a lack of governance, he's fought it all off with a front page ad in all leading newspapers on Friday with a whole list of the schemes introduced and the money allotted for welfare schemes and development (no mention of the mammoth amount spent on these ads though).

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The advertisements detail out every single scheme and legislation by EPS in the last 3-and-a-half-month that he's been in power. No doubt it's been a fight for him, not just to hold on to the throne, but also to change the overriding sentiment against him as a 'power-grabber'. He's also faced a whole lot of criticism from the Opposition DMK that's been firing on all cylinders since Jaya's demise.

"Nothing has been done for the state and EPS clearly isn't competent to run a state, only to loot it. The ministers should step down and there should be a fresh cabinet," says DMK's Saravanan.

But, while EPS has been unfazed by harsh words from other political parties, he has tried hard to change the perception of the people. After a releasing a video highlighting all his achievements, this advertisement put out is another attempt to show that Palaniswami is indeed carrying forward Amma's legacy with a slew of welfare projects.

Here's a list of some of the accomplishments that the EPS govt has put out:

Funds for pregnant women increased from Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,000

Project to build 5000 homes for fishermen approved

54,821 unemployed youth benefit from grants given by govt -- this amount has been doubled

1964 legislations signed by CM

Foundation stones laid for 52 new projects

1,161 people given jobs

Chennai metro rail - Nehru Park inauguration

This is just the tip of the iceberg -- there's even a comprehensive list of the decisions taken in each department by concerned ministers.

"EPS is clearly carrying forward Amma's legacy by doing all that she promised to the people. The CM has been working for the last many months for the welfare of women, farmers and the entire state," says AIADMK Amma's Apsara Reddy.

Well, the Edappadi government has chosen to gloss over the lows of the past 100 days and while there have been many a hiccup for EPS as well (Liquor protests, drought, NEET and what not) he's managed to stay captain of a rather rocky ship.

ALSO READ:

Baahubali ft E Palanisamy: Propoganda ads in Chennai shower praise on EPS amid unrest

BJP-EPS pact on the cards in Tamil Nadu to end political stalemate?

--- ENDS ---

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Ajee Kindell breastfeeds her one-month-old son Jaeer Kindell at the breastfeeding clinic at St. John Hospital in Detroit, Mich.
A protest group known as the Black Monday Campaign has postponed demonstrations until after Cambodians go to the polls next month citing threats of violence.

Chan Puthisak, one of the movements organizers, said the decision was made to end the weekly protests was made after a number of warnings were issued by members of the government and military against disruptions ahead of the vote on June 4.

General Pol Saroeun, commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, said any group attempting to create a color revolution in the country would be dealt with harshly.

The Black Monday Campaign was created to advocate for the release of political prisoners in Cambodia, including four human rights workers and an election official jailed on questionable charges in connection with a case against the leader of the countrys main opposition party.

We want the leaders [to] feel relaxed and likely turn to be kind in releasing the people jailed in prison, Puthisak said of the decision to end the protests.

Bov Sophea, another Black Monday organizer, said the group did not want to distract people from an important national election.

I think that if any political party is elected and will serve the people, the prisoners will be freed automatically, she said.

Lim Mony, Yi Soksan, Nay Vanda and Ni Sokha, all staffers with local rights group Adhoc, were charged with corruption for allegedly bribing a witness in the case against the Cambodia National Rescue Partys president, Kem Sokha. Ny Chakrya, a National Election Committee member and former Adhoc official, was also charged with a related offense.

Gen. Saroeun said on Monday that the armed forces must absolutely oppose color revolution, a label regularly applied to peaceful protesters such as those taking part in the Black Monday protests. The army must protect the legitimate government, he said.

But campaigners say the government misunderstands their intentions. I think they dont know, but the people know that Cambodia is what we call a country of the rule of law and democracy, said Puthisak.

Sophea said Saroeuns comments revealed the government was paranoid and stuck in the past. They fear their own minds. They are in fear; they are thinking back to when revolutions were staged because they suffered at that time.
In the lead up to Junes commune elections, Sguon Samean, a former Sam Rainsy Party commune chief, say that she is hopeful that people will vote for her again.

I believe in my people. I have hope in my people since they trust me and they can depend on me. I am a good commune chief, said Samean, 53, who was elected in 2012.

Samean is seen as a courageous female commune chief in Trapaing Chan commune, which is home to more than 6,000 villagers.

I dare to solve problems for the people without fear. I solve problems without discrimination or political biases, she added.

Samean hopes to gain around 85 percent of the vote, adding that in the previous election she won only a slim majority of 120 over the ruling party Cambodia Peoples Party candidate.

The CPP won the majority of seats in the 2012 commune elections, securing more than 8,000 of the nearly 11,500 council seats up for grabs. The opposition only won 40 of the 1,633 commune chief positions.

In Kampong Chhnang province, the opposition CNRP won only one commune post among 70 in the last commune election. But the commune elections, scheduled for June 4, are promising to be a competitive affair, with the CPP and CNRP appearing to have comparable support.

Twelve parties will contest the election, but only the CPP and CNRP have registered candidates in all of the countrys 1,646 communes.

Samean was removed from her post on March 20 like hundreds of opposition commune officials who had changed party allegiance since they were elected in 2012, standing for the opposition CNRP.

She hopes to scale up her development plans for the area if the CNRP wins the next general election in 2018.

Samean is up against a senior ruling party candidate, Sang Khat, who has more than 30 years experience in leadership positions in the commune.

Khat, who is now the acting commune chief, admitted that he had failed to meet residents expectations during his time in charge. However, he hopes to gain voters trust.

In the past, I saw my mistakes. I didnt solve the problems on time in the manner people needed. I dont know whether she [Samean] has solved this problem or not. It is her business, he said.

Khat said he hopes to win about 65 percent of the vote, adding that he would stick to the party line during the two-week election campaign until June 2.

He criticized Samean for what he said was a failure to develop the areas infrastructure and improve the condition of overcrowded local schools, saying she was unable to raise funds from high-ranking officials to bring in much-needed additional revenue.

Communes in Cambodia receive minimal budgets, in the low tens of thousands of dollars, but the CNRP has claimed it would increase the budget of local authorities by some $1.6 billion if it wins power in 2018.

Local resident Yean Kan, 57, said that she has decided to vote for Samean.

I want the commune chief to take care of villagers, dig more wells, build schools and roads, she said.

Another villager, Uy Rachheung, 51, said that he needed the new commune chief to cooperate on forest protection in the community in addition to digging wells, building roads and providing good administrative services.

The new commune chief has to help give good services and fulfill other needs so that he or she will become a role model in the commune, he said.

Rachheung also wishes to see the commune chief strengthen the quality of education and also build a high school in the commune so that his children do not need to travel long distances to go to school.

Ngor Kimcheang, an opposition MP, told VOA Khmer during a visit to the area that he hopes that the party will win in about half of the provinces constituencies.

I surveyed villagers at the grassroots level. People need a change and they need new leadership. Therefore, I hope to get at least 30 to 40 commune posts in Kampong Chhnang province, he said.
A journalists association in Cambodia has condemned information minister Khieu Kanharith for publishing the passport details of a Canadian reporter covering the upcoming elections for a local newspaper.

The Overseas Press Club of Cambodia said in a statement that the move was potentially dangerous and defamatory and urged a retraction.

We urge members of the royal government, police and any associates to remove this information from the Internet, it said.

Zsombor Peter, a reporter with the Cambodia Daily, along with his Cambodian colleague Aun Pheap, were the subject of a complaint by a local opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party official after they visited his office in Ratanakkiri province to interview him.

Kanharith wrote on Facebook after receiving the complaint: Please all journalists understand more about the election law and ethics to avoided of any complaints.

However, the content of the complaint seems to be no more than the accusation that the reporters asked locals routine questions, such as which party they voted for in the last election, in 2012.

The complaint claims that this was in breach of the election law, which they claim prohibits discussing politics during an election campaign.

Ma Vichet, police chief in OYadav district, where the complaints were filed, said the force had interviewed residents who made the complaints. When the residents informed us about the case, we just went there, collected information, and asked who they are and where they were from, he said.

Hang Puthea, National Election Committee spokesman, said the complaints could have been filed if the journalists questions were seen as creating fear for voters or if they had asked about previous voting habits, which he said would amount to a loss of privacy.

Douglas Steele, the Cambodia Dailys general manager, described the complaints as a bit absurd and said no law in Cambodia restricted newspapers from publishing news about the election.

What the Cambodia Daily will do is the same as what we have been doing for 24 years - cover the news without fear or favor, he said.
Soon there will be no classic beauty salons in the United States. At least thats what two Alexandria businessmen claim. Don and Jeff DeBolt, father and son, offer stylists an opportunity to become owners of one man salons by renting equipped salon studios. The prices start at three hundred dollars per week. Their experiment turned out to be a successful business. Today there are 300 Sola Salon Studios with over seven thousand professionals. Anush Avetisyan visited one of them.
A budget proposal by the Trump administration in March outlines a commitment to the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA) effort to send astronauts to Mars. About $3.7 billion is earmarked for development of the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule, crucial parts of NASAs effort to send humans deeper into space. VOAs Kane Farabaugh explores the effort of contractors working on the project, united by the commitment to boldly go further into the final frontier.
Africa loses an estimated $50 billion a year to illicit financial flows, leaving governments strapped for cash and dependent on development aid.

The continent is "hemorrhaging" money because of the failure of countries to enact strong legislation to check money flows, says Rose Acha, Cameroon's supreme state audit minister and secretary general of the African Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.

Instead, uncontrolled transactions are common.

"Whatever the source of your money, we don't know, but we welcome those who want to deposit money," said Faison Winifred of Investment Fund, a local financial institution in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde. "Why  do you discourage the person by asking where is your source of income? We encourage everybody who comes to deposit money.  There is no limit. Whatever amount you want to deposit, we like it."

Acha says smuggling and trafficking during illegal commercial activity constitute 65 percent of Africas financial hemorrhage, while criminal activities  which consist of using funds for illegal purposes, like financing organized crime and terrorism  come next with 30 percent. She says corruption and tax evasion account for the remaining 5 percent of the money lost.

According to the United Nations High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows, Africa loses a staggering $50 billion annually. The panel says that is approximately double the amount of official development assistance Africa receives.

African tax and audit experts, meeting this week in Yaounde, said the worst offender is Nigeria, with an illicit outflow of $157 billion from 2003 to 2012. South Africa ranks second with $122 billion lost during that time period, and Egypt third with $37 billion.

Magagi Tanko of the supreme state audit office of Niger says that in Central and West Africa, huge sums of money are transferred illegally and public coffers are impoverished. In addition, illegal financial flows from drug trafficking have spiraled.

Exporters use under-invoicing so they can dodge taxes and bring in less foreign exchange, leaving the rest of their earnings in offshore accounts, he says.

Lagan Wort, executive secretary of the African Tax Administration, says a regional approach is key.

"Parts of the defense mechanism that African governments must employ is to build strong tax legislation and tax policy systems, including tax agreements between countries, especially inter-African countries," Wort said.

The experts resolved to work with the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative  a joint effort by the World Bank and U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime  to recover funds, but said the process is long and cumbersome, since many banks remain secretive about their transactions.

They said many of the illicit financial flows also end up funneled through complex criminal rings, severely limiting the ability of law enforcement and tax authorities to trace offenders and eventually recover the money.
A legal breakthrough this week for same-sex marriage in Taiwan will inspire LGBT activists to take up the cause elsewhere in Asia, but they will meet widespread resistance because of religion, tradition and authoritarian governments.

On Wednesday Taiwans Justices of the Constitutional Court said laws now fail to protect peoples legal marriage freedom and rights to equality for same-sex couples.

It asked parliament to adjust laws over the next two years to ensure that two men or two women can marry. If the laws are changed, Taiwan would be the first place in Asia to allow same-sex marriage, joining 20 countries outside the region.

Activists excited by ruling

The announcement excited LGBT activists who had pushed for marriage equality and garnered attention from supporters in other parts of Asia.

Hong Kong LGBT friends, or even in mainland China, and in places such as South Korea and Japan and Thailand, weve had quite a bit of contact, said Chien Chih-chieh, secretary general with the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights.

Their LGBT activists have worked extremely hard and hope their countries too can approve marriage equality, she said. So after Taiwans victory we immediately got a lot of congratulations from those activists. So I believe in the future our influence should be quite profound.

Taiwans vibrant LGBT community, which has grown with two decades of social activism encouraged by politicians, wants marriage equality so couples can share assets, insurance benefits and the rights to raise children. Today only one person per unmarried couple has legal custody over any minors.

Jovi Wu, a sales worker in Taipei, would marry so her partner could share care for their 4-year-old girl, especially critical in the case of any medical emergency.

Well definitely do it, said Wu, 36. Thats the guarantee our child needs the most, that two people have the rights to raise her.

Rest of Asia more difficult

But elsewhere in Asia, one-party governments, in places such as China, are unlikely to follow Taiwan. They restrict activism such as the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender movements that would start marriage equality campaigns.

Japan lacks a multicultural element in its democracy, while South Koreas Christian population would oppose same-sex marriage, said Jens Damm, associate professor in the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Studies at Chang Jung University in Taiwan.

Teachings of Islam would stop Indonesia, Malaysia and countries in the Middle East from considering same-sex marriage, experts believe. In the mostly Catholic Philippines, the president has said hes opposed.

Vietnam abolished a ban on marriage equality but stopped short of recognizing these marriages, Washington-based advocacy group HRC Global said.

Conservative religious doctrines and social mores often impede same-sex marriage legislation in Asia, HRC Global deputy director Jean Freedberg said.

Cambodia and Thailand, however, have considered moving in Taiwans direction. The Thai parliament was considering a same-sex marriage bill in 2012 and dropped it only because of broader political instability at the time, according to media reports from Bangkok.

Obstacles in Taiwan

Marriage equality in Taiwan still faces obstacles, as well. Church groups and advocates of traditional Chinese family values have pressured legislators against changing the civil code in a way that would meet the demand of the constitutional court.

About 46 percent of the islands public favors same-sex marriage and about 45 percent oppose it, the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation said in November.

Its not so simple, because the anti-LGBT groups of course are very unsatisfied with the explanation of the justices, so theyre still keeping up pressure, said lawmaker Yu Mei-nu, who last year introduced a bill to change wording in the civil code. Her effort met with 30,000 protesters in December.

Same-sex marriages would cost the government extra benefit payouts if one person died and the other had no child for support, opponents say. Adult children often care for their parents in ethnic Chinese societies such as Taiwans.

Any children would lack understanding of the gender not represented by their parents, some believe, while same-sex couples might depend heavily on adoptions, a trend they call unfair to those children. About 5 percent of Taiwanese identify themselves as Christians.

In the legislature, a lot of lawmakers are elected by district, so of course they will feel the pressure, Yu said. Therefore I think theres still a ways to go before our bill as submitted to legislators can be voted on.
Members of Congress criticized the Education Department on Thursday over $6 billion in improper payments made as part of federal student aid programs.

Kathleen Tighe, inspector general at the department, told a House hearing that the department made $2.21 billion in improper payments as part of its Pell Grants program in 2016 and $3.86 billion as part of the Direct Loan program. Overall, the department last year awarded nearly $125 billion in financial aid to nearly 12 million students.

Improper payments are disbursements that should not have been made, went to the wrong recipient, were for an incorrect amount or were not documented properly. Not all improper payments result in a liability for the federal government.

Jay Hurt, chief financial officer for the department's Federal Student Aid office, told a House subcommittee that the department would seek to correct the problem, but he added that a zero-percent rate of improper payments was not feasible because fraud occurs in most organizations. Hurt cited a recent study that found organizations typically lose 5 percent of revenue to fraud.

Representative Virginia Fox, a North Carolina Republican, pushed back.

"I think we should strive for zero mistakes," Fox told Hurt. "You are not dealing with your own money, you are dealing with someone else's money, and I want people in the department to remember that."

Program official resigned

James Runcie, the chief operations officer for the financial aid program, had been scheduled to testify at the hearing, but he resigned abruptly Tuesday night, citing political disagreement with his bosses. Runcie was a political appointee of the Obama administration. The department said Runcie resigned so as not to have to testify.

Representative Mark Meadows, another North Carolina Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee on government operations, was adamant that Runcie be held accountable for the "abysmal" results and suggested he didn't deserve the bonuses he received. Meadows said he was considering issuing a subpoena for Runcie.

"It's a slap in the face to the millions of taxpayers who provided this gentleman with over $430,000 in bonuses since 2010," Meadows said.

Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said it was unclear how many of the improper payments were intentional and how much was accidental.

"It's difficult for me to give an exact percentage of how much is fraud and how much is just honest mistakes," Draeger said.

Tighe said that the while the department has been responsive to audits and making reforms, there was a lot of work ahead.

"They've done some work to try to resolve some of our audits, but there are still some ways to go," Tighe said.
For the past two decades, I have observed that when political parties or candidates lose elections, they tend to blame the electronic voting machine (EVM). When they win by virtue of the same machine, they celebrate their victories with gusto. To give the example of Uttar Pradesh, EVMs manufactured since 2001 have been used in multiple elections. In 2007, the Bahujan Samaj Party won the assembly election; the Samajwadi Party (SP) won in 2012 and the BJP this year. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Congress and SP did well; in the 2014 general election, the BJP won resoundingly. To suggest that EVMs manufactured so many years ago could be tampered with to give a doctored result is beyond comprehension. Yet, after the 2017 UP assembly elections, the principal parties that lost once again put the blame on EVMs.

Navin B Chawla

EVMs are manufactured by two highly reputed public sector undertakings, exclusively for the Election Commission (EC). These are 'standalone' machines, networked neither by wire nor by wireless to any other machine or system. They cannot be influenced or manipulated by signals from computers or cellphones or any other source. The software in the machine is burnt into a one-time programmable or masked chip that cannot be altered. Not even the EC has the source code of the software.

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Several high courts have endorsed the machine's reliability. The first legal challenge arose in 1971 when the late J. Jayalalithaa moved the Madras High Court. The court observed that the EC had taken every precaution as a "prudent normal person" might take in this matter and that the "margin of error was negligible". The court held that the EVM was a very simple and perfectly sound technology without defect, and that the advantages of using EVMs outweighed those of conventional ballot boxes. The petitioner's contention about the failure of EVMs in Japan and the United States was held to be inapplicable to India. The second challenge was raised in the Karnataka High Court by C.K. Jaffer Sharief. The issue raised was primarily that the EVMs used were vulnerable to 'mischief'. The court, in its February 5, 2004, order, held that the invention of the EVM was a matter of 'national pride'. Another challenge arose before the Bombay High Court wherein it was alleged rigging was possible through 'remotely operated devices' without actual access to either the strongroom or the machine. In its October 21, 2005 order, the court dismissed the petition on grounds that the witnesses were not able to aver a single instance wherein EVMs could actually be tampered with.

Soon after I completed the 2009 general elections, the BJP alleged tampering. We assembled 100 machines (10 each from 10 different states) and invited those who had objected to tamper and show, within the EC. Video cameras were positioned to record any evidence. No one was able to tamper with the machine. There were requests for allowing the machines to be taken away for a couple of weeks, but these were rejected as the intellectual property rights were only with the manufacturers. What resulted, however, was an altogether different need-to create a new model of EVM with an inbuilt paper trail. This was raised by Dr Subramanian Swamy and was agreed to. This has since become a reality and will be comprehensively employed for the 2019 general elections.

The most recent challenge has arisen from the Aam Aadmi Party, which sought to demonstrate in the Delhi assembly that EVMs could be tampered with. However, this was not a machine that belonged to the EC but a 'lookalike'. So, I could not give the demonstration any credence. Meanwhile, the EC has invited all objectors to a 'hackathon' test, not dissimilar to the one I conducted in 2009. I have no doubt the result will be the same.

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(Navin B. Chawla is a former chief election commissioner of India)

--- ENDS ---
President Donald Trump has announced his intent to nominate Henry Kerner, vice president of a nonpartisan watchdog agency, as special counsel in the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that protects employee rights.

Kerner is the vice president of a watchdog group called Cause of Action that monitors and reports on federal government waste, fraud and abuse.

Kerner, a career prosecutor, previously served on the staffs of the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, both of which investigate inefficiency in government.

Kerner's nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

The Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency that protects federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, such as reprisals for whistle-blowing.
One of the Chinese governments most vocal critics is finally falling silent.



He Weifang told The Associated Press Friday that he would no longer publish on social media after authorities repeatedly shut down his personal blog, his Weibo microblog and two WeChat accounts.



He, a famed law professor at elite Peking University and key defender of imprisoned Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, is the latest public intellectual to throw in the towel in President Xi Jinpings China. Over the past half-decade, freedom of speech and other civil liberties have been rolled back while a radical movement devoted to the Peoples Republics authoritarian founder Mao Zedong has flourished.



I feel utterly helpless, He said by telephone. Its as if Im not allowed to make a single sound.



Systematically silenced

He attracted a massive following in Chinese intellectual circles over the past decade for his prolific writings on everything from social ills to architecture, but especially for his languid but trenchant essays on rule of law and politics. By his own count, He boasted 20 million readers at his peak. When his Weibo account was frozen in March, it had roughly 1.9 million followers.



Over the past five years, however, He has come under relentless attack online from defenders of the ruling Communist Party and even more extreme Maoists whove held public demonstrations denouncing Hes liberal views, which are considered rightist on Chinas political spectrum. His speaking engagements dried up three years ago after the Global Times, a party-run newspaper with a leftist bent, reported critically on a lecture he delivered to retired party cadres in southern China, essentially ruling him out of the lecture circuit.



In the last 40 years, freedom of speech for intellectuals has never been constricted as severely as it is now, He said. It makes you outraged.



Other prominent liberals have been systematically silenced since Xi ascended to power in 2012, ushering in a deep-seated suspicion of liberal Western values and thought. The Unirule Institute of Economics, a liberal think tank headed by the well-known, free-market economist Mao Yushi, was shuttered in January. And elderly editors at a liberal historical journal that examined Chinese history were pushed out last year.



He is one of the most influential public intellectuals  a spokesman for liberalism, said Teng Biao, a visiting scholar at New York University who practiced and taught law in Beijing before leaving for the U.S. in 2014. Scholars with an independent spirit or the courage to criticize will never have a good end.

Thorn in partys side



He has long been a thorn in the Communist Partys side and participated in sensitive campaigns, such as the pro-democracy manifesto movement in 2008 that resulted in a brief quasi-exile from his prestigious Beijing university. But until recently, the government has allowed him a degree of freedom to write.



For years, He singled out the lack of judicial independence as a fundamental fault in Chinas political system. In January he took aim at Chinas top judge, Zhou Qiang, after Zhou dismissed an American-style separation of powers and independent courts as mistaken Western concepts.



He spoke out again months later, in March, after China passed a law forbidding the criticism of Communist Party heroes. That essay was the one that seemed to finally land him in trouble irrevocably, He said.



As his decision to stop writing spread among Chinas intellectual and dissident circles in recent days, some have urged He to take his writing to Facebook and Twitter, two services that are inaccessible in mainland China without the use of special VPN software, but also beyond the reach of Communist Party censors.



He said he has considered that option but decided against publishing on any platform that would not be accessible to the majority of Chinese readers.



In my mind, whenever I have written, I have always imagined writing for the audience that lives on this land, he said.
Climate change was among the most contentious agenda items Friday at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Sicily, but both American and British government officials are publicly denying any major discord.



The leaders had a very good discussion about climate issues, British Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters, adding there was no doubt around the table -- which included U.S. President Donald Trump -- about how important the issue is.



Trump is taking in what he learned from world leaders today to make his decision on whether to honor Washingtons commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement signed two years ago, according to the presidents chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn.

Watch: Climate Change, Migration, North Korea, Terrorism Dominate Trump's 1st G-7 Meeting





U.S. administration officials have said Trump, who referred to man-made global warming as a hoax during his successful presidential campaign last year, would wait until after the summit before making a decision on the issue.



The G-7, going back more than a decade, has repeatedly recognized the threat of climate change. Closely watched will be the specific language issued about the subject in the Taormina communique, expected to be released late Friday or early Saturday.



It would be extremely rare for this major set of developed countries to not send a clear signal regarding climate change, according to Jake Schmidt, the international program director of the National Resources Defense Council.



We think the Paris Agreement has to be implemented entirely, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.





North Korea, Trade

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump said just before the start of Fridays summit that it would have a particular focus on the North Korea problem.



A White House statement issued Friday said the two leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate to the fullest extent possible to counter terrorist threats and have agreed to enhance sanctions on North Korea in an attempt to deter the development of North Koreas ballistic missile and nuclear programs.



While terrorism would also be a primary concern for the leaders during their two days of talks on the Italian island, North Koreas nuclear weapons testing and ballistic missile development comprise a big problem, its a world problem, said Trump. It will be solved at some point. It will be solved, you can bet on that.



Trade is another major topic on the minds of Trumps counterparts, who have gathered in the resort town of Taormina.



Juncker, who heads the 28-member EC which manages the day-to-day business of the European Union, on Friday denied that Trump in a closed-door meeting in Brussels the previous day denounced Germany as very bad for its trade policies.



He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly, Juncker said, adding German reports are not true that the U.S. president had been aggressive toward Germany.





Russia sanctions

Cohn, briefing reporters alongside H.R. McMcaster, the national security advisor, clarified earlier remarks that a softening of sanctions in place on Moscow might be softened.



Were not lowering our sanctions on Russia. If anything we would look to get tougher on Russia, said Cohn, who is the director of the national economic council.



Along with the United States, the other members of the G-7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain. The EU is also represented.



The group of wealthy nations also included Russia between 1997 and 2014 and was known as the G-8. But after Moscows invasion of Crimea, Russian participation was suspended.



For Russia to return it would have to adhere to the Minsk accords, and implementing those, restoring Ukrainian sovereignty, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Wednesday.
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes have killed three senior Islamic State military officials in Syria and Iraq during the past month, the U.S. military said Friday.

Mustafa Gunes, an external operations facilitator from Turkey, was killed by a coalition airstrike near Mayadin, Syria, on April 27. Gunes was linked to facilitating financial support for attacks against Western countries, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.

French-Algerian Abu Asim al-Jazaeri was killed by a coalition airstrike near Mayadin on May 11. U.S. military officials say al-Jazaeri was involved in training an Islamic State youth group called the Cubs of the Caliphate.

And senior Islamic State official Abu-Khattab al-Rawi was killed along with three other IS fighters during an operation near Al-Qaim, Iraq, on May 18. The Central Command statement called al-Rawi an Anbar province operator who "provided direct support to ISIS leadership" and coordinated aerial drone operations. ISIS is an acronym for Islamic State.

Meanwhile, a U.S. service member has died of injuries sustained Friday when his vehicle rolled over in northern Syria, the U.S. military said.

A statement from U.S. Central Command did not provide further details.

A U.S. official told VOA the death was "non-combat related." It is unclear what caused the vehicle to roll over.

U.S. forces have been helping Syrian local fighters push back Islamic State militants across Iraq and Syria.

Local Syrian fighters are currently in the process of surrounding Islamic State's de-facto capital of Raqqa, Syria.

Iraqi forces have pushed the terror group out of about 90 percent of Mosul, Iraq, the most populated city held by the group.
Democratic Republic of Congo opposes an international investigation into the deaths of two U.N. investigators, the foreign minister said on Thursday, amid

mounting criticism of the Congolese authorities' own probe.

Congolese military prosecutors announced last weekend that two suspected militiamen would soon face trial for the March killings of U.N. investigators Zaida Catalan, a Swede, and American Michael Sharp in the insurrection-plagued Kasai region.

Rights groups, however, say they suspect Congolese forces could have been involved in the deaths.

A U.N. spokesman on Tuesday cast doubt on the credibility of the Congolese investigation, saying the world body was "taken aback at the rapidity at which it was done."

A U.N. board of inquiry is investigating the experts' deaths but is not expected to assign blame, leading some rights campaigners to call for a formal international investigation.

In a letter to the editor of the New York Times on Thursday, Catalan and Sharp's families also called for an "independent international criminal investigation team to ... help ensure that those responsible face justice".

Congo's foreign minister, Leonard She Okitundu, rejected any such investigation in an interview with Radio France Internationale and accused unnamed U.N. Security Council members of trying to discredit the Congolese justice system.

"Congolese expertise in this matter must be respected," She Okitundu said.

The New York Times had reported on Sunday that Catalan had obtained a recording of a phone call in which ex-development minister Clement Kanku speaks approvingly of violence perpetrated by a local militia to a presumed militia member.

According to the Times, Catalan had informed Kanku she was in possession of the recording. Congo's attorney general said on Tuesday he had opened an investigation into the former minister's possible role in militia violence. Kanku has denied any wrongdoing.

Catalan and Sharp disappeared in March in central Congo's Kasai region, where hundreds have died since last July in an insurrection against the government. Their bodies were found two weeks later in a shallow grave.

Last month, the government screened a video for journalists showing their executions by men wearing red headbands characteristic of the local Kamuina Nsapu militia to rebuff suggestions authorities were complicit in the killings.

But many analysts say the grainy and highly edited video raises more questions than it answers, including why the assassins from the Tshiluba-speaking militia gave orders in Lingala, the language of western Congo and the army.

The investigators' interpreter and three motorcycle taxi drivers who went missing with them have not been found.
The United States is again receiving intelligence from a key ally, putting to rest, for now at least, the latest flap over Washingtons handling of sensitive information.

Britain resumed intelligence sharing with the U.S. late Thursday, saying it had received "fresh assurances" after American officials leaked key details of the investigation into the Manchester terror attack to the media.

"While we do not usually comment on information sharing arrangements, having received fresh assurances, we are now working closely with our key partners around the world including all those in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance," said Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britains top counterterrorism officer.

The "Five Eyes" alliance is the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

British police furious

Tensions between the U.S. and Britain, simmering since U.S. officials began leaking details like the name of the Manchester bomber just hours after the attack, came to a boil Thursday. Manchester police were reported to be furious that the New York Times published unreleased forensic photographs from the crime scene.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who earlier said she intended to make clear "that intelligence that is shared between law enforcement agencies must remain secure," did just that during an encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump at Thursdays NATO summit in Brussels, according to a spokesman.

Watch: May on Pressing Trump About Manchester Intel Leaks

And it seems the message resonated.

"My administration will get to the bottom of this," Trump said in a statement, calling the leaks "deeply troubling" and "a grave threat to our national security."

Initiated appropriate steps

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also took action, saying Thursday he had "initiated appropriate steps" to take care of the problem.

Some British officials were quick to caution that despite the flare-up, there likely would be no lasting damage to what has been a strong and steady relationship between the two countries.

"When one side talks the other side listens," one official told VOA on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials were likewise eager to condemn the leaks, emphasizing the need to assure allies the intelligence community can be trusted.

Other incidents

But the dispute with Britain over details of the Manchester investigation is just the latest and follows another incident that has threatened to unsettle U.S. allies.

Israel this week said it had changed its intelligence sharing protocols with the U.S. after Trump shared highly classified information with Russian diplomats during a visit to the White House two weeks ago.

"I can confirm that we did a spot repair," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio Wednesday. "What we had to clarify with our friends in the United States, we did."

But even though both Israel and Britain say their intelligence sharing relationships with the U.S. remain excellent, the incident may add to nagging doubts held by some U.S. allies since Trump took office.

"We dont want to create a situation where other intelligence services, our allies like the Brits, like the Israelis, feel very hesitant to share intelligence and share information with us because of the fear that this information or this intel can end up on the front page of newspapers," Ali Soufan, a former FBI supervisory special agent, told VOA.

"Sharing it [the intelligence] with the Russians, an entity thats considered hostile both to us, from an intelligence perspective, and to the country  is very damaging to the relationship," he added.

Top U.S. intelligence officials also acknowledge there is a danger.

"The release of information not only undermines confidence in our allies about our ability to maintain secure information that we share with them, it jeopardizes sources and methods that are invaluable to our ability to find out whats going on and what those threats are," Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told lawmakers earlier this week.

For now, there is no evidence that the leaks from the Manchester investigation or Trumps disclosure to the Russians, have resulted in any lasting problems, although intelligence assessments have not been completed.

And despite any misgivings, U.S. allies are unlikely to bail out on long-standing intelligence relationships that have been cultivated for decades.

"We still have the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world," Soufan said. "We need our allies to work with us, but lets be frank, they need us more than we need them. So this is going to create some frustrating feelings, but I think we will overcome that."


Under a sunny spring sky, NATO on Thursday moved into shiny new headquarters that some said project a forward-looking image at odds with critics' characterization of the alliance.

While some European leaders are anxious about the future, others saw Thursday's NATO summit  where discussions were driven largely by the latest terrorist attacks in Europe  as a chance for the alliance to set out in a new direction.

The sprawling, steel-and-glass wings of the new complex are meant to resemble interlocking fingers. The facility drew the admiration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who lightened the mood among leaders otherwise nervous about what he might say.

"I never asked what the new NATO headquarters cost. I refuse to do that. But it is beautiful," Trump said, drawing laughs and smiles.

With a price tag of $1.2 billion, the complex is rich with symbols of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's history and its future.

Merkel dedicates Berlin Wall memorial

At a ceremony, German Chancellor Angela Merkel dedicated a Berlin Wall memorial composed of two sections of the reinforced concrete barrier  a symbol of a free Europe reunited after the Cold War.

A memorial of twisted beams from the World Trade Center towers, destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, is a reminder that combating terrorism has emerged as a key NATO objective in the 21st century. It's also symbolic of the allies' commitment to come to the aid of any member who is attacked  the collective defense clause of the NATO treaty, known as Article 5. After 9/11, the NATO allies invoked Article 5 for the first and, so far, only time.

Leaders agree to set up intelligence sharing unit

"President Trump dedicated the 9/11 and Article 5 memorial  a powerful reminder of NATO solidarity and importance of our common fight against terrorism," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

Stoltenberg praised Trump's current U.S. budget proposal, with its increase in military spending, as "the strongest possible sign of commitment to our alliance."

Leaders agreed to move ahead with an action plan to fight terrorism and set up an intelligence-sharing unit.

The atmospherics of the meeting were better than expected, and that, analysts say, was perhaps Thursday's biggest accomplishment.

"I think at this meeting the mood may have improved," Judy Dempsey, a security analyst at the Carnegie Europe research organization in Brussels, told VOA. "Europeans were very, very nervous about [Trump's] coming. He's here, the sun is shining."

The building, she added, reflects the fact that NATO is here to stay.

Montenegro to become 29th member

The complex speaks of an organization in good shape and resolved to continue efforts against threats in places like Afghanistan, where NATO leaders are soon to decide on boosting troop levels for the training of Afghan forces.

The subject of Russia came up, with the U.S. leader listing it among the top security threats.

The alliance continues to grow. Leaders on Thursday welcomed the president of Montenegro, whose country is soon to become NATO's 29th member.
A group of 50 Somali nationals deported from the United States arrived in Mogadishu on Friday, officials says.



The Somali ambassador to United States, Ahmed Isse Awad, told VOA Somali that the 50 deportees are the second group to be sent to Mogadishu this month.



There were 50 people deported; 30 of them were removed due to criminal cases against them, 20 had their asylum applications rejected, he said.

Samir Abdirahman Arab was among the Somali nationals who were deported.



The judge ordered our deportation and has issued the removal order, he told VOA Somali.

Arab, who was detained in Atlanta, Georgia, for three months, was then taken to Florence, Arizona, where the plane carrying the deportees departed to Mogadishu via Dakar, Senegal, and Nairobi, Kenya.



Arab came to the U.S. in January 2016 after traveling from Somalia to Brazil, and then north to the U.S. border.



In total, I spent $28,000 for my trip to the United States, he said.

Asked what he is going to do next, Arab said, I dont have a plan, I dont even know where to start.

A friend who was deported with him, Salman Mohamed Duale, spent $30,000 for a similar route. Both have accused the Somali embassy in the United States of playing a role in their deportation.



Ambassador Awad denies this.

The embassy cannot deport them, cannot order their removal, Awad said. Likewise, we cannot issue legal status to them in this country. If we had this power, we would have given all Somalis legal permits.

He said the U.S. government has the authority to make decisions on who is to stay and who is to be removed from this country. All we do is issue travel documents to those approved by a judge to be removed.



This is the fourth group of Somalis deported from the U.S. this year.



The deportees have told VOA that they were handcuffed and had their legs chained throughout the trip from the United States.
President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday.

Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Kushner is the only current White House official known to be considered a key person in the probe, the newspaper reported.

The FBI, several congressional committees and a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department are looking into allegations of meddling by Russia in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the election.

The controversy has engulfed Trump's administration since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 10. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion with Russia.

The interest in Kushner does not mean investigators suspect him of a crime or intend to charge him, the officials told NBC News.

It is not known whether Kushner has received any requests from the FBI for records, NBC News said.

One of Kushner's attorneys, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement her client would cooperate with the investigation.

"Mr. Kushner previously volunteered to share with Congress what he knows about these meetings. He will do the same if he is contacted in connection with any other inquiry, " Gorelick said.

The FBI and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sur, a central district in Diyarbakir, which was destroyed in the monthslong clashes in 2015 between Turkish security forces and the youth branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is finally being rebuilt. But some families are refusing to leave their homes, saying a state-sponsored subsidy is too low. Power and water to the district have been cut, and the families are struggling to live without electricity and having to carry water for their needs.

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AAP and Congress raised some issues but they did not express any interest in participating in the EVM challenge.

By India Today Web Desk: After creating a furore over allegations of tampering of electronic voting machines (EVMs), Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has backed out of Election Commission's hackathon challenge. Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and CPI-M are the only ones to have accepted the challenge.

An Election Commission official told India Today that only eight political parties sent their responses to them on the EVM challenge which will take place on June 3 between 10 am and 2 pm. The application deadline ended at 5 pm today.

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"NCP expressed their interest in participating in the challenge. AAP and Congress raised some issues but as per the existing framework of challenge, they did not express interest in participating in the challenge," Election Commission of India director Dhirendra Ojha told India Today.

Three political parties - Communist Party of India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) have expressed their interest to observe how the hackathon takes place.

However since only NCP and CPI-M have shown interest, no observers may turn out on the hackathon.

All India NR Congress have written to the Election Commission stating that they are not participating.

There will be two counters for the two parties to try and hack the machines. Both will get four hours each for the task.

As per the framework chalked out by the EC, each participating party can have three members and will get four hours to prove that the machines can be tampered with.

EVM CONTROVERSY

Certain political parties like the AAP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had doubted the credibility and integrity of EVMs that were used in the recently-held Assembly elections of five states - Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh - and Delhi MCD polls.

On Saturday last, the poll panel announced that an EVM challenge to hack and tamper with the EVMs would take place on June 3 and the seven recognised national and 49 state parties can participate in the challenge.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had wanted the commission to allow them to interfere with the motherboard of the EVM. The demands were rejected the the commission which said that the idea is implausible and irrational as changing motherboard makes it a new machine.

AAP's national secretary Pankaj Kr Gupta had written to Chief Election Commissioner Dr Nasim Zaidi asking him to not set any 'rules and regulations' for the hackathon.

"We strongly urge you to reconsider the terms of the EVM challenge. Please do not set any such rules and regulations and allow it to be an open hackathon where tampering of any kind can be demonstrated on the machine," the AAP had said in the memorandum.

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Also read:

Election Commission to AAP: Changing EVMs' motherboard during hackathon is irrational

How so-called EVM scandals unraveled one by one. Also, how Election Commission asserted reliability

EVM row: Why is Election Commission running away from open hackathon, asks AAP

Also watch:

Election Commission extends EVM hackathon challenge to all political parties

--- ENDS ---
African delegates celebrated with ululations and high-fives when Ethiopia's Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected director-general of the World Health Organization earlier this week in Geneva. Now, Tedros faces a slew of challenges as he takes the helm of a sprawling organization with more than 7,000 employees in 150 countries, responsible for improving health care around the world.

Tedros, who goes by his first name, won by a clear majority, defeating British and Pakistani candidates in the first WHO election decided by member countries. He will become the first African to head the WHO when he takes the reins July 1.

"In our view, this victory is a victory for Ethiopia. It is a victory for Africa and a victory for Dr. Tedros personally," Meles Alem, an Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told VOA's Amharic service.

"Dr. Tedros will focus on promoting universal coverage, ensuring the health of women and children, and expansion of health in tandem with climate, which [is disproportionately] affecting Africa as compared to the developed world."

Funding challenges

Tedros will inherit an agency with a funding shortfall of approximately $2.2 billion. The WHO has seen dramatic cuts from traditional donors such as the United States.

"Its budget has been cut radically year after year, after year," Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told VOA. She said donations that once went to the WHO now go to other health-related agencies such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

"In a sense, they're competing for resources and for the support of governments generally and, specifically, for the support of the most powerful governments in the world, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, China and Germany," Garrett said.

Tedros doesn't see it as a competition. He wants to broaden the WHO's funding strategy and raise money not only for the agency but for organizations that share common goals, including the Global Fund, the World Bank and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

"The WHO's ability to respond cannot be constrained by its resources," Tedros wrote in an opinion piece published in the medical journal The BMJ. "We will need to pursue increased and more flexible funding, broadening the WHO's funding sources and moving away from vertical funding to basket funds that can be used for broad health priorities determined by its member states."

Early warning systems

Tedros has said he will prioritize improvements to the pandemic early warning and response systems in Africa and around the world. The WHO waited nine months after the first reported case of Ebola in December 2013 to declare a state of emergency in West Africa  a widely criticized decision.

To address this, the WHO is implementing an emergency response program, and it plans to encourage member states to conduct regular simulations of their epidemic response procedures.

"You can develop that attitude of responding to epidemics when you do simulations," Tedros said during a press conference after his win. "By [conducting] simulations, you can prepare the mind. You can prepare the logistics. You can refine your processes."

Tedros pointed to quick responses to an ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and an outbreak of an unknown illness in Liberia this year as evidence that the continent has learned lessons from the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak.

Bureaucracy struggles at agency

Tedros' largest challenge may be managing the unique bureaucracy of the WHO. Under its constitution, the organization is divided into six regional offices that operate mostly on their own. A report by The Economist said the directors of these offices are selected by local ministers of health who continue to influence them after they take office.

"The director-general has very little control over the organization's budget, human resources and work in countries, including in case of emergencies," Peter Piot of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told The Economist.

Without specifically addressing this problem, Tedros said many of the WHO staffers he has spoken with have emphasized the need for the organization to have a common vision. He said he aims to be a reformer.

Garrett said implementing these reforms will be easier said than done.

"What we haven't seen  what hasn't been put to the test  are a whole range of other great challenges that he will certainly face," she said. "Can he raise billions of dollars? ... Does he have the skills to deal with the balance between the priorities for things like cancer, heart disease  the non-infectious diseases  versus the priority set by potential contagious catastrophes? We'll see."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has declined for now to give the House Oversight Committee documents it had requested regarding communications between former FBI chief James Comey and President Donald Trump, the head of the panel said Thursday.

The FBI said it was still evaluating the request, which had a committee-set deadline of Wednesday, in light of the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the possibility of collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials seeking to influence the 2016 election, according to a letter released by committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican.

In a responding letter, Chaffetz said he still wanted any related documents that would be outside the scope of the special counsel's investigation, and a list of documents found to be within the scope of the probe, by June 8.

"I am seeking to better understand Comey's communications with the White House and attorney general in such a way that does not implicate the special counsel's work," Chaffetz said in the letter.

Chaffetz made his initial request for documents after a New York Times report that Comey had written in a memo that Trump asked him to halt an FBI investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian officials.

Chaffetz's panel is one of several in Congress investigating alleged efforts by Russia to tip the election to Trump, and the possibility that Trump associates had coordinated with Moscow.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee made it easier Wednesday for that panel to obtain documents for its investigation. Its chairman, Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina, told reporters that members had agreed unanimously to allow him and Virginia's Mark Warner, its top Democrat, to issue subpoenas as they saw fit, without a vote by the committee.

The controversy has engulfed Trump's administration since he fired Comey on May 10. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations, and Trump denies any collusion.

The FBI letter's to Chaffetz on Thursday noted the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller last week as special counsel to investigate the issue.

"In light of this development and other considerations, we are undertaking appropriate consultation to ensure all relevant interests implicated by your request are properly evaluated," the letter said.
Philippine officials say foreigners are among the gunmen loyal to Islamic State who seized control of the southern city of Marawi as government forces raided a suspected hideout of a wanted terrorist.

Tens of thousands of residents have fled the violence raging through Marawi, one of the biggest Muslim cities in the primarily Catholic Philippines. Marawi is on southern Mindanao island.

"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens," Solicitor General Jose Calida said Friday. "It has transformed into an invasion of foreign fighters." He said Malaysians, Indonesians and Singaporeans were among them.

The trouble began late Tuesday, when Philippine security forces launched a mission to arrest militant leader Isnilon Hapilon. Hapilon was believed to be staying in Marawi, nursing wounds suffered from a previous clash. The militants responded to the raid by storming the city, burning down buildings, including a university and Catholic churches, and taking hostages, including a priest.

The gunmen flew black IS flags during their rampage across the city.

President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern Philippines, warning he might expand it nationwide. Martial law was last declared nationwide in 1972, when then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos used it to preserve his grasp on power for over a decade.

Duterte's use of martial law has raised concerns among human rights groups, who have accused him of ordering security forces to kill thousands of people as part of his crackdown on illicit drugs.

Hundreds of people marched to the presidential palace in Manila to protest Duterte's declaration. They held banners while chanting, "Never again to martial law."

"You can see that IS is already here," Duterte said in a speech Friday at a military camp near Marawi.

Philippine troops entered Mindanao on Thursday to begin clearing out the Islamist militants.

The military says at least 11 government troops and 31 militants have been killed in the fighting.

The southern Philippine region has long been a hotbed of fundamentalist activity, including terror groups like Abu Sayyaf. The group was responsible for the 2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 people. Hapilon, the former leader of Abu Sayyaf, has sworn allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The United States has placed a $5 million bounty on his head for alleged terrorist acts against American citizens.
The U.N. envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process warned Friday that the Gaza Strip was on the brink of a violent crisis.

"In Gaza, we are walking into another crisis with our eyes wide open," Nickolay Mladenov told the U.N. Security Council.

"I am today warning the Security Council that unless urgent measures are taken to de-escalate, the crisis risks spiraling out of control with devastating consequences for Palestinians and Israelis alike," he said via a video link.

He said an intra-Palestinian political "tug of war" between Fatah and Hamas was leading to a worsening of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is run by Hamas.

Gaza is also suffering from a deepening electricity crisis.

Israel has reduced electricity in Gaza to about four hours a day after the Palestinian Authority said in April it would no longer pay for it. The Palestinian Authority cut the electricity to Gaza in a bid to weaken rival Hamas, which seized control of the territory a decade ago.

Mladenov told the council that electricity to Gaza could still be cut further.

"How long do you think they can survive if this is further reduced to two hours of electricity per day?" he asked.

He said the cuts have had serious impacts, affecting the operations and capacities of already strained hospitals, as well as hemodialysis centers for people with kidney failure. Desalination plants are functioning at only 15 percent of capacity, and drinking water is supplied for only a few hours every two to four days, he said.

Sewage into the sea

There are environmental effects as well, he told council members: "As we speak, 100,000 cubic meters of raw sewage are discharged into the Mediterranean Sea. This is the equivalent of 40 Olympic-size swimming pools of sewage. Untreated. Daily."

He said it was an environmental disaster in the making for Israel, Egypt and Gaza.

Mladenov said the U.N. was working to mitigate the humanitarian impact of the crisis, but its reserves would last only a few weeks and were not a long-term solution.

He called on Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and Israel to fulfill their responsibilities to the people of Gaza and address the crisis quickly.
Tests are underway to determine the genetic sequence of the Ebola virus behind an outbreak in central Africa, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control researcher said Friday.

Dr. Barbara Knust, an epidemiologist, told VOA's Horn of Africa service that scientists are looking for "clues" about where this strain of Ebola originated and how to treat it.

"That could help [us] understand how this virus is related to other viruses that have caused other Ebola outbreaks," she said.

The latest Ebola outbreak is in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a remote area near the border with the Central African Republic. The World Health Organization said that as of May 24, Ebola had killed four people in the area and the number of suspected cases stood at 44.

The Ebola virus, which causes a type of hemorrhagic fever, killed more than 11,000 people across the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2014 and 2015.

Resources 'mobilized quickly'

Staff from the CDC, the WHO, the Congolese Ministry of Health and other agencies are in Congo's Bas Uele province, working to contain the spread of the virus. Knust said the international response was going "fine."

"The responders involved in this outbreak very certainly are taking it seriously and the resources have been mobilized quickly," she said. "At least at this point of time [it] appears that it was detected fairly early, although that information is forthcoming. There is some hope it will remain a limited outbreak."

She said there had been discussion of using experimental treatments used in the West African outbreak, but that the Congolese government had not given its approval.

Dr. Galma Guyo, a disease control specialist in Nairobi, was part of an African Union team that responded to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. He warned that the DRC's location in the center of Africa could allow the virus there to spread across borders.

"There is a possibility that the viruses can easily spread and be hard to detect due to the remoteness of the region, too," he said.
Few people who live along a quiet, tree-lined stretch of Fulton Street realize that inside the buildings at the end of their neighborhood, the future of human spaceflight is taking shape.

I would doubt many people in Rockford know Ingersoll is manufacturing these components, Mike Reese, director of sales for Ingersoll Machine Tools, told VOA.

But these arent just any components they are critical to NASAs effort to take people back to the moon, and on to Mars.

This is going to be some astronauts home, Astronaut Rex Walheim explains, pointing to a shiny, large aluminum ring situated on the floor of Ingersolls facility. This is the barrel section of the Orion, so this is the central section of the pressure vessel. Its where the astronauts will basically live and work, and the only place theyll have to go while theyre on this mission. Its what keeps us alive.

The barrel is one of four components created by Ingersoll for Lockheed Martin, the aerospace company assembling the Orion capsule.

Although Walheim made history as part of the last Space Shuttle mission in 2011, he admits he probably wont be a part of the crew that will return to the moon, or go on to Mars. He has spent the last six years since the shuttle fleet was retired as NASAs astronaut representative to the Orion program, working on a project he says has taken longer than anticipated.

Everybody wanted to do this faster, Walheim explained. Everybody wanted the gap between our shuttle and deep space program to be shorter, but we are where we are, and weve made tremendous progress and now were at the point where were building the actual vehicles and were testing them and were going to fly them.

A budget proposal by the Trump Administration in March outlines a commitment to continue the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations efforts to send astronauts to Mars. About $3.7 billion is earmarked for development of the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule, which isnt a replacement for the Space Shuttle, but a next generation space flight vehicle designed to take humans farther into space than ever before.

NASAs focus is now on the harder  the more difficult destinations, Orion Program Manager Mark Kirasich told VOA in an interview while touring the progress of manufacturing at Ingersolls Illinois facility.

He said part of NASAs strategy is letting commercial companies focus on developing equipment for low earth orbit spaceflight, which was the primary mission of the now retired Space Shuttle program, allowing NASA to focus resources on the new equipment in the Space Launch System, and the Orion capsule, with Mars as the ultimate objective.

We have completed two tests flights to date, he says. One of our abort system and our first orbital flight test, and right now we are building  we are about 75 percent complete  with our next flight vehicle which will fly on Exploration Mission 1.

The Orion capsule barrel on display at Ingersoll Machine Tools is earmarked for Exploration Mission 2, which will take astronauts back to the moon by 2023, preparing them for the eventual journey to Mars.

The last time astronauts orbited the moon, Ingersolls Mike Reese was a young child.

Ive definitely played the Orion cool card with my children, he told VOA. Ive let them go up to and touch the flight hardware and get a chance to see what were doing here. They think the whole program and the whole idea of going to Mars is very interesting and very cool.

Exploration Mission 1, the first full test of the Space Launch System and Orion capsule, is scheduled for later this year. NASA plans to send that unmanned Orion capsule 64,000 kilometers beyond the moon in the first mission on the agencys path to Mars, a destination they hope to reach by the 2030s.
India has opened its longest bridge in the countrys remote northeast to boost its defense infrastructure close to its contested border with China. The bridge is one of several projects that have been accelerated to facilitate movement of armed forces and artillery to Arunachal Pradesh state, which China claims as its own.



The 9.15-kilometer Dhola Sadiya bridge over Brahmaputra river will give faster and easier access to the Himalayan state, which China refers to as South Tibet.



The bridge has been designed to withstand the weight of 60-ton battle tanks.



Inaugurating the project on a day that he completed three years in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, focused not on the defense, but the economic benefits of a project that will also improve connectivity in a remote region where infrastructure has been poor.



He said it would speed up development in both Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and help tens of thousands of farmers gain access to new markets. It will not just save time and money, it will usher in an economic revolution, said Modi.

Since taking office in 2014, Modis government has made upgrading infrastructure a priority to propel economic growth.



This includes several key projects in border regions in northeastern states that his government says are needed to strengthen Indian defenses.

The policy marks a strategic shift in Indias strategy, which for decades did not upgrade infrastructure in the region believing that the improvements could be used by Chinese troops to get easy access to India. India and China fought a brief war in 1962, and despite prolonged negotiations, parts of their border are still disputed.

Former Major General and security analyst Dipankar Banerjee says that in the past it was felt that close to the border if you built roads, then it could perhaps be used for offensive purpose by either side. So there was some constraint on building roads.

By next year, India also hopes to complete a two-lane road to a remote but strategic border area in Arunachal Pradesh where all military supplies have to be ferried by helicopter. Building the road along near vertical Himalayan slopes is an engineering challenge that involves transporting even road building equipment via helicopters.

Transport network upgrades



Another project focuses on upgrading landing grounds for heavy transport aircraft. Indian analysts say these projects will help close a gap with the huge transport network China has built on its side of the border. China has got much better infrastructure, that is one of the major issues, says Banerjee.

Last week, Home Minister Rajnath Singh called on troops guarding the border to remain vigilant against Chinese transgressions. "We want peace, but peace with honor. We need to be capable of deterring anyone who may think we are weak," Singh said.

Ties between the two countries have deteriorated in the past year. Last month, China voiced strident objections to a visit by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh and warned that the trip to a disputed region that it claims as its own would impact ties. The visit prompted junior Defense Minister Kiren Rijiu to say that Arunachal Pradesh is part of India and that reality will not change.
Developments Thursday concerning President Donald Trump include his lecturing of fellow leaders of NATO member countries, efforts to repair relations with Britain after U.S. officials leaked information regarding the Manchester attacks, and news that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, according to media reports:

WATCH: Trump speaks to NATO leaders

Trump Lectures NATO Leaders on Insufficient Defense Spending -- U.S. President Donald Trump publicly lectured his fellow NATO leaders Thursday for not paying their fair share for defense, and he urged them to be more focused on terrorism. Trump was speaking at a ceremony to unveil a memorial symbolizing the commitment of NATO members to the principle of collective defense, as outlined in Article Five of the alliance treaty. The memorial is a twisted piece of metal from remains of the World Trade Center, a reminder that the only time Article Five was invoked was after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Defying Pessimists, NATO Summit Ends on Positive Note -- Under a sunny spring sky, NATO on Thursday moved into brand new, shiny headquarters projecting a modern, forward-looking image that counters the characterization that U.S. President Donald Trump and other critics of the alliance have previously made of the organization. Amid the anxiety felt by some European leaders about the future, some see Thursday's NATO summit  where discussions were driven largely by the latest spate of terrorist attacks in Europe  as a possibility for a new direction for the alliance.

Trump Deeply Troubled Over Leaked Information in Manchester Blast Probe -- President Donald Trump says he is deeply troubled by leaks to U.S. media about the Manchester bombing investigation in Britain and promises an investigation. Leaked details about the probe, including the bombers name and police pictures of the evidence, have incensed British investigators. They briefly suspended sharing information with the U.S. Thursday.

Britain's May to Confront Trump About Leaks of Manchester Intelligence -- British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will raise concerns Thursday with President Donald Trump over U.S. leaks to the media revealing details of the Manchester bombing investigation.

Trump Son-in-law Kushner Under FBI Scrutiny in Russia Probe, Media Reports -- President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, is under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Russia probe, the Washington Post and NBC News reported on Thursday. Kushner is being investigated because of his meetings in December and other possible interactions with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow, the Post reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Sessions Vows to Take Trump Travel Order to Supreme Court -- U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that he would ask the Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling that blocks President Donald Trump's executive order limiting travel to the U.S. from six predominantly Muslim countries.

Lawmaker: FBI Says No, for Now, to Request for Comey-linked Documents -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has declined for now to give the House Oversight Committee documents it had requested regarding communications between former FBI chief James Comey and President Donald Trump, the head of the panel said Thursday.

WATCH: Trump, Macron shake hands

Trump Handshake Showdown: France's Macron Just Won't Let Go -- U.S. President Donald Trump met his match in a handshake showdown with France's new president, Emmanuel Macron. At their first meeting, ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, the two men locked hands for so long that knuckles started turning white. Trump finally seemed ready to pull away  but Macron evidently wasn't. The French leader held the shake for a few seconds more. Both men's jaws seemed to clench.

Trump Seeks to End Program for Older Jobless Americans -- The half-century-old Senior Community Service Employment Program is a training and placement program underwritten by taxpayers aimed at putting older Americans back into the workforce. But Trump says there are too few participants who find work that's not paid for by the federal government. This week, he proposed deleting the $434 million program from the federal budget  a strike at a piece of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty.

WATCH: Obama on refugees and immigrants

Obama Gets Rock Star Welcome in Berlin, Praises Merkel -- Barack Obama received a rock-star welcome in Berlin as he appeared at a public debate Thursday with Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he praised as one of his "favorite partners" during his presidency. Security was tight in front of the German capital's iconic Brandenburg Gate, where Obama and Merkel appeared on a podium before thousands of people attending a gathering marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Trump's Budget Director: Health Care Bill Would Curtail Health Care Costs -- U.S. President Donald Trump's budget director told the Senate Budget Committee Thursday that Republican legislation aimed at revamping the nation's health care law would curtail the growth of health care costs. Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told lawmakers that the bill would achieve savings through "structural changes" that would "put the states much more in control over how they administer health care at the local level."

Reports: US Job Market Remains Strong; Merchandise Trade Deficit Gets Worse -- New data Thursday paint a mixed picture of the U.S. economy. A report on the job market shows a slight increase in the number of people signing up for unemployment assistance last week. But the data also show that the number of people laid off remains at a low level consistent with a strong job market, where it has been for well over two years.

Is Trump Tired or Staying True to Form During Foreign Trip? -- U.S. President Donald Trump returns to Washington this weekend with a fistful of business contracts to boost his domestic jobs campaign, and commitments from allies for greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Maybe just as important, the exhaustive 9-day tour has provided the president a respite from his domestic troubles, giving him an opportunity to shine on the world stage. But the trip also has raised speculation about the 70-year-old presidents physical stamina.

WATCH: VOA's Luis Ramirez in Brussels

Protests Target Both NATO and Trump in Brussels -- NATO leaders arrived in Brussels amid tight security for a summit Thursday dominated by the terrorist attack in Manchester, England. Thousands of leftist demonstrators marched in central Brussels Wednesday, protesting against both NATO and Trump. Some carried picket signs and banners with obscenities insulting the U.S. leader.
Republican multimillionaire Greg Gianforte won Montanas only U.S. House seat Thursday despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground.



Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Rob Quist to continue the GOPs two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat. Democrats had hoped Quist, a musician and first-time candidate, could have capitalized on a wave of activism following President Donald Trumps election.

Quist told supporters that he called Gianforte to congratulate him on his win and to urge him to represent all Montanans.

I know that Montanans will hold Mr. Gianforte accountable, Quist said Thursday night.







The win reaffirmed Montanas voters support for Trumps young presidency in a conservative-leaning state that voted overwhelmingly for him in November. 

Strong favorite

Gianforte was a strong favorite throughout the campaign and that continued even after authorities charged him with misdemeanor assault Wednesday. Witnesses said he grabbed Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian newspaper, and slammed him to the ground after being asked about the Republican health care bill.



Gianforte dropped out of sight after he was cited by police and ignored calls Thursday by national Republicans for him to apologize to the reporter.



He emerged only at his victory celebration Thursday night, where he said he accepted responsibility for the incident.

Last night I made a mistake and I took an action I cant take back and I am not proud of what happened, Gianforte told the crowd. I should not have responded the way I did and for that I am sorry.



The last-minute controversy unnerved Republicans, who also faced close calls this year in the traditionally Republican congressional districts in Kansas and Georgia. A runoff election is scheduled for next month in Georgia between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel after Ossoff fell just short of winning outright.

Support for Trump increased



Gianforte showed lukewarm support for Trump during his unsuccessful run for governor in Montana last fall but did an about-face and turned into an ebullient Trump supporter after he started campaigning for the congressional seat vacated by Republican Ryan Zinke, when he was tapped by Trump to serve as Interior Department secretary.



Gianforte urged Montana voters to send him to help Trump drain the swamp, brought in Vice President Mike Pence and first son Donald Trump Jr. to campaign for him and was supported by millions of dollars of ads and mailers paid for by Republican groups.



But the theme of the election shifted Wednesday night when Jacobs walked into Gianfortes office as he was preparing for an interview with Fox News.



Jacobs began asking the candidate about the health care bill passed by the House when the crew and Jacobs say Gianforte slammed him to the floor, yelling Get out of here!



Gianfortes campaign issued a statement Wednesday blaming the incident on Jacobs. But on Thursday night, Gianforte apologized both to Jacobs and to the Fox News crew for having to witness the attack.

I should not have treated that reporter that way and for that Im sorry, Mr. Jacobs, he said.



It had been unclear if Gianfortes assault charge would impact the race. About a third of eligible voters in Montana had cast their ballots in early voting, and others said it didnt influence their vote.
Kamal Haasan tells us what made him finally take a plunge into television, by turning a host for Bigg Boss Tamil.

Kamal Haasan is all set to make his TV debut as a host for Bigg Boss Tamil. After over five-decade long career in movies, the veteran actor now wants to explore a different side to him as an entertainer and is pretty excited about the same.

In an exclusive interview with India Today's Priyamvatha P, the ace actor says that "it's nice to be in a judging position when you have been a judged man all your life."

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He is looking forward to tell contestants his view of life--right or wrong--in the show.

Also read: Kamal Haasan to host the Tamil version of Bigg Boss

Excerpts:

Q: For more than five decades, you have been an actor, a child artist, it has always been about movies. What made you take a plunge into small screen? A: Television came late into my life and I came late into television, it's as simple as that. I gave it almost as much time as it took to come into my life.

Q: But why? Why now?

A: More number of people go into more references.

Q: What made you sign Bigg Boss Tamil?

A: Well. It's intriguing and it is about human interaction. Besides, I've been a judged man all my life, so it's nice to be in a judging position.

Q: So is it true that in recent times you've been judged a lot?

A: Yes, yes.

Q: Is it because you've been speaking your mind a lot?

A: I've always believed in speaking my mind and I think the technology has made it more prominent. Even a common man's voice is heard prominently now much to the chagrin and surprise of politicians. They aren't used to that.

Q: Do you think it was a tough time for you when you almost had a tiff with former CM Jayalalitha over Vishwaroopam? How did you manage and sail through that time?

A: I don't have tiffs with people. I only mind my business but whatever interferes my freedom of expression, I have always voiced. I've never tried to cross swords with anything because I think time of the swords have gone. We went through the legal recourse to the problem. The justice prevailed and we won.

Q: Do you think there is a lot of political interference in the movie industry these days?

A: There has always been. And we are fighting for that even now. The censor board has now become just a certification board. It's slowly changing, but we are fighting for our rights and it is happening now and the fact that we have a programme like Bigg Boss now itself shows the freedom of expression in India.

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Q: Are you going to intimidate your participants in Bigg Boss?

A: I don't know. It depends on how they intimidate me.Q: Also Jaalikattu you were very vocal. A lot of people also criticised you as to why you all of a sudden came out and spoke about it.

A: I've always been speaking. I've always been like that. But right now it is about Bigg Boss. We will talk about it some other time.

Q: Your friend Mr. Rajnikanth is joining politics. What would you like to say about it?

A: Once again we will have another press conference about it

Q: What would you like to tell your friend in one line?

A: Why would I tell him through television? I'll tell him directly.

Q: Would you enter politics?

A: I've entered politics the moment I marked my finger with the electoral voting mark. So I've entered politics but I am not a politician. I am doing my duty as a citizen of India. And I think every citizen of India should enter politics and make it as business and make his voice be heard and then he can't complain. Only the difference is that he should not take money for his votes, that's my request.

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Q: Will you convey a lot of social messages through Bigg Boss?

A: Maybe. I am not a messenger but I would like to--through Big Boss--let them know what I think of life and it might be right it might be wrong. But who knows? Every day is a learning experience.

Meanwhile, the show's trailer has been released. Take a look:

--- ENDS ---
A top official said Friday that forces from the United Arab Emirates could soon be flying fighter jets from a new base in the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

Somaliland Foreign Minister Saad Ali Shire said the UAE could use the base in the town of Berbera for any purpose, including "training, surveillance and military operations."

Berbera is about 250 kilometers south of Yemen, where a Saudi-led military coalition that includes UAE troops is fighting Houthi rebels.

The base is still under construction, but UAE Navy ships have docked at Berbera's deep-water port.

Shire, interviewed by VOA's Somali service in Washington, defended Somaliland's naval and air base deal with the UAE, which the parliament approved in February.

"We don't believe the use of the facility will add to the uncertainty and the conflict in the region, he said. "UAE has already a base in Assab, Eritrea, which is operational, and the use of the base in Berbera is not going to add anything new to the conflict."

Clarification sought

The deal has generated controversy in Somalia, which considers Somaliland to be part of its territory. The Somali parliament has asked Somalia's president to clarify the government's stance on the deal. Dozens of lawmakers have voiced support for a motion opposing the UAE base.

The Somaliland foreign minister said his government sees the deal as an "economic transaction."

"The agreement is [for] UAE to use Berbera airport and port as a military facility, and in exchange, the UAE will be building roads, a new airport, and funding health, education and water energy," he said.

Previously, Somaliland signed a multimillion-dollar, 30-year deal with DP World, a Dubai company, to upgrade and manage the Berbera port. Ethiopia gets access to the port under the deal.

Somaliland broke away from Somalia in 1991, but no nation has so far recognized it as an independent state.
South Sudanese authorities released a journalist Thursday who had been detained without charges since August 22, 2014.

George Livio, who worked for the U.N.-sponsored Miraya FM radio station, had been arrested by national security operatives and detained at an unknown location.

The U.N. did not immediately provide a reason for Livio's release, though the U.N. mission in South Sudan had been pushing for his freedom and that of two other staff members.

Several rights groups, including Amnesty International, had petitioned President Salva Kiir to intervene and release Livio.

VOA's South Sudan in Focus reached Gelego Livio, the journalist's father, by phone Friday in Khartoum.

"I got the news  about half past 5 yesterday evening. He was released about midday, possibly," Livio said.

Livio told South Sudan in Focus that he never received a reason for his son's arrest from the government, but heard that the government thought he was "collaborating with Riek Machar," the former first vice president who fled Juba shortly after a fresh outbreak of deadly fighting occurred in the capital in July.

The elder Livio said he and his wife were granted one visit with their son in March 2016. He said George Livio was being held at a Juba hospital.

Livio said he learned from his maternal uncle in Juba that his son had been freed Thursday.

"We, his mother and I, had a very, very exciting time last evening. Now, we really want to hear his voice," said the father.

South Sudan in Focus directly contacted George Livio on Friday, but he declined to comment and referred the VOA program to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

A UNMISS spokesman, Daniel Dickinson, applauded Livio's release and urged authorities to free other U.N. staff members in detention.

"The mission calls for the release of its two other national staff members who are currently also being held in detention without trial since 2014. UNMISS continues to call on the South Sudanese authorities to respect national law and the fundamental principles of due process under international human rights law," Dickinson said.

Amnesty International said there has been an increase in illegal detentions since a civil war broke out in the country in 2013.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least five journalists have been killed in South Sudan since the country gained independence in 2011.
The Taliban has attacked security outposts around a military base in southern Afghanistan, killing at least 16 government soldiers and wounding many others, officials said Friday.

The overnight attack in the Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province triggered intense clashes, killing at least 27 insurgents, police spokesman Zia Durani told VOA.

He also confirmed that at least four Afghan soldiers were taken hostage by the Taliban and retreating insurgents did not retrieve bodies of their fighters from the battlefield.

A spokesman for the Islamist insurgency took responsibility for the raid, claiming the fighting left 35 soldiers dead while another eight were captured. It was not possible to independently verify the insurgent toll.

Both sides are known for releasing inflated figures.

Thursdays raid was the second on the military base this week. A nighttime Taliban attack Monday killed 20 security forces and wounded 15 more.

Late on Wednesday, insurgents staged a surprise assault on an army base in the provinces Maiwand district and killed 13 soldiers.

The insurgents have repeatedly targeted major Afghan army bases during this years fighting, inflicting heavy casualties on government forces. Their campaign started with last months attack on the main regional military base located outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

The deadliest-ever Taliban raid killed more than 150 soldiers, although multiple independent sources gave a much higher death toll.

Increased casualties have fueled concerns about the capacity of Afghan forces. Corruption, desertion and ghost soldiers - those who exist on the payroll but whose salaries are usurped by corrupt commanders - are cited as the primary causes for battlefield setbacks.

Around 300 soldiers have been killed since March in militant attacks on Afghan military installations, including a deadly gun-and-bomb raid on the largest military hospital in Kabul, claimed by Islamic State loyalists. The attack killed 50 people.
Thai environmental activists are calling for the military government to withdraw orders that currently place severe curbs on protests against industrial and development programs.

Since taking power in May 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has looked to tough legislation, including articles in the interim charter able to override all other laws and regulations.

In 2016, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha applied the laws from Article 44 of the charter to revise environmental regulations and allow infrastructure development to cover a wide range of sectors.

New orders override local laws

These areas include construction of transportation systems, hospitals, irrigation systems and special economic zones for industrial development.

The government orders override regulations governing town planning, ministerial regulations or laws set by local authorities, planning acts and local regulations.

Environmentalists say the orders speed up the process for construction of controversial projects, but leave local people and the environment without protection.

Sor Rattanamanee Polka, a lawyer from the Community Resource Center Foundation, told local media the situation for community rights campaigners will be more difficult unless the NCPO revokes the orders, which currently severely violate people's rights and diminish environmental protection in favor of large projects.

Protests, gathering are limited

The government's programs for development include the setting up of 10 special economic zones (SEZs) throughout the country, along the Thai border, to promote provincial growth and market access to neighboring countries.

Other projects laid out under the fast development plans cover more than a dozen power plants, including coal-fired plants, as well as biomass and waste-to-energy plants.

Since the military came to power, it has also invoked tough laws against protests and gatherings of people.

Computer crime laws

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, says the controls over protests further hinder people raising concerns over development programs.

The essential freedom of space that used to exist for community organizations and aggrieved community members to really stand up and make their views known has quickly shrunk, and it has direct impacts on people's ability to voice their grievances, Robertson told VOA.

Activists say they also are fearful of Thailand's tough defamation and computer crime laws that have been taken up by the private sector against local protests to development projects.

Pianporn Deetes, Thailand/Myanmar director for environmental group International Rivers, says the laws and restrictions on assembly leave civic groups increasingly contained in raising environmental concerns.

Freedom of expression is one of the most fundamental freedoms that you need in order to participate in decision-making over natural resources, environment and social issues. This includes the policies on energy policy, coal-fired power plants, hydropower in every country or special economic zones," Pianporn said.

Illegal logging on the rise

The government also has directed its tough legislation against landowners encroaching in national parks in Thailand, especially resorts often owned by local influential business interests.

Cholathit Suraswadi, director general of the Forest Department, said that since applying Article 44 laws in targeting forest encroachment and illegal logging, the area of forested land had been substantially increased.

Dozens of holiday resorts throughout the country, including forested regions and island locations, have been investigated for illegal construction.

Rigid application of laws

Rights groups say in forested areas, however, local communities, largely poorer rural families, also have faced eviction under the government's programs.

HRW's Robertson says the government's stand also reflects a rigid application of existing laws.

There is a change in environment in terms of land possession and things like that where this government is enforcing them much more seriously. And the local agreements that had been developed over a number of years, this modus operandi, that governance at the local level has been overturned, and what we're seeing is a throwback to a rigid interpretation of laws and regulations, he said.

Promoting foreign investment

By promoting Special Economic Zones and Economic Corridors, the government is looking to boost foreign investment, including offering longer leaseholds  to 99 years from the current 50 years, in some provinces.

But Penchom Saetang, a director at the Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand Foundation, says that with fewer checks on development going ahead, there will be greater impact on local communities.

The main concern is the rapid and aggressive development of industries and economy without consideration of the local people, Penchom said.

Despite the tough laws, though, local communities have continued protests against developments they see as harmful to their community.

Protests stall plans for power plant

Protests from local people and the tourism industry against construction of a coal-fired power plant near the popular resort area of Krabi has led to a temporary halt of the development.

Prime Minister Prayut ordered in April that the previous environmental health impact assessment be scrapped, ordering the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to conduct a new one, which would include greater input by local communities.

Activists say there is need for a green power development plan for Krabi province, proposals that so far have received only a lukewarm response by state energy officials.
The United States takes full responsibility for the leaking of sensitive information in the aftermath of the suicide bombing in Manchester Monday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.

On his first official trip to London Friday, Tillerson said the U.S. regrets that information was leaked after British officials complained about it appearing in various U.S. publications.

The president has been very strong in his condemnation and has called for an immediate investigation and prosecution of those who are found to have been responsible for leaking any of this information to the public, Tillerson said.

The leaks led Britain to briefly stop sharing intelligence with the U.S. about the bombing. But the information sharing resumed quickly after U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke and Trump promised future information would be protected.

Trump, in a statement released Thursday, vowed to get to the bottom of the information leaks and asked the Department of Justice to launch a complete review of the matter.

Tillerson said Friday the special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event.

The secretary of state also paid tribute to the 22 victims of the suicide bombing during an appearance with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

Even as our ally and friend mourns, the fires for justice burn very hot in all of our hearts, Tillerson said. "We will drive out the terrorists and the extremists."

He said the decision by the Islamic State group to target a concert full of children would only serve to intensify efforts to defeat the jihadists on the battlefield.

We will not allow them or any terrorist organization to spread violence and hatred without a fight, and we will block their efforts to recruit new followers, whether on the ground or online, said Tillerson.
Leaders of the worlds rich nations braced for contentious talks with Donald Trump at a G-7 summit in Sicily Friday after the U.S. president lambasted NATO allies for not spending more on defense and accused Germany of very bad trade policies.

Trumps confrontational remarks in Brussels, on the eve of the two-day summit in the Mediterranean resort town of Taormina, cast a pall over a meeting at which Americas partners had hoped to coax him into softening his stances on trade and climate change.

The summit will kick off with a ceremony at an ancient Greek theater perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, before the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States begin talks on terrorism, Syria, North Korea and the global economy.

Trump said Friday that North Korea was a big problem, but assured Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that issues surrounding the secretive Asian state would be resolved.

It is very much on our minds. ... Its a big problem, its a world problem and it will be solved. At some point it will be solved. You can bet on that, Trump said sitting alongside Abe in a bilateral meeting ahead of a Group of Seven summit.

North Koreas growing nuclear and missile threat is seen as a major security challenge for Trump, who has vowed to prevent the country from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile, a capability experts say Pyongyang could have some time after 2020.

Global economy

We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn told reporters late Thursday.

He also predicted fairly robust talks on whether Trump should honor a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Trump, who dismissed man-made global warming a hoax during his election campaign, is not expected to decide at the summit whether he will stick with the Paris deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama.

Even if a decision is not forthcoming, European leaders have signaled that they will push Trump hard on the Paris emissions deal, which has comprehensive support across the continent.

Very bad

The summit, being held near Europes most active volcano, Mount Etna, is the final leg of a nine-day tour for Trump, his first foreign trip since becoming president, that started in the Middle East.

On Thursday in Brussels, with NATO leaders standing alongside him, he accused members of the military alliance of owing massive amounts of money to the United States and NATO, even though allied contributions are voluntary.

According to German media reports, he also condemned Germany for very bad trade policies in meetings with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk, signaling that he would take steps to limit the sales of German cars in the United States.

Juncker denied the reports Friday.

He did not say that the Germans were behaving badly, Juncker said in Sicily before the start of the G-7 summit. Juncker called the media reports exaggerated, saying it was not true that Trump had been aggressive towards Germany in the talks.

Trump will not be the only G7 newcomer. French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and British Prime Minister Theresa May will also be attending the elite club for the first time.
U.S. Native Americans are expressing alarm over President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 federal budget, which calls for across-the-board spending cuts to agencies and programs that provide them with critical services.

The Department of the Interior (DOI), which houses the Bureau of Indian Affairs, faces a nearly 11 percent budget reduction.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs faces cuts of more than $300 million.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, would see spending trimmed by 13.2 percent.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget would decrease by 31.4 percent.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the Indian Health Service, would be trimmed by 16.2 percent.

The Department of Education would lose 13.5 percent in funding.

An estimated 2.2 million people in Native American and Alaska Native communities, or NA/ANs, would be affected by proposed cuts in health care spending.

Compared to the overall population, they face chronic disparities in health and health care, suffering high rates of diabetes, heart disease, depression and alcoholism.

Treaties and laws require the government to provide certain protections, rights and services to NA/ANs, including health care.

The chronically underfunded Indian Health Service (IHS) offers care through a network of hospitals, clinics and health stations managed by IHS, tribes or tribal organizations, and urban Indian health programs. If the proposed budget passes, Medicaid, the national and state program that covers low-income individuals, could see its budget cut by $610 billion over the next 10 years. Mark Trahant, a journalist, academic and member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes who has covered NA/AN affairs for 30 years, is concerned.

"In Indian Country, more than half of all Indian kids who go through Indian Health Service have their insurance through Medicaid," he said. "Thirteen percent of Medicaid is Indian care."

The budget would eliminate programs like the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income households pay to heat or cool their homes. In 2016, 150 tribal groups and more than 43,000 Native households received LIHEAP funds.

"So, any kind of programs for folks to get subsidies to live in homes would go away," said Trahant. "Theres just not any private sector housing on reservations, so that would be a big problem."

Alaska Natives are particularly troubled by the proposed elimination of the Denali Commission. The small federal agency coordinates state-federal infrastructure projects that include providing water and sewer systems to remote villages and moving the village of Newtok, threatened by ongoing erosion and melting permafrost, due to warmer temperatures.

Also slated to be cut is the Essential Air Service, an annual federal subsidy program that supports commercial air service in remote areas across Alaska. In all, more than 60 communities would be impacted.

"If you live in a village where air service is not only the route out for travel but your route in for goods and services, youre really sunk," Trahant said.

Other programs aimed at supporting housing assistance, business development and energy weatherization face possible elimination.

Tribal leaders say the budget ignores federal obligations to NA/AN's.

"The cutbacks to tribal programs are cutting into the bone and fail to recognize very real and critically important needs," Fawn Sharp, the president of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, said Tuesday at a tribal conference in Portland, Oregon. "It is so severe that it's absolutely illogical and unreasonable."

Lawmakers from states with significant Native American populations have also expressed concern. They include New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

"President Trump's budget proposal for programs affecting Indian Country is extremely troubling because of its disregard for the federal government's responsibilities and its troubling lack of understanding of the challenges facing Tribal communities," Udall said Tuesday in a statement.

New Mexico is home to 23 federally recognized tribes and about 220,000 Native American citizens, a third of whom live below the poverty line.

Others voicing disappointment with the new administration's proposal include Oklahoma Republican Congressman Tom Cole, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, one of more than three dozen tribes in that state.

During a House subcommittee hearing on the budget for the Indian Health Service Wednesday, Cole pledged to work to "reverse the numbers."

"Whether the administration knows it or not, this budget reflects that it doesnt care very much about Indian health care," he said.

Trahant said he isnt too concerned, adding that releasing the budget is only the first step in what could end up being a lengthy process. Its now up to Congress to rework the budget, the journalist said, advising concerned groups to focus on Capitol Hill, not the White House.

NOTE: This story has been updated to correct a statistic about Native Americans and Medicaid.
U.S. President Donald Trump says terrorism and North Korea are top items on the agenda for the leaders summit of the Group of Seven nations, which began Friday on Sicily, the largest Mediterranean island.

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the U.S. president said the meeting would have a particular focus on the North Korea problem.

While terrorism would also be a primary concern for the leaders during their two days of talks on the Italian island, North Koreas nuclear weapons testing and ballistic missile development comprise a big problem, its a world problem, said Trump. It will be solved at some point. It will be solved, you can bet on that.

Trade is another major topic on the minds of Trumps counterparts who have gathered in the resort town of Taormina.

They are hoping to soften Trumps stance on trade and climate change.

We will have a very robust discussion on trade and we will be talking about what free and open means," the director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, told reporters on Air Force One on the flight to Sicily from Belgium.

In Brussels, at the opening of a new headquarters for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S. president bluntly confronted other leaders of the alliance, asserting that their failure to meet financial pledges on defense spending is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States.

Trump is also at odds with other leaders on climate change.

During the G-7 there will be fairly robust talks on whether Trump should honor Washingtons commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement signed two years ago, said Cohn, who is the presidents chief economic advisor.

During his presidential campaign, in which he took numerous controversial stances, Trump referred to man-made global warming as a hoax.

The G-7, going back more than a decade, has repeatedly recognized the threat of climate change, but U.S. officials may be pushing to weaken language in the Taormina communique.

It would be extremely rare for this major set of developed countries to not send a clear signal regarding climate change, according to Jake Schmidt, the international program director of the National Resources Defense Council.

Along with the United States, the other members of the G-7 are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain. The European Union is also represented.

The group of wealthy nations also included Russia between 1997 and 2014 and was known as the G-8. But after Moscows invasion of Crimea, Russian participation was suspended.

For Russia to return it would have to adhere to the Minsk accords, and implementing those, restoring Ukrainian sovereignty, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Wednesday.
A picture of a smiling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan flanked by EU President Donald Tusk and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker adorned much of Turkey's pro-government media this week.

Erdogan got his picture of his handshake in Brussels, which is really only what he wanted, said political science professor Cengiz Aktar, because he is looking for legitimacy in his new position as strongman of Turkey.

Erdogan's narrow referendum victory extending his presidential powers remains mired in vote-rigging allegations. EU leaders, unlike U.S. President Donald Trump, had refrained from endorsing his success.

During the referendum campaign, Turkey's relations with the EU plummeted, with Erdogan describing some EU members as behaving like Nazis because they refused to allow Turkish ministers to campaign among Turkish diaspora voters.

The pictures that emerged with Juncker and Tusk suggest a reduction of tensions and a more relaxed atmosphere, said Semih Idiz, political columnist of the Al Monitor website. But Idiz played down any talk of any new rapprochement in relations.

Bottom line is nether side wants to go to some kind of nasty severance of ties or divorce. There are too many issues that require cooperation. I think they will muddle through, and I think that is the message that came out. Although both sides had theirs, in terms of issues that are important, the main thing is that they are not going to escalate tensions, said Idiz.

We discussed the need to cooperate, Tusk said following the meeting in a tweet.

Turkey plays its part

Mondays suicide bombing of a pop concert in Manchester, England, served as a reminder of Turkey's importance in countering terrorism, with a Turkish official confirming the suspected bomber had traveled through Turkey to Britain. With Turkey bordering Syria and Iraq, Europe's security forces depend heavily on Ankara in sharing intelligence and monitoring those traveling to Europe.

The EU is also dependent on Ankara to continue to honor last March's agreement to stem the flood of refugees and migrants into Europe. This is perhaps one of the few and certainly important pieces of leverage Ankara has over Brussels," said Sinan Ulgen, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Institute in Brussels. "We have been hearing from Ankara over the past few months that if the EU does not fulfill its end of the bargain and does not deliver on visa freedom, even under current circumstances Turkey will not continue with the refugee deal."

Before leaving for Brussels, Erdogan pointedly reminded the EU of its commitments. We don't aim to break away from the EU, but the EU shall take its responsibilities, too. The EU cannot see Turkey [as] a beggar. It does not have such a right, he said.

Turkey crackdown to continue

Brussels insists any visa free travel is dependent on Ankara's narrowing of its legal definition of terrorism to harmonize it with EU law. Tens of thousands of people in Turkey have been prosecuted for terrorism offenses in a crackdown since last July's failed coup.

But Erdogan has ruled out any letup in the crackdown, or lifting of emergency rule introduced after the coup. On Friday, Ankara's governor, under emergency powers, issued a decree imposing a night curfew on any acts of protests, including chanting or playing music, or issuing of press statements.

Tensions with Washington could also be a factor in Ankara's wanting to avoid a collapse in EU ties. Trump's decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters, considered by Ankara as terrorists, in their fight against Islamic State has strained bilateral ties. Those strains weren't alleviated by Erdogan's visit this month to Washington.
Turkish security forces killed 29 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in an operation in a mountainous area of eastern Turkeys Agri and Van provinces, the Agri governors office said Friday.

Turkeys army said Thursday three Turkish soldiers and a member of the state-sponsored village guard militia had been killed in the operation, launched in the Tendurek mountain area along the border of the two provinces, near the Iranian border.

A ceasefire between the Turkish state and the militants broke down in July 2015 and the southeast subsequently saw some of the worst violence since the PKK insurgency began in 1984.

More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the conflict. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
The Maharashtra goverment's General Administration Department - Aviation (GAD-Aviation) has initiated an inquiry into the crash-landing of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' helicopter in Latur. Fadnavis escaped unhurt.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: After a helicopter carrying Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis crash-landed in Latur on Wednesday, the state government's General Administration Department - Aviation (GAD-Aviation) has initiated an inquiry into the incident.

Fadnavis escaped unhurt, and tweeted soon after the accident that he and his team were "absolutely safe."

GAD-Aviation has asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to expedite the probe, and the DGCA's team may reach Latur by this evening.

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WHAT HAPPENED

According to reports, the pilots of the Sikorsky (VT-CMM) helicopter detected variable wind patterns after taking off from Nilanga near Latur at about 12 pm. They then decided to land.

However, while landing, the helicopter's rotor blades got entangled in electric cables.

While the chopper suffered substantial damage, none of the six occupants suffered any injuries.

ALSO READ | Fadnavis chopper crash landing: Maharashtra government initiates inquiry

ALSO READ | Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis escaped air tragedy today, 7 politicians who didn't make it

ALSO WATCH | The moment when Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis' chopper crashed in Latur

--- ENDS ---
An air strike Thursday evening killed at least 35 civilians, including family members of Islamic State fighters, in al-Mayadin, a town held by the jihadists near Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, a war monitor reported.

Two days of aerial bombardment in al-Mayadin have now killed a total of 50 people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State told Reuters that its forces had conducted strikes near al-Mayadin on May 25 and 26 and were assessing the results.

Residents saw reconnaissance aircraft and warplanes circling the city at 7:25 p.m. (1625 GMT) before they fired missiles, which struck two buildings, one of which was a four-story block housing Syrian and Moroccan families of Islamic State fighters.

UN plea

In Geneva on Friday, the U.N. human rights chief called on all air forces operating in Syria to take greater care to distinguish between legitimate military targets and civilians in their escalating air strikes especially in the northeast against Islamic State.

The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Deir-ez-Zor and Al-Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said in a statement.

His spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing: There are multiple air forces operating in this part of Syria, including the (U.S.-led) coalition, mainly the coalition. We also understand that there are Iraqi airplanes as well.

IS losing ground

Islamic State is losing ground in Syria and Iraq under assault from an array of sometimes rival forces in both countries. Many of its fighters who have retreated from other fronts are massing in Syrias Euphrates basin area.

The U.S.-led coalition says it is careful to avoid civilian casualties in air strikes and investigates any that are reported to have taken place.
The U.N. Childrens Fund is urging G-7 leaders meeting in Taormina, Sicily to adopt an action plan to keep refugee and migrant children safe, following the deaths of at least 200 refugee and migrants children this year.

UNICEF reports the refugees and migrants children, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, died along Mediterranean Sea routes from North Africa to Italy.

Data from early 2017 shows a growing number of refugees and migrants are taking the perilous central Mediterranean route to reach Europe. According to UNICEF, more than 45,000 people, including some 5,500 unaccompanied and separated children, have arrived in Italy by sea. That is 44 percent higher than last year.

Speaking by phone from Sicily, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said far too many children - more than one a day - are literally dying trying to get to Italy. Tthose who make it suffer starvation, beatings, and slave-like conditions before and during the journey.

He said unaccompanied children who spoke to a doctor after their arrival in the Italian seaport of Lampedusa in the last three days painted a picture of horror and abuse by smugglers who ferried them across the sea.

One young Eritrean girl, he said [i.e., the doctor], was so traumatized," Forsyth added. "She had been raped before embarking and on her journey. We know Libya is particularly challenging for young women. He also said there was a young boy who had visible signs of torture.

UNICEF reports the number of children seeking asylum in Europe between 2008 and 2016 has grown from one in five to one in three. Most come from Eritrea, Gambia, Nigeria, Egypt and Guinea.

The Italian G7 presidency is making migration a priority for this years talks. Forsyth says even if the leaders cannot agree on the wide migrant and refugee crisis, it is hoped they will agree on something practical to help children who are most vulnerable.

UNICEFs six-point agenda for action includes a call for protection of refugee and migrant children from exploitation and violence, the end of detention for child asylum seekers, and keeping families together.
The U.N. human rights chief called on air forces Friday to take greater care in distinguishing legitimate military targets from civilians in Syria.

"The same civilians who are suffering indiscriminate shelling and summary executions by ISIL [Islamic State], are also falling victim to the escalating airstrikes, particularly in the northeastern governorates of Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.

"Unfortunately, scant attention is being paid by the outside world to the appalling predicament of the civilians trapped in these areas," he added, citing a number of recent airstrikes that have killed dozens of civilians.

On May 15, at least 59 civilians, including 16 women and 12 children, were killed in airstrikes on two residential areas in the Islamic State-controlled city of Albo Kamal, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement. One day earlier, 23 farm workers were reportedly killed in airstrikes on a separate village.

"The rising toll of civilian deaths and injuries already caused by airstrikes in Deir ez-Zor and Al-Raqqa suggests that insufficient precautions may have been taken in the attacks," Zeid said. "Just because ISIL holds an area does not mean less care can be taken. Civilians should always be protected, whether they are in areas controlled by ISIL or by any other party."
For decades, the red poppy has been an international symbol for remembering those lost in battle, and on Friday, the United States kicked off the Memorial Day weekend with its first National Poppy Day.

Organized by the American Legion, a wartime veterans service organization with more than 2 million members, National Poppy Day included remembrance activities in cities and towns across the country.

In Washington, the day's schedule included a poppy-themed motorcycle ride and a candlelight vigil at the Vietnam Memorial.

Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Ed Byers, the event's keynote speaker, told VOA the day is a chance to reflect on how something amazing can grow and flourish out of tragedy. "We should never solely mourn our fallen, but should do our utmost to celebrate their life and remember what it was that made them truly special," he said.

Byers received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award given for gallantry above and beyond the call of duty, for his actions while rescuing an American hostage in Afghanistan in 2012.

The poppy became a symbol of casualties of war after Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote a poem about the sight of red poppies growing over soldier graves following World War I.

The American Legion tradition of wearing poppies dates to 1920.

Several nations around the world wear the poppy on Remembrance Day, observed in most countries on November 11, to honor those killed in the line of duty.

One of the most vivid uses of the poppy is in London, where in 2014 the British government surrounded its famed Tower of London with ceramic poppies to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I.

Memorial Day in the United States will be observed this year on Monday. The federal holiday is a chance to honor those who died while serving in the country's armed forces, and is seen by many as the unofficial start of the summer season.
Republican and Democratic U.S. congressmen introduced a bill on Thursday that would ban Americans from traveling to North Korea as tourists and require them to obtain special permission for other types of visits.

Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Joe Wilson said their proposed North Korea Travel Control Act followed the detention of at least 17 Americans in North Korea in the past decade.

North Korea has a record of using detained Americans to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

With increased tensions in North Korea, the danger that Americans will be detained for political reasons is greater than ever, the congressmen said in a statement.

North Korea holding four Americans

Given North Korea's demonstrated willingness to use American visitors as bargaining chips to extract high level meetings or concessions, it is appropriate for the United States to take steps to control travel to a nation that poses a real and present danger to American interests, they said.

Four Americans are being held in North Korea as diplomatic tensions with Washington have heightened. Two of them, detained in the past month, are affiliated with a private university in the North Korean capital.

A congressional source said the bill would ban tourist travel by Americans outright, while any other visits would require a special license from the Treasury Department, which is enforcing a wide range of sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea this month asserted its sovereign right to ruthlessly punish U.S. citizens it has detained for crimes against the government. It said calling such arrests bargaining ploys was pure ignorance.

'Hostile acts'

North Korea said on May 7 it had detained Kim Hake Song, who worked for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, on suspicion of hostile acts.

Another American, Kim Sang Dok, who was associated with the same school, was detained in late April on the same charge.

The other two Americans are Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old student detained in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years hard labor for attempting to steal a propaganda banner, and Kim Dong Chul, a 62-year-old Korean-American missionary.

Kim was sentenced to 10 years hard labor for subversion last year.
Chinese officials have told the U.S. that theyve tightened inspections and policing along the border with North Korea as part of U.N. sanctions aimed at halting Pyongyangs nuclear and missile activities, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said Friday.



China has a growing awareness of the urgent need to pressure North Korea into halting its testing of missiles and nuclear bombs, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton told reporters in Beijing. President Donald Trumps administration has made a renewed push to enlist Beijings help in those efforts after a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month.



Touching on other areas of the relationship, Thornton said the new administration has not changed its commitment to greater engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region or its approach to naval operations in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.





Shift in emphasis

On North Korea, the U.S. has seen a shift in emphasis in Chinas approach to its fellow communist neighbor, Thornton said.



Theyve said that they have stepped up border inspections, beefed up sort of the policing function on the border, stepped up customs inspections, she said. Beijing has also done a number of other things on companies that have dealings with North Korea, Thornton said, without giving details.



The U.S. has been talking to Beijing about taking action against specific firms and is waiting to see what sort of action China will take, she said.



China has signed on to U.N. sanctions and suspended coal imports from North Korea through the rest of the year, but has been generally reticent about what other steps it may be taking to use its leverage as Pyongyangs most important trading and diplomatic partner.



Future UN sanctions

Thornton said the U.S., China and others were also in talks on a future U.N. resolution on North Korea in order to cut the time needed to take action following another nuclear or missile test.



So were looking at trying to get going on the next set of major measures that would be taken in the wake of another provocation, Thornton said. Such measures could include ratcheting up economic pressure on the North by targeting trade in consumer goods, possibly including textiles, she said.



While China has repeatedly called for direct dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, Thornton said Beijing officials now realize more pressure is needed before that can happen.



And so they know now that they dont have, I think, as much time to try to bring the North Koreans to the table, get their calculus changed and get them to the negotiating table as they may have previously thought, she said.



Adding to that, Beijing also seems to have recognized that North Koreas actions were undermining Chinas own security in pretty major ways, Thornton said.



North Korea exploded two nuclear devices last year, one of which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb. Satellite imagery suggests it could be ready to conduct its next test, its sixth, at any time.





On Monday, Pyongyang said it is ready to start mass-producing a new medium-range missile after a weekend test-launch confirmed its combat readiness. The regimes oft-stated goal is to perfect a nuclear warhead that it can put on a missile capable of hitting Washington or other U.S. cities.



No policy change yet

While there have been reports that the Trump administration was reconsidering policy toward Asia in the wake of former president Barack Obamas pivot to the region, Thornton said there had been no substantial changes.



That followed the Navys sailing a destroyer near to Chinese man-made islands in the South China Sea on Thursday in a freedom of navigation operation aimed at challenging what the U.S. considers excessive territorial claims in the strategic waterway that Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.



Washingtons approach is engagement with Asia to show that were still present in the region, that were going to keep our security commitments in the region, certainly support for our allies and with North Korea as a focal point on the security front, Thornton said.
One traffic spat in western Zambia has grown into an international incident with life-or-death implications  one that could taint Zambia's history of peaceful and democratic rule.

For more than six weeks now, opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has been in jail, awaiting trial on treason charges, which carry a possible death penalty. He was arrested in April, after his convoy crossed paths with the motorcade of President Edgar Lungu on a country road, and Hichilema's drivers refused to yield to the president.

Days later, police stormed into his upscale Lusaka home, sprayed tear gas and hauled Hichilema away.

His case has proceeded in fits and starts, says Hichilema's spokesman, Charles Kakoma, who spoke to VOA on Friday outside the court, after yet another delay.

Kakoma says authorities have grossly exaggerated the charges against Hichilema.

"In fact, it was considered to be a traffic offense, and the best that could have happened was just to give him a fine for a traffic offense," Kakoma said. "But a traffic offense has been conflated into a treason case, a non-bailable offense."

Lungu and Hichilema have a bitter history  Hichilema has run unsuccessfully for president five times, and challenged the legitimacy of his latest loss, in 2016.

On Friday, magistrate Greenwell Malumani appeared in court more than five hours later than scheduled, and said his court did not have power to dismiss the charges and the case would go to the High Court.

Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, executive director of the Southern Africa Litigation Center, said the ruling follows basic legal procedures.

"It is completely appropriate for them to refer the matter to a High Court, looking at the seriousness of the charge of treason," she said. "However, it is unfair that Mr. Hichilema continues to remain in detention and that bail was not considered as part of this appearance in the magistrates' court."

Hichilema's next appearance in the lower court is set for June 12. From there, the matter is expected to proceed to the high court.

South African opposition leader deported

On the eve of Hichilema's Friday court appearance, the plot spilled over Zambia's borders. On Thursday, Zambian authorities deported Mmusi Maimane, the head of South Africa's top opposition party, the Democratic Alliance. Maimane was planning to attend Hichilema's trial.

South African nationals do not need visas to enter Zambia, but Maimane's staff had informed Zambian authorities of his planned visit as a courtesy.

On Friday, protesters crowded around the Zambian High Commission in Pretoria.

Government spokesman Amos Chanda told VOA that Maimane's deportation was legitimate because the politician had said he was trying to influence the court to release Hichilema, which he says is contempt of court.

DA spokesman Graham Charters says Hichilema's United Party for National Development is a sister party of theirs, and they oppose the treason charges.

"This, in our view, is absolutely, will not hold up in any court of law anywhere in the world and this is the abuse of state resources, the abuse of state institutions in order to stifle political dissent and to intimidate opposition," Charters said.

Rights groups also have sounded the alarm about the situation and say they, too, are watching keenly.
South Africa grabbed international attention earlier this year with images of angry demonstrators attacking foreign residents and their businesses. This type of xenophobic violence, analysts say, is largely driven by high unemployment, inequality and frustration with the governments failure to provide everyone with basic services.



But like those enduring challenges, xenophobic attacks are also proving hard to wipe out. The nation has seen eruptions of major anti-foreigner violence in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, and earlier this year. Members of immigrant communities and watchdog groups say xenophobic violence is a daily occurrence.



Sharon Ekambaram leads the refugee and migrant rights program for Lawyers for Human Rights. She said her rights group hears daily accounts of crimes against immigrants, and South African authorities are often reluctant to intervene when foreign nationals are targeted.



Its not only my opinion, but it is well documented, she said. ... And these acts of violence are a combination of very, very reckless statements that have been made by politicians, unsubstantiated statements using foreign nationals as scapegoats for their failure to implement policies and deliver services that they are constitutionally obliged to do.



In central Johannesburg, Abdirizak Ali Osman, secretary-general of the Somali Community Board, agrees.



Xenophobia in South Africa has never ended, and I think for me it is never going to end, he said, rattling off a number of recent reports his office in central Johannesburg has received of lootings, robberies, and threats.



It happens on a daily basis, on a very small scale, in different parts of the country.





Scared and silent



Foreign shopkeepers say they are regularly targeted because of their nationality. One, Fatuma Hassan, said she has taken to wearing a face-covering niqab so that she can speak freely about the threats she faces.



Xenophobia not one time, two times, three times - several times she said. Up to now, they came to me, took $300 from my shop. Now my brother came through to here, he told me that they looted, even today in my shop.



Another Somali businessman, Soweto shopowner Mustafa Omar Caddow, said he recently stood by helplessly as a rampaging mob took at least $30,000 worth of appliances from his shop and then trashed the place.



This month, in the evening around eight, the people who was destructing, they came, and they looted the shop, he said. They break, and they took everything. There is nothing left.



Safety in numbers



Here in the predominantly Somali suburb of Mayfair, residents say they feel safety in numbers. They need it, they say, because they do not feel the government has listened to their suggestions on how to improve safety.



I was expecting that at least they will say, we are going to take care of you from now on, so this will not happen, said Caddow. They do not say.They say, Actually, we can do nothing.

South African police did not answer repeated calls from VOA seeking comment.



Caddow, whose wife and children still live in war-torn, unstable Somalia, said he longs to be reunited with his loved ones after nearly eight years apart.

But, he said, it just isnt safe.
There are certain benefits to travelling with your family that you just won't get any other way.

By Shreya Goswami: We're in a world where everything from travelling solo to travelling with strangers is a done deal. But have you ever thought just how much fun travelling with your family is?

What's that you say? You're an adult, and travelling to Shirdi with your parents just isn't your idea of a vacay? True, a pilgrimage might not be the best of vacations, especially if you're a twenty-something lad or lady. But there are lots of vacation options you could explore with your parents, and they'd all be worth it--even Goa!

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The reasons behind this sort of a claim are simple and manifold. Take a look at some of our excuses for planning a vacation to the hills and beaches with our parents.

Also Read: Planning a vacation soon? Here's how to choose the best travel package

1. Comfort level

Yes, this is a big deal. You don't need to put up appearances or explain yourself at every point. You've grown up with each other (because, let's admit it, our parents did grow up a lot after having us!), and you know your family members inside out. This level of comfort is extremely relaxing. And when you lead a hectic urban life, that's the only kind of relaxation that will do you any good in the long run.

2. More varied exploration

Everyone wants to go to the same places when you're travelling with people of the same age group. A friend circle usually heads to spots that excite the group as a whole. But when it comes to a family, you will end up exploring more of a city. You'll end up tagging along with your parents to the museums and fairs, while they'll get a glimpse of contemporary lifestyle when you take them to a restaurant that boasts a unique cuisine. Ultimately, your experience of the destination would be more well-rounded and fulfilling.

If you're an adult, a vacation with your family can help youbond and relax better. Picture for representation purpose. Picture courtesy: Pinterest/flickr.com

3. Bonding as adults

Our parents bring us up, and they usually do it quite well. But most Indian parents forget that their kids have grown up. They still interact with us on the same level as they did when we were 12 years old. A family vacation is just the time for you to show them that you have, in fact, grown up. This would give them the opportunity of bonding with you as an adult, which will definitely give your relationship a new depth.

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Also Read: 6 easy-on-pocket international destinations you can't miss this summer vacation

4. Renewed sense of responsibility

Family vacations as an adult can give you better insight into your attitude towards your relations. It's easy to 'wing it' when you're travelling with friends, or even alone. Travelling with ageing parents means that you'll have to look after them like they did when you were mere toddlers. It will give you a renewed sense of responsibility, and your parents will also feel cared for.

5. Create more memories to cherish

Of course you already have memories that can last a lifetime, but does that mean you can't make more? Travelling with your family will give you more experiences together, and help you nurture your relationship even further. Travelling with grown-up kids also allows parents to recreate old memories, especially if you take a trip to a place where you've vacationed, say, a decade ago. It gives your life together something more to talk about, even years later.

So what are you waiting for? Plan your next vacation with your family, and you won't regret it.

--- ENDS ---
Everyone give it up for the Jabbawockeez and your next Aziz-cap! As a special supplement to your regularly scheduled recaps of Master of None, weve asked New York Magazine cover star Aziz Ansari to give us the behind-the-scenes breakdown of each episode, pieced together from multiple conversations over the past several months.

Episode 5: The Dinner Party

Theres a ton going on in this episode: Brian (Kelvin Yu, we miss you!) finally shows up with Arnold to demonstrate their bizarre fascination with the Jabbawockeez, the dance troupe that refuses to take off their masks even though theyre guest judging Clash of the Cupcakes. We also meet Devs boss, the larger-than-life Chef Jeff (Bobby Cannavale). Dev has the best time running around to museums and restaurants with Francesca (Alessandra Mastronardi), whos miraculously back in New York with her boyfriend Pino, and the worst time going on a second date with Priya (Tiya Sircar), the Indian lawyer who seemed like the best of his Tinder dates in episode four. Oh, and theres a dinner party at Chef Jeffs house where John Legend plays piano. Better yet, Ravi (the great, hilarious Ravi Patel) shows up and shamelessly tries to sell people on his start-up, Mumbai Muscle, as New Yorks number-one, Desi-owned, non-GMO, chickpea-based protein. Bobby Cannavale will guest star in this Aziz-cap.

Clash of the Cupcakes

Aziz Ansari: You know, Clash of the Cupcakes was a fucking idea we just had left over from season one, just him hosting this cupcake show. But when we screened episode two, when it ends with that Clash of the Cupcakes thing, people were going nuts! They were like, Oh shit! So then we brought in the Jabbawockeez! Those are the real Jabbawockeez, theyre not dancers in masks. I think that was maybe Aniz [Azizs brother, a writer on the show] and Jason Woliners idea to have the Jabbawockeez on the show. It just seemed like a funny visual to see those guys performing and that whole thing of Dev saying, Oh, I dont know where they are. Theyre supposed to be here. It just seems like something they would do on a show like that.

By the way, I dont know what the fuck the format of Clash of the Cupcakes is! [Laughs.] They have performances, they have guest judges. Its a very weird show. I should also mention my love for Leonard [Ouzts], who plays the producer of Clash of the Cupcakes, Lawrence. I love his performance. He always made me laugh. He was just so funny to me.

Meeting Chef Jeff

Ansari: Cannavale as Chef Jeff, hes amazing. We just had this idea early on of the arc of what happens at the end with Chef Jeff. You meet this guy and hes the greatest guy and he helps out Dev and then you find out hes a monster! [Laughs.] I think it was around the time Roger Ailes was getting all these reports filed against him, and the same way it happened for Bill OReilly, so it was like, Okay, what if this is one of those types of guys and we just get the audience to love him? And then pull the rug out from under them at the end and reveal that hes actually not a good dude? I knew Bobby personally a little bit, hes a big fan of the show, and I just love him as an actor. We had that part, so we went to him and he was down.

Bobby Cannavale: When the show came on, I just called him right away because Rose [Byrne, his wife] and I saw it in like two nights. I loved it so much! That episode with his parents, that rocked me. I had never seen anything like that before. Aziz, at heart, is a good person. Thats why I like him personally. He asks about your family and you can tell he was just raised right. Hes not making fun of you so much as he is highlighting your specialness or complexity. I find that really cool and admirable. Hes got a great humanity, I think.

I mean, hes just a person whos interested in the person thats across from him. Thats not that common in this business. I think he gets a lot of his material from things people tell him, and from his experiences of meeting really interesting, weird people in New York. Its why he loves New York so much. Thats why I like those characters so much  his best friend and the girl. Theyre their own kind of messes.

I dont watch a lot of TV, to be honest with you. If I hook into something, its because its a take on the messiness of life. Its why I like Louie, its why I like Azizs show, its why I like Transparent. You know, theyre unique, and theyre brave, and theyre about people who are constantly fucking worried about what to do next. Thats real, to me. Its messy and theyre not the most confident people, even though they put it on. Thats why I identified with it. Azizs show reminds me of like Louie, if Louis C.K. was in his 30s, with some really interesting things about race and culture in there that I identify with. Hes seeing it through a different lens. Hes seeing it as what he calls a little, short, brown person, which is a different way than Louis would see himself, right? But it does remind me of Louie. Probably because its also set in New York, and its his unique take of what he runs into in the city day to day, and his dating life, all that. Its a good companion, I think, to Louie. I mean that as the highest compliment.

I just called him and I said, Hey, man. That show is great. Holy shit. He remembered and, like, a year later called me and said, Dude, would you play this part I wrote for you? I would love it. I was like, Yes. Thats all you got to say. It was, like, months before before we shot it and he was just like, I just want you to play a guy, man, that everybody loves to be around and he loves that people love to be around him. I was like, All right, done. I love it.

Francesca's Trip to New York

Ansari: Thats the first time Francesca comes back to New York and they go to the art exhibit at BAM and dinner at that tapas place. I think when Dev was in Italy, it never really crossed his mind. Shes in a relationship, blah, blah, blah. And then when shes in New York, he sees her in a different light. This is after he went through this hellish period of dating and not met anyone, and he just picks up with this woman from Italy and they just have this instant rapport and its just kind of sad.

Casting Alessandra, Id been meeting all these Italian actresses and our casting person was like, You really need to meet this woman. But I was in Rome and she couldnt come to Rome because she was in London. Then I randomly ended up going to London to meet with Lena to write the Thanksgiving episode, so Alessandra comes and we do the audition. The audition was a scene from the first episode, just us kind of shooting the shit in the pasta shop and talking to the policeman about trying to find the phone  and then it was the scene in the helicopter. [Laughs.] So it was two extremes. The helicopter scene I hadnt quite written yet and it wasnt even in a helicopter then. It was just kind of improvising that scene where this guy is going to tell you about how hes feeling. And she was so good, both at comedic and dramatic improvisation, and our chemistry was really good from the get-go. I was very, very certain that she would be the person who we had do this. And she was really great.

So I stayed in London, I was writing with Lena, and so much of the writing comes from getting to know these people as real people. Thats a trick I learned from working on Parks and Rec, that the way to make these people feel like three-dimensional, fully formed characters is to use the real actor, because the real actor is a three-dimensional, fully formed person. So the more you know the real person, the better you are at writing a character that feels more rounded. So we started hanging out and wed go to lunch and I was just trying to get to know her. So much of that character is her.

Dev's Date With Priya

Ansari: Thats an awkward tone to strike, where its like, Theyre both nice people, theyre just not clicking for some reason. And [Tiya Sircar] did such a good job with that performance because its a tricky line to toe. Its not that she stinks or that Dev stinks. For whatever reason, theres not a chemistry or a spark there. I feel like Ive been on that date. [Laughs.] Its one of those frustrating things where its like, This persons great! Why is this not working? I think everyones felt that.

Its one of those things where you can see me on these dates and be like, Ive been there, man. Ive sat there with someone and been like, How many siblings do you have? Ive been there sitting in the cab and been like, Fuck  Weve all been there, you know? And Ive been in a situation with being attracted to someone whos unavailable and being like, Do they love me, do they want to end their thing and be with me? Is that whats happening here or am I crazy? The most personal is the most universal.

The idea is you go out with someone you know you should be into and its just no chemistry there for whatever reason. And then you have this person you meet, the Francesca character, and its the most frustrating thing. You have amazing chemistry with them but theyre unavailable. Then you wonder by the end, is he opening up to her because shes unavailable?

The Dinner Party

Lakshmi [Sundaram] is so funny. [Editors note: Sundaram plays Devs friend that helps him decide whom to invite to Chef Jeffs party.] Shes one of our writers. I remembered meeting her in passing one time  she wrote on Brooklyn-Nine-Nine  and I just thought she was so funny. So between season one and season two, I thought it would be interesting to meet her because shes Indian. I thought it would be cool to have someone else in the writers room who has that perspective of growing up Indian in America. The meeting was supposed to be an hour and we ended up just chatting for hours and hours and we just got along so well and she was just so funny. So yeah, there was more stuff I wanted to do with her character and we just didnt have the time or place. Same with Kelvin [Yu]. I like that she just shows up and hasnt been introduced as his friend. Thats what should happen. You dont need an introduction. This is just a friend we didnt see before.

That running thing of me calling Arnold and going through dating stuff, its so funny. Me and Eric are like high-school girls. We call each other pretty much every day with little updates about things, and thats very much our relationship. [Laughs.] Thats very similar to our real dynamic. I dont think Eric gets mani-pedis, but we were like, Okay, where can we put Eric in this scene? We were filming somewhere and we were like, Well, why dont we put him in this mani-pedi place thats near this location?

Having Ravi [Patel] back was so great. At one point, we had an idea that that could be a fun cameo to just put in a celebrity that Chef Jeff is friends with and give them a bunch of crazy stuff to do. We couldnt really find the right person, and then we thought, Oh, what if we bring back Ravi? Thats such a great character. And hes so funny. It would be fun to bring him back. I just find him so funny. He really delivers. I think Ravi is kind of one of those friends where you have to explain why youre friends with him to other people that meet him. Look, uh, hes a nice guy. I know hes weird, but hes my friend. I dont know what to tell you. Hes my friend. [Laughs.] But the real guy, I really do adore.

Having John Legend isnt based on anything real. Thats just an idea we had of how to make that night very magical for them. We just decided that Chef Jeff and John are friends, and John would perform this song and they would have that moment. I knew John a little bit and hes a fan of the show and he was nice enough to do that. It was cool for the crew to see him perform, too. John and I were talking about what song he could do and I was like, I want something like, Cant Help It, that Michael Jackson song. And hes like, That would be great. You know, let me look into it. We were able to get it, so we did it.

The Cab Ride

My favorite thing in the episode and one of my favorite things weve done in the whole series is that shot at the end where Im just sitting in the car by myself. We were filming the back and forth between Alessandra and I in the car, and we were trying to do it all in one take. So after wed film it, wed drop her off and wed circle back to pick her up to do the scene again. After we dropped her off, I just told Eric [Wareheim], who was directing the episode, Hey, lets keep rolling. Im just going to stay in the moment. Just keep filming me while we go around to pick her up again and maybe we can use that.

So we did that and when were in the edit, were playing around with it and were like, why dont we just pop the scene in? I was like, Lets just put a song underneath it and just stay with me being sad for as long as we can. I knew that Soft Cell song really well, and I knew Alan liked that song, so we put it in. It just felt like it captured that cab ride that everyones had, where youre in this really sad moment and youre just sitting in this car with a stranger. Its such a personal moment. And its really long. Its definitely a swing.

We would screen that and watch people as they realized, Oh no, were going to stay here. Were not leaving. Were staying with him for a while. It goes way longer than youd expect. And if the show wasnt on Netflix, I dont know if we could do that. I dont know if the show was on another network theyd let you go that far. Its so sad!

When we screened it, so many people came up to me at the end. They were like, That last shot, man, Ive been in that car, I know that ride. It was a very personal thing, this idea of being alone by yourself in a car, dwelling in this really sad moment and being there with a stranger and not being able to share that with him or her and just getting dropped off. Its a personal moment, but everyones been there. Everyones had their version of that, you know?
120 Beats Per Minute. Photo: Celine Nieszawer/Les films de Pierre

Following one of Canness infamously early 8:30 a.m. press screenings, youll usually see small groups of journalists gathering in the theater lobby, parsing out their hot takes on what theyve just seen. But at the end of last Saturdays morning screening of the French film 120 Battements Par Minute (120 Beats Per Minute), set during the battle between dying HIV-positive youth and pharmaceutical companies in early-1990s Paris, there was no talking, just the sounds of weeping, then applause, then devastated silence as the press corps filed toward the exit. A gay male colleague had sat beside me as wed both wiped away tears. We looked at each other, without a word, and hugged.

The third film from Moroccan-born French screenwriter turned director Robin Campillo (known in arthouse circles for 2013s Eastern Boys, about a young male Ukrainian prostitute who robs an older man, and for writing Laurent Cantets The Class, which won the Palme dOr at Cannes in 2008), BPM came into the festival with little advance fanfare, next to new works from Sofia Coppola, Michael Haneke, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Lynne Ramsay. And maybe its precisely because so few of us saw it coming that its emotional wallop has been so lasting. In a canon of AIDS movies that often seem to focus on making the disease palatable for the mainstream  Tom Hanks as the everyman wasting away in Philadelphia; the heroics of a straight, white, HIV-positive guy who is literally a cowboy in Dallas Buyers Club  BPM is a unique, intimate portrait of the community from the inside, thrilling for its non-American perspective, and for its willingness to depict the erotic lives of a group of people who had been shunned by society and left to die, often for little other than daring to have sex. Critics have called it heart-bursting and a vital new gay classic. Even now, six days after its debut, BPM is still the title I hear mentioned again and again when people talk about what movie has moved them most.

Campillo begins backstage at a pharmaceutical conference, in the thick of a crowd of young people watching a man in a suit deliver promising statistics about HIV/AIDS research through a tiny opening in the curtain. In their hands are signs and what look like water balloons. Their bodies practically shake with anticipation. Someone signals go and they storm forward, shouting slogans about drugs and murder. Within seconds, one of those balloons, which was filled not with water but with something red and viscous, has smacked straight into the face of the speaker and we, as an audience, are confronted with our own discomfort seeing this man dripping in fake blood, marinating in his shame. Now the young people have taken over the microphone. They are, they say, members of the Paris branch of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)  the political action organization Larry Kramer founded in New York in the late 1980s, which believed brazen disruptions were necessary means to spur an indifferent Mitterrand administration and Big Pharma to speed up their release of life-saving treatments. Ten years since the crisis began, we learn, France is still seeing 6,000 new cases a year, twice that of the UK or Germany.

Both Campillo and his co-writer Philippe Mangeot were members of ACT UP 20 years ago, and this film feels in many ways like their way of finally unburdening themselves of what they saw, in tribute to the short, vibrant lives of friends who are no longer here. Our entry point to the group is handsome, eager newcomer Nathan (Arnaud Valois), who is attending his first weekly ACT UP meeting, and whose rare HIV-negative status makes him both the strongest and most vulnerable person in the room. Rapt wonder washes over his face as a heated debate erupts among members over what happened in the events of the opening scene, which turn out to have gone much further than what we saw: The group spontaneously handcuffed the speaker to the stage after they threw that balloon at him. Moderates like ACT UP president Thibault (Antoine Reinartz) and field director Sophie (Adele Haenel) wish everyone could have kept their cool a little more. Impassioned radicals like Sean (Argentinian actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart, in the films breakout performance) believe they did the right thing, and wished theyd gone even further. Helene (Catherine Vinatier), mother of a teenage hemophiliac Marco (Theophile Ray), would just like the group to take another action soon so she can get rid of all the fake blood her son made in their bathtub.

But while the policy debates and political actions form the fascinating spine of the movie, its its pulsating humanity that sticks with you. Perhaps no one embodies that humanity better than Biscayarts Sean, whose stunning conviction to live his life fully with what little time he has is as mesmerizing in the field as it is on a dance floor, where the group goes for release after invading the offices of a pharmaceutical company, or barging into high-school classrooms to hand out condoms, or getting out of jail. (The films title refers not to an elevated heart rate, but the tempo of electronic music.) Its no wonder that Nathan pursues him with feverish desire, and then measured caution, mostly prompted by Sean, as they work to navigate around their opposite HIV statuses, and swap stories of their sexual histories in one of the most intimate bedroom scenes, gay or straight, I have ever seen onscreen.

Even in their moments of escape, though, the specter of mortality is never gone  a fact Campillo drives home in a beautiful shot in which dust floating through the air against strobe lights transforms into microbes floating across the screen as if in a Petri dish. We become invested in this community of outcasts as they live, love, fight, and fuck, knowing that the sick will inevitably get sicker, and that this Gay Pride Parade theyre so feverishly debating may, for some of their number, be their last. And even as the vibrancy of the earlier sections fades into the devastating conclusion we all knew was coming, we never lose sight of the humans in the room, confronting death, losing someone they love, grasping for hope when society is offering them none. For Campillo, this is personal and it shows. I actually had to dress a friend of mine who had died, he said at a press conference. When you really experience this firsthand you realize these are very simple moments. You dont break down and cry. Instead, he seems to be saying, you gather. You hold one another. You fight and you fight and you fight, as long as your body will allow it, so that no one is alone.
Hopefully director Rian Johnson recognizes the gold he has on his hands and releases a featurette comprised of the full, unedited video of Carrie Fisher wailing on Oscar Isaac. What are we saying? Of course he will. Thats why he had her do it 27 times. The Last Jedi actor visited The Late Show last night to reminisce about his time on set acting across from the late, great Star Wars actress, a memory he will never forget. Not that anyone would forget getting slapped on every single part of the face 27 times, but to have it done by one Ms. Carrie Fisher? Even if you forgot it, it was all being filmed!
Guess who opens the episode in yet another dance studio? Khasan! This time hes auditioning dancers to perform with Betty Who at some circuit party happening in the Pines. Meanwhile, Jorge complains to his brother via Skype that his boyfriend, Fabio, isnt coming to visit. At this point its safe to say that Jorge deserves better. Sorry about it, Fabio, but enough is enough. Its not like hes asking you to join him in Akron, Ohio  hes inviting you to a lovely beach house on Fire Island. Sure, its full of certifiably insane people, but theyre hot and there seems to be infinite rose. What the hell are you doing?!

Strolling down the boardwalk, Patrick tells a group of friends weve never met (a.k.a. extras) that his ex-boyfriend is joining them for the weekend. Wait one second, you might be thinking if youve read the previous recaps. Does this mean the writer is stepping inside the recap itself and visiting his ex-boyfriend as some sort of meta performance art? No, Patricks other ex-boyfriend, Chris, is coming. Besides his appearances in low-fi gay movies and high-fi shirtless selfies, all I know about Chris is that he started dating Patrick shortly after we broke up. Do you know whats more fun than watching your ex-boyfriend on a reality show? Watching HIS ex-boyfriend on a reality show. More on this to come.

The boys arrive and are brimming with excitement over their final weekend. Theyre planning to go balls to the wall, by which I assume they mean hard core. But honestly, with some of the things Ive seen go down on Fire Island, it very well could be slang for a new sex craze or Carly Rae Jepsen single, or worse: both.

We soon learn that Patricks ex and Cheyenne have past drama. It turns out that Chris put the moves on Cheyennes (at the time) boyfriend in a hot tub at a party in L.A. Cheyenne apparently witnessed the whole thing from a balcony and doesnt that make you wish there was a gay Melrose Place?

Patrick announces that hell be performing in a showcase at the Pavilion later that day, singing one of his original country songs. The old using your reality show to debut an original song routine  smooth move, Patrick. The boys have cocktails at the house and discuss the intensity of the weekend ahead owing to the fact that 15 people will be sleeping in the six-person house. (This shouldnt be legal.) Cheyenne is annoyed over the addition of Chris and points out that Patricks choice to invite him was a clear and vindictive move. Its hard not to disagree.

Patrick and Justin have the flip side of the conversation, discussing Patricks excitement over Chris coming to town. Justin asks about Chris, and Patrick describes his ex as great. Super hot. Great in bed.

Jorge and Khasan lay in bed drinking rose (a.k.a. nailing life) and reminisce about the past few weeks. Jorge tells us his goal for the summer was to convince Khasan to move from L.A. to live with him in New York. Again, these people are allegedly not sleeping together. Jorge makes a toast that all they need is each other, a bottle of tequila, and some mistresses. So basically group sex? If so: you and me both, babe.

At the showcase, we see a modern dance solo, a magic act, a group of ballroom dancers, then Patrick sings his song. Its a country ballad about knowing when its time to let go of someone you love. Its clear he puts his heart and soul into it and he does a nice job.

After he finishes, Patrick has a meltdown backstage. The song brought up a lot of emotion that he didnt expect. He tells Justin that he wrote this song after he and Chris broke up. Through tears, he tells us that Chris was the first person he fell in love with and the person who taught him what love was. He discusses getting a dog together with the intention of building their own little family, the dog in question being the one we purchased and raised together a year before he met Chris. It is a bizarre thing to watch if youre his previous ex-boyfriend being paid to do this and theres a word limit on these recaps, but lets just say I have some notes.

Anyway, like any good episode of reality TV, this one is built around an impending dinner party where things are bound to go awry. Ladies and gentlemen, it does NOT disappoint. Chris arrives and the drama strolls right in with him. Cheyennes coldness all but frosts over the camera lens as Patrick shows Chris around the house. Patricks shirt has gone from tank top to babys bib and Chris has the most perfect teeth Ive ever seen.

Chris and Patrick have a private talk outside. Patrick explains that Cheyenne is hard to get through to, and Chris tells him, with Scientologist-level charisma and commitment, Those are the people that you can learn the most from. Chris goes on to tell Patrick that he learned SO much from dating him and this, somehow, all ends up with Chris crying and apologizing to Patrick for hurting him. If this is Chriss audition for season two, honey, youre hired.

Back inside the house, Kashan gives an agitated Cheyenne a glass of wine to calm down. He drinks it before discovering theres a piece of onion accidentally in the glass. After drinking the onion wine, he proceeds to tongue-kiss his boyfriend Kyle, who just arrived with freshly yellow hair.

At the dinner table, Patrick immediately brings up Cheyenne and Chriss history with the eagerness of Anne Hathaway at pretty much every public function circa 2009 to 2015. The pot doesnt even have time to be stirred before its boiling over with Cheyenne and Patrick arguing over why Patrick even brought this up at dinner (because this is a reality show and youre all drunk, by the way). Patrick claims he just wants to clear the air and Cheyenne insists this was a deliberate ploy to cause drama. Im with Cheyenne on this one, but also impressed by Patricks dramaturgy so its hard to pick a side.

The whole thing escalates to Chris saying, without a trace of irony, Theres a lesson here for all of us and its dont judge a book by its cover. Then he bursts into tears, exclaiming, The thing is Im, like, sensitive. He storms out of the room and ends up against a wall, openly sobbing. Imagine being at a house full of strangers for like two hours and finding yourself sobbing and whimpering to your ex-boyfriend by a pool in the stillness of night? It takes me seven hours and three Mark Wests, AT LEAST. All of this is to say that season two should be built solely around Chris. If that happens, a new Kim Richards will be born.

Inside, Cheyenne responds to the whole ordeal by asking, Who the fuck cares? The answer, of course, is the grown man who just arrived and is now sobbing by the pool. Somehow or other, Jorge becomes enraged that Cheyenne didnt just drop it despite being attacked in the first place. Jorge really hates it when a dinner gets ruined. (Me too, babe.)

With the drama at an all-time high, the episode ends with Patrick, now more furious with Cheyenne than ever, saying to the camera, Oh, you want to make my guest uncomfortable this weekend, Cheyenne? He huffs and puffs here, like a Disney villain delighting in his evil handiwork, Well, lets see how comfortable your guest is going to be. He follows this with a suggestion that Cheyenne has been cheating on his boyfriend all summer and its clear that shit will hit next episodes fan. And so concludes one of my favorite episodes of Fire Island so far. It essentially played out like a Edward Albee play performed by people in brightly colored Speedos with mic packs hanging off them, a.k.a. the way God intended.
One of China's founding fathers, Sun Yat-sen, predicted that the era of China's prominence would not be one of Yellow Peril (as the country was popularly described in the West) but of Yellow Favour. The Chinese era would not be one in which China threatens the world, but enriches it. The China Dream, as Liu Mingfu, then a colonel in the People's Liberation Army, noted in his 2010 book of the same name, had three distinct phases: catching up with America, competing with America, and becoming the world's leading nation. In many ways, China is now in the second phase of this process of global domination, and the world is worried. On May 14, China's leader, Xi Jinping, in the presence of 29 foreign leaders in Beijing, unveiled a "project for the century'', One Belt, One Road (OBOR), which hopes to make Beijing the centre of the global economy through a series of infrastructure projects. India boycotted it over political concerns on China's projects in PoK. The audacity of this $1 trillion project, now involving 60-plus countries, is mind-boggling and reflects the vaulting global ambition of China to become a superpower. It makes me wonder about our long-term strategic plan for a place in the world. Is having a seat on the UN Security Council our only ambition?

The timing for China seems perfect. America under Donald Trump is distracted by a surge of protectionist sentiment, and engagement with the world is not top of the agenda for Brexit-affected Europe. The Chinese plan involves both economic hegemony as well as military supremacy and follows three decades of serious internal reform. Its global mission is quite clear-secure resources to fuel China's rise, which it did through its "resources for infrastructure" model, build OBOR to consolidate its sway over countries already in its economic orbit, and protect its assets overseas with an international role for its military. Between 1996 and 2005, China's overseas investments rose from $3 billion to $100 billion. Its share of global trade recorded a similarly spectacular increase. In 2001, when China entered the World Trade Organization, it accounted for less than 5 per cent of global exports. Today, it is the world's largest exporter, with a 14 per cent share. It is the largest or second largest trading partner for more than 100 countries and has emerged as the biggest source of foreign investment for nations ranging from Venezuela and Angola to Nepal and Sri Lanka. In addition, China's state-owned enterprises are building infrastructure all over the world-from railways in Africa to mines in Latin America, dams in Myanmar, and ports across the Indian Ocean. China is also building a blue-water navy to protect its overseas interests. Last year, it opened its first naval base in Africa. More are on the way.

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China's new ambitions will fundamentally change the nature of its relations with the rest of the world. For the past three decades, reports india today's Beijing-based Associate Editor Ananth Krishnan, China's diplomacy has followed Deng Xiaoping's cautious maxim, "tao guang yang hui", which means "hide your brightness and seek obscurity". The new phrase of choice in Beijing, he says, is "fen fa you wei", which means to forge ahead, underlining Beijing's desire "to proactively shape" its external environment. The implications for India are enormous, especially given the increasing closeness between China and Pakistan. Should India bide its time like China did and take up a non-confrontational approach till it becomes a much stronger nation or should it aggressively counter China in whichever spheres it feels threatened and build a counter-narrative? I, for one, am a strong votary of India becoming the best version of itself before it tries to be better than China. Or as the Chinese would say, dig the well before you are thirsty.

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A benefit to support local firefighter Garth Goodwin, a 17-year veteran of the Waco Fire Department who was recently injured in an off-duty electrical accident, will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at Firehouse Subs, 4215 Franklin Ave., and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday at Genghis Grill, 130 N. New Road.

Firehouse Subs will donate 20 percent of all proceeds to assist with Goodwins medical costs, and Genghis Grill will donate all proceeds.

Into the Woods

The Midway High School eighth-period theater class will present Stephen Sondheims Into The Woods, at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Midway High School Theater, 8200 Mars Drive.

Tickets for the full musical production cost $10.

For more information, visit www.midwayisd.org/Page/19277.

Otter day at the zoo

Cameron Park Zoo, 1701 N. Fourth St., will celebrate International Otter Day on Saturday.

The day will include activities and keeper talks.

Zoo hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Regular admission rates will apply.

For information, visit www.cameronparkzoo.com.

Middle East series

Gayle Avant, former political science professor at Baylor University, will present a series about Middle East challenges to American foreign policy from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Westwood Baptist Church, 7509 Fairway Road in Woodway.

This series will continue Sundays through June 18.

Weekly topics will be Overview of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Geopolitics of Energy and Afghanistan/Pakistan.

To reserve a spot, email Gayle_Avant@Baylor.edu or call 772-5572.

Lodge open house

Waco Masonic Lodge, 4324 Cobbs Drive, will have an open house and blood drive from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Included will be historic Waco photos and artifacts, a bounce house and an information session about Waco freemasonry.

For more information, call 379-3984.

Awakening at WCT

Theatre Uncovered will present Spring Awakening at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Waco Civic Theatre, 1517 Lake Air Drive.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students.

For more information, call 776-1591.

HOT Storytelling Guild

Heart of Texas Storytelling Guild will meet from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday at the South Waco Library, 2737 S. 18th St.

The guild will present a youth enrichment program from 1:30 to 3 p.m.

For more information, call 717-1763.
Four District 1 residents have filed to complete the term of Councilman Wilbert Austin, who stepped aside this week for health reasons.

They include Waco Main Street manager Andrea Barefield and three candidates who have run against Austin for the District 1 seat in the past.

Roy Dell Walthall, a retired McLennan Community College professor who lives in the Timbercrest neighborhood, ran for the seat in 2006, when Austin won his first election. Mark Shaw, a real estate manager, ran for the seat in 2004 and challenged Austin last year.

Cecil McDowell, an East Waco cafe owner, challenged Austin in the 2014 election, winning about 25 percent of the vote.

Barefield, who grew up in Waco as daughter of former councilwoman and Mayor Mae Jackson, returned two years ago to head the citys new Texas Main Street program. That program, administered through the Texas Historical Commission, is intended to support economic development and historic preservation in Texas downtowns.

Barefield is employed by City Center Waco, which the city helped create to implement its Imagine Waco Plan for Greater Downtown. City Center Waco gets $310,000 a year from the city of Waco through a development contract.

The filing deadline for the seat is 5 p.m. June 2. The Waco City Council is set to interview candidates at the 3 p.m. work session at its June 6 meeting and could swear in the winning candidate at its 6 p.m. business session.

The selected candidate will fill out the remaining one year of Austins two-year term. The district includes East Waco as well as the Cameron Park, McLennan Community College, Texas State Technical College, Timbercrest and far South Waco areas.

Austin, 76, a pastor and 11-year council member who has been fighting a resurgent stomach cancer, submitted his resignation Wednesday to Mayor Kyle Deaver. The council will hold a reception for Austin at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Waco Convention Centers McLennan Hall.

For more information on the vacant District 1 seat, stop by the city secretarys office at City Hall or call 750-5750.
Class acts

Students who graduated May 13 from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, are:

Katy Alexander, of Waco, cum laude, Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology.

Sarah Balch, of Valley Mills, magna cum laude, Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian studies/Christian ministry.

Zach Gloff, of Clifton, Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration/sport management.

Reagan Jaro, of Waco, was named to the deans honor roll for the spring semester at McMurry University in Abilene.

Applause

The Society of Mayflower Descendants, Waco Colony, installed its new officers at its spring meeting April 22 at the West Waco Library and Genealogy Center.

Texas State Mayflower Society Governor Mike Nichols gave his presentation Is Our Mayflower Story Still Relevant Today? Nichols then installed the incoming officers for 2017-19.

The incoming officers are Waco Colony Governor Dottie Tate, Deputy Governor Barbara Lewandowski, captain Belinda Summers, elder Judy Baker, treasurer Peter Kultgen and secretary Ann Harder.

In the military

U.S. Air Force Airman Jadarrian K. Flentroy , a 2016 graduate of Calvert High School, graduated from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

The airman completed an eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills.

He is the son of Kenya Grimes, of Waco, and Jawara Flentroy, of Calvert.
Former condemned murderer Albert Leslie Love Jr. has a decision to make: Does he want the same attorneys who represented him at trial four years ago to do so again, can his family hire a lawyer for an expensive death penalty case or does he want the court to appoint him new attorneys for his retrial?

Love, 30, made his first court appearance Friday since the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his capital murder conviction and death sentence in December. He has been back in the McLennan County Jail since May 2.

Love was sentenced to death after a trial in Williamson County in the March 2011 shooting deaths of Keenan Hubert, 20, and Tyus Sneed, 17, at the Lakewood Villas apartment complex, 1601 Spring St.

The Court of Criminal Appeals, in a 6-3 opinion, ruled that Love deserves a new trial because his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when Waco police seized the contents of his text messages without a search warrant, which were then used by prosecutors at his trial.

In a motion for rehearing rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals in April, prosecutors argued that Waco police officers were relying on what they understood the law to be at the time and exhibited a good-faith belief that warrants were not necessary for the cellphones.

Now Loves case has been returned to 19th State District Judge Ralph Strothers court for a new trial.

Strother told Love on Friday during a brief hearing that he has the option of having John Donahue and Jon Evans re-appointed to represent him again or have other attorneys appointed to represent him.

Love said his family is exploring the possibility of hiring an attorney for him, which the judge said would be OK, too.

You can hire any lawyer that has a bar card, Strother told Love.

The difference between hiring a lawyer and having one appointed at county expense is that Love has the option of choosing anyone he wants if his family intends to pay for his representation. If the judge were to appoint attorneys, they would come from a court-approved list of attorneys qualified to handle capital cases.

Love conferred with Donahue and Evans for a bit in private Friday and asked the judge for more time to consult with his family over the decision. The judge set another status conference in the case for June 23.

Donahue and Evans are in a bit of a touchy situation. While Love went to death row after the trial, Donahue and Evans did not file his appeal. They did object to the introduction of the text messages, which, in effect, got his conviction overturned.

However, another of Loves attorneys alleged in an application for writ of habeas corpus that Donahue and Evans provided ineffective assistance of counsel, a common claim in writs.

So if Love agrees to allow Donahue and Evans to represent him again, he would have to assure the court those are his true wishes because of the writ allegations.

After the hearing, Donahue estimated it would cost $500,000 to hire an attorney in a death penalty case because the attorney, besides charging for his time, would have to pay for expert witnesses, an investigator and other expenses.

2019 retrial possible

The judge said that between his normal docket and trying cases arising out of the Twin Peaks shootout, it could be 2019 before Love is tried again.

Loves trial was moved to Georgetown because the trial of his co-defendant, Rickey Donnell Cummings, was held first in Waco. The appeals court affirmed Cummings conviction.

Rickey Cummings, like Love, is a member of the Bloods gang. He was sentenced to death in 2012 for his role in the double slaying.

Rickey Cummings younger brother, DArvis Cummings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2014. He pleaded guilty to murder as a party to the ambush slayings.

Deontrae Majors and Marion Bible, who were in the front seat of the car Hubert and Sneed were in when they were killed, were wounded in the attack but managed to escape.

Testimony from both trials showed Cummings and Love wanted to kill Hubert out of revenge because they thought he killed their best friend, Emuel Man Man Bowers III, at East Waco Park the year before.

Prosecutors introduced Loves cellphone records, which included 37 pages showing the contents of about 1,600 text messages.

A message was sent to Bowers mother shortly after the attack that said, mission accomplished. Later, after Rickey Cummings was arrested, Love sent a text to his former girlfriend saying, hide the guns.

Trial testimony showed Bowers mother, Shelia Bowers, was upset at the pace of the Waco police investigation into her sons murder.
Sundays missile launch by North Korea was the eighth so far this year, proof the country is stepping up its nuclear program. According to some analysts, the missile appeared to be the type that could fly far enough to target key American military bases in the Pacific.

The test is just the latest indication North Korea is making progress with its intercontinental ballistic missile project.

Every day, their ability to produce a ballistic missile tipped with an atomic weapon capable of reaching North America becomes more of a reality. To protect our country from a nuclear attack, we must take unilateral action and stop North Korea before they improve their technology and capability any further.

Four requirements are necessary to mount a nuclear blast attack across the ocean that can strike the United States: a reliable rocket of appropriate size, a miniaturized atomic warhead, a heat shield to enable the warhead to survive re-entry and precision guidance to actually hit near the intended target.

Credible threat

For years North Korea has been conducting underground nuclear testing of miniaturized atomic weapons that fit an ordinary-sized rocket. But problems with the rocket itself mean further testing is still needed.

A year or two at most should be adequate time for them to successfully miniaturize the warhead. By then, if not countered, their rocket also should be flying reliably, presenting a credible risk to the United States. But we could be at risk much sooner.

The major unknown at this point is whether or not North Korea possesses the heat shield and precision guidance for a transoceanic nuclear blast attack, though heat shield and guidance technology are much easier to develop and hide than the rocket and warhead.

However, to execute an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, they need only a reliable rocket and a miniaturized atomic warhead. An EMP has the potential to create devastating damage, since detonation takes place just above the atmosphere and affects a much larger area than that of a nuclear blast attack.

By preventing their rocket tests, we stop both types of potential attacks, meaning North Korea would be unable to harm us in the short term. Our initial strategy, therefore, should be attempting to shoot down every test rocket they launch by using our various battlefield-range and long-range anti-missile and anti-satellite weapons.

While credible doubt remains about the efficacy of all these weapons in general warfare, some of them seem to work under restricted test circumstances. And for the near future, thats sufficient to shoot down every test rocket launched by North Korea. Shooting down the test rockets will accomplish two short-term goals: It will prevent North Korea from verifying its rockets reliability and it will show China if it does not rein in its protege state, the United States will not hesitate to take unilateral action.

In the long term, only a regime change in North Korea will end the threat, and for that we will need Chinas help. China is the source of support that keeps the rogue state of North Korea alive and functional since it is in Chinas interest that North Korea not be a failed state. In fact, avoiding a failed state on their border is one reason China has supported the Kim dynasty all these decades. So were probably looking at the prospect of two Koreas indefinitely.

Replacing Kim

However, if we could get China to replace the paranoid Kim dynasty with something more sane and tolerable, that would benefit the governments of both China and the United States. While reunification of the Koreas under the government of South Korea would be an ideal situation, its doubtful China would support such a plan.

Still, given North Koreas proximity, China is unwise to continue tolerating the nuclear threat posed by Kim Jong Uns government. That very threat may be just the diplomatic edge we need for China to consider replacing the Kim dynasty.

Though regime change is a long-term solution, until that happens we cannot risk the possibility of North Korea possessing a miniaturized atomic bomb and a reliable rocket to carry it.

If defectors reports are to be believed, the dynasty of Kim Jong Un is growing more and more unstable, and he is at risk of losing the trust of his power base. One defector predicts Kims regime will collapse within 10 years. In that event, chaos will ensue and, unless a major power steps in, Kim Jong Un will lash out with nuclear weapons if he has them.

We must immediately begin using all methods at our disposal to stop any further tests by North Korea. And we must somehow convince China a regime change in North Korea is necessary for the long-term safety of both China and the United States.
Booze Down the River

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar might be all for cleaning the Ganga, but Bihar policemen seem to have other ideas. On May 13, Patna and Vaishali cops allegedly poured more than a thousand litres of liquor seized from the Sukumarpur diara (riverine belt) areas in Vaishali district down the Ganga, a photographer capturing the act on camera. Advocate Manibhushan Pratap Sengar proceeded to file a PIL in the Patna High Court, seeking action against the errant cops.

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A Spot of Gandhigiri?

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee sprang a surprise in the assembly when she walked up to the Opposition bench and inquired after the health of Congress veteran Abdul Mannan. The same Mannan whose PIL in the Saradha scam brought grief to her government. Regardless, Didi proceeded to give him health tips, advised him to take walks and have frugal meals.

Pen for Posterity

Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu is ensuring he's remembered as the founder-builder of Amaravati. As soon as he and Singapore trade and industry minister S. Iswaran inked a deal to develop its initial 6.84 sq km area on May 15, Naidu gave the fountain pen to a bureaucrat asking him to keep it in the proposed city museum.

One Man One Boast

Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari has claimed it was his 2.45 am call to party president Amit Shah that helped the BJP form a government in Goa. Gadkari said he made the call after the March 11 results established a hung house, telling Shah that if Manohar Parrikar was made chief minister, the party would win the support of three Goa Forward (GF) MLAs. The GF, though, has a different take. GF leader Vijai Sardesai went to the BJP after discovering that the Congress planned to make his detractor Luizinho Faleiro CM.

By the Book

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is clearly a stickler for rules. He backed out of releasing state Vigilance Director Jacob Thomas's memoirs on May 22 after discovering that the IPS officer had not taken official permission to write the book. This despite the fact that Thomas's book had effusive praise for him. A red-faced Thomas had to cancel the book release at the Trivandrum Press Club.

Aerial warfare

Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh's divide and rule policy of offering opposition leaders trips on state government aircraft is working. Not long ago, Chhattisgarh Janata Congress leader Ajit Jogi attacked opposition leader T.S. Singhdeo for using the state chopper. Now, Jogi is taking flak for flying in the state government's Beechcraft King Air to Ambikapur.

--- ENDS ---
For many, having a baby is a happy and life-changing occasion. But about 10 percent to 15 percent of women suffer from despondency, anger and severe mood swings after giving birth.

Having a baby is no easy feat. It changes a woman physically, emotionally and mentally.

With May designated as Postpartum Depression Awareness Month, its an important time for Texas women and their loved ones to know that postpartum depression (PPD) is a real issue. Many new moms suffer from postpartum depression and may not recognize the symptoms.

Postpartum depression is a major depressive disorder with a pregnancy or postpartum onset. Symptoms include trouble sleeping, difficulty performing daily activities, feelings of guilt and anxiety. It should not be confused with baby blues, a temporary state that usually occurs within a few days of a babys birth and can last up to two weeks.

The reality we face is that postpartum depression can affect one in seven women. Some of the symptoms can be broad or similar to other conditions. Its even possible that some symptoms may be dismissed as a part of the process of adjusting to motherhood. However, its important for women and their loved ones to take any unusual symptoms or behaviors seriously.

Left untreated, postpartum depression can impair the way a new mom cares for herself or her newborn. For example, a new mom may eat or sleep poorly, miss prenatal visits or not follow medical instructions. A new mom may not be able to bond with her child or respond to his or her needs. This could impact the infants cognitive development or cause problems with sleeping and eating.

All this is getting the attention of state leaders. Tuesday both the Texas House and Senate passed bills aimed at reducing postpartum depression and the high rate of Texas women dying within a year of giving birth. The bills are aimed at helping women before and after birth to provide much-needed resources for successful outcomes for mother and baby.

House Bill 2466 passed by the Senate provides low-income mothers in the states Medicaid program access to postpartum depression screenings and referrals to mental-health providers for counseling. According to a 2016 Texas Health and Human Services Commission and Texas Department of State Health Services report, about 17 percent of Texas mothers experience postpartum depression.

On the House side, members voted for Senate Bill 1929, keeping in place a task force that reviews pregnancy-related deaths. Sadly, Texas women die at far higher rates than average less than a year after birth and that number is even higher among black women. The task force will also exam disparities in mortality and morbidity rates.

There are steps you or your loved ones can take to address PPD. Talk to your health-care provider or visit the states HealthyTexasWomen.org or MentalHealthTX.org websites for information. To help women, the state has two initiatives: Healthy Texas Women and Pregnant Postpartum Intervention (PPI).

Healthy Texas Women offers screening, diagnosis and treatment for women who suspect postpartum depression. A new mom can visit HealthyTexasWomen.org to find a provider near her. The provider can screen the woman and help her figure out whether she has postpartum depression or another condition. This is why postpartum screenings are critical. A postpartum screening can lead to early detection, giving a new mom the opportunity to seek and receive early treatment to help improve her mental health and overall well-being.

MentalHealthTX.org can help one find a provider in the Pregnant Postpartum Intervention program. If a new mom has a history of substance abuse, PPI can help with substance-use screening and assessment, counseling and intensive case management and psycho-education. These services can help a new mom reduce parental substance use or misuse, assist in navigating community and recovery resources, increase early access to behavioral and primary health care and, finally, develop a collaborative and integrated response for her. PPI providers leverage postpartum depression resources to enhance their services to ready mothers for the care of their children. They run regular support groups for postpartum depression as well.

We encourage all new moms to make their health a priority and seek out the support and services they may need. Texas women can learn more about the comprehensive health screenings and services that they may be eligible for at HealthyTexasWomen.org or MentalHealthTX.org.
WAHOO  Saunders County Youth Services is wrapping up its first year of providing behavioral health services in Saunders County schools by planning for the next school year.

Saunders County Youth Services and Family Service of Lincoln have been solidifying funding and staffing to be able to continue the services next year without interruption.

The first step to ensure needs of students were being met was to hire an additional therapist.

Servicing 41 youth ages 12 to 18, with 38 more students on the waiting list, served as the basis to hire a third behavioral health therapist, said Saunders County Youth Services Coordinator Pam Lausterer.

Jenifer Rockeby-Mayeux of Lincoln was hired to provide school-based behavioral health services to Saunders County schools 30 hours a week.

The countys youth program is also making progress solidifying funding.

Saunders County received $46,028 enhancement dollars from the Nebraska Crime Commission for the 2017-2018 school year. The program is currently being operated at a budget of $145,289.

In anticipation of a funding shortfall, Lausterer and Family Service Behavioral Health Program Coordinator Tammy Sassaman arranged meetings with all Saunders County school administrators to discuss the financial stability of the program.

Across the board, the opinion was that the program is working very well and the only complaint was that more hours were needed for therapists to be at their schools, Lausterer said.

Sassaman created a funding formula for each school district, allocated based on how students were seen and how many days therapists were present in the district.

To date, Wahoo Public Schools is the only district Sassaman is aware of that has agreed to contribute the amount asked of them to cover the funding shortfall.

The Wahoo Board of Education approved $17,100 to continue services next year.

Wahoo Board of Education President Mike Hancock said the school board felt that the service is valuable for its students.

To not provide that does not make sense. Kids just need a safe haven, he said. Everyone around the school said this is a need, not a want.

Based on that agreed upon amount, Wahoo will receive 30 hours of behavioral health services per week for about 15 to 18 students for 39 weeks.

Sassaman said if a school opts not to contribute the funding requested, it does not mean the services will be pulled from the district, but a definite solution has not been determined at this time.

Well definitely keep pursuing grants and other funding sources, she said.

One gap in the program that had been brought to organizers attention was the need for services for students younger than what the grant dollars could be utilized for.

A potential solution has arisen with the most recent hire, after Saunders Medical Center decided to invest in services as well.

Since April 1, Rockeby-Mayeux has been providing behavioral health services 10 hours a week at the medical center south of Wahoo.

Its been great. So far weve had really good feedback from the providers, staff and patients, said SMC Director of Clinics Stacie Sabatka. We see this as a big gap we had here in services, so shes really filling that for us and were excited about it. There is not a lot fo family practices that have integrated a behavioral health therapist into their practice, so its a big step for us.

Sassaman said having SMC pick up 10 hours has helped the school program in the cases they are unable to see based on grant funding restrictions.

At the hospital Jennifer can be serving all ages, she said. That opens that up a little bit in regards to services  its not so limited within that (12-18) age frame.
ASHLAND  A listening session has been scheduled to give Ashland residents the opportunity to meet with local elected officials and representatives of a firm that is facilitating a community housing study.

The Ashland Area Economic Development Corporation (AAEDC) is conducting a community housing study with strategies for affordable housing with the assistance of of Hanna:Keelan Associates, P.C., a Nebraska based community planning and research consulting firm.

The listening session will be held on Tuesday, May 30 at the Ashland Community Resource Center at 6 p.m. Residents from Ashland and the surrounding area are encouraged to attend.

The study includes input from the public. The listening session is one opportunity for citizens to discuss area housing issues and opportunities.

A survey was recently done to also gauge public opinion regarding housing needs in the community. The results of the survey will be discussed during the listening session.

Hanna:Keelan Associates is in its 39th year of serving Nebraska communities and counties. The firm works extensively in eastern Nebraska preparing comprehensive plans, zoning regulations, housing studies, downtown

and redevelopment plans and assisting communities in building both family and elderly housing. This study is funded with a housing grant provided by the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority (NIFA), with matching funds from AAEDC.
Fouga Reborn

by Gert Jan Mentink

The Dutch Historic Jet Associations Fouga Magister, registered F-GLHF, took to the air again for the first time in almost four years on Friday, May 5th. Kris van de Bergh, a Belgian Fouga pilot, made the successful 40 minute test flight from the aircrafts home base at Lelystad Airport. The DHJAs Fons Hemmelder acted as co-pilot from the rear seat.

The aircraft has just completed a significant restoration following a gear collapse during a touch and go at Lelystad on June 27th, 2013. Luckily, no-one received injuries in that incident, nor did the engines suffer, but the lower fuselage took a significant blow.

The damage was severe enough that the Magister could have been permanently grounded, but after much debate with the insurance company, DHJA decided to proceed with repairs. They disassembled and trucked their forlorn Fouga to another Dutch airport at Teuge to get the work done. There, master sheet metal worker Louis van den Bos replaced several of F-GLHFs lower fuselage ribs and associated fuselage skinning. For this, DHJAs spare Fouga, former Belgian Air Force MT-37, served as both a parts donor and contour mould. The repairs were done by roughly mid-October 2016 and Hotel Fox made her way by road back to Lelystad. After the necessary 2000 hour check, the aircraft received a fresh coat of shiny red paint. As the Fouga is still French-registered, an inspector from the French Aviation Authorities (DGAC) had to re-certify her airworthiness. Finally, on December 1st last year, the DHJA received the long-awaited CoA for their beloved F-GHLF. Unfortunately, the lengthy period of her grounding meant that all of the DHJA pilots saw their type ratings for the Magister expire. To tackle this problem, while simultaneously renewing their pilots their type ratings, DHJA hired a French pilot who is also a fully licensed Fouga instructor. But whether this training will take place is highly dependent on the European Aviation Authorities. Both the Dutch IL&T and the French DGAC are currently re-considering their vision on the operation of former military jet aircraft by private individuals or organizations. Hopefully future legislation will continue to enable the operation of historic jets, so the public will be able to enjoy aviation legacy in the years to come!

The Dutch Historic Jet Association began in 1997. A group of 24 Dutch pilots formed the initial cadre, led by Mr. Arjan Dros, a former Dutch Navy pilot, who later flew for Transavia airlines. According to their statutes, the Association formed to preserve vintage jets with a historic connection to the Netherlands. But in 1997, many of the most interesting types were either extinct or too expensive. Fortunately, the French Air Force came to the rescue when they retired large numbers of their Fouga Magister trainers at around the same time. It turned out that many of the DHJA pilots had a soft spot for the sleek French-designed trainer. Like Dros, most of them had enjoyed their first jet experience on the type.

Thanks to the close cooperation between the Belgian and Dutch Air Forces, Dutch pilots, at that time, flew Belgian Fougas. During their VVO (Voortgezette Vlieg Opleiding or Advanced Flight Training) at Brustem / St. Truiden, the Dutch Air Force and Navy pilots each gathered some 150 flying hours on the type. So for the DHJA, picking the Fouga Magister for their group was a natural choice. They acquired their first example from Britain in 1998. They transported this aircraft, G-FUGA, to Beek (now Maastricht-Aachen airport). But while the aircraft was basically airworthy, it really needed a thorough overhaul. The recertification process was also more difficult, because much of the official paperwork had gone missing during the aircrafts move to the Netherlands. This made it necessary to compose new technical data files, which was especially time consuming. It wasnt until 2006 that the aircraft received its French airworthiness certificate. Her new registration became F-GSHG. By then, the DHJA had moved their headquarters to Lelystad airport, in the central Netherlands.

During the period when G-FUGA was under rebuild, the group bought three additional Magisters in France: initially F-GLHF, followed by F-WIGY and F-WIGZ, which both came from AMPAA at Etampes in 1999. Of these aircraft, only F-GLHF is still with the DHJA. They do have one other Fouga as a non-airworthy spare however: former Belgian Air Force MT-37. After a landing accident at De Kooy Naval Air Station in September 2007, F-GSHG went to the (now) National Military Museum at Soesterberg, where it can be seen as Belgian Air Force MT-51. After their arrival in the Netherlands, F-WIGY (331) and F-WIGZ (374) soon took new registrations as F-GLHO and F-GPHU respectively, but after some years in storage, the DHJA decided to dispose of them. They sold F-GLHO to a French enthusiast in Valenciennes in 2005, which became F-AZTO following a complete restoration. It is now flying from Valenciennes-Denain. The DHJA sold F-GPHU in 2007 to Niels Egelund of Stauning, Denmark to serve as a spare airframe for his active example, OY-FGA. Parts of Hotel Uniform ended up in OY-FGA after it received fire damage in Roskilde, but the airframe is still in storage at Stauning.

Many thanks to Gert Jan Mentink for providing this article and beautiful photographs to WarbirdsNews. We also really appreciate the fine aviation journal Scramble.nl for making this possible. It is gratifying to hear that the Dutch Historic Jet Association once again has a flying Fouga Magister. The next step will obviously involve getting the vintage v-tailed jet fully re-certified, and then begin the process of getting DHJAs pilots current on the type again. Hopefully this will all run smoothly, and we can all look forwards to seeing this beautiful and charismatic aircraft on the air show circuit once more. Congratulations to all involved!

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By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, May 25 (PTI) In an apparent attempt to curb use of hookahs in smoking zones at hotels, restaurants and airports, the government has amended a rule to prohibit such services in those areas.

The amended provision under the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008 states "no service shall not be allowed in any smoking area or space provided for smoking.

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Also, hotels, restaurants and airports will have to mandatorily display a board (60x30 cm) outside the smoking zone mentioning tobacco smoking is injurious to the health of both smokers and non-smokers.

Also, it should also mention that entry of anyone below the age of 18 is prohibited in those zones.

The health ministry has amended rule 4 (sub-rule 3) of the prohibition of smoking rules under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act.

The notification was issued on May 23.

According to Dr S K Arora, state nodal officer for National Tobacco Control Programme, Government of India, this amendment will help in curbing the mushrooming of hookah bars in hotels and restaurants in metropolitan cities.

"It will further strengthen the enforcement strategies in public health interest," he added.

The existing sub-rule 3 was being misinterpreted and used as per convenience by several restaurant and hotel owners.

This notification now further clarifies that no services will be allowed in smoking zones. PTI PLB KUN

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The cabal of former directors who oversaw one of Australia's biggest financial collapses has been ordered to pay $615 million in compensation to more than 10,000 long-suffering retirees.

It is believed to be one of the biggest compensation orders relating to a company collapse in Australian history with legal experts calling the size of the compensation "extraordinary".

Michael King, former CEO of MFS Ltd, has been banned from running companies for 20 years and will have to pay hefty fines Credit:Wolter Peeters

The directors of the former MFS Investment Management business and the officers of its operating entity MFS Ltd have also been banned from being company directors for varying lengths of time, and received financial penalties.
The future of Adani's proposed multibillion-dollar Carmichael coal mine remains under a cloud even after Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared her cabinet had secured a late agreement on the royalty regime it would offer the miner.

A snap cabinet meeting called late on Friday unanimously agreed Adani would pay all royalties, the premier said in a statement. Details of the new stance - which would apply to policies in the Galilee and Surat Basins and the North West Minerals Province - would be released in "due course".

"There will be no royalty holiday for the Adani Carmichael mine," Ms Palaszczuk said.

The decision is set to further antagonise the Indian-owned miner after the government split on how much support to offer the mine. Adani said it would analyse the details of the government's arrangements.
A Japanese national was arrested and charged by the ABF with attempting to export a regulated native specimen.

These bobtails were allegedly saved from the black market. Credit:Department of Parks and Wildlife

Australian Border Force officials discovered a suitcase with seven adult and six baby lizards in cotton bags at Perth Airport on Wednesday.

A man has been fined $10,000 after attempting to smuggle 13 native bobtail lizards into Japan.

He has been given 21 days to pay the fine and his passport is being held until it is paid.

WA bobtails can attract up to $10,000 each on the black market - the maximum penalty for wildlife trade offences is 10 years' imprisonment and/or $180,000 fine.

The seized animals are in poor condition and every attempt will be made to find homes for them.

People with information about the illegal removal of reptiles should call Parks and Wildlife's Wildcare Helpline 9474 9055 or Australian Border Force's Border Watch on 1800 009 623.
Perth-based Austral Defence is now constructing warships at facilities in the USA. For that to occur, Western Australia must have a very substantial piece of the action. We have the expertise, the track-record, and the capacity to play a major role. And it makes a lot of geo-strategic sense as part of our existing 'two oceans' strategy, which Kim Beazley worked to establish. The rationale for that position with respect to the Indo-Pacific has only strengthened in the last twenty years. But so far we have been comprehensively dudded by a government that is intent on playing political games and taking WA for granted. I am not a one-eyed parochialist. I understand that national projects and funding have to be shared, and it makes sense that South Australia will continue its role as a shipbuilding hub. What I don't understand is why Western Australia has to be ignored and short-changed at every turn. And I get particularly frustrated when I hear WA Liberal representatives pretend that everything is peachy keen.

The truth is we are getting the scraps from the table, while the WA Liberals are smiling and rubbing their tummies. Last week the government released its Naval Shipbuilding Plan and the neglect of Western Australia was as plain as day. Of $89 billion dollars in Defence manufacturing and investment, WA gets barely $4 billion. The government's plan is infuriating because it acknowledges that there is a workforce shortage in South Australia and so workers will need to be 'imported' from interstate and overseas. At a time of savage unemployment figures in WA, it is hard to accept that approach when we know WA has those skills and those workers. Yet the Minister for Defence Industry, who as a South Australian can't wipe the smile off his face, tries to con us into believing that we've got a good deal.

He must take us for fools if he thinks we'll be comforted by his repetition of the fact that WA will build 31 of the 54 new naval vessels, when he knows that the Pacific Patrol Boats and the Offshore Patrol Vessels represent a tiny fraction of the value and scope of the naval shipbuilding work. Last weekend, the Minister was quoted as saying that all the non-combatant vessels (that is, all the PPBs and the OPVs) will be constructed in WA. That simply isn't true. The first two OPVs will be built in South Australia, and there's already a lobbying effort underway to make it more than two. It is galling to hear Chris Pyne claim that WA isn't equipped to be involved in the build of the Future Submarine or the Future Frigates, while he's busy pouring hundreds of millions into addressing shortcomings in South Australia. In fact industry experts and former senior navy officers argue that a 'distributed build' or 'block build' model could easily enable fabricators and shipbuilders in WA to share in the work on these massive, multi-decade projects. But the Minister for South Australia isn't listening, and his WA colleagues don't care.

They make a big deal of announcing and re-announcing $100 million dollars in infrastructure for WA, when last week we were told SA would be getting $1200 million. They make a song and dance about 100 apprentices at Austal, when the shipbuilding workforce nationwide is expected to be 6000-plus. They allocate $25 million for a new maritime technical college in SA, when there are hundreds of experienced Western Australians out of work. Loading And on Tuesday in Parliament the Minister has the hide to declare that WA is a "big winner".
A Carramar resident has taken the battle against dog owners who let their pets poo on people's lawn to the next level - chalking an irate message onto the footpath to warn them off.

Spotted by a WAtoday reader, the chalked message reads 'Dog owners... would you let your dog do this at home? You are on camera!'

The resident chalked a message on the footpath.

A small arrow helpfully points to the well manicured lawn where a fresh coil of dog poo lays as evidence.

Homeowner John Shattock told 6PR's Oliver Peterson he's had enough of people not picking up after their pets.
Washington: Thanks to an awkward coincidence, US President Donald Trump is in Brussels at the same time as his predecessor Barack Obama is in Berlin. These two trips are certainly offering contrasting views of the United States' relationship with Europe.

Obama was in the German capital on Thursday morning to appear alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a biannual festival organised by the German Protestant church. The two spoke in front of a large crowd at the iconic Brandenburg Gate, with Obama going out of his way to praise Merkel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former US president Barack Obama in Berlin on Thursday. Credit:Getty Images

"Not only do I love this city, but one of my favourite partners throughout my presidency is sitting next to me," Obama said with a smile.

Speaking at the democracy-themed event, he also appeared to offer thinly veiled criticism of Trump, then only a few hundred miles away in Belgium. "We can't isolate ourselves. We can't hide behind a wall," he said, prompting cheers from the audience.
By Press Trust of India: (Eds: Updating with fresh quotes)

By Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, May 26 (PTI) The statue of a Greek Goddess clad in a saree in front of the Bangladeshs Supreme Court was today relocated to a different location within the premises after an outcry from the religious radicals who claim that the sculpture was "un-Islamic".

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The sculpture of Themis - the goddess of justice - wearing a sari was less than six months old, but Islamist groups demanded its removal as they claimed it hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha ordered the removal of the sculpture from its existing location to be reinstalled in front of the Supreme Court museum on a different location inside the apex court,

Attorney general Mahbubey Alam said.

"He (Sinha) called me in the (yesterday) afternoon at his chamber where several senior lawyers were present... We suggested that the statue be removed from its existing location," he said.

The move prompted mass protests with demonstrators from the rights group Ganajagaran Mancha, mostly students, gathered in front of the court to protest against the removal.

Sculptor Mrinal Haque, who erected the statue, said that it is being removed to maintain peace.

Haque, who along with four to five workers were overseeing the removal work said, "I dont know where the statue was kept though the authorities told me it might be reinstalled near the apex courts annex building", The Daily Star reported.

"This is a slap in the face of the countrys progressive people ... they (Islamists) are demanding the statue to be removed from the apex court. They will demand dismantling of all sculptures in the country," he told the protestors rally.

The statue was erected in December 2016, holding a sword and the scales of justice in her hands.

The statue, which is not of the Greek goddess but a Bengali woman, has ruffled feathers in the Muslim-majority nation, with hardliners staging massive protests in recent months.

According to the hardliners, the statue, a variation on the Greek goddess Themis, goes against Islam, the report said.

Police used tear gas and water cannons as protests mounted after authorities removed the statue from the Supreme Court premises.

Witnesses said scores of slogan chanting protestors rallied near the apex court complex where police hurled tear gas canisters and coloured water from water cannons to disperse them.

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In April, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, apparently backed the Islamists by expressing her dislike for the statue and approved its removal.

In reaction to criticism over her approval, Hasina said she had asked Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha why the statue of a Greek goddess had been distorted by having it clad in a saree, the report said.

"Why shouldnt it be removed? Dont they see that it is no more Greek. Its half Greek, half Bengali. Its Greek- Bengali now. Dont they see it?" she had inquired.

Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreign. PTI AR AMS AKJ AMS

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Minya, Egypt: Egyptian air force planes on Friday carried out strikes directed at camps in Libya where Cairo believes militants responsible for a deadly attack on Christians earlier in the day were trained, Egyptian military sources said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.

The sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians travelling to a monastery in central Egypt, killing 28.

The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, central Egypt, on Friday morning.
Salman Abedi, the Manchester suicide bomber, reportedly asked his mother for forgiveness hours before the attack.

Samia Tabbal, 50, is among Abedi's relatives in Tripoli who have been questioned by Libyan authorities in the wake of Monday's attack at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena.

A Libyan anti-terror official said the 22-year-old phoned his mother and said "forgive me".

"He was giving farewell," Special Deterrent Force spokesman Ahmed bin Salem said of the phone call.
By Press Trust of India: New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) Entering a metro station with the flick of a smart phone may sound like a dream but with the launch of the ITO-Kashmere Gate line on Sunday, it is set to translate into reality.

The metro has installed, what it calls, "Dream Gates" in two stations of this corridor, popularly known as the Heritage Line as it goes underneath old Delhi neighbourhoods such as the Red Fort and Jama Masjid.

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"Commuters using e-wallets like Paytm will be able to enter the Red Fort station. Upon entering the journey details the e-wallet will generate a QR code or a machine-readable code which the special entry gate will read and let the person walk in," a metro official said.

Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will jointly inaugurate the line at 10 am on May 28 and it will be open for public use from 12 pm onwards, DMRC chief spokesman Anuj Dayal said.

While the Red Fort stations will have two such gates in the pilot phase, commuters, for now, will be able to go to the next station that is Jama Masjid to make their exit in a similar manner through two special gates. The other new station is Delhi Gate.

However, the facility, touted as the first-of-its-kind, may not be available from Sunday itself as the new stations do not have cellular networks or wifi facilities at this point.

With the long-awaited launch of the 5.17-km-long corridor, the Kashmere gate metro station will become the first station in the DMRC network to have three interchange facilities - passengers will have seamless movement between the Yellow, Red and Violet Lines.

The Kashmere Gate intersection is very close to an inter-state bus terminus, a DTC bus stand and also the Old Delhi Railway station of Northern Railway apart from important Markets like Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazar and Sadar Bazar.

The Heritage Line is essentially an extension of the Violet Line that runs between Faridabad and ITO presently. It will take considerable load off the Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazar stations of the Yellow Line.

Once the section is launched, residents of the densely- populated area, made up of areas in and around the Mughal seat of power Shahjahanabad, will have direct access to commercial centres such as Connaught Place, Janpath, offices in Central Secretariat, and the satellite town of Faridabad.

Shahjahanabad, with the Red Fort as its crowning glory, was founded by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the mid 17th century.

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"The Violet line will help in de-congestion also. We are going to have five interchanges in this line- Kashmere Gate, Mandi House, Central Secretariat, Kalkaji and Lajpat Nagar, so automatically the crowd will get dispersed," Dayal said.

With a number of wide display panels and other exhibits, the three stations have been designed in accordance with the heritage of the area to provide glimpses of its rich past and vibrant present.

"The stations have been done in granite with stone cladding in the interiors. The facade of the Red Fort station is similar to the facade of Lal Qila and has been done in red sandstone," Dayal said.

The Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) gave the green signal for the formal launch of the 5.17-km-long corridor yesterday following a two-day inspection early this week.

After the launch, the total metro network in the city will be 218-km-long and the number of stations will be 164.

DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) chief Mangu Singh had said the line was well on course for launch last December but a labour crunch triggered by a ban on construction and demolition activities and demonetisation led to the delay. PTI NKS SBR IKA

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By Press Trust of India: Mumbai, May 26 (PTI) Raising concerns over the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Biodiesel Association of India feels higher GST rates could adversely impact the sector.

"High GST rate could shut the biodiesel industry, which is already reeling under the pressure of complex and varied taxation policies of the states. Lack of clarity on the policy front has made it even more vulnerable for the industry players," the association said in a statement issued here.

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The government wants to cut its crude import by 10 per cent, but the high incidence of tax on biodiesel will make it costlier than diesel and ultimately make it uncompetitive, the association said.

"It is a matter of great despair as 18 per cent GST would make biodiesel costlier than diesel, while the thrust globally is on eco-friendly and renewable fuel," BDAI President, Sandeep Chaturvedi said.

He said the high tax rise of Rs 5 per litre would restrain mass consumption by even existing users like OMCs, railways and road transporters. Also, farmers will switch back in to use of polluting fuels and other products.

Under the GST rates announced recently, biodiesel, ethanol and other mixing products would be charged 18 per cent.

For the last 10 years, biodiesel attracted zero excise duty and even some states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, charged zero Value Added Tax (VAT) on biodiesel, BDAI said.

"The real start to biodiesel supply in India commenced only two years ago and is very much in its nascent stage. Having had the zero excise duty for the last 10 years, replacing the same with a very high 18 per cent GST is totally biased against this renewable and eco friendly fuel," he said.

Chaturvedi further said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing for Swachh Bharat with a cess and cutting consumption of crude oil to push green biofuels, higher GST rate on biodiesel contradicts the governments efforts to push this clean and green fuel.

"We were hopeful that the governments intentions are clear and it would revive this green industry. However, it appears the GST Council failed to realise the importance of biofuels. There is an urgent need for course correction," he added. PTI PSK NP

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In Jewar, citizens recall with fondness their common ancestral roots that didn't get severed even at the height of Partition-era hostility between Hindus and Muslims. And two villages in Bulandshahr and Gautam Budh Nagar are live examples of religious tolerance.

By Amit Kumar: If Mayawati was surprised by the recent Uttar Pradesh election results where BJP candidates won from Muslim-dominated seats, she must not have heard of the Bhatis.

Jewar MLA Thakur Dhirendra Singh, for example, claims at least 10,000 Muslims must have voted for him in a constituency where the citizens recall with fondness their common ancestral roots - they were and are Gurjars - that didn't get severed even at the height of Partition-era hostility between Hindus and Muslims.

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As late as in 2015, the lynching of Akhlaq in Dadri Bisada, allegedly for possessing beef, could not break the ties even as the opposition milked the issue to affect the minds of voters in Bihar that was about to face its Assembly election around the time.

'HINDUS, MUSLIMS TWO ARMS OF THE COUNTRY'

Dadri MLA Tejpal Nagar said, "One sad incident has tried to malign the image of our region, but the facts on the ground are very different. India is a secular country and we all should help in maintaining harmony of the country."

The two villages of this region - Til Begumpur in Bulandshahr and Ghodi Bacchheda in Gautam Budh Nagar - one Muslim dominated and the other Hindu dominated are live examples of religious tolerance.

"No Muslim family left Bhatner to go to Pakistan because the elders convinced them of peaceful co-existence," said Balbir Singh Arya, social activist and Manager of Janta Inter College, Tilpata.

Dhirendra Singh added, "Hindus and Muslims are two arms of this country and only by being together can they develop this nation."

Naseem Khan Bhati, resident of Til Begumpur said, "All villages of Bhatner respect Til Begumpur as its big brother. There is no place of hatred between Hindus and Muslims despite incidents like Bisada."

"It was portrayed in the media that as if Hindus and Muslims are baying for the blood of one another. When both communities live together, it is obvious that sometimes they will fight with each other. People should visit the area to understand the relationship between people of Ghodi Bacchheda and Til Begumpur," said Arya.

ALSO READ | Another Dadri averted, says Jaipur hotel owner accused of 'beef party'

ALSO READ | Religious tolerance in India deteriorating, says US rights expert

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